Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Virginia

         How long will it be come March 27? Right, it will be four years. Viring, I always call her by her nickname, will be having her fourth anniversary. Seems like only yesterday. And it has been months since I last paid her a visit. Never forgot to always bring along fresh flowers and a pair of candles. 
        I could still remember seeing the trees lined up by the side of the paved road. Its branches were seldom without birds perching on it and others flying about. The bells from the old cathedral ringing nearby on some of the days. A few workers doing whatever there is to do and one or two guards roaming around the area. An elderly caretaker most of the time can be seen lounging in the churchyard. 
        Distinctly I can remember this caretaker, wearing a pair of very thick eyeglasses, had at one time almost hit his head on on the pavement in one of the aisles. There he stayed in a prone position and unable to pick himself up. Nobody hearing his plea for help to get him up. Too old to really shout out loud. It was more like a whimper. Rushed to him then and helped him up back to his feet. After a while and maybe getting back his senses again, off he went away to his usual business.
        Viring knew that old man long time before she died. And so too with her other relatives. 
        Viring used to visit and sweep clean the family's mausoleum. I would often accompany her there. On some other days she would be alone. It is just a small place. Just about 30 square meters. After a few prayers, she would light up the candles and rearrange the flowers we bought. On days going to All Saints' Day, she and I would bring stuffs like brooms, rugs, drinking water and some snacks. Some of her nephew would be there also with a can or two of paint and a bottle of kerosene. It would be a general cleaning of  the place. That would more or less be the routine every year. And now, those days are gone. And for a very, very long time I too am alone.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Something about Kelly

        "Kulot". Means curly haired. Yes, that's how I usually call Kelly. Pretty little kid. About 3 years old by now. Very seldom would I see her today playing in the village park together with a younger brother and accompanied by a babysitter. Kulot! Fondly I would call out to her from afar. Sometimes she would wave her hand in return. But more often than not, she would just go on riding on the swing or go on playing with the other children around. One day I met Kelly and Renren (her kid brother) who was holding onto the babysitter's hand. They had just entered the village gate. I first noticed little Renren. And while trying to sort of have a small conversation with him, out came Kelly from the back of a parked car. She was laughing, smiling. Running towards us, she seems to say "Caught you there, didn't I?" Well, I smiled back and greeted her just the same. "Kulot!" And after, we parted ways.
         Just one sad note. Her father was shot dead ,gangland style, more than a year ago. Never knew who the killer was. Back then I asked one of her older brother if he missed their dad. Teary eyed, he said yes. And my thoughts went back to Kulot. She must have surely missed their dad too.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

An Old Machine


         Aside from the other G60, a desktop PC assembled 8 years ago is what I still use up to this day. Only I had to replace its motherboard some two years back, added a new G-Force FX series videocard, and installed more memory in it. Moreover, I added a DVD/CD-RW Drive mainly to back up large files with. The cpu's 300 watt power supply upgraded to 450 watts. Reconfiguring everything else, it now can compete fairly well in the Indy 500 race.
         Several months went by, I prepared this workhorse to connect to the internet. So I bought several meters of ethernet cable intending to link it to the G60 from upstairs. That plan did not push through. It did not go to waste either. It's one thing I had to thank typhoon Ondoy for. Among the few things we had to move to safer grounds that time were the laptop, the router, and, rightly so, the cable. There in my sister's three-story apartment those cables were put to good use. Two, three weeks went by, the 2-laptop network I set up was still running smoothly. Then I thought of going wireless since the router has the capability for it. After the flood subsided and we were back again to where we once were, I waited for the chance to get me a wireless card to go with my trusty old machine.
          One time at a mall, I went scouring the computer section for the cheapest wireless adapter card for my desktop and had bought just the right one. As soon as I arrived home I started setting up the network. It was only a matter of securing the card into one of the available pci slots and installing the necessary software. Made a few adjustments on  the router's configuration and firewall settings. Now my desktop is connected to the network at 54 mbps with a download speed reaching 70 kbps. The old desktop has turned  into an M2 Bradley IFV Tank. One that had a complete overhaul and with wings to boot!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Online


      December's  job interview was a goner. Though I can't recall how it exactly ended. But this one now on my drawing board seems to have a much better chance getting done. Yes, it does look good. A series of short messages online and a bit of anxiety on my part. That is because I was asked to provide two sample videos. I was able to submit those just the same. More, I did receive some kind of encouraging feedback from him too. He then proposed to make a test job and offered to pay at the same time, with the end in view of hiring me again if all goes well. Isn't that something? But then, getting the details of the project is another story. What I would probably be planning on next is to submit one that will be more than satisfactory to the client.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Another PC?


       It did not take long when I was approached to fix another unit. A speedster by year 2004's standards. An IBM Netvista 8305 with a P4 processor and packing 256 megabytes of memory. Though it wasn't  the first time this old dude conked out. It was a long story that it landed on my hands and I was able to repair it about a year ago. As I had expected, something is bound to get wrong with it.
      Given the trigger happy youngsters whose hunger for online games are not to be taken for granted, who else should I be pointing my finger to? The primary problem they had was that of not being able to connect to the internet. It's a problem alright. But it's a big issue for me personally. That is if the only reason for them for wanting to go onto that wonderful realm called cyberspace was because of War Craft or some other online games. Incidentally, the first time I scan checked their hard drive, one "cold" it caught came from a game folder called Frozen Throne.  This aside from the many other careless downloading both from the internet and from a number of input devices. And as I had always reminded anyone, with regards to handling essential machines like it, about what bizarre situations viruses can do to you. For these kids, it would be their worst nightmare ever.
        Anyway, a soft spot somewhere tells me to just go and try fix it. Besides I reckon it is always best to provide after-service support. Be it with a fee or for free.  
        To begin with, I figured I don't need to do any invasive procedure anymore on the patient. Did some software checks, deleted temporary files and cookies, removed a few unwanted programs (all of them are games by the way and, all the while,  seeing the kids about squirming in their seats watching me burn their pet programs in ashes), and reinstalled the operating system. On each and every step I did, tried to reconnect to the internet and failed all the time. This made me decide to resort to reformatting the 40 gigabyte hard drive. Now I can see the same kids around turn pale thinking maybe now all their files and games going into a kinda permanent, dishonorable discharge. Never to be seen again. "See, I told you so!", I seem to say. Proceeding, I inserted the disc into the drive and began formatting. Next, reinstalled everything else. 
       Then for the moment of truth, I clicked on the browser. Voila! Still pale and almost grief-stricken, the lads now appears to be able to muster enough courage to put up a little bit of smile on their faces. Well, it only took me to finish two bottles of ice-cold Red Horse beer that afternoon. A couple more in the evening to sort of celebrate the day.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Troubleshooting



Another computer fixed. This one I've turned down before. It was a used unit that came from an internet shop. And that meant it had millions of miles already up its odometer if ever it had one. More war-torn than a marine that fought in Vietnam. A few of its motherboard capacitors bulging a bit and so prophesied it would soon be heading to the junkyard. But it seem the old machine just wouldn't give up that easily. Not until its owner approached me and told me it got infected by some virus.  More out of curiosity than anything else that I readily went to have a look at the "patient". It was indeed a Trojan. First time I've seen one like it. It boots up fine until the operating system opens up. Then a window opens up where it says "It's my birthday today. Please don't kill me......". Clicking okay, a screen-sized wall paper of anime characters appears and that's it. Nothing comes after. Going into safe mode is just as impossible. The culprit was one small gadget that is mostly used nowadays- USB flash disk. Not only did it infect this one particular veteran, it was also used on her neighbor's computer. I could just imagine how mad she might have been at her.
At the end, I had to reformat the whole thing, reinstall its OS, installed a free updated version of AVG(which it did not have before!), etc. Got hold of the flash disk and scanned it in my own computer. Lo and behold, it had 37 different viruses. Well, them viruses won't be doing anymore harm. To make sure, I formatted that disk back to its health again.


Monday, February 1, 2010

Kung Hei Fat Choi



Chinese New Year is just around the corner or in about 14 days more. I slept early and kept the door and windows closed the night before January 1st. Food on the table then were plentiful as usual. Now I am not expecting as much, except I may get to watch some video footage of the traditional dragon dance done in the streets of Chinatown. Already there are a lot of Chinese rice cake being sold in malls. Rice cake is equated with harmonious relationship. Among Orientals (especially the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese), it is valued as such. So people would be seen giving it as a present, wishing all "Kung Hei Fat Choi" and good luck. 
Surely, there will still be some firework display around for the festivities, in the streets of Binondo, at some of the SM Malls of tycoon Henry Sy, in a number of cities in the provinces. And also in many other places like Seoul, Tokyo, and Beijing of course. Others may opt for showing their acrobatic and martial art skills. You may see them gather in small groups of trained athletes wearing colorful vests. It is much the same as what you see in the movies sans the theater seats and popcorn and stuffs.

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