Chil got me this as an early birthday gift especially since my BB Curve 8520′s keypad was already as useful as a pile of poop.

I am so loved.

I originally planned to get a Bold 9780 but after hearing so many horror stories about the keypad stuttering/double-tapping, I chose to stick to the older Bold which had much less hardware issues, if there are even any. I gave up 512MB RAM, 5MP camera and OS6 but I think it’s better than the frustration over the keypad.

I tried installing OS6 on the 9700 but the memory leak was just so bad that I chose to revert back to OS5.

Took a couple of shots today. Still high over getting the GFFN FA Unicorn Gundam so forgive me for the solo shot in this set.

This is definitely the current prize piece on my desk and I am absolutely loving it. If Bandai does decide to release this as a Metal Composite, I might end up selling my kidneys for it. This 1:144 scale is already gorgeous. Imagine it in 1:100 scale glory!

Above is the view from my office desk. On nice bright days like today, I get to see really nice cloud formations from outside my window. What appears to be rain clouds on the left ARE actually rain clouds moving away from the city where my office is. Shame I couldn’t remove the reflections of the flourescent bulbs on the window glass.

If you’d seen my desk back in late 2010, you would wonder how I am even able to get anything done. There were papers everywhere. I even went so far as to stash away all of my toys and all the office stuff just flowed onto the vacated office desk real estate. This year though, I really cleaned out a lot of corners from the desk. Now I have a healthy amount of space for some items on the right side and then the office stuff are on the left, most of which is hidden from this shot.

Nothing like welcoming the new year with a new gadget to tinker with. It’s nothing like the ASUS G73 series but I’m definitely loving this laptop that I got for myself.

But the best thing about the new rig is that I finally get to try out Windows 7 for myself. All this time, I’ve been a Windows XP user and did not bother downgrading to Vista. Then I came to the point where I wanted to have a new laptop with good enough specs for gaming and multimedia and with a new OS.

So of course, with a new OS, that meant I had to learn how to tweak the user interface again. I was already quite comfortable with 3rd party visual styles and Samurize on the XP machine but this one’s different. Samurize does not support Windows 7 operating systems so I had to switch to Rainmeter for this one. Still trying to get the hang of Rainmeter since there’s no WYSIWYG editor for it unlike Samurize.

So here’s what I’ve got so far:

This is my current Windows 7 desktop. As you can see, I like it minimal. I did change a good number of things here so you actually won’t see a lot of the default Aero theme of Windows 7.

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This occupied a good amount of my day, trying to figure out what could have been wrong.

Basically my problem was that I noticed that when I’m trying to reply to an email from my BlackBerry (my @winterheim.com account), the Send option was not appearing and when I check out the email details, the Received Using field displayed Unknown.

I tried checking if this was because of transition problems with my Google Apps account where my personal webmail is hosted but it did not apply. I tried adding other accounts from that domain and everything appeared to be just fine. All the emails indicated which account received the email. Even my office OWA account worked properly. So it was just my main @winterheim.com account that was not working properly. One more frustrating thing that was happening was that whenever I tried to access my winterheim.com inbox directly (I normally access all my email accounts from the Messages application), the screen freezes and I need to open the multitasking window just to get out of that frozen state.

So I combed the net to see if anyone had a solution. The most common suggestion was to delete the related service books then have them re-sent to my BlackBerry. Tried that. Didn’t work.

The most drastic options that came about were the data/security wipe + restore option and the OS reinstall option. I didn’t want to reinstall my OS although it definitely crossed my mind since I felt that these problems started to surface when I upgraded to OS 5.0.0.900 from .681.

I’ve tried restoring to most recent “healthy” state that my BlackBerry was in which was a back-up I made prior to upgrading to the .900 build. That didn’t work either. I’ve tried deleting the email account in question as well as the service books then resend them from the BIS website for my service provider. Didn’t work.

So I mustered up the courage to do a partial data/security wipe. A partial wipe meant all my messages, calendar data, settings and whatnot will be deleted by the apps will stay there. They’ll just be in a fresh state since even the application settings and permissions will be wiped. But basically, I end up with a fresh BlackBerry but with the apps I’ve already installed intact.

After doing so, I didn’t proceed with doing a restore. I tried having my service provider resend the service books first and see if I can receive email “properly” and by properly, I meant that I’d be able to reply to emails properly and the phone will recognize what account it is using to receive the emails.

It worked! But I was left with a barebones-looking device. So I decided it’s safe to do a restore.

After doing so, I tried resending emails and replying to emails using my main @winterheim.com account. I tried receiving emails from there as well. Everything was fine!

So I didn’t need to go as far as to do an OS reinstall/downgrade after all although my computer was already being set up to carry out that task as I was trying to find other alternative solutions.

So for those who are encountering inbox/gmail icon freezes, missing reply options and received using: unknown, here’s what can do to resolve it. (note: I am on OS 5.0.0.900 and using BIS 2.0)

1. Make sure you have a full back-up of your data from your BlackBerry, hopefully from before all this started to happen. Or at least have a full back-up of all the pertinent data you need. The rest can be re-synced.
2. Do a partial data/security wipe. (Options > Security Options > Security Wipe – Emails, Contacts, etc.)
3. After security wipe is completed and device has rebooted, you will have a fresh device with no settings whatsoever so you pretty much start from scratch on the settings end. Skip restoring your settings for now.
4. Resend your Service Books.
5. Test the email account in question if the reply option appears and received using: indicates what email address you are testing.
6. Once everything is confirmed to be in good working order, restore to the healthiest Back-Up file for your BlackBerry. You’ll be short of several messages and maybe a couple of contacts but at least all is well in the world again.

Remeber, I did not get as far as doing a downgrade/reinstall of the BlackBerry OS and this might be strictly applicable to OS5 and BIS 2.0 but it’s always worth giving a shot. If it doesn’t work, there’s always the downgrade/reinstall on the OS end.

But one thing’s for sure: I hope you never experience this problem but at the same time, don’t give up on trying to figure out what went wrong. Sometimes, a complete wipe is just what a device like this needs.

This started less than a month back, just a couple of weeks into when I started using Sun Cellular’s BlackBerry Internet Service. I had switched to Sun’s BIS for two things: I’m a postpaid plan owner so having the BIS as part of my bill makes paying convenient instead of doing it the prepaid way with Globe, and second, Sun’s BIS was cheaper (Php999 per month for unlimited BIS, tax inclusive).

So after much deliberation, I finally switched to Sun’s BIS.

Boy was I wrong.

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That’s definitely the plan although I can’t do that anytime soon. I just picked up a new phone less than six months ago and that was also the time I started using a BlackBerry. Now, RIM has announced that a new Bold will be coming out in the market before this year closes out which is the BlackBerry 9780.

When I was going to pick up my first BlackBerry, I still wanted to try out the whole thing: QWERTY keypad, new phone brand, data plan. So I chose not to spend on a more expensive model and picked up the Curve 8520 instead of the Bold 9700. Quite timely since less than a year later from when I picked up my phone, the 9780 comes out. It does come out, I think, a year after the 9700 rolled out so it’s ok for the early-adopters of the 9700 to upgrade but in my case, I avoid changing phones too soon especially if it’s a low-spec smartphone to a high-spec smartphone. It’s an expensive habit that I don’t want to develop. So I’ll probably wait it out till around April of next year to change phones but I’m definitely picking up a Bold.

So why do I want this particular device? Why not the Torch, right?

I still prefer a candybar design over a slider and I still prefer a dedicated keypad design over touchscreen. I definitely plan to own an Android alongside my BlackBerry eventually but I can confidently say the BlackBerry stays for good until RIM fucks up and makes me want to leave (the way Nokia’s been making lame phones while everyone else has been rolling out game-changers for the past couple of years).

This Bold has twice the RAM of the 9700, better battery life, and already comes with OS6. Now I am aware that RIM had acquired a software company which they will use to develop the PlayBook OS which they said would eventually be the basis for future BlackBerry device operating systems. But then the PlayBook came out around the same time the Torch started rolling out and people got their first experience of the much-awaited OS6. So I think it’s safe to say that the PlayBook won’t be out till around late 2011 so that can also mean that RIM will be rolling out a couple more batches of BlackBerries that will have OS6 inside. So the waiting game may not be so bad. I am still ok with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 although the keypad’s starting to give out and I’m beginning to experience some squeaking due to it’s 80% plastic body.

So we’ll see. This might not be the only Bold design to be released within next year but if by that time, and I’m good to go with upgrading to a Bold and there aren’t any rumors of a newer Bold in the horizon, then I’ll grab this one.

I usually don’t pick up figurines like these but this one has a nice face and appears to have a nice sculpt as well. Let alone the fact that the legs look nice also.

This is Okami Ryoko from Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi. Basically she’s the leader of the group called the Otogi Bank. Haven’t really seen the actual show but this figurine has gotten me interested in the series (EDIT: I picked up the 12-ep series from Coffeebugg).

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October’s supposed to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I also know that pink is the color for this campaign. My ninang (godmother) who got me this bracelet is a cancer survivor so all the more than I am wearing this in support of this campaign.

Aside from the fact that I like wearing pink.

As for the bracelet itself, yeap, it’s a PowerBalance bracelet. It’s that popular bracelet you see so many knockoffs of these days. Basically, their claim is that it improves your athletic performance since the mylar hologram embedded in their bracelets interact with your natural body energy flow to improve your balance. They even have tests to prove it.

Of course, with Google, you can easily find hundreds if not thousands of websites that refute PowerBalance’s claims, saying that they’re stealing money from people by selling them a glorified Livestrong bracelet.

So what’s my take on this technology?

It works for me. I won’t tell other people to buy it for themselves but I was curious enough to ask my ninang to get me one directly from the website (the ones being sold locally cost Php2,200-Php2,500 a piece and the availability of sizes and colors are limited). After wearing it, I can definitely say that it has helped improve my overall balance. Now whether it is a placebo or not is beyond me, quite frankly.

One thing’s for sure: it does not work with everyone. Other people, no matter how many bracelets they wear, they’re still as clumsy as before they started wearing the bracelet. There are others who don’t feel anything at all and that the improved balance they felt after wearing the bracelet is no different from anticipating one’s movements and the amount of force or pressure they will be met with.

So if you got one for free or for cheap and it works for you, well and good. If you bought one that’s expensive and it works for you, then you must have really wanted it to dole out that much cash for a silicone bracelet with a hologram. For those who spent money on it but did not feel its effects, just enjoy the fashion accessory that it has become to a lot of people these days.

What I do intend to gripe about on this post though is PowerBalance’s claim that their silicone bracelets are waterproof.

THEY ARE NOT WATERPROOF. Continue Reading

…SO BAD that it has it’s own post. Check out the review at Engadget.com.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT!