Thanks to the people of the De La Salle University Business Management Society (BMS) for having me as their resource speaker earlier today. Had a talk about Microsofot Visual Basic 2008 Express for non-developers.

As promised, hereunder is a copy of the slide deck I used for the talk. For anything related to the seminar, please feel free to email me via bob@bobreyes.com

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A day after I blogged about my Smart mobile phone (a Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman unit) went semi-dead: can’t make / receive any phone call, nor do GPRS/3G/MMS browsing, a very interesting comment was left on my Facebook wall from a long time friend.

Tonio (a friend since high school and works for Smart Communications) advised me to key-in the following keywords on my mobile unit: ROAM OFF then send it to 333. Wait for a couple of hours (around 2 hours for me) and I was back to mobile web surfing via GPRS/3G and was able to send MMS already!

This was confirmed to me by an email from Smart (in response to my email to them) stating that there are times wherein the International Roaming service is accidentally turned on(?). Hmmm.

Hope this helps those who had experienced the same thing and same error voice prompt.

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Less than a month ago, I “upgraded” my HP Mini 2133 from Microsoft Windows Vista Basic to Windows XP with Service Pack 3. The overall responsiveness of the netbook has improved, though it seems that the battery consumption is a little bit higher. I made another partition to accommodate Windows 7 Beta. Here are the results of my HP Mini 2133 battery stress test experiment:

Total Charging Time: 01 hour, 55 minutes, & 17.6 seconds

I fired up the anti-virus software to scan the hard drive while the netbook is unplugged from the power outlet.

Windows XP SP 3 Usage Time: 01 hour & 33 minutes (low battery prompt goes on at 01 hour & 19 minutes of usage)

Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) Usage Time: 01 hour & 33 minutes (low battery prompt goes on at 01 hour & 27 minutes of usage)

I remember having used the HP Mini 2133 for full two (02) hours when it was still using Windows Vista Basic. Wondering what’s draining the battery fast in Windows XP & Windows 7.

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Been using my Smart-locked Sony Ericsson W760i for almost a month now. It was preactivated with MMS and Mobile Internet. I was able to take picture shots with it, then post it directly to the web (via BlogSpot and Twitpic).

Then suddenly, when I was about to post a picture of Robyn during luncht time today, I got this odd error:

Connection failure. Check settings. If problem persists, please contact your operator for support.

Thinking that my GRPS/3G/MMS settings was the problem, I made an OTA request. Got the new settings saved, and the same problem is encountered. So I tried to dial the Smart Customer Service Hotline *888. An odder voice prompt error was encountered:

The subscriber you are calling can be reached through text messaging. Thank you!

Using the landline, I was able to contact the Customer Service of Smart. Their advise: for me to wait for up to 48 hours to check if I still encounter error. This is what I hate about Smart (Bro, Buddy, etc) — waiting game.

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It was two months ago when I made a post on how to setup a home wireless network using the CD-R King LP-8186 Wireless Router. Since then, I had received  numerous email messages inquiring on how to go about the configuration. The answer is pretty much easy: I just followed what was instructed by CD-R King (found inside the box/package) — that’s it.

Now, for those who wants a clearer visual of my settings, here it goes:

REYESHOME

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Happy Chinese New Year! May the year of the Ox bring prosperity to our families, and of the entire Philippines. Kung hei fat choi!

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Today, 23 Jan 2009 the entire Catholic world celebrates the feast day of San Ildefonso (Archbishop of Toledo, Spain). San Ildefonso, pray for us.

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As DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman appeals to bloggers:

Appeal to bloggers

Since Bambee’s blog, the story about the incident in the golf club spread through the Internet.

Bloggers condemned and some even put up a signature campaign for Pangandaman’s resignation.

Pangandaman said his family is hurting because of the bad picture being painted on his name and family.

He appealed to bloggers to stop accusing them on the Web. The secretary even warned bloggers against karma.

“I appeal to the bloggers to stop this. They also have their families, they have parents and siblings. Our family is already hurting. I hope this doesn’t happen to you (bloggers),” the secretary said.

Get rid of traditional politicians now! Sec. Pangandaman, resign now. Being in the cabinet will have an effect on the on-going investigations about your son’s incident / brutality. Talking about karma, had you taught this to your son? Maybe, he had thought of it first before getting into such mess. Tamaan sana ng kidlat ang hindi nagsasabi ng totoo!

Now, another reason why you should resign: remember the farmers? I am not just talking a particular set of farmers, let’s talk about all farmers in general. What had happened to the lands promised to them? Is that what you call agrarian reform?

RESIGN NOW! Don’t wait for bloggers to kick you out of your post — we almost did this to the President. For your son, he should rot in jail, before going to hell!

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Happy New Year everyone! Hope that you will continue to visit my website this year. More hits to come to all of the Pinoy Bloggers!

May the Lord continue to bless us with his blessings in 2009.

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Had you ever asked yourself: What does it take to be a Rizal today? I guess, some will answer that they need not to be a hero, as we know who Rizal is. Some will even say that if Jose Rizal was alive today, he will be a blogger.

Now, let us put it this way: Why do college kids needs to study Rizal, even if it is a boring subject? Why do we need to read Noli and El Fili in high school? What is it in Rizal that made him our National Hero? Why Rizal, nor Bonifacio?

I wonder, too. I guess, being an ordinary person can bring out the Rizal in us.

Today is Rizal Day, a holiday. Wala lang.

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May of all us have a Blessed Christmas 2008. Do not forget to thank the All Mighty for the wonderful gifts, both tangible and intangible, that we had received this year.

Maligayang Pasko sa lahat!

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When our in-house band invited me to play keyboards for them during our Christmas Party, my instant reply was, “Yes!” How I missed playing for a band. The last time I had seriously played for one was almost a decade ago. I got so excited that I brought half of my musical armada at the office (my Yamaha PSR-100 and Roland E-16) plus the a standby unit Korg DX7 (at my back).

Check out one of our practice sessions:

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Having a Personal Area Network (PAN) with the help of a Bluetooth dongle is not enough for me. I need to have access access to the internet anywhere within the house.

Tonight, I paid CD-R King a visit and grabbed the cheapest Wireless Broadband Router they have. I was given with the LP-8186.

The LP-8186 is a wireless broadband router that support 802.11b/g, as well as WiFi a & n classifications. What made me bought the unit was the fact that it also supports up to 4 wired network connections, as a regular 4-port hub will do.

From the time I opened its box, attach the Smart Bro UTP cable to the router, turned on my PC, and launched the setup program, I just took me around 7 minutes. Fired up my desktop’s internet browser and it connects to the internet. Fired up the internet browser in my HP Mini 2133, which is around 10 feet away from the router, and bobreyes.com loads.

To ultimately test its capabilities, I went up to the second floor of our house, tried to surf, and it worked!

Here are some specs of the LP-8186 as printed in its box:

• Supports Gateway modes
• WEP, WPA Encryption – 64/128bit (WEP), WPA TKIP
• TCP/UDP/ICMP/ARP protocol stack
• Dynamic DNS
• DHCP Client and Server
• PPPoE PPTP
• UPnP

Tomorrow, I’ll test on how far can the AP reach — car port? sidewalk? sari-sari store?

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Just acquired a secondhand Roland E-16 synthesizer last Saturday. The moment Robyn woke-up Sunday morning, and saw the keyboard, he immediately sampled the great sounds it prod

[View with PicLens]

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