1. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. This a free downloadable freeware tool that allows you to scan and clean your PC from different kind of malware infections. It is freely available online at Malwarebytes.org and compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Its simple interface and light use of computer resources make it to scan the computer very fast.

2. NOOB.Killer.Leerz. I think this free virus and world removal tool was made by a Filipino basing on its homepage which is located at http://leerz25.sitesled.com/. It targets virus and worms such as IMGKulot.VBS (this is a VBScript worm that uses autorun.inf to spread itself), Funny UST Scandal virus or also known as YahLover virus, Krag, KAVO and many other. Actually this was recommended to me by a friend technician who use this to fix problems of his clients. I’ve tried this one to remove the KAVO and Funny UST Scandal virus on our school’s PC and I found it very effective.

3. TrendMicro HijackThis. This free tool is for those who knows how to read the registry. It is use to list all the running process currently executing on the background of the PC and all the programs that ran during start-up. Actually this is the tool that I recommend to my readers who asked for advice about their problems on their PC. This program produces a .LOG file that shows all the said information and I asked them to send it to me via email so I could analyze the .LOG file.

4. SmitFraudFix. A freeware tool from S!Ri which is created to remove rogue anti-spyware applications that uses Trojans to issue fake taskbar, security alerts or that change your background in order to scare you into purchasing the full commercial version of their software. I used this program to remove the infection of SpySheriff / Winstall.exe and Antivirus 2009 infection. You can download and read information about this tool from BleepingComputer.com.

5. AVAST, AVG, Avira. These are the three free anti-virus that I’ve been using for several years. What I like with AVAST (avast.com) is its feature that you can schedule a virus scan at boot-time which I found very effective for removing viruses that hooks themselves on the start-up of windows. AVG (free.avg.com) and AVIRA (avira.com) are the two anti-virus replacements I used when AVAST fails.

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

Microsoft Windows 7

I’ve been using Windows XP for several years already and find it more reliable compared to other previous version of Windows. The problem with this version of Windows is some security issues that this OS are involved in. Actually a lot of viruses that I found are intended to attack all Windows XP’s vulnerability. And so, I tried installing Windows Vista but when I found some slight inconvenience in using it with some of my favorite software. That’s when I stop from exploring it and go back to Windows XP since a lot of my activities on PC involved those software. However, as the time goes by, it seems that is necessary for me to use its security features. That’s why by the next school year, I will recommend it to be used on all of our computers in school. I hope that we could afford the upgrade since to use Vista you need to make sure that your hardware should be at least to its minimum requirements (which is at least 1 GB of RAM and PIV processor).

Vista is considered to be the “very secured” operating system ever made by Microsoft and its stunning appearance makes it more attractive to users. Now despite some users were not able to use Vista yet, Windows 7 - the latest version of Windows which is currently underdevelopment, is about on its way of release by next year. To give us an overview about this new operating system from Microsoft, here’s the review of Computer World about the pre-beta release of Windows 7:

Overall, Windows 7 is a more functional, more efficiently designed operating system than Windows Vista, with far more attention paid to the user experience. From revamped a User Account Control (UAC) feature to better home networking, improved search and nice interface tweaks, the entire operating system has gotten an overall polishing. Even Windows Backup, one of the worst applications ever shipped with an operating system, has been turned into something useful.Read the rest of the review of Computer World here.

Now, what I am wishing on this new version of Windows is when it comes out, I hope that it can still run on my current hardware so that I will not buy a new CPU for it to work with me. How about you, are you excited with this new operating system from Microsoft?

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

1. CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). The usual symptom of this is when you feel pain at your wrist or numbness and muscle weakness in the hand. This is usually cause by too much or repetitive hand activity. Non-ergonomic keyboards and mouse used might also promote this kind of condition.
2. Heart Failure. Recent medical studies show that less sleep causes heart failure or heart attacks and since bloggers (and also programmers) usually sleep less than the recommended hours of sleep, they are potential victims of this very fatal disease. Actually I knew someone, a programmer, who died recently beacause of this condition.
3. Obesity or Malnutrition ( ). Bloggers usually eat less or eat more while online. Sometimes junkfoods are the main dishes of these people causing them not to get enough or too much nutrition they needed. Aside from that a lot of bloggers don’t have any body fit programs or exercises for themselves living them a very inactive lifestyle.

These can be avoided if we could just try to improve our lifestyle (if we could). In my case, I’m trying!

How about you, what’s your opinion about this health condition that bloggers might face later?

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

The following is an excerpt from CEO of Sabi & co-founder Margaret Johnson’s remarks about ItzaBitza which is extracted from the official press release of Microsoft:

We were inspired by the ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ stories. But “ItzaBitza” is more than an open drawing tool. Children are challenged to read increasingly advanced sentences to figure out what their on-screen character needs, then draw the object with their mouse. The images kids draw spring to life as on-screen animations that they can interact with and serve as the basis for quest-style guided-learning scenarios in which they’re prompted to perform progressively more difficult tasks.

After mastering one level, kids proceed to a more advanced one. In its first release, “ItzaBitza” features themed scenarios or “playsets” that offer kids the opportunity to go on a camping expedition, explore a haunted house, play with rocket ships in outer space or be a farmer, among other virtual adventures. For Bransford, the effect is nothing less than “magically engaging, with an emphasis on important skills.

This new educational game from Sabi and Microsoft is definitely a good news for parents like us who wish to expose our children to an educational interactive game that encourages the child to read. I hope that the government provide an access to this kind of edutainment system to children in public schools in the country so that the children experience a new method of learning while enjoying through this system. It will cost them about $20 per PC but I guess Microsoft will give a certain discount for 3rd world countries like ours.

About Sabi

Sabi, Inc. was founded in 2008 to provide powerful new gaming experiences that focus on creativity and interactive learning. Future games from Sabi will continue to focus on the player’s creative expression through the use of ground-breaking technology.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

Here’s the sample eCard I made recently:

I really did have fun with personalizing the eCard video and I guess this is a good gift for anyone this coming Christmas or anytime of the year (Valentines, Birthday, etc.). I am planning to do more some stuff from this site.

Try it to smile. Enjoy!

Update: Here’s another customized eCard that I made yesterday during my idle time. Now with my sister.

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

For my followers and readers (if there’s any ), here are the instructions on how to vote my site to win the People’s Choice Award under the Blog category:

For online voting, simply register an account at http://www.philippinewebawards.com/pages/register.asp then log-in to your account. On the left side of the Member Lounge, you will see the link “Vote for Site.” Click it and then you can see a list of semi-finalists from different categories. Then, vote for your favorite website by clicking the radio button beside the website’s name.

For SMS or text voting, only Globe and TM subscribers can vote me via texting the code: WEBBYS VOTE 8 and sending it to the access number: 2973. For Smart/TalkNText subscribers, I don’t know yet if they will provide a certain access number to allow you to vote. I will just update this post if in case PWA informed me about the changes on this SMS voting.

Honestly, my inclusion to the semifinalist is unexpected. I really thank the organizers and judges who consider my blog to be included as part of this event. Being a semi-finalist is already a big achievement for me. I am more inspired now to post more articles that can help or inform other people.

Vote me if you just like it. If not, well…, that will be fine for me. God bless everyone and thanks in advance!

About the video

I found this video from Inquirer.net’s blog (‘Advertising’ nation building: ‘Lupang Hinirang’). You can read there the detail of how Mae Paner’s wants to “sell the nation”. I hope every single Filipino around the world, watch this video. Specially those who lost the sense of nationalism and be inspired to make something good for the benefit of the country. For Filipino bloggers around the world, please make a post about this video and promote our country through this. Let us do our part in the nation building.

Here’s the embed code of the “Lupang Hinirang” video:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />
<param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jV5p_64pCPQ&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" />
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jV5p_64pCPQ&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">
</embed>
</object>

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

The said 2nd SEO worldcup contest requires participants to optimize the phrase “Busby SEO Test” to rank on Google specifically in the data center: 72.14.207.99 (US Google Data Center). For those who is not yet familiar with Data Centers, it refers to the location of the result pages when you search a specific topic on Google. Different data centers of this giant search engine usually return variety of results depending on the geographic location of these data centers.

Currently, I made a specific blog to become my official entry which can be found at http://www.bleuken.com/seostuff/. On the last Busby SEO Test that I participated, I made it to top 20 (specifically position #16) using this domain so the new rule set of the current competition states that exact URL or web addresses that are used on the previous Busby SEO Challenge keyword optimization are not valid to use as entry. That’s why I created a new folder just to focus on this topic.

On the previous competition, Indonesian SEO masters grab the highest prize followed by a French team and another Indonesian entry. While one Filipino SEO master managed only to reach 4th place. I really love to see Filipinos to win the highest rank but it is impossible for us to make it if we will do it alone. So if you wish to support Filipino participants, you can start to support my entry . How? Just paste the following code on your blog or make a post on your blog or websites that contains the link specified below. I really appreciate your support and very thankful about it, for I know that I will bring a great honor for our country.

Here’s the code that you can paste on your blog to show your support:

<a href="http://www.bleuken.com/seostuff/">
Busby SEO Test
</a>

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

Now if you want to protect your child from this kind of violent exposure, there are some ways of filtering this kind of content. One is to buy a website filtering software or you can use the feature of OpenDNS to filter these harmful sites. OpenDNS allows you to easily block individual or entire categories of Web sites in just minutes. It’s free and requires nothing to download or install. It also makes your network faster and more reliable, and gives you tools to easily see which web sites are most visited on your network. If you see problem web sites in your network stats, you can easily block them.

Here I will give you simple steps on how to make use of these features of OpenDNS to have a very safe web surfing.

1. First, sign-up for a new account on OpenDNS.

openDNS Dashboard

2. After you log-in, on the Dashboard click Settings. Under the Content Filtering option, you can choose the level of protection that you want to be applied for your network. Just click from any of the options depending on your preference and then click Apply.

openDNS Web Filtering Options

3. This change on web filtering will affect your system after you made the required change to your DNS settings of your internet connection.

To use the required DNS of openDNS or change your current DNS settings to openDNS configuration, click the Start button->Control Panel->Network Connections. After that, double click on your internet connection and click Properties button.

Network Connections Settings

4. Click on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) from the list of items (as shown on the image) then click Properties. Under the General tab, click the Use the following DNS Server Addresses then type the following DNS servers for the Preferred DNS Server and Alternate DNS Server:

208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220

TCP/IP DNS Settings

Then click Ok buttons from the opened window to apply the changes you made. These changes will take effect after 3 minutes so you can see its effect after this period.

Good luck and have a very safe surfing experience!

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.

I guess the snapshot shows everything that is new and nice with Wordpress 2.7 Beta 1 and its enough to explain things that you need to know about the release but still as of now it is in beta stage. According to Ryan Boren of Wordpress.org, this half-cooked release of Wordpress 2.7 is already working fine with the browser Firefox and Safari browsers but they are still working on its visual design to work properly on Internet Explorer. They actually planning to release the final release of the new revisions of Wordpress by November 10 but they postponed it and plan to make it available at the end of November. To download and read the detail of the said beta release, visit http://wordpress.org/development/2008/11/wordpress-27-beta-1/.

Here are other snapshot I’ve taken from Wordpress 2.7 Beta 1, showing the different revisions of the CMS:

[Show as slideshow]

This article was originally posted at bleuKEN 1.0 | Filipino Programmer/Blogger. If you are reading this elsewhere, it is likely copied without permission.