Google Wave on Thunderbird

Are you guys still using Google Wave ? Is the excitement about google wave dead already ?

I have seen similar questions on many blogs and websites recently. But this does not stop me from blogging about google wave .. and here is a new piece of information. Use Mozilla Thunderbird’s new tab feature to run google wave.

Thunderbird is a free email client ( like Outlook from Microsoft) from Mozilla, people behind Firefox browser.

Recently, they added a new  “Tab” feature to their popular email client, Thunderbird.  With the help of a small script, you can use Google wave inside Thunderbird, in a new tab, just like another inbox open, next to your regular email.  Here is how to set this up

Go to Tools menu, select Error Console, and enter this line (be sure to select all of it):

Components.classes['@mozilla.org/appshell/window-mediator;1'].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIWindowMediator).getMostRecentWindow(“mail:3pane”).document.getElementById(“tabmail”).openTab(“contentTab”, {contentPage: “https://wave.google.com/wave/?nouacheck”});

Hit the “Evaluate” button when you’re done, and you’ll see a new tab asking for your Wave login. Log in, click “Remember” to have Thunderbird remember your password

Try this and let  me know if you liked it !

picture and news from Lifehacker.com

So friends, this is a post from Windows Live Writer. I have always wanted to test windows live writer, and this was one of the first things that I downloaded after installing windows 7.

As you can see, windows live writer can detect the theme of your blog, and when you start writing, it will show you the page just as it will be when published. I took a screenshot of the screen and then posted it to the draft, very easily, and resizing and placing the image was really easy.

The theme of the blog is detected using a temporary post, which will be deleted as soon as theme is detected on windows writer. You can add tags and set your categories from windows live writer dashboard. Your categories are already imported when you set up the blog.

There are plugins that you can add to your live writer installation, like blog this for firefox, polaroid picture plugin ( which makes your picture look like poladoid ) and flickr plugin etc.

Something that I miss is, the auto tagging plugin, and all in one seo pack plugin which lets me set title tags etc for search engines. There should be some workaround here also, if you know how it is done, please drop me a comment.

So far windows Live writer looks good and works really well. I will be posting more if I find anything interesting ….  You can also try this once, its easy and useful. Let me know your thoughts after installing it. Installation and set up is really easy, in case you need help, please drop comments.

Sometimes I feel that I have all the time in the world for blogging, ( just that I don’t have enough blogging ideas ).

Then I looked around and found many people who write regularly ( personal blogs maintained by individuals with at least one post a day ) and even blogging superheros like Nikhil who manage multiple blogs with ease ( what’s the magic dude !! ) . So they have something more valuable than blogging time; blogging ideas and the flow.

But there is another group who struggle finding enough time for blogging. yet another group struggling to find ideas ( I am in this group guys !! ) Which group do you belong to ?

Is it easy for you to find time or ideas for blogging ? How do you find post ideas, where you do you save them ?

photo credit

Staying online and reading books, that’s the new technique that I am testing.Why ?

I tried several times to stay offline  to read more books. But,  twitter, blogs, google reader, comments, chats, orkut, facebook, oh no !! I leave the book there and come back, every time. Do you think I am addicted to blogging or internet in general ? well, I think so ..  and I have started missing books.

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Adding more styles to your wordpress theme, and why is that “style” highlighted ? Simple : because, this post is about making your blog look more stylish, by adding few more stylesheets ie, style sheets for categories.

I was reading this post from http://tarskitheme.com about a brilliant plugin : Category Style Sheets. by Benedict  Eastaugh.  It is a simple but awesome plugin that allows you to add style sheets for each category of your blog. That means, you can have different background colors, images, link colors etc for individual category archives, and each post in that category.

What I have done, ( So Far )

I have created two style sheets for two of my categories. WordPress & Blogging. I have changed background colors for category archive pages, and individual pots in these two categories. Now, go to any blog post in that category and you will see the plugin in action. I have changed only the background color. Should I try more ? Do you have any suggestion ?

How To Do This

All you need to do is,

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Okay, not about Advani’s blog, or any other political party’s blog or websites. I am talking about the real blogging and Elections.

Are you planning to express your thoughts about this election through your blog ? : Let me subscribe to it ! Do you know any blog which deals with Indian politics, and elections, really well ? post links here.

Blogging and New Media is not very influential in India yet. But still, we bloggers are quite passionate about politics and elections and  will be blogging, and  twittering  about it a lot. I will try to help you spread the word. Simply post links to your posts about elections, or email me the links. Do share your blogs, and your friends’ blogs too.

Which blog will be the best one to follow during elections ? Who will be making serious comments about elections, political parties, their campaigns etc ?

Its been a while since I used wordpress.com for blogging ..   I got so used to self hosted wordpress blogs, that I  think less about wordpress.com bogs  these days ( hence blog less about them )  .. and I even stopped visiting wordpress.com …  ( just wordpress.com .. I still read your wordpress.com hosted blogs … don’t worry !! )

somehow reached wordpress.com today and spent some time there …. and there, I have a question  for my friends using wordpress.com blogs …

WordPress.com is doing a good job with features that they offer, and they are adding new features every now and then. But, do you miss something ? Do you need something more from them ? …. like … more freedom about looks of your blog … more plugins … etc ? Comments please ………

Do you remember this post ?. Yes, a few days ago, I was asking you guys about possibility of introducing blogging in schools. Now, go ahead and read this article. If you are too lazy to click on that link, well, read this …

If the recommendations made in the national policy on use of technology in Indian schools go through, blogging could become huge in India.

This draft policy, still under discussion, says – “Blogs are powerful tools to support creative writing that can be published and shared not only with the teacher but also with peers and the world, alike.”

When I wrote that post, I got a comment from Kenney, asking me if I can join him in something similar. The idea is to help colleges to build blogs for their students. They can have students’ blogs, take newsletters to an online blog version, and publish announcements etc … there are lot of possibilities.

I know a professor who is interested in blogging and some web 2.0, in my college ( College Website is not opening on firefox for unknown reasons ). So, I called him up and discussed this and we ( Kenny and me ) will have a meeting with him soon. I am planning to contact our principal, and another professor also, who manages college newsletters ( both are my friends … lucky me )

I am not sure yet, if they are going to agree with the plan and give a green signal. I will update you all for sure.

PS: I did not receive any questions in response to my post about self hosted blogs.   I was planning to write a single post with answers. Now, I  have decided to write a series of posts about the same. First one will be, about registering a domain name. Stay tuned.