The Code Crusader

Before this, my last post was about the certification exam that I've been doubting to take. After three days of posting that blog, I decided to take the first part of the exam that would be held in November. One of my friend, Kutch, who's been reviewing and handling the "technology" for more years has been urging me to take it with him. I guess I would consider him as one of the people who believes in my skill and wanted me to take the exam with him. After weeks of reviewing, I finally finished reviewing our manual, my friend on the other have been reviewing other materials and test exams on the net while I only relied on the "manual" and a "braindump" so I could get some overview of how the questions would look like and where I should really concentrate.

It was already November when I finished my so called review that I was doing whenever I'm at work and totally stopped reviewing less than two weeks before the first-part exam. I also asked my supervisor to put my two day's-off before the exam so I could re-scan my materials. I've been relaxing for days thinking "ok, I'll just re-scan my materials on my day-off" which was kinda great since I could relax my mind. Now the bad part was, on my first day-off I decided to slack off thinking I could review the next day which was a bad decision. Night came on my first day-off, my supervisor told me one of our teammates got """sick""" *note the triple quote*. You see, that person isn't really good on what we are responsible to do in our work that's why I got really irritated when my supervisor asked me if I could render duty the next day. It was not my supervisor's fault but our teammate who reported he got """sick""". You could just imagine how I rushed to review and re-scan my notes and didn't even sleep which I think might really affect my exam results. Exam day came and with 4 hours of sleep, I went to the examination place and saw other people who will also take the exam. After 30 mins of waiting, Kutch called me asking instructions how to get there. After we meet in the place, the proctor asked all of us to come in.

The exam has two versions, maybe intended to be distributed in a manner that seat mates would have different versions to avoid cheating. While answering the exam, I was glad that I know most of the answer to most of the questions but was really disappointed when I saw some questions that I know I could have answered if I reviewed the parts that didn't interest me. I was telling my self "sh*t, I should have reviewed that one. I know this one's easy but sh*t, I messed up the chance." While answering the remaining questions, I was praying to God to pass me even with a low score since it was my fault and then next time I'll review really hard. I finished really fast and noticed Kutch was still answering and most examinees are also busy with their exams which made me think "My God, there might be something wrong because I finished quite fast." Kutch also noticed it and told me about it after the exam.

While walking in the university where the exam was held, Kutch and I were talking about the questions where we got no idea at all and some of the questions where we got confused. We were saying "Dude, were dead." Realizing that there's a very thin chance we could pass.

Fast forward, after 1 month of mental torture that I wasted lots of time, slacked so many times, and will be wasting thousand of pesos the exam result was emailed. And God, I was so suprised because I PASSED! God heard my prayers during the exam :P So I told him again that I'll keep my promise and will review, study hard, and learn a lot from my mistakes and do what I need to do to be good at the exams. My friend on the other hand failed it. He was really close in passing the exam when all the while I was thinking I'll be the one failing it and he'll pass it. I know he's quite frustrated even if he's smiling since he's boss knows about the exam while mine doesn't have a single idea I was reviewing for it. I told him, "Dude, I believe you can do it. You got lots of experience and most of the questions are really quite weird." He then told me he'll just re-take it with the 2nd part. I wish the best for him. So for now, while the 2nd part is not scheduled yet, I study hard to be able to earn that certification. Thank you God.

When I got an email from our one of my Professors through a Yahoo Group about the an examination, I YMed one my classmate about it and he said he'll be taking the exam and has been reviewing. I on the other hand was quite excited about it but at the same time, I'm having doubts whether I should register or not. My classmate has been urging me to take the exam. Atleast the first part of the exam like he plans to. But the problem is... I'm not confident enough and having doubts if I would pass it. You see, I've been using the "technology" quite sometime now and was known in our school as one of the "geeks" who have the patience and enthusiasm to play with it. But even though I have that reputation, I doubt if my skill is enough to pass the exam and I would probably end in same and a thousand pesos poorer than I am right now. I thought about it for two days and browsed the materials available to me and my classmates that our professor provided us during the training. After that, I said to myself, "the heck, I'll just register and then review 'til the payment day and if I'm not sure about it, I'll just not show up on the payment day"

Just now, I received a confirmation email for that certification exam I registered earlier. I won't go into too much details about what exam it is or how much is it. The exam will be held on November here in the Philippines... It's a two-part exam. I'll just take the first part because of the ff. reasons:

1. Uncertainty and doubt in skill. Yeah, everyone must have felt this when they're skill are asked to be put on a test and they themselves are not sure about their skills even if other people believe you can. I remember back in my thesis days where I'm really irritated about how bad my website looks like and the frustrations of knowing I could have done better with my other good ideas if only I have the skill to create those ideas. But, the weird part is, my group mates sees it the other way when they look in my creation. For them, it's simple, very user-friendly and really nice. And most of the people who sees it are quite impressed and my group mates were proud enough to show it off.

2. Fear of Shame. When you are uncertain with your skill and everyone who knows you is 100% sure that your very good at it, you're most likely not to show your skill because you don't want to be laughed at by people or stain your reputation.

3. Not Enough Money. Actually, the exam very cheap compared to other certification and since I have a job, this one shouldn't be a big problem. But still, since I'm not sure about the exam, It would be a waste to pay for the 1st and 2nd part only to fail.

Almost everyone(mostly guys) I know has been anticipating this re-match. The Philippines' pride Manny Pacquiao versus Marco Antonio Barrera who's "Baby Face" was blood stained after Pacquiao won against him with a unanimous decision. Even though I enjoy watching boxing, I guess I only like it because now in cases like this, the athlete is not only playing for himself but for the pride of our country. When Pacquiao won, I immediately declared it over YM jokingly to piss of those who doesn't know the news yet.. haha :)

Aside from the exciting and adrenaline rush you get from watching or hearing the blow-by-blow account in the t.v. and radio, what I find most interesting here is the situation or scenery that the Philippines is undergoing every time a big boxer from the Philippines is representing our country... ZERO CRIME RATE and VERY PEACEFULLY cities with only a few selected area where people are gathered watching the fight and cheering for "Pacman".

According to Inquierer,

Newly installed NCRPO chief Police Director Geary Barias noted there were no reported incidents in all precincts and stations on Sunday afternoon, despite the heightened alert.

"Sana ganito palagi, tahimik, maluwag ang kalsada at walang anumang insidenteng nagaganap kahit na walang laban ang ating people's champion (If only it were always like this -- peaceful, no traffic in the streets and no crime whatsoever -- fight or no fight)," Metro Manila's top cop said.

and that during the 7 hour span of time that radio statiosn and t.v. telecasts the fight and updates about it, the precints he visited had no report of any crime or whatever shady things crooks or crazy usually do. Peace and harmony everywhere. But even if Pacquiao said that he won't hesitate to fight if his performance on the ring unifies that Philippines, I just hope that the day will come where some one doesn't have to go p in the ring just to make the Philippines one just for several hours...

Hello everyone, I'm happy to announce that Software Freedom Day 2007 w/c was held at UP was a success! I met with a friend from a yahoo group and my professor at the University of the Philippines to celebrate Software Freedom Day 2007 at the Advance Science and Technology Institute Bldg. inside UP Diliman. It was great. There are a lot of talks about open source, from advocacy to technical stuff. They also held a burn fest wherein you can get a copy of a linux distro you would like to try. I even got a free Bayanihan Linux4. :)

One of the speakers there is from the governments Office of Representative Teddy Casino who's pushing a bill that would make the use of open source software a must especially on the government. The bill orders every software implemented to be open source and would only allow proprietary software to be installed if and only if there's no equivalent of that software on the Free Software/Open Source software realm. Amb. Manuel Perez Iturbe of Venezuela who's an advocate of "software libre" was also there and was very proud that Venezuela is an Open Source country. I really wish that the Philippines will achieve the same status one day.

They also gave out nice prizes and even free CDs that contains free software that you can install in your Windows desktop and guess what, the free software is a FULL COPY! Not a Demo Version or limited version! You can use it however you want and redistribute by sharing it witout violating any super insane copyright laws with the only restriction that you don't claim that you made the program(you can inlude your name on the developer part if you contributed to it though) and it doesn't expire and has continues patches! Isn't that great?!?! That's why open source is growing so fast... The community is becoming much friendly now adays that choosing to use Open Source Software is much easier now.

Im looking forward for the next Software Freedom Day next year and when that day arrives, I'm ready to be a volunteer... a speaker maybe. :)

I've just finished installing Foresight Linux 1.1 in my desktop. Even though I haven't evaluated most of it's features, I can say that the look and feel of some new Linux distros nowadays are starting to be like MAC OSx. Stability, Robustness and Reliability of a *nix platform and easy to use front-end/GUI like the OSx. Why? after I installed Foresight Linux w/c is soo insanely simple compared to how I've experienced hell from installing and using Slackware 9 when I was starting about 3 years ago, it has successfully detected ALL my hardware! It detected my ATI Graphic Card, my network, successfully configured my sounds, etc.. Aside from that, Youtube's Flash-based player is working instantly after I've selected a video! Now, if you tried other distro like Ubuntu(w/c is another very friendly distro btw), you still have to download or install a flash plugin to be able to run or view your Youtube video... Yes, its fairly easy to do especially for computer enthusiast like us. But for an ordinary user who only uses their computer for internet surfing, doing some documents or presentation and other ordinary stuff.....I don't think so. Anyway, after doing that, I let my sister(an incoming highschool student) to check her Multiply. And to my delight, she wasn't confused at all in a new environment!!!! That's freakin' great! And the only reason she wants to switch back to the Windows hard drive is only because her personal files are obviously not on the linux partition. hehehe great!

Just like what I'm saying early, Linux distros are getting much easier to use. More and more groups/communities nowadays are doing their best to provide an easy to use Linux distro. That's great! someday, Linux will have a large market share not only on the server market but also for the ordinary people. And when that days comes, I'll be there to provide them moral and technical support. :P cheers!!!

btw, if you want to try some free and user friendly Linux try...   Foresight Linux, Ubuntu, or Sabayon Linux.. 
You can also try LIVE CDs like Knoppix that you don't need to install unless you want it 
permanent in your computer This are what my friend call's a "Kid's Linux". But hey, if it's
LINUX and if it's open source, you can still customize it the way you want! :P

And so, I woke up this morning(actually it's already past 12), and went straight back to my computer and checked my emails. After an hour of surfing, I got a text message from my schoolmate who gave my number to the NUSkin Representative asking where am I already or if I'm on my way to their office. Because a nice person and doesn't want to be mad at her even though she gave my number to an MLM Rep. , I told her I can't go because I need to watch over the house since my mom and sisters left. So she said "ok, just take good care of your house"... SO I thought that's that end of it. And I won't receive a call from the NU Skin representative anymore... hehe actually, I was planning to ask her if it's about that NU Skin MLM but realized that I'll just be wasting my time and load. 2 hours later, my phone rang and I saw the NUSkin Rep's number appearing on my phone. I have the habit of saving numbers of poeple who I don't know or doesn't want to talk to so that I'll know if I the caller is someone I dont want to talk to... Anyway, I didn't answer the phone because I don't want to talk to that NUSkin Representative anymore... hehehe She should be thankful in a way, because I was thinkin' that I'll pick up the phone then after 8 seconds hangup just to waste some of her load... hehehehhe

I was sleeping earlier and savoring the cold and soft feeling of my bedsheet and pillows when all of a sudden my cellphone rang. Being a nice person who always try answer the phone asap, I got up and picked up my phone to know who was calling.  

The person on the other line asked me and confirmed my identity if I was the person that he/she was looking for. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if the caller was a girl or a guy but it the caller sounded like she's a "she" but somewhat boyish. Anyway, from what I've noticed, she's speaking really fast but atleast I can still understand her since I'm used to different rate of speech because of my Technical Support Representative experience. Even though she introduced herself, I really can't remember her name maybe because I was still sleepy and she's talking too fast. After introducing her self, she told me that she got my number from a schoolmate which I personally know and that she was told that I was responsible.... and I was like... "uhhmmm, yeah, I think so.." :P Then after that, she told me that their company is affiliated with different universities like ADMU, UP, Lasalle, etc... but they're currently trying to get other schools as their partner. She asked me if I'm available tom. for an interview. I said "yes" and she reminded me to wear semi-formal attire because she will be introducing me to her executives. Even though she speaks really fast and seems like she's in a hurry, I was able to ask her what will be the position that I will be filling, she told me that it's better for me to go the job interview, so I said to myself "ok, maybe they're just want to have some applicants and then later on, choose the best position for successful candidates." So she gave me their company's address which is 15/F Octagon Center, San Miguel Avenue, Pasig City ..... after giving me the address, I realized I haven't got the exact name of the company, so I asked the name of their company and she told me it is Synergy1 Global.. i think...  and so, we agreed that I'll be there tom. at 3:30 PM and she even said to me "I'm sure you're a professional, and you wouldn't just back out on appointments such as this..." etc.. etc. etc...

After the conversation, I searched for the name of their company using Google.com and got no valid result. So, what I did is I searched the address that she gave me. Im doing this because whenver I go to interviews, I would like to know the background of the company and how will I be able to get there. After submitting search request using their address, I was able to find out that the company who occupies that 15th floor of the said address is a Multilevel Marketing Company.
After further research and reading, I found 2 blogs which are http://noneed4ink.i.ph/blogs/noneed4ink/2007/02/04/i-almost-got-scammed/   AND http://prettykelle.blogspot.com/   ... the owners of this blog experienced the same thing I did. The company who occupies that 15th floor is.... tantararan!!! (drum roll please!!!)...

Nu Skin Philippines, Inc

Address: 15/F Octagon Center, San Miguel Avenue, Pasig City
Telephone Numbers: (632) 689-0300
Fax: (632) 689-0399
Contact Person: Evita Quiambao, Director of Sales & Marketing
Email Address: 4hr_reply_phils@nuskin.com
Website: www.nuskin.com.ph
Business Type: Distribution of Personal Care and Nutritional Products, Multilevel Marketing

Nu Skin is a Multilevel Marketing Company selling, cosmetics, health products and other stuff...
As a graduating student, I realized that there are some fishy things right from the very start.
you see, there are things that a caller who wants you for a certain job would require or ask you during a phone call.
1.) They should know from what school you're from. - the girl who called me doesn't have any idea of from what school I'm from.
2.) They would ask when you will be graduating. - it's not that the company doesn't want to hire because you're an undergrad, you may have what they're looking for but they need someone who can dedicate their fulltime with the company.
3.) 99.9% of them would ask for a hard copy of your resume. - she didn't asked for it. If she only got my number from a friend, it's obviously a must that she needs atleast a softcopy of my resume to send to ther email address and a hardcopy which I would need during the interview.
4.) Introducing the company and the position you'll be filling for. - After the caller introduced herself, they usually introduce their company, a brief description, and the title of the position that you will be filling.


So that's it, if you received a same phone call, dont entertain it as long as you're not interested with SALES or Multilevel Marketing. The company might be a good company, but having dishonest representatives who's not even straight to the point is a give-away that this is a company or a group that you cannot trust.

Hahahha!!! at long last! Im finished with my thesis!! hehe... Oh, I forgot, I haven't told you that I'm still a student... a GRADUATING STUDENT mind you.. :) After months of waiting for my groupmates and after doing 60% percent of the documentation and 100% of the program itself, I was able to finish it and got my grade earlier today. Congratulations to me! My thesis months have been really really hard, physically, mentally and emotionally. I remember the days that I dont have anymore to write down in our documentation because im the only one doing it and exhausted all the information and idea from my mind. My team and I never had a brainstorming session. Thanks to those who contributed their idea(using YahooMessenger so I can ask them some questions)and how to write them down properly.

With regards to the program, I made our thesis using Apache/MySQL and PHP with some javascripts I got from the internet. And I made it all by myself! hahahaha I'm really happy I was able to finish it and all worked well in our thesis defense. I believe I did a great job to think that I dont know anything about PHP or making a dynamic website.The first and only website I've made before my thesis was a plain and simple static HTML website. No database. All frames.

Anyway, Thanks to my Mom and Sister, to my batchmates who helped me and my groupmates, and especially to God who help us pass especially during the days that I'm having problems with the software's development. Now the next thing I just need to worry about is to get a job. I'll discuss the job hunting in my next post. I need to go to church today and talk to someone to get some information about a job that I would like to take.

Thank you very much for ready this post. God Help me.

"Hello World!" :) Im not really a blogger, just curious what it would feels like maintaining a blog and putting some of my thoughts, opinions and ideas. Since im not really a blogger or a writer, I thought that concentrating in a single topic or subject would help me write something in my blog. Why "Hello World" ?... well, if you're a computer programmer or atleast knows some basic stuff about computer programming(any lanaguage),  you can relate to that "hello world" string as one or even maybe the first word that you were able to display in your screen with the first coding you've done. Maybe using Java, C++, VB, PHP or any programming language. Low or high Level... According to the internet's encyclopedia, "Hello World" was first used by Kernighan's 1972 Tutorial Introduction to the Language B, with the following code:

main( ) {
extrn a, b, c;
putchar(a); putchar(b); putchar(c); putchar('!*n');
}
a 'hell';
b 'o, w';
c 'orld';

And since I consider my self a Software Developer or let's say, a computer enthusiast, I realized that talking about computer stuff would be great for this blog. Ofcourse, sometimes, I might post not geeky or nerdy articles here like politics, hobbies, past times, and all the silly stuff that I've done. But anyway, WELCOME TO MY BLOG.  "Hello World!!!!".