Learning Joomla
There are thousands of guys out there who are working with Joomla.
I wanted to learn Joomla. So I set up Joomla on a domain. Read a tutorial for 6 hours and went about setting up the site.
The Joomla default setup gives the a few sample articles, menus, themes etc. which is user is free to modify and experiment.
I deleted the default Joomla articles, menus etc. to set up my own and now it looks like the thing has crashed. Its giving me a 404 for a component that is not found. I have to re-install the thing now 
Webserver on Home PC
I setup my home PC to be a webserver based on the instructions given in the following articles.
http://www.thinkdigit.com/details.php?article_id=1061
Everything seems to be working fine. I’ll need to test this tomorrow from a PC outside my home.
Running two wordpress blogs on the same domain
Today I tried to run two wordpress blogs from the same domain name.
It is entirely possible and works like a charm.
The following are the steps to be used:
1. Download the latest version of WordPress.
2. Unzip the the WordPress files to a folder.
3. Make a second copy of this folder
4. Name the copies of the folder as say blog1 & blog2
5. In each of these folders you will need to create wp-config.php file.
6. To create this you need to edit the wp-config-sample.php file
7. The following items shown are to be edited:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere‘); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);
8. To edit the above you will need to first create your databases.
9. Create two different MySQL databases one for each blog in your domain. I’m assuming you have MySQL/PHP on Linux hosting. You will need to use the control panel provided by your web hosting service to create these databases.
10. Note down the parameters with which you set up the database and fill up the wp-config.php file suitably.
11. Upload the blog1 & blog2 folders to your domain to sit at http://www.yoursite.com/blog1 & http://www.yoursite.com/blog1
12. To setup the first blog start with http://www.yoursite.com/blog1/readme.html and follow the standard WordPress install procedure.
13. To setup the second blog start with
http://www.yoursite.com/blog2/readme.html and follow the standard
WordPress install procedure.
14. Now you will have two different wordpress installations, two different databases and two different blogs.
15. The first blog will be at http://www.yoursite.com/blog1 and the second one at http://www.yoursite.com/blog2.
Have fun with your blogs.
Getting on to the internet
Today I purchased a domain name and some space on a webhosting server.
Now I can peacefully learn how to run the “real” wordpress.
HP iPAQ 610 business messenger
This is the news I’ve been waiting for.
http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=1173338163
HP iPAQ 610 ships this month or next. Hopefully it should be in India by the last quarter. It is one super gizmo which is a mini-computer with windows mobile 6, can run office, push email, a mobile phone, a camera, a PDA with a touch screen and – hold your breath - a GPS all in one tiny bundle less than 150 grams.
No wonder Apple dropped the i-Phone prices.
The specs are here and the phone retails at US$600
Now the question is, if I get to lay my hands on it. Buying this makes even more sense to me – because this can tether with my laptop, which is also HP, to give wireless internet access at every location where there is phone coverage.
I love Wikipedia
I love Wikipedia for many reasons
- It is a dynamic encyclopedia
- It is free
- I can contribute to it
- It unleashes the full power of hypertext and enables the knowledge seeker to reach new limits effortlessly
Now there is one more reason to love it.
- It runs offline on my Palm.
I discovered the possibility just 5 hours ago. Thanks to the download speeds and possibilities in the U.S., Wikipedia is now running off-line on my Palm
RSS readers
There are two feature rich Firefox addons I discovered recently.
First great program is Newsfox which converts Firefox into an RSS reader. It is a real light weight client which gives you all essential functionality.
The second program is Torrent Search Toolbar. This makes it possible to search 25+ torrent sites without actually opening them. It also reads RSS feeds from several sites and allows you to scroll through them. Cool!
Many torrents posted on these sites are illegal and one should be careful of what they download.
Linux links, compiled
This is a compilation of Linux links the average Linux learner will ever need.
Linux, Pronunciation
Linux, as named and pronounced by Linus Torvalds:
http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.wav
http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.mp3
http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.au
Linux, People
Linus Torvalds
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/linus/
Richard Stallman
www.stallman.org
Larry Ewing
www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing
Lars Wirzenius
http://liw.iki.fi/liw/
Linux General
www.linux.org
www.kernel.org
www.linuxlinks.com
www.linux.com
www.linuxhq.com
www.linuxiso.org
www.distrowatch.com
http://counter.li.org/
www.linux.org.uk
www.linuxhq.com
www.li.org/
Linux, Learning
http://learn.clemsonlinux.org/wiki/Getting_Started
www.tldp.org
www.linuxhotbox.com
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/cmd/
Linux, GUI
http://www.gnome.org/
http://www.kde.org/
Linux Distros
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/
www.debian.org
www.slackware.com
www.mandrakesoft.com
www.redhat.com
http://fedora.redhat.com
www.ubuntu.com
www.kubuntu.org
www.gentoo.org
www.novell.com/linux/
http://en.opensuse.org
www.mandriva.com
www.linspire.com
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
www.damnsmalllinux.org
Programs for linux
http://www.linuxsoft.cz/en/
www.gimp.org
www.openoffice.org
www.koffice.org
www.sourceforge.net
www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/
www.mplayerhq.hu
www.real.com/linux
www.scribus.net
https://helixcommunity.org
http://xinehq.de
http://www.linuxprinting.org/
http://www.linuxgames.com/
http://www.konqueror.org/
http://directory.fsf.org/
Linux, News
www.linuxmagazine.com
www.linuxtoday.com
www.linuxworld.com
www.linuxjournal.com
http://lwn.net
Linux Search
www.google.com/linux
Linux, Others
www.linuxsecurity.com
www.linuxdevices.com
www.linux-usb.org
www.linux-on-laptops.com
Write for Wikipedia
Over the last couple of days, I spent a lot of time wondering what web content I could create, all by my own.
Narrowing down on an answer was not easy.
I have lived three decades on this planet. Been there, done that – but would it interest anyboy at all?
Ideally, I’d like to create content that lasts forever.
But what is it that lasts forever?
People change companies. Companies change businesses. Businesses change technologies. Technologies change. Even science changes.
No matter what I write today, I’m cluttering up the disk space of some server.
If what I write does not serve a purpose today or is not required to be preserved for future, there is no point in my writing it. I only hope that a few bloggers realise this before they waste their efforts.
In these few years that I’ve known the net, I’ve read through a large number of blog sites, checked many search engines for the content they index and browsed through a large number of other websites created by individuals and companies.
I would argue that internet should be used only constructively for education and archiving and passing on our wisdom to the future generations.
All those websites out there that sell sleaze and whose only purpose is to make money would definitely disagree with me.
Internet, after all, is yet another product of the human mind and has consequently evolved to reflect the human mind. There are a great many number of things in it that have a varying degree of utility and legality.
After a self humbling experience of browsing the internet, which is as difficult as trying to understand the human mind itself, a tired traveller can just ask for two things.
“Organisation and structure.”
This is what Wikipedia has perfected.
To me, seeking knowledge on Google represents “the struggle of the mind to find a solution amidst chaos”.
Google is, beyond all doubts, a great tool for the internet. Given that the internet itself is the byproduct of actions of nerds, musicians, artists, perverts, maniacs, grand mothers, lawyers, psychopaths, educators, kids and pretty much every one else, it is natural that seeking knowledge from the internet is as chaotic like what it is today.
Wikipedia, on the other hand, to me represents order.
I am a structured learner. By typing the same search string into Wikipedia, I’ve often learnt much more than what I’ve learnt from Google.
Wikipedia does not help if you are looking to download warez, cracks, source codes for viruses or anything else illegal. Needs such as these, which have a varying degree of utility and legality, are best addressed by Google.
But what Wikipedia does, and does very well, is it lets you seek information in a very formal, structured and hyperlinked way.
I remember my excitement when I first learnt about hyperlinks from a text book without even having seen one and how fascinated I was by the idea that information can be interconnected in any manner we want. Reading through Wikipedia, I realise that the potential of the hyperlinking has been exploited like never before.
To me Wikipedia represents a dream fulfilled, a truly wonderful legacy that we will be passing on to the generations to come.
If every person can add even just one line to it in his life time, the entire 6 billion strong world can benefit from this wonderful tool. I can only urge every one to participate in the Wikipedia wonder, use it and contribute to it.
Gearing up to create
I guess I figured out something important today.
For people like me who are not IT professionals and who create content without spending money, writing a blog or writing a HTML page or even setting up a wiki can all be simple piece meal tasks in themselves.
But the fact remains that these are different tools and are best suited to create different types of content.
For making Wikis, the webspace available for free services is limited. Blogs are more popular but are still mostly used to rave and rant. The standalone HTML page has its own advantages interms of integrating it with so many different types of scripts and languages.
So what would work best in my case, in creating the content I like to create, is actually a combination of these. So I’ve tried to put these all together today.
-
Provided a new theme for the site
-
Made a new WOW (Words of Wisdom) page
-
Added feed Chicklet buttons
-
Linked to my new wiki bigbook.wikispaces.com
This should let me organise things better.
Sites I visited today
1. I took an internet addiction test here. I am not an addict after all.
2. The most brilliant Tech Blog I’ve come across ever. Its on my blogroll now.
3. A genuine Bengali way of cooking Rohu Roe. But we didn’t try this one out today.
4. A cook book for seafoods is here.
4. Yet another interesting blog on cooking. Dont forget to check out the blogs of the visitors, some of them run mighty neat cooking blogs themselves.
5. Present state of the Indian blogosphere is here.
Trip to cyberville
I entered home Friday night and will be stepping out of the door Monday morning, hopefully.
I was glued to my PC all week end.
No chore got done. I tried different blog clients, created a new blog, read through gazillion blog entries, spent 6 hours on Youtube, watched Pirates of the Caribbean, ate Pizzas, updated my blog roll, downloaded a numerous megabytes and in general, got wasted.
I read this great this article on “Finding the right truth to tell” and it did help clear my perspective on what I should be writing. I shall reflect reality, but with discretion. Without discretion people are going to continue to clutter up the internet.
I think the internet is already a crappy place to be. Internet today is an overload of information, most of which is irrelevant to the common man’s life. We dont need all the million websites out there, do we? Internet is cluttered up with too many things that is of no consequence to the knowledge seekers, nerds and geeks.
Most of what floats in cyber space is crap. I guess thats where Google gets its business from. The good stuff is as usual hard to find and finding it is considered sometimes illegal.
I think the internet needs to be structured out – A place for everything and everything in its place. Of course, there can be no single government that can bring about such a structure unless, it needs to be built into the way it works.
Unless everybody realizes this need to be in control of the changes that happen to the internet which is so closely a part of many lives now, the landscape of cyberville will continue to change dramatically. Though this time I didnt go all places I would have wanted to go, a trip to cyberville was long over due.
I can now catch those 4 hours of sleep before I get to office.
Blog clients
A Blog Client is a program running on your computer that lets you post to your blog. In some cases, it help manage your blog too. Sometimes, it allows you to write a blog entry even if you are off-line so that it can be posted next time when you connect to the internet.
The other advantages could include:
1. The ability to save drafts
3. A nicer interface
4. Fancy formatting features
5. Features like cross-posting to multiple blogs
6. Faster uploading and addition of photos
Here is a list of Blog Clients compiled by WordPress.
Windows:
* BlogDesk
http://www.blogdesk.org
* BlogJet
http://www.blogjet.com
* Blog Writer
http://www.zoundry.com
* Ecto
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv
* Elici
http://www.bingobangosoftware.com
* Flock
http://www.flock.com
* JBlogEditor
http://www.jblogeditor.com
* Performancing
http://performancing.com/firefox
* Post2Blog
http://bytescout.com/post2blog.html
* Post2Blog Express
http://bytescout.com/post2blog_express.html
* Qumana
http://www.qumana.com
* Semagic
http://semagic.sourceforge.net/
* w.bloggar
http://www.wbloggar.com/
* WB Editor
http://www.wbeditor.com/
Mac (OS X):
* Ecto
http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/
* Flock
http://www.flock.com/
* JBlogEditor
http://www.jblogeditor.com
* MarsEdit
http://ranchero.com/marsedit/
* Performancing
http://performancing.com/firefox
* Qumana
http://lycos.qumana.com/download.htm
Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets
* DashBlog
http://dashblog.theonelab.com/
* RapidMetaBlog http://staff.cofa.unsw.edu.au/blojsom/blog/nigelkersten/scripts/2005/05/01/RapidMetaBlog_Dashboard_Widget.html)
* WordPressDash
http://www.paniris.com/wordpressdash/
Linux:
* BloGTK
http://blogtk.sourceforge.net/
* Drivel
http://www.dropline.net/drivel/
* Flock
http://www.flock.com/
* Gnome Blog
http://www.gnome.org/~seth/gnome-blog/
* JBlogEditor
http://www.jblogeditor.com
* Performancing
http://performancing.com/firefox
PalmOS:
* Plogit
http://plogit.sourceforge.net
* Mo:blog
http://www.tektonica.com/moblog/
* Vagablog
http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/?page_id=7
Siemens Phones:
* blog2gohttp://www.benqmobile.com/cds/frontdoor/0,2241,hq_en_0_116696_rArNrNrNrN,00.html
This entry was written with BlogDesk.
