Log of Archiver

Warning For Free Wordpress Theme Searchers

noreply@blogger.com (Archiver) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:11:00 +0000

Siobhan has a very good and informative article pointing to the dangers of downloading free Wordpress themes from unreliable sources. I thought of tweeting her warning at first but considering the very few followers I had, decided to publish here.

Apparently discrete base64 coding is becoming a norm among the evil-doers. Though many seem to be aiming getting backlinks, a base64 code can virtually hide anything. So, reading her post will be most helpful as she provides a number of trustworthy sites (both free and commercial) where you can shop for a theme to your liking in addition to some tools to scan and detect malware.

If we look into the Blogger platform, so far I have not come across anything similar but who knows what's in an obscured piece of code? If you think you can handle it, you can always do what I did in the new face-lift: editing one of the default templates. Be safe!

2 Million Reasons from the Master

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:42:00 +0000

If there is only one person that I would really like to be, it is definitely Stephen Fry. Being the Lord of Dance, Prince of Swimwear and blogger among many things, he is a wizard of words; written and spoken.

I have just read his latest post celebrating his 2 millionth follower (yes, that is correct; 2,000,000) in Twitter, in addition to being a gift to @mobijack, the lucky twitterer. But things were not so smooth for Jack, especially after seeing the opening paragraph:

Dear @mobijack

“Eat shit, a hundred billion flies can’t be wrong,” the old graffito used to say. “Follow Stephen, two million tweeters can’t be wrong,” I say.

Poor Jonathan admits he hesitated to click after those words and yet Fry just twists and turns the story. He not only gives us a lesson about literary style, but also manages to entertain us all; with a complimentary hug for the lucky follower. Go read it.

Marx Reloaded

noreply@blogger.com (Archiver) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Medea Film will release a cultural documentary titled "Marx Reloaded" in 2011. Directed by Jason Barker and Alexandra Weltz, the 52 minute movie is trying to make sense of the recent global crisis by revisiting the ideas of the German philosopher Karl Marx. From the trailer:

In the early months of 2008 a huge event began to rock the global financial system to its foundations. Billions of dollars were wiped off share prices and commercial banks throughout the world began to collapse like a pack of cards. As the global economy entered the deepest recession for 70 years the message from the mainstream media was simple: this was an anomaly, an isolated financial "blip" as unpredictable as a tsunami or lightening strike. Although devastating for the millions of ordinary people around the world whose homes were lost and whose jobs and savings disappeared into thin air, the crisis itself was simply one of those extraordinary things: a cataclysm that escapes all rational thinking.

But what were the real origins of this crisis? And what are its ongoing implications for the future prosperity of us all?

But as one commentator said:

It's easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism...

How About a Face-lift?

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:37:00 +0000

New year, new hopes and a new look! This is my first trial of a single column template which are traditionally used by photo-bloggers. This time, however, I did not follow the easy route of downloading an XML file and using it.

Instead, I heavily modified one of the default templates (simple) provided by Blogger; trying not to break anything, of course. Since only the styling is changed I assume (read: hope) all native applications for Blogspot like the new designer, mobile phone version etc will work seamlessly. So far no problems.

Let me wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2011 by taking this opportunity.

When Google Fails to Search

noreply@blogger.com (Archiver) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:12:00 +0000

It all started when I decided to write a new blog. As I had done it many times before, setup, widgets and plug-ins of my choice and a suitable template swiftly took their places. Additional code was minimal for Blogger now does many things natively.

One of my all-time favorite widgets is related posts service. Sadly, maintainer of brps did not accept any more users. Instead, he was directing newcomers to another but similar plug-in which uses Google Web Search API. Since I was already using it in an another blog, I quickly grabbed it.

For the first couple of posts, I ignored the "no related posts found" warnings as it was my understanding that it used Google's search index instead of json/feed combination and it was normal for the posts to appear in search engines with a little delay. Some 20 posts later, when the plug-in still failed to load any related posts, I decided to take a closer look. The code was fine, it was and still is working in an older blog. The posts were indexed by Googlebot, so no problem there, either. Just as I was about to shoot a message to developer, I discovered Google was deprecating its API and there was nothing developer could do.

Leaving aside the mystery of why it functions in one and not the other, I began a search for alternatives. Among a plethora of posts advocating a bunch of similar applications having a flaw (subjective view) one way or another, I have finally found one and implemented it successfully. In case you are not happy with yours or looking for a lean and mean related posts widget like the one here (they are not the same, brps is more sophisticated), here is the way to do it:

1. Go to design, edit html and click the box to expand your widget templates.
2. Insert the following code before the closing head tag

<!--Related Posts Scripts and Styles Start-->
<!--Remove--><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var relatedpoststitle=&quot;&quot;;
</script>
<script src='http://blogergadgets.googlecode.com/files/related-posts-for-blogger.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<!--Remove--></b:if>
<!--Related Posts Scripts and Styles End-->
</head> <--- the closing head tag

3. Find "post-footer-line-3" and insert following after the tag

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <-- The tag you're looking for
<!--code starts here-->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>

<h4>Related Posts:</h4>

<div id='related-posts'>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<b:if cond='data:label.isLast != &quot;true&quot;'>
</b:if>
<script expr:src='&quot;/feeds/posts/default/-/&quot; + data:label.name + &quot;?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=related_results_labels&amp;max-results=6&quot;' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:loop>
<script type='text/javascript'>

var maxresults=5;
removeRelatedDuplicates(); printRelatedLabels(&quot;&quot;);
</script>
</div>
</b:if>
<!--code ends here-->

4. Customize the title between h4 tags (currently Related Posts:) and "var maxresults" (currently set to 5 posts) to your liking.

I am looking for the true author of the script to give due credit. If you happen to know, just drop a comment here.

After solving this, I could not help but think Google's change of API was an ominous sign. So, I decided to run a query in the search box similar to the one here at the top of sidebar. Boy, was I right! The search did not return any results. The presumably native search did (and still does) not work; it finds nothing.

Here too, we have a mysterious puzzle. The same search happens to function perfectly inside the dashboard but miserably fails if you or your readers use it on your blog. Why does it work in blog 1 but not in blog 2? Neither I nor Google had apparently any clue as this has been going on for more than a year, July 2009 to be exact. Interestingly, they are problems with the so called custom search engine, too. Google can not search. Who would have thought?

Seeking Love, the Moonit Way

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:31:00 +0000

Relationship compatibility, matchmaking tool , insights into Generation Y users' relationships, business and platonic relationship compatibility and guidance, down-to-earth horoscope... What do these phrases mean to you?

Finally big capital is into matchmaking. Tired of one-man shows, poor customer service, here comes the real thing: Moonit! The final frontier in the business of finding love. Backed with corporate enthusiasm, follow-up plans, due dilligence, agility and what not. The only thing missing in our lives. Can't find your soul mate in Facebook? No problem!

I can not help but think how lucky we are as a generation. Imagine those living in the Victorian era; they had no phones - they could not sext -, no Facebook - they could not offer each other virtual drinks -, no nothing. Poor, pathetic creatures. We must be blessed!

Repurpose Best-of-Breed Partnerships

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:52:00 +0000

Slow days can be unbearable. You feel dried out, just short of your creative skills as if they are hidden in a dark recess in your mind. You want to dig down, reach out but fail.

During those times you need partnerships just like you need a friend to talk to in the material world. Jointly creating something when individuality disappoints and relying on collective ownership instead might be worth in gold in the online arena. Build a network slowly and thoughtfully and redefine its purpose: it will not be there for killing time. Cooperation can create wonders.

Forget Valentine, It's Rasputin's Day

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:20:00 +0000

This is my official petition to change or rather correct a misnomer. I hereby declare 14th of February as Rasputin's day. Who on earth was Valentine anyway? A saint? I'm sure the Pope will be thrilled to hear that all around the world, non-married couples will be copulating to celebrate Valentine's day, after some wine and dine, of course (let us not forget the flowers, preferably roses).

I feel Rasputin will be a much better choice for today's lovers. Russia's crazy love machine! Boney M, anyone? A witch, a healer, a horny mad monk! All time favorite of Tsarevitch. Full of charm and lust to spare.

Happy Rasputin's Day!

Time Takes its Toll

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:07:00 +0000

It's been a while since I posted due to a sickness that literally pinned me down in my bed. Coming back is not so easy. Log of Archiver was a mess: I tried so many things, tweaked my way around to such a degree that I was unable to remove a widget; everything had to be done by editing the HTML. It was an indicator to a new template with zero widgets floating around. I have just done that (a few previous posts may not work, though, but I'll look into it).

Another reason for the change is Blogger now does a lot of things, things we have to use external scripts to function. "Read more" hack, for instance. If you switch to the brand new editor, you will see a new icon that says "insert jump break" which is the Bloggerese for "read more".

I have never used a stylish template before, been fond of white, minimalistic themes; this is my first. I had to shop around for quite some time until I found one that was not so colorful, had a fluid width and loaded fast. This one passed the test.

Drive Magnetic Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sun, 17 May 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Well, the title may sound archaic first and it can be considered a feeble attempt to push yesterday's technology back into our lives. Before dismissing the idea, however, let us pause and think about it.

Has magnetic technologies, any one, ever failed us? Even musicians still want to use analog devices because of their comparative quality over digital. There are billions of bytes of data lying around in tape archives. The computer manufacturers continue to demand magnetic hard disks despite all the buzz about optic and quantum and whatnot equivalents.

Do not let the latest, greatest and the fanciest allure you. Drive magnetic technologies until their alternatives prove their worth. Also spracht the fortune cookie.

Screaming Superfly Pig

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Here is a unique item that will no doubt make Remarque jealous during these swine flu days: A screaming superfly pig from X-treme Geek; introduced with these words:

If you know someone who always says "when pigs can fly," have we got some pig for you. The Screaming Superfly Pig, once blasted slingshot-style from your fingers, swines through the air, oinking loudly all the while. Shake up those quiet afternoons and prove that pigs not only fly, they do so with gusto.

With a price tag of $5.95 as of writing this post, it seemed one of the best among them collectibles that will surely bring a big smile, if nothing else.

Keeping an Off-line Blog

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Since 2006 I have been keeping an off-line blog, using it sort of like a diary (one of many advantages of using Linux; an environment that works out of the box with a web server, PHP, etc.). Unlike many, I usually keep my thoughts, projects, ideas, etc as blog posts. This way, they are easily searchable, hyper-linked, can have embedded content (I particularly like this feature. You can access all your favorite videos, music and whatnot effortlessly), so and so forth.

Before this system, I tried several alternatives and programs but found this superior to others all. Combined with a browser like Opera (and its notes feature), it gives best of all possible options. Not only it is a good organizer, it also helps posting to my on-line blogs: I combine, edit, add some new stuff and publish.

So far, I stayed away from blogging software that requires databases; not that I'm against them, just thought they were not necessary. Today, I have imported all my posts to Wordpress, after installing MySQL, of course. Naturally, I am unable to import tags and categories. It will take some time until I finish the tagging, considering there are more than 600 posts.

I have to say I am impressed with Wordpress and its features (speedwise, cannot tell as everthing is working at localhost. You will be amazed at the speed when you run things locally; try it some time).

To make a long story short, this change will give me a hands-on experience with a popular blogging platform. Besides, you should really consider running an off-line blog; it is the best organizer/journal you can have.

Why I Love/Hate Beethoven

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:07:00 +0000

I have a weird love/hate relationship with Beethoven (the composer, not the dog). His music enchants me, but very few of his pieces managed to escape my endless rants. He always finds a way, at some point, to upset me. I usualy define that point as the place where I think the piece should end -gracefully- but Beethoven disagrees and goes on with an additional movement to my annoyment.

I attribute it to his strict German upbringing. In his view, a symphony has to have three or in rare cases four parts. Just to comply with this unwritten rule of his, he throws in an utterly unnecessary part.

Here is his 7th symphony, second movement, conducted by Charles Latshaw:

I have never been able to finish the third after listening the second mvt and our troubled relationship with him continues in spite of these small frictions.

Friend Connect Bar and Poll Widget

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:49:00 +0000

I have added a Friend Connect bar (bottom of the page) and a poll widget today. I thought about a lot where to place the poll. I have way too many widgets on the sidebar, which is narrow for all intents and purposes anyway, so end of posts seemed like a good position.

I am not a big fan of polls in blogs. Although I accept that it is a good step towards reader engagement, it has no statistical value, plus, one now carries an additional burden: finding intelligent questions. Empty space to its right has now an ad until I find something to better utilize the place.

Friend Connect bar, on the other hand, might bring some value to a blog but I am not sure what it is. Well... You sometimes have to experiment until you are satisfied, so here we go.

Generate Strategic Users

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:36:00 +0000

When these words appeared on the glossy surface of my crystal ball, I was trying to find ways to increase RSS subscriptions. The only source of light in the dark room was a crack in the Southern wall.

Quality versus quantity. Whatever you do, this dilemma is sure to pop up at one time in your ventures, on or off line. But we seldom think about strategic users or readers. Now, it is tempting to classify them in the quality group. Think again!

What does strategic mean in the context of your business, blog, etc. How do you define a number of subscribers, customers, so and so forth as strategic? My definition is as follows:

A person or entity that is likely to affect the opinion of others.

Regardless of what you do, generating strategic users / partners is essential for your success.

Woman of Straw - Not Trendy Version

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:46:00 +0000

Yet another experiment or attempt of mine to stop being a non-conformist and do what the public is doing. When I noticed "woman of straw" slowly but surely moving up in the trends chart, I decided to follow it. I thought it was something I could do without sacrificing my snobbishness. After all, the trend could only be attributed to:

a) Vincent Van Gogh's painting of a young peasant woman with straw hat sitting in the wheat field

b) A can-be-considered classic movie of Gina Lollabrigida and Sean Connery.

Unless the painting was stolen, I was positive that the second one was the reason that whipped public's sudden interest. So, I am sticking to Van Gogh.

Van Gogh is one of my all-time favorites among painters. You can hardly find another painter that helps you understand what Huxley tried to convey in his Doors of Perception.

When you look at Van Gogh's paintings you realize that his vision of the world is not like yours. He does not imagine, he sees/perceives it that way. Try "Starry Night" for example. The whole sky is like a big chunk of cheese with holes on it. And the stars are inside those cavities; something I will not be able to see no matter how high I am. Give me all the pills in the world, dump me in a mushroom field, still no go. My life experiences have long ago closed those doors. Alas!

Missing Pale Blue Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:53:00 +0000

True to the spirit of a Friday night, I have found an extremely rare black and white video of Lou Reed accompanied by John Cale and Nico. They were on stage for the first time since the break up of the Velvet Underground. The legendary show was recorded at the Bataclan Club in Paris, on January 29th, 1972, by Claude Ventura.

The video offers five songs: Berlin, I'm Waiting For The Man, Heroin, Ghost Story and Femme Fatale. Sadly no "Pale Blue Eyes," a favorite of mine and someone's special in New York (I think).

While you settle for a picture, I will excuse myself for a weekend treat.

Niche Ideas for Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:13:00 +0000

"How can I choose a niche for my blog?" I come across this question frequently in forums. Though I can not recommend anyone to write about topics they have no interest in or have less than average information about, if you feel compelled to do so, here is a not so original methodology which will hopefully ease the selection process.

I have been following the Google Trends since the day I installed the widget and it is hard to say I make any sense out of it. Still, if you want to cater to the needs of the masses, it should be your number one tool for picking a niche.

I tried to categorize the trends of the last week and this is the list:

Celebrities

Always popular, always trendy. We simply can not do without them. The problem, however, is celebrities as a niche is extremely competitive. Your opponents are not only blogs; you have to count newspapers, TV stations, e-zines, fan-zines and whatnot in. In order to achieve some success you have to have a weird angle to tackle the subject, i.e. a combination of some sort is compulsory. For example:

Celebs and their underwear
Celeb disorders (mental)
Celeb surgery
Their favorite xyz

In short, you have to cut the mustard like very few did before.

Diseases

Another tough subject. Not only it requires in depth knowledge, the subjects change daily and have short shelf lives. So you really need luck. I tried to think of a few angles that will help but not much came up. You are on your own with this.

Disasters

They are rare but when they show up, you are golden. I would recommend an angle like disaster forecast or prediction. Yes, you will predict disasters before they occur. Collect some data and shoot when and where. Your chances are better than winning the lottery. You can be charged for risking public safety, so be careful.

TV Shows

Another popular one. In order to narrow it down, focus on season finales. Write down what will happen in the last episode two or three days before it airs. You do not have to guess right, any intelligent plot will do. Kill the lead character, burn a city down, etc. Plus, unlike disasters, you will be legally safe. Have a barely visible site policy handy, explaining you are doing this for entertainment purposes only and your sole objective is to test your predictive or screenplay writing skills. Be careful with the images you used. Remember what happened to Al Capone! Do not let anyone take you down for a trivial copyright infringement.

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The Berkeley Impact

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:40:00 +0000

Irrefutable Wisdom #1
There are two major products that came out of Berkeley: LSD and BSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
-- Jeremy S. Anderson

Secret of Clypidus Revealed

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Clypidus, or as is formally known Cly on Pidus, has been hosting the Qasar relics from 120th BC. But what made this small Mediterranean town an obsession among historians and archaeologists alike was not the existence of half-clay, half-stone ruins, nor were the Doric order moldings which had predated ancient Greeks by a century.

There is a hooked molding common in Greek and Corinthian architecture, particularly in the Doric antae caps, which is technically called the hawk's beak. It is a combination of curves which cannot be described in words, the cyma-recta, so to speak, which is brought into its composition.

But unlike the completely Gothic moldings of ancient Greece which throw a very bold, clear shadow, Qasar relics of Clypidus, the cymatium wrought in relief contained a bigger mystery: a language unknown to mankind.

After spending four years in Clypidus villages on the hills overlooking the river Pidus, situated 20 km north of present day Cly, researchers headed by Prof. Xulxu of Cinneman University, West Carolina believe that they have finally found the Rosetta stone which will help them decipher one of the oldest languages of the world. The research which documents the team's efforts and findings will be published in the days to come.

Being a frequent visitor of Clypidus, - I only missed a few summers in my life, I just wanted to share it with you; plus, the unbearable pleasure of beating media in its own game, I should add.

Image credit: Alexander Speltz, Styles of Ornament (1906), The Classical Journal

Attracting Mobile Phone Users

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:50:00 +0000

I previously mentioned the benefits of adding a short URL to your posts for wider exposure. Despite the increasing popularity of social bookmarking and micro blogging networks, most of us tend to ignore one particular type of media: mobile or cellular phones.

Mobile phones have successfully penetrated world markets regardless of GNP and per capita income. I can even argue that their market penetration is deeper than computers especially in poor and developing countries. Another observation of mine is younger generation's phone use is higher compared to their interaction with PCs.

Most webmasters and bloggers neglect what I think is the future of Internet. Although they have the opportunity to style their pages for cellular phones, I can hardly say they care. Some of us who are on free services like Blogger do not even have that option unless Google does something about it (Note to self: It should be possible to host a CSS for mobile viewers on a remote server. Look into this!!!).

Getting in the game early by designing easily read pages in cellular phones can bring significant advantages. Securing yourself a presence in the mobile arena will be much harder in later stages.

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In Line Text Ads

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:25:00 +0000

For the past week or so I have been investigating in line text ads and how I can use them at a few of my blogs. I looked into several ad networks to see how they implement them. So far, I am not satisfied.

I think I am too old fashioned for it. I have always thought or imagined in line ads as a non-obtrusive, non-distractive way of presenting readers products or services they might be interested in. However, all but one use a technique called mouse-over, i.e. if your mouse incidentally hovers over any one of ad-placed texts, the ad is automatically displayed in an overlay.

I do not know why but that phenomenon distracts me. I do not even use the so-called share-this type of widgets in my blogs; I use a static one instead. But that's me: I have long ago stopped considering myself as a conformist, on or off line. As far as I can see, most bloggers are happily using them and it does not look like anyone is complaining. Hence, getting old, I suppose. Some feedback on this will be nice. Am I the only one?

And the exception: Google again! They have recently rolled out a feature called expandable ads. Guess what? They are exactly doing it like I wanted. The text-ad is placed but no mouse-over. You have to click on it to display the ad in an overlay. Sadly, it is available to US publishers only.

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A few SEO and Speed Tweaks

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:06:00 +0000

After having done some tests, I changed the placement of a few widgets with improving reader experience and search engine optimization in mind. The popular posts widgets are now on the main page. This, I believe, will enhance readability and overall navigation. Google trends or the fancy widget as I call it, is on the home page, too. I do not know why, but I like it. Other than that, it serves no meaningful purpose. As both are basically feeds, the individual post pages should now load considerably faster.

The archive calendar, another unnecessary but cute one since I use the default Blogger archive, has taken its place in the labels and search views. Apart from its cosmetic effect, it can be handy for users who are searching the site.

The default hierarchical archive eventually resides in post pages instead of index page. In addition to its immediate value to visitors who find the site via search engines, it creates keyword rich pages, an obvious plus for SEO if you want to rank high.

Naturally, after using different sidebars for different views, it has become impossible to save the widgets by dragging and dropping them, but I trust that you already know how to move the widgets by other means.

Filtering Your Own Visits in Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiverB) — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:23:00 +0000

If you are using Google Analytics for statistics in your own site, you will most likely want to exclude your own visits from showing up by a filter. Google has provided two ways to achieve it:

By filtering out your IP
By placing a cookie

Both works OK but what if you have a dynamic IP and not a static site, i.e. a blog? The following method is for people who have blogs on blogspot domains:

Create a backdated post using the scheduling feature so that the post is not easily spotted; take note of the URL for step four.
Do not link to this post under any circumstances.
Now comes the tricky part: Find the following section in your template by clicking "Edit HTML" tag.
```
</head>
your code will go here
<body>
...
```

Now insert the following code between the closing head and opening body tags:

</head>
 <b:if cond='data:blog.url == &quot;YOUR-URL-GOES-HERE&quot;'>
  <body onLoad='javascript:pageTracker._setVar(&quot;test_value&quot;);'>
  </body>
 </b:if>
<body>

Save your template and visit the page. Check the source code if the body tag really contains the onLoad function.
Go to your Analytics page and create a filter as per Google's instructions.

Everything should hopefully be OK, now.

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