Translate blogs using Google (blogger beta)

I have been able to locate the URLs used for submitting a page to the Google translate tool. I have incorporated them into my template such that the links appear under every post and readers can use it to translate a post into another language. Currently Google translate supports few languages and I will update my post footer when they add more languages.

You can view and copy the code for using google translate (as in my post footers) from here. (Placed it in an external link coz people started telling me that some thing is broken in my blog and code is spilling out!)

The image based goolge translate code contains direct links to the images of flags of the respective countries. You may use the same links or modify and upload the images to your server or image host and replace [image source] with the direct URL. Or use text links like me. The code for the text links is also located in the link. Incase of any problems, feel free to drop a line here. adios!

Get socially bookmarked! (blogger beta)

See the image links to the social book marking sites under each of my post footers?

Working on Ramani’s original post regarding adding hotlinks to Del.icio.us and digit!. I learnt how to rearrange the stuff that appears under each post using the widget code in the template and also added images instead of plain text links for hot linking purpose. Thanks to one Cal Evans I was able to get all the images in one place from the plug-in file on this page. All I had to do was some coding. I must tell you that I am not a programmer or some thing and know very little about coding. But ever since Ramani modified beta blogger templates into 3-column templates I think I have moved from knowledge to knowledge while exploring its code. Thanks to him for that.

While the tags for Del.icio.us and diggit! were with me from Ramani’s blog, I was lucky to stumble upon this site. It has additional hotlinks and I got the “submit” URL from there. Here is how the code goes:

http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=http://www.broobles.com/blog/posts/46&t=Furl+vs.+Spurl

becomes (based on the syntax from Ramani’s post)

http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=" + data:post.url + "&t=" + data:post.title'

This is important to know because if you find other “submit’ hotlinks you can develop the tag on your own. If you like to have all of my hotlinks for your Beta blog template, expand your template widgets and search for "post-labels". You will find the portion of code shown below. Insert the code in red above the /span tag.

<span class='post-labels'>
<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<data:postLabelsLabel/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'>
<data:label.name/>
</a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>

Click here for the hotlink code to social bookmarking site (updated to 22)

</span>

Know that [image source] should be replaced with the image URL. Between each set of “span” and “/span” tags, an individual element (like label or quick e-mail icon or comments) is located. And the line on which it is displayed depends on this tag:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'>(it encloses elements in line 2, in my blog the hotlinks).

Here is how the code in my template looks:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>
<span class='post-author'>
[Author and time stamp code]
</span>
<span class='post-comment-link'>
[Comments code]
</span>
<span class='post-labels'>
[ label code ]
</span>
<span class='post-icons'>
<!-- email post links -->
<!-- quickedit pencil -->
</span> </p>
<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'>

code is here

</p>

Though this was not much of a task I feel happy to have done some thing that might be useful for other bloggers.

P.S. For links to other bookmarking sites in my post footer, copy the link from there and follow the code above. Incase you have any issues implementing this or if you need links for some more sites (checkout this and this) and/or drop a line here.

Update: Also check out:

1. An extension to a social bookmarking hack
2. Feeds, Social Bookmark Drop-downs and alternatives

Three column template finally!

Do you find my blog radically different since your last visit? Yup its the three column template! Many thanks to Ramani of Hackosphere for working with the existing beta template codes to convert it to a three column template.

Three column templates are useful if you have too many items on your sidebar and wish to avoid superlong side bars. To learn more about these templates click here. Also note that the label drop down and search result sorting on my blog is yet another hack from Ramani. For more info on that check out his blog.

Quick quotes

I found these two quotes while surfing the net and thought I should post them here:

1. "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don'’t believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky, speaking in a BBC television interview with John Pilger on The Late Show

2. "We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind?.......We make our own destiny." -- Swami Vivekananda

Paul Van Dyk: The god of trance

Talking of music I must tell you that I am an ardent follower of trance, electronic and euro dance music. And one guy, whose music I believe is earth-moving, is Paul Van Dyk. I have never heard music so hypnotic. Nothing pushes me to dance (I am not a dance buff though) as much as this guy’s music. I tell you what you got to hear it to know it. I have the following albums from this guy:

1. The Politics of Dancing Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
2. The Politics of Dancing 2
3. Out there and back
4. Reflections

I wish to have his older albums like seven ways, 45 rpm etc but could not find them here in India. And getting them shipped from else where is turning out to be too expensive. Other guys I listen to under these genres is BT, DJ Tiesto, Oakenfold and a few others. Worldspace’s channel 202 aka “System” is a heaven for people with similar tastes.

Evanescence: New album out in October

Evanescence is a popular band which is mostly into alternative and gothic rock. Few rock bands have females in the group and that too as a lead singer. Evanescence’s only lead singer Amy Lee is one who fits the bill very well. She’s got a great voice and I like her songs and style.

Evanescence shot to fame with their album “Fallen” (at least for me) which contains hits like “Bring me to life” (OST Daredevil), “My Immortal” and “Going Under”.

Over three years after “Fallen” they are now coming out with another album by name “The Open Door”. A track by name “Call Me When You're Sober” has already entered the countdown charts. I heard it on WorldSpace Top 40. Though I am an avid fan of this group, I must admit that I was not very impressed with this track. It just seems to lack the power of songs like “Going Under”. I don’t know how to put it but I simply did not like the song! But I am sure that Evanescence is not going to disappoint me and I hope that other tracks will be good. I had been waiting for their new album eagerly.

Google Sketchup

Google does not stop fascinating me! Was checking out Google labs the other day, when I came across this software called Google Sketchup. It is a 3D-design software which is fairly powerful yet very simple and easy to use. And as usual (with Google) there is one version which is available for free.

I downloaded the software and the tutorials were easy to follow. I finished them in a jiffy. As I had no 3D-idead to put on screen I just created a model of our television cupboard that we got recently done. Though the fine wood carvings cannot be reproduced in this software, what ever I could make of the cupboard was fairly good I guess.

Other than that I also made a crazy skyscraper. Crazy coz every thing in it is round :-). I am sure it will be hell of a challenge for architects to created a skyscraper of that sort in real world ;-) For more about this software check out Google Sketchup

Our scum on orkut too

Many of you who are using the social networking system called orkut might have seen the plethora of disgusting communities created by Indians and Pakistanis. These communities abuse countries, cultures, religious beliefs and gods.

Like unrelenting insolent fools we have carried our lamenting disgust and hatred to a social networking site like orkut to display to the world the height of our foolishness, religious fundamentalism and uncivilized animal side.

I wish that all such people get a chance to confront each other, so that they fight and kill and realize that this hatred is nonsense and inconsequential. I am not a universalist or some thing but yeah I definitely believe in toleration. First: religions were made for man and man was not made for religion. Second: religions were formed to give a direction to the civilization and beings. Our motive should be to work for the improvement of the less privileged people and as a whole try to evolve into a more advanced and relatively superior society than we are at present. As I have always thought, if god exists then our motive here is to work towards knowing the mind of god (based on the concept of Stephen Hawking) rather than abuse and kill in its name. This requires that we rise above these unimportant quarrels and try to become some thing in life rather than waste our time creating hate communities on orkut.

Get a life guys!

Ustad Bismillah Khan: The maestro

Many of you (who follow the Indian news) may have heard about the demise of the legendary shehnai (Indian clarinet) maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan. I write this post to pay my heartfelt tributes to this legend.

Though I have not been an avid fan of classical music, this man along with a few others has been vividly engraved in my memory. Few pieces of music have moved me deeply and Ustad’s shehnai is one among them. I believe that India has lost a great asset in the field of classical music. Yet the man has immortalized himself for ever with the music that he has left behind for us to cherish. My Salaam to the Ustaad.