I Am Blogie

I have now almost completely abandoned Yahoo! and all of its services. I’d stopped using their “search engine” a long, long, long time ago, and their Web-based email service is but a distant memory to me. I don’t use Yahoo Messenger either, except when I’m online on Nimbuzz, where I’d enrolled my Yahoo! account and kept it there for the sake of the few friends who still have my Yahoo! ID.

The last item was Flickr. I’d actually gotten myself a pro account a couple of years back, and was happy enough using the service, especially because many of my WordPress themes incorporate Flickr widgets. Around December 2010 I renewed my subscription via PayPal, but the payment somehow got flagged “Pending”. My PayPal balance was debited, though, and PayPal said that it was up to the recipient to accept the remittance. Days passed and nothing happened.

The daughter of one of my cousins had been given a DSLR, so I thought a Flickr pro account would be a nice birthday gift from me, but I had to settle my renewal first. It was not meant to be.

I emailed Flickr (after much digging around for the proper contact form) and got a reply no less than a week after, but only to be told that the problem was with PayPal. PayPal said, again, that the ball was in Yahoo!’s court, so to speak. Since I badly needed to reactivate my account and send my niece her own pro account, I actually made another payment transaction… but the same thing happened — payment pending. This time, I got no reply from Flickr / Yahoo! at all.

To make a long story short, my Flickr pro account did not get renewed. To hell with it, I thought. If they don’t want my business, then I’ll gladly take it somewhere else. Good riddance.

The Y! logo above is a trademark of Yahoo! and is being used here solely for identification purposes.

Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Foursquare, not to mention Flickr, Picasa… You’d think there were too many social networking services on the Web already. And yet, you’ll find yourself curiously drawn to the straightforward and refreshingly attractive interface of the newest one on the block: Piclyf. Today, in fact, I was surfing that single site for more than two hours — which is not a usual activity for me when I’m online.

Piclyf is a welcome addition to the Internet’s burgeoning social media space, and it is admirably focused on its main raison d’être: pictures. You can use it as a photo diary, a “blog in picture form.” If you’re not the type who can write long entries, you’ll enjoy this online service because it lets your pictures speak for you. And like a blog, when a picture inspires it, a conversation can ensue via a rich commenting interface.

What I find unique about Piclyf is the way it organizes your online “friends”. On other social networking sites, you have friends or you have followers. With Piclyf you have both. You can follow people without having to make them your friends, and vice-versa. Your Piclyf friends, on the other hand, are those whom you follow and who, in turn, follow you. Neat huh?

As with most other photo-hosting service out there, you can upload your pictures to your Piclyf account and attach various kinds of meta data onto them. You can even specify some EXIF information, as well as geotag your photo via a visual map interface. Speaking of which, I have an item on my wish-list for Piclyf: automatic detection of geotag EXIF values.

Actually, there are several more in my wish-list. The site is still fairly new and some of the features are still in their infancy, so we should expect improvements very soon. In the meantime, go on and create your own account now! Here’s why:

[What is PicLyf? from Eric PicLyf on Vimeo.]

Piclyf is the product of Twidl Inc., a Davao-based technology & design company headed up by Eric Clark Su.

When it comes time to choosing the right type of web hosting plan for your website(s), it’s not as simple as you may think. There are many types to choose from, such as shared hosting, virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated servers. While it might seem like finding the best deal is the main factor, there are many other aspects that need to be considered. A shared hosting plan may work for certain types of websites, but might not cut it for others that require more resources than what a shared environment can supply.

VPS web hosting is a great midway option between shared and dedicated hosting environments. Just like the name entails, a VPS runs like a private server, but in a virtual environment. In this case, some resources, such as CPU, are shared. However, important resources like RAM and disk space are dedicated to each VPS account. Also, with a VPS you get your own operating system, email server, web server and more.

VPS hosting is a great option for many reasons, especially for the following:

1. Root/SSH Access – In other words, you get “server-level customization,” which was previously only available with dedicated hosting due to security reasons. In addition, you can utilize the command-line access and have the option of operating as the root user if you’ve got the experience to do so.
2. Scalability – For a website that’s just starting off, shared hosting is usually a sufficient choice. However, since the goal of many website owners is to grow or improve by either adding other sites or increasing traffic, there’s a big possibility of growing more than you expected to. Shared hosting, by its very nature, isn’t scalable because all of the resources are shared among all of the accounts on the server. However, VPS hosting can provide scalability that allows you to add more resources (RAM, disk space, etc.) for the room needed for growth.
3. Burstable Memory for Unpredictable Usage Spikes – If your goal is to gain more traffic to your website, then you should definitely be prepared for it. Let’s say that the popularity of your blog is on the rise. In addition, links to your website are added to larger ones like Digg or Slashdot. On a shared server, this can become a major disaster that can quickly cripple your website. But on a VPS, this wouldn’t be much of a problem with the availability of “burstable memory,” which is a pool of reserved memory that’s available when needed, such as in times of very high traffic.
4. Can Support Large, Dynamic Websites – If your website’s a source of income (e-commerce site with product-filled databases), it wouldn’t be a good idea to count on shared hosting to handle the expected heavy load. With a shared environment, you never know when someone else on the server may use up a large portion of the resources (CPU, MySQL queries, RAM), so you’re at risk of your site not functioning from time to time. On a VPS, you can rest assured of surmounting this problem since your website doesn’t rely on the same resources as others on the same machine.
5. Cost – With the great benefits of a dedicated server combined with the affordability of a shared platform, VPS web hosting is a great option to look into when in need of sizable resources on a modest budget.

I use two computers (and one iPod touch) for work, for blogging and for other activities that involve connecting to the Internet. One is a rather heavy notebook which I keep at home, and the other is a lightweight netbook for when I’m out. I also have a 320-gigabyte Western Digital™ backup drive, and two 4-gig USB flash drives. The latter is used for shuttling files to and from my two computers.

It’s really cumbersome, the way I try to keep my files synchronized. There is a nifty little tool called SyncToy, which makes the task of copying files and folders between computers much easier. But it’s still not the best solution out there. And now I think I’ve found it!

One of my friends invited me to join Dropbox, and it came at just the right moment for me. I was working on a Japanese translation project, and it was such a hassle syncing the documents between my two computers. There was even a time when I forgot to copy the latest files from my home computer, and I had gone out of town!

The beauty of Dropbox is in its treatment of your synced files. You actually have local files on all your Dropbox-connected computers, and they’re all the same files. When you work on your files in one computer (files that you have dropped into your Dropbox folder), the system automatically synchronizes them to your online account. As soon as your other Dropbox-connected computers are online, they will automatically retrieve your changed files to update their local counterparts.

Neat huh? So here’s the setup. You install a desktop application that runs in the background, and Dropbox creates a folder that it will watch (normally it’s under My Documents). Whatever files and sub-folders you create in that folder will be synced to your online account.

It’s so easy for me now, switching from my laptop to my netbook, and back again. I can even view my Dropbox-synced files on my iPod touch! Here’s a screenshot of the app’s welcome screen. (There is also a version for the iPad, of course.) You can copy photos to your albums, and view files such as Microsoft® Word & Excel, as well as PDF files.

For those who use no more than one computer, Dropbox can still come in handy as an online backup facility. The only setback is, you only get 2 gigabytes worth of space. Nowadays, what’s 2GB, right? However, if you get your friends to sign up, you’ll get more space, up to a maximum of 8GB. Still not nearly enough for today’s netizen, but it’s a start.

This is not a paid post. But, if you click on the Dropbox link and sign up, you’ll help me get more storage space!

No, that’s not a typo in the title. Pic Your President is a Web service that lets you vote for your chosen presidential candidate through a ‘picture poll’. The service is made available via Piclyf, “a picture-based social platform that lets people share photos and do visual updates, check-ins and polls.” What sets this Web service [...] Covering the elections: some reminders ## The Filipino Netizen in 2010

One reason why censorship won’t work 100% — not even in China — is that people will always look for a way around it. People have an intrinsic drive to be free, and to freely avail of information. To satisfy this, technology is readily available to anyone who needs it.

I was fortunate to have met Robert Guerra of Freedom House, an NGO that monitors (among others) press freedom in the world, in Hong Kong and then in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. In an effort to help spread the gospel of Internet Freedom of Expression, his team has compiled a set of instructional videos on how to use the technologies mentioned above. Here’s one of them:

From Mr. Guerra:

As part of our project on promoting freedom of expression through technology and circumvention tools, my team has produced a series of simple, easy to understand video tutorials on how to use some of the leading anti-censorship tools.

Our aim is to not only help facilitate the promotion of existing circumvention tools, but also encourage the development of new creative materials that will make circumvention tools cool, trendy and popular to a wider internet audience.

We would appreciate your help in sharing these videos with your friends, colleagues and networks. Our collection of videos can be found on YouTube.

For security reasons we have also created versions of the video tutorials that have had all references to Freedom House removed. The anonymous videos are available here.

It was pure delight to find out that GoDaddy — arguably the #1 domain registrar in the world — has an app for the iPhone / iPod touch. According to the App Store, it was posted late last year. Sometimes I get an inspiration for a domain name, and it’s now so much easier and more convenient for me to just whip out my trustee mobile device and access GoDaddy.com via mobile.

It’s a great little app: you can do pretty much all the basic domain-name registration stuff, plus a little more. Purchasing domain names, of course, is the main feature. But aside from that, you can also manage your domains, including updating nameservers and other DNS-specific records, domain ownership details, auto-renew settings, etc.

Here are a few screen shots of the GoDaddy iPod app in action, taken when I was acquiring yet another piece of Web real estate.

Domain Registration

Domain Administration

There’s even a way for you to check who beat you to that domain name you’d wanted to get. An online whois service right on the palm of your hand. Actually, you can also do a whois on the domain name search results screen.

I have 60+ domain names registered, and as heavy user of mobile platforms, this GoDaddy app is now one of the most indispensable tools in my iPod touch. There are still some glitches, but I’m fairly certain GoDaddy’s going to be updating this application faithfully. Also, there’s only one way to pay: credit card; no PayPal payments accepted via this app yet. But other than that, it’s awesome!

Problem is, it might cause even more domain-buying sprees…

[Media Release]

July 21, 2009, Manila, Philippines — Forty years ago today, on July 20, 1969, the world watched as the crew of Apollo 11 took the first human steps on the surface of the Moon. In celebration of this historic occasion, Google is launching Moon in Google Earth, an interactive 3D atlas of the Moon, viewable with Google Earth 5.0.

With Moon in Google Earth, users can explore a virtual Moonscape, follow guided tours from astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17), see the latest rover concepts by teams competing in the Google Lunar X-PRIZE, view high-resolution ‘Street View’ style panoramic photos, watch previously unreleased video footage captured from the lunar surface, and much more. Moon in Google Earth will also incorporate a complete lunar terrain data-set by Kaguya LALT, produced by JAXA/NAOJ, which will serve as the atlas’ base-map. Whether they are rediscovering the iconic moments in the history of Moon exploration or learning about them for the first time, Moon in Google Earth enables users to better understand the Moon, and our relationship to it, with an immersive, 3D experience.

“Forty years ago, two human beings walked on the Moon. Starting today, with Moon in Google Earth, it’s now possible for anyone to follow in their footsteps,” said Google Earth Product Manager Michael Weiss-Malik. “We’re giving hundreds of millions of people around the world unprecedented access to an interactive 3D presentation of the Apollo missions.”

The most recent tool to have been developed as a result of the Space Act Agreement between Google and NASA, Moon in Google Earth enables information about the Moon to be accessible to anyone in a unique three-dimensional context.

“Today’s announcement builds on the ongoing relationship with Google that Ames Research Center initiated in November 2006 when we signed a Space Act Agreement to foster collaboration with our Silicon Valley neighbor,” said S. Pete Worden, Director of NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “We’re excited to be a part of this latest chapter in Google’s efforts to bring virtual exploration of the Moon to anyone with a computer.”

In addition to satellite imagery and terrain, the following layers can be explored with Moon in Google Earth:

• Featured Satellite Imagery – Explore overlaid satellite imagery and detailed descriptions of selected areas on the Moon from Arizona State University’s ‘Lunar Image of the Week’;
• Spacecraft Imagery – View selected imagery captured by the Apollo Metric Camera, Clementine, and the Lunar Orbiter;
• Apollo Missions – Travel back to the Apollo era and discover the landing sites of Apollo missions 11-17. Explore ‘Street View’-style panoramic images, watch previously unreleased footage from Spacecraft films, and read about the places astronauts saw on their trips to the Moon;
• Guided Tours – Take a narrated tour of the Moon from Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17);
• Historic Maps – Discover Apollo-era geologic and topographic maps of the Moon that were used in mission control for trips to the Moon;
• Human Artifacts – Learn about the various types of exploratory equipment that humans have left on the Moon and where those objects can be found today. Artifacts from the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the EU, Japan, and India are included, some of them as 3D models.

To experience Moon in Google Earth, open Google Earth 5.0 and switch modes from ‘Earth’ to ‘Moon’ on the top toolbar. Google Earth 5.0 can be downloaded at http://earth.google.com/moon.

For more information, have a look at our blog posts on the Official Google Blog and the Google Lat Long Blog.

[Media Release]

March 12, 2009, Manila, Philippines — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today formally announced that tens of thousands of edits made by Filipinos on Google Map Maker can now be seen on Google Maps. Google Map Maker–an application that allows users to edit Google Maps data–was launched in the Philippines in October last year to provide local map enthusiasts a means to personally contribute to the building and updating of online map data for the country. Now millions of Google Maps users around the world can see more accurate and updated online maps of the Philippines including new roads, points of interests and regions all over the country.

Since the launch of Google Map Maker in the Philippines, hundreds of users have contributed tens of thousands of edits, reflecting the overwhelming enthusiasm by Filipinos to collaborate online and share their knowledge of their neighbourhoods with the rest of the Internet community. Google Map Maker edits have come from a diverse group of Filipino users all over the country including civil engineers, business executives, programmers, entrepreneurs, and students. Through a moderation and verification process, most of these edits, which include street-level data, landmark tags and business establishments, can now be seen on Google Maps.

“Congratulations to the thousands of Filipino users who have successfully contributed to Google Map Maker! The Philippines is one of the most challenging places to map because of the diverse topography of its more than 7,000 islands–this is why there is a dearth of accurate map data available online. Because of the collaborative efforts of local map enthusiasts, we are beginning to see the “physical face” of the Philippines getting clearer over time for the global community to see. This is a great start, but know there is much more to do, so we encourage you to join your fellow Pinoys and contribute to Google Map Maker to give the Philippines an accurate virtual country map to be proud of,” said Derek Callow, Head of Marketing, Google Southeast Asia.

“I’m passionate about editing maps and Google Map Maker’s interface is very intuitive and user-friendly. I started adding streets and establishments in Tuguegarao, where I was born, and Baguio City, where we lived when I was growing up. Then I quickly moved on to editing municipalities and cities,” said Wayne Manuel, one of the Philippines’ top contributors to Google Map Maker with several thousand edits. Manuel is a Chemical Engineering Filipino student currently studying overseas at the National University of Singapore. “It started out like a big jigsaw puzzle with many pieces missing. But when I saw the roads, street names and landmarks coming together on Google Map Maker, I felt really happy for my country and it encouraged me to contribute even more,” Manuel said.

“Seeing that the edits–including the ones I did–have been pushed to Google Maps means the Philippines is more and more on the global map, and that we put it there through our own Pinoy passion! It was personally satisfying for me. The reason I set out making edits is because I wanted to help promote the places that I grew up in and the country as a whole to the rest of the world. The mission continues and I hope even more Filipinos will join us on Google Map Maker to improve the online map of our beautiful country,” said Bernard Arellano III, another top contributor to Google Map Maker in the Philippines. Arellano, who works as a call center agent, made several thousand edits on Guimaras and Iloilo.

”I think it’s important that local users keep the edits coming in because having accurate map data helps promote the country’s viability to foreign investors and tourists,” said Dante Varias, a 56-year-old civil engineer who is also among Google Map Maker’s top contributors for the Philippines. “The Google Map Maker interface is so user-friendly you don’t need any specialized training before you can start editing.” Varias said that he had been looking for map-making software prior to the launch of Google Map Maker late last year. “When I discovered Google Map Maker, I immediately started enjoying the process of editing the map tiles of Cavite, so much so that after only 37 days, I had already added over several thousand edits on my own.”

Here are some screenshots and videos showing the amazing contributions of thousands of users of Google Map Maker in the Philippines:

Manila [watch video]

Cebu [watch video]

Davao [watch video]

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising programme provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.google.com.ph/.

Google and Google Maps are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Google, ever attuned to the meanderings of the Web, has improved upon their already awesome Google Earth and Google Maps products. Last 7 October 2008, the Internet’s most influential organization launched MapMaker for the Philippines. As Jason Chuck, Google’s APAC Product Marketing Manager, put it during the product demo in Shangri-la Makati, MapMaker is a rich platform for user-generated content.

Hurray! At last, there’s now a way for Filipinos to create maps for their localities. I remember there was one time when I had to publish a locator map for an event, I had to take a snapshot of the area on Google Earth, then draw in the roads and landmarks using a 3rd-party graphics software. Now, by way of MapMaker, anyone with a Gmail account can freely attach various geographical data onto Google’s maps — and share this information with the world!

What can Gmail account holders do on MapMaker? The most exciting for me is the ability to draw roads and other public — as well as private — infrastructure on Google’s maps. And label them, of course. While there’s no way yet to plug in GPS coordinates, the fact that we can now graphically illustrate the roads, bridges and other geographical features is already one huge step forward.

When Jason Chuck said MapMaker was a rich platform, he wasn’t just mouthing off hype. Users of the service can also place landmarks as well as the locations of establishments. What’s more, the metadata that can be submitted is quite detailed. For example, for a road, you can indicate whether it’s a one-way street, if it’s concrete or asphalt, its driving conditions, and plenty of other useful and organized information.

For business establishments, submitters can input not only company names, but also exact addresses, website URLs, and even telephone numbers. Imagine how useful this service can be for many business applications. Plus, all the submitted information is searchable!

If anyone with a Gmail account can use MapMaker, won’t this result in a lot of junk information? Well, yes, this is a distinct possibility. That’s why MapMaker operates like a socialized publishing system. In other words, users have the ability to edit previous submissions, or report erroneous ones. Additionally, users can vote on map entries that they’d like to affirm or verify.

There are no moderators or editors in MapMaker, as you might expect in Wikipedia. According to Google, map entries will be accepted based on users’ votes, as well as on the frequency of similar submissions. The inner workings of the system was not explained thoroughly nor technically, however. From what I understand, Google deploys an intelligent algorithm to determine data acceptability based on users’ input.

Incidentally, there will be an internal system through which "trusted users" will be identified. Presumably, those who have a certain number of accepted or approved submissions to MapMaker will become trusted users.

Finalized map information (i.e., user-submitted data that have been approved) are pushed into Google Maps for all the world to search, see and use. I believe this means that map data submitted to MapMaker that have not yet been approved will only be visible (and editable) within the MapMaker Web application.

Google Maps is a separate service — even distinct from Google Earth. Extensive road maps are already available for most developed countries, but is still rather rudimentary for the Philippines. But with MapMaker, we are now empowered to participate in, and contribute to, the Philippine GeoWeb.

With the rise of Wifi- and GPS-enabled mobile phones in the country, and with the availability of Google Maps for Mobile, it will not be long before some enterprising IT firms deploy high-value mobile applications that will employ Google’s tremendous mapping services.