Monday, October 30, 2006

Internet speedup

HAVE you ever had to stare too long at a message that says “Looking up http://www.mywebsite.com...” on the status bar of your browser while waiting for a page to load? The browser eventually gives up and spits out an error message. You’ve already shelled out a small fortune for your digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, so what gives? If this sounds familiar, there’s a quick fix that will most likely speed up your browsing and protect you from some Internet scams to boot. It will work whether you’re on a DSL or a dial-up connection and whether you’re on Windows, Mac OS, Unix or Linux. And the best part is, it’s free. The solution is called OpenDNS and here’s how it works.

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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Simple image browser

A simple yet useful Linux image browser, gThumb

FOR the longest time, ACDSee was my favorite Windows-based image browser. It was easy to use; it was like File Manager, but allowed me to view graphic files, too. Later, when I started using a Mac, I looked for a similar program because I just didn’t like the idea of having to import my photos into another album or folder just to view them like iPhoto wanted me to do. Why not just view them where they were? After all, I had already organized them reasonably well on my hard disk. Why make a second copy of them? 

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Monday, October 23, 2006

DOS daze

Wordstar 4 running on a Mac iBook

MANY young computer users who grew up using Windows never experienced DOS or character-based computing. In 2001, when Bill Gates launched Windows XP, he also declared the end of the DOS era. Unlike all earlier versions of Windows, XP would no longer have DOS running underneath. Still, old habits die hard, and a surprising number of people still run DOS applications even today. 

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House Bill 5769

A spectre is haunting the global software giants – the spectre of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). Thus begins the explanatory note of the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act of 2006, filed by Rep. Teddy Casiño as House Bill 5769. A copy of the bill is available here.

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Monday, October 16, 2006

Online office suite

Early morning on Magsaysay Drive, Olongapo City

OLONGAPO CITY—There’s a mardi gras celebration just outside on Magsaysay Drive tonight and I didn’t want to lug my notebook around, so I ducked into an Internet cafe and wrote this column using an online word processor. I immediately thought of using Writely, a cool Web-based word processor that I wrote about last January, but was surprised to find that it had been transformed into Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This isn’t exactly the catchiest of names, but at least it leaves little doubt about what the site does. Does this bring Google a step closer to creating a Google Office to rival Microsoft Office? Could be. But I found Zoho has beaten Google to the punch.

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Monday, October 09, 2006

Why does Apple mistrust Asia?

Dear Steve,

Maybe you can explain something to me, because your folks here in Asia sure can’t.

Every time somebody asks them why the iTunes Store won’t sell songs or movies to consumers in Asia, all we hear are vague and mumbled remarks about “the issues that still need to be resolved.” This is invariably followed by another sentence saying they are not authorized to say more.

Here is what your marketing director for Asia told the Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong when you launched your movie service in the United States in September.
“We cannot comment on the specifics but it is true that iTunes is not available in Asia. That goes for music and movies.”

Is that any way to talk to your customers?

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Monday, October 02, 2006

Birthday bash

“I can write that you’re looking prosperous,” I told Gerry Kaimo, who turned 50 over the weekend.
He blurted an expletive. “That’s all I need!” he said. “I’ll have creditors lined up around the block!”
A few months after settling his six-year trademark suit with the giant phone company, Kaimo looked relaxed as he welcomed guests to his birthday bash at the Casa Armas in the Podium. A few of his friends from the technology industry kidded him about the sizable settlement everyone assumed he received. Outside of a few jokes, however, Gerry was mum about the deal he reached with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), which sued him in 1999 over the PLDT.com domain name.
Although few people will remember it today, Kaimo had used the PLDT.com site to attack the phone company’s policies, and to rally support against its plan to meter all local phone calls, a move that would have driven up the cost of dial-up Internet.

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Sunday, October 01, 2006

Stop spamming this blog

PERHAPS it’s a sign that this blog has arrived. In the last few days, I’ve been getting my fair share of comment spam. These scumbags think they can post their spam messages on my Web site as a way of driving traffic to theirs. Sometimes, they even start their spam with what looks like a legitimate comment. “Great site!” then their URL. Very funny. Listen up, creeps. Comments are moderated, okay? So there’s no chance in hell that your dumb commercial messages will ever make it into this Web site. So why don’t you morons just save all of us some time and trouble? Don’t post your spam here; it will never get through.

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