The Four-eyed Journal

How to setup Globelines Dial-up Connection

jhay — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:53:09 +0000

Yesterday there was no electricity in our neighborhood because of routine maintenance on the local power lines. It’s a good thing that Meralco is taking active steps in preparing for more typhoons this year.

Nonetheless, this necessary inconvenience almost drove me nuts because I needed to send an email yesterday morning and I wanted to send it before going to school. My sister asked me why not bring my laptop to school and use the internet connection there instead? A good idea but I had no plans of bringing my laptop to school yesterday because there was really no need for it. Besides, the rainy weather increases the risk of something bad happening to my laptop during my trip to and from school.

So with my broadband modem and wi-fi router dead because of the power block out, I thought it was a good idea to try out Globelines’ dial-up service that now comes with most Globelines post-paid subscriptions. I didn’t plan on doing my usual web surfing routines because it’s a dial-up service and I was really not sure if the whole thing would work. It’s Globelines after all.

I called up their Internet Technical support group via the Globelines customer support number and asked for instructions on how to set-up and configure the dialer for their dial-up service. The procedure is the same as with using the most dial-up internet prepaid cards like those from Pacific Internet etc.

Just open up the New Connecion Wizard from Control Panel > Network Connections and follow this steps:

Connect to the Internet
Setup my connection manually
Connect using a dial-up modem
Choose your dial-up modem (if you have more than one installed on your PC)
Enter “GLOBE” as your ISP name
Enter “18009080000” as the phone number
Enter “globe” as the username
Leave the password blank because you don’t need one
You could choose to place a shortcut on the desktop for this connection or not
Hit Finish and then you’re ready to use Globelines Dial-up service

To illustrate, here’s a screencast I’ve prepared to guide you:

Once you’ve successfully connected, you’ll be charged Php0.33 cents per minute. Assuming that you do get connected because I was not able to. Globelines’ dial-up servers were busy yesterday I gave up after my 5th attempt to connect.

So much for a backup connection when your Globelines Broadband is unavailable right? For those who were managed to get connected, how are the speeds? Care to share your story?

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Now powered by WordPress 2.6 Tyner

jhay — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:00:37 +0000

This is one the smoothest and fastest WordPress upgrades I’ve ever made in my two years of using this awesome blogging software. Now this blog is powered by its latest version, WordPress 2.6 and it is named in honor of “Tyner,” named for jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, which according to the WP team 194 bug fixes and over a two dozens of new features.

This video tutorial below provides a nice glimpse about these awesome new features of WordPress 2.6:

It has loads of cool new features and among my favorites is the new way plugins are managed. It now has separate sections for active and non-active plugins, keeps track of your most recently used plugins and best of all, the ability to activate and de-activate plugins by groups.

I’ve yet to try whether the new image caption feature would work right away with the Lightbox 2 plugin and perhaps tomorrow I’ll finally give the built-in support for Gears a spin and see what it can offer me.

So far, all of my existing plugins are working with WordPress 2.6 and I’m confident the upgrade for the others would be smooth as well. Grab your copy of WordPress 2.6 here.

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Bloggers’ first hands-on of poll automation

jhay — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:00:44 +0000

As a blogger or Filipino are you concerned about our democracy and the future of our country especially now that 2010 Presidential elections are just around the corner?

If so, Bloggers’ Kapihan is inviting you to an event that will be a step in the positive direction:

What: Bloggers’ briefing on poll automation

When: July 19, Saturday, 1:00pm - 3:30pm

Where: COMELEC Automated Electoral System Information Office, ground floor, Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. Intramuros, Manila (near Manila Cathedral)

The Commission on Elections will give a special briefing on poll automation to 20+ bloggers on July 19.

COMELEC and its technology suppliers will conduct actual trainings on the usage of electronic voting machines and automated counting machines. Video presentations and tutorials will also be shown. The voting machines will be used in the ARMM elections next month.

The briefing will also be an opportunity to hear the feedback of voters and bloggers about the poll automation program of Comelec.

Program

1:00 Opening remarks - Mr. James Jimenez, Comelec Spokesperson

1:05 Comelec presentation

2:40 Reaction from Bloggers’ Kapihan

2:45 Open Forum

Due to limited seat, we urge the interested participants to send an email to mongpalatino[at]gmail[dot]com.

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Just registered for WordCamp Philippines 08, Have you?

jhay — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:42:14 +0000

2008 seems to one of the most awesome years in history, well Philippine contemporary history that is. First it’s the first decade after the centennial anniversary of our Independence, this is the year that Manny Pacquiao won his 4th boxing title and re-wrote pages of boxing history, this is the year of RedHorse Muziklaban 10 and the long-awaited Eraserheads reunion concert on August 30, and come a month after that, WordCamp Philippines 2008 will take place in September 6, 2008 at the College of St. Benilde.

I’ve said this before, 2008 is simply asteeg!!!

Just a few minutes ago, I registered as a participant to the first ever WordCamp event here in the Philippines, the biggest gathering of WordPressers here in the country and I’m sure many Filipino WordPressers will join as well. There’s little doubt that WordPress users, enthusiasts, developers and others from our neighbors in South East Asia will also attend the event.

WordCamp Philippines wouldn’t be possible if were not for this awesome folks, the Mindanao Bloggers. Joining them in making this a reality are the cool sponsors:

Are you a WordPress user? Would you be in the Philippines come September 2008? Then I suggest you join the hundreds of WordPressers in WordCamp Philippines 2008. You can do so by registering at the WordCamp Philippines site and spreading the awesome WordPress news!

See you in September!

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Kyolo - Add speech bubbles to your photos

jhay — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:37:12 +0000

Every time I need to edit a photo for a blog post like adding speech bubbles, Photoshop needs to be fired up. This takes up considerable amount of time and system resources especially when ideas are so fragile during “eureka!” moments or when my notebook is already running 5+ windows of Firefox each having a minimum of 8 tabs open, the entire pre-editing process nearly kills the creative flow.

Sure there are other image editors out there which are far lighter and easier to use than Photoshop but wouldn’t it be nice to have one that doesn’t require any piece of software to be installed on your machine and just be used with a web browser instead?

Enter Kyolo, a web 2.0 site where anyone can freely upload the image of their choice and simply put in their speech bubbles as easy as putting on some underwear.

Speech bubbles could be re-sized, changed its style and placed anywhere in the image. The same goes the fonts you’d use in your speech bubble. Once you’re satisfied with your creation click outside the image and your photo is done! You also have the option of saving the save the image on Kyolo and you’d be offered direct ways to email it to your friends to brighten their days.

Kyolo is also a social-networking site where users can open an account and store their creations in private or public photos for the whole world to share and enjoy. We just to make sure we own or we have the rights to use and edit the images of our choosing, otherwise things wouldn’t be so rosy afterward.

Over-all, bloggers and editors who love spicing up their posts or commentaries with images of their fave or subject politician or pet would love Kyolo. Let’s start bubbling away!

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