The arrival of GTA IV was amazing, for gamers their long waiting is over, but for critics. . . well there’s a lot to talk about. Ten days after it’s release GTA IV has totally fascinated its fans. Rockstar put the cap with it above all other available games out there, featuring with the new graphic improvements, new features and gameplay. According to IGN’s Review GTA IV is definitively the best game ever. I don’t want to go into other details for I’m not a gamer myself, instead I’ll provide below some interesting facts where you can get a perfect description about every inch regarding GTA IV.

However, there are two things actually that pushed me to write about this game.

1. In its first week of release, GTA IV was sold in over 6 million copies world-wide, which overpasses not only its previous versions but as a matter of fact all other games on the market could score on their first week of availability, even more than what Microsoft Corp. Halo 3 has scored.
2. The main characters personality represents a mentality of Easter Eastern Europeans. Furthermore, one of main protagonists is an Albanian called Bledar Morina wherewith I’m pretty excited of and feeling glad about this fact.

Nevertheless, besides IGN’s review another more of a freelance’s review is available which I just got aware of, by doing an occasional surf on the net. Before you jump in to see the video review I feel obligated to inform you about the reviewer. He uses an uncensored freedom of speech thus swearing can be heard throughout the video. You’ve been alerted!

Eventually, excluding all my previews experience and unwillingness to play games, I think I’m going to try GTA IV out this time, for I must obliterate my curiosity. You probably have already . . . ?

Yesterday when I’ve published the announcement about launch of European Roadshow sites I’ve neglected to emphasize an important part of that tiresome day. Today, I’d like to fill that gap by sharing some insight with you. I hope we’re all on the same page.

While I together with Valon were working on Come to Europe site I hear him shouting out loud complains about WordPress “Write Post” visual editor. Honestly, this wasn’t the first-in-the-row complain for I’ve had talks to few other colleagues who weren’t feeling comfortable while trying to write down an article from within WordPress. Well, I had to react though for first of all I like to help and feel glad about it, second of all he’s my manager and basically I must had assisted, wasn’t I ?!

For most bloggers using WordPress “Write Post” editor is annoying, and I’m pretty much aware that the visual editor is gimpy, yet it can be improved. Although the improvement should have been done by WordPress developers, which certainly hasn’t, though we are forced to do it manually by using extra plug-ins. Indeed, it’s not really that bad but sometimes adds additional unwanted html tags that alter the look of the post plus switching from the Visual to plain HTML editor to clean them up is a nerve breaker.

Hence, I told him what I am about going to tell you here what one should do if still insists on using “Write Post” rather then switching to whatever 3rd party alternatives. This is what, read ahead.

The easiest and simplest action through which you can lower down the annoyance and give yourself a little more comfort from the buggy TinyMCE used in WordPress is by turning off the visual editor. You can do this with the following steps -> login to your WP dashboard and click your name on the top-right of the page

Then in the Personal Options section uncheck “Use the visual editor when writing”

Finally click the button to save the changes.
And this is all about it, now you’re not going to see Visual Editor unless you re-enable it again. But remember from now on you’re going to need to type a little more coding tags than you used to for advanced editing capabilities now are disabled.

The second alternative is appropriate only if you’re an avid to the Visual Editor and insist on using it again and again, or simply you find it pretty convenient, and right there is the solution for you too. Thank God there are such generous plug-in developers who offer us free plug-ins to improve and ease our work experience.

The plug-in I use (I’m not aware of a better one until today) is called TinyMCE Advanced (click to read more about it) which adds extra advanced functionality to the Visual Editor by extending it’s worthiness. Below is a screenshot of TinyMCE Advanced configuration panel with the extra options that come with it.

To put it into work simply

1. Download.
2. Unzip.
3. Upload to the plugins directory (wp-content/plugins).
4. Activate the plugin.
5. Set your preferences at “Manage – TinyMCE Advanced”.
6. Clear your browser cache.

Finally, after this you’ll feel more confident while preparing a post from within WordPress “Write Post” page plus no annoyances will occur throughout the process. Personally when not writing from my laptop I do use Write Post page to publish my articles, certainly with TinyMCE Advanced enabled, running smoothly and safely.

Initially, I’m sorry for not mentioning earlier that I’ve been working on this but nevertheless they say “better late than never” so here it is the announcement of it’s official launch. Allow me to make the announce a little more official, you know like those Linux Distro’s announces

Today, the Ogilvy Kosova – Interactive Team consisting of me and Valon are pleased to announce the official launch of the European Roadshow in Kosova series of sites making them available for the public. After couple of stressful workaday we managed to launch all three of them, the list is as follows: Come to Europe Kosova (in English), Eja n’Evrope (in Albanian) and Ajmo u Evropu (in Serbian). All three of them serving for the same intention but offered in three different languages for the manner of multi-nationality.

Doubtlessly we used WordPress as the tool to build up our newly launched products for assuredly it’s the best out there. Inspiration was taken from a three-column theme for WordPress called Modicus, however, as you can notice everything has changed fundamentally. All the logos, stars and everything else was designed by Valon, whereas the exhausting yet challenging and entertaining coding part was done by me, finally I can conclude that the new layout came out to have pretty nicely been aligned I think.

In addition to all that I’ll provide the jingle of the European Roadshow, a short 3d animation with a lovely caressing sound in the back. And last but not least if you’re interested in understanding what this fuss is all about I encourage you browse one of the relevant sites with the language you speak.

Yesterday blocking of YouTube links during a usual chat on Microsoft IM both MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger occurred to numerous people. It even happened to me personally. At first it seemed strange to be, thought the problem was lying by me, but after couple of temptations trying to send different YouTube links I realized that it is a Microsoft internal server issue and not mine.

“This block seems to be related to the recent launch of Messenger TV in 20 countries which allows for sharing video clips from MSN Video on messenger.” claims B.E.T.A Daily. That statement justifies the scenario, but certainly only if it’s true, else if it was intentional then honestly I can call it no less than lame move from BIG Corporation’s side. I’m capable to understand every possible undertaken action to beat other rivals, but Microsoft simply didn’t pick the right way this time, to undermine Google Inc. it’s serious number one rival.

Currently everything has pretty much turned back to regular flow for I’ve just tested it and links are sent without a glitch. Therefore it’s no real need to abandon or disuse Microsoft IMs again, but if this occurrences happen to become a habit then assuredly I will reconsider my alternatives. Whatsoever, some dude has gone mad due to this incident whereat dares to nominate all those who continue to use Microsoft products as retarded (note: the post has explicit filthy words).

Update: Windows Live Messenger team justifies their action, yet putting blame on some 3rd party company who maintains the Messenger service for them.

Many alike posts can be found on the net these days about blogging topics, tips & tricks, from a wide range of bloggers. Usually the intention behind those blogging articles is to help beginners with the elementary steps to professional blogging, either explaining the way as they see something convenient or simply pouring some parts of personal experience. As for me, well I think it’s a matter of making analogy between various practical ways or even batter being naturally intelligent to realize by oneself and choose the best appropriate one. One of the best blogs I could come across is Blogsessive, a personal weblog of the newest blogger friend of mine Alex C. Blogsessive is totally committed to providing readers with useful articles and Alex is really good at those.

However, I’m considering that necessary to elaborate my own way of what is the easiest way to lose readers and/or site visitors. These methods are ensured and tested, plus based on my personal experience. Read the five following points to get a clue and even try it yourself (not really) if you want so.

1. Start a blog when you’re in a military academy and know that you’ll be unable to post regularly. This not due to your inability to get insight but due to time limitations and other military related censorships.
2. Start blogging when you have other social obligations and timing constrains. Such examples could be having more than two jobs simultaneously, girlfriend, etc.
3. Don’t create a schedule for publishing new article nor staying up-to-date with latest technology or other events you’re blogging about.
4. Lack of commitment to your blog, not confident whether you will (pretty seriously) blog or neglect this sacred enthusiasm.
5. Don’t prepare and publish anything new for two weeks whatsoever that might be, simply withdraw yourself for couple of days and your readers will wave you goodbye.

All the points emphasized above are real life examples I took out from my blogging experience, especially the last one in bold letters, which honestly is the newest and totally fresh. If you’re curious about it I encourage you to try it out your self and see the immediate desperate results.

P.S. What I learned while being a military cadet is an important rule of being an example for others. I am more ore less being an example in this case, but not a descent and progressive one though. Excuse my absence!