High and Low Tech

 I know this is a bit off topic but i think it deserves some attention.

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WHO says nearly 2 billion at risk from dengue in Asia - Life Style - MSN Philippines News - News

KBP Badminton Tournament - Powered by Blue Dragons

What: KBP Badminton Tournament - Powered by Blue Dragons
Where: Club 650, Libis, Quezon City
When: April 26-27, 2008

Fee: P800/player - Non-Refundable, Non-Transferable. Fee includes Player’s Kit, (Official tournament shirt and other valuable items from sponsors), Prizes for Level Champions & Runners-up, Shuttlecock, Court Fee, Leveling Fee and Raffle Prizes.

Categories: Ladies Doubles (April 26) and Men's Doubles (April 27)

Levelling:
March 14, Friday - BluRackets, Makati; 7 to 9 PM
March 15, Saturday - ClubSixfifty, Libis, Q.C.; 2 to 5 PM
March 16, Sunday - ClubSixfifty, Libis, Q.C.; 2 to 5 PM
March 28, Friday - Court 12, Q.C.; 7 to 9 PM
March 29, Saturday - Powersmash, Makati; 3 to 6 PM
March 30, Sunday - Las Piñas Badminton Center; 2 to 5 PM
April 12, Saturday - ClubSixfifty, Libis, Q.C.; 2 to 5 PM
Arpil 13, Saturday - ClubSixfifty, Libis, Q.C.; 2 to 5 PM

Eligibility: The tournament is open to all badminton enthusiasts/ players except to current National Team players. All former national and varsity players and trainers will be leveled in A, B or C. The organizers reserve the right to deny or disqualify an entry as deemed necessary.

For inquiries contact:
Calvin Neria – 0916.742429, 09227626246
Abet Sikat – 0922.8180888

Deadline for Registration is on April 13 (Last Day of Leveling). Only registration forms with payment will be considered as a valid entry. Limited slots only.First come, first serve. Leveling days may be canceled once slots have been filled up.

I thought I'd do this article about Limewire. Although at first I thought everybody knew how to use it, I just found out that a lot of my friends don't know how to maximize its use. So anyway, here is a short write-up on how to effectively and safely use Limewire.

Download limewire at www.limewire.com During installation, it would ask where would the program look for 1) saving downloaded files and 2) folders where you want to share your files. The default is your documents folder. Of course, you wouldn't want to share ALL of your documents. If you have a multiple users in your machine, you wouldn't want to share your private files with others. I suggest you create a special folder just for Limewire shared files, preferably in the shared folders. If you want to share files with the rest of the world, I suggest you place them here.  I placed my Limewire folder in the shared documents so everyone in our home network can get to my music collection.

Now lets go to the part of downloading MP3s. Once Limewire is up and running, click on Audio to begin search of your music. You can search by Title, Artist and Album. If you don't know the title of the song, look it up in the web. Once Limewire begins it search, it will suggest matches to your request.  Here's the tricky part, in the search results, you'll see a column titled bitrate. This shows the quality of the song that is displayed. Most results are 128, 192, 256 etc. These are the figures when music is ripped from CD, tells how much data is used for the song. Hence, the higher the number, the larger the file, the better the quality. Be careful, there are viruses and spywares lurking around the results area posing as the file you are looking for.  You may notice them, by the file not having a bitrate or if they do, the size of the file is less than one megabyte. Full audio songs range from a minimum of 2.5MB to a full 6 or 7MB depending on the quality and length of the song, so again, be careful of these.

Next, there are a lot of computers out there with the right songs and artist you want but which one do you download from? The answer is: First, choose from the fastest internet connection source. The internet speed of the computer you are downloading from is also displayed in the search results area. For those who do not know, here is a list from fastest to slowest connections.

1. T3 (fastest)
   
2. T1
3. Cable/DSL
4. Modem (slowest, obviously)

Second, now that you've narrowed it down to the fastest source, there are still a lot of choices to choose from. In the search results there would be a column where you would see 1 to 3 digit numbers. These are the number of computers out there with the same file as everybody else. Select the file from the most number of machines as this would increase the guarantee of a quick and disconnection free download.  Once the files are being downloaded, you can "preview" the song you are downloading to make sure it is the one you are looking for.  I suggest you wait until the download reaches 10% for a good preview.

Success! You've downloaded your files. You're listening to it right now using your media player but how come your browsing, or your other web programs, or even your computer starts running slower after installation of limewire? When you exit Limewire, by default, it doesn't exit the program completely. It just minimizes itself to the system tray.  Because of this, other users can download files from your shared folder. Its good etiquette to share your files with other users of Limewire, since you are getting files from them also. However, in cases that you need the memory resources to run other programs, you can exit Limewire completely by right clicking on the icon in the system tray or by setting Limewire to shutdown completely when you click on exit. There is an option to shutdown Limewire after file transfer just in case you or someone is uploading/downloading files from your PC.  Its good etiquette also to let others finish their transfer from your PC before you shutdown your machine.

So that's the most effective way I know how to use Limewire. Remember to scan downloaded files for viruses before using them. If you have questions, comments and suggestions, please let me know. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Today I will be writing about using OpenDNS. OpenDNS as their website says is a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. Their service is free and requires nothing to download. Personally, I've been using OpenDNS for a week now and I must admit, it really does work. It has made my surfing the web better and faster. Here's why.

You'll find a lot of forums on the web people complaining about their DSL service. Your DSL technicial would come to your home checking for any problems only to find out there simply is none. Both of you will perform various speed tests from different servers from all around the globe showing a little less than your subscribed maximum (download and upload) speed. You'll try to call your service provider (in our case, PLDT), waited for at least 30 mins or more on the phone only later to find out that the person on the other end of the line is a student trainee. He/she will probably say that there is no reported system failure, and all systems are up and running. So how come you're still surfing so slow? I'll tell you why.

DNS means Domain Name Server. Whether you have a dynamic or static IP (Internet Protocol) address is irrelevant (for now). DNS is the server where the web address you typed, for example, www.msn.com is converted to 192.168.1.1 (not MSN's real IP no.) the IP address that computers understand and uses to find the website your looking for. Unfortunately, most DNS servers of ISP providers are old and slow thus making your web surfing very slow. Imagine all of you in the network are accessing this slow server.

OpenDNS (www.opendns.com) simply replaces your DNS settings with their own: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 They have a step by step instruction on how to do it, whether its Windows, Mac, Linux, even on a router, mobile device or game console. At first, I tried setting up mine via my own PC, but when I configured our router to use OpenDNS, all the computers at home where surfing faster. That's why I'm writing this article to tell everyone that this service really works and best of all, its FREE! Also, by using OpenDNS on our home network, I could block adult and phishing sites. Typing URL errors are automatically corrected. If it can't find the correct site your are looking for, it will suggest pages closely resembling what is typed. This is how OpenDNS makes money. When you typed URLs which are blocked, or made a typo error, not only suggested sites are shown but within the pages are the sponsors of OpenDNS. You could also include here any public announcement you want your entire network to read as well as your (company) logo. I put in my picture hehehe!

There are a lot of other features and benefits when you use OpenDNS. If you are concerned with privacy, you can read their privacy policy on their website. For more information, please visit www.opendns.com If you need help on how to configure yours, my MSN Id is dennis_gernale@hotmail.com or drop me an email if I'm not online.