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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Paypal is the website meant for online money transactions...Bloggers admins can integrate paypal donation buttons on blog in order to recieve donations from their readers ( in case the readers want to donate ). Well here is the code which you can copy and paste in to your blog to incorporate the paypal donation button
In the above code replace xxxxxx with your paypal E-mail id ( You have to create an account on paypal )
Thursday, June 19, 2008
As a blogger you must have registered for a couple of services to handle your feeds e.g feedburner .
You can go on to these sites and tick the checkbox for the sites you wanna ping for your updated content and a notification will be sent to them to update their data correspondingly.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
As I had written before about the way of tracing the amount of page loads , and the amount of unique viewers who have come to you webpage is to install a sitemeter ( in case you dont have google adsense on to your blog / site).
There are various sites which provide you with sitemeters that can help trace about the unique visits , page loads and a lot of other things which can be more than suffcient for a blogger to understand the traffic activity on his blog.
Here are some major websites that provide hits counters for you webpage :-
1. http://www.easycounter.com/
2. http://www.histats.com/
3. http://www.freestatscounter.com/
4. http://www.activemeter.com/
5. http://www.onestatfree.com/
6. http://www.sitemeter.com/
7. http://www.tinycounter.com/
All of the above websites provide fairly good website counters though my personal favourite is HISTATS where you can find a lot of options ( even animated counters ).
Just register on one of these sites , get the code ....Paste it in the HTML of your blog....DONE !!!!
Still got problems with installation - mail me at kinglife50@gmail.com
During my experience as a bloggers i have come across bloggers who are interested to put up a REVIEW WIDGET on to their blogs so that they can get user feedback in case the viewers do not leave comments.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Originally known only for its breathtaking demo of an exploding gas station shown in video form at E3 2005(and later, a demo of a car being shot up in a different CES 2006 presentation) , this game eventually was revealed as Eight Days, a crime epic from SCE Studios London. Set in the desert of Arizona, the game features eight days in the bad times of the criminal element. The game features open environments that you can run in, with fully-modeled buildings that you can exploit when the action gets too heavy on the streets and outskirts.
Despite the splash of its debut trailer at E3 2006, Eight Days was never shown to public again, and despite anticipation for the title, the game was put on indefinite hold in June of 2008.
Content Source : http://ps3.ign.com/
One of the most common ( important too ) ways to build traffic on your site/blog is to get higher search engine ranking , so when your site results come out in the search results... You can be assured of some traffic coming on to your page.
I already included a tutorial on traffic exchane to help you increase that traffic count.
Apart from traffic exchange SEO if one of the best methods to generate traffic till your site/blog is popular enough that it gets URL traffic ( i.e people directly type the URL in the address bar)
So i would suggest you read all my SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tutorials.
Monday, June 16, 2008
I included this tutorial for bloggers who are more inclined towards earnings from search results while simultaneously helping their readers to search the web as well.
Here is how you get a google adsense search box :-
1. Login to you asense account ( You have to be a adsense user !! ).
2. Click the 'adsense setup' tab right next to the 'reports' tab.
3. Choose the second option - Adsense for search
4. Now just keep following the instructions of choosing you colour and some other customization and at the end you will get the option to generate the code.
5. Once you generate the code ... Copy / Paste it into you blogs (blogger) HTML/Javascript page element and ...........DONE!!!
If you still dont get the search box or have problems with its height/width parametres then you can just edit the HTML yourself and in case you dont how........ ask me at kinglife50@gmail.com
Bloggers have shown keen interest in having a search box on their blog so that there readers can search anything at the same page and which may help to promote their traffic ( thats what they suppose !!!! ).
So , I have decided to include this tutorial to integrate a google search box in to your blog . If one is familier with HTML then it is pretty easy to make your own search box . However , most percentage of bloggers are not programmers so here is the HTML code that you can directly put into your blog : -
Replace YOURSITE with the address of your blog and paste the code in the HTML of the blog .
Save the template.....DONE !!!!
This is what we call the 'CUSTOM GOOGLE SEARCH BOX' . In this you can add more sites to be searched for your readers ( I assume you know how to do that...If you dont ..MAIL ME!! )
However , if you want the Google adsense search box which can generate earnings on the basis of search made by your viewers , then read my tutorial ... GOOGLE ADSENSE SEARCH BOX
To check your pagerank on the google index go to http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
To check your page rank you have to first submit your site/blog to Google index . In case you have a blog then you can directly go to http://blogsearch.google.com/ping
More SEO help very soon...
All of the bloggers/ site administraters do need to get a better seach engine ranking to increase their traffic...Well here is a tutorial that i suppose will help you to optimize your site/blog according to the search engine requirements.
First of all you need to check wether your site/blog has been indexed by google crawlers...
GOOGLE
# Google indexed pages
Enter your blog/site URL after the word site: to view the indexed pages in Google.
# Google backlinks
Enter URL after the word link: for details of the backlinks to your site.
MSN
# Msn indexed pages
Enter URL after the word site: to view the indexed pages in MSN.
Enter your site's URL to see the Inlinks or backlinks of your site.
ALEXA RANKINGS
Alexa is a website which basically monitors the traffic graph of many top sites on the net . You can view the traffic graph of your site by entering your URL below and clicking the the 'Alexa' button.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Some bloggers do not feel the immediate need to register for google adsense ....and therefore there is no actual method for them to know the amount of page loads of their site per day except placing a counter which records page loads or clicks on links that point to your site.
One such traffic tracing method is to get a STATCOUNTER for your site.
You can register at WWW.STATCOUNTER.COM and get a counter to trace your site page loads.
Here i have included a script to place a statcounter on your site/blog. You can paste it in your HTML code and if you like it , then you can register and get your own code .
I had mentioned about the "SEARCH TERM SUGGESTION TOOL" in the last update.
You can use this tool to calculate keyword density of your site/blog.
KEYWORDS - The words which are used on search engines to search for content (maybe the content that your site includes ) ...
So in order to boost your search engine ranking you can search for keywords used on search engines for content related to te content on your site/blog .
One such "SEARCH TERM SUGGESTION TOOL" is located at http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
This is a free tool and can be used by anyone. However , there are paid keyword tools as well which do a much deep evaluation and give you results which can most probably help you boost your site traffic through search engine results.
One of such tool is WORDTRACKER (www.wordtracker.com) . You can register on daily or weekly basis to track the keywords used in search engine queries and optimize your site on the basis of the results . (Its not too costly )
For more FREE optimization tips contact me at kinglife50@gmail.com
SEO tools can play an important role in the search engine ranking of your blog/site . However , i cannot comment on softwares sold on the net that claim to make thousands of links of your site on the net , but there are free tools that can give you some hints on optimizing for higher traffic .
One of them is the KEYWORD DENSITY CHECKER... and this basically calculates KEI(keyword effectiveness index)
You can use this tool to search 'how many time a particular keyword appears in your page' .
Here i have included the 'keyword density checker' for your help -
Some of you who are unfamilier with search engine optimization might be wondering about , how the keyword densite check helps you in promoting you traffic .
Well , in order to make full use of the keyword density you need something called a "SEARCH TERM SUGGESTION TOOL" - Tutorial coming soon......
Friday, June 13, 2008
You can use these free web tools and resources to promote your website and gain more visitors to your web page.
1. Keyword density checker
2. Google development tools
3. Link popularity tool
4. Meta tag generator
5. Dead & Broken link check tool
For more such SEO tools that can further help promote your site traffic.....check out
TRAFFIC EXCHANGE is considered one of the best ways to generate traffic for your site apart from search engine rankings ( and paid links ) .
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION(SEO) is one of the most common requirements or basically the needs of the people who work online on websites or blogs . SEO forms an important part of the site development process as it helps in providing better pageranks on search engines like google , yahoo , MSN ...which means more TRAFFIC !!!!
SEO is not an alien concept . Its just basic changes in HTML combined with good site linkages , keywords and some more stuff , which if done properly can give your site a good ranking in no time ( Ofcourse the content has to be good ).
One of the most common ( a little old too ) method is adding <meta> tags in between the <head></head> tags of your document.
Those with little or no knowledge of HTML need not worry as i will give you complete step by step instructions.
# META tags for description
Locate the tag in the HTML of your website...it should be close to the top ( search for it by pressing ctrl+f ). Once you find it then add the following line of code after <head> and before the </head> tag .
<meta name="description" content="Information about your site or blog" />
In the content section place information about your site/blog in about 200 characters...
This will definately help google and other search engines in finding out about the matter on the site and what is the site actually about .
# META tags for keywords
Locate tag as described above and then addt the followind lines of code :
<meta name="keywords" content="keywords related to the content of your site" />
Here in the content section ... write keywords separated by commas( , ) that you think best describes the content of your website and the ones you think people would use while searhing in the various search engines (one keyword should not be more than two words) .
If you encounter any troubles then drop me a mail at kinglife50@gmail.com .
Bloggers are always in search of new ways to promote their blog..and so adding your blog to a social networking site which recieves a lot of traffic every day is not that bad an idea after all.
So i figured out how to add your blog to facebook..which may help in promoting your blog.
To add your blog to facebook...
Firstly create a Facebook account if you do not have one . After registering with a valid email address you can join the networks you are interested in to connect with people of similar interests. You can customize your profile to be private or public .
# Put the blog in your profile
To add the blog to you profile go to http://apps.facebook.com/flogblog/home.php . Add your blog feed URL here and specify how much blog posts you want to display in your profile .
Save the settings and......... DONE!!
Now each time anybody views your profile they will be able to see your blog posts...
# Blog link in your profile
New applications are developed everyday. In order to promote your blog and search for new applications by typing in the word 'blog' in the search box above the 'Applications' link in the sidebar. Select the application you want and then click 'Add Application' to set the settings and add it to your profile. There are applications which can even add a screenshot of your blog.
For any further reference drop me a mail at kinglife50@gmail.com
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Lot of new bloggers are fascinated by the idea of having a widget that shows the recent viewers of their blog and want to get it for their own blog as well...
Well its the one of the easiest things to get for your blog..Here is how you do it -
There are two sites providing recent viewers widget to add on to your blog :
1. http://www.mybloglog.com/
2. http://www.blogcatalog.com/
Just go to one of the above links and register an account there...Thats it !!!
Now just look around to find the widgets section on the page and get the code for the recent viewers widget.
Copy/Paste the code in your blog page and you will have it running immediately...
If you are confused in choosing one out of the two , then i suggest reading this - www.ianfernando.com/2007/blog-catalog-vs-mybloglog-review/
Many bloggers are interested in placing amazon ads on their blog...and while overviewing the content i concluded that there is actually there is harly any help for bloggers on 'how to get amazon.com ads on your blog' ..
So i decided to make a tutorial for it ......Here is how you can do it....
1. Go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
2. Register an account if you are a new visitor or SIGN in ...if you have an account already.
3. Now just log in with your new account and choose the categories of products you want to display an AD for....and then obtain the HTML code for it (will be given by amazon only )
4. Thats almost it....now just add it to your blog and your ads are up and running....
Monday, June 9, 2008
Polyphony Digital has long been the king of simulation racing. Its Gran Turismo franchise broke onto the scene a decade ago on the original PlayStation and revolutionized what a videogame racing title could be. The second game pushed the envelope, while the third and fourth hit the PlayStation 2 and pushed the genre to unparalleled heights. Some 47 million shipped copies later, Gran Turismo is making its first official "full" release on the PlayStation 3 with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
One thing that you won't find in GT5 Prologue is license tests. Rather than having to complete a series of tests to earn the right to race, you can jump right into the C class events. Completing all of those unlocks the B class, which leads to the A and then S classes. Each class contains 10 events which can be played in any order and range from standard races to a time trial to having to run from last place to first in a single race.
The progression is pretty good, and I dig the way things are laid out quite a bit. It's easy to tell if your currently selected ride can compete as a flag next to each race will be grayed out if you can't enter. However, the amount of cash that you earn from each race doesn't scale as well as I'd like, so in order to complete every race in the game you'll have to do some serious grinding for cash in order to simply be able to afford the cars you need. The bare-minimum ride selection will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million credits, while the biggest payoff you'll get for any race is around 30k credits. Considering that most of the races pay far less than this, you're looking at a whole lot of repeat laps in order to fill your stable with only the required rides, much less the ones that you just want to own. And if you want to buy the Ferrari F2007 formula car for 2 million credits, well, you'll be driving for a while.
While the previous games, and especially Gran Turismo 4, felt great, they're nothing compared to GT5 Prologue. Each car has its own, very distinct feel. In other games, upgrading to a more powerful vehicle may simply give you a higher top speed, better acceleration or tighter cornering, but Gran Turismo gives you much more than that. You actually get a sense of how the weight is distributed simply from driving a car, with Polyphony pulling off some sort of magic trick as cars actually feel like they have weight to them. Not just mass, but correct and region-specific weight. It's something that's hard to describe with words, but, again, once you've taken a few laps in a Ferrari F430, you'll know what I mean.
Though the track count is limited to a total of six selections, all of the courses are great fun. Even the Daytona Speedway, which is just an oval in its basic setup, becomes interesting to drive when you switch to its largely road-based alternative setup. The cream of the crop in terms of visuals is definitely London, which shows off Prologue's impeccable lighting model. And it's certainly no slouch of a raceway, either.
Prologue is not necessarily a game for someone who wasn't quite into Gran Turismo in the past and is thinking of giving it another go (that'll be the full GT5 release next year), but it's definitely a worthy pickup for fans of the franchise.
Some bloggers feel a need to add Google ads in between their blog posts ... maybe to increase the amount of ads click or maybe its just more appealing to them.
So here i have discovered this hack to add Google ads between your posts. You can even add elements other than ads in the same manner...
First of all you need to get the adsense code from Google which i believe you already have . So here is how you can carry out this hack : -
1. Go to dashboard->layout->EDIT HTML
2. Tick on expand widget templates
3. Locate this line of code
4. The <data:post.body/> line that you see in the above code is what contains the content of your post.
5. Now copy the code that you have got from google and paste it just below the <data:post.body/> line before the </p> tag.
6. Save the template........DONE !!!!!
In the same manner you can also add lot of other elements between blog posts......ENJOY !!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
If your blog is targeted to a broader horizon of viewers , then it sometimes becomes essential to provide a language translation option which can in turn help promoting your blog traffic too ......
The most popular Web-based language translation tools are offered by Google, AltaVista Babelfish and WorldLingo. Using these services, web audiences who speak English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean or Russian will be able to translate websites into their own native language.
There are two methods to let your visitors translate your website in a different language :
1. All these services provide a translation box. To translate a webpage, you can simply go to one of these and type in the URL of the website you want to translate, choose the source and target language, and click the Translate button. (World Lingo, Google Translate, BabelFish Translate)
2.You can also integrate the translation form in the website itself so that the users doesnt have to visit any external page for translation. Your web visitors will be able to translate foreign language content into their native language by simply clicking the country flag icon. (Notice the top right corner of this page to see the various country flag icons).
Make a HTML/javascript element and simply cut and paste the following code into it :
# Alta Vista Babel Fish :
Babel Fish Translate is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Just add the following single line of JavaScript code :
#Google Translate :
Available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified). Remember to replace the value of variable "w" with the URL of your website. The translated pages can even be bookmarked.
#World Lingo URL Translator
World Lingo is a beneficial service since Google indexes the static URLs translated by World Lingo. Thus,your website can be found on Google even if the search is for non-english terms. World Lingo supports English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese , Japanese, Korean and Russian.
wl_url=<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$> in the URL will need to change if your blog is hosted on another service like Typepad or Wordpress.
In order to promote your page loads and increase the amount of traffic to your blog ....its becomes almost essential to have your blog listed in the top blog directories which in turn helps its search rankings...
Here i have listed some of the major blog directories where you can submit your blog :
1. Blog top sites
2. Top blog lists
3. Blog rankers
4. Blogger now
5. Blog explosion
6. Blog village
7. Get blogs
8. Bloghop
9. Globe of blogs
10. Top blog area
11. Blog tree
12. Blogarama
For a more exhautive list you can visit http://www.blog-connection.com/submit-blogs.htm
Sitemaps are important in order to help promote your site rankings in google search....as it helps the google automated crawler to crawl your webpage in a more effecient way and almost ensures that none of your pages are missed out.
In terms of websites one has to generate sitemaps using various sitemap building tools available ..such as GSITEMAP(click to download).
However this is not the case with a blog. To add a sitemap aof your blog all you have to do is :
1. Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/
2. Create an account if you not a member of log in if you already have an account.
3. Once you log in you will see the sitemaps option in the leftmost column.
4. Click it and in there you will find a "ADD A SITEMAP" button (look carefully !!! its not too big )..
NOW THE IMPORTANT PART :
Bloggers blogs already have a list of URL's listed in the feeds page....so all you have to do is write atom.xml or rss.xml depending upon the feeds that you are using in the URL box. (blogger is defaulted to atom feeds i guess !! )
5. Done..!!!
your sitemap will be verified within a max time of 3 to 4 hours i guess...you can submit sitemaps at regular intervals so that none of your latest pages are missed by the google spiders. If you still encounter difficulties then drop me a mail .... i will reply ASAP ..
I have noticed very long tutorials on blogs as well as websites on "how to add a bookmark button to your blog".
Well according to me you dont need to read all that stuff...(which actually doesnt matter)...All you need to do is :
1. Go to http://www.addthis.com/
2. Create an account and then log in with that account.
3. After you log in you will see the option to add the "Drop down bookmark button to your blog".
4. Click it and it will automatically add the widget on to your blog...
5. There is no 5 th step.......its DONE !!!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The most common problem of the bloggers is the empty space around their template or the less amount of columns to add widgets . Many bloggers do not like the empty white space on either sides and wish to add a third column (maybe so that it looks more appealing).......Many bloggers report that 6% to 9% of their viewers are on 800 x 600 monitors. They would hence like to add a third column to their template.
NOTE : In case you already have a third column in you template but just wanna increase the width to fit the page , the read my earlier hack "Changing width of your blog template".
Now here is how you can add a third column to your blog template :
1. Define new columns
The size and placing of the new columns will have to be declared in the CSS first. The new sidebar is defined by
#righthandsidebar-wrapper
{
width:35%;
float:right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar floatin IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#righthandsidebar
{
margin:0;
padding-top: 100px; /* reduced from 170px of leftsidebar */
}
Notice that the right han sidebar wrapper has been floated right. Now we need to create one big column to include both the post and the left sidebar columns. After creating it we will give it a float left property. So it will float left and contain the left sidebar floating left within it and the posts column floating right within it. For this add this code and we will call it 'columns'.
#columns
{
width:64%;
float:left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar floatin IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IEsidebar float */
}
Since the right sidebar wrapper is 35% we have sized this at 64%. Save Template.
2. Now we just have to implement the columns in the body for their corresponding CSS between the <head> </head> tags of the template
Scroll down till you come to this line :
<div id="'main-wrapper'">
and add the following code just above this line.
<div id="'rightsidebar-wrapper'">
<div id="rightsidebar">
</div></div>
<div id="columns">
Notice that the right hand sidebar wrapper along with its sidebar has been added before the main wrapper and the columns division has been opened but not closed. To close it add this code
</div>
just before the footer wrapper code starts here :
<div id="'footer-wrapper'">
Thus the columns includes both the main wrapper which is floated right inside it and the left sidebar which is floated left. It is closed before the footer wrapper so as not to include it.
3. Save the Template.
4. Now we are almost there.....You have added the third column....Now we only have to add the WIDGETS to the new column or it would remain empty.
To add it widgets or Page Elements to it add these lines :
<b:section class="'sidebar'" id="'righthandsidebar'" preferred="'yes'">
</b:section>
at the position marked by xxxxxxxxxxxxxx below :
<div id="'righthandsidebar'">xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</div>
5.Save the template.......ITS DONE !!!!
I except you guys to very well know about adding widgets in the column you created....for any help drop me an e-mail at kinglife50@gmail.com
Like Far Cry, the first half of Crysis is essentially a "sandbox" game where you're put in the middle of incredibly large levels and tasked with an objective. How you get the job done is pretty much entirely up to you, which is part of the brilliance of the game's design. For instance, the environments are big enough to give you a wide range of latitude. Do you have to get to a certain point on the map? You can take a meandering route that avoids patrols and go stealthy, or try the up-front approach and try to blast your way through, with the danger of enemy reinforcements showing up. Need to infiltrate a North Korean-held village? You can try the front gate, or maybe explore and find a quieter way in.
Meanwhile, the gunplay and ballistics modeling make this shooter feel as if you're handling real weapons. Trying to hit a target at long engagement ranges is challenging thanks to weapon recoil and other factors. The North Koreans are encased in body armor, so they take some time to gun down, unless you aim for the head, which usually puts them on the ground. At your disposal is a variety of firearms, like shotguns and assault rifles. One of the neat aspects of the game is that you can fix up your weapons on the fly, adding scopes, silencers, and grenade launchers, provided you've found them. There are trade-offs for each add-on. Silencers let you take down guys quietly, though they reduce bullet damage, meaning you've got to make every shot count. Or flashlights mounted on your weapons might help you out in dark levels, but will give you away.
The forthcoming entry to the acclaimed Resident Evil series looks to take the franchise in a whole new direction. It's been said that the game will feature Gears of War style gameplay. Resident Evil 5 takes place in a Black Hawk Down-style African village where heat and shade factor are into the strategy of the game. Not much else is known about the games plot as most details come from interpretations of the official trailers.
source : http://www.gamespot.com/
Thursday, June 5, 2008
To recover a deleted blog along with posts and comments you should provide information about your deleted blog by filling up a form located at :
http://help.blogger.com/bin/request.py?contact_type=deletedblog
Blogger needs to identify that you are the owner of the blog before restoring it to you. You cannot request a URL deleted by someone else.
If you still cannot recover your blog then drop me an e-mail to review your situation..
I have noticed that some bloggers who are have NO or very little knowledge about HTML , CSS ,XML have problemss in customizing their template acording to their own needs...
Well i cant give you a complete HTML tutorial here but i have seen that one of the most common needs most of the bloggers is to increase the width of their blog page so that it occupies more of the page (maybe to attract more traffic)...
So i am gonna give this tutorial about "How TO Increase the width of your blog template" :-
1. Login to your Dashboard and click on Layout under the name of your blog.
2. Click on Edit Html tab next to Page Elements tab. This opens the Edit Template page.
NOTE : Make sure to back up your template before making any changes. The template back up button is provided on the EDIT TEMPLATE PAGE . Download and save it for safety purposes..
Then scroll down in the HTML code box till you reach ....
/* Outer-Wrapper----------------------------------------------- */
#outer-wrapper {
width: 1025px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:left;
font: $bodyfont;
}
#main-wrapper {width: 530px;
margin-left: 20px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */}
#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 250px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
}
#newsidebar-wrapper {width: 170px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
}
The Outer wrapper contains the main wrapper and the two sidebar wrappers. Their dimensions are described by the width parameter. Their positions are described by the float parameter. Notice that the outer wrapper does not have a float parameter. This is because its position in the center of the page is described by the "margin 0 auto" parameter. To change the width of any of the main or sidebar column change their width parameters only. Then change the width of the outer wrapper by the same amount because it has to expand to include the new width.
NOTE : Preview the template after making changes and back up the template in case you dont like it.
When you change the width then you will also have to change the HEADER width in order to prevent the sidebars from going under the posts and not coming up to take its normal position.
To change the width of the HEADER scroll down in Edit Template text box till you come to :
/* Header-----------------------------------------------*/
#header-wrapper {
width:750px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor;
}
then change 750 to whatever width you want it to be.
IF YOUR TEMPLATES DOES NOT HAVE THE OUTER WRAPPER AS A DIVISON : Then go to Edit Html under Template tab and usually the first division after 'Body' and the a links will usually correspond to the outer wrapper.
If you still dont manage to get it right ... then drop me a mail at kinglife50@gmail.com .
To change the order of your posts in Beta Blogger..............remember that posts are ordered according to "LATEST POSTED FIRST ON PAGE" rule. Hence the newest posts are first with earlier posts lower down in the order. The first post you made when you created the blog is the last on the page. Your blog consists of a Main Page and Post Pages. The Main Page contains the number of posts you have set in Settings---->Formatting---->Show __ Posts on Main Page. The rest of the posts are shown as links in the Blog Archive widget in the sidebar. The posts on the Main Page also have their links in the Blog Archive widget. Each Post Page contains only one post.
To change this order login to Dashboard. Click on Posts link after 'Manage:' under name of your blog. You will see a list of all your posts with links to Edit, View or Delete them. Click on Edit link of the post you want to change the date of. The Posts Editor opens with its two modes : Edit HTML and Compose.
The bottom frame of the Posts Editor contains a link 'Post Options'. Click on it to expand the frame as shown in above image. In the expanded frame you can change the Posts Date and time.
-->If you want this post to be the first post always in this blog then set the date to any time as far in the future as it will allow it to be set. This is because once that day arrives and you post more posts this post will start migrating downwards like the rest. Till then it will remain a "sticky" post at the top of your blog.
To list All Previous Posts by Title...............you will use your blog's RSS feed to put content into your sidebar. How to do this has already been described in the post : Add Content with RSS Feeds in a general way. This is a special case in which you can use this method to display the title of all your previous posts in the sidebar.
STEP 1. The feed for your beta blog is of the format :http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full
where instead of 'yourblogname' type in the name of your blog. The feed for your old Blogger blog is :http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml orhttp://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Step 2. You will have to convert this feed into Javascript code which you can then insert into your webpage so that it displays on your site. There are many RSS-to-Javascript convertors online which you can search out usinf Google. One of these convertors is located at : http://itde.vccs.edu/rss2js/build.php
Copy and Paste the above link into your browser and press Enter. Copy and paste the link for your blog feed obtained in Step 1 into the "Enter the web address of the RSS Feed" under 'Build your feed'. In Select the options set 'Number of Items to display' as 0 - This will display all posts. In 'Show item descriptions? How much?' set it as 0 to show no descriptions. Set 'Show item posting date?' as No and click Preview to see whether your titles are coming through. If it displays correctly then click 'Generate Javascript'. The program generates Javascript code along with a noscript code for those browsers without Javascript. Copy the code...
Step 3. Go to Layout in your blog after logging in to Dashboard. The Page Elements page opens. Click on 'Add Page Element' in the sidebar section. A new popup window opens where choose HTML/Javascript option and paste the code obtained in Step 2 above in the Content box.
Click Save Changes.
Refresh cache.
View Blog.
You can see an example of this in my right sidebar at the top.To do this in Classic Blogger just paste the Javascript code in your template in the sidebar section.
If you encounter any troubles with this method then feel free to e-mail me at kinglife50@gmail.com.
On blogs there is default atom feeds embedded by blogger...Howeever you can add content with RSS feeds also.
You can also add RECENT COMMENTS to the sidebar by using comment feeds URL which arehttp://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/TYPEInstead of 'yourblogname' type the name of your blog. Instead of TYPE use summary or full.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
For almost every summer blockbuster movie there’s a video game tie-in that ultimately does not measure up to the greatness of the blockbuster in question. We’ve seen it before in countless Batman movies and we’ve seen in with before with Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia. The movie-to-video-game transition rarely produces a game that is richly original and makes good use of the license. Sadly, in the case of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for the PlayStation 3, this is not the case. Still, while it’s not a completely original game, there is still some fun to be had in the world C.S. Lewis created and Disney creatively recreated.
Prince Caspian, chronologically speaking, it is the fourth book and the second film featuring the Pevensie kids. The story finds, Lucy, Susan, Edmond and Peter returning to Narnia after a year’s absence only to find that 1,300 years have passed in Narnia time. As the red dwarf Trumpkin says, “Narnia is a more savage place than you remember it.” This is true seeing as humans known as Telmarines have wiped out most of the magical creatures of Old Narnia and the heir to the throne - a young man named Prince Caspian - is double-crossed by his evil uncle. It is up to the Pevensie siblings to help Prince Caspian reclaim his throne from King Miraz to bring peace to the land once again.
The beauty of Prince Caspian is that the game attempts to bring to light the events leading up to movie by showcasing the major battle that had the good creatures of Narnia tuck tail and hide in the woods. The game even includes a few clips of footage not seen in the movie such as young Prince’s tutor telling Caspian about the legend of the old queens and kings of the land. It then brings the events of the movie into light with footage from the movie as well as re-enacting the fierce and ultra cool battles of the film. In other words, this game set out to be the complete Prince Caspian experience that pays homage to the book and theatrical sequel.
Still, as I mentioned above, the game rarely brings much originality to the table and Traveler’s Tales (having done justice to Star Wars via LEGOs) simply makes the game a button-masher with very little variety. Well, there are a few things that do keep this game from being a truly boring mess. Worst yet, on the PS3, there’s some slow down that shows up occasionally during the more massive battles in the game. This is really too bad seeing as the game allows you to assume the role of 20 different characters which include Narnians as well as the Pevensie kids.
The game’s levels are quite lengthy and you will be tasked with multiple objectives you must complete as well as do a little collecting on the side. You are given four different characters you can control and you can switch between them on the fly via the Triangle button. In the opening level you can control a dwarf, fawn, centaur or a Minotaur but later in the game you can control familiar characters like the Pevensie quartet or Prince Caspian and his companions. Each character, of course, has his or her own unique ability and skill. Susan, for example, has a bow while Peter is a master swordsman. Some characters are even used to solve puzzles. For example, dwarfs and the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep can fit throughout small spaces the bigger characters can’t pass.
While it’s great that each of the 20 characters play differently, this does not keep the action as well as the mission objectives from becoming too repetitive. Some mission objectives you’ll have to complete more than once and a few other objectives are similar from earlier ones issued in the beginning of the level. How many times must we clear a courtyard before we can move on to other objectives? Some objectives are very clear while others are somewhat vague. Early in the game I was instructed to destroy catapults brought in by the enemy. It didn’t say I had to jump on a giant’s back to complete such a task until a bit later.
The game’s biggest problem has to be the slowdown that becomes evident during the much bigger battles in the game. While it was great to see so many Telmarines and Narnian warriors on screen at once, the dip in the framerate is inexcusable seeing as the PS3 is more than capable of displaying many characters on screen at once without sacrificing a steady framerate. Secondly, collecting keys that unlock chests (that ultimately unlock concept art and video clips) can become a bit tedious. Even the game’s two-player co-op mode is a lesson in frustration thanks to the limited screen space you and a friend share.
All is not bad in the world of Narnia, though, because there are moments in the game that manages to be fun. Attempting to reclaim a castle leads to one of the game’s best moments and even the final battle is epic to the point that sections of it will give you quite a workout. Younger gamers will appreciate the fact that the game’s puzzles are actually quite simplistic. Most of the puzzles simply have you switching levers or placing a necessary object in its corresponding area.
On the graphics front, Prince Caspian could have looked a lot better. This is not a hideous game, by any means, but the PS3 could do a lot better than this. At least, the character models look good in action and you’ll instantly recognize many of the familiar characters like the Pevensie bunch and Prince Caspian himself. There are clips from the movie (as well as some that aren’t) and the video looks wonderfully crisp and clear like a Blu-Ray DVD.
As far as the game’s sound is concerned, the battles don’t sound as good as they should considering the amount of things that are happen on screen at once. There are some limited voice clips in the beginning but you’ll hear more from the main cast of characters as they go about their mission. What steals the show is the marvelous soundtrack that plays throughout the game. The score is not only epic but it adds a lot of tension to each battle and cut scene.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for the PlayStation 3 had all the makings of a great game but, sadly enough, fails to do anything original with the licensed. In short, Prince Caspian is simple a button-mashing hack-and-slash action game that - at times - can be fun in places. Still, this is the type of game fans of the movie or book will simply pick up and play and forget about as soon as the end credits roll. I recommend this one simply as a rental is you’re in need of a Narnia fix but other than that you are better off just buying the book or going back to the movie theater to see it again.
REVIEW DETAILS
Gameplay: 6.2
Liberating the same tower once again or holding the enemy away from the courtyard for the second time is not a good way of keeping the action fresh. You can switch between characters on the fly but this is purely just hack-and-slash gameplay with only a few interesting gameplay elements.
Graphics: 6.0
On the PS3, the visuals don’t push the hardware but at least it’s not entirely bad either. The character models look Ok and seeing dozens of Telmarine soldiers on screen at once is awesome. Even the movie clips are crisp. I just wish more attention was placed on the backgrounds and the special effects like fire.
Sound: 6.0
The game’s music is not only downright gorgeous but it is also the highlight of the game’s sound. The few voice clips you hear are decent enough but why doesn’t a massive battle sound like a - well - a massive battle?
Difficulty:
MediumIt’s the massive battles that should have you worried because every other battle isn’t very threatening. There are occasionally vague objectives to complete even though many of the puzzles are extremely easy to solve.
Concept: 6.5
With 20 different characters to play, there is some variety to the action but this is spoiled by level objectives that repeat themselves again and again. Switching between characters is a good idea but can we have better rewards during battle or for opening treasure chests?
Multiplayer: 5.5
There’s no online multiplayer in sight but there’s a two-player co-op mode. Sadly, co-op runs with a number of hiccups and sharing the same screen has its major disadvantages plus there’s very little for another player to do.
Overall: 6.2
Far from being a complete disaster, Prince Caspian for the PS3 has some good moments but they are overshadowed by repetitive gameplay and a poor presentation. Fans of the movie and book will like playing in the land of Narnia but much unlike the two mediums this game makes the story a forgettable experience.
Content source : http://ps3.gamezone.com
Polluted by the bloodbath. Corrupted by your actions. Consumed with saving your nation but seduced by enemy annihilation. If it’s sharp, you’ll make it a weapon. If it’s got a pointed edge, you’ll drive it through the nearest attacker. There is no mercy for the merciless, and no forgiveness for those who insist on fighting till death.
It’s all so graphic, gruesome and perfectly orchestrated that you’d think you were experiencing a new creation from David Jaffe or Ed Boon. But it is not Mortal Kombat, God of War, or a vehicular combat game with clowns gone bad. This beast has another kind of DNA running through its body, that of Team NINJA. Its offspring is the long-awaited sequel to the Xbox groundbreaker, Ninja Gaiden.
But the screens are misleading. In motion – and most notably, on a TV just a couple feet from your face – the blood is not only realistic, but it is not at all cheesy or out of place. It is actually a very constructive (and destructive!) addition to the series, since you are now able to make your enemies (ranging from human-sized ninja freaks to mammoth monsters) feel the kind of pain you want to inflict. When donning Ryu’s new claws – three foot-long blades that clamp onto each hand – players are able to stab through chests, slice off arms, rip through inches of flesh, and finish by cutting off an enemy’s head.
While Ninja Gaiden II’s appearance is instantly different, the gameplay changes are not as apparent. Building on the stellar mechanics of the first game, Team NINJA has pumped up the speed, widened the size of each environment, increased the number of on-screen opponents, and multiplied the size of those opponents.
The weapon lineup has also changed, providing new weapons and/or upgrades (plus a stellar list of combos for each type) to test out in nearly every stage. Fans of the DS edition will be glad to see that the magic system has been carried over, albeit with less importance on solving puzzles and more emphasis on making devils (ahem – monsters) cry.
There is a story involved, and though some gamers may be engaged by its above-average voice acting, high-quality presentation and TV-style camerawork, the beauty is in the beast. Or rather, it’s in the slicing and dicing of that beast, as well his siblings and lifelong friends.
Swords are painful and unforgiving. The Dragon Sword is Ryu’s default weapon; in the beginning, Shurikens are his only other option. When he unleashes a Dragon Sword combo on a 10-foot poison-breathing monster, flesh is torn like a knife slicing through butter. It glides through easily, twisting and flipping with Ryu’s every precise and realistic move, giving the player a bit of courage and the sense of unyielding power. Ryu is twice as deadly when wielding the Dragon’s Claw and Tiger’s Fang, two Japanese swords that were once used by a master.
You may also be, on occasion, very frustrated. To this day, no action game seems tougher to me than the original Ninja Gaiden titles (the first one for NES and the first one for Xbox). But aside from the boss battles, which can be enormously difficult (especially if you’re low on health items), Ninja Gaiden II didn’t seem as difficult. It’s still a wonderfully challenging game, but this time around I only lose hairs and break windows while fighting bosses.
Newcomers may disagree. Those players should expect to be overwhelmed. Ninja Gaiden II is a game where you must be on guard every second. Death is sneaky; just when you think you’ve got the upper hand, a monster will throw in a combo and reduce your life meter to nothing.
In the grand scheme of things, these are all positive elements. But there are a few tidbits of tenacity, most of which would have been expected on the original Xbox but not on Xbox 360.
As with every game these days, the camera is controllable and moves smooth most of the time. When it doesn’t, however, you could end up with an awkward perspective. If standing near walls, buildings or walking through a tunnel, the camera might even get locked until the current battle is over. Given Team NINJA’s heritage, I would have expected them to iron out this issue.
Players come to Ninja Gaiden for the action; they don’t come for map-and-compass-free exploration. But like the first game, that’s just what you get. I’m not looking for arrows to point me in the right direction (that’d be a lame). However, a simple, Resident Evil-style map would have been the perfect way to remind players of where they are, where they’ve been, and where they need to go. Ninja Gaiden II is mostly linear, so you won’t need a map most of the time. But when navigating the sewers, I walked in circles for 20 minutes before realizing that the small, unmarked opening at the top of one corner was where I needed to go.
Graphics: 8.7
Sound: 5.0
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Concept: 7.9
Overall: 8.8One of the must-play action games of the year.
When Grand Theft Auto III came out, the game changed the way gamers and game designers looked at games. Pushing the envelope with each sequel, Rockstar’s smash hit was received with adoration from fans and complete disgust from parents and a certain Presidential hopeful. Whatever you might think of the series, though, Grand Theft Auto IV was destined to be big. It’s big, all right, but it’s also one of the best games you’ll play on your PlayStation 3.
Anyone who has played a GTA game knows that the main story contains a number of missions offered by various different characters and this game is no different. You’ll be running a few jobs for Nico’s cousin Roman as well as friends of his like the Jamaican drug dealer Little Jacob and Roman’s mean-spirited boss, Vlad, just to name a few. Unlike past games, though, running missions for certain characters will place them on your cell phone’s contact list. Friends will offer items and their specialty when needed but you can always call them to just hang out.
The game’s controls on the PlayStation 3 are just perfect. Nico’s aiming borrows its style from GTA imitator Saint’s Row for more precise shots. Nico can also take cover Gears of War-style and perform blind fire shots when things get too heavy during combat. The PS3 version also takes advantage of the SIXAXIS controls that make motorcycle-driving feel like your driving a motorcycle and boating move far more effectively. Also unlike the Xbox 360 version, however, the PS3 version requires a 10-minute installation process that keeps the game running a tad more smoothly than the Xbox 360 game. I say a tad because there are hardly any load screens. Both versions suffer a few glitches (why do characters still think they can walk through walls?) and pop-ups.
The sound is also a major attraction and not just because of the amazing licensed soundtrack and celebrity DJs (like actor Juliette Lewis and music artist Iggy Pop). The city is alive with sounds and conversations between pedestrians. The main cast of characters is voiced wonderfully as well and you just have to love the music that ranges from reggae (Bob Marley), to classic rock (Heart) to international funk (Fela Kuti). Even the television and radio commercials are hysterical as are the comedic acts and stage shows.
Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 is one of those rare games that push the console to its very limits to bring gamers a living world that is simply irresistible. Rockstar has gone to great lengths to improve the series with each iteration but this GTA game is, by far, the best one yet. It’s not often that we give a game this high a rating but with all the things the game has to offer you, too, will find that this is the type of game that’s way too hard to put down once you pick up the controller.
The game is a deeply engaging crime drama that effectively blends humor and violence well so following Nico on his quest for the “American Dream” makes this an instant classic. There’s a lot to see and do in this game so the replay value is high. The PS3 version of the game features SIXAXIS controls for boating and motorcycle driving.
Graphics: 9.8
Sound: 10
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 10
Multiplayer: 9.8
Overall: 10