Random Post: Compulsive Closure

This is a random post after a long time. The nice thing about random post is that my random may simulate your random, and we may have random time to write and read it... or simply move on.

So, giving up is not so easy. Should not be either.
"We live in a world where closure is not always an option"
For example, this sheldon video:


Today, when I was traveling on the subway, wanted to try out the sudoku on one of those free magazines that they give out in the mornings. When I started, I was determined that I would not hang on to it at the end of my travel.
I started it out, and was about to complete it when I arrived at my destination. My second thought was, I can simply insert it into my bag, and complete it in the return trip. To have that satisfaction of seeing closure, I could cheat using that Google scanner to fill it out! But, No! I wanted to be firm on it.
So, I left it unsolved. There are so many things that need to be solved, leaving it so close can be too much pain. But I had to make up my mind, given the time frame of my route A to route B type of travel.

Then I got out to find this gem: Luggage loaded into a wheel-less cart. How far was he planning to go? Please do not make me push it!

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Admit it! Blog Comments are dead! RIP comments

So much for the title!
By looking at the changing landscape of blog-o-sphere, micro-blogging sites are much more robust for the interactions. Long gone are the days of comments.

I know; There are still some heavy discussion going around in some of the blog posts. However, admit it that is not the comment that you are reading. Blog comments are dead because the "comment" sections are not filled with comments, they are interactions between few people replying back and forth. Some at personal level. Just look into some of the yahoo news "comments". A radical guy gets hundreds of comments on his comment because it is. That is not a comment, they do not add any values to the readership. And there is always spam "comments", well they can penetrate thru' your captcha enabled comment system because it is run by outsourced comment-makers... It goes something like
"Your article is interesting.... then there is the link to some weird website!"

Another paradigm that was responsible to killing comment was Facebook's comment system. It reduced the anonymous comment system. Since people are shy to express their feeling with their identities attached, they are making less comments... would rather rant about it elsewhere!

Blog Comments are dead! RIP comments.  Do you agree?

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Google Blogger Removed Amazon Associates

If you noted, this little Amazon Associates box is not functional anymore. I used to think that amazon associate program is one of the not-so-good one. But, if you/your post can refer someone who buys books/items from the referral, you get a nice incentives. I am telling from my experience.

Anyways,  Blogger used to have nice monitization integration with amazon, which seems to have gone now. So, if you want to add Amazon associate links, you have to go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and then work from there. Not so much convenient as it used to be.

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Page Ranks for Dai ko Blogz

Well, forgive me for self promotion.
 I wanted to test the page rank of some of my blogs:

How did I end up with nearly half a dozen of Blogz? I wonder!

ajabgajab: a hobby blog.
nabinkm.com: attempts to be an academic nepali blogger ()
webloggerdai: internet, technology, tips etc
usefulcodes: as name indicates
hamrocircle: Hobby projects to gather nepali bloggers around the globe and have a google gadget.

Fifth Online Dautari Bhela, Challenges ahead

Dautari.org has been organizing the online meetup for Nepali Bloggers around the globe.
The fifth online bhela is scheduled for Aug 6th 2011. Please RSVP asap.

I would like to suggest few topics that the online bhela may  respond to.
1. Relevance of online bhela.
We meet every 6 months... and then disappear (well kinda). We need to prove the relevance of the online bhela like this. Other than meet and greet, have we been able to prove vital in the history of Nepalese bloggers?
I am biased to say yes, but lets be critical of ourselves. I have seen people who came to bhela, but then they had their own agenda. How to be more effective? Google Group, bloggers.com.np, hamrocircle, nepali blog list and what else do we have?  Have we been effective in helping the new (enthusiastic not the adsense wala) bloggers?

2. #BlogCoE: Where do we go from there?
I really appreciate the efforts. However,  as @anandnepal points out, could we have gathered bigger support to the vision of CoE? We do not want to build a road which goes nowhere.  

3. Copy paste blogger (as Dacharya named: "saarak"): Still the trouble, no cure!

4. Blogan: Umm what? is it still around?
Well, this might be controversial. But lets solve this case once and for all. If it is alive, this is the best chance to prove it's livelihood. If it is really dead, we really do not want the ghost of Blogan to hunt anyone (if any).


Lets wish all the best to the Dautari organizers. Keep up the good work!

Nepali Twitter Kanda

http://bit.ly/e0NpVm
First, one should appreciate the idea of doing something new. It was a good attempt by Kantipur to bridge to gap between the offline-online connections. However, I have to say the following...

If a person is standing on a chowk and saying out loud random 140 characters. What would the passer-by learn? They might eventually name that person a mad-man.
Publication of twitters without context can be regarded as similar stunt.

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Second, napaune-le ke payo bokra samma chapayo. Twitter is not for backbiting. One has to be aware of the consequences of throwing stuffs into the air. They might come back to hunt you. If anything can not be said in public, and defended; well put it in a diary.

It is certainly encouraging that Nepali tweepals are   learning to navigate the twitter space by poking around. Most of them are @personal-level communication and might not be relevant to the public. Yet, it happens as @mention; not as personal messages in inbox. (This is the changing horizon of communication medium.)

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If all you have is a hammer, everything you see is a nail. This is true on both sides. On both sides, there seem to be lack of understanding of the responsibility that came with the power of broadcasting.

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Now (hopefully) that we have learned the lesson, lets move forward.

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Ohhh... context::::
http://www.aakarpost.com/2011/04/thoughts-on-ongoing-issue-on-nepali.html
http://bhumikasa.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/digital-securityprivacy-and-copyrights/
http://www.nepalivoices.com/nepal-blog/2011/03/27/personal-is-not-private/
Most importantly,  the comments there in.
Follow nepali twitter-bloggers @ http://twitter.com/#!/nabinkm/blognp

Making Your Blog Mobile Friendly

Just found out how to make the blog mobile friendly:

Since the number of smartphone users are increasing (and will keep increasing) I was looking forward to make the contents available in more user friendly manner.

There are harder way to do it. However, easy one is done via reader option.

My ajabgajab blog is mobile friendly here:
http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ajabgajab/
Note that the last stuffs after /feed/ is my Blog RSS.

screenshot

The harder way is:
http://www.techknowl.com/create-mobile-version-of-blogger-or.html
Last thought: Because of full HTML availability in smart phones, I wonder if the pain is worth. Um, yes, data!

Lets go to the Global Nepali Blogger Bhela @ Dautari.org

Dautari.org is organizing third world wide e-bela for Nepali Bloggers.


The First Bhela: http://www.dautari.org/2009/08/blog-post.html  and Second Bhela: http://www.dautari.org/2010/01/blog-post_21.html was held on the same place.


During previous bhela, chat box was somehow full (although Nepalean G had paid) and only allowed 25 people. Archana G and some other had to log off the box to let in other people. I am hoping that this time it will be taken care beforehand.


Although the announcement of bhela was called on a short notice, It is fun to meet the great writers and new and old Nepali blogger friends spread around the world. 


Please let the organizers know your plan as it will make them easy to plan ahead.
http://www.dautari.org/2010/08/blog-post_03.html 
To keep the live discussions alive throughout the year, you can also join the Nepali Blogger's Group:
http://groups.google.com/group/nepali-bloggers 

Jaya Blogging, Happy Blogging!

Creating Pages in Blogger (in Blogger.Draft)

I had not noticed that blogger in draft had launched this feature some age ago!
When you love writing "about me", creating page is really handy. This kind of feature was available in wordpress, not in  blogger.
Because I did not like having 40 character long page name as is done by making about me posts, I had to do some tricks: http://webloggerdai.blogspot.com/2010/01/understanding-and-using-page-types-in.html

Well, if you also missed it, learn some here on how to create pages ...
 http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165955#templates
 10 pages per blog should be more than enough!!!

 (... and draft does not allow uploading pic from computer... HUH!)
Had I not bumped the draft feature... Blogger in draft used to be my default homepage for blogger. After schedule feature came online, I kinda switched to regular blogger dashboard.
Grrr!


Now I am kinda waiting for blogger to support LATEX. It would be much more fun after that.... 
Google are you reading it?? !!!

Understanding and using Page Types in Blogger

Here is the motivation: You want to show only certain gadget for instance google friend connect bar at the top/bottom only on the index page or post page.

I would recommend the TE article (see below) first to understand the page type.

<p><data:blog.pageType/></p>

The code given as in TE, did not work with double quotation there...

I figured it was this problem:

&quot;index&quot;

versus

"index"

Once that was figured out, it was easy to understand:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>

<data:title/>

<b:else/>

<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>

</b:if>
just simple if-else statement!

************

Now the following code can be implemented in the body section, so that the item inbetween if tag is displayed only in home page.

It works!

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != &quot;item&quot;'>

this one is displayed only in home page.

</b:if>

***
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>

display this one only in post page


</b:if>

***



Inspired by:
TE article: http://technicallyeasy.net/2009/12/understanding-blogger-page-types/

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>

<p>This sentence will only show on a post page.</p>

</b:if>

Converted to ht.ml code:
http://www.eblogtemplates.com/blogger-ad-code-converter/

Yahoo Site Explorer gets makeover: noticed one error for Blogger

Yahoo Site Explorer [http://webloggerdai.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-site-explorer.html] is cool. I have to say that it is not yet a challenge to the google analytics or G- webmaster tools. However, it is good to have one more crawler report for convenience. Who knows engineers at YDN may be working day+night to get it more impressive.


However, I have noticed that there is a problem with authentication:
The code as given does not work in blogger HTML:

When inserted the authentication code:
<META name="y_key" content="076yhjk3med 93i" > (content changed for privacy reason) does not work in Blogger.
It needs to be added with a forward slash:

<META name="y_key" content="076yhjk3med 93i" />

The Error message:

We were unable to save your template

Please correct the error below, and submit your template again.

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.

XML error message: The element type "META" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "".

Yahoo Site Explorer

I just realized that there is yahoo site explorer. 

Basically I use Google analytics to analyze the impact factor of my sites. Google Analytics is a great tool. It has a lot of features and it is free! I would strongly recommend getting into it if you have not tried it yet. There is another cool online tool from Google: Google Web master tool. This is another tool which you can enjoy for free.

However, for a different test I wanted to test Yahoo site explorer . 

Does anyone have yahoo site explorer experience?
Currently, I am just looking at the Inlinks and analyzing it.

Three column template versus web2.0 theme and two column blogs

I have been clinging to the current theme for more than 6 months by now.
Sometimes I think of changing the style once in a while.
In the beginning, I used to change a lot of style. Whenever I got free time, I would sit and kill the current theme and then look out for new ones. But the problems would be regarding the speed and look.

I have seen pretty much every kind of design my now: while blog hopping.
I am thinking ...
Which one is the best....
Three column template or web2.0 theme or two column themes?
I can say that I do not like two column themes.
So, it really comes down to three column themes versus web 2.o themes.
(well, wordpress based themes are really awesome too)

Productivity Chart: Thinking about it!

Looking at my blogging habits, I found that it is not purely stochastic.
I know it, the process has been driven by many factors.
Can you predict how many posts I will be producing in the month of october and november?


Starting as a part of hobby and producing up to 25 posts (per month)at maximum is something that has amazed me.

How are you doing with your blogging habits?

Entrecard: New Pricing System

Taken from the page:
http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising#advertising_price




Advertising price

The formula to calculate a members' advertising price is 2 to the power of your queue. What this means is that your ad price doubles for every ad in your queue, both Pending and Approved. Note that your price may not increase or decrease as soon as the number of ads in your queue changes. There may be a delay in the price change. No of ads Price in credits Credits earned
by site owner
0 2 1
1 2 1
2 4 1
3 8 2
4 16 4
5 32 8
6 64 16
7 128 32
8 256 64
9 384 96
10 512 128
11 768 192
12 1024 256
13 1536 384
14 2048 512
15 3072 768
16 4096 1024
17 8192 2048
18 16384 4096

Ad Queue Full

You might see this message on blogs you would like to advertise on. This means that a particular member has more than 5 pending requests from others who would like to advertise on that site.





Finally, they are being little bit more logical.

:0

I have my own idea:
http://ajabgajab.blogspot.com/2008/06/idea-for-entrecard-pricing-system.html

Microsoft Update says ..."You can not use your computer ..."

Really?
Well, this is my PC.

I am back to vista after too many days. I have been using Ubuntu for a while. After I opened the system into Vista system, I felt like I was attacked with a lot of things. It, virtually, was frozen (at least I felt so).

Everythings wanted to get started and needed to be upto date. Well, thanks, FF3 opened up and I am posting with confusion.

Microsoft, May I post one blog post.... Please (while you are updating).

:(

Support a Cause in Social Sparks

I noticed that they are upgrading their site and navigation style in Social Sparks. I have been donating some percentage of my ppp income to charities like ARC. Having a cause for blogging is nice.

I have been supporting and volunteering the Comen Race for the Cure in the North East.
I have joined various causes.
If you are also SS users, You can also join 'em.
By doing so, you will be able to donate the compensation to the cause. As they say, it is tax-deductable. I do not know what does that mean, exactly. But anyway, Blogging for cause is one of the best ways to support humanity.

Link Love: I love you

During my rambling on these days, I have come across a lot of request for link x change.
Well, I would love to exchange links if you have

• a blog which is acceptable for everyone
  

Here we go:

1. Aakar: Blog
2. Active Nepali Blogs
3. Ametya: Blog
4. Amit: Blog
5. Basant:ScienceNSociety
6. BasantaG: Da Road
7. Deepa:Chitchat
8. Dacharya
   
9. Infinity: tachyon
10. MangalMan
11. Nabin: Mirror Blog
12. Palai Palo
13. Ujeli: guff
14. the Infinity
15. melody
16. dotsky
17. wecindy
18. sam
19. momstart
20. kystorms
21. RIZE
22. manojlds
23. kikamz
24. ITblood
25. BB4Blog
    
26. You!
    

Please get yourself in: simply link me back by using any word you like and comment below.
I promise regular visits and link love!
(I am also planning to blog about a site every once in a while from this list: so get in!)

Blogged:
PalaiPalo: Dated Aug7,2008
Hamrocircle: Dated Aug 28, 2008


Thanks!

Shy Poll: 53 votes over the month

Few months back, I had run a Poll regarding my query in mind whether people would poll, rather than whether to know how people get in. To learn it, I can get the info from sitemeter or google-analytics. The query was whether people who come for Entrecard Credits do look around or not...

Welcome, How did you land here?
EC Rocks! 35 votes (67%)
Sitehoppin 2 votes (3%)
Regular... 4 (7%)
Random + other 10 (11%)
search engine 1 (1%)

Total vote: 52 (by may 19th)

FOOT NOTE:
(If you have not got google analytics account, yet. Get it now!
It is free and very very very useful:
http://www.google.com/analytics/)

HAMRO CIRCLE: Active Nepali Blogs

http://hamrocircle.blogspot.com/
The concept behind the site is the fact that there are some directories in the internet, but they lack updates. They do not care whether the blog has not been updated for centuries or not. That can not be very informative listing. Specially because there are a lot of people wasting time to seek out updated blogs who end up visiting some semi-dead blogs.

HAMRO CIRCLE is an attempt to have short list of our favourite Nepali blogs.
The site simply features blog-roll concept in Blogspot. It is mere a collection of Active Nepali Bloggers. I must warn, however, that some blogs which are famous enough have not been listed there because they are not blog, but rather are working as news agency. (I can not remain without praising their efforts. but, they are not blogs anymore.)

So, if you are Nepali blogger, please bookmark the site: HAMRO CIRCLE.