2016 top 10 posts

by Steven B. Combs, Ph.D.

Today I took a look at the 2016 top 10 posts on StevenCombs.com. Review of top posts is an annual event. This year though, I decided to create a post to capture and share. Below is a list of the 2016 top 10 posts. It includes the post title (as a link), number of 2016 page views and brief commentary.

1. Things to know about your new Pocket C.H.I.P. - 16,565: The Pocket C.H.I.P. was a popular Kickstarter project in 2016. When I received my Pocket C.H.I.P., I immediately began to document the cool things you could do with this device as well as some of my own personal tips and tricks. I was very surprised to find out how many found these tips valuable as well as how many times the page was accessed!
2. Connect Chromecast to hotel Wi-Fi - 5,555 - The Chromecast is a great device, but it is almost impossible to use in a hotel. I found a way, but it is a hack that requires Terminal commands (very geeky). Based on the number page views, many were looking for the same capability. I hope I was able to help others use the device while traveling.
3. Staedtler Triplus Fineliner review - 4,504 - I use these color pens on a regular basis for sketchnotes. I like them so much, I wrote a review. As I would soon discover on my Amazon affiliates page, many were also purchasing these wonderful pens. I hope they enjoy them as much as I do.
4. Mirror a monitor connected to a Raspberry Pi on a Mac - 3,154 - Controlling a Raspberry Pi remotely using a Mac was a task that took me quite some time to figure out; at least for my use case scenario. Based on the number of views for this page, others were also looking to control their Raspberry Pi the same way.
5. My first fountain pen - the JinHao 250 - 2,530 - My first experience with a fountain pen, a Chinese JinHao 250 was also read by many this past year. I’ve not picked up this fountain pen in quite some time. Makes me want to go back and give it another try.
6. Program Arduino on Chromebook using ChromeDuino - 2,253 - We lost Codebender, an online tool, in 2016 so the only way to program an Arduino on a Chromebook is now with ChromeDuino. It works, but is not nearly as slick as Codebender. We will miss you Codebender!
7. Monster Digital OTG Cloud review - 1,680 - I’m not sure why this post is popular. I really didn’t like the device and since this post, my OTG Cloud battery blew up (not literally, but it did expand and split open the case), so I’ve steered clear of this device.
8. Evernote Know How - Duplicate a note - 1,634 - Poor Evernote. They had a rough year in 2016 due to a new subscription model. I was hot on Evernote but moved away from this tool in 2016 in favor of Google Keep and Ulysses (for the Mac). This app combination saves me an annual subscription. My original plan was to do a whole series of Evernote posts. That will not happen; however, my Evernote resources will remain online.
9. Baofeng GT-3 Mark II tear down - 1,409 - In early 2016 I had a goal to get a Ham radio license. I did not complete this task. This handheld Ham radio was the device I purchased to become familiar with the technology. It’s a great handheld, but something inside the case started to rattle so I broke it to open to fix the problem. Taking pictures along the way created an excellent tear down for the device.
10. Goodbye TextExpander, hello Dash - 1,159 - Like Evernote, the TextExpander publishers modified their price structure in 2016. This led many TextExpander users to find other alternatives. Dash was my alternative for the first half of 2016. I’ve since moved to Keyboard Maestro for text expansion, but still use Dash as a programmer’s reference tool.

Total 2016 pages views for the entire site = 63,038

How does that number compare to the previous year? During 2015, page views were 32,358. 2016 saw a 51% increase in traffic. The Pocket C.H.I.P. post was a huge draw to the site. This single post most likely led to additional page views for other posts.

What I’ve learned from this top 10 review is that the most popular posts are those that help others to either make a decision or find a solution to a problem. These types of posts are the posts I most enjoy writing.

Fun/Annoying Fact: I wrote this post on New Year’s eve at 8pm. Xfinity decided this was the evening to have an outage, so I had to use my mobile hotspot to publish this post. Nikki and I are still wondering if we will be able to watch the ball drop in Times Square this year. Yeah, Happy New Year to you too Comcast/Xfinity. Sheesh!

That closes out the 2016 blog posts. My 2017 blog New Year’s resolution is to provide posts that continue to be beneficial to readers and expand readership. If you have suggestions, drop a comment below. See you in 2017!