Farewell... Well, not really...

Hey guys. I guess you won't find anything relevant to anything here anymore. I've decided not to update this blog anymore ! But wait, what does that mean to you ( if it even does ) ? You can access my latest updates from facebook.com/s14shyam, @s14shyam in Twitter, or, just visit s14shyam.webnode.com to get some of thye best information that the web can provide you ! For now, hasta la vista to everyone ...

Perfection Takes Time

It’s been more than a month, I suppose, since I last posted. All this time, I’ve been thinking of a strategy to manage my blog. And, according to that, I’ve decided that this blog will have all things related to technology, that interests me. It would act like a tech-journal of mine. That’s it for now. Expect my next article soon, really soon…

Change...

It's been a really long time since I last posted. And during this long interval, a lot of changes have come to me. I've learnt quite a lot of things for life to be great. As a result, my ideas on almost everything in life has changed to a notable extent. Learning from all the things I encounter, I've opted to change the type of content that this blog will hold. From this point on, this blog will host only my personal opinions, and that too, only about technology. And, one more time, I have changed the theme. Hope you guys like it, and the 'change' !!!

Talk With Me

To enable easier communication between you and me, I've placed the MeeboMe widget in the sidebar of my blog. With this widget, you can chat with me, live, if it says 's14shyam is online' [ of course ]. Even if you see 's14shyam is offline', you can send me messages via the widget, and I'll receive them as soon as I come online. The widget appears like the picture you see to the right of this article, and to the right of this page [ the picture here obviously will not let us chat ].

Looks and works cool, doesn't it. Here's an introduction to it. Meebo is an online service that lets you chat using any of the IM accounts that you already have in GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messnger and even Facebook and via Meebo's own IM service. It is a complete IM solution that even  includes group, voice and video chats.  On the whole, it is a whole lot more than an online alternative to Pidgin or Digsby. 

What's the highlight if you own a blog or a website and an account in Meebo is. as you can see, MeeboMe. It enables you to create a widget that enables you to chat with your visitors as I have mentioned above. I think everyone should definitely give it a try. Only a few may leave it after using it even once !  

New Theme

Sorry for the change in the theme for the umpteenth time. The problem is that I want my blog to be the best. But I deeply acknowledge my idiotism. I think I'll not change this theme at least for a month from now.

Good bye again. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back in a jiffy.

Do You Like This Template ?

I think interacting with my readers are as important as anything else. Just for a start, I would like to know if you guys like the template [ theme ] of this blog which you are currently seeing. I like it very much, but I think some of you might find it annoying or bad. In that case, please let me know about it in the comments.

If you are a Blogger user, you can also give me good theme suggestions which would be gladly welcomed. One more request : do pour in your thoughts via the comments. It will let me know that you were here, and, of course, improve.

Good bye until next time.

Shortened URLs are really slow

I've mentioned about some good URL shorteners in my previous post. But a close look at using them shows that they can really slow you down. On an average, it takes 1 second more to load the page, which, for me at least, is really bad. Even though I knew this before, prolonged usage taught me not to use URL shorteners often. Here's a look at the average time it takes to load shortened URLs .

That should give a clear [ I know it's not clear. Press Ctrl and scroll up to get a magnified picture ] picture of the speed lags invloved in URL lengthening. For beginners, just look at the time where the green mark stops, while advanced users ought to understand the picture wholly.

Choosing A URL Shortener

For many people, a good URL shortening service is a necessity. Even I use them quite often. So, I made a hunt in the web for the best URL shortener. I've chosen the ones to check from this article at Mouse In The House that talks about a major disadvantage of using URL shorteners at all - speed. [ I've shortened the URLs of the links above with Bit.ly ! ]

From the 14 options mentioned in the article above, I've shortlisted only 4 services. The reason : services like Binged.it, Fb.me, Goo.gl, Su.pr, Tcm.ch, Twt.tl and Youtu.be need you to register with them, which is big nuisance considering the fact that URL shorteners need to be efficient. And why would anyone take the pain of registering when equally good and even better services are available without the need to register. Twurl.cc, Is.gd and Ow.ly do not have the option of creating custom names. If you do not require custom naming facilities, Ow.ly is my recommendation while Is.gd offers a good sounding name !

So, the 4 services that I recommend using are Bitly, Snurl, Tinyurl and Tr.im in alphabetic order.  All these 4 options don't ask you to register but there is an option to register [ this shows you your recently trimmed URLs ( Bit.ly does it without registration itself ) ] in all the 4 cases. Bit.ly and Tr.im even allow you to tweet the URLs as soon as they are shortened [ you'll have to associate the service with Twitter for that, obviously ]. All these examinations make me recommend Bit.ly more than any other service. While Tinyurl has got a decent name to it, you can also take a look at Tr.im.

Playing Around With Blogger

It's been quite a while since I posted my first article - about an hour. In that time, since I was new to Blogger, I was playing around with Blogger. Actually, I have tried Blogger twice before and settled down to Wordpress. I think that was because did not check the Draft mode of Blogger [ I'm sure a many of you haven't heard of it either ]. It's the same as Labs in Gmail or 'beta' in general. While most of the features were the same, the Template Designer just rocked. I'm sure you're gonna love it too. Here's a view of how it looks ...

It definitely does look cool, doesn't it ? What else does Draft have on offer ... nothing, really. Who really cares ?

So is Blogger really better than Wordpress ? The answer is a very small and humble 'no'. Unfortunately, Blogger was not really good at impressing me. Wordpress offered me a whole lot more features than Blogger does. The most important lacking feature is Blog Stats - something that nearly every other host has. How can you be motivated to run a blog for no man in the Universe but yourself ? Still, I'd chose to use Blogger because of the ability to add custom gadgets into my blog - which, sadly, Wordpress lacks.

Well, I've mentioned only a very few things about Blogger in this article. So, it is your own risk choosing Blogger as your companion.

Until my next post, have a good time. Don't forget to enjoy your life to the utmost. 

Hello Guys ...

So, I've always wanted to write a blog. I've actually started quite a number of blogs but haven't maintained one properly. I think this blog will definitely be maintained better than the others. I hope it is ... See you soon guys.