This post should not be considered as just a mere rant. This actually works for job interviews and in my experience of the few that I have attended, it has certainly got the positive attention of the recruiter. So, how does it work? By definition, blogging can be at different levels – personal – which is focussed on personal likes/dislikes etc and hence, is already driven by some niche. The other end of blogging is – professional blogging – which is primarily done by people who earn their bread and butter by means of blogging. Such are writers who majorly write about specific areas – such as Technology, Blogging, Making Money Online, Entertainment, Television, Pop culture etc. They are the next generation of press reporting, and arguably pose a threat to the traditional news reporting. Such is the impact that News reporters and the likes have resorted to Blogging online. So, coming back to the question is how does Blogging add value to one’s resume?
Just a couple of Images to set the mood right for the WWDC 2009. The geeks are in the room, and Phil is just about to begin the Keynote [coz, it's just 5 minutes to 6pm, London Time, that's why!]. But here we are still sharing some good pics from WWDC, before we go for the Liveblogs of the Event.
First up: A Graphical Roundup of all the iPhone Rumors in one image [via TGRBlog]
For the High Resolution picture, click here.
The following images are courtesy: CrunchGear’s Liveblog of WWDC on Scribble
Moscone West
Choosing the Right Wordpress Theme
I hope you people might have noticed that I have two blogs, one is this- Techkeyla, and the other one is OneKnightStands or as most of my mates call it- OKS. It was launched alongside Techkeyla, last year when I joined the independently blogging band-wagon and left the Blogger camp. Things have been great since. Visitors multiplied, my posts got linked and I got readers from all across the world. But unfortunately I haven’t been able to write as much. So to break the hibernation, I thought of redesigning the theme. I was happy with the previous theme for it supporting my long posts and clarity of font. But I needed change. After all it was a year old. So I began my hunt for the perfect wordpress theme to work on.
Sources of Free Wordpress Themes.
My search began with a google search, but it was just not quite adequate. So, the search led me to multiple other blogs and other sources which I am sharing with you.
1. Smashing Magazine
Just love this blog and the exhaustive amount of sources these guys have. Check the following posts e.g.
100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen
2.The next huge resource for anything wordpress is Mashable. For themes, I seeked help from the following posts.
30+ WordPress 3-Column Themes
30+ WordPress 2-Column Themes
And then there are numerous other blogs providing lists of numerous Wordpress Themes. Some of them are listed below (after the jump).
If everywhere, everyone has been flooded with this image showing an article on INSOMNIA, it is so because KNOL is out for the public now. KNOL is Google’s knowledge base ( a way to tackle Wikipedia) of articles written by people ranging from specialised ones to bloggers to anyone stung by the writer’s bug. As if your blogger/wordpress account wasn’t enough. Google wants to centralise it all. But yeah, no one here would be interested a status update of you at 2 am. Articles here aren’t anonymous. There are personally written posts (quite long ones) on topics by people who are specialized enough to know the ins and outs.
Firstly, do NOT go to Knol.com. That is a Dutch website offering Steam machines. The business for them is so gonna break through the roof. At least they should include Adsense!! Anyway coming back, the official website of Knol is http://knol.google.com. And the homepage has a few past articles featured written by authors who are Neurologists, Proffessors at renowned Universities, and highly qualified physicians. Most of the written posts featured on the homepage are on health topics viz. Heart Diseases, Cancer, Fighting Obesity etc. But there are other topics as well. As this one, written by a certain Chewy (Geeky Geekington) who has written a post on Devil May Cry 4. And from his anonymous profile, (here known as biography of the author) we still don’t know much about Mr.Chewy. So that brings us what Knol is all about. I shall point it out in the points below.
It seems like a moment of triumph. Seems like what started as a silly hobby, and having fought many obstructions and other temptations and having not given up after almost 3 years of blogging, has finally paid off. I got my first interview published on an e-mag called Pakspectator.
It is an online magazine encompassing different topics and they feature interviews of writers, passionate bloggers, webmasters et al. I believe that I belong to the second kind. They contacted me and I couldn’t help say anything but yes. Very soon, they replied me with a long list of questionnaire which included questions on my blogging experience etc.
An excerpt:-
Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?
Oh yes many, including my English teacher back at school. I never gave standard answers which were marks friendly.
If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for – what would your top 3 choices be?
New York- Big Apple
Cupertino – Home of Apple
Tokyo – Home of Jap-Anime
How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
There are ways to generate income through blogs. Though I do not blog professionally, and haven’t made a reasonable income from my blogs, there are bloggers who make their entire living from it, and even make a killing. I am still searching for the answer to this question myself.
Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
It might be true, and might not be as well. I blog whenever I can. It does not come across as a hindrance to my work (may be the other way around is true). But I do know of people who have very tight schedules but also regularly maintain their blogs which are successful as well.
Leaving aside the bandwagon of celebs (read Bollywood celebs) who cash in on their celeb status to catapult their online presence, there are in fact people with demanding careers who also blog and do a commendable job at it too.
You can read the full interview here. I feel so elated and a bit like a snob as well. Good going Sujoy!!!
Cheers!!
See the cute little sun shining on my Wordpress page address bar above? Or the very familiar ‘g’ on the address bar when you go to any Google page . That’s the Favicon. (So sorry, IE 6 users can’t see it ).And why is that minute design detail necessary. Well, it works more like a brand logo of your website/blog rather than just another design feature. You of course want to project your blog as a brand , a service which is recognisable. Labnol.org has the favicon of ‘D i’ as in Digital Inspiration. Now it is just a piece of little code to be included in your Wordpress package and we’ll get to that in a while.
For those who host it on Blogger, by default the Blogger favicon should appear, but then, that can also be done away with. Now back to Wordpress. Go to the Theme Editor page in your Admin console. Now if you don’t know how to reach there, once you LOGIN to your Wordpress Admin page, click on the Design tab, and then click Theme Editor. GO to the Header php file titled header.php (surpisingly).
Now typically, this is where you include the code for the favicon. First and foremost, upload your desired Icon ( a .ico file) on any image hosting service ( photobucket, flickr..you know the names) or you can host it on your own server where you have hosted your wordpress. This is more advisable so that whenever you change your theme, your favicon would change as well. Anyway, typically, the icon goes in the theme folder itself. Now if it is included within the template folder itself, this is how the code will read.
<link rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/ico” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/favicon.ico” />
You have to include this code in the header.php. Almost anywhere, but I prefer to keep the code a bit clean by including below the code for the navbar:- the bar which has the link to the pages. And once you are done with it, click update and voila, your Wordpress blog is now Favicon Branded. Flaunt It.
It has been a good 6 months since the launch of Techkeyla. And well, I was very happy with the O2-20 Theme that I had for this one. But it has been here since day one. And well, the itch for a change in the theme had been troubling me for quite some time. It actually began when I saw the Underscore theme of Upstart Blogger. I loved the simplicity of the Theme, the Underscore in the Title, and the clean white background. But then, I had issues with its Post Width and its sidebar size. And then, I saw Chris Pearson’s Cutline 1.3 -3 Column Split. Instantly liked the whole simple layout, white blackground and well, the rotating header image. The theme is widget ready.But needed some changes to be done. The original theme can be downloaded here. ( Download Link ) And well, did the following changes.
Edited the Header Images. Created a few customised ones with GIMP. Front Page: Kept the theme of my previous Techkeyla intact for the Front Page header. It shows the 3 pillars of what TECHNOLOGY is today. Apple – Google -Microsoft. Moving on to the Single Post page, I included the gadgets that rule the web space today. From the iPhone to the 360, PS3, Wii, Guitar Hero et al.
