Making URLs shorter have become very easy, thanks to services such as TinyURL, RubyURL, and urlTea.

dwarfURL is another one of those services – and more. It has become a personal favorite, mainly because it has the ability to track how many people actually clicked on your link.

For example, my dwarf URL is this:

I chose "password" as my password. To view how many people have actually visited this URL, I simply appended my password to the URL. Click on the link below to the click stats:

And of course, it has a quaint Firefox extension. Very handy for us Twitter users.

Dwarf it baby!

Whenever you hook up your USB thumb drive to your PC, you usually see a load of crap asking you how you want Windows to open your files. This is called autoplay.

In all my work with computers, I have only seen one person who actually used this, er, feature; which makes you wonder why Microsoft even enabled this by default in Windows XP installations.

Aside from relieving yourself from further annoyances, there is another reason why you would want to disable autoplay: leaving it enabled is actually a security risk. You probably have not been infected with the rootkit that lovingly came with some Sony CDs last year, but that is not a reason to wait. Disable it -- right about now.

1. Go to Start > Run
2. Type gpedit.msc & press Enter. The Group Policy window should appear.

3. On the tree menu on the left, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System.
4. On the right, look for Turn off Autoplay, & double click it.

5. The Turn Off Autoplay Properties window should appear. From the dropdown in Turn off Autoplay on:, select which drives you want to disable it from (I would personally recommend you select All drives).

6. Click OK.

After this post has reached far more readership than I have imagined, guilt took over. I have decided to calm down, & take Globe Telecom’s IMEvrywhr for another test drive.

Fourteenth time’s a charm: I was able to login & actually used it for a few weeks. This is an attempt to provide a less scathing review of an article which has, unfortunately, reached the #1 rank in Google for the key phrase “globe imevrywhr” (or at least as of this writing).

The IM feature meets the minimum requirements – it does allow you to send instant messages to your IMEvrywhr buddies. It also enables you to send photos for free, & integrates your phone’s camera in the menu system. You could also set status (invisible, busy, etc.), buy IM usage credits, & apparently update the software from the menu.

After writing that paragraph, I am now at lost for words. This is the main problem with IMEvrywhr. Try as we might to give a glowing review & make it sound like the most amazing thing since sliced pichi pichi, it's just very hard to say a lot of good things about it.

• It doesn't connect with the IM servers of Yahoo, MSN, AIM, etc. It is limited to your IM buddies within the Globe network.
• You cannot search for buddies. The only way you can add a friend is if you actually know their usernames.
• The user interface leaves much to be desired. You cannot even distinguish what you’ve typed from your buddies’, except for that teeny weeny arrow icon beside the text.

To its credit, IMEvrywhr implemented a clever ploy to make you buy additional IM usage: It sends you an SMS whenever you receive an offline message. Whether or not the message you received is actually from you buddy or just a system from Globe, I have yet to find out.

IMEvrywhr tried to compensate by putting an influx of “features” that has nothing to do with instant messaging:

• Address book. Basically just your contacts on your phone.
• SMS. Allows you to read your SMS from IMEvrywhr, so you don’t have to exit the client.
• G-Cash & Share-A-Load menu. Cash & load is something that gets passed around frequently among friends. I think this will be useful in the future, but will probably make more sense if integrated with instant messaging.
• AskG. Allow me not to tone down the sarcasm on this one. AskG is an amazing service for people who like asking idiots for directions. By the way, you will not get a warning that VAS rates apply whenever you use this.

Curiously enough, despite its heavy promotion on the instant messaging features, it seems Globe meant it to be more than that -- as a desktop replacement to your phone's standard start page or screensaver. It is meant to be always on, & the integration with the address book & message inbox is proof of that.

Of course there's basically nothing wrong with this strategy -- but only if we were not presented with such a half-baked IM client. Which we were.

IMEvrywhr is far more cluttered than one would expect from an instant messenger. It is reminiscent of the portal mentality of the year 2000, when all we wanted was an apple, & they keep on giving us a frickin’ tree.

Unfortunately, to anyone who subscribe to Web 2.0’s "simplicity rocks" mentality, IMEvrywhr won’t cut it.

To its benefit, the user interface does fit perfectly with the boring & antiquated corporate image that we consumers have associated with a company like Globe Telecom.

IMEvrywhr has its promises -- unfortunately, the instant messaging feature isn’t it.

There are enough articles on Windows Vista, and by more credible people at that. However, mail continues to pour in, & this is my humble attempt to answer some of them:

Windows Vista is so expensive. Where is the cheapest place to buy it?
- Thelma A.

If you're planning on buying a new PC, now is the best time to do it. New PCs usually come with an OEM version of Windows Vista. An OEM version is exactly the same as the boxed version — minus the nice bounded user manuals (which you probably won’t read anyway).

I work for a large organization. My boss is asking me if we should upgrade our computers to Vista. What should I tell him? Is it true that it has to be activated on the internet? Some of our PCs are not allowed to access the internet for security reasons.
- G. Toronto

Windows Vista has something called Key Management Service (KMS) to handle volume activation. You just need to install this in a PC within your network. Your computers simply need to activate thru this PC (the KMS host), without the need to connect to the internet.

The bad:

• Complicated setup
• Limited to Business & Enterprise editions (no support for Ultimate)
• Minimum of 25 computers
• All PCs need to be reactivated every 6 months

Should I upgrade to Windows Vista? Or should I wait?

Allow me, instead, to tell you my personal reasons why I am not upgrading to Windows Vista (yet).

My main machine is on Windows XP Professional. I'll be purchasing a new notebook in a few weeks, & I plan on having it preinstalled with XP, too (even if it could come with Vista at the same price).

But, I'm a special case. Changing operating systems are not as simple for people with my line of work. I use custom-made programs, and my computer interconnects with a lot of systems. Additionally, I have an insane work schedule. I do not have the time yet to test a new operating system & how my other applications will react to it.

How long do I think I can wait until I finally give in? Maybe 2 to 3 years. The novelty of constantly upgrading my hardware has finally worn off. It was a sad waste of my time, energy, and money.

Software & hardware are merely tools, after all. In the end, it’s my output & how I make use of my machine that will count.

The same graphic designer who made a fantastic sketch in Adobe Illustrator could easily be outdone by another artist who merely used Microsoft Paint. And believe me, I have actually met & worked with these kinds of people.

You may submit your questions thru the email form here.

This is the 2nd installment of the Joomla Template Tutorial Series.

The following are discussed in this article: Identifying Joomla elements, creating the directory structure, setting up index.php, & coding the Joomla elements.

What open source topics are you interested in? Is there a particular subject area that you think should be discussed in-depth in a seminar or conference?

We’re organizing a series of half-day seminars and/or hands-on tutorials which will center on an Open Source theme. This will be held in a few months time, most probably in Makati City, Philippines.

At this point, we are still at the stage where we collate possible topics that we can offer to the public. I would like to request for your help. If there is any particular topic that you have in mind that relates to open source, I would really appreciate it if you can send me an email (or post in the comment form).

If you are interested to be a resource speaker, please do contact me, too. Please include you contact info, credentials & other information which you feel will assist us handling the speaker assignments.

Not happy with the Google Talk embedded in Gmail? You can have a much richer (and prettier) interface by going to http://google.com/talk and clicking Launch Google Talk.

The same website also contains instructions on how you can embed it on your webpage with your own customized width, height, border colors, and title.