Domain Maximus

Voila! Finally we are up and running!

And, deyvame!, was it a challenge.

I am what you would call a man of detail. I like to do my research and all my homework before I set out to do something. So merely moments after I decided that blogger was passe and a domain of my own was the way to go I was on the interweb looking out for the perfect combination of looks, usability and economy for my new blogging system.

Soon I had a decent idea of what I was looking for. A vast Google search for “high quality back-end” yielded many many interesting results that took me the better part of a week to get through. (I could have done this faster but I work to a strict schedule everyday after my wife has gone to sleep.)

Every search result I read carefully. I downloaded pictures and videos and even took printouts of several outstanding back-ends.

Finally I had zeroed in on Wordpress, got the domain nicely paid for and sat down to the business of designing a template. For another week I struggled with PHP, HTML, CSS, XHTML, AJAX, DTDC, BEST and, god knows, ABVP before I had a wonderful little template that oozed class and refinement.

I showed it to the missus.

Missus: “You did this?”
SSV: “Yup. Nifty yes?”
Missus: “Hmm… is that a yellow tractor running up and down the footer area?”
SSV: “Of course not! How classless do you think I am? That is a Combined Harvester dear…”
Missus: “Why would you this to the world?”
SSV:
Missus: <Shift-delete>
SSV:

Soon she made me this warm and friendly little thing you see here. It is everything I wanted. Clean, neat, not too bright, pleasant coloured, much more loaded with widgets and technology than immediately appears and, most importantly, light on the net and unimposing on the actual content in the middle.

Me likes very very much. It is a brilliant template. And I am not saying this because she is standing right behind me with a coffee table book on “Happy Married Life” held menacingly.

You will, obviously, see incremental little changes on the template as time passes. Mostly in colour and some layouts and things.

But the real change will be, hopefully, in my posting frequency. Honestly I don’t write half the time half as much as I should like and I like less than half my posts half as much as I should like to.

So this time I will try to change things around here a little bit. I will try to post a little something everyday. Maybe not a full blogpost. But snippets of news, links, pictures and other such esoterica.

Original or not, I am sure everything will amuse you, my dear reader.

Of course it is not all altruistic. I am looking to use the blog as a proper vehicle for my writing and consulting work. Therefore you will find links above to pages that showcase my non-blog writing and my contact details as well.

So there. Nothing as refreshing as a fresh new beginning eh? Hope you enjoy things here as much as you did back at Domain Maximus 1.0. Who knows? Things could get even better here.

So full steam and onward ho!

p.s. The guy in the banner is Parthsarathy Kalasalingus.

p.s.s. ‘Whatay’ is a word with much meaning and significance.

p.s.s.s. More on both in time.

Busy busy couple of days. Travelling up and down fuelled only on vada pav, kothimbir vadi and fish and cilantro clear soup. Was in Pune for a bit. (And Arpit before you go ballistic I tried asking around for your number and could not find it on dbabble either.)

Recently I spent a good day checking out wordpress and wondering if I should just migrate the whole thing there. Then I decided I would be creating maha pain for the thousands of blogs that link to the 14 blogs that link here.

So that idea got ditched.

So now I am just trying to get blogger to do unheard of fancy things with CSS, AJAX, HTML, XHTML, IUML, PMK and so on. (Though I think I will go for one of those Wordpress layouts with the tabs on top and all. Want to create multiple channels: blogs, links, news, pictures and videos of myself. Relevant stuff.)

Not ruling out a move to an exclusive domain sometime in the future though.

Book Update: Tons of people have been asking me what happened to my book. Well I had to stash that away during that small distraction of getting married. And then subsequently I got caught up in the vaccuming, laundry, roti making. gobi plucking and things like that. But I am glad to say that things are back on track. And I should be able to rake in the moolah in another six months or so.

But in the meantime I want a few of you fresh, young just-post-MBA recruit type guys to send me some of your stories from the workplace. Not the usual Dilbert type nincompoopery. I want those stories which have a typical Indian angle to them. Things involving Human Resources, Interviews, Annual Apprasials, PSUs, the Underworld etc. are particularly welcome. You will be suitably rewarded. Bhai guarantees it.

Hafta Magazine Update: Thousands of people on a daily basis read articles posted on Hafta Magazine and Rediff.com combined. But we have had our fair share of problems. Upload issues. RSS feeds went bad. Formatting. Etc. etc.

A lot of you came in with feedback. And we are now trying to implement all of them. We are working on the format a bit. Then there’s the text editors and upload system. And the entire value proposition in general. In the hurry to put out articles we sort of lost our way in terms of keeping the audience interested. So give us a little time to do that. A couple of weeks at best.

We are therefore trying to now get onboard a fresh group of writers to support our existing bunch. I know a LOT of you mailed me last year. But this time it would be great if some of you could send across pieces of writing as well. Or links to your best blog posts. Mail them to sidinsv@haftamag.com. (Yes we have upgraded the email system as well. Works on Google Apps now. Lost hajaar emails on the old domain-supported one.)

Pitch in. There is a nice bunch of people on board already. And besides we need the help.

NOW QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Somewhere in Navi Mumbai. Just before a Siemens office. (Maybe in Vashi.) There is a hotel by the name of “Hotel Threestar”. That’s the actual name. And it looks decent too.

What would they do if, god forbid, one day they became an actual four-star hotel?

“Hello Hotel Threestar. How can I help you?”
“Hello is this Threestar?”
“No sir we are now four-star…”
“Oh. Sorry wrong number.”

I was just wondering.

Dear Peoples

Drop in a line if any of you can help me with a good book agent. I think my book might be ready to be picked up for several millions of dollars. Or rupees.

Many thanks

Me