Aabjaab: My New (Bangla) Blog

I’ve just created another blog. It’s another personal blog of mine. I’ve already have one, why the hell I created another one? Actually it is more likely a memory storage than a blog. I’ve a very simple life (who knows me will agree in this point). But when I saw them back they seem to be the golden days of my tiny life. So why don’t I share them with others? Memories are sweet. They are sweeter when they are reminisced. Bur they are even sweetest when they are shared with others. And this thought allured me to create this blog.

This time I’ve chosen Blogspot for publishing it. Why Blogspot? First - unlike WordPress it allows any templates for using in blog. Secondly (the most important) - I need a URL containing my favorite nick “maqtanim”. This blog is written in Bangla. Because I find it more comfortable to write my past memories in Bangla. No language favors me so much like Bangla to express my exact feelings.

I always prefer WordPress for blogging as it is easy to use and it has some really breathtaking premium themes. Personally I liked Brian Gardner’s template. But as WordPress doesn’t allow editing CSS layout (in free of cost) in their DOT COM version, I had no chance to use Brian’s marvelous themes in my WordPress blog. Recently I got the XML code of the Revolution Theme (one of the Brian’s Finest creation for wordpress) for Blogger and it took me thinking why I am not using this theme in Blogspot? I’ve polished the CSS layout as my requirements. And… well … I did what I’ve thought. And now the site is up!

I was puzzled to give it a proper name. Then I named it as “Aabjaab”. I saw this word in a book written by Ahsan Habib. Ahsan Habib is a leading cartoonist and the editor of Unmad, the only satire magazine of Bangladesh. What does Aabjaab means? It means totally scrap or trash! I don’t think my life is that much interesting that I can write it in a literary way like the famous writers (actually I am not a writer, not in a slightest chance ). Which means all my stuffs are just no more than junk!

Enough talking. Now just go to my new blog and give me your feed back. I am eagerly waiting for the first comment in my new blog.

Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator: β version launched

For the last few weeks who have read and commented my post about Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator, they will be happy to know that Russell has kept his promise. He has launched the Beta version of the Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator. At last it has done. It is just the beginning. This site needs more polishing and needs an enormous way to go. But it can’t go that long without our support. As a Bangladeshi Blogger it is our duty to make a smooth way for this site. Previously some site has been lunched for the same purpose, but they failed to sustain. We hope that this time it will be a successful project.

By setting up the site, Russell did a tremendous job for all of us. We the Bangladeshi Bloggers at last got our own Blog Aggregator. We hope it will not only be a Blog Aggregator but also be a Bloggers Community for Bangladesh. Therefore I am inviting all the bloggers of Bangladeshi origins to join this aggregator.

As the site is in testing mode I have some suggestions (though I’ve mention some key features in my previous post).

1. As a blog aggregator I think the site needs a 3 columns theme. As a personal site a 2 column site is more suitable than a blog aggregator. Cause it has to show more thing but in less space. User may not have that much patience to scroll through the whole site. 3 sidebars instead of 3 make this job easier.
2. In the first page the posts are displayed in full length. A full length post does not fit in a blog aggregator. It would be more decorous if only a few lines (as excerpts) for the post (under the post heading) is displayed.
3. Any one have any design sense so that we’ll have a gorgeous logo and some blog badges for this newly introduced aggregator? So that we can put on them in our own blogs.

As the days go by, we hope more suggestions will come from the bloggers to develop the site.

Have you noticed the new badge on my blog depicting that I am a Bangladeshi blogger? If you did not then please take a look. This badge directly link you with the Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator site. If you want this badge then please copy the following code and paste it to your site:

<a href=”http://ekushey.com/blogs/”><img src=”http://i28.tinypic.com/2qulo1w.jpg” border=”0″>

Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator: We have none!

Blog Aggregator or Bloggers Community is utmost important for Blogosphere. Because it works as a junction point for all the blogs of a certain community. One can find out what the other people are thinking or what is the recent trends of their own community from that junction. Besides that, a blog aggregator also inspires people to contribute in blogosphere. Amateur bloggers can improve their blog by the useful comments from the expert bloggers from that community. Also one has the scope to read any fact from different views in different blogs. A blog aggregator actually represents the culture, mentality and opinions of a community.

As a blogger I am only 6 months old and I believe I am still an amateur. Whenever on net, I find a blog by a Bangladeshi origin I am delighted. But it is sure a cumbersome job to search blogs by Bangladeshi origin people. So the first thing that stroke in my brain is to find out any Bangladeshi Bloggers Community. For the last few months I’ve googled for any Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator but I found nothing! There is no community for Bangladeshi Bloggers or aggregation of Bangladeshi Blogs! I’ve found a name of Bangladeshi blog aggregator from Hasin’s blog, but for some reason it is not alive now. So the research result is “WE DON’T HAVE ANY ACTUAL BLOGGERS COMMUNITY OR BLOG AGGREGATOR FOR THE BLOGS MAINTAINED OR CREATED BY BANGLADESHI ORIGIN BLOGGERS”.

Bangla Typing with Avro Keyboard

Like the most of the Bangladeshi people, I don’t know the Bangla keyboard layouts. Because in Bangla scripts we’ve 11 vowels, 35 consonants, 5 modifiers and numerous consonant conjuncts. To make it more complex, there are several keyboard layouts which are differ from each other. It is a quite difficult matter for me to be handy with one of those keyboards. What a shame for me! Being a Bangladeshi I don’t know how to write Bangla in IT world! But that problem was pacified when I met with Avro Keyboard.

I received several questions from my known-circles about how a complete idiotic ignorant of Bangla Key-layouts like me writes in Bangla. Actually that’s why I must thank to Avro Keyboard. Because this keyboard supports English to Bangla phonetic typing method. That means if you write “amar sonar bangla.“ it’ll show “আমার সোনার বাংলা।“ automatically. Isn’t it fantastic! See a snap shot on how your English text is converting to Bangla using Avro Keyboard.

Avro Keyboard is a free software. Any one can download it. After installing it’ll be automatically stored in your system tray leaving a small toolbar on the top of your desktop. This toolbar indexes all the options for using the keyboard. This tool bar is also very stylish in outfits. Just look it at below.

Another exciting feature is that you can use mouse for typing Bangla like the Character Map of Windows OS. For the totally newbies (who even can’t use keyboard) this is a damn good option for writing in Bangla.

Now you all know my secret of writing Bangla in the Blogosphere or in Facebook or Orkut! But to use it on your browser first you need to set up your browser for Bangla Unicode. I prefer Firefox for that job. Read my guide for Firefox users to prepare Firefox for Bangla unicode.

First experience of Windows Vista

I’ve just installed Windows Vista Ultimatum in my laptop. I got the copy from Minhaz Bhai. Then I took it just for test, as I’ve never experienced Vista before. When I first installed it, I was so much puzzled about the tools, because it was little bit difficult for me to find out where the necessary tools were as it seemed a bit hazy to me. It has a stunning visual. But I am sure who are using KDE of Linux or UBUNTU, will not be amazed by seeing the visual feature. I’ve been using UBUNTU for the last few years, and I believe that Windows Vista has nothing special or unique features which are not in Linux.

I like the gadgets that appear on the right side of the desktop. Specially the RSS Feed gadget which I think is very useful. Start menu becomes more clumsy as the sub-menus open within the main menu. The main drawback that I’ve noticed is that the driver’s scarcity. My laptop’s blue-tooth functionality couldn’t be installed for some dumb security reason! Every time I wanted to install the device from the original CD provided by DELL with my laptop, it shows the security center message, which in turns terminate the whole installation process.

Windows Vista requires more than 9 GB memory space and minimum 1 GB of RAM. It’s a high requirement. UBUNTU with the same facilities requires only 2 GB memory space with a RAM of 256 MB. I don’t know whether other software will run in Vista or they will also be blocked for so called security systems. But in the first glimpse it could not win my heart which had done by Windows XP. My suggestion is that, if you’re buying new PC’s with Vista installed in it then it is ok, otherwise the unavailability of the drivers will be troublesome. So if you’re using Windows XP, I don’t think you should upgrade your PC only just for Vista.