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Then, specify what action to do if an email matches the criteria. Apply a new label to it called “Friendster”. Voila. From now on, all emails from Friendster will be labeled accordingly. Another neat trick you can do is create a variant to handle potential spam, like starwarsfreak+spam@gmail.com. Use this email when registering for “iffy” sites that you’ll never want to be bothered by or never come back to. Simply setup a filter to delete messages going to this email.

Adding periods (.) anywhere in your username produces the same result. Gmail ignores these dots, so star.wars.freak@gmail.com and s.t.a.r.w.a.r.s.f.r.e.a.k@gmail.com and starwarsfreak@gmail.com are one and the same, of course except when applying filters, the dots do matter.

If you’re wondering if this works for Gmail for domains, yes it sure does.

I’d like to let you guys in on my experiences of running a very large community site such as Dota Strategy. To be honest, it’s a stressful yet fun experience. Managing a site like this requires a ton of patience, perseverance and yes, a bit of money too. Initially, it was hosted on my shared account with Dreamhost, which I pay 20 bucks a month for to this day. But soon enough, I was forced to remove it because it was taking up too much resources and bogged down my server five times a day. Didn’t help that my users were hating me. So I moved Dota Strategy to a $90/mo. VPS plan with A Small Orange. The plan includes 512MB memory, 250GB Bandwidth, 20GB disk space and whatnot. The whole moving process was a nightmare. It took me forever to export and import my SQL database plus the domain wasn’t resolving to the new server as fast as I’d like it to. That caused some sort of a ‘time paradox’ as we lovingly call it. One set of users was accessing the old site while another set was seeing the new one. Sadly, I, the all-powerful owner and administrator ‘drew’, was seeing the old site. After one painful week I finally got things back to normal.

Being the administrator of Dota Strategy (or DS) is like running a country. I serve as President and I have a cabinet of Secretaries with varying roles. We hold our cabinet meetings over YM and talk like politicians. We mainly touch on issues such as peace and order (warning/banning members), environment (moderating/deleting threads and comments), elections (accepting new moderators or support team members), tourism (new features), infrastructure (optimal site design/HTML) and economy (monetizing). I’m lucky to have my friends RJ, Marx, Ronie, Alvin and cousin Ria in my moderating team. It’s funny that the last support team member’s selection was done through a coin toss. Each of us who were at the meeting had to toss a coin five times. Heads means yes while Tails means no. To cut the story short, the guy luckily made it to the team.

Recently, we decided that we needed more people on the team. RJ suggested that we open up applications. Shortly after he made an announcement, applications started pouring in. We noticed that the more loyal members were applying, and rightly so. There’s no better way for us to judge an application but on the user’s activity on the site. Other factors we look at are: the user’s style of writing, grammar, spelling, friendliness, professionalism, helpfulness and knowledge about DotA. This time, we hope to make a prudent decision not dependent on coin tosses. So far we have singled out 6 applicants as potential finalists. We’re planning an online cabinet meeting soon to decide who goes through.

Since I am based in Davao City, I only get to see my mods when I visit Manila. I think we’ve met up four times already. We usually start by eating a big dinner somewhere and then play DotA afterwards. I’ve thought about organizing a bigger eyeball involving more members, but haven’t had the guts to do so. That’s certainly something I should pursue in the near future.

Alright, let’s talk statistics. For January 2008, the site received 3.8 million page views, 52 million hits, consuming 330 gigabytes of bandwidth. Daily unique visitors ranged between 17,000 to 22,000. A few days ago, our Alexa Rank topped 3,800. The site currently has more than 130,000 members and 140,000 articles. Sound crazy right? Coz it is! The sheer amount of traffic forces me to reset the server at least once a day. Often, even if the site hasn’t crashed yet, I do a reset just to present a crash from happening. When I say ‘crash’, it’s either the site isn’t responding or loading, or the MySQL database has too many connections. It’s truly a learning experience. Save for nightmares such as these, I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

If I were to give out advice on how to run a country community, I’d say you need to have a good mix of management and PR skills, a group of trusted moderators, an effective moderating system and a slew of features to keep your users busy. Without one or the other, it would be difficult to maintain your site’s momentum. When your users sense that your community is falling apart, they leave. There’s always another place for them to go to. Unfortunately in my niche, there’s a lot! Try to keep your users active for as long as you can.

Interestingly, as I compared my community to a country, recently I read this excellent article that compares communities to parties. Basically the same idea of keeping your guests happy in a party holds true: Be a good host and plan it well!

Let’s say that you just got your Google Adsense check worth $123.45. And you wonder … How much is this in Philippine pesos? Simple! Go to Google.com and type:

123.45 usd in php

And you’ll get something around 5,651 pesos.

Ok, now from that amount, say that you promised your girlfriend last month that you’ll give her half of what you just earned. Hmm, that will leave you with:

5651/2 = 2,825.50

You can even do it this way:

123.45/2 usd in php

Next scenario: You’re filling out an application form and under the height field, it tells you to input in centimeters, but all you know is that you’re 5’8. What to do?

Query:
(5*12+8) inches in centimeters

And you’ll find out you’re 172.72 centimeters tall. What if you’re asked of your weight in kilos?

Query:
155 pounds in kilos = 70.3 kilos

What’s 70.3 squared?

Query: 70.3^2

Cool huh?

There are a lot more you can do with Google’s calculator. You can read about it here and get familiar with some operators here.

From Feedburner:

PingShot is a quick notification service that enables your feed to be updated in the widest variety of places as quickly as you add new content.

There are a lot of different aggregators, search engines and like services with more coming on the market every day. Each of these services follows a different schedule when polling for new content. Without PingShot, it can take between 30 minutes and six hours for content to be updated everywhere it is consumed.

I’m pretty certain this blog pings a variety of aggregators after making each post. But I do care about how quick my content is disseminated on the web. With Pingshot, I don’t have to worry about that. However, choosing which aggregators to ping can be a bit confusing for some.

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Here’s the lowdown:

Technorati: The mother of all aggregators. Leave it checked if you value your life.

My Yahoo!: Ping-o-matic (see below) already pings My Yahoo! for you, so I dunno if pinging it for the second time will give you an advantage. This isn’t an aggregator either, but by pinging My Yahoo!, users subscribed to you will be able to get your freshest content sooner.

Ping-o-matic: A no-brainer. This isn’t an aggregator per se, but you’d want to include this service because it takes the pain out of pinging the most important aggregators out there. Funny that Pingshot also pings Feedburner.

Bloglines: A must-have. Bloglines is an aggregator, search engine, news reader and blog creator rolled into one. Up-to-the minute too.

Newsgator: A very popular online news reader. Again, Ping-o-matic takes care of this.

Blogdigger: Search engine for blogs and RSS. I noticed that they are more than a month late in updating my posts. And yes, Ping-o-matic has it too.

Blog Buzz Machine: Looks pretty useless. I tried to sign up but didn’t get a confirmation email.

FeedBlitz: An RSS and blog to email service. If you are using this service to gather email subscribers, then it can be very useful for you.

Google Blog Search Pinging Service: Google has its own blog search engine that is injected constantly with new blog content. Highly recommended.

Blogblogs: A popular news aggregator in Brazil. Not for everyone, unless you blog in Portuguese.

Bloggarkivet.net: A Norwegian blog search engine. Again, not for everyone.

Bloggrevyen: Another Norwegian aggregator and pinging service.

Feed Crier: Service that delivers RSS feeds to your instant messenger. Not my cup of tea, IMO.

Moreover: Unless you’re a big-time online newspaper or syndicated blogger, don’t bother, but then again, Ping-o-matic pings them for you.

Alexa: I didn’t know Alexa can be pinged. Looks suspect to me. They do have a search engine that no one uses except when checking their traffic ranks.

Snap: A fairly new kid on the block that gained popularity through its cool snapshot service. Their search engine looks promising, although not sure of its up-to-date-ness.

Syndic8: A nice feed subscription directory. I don’t see any advantage in pinging them though. Leave this out, since Ping-o-matic has it covered anyway.

Tailrank: Tracks popular blog posts much like Digg. Their search gives me an error right now.

Weblogs.com: Another pinging service, but provides no detailed information.

IceRocket: A very updated blog search engine. Recommended, although Pingomatic got it covered too.

Simply log on to your Feedburner account, choose a feed and click Publicize > Pingshot. You are given up to 10 options. Here’s what I recommend:

1. Technorati
2. My Yahoo!
3. Bloglines
4. Pingomatic
5. Newsgator
6. Google Blog Search Pinging Service
7. Icerocket
8. Weblogs.com
9. Blogdigger
10. For #10, I’d choose Blogblogs, since you may get a few more valuable hits from our friends in South America than in Norway. Go for Feedblitz if you have email subscribers (I don’t).

Happy Pinging!

As we speak, the most buzzed about story is Benj Arriola’s win at the SEO World Championship, which was posted yesterday and immediately seven blogs talked about it and linked it up. Indeed, his win is a big deal, as reflected by the blogosphere. It would be interesting to see which stories will make it on top in the coming days. If you think a story is worth linking to, link to it! That’s the equivalent of “digging” a story at Digg. Who doesn’t love link love anyway?

Your thoughts?

Visit Ratified.org’s Meme

On the righthand menu of your web panel, click on change or add emails.

Under Managing email addresses, enter the mobile email address corresponding to your cellular phone carrier:

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
Former AT&T customers: 10digitphonenumber@mmode.com
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

Click Save to add the email address to your profile.

Montastic claims to check your site every 10 minutes “at the minimum”, which is better than other free services I have checked out. So far, they have been doing their jobs properly. By adding this SMS feature, you can immediately act on a problem when it arises, whether you are at your computer or not.

Thanks to Republic of Geektronica for the list of carriers.

What do I mean by Web 2.0-Style Logo? If you follow Web 2.0 closely, you’ll see similarities in the way logos are designed: Simple, glossed, gradient, bright-colored and often came with a slight reflection and a beta sign just like this:

Pretty ain’t it? Here’s a quick 6-minute video tutorial I prepared:

Some notes:
1. In Adobe Photoshop CS, I started with a new 800×600, 72 pixel/inch document with white background.

2. The font I used for the ALLEBA text is Trebuchet MS, 80 point and hexadecimal color 3399CC. You may use similar fonts such as Arial, Tahoma or Helvetica. I used the same color to replace black for the gradient effect. I set the opacity of the reflection to 50% and that of the white gloss to 30%.

3. For the starburst (where BETA is written), you need to open Character Map (Windows only) via Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map. Switch to the Wingdings font where you can find the starburst that I used for this tutorial. Copy the starburst then return to Photoshop. Pick the text tool, click on the workspace and paste. You will initially see the “®” character. Highlight “®” then choose the Wingdings font from the toolbar. Set the size to 60 pt and hex color FFCC00. The two colors I used for the gradient are FFCC00 and FFFF66 at a 135 degree angle. I set the drop shadow to 30% opacity.

4. I created this tutorial for those who are already familiar with the common tools and functions of Adobe Photoshop CS. This is my first attempt in creating a video tutorial that took me 2 hours to come up with a decent version! If you have any questions or are looking for additional Photoshop training, I’d be glad to answer them here.

Update: Here’s the link to a higher resolution video of this tutorial.
Happy logo making!

Want to have a 4-DIGIT VANITY NUMBER to advertise your products? Only PHP5,600/yr!!!

Yes, what they’re offering makes it possible for you to use text messaging as a marketing business tool just like what you see every so often on television shows and commercials. From my email conversations with them, they say that they are in fact legit. They courted the big telecoms (Globe Telecom, Smart and Sun Cellular) for two years before they were given the green light. What is nice is they are primarily targetting small and medium enterprises (SME’s) and so-called “micropreneurs” or home-based entrepreneurs. This allows small businesses to expand their marketing strategy by holding mobile polls, raffles and advertisements. Their packages start at just P5,600 (~$100) annually. Quite a bargain. Each text sent by the consumer costs P2.50.

Now, when I emailed them again, I said that I was particularly interested (which I really am) in making actual money out of their service as a content provider. They said that aside from the 4-digit mobile numbers, they also offer mobile content management where one can sell their content (such as Java games, horoscopes, movie schedules and whatnot) via SMS. You can also hold text voting and share profit with them if it reaches a certain volume of response.

If only Sundry Online can come up with a decent website to make them at the least believable, I think that their mobile products will be a big hit. But for now, I find it tough for anyone to sift through the noise on their website and make a sound business decision at the same time.

On the web: Sundry Online

Comparatively, Davao City has a long way to go in terms of development. It’s a bit tricky to do business in the city. There’s this thing called the “Davao fad mentality” where businesses thrive only when they’re a few months old and eventually fade away until they close down. It’s different in Manila because every time I hang out in Makati, all the restaurants and bars are packed! Here, restaurants make money only in the weekends. But the cool thing about Davao is that WiFi is free everywhere. I just need to buy a cup of coffee and I’m good to go. I guess one reason for that is there is no B2B WiFi service available here such WiZ and Airborne Access. And I doubt that Davaoenos will ever bite WiFi for pay.

Update: I’m wrong. WiZ is already being used by several establishments but is offered free.

Here’s a list of free WiFi hotspots in Davao City:

Apo View Hotel
J. Camus St.

Basti’s Brew
Victoria Plaza, JP Laurel Ave.

Blugre Coffee
LandCo Building, JP Laurel Ave.

Bo’s Coffee
Metro Lifestyle, F. Torres St.

Casa Leticia (Hotel)
J. Camus St.

Davao International Airport
Sasa

Figaro
Sales St.

Formula Pete’s
Wheels n More Compound, JP Laurel Ave.

First Floor of Gaisano Mall of Davao
JP Laurel Ave.

Grand Regal Hotel
JP Laurel Ave.

K1
F. Torres St.

Karl’s Koffee Korner
SM City of Davao Branch
Quimpo Boulevard, Matina

Kasagingan Coffee Shop
F. Torres St.

Marco Polo Hotel
Cor. CM Recto and Roxas Sts.

Matina Town Square (MTS)
McArthur Highway, Matina
(6 pm onwards only)

NCCC Mall of Davao
McArthur Highway, Matina

Royal Mandaya Hotel
Palma Gil St.

Waterfront Hotel
Lanang

If you know more, please leave a comment. Thanks.

When I took my PC to Columbia, I was pretty darn sure there wouldn’t be any problems because:

1) I had the same problem before and was quickly resolved by just replacing the power source with a new one, albeit by a different repair center.
2) I checked the hard disk if it was still ok, and it was and was able to back some files up.
3) My PC, although already about 3 years old that time, was working perfectly. Everything was updated from the OS down to the anti-virus and firewall.

So I told the technician on duty at Columbia what the problem was and that I needed to have the power source replaced. The guy told me to come back the next day since they had a lot in their hands that time.

The next day, I got the dreaded call from Columbia. The guy said that my PC would no longer boot with the new power source, meaning that my hard disk is completely busted. I asked how that could happen since I checked it the day before and found it to be in fine form. He said that it could be a number of things, from the motherboard to the new power source and several other lame excuses. I immediately got in my car to handle the situation in person. I spoke to the technician and he just rambled about the same stuff he said over the phone. The manager was not there at that time. So I took my unit home to do some investigation to what could have happened.

I did recall from our phone conversation that the technician somehow damaged a part of the hard disk where the pins resided. True enough, one side was chipped off. Now why did I ignore this little fact when I was talking to him? I called them again and asked them about it. The technician said that happened while he was trying to disconnect it from the motherboard. That’s just insane because it doesn’t take that much effort to do that to the extent of causing damage. My suspicion was that he might have dropped it by accident or quite possibly on purpose. The strangest thing was why he chose to disconnect it when I specified that it’s the power source I asked them to replace! I finally got the manager to speak to me, who happens to be a woman. I demanded that they replace my hard disk with a new one. Being the shrewd Chinese businesswoman she was (I don’t mean to be racist, but don’t they always are), she said that the technician should pay for it since he was the one who destroyed it. What kind of crappy company policy is that?? I certainly wasn’t the typical clueless customer they usually encounter. I actually knew what I was talking about, which I think, took her unfortunately by surprise.

But nevertheless, I was left with two choices: to buy a new hard disk or to drive the technician to further poverty by forcing him to pay for it. Of course, I chose the former. Suddenly, the manager came on to me like a rabid sales robot, offering me a new motherboard and different hard disk models and sizes at supposedly “discount” prices. I was so flustered and exhausted at that time that I decided to give in to her sales pitch.

My biggest mistake was I didn’t insist on having my unit tested if it still worked with a different power source. That way, I could have made a better argument with the shop owner. Second, I left my computer in the hands of total strangers. I should have just brought it to the place where I usually have it fixed.

Fast-forward to present day. I helped out my cousin Jonathan with a problem with his PC. It was nothing hardware-related but OS-related. I recommended that he back up his files because I concluded that the OS needed to be reinstalled, meaning the hard drive needed to be reformatted (ergo, erased). I personally took their unit to Electroworld to have the OS reinstalled. Same thing, I had to come back the next day.

Like deja vu happening all over again, they called my house (since I left them my number, not my cousin’s) and informed me that the hard disk could no longer be detected and that it was making a loud clicking sound. That simply meant Jonathan needed to buy a new hard drive. Again, I repeat, it was working like a charm before I took it in and even did a live check with the technician.

But it all became clear to me now. I wonder: Do computer shops have a sick habit of destroying people’s property just so that they would be forced to buy new stuff from them?? I think it’s a totally valid question. Why of all places would a PC turn for the worst while it is sitting in a repair shop?? It’s just not right!

I concluded that like Columbia, Electroworld had just screwed us over. I withdrew my cousin’s PC and advised him to get the new hardware from somewhere else. We decided to go for a more commercial establishment, Octagon computers that handled our case in a more professional manner.

Here are some lessons:

If you experience a problem with your computer, whether hardware- or software-related, try to establish which hardware parts are still working.

To check your hard disk, simply turn on your computer. If Windows boots up and your desktop appears with no strange clicking/clunky sounds, it’s fine. If you have multiple hard drives, check the files inside those too. Open, edit and save them. If you can do those, they’re ok.

To check your video card, same thing. If you see your desktop appearing on your monitor, your video card’s allright.

Check your internal CD-ROM drives by pressing the eject button repeatedly. Play DVD’s or VCD’s to see if they work. If they do, they’re fine as well.

If all of the above have been positively accomplished, it’s safe to say that your power source works too.

With that in mind, take your PC tower to your most trusted computer repair center. That way, the chances of them taking you for a fool is lessened. But still, when talking to them, sound like you know exactly what the problem is. Don’t leave it to them to figure it out for you. If it’s a virus, say so and make it a point that your problem is ONLY software-related, NOT hardware-related. Now, if it’s hardware-related, pinpoint the exact hardware involved:

1) If you press the On button and absolutely nothing happens, it’s your power source.
2) If you press the On button and you see nothing on screen and hear a loud beep, it’s most likely your video card or your motherboard or your RAM.
3) If you press the On button and see nothing on screen and hear a winding, clicking sound, it’s your hard drive.
4) If you press the On button and see stuff happening on screen but doesn’t go past the “Welcome” screen (on XP), it’s your OS or some corrupted software.
5) If your computer refuses to shut down, it could be your OS, or something busted on your motherboard.
6) If you find that some of your files have been erased, it’s most likely a virus.

Make it a point that the technician checks your computer while you’re present. Get his name and cellphone number. Walk him through until you encounter your problem. Ask for a diagnosis and what he will do to solve it. Be the boss of the situation. Don’t act like a pushover. Inform him that you have very important files that need to be backed up and tell him to do it for you. That way, if he backs your files up, you can assert that your hard drive was still working at the time he was handling your PC. Have in handy a USB, flash or external drive (that you own) for that purpose. If you don’t, ask to have the backup burned on several blank CD’s.

Some technicians like to ask how old your computer is. Just say that it was upgraded recently. Don’t ever say it’s over 4 or 5 or more years old! They will use that against you! If your computer is under warranty, you have nothing to worry about. Read the shop’s job order sheet carefully and look for a clause that disclaims them of any liability of damage. But anyway, you don’t have a choice but to sign it. It is best if you go to the shop early in the morning. There’s a good chance you might get your PC back later in the afternoon.

Now, if some hardware parts of your PC unfortunately meet their untimely death inside a computer repair shop, here’s what you should do:

1. Ask for a thorough explanation from the technician who handled your case. Do not settle for lame excuses because they usually don’t have a credible one. They tend to throw jargon that they think you won’t understand because they assume that you know nothing. Make an assertion to what state of damage your PC was in before you submitted it for repair. It is usually written in your copy of the job order.

2. Talk to the shop manager. If you think you have a good case against them, demand for a full refund or replacement of the part they destroyed. Hold the whole establishment responsible, not just the technician. If you know a good lawyer friend, it helps if you use that threat to get what you want.

3. If #2 fails, get to action. Talk to your lawyer and go over their terms of service stated in the job order. Find loopholes, know your rights and get the lawyer to speak to the manager on your behalf and make the same demands.

4. If #3 fails, I would not recommend filing a lawsuit because knowing how justice is in the Philippines, it will take years before it is settled.

5. If you fail to reach any sort of compromise, demand for the backup of your files and take your PC back from them. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy anything from that store and DO NOT pay them for their sloppy service!

6. Ask friends where they have their computers serviced. Take your computer there and get all the necessary parts it needs to get its groove back. Check everything you’re buying. Make sure they’re BRAND NEW and not refurbished. There are cases when computer stores put used parts and simply clean them to make them look new. I once caught a shop doing this to my uncle a few years ago. He bought a PC from another store. When it was supposed to be about 3 months old, I right-clicked on the Properties of Drive C:, and it said that the last time it ran a disk check was 400 days ago!! This means that they gave him a used hard drive that was at least a year old! He quickly had it replaced and admonished the store owner.

This article is meant to educate you, the computer owner, on what goes on in computer repair shops and how to protect your rights and interests as a consumer. I’m not insinuating that the cases I mentioned happen in all computer shops, but it is only right that you know what COULD happen. Let’s admit it, computers aren’t for everyone and not all can understand the intricacies of hardware and software. But don’t let that ignorance put you in a vulnerable position to accept whatever they tell you. With these pointers, you can have your PC repaired with enough vigilance to get what you want done, and not the other way around.