Personal Knowledge Base using StackOverflow Clone

A personal knowledge base can be a solution to properly manage your technical issues and solutions. I find myself encountering the same questions or issues again and again but still having to find for the solution. Keeping them it in some searchable Note-taking Application is not so ideal because I usually have no time to arrange these notes. There are even technical issues that can be addressed by different solutions depending on the scenario, so how do we keep track of them easily? I think, the StackOverflow model is just perfect for this. You get to register an issue but rephrasing it as a question. You add the solution that worked as an Answer. The next time you encountered the same problem, you can refer to the same written question and add some comments to the previous solution or propose another solution. There are numerous StackOverflow clones available, but I am limited to those written in PHP so I chose Question2Answer.

Question2Answer

PDF Management for Research using Mendeley

Mendeley Desktop changes the way I manage my collection of PDFs. Before, I often have to manually rename each PDF after opening them, and place the in the appropriate folder. This is really a hassle for me because I still have to track which PDF I have or have not read. Searching also needs to be done using a third-party tool especially if you are searching for an author's name. All these hassles can be solved with Mendeley Desktop. 

Reading and Readability in iOS Devices

Reading PDFs in iOS devices like iPhone and iPod Touch is not easy, because the text is too little and the screen is too small. Zooming-in may require scrolling the page horizontally back and forth. This is because the text in PDF cannot be subjected to word wrapping. The ePub format has gained popularity because unlike PDF it is designed for reflowable content. Meaning, the long lines will eventually move down (reflow) without creating horizontal scroll bars. What tools can we use to convert PDF or webpages to ePub?

Best Money Management App for iOS (IPhone and IPod Touch)

The App Store has a category for Finance, but among the many money management apps that are free, I find only one app that matches my needs. Most of the good ones are actually paid apps, and their free editions are too restrictive as it limits the number of transactions you can add. Having such app allows you to track expenses and income, which makes budgeting easier and account management easier. PocketMoney Lite is just the perfect app that offers password protection, data backup, 2 separate accounts (paid versions can have more), unlimited number of transactions, categorization of deposits, withdrawals, and transfers, complex reports (charts), repeating transactions (paid versions can have unlimited entries), and a very easy to use interface. What about the other apps?

Comparison of Free Bible Apps for iPhone and Ipod Touch

I downloaded some free Bible Apps for my iPod Touch. Most of them share the same set of features like highlighting verses, bookmarking verses, adding your own notes, performing searches, and viewing reading history. Here is the list of apps (ordered) installed with their corresponding links to iTunes for you to see the screenshots of the programs. But among the freely available apps, I like the ESV Bible most, followed by Bible by Youversion, BibleReader by Olive Tree, and Holy Bible by Paul Avery.

1. ESV Bible


2. Bible by YouVersion.com


3. Holy Bible by Paul Avery


4. BibleReader


5. Blue Letter Bible


6. CCEL Devotional Bible


7. Mantis Study Bible


8. The Holy Bible - King James Version


9. Bible.is


10. Bible+1


11. Logos Bible Software

Best and Free Diagram and Graph Maker

I've been finding a good, free, and easy to use diagram or graph making software. I'm doing some experiments on visualizing some natural language representation. I need to do this manually so I can easily study and compare different representations. I need a tool that can allow me to easily add nodes and edges, and customize the colors. The program must be able to arrange or to layout the nodes and the edges. I was able to try yEd Graph Editor, a free Java program, that allows me to create something like the one below.

[caption id="attachment_748" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="John 3:6 using YEd Graph Editor"][/caption]

A Local and Private Microblog using StatusNet

This is a continuation/additional post for my previous entry "A Local and Private Microblog using Laconica". Please see the previous post as well. Laconica has changed it's name to StatusNet and has been constantly active in improving their open source code.

Best Wordpress Plugins Part 2

This is a part 2 of the list of some of the best Wordpress plugins that I've been using. See Part 1 , which was written last year, December 2009, for more plugins. I'm no longer using some of the plugins in Part 1, and some I have replaced by those listed below.

Advanced Most Recent Posts Mod

Display most recent posts from selected categories or current category or all posts with thumbnail images (optional).

Backupify for WordPress

Backup of WordPress database and all files to your Backupify account.

Facebook Like

Add the new Facebook Like button and Facebook Recommendations widget to your wordpress blog.

Sandboxing Applications with Sandboxie

Sandboxing is a security mechanism where applications can be isolated and activities can be restricted. I find Sandboxie the most effective application to provide sandboxing. I have tried many free alternatives, but they were not able to support all applications. The first sandboxing application I know is GreenBorder which was founded in 2001 then bought by Google in 2007. There's already some speculations that GreenBorder will be integrated with Google Chrome. Other alternatives include Returnil and Comodo Time Machine. What can we do with these apps?

Launching Applications with Launchy

Launchy is an open source keystroke application launcher. This is quite similar to the new Start Menu with search capabilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, I find Launchy faster in terms of finding the app I need. It's easier to manage which shortcuts to index and you can also use it along with some plugins that allow you to perform arithmetic computations.

Faster File Copy

I'm currently using the Dell Vostro laptop which Datacraft gave to us. Last October 2, I transferred all my files from my Asus Laptop to the new one. I was thinking of an efficient way of transferring more than 30GB of files. The issue was not limited to the file size, but also in the number of files to be transferred. If they were just 10 big files, it would be simple, but there were many small files involved. I decided to make a network transfer, since our portable hard drive has only few free space remaining.

SumatraPDF as an Alternative to Adobe Reader

In one of the PDF documents I've opened using Adobe Reader, I found out that it can use too much CPU cycles when hovered to an image with a tooltip. What happens is that the tooltip keeps blinking, causing the spikes in CPU usage. This however does not happen in SumatraPDF, a light PDF Reader. I find SumatraPDF easy to use, and is simpler when compared to Adobe's. Only the basic functions you need for reading (like search and jump to page) are available so you don't have to deal with many options and buttons that you don't usually need or use.

HeidiSQL as an alternative to SQLYog

Yesterday, I transferred my Wordpress blog from my local computer to the web server. I encountered this error from SQLYog after exporting my database which says that "SQLYog is getting terminated." I'm not sure what causes this, but I'm sure it's because of the installation process since I made my portable version of SQLYog. Exporting other databases and using the root user result to the same error.

My Best WordPress Plugins

Wordpress is the best blogging platform because it's simple and elegant. Currently the most active project with high community participation in themes and plugins development. Today I'm listing the plugins I use for my Wordpress. I'll just copy their descriptions and provide the link to their corresponding Wordpress' Extend page. This post also helps me update my plugins easier. My free server hosting this blog imposes time limits, thus I cannot benefit from the easy plugin update process.

Password Managers

Password managers are programs used to store your user accounts, passwords, and any secret text. Instead of remembering the passwords you use for your individual accounts, you only have to remember one password which is the one used to encrypt and decrypt or access your password manager.

LClock Review: A Calendar

Using only 600KB of memory, occupying less than 2MB of disk space, and running without the need of installing it in your system, LClock (Longhorn Systray Clock) is a tiny calendar and alarm that looks and works good. The software have been existing since 2004. Though it may seem to be oudated or unsupported or it does not have a perfect official site, the program is one of the simple but good calendar app around. It enables you to customize the clock style, and allows you to view the calendar in an instant click on the clock, similar to Vista's feature. Users are free to customize a lot of settings particularly the styles of the calendar and the clock.

Miranda IM Review

This is my first review post. Today, I am sharing to you my two-year experience in using Miranda IM 0.7. The project started around 2000, and the team is currently working on version 0.8. Some might have already heard or seen this great program, or others might ask how and why this review is worth reading.

Miranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows. It's similar to Linux' (and also for Windows') Pidgin (formerly GAIM), Trillian Messenger, Digsby, or a desktop version for Meebo. Whether you have single or multiple accounts, Miranda IM is something you should consider.