acts_as_taggable

In Varcasa the articles are grouped together by categories. I am in process of moving from categories and using tags to group articles. I came across this plugin ( acts_as_taggable) for making ActiveRecords taggable. I was taken aback to find out how easy it was to make my Domain taggble using this plugin.

Make sure to check it out.

http://taggable.rubyforge.org/

Author Name corrected

I have corrected the author name in all articles in Varcasa.

End of Iteration 4

Nothin much happened in this iteration, that a user can experience. Behind the scenes some important things happened in this iteration,

1) Found a web designer to work on UI. This web designer is more committed to CSS based designing. I am positive. He will start working from next week.
2) Added free ad banner for Asha (US based non profit student organization dedicated to the support of basic education in India). I am thrilled that I have got an opportunity to help Asha in their dedication to socio-economic change in India.
3) Refocused some of Varcasa's goals. Now we are planning to focus more on Education related news items. We wanted "Digg" kind of environment for education related news. I have come with some stories. I will soon post static HTMLs online for everyone to get a feel of this new feature.

Crux of Varcasa.com

An ex Twer mentioned about "Shanti Mantra".

https://hindumommy.wordpress.com/2006/07/19/shanti-mantra/

"Om Sahana Vavatu Sahanau Bhunaktu
Sahaveeryam Karavavahai
Tejas Vinavati Tamastuma vidhwishavahai
Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi"

It means ,
"May He protect both of us.
May He nourish both of us.
May we both acquire the capacity to study.
May our study be brilliant. Peace"

I want Varcasa.com to be place for everyone to acquire the knowledge from each other.

Refocus

We did a classic mistake when selecting features for Varcasa.com. We wanted to do more than what other sites were doing. We wanted to give every feature possible in Varcasa.com. Working on it as a part time, I do not think it possible. Lesson learned :)

Now we are planning to refocus our vision about Varcasa.com.

Let me know what you all think. I am looking for some feedbacks.

I will keep you all updated about our new filtered feature list :)

New Article Added

Atlast Siva Srinivasan ( the author for all varcasa articles ) is back in action. He was in hibernation for sometime. He has added a new article about "Internships". It is a good read. Read and let us know what you think by commeting in Varcasa.com .

http://www.varcasa.com/cms/articles/2006/07/22/internships-summer-jobs-curriculum-training

End of Iteration 3

This iteration I had a big set back. The web designer who designed the UI did all the designs using HTML tables, eventhough I requested for CSS. So I need to look for another Web designer.

Hope things will get better next iteration

End of Iteration 2

In this Iteration, I was working with a web designer to get a new UI look. We have successfully got a new UI layout. In the next iteration we will rubyify that new layout. I have attached an image of how it will look. Let me know what you think

Looking for some Article writers

I am looking for someone to write articles related to education for varcasa.com.

If you are interested please contact editor@varcasa.com

Blocks and Iterators in Ruby

Block is a powerful feature in ruby. It took some time for me to understand the block concept in Ruby. But once you understand, it is so easy.

So if anyone is learning Ruby, spend some time in Block feature and understand it thoroughly. It is so powerful that you will be using it often.

New Features Added

Today I successfully finished an iteration. I am planning to have weekly small releases. Using Capistrano, it is so easy for me to have frequent releases.

This release contains,

• New User Notification -> Admin will recieve a email when a user signs up. This feature is not visible outside Varcasa mangement.

Upcoming:

• Better UI (it sux now)
• Allow users to send feedback to Varcasa management
  

Web Design

I accept that I am not a good web designer :) I am looking for some good web designers.

Anyone has any contacts

Upgraded to Eclipse 3.2

Yesterday I updated from Eclipse from 3.1 t0 3.2 . Damn now I am not able to save any files. I have no idea what is happenin. So today I will be spendin time fixing...

Unneeded non functional task :(

Debugging in RadRails

Debugging in RadRails is as easy as it is for Java in eclipse. Hats off to RadRails developers.

But I find one thing annoying, it takes so long for the ruby test to launch in debug mode. I am not sure it is because of Rad Rails or ruby.

Any ideas anyone ?