paul.vargas

All I wanted was a Black Flickr

2012-10-28T04:31:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago, I created a 500px account. I felt that this website is the next big thing when it comes to photo sharing.

I uploaded some of my old photos and to be honest, I was impressed by its take-up and visibility rate when a couple of strangers commented on my sets. That means those images that I just uploaded were highly visible to the public. 500px' home page highlights those photos that were recently uploaded. So far so good.

Yesterday, I went to Singapore Botanic Garden and when I got home I was so excited to upload all my new photos. Unfortunately, I reached its 10-photos-per-week limit.

I was a bit disappointed by the limit they imposed but then, it's a free service, beggars can't be choosers. The only way to remove this limit is to be an "Awesome" user by paying $49.95 per year.

I then compared it's price with Flickr. It's surprising to know that my old photo-sharing service with lots of subscribers is way cheaper than 500px. Flickr only charges you $24.95 per year, half the price of 500px.

So why did I switch to 500px? Was it because of the hype? Was it because of the web layout and color themes?

Flickr has tons of members and groups where you can ask questions and share your experience with regards to your DSLR and lenses. Developer APIs are stable and tech support are available.

After 2 weeks of using 500px, I feel that it only made me use it because of its black web layout. That's the only thing that's missing in Flickr.

I began to try out and change the Flickr color using Firebug tool and see if it will still look as ugly as it's white version. Judge for yourself.

If you ask me, the black version isn't bad at all. It just took me 5 minutes to modify the CSS and I know Flickr web designers can "re-dress" the layout better.

So now, I am calling out Flickr, please give us a new look and feel. Web 2.0 is so "old school". Change the web design, color schemes and it's layout. I'm sure some people also left you because of this factor.

By the way, here's my Flickr stream http://bit.ly/UU3gMO

It's cool to be a collie

2012-10-23T23:03:00.001+08:00

This is one of the photos that I took when I first bought my Canon 60D. It was taken using an 18-55mm kit lens. You can see more of my shots in http://500px.com/paulvargas.

Lizard at Work

2012-10-18T00:48:00.000+08:00

I just spotted this cute lizard in the vicinity of our office. Who would expect it to pose like a boss!?

Redirect or Point your Google App Engine to your naked domain

2012-10-14T01:20:00.002+08:00

Before I found this straight-forward solution, I had been trouble-shooting my Google App Engine for 3 weeks because I cannot point my application site to my naked domain (http://vargas.im).

You have a naked domain problem when your website cannot work without a www in front. So if you have mydomain.com as your domain, it can only be opened only by entering www.mydomain.com.

When someone enters only mydomain.com (notice the missing www in front) the error is shown.

Although there are a lot of articles on the web on how to fix this, these guides are not applicable for Google Apps anymore. Google has restricted this feature and the only way to do it was to put an A record in your DNS settings, which needs an IP address and not an alias.

Google cannot give us a specific IP address because they host their apps in different servers and it is difficult to maintain these service by hard-coded IP address.

Fortunately, I found an IP address that you can assign to your A record and it will redirect to the same domain with a www in front.

Just go to your domain hosting's admin page and look for the link where you can change your DNS Settings.

Set your "naked domain" (mydomain.com not www.mydomain.com) and point it to 174.129.25.170 and use A as its Record Type.

For some domain hosting provider, leaving the name empty or putting a @ will do as it automatically interprets it a naked domain.

After updating, have a tea break, wait for a few minutes, then test your website by typing your naked domain on your web browser.

How to obfuscate, cloak or hide your email address from spammers in your website

2012-10-14T00:04:00.001+08:00

Whenever you publish your email address on your website, it will be vulnerable to email harvesters and spammers. What they usually do is they use their own software that "crawls" over millions of websites and search and scan the all the texts and look for those words containing the email patterns.

A a typical HTML code for an email link would look like this:

<a href="mailto:myEmail@myDomain.com">myEmail@myDomain.com</a>

As a good practice, we have to make sure that email addresses that appear on your site are obfuscated or cloaked. In this way, only people can read it but not by bots and other web-crawlers.

Email addresses can be made un-readable to these software by not putting the email address directly as plain text. We can use the power of JavaScript to compose your email address.

I'll show you how we can do this by following these steps:

Step 1:

Create an anchor element and assign an ID to it. In this example, let's call it as as email_link.
Do not put your email address in this link. Let the JavaScript do it for you.

<a id="email_link" />

Step 2:

Create your JavaScript snippet in your window.onload. If you are using jQuery, put it in your document.ready section. Compose your email address by assigning it in email1 and email2 variables. In this example, my email address is myEmail@myDomain.com.

    <script type="text/javascript">

    window.onload = function() {


    var email1 = ["m", "y", "E", "m","a","i","l"];
    var email2 = ["m","y","D","o","m","a","i","n",".","c","o","m"]; 

    var encodedEmail = email1.join("") + "@" + email2.join("");

    var email_link = document.getElementById("email_link");

    email_link.innerHTML=encodedEmail;
    email_link.setAttribute("href","mailto:" + encodedEmail);

    };

    </script>

For those who are using jQuery, you can use the snippet below.

    <script type="text/javascript">

    $(document).ready(function() {

    var email1 = ["m", "y", "E", "m","a","i","l"];
    var email2 = ["m","y","D","o","m","a","i","n",".","c","o","m"]; 

    var encodedEmail = email1.join("") + "@" + email2.join("");

    var email_link = $("#email_link");

    $("#email_link").text(encodedEmail);
    $("#email_link").attr("href","mailto:" + encodedEmail);

    });

    </script>

This is, of course, not a fool-proof solution. Harvesters, bot makers and spammers enhance their skills and do their own research on how to better harvest your email address. This should just serve as your first line of defense.

Samsung Galaxy S III Mini - to be launched tomorrow, 11 Oct! Take a look at its features.

2012-10-10T21:35:00.001+08:00

Samsung will be unveiling their new product in Germany tomorrow (11 Oct). Head of Mobile Division JK Shin has confirmed that this new Galaxy S3 Mini will have a 4-inch display. This is their response to a huge demand of 4-inch screen phone in Europe.

Let's look at the difference between the original Galaxy S3 and it's younger brother, the Galaxy S3 Mini.

FEATURES	GALAXY S3	GALAXY S3 "mini"
Display	4.8 Super AMOLED	4.0 Super AMOLED
Pixel Resolution	1280 x 720	800 x 480
Processor	Exynos 4 quad core 1.4 Ghz	STE U8420 dual-core 1.0 Ghz
RAM	1 GB	1 GB
Camera	8 megapixels	5 megapixels
Storage	16, 32, or 64 GB Internal, microSD up to 64 GB	16 GB Internal, microSD up to 32 GB

Galaxy S3 Mini id an entry-level smartphone so we should expect the price to be cheaper than the larger S3
.
We'll wait and see tomorrow. Hopefully Apple won't sue them for using the word "Mini" :)

3D Printing : a new kind of piracy?

2012-10-06T22:33:00.001+08:00

I just watched a video on YouTube showing how to physically copy and reproduce a wrench (the tool that is used by plumbers like Super Mario) by just using a 3D printer.

This paradigm-shifting technology triggered a lot of interest from hobbyist, home makers, and even hackers. It will enable you to reproduce anything you want; from bolts and nuts, to chess pieces and toy parts (imagine not having to worry about losing your Lego parts?).

In the very near future, this technology, just like our pc, this will be available in each individual's home. This might help speed up our technological innovations and evolution. Creating prototypes of your inventions can now easily be done at the comfort of your "home lab" a.k.a. garage or basement.

While 3D printer in each home looks promising, some people are wary of its effect. What will happen to our manufacturing industry? Will they still survive if everyone can create their own phone casing or clothes hanger? How about 3D printing a gun? What will be it's impact on our society? Since this is a form of copying, will it also be categorized an act piracy.

Just like paper printers, CD maker machines, bit torrent, smart phones, and even nuclear power reactor, I just hope that we use all these technology for the good of our society.

2012-10-06T21:14:00.001+08:00

I wanted to share this with you: http://bbf.fbcxt.org/daily-devotions/current-blog/6716-saturday-6-oct-2012

Extend your android phone's battery life for at least 2 days.

2012-10-01T22:28:00.001+08:00

Wouldn't you wish that your phone could last for at least a day?

In this article, I will show you how I managed to keep my phone up and running for 2 straight days!

Just a proof that I'm not bluffing, here is my Galaxy S II phone's screenshot:

I did not charge it for as long as 2 days and 15 hours.

Now here are the steps on how I did it.

1. Disable all unwanted applications.

When you first bought your phone, it came with some "free" apps that you may not necessary need. They are also known as "bloatware". My phone came with pre-installed Weather Apps and some apps that were installed by my Telco.

I disabled all of them by going to Settings > Applications screen.
If you're not sure if it's safe to disable the application, you can ask me by sending your comments.

Here are some screenshots of the applications that I disabled. I have disabled Social Hub because I don't need it. I also disabled my Samsung account, Yahoo Finance, and Weather app.

2. Install Android Assistant

Android Assistant is packed with a lot of features. You'll be happy to know that it includes a Cache Cleaner, a Start up Manager and a Battery Saver. You can now uninstall your existing cache cleaner and history eraser apps. :)

Apart from having a feature that auto-boosts your phone memory, it also had a battery saver that you can customise. Screen display can really eat out your battery life. Set the display time out to as short as possible. This can set your display timeout time for as short as 6 seconds as compared to your phone's default battery saver.

3. Install Easy Battery Saver

Setting it to Intelligent Power Saving Mode is enough but if you are more adventurous, you can try the Advanced Customized Mode.

4. Switch off your GPS and Bluetooth when not in use.

This is basic. You only activate it when you need it. Otherwise, it will just eat out your precious battery.

Once you have tried these steps you will definitely experience a long battery life for your phone.

Leave a comment if these helped you.

Flickr vs Google+ Photos? How about 500px?

2012-09-12T12:18:00.000+08:00

It seems like there's not much going on in Flickr. It's been 2 years since I last registered to that site and nothing has changed to their features. Is Yahoo letting it die a natural death?

I also noticed that there's a lot of photo sharing websites that are sprouting like mushrooms. And they all look quite good and comparable to Flicker (and also Photobucket). I visited this website called 500px. This website is way slicker and was elegantly designed. By its dark background, it allows you to focus on the photos. You may want to try it.

Visual Studio 2012 – My first encounter with the Dark and Light Matter

2012-08-29T17:54:00.001+08:00

I just downloaded Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate from my MSDN Subscription. After 2 system restarts (yes, the installer will ask you to restart twice), I was surprised to see a very bright purple-grayish IDE.

Despite of all the cool features that it offers like Code Analyzer, Performance Diagnostic, integration with Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, and the faster connection with TFS, I am disappointed that MS guys decided to change the theme just to suit their “Metro” look-and-feel.

To be honest, I love the VS 2010 color hues. It’s just so sad that I have to use this flat bright color.

But hey, Microsoft is not stupid! They should have allowed the users to change the colors to personalize their IDE!.

So I eagerly checked the settings and I know it should be located at TOOLS > OPTIONS menu. Sorry, I’m not shouting. It’s just that the Visual Studio 20120 menus are in CAPITAL letters.

I found the option to change the Color Theme under the Environment > General of the TOOLS > OPTIONS menu. Unfortunately, you are only given with 2 options: either you choose the Light -- which is too bright for me, or the Dark -- which is a very dark gray.

I played around with it, did some coding, run some tests, and after 30 minutes of using it, my eyes felt a bit tired and seemed like i have a temporary color blindness.

I just hope, Microsoft reads this and do a patch to allow users to use VS 2010 theme in their VS 2012.

Other than that, I will still say Microsoft really did a good job.

Microsoft's SkyDrive vs Google’s GoogleDrive - which one whould you choose?

2012-08-29T14:16:00.001+08:00

I just compared the Terms of Service of these two giants. It was quite surprising to know that they have this contrasting Terms of Service:

Google’s GoogleDrive

“When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content."

Microsoft’s SkyDrive

"Except for material that we license to you, we don't claim ownership of the content you provide on the service. Your content remains your content. We also don't control, verify, or endorse the content that you and others make available on the service."

In choosing between these two services you have to consider all factors like platform dependence and support, cost, security, and of course their Terms of Service. I believe Microsoft's Terms of Service will convince a lot of users to use SkyDrive.

Visual Studio 2012 – New Ideas. New Solutions. New Tool

2012-08-17T15:29:00.000+08:00

I just attended a Microsoft seminar held at NTUC Centre at Marina Bay. They talked about the new Visual Studio 2012 and a bit of Windows 8.

Visual Studio 2012 is not just an IDE. It’s an integrated tool that helps you throughout the Application Lifecycle. You can even create storyboard!

One of the most interesting things about this product is the Code Analysis, Unit Testing and Load Testing feature.

Take a look of their very cool presentation slide.

Opening Remarks
Ziriad Saibi, Director Developer and Platform Evangelism

Developer Collaboration with Team Foundation Server 2012
Ervin Loh, Visual Studio ALM MVP, K365LABS Sdn Bhd

Agile Project Management with Visual Studio 2012
Colin Nah, Co-Founder, Biz Era.Net Pte Ltd

From Unit Testing to Load Testing: Visual Studio – Your Complete Testing Tool
Ervin Loh, Visual Studio ALM MVP, K365LABS Sdn Bhd

Ensure Code Quality in Your Project
Sandeep Joshi, Visual Studio ALM MVP

Building on Windows 8 using Visual Studio 2012
Hammad Rajjoub, Architect Evangelist

By the way, you can see the event photos here. I’m the one wearing pink shirt.

Automatically encrypt your ASP.NET Web.Config sections at runtime

2012-07-18T15:31:00.000+08:00

Today I will show you how to encrypt the web.config settings in your production server at runtime.
Take a look at the EncryptConfig snippet below. This will encrypt the connectionStrings, system.web/sessionState, and appSettings section of the web.config

   
 Private Sub EncryptConfig()  
   
     '1. Open the Web.Config for editing  
     Dim cfg As System.Configuration.Configuration = _  
     System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration(System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationVirtualPath)  
   
   
     '2. Add the configuration sections that you want to encrypt  
     Dim lSections As New Generic.List(Of String)  
     With lSections  
       .Add("connectionStrings")  
       .Add("system.web/sessionState")  
       .Add("appSettings")  
     End With  
   
     '3. Iterate each sections in the list that we added and encrypt it using DataProtectionConfigurationProvider  
     Dim section As ConfigurationSection  
     For Each s As String In lSections  
       section = cfg.GetSection(s)  
       If (Not section.SectionInformation.IsProtected) Then  
         section.SectionInformation.ProtectSection("DataProtectionConfigurationProvider")  
       End If  
     Next  
   
     '4. Save it!!   
     cfg.Save()  
   End Sub

We will then call this code in the Application_Start of the Global.asax file. This is the best place to put it since it is always triggered every time you update your web.config and run your page.

Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)  
       EncryptConfig()  
 End Sub

However, this will always be triggered even if it is hosted in your development environment. We have to make sure that the EncryptConfig will only run in your production server.

Let’s assume that my production server’s computer name is XXX01:

   
 Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)  
     If My.Computer.Name.Contains("XXX01") Then
         EncryptConfig()  
     End If  
 End Sub

You may be tempted to use Request.Url to check if it is running on your live site but unfortunately, Request object is not available yet in the Application_Start scope.

This is how your connectionStrings section will look like when you update your web.config and restart your application.

 <configuration>  
  <connectionStrings configProtectionProvider="DataProtectionConfigurationProvider">  
   <EncryptedData>  
    <CipherData>  
     <CipherValue>AQAAANCMnd8BFdERjHoAwE/Cl+sBAAAAAoxufDgh70iRkpmpvJlR+QQAAAACAAAAAAADZgAAwAAAABAAAACRoSDCeM4oKrAsEgIjlTXrAAAAAASAAACgAAAAEAAAAOd/Vw/vAnq5yLjJqRodywhwBQAAqqFr7oLlS+bETkUCR4J+yFnAHxQ9G9d2OZOz+97V9eVbS/Q/MEzULF9lA0ohCqODO4eKuPZTFq3GkG1sq7ivYc/yNoCi121iho6bKDks6dQAQ1vTtMZ1tKgwNRPlu23kBxyHffijXckQecqgxtyHwbjdWa9IwbpuL48KG+m9xf1FxDIFvMXCj76l/Rn+0TaYIvnhEZPg0Hoy1ipyVbHGoR26wEzw3Nq/mCao+AKx9Wu/SOJ82MHlzBjq9dhWQ5uBI0roqC5TIUa/x1nL6YD5sqL05zDgmW2mbue/4HD7zDWobrUuTQcpumhce7RUNzaRohsCdvkmv1GtCOFOnHx5ecN5FyRQ1f+moI2l7efeNmKd81IOkgKi+yhPNE1yVuPrGQIAde/bnJeooiV2MzIG4iwPY1CAK5UBNhsnaoxGInaKO/h1Lajotr4jpstx9qJFJ0ohmLkqfKYMI0PjHy4g9nXMFoWVeWymD1SKXM0MvDqXMYSI6cUR6ulpn/9tcvF7sUw3YcOlzRcpOjuQ2Hc00Wfs8UuECaaps0an2ake4oIrCGFmU1C86RN4hEA3gsyPWjhOeQZhMcRWwhzIm8Mh+f6pHbEhRPPN5ODZXDDxWy7LHxbc2Gtr65gKhvVUlYSy07uYjKFZ5Y7AEaCaLhizfr7xoXUZXNymFyEw/n1m6n1z0xXjiF6c4LnwpmRCnCJQ0vTXrXNJo0Jz6Vy+/x0yShVlbCqBfBzTpDJfGmGydAOC5w/dock378/OVSWp4rdLq18h+gZoya3NE1bZ/ooqiynkvvqVeVb2+Jd1L7y0EfwFOvEwHcYyL8SAlACWaDPjKjapR8EaLCJwqLTUwKd6Awd7gq2S/XlFDWgyw9jz04q3iSUkspZl+ey77kItPqb6WJ0zAYPWVjCNd5D0hAqA+AwLrkwJNO8YyH0pJhJAmlqk9UYFvdtQTbVsOyCGv+ROIfWoX6aQuhYCbPH8H7yanx5Rtzb09g1vGe5X+/94eFl17nE1dsuSOr7NwqX9BJm7gPemycuIvnae0wpiCZH7DelGCcf4MR0UVvRDj7jK7RIHNrNo25dz43pPqd8nPLLLekAJY4sONZSTwSF//GPOWvuh0YOtXFMb+UdOcy4htdJeF59OwWnbSoAXvZbqU8Txv/lRudeoP+2GMmBLACu3vZfygU+zrtOjIH+Vlkz81G6HjXxgErL3VKqfBa45azzi29YWe1xK1jFPS+MjQyn16a5crnEO5mcF8SQagVc8ptKHiqrGS0pYw3Hv+UQE4OgQGfWVSXgj61e5BvqtVWT15/M7lNmRJAH/9FbDuYlsfi9SAoCNjuzRd6kbjJ1V+Na6R+bc/ZiNSmQqMnu5I04owUVrhMfVfSJX6LQfZ1NaCLexTF3WVL2Gk0QU0wvmqD4Y06IP7QVus+rxSvyPj8tOo1TKQYCTzRZp5uEU4vgKcRPqC1wQKXuD+lUdyPaFIF5QjthD5APCrD5hK1guPK2akjdiLnF48Bzm4L3e1TQ+OcTHyy/jo+Da7zxq+Zfvc4PS5CJeKiXsAzyBB6Y6SYlviRzAe1DhWzpCXhLV506OHc5nwRLM+/YV3bV8fXcYAVIAPjxMyCi1yqRs10QVg0+HLaHXrvDmcq4TmiRpGgLzdjxKeAc8LI29KLKakexDUopIEzNkifD6fNbUA494d5yWOuCadFUQPp+smxNmrSuaKDhSBEGAHNTXiNcl1x/0bqOJ3FMaQ+WkOpNpmFV8/pndai800QHe7x0PS26Vgp53lM3u+Nh7H52aVhPQ5NaHJa5c/eH5mr/vHMKHtw/DU6G2m2NU5bF9sPn5Gb37rKM3o9Fq6V3jTdcxIJSILe18I+U3FAAAAM3dGAouh+HetpjILfTuut6AOhv4</CipherValue>  
    </CipherData>  
   </EncryptedData>  
  </connectionStrings>  
    
  ... other sections here  
  ... other sections here  
   
 </configuration>

I would suggest that you keep a local copy of your production site’s config file.