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.

How’s Everything!

Summary in a few words:

Unemployed
Still looking for a job, 2nd Screening for Lindows
Trying to close a deal
Having fun Chatting with Marcia
Passed the Driver’s License Exam
Joined a Taekwondo School

The Brief Details:

After applying for tons of jobs on Monster.com and HotJobs.com ever since I came here, on the first batch of jobs I applied for, one already replied saying I passed the initial screening and was asked to fill up another questionnaire for the second screening. The company was Lindows, Inc.. Position as a PHP / MySQL Programmer

I got a proposal with a major publication company for my company YDS Web Solution, and it is still in the works. No contract signing yet, but if ever I get this, this will be a major break for my company in the States.

Marcia bought a webcam and headset with microphone so I’m happy to see her in the flesh and hear her as well. I get to talk to and see Jamie as well.

I took the examination at the Department of Motor Vehicles for my driver’s license and passed the examination with a perfect 100%. They gave me a temporary license that I could use till September 20, 2004 until I get my actual driving examination.

Just joined Champion Taekwondo Academy under Master Won K Min. They are WTF style so my belt will be accredited. In the Philippines I am a high red belt, where that is 3 belts away from Black Belt, and Master Kim was offering me the same belt, 3 belts away from black belt, but I asked for a belt one step lower since it has been 1996 since the my last active practice of taekwondo. I might be pressured with the same ranking and my skill depleted through the years. I might get beat up with the same belt so I opted for one belt lower.

Of course Master Min knows Master Sung Chun Hong of the Philippines and I told him I am a student of the student of Master Hong. With my hyperthyroidism still hyper, I took some tapazole to lower my thyroid activity to lessen my heart rate in preparation for later, which is my first Taekwondo class in years. I will do some stretching before I leave so my body won’t have a big adjustment.

Hello to my family, I miss you all.

Resigned Informatics, Decided to go Abroad, Making Preparations

I resigned from Informatics Computer Institute last May 30, 2004. But is just finishing the remaining short-term classes I have there. I decided to resign since I needed to earn more money since we got a lot of bills to pay and without Marcia working too, it would have been a lot more harder.

I resigned since I have been earning bigger through I.T. projects that I get through YDS Web Solution, my I.T. company and decided to concentrate first on the company while I need more money at this present time.

Still with so many bills to pay, even if the company is earning money, it is still not enough and I have been contemplating on working abroad.

Marcia’s parents are here in the Philippines right now, and I have been thinking on going with them to the US on the 22nd. Since I am an American citizen, going to the States would not really be a problem. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, I decided to go with them this 22nd of June. So everyday seems to be a rush.

Now about my company, YDS Web Solution and OmniDomain.biz, they will still both be running smoothly, with or without my presence in the Philippines, since we are all connected online. My clients will have nothing to worry about and Marcia will be your physical contact person in the Philippines. Everything will run smoothly as if I did not leave the country.

I will come back as soon as I get to pay for all the bills here in the Philippines, and to all my clients, that would not take that long.

BenjArriola Students Blog

Today, was start of PhotoShop day for ST109B (CorelDraw, PhotoShop class). Selection tools, Copy and Paste, Using Layers were taught. After doing that, I just played around with my students website, http://students.benjarriola.com and updated it a created a new blog for my students to visit.

This site should basically help as an educational medium to augment my current teaching at Informatics. Like my blog, it is updated occasionally, but not as often as I do on my personal blog.

The rest of the day was boring. I was preparing billing statements and official receipts of my clients on YDS Web Solution to mailed out today, but I wanted to add some thank you letters to clients who pay semi-annual, annual and quarterly. I haven’t made a letter and I decided to make one but when I was about to print it. There was people in the library where the network printer is, and I can’t really print something that is not officially for Informatics.

Now everyone plans to watch Troy this evening at SM North EDSA. I wanted to bring Marcia along and go with everyone, but Marcia told me we need to buy some stuff tonight, so I’m not going with them and will head home and do some shopping.