Island Guy on the Net

New Macintosh Ads makes fun of XP and Leopard

2007-11-13T12:39:00.001+08:00

Macintosh today released three new ads from the popular "Get a Mac" campaign commercials. The new commercials now focuses on Vista, and makes mockery of the fact that a number of users are downgrading from Vista to XP, and even Microsoft has made deals with select vendors to make it easier for new PC and laptop buyers to do just this (PR Lady commercial). The ad also mentions the new Macintosh release for the first time, called Leopard, and how Vista is presumably trying to salvage their sales by challenging Leopard to a match where they will go down fighting (Boxer commercial). Lastly, it mocks the user experience, challenging the PC users to ask themselves what they can buy for Vista, rather than what Vista can do for them, a jestingly reference to Kennedy's famous speech (Podium commercial).

Great marketing has been one of the more proven strengths of Apple over Microsoft, but I'm wondering if Microsoft would retaliate with an equally funny and amusing Windows commercial. The ads can be found here.

New Yahoo! Mail out of Beta

2007-11-08T09:54:00.001+08:00

Noticed today that the new version of Yahoo! Mail no longer identifies itself as a beta. I've observed that the responsiveness of the popular web-based email client has improved, resulting to faster display of information upon click, which overall results to a better user experience.

This is good news for the millions of Yahoo! mail subscriber. How I wish though that Yahoo! gives away their POP3 for free and also includes IMAP features like Gmail.

Don't Shelve Money to Burn your CDs/DVDs

2007-11-07T22:53:00.001+08:00

Want to burn ISO to your CD/DVD without shelving at least 80 bucks? The following are a list of programs out there that would help you do just that, for free.

DeepBurner from Astonsoft would let you burn data CDs/DVDs, burn AudioCDs, create and burn ISO images and has bootable CD/DVD support. The paid version has more features added such as disk to disk copy, burning video CDs and photo albums, but the free version has just enough features to satisfy most of your burning needs.
CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.
Burn4Free CD and DVD is a burning solution that's compatible with more
than 3,000 DVD and CD burners. Burn data and audio from different file
types (WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG, FLAC, WavPack, and CDA). Burn and save ISO
files, open and save your project to disk, verify content, print
compilations, copy DVDs, and import your audio compilation from M3U and
ASX playlists. The drives supported include dual-layer DVD, CD-R,
CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM (SCSI, IDE, EIDE, and
USB 1.0 and 2.0).
ImgBurn writes a variety of DVD and CD images (including ISO images) to your CD / DVD writer, and is able to handle things like
booktype and bitsetting. It is also able to burn DVD Video double layer images using the layer break you specify in the IFO file
(or it can calcuate the layer break for you if you wish). The program is also able to erase and format rewritable media.
Other features include the ability to create your own ISOs, with support for the various ISO levels, Joliet support, UDF,
bootable CDs and DVDs, etc, from files and folders on your disk. In other words, you can basically use this program as a
CD/DVD mastering program.
Active ISO Burner is a freeware application that will allow you to burn an ISO image file to CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-RW, DVD-RW and
DL DVD+RW

And last, certainly not the least, is one of the best apps out there that is still being actively developed by the open source community

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows.
It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use
application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

How to know if your Yahoo! Messenger Buddies are Invincible or 'Stealthing' you

2007-11-06T22:04:00.001+08:00

There is a neat program out there that would allow you to check whether your Yahoo! buddies are playing invincible or stealth on you. Wouldn't it be a big surprise to someone?

The first option is to install Buddy Spy. on your windows based-PC. This has more features than the next two other options that will be described below, because aside from their online status, you would be able to reveal their webcam status and chat status as well.

The second option is actually a collection of techniques you can do within the Yahoo! Messenger client. They are nicely described as:

Doodle IMvironment Technique
Voice Chat Technique
Conference Invitation technique
Stealth Settings Check

They can be found on this webpage. A little downside is that in these techniques, you would need to buzz or send a test message to the buddy you would like to check.

The third option is the easiest and most simple, as there is no software to install (first option) nor there are numerous steps to go through (second option). All that is needs to be done is to enter the Yahoo! username and you will easily know the exact online status of your buddy. To do this, visit XeeBer.com or VNGrabber.com.

Gmail got even better with IMAP support

2007-11-04T21:56:00.001+08:00

Google has now officially rolled-out IMAP support to all gmail users. Gmail has previously offered POP3 support for free (something that Yahoo! still only provides to paid users), but IMAP has a few advantages over POP3 that makes it more appealing to other users.

According to wikipedia, IMAP's (Internet Message Access Protocol) advantages over POP3 includes:

Connected and disconnected modes of operation
When using POP3, clients typically connect to the e-mail server briefly, only as long as it takes to download new messages. When using IMAP, clients often stay connected as long as the user interface is active and download message content on demand. For users with many or large messages, this IMAP usage pattern can result in faster response times.

Multiple clients simultaneously connected to the same mailbox
The POP3 protocol requires the currently connected client to be the only client connected to the mailbox. In contrast, the IMAP protocol specifically allows simultaneous access by multiple clients and provides mechanisms for clients to detect changes made to the mailbox by other, concurrently connected, clients.

In practical terms, if you're a typical Gmail power user that has more than a gigabyte of messages, IMAP would result to faster response time on your email client as messages are downloaded by demand. When clinking to your inbox, by default only message headers are downloaded. On my account where I had more than 1000 emails in my inbox, my client listed all my emails almost immediately. Also, labels that are applied to my messages are also downloaded as folders by my client, which is very neat especially if you're using labels to organize your emails.

The second advantage is especially useful if your using diferrent computers to access your Gmail via a destop email account (a laptop, office, or home computer for example). IMAP keeps all the changes made to each client (computer) concurrent or synchronize. For example, when you have read a message on one client, that would be marked as read on any other clients you're using. When you delete a message or move it to a diferrent folder, that change will also be reflected on the other clients.

To enable IMAP, you need to enable IMAP on your Gmail settings page:

Make sure your email client also supports IMAP. Some of the popular email clients out there with IMAP support includes Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Evolution for Linux and even Opera's built in mail client.

Tools that can help you write Blogs more easily

2007-11-04T15:30:00.001+08:00

There are many software productivity tools out there from which you can be efficient in writing your blog entries, personally the following freewares have proven to be invaluable:

Screenshot Captor is a program for taking screenshots on your computer. It's different from other screenshot utilis in several notable ways:

Optimized for taking lots of screenshots with minimal intervention.
Smart autonaming of files, and ability to embed textual comments in files.
etc... link here

WordWeb is a free English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows, and can be used to look up words from within almost any program in just one click. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured
blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post
to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are
browsing, take notes, and post to your blog. Since this is an add-on for Firefox, obviously, you need to be running Firefox web browser to be using this.
Inkscape -
An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to
Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Picasa - Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps
you:

Locate and organise all the photos on your computer.

Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.

Share your photos with others through email, prints and on
the web: it’s fast, easy and free.
And more importantly for me, Picasa has a feature that allows somebody to blog photos directly from inside the program to Blogger. This comes in very handy because there is no other way to publish photos directly to your blog in Blogger other than that using Blogger's own web-based blog publishing tool. Other than that you can use a 3rd party online image provider like imageshack to link your images, but its a little bit too cumbersome.

Most of these tools by the ways are not merely limited to blogging
purposes, as they are very useful as well in other day-to-day computing work.

Using Live Bookmarks and Reliby for Better Browsing

2007-11-03T18:22:00.001+08:00

One of the more overlook features of Firefox is Live Bookmarks. Its a big time-saver for people who likes to keep posted of new updates on their frequently visited websites. Why not just visit the website then? Well, if you have 10 or more websites you often visit, that would mean having to open and browse 10 websites to look for updated content. With Live Bookmarks, website feeds is stacked neatly in a menu form, and clicking each menu item will list the most recent contents from the website.

To use Live Bookmarks, the website needs to have RSS or atom feeds. Firefox will automatically tell you if a webpage has a feed or not, through the yellow RSS feed icon on the address bar. To list them in live bookmark, you need to click on that RSS icon:

Clicking the icon on the example website above will take you to the feeds content summary page, where snippets of the most recent contents will be displayed. You need to subscribe to the feed using Live Bookmarks, and click on the Subscribe Now button.

A new item will be added to your Bookmarks Toolbar (View >Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar), in this case, a menu list of Slashdot ITs most recent contents:

The Live Bookmark item can be updated by right clicking on it and selecting Reload Live Bookmark. This maybe needed if the website feed that was subscribed to contains frequently changing content such as website forums. An easier way is to install Reliby extension for firefox by Henrik Gemal. Reliby reloads all your Live Bookmarks aka RSS feeds with a push of a button. Reliby can be found here.

Featured Project: Mac4Lin

2007-11-03T14:13:00.000+08:00

After getting my Broadcom wireless card working in Ubuntu and get connected online, I looked around the internet if there's an easy way to give my distro a mac osx flavor. I was able to do this with Windows XP using Flyakite OSX, and somehow my gut tells me that Linux being the most extensible and configurable OS out there, has to have one. Lo and behold, there's actually one to give your linux box a Leopard feel!

The project Mac4Lin can be found in sourceforge.net. According to the project site, the goal of this project is to bring the look and feel of Mac OS X (newest being Leopard) on *nix. Currently for GTK+ only. The step by step documentation guide can be found here.

This would make your Linux desktop, in my case Ubuntu, looking from this:

To this:

Setting up wireless card using Ndiswrapper in Ubuntu

2007-11-02T18:55:00.000+08:00

Finally I was able to get my Dell D410 laptop running Ubuntu 7.1 (Gutsy Gibbon) in dual boot mode with XP to make my wireless card work. This was the only major struggle I had, everything else from installation to setting up a wired connection to giving my install a leopard osx flavor (something I'll blog about later). The wireless card culprit seemed to lie on the bc43xx-fwcutter wireless card driver wrapper that came out of the box. Although it was able to make my detect and make my Broadcom wireless card work, I experienced are intermittent signal failures and at times my network connection runs horribly slow. I was able to fix the problem by totally uninstalling the bc43xx-fwcutter and replacing it with Ndiswrapper, something I learned while scanning the Ubuntu forums for answer. There are various step by step guides in the forum that details how to make Ndiswrapper work. After several attempts, I was able to finally find the best guide in my opinion on installing and configuring the Ndiswrapper setup. Ironically, its in the Ndiswrapper homepage itself.

Here's the link to the installation guide for Ndiswrapper - link.

Island Guy on the Net now Back Online

2007-10-30T00:23:00.000+08:00

After more than a year hiatus, Im reviving this blog and itching to get back into action. My laptop is back in gear, my DSL is set to go, and I have more than a year of cool stuffs you may find interesting. Special thanks to the cool dudes out there who have provided me some nice ideas for my blog template, their open contributions to the blogging community keeps the net flowing with information.

Its good to be back!

Google Desktop 4

2006-05-12T13:43:00.000+08:00

Today Google released the latest version of Google Desktop
in 7 languages (the rest are coming soon). The biggest news is that
we're introducing Google Gadgets - visually appealing mini-applications
like clocks, weather globes, media players, etc., that support rich
markup language (XML, Flash) and enable a wide array of visual effects
and animation. We've also made it really easy for developers to create their own gadgets - almost as easily as you’d create a web page.

Inside Google Desktop

How big should the page file be?

2006-04-21T08:53:00.000+08:00

There is a great deal of myth surrounding this question. Two big fallacies are:

The file should be a fixed size so that it does not get fragmented, with minimum and maximum set the same

The file should be 2.5 times the size of RAM (or some other multiple)

Both are wrong in a modern, single-user system. A machine using Fast User switching is a special case. If you use Fast User Switching, there are special considerations. (When a user is not active, there will need to be space available in the page file to ‘roll out’ his or her work: therefore, the page file will need to be larger. Only experiment in a real situation will establish how big, but a start point might be an initial size equal to half the size of RAM for each user logged in.)

Windows will expand a file that starts out too small and may shrink it again if it is larger than necessary, so it pays to set the initial size as large enough to handle the normal needs of your system to avoid constant changes of size. This will give all the benefits claimed for a ‘fixed’ page file. But no restriction should be placed on its further growth. As well as providing for contingencies, like unexpectedly opening a very large file, in XP this potential file space can be used as a place to assign those virtual memory pages that programs have asked for, but never brought into use. Until they get used — probably never — the file need not come into being. There is no downside in having potential space available.

For any given workload, the total need for virtual addresses will not depend on the size of RAM alone. It will be met by the sum of RAM and the page file. Therefore in a machine with small RAM, the extra amount represented by page file will need to be larger — not smaller — than that needed in a machine with big RAM. Unfortunately the default settings for system management of the file have not caught up with this: it will assign an initial amount that may be quite excessive for a large machine, while at the same leaving too little for contingencies on a small one.

How big a file will turn out to be needed depends very much on your work-load. Simple word processing and e-mail may need very little — large graphics and movie making may need a great deal. For a general workload, with only small dumps provided for (see note to ‘Should the file be left on Drive C:?’ above), it is suggested that a sensible start point for the initial size would be the greater of (a) 100 MB or (b) enough to bring RAM plus file to about 500 MB. EXAMPLE: Set the Initial page file size to 400 MB on a computer with 128 MB RAM; 250 on a 256 MB computer; or 100 MB for larger sizes.

But have a high Maximum size — 700 or 800 MB or even more if there is plenty of disk space. Having this high will do no harm. Then if you find the actual pagefile.sys gets larger (as seen in Explorer), adjust the initial size up accordingly. Such a need for more than a minimal initial page file is the best indicator of benefit from adding RAM: if an initial size set, for a trial, at 50MB never grows, then more RAM will do nothing for the machine's performance.

Bill James MS MVP has a convenient tool, ‘WinXP-2K_Pagefile’, for monitoring the actual usage of the Page file, which can be downloaded here. A compiled Visual Basic version is available from Doug Knox's site which may be more convenient for some users. The value seen for ‘Peak Usage’ over several days makes a good guide for setting the Initial size economically.

Note that these aspects of Windows XP have changed significantly from earlier Windows NT versions, and practices that have been common there may no longer be appropriate. Also, the ‘PF Usage’ (Page File in Use) measurement in Task Manager | Performance for ‘Page File in Use’ include those potential uses by pages that have not been taken up. It makes a good indicator of the adequacy of the ‘Maximum’ size setting, but not for the ‘Initial’ one, let alone for any need for more RAM.

Print to PDF

2006-04-03T12:29:00.000+08:00

PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDFs easily
from nearly any application. With the PDFCreator Printer driver
you turn any program into a PDF-machine

PDFCreator is released under the term of th GPL
(GNU General Public License).

Links:
PDFCreator

Briefcase Vs. Offline Files And Folders

2006-03-29T16:46:00.000+08:00

The briefcase, originally designed for mobile laptop users, was designed to provide a user with network data while offline, with the ability to update briefcase contents on demand. The briefcase can be configured to hold both local and network data, but it must be manually updated before and after offline usage has occurred.

Offline Files and Folders are an automated equivalent to the Briefcase application. The idea is to basically store data in an alternate location in the event that the primary source of data becomes unavailable. The difference between the two lies in the fact that the Briefcase cannot automatically update itself, and Offline Files and Folders are restricted to network data.

With Windows 2000, Offline Files and Folders are exclusively configured at the client desktop. With Windows XP and Server 2003, a new feature has been added that allows centralized configuration at the server. This is done from the Sharing tab for the folder properties. By default, the offline configuration is set to enable users to administer Offline Files and Folders as needed. This can be changed to allow administrators to force Offline usage for the active share, or disable both server and client configuration of the feature.

Although there is a new offline data encryption feature for Offline Files and Folders (configured from the client interface), and the added ability to schedule synchronization either upon user logon or logoff, the same feature 'issues' exist with Offline Files and Folders as with Windows 2000, when the feature was first introduced.

Firefox 2 Alpha Released!

2006-03-22T20:44:00.000+08:00

Firefox 2 Alpha is now available. This is a developer build and is the first of many developer milestones on the path to Firefox 2.

Download Link: FTP Site
Source: Asa Dotzler - Firefox and more: releases (this time it's for real)

How to Uninstall IE7 Beta 2 when uninstall files are deleted

2006-03-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

IE7 Beta 2 Refresh is out. Before install, simply uninstall the previous IE7 Beta if you had it installed. Go to Control Panel- Programs- Updates and select Internet Explorer Beta 2 to uninstall. But what if, like me, you're the type of person who likes to mod your system files and delete uninstall files (considered junk by people like me). The problem is, deleting the IE7 beta setup files from the Windows folder will disable the ability to uninstall it automatically. You wouldn't see it in Add/Remove Programs. Dont worry, there are still some ways to uninstall IE7 and ultimately allow you install the IE7 Beta Refresh.

If you have this problem, you probably are an advance Windows user since youre touching on Windows files that you shouldn't have. But if for some reason you're a novice Windows user with exact same problem (no way to uninstall), you probably want to just stick it out with a software called XPLite. Select Internet Explorer on the items to uninstall, and then reboot.

Another way to do it is somewhat manual and complex and would require that you're comfortable editing the registry and familiar with system files. First, you will need another PC with IE7 Beta installed and the uninstall files available. If you cant find one, you're out of luck. The setup files are normally in this folder:

c:\windows\$NtUninstallie7b2pmx$

Copy this folder to the exact same location. Next do the following registry editing:

Go to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

Right click on Internet Explorer New String Value. Name that value:

InstalledByUser (the value of the new String should be your User Account name)

Then run the following:

c:\windows\$NtUninstallie7bet2p$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

This will uninstall Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 on your PC. Hope this solve your problem.

Filipino-made Free and Open Source Software Index

2006-03-21T13:57:00.000+08:00

As a service to the Philippine computing society, listed here are free
and open source software that are authored, developed and/or maintained
by Filipinos.

Link:
Filipino-made Free and Open Source Software Index — Philippine Linux Users' Group

FreeMind - an open-mind mapping software

2006-03-20T11:01:00.000+08:00

Mind Mapping Software - if you dont know, is a tool to create mind maps. A mind map (or mind-map) is a diagram used for linking words and ideas to a central key word or idea. It is used to visualize, classify, structure, and generate ideas, as well as an aid in study, problem solving, and decision making. (Link: Wikipedia-MindMap)

Bill Gates has written a column titled: “The Road Ahead: How ‘intelligent agents’ and mind-mappers are taking our information democracy to the next stage.” (Link: MSNBC)

Gates notes that “…advanced software and Web services can help us trace, slice and dice this information [available to PC users] in ways that were impossible only a decade ago. But while we’ve gone a long way towards optimizing how we use information, we haven’t yet done the same for knowledge…On another level, OneNote and a new generation of ‘mind-mapping’ software can also be used as a digital ‘blank slate’ to help connect and synthesize ideas and data—and ultimately create new knowledge.”

FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. So what can it do? Well what do you want? The developers of freemind has invitingly asked you:

"So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don't you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the tray slips of Robert Pirsig, described in his sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called Lila. Do you want to refactor your essays in a similar way you would refactor software? Or do you want to keep personal knowledge base, which is easy to manage? Why don't you try FreeMind? Do you want to prioritize, know where you are, where you've been and where you are heading, as Stephen Covey would advise you? Have you tried FreeMind to keep track of all the things that are needed for that?"

Link:
FreeMind - free mind mapping software

Photos of Bill Gates House

2006-03-17T18:31:00.000+08:00

Anybody wants a glimpse of the house of the world’s richest man.

Bill Gates Mansion satellite view from Google Maps
Bill Gates House Aerial view from MSN Virtual Earth

Bill Gates House Photo Slideshow

Now who say money can’t buy you everything…

ClearType to crank up your LCD readability

2006-03-17T17:49:00.000+08:00

There was some discussion recently on Microsoft's decision to turn ClearType on by default in IE7's rendering of web pages. Well anyway, the thing here is most people doesn't really know what ClearType is. Im not patronizing Microsoft here, but the fact is, if you're an LCD user (such as laptops), you probably would want to turn on ClearType. here is a comparisson of how your font readability will increase by turning on ClearType:

To turn ON ClearType:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Appearance and Themes.
2. Click the Display icon, click the Appearance tab, and then click Effects.
3. Click the Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts check box to select it, and select ClearType from the list.
4. Click OK, and then click OK again.

There is an online tuner by Microsoft that allows you to turn on and tune your ClearType settings. Alternately, you could download a Windows XP Powertoy Version of the tuner.

Internet Lingo and Emoticons

2006-03-16T18:24:00.000+08:00

There has been much debate as to the lack of web standard for Internet Lingo and emoticons. Hopefully this helps:

Everyday Acronyms: Coming and Going
afk Away from keyboardAnd about to do goodness knows what.
bak Back at keyboard Having done goodness knows what.
bfn Bye for nowTells others you're stepping away for an indeterminate amount of time.
Variations: b4n, bbl (be back later).
brb Be right backAnnounces a brief absence, as if you're pausing to read a Shakespeare sonnet.
cu See you. The more formal version of cya (See ya).
ltns Long time, no see. A polite way of saying "I forgot you even existed," which could be abbreviated as ifuee.
ttfn Ta ta for nowWhat Zsa Zsa Gabor might say when exiting a chat room.
Variation: l8tr (later).

Flaming and Feuding
gal Get a lifeThe exact opposite of
hand (have a nice day).
kiss Keep it simple, stupid. An impolite way of saying
ot (off topic)
.pu That stinks
tswc Tell someone who cares

Hooting and Hollering
gfete Grinning from ear to earIndicates mild amusement in which minimal dental work is displayed.
lmao Laughing my ankles offThe third word can also refer to another body part.
lol Laughing out loudAn appropriate response to a humorous statement. Alas, it doesn't necessarily mean lots of love.
rotfl Rolling on the floor laughingUse when you couldn't possibly be more amused. Unless you're rotflmao, of course.

Opining and Informing
aamof As a matter of factThough in cyberspace, the fact could just as well be fiction.afaik As far as I knowUse when you really don't know, but want to appear as if you do. Variations: afaic (as far as I'm concerned), afaict (as far as I can tell). btw By the wayA kissin' cousin to fyi (for your information) and fwiw (for what it's worth). damhikt Don't ask me how I know thisFor those obscure factoids your friends tease you for remembering.eod End of discussionUse EOD after the 163,456th chat-room message about the new Star Wars trailer.hth Hope this (or that) helpsimho In my humble (or honest) opinionCommonly used to preface unsolicited advice, such as "If I were you, I would dump your no-account girlfriend immediately."Variations: imnsho (in my not so humble opinion), imco (in my considered opinion). ianalb I am not a lawyer, but... As in, "IANALB I play one on TV."j/k Just kiddingBest used when combined with the :) emoticon. For more on the world of emoticons, see below…ot Off topicA polite way of saying kiss (keep it simple, stupid).otoh On the other handIndicates you were once a member of the high school debate team.
aiamu And I'm a monkey's uncleSimian slurs are popular everywhere, and cyberspace is no exception. bbfbbm Body by Fisher, brains by MattelPut another way: You have the physique of a Tonka truck and the intellect of Barbie.
cmf Count my fingersSimilar to, though different from, rml (read my lips) or tmt (tally my toes).dgt Don't go thereBest emphasized by raising your eyebrows, placing one hand on a hip and with the other hand, wagging your index finger warningly--though, of course, your readers will have to imagine that part.dqydj Don't quit your day jobOr as they say on The Sopranos, 'fagiddaboudit.' tmi Too much informationAn appropriate response to someone who claims their dog likes to eat the furballs their cat coughs up.

Everyday Emoticons
:) Smile:( Frown
;) Wink
:o Shocked
?-( Black eye
(((Insert name here))) A cyberhug for the person whose name is surrounded by parentheses
:P Disgusted The P indicates a protruding tongue.
5:) Elvis
@>--;-- A rose

Favorite Exotic Emoticons
:-E Bucktoothed vampire
:-F Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing
:-.) Cindy Crawford
*<) :o) Clown
O-) Cyclops
:-! Foot in mouth
@:-} Just back from the hairdresser
{:- Wears a toupee
@@@@:-) Marge Simpson
:8) Pig
:-8 Talking out of both sides of your mouth

Head to head: XP vs. Vista

2006-03-16T12:07:00.000+08:00

Do you need a good point by point feature comparisson between your Windows XP and the eagerly anticipated but much delayed Windows Vista? Andy presents a very informative description of the two OS: Source:BentUser - Windows XP and Vista b5270 Side-by-Side

File Hippo

2006-03-16T09:45:00.000+08:00

Have you ever had a problem of keeping track of your free and open-source softwares for updates and new versions? Filehippo.com does a very nice job of collecting all of this free stuffs and dumps it into one neat-looking webpage. A nice feature is that it allows you not only to download the latest release but previous old versions as well, very handy when you discover that the latest release gives you more trouble than expected.

Link:
File Hippo - Free Software Downloads

Google Desktop takes 'ctrl' of your desktop

2006-03-15T18:54:00.000+08:00

The new version of Google Desktop 3 fixed a number of things from the previous beta, and also has a new neat feature called Quick Search Box. Pressing 'ctrl' twice anywhere launches the neat looking search box. This actually allowed me remove some clutters off my taskbar by getting rid of the google deskbar. (I dont need it with this).

Other new features of GDS 3.0:

Under: search operator
Zip Search
Lock Search
Spell checker! (yes- spellproof your querries)

Links:
Google Desktop 3 website
Source:
Inside Google Desktop: Take 'ctrl' of your Desktop

Microsoft Management Console 3.0

2006-03-14T14:42:00.000+08:00

Microsoft Management Console 3.0 (MMC 3.0) is a framework that unifies and simplifies day-to-day system management tasks on Windows by providing common navigation, menus, toolbars, and workflow across diverse tools. A version for Windows Server 2003 is also available.

Download Link

Performancing for Firefox 1.1.1

2006-03-14T14:00:00.000+08:00

Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox. Just hit F8
or click the little pencil icon at the bottom right to bring up the
blog editor and easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger
blogs.

Performancing for Firefox 1.1.1 | Performancing Site

Flyakite OSX 3.5

2006-03-13T17:38:00.000+08:00

Ok you guys who feel so envious of how sleek the apple OS is but cannot afford to switch gears, go out and download this nice installer from Chris Kite. It will akin your Windows into something you'll not be able to take your eyes off.

http://osx.portraitofakite.com/index2.htm

Extend Firefox Winners Announced

2006-03-13T16:49:00.000+08:00

The winners for the extend firefox contest has been announced, and whooah, this extensions are great! That's an understatement dude. I especially like Reveal and DownThemAll. Reveal is a super-fast tab visualizer and switcher. It has a very sleek and smooth approach to displaying the current tabs on the screen, something totally creative. DownThemAll is a fully functional download manager, since its an extension, it's fully integrated within firefox. Now we'll be able to resume download even when we exit firefox or it crashes unexpectedly.

For more of the winners, find it here:
Extend Firefox Contest Winners :: Mozilla Update

Useful Google Hacks

2005-12-21T17:22:00.000+08:00

Google’s vision is to organize the entire world’s information. The most search savvy of us would probably think that information is just a few queries away. The art to master in Google is in constructing the search query. Looking for very exotic information is a little difficult without a well-formed query. There’s more, with a well formed search query, you could actually search sites that will list the contents of unprotected directories on the internet. You’ll be able to play the music files, watch the videos, look at photos and more. I have to say, it’s really addicting.

First thing first, I got this idea from Googletutor. Its very simple and easy to understand especially if you are well-versed in Google query syntaxes.

(Following ideas were taken from Google tutor)

First of all, what’s an unprotected web directory? It’s one that does not have an “index” file created for it–index.htm, index.html, index.php or some other more rarely used file types. If you try to access a non-password controlled directory that does not have an index file, the system will build a listing of files that are within the directory. If you get that, you can then click on the files and run them with a viewer or player or even download them.

I have to say I have not had this much fun with Google for a while! It’s just plain crazy seeing what people have stashed away in their web sites. (Please, don’t steal copyrighted steal music–I’m really against that. You can buy it for a buck a song anyway.) I think the absolute most fun you can have with this is to watch the movies you run across. I watched a hilarious British TV commercial, some interesting home videos, and some, well, you know, very interesting other types of videos.

So let’s get to the nitty gritty details. We need to construct a Google search query that searches for and recognizes these system built directory pages. Here’s what one looks like:

The words “Index of /” are common to these pages, and they end up in the “title” of the page. Unfortunately, Google sees the slash is a “stop word” so we cannot search for that. But, the problem is that without the slash there are all sorts of other pages that have the words “Index of” that are regular web pages. So, we need to find something else that is common. Within the page there are the headings of “name,” “last modified,” “size” and “description,” followed by the word “Parent Directory.” The combination of these words in the page body, and the “Index of” in the title should provide a pretty clean search, especially when we use the -inurl operator to exclude regular web pages that might have the same wording in them. (If all this has you confused, please read the Google Tutor Google Search Manual while referencing the sample queries below.)

So, for starters here is a query that will give you a search results page of unprotected directories:

[-inurl(html|htm|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size]

But, this is kind of boring. Too many unknown program files, text files, web pages etc. Let’s narrow it down. You can narrow it down by looking for something in the name of a file in the list, or by the file type, or both.

For example, this query tries to find any types of files about Jennifer Lopez. Within the directories I found music, image and movie files.

[-inurl(html|htm|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +”jennifer lopez”]

Let’s say that we wanted to find any movie files in WMV or AVI format:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wmv|avi)]

Or audio files in WMA or MP3 format:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3)]

Or images in JPG or GIF format:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(jpg|gif) ]

You can get more specific by specifying both the file types and a search word to hopefully find in the name. For example, the following will attempt to find the infamous Paris Hilton video tape:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wmv|avi) “paris hilton”]

Or, you can even take a guess at the file name someone might call it:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(”paris_hilton.wmv”|”paris_hilton.avi”)]

So there you go. You can combine various search terms and experiment with this. As you’ve seen, this is not an exact science. The directory pages you bring up may have many or even all files which are unrelated to what you are looking for. But, it does make some good hits very often.

I find the most fun searching for movies with an interesting or provocative search term and seeing what comes up. The samples in this article are rather safe and boring, but I’m sure you all have some good ideas of what to try and search for. Do me a favor and post a comment with some interesting queries you’ve had success with, or crazy files that you’ve found (as long as nothing private is given out). ]

Fresh Devices - Fresh and free utilities!

2005-12-19T18:14:00.000+08:00

Fresh Devices - Fresh and free utilities!

For those of us like me who likes everything cheap, I stumbled upon these softwares a longtime ago and swear I have installed it on every PC I have laid hands on. From system optimizer to a complete download manager, everything is free! Its GREAT!

Fresh Download is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite mp3 files, software, picture collections, video, etc. Unlike other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no banners, no spyware.

Fresh UI is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful settings for Windows XP/2000/ NT4/98/95/Me, it covers the customizing techniques that you'll be glad to know. This software is 100% free, no banner, no spyware.

Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It detects many kinds of hardware, such as CPU or hard disk performance, video or motherboard information, and much more. This software is 100% free, no ads, no spyware.

Fresh View is a multimedia browser that makes organizing image, audio and video files much easier. Use it to watch movies, listen to music, view graphics in a slide show, print, create an HTML album, and more. This software is 100% free, no ads, no spyware.

Electronic Reusable Paper

2005-12-05T14:39:00.000+08:00

Researchers are striving to make dynamic sheets of electronic reusable paper no thicker than a standard transparency.

Electronic reusable paper is a display material that has many of the properties of paper. It stores an image, is viewed in reflective light, has a wide viewing angle, is flexible, and is relatively inexpensive. Unlike conventional paper, however, it is electrically writeable and erasable. Although projected to cost somewhat more than a normal piece of paper, a sheet of electronic reusable paper could be re-used 1000s of times. This material has many potential applications in the field of information display including digital books, low-power portable displays, wall-sized displays, and fold-up displays.

Read more...

Firefox - An amazing extension!

2005-12-03T12:47:00.000+08:00

Scrapbook is one of those firefox extension you would be missing if you dont have it. According to the developers website, Scrapbook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are:

* Save Web page
* Save snippet of Web page
* Save Web site (In-depth Capture)
* Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks tree
* Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing tools
* Full text search and quick filtering search
* Text edit feature resembling Opera's Notes

Another thing I would have to add is the way they are able to mantain the archived web pages' formatting and layout. Have you at one time or another try to save a web page while browsing using the default File--> Save As menu and later when you try to open it offline, the web page's appearance is different. Scrapbook amazingly preserves the formatting, flash animations and even java snippets.

Check out the Scrapbook extension, it could be downloaded from here,
. Of course you have to have firefox to use it. To download firefox, click the shiny firefox button at the top of this site.

Happy archiving!!!

Skype 2.0 Beta Released

2005-12-02T16:42:00.000+08:00

Popular internet telephone service Skype has just released version 2.0 beta and is now readily available for download at www.skype.com. Skype is one of those travel handy applications you should never go without. It has voice quality at par with the best digital voice lines we have today.

The most striking change in version 2.0 is the addition of video capabilities. Some of the new features includes a redesigned and sleeker interface, intuitive menus, a new searchbar ala spotlight that will instantly go to the matched contact as you type, and many more. Skype now also integrates well with Outlook via the Skype toolbar for Microsoft Outlook.

Left image shows Skype running on my laptop.

My WinMac Desktop

2005-12-02T12:46:00.000+08:00

As promised, here is a snapshot of my Flyakite-modded desktop.

Flyakite OSX 3.0 is coming!

2005-12-02T10:43:00.000+08:00

FlyakiteOSX - Modify . Simplify . Aquafy [The Official Site]

While browsing through the web, just found out that my favorite Windows skinner Flyakite OSx is going to present an early Christmas gift by releasing Flyakite OSX 3.0. To those who doesn't know what the heck Flyakite is, it's an application that will make your Windows OS look like a Mac Tiger. To memory freaks out there, don't be afraid it will consume very little memory resources since Flyakite will not run as a separate Windows process, it will just patch Windows system files to change the look of Windows borders, titlebars, menu and icons to look like one on Steve Jobs' apple computer.

For more details go to http://www.osx-e.com and download Flyakite OSX 2.0. Dont worry, its a good primer for 3.0. 2.0 is very pleasing and stable. I'll be releasing a snapshot of my Flyakite OSX 2.0 modified desktop later.

2004-07-18T13:26:00.000+08:00

DILBERT: My Favorite Comic Strip