Category Archives: Techie Geek

Wishlist: Canon Ixus 80 IS

To compensate for me postponing my Australia trip, I’ve decided to treat myself to something that I’ve been thinking of getting for the past months: a new digital camera.

I’ve mentioned before that I wanted to buy a new digicam because our old digicam is already breaking down. It can still shoot good photos, I think, but the LCD’s really annoying me already, and the model is already obsolete. I was thinking of buying my own dSLR just so I won’t grab my brother’s anymore, but I realized that as much as I liked photography, I don’t love it. I don’t think I’ll be willing to invest on a complicated and bulky camera that I’d hardly really use (when I graduated, I stopped “covering” events), and I don’t think I’d be willing to invest in buying lenses and whatnot. But I still want to document whatever escapades I go into, and I miss having to upload photos on my Multiply especially after I go on a gimmick with people. So…a digicam is my answer.

I’m usually the choose one and stick to it person with regards to gadgets, so the moment I saw the pink Canon Ixus 80 IS, I knew it was the camera I’m going to buy:

Canon Ixus 80 IS

Okay, I may be biased because it’s Canon and it’s pink. But then again, I know photos from Canon cameras come out nice (did I say it right? Haha). Plus, this camera is small, and I like how handy it is. I could buy a pink Sony Cybershot, but I’ve gone through two Cybershot cameras, and I’d like to try something new. Features wise, I’m fine with this one because I only plan to use this to take photos of everyday events. I just want to have a camera that I can bring around easily, take relatively nice photos (and probably make even photos of bathroom faucets look pretty) and…well, girly looking. Haha.

The price isn’t so bad — Php17,950. It’s cheaper if I buy it in cash, which I am planning to do (with some of my blogging money! Yay!), but I’m kind of wary to buy it too soon, mostly because I’m concerned that the price would be lowered anytime soon. I don’t know; I’m not into the camera crowd, so I don’t know when Canon lowers the price of their cameras. I’m thinking of waiting it out until August or September (after I pay my insurance and earn a bit more through blogging and finish paying for Aslan) before buying it. But I do want to get this before October, since there are a lot of events coming up for us.

If you own this camera, do you like it? Do you think I should wait for a while, in case the prices would go down? Or is there no chance that the price would go down soon (cheapskate alert)? Or should I just forget this model and go for another one? Suggestions? :)

Globe gets the iPhone deal

Because everyone’s blogging about it (sort of), let me join the bandwagon. Here’s the official news from the Globe Corporate website:

Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus to bring iPhone to the region
Manila, 12 May 2008 – Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to the Philippines, Singapore, India, and Australia later this year.

More information will be released at a later date.

And all the while I thought it was Smart who’s going to carry the much sought-after iPhone. I can’t remember where I heard it, but turns out it’s not true anyway.

Interestingly, a friend and I had a discussion about how the iPhone totally changed how telecommunications companies get the handsets they package with their plans. Being an ex-employee of a mobile telecommunications company made me agree with what my friend told me. Usually, the handset providers (Nokia, Ericsson, etc) give their handsets to the company, and the company chooses which handsets they’d be including in their plans. But when it comes to the iPhone, Apple was suddenly the one who’d be choosing among the mobile providers. Talk about 180-degree turn, yes?

And now they’ve chosen.

Not that it really matters…for me, anyway. Even if I really love being a MacBook user, and I love my iPod, I’m not much of a fan of the iPhone. I know I’m a techie and all, but for some reason, I really don’t like extravagant phones. Maybe I was psychologically brainwashed witha ll the cellphone thefts I’ve seen and heard all my life, which is why I prefer nice yet not so eye-candy phone so I can text outside in peace. I’d be more concerned with my fancy cellphone than my luggage if that’s the case. See why I love Captain Tal (my Nokia 6233) so much?

Plus I really don’t like anything touch screen. I’d be OC to the maximum level and I wouldn’t enjoy the gadget if I don’t use it the way it should. :D

As for Apple’s choice…I kind of wish they chose Smart, only because I’m a Smart subscriber, but I don’t really care that much at all. It’s not like I’m going to get the iPhone anyway.

But…who knows. Maybe I’d change my mind. Heh. Let’s see if Apple can make me fall in love with the iPhone just like most of the people I know too. :P

Corporate Peace Corps

I’ve already heard about this around two to three weeks ago, but I only got to blog about this now (see how self-centered I can be? Ack):

IBM creates its own Peace Corps
By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 08:34:00 05/03/2008

MANILA, Philippines — IBM is sending 600 of its employees to emerging countries over the next three years to do volunteer work involving IT.

IBM said the first 100 employees will be sent this year to six countries — Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, Ghana, Tanzania and the Philippines — to work on projects “that intersect economic development and IT.”

“It’s a corporate version of the Peace Corps,” said James Velasquez, country general manager for IBM Philippines, referring to the tech giant’s Corporate Service Corps initiative.

Thomas Veloso from the local IBM office was selected and will join nine more IBMers from the United States, Japan, China, India and the United Kindom as a team assigned to go to Tanzania in Africa.

More than 5,000 IBM employees worldwide applied for the program but only 100 were selected for this year.

In the Philippines, the IBM team will be based in Cagayan de Oro and Davao City in the South.

The team will create management information systems to track progress of loan and grant beneficiaries from the Philippine Development Assistance Program, according to IBM.

IBM is working with three non-governmental organizations from the US, Canada and Australia. These NGOs identify projects and local organizations the IBM teams can work with.

This is one of the coolest things I’ve heard at work ever. :) I love how the company is getting their people involved in helping. That’s why we were encouraged at work to go and volunteer for corporate social responsibility events, because it really has an effect. Thomas (Tom) Veloso used to be the GK-IBM head, and all his efforts are paying off with this amazing opportunity presented to him. :)

I’d love to have the same opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I’d love if I would be granted one too, plus size clothing and all (um…right. What did I just write?). Maybe someday, I hope? :) Granted, I’d have to work doubly harder to get this, but it’s a good goal, right? :)

Maybe someday. In the meantime, let me finish all my deliverables. Heh.

MacUpdate Parallels Promo

Ever since I’ve gotten Aslan, I have started to seriously consider buying him legitimate software. I know I should have started doing this long ago, but my budget back then didn’t allow me to have legit Photoshop and others (actually my budget still doesn’t permit me to buy all the software I need; thank God for bundled software I got when I bought Aslan :D). Anyway, now that I’m working and I’m really enjoying using Aslan, I’m thinking of investing on some legitimate software. Hey, I’ve started buying albums now, why stop there, right?

I got a heads-up of the newest MacUpdate promo from Ate Angela, and I am drooling at the software bundle. Lookie:

MacUpdate has partnered with 10 Mac developers to bring you the MacUpdate Parallels bundle. You can buy this bundle for $64.99 instead of $474.76, a savings of over $409 (when all 10 apps are unlocked). This bundle is time limited so buy today.

History: In 2007, MacUpdate and partnering developers sold over 27,000 bundles, hitting record volume unseen anywhere else during the year. It was a superb year for everyone who participated in the fun events. This year, the Parallels bundle is expected to become the biggest online Mac software event ever seen. You can join in the fun and access a unique combination of newly released titles and some of the best high quality apps created by our passionate developer friends. This bundle is priced lower than the cost of Parallels by itself!

Your Deal: When you purchase bundles now, you’ll be the immediate owner of Hazel, Art Text, MenuCalendarClock, Leap, StoryMill, Typinator, DVDRemaster Pro, and Sound Studio. Then when the Mac community spreads the word and reaches 4,600 bundles sold, BannerZest will be unlocked into the bundle for free. People that purchase the bundle before each unlock milestone will have the unlocked products automatically added to their accounts for free. Because of the superb success of the Mac community in the last 2 bundles, we fully expect to reach all 3 unlock milestones during the 2-week span of this event.

Spread the word: Talking about the MacUpdate Parallels bundle helps spread the word about this fantastic opportunity. And the more people that talk about it results in unlocking the top tier products more quickly. Posting notes to your blog and chatting about the event in Instant Messenger helps the developers, MacUpdate, and of course helps you.

Drool! =p~ The only thing this bundle is missing are some saddles (…where did that come from?). The thing that really got me here is the Parallels software, which would be really useful for my developing and designing gigs so I can run Windows. Hazel is nice too, especially when I’m all OC. DVD Remaster Pro should be useful because iDVD doesn’t really do that much of what I need to do. :/ The other software I’m really interested in here is StoryMill, which I think would be useful once NaNoWriMo comes in.

I haven’t bought the bundle yet, but there’s six days left, and I’m still on the borderline of buying it. I have other things to save for, but this is such a yummy bundle that I don’t want to pass it up. :-s

Anyone have comments on this? :) Push me to the right direction? :)

UPDATE, April 25, 2008, 9:50am: PARALLELS HAS BEEN UNLOCKED! Ack, should I buy, should I buy??? I have 5 days left!

Moving hosts can be complicated

If you happened to visit Refine Me last night, you probably noticed that it disappeared. If you visited it earlier this morning, all other subpages go to 404 errors. Ladies and gentlemen, that is me moving hosts with little knowledge of how to do it. :P

I guess using CPanel for the past four years has made me so used to it that I was at a loss when I was tinkering with Dreamhost‘s own panel. That, and the knowledge of DNS nameservers and whatnot. See, my old host set up everything for me when Refine Me first opened, so I never touched any of it. Now I have to figure out when to change nameservers, where to put the files and all those domain stuff that I thought I knew but I never really did. :P It’s a learning experience, and good thing I had enough sense to back up everything first before doing anything. :)

Right now I’m trying to restore my other subdomains, just so they’re all up (ooh, this is up, yay). New layout to follow in a week or so, once my social calendar kind of clears up. :D I still have to transfer my domain registration (help! :-ss) and figure out how to start hosting other people in the Dreamhost Panel. :D

But first. I should eat breakfast and get ready for work. Haha it’s almost 9 in the morning and I’m still home. I have an excuse — I’m in the office until midnight last night. Argh. But I love flexi time. :) And I love my company.

Tonight’s our account’s Christmas party. I will try to take photos, if I don’t get too lazy. :P I will go Christmas shopping for my Kris Kringle baby later (thank God it’s easy to buy, not like maternity clothes which I have no idea how to go about buying). Which reminds me, I have to talk about our team building last Sunday. :D Tonight’s ought to be fun.

Have a great Friday, everyone. :)

iPod Update 1.2.2: Wait, where did my songs go?!

I stuck my iPod Triskal on Guilo (My office PC) today to play my music loud since the other night shift people on the neighboring cubicles weren’t there yet. I opened iTunes and a software update shows up. Now if it’s an iTunes update, I usually ignore it since iTunes is such a big memory hogger that any other update it adds means it hogs more memory (A habit I formed with Ginger, my old laptop. Well, now that I have Aslan, I don’t think of that anymore, hee!). But since it’s an iPod software update, I clicked OK and let the computer do its work.

Later, when people started coming in, I decided to unplug my iPod so I can listen to my music in private. I clicked on Shuffle Songs but it wasn’t working, which made me wonder if Triskal is acting up…so I decided to just go to my current favorite song (Until You by Dave Barnes) and play it from there but…

WHERE DID MY SONGS GO?!

My iPod was completely empty! :( I wondered if I unplugged it prematurely, so I tried plugging it in again. I looked at iTunes and there were all my songs! I unplugged it again…and it’s gone again! ARGH!!!

I was panicking real bad and wondering how will I get through the night shift without my songs. I decided to restore my iPod, but I have to back it up first, so I started dragging the songs out to Guilo’s desktop. Then I did some browsing and some places were no help (seriously), until I got to this entry. And I quote:

Apple has released an iPod software update, version 1.2.2. This update is supposed to have some ‘bug fixes’. How important these fixes are to the enjoyment of your iPod is still undetermined.

Many users, myself included, have experienced an issue after installing the update where all the iPod menus are now blank even though it appears to have been properly synced with iTunes. This renders the iPod completely useless and unplayable.

The problem seems to occur when Windows users with 5th generation iPods install the 1.2.2 update before installing the 7.5 update to iTunes.

To avoid this problem install the iTunes 7.5 update and restart before applying the 1.2.2 update to your iPod.

If you’ve already installed 1.2.2 and are suffering from this problem then update iTunes to the current 7.5, restart, and resynch your iPod.

Argh, what a hassle. I went off to download iTunes 7.5, and then installed it (had trouble with installing QuickTime pa, hmph!), but when it’s finally installed, I plugged Triskal in again, and it worked fine. :) Whew.

Lesson learned: Don’t take iTunes updates forgranted. I’m just happy Guilo is a relatively fast computer that I can run Lotus Notes, MS Word, Firefox, Photoshop and iTunes all at the same time. :)

Chimon, the Canon EOS 40D

Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been quite busy with work, adjusting with night shift and catching up on word count for NaNoWriMo. I’m still seriously lacking behind, and I really don’t want to be disturbed, but this assignment is due (as well an overdue Singapore post! Gah!), so I’m gonna give a quick write in to introduce the other new toy in our house. :D

Friends, meet Chimon. :)

Chimon

I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, about how I’m thinking of going back to photography because of all the camera and photography talk at work. I pretty much decided to go back, but not this year, as I was saving for the MacBook. My brother and I agreed to split the costs on buying our own dSLR (with him campaigning for a Nikon but me for a Canon :p), but like I said, it’s all for next year, not this year.

On our trip to Singapore, I borrowed my boss’ camera (a Canon 350d) which he graciously lent (thank you!) for us to be clickhappy all around Singapore. My brother, being the more serious photographer/videographer, carried the camera more than I did (and I didn’t mind; my boss’ camera has a vertical grip which made it heavy and large) and he was all happy taking pictures of everything we see. I, on the other hand, lost my “solo picture taking fear” and got myself in all the pictures my brother took. :P

Continue reading Chimon, the Canon EOS 40D

Aslan, the black MacBook

MacBookExactly one month ago, I posted an entry asking for help about me looking for THE ONE laptop. Truth be told, the day before I posted that, I was already looking at something, but I just need some more convincing for me to follow through. I actually based the specs I listed in that post from the specs of the MacBook, which pretty much fits what I wanted. But I wasn’t sure if I should get one, because I don’t know if I could use it. Especially after I told my friend that I’d never get a MacBook, because I’m PC FOREVAH! That, and I am working for a company that pretty much set the PC standards…so why switch?

But after some reading, and watching commercials, and lots more reading on making a switch…I have to admit: I’m in love. I love how it’s just…complete. How shiny and pretty it looks. How it’s so stable. And how I will not be having a problem on looking for a laptop that has Windows XP and not Vista, since most of the laptops here just have Vista (which is really…blah). And with the confirmations from friends that it can run PHP (Hello MAMP!) and Flash, I knew it was THE ONE laptop for me. :)

I initially planned to buy something at the end of the year, not one month later…but I’m definitely not complaining now.

So my friends, I’d like you all to meet ASLAN, the black MacBook. My black MacBook. :D

AslanBad lighting for the photo, I know. :P

Continue reading Aslan, the black MacBook

The Hunt for the One Laptop

So this morning, I was trying to transfer a captured video from my brother’s computer to good old Ginger ((My 3 1/2 year old Toshiba Satellite A20-S330 laptop)), but because of Ginger’s old age, it was obviously slow. And because Ginger was running iTunes, Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 all at the same time on Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz and 256MB DDR, I knew that Ginger would give up on this. And true enough, I had to wait a minute or so before I could finally close down Premiere and iTunes.

I’ve mentioned before that I am starting to look for a new laptop, but to be honest, I’m kind of clueless. I’ve heard of many laptops, including Toshiba, Neo, Acer Aspire and all, but I really don’t know what is the best one. I know what I want, but I don’t know which should I get so I can get what I want. Simply speaking, I have a set of specs that I want for my next laptop, but I don’t know which to get that has the same specs. So…I need your help. You, yes, you, the readers (Hello, is there anyone out there? :D).

I have no laptop in mind just yet, but I do have the following specs updated from my last wishlist (must be at least these specifications):

  • Intel Core 2 Duo processor (I don’t really care about the CPU speeds, as long as it is Core 2 Duo. But 2.0 GHz would be nice :) )
  • At least 1GB RAM, expandable
  • At least 120GB HDD (I used to want 80GB only, but let’s be realistic — I’m really going to need more than that :p)
  • Graphics card do not really matter to me as much as it does to my brother, but I’d like it if it’s at least 64MB. I don’t care if it’s shared, especially if my memory is 1GB already.
  • Bluetooth and/or Infrared (But I like Bluetooth better)
  • WiFi and Ethernet LAN (which laptop doesn’t have this?)
  • DVD+RW (what speeds are available?)
  • At least 2 hours battery life (Because Ginger has two hours…and I’d need that for loooong writing moments)
  • At least 12″ screen size. That’s already small, I know.
  • Firewire port — just to make my life easier when it comes to getting videos in case of a shoot.
  • Finally it must be light enough to bring around. Trust me, having a 3.6kg laptop is not fun.
  • EDIT: How could I forget this? OS must be anything BUT Vista.

That’s about it. Now I know people would say it depends on how I would use the laptop. So here’s how I usually use my laptop:

  • Web design and development – PHP, MySQL (this is a must!), JavaScript, CSS, XHTML, some Perl
  • Flash animation/programming (Action Script)
  • Photo editing
  • Video editing (this is mainly for my brother if he wants to borrow the laptop)
  • Writing (as in long hours of writing, that’s why I want long battery life *imagines myself writing away in a coffee shop. Yes, it’s so elitistang burgis :p*)
  • Internet, obviously
  • And the usual movies, music and some games.

Programs I make use of a lot:

  • Firefox
  • Yahoo! Messenger
  • iTunes
  • Photoshop
  • Flash
  • MS Word, Excel
  • XAMPP (PHP, Apache, MySQL)
  • And if I get enough funds to pursue this photography thing, then I’d use that laptop forthat too.

I think…that’s it? Yeah, basically that’s it. Now this is where I need your help. Suggestions on brands, models and better specs? Are my specs list impossible to achieve? Haha. Oh yeah, my budget for this is up to PHP 70K, including the necessary (original) software I would need (yes, let’s really say no to piracy once and for all :p). I can’t spend more than that because I’d be bankrupt then. :P Sorta.

Sooo…what do you say? To those who just bought a new laptop, why’d you buy yours? And to those who know more about laptops than I do, what would you recommend?

Stunned

My laptop Ginger decided to act up this morning.

It was working perfectly well last night, but when I turned it on a little while ago, I got a blue screen which said, Unmountable_Boot_Drive. I shrugged it off and restarted but I got the same thing. And again. And again. I can’t even get into the OS.

So I went online on my brother’s computer to check how to fix it…and they said that I should use my XP CD to repair it. I only have my Product Recovery CD from the laptop package so I inserted it, followed a couple of warnings that my hard drive would be erased, thinking that it will ask me once again if it will do just that, then it showed the screen that I always see when I was reformatting.

Uh-oh.

Then when it was time to insert the second disk, I put it in but for some reason, Ginger didn’t read the CD and the process was aborted. I tried restarting it again and now I’m not seeing the blue screen, but a warning that my LAN card wasn’t installed and nothing else.

Uh-oh again.

I have this really bad feeling that I have to reformat Ginger to work again…and yes, she is due for reformat.

But here’s the thing:

I DID NOT BACK UP ANYTHING! 

Okay, my last reformat was May 2006, and I do have somes files backed up there…and my iPod has my music and some of my videos. But that’s it! And I did not backup everything because I used my brother’s old iPod to save some of my files, which are all inside Ginger already…plus it’s been a year! My music! My videos! My photos! My just downloaded Joan of Arcadia season 2! My writings! My layouts! Gone!

I’m still stunned. I don’t know what to do. I turned Ginger off already and told myself to work on her tonight, because I’m about to go out and get Harry Potter 7 and go bowling with some officemates…and then I’ll go back to her tonight. I’m still hoping that I could recover the files inside Ginger, even if it’s only my writings and the web stuff I did…but I’m getting myself ready for the fact that I may have lost all my files. :(

Hay. Please say a prayer for Ginger for me?

The first thing I’m going to buy myself when I get my salary is an external HDD!