Life Rocks 2.0 » Blogging

TBlogger brings Blogging to Windows Mobile

Nirmal — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:35:08 +0000

Travelling blogger or TBlogger is a free mobile blogging client for Windows Mobile devices. Travelling Blogger is designed to supports all blogs which implement the MetaWeblog or Wordpress APIs. This means you can add most of the blogging platforms including Wordpress to TBlogger. Traveling Blogger has the ability to auto detect the most appropriate blog API to use when you set up your blog.

The set up process is very simple and you need to enter the URL, username and password and it detects other settings automatically. You can configure more than one blog with TBlogger. TBlogger uses a “smart synchronization” method which allows it to keep a copy of one or more blogs on a mobile device whilst allowing changes to be sent and received from the server using the minimum of bandwidth.

Be default TBlogger operates disconnected. You can write your posts and when you’re ready click “synchronize” and it takes care of everything else including batched image upload and naming.

TBlogger allows you to edit your older posts apart from creating new ones. It also features an undo to the original post without contacting the server if you mess it up.

Tblogger offers these features;

Editing and creation of posts (and pages in Wordpress).
Uploading of images and other files.
Creation and management of categories.
Off-line and on-line operation with easy synchronization.
Support of draft posts and pages synchronized to the server and published when complete.

TBlogger is a very good blogging client for Windows Mobile is you have a 3G connection on your mobile. This clients works well with GPRS/EDGE connection as well, but might take some time to update.

Download TBlogger (Travelling Blogger)

Windows Live Writer Plugin for Amazon S3 Storage

Nirmal — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:56:55 +0000

Recently we set up an Amazon S3 account for uploading all images and files for this blog. We used the Firefox plugin S3Fox for uploading all the images to Amazon S3. We were searching for some integration of Amazon S3 services into Windows Live Writer as we use it to compose the posts and found this really good Amazon S3 browser plugin for Live Writer. Once the plugin is installed, restart WLW and you can see a link at the bottom right portion of WLW.

When you click Insert S3 Object, you will be prompted to enter you Access ID and Secret key for Amazon S3.

Once you enter the details, you will be able to access all you Amazon S3 images uploaded with the folder set up.

You can insert as link or as an image from the S3 browser. This browser also supports uploading of files to your S3 account. This plugin is pretty useful for people using S3 account for image uploading and WLW for composing posts.

Download S3 Browser Plugin for Windows Live Writer

Good Reads from Blogosphere- Link Attack

Nirmal — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:47:14 +0000

I’m back after a short vacation for 5 days and was going through the articles on my Google Reader. Here I’m sharing some of the good reads from blogoshpere. Dont forget to add these blogs to your feed reader.

Send Files upto 2GB for Free – Ram informs about Streamfile service which allows users to send files upto 2GB for free.
Change Windows Save/Open Dialogs with Placebar Editor – Madhur reviews a software to change the options in Open/Save dialog in Windows.
High Resolution Firefox Wallpapers – Keith has a collection of high resolution Firefox wallpapers.
Six best Firefox 3 add-on stock images- Jeet Blog tells us Firefox add-ons for Images.
Get Hi Res Video For your iPhone with mDialog – Technobuzz informs about site to get high resolution videos for iPhone.
Create System Restore Point Quickly in Windows – Abhishek tells about a software to create system restore point quickly.

Hope you enjoyed reading them.

Good Reads from Blogosphere – Link Attack

Nirmal — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:35:17 +0000

Its been a pretty long time since I published good reads from the blogosphere. So continuing this series again, here are some of the good articles from the blogs I read regularly. Dont forget to add these blogs to your feed reader.

Let a Monkey Handle Your Music Collection – Madhur reviews one of the good media organizer, Media Monkey

BgPatterns: Perfect Background Pattern Tool for Web Designs – Ram from Teknobites tells about tool for background pattern for themes.

FreeCalc: A Better Calculator for Windows – Keith informs us about the a free Calculator application for Windows.

Tumblweed – Tumblr Microblogging Desktop Client- Syahid tells about microblogging client Tumblweed.

How to browse in Firefox 3 without Leaving a Trace? – Stealther – Joel blogs about Firefox add-on for private browsing with leaving any trace.

Do You Know This New StumbleUpon Feature ? – Jeet tells us about the new features in Stumble Upon

Embed RSS feeds quickly in your site with Feed Source- Shankar informs us how to embed RSS feeds on blogs.

Hope you enjoyed reading these articles.

Kerala BlogCamp- First Unconference on a HouseBoat

Nirmal — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:13:38 +0000

The first BlogCamp in Gods Own Country is to happen in August and when its happening in Kerala, there should be something special about the event. Indeed its special, its the first Unconference to be held on a HouseBoat. The event is hosted by Kerala Tourism and to be held on August 16th 2008.

If you are still not sure how the Houseboats looks like, here is the Kerala BlogCamp 2008 Venue.

Kerala BlogCamp Details and Registration:

Date: 16th August 2008

Venue: Houseboat in Alappuzha (former Alleppey), Kerala

The Kerala BlogCamp is going to be a limited seats event and in case you would like to attend the blogcamp, please register with your details here.

URL : http://www.contactvirus.com/blogcampkerala
Shared Key : godsowncountry

The organizers will contact you to confirm your attendance.

If you want to know more details on HouseBoats and Alappuzha (how to reach) , please check here.

Hoping to see you all at the BlogCamp.

12 Free and Useful Tools for Blogging

Nirmal — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:45:53 +0000

When it comes to blogging, there are lots of FREE tools to help you in blogging, like blog editors, submitting blogs to multiple pinging services etc. Most popular of the freeware if Windows live Writer, but there are more softwares apart from blog editors which are helpful in developing a good blog. Here is a list of 12 FREE and useful tools for blogging which helps you in building you blog.

1. Blog 8.0 Beta- Blog 8.0 Beta is a self-contained website manager. The program includes an FTP utility, an HTML editor, built-in spell checker and thesaurus, a client-server mode, the ability to send a weekly or monthly news digest to subscribers and much more.

Download Blog 8.0 Beta

2. Blog Spreading- This is a small, free utililty that is used to popularize your blog by automatically appending a link to the latest post in your blog to your e-mail signature and assists in your blog’s search engine optimizations.

Download Blog Spreading

3. Bytescout Post2Blog- This is a freeware blog editor by managing existing posts, automating image uploads, ability to export posts to HTML and PDF, and more. Can be run from a USB flash drive so you can manage your blog on the go.

Download Bytescout Post2Blog

4. Fast Blog Finder- Fast Blog Finder allows you to boost your natural search engine rankings by building targeted backlinks to all your websites. It’s a no-spam search engine friendly blog commenter.

Download Fast Blog Finder

5. Radio.Blog 3.1- Radio.blog is the first stand-alone flash-based application that lets you stream sound on your website by creating audio playlists which can be heard by a website’s visitors.

Download Radio.Blog 3.1

6. Rankquest SEO Tools 3.9- This is a Firefox toolbar aimed at improving and providing quick access to useful search engine optimization tools.

Download Rankquest SEO Tools 3.9

7. Link Popularity Check- Check the popularity of your website based on results from major search engines with the help of this handy tool.

Download Link Popularity Check

8. SiteSub 1.0- SiteSub is a free blog utility that helps you in the process of adding your link to a website directory, blog directory or link list.

Download SiteSub 1.0

9. ThingamaBlog- ThingamaBlog is a cross-platform blogging application for authoring and publishing your blog without the need of a third-party blogging host. You can maintain multiple blogs, write entries offline, import entries from RSS/Atom feeds, define your own custom template tags, and a lot more.

Download ThingamaBlog

10. W.Bloggar- If you need a simple client to post, publish, edit and delete text on blogs maintained on sites like Blogger, MovableType, and the like, try W.bloggar which has an Office-like interface.

Download W.Bloggar

11. Weblog Expert Lite- WebLog Expert Lite is a server log analyzer. It generates HTML-based reports with tables and charts, and provides a comprehensive overview of the general traffic activity of your website.

Download Weblog Expert Lite

12. Blog Blaster- Blog Blaster is a tool that is useful to submit your blogs to over 12 blog search engines by pinging to them using the XML-RPC interface.

Download Blog Blaster

If you are looking for free desktop blog editors, you can check this post for a list of FREE blog Editors.

Good Reads from the Blogosphere- Link Attack

Nirmal — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:04:11 +0000

It has been a long time since I published good reads from the blogosphere. So starting this series again, here are some of the good articles from the blogs I read regularly. Dont forget to add these blogs to your feed reader.

New Prince of Persia to be released by end of 2008 – Madhur talks about the new version of the game to be released in 2008.
20 Fantastic Mozilla Firefox Compact Themes -Syahid lists out some great Firefox theme
Solve the Partial Feeds Problem With Google Reader – Abhijeet from Jeet Blog tells us how to solve the partial feeds issue with Google Reader.
How to give your USB devices a Background Image – Rakshit gives a tutorial on how to add a background image to USB drives.
Set Reminders inside Gmail with G Alert Greasemonkey Script – Shankar tells about Greasemonkey script to set reminders in Gmail.
How to edit the right click menu in Windows – Aseem gives a registry hack to edit the right click menu in Windows.
15 Useful Adobe AIR Applications- Ram has a comprehensive list of useful Adobe AIR applications.
RapidShare Happy Hours Detector- Harris informs us about an application which can detect Happy hours in RapidShare.
How hot is your motherboard – Pavan shares few interesting pictures on heat generated by Motherboard, nice find.
What are A1 and R1C1 Reference Style in Excel?- Joel explains reference styles in Excel.

Hope you enjoyed reading them.

How to Use Microsoft Office 2007 as Blogging Tool

Nirmal — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:40:36 +0000

There are lots of free softwares for blogging and Windows Live Writer is one of the most popular one. In case you are using MS Word 2007, then you can use Word as a blogging tool. Word has all the basic options for composing and publishing posts. To compose posts using Word 2007, click on the office button on top left corner of the page and select New. In the new document box, select New blog post.

If you are selecting this option for the first time, you get a pop up box asking you to register for a blog account and select the the blog provider.

Next you need to provide the login details of your blog and the remote posting url.

Once you have done with the configuration, you get a confirmation. Now you can start composing posts with the word editor. One you are done with composing, publish the post using the Publish button.

How to Save Time Commenting on Blogs

Nirmal — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:40:05 +0000

If you have the habit of commenting on blogs you read, then the most annoying part is filling the name, email and website link on each blog. Some blogs does remember these details, but its difficult to add the details each time you visit the blog. But now you can automate the commenting section of blogs with two tools which will save time and also help you fill more comments.

1. Texter: Texter is a small software for Windows from Life Hacker. Download and install the software and run it. Add a host string using the + symbol. Enter a value to the host string, this value would be the one used to fill comment. Now select type as script and enter you details as follows.

Your Name{Tab}Your Email{Tab}Website url{Tab}

Now select trigger mechanism, I have selected Tab and Click OK. Now go to any blog and write the host string into the Name textbox and trigger it using the selected trigger (tab in this case). You can see comments automatically filled in all the textboxes. You can even fill comments if you add another parameter after website url.

Download Texter

2. Greasemonkey script: This will work only if you are using Firefox. You need to install the Greasemonkey add-on. Then install the user script for filling comments. Once installed click ALT+C and then enter the details, name, email ID and website url.

Now go to any blog and click ALT+C and the commenting form will be filled automatically. These tools are made mainly for Wordpress blogs, but you can use it other blogs which have the same format.

How to Access Windows Live Writer Drafts across Computers

Nirmal — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:45:20 +0000

Many times bloggers use multiple computers to blog and use Windows Live Writer to compose posts. There can be situations when all the PCs may not have Internet connectivity to publish the post to blog or save the draft to blog, which is the most preferred method to access the posts on other computers. When this situation happens, you can access posts written in WLW in another computer by copying the local drafts of Windows Live Writer.

One you complete composing the post, save the draft to local system.

Local drafts are saved in My Documents in the computer. Windows Live Writer creates a “My Weblog Posts” folder under “My Documents” which has two sub-folders – one with Drafts containing all the unpublished posts and another with Recent Posts that have been published through Windows Live Writer.

You can copy the files and open these drafts in another computer installed with Windows Live Writer and then publish.