Elmo’s Blogblogan!

Where’s the grouper review? Sorry guys, since grouper file sharing is still in beta, I had encountered several bugs that makes me annoyed. It is slow but quite intuitive enough that can can lure anyone to use this application. I had explored the most part and functions of the software. For the mean time, I’ll wait for the final release, use it and then create a full review of it.

Tips for Designing Your Profile

The following tips are based on my design approach and opinions on how to effectively design your Friendster profile.

For proof of my Friendster designs, click here.
For the Friendster CSS Editor, click here.

Tip #1 : Sketch and Plan. Before you type your CSS codes or use the CSS editor in cuban council, make sure to have at least a sketch of your design plan on a piece of paper. That way, you can organize and plan what kind of theme you want to put on your Friendster profile. As well as graphics, videos, music to put on your profile.

for example: If your theme is kinda "anime" like naruto, normally you could sketch some details that the wallpaper you’re using will be related to naruto. Possibly, the text and background colors and pictures are related to your theme.

Tip #2 : Choosing your Wallpaper. Did you know that wallpapers are one of the reason why most profiles are slow to load if not well planned? Majority of Friendster users just link the wallpapers they find on the Internet and some upload them to a hosting site not knowing how large the file size of it. Yes, it is important that you know it’s file size of your wallpaper. Also the resolution of it.

Majority of Friendster users have a default resolution of 1024×768 on their monitors at home or at the cybercafes and Internet shops. So, typically, you select a wallpaper which has a size of 1024×768 so that the contents of the wallpaper will be shown on your profile and for those Friendster users with the same resolution as yours. If you want someone with a 1152×864 or more to view  your background wallpaper, then it’s up to you if you want to enlarge your wallpaper using an image editor. Make sure that the contents of your wallpaper you intend to show to others can be easily be viewed by users with a 1024×768 resolution.

Another thing is the wallpaper’s file size. Make sure that your file size is let say not more than 50 kilobytes (that may took about 5 seconds to load on a 56kbps dial up speed). You can reduce your file size by using again your image editor.

Typical problems with larger file is it takes a longer time to load your wallpaper for those who use dial-up. That may create a negative impression for users who view your profile.

Tip #3: Text. You want your information on your profile to be easily readable by all? Then selecting the right colors and fonts can play a major role to an effective profile readability.

Example: If your background wallpaper is dark in color or dimmed, then you must color your text lighter in color like white, yellow… it’s up to you so that so that the text can be easily read. Same thing goes for lighter colored wallpaper, you must use dark colored for your text.

Some wallpapers contain different colors, brightness and contrast so picking up the right colors for your text can be a little bit difficult. A great way to solve that is to edit your wallpaper, increase/decrease it’s brightness and contrast so that colors can be equalized.

Tip #4: Graphics. Friendster CSS editor is not yet capable of putting a graphic image onto some of the parts of the Friendster profile. But if you are an experienced CSS programmer then you know how.

My only tip is that you use .gif image files so that users with a slower bandwidth can easily see your graphics. Also .gif supports transparency unlike other formats but .png also supports it but I haven’t tried it yet.

Tip #5: Putting Music, Videos and Flash Elements. It attracts someone if your profile has at least one of these. These could entertain your profile visitors as they read your profile. But inappropriately putting them can cause havoc in your profile.

Videos. Videos are fun, you can watch music videos on your friends profile. But it has it’s side effects. Not all can watch your video on your profile. Those users that have a faster Internet connection can and will. Sorry for the dial-ups because it could last forever to finish the video streaming. Also, it can cause your profile to load slowly if someone with a 56kbps download speed tried to view your page.

Music. You can put music into your profile by embedding a plug in. Usually the most popular is the Windows Media Player plug in. It can play many types of audio files. Again, if you want those users with a new Internet connection to hear your music, you must convert your audio files let say down to 64kbps and the format is ACC. That way, even if you convert your 192kbps MP3 to 64kbps AAC, it will still sound fine.

Flash. You can do almost anything in Flash. You can create an Mp3 player, video player, animations. But as I said awhile ago, having your flash files low in file size will make those dial up users happy.

NOTE: Friendster had stripped some CSS codes. Meaning the following codes below will not take effect.

• #logo - you cannot remove the Friendster logo

• display

• position - you cannot re-arrange the elements

• <iframe></iframe> - damn

• attributes and selectors for ads - duh

My profile as of the last week of October 2005.

Tune in for my next upcoming software review here at Elmo’s Blogblogan. This time, I will review the new file sharing application of Friendster named "Grouper" that let’s you share files, videos, music. Then test it on my slower PC and run it, push it to the limit and find if there is a bug hidden in this beta release.

Standby or Hibernate?

November is fast approaching and before October ends, I think I should post some useful tips for those Windows patriots out there. I’m kinda busy these past week tweaking my friendster profile and creating graphic designs. So, here goes.

Standby and Hibernate are one of the Power Management tool from Windows. In windows XP, you could find it on the Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options. This tool is great especially on laptop users who wants to extend the battery life.

Standy - Setting your Windows PC into standby mode can save you power. Once in standby, the PC uses low power, turning off your monitor and hard disks. You can use it if you leave your PC unattended for let say for an hour or two. Then come back again to see what open programs you left before standby. The great thing about this is that you can switch to standby mode and go back again much faster than shutting down the PC.

Hibernate -  These setting is kinda hidden and not all windows users know about hibernate and what function they do. The difference of Hibernate from Standby is that the current state of your PC is saved onto the hard drvive. So if you put your PC into hibernate, it saves into the hard drive and shuts down the PC completely. When you’re ready to use again your PC, you turn on the power and for a short period of time (faster than normal startup) you can automatically see where you have left. Although the startup time of hibernation is kinda slower than standby, you can hibernate your PC for days and that won’t hurt your PC.

For me, the best is to put your PC into hibernate. Whether you use desktop PC or laptop, it can save you electricity. Based on my experience, I tested my 500Mhz PC with 192MB of RAM to set into hibernate mode. It’s fast enough to initiate the hibernation and turn off the PC. Also, when I turn on the PC from hibernation, it took less than 2 minutes for me to use again my PC, with Firewall, antivirus and all necessary drivers and services running instantly.

Winamp 5.11

Winamp is one of the most successful mp3 players on the internet. From it’s basic functions to play music and videos, they added streaming videos and music and compatible with any type of connection you have. Just select the speed of your internet connection and viola, you can listen to hundreds of live radio stations around the globe.

The new version which debut last October 21, 2005 includes some chnges:

* Updated: LAME 3.96.1
* Fixed: playlist focus issue after adding files to playlist
* Fixed: crash on multichannel songs with EQ enabled
* Fixed: internet connection detection not working when set to "dial-up"
* Fixed: manual playlist advance with winamp videos
* Fixed: EQ text display glitch
* Fixed: video not filling up video window
* Fixed: black bars in fullscreen video
* Fixed: [gen_ml] crash with no write access
* Fixed: [gen_ml] CDDB Dialog Media Library drawing glitch
* Fixed: [in_dshow] seeking on files with no video or no audio
* Fixed: [in_cdda] aspi ripping crash
* Fixed: [ml_wire] "my music" folder creation
* Fixed: [ml_wire] Podcasts with dates before 1970 handled properly
* Fixed: [ml_wire] Downloading of podcasts with parameters in URL
* Fixed: [out_ds] fade-on-seek settings
* Fixed: [in_wm] pause glitch
* Fixed: [in_mp4] view-file-info filename not scrolling
* Coming Soon: Multi-user profile support (preliminary support enabled)

get it now. Winamp 5.11

BBQ on a Stick:  Grilled marinated meat on bamboo skewers

Ahh, kaya pala. BBQ is one of my favorite.

Take the quiz and find out which kind of Filipino food are you. Click here.

To: suggestions@friendster.com

Dear Friendster Management,

Hi

It’s a bit alarming for me as a Friendster user to experience massive slowdowns on your site. There are times that even the log-in page is crippling just to load it’s graphics. Especially at noon here in the Philippines where I think most are connected. When you launched your new make-over, the response of your site slowed a little more. I know that you are the world’s famous and biggest online community site, having 19+ millions of registered users worldwide. But I think it is a bad impression for those who use Friendster and wait for minutes even on broadband to access a friend’s page and compose a message.

I also heard from some bloggers around the world saying that we are to blame, Filipino Friendster users to be specific. Friendster was a really BIG HIT here in our country. For teenagers, it was some kind of an addiction that swept the country like a plague. Also, we are truly thankful for launching your mobile service for the first time here in the Philippines.

I don’t have enough proof that the cause of the problems came from our country. But if that is the case, would it be possible for your team to set-up a Friendster server here in the Philippines? I’m not good in these field but I think that would isolate the traffic from other countries. Then interconnect them via a high speed line. It’s that feasible for your company?

I know you could spend a lot of money for doing that. But look at the brighter side. I mean setting up here is just like starting up anew, and then grow from the support of ads from the Philippines, mobile services, and payments from user’s who upgrade their accounts. Besides, hiring people here to maintain servers and to manage your services is less than half the U.S. wages.

That’s all and more power!
Friendster ROCKS!

JPaul