New Facebook Layout explaine

20 March 2014. Facebook rolled out a yet another innovative new layout. While many aren’t pleased with the new user interface, some others feel that its going to help them build up their business as this interface would help their content reach out to the maximum.

The new timeline inspired layout may not seem much aspiring, but this post may change the way you look at it.

According to Facebook, the redesign of the Facebook Page Timeline layout is intended to help admins“find the tools they use most”,which can be seen as great step from the social networking giant. Though I would have liked them to redesign it to the interest of the readers.

The facebook layout in 2008

By now, you would have got an idea that the new Facebook layout has been optimized for the benefit of facebook pages, page owners and even visitors while ignoring the interest of random users. It’s not exactly so as the timeline view of help a reader navigate easily instead of jumping over to left and right like before. 

The news feed, where a user spends most of his time, is also getting a face-lift. The main feed stream is still located in the middle, but has been narrowed a bit in-order to provide more space to the left and right columns that provide the users a faster and accurate update to their activities. Thus Facebook has taken over a new four column layout. Believe it or not, this helps the users easily navigate through while keeping an eye on the related information as well.

The new facebook layout

The new layout isn’t much attractive or interactive but it does serve random users in a better manner than before. It’s a path toward being simpler, uniform, and similar no matter what device or location you are on.The facebook home page however remains untouched. Here are the major changes brought about by Facebook- 

1) The left column hasn’t undergone much of a change. It displays all the information that relates to the user- facebook apps, pages, groups etc. The main middle column shows the news feed. Next to it, lies a column divided into two. The top half of it shows the “trending now”, a kind of international news while the bottom half is dedicated to advertisements. The last column is the chat box displaying friends who are online and the activities of your friends and the people you follow.

2)  The news feed has been re-innovated. Each “news” is displayed as a separate block and thus each news can be differentiated individually by the user. The beloved “like” button has also undergone a transformation.

The new like button

3) Another addition is the new “smart URL” feature along with “smart tag”. The smart tag feature allows you to tag pages in your posts without adding the “@” or “#”. You got to try it out. The smart URL feature displays short information regarding the webpage and keeps away spam.

Verdict:  ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ seems to be the perfect fit here. And this is just my opinion about the new Facebook interface, what do you guys think? 

If you have any doubt regarding the new page layout go here 

- See more at: http://crazyandthecurious.blogspot.in/2014/04/new-facebook-layout-explained.html#sthash.wcrZfJSt.dpuf

Read more ...

How to use MTS MBlaze with Ubuntu Linux

How to use MTS MBlaze with Ubuntu Linux

May 25, 2013

I recently bought an MBlaze internet card from MTS India, and tried to use it with Ubuntu 12.10 despite the numerous how-to articles on the internet I was unable to connect to the internet.

Then I decided to call MTS Customer Service, I spoke to one Praveen who basically said they only support windows and will not support any other OS (although the accompanying hand book clearly states that MTS supports Windows, Linux and Mac) and its my responsibility as a buyer to configure it, also a support call would take 20 working hrs (approx 3 days) to get back to me. (one of the most horrible customer service agent I have spoken to thus far).

Now, the reason I’m writing this blog post is to help people who are looking to use the  MTS dongle with Ubuntu.

First off, when you plugin the card for the first time Ubuntu will detect the device as a ZTE USB modem.

Following are the configuration settings you need to make

1.  Go to Network Connection -> Mobile Broadband

2. Click Add and go through the regular setup process.

once done you will see a window something like this.

The configuration isn’t complete still, we need to edit this and allow the dongle to connect to the internet.

When you click on edit button you should see a window similar to this.

Now comes the setting changes

in the last tab (PPP Settings) you need to only enable “PAP, MSCHAPv2″ as the authentication methods, by default all the methods are selected.

next, unselect the data data and header compression check boxes, now the window should look like this

Once this setting is completed you can connect to the internet.

Read more ...

The coin tragedy

The coin tragedy 

One of the most important things our parents and teachers try in vain to teach us as kids is “understanding the value of money”. Every time we asked our parents for a penny to buy an ice-cream or any of those childish things, we were exposed to two long hours of lecture- on how our dads and moms put all their effort to support the family. Little do they know that each one of the words emitted by them at that time are effortlessly converted and penetrate into our ears in the form of ice-creams, chocolates and toys.

It is said that experience is the best teacher. The person who said these wise words might have, in his lifetime, gone through something like this:

Location:  a not very dense forest, Mayur vihar, Delhi, India.

Date: Somewhere in the month of may.

Out of the many enjoyable pastimes during the summer vacations, summer camp was the most awaited one. Not just was it an enjoyment for the kids but parents too, felt relieved in the absence of their 24x7 hungry young ones whose belly size was directly proportional with the number of holidays left.

This time the summer camp was fixed at a small lodge at Mayur vihar, not very far off from our actual place. Some of those whom I remember accompanying me were Abhishek, Mauli, Vasu, Sakshi, Avani, Ritik and others who are going to kill me for not mentioning their names here. Anyhow, after a fun-filled travel of one hour, we reached the palace we had been dreaming off since the announcement of the camp.

The first day passed with nothing but in remembering the names of children who had come from other units. It was obvious that we were in no need of knowing the names as we all had inherited the great skill of naming others on the basis of their physical characteristics. A fat bellied one would be “watermelon”, while one who showed no interest in eating was called “stickman” or “dhancha (skeleton)”. A heavily stretched one would be a “khamba (lamp post)” and so on. Now let me come to the story-

Sense of humor, a talent not possessed by every man. But Chandan(name changed) was not among the “every man”. He had been enriched with such a skill that while his mouth was shut, his body would tire hard to bring seventy millimeter smile on the face of viewers. Chandan had planned to take us along with him, to a nearby forest which of course was not home to the wild beasts. We reached the spot by four in the evening an after filling every square inch of our stomach with ice-creams (a by-product of Chandan’s almost empty wallet), we started off to see the beauty of that forest.  India is filled with architectural marvels, and one of the most popular among them is the Railway track. The sight of one such track would surely raise a doubt in you and you would come out with a suggestion- Why not put a “use-me” board alongside?

I don’t think we regarded it as a shooting spot but we soon found ourselves clicking pictures sitting on the tracks. The fun was short-lived as a train came head-on towards us with a rattling sound. We at once cleared the area and prepared ourselves to wave the passengers a good bye. And yes, we ended up waving goodbyes…….. to a goods train. The train had passed and we were chatting about those imaginary people who waved back at us. But one of us soon discovered that Chandan, with solid tears in his glary, deep eyes was searching for something. We were moved and we thought of helping him search for the thing which had been lost by Chandan. After about half an hour of futile search, we decided to ask him what he had lost. “ A fat five rupee coin”- he declared with his wet throat, finding it hard to control his tears. The search began again and one of us laid eyes on a bright shining thing on the steel track. The coin had been found but the only regret Chandan had was that it was of no more use to anyone. The fat coin was now thin and flat as no Indian roads are.

Read more ...