Orangescale.NET

When I use Blogger service few years ago, one of my favorite feature was FTP Publishing. Using this feature, I had Blogger publish my post to my own web hosting account. The main reason was that I can use my own custom domain for my Blogger-powered blog. If you’re using this, I think we had a same reason.

But, it was the time when blogging was not so easy like today. Right now, some people find that finding a free blog service is challenging. I mean, there are lots of options available. You can have WordPress.com, Posterous, Tumblr and more. Web hosting and domain service are also much cheaper. Most hosted service also offers a custom domain feature so that we can use our own domain using service’s infrastructure.

Blogger says that there are only 5% of active blogs published via FTP. And, it’s a reason to stop this feature. Probably, it’s a bad news for those 5% users. This FTP Publishing feature will not be supported after March 26, 2010. So, what should you do if you’re using FTP Publishing feature? You can switch to Blogger’s Custom Domain OR use the Blogspot.com domain. This migration tool will be available on February 22, 2010. All traffics will be redirected.

For this FTP Publishing related information, Blogger already setup a blog to give updates of the situation at http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com.

Automatic WordPress Backup (to Amazon S3)

Jan 3, 2010 at 4:13 am

Today, I tried another WordPress plugin called “Automatic WordPress Backup”. This plugin will help blog owners to create backup remotely to Amazon S3 service. Since I’m using it and pretty satisfied with the billing usage, I installed it at some WordPress-powered blogs I maintain.

I use one of the available buckets under my account. For this bucket, I set its ACL (Access Control List) to private, of course. After this plugin installed and activated, I only needed to put my Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

I decided not to include all files for my backup. I only need the database and uploaded contents. After the settings were saved, I simply hit the backup button. The process depends on the disk and database usage. I found that it was pretty fast. One of my backup files was around 300 MB, and it only took less than 5 minutes to complete the process. Also, the backup file was compressed. This should be useful to cut the usage process as you only need to store a single file for each backup.

The backup files will be automatically delivered to my Amazon S3 bucket and when the process completed, I can see the backup history. To download the backup, I only need to click on the backup links.

The backup links are built using pre-signed URLs so that only the account holder (or someone who knows the URLs) can download them.

Amazon S3 Billing Statement Sample

Dec 28, 2009 at 7:11 am

In last September, I started to use Amazon S3 for some experimental purposes. And, it’s not that difficult — of course, I only use some basic action. CloudBerry Explorer and S3Fox are really helpful. Now, if you want to know the billing calculation — just in case you’re interested to try Amazon S3 (also with CloudFront), I have uploaded a sample billing statement from Amazon (click the thumbnail to enlarge).

For me, I think the price is still reasonable. Anyway, CloudFront service is optional. Of course, this billing statement is not only based on my blog usage. I have multiple sites and accounts there. Not all of my backup files are also available for public.

Capture and Share from Mobile Devices

Dec 19, 2009 at 7:36 am

3 comments »

Now, I want to introduce another Posterous-powered blog. This time, there are more than one author — well, only two anyway. It’s called Capture and Share. I created this blog as a place to put my — and Lala — mobile streams. All posts in this blog are created using mobile devices (Nokia N78 and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic). But, not all of them are directly uploaded from the devices. Why? Well, we’re not using unlimited internet package for our devices. :)

Why Posterous? Because it just works. Sending photos, videos, screenshots from email is our option. And, Posterous handles this perfectly. Here are few things about the setup:

We use custom domain feature. It’s mobile.orangescale.com
Some theme modifications. Yes, we use custom theme, only adding few lines in the stylesheet
Created this Posterous blog as/with Group Profile

Of course, I will not leave my own Posterous page. So, meet Capture and Share at http://mobile.orangescale.com.

5,000+ Flickr Photos

Dec 18, 2009 at 8:21 am

This month, I saw that there are more than 5,000 photos in my Flickr photostream. In last October, there were 4,000 photos. So, in less than two months, there are more than 1,000 photos uploaded? Of course, not all of them are displayed for public. There are lots of private photos there. I think, the increasing number of photos happens after I purchased my Canon EOS 450D few months ago.

Here are some numbers related to my Flickr photostream — when I write this post:

5,403 photos in total: 3,872 public photos, 1,218 private photos, 18 friend-only photos, 262 family-only photos, 33 friend-and-family only photos.
In total, there are 5,400 photos and 3 videos. Right, Flickr also support videos.
About photo tagging, there are 2,914 photos with tags (2,489 untagged)
Sometime, I uploaded some photos with geotagging info. Also, I put some photos on the Flickr map. I have 849 photos geotagged.
I manage my photos in sets and 5,163 photos among total collections are in sets.
My photostream has 120 sets and 7 collections.
In December 2009, I uploaded 962 photos, but in September 2009 there was only one photos uploaded.
In total, I made 8 transactions (buying Flickr Pro credits). But, I only use two credits. The other credits were bought for my friends who want Flickr Pro upgrade (Flickr Gifts).

Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta: First Impression

Dec 17, 2009 at 11:37 am

Two days ago, I gave Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta a try on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This application will help Nokia users to keep update with the social media services — in this case Facebook and Twitter. Of course, it’s still in beta so I should not expect too much.

The installation process was easy and I didn’t have any problems. Everything was smooth. This early preview is available on the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5530, Nokia 5800, and the Nokia X6 devices. Go to messaging.nokia.com if you want to see applications from Nokia Messenging for your device.

After having this application installed, I used it right away. When running the application for the first time, I got this welcome screen:

I use Twitter more than Facebook. First, I use the Twitter feature. Here’s the login sreen:

Facebook Privacy Settings You Should Know

Dec 15, 2009 at 11:09 pm

I’m using Facebook, and found this useful post about privacy settings. In short:

Understand your friend lists
Remove yourself from Facebook search results
Remove yourself from Google
Avoid the infamous photo tag mistake
Protect your albums
Avoid the post-breakup Facebook effect
Control what information applications can access
Make contact information private
Avoid embarrassing wall posts
Keep friendships private

Of course, every user has its own privacy level settings. But, I think most of them are few good points to consider. See details about each setting.

Yahoo! Messenger Error: Locked Account?

Dec 11, 2009 at 6:28 pm

I have been using Yahoo! Messenger for few years, and I got a problem using it yesterday. The error dialog box gave me message like this:

There was a problem signing you in to Yahoo! Messenger.
Your account has been locked. Please click “Forgot Password…” to start the unlocking process. (81003003)

ym81003003

The problem was that I used it few hours before and everything was right. I’m using Yahoo! Messenger 10.0.0.1102-us. So, I tried to logged in to my Yahoo! account. Username and password combination did not work. Not good. I was sure that I put correct details. I tried again. And, it worked! And, when I went back to my Yahoo! Messenger and tried to log in, everything was back to normal. OK, there was a little problem there. Not sure what it was, but it’s fine now.

Google Mail Labs: Inserting images

Dec 9, 2009 at 4:49 am

I just enabled one of Google Mail Labs features. It’s “Inserting images” feature. What is it?

Allows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs. This lab will not work if you have offline enabled.

If you’re using Google Mail — I’m using Google Apps for domain, anyway — you can visit Google Labs page directly from your mail dashboard. The menu is at the upper right. Scroll down there to choose which labs features you want to activate.

glab_insert_image

Now, if you write an email in Rich Text format, you should see a new icon there. Click on the icon and you can choose the image you want to insert in your email. You can upload it first, or using a remote image address.

glab_insert_image_re

But, why did I enable this feature? For a simple reason: it helps me dealing with Posterous. Creating a new post by email to my Posterous page should be easier now.

Jogja Wall Nation: Mural Competition

Nov 11, 2009 at 10:43 am

There will be an event in Jogjakarta called “Jogja Wall Nation” this weekend (October 14-15). It’s a mural competition. The competition will take place in Malioboro area. What makes it different is that the event will start in the evening until early in the morning. I got news that right now (when I write this post), there are already 150+ registered participants.

Now, if you’re journalists, bloggers or social media users who want to come to this event, you’re all welcome. Malioboro street will be closed from around 10 PM (October 14th). If you want to know more about this event you send your questions/inquiries from its website or don’t hesitate to contact me directly. More info about this event can be found at Jogja Wall Nation official website.

Posterous’ New Dashboard

Nov 10, 2009 at 7:01 am

Right now, I only have an active Posterous-powered site. But, if you manage multiple posterous sites, you should love the improvements. Posterous introduced a new dashboard interface. This is a page where you can manage your Posterous sites easier. In September, Posterous already introduced some features. Now, you have more reasons to start using Posterous.

I like the changes anyway. The navigation help its users to identify the current active site they’re managing. Also, the new design is easier to navigate. All site-related menus are placed in a tab-style navigation.

The other additional menus are presented below. Previously, I think it was not easy to find the “Theme Settings”, now it’s clearly visible there. Great job, Posterous!

Also, if someone subscribe to your Posterous sites, they should get the new posts faster as Posterous now works together with PubSubHubbub.

In addition, we’ve just added support for PubSubHubbub with the help of our friends at Superfeedr. For everyone, this will mean your posts will appear in Google Reader much faster, as they’re gradually rolling out PubSubHubbub support. This is in addition to our SUP realtime support that we added to make your posts show up in FriendFeed even faster. Both SUP and PubSubHubbub are enabled now for all posterous blogs. If you’re a developer and want to take advantage of this, head on over to our PubSubHubbub hub. (source)

I’m not sure whether I will use this tool called Unfollow All or not, but right now, I don’t have plan to unfollow Twitter users I’m following. But, if I — or an account I maintain — need to do this, this tool should help me do the dirty job.

What is Unfollow All?

This tool will automatically unfollow everybody you’re following. There will be no further confirmation. Please be patient as this may take some time, depending on how many people you are following. After completion, unfollows may take some time to take affect.

(via)

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Error During Start

Nov 8, 2009 at 11:12 am

Yesterday, on my way home to Jogja from Jakarta, my Nokia 5800 didn’t work at all. Last time I checked before boarding — it was in Soekarno Hatta airport — it worked without any issue. I just switched to “Offline” mode. Few minutes after that, I only had blank white screen with the Nokia logo. Something was wrong, and I decided to switch off my phone. I waited after I touched Jogjakarta.

When I was in the airport in Jogjakarta, I tried to switch it on hoping that it’s back to normal. It gave me the same error. Nothing I could do. Damn! When I got home, I tried to find the solution, and I used these solutions.

Your memory card is corrupted.
Firstly hard reset your device without inserting the memory card. And after hard resetting just insert back your memory card.
If still the problem persits just attach your device to your PC in Mass Storage mode and right click your memorycard and select properties and select tools and select check now..i.e. scan disk your memory card for errors… (source)

This is what I did:

Switch off the phone and pull out the memory card.
Switch on the phone without memory card. It’s back to normal now.
Switch it off again and insert its memory card back, and turn it off.
It’s working again.

I was worried that the only solution was formatting my memory card. At least, next time I get this kind of problem, I should know what I must try. Is there any other solution to solve this kind of error?

4,000+ Flickr Photos

Oct 21, 2009 at 8:27 am

4,000+ Flickr photos

Last year, there were 2,000 photos in my Flickr photostream. And few days ago, I just noticed that I’ve been uploading another 2,000+ photos. So far, I’m satisfied with Flickr service — at least, I never experienced bad service. I bought a new camera few months ago (Canon EOS 450D), and I took more photos using it. The “problem” was that I don’t have too much time to upload many selected photos. This month, I decided to stop my other internet connection — yes, I use two internet providers in the last few months. The reason was simple: it was because I had to cut my internet budget.

I had no problem with my internet connection backup. In fact, I’m really satisfied with the upload speed. The upload speed also helped me working with my videoblog. Right now, I think I consider upload an download speed as “okay”. It’s not super fast. It’s okay. So, I need to be more patient dealing with uploading activity now. I’m using Telkom Speedy now.

Back to Flickr, I just realize that I need to work on the photo “sets” and “collections” management. Right now, I don’t have any “collections” for all my 4,000+ photos. All photos are managed only in “sets”. I’m still finding the best way to manage them.

Flickr’s New Photos Notification

Oct 21, 2009 at 2:25 am

I don’t know when Flickr rolled out this changes, but I see now that notification email subject about new photos from my Flickr contact is more useful now. Previously, when my contacts uploaded photos to their Flickr photostream, I get notification with subject like this: [Flickr] New items from friends.

Now email subject is something like: [Flickr] New items from {his/her name}. This is more useful because I can see who just uploaded the photos. Information delivered in the email is similar with the previous one, anyway.

Telkom Indonesia has a new logo

Oct 18, 2009 at 1:38 pm

36 comments »

TELKOM (PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk) introduced its new logo. Some people like it, some don’t. I personally like its old logo (compared to the newly-introduced one). This is the old logo:

And, meet the new logo below.

There are new philosophies, meaning and concepts behind this new logo — of course. But, when I saw it for the first time, I don’t like it that much. The first impression? I don’t know. Anyway, congratulation Telkom for your new logo. I hope you improve your service.

10 Reasons Why I Love Posterous

Oct 14, 2009 at 1:42 am

7 comments »

After using Posterous in the last few weeks more frequenlty, I feel that I like it more than before. It feels right. These are 10 reasons why I like Posterous — and why you should love it, too.

1. Email-friendly, of course

One of the internet feature I regularly check is email inbox. Sometime, I want to post something directly from email sent into my inbox. Posterous is about working directly from the email — web-based email or email clients.

2. Free

It’s a free service. Right now, I have 1 GB of free storage. Since it does not offer types of account (free or paid account), Posterous said that we can have more than 1 GB if we hit the limit. If I have to pay to get more storage or features, I will consider to subscribe. But, I hope it offers the right price/package. And, we can have multiple Posterous sites using a single email address.

3. Autopost

How many social media accounts I have? How to distribute or send something to those service easily — if I want to share something using those services? The autopost feature is just perfect. I can send photos to Flickr, send videos to YouTube, post something to my own blog. But, I can do them all automagically from Posterous. And, I can choose whether I want to share them directly or not. Or, I can share only to specific targets.

Posterous as Media Sharing Service

Oct 10, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Few weeks ago, I posted a question about media/image sharing provider as Twitter companion. I asked about the better solution between TwitPic or TweetPhoto. Andre Siregar (@dregar) mentioned about using Posterous as the image sharing provider. Right now, I’m enjoying Posterous. Posterous offers many features that are easy to use, especially — of course — when it has something to do with email.

When we share media files (photos/videos) — related to Twitter — the idea is to put the image somewhere in the internet, and broadcast the URL to our Twitter account. Most services offers similar mechanism. And, most of them also have ‘post by email’ feature. Now, I think I will use my Posterous account as my primary service to do this. The main reason is that I like using ’send by email’ feature.

Other reason is about personal preference. Posterous has flexibility on the design. I have made some modifications for my Posterous page. It’s still simple, anyway. Also, Posterous can handle multiple media formats so that it’s not limited to photos/image only, but audio, audio or any other files. If I want to share to Twitter — for example — I can do it easily using Autopost feature, or send it to a certain email address. Nice!

In 2009, Indonesian batik is inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Type of batik reinforced as World Heritage is a type of “batik tulis” (hand-written batik) and not “batik cap” (printed batik). See more photos about batik from my photoblog.

Posterouseptember: Posterous Features in September

Sep 25, 2009 at 5:55 pm

3 comments »

logo_posterous This September, Posterous blogging service released some new features and improvements. If you’re not familiar with Posterous — or never heard about it before, it’s a service that will help you put something online. You can post text, photos, videos and also documents. The big difference is that you can do it directly from your email. This service was launched back in July 2008. And, this is my Posterous page. If you have a Posterous account but you haven’t logged in for few months — or want to try it, here are some new features:

Feedburner feed tracking

If someone subscribe to your Posterous RSS feed, you can find out how many feed subscribers you have. This process should be easy because you can integrate your feed to Feedburner account. Using this, you can use all Feedburner’s features.

Autopost to Scribd

Posterous offers auto post ability. Using this, you can send your posts from Posterous to different websites/service. If you send a document, you can deliver it directly to Scribd.

Themes and Custom Themes!

If you want to have your own custom look for your Posterous page, you can do it easily now. There are some themes available. Once you select your theme, you can do some modifications like colors, custom image header, etc. If you’re good at HTML and CSS, and want to create your very own theme, an advanced customization feature is also available. For some people — at least for me — this is a killer feature!

Embed songs from Lala.com and videos from Viddler and Google Video

If you want to embed audio files from Lala.com and videos from Viddler and Google Video, you don’t have to deal with embed codes. Just put the links, and Posterous will do the rest for you.

Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 Windows Theme Mockups

Sep 25, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Mozilla just released its new theme screenshots for Mozilla Firefox 3.7 and 4.0. Compared to the current version — I’m using Firefox 3.5.3 — I think the design is much better. I like it. But, it’s still a mockup and it’s still far(?) from finish.

These are the mockups of Firefox 3.7 for Windows Vista/7 and XP:

And, this is for Mozilla Firefox 4.0.

More screenshots are available at Mozilla Wiki (Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 theme mockups). About the interface design, I think Opera has a great visual design.

Using CloudBerry Explorer to Manage Amazon S3 Account

Sep 24, 2009 at 3:52 am

In my previous post, I mentioned an Amazon S3 tool called CloudBerry S3 Explorer. I also have S3Fox organizer addon installed. I use them both, and I feel that I’m more comfortable with CloudBerry Explorer.

CloudBerry Explorer makes managing files in Amazon S3 storage EASY. By providing a user interface to Amazon S3 accounts, files, and buckets, CloudBerry lets you manage your files on cloud just as you would on your own local computer. (source)

Now, I want to share how I use CloudBerry S3 Explorer to manage my Amazon S3 Account.

CloudBerry Explorer is availble as a freeware software. We can download it for free. It offers many features we need to manage Amazon S3 account, from a simple to complicated tasks. After I downloaded and installed it, I can start using it. First, I need to add my Amazon S3 account into the application. Go to File > Amazon S3 Accounts.

Getting Started with Amazon S3

Sep 23, 2009 at 5:52 pm

3 comments »

Amazon Web Service Logo

After I signed up for Amazon S3 and CloudFront last week, I started to use it right away. Before that, I tried to get as many information as possible. It seemed easy. I had to deal with some new words like “bucket“, “Access Key ID“, and also “Secret Access Key“.

Amazon S3 — just like its name — is a storage service. What makes it different from “storage” in webhosting is that there is no FTP access. But, the mechanism of “moving your data to a storage server” is similar to FTP. In FTP, we will connect to your server using some basic information like hostname, username and password. In some cases, we will need an FTP port. And we can do it easily using FTP clients like Filezilla, CrossFTP, WinSCP, etc.

amazons3_keyid

Amazon S3 uses a little bit different process. Just imagine “Access Key ID” as “username”, and “Server Access Key” as the FTP password. Both information are generated by the system and they’re not easy to remember.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQGrIsYUm4c[/youtube]

Opera Mini 5 beta and Screenshots

Sep 16, 2009 at 5:20 pm

4 comments »

I just downloaded Opera Mini 5 beta for my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This new version of Opera Mini offers many new features like Speed Dial, Tabbed browsing, Password Manager, and much more. I think, “Tabbed browsing” feature is a super feature — with other new features, of course. If you want to download, you can go directly to m.opera.com/next/ from your phone web browser, or download it to computer first. Anyway, I still keep my Opera Mini 4 installed. So far, I’m happy with this new Opera Mini 5!

Here are some screenshots (click to enlarge):

300M Facebook Users

Sep 16, 2009 at 3:22 am

Two months ago, I heard that Facebook had 250 millions users in the system. Today, they just announced that there are more than 300 millions users. So, it’s like 50M new users in two months? The numbers is debatable — you know, duplicate accounts, real people, etc. But, the number is HUGE.

Just in case you want to get millions of Twitter followers. :) (via The Next Web)

Dear Yahoo! Meme, I think…

Sep 14, 2009 at 9:24 pm