Import your Instagram photos to your blog using Flickr + Flickstagram

21 April, 2014 | Drupal Development | 25 seen

Recently I bought my first Android phone, and I found Instagram app really useful. What I like the most is it's mapping options, so you can add latitude/longitude auto, if your GPS is turned on.

Then I wanted to import my Instagram photos to my blog and found some problems with it. As I'm using Drupal as my blogs CMS, at first I headed to Drupal.org to search for some ready built modules, to import my Instagram photos, so I could later use views, for example, to tune things up. There are few solutions provided by Drupal community, but Instagram requires SSL, and at this stage, I'm not ready to enable some Open Source SSL. I just want a solution that works.

So then I remembered, some years ago, I had built an application with Drupal feeds module, aggregating Flickr RSS feed with location tags (latitude/longitude) - I remember there were involved some Yahoo pipes, to build that stuff. But that time, I was building a much more complicated system. Like parsing feeds for specific locations. This time I want to parse just my feeds and show my photos, both with location enabled and without it.

Luckily Instagram app allows to publish…

Gremi monastery complex in Georgia

20 April, 2014 | Churches and Monasteries | 42 seen

Another very interesting tourist attraction in Kakheti close to Kvareli - Meet the Gremi Monastery complex. Features rich history and very spectacular views. 

For the first time I visited Gremi monastery complex back in 2014, when we booked a private tour from Hotel Royal Batoni. Next time I was here was during another short one day trip around region Kakheti together with my mom. This definitely means there are places in Georgia where it is worth to return.

Impressive fortification walls at Gremi

The monastery complex is located just right next to the highway making it impossible to miss this place. It is worth to mention that since 2007  the monuments of Gremi have been proposed for inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Gremi monastery complex

Gremi was the capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti in the 16th and 17th centuries. Founded by Levan of Kakheti, it functioned as a lively trading town on the Silk Road and royal residence until being razed to the ground by the armies of Shah Abbas I of Persiain 1615.

The church…

Lisi Lake in Tbilisi (Georgia)

20 April, 2014 | Lakes | 89 seen

Lisi lake is a popular recreational area in Tbilisi. Some will find a lazy walk around lake while others will enjoy a mountain biking here. I prefer both. As well I like here capturing spectacular views using my DSLR camera.

You can get to Lisi lake by using public bus #29, taxi (costs around 6 GEL from the city center) or by a car. There is a large parking lot in front of the lake.

Recently Lisi lake has undergone through major improvements, a new concrete slab road around the lake is built (the total distance is about 3 km). There are some vendors selling coffee and sweets, and there is a Hard Rock Cafe (seems working just during the Summer months)

Concrete slab road around Lisi lake

perfect place in Tbilisi to spend time outdoors with kids.

Spectacular water reflections on Lisi lake in Tbilisi

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Recreational activities at Lisi lake

Some can feed ducks here

Lisi lake is a small lake in the vicinity of Tbilisi, Georgia; belongs to the Kura River valley, home to a large mixed-use development project by the same name. The…

Nekresi Monastery Complex in Georgia

19 April, 2014 | Churches and Monasteries | 41 seen

Nekresi once was a town in Kakheti, Georgia. Nowadays Nekresi is a monastery complex located high up in the hill offering breathtaking views to surrounding plateau, not to mention that monastery complex is really interesting by it self. Located close to Kvareli town.

The church was recently restored, stone masonry repaired, roof rebuilt, windows put in place.

For the first time I visited this place back in the Spring of 2014, during a short day trip around region of Kakheti, offered by a hotel we stayed (Royal Batoni). Second time I paid a visit here in Autumn 2015, when I was taking my mom on about the same day trip around region of Kakheti. 

Visitors of Nekresi should buy a round-trip ticket for a bus which will take you up in the hill. Price per ride about 1 GEL.

Bus taking tourists to the Nekresi monastery complex

Nekresi monastery complex in Georgia

The town was established by king Pharnajom (around 2nd-1st centuries BC). In the 4th century AD, king Thrdat built a church in this place. This church became a refuge to one of the Assyrian fathers, …

Easter holidays with Putin and Valeriya

18 April, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 1 seen

<p>We made a holiday booking at Royal Batoni, Kvareli.</p><p>For me it is a great pleasure to just lay down and lazy watch satellite television shows with Vladimir Putin and pop singer Valeriya.</p><p>Great holidays.</p><p>I will add some photos from the Royal Batoni when will be back in the Tbilisi.</p>

My first mobile post

16 April, 2014 | Drupal Development | 3 seen

<p>My first mobile post using Drupal powered blog.</p>

GEL to USD exchange rates Mid - April 2014

14 April, 2014 | Macroeconomics | 7 seen

It has been awhile since I last time examined GEL/USD exchange rates. Last time I did that, I was pretty worried about hidden devaluation of Georgian national currency Lari.

During the past 4 years, GEL has lost its value against USD by -27.51%

What are historical exchange rates (January - April 12th, 2014)

(Screenshot from National Bank of Georgia)

In last 3 and a half month, period Gel continues to lose its value against USD.

1.7366

1.7515

Doing quick math we can easily find out that GEL has loosened another 0.0149 from its value at the start of the year. Doing another math we will find out that if we had 1000 GEL at 01.01.2014 it was equal to $575.83 but if we are doing math today, then for 1000 GEL we can buy just $570.93. We have loosened $4.9 for each 1000 GEL we had.

If you will look a screenshot above you will easily find that at the end of January 1 USD sky-rocketed above 1.780.

I'm calling this a hidden…

Boris Grebenshchikov and Aquarium @ Tbilisi Concert Hall

13 April, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 21 seen

Yesterday Boris Grebenshchikov and his band Aqurium performed at Tbilisi Concert Hall. Although I'm not huge fan of him I must admit, he is so called Russian Rock Grandfather and it would be a crime to waste an opportunity to visit his concert right next door, here in Tbilisi.

About concert:

Since I was not very familiar with his creation, first part of concert I just listened, to determine, do I like him or not. His music is really eclectic, so I found something from Visotsky and Tsoi (Kino), then Russian Rock Grandfather turned to reggae, I found both Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, even some Irish folk music was found in his creation.

By now, I can tell you this - Boris Grebenshchikov is an Artist with the big letter A. His is true master.

About Tbilisi Concert Hall:

There was some problems with organization entrance into hall, nobody is left inside, 10 minutes before start of concert, and then there is huge mess and queue.

Overall feeling - It was great evening, learning more about Russian Rock music in pleasant company. 

About Boris Grebenshchikov and his…

Caucasus Tourism Fair 2014

12 April, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 6 seen

Every year in start of April, in Tbilisi, Georgia tourism fair is held. I'm visiting it already third time. This time I got some emptiness feeling, it doesn't looks like organizers has made any promotion both to attract visitors and companies.

As usual at fair you could meet some hotel representatives, trying to give you some crappy brochure, rather telling their unique story. There are few international companies, which seems there are just to make a check box in their long long fairs list. This year seemed one of that kind was TAV airports. 

For example - There was a Geocell stand. Geocell is local large Georgian mobile operator company - but they are offering just some brochures, I was hopping for more, like to touch some cell phone at least. 

As usual there was local hunting and fishing companies, some selling some stuff, some giving more information about their services. Good example of this is Jomardi rafting company.

As usual there was local craftsmen selling their work, like bronze replicas and wool knittings. 

My favourite from those few represented this year was some Ukrainian girls selling coffee, and Mestia…

North Korea - Crossing the line

11 April, 2014 | Documentaries | 4 seen

The film is about a former U.S. Army soldier, James J. Dresnok, who defected to North Korea on August 15, 1962.

The film was directed and produced by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, and was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which was narrated by actor Christian Slater, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the festival. The film was first screened in 2007 on the BBC. The film centred around Dresnok's history, highlighting his unhappiness in America, and particularly his desertion from the United States Army in 1962 to the DPRK.

It also showed Dresnok in the present day in Pyongyang (where he now lives), interacting with his North Korean family and friends. Dresnok spoke exclusively to the filmmakers about his childhood, his desertion, his life in a country completely foreign and quite hostile to his own, his fellow defectors, and his wife and children. Dresnok is also shown with fellow defectors, including Charles Robert Jenkins, who returned to Japan to be with his wife, Hitomi Soga (a victim of kidnap by the North Koreans), while filming was taking place. Dresnok felt hurt by Jenkins' allegations of physical abuse by…

Drupal 7 Archive Drop Down Menu

11 April, 2014 | Drupal Development | 11 seen

In this tutorial I will show how to create Drop-down menu for your monthly archives using Drupal 7 and views.

At first, please read this Drupal 7 tutorial on how to create Drupal archive page. By following this guide, you will learn how to create monthly archive page using views, and we go to add one minor change to change it to drop down menu.

Open that views page, select contextual filters, and change settings from unformatted to jump menu:

That's it, so easy.

For more Drupal tutorials please visit: Drupal development

P.S. If you are considering a hosting for your Drupal website check out Bluehost, their shared hosting starts as low as $3.95/mo or read more about cheap Drupal hosting.

Auto blog to Twitter using Twitterfeed

11 April, 2014 | Blogging | 4 seen

You are managing your blog, not some social media agency, right? Although you have created your profile in different social media, like Twitter, Facebook or Google+? As time goes, you are notifying your social accounts seems dead, what to do in such situation?

Time is money, and you know that perfectly

Automate your posts by using some tools.

There are many options how to syndicate your content over different social media sites, this time I'll explain how to auto re-post your blog posts to Twitter by using Twitterfeed.

Your CMS should have came with enabled RSS. Find that RSS and submit it to TwiterFeed.

Go to TwitterFeed login/signup and start creating your feed:

Continue:

Enter your Feed name and RSS Feed, in this case I'm using Feedburner service, but you can stick with your default feed.

Continue to Step 2:

Click on Twitter, you will need to authorize your Twitter account:

From dropdown menu Choose your Twitter account and press to Authenticate button

Once your Twitter account has been authorized, click on Create service…

Add Menu Classes In Drupal 7

11 April, 2014 | Drupal Development | 25 seen

In this Drupal tutorial I'll show how to add menu classes to your Drupal 7 website using template.php file.

Original of this tutorial has been found here.

Add this function to your template.php file:

P.S. If you are considering a hosting for your Drupal website check out Bluehost, their shared hosting starts as low as $3.95/mo or read more about cheap Drupal hosting.

Redirect non www to www - Apache .htaccess

10 April, 2014 | Servers | 4 seen

It has been years since I last time used .htaccess file available in Apache. I'm using Ngnix servers for 99.9 of mine work.

But today I had an opportunity to work on Apache environment, which uses .htaccess file.

So in order to rewrite non www to www in Apache I added following rulles to .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

For Ngnix please read this article:

http://www.reinisfischer.com/ngnix-www-non-www

Da Vinci's Demons Season 2

10 April, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 13 seen

<p>Da Vinci's Demons season 2 aired on March 22, 2014.&nbsp;</p><p>I really enjoyed first season and was inpatient to see Season 2.&nbsp;</p><p>Maybe of very interesting ending at finale episode in season 1.</p><p>In this season you will meet new characters like Amerigo &nbsp;Vespucci, which in Da Vinci's Demons is portrayed as an alcoholic and con.</p><p>Good, interesting and popular SCI-Fi. Don't rely on this film to much, do your investigation more about Leonardo Da Vinci's work,as I did after watching first season.</p>