Rainy Monday App of the Day: iTyphoon

Due to the recent storm flooding in the Philippines, I'm posting a very helpful app that allows you to track incoming LPA (low pressure areas) and storms.

iTyphoon has a great interface showing both the weather report as well as a tracking map with the current and predicted path of the storm. iTyphoon is available for free on both Android and iOS. Head on over to Google Play for the Android version, and the App Store for the iOS version!

Typhoon2000.ph on the other hand, is a private website that consolidates links and reports from various weather sites and sources in one place. For more detailed reports, and satellite images, this is the place to visit.

Typhoon Sendong : PH ALERT

The recent typhoon "Sendong" in the southern Philippines left hundreds dead and even more homeless.  The Philippine Red Cross is accepting donations to help all the victims and rebuild the city.

For those who want to help and donate, click on the link to go to the PRC site.

Philippine Red Cross - Donate Now

Power Up!

It's storm season here in the Philippines.  Growing up, I got used to having intermittent power.  Not to mention the noise, and lack of proper grounding.  Because of this, I want to share with people the importance of a UPS, or Uninterrupted Power Supply.

Most companies invest in them to protect valuable data.  They give you the extra minutes needed to save your work and shut down your computer properly.  Most home users don't feel the need to have them, but I beg to disagree.

Power outages can seriously damage modern electronic devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, and laptops while they are plugged in to be charged.  For desktops, they can (and usually will) fry your system, specially if there's a lightning storm.

The fluctuations in the electricity may not be noticeable, nor will they affect larger electrical appliances, but electronics are far more sensitive.  Not to mention, those annoying power adapters that charge your devices are not meant to be subjected to short power outages.  Most power adapters will be destroyed if a power outage is shorter than 5 seconds.

With that, I'd like to give my personal recommendation of APC products.  I've tried some of the generic ones but for the little price difference, they're really not worth it.  APC has a product for almost everyone.  Their basic system is what most home users would need.  A basic 500VA UPS, it provides about 10 minutes of back-up power for your home computer.  Enough time to save your files and shut down your system.

Built-in surge and lightning protection round up the benefits.

The more advanced systems offer telephone and LAN filters as well (LAN power spikes can damage your routers and DSL modems) as well as extended power, and automatic shut down.

I have a couple of these at home.  One to power my desktop and laptop, and the other to provide last minute charging for my mobile phone and other electronics (for small devices, a 500VA UPS can fully charge your mobile phone and iPod... it will give you about 1/3 charge for an iPad)

MY PHONE IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can imagine my horror this afternoon as I was charging my phone, when it suddenly switched off. I pressed the power button, it vibrated but the screen wouldn't light up... crap... this happened to my P1i before, and the boot ROM needed to be reflashed... crap. Not a big deal but that would mean that I would still have to go to the SonyEricsson Service Center in Glorietta.

So I went to Glorietta and the guy checked my phone with my SIM, he confirmed that the phone needed to be reflashed, and this has happened to a few models before... not a big deal, I could've waited for it if it wasn't closing time.

He kept trying to restart the phone however, in the hope that maybe it was just a software bug or something. So I was ready to leave my phone with them, I got my SIM back and placed it in my old phone. He said he'd try to restart it one more time, but since I didn't want to take my SIM out again, he got out one of his dead SIMs... and oddly enough... my phone switched on. So I placed my SIM back... and my phone wouldn't turn on again. Take note, my SIM never stopped working on any other phone... just my new X10 Mini Pro. And my Mini Pro would work with EVERY other SIM except mine.

But since the X10 Mini Pro works without a SIM (just functions as a PDA) and it worked with all the other SIMs at the Sony Ericsson Service Center, I went over to Globe.

Turns out, there are cases where a defective SIM can render a phone dead... only with THAT particular SIM. This is very different from defective SIMs that don't log into the network. Globe Customer service was very efficient... got my replacement SIM in 5 min, activated in 1 hour. It really was the SIM... Globe said that some of the newer 128 SIMs are quite sensitive and can cause compatibility problems with some phones. New SIM worked right away. No problem with the phone... whew...

So, tip for the day... if your phone suddenly dies... and a hard reset, or battery swap doesn't work... try a SIM swap, with all providers.

...Battery review to follow...

**Follow up tip... problem happened again this morning when I tried to restart my phone... I think the SIM overheats... long story short, I found that if this happens again, I just press the back (non contact side) of the SIM against something cold... then it works again. This issue only comes out when restarting the phone**

STOP!!!!!!!

"LOS ANGELES—A Toyota Prius accelerated out of control on a busy California freeway on Monday before police intervened to bring the vehicle to a standstill, police said.

...

The latest incident in California was a chilling echo of the incident last August where off-duty California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the Saylors' 13-year-old daughter when the accelerator of the Lexus ES350 they were in got stuck.

Minutes later, the Toyota-manufactured vehicle slammed into the back of a sport utility vehicle at about 100mph, veered off the freeway, overturned and burst into flames. All four family members died."

Ok, most of us have heard the latest Toyota horror stories. Now, just in case this happens to you (even if you don't drive a Toyota)... emergency steps to be able to come to a stop in the event of an accelerator pedal malfunction.

Shut off your engine. You will lose power steering immediately, but this isn't critical at speed since power steering only works at low speeds (usually under 30kph/20mph). You will lose braking power as well, but only after 1-2 hard stomps. Shutting off the car will allow you to coast to a stop without going through some police chase scene avoiding traffic.

Once your car's engine is off, and you use up the remaining hydraulic pressure in your brakes... your car should be slow enough to be able to use your emergency brake (hand brake).

Forget the damage it will do to your engine. Forget that your brakes will probably burn out. Priority is survival. You will do far less damage by shutting of your engine, than by crashing into something.

**Just a special note for newer BMW owners with the keyless entry option, to do an emergency engine shut off, press the START button 3 times, or hold it down til the engine shuts off**