Connect iPhone to laptop. A few error messages resulted:

The iPhone cannot be synced. The device has timed out.
The iphone cannot be synced. A folder was specified instead of a file.
iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the backup sessions failed.
Add as new iPhone.
Restored it to factory settings. Resync ….. the iPhone cannot be synced. The device has timed out.
Unplugged iphone. Try again. The iPhone cannot be synced. A duplicate file name was specified.
Hm. According to iTunes, my 16GB iPhone has 2GB used and 2GB free. Unplug.
iTunes cannot read the contents of the iPhone. Go to the Summary tab in iPhone preferences and click Restore to restore this iPhone to factory settings.
Hm. Go to IPhone, no preferences, so reset all Settings.
Try to restore from late June… iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup session failed.
Try to restore from early June… iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup session failed.
Try to restore from April .. iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup session failed.
Add as new iPhone. Good grief. It worked. I now have an uptodate empty iPhone.

The suspense builds… will it add everything back.
Apps = yes
Movies = yes
Music = in progress.

For real suspense, I’ll try to sync it again tomorrow.
Anyone want to lay bets on whether it will work?

Can’t do that no more, after the latest AdWords “upgrade”.

Theoretically to make it easier for us, AdWords moved Campaign, Ad Group and Account reporting, out of Reports, and into the Campaign tab. They’ve actually disabled the Campaign/Account/Ad Group report types in the report menu, so you can’t create any more new reports there. So instead of grabbing one of my old custom report templates and changing the month, I now have to go to Campaigns, select Control Panel, Select the report, change the month and run the report. If it lets me.

If you try to segment the data on the Campaigns tab by month for more than 14 months, it tells you you can’t do that – it’s too big a time frame. Not nicely, either. Let’s say I have a date range of 14 months, and I click on Segment, then month, to get a monthly break down. That’s fine. Change it to 13 months. That’s fine – it redisplays with fresh data. Change it to 15 months – uh oh – back to the default view, no error message, no warning, no nothing. Disgraceful degradation.

That’s not upgrading, that regression. Taking away useful functionality.

My old report template was still there from when I ran it last month, for the period Jan-2007 through to July-2010. I clicked on the report name, and the template appears. Select the month from the dropdown so that it’s now August. Run the report. And get the following message:

We’re sorry, but we’re unable to process this request. Some of the possible reasons for this include:
- Trying to view a report that no longer exists.
- Trying to view a report that doesn’t belong to you.
- Trying to download a report that has not finished running.
If you believe you have reached this page in error, please double-check your report parameters and resubmit your information. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Balderdash. It’s my report, I own it, and you didn’t let it even start running.

For inconsistency, if I click on run report, using last months July date, it runs happily.
But no, I can’t change the date to August and run it.
And I can’t produce the report from the Campaigns tab, as it’s more than 14 months.

Shame, Google, Shame.

I’ve seen mentions of Ad Planner, Ad Manager, DoubleClick and Google Affiliate, but hadn’t looked into it. I did this weekend – and there went the weekend. (Apart from a nice BBQ at Russells on Sat night).

Talk about confusing. It was worse because I had AdSense setup using an old Yahoo email address, Analytics using a Gmail address, and AdWords yet another Gmail address.
The first thing Google kept nagging me to do, was link AdSense and Analytics. Eventually, after making the Yahoo account administrator on the Gmail Analytics accounts, it said they were linked….

Then to signup to Google DoubleClick for Publishers (Small Business), which is abbreviated everywhere as DFP SB.
The signup form rejected my multiple websites, even though it said I could list them comma-separated, so at first I set it up just for halloween-australia.com.
And no where on earth could I find out where to add the extra sites later. That’s definitely a forum job.
Wallowing through the forums, there was finally a link to the how to start guide: http://www.google.com/support/dfp_sb/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=27854

First you add your ad units, then you group them into placements, then you tag them, and stick the code on your site. The code consists of a header, and then separate blocks for each ad unit.

You have to take care to turn on the default AdSense bidding, to optimise earnings, and if no ad orders are available.
I went back to AdSense and updated each of the channels, to make them more public and targatable to AdWords advertisers.
Then back to DFP SB to check everything was ok.

Google still kept mentioning Ad Planner, so I signed up for that as well.
Again, it preferred my Yahoo address for site verification, so I had to add Yahoo to my Webmaster Tools list of sites. At least Google finally lets you add extra owners to site verification.

So in theory, halloween-australia can now be found through DoubleClick, Ad Planner and AdWords.

I’ll wait and see. It really wasn’t a smooth process.

They have three main styles – the classic one-piece, the halter bikini and the booster bikini, all made with figure-flattering, tummy-controlling retro fabrics.

The one-piece looks like one I used to wear before I had kids – a soft thick fabric in navy blue with small white stars. It was a favourite for years, until I finally wore it out. I also bravely ventured back into bikinis a few years ago, and had chosen a hybrid between the halter bikini and the booster bikini, in two pieces, but still covering the tummy.

Strangely, the one piece really looks like a dress I wore in my last dance routine – during dress rehearsals we discovered that my dress rose indecently high, and I had to sew it to my underwear – which basically transformed it from a dress to a halter-neck costume. If I was brave I’d show it here, but then, it’ll be on YouTube in a few weeks anyway, when the dance studio uploads all the routines.

The costumes would also probably be good for a burlesque routine – they have that old-fashioned air about them.

Anyway, they’re cute.