Posts Tagged Blogging

Blog Lifting

LiftingRather than a lifting, I had to do a plastic surgery operation to the blog!

It’s a metaphor to say that I had to work a lot to fix it: I rebuilt the whole database since I couldn’t access to the WordPress control panel any more, I suspect due to a non up-to-date installation or a buggy plugin.

So I checked and fixed all the 219 posts I wrote until now, both in italian and english, fixing broken links in the process.

Reading all the posts recalled me why I’m blogging: to collect memories and experiences I lived in first person and share them, hoping they can be useful to others.

Among the “dearest” posts, for example, there’s the one I wrote for the loss of my cat Willy.

Or the one with the videos of my first interview on TV… ehi, how long ago? I looked like a boy! šŸ˜‰

Or event the one I wrote when I came back from the Vespatour… well, each post has a meaning, a little story to tell.

We’re living in times where looks are everything, even too much, so I tried to choose a simple but attractive theme, customizing Fusion by digitalnature.

Useful are the two accessibility functions on the top right of the page: clicking on Aa you can chance to font size, while <> changes the page width.

I couldn’t do without a plugin to manage sharing options on main social networks, and I choose the one made by LinksKu.

I hope you appreciate the new look, but that contents are the motivation for you to come back.

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What the Hell is This?

Albegor's Blog

If you got here on the blog for the first time thanks to the flier I gave out during these days it means it worked! šŸ’”

It made curious whoever noticed it to get him on the Internet and have a look at what it was really about.

The graphics of the flier is the result of the suggestions by some friends and it ties up the three elements composing my logo with the arguments of the blog: a stylized hand inspired by the painting of the Creation by Michelangelo visible on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel represents my passion for creativity in all its forms, the arrow has the shape of the Lake of Como since I like writing about arguments related to my town, and the disc has a series of abbreviations the informatics technology is full of and which often make the usersā€™ life a mess instead of simplifying it. For this reason the names of the Donald Duckā€™s nephews, Qui, Quo and Qua, put some irony about the technology paradox. šŸ˜‰

Finally I can leave the obsolete structure of the old blog and start using the new one thanks to the WordPress platform, powerful and flexible at the same time.

Thanks to the Gengo plug-in for example, I can write posts both in italian and english and the the user automatically view them according to his browserā€™s language setting. You can read the posts in the other language by clicking on the link on the right panel listing the most recent posts.

Not to mention the organization of the numerous post in categories, six for now: Como, Euro coins, Mobile, Net-Taylor, Personal, Software and Vespatour 2006, or even the possibility to browse the whole archive containing 240 posts, month by month, up to the first one I wrote on july 16, 2003, or searching for a specific word inside the whole blog.

Last but not least is the chance to leave comments. Finally you can keep in check my bad tongue whenever I really go over the line! šŸ˜³

Or simply you can have your say about an argument of interest to you. Discussion is the salt of communication, even if weā€™re all a bit stunned by too much TV, mobile phones or even the Internet itself. šŸ˜‰

Thereā€™s still some work to be done to complete the graphics of the theme and new pages to add, but itā€™s a bit like moving into a new home after all: a thing at a time itā€™s even funnier.

Thanks for your visit! I hope youā€™ll get back because you like the blog contents and not only the container, WordPress, which is really useful and makes the blog user friendly.

To do that you could keep in mind the address – but itā€™s proven, it doesnā€™t work well -, or you can subscribe to the updates notification service. You can also use the RSS feed and Iā€™ll wrote more about this soon.

Iā€™ve already got about ten sparkling post drafts to publish in the next daysā€¦ Brrrā€¦letā€™s shudder together!*

*A quote from Marina Massironi, an italian comedian. šŸ˜›

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To Blog or Not To Blog

Bloggingā€œWhy do you do it?ā€ asked me a friend some time ago while talking about the blog.

It impressed me because he said that with a tone and with blown eyes meaning something more similar to ā€œWhy the hell are you wasting your time by writing a blog?ā€œ.

It surprised me also because he’s getting a degree in robotics so heā€™s pretty at ease with informatics tools. šŸ˜‰

He asked me that question maybe because he didnā€™t understand why someone should feel the need to tell something about himself to whoever happens to read the blog, or maybe it didnā€™t appear justified to him since no one pays me for the time I spend updating the blog.

I asked the same question to myself and I think the answer is two sided: on one side itā€™s something useful for me to fix memories in time and to make a point on the progress of my projects, on the other side thereā€™s a natural need to communicate, or simply to entertain anyone stopping here to read these lines.

Gratification then comes when someone tells me he read the blog and appreciated its contents. In that moment a smile from a friend o from someone I just met goes way beyond any pecuniary remuneration. šŸ™‚

Recently I studied the best software platform to transfer the blog to and I chose WordPress after reading the book Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress. I installed WordPress on my web space and I began populating the database with content starting from the first post I wrote on July 16, 2003 when I launched Ecpc.

After more than 220 posts hereā€™s the preview of the result: blog.albegor.com

It will take some more time to complete the migration and to customize the graphics, but I already got positive comments on it and it seems the graphics theme I chose is appreciated.

It has been really strange reading all the old posts while I was copying them. I noticed a different way to write and to propose myself towards readers along the time. I was like a sort of confirmation of a personal growth.

Something I think to be more than a good motivation to have a blog. šŸ™‚

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The funny De-Lurking Day

DeLurking DayThis is so amusing I couldnā€™t agree more, since itā€™s about a matter Iā€™m involved in myself: Lurking. šŸ˜‰

I spotted it on manteblog, the blog of Massimo Mantellini, but the original idea comes from paper napkin.

Statistics tell the true, but are they just numbers? Oh, no, there are real people behind those ā€œunique contactsā€ which make up for those graphs, donā€™t they?

So they proposed the De-Lurking Day by inviting readers to leave a trace of their usually silent presence writing a comment on the authorā€™s blog.

There isn’t the chance to comment on my blog, at least until the new website will be up and running (hint! hint!), but if youā€™re in the mood why donā€™t you send me a ā€œHello, Iā€™m the lurker which made your #### unique contact of the day!ā€? šŸ™‚

Ehm, no I won’t start donating 1 Euro to aid the Tsunami victims for each e-mail Iā€™ll receive. Sheryl of paper napkin did that and had to close the comments due to their unexpected high number!

Do you know italians donated a total of 28 millions through the 1 Euro per SMS campaign for the South East Asia tragedy?

The whole total will go for the donation campaign, but mobile operators will be happy when weā€™ll understand our credit needs recharging sooner than expected. Even I fell into the ā€œtrapā€ā€¦ and Iā€™ve already recharged the credit, doh!

There are better ways to donate out there by using your credit card or other payment methods.

Seneca once said ā€œWho spends his life traveling very often will have many guests, but no friendsā€. Change traveling into browsing and guests into reading blogs and weā€™re talking about the same thing: Lurking. 8)

Iā€™m a lurker myself because I love silence and I work better in silence. Today youā€™ve got the chance to not be the usual lurker if youā€™ll e-mail me. Donā€™t take the bad example of some friends who can click on anything, but can’t write a few characters in a simple e-mailā€¦

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