Since I left my summer job, I’ve been developing a website that my friends (Andi and Joey) and I have come up with. SBUGuide.com. It’s short for Stony Brook University Guide. I’m doing this because I realized that there was no centralized location for prospective students to get information about the university and no website to help current students out. That’s why we’re taking the challenge to bring all those missing tiers together in one website. Yeah Stony Brook’s website is great but isn’t perfect so here’s where we come in a fill in the gaps.

Everything is currently in it’s ALPHA stages, development started only a day ago. Currently Andi is working on a logo prototype and I’m working on integrating user databases for MediaWiki, WordPress and bbPress. After that’s complete, the most difficult task should be branding and customization. Joey will fill in most if not all of the contents of the website.

Visit SBUGuide’s Blog to see development notes.

See our website at http://www.sbuguide.com.

Podcast  by PBS News Hour about USA TODAY‘s college  rankings:
[audio:http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2007/08/20/20070820_rankings28.mp3]

I got a email in my inbox the other day from EV1Servers.net. A company where I first registered TONYCAI.COM with, they have been recently acquired by The Planet, the company went along with all it’s clients (me). I was not notified of this acquisition. The email told me that my domain would expire in 90 days. So I quickly went to renew it because I knew how devastating things are when you loose ownership of the domain.*

When I logged into The Planet’s domain manager and tried to renew, it told me that I had to do it manually with the reseller. So I knew this renewal was going to be a pretty long process. Decided not to waste my time and transferred and renewed it with GoDaddy. They have a good reputation for domain products. So I renewed it for 2 years total of $14 and I got the GoDaddy Certified Domain add-on which is awesome!

* When one looses ownership of the domain, you’d either have to pay a high rate to reinstate the domain or some domain company might have bought your domain to reap the benefits of your visitors so they can make money off your visitors through advertisement parked pages. This happened recently with my friends domain he failed to renew. JHENDI.COM use to belong to my friend Chomell, but now it belongs to “TBD eNom Customer“.

The lesson about domains is renew it way before it expires because once it does, there is a high chance someone will buy it before you do!

It took me a little while to do this and it isn’t perfect but it’s pretty much accurate. I spent the day mapping out all the places I’ve been to while working for NYPIRG. I’m a canvasser and I go all over New York to educate the public about the issues we face in today’s fragile world. I’ve been doing this since May 17th 2007 and my last day is August 24th 2007. Sad to go but I have to get ready for next semester at SUNY Stony Brook.

So this Google Map API shows all the places I’ve been to, the field managers that took me there and the actual turf or streets that I was on. I hope this is as interesting to you as it is for me. It was hard remembering all the places I’ve been to. I’m almost sure it’s accurate but if it isn’t I will make changes along the way.

For those of you looking for a job in the Summer of 2008, NYPIRG is defiantly the way to go! The people you work with and the people that you will meet on turf are priceless. This is by far one of the best things I’ve ever done in terms of a job.

What the heck? That was quick, a little more than a month and we’re already seeing refurbished Apple iPhones on sale at Apple’s clearance store. Hmm. So what’s wrong with it? Maybe nothing, maybe everything!

re·fur·bish (rē-fûr’bĭsh) – To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate.

That can only mean a few things, these iPhones were defective when the someone purchased it and returned it to Apple or AT&T. Or simply the fact that the owner did not like it therefore returned it. Maybe Apple is releasing a newer version of the iPhone and is trying to get rid of the older version. Whatever the reason is, it’s a steal! Go grab one if you are looking for a cheap but brand new iPhone.

• 4GB iPhone – $399 ( New : $499 )
• 8GB iPhone – $499 ( New : $599 )

My two cents on refurbished products: I’m a big fan of them, not only are they much cheaper than retail, they are practically brand new. If it was defective, then the manufacturer was told about this issue and had already fixed it, cleaned then repackaged. So in a way it offers the buyer more peace of mind. It almost guarantees that the product won’t be defective when it gets to you, because it was already defective and they fixed it.

Check it out, cheap refurbished iPhones here.

As you may know, I live in the big city of New York and our proud mayor has instituted the 311 service for the greater New York’s 5 boroughs. 311 is a number for city residents to dial to contact local government agency’s to report problems or to see non-emergency help. Bloomberg thought that it would be an easy number to remember and it consolidates all the city’s resources together in one number, not a bad idea!

But recently switching to ViaTalk VoIP, the 311 service was not activated by default, or I should say that ViaTalk didn’t have that feature. I then searched hoping to find a quick solution. I noticed that Vontage, the current leader in VoIP had the 311 feature so at that point I knew it was possible to somehow hack ViaTalk’s Linksys PAP2 VoIP device to get 311 working.

I have not gotten done yet simply because I need my Linksys PAP2 password from ViaTalk, they are currently receiving heavy call volumes due to SunRocket’s customer contract buyouts. I called this Sunday afternoon and I was 22nd in line for their phone support. So if anyone wants to hack the PAP2, I have the directions and you must have the password for your PAP2, if you don’t you will have to submit a support ticket or call to get your password. I have started a ticket about 2 weeks ago, still no response, so good luck with that. But if you already have your password, then read on.

The 3-1-1 number is just a short cut for this number (212) NEW YORK or (212) 639-9675.

1. Login to your Linksys PAP2 via the IP address (http://192.168.0.xxx/admin/).
2. Go to the dial plan section. Becareful not to edit what is already on there.
3. Add the following line to the existing dial plan.
4. |<311:12126399675>|
5. Apply, Save and Exit

As a temporary fix until you get the PAP2 password from ViaTalk, you can setup speed dial to 2126399675. This tutorial will essentially work for all 311 services from any city, you will just have to figure our their local number and then replace NY’s number with your city’s number.

I will post screenshots of the process once I get my password from ViaTalk.

To read more about the Linksys PAP2 Dial Plan, see here.

I’m sorry that this post couldn’t be about anything that I have designed my blog to do but I have to some things straight. Last week was a stressful week for me and for I think most people who works with NYPIRG. It was the last week for canvassing for many people because most are off to college. Slowly but surely the NYC Canvas of 2007 is whining down. People are emotional that others are leaving and there are a couple of people that I will miss dearly. I have spent a lot of time with certain people within the last week.

I would like to give shout outs to a couple of people! Prospero [canvassin' from the beginning to the end and the new king of pop], Cynthia [my favorite Asian girl, don't cry, I feel bad enough already], , Q [vous le vous couche avec moi haha], Loftin [always chilled and relaxed, the puking was funny!], Emily [my ears are always open to you, just not about Dimitri or Misha] and my Asian brothers, Billy and Kenny, I’ll see you guys at school! If I missed y’all, then it simply means I just don’t care!! Just Kidding! I love NYPIRG and I’ll miss everyone! I might come back to canvass for 2008 too!

So if I’m leaving my job, that only means one thing, that I have to go back to school. During the last two weeks, I’ve been wanting to go back just because I miss the people at college and have a couple of things to do while being there that I’m excited about! For one, I got the position as official Admissions Blogger for Stony Brook University! I will be blogging for the interest of attracting new students for the next academic year. Two, I’m also official Mozilla Campus Representative. My goal is to setup events and promote the spread of my favorite browser, Firefox, I think I will be working closely with the Linux Users Group in Stony Brook because I remember a Firefox event that they had last semester.

Overall a very emotional work week for me and great anticipations about next semester, It is a strange mix of emotions I have to say. Wish me luck everyone during this transition. Peace out, my next post will be about something more important than my life!

Brings Back Memories
[audio:http://tonycai.com/journey.mp3]

Sources from TechCrunch and Digg reports Facebook‘s index.php source code has been leaked due to a server misconfiguration.

“A small fraction of the code that displays Facebook web pages was exposed to a small number of users due to a single misconfigured web server that was fixed immediately. It was not a security breach and did not compromise user data in any way. Because the code that was released only powers the Facebook user interface, it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook. The reprinting of this code violates several laws and we ask that people not distribute it further.”

I had re-published the leaked code on my website and was asked to take it down because it’s copyright material. Whoops! Just received an email from Facebook Legal that goes like this and I took the code off:

Greetings,

You are hereby notified that copies of source code taken from the www.facebook.com website have been posted at http://www.tonycai.com/facebook-php-codes-leaked/

The posting of these materials infringes the copyrights of Facebook, Inc., and we request that you immediately remove the materials from your site. I may be contacted at this e-mail address, or by telephone at 1-650-543-4800. I hereby state my good faith belief that the posting of this material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law, and that the information contained in this notice is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, I am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. If these materials are not expeditiously removed, we reserve the right to pursue all legal remedies available to us, including seeking damages and injunctive relief.

Signed,
Rudy Gadre

So I was forced to take it down without questions. A little run in with the law. Scary!

Sorry Facebook. But please do take care of our private information! Don’t let it leak!

Google will pay “up to $10” for collecting data for a local business! This is great, I was very impressed when Google started taking pictures of streets in major cities like New York City (see here). Now Google is taking one step further and adding to it’s large information database, the goal of the program is to essentially expand the popular Google Maps application. It’s $2 for each successful submission that Google approves and $8 when the local business that you canvassed approves of the information being accurate.

“As a Google Business Referral Representative, you’ll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You’ll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. After the visit, you submit the business’ info and photo(s) to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center, and we’ll pay you up to $10 for each listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.”

I’m a canvasser for NYPIRG so this job should be easy for me, the only difference between this and canvassing for NYPIRG is that the complete rates will be a lot higher, you will get more “YES” and you get to work when you want! I already knock on hundreds of residential homes a week so this won’t even phase me! I’m not saying this to say NYPIRG isn’t a good job, in fact, it’s the best job I’ve ever had!

So go ahead sign up! Also see the FAQ’s. It looks like anyone can make lots of money doing this!

New stylish sleek design, that’s the description from the visuals of the Apple iMac announced today. I have to say it’s not much different than the mock-ups that were recently rendered. I noticed that Apple is again moving the design away from it’s simple white polish and moving towards the brushed metal and black theme. This iMac almost looks like an iPhone, in fact it looks better than the iPhone. It also comes with an ultra thin keyboard that almost looks like a piece of metal cardboard (this is the new keyboards that have been rumored as well). The new thin keyboard now features a on/off button to it’s top right hand side which is very convenient.

The design is awesome (5 out of 5 stars) but the technology is just as impressive!

 

Intel Core 2 Duo processor

All iMac models feature advanced dual-core Intel processors along with other improvements that pump up the performance. Learn more

Glossy widescreen display

Your photos, movies, and games will come to life with richer, more vivid colors. Choose from 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays. Learn more

Built-in wireless

Banish the clutter. The latest 802.11 Wi-Fi networking and Bluetooth technologies come standard with every iMac. Learn more

Advanced graphics

New ATI Radeon HD graphics deliver a stunning visual environment with more vivid, lifelike images. Learn more

Built-in iSight camera

The high-quality camera is so neatly integrated, you’ll hardly notice it’s there. Learn more

More storage and memory

Now you have more room for your video and photo collections. And iMac now supports up to 4GB of memory. Learn more

Connections and ports

iMac has all the ports you need for your USB, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 devices. Learn more

SuperDrive

The slot-loading SuperDrive lets you play and burn your own CDs and DVDs. Learn more

Apple has really taken over the computing market in terms of sleekness and design. Damn I want this so bad. But if I’m going to get a Mac, I’d wait till after October so they can come pre-installed with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Oh and other news, iLife 08 and iWorks 08 has also been announced and is shipping now! Apple fan boys haven’t always been good at guessing how unreleased products will look like, but this time it was pretty close. Take a look at this incredible mock-up!

Mock-up Video

More information about these 3 new products announced today, visit of course, Apple.com.

After several instances of failed attempts to install Beryl on my openSUSE machine, I’ve finally had time and decided to try compiz-fusion. Compiz-fusion is a combination of Compiz and Beryl which are both enhancements of different window managers in linux using C and OpenGL technology. Compiz is no different from Beryl and Compiz-fusion is a Beryl with plugins from Compiz.

Before I go into the steps to install it, I’d like to map out my current system specifications first:

Processor: Pentium 4 3.0e HT
Memory: 1Gb DDR PC3200
Video: GeForce 4 MX AGP

As you can see, the specs are not that great, my processor is about 3 years old, the graphics card is about 4 but it runs flawlessly with the default settings of Beryl Manager and Emerald Themes. The developers made sure that you didn’t need “Vista Aero” type cards to run it which is great!

Okay, here comes the installation part, these exact steps worked for me. If you follow some tutorials online, there are extra steps that mess up your installation so if you have similar hardware like mine, then follow them. I will assume that you have nVidia graphics drivers for openSUSE already installed.

1) Add “http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_10.2/” to your YaST repositories.

2) Search in YaST and install the following: (Make sure no other Beryl installation is installed)

• beryl-core-snapshot
• beryl-plugins-snapshot
• emerald-snapshot : window decorator
• emerald-themes-snapshot
• aquamarine-snapshot
• beryl-settings-snapshot
• beryl-manager-snapshot

3) Enter the terminal or konsole under super-user mode and run the following:

	nvidia-xconfig --composite

	nvidia-xconfig --allow-glx-with-composite

 	nvidia-xconfig --render-accel

	nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals

	rcxdm restart

	beyrl-manager

	beryl

Thats it, by this point, beryl manager should be running and beryl should work without a problem. I have consolidated many steps into 3 simple steps that are easy to do. Feel free to post any questions or problems you may be having and I will be glad to troubleshoot it.

Currently migrating files from Windows hard drive.. goodbye Windows.