How To Establish Google Authorship Markup For Your Blog

Not too long ago I was trying to establish Google Authorship Markup for my blog. I always think that author information and picture in Google result is a pretty cool way to feature yourself and and your blog/website. But when I set out to do that, I hit a number of roadblocks. The primary problem that I faced was that there were not too many tutorials that listed the steps in a simple manner.

Almost all the articles that I found were encumbered with too much detail. It felt like a
ll of those article writers were somehow trying to establish how complicated this thing was. It is almost like they do not want to share such a treasured piece of knowledge on the internet. But since they are being compelled to do exactly that, they are trying to be as vague as possible. I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who just wants to establish the markup and not know the inner workings of Google.

I have finally established the Markup for my blog (Thank God) and now intend to write a simple step by step tutorial for people who wish to do the same. It is a basic tutorial without any unimportant explanation of the technique. All you have to do is follow the steps exactly as they are listed here. If you want to know about it in detail, I am pretty sure you will have no shortage of information on the internet. So, here it goes:

There are multiple ways to establish authorship markup for your blog.

1) 3 Link Method 

2) 2 Link Method

3) Email Verification Method

I personally prefer the 2 Link Method so let’s start with that:

2 Link Method:

a) Visit your Google Plus profile page and add a picture of yours. This is the picture you wish to see in search results.

b) Go to Profile -> Add Links -> Contributor To and add your Blog Homepage URL.

c) Copy your Google Plus Profile URL it should look like this. Make sure the URL has unique 21 numbers. That is your ID.

d) Visit the Author Biography page of your blog. I am assuming your blog has a Author Bio Snippet on each content page.

e) Add the following link inside the Author Bio snippet:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/121212121212121212121?rel=author">Google+</a>

Replace "121212121212121212121" with your Google Plus profile ID.

3 Link Method:

a) Follow steps a) through c) mentioned above.

b) Add the following code to your Author Bio snippet:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/111111111111111111111?rel=author">Google+</a>

Replace "121212121212121212121" with your Google Plus profile ID. 

Notice "rel = author" has changed to "rel = me"

c) Edit the source code of Author Bio on each content page with:

<a href=”{AuthorBiographyPageURL}” rel=”author”>Author Name</a>

 

Email Verification Method:

Note: This method only works if you have an email address hosted on the same domain s your blog. So if your blog is “WWW.ABC.COM” your email address needs to be “SOMEONE@ABC.COM”.

a) Make sure each content page of your blog has By “Your Name” in it. The name has to be identical with your Google Plus profile name. Hyperlink your email address to the author name in the manner shown above. You do not need “rel = me” or “rel = author”.

b) Follow this link. Add your email address to the field and click on “Sign up for Authorship”.

c) Once you get a mail from Google, click on the provided link for verification. You will also get an option to add the Blog domain to the “Contributor To” section.

Once you have implemented authorship for your blog, it is time to check if it is working or not. Go to Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool to find out. Put the URL of a content page there and click “Preview”.

If the result looks like above then you have successfully implemented Authorship Markup for your blog. If the results show a lot of red or do not look like this, go over the instructions again and find out what went wrong.

It might take a while for your picture to show up in Google results. Exactly how much time? Nobody knows. For some people it appeared within a few days while it took almost 6 months for some people. Give it at least a month or two. If it still does not work, try changing your picture. It is known to work for some people. Remember all you need to do is follow the step as it is. All the best!

Mars Colonization Project Is Now In Progress

I had posted a blog about the necessity of space colonization not too long ago. It just seemed to be the right and logical way forward. And today, I got to know about the Mars One project. As per the information I got, it is a non-profit foundation that is trying to gather the human and technical resource to successfully place living people on the red planet.

Of course it sounds easier than it is. There are tons of considerations to make. The first and most important is the environment of Mars. Mars’s air has 99% Carbon-di-Oxide which is not suitable for humans at all.  Unless a solid scientific plan is in place to somehow lessen the CO2 in the atmosphere or convert it into Oxygen, the project is as good as doomed. Supplying Oxygen from Earth is a tall order and very unlikely to satisfy the needs in time.

Other than that, Mars weather has been known to display a hostile nature. Fierce wind flows are natural on this planet and sometimes they can blow as fast as tornado. These info was gathered by the rover Pathfinder, if people still remember it. We have still not been able to tame the nature on Earth itself, how can we do so on Mars? These are some of the important points that the Mars One patrons need to ponder upon a lot before they can go forward with anything concrete.

But they do have time on their side. The colonization Mars trip is supposed to launch anywhere between 2020 to 2023. So a good 6 – 9 years are there to iron out all the wrinkles and make the project viable. After all, there will be manned spaceships and nobody would want the bold volunteers to die horrific deaths in the space.

As per news released by the project, they are taking applications from all over the world. All you need is to be over 18 years of age and make a donation of 7 USD to the foundation. It is a very small sum and I will be happy to part with the money even if it gives me a .0000001% chance of actually visiting Mars. The humongous amount of money needed to launch the project will be gathered from sponsors, news channels and other charities. You can apply for a spot here.

While going through the plans of the foundation again, one thought suddenly crossed the mind. What if it is the biggest con job of history so far? I mean foundation runners can always fall back to the fact that it is a improbable task from the beginning and it just did not fructify. And people are not likely to fret over 7USD. The foundation however would have made millions, if not more. As per latest information, there are already 78,000 applications in place which means around 4,50,000 USD has already been accumulated.

But if there is any hope that the project will try to get people to Mars, I am all for it. At least it will be a step forward in the right direction. The foundation will supposedly start training chosen applicants for life on Mars from 2015 onwards. But they will also need to check out the living conditions of Mars in detail by probably sending another rover to its surface. We will probably have to wait a couple of more years to see if this outrageous project is hot or not.

Why Space Colonization Is Now A Necessity?

Well, a lot of talks have been going on for decades about the impending space colonization. Movies after movies have been created based on this fact. We have loads of sci-fi books, TV series and comics dedicated to humans finally conquering the space and making it their homes. Video games have gone one step ahead and have allowed us to create civilizations on the soils of distant planets and travel to nearby star systems in search of allies, trades and expansion. Distant space travels have surely become a cult-classic topic and a material of assured nerdgasm. As much as it is one of the best fantasies a child can have, there are reasons why we as a civilization need to take a more serious approach when it comes to space travel.

It was way back in 1969 when man set his first steps on the soils of Moon. A whooping 44 years ago. Many people and scientists thought at that time that space invasion was just a matter of years. Unfortunately that has not played exactly as per the wishes. Yes, we have seen hundreds of satellites launched and stable space stations. the Hubble is providing us with tons of information about the space almost on a daily basis. But sadly, all the efforts have been more or less concentrated towards earth itself. Now, space colonization is not an easy thing, in fact, an extremely difficult and expensive undertaking. But the needs have risen very fast due to our own irresponsible actions.

None can deny the fact that we humans have abused the planet earth like anything. We are on the verge of destroying the marine ecosystem, forests are thinning faster than a middle aged man’s hair and huge gaping holes are there in the Ozone layer. We have increased population too much too fast and now there is hardly any place left for it to grow anymore without disturbing the environment. Medical science has improved drastically lengthening the lives of people while newborn deaths have been cut down by large percentages. The sure shot outcome of this is more load on the population, more food, energy and space requirements and eventually more molestation of the planet.

If we continue to go like this, the day might be near when we have to adopt any of the following ways to save the planet:

• Selective culling of people. People over a certain age and who are not contributing in a significant manner to the society will have to be put to “sleep” in order to make room for the contributing ones.
• Forced birth control. Couples will be forced to live childless in order to lower burden on the society.
• Wars to gain control over natural resources. Winner may eradicate the loser altogether to lessen the need to share the resources.
• Destruction of the planet.

None of these are welcome scenarios, not by a long shot. So the other sane proposition is that we look elsewhere. It might be harsh to read but controlling ourselves and saving the planet is no more an option. We are way past that stage. Right now, we need to search the galaxy for habitable planets, build spaceships that can take us there and start a colony there. The numbers indicate that it is more than just a theory. There are innumerable stars and planets in the space, the space is, after all, infinite. So theories dictate that there has to be a large number planes orbiting a star in the “Goldi Locks Zone.” Even if there is a .01% possibility, we are looking at an infinite number of planets to choose from.

Sadly, when the efforts of all the smart men must be directed towards this, they are busy creating better weapons, faster fighter jets and sneakier submarines. It is high time they realized fighting over earth is not going to take them anywhere. It is better we find ourselves a few better planers, figure out how to get and live there and then fight over them. At least that will have a happy ending.

Why Becoming An SAP Consultant Is Still A Great Career Option

The Information Technology industry is a highly volatile one. Latest cutting-edge technologies become obsolete within a matter of months. It is mainly due to the advancement in the fields of technology on a regular basis. But it is quite unfortunate for the people who work for numerous IT services companies around the globe. For example, people who have been working as C++ developers are now facing uncertain future as the advent of JAVA and other programming languages have replaced C++. Similarly, the future is not rosy for old BAAN ERP and LotusNotes database consultants. The same, however, cannot be said about the thousands of SAP consultants. SAP has been around for decades and there are still no signs of them slowing down anytime soon.

There are some great reasons why you can and should choose becoming an SAP consultant as a career. They are as follows:

1. It is one of the two biggest players in the ERP software market. Other than Oracle ERP, there are not many ERP solutions that can threatened SAP, not even Microsoft’s ERP solution. The number of companies that have implemented SAP solutions is very hard to figure out and there are new companies signing up every day.
2. The number of modules SAP provides and supports are increasing with every year. Each business has a number of different modules such as MM, PS, SD, APO, QM etc. With time, they have differentiated some larger modules into several smaller ones such as MM into PM, PP etc. This has opened up new job opportunities for people and allowed them to become consultants in the line of work they are most comfortable in.
3. The amount of new modules being released by SAP is not very less either. For example SAP recently upgraded from Business Rule Framework to Business Rule Framework + or BRF+. This is a solution which is dedicated to replicate and automate all the rules and policies existing within an organisation. It also captures financial rules such a tax rules, insurance policies etc. Similarly, recently a newer version of EH$S M or Environment, Health and Safety Management was released. This module captures all incidents and their implications within an organisation workplace. This is a thriving new module in want of skilled new consultants.
4. new tools, techniques and products are always coming out from SAP. The best example should the SAP HANA. It is a solution that provides a huge cache for database which speeds up the processes amazingly. It is cloud based solution which can be used as a stand alone application platform as well.  People have started to train themselves in HANA and soon it will create large job opportunities.
5. The technical consultants or ABAP developers constantly have new tools and techniques to play with. All the new solutions coming out from the stable of SAP mean that there is no chance of redundancy anytime in the future as far as the technical consultants are concerned. Older more experienced ABAP-ers can learn new techniques and move on to new career opportunities while fresh batches of developers take their place. It is an ongoing endeavor.

So it should be clear by now that SAP is by no means stagnant and you can give your career a boost if you decide to embrace SAP as a career option. You can get a training from a certified SAP training partner and you should be set. All the best!

Why Are New PC Video Games Easier To Play With Gamepads And Joysticks

Well, it’s another great year for video game fans. After a loooong time, a new Mortal Kombat game is out, GTA V is knocking on the doors and so on. But it is also time for me to write about a thing that has been bugging for a long time. Just as the title of this blog says, I have watch many recent PC games work better with gamepads than with Keyboard and Mouse. Now in my mind I have been thinking, why the hell is it like that?

Personally I am a very big fan of Soccer games like the Fifa series and Pro Evolution Soccer series. While PES has always been tilted towards the gamepads, I had no problems playing Fifa with keyboard till the Fifa 11 version. But then Fifa 2012 came out and I was bamboozled. No matter how hard I tried, I was not able to even pass the ball properly using keyboard, let alone score a goal and win a match. So in the end, I had to break a decade long rule of mine, to play a PC game with a controller. I was easier to play but sad nonetheless.

Not only Fifa, the classic Beat’em Up games like Street Fighter are also becoming harder and harder to play with Keyboard. You can hardly do a combo without using a gamepad. Sometimes there are games that play quite well with the Keyboard – Mouse combination but some parts of the game are very difficult to play with them. For example the hugely popular Far Cry 3 is very nice to play on PC but driving the car with keyboard is a pain in the behind. Only gamepads can take care of this problem.

I have been thinking, why is it happening? The best answer that comes to mind is that the game developers now make cross-platform games. The console versions are almost always more stable than their PC counterparts. Unlike consoles, there can be an endless number of combinations for different PC hardware and software. So the bugs and glitches are more prevalent in PC versions and developers have to keep churning out bug fixes on a regular basis to support buyers. While for console versions, the hardware and software are standard globally and there is almost no chance that a game running on a PS 3 in the US will not run on a PS 3 in Singapore.

May be making PC games gamepad dependent is the developers’ way of pushing gamers towards consoles. But for hardcore PC gamers like us, we will not go down without a fight. And at the same time, it is a sincere plea to the developers that please make PC games playable using keyboard and mouse only.

Samsung to launch Galaxy Note 10.1 Inch?

Samsung Galaxy Note

15-th August might turn out to be a big day for technophiles as Samsung has revealed their intentions for announcing something big today. The tech world is already buzzing with anticipation and many experts are speculating that it might actually be the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 inch version.

Samsung had announced the 10.1″ Galaxy Note at the Mobile World Congress last February. The 10.1″ version has new apps and features that are not only certifiably awesome, but the possibilities of S-Pen Stylus has been revamped as well. This tablet is set to come with Android 4.0 (Ice-cream Sandwich) , two cameras, a dual core processor and HD video support.

The specifications are looking nice and powerful but if the launch is confirmed then it might be a direct clash with the recently released Samsung Galaxy SIII. Whether Samsung would like to have two premium offerings clashing with each other is not clear but this might be a ploy to curb the demands for the impending iPhone 5 release.

The invitations sent by Samsung Electronics America to many technology bigwigs mentioned the release of a new Galaxy device. This division of Samsung generally handles non smartphone launches so there is already a high chance that the device is going to be a tablet.  Furthermore, Samsung Galaxy Note is coming to T-mobile soon and there are speculations about a Samsung Galaxy 2.

Now we will just have to wait till 15th August to find out the truth.