Category Archives: Techie Geek

Techie Geek

Who is Triskal?

Triskal I’ve mentioned Triskal a couple of times in my past posts, and I haven’t formally introduced him to you (although you may have a hint already). :) Friends, this is Triskal:

Yes, that’s Triskal over there, a 30GB Black iPod video. :) I got him last Monday in a really amusing way which I call, “Day of the Fast”. Or it could be called Cyber Monday, too, since it seemed to be a day full of gadgets.

First off, my brother sold his 40GB iPod the other Saturday to his officemate. That night, he called me and asked me if I was planning to sell Star, my pink 4GB iPod mini. Our iPods are both 2 1/2 years old — ran through a lot of unit and headphone replacement and used up Apple Care nicely. My brother and I were planning to get new ones but not really soon because of the budget constraints.

Continue reading Who is Triskal? →

Dear Diary, Techie Geek

Back to Dial-Up

Hello again, ISP Bonanza. Sigh. It’s Day 7 of no DSL, and we’ve called PLDT DSL Hotline four times and every time we call, I have to repeat what was wrong with our DSL (no light for the ADSL link in the modem). We’ve done everything — turn the modem on and off, restart the computer, switch the ends of the phone cable, try repairing it, but it’s still nothing! ARRRRGGGGHHH. The only thing the customer service reps keep on saying to us is, “We’ll forward your report to the technical team and we’ll contact you in the next 24 hours.” Well, you’ve forwarded it thrice already, and I know I’m not bad at Math and I know it’s more than 24 hours; what’s next? Are they even working tomorrow, since it’s elections? Shall we wait until you finally get your butts moving and then still pay the full amount?

Hay. I know from all the posts I’ve read that PLDT DSL (and its customer service) sucks, but I was hoping I would never experience that. Tough luck. What I really don’t get is that
why they don’t go for the faster solution. I really have this strong hunch that our modem is broken and that their network in this area is (not stellar, but) okay. Why not go for the faster solution — can’t they just and try to replace the modem first? If it still doesn’t work, then it is the network. But if it works, then we won’t be bugging them about this anymore! Isn’t this so much easier?

And another suggestion to the customer service of PLDT: give all your “reports” a report reference number, just like what Meralco does. If you give all reports a report number, the subscribers would just have to give that number to you when they do a follow up, and you’d be spared of asking for what the problem is since the report is in the database. Plus, we’d be more assured that you actually forwarded the report. I now wonder if these people really forward the reports at the first time subscribers call them or if all of that is just a big fat lie. Grr.

Okay, I wills top. If you work in PLDT, heads up! I’m not the only one who has this problem.

Entertaining Angels, Techie Geek

PLDT DSL and Heroes

It’s one and a half hours till quitting time ((Gah. We have 9.6 working hours here. :/ At first I didn’t really mind but after a while you start missing seeing the sun whenever you go out in the afternoon)), and I’m supposed to be writing a service description for this new project but instead, I’m blogging. Bah. My brain still shuts down before 5:00pm — see!

So why am I spending office time blogging? It’s because we’ve had no internet access at home for FOUR DAYS and counting. >:( Sunday, our connection was okay, but starting Monday, we cannot browse any websites at all. We can connect, yes, and in fact, my WiFi connection is even Excellent or Very Good. But when I check the connections, we are not receiving any packets. It’s like for every 1000 packets our computer sends, we only receive 7 packets back.

FYI, our DSL provider is PLDT myDSL. We subscribed to it because it’s “better” than dial-up, and it has been working quite well since November. Sure, there are slow days but they’re pretty manageable, and even if it is slow I could still do some browsing. This is the first time we’ve experienced this, and it’s really, really annoying because it’s been four days and I don’t see any chance of this clearing up soon. Plus, I asked other people who also have DSL and they’re not experiencing the same problem as we have…so what’s wrong? I’ve turned off the modem and the router, disconnected and reconnected and did all sorts of things to have it work…but it’s not. :( Hay.

Yes, that shows how much of an Internet addict I am, and how much I still need the Internet even if I spend it all online all day. :P Thank goodness for Heroes. :P Yay.

But I would have to cut this post for now, because it’s quitting time. :) Wahoo. PLDT Support, you will get a call from me later!

UPDATE (5/11/2007): I called PLDT Customer Service yesterday and it wasn’t such a bad experience (yet). I checked the connection yesterday by connecting my laptop directly to the modem instead of the router and I got Limited or no connectivity, for all LAN cables and LAN ports. I got this checked and they said they’re going to check if the problem is on the network side or the modem. I’m expecting a call today and I hope they do call because it’s the weekend and I need my Internet!

Dear Diary, Techie Geek

Captain Tal: my new Nokia 6233

Happy Labor Day everyone. It is so good to be able to take a break in the middle of the week — with pay! Haha. I wonder how it would feel when I finally have my leave. Yesterday was such a relaxing day at the office, that I spent most of my time working on a test script and watching CSI Vegas from Luis‘ recommendation. I will post about that next time when I have watched enough episodes. I’m only up to Episode 5. :P

Anyway, on to the curious title. After work yesterday, I met up with my mom and my brother to get one of my most awaited items for the year:

The (Ph)One that Almost Got Away :P

The (Ph)One that Almost Got Away

Yep, the phone is finally here, in my hands and it looks exactly like that picture. I wanted to have a black one but they only have the gray, so it would do. Although my phone seems to be darker than that…hmmm.

Anyway, I’d take pictures of the actual phone but my brother took the digicam with him on his Enchanted Kingdom trip with his girlfriend…so, no pics for now. =)

The little gadget’s name is Tal, or the whole name, Captain Tal. Who is Captain Tal? He is the leader of the group of angels in Frank Peretti‘s This Present Darkness. As mentioned, Tal is the leader of the band of angels protecting the fictional town of Ashton in This Present Darkness and one of the angels in charge of protecting Sally Roe’s life in Piercing the Darkness, the sequel. He is a great warrior, an obedient soldier and would does everything he can for the “saints of God and for the Lamb.” He’s my favorite among the characters in these two novels (which are also my favorites), and while I was thinking of a name for this gadget, this was the name that stuck.

So hello, Captain Tal. :P

Now, can anyone please direct me to any free ringtone downloads for this phone? I waaaaant. Also, should I put it in a crystal case or is a leather case enough? I’m prone to scratching my phones and I think I’m acidic, so my keypads tend to fade/chip when I use my phone…any help with that?

And does anyone have a DVD of CSI Season 1? It’s hard to watch online. :P

Techie Geek, WWW

Ratified.org

I was bloghopping through my Google Reader (wait, is that right?) and I read about Abe’s, Luis‘ and Juned‘s post about Ratified.org, this new Filipino blog ranking site which gathers data from Technorati and ranks the blogs according to their incoming links ((See complete description here)).

I submitted my blog just for fun, thinking that I would probably not even get inside the Top 100. But a few hours later, what do you know? I’m actually at # 88 ((What’s weird is that Mae is also in #88, and she has a higher Technorati rank than I do, so I should be at #89, right?))!

Refine Me at 88!
Refine Me at #88!

And I’m a break out too! How cool is that?! :P

I remember a few months back, Jomar and I were talking about how we get our Technorati ranks and how many people link to us and how poor we were with regards to these kind of ranking, but after being immersed with fellow bloggers (and getting lots and lots and lots of link love!) and with the recent WP theme-making stints, I’m surprised and pleased at how this baby of mine has moved — after three years. :P Wahaha, to think I’ve been blogging for about five or so years already but it was only now that I’m actually paying attention to these things. :P I think we can see the reason why I never got to go up like this in ranking and such before — just look at the way I used to blog. Que horror!

Anyway, I bet I’d be kicked out of that spot as soon as other more popular bloggers get listed in Ratified.org, but I’m happy that my baby managed to get in at the Top 100 on its first submission. :P That should be enough…for now. This means…more to come after! :P Yeahbah.

How about you? Have you submitted your blog to be Ratified? :)

UPDATE, 4:03 pm: Like I said. I’m no longer at # 88, I’m already at #89. :P

Dear Diary, Techie Geek

The (Ph)one that Got Away…and Came Back

This is a follow-up entry about my Smart Addict Mobile retention plan and new phone woes — yes an unexpected development!

So I was busy minding my own business last Monday, doing some work stuff and such when an unknown number suddenly calls my personal number. I look at it for a while, wondering if it’s a possible employer who found out about my skillz…so I answered it.

Me: Hello?
Smart Man (SM): Hello, good morning, is this [insert my Mom’s name here]?

I was dumbfounded for a while — why are they calling my number to look for my mom? Then I realized that it could be Smart.

Me: Uh…no, this is her daughter, I’m the one using this line…who is this?
SM: This is from Smart, we just want to inform you that your unit, Nokia 6233, is here.
Me: [pause] Ah okay.

Continue reading The (Ph)one that Got Away…and Came Back →

Techie Geek, Updates

Designing, and then some

Let’s continue being geeky because I’ve got some updates. No, no new themes (yet), but just some plain domain updates. Look up at the navigation menu and you’ll see that there seems to be a lot of new things there. Well, you’re right, there are a lot of new things there. Let’s list them, shall we?

  • Domain Information – I delayed adding this before because I haven’t got the screenshots of the past two layouts up, plus I wanted to do some revisions. Anyway, they’re up now, with minor revisions, mainly on the content. Oh, and I just took a look at my entire layout history — man, I’ve been through so many years and layouts, what else can I do to add variety? Hmmm.
  • WP Themes – Yes, I’m standing up to this newfound geekness I started doing so I have a separate page for my WP Themes. I’m still thinking if I need to put up a separate page for each theme, but since I’m still new at this and I only have two themes up for now, one page will suffice.
  • Contact – I can’t find a place to stick the contact form other than this page, so here. :) I need to make new link buttons.
  • Writings – Finally, I figured out how to manage my subpages! I didn’t want to put it up without proper navigation and after some short code tweaking, it works! I will put up some NaNoWriMo dedicated pages, but you may now hop over there and read old writings and maybe even comment. :P
    UPDATE 11:33PM: NaNoWriMo novel pages are up! :)
  • About Me – This is not new, but I put up some subpages there too. I still have to revise these pages just because I want to.

I also put up links to my (yet to be updated again) online portfolio and Godchicks, of course. =)

Can I just say I really enjoyed all the webdesign/programming things I’ve done since last week? Ahhh. I love it! I remember this is the main reason why I took up Computer Science in college. :-B Now if only I could really apply it in the real world, as in do this for a living. Now that would be fun. :D

Techie Geek, WP Themes, WWW

WP Theme: Falling Stars

When I said it was addictive, I really wasn’t kidding. :P Maybe I’m just being über geeky, but I don’t care because it’s fun doing this. :)

So now I present to you my second downloadable WordPress theme. *bow*

Falling Stars 1.0

This layout is entitled Falling Stars, and it is based on Jars of Clay’s Waiting for the World to Fall which is part on the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. I had a similar layout for this in RefineMe.org, which I released around late 2005, I think? It was my first purple and starry layout, two things I really, really like, which made me love it so much.

Refineme.Org version 8The original version of this, however, made use of tables instead of CSS layers. I was having a hard time controlling the layers to make it look the way I wanted it to. Also, the original one is narrower than this theme, and I had a weird appearing/disappearing sidebar. :P

As with the previous layout, I can’t remember where I got the images I used here. I remember searching for “falling stars” in Google and then got these images.

This theme is a bit girly with all the stars and such, but I think it’s a keeper. :P I hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed making it (two days! Wohoo!). You may preview it here or click here to download the theme. If you like it and use it, please comment here so I can see it. And if you see any bugs, please don’t hesitate to tell me. =)

Wohoo! I’ve got more under my sleeve…er, my hard drive folders, and I’ll have them re-coded and up in the next few weeks. Right now I think I’ll rest my coding fingers and eyes and do some reading. :)

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Techie Geek, WP Themes, WWW

WP Theme: Spring Butterfly

Spring Butterfly 1.0 WP Theme

I do not know what spring really looks/feels like, and I know it is summertime in the Philippines, but whatever. :P The thing is: I just made my first downloadable WordPress Theme! Wohoo! :)

Refineme.org version 3: Simple lang talagaThis theme is based on one of my old domain layouts (pictured on the left) which I released back in 2004. It looked a lot different then than it does now, but back then I was still using b2, WordPress‘ predecessor (anyone remember this?), so themes are basically non-existent then ((Or maybe there are, but I didn’t know anything about it)). I can’t remember where I got the butterfly image, but I think I got it from gettyimages or something. I really can’t remember. :P This was also the first layout where I started using PHP from old SHTML. I was influenced by my software engineering class big time. :)

You may preview the theme or download it. :D If you see any bugs, please don’t hesitate to contact me about it.

Who knew making WP themes can be so addictive? Hahaha! I’m such a geek! :-B But I really did have fun! Now to make WP themes out of my other old layouts. Booyah!

Techie Geek

The (Ph)one that Got Away

As many of you may have read here, I was planning to buy a new phone using Smart Addict Mobile’s retention plans. You also may have read that I am not relying on Smart to give me a new phone anymore…and here’s the story.

My postpaid contract is up to end by July and by their promo/rule/whatever, I can avail of the new phone by the time I am on the 18th month of my contract onwards. That was roughly by January. I had my eye on the much-praised Nokia 6233 based on the comments I got, and we placed an application of it around two months ago. I was on the waiting list, and they said the new unit will arrive within two to four weeks and they’d call me once it was there. Four weeks later, I went back to the Smart Wireless Center where I applied to follow up our application and they said that there was still no unit available, and since there was a queue for applications, I’m still on the waiting list. Disappointing again, but it’s okay, I’m a patient person, I could wait.

Continue reading The (Ph)one that Got Away →