Deuts.NET » Internet and Technology

Gmail Rolls Out Google Buzz; Check Out What’s in Store For Everyone

deuts — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:26:00 +0000

Here’s another great reason why you should love and totally switch (if you haven’t yet) to Gmail. They’ve recently rolled out their newest service, the Google Buzz. (By the way, Google is gradually rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don’t see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon.)

It’s basically like Twitter, but actually better. It allows comments, likes, email. It resides right within your Gmail web interface. All you need is a Gmail account. Of course, your friends should be using Gmail the same in order for you to share thoughts, quotes, links, photos, and videos with each other.

Photos and videos are displayed inline, so you don’t have to open another window or tab. Sharing can be done publicly (and displayed to your Google profile page) or privately to a group of people or close friends only.

Comments get sent right to your inbox so it’s easy to keep up with the conversation. Of course, you can mute a certain thread in case you find your inbox full of non-sense.

Updates are posted in real-time, new posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.

Moreover, you can add your own stuff from Twitter, PicasaWeb, Flickr, Youtube, Blogger/Blogspot, Google Reader, Tumblr, and your own personal blog to your Buzz, and Google Buzz will aggregate your feed from those services and updates will automatically be posted and shared.

You can watch the introductory video of Google Buzz below:

So if you are one of the many people I know who are yet stuck with Yahoo! Mail, it’s time you think twice. Who knows, Twitter may be the thing of the past. Google Buzz is the future!

By the way, this feature is not yet available for Google Apps for your Domain accounts.

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I learned about my passion in photography when I had my first digital camera in Sony DSC-S60. Then I took it the next level when I had a Canon EOS 30D. You can check out my latest photos at my flickr photostream or my self-hosted gallery (which I intend to update soon).

If you wish, I would love for you to subscribe to my flickr photostream via email. By subscribing, it means that you’ll receive an email notifications everytime I upload new photos to my photostream. Click here, enter your email address, and follow the online instructions.

Luminotes is Closing; Download the Windows Stand-Alone Application

deuts — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:26:19 +0000

It’s a sad moment for the techie world and wiki fans. The hosted service of Luminotes is closing, and you can access, export, and backup your notes from their servers until March 1, 2010 only.

According to their blog:

Luminotes.com will shut down on March 1, 2010. At that time, you will no longer be able to view or edit any notes hosted at Luminotes.com, and no further releases nor support for any Luminotes products will be available.

But of course their Windows Stand-Alone Applications — Luminotes Desktop — is out in the wild. In case the website totally shuts down after the time (March 1) and you missed to save yourself a copy of the exe file, I have a backup copy: Luminotes.exe (download). Readme file is available upon install.

POP3 Access for Yahoo! Mail Free Accounts

deuts — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:53:02 +0000

A POP3 access allows you to send and receive your email messages from a desktop email client like Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Entourage, etc. A user need not login to the web interface and face hundreds of banner ads everyday, but just wait till the program fetches the mails from the background.

POP3 access (and even IMAP) has always been free when you’re using a GMail account. However, by default, for Yahoo! Mail, you will need to upgrade to at least the Yahoo! Mail Plus account (yes, you have to pay in this case) in order to avail of the POP3 access.

Fortunately, there is a workaround for this: YPOPs!

YPOPs! is a free open source software that provides POP3 and SMTP access to Yahoo! Mail. You can use your favourite email client, be it Outlook, Thunderbird, or whatever else you like and connect to Yahoo! Mail seamlessly.

YPOPs! is an application that provides POP3 and SMTP access to Yahoo! Mail.

How do we do it you ask? Well, this application is more like a gateway. It provides a POP3 server interface at one end to talk to email clients and an HTTP client (browser) interface at the other which allows it to talk to Yahoo! The same concept holds good for SMTP as well.

I tried installing the program and configured my Microsoft Outlook 2007 to access, receive, and send mails from my Yahoo! account. Receiving mails (via POP3) was a breeze, it downloaded my messages quite well. Unfortunately, sending emails (via SMTP) failed for me.

It appears there was a glitch with SMTP access. Browsing the forums, it seems this problem has been there for quite some time (add to the fact that the forums has been swarmed with spam posts).

So, therefore, in conclusion, if you don’t want to pay for a Yahoo! Mail Plus to enjoy the convenience offered by a POP3 access, get GMail!

Did you know that? You can import mails and contacts from Yahoo! Mail (and other online webmail providers) to GMail for a smooth transition to the latter? You can read more about it here: Importing contacts and mail.

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Expanding WordPress Mu Functionality with Premium Plugins

deuts — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:59:59 +0000

For the longest time, I have been planning to build not just a website for my college organization but also a community where our fellow members can hangout and meet and greet each other while in the world wide web. I find WordPress Mu could most probably deliver at what our requirements for a functional social networking site, especially when coupled with cross login details functionality offered by BbPress and BuddyPress.

With WPMU Dev Premium account, I could possibly enhance further the functionality of the site. With 100 more plugins, themes, videos, etc. at my disposal, the possibilities are limitless. And they are constantly maintained, so you’ll be assured that they work with the latest versions of WordPress Mu, BbPress, and BuddyPress.

My expected members/audience aren’t really into techie stuffs like this. That’s why I expect from time to time questions about “how to do this” kind-a-stuff, that is if they manage to explore the system at all.

The Support System plugin from the WPMU Dev Premium would be helpful in this situation. Users won’t have to leave a support ticket and forget all about it. He/she will receive email notification once the admin/s respond to his/her query, to return to the ticket page and continue with the discussion.

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Create A Custom Font Style Based on Your Own Handwriting

deuts — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:11:41 +0000

If you are like me who’s proud of your own handwriting, no matter how bad it is, or if you’re a person who wants to experiment with the different font faces for letters and numbers, the you may want to create your own font style based on your unique handwriting.

Here’s a screenshot of my handwriting typed in MS Word using the custom font style I named “deuts-print“.

Deuts Print Font Sample (Click image to enlarge)

What you’ll need to create your own font style

Printer;
Pen;
Scanner;
Internet connection;

To start creating your font style, just head over to fontcapture.com, and follow the step-by-step instructions.

To install the new font in a Windows computer, just go to the directory C;\Windows\Fonts then click on File>>Install New Font. This is applicable to both Windows XP and Vista.

What you need to know about your custom fonts

Note that you can use your custom font to print output from any application that uses the Windows installed fonts, like from MS Office applications. If you’re converting into a PDF document, you can also do so using your custom font.

However, if you email or otherwise transfer documents in your custom font, the recipient or the next computer where such documents will be opened won’t display the documents in the new fonts unless they install the same in their machine.

Download the deuts-print font

I wouldn’t expect you to like my custom font, much less my handwriting. But just in case you’re interested for a fresh (but ugly) look, you are welcome to download my font.

Download deuts-print font.

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Symbian Nokia: Enhancing Speed and Performance

deuts — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:42:03 +0000

We have heard and read a lot about optimizing your computer performance and enhance speed in the process. But what about mobile phones? We, in one way or another, do sometimes are affected with lagging phone software processing.

Just like desktop computers, mobile phones do have operating systems (OS) as well. In the high-end Nokia phones, they’re running on Symbian S60. Then there’s Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry OS and iPhone OS to name some of the other OS’s.

And just like in desktop computers, there are tricks as well to optimize your mobile phones’ performance. Smartin enumerated some tips on “How to Speed Up Nokia Phones with Symbian Mobile OS“, namely:

Install firmware update with care
Speed up Nokia phone with software
Remove unnecessary applications
Kill background running and autostart apps
Use default themes

Installing firmware updates is quite obvious. Oftentimes they contain patches to enhance your phone’s perfomance. In other times, they contain additional functionalities to your phone software for better mobile experience.

Removing unnecessary applications may not be applicable to everyone. In my case, I loved tinkering with so many apps available for my S60 powered phone. Some of which are useful that usually adds productivity. Yet, some are crap, which eventually needs cleaning up.

I was never fond of stylized themes available for use or download with my phone. I don’t like customizing the looks of my phone (or even my desktop/laptop for that matter). Some call it boring, but I call it simple. Now this tip is one more reason not to mess with the default theme of my Nokia E51.

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WordPress 2.8 is Here and Upgraded

deuts — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:57:53 +0000

Here I am at it again. Hopping directly into the new WordPress release as soon it hit the mainstream. Unmindful of things that could happen to my blog if something’s not right, or bugs that’ll definitely appear, or any of my plugins could break. I even forgot to deactivate the plugins first before proceeding with the upgrade.

The fact remains, I am a loyal WordPress user. And I loved the innovations introduced throughout the years in this favorite web platform of mine. Nevermind the bloated issue, as long as it’s working. (Just like my attitude towards Ubuntu. Yes, it’s bloated. But it works out of the box.)

Anyway, the new release offers some more enhancements. And I can’t wait to be the first to try those out. Check out the release announcement here, or watch this video:

With the fresh WordPress installed in my shared server with my current webhost, Bluehost, I was expecting faster navigation especially in the backend. I was worried with the previous version that it might not have installed correctly-may have missed some files because of the automatic upgrade I did.

But now, I installed it via FTP, and I’m still experiencing the same slow navigation. It must really be Bluehost that’s the cause of the problem. I think I should shift to another host now.

Any recommendation?

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My Yahoo! Account was Hacked

deuts — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:44:36 +0000

Lately, some friends were complaining about how they were receiving spam messages from my Yahoo! account via Yahoo! Messenger (YM). It was not something new as I myself received some from other friends in my contact list. It then occured to my mind that maybe my account was hacked.

Then, yesterday I couldn’t login to my YM account anymore from my favorite desktop client, Pidgin. It tells me that logging in from the web with the same account may diagnose the problem.

I did today, and guess what? Yes, my account was hacked. And my profile picture was changed to that of a sexy lady.

In the web browser I was prompted to change my password as my account was compromised. I did change my password to the one hackers have no way of guessing anymore, using a combination of alphabets, numbers, and special characters, generated from my favorite password safe manager, Keepass.

To all my contacts, please accept my apology for the inconvenience it may have brought you if you received some spam messages from my account. From now on, I promise you won’t be in contact with those spammers anymore via my Yahoo! account.

To my contacts whose accounts still serve as media for spammers, please change your password now to avoid further inconveniences not only on my part but to your other contacts as well. Please change it to something incognizable.

Did you know that?

The Most Celebrated Video Scandal of 2009

deuts — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:51:38 +0000

Perhaps you reached this page hoping to get maybe even a glimpse of the video I’m talking about. Well I’m sorry to disappoint you but you won’t get to watch any video here nor get any link to the videos.

Anyway, in the recent developments, Dr. Hayden Kho expressed his apology and regret over the whole scandal in an interview by GMA Network. I wonder though, did he regret for recording the video beyond the awareness of his partner or for failure to have discovered beforehand about truecrypt?

TrueCrypt is a software application used for real-time on-the-fly encryption. It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or a device-hosted encrypted volume on either an individual partition or an entire storage device. It supports Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (using FUSE) and encrypted volumes can be made portable. The version for Windows Vista or XP can encrypt the boot partition or entire boot drive and has the ability to create and run a hidden encrypted operating system whose existence is deniable.

You may want to read about my earlier post, “Auditor and Technology; Importance of Data Security“.

Okay, don’t get me wrong. I believe that recording a video of your sexual act beyond the awareness and consent of your partner is plain “retarded-ness” at best (I mean there could be worse descriptions). And failure to secure and encrypt those stupid videos is a grave blunder.

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Dreamhost Shared Hosting Servers: No WordPress Mu

deuts — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:46:16 +0000

Dreamhost could probably be the most popular web hosting company out there right now, with their aggressive marketing campaigns via coupon codes, their unlimited webspace and bandwidth, up-to-date server and program software and hardware, and a whole lot more features they have in the table. Add to that their cheap price.

I availed of their geocities promo lately, and got two years free domain and hosting for free.

But here’s the big turn-off. Just lately a notice was posted here saying:

NOTICE
WordPress MU is not allowed to be run on our shared hosting servers. If you intend on running this under your account, you are required to be on a Private Server.

I loved WordPress Mu. I may not have been successful in building a community out of it in the past (ok, just some several failed attempts) but I would like very much to deploy it to some future ventures/projects. And this is a total letdown for dreamhost. I was initially planning to transfer my sites to them after my webhosting expires with Bluehost.

Note, it is not only the wildcard dns that’s prohibited, now they’re totally banning everyone from installing it (WPMU). The software might have been rocking up their servers.

Is this the consequence of overloading your servers with too many users – that one they call overselling? I wonder.