TickleMePink

What's JAVA and why all this hype about it?

This was the first thing that came to my mind back when I learned/heard about JAVA a little over a year ago. Little did I know that I'd be studying it AND enjoy playing around with it at the same time!

At first I thought it would just be as easy as learning C++ was to me. Well, in a way it was. I read Java's source codes, studied the libraries and made sure that i have at least a minimal understanding of the principle in creating an App via Java.

One difference i notice , though, is that in JAVA, you need to download the specific app otherwise it is not going to do anything to your program. No compilation, no nothing. (LOL) I found that out the hard and embarrassing way. :P when i first decided to properly learn JAVA, i asked a good friend of mine which i would work best for me and my interest at the moment (Mobile Developing). She recommended JAVA SE and HTML5. now i know that HTML5 has been out since last quarter of last year (2007) yet i know next to nothing about it other than what was published. Oh well, no matter. Since i like making things hard for myself, i have decided i'll just start learning everything from scratch and go from there. ^__^

What i did next was probably one of the "stupidest thing" i've ever done in the name of computer programming. lol i downloaded the wrok JAVA and tried to my "Hello World" data via JRE instead of JDK. and i've wracked my mind trying to figure out why it won't run and why cmd won't recognize the javac command. :P

Good thing i have once again bugged Charo about it and together we found out i downloaded JRE instead of JDK! -___-;; talk about rookie mistake, eh? lol oh well. once that tihng's fixed, we were able to make the Hello World run a success! ^___^

now, on to my next app invention!

CURRENT MOOD: curious
MUSIC LISTENING TO: L'Arc En Ciel's "True" Album

Wow! It's been a while since I last blogged! -__-;;

Hehe I know i don't really have an excuse other than I've been, er, hibernating and have not participated in the geek society for the past few months. But now am back! (Hopefully for good this time. :P)

Okay, on to the more interesting stuff. I have, just recently had a chat with a The HeadGeekette and she has given me some very, very good food for thought. Very chewy. I know I've been too busy trying to secure a job for myself that I have set aside a lot of things; including my geekiness. So, now that that's settled, I'm now trying to make up for the lost time and opportunities. Now, I know that by not being active for a year would leave me out of the loop and, boy! Don't I regret it! :P So bottom line is, I'm now back to square one and have a LOT of catching up to do. ^___^;;

All I can say is: "BRING IT ON!"

Current Mood: Happy
Listening to: Come Together by Beatles

What if all you can think about is "i don't know" and all you have running around your head is "I'm not sure what I'm doing anymore," should you be afraid? If all you have is your sanity and that is what's keeping you from taking that leap of faith, would you let go and take the last step to freedom?

Bumming around isn't what I thought it was professed to be. It's not all nice and peachy. It's wrought with pain, occasional bout of happiness, long hours of boredom and self evaluation (which leaves you with the conclusion that you just don't measure up to standards), and also having to worry where your next meal is going to come from. I loved it at first. How naive I was.

I want to move on and remove myself from the pit that I find myself in. Now that I'm in this path, I'm not sure how to do it. Oh I have different ideas in my mind, but I'm kind of afraid. Half afraid to make that one step forward and make a mistake that'd have a very big impact not only on my life but on my sisters' lives as well. My life is not as important as theirs is. They still have a lot to experience and to enjoy; they have a big future ahead of them. I don't. I just know that if I screw this up, it's going to stay screwed.

Maybe coming home is really a stupid mistake.

How to make a maybelle

Ingredients: 3 parts anger 3 parts brilliance 5 parts ego

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of caring

I have been thinking lately that no matter how bad things got with Dell (my previous company), they still try to give you the best compensation they can (haggling included, of course). More so than most companies I know, waaaay more than the company I'm currently in, that, I'm certain!

Or maybe it was the very good times I had with friends back then. I was browsing through some old photos in my hard drive and reminisced the memorable enchanted kingdom trip I spent with Vikash, Paul, Anwaar, Jun, Reg, and Thea. Man! I truly enjoyed that day so much.

I am enjoying my family life with my sisters here in Pampanga, however, a big part of me wants to reapply back to Dell and just leave this behind. This is not because I want to earn more money (although that is a very nice concession!) but because of all the companies I have heard of here in Pampanga, I haven't seen one that will compare to my previous experiences with my Previous companies. And that's saying something! Maybe I was just spoiled by my previous company too much. Maybe I'm just too picky. Or maybe it's simply the truth; truth that I can not fool myself out of.

I miss my friends: Malby, Kei, Lee, Gracey, Lovely, Cathz, Charo... And others. Simply put, I'm torn between two worlds that I need to make me whole. Yet, I can not just live in both worlds at the same time. I wish I could have the best of both worlds.

I'm torn... I don't know what to do anymore.

Here's another mini-tutorial for PSP users out there. This time, this is for the Manga/Comic reader/app called: PSPComic! Now, some of you might think, "I can just read my manga from the photos section so what's so special about this app?"

I used to read manga via the photos section of the PSP and personally, I find it a bit too... disorganized for my taste. See, if you merely drag and drop a folder containing your favorite manga to ms0:PHOTOS folder and that folder has at the very least 20 jpeg files in it, then chances are, the pictures are going to be jumbled and it'll just end up confusing the heck out of you. I know it frustrated the heck outta me. It's like reading a story spoiler by accident due to the lack of organization and you end up reading what happened to the characters long before you had to.

PSPComic is, in no way a total manga organizer but it IS a bit more efficient than just dumping your files in the photos menu. =) plus, you can then monitor a different folder from anywhere in your memory card for your manga/comic books so it doesn't clutter your PHOTOs folder making it more difficult/tedious to look for that favorite wallpaper you want for your PSP.

DISCLAIMER:
This entry is merely a guide/tutorial on how to add features to your PSP. It is not, in any way, foolproof. I am not responsible to any possible damage your PSP may incur. With that said, on to the tutorial. ;-)

PSP Model: PSP -M1000
PSP Version: 4.01 M33-2
Game folder Homebrew (seen in recovery mode): Currently: 1.50 Kernel

PSPComic is a comic book reader for PSP that allows users to view comics in either CBR or CBZ format. -by Archaemic

Here's the link: PSPComic v1.0

Mega Pack -includes all of the above as well as the utilities No Bull Moose and FANG for those that don't have a Slim PSP.


Steps:

1. Before we go any further, please make sure that you have firmware (FW) 1.50 or any other version above 3.XX or better yet, read the "readme.txt" file included in the .RAR archive.

2. (Skip if you have a different FW version and/or PSP model. This is for PSP-1000 models only) If you have already upgraded to 4.01, just download and install 1.50 kernel just like i did.

3. Download the pack from the link above, or from any other trusted sites that you know.

4. After the download, extract the files

5. Choose from the 5 folders there:

        1.50
        3.xx
        comics
        No Bull Moose
        src

6. Double-click on the folder appropriate for the FW version of your PSP, in my case, i clicked on 1.50 folder. once inside, you will see 2 folders labeled pspcomic and pspcomic% respectively. Drag both folders to the same folder in your PSP. With mine, the path is:

    ms0: (root)
            PSP:
                    GAME150:    <--i dragged the said  folders here

    since i have the 1.50 kernel activated on my PSP with FW version 4.01 m33-2.

7. Next thing we need to do is to convert your manga into .cbr format. Here are the steps:

        7.1. Make sure all your manga are in JPEG format and that you have WinRAR installed.
        7.2. Open a folder with, say, a chapter of your manga and select all its contents.
        7.3. Go to File >Add to archive... and then Create a file name for your manga chapter AND ADD ".cbr" (without the quotation marks of course) at the end of the title and click "OK" then wait for the compression to finish.
        7.4. Drag all of the converted CBR files to the comics folder in your PSP or to any other folder you may have created specifically for your manga.

8. Disconnect your memory card from the computer and start up your PSP.

9. Go to your GAMES menu and load PSPComic v1.00 from there and locate the folder/manga you want to read.

10. Familiarize yourself with the framework and you're good to go. Congratulations.

NOTE: just a word of caution, do not compress more than 80 JPEG files at a time so that PSPComic does not get too confused on which file to load first. :)


I have made this guide as user-friendly and jargon-free as I can make it. Hope this little guide helps. Let me know if further clarification is needed.
 

I jave just spent the better part of an hour battling against our toilet's flusher. It's stopped working a few days ago and I was too lazy to fix it right away. Instead, I just cut the water flow off from going to the toilet further. Had to use the pail to clean up and stuff. :P I finally took the effort to check it earlier and found what's wrong with it. The entire valve tank kit is busted so the water's just dripping uselessly. So I hurried over to the D.I.Y. store and bought the kit to replace the whole thing. Just so you know, the whole kit costs around PhP1,500 now. -___-;; oh well. When I got back from my errand, I went over to the toilet to fix it. I'm no plumber so I spent a small amount of time figuring out which goes where and what. It's pretty straight forward but I wasn't to confident with my plumbing skills. Hehe! Finally found the courage to try and fix it. I took out the old flushing disk, the flush lever and the vertical cylinder that holds the "water-stopper" and replaced it with the new one. Everything seems to be going fine until I tested my work. Sad to say, it didn't work. NOT because of something I did wrong or something I installed there by mistake, but because the hose that was supposed to supply water up to the cistern decided it is time for it to retire as well! Damn. It frustrated the heck out of me so I decided to blog about it after I cleaned up, so here I am. For now, I shall take my leave of the flushing mechanism and I'll battle with it another day.


Mood: flushed. *ahem*
Currently listening to: Changin' by Stephanie

Yup, you read that right. I said READ eBooks in PSP. I mean, if you can listen to them in PSP (audio books), why not read them, yeah? hehe I heard about this homebrew feature back when I first had my PSP. I didn't think about it too much back then coz I was happy to be able to finally play God of War and Crisis Core and Star Ocean to care about eBooks in my PSP. Plus, I have my own eBook reader so I'm pretty much covered in that field.

One day, I finally found the time and energy to look for the plugin that will turn my PSP into a Multi-Media GEEK MACHINE.

DISCLAIMER:
This entry is merely a guide/tutorial on how to add features to your PSP. It is not, in any way, foolproof. I am not responsible to any possible damage your PSP may incur. With that said, on to the tutorial. ;-)

PSP Model: PSP -M1000
PSP Version: 4.01 M33-2
Game folder Homebrew (seen in recovery mode): Currently: 1.50 Kernel

BookR is a document reader for PSP with native PDF rendering. I have tested PDF files and .txt files and they worked perfectly for me. BookR is currently compatible with PSPs with Firmware versions 3.71 and below and/or 1.5 kernel (for PSP-1000) installed.

Download it HERE.
If the link's already expired, leave a comment and I'll reupload it.

WARNING:
I had this plugin tested on a PSP-M1000 (Phat version) and am about to test it on a Slim PSP. will post an update once I get around to testing with it.

Here's a step by step process on how to successfully install this plugin:

1. Download the plugin called BookR version 0.7.1.

         CAUTION: if your PDF file is full of pictures (i.e. FHM in PDF format), then BookR might not be able to read it.

2. Connect your PSP to your computer via the USB or the memory card via a card reader.

3. Open the BookR.rar file you just downloaded and put the __SCE__bookr and the __SCE__bookr% folder in the GAME folder of your PSP.

    ms0: (root)
            PSP:
                    GAME:    <--drag the said  folders here

4. Put the PDF and other .txt files you want to read anywhere in your PSP (I suggest you make a new folder and label it eBook for example to organize your memory card better.).

5. Disconnect your PSP/card reader from the pc and turn on your PSP.

6. Go to your Games menu, load BookR.

7. Press O to load a file then locate the folder you made and open any .txt file to see if it is working properly and familiarize yourself to the menu and settings.

8. To change the settings (i.e. font and background color via your txt file), just press the start button and choose .

and... voila! You can now read while on the go without having to lug around a lot of your books. =)

A word of caution, though, I suggest you select a file with no more than 20MB size otherwise BookR might not read it properly, if, at all.


Happy Reading! ^__~

 

I watched Dark Knight with my family yesterday at SM Clark so I decided to blog about it while it's still fresh.

First of all, my rating for this film is a 7 or an 8 (10 being the highest and 0 being the lowest). Why because The Dark Knight is, in my humble opinion, the best Batman Movie yet. Here, Batman seems more... mature and less prone to some chivalrous schtick that more often than not ends up getting somebody killed during the cross-fire. What happened to him was very tragic and I empathize with him, same with two-face's situation. It's just that, with two-face, he allowed grief and loss to overrule his entire being something I understand yet can not accept as valid reason to go on a killing spree. Aaron Eckhart (Harry Dent/Two-Face) did very very good, IMHO. Which is why his character feels so... real.

It's just sad and unfortunate that Heath Ledger passed away already because he really is a good actor and his portrayal of The Joker is the best I've seen. And yes, according to his past interviews, his portrayal of The Joker is so powerful it really affecting him.

I truly enjoyed watching the Dark Knight, fully developed character and good plot... A little too heavy on the psyche but good. With that, I leave you with my favorite line/s in the movie:

"Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a dark knight."

I just talked to my Senior Program Manager in my company earlier and first of all, I just have this to say this: I came in feeling all's well in the world and I came out feeling like shit.

I have tried to be positive about my situation with my company despite all the dismal way they have handled my employment and the disorganized manner their entire organization is in right now. I'm not happy saying it but, I'm at the point wherein I'm just so disgusted at their treatment and at the same time so very disappointed that it has left me with no choice but to just start ranting about it.

But why, you ask? Simple:

1. Company is so disorganized they did not even have a management training for managers and just leave them to their own devices; gotta learn every single thing on their own using their own methods to find out about it. Heck, even the Manager Access to the program you're in is not automatically configured to your login/name that you would have to create your own access request, which, in turn, will only get canceled/declined/put on hold because the request should come from the direct manager (which, obviously they would not proactively do) or at least get an approval in writing for such. I mean, helloooo?! what the hell? I'm a newbie here, fer godssakes! what the hell do I freaking know about shit like that? I don't come out of the box FULLY equipped/installed with all the data necessary for this company. They have to handle that and show ME the ropes. I should not have had to run around in circles trying to figure out which ones I need access on and which ones I don't.

2. If they can't supply the job due to "business needs" then they could just say it outright and not have to sugar-coat things. Why don't they just fire me if they can not walk the talk so we can get this shit over with? Don't try to sugar-coat the situation by saying you're going to remove me from the program but still try to keep me as an employee for a month, trying your level best to transfer me to another account and give me options that are really not options because that's bullsh*t.

3. The company need to get their act together. They're a fairly well off company but they don't succeed as fast as they should because the resources they have are distributed in the wrong manner. Meaning anybody and everybody who is connected to a program does what everyone else is doing. (i.e. managers do their weekly audits, trainers are mandated to do their audits, qas do their own audits, etc, etc.)

4. No Proper boundary of each and every Job Description. What does, the other must do and all must be calibrated. Calibration is a good thing. HOWEVER, if it starts to add more load to your current Job Description entails, then that's wrong. (i.e. You're getting paid to be a trainer so why the hell are you trying to set your foot in management territory? If you're a manager for the account, you should not manage other department's employees regardless if you're level 5 and they are level 2. You need to go through the proper channels. READ: it's called common courtesy; professionalism; not by-passing authority. (whoever said a manager in the OPS floor can order the trainers/qas around without having to ASK/CONSULT with their respective managers, are loooong due for a wake up call. dumbass)

5. Don't just hire people because you think they look impressive or just because they talk pretty. That's called sucking up. If your managers are not happy with their managers, they are bound to NOT do their best. They have hands on contact with your front line reps. so if they decide they're not happy with the account, you're in BIIIIG trouble; it means you're about to get screwed. You may not be trying to win the popularity contest, but remember this, you're not trying to win the "who is the asshole" contest either. The mere fact that you're the upper management means you have to show them they have someone to look up to and that they respect the person they will b following. It's not enough that you just tell them off all the time. Oh and you gotta understand the motto: "praise in public and yell in private."

I will just limit my rant to 5 for now. If I think of something else, then I will just post another entry as part 2. At this point, I'm starting to believe that the company's going nowhere and will not really go anywhere at all. The boat is sinking..? Maybe.



MOOD: pissed >__<
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Gekidou by UVERworld