10 Steps for Better Blogging
I’m posting them here, partially so I have a place to quickly find them if I need to, partially to force me to hold to them, partially out of commitment to transparency, and partially in case they’re of interest or use to anyone else.
Good steps that all bloggers should implement.
Useful Google Extensions
From HyperText:
I’ve long been a huge fan of Chrome/Chromium and have been asked more than a few times for a list of the extensions I use, and so I thought I’d whip up a quick post to list and discuss them (where necessary). (The italicized text after the name of each extension is the copy provided by the respective developer.) Note that this list does not include the bookmarklets I use; I’ll discuss those in a separate post.
Though it probably is obvious, there likely is some overlap between certain of the “privacy” extensions, and I’m OK with that. Relatedly, I also whitelist cookies on Chrome (an awesome browser feature). Basically, this means that I have to give a site explicit permission before it can set cookies. It’s great, though not without its annoyances; for example, sometimes some snooping is required to get certain websites working. (It’d be nice if Chrome let us enable cookies for a particular site, and then automatically deleted those cookies as soon as the tab in which they were created was closed. If you’re aware of an extension that will do this, please let me know.)
- Send to Kindle Push web articles to your Kindle. I use this extension a lot; if, for whatever reason, it fails, I fall back on Instapaper’s “Send to Kindle” bookmarklet (which, I’m guessing, most people don’t even know about).
- Instachrome Save your URLs to Instapaper. I use this instead of the bookmarklet(s) because it automatically closes the tab after the link has been saved, something I’ve written about (and “fixed”) before. I hope that future versions allow us to target specific folders.
- Posthoc Adds pages to the Read it Later online service. This is a must-have for me because I use both Instapaper and Read It Later, and like Instachrome, this too closes the tab after the link is saved.
- Tabs Counter A visual candy -- always know the number of opened tabs. This is the kind of stat I love knowing at all times. I kind of wish it would display the tab count for the current window and the combined tab count for all of the open windows; currently, it shows the tab count of just the current window.
- AdBlock The most popular Chrome extension, with over 2 million users! Blocks ads all over the web.
- Chrome Cookies Button Provides quick icon access to manage your Chrome cookies.
- Chromeblock Stop secret tracking of your web browsing. (UPDATE: This extension is no longer available for download; I’m not sure why.)
- 1Password Beta Password and identity manager for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
- Disconnect Stop third parties and search engines from tracking the webpages you go to and searches you do.
- Ghostery Protect your privacy. See who’s tracking your web browsing with Ghostery.
- YSlow Make your pages faster with Yahoo!’s page performance tool.
- Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on Tells the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) not to send information to Google Analytics.
- Page One -- Banish Multipage Articles Always display the single-page version of articles at popular news sites.
- SelectOut Tracking Opt-Out Be in control of who tracks you online.
- Sheepish Protect your privacy. See who’s tracking you. Are you sheepish? (UPDATE: This extension is no longer available for download.)
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Build your own Time Capsule with Debian, Netatalk
Maybe I can make a small home backup server with these steps.
Attribution on the web
File this under: Good to know.
My Internet Friend Stephen Hackett recently wrote about attribution on the web. Specifically, citing a story’s source and “via” link, or method by which you became aware of the story. He and I pretty much have the same policy.
First, an explanation. The source in this case is just that: a story’s origin. For example, in this post I published earlier today about 3 billion iPad app downloads, the source is ABI’s report.
The reference, or “via,” identifies the outlet that first made me aware of the story. In this case, it was The Loop. As a result, The Loop gets a “via” link at the foot of the post. 1
Of course, it isn’t always that cut and dry. Let’s say that Jim had a “Via SiteX” on his post. I’d visit that link and look around. If there’s no additional link, I’ll consider SiteX the referential site and give it the via on my site, too.
Sometimes I’ll find a story on my own. For example, this article comparing Steve Jobs and Charles Eames. I found Om Malik’s article on my own this morning, so there’s no via link.
Other times a story will be so big that everyone and their brother is posting about it. In that case, I avoid a via link all together because, like I said, everyone has it. For example, this post about the pending international launch of the iPhone 4S. Apple issued a press release, everyone re-blogged it, so there’s no via necessary.
Like Stephen, if I find something on a big site like Engadget, CNN, etc. that everyone else will obviously see, there’s no via necessary.
Finally, regarding sources. They always get a link in the opening paragraph, and hopefully in the first sentence.
That’s my policy on using the via link. What’s yours?
- I always put via links at the foot of a post in brackets. ↩
(Via 52 Tiger)
#SaudiValentine and overreactions
I really don't care about Valentine. But I find the reaction to it in Saudi Arabia is excessive, on both sides.
The color red is banned and apparently Baskin Robbin's Love Potion 31 icecream is also banned. On the other hand you got the people who think Valentine a big deal.
These reactions are interesting and being posted on twitter with the tag #SaudiValentine, make sure to share your tweets there.
It will be just another day, just don't wear your red shomag (head gear).
Found image via Rami Taibah's Blog.
My Favorite Earbuds: Etymotic
I've been using Sennheiser CX earbuds for 3 years, not the same one I think I broke about 8 of them. But thanks to a recommendation by Shawn King of Your Mac Life podcast I bought an Etymotic earbud and I'm impressed.
Here's an interview with Etymotic's CEO and founder, Dr Mead Killion:
The one I'm using is mc3 for weeks and I love it, as I said on twitter: bye bye Sennheiser.
But what I really want is a custom earbud which can be made at an audiologist. I wonder if any of them can be found in Saudi Arabia?
Here's a video explaining custom fit earbuds:
What's your favorite earbud? or are you a headphones person?
Silence Twitter Followers and Manage Follow List [How-to]
I found the following two guides that should be helpful to any Twitter user. I hope that you find them useful.
How To Bulk Remove Twitter Accounts From Your Follow List
You can find a few web tools to easily unfollow non-followers, unfollow a lot of people in a single step and a final crazy method that you gotta go read about it on MacLife.
How To Temporarily Silence Followers in Your Twitter Feed
Shows a method on muting users based on keywords that you don't want to see.
To easy manage your Twitter followers and friends I highly recommend BirdBrain App, here's an Arabic review on SaudiMac by Mohammad.
What are your favorite Twitter tools?
Google fails in Saudi Arabia
Update: Google updated Riyadh's satellite images to something from late 2010. The maps however are still outdated.
I complained many times about the extremely useless and out of date Google Maps for Saudi Arabia: roads are from 2004 and you can't even get basic directions! Allright, Google have problems with all the red tape, we get that. But I was shocked to see Microsoft Bing Maps already supporting very recent maps of Saudi Arabia.
Here's an example, Al Oruba st intersection with Prince Turki st, in 2004/2005 a northern road was constructed turning it from a T-shape intersection to a normal intersection. Here's the satellite images on Google Maps:
Now here's the regular map on Google Maps. 6 years later and it's still the same:
Now let's have a look at Microsoft Bing Maps:
Bing Maps is up to date with the Saudi map, how come Google isn't? Is Google being denied?
If Google allowed us to use the Google Map Maker it would not have happened.
The Bing Maps do not have any points of interest but that didn't stop Microsoft from allowing us to use navigation on the map! Google Maps can't figure a simple straight line:
While Bing is EXTREMELY USEFUL even without points of interest:
Another example of Google's failure in the region: the lack of an Android Market in Saudi Arabia. This is Motorola's response to @Yalmisfer when he asked why is his Motorola Milestone Android phone is lacking an Android Marketplace:
Android Market was removed per requirements of Google in the individual Arabic regions such as UAE, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The same is happening with the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Samsung Galaxy S apparently. Google doesn't need to release an Arabic Android market, they don't even support Arabic language natively in Android until now!
@Yalmisfer also got to talk with Samsung Middle East:
I got a call from the firm doing the PR for ME for Galaxy and they are asking me to try it and write a review about, I asked them and the answer was No market for Middle East
My rant is over.
Firmware Update for Novatel MiFi 2352
I finally found it after months of frustration, I can say this: this addressed a lot of issues I had with my MiFi 3252.
Novatel doesn’t post the firmware on their website so I had to dig around and finally found MiFi 2352 Firmware version 5.26.2. I put a copy of the file right here: 20418796 MUU MIFI2352 NVTL GENERIC_Pkg. Just download the zip file, extract the executable, connect the MiFi to your computer via USB and run the exe file. Yes it’s Windows only but that’s why we have VMWare and Parallels Desktop.
Novatel MiFi 2352 Firmware Update [Saudi TechView].
Been a while
It's been a while since I last rambled about anything. Hope your Ramadan and Eid was good!
I've been concentrating my free time on SaudiMac so you will probably find more of my posts there (that and Starcraft 2). I will continue rambling here of course. Thanks for still reading this website of mine.
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