Old School BMXers, where are they?

I just spent tons of hours not working! What a waste of time, I got tons of pending projects.

I am one BMX guy that has been riding seriously since 1986. Tried freestyle, ad played around and competed in local races in BMX and mountain biking. Influences are actually high school classmates, like Arvin Casanova and Jefferson Arrangorin. They learned earlier and I always felt I needed to catch up. When I started to finally learn, they stopped already.

I may not be as competitive as I was before, but I still have a few freestyle tricks under my sleeve. At least I still have something to show my children. There is just a time that you stop because you have to, but when the opportunity arises to still ride, even with less skills, I still ride.

That made me think, what happened to all the pros during my BMX days? I started searching and came across this website, notfreestylin.com. All I can say that this site is really good if you are one of the old school BMXers. Being a webmaster, all I can say is the website looks real bad, even how information is presented. But the information is really really good. New school BMXers may not appreciate it if they do not know the people they are talking about. Find out what happened to Eddie Fiola, Woody Itson, Martin Aparijo, Mike Dominguez, Jose Yanez and the hot Krys Dauchy (she is still hot) and more. And the pros find out about the website and actually gives in updates themselves.

One nice thing I see is that they still find time to bike, even if they are not a good as before. And another nice thing is Bob Haro and Woody Itson who now works for GT still gives free bikes to the old pros once in a while even if these old pros may not be biking in the same way they used to. They just know that they will be happy riding a new freestyle BMX bike.

One funny thing to read, if you have watched Rad over and over again on your old Betamax, there is a funny interview of Cru Jones on the website.

So to all old school BMX Freestyles, notfreestylin.com is a recommended site that you need to read.

I spent like 2 hours just reading stories on this website. Well back to work…

Cleaning Up

Mama told me if I wanted to vacuum my car since the vacuum cleaner it there. I said nope, not today Mama, I just something to do. Which is cleaning up too. 😀 But cleaning up a computer. One of my computers was used for playing around. And a few things here and there were installed.

-Uninstalled all unnecessary softwares
-Ran AVG, Updated and Full System Scan
-Ran AD-Aware, Updated and Full System Scan
-Ran Spybot, Updated and Full System Scan
-Check msconfig, Disabled unknown start up items.
-Updated SpywareBlaster
-Check for unwanted files manually on the hard disk.
-Removed browser toolbars.
-Made Firefox the default browser.
-Removed homepage settings.

And this time, before I forget, I need to create a separate user profile and just delete it everytime and recreate it again so it is much easier.

Now back to work.

I hate fixing up other people’s work.

As the title goes… I do hate fixing up other people’s work when it comes to things web related. Sometimes it is easier to start things all over again doing it “my way”.

But in some cases… there is a small difference in the work time in either fixing things on an existing site, or redoing the whole thing. So it gives you a tough decision on which path to take.

But there are also cases that just fixing some mistake is easier to fix, but will contribute to making things harder in the future. That there are times it would take a long time to redo everything, but will make future editing a lot more faster.

Well I just needed to express myself while I work on some other website somebody else work on.

Project Management

Ever since I went into business in 1997. I can still remember Click Me! Computer Sales and Rental Service. I was doing good for sometime, then went bad. Then the same with Action Online Co. Ltd., ups and downs.

I am no graduate of any business course. And is basically a self-taught businessman. And I learned the hard way through mistakes. But I just consider what ever losses I had as my tuition fee to my own business school.

My business started as a product business and eventually became a service business where I deal with some amount of projects. When they were a bit few, they were easy to handle, but as they got more, everything started to get harder. Along with many mistakes done in the old company that can be summarized as doing to much that the company can actually handle without a back up plan of how to handle too much projects. It was unsuspected growth that messed everything up.

I always wanted to save on money and did not embrace technology right away. Everyone started having pagers and I did not have one right away. But also bought one eventually. Everyone started having cellphones and I did not opt to buy one right away, until my clients were always asking my cellphone number, then I assumed I needed one already. I did not want a PDA, and used the conventional pen and paper. My partner was the first to decide on having a PDA, and I was convinced with the productivity advantages and got one too.

Today I manage everything I do through my PDA synchronized with MS Outlook. But for many years everything was still not running smoothly. Especially when working with teams. Coordination was always a issue. It was like you have to follow up everyone on everything all the time and that alone is time consuming. And sometimes people’s free time to accommodate you don’t jive at the same moment. But somehow I was still able to handle that for half a year with my company YDS Web Solution.

Now I am here in the United States, and is also working for Einstein Industries, who has literally thousands of websites made by a big number of Webmasters in teams of three people. Collaboration is crucial for flawless delivery of projects. A small misunderstanding or something not followed up can break everything up. Fortunately our company had a project management system. We informally call it the “tracker” since we can track the status of projects. It seemed as a very effective tool that solved all problems I had in the past with regards to project management in working with teams. The software though looks proprietary, or probably a modification of something of the shelf.

For my own company, I knew I needed something similar and I came across dotProject. It had all the features I needed and work very similarly to the project management system I used at work. Right now I am just happy using dotProject and it made life a lot more easier.

Sorry I am not placing a review of dotProject here, I will probably place is somewhere in my students’ blog someday. All I want to do here is express my happiness using it.

If you are in search of a web hosting service that has a Project Management System like dotProject installed, you can contact me. Send me an email.

DSL Finally

My landline phone was installed last Jan 14.

My DSL was installed last Jan 20.

Since this is an extra landline phone in a house where all the phone cables are set in the walls. The phone company SBC inquired about the wiring and said if I need work on that area, they can help. And there is a charge of $125. Wow, that is P7,000! Just to do wiring. That wiring thing is free in the Philippines. And it is simple for me to do it myself. So I said do not do it and I will do it myself. So last Jan 14 they installed it in the phone terminal box outside on the wall of the house.

Getting the Phone to Work

Since work is 8:00am to 5:00pm on weekdays and I am a bit far from work. I get home and it is dark already. So I choose not to fix it during these times. Weekends would have been perfect but just did not have the time sometimes.

Last Jan 21, our company let us go home at 2:00pm and that gave me enough time to get things connected.

But the terminal box had two extra connections not one. One of them was probably dead. But I got a real cheap $14 phone and some old wires to test them out on the box and call the number to get the right connection terminal.

Now for the internal wiring, there was enough for two more phones, I tried one, and went to my room upstairs to test it and there was no dial tone. Went down stairs and used the other set of wires, and still did not work.

I ask Papa if he had a multi-tester (VOM) so I can test the connection. He said he does not have one. So I decided to use a flashlight. I just joined all wires together and on the other end used the two wires acting as a switch of the flashlight to test the wire connections. I tried all combinations, which is 4! (Not an exclamation point, 4! meaning 4 factorial. Which is nothing but 4x3x2x1.) All gave no light. I was thinking since this is only a 1.5V battery and long wires, maybe the resistance ate all the voltage in the process. But I had a long roll of phone wire with me to test it out. And it work. So it meant nothing but the connections are broken somewhere.

And all of the wiring was inside the house, and I did not want to mess around with the walls. So I just made the wires pass outside the window, all around going down the wall to the phone terminal box. And it served me fine.

Getting the DSL to Work

In my old company Action Online, we had PLDT DSL, and where I worked at Informatics, we had BayanTel DSL. And I configure everything up myself. I’ve played around with Windows 98, 2000, 2003 and XP. Internet Connection Sharing, Wingate, ProProxy, AutoNet, SOHOConnect.

So I just unpacked everything up and connected everything. I saw the DSL LED on the Modem light up and I just said, great, the DSL signal is there. So I just need to hook it all up.

But no matter what, I could not get it to work??? I have been doing this for a long time and it just would not work. Although everything came with an installation CD, I decided not to use it. Since I don’t want excessive softwares installed on my computer. But since everything was not working, I then decided I need to run the CD that SBC Yahoo DSL gave.

It was quite a long installation with a lot of questions. The usual profile questions, your phone number, and even your a Modem Access Code which is a set of numbers on a sticker below your modem and everything then worked. Why did they have to make it that way? The only reason I can see is to keep track of you. Your profile, and your modem info. Aside from that it runs a lot of programs upon start up.

-The SBC Self-Support Tool
-Yahoo Browser in the System Tray
-A file called MotiveSB
-A file called IPClient by Visual Networks
-A file called IPMon32 also by Visual Networks

It makes Yahoo Browser the default browser and make SBC Yahoo DSL your homepage in all browsers. It also makes you SMTP not work anymore of you are using some other SMTP since Port 25 is blocked for some reason. Microsoft’s Internet Connection Sharing cannot be configured on a second LAN card since it will disable the DSL connection. If you share the connection itself, it disables the connection too. So it is forcing you to use a router/switch and not just a hub.

Basically, how I see things overall is they can just detect which modem on which account if being use. Not because they want to spy on you or what, but I guess if you do something crazy and hack into something or do anything greatly bad, and the authorities request access logs from them, they have something to give.

Unlike how I had it in the Philippines, as long as there is a DSL signal and a DSL modem, you are online. And you can share the account endlessly as long as you can configure it.

Too much code!!!

I’m just taking a break from work. I do not know why some people have too much code in their work and why can’t they make it shorter. Most of those who do this are the WYSIWYG dependent people. Relying on what Dreamweaver renders. Too much unnecessary nesting to tables. Image pushers here and there. Slicing everywhere. Not reusing images that are used all the time in different pages. Not taking advantage of CSS repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat and no repeat and just place large chunks of images. Using image names Fireworks made in the slicing.

All of the above is a big ???

I grew up using dial-up for a long time, and I know how pages load in dial-up. So in my sites download speed is always a priority. Hard code is the way to go with nice short clean, easy to read code. Homesite is still and always the best for me, Dreamweaver does not even have a match for it.

I’m was just fixing a site with messed up tables. Totally unscallable. Well back to work.

No time to blog… but still finding time to blog…

Just a few quickies since I need to sleep already

– Secondary IDE Port of my Motherboard is not working well, it can’t detect anything even with a new IDE cable and new hard disk. And both IDEs are enables in the BIOS.

– Got a new ATI Radeon 9200SE 128 DDR 8X AGP so I can move my old Riva TNT 64MB to the other computer so it can handle higher resolutions and hopefully get to install Xadros Linux this time.

– Billing is starting to be time consuming without an automated system, but I don’t have enough time to create one either. I’ll probably look for a ready-made opensource alternative.

– Moving accounts from server Moray to server Quezon for server Morays retirement.

– US Based hosting clients like drukelly.com, meredithvictor.com, kabalikatnec.com are cool. ericma.com is moving, jasonfinleykent.com under negotiations. Persuading infatex.com. I see it growing. natassia-malthe.com was cool.

– Marcia and Amor has a meeting tomorrow, good luck, I hope you bring home the bacon. Marcia might be meeting with a company president, marketing manager and IT head.

– Work is a lot at Einstein, but my builds are nearly all done. Thanks to John who has been doing like 20% of the total number of sites. Without him, I’d be still working on that 20% more sites.

– My company had employees and partners, then partnerless, then employeeless, for cost cutting reasons. Now I am going back to having an employee. I hope this is a sign that business is doing good.

– New phone, new numbers. Landline still not working. Will check it out well tomorrow. Salary is near, need to save up for plane tickets if ever I get a vacation from work.

– Room still a mess

– Dot.ph domains still need to be transfered.

– Personal Vault is cool.

– Did not see the previous comet since San Diego had cloudy rainy nights. 🙁

– First time I saw a humminbird in action yesterday.

– Trillian 3 rocks

– Set aside my Mac Mini dreams since I need money to go back to the Philippines. If the company does not grant me my vacation, I’ll buy that Mac Mini to make me feel better.

– That’s it, I’m out… Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

Less Time for Blogging

After we moved here to Escondido, I am not spending more time traveling to work, so I have less time working. And I end up doing mostly work, no time for Blogging.

It is now a Sunday, so I am taking advantage of it to drop a few lines here before it is all working day again.

Phone Busted

My Nokia 3650 is unlocked that it can accept any carrier. My Smart sim card is working fine. I’ve tried Globe in it too as well as Sun and it has no problems. But I just bought a T-Mobile sim card and it had problems, my phone always rebooted.

I was thinking maybe there is such a thing as limited unlocking? So I searched online and saw this software along with several procedures to unlock. But I also found out that once your phone is unlock, it can take any provider.

So I was thinking maybe it was my software that did not accept the T-Mobile sim. My phone was running on SymbianOS and had tons of modifications in the past adding and removing softwares. And I was thinking maybe on the softwares installed causes some conflict with my T-Mobile sim card. So I simply just wanted to remove all modifications I installed on my cellphone, although I cannot remember them all.

I searched online and found a reformat code for Nokia 3650. This supposed to bring back the phone to it’s original default settings. Like the exact same way it was when it was purchased. I tried it out and it did seem to reformat. Problem is, I lost the menu button. So I can literally do nothing on the phone but make and accept calls.

I brought it then to an authorized Nokia Service Center. And they said my phone is really messed up big time. And the only last resort is to flash it, but when they do that, there are no guarantees. It has a 50:50 chance of getting fixed. I said go for it since I can’t do anything but call anyway, so they went for it and it still did not work.

I’ve got a 6600 on the way from the Philippines that I asked my wife to buy. But I will also probably get another phone so that I can have both my Smart and T-Mobile sims running at the same time.

Can’t Run Linux Yet

I have been trying to install Xandros Linux in the other PC I have here. Problem is my monitor can’t display the resolution required. I wanted to switch monitors, but the monitor would not also work on my Windows PC with a 1280 x 1024 resolution and 32bit color.

I’ll probably sell my monitors on eBay since I know there are a lot of people that run only 800×600 to 1024×768. And will probably but a new one. But my hands are full with a lot more other stuff so I can’t do all of that right now. Maybe in the meantime, I’ll load windows on this other PC running on low resolution.

Room Still a Mess

After moving to the new location, my room is still a mess, but I make it a point that I fix something up everyday. So that every day that passes by, things get better.

Photo’s by Dru

Friend at work, John Kelly aka Dru Kelly(www.drukelly.com) loves his camera. He likes photography and takes some random pictures. Some of them include his co-employees at work.

I’ve got a few shots and he posted them online.

Drinking Pepsi at the office kitchen – Click on the picture to see a larger view on Dru’s Photo Gallery
Weird looking photo of me tasting salt – Click on the picture to see a larger view on Dru’s Photo Gallery

Now time for me to read blogs… will first go to my wife’s blog on MarciaArriola.com.

Belated Happy Birthday Mom

My New Year was spent as a busy one. Before new year, it was mostly packing up things in preparation of moving to a new house my sister-in-law bought. And when we got here, it was mostly moving things from the garage to the room, helping out with Mama and Papa (my in-laws) with their stuff as well.

At the new location, we had no phones yet with overseas capabilities. My computer was still into separate parts, so I could not go online either. And once I got online, the data-center unplugged my server due to another hack attempt.

When I got online it was mostly web server upgrades, system software upgrades, and whatever security updates I could find and do. Then I messed things up with some scripts but finally got it working before any of my clients got mad and called me up.

Right now, I still can’t call my Mom to greet her a happy birthday. But I am taking this opportunity to write a letter for my Mom for her belated birthday greeting.

I guess mostly everyone thinks their mother is a great mother. I am no exception; I believe my mother is great mother too. And let me enumerate why.

1. My Dad was a chef, my Mom was a housewife, but my Mom cooks very well. She tries new things she sees on TV sometimes, and sometimes her first shot at it may not be the best, but you know it will get there. I see her as a evolving cook. She still finds it a puzzle on what to cook per day. She feels paulit-ulit na lang niluluto n’ya. (her cooking is just going over and over again) And she finds it hard to think on what to cook next. But whatever she decides to cook, I am sure it will taste good. Comparing it to my Dad’s cooking, Mom is no match, but comparing Mom’s cooking with every house I have eaten at, Mom cooks better than most.

2. Mom prioritizes others before her own children. Even in simple things, the food dishes she chooses, she makes sure that everyone will like it. She keeps in her head, the list of dishes the people like and do not like. And prepares everyone’s favorite. She makes sure she has something for everyone. If Rene, Marcia, Allan Go are at the house, she secretly prepares the foods she knows they will like. When she gets that done, then she will think if I and my sister will eat it.

When she buys clothes when she has a lot of money, like when she wins Mahjong, she’d go out to SM and buy something. She buys things for Rene, Marcia, Allan Go, syempre kung may sobra lang, saka kami ni Ats. (of course, only if there is excess, that’s when she buys something for me and Ats)

But I totally do not feel bad about it. In fact I feel good about it. Because this is where I can see how she values the people we love too. Unahin muna ang hindi kadugo, bago ang kadugo. (Treat first those who are of different blood before those with the same blood.)

3. As a kid, even until I grew up, Mom never got mad at me in front of other people even if she is really mad already. She will just say let’s go home or stuff like that. But once you get home, that’s when you have to prepare. If you are already at home with some friends, she will even call you in a very nice tone, pretending she needs some assistance with something in the room. She makes it a point that you do not get scolded in front of other people.

4. When me and my sister were young, if ever I had my girlfriend at home, or my sister had her boyfriend at home. And are left in the living room with no one else around, I could sneak a kiss or two, or even a good smooch while my Mom was in the room. And whenever my Mom goes out of the room, she’d be humming a tune of an unknown song. Pretending to be humming something, but she is just actually warning us, saying like “hey, I’m coming, so you better stop whatever things I do not supposed to see.”

5. Mom balances friends well. She befriends anyone and is often in between two people who are not friends, even enemies at times. But she still manages to handle everything well.

6. Mom is not at ease when she knows someone is mad at her for some reason. Even when they are not, she just thinks they are.

7. Mom is the only person that gives me no-interest, no-definite payment time loan. And even if my credit record is so bad with her, I can still avail the emergency loan as long as I promise early payment time.

8. Source ng tsimis. (of gossips)

9. Mom has a guilt feeling that Ats did not grow up the way I did, since she did not allow Ats to go to parties and other celebrations.

10. Mom loves her own son-in-law and daughter-in-law like her own children.

11. Mom is very religious

12. Mom is paranoid, always thinks I will get into an accident I BMX and Taekwondo.

13. Mom is humble. Hindi nakikipagsabayan sa mga mommies na walang kinuwento kundi ang magaling nilang anak. (She does not compete with stories of other mothers that tell nothing but great stories of their children.)

14. Mom believes in you. And she worries about my problems even if I do not consider them problems.

15. Mom is my number 1 cheerleader even for the simplest achievements that even I do not celebrate since they are no big deal to me.

16. Mom always gets up in the morning to prepare breakfast for everyone that is leaving the house early in the morning.

17. Mom dresses up well for any occasion, looks young and strong for her age.

18. Mom does not know how to get mad at others, she just bangs the whole place up, slamming doors and everything so you need to be a good decipherer of her actions to get the picture.

19. Simple lang naman kasiyahan ni mommy, mag shopping pag may pera. (Mom just has a simple happiness, to go shopping when she has money.) So if she gives you something, even if you do not need it, accept it and say thank you. It will make her happier than say something like, naku saying naman Mommy, hindi ko kailangan yan, pinera mo na lang sana. (oh no Mom, I really do not need that, how I wished you gave me money instead.)

20. A natural talented ballroom dancer. She did not need any ballroom lessons, she just danced a lot when she was young.

21. She is afraid of the dentist, so she brushes her teeth well. And she did a good job, all her teeth are strong and just has one false tooth. That she takes off when eating. She has the best way of doing it. She just gets a small piece of tissue, gives out a small cough, and presto, that’s it. Her move is as swift as David Copperfield. Now you see it, now you don’t.

22. Mom is not that good in math, logic or analytical thinking. But for some reason, she is good in Mahjong. And Mahjong requires good analytical thinking just like any other thinking game.

23. Mom did not finish highschool, but all the lessons in life I needed to learn outside of school, mom has filled up a large part of it. Although I believe Mom was over protective and served me too much, it did not make me too dependent and lazy, just a little bit lazy. Nyahahaha.

24. Mom can read people well. She can tell if someone is really a good person or not. She kind of just has a hunch, it may be wrong sometimes but often they are true. I can see she kind of detects liars in a way, but I wonder why she believed all my lies when I was kid? They were not too many, but maybe she was just pretending she believed me.

25. Super babaw tulog ni mama. (Mom’s sleep is super shallow) And a ring of the phone will always wake her up no matter how deep her sleep it.

26. Mom never gets sick. Well nearly never gets sick. But when she does, she is really, really sick.

27. Mom does not really like the dogs and cats 100%. But she keeps them there since they are pet’s of my Dad and me. I hope Cornicor is still alive, Cornicor is the only pet that knows Dad. And I think Mom has a good bonding only with Cornicor. But Babycor is starting to follow her mom Cornicor in being malambing and not wild that much.

28. Mom is part of the digital divide. The older generations somehow cannot embrace technology that well. But Mom is a texter. She learned well her cellphone talents. And knows how to set the time in the TV with remote control. Give any washing machine and she can figure it out. I guess that is the only technology she has embraced. 😀

I want to say more about Mom, but three clients are chatting with me. One redesign deal, one about billing and another for their testimonial.

Well isang dakilang ina ni Mommy (Well she is one great Mommy). I would not be how I am if not for everything I learned from my Mom. Thanks and Belated Happy Birthday!

I love you and miss you.

What’s my belt?

In the Philippines I have trained in Taekwondo, Aikido and Jeetkunedo. That was way back 1991 to 1996. Those years were the years of my peak performance. Maybe some of you have seen my pictures in Friendster or elsewhere where I’m in a Taekwondo uniform wearing a blackbelt. That was right after a fight in one of the competitions I joined in the Philippines. But I am not a Blackbelt.

In the Philippines, during competitions, everyone is allowed to fight wearing a blackbelt, even if you are a blackbelt or not a blackbelt. As long as you are willing to fight and know you can fight, the only rule in the Philippines is if you are bluebelt and below, you need your instructor’s approval to compete. There are no age categories nor belt categories. Only weight categories. The belts in the Philippines are:

White
Yellow
Blue
Red
Brown
Black

Where each colored belt in between white and black has a high and low ranking. In the Philippines I am high redbelt, but always competes wearing a blackbelt and has won several matches against real blackbelts. But I never reached the finals though in all Philippine competitions I joined.

The colors of the belts in the States, specifically here with the member schools of the San Diego Taekwondo Association are:

White
Yellow
Orange
Blue
Blue Stripe
Purple
Purple Stripe
Brown
Brown Stripe
Red
Black and Red Stripe
Black

When I got here in the States, I was accepted as a brown stripe belt. Like in the Philippines I was two belts away from blackbelt. So I basically have the same rank.

But one difference here is I never compete against blackbelts here since competitions are by age, by belt and by weight. Which is a good thing for me especially that I am already 31, and the last time I did Taekwondo was in 1996. Until I started Taekwondo again when I came here to the States last July 11, this year.

Today is my promotion test for Red Belt, which is low brownbelt in the Philippines. Promotion test here are different, I do punches and kicks, self-defense techniques, forms and breaking. In the Philippines, promotion test are concentrated on sparring. There is no breaking though in the Philippines, but I am pretty confident I can break the blocks of wood today. Especially the kick I’m going to do for my test is a flying side kick. And a flying side kick has a lot of power in it so breaking should not be hard. Wish me luck!

Although I won 2nd place in the 10th Annual San Diego Taekwondo Championship, Master Min still wanted me to join the California Open which I think I am not prepared for yet because I need to build up my endurance again. But when I said I am not sure I want to join, he has not reminded me to join again. Sergei, one of my friends here at the taekwondo studio wants to join and has been inviting me join too, but I really think I will build up my endurance and is working on a three month program with 24 Hour Fitness to develop peak sports performance level to augment my taekwondo skills.