The Construct

To think that I’ve spent the past twenty-two years of my life studying in a formal setting. Fancy that. Hours spent inside the classroom. I wonder if that should count as living at all. And guess what I’ll be doing for the next few years again.

Study.

Contrary to what some might believe, my real passion is computing. Ever since I keyed in my first DOS command some sixteen years ago, I knew that I’ll have a lifelong passion for these brilliant machines. Too bad my shitty law school pipe dream made me take up English Studies. Don’t get me wrong, I like applied linguistics and I’ve grown to be quite good at it.

Now, I want to pursue my real passion. The tricky part is knowing how to go about it properly. It has been four years since I actually coded a piece of software (aside from the minor WordPress PHP tweaks here and there). I have minimal understanding of basic principles of computer science and my math has decayed to somewhere below the level of high school algebra.

It’s not really practical for me to waste another three or four years to get a degree. Maybe I’ll just focus on the things that I like (web and game development) and try to wing it. Anyway, I could always approach some people to help me out.

Just last week, I decided to click on that link on my WordPress dashboard that tells me there’s a new version out and I can upgrade it if I want to.

Upgrading WordPress has been seamless ever since they integrated that auto-updater function so I just decided to click it and upgrade my installation to WP 2.9.

After a few days, I realized that I was not receiving any of the automated backups that I configured to be sent to my e-mail everyday.

First, I thought it was a conflict with one of the plug-ins. Noticed that my XML-Sitemap plug-in was in perpertual re-build mode. Rebuilt my sitemap and still the cron job wasn’t working. Then I eventually reverted to the modern day Ernie Baron – Google – for some answers. Found out it was really a bug with 2.9 among others.

Here’s how to fix them.

I really don’t schedule posts but if you happen to use the scheduler, and running on 2.9, you better apply the bug fix or your post won’t get posted as they should.

I hear 2.9.1′s already in beta so I think we can all expect that upgrade to come out.

Time and again, on this blog, I’ve always stressed the importance of customer service. Having worked sales before, I know how tricky it is to guide a person from being a prospect to a buying client. I don’t know if computer salesmanship is a totally different ballpark but I don’t think it is. Too bad there are a lot of sales people who miss out on the basic salesmanship skills.

Credit cards and lower laptop prices have made it possible for many to purchase on installments but, in my book, any transaction above Php 10,000 is a serious purchase – something that would require financial planning for at least a couple of months. Heck, I even sleep over decisions on Php 1,000 purchases given my kuripot nature. Acquiring something as valuable as a laptop is a year-long project for me at a minimum.

I’d have to say that I’m not the run-of-the-mill customer and I do pose a challenge to sales people. I do know my tech and I’m shrewd when it comes to money. You can’t just come up to me and bullshit me into buying. I do my research before I approach stores so it’s very hard to fool me with bogus claims and the like. But I’m not tough of a cookie to crack either. For one, I have often made my decision about buying even before I go to a store so closing a sale with me often hinges on the deal and customer service.

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“Not I!,” says the me. At least not until I get a new Windows powered rig sometime in the (far) future. I’ll be interested in seeing how that shapes out to be though.

I have to admit that I was a bit shocked when Google announced the coming of Chrome OS. I know that they’ve been positioning themselves to take on Microsoft but I didn’t expect them to try and penetrate Microsoft’s core business this soon.

I’m quite keen on seeing how Chrome OS will be addressing the needs of the common computer user. Its emphasis on speed and connectivity basically covers most of those needs. But so does currently-available Linux flavors. So what will differentiate Chrome OS?

For the past couple of week, I’ve found myself using the Google Chrome web browser, ditching good ol’ Firefox. I sometimes miss the add-ons but figured that, given my computing needs, speed trumps bells and whistles.

Can’t wait to get more details on this in the coming weeks/months.

On to more personal concerns here. I’m really, really suffering from a bad case of GAS. Or maybe not. Perhaps “investing” on work-related technology would be a worthwhile move. Then again, I already have the functional tools to do my work so investing on new tech is quite unnecessary.

My ASUS A8Jr’s finally fixed but not after waiting six months for the parts. To top it off, it’s only a couple of weeks before the warranty lapses. I always hate it when any piece of electronics I own ages past its coverage. I hate knowing I legally won’t have anyone on whom to place the blame if it breaks down.

So I went out (with Rish) yesterday to scout out some possible prospects. Narrowed them down to two – the Lenovo Y430 and the ASUS F81Se.

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