Twitter client for Ubuntu Linux

If you're looking for a twitter client for ubuntu, look no further than the ubuntu repository. In the add remove applications, if you search for twitter, it'll return three results: Twitter, gTwitter, and Twittux.

Get gTwitter.

This is the client I've been using with my ubuntu box.

The ubuntu client twitter is just a prism wrapped twitter. They suck. The Twittux would close the window if you click on the [x], although it does sit on the tray. I couldn't find any homepage for the two on google.

gTwitter, is almost like Twitterrific for the mac, but for ubuntu.

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Add post randomizer for blogger

When your blog post came up to the hundreds or even thousands, one day you'd want to let people click on random post. Or, maybe if your blog is a personal blog, and not a spam blog that aims only to suck traffic, you might one day want to flip thru your blog randomly, just like when you speed read thru your personal diary.

There are many ways to add this capabilities to blogger. One popular way is by adding a random I'm feeling lucky widget to your blog. However, I find that these clickable links are best put near your navigation buttons, not somewhere in your sidebar. In blogger, that is the older post, newer post and home button. Besides, it looks horrible to see a lone navigation button hovering in the middle of those stuff on the right.

So, what other ways can we use to achieve this? The most obvious is a blogger hack. I have sampled several blogger hacks that allowed this, however, some would get deleted if you change some layout and stuff on blogger. This hack has survived several blogger changes.

So, what you do, is, edit your templat HTML, make sure that expand widgets is selected, then add the following right before the </head> tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var _yourBlogUrl = "http://insertblogurl.blogspot.com";
function randomPost() {
var script = document.createElement("script");
script.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
var theUrl = _yourBlogUrl
+"/feeds/posts/summary?alt=json-in-script&callback=getTotalPostsCallback&start-index=1&max-results=1";
script.setAttribute("src", theUrl);
document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(script);
};

function getTotalPostsCallback(json) {
var totalResults = json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t;
if (totalResults > 0) {
getRandomPostNumber(totalResults);
}
};

function getRandomPostNumber(totalResults) {
var randomNumber = Math.floor((Math.random() * totalResults)
+ 1);
getRandomUrl(randomNumber);
};

function getRandomUrl(randomNumber) {
var script = document.createElement("script");
script.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
var theUrl = _yourBlogUrl
+"/feeds/posts/summary?alt=json-in-script&callback=getTheUrlCallback&start-index="
+ randomNumber + "&max-results=1";
script.setAttribute("src", theUrl);
document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(script);
};

function getTheUrlCallback(json) {
var theUrl = json.feed.entry[0].link[0].href;
window.location.href = theUrl;
}
//]]>
</script>

And then, add the following where you'd like the random link to appear in your blog.

<a href="javascript:randomPost();">View Random Post</a>

In my blog, I put it under

<div class='blog-pager' id='blog-pager'>

Please thank Purple Moggy for creating this code. :)

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XML error on swapping blog and post title on new blogger

UPDATE: This hack is no longer valid as you will not be able to add it to your blogger template.

When you search for a post in a blog, say, with google, does the search result shows the title of the post? Or the name of the blog? If you say the latter, which is the default condition for blogger, then you'll need to swap the blog title and the post title on your blog.

Jacky Supit, on his blog, posted New way to swap Blog Title and Post Title on New Blogger.

What is this, exactly? To put it simply, it's turning this:

Into this:

Now why would anyone try to do that? One might wonder. It doesn't seem to worth the effort. However, this little change can mean a lot. Putting the title of the post before your website title means that when people search for something and google returns your site, the title of the page presented to the user will not start with the title of your site. Which in my case would mean, because of the title's length, it'll take up most of the space available on google search to show the title of the page, like so:

Which means that the user would less likely to click on it because they don't see the title of the page representing the topic they'd want to see. Not only this is SEO, this is just common sense.

Now, to remedy this, you'll need to swap the titles. To do that, you'll just need go to your blogger dashboard, go to template > edit html. You will then need to select expand widget template, and then look for:

<title><data:blog.pagetitle/></title>

Like so:

That single line is the only thing you'll need to replace. However, the hack to achive our purpose, is not that simple. The code is provided on Jack Supit's blog post, however, some users (like me) has reported that it returns an XML error, like so:

Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Open quote is expected for attribute “{1}” associated with an element type “cond”.

So, after a bit of investigating, the code apparently contains some minor bugs. I think it's due to blogger's habit on changing punctuation marks. A little tweaking, and I managed to get the code to work on this blog. Here's the code that I end up using.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<b:section id='swaptitle'>
<b:widget id='Blog2' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>
<b:includable id='nextprev'/>
<b:includable id='backlinks' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='post' var='post'>
<title>
<data:post.title/> - <data:blog.title/>
</title>
</b:includable>
<b:includable id='commentDeleteIcon' var='comment'/>
<b:includable id='status-message'/>
<b:includable id='feedLinks'/>
<b:includable id='backlinkDeleteIcon' var='backlink'/>
<b:includable id='feedLinksBody' var='links'/>
<b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='comments' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='main' var='top'>
<b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
<b:include data='post' name='post'/>
</b:loop>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>
</b:section>
<b:else/><title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
</b:if>

If, somehow blogger decides to change some marks, here's a txt file of the code that you can download.

After that, just save the template and go see if it works.
The title hack only changes the titles of post pages, and not your main page.

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Melsa Morons Sent Me An Email

The melsa morons sent me an email apologizing for yesterday's downtime on their cable connection. The thing is, I'm no longer subscribed to their service, but somehow, apparently, my account is still active. AND, I'm glad I'm out of their fucking loop because I DID NOT experience any downtime yesterday due to me having moved to another MORE RELIABLE ISP.
If you're still using melsa: ENJOY YOUR EXPENSIVE SLOW UNRELIABLE INTERNET WITH EXTRA DOWNTIME, YOU IDIOT!


Dengan hormat,

Bersama surat ini kami sampaikan permohonan maaf sebesar-besarnya atas terputusnya koneksi layanan Melsa pada hari Rabu, 15 November 2007 pukul 00:15 WIB yang disebabkan oleh adanya gangguan pada Jaringan Inter City Link Bandung Jakarta Melsa.

Tim teknis kami telah mengambil tindakan lebih lanjut guna memperbaiki gangguan tersebut sehingga koneksi sudah kembali normal pada hari Rabu, 15 November 2007 pukul 02:00 WIB

Kami mohon maaf atas ketidaknyamanan ini.

Untuk informasi lebih lanjut, silahkan menghubungi Customer Service Melsa di nomor telepon (022) 4209418 atau Layanan helpdesk 24jam kami di nomor telepon (022) 4209413.

Terimakasih.



Hormat kami,

Melsa Customer Care
PT. Melvar Lintasnusa
Jl. Ir. H. Djuanda 43A Bandung 40116
Indonesia
T : 022-4209418 F : 022-4209408
email : melsacare@melsa.net.id

==============================

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Dear valued members,

We apologize for Melsa Kabel Network disruption on Wednesday, November 15th 2007 time 00:15 AM due to the network problem on Melsa Inter City Link Bandung Jakarta.

Our emergency response team immediately fix the problem. Melsa network connection back online at Wednesday 15th November 2007 at 02:00 AM.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.

For further information please contact Melsa Customer Service at (022) 4209418 or Technical Support at (022) 4209413.

Thank you.



Regards,

Melsa Customer Care
PT. Melvar Lintasnusa
Jl. Ir. H. Djuanda 43A Bandung 40116
Indonesia
T : 022-4209418 F : 022-4209408
email : melsacare@melsa.net.id

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ISP Change, or JANGAN PAKAI MELSA!!!

Finally, after about a week being offline, I'm back with a new ISP.

My old ISP, Melsa, did not came up to my expectation, I finally had enough of the traffic shaping and the instability of their network. Plus, you must agree to their spying on your online communications.

Here's a review of how Melsa, or Melvar Lintasnusa sucks: If you live in Bandung, and you want an unlimited broadband internet access, you have four options to your gateway to the internet. You can choose from Melsa, Centrin, Telkom or Indosat.

Here's a breakdown of their services.

	Melsa	Centrin	Indosat	Telkom
Name	Kabel Personal	KABELNET	IM2 Indosatnet	Telkom Speedy
Connection Type	ADSL/SDSL	ADSL	ADSL	ADSL
Advertised Download Speed up to	512 kbps***	256 kbps	384kbps*	384kbps
Actual download Speed	64 kbps	128 kbps	256 kbps**	384 kbps
Monthly fee (unlimited)	Rp 690.000 (SDSL) Rp 590.000 (ADSL)	Rp 499.000
Registration Fee	Rp 1.000.000 (SDSL) Rp 500.000(ADSL)	Rp. 1.000.000****	Gratis or Rp 200,000 (via partner network)	Rp 75.000
Security Deposit	Rp 500.000 (SDSL only) Refunded one month after contract termination.*****	NONE	NONE	NONE

*512kbps via IM2 PayTV, Jakarta only.
**I have yet to try this out, but it was reported at this speed.
***Their technical people admitted local (indonesia, or IIX only) speed at 384 kbps and 256 kbps for SDSL and ADSL resprectively.
****Not listed on webpage.
*****Not written in contract.

I KNOW I used melsa for more than a year, so, why am I disrecommending them when I've chosen their service in the first place? Well, when I registered with them, I was raking up to and above Rp1.000.000 in dialup internet. SO, I decided to use high speed broadband internet. But at the time, the only one with coverage in my area was Melsa. I thought, well, alright they said 512 kbps and at the price, it's quite a bargain. I registered when they were having free registration promotion so I only had to pay Rp 1.000.000 for the security deposit. The first disappointment was that they need three weeks to install the cable, and another week for Melsa technician to deliver the SDSL modem. (They didn't have ADSL at the time) Then after that, they plug in the wrong plug on their DSLAM and I had to wait another week for them to bring the modem back to me. They required a purchase of an APC protectNet which is only available from them in this demented city.

When Melsa technician setup the connection to my PC, he noted in a report the speed that I can get from that PC, which is 7.7 kB/s or 61.6 kbps with 44kB/s or 352kbps connection to melsa server. Evidence:

Not long after that I met up with a network admin of an online game center and he laughed when I told him I signed up with melsa internet. They had just terminated a contract with melsa because their network is unstable and switched to XL and Indosat.

And after that, disturbance after disturbance follows. Their network is very unstable. The connection at midnight is about 5 times faster than it is at noon due to network congestion at noon. Later I found out that if you connect via proxy, you can get faster connection at around 20-30 kB/s. Although they kept changing proxy number and settings.

So, to you all melsa user, please abuse melsa proxy and here's how you can get more bang for your wasted bucks; That is:

How to make your melsa internet connection faster:
Basically, use different proxy for every application you use.
If you use proxy3.melsa.net.id and proxy4.melsa.net.id you can achieve that speed. Sometimes, if you're lucky you can get speeds around 40 kB/s at midnight using proxy3.melsa.net.id or proxy4.melsa.net.id. With both, I can get full 768 kbps speed with a hacked modem and bittorrent. However, it will only last for a few hours at night and the speed will go down to the 10s kB/s rate. At one point, you can get more speed if you use proxy3.melsa.net.id and its IP number separately, say use proxy3.melsa.net.id in firefox, and the IP number for proxy3.melsa.net.id with bittorrent. However, you will overrun your max speed quota of 64kbps and your connection speed will suffer. That is the time it takes to connect to a server and ask for a download but you'll get "exorbetant" download speed.

The available proxies are:

1. proxy.melsa.net.id
2. proxy2.melsa.net.id
3. proxy3.melsa.net.id
4. proxy4.melsa.net.id
5. proxy5.melsa.net.id
6. proxy6.melsa.net.id

They always rotate their proxy, so keep experimenting.

The only downside is your upload port will get blocked when you use bittorrent and other user will not be able to connect to you but you can download from other people. Thus, even so you can download at speeds up to 50kB/s for a couple of hours at some nights, your seeding rate will suffer. (although, workarounds are available to solve this issue, but that's for another post.)

Every month I had to call their technical division asking for them to check the network and there'd always be problem with proxy or MAC address or whatever and the technical officer would give you improper settings because the network admin has changed something on their networks.
If you are a melsa user, notice that their speed is faster at mid month and is very slow at the end of the month until the beginning of the month.

The last straw came a few weeks ago when I was having very slow download speed. I tested downloading firefox from mozilla server and only got 0.1 kB/s speed. I called their 24 hour technical division and nobody picked up the phone for 4 hours. Later that day I called back and somebody picked up the phone and recommended a stupid solution to my problem and it was quite obviously didn't work because the problem was on their side of the network. I called back and nobody picked up the phone and so I called their customer service and a polite girl answered and told me that the entire technical service division was out. I was pissed. I terminated my contract that day. I had enough. Come to think of it I was quite patient with them, being their customer for more than a year putting up with all thier bullshit. But in the end, I needed something reliable that works.

The termination took a week of beureaucracy. They called me at least five times asking why I'm quitting melsa internet service. I told them they didn't deliver on their advertised speed and the network trouble was endless and I had hard time contacting their tech support. They wanted me to return the modem myself to sign some statements and I had to wait a month to get my security deposit back even though the contract explicitly said that I'd get my security deposit back when they got their modem. I told them they must send someone to take the SDSL modem and bring me the security deposit or I won't return the modem. Everytime they called, I told them that and their reply was always they'd consult the manager.

Today, telkom Speedy don't cost too much and it's available at my home, so, I signed up with Telkom Speedy, and currently, I can get speeds of 30-50 kB/s all day long. Depending on where I connect to, not how the ISP throttle my connection like melsa did.

To make the long story short, DO NOT get persuaded by their marketing campaign and discount. Melsa is the largest hotspot provider in Bandung, but even that is changing because telkom speedy hot spot is much cheaper (750.000 per mo. compared to around Rp4.000.000 at melsa) for the hotspot provider (be it, a cafe, a mall or a starbucks) to maintain. At this writing, melsa has just lost two hotspots at Bandung airport and D'Palm.

The only thing about telkom speedy is that you provide your own ADSL modem, and some non technical people buy cheap modems at regular modem prices and their connection suffer because of it. So, if you're using telkom speedy, and there's nothing telkom can do to fix your connection, make sure you use a good modem, like linksys (the one I'm using), SMC, belkin, Siemens or at least D-Link.

Another thing, if you'd care to read Melsa's Acceptable Use Policy, it's available online, but for some reason, I can't connect to open it. Anyway, in the AUP, you must agree to allow them to log anything use your internet traffic at their discretion, and you are not allowed to breate any bad thing about them and their employee. They can also cut connection to newsgroups (usenet) at their discretion. And they monitor internet messenger service traffic (like Yahoo Messenger or MSN messenger) at random and at their discretion, can block any communication using those protocols. Of course, your emails are monitored too.
Which I think violates some human and privacy rights. Which telkom does not claim to do, although, they will bow to the will of the police. Like all cowards terrorrized by the law.

Melsa AUP via the wayback machine: [link] It's significantly shorter than the printed matter:

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Gimp 2.4 Released, New Site

To celebrate the release of GIMP 2.4 and to scratch and item off the Long Overdue list, the Gimp team have refreshed the web site and released Gimp 2.4. Grab it now.

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Automatically Add Digg button to every post in Blogger or Blogspot

This is a step-by-step guide to automatically place a real-time Digg count and vote button to every single blog post. Digg is a social content website where your readers or you can submit content to. If you have a good story, members will 'digg' the post and write comments. As a blog owner, you may want to make it easy for and encourage your readers to submit and digg your articles.

(Click on title to see the steps/walkthrough)

This post is just so I remember where it is.

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