Nightshift blog: Call Center Agent's Blog

I Love the Mac

finding.nemo — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:32:27 +0000

I’ve been trying to format a virus-infected USB drive, but I cannot get it to work using my Xandros on my EEEPC (instructions here). What would take hours of trying to figure out how to do it, was done in a matter of seconds in Macbook.

This was the problem:

All you have to do is to move it to Trash.

And tadaahh, it’s all gone.

LSS: Greenday’s 21 Guns

finding.nemo — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:26:49 +0000

I didn’t realize what this songs means until I saw the lyrics while watching the Grammy’s last week.

I like the line, “Lay down your arms, give up the fight.” Should I?

Do you know what’s worth fighting for?
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

When you’re at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul

Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn’t pass
Nothing’s ever built to last
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?

When it’s time to live and let die
And you can’t get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You’re in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Mahal Kita Kasi…

finding.nemo — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:00:15 +0000

This is a funny music video. It’s a collection of those cheesy Pinoy love quotes which is basically just a play on some English words.

Rules on Men About Women

finding.nemo — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:03:03 +0000

I saw this in of the blogs. Why are women so difficult?

The female always make the rules.
The rules are subject to change at any time without prior notification.
No male can possibly know all the rules.
If the female suspects the male knows the rules she must immediately change some or all of the rules.
The female is never wrong.
If the female is wrong, it is due to a misunderstanding which was a direct result of something the male did or said wrong.
The male must apologize immediately for causing said misunderstanding.
The female may change her mind at any time.
The male must never change his mind without the express written consent of the female.
The female has every right to be angry or upset at any time.
The male must remain calm at all times unless the female wants him to be angry and/or upset.
The female must, under no circumstances, let the male know whether or not she wants him to be angry and/or upset.
The male is expected to mind read at all times.
The female is ready when she is ready.
The male must be ready at all times.

Am I a Facebook Addict?

finding.nemo — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:54:16 +0000

I think I’m beginning to be a Facebook addict. That is, if I will look at the symptoms this American psychologist identified.

Here are the symptoms, according to Joanna Lipari, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Source: CNN)

1. You lose sleep over Facebook

Technically, I don’t sleep over Facebook, but I leave my netbook until it drains its battery when I go to sleep. I do chatting over Facebook instead of Yahoo Messenger or AOL IM.

2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook

What can you expect if you constantly have Internet connection? If your job requires you to communicate over the Internet, and since the opportunity is there, then I login to Facebook.

3. You become obsessed with old loves

Until now, I’ve been trying to remember the names of my elementary school classmates.

4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook

Well, sometimes.

5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

Maybe I should try not to login to Facebook at least for a day.

I’m kuripot this holiday season

finding.nemo — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:26:20 +0000

Except for grocery items, I decided not to purchase anything where I would be the main beneficiary this holiday season. I am a Grinch this Christmas.

It was two weeks after I received my 13th month pay and leave conversion pay last November 30 that I decided to withdraw the money. Where did I spend the money? I put the money in my time deposit account on another bank. It really felt great after depositing the money since I’m sure that this won’t spent, at least for the time being. No new clothes, shoes, gadgets, no nothing. I have this feeling that it is a sign of weakness if you buy things only during the Christmas season. It means that only during this time of the year that you have enough money. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that I think it’s much better if we gratify ourselves through the whole year.

So to all my inaanaks, I’m tightfisted this Christmas. But we’ll have lots of food in our house.

Beware of the Facebook Virus

finding.nemo — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:15:35 +0000

Oh yeah, I was stupid. How could such a helpdesk, assisting end-users in their computer/POS/printer/scanner issue be such a dumb and have his computer infected with a virus? Plus, I’m beginning to love Linux.

Here are the facts: I own the domain hcarigma.net since 2005. I have an email there herbert [at] hcarigma [dot] net. Recently, I added that email to my Facebook profile. The next day, when I checked my hcarigma.net email in my Windows XP PC, I received a couple of emails supposedly from Facebook. One included a zip attachment which, when extracted, has a supposed Excel file. My default view in the My Documents is Thumbnails, not details, so I didn’t notice that the Excel file is actually an application.

It will open a Pandora’s box once you launch the .exe file. First, I got a warning from Avast about the trojan virus. Next, offers for another antivirus and antimalware came up. I knew right there and then that it was a virus. I immediately disconnected my computer from the Internet.

From resources in the Net, the virus points from Netherlands and Kazakhstan. My computer didn’t detect any virus when it is offline, but once you connect to the Net, offers for antiviruses come up. No option other than a reformat. Resources: ItWorld and KDVR.

My computer is slowing down anyway, so I might as well reformat it.

It’s a lesson learned the hard way.

How to Save Google Maps

finding.nemo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:57:15 +0000

I know at one point you wished you could save the maps you see in Google Maps. Maybe it was for a project, or perhaps you can’t be online every day to access the map. I was able to device a way in saving Google Maps out of frustration since online resources didn’t work.

Here’s what you need:
Avant Browser
Adobe Photoshop (I have CS3)
Notepad

Why Avant? According to a video tutorial, one can download a Screengrab addon and it should allow a screen capture of your browser. It didn’t work for me so I used another browser. Photoshop will be used in stitching the maps. Notepad will server as your HTML editor.

1. Go to maps.google.com and locate the map you want to save. In this example, I want to save a map of UP Diliman. Click the Link button on the right and highlight and copy the HTML code.

2. Paste the HTML code in Notepad. By default, the width is 425 and height is 350. You can change this to your preferred dimension. Expect a slowness of your system as the dimension get bigger. I used 2000 by 1000 pixels. Save the document as an HTML file. In my case, I saved it as map.html.

3. Open map.html in Avant. Once the page is loaded, go to File > Save Current Page as Image
4. Re-do steps 1 to 3, this time, select a portion of the map that wasn’t saved yet.
5. Let’s assume that you have 2 sections of the map. Open Photoshop and open the image files that you want to merge. Go to File > Automate > Photomerge. Select Add Open Files. If you haven’t opened the files yet, select Browse. Wait for the files to merge. Keep doing the steps if you want to have a complete copy of Google Maps saved in your hard drive.

By they way, the map that I did initially had UP Diliman only. It now extended to Fairview in the north, and SLEX in the south.

What have you purchased with your salary?

finding.nemo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:22:58 +0000

By November 30 and first few days of December, call center employees will get their 13th month pay and leave conversion pay. I promised myself not to purchase anything unimportant once I get my money. I plan to buy something big by March 2011.

This brings me to the topic of spending. In my three years and 10 days in the industry, I have purchased a lot of things, both for personal use and for my parents. My very first purchase was a 512 MB Creative Zen MP3 player which, at that time, costs P 3, 200.

I want to humbly list what I have purchased in the past three years:
two computer sets – one in 2008, another last May
Nikon D40x DSLR and a Canon A470 point-and-shoot camera
Nikon SB-800 flash and Nikkor 55-200 mm lens
Samsung 22in LCD TV
Condura aircondition
Asus EEEPC netbook
a netbook
Microsoft Zune
Nokia N70 phone
grocery every 15/30
Internet subscription

I hope I could buy more but I have to save up for 2011.

Pinoys' accent, diction still good

finding.nemo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:21:53 +0000

The PinoyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s ability to adopt an American, British or Australian accent could make up for his ineptitude in the English language and protect the PhilippinesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ image as one of the worldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s top locations for a business process outsourcing (BPO), according to Jayjay Viray, managing director of JobsDB.com.

‘Pinoys’ accent, diction still good’
Philippine Star, 15 Nov. 2009
Read the article here.