Make Graphics from Your Mouse Activity

I've been reading on the lifehacker website and I see this cool thing that can record your mouse activity over your specified time frame.

IOGraph make this task possible. To download, go to http://iographica.com/ and run on your machine :)

Piso Fare Again at Cebu Pacific

June 10, 2010 , Manila: Cebu Pacific announced that they have, again, their very popular Piso fare sale in all Domestic locations via twitter.

Google is now Caffeinated

Form the official blog of Google:

Today, we're announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it's the largest collection of web content we've offered. Whether it's a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.

Some background for those of you who don't build search engines for a living like us: when you search Google, you're not searching the live web. Instead you're searching Google's index of the web which, like the list in the back of a book, helps you pinpoint exactly the information you need.

So why did we build a new search indexing system? Content on the web is blossoming. It's growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex. In addition, people's expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.

To keep up with the evolution of the web and to meet rising user expectations, we've built Caffeine. The image below illustrates how our old indexing system worked compared to Caffeine:

Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

We've built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it's a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you. So stay tuned, and look for more improvements in the months to come.

In my own place

Last month, my aunt told us that there will be a housing project in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. My mom and I see the location, but, still it doesn't have any houses built but a desert -like place haha.

Anyways, the locations is under construction. A lot of tucks and workers. They're building the walls and perimeter first and then the gates then soon the houses.

Last day we take the opportunity to have one, knowing that the amount was too small these days. We go to the office and availed one, though we didn't pay it by cash, instead, a 30 years to pay loan thru PAG-IBIG. This is OK since my salary will never stop on this level and I think that we will complete this loan before or earlier than 30 years. Imagine, I'm 23. After I completed the house payments, I'm 53 haha.

I can't wait to move-in to my new crib. A lucky 7 house :) It's Block 7 lot 17, registerd on the 7th day of June :)

Google Got Background!

Just noticed that Google got background. Just click the "Change Background Image" on the bottom-left corner of the Google hompage and you'll be directed to a selection of backgrounds. Be sure to login your google account first to be able to set your background preferences. Enjoy!

Excited for Cebu Trip

Hell yeah! I really do! haha. But, what will I expect when I got to Cebu.

According to Wikipedia:

Cebu (Filipino:Sugbo) is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands. Cebu is a long narrow island stretching 225 kilometers from north to south, surrounded by 167 neighbouring, smaller islands, which include Mactan, Bantayan, Malapascua, Olango and the Camotes Islands. Cebu has narrow coastlines, limestone plateaus and coastal plains. It also has rolling hills and rugged mountain ranges traversing the northern and southern lengths of the island. Cebu's highest mountains are over 1000 meters high.

Enough for the wordings, I really don't understand haha! I will just list my expectations on Cebu City or my to-do lists instead :D

1. Ride the edge coaster
2. Visit the Sto. Nino church and Magellan's cross
3. Visit the Taoist temple
4. Go to beach
5. Gala mode on the city
6. Eat their local delicacies
7. Buy gitara
8. Enjoy the flight
9. take picture of the city
10. take picture of the clouds

The edge coaster is the most popular attraction in Cebu. It is located at the rooftop part of the Crown Regency hotel (that's about 38 feet high above the ground!). I have fear of height but I will dare myself since this is the first time and hopefully not the last time I will go to Cebu.

The Sto. Nino church. I would love to see the very old and the very first symbol of Christianity on the Philippines as well as the Magellan's cross. Taoist temple also the popular tourst spot in Cebu.

Since Cebu is surrounded by ocean, we better experience the Cebu's beach water :) (maybe it's different with other ocean water in Luzon haha). The next stop is to gala the whole place. Ok  that is terrible, but yeah, I would love to explore Cebu. I would like also to buy gitara for Cris' little brother as a birthday gift. Take pictures around Cebu and my one of my many wishes in life -- to take picture of the clouds above :)

To Cebu next month

Ok, I will tell that I'm really excited on our trip to Cebu next month. This will be my first time to ride on an airplane and I'm really excited.

Last year, or I will say last November 2009 Cebu Pacific had their piso fare which means that all of the plane seats are being sold for only piso or one peso. Because of this, I together with my officemates decided to have a trip and hurriedly booked for a flight. Since this is the super lowest sale ever made on an a flight the seats runs out very quickly. Thanks that we had booked our selves.

I can't wait to experience airplanes, turbulences and other aircraft terminologies. hwahaha

Google Adsense

I've been using Adsense since January this year and I think that I earned money on the lifespan of my site. But, will I ever get my payment this month? I already have $134 on my account and I think that Google doesn't verified it yet :( I hope that Google verified my account and enable it to en-cash.

Word for the Day: Neophobia

What is Neophobia?

Neophobia is the fear of new things or experiences. It is also called cainotophobia.

Added CPALead to my site

After so much positive feedback about CPALead advertisement, I finally added it on my site. I hope that it turnes positive also on my site and generate so much traffic just like the previous version that doesn't have this kind of ad. I hope that I can earn here :)

Smokers Everywhere!

Recently, I watched news about cigar smoking. I found out that in Indonesia, there is a 2-year old boy who is addicted to cigarette. He smokes twice a pack per day. His dad teach him how to smoke.

Imagine that, a 2-year old boy who where suppose to be drinking milk is now addicted in smoking. Indonesian government told that they will treat the addiction of that child.




On the other hand, how I wish that the government will increase the tax of those cigarettes so that not everyone will have a chance to smoke. Plus, they should impose a bill that will put a side effects of smoking on the packaging of cigarettes so many or some of the buyers will be warned.

How I wish this things would happen. But, how can this be happened if the President is the number one smoker for the first place.

My 2010 Wishlists: Sony Ericsson X10

You all know that my beloved iPhone got lost last January. Now, I don't have a money to spend on valuable phone to spend on. But, if I had given a chance to have a money to spend on a phone, I would love to have a Sony Ericsson X10.

It is an android mobile that has 1Ghz processor, 4-inch capacitive touch-screen and many features than iPhone.

I wish that I could have this phone right on my hand that I can call it "my own".

Ubuntu 10.04: Much stable Wi-Fi Connection

Last week, I installed the new version of Ubuntu which is 10.04. I found it very nice than the previous release of Ubuntu. If you didn't know, I started using Ubuntu since it was version 6 I only switched back to Windows since I didn't get to manage my self on Linux.

After several years ago, I put down Windows again and installed Ubuntu. This time Ubuntu got its new and sleek look. The graphics is more Windows-like as well as the crispness of the font-faces. Desktop is now even good, but, the downfall is the Intel Wireless connection. My wifi drops every minute and connects again which is very annoying.

After a week of studying and researching on how to resolve this issue, i finally found the correct fix. I uninstalled the previous network manager and replaced it with Wicd.

Now, I have a much more stable connection and I am very glad that I have fixed it. :)

What's the POINT on having an iPad?

Let's start first by stating on what is an iPad: According to Wikipedia:

The iPad is a tablet computer designed and marketed by Apple for Internet browsing, media consumption, gaming, and light content creation. Released in April 2010, it established a new class of devices between smartphones and laptops. As of May 3, 2010, Apple had sold 1 million iPads. According to a study by Retrevo, in 2010, nearly 30 percent of netbook shoppers who were looking to buy a netbook in the past year, bought an iPad.

iPad isn't a phone. It doesn't have the capability to call someone! and if it does, can you imagine yourself making a call? haha you'll absolutely looks funny!

So, what's really the point on having an iPad?

I really don't know! hahaha. iPad is just a regular iPhone with a maximized screen, you can do multi-touch on this thing, play games, browse the internet, watch videos, read ebooks, a chessboard, a snack tray, etc.

Well, for me, enough for the iPad. iPhone is just the right thing. If you like a thing that will enhance your productivity then buy notebook. iPad is just a matter of look for me. This is nonsense.

So, the point of having an iPad is: Arte lang!

Katamad!

Isa sa pinaka ayaw ko ay ang nagpapaabot ng bayad. Ayaw na ayaw ko talaga mag abot ng bayad. Well, it depends naman sa situation. Pero kung dalawa lang kayo sa jeep at ang isa ay nagaantay lang ng lalapit sa drive para mag bayad ay ibang usapan na 'yun.

Ako yung tipo ng tao na lalapit sa driver para mag bayad. Hindi ako nagpapaabot ng bayad not unless na puno na ang sinasakyan kong jeep. Kadalasan, umuupo ako sa malapit sa driver para lang magbayad at pagkatapos ay lilipat ako ng kinauupuan. Based on my own experience kase maraming tao ang nagbibingi bingihan or ayaw din mag abot ng bayad, ako pang masama kapag sinabihan ko sila ng "paabot naman po ng bayad".

Kanina habang papasok sa opisina sumakay ako sa jeep. Dalawa lang kame, naunang pumasok si ate (hindi ko sya kilala at medyo bata pa naman. Mga late 20's or early 30's ang age). Naupo sya sa bungad mapalit sa exit. Ako pagpasok ko direcho papunta kay driver at abot agad ng bayad. Ng pabalik na ko ng pwesto ko sa may bungad ng exit (sa kabilang side) nakita ko si ate at inaabot saken ang bayad. Kamuntikan ko ng ibulsa pagkat akala ko'y binibigyan nya lamang ako ng pera hahaha :P Kamuntikan ko na syang sabihan ng "'Te, hindi ka naman disabled", maigi na lamang at marunong akong magtimpi. Sana sa susunod matuto naman silang magbayad ng sa sarili lamang nila na hindi na nila kelangan pa mag-utos nga kungsino man ang lalapit sa driver.

Jump!

During the US Auto Parts' grand opening / ribbon cutting ceremony, we had a great time taking pictures. After a hundred of times jumping to have a better looking shot this is the output :) it was so nice isn't it

Wijoyly Private Resort

Last Saturday, Cris' family planed to have a swimming together with her Cousins and other relatives. As planned, we will go to Wijoyly Private Resort (it's a motel an apartelle actually) located at Dasmarinas, Cavite.

I leave here in office at exactly 4:00 PM as scheduled. I travel for about 3 hours just to go to her house. But, the plan was changed. Wijoyly is currently unavailable since there's a private gathering -thing on there and it will end in 12 midnight.

Without any hurry, we go to another resort and that's in Hardin ng Postema in Naic, Cavite. The place was good, indeed. It was 9 PM when we arrived at that place. Unfortunately, the place was over-crowded. There's so much people around. We'll not going to have fun on that place. So, we decided not to enter the resort, instead, we just hang on their parking lot. We eat and chat. After almost 1 hour of stay at the parking lot we decided to move again to Wijoyly. And because the said event will last until 12 am, we just wait for the event to get done.

At last! after a long long time and long long travel we finally go inside the private resort. Since it's private, we're the only guest around. The place is big enough for 15 guest. With an unlimited time of Karaoke, we sing our heart out, uh I mean, I sing my heart out. Parang concert ko lang haha. I ate so much that time. It was super delicious. Super fun.

We gone home about 6 am in the morning :)

US Auto Parts Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

After so many months of rumors and waiting. USAP finally unveiled their new office space located at the Cybergate Plaza in Mandaluyong City.

Both offices -- Makati and Pasig will be moving on the same building. Meaning, we will be a big happy family under one USAP building.

The new office is strategically located between Makati and Pasig so no worries about the transportation. It is located just beside E.D.S.A where the main transportation is located. There you will see buses, trains, trikes and jeepneys.

USAP's new office is incredibly spacious though web-dev area specially the cubile has lost their privacy. We cannot browse Facebook anymore haha :P

The environment is good and you will be getting more productive. You can see the panoramic view of Makati on the West and view of Pasig and Rizal in East. The room is very cold. 19 degrees Celsius will hello you when you enter the floor.

There's more than 10 42-inch LCD monitors on area and I think will add more soon. The place is not yet fully furnished. As we visited the site, conference areas are not yet done as well as the entertainment area.

Bottom line, the place is much bigger than before, colorful and cold. I am excited to move on to my new workspace but that will be on July :(

Goodbye Windows, Hello Open World!!!

Last time it wrote about migrating from Windows to Ubuntu. It's been a hard decision for me since I grow with Windows. I started with windows when I was 8 I think. Now, I'm 23, I'm saying goodbye Windows. It's been a pleasure that you thought and build my skills so much. Because of Window, I improved my typing skills :) I learned a lot of programming languages and web languages -- BASIC, C, C++, Java (oh, but just a bit), ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, Javascript, CSS, ActionScript, and HTML.

Ok, get over it! Last night I installed the new version of Ubuntu which is 10.04 on my Acer TravelMate laptop. My DVD-Ram drive is broken as expected on most Acer's products so I used Flash Drive instead. I downloaded the latest ISO of Ubuntu 10.04 and read some forums that will bootload the os from a removable devices like Flash Drives.

I hooked up my flash drive Cris' flash drive and follow the Windows instructions to boot the Ubuntu ISO. Basically, you just have to download and run UNetbootin on your Windows box. With your downloaded Ubuntu ISO, just tick on the "Disk Image" button and select the ISO file on the box.

FYI: Your flash drive should be freshly formatted to Fat32 unless it will not be read while booting.

After a couple of minutes or three, the installer is good to go :) Just hit Restart and wait until your computer restarts.

Make sure that you enabled USB boot on your motherboard :)

While your computer is booting-up, you will see the UNetbootin boot-screen, just hit the default and you're good to go. Next to that is you will see the Ubuntu boot-up screen and then finally the main Ubuntu desktop that will enable you to test the system and if you liked it, you'll just have to double-click the install icon on the desktop.

After 20 minutes or so, your new OS is nicely installed on your box. My new Ubuntu box is just like Windows, the font face and the crispiness of the graphics is just like Windows too, unlike the previous build of the this OS. I will enjoy learning new things because of my new OS. I will need to learn GIMP for my graphics project but I will not saying that I will need to say goodbye to Photoshop, too! :)

My Blogger Experience: So far, so good

I've been a "Wordpress" guy since 2008. I post almost everyday that time and post anything that I could imagine :)

Wordpress is a great blogging tool for me since it's almost complete -- you can change style, full-blown WYSIWYG editor, uploader, stats and many many more. Though Wordpress lack of custom domain support, custom domain has a yearly amount to be paid.

I found blogger to be so minimalistic, If you want to post then only one page is visible, only the page where you will write your story. I think this is just enough for me. For a personal blog.

Another thing is, I like blogger because it has a built-in functionality where you can monetize your blog, meaning you could attached your adsense accout and will show you a relative ad for your blog unlike Wordpress that doesn't have a function like this.

So, so far so good. :)

I missed my iPhone

It's been almost 4 months since my iPhone lost. I still didn't recover. I love my phone and mahal pa :P

Everytime I saw someone using iPhone I feel sad 'coz I miss my phone so much. I only use my phone for a month and then someone pick it on my bag. Wala akong naramdaman. And it's so, so sad.

I'm too clumsy for my things, I guess it's for me time to change. I will be more maingat with my things.

Sana nasa mabuting kalagayan ang nagnakaw ng iPhone ko. And I'm planning to block it from NTC haha :) Good luck to him/her

Swimming Again tomorrow, Yey!

It's May and the end of the summer is getting near. I enjoyed a lot this summer though I don't have a vacation since I have a lot of work to do but of course its I go out at night :)

It's my 4th time I guess to swim this summer and I enjoyed a lot, super! Tomorrow will be, I guess, the last swim for summer. We'll getting wet at nowhere. I didn't know the place. It's Cris who is inviting me haha. Kasama daw ang kanilang pamilya and with their cousins.

It's gonna be a good night tomorrow :) I'm so excited!

Convincing my self on Switching from Windows to Ubuntu Linux Again

About a year ago, or so, I installed Ubuntu on my superbly old desktop, I liked it. I think it was version 6 of Ubuntu when I first use it. But then, I switched back again to Windows XP since I don't feel comfortable using Ubuntu. It was too slow and laggy that time -- no window flash games, installer, Photoshop and everything under Windows box. I even order Ubuntu cd's that time haha :P

But now, I'm convincing my self to switch back again to linux since I get a lot of problem regarding viruses. I also wanted to learn something new, learn how to use linux.

Also, I would like to try again linux because I know some of linux interfaces and commands since I deal everyday in SSH on my work. I just loved it :)

I hope that I can do migrate myself on Ubuntu. Learn something new. Forget about Windows and start to do things "Open"

I hope that linux won't have driver compatibility issues.

I love Siomai!

According to the most ever popular Wikipedia -- Siomai is a traditional Chinese dumpling served in dim sum.

In the Philippines, Siomai in the Philippines is often ground pork, beef, shrimp, among others, combined with extenders like green peas, carrots, and the like, and wrapped in wonton wrappers. It is either steamed or fried resulting in a crispy exterior. It is normally dipped in soy sauce and squeezed calamondin, and for some, with an oily, spicy garlic mix.

A recent variant on siomai is wrapped in nori sheets instead of wonton wrappers, and marketed as "Japanese."

Anyways, I always have fun eating shomai. I like the spicy-garlic, toyomansi deep :) I even add some rice when I eat those. I really can't wait to go home and eat another shomai.

Shomai Recipe (Pinoy Style):

Shrimp and Pork Siomai Ingredients:

1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3) or 1 kg Prawn (shrimp) peeled
1/3 cup chopped water chestnuts or turnips (singkamas)
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion(s)
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon salt
50 pcs. large or 100 pcs. small wanton or siomai wrapper
soy sauce, calamansi (lemon or kumquats), sesame oil and chilli paste (for the sauce)

Wrapper

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Chili Paste:

1/8 kilo Chillies (Siling Labuyo)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Siomai Cooking Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal.
Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil.
When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces.
Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil. Chilli paste is optional.

Wrapper:

Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps.
Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour.
Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball.
Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls.
Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Set aside.
Simplest version of chilli sauce would be to chop chillies well and fry them in oil, sesame or vegetable oil, never olive oil if you want it to have a Filipino taste.

Chilli Paste:

Combine chopped chillies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Hello World!!!

This is my first post on this blog :) I wish I have a great time sharing my stories with you !