DougWeb – Doug's home on the Web

I’ve recently been playing around with some visitor-tracking software with the site, the results of which are now available to you all. The software only got enabled on the 7th, so the results are not even 3 weeks old yet (and subject to change). So far this month (excluding myself)

• 182 unique people have visited my site.
• Saturday is the most popular day to visit.
• I have more South African visitors than UK ones! (The site is at the bottom of my posts at various web forums, but still!)
• I also have visitors from Holland, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, France, Belgium, Finland, Austria, Sweden and Brazil.
• 6 different search engines have been to my page.
• 2 people have found my page using Google, and 2 using Yahoo.
• 78% of people leave after less than 30secs!
• but 5 people spent over 30mins (with 1 spending over an hour!).
• 96% of you use Windows (XP has an 80% share).
• 88% of you used Internet Explorer to visit my site, with a worrying 7% of you not using the latest version. Please visit my browser comparison page, and then get a newer browser!
• 1.6% of you used Firefox (my browser of choice). More of you should try it.
• Most people have a screen resolution of 1024×768, although 10% still use 800×600.
• 5% of you added me to you favourites/bookmarks.
• 81% have Adobe Reader installed.

Tomorrow morning I have my last exam for this year.

After that I’ll have to wait until mid-August to find out how badly I’ve failed…

Bin Laden’s to build world’s tallest building?

Saudi contractors on short list for skyscraper project

Osama bin Laden’s family business is on the short list of contractors bidding to build the world’s tallest skyscraper.

It may seem tragically ironic that the name most closely associated with the destruction of New York’s World Trade Center may soon be associated with the construction of the world’s tallest building.

But, nevertheless, according to officials in Dubai - the site of the Burj Dubai, scheduled for completion in 2008 - that is more than a distinct possibility.

The Saudi Binladin Group, the biggest developer in the kingdom, begun by Osama bin Laden’s father, is in the running for the project.

The skyscraper will be nearly half a mile and about one-third taller than the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It will include a hotel wing, apartments, offices, entertainment centers and restaurants.

The project also includes one of the world’s largest malls - the Dubai Mall with over 2 million square feet of retail space - and a mock “old town,” making it “a city within a city.”

Record-obsessed Dubai is already home to the world’s largest man-made island, the Palm Jumeirah, and the world’s first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al-Arab.

The Binladin group built its considerable fortune by carrying out many projects for the royal family in Saudi Arabia - including the the expansion of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina.

Construction of the Burj Dubai project has already started, with excavation of the site completed recently.

Sales of residential units in the tower will start soon, said an official with Emaar Properties.

Up until now my family hasn’t had a DVD player connected to the TV, despite the fact that we have more DVDs than most shops! (I have 660ish, my sister has about 100, and my parents have 5-6 freebies that came with the newspapers). All DVD watching has been on a computer.

Until yesterday that is, when a couple of weeks on eBay turned up a bargain Philips DVDR880. These units have an RRP of £329, and we got ours for £110. This includes the manual, cables, original box, laser upgrade for the unit (early models had lasers that died after 6 weeks), and 3 months left on the warranty!

I had always thought our VCR was doing something horrible to the video signal, and connecting this up proved my point - Channel 5 is now watchable all the time, and not just during the summer when it isn’t raining. And this is without retuning the TV!

Basically, I’m very happy with this purchase!