Another day in the life of… Erik Briones

I have been wanting to buy an iMac for months now and then this news! Argh. My trusted Macbook Pro still works though. I named her “Melissa” I can still do my tasks perfectly well with it. And yeah I just conquered Spain! – in Medieval Total War 2 that is

But an iMac would be really good in the my home-office. I feel lazy with the laptop on the table, I needed a desktop. Well a big part of it is my procrastination flu, but yeah an iMac would be plenty nice!

And yes I have read about it today, there is a new iMac. Rumored to be “slimmer” than the current one. It will lose the FWs, and will have an SD card slot. A quad core processor (sweet). And XEON.

There’s formal confirmation about this upgrade yet, only the ever famous “from sources familiar with the product”.

But I was thinking, I would not want it to have an SD card slot. I do not own an SD card, nor a camera that uses it. My old EOS350D uses a CF, and a I have a USB Card slot. I wonder if my friends who take photography as a serious hobby or a job want that feature though. How widely used is an SD card?

Last night I saw a singer promoting his album on a variety show on TV. And his album was not on CD but on an SD card.

Is it the way to the future? Looks like an ugly chip to me.

It is all over the news folks. Typhoon Ketsana (known locally as ONDOY) hit the Philippines and drowned most of its cities in Luzon area (that’s in the Northern part of the Philippines).

PLEASE HELP THE FILIPINOS. It is 10PM there now as of writing, and it will be there 2nd night on the roofs for some. People are literally sleeping and eating on their roofs as the water levels got unimaginably high.

For those who can help, here are some of the contact info I have gathered from twitter and facebook.

Please contact your International Red Cross station nearest to you in your country.

LOCAL Hot lines for help:

ABS CBN Foundation BANCO DE ORO Account Number: 5630020111 Account Name: ABS-CBN FOUNDATION INC. Routing code: BNORPHMM * For confirmation of donation, please fax (+632-411-0858) or email (sagip@abs-cbn.com) copy of transmittal slip with complete donor’s information. BANCO DE ORO

National Disaster Coordinating Council – 912-2112 / 911-1873 / 912-2665

Citizens Disaster Response Center – 0906-4361185

Red Cross – 527-0000 / 524-5787

Coast Guard – 5278481

Bureau of Fire Protection – 729-5166

Pagasa – 433-8526

Senator Manny Villar – 0917-4226800 / 0927-6751981

Senator Richard Gordon – 0917-8997898 / 0938-444BOYS

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration – 0917-8986992

Department of Trade and Industry – 751-0330/ 0917-8540009

Department of Health – 7438301

Department of Interior and Local Government – 925-0343

Philippine National Police – 117

Metro Manila Development Authority – 136

National Capital Region Police Office – 838-3203 / 833-3354

Marikina – 646-2436 /161

Pasig – 643-0000

Cainta – 387-2992

Meralco – 631-2222

Napocor – 921-3541

Maynilad – 1625

Manila Water – 1627

Last week I was able to install Windows XP from a clean HP Compaq dx2390. “Clean” meaning there is no OS installed in it, and no Auto-install on first startup things. Just plain Bios and DOS.

I think it was a bargain getting them. We only got the HP Compaq dx2390 Microtower without a monitor and it costs us around $450.00. I went to our stockroom and found old Acer 19 inchers so I hooked it up. (ACER AL1916W)

Looking for drivers was very easy. I just went into HP’s Website which is http://www.hp.com, click on the Support and Drivers menu. And then you will go to a page where you will choose the model. It is very important that you get the Model name of your PC correctly.

So there, from the page I just downloaded the necessary drivers while Windows is installing the OS with default settings. Obviously when I checked the Control Panel > System some items have missing drivers. That’s when the downloaded drivers kick in. Luckily they are executable files, so I just have to click them.

We now have a happy working machine.

I learned something new today! One that is totally off from Web Design or Developent, and it has nothing to do with Computers.

We changed seating arrangements in the office today. But we kept the old phone extensions. So now I have a new extension number, but still the name is not changed to my name. It was labeled with the name of the guy who used to sit where the phone is.

Our phone is a Panasonic KX-T7630. And it is controlled by a PABX. I searched thru the internet about how to configure this. And I got it.

So here are the steps

1.) Press the “PROG” button. For our phones here its the first button on the left. The PROG label is not on the button but on the LCD.
2.) Then it will say “Program No”. Type ** (two asterisks)
3.) It will then ask for a password. Normally it is 1234, unless it is changed.
4.) Then press Next until you get to “Ext Name”
5.) Its a bit odd, but it asks for the EXt No., so I just typed in the same extension number.
6.) Then you press “Clear” then type the Name you want.
7.) Press Enter

Done

Please write your comments if this worked for you or not! Thanks!

http://www.thepalmselfcatering.com/

This our new website for our “holiday rentals” department. The inside template is still under construction and is still using the look and feel of the old website, Dubai Palm Vacations.

Please visit The Palm Self Catering, for a holiday in Dubai. Enjoy an accommodation that is more private and larger than a standard hotel. Choose from a wide variety of apartments and villas in The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Marina and in downtown Dubai.

We have a faulty PC on our office. It always has problems with the mouse, the video and sometimes it just restarts itself. Last time it showed a blue screen and an IRQ problem.

But now it has gone more crazy. It displays nothing but this phrase “Disk Boot Failure. Insert System Disk and Press Enter”

I tried putting in an XP CD, and tried to reinstall the OS. However when I was about to choose which drive to install Win XP into, it showed me that the drives C: D: and E: are missing. All I can see is 250 gigabytes of “Unpartitioned Disk Space”

I was really annoying to look at. And I cannot grab the harddrive and put it as slave in another PC

How do we fix this? Is this a SATA problem?

A bit of a history. These PCs with fault are bought with Vista Home on them, and we just downgraded them to Windows XP. I think there must be something wrong with the drivers.

Whatever it is, it still is a big problem. I hope someone can help me!

Last week I blogged about how I was able to find out how to get the CD Key for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). And my blog got hits 200% more than the average visit I get

http://www.erikbriones.com/blogs/2009/08/find-your-windows-xp-cd-key/

So it got me thinking. Is Windows XP still the most widely used OS? Or is it the keywords “serial”, “cd key generator” that got them into my blog?

I have a Macbook Pro that is running Tiger OSX now. Yep, not even Leopard, but I did upgrade it to Leopard before. Not even Snow. In the office I use a PC. An Acer PC also downgraded, into a Windows XP OS. It came, along with 10 or so other PCs here, with Vista OS but we all downgraded them. Hopefully yo solve our problems.

Anyway. So is the Windows XP still the best OS out there? For the average, user perhaps?

That is subject to whatever is defined as an “average user”.

But yeah I already found out how I got the blog hits! It is not the choice of keywords. It was the link

Kawawa naman si Mrs. President. Ginawa nalang syang stress reliever!

Hhahahaha

If you are looking for that game, eto na yun. Binoboxing si Arroyo.

Post mo dito magkano score mo. lolz

http://www.tanginamogma.co.tv/

I have heard of the band The Clientele when I watch the movie The Lake House. This movie was starred by Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, and is a remake of Il Mare, the Korean original version.

The Clientele’s “I Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” was featured in the Original Soundtrack for the Lake House.

I loved that song!

This one i just stumbled upon now. Since I was listening to this set of indiepop songs. I hope you enjoy them. Just look at the lyrics its super nice

the taxi lights were in your eyes
so warm against st marys spires
the carnival was over in the rain
and arm in arm through vincent street
the evening hanging like a dream
i touched your face and saw the night again

its Saturday, the evening’s come
the football crowds have all gone home
but still behind this window i look on
december’s leaves so slowly fall
to cars that break the evening’s pall
and i will wait for you to come tonight

The mythical creature named “Chupacabra” was allegedly found and captured by a Texan.

Here’s one of the videos from CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/12/pkg.tx.chupucabra.kens

And here’s the video about the latest capture of the chupacabra by a Texan

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2009/09/01/roldan.chupacabra.KSAT?iref=videosearch

What is a chupacabra? Here’s a definition from Wikipedia.

The Chupacabra or Chupacabras (pronunciation: /tʃupa’kabɾa/, from the Spanish words chupar, meaning “to suck”, and cabra, meaning “goat”; literally “goat sucker”), also called El Chupacabras in Spanish, is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. It is associated more recently with sightings of an allegedly unknown animal in Puerto Rico (where these sightings were first reported), Mexico, and the United States, especially in the latter’s Latin American communities. The name comes from the animal’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1990 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Biologists and wildlife management officials view the Chupacabra as a contemporary legend.