sjdvda's blog

Goodbye Tumblr...

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:55:49 +0400

I’d like to announce that this blog is closed, I won’t post anything here now and my new blog is at sjdvda.com

Why I don't access hi5 anymore

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:55:00 +0400

There was a time when hi5 was actually cool, it was unique, it was great.

3 years ago I joined hi5 because all my friends were on it, it was my first social network, after some time I discovered Facebook and I found it better because of the applications and the status updates, but I still used hi5 because it was different!

Now hi5 copies almost everything that Facebook does; first came the status updates, then the applications, now there’s even chat!! What’s the use of joining two social networks when they are nearly the same??? That’s why 2 months ago I changed my hi5 status to “Saajid is tired of hi5, prefers facebook now”. I haven’t accessed hi5 since that.

Some reasons I prefer Facebook over hi5:

1. Too many UFRs

UFRs (Unidentified Friend Requests) are the requests you recieve from people you don’t know and you probably don’t want to know. (BTW “UFR” is a term I picked from a mashable article, but I don’t remember which one).

UFRs are easily recognizable:

1. They normally have profile pictures with actors/actresses/sportsmen/celebrities
2. Their profiles are rarely updated
3. They don’t reply to your messages and chats

I have about 120 friends on hi5, and I don’t even know half of them!! On the contrary, I have 230 friends on Facebook and I know most of them. I have a rule: since a month ago, when I get an UFR on Facebook, I look at the profile of the sender and if no info is provided, I send him/her/it (there are indeed some animals on Facebook, I even have some chimps in my friend list TVR!) a message. If they don’t reply after some weeks, I remove them from my friend list.

2. hi5 applications suck!!

I find most hi5 applications pale copies of Facebook applications. There are indeed many useless Facebook applications, but some apps are really cool!! There’s also a lot more apps on Facebook than hi5.

3. Not compatible with many services

hi5 is not compatible with many web services. For example, if I want to sync my Facebook status with twitter (which I’ve been using a lot lately) or vice versa, I have the twitter’s own Facebook application which will sync my Twitter status to Facebook and FriendFeed which will sync my Facebook status with twitter. hi5 isn’t even supported by FriendFeed.

4. I don’t like the hi5 themes

I find Facebook themes much better as they put emphasis on the content rather on the design.

The reasons above are why I don’t access hi5 anymore. The only 2 advantages I find with hi5 are:

1.They allow “vanity URLs”. e.g. http://sjdvda.hi5.com instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=526038179. Currently Facebook doen’t support this but it’s coming sometime soon according to the help page.
2.Custom HTML is allowed.

I know it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post and the reason is that I took a lot of time to adapt to the new school schedule after the holidays :( But hopefully I’ll get some more time with the school hours back to normal…

Looking forward to seeing you guys again and don’t forget to comment if you liked this post :D

"There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer..."

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:24:32 +0400

“There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that.”

- Steve Jobs talking about Netbooks.

(via fred-wilson)

Windows 7 Open Beta: Why It Is (and Isn't) a Free Vista Upgrade

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:50:00 +0400

Windows 7 Open Beta: Why It Is (and Isn't) a Free Vista Upgrade:

Gizmodo article about the free Beta release of Microsoft’s upcoming OS, Windows 7.

Blog Update and Resolutions For 2009

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0400

During the last week I’ve changed many things in my blog.

1. First of all, my blog address is not sjdvda.tumblr.com anymore, I used the free co.cc service to change my blog address to sjdvda.co.cc (similar to the media guru).

All previous links and my RSS feed will be redirected to the new domain.

2. I now have a banner at the bottom of the page besides my Facebook badge for MicroTalks, the Mauritian Lounge.

3. I changed the comment system, older comments are now shown first and the text box is at the bottom.

4. Added a twitter status badge.

5. Commenters now have the option of commenting using their Facebook account using Facebook Connect:

My resolutions for 2009

1. Decide if I really need 23 e-mail accounts ;D

2. Blog more often, even during school days.

3. Get better results at school and try not to get my iPod confiscated everyday by the rector :P

4. Learn HTML and CSS.

5. Tease my friends more and try to be more sarcastic.

6. Not sleep at 4 a.m. everyday.

7. Read more books!!! I read about 2 or 3 books per week, I’ll try to read 4 or 5.

8. Create a website for BVSSS along with Joyshan.

9. Blow up the Microsoft headquarters so that everyone switches to Mac.

My Firefox

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:28:00 +0400

(click image to enlarge)

Someone told me that my firefox looked cool and I decided to write a blog post with the details

Theme:

Chromifox

(click image to enlarge)

I really like the look of Google Chrome but i can’t live without my FF Add-ons, so this theme was perfect for me!

Toolbars:

Bookmarks Toolbar:

I have the regular bookmarks toolbar with the Share on Tumblr and Share on Facebook bookmarklets

Google Toolbar

The Inevitable Add-on for any Google fan. The Autofill fucnction is really great for people who don’t want to install a lot of extensions although I prefer the one in Sxipper.(continue reading for Sxipper)

Tabs:

I have the setting “hide the tab bar” set to “never”

Tab Mix Plus

This one has so many features that it’s better to read it’s descripion on Mozilla Add-ons.

Undo closed tabs button

Tab Scope:

This add-ons show thumbnails of tabs on hover, similar to Vista’s Aero feature.

Address Bar:

(click image to enlarge)

Locationbar²

Fission

This combines the progress bar and the address bar, like Safari.

Flagfox

Displays a flag showing the location of a website’s server.

Home Page:

Fast Dial

(click to enlarge)

Fast Dial is my favorite and most useful FF add-on, each time I open a new tab or a new window, it appears with all the links I need, either thumbnails or logos of the linked site can be shown. I personally prefer logos to thumbnails because they are much cleaner and better to look at, most of the logos in the screenshot are made by me and can be found on UserLogos, where I’m the 6th all-time top contributor. (hopefully 5th in the near future :D) It’s based on the “Speed Dial” feature in the Opera web browser but it’s much cooler.

Note: I’m using the Beta version.

Details on the background and settings in Fast Dial can be found here

Status bar:

(Click to enlarge)

Colorzilla

Extended Statusbar

Shows speed, percentage, time and loaded size similar to Opera.

Gmail Notifier

Google Reader Watcher

Google Redesigned by Globex designs

This add-on applies a custom theme to Google services such as Gmail and Google Calendar (I’m eagerly waiting for the Google Reader Redesigned to come out of beta!)

FoxyTunes

GreaseMonkey

Linkification

Converts text links into clickable links.

Stylish

Sxipper

This add-on fills my forms, remembers my passwords and generates random ones.

WiseStamp

Allows me to create custom HTML signatures for gmail and Hotmail.

Under The Hood:

Adblock Plus with Element Hiding Helper and Filterset.G Updater

Blocks most of the ads on the internet.

Better Gmail 2

Better YouTube

Better GReader

3 Great add-ons by the senior editor of my favorite blog, Lifehacker.

CustomizeGoogle

Enhances Google search results

DownloadHelper

Enables me to download embedded videos on websites.

Google Gears

Prism

Saves websites as separate applications.

Thanks for having the patience to read this long post.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, if that is true,...

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:17:03 +0400

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, if that is true, then this is my longest blog post ever ;)

Larger version @ flickr.

Redisigning the Bell Village SSS Logo

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:19:00 +0400

THIS PAGE MAY TAKE SOME TIME TO LOAD BECAUSE IT’S HEAVY ON GRAPHICS

I had nothing to do today and I decided to redesign the Bell Village SSS(My High School) Logo.

I used Adobe Fireworks for all the work on this page.

Steps I took:

1. Scan the badge

2. Extract The flame icon from the original logo (which I find a little bit boring :P)

3. Add a black border and a slight gradient to the flame colors

4. Place the logo on a big canvas (2000*350)

5. Hide the layer the flame was on and write the letters BELL VILL GE SSS (I intentionally left out the “A” from “Village” as I was planning to use the flame as the letter A). Use the free and well-known “Babylon Industrial” font (My favorite font!!). Download here @ Urban Fonts.

6. Place the flame between “VILL” and “GE”

7. Add the motto of the School “Creativity Empowerment Integration” in a smaller font size at the bottom.