Wordpress is soo wow!

This http://vinu.wordpress.com/ is my new blog. I will be blogging there on multiple topics and I shall keep this blog more for tech related stuff. Of course, everything I have to say will first go there and then here. however, I will write a post with just the 'titles' in that blog to keep the connection going.

“I am pressed for words is my review for Wordpress” :-) . The usability and user experience is amazing cool! I have decided to try wordpress as there was ability to add categories unlike blogger.

I have a blogger account which I have been writing on mostly Web 2.0 and technology stuff. But lately, I relized I want write on lots of things! Currently I have 285 feeds on my RSS reader (bloglines) and my interests are diverse.

And its also exciting to see that there is a way to host my blog on own my own Mac mini and the bloggin platform is open source. Amazingly cool :D How or why did I not try it for soo long? Beats me …

I still have doubts on how much storage I am given on this i.e wordpress.com. I blogger I assume is unlimited. Is it the same over here even if I don’t host my site?

But surely, do check it out - I mean it! setting up your blog - less than ONE minute. And up with your first post less than FIVE minutes. Talk about usability and speed i.e efficiency!!

Yahoo getting creative?!

I am really excited to see this new feature in Yahoo search. I think this is definitely the route Yahoo should take. They should go ahead and bring this feature right to the main search page!

With the big talk about copyrights and 'printing' - searching those things that only are given the "Creative Commons" or "Attention" helps the users (atleast) the trouble to find out what to do with either the website content, picture or now video!

Of course, they should do a better job of education the people about this - the different type of creative commons tag is definitely confusing!

Just went to the website - http://creativecommons.org/ and there it says in the bottom as one of the annoucements:

Nov 2005 Google released Creative Commons-enabled search. Now you can use Google to search the web for CC-licensed works via our find page and Google's advanced search.

MORE surprise!
http://creativecommons.org/find/

gives the oppurtunity to search via both Google and Yahoo, defaulting to Google! Now, give me a break - WHY IS THIS NOT ANNOUNCED ON THEIR WEBSITE or the bloggin world mentioning it? Did I not follow the news?? Hello, is anybody out there??

Worried about google?

Liz Lawley
Originally uploaded by theloudlibrarian.

I had seen this picture a whole month ago when i was attending tagcamp! Actually wanted to write an entire article on this specific picture. Guess its not going to materialize but my thoughts.

Slight modification in the words

"Google: Catalyst for digitization AND Library Destruction"

Another point to note : one can see convergence here - in form of computers (powerpoint), mobile (camera phone) and paper (its the librarians after all!) in one picture :D

fun at Bloglines!

screenshot1.jpeg, originally uploaded by eindia.

I think its hightime the folks at Flickr or the other new Web 2.0 service learn this! I was trying to access Bloglines two weeks back and boom they are down!

Now I realize and it me real hard this time! Even if I am ready to pay money now - I am not going get my articles, news or information right now when I want it, where I want it and how I want!!! I may loose money on short selling the stock of mine ... brrr

However, looking at this funny face. I didn't feel angry. I smiled! I even empathized. Gave me a feeling poor folks at Bloglines are working hard! (I wonder what they are doing I don't see a bloody change ... I like it just as it is :D)

But to compare - I have started to hate flickr lately. Their downtimes have been going up! => they ask me go see their blog or do something else when they get ready. I need my pics and need to use my pics when i am paying a whole $25 for usage. It may be cool but when I pay I expect 100% uptime. suggestion - Use one of my 'pictures' (I mean personlize) and say " sorry I know you need your cool pics but hey - we are working hard. "

Talk about personalization and calming down the user - 'atleast' the 'pro' ones. After all this is a 'Yahoo' company - is this what we got to expect especially when i am paying money?? Yahoo 2.0 (0 as in Naught = zero?! #@$!)

my analytics: all for free 'e'!

I just checked up my Google analytics account for this blog and voila - I was impressed. Especially with not much of writing over the past month! So, if anyone is reading this now - watch out for this post I have really cool things to share and write about. Atleast I feel motivated and assured that I am not crying out into the so called world wide web with no one reading me ;-0

Also a very timely post 'Seven deadly sins of bloggin' lists these points:

1. Using Free Blog Hosting Services
2. Ignoring the Basic Principles of Good Web Site Design and Usability
3. Being the Jack Of All Trades
4. Not Posting Regularly
5. Publishing Badly Written Posts
6. Spamming and Stealing
7. Failing to Establish a Personality

I strongly agree to 2,4,5,6 and 7.

Disagree to 1 and 3. Anyway there will more or less reasons. atleast here I can voice my opinion ...

Also from now on -

a. the cool podcasts I listen to will be playable in my blog thanks to the delicious team for writing the playtagger script.

b. Also I may put the flickr sets as slideshows in the blog itself! checkout this hack.

Makes my life simple as it is for putting pics from flickr. In the same way, as this VC explains about 'life at the edge' on the web atleast rocks! :-)

Time for some kewl Deals!!

I am back in India and its Thanksgiving time in the US! Looking at the rush for XBox360, i am sure there are lot of people who would love to look for great deals for thanksgiving especially Black Friday deals.

Now with 'RSS' into picture - getting deals onto ur news reader should be really cool and easy.

http://www.dealazon.com/
Dealazon - Searches Amazon's API and stores the best deals. You can subscribe to complex RSS feeds such as "lcd monitors on sale for 40% off or more, and less than $300".

Pete Freitag gives all the deal sites in one place => hope this is useful for someone.

I am yearning for a LCD Monitor. If anyone is coming to Bombay and is reading this then do contact me asap!! :D The price difference in electronice is too much! I wonder why. After all the stuff is made very near to India - Thailand and Indonesia but the difference is almost 80%. I am looking was 19in LCD monitor and in India the cheapest is Rs 38,000 and I am sure I will get for $200 (Rs 9,000) in the US aaargh this sucks big time .... talk about luxury! and apna desh.

My personal favs for deal sites were:
http://www.bensbargains.net/
http://www.techbargains.com/
http://www.slickdeals.net/

Happy gadgeting all of you. Kick off the holiday season in style!! n yeah - Happy Thanksgiving. Do enjoy your time with the family as I am doing here :)

a page full of utilities

This is one helluva compilation! The article "I want to - a page of uitilities that help you do stuff you want to" is a really cool page". Some great apps.

The ones I would recommend: {I am not giving the link in this page - just google with the name and mostly it will be the first link}

Flickr => Free, commercial version available. Allows tagging and pooling of pictures
YouSendIT => Files up to 1GB
Writely => Meeting notes, team calendars, signup sheets, proposals, you name it.
Linkedin => Find people, jobs, make new contacts. I use this one myself
Trillian => Chat to friends on mIRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!
Odeo => Listen, Sync, create your own (New)
Orb => Connect to your desktop from your laptop or PDA
Voo2do => advanced task and priority management for busy, ambitious individuals
Del.icio.us => is the best known of all these services. Try this one first of all.
http://www.google.com/ig iGoogle => customized google.
Start => Microsoft start RSS 'my page'
Bloglines => It's the one that I use as my newspaper
Wink =>D/l the software, create your own walk thru tutorials. Free and easy to use. Fun too!
Wikispaces => Create a Wiki, Free service (New)

Enjoy the new Web 2.0 or (Live - as microsoft puts it experience)