Sears: Now shipping to Maldives ...

Hello.
Sears is now shipping to Maldives. Its good to see more online shops shipping to Maldives.
I usually shop on Amazon, but not everything on Amazon can be shipped here to Maldives.
I herds Macy's now ships to Maldives, too. Good stuff.
Laterx.

USPS: Delivery time to Maldives ...

Hello.

I've been ordering some stuff from Unites States lately. Every time I tell someone that I've placed an order, they ask me about the shipping methods I go with and delivery time frame.

Since shipping charges will very much depend on what you order and shipping weight, the delivery time remains almost the same for most of my orders. I do not use Fedex or DHL. I use the cheapest shipping available, that is United States Postal Service.

I mostly shop on Amazon.com but I'm sure most of the online shops would let you choose if you want USPS Express Mail service, or the standard Priority Mail International Parcels. I have tried out both of them and I share the details below:

Service Type: USPS Express Mail International Parcels

• Delivered, November 28, 2011, 1:59 pm, MALDIVES
• Addressee not available - Will attempt delivery on next working day, November 27, 2011, 3:45 pm, MALE, MALDIVES
• Arrival at Post Office, November 27, 2011, 1:29 pm, MALDIVES
• Customs clearance processing complete, November 27, 2011, 1:25 pm, MALDIVES
• Customs Clearance, November 27, 2011, 1:18 pm, MALDIVES
• Processed Through Sort Facility, November 27, 2011, 11:15 am, MALDIVES
• Processed Through Sort Facility, November 23, 2011, 11:16 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
• Arrived at Sort Facility, November 23, 2011, 11:15 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
• Shipment Accepted, November 22, 2011, 8:53 pm, BROOKLYN, NY 11256
• Electronic Shipping Info Received, November 22, 2011

Service Type: USPS Priority Mail International Parcels

• Delivered, January 8, 2012, 10:59 am, MALDIVES
• Addressee not available - Will attempt delivery on next working day, January 05, 2012, 9:59 am, MALDIVES
• Arrival at Post Office, January 04, 2012, 10:23 am, MALDIVES
• Customs clearance processing complete, January 04, 2012, 10:23 am, MALDIVES
• Customs Clearance, January 04, 2012, 10:21 am, MALDIVES
• Processed Through Sort Facility, January 04, 2012, 10:20 am, MALDIVES
• Processed Through Sort Facility, December 29, 2011, 6:10 am, FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099
• Arrived at Sort Facility, December 29, 2011, 6:09 am, FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099
• Depart USPS Sort Facility, December 14, 2011, KEARNY, NJ 07032
• Processed through USPS Sort Facility, December 14, 2011, 5:53 am, KEARNY, NJ 07032
• Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility, December 14, 2011, 2:56 am, POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 12603
• Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility, December 14, 2011, 2:55 am, POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 12603
• Electronic Shipping Info Received, December 14, 2011

Express Mail costs only around USD 5/- more than Priority Mail but as you can see above, it is way more faster.

Hope this help you make an informed decision when choosing a shipping method for your orders from the United States to Maldives. Needless to say, these details are for shipments for myself in recent months. Your mileage may vary, but I guess, not by much.

Laterx.

Facebook Groups: Seriously ... WTF ???

Hello.

I have been on Facebook for a long time. I might not be as active as some of my friends, but I do maintain an active account nevertheless.

I have always had issues with Facebook. This is a not a Facebook bashing post. I have done it enough on Twitter as I went along. I'm sure you've heard some of the horror stories.

Facebook isn't all that bad, they do good things sometimes. If I really think hard for a few minutes, maybe I can think of something good to say about Facebook.

When Google+ arrived without much fanfare, Facebook scrambled to give the controls over to the users and they did roll out some cool features. I like Google+ and I think Facebook did too little too late.

Anyways, the problem I'm having now is with Facebook groups. I have searched around in the account settings and privacy settings, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to stop people from adding me to groups. Most of these groups are stupid and I want no part of it. You know you have come across a few groups like that too, right?

We All Support "X" as (Upper North Province) President:
I may even support this guy, but I'm not from that area and I can't vote for him even if I wanted to.

I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who hate Manchester United:
I bet you can, but I'm not one of them. I am just indifferent about soccer on TV.

World of 7-Billion:
I know. So what can I do? I don't think it something I want to celebrate. Leave me out. Thank you.

Various Dhivehi island/atoll news website groups:
So you slapped on -live behind your island name and made a local news website? Good for you. Well I don't want to read it, and I definitely dont want to be on a Facebook group promoting your hatred, one way or the other!

Free The Kimboo:
This may be the first ever Maldivian group I was invited to. I was invited by primary0. I think every social network thereafter had some group or petition to free the Kimboo. On second thought, I think I'll stay in this group just for the heck of it.

After a little Googling, I found out that I actually have no control whatsoever on who adds me to groups or what groups I'm added to. If I don't want to be in a group, my only option is to go to that group and manually leave the group. This is infuriatingly stupid!

Talk about Facebbok and giving users the control of their content and delivery. Sucks!

Laterx.

NetworkedBlogs: Syndications errors …

Hello.

I've been using NetworkedBlogs to syndicate posts on this blog to Facebook and Twitter. I set it up about a year ago I think. It has been working just fine up until last week.

I don't know what went wrong, but I've been receiving syndication failure notification emails from NetworkedBlogs. This happens with almost every other post on this blog. Some posts get through just fine. That makes me think that I've actually not messed up the feed settings and am thinking it could be a something went wrong on their side.

When I visit NetworkedBlogs and go to syndication page, it tells me:

Authentication error blocked publishing recent posts!
This error is resolved now, and future posts will publish as usual. It's listed for reference only. No further action required.
When you change your Facebook password or permissions settings, Facebook may revoke publishing permissions, which causes syndication to stop. Visiting this page renews these permissions, so you're all set. This error message will disappear after the next post gets published successfully.

But surely it didn't get resolved, and my posts are not being published successfully.

Has anyone of you been experiencing this with NetworkedBlogs lately? Did you manage to fix it? If so, please let me know. Thanks.

Laterx.

Budget.mv: This is beyond stupid !!!

Hello.

Why does our National Budget website have a section to create your own avatar using 31 programme budget icons? I have no vague idea!

I can understand if this was on a private or a commercial website marketing a product or a brand. I might even understand this on Tourism Portal website using unique Maldivian icons to make an avatar which might appeal to a foreign visitor.

I don't know about everyone on the internet, but I would usually visit a government website when I need to look up current and accurate information or when I need historical data for a research project. I visited the Ministry of Finance website to have a look at our National Budget. I wanted to see how much the projected national revenue was and how it has been sliced to be spend on health, education, transport and infrastructure projects among others.

While looking at the budget, I did find some ambitious projects while huge sums of money have a been allocated to highly controversial and still hotly debated projects. I guess that will always be the very nature of every annual national budget of any given country.

However, during no time that I spent on that website did I have the slightest inclination to upload my photo and make an avatar to use on any social network. I don't really know where to begin to tell someone how inappropriate this is. I think its highly unprofessional for an official government website.

But thats just me, your mileage may vary. So, go ahead, give it a shot if you so want. In the mean time I'll visit the Health Ministry website and try to find an online game you can play while you wait for them to activate our free health insurance!

Laterx.

iTunes: Thanks for the free stuff …

Hello.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. I am not crazy about iTunes. Its one of the most unresponsive piece of software I use on my Mac. Maybe, I'm not using it right, maybe I'm not using it enough, I don't know. But that doesn't mean I won't use iTunes, I will. Especially when they give me free music, videos, apps and more.

I don't exactly know when I started checking out the free stuff they offer on iTunes, but I'll tell you this; some of the songs and stuff iTunes offers for free are really good. Free is not always crappy.

Problem is, they keep the free stuff up for a limited time only. Mostly, a week or so. After that, you got to pay for it.

So its important that you check iTunes regularly for free stuff. Thats easier said than done. However, I did find some blogs that help you find free stuff on iTunes. They keep their blogs updated with all the latest offers in all iTunes markets. They all pretty much have the same information, so subscribing to one of them would probably get you all you need.

Here are the links to those blogs:
Free iTunes Donwnloads 
iT’S Free Downloads 
US iTunes Free Downloads 

Also, if you are in dire need to update your music collection, check out SPIN magazine. They come out with free playlists on iTunes about once a month, I think its called the LSTN series. Just head over to SPIN website and grab the code. Make sure you redeem it and download the playlist from iTunes before it expires at the end of each month.

If you know or use anything free like SPIN playlists to get your music, please do let me know in the comments. I would like to check them out. Free is always good!

Enjoy your music.

Laterx.

Desktopography: Got some good stuff ...

Hello.

It goes without saying that these days, one has to spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Be it work, play or both.

I spend a few hours on my laptop everyday and I have this bad habit of saving my current and no so current projects on my Desktop. As it happens, I get to stare at my Desktop more than I want to. I never could break the habit of organizing my Desktop files, but did manage to pick up on changing my Desktop wallpaper in a desperate effort to make my Desktop look better.

I know people who are obsessed to change their Desktop backgrounds everyday. Hell, I know people who use special programs to automatically download and change their Desktop backgrounds everyday. I am much too lazy. I don't change my backgrounds months on end.

The picture you see here is the current Desktop background on my laptop. Got it free from Desktopography.

I went from Landscapes to Gothic to semi-nude girls. Movie posters to pictures I took while out and about to default OS X Backgrounds. Having a liking to dark abstract these months.

What does your background look like and where did you get it from?

Laterx.

Ordered: KODAK PLAYSPORT Zx5 video camera ...

Hello.

So it has been a few months since I've been thinking about getting myself a small video camera. Not a big HandyCam type, but the small home movie type.

I have been researching this for a bit now and it seems there are only three good options available to me for the amount of money that I want to spend. The GoPro series, the Flip Series and the Kodak Zi8. The latter has been in active development and had a few recently upgraded models available.

The GoPro was a bit expensive and was designed for extreme sports and fast action recording. Surprisingly, The Flip wasn't available anywhere and I read somewhere that the company has gone belly up. So, the only real choice for me was the Kodak models.

Kodak has a few models available right now but what I had a good look at was the KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera. It looked good and the specs were nice enough. FULL HD 1080p recording. HD 720p@60fps for fast action recording. Dustproof, shockproof and waterproof down to 10feet. I read a few only reviews, watched a few YouTube videos reviews and I was sold.

So last week I got on the internet and ordered myself the KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera Zx5. I went for the BLACK version. Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals were in full swing. I crashed the party as well and got a steep discount. Good timing I guess.

My camera has shipped and is on the way here now. Can't wait to get my hands on this and shoot some baby videos. Looks like I can do exactly that later this week.

• Processed Through Sort Facility, November 23, 2011, 11:16 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
• Arrived at Sort Facility, November 23, 2011, 11:15 pm, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
• Shipment Accepted, November 22, 2011, 8:53 pm, BROOKLYN, NY 11256
• Electronic Shipping Info Received, November 22, 2011

Also, I guess now I need to familiarize myself with some video editing software. Come to think of it, I have never even opened up iMovie, ever. Not once.

would appreciate if you could point me in the direction for home video editing. Nothing fancy, just trimming and adding audio tracks and stuff. Thanks.

Laterx.

Contemplating Disqus comment system ...

Hello.

Just a quick note to tell you that, I'm contemplating installing Disqus commenting system on this blog. It seems, Blogger is not showing up comments as it should, there are signing in problems, and I've been told by people on twitter that they have tried commenting on this blog, but the comments just disappear after submission. Well, that is not good. Not good at all!

Disqus seems like a good alternative anti lets you manage comments from multiple blogs in one central location. This is going to be a real time saver. The one killer feature Blogger lacks is the ability to reply to comments from the admin panel. Disqus lets me do this and lot more. Also, I have been hearing a lot of good things about Disqus lately, a lot of high profile people are implementing Disqus commenting system on their blogs. I take this as a good sign, I don't want to make the switch and learn that the service is going away soon.

Disqus is importing all my Blogger comments to its database as I write this post. Check out the blog, see if you like the new commenting area, leave a comment, tell me what you think.

The one caveat I have with Disqus is that, it is trying to do more than what is necessary, too many features, and the commenting area looks a lot busier than what I am used to. Distraction?

Anyway, let us see how it goes.

Laterx.

Dear Google, I'm not in Australia !!!

Hello.

This started happening recently. Google thinks that I'm in Australia.

Google.com redirects to Google.au instead of Google.mv and this terribly annoying. I don't really know how or why this happening. But I know for a fact that I'm not in Australia. I'm in Maldives.

I tried going to Google.com/ncr and saving my settings, but that doesn't help if I quit and relaunch my browser.

Google says:

Bookmark http://www.google.com/ncr. This is an alternative web address for Google.com that always takes you to Google.com without redirecting you.

Google, you are not detecting my location correctly. Not even close. Please fix this. Thanks.

Laterx.

Nexus S: Rooted and ready to go places ... :)

Hello.

Several weeks after I got my Nexus S earlier this year, a friend installed CyanogenMod 7.0 on it. I really did enjoy using CyanogenMod on my Nexus S. I thought it was faster and much more customizable. The features I used the most were the quick access controls available on the notification panel. It was much better than installing and using a power strip widget on the homescreen.

However, few weeks back, I ran in to some problems. The widgets just wouldn't load. It just started giving me "problem loading widgets" error. I was really busy at the time, and didn't have much time to figure out what was going on. So I installed Google stock Android 2.3.6. on the spot.

Since then, I've been trying to get the phone rooted. The main reason, maybe the only reason, why I wanted to root my phone was that I could install some of the apps I wanted to run. Apps like, Blogger, Twicca and some more. These were apps I use frequently and almost daily. It was a pain to get on the internet and search for APK files for those apps from some underground or warez websites. Also, even if I did install the apps, I couldn't update them and had to go online to find APKs of later version. As you can see, that gets old really fast!

After doing some research on how to get my Nexus S running Google stock Android 2.3.6, I hit this page. I'm not a real techie, but I do know how to follow instructions if they were written simple enough for a 12 year old to understand.

I had my phone rooted in a few mins.

Here are the steps if ever you want to root your nexus S. It works on all variants of Nexus S and Nexus 4g.

1) First, you will need to turn your Nexus S off. Then, power up your Nexus S by doing this: while holding down the Volume Up Button, hit the Power button until you see the bootloader menu come up.

2) Next, connect your Nexus S to your computer via a USB cable.
For Windows, you will need to install ADB drivers.
For Mac and Linux, you will not need any drivers, it should be recognized automatically.
Since I'm on a Mac, I didn't need the aforementioned ADB drivers.

3) Next, download nexussrootnew.zip: Unzip the]is zip file and you should get a folder named “nexussrootnew”.

4) Copy over the whole nexussrootnew folder into your hard disk’s root directory such as c:\nexussrootnew for Windows and similar in Linux or Mac.

5) Open up a command prompt by typing “cmd” under Start->Search Programs and files.
Then type “cd \nexussrootnew” to browse into the directory in Windows.  For Linux and Mac, should be similar to “cd /nexussrootnew“. I opened up Terminal on my Mac.
Then type “fastboot oem unlock“.
(For Mac, replace fastboot with ./fastboot-mac and for Linux, replace fastboot with ./fastboot-linux).

6) You should see a screen asking you to “Unlock bootloader” like shown below:
Select “Yes” using Volume Up button and hit the Power Button.
(You should see that “LOCK STATE” says “UNLOCKED”, meaning your Nexus S is rooted).

7) Now, having a rooted phone means nothing if you don’t have Superuser app to make rooted apps run so let’s go do that next.
Type:
fastboot flash recovery recovery3101.img
(For Mac, replace fastboot with ./fastboot-mac and for Linux, replace fastboot with ./fastboot-linux.)
Next choose “Recovery” using Volume buttons and hit the Power button to enter recovery.

9) Next choose “Mounts and Storage” and hit the Power button.
Then choose “mount USB Storage” and hit the Power button.
This will turn your Nexus S into USB disk drive mode.  Copy over the file SuperUser.zip file from the nexussrootnew folder into your Nexus S.

10) Next, hit the Power button to get out of USB disk mode and choose “Install zip from sdcard” and hit the Power button.

11) Then choose “Choose zip from sdcard” and hit the Power Button.

12) Then choose the “SuperUser.zip” and hit the Power Button.  This will install the Superuser app and you can reboot your phone.

Once you reboot your Nexus S, you should find a “Superuser” app in the menu.

Congratulations! Your Nexus S is now rooted!

You can test our your root powers by installing root-only apps like Market Enabler or a Screenshot app.

Enjoy!

Laterx.

If your website does this, then damn you !!!

Hello.

A quick not to say that if anyone of you have a website that displays a pop up or something like the above, be nice to your visitors and just remove it!

Wait, don't get me wrong. Its not that I want to take away even a bit of ad revenue from any websites I visit. I do not mind ads that are not obstructing the content I want to read.

However, this in my face every time I visit the website is unforgivably annoying, counter productive and cheap. Its also hard to close that darn box on a mobile device!

I don't know much about marketing, but if I had to guess, I'd say you are losing a lot of visitors by showing ads or sign-up boxes like that before anyone gets to your content.

I just want to maybe consume the information you've published. I'm not going to like you on Facebook. Am not going to tweet about your website or sign-up for your newsletter. I haven't even got to your website yet, so please, stop asking already!

Laterx.

Kiefer Sutherland's The Confession ...

Hello.

Saw a Web Series a few days ago. It was good. Let me tell you a bit about it.


The Confession is an online-only series. Each episode of The Confession is five to seven minutes long. The whole series is just 10 short episodes.

The series stars Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer from 24? What? How can you ever forget 24?) as a very-good-at-what-he-does Hitman and John Hurt as an old priest with conflicting beliefs.

On a snowy Christmas eve, the Hitman visits a Priest at his church and explains to the priest that he has a kill order for later that night but forces the priest to listen to his confession by telling the priest that he will start killing the people in the church if the Priest does not listen to his full confession.

The story features flashbacks of the hitman showing what he does best while telling the priest how he came to visit him, climaxing with a pretty good twist!

Its a brilliantly scripted series and its amazing how engaing the short series turned out to be. It was really good.

I've shared the complete series here so you can download it easily.

Check it out. I think you'll like it.

Laterx.

Now … Get 50GB from Box.net for free for life !!!

Hello.

I've always shared here with you whenever I got to know about good online file storage services.

I've written on this blog about Upload Robots, Dropbox and quite recently about Minus.

I've had a Box account for a few years now. It gave me 5GB of free space to start with. But last night, I got to know that if your create a new account on Box with an iOS device or log on to your existing Box account with an iOS device, you would immediately get 50GB of space for free, for life!

That is good news for iOS guys, but what about us with Android devices? Well, I tried with my Google Nexus S, and guess what, nothing happened. Android users have been miserably left in the cold for this one. I don't know why, maybe Box wants compete with iCloud.

So, I did what everybody would do in a situation like this. I borrowed a friend's iPhone4, logged on to my Box account, and bam! I now have 50GB for free for life. I can use it however I please.

Remember, Box.net is only running this until *December 2nd* this year, and you don't have to have an iOS device to use the free space. If you are on Android or using any other platform, just ask a friend to let you use his/her iOS device to log on to your Box account just once or to create an account on Box. Thats it, you will not need the iOS device anymore.

What are you waiting for? Back up your files now! Enjoy your free space!

Laterx.

Twicca: The best Twitter app on Android ...

Hello.

What Twitter app do you use on your phone?

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to apps they use on their portable devices. Its quite natural that you've your own set of reasons to use a particular app for doing something on your phones or tablets. There are thousands of apps on the market and they pretty much do the same thing. So, I think, it all boils down to just personal preference. Nothing more.

When I had my Nokia E71, I swore that Gravity was the best twitter client for the Symbian OS. It had its shortcomings but it was the best I ever got to use. I even coughed a bit of my hard earned green to buy it. That must have been the only app I ever bough the whole time I had a Nokia.

Since I got my Google Nexus S in January this year, I've tried almost all popular twitter apps available for Android OS. I've tried the official Twitter app. Tried Seesmic, TweetCaster, TweetDeck and even Plume. I didn't like any of them. Then I stumbled upon Twicca,

Twicca is a full featured twitter client for Android phones. It is highly customizable and has very good plug-in support. I love how I can set color labels to specific people and view most photos in-line. Also, The user interface is beautifully simple, and I kind of like the dark theme. Its nice.

If you have an Android phone, check out Twicca. Its a pretty neat twitter app. I'm sure you'll like it, just give it a go. Its free!

Laterx.

Google Music Beta: Sign-up from outside US ...

Hello.

I just signed up for Google Music Beta and have been using it for a few days. Its awesome and works fine outside US. Its a neat idea to have all your music available to you where ever when ever you want to enjoy your music.

So what really is Google Music Beta? Well, in their own words:

Music Beta is a new service from Google that gives you instant access to your personal music collection without the hassle of wires or syncing. Add your music collection and listen on the web or any compatible Android device.

You can upload your own music collection, that is music you have on your computer to Google (up to 20,000 songs) and listen to your songs on any computer or Android device. Now you can take your music where ever you go! Sounds nice, right? Feel like checking it out? Thought so.

As with most new Google services, Music is in Beta testing, by invitation and available for US residents only. That's not good news for us living outside US. So, lets see how we can get around that for now.

There are few ways to dupe Google to think that you are in the US. You can us an American VPN like Hotspot Shield or a Free Web Proxy like Hide My Ass.

I used a different approach. I headed over to proxy list website to find an American Proxy and temporarily reconfigured my Firefox proxy settings. You  may have to try a few proxies out before you find a working American proxy which supports all HTTP standards.

On Windows you can change Firefox proxy setting by going to Tools > Options > Options > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings.

If you are using Firefox on a mac, go to Preferences > Advanced" > Network" > Configure how Firefox connects to the internet > Settings.

I used the above proxy to sign up to Google Music Beta.

It's a good idea to check if you have an American IP address before trying to request or sign up for Google Music Beta. You can check your IP address easily by visiting www.whatismyip.com.

Now, using the proxy server to pass off that you are in US, head over to music.google.com, sign in and request an invite.

It may take a few days, but when you do get the invitation email from Google (or if a friend invites you) make sure that you complete the sign-up process while masquerading that you are in US. If you don't, your sign up will fail.

When you are done with sign-up, you are set. You don't need the proxies anymore. You can utilize the service like any other regular web service.

I have 6 more invites left for Google Music Beta. Comment in your email address if you want an invite.

Enjoy Google Music Beta! It's free, for now.

Laterx.

Minus: An impressive file storage service ...

Hello.

Heard about Minus, yet?

I'm big on backing-up my files. I've had hard drives die on me before, I've had a few hard drives fail on me without any kind of warning. I hope it hasn't happened to you yet, but I'm sure you have heard these stories before from your friends. Its not a pleasant experience to have your hard drives fail, nor is it any fun to lose your precious data. Since my last hard drive suddenly died on my a couple of months back, I've been backing-up my files online as fast as my limited internet connection allows me.

So why back-up online you may ask? Well, redundancy! First, I think big name companies offering "could storage" can do a better job of keeping data safe than you or me can ever think of doing. Also, there are other factors to consider, like offsite data storage, security, reliability, easy setup, process of backing up, automation and the list goes on. I don't know about you, but I seriously don't think I can ever keep on top of all these. I want to spend more time creating my data and less time backing-up and safe guarding my data, so personally, I think online storage is the way to go. I hear people saying, the future is in the cloud, and slowly but surely, I'm beginning to see their way of thinking.

The most important aspect of online storage for me is access to my data from anywhere in the world, at home, at office, while away on vacation, a business trip or even on the cell phone! The ability to access my data and the comforting thought of having it just a few keystrokes away, eliminates a lot of hassles, problems, and delays. You never know when you would be asked for a copy of that document. When you would want to show someone that picture. When you might need a copy of your identity card or passport to submit with that form you need to fill out.

I have previously written about Upload Robots and Dropbox. Now, let me introduce you to a relative newcomer on the cloud storage and file sharing scene, Minus.

So, with so many companies to choose from why Minus.com? What sold me was individual file size (2GB) and bigger free space when you sign up. You get 10GB of free space to start with when you sigh up, compared to 2GB from Dropbox and 4GB from Upload Robots.

Minus may be a new, but I like what they have done so far. They have made uploading as easy as drag and drop. Their user interface is simple, intuitive and very user friendly.

Also, they have this new social feature so you can "follow" your friends on Minus, letting you know if they have shared or uploaded anything. I think it's pretty nice.

Give Minus a try, It only takes a few seconds to sign up and start uploading files. If you sign up using my referral link, we both will get 1GB of bonus space for free.

And remember, back-up, back-up, back-up! I'll go now and try practicing what I preach.

Laterx.

Blogger, where is my "Edit HTML" button ???

Hello.

So have you noticed the new Blogger dashboard lately? It looks really polished and more organized, don't you think? I like it.

If you have been following this blog, you'd have noticed that it keeps changing every now and then. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, it keeps changing mainly because I keep messing with it all the time. It seems I can't make my mind up on what I want this blog to look like. I even tried learning some basic HTML just to mess with this blog. As you can tell, that didn't go as planned.

Anyways, few days ago, I was thinking about widening the blog post area a bit to better display the images in the blog. I got some time today, logged on to Blogger, and guess what, I couldn't for the life of me find the good old "Edit HTML" button anywhere on my Blogger dashboard. Well, that sucked. 

So, naturally, I did some googling and it seems the new blogger in draft doesn't have the "Edit HTML" button anymore. Google also told me there is a clever way to bring it back if you really wanted to.

Here is how. I can confirm it works for now.

- Log on to Blogger and got to Layout option.

- Notice the highlighted are in the URL? Now edit the URL, instead of "blogger.g" change it to "html". Hit return.

- There you go, you have the good old familiar layout with "Edit HTML" button.

Now you can play around with your blog as much as you want, but back up the old one, just in case. Hope that was helpful. Happy HTML editing. Blog away.

Laterx.

New!!! Gmail offers free SMS chat …

Hello.

Have you noticed a "Send SMS" button on Gmail lately?

At first I thought it was something related to Google Voice, which is not available in my my part of the world. GV is totally useless to me, so I thought this SMS thing would never work in Maldives, but I tested it out anyway, and guess what, it seems to works perfectly well for local Wataniya subscribers.

So what is it? I did a little googling and it turns out its a two way chat system. Google allows Gmail users to send text messages from inside Gmail to a contact's mobile phone. The contact can then reply to the text message as one reply to a regular text message, and it shows up on my Gmail chat window. Nice!

How do you do it? Well, I think its an experimental feature on Gmail, so you have to first head over to Gmail labs to enable it. Go to Settings -> Labs -> enable SMS features.

It has been sometime since I have been requesting Wataniya to provide a way to let us send text messages to Wataniya subscribers from my desktop, something like WebSMS that Dhiraagu offers. Wataniya came short, but now, I can use Gmail to send text messages and I don't even even have to sign in to another service. Good stuff!

If you need more information about how this service works, here is the link to the official Google SMS help page. Give it a read.

Sending SMS from Gmail.

It is interesting to note that, currently there are about 20 countries on the list that support this service, and Maldives is on the list. Good going Wataniya and thank you!

Now log on to Gmail, and send some text messages! :)

Laterx.

Blogger: Turning on Mobile Templates …

Hello.

Today, I logged on to Blogger to see a pop-up asking me to turn on mobile templates. I did not know what it was exactly, at the time, and I was in a hurry to get something done. I clicked cancel, and moved on.

Later, when I thought about it, turning on mobile templates sounded like a pretty good idea. Especially since I get occasional visits on my blog from mobile devices like iPhones.

So what does mobile templates do? Well, not much. It simply optimizes the blog to display it better on mobile devices with smaller screens. Apparently, when using mobile templates, pages will load faster because of minimalistic design with less graphics, and use less data, a good thing when surfing the web on an a cellular connection.

When I came back to Blogger to turn mobile templates on, I had to drill down a bit in settings to find the option. To save some of you a few minutes, here is how to do it.

From Blogger Dashboard, go to 'Settings' tab and find 'Email & mobile' menu. Under the 'Mobile Template' part, click 'Yes. On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template.'. Scroll down and click 'Save settings'. If you want to have quick look at how your blog would look like in mobile view, you can preview it before saving the settings.

Hope this helps someone out there who uses Blogger/Blogspot.

Laterx.