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Gadget Blog of a Third World Geek

Gadget Blog of a Third World Geek
Your daily gadget fix with a distinctively pinoy tweak.

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You Scratch My Back I Scratch Yours
2007-11-01 19:01:00
After the recent spate of Google's brand of tough love which resulted to a lot of websites getting de-ranked (de-wormed is rather icky don't you think?), for selling text links, a new type of money making scheme emerged.Enter Scratch Back .It's model is largely the same as it's counterparts, you will still place Scratchback's widget, TopSpot, in your blog, albeit a few modifications, like the hardcoding of links and images. The widget shows a number of spots that you're supposed to be offering advertisers in return for a predetermined amount of 'tip'. Replace the words 'spots' with adspace and 'tips' with revenue, and you get the idea. It's still the same banana repackaged in a whole new peel.One of the cool things about the TopSpot widget is that unlike other links that just changes color or becomes bold when you move your cursor over them, the links in this widget shows 'bubble tips' providing the reader with a little description of the advertiser who 'tipped' fo...

Tech Roundup: The Cool, The Bizaare, The Profligate
2007-10-31 16:26:00
I have been remiss in reporting my daily tech compilation that I got me buried in an avalanche of gizmo zings and dings. To make up for my lack of self-discipline, here's a round up of the gadgets and thingamajigs that have managed to catch my attention the past few days:The Cool Cracked Blu-ray DiscSly-soft has just cracked Blu-ray disc's BD+copy protection. Given that PS3's more popular games are exclusively available in BDs, some nefarious organizations will be having a field day copying these games and making them available in pirated version that sell for slightly more than $1 a pop in less developed countries! Hurray for technology! Oops, did I just express my glee out loud? [via Gizmodo]Pencil Sharpening ChuckieYou have to admit the Living Dead Dolls Pencil Sharpeners (crikey, where do they get such lame names?) are cool, i.e. if you have a demented sense of humor like me. These babies are sold out. No surprises there at $2.99 a piece. Can you imagine the look of tha...
More About: Tech , Roundup

DSL, Start Your Engine
2007-10-31 16:14:00
Here's a very welcome news for us third world netizens.Reportedly, University of Melbourne's Dr. John Papandriopoulos has patented his SCALE and SCAPE methods for "dramatically reducing the interference which slows down data transmission in typical DSL networks." 'Course, the tidbit you're interested in comes when we find that these techniques can potentially deliver speeds of up to 250-megabits per second through existing telecommunications networks. The only changes that would be necessary to facilitate such sensational speeds are new modems for end users and "operational system changes" for providers. Click for full story here==>>With the current snail-paced DSL connections in our parts of the world, this is something that should make us hopeful. We can only pray that this technology reaches our shores sooner than later.
More About: Start , Engine , Special Interest

Power To The Blogger
2007-10-30 18:30:00
The world wide web today is awash with opportunities for those who want them. It's no longer an excuse for any internet literate individual to say that he can't make money online. Nowadays, it seems like everywhere you look you see Google Adsense, Text-Ads, and a whole lot of affiliate programs. When before you have the feeling that looking for money in the internet is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, now you practically have to fend off all those ads asking you to monetize your site!When I decided to test the waters on all those affiliate programs, my cursor first led me to Smorty. Like most affiliate programs, it serves as the bridge that links bloggers to advertisers. Through Smorty, Advertisers get to advertise on blogs, and bloggers get paid for blogging their opinion about these Advertisers' products and services. It's a pretty simple model and it works for everyone.Unlike other affiliate programs however, Smorty employs a no-fuss approach. You ...
More About: Power , Blogger , Show Me the Money

The Pull Of An Online Presence
2007-10-30 15:39:00
I once sold wares on ebay. It was fun auctioning things I no longer need or have gotten tired of, and have other people bid on them. It's not exactly the best platform for selling things but hey, we all have to start somewhere.These days, I've been looking at ecommerce softwares that I feel would cater to the specific needs of a typical brick-and-mortar seller, just in case he feels the need or realizes the benefits of having an online presence. I've seen how amazon.com grew to be the powerhouse it is today by selling things over the internet.I've been pitching this idea to an aunt who operates a couple of retail shops. I cite barnes and noble as a prime example of a once purely brick-and-mortar company who has seen the light. I dragged her to my computer and made her see how enticing these online stores can be to potential customers. She was mesmerized by the shopping carts and the relative ease of buying things online.I then showed her the site of what I feel is one of t...
More About: Online , Presence , Show Me the Money , Pull

A Geeky Way of Getting What You Want For Christmas
2007-10-29 17:02:00
The holiday season is just a couple of sneezes away. Soon shoppers will be clogging the main streets lugging their humongous shopping bags filled with goodies for their special someones. Mommies and Daddies will be ticking off their list of to-buys and most of these will be your basic essential items that they feel will be good for you.But what if you really want something real bad and you know that it is something over and beyond the budget of those closest to you? What if that something is the one thing that you've been looking forward to all year? Are you just gonna sit there and accept fate? Some things, like that 8Gb iphone or that Macbook pro, as they say, are worth fighting for.So here's a cool idea, if you can't get the necessary funds to purchase what it is you're dreaming for Christmas , well, use your imagination and raise funds from a multitude of sources (read: relatives). And who can help you best with this endeavor than an awesome free site called easysponsor...
More About: Geeky

Ubuntu Vigil
2007-10-28 23:45:00
I'm holding a vigil for my Ubuntu set-up. I haven't slept a wink since yesterday. I just hope this is all worth it. Alright so it's not Ubuntu's fault. It's my telco's crappy connection. Wait, that's redundant!I wasn't really too hot about going the open source road but Wubi made things really easy for me. If any of you guys are even minutely contemplating of trying out Linux, then this is the experimental way to do it. You're not exactly moving out of your existing operating system, you're just hosting this other OS in your hard drive. And it doesn't even require disk partitioning which means you get to keep whatever files you have in your computer.This is the real reason why I'm doing my best to stay awake. The excitement! You know. I need to see what I've been missing. I've been practically weaned and raised by windows so I pretty much have a one sided view on all computer related things.I'm really crossing my fingers that this one works, otherwise, I'm...

PS2 for Pinoys?
2007-10-28 05:47:00
The latest PS2 offering from Sony features a slim ceramic white console with a bundled Singstar Pop game. The entire package costs $150.Oy, oy, could it be that this is targeted towards the lucrative Philippines videoke market? Well it's still priced higher compared to the X-treme Magic Sing's out there, but if you consider that the Singstar Pop game boasts of far more entertaining actual MTV videos (check out the Singstar site here) than the sleazy half naked girls or repetitious views that the former provides in their background, then really there's no comparison.The Singstar game "features chart-topping songs and videos from the world's most popular artists." Its categories include: 80's artists, pop, rock, and amped. The game is like the vocal equivalent of the dance-dance revo, so if you hit the correct notes, you'll see it on the screen. It's supercool actually.This should be a very nice excuse for kids of all ages to get their hands on this very nice gadget for ch...

Small is More
2007-10-27 09:49:00
Here they come! Darn if this wont make any gear head's heart go a flutter. The small and cheap notebooks are a-comin! A couple of days ago, I wrote about Asus' Eee notebook here. And just a coupla days later, there's already another small notebook coming out. And check this out, it's even cheaper than the Eee.Apparently the Intel Classmate (the one on the left) starts at $225 and for around $350, it will already be loaded with Windows XP and Office Professional 2003. Sweet!Additional details are coming in the next few days. The only thing with the Classmate though, as of the moment, it's not currently available to individual consumers. Bummer huh?But that's not entirely a downer though, in fact things are really looking up! Now that these cheap ultra portable notebooks are out in the open, trust the other computer companies to race each other as to who can come up with the smaller, better, cheaper notebook next.Hurray for technology![via crave]
More About: Small

Got $24,000?
2007-10-26 18:25:00
Then you can have this.This exclusive limited edition diamond Nokia N95 8GB is the first of its kind in the world. The N95 is 18 carat solid white gold with 325 diamonds, with a total diamond weight of 3.30 carats, Grade VS, Colour E-F. Only 10 of these diamond Nokia N95 will be made in the world, each with numbering from 1-10. Each phone is made to the customer?s requirement and is uniquely different either by colour of diamonds or a choice of solid classic gold or white gold. This is truly an exclusive and impressive luxury phone piece. The phone also comes with:- 1 year free International concierge service*.Your phone will have a unique limited edition number from 1-10 Personalise with your name or initials.1 year free mobile Personal address book security & backup! Tag price is £12,000~$24,000Goldstriker via [Red Ferret]

Got $24,000?
2007-10-26 18:25:00
Then you can have this.This exclusive limited edition diamond Nokia N95 8GB is the first of its kind in the world. The N95 is 18 carat solid white gold with 325 diamonds, with a total diamond weight of 3.30 carats, Grade VS, Colour E-F. Only 10 of these diamond Nokia N95 will be made in the world, each with numbering from 1-10. Each phone is made to the customer?s requirement and is uniquely different either by colour of diamonds or a choice of solid classic gold or white gold. This is truly an exclusive and impressive luxury phone piece. The phone also comes with:- 1 year free International concierge service*.Your phone will have a unique limited edition number from 1-10 Personalise with your name or initials. 1 year free mobile Personal address book security & backup! Tag price is £12,000~$24,000Goldstriker via [Red Ferret]
More About: Cellphones

The Death of WiFi
2007-10-26 18:09:00
Here's a newsflash!San Francisco ? October 23, 2007 ? Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, today introduced Gobi? global mobile Internet, an embedded solution for notebook computers. Notebooks featuring the multi-mode Gobi solution can take advantage of the high-speed mobile Internet services offered by leading network operators in virtually all parts of the world, as well as GPS. The Gobi solution is meeting the demand from leading notebook manufacturers for worldwide connectivity capabilities beyond Wi-Fi and is being certified to operate on CDMA2000® EV-DO and UMTS HSPA networks worldwide. The Gobi solution is available today, and enterprise and consumer notebooks powered by Gobi are expected to be commercially available in the second quarter of 2008.>>>>Full story here.This is WiFi's worst case scenario. With the Gobi embedded on a laptop, you don't need to find those hotspots. As long...
More About: Wifi , Death , Special Interest

Website Builder
2007-10-26 14:03:00
Another site worth checking out is www.350.com. A fuzz free website builder that's pretty simple to use. Here's a screenshot of what I've accomplished in just over a minute. You need to give this site a whirl.
More About: Website , Website Builder , Builder

350
2007-10-26 14:03:00
Another site worth checking out is www.350.com. A fuzz free website builder that's pretty simple to use. Here's a screenshot of what I've accomplished in just over a minute. You need to give this site a whirl.
More About: Websites

See Anything You Like?
2007-10-26 13:57:00
I spruced up this photo via www.flauntr.com. One of the coolest sites I've been to when it comes to photo editing. Everything's pretty much point and click. The site does everything for you.Two Thumbs Up![via Gizmodo]

Speechless Posts - Suzuki Biplane
2007-10-25 01:35:00
Be still my beating heart.jalopnik via [gizmodo]
More About: Suzuki , Speechless , Posts

Microsoft Stomps on Google To Take a Huge Bite Off Facebook
2007-10-25 01:06:00
This is usually not my cup of tea, but I find it interesting nonetheless. There have been rumblings in the internet about that Google vs Microsoft thing. Now Microsoft has finally put one over Google by winning the battle for a stake with Facebook .Consider this: So how important is the deal for Microsoft? Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster put it this way earlier Wednesday. "They've been beaten by Google since the beginning of time," Munster said. "They may want to make a statement that they aren't going to sit on the sidelines." Well, it's definitely a statement. Let's see what Wall Street and the industry make of that statement. A conference call with analysts is due to start shortly. - source, Cnet
More About: Huge , Special Interest

Redefining Eye Candy
2007-10-24 13:56:00
Don't let the sweet looks fool you, this compact camera, Cyber-shot DSC-T2, the latest from Sony, packs a mean wallop; 8 megapixels, 1/2.5-inch CCD; 4GB of on-board flash storage with Memory Stick Pro Duo expansion; 2.7-inch, 230k pixel touchscreen LCD; ISO 3200 max sensitivity; Sony's "smile shutter" and face detection tech; and 3x Carl Zeiss zoom with optical image stabilization.Now that's something you don't usually expect from something this diminutive. Priced at around $350, this sweet little thing comes knocking on your doors in December right in time for Christmas. Say cheese?[via Engadget]
More About: Digital Cameras , Candy , Eye candy , Eye-candy

Jurassic
2007-10-24 00:06:00
Oh lord this is so cool.There's nothing left to say.[Jac Zagoory Design via Gizmodo]
More About: Jura

Conserve Gas
2007-10-23 23:44:00
How many times do you feel that you are at the mercy of that gasoline boy when you ask him to help you put some air into your tires? Or how often have you wondered whether your car's tire still has the factory recommended pressure?The guys at Tire Rack actually came up with this gadget, the Accutire, that records your tire's factory recommended pressure for the front and back wheel so that when you use it to check your tire's air pressure, it will actually alert you that when they are no longer within the recommended range.Nifty huh? This one only costs $17.95[via the-gadgeteer and tirerack]
More About: Conserve , Serve

Outside Looking In
2007-10-23 23:41:00
Oh man. I hope the Philippines can get one philanthropist out there to donate some laptops to poor but deserving kids here. With the right equipment early on, kids in this country could hopefully grow up better than the adults who are running things now. Maybe we could even move an inch from our third world designation.If you know of any philanthropist, or just about any one with deep pockets, please direct them to the One Laptop Per Child movement. And perhaps add a whisper that the Philippines is in dire need of things like this.[via engadget]
More About: Special Interest

Yelping Gadget!
2007-10-23 23:24:00
This is a gadget that's close to my heart.I am a card carrying member of the unofficial beach bum club and one of the things that bugs me whenever I go to the beach is leaving my little valuable things such as sunglasses, cellphone, keys etc.. unattended when I take a dip. It's alright if I have somebody with me, but for those solitary dips. I can't dive under the water without thinking of the things I've left on the beach, especially if it's a crowded place.In comes Yelpie. This dog sounding contraption is a portable safe that can accommodate the little stuff that I mentioned. As a portable safe, you can key in your combination to lock your valuables and then go ahead and snorkel in peace. Anyone who tries to move the Yelpie is in for a surprise. It has a motion detector that emits a 90decibel alarm whenever it is moved without first punching in the combination. Once it's put down however the alarm stops. Insanely cool gadget this one.Not sure if this is already avail...
More About: Gadget

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