Please don't forget the Grand Opening of the Fairfield County Real Estate Investors Association. The Reia meeting will be held at Liedles Caterers on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. This is the ultimate investors meet up.

Anyone who is anyone wants to be at our reia meeting. Our guest speaker, Attorney Gary Seymour, will be discussing how to legally stop a foreclosure. Real estate agents and mortgage brokers should want to be in the front row for this one.

We will have a cash bar on site so you can unwind and relax after a long days work. We look forward to hosting your meetings in the future.

If you know anyone who may be available, please let them know that they no longer have to drive to Cromwell, CT to go to a REIA. I know that has been a problem for many people who live in lower and middle fairfield county.

We are putting our list together for future speakers as we speak. Come on out and have a great time. Lets make some money in this great real estate market for buyers.

Until next time

Keep God 1st, Invest in People

CL

Вчера по време на скучния мач прегледах някои от сайтовете, участващи в avtorentacar състезанието. И възклинах: "Боже, колко мъка има по този свят, Боже". Ако не ви е ясно защо - прегледайте сами първите две-три страници.

Google продължава да показва около 630 000 индесирани страници и не иска да "захапе" повече. Което ме навежда на мисълта, че вече не се създава съдържание за състезанието.

avtorentacar - rentacar проектът на Оги и компания продължава да бълва материали, има вече 650 индесирани страници и продължава да държи първото място.

Друго - желая ви спокойна неделя, и ако ви потрябва rentacar - знаете към кого да се обърнете.

avtorentacar team

Ecco la situazione attuale...

Equinozio d’autunno  > 584
Uomo Panda - Superenalotto 5 - 11 Ottobr  >  510
Esito degli esami di ammissione a Foggia  >  260
La festa di Padre Pio - 23 Settembre 200  >  179
iTunes alla versione 8.1  >  63
Uomo Panda - Superenalotto 4 - 9 Ottobre  >  47
Le 10 regole della felicità  >  46
La mia solitudine  >  26
Uomo Panda - Superenalotto 2 - 4 Ottobre > 19
Amore e perdono >  18

Questo post è pubblicato su WordPress, su blogger ne pubblicherò uno diverso se sarà possibile.

Uomo Panda 2008

• Nicolae Guţă şi Play Aj  - Sunt Tare

• Arash feat. Aneela - Chori Chori

• Snow - Informer

Unfortunately it does seem like its eating a lot into my blogging habits. Its not like I dont have stuff to write about. I have close to atleast 20 topics that I have jotted down that I want to write about and get your thoughts on... except that, it seems like some herculean task to login into wordpress and blog. I even installed Scribe to see if the barrier would seem smaller, but nope, no luck yet.

It might be that I might switch to a fullswing microblogging format soon. And this might be the longest post by that standards. I can almost hear a "Phew!" from out there.

saya hendak meninggalkan rumah yang hangat nan nyaman ini; untuk berpindah ke rumah yang lebih longgar, dengan pekarangan yang ditumbuhi rumput tebal dan semak yang bisa untuk bermain petak umpet. ada pohon belimbing besar di belakang rumah. pohon yang selalu mengingatkan saya pada ayah. juga ada tanaman merambat di sisi bangunan rumah. kali ini, bulik saya tak akan bisa memangkasnya.

silakan datang dan mampir di rumah saya yang baru.

kalian tak perlu mengendarai dokar, becak, mikrolet, metromini, sepeda motor, bus, bahkan pesawat untuksampai ke rumah saya. kelincahan jemari di papan kunci dan tetikus akan mengantarkan kalian ke rumah saya yang baru.

http://www.femiadi.com

saya sudah menyiapkan teh hangat maupun cokelat hangat untuk kalian. kalau mau wine atau beer, ambil saja di cellar di ruang tengah.

terimakasih sudah sering menyambangi rumah dengan halaman putih ini. membagi tawa, juga isak tangis. terima kasih.

Myspace is almost the synonym of social networks. Sure there were those that came before it, but Myspace was able to bring it to the masses, en masse. I joined myspace on March 12, 2005, not that long ago I guess. I've watched as it has gone through all its various face lifts and other cosmetic changes. I remember when you could only have eight photos, instead of three-hundred. I used to use myspace a lot, mostly to keep in touch with old high school buddies, but I've been drifting away from it recently. I've been using it less and less and find myself checking it more infrequently with each passing week. It's gotten a little too, hmmm, flashy(?), a little too hip hop, just not my style anymore. Besides, over time I talk with old friends less and less and it's a sad symptom of the fact that my use of myspace is decreasing.

Facebook was billed as the grown up alternative to Myspace. It has since become just as much a cesspool for internet denzions as myspace. It's tried so hard to not become myspace, that it has actually become almost a mirror of it. What with the new annoying applications both have, the constant updating of every single aspect of everyone's profile force fed right to you, are just two of many reasons both sites are catering to the younger audiences, despite what they may have originally sought to do. I never really got into facebook too deeply mostly because I found their interface to be confusing, and I was so used to myspace that I generally stuck with them. Nowadays I don't use either a whole lot.

I love last.fm. I've been using it since February 5, 2005 and have played over 30,000 tracks since signing up. For those of you who aren't familiar with this service, what last.fm does is it keeps track of what you listen to via a plugin for your favorite music player (for use on computers only, not portable media devices, obviously). I really love all the charts and graphs, which make it easy to see what you listen to and how much you listen to what. Along with this, last.fm has an extremely broad user base, all listening to everything under the sun. Makes it easy to find new music interests. I would definitely recommend last.fm. I'm still partial to its original name, Audioscrobbler.

I've been with DeviantART since March 19, 2005. It's a place for art. The community there is really great. Pretty much any kind of art you're interested in, you can find someone else who shares your interest (if not hundreds), and are happy to share their tips and tricks of the trade. I always have fun when I'm browsing deviations, wether it be critiquing a serious submission, or joking around with someone about their MSPaint drawing. Artists unite, this is DeviantART.

Rules 1 and 2 prevent me from talking about this particular site, but make no mistake, this one has quite a presence.

I've been using GameFAQs since Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 10:50 PM, well this is the creation date for my earliest account anyway. This is a great place to post on the internet in forum type discussion. Obviously, since the name gives it away, the slant is toward video games, but there are enough boards to cover just about every interest, even a board for graphing calculators. I post whenever I can, mostly for a laugh, but sometimes it's serious business, just like the internet. But at the end of the day, it's L-block all the way. Also the cake is a lie. Also no one ever expects jinjo. Also moderators.

A recent addition to my internet repertoire. Not unwelcome at that either. This is sort of an outlet, as I'm sure it is for most people, to quip about whatever they're doing. As far as usefulness, it's pretty far down on the scale, but it can be fun nonetheless. But it leads me into the next item which is...

Kinda looks like the Volkswagen logo... Anyway, this is Wordpress, it's what you're reading right now! I've actually been looking for a place for SuperJanitor to live since Myspace was getting stale, and Facebook is not malleable enough for me. Enter Wordpress. I've actually taken a liking to this, and the idea of it all. I had a blog once before, which was basically for me to chronicle all the stories and experiences I had working at a Subway a while ago, it was pretty off color and not quite as refined as this has the potential to be. I'm enjoying my stay and it will be interesting to see what I end up doing with it once I don't have to update it for a grade. I think I'll keep up with it because I always feel like I have a need to write down what's going on in my life, for whatever reason. It's also a good tool to chronicle just about anything, progress, life, progress of life.

I never post comments on YouTube. The comments on YouTube are generally regarded as the absolute worst the internet has to offer, but the videos are what people really go there for, right? Well I do anyway. YouTube along with Google basically have the market cornered when it comes to video on the internet. So much so that YouTube has almost become synonymous with any video online. Everyone uses YouTube.

While I don't directly participate in any of the conversation that goes on on this site, I read it religiously. This is about as smart a discourse that I can get without getting totally over my head. It's news for nerds, stuff that matters. Their polls are also always entertaining.

Car Talk is a radio talk show about cars, hosted by Tom and Ray. I've been listening to this show for years, and while not a social network that I personally take advantage of, there are a multitude of people out there who do. Their website offers a lot in the way of car advice, and their weekly radio show never disappoints. So I waste another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk once a week.

You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog. You're the man now dog.

Well six months ago, I bought an Acer Laptop in replacement of my old one (Neo). Of course I got it for 0% - 12 mos period. Don’t get me wrong, I had my replacement because my nephew decided to buy it at much lower cost. So he will be saving a lot, especially that he’s going to pay it at his convenience, meaning to say, there is no specific schedule for his payments ( well, I think there are only 3K bucks balance, huh!). My Neo is still working properly, no problems encountered so far, still working on both Edubuntu Linux (yeah, I’m in the academe and teaching open source technology) and Windows XP.

On the other hand, the Acer is going smoothly as well. It has Windows Vista Ultimate installed in dual boot with Edubuntu version 8.4.0.1. The first challenge I encountered using the new Acer is the new Office 2007 installed. OMG! It’s a disaster. I’ve been proficient with Office 2000 and 2003 as well as open office suite, however, working with office 2007 is a disaster (at first). I’ve been in limbo! Good thing, I have aspenm32 as my immediate CSR, (thanks). After a month or so, I finally got accustomed with the office 2007.

In our office, there are several hotspot areas; I’ve noticed that Acer (referring to the model of my laptop, in particular) has a weaker wireless connectivity than Neo computer, whew. In some cases, I preferred to wired-connect it rather than wireless connection (somewhat defeat the purpose of 802.11 a/b/g). It was also a problem when installing the Edubuntu OS for dual booth. You have to manually configure the wireless driver because of interconnectivity issues which is a mess especially if you are not familiar with the command line interface of Linux OS. Since during that time, we are conducting the CILC (Computer and Internet Literacy Course) for the recipient schools of the iSchools Project, our course presentations also involved multimedia, I’ve noticed that I have to update first the audio driver so that whenever I connect on output device, the audio will be streamed to the output device. So that is another minus point for the Acer. When my sister in Lipa got a DSL connection from Digitel at Plan 512 (well this is another story), I opt to buy a wireless router to totally utilize the spending here. My brother has his own laptop (another Acer), plus my own Acer and my nephew frequently stays at our place. I was able to properly configure the wireless router, and my brother and nephew were able to successfully connect to the wireless router, my sis’ N92 and my E90 phones. However, my Acer cannot connect to the wireless and I’m always prompted that there is an incompatibility with my wireless router and WLAN card, huh. Again, I have no choice but to connect using wired connection, wtf!

Well, this is not really a performance comparison for the two laptops. I believe that there should be equal specifications at least, when we are comparing the performance. I’m sayin these because of my actual usage of the two devices.

My sister decided to have her own laptop, her hubby is working abroad, and she talks with her hubby everyday. For the time being, she uses my nephew’s laptop in the morning while he’s in the university and I let her use the laptop at night. I browse the net for possible installment (again) and decided to have a mini note (HP 2133). After some queries from the computer store, HP 2133 was dropped for several reasons. I finally decided to have the Compaq CQ20-205TU instead of the HP 2133. Specification wise, the former is much better than the latter. It was finalized and CQ20 was bought. (Thank you very much to SOMEONE who lend me some monies)

Since my card was used to purchased the unit, we agreed that I’ll be having the new one (well that is always my plan, LOL). So that’s it. I have my new COMPAQ CQ20-205TU while my sister has the Acer ( I reformatted the unit and installed XP and Office 2003, she’s not too acquainted with Vista and office 2007, and mind you, the wireless is working properly!)

How excited I am to have this new unit? Well, very excited, as if Dad got home with a new toy for me!

And the real problem occurs….

During the installation process, licensed OS is required. This is a common thing to do of course, however, if we can use unlicensed software, why not? Several attempts were made, however, to no avail, all were unsuccessful. Why? This is because of the SLIC feature of the BIOS. SLIC (System License Internal Code) which is used by the manufacturer to determine if the OS running on the machine is a legit or not. Microsoft together with four other computer manufacturers have an agreement with the SLIC. Eventually, SLIC will be implemented across all products. So meaning to say, my fellow unlicensed users, it is the right time to migrate to open source software!!!

What are my options? I can make use of the restore CD so that even if I don’t have the licensed OS, I can proceed with the installation process. Another is to go back to TCA, but all they can do is to extend the trial Vista Basic installed in my machine, and to purchase a licensed OS. Whew, I enquire from the different shops here in Batangas City and the least I got was 5K bucks,huh. This is a disaster!

It’s a pity on me. I settled for Windows Vista Starter!!! I’ve been testing now this OS and hopefully it works fine. (Or else, I have to purchase at least a Windows Vista Home Basic).

By the way. I got a RAM upgrade to 2G when I bought the unit. Heheheh

First thing first, install:

Install the sitemap generator is same as install any other plugin, unzip and put it into plugin folder, like:

\wp-content\plugins\google-sitemap-generator

I am not put it into mu-plugins folder, because I do not want sitemap.xml for all blogs, I need give blogger choice, they can active it when they need sitemap. (Not everyone like sitemap IMO)

Now, Lets Make Some Change

function GetHomePath()

Find function GetHomePath at sitemap-core.php file, this function return the value of blog root, it works fine for single wordpress system, but for mu system, it will cause mess, as author recommend, we change this function, before return $res;

Global $blog_id;
if ($blog_id != 1) $res .= 'wp-content/blogs.dir/' . $blog_id . '/files/';
return $res;

After change this function, the sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz file will be placed at blog file folder.

Remove user ability to make key setting changes

WordPress mu is a multiuser system, you should not allow user to change some key sitemap setting, open sitemap-ui.php file,

Remove

} else if($k=="sm_b_location_mode") {
$tmp=(string) $_POST[$k];
$tmp=strtolower($tmp);
if($tmp=="auto" || $tmp="manual") $this->sg->_options[$k]=$tmp;
else $this->sg->_options[$k]="auto";

This is for decide where the sitemap.xml placed, do not need for mu system

Remove

If($this->sg->GetOption('sm_b_robots')===true) {
if($this->sg->WriteRobotsFile()) {
$message.=str_replace("%s",$this->sg->GetRobotsFileUrl(),__("<a href=\"%s\">Robots.txt</a> file saved",'sitemap')) . "<br />";
} else {
$message.=__("Error while saving Robots.txt file",'sitemap') . "<br />";
}
}

This is for how to change robots.txt file, as we know, for mu system, robots.txt file is generated on the fly, so cannot allow user to change it.

Remove

<li>

<input type="checkbox" id="sm_b_robots" name="sm_b_robots" <?php echo ($this->sg->GetOption("sm_b_robots")==true?"checked=\"checked\"":"") ?> />
<?php echo str_replace('%s',(file_exists($this->sg->GetRobotsFilePath())?'<a href="' . $this->sg->GetRobotsFileUrl() . '">robots.txt</a>':'robots.txt'),__("Modify or create %s file in blog root which contains the sitemap location.",'sitemap')); ?>

<br />
<?php _e("File permissions: ",'sitemap');
$f = $this->sg->GetRobotsFilePath();
$link = ' <a href="' . $this->sg->GetRedirectLink("sitemap-help-options-robots",'sitemap') . '">' . __("Learn more",'sitemap') . '</a>';
if(file_exists($f)) {
if(is_writable($f)) {
_e("OK, robots.txt is writable.",'sitemap');
} else {
echo __("Error, robots.txt is not writable.",'sitemap') . $link;
}
} else {
if(is_writable(dirname($f))) {
_e("OK, robots.txt doesn't exist but the directory is writable.",'sitemap');
} else {
echo __("Error, robots.txt doesn't exist and the directory is not writable",'sitemap') . $link;
}
}
?>
</li>

This is the UI (User Interface) part of robots.txt file change, if you do not user change it, so don't let them see it.

Remove

<!-- Location Options -->
<div class="dbx-b-ox-wrapper">
<fieldset id="sm_location" class="dbx-box">
<div class="dbx-h-andle-wrapper">
<h3 class="dbx-handle"><?php _e('Location of your sitemap file', 'sitemap') ?></h3>
</div>
<div class="dbx-c-ontent-wrapper">
<div class="dbx-content">
<div>
<b><label for="sm_location_useauto"><input type="radio" id="sm_location_useauto" name="sm_b_location_mode" value="auto" <?php echo ($this->sg->GetOption("b_location_mode")=="auto"?"checked=\"checked\"":"") ?> /> <?php _e('Automatic detection','sitemap') ?></label></b>
<ul>
<li>
<label for="sm_b_filename">
<?php _e('Filename of the sitemap file', 'sitemap') ?>
<input type="text" id="sm_b_filename" name="sm_b_filename" value="<?php echo $this->sg->GetOption("b_filename"); ?>" />
</label><br />
<?php _e('Detected Path', 'sitemap') ?>: <?php echo $this->sg->getXmlPath(true); ?><br /><?php _e('Detected URL', 'sitemap') ?>: <a href="<?php echo $this->sg->getXmlUrl(true); ?>"><?php echo $this->sg->getXmlUrl(true); ?></a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b><label for="sm_location_usemanual"><input type="radio" id="sm_location_usemanual" name="sm_b_location_mode" value="manual" <?php echo ($this->sg->GetOption("b_location_mode")=="manual"?"checked=\"checked\"":"") ?> /> <?php _e('Custom location','sitemap') ?></label></b>
<ul>
<li>
<label for="sm_b_filename_manual">
<?php _e('Absolute or relative path to the sitemap file, including name.','sitemap');
echo "<br />";
_e('Example','sitemap');
echo ": /var/www/htdocs/wordpress/sitemap.xml"; ?><br />
<input style="width:70%" type="text" id="sm_b_filename_manual" name="sm_b_filename_manual" value="<?php echo (!$this->sg->GetOption("b_filename_manual")?$this->sg->getXmlPath():$this->sg->GetOption("b_filename_manual")); ?>" />
</label>
</li>
<li>
<label for="sm_b_fileurl_manual">
<?php _e('Complete URL to the sitemap file, including name.','sitemap');
echo "<br />";
_e('Example','sitemap');
echo ": http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml"; ?><br />
<input style="width:70%" type="text" id="sm_b_fileurl_manual" name="sm_b_fileurl_manual" value="<?php echo (!$this->sg->GetOption("b_fileurl_manual")?$this->sg->getXmlUrl():$this->sg->GetOption("b_fileurl_manual")); ?>" />
</label>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
</div>

This part is for choose sitemap.xml location, same same, if you do not want user change it, better not allow them see it.

Change Default Settings

This is not must, but I recommend you change it, to make your user life easier

On sitemap-core.php file, you can find default value at function InitOptions

The change I made are:

$this->_options["sm_b_prio_provider"]="GoogleSitemapGeneratorPrioByAverageProvider";

The provider for automatic priority calculation, after I test, Google Sitemap Generator Prio By Average Provider is working better than Google Sitemap Generator Prio By Count Provider

$this->_options["sm_b_pingyahoo"]=true; //Auto ping YAHOO
$this->_options["sm_b_yahookey"]='Q89D23fV34GSeqHjRl8o5i55ojmxrmwJPyMa_195mBnBaK6Vp_NB8y5WjnIoamjikw--'; //YAHOO Application Key, default for all

Default the sitemap not ping Yahoo after generated, because you need a yahoo key to ping it, so I put a key (get free form yahoo) as default, I suggest you get one free key from yahoo too and put there, of course if you like you may keep my key, not a big deal.

Done

Ok, it's half done, all the change on the plugin is finished, if user active the plugin at them plugin page, a sitemap.xml and a sitemap.xml.gz (a zip verison) will be create and placed into the blog folder and ping the search engines.

Everything is perfect except: the sitemap.xml NOT at root folder, so when search engine spider come, it can claw nothing except a 404 error. The following is how to fix this:

Plug You Plugin in to mu-plugins

Don't laugh, I know it's a silly title, just some stupid thing have to do.

We know the php file in mu-plugins folder will be load automatically by WordPress. So I created a postedpost.php file and write all my little change and hacks inside, like my Ultimate WP Post Name URL Sanitize Solution, I suggest you do it to, very easy and convenience. Anyway, the following code should inside mu-plugins folder.

Put sitemap into Robots.txt file

Function postedpost_do_robots() {
global $current_blog;
if ( '0' != $current_blog->public ) {
$siteurl = get_settings('siteurl');
if ( class_exists( 'GoogleSitemapGeneratorLoader' ) ) {
echo "Sitemap: " . $siteurl . "/sitemap.xml\n";
echo "Sitemap: " . $siteurl . "/sitemap.xml.gz\n";
}
}
}
add_action('do_robots', 'postedpost_do_robots', 20);

As the new sitemap protocol, you can put sitemap location into robots.txt file, so search engine can find your sitemap without you told them, e.g. Google Webmaster Tool.

Rewrite Rules

Function postedpost_rewrite_rules_array($rules){
$newrules = array();
$newrules['sitemap\.(xml|xml\.gz)$'] = 'index.php?is_page_redirect=1&redirect_method=sitemap&redirect_url=$matches[1]';
return $newrules+$rules;
}
add_filter('rewrite_rules_array', 'postedpost_rewrite_rules_array');

Function postedpost_parse_query($query){
global $blog_id;;
$siteurl = get_settings('siteurl');
$uri = parse_url($siteurl);
if(!empty($query->query_vars['is_page_redirect'])){
$redirect_method = $query->query_vars['redirect_method'];
if ( $redirect_method == 'sitemap' ) {
$redirect_url = $siteurl . '/wp-content/blogs.dir/' . $blog_id . '/files/sitemap.' . $redirect_url;
} else {
$redirect_url = get_settings('siteurl');
Header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
Header('Location: ' . get_settings('siteurl'));
exit();
}
Header('HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily');
Header('Location: ' . $redirect_url);
exit();
}
}
add_action('parse_query', 'postedpost_parse_query');

Function postedpost_init() {
global $wp_rewrite;
// postedpost_flush_rewrite_rules
$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
add_rewrite_tag('%comment_id%', '(([0-9]{1,})');

}
add_action('init', 'postedpost_init');

These code all about rewrite rules, when search engine or visitor visit /sitemap.xml, it will be 302 redirect to /wp-content/blogs.dir/[blog_id]/files/sitemap.xml. Btw, in my own code, I have many other rewrite rules and process code in these functions, that also why I say put all hacks in one php file, for make easier on process common task and improve performance.

OK, Done

This time all done.

Em 03 junho de 2007 eu antevi o que hoje é realidade. Meus dois primeiros blogs, Lista Negra e Sacada, graças à aquisição da Blogger.com.br pela Globo.com, não apenas não podem ser editados por mim como estão fora do ar, com a mensagem em inglês "Proibido - você não tem autorização para acessar/ nesse servidor", conforme a imagem.

Isso não é um problema tão grave, porque a hiperfície tem suas "ferramentas de memória",  como o Internet  Archieve, que independem da política econômico-comunicativa das grandes corporações.  Então para acessar o conteúdo desse blogs, basta usar a Wayback Machine. Mas eu fico meio triste.

De qualquer forma, nisso que a terra girou, também se concretizou a segunda parte da minha previsão, que transcrevo a seguir:

Bom, como não tenho a menor pretensão de pagar para usar um serviçozinho fuleiro que dava um enorme trabalho, qualquer dia vou acabar fazendo um blog só, no maravilhoso Wordpress (já em sua versão tupiniquim), e aproveitar as possibilidades que a blogosfera de hoje oferece a um sujeito multiobssecado e hiperativo como eu.

É isso. Como bem cantou o R.E.M., eu me sinto bem!

Clique aqui para ver o clipe de It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

Clique aqui para ler a letra da música.

Kanadan armeija valmistautuu tapahtumaan
Blossomin uusi kanavointi
Blossom Goodchildin viimeinen kanavointi
Mike Quinseyn uusin kanavointi
Henkimaailman uusin kanavointi
Blossom Goodchildin radiohaastattelu

Lisää aiheeseen liittyviä uutisia täältä:
http://10-14-08.blogspot.com/

Koittakaa jaksaa. Vielä pari päivää odotusaikaa. :)

PS. Huomasin juuri pari suomalaista uutta blogia, jotka mielestäni kannattaa ihmeessä katsastaa ja lisätä suosikkeihin.

http://ufot.wordpress.com/
http://paranormaali.com

I know I said a couple months ago that I was repenting. I changed my mind. The reason is fairly straightforward: programming makes me feel stupid. Now there are a lot of ways to feel stupid, some of which I have of necessity embraced and even come to appreciate in my life. There's the kind of feeling stupid that comes because you did something oafish, but usually that also comes with making someone laugh, so I'm okay with that. There's the kind of feeling stupid that comes because you don't know something you should know, but there are few better motivators for finding out, so I'm okay with that too. There's the kind of feeling stupid that comes because after a long, stubborn fight, you find out you really are wrong, and that kind of feeling stupid is very, very good for me.

The kind of stupid I've felt in my characteristically enthusiastic foray into the world of basic progrmaming is entirely different. It's like the entire programming community has closed ranks and decided that anyone who missed the CSS bus when it pulled through town 5 years ago doesn't deserve to be on board anyway. I've found thorough step-by-step tutorials on template tags and divs and customizing CSS, [granted, full of language I only vaguely understand] but none of them do me any good if no one will tell me where to find the templates on my blog! I don't know what to search for, I don't know where to search, and after spending hours of time I really don't have feeling more and more stupid, I'm starting to wonder why I'd bother searching.

I've come to the conclusion that the remedial training that would be necessary for me to understand and use the "help" materials currently available, let alone the actual tools, would take me at least a month of concerted effort. And, since I don't regret the way I have spent any of the months of my life since the development of XHTML, this kind of feeling stupid just makes me kinda mad.

Nocturnes de Chopin flotando por el viento. La misma habitación de unos días atrás. Y dos seres diferentes a los que se enfrentaron hoy; ‘rainy days and broken dreams', suspiré mientras me recargaba en la baranda; él hizo una mueca extraña al mirarme, y después sonrió mientras se sentaba frente al piano, "no"; me miró entrecerrando los ojos, ‘sunny days and blooming hopes', contestó. Cuando aún sentía algo por él, me gustaba verlo así, con el rostro apacible, lejos ambos del mundo mientras él se sumergía en la música y yo me extraviaba entre las notas de sus melodías olvidadas e ignoradas.

A veces, cuando su ánimo era ligero, él tocaba hermosas partituras, valiosas no por su significado ni el lugar donde hicieron su aparición sino por el sentimiento que emanaba de ellas cuando las interpretaba.

Pero sin embargo hoy se detuvo antes de rozar las teclas, miró las palmas de sus manos y entornó los ojos haciendo que su expresión se notara desolada y además un poco sombría; exhaló el aire muy despacio y dijo: - Otra vez vas a morir antes que yo ¿no es cierto?

-Sí, es un hecho inevitable. Siempre va a ser así, no importa cuántas veces nos encontremos, nunca vamos a estar juntos. -Una sonrisa sardónica, cínica; dirigí la mirada hacia la extensión interminable de tejados y edificios de cristal brillantes por la lluvia y continué hablando, con algo parecido a un nudo atravesándose en mi garganta -Me pregunto que seré la próxima vez que te vea; aunque para serte sincera, ya me estoy cansando de esto.

Él  alejó las manos del piano, como deseoso de poner distancia. Se levantó y se acercó a mí, pasando su brazo sobre mis hombros, acercando su rostro al mío, tanto, que cuando voltee para mirarlo de frente, sus pestañas, largas y espesas rozaron mi cara.

-Por favor, dijo él con una enorme sonrisa aunque turbado. Sentí un ligero temblor en las rodillas, y en un intento desesperado de detenerlo me alejé un poco, esperando con eso no caer en la trampa de sus ojos grises; pero en lugar de ello, otra sonrisa afloró a mis labios, mientras que escuchaba en mi voz aquel matiz de amarga furia al reírme en voz alta.

-¿Quién eres en verdad? Todo lo que sé es que tu nombre es o Christian o Gabriel y que pareces cada determinado tiempo en mis sueños; aunque llegados a éste punto ya no sé si llamarlos tales. No puedes esperar que te tenga compasión o siquiera una pizca de aprecio así, mucho menos si tú dispones de todas las herramientas sobre mí y yo ninguna; simplemente no es justo.

Él curvó los labios en una sonrisa hueca. -Sigues siendo igual que como te recuerdo. Desafortunadamente, hoy no va a ser la ocasión de averiguar nada; rugió, mientras me lanzaba sobre la baranda, y...

Both offer paid hosting with domain mapping for less than $15 per month. I’ve signed up for the two week free trials on both sites. I’ve exported my WP blog, spent a couple of hours with StAX to clean up the output, and have successfully imported everything into both TP and SS. In both cases, I need to perform some manual tuning to get things the way I like them.

Quick summary of my thoughts so far:

• TypePad annoyed me a little by asking for my credit card number up front, whereas SquaredSpace doesn’t require it until I’ve made a commitment to join.
• For my needs, TypePad is much less expensive ($8 versus $14).
• TypePad is straightforward to use, but a bit painful. I need to mass-delete all 200+ of the custom “categories” it imported from WP and it requires a two-click process for each. Additionally, things are not quite laid out cleanly on the management side. Tabs within tabs kind of thing.
• SquareSpace takes a radically different — and better — approach to content management. It threw me for a loop at first, but it’s great once I got a handle on its metaphors. Switching to SS from Blogger, WP, or TP is a bit like switching to a Mac from a PC. It’s a new, scary, and aggrevating environment until you understand it, then it’s obvious and elegant.
• TypePad has an iPhone application already available. SquareSpace is still working on theirs.

السلام عليكم ,

أسعد الله اوقاتكم بالخير والسعادة

لا شك أن المتتبع لاحوال الديمقراطية في عالمنا العربي, ليصيبه الأسى والحزن لمدى تقهقر

الحريات العامة والشخصية التي وصل إليها الانسان العربي. ولا شك أن ضمان الديمقراطية

هو السبيل للابداع والتقدم والحضارة. ولا شك ان سياسة إكمام الافواه التي تتبعها جل

الحكومات العربية, إن لم يكن كلها قد وضعتنا في مصاف الدول النامية كما يسمونها

والتي تعتبر نايمة ومتخلفة في حقيقة المعنى.

ولعلي هنا احاول استقراء بعض التجارب اليتيمة والمشوه لمفهوم الديمقراطية في العالم

العربي, فإخترت التجربة الاكثر ثراءاً واقدم تاريخاً, واشد جدلا: هي التجربة الكويتية.

بالمقابل, سأقارن بينها وبين التجربة السعودية الحديثة نسبياً - بهيكلها الجديد - والمتحفظة في

قراراتها وخطواتها. والبطيئه في إجراءاتها , والمتمثلة بمجلس الشورى.

مجلس الامة الكويتي يتم انتخاب اعضائه الخمسون عن طريق انتخابات تجرى في خمس

دوائر. ولكل ناخب الحق في التوصيت لاربع مرشحين. بينما مجلس الشورى السعودي

يحوي على مائة وخمسين عضوا يتم اختيارهم من الكفاءات والخبرات العملية في

شؤون الدولة. وبالنسبة لمهام مجلس الامة فيبدو لي - حسب وجهة نظري الخاصة انه تحول

لسطلة رقابية اكثر منها تشريعية, فقد قام المجلس بحل اكثر من حكومة نظرا للتلاعب بالمال العام, ومحافظةً على املاك الدولة العامة. وبالعكس , يبرز دور مجلس الشورى التشريعي اكثر, فشملت لوائحه احقية كل عشرة اعضاء اقتراح نظام جديد, أو تعديل نظام نافذ , وعرضه

على رئيس المجلس الذي بدوره يرفعه للملك. الا ان المجلس لم يكن مؤثرا في استجوابات

الوزراء والمسؤلين الكبار في الدولة. ولعل الصلاحيات التي اعطيت له لم تساعده على ذلك.

هذه الصلاحيات لم يستفد منها مجلس الامة بالشكل المطلوب. فأضحت جلسات المجلس

اشبه ما تكون بعراكات صبيانية ونقاشات بيزنطية. وكما هو معروف فإن مجلس الامة يتكون

من عدة كتل لعل ابرزها التكتل الاسلامي الذي اعتقد انه لم يحدد اولوياته

وأساء مع غيره من الكتل الاخرى : الليبراليه الوطنيه, والكتلة الشعبية التي

تشكل الاطياف المتفرقة من المجتمع الكويتي, كلها أساءت للحرية الممنوحة لها

فتعالى الصراخ في المجلس وذهبت لغة الحوار الهادئ. ونتيجة لذلك تم حل المجلس

اربع مرات , واقيلت الحكومة اكثر من مرة.

فهل تتوقعون نجاح الديمقراطية فيما لو طبقت على شعوب عربية عانت الامرين

من الديكتاتورية والجهل عقوداً عديدة؟

اتمنى النقاش اضافة تجارب بلدان عربية بكل موضوعية وبعيدا عن التشنج

والتعصب

لكم تحياتي

تفضل لمتابعة

مجلس الأمة الكويتي ومجلس الشورى السعودي: التجربة والانجازات

شبكة المحمل

Vamos por partes; cuando ingreses al panel de administración (tablero) de tu nuevo blog, entra a la pestaña diseño. Esta se divide en cuatro secciones (puede haber una quinta, dependiendo del diseño que hayas elegido):

• Temas. Te permite elegir entre 70 diseños predefinidos, cada uno de ellos con distintas opciones de personalización (con ciertas limitaciones en el servicio gratuito).
• Widgets. Los widgets son pequeños bloques de contenido que se colocan en una barra lateral en el blog (algunos diseños los colocan en la parte inferior). A través de los widgets puedes añadir publicidad, botones, estadísticas del blog, calendarios y un largo etcétera.
• Extras. Son dos opciones que conviene tenerlas desactivadas. Una es snapshot, una ventanita emergente que aparece cuando colocas el cursor sobre algún enlace de tu blog. Al comienzo es muy vistoso, pero a los pocos minutos es realmente insoportable. La otra opción en extras es no permitir enlaces con otros blog, obviamente es mejor tener desactivada esta opción para enlazarte con otros blogs y crear más tráfico a tu blog.
• Editar CSS. Si conoces CSS (código para crear diseños web) puedes editar el tema que hayas elegido y personalizarlo a fondo. En la versión gratuita puede ver como quedaría tu blog con el nuevo diseño, pero no puedes guardar los cambios. Para editar CSS y conservar los cambios, necesitas activar la opción a través de pago.

Obviamente, lo primero es elegir un diseño. El diseño predeterminado se llama Kubrick y es muy bonito pero tiene un problema (claro, problema para mis gustos, ya depende de los intereses de cada uno) y es que cuando se visualiza un artículo, los widgets desaparecen. Pero, no te preocupes, hay 69 diseños más esperándote.

El primer diseño que elijas será por vistosidad y gustos personales. Pero, poco a poco verás que el diseño responde más a tus necesidades de ordenar tus contenidos (ubicación, tamaños, distribución, etc.) que al factor de vistosidad. Por lo pronto te explico las pautas para escoger un tema adecuado:

Los temas tienen etiquetas. Las etiquetas son palabras o frases que los identifican. Por ejemplo, si el tema es azul tendrá una etiqueta llamada blue y si pulsas en ella, se mostrarán todos los temas que tengan esa etiqueta. Si el tema permite cambiar la cabecera, tendrá una etiqueta llamada custom header y pulsando en ella aparecerán todos los temas que tengan cabecera personalizada. Así es como funcionan las etiquetas.