Two days ago when PLDT MyDSL conked out on virtually all of us, I was having my own problems with my Bayantel DSL here in my office. I couldn’t access most sites I go to such as Google and Twitter. I thought maybe OpenDNS can solve that problem. True enough, it did!

Yesterday though, while I was trying to access my site, DotaStrategy.com, the OpenDNS page of death appeared in my browser:

It says: If you experience this problem, we do not have any solution to this problem. We’ll fix this as soon as possible.

I say: How the heck are you going to fix it if you say you don’t have a solution??

Once again, I say goodbye to OpenDNS and hello normalized Internet!

Three Reasons Why Manila Bulletin’s Website is Stuck in the Stone Age:

1. Their links to their news articles expire faster than you can say “Three Reasons Why Manila Bulletin’s Website is Stuck in the Stone Age”

2. Their links are expired, so what’s a regular guy like me to do?! Search! But:

3. No RSS feed! Nuff said.

Holler out to the editors of Manila Bulletin! Fire your web team, now na!!

I’m laughing my *ss off while looking at the official website of the ongoing mini-”coup” led by Antonio Trillanes and that dinosaur Teofisto Guingona. Apparently, these guys don’t have a clue what an improbable mess their website is. It has three columns. Fine, many blogs have three columns. But three columns filled with FULL articles is a different story. No one in his right mind would be able to show support for these numbskulls after trying to read their website. They’ll just end up with a big headache! And I can’t even muster enough strength to talk about their header image. It’s too pixelated to tell if that’s Bembol Roco in the center wearing the black beret.
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What’s wrong with the Philippine Web Awards?

First of all, I can’t pay for my nominated site. I’m about to throw P2500 at their faces with my shiny gold credit card, but they won’t let me. It’s been going on for 4 days! The sadder part is, the website doesn’t have a contact form, nor does their payment gateway Mozcom Easypay.

Today, September 19 is the last day of nominations. That’s about the third time they said that. So when is the last day when they’ll finally get their act together?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for events such as this, but the organizers of the Philippine Webbies are so logistically inept that the whole point of it is lost right from the start. How can they be credible enough to give out website awards when their own website looks like something mashed up by a seven-year-old? Their news are outdated and seriously lacks in content. And to think they make us pay P2500 just to be nominated. But then again, they won’t let us nominate. So what’s the fuss?

Nothing. To put it in Simon Cowell’s words:

“The Philippine Webbies is completely and utterly useless.”

It doesn’t just take a great idea to make it big, but actually have the gall to to go for it even if it’s so fantastically stupid.

Take this wise-ass guy from North Pole, Alaska, USA who, for $10, sends your kids realistic letters pretending to be Santa Claus! It’s crazy, but as of last count, he’s sent 200,000 letters already, making him $2 million richer.

And do I even have to mention Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage?

More dumb ideas from the Weird Tech News Hub

I fell too much in love with my customized Alleba email courtesy of Gmail for domains that I completely neglected to do my piece on Yahoo!’s new beta mail interface. What better time to do it when I’ve slightly gotten over the whole Gmail affair.

I have been using Yahoo! Mail Beta for slightly over a month now. No, I didn’t lie about my zip code just to try it, as I am aware that only the French and the Germans get to use it.

First, the bad stuff. My biggest and initial complaint with the new interface is it’s slow as hell. To think I am on DSL — but then again it’s PLDT Mydsl (which explains a lot). But that’s already beside the point. While I was logging in, this weird kid on a bouncing ball appears on the screen:
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There’s something new brewing at the Google Labs.

It’s called Accessible Search, a search engine tool by Google that sorts results based on the readability and simplicity of the page layout. This proves to be useful for those who are reading or sight impaired, as it gives them faster but not necessarily better access to information with minimal graphical distractions.
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Mario Lavandeira, whose online alias-slash-blog Perez Hilton hit more than a million unique visitors last July 18, a first for the site. That’s 1 million hits for one day, mind you. His next goal is to reach the 2 million mark. Notice the pun on Paris Hilton? Perez Hilton basically follows the lives of people like Paris Hilton — yes, those types of celebrities — those who bank their fame on how the spend their money, what they wear, who they hang out with, where they hang out and how much weight they’ve lost or gained.
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How I wish eBible.com existed in my days of studying theology in college. I have to admit that theology (or theo, as we fondly called it) isn’t exactly my thing nor did I excel in it like I did in Calculus and English. We used the New American Bible a lot. It’s that red-colored bible that’s probably the easiest version (for us at least) to digest. I believe Marc and other Ateneans will know what I’m talking about.

I think other Filipino students will benefit a lot from this revolutionary Web 2.0 approach to Bible study. It’s definitely a more enjoyable experience than having to sift through the fragile pages of the real thing. Not that it’s a bad thing, though. You can save excerpts that you like in a drag-and-drop fashion and share them to the whole community. The site also features a tag cloud of popular keywords, a search engine and an online store.

I received an invitation to use eBible.com and I got 25 more up for grabs.
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I was sniffing around for some nifty loading gif’s for one of my projects when I found Ajaxload, a drive-thru Ajax-powered site that spits out loading gif animations to your liking on-the-fly. Yeah … for you graphically-challenged Web 2.0 geeks out there, this is the place to go if you want your apps to look cool while they’re pretending to load something. Hehehe.

Some samples from their site:
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Cute. I rarely use that word, but this is what I uttered to myself when I discovered Mojizu, an awesome online community where artists create, share and critique whimsical characters. If you’re an artist who’s into comical art, I think this is a great way to be noticed.

Cool downloads include desktop wallpapers, ‘mojicons’ and avatars you can use for message boards and Internet messengers.

Visit Mojisu

I got an invite to beta-test Gmail for Domains. Setting it up was a breeze, it only took under 10 minutes to get everything to work!

I personally do not use Gmail that much because I do have an @alleba.com address where I do all my official transactions. But I have to admit that I’m far from happy with Dreamhost’s clunky default webmail interface (Squirrelmail), that’s why I opt for POP mail access with Mozilla Thunderbird instead. Now I have the best of both worlds — Google’s reliable technology and my very own email domain. How cool is that.

Here’s a screenshot of Gmail for alleba.com:
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Today I’m introducing a project that I began 3 months ago. It’s a bookmarking site that I think has made me and its beta testers the laziest group of Internet surfers in the world. It’s called GO: Anywhere You Want.

The idea of it is quite simple — You type in your favorite links, organize them into folders in a clutter-free interface, set the page as your homepage, voila — you never have to type anything ever again. There are also options to include common search engines on the left sidebar such as Google and Yahoo (yes, I am that lazy).

Want to give it a run? If you do register, please use it and see why I can’t live without it! It’s a completely free service, however, there is a nice little link back to Alleba.com.

Got suggestions, reactions, comments? Post them here.

Sometime in November I finished a classifieds site called Kuweba.com. It was an experiment more than anything else. I have to say that I’m quite happy and proud of the final product and some people had in fact posted some of their ads with little advertising or promotion on my part.

Yes, Kuweba.com looks exactly like Craigslist.com, and that was the toughest part of it all! Programming is difficult but the challenge it gives me is exhilirating. Call me a geek, that’s perfectly fine with me, because I am kind of geeky.

Give the site a try, then tell me what you think.

Here are some cool new sites recently added to our directory:

Dekada Otsenta gives us an amusing look back into the 1980’s by offering quizzes on how much we know about the infamous era. All scores are tracked and analyzed statistically.

Some notable questions:

Sino ang host ng “Lovingly Yours, Helen”?
Alin sa mga ito ang hindi konektado sa Jem and the Holograms?
Nakanood ka ng wrestling noong bata pa si Hulk Hogan

Shoppingera is a blog that screams “kikay” right at your face. It’s written by a certain “Phink” and coins words such as “Phinkerfect” and “Phinktastic” for the sake of contextual emphasis. Shoppingera also offers advice on shopping, make-up and reviews on celebrity fashion.