Pinoy Web Surfer

Win a 42” LG Scarlet LH70 LCD TV

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:11:00 +0000

Here’s one online contest that I’m gonna join.

National Geographic and LG is having a contest wherein they will be giving away a 42” LCD HD TV (Scarlet LH70). All you need to do is visit NGC Asia and vote for your top 10 favorite HD program from their site.

Each unique vote will be counted so you can have at most 10 entries. Just make sure that you write a good reason why you chose that program since it will be the deciding factor to win prizes.

Each resident in South East Asian countries (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam) can join and each country will have 1 winner of the LCD TV. There will also be 10 National Geographic windbreakers to be given away as consolation prize.

Voting ends on August 9 and winners will be announced on September 14.

HTML and CSS Help Sheet printout

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:46:00 +0000

For web developers or web designers out there, here’s a couple of help sheets for HTML and CSS that you might want to print out courtesy of GoSquared.

CSS Help Sheet: Get the PDF [1.9MB] HTML Help Sheet: Get the PDF [1.9MB]

Of course, popular editors like Dreamweaver have built-in intelligent helpers for your code but for on-the-fly online editing, you need a quick reference without googling for it.

Click on the images for the PDF file. I’m gonna print ‘em out!

Sony officially entered the netbook market with the Vaio W

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:10:00 +0000

When Sony released it’s Vaio P mini-laptop, we know that it shouldn’t fit in the netbook category. Well, they just released the Vaio W which looks like a netbook now. It’s a bit late though.

The Vaio W has the same old specs as you see with on other netbooks:

Intel Atom 1.6GHz
10.1” inch display
160GB HDD with Windows XP
1GB RAM
Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n
2 USB ports, webcam, memory stick/SD card reader

What’s hot?

Well this piece of netbook has a maximum resolution 1368x768 which is really nice for its size. It also comes with a software to interface (stream content) wirelessly with other DLNA devices like your PC or PS3.

What’s not?

The chiclet keyboard is only 86% the size of a normal one. Other netbooks’ keyboards are at the 92% to 96% range. It’s 3-cell battery life is fairly average at 3 hours but you have the option to use a 6-cell battery.

The Vaio W will be available by mid-August with a sweet price tag of $499 which is not too expensive for a Sony product. It comes in berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown.

Cashing out on WaoIndia

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:45:00 +0000

At last, after how many months clicking their links, I’ve reached the $199 minimum payout for WaoIndia. Now, it’s time to check whether they are a scam or not by waiting for their payment.

WaoIndia is a Pay-to-Click (PTC) site with a high pay-per-click price at $0.10 with about 8 ads per day. So that’s almost $1 per day. However, they also have a high minimum payout rate of $199.

With the help of 3 active referrals, I was finally able to reach that $199. I have to wait 60 days for the first payout though and paying through paypal will incur a $50 charge. That $50 hurts but can’t do anything about it.

Let’s wait and see if they’ll pay.

Need help with color themes?

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:12:00 +0000

If you’re a designer (web, graphics, interior, fashion) who works with colors and cannot come up with a color to complement or to match a specific color that you want, let Kuler from Adobe help you.

Kuler is a free online tool from Adobe that allows you to choose a color and know what other colors work with it. You can choose from different set of rules such as Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Shades, etc.

I use this tool when designing web sites to help me out with coloring my links, headers and other elements of my design.

Sell gold online?

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:58:00 +0000

People have been selling things everyday online via virtual marketplace such as eBay. It will soon become a common thing to sell more valuable commodities like gold over the internet.

Sell gold online?? Is it really safe or even legal? Is it really worth doing it online instead of the traditional way? I don’t even know how gold are sold or bought except from jewelry shops.

Seems that it is safe to sell gold online and if you’re interested and want to know how to sell gold online, do a lot of research on secure and established dealers. They usually provide envelopes and gold kits to hold your package. A good dealer also assures you that your valuables are fully insured by a government agency.

Watch the famous Cash4Gold video at Hulu for more information on how to sell gold online. Check out the online Cash4Gold commercial for more details. As for me, I’ll probably stick with pawnshops.

Machine to make you a brilliant self-portrait artist

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Do you suck in art? Do you feel that a 5-year old draws better than you? Even if you can’t draw a straight line, this machine will help you be a self-portrait artist master in no time.

Jen Hui Liao has created this Self-Portrait Machine that aids the user to draw his own portrait. It will take a picture of the sitter who will strap his wrists to the machine and hold the pen for the machine to guide.

Pretty cool actually and it will totally surprise your friends that you were able to draw a nice rendition of yourself. However, a 5-year old can also use the same machine and achieve the same result. Hehehe.

Microsoft considers offering Windows 7 in thumb drives

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:02:00 +0000

Windows 7 on a thumb drive? Yes please! Microsoft is still considering whether they will push through with it though.

With the massive appeal netbooks are garnering these days, it would be a good move for Microsoft to also offer their latest OS, Windows 7, on a thumb drive.

It’s been tested already that Windows 7 runs well in netbooks but the only way to upgrade the usual Windows XP it comes with is through an external optical drive, external hard disk, or download the installer in a separate partition and run it from there.

I’m sure netbook owners will be more open to upgrade to Windows 7 if they can easily upgrade their existing OS without shelling out for additional devices and the thumb drive is a good solution.

Recovery community online directory

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:07:00 +0000

It is a known fact that a lot of people needs to join a recovery community. You might even know someone who desperately needs to join one of those anonymous meetings. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Overeaters Anonymous (OA), and Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meetings.

We should not be ashamed in accepting that we need help for our addiction. We also shouldn’t neglect our responsibility in encouraging our loved ones who needs counsel to join those anonymous meetings.

If you’re having trouble locating a recovery meeting near you or if you’re too shy to ask people, you might want to check out InTheRooms Meetings Wiki.

InTheRooms is one of the top recovery sites in the web. It is a community The site is mainly a Wiki with a database listing where you can look for places of different anonymous meetings by state, city, drilled down to its address and schedule.

You can also register as a member to help build and update the Wiki. If you’re an administrator or a moderator of a recovery meeting and yours is not listed there, go ahead and add it.

Right now the database only includes those in the US and Canada but the Wiki’s aim is for a global recovery community.

Mafia Wars Lottery, what does it do?

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:01:00 +0000

Mafia Wars has just introduced a lottery system last week. It’s a cool addition to the game that gives it a new dimension. But what does joining the lottery entail you?

There will be a lottery drawing every week and you will have a free lotto ticket per day where you could choose 5 different numbers out of 70. You can also buy a ticket for 5 reward points.

To get to your Lotto page if it’s not available from the Home page, click Godfather then you would see a Lotto section.

So what can you win in the Mafia Wars lottery?

5 matching balls – 1000 reward points
4 matching balls – 30 reward points
3 matching balls – a lotto collection piece
2 matching balls – another lottery ticket
1 matching ball – An energy pack

Don’t get too excited with the energy pack prize since you can only still use 1 pack per 24 hours. So if you won an energy pack, you can use it only if your mafia members somehow forgot to send you one.

For the lotto collection, once vaulted you will receive a +10% bonus on loot drop. Not bad but not worth the difficulty of completing the set either.

Hopefully, you’re playing the lotto everyday.

Find out what happened on the day you were born

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:10:00 +0000

Here’s a cool site that will show you what happened around the world on the day you were born.. or any other particular day as a matter of fact.

With Kakorama: A ride into the past, simply key in your birth date or a particular date of interest and the site will show you what the number one song in the charts was on that day, the Time magazine cover for the week as well as famous people who were born on the same day.

I wish it could pull significant facts or events as well but I guess their program can’t handle it. Maybe you can use Google for that. Still cool though.

Fax over the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:54:00 +0000

We all know about calling people around the globe for free with the aid of internet VoIP services such as Skype and Vonage.

VoIP stands form Voice over Internet Protocol which allows transmission of voice communication over the Internet by converting telephony speech as digital audio. You can use any standard headsets with microphone to communicate with the other end provided they’re on the same set up as well.

Consequently, there’s also Internet Phones which allows you to call any landline all over the world inexpensively. The other party doesn’t need any special equipment, only the caller needs the internet phone.

But did you know that you can also send Internet Fax to phone? Just like a fax machine but it would be a computer transmitting data onto a fax machine on the other end. Digital documents can be transmitted over the internet and will be received as ordinary fax on the other end.

Head over to Spectrotel and enjoy their internet-to-phone deals. Check out Spectrotel's profile for more exciting offers.

Free loot items from Mafia Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Having trouble collecting those Untraceable Cellphones, Blackmail Photos, ITR’s in Mafia Wars? Here’s a quick way on how to get them loots without spending your precious energy.

Did you notice that you can receive certain free items from your mafia members but only once per member? It sucks if they give you worthless loots such as armored trucks and motorcycles right? Well you can control what item you will receive with this trick.

1. Head to http://vern.com/mwtools and add FreeGift to your bookmark toolbar (Opera, Chrome, Firefox… sorry IE users).

2. Go to your Gifting page and click you FreeGift button.

3. Select the number of items you want to receive and the item that you need.

4. Sit back and Relax. You can open another window to do other things by the way.

What the script does is to go over your list of mafia members and force them to use their “free gift” option by sending you the item that you need.

So if you have 500 mafia members, you can extract 500 items using the script but I suggest getting only the exact number that you need and save the rest for other items. Better start adding more friends because you will need a LOT of Blackmail Photos.

Microsoft tries again with a new antivirus software

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Who has Microsoft Defender but thinks it’s a waste of space and memory resource? Apparently, a lot of people did and as a result, Microsoft discontinued the program last year as it prepares for its replacement.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antivirus as Microsoft takes another stab at the antivirus industry. It’s available now although in the beta stage still.

Unfortunately, it reached the maximum 75,000 beta testers and it’s not accepting downloads at the moment. So if you’re interested in giving it a go, better check back at a later time.

No worries, I probably wouldn’t use an antivirus created by Microsoft anyway. Why not make Windows less vulnerable to virus in the first place instead of creating an antivirus?

Find open jobs from your mafia in Mafia Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:59:00 +0000

If you’re playing Mafia Wars and have lots of members, sometimes you can’t keep up on who needs help with a job because of the spam you’re getting in your news feed.

Vern created this neat DoJobs bookmarklet that can go through all your mafia members and check whether they have an available job that you can do.

Simply drag DoJobs into your bookmark toolbar (Firefox and Chrome, no IE please). Go to your Gifting Page and click the bookmarklet. Select default values of 0 then sit back as it to does its thing.

This is pretty useful for those with a huge number of mafia and I would suggest running this script at least once a day.

Search for eBooks with eBook Search Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:08:00 +0000

Book Search Queen is a new search engine made specifically for finding eBooks scattered all over the web. It can search for eBooks and documents in PDF, PPT, TXT and RTF formats. If you don’t know the title of the book, you can search based on the text used.

So how does the search fare?

I tried the keyword ‘Harry Potter’ to search pdf format of the book. The search did not yield any of the sort but instead got me articles or research about Harry Potter with the top result going to Translating Harry Potter.

Next I used the keyword ‘Joomla’ hoping to find books about it. Probably something like Joomla for dummies. No luck either. I only got installation manuals and user’s guides which you can also find easily with Google.

Finally, I tried ‘technical architecture’ for my keyword with the hopes of finding examples that I can use for a document I am creating. Sure enough there are lots results in PPT and DOC format for technical architecture used in different industries.

From the looks of it, it’s basically a Google search that targets eBooks and documents but with a focus more on legally obtainable documents not subject to any copyright.

Wanna be an MTV Blogger?

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Got this on my mail from Nuffnang and figured you might be interested.

MTV is looking for current, original and talented bloggers possessing the flair for writing to be voices of today's youth. If you are an inspired wordsmith in tune with what's hot and what's not in entertainment, this could be the big break for you!

As an official MTV Blogger, you'll manage your own blog calendar, meet celebrities, travel and cover exclusive MTV events.

There’s no actual requirement listed but this job is for MTV Asia and there’s a field for a blog URL (not a required field) on the entry form.

They’re looking for 4 official MTV Bloggers and I’m guessing each with its own field. Celebrities, Fashion, Tech and Entertainment.

So what’s in store if you’re chosen?

Monthly allowance of US$500
Cool Puma apparel
Invitations to exclusive MTV events
Interview opportunities with industry movers and shakers
Preview and try out new gadgets
Full press privileges and access as accorded to an MTV staff

Nice huh? Hurry up cause deadline of entries is on June 30. You can find the entry form here and I think you also need to sign up for an MTV Asia account.

Where to read free manga online

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:16:00 +0000

If you’re like countless of others who enjoy reading mangas (anime comics) then you would be glad to know (that is if you don’t already know) that there are sites where you can read them for free.

One Manga is the first choice to read mangas online. They post daily updates and they have a very wide collection of mangas. Their reader is simple and very easy to use and those with monitors with huge resolution would have no problem reading mangas from the site.

If for some reasone One Manga is down or it is blocked from your connection, you can also check out Manga Hut which works similarly as One Manga.

Remember to read the panels from right to left!

Largest capacity flash drive belongs to Kingston at 128GB

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:45:00 +0000

Kingston recently rolled out a flash drive with what is now has the largest capacity at 128GB. The new DataTraveler 200 comes in 32GB, 64Gb and a whopping 128GB.

I remember owning my first flash drive that can only accommodate a measly 64MB and I’m already satisfied with my current 4GB flash drive. But 128GB?? That’s more than our external hard drive which only has 80GB.

It’s big alright but I doubt people will rush into buying one when they find out that it costs a hefty $546! Let’s see, at that cost I could buy a netbook or a 1TB external hard drive or even a DSLR. Better wait for the price to go down which should happen in just a few months.

Introducing the Asus Formula Series graphics card

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:04:00 +0000

If you’re building a very good computer then you would already know that the most expensive and powerful piece should be the graphics card. The new Asus Formula Series graphics card is another proof of that.

The housing of the Asus Formula Series graphics cards is built like an F1 racing card. It’s chassis effectively covers the card’s heat sinks and cooling fan. Asus claim that this will allow 7% improved airflow as well as keeping dust off the fan and can thereby extend the card’s lifespan up to 10,000 hours.

If there’s an F1 race car equivalent to graphics card, then the Asus Formula Series will be it, literally. Better look for a transparent CPU casing if you want to show this baby off.

Oh prepare to spend roughly from $100 to $500 too for this card.

Where to find serial numbers for your software

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Ssshh. I know this is illegal but if you’re the type of person who’s into doing things illegally like downloading or buying pirated software, you might find a need for these sites.

Here’s a couple of sites where you can find serial numbers for that downloaded software of yours to remove the trial limit. Or if you lost the box or case your CD comes with and you need to reinstall, try searching for a serial number here.

Serialz.to has been around for ages and I’m not sure if they’re still updated with new softwares. However, it is still a nice place to check for old serial numbers.
Serialbay is now the default choice for people who needs serial number for their new softwares including Windows and Microsoft Office licenses. Head here first.

That’s it for now. Use these sites at your own discretion.

What happened to my money in Mafia Wars Cuba?

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:10:00 +0000

If you log in to your Mafia Wars Cuba and go to the bank, you may notice that your money is greatly reduced to just about 2 million. My 40 million Cuban pesos in the bank went down to 2 mil.

Don’t worry it’s not a bug nor a hack. It’s just a way for Zynga to balance the game as they prepare to roll out Mafia Wars Cuba to all which I think is a good call on their part. At least your items and businesses are still intact.

Zynga announced that Mafia Wars Cuba will be open to all real soon. Here’s what it means for us players according to their forum:

Preview testers will get to keep all the items and businesses and enjoy the week-long head start that they got.
Gifting will be enabled for all Cuba loot and collections
Cuba items will be enabled for fighting in NY

Can’t wait for Mafia Wars Cuba to be available to everyone.

Handy site for special character reference

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:33:00 +0000

So you’re typing an e-mail but realized that you need to use the character “ñ” for a name. What do you do?

You can look for it in Windows’ Character Map which can take you millions of clicks to find (you can type ‘charmap’ in Run). You can also run MS Word and do an Insert Symbol then copy it to your e-mail. Or you can simply visit Copy Paste Character.

The site is very straightforward to use. Look for a character that you want to use. Click on it and it will be automatically stored in the clipboard ready to be pasted on whatever document you’re making.

Check it out and have it bookmarked.

Mafia Wars Cuba: Convert your US dollars in Cuban pesos

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:07:00 +0000

UPDATE: This does not work anymore. Zynga already fixed this before Cuba went public.

If you’re tired of fighting mafias in order to get a few pesos in Mafia Wars: Cuba, here’s a trick on how to earn them C$’s very quickly. This is a loophole in the game so better act quickly before they fix it.

1. Make sure you are in NY with 32 million dollars on hand.

2. Next, click this link:

http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/remote/html_server.php?xw_controller=job&xw_exp_sig=297977e9bbe65f9379966a199a03e912&xw_time=1244466532&xw_action=buy_item&item=47&numBuy=1000

This allows you to buy 1000 Commercial Helicopters in Cuba from New York.

3. Now fly to Cuba and check your vehicle inventory. You should see 1000 choppers waiting for you.

4. Sell those choppers to earn 16 mil Cuban pesos.

It’s up to you what you want to do with those money. I suggest buying and upgrading all businesses then buy all item requirements for all jobs.

What’s new with the new iPhone 3G S

noreply@blogger.com (Calvin) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:01:00 +0000

A couple of days ago during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple SVP Phil Schiller announced the new iPhone 3G S which he claims is the “most poweful, fastest iPhone” they’ve ever made.

Before you rush in to upgrade your old iPhone, you might want to know what’s new with the iPhone 3G S:

3 megapixel camera. The camera got bumped from 2MP and now has auto-focus, auto exposure and can also record video.
It is expected to be twice as fast as the iPhone 3G. Faster app launching and faster web browsing.
It now supports voice-activated calls
Improved battery life. Apple promises 3 more hours of web browsing or six more hours of audio. Talk time remains at 5 hours though.
Digital compass. I guess they also improved the accelerometer on this one.
MMS. Finally!
Laptop tethering. What’s the point of a 3G phone if you can’t share it on your laptop right?

The look and feel for the 3G S remains the same as that of the old iPhone and the price will be $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB. The iPhone 3G S is slated to be out on June 19, two days after the release of iPhone OS 3.0 update.