Bill Roth: Zeitgeist Diary: 2023

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Here are my notes on how to optimize YouTube for search, aka Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Have a clear single keyword in mind

Multiple keywords dilute the search value

Put that keyword early in the title
Include your keyword early in your description. You should have at least 50 words in the description
Add a Transcript to your video
Ask people to Like or Share your video

Friends and family ok too

Include keywords in your video file name, title cards, descriptions, end screens, transcript/script, and overlays
Tag your video with popular keywords
Categorize your video
Upload Subtitles and Closed Caption files from an SRT file
Make sure there is a Call To Action (CTA) in the video AND the description (ie Subscribe now, Call us today, comment below)
Add Cards and End Screens to increase your channels ownership (AKA "Subscribe Now")
Add HashTags
Add a playlist on related topics for social sharing
Review analytics and understand which lengths that work from your audience
optional: Leave a pinned comment on your own video
Curate and respond to your comments promptly. If you engage with them, they'll engage with you

Sources:

HubSpot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/youtube-seo

HubSpot 2: https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-seo/

TubeBuddy: https://www.tubebuddy.com/

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Help me get a generator for the Amigos Academy in Nicaragua

The Amigos Academy Need a Generator

(Post Summary: I'm raising $1000 for a generator for a school in Nicaragua. Donate here)

Friends, as you know, I have been working with a great NGO in Nicaragua, Amigos for Christ, for over 10 years. I have written about various trips over the last few years. Since I have started working with them, we've build clear water systems, run labs in the communities to help families get free from parasitic infection, and we have also built a school, the Amigos Academy.

You Really Should See The School

Its amazing. I remember the school when it was a rice field. Then the next year we built a wall around the property, as is customary in Nicaragua. The next year we build the pre-school area. The year after that we participated in the building of the primary class buildings. Since then the feeding center/cafeteria has been completed. They are now running a K-6 school with around 200 kids. See some pictures of the school here.

They Have Computers!

They even have a computer room where they teach the kids the basics of using computers for writing. They are also considering robotics projects as well, which is super exciting.

They Need a Generator

The school is roughly here. As you can imagine, the power infrastructure in rural Nicaragua is not always stable. And when the school has a power outage, its is really disruptive to the students' education. So the principals of the school have told me they could use generator to help them through the power outages for the computer room and related infrastructure. They are looking for a generator roughly like this

I'm raising $1000 for a Generator For the School

To do this, I would like to raise $1000 so the Amigos Academy can purchase a generator for the school. If you are interested, please go here, and give whatever you can. No amount is too small. Or you can use the obvious giant button below. Their EIN is 58-2484257 if you are giving via a system like BrightFunds. You can give by other means, described here, but please mention in the notes that this is for "Amigos Academy Generator".

For more info on Amigos For Christ, check out their work here.

Monday, January 23, 2023

Build Your Own Geiger Counter with Raspberry PI

The result of Covid and Work From Home has been....we stay home a lot. There are upsides, like not commuting every day. There are downsides, as we have more idle time. Since my memoir might be titled "A Mind Forever Wandering," I was thinking one day about how much we really know about background radiation. This led to a couple of searches around Geiger Tubes, and real-time databases, etc.

After a few random purchases around the internet and a bit if python code and a left over Raspberry PI 4 1G box, I have put together a DIY Geiger Counter. Here is how I did it, and here is the code, etc, you'll need.

Here's what you need:

Raspberry PI 3 or 4
Geiger-Miller Tube with a Raspberry PI compatible board. (Link is to the one I used)

Set up Raspberry PI

First, get a Raspberry PI 3 or 4. You'll need some kind of Raspbian OS/Raspberry PI OS on it. I always use the Raspberry PI OS installation instructions here. In short, get the OS and the imager, and create an image on the SD card. Then boot up the Raspberry PI.

You'll also need to add Python3 and pip to get the code working. You'll need to do something like:

$ sudo apt install python3 pip

I am using Python 3. I have not tested Python 2. Once done with that, you should use pip to install the following additional packages:

$ pip install influxdb_client RPi.GPIO

Set Up Geiger Tube

Next, Set up the Geiger-Miller tube, and the board. My pinout for a Raspberry Pi 4 1G device is pretty simple. GND pin on the board goes to pin 6. The 5V pin is wired to pin 2 for 5V of power, and the VIN input line is wired to pin 7, GPIO4. (No reason not to do pin 3 or 5. It's just what I picked). I also pulled the J1 jumper, since the clicks get annoying. Back background radiation is about 15-35 CPM, BTW. Which is normal. About 0.11-0.15 microsieverts for those of you doing math in your heads.

Next, set up the code. My Raspberry Pi Geiger Counter code is here. You will have to set up your Influx DB v2 database, but I'll write that up in the next blog entry.

Once you do connect to to InfluxDB you'll be able to get cool graphs like this, in the InfluxDB v2 UI:

"CPM" here means clicks per minute. The full build is pictured below:

Questions? Ask them in the comments.

Bill Roth: Zeitgeist Diary