El Koshary Today: Satirical News Website Built with Drupal

After months of hard work and creative time-wasting techniques, Egypt’s first online satirical news source is finally here. El Koshary Today is a website built with Drupal CMS that brings the latest fictitious stories from Egypt and around the globe.

El Koshary Today logo

It is built to be light-weight, simple yet sleek. The most important aspect of the website is the content itself, therefore, any unneeded elements would inevitably backfire as the audience are searching for a pleasant experience as they browse the dynamic content from the different subject areas.

Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy

Inspired by Koshary, the main traditional dish that gains its popularity from it’s economical value, yet strong and engaging taste, the writers aim at springing off what is typically Egyptian and reaching out to the world. It is an approach to analyze and constructively criticize the difference aspects of the culture that gave birth to the revolutionary Koshary. You can read more at the Koshary Philosophy page.

EKT is built on the 960 Grid System framework that significantly facilitates the creation of a base/skeleton for your website. Using the traditional 12-column grid, the homepage is divided into three columns to display a lot of content, without sacrificing the simplicity of the layout and the usability aspect. The inner pages however, are two columns only (widening the right sidebar after removing the left one) to give more prominence to the main column with the article text, and to use the right sidebar to bring the the most read or any other promoted material.

Drupal was the ideal content management system for this particular project. On the one hand, using powerful modules such as Views (with the revolutionary Semantic Views) gives you complete control of where and how the content appears. One problem might be the lack of control as far as the unnecessary markup that is inevitably added to the code. Semantic Views significantly reduces the excessive code that gets in the way, and makes a substantial improvement to the arguably inefficient approach to templating in Drupal.

Drupal: Amazing CMS

Aside from the markup issue, and the naturally aggressive image caching that could be frustrating at times, getting Drupal to do exactly as required was a breeze. One of the most impressive features is the ability to specifically customize with the different users with different roles can see and do. As a result, the editors and contributors never come across any options they will not be using, and adding/maintaining the content is a fast and easy process, with no technical knowledge required. The ability to make revisions and leave comments associated with each revision, with the option of reverting to older version, is yet another fascinating functionality as part of the open source CMS.

El Koshary Today's interface

The result is a humorous website with fresh content displayed via an elegant interface using an efficient back-end built on an organized, cross-browser compatible framework. El Koshary Today is Egypt’s first satirical online news source, and it yet another example of the endless possibilities for the members of the web, thanks by large to the open-source technologies, and of course, the beautiful internet.

You can visit http://elkoshary.com, become a fan via the Facebook page, or follow on Twitter @elkoshary

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How To Create Your Own Blog: A Guide to Installing and Configuring WordPress

Many are unaware of just how easy it is to start your own blog using the best open source tool for blogging out there: WordPress. This is a tutorial that will get you up and running in no time. It will cover everything from purchasing your domain name and hosting account, to downloading, installing and configuring WordPress on your website. After all, your space on the World Wide Web is your birth right, and giving it up because you overestimate the process involved is a pity indeed.

So let’s jump right into this

Step 1: Domain & Hosting

Makre sure your host supports PHP and MySQL

Before you can run a website or blog, you need a unique address (domain) pointing to a space that you’ve reserved on a remote server somewhere on the planet (hosting). You can view my guide on hosting to fully understand the different categories, and thus, which one is best for you. Generally speaking, if this is your first time, a standard shared web hosting account, that usually offers a free domain on top, gets the job done.

For example, if you choose to go with Blue Host, then simply visit the website, and sign up for an account that will cost you $7 for every month, and you’ll probably pay for two years in advance. Any standard plan from any provider will do, granted it supports PHP and MySQL databases (some providers don’t offer databases with their basic packages, but that’s a bit of a rarity nowadays).

Step 2: Create the Database

Now that you own an account, log on to the administration control panel, which is provided to you by the hosting company you’ve chosen to go with, to create a database:

Find the link to add databases (could also use PHPMyAdmin)

1. Go to your control panel and login
2. Find the databases link, click “add new database”
3. Give it a name, for example: WordPressBlog
4. Add a user that will be accessing the database (by creating a username and password)
5. Take note of the address of the database (in most cases, it’s “localhost”, but sometimes it’s different. In which case you’ll see it displayed along with the database name somewhere)

Now that you’ve created the database, as well as the credentials for accessing it, you’re ready to install WordPress.

Step 3: Download WordPress, Then Upload It

This is a straight forward process:

1. Go to http://www.wordpress.org/
2. Download the zipped file
3. Unarchive (extract) it on your computer, you should be left with a folder called “wordpress”
4. Open your FTP client. FileZilla is one of the best – free, open source and efficient
5. Enter the FTP information for your website (given to you by your provider, usually found in the control panel)
6. Upload the contents of the “wordpress” folder to the root directory of your website (you can upload the entire folder, in which case the installation would be at: www.yourwebsite.com/wordpress)

Now that WordPress has been uploaded to your server, and your database is created, you are now ready to go through the famous five-minute installation.

Step 4: WordPress Installation

Everything is significantly easier with WordPress, and the installation process is no different.

You'll be prompted to create a configuration file

1. Direct your browser to where the WordPress files had been uploaded (if in the root directory, then just go to www.yourwebsite.com)
2. You will be prompted to create a configuration file, this is where you store basic information such as the database credentials. Click on the button
3. Click on “Let’s go” to enter the information
4. Enter the database information. You should have all of the details from when you created the database earlier. You can also change the prefix of the tables created in the database, but “wp_” will do just fine
   
   

   Enter the database information

5. If the database credentials were correct, WordPress will give you confirmation that the tables have been created and the initial data has been added. In some cases, the configuration file is not writable, in which case you will have to manually edit the file to add the database information. You can follow the steps on the WordPress Codex installation guide
6. Enter the title and email that you would want to use
7. When all goes well, you will be given a temporary generated password that you will use to enter the administration control panel for the first time. Click on login and enter the credentials that you were just handed
   
   

   Temporary account details. Change password after logging in

Now’s the time to access the control panel and get ready to start blogging!

Step 5: Configure WordPress

The first time you enter the admin panel, you should change your password to something you can remember (you’ll be reminded to do so anyway). It’s also good practice to add another user to replace “admin” so that your alias appears with the posts. If you want to create another administrator account, click on “Users” from the menu on the left, then add, then enter the information. Don’t forget to make the user “Administrator”. Now that the user’s created, log out, and login with the new username and password. Feel free to delete the original “admin” user, now that the blog has a new administrator.

As any beautiful open source tool, there are tons of options that you could go for right after a fresh installation. Having said that, the following are the personal recommended additions/configurations after you’ve logged in for the first time:

• Enable Permalinks: This is by far one of the biggest advantages of WordPress; the simplicity of the process of controlling the URLs generated. If you’re a frequent blogger, choose year/month/day/title. Otherwise, year/month/title should do fine
  
  

  Enable Permalinks: easy and powerful

• Enable Akismet Plugin: I’ve talked about this plugin in my post Essential WordPress Plugins where I’ve listed and discussed every single plugin used for this website. Akismet is revolutionary in how it automatically detects spam comments and places them in a separate queue that you’ll probably never need to check – it’s never mistaken
• Browse/Install More Plugins: You can check the list of the plugins I use, or you can simply browse the most popular plugins from the “Plugins” menu item on the left. You won’t lose anything in trying out plugins and disabling them if you’re not satisfied. Almost any website/blog could use popular plugins such as “All in One SEO Pack”, “Contact Form 7″, “Social Bookmarking RELOADED” and “WP Piwik” (here’s why you should be using Piwik instead of Google Analytics)
• Change Theme: As attractive as the default theme may seem at first look, it’s a good idea to go for a different theme. The new version of WordPress allows you to browse the different themes available as if installing plugins – very convenient. You will find the link to install themes under the “Appearance” tab. Otherwise, there are numerous websites dedicated to free WordPress themes that you can install, upload via Filezilla, and activate with the theme menu item

Now you’re golden. You’ve set everything up, and now you’re ready to start sharing your thoughts and ideas with the entire world.

Step 6: Start Blogging!

You can start by making a test post, just to get acquainted with the interface and features. After that, you may want to go through the following content-related options:

• Add a couple of pages where you will be displaying information that doesn’t change much (for example, “About Me”,  “Contact”, or “WordPress Guides”)
• Decide whether or not you’re going to be using categories (best used for posts that are displayed on different parts of the website. Otherwise, stick to tags only). Create your categories from the “Posts” menu item
• Make links’ lists such as “Blogroll” or “Shout out to my people” where you can share various links with the visitors. The “Links” menu item is found on the left and is also very easy to use

That’s it, you’re done! As you can see, the entire process takes 20 minutes or so, and there are substantial amounts of resources for help and support flooding the net if you need them. Generally speaking, it is a straight-forward process and there’s very small room for issues and problems.

You’re Voice on the Web – Your Right

The most important aspect of yet another revolutionary product from the open source community is that it simply acts as a channel that facilities the communication and information exchange between people across space and time regardless of race or origin. It is very important to take advantage of your right as a member of the community of the World Wide Web, the current generations are the first in history to be granted such a privilege. Underestimating its power, or overestimating the technical skills required, is a shame. So get yourself a blog and write about whatever it is you want to blabber about, you have absolute freedom. Beautiful.

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LogMeIn: Remotely Control Your PCs

When working with different computers, it’s hard to guarantee you have everything you need with you at all times. You could follow this guide on centralizing all of your documents so that you can access them remotely at any time. However, in many cases, you are still left stranded attempting to get a hold of files on your home computer. The benefits of reaching your computer when far away are numerous, therefore, it is important to setup that channel, even if you don’t see the need for that at this point in time – you’ll be thankful in the future.

LogMeIn is the easiest solution

Accessing your computer remotely is not as complicated as many would think. There are programs, both free and commercial, that could that for you, each with their pros and cons. LogMeIn is a little different. It’s a website that allows you to create a free account and add computer associated with your account. They could be running Windows, Mac or Linux, which makes it an ideal solution for those juggling OSs across different computers.

LogMeIn tool on Mac

The process is straight forward: sign up for an account, add the computer you are using, download and install a plugin, and repeat the process with every computer that you will be adding to the list. On Mac, for example, the LogMeIn tool automatically runs on startup, meaning you only need to make sure that your Mac is turned on, so that it is reachable.

Computers' list

To access one of your computer, go to the website, login, and you will find a list of the computers associated with your account, with links to “remote control” those that are switched on. Clicking on that link opens a screen that streams the desktop you are controlling. The performance and accuracy will always depend on both, your current internet connection, and that of the computer you are controlling. Many ADSL subscribers will regret the low uploading capacity in their connections, but there’s always the option to reduce the number of colors transported, significantly enhancing performance.

The best part of it all is that it’s free. If you are to regularly rely on LogMeIn, you might find that the free version is a bit limiting, for that the makers offer you a wealth of options. The most common of which is LogMeIn Pro, that allows you stream music from the remote computer, drag and drop files between the two, and more. For now, the free version will do just fine.

There's always LogMeIn Pro

Even if you don’t deem it necessary to make your computers reachable and connected at all times, you never know what’s coming. You might find yourself across the Atlantic craving for files on your home computer, in which case, all you need is LogMeIn, and of course, the beautiful internet.

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What You Need To Know About Hosting

Web hosting is something every individual comes across at one point in time. Whether you are creating your online presence (as you should), or coordinating a website or blog for someone, you should have a clear idea of the various types of web hosting available, and the differences between them. This is a brief guide to the different kinds that will help you decide on which one is the most suitable for you.

Everyone's connected to servers

The internet essentially connects millions of servers worldwide allowing sending and retrieving data between them. If you want to create a website for yourself or your organization, you’ll need a space on one of those servers that is made publicly available. Thus, when someone visits www.yourwebsite.com, he or she is directed to the public folder on that particular server, and views the web pages created via the browser. You need a server with the basic components found in any computer. More importantly, you need to have constant power supplied to it without interruption (otherwise your website wouldn’t be accessible), and constant high-speed internet access. It is also crucial that there is an advanced cooling system, or else your server will die off after running non-stop for months on end. Purchasing your own server and hosting it at your home or office is ideal for testing and learning purposes. However, for a production site, you are bound to offloading that responsibility to those who are professionals and will take the burden for a monthly fee.

Shared Web Hosting

This is by far the most common of the lot. Any company with a bit of cash to spare purchases a handful of servers and places them in a data center. After that, they attract thousands of subscribers by mind-blowing prices as low as $4 a month. Shared hosting providers are very aware that 95% of their subscribers will only receive visits from their mammys and best friends the first few days, and then close to nothing till Christmas the following year. This is where the risk factor comes in.

A standard server that is designed to carry five or so medium-sized websites and online applications, is used for about a hundred. The majority are pleased with the server because they never notice when it’s down or under-performing. The exact number of clients on a given server is never revealed publicly, but suffice to say that if you are expecting high daily traffic, you’ll inevitably suffer from the dubiously legal under performance.

Servers on rack

Shared web hosting is the traditional entrance to cyber space. If this is your first time to deal with hosting, and if your website is more of a “microsite”, you can explore the various providers and make your choice. The following are the characteristics that are common between the majority of shared web hosting providers:

• Cheap: Less than $12 monthly
• Limited space: Even if they claim that you have unlimited space, you’d be extremely lucky to get away with 10GB (more than the average person would need, but significantly less than what the providers promise)
• Poor performance: Uploading and downloading video files is a no-no. But you won’ face problems exchanging documents and basic media files
• 90% uptime: Almost every single provider will promise you 99% uptime (meaning that your website will be unreachable only 1% of the time), but if you are to read the fine print, you’ll find many-a-loopholes that gives them the legal backing to leave you stranded substantially more
• Control panel: A simple administration panel that makes it easy to create email accounts, add databases, etc. You never need to worry about the actual server

Decent options include Blue Host, Dream Host and Yahoo!. There are many candidates to try out, but whatever you do, do not go with IXWebHosting. Also, stay away from lists of the best shared hosting providers -- the majority charge fees to give providers high rankings.

Dedicated Web Hosting

For large websites that attract thousands of visitors and are mainly for profit, a dedicated server is the wise choice. If slow performance or downtime means your company or organization will lose money, then shared hosting just doesn’t cut it. Dedicated server means that there is an actual server that only you are using. It’s kept in the provider’s data center, meaning you’re covered as far as cooling, power, and high-speed internet connection is concerned.The price depends on the hardware specs of the server that you are purchasing, but don’t expect to pay less than $300 dollars a month. While that might seem excessive, e-commerce websites wouldn’t mind shelling out a relatively small fee to ensure their clients’ experience is uninterrupted and perhaps encourages investment.

With dedicated hosting, you are given the choice of managed or unmanaged plans. Managed means the provider handles everything technical related to the server, including updates and maintenance, leaving you to focus on the website itself. Unmanaged means that besides the basic needs for the server to survive, you’re on your own. You’d need to install the technologies you will be using, and spend time updating and maintaing the operating system and web server running.

Commonly found in dedicated server hosting:

• Price: Expensive, but it’s all relative. Large businesses would pay anything for quality service
• Performance: Normally, you’d purchase a computer with a strong CPU, plenty of memory RAM, and a couple of spacious hard disks. It’s a powerful computer, all for you to use
• Control: whether it is managed or unmanaged, no one tells you what to do. You have complete freedom and control of your server

There are many candidates for dedicated web hosting, and generally speaking, they are far more credible than shared web hosting providers simply because it costs more, and they are dealing with demanding professionals.

Cloud Hosting

This is relatively new, especially because cloud technology has only picked up in the last three years or so. It is based on the idea that the resources are shared, and whenever a website requires more, it is automatically granted its needs. This results in accounts automatically expending and spreading across a number of servers to maintain the same level of performance, and to ensure that it stays online (as oppose to going down). On the other hand, resources are not given to those who aren’t using them, meaning nothing’s gone to waste.

The following video does a very good job in illustrating how cloud computers work:

It’s more like a genius piece of art! Beautiful and informative.

With the economic crises on the rise, many companies and organizations are keen on saving money on hosting, without sacrifising performance and quality. At about $100 monthly, you’re guaranteed to have a website that is not short of its needs, and is constantly expanding to accomodate for the increasing number of visitors. As a small to medium company, this solution is probably your best bet.

Here’s what’s on the table from the cloud hosting providers:

• Price: mid-range. Usually starts at around $100 and only increases if your consuming more bandwidth and space
• Performance: It’s no dedicated server, but it’s close enough. It always depends on the provider, but you shouldn’t be facing any issues
• Control: Depending on your package, you might be granted access to run your “virtual” account just as if you were to control a dedicated server. In many cases, you access an advanced control panel providing you with many features

Cloud hosting is becoming more and more popular. And the big guns to pay attention to are Rack Space Cloud and Amazon Web Services. The former of which is used for this website, along with a couple of dozen more. Personally, Rack Space had given me lots of problems, and I was on the verge of moving away. But they have apologized and have recently significantly improved their service. It turns out that their client-base was growing much faster than they had expected, and their infrastructure couldn’t handle it. They have seemed to have expanded appropriatly to maintain their level of service.

Other Types

There are a couple of other options that you are unlikely to come across, but should be aware of nevertheless:

• Collocation Hosting: This is when you buy your own server (you can even assemble one just like you would with a desktop computer) but store it in a data center where it is being monitored, but not controlled
• Free Hosting: Remember the Geocities days? Those might be over, but there are more and more Web 2.0 applications that grant users a subdmain using their service
• Home Hosting: As mentioned earlier, you can buy a computer, place it in a cool room with and AC and fans for cooling, and rely on the electricity coming into the house, and the ADSL used at home

In conclusion, no two types are the same. Depending on how important the content of your website is, and how much traffic you attract, there is a kind of web hosting that is appropriate for your needs. Within a particular type, there are various providers to choose from, something that you should not take lightly. Nothing’s as tedious and frsutrating as having problems with your web host and having to migrate to someone else. Therefore, take the time to examine the different options and reviews written by fellow users before investing.

You can learn more from the Wikipedia page on web hosting, as well as the information summerized in the W3Schools website.

Remember, your space on the world wide web is your right as a member of the internet community -- passing up on your opporrunity is sacrificing a priviledge that no generation in history was granted.

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Avoid Waiting on Downloads: SkipScreen

I had previously discussed the 7 must-have Firefox add-ons for web developers and designers. I had also spoken about AdBlock Plus, which is, at times, the most downloaded Firefox extension out there. Now I think it is important to bring up an add-on that revolutionizes the way many people exchange files via bulk storage and sharing websites such as RapidShare and Megaupload.

SkipScreen is a seemless addition to the world’s best browser that automatically skips tedious and frustrating intermediate pages preventing you from reaching the file you are trying to download. Whenever someone wants to share a large file (regardless of its nature) and chooses to do so via a file-sharing online service, he or she saves the hassle of having to own web space accessed via an FTP client, and it’s free. The problem, however, is that the recipient has to pass by at least three or four ad-flooded pages before reaching the point of having to wait for a timer to finish because he or she has done the blasphemous move of refusing to sign up for a “premier” account.

Not anymore. Not with SkipScreen:

Click on the link and start the download immediately. No more torture.

Regardless of how often you come across files hosted on any of the numerous supported websites, this add-on is golden like the oldies. Install it directly from the Firefox Extensions page, and forget that it even exists, just like it’ll make you forget about painful intrusions ruining the otherwise beautiful and seamless web experience.

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Centralize Your Files on a Remote Server

As a freelancer of any sort, you’re always on the move. In most cases, you travel distances as part of your work, and have to maintain a certain level of productivity at all times. Web designers and graphic designers alike can only last so long with a laptop, mainly due to the the small screen sizes, but also because of the limited capabilities of laptops in comparison to assembled desktops. This normally results in an investment in a powerful yet affordable desktop at the central location (be it the office, home, or anywhere else), accompanied by a notebook that allows for work continuation on the road.

That particular scenario raises a number of inconveniences. First and foremost, when you initiate a given project on one computer, you have to physically transfer everything via a USB flash memory or an external hard drive of some sort. When you’re back to your original PC, you’re left pondering which files have changed and thus require being transfered back, and which haven’t, and therefore would be a waste of time moving them back to overwrite the originals. Secondly, when your work is scattered between a couple of different computers, unless you can physically access either one of them, you are left stranded with your documents out of reach. Finally, when multi-tasking with a handful of projects, you’ll inevitably become completely disorganized, significantly reducing your efficiency and productivity.

Centralization of documents

Anyone in the vast IT industry probably has his or her website on a shared server. If you don’t, then you should. Besides the fact that you can get your own web space for as low as $6 a month, it has become crucial that you have a presence on the web, regardless of your field. Remember that the web means power to the people, and investing a small monthly fee is a small price to pay for the amount of freedom that you are granted in return. After you’ve established your own website, it is now time to take advantage of your space on the World Wide Web.

Store your files remotely

If all of the important documents that were placed on your main computer were accessible from anywhere and at anytime, then life would’ve been much easier. Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to buy a dedicated IP from your ISP and leave your computer connected 24/7 with constant electricity, Internet and cooling, then that’s not an option. This is where the remote server comes in.

By placing all of your documents with your hosting provider, you can access your files from anywhere with an Internet connection. Going away for the weekend? No problem, upload all of your work on your remote server, and when you reach your destination, get a hold of any computer with an internet connection to download the necessary files and start working. This means that you might not even need a laptop if you are sure of a qualified computer for your tasks at the location you’re heading to.

Synchronization and not manual transfer

If you use an FTP client (such as FileZilla) to upload all of your documents, and then download them from another computer using FTP, or HTTP (by visiting the exact location from the browser and downloading). That saves you the hassle of carrying around memory sticks or external hard disks where your data is stored, but you are left with the same issue of figuring out which files are supposed to stay, and which should be replaced. This is precisely where automatic synchronization comes in.

Using a synchronizing software, you can simply create profiles that mirror local directories with equivalents on a remote server. This means that if you have a folder on your hard disk named “contracts”, for example, you can create a profile so that under your website (or ideally, on a subdomain such as storage.yourwebsite.com) the same folder is created. Whenever you have completed a working session, you run the application and scan for differences. The program automatically selects the changed files on either end and lists them for you. By starting the process, you will have essentially left the program to download and upload only the changed files via FTP. Fast, efficient, and lets you get on with your daily tasks, as oppose to worrying about irritating ones.

Install the synchronizing software on every computer that you use, and when you are using one that is not yours, you can simply access the URL where the files are stored and download the necessary ones. You can use a web application to give you HTTP access to your files, such as the PHP Directory Listing Script, and therefore finding and downloading your files becomes a breeze.

Choosing the appropriate synchronizing client

Unfortunately, this is a field that is lacking options. Like everything else web-related, it is probably a temporary issue, but after extensive research, I’ve only found two powerful synchronizers. Both are commercial, albeit reasonably priced. The following are the features that were the base of my search:

• Two-way synchronization: Allowing you to upload and download, as oppose to using the remote server simply as a backup
• FTP support: This one knocked off quite a few of the candidates. It is essential to be able to synchronize with a remote server via FTP, as oppose to a physical hard disk connected to computer being used
• Interface: while an attractive appearance is not necessary, an organized display of the local vs remote files side-by-side is absolutely vital. Without an easy way of comparison, you’re wasting your time

After experimenting with a few, the following are the creme de la creme

GoodSync Pro

Screen capture taken from GoodSync.com

Never mind their 90s-style website, this is by far the best synchronization tool the world has experienced. Light-weight and extremely easy to use, this application runs smoothly and leaves no room for confusion or frustration.

At the start and end of any working session, run GoodSync and you’re guaranteed to have the most updated files in a very limited time. You can view the long list of key features on their website, but here are the ones that stand out:

• Allows for synchronization or simple backup
• Not a memory hogger, fast and does not interrupt your multi-tasking needs
• Automatically detects and fixes time shifts. By far one of the most important features
• Visual comparison avoids mistakes regrading overwriting files with others
• Timer and scheduler let’s the application do it’s job while you’re not even on your computer

At $30, you’re certainly getting a bang for your buck. The downfall that has sadly pushed me away from it is that it is only available for Windows. If one of the computers you will be synchronizing with is a Mac, then this software is no good for you. After using a genuine version for over a year, I had to move on to a competitor that offered Mac support. The disappointment was so deep, that I wrote them politely asking them to develop a Mac version, but without success.

Super Flexible Synchronizer

Gets the job done

They might have a much more professional website than that of GoodSync, but that’s probably where the loud praise would end. Super Flexible Synchronizer can be installed on a Mac, PC or Linux, making it the obvious choice for those juggling different OSs.

This application includes the basics required by anyone synchronizing with a remote server, but besides its support for the various operating systems, there isn’t too much to brag about:

• Not a very inviting interface, but gets the job done nonetheless
• Slow performance, especially when scanning large remote directories
• An incompetent time-stamping technique, potentially forcing you to upload and download the same files repeatedly (view work around below)

Although not as impressive as its $40 price tag suggests, it remains the best option for cross-browser remote server centralization and synchronization. Before you can fully rely on Super Flexible Synchronizer, you should remove the time stamp, as it is redundant and leads to the repetitive transfer of the same files:

Save yourself the hassle and remove the time stamp

1. After creating a profile, click “Edit Profile”
2. Under “Advanced Setting” to the bottom left, select “Comparison”
3. Under “When size is identical”, check “Ignore Timestamp Altogether”

What this does is tell the program that if the file sizes are identical, even if the time stamped on the given files are different (and they always are because SFS stamps when uploading OR downloading), then assume they are the same. When there is a difference in file size, it goes on to the modified date of the actual file, which means that the newer replaces the older. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up uploading and downloading the directories back and forth. This permanently solves the problem.

Conclusion

To summarize, the following is what you need to do in order to centralize all of your documents on a remote server, and synchronize with the different computers that you are using:

1. Sign up for a domain and hosting with any of the hosting providers (for example, Blue Host) if you haven’t done so already
2. Create a subdomain exclusively for storage (like backup.yourwebsite.com, or storage.yourwebsite.com)
3. Install the PHP Directory Listing Script on your web server (instructions on the website)
4. Download a copy of either GoodSync Pro, or Super Flexible Synchronizer (depending on whether or not you’re syncing with a Mac)
5. Setup profiles that mirror local directories with the same but on your remote server, via FTP, using the software you chose in step 4
6. Start syncing right before and right after extensive work sessions

This solution is ideal for web designers, developers, graphic designers, or anyone always on the move while working on different computers. You could also use it to store photos, music and videos. The only problem might be the limitations of your internet connection, making it almost impossible to upload large files, as well as your shared hosting provider’s connectivity, slowing down communication with the server. As the services and features provided to us by the beautiful Web increase, organization is a must.

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Understanding the Twitter Cycle

The divide between those in the twitter planet and the outside world is constantly growing. Some twitterers could go as far as arguing that unless you’ve been active for extended periods of time, you are almost clueless as to the capabilities of the Web 2.0 revolution, and the power that it gives you. After the traditional Twitter introduction to those who remain oblivious, we reach the more advanced topic to the simple web application: How to take full advantage of Twitter.

Twitter is extremely powerful

There exists a minority who use Twitter to send constant updates to family and friends, but let’s not kid ourselves, their numbers don’t exactly compare to those of big armies. The majority of the Twitterers are trying to achieve the highest number of followers, and thus be able to send out links that could drive traffic to certain destinations. Whether you are a designer, journalist, merchant or even a celebrity, Twitter opens unprecedented channels of communication, and facilitates interaction with an ironic 140-character limit per tweet. As the internet has taught us over the years, you can never expect people to give you their attention if you are not offering them anything worthwhile. And that applies quite accurately to Twitter.

Many believe that they can open a Twitter account, within a few days have hundreds of followers, then make a tweet linking to their blog, and they’re set for life. Unfortunately, the reality is far from that. Before anyone can trust you, you have to prove yourself to them. This basically means having quality, noticeable tweets on a regular basis. With time people will label you as a credible source, and therefore might opt to follow your links. The beauty of this phenomenon lies in the fact that you have to constantly give to the community, before anyone’s ready to return the favor. That in turn prevents selfish contributors from gaining more than what they deserve, and rightly rewards those exerting efforts to helping the community – perfect.

Steps to becoming a successful twitterer

1. Initial phase: Sign up for the account, and plan out who are the type of people you are going to be following, and more importantly, who you’d want to follow you. For example, as an IT professional, you’d want to build relations with big IT geeks from around the globe, and hopefully find means for collaboration or connections. As a musician, you’d want to connect to other musicians, but you also want regular users to visit your MySpace page frequently, join your Facebook fan page, and eventually buy your music and tell everyone about it.
2. Chose who to follow: After you’ve come up with a plan, follow those whose tweets will interest you (regardless of the field – doesn’t matter at this point), as well as those you hope would follow you back. It is important to only follow a small number, because many people would neglect to follow an unproven twitterer, and therefore it is better to build a strong Twitter portfolio so that when you follow someone, they give you the chance to shine by returning the favor. I recommend starting with about 50 users (friends and family included)
3. Start tweeting: This is the tricky part. It is absolutely crucial that you constantly tweet, however, if you go overboard, you’ll lose followers. Therefore, you have to keep providing interesting content so that people take note of you. If your tweets are meaningless (which is relative, but you should be aware of what the crowd you’re after seeks), then it turns into a headache. If you’re making 20 to 30 tweets a day, all with interesting thoughts, comments, ReTweets and links, then you will have become a provider and not a burden. However, you should avoid sending out links that are for your own sake, otherwise it could be seen as undeserved publicity, and that could scare away some followers. You should pay close attention to the language that you use, and the subjects that you discuss. If you are strictly targeting marketing professionals, you should keep your political opinions to a minimum. If you are a journalist covering politics and socio-economic issues, few will want to hear about your breakfast and showers, and some might write you off as unprofessional if you’re using foul language and making immature tweets.
4. Add followers: There are two schools of thought
   1. Mass followers: those are the people that follow up to 5,000 people so that the huge majority of them follow in return. It is an easy way to get people to follow you, but I’d personally deem it unclassy. You shouldn’t follow people whose tweets are of no interest to you. And when you gain thousands, the huge majority couldn’t care less about what you have to say, because you’re not a valuable follower. Therefore, it becomes a mutual acquaintance, and can never become intimate.
   2. Picky followers: those who carefully choose who they’re following, and usually keep the number to below 300. That helps build your Twitter portfolio as it becomes a bit of a complement to those who you’ve chosen to follow, and builds much more intimate communication levels with fellow twitterers. You are unlikely to reach high numbers in a short period of time, but those who follow you are much more loyal to your tweets, and thus you are far more likely to drive useful traffic to your website/blog/service, whatever its nature. In both bases, it’s generally good practice to follow a bunch, and then weeks later, use a service such as Buzzom to see who are not following you, and mass unfollow them.
5. Incorporate PR: Only now would be a convenient time to attempt to attract visitors. By that point, you will have been active for a significant period of time (at least 3-6 months), you will have built connections with peers, and you will be regarded as a credible source. It is important to note that you will be able to grab people’s attention to the subject area your working for, but whether or not your actual content is successful is a completely different story that is beyond this guide.
6. Maintain momentum: By this point, you’ll be an expert in utilizing Twitter, and you’ll see the light that very few have been lucky enough to experience. However, it is important to avoid becoming complacent. We are living in a demanding Web 2.0 environment, and that requires constant work and dedication. Just like the people have given you a credible voice, they have the power to take it away from you. Just like everything the internet has produced, Twitter is essentially power to the people.

Therefore, converting Twitter to a successful PR tool requires six months of constant activity and depends on what you bring to the table. However, the beauty of the open-source community is in the fact that whatever you do, you can always contribute, and there will always be a crowd eager to learn from you, and ready to exchange knowledge with you. Twitter is but a plateau where the people take the stage, and act out the play. An example of a true product of the beautiful Internet.

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The Living Hell of Dealing with Clients

This is a hilarious video that overly-exaggerates the never-ending torture that comes from dealing with many of the clients when freelancing. Regardless of whether you’re a graphic designer, web designer/developer or multimedia designer, the start of the road to independent freelancing starts off very tough indeed.

Excuse the foul language, although it does make it even funnier!

When you decide to take on freelancing, even part time, with a vision of doing it exclusively and professionally down the road, you have to go through a test where only the fittest survive. The typical clients that you might start up with will always have the following characteristics:

• Stingy: They’ll splash $500 on the latest cologne, but design should be free
• Ignorant: No clue as to what the freelancer goes through, and how the process works
• Demanding: Want EVERYTHING, ASAP
• Underestimating: It’s easy, it’s just that they chose to take on real jobs, otherwise they would’ve been the best designers ever
• Unappreciative: Your job is to design, and be thankful that I’m paying you for such an easy and meaningless job
• Completely lost: No clue what they want, and cannot accept that vague idea cannot magically combine to create the perfect tangible product

As you become more and more professional, and your hourly rate rises as you gain experience, the majority of these characteristics begin to diminish. However, no matter how professional and experienced you are, you will always be dealing with client who are completely lost and have no clue as to what they want or how it could possibly be achieved.

But it’s our job, and we love it.

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Ping! Messaging Service for iPhones

The iPhone and iPod Touch application store just got bigger and better. Ping! is a new service emulating the BBM feature of Blackberrys. The idea is simple: instead of using SMSs which are costly across borders, and instead of using an IM (like Skype, MSN, etc.) which are standalone applications, require you to log in and out, and eat away the already deficient battery, Ping! gives you free instantaneous iPhone to iPhone messaging.

If you download the application, you choose a username, and that will be your identification. When you would like to send a message to anyone with Ping! installed anywhere in the globe, you will be using an interface that is just like that of the SMS, but instead of typing in the phone number, you’ll punch in the name. The message gets sent immediately, and the recipient receives an instant notification that he or she has a message waiting for him to read (just like an SMS).

As if an SMS

What happens is that you are not charged by your carrier, because the message is sent using the network’s 3G (or whichever internet connection your are on). Since the message is simple text, the bytes sent are minimal, and thus the cost is close to nothing. After that, instead of having an IM open, you have this application running, but it does not consume any resources. It’s sole function is to provide you with a “push” notification as soon as a message is received. Therefore, you’re not charged for an SMS, using minimal iPhone (or iPod Touch with wifi) resources, and you exchange messages that are identical to SMSs, but are absolutely free!

Ping! conversation

It was quite the genius idea behind the Blackberry, and it was anything but a bad one to bring the same technology to the iPhone. The application is currently free (for a limited time), and is not expected to be too pricey when it goes commercial. Wouldn’t be nice to have the same technology, but applied to VOIP, allowing users to make free calls at anytime, anywhere in the world? Perhaps only a matter of time.

UPDATE: Credit to my good friend Reem Abulleil for bringing the subject to my attention, and recommending me to write up a post about it. You can visit her Tennis Blog, TV Blog, or follow her on Twitter: @ReemAbulleil.

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Google’s 10 to the 100

Love’em or hate’em, we must not take anything away from Google’s creativity and innovation. One of the latest of which establishing an unprecedented approach to social development via the one and only: the World Wide Web. Project 10 to the 100 is a $10 million grant that Google will be handing to the chosen project related to development anywhere across the globe. After accepting applications and stacking over 150,000 applicants’ hopes and dreams with ideas on different projects, Google narrowed down the candidates to the finalists where only one will rise as the winner of the generous grant from the Californian giants.

How is the candidate chosen? This is where the community of the web comes in, and Google have cleverly taken advantage: Your vote. Every person can go on the website, read about every project, and then vote of whichever he or she has most faith in. Accordingly, the search engine pioneers will shell out a big tenner and make the project a reality. Not only have they used the web to announce their grant and facilitate communication with the different candidates, they have taken it a step further by allowing the true owners of the internet, the users, to use their power and indicate where the money will be heading. Yet another example of the immense power of the web, and how it can play a vital part in every single field across the planet. The trick is to give people the power they deserve, and Google, in this particular case, have done precisely that.

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