Taxicab Confession – Featured in AcquiaTV

The webinar about Promet’s implementation of the taxi dispatcher system using Drupal and Phonegap by Andy Kucharski is out.

I’m excited to share that I am one of the panelists! On the webinar is also another Solutions Architect of Promet, Chris Bartlett, who now I call the map master or the Cartographer (which we both agreed sounds better than Solutions Architect). Being part of the acquia webinar was pretty exciting. But aside from me being excited to be part of it, Andy Kucharski gave everything away the in and out of how we developed the software. Hope you’ll find it useful!

See the original post here.

I’m in Chicago! Woohoo!

For people who haven’t read my facebook updates, I’m currently in Chicago, Illinois. Thank God I’m living my dream! I’m staying here for quite a while but I’ll be back for sure. I kinda already miss the people back at home but I’ll make sure I’ll experience full Chicagoan life before going home!

My Chicago Life

So far so good but here are some snippets of the unforgettable moments

• I lived for a week just right the corner of the Magnificent Mile.
• First time I saw a lake that’s also called a beach.
• If you haven’t checked out Subway, you haven’t experienced Chicago yet. haha. John said that. (Parang jollibee?)
• I was lost on my 1st day in office. I had to be picked up by a co-employee (geesh)
• I was lost on my way of looking for my apartment. I looked for it from 7pm to 10pm in a very cold night.
• I’ve been lost many times but I was able to get back to our office or to my apartment. I’m the lost girl in Chicago!

I should post a separate entry for my Lost in Chicago moments. That’ll be lengthy! But here is one of my favorite lost stories

Lost in Chicago

It was my third day in Chicago and I had to look for an apartment. I wish I could live in the hotel forever! So after work, I took a bus in Irving Park St going to Irving Park/Keeler. I wrote down all the possible notes google maps has provided me (I should have printed it). When I walked out of the bus, I experienced hell in North pole (exaggerated! ). I spent 2 hours walking, from 7pm to 9pm, wearing only a thin blazer. The temperature I think is below 16 degrees celsius!!! I really thought I followed what google maps told me but I was getting nowhere. I tried reading the map available in waiting bus stations but my map-reading skills is at level -1 so it was a useless effort. I had to ask 3-4 strangers how to get to the place I was looking for. And when I finally found the house, the owner said there was no person living in the name that was given to me! That sucked! I thought, maybe they transferred already.

Feeling really down and it was already late so I decided to get back to the hotel. I tried searching my way back to the Irving Park/Keeler St. When I asked someone how to go back, the person said I was 6 blocks away! My feet were already aching so much and I was wearing only my sandals! Not close shoes. I was sooo freezing to death I just wanna cry and sleep over in anywhere I could sleep warmly. Anyway, I just continued with the woman’s instructions. Finally, I got to the bus stop. The problem now was that the bus could go on 2 directions. Again, my map reading skills ain’t useful at that time so I just had to trust my instinct. I jumped on the first bus that arrived going to Lake shore. Thank goodness my instinct did not fail me so at 10pm I got back to my room.

The funniest and dumbest in that experience is that I found out that I was searching for the wrong house! Instead of looking for house #4159, I was looking for #4129. Totally lame. I know I still have to go back so that night I spent 3 hours studying the goddamn google maps! Way to go for a map lesson.

I have more stories to share. But this is already too lenghty so I’ll stop here. Till next time!

Hongkong Trip – Day 4 in Ngong Pin

I forgot to post this! OMG! But here it is anyway, even it took me 6 months to post it. hehe.

It was really a cold day in Hongkong because of the rain. We had a nice breakfast at an restaurant where old people serve. They didn’t understand english though so it was a little hard. When ordering, we just rely on point here and point there lingo. I ordered a bunch of food since I did not know actually what I was pointing at! LOL. The food were great though, I would come again here next time.

This is considered our last day. Our last destination was on a mountain trip in Ngong Pin. We still continued our adventure since we had no choice. If only I knew it was reaaallly cold, I would have brought a thicker jacket. Anyway, here are some boring pictures for you (not for us!!).

The “em dash” (—)

This info really struck a cord in me because I always use triple dots, double dash or parenthesis in place of the em dash. I guess I need to slowly change that, at least in formal writing if I ever have to.

This is a tip from Daily Writing Tips.

Toinks – today’s blooper

It took me 8 hours to finally give up and ask assistance from my brother for a problem that I have been struggling to figure out. This story of one of the reasons why using framework isn’t always good

I was recreating a facebook app made from cakephp to a bare php coded version. It is a very simple form that saves the data and then proceeds to step 2 and 3. Nothing complex. When it was time to test it in facebook, the form isn’t submitting! The $_POST variable is always blank. Ofcourse, the first intuition is to check why facebook isn’t saving the data to the global variable. I tried to rewrite the app and use both FBML and IFrame! At the end of my day last Friday, I just gave up and took a nap. Today, I revisited again and tried a new approach – ajax call. When I had to test it locally, the $_POST was still empty no matter what I do. I uploaded it to the dev server and still got the same results. I couldn’t find anything unusual in my code – it is just a simple form. Right at that moment I decided that I already have to bug someone to review my code (I try not to as much as I can). Just a few minutes after, I was told that my form action url must end atleast with a slash (/). Just that, a slash! OMG! (then make batok sa sarili – lol) Since I already got used to cakephp and the HTML and FORM helpers, this hasn’t become a problem.

Moral of the story? Ask earlier, I guess? Hehe. The other one is, not to rely too much on a framework! (but probably I still will)

SEO in Plain English

Recently, I joined the 30day Challenge which for me taught me the basics of SEO. The following video summarizes what I learned in the 30day challenge.

The 30day challenge really touched those areas. If you want to dig deeper, I recommend you register for the challenge (I think it is still open).

Study in UK for FREE!

How cool is that? Actually that is possible. There are a lot of scholarship programs available for post grad students. One of them is the Chevening Scholarship program that allows you to select a 1-year master’s degree.

The minimum qualifications are based on their website:

• an applicant is a Filipino, Marshallese, Micronesian, or Palauan national
• has attained a local/international degree
• has two years work experience in your chosen career
• applicant should also be committed to returning to the applicant’s home country after the period of study

I guess the more experience you have, the more qualified you are. The best thing with Chevening is that the scholarship covers all the costs of the period of study. This includes academic fees, monthly stipend and airfares to and from the UK. It ain’t cool right? It’s SUPER cool.

Check out more information here. Take note though that applications must be submitted before 15 October 2009.

Tax for Freelancers in Philippines

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uhm., there is really nothing to say except that Freelancers in Philippines are exempted! Heard that correctly — we really don’t need to pay anything. This is according to a personnel in the BIR office in San Fernando City, Pampanga(I visited their office just this August 2009). That person pointed out that if we are not an employee of a legitimate company nor do we have business permit approved by DTI then we don’t have to pay anything. So I guess I should not be guilty of not paying at all. Works for me!

Some people asks me why the hell do I want to pay my tax?? I guess for dumb reason that I want to contribute to the government so some government officials can buy new clothes, houses and cars for their own profit AND to get a proof that I am a good paying citizen. I know, crazy reason but atleast it was already confirmed that I am not oblige of anything and nor any freelancers out there. Ain’t that cool??

PHP Roadshow visits St. Paul QC

Another successful PHP Roadshow was held last August 1 in St. Paul QC. The usual gang are present which makes the roadshow more enjoyable. I discussed my usual stuff, my undying love for cakephp! (wahaha drama). This one I guess was the happiest leg so far (I have only attended 3 legs) because the students were so participative and I had so much fun with the jokes and tease to Mr. Landline and ofcourse the FREE Tarot Reading from Sir Jeff and his GF. I hope next time I can join again. For the meantime, here are some pictures I got from Ridvan.

Topics from the Gang:
Introduction to the PHP Roadshow and PHP User Group Philippines (Jeffrey R. Seracarpio)
Introduction to PHP (Ridvan Baluyos)
Introduction to MySQL (Chean Domingo)
Introduction to CakePHP (Rachel Jaro – ME)
CMS / Joomla (Eric Bangug)
Careers in IT (Jonathan Yap)

PHP Roadshow is an outreach to college students with the goal of reaching the same level of programming competency of our counterparts (Filipino and non-Filipino) outside of the country (including standardizations and value of work).

This is an initiated project of PHP User Group Philippines, Inc. (PHPUGPH), in support of the organization’s mission of advocating and disseminating the use of PHP (Hypertext Pre-processor) as well as Open Source technologies in schools and companies in the Philippines.

A question about sickness and death

My uncle Bert, Roberto David, died last March 9, 2009 due to diabetes, cancer and more complications I do not know. We are not close but their family is a role model to us. They are a rugs to riches story and they raised their children very well, very down to earth and respectful children. One unforgettable moment during the wake was when his youngest son told the story of how he died.

For more than 13 years, my uncle Bert suffered from diabetes and then his kidney was attacked. He lost 2 legs. They spent millions due to his illness. They have to sell most of their properties and they have to work harder. Their family was even more tested. We have always thought that he cannot accept what had happened to him that’s why he waited this long. But we’ve thought it wrong. All those years, he was doing it for his children. He was holding on just to be able to watch over his children. He was silently fighting the pain and hardship so not to make his family worry about him to much. This is what his children found out during his last 2 days. No one accepted of their father’s faith until then. He died 3 times that day for only a couple of hours and finally they accepted and hopefully my uncle also did.

From this story it made me think. At times like that it is really hard to judge people on what actions they will take. My mother and I had a discussion that if we ever faced the same situation, we will opt for the easy death, no more long suffering. But in times that you think you or your family have not yet accepted the fact, how can we tell which decision is better? Which one would you prefer: Fight and suffer for some reasons or rest in peace quickly?