Blogs

I was once a voracious reader. I used to read an entire Sideny Sheldon's novel in a day. I remember my dad telling me, "if you read the text books like you read novels you will definitely top the academic charts". Well, I didn't read most of the text books with the excitement I experienced when I read novels in my school days. Let's debate the consequences.

After a few days, no months, wait, years, I motivated myself to read a book. I didn't even remember the last book I had read. Is this even possible?

We discussed about using feed readers to keep ourselves updated. I am eager to know what type of feeds do you subscribe to. I am also interested in knowing what feed reader you use.

In this post, let us discuss how to make use of blog feeds to learn new stuff.

Internet has always been a great resource for all the topics on earth! Yes, you know it. To check the meaning of new words, you use online dictionaries. To quickly find out information about a particular topic you use Wikipedia. To find information about any topic in depth you use articles and eBooks probably. Have you used blog feeds to learn new stuff? If not, you should, now.

Have you always been thinking about learning a specific technology or art? I'm sure most of you do. Many of you have secretly fantasized having more than 24 hours in day, haven't you? Off late, I have been gleaning one heck of information by subscribing to blog feeds. You name a topic and you will find a blog with quality content. If you are a marketing professional you may want to learn tips and tricks that can boost your career. If you are a software engineer, you may want to learn a new programming language. If you are a homemaker you may want to try your hands on new recipes. If you are a manager you may want to learn about a latest trend in your industry. The list goes on and on and on. In summary there's a topic out there for everybody. Even if you don't have the desire to learn new stuff, you should keep yourself updated and be smart in your industry.

Blogs invariably offer RSS feeds to their readers. Some blogs even offer e-mail alerts when new entries are posted. Take advantage of them and immerse yourself in your favorite topic for the next few days. Blogs cover hot industry news and reviews on them. It is convenient to learn a new technology or art in your free time. You can read the feeds when you want them. Everyday, before I start the work, I go through the feeds I have subscribed to. I also read them in my breaks and before I leave for the day.

Gone are days, I used to read newspapers and magazines. The availability of Internet opens a plethora of information sources. The content comes to your doorstep free of cost as well. No more hassles of dumping piles of old newspapers and magazines.

If you do not subscribe to RSS feeds yet, it is high time you do. If this sounds too geeky, take a look at the Wikipedia article first. Websites that offer frequently updated content is likely to publish RSS feeds. Using these feeds you read about what's happening around the world without visiting websites. If you subscribe to lot of e-mail newsletters, you know how difficult it is to manage them. Subscribing, unsubscribing and managing spam add to the inconvenience.

RSS feeds solve this problem. First and foremost, you have to download and install a feed reader on your computer. In the last post I mentioned a few names. I recommend Thunderbird. You can configure your e-mail accounts and also subscribe to RSS feeds using the "News and Blogs" feature in Thunderbird. Use Google to find the feeds you want and add them to your RSS feed reader. You don't have to visit those websites again to see what is updated. Look for the feed icon as displayed to the right of the above paragraph and click on it to visit the feed URL.

Here I am, doing justice to my previous post. Many interesting things happened during this time.

Drupal 6.0 was released. It was followed by Drupal 6.1 release. And I updated this site to the latest Drupal release. The site now uses a stock theme. What do you think about it? I am preparing myself to write an E-book on how to build blogging sites using Drupal. Keep watching for more updates on the E-book.

I also happen to register myself on many social networking sites. If people want to get in touch with you, they are going to ask you your profile URL just like your e-mail address and phone number. Give me a shout if you find me on your favorite social network. I also am building social networking sites nowadays. The full disclosure arena is close on the horizon.

Among other things, I tried few RSS readers or news aggregators on my desktop PC. Initially I was using Thunderbird for both e-mails and RSS feeds. Having configured too many accounts on the same software was little cumbersome. Therefore, downloaded few RSS readers and tried them one by one. They all lacked basic user interface features. For example, there was no "Select All" feature in one software. In another software, there was absolutely no option to disable the "delete confirmation dialog box". How frustrating! I don't even remember their names, except Akregator. I sure do not recommend it to anyone. I reverted to Thunderbird. And hey, this site generates RSS feeds. You can subscribe to them using the URL - http://sudheer.net/rss.xml.

I will be back with more updates soon.

The calendar turns again. The inbox in my mobile and email accounts were flooded with new year wishes. The RSS and blog feeds I have subscribed also were full of new year resolutions, last year reviews and warm wishes for the 2008. Thank you very much for all those who took time out of the busy partying schedule to send me those wishes.

I only have personal wishes for the new year. I would stay away from the resolutions reviewing the success of my previous resolutions. Here's a list of things I want to do in this year:

• Write more frequently here at www.sudheer.net

Here I am with some updates. I recently learned, the hard way, that you when are consulting a subject matter expert, don't use your brain in the midst of consultation. From ages, people have realized that you should always provide accurate information and avoid hiding facts to your lawyer, doctor or police. This advocacy can be and should be extended to other areas also. I had to set up a feature in one our websites. I integrated an open source software to my existing code to enable the new feature. The process was rather complex and I had to follow the step by step instructions from the open source software documentation site. I went on performing the steps. Everything appeared to be fine until I encountered step number 27. I was stuck at step 27. The system would not accept this command. I tried to get past step 27 for couple of hours ; but I couldn't. I stepped out for a quick break. The weather was hot and I felt like drinking Coke. Coke was not available in the store nearby. I proceeded to another shop. Same story; no Coke. I tried yet another shop, same news; no cool drinks. Coca-Cola factory is just one mile far from my house and I still can't get Coke anywhere in the vicinity from the past few weeks.

I went back to work after quenching my thirst with a cup of tea. I carefully looked at the steps I was performing and I discovered that the problem was with step 3. The instructions in the document asked me a create a directory in a different location. I used my brain and I thought step 3 didn't matter. Unfortunately it did. This time I religiously followed the instructions in the document and it worked great. So, when you are consulting a subject matter expert, never ever use your brain in between.

Some of my friends wanted to know how to acquire web development skills and build a career on it. We had a cool discussion about various fundamental concepts of building web sites. We talked about registering domain names, hosting a web site and developing web pages. I have always wanted to help my folks seeking technical knowledge about computers and Internet in general. One of my friends told me after the discussion that he gained some insight about how websites work. He also mentioned that he had understood what to research on to further his interest in web development. Some other friends have also expressed their intent to install GNU/Linux on their home computers. I have promised them that I would assist them with this.

If you also are seeking similar mentoring drop a line at Contact Page. I will try my best to extend my helping hand to you too. If I'm unable to directly support you, I will at least point you in the right direction. I'm a web development and GNU/Linux consultant. From the past few years I have been playing around with the LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP technologies. I studied and researched these subjects on my own. I did realize that the best things in life are indeed free. You can also find out whether the best things in life are free. Post your comments here or contact me using Contact Form. I will be glad to make new friends.

How do you check the current time in another part of the world? The answer is simple. Go to www.google.com and type city name, country name and the word "time". Click search, Google tells you what is it at the city you entered. I wanted to check the current time in Toronto, Canada. I typed "Toronto Canada Time" in the google search bar and hit enter. I got the following response from google.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada — Current local time: 3:41 AM on Thursday, August 23

According to http://www.google.com
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Here's the URL that gives the above output:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=toronto+canada+time&btnG=Google+Search

Cool Google. I knew that Google could be used as simple calculator but not time piece.

The much awaited website LAMPComputing.com is launched. LAMPComputing.com helps you understand and use GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP technologies. You can participate in the forums, comment on the blog, book, story and page posts, vote in polls and much more. If you are looking for some help to install and use GNU/Linux on your desktop and laptop, go join the site now. If you have been wanting to write some PHP program and stuck with something, go ask the people at LAMPComputing.com. If you have questions about MySQL database, HTML, CSS, JavaScript or image editing you know what to do. Post your question in relevant LAMPComputing.com forums. You are also welcome to discuss Free and Open Source Software and its usage in the enterprise.

If you are expert in any of these technologies you are very welcome to help other members. You can meet new people and make new firneds by participating in LAMPComputing.com. The LAMPComputing.com program is generously sponsored by Binary Vibes.

I installed Fedora Core 2 on one of my old PCs yesterday. I inserted disk 1 and started the installation. After a few minutes, the CD-ROM trey popped out and the system asked me to insert disk 2 to continue installation. Only then did I realize that I didn't have Fedora Core 2 disk 2. I had disk 1, disk 3 and disk 4 but not disk 2. I switched to another computer, visited Redhat web site, downloaded Fedora Core 2 disk 2 ISO image. The total file size was 635 MB. I could download it in less than four hours. I burned the ISO image to a empty disk and used it to complete the installation.

A few years ago this was a dream. I recalled the days when it took almost half an hour to access your mailbox. Frequent disconnections in a dial-up connection was quite normal in those days. Uploading and downloading huge files was a nightmare then. Thanks to today's broadband technologies. It saves so much time and the online experience is more enjoyable today.