Oct 25
ErinGarbage
Yesterday, Betsy has finally decided that enough is enough. Betsy has finally suffered a neuro-mechanical shock and entered a deep state of comatose. In an effort to give more meaning in her existence, she broke a nerve and never woke up again from the lapse.
Betsy is lovingly survived by Lala and Paquito. Thank you for all the good memories.
Oh yeah, Betsy is my ~7 year old, triple-booted workstation. I was cleaning the computer command center (or nook depending on who is talking 😀 ) yesterday when the power switch on the Simba casing refused to work properly when I returned the chassis in the rack. I already took the casing apart but the switch is a one-piece deal and electricals is one area where I dont dare push my limited tinkering skills. This is the last straw for me so I decided to coax my Chief Financial Officer (CFO, aka Commander Wife-san) to finally approve Betsy’s upgrade. I am currently looking for an affordable barebones package (Chassis+Motherboard+Processor+RAM) since I will be reusing most of Betsy’s reusable components: the 60GB HDD and the DVD/CD Writers. I am currently looking at buyqube.com’s offerings but I am still confirming if they would allow the removal of the HDD and Optical drive on their packages.
For those interested, I am selling the remains of Betsy which is composed of the following:
- AMD Duron 800Mhz
- Redfox motherboard w/ built-in video (32MB shared) and sound
- 386MB SDRAM (256+128)
- 52X CD_ROM Drive
- PCI Lan card
- USB-PCI 1.1 adaptor card (6 ports, i think)
- The darned Simba chassis
- Aged (read:Yellowish) Speakers, keyboard and mouse
All except the chassis switch and ethernet card is working since it has been a long time since I used it on a network. Based on current market price of the components, I am setting the asking price to Php2,000 (which is already a bargain price). I am also willing to add a 2GB Fujitsu HDD but it is missing a jumper but usable as a floppy disk since I sometimes use it with an external HDD enclosure. So if you are interested then do drop me note. 🙂
Btw, Lala and Paquito are the given names of my laptop and Ipaq. Once upgraded, Ol’Betsy is to be named Bettina. /lol
ciao!
Oct 12
ErinRubbish
According to my college logic professor, beautiful debates happen when two opposing sides can argue the validity of their points without any intent of winning the other side over. At least during the duration of the debate. It is highly unlikely that one side will immediately appreciate the points and counter-points presented to them since it is hard for any rational human being to completely do a 180 degrees on what they believe in.
If the person engaged in the debate is easily swayed into the arguments of the other side it does not mean that the other side is good. It means that the person easily swayed did not really believe the position (s)he is in.
Good debates make people think long after the debate is over. Debates per se do not involve shouting matches, nor employ dirty tactics like name-calling or derogatory insinuations. Any ‘debates’ using those are not really debates but merely arguments. Debates are exchange of ideas fueled by passion and intelligence, while arguments are exchage of words laden with emotion. You ‘win’ debates not because you deliver beautifully crafted speeches, but because you stimulated other people to think for themselves if what you said was true.
I admire people who could deliver a good debate but they are few and far between. Most belong to the average category (I wish I belong to this category, lol) but the moment their passion begins to sound like emotions then that is the time I just phase out (or phase them out).
Gist of this post: Debates make people think, good debates make the other side think, arguments can get people killed.
ciao!
Oct 05
ErinGarbage
The first one I attributed to recklessness, the second on tiredness. However the third time is too much since I verified that I know my arti, areth.. err my math!
I am talking about the spam-deterrent math verification system that Chris has in his blog. Everytime my answer failed I lose whatever I have written but this time I was pretty sure that 10 + 10 is 20 unless it is in binary!
Anyway I tried it on another post wherein I was asked 2 + 3. So it is not binary! I answered 5 and even have a screenshot to prove it (none of the error though).
I notified Chris about this peculiarity and I was writing this he called me up (*mucho dinero!*). He tried it on one of his pages and he got the same error (hehehe, he sucks in math too) but on the other post it went through. I tried posting a test comment again and it was successfully entered.
I blame it on the code gremlins. And no, my math skills may be retarded by I know my rith, arthme, math!
ciao!
Sep 29
ErinGarbage, Rubbish
I am currently employed by a big, multinational company dealing with various IT outsourcing and consultancy deal. With the Philippine office alone, we are already dealing with more than a hundred projects, therefore the company explored various ways to augment its information distribution channel especially for emergency situations wherein not all personnel have access to their company email (default communications channel). The company employed a SMS-based emergency information dissemination channel wherein employees can subscribe to receive ‘late-breaking news and advisories’. Given that the SMS-usage in the Philippines is very pervasive; this looks like a perfect deal.
The infrastructure seems to be ideal but as always it is the human side that functions like crap. The problem with the setup is somebody has to send out the message and given the variance of project culture in the local office, such messages need to be approved (re: immense red tape). The system really underwent a litmus test yesterday when typhoon ‘Milenyo’ hit the NCR area and I have to say that the SMS system is just an excess baggage.
Understandably the NCR is buffeted by strong winds since it was given a Signal No. 3 rating. Normally that should have suspended work since it is a fortuitous event, an act of God if you will. Unfortunately the SMS channel was dead silent even when I have arrived in the office. The SMS announcement came at around 1PM, at the height of the storm when roofs were being torn and billboard structures and trees were being ripped from the foundations.
To add insult to the injury the message goes something like “Exercise discretion if you want to go to the office as safety is a personal responsibility. Project management can work out with you if you want to go home. Should you go home you can charge the hours to your vacation leave.” Typical upper management bureaucracy! The message is worthless because:
- Majority of the employees are already in the office!
- The purpose of the emergency channel is to provide emergency information when its usefulness is still relevant.
- We don’t need to know that project management can work out offset or leave hours if we want to go home due to the weather. We already know that but whatever the reason (cheap, needy or working on a tight deadline), we cannot afford to skip work. Management knows it is the norm in an outsourcing environment since the storm does not cover the international client.
It would have been useful to receive that message when I was still at home. I would have skipped the exciting experience of getting stuck in traffic for 2.5 hours from Ayala to Shaw Blvd (standing nonetheless since the buses are jam-packed),and standing in line in the FX terminal for 3 hours since most FX units are not on the road due to damages caused by felled trees and flying debris.
Worthless crap of a service. They should either retire it, or else revamp the red-tape laden process.
Sep 21
ErinBackburner, Garbage
Even if I am artistically-challenged I am craving for a different look for the Flex theme I was using before. I saw the fluidity-3c theme which is simple and stylish enough for me.
Over-all I am satisfied but somehow the right sidebar does not display properly with IE. Not that I mind but the theme was supposed to use 2 different CSS files to enable proper rendering in both FF and IE. I just cant figure out for the life of me how I can reduce the size of those sidebars so IE users can still view it properly.
Oh wait, I don’t have readers. Carry on… 🙂
Another thing missing is my tagline disappeared. But I can live with that for now… *Task gets chucked to the backburner.*
ciao!
Sep 15
ErinGarbage
Finally got around to installing Akismet to this blog so hopefully that will be the end (or at least cut down the number) of blog spam. 🙂
 i love cli. apparently it works around stupid network rules too! hehehehe.
ciao!
Sep 12
ErinGarbage
Today, for the first time in weeks, I went out of the building to have my lunch instead of going upstairs in the cafeteria. The lunch and company was fine but I am now regretting it when I got back since I found out that the area of my pants directly below my back pocket was slashed!
It is apparent that whoever did this was after my wallet. It is a good thing that my back pocket has an inner sleeve that is not pressed to the pants fabric otherwise they would have succeeded in slashing the inner sleeve and getting my wallet. It might also be a factor that I unconciously do some erratic swishing to help deter situations like this but unfortunately I did not do it enough. :(While I would love to see the reaction of the thief when he finds out that my wallet is empty but I cringe at the thought of the effort required in replacing all of my credentials (driver’s license, atm card, etc.).
Right now I am angry at the thief for two reasons: for messing up a good pair of pants, and for being a nuisance to hard working people like me. And please dont justify that they did it because of poverty or lack of opportunity. That is a crock of bull and everybody knows it. Anybody who thinks otherwise should get robbed everyday so they can reaffirm that it is not the thief’s fault that he got robbed. Stealing is stealing no matter how you look at it. The Robin Hood principle does not even remotely apply to these because these people do not discriminate that their ‘victims’ are not ‘heartless rich people who robs from the poor just because they can’.
I am far from being a violent man, but I am not sorry when thieves and snatchers gets mobbed when caught. I believe that is the best example of karma at work. Too bad there is no Darwinian Theory related to evil doings. How the world will benefit if there was such a thing…
ciao!
Jul 25
ErinGarbage
Some people would dislike rainy days like the ones currently being experienced by most of the Luzon area here in the Philippines. But that is not me, I prefer rainy days than sunny days. Sunny days are always linked to cheerful days but I associate it with days of pain and itchiness and sweat.
I think part of that preference stems from two facts:
1) I am a bonafide introvert (aka lazy). I would rather be inside the house than go out. Some might argue that rains bring out the worst traffic in the metropolis but I encounter those on any workday. At least during rainy seasons I dont swelter in the heat. 😛
2) Ever since I came from my first assignment to Helsinki, my body thermostat is way off. I guess -22 C can do that to your body. Now I have a high tolerance to cold (to the chagrin of my wife who seems to despise any temperature below 27 C) but a low tolerance to heat and humidity. It was not always this way since during my student years I am the one who goes in the middle of the field when harvest seasons come and I could hold my ground by being baked under the sun the whole day.
Yep, rainy days are not gloomy days for me. Especially if I can stay at home, lazily lounging in bed, looking at the rain drops splattering at the closed window, and cuddling with my wife. I could never ask for anything better…
ciao!
Jul 18
ErinGarbage, Technology
I am currently on the hunt for a good optical trackball for use here in the office. Apprently trackballs are a dying breed in today’s computer marketplace. I have hit a couple of online computer stores here in the Metro and nobody carries any trackball, even the non-optical kind. I also went to TipidPC to see if any enterprising individuals is offering or offloading an optical trackball. Nada, not even a single trackball hit.
I have also scoured the Glorietta shops since that is the nearest mall in the office and the only thing I saw was an overpriced Logitech wired trackball that seems to belong to the first generation of pointing devices.
Hopefully I can see a good trackball when we go malling this weekend . Neth still owes her nieces and nephew a trip to ‘Hall of Asia‘. 🙂
ciao!
Jul 03
ErinTop of my head
The blog spammers are here, and hitting this blog at the rate of 20 spam messages per day. Calling these spammers as pesky mosquitoes is not apt. They are more like rabid dogs that have already bitten to a bone and would not let go.
*Sigh* time to clean up, or turn off the automatic notification so I dont get so much spam confirmation on my mailbox. 🙁
ciao!
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