Category: Personal

I’m a Word Press Boy


I’m a WordPress Bhoy boy looking for a WordPress girl 🙂 yes for last 2 days I’m using WordPress… Not it is not a fools day prank… You can check this blog is on WordPress… I’ve been using Drupal CMS for my blog for last 4 years and I’ve great love for Drupal… There were lot criticism and cry from Drupal world… Even I got a shout from a buddy in twitter…

tronathan@anandnataraj Why on earth would you go from drupal TO wordpress? please enlighten me…6:19 AM Mar 29th from TweetDeck in reply to anandnataraj

For Drupal lovers or WordPress lovers let me confess I’m still a Drupalian by heart and WordPress is just a mask… I still challenge everyone that Drupal is the best CMS in the world than any other CMS… So, you can ask me why I converted from Drupal to WordPress… Here are my justifications

  •  
    • WordPress is quick in giving updates and more happening now-a-days
    • WordPress has all the tools for running a blog, which drupal must improve
    • WordPress admin interface is very simple to use
    • WordPress has more plugins and themes compared to drupal
    • Last but not least I get lot of enquries on wordpress customization… So using the system will help me understand client’s challenges and expectation…

I decided to convert to WordPress a month back, but I researched a lot on reading other blogs on lessons as I didn’t want to take a change… But itz all done within an hour and the process was very simple… This is what I did;

 

1.)    Installed WordPress in a folder /blog…

2.)    Make sure both wordpress and drupal tables are in same database…

Please use below SQL queries to export the posts and comments from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1. I used phpmyadmin to write queries

 

This sql will export all posts from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1

 

# Use the Drupal database

use db261070012;

# Remove all current posts from WordPress

TRUNCATE TABLE wp_posts;

# Insert posts from Drupal into WordPress

INSERT INTO wp_posts (id, post_date, post_content, post_title, post_excerpt, post_name, post_modified, post_type, `post_status`)

SELECT DISTINCT

n.nid `id`,

FROM_UNIXTIME(n.created) `post_date`,

r.body `post_content`,

n.title `post_title`,

r.teaser `post_excerpt`,

IF(SUBSTR(a.dst, 11, 1) = ‘/’, SUBSTR(a.dst, 12), a.dst) `post_name`,

FROM_UNIXTIME(n.changed) `post_modified`,

‘post’ `post_type`,

IF(n.status = 1, ‘publish’, ‘private’) `post_status`

FROM cms_node n

INNER JOIN cms_node_revisions r

USING(vid)

LEFT OUTER JOIN cms_url_alias a

ON a.src = CONCAT(‘node/’, n.nid)

;

            This sql will export all comments from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1

 

TRUNCATE TABLE wp_comments;INSERT INTO wp_comments (comment_post_ID, comment_date, comment_date_gmt, comment_content, comment_parent, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url, comment_author_ip, comment_approved)SELECTnid,FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp),FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp),comment,0,name,IF(mail=”, CONCAT(REPLACE(LOWER(name),’ ‘, ”), ‘@’, hostname, ‘.localhost’), mail),homepage,hostname,1FROM cms_comments;

This sql will update the number of counts in wordpress posts table

 

# update comments count on wp_posts tableUPDATE wp_posts SET comment_count = (SELECT COUNT(comment_post_id) FROM wp_comments WHERE wp_posts.id = wp_comments.comment_post_id);

3.)    In Drupal, I used url alies which was like /my_post_title_name and I wanted to have the same url alies.
To do this I updated the WordPress Permalink settings:
Custom Structure : %postname%    

4.)    120 posts and 98 comments were successfully imported from drupal to wordpress…

5.)    Finally pointed my site’s destination from /anandnataraj (location where drupal files reside) to /anandnataraj/blog (wordpress files)…

6.)    Changed rewritebase in /anandnataraj/blog/.htaccess from “/blog” to “/”…

7.)    Changed the site URL and blog URL in wp_options table to http://www.anandnataraj.com

 

It took 30 minutes to migrate from drupal to wordpress 2.7.1… So far, everything seems to be working just fine…

 

Yesterday I designed my own WordPress, brought a coffee mug and printed it there, also shot some snaps with it :)…

 

RBS – Cogzidel’s first product launched


RBS – Cogzidel’s first product was launched on late hours of 25th March, 2009 at 23.45 IST… It is a proud and exciting moment for the entire Cogzidel team… I take this opportunity to thank Mr.Senthil Guru who started the project and Mr.Sathick Basha who took over from Senthil and completed the mission… I must also thank Mr.Pandi who assisted Sathick, Mr.Saravanan for CSS work, Mr.Major Karthik for his design, Mr.Bala Subramaniyam for managing and getting the product out successfully, last but not least it is our Bala Krishnan for his commitment and passion he contributed a lot encouraging the team and he acted as System Analyst for the project…

I’ll write a detailed blog about the product tomorrow… For now let me keep it brief; RBS is abbreviation for Reverse Bidding System, it is a bidding system which is developed by taking inspiration from Scriptlance.com… We have more features in mind to make the product unique and we will be evolving the product in a phased manner by releasing update at frequent intervals which will be bundled with new features and patches…

Product is launched under Creative Common license and is offered for free… This must be a bonanza for webmasters… We are offering the project for free to create more entrepreneurs & webmasters… You can think why we are offering it for free, let me explain it with an example,

“A has one rupee and B has one rupee… Both exchange that rupee… They go home with one rupee each!
But if A has one idea and B has one idea… Both exchange that idea… They go home with two ideas.”

Same way when we offer something for free lots of people will try it and it will create an eco-system where it will create lots of opportunity for many people and ideas will be flowing… So, we want to create such a eco-system and that is why we are offering the product for free…

In coming days I think there will be lots of success stories and I wish it happens soon……

Major Karthik honored us by launching the product… Here is the launch picture…

rbs-launched-by-major

Here is the link for products page http://cogzidel.com/products?view=productdetails

Bangalore Day 1!!!


Today has been a hectic day and I didn’t find time or unable to think something unique. So, I thought what I didn’t for the day must be enough… Here is the synopsis for the day…

  • Reached Bangalore at 5.45 AM and landed in Dairy Circle…
  • From there I boarded a local bus to reach home…
    • Ticket was eight bucks, but the conductor didn’t give back balance change… So, my travel cost me ten bucks…
    • I was happy because my New Year resolution was not to travel by autos and flights and for last 45 days I’ve been successfully following it…
  • Reached home by 6.30 AM made some post in twitter, checked mail and took a small nap for 2 hours…
  • Got a wakeup call from Dad, telling what all he has arranged for me. Dad has always been a responsible person and a loving father… He brought my favorite water melon and filled water in the buckets before he left the previous day to Chennai…
  • Then took bath and rushed to Startup Saturday and en route had breakfast and picked cash from ATM and was late as usual…
    • But there was introduction about Startup Saturday and their services…
    • Then there was a presentation by Sumeet Anand, who explained about his product Kreeo and about Collective Intellegence…
    • Then it was followed by Jyotsna who gave a presentation about Moovieshoovie.com…
    • Then there was a tea break and time for networking… Time for networking was too short… But managed to be my best within allotted time…
    • Then there was a demo from Tringme.com on VoicePHP… But the topic migrated from demo to VoicePHP vs VoiceXML…
  • Then had lunch Gopal, Narasimhan & Senthil…
  • Then proceeded to StonePub in Indra Nagar for Heavy Metal Bloggers Meet organized by Indibloggers.in.
    • Event was sponsored by Kingfisher which was generous enough to offer free unlimited beer…
    • Then met with lots of interesting folks…
    • Then met Dhempe, Narayanan & Swaminathan who were already known to me…
    • Then had a long interaction with Amit and I’m expecting an email from him…
  • From their proceeded to Forum Mall along with Senthil and I must thank him for giving company… We went to an English movie “He is just not that into you” and just returned and the day has come to an end…

Good Night…

Biography – eight years of entrepreneurial ride


I’m one of the most blessed ones by almighty! He gave me an opportunity to become an entrepreneur & I gracefully accepted it & utilized it in the right way. I must also take some credits for my perseverance. It all happened because of my cousin brother who still desires to be an entrepreneur but lacks perseverance. It all started with a desire to make money where in I started doing some part time freelance jobs like data entry, web design etc. which gave opening bells to my entrepreneurial desire.

I was doing all amateur jobs until I finished my graduation & that is when the opening bells rang & I made my formal entrepreneurial debut. An out of college kid, no specialization, no competence, no exposure, no experience overall I didn’t posses any entrepreneurial qualities but what all I was dream, desire & passion to be an entrepreneur. Even my parents & friends made fun of me & were not confident about by success, but today I can take pride in being one of their role models.

Early days as an entrepreneur were not an easy ride. I was not aware of any business functions, no idea about business & didn’t even know how to present myself, most of the times I stood like a joker in front of anyone I saw/met, but still I rowed against the tide, kept meeting people in spite of humiliations. But what I didn’t understand at that time was; I’m a entrepreneur in the making & all the humiliation & struggles were to give me more experience, expertise & shape me as an entrepreneur. Yes I know it is very very hard to over come such turbulent times when we startup, but we have to understand that there are no outside force that can motivate an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a self made man and he has to be motivated and often it would be self motivation. What kept me moving was word of encouragement from some well-wishers and one of the words my friend Aravind use to tell “You can be fool for 5 min. not for ever” & dalai lama’s sayings “When you lose, don’t loose your lesions” with those two phrases I over came lots of challenges and over a period of time I got more experience than people of my own age group.

I started meeting more and more people every day with different faces like a sales man for pitching projects, as a finance head with bankers/financers to raise capital, as a HR interviewed lots of candidates. With every person I met I gained some knowledge which helped me to put it to some other person, with which I was able to gain some respect. Over a point of time I was in a position to talk to anyone at any time and talk any topic. Day by day I started learning new things, understands different functions in business, my networks grew along with all those my confidence grew as well as gained confidence of other people.

So to get all ingredients of business one invest more time than money. I’m writing this blogs only by investing that much of time (8 years). If I’m able to achieve something with all the limitations I had, I think anyone can become a successful entrepreneur. So if you have the desire & fire to be an entrepreneur never think, just act immediately, because “It takes a lot to be a doer, than a thinker”. There is no starting point to become an entrepreneur or there wont be right times or platform to start your entrepreneurial journey. Once you start it and have never say die attitude you are definitely going to be a winner. I wish this post must have kindled the fire and helped someone in some part of the world and have become an entrepreneur. If you had become one please shoot and email to anand@anandnataraj.com.

SriKalahastri Trip


It has been hectic schedule in business & also in personal commitments too. My present concerns are to make my new ventures a great success, to spend good time with my friends, be consistent in my blogging etc. But my mothers concerns are different, she is worried about my marriage and she wanted to do a Raghu Pooja in SriKalahastri. I didn’t want to disappoint my mother’s sentiments and I obliged to goto temple and perform the pooja…

We decided to goto SriKalahastri on Sunday(16th Nov 2008). Kalahastri is 120 KM from Chennai & is located in Chitoor district of Andra Pradesh. We planned to start from home by 1.30 PM so that we can reach temple by 4.30. Pooja must be performed between 4.30 PM – 6.00 PM because that is Ravugalam & pooja must be performed at that tim But we had an unexpected visit of a guest by 1.00 PM and we were able to start from home only by 3.30PM. We have two ways to route to reach Kalahastri from Chennai. We choose the shortest route redhills/tada route which is the shortest… Wonderful road and nice drive, but still we were late and reached temple by 6 o clock. So decided to have a normal prayer and again planned to make it on Tuesday(18th Nov 2008).

On return we took the renigunta road, which is little long in terms of KM & roads were also bad. We reached home little late by around 10 o clock in the night. Travel was of great experience, had nice discussion with my sister, it has been long since we had spent time for each other. Then saw a major accident near thiruvallur where a bus ran over a bike, road was flooded with blood, I wanted to take some snaps and wanted to share it in my blog but my mother did allow me to do it and she immediately wanted me to move from that place. I obliged to my mothers request and continued my drive. Then reached home slept & did normal work on Monday.

Again started on Tuesday to SriKalahastri, this time it Ravugalam was between 3.30PM – 5 PM. We started from home by 12 noon & this time decided to use redhills/tada route to & foe. This is a best route at present because of good roads, but we have a toll plaza near ponneri a kilometer before & after the toll gate roads are pathetic. Took some snaps to share it.

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A person collecting toll

47

Toll tariff for different vehicles

52

Condition of road immediately after toll

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50

Condition of roads immediately after toll, this road a junction which connects periyapalayam & tada road…

Anand Nataraj

En route to SriKalahastri near Varadapalayam & you can see me in the picture…

Then reached the temple by 3.15 PM and got a ticket and had pooja done by 4 o clock, had good darshan & returned back to Chennai on the same tada/redhills road. SriKalahastri – Varadapalayam – Tada road was little narrow and had lots of narrow curves & speed breakers. Caught hold of a car, think the driver is a frequent driver in the route and he maintained good speed. Driver understood that we are following him to have a smooth drive & in the mean time maintain his speed and he helped me by giving appropriate signals. Without him I couldn’t have driven in that speed as it was pitch dark.

Then had a normal drive back home & it was yet another 300 KM drive. It was interesting to have driven 600 KM within 50 hours… It was a nice experience & I’m happy because my parents are happy & I made them happy by somehow sparing time for pooja. It was an happy ending & I headed to Madurai immediately after reaching Chennai.

My First Blog


Hi All,

This is my first blog post & will try to keep you posted about myself & share my experience as entrepreneur, about my doggie Burgie, My experience as a avid Traveller…

Would like to get the support of you people & criticism…

Anand