Geomatika for All » Open source

Mastering WordPress CMS

mervandi — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:03:23 +0000

As a blogger, i search many things to improve my way of blogging. As this far, i still use WordPress as a main CMS (Content Management System) for my blogs, although i have blogs on blogger/blogspot too. I found some amusement dealing with this WordPress, since the WordPress is an open-source and has many abilities to fulfill any blogger's needs.

As general, there are many kinds of blogger -from his/her intention to blog or his/her preferences to use WordPress as his/her blogging CMS. Some bloggers do the blogging "just" to share things, to socialize, to keep update and stay connected to his/her communities, etc. Many others use blogs to earn money either. And the great thing about this WordPress CMS is that it can be any blogs or websites as the blogger wants. It is pretty simple, yet powerful CMS.

There are many books, many tutorials have been written to explore and master WordPress. There are free resources and also paid ones. If you have money and intent to buy some learning resources, you can go here. With 40 videos, anybody will master WordPress easily, from zero to complete knowledge from the very start to have your own self-hosting blogs using WordPress. Here is a screenshot of the chapter and videos available:

Happy blogging using WordPress and thank you for reading..

Firefox Extensions for Blogging

mervandi — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:12:50 +0000

Recently, i'm searching for program to help me ease my blogging activities when finally i come to Firefox extension. I finally found some -oh sorry- so many Firefox extensions to use for easy blogging. Blogging activities can be divided into at least two activities supporting each other. Activity number one is: posting, and another one is reading. Posting is to write articles to post on your blog(s), while reading blog is searching information and materials for your blog (posting). Reading blog is -simply- known as blog walking. Those two kind of activities are -in my newbie experience- time consuming, and require tremendous efforts. While posting needs many literatures as base of our articles, reading blog (blog walking) needs effort on searching the suitable blogs or materials that suit with the posting topics and this means -of course- visiting all of the blogs have chosen before.
As a newbie, who has not earn any money or reward yet from this blogging activities, i found my self not so comfort with this effort. I have to online many hours a day, and visiting many blogs that sometimes doesn't agree with my topics. (But that's ok, since i need refreshment too by doing blog walking on different topic with mine).

Back again. After experiencing these -a little- tremendous efforts, i come to conclusion that i need helps. Not any kind of help for content -not right now- but it's rather than to ease my activities on writing (posting) and reading (blog walking) for some blogs i own.
Of course there are many ways doing this -in this term, ways meaning that could be done by me, myself or you yourself, no need other people helps this time. So, i began searching info and trying some program or software to ease me. I found some of the desktop softwares to post contents, some of them i even have tried by posting articles in this blog. I found they're interesting. Just to remind you that i've been posting to this blog using BlogJet and Post2Blog before. But still i want more. I want a tools that is some kind like integrated between posting and reading. Tool that no need for me to open several program to do these activities on the same time. What is it ? Is it there ?

Well, finally i come to Firefox. I love Firefox because of its stability and its open source (meaning free software). But more than that, i got realized that my blogging activities will be more ease by utilizing some of Firefox extensions (that are available tons of them). Here some of firefox extension i use, and i want to share with you. By the way, i should tell you that i'm using firefox 2.0.0.6 right now. And i'm writing this article using firefox (with its extension) either. Here are some valuable Firefox extension i use:

1. ScribeFire – useful for posting articles to blogs . Below is snapshot of ScribeFire:

2. BlogRovR – useful for reading blogs you choose. You can collect your favorite blogs and read them all (via RSS) right on your Firefox browser. Instead of opening those blogs one by one following the RSS, BlogRovR extension brings all new posts from your favorite blog on widget on your Firefox browser. Following new posts on your favorite blogs will be much easier ever .

3. Adsense Notifier – notify earning from adsense on your Firefox browser. Actually this extension is what the 'adsense lover' wants. With this extension no need to sign in google adsense every day just to view how much one earns. ~~Unfortunately, in my experience, i could not see the earning notification at the right bottom of my Firefox browser.~~ ~~But, it does not mean that the extension doesn't work anymore~~. Update: i can see my adsense earning displayed on the status bar of my firefox (i forgot to input my adsense user name and password before), but takes a hard time to show its update. Still, it worth to try in different environment, and please tell me when it works .

4. DownloadHelper – useful for download anything including you tube video. This extension more likely suitable for you blogger with rich multimedia content and youtube fans since you can download youtube video easily with this extension. Just download, install and activate it, you will be known if there are contents that could be downloaded using this extension .

5. Fast Video Download – useful for download videos.

6. Firefox Universal Uploader (FireUploader) – upload files to your hosting space.

7. GMail Checker – checking new email of GMail.

8. KGen – display document or website keywords.

9. Shareaholic – share anything you found in the internet to friends.

10. SnapShot – snap shot (pictures) on every pages on your browser.

11. Web Developer – adds menu and toolbar with various web developer tools.

All of these extensions are available for free. Some of them are open source program, and some others are free with an user agreement (free software not always open source software). But that's okay since they provide for free of charge.

All of these extensions can be found and downloaded at Mozilla Firefox website. Some magazine or bulletin have downloaded and compiled them for you on cd as gifts on their special edition. Now you can grab, try and comfort yourself with these extensions. And wait for future posts on these extension later on.

Of course some program may be suitable for some bloggers while others not. Everyone should read the information at every extension's page to decide which ones suite for one needs. This article just want to show you alternatives for easy blogging (software). No guaranteed promised that all program will work on your environment. You use it at your own risk.

ILWIS 3.4 Goes Open Source

mervandi — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:03:29 +0000

As an open source software user, I’m so glad to find out that more and more software and organizations support open source initiative. ‘My excitement goes from the top of some place very high’ (taken from dialogue in Cars –the movie- said by Luigi The Italian Car, an animation movie of Pixar Studio) whenever I hear this on GIS and its related software. One of GIS and remote Sensing software that goes open source is ILWIS start from version 3.4. I firstly noticed about this from http://lgis.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/ilwis-open-source/ (thanks to the owner) with a link to download. ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) is a PC-based GIS and Remote Sensing software developed by ITC (International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, http://www.itc.nl) of Nederland. “ILWIS 3.4 Open integrates image, vector and thematic data in one unique and powerful desktop package. It delivers a wide range of features including import/export, digitizing, editing, analysis and display of data, as well as production of quality maps.” (http://52north.org).

Before become an open source software, ILWIS was a low-cost software and has a wide user community already. But, in order to create better opportunities for the reuse and deployment of GIS functionality in a wider community, the ITC directorate has recently decided to make current ILWIS software free of charge and to migrate it as such to open source software under the 52°North initiative (http://52north.org).

52°North Initiative for Geospatial Open Source Software GmbH is an international research and development company whose mission is to promote the conception, development and application of free open source geo-software for research, education, training and practical use. 52°North backs an open initiative, which is driven by leading research organizations and individuals in the international GIS field. …. Our software is published under the GNU General Public License (GPL), but is also available via a dual licensing model for those who would like to tightly integrate our software into their own commercial software products.

Further info:

- http://lgis.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/ilwis-open-source/

- http://www.itc.nl/news_events/archive/research/0011.asp

- http://52north.org

- http://gismatters.blogspot.com/2006/10/open-source-gis-52north-and-esri.html