Browser Compatibility issues

I discovered recently from a few of my readers that my blog has been loading differently in Firefox than in Internet Explorer. In Firefox, my main post is disjointed with my sidebar appearing at the bottom of the page. Since I always use Internet Explorer, I had not realized that such obstacle could be existed. I should have been checking browser compatibility in the first place, particularly since more users are switching to Firefox.

The best free solution to test your browser compatibility is BrowserShots.org. All you have to do is enter the web address of your blog, select the browsers for which you’d like to see screenshots across multiple operating systems. It is not necessary to check all those browsers and it will be pretty time consuming if you do.

First of all, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the chart and click on None to uncheck all the boxes. Then select the browsers that you want to test. Wait a couple of minutes (sometimes longer) for your results. You will be able to see exactly how your site looks in different browser versions. Aside from this, you can check out the Total Validator service to validate your pages for technical analysis. As I 'm not a pro webmaster, I might as well get some professional help to solve my multiple problems.

Lastly, thanks to WildApricot for a great browser compatibility blog post. Hopefully you’ll find it useful too.

A Nation in Distress???

There is a campaign by a group of bloggers to raise Malaysian flag upside down to symbolize a nation in distress and had called upon their readers to fly the Malaysian Flag upside down. The initial call was said to be have been made by Kelantanese blogger Sheih aka ‘kickdefella‘ .

This is indeed a sad thing. No matter how much I hate the political situation, hoisting “Jalur Gemilang” in that manner is total disrespectful and an insult. It only shows our immaturity in distinguishing the real problems in our beloved country.

I feel and sense an emptiness to this year's Merdeka celebrations. There are a few more days before we celebrate our Independence Day but yet there is no “Merdeka Spirit” in the air at this time of the year unlike previous years.

Our distress is due to some political issues and not our country. An upside down flag is the international symbol for distress. I guess the nation needs a miracle to get itself out of the major crisis and problems that are facing us today.

Regardless, I think the flag should be retained as it is , not inverted. It is the symbol of our freedom and be proud of it.

PEACE

Blog Explosion is My Biggest Traffic Source

If you're looking for more traffic for your blog, Blog Explosion will help your traffic explode. I've been trying the service for quite sometime to see how it works. It's pretty amazing to see how easy it is to receive traffic.

It will take a while to approve your blog, but once they do, it is a pretty decent site. Mine took about two months, so be prepared for a wait. You can earn credits while you wait though, which is good. You surf other Blog Explosion member blogs and in return you generate traffic to your blog at the same time. You need to earn credit by randomly visiting other people's blog for at least 30 seconds. Thereafter, you can proceed to the next blog by clicking on a number in the upper left corner.

This service is worth checking out. You can add multiple blogs to your Blogexplosion account to maximize your traffic. Aside from this, this source allows you to add banners to promote your blog with clickthrough reporting! Your banner will then be rotated across the top of all the pages of BlogExplosion giving you even more opportunities to generate additional traffic to your blog sites.

There's also a convenient pinging tool in Blog Explosion where you can ping your website once every hour and BlogExplosion will ping the following major blog search engines for you at a click of a button. I used to ping my blog with Technorati on its own but ever since I discovered BlogExplosion, I use this service to save a lot of time by pinging to many other services as well.

Enjoy Blog explosion, it’s another great way of wandering around the blogging community.

Feedburner hacked - Inflate your subscribers

The guys at TheNextWeb has recently published a video showcasing us how easy it is to hack your Feedburner subscriber count. It doesn't take more than a minute or so to add a few thousand subscribers.

Basically, all you need to do is create an OPML file with the same feed copied and pasted as many times as you want and then import this into your NetVibes account. By using this trick any one can show fake feedburner subscriber stats for their blogs. Anything is possible nowadays but that’s not cool. I bet that there are a few bloggers out there who will take advantage of this opportunity.

This loophole is really something Netvibes and Feedburner will need to seriously fix soon so that people stop gaming and faking the feedcount system. It will be really interesting to see which blogs loose bunch of subscribers.

This video explains how it works :

Feedburner hacked! from Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Vimeo.

Finding My new banner

I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of banner I want to use as the header for this blog. Since I didn’t like the picture banner that was included in the theme, I opted to upload a new picture for the banner.

And in case you were wondering, I came across the tips for new Bloggers template in Sweet Jasmine 's blog. The templates embody many useful features. For many new bloggers who are unfamiliar with coding, I hope you'll find these cool features handy which will give you better control over the various elements for your blog. I'm totally paronoid when it comes to embedding the html codes. If you’re not the tech-savvy type, you may find this tutorial rather useful as the instructions are easy to understand. All you need to do is to follow exactly the instructions provided. Even for those who are tech-savvy, it serves as a handy reference especially with its well-organised layout.

Hopefully with a good measure of patience you can make a smooth transition to the new Blogger system.

The World of Blogosphere

With the numerous blogs that hit well in the 6 digit mark or more, I often wonder what makes a small few, like me stand out from the crowd, and outshine on the blogosphere. Gee, only god knows! It goes without saying that many bloggers dream of starting a blog that will become as successful as some of the most popular blogs online today.

I don’t blog for a living. I find it rather difficult and time consuming to make money from blogging. Then again, I don't expect to make a fortune overnight. However, no matter how superb your content is, if there is nobody to read it, you can't generate profit from it. I don’t reckon myself as an entertainer, and most of what I post on my blog isn’t entertaining in any straightforward sense, so I doubt that many people come here for this reason. But I might be wrong. Different people have different preferences. There are some topics that suit among many other people as well.

I have a full time job, and I only blog in my spare time about my thoughts, interesting events, current issues, vice versa. I will usually brag about something that I'm familiar with. I guess there are also people for whom blogging has turned into an obsession instead of being a harmless hobby.

At times I wonder, what would you do if Blogging all of a sudden comes to an end?? Say all the blog hosting sites shut down and we could blog no more?

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights : May 15th

All eyes will focus on Bloggers Unite For Human Rights on May 15th. Sponsored by Amnesty International, BlogCatalog, and Copywrite, Inc., the movement encourage all bloggers out there to blog about human rights and draw attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues.

In order to participate, sign up for Bloggers Unite on their website, add one of their badges to your website’s sidebar and on May 15, share your human rights post with the Bloggers Unite community on Blog Catalog. What those topics may include — the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the Internet.

Join the challenge and unite for our right to humanity.

Million Blog List- A blogosphere experiment

I'm #472 on the

Million Blog List is trying to experiment to find out how long it takes to get 1,000,000 blogs listed themselves on their website. To get yourself listed, click the above logo. Please create an account before you add your blog address at the bottom of the list. Since you have nothing to lose, join me. Looks like I'm currently #472 on the list, not a spectacular number I'd say.

Meanwhile, another Wikipedia initiative is the Wiki Blog Directory, an open blog directory launched a few days ago where you can list your blogs in as many categories as is appropriate. Get yours listed at http://www.wikiblogdirectory.com/ for free. In addition to this, you can submit your best posts to Yearblook a competition to find the best blog posts.

Hello readers!

It has never crossed my mind that I'd create a blog someday. I've always thought that blogging can be very time consuming and addictive indeed. Well, we are living in the new millennium and a growing number of people have created their own blogs. I just dont wanna be left out.

Let's just see how it goes.