tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:35:31 +0000newsoptimizing broadband|windows|firefoxliteratureGooglehealthReally Useful Stuffmoviessoftwaretop listsBloggerCanadaantivirusbloggingportfolioPersonalfoodhuman rightscarsscience vs artsexualityApple MacBook AirAsus Eee PC IIBangladeshBarack ObamaOfficeUBCdigg wordsfirefox tipsgrade calculatorlast lecturenewspaperspoems9/11BorgesKiss of the Fur QueenKolkataMicrosoftSaadiTagoreTelusVancouverYahooaboutbrowserscognitive psychologycontactdial upfirefoxgamesintrolibrarymagazinesmobile securitymusicpoetrysci-fitime managementtips to improve memory/concentrationtwelfth nightweirdis a random geek blog for randomly geeky peoplehttp://techqi.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Unknown)Blogger148125en-usnois a random geek blog for randomly geeky peoplenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-6730144559598868460Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:35:00 +00002011-08-06T16:37:57.000-07:00Update: sorry, I never managed to get back to this. I still hope to someday, but that seems awfully unlikely with every passing moment. Goodbye and good luck. Hello there! The reason this blog looks so generic right now, and isn't being updated frequently, is because it's being redesigned by yours truly. There aren't really many good Blogger templates out there, and the default ones, well, look http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/09/techqi-is-currently-being-redesigned.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-1228861973213089544Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:26:00 +00002009-10-15T09:32:50.183-07:00This is great! I just discovered that my blogs' Google PageRanks have gone up: Techqi (this blog, ahem) now has a PR of 3, and AV Scan, which I discontinued due to insufficient viruses, made me happier - it now has a PR of 4! I used to think PR increases in general with time and decreases for inactive sites, but apparently there's more than meets the eye. In addition, some of my (edit October 10:http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/08/pagerank-improvements.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-1808134254882493041Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:32:00 +00002009-09-22T12:36:26.428-07:00portfolioHello there! I'm currently working on my portfolio site, but for the time being this page is going to provide shelter for my writing samples. Comments are welcome. Published articles {Please note that these articles maintain their original paragraph structures and were not really meant to be blog posts unless explicitly stated. Moreover, any images in the original articles aren't included, and http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-stand-in-portfolio-site.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-1463787903440235362Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:25:00 +00002009-06-19T09:27:22.313-07:00Yes, --1. I am alive, and2. I am working on a new template. I'll put the template up for download when I'm done, too.Cheers.http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/06/working-on-new-layout-for-techqi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-3133060747437504743Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:27:00 +00002009-02-25T22:40:37.440-08:00My Blogger template has been causing me some major headache, and it's only gotten worse. On top of that, I recently discovered some stats regarding sites which look ugly, which has shocked me to the core. Admittedly this blog definitely doesn't fall into the beautiful category, so I guess I shouldn't have been so shocked! All in all, I think the time is right for me now to take a short break fromhttp://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/having-template-problems.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-8893820220000778409Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:53:00 +00002009-02-23T13:04:23.333-08:00Background When it comes to designing webpages, be it for a personal blog or for a full-blown commercial website, the web designer is faced with a dilemma: The less code you can have on your webpages, the faster they will load. Hence, even the top websites ignore standards on a regular basis.The more structured your webpages are, the more accessible they will be to screen readers, aggregators, http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/using-tags-to-improve-speed-convenience.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-7741749035955562138Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:25:00 +00002009-02-23T13:11:00.662-08:00Generally it's the entire weekend1 for the internet; however, depending on your site it could even be a Wednesday that produces the least traffic.In my case the weekends are always dry, and especially so if there's something like the Oscars on air (drat...). My stats are too poor to put up for display here, but yes, events of note do woo away your readers, you can take my word for it. I think http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-slowest-day-of-week-for-your.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-201420067189832133Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:04:00 +00002009-02-21T13:04:01.691-08:00In case you’re among the uninitiated, bx- error codes are randomly assigned to template issues in Blogger blogs that are currently irresolvable. I had thought I had seen the last of my share of bx- errors last year, but apparently the gods of Blogger certainly don’t think so. I tried to perform the simple task of moving the lines of CSS mentioned in this post higher in the header section of my http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/attack-of-bx-errors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-3411792512692786514Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:28:00 +00002009-02-20T20:54:27.029-08:00Whenever you try to write code including tags like <head> in webpages, the browser steps in and refuses to process angle brackets. There's actually a simple solution, but being moronic I keep forgetting this: just type "&" next to "lt;" or "gt;" (without quotes), for left and right angle brackets respectively. There. The opposite? To write the actual code to get <head>, type "&" nexthttp://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-write-and-in-webpages.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-7116098379118483218Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:40:00 +00002009-02-20T10:41:56.884-08:00I decided to run quick CSS and HTML/XHTML markup validation tests on major sites using the tools on the W3C website (here: markup and CSS). Here’s what I found: site markup errors CSS errors Google 62; 9 warnings 1 Slashdot 145 none Wordpress.com none 52 http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/standards-compliance-huh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-6005913272106562639Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:00:00 +00002009-02-19T12:00:00.260-08:00This made me sad, but it was the right thing to do. http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/closing-down-av-scan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-1318995357592853647Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:17:00 +00002009-02-18T17:18:01.133-08:00It’s incredible. It took my close to two hours just to publish my last two posts on Blogger. Every time Blogger was scrambling up code I was trying to display; I finally realized that I had to change a setting (read here). On top of that, I’ve tried out so many bits and pieces of code (call them widgets, modules, plugins or whatever) that my Blogger template right now, having accumulated years ofhttp://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-incredible.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-3953902036387443499Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:50:00 +00002009-09-22T03:09:42.889-07:00 There's hardly a Blogger user to be found who hasn't been irked by the navbar. True, it’s not entirely useless – it lets you quickly log on to Blogger and provides a quick customization link. But by just being there the navbar brings a generic look to your blog, which is enough to make readers not take it seriously. On top of that, the navbar allows any Blogger user to flag your blog! (Which, http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-get-rid-of-blogger-navbar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-3546284593504998030Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:24:00 +00002009-01-28T23:43:27.551-08:00Okay, of course this is highly subjective but I doubt anybody’s going to disagree with me on my picks. Microsoft Writer: the best, and possibly as good as a paid alternative. I’ve never been as happy with a MS product since… Notepad. Writer will remind seasoned users of Frontpage, while newbies will be right at home with the simplicity of the application. Best features: can synchronise http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/01/3-best-free-blog-editors-and-their.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-6592259004474963209Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:31:00 +00002009-01-28T18:31:58.840-08:00It’s getting harder and harder to find spare time, as I had predicted. I haven’t been able to look up any web designing/developing or programming texts yet, but I’ve been surfing a bit, with mixed results. Surprisingly, there’s still a dearth of quality sites on coding and aimed at novice to expert level users. http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/01/exceedingly-busy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-1901047146873857067Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:30:00 +00002009-02-22T22:29:46.718-08:00aboutIn short, this blog is about the way I relearn and redeem my geekery. That means it’s a sort of scratchpad for my self-taught endeavours into coding and such. I’ll write down anything I learn anew, and which will usually involve some sort of practical usage on my part. Like how to fix the look of my blog (a pretty likely topic, given it’s so ugly right now), or how to pull off a certain CSS http://techqi.blogspot.com/2009/01/finally-focus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-7186264631941234698Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:37:00 +00002009-10-15T10:24:18.202-07:00Okay, I should've called this article How to shrink partitions in Vista... mea culpa! Shrinking existing partitions on your hard drive in Windows Vista can be a real pain, or at least that's my experience using a machine which came with a preinstalled version of the OS. My faithful copy of Partition Magic turned out to be too old for my computer, so I was left with Vista's built-in disk http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-to-partition-hard-drive-in-windows.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-5782925207874057617Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:27:00 +00002008-11-15T13:18:26.066-08:00Okay, I deleted my last post as I said I would. It's hard to think of an implied reader or audience when you're blogging and don't really expect anyone to read your posts, but here I go again: in case you've hung around my blogs, you know I haven't been posting in a while. Multiple reasons, in order of severity: Read postBlogger's template collection borders on ugliness. They haven't introduced http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/11/error-codes-in-real-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-7030367450958368064Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:28:00 +00002009-09-22T03:32:00.617-07:00portfolioONE of the major problems with technology documentation is that the writers appear to sing oodles of praise over applications which don’t quite work out their way. From time to time you will be plagued with lines of code that look okay in print but refuse to compile, books that promise to make you a master in a particular field or application but won’t chalk out its limitations, and the most http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/09/networkers-delight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-5612222918468812500Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:21:00 +00002009-09-22T03:26:47.600-07:00portfolioChris Atkinson, president, South-East Asia region, Microsoft Asia Pacific, repeatedly urged strict implementation of the Intellectual Property Law in the country in order to expect increased activity and investment from the world’s reigning software corporation. Acknowledging the delay in efforts to localise computing good-humouredly, he said: ‘Everywhere I went (in Bangladesh) everyone was http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/09/regional-microsoft-boss-stresses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-4523230441822550401Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:15:00 +00002009-09-22T03:18:09.738-07:00portfolio‘STOP!’ my mom bellowed. ‘Don’t you dare bite on that sandwich anymore. Don’t you even watch TV?’ Comfortably couched in front of my monitor, I stare back at her feigning innocence, wondering whether to gulp down the remains of the local food joint specialty behind her back or wait a little longer. But alas, she chooses to keep guard. ‘Haven’t you read all those reports in the newspapers? Do youhttp://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/09/have-byte.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-5212038773831960995Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:09:00 +00002009-09-22T03:13:48.716-07:00portfolioI'll never forget the day I first went online. It was on a Friday morning, and I decided to start off my browsing with something I was familiar with, so I hopped off to the CNN website. A couple of minutes of click-on-every-link-you-see later, I stumbled on a website that seemed anxious to ship me a Ford truck that I had supposedly just won at an online lottery. Half an hour of sluggish and http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-gems.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-3132470798454195327Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:06:00 +00002009-09-08T21:07:03.238-07:00antivirusYou probably haven't come across Sophos antivirus, because it's enterprise software, which means the company's target consumers are small- to large-scale organizations instead of home users.I'm generally against 'elitist' software like these, but Sophos seems to have a loyal customer base so I thought it deserved a review. I've been using Sophos for almost six months now; I don't like it, and thehttp://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/07/sophos-antivirus-review.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-8554002645281551976Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:34:00 +00002008-12-12T22:51:14.142-08:00browsersfirefoxWith Firefox and Opera getting massive updates in quick succession, I thought it was high time I joined the party! So I crash-tested the following browsers to find out which was the fastest:Mozilla Firefox 3.0Opera 9.50 (build 10063)Flock 1.2.1MS Internet Explorer 7.0MS Internet Explorer 8.0 (beta)32bit Web Browser 0.8.6.11You probably haven't heard of a few names on the list. Let's just say http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/06/and-winner-of-browser-speed-wars-is-not.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861535003615649573.post-6296348706954924721Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:24:00 +00002008-12-12T22:51:14.283-08:00GoogleHow much free storage space does Gmail really provide? If you haven't noticed, there's a "New! Gmail Labs" link on the top of the Gmail page after you've signed in, right next to Settings -- here's the link. It opens a page which claimsIt's a Gmail party and everyone is invited!You can still invite your friends to enjoy Gmail's spam protection, 5GB free storage and other great features, but now http://techqi.blogspot.com/2008/06/gmail-inbox-is-really-5gb.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown)