PogzLabs

I got too overly excited in refreshing my OS installation in my old Inspiron 640m that I just cleaned off the Linux partition through the Drive Management Snap-in of Microsoft while I was still booted in XP. I completely forgot that the GRUB was the bootloader managing my OS selection in the Master Boot Record of my drive. In plain English, I wanted to clear out my old Linux installation and merge the partition with the old XP partition when I run the Windows 7 install. It was a mistake to use the Drive Management Snap-in rather than having the Windows 7 installation take care of the partition clearing. This caused problems because the bootloader (GRUB) or the one which asks which OS are you going to boot is in the partition I wiped out. Therefore, I cannot go into the Linux partition (obviously, since it has already been wiped out) nor the Windows XP partition. There is a quick fix with this by using the XP install CD and fixing the MBR by going to the command prompt and typing fi...

I've been having a lot of inflow of ideas recently. I'd also be helping a friend develop his existing system into a web based one. I think this is a good time for me to get back to coding and learning about new things since most of the ideas would require Facebook integration and Google APIs in development. Perhaps I could shoot in a little overview on the projects and track them from time to time and see which ideas are progressing. Quotes - I have this thing for saving quotations and back then I had a local site which I store my favorite quotes but I think there's a better way of storing and sharing quotes. I've checked out some sites which does quote saving and sharing like quoteabl.es but it lacks a certain function I need like importing quotes from e-readers like the Kindle or the iBooks app. They say that they have a plug-in for highlighting quotes and saving it but on my previous examination of the service it still lacks a lot of features. One annoying thing t...

I called my credit card company earlier this evening to either have my credit card discontinued or have my annual fee waived. Due to the problems I had with that company, it was not really my loss if they didn't waive my annual fee. Everything went smoothly and as the transaction completed, got home, started browsing, I came across this very nice article about cyber security (ironically) courtesy of Microsoft and (more ironically) released for free. 12.3MB downloadable here . Then I thought, I think there's a bit of a security hole in those companies policies. I remember Kevin Mitnick and his book, The Art of Deception. You see, banks asks about details which identity thieves could easily obtain. Take for example, I was asked for my credit card number and my full name. Credit card numbers could be easily listed down by some employee of a merchant you bought some goods on, so is your full name (its on the card Sherlock). Even that 3 digit CVV2 code behind the card. So make...

I heard that Google is launching movies through YouTube but I didn't realize that it was already available. Head on to: http://www.youtube.com/movies for your fix on documentaries, bunch of horror flicks, cartoons, Bollywood, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. Now, don't you think that those media boxes with YouTube support are now worth the investment?

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...

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...

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.

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

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...

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 ...

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

The United States Library of Congress now allows jailbreaking (your iDevices) and rooting (your Android devices) and an added bonus, ripping your DVDs (for educational purposes of course). You may visit this site for more legal mumbo jumbo or head on to this Engadget post for a more humane translation of all those legal jargons you may come across reading the press release. If you're one of those who asks, " I want to start jailbreaking, so where do I start?" Good question. Back then, it was way confusing even just to identify what iPhone you have or what iPod Touch you're holding. Thanks to this very helpful chart, all resources are now available in one page. image from http://www.jailbreakmatrix.com jailbreakmatrix.com simplifies the identification tasks of knowing what device you have, what generation and what software to use to jailbreak. It also has a guide for you to follow on your jailbreaking escapades.

An article by Gizmodo posts that the iPhone 4 will be reaching 17 more countries this Friday . Though there is still no news yet when it will arrive here in the Philippines through Apple's carrier partner Globe, snagging a unit in Hong Kong would be the best option for those who cant wait to get the newest iteration of the iPhone. Image from http://www.apple.com Hong Kong is one of those countries which sells the iPhone carrier free. You get the freedom to choose what carrier you would want to use with your new and shiny iPhone 4. Nothing really beats the feeling of an officially unlocked iPhone. Friday. Yeah!

Apparently, upon checking my spam mail again, the phishers got my email address correctly.. But it still doesnt take away the fact that I know its a fake email. Upon mouse over on the logos Heres the full email. They got it correctly this time. But not enough to fool me. Stay safe kids.

I dont usually use my Yahoo! Mail anymore but still, I occasionally check if there are still important emails arriving at that address. From time to time, I also check the spam folder just incase Yahoo! wrongly classifies an email as spam. But then again, there are really spam emails and one particular email caught my attention. It was allegedly from Amazon pertaining to an order I made. It was an email receipt for that 'item'. Click for larger view There are things that are pretty much obvious for the trained eye but for those people who are a bit clueless, its a big problem. For example, if you see the complete snapshot above, you could see that my name and my email are spelled wrong. I am not Allan Muigai, nor my email is not allanmuigai@yahoo.com .. Some people might react to this as an innocent typo error.. Well, ITS NOT. If its a typo, the email wont be able to get delivered to your inbox. Heres another tricky one, when you check the sender.. At first glance, y...

Sometimes, you write a code which has upload features or backing up a database then only to find out that your PHP installation limits your upload to 2mb. Ive encountered this problem while I was backing up databases using phpMyAdmin and realized that the file ive downloaded is too huge for an upload without tweaking the necessary files. So with this I resulted to editing the php.ini file to accommodate a larger file upload size. The php.ini file varies from one location to another depending on your install (may it be Windows, Mac or Linux).. In my Linux server (Ubuntu) its found in /etc/php5/apache2/ Here are the variables you need to watch file_uploads upload_max_filesize max_input_time memory_limit max_execution_time post_max_size You may change the values as you like but take note that setting some things higher (ie. memory_limit) would consume your resources a bit more. So be careful in editing. After tampering the settings, you may need to restart your Apache servi...

And you want to install Apache Tomcat instead of the usual Apache, you may follow this guide on how to install Tomcat effortlessly through apt-get. Because I Think JSP Is Still Cooler You need to tweak it a little to set the default ports. Though the guide tackles the post configuration needed to run this. 

And, if for some freak reason, you forgot to install SSH in your Linux box.. You could always follow this simple steps to remote shell goodness The Sad Fact That I Forgot To Install SSH Now with this, I could peacefully connect to my server and install Apache Tomcat (I intentionally did not install any web server if you might ask)

I think I could consider myself really unlucky with electronics this year. I bought my mother an EEE PC netbook which, after 9 days had a noisy fan and the store didnt want to have it replace or refunded.. But thats a different story.. This is about my LCD TV problems. I got an HSBC credit card for 2 reasons. 1: the Caltex rebate and 2: the MyScreen LCD TV. You could scroll down and skip this back story and head to the "Testing the TV: Here Comes the Bad Part" if you're not particular with my reasons in buying the TV. If you're interested with why I got it, carry on. Reasons The MyScreen MYS-22 (22 inch) TV is priced 11,500 pesos thru the promo of HSBC. With that you get 1080i, and HDMI port, an audio out, an audio in, VGA in, RCA in, Component in, a remote, and pretty much thats about it. You could read the full specs here . I did my homework, Ive read reviews and so far, and a positive feedback was given by SonOfKratos in his review in TipidPC. You could read his r...

It has been argued on by so many computer enthusiasts when asked "Is it worth it to buy (insert brand here) (insert drive space here) for (insert price here) ?" Given the example above, how can you say that its better to buy the 1.5 TB drive and just adding a bit more money than buying the 1 TB drive? Ive explained this approach to a batchmate of mine in DLSU some years ago. I wasnt able to remember it until we had a YM conversation last night. Given the prices from the PCX price list: 4910 pesos for a 1Terabyte Seagate SATA 16mb 7720 pesos for a 1.5Terabyte Seagate SATA 32mb So, if you have a 1000 Gig (~1TB) drive for 4910 Pesos what you need to do is just divide the amount by the size of the drive. 4910 / 1000 = 4.91 Pesos per Gigabyte whereas 7720 / 1500 = 5.15 Pesos per Gigabyte Its safe to say that for the price to space ratio, you would get a better deal if you buy the 1TB drive rather than the 1.5TB drive. Though you might want to hold off buying a Seagate for this...