Recently I got to read Anton Diaz’s post on his top blogging tools. So this got me thinking on what tools I use for blogging.
Let’s take a look at the basics first: hosting and platform.
My webhost is NearlyFreeSpeech.net. I came upon this from one of the LifeHacker posts back in 2007 and have heard great reviews from it. What caught me attention was that you only get billed for what you use. Nowadays I average around 2 USD a month. There’s no cPanel stuff here. Uploading and installing your blogging platform of choice depends on how good you are with using FTP. If you’re even more geeky, NearlyFreeSpeech also has SSH access. I prefer using SSH obviously because it’s more secure. There’s no limit on how many domains you use with your account. The only limit is dictated by your wallet. You can deposit a certain amount into your account and set warnings that are tripped depending on how much is left. For example, I set three warnings on my account for 5.00, 1.00 and 0.10 USD. Every time a warning is tripped, the service sends me an email about it, ensuring me that I don’t end up with a disabled site because I’ve overdrawn my account. There’s no auto debit of credit cards. They don’t save your credit card info at all. Hence the need for such warnings.
I used Wordpress during the early years of this blog. I transferred to Drupal after. Then recently moved back to Wordpress. Wordpress has gotten a lot easier to manage over the years and uses up much less space than Drupal. Also, it’s much easier to make a mobile version of my blog on Wordpress. Cost: FREE.
Now that I have the basics covered, there’s a few more “accessories” that I use as well.
The one thing I don’t like is editing stuff online. There’s that problem of your connection suddenly dropping resulting in lost posts that send you screaming like you just lost your winning lotto ticket. Many of us have gone through that. So for offline writing, I use Windows Live Writer on my computer. It’s the most complete offline blog editor I’ve used. Whatever I can do when editing posts on Wordpress I can do in Live Writer as well. You can set categories, tags, and publication dates for the different posts you write. The software also supports posting the same article to mulitple blogs on multiple platforms. That said, it still isn’t perfect. So after uploading my pre-scheduled posts, I go to my website to do some last minute fine tuning. Cost: FREE.
For graphics, I search through Creative Commons for stuff I may need. I also make use of my four-year-old Olympus E-500 DSLR and my T-Mobile G1 Android phone for other photos. Though hopefully soon I’ll get a much better point-and-shoot camera to use when I don’t have my DSLR around. When using the DSLR, I regularly shoot in RAW simply because I don’t want to think about white balance when I shoot. To process them, I use UFRaw and The GIMP. Both software are free and open source. My Epson CX5900’s scanner is used to capture drawings, book covers and other such scannable stuff. I don’t use Flickr and Picasa that much. I used to watermark my photos, but nowadays I don’t go through that anymore. Instead, for times when I show off a series of photos that are “pirate”-worthy, I create a slideshow presentation and upload this to SlideShare. Thanks to my photography mentor Jo Avila for giving me that idea.
You can greatly improve your reputation as a photographer by not putting your watermark on your images.
- Jo Avila
My T-Mobile G1 Android phone has a Wordpress app installed. I normally use this when checking for comments made on my blog while I’m on the road. Otherwise, I use it to write blog post ideas using Snaptic’s 3Banana app. I write my idea there then when I get home I just access Snaptic’s website and copy-paste it onto Live Writer to develop the post more. I also use the Neo Basic B1230 netbook I won from a raffle earlier this year. The netbook is my second most constant companion when on the road. Otherwise, my G1 is enough to get me by.
I rarely do video. When I do, I use my sister’s Sony HDD HandyCam (DCR-SR47). I convert the video to AVI using WinFF (free, open source, multi-platform) before I do some simple editing using VirtualDub (free, open source, windows). I use WinFF again to convert it to something even smaller before uploading to YouTube or something similar.
When all else fails, I have my non-electronic tools to help me along. A small notebook, my leadholder and my fountain pens do me just as fine in keeping tabs with my blog ideas.
Tags: drupal, free, linux, mac, open source, software, tips, tools, windows, wordpress
Google will once again be going around the world to give you a day of product talks, coding, demos, and fun fun fun!
This year, the DevFests will be happening at cities in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, Israel, and Spain. This is a time where people get to learn more about Google technologies and products. It’s also a time for networking. To meet other developers and engineers. While all DevFests are free, the slots are limited according to the venue. So people are encouraged to register early. Schedules and registration for the DevFests in various countries are available on their website (http://code.google.com/events/devfests/2010).
Here in Manila, Philippines, the Google DevFest happens on July 6, 2010 from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (GMT +8). Among the topics that will be discussed are Chrome/HTML5, App Engine, Social APIs and Maps API. Five developers and engineers from Google will be on hand to discuss these topics at length throughout the whole day. From experience, DevFests are very informative and a whole lot of fun! Though this year I have to be ready with my camera and/or my sister’s camcorder.
I love going to second-hand bookstores. Specially those places which sell really old books. It’s in these places that one would find gems. Like a very old cookbook.
While second-hand seller BookSale can be found everywhere I go here in Metro Manila, it’s very seldom that I find a nice old book on their shelves. I much rather love the lesser known sellers. Those mom-and-pop, just one branch shops are the ones I’d rather go to for old books. Like Pick a Book in Robinson’s Metro East Cainta. So far I’ve found old cookbooks there that have struck my fancy. Very cheap and yet in such good condition.
Take for example this first edition of the Moosewood Cookbook.
Moosewood Cookbook (1977) -- At long last I have you!
I first came across this while looking through Heidi Swanson’s recipe journal, 101 Cookbooks. I was looking for brownie recipes and she mentioned the book. The way she described this award-winning vegetarian publication made me wish I had a copy of it. I never thought that a couple of years later I would find a first edition copy of this book near the supermarket. I was ecstatic! At 100 pesos (2 USD), I immediately grabbed the book without a second thought.
Recently I visited the shop again and found two more old cookbooks. One is the first volume of The Best of Bon Appetit (1975) and another is Better Homes & Gardens Meals in Minutes (1963). Total price: 80 pesos (1.70 USD).
I love these old cookbooks. Looking at old recipes lets me realize how making like Potatoes Au Gratin could change through the years. And for some reason, the flavors from an older version seem much more delicious than the newer versions. Then again, perhaps it’s just me.
Tags: books
Huawei E220 HSDPA modem courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
I inherited a Huawei USB HSDPA modem last year. Since it was locked to a specific telecommunications company, I checked to see if I can have it unlocked. Apparently, for most Huawei modems, you can.
When my best friend bought his new netbook last year, it came with a free Huawei USB HSDPA modem. Since he didn’t feel the need for it last year, he decided to give it to me. The modem was locked to a local telecommunications company. Since I wanted freedom to choose what telco to use when connecting to the internet, I checked to see if I can have the modem unlocked.
Turns out that it’s possible to unlock most Huawei modems. In Metro Manila, we have a go-to gadget place called V-Mall Greenhills. This is where one would usually head off to when in need of sales and services for their computer and mobile needs. I read from somewhere on the net that the usual price for unlocking the USB modem in V-Mall is anywhere between 300 pesos (approx. 6.50 USD) to 450 pesos (approx. 10 USD). A bit expensive. So I checked out Sulit.com.ph, an online advertising site. Turns out there’s a LOT of people offering to unlock USB modems at a much lower price than in V-Mall. This particular provider stood out for me. Mainly because he took the time to clearly explain how the unlocking process is done.
From my experience, my unlocking procedure began with a simple text to the unlocker provider. I gave him the model number and IMEI code of my modem. He then attempted to generate the unlock code for the modem. If it didn’t work, I don’t pay a thing. But it did work. So the provider sent me details on how to send the payment. Payment was as simple as sending load to a particular number. Once that’s done, he sent me the unlock code. To complete the unlocking procedure, I insert a SIM card from a different telco into my modem. I plugged the modem into the USB port of my computer and ran the modem’s dialer software. The software then asked for the unlock code which I type in. VOILA! I have an unlocked modem!
Was it worth it? Yes. Now I’m able to choose which telco to use to connect to the web, depending on how good their signal is from wherever I may be.
The dialer with the different telco settings
Of course, to use said telcos’ SIMs, I had to enter their connection details in the dialer.
Click on Tools » Options... to enter the settings of your desired telco.
Create the new telco profiles under Profile Management.
If you’re in the Philippines and would like to know the settings I used for Globe Broadband (postpaid and prepaid), SmartBro (prepaid), Smart Buddy and Sun Broadband (prepaid), just use the contact form on this blog and ask.
REMINDER: Some Huawei USB modems may not be unlockable. In particular, the Huawei E1552 Redbox versions can’t be unlocked. To check, just insert a SIM from a different telco into your modem, plug it in to your computer and run the dialer software. If it doesn’t ask for an unlock code, then your modem can’t be unlocked.
Special thanks to Bobby Timonera for giving me the idea to write about this. 
Back in May 06, 2005, Sacha Chua sent and two others an email about Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Sacha came across BHAGs in another of her friend’s blog. I still remember what her BHAGs were.
from Sacha Chua:
- Revolutionize computer science education by making it highly individualized and experiential.
- Become a world-famous expert on software support for lifeplanning. Instead of pushing a particular methodology, I’d like to work with people’s current ways of planning, suggesting better software/hardware support and passing on useful tips. =)
She had asked about our own BHAGs. I posted my answer in one of the old versions of the TGS blog. Thanks to the WebArchive, I was able to retrieve the original post.
Originally posted October 4, 2005.
I was introduced to the wonderful world of computers in 1983 when my dad bought a Commodore Vic 20. He was an air-conditioning engineer and as part of his work, he had experienced setting up the AC for several companies’ server rooms. He figured that by the time I got into college the computer will be a big part of everyone’s life. Thus the Vic 20. Coupled with that, my dad decided to enroll me in a Summer Computer Camp at the (then) University of Life, Pasig. (It’s home to the Department of Education nowadays.) I’ve come a long way from using Apple BASIC. Though the fun I had that time being able to make line drawings and animation with a few lines of code really made a huge impact on me.
So, what’s my BHAG? I’d like to set up the same summer camp. For kids. For free. I’d like to see this project grow to a point where every summer kids from 7 to 17 will be exposed to computers and programming. Most of all, I’d like to target this for out-of-school youths and public school kids.
I thought it would be impossible since MS Windows licenses are a bit on the expensive side while Linux might be too complicated for newbies. Then comes Edubuntu, the Ubuntu version that’s made for educational facilities. It has a LOT of promise really! I’m beginning to think that such a plan could finally be possible!
I still am hoping this particular goal would come true someday. Nowadays, I’m trying to make some other goals come true. Hopefully most will come to pass before this year is over. I can’t divulge yet what these goals are. But I will definitely be sharing these goals as time passes.
Tags: goals
This post was originally published on February 4, 2008.
There’s so much material on the internet that can be used in Philippine schools. So, how come the students feel short-changed with their education? Perhaps, it’s not the students that are wholly to blame for their lackluster performance.
A few days ago, Rom Feria asked why available online material isn’t being used in elementary and high schools.
One of the replies I have received was that the materials still need to be “watered-down” before it is used, meaning a Grade 8 courseware will have to be revised for Filipino 3rd year high school students! This just means that materials used by schools overseas cannot be used outright in the country. There is no one-to-one grade equivalence — grade 5 materials in the Philippines maps to grade 3/4 overseas!
Rom continues by posing the question, "What is the difference between a Filipino 10 year old and an American/British/Canadian/<insert your favorite nationality here> 10 year old in terms of his/her ability to learn?"
Sabrina comments how Filipino teachers still don’t know how to make full use of the internet, let alone how to use it at all. It may well be true. Many teachers, even here in Metro Manila and in private colleges for that matter, don’t really know how to take advantage of online material. Although I don’t quite agree with this particular quote.
About the learning materials in the internet, yes, they are abundant. However, not all resources are applicable to Filipino children because of the “western” approach. Meaning, some of the ‘terms’ or ‘ideas’ used are not in the circle of experiences of a typical Filipino child. Thus, children cannot relate well with these activities. What I think we lack are local resources (of activities, worksheets, lesson plans) for teachers that can be used for or applied in their classrooms.
What terms and ideas are these that can’t be applied to the typical Filipino child? Are there things in the languages, sciences and arts that aren’t applicable to Philippine education? I don’t think so. If it’s how the child is supposed to understand that material, isn’t that why we have teachers and parents? The reminds me of a presentation last year on iBlog3. Here is an educator who teaches her students how to make the most of the internet. She even uses the internet as a tool to pique the curiosity of students. She teaches them how to separate the fact from the fiction and avoid information overload. She teachers the parents as well. She invites students and their parents to visit her blog and make use of yahoogroups. And this is PRE-SCHOOL and PRIMARY ELEMENTARY GRADE LEARNING!
I do agree with Joel. The educators are the one’s limiting a child’s development. But when we talk about educators, we’re not only talking about teachers. The parents are also educators. I would have never learned about computers if it weren’t for my dad’s foresight of buying me a Commodore Vic 20 when I was eight years old. I knew about David Attenborough at the age of four since my dad always called me whenever the naturalist’s shows were being aired on television.
It’s not a matter of every student having their own computer. But I think it’s more important right now for our educators to not only have access to the abundance of material on the web, but how to navigate through the information. Rom had once mentioned that teachers are responsible for upgrading their own skills. But there are teachers who are dead-set in their own old ways thinking that they’re so good already. (Believe me, I have an aunt who thinks like that. I indeed pity her students.) There are teachers who would like to uphold the status quo by making sure no teacher is better than them. There are teachers who don’t really know where to start. Finally, there are teachers who really do give a damn about their mission to equip their students with the knowledge needed to survive this dog-eat-dog world.
Granted that not all public schools in the Philippines have the luxury of an internet connection, I still believe that there may still be some way to upgrade the skills of teachers in remote areas who really do give a damn. It’s just a matter of bringing online material to these people. Even if you have to print these out from the web and courier it to the schools.
Adopt a school, anyone?
UPDATE June 21, 2010: There were a couple of comments from the old blog that I want to post here for posterity.
Submitted by Greg Moreno on Tue, 02/05/2008 – 23:06.
I think when people say "some of the ‘terms’ or ‘ideas’ used are not in the circle of experiences of a typical Filipino child" it is not meant to "downgrade" Pinoy’s ability to learn or because it is not applicable to Philippine education. For example, a common style is to use fruits when teaching kids to count. Now, would you use mango or cranberry? If you’re writing a story about playing with friends, would you show kids playing in a snow?
Yes, counting numbers, or teaching kids to be friendly are universal concepts. It is the context that sometimes require adjustments. This is why we can’t just take educational materials abroad and use it.
Of course, if we are teaching biology we should introduce kids to fruits beyond what we see in palengkes, or if we are talking about weather patterns we should tell children that in other places of the world, there is snow.
Time for shameless plug
I hope you join us in the “Bayanihan Books” project. We want to solve our textbook shortage and quality problems.
Submitted by Dominique on Tue, 02/05/2008 – 09:01.
What’s missing in many Filipino students is the facility for critical thinking. This is what I see in the undergrad courses I’m sitting in. Everything centers on the accumulation of facts without any interconnection. They focus on "What", "When", and "Where" but not on "Why" and "How." And they fail to ask the truly probing questions.
This post was originally published on March 21, 2008.
I downloaded the latest release of VMWare Server 1.0 and found myself looking at the installation screen for about one second before it disappeared. I ran the installer several times and thought perhaps I got a corrupt copy. So I deleted the file and downloaded a new copy. At the same time I downloaded VMWare 2.0 Beta as well. After a long wait, I got both copies. Yet both copies still didn’t want to install. It was weird for me since I never had trouble installing VMWare.
Apparently several people had the same trouble I was going through. One solution was to kill the FixCamera.exe process. After doing that, my VMWare installation ran flawlessly. The difference between my former installation of XP and the new installation was that I recently bought a web camera for my laptop. Seems like that process is causing a lot of problems with other applications that used to run as well. Killing FixCamera.exe doesn’t affect the performance of my web camera though.
Right. Now off to download gOS.
This post was originally published on May 28, 2009.
Logitech Quickcam Messenger
I tried to get the Logitech Quickcam Messenger to work first. A few clicks led me to qc-usb, a Linux driver for Quickcam USB cameras. As it turns out though, this driver doesn’t support my particular webcam model. But it did tell me that there was another driver that could possibly work with my webcam. The Quickcam Messenger and Communicate driver for Linux was said to be tested with Ubuntu Feisty (7.04). I’m using Ubuntu Hardy (8.04 LTS) with the latest kernel. No harm in trying. So I downloaded the latest build, made sure that I had all the requirements the instructions stated, compiled as per instructions and tried out the camera. Yes! It worked! But I didn’t like how it took video. Apparently, I wasn’t alone. The camera doesn’t do well in dim lighting and tends to take “white” shots.
Yahoo PC Camera ZIV H4 (398)
I decided to see now if I could make my cheaper but newer second webcam to work. The brand name of this is “Yahoo PC Camera ZIV H4 (398)” which I bought at CD-R King. I actually like this webcam better than the Logitech because of the four LEDs on it that light up when the ambient light is too dim.
Doing a quick “lsusb” allowed me to see that it’s a Microdia webcam. A bit harder to find drivers for since it’s an “unbranded” camera. But nevertheless, a few clicks and I found a solution! The Microdia driveris still in its experimental stage, so use it with caution. Again, installation is pretty much straightforward. Download the drivers, make sure you have all the requirements before attempting to compile and install as per instructions. I did a slight change on my end though.
After building the Microdia driver, I did the following commands.
$ sudo modprobe videodev
$ sudo modprobe compat-ioctl32
Then proceeded to load the driver.
$ sudo insmod sn9c20x.ko
I did a “dmesg” to see if the camera successfully loaded. When it didn’t, I reinstalled the kernel with
$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-`uname -r`
I then deleted my previous build of the driver and rebuilt it. Did the modprobe and insmod commands and successfully got my webcam to run!
Things to remember:
- Both cameras worked well with oDesk’s linux application.
- Only the Microdia camera worked with Skype. Skype didn’t recognize the Logitech camera.
Are you a student looking for something to do during your vacation? Perhaps you just need some extra cash. Whatever your reason, you may want to look at OpenOffice.org’s offer. It could mean 3,500 EUR (over 4,000 USD) for you!
OpenOffice.org (OOo) is well-known as the free open source equivalent of MS Office. Recently they launched their student internship for summer 2010. Students first have to submit a project proposal. Possible projects can be found on the OOo wiki, mainly on the proposal, to-do and education project pages. It’s also possible to propose a completely new project. They may contact one of the developers via OOo’s IRC channel or email one of the members of the Supervisory team for inspiration, suggestions or advice about a new project. Aside from the proposal, an assigned mentor will ask the student to build the OOo application on the platform of choice as well as other needed tasks. This is to ensure that the student is capable of developing the program. If the student passes the mentor’s requirements, the project gets listed on the OOo wiki.
Student-developers from any country are invited to join provided that they can work full-time on their project for 3 months. Every accepted student intern will be assigned a mentor. The mentor is also in charge of give mid-term and final evaluations on the progress of the project. Each student intern gets a chance to earn 3,500 EUR (4,000+ USD). That means: 500 EUR (600+ USD) will be given once the project is accepted and starts; 1,500 EUR (1,800+ USD) if the mid-term evaluation shows good progress; and another 1,500 EUR (1,800+ USD) if the project was successfully completed at the end of the term.
Acceptance of proposals started last May 31, 2010 and will continue until June 30, 2010. Work starts on July 1, 2010 and ends on October 31, 2010. For more information, visit OOo’s wiki page on the Summer 2010 Internship.
Tags: internship, open source, summer of code
This post was originally published on July 4, 2009.
There are a lot of online storage providers nowadays. All of them taking advantage of cloud computing. I first started off with Dropbox and I’ve yet to try out Box.net. Sometime in May 2009 I signed up for yet another online storage provider. Ubuntu One is similar to dropbox. It offers free 2GB of space just like Dropbox. They also offer a paid plan of 20GB for a monthly fee of US$10. A tad more pricey than Dropbox’s 50GB for US$9.99/month. So, why pay more for the same thing? Well, it isn’t the same thing.
Ubuntu One’s paid service allows you to help fund the future developments of Ubuntu. It’s like a help-me-help-you kinda thing. Also, the people in Ubuntu plan to integrate this into the operating system’s applications so application-specific information can also be backed up, stored and retrieved from other computers.
The whole thing is still on beta mode and I just recently got the invite to open an account. Installation procedures are pretty much straightforward and easy. Until I hit the roadblock. Step 4 requires you to add your computer. The thing is, clicking on the Ubuntu One application does absolutely nothing. No panel icon. No Ubuntu One website. Nothing. So I file a bug. Here’s where the beauty comes in. Anyone can file a bug. And usually you get some sort of response within a few hours. I got my response. Apparently the bug has already been reported before. And some people have found the solution to the problem.
First, open up the terminal and install the following.
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-client ubuntuone-client-tools
After installation has finished, kill the ubuntuone-client-applet (just in case it’s running)
$ killall ubuntuone-client-applet
Then run it again by clicking on Applications » Internet » Ubuntu One to start the process. Wait a bit. Takes a while for the website to come up. If it doesn’t after a few minutes, go back to the terminal, kill the applet again, then type the following.
$ ubuntuone-client-applet --signup
That should work. After you’ve added your computer to Ubuntu One, kill the Ubuntu One applet once more then run it normally from Ubuntu’s menu. You should be able to see the icon on the panel now. If the panel icon has a red cross on it, then just right click on it and click on Connect. You should be good to go from there!
