Welcome Back!

It has been years since i posted my last article. A lot of things happened and technology never fails us in thinking it will change fast. Significant things took place during the times that i was lazy to write. In fact, I stopped writing articles for the Manila Bulletin since they never paid me for the four write-ups I made on technology. But as wise people say, the show must go on. Hackneyed it may sound, technology is one of the most important factor/benefiting agent of living on earth. Yet technology might also be dangerous since it can destruct material and non material things.

This blog is mainly to inform people about how to use technology for the good and how it can fasten their work and bring comfort to their lives. It also aims to provide isights on how to survive the digital jungle that we are in. Furthermore, this site will host several tips on administering your library and information systems.

Again folks, I welcome you to my blog. Enjoy!

Warm Regards,
The Technomaniaq

Buying Your Next Phone, Surviving Greenhills et al.

Greenhills has been a center for cellphone purchases and trades. Hundreds of shops offer various brands, models and editions of phones with extremely low prices compared to those in classy malls. It is for you consumer to know the following tips when buying your next phone .

When buying a brand new or second hand phone, make sure that you:

1. Have an idea of what phone matches your taste. Nokia and SonyEricsson's websites might help you with their "choose your phone" application on doing this task.

2. Check the pricing of your phone in the web. Ebay.ph, sulit.ph and auction.ph are a few websites to consult with. Make sure you list the prices so that you won't have a headache.

3. When going to Greenhills and other malls, make sure that you visit at least a lot if not all the stores. It is better to ask someone to accompany you so that when you make a deal with the vendors, you will have moral support. See to it that, that person is capable of making tight "tawad" so you can get the most out of your cash. What I personally do to get cheap phones is I bring my friend Chiara and we try to converse in front of vendors like quarreling peeps, her saying that the phone somewhere is a lot cheaper than the phone. Then the deal goes on.

4. For people buying a brand new unit, see to it that you check the box of the phone together with the documentation. All must be printed well together with the stickers. Take a look at the bottom part of the phone and check wether the contact pins have scratches, if they have, it means that phone is not new! Lastly smell the board of the unit, you may then have an idea if the phone is original or has been repaired, you need a good sense of smell though. It the phone smells different other than freshly baked electronics, then you know what to do: get out of there!

5. Count your money twice so you will be sure that you are not losing your hard earned cash. When the seller gives you a receipt, see to it that the number of their shop is indicated in the receipt otherwise ask for their number and try to make a call. The location of stalls in Greenhills changes every now and then, so it is also advised that you ask the information desk when making product returns. Be sure to see what the warranty covers. Most of the sellers indicate the warranty terms in the receipt. Careful not to take warranty policies which do not include the LCD screen as it is a vital part of your phone.

6. Have fun, people in Greenhills are usually kind and generous. Just talk to them politely and you will have a good deal!

6.

No Wifi? Low Batt? Burger King!!!

The last time I ate at Burger King was errmm a year and a half ago. I really found nothing special aside from their tasty burgers and delicious sundae. Today, I am in Burger King SM North Edsa posting my blog using BK's free Wireless Internet access (wifi).

It's a great thing that fast food chains and even restaurants upgrade their services to a higher level. Where the products and services are not limited to food and beverages. Burger King's move is a strategic move towards attracting mobile users and wifi aficionados. At the moment, I see four customers surfing the web. To be able to gain free access of their internet service, you have to know their WAP key (it's like a password) and you can get this at the counter when you order your food.

Not only wifi internet, BK is offering free charging of cellphones and other mobile gadgets. Wow, I hope they could add free charging for laptops too, but I guess that would cost them a lot and people with laptops will never leave BK anymore (haha I will be one of them i bet).

So next time you bring your lappies and mobile phone, don't forget that Burger King loves you very much and they're offering free electricity and internet! Weehaw!

LNB: Linux for Noobs

People would really hesitate shifting to opensource. Firefox has been a success and so are few applications but talking about operating systems is a different thing as it is technically the soul of your computer. For majority of people, they would really resort into piracy and a small fraction of them will choose buying the proprietary other than making use of the freely available operating system.


Linux is soooo technical, yes that is also my view. I really hate command line or console, for me it is as old as dinosaurs. A couple of days ago my favorite linux distribution released a new version. Linspire (formerly Lindows, before Microsoft sued them) released Freespire a free version of the low cost operating system. I have been watching this product since version 1.0 and I am astonished that it has grew this much. Right now, 2.0 is based on Ubuntu Feisty but on top of it is a visually appealing graphical user interface. Also, it is not as complicated as other Linux distribution like OpenSuse, Fedora. But hey, it suits my taste. A nice desktop with a simple interface and the choice to expand your installation packed with proprietary drivers so your machine will properly and fastly run. Run run run!


What I like most of about it is that it's made for noobies, how do i know this? You can setup the machine in minutes and install software by only clicking using CNR (Click N' Run). CNR used to be a paid service but thanks to Linspire Inc. they made it free. What makes CNR standout from the other package managers is stability. You are saved from dependencies and stuff. You can also save a profile of applications that you always download so installing your favorite application on another machine will be an ease. Bundled applications are Mozilla Firefox for web browsing


Having this kind of operating system will really make your shift from Windows to Linux a great experience.

Protecting Your Windows PC

Most of computer users use Windows as their operating system. Even if you force these guys to use Linux or Mac they will still prefer Windows more than anything. Monopoly is widely understood, when you buy a branded laptop nowadays, vista or xp is bundled and yes you are right, you pay for it. These are the applications that are currently enabled/installed in my Windows Machines.

This guide will provide tips to those poor souls who may have lost their minds when viruses and trojans attack their computers.
Tip #1 Never never turn off your firewall. Although the word 'firewall' may be too irritating for you, you have to live with it. It's your glorious protection against unwanted network hackers. You can turn on your firewall by double clicking on the Windows Firewall Icon found in your control panel, or you can launch the Windows Security Center.
Tip #2 Turn On Automatic Updates. There is a prerequisite before doing this: you have to make sure that your copy of Windows is legitimate otherwise you might end up screaming when your computer tells you "You have been victimized by software piracy blah blah blah". Remember, stealing is prohibited since the days of Moses and his commandments. Microsoft often releases patches and service packs to fix vulnerabilities that may possibly damage your computer. By turning Automatic updates, your computer is somewhat (yes, sometimes it fails) protected. You may turn on Automatic Updates using the Windows Security Center. Tip #3 Install and Regularly Update Your Anti-Virus. It is automatic that when you purchase or install Windows in your PC, you agree to the fact that you have to combat viruses and protect your computer. Sad but true, 71,000 viruses are out there waiting to infect your machine. Good thing we have anti-viruses! There are free versions of these programs downloadable from the net, examples would be AVG and Avast. I really don't know the performance of these free antivirus because I dont personally use them. What is installed in my PC is Eset's NOD32 Antivirus. I am satisfied with this product however it is proprietary and you are only limited to use it for a month then buy it. What I really like about it is that the program only consumes a miniscule of memory compared to its free counter parts.
Tip #4 Fight Spyware! When the Internet got popular, a lot of advertisements flourished the information superhighway these also entered your system through spywares. Ever downloaded a free screensaver from an advertisement, oops, you are now infected. You may see your web browser doing some crazy stuff such as showing an unwanted toolbar. Fear not, we have a bunch of anti-spyware! Microsoft has one, which is downloadable from its website. It's called Windows Defender, (yeah, a strong name right? but sometimes it fails to defend you from spies). You might also want to consider installing spybot, my favorite anti-spyware

Cracking Windows Vista in a Few Steps

So you thought Vista is the most secured Windows release ever. Watch this Video.

I personally don't like Windows Vista at the moment, just as how I despised Windows XP before when Windows 98 was still hot. But as time passes by and Microsoft released patches for XP such as service packs, I really loved the OS. However if you have been stucked with Vista, make sure you install pertinent patches coming from Microsoft or you can automatically download and install the patches by enabling Windows Update. Goodluck!

Welcome to Technomaniaq!

My recent blogs are usually a bit jumbled as they are a mixture of my personal and technological logs. So I just thought of having a weblog which hosts only things about technology. And that's about it, I would like to welcome you to an exciting and breathtaking adventure of reading my blog. Technomaniaq=Information.Technology.Libraries.DigitalMedia+Qiqo