Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Not Provided vs. Not Set in Google Analytics

What is the difference between Not Provided and Not Set under the keywords section in Google Analytics?

Answer:

Not Provided occurs when a user is browsing on an encrypted URL at Google.com. If you are logged in to your Google+ account, you will automatically be on https://. This means the more users that use Google+, the more you will not be able to see what keywords brought them to your website.

Not Set is simply a referral or direct visit with no keywords that are allowed to be passed. Sometimes a user can search from their browser and end up on the site and this may propagate (Not Set).

Tip:

You can click (not provided) and view the landing pages as a secondary dimension to at least figure out what pages are being viewed the most. You could also compare this to the known organic keyword traffic and attribute a estimated percentage in distribution to each known organic keyword.

Click to Enlarge - You could also do unique page views for increased accuracy to attribute to other relateed keywords for each individual content page.

Friday, February 8, 2013

ACL Definition, What is ACL


The Access Control list is the list is a data structure, usually a table, containing entries that specify individual user or group rights to specific system objects, such as a program, a process, or a file. These entries are known as access control entries (ACE) in the Microsoft Windows and OpenVMS operating systems. Each accessible object contains an identifier to its ACL. The privileges or permissions determine specific access rights, such as whether a user can read from, write to or execute an object. In some implementations an ACE can control whether or not a user, or group of users, may alter the ACL on an object.

The ACL is a concept with several different implementations in various operating systems, although there is a POSIX "standard" (the POSIX security drafts, .1e and .2c, were withdrawn when it became clear their scope was too wide and the work would not complete, but the well-developed parts defining ACLs have been widely implemented and are known as "POSIX ACLs").

ACL implementations can be quite complex. ACLs can apply to objects, directories and other containers, and for the objects and the containers created within this container. ACLs cannot implement all of the security measures that one might wish to have on all systems, and a fine-grained capability-based access control system may be a better approach, with the authority transferred from the objects being accessed to the objects seeking access — allowing for much finer-grained control.

In networking, the term Access Control List (ACL) refers to a list of service ports or (network) daemon names that are available on a host, each with a list of hosts and/or networks permitted to use the service. Both individual servers as well as routers can have network ACLs. Access control lists can generally be configured to control both inbound and outbound traffic, and in this context they are similar to firewalls.

ADP Definition, What is ADP


ADP or Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP) is the largest provider of computerized transaction processing and information-based solutions serving more than 570,000 clients worldwide. ADP Employer Services provides human resources, payroll and benefits administration solutions for companies of all sizes throughout the U.S. and in major markets around the world. ADP Dealer Services provides integrated dealer management system (DMS) solutions to automotive, heavy truck, motorcycle, marine and RV dealers and manufacturers in North America.

History of Automatic Data Processing

ADP was founded in 1949 by Henry Taub in Paterson, New Jersey as Automatic Payrolls, Inc. The first ADP office, above Grinker's Ice Cream shop, processed payroll manually with a bookkeeping machine, addressograph equipment, calculators and comptometers. The company's first account was New Era Dye and Finishing in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. With the introduction of punch card machines, mainframe computers and check printing machines, Automatic Payrolls became Automatic Data Processing in 1958.

ADP became a public company in 1961, with an initial stock price of $3. In the next year, Brokerage Services division was developed to serve the high volume transaction needs of major stock brokerages on Wall Street. The company proceeded to offer Dealer Services to automotive dealers to handle inventory and accounting transactions. In 1974, ADP extended into the international market with an office in The Netherlands, and later in the decade added Claims Services.

Today ADP employs more than 42,000 associates globally providing business solutions for more than 570,000 companies of all sizes � small, mid-market and enterprise.
Business Units

ADP Employer Services

The Employer Services business unit is the oldest, largest and most profitable of ADP's divisions. It includes payroll processing, HR outsourcing, 401(k)/Retirement Services, Professional Employer Organization (PEO), Time and Labor Management, Tax and Compliance Management, Benefits Administration, Screening and Selection Services, and Administrative Service Offerings (ASO). ADP's payroll services are so widespread that one in six Americans have their paychecks processed by the company.

ADP Dealer Services

In 1972, Dealer Services was created for automobile dealer front end management, business office, parts and service departments.

ADP Claims Services

ADP's Claims Services was created to assist insurance companies with property and casualty claims, automotive recycling, and collision repair in 1979. This division was sold off because its growth potential was far less than the other divisions of the company.

ADP Brokerage Services

This division of ADP was created in 1962 to service stock brokerages. Oppenheimer & Co. became the first client, averaging 300 trades per day. By 1999, ADP was processing over a million trades in a day. This business was spun off in 2007 into a company called Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), removing about $2 billion from ADP's total yearly revenue.

ADP References

ADP Directors and Corporate Officers
Jeffrey R. Yost (2005). The Computer Industry. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313328447.
Edward J. Kanarkowski (1999). ADP 50th Anniversary Book. ADP.
College Savings Boosted by ADP's 529 Payroll Deduction Program
ADP Completes Spin-off of Brokerage Services Group Business

Access Privileges Definition, What is Access Privileges


Access Privileges is the extent to which a user may operate a system resource on a network or a file server.In many cases, permission to access a server, view its contents and modify or create files is limited by the network's system administrator in order to maintain security.

Privileges in Computer Science

A privilege in a computer system is a permission to perform an action. Examples of various privileges include the ability to create a file in a directory, or to read or delete a file, access a device, or have read or write permission to a socket for communicating over the Internet.

Privileges can either be automatic, granted, or applied for.

An automatic privilege exists when there is no requirement to have permission to perform an action. For example, on systems where people are required to log into a system to use it, logging out will not require a privilege. Systems that do not implement file protection - such as MSDOS - essentially give unlimited privilege to perform any action on a file.

A granted privilege exists as a result of presenting some credential to the privilege granting authority. This is usually accomplished by logging on to a system with a username and password, and if the username and password supplied are correct, the user is granted additional privileges.

A privilege is applied for by either an executed program issuing a request for advanced privileges, or by running some program to apply for the additional privileges. An example of a user applying for additional privileges is provided by the sudo command to run a command as the root user, or by the Kerberos authentication system.

Modern processor architectures have CPU modes that allows the OS to run at different privilege levels. Some processors have two levels (such as user and supervisor); i386+ processors have four levels (#0 with the most, #3 with the least privileges). Tasks are tagged with a privilege level. Resources (segments, pages, ports, etc.) and the privileged instructions are tagged with a demanded privilege level. When a task tries to use a resource, or execute a privileged instruction, the processor determines whether it has the permission (if not, a "protection fault" interrupt is generated). This prevents user tasks from damaging the OS or each other.

Actuator Definition, What is Actuator


An actuator is the mechanism by which an agent acts upon an environment. The agent can be either an artificial intelligent agent or any other autonomous being (human, other animal, etc).

Examples and Applications of Actuators

  • Human - Arms, hands, fingers, legs
  • Part picking robot - Grasping mechanism, moving parts. Examples include solenoids and voice coil actuators.
  • Mail transfer agent - Update software
  • In engineering, actuators are a subdivision of transducers. They are devices which transform an input signal (mainly an electrical signal) into motion. Electrical motors, pneumatic actuators, hydraulic pistons, relays, comb drive, piezoelectric actuators, thermal bimorphs, Digital Micromirror Devices and electroactive polymers are some examples of such actuators.
  • Motors are mostly used when circular motions are needed, but can also be used for linear applications by transforming circular to linear motion with a bolt and screw transducer. On the other hand, some actuators are intrinsically linear, such as piezoelectric actuators.
  • In virtual instrumentation actuators and sensors are the hardware complements of virtual instruments. Computer programs of virtual instruments use actuators to act upon real world objects.