Are you wondering how to clean your keyboard? No I am not just talking about the keypads on the keyboard but am referring to cleaning the hard to reach cavities. Well, you can blow away light particles but what if that is not possible? I stumbled upon this new (I think) product in ACE hardware called Cyber Clean. It claims to catch dirt and kill germs!

I bought one just to try it out. I opened the box containing Cyber Clean and what I got was a gel-like substance. According to the box, to use it to clean stuff, you do not rub the Cyber Clean substance to the item your cleaning but instead just press! To have a better understanding on this, check out the illustration below:

My initial review on this cleaner is that it is fine. It is special in the sense that it is one of a kind but other than that there is nothing special about it. Yes you get to clean places not reachable by normal cleaning tools but that’s it. However, I would say that if you have a lot of electronic gadgets, then this cleaner is a must. Check out the videos below to see it in action:

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I recently bought a laptop USB lamp because it looked cool. Little did I know that it would turn out very useful for me. Check the image above. That is not the lamp I bought but it looks similar to the one I have except that the trunk is silver in color. It is bendable and provides sufficient lighting for dim to dark places. So why is it useful for me?

USB lamp usages
Well, the fact that it is a lamp makes it useful. If you are using your laptop in a dim place, the lamp would bring instant light! But I was able to appreciate it because of the heat, why is that? We are currently experiencing the El Nino again and it is very hot the entire day. Now, if I open the fluorescent lights above me, this adds to the heat inside the room. Not anymore! What I do is turn off the lights and simply plug-in my USB lamp and voila cool light emits which is sufficient for me to continue my computing needs.

It also helps on reducing my electricity consumption. I have done this for a month and the savings have certainly reflected on my monthly electricity bills.

Realization
At first, I thought that I could type on the keyboard without looking at the letters. This is 95% true (percentage an approximation hehe…). But when I turned off the fluorescent lamp above me, I was not able to type as fast as I normally would. That was when I realized that I looked at the keys of my keyboard every once in a while to make sure that I was pressing the correct key. When I used my USB lamp, the keyboard got illuminated once again and my typing speed went back to normal.

There are probably other things this cool gadget is good for but I won’t be stating them here now. What I do now is that it is cool, cheap and very useful and thus would recommend it to laptop users out there.

I bought my HP 915 printer 2 years ago and used it with my old Acer laptop running on Windows Vista (ugh, I know…). This printer was a beauty and still is. Being an all-in-1 printer (printer, scanner, fax machine, photocopy machine, etc…), it has served a lot of purpose since I bought it. It is still alive and kicking and still looks new Not to mention that this model of HP printers boasts one of the cheapest ink cartridges in the market! Actually, that is the reason why I bought the printer in the first place – for the cheap ink cartridges. I have saved a lot in the long run.

The printer of course comes with the drivers and an installer of its full feature software. Via ‘HP Solutions’, the application name of the software, you will be able to do everything that the HP 915 is capable of doing. But then, I bought a new Acer 4740G laptop which runs on a 64-bit Windows 7.

Normally, 32-bit applications work fine in 64-bit operating systems. But in this case, the HP software did not work on my Windows 7 machine. Of course, I searched the internet for an official software for my HP printer but found none. What I found though is another solution to make my printer work.

The Answer – Plug n Play
For longtime computer users this should be obvious, most hardware nowadays are plug n play. I should have known better myself but common sense it seems is not without a bit of irony. If you are not familiar with the term ‘Plug n Play’, it simply refers to hardware devices which do not need any installer or whatsoever before you will be able to use it. All you have to do is ‘plug’ the device (connect it to the computer) and then ‘play’ (do whatever the hardware does).

I know the post title is a bit misleading but that is on purpose. Those searching for a Windows 7 installer for HP 915 will find this post and hopefully be helpful.

So just to reiterate, to be able to use your HP 915 printer with Windows 7, just connect your printer through the USB port, turn on the printer and voila Windows 7 will take care of the rest by auto-installing the necessary drivers to make the printer work.

But I do not have software to use the printer, what should I do?
Yes that is true, but all we need to make things work are the drivers. Since Windows 7 has already taken care of that via Plug n Play, I will show you other programs already available that we can use in place of the HP software.

Two major capabilities of HP 915 is of course the printing and the scanning. Printing should not be a problem. If you want to print anything, just do so as you normally would and then simply choose the HP 915 printer from the list of Printer options when you click the Print command.

For scanning and faxing purposes, you can use the built-in Windows Fax and Scan program available at “All Programs” when you click the Start button.

Basically that’s it. If you want detailed instructions, you can visit this page.

I recently bought a new laptop, Acer Aspire 4740G. My old laptop is still alive but I believe it will die anytime soon. It shuts off by itself sometimes and I fear the worst for it. It is also an Acer Aspire which I bought from the States. So I bought a new one for insurance purposes and so that I won’t be disturbed with my online work when its death arrives. So why did I buy another Acer laptop? Well, I like Acer because it is durable but at the same time cheap. I also like the specifications of this Acer laptop model which I am laying out below:

Acer Aspire 4740G Specs

• Intel® Core™ i3-330M (3Mb L3 cache, 2.13GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 35 W)
• Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset
• 2.0Gb DDR3
• 500Gb SATA
• 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
• 14in. HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, high-brightness (200-nit) Acer CineCrystal™ LED-backlit TFT LCD, supporting simultaneous multi-window viewing via Acer GridVista
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M with 512Mb of dedicated DDR3 VRAM, supporting NVIDIA® CUDA™, PhysX™, PureVideo® HD technology, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 4.0, Microsoft
• Dolby®7-optimized surround sound system with two built-in stereo speakers
• Optimized 3rd Generation Dolby Home Theater®7 audio enhancement, featuring Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Pro Logic® IIx, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Natural Bass and Dolby® Sound Space Expander, Dolby® Audio Optimization, Dolby® High Frequency Enhancer technologies8
• True5.1-channel surround sound output
• High-definition audio support
• S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface)9 support for digital speakers
• MS-Sound compatible
• Acer PureZone technology with two built-in stereo microphones, featuring beam forming, echo cancellation, dynamic gain control (TBC), and noise suppression technologies
• LAN: Gigabit Ethernet, Wake-on-LAN ready
• WPAN1: Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
• Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• 2.3 kg (5.07 lbs.) with 6-cell battery
• 342 (W) x 239 (D) x 23/38.6 (H) mm (13.4 x 9.4 x 0.9/1.5 inches)
• 48.8 W 4400 mAh 6-cell Li-ion battery pack
• Up to 3 hrs battery life
• Multi-in-1 card reader
• Acer Crystal Eye webcam with 640 x 480 resolution
• Acer PureZone technology
• Multi-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI™ port with HDCP support
• External display (VGA) port
• Headphone/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support
• Microphone-in jack
• Line-in jack
• Ethernet (RJ-45) port
• Modem (RJ-11) port
• DC-in jack for AC adapter
• Easy-launch keys: Acer Backup, WLAN, Bluetooth®, programmable, volume up, volume down, touchpad lock
• Media control keys (printed on keyboard): play/pause, stop, previous, next
• Windows 7 Home Basic
• Acer Arcade™ Deluxe featuring Cinema, Album, Music, HomeMedia,
• Acer Backup Manager
• Acer GridVista™
• Acer Crystal Eye1
• Acer eRecovery Management
• 1 Year Limited Local Warranty – Parts and Labor
• Acer 14in. Targus Carrying Case

I bought it from Electroworld ATC at the price of P40k.

What do I think of my new laptop? Awesome! It is fast, thanks to the 4 cores (2 real and 2 virtual cores) and the fact that I am using a 64-bit version of Windows 7. I have yet to test my video card to max but I have tried playing Civilization IV and it worked pretty well. The sound is fine and everything else is working as advertised.

Normally, I open a few applications at once (Firefox, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc…) and my new laptop is taking it quite fine. Never hanged before and no blue screen of death

All in all, I say that this is a good laptop to get especially if you are in a shoe-string budget. I give this a 9.5/10 rating.

So what are the Western Union Gold Card perks and privileges? As an Adsense publisher, I’ve been getting my payments via WU and that is how I got acquainted with the Gold Card. I always wanted one but never got one until now because it was always out of stock. All the while, I never really knew what it was good for so I searched the internet and would be sharing what I found online.

According to www.westernunion.com.ph, here are the perks:

• Abenson HomePlus: a 5% discount on selected items
• Dairy Queen: a free upsize for every 12oz Oreo Blizzard
• David’s Salon: a 15% discount on any cash transactions
• George Optical: a 5% discount on prescription lenses
• Informatics: a P300 discount on all courses
• Kids Depot: a 10% discount on any purchases
• Marcela, Marcela Myx, and Kristenzz: a 10% discount on any items
• Microtel Inns and Suites: upto 30% discount on room rental
• Pizza Hut: a free spaghetti Bolognese or a Caesar salad for a minimum purchase of P300
• Taco Bell: a free drink for a minimum purchase of P200; and
• Xtreme Magic Sing: a P250 to P500 discount

While www.pinoymoneytalk.com claims WUGC has the ff perks:

• 7% discount on any Air Philippines fare;
• 15% discount on hair and facial services at David’s Salon;
• Free gift item on a minimum purchase of P125 at HBC;
• 5% discount on all Goldilocks cakes;
• $5 discount on all international outbound transactions at DHL

When I got my card just now, the WU agent also gave me some coupon stubs. Using those stubs and my WUGC, I’m entitled to:

• a Free Bavarian donut for every regular dozen donuts at Mister Donut
• 10% discount on regular items at Rusty Lopez
• free upgrade of accommodations at Negros Navigation
• 10% discount on selected surgeries, diagnostic and treatment procedures at Asian Eye Institute

I bet there are more WU perks out there which we do not know of but based on the above sample, I guess this card is worth having considering it is free of charge

When I was younger, there was a time when my parents had me learn and memorize a new word from the dictionary every single day. When they got home from work, I would need to prove that I learned a new word by telling them a sentence using the new word that I have learned. I believe this was sometime during my primary schooling (elementary) days. This training did not last forever of course but I did learn a lot from it.

English is not my first language but my second. Thus there are still a lot of words that I am unfamiliar with and that would require me to look for its meaning. Since the advent of the internet, a lot of petty everyday tasks has been automated and that includes looking for the meaning of a word in the dictionary. So how do I do it?

Type this command in the Google input box:

define:[word]

Just replace [word] with the actual word you are interested in.

Google will do the job for us. Google will look for the meaning of the word we have put into the input box from the various online dictionaries available and will present it to us in a neat formatted page. Thank you Google.

I am taking this a step further by creating a page in my blog which I have entitled “Dictionary“. Some of you might think that this is useless because I am reinventing the wheel. But that is not my purpose. I created this new page so that I can track my progress. A year from now, I can count how many new words I learned within that time span.

So there you have it, that is the reason why I have a new page and I would like to say that out loud so that I have a new blog post ready for the Google spiders to devour.

Have you ever been deceived by someone before? How? There are many ways to deceive someone, some are disgustingly direct while some are slickly unnoticeable. Whatever the case, deception is never good. According to Wikipedia, deception “…are acts to propagate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in half-truths or omission)…“. Thus deception is not just the telling of a lie, it can also mean omission of important information related to the truth.

What does this have to do with marketing in the Philippines? I am not talking about marketing in general but about experiences in marketing where I was at the receiving end. Not all marketing are deceptive but there are some which merit our attention. Let us take a look at those.

Marketing Deception – Prudential Life Insurance
Last year, Prudential Life called us to inform us that they were giving out freebies because it was their nth anniversary. The freebies sounded good to us and so to make a long story short we went to their office to claim the freebies. Little did we know that there were strings attached! After giving us the freebies, the person that entertained us started his marketing pitch and sold us a health plan.

How was that deceptive?

First, he lied to us. He said that the health plan can be paid via credit at 0% interest payable in 12 months because their company was affiliated with the credit card company. But the truth is, for me to be able to avail of the 12-month payment, I have to call the credit card company myself to change the payment scheme to 12 months. What’s worse is it is not with 0% interest leading me to pay more than I should!

Second is the case of them not telling us the whole truth. When they talked to us over the phone, the only thing they mentioned was the freebies and nothing about any paid plan or the like. Now that is slick deception. Once you’ve bitten the bait, they will hard-sell you with their health plans and make you feel unwise if you do not buy what they have to offer. They will indirectly force you to buy by implying that not buying their plans is unwise and if you don’t buy on the day they offer it, you will not be able to get their health plans at the rate they are offering it if bought on another day.

Marketing Deception – Caritas Health Card
The other day, a Caritas agent called us and said that because of their anniversary (same strategy as Prudential), they are giving out freebies to people that some other people referred to them (same strategy as Prudential). I played their game and went on with the conversation. The agent said that we would receive gift checks worth thousands of pesos that can be used for dental and other health purposes. She also asked me if I have financial cards like credit cards, ATM and the likes (same strategy as Prudential) so that I would be able to join their raffle (same strategy as Prudential). More cards more raffle entries (same strategy as Prudential). I said yes. And then I also agreed to going to their office to claim the freebies (hey it’s free!) but I also readied myself for the expected sales pitch right after giving out the freebies.

It was a Monday and we went to their office at Ayala Makati. It was at the 10th floor of Security Bank building and upon arriving at their office, the look and feel of the place shouted mediocrity (same as Prudential). The items to be won from the raffle were showcased at their “lobby” and I was having a hard time wondering why they are raffling out old-dirty-looking items.

A woman agent entertained us and brought us to a table where she would present the freebies and the non-freebies. First, she gave us the freebies. And then since we are already there, she said that she might as well offer us with an enticing offer that is only being offered to selected people (us) and can only be availed on that day (same strategy as Prudential). She offered us their health cards (HMO) which can be paid through credit cards (same strategy as Prudential). Now, I came into their office with no intent of buying anything or whatsoever and was very determined to say NO to their every offer. That’s what I did but subtly they tried to change my mind by troubling my conscience as if saying that if I don’t by their plans, then I was not interested in protecting(insuring) my health and my wife’s.

In the end, she was pretty annoyed because none of her efforts convinced us to buy. We thanked her and left and simply chuckled on our way out.

Lessons From the 2 Stories
I do not think that their companies are fraud or they are offering scam plans. My point in this blog post is that they are using dirty and deceptive tactics to market their products. If you analyze both stories, you would see that their strategies are similar and they are:

1. Call you at home to tell you that you will receive freebies as part of their anniversary. This is funny because many have called us (month after month) using the same line leaving us to think that it really is not their anniversary but their monthsary lolz.
2. During your phone conversation, they will tell you to go to their office and claim the freebies. They will also tell you that you do not have to worry as you would not have to pay anything. This is true but deceptive. Yes, you don’t pay for the freebies but once you step into the “lion’s lair” they will hard-sell you with your offers which you might not be able to turn down if you have a weak will or simply unprepared for their sales talk.
3. They will constantly ask for your financial cards (credit card, ATM, etc…). I am not entirely sure why but I think this is to make sure that the person that they are talking to can afford what they have to offer. Or if you are a credit card holder, they will try their very best to have you use your credit card to buy their plans.
4. The credit card trick goes like this. They will say that you can use your credit card to buy their plans. And then they will say that you can opt to pay the plan monthly through the credit card and you would not have to do anything because this will automatically be done for you which is a lie.

Ultimately, it is up to you to decide. If it so happens that you already are looking for an insurance plan or a health card plan, then this might be the perfect opportunity for you. You surely would not mind all the sales talks that would come your way to convince you as you are already set to buy.

However, if acquiring these are not part of your plans, then beware of their dirty tactics and mind games that they will throw at you. The things I mentioned above are some of the things that they will do. So if ever you encounter what we have encountered, just ready yourself for the worst by learning from the things we have already learned.

Additionally, here are some other noteworthy Prudential Life and Caritas encounters by other people. Check out the post and more importantly the comments section:
http://makati.olx.com.ph/caritas-health-card-iid-21175076
http://ph.88db.com/Health-and-Medical/Hospitals-Clinics/ad-140145/
http://www.phawville.com/blog/prudential-life-scam/

So it is already the second month of the new year and yet I am setting goals only now? Well, as they say better late than never I guess it is not too late to set goals to improve this blog since it is just the start of the year. So what do I have in mind?

I plan on making this blog “stronger” and more relevant in the face of the search engines so that anything I right will get serious consideration from them. Good enough? For me it is. Here is how I plan on doing it:

1. Write more often to build more content. Right now I am think of writing at least one post per day for five days every week.
2. Find more blogs to connect with so that the blog gets interconnected more. Other than the obvious advantage of having a link from another site connect to this site to get more traffic, there are a lot more advantages in terms of SEO which I will not discuss here
3. Submit my blog to blog directories for more exposure.
4. Write helpful posts and not just ramblings. This way, my blog reader count will rise as well.

So I guess that’s it for now. If I think of anything else I will just update this post.

How to Use a Custom Domain Name for Blogger via Namecheap? To elaborate further, how do you setup a domain you bought from Namecheap to be used for your blogger blog so that instead of having the “BLOGNAME.blogspot.com” type of URL, you will have a much better looking one like this => www.myblog.com ?

Again, the steps I am going to show is for domains bought from Namecheap and Namecheap only so please use your discretion when trying to follow the steps outlined below for a domain bought not from Namecheap. Generally, the steps would be the same but I am going detailed here so there.

Before going further, here are some readings you may read to be able to understand the process better. If you simply want to get this over with as soon as possible then just skip through the links below.

Reading 1
Reading 2
Reading 3

Steps for Namecheap Domain Name to Blogger Setup

1. First, login to your Namecheap account, go to MANAGE DOMAINS and select the domain you want to setup from the list of domains available.
2. Then, go to HOST MANAGEMENT > ALL HOST RECORDS .
3. Under SUB-DOMAIN SETTINGS, you will see a total of 10 text boxes and 5 drop-down menus arranged in a tabular (3×5) manner. We will use all of those.
4. Populate the first row of text boxes and drop-down menu (2 text boxes and 1 drop-down menu) with => “@”, “216.239.32.21″, “A (Address)” respectively without the quotes.
5. Populate the second row of text boxes and drop-down menu (2 text boxes and 1 drop-down menu) with => “@”, “216.239.34.21″, “A (Address)” respectively without the quotes.
6. Populate the third row of text boxes and drop-down menu (2 text boxes and 1 drop-down menu) with => “@”, “216.239.36.21″, “A (Address)” respectively without the quotes.
7. Populate the fourth row of text boxes and drop-down menu (2 text boxes and 1 drop-down menu) with => “@”, “216.239.38.21″, “A (Address)” respectively without the quotes.
8. Populate the fifth row of text boxes and drop-down menu (2 text boxes and 1 drop-down menu) with => “www”, “ghs.google.com”, “CNAME (Alias)” respectively without the quotes.
9. Press the SAVE CHANGES button at the bottom of the page.
10. Login to your blogger account and go to SETTINGS > PUBLISHING.
11. Type in your custom domain in the first box complete with the www prefix. Check the redirect box under it.
12. Save the blogger settings.
13. Normally, they tell you to wait 24-48 hours for the changes to take effect but if you are fortunate, it takes effect just 2-3 hours after following the steps above.

There you have it, the steps to be able to use a custom domain name you bought from Namecheap with your blogger blog. If any of the steps are unclear or you have any questions with the steps, just leave a comment below and I will respond as soon as possible.