Increased Output

Recently, I bumped into an ex-colleague who was now plying his trade in a Private Medical Center across town. He came over for his weekly session at UMMC - and his wife still works there. Upon greeting, he remarked upon the number of blog envies I had up lately and how I managed to find the time to do it. He also mentioned the numb of links I had up on my Facebook updates.

I must say that since I have the iPad, things had been really straight forward. Let's start with the blogposts. I take all the photos on the blog on my iPhone 4. Despite one of my cousins dissing it - as now he sports a Nokia with a 12 MP camera - I still think that the iPhone 4 camera remains the most versatile. Great quality of captures with a great selection of apps utilising its capability. Those snaps were usually taken using the Camera+ App, which does amazing point-to-focus and point-to-meter implementations. Once captured, manipulation and editing of the snaps were done in app, as well ass uploading to Flickr and other social network. The photos were also uploaded straight into my blog if necessary as part of an entry, without needing to be transferred to a computer.

Next, the actual blogpost. Previously, I tended to do multiple entries at a time and then upload them in turns. The entries were usually done on a program called Scrivener which is then saved in the cloud using DropBox, to allow me to have access to the entries from any of my Macs. I would then cut and paste them onto the blog as an entry. This has now changed with iPad as I tended to type the entries straight onto the SquareSpace iPad app and upload them as draft directly. I can also put up the photos as necessary, although I order uploaded the edited iPhone snaps onto the Mac, edit them and uploaded them integrated into entries. This way, the alignments and the quality of the photos would be better.

If necessary, or if I was on the road, I could just type the blog post straight onto my iPhone SquareSpace app. It integrates well, and has so far been reliable. I can also keep track on the number of hits, as well as do some corrections on the fly if needed. If you notice, my blog used Disqus for comments. As soon as a comment was generated on my post, I would straight away receive an email informing me so, and I could just email back a reply. Alternatively, there was always the Disqus Pro app, which collate all the comments, which I would then answer directly through the app.

All in all, maintenance of the blog could be done away from a computer. As long as there was an internet connection, I would be good to go! Long may I stay productive.

A Different Start

Since starting off this blog a year ago, I often recieved emails from readers disappointed that they did not find much at all about chemotherapy and cancer. I then had to write back to explain to them that thus is a personal blog and personally I was not really keen to be reminded of work during my free time. Maybe I should've picked a different title but it was catchy and I liked it. I decided since the end of last year that maybe another outlet is needed for people looking for medical information, more with a layman's twist.

After months of planning, I was finally happy with a format. It's bit perfect. It will be hosted in Squarespace - getting a discount for a second account. It will be bilingual as currently resources for Malay medical reading material is seriously lacking. The skeleton and framework for the site was already built and I have started to populate the content. It will take many moons before it will be barely adequate but I am sure I will hey there. I decided to do away with emblems and speeches and head straight to the point. Maybe in the future I will get my medical students to help. You have to start somewhere.

Afternoon stop

Just finished my Jumaat prayers, so I thought I grab a quick bite before the afternoon chores. Got a couple of families I need to talk too, then off for some paperwork. Blogging certainly not as taxing as it was back in 1997 when I maintained my first website during the time I was UK UMNO Youth Chief .... I should have stayed in politics, likely I will make more money than just being a measly Haematologist. Back then, updating anything on the website took ages, due to combination of unintuitive interfaces and slow internet connection.

Nowaways, updating blogs can be done on the fly. For this blog, I use a client built into the website squarespace.com. I learned about it from listening to Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech podcast, getting a 10% discount I thought I might just as well utilise the 14 days free trial. I got hooked since. The interface is neat and I am sure anyone can afford the reasonable price structure - No, I am not being paid for this advert. I then took a step further and bought myself this domain name through nettica.com. If you are serious about blogging, find a decent tool, get yourself a decent domain and off you go!

Since uploading my update last night I have received request for more tips. I will try my best for later tonight. So talk to you again then.