Use Google Wave to Blog

I have been thinking about this idea ever since I started playing with Google Wave. How about creating a blog post by embedding Waves – one for the post and the other for comments. The former Wave will be editable only by me, while the latter will be editable by anyone (with a Google Wave account).

A blog post using Google Wave for content and comments

This became possible, recently, with the introduction of the read-only access feature. I created a blog post with a Wave talking about the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Google Wave and a blank (to start with) Wave for comments. Click here to see this blog post. This was achieved as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Official WordPress app for Android

After having played with wpToGo app (though for a very short time), the announcement of an official WordPress app for Android phones caught my attention. These apps allow you to manage your blog posts and comments from your Android phone.

I fired Android Market on my phone, searched for “wordpress” and the official app was right at the top, proudly named as WordPress, just WordPress. Yea, that’s indeed the official app! Read the rest of this entry »

A Perfect Integration of WordPress and Twitter

I have been tweeting and I have been blogging. My blog is powered by WordPress. Integrating the blog and micro blog (Twitter) makes sense and recently I made Twitter and WordPress talk to each other, using WordPress plugins. I used not one, not two but three plugins to perfect the integration as per my taste.

Here is how it started. My initial wishlist from this integration was as follows:

1. Whenever I write a new blog post, it should be automatically posted (or tweeted) to Twitter
2. My tweets should get posted on my Blog

Referring to the second point, I did not want a blog post each, for every tweet. Instead I wanted a single blog post with all my tweets – say, for the day. Read the rest of this entry »

Buzz my posts, Yahoo!

Now you can Yahoo Buzz my Blog posts.

So what is Yahoo Buzz ? It is similar to Digg. More the Buzzes on a story (a web article or blog post), more is the story popular. The first buzz (clicking on the Yahoo Buzz icon) on a web page adds that web page to the Yahoo Buzz’s list. Subsequent, buzzes increases its popularity ranking.

But Yahoo Buzz had been there for while, then what’s the big buzz about it now ? Earlier Yahoo Buzz was accepting buzzes (i.e. accepting URLs) only for selected (by Yahoo) websites. Now it is open to any website, including this Blog

When you click on one of my blog posts to view the full  post, you will find an icon “Share/Save” (at the bottom of the post, but before the comments). By clicking on that icon you can add my blog posts to Digg, Delicious, Google Bookmarks etc.

This icon shows up on my Blog posts because I’m using a WordPress plugin called Add to Any. This plugin uses the Add to Any service which allows a Web article (like a Blog post) to be added/submitted to various social bookmarking sites. The cool about this plugin is the list of social bookmarking sites are updated very frequently and this list automatically updates on my Blog – without requiring any change in the plugin code and without the need to update the plugin. The Yahoo Buzz was opened to all web sites on 18th, “Add to Any” incorprated it on 19th and I noticed it yesterday (on 20th).

Happy Buzzing

HOW MUCH is your Website Mobile ready ?

Score it @ http://ready.mobi. On the site type in the URL of your website (for example: www.shekhargovindarajan.com) and hit the GO button. Read the interesting tips on mobile optimization till you see the results – “Page results”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wordpress upgrade made easy, very easy

Have been always thinking (and procrastinating) about upgrading this blog – based on Wordpress 2.5 to 2.6 (the latest as of this writing).

The thinking turned into a quick action (finally) with this wonderful plugin called Wordpress Automatic Upgrade. Noticed this plugin in my Wordpress’s dashboard – under Plugin, Most Popular.

1. Downloaded and extracted the zip file.
2. Copied the resulting directory (wordpress-automatic-upgrade) under Wordpress’s plugin directory (wp-content/plugins.
3. Activated the plugin through the Wordpress’s admin panel.
4. Clicked on Manage>Automatic Upgrade
5. Followed the onscreen wizard “almost blindly”.

And voila! I’m now running 2.6. It took not more than a couple of minutes. I said “almost blindly” because I was dozing off to sleep while upgrading. That is, my blog was updated from my bed . Hence, Wordpress upgrade made easy, very easy.

Update: Updated this Blog to Wordpress 2.6.1 from 2.6.0 using this plugin.

Update (Oct 24, 2008):Today updated successfully to 2.6.3. Awaiting Wordpess 2.7 (ETA: November 10) which has drastic changes and updates. Will the Automatic Upgrade plugin still do its magic ?

Update (Nov 24, 2008):Today updated successfully to 2.6.5 – which fixes a security issue and a few bugs

Update (Dec 12, 2008):Today updated successfully to 2.7 - a version upgrade (as opposed to a mere release upgrade). WordPress Automatic Upgrade rocks. I doubted it for an upgrade to 2.7 (as said during the Oct 24 upgrade, above). But I’m proved wrong (fortunately). Following is the view of the new dashboard and UI of Wordpress 2.7.

Wordpress 2.7 Dashboard

Note: After upgrade to 2.7, the “Email This Post” and “Print This Post” links on my blog stopped working with custom URLs (permalinks) These two features are given by the plugins named WP-Print and WP-Email. I fixed these plugins as per the instructions here. However, i guess, upgrading to the latest version of these plugins (via http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-print/ and http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-email/) may also fix the issue.

Bottom line: Go for “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade” to upgrade your Wordpress to 2.7.

Blog post from Windows Mobile

Writing this blog post using an app called moBlog (http://sampath.wordpress.com/moblog/). Downloaded the cab file directly on my Windows Mobile 6 device.
When you run the app for the first time, you need to create a profile. Note that the prompt asking for the URL to the login page is misleading. In case of Wordpress you need to enter the URL to the first page and not the URL to wp-admin. That is, http://www.shekhargovindarajan.com was the URL in my case.

This app allows you to insert images, residing on your device, in your blog post. Like the one below:

You can select the category and add tags to the posts made from moBlog.