off season training

More Ski Log Updates, v 0.92 Release Notes

Just got finished with a fresh round of improvements on the My Ski Log.

=> Fixed Training Log Defaults. If you were a first-time user of the ski log, before this update you would have experienced a couple flukey issues if you attempted to set your defaults before you entered a set.

=> You are now redirected to the New Ski area when you first start using your ski log. The first thing to do is add your ski to the database if it isn't there already. You have to add a ski before you do anything else.

=> Upgraded Training Log & Ski Settings forms with a new style for easier input.

=> The 2006 HO Monza was added. I approved it in 66, 67, and 68 inches. Currently, there's no image for it. So if you happen to have a stock photo of the '06 Monza lying around, that would be helpful.

Next on the agenda is to clear up the ski-selection on that "Choose your Weapon" page. I have all the manufacturer's logos ready to go. For now, that big long list on your right is ordered by year and manufacturer.

Thanks for reading!

Why Alexa Web Rankings Don't Matter

There's a lot of interesting information available in the wild on the internet. One of the latest things that I came across last month was Alexa Web Rankings. It's interesting to take a look at how sites match up against other ones. For instance, this chart is really cool: it shows how WaterSki Magazine is kicking out butts.



Quick! Mann the cannon!

Oh well, I'm not worried about it. Especially because it just doesn't matter. Sure, I'd like us to be the #1 ranked site... which is Google... with 139,637,119 people on every day... but that's just not the case.

It's also worth noting that the way that sites like Alexa measure web traffic is by voluntary installation of web-tracking tools like the Alexa toolbar:

    There is some controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical Internet behavior. If Alexa's user base is a fair statistical sample of the Internet user population (e.g., a random sample of sufficient size), Alexa's ranking should be quite accurate...

    The Alexa toolbar is regarded by many vendors as spyware. Symantec classifies the toolbar as Trackware. McAfee Site Advisor rates the Alexa website as yellow with a warning, "In our tests, we found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs," and the site has 67 user ratings of "Adware, spyware, or viruses" as of July 2, 2008. The toolbar is detected by McAfee as Adware-Alexa, a "Potentially Unwanted Program." Many other security vendors also detect and remove Alexa software.

--Alexa Internet Wikipedia

What this means is that having a higher Alexa ranking just means that more people visiting the site have this tool installed in their browser. Better yet, if this tool is installed on a "bot" computer that is harvesting a site for user's email addresses, this could increase a site's Alexa ranking.

This is a nitch industry and we are a nitch site. I'm much more thrilled with our google rankings, anyways.

Login, SkiLog Updates

If you happened to have some trouble logging in this afternoon, sorry for the quick outage. Found a little bug and squashed it in the log in box on the forum. Keeping your account information streamlined between the site and the forum is getting to be more seamless.

Also made a quick update to the ski log, if you left settings blank when adjusting your ski the site wasn't allowing you to add it, "requiring numbers only". This is fixed now.

I also noticed that the Training Log Default settings were not acting 100% the way they should. I'm cleaning this up in the next few days. If you have any problems please let me know.

Thanks!

HO Sports Announces New Team Members

Effective immediately Marcus Brown is a member of Team Syndicate. With the success of the Syndicate A1, HO has been approached by many of the world’s best athletes and Marcus Brown was an obvious choice for us. His laid back attitude and his passion for growing our sport really hit home with us, and he’s not a bad skier either, reaching that elusive 41’ off this past summer. Marcus has his own grassroots tour called Face to Face, where he tows his MasterCraft around the country taking people for free Slalom Sets. Log onto www.hosports.com today to learn more about Marcus Brown and the entire Syndicate Team.

April Coble is on the A1! In an effort to produce the best women’s ski equipment HO Skis and Syndicate have enlisted the expertise of April. Her resume says it all and her passion for helping athletes improve their abilities behind the boat make her a perfect fit for the team. April owns her own waterski and wakeboard school in North Carolina where she’ll have a fleet of A1s and the new women’s specific Couture ski. This past Saturday, January 24th, April received 2 prestigious awards; USA Waterski’s Female Athlete of the Year and AWSA’s Female Athlete of the Year. Needless to say we are proud to have April on our team. Log onto www.hosports.com today to learn more about April, the Syndicate Program and Coble Ski School.

Fisher #01 Listed

Just finished updating the Fisher 01 in the skis database. Whether or not you have the blue, red or yellow flex you should pick the 2007 Fisher 01 for your Fisher Water Ski. The # isn't there. Let's just pretend it is... the database doesn't particularly care for the #. I'll clean this up at some latter point when I don't have other pressing things to work on.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think these skis were purchased in one batch order, all built in 2007. If I'm completely off on this one, and there were new models built at a different year, we'll add the 2008(?) ski... but I think they're off until 09 at the least. Please leave a comment about this if need be.

You can add this ski to your ski log now Here.

Special Thanks to Preliminary Testers

I just wanted to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to all the folks that have helped along in the process of bringing my ski log online.

If you don't find your name listed here, don't fret - please help us out in the future by keeping me posted with your comments, thoughts and questions about this and other features on the site.

Special thanks to all those involved in the development process (in no particular order):

Alison Poulsen
Justin Peterson
Shane Hill
Scott Behner
Chris Rossi
Lee Goade
Jason Hutchins
Doug Louth
Griff Griffin
Alicia Peterson
Arthur Frei
Darrin Railing
Julien Beaufils
Leon Jones
Mark Chilcut
Colin Buchanan

If I missed anyone at all, please drop me a note or leave a comment, it wasn't intentional, and I still love you!

Your Ski Log Is Ready

Yesterday marked the first release of our new ski log web application. Not surprisingly, I haven't heard much back as of yet. Considering that a snow and ice storm has gripped states from Texas to New England, I suppose this could be the reason no one has been too excited about this yet. As we get closer to spring and eventually move into summer, myskilog.com will become an invaluable resource for the serious water skier. Log your sets early and often to help yourself learn and remember more about where you've been and what you've done.


Of course, the hardest part of keeping good records is actually taking the few moments necessary to keep those records up-to-date. With this fill-in-the-blank version of your ski log, hopefully many more of you will start to track your progress.

The ski log, as well as the other features that are forthcoming on the site, will forever be a work-in-progress. We're always looking for ways to improve these products. Your input is not only welcomed, it's requested!

I'll be posting on this new blog from time-to-time to bring you updates or answer frequently asked questions about these new tools. In the future I look forward to offering you more in-depth statistical analysis of your stored sets and settings... so it will only help you in the future to keep your log up-to-date, starting with your first set of 2009.

Remember, your log is private. You can only see it by logging in first. At this time it's impossible for anyone to access it through the site except yourself... and we'll never let anyone else access it without your permission first.

Thanks for reading!