Clearing ALL Contacts in Blackberry

Well, after many attempt of trying to sync contact wirelessly between my Laptop, Blackberry, Galaxy Tab, (and google and yahoo), I end up with double my contact entry (each about 4500 contacts), one from yahoo and one from google. (long story, not relevant right now)

I have decided that Google is "it". so I am going to synch all my clean-ed up contact in outlook, to Blackberry and Google, then let that sync to my Android.

Now its time to wipe them out. and end up with only 1 entry per contact.

1. Connect your device to your computer
2. Open the Blackberry Desktop Manager software
3. Click on Device menu on top
4. Click on Delete data...
5 Choose Selected Data
6 Choose "Address Book" and Address Book - All"
7. For safety, choose also (optionally)
8. Now with “Address Book” highlighted hit the Clear button

This will clear all the contact from the device.

Cheers,

D

URL Shortener with Tracker

OK, next on things to learn to use on the web is the URL Shortener with Tracker.

An absolute essential service for the internet professional.

For now, this is just a place holder on articles I found useful on the subject. The two articles that ranks the various services are (as of October 2011):

- http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/01/11-best-url-shortening-services-vote-your-favorite/

which suggest that the top service is cli.gs. However, that service refuse to allow me to create a login just now.

- http://techpp.com/2009/04/12/top-5-url-shorteners-track-analyze-links-statistics/

which suggested that tr.im is the best, but bit.ly is what the author actually uses.

The feature lists to lookout for are:

SHORTENING FEATURES
- short URL
- re-type-able URL (http://bit.ly/oExwOi is not re-type-able, but http://cli.gs/tn70wv is, note: no CAPS)
- custom URL (you can explicitly ask for http://cli.gs/indomog)
- integration with your favorite twitter client

TRACKING FEATURES
- Aggregrate tracking summary
- Instance-by-instance
- Country of Origin
- Browser Spec
- Referrer URL
- Private statistic (statistic is only view-able by creator of URL)
- Public statistic (statistic is accessible by all)

How to Lock Screen Orientation in Samsung Galaxy Tab

A month ago, I discovered how to lock the screen orientation on my Samsung Galaxy Tab. I then locked my screen on potrait mode... and forgot how to do this... :(

After various searches on the web, I finally rediscovered how to undo this. So I'll post it here so I won't forget.

I think this is somewhat device dependent.

In a Galaxy Tab, from just about any screen, you "pull down" the notification screen, and up there on the top right you'll see, "orientation lock" (either in color (On), or gray-ed out (Off)). Tap it. and you're locked.

See this URL for a Youtube demo http://bit.ly/oAC16U

But in another Youtube http://bit.ly/oExwOi, it shows that on an O2, its different, maybe an older Android OS. It is in SETTING -> Display -> Orientation. I'd say this is a more sensible place.

(This is part of my answer to this androidforum article.

How to install Google Maps 5.8 in Samsung Galaxy Tab (and get offline Map)

I got my Galaxy Tab last week, and about to head off to Australia for some vacation. Of course, I will be renting a car and driving. Of course, I don't want to pay an extra $10 per day for GPS. after all, I got one in my Tab, right? right?

Well.... Kinda... Yes the Google Map work as such, but you can't use it when you're offline, and who wants to pay the data charge of downloading all those maps as you roam Sydney. There got to be a better way.

I have downloaded all kinds of maps, ... to name a few. But none quite get it there.

Then I learn that the new Google Map 5.x has a "Lab" feature for offline caching of 10 mile radius. That will do it.

Sadly, My Galaxy Tab doesn't come with Google Map 5.x. It doesn't show on my android market, and everywhere I go on the official update sites, it says it can't find the update.

Fortunately, someone "cache" all the Google Map versions, and that's what I finally use.

So if you have a Galaxy Tab (7" variety) and want to add Google Map 5.8 (or more) please go to this URL:

http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/google-maps

and just pick and load the Google Map you want. You will be warned that you're replacing a system app, but I did it, and so far so good.

Incidentally, one 10 mile radius (20 mile x 20 mile box, actually) is enough for downtown Jakarta, and the entire island of Singapore.

Thanks.

Donald

Free Site Monitoring Tools

The straw that breaks the camel's back is the outage of my Firstmedia FastNET Cable Broadband at home. Again. Second time this month.

And I get the usual runaround about "Yes, we'll get our customer support engineer to monitor this and call you". Such bullshit. So, the second time this month, I use the threatening line "If this is not up, I am not paying for the downtime". Yeah, sure, she said, you can call our customer service to get that arranged.

But you know, i have never done that, even with the 1 week outage a few months ago. Cuz, I have no data. (as in, I can't even remember when was the outage. and I have no easily accessible record of when that happened.)

So this time around, I will get data.

I will get a site monitoring tool. I will monitor my home router, and if it ever went down, I will email me.

I don't really delete email. I have 15 years worth of email in my backup files. the last 5 years is in my computer, actively indexed for fast searches. Thats just me.

So if it is emailed to me, I can find it.

Now this have to be a free monitoring tool, of course. And I can use the finding to set up the web monitoring of my own company website. Two birds with one stone.

STEP 0a - Register for a free Dynamic DNS address so that you can monitor the ever-changing IP address of your broadband. I use dyndns.org. I have done this long time ago, so this part is set up for me.

SET 0b - Get a home router with dynamic dns option. I use Linksys WRT54G and a DLINK DL-524. Detail on this later.

STEP 2 - Choose a free site monitoring tool:

The first one I found is SYSOJO. Which advertise itself on google. Looks very powerful. It monitors website (HTML), MySQL, and even PING. As I am looking for Ping monitoring, its good enough.

For free, I can set it to ping my home router every 10 minutes, and on 3 consecutive failures, email me. The 3 consecutive failure is important, it is inevitable that at some time

The second I will try is from the recommendations of WebDistortion. It recommends 5 "best uptime monitoring tool".

This will be an ongoing post...

What features should I compare?

The Second Internet

Wow, this is big. and so true!

I gotta rethink Indomog's position and strategy with this in mind. Social Network... Social network payment collection? Social network game recommendation (nope, that's been done)? Integrate payment to social network? ride koprol's inter user payment... hmm... possible...

The Second Internet

View more documents from Lou Kerner.

TechCrunch - Why Startups Need to Blog

Going though my tweets of the day, I noticed this aptly titled article in TechCruch by Mark Suster


Wow, finally, what I've been looking for. A how-to (and what-for) guide about blogging for a highly competitive industy, where "loose lips sink ships", along with all the must-have toolkits to put up in your blog. (I guess its upgrade time for this old blog. We'll see over the next few weeks).

Cool gadget aside, though, the issue about what to talk about is what's been worrying me about blogging. Yes, I'd like to share ideas with my fellow industry enthusiasts, but not to jeopardize my own companies.

Mark suggested to blog about the industry. Hmm.. somewhat save. There are lots of miscommunication and wrong informations about technology, especially internet, in Indonesia. I guess sharing my research on these (and get corrections) isn't too dangerous.

Social Commerce Platform 8thBridge Raises $10 Million

Social Commerce Platform? Wow, but of course, people are selling through Facebook. Why not. Gotta keep track of this one.

Can do quick checkout from News feed - Check
Sell from Fan Page - Check

Indomog's own facebook store must be lame in comparison :( Well, I slap dash that one in two weeks, so what do you expect. Oh, well, next month, maybe...

Eduardo and Jumio

An article really pique my interest today: Eduardo Saverin (lead a team to) invests $6.5m in Jumio, A MOBILE AND INTERNET PAYMENT GATEWAY... What! Where? How?

What is this Jumio? Where does it operates? How is it different than Paypal, or more importantly, than my Indomog?

I searched (oops, I meant googled), I dug, nothing. Except a Forbes article saying, that yes, there are nothing to find yet. I guess we just have to wait and see.

I found somehing interesting in Jumio's blog, though. A listing of all the different flavors of online payments.

This is what I need to work my head around for the moment. What's the space, what's its margins, who are willing to pay for what, and how will I make money.

Indomog (www.indomog.com) handles payment for digital goods (online games). We make money from the margin between what discount the publisher gave us and the fee I have to pay for my 2000+ resellers (and advertising costs, operationg costs, etc etc). And for that I need good margins.

The ecommerce players wants to use our service. and why not, we may have indonesia's widest cash in distribution network outside of a bank (that is not affiliated with a telco). But they balked at anything above 3-4%. After all, the credit cards only charge them 2.5%. And we are smaller, right, so we should be cheaper? (what kind of reasoning is that)

But it costs a lot of money to get the cash into the system. and a lot to get it out. On the other hand, it costs (almost) nothing to move the cash around IN the system. hmm....

Would someone use the system for just P2P? to transfer credit between each other? I guess if eventually one of the "P" is a very desirable merchant, that will work. We have 79 games including Zynga now, so that can be one, Mobile Phone pulsa is another, Facebook credit next month, Then Google's (and SITTI's),

Will that be enough? ... I wonder...

How to backup your Blackberry's Contact

This is for all my friends

You've heard your friend's Blackberry crashed, and he/she has begged you to resend your contact details. You pray it will never happen to you. Well, guess what. Most likely, it will, and it will happened in the most unfortunate time.

If you're lucky enough (like all of you PMG guys :) and you use BES (and pay an arm an a leg every month for it) oh well, you're covered. just call helpdesk and tell them to reactivate your bb.

If not, then you better backup your blackberry. and yes, do it now. RIGHT NOW. please!

You got two options.

If you still have your original blackberry CD, that cd contains the Blackberry Desktop Manager. Use that. it will backup everything. Contacts, Applications, the works.

And Its easy enought to use, So... I won't be covering that today.

For a quick alternative, use Google Synch.

This will only backup your contacts. But well, for a free solution, its not bad.

Step 1

Get a Gmail account: http://www.gmail.com

Step 2

Install Google Mobile App: http://www.google.com/mobile/synch

PS. you should do this while you're on the fastest internet connection possible: 3G or even WIFI if possible. I won't cover how to connect to WIFI on your BB, but if you need to know, just ask me.

1. Open your Internet Browser on your BB

2. goto http://www.google.com/mobile/synch

3. Choose "SYNC" in one of the list shown (bukan Google Mobile App)

4. Choose "Install This"

5. Choose "Download" and wait for your application to download

6. Once downloaded, choose "Run"

7. Enter your gmail Email and Password and click "Sign In"

8. Read the Welcome screen, and Click "Configure Synch".

9. Configure these options:
- When to Synch: Automatic
- [X] Sync Contacts
- [ ] Synch Calendar (unless you do want to save your calendar)

10. Click the [BB] (menu) button and choose "Save"

11. it will show when was the last successful sync

12. Now find a quiet spot with good internet connection where you can be there for hours. Maybe you should wait till you're at home at night with your BB plugged in

13. Click the [BB] (menu) button and choose "Sync Now"

14. and wait.

This will backup your entire contact to your Gmail account. and keep them synchronized.

If and when your BB crashed. you just reset it (or even buy a new BB), and then install the Google Sync again. following these same steps will recover you all your contacts.

Donald