techiehenry

Some of us play with operating systems just for the heck of it. Some set up their systems to do a multiple-boot scheme where two or more OSes are installed on different partitions of the machine. However there are some who don’t have the time to clear up their existing systems for this scheme, so the alternative would be to use virtualization, where another OS runs on top of what is currently running.

We have Parallels and VMWare to do virtualization. However these are commercial products, so some amount of money is required to be able to use it legally. Just recently, Sun releases its own virtualization product, FREE and OPEN SOURCE!

You can know more about this product at the VirtualBox home page.

Coincidentally there is a video presentation (~16Mb) at MacWorld that discusses what it is, how you can use it, and how it performs.

I’d try using this with an image of Ubuntu Hardy Heron. I’ll be posting the results later.

I sold the Alcatel mobile phone I bought to replace the Sony Ericsson K800i that I lost a few months ago, after I found out that the Samsung D600 that my wife thought to be defective is working once I cleared the address book memory. Apparently after a few months of use, that mobile phone of 2 years is showing intermittent restarts and freezes, causing me to miss SMS messages and some calls.

Looking for an inexpensive phone that I can use to replace it, I chanced upon a phone by LG that seems to be the most inexpensive 3G phone currently in the market.

The LG KU250 was the winning proposal for the 3G For All programme started by the GSM Association. The 3G for All programme’s aim is to produce an affordable 3G handset “that would bring 3G multimedia services and mobile internet access to a mass-market user base around the world”.

If you’re wondering how affordable a 3G phone like this can be, I got it for less than Php5000 (open line, no free prepaid SIM included) from Mega Cellular Network Inc.’s SM San Lazaro shop.

What does a Php5000 3G phone has in store? Read further:
Read the rest of this entry »

Funny how microblogs seem to sprout like mushrooms lately — Jaiku, Pownce, Twitter, Tumblr… Well this one went under my radar about a month ago, and I got hooked!

Getting addicted to Plurk was a result of several things. As you may know, I spend my life on Twitter for some time already. It turns out that Twitter wasn’t designed the way it should be, thus when the number of total users swelled to a large size, bugs appeared in the form of Tweets not loading, delayed entries, etc. I am using Twitterrific, a standalone client, to update my Tweets — this one isn’t working properly as well. Given the impression that the Twitter developers aren’t really that concerned about a glaring problem in the design of the database, I have decided to jump ship when I read some of the Twitter friends posted about it.

As it turned out, a lot of Twitter friends are on Plurk as well! Given the timeline approach to different posts and a threaded view for all replies, you see everything organized in a manner similar to a ticker tape of threaded messages.

One feature that causes quite a stir among the users is the Karma system. Depending on your activity, Karma plus points are given to you, depending on your activity over a period of time. Some despise this, yet some actually liked it. Enough Karma points would unlock several items on the profile editing page.

So what are you waiting for? Join me at Plurk!

Wouldn’t you want to know more about the typhoon that’s sweeping across 75% of the Philippines right now? This site is a very useful tool, as shown below:

Not only does it show a graphical representation of how the storm progresses, but the site also posts news articles about what’s going on.

Visit it at: http://maybagyo.com

June 12, 2008 was my MacBook’s last day for free technical support. The following day would be its first year. Only then did I realize that I have to make a crucial choice: to get an extended warranty for it through AppleCare Protection Plan (ACPP), or just leave it without support and warranty for the rest of its life. This thing didn’t came to my mind since the past few weeks I was busy with more important things, but then I had to act fast if I decide to get ACPP.

As the image in the Apple Support site illustrates:

ACPP will extend the service and telephone support rendered for some Apple products.

After asking some co-employees who are Mac users, as well as those from PhilMUG, I decided on getting it. As to the reason why: I don’t think I would be able to spend as much money for gadgets in the following years as compared to now (my son would be going to school next year), so I better get ACPP to make sure that I won’t be paying later if something breaks down. So after work I immediately went to iStudio in Gateway Mall, Cubao and took the ACPP plunge.

People in iStudio were quite friendly. When they knew that the last day of my MacBook’s year-long support is on the same day that I would be applying for ACPP, they immediately called some Apple-certified techs to make sure that I could still use what I would be buying from them. All the while, my MacBook got cleaned, and its registration online was confirmed.

After making sure that everything would be okay, we went ahead and registered ACPP. In 5 minutes of less I could already see the confirmation message. That was it! My MacBook is protected for 2 more years!

Upon reaching home I checked the contents of the ACPP box. It has two booklets that contain the registration number and the ACPP Warranty information. It also came with a CD of TechTool Deluxe. Unfortunately the version included was outdated, so I just downloaded the latest from the Apple Support site.

It may indeed be expensive (at Php10,500) but it would be well worth it considering the peace of mind I get when I think about the service I will get in the following years.