Multi user blogs
Off late, I was thinking of providing a platform to all the parent visitors of KidsandBibs website, and was toying with the idea of either writing the code from scratch or modify some existing open source application available. And while checking out a few references for one of of the projects, I saw a link where in someone had asked a similar question and that is how I came to know about multi user based wordpress which they call as wordpress-mu and I must say, I was quiet happy. I went ahead and installed the same here on my site at http://momblogs.kidsandbibs.in and I love to call it Mommy Blogs and this will be a good platform to all the mommies to blog about their babies.
Maintaining websites and blogging have become so easy these days and wordpress is really getting very very popular. Most of the small business owners are now looking for changing their websites into wordpress sites where in they can control the site content. Add/Edit pages and maintain the blog easily as we all know, blogs are a great way to reach out to target audience and it is a great marketing tool and on top of that these blogs are so good with very search engine friendly nature. With contents changing so frequently, the RSS feeds keep growing and all is happy.
I am planning to build a few mommy and baby based wordpress themes, but have been too occupied. So till that time, the mommy bloggers on my multi -user blog can enjoy using the free themes and the great themes, I have selected for them. BTW I personally like to customize themes and playing around with the look of the site till I feel that it is looking neat, clean and crisp.
Blogging made easy
Recently while working on a project, I got a chance to preview the blogging software called Semiologic. It seems this blogging tool, which can be integrated with wordpress is very popular with bloggers who have very little technical knowledge as it gives a platform to easily customize, play around with layouts, skins, with lots of plugins ( which are freely available though).
So if you don’t have any HTML,CSS or PHP knowledge then also with just a click of a button, you can play around with the font, styles, themese, widgets, colors, ads and what nots. The site says that it is a marketing tool with the blogs using this tool having a perfectly optimized ie fully SEOed(Search Engine Optmized) site. I really wonder, if by just having this type of tool and with some widgets for the SEO purpose, will the blogs really rank high in the search engines.
So for people, who really want to have an easy to use interface( though I believe wordpress is very easy to use), and all available plugins in one place, try checking out Semiologic tool. Or else, spend a lot of time finding out the best plugins.
These days, I am also busy finding out new usable plugins. BTW I came across(did not actually look for it earlier) the difference between the_excerpt() and the_post(). So for those bloggers, who want to just place a sneak preview of their post on the homepage, followed by.. click to read more.. can use the_excerpt() instead of the_post().
That’s all for now. Will post again as and when I get time.
Diwali Celebration in India
Diwali is the biggest festival in India with all comunities celebrating this festival. The main attraction of Diwali is new clothes, sweets, celebration and FIRE CRACKERS, rangoli and diyas.
Some people just go crazy about the crackers. I am myself not into too much of bursting crackers as I don’t like the pollution it emits. But I do love to watch the fireworks.Check out the rangoli we made, me and my son Urjit, who helped me with the flower decoration in the rangoli and enjoy the video I captured.
PHP vs. ASP.NET
These days, I am too busy in my work and I am not getting time to update my blog. One of the tasks involved is making proposals for prospective clients and you really need to do a lot of R&D before actually putting up your proposal. Recently we got some requests for proposals from a few clients and the main question in thosee proposals was which technology to recommend? Either it should be open source PHP/mySQL or ASP.NET/SQL Server. We take up projects in both.
PHP – Hypertext Pre-processor
PHP is an open source server-side scripting language that is very similar in syntax to C languages. Although originally designed to run under Linux using the Apache Web server, it has been ported to work using virtually every operating system and any standards-compliant Web server software.
In addition to these benefits, there are certain programming requirements that may make PHP an appealing choice for developers. Firstly, there are built-in libraries for the direct creation and manipulation of image and PDF documents. This means, for example, that if an application calls for dynamically-created menu images with anti-aliased text, or the exporting of pages to Acrobat format, PHP may be the ideal technology to do it.
Another situation that may make PHP the best choice of server scripting is where connecting to either mySQL or Postgres databases is required.
ASP.NET
The reason why ASP.NET is in another league compared to ASP and PHP, is that it operates on an entirely different architectural structure. The latter are interpreted scripting languages whereas .NET is a compiled framework. This means, firstly, that Web pages run much, much faster. It also means that source code is safer and more robust.
Additionally, ASP.NET introduces a new concept in Web programming – the notion of code-behind pages. With code-behind, each page of HTML is driven by its own compiled programmatical directives. Other benefits of ASP.NET are its full-featured integrated support for XML and Web services. There is also a very comprehensive range of security and cryptography libraries available to .NET, making it especially useful for ecommerce and enterprise data applications.
ASP.NET and SQL Server is better for large websites, websites storing sensitive information, corporate websites and many similar web applications. Why? Because ASP.NET is faster than any other web programming language, it’s easier to maintain the code when it comes to large websites, thanks to code-behind
PHP vs. ASP.NET
Coding time in ASP.net is faster because of the Development environment provided by Microsoft. You can get things done a lot quicker with ASP.NET because of its development enviroments (VS/VWD) and it’s server controls and easy databinding.ASP.NET pages are MUCH easier to secure than PHP-based applications. From the default login controls and methods in ASP.NET 2.0, real prepared SQL statements that prevent injection attacks, automatic cross-site scripting form input rejection.
Though the development time,in most projects they really are about even, but the smaller projects tend to lean towards PHP, while the large projects are much faster in ASP.NET.
And with all that said… For sites that are meant to be either secure, highly trafficed, large in scope, or deal with enterprise level data, PHP is not recommended. But for a home page, a small website, and a forum, sure PHP is best.
ASP.NET is Strongly Typed, Object Oriented, Sandboxed, Multi-Syntax, Component Centric, Event Driven, forms oriented, pre-compiled.
PHP is a loosely typed, objects optional, fixed syntax, component-less, runtime interpreted, structured programming model.
What I like best about PHP, is the large pool of free open source softwares available in the market, just like this wordpress blog software I am using for all my blogs.
But at the end, it all comes to your exact project requirement and client requirements and what are their plans in future. Keeping all these in mind, one should decide the technology to be used.
I am expecting some comments on this hot topic 
Blogs,Bloggers and Blogging
Name one person who doesn’t like to share his or her point of view. The point of the above exercise is to show the simple fact that everyone likes to talk about themselves, and what they are up to, even if they say that they do not like doing so. There is something about being human that makes us,self involved to the point where we truly feel as if others want, or need to know what is going on with us. Blogs offer one a unique way to express his or her feelings on any number of issues, with a shield that only the internet can provide.The most common use of a blog is that of a journal, or an opinionated piece of writing involving some aspect of the blogger’s day to day life. While some blogs are totally commercially driven, they are often masked as personal musing in order to entice visitors. This is something that just can’t be avoided, people love checking out other peoples blogs to see what’s going on.
The internet can be a cold and bare place for people to be at times, and the blog helps create a sense of community with its powerful reach, and ease of use. Many people want to share, or keep up with others, but simply don’t have time. Email has gotten to the point that people are overwhelmed just to deal with their regular inbox each day, nonetheless an email from an old friend and thus checking someone’s blog is common nowadays. In fact, there are millions of blogs out there, and most of them are intended to be read by family and friends.
Blogging is popular because it relates to community, family, and friends, and therefore it is in direct relation with what matters most in life. Blogs can be a powerful tool to communicate to others, as well as to market with, as they are so friendly to search engines in terms of keywords, and ranking. Just making a few blog posts can literally get you noticed immediately, and is something that truly can help you become a big player in the internet business game.
Some Interesting Blogging Statistics -
Statistics Source: blogworld
So, what are you waiting for? Start a blog and start blogging
www.kidsandbibs.in launched!
Finally, the much awaited site just for Indian babies is launched. Yes, I was getting so many emails from our indian visitors, who were keen to have a baby photo contest and parenting related site just for the Indian babies and Indian parents. The main issue was also the sponsors not willing to ship outside say US or UK and the shipping cost to india becomes quite expensive. So now, I am looking for some indian sponsors who can sponsor the contest and donate prizes to our lovely winners. Since Diwali is around the corner and it is festive season throughout India, our theme for the free contest is DIWALI THEME. So all you indian parents, take out your cameras, capture those lovely shots and send it to us. I am sure you will love to hsare those lovely shots with us and you will surely enjoy to look at other cuties. I will be doing the site on a page by page basis, as I go along, with feedback from parents and also as per the time I get, but I am sure, it’s going to be fun and exciting!!
With the internet penetrating to most part of the country, we are seeing lots of young parents who are very active on the internet, blogging, reading, sharing and gaining knowledge. So I hope to build a good website just for the Indian parents and I am sure it will be a success, just the way my other site is.
So what are you waiting for, spread the word around. Tell your friends to visit the site at http://www.kidsandbibs.in
. One of the experts says...