Month: March 2009

General

ISO Recorder

By on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I needed to make backup copies of some CDs. They are bootable CDs so I couldn’t just copy the contents. Unfortunately, I don’t have those fancy disk burning utilities. Not would I want to use those complex monsters. So what I did is download ISO Recorder.

ISO Recorder is a shell extension for Windows XP, 2003 and Windows Vista, that allows you to burn CD and DVD images (Vista), copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs and create ISO disk images from the contents of a folder. It’s a simple, no-frills tool that just works. Best of all, it’s free (for non-commercial use).

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General

Heroes Rebooted

By on Thursday, March 26, 2009

I just watching the latest episode of Heroes when it came to me why it is different. My sister had mentioned that the new “rebooted” season is somehow different from the previous season. That was the season when there was so much lovey-dovey going on and everything was shiny and happy (Sylar was goody-goody, wth!!!).

After the reboot, I realized that the series has made a twist to the dark: people are dying, things are turned upsaide down, everything seems bleak and hopeless, and Sylar is oozing pure evil. Much better, definitely much better.

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General

2009 March 21 to 22 Putipot, Zambales

By on Monday, March 23, 2009

Last week, in what has become an annual pilgrimage, I went to Putipot again. Criso mentioned that she and some of her officemates are planning a trip to Putipot.  She invited Michelle and I. Coincidentally, I’ve promised Michelle to take her there and I figured it would be a good time since I prefer to go there in a group. We decided to go and I invited a bunch of people. But eventually only Ralph and his girlfriend Tiff committed.

Early Saturday, Michelle and I met up with them at a Shell gas station on the the northbound side of NLEX. After a quick breakfast and Chow King and purchasing some supplies at Shell select, we went on our way.

Our route took us all the way to the tip of NLEX, SCTEX all the way to Subic, then through the various towns of Zambales. We made a quick stop at San Antonio for a visit to the pamilihang bayan or town market. It was a pretty long trip, almost 7 hours and at one point I got a bit lost and had to rely on Google Maps on my phone to make  sure we’re on the right track.

But eventually we got to Uacon, Candelaria, Zambales. For a change, I decided to park at Dawal Beach Resort instead of my usual Isla Vista Beach Resort. I was irritated by the unfriendly staff of the latter when Michelle called them up for directions. It turned out that Dawal is actually much better, not just in facilities but also in friendliness. Everything was a snap and in no time at all, we’re put-putting on a boat to Putipot.

The island was almost as great as it was as before though the crowd seems to be thicker . But there were some welcome changes. Gone are  the fugly Globe tents of the previous year and the island seems to be cleaner with some trash bags and cans in strategic locations. In their place are huts which, fortunately, are made of native material so it wasn’t so bad.

Of course we were prepared with tents so we foregoed the huts and set up our tents. After swimming, we cooked then ate dinner of grilled liempo and tuna. This was followed by tequila. I was tired so the tequila got to me pretty quick and I was off to an early sleep. I didn’t even get to see the stars at midnight and the sunrise at dawn :(

The next day, we went swimming again, packed most of the stuff up then cooked and ate grilled chicken for lunch. We then completed our packing, called for our boat, put-putted back to Dawal, washed up, and soon we were on our way back. It was much faster going, 5 hours, and we got home in time for dinner.

Not a bad start to the summer!

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General

Top S60 Applications: My Own List

By on Thursday, March 19, 2009

Aside from the enhanced calculator, I’ve installed a few really cool apps on my Nokia E51 that some might find useful:

  1. Joikuspot Light – Turns your phone into a wireless router and share your HSDPA signal (if you get one).  It’s free but supports only browsing (HTTP and HTTPS). The full version version offers more features.
  2. Opera Mini – A pretty nifty mobile browser. It uses a gateway that retrieves web pages for you, transforms it into a smaller mobile version, and sends the transformed pages to you. I prefer the built-in browser but Opera Mini has its place (like when your connection is slow).
  3. Fring – reach out and talk to your friend via you can interact with friends on all your favourite social networks Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM, and more!
  4. YouTube – Watch YouTube videos on your mobile phone. You need a fast network connection though.
  5. Google Maps – Turns your phone into a navigation device complete with map. It even shows your location with GPS or without (via cell site)! How cool is that?
  6. Google Mail – You can configure your email to check Google Mail via POP or IMAP but you can also download this app for checking your Gmail account on your phone.
  7. Google Sync – strictly speaking, not an app but this service allows you to synchronize your phone (just contacts for now) via SyncML
  8. GooSync – since Google Sync doesn’t handle calendar synchronization just yet, GooSync steps in between your phone and Google Calendar to provide you synchronization via SyncML.
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General

Enhanced Calculator For S60 Phones

By on Sunday, March 15, 2009

One of the irritating things about my new Nokia E51 is that the calculator is so damn crude! The calculator from my recently-departed 5310 is so much better. And to think it’s an S40 not-so-smartphone. Thankfully, Nokia is aware of the issues and has actually been working on a replacement calculator. It’s still in beta but you can already download and install it. Way better.

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