Serendipity » Blogging http://www.shaarique.com That's how life is! Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:56:57 +0000 b hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 2006-2007 shaarique@gmail.com (Serendipity) shaarique@gmail.com (Serendipity) posts 1440 b Serendipity » Blogging http://www.shaarique.com 144 144 Thats how life is! Serendipity Serendipity shaarique@gmail.com no no Opera or Safari; Who’s faster? http://www.shaarique.com/opera-or-safari-whos-faster/ http://www.shaarique.com/opera-or-safari-whos-faster/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:50:06 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/?p=742 Just saw the apple keynote of WWDC 2008. Steve Jobs talked about the new 3G iPhone and its superiority over the Edge network. The video about the speed comparison was interesting, Safari took 59 seconds to load nationalgeographics.com on Edge. Interestingly Opera browser on my Blackberry 8310 (Edge network) takes 25 seconds to load the same page!

The load time on 3G network for Safari was 21 seconds.

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/opera-or-safari-whos-faster/feed/ 0 Tags not working on wordpress.com http://www.shaarique.com/tags-not-working-on-wordpresscom/ http://www.shaarique.com/tags-not-working-on-wordpresscom/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:19:50 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/tags-not-working-on-wordpresscom/ It seems someone is playing with the site. All the URLs of tag pages have been left with only //

http://wordpress.com/tags//

instead of  http://wordpress.com/tags/life/

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/tags-not-working-on-wordpresscom/feed/ 0 Plagiarist! Plagistist! Plagiarist! http://www.shaarique.com/plagiarist-plagistist-plagiarist/ http://www.shaarique.com/plagiarist-plagistist-plagiarist/#comments Thu, 03 May 2007 17:03:45 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/plagiarist-plagistist-plagiarist/ I hate plagiarism. I hate it when people don’t acknowledge the sources. I hate when people just copy paste stuff. I hate it more when they don’t respond to emails or comments. One guy called Murali Venkatesh stole 3 of my posts. He is actually using some RSS aggregator so accidentally he posted a posts of mine with pictures which I had hosted on my blog. Technorati detected it and hence I came to know about this dude. I left a comment on his blog but he deleted that. Here are those stolen posts

1. World Cup Cricket 2007 pictures

2. Saare with a pocket

3. Abhishek Aishwarya wedding pictures

Not just my blog, but he seems to have copied content from other blogs also. His post Who is Sanjaya-Bye Sanjaya is directly copied from Mutiny (Actually there are a lot more from this blog). Another post is copied from TheBrain Chimney . He even plagiarized from Kartik’s blog. Here is one shamelessly taken from Silentbits. Well the list is endless and I wonder what actions could be taken against such plagiarism. I will report this to google adsense but I not exactly hopeful of a prompt response.

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/plagiarist-plagistist-plagiarist/feed/ 9 Technorati favourite exchange http://www.shaarique.com/technorati-favourite-exchange/ http://www.shaarique.com/technorati-favourite-exchange/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:17:16 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/technorati-favourite-exchange/ The image “http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png� cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Technorati is the best place to look for blogs. I am really impressed by their bot which is so quick in updating. I prefer using it over google search or wordpress.com tag browser.

I understand that its really difficult for a personal blog which is non-techie to make it to top 100 favourite and I am not even attempting that! I am happy with the readership I have but would love to get new readers who are interested in the stuff I write. The thing is that I offer full feed so no one bothers to come to the blog to read. Secondly I get more than 50% of my visitors from google so that means they are just one time visitors who would never come back again. So why not build some readership with the help of fellow bloggers.

I happen to visit Dosh Dosh for the first time when I saw the reference on Nirmal’s blog. I must say that I more than impressed by the quality of content on the blog (BTW my all time favourite happens to be Lorelle because of her lucid and attractive way of writing, aided with relevant pics ). Anyways, I think Dosh Dosh deserves to be in the top 100 and thus I fully support its scheme of favourite exchange.

Actually this scheme is much better than John Chow’s review thing in which he is the sole gainer.

I really don’t like to ask for links to specific content on this blog because I very much prefer natural citations and links from other websites.

This is probably why I have never and will never start a “Review my blog to get a linkback� gimmick, which mainly benefits the blog being reviewed. Reciprocal reviews are fine, but reviews for a simple link back is ineffectual and very one-sided.

The only reason why I am asking for a link to this post here is because I want this to be an interactive experiment where all of us can increase our Technorati favorites, not just Dosh Dosh alone.

By linking here, you’ll send your readers to participate in this experiment and when I link back to you, the readers of Dosh Dosh can visit your blog to trade favorites with you as well.

This is a targeted two-way arrangement and allows us to share traffic and readers with each other[Dosh Dosh]

Why don’t I also start this thing :) . You can add my blog in your Technorati favourite by clicking here. Drop in a comment so as to let me know and then I will do the same. I will then link to your post in which you have mentioned about this new exchange. To begin with I have added the following blogs to my favourite list.

I am an avid reader of blogs so you rest be assured that I will subscribe to your RSS feed and also be a regular visitor :)

The image “http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png� cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/technorati-favourite-exchange/feed/ 89 Blogging tools I use http://www.shaarique.com/blogging-tools-i-use/ http://www.shaarique.com/blogging-tools-i-use/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:29:33 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/blogging-tools-i-use/ Blogging Toolkit is a set of tools and and softwares that a blogger uses to manage, publicize, monetize and optimize his blog. A blogging toolkit is needed by a blogger for generating traffic, gaining popularity and running a full featured blog.

Nirmal has tagged me to reveal my blogging toolkit and here I shall write about my blogging kit.

1. Blogging Platform

WordPress is my blogging platform. I shifted from blogger last August. WordPress has been amazing in terms of flexibility it has offered. Blogger stands no where in front of wordpress when it comes to themes, plugins and RSS feeds. The coolest thing about wordpress is the RSS feed. You can create RSS feeds for any category or even search terms

a. RSS feed for category satire of this blog- http://www.shaarique.com/category/satire/feed

RSS feed for search string doesn’t work on my blog because of feedburner replacement plugin. The usual feed address would be http://www.shaarique.com/feed/rss2/?s=wordpress for search string ‘wordpress’.

The search engine optimization is awesome in wordpress.

2. Blogging Client

I use Windows live writer. I am somehow not comfortable with the wordpress post editor. But after proxy authentication was introduced in our campus, which meant only IE and Firefox were granted permission to connect, I had to shift to the wordpress. The auto save feature is great. I have had lot of trouble with this editor as it used to mess my blog. Any open code would effect the whole page and its not possible to add HTML codes of videos directly here (which is possible in live writer). The editor is one thing I adored about blogger, it used to accept any damn HTML or javascript! Everything has its limitation :smile:

3. Statistics Software

Google Analytics and shortstats. Google analytics is great in terms of insight it offers of visitors, page views, time spent by each visitor, geographical location, goal conversion and much more. Shortstats offers a wide range of features like search string, referral, browser and country log.

4. Blog Promotion and Feeds

I use feedburner for the feed of this blog. Nothing much on the blog promotion part  :wink:

5. Browser

Firefox and IE 7. I love firefox but the memory leak problem is a big pain, which is surprisingly absent in IE 7.

6. Graphics and Images

Adobe photoshop, Microsoft paint (the coolest image editor software ever to be made) and coral Photo.

I tag eches , Garry, Madhur & Thilak. 

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/blogging-tools-i-use/feed/ 9 The Bloggies 2007 results are out http://www.shaarique.com/the-bloggies-2007-results-are-out/ http://www.shaarique.com/the-bloggies-2007-results-are-out/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:38:26 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/the-bloggies-2007-results-are-out/ The bloggies results are out and I realised it only after its over! Anyway here is the list of winners with nominees (definitely on my reading list)

 

Weblog of the Year

Winner

PostSecret

Nominees

 

Most Humorous Weblog

Winner

Go Fug Yourself

Nominees

 

Best Asian Weblog

Winner

Tokyo Girl Down Under

Nominees

 

Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog

 

Secret Dubai Diary

Nominees

 

Best Latin American Weblog

Cooking Diva

Nominees

 

Best Photography of a Weblog

Winner

FlickrBlog

Nominees

 

Best Entertainment Weblog

Winner

Go Fug Yourself

Nominees

 

Best Weblog About Politics

Winner

Wonkette

Nominees

 

Best Web Development Weblog

Winner

A List Apart

Nominees

 

Best Computers or Technology Weblog

Winner

Gizmodo

Nominees

See the complete list here

 

[tags]bloggies 2007[/tags]
]]> http://www.shaarique.com/the-bloggies-2007-results-are-out/feed/ 2 300th post on this blog http://www.shaarique.com/300th-post-on-this-blog/ http://www.shaarique.com/300th-post-on-this-blog/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:28:05 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/300th-post-on-this-blog/ This is my 300th post on this blog. I remember when I shifted to my own domain name last August, after awestruck by the beauty of Patrix’s blog (it is now not as beautiful as it used to be), I just has 95 posts. This blog has traveled a long way since that eventful August, 2006. Serendipity now gets around 150-200 unique visitors each day (Short stats claims that figure to be around 400-500 but I wonder why it’s so high compared to google analytics). Google adsense income is around $ 2-4 per day, which is high by my standards. On few occasions its as low as $ 0.5 but average hovers around $3. Feedburner tells me that I have around 110 subscribers. The google PR is now 4 but predictions are that it will increase to 5 shortly. The most visited post, which will be a surprise to most of my regular readers, happens to be When Munna bhai is overtaken by Veer. (It has been viewed 2158 times)

I think I have achieved a lot in these months, particularly as a personal blog. I know technology blogs have dominated the blogsphere but I still went ahead with a personal blog because this is what interests me the most. I did divulge out many secrets about me in the initial days of blogging but I had nothing better to write. With time and more online friends I slowly started writing about other issues.

I am seriously overwhelmed by the kind of responses readers have shown. I remember once I was ranting about few emotional problems. I deliberately turned the comments off and to my surprise people mailed me to express their support. I thanked them profusely for the support. Recently I have got tremendous response to the series (A sensible boy and the Kar sewaks) on my blog. People have mailed me, scrapped me and even talked to me personally on the matter. I will come up with the concluding post shortly.

I really don’t know how long will this passion for blogging last within me but as long as it is, I want to give my best. Thanks a billion to all my readers. And special thanks to Mohib for suggesting me dreamhost at $22 for the first year, without which I couldn’thave hosted by blog.

Do check out the top posts page. Regular posting will begin shortly after I conclude the series I started as I am too occupied answering emails from people :)

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/300th-post-on-this-blog/feed/ 16 Short cut to Digg fame http://www.shaarique.com/short-cut-to-digg-fame/ http://www.shaarique.com/short-cut-to-digg-fame/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:05:39 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/short-cut-to-digg-fame/ Digg is one of the most visited website in the world. A story on the front page can earn you 1000s of hits in minutes. Even after every effort by Digg to stop spam, people have manipulated the website to their advantage. There is a site called U/S which charges $1 per digg.

Four and a half hours later, I was the only person who had dugg my story. That’s when I hired a Digg-gaming service called User/Submitter, or U/S. This enterprise, run by one or more zealously anonymous individuals, advertises that it can help “submitters” get Digg stories noticed by paying “users” to digg them. There’s a $20 sign-up fee and each digg costs $1, which gets split evenly between the service and the digger. U/S refunds money paid for any diggs the submitter doesn’t get in a 48-hour period. I put down $450 for 430 diggs, but wound up getting refunded all but roughly $100 of that. (Wired News is owned by CondéNet, which also owns Digg competitor reddit.) [Wired News]

Money can buy lot of things and definitely fame!

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/short-cut-to-digg-fame/feed/ 8 What’s hot in the click business http://www.shaarique.com/whats-hot-in-the-click-business/ http://www.shaarique.com/whats-hot-in-the-click-business/#comments Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:02:03 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/whats-hot-in-the-click-business/ MyBlogLog has compiled a list of 10 hottest clicks in the world (yes sadly clicks and not chicks), thanks to their tracking code

 

Worldwide 10 Hottest Clicks

They also have country wise listing on their site.

Most interestingly the India list includes links of blogs when blogspot was banned in June last year. So they haven’t updated the list of the popularity of blogs were so tremendous then that it it still carries on?

]]> http://www.shaarique.com/whats-hot-in-the-click-business/feed/ 6 Egyptian Blogger jailed http://www.shaarique.com/egyptian-blogger-jailed/ http://www.shaarique.com/egyptian-blogger-jailed/#comments Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:35:28 +0000 Sharique http://www.shaarique.com/egyptian-blogger-jailed/

Abdel Karim has been jailed for blogging against Islam and the president Hosne Mubarak.  Yasmin has a well articulated post which critically examines the fallacy of the verdict.

Amazingly, Chapter Three of the Egyptian Constitution which deals with Public Freedoms, Rights and Duties says in Article 47: “Freedom of opinion shall be guaranteed. Every individual shall have the right to express his opinion and to publicize it verbally, in writing, by photography or by other means of expression within the limits of the law. Self criticism and constructive criticism shall guarantee the safety of the national structure. “

This is exactly what Karim has done. He exercised his freedom of opinion. He took his right of expressing his opinion seriously and believed enough in it to write it on the internet in a publicly accessible blog. In my opinion Karim lived up to both his own true self and principles as well as his religion. In his Blogger profile he wrote that he was looking forward to help humanity against all forms of discrimination. The Qur’an implores believers to speak up against injustice, which is precisely what Karim has done.

The update is shocking

Abdel Karim father announced today that he is disowning Abdel Karim, and that he would like to see Sharia Law applied to his son, in which he would have 3 days to repent at the end of which if he is not repentent, he would be killed. The Father also announced that he intends to disown his son publicly in court- accompanied by his Koran-memorizing 4 other children- the day of the verdict in order to “lift the pressure” that the civil society and human rights organization maybe imposing on the Court. He also called the Human Rights organizations who are fighting for his son’s freedom “Chimps Rights Organizations” since “they are defending a Chimp like AbdelKarim” who is emulating the west in “their thinking and opinions”. Nice, eh?

Why do I have the feeling that this court session will be a circus?

 [sandmonkey, http://www.sandmonkey.org/2007/02/18/abdel-karim-family-disowns-him/]

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