Create your own blog template with PsycHo

PsycHo is an open source online tool developed to enable HTML and code stuff ignoramuses to create their own blog templates on the fly. It's easy to use and surprisingly quick, you can see a glimpse of your new template while doing configurations. Users can create CSS-based as well as W3C valid XHTML templates with this tool. Also, PsycHo is free to use...and abuse:)

A few notes:

• This tool is best for bloggers who really know nothing about HTML and are satisfied with a simple, neat-looking template.
• So far, only a two-column template may be created.
• The concept is to enable users to generate template codes through a user-friendly interface.
  
• Looks like the resulting template may not be editable under Blogger's template editing interface.
• It's actually pretty easy to understand HTML, use PsycHo if you don't really have an hour to read some HTML stuff. PsycHo isn't what you're looking for if you want to have a template that's fully customized, something truly yours.

Party at YOUR house?

Kids and teens these days...

Dunno but I really get irritated hearing 13-year olds or people below legal age who proudly say in their conversations this phrase: "at MY house."
"Party at my house!"
"Feeling bored...anybody wanna hang out in my house?"
"I may not be able to join you after class, let's just do the project at my house tonight."
 Huh? Your house? Really? These people who may have something like a future inheritance or these kids who live with their rich families...brats whose moms or dads are bigwigs? Call me old or too sensitive but it really bothers me how these people who are ONLY LIVING WITH their rich families claim THEIR abodes as if they have those houses' titles under their names.


It could be the influence of foreign movie or TV show lines. Could be some American kid who introduced the phrase here. Really, just the arrogant way of mentioning the words MY and HOUSE together by someone who doesn't actually own a house yet makes my blood boil.

Is that an idiom of sorts? A common Westerner kid expression maybe? I have no idea but I am sure I can understand basic English. MY is a possessive pronoun one uses to stick some claim on something. It is different from OUR which connotes the ownership of something by multiple persons, legal or artificial, solidarily or jointly. While it can be argued that the expression "my house" by someone who may be a part-owner or future part-owner or inheritor of such house can be valid, for me it is still unacceptable. Suppose this "my house kolehiyala" is the only child, 17 years young, of a rich and famous couple and she is quite certain to inherit the wealth of her family, does she have the document or title to prove that the house belongs to her? Does the law allow the transfer of properties to minors? Does this girl know what she's talking about? Are we talking about shares of stocks here? A stockholder is a part-owner of a corporation so it may be technically correct for that stockholder to say "my company" since ownership is clearly present in his or her acquisition of shares of stocks, especially in the case of major shareholders who are known to be the faces and names of their corporations. A family's house on the other hand is a different property. And unless, you're some PNoy cabinet secretary I know whose house is technically recorded as one owned by a corporation, the "my house" claim may not apply.

Yeah, right.... I am just whining. This Filipino is whining about how the younger generation of his promise-nothing-fulfilled-land is turning Western and somehow clueless. My house daw o....

Tweeter saves the day

University of California-Berkeley graduate student James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail through a one-word blog post he made with his cell phone. The blog post was written and published with the social networking blog site Twitter.

Buck was in Mahalla, Egypt, to cover an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested. Finding himself police station-bound, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Very brief and effective, the message cum blog post only had a single word: "Arrested."

Buck only learned about Twitter a week earlier, having been taught by blogger-friends in Egypt. Almost instantaneously, the Twitter message Buck sent alerted  colleagues in the United States and friends in Egypt.

Well, just one proof of the many ways technology and social networking help...

New Opera browser comes with a URL lookup function

The latest version of Opera Software's 9.5 Beta browser enables users to easily fetch URLs for visited web addresses. It's called Quick Find and it's available for the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.

Basically, Quick Find integrates keyword search functionality into the Opera browser's address field. The address field provides a list of URLs upon typing in a few keywords. Users who are familiar with Opera Mini may identify Quick Find as the sister to the "find in page" feature in Opera Mini 4.1.

Fans of the Opera browser may expect other updates in the beta build. Quick Find, however, remains the sole new featured that may directly interest users.

The official Opera announcement states faster e-mail rendering for its built-in email client, support for EV (extended validation) SSL certificates, and improved antiphishing protection (thanks to the collaboration Opera has with PhishTank and NetCraft's databases).

Stylish lets Firefox impose aesthetics

Stylish is a user styles manager that gives web browsers who use Firefox the power to fix ugly websites. It is comparable to CSS just as what Greasemonkey is to JavaScript. If aesthetics matter to you when net surfing, click here to download and install Stylish.

Stylish simplifies the management of user styles but it doesn't only fix ugly websites, it also allows users to customize the look of their browsers and mail clients. Moreover, a set of pre-created user styles can be easily accessed at userstyles.org, so you may not need to learn how to write styles yourself. Simply choose a style, do a couple more clicks and see your preference put up that refreshing new look.

Check out Stylish's user guide here, or report bugs by following this link.

CrossLoop simplifies remote PC access (with permission)

CrossLoop is a freeware application designed to facilitate a secure single-serving of remote access. It enables complete remote access to a PC once permitted, until connection is severed.

CrossLoop furthers the benefits offered by traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It can be used by people of all technical skill levels. Installation is quick and the security features that come with the app seems fair enough.

The program encrypts session data at the end-points before being sent using a 128-bit encryption algorithm. It also assigns a randomly generated 12-digit access code to computers. CrossLoop is a good tool for technical support or getting assistance in various desktop related issues where more "hands-on" help is needed. Simplicity is CrossLoop's main attraction but it also claims to offer fast connection and a fair enough security system. CrossLoop is designed not to operate without explicit permission from the host.

Singulair linked to serious mood and behavior issues

United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it is evaluating available information for a potential link between some serious issues involving mood changes and behavior affecting patients who take Merck & Co, Inc's Singulair (montelukast).

Singulair is a prescription drug for the treatment of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and the prevention of exercise-induced asthma. Accordingly, it has been associated with unlikely mood changes, suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality), and suicide. Merck & Co, Inc has made several changes to the patient and prescriber information issued for Singulair and has worked with the FDA to determine how to communicate the latest changes in the most effective manner.
Updates on the drug include alerts for adverse reactions and recently has included tremor, depression, suicidality, and anxiousness. Plans to increase awareness of these potential side effects include personal interaction with prescribers and information leaflets for patients. Merck is conducting a re-evaluation study for Singulair and the FDA is reviewing patient reports of adverse reactions while taking Singulair. The FDA anticipates the review and evaluation process may take as long as nine months before firm data is available for public release.
Singulair is a leukotriene receptor antagonist with mechanism of action similar to Accolate (zafirlukast). Another popular drug used for the treatment of similar symptoms is Zyflo/Zyflo CR (zafirlukast), which is a leukotriene synthesis inhibitor. The FDA is also reviewing reports of similar adverse reactions reported in patients taking these medications to determine if further investigation should be made.
Patients and physicians are requested to report any incidence of these adverse reactions while taking any of these drugs. The FDA has a program for reporting adverse reactions, the MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program, that can be accessed by:
going online to www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm,
by calling 1-800-332-1088, or
by faxing to 1-800-FDA-1078.
Source: FDA