University of Bologna. It is the first university to use the word “university” during its foundation. No wonder why it’s also the oldest university in the world. The establishment itself is an interesting piece of artifact. So walking around the university is already an exciting time travel.

Also visit the Orto Botanico di Bologna, the botanical garden that is located in and operated by the university. It was established in 1568, making it one of the oldest gardens in Europe.

University of Oxford. Move over Cambridge fans! Whether you like it or not, Oxf is the second oldest university in the world. Besides, the founders of the Cambridge University are former Oxford students.

The exact date of its establishment may be unclear but documents tell that there was teaching at Oxford as early as 1096. It’s also one of the best universities in UK, where some of the most influential world leaders and artists graduated from. Everything is geek here so don’t be surprised if it has over a hundred libraries and the oldest museum in UK.

University of Salamanca. The Spain’s oldest university is also the country’s most excellent education institution. Founded in 1134, Salamanca is the first school in Europe to formally receive the title “University.”

They say that if you want to learn Spanish, go to Salamanca. But when you get there, never forget to take a picture with the statue of Fray Luis de Leon, take a closer look at the university’s intricate façade, and visit its old library.

If you’ve ever wanted to do some creative traveling after doing something geeky, The Best Colleges has published a list of the 50 Prettiest College Campuses and it might be fun to try to visit each one at some point in your lifetime.

A few days ago, someone emailed me and asked me to check out geckogo.com. As a somewhat jaded blogger and net surfer, I was thinking that this was going to be some uninspired clone of Travelocity—a site that only offers a convenient way of booking your flights and take advantage of discounts in package tours.

Boy, was I wrong.

GeckoGo-Hotel and Travel Guide is a relatively refreshing way of looking at travel. According to the site, GeckoGo is a “collaborative travel planning resource for independent travelers”. They’ve really got the description down pat, what the website is, is a wonderful series of resources on different places and countries as “reported” by travelers who have actually been there. The site caters to travelers who eschew the package tours and established itineraries that are commonly visited by the everyday, unimaginative tourist. This site is for those who want to wander off the beaten path.
Although you get the usual travel book descriptions of each country in the site, the real gem here are the personal accounts of travelers. You get tips on travel essentials for each country, what to expect, the places to see and even different accommodations in the country. The tips alone are worth checking out as I have always maintained that you can never get enough information about a country. For all you know that one tip can actually save you a lot of trouble. The hotels and accommodations cited in GeckoGo are also rated so it’s a great way of checking out which ones will offer good value for money and which ones are just plain crap and not worth a penny.

GeckoGo also offers a small community answering forum that is similar to Yahoo! Answers. Basically, a visitor can ask a question that can be answered by other people. Again, this is a convenient and highly useful feature that really brings up the value of the web site. I have a quibble about the site in terms of its technical aspects though. When I used Mozilla Firefox, I kept getting this error every time I go to a new page. It was a minor thing but at some point it was starting to get annoying.

Although the fundamentals of this site are quite solid, I have to say that it does suffer from the relatively low number of visitors. There just aren’t enough reviews at the moment for the more exotic countries in Europe, and most especially in Asia. But this is a small criticism for an overall very promising travel site. I’m pretty sure that with a more aggressive marketing effort, GeckoGo will attract that magic number of visitors that will bulk up the valuable information that it offers to non-traditional travelers.

Engadget has a great review of HP’S 13-inch Envy laptop out, and I’m here to digest the review and present the most important parts for you guys. It’s been called a Macbook Pro clone, and from the looks alone, it really does deserve the title. It has an aluminum body, chiclet keys, even a buttonless trackpad. But how does it stack up to Apple’s premiere notebook?

Hardware-wise, it’s already supposed to be an ok notebook. Just look at the specs: Intel Core™ 2 Duo processor, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, and a 13-inch screen with a 1600 x 900 resolution. The “Beats”-branded speakers actually sound slightly better than in other netbooks as well. However, there is a bit of a drawback: the buttonless trackpad, obviously patterned after the Macbook’s trackpad, is a little, well, clunky. And of course what kind computer manufacturer would not install any crap and bloatware on a Windows 7 install, rendering the usually-snappy OS to slow down? HP does just that, true to form.

Here’s what Engaget says about the HP Envy:

Overall we’re very conflicted about the Envy 13. Hardware wise it’s one of our favorite laptops ever, but the trackpad almost destroys all of that good will built up by the other elements — no matter how great a laptop is, if it’s painful to interact with on the go (without an external mouse), what’s the point? We also have to say that Windows 7 doesn’t make this laptop crazy delicious in any particular manner. It’s certainly a better OS than Vista, but it’s not so much better to make it a huge selling point in our book or a lure for folks who don’t normally walk the Windows path, since many of the traditional pitfalls are still present. All we can say in summary is that we hope HP manages to update the trackpad drivers very, very soon, and that other PC manufacturers steal a bit from HP’s and / or Apple’s in other respects, since it seems to be working.

What do you think? Is the HP Envy worth it, or do you think you’re better off going for a cheaper netbook?

Tech Report has pitted two very similar 11.6 inch laptops against each other: the Acer Aspire One 751h versus the Gateway LT3103u. Who will win?

Liliputing says:

The short answer? If you value battery life over performance, go with the Acer model. If you want a bit more processing power and you’re cool with 3-4 hours of battery life, the Gateway may do the trick.

What would you choose? The longer battery life or the one with more power? What will suit your travelling needs more?

In the global travel industry what you need is great service and great fares to capture the attention of travelers anywhere. It’s a good thing that expedia.com.au realizes this and has come up with a great product and service that really benefits travelers.

Anyone who has traveled before and who has more than a baby’s knowledge of the internet knows that online travel booking is the wave of the future and Expedia is a brand that is quite well known in the industry. Expedia.com.au basically offers the same great service that its American counterpart has been known to give. And when I say great service I mean great flights—cheap flights, that is. Expedia always manages to give the best rates to almost any destination, and all of this happens while relaxing at the comfort of your own home. I think e-commerce is really best suited for the travel industry because you get a good complement of information tools in the form of the internet and the data provided by the online travel service. Expedia gives travelers a good deal of information that is quite useful. I particularly love the easy access to car hire information, probably one of the most confusing and frustrating arrangements you can make when travelling.

Speaking of information, the website is well thought out. It’s easy to get the information you need. I also love the Holiday Packages tab, which gives visitors a quick glance at the cheap rates being offered for these travel packages.

Travelers should really consider using Expedia’s services if you want hassle-free bookings at the best rates possible.

Getting second hand information on a laptop that is on my wishlist can be frustrating, especially since I just helped another friend acquire her Macbook Pro a week ago. But curiosity can still be a good cure to technological envy so I went ahead and asked my friend what he thought of his new lappy.

What I got was mostly praises. The Asus EEE was very fast, very efficient in loading programs and, surprisingly, did not have any issues with Windows XP. My friend decided to remove the Xandros Linux OS that came with the EEE because, as my friend put it, he is too chicken to try out Linux.

His only complaint were the tiny keys, which will really be an issue with touch typists who have big fingers. I fall in this category so I’m eager to find out if it would really affect productivity.

Mobile phones let us roam freely around the country (and even around the globe). But this might be an expensive option. VoIP lets us call cheap. But sometimes you can only call other VoIP accounts or VoIP phones. Sometimes you are even limited within a certain VoIP network. There are free interconnection options, but these are also limited, and at times unreliable. I used to be a big fan of Skype, but I’m not so happy with how it’s such a resource hog (on my fast laptop at that!). I’m also an avid user of SIP calls through FWD, but sometimes I’m limited with the numbers (or other VoIP clients) that I can call.

Here’s one service that aims to solve all these problems. Comfi.com offers various options to connect, most notably with its calling card service. Comfi.com is primarily a portal where you can purchase calling cards and calling card credits from various providers.

Options include maintenance-free calling cards, which you don’t have to worry about. These won’t charge you a cent even if you don’t use it often. Some cards are refillable, meaning you don’t have to key in a new account number or PIN each time. Some cards even allow for PIN-less dialing, which means you can just dial a single string of numbers (or dial from memory) without having to key in a PIN when prompted. Some of these do have maintenance fees, though–usually $0.99 per week, which is deducted from the card’s balance automatically.

The comfi.com front page itself gives you an idea of how low the rates can go. These are usually in the one-cent per minute range, though the prices can go lower (like 0.9 cents per minute to some countries). That’s even cheaper than Skype calls!

Comfi.com also gives you choices when it comes to prepaid calling cards. Most would prefer something that can be topped of and that’s PIN-less. This means more convenience and less hassle. Some would prefer to go cheap–The maintenance-free calling cards would be best if you only use calling cards sparingly. But if you’re a heavy user, there’s also an auto refill option, which would charge your credit or debit card accordingly, when your card runs out of balance.

One thing I like is that the site automatically computes the cost and call time available when I choose an option. For instance, this certain card gives me 16 hours and 50 minutes when I buy $10 worth of credits.

I get 168 hours and 21 minutes when I buy $100 worth. That means I get some discounts with volume!

When you’ve decided on a card to purchase (or refill), you are asked to log in to your account. Registration for first time users is easy enough, as you just have to key in your email address, name and a desired password.

You’ll then be asked to input your telephone number for PIN-less dialing. This means whenever you dial from that particular phone, you don’t have to input your PIN. Comfi’s caller ID will identify you automatically and let your call push through. You can opt out of this feature, or input your desired telephone number later.

The last step is the checkout, in which you are asked to input your credit or debit card details. There’s an Auto Refill checkbox that lets Comfi automatically reload your card with $20 worth of credits (from your credit card, of course) whenever the balance reaches $5 or below. You have the option of paying directly by credit/debit card, or through PayPal or Google Checkout.

Once your transaction pushes through, you will then receive dialling instructions via email.

Aside from calling cards, another thing that I like with Comfi is the discounted cellular prepaid cards. You can top up your cellphone, if it’s on mobile networks like Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, and a handful of smaller carriers.

Another interesting feature I like is the Web call, which lets you input two telephone numbers you would like connected. Comfi does the calling, and you are charged the lowest possible per minute rate. You’re likely to save on costs if you’re calling abroad or a mobile phone.

Comfi also offers small VoIP-based PBX systems intended for home and small office use under the Turbopbx brand. Comfi also has its own branded PC to Phone calling service. It’s a bit like Skype, but you have to download Comfi’s own software. The rates are a bit higher than the per minute rates for the calling cards, though. But this service can be useful when you’re traveling and the only way to call is by using your computer and a broadband connection.

Comfi is an all in one solution for people looking for communications options. The highlight, of course, is the vast expanse of calling cards to choose from. Whether you’re a road warrior, or a casual traveller, or setting up a home office, be sure to check out Comfi’s offerings.