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Showing posts from August, 2010

Vanity for Privacy

Before the location services of Facebook was launched, there was a neat little option in your Facebook app that could lookup your Facebook account and download and set photos of your friends on your phone. Before Facebook had location services, this is an outright privacy concern. At first I thought, "Hey, thats pretty neat!" then surprisingly as you switch on that Synching tab it will prompt another message regarding privacy concerns. Clicking I Agree would send your whole contact list to Facebook. Scary. This kinda creeped my out. All my contacts details are going to be sent to Facebook!? This is insane! All that information just to get my contacts corresponding Facebook picture? No thanks. I backed out when I saw this message but perhaps, people would just skip through this message and hit 'I Agree' immediately. Looking at another perspective, Facebook could have done it in a less privacy invasive way. Instead of sending out your contacts information to...

Google Voice in Gmail

After the acquisition of Gizmo5 by Google, everybody knew what was about to happen. Google will expand to the realms of VOIP which is currently dominated by Skype. Its not about a question of if, it was a question of when. Finally, after the long wait, Google launches Call from Gmail. From the comfort of your own Gmail account, you could call the US and Canada or free. Hello there little Call Phone button! By default, if you're not a Google Voice subscriber, your number will display as a generic number. But Google will offer you to upgrade your account to a Google Voice account for free and you get to pick your own number. But theres a catch, you need to have a US number. I tried ringing my Google Voice number from my other account. You will be offered a Google Voice number if you want to be reached easily. I circumvented this problem by using our Magic Jack number so I could reserve a number with POGZ in it. Also, there is that error that says Google Voice is not av...

Looking at the Other Side of the Coin

Seriously, people are looking at things at a single perspective. I really cant blame if thats their opinion on things but come on. Not just because you saw it on your friends Twitter page, your classmates Facebook status updates, your neighbors Tumblr account doesn't neccessarilly mean that it is the truth. I love the commercial of Inquirer and motivates people to keep 'inquiring' and not just settle with whats spoon fed in your mouth by some convenient source. It just irks me so much that everything is spreading like wildfire. First point: Mendoza was the bad guy Oh come on, cut the guy some slack. If you scavenged the web for more readings and asked yourself, "What made him tick?" You could have gotten a better answer. Take for example this  article from Inquirer on how Mendoza was a good man, a decorated officer and probably just another policeman at the wrong place at the wrong time. Heck, he could even be someone who was 'crabbed' by other envio...

Social Networks Deliver Breaking News

Even if I dont have access to the TV, I could get a clear picture on whats happening. You could check out the trending topics that we again are talked about on the intarrrwebz.

If You Like Dropbox, You'd Love Pogoplug

Ive seen Pogoplug for quite some time now but what discouraged me is at 100+ USD, the price is pretty steep. With this I've resulted to just tediously setting up my home server and/or avail of the limited space of Dropbox. Courtesy of Pogoplug.com Good news though, Pogoplug dropped its prices (perhaps in anticipation of a newer version) and is on sale at 48 USD. Well, the drive you put is not included but come on, how much is a flash drive at CDRking. Check this link if you're interested to buy Pogoplug: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=213816247 And check this link if you want to know about Pogoplug: http://www.pogoplug.com/home-en-whats-pogoplug.html

Globe iPhone Pre-Registration

Thanks to Butch for telling me this: http://site.globe.com.ph/iphone4 So wheres the price? Well, its not yet disclosed. What is this for? Probably Globe's way to estimate how much they'd import to the Philippines. Image courtesy of Globe At least they say that they'll contact those who pre-registered when the pre-ordering happens. Yeah, whatever.

HSBC's Branch Locator Using Google Maps API

Since my car is broken, ive been a bit lazy to go to Alabang at the usual branch where I pay my HSBC bills. I told myself that within this week, I'd find time to pay both my Globe and my HSBC bills since both are due some time next weekend. HSBCs ATM Branch Service Locator Surprisingly, I liked HSBC's branch locator website which uses Google Maps API to map out different branches, the services offered, banking hours and even a picture of the branch itself. Its pretty great how companies takes advantage of Google Maps API. Try it out for a spin! Click here to go to the website. If you want to know more about Google Maps API, you could visit the link below: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/index.html Another website containing tutorials and examples could be found here: http://econym.org.uk/gmap/ Developing applications using Google Maps API is much simpler and you only need a bit of HTML, JavaScript and XML knowledge. Well, feel free to go wild in expanding its c...

The Paradigm Shift of Nicholas Sparks

Last night as I finished watching The Last Song, I noticed that Nicholas Sparks had a paradigm shift into something to older generations. I rummaged through my stuff and made an inventory of my books. I noticed how many Nicholas Sparks novels I still havent read but already bought. If you're interested in checking out books I currently have, feel free to visit this link. Going back.. See, Nicholas Sparks has been those romance authors who tends to focus on teen relationships. It gives readers (and viewers, for the movie) a heart tugging experience which, somehow, if you've read a number of his books would probably find some sense of monotony and probably uniformity on his stories. It seems like, hes not an avid fan of unhappy endings too. Save for A Walk to Remember, but it would probably be left in the decision of the reader/viewer to qualify on how they would take the ending. Its not as point blank trample your heart endings like the movie Prime, nor the anime 5cm per Se...

Manually Setting Up a Static IP in Ubuntu

For some reason, Webmin doesnt work well with Ubuntu 10.04. Everytime I configure a static IP using Webmin, it throws an error at boot. Ive reinstalled several times hoping that it was just a glitch. Maybe for some reason, there was a misconfiguration in the network modules in the source code perhaps. Anyway, getting around this, I decided to be a command line ninja once more. Logging in as root, edit the /etc/network/interfaces file an tweak as needed (I removed the last octet for security reasons, replaced with x and y). # The primary network interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static
 address 192.168.1.x gateway 192.168.1.y
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 network 192.168.1.0
 broadcast 192.168.1.255 You could actually just copy some of the values when you're on DHCP by entering ifconfig -a as a sample, heres the data I got (I removed some values and replaced the last octet of the IP with x). eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr -- removed --  ...

PHP Curl and You

I have 2 servers which I wanted to talk to each other, one is a web server running Ubuntu and the other a Windows Server 2008. My task was to be able to create Active Directory users using PHP and from what is available, I found a very neat library for PHP called adLDAP . It had all the necessary functions needed to manage your Active Directory save for the very troublesome fact that you need to use LDAP over SSL in order for the module to be able to create accounts and change passwords. Everything else works without LDAP over SSL. At first I was trying my hand out in making it work without the LDAP over SSL. But after some research, I found out that it is required by Windows Server itself to accommodate account creation. Knowing a bit about certificates and on how modern browsers typically screws over displaying the page due to those 'certificates cannot be verified' errors, I had little choice in this matter. At first I thought maybe that error prompt could be a minor nui...

Why The Kindle 3 Excites Me

For a week now, I've been going on and on about the Kindle 3. Amazon launched the new Kindle several days back which was available for pre-order. It wont be until next month 'til those who pre-ordered will get their hands on the new and shiny device. The new Kindle 3. Image courtesy of Amazon.com A 6" monochrome eBook reader? What about it? People would say that the iPad would be a better option, but why do I want this piece of thin monochrome reader? Perhaps, the biggest selling point for me was Whispernet. Whispernet is Amazon's free 3G internet spanning different countries which you could use (primarily) to download eBooks. But, Whispernet is not limited to just downloading eBooks. There is a small phrase somewhere in the product description of the Kindle which says: New WebKit-Based Browser – Free 3G web browsing (experimental) Coupled with something a bit on the upper part of the product page: Includes free 3G wireless: No monthly payments, no annual co...

iPhone 4 Carrier Unlock Finally Here

The wonderful people of iPhone-dev Team (or I think they're called just DevTeam now) has realeased their iPhone 4 carrier unlock. What this means is you can unlock the iPhone 4 s you've purchased from any locked countries like the U.S.(with baseband 1.59 ).  iPhone 3G and 3Gs also benefits from this release which unlocks phones with basebands 04.26.08 , 05.11.07 , 05.12.01 and 05.13.04 As an excerpt from their blog post : Version 1.0-1 of ultrasn0w works for: iPhone4 baseband 01.59 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04 (If ultrasn0w doesn’t show when you search Cydia, add the repo:  repo666.ultrasn0w.com) Quickest solution to unlock your phones is to visit www.jailbreakme.com which uses an exploit to jailbreak your device, and once you get the Cydia app, download (or add the repository if you havent) ultrasn0w. Restart and enjoy carrier freedom. Perhaps another implication of this with the iPhone 4 market now is that those people selling iPhone ...

The Playstation Guy Copycat Incident Comes to a Close

Well, its good to hear that the incident regarding the imitation of Kevin Butlers (aka the vice president of everything) montage advertisment was settled through peaceful trash talking over the internet. At least Sony was a sport in responding to TV3 use of their montage concept advertisement without any bloodshed of cease-and-desist orders being issued. They say imitation is the best form of flattery, Kevin Butler doesnt think so if they're not copying the thing correctly. The original PS3 ad with Kevin Butler The TV3 "Montage" copycat ad Kevin Butler jokingly mocked the copycat advert in his blog though a series of 'constructive criticism' which pointed out the following: 1. No title for your guy? VP of Big Bigness? PS3 Commercial Tribute Manager? Details, folks. 2. The TV3 version was completely lacking in PS3 video game footage. Clips from Uncharted 2, MAG, God of War 3, or even clips of our upcoming releases Killzone3 and Twisted Metal would have re...

Wondering What to Eat?

A batchmate of mine has this awesome collection of food reviews in his tumblr account. He's been reviewing a whole lot of restaurants, though most of the time he gets his food from the delivery services around the vicinity of Taft. Hats off to Gelo Reyes for compiling a very good review for those people wondering what and where to eat. Credits to Gelo Reyes and his tumblr blog http://geloreyes.tumblr.com/ Come to think of it, its lunch and I haven't decided where to eat yet. If you have suggestions, drop him a line. He entertains your questions too, maybe you'd like to ask for a good date spot with good food. Now I'm really hungry.

Unlocked iPhone 4 By Country

Heres a demographic on where you could get your factory unlocked iPhone 4 and at what price. HK seems to be the best option and the second placer is Singapore. Waiting time to get a unit is around 3 weeks. And you need to have it shipped to someone who lives there. Get it? Good. Click for larger size