vaked.com

Freelancers must save money!

Getting around in New York could be time taking and also expensive. For all my visits to client locations in NY, I usually used to either drive all the way from NJ (currently located) or hire a cab half way. As you may have already noticed, it was a bad idea, but for someone new in NY, it could be the only way out.

Thanks to the great service of hopstop.com, it saved me quite a lot of money today. Where it takes around $80 to $100 for the cab ride from La Guardia Airport to Northern NJ, I was able to save upto $90 using public transportation and was home in less than 2 hours (not bad at all). Hopstop.com is now my favorite freelance tool to get around NY. There are other sites like hopstop.com, Google is working on creating something similar for Chicago and would possibly include sates like CA, NY, WA very soon. Google’s service is in fact based on Google Maps. Watch the video to learn more about this new tool from Google:

No Comments | Posted in » Freelance, Freelance Tools

Freelance Jobs you can’t miss!

I spent few hours in getting my hands on Drupal for a new idea I had with a site for Freelance Job Feeds. Before I talk about the site, let me tell you, Drupal is a lot different than any other CMSes (especially Joomla). Although I am new to Drupal, going around it was too time taking than I thought. But the modules I used for the purpose of this site were actually a great fit.

Coming back to the site I just made. You can look at it here: Freelance  Job Postings

The site is totally made in Drupal with major work involving with module Feed Aggregator. The site is built on a simple logic, all freelance job postings under one roof. I got RSS and Atom Feeds linked in to the site to provide real time job postings from sites like ifreelance.com, getafreelancer, elance.com, getacoder, rentacoder.com etc. Over the next few days I plan to spend some more time on design, layouts and better feed integration. Hopefully this site will benefit someone.

No Comments | Posted in » Drupal, Freelance, Freelance Tools, Project, eBusiness Ideas

If only I could grow money in my backyard

Today, the philosophical me was having good time thinking about how one’s life can change while in pursuit of wealth. Looking at myself few years back, I was never a reader, listener nor a thinker. Life has taught me valuable lessons throughout including importance of loving your family, loving what you do, and being honest to name a few. I wonder how things would be if one could just make money planting money in my backyard. One thing is for sure, it wont be this much fun to live.

Get on an adventure. Enjoy life!

No Comments | Posted in » Freelance

JPligger – Joomla & Pligg Integration Mambot

Current Version: 1.0 Beta

License: GPL

Description: This mambot will sync Joomla and Pligg login with ease.

Tested on: Joomla 1.0.13; CB 1.1; Pligg 9.8.2

Looking for JPligger for Joomla 1.5 and Pligg 9.9? See here.
Note : CB is not required for this mambot to work

Detail Description: This mambot will allow you to run Pligg inside Joomla using Wrapper. It will sync user registration, login and forgot password between Joomla, CB and Pligg.

Support: Community Driven and If I find time.

Ideal Installation:

• Use at your own risk! Backup first or use in test environment first.
• Install Joomla in root folder
• Install Pligg in /
• Note DB settings of Pligg
• Install JPligger Mambot in Joomla
• Visit its settings (In admin > Mambots > JPligger)
• Provide details of Pligg DB
• Publish and Save
• Hide Registration through Pligg. Instructions here: hide-pligg-registration.txt

Optional Information: Pligg inside Joomla wrapper

• Link your Pligg in Joomla wrapper
• Use on / in Wrapper Link Field
• Set width and height to 100%, no scrollbar, yes to auto height.
• Remove Pligg Header. Edit / /templates//header.tpl (Remove as much as you can. Trail and Error)
• Remove Pligg Footer. Edit / /templates//footer.tpl (Remove as much as you can. Trail and Error)
• Remove unwanted Siderbar modules. Edit / /templates//sidebar.tpl (Remove Login/Registration Module and others as much as you can. Trail and Error)
• Fit Pligg into wrapper:
  Edit CSS file of your Pligg template
  Find Contentbox and edit its width, find Sidebox and edit its width, find Wrap and edit its width
  Note: Depending on your joomla template width, set wrap width to max. Then split the max width between Contentbox and Sidebox. Also remember that there is padding in between so take that into account as well.
• Thats all you need but if you want to dig down and integrate fully, there are more things that can be done.

Download JPligger Mambot

Download JPligger Plugin for Joomla 1.5 and Pligg 9.9 here.

30 Comments | Posted in » Joomla, Pligg, Project, jpligger

PonyGallery Category Photos View (English)

This is a modification to PonyGallery ML 2.5.1′s exclusive module Modul PonyImages Version 1.0.4

This is its translation in English. If you are looking to download PonyGallery ML, please visit here.

I’ve spent hours translating this great module in English. You may download it ponyimage in english.

No Comments | Posted in » Joomla

BlackBerry Curve vs ATT Tilt

After getting a 1-800 number for my freelance business (btw, I do web development, if you haven’t noticed), I decided to invest on my business’s mobility. I am looking to upgrade my basic AT&T Wireless phone to a better performing PDA/SmartPhone. Since, I can’t change my phone number yet, I have to stick with AT&T and select one of their phone upgrades.

After researching a little on the available upgrades, I finally short listed 2 phones: BlackBerry Curve 8310 and AT&T Tilt. This article is produced as a summary of my research report. This comparison has many sources, and most of it is through various communities.
Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Posted in » Freelance, Freelance Tools, Review

Pligg – Joomla Integration Project

After my endless search for Pligg’s integration with Joomla, I have decided to work on it myself. For the simplicity of this project, I have very basic requirements. Later on, I plan to take this integration to the next level.

Requirements:

- Pligg included in Joomla CMS using Wrapper Module
- Common user login interface for Pligg + Joomla + Community Builder (CB)
- Common user registration system for Pligg + Joomla + Community Builder

I am assuming this project will take about one month to complete. If you have any ideas, you are most welcome to contribute.

I will update this post once I have updates for all.

Update: Project is now in Beta and can be downloaded from here: JPligger – Joomla and Pligg Integration

3 Comments | Posted in » Joomla, Pligg, Project

Why build a Facebook App?

Today while browsing through my fb account, I wonder how powerful and important facebook has become to all of us. It is like Gmail or a Cell Phone that we can’t live without. 2 years ago when fb was becoming increasingly popular, I was smiling on my own and never wanted to believe a social networking site would become so famous. But its true, with continuous innovation and correct use of Web 2.0, fb has proved me and many others like me completely wrong. Anyways, this post isnt about fb’s innovation but about building rich applications for fb.
Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments | Posted in » Sales & Marketing, eBusiness Ideas

Pligg – Search Sidebar

Here is an example how you can add search box in sidebar. Demo

Download the file here: Pligg – Search Sidebar

Instructions:-

• Create a backup of sidebar.tpl before proceeding
• Refer the attached file. To be used at your own risk.
• Create a new file and name it search.tpl in /template/<yourtemplate>/sidebar_modules/
• Copy the code into search.tpl
• Save the file.
• Open and edit sidebar.tpl file found in /template/<yourtemplate>/
• Append the code where ever you want the search box to appear in sidebar.
• Thats it. Visit your website to see the search box right in your sidebox.

1 Comment | Posted in » Pligg

Moving your Pligg Website

In my recent project with a client. I was involved in integrating Pligg with his existing website. The project mainly involved design and user login integration. Throughout the website there were many hick-ups and I got to learn a lot about Pligg. One of the tasks was to move the site from development server to live server. I thought this may will help a newbie to learn how to migrate or move a Pligg website.

• Create a backup. Yes, its very important to create a backup no matter what you do. If you are using cpanel then go to Backups > New backup > Full backup (files and database)
• Using an FTP client, download all the files from your root folder (public_html). This step is not required if you’re moving the site from localhost to live server.
• Using Phpmyadmin or equivalent software, export the database tables. This step is required even if the database is on localhost.
• Upload all the downloaded files to the new server. Either in root folder or sub-folder.
• Create the database and user. In cpanel, go to Databases > New Database and similarly create new user and map user to the database.
• Now open lib/dbconnect.php file in your favorite text editor (editplus, dreamweaver etc) and change the database connection strings as per your new database.
• CHMOD /cache and /template_c folders to 777.
• Edit your site name in /config.php
• Also, login to Pligg Administration, go to Configuration > Location >Update site url.

Thats it, visit your site and you should see it as it is. Test your site fully before launching or marketing it. If you land into any trouble do comment here and will try to help you out.

1 Comment | Posted in » Pligg