Image by IceFrog.com

Yesterday, May 15 2009, I read on a circular bulletin released by Garena at Friendster.com that IceFrog has left Dota-Allstars.com. Shocked and somehow intrigued by this news, I decided to visit IceFrog’s Blog to see his official statements on this issue. Here’s what he said:

As a result of some differences, I am no longer affiliated with the dota-allstars.com website. I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone over there the best of luck in the future.

Source: http://www.icefrog.com/content/dota-website-news

However, on another part of the same post, IceFrog confirmed that this does not mean that he will discontinue development of DotA. In fact, he stated that he plans to continue development for at least 2 more years.

On another part of his post, IceFrog said that he is planning to start a new community for DotA, this time under his administration. Because of this, he is looking for people who can help him in all ends of foruming, including technical support, programming, web development, and graphics design.

Could IceFrog leaving Dota-Allstars.com have a great impact on the community? Or could IceFrog’s new community benefit members much more than Dota-Allstars.com did? We hope we’ll hear from him soon.

Image by Mozilla Corporation

On its own, fresh out of the box, Firefox is an awesome browser delivering a fast and safe web experience. Yet what makes Firefox stand out is its support for a huge number of extensions that let you spruce up your surfing. If you don’t know the best extensions to start with, be sure you check out this list.

Image by: Wladimir Palant

1. AdBlock Plus – if you’re like me who’s easily annoyed with ads taking more than 50% of the page load time, then you’ll surely love this one. AdBlock Plus is an awesome extension that cuts down bandwidth by stripping out all unnecessary ads on a page using filters contributed by the community. It removes all kinds of ads, starting from text links to image ads, or even pop-ups. A nice feature lets you disable blocking on a webpage/site too, so you can show ads on a site you support or develop. Another awesome tweak allows you to hide only certain elements from a web page, especially useful if someone’s watching you from behind.

Image by Giorgio Maone

2. FlashGot Download Manager Integration – if you’re a big internet junkie who likes to download hundreds of different stuff everday, this is an extension for you. FlashGot is an awesome extension that allows you to simultaneously integrate all your different download managers to Firefox.

Be it IDM and FlashGet side by side, FlashGot takes care of the heavy lifting. It even allows you to download embedded media within a page, such as .flv files and MP3’s. One click downloading allows you to take a file and download it, or take a hundred different files together and download them in one instant bulk. This is specially awesome if you don’t want your different download managers grabbing downloads you don’t want.

Image by Christopher Finke

3.) ScribeFire Blog Editor – this one is a very effective tool for bloggers and online journalists. ScribeFire is a fully-featured blog editor that lets you work with your blog without leaving Firefox.

Publish posts, make edits, or upload pictures — all with one box. It even features a full-WYSIWYG editor so you don’t have to memorize a single bit of HTML. Plus Flickr and Zemanta support allows you to insert images related to what you’re writing, and YouTube integration allows you to pull videos directly from YouTube. Newer versions of ScribeFire feature an integration with inLinks, so you can make money even at the comfort of your home. It’s free, it’s fast, and it’s genius.

Image by Coolbuster

4. FasterFox – this is another old plugin that’s still worth mentioning. FasterFox is an extension designed to boost your surfing speed. Literally.

It works by applying numerous tweaks to your browser configuration without you having to dig under the hood yourself. It increases load to web servers, allowing your browser to work like a download accelerator. It gives Firefox more breathing room by increasing the cache size. It has the Advanced Prefetching technology that allows your browser to load linked web pages while the bandwidth is idle, cutting down load time whenever you visit another web page. FasterFox was only available for older versions of Firefox, but thanks to Coolbuster, a version for Firefox 3 and above is available now too.

Image by Xmarks Inc.

5. Xmarks Bookmark Synchronizer – Xmarks (previously Foxmarks) is an awesome cross-browser bookmark synchronizer that does all the bookmarking work while you’re enjoying your daily surf.

It works by syncing all your local bookmarks with an online server (requires free registration), which in turn syncs with every browser you use (be it Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox). It’s very slim and easy to use, so you won’t have to worry about excess bulk. It’s very smart too, it syncs at moments where bandwidth usage is low. If you’re a cross-browser type of netzy, you need to have Xmarks.

Enjoyed this post? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and check out the other recent posts on the sidebar at the right. If you want more of this kind of posts, be sure to leave a comment in our easy form below and let us know what kind of extensions you need. We’ll get to you as fast as we can. More coming soon, be sure to stay tuned!

Image credit: Gizmodo.com, Gawker Media

While SAMSUNG is not the first major manufacturer to ship 32-gigabit (and gigabyte) chips, it definitely is the biggest… which means more space for your iPod is coming sooner than you probably anticipated.

Moreover, SAMSUNG has the rights to claim the title of being the first to manufacture 30-nm class chips (this bit of information is juicy for geeks like me, but normally just-the-ordinary-blah to other consumers).

So bottomline: since SAMSUNG makes more NAND chips than any other company, you can really expect to see one soon enough. With more and more double-slotted products (like the iPod Touch) out on the market, 64-GB flash-based portable players may just become the thing of today.

[Aving via Gizmodo]

First, go Surf the Channel

Image property of SurfTheChannel.com

Yep. Number one on the list is SurfTheChannel.com. The site, commonly called STC, isn’t actually a video streaming host. It’s more like an older version of Yahoo!: just a plain old link directory (it doesn’t even have that web 2.0 feel). It indexes hundreds of thousands of links to full movies, updated TV episodes, talks, and lots of other online videos you won’t usually find on YouTube. And searching on it is just a trickle, too; just type and hit enter… well, basically. Here’s how.

1. Go to http://www.surfthechannel.com.
2. If you’re looking for a popular TV show, be sure to check the links on the front page… but if not, you can proceed to step 3.
3. On the search box on a fairly upper part of the page, type the name of the TV show/movie you want to watch, then hit enter. (Tip: It’s the box that says ‘Enter search term here…’)
4. On the page that loads, select the category of the video you’d like to watch (Another tip: It’s usually under the Film & Movies… unless you want to watch an automotive demo or something else)
5. On the next page (this is the link index), find a link that says ‘Watch This Video!’ (Whoo, a plus tip: If there is an American flag beside a link, it means that the link is hosted on a US-based video streaming site, ie. Megavideo). If you have extra bucks, you’d prefer to click ‘Buy This Video’, usually takes you to Amazon and such.
6. If you clicked ‘Watch Video’, wait for the next page to load completely, this means that you’d have to wait for the browser to indicate ‘done’ OR THE LINK WON’T WORK. Then, click ‘click to go to host website’. (Tippitty tip: Ignore the ‘Download this video’ link. It’s just an ad or something that doesn’t really take you anywhere useful.)
7. And, congratulations! You’re ready to watch a free full video. You’d usually prefer Megavideo over the Asian sites that are listed too, but of course in the case of no alternative, a dot-cn site would be okay too… after all, they let you watch movies in English.

Here’s the last tip on STC: If you’re looking for something that just came out yesterday, don’t even bother. Usually you’ll find it weeks after release. But it’ll undoubtedly get there eventually.

Second, YouTube

Image by stan.uio.no

YouTube?! Yes, Y-O-U-T-U-B-E. YouTube. You’d never think that you’ll find full movies on YouTube (think Viacom and the copyright stuff), but actually you would. But not literally, because you’ll find full movies in chops, pulled into one long playlist. Now, wanna find that darn movie? Here’s how.

1. Log on to http://youtube.com as you normally would.
2. In the search box, type the name of the movie you wish to see, ending with ‘full movie’, and preferrably the year of release (without the quotes, ie Taken full movie 2009). Hit enter.
3. Now, scroll down on the middle part of the first page… you’ll usually find it there, and it often has a part number on its title’s end, like ‘Taken part 1/12‘. It’s also usually within a playlist.
4. Now, go for the first video. Yup, part 1 of everything. Now, as soon as you finish watching the first video, click ‘Next Video’ on the right side of the page. This will trigger YouTube to automatically play everything in order.
5. Sit back, and enjoy! Watch your favorite movies right from YouTube. (I wonder though, why they don’t receive copyright complaints… or if they do, why they don’t remove the videos.)

Tip: It takes years before a movie is uploaded to YouTube. So unless you don’t want to deal with Megavideo and Chinese sites, just head for STC. It’s way faster and way more updated.

Image by Blueshareware.com

[For Windows only] Phone Remote Control is a shareware  application from Blueshareware.com that lets you use your phone as your PC’s interactive remote control. All it needs is a Bluetooth-enabled phone and PC, and you’re ready to go.

Some features that I personally like:

• Control Winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media Player using  your phone (switch tracks, shuffle play, rewind/fast forward, volume control, etc.)
• Control your on-screen mouse cursor using your phone’s control stick (awesome for pranks and presentations)
• Interact with your Powerpoint presentation right with your phone
• Shutdown or reboot Windows, or lock your work station with just a few clicks
• Extra features enhance your workstation security; Phone RC can automatically lockdown or set your PC to screen saver mode when your phone is out of range
• Version 5.1 can actually use WiFi connection instead of Bluetooth (sweet)

However, there are some drawbacks — since it’s a shareware app, you’ll need to get the full version if you don’t want it nagging you after every few clicks, and some actions cause your PC and phone to freeze, especially if you’re on a low-speed Bluetooth connection. But overall, I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Bluetooth Remote Control [Blueshareware.com]

This is an update to an earlier post I made.

Microsoft has now opened the gates to Windows 7 RC downloads. According to Technologizer, the downloads have actually been dispatched earlier than expected (being released late night at May 4, while the expected release is at May 5).

With all the new download servers open, everyone is now allowed to grab a copy of the Windows 7 RC, even those without TechNET or MSDN subscriptions. Here are the steps:

1. Proceed to the Windows 7 RC download page.
2. Register and sign in with your Windows Live ID, and then fill in the registration form using your personal information.
3. Verify your email address by following the link in the email sent by Microsoft.
4. Proceed here to get your activation key and download link.
5. Download the DVD Iso file, and then burn to a DVD disc using your favorite burning program (recommended program CDBurnerXP).
6. Boot up the Windows 7 DVD disc, and then the setup wizard will guide you through the rest of the installation.

Be sure to check if your computer meets the following recommended requirements:

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Some users have reported that they were able to make Windows 7 RC run smoothly on PC’s with only 512MB of ram and a 2.0 GHz processor. However, I have not yet tested this claim myself.

And that’s it. Enjoy your newly installed Windows 7.

Some notes:

• According to the Windows 7 download page, the RC will only work until January 1st, 2010. By the first of March, 2010, the RC will automatically time your PC, and it will automatically force shutdown after 2 hours, unless you have installed an activated version of Windows 7.
• You will need a working internet connection for RC updates, or else your OS might begin showing you annoying nag screens.
• To burn the ISO, you will need a DVD-RW drive, and of course, a blank DVD-R disc. Standard CD-RW drives and discs won’t work.

Best of all, the software he used on the demo is free to download from his site, so you can do everything he did with a Wii-mote.

hey! 23/female. i have a webcam at this free website just CLICK HERE and signup

If you have received a profile testimonial/comment from any contact on Friendster with the quoted message above, IGNORE IT! This is possibly a new worm spreading fast. I have received this message from various contacts, though they claim that they DID NOT issue the said message.

Friendster has not yet released an official security bulletin regarding this concern, although for everyone’s security, ignore this message as much as possible and do not follow the link.

Spread the word, and tell your contacts to avoid this link as well.

*For the security of everyone, the original link contained in the message has been removed.
*For the privacy of the sender, his/her name and profile picture has been obstructed.

I know, I know. Tweetdeck has been around for some time now, and a lot of tweeps really liked it. And so, I decided to check it out myself.

Tweetdeck is a handsome little application for all operating systems, developed and officially endorsed by Twitter. It is installed and run through Adobe Air, which gives it complete platform independence and unlimited access (with your permission, of course).

Aside from being an easy-to-use and powerful tweeter application, Tweetdeck also serves as a global Twitter dashboard: it acts as a browser for every single tweet that you wish to see, and gives options to retweet, scrap, hide, or delete. It even allows you to work with your Facebook updates as easily as you do with your tweets.

However, Tweetdeck has its own downsides as well; I’m missing the ’search for people’ function and the ability to view Twitter profiles, so you’d still have to do those on the Twitter web site. Anyway, that’s a lot of power packed features for an application in a beta stage.

Why not check it out? http://tweetdeck.com

On a side note, I’m blogging this with the help of Zemanta. See the image on the upper-right? That’s right, Zemanta found that for me. Awesome, right? It’s even integrated right into ScribeFire.

According to the Windows 7 official site, the RC downloads will be available from May 5 to July, 2009.

The downloads will be available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers at the said website.

New features in the RC include Remote Media Streaming, Windows XP Mode (beta), and the upcoming beta release of the Windows Upgrade Advisor for Windows 7. A number of interface and performance enhancements based on feedbacks from the beta testers have also been added, including refined navigation, Windows Internet Explorer 8, and Windows Touch.

More info on this topic is available at Coolbuster: The Power of Information. To stay updated on this topic and get the latest news as they are released, subscribe to our RSS feed now.