We all know when it comes to text chatting, Yahoo! messenger leads the pack. The timely notification of friends online status change, individual (independent) window for each chat session, no Skype-link downtime and it's the good old Yahoo messenger!

Now imagine chatting via Yahoo! messenger with your Facebook friends. The chat looks less intrusive (as it is on the Facebook site) and you get to focus easily on your other activities (but should be done outside work hours). Best enjoyed during the weekends, when you'll like to keep in touch with friends and not have to dedicate a whole webpage to it, let alone the back and forth navigation to that page. That is what the latest version of Yahoo! messenger just made possible.

So in this post I am going to show you how to use this new feature of Yahoo! Messenger.

Finally, Apple approves Google+ app! The only issue is, iPod (regardless of the generation) and iPad are not supported, in fact, I couldn't search out the app on my iPod 4G. 

That aside, in this post I am going to share with you what the Google+ looks like on web via a computer and on android via the android app.

J'ai peine couvert 2 Km en deux heures
L'embouteillage est fidèle comme d'habitude
Bienvenue à ma ville
Tous les jours, je me lève à 4h20
Quand le coq est encore ronfler
Je sors avant le soleil se réveille
Je passe plus de temps sur la route que dans le bureau
Ma ville est située dans le sud-ouest du Nigeria
Elle est petite géographiquement, mais énorme démographiquement
Nous avons tout: les trains, les routes, les bateaux, les pauvres et les riches
Mais nous essayons garder notre santé mentale
Chaque jour, nous marchons à nos tombes
Poussé par les embouteillages, le stress et nos voisins
Pouvez-vous deviner ma ville?

In one of my earlier post I went through the steps of recharging your phone line online via Quickteller . Well, for some like me, who use a Naira Mastercard (GTBank's ATM cards), you won't be able to complete the recharge card purchase. So in this new post, Your GTBank Naira mastercard now works on Quickteller

In fact, I have been using my GTB Naira Mastercard on Quickteller to pay my Airtel postpaid line bill for over a year now.

But, I will still give you the list of other websites you can buy recharge cards or top-up to recharge your phone lines on and as usual, with relevant snapshots.


So, here we go!

Last year I made a post on making your newly rooted phone speedier. Well, I have just discovered an equally novel way of getting the best out of a new ROM, be it you are upgrading or installing the ROM for the first time.

Since this post will have lots of images, I will go straight to the crust. The whole idea behind this post is hinged on the fact that preserving data and system settings across ROMs makes the phone oftentimes perform less speedy than on the former ROM, even though you just did an upgrade. And that is what I discovered when I upgraded from CyanogenMod 6.0 to CyanogenMod 6.1, when I preserved the system settings the phone was annoyingly sluggish, but when I wiped the system settings (a factory reset) the phone was amazingly speedy. In (near) fact, the homescreen scrolls before I actually swipe! But in this post I will teach you how to factory reset your phone to get the best out of the new ROM and yet not lose a single system/user data, not even a last call record!

As is my usual (self-inconvenienting) habit, I will start from the basics.

All my castles are built in the air
Which is quite a great accomplishment
In the reality of the age now here
Where it is no little achievement
To become a full time motivational speaker
Selling overpriced well furnished airborne castles
To multitudes who keep buying the same thing over
Possessing more of an illusion than the parcels
So to have built mine from the scratch
And taking me about half my lifetime
To furnish several with no match
Is in my heart a source of joyous chime
A chime that resonates through my whole being
Making me feel as important as the pope
Leaving my intercession with reality thin
And my head pumped big with balloons of hope
Hope built on knowledge of a coming future
A future that will start with a relocation
An occupation of my castle, a lifelong treasure
The heralding of my most glorious earthly transition
But today I moved closer to reality, and could not
But ask, "Why is the future this far?"

One thing I avoid in my tech-life is redundancy. I know it sounds foolish (at least from a corporate view point). One thing all the tech books I've read recently have hard coded into my running configuration (I  mean my conscious mind) is to always mitigate network/device/application failure via redundancy.
To make this less techy, all redundancy means  is - Always have more than one road connect two cities! So now you will better understand my second sentence in the first paragraph.

Why do I avoid redundancy? Ok, to make it less wordy I'll list all I have in my tech cabinet -
1. Sony Vaio laptop
2. Android phone
3. iPod touch 64GB
4. HSPA/EDGE/GPRS USB modem, and
5. Nokia 6021 dumb phone.

Implementing redundancy means a ready alternative for failure of any of the laptop, phones and modem. So in practical terms, I'll have to own two of each (at least have access to two). Now you might say, "You've got two phones, your android phone can function as a modem too, and there are cloud apps that can ameliorate failure of your laptop. So you already have some redundancy." Uh.., well, maybe yes. But I still avoid redundancy, I don't fancy owning two laptops, two phones (actually my android phone is mean't for everything besides phone call, I hate receiving calls on it) or even a bigger screen iPod (iPad).

Now you might be wondering, "Why all this yarn?" Simple! I don't like having separate internet access on my devices (except the dumb phone, which I care little about than its green and red button). So the essence of this post is to show you how to share internet access (be it broadband or dial-up) on your laptop with all your other wifi capable devices (especially the mobile ones).

So, allons-y!

People bottle me in a first impression
And clone me out of my first expression
They know most of me after a first encounter
Claiming intimacy with my very character
But after the encounters are a few more
And their impressions gone on a number tour
They run out of suitable bottles
And the initial clone crumbles
Still they work hard like I carry a bet
To fix me somewhere in their mind's cabinet
And to my great disappointment
I end up in a file tagged "different"
The harder I try to change the file
The more I get stuck like a tile
Though I'm getting used to the label
I still consider it an unpublished libel
I limit my activities to what is common
And try hard to be like everyone
But no one seems to notice my progress
They all have me laid like a game of chess
So I gave up and told myself
Since I get to shock no one but myself
I am quitting being like everyone
I am moving on to the uncommon
And fulfilling this new resolution
Is my newly found obsession

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to make an urgent long duration call and the nearest spot to get an Airtel or MTN or Etisalat or Glo recharge card will make the call unurgent. Or do you live/work in an area where 4-digits card denomination (NGN1000, NGN1500 & NGN5000) are non-existing. Or maybe you like doing everything from your desk/bed -- sleeping, eating, calling, shopping and working.
Well, I have come across the perfect solution for your phone recharge needs (and some of your shopping and utility bill payment needs). And I'll share it with you in a most kindergarten way, even a computer illiterate that managed to find this post will find this a cupcake.

I remember the first time I installed Linux, I had never seen Linux on a system before, didn't want to use a virtual machine and I was going to install it on my new laptop. On top of all these, I downloaded Ubuntu 8.04 Alternate CD image, which has no live-booting feature or even a graphic user interface for the installation, everything was console configuration. I spent hours doing the installation, there were over 10 steps (I strongly think) and I knew less than nothing about ext, ext2, ext3, swap space, grub and root. I got terribly stuck at the mount point, swap file and home partition configuration, I wasn't allowed to get to the next step until I had tried nearly all the options. I was sweating inside and couldn't wait to finish and see if the laptop will recognize its power button. Fortunately, God answered my Jonah modelled prayer, the laptop responded when I pressed the power button. It spent so much time on the VAIO logo display, my heart did a short sprint.