About blogging,wordpress hosting and books

“The Blog Herald” recently redesigned their blog. They made a really cute, and sweet theme . Till then, it was just another magazine styled blog. But now, it looks very unique, and easy to browse.

Now, this is what I call a perfect layout, for a wordpress theme. Everything is rightly placed. No distractions, even ads are placed very well. No clutters.

What happened when I found a good blog with a sweet design ?

So, what happened to me when they did this “redesign” thing ? Well, I started reading that blog more, I was being attracted by that design,  spent more time on the blog, and their great content made me spent even more time there, and browse through archives etc ..

I used to read their blog posts, but only from google reader itself and never bothered to comment. But, this new design is taking me to the site from rss reader. Its making me comment. Yes, the design is driving my reading pattern, my activity on the blog, my attitude towards that blog.

The strange thing is, I usually do not like blogs without a header image but this one, I liked it without a header image, and that too too less colors.

and then …

I came back to my blog, and changed my theme hmm nothing new in it right ?  ( You know right, I always look for a reason to change theme ). I am not sure if you guys liked the new design, and would like to know your thoughts on this.

What’s special with Copyblogger theme ?

It has two css files -  style.css and custom.css. Style.css has the most basic layout elements, which you need not edit, unless necessary. Custom.css is where you edit the design ( color,font,font size, background etc etc ).

So you get to edit your theme as you like without destroying the basic structure of the theme, which is really great for someone like me with very less coding knowledge. Yet, there is something I need help with. If you look at the side bar, there is something missing before the search box. A feed icon is supposed to be diplayed there but it isn’t. Any idea why ?

I am happy with this theme .. are you ?

Firefox usually shows a rss feed icon in the address bar when we are on a website or blog with RSS or ATOM feed. So, I was looking for that or something similar on Google’s Chrome too. But no, nothing is there to identify if the URL has a rss feed. 

What happened ? Where is my rss feed icon ? how will I know that the website has a feed or not ? Yes, of course there will always be alternate options on the website, but an icon on the address bar was the most convenient way of doing that. 

So guys, did they actually forget to add this feature, or is it silly me having trouble finding it ? I need help … I need help.

PS: I am making a list of features missing on Chrome, so if you have something to add to, comment or email me.

Google released their very own open source browser today. I was eagerly waiting for it’s release like many others, because, we expect the best from Google.. right ? I  kept reloading the browser tab on Chrome’s URL, but it gave 404, not found error all the time, and finally, google reader sent me the official release post. Or if you go to google.com, you will see an announcement there too.

Installation was pretty easy. Click “Download”, Agree to TOS, and then, wait for few moments to get it installed.

So, Google Chrome is ready on my Laptop. Let us test it now. First website ? Okay, we will try, gmail.com. Was it fast enough ? YES !! Google Chrome works little faster than firefox. But that was just my first impression ok ?

Google Chrome has a lot of new features to offer. Like, the way of tab design, ( you can drag your tab away and make it a new window itself ) etc. If you need a full list of new features, go here.

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So, do you blog in Indic Languages ? I do, at times. I was using Blogger.com for this, because, only blogger had the transliteration feature. Now, that we have this extremely useful plugin for wordpress, I can leave blogspot and come back to Wordpress.

What is Google’s Transliteration ?

Google Indic Transliteration offers an option for converting Roman characters to the Devanāgarī characters used in Hindi. This lets you type Hindi words phonetically in English script and still have them appear in their correct alphabet. Note that this is not the same as translation — it is the sound of the words that are converted from one alphabet to the other, not their meaning. For example, typing “hamesha” transliterates into Hindi as:

Yes, you heard it right. You type it in Hinglish or Manglish, google will transliterate it in to Hindi, or Malayalam. You do not need to know anything about typing in those languages. ( Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu )

Google Indic Transliteration WordPress Plugin

So, here is the plugin. It’s called “Google Indic Transliteration WordPress Plugin”. The plugin is still under development, it works only on HTML mode ( on your wordpress dashboard ) at the moment. But, wait for more, you will see it getting better soon.

Author’s Website Plugin Homepage Download Now

Languages Supported : Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu

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Hey, is this word new to you ? then read on …… I will tell you what a splog and what they do…..
Have you ever seen trackbacks ( links to your posts ) saying “Wrote an interesting post” or “talked today about” or similar words? They do not have their own content but links to lot of other blogs.. and you thought that someone liked your post and linked there ? Yes, they are splogs.

Splog is What ?

Let’s start with Wikipedia

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs^{[citation needed]}, are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.

Why a Splog ?

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Thesis ? ….. Ok, I know… that is what you are going to ask me…. right ? Okay, it is a Wordpress theme … or rather,    a premium ( paid ) wordpress theme. If it was a free theme …. you know me very well right ? ( if you do not know … I keep changing my themes .. I change whenever I find a good theme ).

See what it’s author says

I built the Thesis Theme because I wanted a framework that had it all—killer typography, a dynamically resizable layout, intelligent code, airtight optimization, and tons of flexibility. Now, after months of field testing, I’m confident enough to offer it to those of you who have come to expect nothing but the finest themes from me.

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No !! This is not easy !! Not Happening !!

Hmm … don’t get confused friends… I am talking about my reading habit, which I am trying to save. It’s not as easy as I expected. I will tell you why….

I started reading ” The God Of Small Things” on 09 July . Now, it’s 17th July. So, it has been more than one week since I started reading that 339 pages book. I am at 177th page now. 8th of 21 chapters of the book. 22 pages a day, average !!.

That is really bad. I have a book waiting with 589 pages next to me. I need to read more books. I need to read more fast. I need to READ !!

What is happening with me ?  It’s simple. I will tell you how I am reading this book  …… Gmail > Book > Orkut > Book > Google Reader > Blog Comment > Book > Chat > Book > Dinner > Book ….

I know I am not going to finish it very soon if I am doing like this !! But, I am not going to give up this time. I will still read, and try to read more each day. ( Sounds easy but you know how tough it is .. right ? )

I will update you all  when I finish … reading it  … and one more thing .. I remember Poonam asking me about the next book … It is .. “ The Last Temptation of Christ “ by Nikos Kazantzakis,