Quick update for Daily Top 10 Posts plugin users who recently switched to Wordpress 2.7. Thanks to those who gave me the heads-up about the error that looks like a big zit in the stylish new version 2.7 dashboard. I have nipped the error accordingly and everything is beautiful again.

For users of Wordpress 2.6 and below, please continue to use the previous version (0.4) or your dashboard will break.

Thanks.

Daily Top 10 Posts v0.5 for Wordpress 2.7
Daily Top 10 Posts v0.4 for Wordpress 2.6 and below

I apologize for the long absence! Busy, busy month! Anyway, I wanted to share with you that an auto-suggest feature has launched for Google Philippines, as well as for Google Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Go Southeast Asia!

Here’s a sampling:

Whoa, people are actually searching for my name! (hehe)

My friend RJ asked me a while ago if I knew of a restaurant in Manila that delivers and accepts payments through Paypal. He said Max’s Restaurant did, but him and his friend didn’t feel like eating chicken tonight. I asked my friends on Plurk if they knew of any. Gail pointed out something odd about Max’s online delivery. In their Conditions of Use page, it states that you must make your order 3 days in advance. But notice the banner on top where it says “We Deliver the Max’s Experience in 30 mins”. Hmmm. Isn’t that strange? Read Full Entry

Back at Ratified.org, I noticed a handful of blogs whose Feedburner statistics have stopped updating. I looked into it and saw that all of their feeds have switched to a somewhat peculiar URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/xxxxxxx. Because of that, their Awareness API, the place where Ratified.org grabs all the feed statistics, are no longer working. For a while that forced me to manually update their subscriber numbers, which is a bit frustrating on my end, because I try to keep Ratified.org as fresh as possible. Doing this everyday is simply not going to be feasible.
Read Full Entry

Google now features metadata crawled from forums and discussion sites in its search results. These include the number of posts from the target page, the number of authors, and the date of last post.

Here’s a sample result I get when searching for Windows Vista Problems:

Read Full Entry

With approximately 6.7 billion humans inhabiting the Earth today and as I think of the global warming hoopla it’s apparent that dry space here on our planet is running thin. Land reclamation is an option but that can only go so far. At the rate that our seas are rising, more drastic steps must ensure the survival of our species. The recent advances in space exploration has kept my hopes up that perhaps terraforming can eventually solve that problem.
Read Full Entry

Today my Wordpress plugin, Daily Top 10 Posts, won during the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards for best blog plugin/extension. Initially I was glad to hear that I made it as one of the finalists, as did Ria and Winston, who got multiple noms for their nicely written blogs. But ultimately it was meaningful for us because we are very good friends who all hail from Davao City and in a sense we are representing the often overlooked Mindanao region. In total we received seven nominations, which was awesome. We won two. Winston bagged the coveted Bloggers Choice Award and a Nokia N95 to boot.
Read Full Entry

I’ve known Winston long enough to conclude that his moniker “Batang Yagit” is, how do I say it, a big fat lie? What with his constant jetsetting, impressive gadgetry and scruffy good looks, who would dare believe him? But that’s not to take away the fact that Winston is an overall nice guy. Always a pleasure to be with and a good sport whenever he’s the butt of jokes. My BFF Jehz is Winston’s campaign manager to win the Blogger’s Choice Award for this year’s Philippine Blog Awards. Actually, I didn’t need convincing to vote for him. I *used* to be Winston’s campaign manager for Paolo Mendoza’s Pinoy Evil Blog Awards last year, where he astoundingly won the Boy Bastos Writing Award. Looks like Winston is headed for another landslide victory. And I’m glad to be part of it.

Admittedly, I’m not the gadgets-savvy person I used to be. All these brands pumping out high-tech thingamabobs almost every week has left me dazed and confused (and I reckon you too). So I heard that, for the nth time, Apple has come up with, literally, a rainbow of new iPod Nanos. These skittle babies put my old worn out first-gen iPod Nano to shame. Not only can they hold up to 4,000 songs, they can play videos too! See, just saying that proves how bad it is.

I’m mulling over either getting this or an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is a veritable feast for the eyes isn’t it? Also helps that it’s available here in Davao City. But it costs 80 bucks more than the Nano. I know, why not the iPod classic? Honestly, I don’t need that much memory (120 g’s) and it costs even more than the Touch.

Help me out will ya?

Oh, and check out this cool Apple logo:

Matt and Me

The idea of organizing an event such as Wordcamp is something that would never cross my mind. But being in the almost constant company of a guy named Blogie Robillo, wacky thoughts are inevitable. He gathered the Usual Suspects - Me, Ria, Migs, Winston and said hey, we’re doing Wordcamp! Faster than we can say “Whoa, wait a minute!”, we already had our individual assignments. We only had 4 months to pull it off. I swear I didn’t think we could make it.

Fast-forward to September. Preparations are going crazy. Fortunately, at this point, I only had a slightly minor part in it. My job started way way back when I was tasked to make the event “look good”. That means designing the logo, shirts, collaterals, badges and banners. It’s not the easiest job in the world, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My years at Pratt are paying off! Okay, I also had the distinction of being the official Wordcamp chauffeur. Had it not for Manila’s horrible traffic, I would have thanked the MMDA and my driving school as well.

Wordcamp Badge

Wordcamp Shirts

Here ye, here ye! A *major* update for the Daily Top 10 Posts plugin for Wordpress! Since version 2.5 I’ve received reports that the plugin breaks the admin panel, amongst several other compatibility issues. I addressed all of these in the newest version. Here’s a rundown of new features:

1. Compatible with the latest version of Wordpress (2.61)
2. Widgets-ready!
3. Bug that distorts the admin panel corrected
4. Added a widget in “Right Now” that tells you the most popular blog post so far
5. Added a dashboard widget that lets you keep track of the 10 most popular blog posts
6. Updated some code in the instructions to prevent blog from breaking should the plugin be deactivated

Click here to go to the plugin page.

Let me know if you’re having problems! Thanks and enjoy!

Words cannot express how much I love this commercial. Being a Discovery channel nerd, I sometimes would leave my TV on the same channel so I can watch the commercial over and over again. Of course the need for that stopped when people began posting it on Youtube. Read Full Entry

I have resigned to the fact that I never win anything. I mean like the type of “win” where my name is picked out from a hundred or a thousand other names. To my surprise, lady luck stopped playing hard-to-get on me at the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008 awards night! To think, I wasn’t even there! I’d like to thank Janette Toral for all the hard work she’s put into helping our local blogosphere get the recognition that it deserves. I know that I haven’t been the best of bloggers, but it does feel great to be part of such a vibrant community. I also want to congratulate my good friend Aileen for You Got Tech’s win last night, as well as Fritz, Blogie, AJ and the young people behind Manila Foodistas.

I’d like to take this opportunity to plug another blogging event, Wordcamp Philippines, which I’m helping organize. Wordcamp will be held on September 6, 2008 at the College of St. Benilde on Taft Avenue. Registration is closed, but let me remind the ones who signed up that you have to blog about the event and include the links to the sponsors to be able to join. The t-shirts are already being produced. Thanks to those who preordered. They’re gonna be awesome!

Lastly, I thank random.org for helping me beat the odds! They’re the main reason why I’m $100 richer. Monies, I haz you!

Yes folks, a “mini” Wordcamp will be held in Davao City, Philippines before the official event on September 6, 2008. That means bloggers from the South who can’t quite make it to Manila can still meet Matt Mullenweg in the flesh in Davao City! Cool eh?

Wordcamp Davao will held on Thursday, September 4, 2008, 6-10pm. We have yet to thresh out the details regarding the venue and program. Watch out for that soon. So what are you waiting for? Rub elbows with the Southern Blogosphere’s finest, free food and drinks in tow! Register now!

After much careful perusal of the Internet, here are my nominees for Janette Toral’s Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008:

You Got Tech - The tech blog for non-techies.

Bloggers Da Who - The blind item blog that I hope I’ll never be featured on.

Rarely Ordered - Food blog about overlooked menu items. Very interesting concept by a group of startup bloggers.

Fritzified - Because he’s Fritz.

Manila Foodistas - Great pictures and impeccable writing about food. A must-read.

Pass the Sauce - Phoebe talks about food and her experiences as a culinary student.

Chefie’s World - Ok, another one about food. This time by acclaimed Chef Junjun de Guzman. Learn from his cooking adventures here and abroad.

Work With Ria - The blog of my cousin Ria, jill of all trades.

Migs Mobile - My good friend Migs Hipolito’s blog on everything mobile.

Digital Puto - Winston Almendras’ photo blog. Pretty good shots but pale in comparison to mine. Haha.

EDIT: I didn’t notice I listed eleven blogs. I will sacrifice my photo blog then. -_-

Davao Photo - My photo blog.