My Journey into Word Press

I was confused as to how my blog should look like and how do I have the various topics covered on the Blog. In last few days I had experimented with Google Pages and Blogger working in tandem. I had 5 different blogs on the web for different purposes and they were linked to a Home Page on the Google Pages.

Different Styles on Google Pages and Blogger made everything look very odd. I was clueless how to go about it. Google Pages won’t let you import any new styles (CSS) and have limited number of uninspiring styles. It would be better to have similar looking styles on the Google Pages and Blogger and a way to integrate the both. I don’t understand the Google’s way of having every thing in duplicates. They have the Google Video and the YouTube and now the Google Pages and the Blogger.

While all this confusion persisted I was told by someone – (that some one is arun_k_d) about trying WordPress. As I was eager to have some kind of uniformity of shorts I didn’t think twice before logging in to WordPress.com.

That is how my Journey to the WordPress begins and here's a look at what it was like.

Dashboard:

• The interface of WordPress was easy for a novice and I was at ease with it instantly. Initially though I fiddled with the WordPress Dashboard and saw the recent happenings about my blog aptly called “Your Stuff”. In the Blogger Dashboard’s got a lot of useless clutter.
• I was impressed with the Blog Stats and the Feed Stats, in Blogger I had to go to Google Analytics to know how miserable my blogs are performing. Tag Surfer is a cool way to know what others are talking about. This is there nothing similar to Tag Bowser in Blogger that I have come across.
  

Posts and Comments

• In the Write Tab I saw some common tools in the right-hand side of the page, and better still you can configure it as well. What I liked was WordPress has to option to selectively allows Discussion and Pings for each post. You also can have private messages- I am not sure what can be done with private posts. Track Back, Post Password, Post Slug is yet to be checked by me. I liked the Blogger Interface for posting to blog it is neater and less options to worry about.
• For Managing or Moderating comments in WordPress you can edit them. I am yet to use it on Blogger. On WordPress You know from where the person is posting (his IP address is given). Comments can be classified as Spam – it is an easy way to delete all the Spam messages from a person.

Managing Posts

• Manage Tab is what made me to switch to the WordPress. The management of Posts is not very different from the Blogger, only it is based on Ajax or Flash or something like that which makes the posts disappear as soon as you click delete (I know absolutely nothing about any programming so don't know how it is done). In the Blogger it takes more time and confirmations to delete a post.
• Word Press lets you have separate web pages and you can have one of the Static pages as the Front Page from the Options Menu. This solved my problem of having to use 2 different domains on the Google Pages and Blogger and also got the uniformity of the look and feel of the entire web site.
• The Categories in WordPress are known as Labels in Blogger. Label sound good to hear. But there is no Label management in the Blogger. WordPress is a lot better. You can edit the Categories, if you feel like changing the names in one go. Blogger allows to delete or add labels with out going into the post, from Label action drop down menu in Edit Post Tab. I had not seen it earlier. But does not let you edit the Label though.
• The best thing that I saw was the Import facility form LiveJournal, Blogger among others. So I instantly pressed the button to import from the Blogger and import all the 5 blogs I have there. Changed the labels and – I am done. I plan to update this piece on the Blogger first and import to Word Press.

One mystery surrounds me till now. WordPress automatically logged in to the Blogger and imported the posts from all my blogs. But I could not understand how WordPress knew about my Blogger ID and Password? I had given only my Yahoo Email id at the time of registration. Only guess I could have is since I was logged into the Blogger at that time on my computer so WordPress could have picked up from the cookies.

• By the way WordPress lets you export as well if you may like to combine 2 or more blogs into one. Blogger doesn’t have this so I had to delete the smaller blogs and post all the posts to the new Blog.

Miscellaneous

• Blogger allows custom domains so as WordPress. On WordPress the main blog resided on the WordPress and the traffic from the Custom Domain is transferred to WordPress Domain. But on the Blogger it is opposite for a good reason.
• No Google Adsense in here. Adsense is an easy way to have some revenues. (I have got $1.08 in last 8 months by clicking ads on my posts by mistake and they promise that as soon as it becomes $100 they will send me a check :) ).
• You have Blogroll on the WordPress, to add outside links and that’s about it. In the Blogger you have Layout Editor where you can add element and do it. You can have List, Link List, Picture, Text, and Code. Adsense, among others on left or the bottom of the blog Home page. I prefer the Blogger to WordPress in this department. It gives a lot more flexibility to edit all portions of your blog.
• WordPress has 52 themes to install compared to 38 on the Blogger. WordPress gives more flexibility with regard to the themes. The theme are better on the Blogger and I like more themes on it then WordPress. You can have sidebar widgets on the WordPress so as you can have some Widgets on the Blogger as well. I tried neither.
• Both Blogger and WordPress allow other members to post and edit the blog. Since I have no one else to do it except for me I don’t know much.
• The WordPress options seemed sanely more relevant compared to Blogger. However Blogger options are much more exhaustive in comparison. As I said earlier in Blogger you can change the name of the blog site, e.g. I change the blog address from GomzyPix to Gomzy Online on Blogger but I could not have done that on the WordPress, there I would have to create a different blog first, export the current blog and then import to the new blog.
  
• There is one more Upgrade facility in the WordPress where you can buy credits to have Custom CSS – Blogger you can upload your own theme or more space on the WordPress – I think it is pretty much unlimited on the Blogger.

So that’s how both stand up head to head and I think WordPress wins the battle on most of the grounds.

Copyright on Downloaded Music

Before we discuss about the piracy and copyright violation it is prudent that we understand what these words refer to:

What is Piracy?

• Robbery on the high seas; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it
• The act of plagiarizing; taking someone’s words or ideas as if they were your own.
• The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.

What is copyright?

• a document granting exclusive right to publish and sell literary or musical or artistic work
• The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

What is then Copyright Violation?

• Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.

These definitions are from Answer.com and Wikipedia, but they are not relevant in legally for determining the copyright provisions towards listening to music in India. Therefore I read the Indian Copyright Act to see what it provides. I have summarized the relevant provisions below.

A Discussion of Indian Copyright Act 1957

• Sec 13 states that the copyright subsists on original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works among others.
• Sec 14 defines the meaning of copyright where it states that to do or to authorize to reproduce, issue copies, public performance, translation and adaptation among others.
• Sec 27 provides the term of copyright is 60 years – from the year in which the record was first published.
• Sec 51 defines the copyright infringement as any person without a licence granted by the owner of the copyright or the Registrar of Copyrights does anything (refer Sec 14) and makes for sale, distributes, exhibits in public.
• Sec 52 Certain acts are not infringement of copyright: fair dealing for the purpose of Private use, including research, criticism, review, or for teaching.
• Sec 63 provides that a person who knowingly infringes shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term of six months and with fine of fifty thousand rupees. Further provided that where infringement has not been made for gain in the course of trade or business the court may, for adequate and special reasons to be mentioned in the judgment impose impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than six months or a fine of less than fifty thousand rupees.
• Sec 63B provides that where a person uses a infringing copy of a computer program shall be punishable with jail term of 7 days to 3 years and fine of 50K to 200K.

Conclusion:

• You can rip the songs from your CD and listen it privately – as provided in the Sec 52. However should you share with any one the you are into murkier waters.
• Sec 63B provides for punishment for use of infringed software; however there is no such provision similar to Sec 63B for sound recording. That means infringing copyright on sound recording is punishable but using Infringed sound recording for private purpose is not a violation of Copyright Laws - Sec 52 comes to your rescue.
• There is a logic behind this loophole. Let me explain by an example, Suppose you are playing music on the loud speakers for all to heare. Then you are indulging in piracy, however should a passerby happens to walk by you and listens to your music he can not be held responsible for piracy.

At the Restaurant - Lunch House

I generally go this restaurant called Lunch Home near Rangarajapuram post-office in Koddambakkam. The place is nothing to write about; most of the food items deserve to be better, place looks dirty and hygiene is something the hotel management is unaware of. Prices as expected are comparatively inexpensive and it feels more like a Road-side Stall converted into a hotel. After writing all this evil, a question arises why do I go there. The answer is above. Onion Rava Dosa(i). These people make the best Onion Rava Dosa(i) I have ever eaten any where. I go there only to eat this one item. I strongly recommend any one who can come to this place do the same, at least once.

This man had the most fancy looking beard I have seen in long long time, similar to the people who compete in the best beard competition. Could not take a better snap though.

You would be interested in these websites:
Beard Team USA
World Beard and Moustache Association (WBMA
Categories

Broken Glasses

My glasses have been broken since last few days. But I have not got it repaired. Reason I do not have money. Ya! but I bought this camera Canon S3. Talk of penny wise pound foolish.

My System

At the Restaurant - Sarvana Bhavan - Mylapore

This is at Sarvana Bhavan - Mlapore at the North Mada Street of Kapaleeshwar temple.
as I said earlier Sarvana Bhavan is a large and famous chain of restaurants in Chennai. Coincidently that day as it turned out, my sister had also had her lunch at a Sarvana Bhavan. She was however is in London. We both had food at the same time at the same restaurant but in 2 different continents.



The food is generally good, service is quick, prices reasonable, place is crowded but pretty clean. Unlike the Pondy Bazar one the Mylapore place is large - actually a huge place and spacious as well. In the Pondy Bazar, Sarvana Bhavan gives more emphasis on the specialty restaurants like Rangoli etc

Sarvana Bhavan Home Page

Kapaleeshwar Temple Functions

Look at the decorated temple...looks nice na!



This festival also called the Brahmotsavam, the idols of Kapaleeshwarar and Karpagambal are decorated with clothes and jewels, mounted on a vahanam (Sanskrit for "vehicle"), and then taken around the temple and its water tank in a pradakshinam (a clockwise orbit when seen from above). This is repeated with different vahanams over the next nine days.

Due to this festival on that day the whole road was cordoned off and the traffic was diverted. I had to take an auto-rickshaw rather than the usual bus. Yes one more thing I have been mis-spelling the temple name in some places so pleas excuse me.

More on Wiki also look at this post Kapileshwar Temple Functions

The Dog II

This dog came to me, tried to recognize me but......... nothing doing, so sat down besides near me.

Dogs were domesticated from wolves as recently as 15,000 years ago, or perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago. In India like many other countries however dog were "ditched" by the Humans when they started agriculture and started living in villages did not find dogs useful anymore. Dogs however did not ditch humans and started living in the same settlements as humans and lived on the thrown food. As the saying goes Dog is man's Best Friend.

More on Wiki

Review of Canon S3 IS

Ok, this might seem funny.

Wait!! it is funny. Could not take any serious pictures yet, except for these 2 that I took for the blog. and a just a few others.

Review:

Build:

1. at 410g it is heavier than my previous Sony DSC 5W, but feels handy, not to large or small and also feels quite solid.
2. Every time i switch on the camera lens cap falls down. I always forget to remove before switching on.
3. The buttons seemed to be pretty well lay out; the Manual Focus and Macro button are on the left side of lens.
4. It got a plastic tripod mount !!
5. It got a rotating LCD display which addictive.
6. It has stereo microphone and speaker.
7. It takes 4 batteries so on a single charge maximum number of pictures can be taken compared to any other roughly @ 500 pix.

Oparation

1. The camera supports the following modes:
   a. Auto
   b. Portraitc. Landscape
   d. Night Scene
   e. Sports
   f. Special Scene: it further includes the following

i. Fire Works
ii. Color Accent - only one color can be seen rest b/w
iii. Color Swap- changes one color for another
iv. Night Snap Shot
v. Indoor
vi. Foliage
vii. Snow
viii.Beach
g. Stitch Assist
h.Movie
i. Program AE
j. Shutter Speed Priority AE - It is similar to Program AE - however you the camera takes 2 more picture 1 above the shutter speed specified by you and one below. (this does not work on the best quality, largest size mode)
k. Aperture-priority AE - same as above here the aperture changed. These 2 modes are very good for amatures as it lets them know what are the effect of light and timing on the picute one takes.
l. Manual

2. Most of the variable can be adjusted through the Function button on the back, except for in Auto mode - ofcourse why else it would be Auto Mode. There is also custom White balance if you wantand 11 color modes incl vivid, natural, sepia, b/w et al.
3. The file size in the Superfine Mode at the Largest Resolution the file size is approx 2.7MB and up (the above broken glass 1st pix 2.8 and 2nd 3.1 in the native resolution)
4. The camera supports themes but they are only to hear. the startup screen is hardly visible as it starts up pretty quick.
5. no red-eye, as you can see.

   

6. It allows upto 48X Zoom when used the Digital Zoom. And there is a Super Macro that lets you take a picture from 0″.
7. Fast continuous shoot at 2.3 shots/second - does not work in the Sports mode - only 1.5 shot/second
8. There is a custom button on the back which can be used for setting the following functions” a. Shooting mode
   b. Record Menu settings
   c.zoom location and
   d. Manual focus location
9. It has Auto rotate function which changes the oriantation of the camera, so that you don’t have to rotate the picute on your computer, However the Function Menu does not change. It would have been useful if the “Function” menu could also get rotated.
10. There are 4 view modes 2 on LCD and 2 on View finder - 1 each showing only picture and 1 each showing full details. The view can be configured.
11. It has 3 View Modes in the Playback mode - 1. Only Picture, 2. with basic details like date, number, resolution and size 3. Complete details including the Histogram.
12. You can zoom upto 10x on the LCD and 9 picture can be seen at most on the LCD for review in the index playback mode. The Zoom button is used to magnify pictures.

Software

The following software are given with the camera:

1. ArcSoft PhotoStudio - junior photoshop that too trimed down.
2. Zoom Browser - for downloading images from a camera, and then viewing, editing, and printing them. Movie Edit for editing movies, PhotoStitch for creating panaroma. It also has remote capture - when connected to the computer you can take a picture from PC. Quality not so good as it looks a bit grainy. Or may be i could not take a good one see here:

Conclusion: No conclusion because I am just an armature - who would blindly say I love my camera - just because I own it. Having said that I must say that the photo quality is very good, it starts up super quick and has a better continuous mode; I liked the color reproduction as well, see the previous post.

Ya! by the way it is my first review ever.

Read More on Review of PowerShot S3 Digital Camera Resource Page

First Picture of My S3 IS

I have got this new camara the Canon S3 IS, and the this is my first picture taken from it.