Custom Domain Publishing, And World Culture

People who speak (read / write) languages, that do not use Roman character sets, need to publish in their native language - and the Internet now supports that need.

Some registrars will register domains which use non Roman character sets, in the URL. Not all Internet services will accept non Roman characters, however.

My favourite online DNS diagnostic services, DigWebInterface, and intoDNS, and Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, only use ASCII. One cannot use non ASCII ("non Roman") characters, with either service.

"بحث-سناب.com", as converted, shows an example of an Internationalized domain name.

To use DigWebInterface to retrieve DNS addresses, and intoDNS to check the domain setup, we have to convert the native URL to Ascii.

I use three reliable online services, which will convert URLs to ASCII.

• DomainTools
• WhoIs - Identity for everyone
• Who.is - Powered by Name.com

Converting "بحث-سناب.com" to ASCII involves use of one of the latter services.

DomainTools

WhoIs - Identity for everyone

Who.is - Powered by Name.com



Using the 3 tools, we see that "بحث-سناب.com" == "xn----zmcbcml8b0j.com", "XN----ZMCBCML8B0J.COM", and "xn----zmcbcml8b0j.com", respectively. Look carefully, in the body of the display for each service, for the IDN equivalent.

We can then use "xn----zmcbcml8b0j.com", with DigWebInterface, and intoDNS - and get the necessary diagnostics.

And using the latter tools, we see a properly setup domain - which is now being used for a properly published Blogger blog, verified in Rex Swain.

DigWebInterface

intoDNS

Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer



And when assistance is requested, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, we can use these tools with non Roman character URLs.

---

The Internet now supports use of non ASCII characters, in URLs. In order to publish #Blogger blogs to Internationalised Domain Names, we need to convert native URLs to ASCII - using any one of three identified online DNS services.


https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/qKWZ0807m60

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/L1pv6CPUK18

Read More

Stats Pageview Counts Fluctuate Daily, Not At Midnight

One of the many controversial issues about Stats involves the daily pageview counts, which are reset daily.

Most blog owners accept the daily count reset, in principle - they just don't understand why the counts should be reset during their day, instead of at midnight.

My pageview count goes up during the day - but in the afternoon, it goes to zero, then starts over again. Why is Stats so unreliable?

The pageview count reset would be better understood, were it to happen daily, at midnight, for each blog owner. Unfortunately, there are over 24 different time zones, worldwide - and Blogger blogs are surely owned by some persons, in each of the time zones represented.

There are 24 time zones which roughly follow longitudinal lines - plus specific countries which have their own national clocks. WikiPedia identifies a total of 40 time zones.

Some countries span multiple time zones, adding to the 24 longitudinal zones.

Some countries span and divide into multiple time zones, others span multiple time zones and use one time zone. India, for instance, spans 3 time zones, geographically - but observes one time zone, offset by 30 minutes, as "GMT+5.5".

Most people observe a twice yearly 1 hour clock shift.

Many countries observe a seasonal variation, "Daylight Savings Time", when they shift local clocks ahead or behind, by an hour. DST beginning and ending dates vary by country, irregularly.

Also, countries south of the equator start summer, when countries north of the equator start winter. People south of the equator move their clocks forward, when people north of the equator are moving theirs backwards. If you ever try to communicate with somebody in Australia, from the USA, you'll notice how much relative fluctuation this causes, during a year.

To reset Stats at midnight for everybody, there would be pandemonium.

If the daily Stats pageview count reset were to be scheduled according to the local clock of the blog owner (which would be impossible, for multi owner blogs), there would have to be as many reset process schedules as there are countries / time zones. Additionally, twice a year, most reset schedules would be shifted, according to the local DST offset.

The only practical solution is to reset at the same time, worldwide.

Considering the almost inestimable number of rules required to schedule a local midnight count reset for all Blogger blogs, during the entire year, I suspect that the only practical design involves scheduling the reset, for all blogs, at midnight GMT. This means that no blog owners will see their pageview counts reset at midnight, during the entire year.

Everybody simply has to accept their count being reset sometime during their day - with the reset time varying according to the twice a year local clock shift.

---

Some #Blogger blog owners claim that Stats daily totals seem to go up, and down, during the day. They do not understand why Stats counts are reset during their day, instead of at midnight their time.

Read More