So, I decided to teach my students then a work-around that will somewhat enable them to FTP using a Windows XP-based machine: Network Places.

When Windows Vista, and later Windows 7, were introduced, Network Places was scrapped out. Then, I came across this nifty utility called Gladinet Cloud Desktop.

Gladinet Cloud Desktop allows you to map a cloud storage (that includes Google Docs & Windows Live SkyDrive) or any FTP location as a virtual network drive. Using Gladinet Cloud Desktop doesn’t require for a separate FTP client software to be installed in your machine, since you can tap the features of Windows Explorer to cut, copy, and paste files and folders from your PC to a remote location/server storage.

Being a techie person, I had subjected my BlackBerry Bold 9700 to several tests and trials. One of which was testing different video formats and encoding to see if they will play in the device — take note that the files were saved in the microSD card (media card). As a matter of practice, after the tests were done, I usually delete the file(s) from the device. However, I had noticed that the files I had deleted previously are still listed inside the Media section of the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Kinda weird, but my research paved the way for a solution.

BlackBerry Storm 9000 owners were faced with the same problem — deleted media items in the microSD card still appears in the Media list of the device. The normal work-around is to pull the BlackBerry’s battery out then restart the unit. In my case, it didn’t worked. Another work-around is to pull the microSD out of its hatch then re-insert it prior to restarting the device. It worked, but such a hassle to do it whenever I delete a media item.

Then, I came across a BlackBerry user’s forum, the solution posted was simple:

In the BlackBerry Bold 9700, go to Options -> Memory. Press the menu button and choose Remove Media Card. Then, press the menu button one more time and choose Install Media Card.

This method will show you the updated list of media items in your BlackBerry Bold 9700’s microSD card.

Now, here’s a trick to dictate WHMCS to use your local timezone:

1. Open the file configuration.php for editing.
2. Add the line date_default_timezone_set('Asia/Manila'); if you are from Manila.

The list of timezones can be found at http://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Bug in Mailman version 2.1.11.cp3

We’re sorry, we hit a bug!

Please inform the webmaster for this site of this problem. Printing of traceback and other system information has been explicitly inhibited, but the webmaster can find this information in the Mailman error logs.

Upon checking, it seems that a recent cPanel upgrade changed the permissions of the Mailman folder, resulting to the error. A quick fix can be done using the command line (or via SSH to your Linux server):

chmod 02775 -R /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/mailman/

If you were helped of this post, your “Thank you!” is accepted, but your PayPal donation is better.

Tonio (a friend since high school and works for Smart Communications) advised me to key-in the following keywords on my mobile unit: ROAM OFF then send it to 333. Wait for a couple of hours (around 2 hours for me) and I was back to mobile web surfing via GPRS/3G and was able to send MMS already!

This was confirmed to me by an email from Smart (in response to my email to them) stating that there are times wherein the International Roaming service is accidentally turned on(?). Hmmm.

Hope this helps those who had experienced the same thing and same error voice prompt.

Now, for those who wants a clearer visual of my settings, here it goes:

REYESHOME

If you were helped of this post, your “Thank you!” is accepted, but your PayPal donation is better.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Go to the nearest CDR King branch and buy a Bluetooth Dongle. I went to CDR King Park Square earlier today, and was able to get the smallest bluetooth dongle (the size of a USB stick cap) at PHP300.
2. Head back home, attach the USB Bluetooth Dongle to your Desktop PC (mine is running Windows XP) and install the drivers.
3. In your Desktop PC, open your Network Connections and open the Properties for your Internet Connection, or simply double-click on the Network icon from your Task Bar.
4. Click on the Advanced tab of your Local Area Connection Properties, and make sure that the Internet Connection Sharing checkboxes are ticked. Click on OK and close the Properties window.
5. Open a Command Prompt window (the shortcut is by Running the CMD command at the Start Menu). Check on what is the IP address of your bluetooth network by executing the IPCONFIG /ALL command. Take note of this IP address.
6. Now, fireup your bluetooth enabled device, say a laptop. Connect to your PC using the bluetooth connection. In my HP Mini, I simply right-click on the Bluetooth icon from the Task Bar of Windows Vista, and click onJoin a Personal Area Network. Now you are connected to your Desktop PC.
7. To verify that your are indeed connected to your Desktop PC, execute a PING of the IP address that you had seen earlier. If you will encounter a “Request time out” error, it simply means that your laptop is not able to connect to your desktop.
8. On your laptop, launch the Connection Properties and supply an IP address for your mobile machine. This IP address must be different to the one that we had seen from our desktop.
9. The IP address that you got from your desktop PC will be the Gateway in your mobile device or laptop’s Connection Properties.
10. Now, launch your favorite internet browser and you should be able to surf from your mobile device or laptop, utilizing the connection from your desktop PC.

If you were helped of this post, your “Thank you!” is accepted, but your PayPal donation is better.

Type a title of a song in Esnips.com and you will find tons of versions of the same song, in different formats. Clicking on a link will load the Flash-based media player of the website. Now, if you want to download a copy of the file, you can, but your will be needing iMesh.

Now, here’s a technique that I am using to download the MP3 files, without having to use (and install) iMesh:

1. Let’s say, the URL of the song I wish to download is
   http://www.esnips.com/doc/a56a0906-0f7f-4e6a-a241-1f3cdfaf7cb1/kundiman_ni_paraluman
2. Change the word ‘doc’ in the URL to ‘nsdoc‘.
3. Replace the song title or name with /ts_id/1205795172796/ns_flash/file88.mp3, in my example URL, I will have to remove ‘kundiman_ni_paraluman‘ and replace it with ‘/ts_id/1205795172796/ns_flash/file88.mp3′
4. Hit the {Enter} key, and you will be prompted to save the MP3 file. That easy.

If you were helped of this post, your “Thank you!” is accepted, but your PayPal donation is better.

1. Create your own AUTORUN.INF file. The autorun.inf file executes itself, by default, whenever a disk (CD-ROM, Flash Disk, Portable HDD, etc) is attached to your PC — if you disabled the Auto Play or Auto Run feature from your Operating System, this may be useless for you You may use Notepad to create your own autorun.inf or for the hardcoders, launch your Command Prompt (for Windows users, go to Start > Run > type CMD and click on OK. At the command prompt, go to the drive letter of your USB device, say Drive E. Once you are there, execute the command EDIT AUTORUN.INF and the Windows Editor will fire up.

2. Type the following commands inside the AUTORUN.INF file:

[autorun]
icon = .\youriconfile

3. Change the “youriconfile” with the filename of the image that you wish to use as the icon for your USB Storage Device (in my case, I used my very own pic — love your own!). If you have an image that you wish to convert as an icon (.ICO) file, you may use the services of http://www.convertico.com — it converts any PNG file to an ICO file online, for free.

4. Save your AUTORUN.INF file and disconnect your USB Storage Device from your PC. Then after sometime, plug it back to your computer and you shall notice that your own icon is the one used for your USB Storage Device.

Now, how does this combat worms and viruses from infecting your USB Storage Device? If you already have an AUTORUN.INF file, you deprive hackers and virus writers the privilege of writing their own AUTORUN.INF file to the root (base) of your USB device.

The Customer Service Agent at MOA gave me the dial-up number *99***1#, so I immediately created a dial-up connection with this number once I reached home. First try, nah! It didn’t worked. Called their Customer Service Hotline, and gave me a new dial-up number *99# — still does not worked. Then finally, a second call to their Hotline, the CS Agent told me that I need to install the LG PC Suite to use 3G dial-up.

So I tried to install the LG KU250 PC Suite using the mini-CD-ROM provided, but the next problem I encountered is that the LG USB Modem Driver provided is NOT Windows XP Certified — it won’t install on my PC (running Windows XP 2nd Edition with SP3). Surfed the internet and landed on a possible solution. Tried re-installing the USB Modem Driver, and wallah! It worked!

Now, here’s the settings in the LG PC Suite that worked my way connecting to the internet via 3G:

My Windows XP Internet Connection status tells me that I have a 115.2Kbps connection, but speedtest.net reached somewhere between 250Kbps to 350Kbps.