Internet Surfing Tip

To access the internet, we need to click on our browsers first, then start typing the address we want to go. Sometimes the task of  starting up internet explorer or other browsers takes time specially when the computer has just turned on. It needs a bit of time for the browser to show up before you can actually type anything. If you are tired of having to go through this everytime you want to go online, then there is  a simple solution to this. You do not need anything to download, as it is already included in your computer.

Practical Solution:

The way to do it is to bring up the address bar at the task bar. So that when windows starts, the address bar is already available, ready to get you which website you want to go without starting your web browser first.

Simple Steps:

1. RIGHT CLICK at any empty space at the task bar, then click TOOLBAR then  ADDRESS

2. After ticking the ADDRESS, an address bar will be created at the task bar ready for you to type in web address as you will with your web browser.

3. You can try your new address bar by typing the web address and pressing the enter button afterwards.
 The website destination you've typed in will be shown by your default browser !

Personalised toolbar

Imagine clicking your favourite site in one place, and never to type in anything anymore, because your landing site is already in your toolbar. Possible? Practically possible!

BMPM TOOL BAR

For BMPM fan like me, you can have quicker access to the site by downloading the toolbar specially tailored, and for the TFC Online subscribers, program category is also included. Screen shot below.

Get this BMPM toolbar by clicking link below! Availabe to Internet explorer and Firefox users only.

The toolbar installs in seconds, you just need to allow firefox or internet explorer to install it when prompted. And you also need to restart your browser when installation is complete.

Click on the Screen shot below to make the image bigger!

The parts:

1.Clicking the logo (1) will bring you to BMPM facebook fanpage
2. The search engine is a BMPM content exclusive search
3. Clicking 3 will log you in to facebook
4. Number 4 is BMPM's tweeter account
5. Five will log you in to your tweeter account
6. Will take you to prakticality site where I will be posting link when I have a chance to update the toolbar
7. This button will log you in to your email account, at the moment 3 email companies are included, if your email provider is not included and want to include it in here, please just write a comment below.
8. My ebay, amazon and amazon mp3 links
9. For my OFW friends that use their computer to access ABS CBN TFC contents.

Enjoy and I hope this toolbar helps!

COMMENT FROM BMPM 

UPDATES

1.  June 1 2011


Included in the update is Environmental Cause button, helping users to visit and join the No2Mining in Palawan, Batay Kalikasan, Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig

Note: In order for the update to take effect, you need to restart your browser or better to restart your whole computer.

2. August Update
Environmental cause button taken off, email links, newspaper links added

FAQ's

1. I tried to install the Toolbar but nothing happened. What now?
   Sometimes, Firefox will place a warning bar at the top of the browser to warn you that you are installing software. It might be necessary to click on the button in that bar and "Allow" the Toolbar to be installed, then click the Install button again.
2. How do I uninstall the Toolbar?
   To uninstall simply follow these steps:
   1. Open Firefox and go to the Tools drop-down menu
   2. Select Add-ons
   3. Select your toolbar
   4. Click the Uninstall button to remove it from your Firefox browser
   5. Firefox will ask you to restart your browser; please do so
   Once you open Firefox again, the Toolbar should be removed.
3. I download the Toolbar but don't see it. Where did it go?
   If you have Windows 2000 or XP and you're having trouble installing the Toolbar, please check to see if you have administrator privileges on your computer. With these two operating systems, you must have administrator privileges to install the software. If you do have administrator privileges, please go to the View menu and select Toolbars to be sure your Toolbar is checked. If this does not cause the Toolbar to appear, please try restarting your browser (you may want to bookmark this FAQ first for future reference). If this doesn't work either, please try restarting your computer and then opening a new browser window.
4. Can I hide the Toolbar?
   Yes, the Toolbar can be hidden. Click on View at the top of your browser window, go to Toolbars, find and click on your Toolbar in the list to hide it. When you hide the Toolbar, all new browser windows will have the Toolbar hidden as well. Note that when the toolbar is hidden it remains inactive.
   To show the Toolbar again, just go back to the Toolbars list and click your Toolbar to open it again.
5. How can I customize the toolbar?
   You can control how the toolbar interacts with your browser and what information it sends to servers by clicking on the "Options" menu under the gear icon on the right-hand side of the Toolbar.
6. How do I report problems with the Toolbar?
   The Toolbar is powered by the Alexa Toolbar Creator. If you have any questions please contact Alexa support. 

AUGUST Update

Student Visa Promise Failed!

Tales of students promised a work visa after finishing a students visa are saddening and annoying. What makes it sad is, they are too many, and what is annoying is why some people takes advantage of the many honest people eager to make a living?

Anyway the damage is already there. There are many recruits that did not finish their visas, they went home. There are also others who finished it, and wished that they have not listened to the promises of permanent jobs and high salaries. Applicants should be aware that as a student visa holders, you will be treated as students, even you land a job, you will be given a pay according to a student's status, and will be given a specific amount of time to work, which is 10 hours in a week, nothing more, legally.

What happens to those who remain to stay and are waiting for their visas to finish is a wait and see situation. As much as we, Pinoys in the UK are willing to help them, sometimes we can't do anything but feel sorry for them.

Other recruits are lucky when they have special skills, like beauty services, cutting hair, doing make ups, nails, etc., they can earn discreetly in their own time and as much as there is a client. Usually they take home services that are advertised through friends and happy costumers. This is a way of helping them and this is also a way of helping those who are like us, that are always busy and can not make a booked appointment or do not have enough time to queue up. This arrangement is better as the client will be comfortable in her own home and does not worry about traveling, and the appointment works around her time, not like in a shop that you need to work it out with the shop's time.

Just this week, we met another promised recruit that offers massage. My wife and I tried her service and we can really recommend it to all our friends. She covers London, from Hammersmith to Olympia, and it was her first at Northolt, where she had at least 5 relieved customers, including my wife and myself. This is a way of helping her and making us also a saving from her valuable service. Next time you need a massage and do not have time to go into a shop, try to book our new friend Marilee at 07553520574. Recommended for pinoy couples and other female friends!

Mobile Internet Connection for iPad Wifi Model

One of the most disappointing feature of the iPAD is it's bluetooth connectivity. It is very temperamental. One time it can connect and pair but most of the time it does not. Many forums say it is easy to pair devices and computers but my experience says otherwise. Another frustrating thing is, when it managed to connect to a device, it can not find any bluetooth service that can be used, like object push, internet teethering, audio device( I am trying to use a garmin navigator), file transfer etc. etc., it is virtually no service offered and provided! What I have not tried is to pair with a keyboard.

Internet Teethering Problem

Out of these dissappointments, the most is lack of support for internet teethering. I can not use iphone to power it's internet connection through bluetooth, as the ipad lacks capability. This is I think a marketing strategy for the iPAD wifi + 3G! Too bad, I thought apple products support each other's capabilities and services.

The Simple Solution

Thanks to a mobile hotspot or wifi device, one can use mobile internet  in an iPAD wifi only model, anywhere. Mobile WiFi is a new way of enjoying mobile broadband on the move. Unlike ’traditional’ mobile broadband deals which connect your laptop to the mobile internet via a dongle plugged into their USB port, mobile WiFi deals still connect to the internet over 3G mobile phone networks but actually create a local WiFi network based on this connection which you connect to via your WiFi enabled device. This means of course that you can still use mobile WiFi to access mobile broadband on your laptop (and you don’t need to install any software this way) but you can also connect multiple devices at the same time - for example a portable media player like an iPod touch, any WiFi enabled mobile phone, or WiFi anabled games system. Prices varies, and can be a pay monthly or pay as you go options.

To see which option is suited to your need, please see the links below:
Carphone Warehouse
Dialaphone
Three Mobile

Create Shutdown Button At Desktop

Did you know that you can shutdown your computer in a single click? Yes you can by creating a shutdown shortcut button at your desktop. You might ask me why you need another shutdown button. Because I want to turn my computer off in one click, and without clicking the start button first! And it's cool being able to do that!

Here's the praktical way, step by step and with screenshots!

STEPS:
1.First, you need to go to your desktop, why? Because it is there where you will create it.
2. Right click an empty space, select NEW then click SHORTCUT

3. Then enter the location of the shutdown command at the box dialogue which is

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s

Just copy and paste the command so that you will not make any mistakes

4. Click next and type any name of your shortcut, in this case i recommend SHUTDOWN

5. Click Finish and your new shortcut should show in your desktop. Your new shortcut however, will not have the proper icon, so we need to dress up your new shortcut with an appropriate icon.

6. Right click on the shutdown shortcut and click change icon.

7. Choose the appropriate button and click OK. Your new shutdown hortcut should be properly dressed up and ready to use!

Speed Up Vista !

Do you still own a Windows Vista PC or laptop? I still do, in fact I still have XP and ME! One problem that's annoying me with Vista is, it is really a power hog and resource hog! These characteristics of this operating system really slows down machines running it. This is because there are a lot of things running into it, or shall I say it is carrying too much gadgets to do a job, making it confused and too heavy to move on.

You may tell me to add it's RAM, which is a good suggestion, but what if the RAM slot is already occupied, and removing the RAM will only waste the RAM being replaced. And what if you do not really know how to add a RAM and if you are an "ilocano" "nakirmet" like me, do not want to spend another penny to make my Vista laptop running faster? Is there a way?

DIAGNOSIS

Like any disease, you need to know if your Vista PC is not managing it's RAM properly. While you are at the symtoms of a stuck up program or your browser stopped responding  or  you think your machine's performance is slowing down, hit ctrl-alt-delete buttons simultaneously, then click start task manager. Click the performance tab then the  resource monitor and look at the memory section if there are HARDFAULTS in it. Before I tweaked the setting in my laptop I can see up to 100 hardfaults a second in it. This means that the application I am using at the moment, overwhelms my physical memory.(click on the screenshots to make it bigger)

Technicians will tell you to increase your RAM when they will see that there are HARDFAULTS, but wait, you can tweak your system to save on RAM usage.

PRACTICAL SOLUTION

To make it faster and to save on RAM usage, we need to tell Windows to just show us the basic appearance on screen, as the enhanced display of anything that  you see on your screen means an enhanced RAM usage as well. To do this, you need to access SYSTEM, by clicking START, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, then ADVANCE SYSTEM SETTINGS

Under the SYSTEM PROPERTIES click ADVANCED and under PERFORMANCE click SETTINGS, then under VISUAL EFFECTS click, ADJUST FOR BEST PERFORMANCE. Then you're done tweaking your visual effect. This will dramatically improve the speed of your computer after restart. But do not restart yet. We also need to make sure your virtual memory is enough. I usually allocate a gigabyte more than my physical RAM. Of course if you have enough on your hard disk. So be sure to clear up and maintain at least 5GB of free disk space . My physical RAM is 2GB, so I set Virtual Memory to 3GB. I put 3333MB here because it is easier to type than 3000!LOL!

Then restart, you might notice the change of your desktop appearance but if you ask me, performance is first than appearance!  Hope this helps, share it to your FB wall using the share button on your left!

MORE SPEED UP VIDEOS:

iPAD and iPAD Things

iPAD on EBAY

The featured sellers on this feed are power sellers only, which means from the most trusted eBAYER's only.

News Widgets & Tickers
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Facebook Chat for iPAD

The facebook apps in iPAD has no chat, and even when you use safari, it will not give you the chat facebook utility. The shortcut,  

http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php

where the chat utility is, can give you the page but it does not let me log in even how much I tried using the iPAD.

Is there a solution? Can I facebook chat in an iPAD? The answer is yes and it won't cost you anything. Although there is a premium version, the free and basic version brings this as well. The name of the apps is "friendly for facebook". Download and install, and enjoy chatting with your iPAD.

Steps and Screenshots. (just click on the photos for bigger picture)

1. Go to Apps Store and type in friendly for facebook

2. Install the free version and click the icon at the home menu.

3. The log in interface!

4. The facebook chat interface!

5. Your online friends!

6. The browser interface and the location of the chat button!

Video for friendly:

Do you have difficulties using this app on your iPAD? Another alternative that can give you chat function is featured at 

http://prakticality.blogspot.com/2011/10/facebook-chat-for-ipad-update.html

Funny Free Smartphone Apps

As my kids download and install apps in my phone and I kept on deleting them. Then I tried one application that made me laugh. It's a good one, at least for me, for fun, and realise how much the apps word has developed. Apps like this is worth at least £20 or more on a PC based machine many years ago. Now they are free, everywhere and easy, straightforward to use.

Talking tom is a good start, in it's developer's site, about 3 are free and there are dozens of other apps if you want to upgrade, meaning to pay! I use the free one because I might run out of idea on where and what's for aside from having a laugh!

And it's not only for iPhone, it's for android phones as well! Just search talking tom in your smartphone's market place or itunes in iPhone!

Samples below!

iPAD does not charge and does not turn on!

ACCESORIZE YOUR IPAD HERE!
iPAD Cases
iPAD Screen Protectors
iPAD Camera Connection Kit
iPAD Stylus
iPAD Chargers and Docks
iPAD Accessory Bundles

One afternoon, I was online with my wife's iPAD and noticed that the battery is at 14% life. The phone rang and answered the phone. When I went back to the iPAD, the screen went black and pressing the home and even the power button does not help. My suspect was, the battery is already drained. So I plug it in with the wall charge but the usual apple logo does not splash out from the screen. I tried another USB cable but the same thing happened. Nothing and the screen is blank!

Then it was time to send the wife to work, so I plugged it in another socket and leave it there until I arrived back home about an hour later. I checked it and there was no sign of life still. I tried to connect to the Mac and fired up iTunes, nothing happened. The screen was blank and the program does not detect the device.

Worried, I took it off the Mac and plug it in at the mains socket again. While it is still plugged it, I pressed the home and power button for at least 2 to 3 minutes, then to my delight I saw the apple logo splashed out! The battery was still at 14%, that means, it was not charged when I left it plugged in for an hour, then I saw the plug icon near the battery, it is now charging.

 I do not know what really happened and this puzzled me until this time, but this was the thing I did, to this kind of iPAD problem! I did not run across the same problem again so far.

V I D E O

How to reset your iPAD

22 September 2011

I have a call from my friend having a problem with his iPhone4. He said he fell asleep and when he woke up his iPhone is blank, he cannot turn it on, he can not charge it and doesn't do anything.

I told him to plug in to the mains,  press the home button and power button at the same time until the logo appears. If  the logo doesn't appear in 5 minutes, release both fingers and press the power button until logo appears. If the logo at this point does not appear, call customer service.

He did what he is told and after the first instruction, it is sorted just by  pressing the home and power button at the same time until logo appears while it is connected into the mains. It didn't took 2 minutes for the logo to appear, but there are some instances that it takes more than 2 minutes.

Why connected into the mains? Just in case it is drained! I encountered mobile phones that seem like dead and do not charge when the battery is drained for sometime. They take time before the charging light comes on!


25 October 2011

At a birthday party, the host's husband was worried on his iPhone4, presenting the same problem, blank screen, can't be charged and no light turned on when plugged in. A dead iPhone 4. With the same solution, pressing the home and power botton for sometime until the apple logo shows, was the trick!

How to speed up your Windows based PC and Laptop at start up.

Have you noticed that your PC or laptop crawls on starting up? It is no longer the quick and speedy machine you've bought 1 or 2 years ago. Have you noticed programs popping up and starting up when you turn on your device?  Like software updater, yahoo messenger, skype, etc. etc.

What happens is once you've started your device and has finished loading windows, it starts to load the programs that are configured to start when windows starts. It is like a formed  "habit" which we do bundled in a certain task.

When we install programs from an internet download or from a disc, most often is we miss the part asking us whether we like to run the program at the start up, and just click OK, without knowing that we have already given the installation the permission to run the program at start up. .


The good news is, users can control what starts when windows starts.

To tweak the startup programs, you need to go to msconfig utility.

For XP users
click Start , Run, type in the box     msconfig

For Vista users
click Logo, type in the box       msconfig

For Windows 7
click Start, Search Programs and files, type in the box      msconfig

When at msconfig, click startup

As you can see, these programs are all checked, and this means they are all loaded when windows starts up.

Now I would uncheck all program files I do not want, especially those with C:\Program Files address, as they can be started when you need them by going to program files. I would not touch  those with C:\PROGRA~, C:\WINDOWS entries, as windows need them.

 

You could see I unchecked the MP3 Rocket as well even though it is a C:\PROGRA~ , because I downloaded it myself, and I know that even without the program running at the start up, my computer still works  fine.


Click apply and restart your computer to take effect. If your computer has an administrator account, be sure to log in to the administrator account before doing this.


As there are a lot of things that make a computer slow, or even stops responding like virus infections, hardware failures, etc etc., this is the most common symptom I encountered and easiest to solve. I know everyone who manages to create an email can do this simple trick, do not rely much on the technicians as some of them  are more interested with your wallet and I will be surprised if they will talk you through  what they will be doing.