I was finally able to run an Apache, PHP, MySQL server on my Sony Ericsson K750i. I did it on my second attempt, the first was disastrous, and that’s putting it mildly, as I crashed my phone and I had to reformat its memory card, wiping out several photos I haven’t been able to save to my PC yet.

I have long wanted to set up a development web server in my K750i, which also serves as my primary USB drive.

WORDPRESS ON MY PHONE. Installing WordPress on my K750i, using Uniform Server. The phone doesn’t actually run it, its memory card is merely being used by the PC to run the server. Click on image to enlarge.

I use my shared hosting space for my WordPress-related work and experiments as well as tests on PHP/MySQL scripts that catch my interest. This setup is such a hassle. I have to FTP files to and from the server and sometimes connections can be so slow that frustration creeps in.

The files in my account have also become such a mess because I’ve tried quite a few scripts, each with its own sub-domain.

I decided I should have a “web server on a stick,” a functioning Apache, MySQL and PHP server on a thumb drive. The Sony Ericsson K750i, as with most multi-media phones, also serves as a USB mass storage drive. This makes it possible to set up an Apache server on its memory card.

Continue reading ‘Running a web server, WordPress on my phone’

(Note: This post is not part of the ReviewMe program). I got an e-mail early this morning from the people behind Text Link Ads (referral link). The e-mail said this site was pre-approved for their newly launched ReviewMe advertising program.

I was intrigued because I never signed up for the program. I was set to just ignore it and continue playing with Drupal but I found that Abe Olandres, one of the country’s top bloggers, signed up for it. In his blog post, people were discussing the rates for their blogs and I got curious how much ReviewMe will be charging for reviews in this site.

REVIEWME VALUATION. My blog’s rate for ReviewMe when I signed up to check the service. I’ve since signed out as I only wanted to know my blog’s rate. Click on image to enlarge.

I signed up to check their service and found that if I join the program, advertisers will have to pay $100 for reviews in this blog, half of it will go to ReviewMe and I get to collect the other half. It was ego-boosting to note that I had the same valuation as Abe’s blog and even Pinoy Tech Blog, the country’s top technology group blog.

I signed out of the program after getting screen grabs of my blog’s valuation. The program isn’t for me.

Continue reading ‘Paying bloggers to write about products, services’

I installed the Drupal 5.0 beta 1 release yesterday and the installation was so easy it could rival WordPress’ famous five-minute installs.

I’ve long wanted to try the open source content management system and for several months now, “try Drupal” has featured prominently in my someday/maybe lists (plural because I kept transferring and playing with new task managers). It became prominent after I found out that The Onion is being run using Drupal.

DRUPAL INSTALLER. The 5.0 beta release of Drupal comes with a web-based installation script. Click on image to enlarge.

The new release comes with a web-based installer that simplifies the setting up of Drupal, After I downloaded the release and I uploaded the files to my test site, I was greeted with the installer when I opened the page, with the notice that I should add write permissions to the settings.php file.

Continue reading ‘Trying out Drupal as content management system’

I’ve upgraded a colleague’s K750i to the latest firmware: the much maligned R1DB001.

Had we been able to upgrade her phone earlier, we wouldn’t have been faced with the option of sticking with R1N035, an old firmware that still has the USB transfer bug, or upgrading to a new one with lowered volume levels, as reported in various forums by those who upgraded.

UPDATING the firmware of the K750i using the Sony Ericsson Update Service. Click on photo to view larger image.

You see, Sony Ericsson’s firmware update service does not allow you to choose which firmware to install, it automatically installs the latest version for your country.

I’ve already decided not to upgrade to the latest firmware. My phone already has the latest prior version: R1CA021. The reason I’m not upgrading to R1DB001 is the universal complaint against its media player and sound quality, as can be gleaned from forum post after forum post in Sony Ericsson message boards.

Continue reading ‘Upgrading Sony Ericsson K750i to latest version: R1DB001′

Media Temple’s promise of 100% uptime with their Grid-Server hosting may sound too good to be true.

I initially thought that it’s chief executive officer’s statement that they are actually considering paying customers, on top of granting them rebates, whenever there is a downtime as coming close to a boast.

I know better now. The 100% server uptime is true.

No, I’m not hosted with Media Temple, yet — although I’m considering a transfer to the Grid-Server — but I’ve been monitoring an account hosted with their servers. When I read about the Grid-Server offering, I searched for a website hosted with them so that I could monitor that site using mon.itor.us, a tool I wrote about earlier.

Continue reading ‘Media Temple delivers on 100% uptime promise’

I finally got my Sony Ericsson K750i to work with the Gmail for mobile application released last week. The first time I tried it, I couldn’t get the inbox to load.

It was puzzling as I could access the Internet using Opera Mini. I kept changing Internet settings and I still couldn’t go past the “loading” screen for the inbox. Just as frustration was threatening to boil over, I spotted the solution.

ACCESSING GMAIL ON K750i. I finally got to connect to my Gmail account using my Sony Ericsson K750i and a Smart Buddy connection. Click on photo to enlarge.

It turns out that you have to specify the Internet settings for Java applications in the K750i. If you’re using a Sony Ericsson with a Smart account, this might do the trick for you: Go to Settings then Connectivity then Settings for Java and pick Smart Internet. That solved the issue for me and I can now use Gmail on my phone.

The application is indeed faster and better to use. I have never been able to use the K750i’s default email program to connect to my Gmail account. I remember spending days trying to make it work a few months back, to no avail.

Continue reading ‘It works: Gmail mobile app on SE K750i and Smart connection’