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Interesting stuff, there is now an API to access Google Analytics Data from external applications. This is fantastic news. There are already some applications available, I am sure a flurry of great tools will be launched in the coming weeks. It means that developers for example could create desktop applications, iphone apps or integrate google analytics data direct into their clients sites.

In the later part of 2008 Google introduced event tracking in Google Analytics to allow us to track clicks on for example file downloads or even events in flash. For most people this is visible in Analytics if you have implemented the approriate code. However several of my sites appeared not to have tracking working. At first I thought it was my code, but I have now realised it is just that Analytics is not presenting me with links to the reports. I manually created a link like this

One of the most important aspects for any web metrics software is being able to track just your visitors and NOT yourself or site administrators.

Do not be put off by the wacky name, Cyber Duck is a seriously good FTP client for the Mac. I have been using Filezilla for a while and find that it is not so reliable as the PC version. Having tried Cyber Duck I think I will drop Filezilla. Cyber Duck is free and more integrated into OS X. It is also closely tied to Text Mate which is a bonus!

If you tire of editing your hosts file in VI or you need a customer to be able to do it themselves to point to a development server, there is a superb little widget which enables a non technical user to edit their hosts file.

I have had problems browsing some sites on my iMac using Leopard OS X 10.5. All i get is a blank page and in the page title "gif image, 1x1 pixels".

After some searching I discovered that it was related to Net Barrier X5. There is a setting in the Surf > Banners Filter which was causeing the issue. Simply unclick the "Filter banners" setting and your sites will be visible again.

Usually Google Analytics only tracks physical page views. It is far more capable than this however, with a bit of thought it is possible to track specific clicks using this technique.

I have been looking for a method to introduce video to a customer site which is not from a third party site like Google / Youtube. They wish to upload the files to their site and present files hosted on their server.

I have decided that the Video Module is just not there, however I discover there is a weight of effort in the form of Media Mover and Asset modules which sounds really fantastic.

Using the Filefield and jQuery Media modules you can build a recipe which allows Drupal to automatically present video media in the right player automatically. This screencast explains how.

Updating a hosts file on a mac in OS X Leopard is a little more difficult than a PC.http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/hostal.htmlIt is possible to edit the hosts file direct but it is a bit techie on OS X. You need to do EXACTLY the followingYou must have access to log in as the root user - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528?viewlocale=en_US