1) Social network integration.

This is one of your top priorities if you want to keep people linking back to your content, tweeting about it or liking it on Facebook. By adding “like” buttons and “tweet this” buttons, you can allow people to share what they’ve read and enjoyed very easily, whether you write about technology, cooking, Partypoker or comics. Ensuring people can connect to and reference your site easily is paramount to engaging with them.

2) Aesthetics.

Ensuring your site actually looks the part is also very important – if your site has a theme straight out of 1998, it’s going to look a little clunky and give off the impression that you’re not really with it, despite the quality of your writing – and believe me, your writing has to be second to almost none for people to bypass a really horrible theme. Even a basic WordPress.com blog can neaten things up considerably.

3) Upgrade yourself!

Seriously – how many bloggers out there actually go out and interact with other bloggers, or promote their work through blog tours or interviews? Very few, is your answer, and if you want to make a living from blogging, then you should constantly be putting feelers out and commenting on other people’s work, linking to it, and generally embodying what everyone wants from a blogger – someone who’s about the community and the world, not just what goes on inside their own head.

Previously,

Chapter 1 : MyDC

Booom….disaster strikes. On the very first day we (the new batch) landed in Hyd DC, a fire broke out in one of the server rooms. Many development projects were critically affected by it. So they had to transfer all the folks in that floor to our training labs, which means no training for us. It was quite a deserving break for us. After the rigorous grilling for 6 months in Mysore, a month of no work/training  is not a bad idea. I even took all the leaves i accumulated in Mysore and used it to go to home and thats when i flew in a plane for the first time 

That day morning i called up my parents, told that everything’s going as usual, had food; no class; in room; watching tv. Bought tickets from travel desk after breakfast; Post lunch left the DC to airport; Took flight in the evening; Reached Cochin in 1.5 hours and finally reached home at 7:30PM or so. My parents where so dumbstruck thinking whats happening, didnt we talk to this guy in the morning and he was in Hyd at that time, how the hell is he here now  ? Lols.

Anyways lets go back to Hyd. The training was delivered in B12 (Building 12) and guess where we were staying? On the 5th floor of the same building, how cool that can be ? Ground floor consists of training labs and rest 4 floors were for guests; 1st floor for VIPs,2nd and 3rd floor for ladies,4th and 5th for guys. All this means, i didnt had to wake up before 8:30 to attend our class at 9. In that 30 minutes, i did all my morning chores, went to FC and had breakfast and then came to class on time.

Classes in Hyd was really a joke. None of us knew what the topic was, nobody had proper access to the actual servers where a fully functional product is running. So we were kind of beating around the bush with some PPTs all the day. Exams were conducted in such a lazy way that, if you didnt copy, then thats a crime.

Hyd DC as such is nothing compared to MyDC, so am not gonna describe anything about that.

Night life in Hyd city is comparatively better compared to Mysore. The best thing or the best experience i would take away from Hyd is the “IMAX experience”. I was lucky enough to watch Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince in IMAX. Wow what a hall, no words to describe it. Its the largest hall i have ever watched in and the sound experience there is undescribable. Right now i just wish that i was in Hyd when Avatar was released (Dear Readers, i drafted this post last year, hence the releasing time of Avatar is “right now”, kindly excuse).

Other than the usual outings to malls and few spots i didnt have much of an experience in Hyd. Soon the training was over and so once again it was time for me to get posted (ho finally). Folks were tensed on knowing their posting location and people were running here and there almost loosing all their nuts, and me? I dont know, for some reason i was very relaxed and was watching TV in my room. May be i just didnt care where i was getting posted to. Finally the postings came and i was posted to Chennai.

I had an option to opt for Pune DC which at that time was more attractive (partly because of Chennai’s weather and because Pune seemed to offer a better career path). But i chose to stay in Chennai as i can be with my family as and when they need me, after all am here all because of them only. This decision turned out to be good later (that part of the story will be unraveled in Chapter 3), which yet again proved to me the validity of my working principle of life.

Everything happens for good and a reason

So next stop Chennai…(continued)

I went to Infy Mysore Campus, called as My DC (Mysore Development Center) for training, 2 years back. MyDC is really a place to be. Once you enter it, its like you are touring a foreign nation. The standards and the facilities you get there are over par with any other institution in the world, which earned it the deserving title; “best training campus in the world”. MyDC has (now) two GECs(Global Education Center) where the actual training happens. GEC1 was huge in its time, and is only dwarfed by GEC2 which came quite recently. Both the GECs combined can accomodate 25,000 trainees at any single point of time, ya you read it right, at the same time. I cant even describe the facilities available in GEC2 because that will be like a dedicated post for itself. The interiors of GEC2 is like that of a palace, thanks to Infy’s spending nature on infrastructure, which is why employees pockets are always light .

Enough of GEC, lets move on to other places in Mysore campus. Next comes ECC (Employee Care Center). Now this again is a huge building which hosts the following facilities.

1. Super Market
2. Indigonation Store
3. Book Store
4. Saloon for gents and ladies
5. Doctor & Clinic
6. ICICI Bank
7. Laundromat
8. Table Tennis
9. Gym
10. Steam & Sauna
11. Bowling Alley
12. Badminton Court
13. Pool & Snooker
14. Carrom
15. Music Room
16. Aerobics  Room
17. Squash Court
18. Six out door Clay Tennis Courts
19. Out door Basket Ball court
20. Out door Valley Ball court
21. Open air Swimming Pool

Phew that was long isnt it .Well ECC is truly a place where all trainees yearn to be but not always cant be. I myself was not even able to go to ECC even to buy the basic stuff like toothpaste, soap for quite some time due to the rigorous training.

The training they give there actually grills employees, it tests your ability to grasp too many things in the shortest time possible. In Mysore my days where a minimum 15 hours long, ya 15 hours of study in a day. Classes used to start at 9 and due to the tiredness from the previous day, will be late to wake up as usual and hence will miss breakfast most of the times and in addition, going to class from hostel is like a 2km walk, which is mostly covered by running, as late entry in class is not an option. Then we have the normal class till evening and after that its either assignment or studying for next days exam. Exams there are like university exams, each and every exam is important, you have to score a consistent top score to save your job. Second class is not an option there, First Class is the minimum pass mark, so you can imagine the effort which needs to be put. I have wondered many times, if i had put the same effort during engineering, i would be some where else.

Accomodation: When i was doing my engineering somebody told me about Infy hostel and its facilities. Its like a 3 star hotel room. You have AC, LCD TV, 24 hours hot & cold water, kettle, iron box, electronic locker, house keeping staff to clean your room and what not. But only when my training started i realized these are something which i wont be able to use anytime, because after a loong 15 hr study, you wont have the energy to watch TV and in the morning your priority will be to get ready and get to GEC and not to do anything else. So yes its a really (damn) good stay, but you wont be able to enjoy it beyond a certain limit. Infy hostels are said to be the largest of anything of that sort in the world. It has 100+ hostel buildings, which can accommodate all the above said 25,000 trainees in single and double bed rooms.

WTH, from what you have told me till now, MyDC sounds like a horrible place, i think you told me that its a “place to be” so whats up with all these hardships ? My dear friend, hardships will be there always, if you are able to manage your time well, you can squeeze in some fun and for others we have Multiplex. Its the most favourite place of many folks. Infy screens 2 movies (1 hindi and 1 english) every weekend and the best part is, an employee can watch any no.of shows for free, just that he/she has to wait in a que and take ticket himself/herself. Now when i say “que”, it can be really long, as long as 2 hours waiting for a decent flick and even more for hits. But people still waits (even i have done) because that is some experience you dont want to miss. After all waiting in que is not such a bad thing to do. You have a  comfortable lawn and stone pavements everywhere and if you have the right gang or friends, you wont even know how 2 hours flew away.

Apart from this what else do you have in Mysore? In the initial days i used to go out to the city with my friends and later i brought my bike from my home to MyDC and there after it was total fun. Me and my best friend used to go to all sorts of places in and around Mysore. We have gone to Chamundi Hills, Sreerangapatnam, Brindavan Gardens, Mysore Palace, Zoo, and numerous other places. We even went to Blore and Coorg. Waiting and watching for the Mysore Palace lighting fr0m Chamundi Hills is one of the “memorable” thing we have done in Mysore. Had i not met my “best friend” there Mysore wouldnt be a major turning point in my life, let alone that, Mysore would be as good as hell to me.

Thanks to all these, I had the “best of the bestest” time of my life in Mysore. I would give anything to get that time back.

6 months of rigorous training (woahh 6 months!!! it was that long???never realized it before) and finally i was all set for posting and thats when management decided that we will have to go to Hyderabad for another training. I didnt have much of a choice other than going there. So i went to Hyd…(story continues)

So there goes the Mysore chapter. how was it, kewl exciting, total bore boooooo, ya whatever,….let me know. do share it down here….

Well, they say, third time is a charm 

I promise that I will be regular from now onwards. An update a week is guaranteed. If I do not deliver this, then pls pls pls feel free me to bash me anyway you feel seem comfortable.

Ok now that i have done my apologies and new promises, let me tell you what’s gonna happen. Am gonna start that series which i had promised,err…,close to an year back , starting tonight.

So wait and see…

PS: what do you think? will i keep my promise (at least this time)? share your thoughts below…

First of all as i told, am doing my new work as a software engineer in Infy. So let me start from there. I have decided to tell the story across posts so that i dont have to rush through 1+ years events and happenings in a single post.

So sit back, grab a pack of chips* and enjoy the reading .

*Munching on chips is a very bad habit and it should never be practiced. If you are having a habit of it, stop it completely.

Well its been long time without any updates from my side. Sorry for that. Well, many things happened in my life which changed the direction of my life heavily from what was one year back.

Well first of all i had to resign from the official responsibilities of Techseol Websolutions Pvt Ltd. Then i joined Infosys Technologies Ltd. as a Software Engineer. From there it was an unforgettable journey till today and i guess it will be like this in future also.

I will share with you about my adventures and happenings in the last “one year gap” soon. Till that time do check my blog for updates.

Happy to back with you guys and BTW what do you guys think of my new title, “CG” ? Do share that in the comments.

Keep reading, take care.

I dont have anything other than that for Slumdog Millionaire. First of all let me make a request to you guys, I made a mistake by watching this on my laptop. This is one of the very few films that you must watch in the movie halls. So please dont spoil the fun and do watch it in theaters.

What is so special about Slumdog Millionaire? Forget the awards and those big names you hear. It is simply an awesome movie. It has many thing which the films now-a-days lacks. Orginiality, Drama, Perfection, Suspense, Touch from real lives, Direction, Entertaining, Locations, Sets, Cast (!), Camera… the list goes on. Am not a serious film watcher or a genius in the film world, so i dont know the technical terms that is out there, which actually should be in the list above. So please bear that.

Slumdog Millionaire, basically is a story of a poor, uneducated village boy from the slums of Mumbai, who gets on a TV show;, “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and the bags the jackpot with correct answers. This is the outer skin of the movie, but beneath that it is the whole life (well not whole) story of the boy, right from his childhood, and the events he undergoes, about his love life and all.

Danny Boyle; the director of the movie, has done a wonderful job. I beleive its due to this English director the movie is this good, else any other traditional Indian director (there are good director, I said typical) would have stuffed un-necessary emotions and drama. Danny has done a perfect job by blending the right amount of drama and emotions throughout the film.

Orginiality

Story seems so original, and believable. I had only one part which I couldnt swallow; the brothers (the protagonist and his brother) were real slum boys and as they grew up, they suddenly start speaking English. But then i remembered about this guy. If he can do this, then why cant they do it!

The same kid after one year (now he knows he is famous)

Perfection

Not a single time during the 120 minutes, I felt the director is throwing BS at me. He did it all with great perfection. The various shots in the movie, they are so realistic that it gives you another image of Mumbai.

Direction

As i said the English director did his magic. The movie’s base line is the TV show, Who wants to be a millionaire. Its a show in which the player is asked a series of questions and for each right answer he is rewarded. The movie begins when the show has finished one day. Then its flash back time. We are taken through each question and how he knew the answer to all those questions. Its from his core life-experiences that he learned the answers. We have all heard experience is the best teacher. Here is the perfect example for that.

Cast

Forget the big shots, forget Anil Kapoor. Jamal Malik (the hero) played Dev Patel, is the guy in the spot light here. From the begining itself, i feel Dev is really the character, because he is so perfect for the role. Okay looks are good, but what about acting ? Simply awesome. I cant believe he pulled this off without any big shots in the movie to help him out. He has done very well his role. So did the other musketeers too. Oh i didnt mention that before. In the film, it shows the life of Jamal, his brother Salim and their friend Latika, whom the plot calls “The Three Musketeers”. The entire casting is perfect and everybody did their part very well. As i told the movie shows the life of those three lads from childhood, we see total 9 new comers in the movie, playing each characters childhood, adolescence, adulthood. The child playing Jamal’s childhood did his job pretty well that we feel his emotions sometimes in the film (@those who watched the film, remember the Amitabh Bachchan’s helicopter scene)

Camera

Something different. After a long time of BS movies out there, showing same old stories, with nothing fresh and new, Slumdog Millionaire is an eye-freshener. It gives a treat for your eyes with the exotic sets and locations. Dont misunderstand when i say “exotic”. Even though they show slums in the movie, it is shown in such a way that you love what you see.

So I have praised the movie pretty long, so is there is nothing wrong with the movie ?

YES. I felt something wrong with this movie. Just one thing. Its actually not a part of the movie. The last song, which A R Rahman bagged an award, is totally in-appropriate. I dont understand how does the songs fits or even appropriate for a movie like Slumdog Millionaire.

But dont worry that, this song is going to spoil your movie. Just stop watching when the movie is over, dont wait for the credits.

Till now, the movie has bagged 40 awards, 37 nominations and 10 Oscar nomination. No wonder why this movie bagged that much awards, its such a marvel. I truly wish that this movie bags this years oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

So go ahead and watch the movie (in the halls) and come back here and let us know,

How did you enjoy the film?

What do you see unique in this film?

Why did you like the film?

The organizers conceived the idea of Shaurya Puraskar as an encouragement to the
bravery of the people facing challenges in life or challenges in their particular field of expertise. The award ceremony is slated for 17th January 2009 at 7PM, at the Shanmukhanand Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Auditorium, Sion Mumbai. 40 channels are supposedly airing it live, so you can watch it from home.
The award winners are selected from all fields of life.

1. Shruti Bhatla and Gore Bhatla- the twin sisters from Kanpur who live their life to the fullest and spread smiles among all whom they meet.
2. Prince and the Indian Army Jawans- the brave boy who was trapped deep down in a borewell for 74 hours.
3. Vandana and the Indian Army Jawans- the brave little girl who got in the borewell and was saved by the Indian Army Jawans.
4. Swami Ashutoshji Maharaj- transformed hard core criminals from Tihar jails and gave their lives a new spiritual direction.
5. Sudha Chandran-the classical dancer who loses her legs in an accident, but fought against all odds and stands up again to pursue a career in dance and movies.
6. Ravindra Jain- the music maestro lived his life for the seven notes of music.
7. Jitendra Soni- a dynamic editor of Lokswami, who continued writing against terrorism and terrorists despite getting many threats. He exposed Nagori and SIMI activities.
8. Supratim Dutta- had met with an accident and got an iron bar impaled through his chest and abdomen.
9. Arun Sharma- the man who got his heart broken but still has it beating because of Dr. Biplab Mishra.
10. Dr. Biplab Mishra,Dr. Sushma Sagar and the team of AIIMS-operated on Supratim and Arun and saved them.
11. Palak Muchchal- Palash Muchchal- the prodigy sibling who perform on stage as a singer and perform synthesizer in a unique way and donate money 1.6 crore to noble cause such as sponsoring 323 operations all over India.
12. Vijendra Singh- won bronze medal for boxing, Olympics 2008.
13. Sushil Kumar- bronze winner- wrestling, Olympics 2008.
14. Late Shri Nanak Chand- SI Delhi Police, Late Shri Vijender Singh- SI Delhi Police,Late Shri Vikram Bhist- a cameraman from ANI, Late Shri J P Yadav-security wing Parliament, Smt Kamlesh Kumari- constable CRPF. Sacrificed their lives for the sake of nation while doing their duty, Parliament attacks on 13 December 2001.
15. Kuldeep Singh- the DTC driver who saved many lives but lost his own eyesight and palm in a bombblast in Delhi.
16. Antara Raju Shrivastava- a small girl who saved her mother and self when three burglers barged into her home and got them arrested.
17. The ATS top ranking officers who lost their lives during the attack on 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, NSG & Maharashtra police jawans would be awarded Krantiveer- Puraskar.

The award function is organized by HR entertainment in association with KBJ group and Laxmi group. The sponsors include VDC, St Angelo’s computer education, Marshalls, Sahara Star & Bright outdoor media.

I am proud to say that, Dr. Biplab Mishra is my brother-in-law, who is living in Delhi with his family. He is currently working in AIIMS and he is also the co-author of DoctorForHelp.com -The Complete Online Medical Reference

The 22 must have wordpress plugins for your blog

The list is not prioritized, its just a comprehensive list. Plugins are sorted into various categories for easy navigation. But I have prioritized plugins in each category.

Comments

Subscribe to comments :- Very useful and must have plugin. It displays a simple check box in the comment box (where you place it). So when someone leaves a comment with the check box ticked, they will be notified via email when someone leaves a comment on that article.

WP Grins :- Yet another useful plugin where readers will have graphic smileys to use in their comment. This brings life to the conversation they are having.

WP Ajax Edit Comments :- This plugin gives the readers the power to edit the comments they just have made. It is helpful when a reader made a comment, but he would like to change something or he recognizes a mistake and would like to correct it, this plugin would come very handy. It only let the original commenter to modify the comment, also one can edit their comment for 15minutes only. After that it is permanent (there on editable by admin only)
I have been experiencing some problems with this plugin, there are some others too complaining about it. So am de-lisiting it.

Show Top Commentators :- This plugin displays a list of top commentators in your blog. This can help your blog to get number of comments if the readers are interested in being displayed in your blog, there by getting a link !!!

@ reply :- This is just a show plugin. By enabling this plugin, it will show a small image right next to the commenter’s name and just by clicking it, the plugin will add the commentator’s name in the comment box. So with this plugin you no longer need to type “@Cyriac” any more.

Search Engine Optimization

Google XML Sitemap Generator :- Those who own a blog should register and avail Google’s webmaster tools service. In that you can add sitemap of your site to Google. But to do that you need to generate one. This plugin easily and automatically does that whenever you update the site. So this is a must have.

All In One SEO Pack :- Another must have plugin, if your blog is based on a particular niche (topic). This will help you to add meta keywords, description, title specific to each individual topic. I suggest you spend extra time to fill those forms once it is enabled, because its worth it.

Publicize

Share This :- This is a super cool plugin which places a small link “Share This” after every post (even pages) and when clicked it will give the reader plenty of options to publicize your article. It even has an option to send articles as emails. I have installed this plugin and try sending this article to someone you know.

WP-Email / WP-Email Widget :- This plugin will display a small link where you place and it lets users to send the article as email to someone (Mine is placed under the article title, try it now). We already get this function from “Share This” plugin, so what’s the big deal. The big deal is that, it contains a widget which displays the top articles which are send as emails.

WP-Postratings / WP-Postratings Widget :- This plugin gives your readers a chance to rate your article. Mine is just under the article title. Try it now.

WP-Postviews / WP-Postviews Widget :- This plugin displays the number of times that particular article is viewed. It also contains a widget which displays the most viewed article in your blog.

Anti-Spam

Akismet :- I would say, the most useful plugin for you blog. Because it blocks spam comments with such ease so that you dont have to worry about your inbox being flooded with spam comments. For this plugin to work properly you need to have an API key, which you can obtain by registering in wordpress.

Back End

WP-DB Backup :- Another useful and must have plugin, because you never know, when your blog….

Tip: It’s always a safe practice to take periodic backup of your database so that you don’t lose your hardwork due to a server glitch.

WP-Cache / WP-Super Cache :- To be frank I donno what’s the exact difference between the two (Would love it if someone who knows it, could share with us below). I know WP-Super Cache is more powerful than WP-Cache, so am using that plugin. Installing and enabling it is easy and same as any other plugin, but the configuring part can give head ache to some guys out there, because it might involve CHMOD’ing and accessing/editing .htaccess files (I hate to play with those options). But lucky for me its all working fine. One thing you should note is, after enabling it, sometimes after posting an article, the article might not be correctly updated in the blog. It is due to the cache not being refreshed. To solve this, just go to WP-Cache / WP-Super Cache options and delete cache. Then it will rebuild the cache the next time you load the site (expect some delay for loading, since new cache is being created) – (Thanks to Abeymon for this tip)

Miscellaneous

Adsense Deluxe :- Very good plugin to integrate your adsense blocks inside your posts, and exactly where you want too. Only Google adsense can be integrated (i don’t see it as a limitation). What’s unique with this plugin is, it is all manual, not automatic. NO that does’nt mean that its tedious, it means it gives you more power. I know another plugin which randomly places your adsense code in your articles, it also supports YPN. Although it is automatic, I dont feel it is going with the flow. While with this plugin you can specifically tell where the ads to come inside an article. You can also the code (default <!–adsense–>) inside your template files instead of adding the entire code to display ads wherever you want.

EasyTube :- Although i don’t use it in this blog, it is very helpful to those guys who uploads lots of youtube/google videos in their blog. With this plugin, you no longer need to add their UGLY embed code, you just need the URL to the video and use EasyTube’s short code to embed the video.

Breadcrumb NavXT :- A very useful plugin who have a blog based on some niche. It displays “you are here” type links when their readers are viewing the innermost pages. It gives readers more and simple navigation options, according to categories (or tags may be). What it actually does is, it displays a series of links showing the hierarchy of the page you are viewing, ie,

Home>>Tips & Tricks>>The 22 must have wordpress plugins for your blog

PageNavi :- Useful to those guys who are having lots of posts and want their readers to navigate easily through their blog.

7hide :- Its just a fun plugin which enables you to publish sealed content like the one below.

[hide]You have to click to view this content. So you can publish something and give a warning to your readers that the only who wants to read may continue.[/hide]

Buy Me a Beer :- Its another fun plugin that i found interesting. It displays an image and text which is clickable and interested readers can donate for your contributions through paypal. It has so many options which can display a link after every post if you want, or display in the sidebar (look at mine, and buy me a beer if you like )

WOW…I just finished my longest quality article in my blog till date. Am i exhausted? You just guess. So am winding the post now. Please go through the plugins you find interesting and install them. Share your experiences here. Also did I miss something that you actually like or would like to add something more to the list? Share all those as comments. I would be happy to add them after testing (Oh BTW all of the above plugins are tested by me, so am not just recommending for the sake of it!)

Update 1: I forgot to add two things.

1. Do integrate Google Analytics in your blog. It gives great analysis of lot of parameters (like traffic, sources, bounce rate, landing page, time spend, visitor trends, geographic location and many more ) for your site.
2. If you want to make one post appear on the top, even if you update the blog, you can do that in two ways. Earlier you should use a plugin to do it. But now its an inbuilt function in wordpress 2.7. So upgrade to wordpress 2.7 and make use of the feature

Update 2: I forgot to add one IMPORTANT plugin, Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. How useful this is, just try the links that come right after this text. It is very useful to encourage your readers to stay on your site and explore the site further. Actually while initial research I had this plugin in mind, but i forgot to add it. Now thanks to Abey, he reminded me to add it.

I like the change anyway, its about time.

First of all let me tell clarify what a favicon is, to the ones who don’t know what am talking about. Favicon is a small graphic associated with every website (page). It is essentially the icon in internet, similar to that in your computers.

So Gmail has changed their favicon, have you ?

Here’s how to add a favicon to your site.

Step 1: Create your favicon.

You can either download from the tens of thousands available from internet.

You can create one yourself. Make sure the image size is exactly 16X16, not a pixel more.

Tip: While creating you can use larger sizes such as 32X32 and then resize it.

Make sure your the file type extension is .ico (windows icon).

Step 2: Upload it to your root folder using any FTP client.

Step 3: If you had named the file with “favicon.ico”, then the favicon should automatically show up. Most browsers will automatically pick the icon up.

If its not comming, dont panic. Clear your cache then you re-try, even try another browser or try after some time, it should work.

Step 4: Add the following code to your <head> section.

<head>
  <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="http://www.mydomain.com/myicon.ico"/>
  <title>My Title</title>
</head>

Actually the standards set in internet recommends that you use Step 4 not Step 3.
Thats how you add favicons. Try adding a favicon for your site now itself. Did you succeed or failed ? Did you resolve the problem ? Share your experience to others here as comments.