Once and Still a Techie Weblog

Dream Furniture

I recently moved into a bigger room after living in a cramped pad for almost three years. There’s lots of space for stuff I plan to put into it. I always wanted to have a floor lamp. It’s the kind of lamp that stands about five to six feet high with an adjustable knob that allows you to change the intensity of the light. Though it would be cool to have rustic furniture I have more modern tastes. I am drawn towards furniture with a more spartan aesthetic.

Tags: modern-furniture, rustic-furniture

Posted in Websites | 2 Comments »

Wordpress Version 2.8 released

Wordpress 2.8 was released last June 10. I promptly upgraded to the new version which was a quick, no-brainer process thanks to the new automatic upgrade feature introduced in version 2.7. 

Here are some of the major changes:

• The Wordpress CMS interface is now faster to use
• It’s easier to choose and change themes with the integrated theme browser,
• The Codepress editor now has highlighted syntax making it easier to edit your web pages and CSS,
• The widgets interface has been dramatically improved giving you more options for customization

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg as there are a total of 180 new features, changes and upgrades according to the Wordpress Blog.

Take a look at this brief video introducing “Baker” as 2.8 is called in honor of trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker:

Posted in Advances, Internet Technologies, video | 4 Comments »

The Palm Pre is Out

The Palm Pre is finally out. June 6 was the day. It’s available for $199.99 after rebates from Sprint:

If you’re still on the fence about getting a Pre go over to PreCentral.net where you can find loads of videos and a comprehensive review on the new smartphone. It’s about an hours worth of reading material pictures and videos.

The video below is for those who don’t have an hour to spare:

Tags: palm-pre-released, palm-pre-review

Posted in Advances, Operating System, mobile phones, video | 1 Comment »

Palm Pre Demo Video

There have been so many rumors about when the Palm Pre will finally be released that I have given up following all the hype. I am now content to wait till the official announcement from Palm whenever that happens. But there are signs that the first week of June is it.

So while we all sit around and wait, let’s watch a demo video of the smartphone that’s set to either make or break Palm Incorporated:

Tags: palm-incorporated, palm-pre, palm-pre-demo, palm-pre-release, palm-web-os

Posted in Advances, Internet Technologies, Operating System, mobile phones, video | 1 Comment »

I, Speed Addict

I have to admit I’m a speed addict. No I’m not talking about the drug. I’m addicted to what is defined as the rate at which something moves or travels. A lot of the recent compact and subcompact vehicles on the road today have small engines with a good torque curve and horsepower adequate enough to get you from A to B quickly and effortlessly.

But there are just some days when you want to go quicker. And I mean really go. A car’s stock engine can only do so much.

There are ways to get the extra oomph you so crave for. One way would be to get a bigger engine. But many times this isn’t practical or even possible. Another way would be to make your stock engine more powerful. If you are familiar with combustion engines, you should know that forcing more air into a cylinder makes it possible to add more fuel. Mixing more air and fuel together makes for a bigger bang which translates to more horsepower. The more horsepower you have the faster you can go. Forcing more air into an engine can be done by adding a supercharger.

I’ve been thinking about getting a supercharger for one of our vehicles. So I asked one of my friends who has had the opportunity to shop around for a good place that can provide high quality superchargers covered by a complete warranty. Superchargerpros.com is where one of my friends got quick and efficient service and a high quality supercharger. We highly recommend them and they’re on the top of my list if ever I decide to supe up our compact.

Tags: supercharger, superchargerpros

Posted in Auto Tech | No Comments »

Windows 7 General Availability date is Oct 2009

It has been announced on the Windows Team blog that Windows 7 will be on store shelves beginning Oct 22nd. The Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build will be available to OEMs/Partners by the second half of July.

I have high expectations that PC owners transitioning to Windows 7 from previous versions of Windows will have a less painful experience compared to the horror we all witnessed with Vista. By making the Beta and RC builds available to the public, Microsoft has increased the chances of Windows 7 being a more stable and secure platform for the greater majority of users upon its release and not 2 Service Packs later.

Tags: general-availability, release-to-manufacturing, windows-7, windows-7-rtm

Posted in Advances, Operating System, Personal Computing | No Comments »

IT Security Opportunities

Crime in the virtual world hit an all time high in 2008 with more than the last four years of IT Security breaches combined. Online companies are being victimized by highly skilled hackers that infiltrate systems and disappear without a trace.

With online organizations feeling vulnerable, more and more money is being funneled into IT security. According to the “IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index”, the salaries of IT technicians that specialize in the field of security has increased. This implies an expanding recession-proof job market for IT security specialists.

Training to be a Certified Ethical Hacker is now available at EC-Council There you can receive instruction on how to provide preventive measures from hackers to companies that want to beef up their online security.

Ethical Hackers are hired individuals that are tasked to take the position of a hacker and attack a system in order to identify weak spots that need to be tweaked to improve security. Ethical hackers use the same tools and methods as regular hackers to compromise systems. The only difference is that the ethical hackers are sanctioned by the particular organization to carry out the attack.

Offering courses on Security Fundamentals, Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, Computer Forensics, Disaster Recovery and Secure Programming through live online classes taught by certified instructors on EC-Council, the training environment mimics that of a classroom for effective learning.

Tags: CEH, certified-ethical-hacking, ec-council, hacking, it-security

Posted in security | 1 Comment »

Firefox updated to version 3.0.10

Within less than two weeks Mozilla comes out with another update for Firefox which fixes a major stability issue and a security issue. It may seem like the Mozilla folks were caught by surprise considering the updates came so close to one another. But on the plus side it shows how fast these folks can get a major fix out the door.

Tags: firefox-3.0.10, firefox-security-fix, firefox-stability-fix, firefox-update

Posted in Internet Technologies, Personal Computing, open source | 1 Comment »

Un-locked

Economic development sure does bring jobs and improved social mobility to your locality. However, it comes with the cost of increased crime rates with more and more people flocking to your area. With the local police on its toes trying to crack down on all sorts of crimes, it wouldn’t hurt to have another level of personal security.

One thing that we might take for granted is home security. Thanks to increased desperation, criminals have learned to work their way around traditional door locks. The fact that even elementary kids today are capable of disarming such locks should make you think twice about banking on them to serve as the primary line of defense between the comforts of your home and outside world.

Before anything happens, it would wise invest in home security technology like security cameras, motion sensors, security mirrors and, of course, better locks.

Tags: Home-security-information

Posted in Websites | 1 Comment »

Windows 7 RC1 Now Out

For those with an MSDN or Technet subscription Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 is now available for download. Some of the new features of Microsoft’s latest version of Windows include the New Windows XP mode, Windows Touch, and Internet Explorer 8 to name a few.

The Windows Touch feature will benefit devices and PCs with built-in touchscreens. The Windows XP mode will make it easier to run legacy applications on the new OS. Though I am not entirely impressed with IE8, it does seem more stable and secure than the versions that came before it. I just don’t see any major reason to switch from Firefox which I still use as my primary rather only browser.

Tags: microsoft-windows-7, windows-7-rc1

Posted in Advances, Operating System, Personal Computing | No Comments »