I can’t believe that this works. I stumbled on this page and printed out a template. I got a piece of cardboard and traced the curve on it. Got a pair of scissors and tape then I placed it on my Belkin 54G antenna - and now, the signal in my room is now 3x stronger. I will post photos and a template of the cardboard reflector I made. You will just need a pair of scissors, a cardboard and tape.

Update: You can click the template above. Below, you can see what I came up with using cardboard and tape.

For those who have doubts in using the Zend Framework, maybe you should read this post.

As we come near to launching fav.or.it I thought I would share my thoughts on building the project completely on Zend Framework. When we started 7 months ago the framework was on version 0.7 and some may have thought that basing our fledgling startup on a single unknown framework was slightly foolhardy. I will first cover why I made this decision and then outline my thoughts on each of the core modules and how we use them.

The Research

When I researched what framework we would use and if in fact we would use any of them I had a whole lot of criteria that they needed to fulfill. I was already well aware of the main contenders (CakePHP, Symfony, CodeIgniter) and then along came the Zend Framework. I immediately warmed to the overall mission statement behind the Framework and also the fact that on top of having a great team of developers they had the steadying hand of a company that had a vested interest in making the Framework a success but also to make it relevant to business as well as to the open source community.

Is it a framework?

The first thing that I always have to explain when talking about the Zend Framework is that to me it is not a ‘framework’ or not in the same way others are frameworks. This causes a lot of confusion and misunderstand of what the Zend Framework has to offer. To me most frameworks require you to conform to how they ‘think’ (something Ruby/Rails suffers from) and breaking out from their thinking requires actual alteration of the framework.

To me the Zend Framework is actually a Library, something that I can pick and choose from and although a good percentage of each module does also interact with other modules this behavior can in most cases be overridden or sub-classed and behaviour changed.

The MVC

Another difference is that a lot of Frameworks revolve around their own implementation of the MVC (Model View Controller) and again if you want to break out from how they work then you may as well not use any of the framework. The Zend Framework does of course include modules that assist in setting up a MVC and it has many great tutorials on ‘the standard’ way of doings things. But once you begin to understand how everything fits together it has incredible power for those who want to stretch its legs.

Not for beginners?

I will at this point make lots of enemies by saying that the Framework is a professional product and is not really for the beginner. Although it has made strides towards simplifying some aspects of the MVC (and other modules) it is still certainly more complex than others and if you have no inclination to do anything ‘out of the ordinary’ then my advice is to use something else.

Click here for the entire post. And Fav.or.it just looks great!

Haha! Steve Jobs, in your face! Finally, DRM-free legal music downloads - by Amazon. This is certainly better than waiting for someone to seed in Bittorrent downloads *cough* (fucking leechers!)… Can’t wait to buy old tracks - these things are so hard to find illegally.

I would have actually preferred getting my music from Amazon instead of downloading them illegally. The record industry should have thought of this years ago. Imagine 2000+ legal DRM-free mp3s? Universal and EMI could have already profited millions.

LOL. I just noticed this today. Nothing special - but I find this amusing This is the screenshot from my Google Homepage.

Here is a nice little list from the BBC:

CROSS-SITE SCRIPTING

A sophisticated phishing attack that exploits weaknesses in the legitimate sites of financial institutions to make attempts to trick people into handing over confidential details more plausible.

A successful use of Cross-site scripting will make it look like all the transactions are being done on the website of the real bank or financial institution.

DEAD-DROP

A hijacked PC or server used to store all the personal data stolen by keyloggers, spyware or viruses.

Criminal hackers prefer to keep their distance from this data as its possession is incriminating. Dead drops are usually found and shut down within a few days of the associated phishing e-mails being sent out.

DDoS

Abbreviation for Distributed Denial of Service. This is an attack in which thousands of separate computers, which are usually part of a botnet, bombard a target with bogus data to knock it off the net.

DDoS attacks have been used by extortionists who threaten to knock a site offline unless a hefty ransom is paid.

DRIVE-BY DOWNLOAD

Malicious programs that automatically install when a potential victim visits a booby-trapped website.

The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.

Sometimes it is obvious that a drive-by download has occurred as they can lead to bookmarks and start pages of the browser being replaced. Others install unwanted toolbars.

Increasingly criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information.

I have been unable to claim my blog on Technorati. I am not sure whether it is my server’s fault or Technorati’s. But everytime I try to claim this blog, I get this error:

There was a problem claiming your blog. Please try again in a few minutes. You can also go to Technorati Help for help claiming your blog.

I have contacted Technorati and I am given some kind of auto-reply. Hope this gets fixed soon. Has anyone encountered this problem with Technorati?

The annoying little green duck is now on its 1.o release. For those of you who are not familiar with Adium, it is a free Instant Messaging client for Mac OS that can connect to almost all the networks like Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and many more. You could even connect to IRC Servers like efnet and undernet.

OMFG! Slashdot is down!!! The world is going to end! It’s Jihad!

I found this at DigitalFilipino. It is an e-commerce information kit. A very useful read for those who want information written by a local — Janette Toral.

Here some of the stuff found in the kit:

Creating an E-Commerce Project Plan
Domain Name and Branding
Getting Buyers’ Attention
Guidelines for Merchants
Opportunity in Every Crisis
State of E-Finance and E-Payment in the Philippines
Using Money Remittance Services to Accept Online Payment
CCNow.com Merchandising and Discounts Tools
Affordable payment solutions
Learning from Catalogs
Managing risks of online payment
Dealing with payment fraud
Protection of Personal Data
Affiliate Marketing or Internet Advertising: Generating Income in Your Website
Maximizing Google
Registering your Site with Search Engines
Dynamic advertising with Google
Attracting the Right Hits Consistently
Relentless marketing
Do People Talk About You?
Build it, break it
Making Virtual Networking Work for Business Promotion
Networking for business
Make your website media-friendly
Preparing for the holidays
From hobby to online business
Working from home: tips for the freelancer
Work at home
Skills SMEs Should Acquire Before Doing Business Online
Running a business online
Knowledge as commodity
Fighting for your copyright
Guard and Protect Your Copyright
E-publishing
Ideal online travel agent
One million in three weeks
Online Travel: Customer Service is Key
Real estate selling online
Passion for success
Concerns about e-commerce
Resolving disputes online
I hate spam!
Choosing a Web Site Hosting Service

Click here for the source. Will read when I have time

2Advanced Studios just released a new design for their website. Very cool. It has some sort of step-pyramid, which looks very cool.

Better navigation and kick-ass ambient background music. You must see to appreciate. Words are not enough to describe the new update.

Click here for 2Advanced Studios.