The Last Word

Rebirth!

2006-12-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Eventualy there comes a time when something old has to give way for something new, because the new is just too friggin' good compared to the old. There are times when it is hard to let go, but what has to be done, has to be done! Now, is that time ...

Since I've come back to the blogging part time, I have been seeing flaws with this Blogger just a bit too much. Cumbursome and annoying at times. Script heavy pages take minutes to load, when they should take only seconds, and small nitty gritties like that here and there. Waiting for that Beta link to show up was getting trying, and the code making up whatever you're reading right now is just too complicated and interesting for me to remove it completely. Hence, the result was pretty obvious and didn't need much thought.

I'm going to take this opportunity to unveil The Last Word (Beta) to all the readers of The Last Word. Quietly and secretly, behind closed doors and darkened windows, I had been working to get it up and running as fast as possible. I wanted it to look its part and place, and better than this. Most of all, I wanted a blog on the new Beta Blogger. So instead of waiting anymore, I went ahead and created one from scratch :)

So without making you wait for too long, here's the link again -- The Last Word (Beta). A grand welcome is waiting for you there!

The template editor explored

2006-11-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

I know I know, everyone one of the bleet (copyright belongs to Avatar) has been taking apart the template editor and having a look under the hood, but because of reasons I have stated again and again, I have been a little behind the fray. However, I just spent the last 10-15 minutes pouring over the 5-6 Blogger Help pages which deal with Page Element Tags for Layouts, Widget Tags for Layouts and Layout Data Tags (I am giving the names so that people can refer to these pages for information on the new cool stuff you can do!).

The gold mine of data

What I read, got me jumping in my bed! The biggest and best thing is that maximum number of things have now been made into proper referenceable variables! :D This is the best thing that Blogger could have done, since now we don't have to create special layouts and then use a PHP page to extract the data we want. We can simply call in the data using the Blogger specified variable, and voila! Our work is done. For example, now instead of writing a loop to do a regexp check for the existence of the author's details in the comments, I can just check the commentors display name using a conditional widget tag (another coolness!) and change the CSS of that particular comment blog if it matches! That reduces my code lines to 1/4th, and has no chance of breaking because I'm using data directly from Blogger! Isn't that cool!? :D

I remember Avatar and I talking about this in the good ol' days, about how Blogger needs more data variables, so that we can use it to get content directly off Blogger. Before this, the way was to directly make calls to the Blogger API,which was cumbursome and just plain stupid. Now we don't have to do any of it! :)

Widgets themselves have been designed as methods and functions, limited to HTML itself. The same bit of code can be reused everywhere and anywhere we feel like. No more constant copy-pasting bits of code here and there. This offers a much more centralised editing zone, so that you can make your layout once and for all, and just change the widget content and CSS in the head area, without having to touch the arrangement of your page! Saves all the non-code friendly people (the coding muggles! :P) a lot of headache, and the bleet too, because they can name their methods something, and just reference them with one line. No more getting confused in tons of lines of code (my current template code is too big for me to mess with!).

One more thing which I liked is that you can make a widget from the Page Layout view, let Blogger handle the heavy duty coding for it, and then switch to the Edit HTML tab, expand the widget, and do the fine tuning yourself. So if you're a nitpicker, but don't like getting your hands dirty in code, this is the perfect way out! :)

Reloaded fo'sho!

This has been one solid upgrade from Blogger, and I don't care what people say about things being underwhelming and the new Blogger being a disappointment. I see tremendous potential and much more scope of creativity now that all new (and never before easily available) data has been laid out in front of us to break apart and use. I will not be able to immediately delve into this, but expect to see some neat stuff in the future, because my post-its are already beginning to fill up idea outlines! :)

Did you find something in the new templates editing process that I've missed, that helped you in some way? Don't be shy! Let me know, and I'll mention it in this post!

A secret not so secret

2006-11-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

We know Google keeps secrets, and big ones at that! But well, something you just can't hide I guess! Check out SearchMash. I don't know how many people know about it, but its a playground for Google developers to test out and play with things. I guess they test out things that will eventually become a part of Google, maybe even become Google 2.0? :P

However, my intention was not to enlighten people about SearchMash (although you can go have a whirl, its quite cool! :P ). My intention was to tell you about what one can achieve by using SearchMash in a way Google didn't want you to know. Again, since Google didn't want you to know, they can easily change it and/or remove it as they please! So don't make mission critical applications using this. Now to the good stuff!

Google to the rescue!

I remember crying countless number of times of a Google JSON feed for their data, in the same fashion Yahoo! provides JSON(P) feeds for almost all their services. Turns out that Google has always offered it, just never told us! :( So now, through SearchMash you can get your dose of JSON filled with Google content, including their main Web Search! Yep, you heard that right! No more restricted access to just blogs! :) Now there can literally be a Native Web Search, and very easily too! But how do you get the stuff? Glad you asked :)

You use the following query, replacing [term] with what you're searching for:

http://www.searchmash.com/results/[item]

Or you can use:

http://www.searchmash.com/results/[item]?i=11&n=10

Which returns 10 results starting from the 11th results! Now this is something that can really be exploited nicely by people. No more working with their SOAP API to pull results, just use simple JSON and get creative :)

A more (just a little more) detailed explanation is given at Google Operating System. Go ahead and check it out! :)

Let's face it

2006-11-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

I remember saying that social network sites just aren't worth it, and with blogs coming up, people waste their time. But ever since I've left home, and friends and people I got to know there in the past 10 to 11 years, the significance of these has come to light. They really help in keeping touch with people who've gone far away and you've lost contact with. Chances are, they'll show up in atleast one of the networks, and presto! You found your long lost friend again! :) But now that I've used the likes of hi5, Orkut and Facebook (my favourite! Haven't given others a whirl, its hard enough keeping track on these), I think I've figured some of the key ingredients which make one of them my favourite, and not the other.

They aren't perfect!

There still are problems with these networks however, and I am not asking you to signup for any of the above right now. The biggest annoyance is the crazily profuse amount of mails you'll suddenly start receiving, alerting you of friend requests, group events, and what nots! There are options to turn these off, but the initial reaction is that you're being spammed. The second is that random people will start adding you, and before you know it, your friends circle is full (if you fall for the noob mistake) of people who you don't want, tucking away the important people in a corner. Facebook does things right by actually asking you to estabilish relationship or a relating factor with the person you're trying to add. Once the other persons confirms that, he/she is added! These network sites should take steps to put barriers of similar kinds, so that you don't have a 1000 new 'friends' in a couple of days. Hi5 suffers from this, so beware!

Blogging can't keep circles together. They become specific, and is a good way to get to know 'new' people, and create your niche, get your thoughts across in a specific group. Hence, social networks are required. Its all part of the Web 2.0 boom (no longer a boom :P ), and like everything else, only a few companies got it right. Facebook got it right to quite an extent, by first putting restrictions on who could join, then opening up to everyone but again limiting to only certain types. For all these reasons, if you're looking to start with a network, I'll suggest giving Facebook a trial run.

What do you think about these social network sites? Are they really worth the time? Have they helped you in anyway? :)

The big fuss!

2006-11-17T02:49:00.000-08:00

It seems the human nature to cringe and not accept anything in its entirety takes many different forms and in different facets! I have not been following the Blogger Beta developments that closely, and my attempts to do the same have been met with a lethargic failure. Just too much has happened in too short a period of time for me to keep tab. So I have left that part go, and just following whatever happens in the present! Hence, if I say something here which seems to clash with some estabilished fact, please forgive my ignorance and do not start a flame war in the comments! And do point me in the right direction! :)

The word on the street

Now, coming to the point at hand. Before Blogger Beta, there was seldom a day we would not hear someone say 'I wish Blogger could ...' or 'Why can't Blogger have ...'. Now, Blogger answered our queries with a solid comeback and threw so many features at us that we didn't know where to start working and fixing up our blogs to incorporate those said new features. Not to mention Blogger made it easy on themselves by handing out transitions only in sets. So my question now is that why are people cringing that Blogger Beta isn't good enough? Where is it that Blogger has missed out?

Categories, next generation blogging feeds, better bridging of the gap between code and non-coders, and what not. Blogger definitely made it easier for everyone to blog! And eventually, they released the new HTML editor which helped coders also join the fray in their own way. Why then do we say that Blogger's set of features are industry standard and they could have done better than what they currently have?

The reality

True, the update came in late, and following the posts on Bloggeratto, it seems like Blogger is planning another update (Avatar calls in Blogger 3.0). What more can we ask for? Updates upon updates, which seem to be going in the right direction. Why do we then call the update underwhelming?

We shouldn't be greedy now, and take the updates as they come, and trust Blogger to keep the good times rolling. Blogger is, as singpolyma has stated, way ahead of any other blogging platform out there, even if the features are at par (and not ahead) with them.

But at the moment, we need a reality check ... Does Blogger need any immediate updates that some of us asking for? Or can we do something to bridge the gap ourselves, and not be lazy? :P

The magic behind the scenes

2006-10-29T01:38:00.000-08:00

Being in college for about a month and half now, I have been able to understand what the difference between an adhoc programmer and a programmer who thinks is. I've also understood some parts of where to focus on when you're actually making a usable application, if you think that the application will come under heavy use by a lot of different people! I know I have made quite a few posts on how the design and the visual aspect of your blog should be appealing and good, but here, I'm going to slightly deviate from my preaching, and going to stick with giving my opinion only till the blog aspect, as I believe that people will want information only till where it helps their blog! :)

When people set out to make their blog, it's easy to go for the visual styles and make it one of the the most attractive (visually) blogs around. However, there are too many blogs that I've seen which lack from a proper base from the functional point of view. There will be times when a simple thing such as a search for posts will be missing. Thankfully, the sudden focus on categories and tags pushed people to implement them for their own blogs, otherwise for a good amount of time, I had seen good blogs lacking this basic organising feature. And these are the kind of things that actually make a blog particularly usable. A site which lacks visual appeal but makes up for it by offering myriad traversing and searching features, will (in my opinion) attract more viewers than a non-functional but good looking site.

There are quite a few hacks which work towards strengthening the above mentioned things on your blog. I can try and list out the few must haves that I think you should include in your code:

Author Comment Highlighting - goes one up on my hack
Native Blog Search - is what put me on the bloggerhacking map! :P
Aditya's/Asynchronous Blogger Categories Index - uses del.icio.us and some fancy pants javascript to categorise your blog

These are surely not all the ones you need, but I've been away for quite a while, hence don't know which are the ones that have come up newly. Feel free to refer me to the new hacks that have come up, and if I think they fit my definition of a back-end hack, I'll add it to that list! :)

Guess who's back?

2006-10-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a long outing, hasn’t it? I didn’t expect to be gone for so long honestly! But what to do? Other commitments forced the situation. But now, I hope to be able to come back again! Ofcourse, I'll not be in my full glory, as I was before I entered college, but I shall keep a tab on everything that's happening in the bloggerosphere, and keep everyone updated with my thoughts, opinions, and the odd innovation! :)

So you can consider this as a return post! And if you're happy that I'm back, please leave a comment! :) As Alex has always pointed out, I'm a comment freak, and just love to get them! :)

Thanks for sticking by, and its good to see all of you again! Enjoy! :)

The season of hiatuses

2006-08-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

I had mentioned this in the past, and I'm going to confirm it today. I am going into a little hibernation of sorts. College starts for me in about 5 days, and I will be very busy to be able to find time. However, you can be sure to see me around since I'll be monitoring the developments, especially with Blogger beta :) But I'll not be active, or well, as active as I was recently.

I'll be back once everything is settled and kicking, however it might take some time! So, I'll see you around! :) I'll take a page out of Kirk's book, and leave you with a song! :) Tata!

Estranged (Guns 'N Roses)

When you're talkin to yourself
And nobody's home
You can fool yourself
You came in this world alone
(Alone)

So nobody ever told you baby
How it was gonna be
So what'll happen to you baby
Guess we'll have to wait and see
One, two

Old at heart but I'm only 28
And I'm much too young
To let love break my heart
Young at heart but it's getting much too late
To find ourselves so far apart

I don't know how you're s'posed
To find me lately
An what more could you ask from me
How could you say that I never needed you
When you took everything
Said you took everything from me

Young at heart an it gets so hard to wait
When no one I know can seem to help me now
Old at heart but I musn't hesitate
If I'm to find my own way out

Still talkin' to myself and nobody's home
(Alone)

So nobody ever told us baby
How it was gonna be
So what'll happen to us baby
Guess we'll have to wait and see

When I find out all the reasons
Maybe I'll find another way
Find another day
With all the changing seasons of my life
Maybe I'll get it right next time
An now that you've been broken down
Got your head out of the clouds
You're back down on the ground
And you don't talk so loud
An you don't walk so proud
Any more, and what for

Well I jumped into the river too many times
to make it home
I'm out here on my own, an drifting all alone
If it doesn't show give it time
To read between the lines
'Cause I see the storm getting closer
And the waves they get so high
Seems everything We've ever known's here
Why must it drift away and die

I'll never find anyone to replace you
Guess I'll have to make it thru, this time
Oh this time
Without you

I knew the storm was getting closer
And all my friends said I was high
But everything we've ever known's here
I never wanted it to die

Google motto: Simplify everything!

2006-08-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

It has become commonplace for people to see a new Google service being launched in Beta, with minimalistic features, and hordes of people rushing to signup (whether or not they'll use it) to make it on the user list before the signups are closed off. Google is probably as synonymous with minimalism as it is with search, and that is the simple reason why Google has reached where it has, and will continue to go furthur :)

Simple is goog, err... good!

Every Google service has basic features. But if you look closely, they are the features that you usually use. Take Google Talk for example. It started out absolutely naked, with nothing but instant messaging and voice features. The client was small, but it got its purpose done beautifully - offering you an effective way to communicate. It doesn't matter if they don't have environments and winks/nudges. Nor does it matter that you don't have a snazzy glassy interface with rows of shortcuts on your left which you'll never use. Google gave you what it thought you needed the most, and slowly, the more you asked them, the more they added.

GMail, is fabulous. It does exactly what mail should do. Leave the junk out, be fast, be searchable, and be able to store loads of it. It doesn't need tons of flashing blimping ads, or 10 different folders. It doesn't need a calendar and a notepad integrated with it. A webmail should remain just that, a web-mail. My father recently switched over from Yahoo! to GMail, having switched to Yahoo! from Hotmail about a year back.

Its so simple to have 5 different services, and connect them via little threads, that it makes you think why in the world couldn't companies get it right before Google did. You use what you want to use, and if you don't, you just have a link to see for it. It's that simple!

Google listens

Google has an amazing track record of listening to its users. Unlike others, it seems Google has an internal voting system where every request gets piled onto its list, and every now and then, the leading request is implemented. GMail got POP (no other service offers it for free), GTalk got file-transfer, (don't flame me :-P) Blogger got labels, and so on...

The only thing that bothers me is that Google pushes out features which are incomplete, with the beta tag and continues working on it. But there is a hint of cleverness there too. You can get a feature that way which you know is constantly being improved, even if it is behind the scenes. Some get impatient, but most welcome the changes when they arrive.

You might not notice, but its easier to work on a clean sheet rather than an already used one. And Google offers that clean sheet. Although none but the real power users can truly take advantage of it. Hence, Google draws a little on it so that you have something to start with while others work on it. Back to the basics, comes to mind. And believe it or not, but its the simpler things which really appeal to the masses for their ease of use and less 'overwhelming' first impressions :)

The day after yesterday

2006-08-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

All (or most) of the ruckus, tensions, nail-biting scenarios and curiosities are now slowly dying down. It seems Google still has the ability to excite with new releases :) That is good news, because if Avatar gets it right (again), we have a few more surprises to come. Thats a good thing also, because there are quite a few still niggling things which are just beginning to come up to my throat.

Also, this sudden unforeseen update is forcing me to put a hold to my hacks which I was going to release. I want to see exactly how they finally shape their page structure, the code adding and page loading algorithms. Avatar rightly said that the update killed off an amazing categories hack that I was about to release via Bloggeratto. But I guess its better this way, with the native categories. However, I shall continue to stick with my ABCI till they release category feeds. Not to mention the pain of categorising all the posts again! Kirk has managed to make the cut and the transition to the new system. He's the only one who I know has done so from the mainstream blogs. Avatar, John, I and a few others are still waiting for that golden link to appear.

I hope they release their new raw template editing tools soon enough, because their Google Pages layout editor (which they've transported here) is really bad. To the basic user, it'll be optimum, but for serious template modders ... it's far from adequate. You can see for yourself by getting a Beta Blogger Blog ;) and going to the template editor (the layout link from the new dashboard). See what I mean?

That being the state of things... all I have to say is, 'C'mon guys!! Stop teasing us!'

Blogger relaunch, more stuff that caught my eye!

2006-08-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

So, the previous post was done up with a lot of excitement, hence I didn't get to play around much. Many of the features have been listed out by the big blogs itself, so I am not going to dwell on them. However, being of the hacker vein, I went straight to where I saw my business. The template editor. Immediately I saw the difference. Some of them are listed here, and the updates with time are listed here :)

The template

There is a new template editor in the works, as I was greeted to it the moment I stepped in. Currently its not out, and you can revert back to the classic editor look. They are furthur tweaking the way we edit our templates! :) Going from old to new needs a change, and Blogger offers to back your template for you. Are we looking at a possible template backing system, a la Wordpress?

As far as the new features go, there have to be new tags with them too now, isn't it? So, I went looking for them! And I found them in plenty. You see, I noticed that when you're signed in to Blogger beta, and you'll looking at your blog, you'll see many small editing icons pop up, and your archives show in a different way too...

So, the template tags that I found new, had a curious I18N prepended to their name. [Update]: As pointed out by Anonymous commenter, the prefix is for internationalisation of certain text. These will change depending on the language selection of the viewer of the blog. Here they are:

Post Footer Tags

<$I18NPostedByAuthorNickname$>
<$I18NAtTimeWithPermalink$>
<$I18NLinksToThisPost$>

Comments/Backlinks Tags

<$I18NNumComments$>
<$I18NLinksToThisPost$>
<$I18NPostedByBacklinkAuthor$>
<$I18NHome$>

Sidebar Tags (seem like titles to each section in the sidebar)

<$I18NHome$>
<$I18NPreviousPosts$>
<$I18NArchives$>
<$BlogFeedsVertical$> - not working as of 16/08

The conclusion

Though I'll keep this post updated as more and more things keep showing up, what is bothering me is that most of the things that we spent learning and understanding might slowly get faded out as Blogger starts to adopt new naming (hopefully not) and new page structures. This could be a pain for people like me who've taken a few things for granted. Let's see what turns out. Blogger has officially not defined those tags, so if anyone out there knows (or thinks they know) what these tags do, don't hesitate to leave a comment with your thoughts, I'll update the post with them!

Regular Updates

(Updates Feed)

As many of us have been complaining about the lack of an HTML editor with the new Blogger, they have now posted their reply on their Buzz blog. The update is only days away, as they put it. Straight from the horses mouth:
Fortunately, it's always been part of our plan to introduce a new Edit HTML system for Blogger in beta. This system will not only let folks have the degree of customizability they desire, but it will let you create templates that are customizable with the Layouts system. Right now we are finishing the first version of this system and will be introducing in the "days not weeks" timeframe.
This is really getting exciting.
They have improved their spell check. It uses the same engine as the one GMail uses! Finally, deliverance for the post editor! :)
Venkataramani has made a post about small squiggles that Blogger has quietly added in. Do check them out, they'll surely make your hour! :)
Completely forgot to mention this. Blogger has upped their navbar search to now show results as proper posts in your main posts column. Discovered by Kirk, it sure does threaten to outrun my hack! But Arr! If its a fight ye want laddies, then its a fight yer gonna get! Yo ho ho!
I don't know how important this is, but the comments page is served over encrypted and secure pages! Check it out! Go to any comment page of a blog which has made the switch, and you'll see the all to familiar https:// in your address bar. I wonder how and why this is so!
Kirk (Phydeaux3) has noticed that the Blogger sign has undergone a slight change. We are still trying to figure out what its about, but if you have any theories, leave a comment at his post, or here! [-] It now seems like Blogger is celebrating its birthday.
[Exclusive Update]: It seems like post permalinks no longer change with the title. It stays constant at what it was when created initially. Hence, if your title was 'Crazy', then your permalink will remain 'blog/year/month/crazy.html', even if you change the title to 'Crazy Dog'. Thats cool! It'll let people change titles if they feel like doing so later on! Cool! :)
As Goldman points out, Blogger now allows removal of pictures from the servers. When you go to delete a post with pictures, Blogger will give you a list of the pictures uploaded in relation to that post, so that you can remove them! :)

- This post will not be furthur updated. I was away for too long, and have lost track. Please keep track of Freshblog and Bloggeratto for the latest updates -

The great Blogger relaunch, part deux!

2006-08-15T03:50:00.000-07:00

Haha! Google is doing is again, and this time, its got me laughing all the way into the sunset! :) When was the last time you saw a product go into Beta after being launched, twice! :-P But heck, I'm really not complaining!

I have been out the whole day today because of Independence Day (happy I-Day to my Indian readers), and when I checked my mails about 10 mins back, I was bombarded by the news! Blogger has gone back to Beta, and they're pipelining many features which I'm dying to tell you about. Chances are you've already read them either on Bloggeratto or Freshblog, but I'm just going to get my excitement out here! :)

The features cometh

So, the new features that Blogger is now offering in limited release are as follows:

THE BIG KAHUNA!!: Yes! The categories are finally here!! Wohoo! Ofcourse, they're called labels. I'm sure Avatar is fuming somewhere in his house right about now! Hehe! But atleast now we have native categories. No more hacking for categories!
Drag and Drop Template editor: Now you see where the Google Pages trick comes in. People who've been using it will be familiar with this new way of designing your template, and new comers will be surprised at the simplicity by which they can now design their templates.
Privatise your blog: You can now seriously limit who can see your blog. Earlier privatising methods could fail, but now there is little chance that they will! Yay for private blog owners! (like me! :D) You can add members the normal way, and also decide your viewers by their e-mail address.
Feeded the future: Take a hike all you coComments and the likes, Blogger now offers native feeds of all comments on a blog, or comments per posts. This should also remove a few hacks that people have been coming up with.
Dashboard revamp: The dashboard is now going to look sleeker and more attractive. Thats good, because people will atleast not cringe everytime they have to look at it! :) The most used commands are now a click away!
No more spinning: I'm tired of seeing the spinner every time something is loading, so now Blogger has removed it. Not saying they removed it for me! :) I've yet to test it out, but I hope they've managed to AJAXify it!

The martyrs

Ofcourse, as I predicted, this would mean the death of countless hacks. Comment Feeds and Categories are ones I can mention off the top of my head. The new template editor now takes Psycho Template Editor out of the equation. How's that for picking off services Google style! ;)

Ok, so now I'm off to try out the new Blogger, and don't worry. As they say, everybody will get it soon enough. I guess we now know exactly what Blogger had been doing with the downtimes and the server crashes. Enjoy yourself guys, the revolution has begun! Happy Independence Day!

Google planning server farm in India

2006-08-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

Going through the newspaper this morning, I came across this article which said that Google might set up a server farm in the country soon. This would be Google's 7th server farm worldwide, and 2nd in Asia (the first one being in Taiwan, after a deal with India didn't fall through). It's a good thing that Google is finally looking at India as a potential market, especially after the Google China fiasco. As the article states, Google has been very 'cagey' about its deals and plans. There is no photography allowed in their farms. It's because of this nature of Google that its hard to confirm anything until the first brick is laid. The approximate cost of the data centre will be 1 Billion US dollars.

This ofcourse does mean that searches will become faster for us. Not that they weren't fast before, but it'll reduce Google's costs as well :P Also, this might be the initial scent of things to come for India, like extending Google Local to Indian territories, and probably allow India to browse through Google Proxies? There are a lot of possibilities when there is a native server farm in the country. This move comes hot on the heels of a sudden boom in the rise of the number of internet users in the country. With big and small players alike, the costs have come down significantly and hence, many more people can afford it now.

Google has had a presence in the market as much as organising annual code making/breaking competitions in Bangalore, in which thousands of hopefuls participate. The winner is given an opportunity to join Google and work for them. Google has been synonymous with search mainly in our country, since none of the other features have managed to get localised. In fact, Yahoo! has managed to enter the markets Google should have, by offering services through mobile phones, in a tie up with Nokia. Microsoft has only had a mild promotion of their Windows XP Media Centre edition.

This step in by Google will surely alert the other players, and push them that much closer to moving here. This is only better and better for India, as the world recognises India as a market just waiting to be tapped. :)

And yes, happy anniversary to the PC. It was today, in 1981/82 that the first PC was unveiled by IBM! :)

Resources

Google will set up server farm in India

An IDE is what we need!

2006-08-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

Web development has been a hot area for quite a while now. Slowly and steadily, there are people coming from all parts of society to try their hand at it to suit their individual needs. For example, us bloggers are constantly on the lookout for an idea or an application which would help us extend the threshold of limitations we face due to various reasons. Web Applications have become as integral to our daily internet experience as the Web browser. Anything that is programmed to do a certain thing is an App! Think, how many of those today!

Why aren't there more?

The biggest problem is resources. There are many people I know who are as talented as heck, but don't have enough resources to show off their skills and develop what they have in mind. Take Stephen here for example. He's today easily at the forefront of lightweight application development, and was recently acknowledged for the same. If you read that interview, you'd see how important the fact that Ning was free, was. If it was like other services, and charged from the ground up, we would probably have never seen a Stephen. Well, not until he got enough resources at least!

So, why should only people with the money be allowed to be counted among the cream of web developers? Any serious developer takes pains to learn their language and then apply it. That should be reason enough for them to be given the suitable conditions and resources to allow them to write and program the way they want to.

The helping hand

We need more services like Ning, which tackle various aspects of Web Development, and offer everything which a prospective developer might need. All the person now needs to bring, is the knowledge and skills. Thats not such a small thing to bring, but atleast a person like that won't be hardpressed for resources to make what they want to.

Even if the developer just has one thing to contribute, there's nothing to say that someone else won't use that to start something new. This is where Ning excels, by offering the ability to clone apps and use them. Ofcourse, Ning hasn't been utilised properly ever since its entered the market except by a few handful of people. But its those handfuls who might make tomorrow's next killer application, with the skills they develop and gain by working on small apps at Ning.

A playground of geeks

A repository of modules, ready to use widgets, blocks of code, classes, methods ... in short all the resources that a developer could need is what is going to be probably the next big area for companies to tackle. An Integrated Development Environment for the web will be the next bookmarking/tagging phenomenon. Atleast, it should be. There is nothing to lose from this, only lots and lots of gains.

The only resources that a service like this needs is lots and lots of space and a decent amount of bandwidth. We know that Yahoo! and Google are both in the best spot to launch a service like this of their own, or probably acquire one and give it the boost it needs.

Create the ultimate playground for geeks to thrash about in, and they'll come aplenty. There are ideas just waiting for a stage with the right equipment. One of them, might revolutionise the internet again, who knows!

Resources

A Chat with Stephen Paul Weber
Ning

The modern revolution

2006-08-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

I remember once someone said, 'The beast is waking', talking about Microsoft and sudden spat of changes that have undergone. I'm being very optimistic when I try to say something like that for our very dear and beloved Blogger. It all started with a series of upgrades as pointed out by the Blogger Status blog. We knew something was happening, but couldn't point to anything except them trying to upgrade it from ageing servers.

But with the latest development, the signs are too many to ignore! As I said in my comment over at Phydeaux3, I really do think the plans have started, or are very close to begin rolling. As Avatar points out in his post:

Because a lot of creativity is put at work when thinking about categories that is still the number one feature that blogger lacks and cannot provide at this time because not having enough server power at the disposal of the blogger platform so it can get upgraded as it should. the Blogger System it is now in constant upgrading and tweaking, some features come and go without no one noticing them, and other are still waiting their moment.

On the road to Blogger 2.0

I am keeping that belief that soon we'll be seeing back to back launches of features within Blogger. My theory is that Google realizes that its neglected its most widely used service for too long, and others have overtaken it long back. With MSN Spaces Live going, well, live today; Google is going to begin upping the pace of upgrades, while trying to keep a low profile (like it always has) until the day of launch!

Keep your eyes peeled to the horizon! You won't wanna miss the new dawn!

Asynchronous Backlinks!

2006-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

If you remember, quite a while back I had posted about Static content vs. Dynamic Content. In that post, I had tried to give an example as to what would make good dynamic content. Something that needs asynchronocity to be useful. If you don't remember, well, let's jog your memory a little.

We must try to seperate the things which need to be loaded on the fly, and things which should allow the viewer to be taken to a seperate page. I'm going to restrict myself to the blog environment, since I'm most familiar with use of asychronocity in blogs. In blogs, things which should be loaded asynchronously are the things which are secondary to the primary data. For example, related posts. It'd be perfectly logical to load a post which is related the one a viewer is currently reading, so that he can read it in context, rather than load it in a seperate page and take it out of context. This is a tremendoes usability upgrade, since all the information is available to the viewer without the need to switch pages. The same logic is followed in Heads Up Displays (HUD ). This does increase productivity, since it takes away a lot of clicks and keypresses.

So you see the example of making backlinks asynchronous? :) Yes! That was an idea back then, which I wanted to work on. But being as lazy as I am, never got around to it. But since then, I've been fiddling around with AJAX for my Native Search Suggestions and hence have gotten a good understanding of how it works and how to make it work. So, now I'll reveal my Asynchronous Backlinks! :)

Introduction

This is not to be confused with Recursive Backlinks by Greg. That has a completely different purpose, though is asynchronous too. AB works to make browsing backlinked posts faster, especially if they're from the same blog. Actually, only if they're from the same blog. This works great for someone like me who links back to his own posts a lot. If you don't link to your own posts, then this is definitely not for you. The reason is because the hack is limited by rules of AJAX. I can't access content from sites not on my domain. I could PHP my way around it, but I think its not fair to steal clicks and hits away from someone elses site that way.

Ok, so you like what you see? Want to try it out first? Here's a good page to try it out on. Native Blog Search. That is one the most linked to pages on this blog. Check out the backlinks, try all of them, and keep an eye to the bottom right of your screen. You'll see what I mean! :P

You wanna implement it now? Cool! :)

Implementation

Start by getting yourself a copy of Prototype.js. You're going to need this. Host it yourself (Google Pages is a fantastic way to do so!), or you can grab the one off Jscripts. I'll try and keep that updated, but don't count on it. Once you do that, add these lines in (I take the Jscripts script by default) as indicated

To the <head> area, and

function showResponse(output){
var main = output.responseText;
var s = main.indexOf('');
var e = main.indexOf('');
var out = main.slice(s,e); // Only the post to be written
out = out.replace('[Double click the box to close]</p>";
$('aload').style.display="block"
}

function showFailure(){
$('aload').innerHTML="The page either cannot be loaded or there has been an error. Please double click the link to be taken to the requested page";
$('aload').style.display="block"
}
/* `````````````````` EO ABL ````````````````````` */`
</script>

After the </body> of your template. Now find your <$BlogItemBody$> tag, and replace that with

Done? Good, thats a lot of work done! :) Now, find the code for your backlinks. People have different codes for their backlinks, so I won't ask you to put any lines in. Just alter them. Add an onclick="req('<$BlogBacklinkURL$>" statement to the link which points to the backlink URL, and change the href to make it point to #. Add a <div id="aload"></div> wherever you want to show the output. Thats it! You're done! Need an explanation? Ok!

Explanation

The first thing you have to pay attention to is the two commented statements that you've wrapped your post body tag with. They are used by the script to detect exactly which part to print out. You can use any other line or code to demarkate, but remember, it should be unique. If it clashes with anything before its intended target, you'll get a messed up output.

That is all that is there to it really. The script just makes an AJAX call to the page pointed to by your backlink. If its in your domain, the returned text is filtered out and shown to you. You can add script.aculo.us effects like I have to make it more appealing, but that is all there is to it really! Too simple for you? Go ahead, expand it, lets see what you can come up with! :)

One page to help them all!

2006-07-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

Its about time Google slowly started catering to the people out there who are hounding message boards, forums, help groups and blogs trying desperately to get some ounce of help regarding their problems!

Google announced a lord of the help pages, which has help topics to every service that they provide. This place will be a haven for those who are sick of hunting around the place looking to get help. Ofcourse, every service has had its Help link in the top-right, in perfect Google style in the past. But this one will link to all of them from one page itself. Kinda like consolidating everything.

Google's blog post:

Those of us in user support had a pet peeve: there was no single place that held all of Google's help information at your fingertips. So we decided to build one -- and now you can visit Google Help to find tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions for just about every Google product and service. We don't want you to have to work hard to find anything, so we also added an A-Z guide in case you do know exactly what you're looking for.

From the Support page you can also visit the Help Center of your choice to discover answers to frequently asked questions and link to our interactive help groups to discuss various features with other Google users. So remember to keep google.com/support handy, and enjoy.

Although there is no added relief for Blogger users, since the Blogger help link on that page links back to the Beige, Blue and Orange help pages that we've come to despise here at Blogger. So still the contact e-mail for Blogger eludes us! But I guess they are not going to give out one because they know how much e-mail they'll have to deal with if they do :-P That's not much of a problem! If you have a problem not listed, you can always drop in at the Blogger Help Group, and someone will be very glad to help you! :) Give the support page a visit! It's dying to help you... :)

Resources

Google Support
Blogger Help Group
Google Blog Announcement

Is Dvorak for real?

2006-07-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

I was just reading through this article on the PC Magazine's site but John C. Dvorak, some hotshot blabber mouth about how he thinks CSS, very politely, sucks! The more I read, the more I was laughing to myself, and although I have no two hoots about making this a rant post, I am personally very tired of people writing or being opinionated about something they very clearly have no clue about!

Why CSS bugs him?

Because he's an idiot. As simple as that. He tries to base his argument on the fact that every browser interprets CSS differently, and hence its not really standard. Well, I guess someone forgot to introduce him to a little something we have had going on for two years now called the Browser Wars! Duh! Every browser does interpret it differently, and thats why every one of them is not W3C standards compliant. Opera comes close, but still doesn't hit 100%. Firefox and IE7 are a long shot, but they're getting there slowly!

His other argument (and this one really cracked me up!) was this. I'd like to quote him just so that people don't say I cheated:

The first problem is the idea of "cascading." It means what it says: falling—as in falling apart. You set a parameter for a style element, and that setting falls to the next element unless you provide it with a different element definition. This sounds like a great idea until you try to deconstruct the sheet. You need a road map. One element cascades from here, another from there. One wrong change and all hell breaks loose. If your Internet connection happens to lose a bit of CSS data, you get a mess on your screen.

ROFLMAOOL!! Next thing which you can expect him to say is that he will not write HTML markup, because if he misses one closing tag, the whole thing will fall apart, or maybe that he'll never code a program for more than a 100 lines, because if he misses a colon, he'll get mucked! That brings me back to my title ... is Dvorak for real?

Everyone loses here, from users who can't understand why things look screwy, to developers who can't get CSS to do the job right, to baffled content providers. And what's being done about it? Nothing! Another fine mess from the standards bodies.

Baffled content providers? Mess from the standards bodies? Right! I don't know what third grade content providers he has been in touch with who can't get CSS to work because really, its one of the easiest things. You just need practice. And there is nothing wrong with the standards. That's why they are the standards. Don't blame the W3C, blame the browsers who refused to stick to them!

The best there is

CSS is making it big quite rapidly, with the W3C just recently releasing a draft of the new properties its going to include in CSS3. It's an exciting time for people like us, who (unlike Dvorak) know what we do, and what every change can do for us! CSS is probably the best thing to happen to the field of web designing. It makes life so much simpler when you have to design tons of pages for one web-site!

Let's not bad mouth such a good thing now, shall we? If it wasn't for CSS, the internet would be much less beautiful, and more like the roadkill outside your front door! Just that an article like this appearing on a respected site's page, throws me a little off!

Resources

Why CSS Bugs Me - PC Magazine Article
Digg Article - Read the people's comments
W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium

Indian blogs blocked!

2006-07-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

All blogs have been restored except for the ones that they were initially trying to block. Since Airtel was the last to block, I'm guessing they're the last to restore, which means all other ISPs would have fixed all of it by now! If your blog viewing isn't up and running, give a call to your ISP! Happy blogging!

This is crazy! Till yesterday, I could see my blog and all other blogs on Blogspot perfectly, and when Phydeaux3 pointed out a Blogger Help Discussion Topic about how many people from India were unable to open the domain Blogspot, I confirmed that I still could, and hence it was only ISP specific. Obviously not. As of this morning and of making this post, I can't see my blog, Phydeaux3 or Bloggeratto. ~~A well known redirecter, PKblogs too seems to have been taken down~~ Its working again! I tried it out at 4:15 PM IST, thanks to Effendi!.

The Reason

The reason out is that the government is trying to crack down on terrorist blogs, and this is only temporary. They have sent out notices to the ISPs asking them to block out those domains for the time-being, while they can sort it out. Someone at digg who took the initiative to find out has put up:

Two sources, one inside the Government of India and the other kind of inside/outside have confirmed to the Mutiny, that ISPs are being instructed to 'control' access to blogspot. It seems that some blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate.

There is a crack down in place. IP numbers are being physically located and identified. All should come back to normal once this operation is over. There is no ban in place. Livejournal and Wordpress have been spared. No reason given.

Now I know you are not going to believe this, so I'm going to quote what she said, "This operation is limited to certain parts of India. Bloggers in Andaman, Nicobar and Lakhsadeep islands are not affected." I thought she was joking but I didn't hear the reciprocal laughter from the other end of the phone line.

Their reasons seem fair enough, but at the end of the day, you have to wonder how this helps India continue the run up to their campaign for Right To Information act recently introduced.

Democracy and RTI

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking

Apparently, there are more ways than one in which the RTI act is taking hit. Now, the blocked blogs creates a furthur sense of hypocrisy when you hear those little public service advertisements asking us to wake up to a new India. Is this is how a democracy runs? By blocking content and not saying a word about it to anyone?

Sure, I understand that anything that goes public goes to the terrorists out there too, who are (supposedly) the targets in this sudden spat of idiosyncracy. But maybe a word to us would have atleast let us know what is happening. The RTI act seems to be failing miserably, as is the democracy in the biggest democracy in the world.

We have nothing to do right now but wait for this to pass, because as they have said, it'll pass eventually. Since the main domain has been blocked, no RSS feeds or content will get through to anyone. Thankfully for everyone, I use Feedburner (which thankfully has access to Blogspot) and hence if you subscribe to my feed, you can continue to get updates whether the blog is blocked or not!

I shall keep updating this post as the developments continue!

[Update]:: The block is slowly being lifted now! Apparently it was a gross misunderstanding on the part of the ISPs, or they were just trying to suck up a bit too well! Here's Avatar's article

[Update]: PKblogs is back up for us! Although, I'd still suggest The Cloak

Native Search, now with Suggestions!

2006-07-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

I really don't know what to say about this! Definitely a much needed upgrade to the now age-ing hack, this spanned out of someone giving me an offhand feedback (I don't remember at the moment who it was, but thanks!). I managed to work it up because of my latest fascination with PHP and Ning. But just to make things clear, I am not releasing this as a public hack. This is to add functionality on this blog, a feature showcase that it can be done and to show a few people that hackers are still ahead! :)

Native Search Suggest is to Native Search for Google Suggest is to Google search. It feeds off people using it on the blog, and becomes more useful the more it's used. As you start typing your search terms, a list of matching search terms will pop up that people have been searching for on the blog, which you can select using your cursor keys or mouse. In time, I'll add the display of frequency of searches made per term as well. That should tell you which are the most hot terms on the blog! :) Terms which don't return any results are not suggested, and any additions are reflected immediately! Suggestions are sorted by frequency of their use (thanks to Stephen for the code!)

I was quite surprised when Google didn't include a suggest in their AJAX Search API, and well, I'm an impatient guy. So I decided to add it for myself. That makes it Google AJAX Search 0 - 1 Native Search! I must admit, I'll release this as a hack if enough people request it, because it'll need some extra bit of work which I won't put in unless I see people interested.

Effects courtesy of Script.aculo.us by Thomas Fuchs, and Ning for hosting my PHP. Go ahead, give it a whirl!

I love Macs, but...

2006-07-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

You hear it everyday from people. There are countless debates about it throughout the Internet, with people literally dishing out all they have at the other to prove their point and make it seem a better argument. Industry leaders are divided on their opinions, yet they remain neutral to not give too much away. There are fanatics that come in hordes to overwhelm anyone brave enough to raise a voice against the white glass fruit, but still, why the do the double digits elude the ones with the undisputed better operating system?

Misconceptions that plagueth

Today, everybody is using the computer. And they are using it in more than one ways. Computers are such an integral part of people's

Microsoft still thinks semi-transparent windows are cool!

lives, that they don't realise what will happen to them if it crashes and they lose every bit of data that it holds. Ask me, someone who is not new to crashes. I literally stop talking to people for a whole day, lock myself in my room. Yes, those are pseudo withdrawal symptoms, but thats besides the point. The point is that being empowered by computers, there are many who think they really know everything they need to know to make an educated decision regarding their computer.

Unfortunately, that's not true. To prove it, ask anyone what they know about Apple and their Operating System, OS X. If you're not greeted with the astounded 'Apple has an operating system?', then 99/100 times they'll tell you that Apple's OS X is meant for graphic designers. Strange, isn't it? Apart from their record shattering iPod sales, people barely know what all Apple to offer. Being the only mainstream (Linux is not that mainstream yet) which offers such high levels of scripting capabilities (AppleScript), OS X is still considered a designer's computer. Its saddening.

Fewer people will know that Apple actually invented the concept of an Operating System! Yep! News to you? *Phsshhhh*

Trying to find information for this post, I bumped into a forum topic which makes a lot of the points that I'd want to make. Misconceptions reign supreme that if people switch, there are going to be major compatibility issues, and it'll hamper their working. Hehe! They couldn't be more wrong. Macs make working so simple, that you'd really not want to go back to working on a Windows machine. You just need an initial handy guide that can give you the information you can use. Here's a good resource to try out if anything till here in this post has fired you up! Remember switching to Firefox? Didn't you hesitate? There are going to be a few cobwebs, for sure. But once you get the hang of it, you'll see your productivity increase!

The industrial handicap

Apple didn't realize the potential of their product when they invented it. Unfortunately, Gates did. Thats why today Windows stands industry preferred Operating System, when very clearly, OS X is a better OS. Every bench mark test, head-to-head comparison table points the same way. But because Windows got there first, and captivated audiences first, they've managed to keep ahead of the competition.

Jobs tried and succeeded (to a limit) to put Apple on the map, but the backlog created is too big for one man to do it alone. People slowly need to be awakened to what Macs really are, and what they can actually do. Now with Apple allowing dual boots, people will be more open to trying to change their OS of choice, since they don't lose anything if they don't like OS X.

These are simple strategies that they seem to be adopting to battle the biggest example of an industrial handicap you'll see faced by a clearly better product. The most I can do is argue the point wherever it comes up. But Microsoft fan boys always have one argument that seems to negate everything. 95% of the computers on Earth run on Windows. Who knows, the Alien mother ship which might invade Earth in a century from now will be running Windows Vista? (Which means its prone to viruses! Hehe!)

The last word

There's no vendetta against anyone here. Its a simple fact that drives the argument. If you can get something better, then why not? I'll be switching the day I start earning, but till then I'll have to continue using Windows machines I guess. I hope to get a Powerbook, or a Macbook Pro after I graduate from college! :) I hope to turn over a few people in that span!

Resources

Apple's share of the apple and how a small number is not a bad thing, since Apple is a brand. Dell has a share of 5%, so how bad is 3.9%?
Tiger Review by a convert
Macs in the workplace
Apple OS X
Crash course in switching

Where go the hacks?

2006-07-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

As Avatar points out that he knows a little more than all of us regarding all the new features that Blogger has in store for us, and believe me, this really is a much needed stint of upgrades for Blogger. It's good to see that Google has finally diverted its attention to the now ageing blogging platform. The native support of comment editing via the dashboard sure does punch Jasper's script in the gut, and as Phydeaux3 (in the comments) noted, it looks strikingly similar to the userscript implementation. There can be a few inferences from this, but I really like to be cynical, since it helps me to extend my post beyond one paragraph.

Is Blogger slowly starting to wipe out hacks, in preparation for some big close down on such freedom regarding customization of one's blog?

As it is now

Blogger currently boasts of the greatest customizability of all the other blogging platforms. Blogger literally opens itself to any sort of hackery and implementation that one might think up of. This makes Blogger the choice platform for the high end power users. You'll find some of the brightest and most creative coders using Blogger. This is good! A blog is meant to be personal, and what better way than to give full freedom to the users. The pitfall is just a simple navbar on top, which can (legally) be removed by hosting on your own domain or FTP server.

It lacks a few features which has become a necessity over the past few years, but there are hackers popping every day who are trying to bridge that gap as well with their elite scripts and codes. Blogger never stops us using those, even if it means we max out their servers sometimes trying to test them out, or implementing them!

How much easier and better can it get?

What they are trying

Slowly as Blogger roles out the new features like categories (the biggest hacking area for us hackers), a lot of hacks will go out of use. We'll then have to try and think up of new ways of doing things, and if there is something Blogger has missed out, script our way around it. Of course, nothing can truly wipe out scripters and hackers, since a power platform such as Wordpress itself has countless hacks, it will surely make hacking a little less fun since many of the features which saw our creativity being tested to the limit, will get implemented natively!

This will be the situation which I am predicting people like Avatar will be waiting for. It will soon become a playground for the thinkers, rather than the coders. In the 6-7 months that I've been coding, I've come to realize that if you can think it, you can code it. The key word being think. There is much more value in the market for thinkers rather than slogging programmers.

Blogger is slowly trying to rope in the majority of the crowd by making itself rich with the features which are now taken for granted in every blogging platform, but in the process, its also turning the tide of what we perceive as a power user today!

I'm still standing!

2006-07-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Unlike Avatar, I have received no e-mails or comments asking me where the hell I am! Yet, I just wanted to put this up and let the people know that I am not dead! I am just a little busy with pre-college preperations, spending time with friends and the general mid-year crisis. I know I might have presented views on plans on taking a hiatus from blogging, especially with college starting in a month and a half, but I have since back-tracked on those plans. I realised blogging and hacking is a part of me that won't die! :)

So for the moment, this is just a temporary lean period, that promises to go away the moment I'm in college, and in the groove of things! Though I am going to reduce the frequency of posts, to keep them particularly on topic and full of useful information, and only when I really need to say something about something! :) (Or a hack release here and there)

So thats all! Thanks for the support (or just hanging on to my feed! :P)

Blogger Hacking :: Going Multiple

2006-07-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of the neatest things you can do with your blog. Include all of them on the same page! COOOOOL!!

Okay, seriously! This the perfect way of integrating all your blogs into one page. Having different columns for your different blogs. Not overdoing it by including all your 10 blogs on the same page, you can use this method to have a column for your Personal blog, with (say) your Cookery blog, and your Tech blog. Not many people try and use this, and that is why I wanted to just bring it up.

Blogger documentation

Yes! Blogger Help has a documentation about integrating your Blogger blogs into one place. Although the methods it has given, doesn't seem to work since I have tried them in the past. It says to include just the basic post format and then the one of the four lines based on your blogs configuration. However, none of them have worked for me, so I decied to provide my own methods of including multiple blogs with your mail blog.

Framing your blogs

The easiest and ugliest way to include multiple blogs is to include them in frames, or slightly neater, IFrames. The problem with IFrames being that browser compatibility is low, and they're virtually un-style-able (woo!! a new word! :D). The advantages being you can include any page in the IFrame and you can make all your changes to the blog seperately without affecting the display of your main blog.

I personally don't recommend this method, but its a good one to keep in mind.

Digest 'em feeds

This one is the easiest and almost perfect way of including a second blog. Just use Feeddigest's feed syndication to convert the feed of that blog to HTML, and then display it on your page. The advantages with this being that you need virtually no coding knowledge, and all your settings can be set automatically by Feeddigest for you. The look can be perfectly styled, and suited to your blog.

The downer being that unless you're paying for Feeddigest, your digest will not get updated that often. Hence, updates to your (side)blog will not show up immediately. It completely depends on the Feeddigest server. Also, their system is known to go down once in a while (due to upgrades or overload, or whatever reason they can throw at us). If you want immediate updating, this is the closest thing you can do to going manual and giving yourself the ultimate power, which brings me to my final method.

Going manual

The best (if you're a power user) and most effective way to display posts from your other blogs on your main blog, is to take matters into your own hands. You can burn your ATOM into an RSS using Feedburner, and then use Stephen's fantastic XOXOTools to conver it to JSON. Then using a simple script, write it out on your page. Their is only one downfall, which is easy to avoid. You will need to code the script which writes out the data in the JSON. You could do that yourself, or ask someone (even me!) to write it out for you.

The advantages, on the contrary are major. You have complete control of whatever's happening. The display, positioning, styling, linking ... everything! The display is updated almost immediately (or as soon as Feedburner updates, which is very quick). This method is used to set up the "Latest Updated" (in the sidebar). I just leave out the post content, and display the titles for it. So you have a taste of what it can be like!

Having multiple blogs on one page really works to create awareness of your other stuff around the web, and helps you micromanage them properly. So go ahead, try it! :)

Digg 3.0! Amore!

2006-06-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of the Slashdot redesign, the newest version of digg is out, and I have just one simple word for it! Amazing!! This is nothing close to the Slashdot update, which did as much for them as cosmetic surgery does for your brains. The new interface is not only much more organised, they have finally got their RSS feeds all sorted out (previously they all pointed to headlines from the main page). Many more options to narrow down news articles to exactly what you want to read, and the oh-so-sweet new digg Spy tool which auto-updates to show you digg working, live! You can see stories being updated, commented and rated in real time, which is practically every second!

Absolutely stunning!

This is absolutely how you upgrade the most read site on the Internet. Digg is now faster, and doesn't kill my Firefox when kept open for more than 10 minutes. Its looks beautiful, with simple shades of yellow, blue, silver, smoke white and the likes. CSS and Javascript being top notch, I didn't get more than 4 errors from Firebug.

It's actually become one of those pages which you'd want to constantly keep opened in a tab. Add it to the list of GMail and Netvibes. I'm going to do that the moment I get my new laptop! I need to take a breath! *Phoo!!*

Ok! Starting again! :-P I have not been able to find (in my brief skimming through their pages) for an official feature list or a changelog of any kind. Although, people who've kept up with the update would have tracked down The Digg Blog which opened with the launch of the new version. Here is someone really catching on the wave for a free ride. Keep a look out for that blog rising up the charts.

As you can see, I have only praises for the new digg. Perfect example of how to improve on perfection! Great work fella's! You've been dugg!

Blogger Hacking :: Taming the META

2006-06-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of those things that are right in front of you, but you don't see its use. When we start out to make web pages, the first thing that we're told as a way to optimize it is to use <meta> tags. These tags virtually contain the data that you want to feed to search engines and any other application which quickly skims through your page to find the relevant details. All algorithms give priorities to <meta> tags and the details held in them. So, how does that account towards your blog?

Blogger default

Blogger in itself provides us with the <$BlogMetaData$> smart tag, which when inserted generates all the necessary meta content for your blog. Remember filling up the title, description and what nots when making your blog? Yes, those get translated to code here! This is all good, but the problem is, this gives Blogger the upper hand as it predecides some things when generating those details. Why not take back your META content and truly show your blog the way you want it to be shown?

Hacking the META

If you are using a pre-designed Blogger template, chances are its meta content comes from Blogger using the smart tag. If you view the source markup of your main page, you'll see that the <$BlogMetaData$> is replaced with a bunch of code that looks something like this:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" />
<meta name="generator" content="Blogger" />

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="" />
<link href="" rel="image/x-icon">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="f" type="image/x-icon">

<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" title="" href="" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="" />

the Yep! Now you know where that came from. Its these lines that we're going to be fiddling around with to get them to hold the data we want them to hold. The first three lines should be left as they are. They are of no immediate concern. The first line is very important, as it will allow foreign characters to be displayed correctly on your blog. So leave these lines be.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" />
<meta name="generator" content="Blogger" />

The next line decide the address of your feed which is passed to applications.

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="?" />

If you use Firefox or Opera, you'd have noticed the feed icon pop up in the address bar to the extreme right on blogs, which you can click to add Live Bookmarks. Where do you think Firefox gets to know where to find your feed? Yep! It's here! Why not change it to point to your Feedburner feed, and get all the benefits they have to offer?

These two contain the URL to the Favicon which you can use. Follow that link to find out more.

<link href="?" rel="image/x-icon">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="?" type="image/x-icon">

The last two lines should be left as they are as well. You should copy them straight from the ones generated by Blogger. ~~I don't know what they do, but I doubt they're not important.~~ As pointed out by Phydeaux3 in the comments, the two lines in question (link rel="service.post" and link rel="EditURI") are necessary for ATOM discovering. They point third party apps to the ATOM API so that they know where to post! :) These lines are generated by the same smart tag, but are not a part of the meta content. Since you aren't using your smart tag anymore, its better to add these in:

<style type="text/css">
    @import url("http://www.blogger.com/css/blog_controls.css");
    @import url("http://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?blogID=21610108");
</style>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.blogger.com/js/backlink.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.blogger.com/js/backlink_control.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript">?</script>

The last line will again be blog specific, hence you'll have to copy it from your blog's source upon page load.

Ofcourse, if anything messes up, you can always include that one itsy-bitsy tag in place of all this, and you'll be back on your way. Meta content can really make or break a pages ranking and visibility. So make sure yours are good and really explain your blog well. My meta content being the way it is, if you search for Aditya Mukherjee, my blog will show on the front page, which is good! :) So you can see how well they work!

So go ahead! Try it out!

Blogger Hacking

2006-06-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

I'll be starting a series of Blogger hacking tutorials, which don't deal heavily with codes, but just a conceptual look into how you can tame your own blog to do your bidding. Included will be the various things that I've learnt while making this blog, and being around blogs for a while. The to-do's and to-don't's of creating and maintaining a blog.

I'll try and throw in a couple of hacks here and there, the ones with code. Note that these hack tutorials will not be consecutive. You'll get to know by the title of the post. I'll also be adding a new category for them, so you can subscribe to just these posts as well! I hope to be able to give up most of my knowledge about blogging and optimizing before I leave. I realised its better to teach people how to do something rather than throw a bunch of codes at them and telling them to put it in their templates.

So stay tuned! :)

The 'World Cup' cometh to Firefox!

2006-06-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a little late, and people probably know about this much before this post! But I just had to show off my recent tryst with Joga Companion for Firefox, and the beautiful makeover its given to my browser of choice!

The immediate visible changes are:

The super-cool theme added to the native Firefox theme, which can be changed from the top right to suite the country you're supporting! (Yes! Its England all the way for me! :D)
The status bar updater, which will update you on the latest score from the matches as they happen live.
The sidebar (not in screenshot), which contains recently updated news and material from the Joga site.

Many people probably will use Footiefox, since their comparison chart clearly shows it being faster. But I am a design guy, and I want my browser to look the best it can. Joga definitely does that for me. Plus, it's only 2 minutes (on an average) late in giving updates. Thats not too much of a loss of time, and its from Google and Nike! What more could one ask for! :)

World up, foxed out!

Microsoft teams up with Creative Commons

2006-06-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

Enough ranting about Google and SPAM and what not! Now for some really good news! I'm going to make it sound like a reporter from the news at 9:

In an unforeseen move, Microsoft today declared a team up with the copyright licenses of Creative Commons, hence furthur empowering the already majorly used alternative to the license of All Rights Reserved. They have announced The copyright licensing tool will be available free of charge at Microsoft Office Online, http://office.microsoft.com, and CreativeCommons.org. The tool will enable the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to select one of several Creative Commons licenses from within the specific application. ^(citation)

Ok! So what does this mean for us people? It simply means that this will extend to people who don't know about it, and hence don't take measures to safegaurd what is rightfully theirs. We all know how much people use Microsoft Office, and with the new 2007 that userbase will only increase. Hence, this is one of the best ways to get it out to people, but integrating it directly in the applications so that they don't have to go hunting around to decide which license to use.

Creative Commons licenses can already be used in legal copyright battles, and the more people that use it, the better it will be. There have been views against the use of Creative Commons licenses, and its been said that "while nice in spirit and generally about sharing, still brings law to code, and even if that is just about proper attribution, it raises barriers."

“Microsoft’s openness in working with the Creative Commons is a very exciting because an author can now easily embed licenses to creative works during the process of innovation,” said Ian Angell, professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics (LSE). “This is an important step in ensuring that each individual becomes aware of his or her own intellectual property rights — and those of others. We at the LSE are keen to work with Microsoft toward empowering the ‘creators of intellectual wealth’ to become more involved in its commercial use.” The LSE partners with Creative Commons to drive Creative Commons license adoption and awareness in England and Wales.

This is a very good step taken by Microsoft, after a very long time! :-P All doubts will get put to the side once people actually start to see the advantages of CC-ing their content and material. This is the next best thing to a take-over by Microsoft! :) Kudos!

Automatic Blogger Post Saver

2006-06-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

How many times has your browser session crashed, and you've managed to lose the post you've been working on for the last 2 hours; perfecting and decorating? Doesn't it just make you wanna throw your computer out of the window? Well, its happened to me quite a bunch of times. Being in India, the electricity just goes off without any notice, and since I don't have a UPS, everything goes in an instant. So I set out to find a way of auto-saving my posts as I type them out.

At first I thought of exploiting Blogger itself, but sending regular pings to their Save as Draft address with the post details, but unfortunately that didn't work, since I ended up tons of saved drafts. Apparently Blogger doesn't do a del.icio.us, i.e. look for an existing post with the posted details and overwrite that one. So, I needed a local solution. My recent trysts with greasemonkey is making me do weird things with it. Though this was supposed to be just for me, I thought "Oh well! What the heck!"

So, here I am releasing my home-made recipe for avoiding those pitfalls. Grab the script from userscripts.org, I'd like to call it Auto-save Last Blogger Post! :)

Usage

The script auto saves your posts content every 30 characters entered. This means that you will lose your old post if you write 30 characters of your new post, since the script will overwrite the previous posts content with the new content. This will add a Return Data link which you can use to retrieve your post. So no more getting worried about losing your posts! :)

Thanks to Shikha for giving it a small initial test ride and the feedback to give it a final tweak! :) Hope you guys enjoy it too!

[Update]: Using the Bon Echo pre-release tester for a couple of weeks now, I've realized that the in-built session saver saves text-area content and forms as well. That feature makes this a little redundant, but this can be further extended now that the basic functionality has been established! :)

Something for everyone!

2006-06-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

It was a little while back that a post cropped up on Bloggeratto which explained the difference between a blog, a website, and a (cleverly invented word) blog-site. Yes, that was the time when Avatar was going crazy getting people's terminologies correct! :-P But that did make a lot of sense the third time I read it. It does sit up to explain something that I felt I should bring up here.

The niche blogs

There are all kinds of blogs in cyberspace. There are as many blogs as there are opinions by people. That is understandable because the whole aim of a blog was to allow the presentation of personal opinions. It wasn't long before themed blogs surfaced. These were the blogs which dealt with one (and only one) topic. Be it vague, or specific. Some of the best known themed blogs include Techcrunch, Particletree and many others (look up Technorati). Each one of them deals with just one topic. That is good. It manages to seperate out information for people to look up. Those interested in just one topic can bookmark these blogs, and they'll get most of the info they need without other nitbits creeping in.

The 'sell-out' blogs

That might be a harsh term to use, but they fit the description perfectly. These blogs apparently lack focus, and they exist just for the heck of presenting an opinion. It can have everything from personal rantings to the latest news in two consecutive posts. In short, something that can only be classified as light reading. If you're looking for information, these will the blogs you'll want to avoid. Many personal blogs and hobby blogs come under this. I'm not saying that these blogs are necessarily bad, but it does help me bring about the next point.

The crowd pleaser

Which of those blogs will pull in people? Or specifically, more people. There are people who browse blogs as a way to relax and get away from the daily grimes. But then again, there are ones like me who look to blogs to get personal opinions about the latest on fields of my interest. What answers that question is how many people of each kind are there. Two overlapping sets will give you a better picture in your head.

So, I'm going to open the floor for your opinions, as to which of them do you think really manages to pull people in and become a popular blog; in league with the likes of Techcrunch (78169 subscribers)?

Google results, spam king?

2006-06-19T03:59:00.000-07:00

I guess this had to pop out of its shell sooner than later. But the story dates back to the beginning of this year. If you haven't seen or heard it, in January of this year, Google reported a tremendous increase in the number of its indexed pages. Now, in the normal course of action, this would be brilliant news for any search engine. But slowly, people began to see inaccurate search results, with millions of hits! And TADA!!, we were woken up to Google's indexes bloated with SPAM.

There were articles in and out about how mad the web-masters were at Google because things were worse than usual.

Alarm usually accompanies changes to Google's algorithms, as the new rankings can cause websites to be demoted, or disappear entirely. But four months on from the introduction of "Big Daddy," it's clear that the problem is more serious than any previous revision - and it's getting worse.

That was noted by The Register, and there have been quite a lot of reports where people have complained that their sites either refuse to get indexed, or have been excommunicated by Google. Ofcourse, we've seen sites which have been removed on purpose, but these are not one of those. I have personally seen a few which have gotten indexed, only to get removed the next day. I guess the 'big daddy' update didn't go as planned!

Eric Shmidt (if you read that article at The Register) said that a 'certain large number of Google's servers are full', and that they're 'having huge machine crisis'. That is important to note, because we know how much bandwidth and online storage Google offers, distributed somewhat unevenly throughout their services. So if Google is having toubles, I doubt that other companies are far away.

But Google did buy a new set of algorithms from some Israeli fellow, which is called Orion, which caused quite a bustle within the search giants. I don't know how that has helped increased accuracy, but I guess its not been long enough. Google Operating System has a post about Google's toubles. And Ionut Alex did put up two links which were supposed to return spam results. Upon clicking them today however, they return nothing. There's a nice little screenshot showing the spam results. That can only mean that Google is working to clear SPAM from their servers. That's good news, right?

Ionut also noted that Yahoo! and MSN return very few pages from those spam URLs when searched for.

This is not good for Google. Especially since its been predicted that Google's dominance in searches will not last for long. They'll lead all right, but with a margin nowhere close to the one they have now. The others will catch up by the end of this year, unless Google starts to unveil things other than bombing online applications. Hoping better things from Google, soon!

[Update]: Cristian Streng found a version of a new design experiment for Google results pages. Every result is expandable, and, if expanded, Google shows an extended snippet, related links and important links from the site. Article at Google OS

Categorizing Helper Greasemonkey Script

2006-06-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what else to put it in! :P Anyway! This script comes to life because of two very simple reasons:

I'm a very lazy guy, who needs everything in front of him and should be able to do things with the least amount of movement,
I realised that if someone uses ABCI or d2b, or any one of the categorizing methods which use del.icio.us, it can get a little hard to remember what are the names of the categories.

Hence, here is a greasemonkey script which will solve the problem of categorising your posts. Not at del.icio.us (not yet atleast), but within Blogger itself. This scripts calls in your categories/tags from del.icio.us and displays them on your post create/edit pages so that you can simply click them, and they'll automatically get added to the Hybrid Link Field and if you use Johan's excellent Blogger/del.icio.us publisher and categorizer helper script, to that too!

So what are you waiting for? Grab the script from userscripts.org, and kiss a few mouseclicks byebye! :) As an added bonus, this script also changes the font in your post editor's Edit HTML tab. No more uglyness there!

Also, this is not all that's in for this script. I'll be updating it to add a lot of functionality, so do keep checking back! And yes, thanks once again to Stephen for his valuable inputs!

[Update 2]: Well, due to popular demand (and itchy hands), here's a firefox extension (Del.icio.us tags reference adder) which does the same thing as the userscript, just that the userscript will get updated most frequently, while the extension will only show big updates! Enjoy! Thanks to Avatar for the feedback (the popular demand I mentioned! :P) and hosting the extension!

[Update]: The script was doing something weird while trying to get the blogID number. I've fixed it! Kindly upgrade your scripts! :) Sorry for the inconvenience!

What works best?

2006-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

There's a discussion going on at Performancing about what really pulls in people to blogs. Whether its the link backs, or just plain and simple content. I have just come out of the stint of getting people to notice my blog, and now can boast a good readership in the 30s (Feedburner statistics). So I'd really like to give my two bits on this little topic that a lot of new blogger's ask. How do we pull people in to see our blog? But first, a little word on content vs. links!

Content Vs. Links

I believe links are a temporary way of getting people in when you start a blog. If you link to people and their posts, you'll see them come in to check what you wrote. However, you want them to come back, and keep coming back. For that, there's nothing better than content. Nobody wants to read something which is not good to read. It doesn't have to be a hot topic, or full of pictures of half naked girls (although those work brilliantly as well!). All it has to be is something that you know about. The person reading it should think that yes, this fellow knows something about what he's writing. Only then will they give any credit to your opinions and what you write.

Design / Look

I'll probably hear a few groans the moment I mention design. Yes! I am going at it again. The look and feel of your blog comes probably only second to the content. If things don't look right or with the right colours, few will give you feedback to change it. Others will simply ignore it. But there will be some who won't return. But it depends on the person. For example, for me the design plays a very important part for the blog. I'd never go to an ugly looking page. Most of the time if the content is good, I'll subscribe to its feed, but if there is no feed, I'd probably never go back to it.

I'm sure I don't think too differently than others.

Word of mouth / Advertising

This is something that works wonders if done right. Some shameless promoting wouldn't do you any harm. Write posts about whats currently going on, and then put links to them in related discussions. People always like new stuff, and chances are if they're coming all the way, they'll see more than just that one post. If they like what they see, they'll tell others about it (if they think its worth their time) which will bring in more people. Its not the best way to do things, but hey! It works! :)

The last word

Content is supreme when it comes to pulling in people, backed with a killer design and then some self promotion to just get the ball rolling. These are probably the best ways of bringing in people to a new blog, which promises a good read every now and then. Not every blog can be a Techcrunch, mind you. But nobody stopped you from trying!

100th Post!

2006-06-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

For my 100th post, I'd like to list out a few cosmetic changes that I've brought about in this blog, as well as the bunch of stuff that I've added that people might have missed/didn't know existed/don't know how to work.

Asynchronous Comment Form

The brilliant work from Stephen, the form is completely removes the comment page from the equation when it comes to adding comments. You only get to see it if there is an error. The new version includes a dynamic preview of the comment being written. You can give it a whirl here!

Native Blog Search

One of my proudest hacks! This gives you blog search results in your own blog, hence cutting out the ugly Google page completely. Every part of this hack can be adjusted and fine tuned by power users to meet their needs, but in its original form its a much needed departure from millions of clicks to get where you want to get. You can see it at work on the right in the sidebar (at the top), and you can grab its code from my post, Native Blog Search.

Hybrid Link Field

Use the link field for what it was meant to be used, and more! Now you can hold all sorts of data in there, and then output them as and when required. For the moment, it supports holding an external link and the categories a post is filed under. You can see it under the titles on every post. The "Posted Under:" is generated by the script. Grab its code here.

Colour system

I changed the colours to exclude all dark colours. Made it as calm as I could, while keeping the overall minimal aspect intact. You might not think its minimal, but anything less than this and I'd have to start removing features. The main colours on this blog are Steel Blue, White and Gray, with hints of Light Yellow. These being my favourite colours, will stay for a long time! Hope you find it a comfortable read!

Footer

I changed the colour and look of the footer because it was getting way too dark. I've switched to a more soothing blue and white combination after my last redesign. So I'm keeping the use of dark colours to an absolute minimum. It looks something like the Windows Vista Aero glass theme, but it wasn't inspired by that! Believe me! :)

Scriptaculous

My experiments with UI effects and animation drove me to use script.aculo.us. Its a Javascript effects library, which is cross browser and very easy to implement in your pages. You can see it working practically everywhere. Right from the search, to the categories and comments. Its truly a fantastic piece of work which you should definitely look to. A more powerful set of libraries is offered by Yahoo!, but you'll find most of the effects you'd ever need within script.aculo.us.

New Window

On of my lightweight scripts, but quite useful. It creates 'Open in new window' links out of specially marked links. You can see them with a small new window icon next to them. If you notice, they'll suddenly appear once the page finishes loading. Yep! Thats the script at work! :)

Latest Updated

As already pointed out by Avatar, in a joint effort with Stephen, I cooked up this hack to show the latest post which is updated. It doesn't matter how old the post is. As long as it has been modified, it'll get bumped to the top of the list. However, I've added a special indicator for hacks, by giving them a light yellow background. This is so that people can see that a new hack has been put up, or an old hack has been updated!

Here's to The Last Word turning a hundred posts old! :) c|_|

[Update] Today happens to be my sister's 8th birthday as well! So all is befitting these celebrations! Happy birthday to my sister! :)

Censoring the internet

2006-06-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

The internet was conceptually created back in the ~~1970s~~ 1950's (corrected by Avatar) in a university as a fast way of sharing resources. It wasn't long before other companies started building intranets, and slowly, those got integrated on massive scales which practically gave birth to the internet. It was meant to be able to provide anything one might want, faster and easier than before. Censorship was never even part of the equation. But recently, and ironically in modern times when people are supposed to be broad minded, the internet is being driven back because of rampant censorship all over the place.

Google Vs. China

The whole thing hit mainstream public with the whole 'Google getting censored in China' issue, which came to light not so far in the past. The fight which brought out the ugly side of Money Vs. Morals showed Google in a completely different light to the people who had given it an almost messiac image. But bigger than that, it showed us that even today, the so-called right to information, is only hypocrisy.

Google's chinese domain filters sites which the chinese government deems inappropriate for its citizens. And although that stays in place, there are reports such as these, that Google's main domain (.com) has been blocked in the country to prevent people from viewing the sites which they would otherwise have access to. Is this really what we are walking towards? Tyranny and Oppression? I'm sure the chinese aren't naive enough not to see this ... so then why don't they do something about it? There are arguments like these which are also there!

Temporary Solution

Keeping particular domains for particular kinds of sites seems like a very plausible. People will know exactly what they want/don't want to see. The perfect solution being trusting people with the information. We have brains! We can think! Censoring only makes people more curious to hunt down stuff which is being censored. By keeping sections, you're clearly defining the territories. If someone wants to veer in somewhere, no-one has a right to stop them.

No matter what anyone does, people will always find a way. They are not as dumb as the governments think they are. Maybe its time we really handed the web to the people! :)

The Link Field

2006-06-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Speaking to various people, I came to notice that the Link field isn't known to the general public too much. And those who know it, don't use it as its intended purpose. That's a little strange, considering the power a variable which holds data outside of a post can provide. So I'm going to try and explain its intended use, its more rampant use, and a script which modifies its use for the common man.

Intended use

The link field, as intended by Blogger (explanation), was meant to hold external links to posts. Many times, articles are related to each other which span over different blogs. They can be linked via links in the post. But somehow, if an article is derived from another article, then linking to it in a big way makes sense. Enter external links. If you haven't modified your template from a Blogger default template, try and add a link to your link field, and do a preview (by clicking the preview link on the top right). You'll see your title of the post changes to point to that link. Thats exactly what it does even on your blog (unmodified template ofcourse). If you see the titles of a few posts on my blog, you'll see a ~ prefixed. That means its a link. Click them, and you'll see they're linked to a post which is related to that post. Its a very good way of keeping people linked.

Rampant Use

I have seen people use this not for links, but a way of categorising their posts. Kirk (Phydeaux3) does it. Avatar (Bloggeratto) also does it. Gaby made a whole new category system based on it. It seems to be the easiest way to achieve this, since the data is held in a Blogger tag which is post specific, yet not a part of the post. All they need to do is write in the category names, and create a script to run through them and display the ones it needs to.

Very smart, but again, it defeats the purpose of a linked web. The titles are seen first and foremost with any post, and links within posts might be missed. But ones in titles will not. Which is why they're preferred to be used with titles (Blogger default setting).

Hybrid Link Field script

The idea from this stemmed because I want to see people use the link field for its original intended purpose. I wanted people to put links in there, but not break their current usage pattern. So I present to you, the Hybrid Link Field Use script.

The way to use this is very simple. In your link field you put in two kinds of details. The external link, and the categories a post is filed under. All seperated by commas (,). For example: http://somewhere.com, category-name-1, category-name-2. Leave the rest, for this script! :) To implement it, do the following. Put this bit of code in a pair of <script> </script> tags in your <head> area:

function extlink_tags(text, job, title){
    text=text.replace(/\s/ig, "");
    var part = text.split(',');
var tags = new Array();
    var output="";

if(job=='title'){
      
    for(var i=0;i<part.length;i++){
    if(part[i].match('http')) {output='<a href=\"'+part[i]+'\">'+title+'<\/a>'; break;}
            else {output=title; break;}  
    }
return document.write(output);
}
else{   
        for(var i=0;i<part.length;i++){
    if(!part[i].match('http')){
            output+="<a onclick=\"javascript:tags_s(\'"+part[i]+"\');\" title=\"View posts filed under "+part[i]+"\">"+part[i]+"<\/a> ";
            }   
    }

return document.write('Posted Under: '+output);
}

}

If you use my ABCI script, this code will automatically create links out of the category names it outputs, so that you click them and it'll load pull in the posts which are filed under that category. Now, put this part where you want your post title to appear:

<BlogItemTitle>
  <script>var link<$BlogItemNumber$>="";</script>
     
     <BlogItemURL><script>var link<$BlogItemNumber$>='<$BlogItemURL$>';</script></BlogItemURL>
       
        <script>
         if(link<$BlogItemNumber$>=="") document.write("<$BlogItemTitle$>");
         else extlink_tags(link<$BlogItemNumber$>, 'title', "<$BlogItemTitle$>");
       </script>
   </BlogItemTitle>

You can enclose this whole bunch of code within <div></div> tags so that you can style it anyway you want. Assign classes to them, and then use CSS to do so. This bunch takes into account your previous posts which might not have anything in the link field, so you have to go retro-linking your posts. You can start using it from the next post you make, and it'll show the change in that. Your oldies remain as they are!

Finally, the place where you want your categories to display as - Posted Under: (category name), put this line of code:

<BlogItemURL><div class="categ"><script>extlink_tags(link<$BlogItemNumber$>, 'tags', 'tags');</script></div></BlogItemURL>

That's it! You're done! I hope to see people begin to use the fields as they were meant to be used! Blogger can be such a powerful platform, sometimes people don't recognise its potential! Happy camping!

[Update]: My greasemonkey script (Del.icio.us tag reference adder) works perfectly with this script! Give it a go!

Google Sync

2006-06-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Furthuring their alliance with Firefox, Google today released Google Browser Sync. They offer it as the perfect way of keeping your browsers on multiple computers in sync with each other, so that your settings on one browser, can easily be replicated amongst all your computers. Its a very cool idea, and it stems from a similar idea in Desktop 4 with the option of retrieving your files from Google servers anywhere you go.

Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.

Google Browser Sync is completely automated. The settings you select at startup are automatically synchronized across each of the computers on which you install Browser Sync. You won't even need to log in every time you start the browser. You can change which browser components are being synced – or even stop the syncing process entirely – using the settings panel in the upper-right corner of the page. The settings panel also gives you access to your PIN.

Looks really good! This will help people try out new versions of Firefox a little more comfortably, since their settings will always be secure with Google (don't roll your eyes!). This is something that I've been looking forward to for a while. You can get it from here

External Links

Google Browser Sync - Keep all your browser the way you want them!
GBS Extension Install - Install the extension!

Latest Updated!

2006-06-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm calling this a hack, because I really cannot afford the luxury of having three different categories for hacks, mods and methods (don't kill me Avatar!). Stephen and I came up with this while talking today, and I came up with an synchronous version, while he generated an asychronous version. But both of them do the same thing! They work towards using the newly discovered Blogger blogs RSS feeds, to display a list of the latest posts to be updated/modified on your blog. You can see it at work in the sidebar!

Working

This works because unlike the ATOM, the posts in the RSS are sorted in the order of update. Which means, if you changed and republished your 20th post after your, say, 80th post ... your ATOM would remain unchanged. But your RSS would change to say -- 20th post, 80th post, 79th post -- and so on! Stephen thinks this is a bug and an oversight on Blogger's part, but I'm being a bit more optimistic, and think Blogger let this little glitch creep in on purpose, so that people could really come up with a way to show whats been happening with the posts which have gone out of sight!

Codes

I'd love to hand you my codes, but Stephen's codes are more customisable. Hence, you can see the various ways of implementing this on your blog over at his post, Last Updated Posts. Ofcourse, seeing that Blogger made no official announcement about the RSS feeds, if they decide to pull it out, this hack goes for a toss. But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying it while its there, and there is no easy way of doing this either.

So, what are you waiting for?

[Update]: Blogger has been suffering some serious hurdles, with speeds going up and down all the time! This could mean some really good news, or maybe one bad one in the near future! Let's hope the RSS feeds aren't pulled out!

Internet Wars: Watchya talking' about?

2006-06-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Over the past week or two, you'd have noticed Avatar's obsession with fixing people's nomenclatures over at Bloggeratto. Personally, I really don't see what the big deal is. I can think of so many words and labels (or tags (or categories)) that were given to sites and certain aspects of Web 2.0 which have become redundant since then. Things like bookmarking, social, community or sharing have all been replaced with Web 2.0. People still call them by what they used to call them before, or just give them the common label of being 'Web 2.0-ish'. I know all those things mentioned in the 3-4 posts at Bloggeratto aim to clear the doubts, but what we sometimes don't realise that it really doesn't make a difference to people as long their point goes through.

The common surfer couldn't care less to delve into specifics. He just looks for buzz words like AJAX. They'll, as they say, go with the flow just to be one with the crowd. Everything on the internet works in booms, not so much with bubbles. See what happened with the concept of a personalised Homepage (started by Google, if I'm not wrong) came into existence. Startups ran helter skelter to get one up and running. The only one worth mentioning 2-3 months after that remains Netvibes, with the latest being the collapse of Fold.com. So how does it matter what one calls them?

The more we try to seperate, the more we confuse people. In a place like the internet, we can draw the analogy to The Matrix. A very geeky thing to do, I know, but if you see, you'll notice that there are mainly 3 types of people. Those who know exactly whats going on and see the tide shift this way and that, ala the people who've been freed. The second types are the ones who sense that something is happening, but they can't put their finger on it yet, ala what Neo was before finally meeting Morpheus. And finally, the utterly clueless who do / go about their daily routines, oblivious to whats happening because either they don't consider it their business, or they just don't want to know about it, and they are the still plugged in slaves, being used to power the machines. The second type make up a very small group of people, with the majority being the third kinds. The first kinds are the so-called power users and they are somewhere in between, but not such a large number.

That being pulled as the analogy. It'll be easy for you to see how many aspects of the internet really don't matter to the majority. Slowly and steadily, people are waking up to what the net can really do for them. But unless a sizeable number of people form that group, all these fights between browsers, nomenclatures, startups etc. are fruitless, because the whole idea of Web 2.0 is people. The whole concept of Web 2.0 is to be driven by people. Unfortunately the people themselves aren't ready for such a revolution, but they slowly are seeing the light. So, let's save these debates for a time when people really can put up a proper argument! :-P

[Link]: This post veers in and out of the broad topic touched by this post, so I thought I'd link it here! (Crash of the Web 2.0 titans)

Why not use favicons?

2006-06-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

This is just one of those things which really bugs me sometimes. People go to the biggest lengths to modify and customise their pages. Make them look absolutely stunning. Add worldfuls of information on them. Basically, make them the perfect web pages people would like to come and see. But they miss one small detail, and it makes life that much harder.

Ever opened a bunch of tabs in one go, and suddenly become confused as to which tab belonged to which page? If you're the compulsive tabbed browser (like me), you'll suddenly find yourself with 20 tabs, and no title visible on them. Just the Firefox page icon to choose your tab. It takes nothing short of a miracle to hit the exact tab that you want to see the first time around. Why? Because you can't make out which tab belongs to which page! So here is something that should help all you first time bloggers/web-pagers to make a unique identity for your page. Add these two lines right below your <head> tag:

<link href=" " rel="image/x-icon"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href=" " type="image/x-icon">

Replace those two glaring blanks with the path to your image which you want to display as your page's icon. On this blog, its that little orange guitar icon which I link from my photoblog (another one of the ingenious ways of breaking into Google's servers! :-P). The picture linked here can be in any format for the web, but preferrably GIF, JPEG or PNG to speed up loading.

This icon also shows up in the bookmarks if/when you bookmark the page. The perfect to setup a colourful identity for your page!

Filed Under:

A face in the crowd

2006-06-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today I read a post over at PostBubble about a new startup called claimID. I was quite fascinated with the idea, so much so that it lead me to ask that why didn't anybody think of this before? Today, when everything is being contenxtualised, the focus should be driven towards seperating one thing from another. May it be a blog entry, from a news entry. Or a review from a creator's comment. Even one person from another. We need relevant details, with context to parameters which we provide, not our search engines. Google wanted a search engine which is like artificial intelligence itself, and though that seems far away, this is a good way to keep a track on people on the internet, who's work you like and you want to know more. As perfectly put at PostBubble:

If claimID executes properly then it could insinuate itself into numerous aspects of our online activity. It will not become a nice-to-have or need-to-have but something that you just plain have. Everybody has an identity and everybody will have something on the internet proprietary to themselves. claimID is merely a manifestation of this concept that will be inextricably tied to us in the future.

Usability

Google grid (or Epic, or whatever its called now) could really gain from this since it can locate one person and show all the details that that person wants to show about him/her to the world. claimID's usefulness stems from how many people actually start using it, which is why I'm writing this so that whoever reads this will be fascinated enough to sign up for the beta. People can put their claimID addresses within their e-mail signatures, probably on their business cards. It has the potential to be something like your e-mail address, since its practically your identity in virtual space.

Its the one stop destination for anyone who wants to know anything about you. But claimID is not the governments way of keeping a tab on who you are! It works by feeding the information you want to the search engines, so that if someone googles your name, and you have a claimID, it'll show up with the relevant details as the search snippet. A simple idea, but very powerful ramifications in the long run.

The signup process is really simple and very fast, since its aided by AJ modules all over the place. You'll have to enter your e-mail address to get an invite for your beta, and once you get that, they'll take you to the signup page where you'll enter the basic details. After which, you can start linking pages, tagged under various names and put under categories as 'About me', 'Not about me' or your own category. You can see my claimID page.

Concerns

Throughout my signup process, I wasn't given any particular fields to fill up. There was my name, other names, location, and then there was a generalised 'template box' which asked me all the information I wanted to put. That scares me a little, since I don't want claimID to undergo the Myspace effect. I'm sure someone sometime will begin to use claimID the same way, but I hope they find a way to block such attempts.

This is really a very good step towards contextualizing data, and making them individuals related. I hope claimID gets bought by Google, because they will benefit from this if they are serious about having the Grid online by 2014. So go ahead! Claim yourself on the internet!

Static Vs. Dynamic

2006-06-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

With the burst of dynamicity in the internet, every web page today has something which is asynchronously loaded. Its not only blogs which do this, but proper company websites. Sure, asynchronicity has helped us make web pages faster, and taken them one step closer to being behave like desktop applications. But if you honestly see, how many times do we need dynamicity when we use it.

The Thought

We must try to seperate the things which need to be loaded on the fly, and things which should allow the viewer to be taken to a seperate page. I'm going to restrict myself to the blog environment, since I'm most familiar with use of asychronocity in blogs. In blogs, things which should be loaded asynchronously are the things which are secondary to the primary data. For example, related posts. It'd be perfectly logical to load a post which is related the one a viewer is currently reading, so that he can read it in context, rather than load it in a seperate page and take it out of context. This is a tremendoes usability upgrade, since all the information is available to the viewer without the need to switch pages. The same logic is followed in Heads Up Displays (HUD). This does increase productivity, since it takes away a lot of clicks and keypresses.

That is just one big example that it definitely should be used for. Other uses can be like my Search Results and Categories Display. Anything which follows the 'secondary to back primary' rule, can/should be made dynamic.

Contrarily, things which are primary, should never be given dynamicity. Especially, things which are from external web sites (sites not belonging to you), because besides this being an inconveniences, it takes away hits from their site, which is an unethical thing to do. Things like individual blog posts (out of context), being loaded on the same page (async) should be avoided. Rampant use of AJ also becomes heavy on the browser. Firefox will most definitely crash after a while, others might hold up a bit longer. Hence, avoid it where you can do without it.

Moderation

Everything when overdone, kills its purpose and becomes more of a liability. AJAX and AJAJ can load almost any bit of data into a page without refreshing it. Security issues aside, you can have pages which can virtually load the internet on one page, and you won't need to manually go to any other page. Such a page would probably be a YubNub type web application, otherwise it wouldn't make sense. That would be like having a web browser inside a web browser! Is that ultimately what we're trying to achieve? I don't think so!

Understand the need of the situation, before implementing whatever's doing the buzz! Not every technology can be used, but you should have a good idea of it. So, the next time you think of going async on anything, stop and think if you really need it. You'll be doing your page and yourself a favour! Trust me! :)

Google Search API, now in AJAX

2006-06-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, and after a very long time Google has woken up to the big favour it'd be doing by allowing its web searches to be personalised per site, or the API opened to people. Although this is not the way I was hoping this would happen, still, something is better than nothing.

Google today unveiled the Google AJAX Search API. Unlike other services however, this one is not in Beta. Its version 0.1, and Google states that version 1.0 will be the stable release which will likely contain ads. Why am I not surprised!

For the moment it seems like version 0.1 only offers searches for the Web, Videos and Blogs. Straight from the horses mouth:

The Google AJAX Search API is an experimental API that lets you integrate a dynamic Google search module into your web pages so your users can mash up Google search results with other content on your site or add search results clippings to their own content.

The AJAX Search API is currently in Version 0.1. It's an experiment designed to get developer feedback and may change dramatically over the next several months, so you shouldn't deploy this on your mission-critical web site just yet. When we formally launch Version 1.0, it will likely require code changes to your site. Version 1.0 will also likely contain advertising.

The API is a free beta service, available for any web site that is free to consumers. Please see the terms of use for more information.

Yahoo! really can overtake Google in the site search department if it just ups it search. They can also overtake Google by becoming the most used search engine (with minumum hits on their search engine page) since their JSONP feeds can be used to make a generic search, rather than a blog search. But this is a good step for Google! Especially after my last review of their API. I don't think they'll be offering feeds for their searches anytime soon, the API gimmick puts those rumours to rest, and rightly so since any raw data from Google will eat out of their revenue from Adsense.

Let's see whats next for Google! :)

Using feeds to your advantage

2006-05-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

From a readers point of view, feeds are one of the time saving ways of keeping up with blogs and sites. Everyone offers feeds now, for almost everything. Starting from content to services. Blogs offer feeds for content, comments, categories and various other things. All thats well and good. But whats in it for programmers?

To start off simply, feeds are a repository of data just waiting to be read. They are the best way of exchanging data between applications, and hence so widely used. Combined with a service such as FeedShake, which just appends anything new to a new feed, it can be used to chronicle your data over large timespans. If you head on there, you'll see an option to filter out data. Now, here is where things become pretty! :)

I'm going to suggest you get into the habit of converting RSS feeds to JSON if you don't get a JSON feed. It will save you loads of coding time, and make life much simpler. For that, I'll suggest Stephen's fantastic Outline Converter. Using FeedShake's service, you can create virtual categories with one feed for each category. That feed, when converted to JSON, can be used to write out data for each post! :) You can not convert it and use normal Javascript to write it out too, but thats the hard way! You can put in a category word in Braces and then have my content replacer script remove it when its written on the page. The RSS will still have the word though, and you can filter posts out that way. Have a look around and see what you can come up with!

The other thing you can do is use it to search your blog. Yes yes! You can use my Native Blog Search as well, and its more effective than this, but hey! This is just another way of doing things! Chronicle your entire blog and after converting it to JSON, just search through it using normal Javascript statements. It'll increase page-load time, but searches will be lightning fast.

Feeds find use everywhere, and you'll see it working great for you if you know how to make it work for you! This discussion continues on Bloggeratto at Feeding The Future. And while you're at it, continuing the theme of the post, why not subscribe to my feed too? You can keep a tab on whats happening! Grab it here! (The Last Word Feed)

Keep it simple!

2006-05-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, I've been obsessed with the design of the sites that I visit. Umm... ok! Maybe for the past few months, but I have been. The jarring designs and colours really do hurt the eyes and make me want to keep pummeling 'Esc' until every facet of the site has stopped loading. A site which I found via the comments in Bloggeratto is probably one of the perfect examples of really what not to do! (Bad Design)

Simplify

I've mentioned it before, and I'll gladly do it again. Whenever you start planning your blog/site's design, start simple. The easiest mistake to make is find a million pictures to fill up every nook and corner of your page. It works only if you're someone like Doug Bowman, but if you're him, chances are you'll have much better tricks up your sleeve! :P I know that designing a site is probably not the most exciting part of the deal for most people, but once you get the hang of it, if you have the eye for good looks and you know what you're doing - any of those, and you'll enjoy creating the look of your site. After all, what good is your site if it doesn't look/do anything different.

I read somewhere that Google's minimalistic look started a revolution which had people running helter skelter to make their look as simple as they could. I'll agree that Google did start something of a deviation from the norms, but to attribute it to Google would be wrong. Minimalism has always been known to attract. The simplest of things, though the most complicated to make, has pulled it the majority. Gaby's comment states an interesting survey result, and should confirm what many people have sub-consciously noticed. People might evolve, tastes might differ, but what is aesthetically pleasing will remain common. Black (only for text), White, Green, Blue are colours which will always soothe the eye, whereas Red, Yellow, Pink (the bright ones) and many others are ones which will hurt the eye and make it hard to read things, eventually pushing away viewers.

Minimalism

Minimalism really does work, everywhere it is used. It follows from the simple theory that 'the mind accepts simple things faster'. Don't let your viewer's do the hardwork. Put in a few more minutes and simplify whatever you're doing, be it anything - computers/non-computers related. But when it comes to designing, it's best to stick to the 'black on white with light background colours' formula. Remember, the look should shift attention to the content, not away from it.

I've listed below a few sites which pull off the minimal look brilliantly. Have a peek, and see if you get any ideas!

Minimal Sites

Bloggeratto
ParticleTree
Phydeaux3

A designer and a writer

2006-05-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Here is something I found worth my noodle! It is true that most designers cannot write. All they are concerned with is that if the design pleasant and catchy enough. That is technically how it should be, and I really like those who stick to their core competence. The kinds who don't get in other's way because they know what they're good at, and stick to that. Work goes on faster. Unfortunately, the world doesn't think so.

That article there clearly makes a point worth remembering. Design is about communicating ideas, and an effective designer is one who can convert thoughts into more than one visual form.

So if you’re someone who hires designers, ask them what they like to read. Talk to them about their word choice in every button, every link, every title. Give them a crack at writing your about page. It’s the designer’s job to think about your site the way a user does, and tell them what they need to hear, and when they need to hear it. A designer worth their salt will be able to do it. And if your designer says, “I’m not a writer,” it may be time to find one who is.

If you’re a designer who doesn’t think of yourself as a writer, it’s time to reconsider. Buy yourself a copy of Strunk and White, do some research online, or take a class. Design is about communication, and it takes more than pixels to communicate.

Ofcourse, people can't complain now that they don't have a way of sharing their knowledge with other people, or say something. Blogs are the perfect and cheapest way of doing so. I am myself subscribed to some 7 blogs related to design, and learn so much from. What I learn is that it is not just about the look. You need content to back up that look. A designer hired to work on a particular interface should also come up with the text that goes with the interface. No-one is asking him to generate the main content, that'll be stupid. But small things like by-lines, links, so on so forth should be his cup of tea. The designer is after all the one who made that design, and his personality will reflect in it. If the text doesn't support the design, it'll be jarringly obvious.

For example, you can't have a blog in yellow, orange and red with text which says, "This has been (someone's name)'s work. I hope you liked it. You can reach me at the following address." It'll seem very out of place, atleast for me. So, people who design should really learn how to write. If not whole articles, just enough to be able to get their thought across in text, and not colours or layouts.

After all, if not anything else, it is text which imparts knowledge. A designer who doesn't share his fundamentals is as good as nobody. The Web 2.0 principal truly should be applied to every facet of life. Share your knowledge and information. You never know what may come out of it. There isn't a dearth of ideas. What lacks is the guidance, and someone with knowledge who can share it, is really held in great esteem amongst his comrades! So if not to keep the tone of a design consistent, designers should learn to write to just share what they've learnt.

So all you designers out there, begin writing! Its good for you, and for those around you! :)

The discussion continues over at Bloggeratto's post, Writing into Perceptions

Who needs social network sites?

2006-05-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, Web 2.0 gives users an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages. The term was popularized by O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International as the name for a series of web development conferences that started in October 2004. Web 2.0 applications often use a combination of techniques devised in the late 1990s, including public web service APIs (dating from 1998), Ajax (1998), and web syndication (1997). They often allow for mass publishing (web-based social software). The term may include blogs and wikis. To some extent Web 2.0 is a buzzword, incorporating whatever is newly popular on the Web (such as tags and podcasts), and its meaning is still in flux.

That is wikipedia's definition of the word. The key phrase here being "lets people collaborate and share information online." Now, that would include all sites such as del.icio.us, YouTube, digg, and so on. Blogs are the biggest part of this whole revoltion with the Web 2.0. However, something that refuses to make itself clear, is that how in the world did social network sites catch the bandwagon, and not only catch, but claw themselves over to the passenger seat next to the driver?

The rise of social networking

Suddenly, there are so many of these sites with the pack being led by very public contenders like Myspace and Orkut. The thing is not that people who feel left out are the ones looking to sign up at these sites and meet new people. Its perfectly normal people who have a blooking social life who are also looking at sites such as hi5, to keep in touch with near ones gone afar or finding new people to interact with! I thought blogs were the choice personal content publishing platform today, not these sites! Where would you place Myspace in this entire boom. You can't call just a blog, neither can you call it a forum. Social network site? Well, you could call it that, but why create a completely different category for them if blogs are present. Why do people look to them at all? Because its easier? C'mon, what can be easier than making a Blogger blog? It helps them invite their friends, add them to the list and just generally be one of the cool people on Myspace. We have seen all the controversies involving Myspace that keep popping up now and then!

If its just kids seeking voice, then weblogs are much safer and much more personal than any Myspace site. If you don't have any markup knowledge, pick up the default templates and cook up a blog! Myspace sites are nothing but memory leaking, horrible looking shams for personal web pages. When was the last time you saw someone get into trouble because of a weblog? Myspace is less than a year old, and already its got the reputation of one of the least safest sites on the internet. I'm not saying circles like Orkut and Google Groups is fine, but atleast they're more secure.

The death knell

Its time to abandon these so called networks. If you want to keep friends, get their e-mail addresses for goodness sakes. I know people who have an account in every one of these social circle services. However, its not friends who reply to your profiles. The perfect example being this one my friend got (Its kinda weird, but you get the idea). Keep out of all these ruts, security hassles, controversies. If you want a platform to voice your opinions, click here, and breathe easy!

Please! Be a little cooler than the rest of those Myspace geeks?

To position, or not to position!

2006-05-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

That, is the question. This is one of the golden rules that unfortunately doesn't get much importance except from people who actually understand the importance of it. So I'll break this up into three parts.

The Importance

Positioning elements takes them out of the standard stack of elements on a web page. It allows them to be placed anywhere, without it affecting the neighbouring elements. There are four ways to position elements, absolute, fixed, relative and static. Static positioning is the same as not positioning them at all. Absolute and Fixed takes it out of the stack and using top, right, bottom and left, it can be placed anywhere. The sole difference being that Fixed fixes the element at the place and hence it doesn't scroll with the page. Its always visible, whereas Absolute places it at those exact pixel co-ordinates (scrollable). Relative allows to place the element relative to what its position would be if it wasn't positioned at all.

The reason elements should have the position:value style present is because any elements contained within such an element can be positioned relative to it. An element is positioned relative to the closest positioned parent element. Which means:

#parent-top{position:absolute;}
#child_parent-top{}
#child_child_parent-top{position:absolute;}

If the above style is applied to a page, then the following will be positioned as explained.

<div id="parent-top"> // DIV 1

<div id="child_parent-top"> // DIV 2

<div id="child_child_parent-top"> // DIV 3 </div> </div> </div>

<div> element 3 will be positioned relative to <div> element 1, whereas <div> element 1 will be positioned relative to the main document. <div> element 2 will appear in the document where its meant to appear relative to the unpositioned neighbouring elements.

Clear? Good! No? There is a very good explanation on positioning elements at BarelyFitz Designs. Have a look to get a good understanding of how it works!

Absolute Vs. Relative Vs. Fixed

As far as I'm concerned, absolute positioning should be used only when the need arises. It should not be a substitute for placing certain sections in a certain place. I've seen people absolutely position an element which appears right at the bottom in the markup, right at the top. They could have written it at the top, and not have had to position it then. The more elements you pull out of the normal stack, the more messed up the design might get. Plus, its not that easy to locate positioned elements in the markup since its orientation is lost. Hence its a pain to debug a stylesheet and markup which is made of absolutely position elements.

Relative positioning should be used when the designer is not sure of the resolution at which the page will be viewed. But its generally useless, since its better to use % and em to fix cross resolution problems. This should be only used if you want to give the element a position:value style to position elements contained within this element. But even for this, I'll suggest using position:static. Its more definite.

Fixed really pulls things out of their stack place, and fixes them at the co-ordinates specified, on a different z index altogether. Any elements around this will not be affected until you start scrolling. You'll see this jammed in place, while others go around it. It can be an annoyance, and hence should be only used for things like links/navigation/header bars. Things which you know should be readily available at all times, in the same place of the screen. For example the translucent links bar (Firefox/Opera Only) at the bottom of the screen on this blog. Finally a note of caution why this shouldn't be used as freely as absolute. It's not handled by Internet Explorer. This specification behaves likes an absolute positioning.

Conclusion

So, now at the end of this article, I hope you've learnt a small bit of positioning elements on your page using CSS, and I hope you don't make the same mistakes many other people make. Improve the viewer experience, not degrade it! :) Here's to a better site! c|_|

Asynchronous/Aditya's Blogger Categories

2006-05-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

Categories has really been one of the biggest low points of Blogger blogs, and even after so much time, it seems as though their API will prevent them adding categories anywhere in the near future without making big changes to almost everything to do with Blogger. Not to mention added load server side, having to bear the brunt of millions of blog (some of which have been abandoned, not deleted), and then holding posts natively categorised, per blog. Sheesh! It hurts just by the sound of it.

So, seeing that, there have been many categories hacks from all over the place. Many of them varying in degrees of complexity (either in code or implementation). I'll agree I seem to have taken the easiest way out, but hey! If it works! :) So I shall now unveil my Blogger Categories Index. I call it ABCI (Asynchronous/Aditya's Blogger Categories Index). You can see it in full glory on the right in the sidebar. Here are the codes if you wish to use them on your blog:

Implementation

Insert this external script from delicious in your <head> area. It calls all your tags, sorted by the number of posts in them from delicious:

<script src="http://del.icio.us/feeds/json/tags/username?sort=freq" type="text/javascript"></script>

Next is the big ballyhoo itself! This bunch of code should be put in a seperate set of <script></script> tags, so that if something goes wrong, it doesn't interfere with the other functions on the page:


/* `````````````` TAGS DISPLAYING `````````````````` */

/* <license rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/" /> */
/* Asynchronous/Aditya's Blogger Categories Index by Aditya Mukherjee (www.aditya-mukherjee.com) */

var tagn="";
var user="";

function tags_s(tagname){
tagn=tagname;
var tag=document.createElement('script');
var url="http://del.icio.us/feeds/json/"+user+"/"+tagname+"?callback=write_tags&count=100";
tag.src=url;
tag.type="text/javascript";
tag.id = "app-tags";
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(tag);
}

function write_tags(tag){
document.getElementById('cont').style.display="block";
document.getElementById('cont').innerHTML="<div align=\"right\"><a href=\"http://del.icio.us/rss/"+user+"/"+tagn+"\"><img src=\"http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2472/807/1600/feed-icon-16x16.png\" style=\"border:none\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a> <b>Subscribe To "+tagn+"<\/b><\/div><br /><br />";
var elem=document.getElementById('cont');
var i=0;
while(tag[i]){
        var head=document.createElement('a');
        head.innerHTML=tag[i].d;
        head.title=tag[i].d;
        head.href=tag[i].u;
        head.id="cat-title";
       
        var desc=document.createElement('span');
        desc.innerHTML=tag[i].n;
 
      if(tag[i].n){ 
        elem.appendChild(head);
        elem.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
        document.getElementById('cont').appendChild(desc);
        elem.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
        var k=0;
             var t=document.createElement('span');
             t.innerHTML="<span id=\"filed\">Filed Under:<\/span> ";
             t.id="cat-t";
        while(tag[i].t[k]){
             t.innerHTML+=tag[i].t[k]+"\t";
             k++;
             }
        elem.appendChild(t);
        elem.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
        elem.appendChild(document.createElement('br'));
        }

    i++;
    }
var rem=document.getElementById('app-tags');
rem.parentNode.removeChild(rem);
}

/* ```````````````` END OF TAG DISPLAY ```````````````````` */

The stuff in red has to be filled out by you. They're going to be your delicious username, so that the correct data is called. Ofcourse, if you want to call someone elses tags instead, feel free to replace it with theirs, but make sure you have their permission first! :P Next is the displaying of the tags:

<div id="tags">
<ul id="taglink">
<script>
     for(var i in Delicious.tags){
         document.write("<li onclick=\"javascript:tags_s(\'"+i+"\');\" \/><a>"+i+" ("+Delicious.tags[i]+")<\/a><br \/>");
    }   
</script>
</ul>
</div>

This writes out the tags in a list. The style of the list can be edited by calling the ID selector as taglink. lis and as can be individually styled as well. All CSS rules apply here! :) The last bit is the place where the posts filed under your categories will finally be displayed. Add this wherever you want them to go:

<div id="cont"></div><br />

Usage

As before. Individual styles within this can also be set by prefixing div#cont to the IDs cat-title (for the title of the post) and cat-t (for the display of the categories its filed under). The categories display itself can be styled using ul#taglink and then styling the subsequent li and a. If you them to look the way do on my blog, you can grab the styles straight off my template (My Template). The post content can be set by setting the global style for div#cont. Thats it for this. Now, to use this, you'll have to start tagging your psots over at delicious.

You can use Johan's userscript to help in categorizing your posts. The script up there will not write the posts which don't have a post body. This is to maintain the uniformity of the appearance. Although if you don't want this, remove the if statements that I have marked up there. The rest, is the same as to how you tag your posts. Everything is automated, so just add those chunks of code and you'll be on your way.

As always, any doubts or questions will be answered. Just add a comment, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Enjoy! :)

A bunch of tributes!

2006-05-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

I still remember how I came into the blogger scene. I had tried my hand at blogging a few times in the past, but never managed to keep at it. I started feeling guilty when I was not updating it, so both the times I deleted my previous blogs. But this time, the one I started in January of this year, I planned to keep and decided to write about things I was passionate about. Google, Music, the internet, everything. I was already into CSS and HTML so didn't take long for me to start experimenting with my blog layouts and the look. I've always been something of a nit-picker when it comes to looks and stuff. So I had to do it my way, wasn't going to stick with what Blogger handed to me! :)

Anyway, in about two months, I started looking for things to add to my blog seeing all the really cool categories, ads and stuff people were adding to their own blog. My first third party application that I ever added to my blog was probably Freshtags!. I still remember posting 2 comments over at Freshblog telling them that it wasn't working for me! Hehe! Now, I have my own categories which I coded and built from scratch! Not only that, I also made my own Blog Search, and a couple of more hacks which have been used over quite a few blogs and appreciated by many! :) So, I'm going to take this opportunity here to thank a few people who've helped me reach where I am (wherever that is! :P). Note that the tribute list below is is no particular order! You'll figure out who've played major roles as you keep reading!

I'm going to start with John and Greg, who were the first people to ever answer my comment! :P Greg's Freshtags got my interested in coding and getting seriously involved with Blogs and Blogger. If it wasn't for Freshtags!, there probably wouldn't have been an Aditya on the blogger scene! (Not one with my face atleast!)

The next person, and who's always egged me to do the stuff that I have been doing, will be Avatar. I saw him first comment over at Freshblog!, and then cut me off over at Blogger Help Google Group. Later on we started talking, and became good friends, and now we have a joint venture in Bloggeratto. He's the man behind the ideas (most, not all! :P) behind the hacks, and truly a great guy! Thanks for being there man! Appreciate every single day of it!

Then comes the list of all my non-geeky-internet-friendly friends who are constantly in awe of all that I keep doing, and invariably give me way too much appreciation than I deserve, but which I cherish and really motivates me to work, if for nothing else to see their reaction. People like Akanksha, Shikha, Sonali (who thinks my blog is really professional), and a few others keep coming and going! Thanks guys for everything!

And ofcourse, those who have helped me with my hacks! Johan, Singpolyma and the latest and really nice guy, Kirk! Couldn't have done it without these guys either!

Thats about it for this sentimental post! Don't know what made me put it up, but I just thought I should let the one's who've made a difference know, before I don't get a chance to!

Now, as Avatar would say, back to pimping me and hacking!!

Filed Under:

Miscellaneous

Google should stick to search?

2006-05-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

Its been a long ride for Google, hasn't it? I remember my uncle telling me once to give this search engine called Google a try. "Its really fast!", he said to me. I was some 10 or 11 years old back then. The internet to me was not really about searching or surfing. It was more about e-mail and games. I still remember not caring two hoots about what Yahoo! or Google was. Yes, Microsoft was a known name, since my internet access was thanks to them. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fast forward 6 years. Things have changed so drastically. Someone from that time period, placed in today's date in front of a computer with internet access will feel so lost. Every homepage, default search, advertisement has the word Google in it. Surely they won't remember a small startup company that promised the world, well... to the world! And yet, in some short 5-6 years, they have made it big as one of the few companies which has given the big M the jitters, even if slightly.

Google has slowly and steadily cranked out services and applications for people, trying to make life simpler for them. There motto of 'Don't be evil' (or something like that) really did stick with the general crowd. All it took was one alternative to start the alternative wars. Every company which was not Microsoft, and offered the same functionality (sometimes better) that MS applications did, rose up like fiery dragons to fight the holy war! To dethrone the king, and spread an insurgency that would revolutionise the world!

Unfortunately, it didn't work.

Only Google remained on the tips of people tongues. Companies such as Lycos, which where big in their time, are nowhere these days. But now, it seems like Google is too feeling the pinch from Microsoft's lingering monopoly. It was evident at their latest Press Day that they are trying to so hard to return to their roots. Their post over at their blog We are still about search so clearly states that Google wants to remain in people's memory as a search engine. And their core competence is visible in every application that they've developed, where search plays a major part. Their two most successful services apart from search, have been GMail, that revolutionised the way we think of web mail, and Blogger, the runaway success that did everything different than other personal publishing services available... except the publishing part ofcourse! But their market share percentage lies in single digits still (I dont' quote statistical numbers, so don't ask me for 'em), and hence, I think Google is feeling the heat.

Microsoft is surely fighting back with integrating search with everything in their own way. Vista is practically a search engine based OS, where everything is indexed for search. Google is crying fowl, but let's see how that goes. Once again it seems Google is trying to fight the good fight, but I'm not hopeful this time. Which is also why, I think Google should really work towards innovating (once again) in their search. Probably something no-one has thought of yet. I had shown concerns over Google's foray into too many fields at one go (Google too big for Google?), and I think they see that too now.

After all, its not easy to put your hand in too many sugar jars and keep them there.

[Link]: Om Malik seems to be in doubt, and almost seems to agree with me here (Google wasting its genius cycles?)

Dwelling into APIs

2006-05-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

For quite a while now, I've been hooked to API's and how to get data out of existing machines from the internet giants. I was pointed towards Yahoo! (Developer Area) by Greg, and the moment I reached there, the sheer variety of services which can be called straight from their API was exciting. Although as happens when you're flooded with too many options at one go, I hit the biggest creative block I have in a while, which is why I've gone off coding for a while after my Native Blog Search.

Now that I want to get back at it, I tried going over to Google (Google Code) to have a look at what all they offer. I had seen their API's being flaunted over at Labs, but never really got around having a look. Now that I have, I am a little disappointed. None of their API documentations describe the use of Javascript to make calls to their API. My knowledge is a little low with API's at the moment, because I just started, but even if it is somewhere there, they should make it as clear as Yahoo! has. Yahoo!'s presentation, documentation and explanation was really amazing. It atleast compelled me to give it a try.

I'm afraid Google turned me away from their's. I encountered a lot of areas where Google should try and up themselves, if they want to become bigger with developers. Their lack of RSS or JSON's for their main web search also makes for a huge drawback. I can understand why they wouldn't do that, since it eats away at their adsense revenue, but still...

Final word from me, is that Google really needs to up their feeds, and API usability with javascript. If I'm wrong about the javascript part, someone point me in the right direction. They can make it big there, and I hate to see Yahoo! overtaking Google there because of a simple overlook (I think). Especially because frankly, Yahoo! is nothing compared to Google when it comes to search!

Filed Under:

Why take the hard road?

2006-05-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

It was only about a month ago that I wrote about how automating tasks to reduce human intervention wasn't as good an idea at this point of time because of the lack of technological intelligence (Credibility Of Automation). That being said, it also makes no sense not to use the speed and tireless working habits of machines to automate easy and repititive tasks so that we don't have to manually execute them again and again!

There are some very basic and fundamental uses of these, which can be furthur extended to be used to complicated and more efficient, useful tasks. They take away the pain of hardcoding everything into your document. You can leave subtle, easy to enter hints for your script to look for, and once found, alter the line in some way or do something else. With Javascripts regexps as strong and useful as they are, there is no reason why people with enough coding knowledge shouldn't exploit them.

I employed something like this on my blog last night. A nagging but very visible problem that I have been having is differentiating between external and internal links in my posts. I always want my external links to open in a new window for the user, but I needed a way of telling them that the link would open a new window. Now, the fool's way would be to hard-code some kind of identifier inside the link tag to let the person know, but I decided a better way. Why not let a script run through my links, and alter them if they are marked as external links?

So I made up a simple but useful script! It checks the rel attribute of all links, and whenever it finds a match for external or ext, it'll append an image to it, and make its target="_blank". Simple, unobtrusive, and saves tons of hardcoding time. Although a problem arises if you want certain links not to be affected, yet keep them external. But for that, you can always use a third value for rel.

This is only one of the basic uses of scripts to do repititive tasks. Scripts are powerful things, and should be used whenever their need be sensed. Ofcourse, don't go overboard otherwise your page will have ten's of scripts running at page load and hence will slow down the loading times. That is not good! :) So find innovative ways of using this, you won't regret it!

[Info]: The auto external links script is something like Kirk's over at Phydeaux3. I'll admit the idea stemmed from there! :)

Vista, too complex for Microsoft?

2006-05-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

The significant thing about Vista, however, is not the shipping date but the fact that it has been an unconscionable time in the making, subject to endless slippages (which have triggered major organisational changes within the company) and - when it eventually ships - will be just a shadow of the system envisaged when it was conceived.

Got blue?

Native Blog Search

2006-05-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

Ok! Google Blogsearch is back up, and hence is the search! Happy days! :)

The idea for this stemmed from a little experiment that I was trying to conduct about a month back. The experiment dissolved, but this was born out of all the knowledge that I gained from it. Trying to not to sound like a TV commercial, it is slightly painful when one searches and it opens up a seperate Google page full of your results. You need to make tons of click to return to where you were, and conduct the search in a new page. Plus, those Google search pages don't look that good either. So, I present to you, Blogger Native Blog Search. (Updates)

This hack aim's to solve the problem of displaying searches in one's own page rather than go to a Google search results page. You can see it in action on the right, right above my profile picture. Put in a word, and it will search this blog for it and display it right underneath. Wanna implement it? Good! Let's show you how! :)

[Note]: Through use, its been brought to my notice that this doesn't work for blogs hosted in folders (a.k.a www.domain.com/blog). This is not a fault of the script, but a bug with Google's search. Hence, to make this work, your blog should be either on Blogger itself, or on your own domain (main page, not in a folder). If it's in a folder, it'll behave as a normal site search (unintended extended use! :D)

Put this bit of code in your template's <head> area, within <script> ... </script> tags:

/* ```````````` NATIVE SEARCH ``````````````` */

/* <license rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/" /> */
/* Native Blog Search by Aditya Mukherjee (www.aditya-mukherjee.com) */

function d_script(para){
var url="http://xoxotools.ning.com/outlineconvert.php?output=json&classes=item&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.blogger.com%2Fblogsearch_feeds%3Fas_q%3D"+para+"%2Bblogurl%3A"+encodeURIComponent(window.location.host)+"%26ui%3Dblg%26ie%3Dutf-8%26num%3D7%26output%3Drss&xn_auth=no&callback=json&submit=Convert";

var script = document.createElement('script');
   script.type = 'text/javascript';
   script.id= 'app-script';
   script.src = url;
   document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);
}

function json(rss){

function display_search(){
  document.getElementById('text').innerHTML="";
  document.getElementById('text').style.display="block";
  document.getElementById('close').style.display="inline";
}

var i=0;
var results = new Array();

if (!rss.item) alert('No Entries!'); 
else if (typeof(rss.item[1])=="undefined") { results.push(rss.item); display_search(); }
else { results=rss.item; display_search(); }

for(i=0;i<results.length;i++){

var app=document.createElement('a');
    var dv=document.createElement('div');
    var sp=document.createElement('br');

app.href=results[i].link;
    app.innerHTML=results[i].title;
    app.title=results[i].title;
    
        dv.innerHTML=results[i].description;
         if(app.innerHTML=="undefined"){document.getElementById('text').innerHTML="No Searches!"}
        else{
              document.getElementById('text').appendChild(app)
              document.getElementById('text').appendChild(dv)
              document.getElementById('text').appendChild(sp);
        }

}
var rem=document.getElementById('app-script');
rem.parentNode.removeChild(rem);
}

Notice, that I have used the container tag named text to show the results. You can change it to anything for your usability comfort. Now, put the following bit of code wherever you want to put the form to make the search. It goes in your body area:

This part is the container which will hold the results from the search performed, followed by close button to close the search results.

There you have it! Now you have native blog search. If you use this code as-is, make sure there aren't any other elements with the id as text. It'll interfere with this. If you change the id in one place of the code, you'll have to change it everywhere. If there is no search result, an alert popup will tell you that there aren't any.

There are many implications of this hack. The main one of them being that this'll keep the Google Ads at bay. Since you don't go to a Google results page, you don't see any ads. I don't know how good that is for Google, but well, there's a downside to everything! :P This hack is by no means complete, so people who want to add to this are more than welcome. Just leave a comment and tell me that you've updated it, so that I can link to you! :)

As usual, if you have any trouble implementing this, please comment and let me know. I'll try to help you out to the best of abilities. Enjoy!

[Update 02/07]: The link back to this page was a little off! Fixed!

[Update 30/05]: The format of the output from the Outline Converter is hitting crests and troughs, so I'm taking a page out of Greg's book and simplifying the code, in case I have to change it again in the future. I don't know if the function becomes faster because of this! :P

[Update 19/06]: ~~Something wrong with XOXOtools. I'm trying to get it fixed as quick as I can. Sorry for the inconvenience people!~~ False alarm. All's good!

[Update 27/05]: Users don't need to add the blog address now. It'll automatically pull it from the browser. Ease of use! :)

[Update 11/05]: Switched to Singpolyma's Outline converter to remove bandwidth restrictions and save John! Its a little bit faster now as well! :)

The Last Word

Rebirth!

The template editor explored

The gold mine of data

Reloaded fo'sho!

A secret not so secret

Google to the rescue!

Let's face it

They aren't perfect!

The big fuss!

The word on the street

The reality

The magic behind the scenes

Guess who's back?

The season of hiatuses

Estranged (Guns 'N Roses)

Google motto: Simplify everything!

Simple is goog, err... good!

Google listens

The day after yesterday

Blogger relaunch, more stuff that caught my eye!

The template

The conclusion

Regular Updates

The great Blogger relaunch, part deux!

The features cometh

The martyrs

Google planning server farm in India

Resources

An IDE is what we need!

Why aren't there more?

The helping hand

A playground of geeks

Resources

The modern revolution

Asynchronous Backlinks!

Introduction

Implementation

Explanation

One page to help them all!

Resources

Is Dvorak for real?

Why CSS bugs him?

The best there is

Resources

Indian blogs blocked!

The Reason

Democracy and RTI

Native Search, now with Suggestions!

I love Macs, but...

Misconceptions that plagueth

The industrial handicap

The last word

Resources

Where go the hacks?

As it is now

What they are trying

I'm still standing!

Blogger Hacking :: Going Multiple

Blogger documentation

Framing your blogs

Digest 'em feeds

Going manual

Digg 3.0! Amore!

Blogger Hacking :: Taming the META

Blogger default

Hacking the META

Blogger Hacking

The 'World Cup' cometh to Firefox!

Microsoft teams up with Creative Commons

Automatic Blogger Post Saver

Usage

Something for everyone!

The niche blogs

The 'sell-out' blogs

The crowd pleaser

Google results, spam king?

Related Posts Automatic Searcher Script

Working

Troubleshooting