A Look at Mimo.vn – Vietnam’s Twitter?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

MimoLogo (Disclosure: I know someone who works for Mimo- he invited me to check it out a few months ago while the site was in a much rougher state and asked me to give some feedback and suggestions before I wrote this post)

Iā€™m a big Twitter user- not that I have a ton of followers or anything, but I like to post. A big thing about using it in Vietnam is that it was hard to use it via mobile- there are all sorts of stupid things I want to say when Iā€™m in a taxi or just out and about, random things I want to take pictures of and have them posted immediately online (itā€™s not the same to post them hours or day later, itā€™s all about the moment). Iā€™d love to do a better job of sharing my life in Vietnam with friends and family over in the US.

Like I said, Twitter is not really so practical via mobile here (think of the costs to send a SMS internationally), and thus Iā€™ve been hoping for a solution to this for a while, and it didnā€™t necessarily have to be free. There was a free Twitter/SMS option I saw sometime last year, but they would always embed their tag in your post, which I didnā€™t like so much.

I then started using Mimo. Mimo is Twitter. For Vietnamese (the site is hosted in VN, and the default language is Vietnamese). And when I say itā€™s Twitter, it really, really, looks like Twitter. And while that might scream ā€œknock-offā€ or ā€œcloneā€, I think itā€™s actually pretty good. Iā€™d actually call it more of a Twitter Plus.

Mimo = Twitter Plus

Mimo has a ton of features that a lot of people wish were already in Twitter, while at the same not making the UI overly messy nor removing anything that people love about Twitter. To me, itā€™s obvious the Mimo team has used Twitter or at least researched how people use it.

  • SMS Support: this is the big one for me. Itā€™s 500 VND (about the same price as a normal SMS, I believe. 500 VND is 2.7 cents in USD) to send an SMS, but free to receive SMS from Mimo. So you can follow a ton of people and get their posts on your phone at no extra cost even if you never post. You can do a ton of things via SMS, like follow, private message, block users, even register. Itā€™s a bit much for me, but I think you could basically use Mimo without going to the website at all if you wanted. The only bad thing Iā€™ve found is that MMS is not supported, so you wonā€™t be seeing silly pictures from me. Yet.
  • Sync with Facebook and Twitter: since Iā€™m on both Facebook and Twitter, this is pretty important to me as well. Now I can send a SMS update to Mimo for less than 3 cents, and my sister in the US sees it on her Facebook instantly. The sync works both ways, Iā€™ve confirmed- if you post on Twitter or Facebook, itā€™ll come back into your Mimo.
  • Language Support: Mimo supports both English and Vietnamese, and the English has been done really well! No signs of broken Google-translated English anywhere.
  • Attachment functionality: up to 20 MB per post, supporting basically any file format you want. Itā€™ll show images and play music files inline as well. Thumbnails next to the post text make it obvious when thereā€™s an attachment. You canā€™t watch videos on the site yet, though, there will just be a download prompt.
  • Webcam: support for avatars and uploads. Too bad you canā€™t record videos yet though.
  • Apps: Mimo has a seriously ridiculous amount of apps ready for it. I use TwitterFox for Twitter, and Mimo has a version of it out already. Theyā€™ve also got apps for Adobe Air and Windows .Net, and you can use Yahoo Messenger (itā€™s the number 1 IM client here) with it. Now they just need an iPhone app, and they can go claim themselves king.

In terms of the UI, and not messing anything up, let me give you an example:

MimoUI

Mimo UI Basics:

  • Top Center: Pick your Language. UK flag for English, Vietnamese Flag for Vietnamese.
  • Upper Right: If you like to type with diacritics (accents), click that.
  • Left of Avatar: Webcam uploads, Attachments, and Character Count.
  • Upper Left: (below Mimo logo) autocomplete username on replies ā€“ itā€™s like Facebook when you search! When you start typing @ and the beginning of someoneā€™s username, Mimo will suggest people based on whom youā€™re following for the autocomplete.
  • Individual Posts: Favorite / Reply / Copy. Copy is basically Retweet- they do it the old school Twitter style, adding RT and copying the text of the post into the text entry box.
  • Right Navigation Menu: If you have a new reply or Private (Direct) Message, it will let you know in an obvious manner (like Gmail). I always thought the total Direct Messages count you see in Twitter was useless- I could never tell if I had something new because I donā€™t remember what the count used to be.

Hereā€™s an example of what a post with an attachment (photo thumbnail on the right) looks like:

Mimo Attachment Post

Now, hereā€™s Twitterā€™s UI:

TwitterUI

Super familiar right? But thatā€™s what I mean by Twitter Plus. If you already like Twitter, getting into Mimo is easy, and it has some nice small enhancements that make the experience a good deal nicer. Iā€™m going to be using both Mimo and Twitter- Mimo to post updates and interact with my Vietnamese friends, and Twitter to monitor what my American friends are up to in the US.

Some negatives:

  • I am not sure Hot Topics is working right. I like the Twitter one, where you can see all the new trending and hot topics. I hope they can fix this, as getting real time insights into what Vietnamese people are thinking and doing would be pretty awesome. Imagine stuff like when VN has a big football (soccer) match, and everyoneā€™s getting ready to go out in the streets, or everyone is excited to see Avatar 3D at Megastar, but canā€™t get tickets.
  • No Free SMS ā€“ ok, so Iā€™m being picky. Thatā€™s not really a negative, thatā€™s just me being greedy. Maybe they can have an ad-supported version in which you can send SMS posts for free. You could opt in to receive 2-3 SMS ads per day, and then you would be able to post to Mimo for free.
  • Already mentioned: MMS not supported yet, no direct video playback, no video through webcam, no iPhone or Mobile app (so what if I donā€™t have an iPhone), but there is a WAP site, m.mimo.vn. GPRS in Vietnam can be super slow though, Iā€™d rather stick with SMS.
  • It took me 3 hrs to update my Twitter badge on the upper right (below the header) with a Mimo one. Why is this a negative? Because I am lazy and like to complain.

Some people to follow:

  • SaoNoiTieng: trash talking gossip.
  • QuaCauMaThuat is like Magic 8 Ball. I tried it (alright, I was a little drunk) with a friend via mobile, answering it random questions, and it would give me those random answers like back when we were kids. It does support English, it just depends on what language you have selected in the Mimo UI.
  • Eduard Kazanov and Tommy Tran: Eduard and Tommy are listed as two of the Suggested Users when you register for an account. Theyā€™re celebrities/VIPs as models/actors, and theyā€™re actually very nice. I happen to know them and for whatever reason, they got me a pass into the Hard Rock Cafe grand opening. So thatā€™s a plug for them!

Of course, feel free to follow me on either Mimo or Twitter:

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24.02.2010 Tech, Twitter, Vietnam 2 Comments

Free Microsoft Software for Students in Vietnam!

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

DreamSpark Vietnam02 Pretty cool for students in Vietnam, students can download licensed Microsoft Software for free to help them learn. Of course, it’s not really a charitable thing, it’s good for Microsoft’s business as well. To access the DreamSpark site and find out more regarding your school, go to: https://www.dreamspark.com/wayf/wayf.aspx. Iā€™d love a crack at XNA Game Studio myself, wish I had more free time to retackle programming. Iā€™d copy the list of Vietnamese schools supported here, but I couldnā€™t figure out how. Information from Labnol.org:

What software programs do I get with DreamSpark?

Once you join the DreamSpark program, you will have to option to download the following Microsoft software tools for free :

  • Expression Studio 3
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
  • Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
  • SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
  • .. and more – see full list.

Additionally, DreamSpark also offers free ebooks, up to 22 hours of free e-learning courses on Microsoft technologies and 1 free Microsoft certification exam.

Will Microsoft ship the software DVDs?

Unlike MSDN or TechNet, Microsoft wonā€™t ship you DVDs but you can download the software installers from the DreamSpark website itself. If you are located in India, you can also walk into your nearest Aptech or NIIT center and request the software on a DVD.

Ok, but isnā€™t there a catch?

Microsoft licenses the software to you for educational use. This means that you can use the software without restriction for school assignments or personal projects. If you write or design something that you wish to sell, however, you need to purchase a standard licensed copy of the Microsoft software before you sell your product.

Is the software like a trial that will expire when I graduate?

No! The software from DreamSpark is the full version, and according to Microsoft, ā€œYou may continue to use the Software you obtained prior to termination of your student status subject to the terms of this license.ā€

This is taken from the license agreement that you accept before you download the software, so you can be sure that any software that you download via DreamSpark will be free for personal and non-commercial use forever.

When you graduate, however, your DreamSpark membership will terminate so you wonā€™t have access to new software release but the software that you may have already downloaded will continue to work.

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20.08.2009 Tech, Vietnam No Comments

Customer Service FAIL, SRS Labs with SRS Audio Sandbox

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

(edit, Sept. 18, 2009: As expected SRS never cared to follow-up with me. Also, realized that SRS Audio Sandbox didn’t work perfectly before this error. Sound will loop indefinitely if you’re playing something for a few hours consecutively, like music or playing a game. Worse is that there’s no way to stop the sound unless you reset Windows. Muting or turning off SRS or the application playing the sound does nothing. I had this error, but never realized it was SRS. I thought it was my soundcard. I let Mike have my licensed copy of Sandbox since I can’t use it, but he’s decided to uninstall it because he also gets the looping issue while playing games)

Itā€™s lousy enough when Customer Service ignores you. Itā€™s even worse when they pretend to care, but actually donā€™t.

And thatā€™s my saga with SRS Labs and their SRS Audio Sandbox plugin. The product itself, when it was working, was fantastic. I bought it about a year ago, and it could be used with any audio, whereas most other plugins will work just with specific software, like Winamp or Windows Media Player. Since I use VLC for video and Media Monkey for music, those pluglins were useless.

So, like I said, it was fantastic while it was working. It stopped working a couple of months ago. I have no idea why. After contacting SRS, I still donā€™t know why but I also still have a non-working product, and Iā€™ve wasted the money I used to purchase it. And that sucks.

After being ignored (ā€œItā€™s even worse when they pretend to care, but actually donā€™t.ā€), I have no other avenues to pursue, so I figured Iā€™d just write about it.

June 1st, 2009- From me, to the contact form on their website:

Product: SRS Audio Sandbox software
Operating System: Windows Vista
Product Version: 1.9.0.4
Sound Card: Soundmax Integrated Digital HD Audio

Message: A few days ago I downloaded 1.9.0.4 to upgrade over 1.9.0.1. Even though under the Sound applet in Control Panel, it shows SRS working (the application also says it is working without errors), there is no sound. I have checked to make sure the volume is up, the sound is not muted, but there is no sound whatsoever. Once I change the default sound back to the Soundmax, however, sound is there again. While SRS before worked with no problems, the new version doesn’t work at all. I also don’t have 1.9.0.1 anymore to reinstall. I have uninstalled the new version before reinstalling, tried resetting the system to make sure the audio drivers are in place- none of that works. Again, everything from the Vista standpoint is working- everything reports that sound is playing back, but it is not. If I switch to the default sound, everything works fine, but obviously SRS doesn’t work. What can I do?

June 3rd, 2009- From: Michael Gonzales [mailto:MichaelG@srslabs.com] to me

I believe itā€™s a compatibility issue with your HD sound card. And simply the plug-in probably wonā€™t work with it. Your best bet is to uninstall the plug-in.

Kind Regards,
Michael

Right away, I thought, did he even read my request? It WAS working, for quite a long time, and then it didnā€™t. Anyway, his reply is basically saying to me, we have no solution for you, thatā€™s your problem. Even though you are probably one of the few who paid for it instead of downloading a cracked version.

June 3rd, 2009- My response to Mr. Gonzales

Hi Michael,
I actually have purchased the SRS software, so Iā€™m definitely invested in finding a solution. Like I mentioned before, the SRS version I was using before ( I believe 1.9.0.1) was working for me fine, would you be able to send me the older version so I can retry it?

Thanks,
Michael

June 8th, 2009- After not hearing back from SRS for 5 days, I sent another e-mail to Mr. Gonzales. Before I was just asking to check out a previous version of the software to see if it would work. Since I didnā€™t hear back, I actually had to go pirate it. Yeah, I pirated a version of the software I actually own.

Hi Michael,
Iā€™m e-mailing again to ask about support.

Would I be able to provide more information in order to help me fix this problem? Iā€™m using Vista Home Premium SP2 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T61P. Like I said, it was working fine until about a week ago, when it stopped working as soon as I installed the newest version. Windows seems to think it is working (they show audio levels going up and down) but there is no sound, but if I switch back to the default sound card, itā€™s fine again.

As I have mentioned before, I am a paid customer of SRS, so I am definitely alarmed if my purchase now is completely non-working, especially since I love the product.

Sincerely,
Michael

I still didnā€™t hear a response after this, so I just gave up, and posted a random complaint on Twitter a little bit after this. To my surprise, SRS found me and responded on July 14th, 5 weeks later. Looks like using social media can help! I e-mailed the guy who had contacted me on Twitter.

July 15, 2009-Ā  I sent the below as well as all previous correspondence to Michael Farino <MichaelF@srslabs.com>

Hi Michael,
Since this last e-mail, I have reformatted and installed the Windows 7 Beta, and the issue still exists. I am still not sure why, and if itā€™s a hardware issue, I would think the soundcard would be dead completely, not just be a problem for SRS.

Thanks,
Michael

July 16, 2009- Michael Farino asks Michael Gonzales (btw, if you notice there are so many ā€œMichaelā€s, my name is Michael as well), the guy who ignored me before to help, and I get the following:

Hello,
What type of sound card are you currently running?

Kind Regards,
Mike

Nothing like people not even using your name when replying. Originally, I had already listed the sound card I am using in the original form, but what the hell, Iā€™ll try to do my part to help.

July 16, 2009- From Me, in response to Michael G.

Hi Mike,
I am using a SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio, driver version 6.10.1.5510.

July 17, 2009- From Michael G

Hello,
Where did you make the purchase through our site or through paypal? Did you use your information or purchase it under someone elseā€™s name?

Kind Regards,
Michael

He still doesnā€™t know my name. And he is doubting that I even paid for the software. Of course, I did make this support request 7 weeks ago. Butā€¦.Iā€™m willing to prove that I did pay the company.

July 17, 2009- From Me, I send the receipt of my purchase

Hi Michael,
Please see attached for my receipt.

July 27, 2009- 10 days go by and there is no response. This is where Iā€™m starting to get tired of this lets-pretend-we-care-but-ignore-him-until-he-stops-bothering-us tactic. I e-mail Michael F for some help with all the entire dialogue thus far.

Hi Michael,
I havenā€™t heard anything back from Michael G. Can you assist?

Thanks,
Michael

July 28, 2009- Michael G responds,

Hello,

As I said before this is simply a compatibility issue with you HD sound card, there is no current solution or fix, and I apologize. You should uninstall the plug-in and your sound playback will return.

Kind Regards,
Michael

Now weā€™re back to to that June 3rd response again- we canā€™t help. Period. Does he really know if my sound card doesnā€™t support it? How come itā€™s not documented on the site? Wouldnā€™t that be a lousy thing to do with your customers? Hey, letā€™s sell software that doesnā€™t run with certain soundcards, but not even tell people that so they can buy it, and THEN find out. But wait, this software already worked with this sound card before, almost for a year. Hmmmm.

Also, whyā€™d he bother asking about my receipt- he didnā€™t give me any support, he just ignored me further.

So, at this point, itā€™s like BS.

July 28, 2009- Me, to Michael G

Hi Michael,

As I mentioned before, SRS was working for me for nearly a year. I didnā€™t change the sound card, the OS, or the laptop, so it doesnā€™t seem conceivable that thereā€™s just now a compatibility issue.

I appreciate any help, but I donā€™t feel like SRS is really interested in working with me to figure this out. With the answer youā€™re giving me, it feels more like Iā€™m being ignored and brushed aside rather than you truly know this is the issue.

-Michael

July 29, 2009- From Michael G

Hello Michael,

I apologize that you feel that way. Itā€™s just that usually in these particular situations, the problem is has to do with the HD sound cards. Could you please further explain how exactly it stopped working for you, it was hard to indentify what the problem exactly was in this thread. I can try to look into it further and see if we can identify any other problems or possible fixes, if not like I said the only remaining option that we have found for HD fixes is to uninstall. If thatā€™s the case Iā€™d be obliged to offer a full refund of course.

Kind Regards,

Michael

We are going around in circles at this point. I have run a Customer Service department before (not to brag, itā€™s just a fact), and I know how people normally ask for requests. Normally, you have people giving no information whatsoever about the issue, they just assume you can figure it out for them. I had at least tried to be open and very upfront with all the information I knew in the very first request, and even added additional info as I kept trying to find the solution. I was even willing to answer more questions about the issue. In his response, Michael G is just trying to put this issue back on me in a passive manner, yet he doesnā€™t have a specific question about what (ā€œCould you please further explain how exactlyā€œ) I wrote before, which implies that 1) he doesnā€™t care 2) he didnā€™t read it.

July 29, 2009- My final response:

Hi Michael,

Here was the original support request:

Message: A few days ago I downloaded 1.9.0.4 to upgrade over 1.9.0.1. Even though under the Sound applet in Control Panel, it shows SRS working (the application also says it is working without errors), there is no sound. I have checked to make sure the volume is up, the sound is not muted, but there is no sound whatsoever. Once I change the default sound back to the Soundmax, however, sound is there again. While SRS before worked with no problems, the new version doesn’t work at all. I also don’t have 1.9.0.1 anymore to reinstall. I have uninstalled the new version before reinstalling, tried resetting the system to make sure the audio drivers are in place- none of that works. Again, everything from the Vista standpoint is working- everything reports that sound is playing back, but it is not. If I switch to the default sound, everything works fine, but obviously SRS doesn’t work. What can I do?

As I said above, when I run SRS, it believes it is working. The sound meters go up normally, but there is no sound. Once I disable the software and switch it back to the sound card, everything is ok. I am not running any additional sound software. Also as I have mentioned before, before upgrading, SoundMax worked fine ever since I bought, 0 problems.

Since then, I have switched to Windows 7 Beta, build 7100, in hopes the error would be solved, but it has not. Under Windows 7, I am using SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio driver version 6.10.1.5510 on a Lenovo T61P.

Please let me know how I can clarify this further for you.

Thanks,

Michael

Today is August 8th, 10 days after the last contact. No response. Iā€™m not going to even bother e-mailing back. I suppose SRS will be happy now, theyā€™ve gotten me to drop it.

Iā€™m just going to post it on this blog and e-mail http://consumerist.com/, and if Iā€™m lucky and this is kind of a big deal, theyā€™ll pick it up.

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09.08.2009 Random, Tech 4 Comments

Is WordPress A Thankless Community? | Weblog Tools Collection

Saturday, July 11th, 2009
donate

Image by Mindful One via Flickr

Iā€™ve been thinking about doing this for a while, donating to plugin authors around the same time when I changed my blog theme, but I ended up not doing it. Who isnā€™t lazy about spending money when they arenā€™t forced to? It reminds me a little of Winamp. I wanted to donate to them for so long, but when I finally decided to, theyā€™d been bought by AOL, and didnā€™t need my money anymore.

Seeing this article this morning finally got me going for Wordpress, and I decided to leave a ā€œthank youā€ comment, wherever possible, or donate to the plugins Iā€™m using right now. Ended up donating to 6 authors, and Iā€™d definitely like to donate to more in the future, perhaps with Kiva certificates or something.

I encourage others to do the same, even if itā€™s just a little- donate, say thank you, or contribute your own code.

Is WordPress A Thankless Community?

Jeff Chandler on July 10th, 2009

Over the past few weeks, Iā€™ve noticed a disturbing trend. Many of the plugin authors I have spoken with throughout the community tell me that very rarely do they ever get a donation let alone a Thank You for releasing their work to the public. Based on the plugin authors feedback, end users demand more features, demand better support, and in the end, have this feeling of entitlement even if the plugin is available without a price tag. The reality is, that for a freely available plugin, youā€™re not entitled to anything. I donā€™t know about you, but I certainly would not like to be part of a community that is known as thankless.

Before I list a few ways of curbing this attitude, I must say that not EVERYONE in the community acts in the ways I described above. I know many of us have donated to plugin authors, have written reviews of plugins to give them exposure, have said thank you, etc. This post is not geared towards you but towards those who seemingly want to have their cake and eat it too.

Saying Thanks – I believe saying thank you is underrated these days. Saying thanks can go a long way in making a plugin author feel good about themselves for their contribution to the community.

Donate – Itā€™s pretty clear to me by now through asking plugin authors and other posts on the subject that there is no way to pay the bills through donations alone. However, donations are often seen as one part of the income generating strategy so whatever comes through is seen as a benefit. Iā€™ve donated over $100.00 so far in my time spent with WordPress which I know is small compared to what these plugins have enabled my sites to achieve but Iā€™m astonished at the amount of people who have not donated any cash at all.

Exposure – What plugin author does not like exposure? This can be done any number of ways such as a written review, a podcast dedicated to plugins, links to new plugin releases as WeblogToolsCollection.com is known for and overall, just spreading the word about the plugins you enjoy using.

Contribute Back – To support a plugin authors initial contribution to the community, we as end users can return the favor by beta testing new versions, submitting bug reports, helping out with translations, and helping to provide support.

Wrapping Up:

At this stage of the game, I think itā€™s unfair to provide a blanket statement covering the entire WordPress community as thankless. However, I know many plugin authors who are holding back from releasing their work to the community because they know they will be inundated with support, demands, etc, all for no price.

I think we sometimes have to sit back and remember that WordPress is a piece of great software but it doesnā€™t have every feature under the sun, that is where plugins come in. These plugins are generally patches, feature enhancements, or ways of providing functionality that are better than the core offering. Plugins are one of the thriving aspects of WordPress that bring people to the platform because if you canā€™t do something with WordPress, there is at least 1-3 plugins that will. I would really hate to see plugin authors jump ship from the platform simply because of the way the community treats them.

The WordPress platform and its end users have nothing to gain from having this happen so please, lets all do our part to show plugin authors the same love we show for WordPress.

*note* If you know of any other ways to help the situation, Iā€™m all ears.

Is WordPress A Thankless Community? | Weblog Tools Collection

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11.07.2009 Blog, Tech No Comments

More Wordpress Plugins to Live By

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

My Plugins Thereā€™s a fantastic number of plugins available for Wordpress. Itā€™s truly an amazing platform, and for the two years Iā€™ve been using the self-hosted version, thereā€™s been an incredible amount of support added, new (good) features that have been implemented, and a dizzying amount of customization plugins created. You can find the official directory for plugins here http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.

Iā€™ve covered some of the speed plugins that I like few posts ago, and I realize everyone already knows and uses All in One SEO Pack (SEO Optimization), Akismet (comment spam) and Google XML Sitemaps, so here are 10 great plugins that you may not know about:

(Iā€™ve limited this to 10 so this post doesnā€™t get too out of hand, and in no particular order)

  1. WPtouch iPhone Theme: This plug-in makes your site optimized (readability) for the Apple iPhone, Apple iPod Touch, Google Android and Blackberry Storm. I donā€™t have any of those phones, so I canā€™t testify on how good it is, but I think itā€™s always nice to be able to reach an extended audience.
  2. MobilePress: Another useful plug-in to get your blog ready for mobile access.
  3. WP-PageNavi: Wordpress blogs by default show next and previous to go backwards and forwards in the blog. Change this so itā€™s paginated as you would see in a forum, like the below at the bottom of my blog home page.

    4. Page 1 of 94 1 2 3 4 5 Ā» … Last Ā»

  4. WP Security Scan: ā€œPerform security scan of WordPress installation.ā€ Yeah.
  5. Secure WordPress: Another good security-related plug-in to have. Remove common methods hackers use to analyze your Wordpress installation and find weaknesses that can be secured.
  6. Twitter Tools: Letā€™s you set up your Blog with Twitter. I use it to update Twitter every time I write a new blog post, but you can also use it to add a widget to show your newest updates, update Twitter from your blog, and post daily/weekly compilation posts of your Tweets during that time. (This plug-in is not being used for Twitter update in the upper right of my blog, however, that one is part of the Imagination theme.)
  7. Search Unleashed: You ever the search option (Ctrl-F) in Firefox 2 or 3, and you can highlight the search query on the page so you can find the text easier? Search Unleashed can do that for people who search directly on your blog automatically as well as for those who come to your blog after searching on Google.
  8. Photo Sidebar Widget: There are plenty of Flickr plugins for Wordpress, but not many Smugmug ones. This is the one I use to preview new content from my Smugmug account.
  9. Global Translator: As you can see below or in my right sidebar, you can translate my blog into different languages. Global Translator is a great plug-in in that it caches the translations so that when a user access them, they stay on your blog rather than be taken to a different website showing your site in a frame. This is also great for Search Engines because each new cached page in a different language is considered a real page and can be found by users searching in that language. To simplify what that means, imagine you write the blog post ā€œMore Wordpress Plugins to Live Byā€ in English. Thatā€™s one page youā€™ve written now indexed. Now, you enable 10 (in the plug-in settings, you can pick exactly which/how many languages you want to support. Iā€™ve picked the ten most common languages in the world in addition to SE Asian languages) translation languages in Global Translator. Through the plug-in, you will have effectively written 11 posts- the one in English, and the additional 10 in other languages. Users searching in their native language will find your post.

    10.  Global Translator

  10. Comment Relish: This emails users who leave a comment for you automatically. Think of it as a follow-up ā€œthank youā€ to those who comment. You can create a custom message to let users know how to subscribe to your blog or whatever else youā€™d like.

Iā€™ve talked about this before, but I really recommend Windows Live Writer for composing your blogs.Itā€™s like Microsoft Word for blogs- itā€™s easy to use, itā€™s free, and it has a lot of great features- spell check, drafts, image handling, blog preview within your theme, etc. I also recommend getting the Zemanta Plug-in for it- it will automatically find copyright-free photos for you to use in your new blog post, as well as suggest recent articles and links related to whatever youā€™re writing about in the post.

Download Links:

 

Enjoy!

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31.05.2009 Blog, Tech No Comments

Avoid www.blogohblog.com for Theme Design Work [FAIL]

Saturday, April 18th, 2009
EPIC FAIL.

Image by locusolus via Flickr

(What a simple blog title Iā€™ve chosen today)

Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with BlogOhBlog recently, and its owner Jai Nischal Verma, and thatā€™s why my new theme is taking a bit longer than I was expecting. For now, Iā€™m using the Wordpress default, which is quite nice and error free.

The Story:

Originally, I was randomly checking out different themes for the site. I really liked the Blamatic theme, but it had a number of big errors, so I wanted to find someone who could help fix it. Stumbling upon BlogOhBlog.com, I contacted Jai Nischal Verma, who quoted me a price of $75 for my requirements. A few days later, I had some additional requirements, for which he then quoted me a new price of $100.

In the end, he finished perhaps less than half the work; it looked great on FireFox and Opera, but was trash on every version of Internet Explorer, which is still over 70% of the world.

Here was the last round of emails:

Jai,
Regarding the widgets issue in Firefox, the issue is not caused by the widgets. If you looked at the screenshot, you would understand what I mean.

My requirements were clear, and I was upfront about them. For example, the requirement clearly asks for fixing of all bugs and standards compliance. If there were any issues about how difficult the tasks were, you should have brought that up when you issued the quote, or perhaps even midway, when you realized the requirements were difficult. What happened, however, was that you turned in the work twice, saying you had completed all the tasks, but in fact had not. And then when I asked about the tasks that had not been completed, you said they were too difficult or impossible and that you were done with the project.

What you have left me, then, is an unusable theme. I am certainly not going to use a theme that only works for 20% of the world. Now, I will need to find someone else to start over on the project.

If you are not going to finish this project, then I expect my money back, as an incomplete project has absolutely no value to me. I have switched the theme for the site.

Sincerely,

Michael

From: Jai Nischal Verma
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:20 PM
To: Me
Subject: Re: Custom Order from BOB

Hi,
I am sorry to say but the theme blamatic has too many issues. It uses sifr library to render your header titles in flash (try and right click on your header titles and you will know or your blog title) which can cause rendering errors in IE so I cannot really help it. According to my advise, you should just trash the theme or should have done it by now. Your choice.
I will not make any more changes as I have done enough fixing for $100. Plus you keep ranting about widgets issues. Dude, I am not responsible for fixing your widgets as you can install 100 other plugins and complain about their widgets.
Jai.

Right after I received his email, I noticed he had gone in my site (he had FPT and Admin access) and started deleting things from my site, (think about how scary that is), including his work, so I had to cancel his accounts.

I donā€™t doubt that Jai is a very skilled and intelligent guy- I tried to look up negative feedback on him before I contracted him, and nothing came up, so that had made me feel confident going with him originally. His website is nice and you can learn a lot about design and Wordpress from him. Overall, he seemed trustworthy. Unfortunately, at least for my situation, he was not. I paid him $35 of the $100 up front, with the rest due at completion.

The big issue was not so much that he didnā€™t complete the project, but that he lied about it. He twice said all the requirements (that he had accepted and were laid out for him clearly- he could have asked for more detail if they were not) had been completed, and I had to basically call him out and show examples of the errors still left. Am I supposed to believe that he didnā€™t know about the errors? That he didnā€™t know it was completely broken in IE, among numerous other errors and incomplete tasks, yet still asked for the full $100 both times?

When I called him out on the incomplete work, he started to say how X requirement was too difficult or Y requirement was creating the problems, that my ā€œunprofessionalismā€ was to blame, and he refused to do any more. Some of the things he did finish, were things I could have done myself (and have in other themes), but thatā€™s why I had asked for a quote on the full package of fixes, so I could let a professional do his magic and so I wouldnā€™t have to worry and spend my own time.

SIFR003

Incidentally, in the e-mail above, Jai blames the sIFR library for his inability to fix the theme, but sIFR themselves claim otherwise (see left for IE6+ compatibility): ā€œOf course sIFR degrades gracefully when used in an non-supported browser: the default HTML text will be shown."; ā€œsIFR is supported by the following browsers: IE6 and above.ā€

Perhaps after he started, he learned my requirements were too difficult for him, or he had underestimated them. He tried to lie about it and blame me instead of being upfront and saying, ā€œI made a mistake in the quotation, can we renegotiate this?ā€ or ā€œThis is causing some issues, can we do it this way so that I can make it fit your requirements? I would have listened and found a compromise with him.

But he didnā€™t. Now I have an unusable theme and lost time (anyone whoā€™s had to audit someone elseā€™s work knows how time consuming it is) and $35 in the process.

This really sucks and some other words not fit for this blog.

If Iā€™ve learned anything from working the last few years is that you have to be really careful when working on projects with outside partners, regardless if youā€™re the client or the contractor. Iā€™m really glad I only paid $35 up front. Normally, Iā€™m used to paying in full with Internet transactions, like on EBay, but I thought I should ask for a tiered payment just because I knew how projects can go. Trying to imagine if I had paid the full $100 and had this happen, I would have gone absolutely berserk.

Some people think that if you do some work, you should automatically get credit for it. For example, you ordered Pho at my restaurant, but I was out, so I decided to give you Bun Bo Hue without asking you and letting you know that I was out. I gave you something, it may not be what you ordered, but you got something. So now you should pay me the price of the Pho. Right?

No.

Avoid BlogOhBlog and Jai Nischal Verma.  He may be capable of doing good work, but as I learned unfortunately, itā€™s a gamble to see if he will take responsibility for his work commitment.

If youā€™re considering him and youā€™d like to learn more about what happened, feel free to comment or ask me. Iā€™m more than happy to forward the email thread and let you judge for yourself.

Time for me to look for another coder.

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18.04.2009 Blog, Tech 9 Comments

April Fool’s FAIL

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Fail002

Iā€™m submitting this to Fail, but I doubt itā€™s anywhere near great enough to make it.

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03.04.2009 Blog, Random, Tech No Comments

My Torrent Guide for You

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Yes, as I have said before, I am a digital pirate.

I wonā€™t try to defend myself. In some ways and interpretations, itā€™s stealing, and I admit to it. At the same time, I do buy stuff, though much less so since Iā€™ve moved to Vietnam and been surrounded by piracy along with more limited work wages. But still, if you take any machine that I have, whether it be game console like the XBox 360, or DVD player, I guarantee that I have bought at least the average amount (also called the ā€œattach rateā€) that a customer will buy for that machine, and most of the time, much more so. Iā€™ve bought many games, dvds, and even music cds that I never opened or played.

Torrents do have its more ā€œgrayā€ uses, though. Like watching basketball when it is impossible to do so in your country (Vietnam). Or checking out old tv shows or games that arenā€™t really sold anymore. Moving onā€¦.

Torrents, What are and How to:

A torrent is basically a file that points to other files. Almost like a map. If you download a torrent, you actually havenā€™t downloaded anything, just directions to some files. You actually need something that can figure out how to read those directions, like uTorrent.

Download ĀµTorrent – Powerful BitTorrent Client

utorrent

If youā€™ve ever downloaded files with your browser, think of uTorrent as a download manager for torrent files. It knows how to find all the files you want. I donā€™t want to get too detailed on how to set it up, but here are some general tips once youā€™ve installed it.

Setting a download location:

utorrent003

Once you have uTorrent installed, go to the menu bar (up top), click on Options and then Preferences. (You can also click Ctrl-P).

utorrent004

Under directories, choose a location for your files (this is where the actual files will be stored. Remember this directory. Click OK to save.

Back to the uTorrent interface, look at the bottom, right:

utorrent005

You will find some funny numbers with D: and U:

D: means your download rate, U: means your upload rate. Normally, if you donā€™t change these settings, uTorrent will use all your bandwidth, which could upset your housemates, wife, etc., and interfere with normal internet usage. You can adjust these by right clicking on the D: to adjust the download rate (I suggest 10-20 kB/s) and then U: for the upload (match the download rate if possible).

Oops, one more thing. When you download torrent files from your browser, make sure when you get prompted if you want to download or open them, open them. Downloading them will do nothing, so open them like I show you below. If you have uTorrent installed, uTorrent will automatically handle it for you from there.

utorrent006

Torrents, Where to find:

Here are my recommendations, the sites I use:

General/Everything:

From movies to music to ebooks to games to tv shows. If youā€™re looking for movies try axxo or klaxxon in the search- results with those tend to be legit. The Pirate Bay is likely the most famous torrent site out there, but I much prefer Mininova and BtJunkie. You can also try Demonoid, but itā€™s not easy to get an account there.

Anime:

Comics:

Games:

Sports:

Other:

Last Notes:

Since many torrents link to files that are considered piracy or illegal, you do have to think about whether youā€™re ok with that. Depending on where you live, there may be repercussions. Mike, for examples, does not torrent anymore now that the various industries have started suing users. If you want to make sure thereā€™s no chance of legal consequences, just donā€™t torrent. Simple.

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31.03.2009 Books/Comics, Movies, Music, Tech 2 Comments

My Site, Now in Vietnamese!

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

image

I really like this site. After all, Iā€™m spending money on it, and only a few people occasionally read it, so it must have some value to me. Wordpress is really fantastic, and if I were in the US, it would be so much better (because of how slow my US-based host is from here).

Now, with the newest version of the Global Translator plugin for WP, the developers have just included Vietnamese as one of the translations (you can click on the flag above, or click http://www.ispithotfire.com/vi/)

I havenā€™t gone through it super in detail, but from the examples I saw, it looks pretty good. As in I, with my lousy Vietnamese, could read the translation of my English and understand what I was sayingā€¦.in the translated Vietnamese!

So I could basically learn Vietnameseā€¦.from myself.

This also means more Vietnamese people can reach this blog, which could be troublesome in the future (note to self: donā€™t talk trash about Vietnam anymore)

PS. I just noticed that ā€œHomeā€ as in ā€œHome Pageā€ gets translated as ā€œFamilyā€. So your home really is your family.

I learn something every day!

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28.10.2008 Blog, Tech, Vietnam No Comments

Budget Hero: Making America OK Again (Flash Game)

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Budget Hero is a flash game made by American Public Radio that lets you understand the current budget crisis in the USA and let you pick how you’d make changes to make sure the US survives.

The various issues are posed like how you’d seem the presented on a ballot with both sides of the argument, but much less in detail. It’s easy to play and understand. Very engrossing and can test what you really care about and what you’re willing to sacrifice to make things “better”.

Here are my results:

Budget Hero

Personally, I am big on:

  • Education. Provide opportunities, let Americans compete, stop BSā€™ing that weā€™re the best all the time when in fact weā€™re not. Weā€™re getting whooped on. This is the best way to spur the economy, producing capable citizens not creating blame (India took our jobs, F India!)

    • Research
    • Opportunities for Low Income students
    • Got rid of No Child Left Behind
  • Health Care for all

    • I thought I had added Obamaā€™s plan in here, but guess not. It wouldnā€™t let me add any major health care plan, said there was a conflict somewhere else but wouldnā€™t say where.
  • Energy Independence

    • Clean up the environment, protect the world
    • Tax bad things (oil, carbon emissions) heavily to promote, force alternatives
  • Cut the government- we really need to pay that much in taxes yet we just keep having more problems? Something isnā€™t right here.
  • Reducing War (the USā€™ military budget is more than the rest of the world combined. Plus we still have thousands of nukes- you really think someone really wants to push us to the max?)
  • Stop messing around with other countries, inspiring hatred and bitterness (see ā€œReducing Warā€)
  • Help the old.
  • F*ck the rich. Even if I become rich, which I hope I do, taking a lot of money from the rich still leaves them rich. Not the same with the poor.

When I was playing this, getting the budget right was super difficult, even after cutting a ton of military stuff. It turned out the key was Bushā€™s Tax Cuts:

2008-07-13_18-01-40-234

Once I repealed that, there was a ton of cash to do everything else I wanted, including helping Social Security, yet keeping things in good shape.

Agree? Disagree? Try it yourself!

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/

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16.07.2008 Politics, Tech, Video Games 1 Comment