Archive for the "Personal" Category

19
Aug

There Are People Who Read My Blog

Author: Bob

I mean, really, there are people who read my blog.

Last Thursday, I attended the Yahoo! Philippines Developers Network launch at TGIFriday’s in Glorietta, Makati. I left home at around 1730H, and what used to be a 15-minute drive took me almost an hour due to the huge traffic a sudden downpour brought about.

When I finally managed to reach Friday’s, almost all of the seats til the end of the hall were occupied already by eating and drinking people (most of them happened to be ‘walk-ins’ in an RSVP event — gate crashers!). No choice but to seat near the projector screen together with a couple — I did not bothered to get acquainted with them. Then suddenly, a guy came in and asked if there is somebody seated next to me — I replied that the seat is vacant, then he said, “You look familiar.” I replied, “Perhaps, you had read my blog, bobreyes.com, my face is there.” He said, ‘Yah! bobreyes.com, TurfSite Manila!”. This guy happened to be Jojo a.k.a. PHPCurious. He was NOT the last person that night who said, “You look familiar ..” to me.

Before the official launch began, seated on the same table with were Jerome Gotangco of Morph, Jacque Sara of Exist Global, Dr. Jaime Caro of UP-ITTC, and fellow CSB Prof Ranulf Goss (used to teach GAMEDEV a couple of years ago, he is now the President of Slycesoft). I also met (in flesh) Angela Sabas, a technical Yahoo! (in other words, someone who does technical stuff at Yahoo! and yes, she is indeed a Filipina!).

Ended the night, which I thought would be a boring one, filled with inputs coming from these bright people. Thanks to Yahoo! for the food and drinks. Til next time, Jerry Yang.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed Under »  Events, Personal, yahoo    |   2 Comments »
17
Aug

Robyn Shops at Waltermart

Author: Bob

First time for Robyn to shop at Waltermart. And it was his first time to be inside a car shopping cart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VQzhsnlwrY

Popularity: 2% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Robyn    |   No Comments »
16
Aug

The Evolution of a Programmer

Author: Bob

High School/Jr.High

  10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
  20 END

First year in College

  program Hello(input, output)
    begin
      writeln('Hello World')
    end.

Senior year in College

  (defun hello
    (print
      (cons 'Hello (list 'World))))

New professional

  #include <stdio.h>
  void main(void)
  {
    char *message[] = {"Hello ", "World"};
    int i;

    for(i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
      printf("%s", message[i]);
    printf("\n");
  }

Seasoned professional

  #include <iostream.h>
  #include <string.h>

  class string
  {
  private:
    int size;
    char *ptr;

  string() : size(0), ptr(new char[1]) { ptr[0] = 0; }

    string(const string &s) : size(s.size)
    {
      ptr = new char[size + 1];
      strcpy(ptr, s.ptr);
    }

    ~string()
    {
      delete [] ptr;
    }

    friend ostream &operator <<(ostream &, const string &);
    string &operator=(const char *);
  };

  ostream &operator<<(ostream &stream, const string &s)
  {
    return(stream << s.ptr);
  }

  string &string::operator=(const char *chrs)
  {
    if (this != &chrs)
    {
      delete [] ptr;
     size = strlen(chrs);
      ptr = new char[size + 1];
      strcpy(ptr, chrs);
    }
    return(*this);
  }

  int main()
  {
    string str;

    str = "Hello World";
    cout << str << endl;

    return(0);
  }

Master Programmer

  [
  uuid(2573F8F4-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
  ]
  library LHello
  {
      // bring in the master library
      importlib("actimp.tlb");
      importlib("actexp.tlb");

      // bring in my interfaces
      #include "pshlo.idl"

      [
      uuid(2573F8F5-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
      ]
      cotype THello
   {
   interface IHello;
   interface IPersistFile;
   };
  };

  [
  exe,
  uuid(2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820)
  ]
  module CHelloLib
  {

      // some code related header files
      importheader(<windows.h>);
      importheader(<ole2.h>);
      importheader(<except.hxx>);
      importheader("pshlo.h");
      importheader("shlo.hxx");
      importheader("mycls.hxx");

      // needed typelibs
      importlib("actimp.tlb");
      importlib("actexp.tlb");
      importlib("thlo.tlb");

      [
      uuid(2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820),
      aggregatable
      ]
      coclass CHello
   {
   cotype THello;
   };
  };

  #include "ipfix.hxx"

  extern HANDLE hEvent;

  class CHello : public CHelloBase
  {
  public:
      IPFIX(CLSID_CHello);

      CHello(IUnknown *pUnk);
      ~CHello();

      HRESULT  __stdcall PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString);

  private:
      static int cObjRef;
  };

  #include <windows.h>
  #include <ole2.h>
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  #include "thlo.h"
  #include "pshlo.h"
  #include "shlo.hxx"
  #include "mycls.hxx"

  int CHello::cObjRef = 0;

  CHello::CHello(IUnknown *pUnk) : CHelloBase(pUnk)
  {
      cObjRef++;
      return;
  }

  HRESULT  __stdcall  CHello::PrintSz(LPWSTR pwszString)
  {
      printf("%ws
", pwszString);
      return(ResultFromScode(S_OK));
  }

  CHello::~CHello(void)
  {

  // when the object count goes to zero, stop the server
  cObjRef--;
  if( cObjRef == 0 )
      PulseEvent(hEvent);

  return;
  }

  #include <windows.h>
  #include <ole2.h>
  #include "pshlo.h"
  #include "shlo.hxx"
  #include "mycls.hxx"

  HANDLE hEvent;

   int _cdecl main(
  int argc,
  char * argv[]
  ) {
  ULONG ulRef;
  DWORD dwRegistration;
  CHelloCF *pCF = new CHelloCF();

  hEvent = CreateEvent(NULL, FALSE, FALSE, NULL);

  // Initialize the OLE libraries
  CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);

  CoRegisterClassObject(CLSID_CHello, pCF, CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER,
      REGCLS_MULTIPLEUSE, &dwRegistration);

  // wait on an event to stop
  WaitForSingleObject(hEvent, INFINITE);

  // revoke and release the class object
  CoRevokeClassObject(dwRegistration);
  ulRef = pCF->Release();

  // Tell OLE we are going away.
  CoUninitialize();

  return(0); }

  extern CLSID CLSID_CHello;
  extern UUID LIBID_CHelloLib;

  CLSID CLSID_CHello = { /* 2573F891-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820 */
      0x2573F891,
      0xCFEE,
      0x101A,
      { 0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20 }
  };

  UUID LIBID_CHelloLib = { /* 2573F890-CFEE-101A-9A9F-00AA00342820 */
      0x2573F890,
      0xCFEE,
      0x101A,
      { 0x9A, 0x9F, 0x00, 0xAA, 0x00, 0x34, 0x28, 0x20 }
  };

  #include <windows.h>
  #include <ole2.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  #include <string.h>
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include "pshlo.h"
  #include "shlo.hxx"
  #include "clsid.h"

  int _cdecl main(
  int argc,
  char * argv[]
  ) {
  HRESULT  hRslt;
  IHello        *pHello;
  ULONG  ulCnt;
  IMoniker * pmk;
  WCHAR  wcsT[_MAX_PATH];
  WCHAR  wcsPath[2 * _MAX_PATH];

  // get object path
  wcsPath[0] = '\0';
  wcsT[0] = '\0';
  if( argc > 1) {
      mbstowcs(wcsPath, argv[1], strlen(argv[1]) + 1);
      wcsupr(wcsPath);
      }
  else {
      fprintf(stderr, "Object path must be specified\n");
      return(1);
      }

  // get print string
  if(argc > 2)
      mbstowcs(wcsT, argv[2], strlen(argv[2]) + 1);
  else
      wcscpy(wcsT, L"Hello World");

  printf("Linking to object %ws\n", wcsPath);
  printf("Text String %ws\n", wcsT);

  // Initialize the OLE libraries
  hRslt = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);

  if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt)) {

      hRslt = CreateFileMoniker(wcsPath, &pmk);
      if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt))
   hRslt = BindMoniker(pmk, 0, IID_IHello, (void **)&pHello);

      if(SUCCEEDED(hRslt)) {

   // print a string out
   pHello->PrintSz(wcsT);

   Sleep(2000);
   ulCnt = pHello->Release();
   }
      else
   printf("Failure to connect, status: %lx", hRslt);

      // Tell OLE we are going away.
      CoUninitialize();
      }

  return(0);
  }

Apprentice Hacker

  #!/usr/local/bin/perl
  $msg="Hello, world.\n";
  if ($#ARGV >= 0) {
    while(defined($arg=shift(@ARGV))) {
      $outfilename = $arg;
      open(FILE, ">" . $outfilename) || die "Can't write $arg: $!\n";
      print (FILE $msg);
      close(FILE) || die "Can't close $arg: $!\n";
    }
  } else {
    print ($msg);
  }
  1;

Experienced Hacker

  #include <stdio.h>
  #define S "Hello, World\n"
  main(){exit(printf(S) == strlen(S) ? 0 : 1);}

Seasoned Hacker

  % cc -o a.out ~/src/misc/hw/hw.c
  % a.out

Guru Hacker

  % echo "Hello, world."

New Manager

  10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
  20 END

Middle Manager

  mail -s "Hello, world." bob@b12
  Bob, could you please write me a program that prints "Hello, world."?
  I need it by tomorrow.
  ^D

Senior Manager

  % zmail jim
  I need a "Hello, world." program by this afternoon.

Chief Executive

  % letter
  letter: Command not found.
  % mail
  To: ^X ^F ^C
  % help mail
  help: Command not found.
  % damn!
  !: Event unrecognized
  % logout

Anonymous

Taken from http://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Evolution_of_a_Programmer.html

Popularity: 4% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal    |   No Comments »
31
Jul

PGMA, You Are a Liar!

Author: Bob

Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo, you sure did know how to lie — big time! You said during your SONA last Monday that text messaging rates (interconnection between networks) had been lowered from PISO to just PHP0.50. Thinking that this time, you were saying the truth, sent a couple of text messages to my brother, exchanged SMS conversations with a colleague, and made several follow-ups to clients this day, and when I checked my prepaid balance, got PISO left from PHP115 this mornig.

PGMA, you are a big liar!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Politics    |   1 Comment »
25
Jul

QF030 Emergency Landing at NAIA

Author: Bob

I thought it was just another quiet Friday working day, when I over heard in the Manila Tower frequency that a plane is about to have an emergency landing. MIAA Fire, Rescue, and Safety personnel were alerted. Then minutes later, my phone rang, it’s the secretary of our General Manager asking why a Qantas Boeing 747-400 landed — quite unsual, since QF (Qantas Airways) flights are mostly at night. That’s the time I realized that the emergency landing was that QF 030 flight from Hongkong bound to Melbourne. Here are some pictures that I had taken using an Olympus u790SW digital camera:

Popularity: 57% [?]

Filed Under »  Events, Personal    |   1 Comment »
19
Jul

Twitter is Down :(

Author: Bob

It’s past 1000H Manila time, and Twitter is down :(

Popularity: 26% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Technology    |   1 Comment »
16
Jul

An Open Letter to Bayani Fernando

Author: Bob

To: Mr. Bayani Fernando
Chairman, MMDA

Dear Mr. Fernando,

I can’t help but wonder why floods are still everywhere within the Metro Manila area during a down pour, even if your office had already spent millions of tax payer’s money cleaning the estero’s and rehabilitating the pumping stations. I grew up in the same street where I am living now, and I can only remember once or twice (at most) wherein our street got flooded due to heavy rains — take note, “heavy rains”.

But now, it is very much different: the entire street gets flooded after a 20-30 minute rain. No, I am not complaining because I am against you, but I do not see my money’s worth in the way your office handles flood control.

Another thing, was it really necessary to have your face posted in every tarpauline that your office will post in the streets? True public service need not to have a face — people need not to know who leads what agency or office, as long as they are doing their jobs (right). Same goes with the “BAYANI” stickers pasted on almost all buses plying the avenues of the metropolis — is it a necessity?

I am not sure if you are very much aware of how much each tarp poster or sticker cost, but I do not think they are helping in the improvement on how Metro Manila looks from the eyes of a citizen.

Thanks for your time reading this letter. More power, and I do hope to see less of MMDA tarps with your face in the very near future.

Best regards,

BobReyes.com

Popularity: 29% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal    |   4 Comments »
14
Jul

WordPress for iPhone?

Author: Bob

Now, this is really something that makes me think of dumping Palm (and acquiring a Centro) for an Apple mobile phone — iPhone.

Read on at http://iphone.wordpress.net.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Technology    |   No Comments »
12
Jul

Taking MOODLE 101

Author: Bob

moodle.jpg

I had never had any formal training with MOODLE (nor Claroline), but I happen to be the de facto system adminitrator of both MMA LMS (Learning Management Systems — MOODLE & Claroline). That’s why I was very happy when I received an email invite from CSB’s CLCIR about their Online Teaching Seminar Workshop, and immediately signed-up for the first batch, which started today and will run until the last Saturday of this month. I got so excited with the seminar, that I managed to upgrade my current MOODLE installation from version 1.8 to 1.9.2 last night — this was planned months ago, but never found time to do it.

I was surprised to see that the seminar workshop facilitator is Mr. Tony Ingles, a fellow CSB faculty (SMS) and a TurfSitePH.net client — we had been communicating for such a long time (mostly via email), and today was the first time we had met face-to-face. Also, Ferdy Raymundo is my classmate for this seminar series.

Of all the many beautiful things I learned from Tony this morning, one thing got stucked into my mind: “MOODLE was created by genius people, for stupid people.” So true! MOODLE was beautifuly designed and executed that it is so fool-proof and complete (magalit na ang mga loyal sa Claroline). The seminar was designed for first time MOODLE users/teachers — being teachers, we got to experience how to become a student in MOODLE. We were asked to play around with stuff that you can do in MOODLE, and the first thing I did was to edit my profile — I actually added my pic there. Come the time Tony showed us what a teacher see’s in the MOODLE, my classmates were surprised to see my face beside my name .. hehehe .. I am really looking forward to our next session.

Oh, another thing that made me happy this morning, the seminar workshop was done at B308 — all of the PCs are running Linux ;)

Popularity: 23% [?]

Filed Under »  MOODLE, Personal, Technology    |   No Comments »
11
Jul

No More Coffee & Iced Tea For Me (For Now)

Author: Bob

Last night, I was at school til around 8PM for my MMAPROJ advising. On my way down (inside the lift) I had difficulty in breathing — first thing that came into my mind is I need water. Went to 7-11, but I got Nestea instead. My throat got cleared by my chest wasn’t.

Immediately got a cab, and asked the driver to bring me to our place in Makati. But still have difficulty and breathing and felt a little bit dizzy (losing oxygen?). It was just around 3-4 blocks away from our house when I decided that this is it! I asked “Mamang Driver” to head straight to San Juan De Dios hospital.

My blood sugar level was tested (since their records revealed that my dad is a diabetic) and blood pressure checked — a whooping 150/110. I was immediately given medicines so that my “high blood pressure” can subside, and they had noticed that my belly was bloated — I told them it’s because I had a bottle of iced tea. Minutes later, my dad and brother arrived at the ER — as they were advised by the nurse (my wife was home with Robyn). Minutes after taking the medicine, I fell into sleep. Hours later, I was allowed to go home.

Today, it was my first time in almost a year to have a 12-hour sleep (it’s Eat Bulaga already when I woke up). Reading the diagnosis of the doctor last night, I was advised NOT to take coffee and iced tea to prevent getting a “heart burn” again.

This is the third time I got hospitalized in my entire life, second for the same incident (last was almost a year ago). So, no more coffee (Starbucks Torre Lorenzo, Figaro SDA 9th floor, & Nescafe Vanila/Hazelnut) and iced tea for me, for now.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal    |   No Comments »
9
Jul

Shame On You, PGMA!

Author: Bob

Last month, it was reported that swimmer Miguel Molina will be the country’s flag bearer to the Beijing Olympics come August 2008. However, upon Manny Pacquiao’s return from his successful match with David Diaz last week, PGMA announced that he will be the country’s flag bearer to the Olympics.

Alright, Manny is a great athlete, I have nothing against him, but is it really necessary to kick Miguel Molina out of being the flag bearer? Another thing, Manny is NOT even on the official Philippine delegates list to the Summer Olympics, thus making the butts of the Philippine Sports officials off their seats trying to get him in the list to Beijing. Shame on you PGMA!

Popularity: 19% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Sports    |   No Comments »
17
Jun

The TurfSite Manila Book Give-away Contest Part II

Author: Bob

TurfSite Manila (http://www.bobreyes.com) is giving-away a copy of the graphic novel Hackerteen: Volume 1: Internet Blackout (Hackerteen) (published by O’Reilly in April 2008). The book costs US$19.99 at Amazon.com and I am giving it away for free thru a raffle — open to all bloggers in the Philippines. The book is brand new, mind you; I shall shoulder the shipping cost if you’re in the province.

To join, simply mention in your blog site that TurfSite Manila (http://www.bobreyes.com) is conducting a book raffle. That simple! Once you had posted a blog article about the raffle, please leave a comment here with your Name, Email, & URL to your blog entry.

The winner shall be determined using the Microsoft Excel randomize function on the midnight of 30 June 2008. Spread the word.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Filed Under »  Contests, Freebies, Personal, Technology    |   8 Comments »
15
Jun

Happy Father’s Day 2008

Author: Bob

I will not let this day end without posting my greeting to all of the dads in the world, most especially to my father! You’re the world’s most wonderful dad. Happy Father’s Day, Papa!

Popularity: 32% [?]

Filed Under »  Events, Personal    |   No Comments »
12
Jun

PSR-100: My First Yamaha

Author: Bob

Yamaha PSR-100 Portatone Keyboard SynthesizerWeeks ago, I won in the bidding process for a Yamaha PSR-100 (portatone) in eBay.ph. When I contacted the seller of the item, it happened to be that they are looking for a company to host their business website. So I offered TurfSitePH.net and eventually getting the keyboard in exchange for a domain name and website hosting.

Today, Air21 finally delivered the item after two days of following it up from them.

Robyn Andi Xeon tests the Yamahaa PRS-100PSR-100 is an old model synth (released in 1991, as stated here), but it was during its time when General MIDI (GM) was introduced. But, the true value of this musical instrument to me is the fact that this is my very first Yamaha machine. My very first electronic musical instrument was a Casio MT-45 (still have it in my closet — reserved for Robyn’s small fingers), then followed by several models of CTK’s, also from Casio. Then, was able to save up for a Behringer U Control UMX49 USB MIDI Controller Keyboard, after Rose bought me a CTK-45 three Christmas(es) ago.

Next in my wish list: a digital piano (portable or not) and/or a Roland synth.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Filed Under »  Music, Personal    |   No Comments »
10
Jun

Let Us Help Yuki Belialba

Author: Bob

The 6-month old baby niece of my dear friend (Ate to me & co-faculty) Mira Belialba (BASICOM) is in dire need of financial assistance. Baby Yuki was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, and she needs to undergo surgery. Here’s the email message from her dad, Mio:

~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Everyone,

I would like to seek your assistance to help us raise the needed fund to give my 6-month daughter her needed liver transplant.

Our doctor has released her final diagnosis yesterday and she said that the only way for a long time survival of my baby from her illness (Biliary Atresia) is for her undergo surgery.

According to her, there is no facilities and experience here in the country for such operation so she recommend that we do it in Taiwan which will cost us an estimate of 4M-6M pesos with my wife as her donor.

I’m begging for your good heart to help me, my wife and our family survive this time of trial.

God Bless,

Ramiro “Mio” Belialba

~~~~~~~~~~

Please feel free to forward the PDF file below to all of your friends and contacts.

Download Please Help Yuki

Downloaded a total of 143 times

Popularity: 43% [?]

Filed Under »  Personal, Public Service    |   1 Comment »

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