Xmas thoughts

21st Dec 2007 by Chris

For years now, I have been working on my simbang gabi devotion.  Every 16th to the 24th, my sister and I have been faithful to our promise to complete the 9days Misa de Galeo.  This season, I really feel kinda weird. I’m wondering why on earth I’m not feeling the Xmas spirit.  Its not like I feel like I’m being a grinch of some sort, its just that the season and its spirit of joy and giving is definitely not sinking into me.

Every dawn since the 16th, I have been waking up at around 2:30am and get ready for the 3:00am mass.  Its been my nature to wake up first before my sis.  Though my eyes looked puffy from lack of sleep and that chronic tiredness from slaving daily at the office, I wonder why I still got the courage and strength to go to Mass.  more…

Category: Random thoughts  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment

Stress Reliever

21st Dec 2007 by Chris

Its very different when you write scripts for business and for research.  Personally, I love to work on research projects since its more lax, and it definitely follows SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle).  I’ve tried working for both kinds, and I say, business related developments are far more stressful.

Here are some of my reasons why they are more stressful than research projects:

  • there are no Technical Document whatsoever
  • there are no turnover materials
  • there is no changelog, and no code repository
  • testing is tedious, and it gets skipped most of the time
  • deployment is always due yesterday
  • there are limited number of testers or none at all
  • resources get stumped, rejected or pressed with funding
  • feature requests don’t get queued or discussed

more…

Category: Random thoughts, Techie  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

Windows Vista and Me

23rd Nov 2007 by Chris

Technically speaking

Before there was Windows Vista, we heard much buzzwords from Windows Longhorn topics and writeups.  Rumors about a new Windows version that is killing the hacking spree focused on Windows.

As much as I hate hackers (because they do not use ethics–most of the time), I also don’t like the overly defensive measures of Microsoft.  I think that, the main reason I’d like to adhere to the thought of using unlicensed/pirated/cracked Windows versions is that I won’t really use Windows as a platform for kicking off business platforms or models.  Of course, I’m speaking for myself.  I’d rather use cracked ones for simply browsing through the net and hunting freewares and free services that I can use.

When there came about topics and articles about Longhorn, it made me skeptical and curious.  When in 2005, the change of Longhorn’s name came about, I think it made a better feel or anticipation for the general IT audience.  Longhorn itself has brought a negative impact on the majority of the IT people around the globe.  One of the few items that has been remarkable enough to be remembered about the talks on Longhorn is about WinFS, and the other one was Palladium. more…

Category: Random thoughts, Techie  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Yep, it sounds kool alright!

10th Nov 2007 by Chris

I love music! And this battle of college bands, definitely sounds kool! ;-)
Watch it live from neTVision!!!. Its free! Just click on the logo below to watch!!!

Category: Techie  Leave a Comment

Easy website the easy way

5th Nov 2007 by Chris

I know how it must feel like for someone who’s so into the net and wants to have his/her own webpage but can’t.. for so many reasons.  I used to own a personal domain, til I got tired of keeping it.  Probably, by now, it could’ve been ranked as one of the earliest blogs there is from a Filipino, but due to a very busy sked, I decided not to keep it instead.

Though owning a website is fun and is definitely more than just recreation, it also has its tolls, especially on a newbie or to someone who just can’t spend much time starting everything from installation and into deployment.  You could worry about a lot of things in between like setting up the restrictions, installation of add ons/gadgets/features that you may want/need in your site, coding (of course) and at lot of maintenance.  Thing is, the reason why I decided to stick with service providers (like I.ph) is because they’re already stable and easy to use.  Starting it all up by yourself may be a good option if you’re out of work.. ;)

Ah, well.. but to those who’d really want to have one the easy way, there is a couple of sites that I found that gives fairly easy interface to the common internet lurker.  Personally, I’ve had these tried out, and hopefully you’ll get my sentiments: more…

Category: Techie  Tags: , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment

I am in bad humor

31st Oct 2007 by Chris

I am in bad humor because…

  • I do not feel happy about what I have become in my work.
  • I do not feel appreciated with what I do
  • I have become the fire at the office place, always speaking my mind
  • I do not intend to be passive.  I just do what I believe is right, in a sensible and responsible way.
  • I want to make myself heard, but I do not want to make too much noise.
  • I have lost the structure.  I am lost in red tape and in a well built office place complex.
  • I am missing some thoughts because I’m busy thinking of what will happen to me.
  • I am hesitating to work in full optimal productivity because I do not believe that it is solely my job
  • I have aged in a regular 8-5 job, that used to make me happy.

I am in bad humor.  In fact, I have no humor at all right now.  Shall I say, "humor me"??

Category: Random thoughts, Techie  Leave a Comment

Getting “Good Guys”

30th Oct 2007 by Chris

Technically speaking, its hard to find good guys.  I’m not referring to the vicious looking and evil doll popularized by “Chucky”, but people who are worth keeping at the office.

How to get “Good Guys”:

  • Ask around from people whom you know has good credibility.  This might be a person whom you’ve worked with before and earned a lot of respect, or somebody you’ve known to be of good name within the crowd he belongs to.
  • Get good people from good pools.  Find them through job sites like Jobstreet and/or JobsDB.  A lot of professionals invest in putting their resumes online through these job sites.
  • Pay attention to the society where your potential worker might belong to.  Listen up and listen well.  More often than not, those who have the heart to work an extra mile for their careers are those who will work well in the field they specialize in.
  • Civil or not, you can also get good people from good companies.  Every opportunity is fair game.  Chances are, what their output is in that company will be just the same or better when they’re in your court.  Business will always be business in the end.
  • Research their background.  This should be pretty standard and straightforward.  Every hiring personnel should know and must do this as part of a protocol.  (Even I myself do this).  To mention a few, try calling all their character references.  Find out more about the person’s attitude, working ethics, and performance.  To further strengthen their testimonies, try searching for their web footprints.  These are things that one can no longer strip as part of their character.  Where one has been and what has been duly reported as an imprint of his character online is what can be the potential expectation you will meet during his/her time of service to you.

more…

Category: Random thoughts, Techie  Tags:  Leave a Comment

Hard Drive worries

28th Oct 2007 by Chris

Early on, when I switched my desktop PC to Ubuntu, I had a trouble with one of my harddisks.  I had an 80GB SATA drive as my primary drive (which was initially in Windows).  I had to bear with the difficulty of data loss.  Since it was still under warranty, I managed to get some of the data in it by making it a secondary disk and grabbing its contents from the Ubuntu OS.  

Having used it for almost a year, I thought that it might have been worn out or so, that's why it finally gave up.  I believe so, because a day won't pass without that machined being booted up and used for almost 12-18 hours in a day.  Just awhile ago, I stumbled upon an article that discusses dangers of using Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn and Gutsy Gibbon distros for hard disks.  What a coincidence to be reading this article, when I was just upgrading my distro to Gutsy Gibbon release!

Anyway, I'll watch out for this bug/ticket to be closed.  For you guys out there, read on.. and find some shelter in their tips and tricks.

http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/explanation-ubuntu-hard-drive-wear-and-tear

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/137420 

For now, I'll be on Windows.. but for sure to still be using opensource tools! :D

Category: Techie  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

10 reasons why neTVision rocks

3rd Oct 2007 by Chris

For a person who’s so into the PC 24/7.. like me, there is no way I’d like to sacrifice PC time for TV time… ergo, I miss much from the TV.

Ask me the latest commercials, and I don’t know. Ask me the funniest sitcom, and I don’t know. Movies? Yeah, but only in cinemas. TV? nah, no time. But, since I’ve been into neTVision, I’ve seen a lot of opportunities to make TV work for the PC person like myself.

Personally, neTVision rocks, for the following reasons: more…

Category: Cool Finds, Movies, Random thoughts, Techie  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

The Perfect Boss

24th Sep 2007 by Chris

…is non existent!

Its hard to obey a boss who can’t decide for himself.
Its hard to obey a boss who can’t handle his own problems.
Its hard to obey a boss who doesn’t do as he says.
Its hard to obey a boss who’d rather slack out the time than plan ahead.
Its hard to obey a boss who doesn’t wanna talk to you.
Its hard to obey a boss who doesn’t wanna listent to you.
Its hard to obey a boss when he’s not there.
Its hard to obey a boss.. for so many reasons.  But what does it take to be one?  And who is the perfect boss?

A year and a half ago, I came across an article on “How to be a Good Boss“.  Sometimes I get to thinking, what kind of boss am I?  At best, I follow most of the items from this article.. more…

Category: Random thoughts, Techie  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
« Previous Entries