Ateneo celebrated its 150th anniversary last Sunday, June 14. There was a whole-day program involving a motorcade passing through the Ateneo campuses in Manila, with programs in key campuses along the itinerary. Visit: http://150.ateneo.edu

Throughout the day, Ateneo had ten videographers covering the event through live mobile video streaming enabled by the Smart network using an online video service called QIK (www.qik.com) .

Ateneo Sesqui mobile videos

The interesting thing is that in the Ateneo Sesqui group on qik, videos from different handsets were being streamed in sequence, like a relay race. Thus, online visitors got to watch the celebration LIVE on their computers from the different viewpoints of each videographer.

Results:

• Ateneo Sesqui videos: http://www.qik.com/groups/5194
• Quezon City, Philippines
• Videos: 204
• Views: 4142 (as of June 17 afternoon)
• Total time filmed: 05:43:51

Live Streaming Videos via Mobile: A Qik Guide

Our friends at Ateneo, Ton Dolor and Mimi Agbay, led the team of videographers. They’re now experts in using qik and join the ranks of Ashton Kutcher who happens to be a big qik user.

Ton put together a guide so other groups can do similar video streaming for their event. Here goes from Ton…

Setting-up qik: A Guide for the Videographers

Below is a guide I made for the videographers.
You can freely share it with others and add to it so that others won’t have to write everything from scratch.

Step 1. Configure N82

Activate newly installed SMART SIM:
Profiles > Options > Activate

Set the date (otherwise you won’t be able to install Qik)
Clock > Options > Settings

Activate MMS/GPRS/3G service
text SET N82 to 211.
You will receive a confirmation message. Follow the instructions.

Avail of the SMART Promo

text INET DAY to 211 (P100 for 12 hours)
text INET DAY to 211 (P50 for 5 hours)

Step 2. Sign up for a Qik account

http://qik.com/sign_up

Step 3. Install Qik

Download Qik installer from http://qik.com/account/download_qik
Attach USB cable to phone and copy Qik installer to phone

Filename:  qik_s60_3rd__0_09_56

Go to Tools > File Mgr > select qik_s60_3rd__0_09_56
Select Options > Open
Install Qik? > Click Yes > Click Continue
Select Phone Memory

Once Qik is installed, fill up configuration menu as follows:

Login as: Existing user
Enter username: enter username
Enter password: enter your password

Click sign in
Select SmartInternet
Click stream

Step 4. Create a group within Qik to stream simultaneous feeds from several users.

Note: User should enable automatic sharing to be able to share live feed to the group:

Login to Qik
Click Edit Profile > Groups
Under Group Name select the name of the group
Click Automatically share to this Group

What worked:

1. Phone. N82 is a great phone for this type of coverage. Handled properly, some of the clips looked as if they were taken by a hand-held videocam. The audio is audible and quite clear.

2. Video length. Clips that were over a minute in length were generally more interesting.

3. Reporting. I found it more interesting when the videographer reported what was actually happening during the event. It also helped that were a lot of videographers which gave the event a very wide coverage, with different points of view and different styles of taking videos. The no holds-barred (no script) reporting/coverage also worked well. It was very natural, as if you were actually participating first-hand in the ongoing event.

4. Cost. The cost of streaming the event is almost free. Internet access is a bargain at P100 for 12 hours. The phones were provided for free thanks to SMART. The cost of video storage is likewise free c/o Qik.

Some suggestions:

1. Subject. Before hitting the stream button, focus on a nice subject first (not on the floor or ceiling). The first image captured by the camera becomes the icon/tile on the Qik site.

2. Profiles. Reporters should put titles on their video streams so that clips will not be classified as Untitled in the website.
Reporters should also update their profiles to reflect the country they are in otherwise their location on the site defaults to United States. It would have been nice if the videographers uploaded their pictures as well.

3. Battery life. Batteries ran out towards the latter part of the coverage so backup batteries and portable charges are needed in a day-long coverage.

4. Proper handling of the camera. Some of the clips made me dizzy. The image pixelates when the camera moves too fast.

5. Embed code. The embed code at the Qik website had limited functionality since it only showed what was going on live. It is better to have a link (or redirect) to the actual Qik page.

Thanks to Ton for permission to publish his guide in full.

So folks, what are you waiting for? Start qik-ing!

ka edong
the qik brown fox

Sounds like “Technology Transfer” doesn’t it? Well it is.

Yesterday, I migrated hosting of Technobiography. I transfered Technobiography.com to dreamhost.com .

Here’s an walk-through of how I migrated from http://technobiography.edongskey.com in ploghost to http://www.technobiography.com in dreamhost. For my use (or other people’s use) as a codigo in the future.

How to transfer a WordPress Blog from one webhost to another

lipatbahay - Technobiography transfer

1. Pray.
2. Prepare the new webhost – Install wordpress at the new webhost. I learned that dreamhost has a one-click wordpress installation. I would have been resistant using this especially when I know how to install from scratch. But it’s been working well and I recommend the one-click install. No sweat.
3. Backup entire blog – There are many ways to backup your wordpres blog. You can try some of the popular ones: WP-DB-Backup or do a Google Search of “WordPress Backup“. I also copied my entire wordpress folder from my old webhost unto my hard disk using Filezilla FTP client.
4. Export old blog – WordPress has a built-in function in wp-admin under Tools > Export. This action will create a WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR file which you need to save in your hard drive. The file will contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. I’m pleased to find that this process I’m describing also migrates all article photos too.
5. Import in new blog host – Login to your new blog in your new webhost. Use the import function under Tools > Import. This action will ask for your WXR file (the one you saved in step 3). The import may take time especially if you’re importing a big WXR file. My 5Mb WXR file took around 5 minutes to upload.
   When done, you’ll be presented with a list of all the articles (and comments) successfully imported. Viola!
6. Re-build settings of your new blog

Theme: using FTP, copy your old theme unto new webhost in the default location (wp-content/themes);
Using new wp-admin, activate your theme

Plugins: using FTP, copy your old plugins unto new server, same location;
Using new wp-admin, activate your plugins.

Settings: using wp-admin, copy the same settings from old blog to new blog.
Note especially the permalinks format .
Also note the comments settings  — you may want to change the default setting of new wp installs that visitors need to have 2 approved comments before they get published.
Tip: open old wp-admin and new wp-admin windows side-by-side so you can easily copy settings

Widgets: using wp-admin copy widgets from old to new blog. You may need to manually copy-paste content of your old widgets into your new widgets.

7. Point domain to new blog location. Go to your domain registrar to change domain settings. I manage my domains through godaddy.com . In godaddy.com, go to “manage domains” and change your nameserver settings so that it points to your new webhost’s nameservers.
8. Re-direct traffic from old blog to new blog. (see note below if you’re using the same domain name). This is important. You want your old blog pages to redirect to your new blog. I used the Redirection plugin by John Godley.
   Install the Redirection plugin in your OLD blog.
   Redirect your blog posts, blog pages, monthly-archive pages and index page to the equivalent page in the new blog host location.

   Now I know there is a shortcut in doing this with wildcards. After several attempts, I wasn’t able to figure it out. So I manually made 301 redirections for each blogpost. I know, it was tedious, but it works.
   
   Note: I took this step because I changed domain names. This may not be applicable if you’re maintaing your domain name but just transferring web hosts. If so, then step #10 should be enough.

9. Clean-up. You may want to clear your old webhost of your old files. The “uploads” folder can go out first as this takes up a lot of space. Warning: If you used the re-direct plugin in step 11, you need to maintain wordpress for the re-directs to work. Alternative is to use a .htaccess redirect (which I didn’t do because I didn’t figure out how to do it ) .
10. Pray. Whether things went berserk or whether all went smooth sailing for you (which almost never happens), say a prayer of thanks that you are still alive and that your beloved blog is now in a new place where it will be safe and sound just like your mind is.

I know this codigo will come in handy for me in the future. I also hope other folks will benefit from this codigo.

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll help as much as I can. If you like this page, link back .

ka edong
lipat bahay

p.s. It’s been a good three years for Technobiography at ploghost.com.ph . Thanks Abe and Jason for all the help through the years. photos.edongskey.com is still at ploghost so I’ll still be around.

Here’s a short video showing how you can watch the Pacquiao Hatton fight on your mobile phone.
Update (May 3, 11pm): Video of what the fight looked like in my phone

Pacquiao After the Bout (on my mobile phone, live)

PACQUIAO vs. HATTON LIVE on your mobile phone on May 3 at 8am.

• For Nokia phones, click http://m.smart.com.ph/pacman2
• For other phones, click http://m.smart.com.ph/pacman3
• P20+P15/30mins streaming charge.

More Pacquiao downloads

• Abangan ang laban. Maging updated sa latest news of the fight, i-text ang SNEWS sa 2366. p2.50/text
• Download Pacman Caller Ringtunes now!
  LAHINGPINOY – Lahing Pinoy
  TOTOYBATO – TV series ni Pacman
  Text <Keyword> to 2728 Ex. LAHINGPINOY P15/15days
• For more downloads, go to http://m.smart.com.ph/pacman

I used an image from the web, here’s some link-lovin to the source of that image: www.pacquiaovideo.com

Manny, itaas ang bandila ng Pilipinas!

Update May 3, 11pm:

I actually didn’t catch the fight on my mobile phone. It was finished too soon! I did catch some excerpts after the bout, and that’s what I captured in the videos below.

Btw, I was using Liway, my Sony Ericsson P990i phone — not a high-end Nokia myTV-phones (Nokia N77, N92, or N96).

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Hoy! Pinoy ako!

Whew! Hirap maging artista!

Here’s my first instructional video on Technobiography.

It’s about PixMe! — uploading mobile photos to Facebook.

The video is interspersed with powerpoint slides. Simple dimple muna. A bit long, but we’re learning here .

Comments, tips or other remarks are welcome .

PixMe! on Technobiography

Read more:

Online Guide: http://smart.com.ph/buddy/promos/PixMe.htm
PixMe! on Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/pixmeapp
PixMe! on Friendster: http://widgets.friendster.com/pixme

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shooting star

Have you had the need to do a conference call where the meeting participants are from different parts of the globe?

In my former company, we had an in-house self-service online panel where we could schedule multi-geo conference calls. Everybody dials into the bridge, and each country had their own local dial-in numbers.

In my line of work now, I need to have the ability to arrange for my own multi-geo conference calls. And I found an online service that does exactly that!

(drum roll please….)

I used www.freeconference.com this morning and I’m happy with it.

I used an online-scheduled meeting today. I got organizer access, and my meeting participants from ortigas and the US were able to dial into the US dial-in number.

I haven’t figured out how to use the reservationless bridge. That service supposedly allows me to just give out a generic dial-in number and access code, then anybody dialled in at the same time gets to talk to each other. BUT, I tried it last week and all we heard was music.

The service is highly customizable. I can make it a free-for-all conference (everybody can talk and hear each other), or a seminar (just one or a few people can talk). I can start the meeting when the organizer (me) dials-in, or I can start the meeting as soon as any two people are in.

A summary of the call is sent via email. Here’s a transcript of my most recent call:

Thank you for using FreeConference.com, a service of Global Conference Partners.  Here is a summary of your most recent Web-Scheduled conference call to assist you in tracking your business productivity.
Conference Summary
Conference Type:     Web-Scheduled Standard
Conference Date:     Friday, January 23, 2009
Reservation Start Time:     09:00 AM Philippines Time
Reservation End Time:     10:55 AM Philippines Time
Dial-in Number:     1-518-825-xxx
Access Code:     673xxx

Conference Details
#     Start Time     End Time     Caller Number     Mins.
1     01/23/2009 09:00 AM     09:02 AM                                        3
2     01/23/2009 09:01 AM     09:02 AM     xxx-894-xxxx     1
3     01/23/2009 09:02 AM     09:06 AM                                       4
4     01/23/2009 09:55 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-894-xxxx     45
5     01/23/2009 10:01 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-543-xxxx     39
6     01/23/2009 10:11 AM     10:40 AM     xxx-092-xxxx     29
Total Calls:     6

Peak number of active lines:     3
Lines reserved:     5

You can access a complete summary of all your Web-Scheduled conferences from the Conference Manager tab at www.freeconference.com.

Do you use www.freeconference.com or similar? What’s your experience?

I could use Skype in the future. But not everybody uses Skype, so I’ll need to verify with other parties before I use Skype.

Nice! Calling calling, nano nano …

ka edong
like a bridge conference call over troubled water

We visited a relative in Seattle. Dee had a beautiful lakehouse! The porch was newly painted brick red.

But what caught my attention were the many elegant paintings she had in the den. Pretty!

The painter was a Filipina! And yes, our friend Dee got the paintings for an unbelievable price of around 5 dollars apiece (base price of the paintings).

I couldn’t believe my ears (and eyes)! This beautiful painting selling for just 5 dollars!? That’s just 250 pesosI like! Where can I get some for myself?

At first I was thinking it might be the type of painting that’s mass produced.

(By the way, I had some neighbors who were doing exactly that! They had artbooks in their hands and two to four canvasses where they were replicating paintings of famous Filipino painters.)

But Dee continued to explain that there was a 30dollar shipping charge. Dee received the paintings rolled up in a tube. Dee took care of putting it in a frame.

Still, it was unbelievably cheap! Dee even showed us the certification at the back of one of the paintings. It bore the photo of the Filipina painter (sayang, I couldn’t remember her name na) and a seal of the art curator selling the paintings via eBay. Update (sept 14): Her name is Joie Delgado, find her on eBay.

5 dollars? ‘Di ba siya lugi sa materyales nun? Ah, my turn to get something like that …

Here’s a link to TrendArts selling very low-priced paintings (starting a $0.99!).

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art curator

I’m preparing to listen to an open forum with Jack Canfield. It’s called “Ask Jack Canfield” Tele-Class.

I’m going to dial-in using Skype. Because of timezone differences, I’ll be up at 1am to listen. I want to record the call for future listening, while driving for example.

Thus began my search for ways to record a Skype call.

I started with the built-in Sound recorder of Windows XP (Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder). Limitation: 1 minute recording. Have to click it again and again if I were to record a 1 hour call.

One of my search results was a YouTube video from a … 13 year old kid who calls himself KidGuru (www.adrianstech.com). (How to Record a Skype Call – by Kidguru on YouTube) Although I didn’t find my answer there, it was interesting finding such a young man who knows so much about technology. He is indeed a guru. Very eloquent, highly technical and very intelligent. Spent some time viewing some of his Videos. Galing!

Still through search, I found a good reference through Digital Inspiration. (How to Record Skype Conversations: Tools, Resources, Tips – by Digital Inspiration) . His list of resources is useful. But it’s easy for me to narrow-down to my needs: I’m looking for the FREE solution. The only one I found on Digital Inspiration’s list was PrettyMay

PrettyMay

I went and downloaded PrettyMay. (PrettyMay Call Recorder for Skype) I run the application, it rebooted Skype automatically. It looks rather easy and seamless recording calls on skype through PrettyMay. But I was stuck with “Searching for Skype”. You see, PrettyMay gets access to Skype and that’s how it’s able to record seamlessly with Skype. Unfortunately, I have a corporate version of Skype and some functions are disabled. i won’t be able to use PrettyMay. Sayang, it looks very cool pa naman. And I think it would have removed any ambient noise around my laptop’s mic.

Audacity

Search goes on. And I find it in my laptop afterall! Audacity! I used audacity many months back when i dabbled with some podcasts. I tried recording on a skype call on my laptop using audacity. IT works for me! It’s not crisp and clear. Audacity picks up the crickets chirping outside my window. But hey, the voice is clear. This will do well for me for now.

Resources:

• How to Record Skype Conversations: Tools, Resources, Tips – by Digital Inspiration
• PrettyMay Call Recorder for Skype
• How to Record a Skype Call – by Kidguru on YouTube
  
• Audacity

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getting ready to ask jack

I have a friend, Ricky, who had a website running for a couple of years now. After hosting his website with a certain company, he no longer found it necessary to get a webhost. He explained that he didn’t have much cash and that he’s been hosting a big part of his website at google pages, anyway.

I thought it was rather impractical for Ricky to forego his current webhost. Especially since I use the same webhost and am completely satisfied with their service.

Ricky asked me to send me some references to help him make some webhosting decisions.

This is what I sent him, a Web Hosting Guide from WebHostingGeeks.com.

The website has a rich collection of web hosting ratings from top 10 webhosts evah, best budget hosting, best blog hosting, best ecommerce hosting etc.. Wow, I didn’t know webhosting has become that specialized.

I was looking for a country-based ranking, wanting to see if they have a comparative for the Philippines. There wasn’t any.

I personally use ploghost.com for my hosting needs. It’s been very satisfactory. There were times when I had some quick questions which were promptly addressed via email and sometimes even via SMS. That’s customer service!

Well, goodluck Ricky in making your decision. Hope this helps!

ka edong

The past few weeks, I learned so much more about call cards than I had the past year. And this is because of one reason: necessity.

You see, my better half is in the US, and we both had to use call cards to communicate.

GetMeCallingCards.com

On my side in the Philippines, here is what I learned:

a.) First, it costs around 40 cents per minute if I used my Smart cellphone’s IDD call feature included in my regular post-paid plan. That’s expensive at around P18 per minute.

b.) The PLDT Touch card allows me to make calls from my Smart cellphone to a toll-free number that let’s me dial international telephones. I learned the hard way that the PLDT Touch card charges around P8 per minute. An improvement to the P18 per minute, but still expensive for loooong calls.

c.) The PLDT budget card, on the other hand, can be used on any PLDT phone or payphone. The budget card gives me calls to the US at P3 per minute. That’s the best rate I’ve gotten (apart from using Voice over IP which is FREE as beer).

On the other hand, there are a few things we learned about call cards in the US.

d.) A friend of ours buys callcards in bulk – like 10 pieces at a time for $200 dollars less a 10% discount (total: $180). Each call card gives her about 1 hour talk time.

e.) There’s a variety of call card that is very cheap. But there’s a catch. Once you use the call card, you better use up all the time it has. Because if you don’t, it gets consumed anyway. Think of it as a one-time-use call card. If it gives you 1-hour talk time, you better use up all the time within 1-hour. Once you dial using the card, it will count 1-hour (for example) and  all the load gets consumed regardless of whether you talked for an hour or for just 30 mins.

f.) There’s another variety of call cards that gives you a different rate if you’re using a landline to dial the call card compared to when you dial using a cellphone. And I thought toll-free numbers are toll-free numbers regardless of whether you use a landline or a cellphone. Oh well.

That’s what I learned so far.

There’s still a lot more varieties out there, I’m sure.

I just did a search and found 220 prepaid call cards in one site called GetMeCallingCards! Whoa! And that’s just for callcards from the US to the Philippines. There are a lot more call cards there for other countries as well.

The 220 prepaid call cards I saw ranged from 1.3 cents/min to 75cents/min. Discounts or additional fees are clearly indicated.

You can make an online purchase for these cards via credit card. Callcard PINs are instantly displayed on screen upon purchase. That’s mighty convenient isn’t it?

Scoot over to GetMeCallingCards.com and get the call cards you want.

• Philippine Calling Cards – Nationwide
• Philippine Calling Cards – Cellular Phones
• Philippine Calling Cards – Manila
• FAQs
• Contact GetMeCallingCards.com

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Call me!

Teach a man to Phish and he’ll probably get smarter and start to Whale!
Funny how they come up with terms like these.
From Wikipedia, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
Whaling, as you could imagine, is Phishing on a larger scale.

Here’s an article about Whaling which I got through my e-mail.

Whaling Attacks

Criminals are targeting executives and wealthy end users in phishing scams known as whaling attacks. The fake e-mail messages are more convincing than ever before. The message has a sense of urgency and a link for the victim to click now to take action. This combination makes it easy for even the tech-savviest end user to click the link.

The links lead to a virus that is downloaded onto the users’ computer and steals his or her sensitive information. Since the victims are usually an authority within the organization, this can be especially damaging to the organization, clients, the victim and co-workers.

In June 2007, MessageLabs stopped more than 500 e-mail messages that contained an attachment from a reputable company. The download actually contained an .exe file that, when opened, collected sensitive data from the recipient’s computer. Each e-mail was addressed to the recipient and included his or her name and job title, which made the scam message look reputable. The criminals had collected this personal information through social networking sites by targeting senior executives, or their friends and family. The criminals hoped to hack into the family computer in order to obtain the senior executive’s work information.

Be careful what you click!

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Ingat!