Isles Tech

Sudo as an administrator (Applications > Accessories > Terminal > sudo su).

Type ps auxwww | grep firefox. System will respond with something like this:

islesv 7235 64.0 9.8 169824 44428 ? Rl 08:30 133:45 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin

The first column is the user running the Firefox instance. Make sure that this is you.

The second column is the process number. Type "kill xxxx", where xxxx is this number.


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Labels: firefox, Ubuntu

It seems my good friend Ms. Catherine Lanticse who is working as a math teacher at the University of San Carlos North Campus (formerly Boys High School) has her share of haters. Of course, we double majors (graduates of Bachelor of Secondary Education from the University of San Carlos College of Education, with majors either in physics and mathematics or physics and chemistry) always have our share of haters - blame it on our oozing confidence and the pride to back up our claims with hard data.

I had already informed her about this. The fake Friendster profile is a violation of section 6d of Friendster's Terms of Service:

d. Member Identities and Fan Profiles. Unless you are a Member Entity who has registered a Fan Profile (see Section 9 below), your profile must describe you, an individual person. Examples of inappropriate profiles include but are not limited to profiles that purport to represent an animal, place, inanimate object, fictional character or real individual who is not you. [emphasis mine]

Thank God my students at PAREF Springdale School has not thought of doing the same.

P.S. The title is a reference to Ms. Lanticse's trademark greeting, which is also used in the shoutout of the fake profile.

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Labels: boys high, Friendster, usc, usc north campus

There are currently more than 50 categories of blogs and webcomics in the Entrecard network. Out of my own ignorance at the start of my being part of the network a few weeks ago, I registered Isles Tech (this blog) under Technology. A few days later, I realized this blog probably belongs more to the Computers and Internet category.

Phirate stated in an old post that

... while we are happy for you to choose the category you believe most appropriate for your blog, those attempting to get themselves on the main page of the category browser by virtue of intentionally choosing a category that is entirely inappropriate will not be tolerated.

We are very serious about this. We expect you to choose the category most appropriate for your blog, doing otherwise is not an acceptable tactic to increase drops and clicks.

I did not intentionally choose my current category to get to the main page of the category browser, and to say that Isles Tech is entirely inappropriate to be found in the Technology category is definitely wrong, so I am not covered by this. And even if I am covered, there is no stated policy on what would actually happen; just that that what I would have done will not be tolerated. (The second paragraph is not a rule or policy, but an admonition.)

So, should I change category, or not? I am currently no. 1 in the Technology category, with 1229 drops in the last 5 days (and I did not reciprocate drops yesterday and the other day because of some concerns). If I transfer to the Computers and Internet category, I would displace Beta Monger from the third place and would still be seen on the category main page. However, I will only be below Orange Inks (1460 drops) and Bloody Computer (1290 drops).

(P.S. I have prepared an introduction to Entrecard if you need one.)

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islesv: What's your email again, dear co-teacher?
archie: It's archsachs.at.yahoo.com Sir.
islesv: Umm... That's sounds too close to art s*cks. You have an alternate email?
archie: archsachs1.at.yahoo.com Sir.
islesv: (dumb founded)

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Just Thursday last week, Yahoo launched two new email domains -- ymail.com and rocketmail.com. Of course, Yahoo had always allowed Rocketmail users at the time of the acquisition in 1997 to keep their @rocketmail.com addresses, but registration at that domain name had since been stopped, until now. With the increase in the number of people using Yahoo Mail, it became more and more difficult to find an appealing handle using an @yahoo.com name.

Even with GMail I had never completely left Yahoo Mail behind -- there are just some cool features Yahoo Mail has which GMail does not have, among them their insistence (in their classic version, which I am using) on using Courier New as font for newly typed text. One of the major reasons I was not actively using my Yahoo Mail was that the address I registered with it was bentong_isles - not a very professional-sounding name, I know. But when I tried islesv - which I am using for GMail - it was already taken.

With the opening of two new domain names, I was able to take islesv at ymail.com - which sounds good alongside islesv at gmail.com. Unfortunately somebody had already taken islesv@rocketmail.com.

If you haven't claimed your @ymail.com and @rocketmail.com names yet, this should be the time.

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Labels: email, GMail, yahoo mail

Entrecard had been very good for a lot of blogs (more here, here, here, and here). (There had been, of course, some problems - alleged censorship at the forums*, some members leaving, the Great Fire, etc., but generally the network had been great.)

Unfortunately, the general consensus among the membership and the top honchos is that only blogs and webcomics are to be accepted into the network:

our general rule of thumb is sites that are updated regularly. thats why blogs and also web comics, and some forums.

we don't want sites with static content in our network, because once you've seen it, you've seen it and there is nothing new. that would significantly devalue the dropping experience, which is all about finding new stuff.

Ignoring this injunction, I put the Entrecard widget in the Education in the Philippines Forum, a forum for stakeholders of Philippine education, and transferred some credits from my main account (the one for this blog) to that linked account so that I could buy some advertisement. Within three days the administrators disabled that linked account.

I had to explain to Phirate why I thought forums should be allowed in the network. I was unable to convince him though, but instead I followed Evil Woobie's advice: I created a blog for EduPhil, which will contain highlights of the forum, profiles of members, and other noteworthy things. Of course, the main purpose of the blog is still to convince visitors to become members of the forum.

While Entrecard has not yet opened itself to websites other than blogs and webcomics, this is an acceptable compromise.

P.S. I would like to thank Phirate for reimbursing my 5331 EC credits which was deleted along with the old EduPhil account :)

(*I could not state much about this event because I was "on leave" from the forums when it happened.)

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Labels: entrecard, website promotion

The other day I posted about my hope that MySpace will give some time to my query why the default language for the computers coming from the Philippines is Spanish. Just today I received an email from them. At least this one is more relevant:

Hello,

If your profile appears with foreign characters or in a language not of your preference, please try the following:

* Log into your account.
* Scroll to the bottom of the page.
* Locate the “MySpace International” link located to the bottom right.
* Locate the country and language of your choice and press “GO”.


This will return your profile back to your original language.

But still this does not address the real issue. The issue, if you remember, is that MySpace is treating IP's coming from the Philippines as coming from a Spanish country. That is, they are thinking that the Philippines is Spanish.

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Labels: myspace

But I will not be there.

This coming Monday and Tuesday, June 23 and 24, the first Philippine Open Source Summit will be held. Some members of the Philippine Wikipedia communities will be there. (Yep, I'm the Bentong Isles listed there, but I don't think I could/would come, for monetary and other reasons.) The day after that, June 25, will be the third anniversary of the establishment of the Cebuano Wikipedia.

One of the major sponsors of the summit is Microsoft Philippines, and, aherm, WikiPilipinas. (That smiley means something, seav. :-))

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Bloggers, that is. Winston of BatangYagit.com is inviting all interested Cebuano bloggers for a meetup this coming June 29, 2008 (that's a Sunday), at 2PM, Bo's Coffee, Osmena Boulevard. If you happen to be a blogger, in Cebu, and free at this time, please do come.

I don't know Winston personally, but I will be coming definitely to this event. It's also a chance to meet with my blogging friend Kevin Ray Chua (of Mar Roxas for President in 2010 fame).

Oh, yeah, I'll try to bring along my brother.

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Labels: blogging groups

I spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to hide the header picture of EduPhil.org, an online forum for stakeholders of Philippine education. The site uses MyBB, a very good forum software which I have used for my other projects as well, such as Isles Tech Forums and Review Cebu. (I am also going to use it for a student help forum I am going to start soon, as well as that of The DILFED Forum, which currently just use Yahoo Groups.)

I wanted to hide the header so that I could move the text earlier in the page and therefore present to the reader information within a few seconds. My plan was to locate the option to do that somewhere in the board settings variables of MyBB and just find an option to hide. The first problem was the place I was looking for it. It was not in the board settings but could be found in the themes section (login as administrator > Templates > Modify/Delete) instead. Failing to find a hide option, I removed the content of the Forum Logo data field. Unfortunately the script will still release an <img> tag; the source would only be the base URL of your forum (Admin CP > Board Settings > Change > General Configuration > Homepage URL). (The source would be Homepage URL + the Forum Logo string from the themes section.)

Looking at the source of the page, I knew that the HTML output at the part of the page where the picture is put is within the header template. So I just changed the header template to remove the entire "logo" (not "header") div.

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Labels: customizing mybb

Last Saturday, I took some time to write an email to MySpace telling them that they might be wrong in treating the Philippines as a Spanish country. I then complained that they don't actually read emails; it seems that an automated response was given out.

I replied to the "automated" email and stated rather angrily my sentiment that they treat their users as dumb and stupid. Three days later, I am still waiting for a reply.

When I complained about how WAYN.com deleted a picture I worked for two hours, I got a reply from Annika, who identified herself as a marketing manager of WAYN (see the comments at the bottom of the last link). Although I still don't have an account with WAYN (coping with Friendster is enough for me right now, with my blogging and other online activities already on the schedule), I was satisfied with the service that I got from them. Not so with MySpace.

Perhaps MySpace thinks it is okay to ignore an amateur blogger like me; anyway I don't really have a large readership, and my opinion most possibly will not weigh so much. However, other known names on the Internet apparently thinks otherwise: PbWiki, StatCounter.

Sandra Cobb thinks this is to be expected from free services:

Nearly every hosting provider I have used did this same thing, with the exception that they eventually actually read the message and solved the problem. Free service providers are different. [...] They are free services, what can you do?

I beg to disagree here. Even if they are free services, they are supposed to care for their clients. That's the very foundation of good business.

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Labels: myspace, wayn

Should the open source and free licenses movement in the Philippines allow commercial organizations like Microsoft and VIBAL Publishing House, Inc. to be found among its ranks? This was a question that I posed to the Cebu GNU/Linux Local Users Group (CE-GNU-LUG), a loose group of open source and free license advocates mostly from Cebu City.

My contention is that keeping or allowing these corporations within the ranks of the movement will sooner or later cause the identification of the movement with these corporations. But the open source and free licenses movement arose as a reaction to greedy capitalism. Or am I wrong on this account?

I still remember the WikiPilipinas fiasco, which made me disillusioned with the Cebuano Wikipedia. (The Cebuano Wikipedia will be having its third anniversary this June 25, but although I am still one of the two bureaucrats -- local project managers -- I have lost some enthusiasm for the project.)

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Labels: free licenses, open source, Wikipedia

I hate automated replies from email addresses given as support. It shows a disrespect for the website's client, and indicates to him/her that his/her concern doesn't count, and whatever is wrong with the website is his/her fault: user's error, certainly not the website's.

Obviously, that is what happens when you email help@support.myspace.com (there, I got my little revenge: thanks, spam bots!). Less than a minute after I informed them that they are in error in treating Philippine users as Spanish-speaking, this is what they replied to me:

Below is a pretty comprehensive overview on blogs presented in an FAQ format. It should answer all the questions you have about blogs. [The actual FAQ followed.]

Yeah, right, my problem is with blogs in your system. Very good. If you can't provide proper customer service, then just fold up.

I don't know with you, but when I have a proper query, and instead I am presented with the FAQ, I get insulted, because I do read FAQs before I start with something. IMPO (in my proud opinion), presenting the FAQ to the user making a query, without properly checking what his concern was about, is assuming that he is dumb or stupid. Which I am not.

I've never considered making a MySpace account, but their treatment of my valid concern made me realize how important it is that I shouldn't. Certainly I don't want to be a user of a website which treats its users as dumb and stupid people.

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Labels: customer service, myspace

My girlfriend (who has a MySpace account, because she once went to the U.S. where MySpace is in) was the first one to tell me that MySpace seems to be doing something wrong with IP addresses from the Philippines.

Apparently, the website seem to think that the Philippines is Spanish. If you visit the website from the Philippines, you are presented with the Spanish version of the site by default.

I don't have a MySpace account (Friendster is so much more popular here in the Philippines), but since I am a language activist by conscious choice, I spent some time posting this post and emailing their customer support.


No, I am not emailing Tom. :)

Here's the email BTW:

Hi,

I don't have a MySpace account, but my girlfriend has, and it seems you are wrong in the default language you present to users from the Philippines.

FYI, the Philippines is not Spanish-speaking, despite the 300-year or so that we've been under those good-looking guys.

I would appreciate if I would get feedback via email.

And hey, I blogged about this: http://tech.islesv.net/2008/06/myspacecom-sirs-philippines-is-not.html

Cheers.

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I happened to stumble upon ZA NiC which provides free domain registration under ZA.NET and ZA.ORG to companies, not-for-profit organisations or private users. I used Find the Word to look for words ending in ZA so that I could have a domain hack. The following domain hacks look good:

• carran.za.net
• bra.za.net (braza = fathom) - discussion forum (Philosophy, etc.)
• for.za.net
• fuer.za.net - discussion forum for defense system
• gan.za.net
• ham.za.net
• kwan.za.net
• matan.za.net
• mesti.za.net - beautiful girls (Friendster hotties?)
• mur.za.net
• nyan.za.net
• roman.za.net - love letters?
• sud.za.net
• stan.za.net - lyrics and poems
• sar.za.net
• sen.za.net
• zan.za.net

Unfortunately, ZA NiC's policy stated:

10. Registration of a subdomain of .za.net and .za.org is restricted to individuals and organisations with a presence in South Africa. Valid South African contact details are required to support the registration. This will not affect any existing domains registered to parties outside South Africa.

So it seems I could not get those names :)

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Labels: domain names, za.net

Previously I posted a review of Entrecard advertising strategies. Some more tips, culled from a thread in the official Entrecard forum:

• Request on blogs that you like.
• Mass request and then take note who give you the most clicks. Take note that if you advertise on many cheap sites, the results might be poor.
  
• Try to choose relevant sites.
• Find a blog which posts everyday.
  

If you want to focus on the click-throughs (not just the exposure), you might be surprised that the cost to advertise on the site may not be a very good indicator to the returns. Ben Barden (Entrecard details) lists some factors which affect click-throughs:

• how many times people visit the site you're advertising on
• how many of those visitors are interested in your site (are you advertising on sites in your category or in other categories?)
• do the visitors click ads at all?
• when your ad runs (some ads may run at the weekend, which can be a slow period for some sites - or in some cases it may be busier at the weekend)
• whether you advertise more than once
• the graphic you use on Entrecard and what it says about your site - will someone click it?
• familiarity with your card - some people might only click on the graphics they recognise, whereas some might only click on the ones they haven't seen before

The Realtor (Entrecard details) points out that "a lot has to do with what that site is doing for that time you're advertising."

If they're running a large ad campaign themselves that day, you're going to see the benefits. If they drop 300 cards the day you're on there, you're in luck. It just depends on what's going on with that site for that 24 hour period.

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Labels: advertising, entrecard

If you need a website which lists some of the greatest web tools, go to Great Web Tools. Some reviews: Yuntaa, Picnik, Tumblr. Thanks Alexvf for that wonderful site with a wonderful design.

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Labels: web sites

The goal of this blog is to provide information. Since these pieces of information may not be unique to this blog and may possibly be found in other parts of the online world, there is a need to differentiate our delivery through efficiency. Our main focus then is to provide these pieces of information as fast as possible.

For many of my visitors, the first page they would see upon coming to the blog is the post which discussed something they were searching for. I would like to give them the capability to read related articles, which might be helpful for them.

As of now, there are three main ways a user can navigate through the website:

1. Using the archive menu at the left. However this is of little practical help since the entries are grouped according to publication date, and who would like to go through posts chronologically, except perhaps the blogger himself?
   
2. Using the related posts hack. This system uses the labels as guideposts for readers. (Longer description below.)
   
3. Using the search mechanism. But although Blogger has a very good search mechanism, it seems that there are still more navigation- than search-based visitors.

I installed the Blogger related posts hack of Jacky Supit of JackBook.com here at Isles Tech. The hack used the label(s) of each post to determine which posts are related to which other - that just make sense. However, I had never been a fan of categorical labeling (that is, putting things in their right places) here at Isles Tech.

I started with just a few labels, but almost always I label a new post with keywords and key phrases which are not in the current list. As a result, the number of labels grew and grew. I decided one day that putting the labels on the sidebar is not helpful for the reader at all, so I removed the labels widget.

Labels are supposed to be keywords and key phrases for the current post. Since Blogger does not have categories like Wordpress, you cannot use labels as tags (key words and phrases) and use categories to put each post to a certain group. (I am thinking of a system to overcome this: use the first two or three labels as categories, and the rest as tags, with categories differentiated from tags because they would have uppercase first letters. After the new school year has stabilized (we will start it this coming Tuesday), I will start working on relabeling all the posts.)

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Labels: blogger, post labels

Time Machiner is a mini-app which will let you email people (including yourself) in the future. Possible uses could be reminding yourself of something at a certain date, send a happy birthday note to a dear friend during his birthday (without you worrying if you can remember that actual date), and may be reminding (gently) your boss that he promised a salary increase.

I tested it and it really works. I would probably use this service to remind gently my students that they have to submit to me something.

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Labels: email, mini-app, Websites

A few days from now (on June 25, 2008, to be exact), the Cebuano Wikipedia would be 3 years old. It was one of the last batch of Wikipedias to be approved using the old system of Wikipedia creation; now it is more difficult to create a Wikipedia. I was the one who proposed its creation and consequently became its bureaucrat.

My earliest, most difficult, and most lingering problem was how to increase the visibility of the Cebuano Wikipedia. Since Cebuano is not in the taught in the schools of the Philippines, and most Cebuanos who has access to the Internet can speak English anyway (and even blog in English, just like me :-)), there had never been a "real" need for a Cebuano encyclopedia, much less online.

My disillusionment with the low statistics lead me to use a bot to stuff "encyclopedic articles" artificially into the Cebuano Wikipedia. Over a course of two months, we jumped from about a hundred articles to more than thirty thousand...

And lost credibility in the process. We were removed from the portal of most Wikipedias when their communities realized the artificial stuffing. Of all the community members, I was the most disheartened, leading me to find other avenues for my online life. Little by little I gradually eased my responsibilities from the Cebuano Wikipedia, and although I am nominally a bureaucrat in the project, much of the control doesn't belong to me any more.

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Labels: cebuano, Wikipedia

If you are a Catholic and an AdSense publisher, you might be aware that there are some organizations and persons who are using Google's advertising program to spread anti-Catholic beliefs. This page lists their ad URLs so you can block them from showing in your webpages.

• http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/
• http://www.hypertracker.com/go/perrymarshall/churchhistory/
  

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Labels: AdSense, catholicism

Here are some video portal scripts:

1. PHPmotion - free and open-source
2. Clip-Share
3. Rayyz.net - a complete social media website
4. Attachmax
5. Alstrasoft Video Share Enterprise
6. MediaMax Script
7. VShare
8. osTube
9. PHPmelody

(more)

Success Online has a review of the nine above.

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Labels: media sharing scripts, youtube, youtube clone

Rate My Philippines aims to compile "the best of the best Filipino websites in the world wide web and become a portal of such." It would like to "build a strong gallery of sites showcasing the best of the Philippines has to offer including its people."

I agree with the webmaster's reasoning:

You might have search the keywords “Filipino,” “Philippines,” “Pinoy,” “Pinay,” “Filipinas” and be disappointed as only very few of the results are reliable, decent and usable. Where are the best Filipino sites? We are pretty sure it is out there!

How true. They don't propose to list all Filipino websites out there, but they think that "a gallery of useful, relevant and quality websites [which] we all can be proud of as Filipinos" is possible.

If you have a Philippine-related website, submit it now.

Way to go Rate My Philippines!

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Labels: philippine websites

Belgian protest party NEE's 2007 lead Senate candidate, Tania Derveaux, will have sex with any male virgin who can "provide sufficient evidence that clearly shows he has been defending net neutrality (eg. a print-out of a forum post, a link to a vlog)". LOL.

[via Xtrange Brew]

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Labels: internet activism

Vostu allows you to create your own social network for free. You can even use your own domain fore free (unlike Ning), and you get 30% of the Google AdSense put on your "sphere". I noticed that the website is slow, though.

[via Startup Gems]

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I'm a bit late on this since I only check my Yahoo email account now and then; I'm using GMail. I did not even remember that I still have my StatCounter account registered with my old Yahoo address, until I received an email from StatCounter telling me their problems with PayPal. Apparently they mass emailed it to everyone who has an account with them; even though I'm using the free version of StatCounter (and thus has no reason to use PayPal with them), I received the email just the same.

Part of the email read as follows:

In view of the complete lack of assistance from Paypal in this regard and the gravity of the problems, we have decided that we have no option but to inform you, our members, about the facts of the situation. This will allow you to make an informed decision about whether to use (or whether to continue to use) Paypal. [...]

The two major issues affecting StatCounter Paypal subscribers are:

- Delayed issuing of invoices
- Instances of double billing

At StatCounter we have tried phoning, emailing, posting on the Paypal forums [see here and here]... Many of our contacts are ignored, but even when we do get an answer all we are told is that "Upon review of your account, unfortunately we do not have a time frame for a resolution to your issue we are currently actively investigating your issue with subscriptions."

The issue is also covered in the StatCounter blog. By May 30th, the issue had already been resolved, as stated here.

Now, as I was informed of the problem, I would have expected to be informed also (via email, or at least a pointer to a blog post) of the solution. Apparently the StatCounter Team forgot the second part, perhaps due to the fire which caused The Planet to shut down.

Related links: Ring of Blogs, Digital Point

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Labels: paypal, statcounter

Within minutes after Entrecard resumed normal service after the fire which forced their servers to be taken offline, I was done with my dropping chores. Here are my Entrefinds:

• SlackerHeaven, on haters: bask in the attention, post more of the stuff which pissed them off, reply to them, ignore them.
• The Wealthy Blogger, on procrastinating: don't put off starting on something, don't be afraid to commit mistakes!
• Helping Hands, on useful sites (for him, at least). I like Big First Name. :) And I'm going to do what Helping Hands did, list useful sites.
• Web Development 2 discusses the Internet Explorer CSS min-height hack.
• UnderHeavenz reviewed TinEye, a tool to find duplicate images on the web. I've already requested an invite. :) He previously posted on Google AdSense soon to be available in RSS feed.
  
• My Digital Life reviewed Wakoopa, which "makes snooping around your friends profiles and PC's so much fun because you get to learn which apps are their most used, as well as which app is more served around the world or in your friend-circle" while LinkFog reviewed Plurk, a Twitter wannabee (hopefully without the downtime).
  
• All in 123 has a note on Turbanizer, a tool to see yourself in a turban.
• MakaPalm.com shares notes on HandyCase.com, which offers free Palm OS software.
• InterWeb TV tried and was denied at PluggedIn because it only supports IE. I feel bad for you buddy. :(

Other articles I found interesting:

• http://www.collegestudentsarepoor.com/2008/05/make-money-as-online-juror.html
• http://www.itminddesign.com/2008/05/22/a-handy-use-for-twitter/ - as reminder app.
  
• http://judesmultiinfo.com/judes_info/2008/05/31/why-the-heck-am-i-still-blogging/ - still don't know why :)
  
• http://www.searchenginepanel.com/four-signs-of-a-great-search-engine-optimizer/ - 1.) broad technical knowledge; 2.) a master of language; 3.) SEO immersed; 4.) driven by results.
  
• http://articlespecialist.blogspot.com/2008/06/dont-buy-overpriced-blog-to-make-money.html
• http://www.bizphere.com/seo-and-backlinking/
• http://gedetbasumatary.com/add-visitor-comments-policy-to-your-blogger-blog/
• http://www.thebuzznutter.com/2008/05/vector-graphic-image-manipulation-free.html
• http://www.isamansworld.com/2008/05/choices-of-monitors-whats-best-for-you.html
• http://empireinfo.com/blog/30-profit-generating-tips-part-3/ - very cool tips
  
• http://personal-budgeting.blogspot.com/2008/05/personal-budgeting-how-far-ahead-should.html
• http://sheenonline.biz/index.php/2008/05/31/how-twitter-keeps-me-from-getting-things-done/

(This is quite a long list because that's two Entrecard days compressed into one. For my droppers, keep on dropping! If you haven't made it a habit to drop daily on my blog, do so, and get a chance to get a short review. :))

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Labels: entrecard, entrefinds

FloppyGamers.com had just started, but from the looks of it, it has a lot of promise. It is a site where you can play Flash games for free. Okay, so you know there are a lot of competition out there, why would Isles Tech give particular attention to this one? Well, in these days of the exploding Internet where there is so much to cover in so little time, there are just times when you stumble upon a gem. And this site is one of them, even if it has just started. Go there and check it out. :)

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Labels: flash games, Websites

After fretting yesterday about my bad luck, it seems I had some luck today. After completing my 300 drops for Entrecard, the site went down again. (It must be remembered that The Planet, Entrecard's server, had a fire yesterday, causing it along with the other clients of The Planet being taken offline.)

(BUT: It seems I could not load the blog, receiving 502 server errors from Google.)

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Labels: 502 server error, entrecard, Google

If you are running an advertisement blocker such as Ad Block Plus, you may run into problems uploading images to your Blogger account. You can disable the blocker temporarily (under ABP, Options > uncheck Enable Adblock Plus) while uploading and enable it again once you're done.

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HowFlow is a Web 2.0 tricks and howtos popularity site. Social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication are combined to form a non-hierarchical, decentralized editorial control. Tricks, howtos and websites are submitted by users. They are promoted to the front page through a user-based ranking system.

New tricks submitted by users are in the "Upcoming" section. If it receives enough votes, it will be transferred to the site's front page. Or it can stay in the Upcoming section indefinitely.

The top howtos in the front page while I was writing this are the following:

• Howto: Backup and restore configuration files in Ubuntu
• Gentoo: Enable Bash Tab-completion for Portage Tools
• Top 10 GPS Tips and Tricks
• Recording an IRC channel on Linux/Ubuntu
• Installing and Using the Unbound Name Server on Debian Etch
• How to boot Linux using DELL media direct button
• Add keyboard shortcuts with KeyTouch
• Terminal screenlet: Embed a transparent terminal on your desktop
• The matrix on your Hardy Desktop
• Export a Git Project to Google code

Can this tool help us bloggers? There's a future to this. In fact I'll flow my howto articles here as soon as I hit the publish button below :)

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Labels: how flow, Ubuntu, web 2.0, Websites

Just a list really. I will expand this to an article later.

• paid advertising
• do something which will achieve lots of media coverage (WikiPilipinas.org did this)
• social bookmarking sites (Digg, Technorati, etc.) - however, there is poor for conversion rate (yes, even for forums) / social media networking
  
• banner link exchange
• blogs participation
• article submissions
• submission to directories
• free classified ads on related sites
• sending emails with signatures (website link)
• emailing promotional newsletters to targeted customers (but avoid spamming)
• optimizing pages for specific keywords
• forums

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Labels: traffic generation

I stumbled upon Amazon.com's amapedia today. According to Amazon, amapedia (apparently it is spelled with a lowercase first letter) is a community for sharing information about products one like the most. It is next generation of Amazon.com's product wiki feature. There is an advanced search, side-by-side comparisons, as well as the expected random article.

It introduces a new way of organizing product information known as "collaborative structured tagging": each product has an associated description ("This Is A") and its most important features ("Facts").

Why amapedia? Amazon.com answers:

Because amapedia is about

1. your favorite products; only you can tell us which ones they are
2. product information that comes from customers, so that it might be more impartial and authoritative
3. product facts that actually matter to you (like shutter lag for cameras and fan noise for notebooks), not those supplied by manufacturers or sellers.

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Labels: amapedia, amazon, collaborative tagging, tagging

With the onset of classes and the various commitments I have to some parties, I will not be spending more than an hour a day for this blog. This means that I will only reciprocate drops for my Entrecard widget, and the updates might be fewer. I will devote the rest of my online time to the promotion of my other sites, such as EduPhil.org, The Free Law Project, PhilTowns.net, Chesspedia, BisDak.org, The DILFED Forum, Isles Tech Forums, ReviewCebu.co.cc, islesv.110mb.com, and some unmentionable here :) (OK, they do exist... it's up to you to discover :)).

I also take note that a forum is much easier to sustain than a blog, since a forum has a community value. That is, people will return to it because they feel they're part of the community. There is no such thing for a blog, or, if there is, it is very tenuous.

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Here's how to add manually the Google Analytics code to MyBB: Login to your Admin panel. Then go to Templates > Modify / Delete > footer. Then add the js code at the bottom of this template.

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Labels: google analytics, mybb

ReviewCebu.co.cc is a forum to share reviews and first impressions of the numerous establishments, both public and private, in Cebu and surrounding areas.

Hosting for ReviewCebu.co.cc is provided free by 000webhosting.com, while the domain is also free courtesy of co.cc.

If you live in or near Cebu, or are interested in coming to Cebu, check out ReviewCebu.co.cc to know which establishments are worth your time and money, and which isn't.

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Labels: cebu, online reviews

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It seems I'm up for some surprise today. At 7AM PDT, our electrical supplier, Cebu Electric Cooperative II (CEBECO II) shutdown power at the town of Sogod, Cebu, where my brother-in-law has an Internet cafe and where I usually hang out during the weekend to do my blogging and manage the web sites I have started (you can see a list of them at the bottom of this blog). The announcement stated that power will be restored by 5PM PDT, but it was restored around 3:40PM, and I happily trotted to my brother-in-law's Internet cafe so that I can reciprocate drops for my Entrecard.

I was in for another round of online frustration. Entrecard is down, caused by a fire which hit The Planet, where Entrecard servers are hosted. (Official announcement here. So much for The Planet's fire suppression system.)

I received the following email from Entrecard's support team:

Greetings,

Unfortunately, there has been an electrical fire at the data center housing Entrecard's servers. The servers have not been damaged, but the site may be down for as long as 12 hours.

Entrecard is hosted with ThePlanet, and this fire has effected over 9000 websites, as many of the world's most popualar websites are hosted with ThePlanet. They are working around the clock to get their data center back online, and we are hoping that they get it back online fast.

Thank you for your pateince and understanding with this rare and frustrating problem. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do but wait for The Planet to get their datacenter back online.

Please check back with Entrecard in 12 to 24 hours.

Thanks,

Entrecard Team

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Labels: entrecard

Genbook allows you to set up hassle-free online scheduling for your appointments. The service is targeted at small business, but any professional can use it.

Genbook provides the following advantages for you:

• New ways to fill up your appointment books. Custom online scheduling pages can enhance search engine rankings, and a Book Now button can be easily placed on your website.
• Freeing up of your time. Customers can book their own appointments online and get automatic confirmations.
• Saves you money: work less hours, hire less resources because of an automated, reliable solution.
• You look professional because of the professional design and seamless integration of the Book Now button on your site.

I can't see a use for it for myself yet, but when I get tired of teaching and go into full-time business, I will probably take advantage of this service.

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Labels: Websites