It's About Manny

Free Extra 2GB From Google Just by Performing a Security Check-Up

Manny — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 07:55:00 +0000

If you're a nerd like me, you might want to take advantage of this freebie: Google is offering to increase your storage by two gigabytes if you perform a security checkup in your account. The offer is open only until Feb 17, 2015.

If you don't it know yet, your Google account has a storage limit and initially you're given a 15GB allowance. This space is consumed by your emails, photos, and files, . 15GB of storage may be huge, but if you're a power user even with just one app, e.g. you send a lot of emails with attachments, or you use Google Drive regularly, then you can use up those free storage very easily. In my case though, I'm only using 2.38GB of my 25GB storage as shown in the above figure. You can check your available storage by visiting: https://www.google.com/settings/storage

How to do a security check-up:

1. Login to https://myaccount.google.com/

2. Click "GET STARTED" under Security checkup section

3. Complete the steps in the security check-up wizard

You're done! Google says the boxes should be all green for you to be eligible for the free upgrade. Once you're done, the additional 2GB will not immediately show in your account, you have to wait until Feb. 28, 2015; you'll also receive an email from Google regarding the adjustment in your storage space.

--
Related Google blogs:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/take-security-checkup-on-safer-internet.html
http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2015/02/safer-internet-day-2015.html

Can't login to my Yahoo Mail.. Yahoo is spacing out.

Manny — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 00:31:00 +0000

Seems Yahoo(tm) is having technical difficulties. I keep trying to login to my Yahoo Mail and it keeps logging me out. I feel like a program stuck in an infinite loop!

Yahoo has released an official notice:

Important Notice: Damaged undersea cable may affect some Yahoo services - Yahoo services have been impacted by the cutting of an undersea cable operated by a third party. We have taken steps to mitigate the impact including re-routing traffic. However, it's possible that you may experience latency or login looping across our services. We apologize for the inconvenience .

Yahoo Mail's downtime is killing me! I hope this gets fixed soon. I need to use my Yahoo account A.S.A.P. Even my Yahoo iPhone app logged me out. Side note: can't believe I'm still using my high school email, manuel_igop hahaha! Very professional.

Format NSString to left pad zeroes in Objective C

Manny — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:49:00 +0000

01, 02, 03, 04, 05..

int num = 1;
[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%02d", num];

001, 002, 003, 004, 005..

[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%03d", num];

0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005..

[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%04d", num];

You get the pattern? Good!

Anywhere Pad, the Board Portal Software for iPads and Android Tablets

Manny — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:48:00 +0000

Around a year ago, I wrote about Anywhere Pad, particularly about its new design. That blog entry was more of a test than anything else, but I thought of doing a follow-up post because a lot has happened since I published the first one.

Yes, I'm still affiliated with the product, but I can say with only a tiny hint of bias that Anywhere Pad has significantly improved from the first time I featured it here.

Aside from the continuous enhancements we've been adding to refine Anywhere Pad's usability, we also made it more streamlined by aligning the Android version with the iOS version. Our goal is to give directors and administrators the same user experience whether they're using an iPad or Android tablet. It's not enough that Anywhere Pad works on Android and iOS. We want it to work just as well for either platform so whatever you choose, you get to enjoy all the benefits and conveniences offered by Anywhere Pad.

This move is in response to the fact that many organizations are now adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. We realize the policy won't be effective unless people have the freedom to choose whatever device to use; but with most board portal vendors offering board portal solutions for iPad use only, administrators and directors have no choice but to switch to iOS tablets if they aren't already using one yet. Don't get me wrong – iPads are great gadgets. But there are a lot of folks who prefer to use Android devices (which are great gadgets, too) so it only makes sense that they get choice in the matter as well.

Thus, we made Anywhere Pad a viable Android board portal solution for enterprise use. With stringent security features such as AES-256 network encryption, AES-128 document encryption, 2048-bit SSL, ISO 27001 (AWS EC2), on-the-fly decryption, automatic purge for lost devices, audit logging, and fine-grained access control, Anywhere Pad can effectively safeguard confidential information from malicious attacks and unauthorized access, whether the threat is internal or external.

Aside from security, we also beefed up the real-paper feel directors have been looking for in a board portal solution. The freehand annotation feature allows users to write comments using their own hand or stylus, while the whiteboard lets them draw diagrams (and even doodles) and map out processes.

To learn more about Anywhere Pad and its capabilities, request for a demo or quote.

Hello Stranger (on CouchSurfing)

Manny — Fri, 09 May 2014 00:55:00 +0000

So I've been trying CouchSurfing for a while now. For those who don't know, CouchSurfing is a social networking site where travelers can either surf or host. To surf is to live in someone else's home when you're in another country, and to host is to accommodate a traveler in your place. Most of the time it's free, at least for my place it is. I read a few hosts who charge a small fee but I'm not into that. So what's in it for me.. hmmm.. I genuinely just want to mingle with people of different culture. Plus I'm single and bored, so it's one of the many things I do to keep myself busy. I'm not really looking for anything more (if you know what I mean.. still don't know what I'm talking about? SEX!). I read there are cases that hosts expect it from surfers, or it's somehow given, so it's a bit scary for girls.

I'm glad several foreigners have already trusted me with their "life", yes life, because it's not easy to trust a stranger. Imagine living in a home where you knew nothing about the person / people living there. They could be bad guys, a serial killer, rapist, or, worse, a vegetarian! But I think this is the beauty of couchsurfing, it brings my faith back in humanity; it reminds me that many people are still inherently good; a timely break from Philippine politics.

I have hosted three times. The first was Silver, a Vietnamese, second were Mandy and Danny, both Chinese, and the last were Namie and Lala, both Vietnamese. And so far I really enjoyed my time with them, especially sharing views and knowing more about their culture and country. I enjoy life talks a lot, but I usually don't have this kind of conversation with friends. Maybe if we're really close or you're an open-minded person. Many are into basketball, show business news, rumors and gossips but that's just not me.. not at all. I like to talk about culture, experiences, social theories, human behaviors, love and the likes. This is my small talk, and I'm glad I get to talk to my cs friends til dawn about this stuff.

The only negative thing I see so far is the goodbye part. Contrary to popular belief, I get attached easily and I hate it when people leave; people always leave (but sometimes they come back - Peyton, OTH lol, I'm a girly guy. I like TV series with good love story, and I love the songs and quotes from them too, haha!).

I'll probably try CouchSurfing in October when I'm in Thailand. I'd like to experience surfing, and sleeping in someone else's couch / bed just for experience. Hopefully, I'll make new friends along the way.

When your greatest hangup beats you to save the date

Manny — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 20:14:00 +0000

This is inspired by a thought catalog article shared to me by one of my friends.
--

When your greatest hangup beats you to save the date

Nothing will ever prepare you for the emotions that come pouring in from knowing that the person whom you loved the most is about to get married.

[The calm before the storm]
The initial feeling may be very peaceful, like a breath of fresh air knowing that she's happily treading through life with someone she loves. But brace yourself because this feeling is as temporary as the recent political scandals in the Philippines.

[Heartbreak all over again]
When things sink in, you'll initially feel a bit of a sting. A tiny but significant cut inside your heart that leaves an open wound. That "someone" she's with, who you probably considered a friend, becomes someone you barely know, until he becomes someone you don't like at all: the epitome of someone you're not because she chose him and not you.

You'll try to ignore the feeling and fail, of course, because every cell in your body is protesting against the thought of her spending the rest of her life with someone else. You'll rationalize that all those years of moving on and being clinically insane have guarded your heart and taught you to be strong and resilient. You'll bang your head against the wall because, by now, you should have already moved on... You should have, but you didn't. After countless nights of meditating and analyzing love and life, you disappointingly find yourself back to square one. Like you learned nothing at all. And that's how probably love is: the more you know, the less you understand.

You won't expect anyone to get what you're going through. Your family might not even know she's getting married. You'll try to tell your friends but many won't understand. Some will try to console you. Some will laugh at you or with you. Sometimes you will break down and cry in front of them and you'll feel they are but spectators; only curious, nothing more. You're very fortunate if a handful can make you feel better. And there will be that one friend who'll almost understand what you're going through. He or she, along with the handful, will be your sanity.

[When will it ever stop]
And after the perennial moving on drama from the time she was engaged, you'll find yourself in another predicament, or rather a milestone.. The Wedding Day. You thought that what you felt was a fluke, a freak of nature, but little did you know, nothing has prepared you for arguably the most miserable day of your life yet.

You know when and where it will happen, but you won't do anything. It's the point in time when your point became pointless. When you've already reconciled with yourself that you and her are never gonna happen.

You thought the experience of every cell in your body protesting was bad enough, now every square inch of your humanity is fighting for freedom. Shackled by chains of despair inflicted by no one but yourself. You want to do something.. Probably something crazy in both celebration and protest to the birth of a new beginning: her new life where you can't do anything about it anymore, at least not legally and Godly.

[It's beyond reasonable doubt]
You'll sing to the melody of your favorite song because somebody almost owns her now, and you'll try to live somehow; make peace and just accept.. That's Life and Not Love. You'll probably arrive at the most logical conclusion: this is nothing but a mental disorder.

Finally, from this meandering experience, you'll crack a half smile from one life-changing epiphany: the only person who truly understands you is a stranger who blogs a gazilion miles away. All of a sudden, life is "normal" again. :)

courtesy of xkcd.com

The Moonshine Mishap

Manny — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:55:00 +0000

This article has been updated to reflect the awesome actions done by Moonshine.

This is not a review of the Moonshine Bar and Restaurant in Makati. It's just a minor rant. Okay, maybe I'll add in some review.

The Good

The first time I went to Moonshine Bar I was so delighted that I gave a compliment to the owner of the restaurant. Their cocktails, even though a little expensive, are quite good. The salmon I ordered was perfectly cooked. I like the ambiance too and the playlist. The place is located beside Distillery, Jupiter.

The 2nd or 3rd time we were there was last week when we partied til dawn in Moonshine, and it was fun; maybe a bit too much because I left my credit card. I wasn't aware of it until a friend of mine called to tell me.

Today, I visited Makati again to get my credit card from Moonshine. I invited my friend for a couple of drinks.. it was supposed to be just another laid back Thursday night. We went there and it was empty. I thought, great! Some peace and quiet. I got my credit card and we ordered some drinks.

[Update] Moonshine apologized for what happened. I think there was a miscommunication between the upper management and the staff. See more details below.

The Mishap

We were supposed to go to a coffee shop after because I needed to copy an installer and try a game we researched about. Then we saw that there's an outlet near the table.. we decided to open our laptops and try the game since there weren't much people anyway, and it is to my judgement that we weren't bothering anyone in doing so; I think there was only one group outside, and a couple in another table. That was it.

We were even assisted by a waiter when we plugged in our laptops. He joked that it was P120. Actually I didn't mind if we pay, but he said he was just joking. When we finished our first drink, we ordered another round. After a while, I noticed one waiter (or not sure if he's the manager) was regularly checking our bottles. I was a bit annoyed. It didn't stop there, he started asking us if we'll order some more even though we were only half way through our drinks.

I felt it was kind of rude. Maybe the way it was said, I felt that they were implicitly telling us we weren't paying enough to justify the use of our laptops; I also didn't like the tone how it was articulated. I would understand if there were people waiting for a table, but even so, it was still rude. And if that's the case, we'd be sensitive enough not to use our laptops esp. if there are many customers. He was also inconsistent.. after a while, he suddenly said we weren't allowed to use our laptops, then I asked him to reiterate what he just said because I was quite confused. Then he changed the topic that we should just order more. I said, if we weren't allowed to use our laptops then why assist us in the first place, why not just said that we weren't allowed to do so. So what is it really then?

I'm disappointed with what happened so we just left. I was supposed to order some more because I was getting hungry, but after the incident, I lost my appetite. I think staff in general like in restaurants, malls, etc should have more training. Training for being polite, avoiding unnecessary comments, avoiding being rude to customers, being articulate and explaining policies in a way that's not offensive.

Faith in humanity restored

On the bright side, I'm glad how Moonshine handled the situation after. They were very apologetic and they explained (clearly, this time) what happened. I'm satisfied with the explanation, because at the end of the day, it's better to get a clear image of what really happened. Like was there a policy prohibiting the use of laptops in the restaurant or why were we troubled persistently with petty annoyances.

My sincerest appreciation goes to Renz Mediarito of Moonshine for taking precise actions to what happened. My faith in humanity is restored. I still like the place and will definitely go back and recommend it to people I know.

You can have multiple Paypal accounts

Manny — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 13:37:00 +0000

There are times when you want two Paypal accounts, e.g. you currently have a personal account but you want another account to handle your business or premier account. For this case, Paypal is allowing an individual to have two accounts: one personal and one premiere / business account.

However, you can't register the same credit card in more than account. For this you have to use a separate credit card, or remove the previous one and register it to the new account.

In summary, it's not illegal to own multiple Paypal accounts.

From their help center:
Yes. You can have one Personal account and one Premier or Business account. You can add more email addresses, debit or credit cards, and bank accounts to your account, but each account must have its own email address and financial information. You can also upgrade your Personal account to a Premier or Business account.

I feel deceived by Globe's Unlimited LTE Plan

Manny — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:31:00 +0000

[Update] You can sign the petition for Globe to remove the capping here. Thanks JP for sharing the link.

Last year when iPhone 5 was released, I subscribed to Globe's 1,799 postpaid plan because it promised Unlimited LTE to its iPhone 5 users. All of a sudden, Globe released a fair usage policy (FUP). What happened was my unlimited LTE data became limited to 3GB per month.

It's stated in Globe's FUP that Mobile surfing offers from Globe are generally meant for emailing, browsing and search activities. Seems awfully strange to read that line after I was offered an unlimited 42mbps data plan.

I asked Globe if I can downgrade my plan but they said I have to pay since I'm currently locked in. I replied, "Shouldn't it be free because you changed your policy / advertisement?" They said they will "sort and iron out the details." So for the mean time, I wait. So while I wait, I will write

I want to downgrade because I'd like to get a DSL instead with no nonsense capping, and I'm okay that I can only use it at home, at least it's unlimited. Globe's unlimited LTE is not worth it anymore, I'm more than satisfied with powersurf 99 if I can't use my unli data plan for downloading and streaming.

I'm actually not against capping, I'm against extreme capping! Firstly, the 3GB a month, that's way too small, and next is the sudden drop in speed; from LTE's 42mbps theoretical speed, my connection speed will be downgraded to 2G (~50kbps-200kbps). So from around 44,000,000 bits/second down to 51,000 bits/s? A 99.9% loss?! (That's worse than the Philippine stock market!)

It would be more acceptable if my LTE connection were to be downgraded to 3G. Anyway, I don't know which committee should decide on this, is it the NTC or the 'madlang people'? Nevertheless, I feel deceived by Globe's false advertisement.

The cartoon below summarizes how I'm feeling about Globe's FUP.

Click the image for full size.
Credits to Sir Roy for the rotten banana logic and convo.

I intentionally wrote Unlimited LTE instead of Unlimited Data Plan even though fewer people can relate to it. Unli data is not a compelling argument since Globe is insisting that the data is still unlimited. So my argument is why advertise unlimited LTE when it's not really unlimited?

How to know if a credit card is Visa or Mastercard

Manny — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 10:41:00 +0000

In certain cases, it's crucial a credit card's issuer type.

You can identify the type by looking at the first few numbers of your credit card:

Visa starts with 4.
MasterCard starts with 51-55.
Diner's club starts with 36 / 38.
Discover starts with 6011 / 65.
JCB starts with 35.
American Express starts with 34 / 37.

Source: Wikipedia

Consider my case: My friend bought an item for me. She asked me to pay her back by depositing the money to her credit card. I was given the credit card number (even though this is not secure) and the bank's name. When I went to my online payment, I registered the card but it asked me if it's Visa or Mastercard. My friend is not available and there's a cut off time so I need to know immediately.

[Solved] Error in npm install from a github url

Manny — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:51:00 +0000

If you're like me who's used to executing "git clone [github url]" then you may encounter an unusual behavior when using "npm install [github url]" or specifying the git repository inside package.json.

Here's a sample error of using npm install [github path]:

E:\progs\workspace\tmp>npm install https://github.com/mannyvergel/oils-js.git
npm http GET https://github.com/mannyvergel/oils-js.git
npm http 200 https://github.com/mannyvergel/oils-js.git
npm ERR! not a package C:\Users\Manny\AppData\Local\Temp\npm-5216\1390883860006-
0.930888706818223\tmp.tgz
npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, open 'C:\Users\Manny\AppData\Local\Temp\npm-5216\1390883
860006-0.930888706818223\package\package.json'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <npm-@googlegroups.com>

npm ERR! System Windows_NT 6.2.9200
npm ERR! command "E:\\progs\\nodejs0.10.7\\\\node.exe" "E:\\progs\\nodejs0.10.7\
\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "install" "https://github.com/mannyvergel/o
ils-js.git"
npm ERR! cwd E:\progs\workspace\tmp
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.7
npm ERR! npm -v 1.2.21
npm ERR! path C:\Users\Manny\AppData\Local\Temp\npm-5216\1390883860006-0.9308887
06818223\package\package.json
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     E:\progs\workspace\tmp\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

The solution is very simple, just prefix your github url with "git+" e.g.

git+https://github.com/mannyvergel/oils-js.git

Use the format in your package.json or npm install, e.g.

npm install git+https://github.com/mannyvergel/oils-js.git

[Solved] NodeUnit does not finish when connected to Mongo DB

Manny — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 17:47:00 +0000

When running NodeUnit tests and your tests are connected to Mongo DB, the tests do not end and it just hangs there. The fix is to close the connection on NodeUnit's tearDown function.

Example below is using Mongoose' disconnect function to close the connection after NodeUnit tests are done:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
exports.tearDown = function(ok){
    mongoose.disconnect(function(err){
        if(err) {
            console.error(err);
            return;
        }
    });
    ok();
};

How to create and apply a patch from an SVN Commit

Manny — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 17:19:00 +0000

In subversion, there are cases that you may want to apply the same commit to another folder. E.g. you have a similar branch of your source code and you have committed the changes in your main branch. For this case, rather than copying your codes manually, you can create a patch from your SVN commit and apply it to another directory using the ff:

Create a patch from your commit, get the difference between two svn commits. Usually it's just your [desired commit #] minus one:

svn diff -r [reference commit]:[desired commit] > [filename]

e.g.

svn diff -r 9714:9715 > 9715.patch

Copy the patch file to the directory you want to apply it and go to that directory in the command line and type:

patch -p0 < [filename]

e.g.

patch -p0 < 9715.patch

[Solved] 403 Status Code on Twitter API

Manny — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:40:00 +0000

As of January 14, I was surprised to see that my code that uses Twitter API to post tweets does not work anymore. Then I saw the announcement that they now require https for all connections, so my change is quite simple:

From:

http://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json

To:

https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json

Apple Store Philippines goes on sale!

Manny — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:12:00 +0000

Apple Store Philippines goes on one-day sale across the board today, January 10, 2014. All items are on sale!

It is worth noting that the sale is around 6-20% off the original price and you'll save more on lower end items. *Hmmm.. what to buy... what to buy*

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
iPad Mini Retina	P19,080	P20,490	P1,410	6.9%
iPad Air	P23,480	P25,490	P2,010	7.9%
iPad Mini	P14,480	P15,490	P1,010	6.5%
iPad 2	P17,580	P18,990	P1,410	7.4%

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
MacBook Air	P44,980	P49,990	P5,010	10%
iMac	P62,980	P67,990	P5,010	7.4%
MacBook Pro Retina	P62,980	P67,990	P5,010	7.4%
MacBook Pro	P54,980	P59,990	P5,010	8.3%

Item	Starting From	Before	Save	% Off
iPod Nano	P7,680	P8,290	P610	7.4%
iPod Touch	P15,080	P16,490	P1,410	8.6%
Apple TV	P3,980	P4,990	P1,010	20%

Path to iPhone Simulator files in Mac OS X Mavericks, Xcode 5

Manny — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 12:12:00 +0000

You should start looking in:

/Users/[current user]/Library/iPhone Simulator/

If you can't see the Library folder in Finder, click here how to show hidden files and folders in Mac OS X.

To access the applications in the Simulator, pick the iOS version you are using e.g.:

/Users/[current user]/Library/iPhone Simulator/6.1

Go to Applications folder and pick the hashed folder name that contains your application e.g.

/Users/[current user]/Library/iPhone Simulator/6.1/Applications/2ABAAFD5-71B0-478A-BEBD-13BA56AA03D7

For the SQLite Database, it should be inside the "Documents" folder with the extension ".sqlite" e.g.:

/Users/[current user]/Library/iPhone Simulator/6.1/Applications/2ABAAFD5-71B0-478A-BEBD-13BA56AA03D7/Documents/myapp.sqlite

You can use Liya app (it's free) to open the sqlite database.

Show all hidden files and folders Mac OS X Finder

Manny — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 11:50:00 +0000

If you can't see the hidden files in Mac OS X's Finder, execute the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true

killall Finder

Perspective. Just do what you love.

Manny — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 00:08:00 +0000

An affirmation

I had a chance to meet a friend of a friend who affirmed my passion and encouraged me to live life; it is comforting. I think the problem with me is when I decide on something, I do it immediately and do not think much of the consequences; I'm spontaneous like that. Not even sure if it's really a problem; most of the time it works for me, but sometimes, I hurt people along the way.

God has weird sense of humor

Life has a funny way of telling you she's there, if it's God who does that, I'd like to understand more about his sense of humor because as much as what happened to me was painful, it's also ridiculously funny when I think about it.

For a while, I got lost in my comfort zone; I have a good job, made plans, I saved, I invested. For several years, it is as if life is going according to way I planned it to be. I thought I had a clear understanding of where I was and where I wanted to be (well for the most part) until an unfortunate event happened. Life, as I knew it, became meaningless.

When my savings got almost wiped out, I thought to myself, wow.. just like that, years of hard work were zapped in less than a month. Worse, I didn't spend it on myself, or on someone I love.. I spent it on someone who I hated almost my entire conscious life.

Take me back to the start

Today, I feel that I just want to travel for a while, get lost, and hopefully be found again. My plans are ruined anyway, so what else am I to do but just adapt to the situation. Several times, I don't know whether to cry or to laugh at what life has given me; it is the kind that can make you snap and lose touch of reality. We have different ways of coping, but the important thing is we do cope eventually and move on with our life.

Anyway, I love good food and adding culture to my personality, so I bet mingling with different races will be a win-win situation for me. Plus, I may not have the chance to do this in the future. I'm 28, and everyone around me is either getting married or having children. But instead of being pressured to settle down, I'll do the opposite. I'm going to do just whatever the hell I like. This is my way of suicide.

A song playing in my head right now is Scientist by Coldplay.. specifically the line "Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it will be this hard.. so take me back to the start". I just want to go back to the start when everything was simple. I know the line was taken out of context, haha!

Why I can't upgrade my Openshift account to a paid one [Updated]

Manny — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 16:10:00 +0000

[Update 19 March 2014] Openshift has just introduced a new plan: Bronze plan! Which costs $0 to maintain and you have options to place add-ons. This is great news!
--

Openshift is a great platform to host your web application. I like the the way it was designed, allowing the community to contribute. I like its performance and up time. Another great thing about Openshift is the free account; you start with 3 small gears, 512MB RAM and 1GB storage and unlimited bandwidth which is good enough for a small start-up website.

What's the problem with Openshift?
I find its pricing plan unusual. If you're on FreeShift, you cannot add resources (like storage, RAM, etc).. not until you upgrade to Silver Plan. So from $0 per month, your next option is already the Silver plan which is $20 per month + resource usage costs.

I find this extremely strange why you're forced to have a minimum of $20 per month before you can add resources. It's expensive, where as Digital Ocean offers 20GB of storage space 512MB RAM for $5 per month; only downside is the 1TB bandwidth limitation.

There's already a feature request to add a pay-as-you-go storage for FreeShift but no update yet when it will be implemented.

[Solved] How to make iOS Simulator choose Wi-Fi Connection

Manny — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Depending on your configuration, you may notice that the iPad or iPhone simulator uses the LAN connection. One workaround is to unplug your ethernet cable so that the simulator will be forced to use WiFi, but if you don't want to do this every time, you may also try the following configuration below:

1. Go to Network Preferences

2. Click the Gear icon and choose "Set Service Order"

3. Move the Wi-Fi service on top of Ethernet service.

You can restart the simulator and see if it uses the Wi-Fi connection.

[Workarounds] iOS7 iPhone not charging using 3rd party cable

Manny — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:55:00 +0000

If you've used an Apple device, you'd also know that their accessories are very expensive. One lightning cable will cost you around ~1,000 PhP (~23 USD) and that doesn't include the charger you plug on the outlet.

If you're like me, you'd keep a separate charger in the office because you don't want to carry your lifeline all the time. If you have a car you'd probably place another one there too. My setup is to keep the original charger at home and buy cheaper ones for emergency use.

In CDR-King you can buy a third party lightning cable for P150 (~3 USD). Prior to iOS 7, the third party cable worked perfectly, even the data is working. After I upgraded to iOS 7, a message is displayed "This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone" and you have no option but to dismiss the notice. The phone displays a charging icon (lightning) but it's not really charging as the battery continues to drain.

Searching the internet, people try different things and this post will consolidate the workarounds to make third party cables work. ~~None of them worked for me so far (though I haven't tried jailbreaking)~~, so if you know know another work around, please post it in the comment section below.

[Update] Workaround 3B worked for me.

Workaround 1: Plug - Unlock - Plug again

This came from a reddit post.

Turn on USB power
Plug in lightning cable to iPhone
Dismiss any warnings
Unlock your iPhone.
Dismiss any remaining warnings.
Now with the screen turned on.
Unplug the knock off lightning cable.
Plug it back in.
Dismiss warning again
It should now charge

Workaround 2: Taking the sim out.

This is from a post in Apple forum.

Take the sim card out of the phone and try charging it.

Workaround 3A: Turn off your phone

This is a comment in the mobileburn post.

Plug the cable then turn off your iOS Device. Says, it should charge while your phone is turned off.

Workaround 3B: Plugin right before the phone turns off

This is a variation of Workaround 3A. I'm not sure what's the difference but I managed to increase my battery percentage by doing this.

Hold the lock button, then slide to turn off your phone. When you see the black screen with the busy wheel icon, immediately plugin the cable. You can't see any progress or use your phone, but after a while when you turn in on, it should have a higher juice. For emergency situations, this is better than nothing.

Workaround 4: Jailbreak iOS 7

This is just a possibility, an idea from a commentator in iphonehacks post that jailbreaking your iPhone might allow to bypass the security in using fake chargers.

How to update regular Eclipse Kepler to Java EE [WTP, Webtools]

Manny — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 10:13:00 +0000

If you're like me who downloaded the Standard Edition of Eclipse in the hopes of saving space and maybe performance (Because I was supposed to just use it as a CVS client for Mac OS), then you'll also realize later that you should've downloaded the Java EE version instead because Eclipse's Web Tools Platform is very useful.

I tried the Eclipse Market Place and the Install New Version menu (using existing update sites) to no avail.

If you tried searching the web how to update Eclipse to J2EE version without downloading the entire Eclipse again, then it is most likely that you've probably ended up in an outdated documentation pointing to an old Webtools repository.

To cut to the chase, to add Webtools Platform (WTP) to Eclipse Kepler, go to Help > Install New Software

Add http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/repository/kepler/ to Location and Name it whatever you like e.g. Webtools Kepler. Check the Web Tools Platform and update your Eclipse. After installation you should now have the Java EE perspective and the various editors for Javascript, HTML, CSS, and other web components.

For other version of Eclipse, it's will highly likely follow the pattern
http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/repository/[eclipse_name]/

Official Philippine Holidays of 2013

Manny — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 08:28:00 +0000

This is more of a note to self since I keep asking "Kailan ba walang pasok? Kailan ba walang work? Kailan ba walang trading? (Sa stocks)".

01 January 2013 – New Year’s Day (Regular Holiday)

25 February 2013 – EDSA Revolution anniversary (Holiday for all schools)

28 March 2013 – Maundy Thursday (Regular Holiday)

29 March 2013 – Good Friday (Regular Holiday)

30 March 2013 – Black Saturday (Special non-working day)

09 April 2013 – Araw ng Kagitingan (Regular Holiday)

01 May 2013 – Labor Day (Regular Holiday)

13 May 2013 – Election day (Special public non-working holiday){{2}}

12 June 2013 – Independence Day (Regular Holiday)

09 August 2013 - Eid’l Fitr (Regular Holiday){{3}}

21 August 2013 – Ninoy Aquino Day (Special non-working day)

26 August 2013 – National Heroes Day (Regular Holiday)

15 October 2013 – Feast of Sacrifice (Eid'l Adha)

28 October 2013 – Barangay Elections

01 November 2013 – All Saints Day (Special non-working day)

02 November 2013 – Additional special (non-working) day

30 November 2013 – Bonifacio Day (Regular Holiday)

24 December 2013 - Additional special (non-working) day

25 December 2013 – Christmas Day (Regular Holiday)

30 December 2013 – Rizal Day (Regular Holiday)

31 December 2013 – Last day of the year (Special non-working day)

[Solved] Can't update iPhone to iOS7?

Manny — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:16:00 +0000

If your iPhone 5 cannot detect the iOS 7 update then a quick solution might work for you.

Take note that this has not been tested with devices prior to iPhone 5.

The solution: Just restart your iPhone!

How to restart iPhone without using the power button

Manny — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 09:54:00 +0000

If for some reason you cannot use your iPhone's physical power button, then you might be wondering how to do it inside the iOS operating system. Maybe you'll think that Siri can do it, but unfortunately officially Siri can't turn your iPhone off for you (at least not yet).

An alternative way to turn off your iPhone (or iPad or any iOS device) is to use the assistive touch and press and hold the "Lock Screen" accessibility button.

If you haven't turned on your Accessibility setting, you can do so by going to Settings > General > Accessbility > Assistive Touch and sliding the switch button to "On".

You can now turn off your iPhone by clicking the assistive touch button and going to "Device" then pressing and holding the "Lock Screen" accessibility button.

[Solved] Smooth Div Scrolling in iPad Browser (or iPhone / iOS Devices)

Manny — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 12:18:00 +0000

If you have a scrollable div using overflow: auto or overflow: scroll, you will notice that the scroll is slow or choppy. To make the inline scroll smooth, just add the following in your css class:

-webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;

E.g.

#SCROLLABLE_DIV {
  height: 300px;
  overflow: auto;
  -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
}

[Solved, Mac OS X] Disable web security in Chrome

Manny — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 10:49:00 +0000

Execute this in terminal:

open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/ --args --disable-web-security

I use the above settings when testing Backbone JS + Require JS + Underscore JS + Text Plugin to read files from file system. Google Chrome won't allow it unless the above parameter is set. This is also related to disabling Chrome's Same Origin Policy.

Kissing Facts from Nat Geo

Manny — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:39:00 +0000

A passionate kiss will
burn about 6.4 calories
use 34 face muscles
make your heart beat faster
your breathing deeper
and your pupils dilate
You will exchange millions of bacteria
and enough saliva to prevent tooth decay
A kiss relieves tension
slows the ageing process
and boosts self-esteem
It's good for you
So kiss again

Saw this commercial a few years ago in the national geographic channel. If you'd like to see the video, it's here.

My first 16,000+ visits in a month

Manny — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 07:30:00 +0000

mvergel.com

Last year, 2012, I had my first 3,000+ visits which was around 200% increase in the rate of visits from 2011. This year, 2013, I had my 16,508+ visits or around ~500 visitors per day. This is a 400% increase from the previous year.

Before: 3,000+ Now: 16,000+

My yearly statistics also improved from 22,000 visitors to 119,000 visitors; a 440% increase.

Before: 22,000+ Now: 119,000+

My alexa rating continues to move up from a ranking of 1,192,962th in 2012 to 651,786th in 2013. Mvergel.com is in the 6 digits ranking now, target is to move to 5 digits or below the 100,000 mark. This is good, considering there are now 3.58B websites in the world as of Aug 2013.

Before: 1.1M+ Now: 651K+

For my blog statistics, my personal blog "Manny Vergel spaces out!" with 150K+ page views is still leading because I can write anything under the sun. Whatever topic that's not related to finance, programming or food and that's a big scope.

My programming blog is in the second place with 77K+ views. I mostly write about Node JS, Oracle, SQL, iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Java.

Pesobility blog is in the third place. This is my niche blog about finances, investments and the Philippine Stock Market. In only a few months, it already has 55K+ pageviews. It will probably be my number one blog soon (2-3 years).

My food blog came in last with 12K+ views. I enjoy eating in new restaurants but I don't have the time to write much about it. Hopefully soon, I'll do something about it and probably create a separate website with collaborative food blogging since this is my weakest point. I need the help of others to write content and increase traffic.

What changed? How to increase site traffic

SEO was definitely improved. Choice of keywords and tags are important, how you construct an entry to use different words that has a more probability of being searched.
The Google+ profile helped so that you'll see a picture when I'm in the search results of google.
Additional rich meta's like in reviews, so you'll see star ratings.
Writing more content. The more original, the better as Google is not fond of duplicate contents. As always, content is king.

Two of the most memorable blogs I wrote was about 1) The Murder caught by Google Maps (it has 37K+ pageviews) and 2) Do bananas float in sea water (from the movie Life of Pi; it has 50K+ page views and posts in the comment section were remarkable, people were really posting their opinions and views).

People ask how you can increase your site traffic. My site traffic is not even that huge (currently 500 to 1500+ page views per day) but it's definitely improving. If you're still stuck in the very low levels like 20-30 page views a day or less, you may consider improving your content first. What are you offering? Is it offered by other websites, if so, what's the difference? Why would people visit your website instead of the competition.

If you're blogging or making youtube videos, think what is interesting, what is stimulating to the mind; maybe something controversial, or something others would find useful. Know your audience: mvergel.com is trickier since this is not a niche site, and people from all over the world visits this site unlike with pesobility.com where my site traffic mostly comes from my country, the Philippines.

Finding your niche may also prove beneficial. Publish what you're really passionate about and focus on that specific category. For me, I became passionate about investments and finance management and I want to share this to other people because I was amazed that there's so little information and awareness especially in my country. In pesobility, I write posts about the different investment vehicles and my views on the Philippine Stock Market.

Anyway, this is for another blog, I'll post more about this in a separate post.

pesobility.com

As I said in my previous post, I'll apply the SEO techniques I learned in my new niche website pesobility.com. In addition to these, I've also added social marketing since I have a specific target audience. It's only a basic marketing like having a Twitter account and a Facebook page where people can follow what's happening to the website. This proves to be beneficial in traffic.

My first 6000+ visits for pesobility.com

Pesobility.com started early this year (2013). It is moving quickly, it began with 130 visitors last February then 1000+ in April, and 6000+ last July.

pesobility alexa ranking: 1.4M+

Alexa ranking of pesobility.com is now at 1,466,074. I'm hoping to see an improvement by next year since it has been only up for a few months.

I hate Ghost Blogging Platform!

Manny — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Hate is such a strong word along with despise, abhor, resent, loathe.. okay I'm just writing synonyms here but the thing is, this is not a hate blog, it's just a response to a blog written by Nitin Khanna. I enjoyed reading the post because it gives a different perspective on the what's not to like in project Ghost.

For those who don't know yet, Ghost is an open source blogging platform started by John O'Nolan. The motive and vision are great. I was immediately hooked and got excited with the idea of a new blogging platform to address the issues of existing ones, plus it will be written in my current favorite framework: Node JS which is based on Javascript.

Upon reading John's idea of his new project, a question popped in my head: will he and his team really achieve the "Just a blogging platform" concept? This aims to focus mainly on publishing content, but at the same time, make it customizable. I don't want to fight the idea, but more of challenge it, because what I'm seeing is this will be a Wordpress-like platform that does everything, but hopefully better. Sure, it will start as "Just a blogging platform" but if it's really that customizable, then there's no stopping anyone from turning this into the next WCM or CMS built for modern times. Just like what happened to WP.

Do we really need another Wordpress like platform?

If you understand what Node JS is addressing, then YES we do need another blogging platforfm. In my experience in using Node JS, from very simple codes like this site mvergel.com to somewhat more complicated ones, like in Pesobility.com, I really enjoyed it. Coming from a Java background, it made me excited about web programming again. Simple codes, doing extra-ordinary stuff; much like Ruby on Rails but I don't know, it might be very subjective to say it, but I didn't enjoy RoR as much as I enjoyed programming in Node.

This is the reason why I found Ghost in the first place, because I was looking for a blogging platform / CMS based on Node JS. But since node is still relatively new, I found it difficult to find a pre-built open source systems that just work.

However, Ghost is not really advertising itself as another Wordpress like platform, but more of a blogging platform. It will probably also focus on workflows and workflow customization which is virtually non-existent in other platforms (well, at least natively). Even so, do we need another blogging platform? A new one wouldn't hurt. People arguably just choose between Blogger and Wordpress nowadays. Those who wants more elegance and professionalism would go for Wordpress, those who want more freedom and lesser cost would go for Blogger.

NodeJs, Yes! Really!

Nitin Khanna's point is that Node is not yet ready for prime time: problem with native hosting support, and usability issue for non-developers. I can't speak for the laymans, but as a developer I find it relatively easy to get Node JS up and running, to the point the it can be done in one command. The command can be wrapped in a shell script which an end user can just double click, wait a few minutes and see his/her system live on the internet.

There are already various free and paid hosts that support Node: See the list here. One of the great things about Node is its resource consumption because it doesn't require a huge ram to run, and start-up is also relatively fast. These were my main problem with Grails framework, a Java framework. The framework is great, but it's so bulky and consumes a lot of resource that even a simple application needs at least 512MB of RAM to run normally, and start-up is extremely slow. Node JS I think only needs 256MB to run smoothly. It's relatively easy and less costly to support Node compared to other frameworks, and it's happening right now; more and more hosts are supporting Node.

Nitin's point may still be right though as Node is still new and needs more time to mature. It's getting there, yes, but probably not yet prime time-ready. However, Ghost, when it's released, won't be a mature platform instantly anyway. It will also take time and probably years to be ready for prime time; just enough time for Node to also mature.

Wordpress is here to stay.. well, at least for a while.

Another Nitin's point is how O'Nolan allegedly stole from Wordpress and gave nothing back. Controversial statement which John O'Nolan couldn't resist but to reply in the comment section. It would be cool if he were to also comment in this blog, but I don't have anything controversial to say, haha!

From my perspective, O'Nolan is passionate about writing / blogging and would like to use a platform in which he could really enjoy doing it. I believe WordPress is ALMOST it but still not quite, and this "almost but not quite" feeling probably bothered him everyday; why isn't there a service or a system that he really wants to use? I can relate to this. This is the same reason why I created Pesobility.com; for my needs, and help others who have the same needs and wants as I do.

Ghost won't probably replace WP anytime soon. WordPress is a proven platform, whereas Ghost still needs to time to prove itself. And even in the far future, I would see the two, along with other blogging platforms, co-existing to give end users a choice.

Final Words

Many of us, especially software developers / designers, have ideas that pop-up in our head from time to time. Some are great, some are not so great, but only a few really go out their way to make their idea into reality. Not everyone has been given the chance to learn to type stuff and make the computer do something special. It's almost a god-like skill because it is as if you are creating something out of nothing; the possibility is endless, imagination is your limit. Take advantage of it!

I admire what O'Nolan started. I'm excited to try Ghost now, but unfortunately the code is not yet available publicly. I do wish they release it soon! This part I don't get, why not just release the code immediately. I hate it! I hate Ghost Blogging Platform, haha!

A thought just came to mind.. I wonder if Google would think of upgrading Blogger to use Ghost. Far-fetched.

The Party Bus Manila Review: The Minor Setback

Manny — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:45:00 +0000

I just had to take my mind off (of) something deeply troubling so I decided to accept a friend's invitation to try the Party Bus and document my experience.

When I first heard of Party Bus Manila, I immediately thought of Pub Crawl Boracay, it has a similar idea where you party in a group, hopping from one bar to another with activities along the way.

I invited a few friends to try the Party Bus Manila. Registration is easy, you just go to their website and sign up. You will be contacted by a representative and get the instructions to pay the 50% down. The registration fee was P1750, the price was lower than the usual since it was a first anniversary event.

The meeting was set at 9:30PM, Distillery, Fort. If you arrive at exactly 9:30PM though, it's most probably that you'll be one of the early birds there but no worries, you get free drinks anyway; in our case it was either Stella Artois or Rum Coke.

The actual event started around 10PM+. To lighten up the mood, they lined us up, boys vs girls in parallel. They asked several questions that you need to answer to the person in front of you. It was alright.

The party limousine is like a big van; I was surprised that they were able to fit 30 people there. It was a little hot inside though, probably because of the number of people inside. They should definitely improve the air conditioning.

They gave drinks inside the bus. For those people who are wondering if you can drink inside the bus, yes, you can. I was hoping to get a taste of gummy candies soaked in vodka, but this was not present at the time.

People who joined Party Bus were very friendly, and I get to meet people from different countries, there were this Swiss guy, Vietnamese, Thai and there was a Filipina who talked with a Singaporean accent.

I noticed, however, that the organizers were using a point and shoot camera so I asked what's up with that. They said that the official photographer was sick. No worries.. for now.

The first official stop was Aracama bar at Fort Taguig. When we entered Aracama, many of us thought that we were at the wrong place because people were dining, there was no bar area in sight, and the place was well lit. Little did we know that the party is upstairs. The place is well maintained, service is excellent, it wasn't overcrowded, or maybe not yet.

Aracama was fun, there was another boys vs girls activity where a big glass of alcoholic drink with many straws was given to each group and the first to finish the drink wins. Of course the boys won. We stayed a little longer then went to the second and final stop, Urbn.

The Minor Setback

A disappointing thing happened when we went to Urbn. They won't let some of us enter because the place was overcrowded. So we waited.. and waited.. it was more than 30 minutes of stress, and worse, we were asked to fall in line thrice and we were discarded thrice! I don't know what happened there, maybe there was a miscommunication between Urbn and Party Bus' management. The reception was not very nice, bouncers were a bit rude, probably because they were stressed with the number of people. This contributed to the already stressful situation. People were thinking of leaving and going back to Aracama or to another bar, I think some did.

Eventually we got in but the high was already gone, it's one of those setbacks that dampens one's mood. My excitement was lessened by the wait and the heat. I texted the Party Bus management that I was disappointed. One representative talked to me and said sorry, and explained many things I didn't hear since it was so loud inside. I'm the kind of person who says what's on my mind and I just had to say my piece to them. It was something I hoped I didn't experience but it already happened, not much we can do about it except to just shrug it off for the moment and just continue to have some fun.

Final Words

Overall, it was alright, you get to party and meet new people and possibly new friends. I still enjoyed with despite the minor setback. People like me who loves to party should definitely try this, or for tourists looking what to do in Manila; this is a fun experience.

I give Party Bus Manila a 3 out of 5 stars. I would've given it a 4.5 if it weren't for the incident.

-Manny

Party Bus Manila contact information:
Website: http://www.thepartybusmanila.com
Contact numbers: 09178892662 , 09177907373

Alien Reptilians Control Our World, would you believe?

Manny — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:16:00 +0000

Public Policy Polling conducted a U.S. survey about conspiracy theories which produced surprising results:

Obama is the AntiChrist: Thirteen percent believed this is true. So will Obama unite the entire world as one and place the mark of the beast to earth's population? We'll see.

Global Warming is a hoax: 37 percent believed global warming is a hoax. Somehow, part of me doesn't believe in this; that the earth is in its natural cycle of getting hot / getting cold, and it's not caused by what we do.

Fake moon landing: Seven percent believed the moon landing was faked. I watched this in Exposed and they showed some compelling evidences; that it has been done in a studio with a controlled environment. I don't know, NASA / other scientists have already disproven each evidence with a scientific explanation. Who knows.

Shape-shifting reptiles from other planet takes on human form to control our world: Four percent of Americans believed in this. This is one of the more bizare conspiracy theories I have heard / read. But when I googled it, there are images and videos of evidences that this is true (I'm guessing they are fake). Some show eyes of politicans that look like reptiles, or part of the body that looks like it's partly lizard. And to think a good number of people believe in this stuff makes me uneasy.

Aliens exist: 30% said yes, they believe it. There's a lot of shows / documentaries about aliens and most are fun to watch. But if I were to pick one version, I would pick that we, ourselves, are aliens.

A secret powerful elite conspires to rule the world through an authoritarian world government and impose a new world order: 28%. Sounds antichrist-y to me. Before that happens, I guess we need the unification of countries to form a bigger organisation like what happened in European union. Will there be an Asian union? It's hard to control so many counties; like in the military, probably easier to do a chain of command. I'm just saying, but I don't believe in that a new world order is in the making.

Media or the government adds secret mind-controlling technology to television broadcast signals: Fifteen percent. They don't have to do that actually, even without the technology, just watching normal tv will hypnotize you and put messages in your head and order your subconscious to do something. Even a lie told often becomes the truth. That's why advertising is very effective.

Pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry are working together to invent new diseases for more money. Fifteen percent. People are watching too many hollywood movies. And probably those same people who owns pharmacuetical companies will think of doing that, in the end, conspiracy may become the truth.

U.S. government allowed the 9/11 attack. Eleven percent. No comment on this controversial manner that happened on September 11, 2001. I believe in the conspiracy that an entity in U.S. are watching everyone's blogs, emails, facebook groups, chats, etc. Kinda like the TV series, Person of Interest. Now, I'm watching too much TV.

How about you? What do you believe?

House of Cards: Remember This Moment When You Resisted Me...

Manny — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:51:00 +0000

Remember this moment when you resisted me, when you said the words "then there is no story".
I just hate this small-ball crap.

[Solved] Zurb Foundation and Google Custom Search Engine layout problem

Manny — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:34:00 +0000

When adding a Google Custom Search box in your site that uses Zurb Foundation 4, it is most likely that the search button will be distorted and the search box won't have proper padding and you'll see various styling issues.

For a demo of a working zurb + custom search, just visit pesobility.com

The solution is to add this into your CSS:

.gsc-control-cse  * {
 -moz-box-sizing: content-box !important;
 -webkit-box-sizing: content-box !importantx;
 box-sizing:  content-box !important;
}

.gsc-control-cse input {
 box-shadow: none !important;
}

.gsc-control-cse input:focus {
    outline: none;
}

.gsc-control-cse table {
 border: none;
 background: transparent;
}

.gsc-input-box, .gsc-search-box .gsc-input>input, .gsc-input-box-hover {
 -moz-box-shadow: none !important;
 -webkit-box-shadow: none !important;
 box-shadow: none !important;
}

How to Add Responsive Google Ad Code

Manny — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 18:18:00 +0000

Many asked before if it's legal to change the ad size through javascript, now it's official, Google allows modification of its ad sense code for responsive design. You won't be breaking any terms and conditions when you do this.

Do note that the adsense javascript code below is not really responsive in a sense that when you resize the browser, the ads change size dynamically; no it doesn't do that. It only checks the window size at start and set the appropriate ad size. You have to refresh the page after resizing the browser to see the ad size change.

The code:

<script type="text/javascript">
    google_ad_client = "your publisher id"; //change
    width = document.documentElement.clientWidth;
    google_ad_slot = "111"; //change
    google_ad_width = 320;
    google_ad_height = 50;
        if (width > 500) {
        google_ad_slot = "111"; //change
        google_ad_width = 468;
        google_ad_height = 60;
    }
    if (width > 800) {
        google_ad_slot = "111"; //change
        google_ad_width = 728;
       google_ad_height = 90;
    }

</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

At least it's getting there, maybe soon we'll see a truly responsive ad.

You can now buy Lebron James tickets

Manny — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Nike Philippines just released the free Lebron James tickets today and many people are in BGC right now to claim it. Those who fell in line yesterday were given stubs with the time when they can claim the free tickets. Rumors say they stopped giving stubs 10AM today, but people are still lining up for a chance to get free tickets.

The same free tickets are now being sold in sulit.com.ph at around 2,500 to P5,000 each. I guess the cost justifies the popularity and demand even though no details were disclosed what Lebron James will actually do here in Manila on Tuesday (July 23). If you are a die hard fan, seeing him smile in real life is probably worth the money.

So if you're in dire need and you want to know where to get Lebron James tickets, even if you have to pay for it, it's probably sold in buy and sell sites like sulit.

A word of caution: BEWARE OF SCAMMERS.

XCode 4.2 and Phonegap / Cordova and CDVInvokedUrlCommand compile error [Solved]

Manny — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:24:00 +0000

When you download Cordova / Phonegap and create an iOS project using the create command, the resulting project has many compile errors if you do not use XCode 4.5. It is also written in their documentation and at least XCode 4.5 is needed to run their project.

Those using Snow Leopard OS are stuck with XCode 4.2, so it would be helpful if phonegap / apache cordova runs in XCode 4.2.

The first error you will encounter is Automatic Reference Counting Issue of CDVInvokedUrlCommand for instance message does not declare a method with selector... on line 62 of CDVInvokedUrlCommand.m with the code: [self massageArguments];

Found out that the compatibility issue was just due to declarations, position of methods, and use of new syntax (The "at" syntax of new iOS @{} for NSDictionary). So I just changed the code to be compatible with older version of compiler / SDK and it worked! I was able to compile and run it in my simulator.

I uploaded the working sample project in github: https://github.com/mannyvergel/cordova-ios-xcode-4.2

Lebron James in Manila! How to get Free Tickets

Manny — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:17:00 +0000

Nike Philippines is bringing Lebron James to Manila on July 23, and they are giving away the tickets for free.

Tickets will be available at Nike Park in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) starting July 17 at 12 noon. Two tickets will be given to each person. I imagine a big crowd and heavy traffic in BGC because of fans wanting to get free tickets.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Question is will people camp the night before just to get in line?

[UPDATE, July 17] You can now buy Lebron James tickets! Read here.

Source: ABS CBN

Apple gives FREE iOS Apps on its 5th year anniversary

Manny — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 09:21:00 +0000

Several paid apps are temporarily for free in celebration of Apple's fifth year anniversary. Take advantage of this by downloading them so that it'll show in your history that you've already purchased the app and you don't have to pay for it ever again. You can just uninstall the apps you don't like after downloading them, or it should be also possible just to cancel your download and it will still be marked as purchased (haven't tried t he latter).

Without further ado, here are the free apps:

	Infinity Blade II
	Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
	Where's My Water?
	Badland
	Tiny Wings (iPhone / iPad)
	Over
	Traktor DJ (iPhone / iPad)
	Day One
	How to Cook Everything
	Barefoot World Atlas

[Solved] Instagram - Account disabled due to terms of service violations

Manny — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 08:49:00 +0000

My account was immediately disabled after registration, but I didn't violate any terms / conditions. The error displayed was not very helpful, since it just says "Your account has been disabled due to terms of service violations: http://instagram.com/legal/terms/" but didn't exactly say what service violation you committed.

Other people are also experiencing this problem, where some accounts are suddenly disabled and people can't login anymore.

Instagram is aware of this issue and there is a page where you can submit your username and email for them to check:
http://help.instagram.com/165012027001436

Hopefully, your account will be reviewed and they will reverse the suspension.

How did Superman shave his beard

Manny — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 16:58:00 +0000

In the movie Man of Steel, Clark Kent started with facial hair which eventually vanished without any explanation. If Superman's hair is as strong as every cell in his body, then it should take a lot of force to cut one strand of hair, let alone shave an entire beard.

My theory is that he shaved it using his hands. I forgot what movie it was, but I remember a character who used his bare hands to shave his beard. It's probably the same thing in Superman's case. Another theory is the use of Kryptonite shaver? Lol, it's absurd, but I don't know. This is a question that will not solve global economic problems but it's nice to think about anyway.

XML nodes over 64K in size cannot be printed when using Binary XML Storage [Oracle] [Solved]

Manny — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 18:48:00 +0000

If you're using Binary XML Storage and you used DBMS_XSLPROCESSOR's CLOB2FILE method to write to file, there is a chance that you'll encounter the 64K limit of nodes.

The workaround is to use another method to write XMLType to file: DBMS_XMLDOM's WRITETOFILE:

Declare your desired directory:

create or replace DIRECTORY XMLDIR AS 'C:\tmp';

Use dbms_xmldom to write XMLType column to file:

declare
  doc DBMS_XMLDOM.DOMDocument;
BEGIN
  for c in (select xml_col from xml_table x where key_col='mykey') loop
    doc := DBMS_XMLDOM.NewDomDocument(c.xml_col);
    DBMS_XMLDOM.WRITETOFILE(doc, 'XMLDIR/output.xml');
end loop;
/

WeChat Secret Codes for Falling Stuff

Manny — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:45:00 +0000

There are secret words to make things fall in WeChat app. This is like an easter egg feature of the app which makes wechat more fun to use.

Birthday (or any sentence with the word in it, like "Happy birthday!") = falling cakes
Miss You / Miss U (or even Miss Universe) = falling stars
Calcium / cium - Kiss face with a heart (thanks anonymous)

Write XMLType Column to File using dbms_xslprocessor [Oracle] [Solved]

Manny — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Declare your desired directory:

create or replace DIRECTORY XMLDIR AS 'C:\tmp';

Use dbms_xslprocessor to write XMLType column to file:

BEGIN
  for cur in (select XML_COLUMN from YOUR_TABLE) loop
    dbms_xslprocessor.clob2file(cur.XML_COLUMN.getClobVal(), 'XMLDIR', 'NAME.xml');
  end loop;
END;
/

Clear Oracle DB Cache [Solved]

Manny — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:30:00 +0000

I used these 2 commands to clear cache in between queries in Oracle DB especially when testing for performance:

ALTER SYSTEM FLUSH BUFFER_CACHE;

ALTER SYSTEM FLUSH SHARED_POOL;

[Solved] NoClassDefFoundError, cannot find VirtualMachine when using HotThread

Manny — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:24:00 +0000

I got a NoClassDefFoundError when trying to execute HotThread.jar in Cent OS Linux using java -jar command, seems it cannot find com/sun/tools/attach/VirtualMachine which is part of tools.jar.

[root@ALFSYSTEST4-VM bin]# ./java -jar /home/samba/HotThread.jar 3223
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/sun/tools/attach/VirtualMachine
        at hotthread.Main.main(Main.java:52)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.tools.attach.VirtualMachine
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:303)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:248)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:316)
        ... 1 more

The solution is to just use the java -classpath approach and load the two libraries then execute the HotThread program:

java -classpath "/opt/jdk1.6/lib/tools.jar:/home/samba/HotThread.jar" hotthread.Main 3223

[Solved] File to import not found or unreadable: compass/css3

Manny — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:39:00 +0000

I'm on Windows 8 and I tried installing sass and compass and when I tried "compass watch" on an existing project which has an "@import "compass/css3";, I got an error: File to import not found or unreadable: compass/css3

The solution is to install rails-compass

gem install compass-rails

After that "compass watch" now worked.

Convert Twitter's created_at to Javascript Date

Manny — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:16:00 +0000

There are several solutions found on the web to parse Twitter's date, but some seems outdated, maybe Twitter changed its date format. But as of March 2013, the code below works:

function parseTwitterDate(aDate)
{   
  return new Date(Date.parse(aDate.replace(/( \+)/, ' UTC$1')));
  //sample: Wed Mar 13 09:06:07 +0000 2013 
}

Source

Rounding a number to two decimal places in Javascript / Node JS

Manny — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:19:00 +0000

Rounding numbers with decimals in Javascript is not straightforward. Javascript has a utility Math.round but it only rounds to the nearest integers. Some uses toFixed function e.g. (2.55555).toFixed(2) but it doesn't work consistently across all browsers, sometimes it just truncates the value which makes it troublesome for computations.

Creating a simple function for rounding numbers to two decimals in Javascript should be easy:

function roundTo2Decimals(numberToRound) {
  return Math.round(numberToRound * 100) / 100
}

//test
roundTo2Decimals(2.55555555);

If you want to use a library, numeraljs is a good one. It also formats numbers with commas. Very useful.

How to Get the email address from Twitter Developer API [Rant]

Manny — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:40:00 +0000

You can't; sorry to disappoint. As of writing, this is an unresolved issue and many developers are hoping for a positive reply from the Twitter development team: See this discussion and this one for more information. Seems that the Twitter dev team has no plan to support getting the user's email address from Twitter API.

It is unfortunate that this is the case. One big factor of going through the pain of setting up a 3rd party single sign on service is to avoid the process of verifying the user's email address (which takes developer effort). In Twitter's case, you have to do both (set-up authentication AND verify user's email). The same goes for the user who still has to undergo the email verification process. -1 for usability.

I don't know if it's privacy issue that Twitter decided to opt this out, but Facebook and Google, along with other services, are allowing it. Just be transparent and say to the user, this application will know about your email address. What's the big deal, Twitter?