I've been running off Comodo Firewall Pro for the past week. I've finally given up on my free ZoneAlarm personal firewall. Its been giving the strangest errors the past couple of months. It would also just reboot my Windows XP for no apparent reason every now and then.
Searching through Google, there seems to be a documented problem between ZoneAlarm's TrueVector service and Windows XP. Sometimes, I would just get an annoying error dialog box. Other times, its the reboot. But a couple of weeks ago, all my network-based apps would just stop working if ZoneAlarm is running.
Since I shifted to Comodo Firewall Pro, I haven't had any problem so far. The interface looks simple and clean. Truth be told, I haven't really gone in that much to the advanced mode and tweak it further. I just let it run in "training" mode, although it can get very annoying initially because it will keep asking you to allow/deny certain actions.
Comodo Firewall Pro is completely free as far as I can tell. I can't tell what their business model is. It doesn't seem to prompt me to upgrade to a paid version unlike Zonelabs.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
A Fortuitous Meeting with a Picture Book Client
I gave a presentation this afternoon to a local bank who is looking at expanding their service for their corporate clients with PayEasy online payments. We were greeted by our contact from their product development group and he introduced us to a lady from their Sales group who looked really familiar to me. I kept thinking where I saw her before -- she kinda looked like the Korean girl who lives in our condo. I thought maybe she just reminded me for her.
Anyway, when we sat down around the meeting table, we exchanged business cards. I read her name on the card and nothing still clicked. But after a few seconds while setting up our laptop, it just snapped to me -- I've seen her photos several times already before while laying out the full-spread photo book ordered by her husband through ThePictureShop!
Her husband has previously ordered 3 x full-spread picturebooks from us with photos from their various family vacation trips (the 2 prior orders were still our old DIY full-spread picturebook, while the 3rd one was the new format already). The photos were mainly of her and the kids, and since I did the layouts of about 2 of the picturebooks, I had a good recollection of their faces. Strangely, if her husband were to stand in front of me, I probably would not recognize him as he seldom appears on the photo books (since he's the guy behind the lens).
I thought the whole experience was really strange and surreal (but a pleasant one nonetheless). I've always wondered if one of these days, I'll be walking down the street or around the mall and I would actually bump into someone whom I would recognize through their picture book. And it has finally happened today! With 80+ million people in the Philippines, the likelihood of meeting someone whom I have previously seen through their photo book order alone -- and would actually recognize them -- must be very, very slim indeed.
Anyway, when we sat down around the meeting table, we exchanged business cards. I read her name on the card and nothing still clicked. But after a few seconds while setting up our laptop, it just snapped to me -- I've seen her photos several times already before while laying out the full-spread photo book ordered by her husband through ThePictureShop!
Her husband has previously ordered 3 x full-spread picturebooks from us with photos from their various family vacation trips (the 2 prior orders were still our old DIY full-spread picturebook, while the 3rd one was the new format already). The photos were mainly of her and the kids, and since I did the layouts of about 2 of the picturebooks, I had a good recollection of their faces. Strangely, if her husband were to stand in front of me, I probably would not recognize him as he seldom appears on the photo books (since he's the guy behind the lens).
I thought the whole experience was really strange and surreal (but a pleasant one nonetheless). I've always wondered if one of these days, I'll be walking down the street or around the mall and I would actually bump into someone whom I would recognize through their picture book. And it has finally happened today! With 80+ million people in the Philippines, the likelihood of meeting someone whom I have previously seen through their photo book order alone -- and would actually recognize them -- must be very, very slim indeed.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Building My Home Theater Part 1: DivX Ultra Players
I've been doing a bit of research lately on DVD players with DivX Ultra support for my upcoming home theater at the house we're building. I was previously looking at the Philips DVP5982 and was thinking of asking a friend to buy it for me from the US and send it over via balikbayan box since I haven't seen it sold locally. But when I went to Western Appliance this Sunday, I was surprised to see several other low-cost Philips model already available locally and on display.
The Philips DVP5166k was on sale for a measly Php2,990. The sales guy said he can probably give me an extra discount and round it down to Php2,900. Just add Php910 for a 3-year warranty. Its a very standard DivX Ultra player with no fancy HDMI support. I'm partial to getting a DVD player with HDMI output support already.
The sales guy told me that the DVP5166k is being phased out already, thats why its on sale. The upcoming models that will replace it look interesting: the DVP5286K (PHP4,990 SRP) and the DVP3980K (PHP3,990 SRP). Both are capable of 1080i/p upscaling already; come with HDMI interfaces; plays all sorts of media (CD, DVD+/-R, etc.); supports the usual audio formats (WMA and MP3 -- but not AAC); have karaoke scoring features; and playback of still JPEG images.
1080p support is good because I plan to eventually buy a Samsung Full 1080p HD TV. But for the purpose of the home theater, it probably would not matter since the Mitsubishi projector (more on that in future blog entries) that it will connect to, can only go up to 720p and 1080i (not 1080p). For those interested in 1080i vs. 1080p debates, here are some consumer reviews talking about it. For most general DVD movies which are shot at 24 frames per sec, you probably would not be able to tell the difference. But perhaps in the future if high-definition becomes the norm and all movies are shot at 30fps or higher, then MAYBE you will see a difference between interlaced (i) and progressive (p) scanning.
The site lists that the DVP5286K supports DivX 4, 5 & 6, aside from Ultra. The DVP3980K only lists DivX Ultra. Hmmm... doesn't it follow that if you support DivX Ultra, you also support the older DivX versions (4 to 6)?
The DVP5286K supports playing of DivX directly from the flash drive via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface. Not sure how important a feature that is. I was previously commenting though why my Philips DVD3455H could not play DivX media files from USB even though it could from CD or DVD. The Pioneer sales guy at Western was also highlighting that feature for his Pioneer DV600AVS which costs Php6,790 (quite expensive compared to Philips although he kept saying that their service support is better because Pioneer has local service centers whereas Philips just rely on 3rd party authorized service centers).
The DVP5286K also boasts that it can "rip" your music CD's to mp3 and send the ripped version directly to your flash drive. It can even do so on-the-fly while you are listening to the audio CD. Again, not sure how big a deal that is unless you don't have a modern day PC.
Other than that, there doesn't seem to be that much big difference between the two. I guess I will have to wait a couple more months for these models to become widely available.
The Philips DVP5166k was on sale for a measly Php2,990. The sales guy said he can probably give me an extra discount and round it down to Php2,900. Just add Php910 for a 3-year warranty. Its a very standard DivX Ultra player with no fancy HDMI support. I'm partial to getting a DVD player with HDMI output support already.
The sales guy told me that the DVP5166k is being phased out already, thats why its on sale. The upcoming models that will replace it look interesting: the DVP5286K (PHP4,990 SRP) and the DVP3980K (PHP3,990 SRP). Both are capable of 1080i/p upscaling already; come with HDMI interfaces; plays all sorts of media (CD, DVD+/-R, etc.); supports the usual audio formats (WMA and MP3 -- but not AAC); have karaoke scoring features; and playback of still JPEG images.
1080p support is good because I plan to eventually buy a Samsung Full 1080p HD TV. But for the purpose of the home theater, it probably would not matter since the Mitsubishi projector (more on that in future blog entries) that it will connect to, can only go up to 720p and 1080i (not 1080p). For those interested in 1080i vs. 1080p debates, here are some consumer reviews talking about it. For most general DVD movies which are shot at 24 frames per sec, you probably would not be able to tell the difference. But perhaps in the future if high-definition becomes the norm and all movies are shot at 30fps or higher, then MAYBE you will see a difference between interlaced (i) and progressive (p) scanning.
The site lists that the DVP5286K supports DivX 4, 5 & 6, aside from Ultra. The DVP3980K only lists DivX Ultra. Hmmm... doesn't it follow that if you support DivX Ultra, you also support the older DivX versions (4 to 6)?
The DVP5286K supports playing of DivX directly from the flash drive via its high-speed USB 2.0 interface. Not sure how important a feature that is. I was previously commenting though why my Philips DVD3455H could not play DivX media files from USB even though it could from CD or DVD. The Pioneer sales guy at Western was also highlighting that feature for his Pioneer DV600AVS which costs Php6,790 (quite expensive compared to Philips although he kept saying that their service support is better because Pioneer has local service centers whereas Philips just rely on 3rd party authorized service centers).
The DVP5286K also boasts that it can "rip" your music CD's to mp3 and send the ripped version directly to your flash drive. It can even do so on-the-fly while you are listening to the audio CD. Again, not sure how big a deal that is unless you don't have a modern day PC.
Other than that, there doesn't seem to be that much big difference between the two. I guess I will have to wait a couple more months for these models to become widely available.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Free Press Releases
Ask any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert and they will tell you that if you want to rank high in Google's searches, you need good external websites to link to your website. You can do a lot of on-site search engine optimization tricks to increase your ranking, but off-site optimization will still give you more bang for the buck. In technical terms, you have to get websites with high PageRank values to point to your site.
But the difficulty is obviously -- how do you get external sites to talk about you or link to you? One common way is to write articles (with link backs) and submit it to other sites. In most cases, you probably have to beg the website owner to post your article. Or you can nicely ask your friends who operate blogs to write about your website.
Another way to get external sites to talk about yours is to take advantage of websites that provide free posting of your press releases / news. There are several ones, and some have good PageRank values. I've tried PR.com and Free-Press-Release.com. They operate very similarly. They both charge extra if you will put a hyperlink on the press release, or you want a wider distribution. But if its pure text, they let you post for free. Both of them gets picked up well by Google Alert. So Google seems to be actively indexing their sites. I should still try the others.
But the difficulty is obviously -- how do you get external sites to talk about you or link to you? One common way is to write articles (with link backs) and submit it to other sites. In most cases, you probably have to beg the website owner to post your article. Or you can nicely ask your friends who operate blogs to write about your website.
Another way to get external sites to talk about yours is to take advantage of websites that provide free posting of your press releases / news. There are several ones, and some have good PageRank values. I've tried PR.com and Free-Press-Release.com. They operate very similarly. They both charge extra if you will put a hyperlink on the press release, or you want a wider distribution. But if its pure text, they let you post for free. Both of them gets picked up well by Google Alert. So Google seems to be actively indexing their sites. I should still try the others.
- 24-7PressRelease.com
- 1888PressRelease.com
- ClickPress.com
- EcommWire.com
- Express-Press-Release.com
- Free-Press-Release.com
- Free-Press-Release-Center.info
- I-Newswire.com
- NewswireToday.com
- PR.com
- PR9.net
Time to create free press releases about our photo book shop!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Streaming Video to your Home Theater via your Home LAN
I was just talking about the possibility of viewing DivX movies over the network last week with the announcement of DivX Connected. Well, it seems that there are other consumer electronic products already in the market which specifically targets this genre.
For those using Windows Media Center on their PC's, the Linksys DMA2x00 allows media files residing on your PC to be "extended" to your TV or home theater. It acts as a gateway between the PC world via an ethernet connection, and the TV/home theater world via standard audio and video connectors like HDMI, S-Video, RCA video plugs and component video. It also comes with Wifi connectivity, but users are cautioned with the quality of the stream if you are on standard 802.11G. The relatively low (54mbps) speed will cause high-definition video to jitter. A wired connection is still best. But if Wifi is really a must, then at least go with 802.11N.
If you are not running Windows Media Center on your PC (I think Win XP does not have this feature), the NetGear EVA8000 may be a better choise. Its a more generic gateway implementation. It reads your media file via the standard network shared folders of your home network; stream it over the network; then output it to your TV or projector.
The EVA8000 is still pretty much a bleeding-edge/first generation product. So don't expect a bug-free experience. This review from C-Net shows that it required several reboots in their test cases. The product specs are also still a bit conflicting. In some articles, it says the EVA8000 supports DivX. In others, its not mentioned.
I mentioned in my blog entry last month that my Philips DVDR3455H Player can play AVI. I found out this weekend that it seems to be picky on the kind of AVI file it will play. I was able to download the BBC Planet Earth series via BitTorrent. The AVI files are in 720p HD format and each were about 2.2GB in size. When I tried converting it to DivX, my DivX Converter gets an error midway. So I burnt it onto a DVD disk as AVI and tried to play it on my Philips DVDR player. It just keeps causing the player to reboot! So I guess to view these types of files, I would rely on products like those above to watch it on TV or projector.
Still, I look forward to having players in the future like my Philips DVDR to have network ports and do their own streaming directly from the network so that I don't have to buy a 3rd party gateway to do that work.
For those using Windows Media Center on their PC's, the Linksys DMA2x00 allows media files residing on your PC to be "extended" to your TV or home theater. It acts as a gateway between the PC world via an ethernet connection, and the TV/home theater world via standard audio and video connectors like HDMI, S-Video, RCA video plugs and component video. It also comes with Wifi connectivity, but users are cautioned with the quality of the stream if you are on standard 802.11G. The relatively low (54mbps) speed will cause high-definition video to jitter. A wired connection is still best. But if Wifi is really a must, then at least go with 802.11N.
If you are not running Windows Media Center on your PC (I think Win XP does not have this feature), the NetGear EVA8000 may be a better choise. Its a more generic gateway implementation. It reads your media file via the standard network shared folders of your home network; stream it over the network; then output it to your TV or projector.
The EVA8000 is still pretty much a bleeding-edge/first generation product. So don't expect a bug-free experience. This review from C-Net shows that it required several reboots in their test cases. The product specs are also still a bit conflicting. In some articles, it says the EVA8000 supports DivX. In others, its not mentioned.
I mentioned in my blog entry last month that my Philips DVDR3455H Player can play AVI. I found out this weekend that it seems to be picky on the kind of AVI file it will play. I was able to download the BBC Planet Earth series via BitTorrent. The AVI files are in 720p HD format and each were about 2.2GB in size. When I tried converting it to DivX, my DivX Converter gets an error midway. So I burnt it onto a DVD disk as AVI and tried to play it on my Philips DVDR player. It just keeps causing the player to reboot! So I guess to view these types of files, I would rely on products like those above to watch it on TV or projector.
Still, I look forward to having players in the future like my Philips DVDR to have network ports and do their own streaming directly from the network so that I don't have to buy a 3rd party gateway to do that work.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Sharing Large Files Over The Internet
Every now and then, we would get an inquiry for ThePictureShop from Mac users on how they can send their photos to us to be converted into a picturebook. While some of our photo book competitors use free file uploading sites like YouSendIt, I wrote our own customized software for sending images to us. Unfortunately, the PictureBookMaker software that I wrote works only on Microsoft Windows (since I don't know how to program for the Mac). So there is no straightforward way of sending image files to us if you are not running on Windows.
While reading the July 2008 issue of PC World Philippines, I came across this interesting site called drop.io. You can easily upload files into it by just providing a "drop" name. The "drop" name is like the folder name. In my test, I called my drop "dicktestphoto". So my folder's URL had the name http://drop.io/dicktestphoto.
Uploading is primarily done via the web browser. I can't tell if its just using the standard RFC for file upload via HTTP or if its using some other proprietary method. I did not get any prompt to allow an ActiveX Control to run, neither did I see a Java applet loading. So unless they used some other clever Javascript/Ajax trick, I have no idea how they are doing the file upload.
You can also upload files by simply sending it as an email attachment. The email will be addressed to the "drop" name -- in my case, to dicktestphoto@drop.io. I tried sending the email via GMail, then refreshed my "drop" screen. Voila! The attached photo is there.
One of the best thing I like with drop.io is it does not require registration! You just create your "drop" folder and start uploading. Its that simple. Each "drop" folder seems to be limited to 100MB (although the PC World article was hinting 1GB). I'm not too sure though as I can't seem to find anything in their FAQ that talks about the total limit. I do know that if you really want a large amount of space, you have to "upgrade" to their premium service and pay some fee.
You can also specify how long the image files that you upload will stay in drop.io servers. For my test, I just told the system to expire it after a day. I believe if you want the file to stay there forever (or at least, while drop.io stays afloat), you also have to upgrade to their premium service.
Will ask future Mac customers inquiring about uploading photos to ThePictureShop to try this service.
While reading the July 2008 issue of PC World Philippines, I came across this interesting site called drop.io. You can easily upload files into it by just providing a "drop" name. The "drop" name is like the folder name. In my test, I called my drop "dicktestphoto". So my folder's URL had the name http://drop.io/dicktestphoto.
Uploading is primarily done via the web browser. I can't tell if its just using the standard RFC for file upload via HTTP or if its using some other proprietary method. I did not get any prompt to allow an ActiveX Control to run, neither did I see a Java applet loading. So unless they used some other clever Javascript/Ajax trick, I have no idea how they are doing the file upload.
You can also upload files by simply sending it as an email attachment. The email will be addressed to the "drop" name -- in my case, to dicktestphoto@drop.io. I tried sending the email via GMail, then refreshed my "drop" screen. Voila! The attached photo is there.
One of the best thing I like with drop.io is it does not require registration! You just create your "drop" folder and start uploading. Its that simple. Each "drop" folder seems to be limited to 100MB (although the PC World article was hinting 1GB). I'm not too sure though as I can't seem to find anything in their FAQ that talks about the total limit. I do know that if you really want a large amount of space, you have to "upgrade" to their premium service and pay some fee.
You can also specify how long the image files that you upload will stay in drop.io servers. For my test, I just told the system to expire it after a day. I believe if you want the file to stay there forever (or at least, while drop.io stays afloat), you also have to upgrade to their premium service.
Will ask future Mac customers inquiring about uploading photos to ThePictureShop to try this service.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Mamma Mia
Cols and I watched Mamma Mia The Movie at the Power Plant Cinema tonight. Winston gave us a couple of free tickets through his advertising contacts. While the movie is already on regular screening, the sponsored showing tonight blocked off a cinema for private screening of its sponsors.
We saw the play at London West End's Prince Albert Theater way back in 2001. I still remember we were seated at the very last row of the balcony and on the left corner-most seat. And the tickets we got were pretty expensive (can't remember the exact price) because we bought it from scalpers. Mamma Mia was one of the hottest show in West End at that time. And since we were in London for only a few days, we didn't have the luxury of waiting for tickets to be available in the regular box office so we had to take the bait. Anyway, even at the atrocious scalper pricing, I thought it was really worth it.
The movie adaptation/screenplay lived up to the original play's script. It starred Meryll Streep and Pierce Brosnan as its main characters. The movie is executive produced by husband-and-wife Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and co-produced by some people with Swedish-sounding names (maybe the original ABBA members themselves?).
I had no idea that Meryll Streep could sing. I was even more surprised that Pierce Brosnan could sing! (To me, Pierce will always be the quintessential James Bond.) Although I'm sure they took voice lessons in preparation for their role, they sounded very well. Or at least, Meryll Streep sounded really well. Pierce is no crooner, but he could carry a tune. His singing voice seems more apt for rock music though. Another pleasant surprise among the cast is Amanda Seyfried who played Sophie, the daughter of Meryll Streep. At first, I was wondering if she was just lip-synching. But as it turned out, she was really the one singing.
The soundtrack of the original Mamma Mia play is available for online download and purchase from Fliptunes Plus. The album is produced by MCA Universal Records. I'm looking forward to having the original movie soundtrack (OST) of Mamma Mia available from Fliptunes Plus.
We saw the play at London West End's Prince Albert Theater way back in 2001. I still remember we were seated at the very last row of the balcony and on the left corner-most seat. And the tickets we got were pretty expensive (can't remember the exact price) because we bought it from scalpers. Mamma Mia was one of the hottest show in West End at that time. And since we were in London for only a few days, we didn't have the luxury of waiting for tickets to be available in the regular box office so we had to take the bait. Anyway, even at the atrocious scalper pricing, I thought it was really worth it.
The movie adaptation/screenplay lived up to the original play's script. It starred Meryll Streep and Pierce Brosnan as its main characters. The movie is executive produced by husband-and-wife Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and co-produced by some people with Swedish-sounding names (maybe the original ABBA members themselves?).
I had no idea that Meryll Streep could sing. I was even more surprised that Pierce Brosnan could sing! (To me, Pierce will always be the quintessential James Bond.) Although I'm sure they took voice lessons in preparation for their role, they sounded very well. Or at least, Meryll Streep sounded really well. Pierce is no crooner, but he could carry a tune. His singing voice seems more apt for rock music though. Another pleasant surprise among the cast is Amanda Seyfried who played Sophie, the daughter of Meryll Streep. At first, I was wondering if she was just lip-synching. But as it turned out, she was really the one singing.
The soundtrack of the original Mamma Mia play is available for online download and purchase from Fliptunes Plus. The album is produced by MCA Universal Records. I'm looking forward to having the original movie soundtrack (OST) of Mamma Mia available from Fliptunes Plus.
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