Thank You God!

For guiding me in your path, for teaching me more of WordPress, keeping my server healthy and for blessing me with the best readers I could ever have. Be with me Lord! And help me fight the Hackers and Spam and all other forms of evil I might encounter on my way ahead.

Million Clues! is one year old.

On my last birthday, when I turned 20, I looked back and thought. What have I done with my 20 years? Though every moment was worth living for (school life, amazing friends and the celebrations), there was nothing I could point out as ‘something’. I turned 21 today, and here it is, my cute little space on the web, that I am a lot proud of!

Thank You all for being part of me, for all your support and words that kept me writing on and on.

A Little bit about Myself

To all the new readers: Hi, My name is Arun Basil Lal. I am a student in Engineering from India, who attend college with the sun and blog with the moon.

Am on Twitter and Facebook, add me up too. Thanks for reading this blog, I hope you are enjoying.

(About Page – FriendFeed – StumbeUpon – Digg)

Here I Stand

Some Statistics, I guess this is the right time to say:

• Total Published Posts: 125
• Comments: 1998 (I reply to all comments, so 999 comments from readers, about 8 comments per post)
• Visitors per month: 11k (for last 6 months)
• Top Traffic Soruces: Google > StumbeUpon > Yahoo > Twitter
• Google Page Rank: 4
• Best Alexa Average for 3 months: 83,365
• Twitter Followers: 245 (on @MillionClues profile)
• Total Guest Posts: 10

Suddenly Everyone wants a Blog…

“Total waste of time”, “You got nothing else to do?”, “No one is gonna read”. These are some of the comments I got when I was starting off with Blogging. Not many of my friends even cared to ask what I was doing. Oh! Reading and writing are not very popular subjects of discussion at college.

Now that I have started getting checks, everyone wants to know what I am doing, how I do it. Surprisingly, even some guys who never went online started asking. I like the treatment.

Was it worth the time? Hell, yea! Blogging looks like the best decision I ever made. Thank You all again!

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: Happy Birthday!

In January, 2009, I wrote a post which unintentionally turned out into a life changing post for me.

When StudioPress Themes (back then, it was called Revolution Themes), who had made their themes available for free download, decided to remove the free download links from their site, I uploaded all the themes I had in my collection and made it available for free download. I had the entire set with me and the post went popular in no time.

If I would judge myself as of today, that was something really crappy to do, but on that day, it felt perfectly OK. No, am not trying to repent over my mistake. Why should I?

• It brought me close to 400 visit’s a day for the next two months. It stood as a pillar post.
• It helped a lot in the SEO contest at Dollar Shower where I was the first runner-up.
• That one single post gave me the kind of revenue that made me believe for the first time, that I can actually make money online.
• It brought me in contact with people whom I still do work with.

The point is – The blunder I committed actually did Wonders.

Similar stuffs happen to me quite often. I guess am not alone.

Turn to what Steve Jobs said in his talk to the graduates at Stanford. Life is a Game of Dots, you never see the big picture until all dots are connected.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And Never brood over your blunders.

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: How often do you brood over your Blunders?

Remember Nokia 3310? It was the most user friendly phone in India back in 1999. I had purchased one in 2000 (Rs 5500 then! About $115) and it’s still in service! It has never been repaired and I have replaced the battery just twice. What more can you expect from such a low end phone?

I was reading about China’s Electronic Waste Village from a Yahoo Group Ritemail when I realized that, by not throwing away the phone, I was helping the world stay Green. Here is a snap from the Waste Village.

Disassembling Old Mobiles @ China's Electronic Waste Village

The village is unclean and the living conditions are pathetic. The problem of e-waste is very relevant and mobile manufacturers have already started making fully degradable gadgets. But what do we do with those already existing phones? Before you think of throwing away that old phone of yours, here are some suggestions.

Putting Old Mobile Phones into Good Use

Mod the phone and give it a facelift!
This is what I did with my Nokia 3310. I managed to get a funky case for the phone (see image, it’s a real photo!). The best part is that, every time someone sees my phone, they want to know where I got the case. It gets more attention than the Nokia 7610 I have.

Low end Phones are Secure
No phishing, No Virus alert and nothing to worry about. If you don’t use your phone for on-the-move emails or tweeting, then get that low end model from your closet and stay away loss of data, and loss of peace-of-mind.

Who wish to steal my Nokia 3310?
The phone has no resale value, you can’t sell it to anyone, and then who will steal it? So if you are traveling in a fully packed train, you should consider that cheap phone instead of your BlackBerry.

Use it as a Standby Phone
Even an iPhone can stop working at some point of time. Think of missing that important Valentines Day call? You don’t have to throw away the old phone, keep it as a standby phone. Remember to charge the battery once in a while to keep it healthy. Do you have a second mobile connection? Then I bet your old phone is already in service.

Nokia 3310 is good in coverage
This has been successfully tested in comparison with my Nokia 7610. 3310 could catch network signals when 7610 showed nothing.

Old is Gold
I adore my 3310 because it was the first mobile in the family. Back in 2000, not everyone in my neighborhood had a mobile phone, so it was a star in those days. After 5 or 10 years, many people wouldn’t have seen a Nokia 3310. So preserve it for your kids. Let them play with it!

More Ideas?

Do you have an old phone? What have you done with it? Share it here and yes, if you have images, send them to me. I will post them here

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: This is what I did with my Nokia 3310

Recently, I looked up the dictionary to find out what being social really was, and it explained social as, being in company, meeting people and sharing the spirit of a community. It all started after reading Breaking the Twitter Etiquettes by the Daily Blonde. Then I started thinking of the way I socialize online and I re-discovered myself. Here are some thoughts that make you judge how social you are online.

Do you follow the people who follow you on twitter? It’s the people who follow you who are genuinely interested in you, then why not follow them back? I had always thought that having more number of followers than the number of people you follow is something great. Well its not, it just shows that you are all about yourself, and you don’t love the community. Small differences is ok, but see those guys who have 1000+ followers and follow only 2 or 3?

When is the last time you clicked an Adsense ad? My answer would be a week ago. If you had asked me this question in 2004, I would answer an hour ago. After realizing that every click I make was costing someone, I was always cautious. (Well that’s the soft explanation; the evil answer is that I realized every click I make was giving someone something, how evil was I?)

In November, I had a peak in my Google Analytics stats, when Mani Karthik added me up into his friends list in Stumble Upon. Recently, I get lots of visits from Digg and SU. But I get very few diggs or stumbles. I was wondering, why they don’t really digg up the articles they read or give me a thumb’s up. It costs nothing, and a digg or a stumble takes no more than 2 seconds. I am not talking of the readers who reach in here via search or feed, but about those who come here via the social networks itself. Are you one of them?

I asked myself similar questions and found the answers. Here they go…

Love the Community and Thou shall be loved…

Here are some ways to enhance your social life online and get loved by the community. The more love you get, the more you are successful online.

• Submit pages you like to social networking sites that you are a part of. Don’t be lazy.
• Digg up every article that you read from Digg, a digg costs you nothing, not even a page load. Do the same with other social networks that you are active in.
• Before you complain that no one digg’s you or stumbles you, ask yourself, ‘How many people have I digged..?’
• Don’t copy, paste links from an Adsense ad. If you are interested in an ad, use it. Let the publisher get his part for showing off the ads. On the contrary, don’t click on ads that you have no interest in; someone is losing money with your clicks.
• On twitter, follow the people who follow you. Following someone else costs you nothing; you never know where you get an idea from. Remember that the people who follow you are the people who are interested in you. Also retweet those tweets which genuinely need attention. (Follow me here and let’s start socializing!)
• Leave comments on posts that you like or where you have a new point to make. You are not only inspiring the author, but you are serving the other readers too.
• Reply to every email that you read. You might be very busy, but it takes no more than 5 seconds to say a Thank you. And even a single word reply would make someone glad. (I remember how honored I was, when Amit Agarwal thanked me once, the mail just had the word ‘Thank You’)
• Never start off a conversation with a user on chat who has a red bulb ON (busy) without permission. And whenever someone asks permission for a chat when you are busy, it’s too offensive to stay silent, just ask, ‘What don’t we talk later..?’
• Always be creative enough to break the rules and etiquettes, but follow the ethics.
• Never lie. If you don’t like a post, say it is not good enough, if someone asks you about his site and you don’t like it, say you were not impressed. If you lie, you are not helping someone, you are just being nice. BTW, why do you have to lie? You have all the freedom in the digital world, make use of it.
• Talk to people, be what you really are, don’t wear a mask.
• Help someone everyday, teach someone something you know, they will love you for that.
• Promote others. By promoting them, you are promoting yourselves. Link to them wherever relevant, and don’t keep all your links nofollow.
• Respect others time, don’t keep them waiting for ever.

The bible says asks us to treat others the way you wish to be treated, that’s the key to be an ideal social netizen.

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: How to be an Ideal Social Netizen

A goal without a time limit is no goal, says John Chow. For the first time in my blogging career I am strategizing for a whole year. Here are the site goals of Million Clues! for 2009.

Things to Do in 2009

Increase the posting frequency to one post in 36 hours. This month, I had been doing one post in 48 hours. One in 36 hours means 20 posts a month and 240 posts in 2009

Reach to 1000 RSS readers. Presently the maximum recorded count is 105. That means about 900 new readers for the year 2009.

Improve Google Page Rank, Alexa and Technorati Rankings. Targets are Google PR 5, Alexa Rank below 100k (now around 500k) and Technorati rank below 100k (now around 400k).

Increase the monthly page views from 2500 to 15000. That’s 6 times more than the current hits; I will have to work harder

Host 15 Guest Posts. At present there are 2 guest posts from Jeen Hao. At the end of 2009 the targeted guest post count is 17. You can help me with this by writing a guest post.

Host 4 Contests. Besides contests like the one running now, I am thinking of giving out all the Entrecard credits to the readers every month.  4 contests means, one in every quarter, so stay tuned!

Publish my first theme, first plugin, first video and first eBook. I have started working on the eBook and the theme.

Get more active on Social Networking and Book marking sites like Stumble Upon, Digg and Delicious. Currently I am active in twitter alone.

Help a new Blogger setup his blog, find a affordable host and help him (or her!) find traffic.

Take a session at an offline social meet like a BarCamp or a BlogCamp.

Make more friends online. I don’t want to restrict this by any number, find maximum good and loyal friends. At present friends are the only returns I have from this blog.

Well, so there are lots of things to do. Now posting this online makes it a commitment and now I don’t have an excuse not to do any of this. So its good to make similar public posts, I think this is going to make me more responsible towards my goals.

Leave your site goals, (either links to your site goal post or the goals itself) here. Maybe we can think of a gift if you complete all your site goals for 2009.

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: Site Goals for 2009

Sometimes after being introduced to technology specialists or geeks (as we all like to call them), and when I realize that they don’t have a blog, I wonder, why they are not blogging. Probably they cannot find sufficient time owing to their hectic schedules.

This thought really struck me after I met Mr. Roshy M John, who is the Design Engineer at Wipro Technologies. He is a guy who designs robots and can teach you make your own bot. It is said that in the blogging world, Content is the king. He can write quality content, new and unique. And he should be a blogger, if time permits him.

I was trying to analyze who all should blog and I present my findings here. There are just personal observations, fell free to disagree or support it with your additions.

You should start blogging if any one of the following applies to you.

You should blog if…

You have inside access to technology and can provide insight into the design and production of gadgets and tools that the world would crave to hear about.
E.g.: You can write about the internals of an ipod or report first hand the design considerations of new software.

You are resourceful enough to give advice on anything that the masses use.
E.g.: You can provide 10 tips on safe use of mobile phones or provide a circuit of the design of a Line Following Robot.

After reading some articles on a popular blog, you feel that ‘I can write it better’ than this, or ‘I have some points to add to it’.
E.g.: After you read about a product review on one popular blog, you seem to find that the product is not good as it looks in the review; because you have had a first hand experience with the product.

You are passionate about one thing and would like to get an audience for your views.
E.g.: You are too passionate about Mobile phones in specific and you always can rate mobile phones and you never get bored talking about it.

People ask you for guidance on a specific matter, and you can satisfactorily help them out every single time.
E.g.: Your friends always ask you about computer related doubts and they consider you good at computers.

You wish to have a name and fame in the internet and would like your name site popping out when people google for you.
E.g.: See what you get when you google me

You wish to have a place to put in all your thoughts and get feedback on it, an escape after the long days work.

You wish to find like-minded people like you, make friends or publish your content without an editor in between.
E.g.: People who think like you and those who like your works will follow you. You can make lots of friends and there is no one to moderate your content. You are in total control.

If you belong to any of the above, you are someone who should be a blogger. Blogging is the best way the world can know you better and you can know others better. Money is just a by product. Doing what you love is not working, so if you are blogging about something that you are passionate about, you won’t feel the effort. And the real world responses will keep you writing.

Please add your thoughts to this and help me grow the list.

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: You are a must-be Blogger, if…

Greetings. At Million Clues! it has always been a pleasure to bring out content that some have found great application in their day-to-day life. Whether it has to do something with Mobile Phones, the Internet, your Computer or your Camera, you will find some unique content that you can find nowhere else on the blogosphere.

Here I present before you, the very best of Million Clues!

Most Popular Posts

• Get Free SMS from MyToday.com – Free SMS Service which gives SMS updates of News, Jokes and stuffs that look good on a cell phone.
• How to send free SMS via GPRS – Online services let you send free SMS using GPRS or from the web.

As you can see the SMS related posts get the maximum hits.

Tips and Tweaks

• The Complete Internet Pack – Must haves for Safer and Faster web browsing.
• Keeping your password secret – Tip to save your password from Keyboard logging softwares and hackers.
• Unblock Blocked Websites – Tweak to unblock popular blocked websites.
• Caring Optical Drives – Best Practices that can enhance the life of optical drives.
• Choosing the Right Camera – A buyers guide to Digital Cameras. One of the first posts.
• Email to SMS – How to send a Email to a mobile phone.

Blogger Tips and Tricks

• Best Blogging Practices and Search Engine Optimization – The name has it all. A guest post at VitaminCM.
• How to add a Reader Subscription Service (Not RSS) to your Blog – Guide to include a Reader Subscription Service in a blog, so that readers can subscribe via email.
• Creating an Email Contact Form – Tell you how to add a simple contact form, which can send the message directly to your inbox.
  
• Startup Advice For Fresh Bloggers – Just a bit of personal advice for Newbie Bloggers. Maybe I should tell them to start with WordPress too.
• Searching Blogs Faster – A tweak to quicken your blog search.

Mobile Users Guide

• Talk longer with long battery lives – 10 Tips to conserve mobile phones battery for the times you need it most.
• Got a wet phone..? – What should you do once your mobile gets wet..?
• Secret Spaces on your Nokia Phone – For those private things.

Got a Camera? Here is something

• Turn your Mobile into a spying device – A safe and free way to use your mobile to spy. Take the risk and have all the fun.
• Use your Digital Camera as Scanner – Don’t have a scanner? Then use your Digital Camera to scan.
• Motion Blur Real Life Backgrounds – You will love it if you get it right.
• Boom Boom! – Learn to disappear into thin air.
• Play with Lights – Trick to create Steak effects with moving lights.

If you are new in here, this is a quick start guide. For others, just check if you have missed something out.

Do not forget to tell me what you think. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.

Subscribe to Million Clues! : By Email | Get the Feed

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: The Best of Million Clues! – A Quick Start Guide

Million Clues! is a blog that had been live from October 04, 2006 at www.millionclues.blogspot.com. With the intention to enhance the user experience and enrich the reader base, millionclues.com was registered and has shifted to privately hosted WordPress platform (that’s where you are now!). I am setting up stuffs in here and I hope to be up and running in a couple of week’s time.

I would like to thank all those who have helped me and guided me for the past two years including webmasters and loyal readers.

See you all soon.

Sourced from: Million Clues! | Follow on Twitter | Fan on Facebook

Leave a Comment: Hello world!