Hi folks, for those who tried to sign up with Google checkout and got this error:

Postal code contains invalid formatting

Here’s the work around. Sign-up as usual but leave the postal code blank, then click submit. Edit your profile later (this will lead you to another interface without the erring javascript check) and put in the correct postal code. Fixed! Hope this helps ^_^

I just said goodbye to my old windows mobile phone yesterday. Got myself an LG P500 (with a stock Android Froyo) since it came bundled with my mobile line (Globe). I have to say that this mobile OS is definitely for geeks.

Since Android Gingerbread was already out, I decided to upgrade my phone’s OS. Here are the steps that I did to get my phone’s operating system (OS) upgraded, rooted and overclocked:

1. First, I installed the stock Gingerbread ROM from LG with these instructions. The ROM take note is from LG India, I chose this ROM because it is not locked to any mobile carrier.

2. After the upgrade, I rooted my phone with these instructions. Look up post #2.

3. Then I installed ROM Manager with these instructions. I installed this one because I wanted to make sure I have a backup of my ROM before I do anything else with it.

4. Then I installed Franco’s kernel for Gingerbread using ROM Manager.

5. Finally, I installed SetCPU and overclocked my phone to 729 MHz from 600 MHz.

So far I’m very happy with the results. I chose the stock ROM because as much as possible I wanted most of the phone’s available hardware/feature running, just to let you know what’s working:

• WiFi – works as expected.
• GPS – works as well, not very accurate, was off by about 100 meters but I guess this is usual.
• FM – works as expected, the channel scanner was very helpful in setting up the stations.
• Bluetooth – works as expected, was able to pair it to my Plantronics headset and laptop with Win7 64bit. File transfers were a breeze though I had to set it up first.
• Camera – no kinks whatsoever, works as expected no bugs found so far.
• 3G/HSPDA – works as well but I disabled it on purpose since I have WiFi available most of the time.
• Tethering – this was the only thing that wasn’t working. I’m able to connect when the mobile hotspot was enabled, however, I can’t view any http data on my laptop. I can ping a domain though and it resolves to an IP but other than that nada.

I chose the Franco kernel instead of stock because I wanted to try out the SmartassV2 governor for SetCPU. So far no complaints about it, I get a good mileage out of my battery (a single charge lasts me about 2 days) and the UI works smoothly.

A word of caution, IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING THEN DON’T DO IT. If you do not understand the steps that were done or how to recover your original ROM in case something goes wrong then there’s a chance that you might brick your phone. I will not be liable if you brick your phone.

I only did all these because I wanted to get the most out of my phone’s hardware, besides I’m a geek.  Hope this helps ^_^

I converted one of my websites today with static html pages to WordPress. Problem is I don’t want to lose the URLs on that site since they were already good as is.

Solution, install WordPress on a different directory first – www.domain.com/wp/ then after the content has been transferred/copied, route it to www.domain.com.

1. I installed everything first on www.domain.com/wp/ set the theme and everything else I wanted on this site including the permalinks.

2. Copied the content from the static HTML pages to the corresponding posts in WordPress.

3. After all the sites’ content have been transferred. I changed the Settings > General configuration on the site’s WordPress backend to this:

4. Then I moved index.php from www.domain.com/wp to the root, www.domain.com or the directory public_html in this case since this was a WHM/cPanel powered host. Then made the following changes to index.php:

5. Moved the .htaccess file to the same place where index.php was and I was done.

I hope this helps, do take note that I arbitrarily chose to name the directory wp, you can install WordPress in the same manner regardless of the folder’s name.

I’ve set my laptop to sleep after half an hour but sometimes I need to leave immediately and I want to sleep it right away, however for the nth time I’ve accidentally shutdown my computer instead of putting it to sleep.

Solution (which I’ve been putting off for a long time)? Change the default action on the start menu lower right button to sleep!

This is how it’s done:

1. Hover your cursor to the Start button and right click.

2. Click on Properties and you should see a tabbed window like this.

3. On the right side of the Power button action, you should see a drop down. The action you select will define what shortcut will show on the start menu. In my case I want to set it to sleep.

4. When you’ve made a selection, click on Apply and OK.

5. Done! Now when I click on the Start button, I’m a 100% sure I won’t accidentally shutdown my computer.

Hope this helps ^_^

For you folks who are having a hard time looking for a guide to get your Windows Mobile Device connected to your Windows 7 64bit OS. Here’s how to go about it:

1. Download this driver update: Windows Mobile Device Driver for Windows 7 64bit

2. After downloading the device, install it. Should you get an error, just don’t mind it since you haven’t connected your device yet.

3. Plug in your Windows Mobile Device to your computer.

4. Windows will attempt to automatically install the driver. Click on the blue link that you see on the alert box and enable update from the internet.

5. If you get an error, just unplug the device and plug it again. You should be good to go after that, then you can sync your device with your computer.

Just a word of caution, make sure you have a backup of your contacts and messages in your Windows Mobile Device. By default, activesync will overwrite the content of your device should there be a conflict. Hope this helps. ^_^

I just find the default behavior of Windows 7 explorer to be annoying. The left navigation pane doesn’t automatically expand to the current folder. If you wish to change this behavior to expand the directory tree when a folder is selected, do the following:

1. Open windows explorer.
2. Press alt + F (do not release the alt key upon pressing the letter F).
3. Select Tools on the menu then Folder options.
4. On the general tab make sure the following option is ticked.

5. Click on Apply or OK and you are done!

Open an explorer window and whenever you choose a folder the tree will automatically expand and reveal the directory structure towards the current folder. Hope this helps. ^_^

Yet another upgrade to my aging laptop. From 2GB my laptop now has 4GB of memory and what better way to exploit the use of this upgrade than to upgrade my operating system as well. Enter Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Good thing though my upgrade to 64 bit was less dramatic than my installation with the 32 bit version. I couldn’t say that it was an upgrade as the term implies because I had to reinstall everything after backing up all my data pre 64 bit and doing a clean install.

So this were how things went when I did the installation:

1. Made a backup and imaged the whole laptop drive.
2. Reboot, formatted the install drive (C: in my case) and let the installer do its thing.
3. After the installation this was what was left on the device manager interface were the following:

4. The three Base System Device requires the ricoh card reader driver, the two Unknown Device is the atk100 and infrared module respectively. The Fingerprint Sensor requires the authentec fingerprint driver. Please note this is for my ASUS F8 series which is an F8SG-4P03A.

5. Then I proceeded to install the following.

6. The Nvidia video driver for 9300M G. Rebooted after install.

7. ATK100 driver for Windows 7 64 bit. This is for the extra buttons and indicators (wifi, bluetooth) to work properly. Rebooted after install.

8. Installed the ATK hotkey software rebooted, then installed the ATK Media software.

9. Installed the RICOH Card Reader driver then rebooted.

10. Installed the fingerprint software/driver then finally the infrared module driver.

After I installed all the drivers of course I went ahead and updated my system via Windows Update. Then went on to restore my archived backups. Like I said its not much but hopefully somebody will get an idea of how easy it is to install Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on a  laptop (ASUS F8SG). Please do leave your question at the comment box. Hope this helps. ^_^

MS did a good job of integrating the finger print reader (software) for ASUS F8SG, well I guess it was too good because after it was installed on my laptop, I had no idea initially how to use it (or enable it). I didn’t realize some of you would bump on to the same problem so here’s how to enable the finger print reader to login to Windows 7:

1. Click on the Windows Start Icon (which is now a rounded button) and type in “windows login” without the quotes.

2. Choose Use your fingerprint with Windows.

3. You’ll be prompted for a password to enroll your finger prints on the Authentec TruSuite software.

4. Click on a finger and swipe it 3 times. This will register your chosen finger for the finger print reader.

5. When you are done, you should see a green mark on the registered fingers.

You can opt to register all your fingers or just a few, I chose two fingers on my right hand since I’m right handed.

Now close the authentec software and press the switch user shortcut (Window Key + L). If you don’t see the prompt for the finger print reader click on the Other Credentials button just underneath the password field.

Once you see a big icon with a finger print on it, swipe your registered finger and it should log you in. Hope this helps ^_^

For some of you guys who are wondering where the Java .jar files are kept in your Windows Mobile 6.0 smart phone, its at:

\\windows\appdb

My phone’s a daxian x999+ with esmertec java preinstalled. Take note, the java files are renamed after its installed in the device.

Notice that I’m using Total Commander as Windows Explorer won’t show the extensions by default. I’m not sure if this would help out anyone, but it took me almost an hour to figure out where the java files were. Hope this helps ^_^

For those of you who wanted to know how to add a bluetooth device in Windows 7, specifically a bluetooth mouse (MSI BM500). Here’s how to do it:

1. Click on bluetooth icon on taskbar.

2. Once the bluetooth manager window is open click on add a device.

3. When the bluetooth manager (on Windows 7) searches for a device, press the button beneath MSI BM500 mouse, you’ll need a pen to press the button.

4. After pressing the button underneath the mouse, your system should be able to “see” the mouse.

5. The operating system will then search a suitable driver and install it automatically. Once you see the following dialogue window, your mouse should be ready to use.

And oh, here’s an updated review as well of the MSI BM500 mouse on Windows 7. Seems like with Windows 7 the mouse has been behaving a lot better compared to Windows XP. Hope this helps ^_^