Winston{yw}

The most “famous” that I ever got (on the Internet) was getting a mention on both Download Squad and Techmeme in 2006, and that was a great achievement for me! All of it began with a Greasemonkey script that I wrote, which basically integrates Google Reader into Gmail.

Back then, I merely shared my script on Google Reader’s Google Group, but I got an encouraging reply from David Chartier who was then a blogger for Download Squad. Soon, the script got a dedicated post on Download Squad, written by Jason Clarke. Surprise, surprise! After which, more people came to know of the script, and it was delicious-ed a total of 144 times. By the following day, I was listed on Techmeme. Wow! Techmeme! Have you EVER been listed on Techmeme?!

Anyway, I soon neglected the maintenance of the script due to other commitments, but a few others continued to make further improvements to my Greasemonkey script. Eventually, the functionality of the script was acknowledged by Gina of Lifehacker, and one of the improved version was included into the Better Gmail Firefox extension. Even though I was not named as the author of the script, but I was still able to see that I was credited in the comments section of the script, and that’s good enough for me.

Just an egoistic post to document one of my (lesser-known) greater achievements, and I wonder if I’ll ever achieve such “fame” again.

What about you? What’s your claim to fame?

Since the start of this blog in 2006, I have it hosted for free with Futureworkz because of a special ex-relationship with the business. This gesture of goodwill, I am truly appreciative of it; and you can easily guess how much I saved over the last 3+ years.

About two weeks ago, I received an update that their server operations will be shifted from the US to Singapore by the end of the month, and that they will be migrating my account and continuing to provide me with free hosting. Wow! That’s really very nice, considering the fact that I am a “free customer”.

Nevertheless, I felt that all good things must come to an end, and that I really shouldn’t continue to leech on them since they are operating a business. Moreover, I am no longer a part of the business, and so rightly, I should move my butt elsewhere. Therefore, I thanked them for their goodwill and declined their offer.

Thanks for the 3+ years of free hosting. Thank you!

Anyway, so having decided that I am going to shift my butt elsewhere, I set out to look for an awesome web host. Actually, I already have a web host in mind, and thanks to an affiliate code from Chu Yeow, I migrated this blog to DreamHost on 8th July. The migration was simple, and I even made use of the opportunity to upgrade my WordPress to version 2.8.1 (which was further upgraded to 2.8.2 using the fantastic one-click upgrade feature).

Till now, I am a satisfied customer of DreamHost, and these are some of the things that I really like so far:

• The Control Panel is easy to use and configure.
• They have a brilliant customer support system in the form of a Wiki.
• To connect to SSH/FTP/MySQL, server alias is simply [protocol].[hostname].
• Transparent status updates at: http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/

Now that I am on paid hosting, I must continue to blog (more , more!) and try to make some returns on investment, so expect to hear more from me!

Today, while I was fiddling around in Gmail, I noticed something peculiar with the footer. There’s an extra line which I don’t ever remember seeing it, or hearing about it. Basically, it’s my Gmail account activity status, and there’s even a link to more details.

Clicking on the link brought me to an “Account Activity” page that provides information about my current open sessions and recent activities on my Gmail account. This allows me to audit for any unauthorized access to my Gmail account, and verify that all Gmail activities (by access type and IP) belong to me. Suppose I discover suspicious activity, I can also sign out of all other current open sessions.

Initially, I thought I had stumbled upon a piece of breaking news. But after doing a search on Google for this feature, I found that Gmail Blog and Blogoscoped have already blogged about it in July 2008. Gmail’s FAQ also contains information about it.

Still, how many are as blind as me, and have only seen it now?

Aloha!! This day marks the beginning of “The Next Phase”, a new blog that celebrates the end (for at least a few years) of my education and the start of another stage in life. Purposefully, today is also the 1st day of my career in a MNC far, far away from my residence.

Do update your links as I wouldn’t be updating the old blog anymore, and that would just be left to rot in cyberspace. Knowing me, you might ask if this blog would last? I wonder.. Most probably I would only be able to blog with the time I have left after deducting work, travel, eat and sleep from 24 hours a day? Oooh.. That’s like 5min left per day..

This should be enough for a starter post and I took 5min.

I’ll blog more when I have more to blog. I WILL!!