New Look…

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Admin, Blogging, Technology

Wp-Multiflex-3-Nirlog
If you’re reading this in your RSS reader, just wanted to let you know that I’ve changed the look at Nirlog.com. Now I’m using a new theme WP-Multiflex-3, by Ainslie Johnson. My previous theme called WP-Andreas09 was also by Ainslie. I like the new theme, and I think many blogs will be using it, but I’m one of the first to have it, so I don’t mind ;). It supports Widgets, the cool thing is that the header too is widgetized in 3 sections, top, middle and bottom, which can be placed where you want or left out if you don’t want them. The theme is also SEO friendly, where space is left for your “keywords” and “descriptions” in header.php, and title appears before the the blog’s name. I love the RSS Subscription button at the header too.

The 12 steps to cure e-mail addiction

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Email, HowTo, Life, Technology

It has changed the way we communicate and do business, with it’s ease of use, price (free for end users), and effectiveness, e-mail has taken our productivity to a whole new level. But there’s a darker side to it. Now people are getting addicted to emails. The misuse and addiction is doing just the opposite, costing businesses millions of dollars in lost productivity. But there’s a hope, reuters put it this way — “Alcoholics have one, and so do drug abusers. Now people addicted to e-mail also have a 12-step program designed to tackle their obsession.” Here are the 12 steps to manage your e-mail:

1. Admit that e-mail is managing you. Let go of your need to check e-mail every ten minutes.
2. Commit to keeping your inbox empty.
3. Create files where you can put inbox material that needs to be acted on.
4. Make broad headings for your filing system so that you have to spend less time looking for filed material.
5. Deal immediately with any e-mail that can be handled in two minutes or less but create a file for mails that will take longer.
6. Set a target date to empty your in box. Don’t spend more than an hour at a time doing it.
7. Turn off automatic send/receive.
8. Establish regular times to review your e-mail.
9. Involve others in conquering your addiction.
10. Reduce the amount of e-mail you receive.
11. Save time by using only one subject per e-mail; delete extra comments from forwarded e-mail, and make the subject line detailed.
12. Celebrate taking a new approach to e-mail.

Year of the Pig

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Hong Kong, Life

Singlepig
The year of the pig has arrived and is considered lucky to bear children. As always Hong Kong is very very colorful, with new year decoration and greetings everywhere. There was a grand fireworks display yesterday at victoria harbor.
Fireworks
The lucky pigs were to seen everywhere in the city. Times Square alone had around hundred different small pig statues. Here are some images of colorful pigs I’ve captured. Enjoy…! I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers a prosperous and happy Chinese New Year. If you’re planning for babies, this is a good year ;). Chinese believe that children born in the year of the pig would be very fortunate, for they will be happy and honest.

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Roger Waters – Dark Side of the Moon in Hong Kong

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Hong Kong, Life

Darksideofthemoon I’m a huge fan of Pink Floyd and proudly own all of their albums. It was a dream come true for me to be at the Roger Waters concert yesterday at HKCEE. He’s currently touring the world, with the Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of The Moon. It was an unforgettable event. I remember having a similar experience when I went to Iron Maiden’s concert in Moscow in 1998. The only thing I regret this time is not bringing the camera with me. There was a warning in the ticket that said “bags would be searched and cameras wouldn’t be allowed”. It looks like I was the only one bothering to check/follow the ticket’s warnings, everyone else had their camera flashing throughout the show. I’ve managed to take few shots with my phone’s camera but they aren’t very good. I’ve posted them anyway. Take a look…

Pig
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Gates vs Jobs

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Apple, Windows


It’s an iWorld… and this is iHouse, without Windows!

Techie Valentine

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Life, Links

HeartIt’s 5:30pm, work is over and I’m heading to get something special for my sweet heart, but before I go just wanted to share some of the Geeky Valentine’s Day stuff that my RSS reader has been catching. Enjoy…

Steve Jobs’s Thoughts on Music and DRM

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Apple, Technology

In an open letter, Apple CEO Steve Jobs urges the recording companies to abandon DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies. This is quite surprising to everyone because Apple, with it’s ipod and selling songs (with DRM) from iTunes store is clearly the one most benefiting from DRM. But Jobs thinks there’re 3 ways ahead: continue on the current course with DRM; Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors; or to abolish DRMs entirely. Apple clearly favors the third option.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Via: Cnet

Top 50 Occupations

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Links, Random

A list of Top 50 Occupations and Their Projected 10 Year Growth

The Top 50 Occupations were selected in the following way:

* A “Top 50 rating” was created by multiplying the Projected Need for Employees times the Median Hourly Wage.
* Occupations whose Median Wage is less than $20/hr were eliminated.
* Of the remaining occupations, only the top 50 were selected.

List of Blogging Checklists

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Blogging, Technology

When I recently launched my new blog, it all started with a concept, domain search, domain registrration, wordpress installation, themes, plugins, some php hacks and so on… I just did everything following my previous experience but later realized having a checklist would have been much more helpful. I think it would have saved me a lot of time. There’re some excellent checklists about blogging in the blogosphere, and I’ve collected some of the best I could find. If you know of other good checklists related to blog and blogging please let me know, I’ll expand the list. So, here it is… enjoy the list of the checklists…

1. Blogging Starter Checklist – I learnt it the hard way but you don’t have to. I have put together a starter checklist for new bloggers. – By Rajesh Setty

2. WordPress: The Complete Post-Install Checklist – After setting up WordPress for several of my friends, I found that having a ‘checklist’ makes things go even faster – so I decided to write it all up and share with you. – By Ross McKillop

3. 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch – The 21 points included in this checklist will cover the basics of what you need to do during those all-important first two weeks of your blog’s life. – By Aviva

4. Top WordPress Plugins – Some of the most useful and most popular WordPress plugins. – By Vlad Akilov

5. 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work – So here are 7 more sure-fire headline templates that will work when you’re aiming to score more readers. – By Brian Clark

6. 10 Most Misspelled Words in Blogs – Technically the following words aren’t misspelled. They’re misused. The reason you should review this list is because a spell checker won’t correct these for you. – By Johan Holmberg

7. 8 Steps to Growing Your Blog Community One Person At a Time – The real value in blogging comes from 1. How can you get 1 more person to visit your blog, engage and build a relationship with you? – By Ben Yoskovitz

8. WordPress and SEO – Bunch of SEO tips for your blog. These tips won’t flood your blog with visitors – no SEO tips will. Use these tips to improve your site. – By Thomas Silkjær

9. How to get traffic for your blog – List of 56 advices to get more traffic for your blog. – By Seth Godin

10. Free! Icons for your website or application – List of some amazing icons by various artists who have made their work available to the general public for a variety of uses. These icons are all free. – By Kirk Montgomery

11. My 50 favorite blogging resources – List of 50 blogging resources that can be helpful to any individual and corporation looking to get into blogging. – By Neil Patel

12. Fifty Writing Tools – At times, it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. – By Roy Peter Clark

13. 10 Things You should Know About WordPress 2.1 – If you’re planning to upgrade your blog to WordPress to 2.1 here’re 10 things you should know. – By Aaron Brazell

14. List of Popular Blogs – The biggest blogs in the blogosphere, as measured by unique links in the last six months. – By Technorati

“The only thing that matters finally is superior content. If you forget everything else in this list and focus on just providing great content, you can still win BIG in the blogging world!” – Rajesh Setty

Path to Enlightenment

by niranjanPosted on Posted in Body, Mind & Spirit, Life, Nepal

I’ve seen many buddhist monks in Swyambhu and Bouddha taking three and half steps forward, then prostrate flat on the road while chanting mantras, and making several rounds around the stupas. But a monk from Tibet, Sherab Gyalsten has taken this to a whole new level by starting this from Tibet, crossing Nepal, and now he’s already entered India, only 16 days away from his destination, Bodh Gaya, where Buddha reached enlightenment under a pipal tree. BBC has more details about this amazing story.

Lun

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