:: MIS Insights ::

Anyone here into stocks? I just submitted my CitiSecOnline application form along with the other requirements (photocopies of two valid registration IDs, recent billing statement and PhP X,XXX) this afternoon. I hope that it gets processed right away so that I can start trading!

I’m feeling like a student once again. With the gazillion concepts, terms and topics out there available in this field of business, I think this can keep me busy for the days at a time poring through all the research material.

This reminds me of one of my classes that I took up in college. Decision Support Systems under Vic Reventar. He showed us how to use statistical software in predicting behavior or trends over a period of time. In one of those examples, he demonstrated a portfolio management program that allocated the investments to achieve desired gains while maintaining a certain tolerance for risk. I wish I had a copy of that software! No matter, this looks like a job for Pipboy the Programmer Boy!

Photography is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or sensor. — Wikipedia

And that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I caught the shutterbug fever while I was in Hong Kong. Lots of nice subjects there that got me clicking left and right again and again.

I’m not a professional though. At least not yet. There are a lot of things to learn and master in this activity / trade / science.

Join me, as I try to see the world in the lenses of my Nikon D70. No, I’m not kidding. I mean it literally. Come with me. I plan to tour the Philippines in search of wondrous events, sights and cultures. If you’re interested, don’t hesitate to message me. I’m currently planning a trip to Corregidor in around two week’s time.

To do:

1. Look for a convenient (read: time-efficient [read again:lazy]) way of adding copyright watermarks to my pictures
2. Decide which photo-sharing site will suit my needs best (I am currently on Multiply).
3. Enroll in photography classes. I know there are a lot of weekend classes out there.

I almost couldn’t log-in back to my WordPress account! Bad Behavior, my WordPress anti-spam plugin, blocked my IP. Upon trying to log-in, I was greeted by :

Your IP has been blacklisted. It is a possible source of spam and we cannot allow you to proceed any further. Please contact the Site Administrator.

In Tagalog, this means:

Please log-in as the administrator and disable the anti-spam plugin to restore normal operations.

Hmm… Very nice. How do I do that when the spam filter prevents me from logging in?

To work around this, I went to my online file directory and renamed the folder that Bad Behavior resided in. After a page reload, Houston, we’re in business.

–

Yes, the SPAM king has returned… and as with my new site banner, it’s full speed ahead.

While we’re at it, here’s a shortlist of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) pros and cons, most of which are made against traditional monitors (CRTs - or Cathode Ray Tube):

PROS

• Less Eyestrain. Heard of monitor refresh rates? 60 hertz, 85 hertz, 100 hertz, etc? CRTs need to refresh (or illuminate) the screens much more often than LCDs. This frequent refreshing causes eye strain and fatigue.
• Radiation. LCDs don’t give out as much radiation as CRTs. Computer Radiation screen, anyone?
• Smaller Footprint LCDs take up less valuable space than CRTs. In high-cost areas like business districts or prime real estates, the space (and real estate cost) wasted by CRTs are more than what LCDs can cost. Most LCDs nowadays can even be mounted on walls.
• Power Consumption. LCDs consume around 1/3 to 1/2 less power than CRTs.
• Environment Friendly. LCDs don’t have dangerous chemicals like CRTs - which have mercury in them.
• Lifetime. LCDs have light bulbs to provide illumination. These light bulbs have a lifetime average of 50,000 hours. That’s a mere 12 hours of usage everyday for 11 years. Not bad considering that CRTs usually last me 4 years.

CONS

• Expensive. While LCDs have become more affordable in the past two years, it still costs a fortune.
• Pixels Die. Pixels in an LCD can die. When they do, 1) there’ll be a black and dead spot in your screen; 2) they’re the most irritating thing in the world and 3) there’s nothing you can do about it
• Fixed Resolution. LCDs have a fixed or native resolution. For instance, a 19″ LCD monitor that has a 1280×1024 native resolution will suck in displaying in other resolutions (i.e. 1024×768)
• Viewing Angle. LCDs have a smaller viewing angle than CRTs. You can look at CRTs from any angle with little color or quality loss. You can’t do that with an LCD. You need to be almost in front of it or within its viewing angle. Bad if you want to watch movies in your sofa/bed from a different elevation/angle.

My father brought home his desktop computer for my brother.

• Pentium 4 3Ghz [530J]
• 512MB PC3200 [400Mhz] DDR RAM
• 80GB hard drive
• ATI X300
• TV Tuner
• WI-FI card (yes, the Desktop has wireless ethernet)
• DVD burner with lightscribe capability

While it’s not top of the line anymore, I plan to upgrade it soon by swapping Trailblazer’s internal organs. Since I rarely play anymore (or I’m looking hard at a 7950…), I’ll be trading video cards (my 7600GT for his X300) and ram (my 1GB PC3200 for his 512MB PC3200).

I’m still studying though its motherboard layout. If I put in my 7600, it will be very cramped inside and the peripherals might not be able to handle the heat caused by the lack of air space. Currently, looking for some cooling and ventilation solution.

Nevertheless, it comes equipped with what my brother needs - nice audio and video output. It’s actually an HP Pavilion rig - the original box for my 19″ HP LCD monitor.

My father brought it home without an accompanying monitor. Translation = my brother didn’t have a monitor… or Pipboy will lose a desktop monitor very soon.

So, I went to PCX today and got an extra monitor for the household. It was a toss-coin between ViewSonic and AOC. Both of which were 19″ widescreen LCDs. I got AOC because it was cheaper (PhP 11,430 vs Php 13,730) and didn’t have integrated speakers (integrated speakers rule if you want to save on desktop space - but suck with their audio quality).

I didn’t know what my brother wanted, so I made him choose. HP (with a 4:3 aspect ratio) or AOC (16:9).

This blog was brought to you by AOC’s widescreen LCD monitor.

After 21 days without restarting Zoom (my laptop), I unwillingly had to restarted my laptop this morning.

A Software Update got past me while I was eating breakfast and when I got back, it was bugging me every few minutes to restart my computer for the changes to take effect.

So, there, much to my dismay, I had to restart.

I don’t like restarting or shutting down my laptop because:

• It takes longer to reboot than to come back from a state of hibernation (assuming I hibernated my laptop with a few light applications only). For a road warrior like me, every moment that my laptop spends on a still flat surface is limited and therefore, precious time.
• With the internet browsing, programming, presentations and documentation that I do for a living, my laptop still performs well without restarting in between uses.
• This longest non-reboot thing is an ongoing contest between my laptop and Roland’s iBook

In decreasing preference, I’d rather hibernate (laptop plays dead) than go to standby (laptop lies in wait, consuming battery power over time) than restart.

* The 21 days stated above is inclusive of the time I use my laptop and hibernation.

After Jackie introduced me to Mitch Albom’s Five People You’ll Meet in Heaven, I was inspired by the book and had to write down a list of people I’ve met so far. Thanks to nine months of freelancing, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a variety of wonderful and sometimes, acephalous people because of my work. Here’s my list:

5. Good Clients

I’ve met good clients. These people know what they want, are concerned with company strategy rather than implementation and appreciate the value of I.T. for their businesses.

Translation:

They know what they want - they can stick to a scope we agree upon.
Concerned with company strategy - as long as I deliver high-quality work at the agreed upon time without any legal trespasses, how I do it shouldn’t be any problem, right?
Appreciate the value of I.T. for their businesses - proper $ka-ching$ for decent and honest work

4. Bad Clients

Likewise, I’ve met bad clients too. These people want more than they know, implement without a strategy and put a prime value on I.T. for their businesses.

Translation:

Want more than they know - some things they request for are beyond the means of time, technology and their budget
Implement without a strategy - I.T. deployment or expansion seems more of an after-thought than a plan
Put a prime value on I.T. - you should see how some people value 100,000-peso projects using prime numbers like 29,989… [yes, 29,989 is a prime number]

3. Pimps

Surround yourself with lots of these! The success of service-oriented businesses depend very much on people that can bring in projects to your company. For every project that a pimp brings in, do as I do! Reward them beyond their wildest dreams! An iPod or a project cut will do wonders in motivating them to bring in more projects for you!

2. Solution Providers

No man is an island. Technology changes at the blink of an eye. Honesty is gold. Time is the best policy. I could go on with more cliches, but let me stop here.

If you can’t do a project on your own, look for people who can do it and share the project with them. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t solve it alone. What matters is that the problem got solved thanks to you!

1. Friends

These are the people who’ll tell you the truth - no matter how ugly your face is.
These are the people you’ve worked with before, could have declined, but decided to pursue the business with you.
These are the people who’ll introduce you to new literature like Mitch Albom’s.

How about you? Who’s on your list?

Most people relate the concept of shopping with clothes and malls. This morning, let me relate shopping with online purchases. As part of TechForge I.T. Solutions‘ brand protection scheme, I bought around 20 domains that sounded like our company name.

The last thing I want is typosquatters and cybersquatters damaging our reputation.

Wikipedia:

Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser. Should a user accidentally enter an incorrect website address, they may be led to an alternative address owned by a cybersquatter.

Cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

While TechForge isn’t really the most original of company names out there, this sounds like a good name for our first company.

Our primary website, TechForgeOnline.com will be up by December 25, 2006.

I just got back from my Davao business trip! What a productive expedition!

Day 1

Statistics. The plane ride from Manila to Davao lasted 1 hour 42 minutes, maxed out at 855 kilometers per hour with a peak at altitude of 37000 feet!

Upon landing, we checked in at the Grand Men Seng Hotel (GMS) where we were greeted by a breakfast buffet. After breakfast, we met local government officials to discuss the purpose of our visit. Cooperative, they were kind enough to provide us with transportation. An asset we utilized very well for the next 48 hours of our stay. We were able to tour the whole of Davao, performing feasibility studies for over 100 sites.

Lunch during the first daw was fishy. We ate at a roadside restaurant, Marina, where the highlight viand was a gigantic panga (Grilled Tuna Jaw). I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much tuna in one sitting in my whole life. Oishi desu.

The work-day ended at 9pm after dinner. Since I was already up by 2am, 17 hours of work left me with just enough strength to drag myself to bed when I got back to my room.

Day 2

Teams. There were four of us that went to Davao. Two representatives from India company and another two from November company . The group split into two. The first pair (Fred and Mel) wrapped up on the last few sites that needed validation, while the second pair (Jay and I) met up with the local Papa company to discuss the connectivity issues relevant to the success of the project.

Meeting went well over our lunch at Ahfat, one of the must-visit restaurants for Davao tourists. I had sweet and sour seafood soup, steamed fish and pata. The menu included crab, but since I’m allergic to crustaceans, I kept myself to the first three items on the list.

I also got to visit a souvenir shop where I got myself a malong and an ethnic polo. I would have wanted to get other stuff, but I had other more important stuff queued with my budget.

The team ended the day by having a round of drinks, sashimi and kinilaw at GMS’ pool side. I would have wanted to swim that night, but my tired body got the better of me.

Day 3

Ped Xing. Our site visits this day required a lot of pedestrian work. After two days of smorgasbord without any real exercise, I welcomed the long walk we had throughout the city proper. We walked the whole morning and got back to the hotel for lunch - just in time for our meeting with the local geodetic engineer head.

This afternoon, I finally got to swim! The pool was about 25m long and around 5 feet and 8 inches deep. After six years without swimming, I could say that I no longer have it. Man, I miss the swimming pool. I wish there were an affordable swimming place near my place [at Tandang Sora]. 2 hours and a badly wrinkled skin later, I had cramps and had to leave the swimming pool.

Dinner involved another buffet at GMS and a Christopher Reeve movie, “Somewhere in Time.” Sad movie, but a good one, nonetheless.

Day 4

Itineraries

0445 wake up
0545 reconnaisance at the hotel lobby
0600 departed gms
0615 arrival at airport
0700 airport mixed up my boarding pass with another person
0710 situation resolved
0750 departure of pal pr 810
0930 arrival at manila
1015 exited airport
1115 arrived at home, sweet home
1130 brunch [yes, i had no breakfast. don’t worry, i have lots of reserve]
1230 end of story

For those of you who have a hard time getting up from bed (waking up != getting up), let me share a trick I found somewhere (can’t remember, I think it was the Simpsons):

Water. Drink lots of water before you sleep. In this way, you’ll be forced to get up and drag yourself to the comfort room when you wake up.

I heard that Native Americans used to do this before the arrival of the chickens and the alarm clocks.

Try it. It works.