Using uMobile and uMobile Invites

I've been using uMobile for several weeks now and i must say i have not encountered any problem probably because i only use it for texting what with the free 100 pesos load! Some uMobile users have reported delayed text messages received or they are having problems with its data connectivity, e.i. 3G, etc..

What i really like the most in uMobile is that you can do everything online to manage your account! Just login to your account in their website and you can monitor your load balance or load up at their Online Top-Up Service, which you can easily do using a credit card or debit card via your Paypal account.You can load up too in regular loading stations which right now is limited to Mega Fone Kard Station, Mega Cellular and Load.com.ph...otherwise, using uMobile is nothing really special other than a mobile phone number starting at 0999..and that it is reliable just like its mother network, Smart, when it comes to a robust telco service.

Btw, their standard messaging rates is off the hook! ü to ü text messaging is priced at just P0.15 cents while MMS is at .50 cents. Texting to another network is at .75 cents..

uMobile is promising in August to roll out Virtual Phone. ümobile´s Virtual Phone promises to make affordable outgoing calls and texts to any network via the internet over VOIP. They also plan on having a feature where one can change his/her mobile phone number online.

I have 10 invites left, if you want one, pls. leave your your name (first name will do) and email address in the comments section..make sure it is your true and correct name and email address...

Update: uMobile has freeze the Invite feature for the moment but promised it will be back soon after a system upgrade.

Swapping Blogger Title Hack or the Fix to Blogger Title Swap does not work

It has come to my attention that the Blogger tricks or Blogger hacks of: Swapping the Blogger Title Hack or the Fix to the Blogger Title Swap hack, published by some so-called Blogger authority bloggers are not working. The point of those Blogger tricks or Blogger hacks is to swap the Blog post title to be the first in the title in search engines before the Blog Title like this:



Swapping Blogger Title Hack or the Fix to Blogger Title Swap does not work | juanel





Yes, this is one of the disadvantages in using the Blogger platform, when someone searched in Google for example, and your post is listed, your blog title appears first and then your post title after, all in the same line like this:



juanel | Swapping Blogger Title Hack or the Fix to Blogger Title Swap does not work



This is not only unsightly, it is also not that accepted in the SEO world.



What is ideal is to eliminate your blog title and display only your blog post title like this:



Swapping Blogger Title Hack or the Fix to Blogger Title Swap does not work (note: very long blog post title is also not good in SEO)



In Blogger, this is still not an option. Some has made some tweak to make the blogpost title be placed before the blog title (example shown above) with the following:



1. Find this line of code







2. Replace that line with these codes below















3. Save your template, and done.



Now the catch is, this method although good for aesthetic purposes, breaks your BLOG URL (!), when your users/readers submit your blog post to social networking sites like Digg, Delicious, Mixx, or any that entails sharing your blog post to the world.



And this is where the difference not to follow the 3 steps Blogger Title Swap stated above lies. The title swap hack is not really known or documented to have improved one's Search engine rank other than for aesthetic purposes. While the breaking of Blog Post URL is a serious flaw that could potentially affect your site's traffic and God knows what it could do in your Google ranking as well..If you don't believe me, try it, you might not like it..



There is still no a viable solution to that malady when using Blogger. But recently, Blogger has made some headway in this department, albeit only blog/site wide. For example, the Blog Title does not appear now when viewing a single post but only within the site. This functionality should be used in the Blogger search results as well..

Access your Smart Bro Motorola Canopy Page and Speed up your Wireless Internet Connection

Why will i wanna go and access my Motorola Canopy Page, you ask? Well, it can help you to speed up and manage your Smart Bro internet connection or any internet connection actually that uses the Motorola Canopy Lite or even the older Canopy. By default, your Internet Service Provider may have disabled access to it or they may have not but you have no idea that you can do so. Once you have access, the possibilities are numerous, but the most likely use is to change your download and upload speed or to troubleshoot your connection by changing the Base Station you are connected with which maybe congested or is always down. So without further ado here are the Two Ways to access your Smart Bro Motorola Canopy Page:

First and Easy Way:

1. In Windows XP, go to Control Panel then to Network Connections. Look for Local Area Connection which is your SmartBRO connection. In Windows Vista, it's slightly different, you either go to Control Panel, then to Network and Sharing Center under Classic View, then choose on the left, Manage Network Connections, there you will see your SmartBro connection which is the Local Area Connection. Another way in Windows Vista is to right click on the Network Connected Icon in your taskbar and select Network and Sharing Center, then Manage Network Conections, then Local Area Connection.

2.) Either OS you have, right click Local Area Connection and select Properties.

3.) Under Windows XP, This connection uses the following items:, double-click on Internet Protocol TCP/IP. Under Windows Vista, This connection uses the following items:, double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 ( TCP/IPv4).

4.) Set your IP address to 169.254.3.3, and subnet mask to 255.255.0.0., disregard Gateway IP.

5.) Click OK, and close all windows.

6.) Open your internet browser which should be preferably, FireFox,
, and enter in the address bar, 169.254.1.1 , this will take you to the Canopy MS page. That's the first way to access the Motorola Canopy Page.

Second Way (and more complicated one):

Since the IP Address, 169.254.1.1, will not work this time, unlike the first method, the following steps will help you identify your Canopy address:

1. Follow steps 1-3 from the first method.

2. Then, this time, set your IP address to 10.20.30.40, and subnet mask to 255.0.0.0

3. In Windows XP, on the Start menu, select Run, and type cmd. In Windows Vista, just type, cmd , in "Start Search"

4. Once in the cmd "black widow," enter the following command: arp -a. It will display the IP addresses connected to your network. Look for an IP address beginning with 10 (10.xxx.xx.xx), take note of it, this is your Canopy address. Note: your Canopy address is not the one with 10.0.0.1.

5.) Close the command prompt window or cmd and open your web browser, preferably Firefox,
, and enter your Canopy address in the address bar, that Canopy address is the one you've taken note in step no.4 (10.xxx.xx.xx). That's it. You can now enter you're Canopy Page.

Once in the Motorola Canopy page, the possibilities are endless actually, but in this tutorial, the only ways useful is of course to speed up your download or upload speed.

Once in the Motorola Canopy Page, go to Configuration, then to Quality of Service (QoS) Tab. There, enter your desired Sustained Uplink Data Rate and Sustained Downlink Data Rate, note that in Motorola Canopy Lite which i am using, there is a cap of : 1000 kbps, so i choose 750 for downloads and 250 for uploads. It is now up to you to choose whatever suits your internet needs. Don't forget to also Enable
Hi Priority Channel. See the pic below, it is my own configuration.



To troubleshoot your connection or to simply gawk at it, you can go to Tools, then choose the AP Evaluation tab, there yuo will see the various Base Stations available within your area range. Look for your Color Code Number, the ideal Color Code (or Base Station) is the one with a high RSSI and low Jitter. You can now chage your Color Code (Base Station) in Configuration -> Radio tab. You can change it, then click on Save Changes and then ReBoot.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Well, they say, the best things in life are free and in the geek world, it's too good and its true.

Internet:

Mozilla Firefox

I stopped using Internet Explorer for almost a year now, and I use Firefox instead. If you're as tech-savvy as I am, you'd probably know that Firefox is a better browser than IE. First, it renders web pages as they should really look like. Secondly, it has tons of great features (tab browser, security features, live bookmarks, etc.). Plus, it's much less prone to viruses, unlike IE which can easily be targeted by bad software through its ActiveX controls. Plus, it really looks better. And if there's something you want in your browser (like the ability to create pictures from webpages or save entire websites), Firefox has hundreds of extensions that you can install (also freely) to improve web browsing.
. It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac.


Mozilla Thunderbird

Thunderbird is the Email Client and brother of Firefox. Like Firefox, it has a nice clean look. It also supports RSS feeds and News feeds, has built-in security features and has hundreds of extensions for those who want a little more.

Antivirus, Anti-spyware and Anti-hacker intrusion:

Unless you're running a Mac. Be very afraid of computer viruses, spywares and hackers, from direct intrusion to deceitful methods, did i say phishing, there's even whaling now..

So for those of us who use PCs, I recommend using a good and free antivirus: Comodo Antivirus or AVG, the free one will suffice.

There's no need for me to explain about an antivirus program. Suffice it to say that everyone running Windows should have one.

A firewall is a special software (or more effectively a hardware) that keeps hackers and intruders at bay, blocking them from accessing your files and your system. Windows XP and Windows Vista comes with a firewall program, this will do if you don't have much memory left but it's not as sophisticated as Comodo's Firewall Pro which is also free..

Spywares are nasty little software programs that record your actions while using your computer. Some spyware are key-loggers that record everything you type--including your passwords, personal information and other sensitive data. Others record your movements through the net. BoClean makes sure that your computer stays spyware free by removing known spyware programs and blocking other applications that install them.

Other notable free anti-spyware products is Adaware.

You can download the Antivirus, Firewall and Anti-Spyware programs at the Comodo Free Products page.

Word Processor, Spreadsheets, etc..basically WORK Software..

Microsoft Office is great, but it's not free. This is where OpenOffice.org comes in handy. It's a MSOffice alternative that provides the same features but is totally open-source hence Free..

OpenOffice features a full office suite: Writer for wordprocessing, Impress for presentations and Calc for spreadsheets. It also features Math for creating equations, Draw for creating nifty graphics and Base for your databases.


OpenOffice.org Writer

The programs have a very similar interface with the MSOffice programs, making them easier for your use. Plus, they support open standars (which is the future of your documents) and they are very easy to install.

You can get them through the OpenOffice.org Website.

Free and open source music player:

musikCube

Like iTunes and Windows Media Player, musikCube supports the usual MP3s that we all use. But aside from that, you can install other extensions that will make it play other audio formats, like ogg, wav, wma and even aac files (yup, iTunes and iPod music files!). It can rip directly from your cds and it has a very nice and minimal user interface. Other great feature is being able to connect to a FreeDB server to retrieve music information.

Aside from your Music Library, there's also a Collected Library, where new music files will appear, in case you don't want them to be in your Library immediately. Makes it easier to preview downloaded files without them being added immediately to your music library.

There's a lot more cool features and a dozen cool plugins to extend musikCube (like a nifty plugin that will automatically update your YM status message with the title of the track you're currently listening to.). You can find out more about musikCube and download the program from the musikCube Website.

Photo/Art Software:

There's the GIMP (Photoshop alternative), Scribus (InDesign/Publisher/Pagemaker alternative) and Inkscape (Illustrator alternative).

The GIMP

The GIMP (which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a program for digital image editing. Like Photoshop, it supports layers, custom shapes, brushes and a host of other image editing tools. Although it's not as robust as Photoshop, it is certainly a good program that almost anyone can use. You can download the GIMP at the GIMP.org website.

Scribus

Scribus is a desktop publishing software, for those who want to create newsletters, magazines, posters and other nifty printed materials. Not as robust as InDesign, but is certainly better than using Pagemaker or Publisher--or worst, Microsoft Powerpoint or Word--for creating your printed stuff. You can download it at the official Scribus website.

Inkscape

Inkscape, is a vector illustration software. If you're into drawing and nice vector illustration, then you'll certainly going to like Inkscape. And unlike the GIMP and Scribus, Inkscape is just as robust as Adobe Illustrator. It's great for illustration work, and is certainly one of those free apps that should be on every creative person's computer. You can grab your free copy at the Inkscape Website.

Try out these apps and see for yourself how good it feels to get things free.