Recently for a project we were developing, we had a need to show top X bloggers may be top 5 or top 10 bloggers in a block and after some Googling and searching the drupal.org (d.o) site I could not find anything that fit our needs.

The need for a moduleThen I decided to write a module that will solve the problem but in a dynamic and flexible way and came up with the idea for Top X Contributors module. If you want to download the module and try it, you can download it here or take a look at the code at GitHub.com here.

What does it do?The module is very simple, it just shows the top X (X - no. of authors/contributors to show which is configurable) contributors in a HTML list in form of a block for each content type in your Drupal site. Something like below:


Step to followDownload the module here, and follow the instruction to show the top - "Content Type" contributors block where content type is any node type you want be it blog, page or a custom type you created like news or event anything.

Steps

1. Install the module (copy it to your sites/all or sites/all/custom folder)
2. Turn on the module from SITEURL/admin/build/modules - or use drush :)
3. Then change the settings as per your need: at admin/settings/topxcontributors - as shown below:
   
   
   
4. Go to the blocks page SITEURL/admin/build/block/list - and place the newly generated blocks in the block regions you want. (if you want configure the blocks and change the title to whatever you like for example : Top 5 bloggers).
   
   (Click to Enlarge)
5. And you are done. See the output as in the first picture above "Steps to follow"

ImprovementsI wanted each node type's contributor or author count to be configurable but that above module solved our problem for now so it will not be done for now. If anyone wants to contribute contact me or comment below and help me in GitHub. Any help will be appreciated, I'll try for a CVS account at Drupal as well yet again.
ConclusionI hope the module solves a very small but common problem in Drupal in many community and blogs this might be a very needed and sought after feature but not achieved easily. If views could have done it, it would have been amazing but none the less here is a solution for you all to try out.

I have tried to give out what I had developed internally for YIPL hope it helps someone. :) Happy Drupalling. http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Hamrolyrics.com is turning 3 today, and YoungInnovations Private Limited (YIPL) is also growing at a formidable pace. It all started just 3 years back when we were in college and had plans to do things, make it big and now many things have taken shape. We own our company and its running good. Just to look back I'm being a little selfish in this blog post and want to be nostalgic on how I started web development, when did it all being and how. Visit Hamrolyrics.com.

The Present : Hamrolyrics.com

It looks good, all thanks to Anjan for his design.

How it all started. I guess it was early 2000 when I was in my 10th standard, I remember when I told people about email they used to be puzzled. In those times when people didn't have an email address I had a website, be it a website in 50megs.com but I had a website then a decade back. I remember internet was a big luxury then, Thamel was the place to be to surf internet and it was amazingly expensive it was Rs. 3 per minute of internet surfing that would cost Rs. 180 per hour which is now around Rs. 20 per hour or so.

Jumping into Web Design not Development yetSo how did I get to the web designing thing, well my cousin Rajeev Manandhar (elder to me) owned a cyber cafe then. I had seen his website and asked him how did you make it, he said I used Frontpage. I was so into computers as I had got a new one some time back and no one around had one. I first saw his site and tired to make something like it. I jotted up a personal site and asked him to upload. I guess he was the one who created my hotmail address that I don't use now a days. I'm into Gmail :).
How the lyrics site started.After making some websites in plain HTML and some very mad designs with Photoshop, I wanted to do something usable. I wanted to give something that people would like to see, then when I searched for Nepali lyrics in Yahoo or MSN may be then Google was not there or was not that popular in around 2002. I did not find any good site with needed volume of content. Then I decided to build my own and started collecting lyrics. I had typed up more than 500 lyrics in between 2003 start and 2004 end so may be in around 2 years time.

I just knew how to design things I had no web programming knowledge and with a dial up connection I could not get any tutorials or anything and yes in that time there we no blogs, no podcasts and no videos. Internet was just about email and surfing static websites like one I was building :).

I was so passionate about the website that every week I used to add 10 lyrics and put each entry manually to the alphabets page as per the song and the artist. I even used to record songs from FM as they played the newest tracks I used to record from Naya Pusta (Radio Sagarmatha) as the program played new releases. I had put so much effort on the site but did not expect any return. It was my +2 days and I could use my time like that. I knew some ASP (Active Server Pages) in 2003 mid but did not prefer the new hosting and the new sub domain in brinkster.com. But after I joined my Bachelors I did not pay attention to the website.

Nepalilyrics.150m.com commitment and headaches :)In Nepalilyrics.150m.com then I started to have bandwidth limit exceeded errors as almost daily the 20 Mb per day allotted bandwidth used to be insufficient. Then I tried to shift the lyrics site to Nepalilyrics.t35.com which had unlimited bandwidth and the two sites ran in parallel. The site now looks very funny I agree but 7 years back it was great when there was no Web 2.0 thing around.

Even then I used to get so many feedback like include guitar tabs, you are doing a great job but on one to contribute lyrics or say I'll help you. There are lots of feedback now as well : http://hamrolyrics.com/feedback_view.

The major headache after 2 years + of continuous commitment and dedication was now updating lyrics. How much would I update the lyrics from a dial up connection till when, so I stopped it all after a point.

I liked to measure the visitors and things form then so I had installed a tracking code in 20th Jan 2003 as the site mentions :). I used addfreestats.com not Google Analytics as I didn't know about it 7 years back.


The stats of the visitors to Nepalilyrics.150m.com in the past 7 years.Nepalilyrics 150m Stats (Hamrolyrics.com)

It shows that 75000 + people have visited the site :). (View in full screen - let's not count last 3 years)

Achievements and Learnings

• The site was featured by Saptahik daily as site of the week on Falgun 16, 2059 BS, see it here (http://twitpic.com/131dae). 
• I was offered a space at Yokeho.com a very popular portal at that time, I even met a guy at Mercantile ;). (Yokeho.com is dead now)
• I participated in Wave Web winner 2003 I guess my site was more popular than the awards :) but won nothing. 2003.com.np is down now.
• The site was also mentioned in an article in HIMAL khabar partika of 1-15 Baishak 2060, page no 70. (If you can get it from an archive read it)
• Gorkhali.com, nepalisong.net, khattam.com are some of the sites that have offered me spaces for the contents of the site. (It was like being overtaken so I didn't accept any of the offers)
• It was site of the month May 2005 in Nepalvista.com (http://www.nepalvista.com/som05.html).
• With hard work it was achieved but I knew from then it would have been profitable as well but the Nepali web audience is lazy and not responsive.
• I guess the only thing that sells in Nepali websphere/ web arena is "Model Pictures" - define it yourself, yes there are good blogs and forums but the average Nepali web surfer will never even look at a clean minimalistic design with great content. They will rather jump on a flashy showy "झिल्के" website. Sadly thats the only thing that sells here.
• We don't believe in community building and I have not seen any community driven Nepali websites, I'm not talking about social networking or chat websites.

Hamrolyics.com - What Next... Hamrolyics.com plans to come in a new avatar and with loads of new features. The website is built with Drupal and thank to the genius Bibek Shrestha (@bibstha) and his untiring efforts to make Hamrolyrics better. Also many thanks to the whole YIPL team including Anjan, Prashant, Sangita, Rabindra, Sanil and all others for not letting down my dream of having a great Nepali lyrics website, but now we should take a different approach.

ConclusionWe want to handover the website to the community any interested person or group of people are highly encouraged to contact us at info@yipl.com.np. For now you can see the new site beta at http://new.hamrolyrics.com.

I really want people to come forward and take ownership in Hamrolyrics, after all its Hamrolyrics :).http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Again the load shedding hours have gone up from tomorrow, here is the latest schedule. This will go on for years and years to come in our country, though how much we cuss the government they will never address the problems of a common man :(.

 

Click on the picture for a bigger version.


Now its 11 hours per day Now we don't have electricity for almost half the time a day.

 

May this end very soon...
http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Karthik Calling Karthik an unconventional name for a hindi movie but a break from a long wait for some outstanding music. Lately I have not heard anything to say it sounds amazing and this album break my wait for a great sound track which has it all.

Intro

Reportedly called to be a psychological thriller the promos are scintillating and Deepika looks beautiful and sultry in the movie preview. Let’s follow what the music by the terrific trio of Shankar Ehsan Loy (SEL) has in store for the average listener like me.

Songs

KCK starts off with “Hey Ya!” a very enticing title and equally grooving music to set the foundation of things to come. Rendered almost flawlessly by the trio of Clinton Cerejo, Shankar Mahadevan and Loy Mendonsa it lacks Ehsan of the music director trio who has composed and arranged the music for this flick. Mainly Clinton’s voice rules this slow but punchy track with marvelous music and lyrics is simply exceptional – “Mujhko dunya milgayi hai – zindagi badal gayi hai – Tum jo mere saath ho”. The promos on screen look so inviting and the on screen pair also looks good.

Next track is “Uff Teri Adda” crooned in incredible fashion by Mr. breathless himself Shankar Mahadevan and well supported by Alyssa Mendonsa. With some upbeat percussion and synthetic sounds this is surely going to be a hit dance number. Even the lyric talks about breaking a leg, the incomparable singing by Mahadevan makes this song a masterpiece. The varying pace of this track also gives a different feel to the listener.

“Jaane Ye Kya” vocalized by K.K follows, it is a slow melodious track with subtle earthy instruments. It has a simple composition and unsophisticated lyrics describing of being together.

Then the mesmerizing voice of Kailash Kher is next, when he croons “Kaisi Hai Ye Udasi”. Starting with bansuri (flute) this song has simple composition and soft percussion with a narcotic voice makes this song addictive from the word go. Superior lyrics and superb back vocals by Sukanya Purayastha creates a memorable effect for this song. Lyrics for all the songs in this album have been penned by Javed Akhtar.

At Track 5 the title track “Karhik Calling Karthik” arrives, sung by Suraj Jaggan, Shankar Mahadevan, Caralisa Monteiro and Malika Singh is a haunting song that reminds that this flick is a psychological thriller. Intriguing composition and experimental arrangement makes this song sway away from the groovy or easy listening category. Karthik and pick up the phone is the best part of the song. Lyric is also unusual and keeps the listener guessing on what the movie will be all about.

Consequent track is an instrumental “Karthik 2.0” a fast paced rock number which stands out as the theme of the movie. Put together by Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale who is also giving the background score of the movie, the track gives a sense of being in middle of some trouble and something fishy happening around.

Remixes

Then the first of the three remixes in the album comes “Karthik Calling Karthik – Theme Remix” is still as haunting as the original. The track is done by Midival Punditz who has in the past given great remixes and this track is also a groovy number that may be a good track to shake your booty to. This 4/4 beat song can be a good party started. With majority of synthetic sounds and loud percussion there is some voice parts well weaved in this high tempo track.

Subsequently surfaces “Hey Ya! Remix” sung by the trio who sang the original song, this track has a hip-hop feel to it in the music department. With some jazzy vocal effects this song promises to be the next dance anthem. High on percussion but still maintains the hip feel of the song. Digital Boyz have done a marvelous job of remixing the track.

Last track/remix is “Uff Teri Adaa – Remix” - starts off with heavy beats and give the dance feel from the first beat punched. Punchy and groovy the splendid voice of Shanker and astounding supporting vocals of Alyssa Mendonsa dissolves seamlessly in the fast paced 4/4 beats like sugar in hot water. You will not able to keep yourself from dancing if this song plays in a night club. The remixing is credited to Udyan Sagar (Nucleya) who has executed the job without flaws.

Verdict

On the whole, I’d like to repeat I listened to a great album after a long time. The singer selection by Sharkar Ehsan Loy compliments to the outstanding music they have composed and arranged for this album. The multitalented Farhan Akhtar looks great in the promos and lyrics are also commendable by the word smith Javed Akhtar. Midival Punditz have a fair share in the collection but they will prove their musical mettle in the background score department is what I’m expecting.

This album in my opinion must make it to your music collection as one of the best albums by Shankar Ehsan Loy (SEL), so go and garb it.
Extra :)

PS: This is a music review by me after 16 months, why? May be I did not get my ears to a great album, may be I was lazy, may be I was busy :). This is my 150th blog post. And yes have a look at the "Hey Ya!" song promo of the movie below:

See "Uff Teri Adda" here.

http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Jai Nepal. The government has just increased the load shedding hours, though how much we lament and cuss the government and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) we are going to face this power cut. Every two weeks it will increase till it gets to agonizing 16 or even 18 hours a day but we will adjust and we don't even have a choice :(.



(click on the picture to view full size)

Though you fall in any group you have to be without electricity for 9 hours a day equating to 63 hours a week.

Load Shedding Schedule Kathmandu, Nepal 17th January 2010


If you can't cure it, endure it...
http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

The latest gift by Nepal Government to its citizens on the occasion of New Year 2010. Have a happy new year with 51 hours of load shedding each week. With 7 or 8 hours of darkness everyday.




Click on the image to see a larger version.

UPDATE: Group wise schedule with locations:



This is a never ending thing now, it is going to increase every week till it gets to 16 or even 18 hours a day. :(
http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog