Blog Archive: June 2014

Cycling to Tbilisi sea and back

14 June, 2014 | Outdoor Activities | 9 seen

Today was a great Saturday, we took our bikes and rode to Tbilisi sea and back. It was all day long (more than four hours) fun experience in very hot Summer day in Georgia.

Total distance: 16.9 km, Climb: 213 m, Time: 4.30h, Feelings: Superb

When we finally reached Tbilisi sea - I was so exhausted, after I got of from bike, my stamina was over:

Tbilisi sea

How to check Google rankings with Google Spreadsheets

13 June, 2014 | Blogging | 15 seen

In this article I will show, how you can check and track your SERP with Google Spreadsheets.

But at first I will tell you a story - More than 3 years ago I started to work on a hobby (but large scale site) dedicated to Georgia. It was built with Drupal, involved Google maps, Feeds parsing (Flickr, Wikipedia and more Open data)

So basically I built a kinda Mash-up - web site, that aggregates different information related to tourism objects in Georgia (Kinda smaller Gogobot, Triposso e.t.c)

Under this serious hood was not enough money, and by saying money I mean - Advertisement.

Main impact was on Organic traffic. As time passed, more traffic come in. But the thing with Google is pretty simple - if you don't add new articles, your rankings drops. So you can try to build back-links and other things.

It's already more than 3 years passed since the start of this hobby project. I have made many mistakes with it - like loosen data on Server, then got banned from Google SERP and more.

But idea stays alive - to have a hobby site dedicated to Georgia.  By now it's simple blog, with original articles from places I have been. So no more copy/paste…

Google+ comments block for Drupal site

12 June, 2014 | Drupal Development | 4 seen

Lately I have been paying more attention to power of Google+ and so I decided to give a try to Google+ comments on a Drupal site.

Google for me generates about 70-80 percent of traffic, and so I guess most of the users will have Google account, to comment without need to login/register onmy site or let's say Disqus comment system I'm currently using on my blog.

As you can see - comment block is really nice, and taking in consideration it's Google comment system I guess it might only help you to be more discoverable on Google.

You can find a module on Drupal.org site: https://drupal.org/project/gplus_comments_block

Please take in consideration:

Until Google launches an API for the Google+ Comments feature...

This module provides a custom block.
Once this block enabled, it will display the Google+ Comments form and people will be able to comment on your pages.

It's important to keep in mind that this is an unofficial way to add Google+ Comments and Google can always change the code or remove some features.

What comment system you find most…

How to align Facebook like, Google + and Twitter buttons?

11 June, 2014 | Blogging | 14 seen

Working on a project I faced a problem how to align social share buttons. By default I'm not paying much attention to this, but there are circumstances you must provide clean work.

So here is the example:

These are social share buttons from my blog, as you can see, Facebook button is not in one line with other lines. To fix this, I did a quick Google search and found great tutorial on Github: 

Here is my Drupal view - containing social share buttons:

Now I just need to add some…

Switching to Caucasus Online internet

9 June, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 8 seen

<p>For a last year in Tbilisi, I have used Silknet DSL internet connections, and everything was fine, till day it was not fine. I don't know the reason why, but Silknet's DSL stopped working as expected. You can <a href="http://www.reinisfischer.com/living-georgia/silknet-conversation-over-p… my thoughts about Silknet's Customer Service here</a>.</p><p>Anyway - I switched my ISP to another Great Georgian ISP - Caucasus Online. They offers much more speed for the same price, and they works quick. Today 3 guys came to my place and did all the installation works in less than 30 minutes.</p><p><strong>Here is the proof of much faster internet:</strong></p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/cospeed.png&quot; width="300" height="135"></p><p><em>Faster than 77% of Georgia</em></p><p><strong>And here is the internet speed for Silknet's DSL</strong></p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/silkspeed.png&quot; width="300" height="…

Devious Maids

8 June, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 13 seen

<p>Devious Maids is another great TV series to watch.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>About Devious Maids</strong></p><p><span>Four Latina maids with ambition and dreams of their own work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.&nbsp;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226342/</span></p&gt;

New Amsterdam

8 June, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 8 seen

<p>New Amsterdam is a TV series made on 2008, and lasted just for 8 series. &nbsp;</p><p>Why I found these series interesting? Producers has tried to make something very interesting. As you may already know - New York city once was New Amsterdam and was found by Dutch colonists, well of course there lived Native Americans, before Dutches came.</p><p>And that is showed in New Amsterdam series - main role actor - John Amsterdam, a New York homicide detective, who is immortal, and has born back there in 1600-ies.</p><p>Probably you will recognize Danish actor&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from another series - Game of Thrones.</span></p><h2><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">About New Amsterdam:</span></h2><blockquote><p><span>A Dutch soldier in the 1600's saves the life of a native woman and is granted the power of eternal youth in return. In the 2000's he is a police detective in New York City, and after 400 years, knows just about everything about the way the criminal mind works.</span></p></…

Silknet - Conversation over phone - Nightmare

5 June, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 224 seen

<p>Silknet is one of the major internet providers in Georgia, it offers great service for great money. But there are times things break up, for example Wi-Fi router. Silknet for their customers is offering some cheap ZTW 300 routers, and that's fine with me as long they work, when they stop to work,<strong> it's time to call to Silknet customer service.</strong></p><p><strong>And then it sucks</strong> - you are getting forwarded from one to another e.t.c. When you get some from the techical department it's just <strong>nightmare</strong>. The guy who doesn't understand much from DNS, routing and other geeky stuff is starting to teach you, like, you should restart your computer. On my question, should I do it 20 times a day, he keeps repeating - restart your computer!</p><p>When I'm answering I have not turned off my computer for 3 months, he is confused. Ok, ok I'm telling him, I have 6 other computers, should I restart all of them?</p><p>My aim from this conversation is simple - <strong>send to me damn technican</strong> who can change the damned ZTW broken…

Working with Drupal views attachments

4 June, 2014 | Drupal Development | 113 seen

Drupal views attachments is a nice feature, which allows us to extend  Drupal views. For example, we can create a featured view and attach to it other view displaying additional information.

One of the reasons I love views attachments is because of I can create a main view and add to it smaller view and offset some items:

With views attachment sky is the limit, you can build for example a restaurant list view and attach to it Gmap style map, displaying both grid view with results and map with all nodes.

Today I wanted to just build a portfolio page, and by using views attachment I achieved following result:

Now its just up to you, to nicely css your views. 

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.

Joseph Stalin Declassified

3 June, 2014 | Documentaries | 3 seen

<p><span>A History channel documentary on Joseph Stalin.</span></p><p><span>In this documentary is pictured time how Stalin took the power after death of Lenin. About mass deportations and Stalins plans to conquer the west.</span></p><p><span>Not very objective, but still enjoyable documentary.</span></p>

Georgian Bus - Great way to travel from Kutaisi to Batumi or Tbilisi

3 June, 2014 | Travel guides | 12 seen

At first, when Kutaisi International airport was built (around 2012/2013) there were few transport options to choose from to get at least to the city center of Kutaisi, as it turns out, the city is actually located about some 17km from the airport. Back in the days, there were just taxi services, which was and still is pretty costly (as long as you are not using BOLT)

While you are still figuring out about your next flight to Kutaisi or travel options around Georgia consider Batumi Real Estate Crypto Investment

One way direction from Kutaisi city center to the Kutaisi airport with street taxi cost about 20GEL (price as of 2015). If you are really on a budget you might get from Kutaisi airport to Tbilisi (Didube station) for 10-12 GEL by using Batumi - Tbilisi marshrutka, you can try to catch one, just after leaving the airport building and heading to the highway, which is some 200 meters from the terminal building.

But let's not be greedy - There is a great alternative, called Georgian Bus, which offers cozy mini-buses both to Tbilisi and Batumi, for 20 and 15 GEL (prices as of 2014).

Even more, the Georgian Bus…

Batumi Aerial Tram

2 June, 2014 | Tourism objects | 29 seen

One of the must have tourist attractions in Batumi is an aerial tram (cable car) ride. Built back in 2012 these gondolas will take you in a 2,5 km long route at maximum elevation of 252 meters. During you ride you will enjoy breathtaking aerial views of Batumi city.

Best enjoyed in evenings shortly before sunset. At the other end of the ropeway there is nice viewing platform offering scenic views to the city and Black sea.

Ticket price per ride (round-trip): 10 GEL, as of 2016

Futuristic design of Batumi cable car station

Located at the Batumi bay, this station house indeed features futuristic design - but when overlooked from overall city architecture - it' s awful eclectics

Batumi cable car

Batumi cable car station

Cable car system installations is built by Doppelrmayr - an Austrian - Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks, as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. You will find Doppelrmayr in Gudauri ski lifts and in Tbilisi aerial tram as well. 

Sataplia cave in Georgia

2 June, 2014 | Tourism objects | 61 seen

Sataplia cave together with Prometheus cave are one of the main tourist sights around Kutaisi town, in Republic of Georgia.

I first visited Sataplia cave at the end of May 2014, when my father for the first time visited me in Georgia. I picked him up at Kutaisi airport and before departing back to Tbilisi I decided to take an opportunity and explore this cave together..

At first you will need to have some taxi to get there, luckily I had one. Sataplia cave is located some 18 km away from Kutaisi. 

The entrance fee (as of 2014) in park was 6GEL and was accompanied by English speaking guide

Entrance gates at Sataplia cave territory

Sataplia Cave is located at Sataplia Nature reserve, and to make things more interesting some wise Georgian (I guess former president of Republic of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and his team), has decided to add Dinosaur footsteps there as well. Nothing impressive about Dinosour there, just some footsteps in stone and some plastic makets of REX.

Dinosaur footstep in rock at Sataplia

I got this feeling that Dinosaur footsteps is just a nice…

Google Authorship for Drupal

2 June, 2014 | Drupal Development | 3 seen

Updated: Google seems doesn't takes into consideration Google Authorship markup

I have been many times heard that adding Google Authorship tag to your website will help you in terms of SEO. So I decided to add Google Authorship tag to my blog and observe results.

• Distinguish and validate your content in search results.
• Get more followers on Google+.
• Help readers discover your other content on the web.

• Help users find high quality content on the web.
• Empower them to engage with content authors through Google+.

Simple, I used a module available on Drupal: Google Authorship

I will use Google Webmaster tools to examine does it really helps in terms of SEO. My understanding for now is that Google Authorship might help improve click through rate, because of your picture next to your post, but maybe, just maybe it might put your content higher in SERP results. It's pretty easy to monitor changes.…

My online income report - May 2014

2 June, 2014 | Blogging | 7 seen

My online income in May has decreased by $1.88 compared to previous period and in month of May totalled in $6.01.

Average earning last month by day was $0.19, what is down from $0.26 in previous month.

• Highest earnings per day: $0.63
• Days earning more than $1: 0
• Lowest earnings per day: $0.01
• Days earning less than $0.10: 13

I'm still using just Google Adsense to monetize my websites