The Professional Webspace of Designer and Illustrator Kevin Cornell:
"Design, Art, and Lackluster Humor."
The Beta-Tester
I've had the recent good fortune to become a beta-tester. If you've never been a beta-tester, it's a wonderful feeling — equivalent to knowing where the secret stash of Playboys is buried in the woods. But whereas the soiled pages of boobies and ribald tales only HURT my productivity, my beta-testing experience has vastly IMPROVED it. Why? Because I'm testing an excellent little stat-tracking application created by Shaun Inman, christened "Mint".
I've used statistics programs before. The Counter, Reinvigorate, Refer, and even the bloated, obtuse orgy of charts and query-strings called Analog. Mint undoubtedly kicks all their asses. Previous stat programs I used were never able to strike a healthy balance between extensive functionality, an attractive interface, and customization. Mint has easily surpassed my expectations.
Watched Pages
Now, it was agreed amongst my fellow testers that we'd each pick a particular aspect of Mint to focus on and discuss. And I'm pleased to say I was able to claim the Watched Pages.
What are Watched Pages? Well, essentially, Mint allows you to designate particular pages whose hits you wish to keep an eye on. This has been incredibly helpful for those times where I'm submitting work to publishers (a group notorious for ignoring inquiries), and need to know if they ever looked at what I sent. But beyond that, it's become quite a useful tool to help me understand what's happening on my site; an excellent way to see if anyone ever visits the obscure bearskinrug pages that contain the hidden location to the Treasure of Bearskinrug Mountain.
Learn More About Mint
If you're hungry for further minty tales, there's assuredly more literature on Mint exploding across the internet as we speak. But if you're interested in what the other beta-testers have to say (remember, everyone spoke about a different feature), feel free to visit these other fine sites:
- Mint: The Flavor of the Month, by Mike Davidson
- Mint: Better than Girl Scout Cookies, by Jeff Croft
- Mint: Fresh ‘N Yummy, by Keegan Jones
- Mint: It’s good for you, by Matt Thomas
- Pimp My Mint, by Jon Hicks
- Pepper Makes Mint Better, by Jason Santa Maria
- Mint: A Stats Odyssey, by Rob Weychert
Comments on this Article
There are currently 18 comments.
3. Biggest Apple
I've been using BBclone for some time now , but I can't wait to peek at all that minty goodness. Mmmmm...
4. bearskinrug
But Apples and Mints are sworn enemies, both fighting for dominance in the clean breath arena!
5. Richard Dunlop-Walters
I'm really looking forward to Mint after reading all the beta tester's blogs.
The watched pages feature is a great idea. I have absolutely no doubt that it will up to it's hype.
6. murten
Cool stuff Kev. Will try it out for sure!
What are you studying Phillipp?
7. craig
Am I the only one who's really impressed by the typography, layout and shallow depth of field on that Dr. Inman's flyer?
Nice work, bearskinman!
8. bearskinrug
Thanks Craig!
The most elaborate fonts here are the work of Dieter Steffmann, a generous typographer who offers most of his fonts for free.
9. Fernando Dunn II
I actually forgot that Inman was releasing Mint. I too used Shortstat back in the day, but I got annoyed from having to scroll and also the referral spam. I uninstalled it and forgot about site stats for a while. This application, however, will probably make me want to look at my stats more than I update my site.
It looks to have a tasty GUI center and sounds like it'll be a very useful and crital web application. It can't get any better than that. Now I can't want until Tuesday comes.
10. Pierce
Re: Steffmann,
Oh my god that is some page of fonts. I can't believe I've never come across it before. There's almost too many to browse. Oh, for a page of thumbnails! How could anyone be that generous?
I have to agree, what I enjoyed most about this article was the flyer.
11. bearskinrug
Fernando - I missed the boat on ShortStat, mainly because I knew I'd probably fuck up the installation. But when I saw ShortStat, I thought - man, there's an interface I'd WANT to look at. And Mint's definitely got a leg up on it's older brother for useability.
Pierce - Yeah - it's unbelievable to think how much work Steffmann put into creating that collection, and then allowing it to be used for free. I'll say, it definitely motivates me to give him all the recognition he deserves...
12. funnelbc
I was waiting for mint reveal itself, but am even more delighted to have in my hands a genuine treasure map for boobies and bearskin treasure! Hurrah!
As one of the zillion sIFR users, i have immense respect for Mr Inman and the work he does. Hurrah for nerds! Hurrah for soiled boobies!
13. niff
Didn't I just find that "treasure map" last night on the crock pot drawn on a napkin? how many of these maps do you have? damn! i should have kept it!!!
14. bearskinrug
Funnel - I'll see you at the porno stash, buddy!
Niff - Hey! The crock pot said he wouldn't show ANYONE that map...
15. Ian
Watched pages! That's awesome. I'm gonna set...some...up.
...it's around here...somewhere...
How do I set them, Internet?
Oh, you don't know. Okay.
17. bearskinrug
» DELETE PREVIOUS POSTJust click it, and then run outside naked once. That should delete it...
18. Alex
Sounds like a real interesting thing. I have to check out the website to get more informations about that. Gotta go. Ssshhhttt
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1. Philipp Daun
Can't wait to get my hands on it... As I really forgot about it the last couple weeks (holiday, school and stuff) It's kinda refreshing to see some screenshots of the nice interface. Good work on the advertise-style article image ;-)