Mundane Scribblings

Hosting DB Error

Mel — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:36:13 +0000

I’ve been getting Database Errors every now and then when viewing my blog. I already have reported this to my hosting and I have yet to get their reply from this issue.

In any case, please bear with us until the database issues have been resolved from my hosting.

Cheers!

How to Survive a Heart Attack When Alone

Mel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:30:22 +0000

I was cleaning the inbox of my email account and found this interesting article about Heart Attack. Well we got to admit that heart ailment is one of the dreaded disease of many and could lead to death if not treated early. The article below, discusses a few tips and things to do if you are in that predicament.

Let’s say it’s 6.15p m and you’re going home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to adiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help,the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However,these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!

Pls forwad this message to as many friends as possible…

A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life.

—-

Image courtesy of : http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Neat Code Highlighter Plug-in

Mel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:49:32 +0000

I have been planning to post some Tutorials page on my blog for quite some time, but I haven’t posted any yet. For the simple reason that, I haven’t found a suitable plug-in that highlights the source code that I’ll be posting.

With the help of search engines, I found a few candidates and tested it on my local copy, but it’s does not fit to my satisfaction. Only when I searched from WordPress Plug-ins directory was I able to find a suitable code highlighter to use. It’s the WP-Syntax plug-ins, well without further delay, I tested it on my local, and it was indeed what i needed. I uploaded it my online blog, and presto here it is!

PHP Code Test

<div id="foo">
  function foo() {
    echo "Hello World!\\n";
  }
div>

Java Code Test

public class Hello {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Hello World!");
  }
}

HTML Code Test

<html>
  <head>
     <title>Hello World</title>
  </head>
  <body>
     <h1 align="center">Hello World<hr></h1>
     <p align="justify">
        The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog Near the Bank of Hudson River.
     </p>
  </body>
</html>

JavaScript Code Test

function hello(){
  alert("Hello World!!~");
}

And a lot more languages are supported. I’m glad I have found this handy plug-in and now I can start with my Tutorials ^_^. I’m finalizing my Tutorials Page layout and content, I’ll upload it in there when it’s ready. And if your wondering what kind of content does the tutorial page will have. It’s all the basics I guess, a small of xhtml/css, C/C++ Programming, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and anything I can think of under the sun. But it will consist primarily of the first three above.

Now, proceeding to layout!

WordPress 2.9.2 is UP!

Mel — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:28:41 +0000

Well, what do you know, it’s has been long and this update is over long due. But better late than never. If you haven’t updated your WordPress Blog yet, head over to you Dashboard, Tools>Upgrade and it will automatically upgrade your existing WP Blog.

Just a fair warning, if your WP Blog is below 2.7, you will have to download and re-install everything from scratch, sorry. Just head over to WordPress.org and grab your share of the pie.

Download directly from here

Microsoft and Europe Finally Work Out Windows 7 Browser Differences

Mel — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:12:41 +0000

The European Commission and Microsoft appear to finally be on the verge of resolving an antitrust dispute over Windows 7’s browser

Microsoft has long packaged its Internet Explorer browser with Windows. The bundling has given Microsoft’s browser a dominant position in the marketplace, despite promising alternatives including Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. That cozy position could soon change, though, thanks to action by Europe’s antitrust watchdog and business regulatory body, the European Commission.

The EC demanded Microsoft offer a ballot selection screen to allow users to pick their browser of choice with Windows 7. Microsoft at first refused, saying it would not include IE 8 in European copies of Windows 7. In the end, though, Microsoft came around andagreed to a ballot screen.

The EC had some minor complaints about Microsoft’s first proposal — mainly its lack of information to users about what the browsers were to help them make their selection. Under the new proposal, which the EC calls much “improved” users could find out information on what a browser is from the ballot screen. They would also have access to additional information about each browser they could install, to help them make their decision.

Under the new proposal, the balloting system would work for five years after purchase on any new install. Windows 7 and all future versions of Windows would implement this scheme.

EC showed Microsoft some love, with a regulator stating, “The commission’s concern has been that PC users should have an effective and unbiased choice between Internet Explorer and competing Web browsers to ensure competition on the merits and to allow consumers to benefit from technical development and innovation both on the Web-browser market and on related markets, such as Web-based applications.”

Brad Smith, general counsel of Microsoft stated that his company was “pleased by today’s decisions.”

Microsoft and Europe have had a rocky relationship, with Microsoft fined 899 million euros ($1.35 billion) in 2008 for antitrust violations. Brad Smith says that situation has greatly turned around, though. He gave Europe some love back, stating, “It’s heartening to see the much better relationship that exists today.”

Source: DailyTech

Office 2010: Partially functional, Ad-Supported, Free to download

Mel — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:22:52 +0000

Microsoft is trying to hook more people on Office with a partially functional ad-supported edition

“Hard at work on your homework? How about a late night snack at Taco Bell?”

That’s the kind of message that may soon be popping up when you’re writing Office documents, if you opt to stick with the free ad-supported edition — Microsoft Office Starter 2010 – which was just announced. The new free edition will only feature partial functionality. The critical question that has not yet been answered about this new edition is exactly how much will be disabled.

That is a critical question because competitors are already offering popular alternatives that are ad-free and free. Among these are Open Office 3 and Google Docs. Microsoft must tread carefully when deciding just how many features to support in the free version, in order to give customers incentive to upgrade, but avoid having them jump ship to a more functional free alternative. The free ad-supported version is exclusively on PCs (i.e. it is not available for Macs also have their own version of Microsoft Office).

The free edition joins three other editions ofOffice 2010: Office Home and Student 2010, Office Home and Business 2010, and Office Professional 2010.

The other big news about Microsoft Office 2010 is that it will go DVD-free. A locked full version of the software will be available on new Windows 7 PCs. Customers can purchase an upgrade card from Microsoft or at retailers to “upgrade” or unlock the software and experience all its features.

Microsoft says the approach will allow users to install more quickly and without the hassles of physical media. They also say that its better for the environment, bragging, “An added bonus: The card’s packaging is smaller than the full package (DVD) product, and is eco/retail-friendly.”

A broad public beta is planned for later this year to help people decide if Office 2010 is for them. Microsoft says that upgrading from the beta to full versions will be quick and easy.

Another piece of news about the upcoming version of Office is Click-to-Run. Click-to-Run will be managing downloads — both software installations and patches — within Office 2010. Microsoft says that Click-to-Run “significantly reduces the time and effort required to download Office 2010 over the Internet.” Click-to-Run uses virtualization, so multiple installations of Office 2010 with different features, alongside older versions of Office are possible.

Source: DailyTech

LAN Party is not Possible with Starcraft II

Mel — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:22:19 +0000

Blizzard cites piracy as one of the reasons to nix LAN support

With the upcoming release of Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 still causing some gamers to froth at the mouth, the latest announcement from another of gaming’s darling developers Blizzard is sure to cause a fresh batch to bubble forth. After enduring the ire of loyal fans by splitting the sequel into a trilogy, Blizzard dropped the second proverbial Terran Nuke when it announced StarCraft II will not support LAN play, with multiplayer being exclusive to Blizzard’s updated Battle.net service.

“We don’t have any plans to support LAN,” VP of game design Rob Pardo told IncGamers in an interview Sunday. This was later confirmed with a statement from Blizzard PR rep Bob Colayco:

We don’t currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future.

Users of pirated copies of games will often utilize LAN-over-VPN programs or services, such as Hamachi, in order to form ad-hoc gaming communities. By removing the ability for LAN play, Blizzard hopes to nip this in the bud and bring more gamers to their revamped Battle.net service.

Thankfully, the rumors about Battle.net becoming a paid service are untrue for the moment; at least if you live in North America or the European Union. Pardo hinted that due to Asia being “a little different how they do things” some features might require microtransactions, similar to the ability to pay additional money to transfer servers in World of Warcraft.

StarCraft II is currently scheduled for a late-2009 release; as long as “it is ready.”

Source: Dailytech

Microsoft Activates Windows 7 Beta Kill Switch

Mel — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:02:07 +0000

Users will begin to experience unpleasant interruptions

As forewarned, if you are among the millions who downloaded the Windows 7 beta and you haven’t since upgrade to the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), you are about to experience unpleasant service interruptions. In lieu of an October 22 release, and a wrap-up for the RC phase, Microsoft began the end of life process for the beta release today.

Starting today users running the beta version of the OS will have their system shut down every two hours. Microsoft is urging users who stuck with the beta to jump to the release candidate, which includes a number of additional features and refinements. Writes Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc in a Windows team blog post, “If you’re still on the Windows 7 Beta you should certainly look at giving the Windows 7 RC at try!”

For those enjoying the free Release Candidate, the good times will roll until June 1, 2010, when the RC build will cease to function, forcing users to purchase the new OS (or revert to Vista/XP). The RC download program ends August 15.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 is currently in its second week of the pre-order program, which is nearing its end. The pre-order program will end on Saturday, July 11. Users can still snag a pre-order copy of Home Premium upgrade for a mere $49.99 or Professional for $99.99. Once the pre-order expires, these upgrade prices will jump to $119.99 and $199.99 respectively, with Ultimate edition being priced at $219.

Pre-orders will soon also available still in UK, Japan, France, and Germany. For EU customers, the pre-orders are especially sweet as they allow Europeans to snag the OS at its cheapest full-retail prices. In the European Union Microsoft will not be offering an upgrade SKU, but will be offering full retail versions at the same price as the upgrade versions in America. The international pre-order program runs from July 15 to August 14.

Source: Dailytech

WordPress 2.8 is UP!

Mel — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:26:07 +0000

WordPress

Well, I’ve been monitoring this software release from it’s beta, and I believe I have published the beta release in my blog. And to think that I have been busy for a while and was not able to check on the updates of this software. What did I missed? Well, I you hadn’t known also, after the beta was up they already released RC1 and not long after that, the official version is already published!

Yep, you heard it right! WordPress 2.8 the official release is available for everybody to use. If you haven’t known the features of the new release, head over to the WordPress Blog.

Grab yourself a copy and test it now!

Hosting Problem

Mel — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:16:59 +0000

Had a little DNS problem with the hosting server a few days ago, that caused my blog not able to apply the CSS on the theme that I’m using.

It’s all fixed now and I’m so sorry for the little discomfort it caused.