As some of you might have noticed, our Devils’ workshop got a new logo & design.

Last time we redesigned DW was almost 2 years back. In 2 years, WordPress has evolved so much that  we couldn’t keep updating DW theme at faster pace. We have too many sites in our network and separately updating each for latest WordPress features was a tough job.

But with this new theme, we are moving all our sites to our new open-source theme framework – rtPanel. This and all future themes will be developed as a rtPanel’s child theme. This means if we add a new feature into rtPanel framework, it will be available into all rtPanel’s child themes (unless somebody abused child-theme development guidelines!)

New Design, New Goals!

With this new design, we have some new goals. A lot is changing about the way we operate DW. Some of changes might be shocking!

LESS Advertising:

DW will use Google-AdSense only for now onwards. If we decide to consider other ad-network, it will be BuySellAds. Apart from AdSense, we will only consider direct Banner-Ads sales.

We have made some decent money from Technorati, Kontera and some more networks, but these networks uses blocking-javascript which degrades performance of our pages. So we are bidding adieu to all of them!

LESS Social (networking):

We have decided to show social icons on single-posts only. No more cluttering archive pages with literally 10′s of social-icons!

For small-social stuff we decided to keep here, we will use our own rtSocial plugin. rtSocial is very low on resources and while developing this theme, we found few more ways to optimize it in future release!

Going anti-social will personally help me focus more on content-part and also community of guest-bloggers & readers here.

MORE (Quality) Content:

The moment we removed ad-networks which were bloating this site, I realized that we no longer run DW to make money only!

Once slow-loading ads were thrown out, next target is poor content!  We are working on streamlining work-flow for guest-bloggers to make it easy for them to contribute to DW. This will raise quality-bar of posts here IMHO.

MORE Community Oriented:

We will be bringing back long-abandoned DW support forum back. Support forum will help us answer reader questions as well as questions from guest-bloggers. We will continue to answer questions on twitter and our facebook page but support forum will have highest priority.

We are also experimenting with some WordPress comments enhancement plugins. Integrating with third-party system like Disqus/IntenseDebate is also into consideration. The goal is to make it easy to comment here!

Credits!

I already received few emails praising new DW logo. The credit for same goes to our design team lead Sneha Mutha. Sneha created a nice new design also, which is slightly different than what you are seeing here.

We coded many things on live DW server so that we can have first-hand experience of issues that other developers might be facing while working on rtPanel theme framework. Our senior developer Joshua with Prakash and Nitun will keep optimizing this new design till we don’t get it right!

As always, we love to hear your feedback & criticism via comment form below.

-- This Post Devils’ Workshop Gets New Logo & New Design! is Published on Devils Workshop .

Today according to this report on NDTV, a Delhi High Court Judge warned Facebook and Google that if they failed to create a mechanism to remove objectionable online content, they would block these websites like China does.

Why was the case heard in Delhi High Court?

The case against 21 internet sites like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more for objectionable content has been registered in Delhi High Court. These are complaints against posts and images that are objectionable. I am not a lawyer, but it is a little strange to ask for filtering of content created by billions of people every day. The case is not about removing objectionable content but filtering this content.

After the court’s observations, the government of India has also now sanctioned prosecuting these websites.

What could happen next?

The worst case scenario, is that websites like Facebook and Google cloud be blocked. I do not think Google or Facebook will adhere to any screening unless India does have a law that defines what exactly needs to be blocked, removed or screened. Personally I doubt the Indian government would like to see itself in a club that contains mostly autocratic regimes from around the world.

Also these are observations of a High Court in Delhi. The Supreme Court could also be approached to also address the issue if websites could be held accountable for content created by third parties (users).

Google and Facebook’s Defence…

Almost every social network has a procedure to remove objectionable content from its website. Another issues is India does not have a Data Protection Act which lays down privacy laws for online content. So internet companies tend to adhere to community rules from the US.

Google is not even hosting the content but only pointing to links to content written and hosted independently.

Holding websites responsible for user-generated content is the same as holding a telephone company responsible for what was discussed on the phone by users.

As someone who lives in India, a country with free press and no internet censorship, the suggestion that China is a model we want to follow – is very depressing and disheartening.

Web censorship of any kind tends to be abused and ends up killing innovation. What are your views on internet censorship and the possibility of it happening in India? Do drop in your comments.

Related: Read about SOPA which could give rise to Internet Censorship in the U.S.

Image Credit

-- This Post Does India Really Want Internet Censorship Like China? is Published on Devils Workshop .

Here are the 10 most interesting moments in technology in 2011.

#1. Egypt’s Revolution

The year started with Facebook being used to organize protests against the then government in Egypt. The world itself did not pay much attention until Egypt decided to block internet access to all its country.

The internet community started supporting the protests on social media websites and Egyptian protests intensified finally getting rid of its undemocratic government. The best tribute to Facebook came with ordinary Egyptians carrying posters thanking its role in the revolution.

#2. Steve Jobs presents iPad 2

Steve Jobs was ill and was already on leave from regular CEO duties at Apple. Jobs did show up one last time, at a keynote event for Apple and introduced iPad 2 to a rousing reception.

iPad 2 has been a blockbuster hit for Apple in 2011 and rumours are that Apple is scrambling to release iPad 3 on Steve Jobs birth anniversary.

#3. Google has a new CEO

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to hire a professional as a CEO. His name was Eric Schmidt. Schmidt managed to look after Google quite well for over 10 years but 2011 was the year the passing of the torch was done. Larry Page took over as CEO of Google in April 2011.

Larry Page has now presided over shutting down the not so popular Google services and also the introducing Google Plus.

#4. Google’s New Baby: Google+

Google had been working on a new social network for many months. It finally unveiled the new weapon against Facebook. The name was Google+ and it sort of borrowed ideas from Twitter and Facebook.

It did race to 10 million users in 2 weeks, but it has hardly dented Facebook as the undisputed king of social media. But it will be interesting to see how Google keeps tweaking and improving Google+ to match up to Facebook.

#5. Google Buys Motorola

Android OS never had its own hardware for optimal performance. This is what probably prompted Google in buying Motorola for $12.5 Billion. Motorola is an iconic company in the cell phone market but it had been losing out to Nokia, Samsung and Apple over the past few years.

We should expect to see a lot of new great products from Motorola in 2012.

#6. Apple Rise to top

Apple overtook Microsoft in terms of profit. It had defeated its arch-nemesis in terms of profits. Apple rose to become the most valued company in 2011, with stock prices going through the roof. It apparently has more cash reserves than the US does as country. It will be interesting to see how Apple conducts itself now that it is no longer the underdog.

#7. Microsoft Buys Skype

Skype is one of the most used messenger for video chatting. Microsoft bought the company for a cool $8 Billion. This was Microsoft biggest acquisition but even months later, it is unclear how Microsoft will leverage Skype. Maybe with Windows 8 release in 2012, it might bring about something interesting.

#8. Steve Jobs Passes Away

The magician at Apple, finally succumbed to cancer on October 05, 2011. Apple fans across the world were in mourning after Steve Jobs passed away. Tributes showered in from heads of states, politicians and his contemporaries in the technology world.

#9. Facebook’s Reacts to Google+ with Timelines

As Google+ rose to prominence, Facebook felt the heat. Facebook could take its user for granted for a long time but with Google+ around they had to pick up their game.

They introduced a massive re-design change called Timelines. Timelines has be received with mixed reviews and many are unhappy about it being so easy for other to look up their old Facebook updates. Timelines is still being unveiled slowly and the jury is still out on whether Facebook has come up with a winner.

#10. BlackBerry Outage

If you were a blackberry user, you probably were a victim of this outage. Blackberry’s messaging network had a downtime which lasted not for hours but for days. The outage was fixed but it will take some time to repair the damage done to BlackBerry’s reputation.

The year 2011 was full of ups and downs in the tech world. Famous technologists died, big companies and services flopped while newer names came into prominence. The year 2012 will probably be full of stories with its origins in this year.

Hope you enjoyed our coverage over the past year and let me wish all our readers a Happy New Year.

-- This Post Top 10 Tech Moments of 2011 is Published on Devils Workshop .

We had submitted our blog to Alltop.com under the Tech category quite some time ago. Last week we got confirmation that our Alltop submission was accepted.

If you visit tech.alltop.com and see the last blog featured or right-hand corner at the end of the page. It is our very own Devils’ Workshop.

If you have an account at my.alltop.com, then surely add our feed from Alltop’s Tech category.

In case you are not on Alltop, you can still follow our feeds on our Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Alltop – Top Tech News

-- This Post Devils’ Workshop Is Now On Alltop is Published on Devils Workshop .

I am a professional blogger today but it was not something I had planned. At my previous job, I felt stuck. The routine work paid well but was boring and uninspiring. After a long day of work, I would spend hours trying to write a short story or update my personal blog. In other words I was falling in love with writing.

Vivek Jain a friend and later a rtCamper, read a couple of posts on my blog and introduced me to Rahul Bansal (the guy who started DW). He was looking for someone to run this blog. He was himself making his move from being a blogger to an entrepreneur and I was the lucky one who became Editor-in-Chief of this blog.

Lost in the Woods!

In the beginning I felt lost. I was blogging for a well established blog and in charge of it. It had a ready-made community around it. What did I know about Blogging when I took charge? Absolutely nothing.

I tried to write what I felt would be useful for others. Writing posts after posts, I felt sometimes like giving up blogging entirely. I felt totally lost in this new world. I could write well and I knew that but I started wondering if I could blog well.

Then one fine day, Google created their social experiment called Google Buzz. I simply did not like it and wondered why did Google bother with such a social network and worse embed it into my Gmail. I stepped out of my comfort zone as a blogger and wrote a blog post exclaiming why Google should have just bought Twitter instead of creating Buzz.

The post was not a very popular one but it was appreciated by people whose opinion I respected. With that post I could say, I found my blogging voice and no longer felt lost.

Think Different!

‘Think Different’ was a slogan for Apple’s advertising campaign. I am not a Apple fan particularly but a big fan of this quote. I might have written some decent posts but I still did not know if I could make a career in blogging. Blogging was fun but at times frustrating. Also you spend a lot of time alone, work at nights and read a lot. You end up reading a lot of things which are repetitive and sometimes your writing becomes predictable.

Then a movie named ‘Inception’ was released and one Sunday afternoon I toyed with the idea of comparing the movie’s storyline with the realities of social media. I did not like the post at all but it did start me off ‘thinking differently’ about my blogging. I ended up writing about how Inception the movie was similar to Blogging. This time the post became quite popular.

Making a Difference

As a blogger you can sometimes feel like you are not making much of a difference. Early this year wrote a post about the SpeakAsia scam. It was a Ponzi scheme and thousands were signing up. My post was well appreciated by many and some even changed their mind about investing in such a scheme. It was very pleasing to know that what I wrote was making a true difference to someone. That post made me learn to be proud of being a blogger and the difference they can make.

Thanks…

I learnt a lot of things as a blogger. I am not entirely proud of all my posts but not really embarrassed by any one of them either. There are many people who I would thank for making and shaping my blogging journey. Firstly I would thank Rahul , who gave me this opportunity to run Devils’ Workshop. It is a credit to him that he allowed me to make my own mistakes and learn blogging at my own pace, in my own space. I would have to thank all the bloggers I have worked with. Each one has taught me something importantly good.

After a thousand posts, I am nowhere close to being satisfied but I know what I want to do. The last thousand posts were very eventful and great fun, hopefully the next thousand will be even more eventful and fun.

About TDIS: Thank Devil Its Sunday [TDIS] are posts which are not the regular Dw fare about tutorials, how tos and updates. Posts under TDIS are usually more casual and personal.

(Image via Colherada cultural )

-- This Post Journey Of A Thousand Posts [TDIS] is Published on Devils Workshop .

10 Most Popular Post This Week!

1. Congress website hacked, Official content replaced by pornographic message
2. Facebook to Release Subscribe Button for Websites
3. Google+ Circles Gets Integrated into Gmail!
4. Show only ‘Subscribe’ button on your Facebook profile [How-to]
5. Download your Facebook Albums in ZIP file
6. Indian Government Flip-flops on Internet Censorship!
7. How to move photos from one album to another on Facebook
8. Facebook’s top ten Global and Indian topics of 2011
9. How to deal with useless/repetitive updates in Facebook News Feed
10. Facebook Timelines Starts Rollout in New Zealand

Which post was your favourite of this week? Do drop in your comments and let me know.

-- This Post 10 Most Popular Posts This Week! [05 - 11 Dec 2011] is Published on Devils Workshop .

10 Most Popular Post This Week!

1. Facebook Commits to Better Privacy, But Will You Trust It?
2. 5 Reasons Google Music Could Win Against Apple’s iTunes!
3. New Google Bar Brings Search Across All Google Products
4. YouTube’s New Design is Available!
5. WordAds – WordPress Competition to Google Adsense
6. How Chrome Raced to 2nd Spot in 2 Years! [Browser Wars]
7. [Showdown] Google+ Vs. Twitter
8. Create an Address Book of Your Twitter Contacts
9. Qwiki – View Video Presentations On Any Topic!
10. Best App for Twitter on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry

Do drop in your comments on which post was your favourite this week.

-- This Post 10 Most Popular Posts This Week! [28 Nov - 04 Dec 2011] is Published on Devils Workshop .

We will be soon bring you more interviews with interesting people doing interesting things.

10 Most Popular Post This Week!

1. Gaurav Singh on Organizing WordCamp Jabalpur 2011
2. Why Google’s Search Results Are Better Than Bing!
3. Enable Google+ Page and Your Blog for Direct Connect
4. Online Tool To Check and Improve How Google Displays Your Search Results
5. Use Google to Search for Connecting Flights
6. Showdown: Echofon Vs. TweetDeck For Windows
7. Nokia Launches Lumia 800 in India: Runs on Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)
8. Search for Google Images by Drawing with Online Tool
9. AIM Preview: Chat with Gmail, Facebook and AIM Buddies!
10. [Online Tip] Create and Share Short Links that Expire

Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post 10 Most Popular Posts This Week! [14 - 20 Nov 2011] is Published on Devils Workshop .

We have not changed our strategy but Google Reader has. The old ‘Likes’ to our articles have changed into +1s.

10 Most Popular Post This Week!

1. Google+ Adds Pages to Support Brands
2. Download Firefox 8.0 – Built in with Twitter Search
3. Facebook Gets Multiple Fake Official Pages on Google+
4. Aircel and Airtel Confirm Launch of Apple iPhone 4S in India
5. Facebook Kills Off Automated Notes
6. How Modems Evolved With The Internet! [Infographic]
7. Adobe Loves Apple: To Discontinue Flash Support for Mobile Platforms
8. Google Diagnostic Tool Suggests Google.com Contains Malware!
9. Use Email Account to Post on Twitter – twitemail
10. Creepy – Tracks Your Friends using Twitter/Flickr’s GPS Data

Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post 10 Most Popular Posts This Week! [07 - 13 Nov 2011] is Published on Devils Workshop .

10 Most Popular Post This Week!

1. Showdown: Google+ Vs. Facebook
2. Flowchart to Decide Which Social Network to Post on!
3. How to Opt Out of Facebook’s ‘Timeline’ Feature
4. Get iPhone UI on Your Android Phone
5. Google’s Galaxy Nexus Opens Registration in India
6. Google Reader Gets Revamped to Mixed Response!
7. Google+ Gets Integrated with YouTube and Chrome
8. Google Gets the World to “Do a Barell Roll”
9. How to Recover Your Old Google Reader Data
10. Online Tool to Upload MP3 file to YouTube – mp32tube

Hope you are enjoying our posts and keep reading us.

Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post 10 Most Popular Posts This Week! [31 Oct - 06 Nov 2011] is Published on Devils Workshop .