The Friends I Had

This is a day, a great day, when I expect to see things unfold. The month of November had always been a remarkable month for me, it either brings me good...or bad things. One might say such things happen any time, but this one...this one particulart month is the period that I have observed to be the boldest.

 

Thinking of this day takes me back to a period in my life when I was first admitted to the group I am in now. Those days, were assigned partners - completely strangers to each other - to work with in the field.

 

One of our responsibility was to make sure that nobody gets compromised in every task assigned to us. I will highlight a friend of mine nicknamed Virii.

 

There was one point when our allied partner has been compromised. When they were taksed to receive payments intended for our group, the party that is to pay them had them double crossed. It was in the busy district of Tondo, Manila. Right after collecting four bags filled with bundles of thousand-peso bills, we walked towards the nearest train station. We were dressed-up in a beggar-like appearance, so as to conceal what we may have with us. Right after leaving the LRT Station near SM Manila, we left the train on the next station.

 

On that very station, surprisingly, around eight people approached our allied partners for that specific job. Virii and I on the other hand were safe, at that moment. Upon seeing the people encircling our allied partners, instructions were to board the train back and continue to the next station that we may deem safe.

 

At that time, we broke the protocol. Inside our hearts call the instinct to help out our friends. We don't know them personally. We were just friends. Plain friends. Perhaps, no more than mere acquaintances.

 

We had to leave the station, and confront those who confronted our friends. Then and there we realized, our lives were in danger. Upon leaving the station, we found it best to go to the nearest police post, but we were not that fast. The strangers caught up with us. Virii told me to keep my distance from him, but to keep a close watch. I was lucky enough not to be identified by the strangers. Virii left me his bag, filled with the bundles of thousands. It has to go through to our group, it was needed for our next project raise another groupd of lost people - like us before we were in to it.

 

The strangers took the bags from our allied partners. Virii confronted them and a fight ensued. I was a couple of meters away from them, keeping and eye on them. Back then my main task was to observe people and report, probably one reason why Virii told me to keep the distance.

 

The strangers took them to an alley, strangely enough, no one else was around at that hour, no more trains, there were a few buses. It was almost 9 p.m. I can still remember the last words Virii said to the strangers - "...Over my dead body."

 

A very distinctive sound followed. A sound of something that I have frequently heared in the place of Mindanao. A day after, I heared they were dead. I can safely presume they were forced to divulge my location, I had two bags with me - cold cash. Virii knows I was just around. He could have simply gave my description so the people will know how to spot me. They did not.

 

So much as these people were strangers by standards. But they were friends to me. Friends even before the incident. That very day, I lost three good people. I found later that Virii was a rank 22 member, out of 25 ranks. After being his apprentice prior to that incident, I was given his rank.

 

From this group I have, way beyond a fraternity could even offer, I was nortured with values on friendship and camaradery. From there I learned on the importance of loyalty, especially to friends. Virii always told me back then, never leave a friend in trouble behind. Yet, I could not understand why during the incident, he strictly told me to keep my distance. Later did I know, those bills were vital bills. The very safety of the cause lies on it.

 

Unluckily, in the much much real world, these kinds of friends are mere ideals. Even people of our own blood will abandon us, even friends whom we have assisted so much cannot afford to do a little sacrifice in return. I had friends around, outside of the group I am in to. These are friends I doubt if I could count on. Some left after achieving success with my help, and some even bit my hand that fed them. And these engrates were strong believers of god as they say.

 

God's teachings then, will simply translate into this - "save your own skin". Virii did not, and I never will. My people always had these reminder from me - "Once you are my friend, no matter what happens, I will fight for your safety. Never had it occured to me to seek safety only for myself, it was always others above self."

 

And my people can attest to that.

A Look at the Canon Pixma iP1980

The Canon Pixma iP1980 is a four-color inkjet printer that runs on two cartridges - Black and Tri-color.

It is based on the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black color base.

It utilizes a 2 picoliter droplet system for its printhead and delivers up to 4800 x 1200 dpi as its maximum resolution.

Printing a full-page A4 image on a glossy sheet takes 40 to 50 seconds on this printer.

Having thirty units of this type in my shops, this unit has proven it's worth especially when you are eyeing on document printing, which can run as fast as 23 pages per minute.

The downside of this machine is the sensitivity of the printhead. It burns out fast. Luckily enough, the printhead is built along with the cartridge, a replacement will cost between $ 1.00 to $ 20.00 if you choose to have the sealed one.

As of writing, my Canon Pixma iP1980 printed no less than 40,000 pages each already and still running.

Under normal circumstances, it has a life cycle of 6,000 pages. You can perpertuate it until the machine break mechanically.

My rating for this machine:

serviceability: 8/10
speed: 8/10
output: 7/10

Hardware Review: A look at a 3-year Old Abit AN-M2

Two months ago, a client and a good friend of mine - pakaz - called up to have his desktop upgraded.

It's been roughly three years when he bought his desktop from me, it ran on an Abit AN-M2 with Athlon X2 4400+ powered by a 550 watts power supply. The problem on  his old system was - it was partly "burnt" by his attempt to overclock it...without the necessary cooling system. Oh well, he DID learned the hard way. Haha.

And so he had to get a new system, now runs on a black edition 7750 X2.

Earlier this morning, as I was checking my boxes, I found his old board and out of curiousity I decided to run it again now with an Athlon X2 6000+. With the fact that his onboard video has become "choppy" due to the overclocking attempt he had earlier, I took one of my video cards to run on it. I chose the least of all - my GeForce 9500 GT. Plugging 4x1gb ddr800 into the system, installed windows...and voila! It runs smoothly!

The result amazed me. It is amazing as to how abit made this board, after being "abused" both by time and by overclocking (without enough cooling). Although the onboard video rendered useless now, with a very cheap card it can still perform!

I'm sure pakaz is now enjoying his Gigabyte with Athlon X2 7750 BE cooled by Xigmatec Dark Knight, 2x2gb Geil, Radeon 4890 Video Card and 7.1 Creative sound card plus all the 120mm auxilliary fans in his system. I am likewise enjoying the worth of Abit's quality products that stood in the test of time and abuse.

This is a relatively affordable board, for it's price to quality, I'll rate it at 94 percent. Had it been a full atx, I might rate it 99.

A gambit? - palace to scrap oil price freeze order

Good news businessmen!

In a move probably to appease the business sector, the government's main source of funds especially when it comes to elections, Executive Order 839 has now been in the process of being lifted. We can view the entire article here. Do take note of the statement by yet another official of the government:

     "If anyone would be profiteering or would be taking advantage, I will not hesitate to recommend the reimposition of price control because the state of calamity will stay,” said Favila

Ooohhhh....this is dangerous.

Just how then will one be able to gauge a level of profiteering from a pure retail price with the intent simply recovering the losses incurred due to the EO?

It is but to normal that we as businessmen study supply and demand. It is simple fact that we do business to gain, not to make donations. When supply is down and demand is high, price is up.

With the issuance of the executive order, the state probably juuuusst helped a sector, but not enirely. of course, it is the mindless "mass" of voters who puts the government officials to their sits. The government basically steals from the business sector upfront. This action is totally disturbing.

When disasters hit other parts of the Philippines, Malacañang never gives to much consideration - mindanao for instance, where the plains had been flooded due to poor infrastracture, visayas - another typhoon target on both sides. When Ondoy and the other typhoons came, I don't see it to be unusual.

That set of disaster is simply the of Luzon for the disasters it never had in the past, nothing more and nothing less. It is highly unnecessary for the government to be over-reacting to the point of dictating the business sector as to how things are to be sold.

This charade is nothing new, we all know that the polls are coming. The ultimate goal is not to help the people, but to use the emotions of those affected to propel their future political ambitions.

Funny - "RP better at Controlling Corruption - DFA Chief

Earlier today, I decided to look over the some news around the net to update myself. A message over sms told me of a possible oil price increase - again, due to a possibility of a deminished supply. Wow, as if there is anything new for that, price increases are a thing we all need to learn to live with. What amuses me today, is something, I think is not even worth being announced or be bragged about. This is what I saw:

Before I go on, do be informed that this is not an article against the respected Inquirer. This is my reaction against the DFA Chief's guts, nerve, or however we should call it, in bragging about this issue.

The Chief is most likely out of his god-damned, insignificant, futile, naive mind. Is there really such a thing as "controlling corruption"?!?!? I DON'T THINK SO.

A friend of mine told me during coffee once: People always look a glass that is partially filled as Half-Full or Half-Empty, either way, it's just partially filled.

While the manner a person views a partially filled glass of water might reflect optimism or skepticism, one thing is also true on the OTHER discussion. That the glass is partially filled. Something could have been wrong along the way, thus, cutting of the filling process.

Personally, I would say that the message is meant this way - the government officials of RP knows better,efficient and much discreet means of corruption these compared to the set of people before. Still and undeniably obvious, the government officials of RP are engulfed by the aura of Corruption.

Government Officials are still driving around with government owned vehicles on unofficial matters - Oh, I have just seen a bunch of red plates in the mall around 6pm today while I was dating my girl. And not to my surprise, these government people are going around with their wives and kids, with bodyguards shopping. Again, USING GOVERNMENT VEHICLES. Now IF this is not corruption, stealing should be legalized to make it a fair game.

Another Day of Incompetence

It was but another good day when I decided to check my account with BPI in the middle of October.

It was a busy day for I have cheques scheduled by then, unluckily for me someone had the nerve to put a freeze on my account that same day without giving me prior notice. It took me a few minutes to think if it is worth calling the hotline, eventually I made the call and found that my accounts' mother branch initiated the freeze.

Although it is a fact that they are the bank, and can actually mess up if they want to, it appears that these people are not even aware that prior to doing things one must think as to how these will affect the future set of events - and consider the laws of the land.

I did notify the said branch of BPI so as to let them know that not a single right do they have to freeze my accounts, unless so ordered by a court, they made no progress and just made my account there sitting inaccessable.

Maybe they have thought that THAT is all I have, well, too bad for them, I will have to give them the trouble they have been longing for.

It is exactly twenty days now since that day they have frozen my accounts. It would have been better if they have informed me of such action, but they did the contrary.

Doing my research over BPI and their set of problems especially with their public relations, it has been clear to me that I trusted the wrong bank. Not only do they have incompetent workforce, they lack the support for their customers as well.

You can simply search via google as to the cases that BPI had been through, and yet it seems they have never learned from their own history.

Today, I have drafted my lawyers to fight for this case. May the law be able to exercise it's power to defend it's people against corporations such BPI who seem to be interested only in getting funds at the expense of their depositors - ALL THE TIME, or at least the BPI that I have a problem with.

I am hoping that BPI will act on weeding out the rotten tomatoes in their basket - oh...I pity the officer who freezed my account, he is a rookie and had already caused a series of problems.

Sure BPI has all the resources and can afford to pay a set of lawyers to defend an incompetent employee, but question is, is it really worth keeping a staff who cannot even do things responsibly?

Should the tides be favorable to my puny cause of defending my rights - civil, human, and egoistic - I will be giving these incompetent people a big thanks - for they will be helping a lot in my charity work by padding up my wallet.

In the probable worst case scenario that I may not be able to fight for my right or should the courts rule against me, I will probably support whoever goes for the ruin of these greedy and incompetent banks.

Of course my sentiments does not mean that they are such losers in general. There are also people who worked in these banks who are professional enough in dealing with clients, just probably, I opened my accounts in the wrong branch.

--

On the side note, calling their hotline does no good. Literally. And it IS evident if you check around the problems posted by fellow depositors. 89100 is hired to lie for these incompetent people.

Basics of Overclocking

Ready to make your machine go monstrous huh?

Let's make sure you get what you at least need to keep it alive.

In the process of overclocking, we increase the speed of the machine, the further we go from the default speed, the hotter the chips run. As we all know, too much of things bring us no good. The "thing" we are talking about now is HEAT.

So how do we go around it? We will need to have these must haves before you can actually initiate the things you will tweak.

First - we need a proper ventilation for the whole system. To have a big intake and a quick outtake auxillary fans will be of a necessity here. Personally, I position a pair of 80mm fans in front as intake fans and a 120mm fan on the side. I make sure that the air circulates to hit the chips and capacitors. In order to initialize airflow, I put an 80mm fans on the upper side the CPU case, and another 80mm on the rear side.

Second - cooling systems. Redundant? Could be, correct me if I am wrong but I personally classify these things differently. I will be referring to the cooling systems as the ones with heat sinks. Usually, we can buy a good aftermarket heat sink fan (HSF) at around $ 99.00. These are gigantic alloy materials especially designed to absorb and dissipate the heat from the chips. HSFs come as CPU HSF, the North/SouthBridge HSF and lately we are seeing RAM sinks. Some enthusiasts who wants more usually goes for a Liquid cooling system and even nitrogen.

Third - good chips. While we all want to save some costs in buying expensive stuff, thus we overclock, this does not necessarily mean that we'll always have to settle for the least quality. In choosing the right stuff, you are getting the better choice if not best. Solid capacitors are among the basic parts you'll consider over ordinary soft capacitors.

Fourth - Flexibility and upgradability. This is the most subjective aspect in choosing what you are about to overclock. Of course, you will want something that can last up to at least the next two generations of technology.

That's it for now folks! Happy hunting for good parts!