CdeO Classifieds - Soft Launch

Hello guys. I haven't written for a while now. The busy schedule keeps away from this blog and from writing.

I have, however, managed to do a mini project on the side. Here is the story.

--
Lately, I am having this feeling of wanting to give something back.

To our mother earth, a monthly 500 pesos donation to an organization that aims to put nature in top shape for now, and for the future.

To my current company, 1 to 3 hours of pro-bono work -- almost daily for the past month -- and on-going.

I felt that I also need to give something back to my hometown - the City of Golden Friendship - Cagayan de Oro City.

To the city, I present Cagayan de Oro City's very own classified ads website -- cdeoclassifieds.com.

I know there are already others out there. I don't mean to compete. I don't expect this site to lift off. Again, I just want (maybe even need) to give back, and this is the only way I know how.
---

And that's the story behind CdeO Classifieds.

Go now and check it out.

Registration is free. Posting is free. Looking around is most definitely also free.

Boy falls into the subway train tracks while playing with portable game

I don't know if this is the first time that something like this has happened, but nevertheless, this is shocking. Although Engadget says it was while he was playing with this PSP when the boy fell, but from the video, I can't really tell. Maybe because my eyes are bad, if you spot the PSP dead on, please let me know.

Seems like the mobile devices we carry every day are becoming more and more dangerous because it is going to kill us at some point.

We can also get a feel-good moment from this video. Kudos to the guy who rescued the kid. He didn't even have a moment of hesitation, and just jumped right into the tracks and picked the boy up. Nice! :D

Kids! or even the adults who carry their mobile game consoles, please stay behind the yellow line when you are on the platform. Geez!

10 Billion Downloads Reached

Well -- that was fast!

It was 9,943,308,590 downloads 2 days ago at around 9:12 in the evening. And in barely 2 freakin' days, it has reached its mark -- 10 Billion -- with a giant B.

Let's look at this by the numbers shall we -- there are over 160 Million iTunes users in 23 countries. Which makes it around 56 ,691,410 downloads in 2 days. That's roughly 35% of users has downloaded at least 1 app.

So, in the last 2 days -- there were 1,181,071 downloads per hour, 19,684 downloads per minute, and 328 downloads per second.

Congratulations to the lucky bastard who won $10,000 worth of iTunes credit. That will probably be enough for a lifetime of Angry Birds even if they would release a new version season after season after season.

14 yr old's app

kids today, they do all the darnest things. apparently, this includes developing iPhone apps and topping the charts as the most downloaded free app in the App Store as of the moment. as an added bonus, it even topped the Angry Birds app.

as an aspiring iPhone app developer, this tells me that 1) anybody can make it in the iPhone app development business. all one needs is an idea. apparently, simple and fun ideas are the ones that are in today. 2) it doesn't matter if you are going against the big boys of the business. as it seems, everybody is on a level playing field.

even if the kid's app, Bubble Ball, can be downloaded for free, you can't discard the fact that the potential of the app is very bright. a few updates here and there and eventually add some iAds or Google Adsense. this 14 year old might be able to reach his first million before he reaches puberty.

kids today.

How I fixed my iPhoto '11

I have Bootcamp installed and was on Windows 7 before I decided to go to MAC OSX and open up iPhoto. While in Windows 7 though, I got the dreaded "blue screen of death", and for sure, it restarted. I decided to go straight to OSX and do some iPhoto stuff for my Project 365 pet project.

However when I tried to open iPhoto from the dock, the icon would just bounce for about a minute or so, and then it just stops. No iPhoto window will open -- no nothing. Nada! Right clicking on the icon will tell you what really happened -- the "Application is not responding".

As for the fix, this is what I did:
1. Opened System Preferences
2. Clicked on Spotlight
3. Clicked on Privacy
4. Added my "BOOTCAMP" partition. This would prevent Spotlight from searching this location.
source: Apple - Support

Good thing right? Well, yes, I got my iPhoto running again. I got me thinking though, how is it that in order to fix iPhoto, I need to change some settings in Spotlight? Doesn't make any direct sense, right?

With the given series of events that happened, from the "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows 7 -> Restart to OSX -> Opening iPhoto, it seems that the root cause was that the bootcamp partition was not gracefully released. Sure enough, there were also applications that were still running before the BSOD and those weren't gracefully shutdown as well. And with these conditions, it also seemed that Spotlight had trouble going through the BOOTCAMP partition.

Here are other things you can do if your iPhoto goes gaga: Apple - Support - iPhoto

iPad 2 and the iOS 4.3

Yesterday, iOS 4.3 has been released. We, if you are one of the awaiting public, couldn't get your hands on it yet because it is still a release for the app developers. There seems to very interesting things in this upcoming iOS version.

First off, 9to5mac scavenged deep within the latest iOS SDK and found camera graphics and shutter images with a larger resolution which seems to fit perfectly with an iPad's resolution. For me, because of this, those iPad rumors get whole lot more credibility.

And in other news, Engadget has found out that there are mysterious iOS device identifiers within the iOS 4.3 code. If we go along the past stories, these identifiers seem to point out new and upcoming generations. In this case, there seems to be two upcoming generations of the iPhone and three of the iPad. Interestingly enough, again if we follow along the pattern that Apple seems to release 2 or 3 generations of its iOS devices annually, these seem like the upcoming generations for the year 2011 alone.

If this was the case, it begs the question for hardcore fanboys, would you get the next iPad? or wait for the next upcoming generations?

US Gov't issues subpoena against "wikileaks" and all its followers in Twitter

Here is a pdf of the facsimile issued by the US government's subpoena against Wikileaks in Twitter. You can find the full text of the news here. What does it entail?

Under Section 2. B, it seems that wikileaks' followers are also targets of this subpoena. As it states in sub-section 1, "records of user activity for any connections made to and from the Account, including the date, time, length, and method of connections, data transfer volume, user name and source and destination Internet Protocol address(es)".

There are roughly 637,000 wikileaks followers, and this should somehow serve as a warning to all of them. I don't think "unfollowing" now will do any good. One can always just visit wikileaks, get the same information, and not get subpoenaed at the same time.

PS3 3.55 Jailbreak just released

Around 2 days ago, I blogged about the custom firmware creator for PS3. Now, hacker Geohot has just released a jailbreak for the 3.55. Talk about fast.

Go on to Geohot's website for the link and to find more about the jailbreak. Again, for all ye pirates -- Geohot says don't waste yer time.

Here are the basic steps on how to install the jailbreak:

1. Download the jailbreak from Geohot's website.

2. Extract and copy the update file to /PS3/UPDATE in your USB Flash Disk.

3. Connect the USB Flash Disk to your PS3.

4. Update your PS3 through Settings -> System Update

Enjoy, you little jailbreaker you!

iPad 2 announcement on 1st of Feb?

MacRumors has posted a rumor saying that the iPad 2 might be announced on the 1st of February. Since there has been rumors that the iPad 2 would be available on the 1st quarter of 2011, this rumored announcement puts everything into placed quite nicely.

I've also made some observations of myself regarding this.


Ever since the iPad was released, Japan's Apple Store never had a section for Refurbished iPads. Now, I went in to check for refurb AirMac Expresses, and low and behold, a new section for refurbished iPads was created. I visit the site daily, and I'm pretty sure this addition was just recent.

Of course, this doesn't prove anything, and it might not greatly add more validity to the rumors. But as you can see on the image on the right, the "iPad Wi-fi" text is faded signifying that there are no refurbished iPads available on the Japan Apple Store as of the moment. Considering the timing and forth coming iPad 2, this is as if they are doing the necessary preparations as early as now.

Let the awesomeness of PS3 Hacking Begin

PS3 Custom Firmware Creator Released!

Well, it looks like 2011 is having a great start, especially for the jailbreaking community. Only 

this time, Apple is not the only victim. Like the PSP, one can now create and install custom 

PS3 firmwares. As for this particular CFW, it will "Permanently Add “Install PKGs” to the XMB". Little 

note here for you pirates, this CFW does not condone piracy, and thus, it would apparently only install 

PKGs that are straight homebrew.

 

It seems that the Playstation 3 which is hailed as the most difficult to hack of all the consoles 

has been -- well -- hacked. And to make matters even worst, it seems that releasing a new hardware

is the only remedy -- according to this article about the secret Sony Playstation keys.

 

If you are Sony, how would you react to this? Would you go on and fire all the people responsible?

Or would they rather just keep their cool and let this be a lesson learned? 

Only hours before Mac App Store Launch

The Mac App Store will launch in barely 5 hours from now. The hope is that it would have a similar effect to the very successful App Store. What I love about the idea is that software developers who prefer to take it solo can distribute their applications in the Mac App store. It is not that easy for a developer to safely distribute his/her software and earn from it. Users of the application, on the other hand, is somewhat assured that what they are installing on their Macs were pre-screened, and evaluated, thus, hopefully they are also safe.

Back to the launch of the Mac App Store, conveniently, it is right at the same moment when we are suppose to be looking at the latest in consumer electronics -- the CES. What do you think? Which of the 2 events do you think will garner more audience? Can Apple steal the show with this?

Let's just wait and see, shall we?

UPDATE: Mac App Store is now live.

Glimpse of the iPhone 5?

This is a Youtube video from smartphone parts firm Global Direct Parts showing what could be the next generation of the iPhone -- presumably iPhone 5. Well, it could very much also be the very much rumored CDMA iPhone 4, or just a plain old fake video.

Whatever it is, it shows that there are minor differences with the current iPhone in terms of it cables and internal parts. Among those is the steel band's change of location. Apparently, maybe it's because of the antenna issue that plagued the iPhone 4 that triggered this change.

Another thing is the SIM-card slot which for CDMA is not necessary. Well, come to think of it, if this is going to be the iPhone 5, it should probably able to work in CDMA and non-CDMA mode. I think it would be stupid not to.

Reference: Engadget

UPDATE: It seems like the video has been pulled out from the tubes due to copyright claims from the big A.

Apple releases iMovie update 9.0.1

For all you iMovie '11 users out there, Apple just released 9.0.1 update. It just a minor update. Here is the summary of the update:

"This update improves stability and fixes other minor issues, including:

1. Fixes an issue where stabilization would not be applied correctly to some video clips from iPhone and iPod touch.
2. Fixes an issue that prevented use of some valid Facebook passwords that contained non-alphanumeric characters.
3. Improves compatibility with some cameras that create content in multiple formats.
4. Improves performance when scrolling the Project Library."

I haven't really experienced these issues, it's good to know that somehow I won't ever encounter them.

How to Lock the screen in Mac OSX 10.6

For gaming's sake, I have been using Windows for the holidays. And I think one of the most useful keyboard shortcuts in Windows is the Screen Lock shortcut. Especially now that the laptop is within the reach of my very curious 3-year old boy's hands, I most often need to lock the screen when I walk away even for awhile if I don't want any of my "work" getting accidentally closed and unsaved.

Being a newbie with OSX, I find it surprising that a Screen Lock keyboard shortcut isn't built into Mac OSX. Of course, google could tell you a lot of ways in how to do this, but I find the following below to be the most natural and effective among all of them.

Steps:

1. Go to System Preferences -> Security
2. Verify that the "Require password ... after sleep or screen saver begins" option is checked.
You can set this with whatever setting you like but I would recommend setting it to "immediately".
3. Open Automator (Finder -> Applications Folder)
4. When Automator opens, it will let you choose a template. At this point, select "Service".
5. In the "Service receives selected .." option, select "no input" for the first option, and "any application" for the second.
6. In the left side is the Actions Library, drag and drop "Start Screen Saver" to right side.
7. Save and give this service an appropriate name.
8. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard
9. Select the Keyboard Shortcuts Tab, and select Services from the list on the left.
10. On the right, under the General Category, you should see the service that you previously created.
11. Make sure that it is checked, and add a new keyboard shortcut.

That's it. You can try it now if you want. This has really been a great help to me.

Reference: Mac OSX Hints

Year 2038 bug?

A decade ago, everybody seemed to be very pumped up about the Y2K bug. Although the media had to do something about all that hype, nevertheless, there were some truth into it. It was a good thing that some systems were able to make the necessary cleaning up and preparation before the turn of the century.

Around 28-years and 15 days from now, or on the Year 2038, 19th of January at 1500 Hours, 14 Minutes and 7 Seconds, we are going to have another major glitch in the system -- The 2038 Bug. The name doesn't really have that same ring into it compared to Y2K Bug -- but -- it seems to bring in a similar problem. Question this time might be -- would we take this bug seriously?

Wait... 2012 is just less than a year from now -- the end of the world is basically around the corner. I guess this wouldn't be a problem after all.

Here are some information:
2038bug.com

* I found this laying around in my Drafts. I thought it's better to publish and share it with you guys, in case you forgot -- I know I did.

Solar eclipse of January 4, 2011

A partial solar eclipse is about to happen.

From where I am sitting right now, I can't really witness it because when it happens, I'm on the other side from where the Sun is.

Solar eclipse of January 4, 2011

As the New Year starts... backup your backups.

First blog of the year folks, and maybe it's time that you should think about the precious data stored in your external hard-disk(s). I didn't and this happened to me.

First morning of the New Year, and what a way to start the year than waking up to a non-responsive external HDD. The data stored in it does not really contain the codes to launch an all out nuclear catastrophe, but rather, they are pictures and videos dating all the way back since my first digital camera. I dunno about you guys, but to me, pictures of family and friends and one's experiences are more worth than anything.

The disk did not mount although you can see that the LEDs are lighting up. The most frightening of it all is its clicks which sounded like a person saying its last dying words. "Click... click... click", it whispered. You can only hear it when you put your ears next to the seemingly dying HDD. If one has worked with hard-disks, this usually suggests that it has already reached its time.

Surfing all over the net for answers, a glimmer of hope appeared. One guy had a similar issue, and it appeared that the problem was with the enclosure and not with the HDD at all.

Banked in the hope that I have a similar issue as well, I yanked my external HDD open, verified the hard-disk inside, and went out to buy a new enclosure.

I'm writing this piece in order to share and remind you guys to backup your backups.

I had a Maxtor One Touch III (320Gb) bought about 3 years ago.

And my hard-disk is still alive, and its undergoing diagnostics as we speak. It's starting to look like that 2011 will be a good year... hopefully.

Time to Get Back into the Game

And it begins now, by saying:

A hairy communist bolts.

What?! Yeah... I don't even understand what that means myself.

Apple store down, getting ready to fulfill those rumors?

Rumors have been floating around lately about the updating of the iMacs, and the Mac Pros. Could this be it? Hold your horses, we will know in a few hours.

It is also a big probability that it's the Macbook Air's time for that long awaited update. Many people have been asking around for this, and if you are one of them, go to the Apple Store website now, and press away on that "Refresh" button.

** I refreshed the site just now, just to make sure. :)

How about that rumor that a new Apple TV is coming? Or that Magic Track Pad that has been catching eyes lately?

Nothing we can do actually, but to just wait.

wait, wait, wait.

UPDATE:
And the winners: New iMacs, and the New Magic Trackpad.

Netbook with Android OS coming this August

Netbook users out there will probably love this one. I think current Android users will love this even more. If you can't get enough Android on your phone, how about getting it on a netbook?

I'm not exactly sure when this was announced, but one of the biggest electronic consumers stores in Japan is already accepting pre-orders of the Toshiba dynabook with Android OS.

More information about the upcoming netbook can be found at the official Toshiba website.