How To Set Webmails As Default E-mail Clients Using Firefox 3.0?

Not everyone who works with computers connected to the internet uses an email client such as Outlook/Outlook Express or Lotus Mail in order to send personal mails, but most internet users now are very comfortable using webmails like Yahoo Mail or Gmail as their personal mail clients.

Webmails are very popular nowadays since they practically provide multitude of advantages over their non-web counterparts. Unlimited storage, built-in virus scanner, accessibility anywhere around the globe, are just among the notable features. Of course, the main advantage is they are completely FREE.

In the past, when you click on an e-mail link in your browser, it had to have an e-mail client to launch. That method does not work if you use a service such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail as your main account.

Recently launched Firefox 3.0 came just in time to the rescue.

Watch this video from CNET TV™ blog for some quick tips and come back here for the detailed written steps on how to do it.

Here goes the step-by-step process…

1. Go to Tools and Options in your Firefox 3.0 browser

2. Choose Applications

3. Type “mailto” in the search bar

4. In the drop-down menu, choose Yahoo Mail and press OK. If you don’t have Yahoo Mail but you have Gmail, instead, proceed to step 5

5. Open your Gmail in Firefox 3.0

6. Cut and paste the string code below in your browser bar and press enter
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

7. Click the Add Application button located at the upper right hand corner of your Gmail interface. This will add Gmail as an application for mailto links.

8. Go back to steps 1-3. You will now see Gmail as one of the choices in the drop-down menu.

Now when you click an e-mail link or when you want to send interesting stuff via e-mail from your browser, it will ask you which Web mail program you would like to use as shown below.

Don’t forget to select Firefox 3.0 when prompted which browser to use for the chosen webmail client the first time you launch this application.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it proved useful.

Read More

Upload And Share Your PDFs with Google Docs

Been using Google Docs for quite sometime and had been very pleased with the features it has been providing. One thing that I had been hoping, though, is that it would soon support PDF files. This is so since there are so many PDF files that land in my inbox almost every so often, coming from official and personal mails alike. I would normally read PDF attachments, download them in my desktop and store them for future use. Not only that, I convert into PDF every reference I get to download, when I am researching on line, to make the information more electronically portable and handy. You can perhaps imagine how much load I am giving my friendly hard drive with this routine. I could easily save them otherwise by using optical disk or other forms of storage media, but I would rather store them where I have always access to them wherever I go even without my own computer around. That is why I have been waiting for Google Docs to support PDF upload, at least, to enjoy this convenience.

Finally, the long wait is over! Google Docs now officially supports PDF upload.

What a relief!

Wait, there is something more. The extension is not merely for uploading PDF files. It also allows you to view, print, collaborate and share the files just like any other Google Document in your account.

There are some limitations, however. Well, this is expected, I believe, for a new and handsome baby in Google Docs.

You can't download or open PDFs from Gmail directly into Google Docs. What you can do is upload PDFs from your PC or from the Web to Google Docs. You can then open them in Google Docs, and while you can't edit them, you can at least select text to copy and paste. Likewise, you can’t share to users who don’t have Gmail accounts at the moment, but I hope Google is busy brewing something on this.

Also, keep in mind that there are some limitations on allowable size and number of files when uploading your PDFs. You can store up to 10MB per PDF from your computer and 2MB from the web in your Docs list with up to 100 PDFs per account.

What do you think, folks? Will this be useful for you?

Don’t forget to share your thoughts.

Read More

Firefox 3.0 is Coming on Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Mozilla Developer Center made the announcement on 11 June, saying, “After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we’re proud to announce that we’re ready. It is our expectation to ship Firefox 3 this upcoming Tuesday, June 17^th”.

Coinciding with this event, Mozilla is also pursuing a campaign to hit Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

Remember, however, if you want your participation to be counted in the “Download Day" campaign, you must download the complete version of Firefox 3.0. Updating your previous versions from beta or release candidates will not make your action officially counted. Moreover, if you are serious on taking part in this “would be” record event; you can simply hop to Download Day Headquarters. You will also receive a customized certificate by downloading your Firefox 3.0 copy from this site.

But why would I download the new version?

Well, reports revealed the new version has more than 15,000 improvements. Firefox 3.0 is faster, safer and smarter than before. In fact, Firefox 3.0 is already enjoying nearly 1.3M in total pledges from around the world, as of this post, due to these anticipated features.

What do you think?

I guess, this is going to be extremely exciting for Firefox fanatics like us.

Well folks, go ahead, calendar this day and be among the first few recipients of these new and powerful improvements of the web’s best browser.

Oh YES! Do something good. Spread the word and help other people enjoy web surfing to the next level.

NOTE:Time is fixed on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:00 AM San Francisco time, i.e. Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 1:00 AM Manila, Philippines time.

Read More

Urduja and The First Filipino Full-length Animated Movie

Urduja (ca. 1350 C.E - 1400 C.E.) is a valiant warrior and woman ruler of Kaylukari city in the land of Tawalisi in Pangasinan (located on the west central area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf) during the 14th century. Tawalisi is believed to be a kingdom with very extensive expanse that included the vast areas up to the fringes of the Benguet mountains and the Cordillera ranges in the east of Luzon.

Her legendary existence, however, remained the subject of argument by historians up to this day in time since the only first-hand documented story given for her through the travelogue of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan born, Islamic lawyer turned writer, is not well accepted in view of the fact that it does provide only “unverified tales”. Scholars are still in unending search mode trying to discover apparent supplementary archaeological evidence to prove the content and chronicles of the manuscript as reliable and acceptable basis of history.

Whoa, it is a question of accuracy and it sounds very intriguing.

Given that as a premise, though,nobody has discredited Battuta’s texts to the point that any of his work is dismissed as fanciful or fiction. In fact, his work has been hailed in most quarters as a “valuable record” of South East Asia at that time.

Now, rather than giving you my own piece of historical synthesis, which by the way I am not an authority on the subject, as to whether Urduja is a fact or myth, I will refer you instead to some documented citations so as to further enlighten you on the accounts of this important figure in Philippine culture and history.Excerpts from these papers are vividly wrapped around this post while the complete and detailed content are compiled below and linked to their primary or secondary sources, for your guidance.

John Smart wrote the article The Case for Princess Urduja and published it in The Bay, a Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce Newsletter (Dec 2005 - Jan 2006). This was posted also in Pangasinan Blog by kingdom_tawalisi.

In Search of a Princess written by Chit Balmaceda Guiterrez was originally published in Filipinas Magazine’s June l999 issue. Although an on line site is available for the said magazine, this particular article is not available in the archives. It is re-posted at http://www.urduja.com/, with permission, under the inspiration sub-category.

Another interesting blog on this account is found at Igorotblogger. Bill Bilig reviewed Chit Balmaceda Guiterrez’s In Search of a Princess and highlighted Urduja’s “link” to the Ibalois.

The image (original painting details: oil on canvas, 16”x13”, 1956) above is a visualization of Urduja by the Philippines' 1st National Artist in Painting, Fernando Amorsolo. This painting is currently owned by Ms. Dorothy Francy while the digital copy was sourced from cream_529’s Flickr™ photostream.

Sigh! That was more than enough for a background. Let us now proceed to the second segment of this post. I hope I did not bore you with the prelude.

Urduja is coming “alive”, once again, via the first Filipino full-length traditional (hand-drawn) and digital animated movie adaptation of the legendary warrior-princess produced by Tony Tuviera’s APT Entertainment in cooperation with Seventoon and Imaginary Friends Production.

Early reports uncovered the many years of preparing this milestone project in Philippine Cinema. Urduja took 11 years in the making, including the time when it was first conceptualized by Mr. Tuviera. He disclosed in one of his interviews that he originally planned Urduja as a TV series in 1997. The high production cost, however, convinced him to transform his dream project instead into a full-length movie a decade later.

As a full-length animation, Urduja has a running total of 85, 000 drawings shown in almost 2, 000 scenes which is equivalent to 8, 771 reels of film. The work force behind it is composed of around 400 Filipino artists in both digital and traditional animation in studios that spanned from Makati to Palawan [1] [2].

The much talked-about animated film is made more special with some of the biggest stars in Philippine show business lending their voices to the characters. Urduja is voiced over by no less than the Songbird of Asia, Regine Velasquez while her loved one, Limhang, is dubbed in by Caesar Montano. Lakanpati, the patriarch in the story, comes alive through the voice of the FAMAS hall of famer, Eddie Garcia while his favored warrior, Simakwel, is done by Jay Manalo.Other notable characters in Urduja include Wang (Johnny Delgado), Mayumi (Ruby Rodriguez), Daisuke (Epy Quizon), and the talking animals Kukut (Michael V.) and Tarsir (Allan K.).

While the legitimacy of Urduja’s possible existence is clouded with doubts in the scholarly understanding of great historians, this animated film adaptation will allow us all to remember her as the first figure to receive a tribute from technologies never imagined when she was “alive” and reigning as a warrior-princess [2].

Meanwhile, the animators of Urduja would like to strongly convey that they are not rewriting history through this outstanding venture. The storyline is fiction and whatever resemblances to names and places and events formed, created in this film version, are completely coincidental [2].

Excited? Certainly, I am. I guess many Filipinos are equally excited and can’t wait to see Urduja.Here is a sneak preview, for your viewing pleasure.


WOW! I have nothing but praises to the people behind this arduous yet very rewarding endeavor.

So folks, I encourage you to watch Urduja to witness “history” as it unfolds right before our very eyes. The movie is set to grace the big screen this 18 June 2008.

TRIVIA

• The name Urduja appears to be Sanskrit in origin, and a variation of the Sanskrit name "Urja," meaning "Breath."

• Tuviera said he could have produced three or even four regular live-action movies with “Urduja’s” budget.

• The first movie adaptation of Urduja was shot in black and white with Pedro Faustino, Mona Lisa, Fernando Poe, Sonia Reyes, Antonia Santos & Lupe Velasco in the lead roles. It was screened in 1942 with "Princesa Urduja" as the commercial title.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Princess Urduja - The First Tagalog Full-length Animated Movie
• URDUJA: A Filipino Animated Film
• URDUJA - First Fully Animated Movie Completely Done by PINOYS!
• Princess Urduja: A Myth in Paradise Philippines?
• Excited for Urduja?
• Urduja: Pinoy Animation

Read More