If you read this blog via feed², then please update this blog’s feed address in your software or service as follows: http://ckunte.com/feed/atom

Thank you.

1. FeedBurner—a statistical service by Google, which serves feed to readers of this blog.
2. Via feed reader software FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, or others, or via services such as Google Reader, Bloglines, or others.

This to backup¹ all files from my site to my local machine:

rsync -avz -e ssh remoteuserid@mysite.com:remotepath localpath

And from my local machine to my site:

rsync -avz -e ssh localpath remoteuserid@mysite.com:remotepath

remotepath would be something like this: /home/remoteuserid/public_html, and localpath would be like this: /home/localuserid/backup/public_html.

Damn it’s fast.

1. I don’t do a cron job of a file backup and restore—I get knots in my stomach. Call it personal preference, but I prefer it manual; and this is mostly because of my file-scatter, and the state of my files, which are usually in various levels of edit—at any given point of time.

If you’re using the badge code, be sure to correct the typo in the second script line from text="text/javascript" to type="text/javascript".

1. The feature itself was via a plugin, and I wasn’t sure how it would get integrated in the future.
2. I let a set of categories (or topics) develop first over a period of time.

Seeing my del.ici.ous account grow quickly into a dust of tags in horror reminded me of not having another chaos in the name of classification. Tagging is addictive and tends to grow out of control and very fast in number.

To me, tags compliment and extend a category’s context, not replace it. As an example, every time I wrote about Wordpress, Movabletype or some weblog software, I made a decision to put those posts under the category: software → weblog. A better way to extend those posts, thus categorized, now would be to consider the actual names (like wordpress, movabletype, for example) as tags.

With that in mind, while I am not about to unleash tags en masse on this site just because the feature is now natively in, I might consider for select posts. In addition, whenever tags debut on this website, the plan is to display them only on post pages (or permalink pages). Adding them on main page, to me, is like adding textual noise. A tag cloud, in addition, may appear on archives page in future.

Update: Okay, so they’re now on. Archives section shows how, as well as the individual posts, where tags are used. Template tags the_tags() and wp_tag_cloud() make them all look so easy to implement. However, I am yet to see conditional functions for tagging in Wordpress like is_tag() and single_tag() to better use these new features.

Thrilled obviously because I get to include maps of our excursions². Maps, narration and pictures when presented together give readers an amazing sense of completeness of, say, a travelogue for example.

Worried because embedding or inserting objects come with their own headaches—in terms of site validation. If it is going to be like the Youtube insert code, then I’d rather continue with what I’ve been doing all along—just link to the long URL instead.

So here’s hoping that Google Maps inserts are going to validate by default.

1. Or insert <object>, whichever Google pushes by default.
2. A habit I have picked-up in recent times.

While I have no access to MySQL conf on my host to incorporate all the recommended changes, I could still speed this site up a bit just by setting most of the tables to InnoDB engine (with the exception of wp_posts table, which still needs to be set to MyISAM engine due to lack of FULLTEXT index features in InnoDB). In fact, wp_posts table refuses to be set to InnoDB when you try this—at least on my host:

ALTER TABLE wp_posts ENGINE = INNODB;

(Remember to replace the default wp_ table suffix to whatever you’re using; I don’t use the default by the way.)

Honestly, I would be happy to see MyISAM++ out soon and supported on my host¹, now that InnoDB—as a technology—is exclusively Oracle’s baby.

1. MyISAM++ is prophesied to have InnoDB’s features and more.

I wanted to capture something live on a near static homepage. Twitter best complements my presence, my activity and adds a curious twist to an otherwise dull static page—making people (who care enough) aware that I’m alive and kicking somewhere.

The best part, of course, is the simplicity of Twittering—one liners, no formatting needed and no need to reach for a computer to update something. I can be in another country, on the road, and one SMS, updates my homepage. I think that’s a fantastic idea.

Update [12.Aug.2007]: Reverted back to normal view, for Sneha, my wife, who hated clicking multiple links to get to new posts.

As to why I have cut the intestines and stitched it backwards, let’s just say it’s a personal preference—no plans to offer any plausible explanation. So for better or worse, this is how the grass on my lawn is going to look from now on.

Is this homepage any good or is it just another one of your idiotic ideas?

Well, let me just add that—with the exception of pagination—this homepage hasn’t lost any of its predecessor’s functionality.

Huh? What? Where? How?

If you have noticed carefully, the primary links that lead you further inside are all there. In addition, this homepage retains all its Google juice, its Technorati rank and my Open ID. It is also feed intelligent¹, open search intelligent², and because it’s powered by Wordpress, it allows you to explore just about everything via the address bar³.

So what did change here?

Other than the obvious list of chronological posts missing, this site makes feed its primary access point for updated information. You can, of course, access individual posts via either the archives page or via the updated feed⁴. The comments and pingbacks are open too—if you’re compelled enough to share something—agree, disagree, a different point of view and pingback—here, nothing on this site prevents you from doing so.

In short, this site is as much transparent to a geek (and a search engine spider⁵) as opaque it is to a casual surfer. I’d like to think I’ve captured that idea well here.

1. All modern browsers and feed readers can auto-discover XML feeds on this site. For more variety, look up colophon page.
2. Firefox can auto-discover ckunte.com’s search. Load the homepage in Firefox and then pull down the search menu—next to the address bar. You’ll notice that there’s an Add “ckunte.com”. Add and begin searching this site. Yes, that simple.
3. Look up the archives page for more details.
4. There’s also a master feed combining everything, if you’re interested.
5. Because over 70% of access to this site is via search.

Much like auto-discovering feeds², an Opensearch-standard compliant browser now auto-discovers the availability of search on this site.

Try loading this site in a supported³ browser. You’ll either notice a subtle search icon highlighted in the default browser theme—suggesting that there’s something you can add to your list of search plugins or more visibly via a “+” sign, if you use a theme like Winstripe. Pull the search menu down and you’ll notice this: Add “ckunte.com”.

Enabling this on any site is easy. You’ll need to add the following⁴ in your site’s header part of XHTML code. I’m using my (this) site’s code for example:

<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/ckuntecom.xml" title="ckunte.com" />

(I had previously explained the construction of Opensearch XML file—ckuntecom.xml, which enables search auto-discovery.)

As a user, for sites that do not offer this feature, you can always use OpensearchFox. But if you’re a site owner, it is probably a good idea to provide this option to your regular readers and referrers.

1. I am beginning to test Sneha’s patience now.
2. Via the orange feed icon on the right end of the address or location bar.
3. Available in Opensearch supported browsers—Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.
4. Change file location, file name and title as applicable.