Weird Housekeeping Company Names

Offices in corporate parks usually subscribe to housekeeping services. One of them employs an agency called "Chaka Chak." I found this name to be quite amusing and even said so over a chuckle. My colleague came up with an even better "brand" that he had spotted earlier — AssPee Enterprises!
Now why would someone call their company AssPee?

Change a Two Column Blog to Three Column: Dummies Style

Update [16-Jun-2012]: Surprisingly, people still visit this post. From the time I posted this 2-to-3 column experience of mine Blogger has gone through a sea of change. All of what I have documented below might not be applicable anymore if you are already on the new Blogger. At most this could probably serve as a basic guide or informative piece. Any which ways, thanks for dropping in!

I have wanted to change my two column blog to a three column one for a long time now. I had opted for the Rounders 2 column template and very soon realised I was not using 'page real estate' very well. The post column was too narrow for my liking. Long posts tend to make the blog look like an unending strip of toilet paper. There are many free three column templates available but I wanted to try to fiddle with the code and change it to a three column format. After a couple of tries I knew I was not doing something right. The rounded corners in the layout added to my woes because increasing the column width meant changing the URL from where the image of the rounded corners could be loaded. Somehow the workarounds didn't work very well with me either.
I decided to ditch the Rounders template altogether and go for a different three column one. I wasn't able to complete those step-by-step code tweaks that I found on other blogs. Many left comments that the instructions helped them. But I never ended up being one of them.

Change Template, Lose Gadgets
I was about to switch to a new three column template one day when I was warned that all gadgets will be lost with the template change. Woh!! That is something I did not want to happen. My blog is not some Web 2.0 site with any fancy elements but I had put in a lot of time and effort in trying out gadgets, tweaking stuff and had just about got around to adding AdSense banners. So I was not going to lose my gadgets so easily.
Weeks went by and I kept wondering if there was a way to change to a three column layout and keep my gadgets intact.I know there are ways to back up the gadgets from Blogger by looking the particular tag. It's all good. But it was not fool proof for me and searching for the xml tags left me with dry eyes. Plus, some gadgets like Blogger Profile are not backed up. You need to add them once again.

Eureka!
That's when it came to me...I could use my test blog to hold my gadgets! This would mean minimal code-digging. Some might say this method is too cumbersome but it beats deciphering code and looking for XML tags till you start seeing double. The most that you will have to do is copy-paste.

So this is what you can do:

1. Back up your blog.
2. Create a Test Blog (Had created one thanks to Marco's idea, when he started his blog.)
3. Choose a suitable 3 column template. (I loaded many templates on the test page before deciding on the current one.)
4. Replicate the gadgets that I had created in the Live Blog into the Test Blog. How?
   Open each Gadget one at a time...
   If it has code (like ads, visitor map, etc.) - copy, paste the code into the Test Blog gadget. Give it a title, just so you know at a glance, what the gadget is about.
   If it is not code, simply copy the settings into the gadget in the Test Blog. It could be a Link List, Blogger Profile or an AdSense item.
5. Copy-paste the Live Blog title and line.
6. Recheck to confirm you have copied all the gadgets.

Additional Tips:

• Don't forget to copy the blog title and description.
• Copying your 'site counter' code into the Test Blog will cause the count to increase (since your visits to the Test Blog will also be included). Either create a blocking cookie on the site counter's website for the Test Blog or keep the code in Notepad for later. Just keep an empty gadget with a 'Stat Counter' title, so you don't forget to add the code when the three column blog goes live.
• Make sure only you have access to your Test Blog. This can be done from the blog 'Dashboard', under Settings> Permissions.
  
  
  
  
• After copying one gadget save the layout and view the blog.
• Use dummy text and post a few entries into the Test Blog. (Use Lorem Ipsum for dummy text.)
• If need be take a screenshot of the Live Blog as reference later on.

Final Migration

1. Download the full Test Blog template from Layout> Edit HTML> Download Full Template.
   
2. In the Live Blog, upload this new template.
3. Confirm the changes. (including the warning about losing your gadgets).
4. View your blog. Now move the gadgets around to fill the additional column.

Issues
I did face two issues after using this method to migrate to a three column template.

1. Code Swap!
   Even after copy-pasting code into the right gadgets, the HTML ended up being swapped around. For example, my Site Stat code was under the Adbrite ad gadget. The Adbrite ad code was in another gadget...and so on. Very weird indeed. I had to use Notepad as a buffer to juggle the code back into the right place. Or I could have just changed the gadget titles! (I just thought of it. Sheesh.)
2. Invisible Ad Elements
   Two gadgets that are related to Google Ads have stopped functioning. They do not appear. The footer ad is generated through code that I manually copy-pasted. The second 'island ad' is in the third column, which is a simple AdSense gadget — no code. I have tried troubleshooting in different browsers, gone through the step-by-step guide on the AdSense page, and even mailed AdSense support. Nothing has helped. The fight continues...

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Finally figured out what was happening, while tinkering around the layout settings. The AdSense units were not appearing because AdSense policies restrict you to a total of 3 units per page. I had set ads to appear after every post and there were units on the right plus there was one in the footer. I disabled ads within posts and the missing ad units came back.

Additional Tweaks (with Code)
You must have noticed I have further tweaked this three column blog. These tweaks involved meddling with code — which is why I am not including them here. Will do in another blog where I will give credit to all those bloggers whose valuable tips have helped me out and made understand 'blogger code' better. Some tips worked like a charm while others took more time (like creating a new gadget 'island' element in the layout). These tweaks include,
- Hiding the blog search bar at the top.
- Adding a gadget element under the header (so that I can add another AdSense gadget)
- Adding a gadget element in the right column.

This I will leave for another blog post. For now, I hope this guide is simple enough and works for you. Do leave your suggestions, if you have any...for me as well as for others who visit this page.

Some super blogs that I always refer to:
Peter Chen's Blogger Tips and Tricks
Pocket's Blog Bulk

Miniature Toys: They are So Cool

The three of us — my wife, my son and I — went dining over the weekend to a place in Colaba we frequent. Food-Inn is also popular amongst foreigners because it is clean, reasonable, serves non-vegetarian food, gives good service, does not rush you through your drink/snack/meal and is open till midnight.
In the middle of dinner my son (who is just a year old) decided to turn around and stick his straw into a lady's blonde hair. Thankfully she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him (it helps to be cute some times). She was an elderly woman and she said something to my son in Italian or maybe French, I do not know. A minute later she turned around again and rattled a little plastic capsule to get my son's attention. He was now busy scratching the sofa's backrest and sucking on the straw at the same time. The gentleman she was with asked her to rattle it again. There was a tiny car inside the capsule and she wanted my son to have it. That was really nice of her. At first my son just gaped (this he gets from me), then looked away shyly. Finally he accepted her gift, we said our thank you's and they left the restaurant...smiling at us as they walked away.
That was really nice of them. Did I say that already? Who does that sort of thing anyway? Quite frankly, I was a little embarrassed at first. We give our boy a straw so he stays occupied. I did not expect him to run it into somebody's hair!

Anyway...that little car reminded me of the Easter chocolates a very good Berlin friend gave me years ago. Thanks Ms. D!! They were köstlich! One of them, in particular, was this huge chocolate Easter Egg. Beneath all that chocolate was a plastic eggshell and inside the eggshell were pieces of plastic (like a jigsaw puzzle), stickers and a tiny guide all neatly folded up. It was the coolest thing I ever got from someone.

With the help of the instructions I placed the stickers on the pieces of plastic and went on to put them together. Soon I had a little musketeer pointing his sword or "foil" at me. It even moves! There is a little roller that fits inside him which works with the arm piece (consists of the connector, sword and the hand) to make the sword arm move up and down. How cool is that? Below is a slideshow of how the musketeer was put together. The stickers are already on because I already did this years ago. I will upload a video of the little musketeer brandishing his sword as soon as I finish encoding it.

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My Berlin friend just told me the Easter Egg chocolate is called Überraschungsei. This is the English version of the Wikipedia page — Kinder Surprise. "Kinder" is German for "children".
Take a look at Kinder Hobby — it is a collector's website of all the Überraschungsei he/she owns!

Election Day Caution

I was out and about this morning, finishing up with some bank work. Took my camera along for the first time. I came across this message board outside Not Just Jazz by the Bay at Churchgate. It's on the elections because they are a month away. I would like to know who thinks up the lines for this message board — some of them are really nice. Someone once told me it was Nana Chudasama who contributed to the messages but I have no idea how true that is.

An Eye for an Eye: Is It Really Worth It?

Human rights groups have been investigating the Gaza attacks for violations of international law. There is no doubt that the Hamas has intentionally fired its Qassam rockets at civilian areas. However, Israel regularly asserts its stand of 'targeted attacks' on Hamas areas. What I fail to understand is that how can anybody claim to know exactly where the Hamas is hiding and isolate them through the use of 'shrapnel bombs'? Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. How 'sophisticated' or should I say 'accurate' is the Israel weaponry?

According to Amnesty, studies reveal the Israeli forces used 'unfair' weapons. By 'unfair', they refer to weapons that cause harm to civilian population as well. White Phosphorus (WP) bombs, tank shells, anti-tank Hellfire missiles (popularly known as 'fire-and-forget' missiles, fired from unmanned aircrafts) and shrapnel bombs were used to target 'Hamas supporters'.

One does not really need to explain what shrapnel bombs are all about...but just in case you think the 'pipe bomb' is a home-made explosive used by small time terrorists/criminals...you are mistaken. These insidious devices have been part of military warfare since the Chinese created gunpowder. In the Gaza conflict, Israel used U.S.-supplied munitions to drop bombs that exploded in air blanketing an area with sharp-edged metal objects. White phosphorus, on the other hand, is supposed to play the part of a 'white blanket.' The thick white smoke is supposed to cloud enemy fire and obfuscate infantry movements. However, its secondary characteristics seem to be more preferred. Used from the days of the Vietnam war (or should I say, Police Action?) the WP bomb is capable of burning and smoking till the end, poisonous and can cause second/third degree burns. Apart from the burns, the body may absorb Phosphorus leading to organ damage or failure.

Most of the victims have been civilians including working men, women and children. According to Amnesty International the ammunition is U.S. made. This is because of a "10-year agreement to 2017, the USA is due to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel, a 25% increase compared to the period preceding the Bush administration."
Effectively — "paid for with U.S. taxpayers’ money."
The Hamas is reportedly to have used or assembled ammunition components made abroad and within Israeli areas.

I have been sporadically reading about the Israel-Palestine conflict...I own a 'journalistic comic' called Palestine by Joe Sacco — that book opened my eyes to see a side of armed conflict that is so influenced and dominated by "popular" Western media. I do not know the answer to this conflict. I do not know who is right and who is wrong...I don't think many scholars can claim to do so either...
But I do know that if there is one way to resolve this conflict, it will have to be through adjustment, lots of it. Everyone wants their kids to see a better tomorrow but we all know that the compromise will alienate a whole bunch of people who will continue to be disgruntled for the rest of their lives and fill future generations with the same sense of suspicion and hatred. After all, the compromise will not bring justice to the ones who lost their loved ones in the blink of an eye.

What is amazing is the uncanny ability for a conflict-torn area to procure weapons to carry out large-scale destruction under the pretext of protecting its own land. (If Africa is considered for a moment, you only need to watch Lord of War to get a basic idea.) How effective is a "neutral" organisation like the U.N. in ensuring that neither side is able to source weapons? At the end of the day does it always depend on the veto power? And what are the vested interests of all the nations that covertly support and fund the conflict?

Oodles of Noodles — Freestyle

This was cooked up late last month. It does not contain any meat (yes, I agree...there should have been some) but it is loaded with lots of yum vegetables and loads of mushrooms.

If you think the pictures are not good enough then blame the photographer for doing a lousy job!

Incredible India! The 'Postcard' Commercial

It is time for yet another TV ad. I think it has become a game for me. I try to find advertisements that really interest me — probably has to do with the crappy show airing at that time. This one is an ad promoting Indian tourism. Now, there is another advertisement I just love and it's on Madhya Pradesh. It is not in English, not an easy job for me to translate the recital (to me it was like almost folkish rap) but it was brilliant. A domestic tourism ad that was innovative, fun to watch and easy to remember.
This ad which is part of the Incredible India! campaign is apparently made by Nirvana Films. It features a foreigner who is trying to think of how to put down everything he has experienced while travelling across the sub-continent onto a postcard. Watch the video to see what he wrote and why.