SHRAPNEL OFF THE WALL

Rain, rain, go away….

Let us save some water for a rainy day!

Sala ka na sa tuyot, sala ka pa rin sa lunod!

The country chokes from drought during the dry season

and dives under floods during the rainy days.

What do we do under such situations? Save water for the time when it would be needed. Logical, isn’t it?

How many scientists and Engineers and Mirons do we have in the country? Enough to think up of something (aside from contriving to skim money from government contracts).

How many of them would be required to conjure up concrete reservoirs for the cities and man-made lakes for the suburbs? How many of them would it take to think of widening and dredging the rivers and raising the height of dams to hold more water. Do we have the ingenuity to think of something like the Tennessee Valley Authority? What about large-scale digging of wells to feed aqueducts? What about making a large man-made lake in Central Luzon where river control projects are constantly being messed up by pseudo Engineers? When will we stop depending on the Angat river for all our water needs. It is not as wide as the Nile, you know, nor as resource-laden!

When will we ever learn?

All Quiet on the Banking Front

 My crystal ball is uneasy nowadays. It keeps sticking me with the hint that the banking sector and its CEOs are a little too quiet nowadays.

My crystal ball wonders why.

X X X— Expose by Anthony Taberna

The Cavite-Batangas Road

Maganda itong nadale mo Anthony. Matandang modus operandi na ito na walang nagbubunyag. Maraming Engineers na yumayaman dahil sa ganitong paraan, Ituloy mo na kaya at nang ma-imbestigahan tuloy yung lifestyles ng mga Engineers.

Kitang-kita sa coring sample na kinuha on the spot na hindi pa umabot ng 2-inches ang thickness ng asphalt. Lalung-lalo nang hindi makapapasa dito sa Canada iyang project na iyan, dahil sa ang minimum thickness dito ng asphalt road ay 6-inches (bukod pa iyong concrete sa ilalim ng asphalt).

Sa wari ko ay Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) ang ginamit diyan ng kontratista. Nagamit na dati ang mga aggregates diyan, at ang ipinatong pa ay natutuklap na cold mixture na mas marami pa ang oil sa asphalt. May Abson test na dapat gawin dito sa RAP.

Bagsak na pala ang project sa Materials Testing ng Public Highways ay pinirmahan pa rin na pasado ng District Engineer. Laking kalintikan, at laganap ito noon pang unang nagkaroon ng Pilipinong Ihinyero diyan.

Ang solusyon diyan ay installment ang bayad sa kontratista at may field test pa muna habang nag-aaspalto.

Siguro marami ring pinasasahod ang District Engineer diyan kahit na wala namang taong nagtratrabaho!

Neither An Einstein Nor A Superman…..

People who declare that they are neither an Einstein nor a Superman

in my opinion,

are attempting to cover their asses

before they even belch.

Scooby-Doos, that’s what they really are!

Debra Romer

Debra  Romer performs at America’s Got Talent

Debra Romer 720×576.mpg

Kaya And Sadie

The Belly Dance by Kaya And Sadie

(How do they ever manage to keep their skirts in place?) 

Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate

I am not wont to write product reviews if I were only constrained to say what I like about a particular product.  Neither would I do this if I will be required to say only what I do not like of a certain product. I feel more gratified about myself were I to write what is good and what is bad about the product. More so if I can provide a comparison with other similar products in the market.

People who write reviews that contain only what they feel for the product are unfair. More so if they are paid to do this. They must be able to compare and contrast between products if only to cover a lot of the situations obtaining in the consumer world. Otherwise, the public would not really know what they are writing about.

 The issue nowadays is whether Microsoft is telling the truth about their new computer operating system, the Windows 7.  Smarting from the public repugnance of the OS predecessor Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced the Windows 7 with such publicity and concern for public opinion that the OS actually slid in easily on the customers’ approval. Of course, the paying customers were also hungry for another operating system to replace the Windows Vista, unmindful of the fact that the Windows 7 is merely a modified, streamlined Windows Vista. What is Microsoft up to is the question to ask.

 If one were to buy a new computer today, it will advertently have an OS which is Windows 7, simply because there is nothing else which is more convenient to use other than Windows. In fact, the one who buys a new computer loaded with Windows 7 is much better off than the one who would upgrade their existing computers to Windows 7.

 But there are more people in the world who would upgrade rather than buy a new one. That is, if they really need another one and if they can afford another one. I myself prefer upgrading than buying a new pc. But I did buy one, a Dell, and another, an HP, just to settle my curiosity and to see whether Microsoft is telling the truth about Windows 7.

 But still I did the upgrade just to determine exactly which problems may arise in the process. Now comes the very important procedure of transferring the files from the old XP computer to the upgraded Windows 7 computer. Microsoft recommends using the Windows Easy Transfer method using an external hard drive. The files are copied to the external drive and then they are automatically reloaded to the computer after the Windows 7 upgrade is finished. This is easy, except the Windows Easy Transfer selects what files it is to collect and transfer. Guess what, it ignored about two-thirds of my program files and chose to transfer those that began with Windows, like Windows Media Player, Windows Encoder, etc; and afterwards gave a hint that I should transfer the rest of the files myself by reloading the programs.

 By the way, I chose as my test computer the oldest one I had which passed the Upgrade Advisor—-an IBM Netvista with 1 Gb ram and which I successfully upgraded from 40Gb to 80 Gb and then to 500 Gb hard disk capacity. It has a Sound Blaster 24 bit sound card and an ATI video card. I expected this pc to provide me with problems as I upgrade to Windows 7 ULTIMATE.  I chose this top-of-the-line version because I would like to know whether an XP OS can run on the same computer loaded with a Windows 7, a feature which only the top-of-the line Ultimate is able to do. My trials say it does but it is a little more complicated to explain how this is done. My suggestion is that if the very simple instructions from the Microsoft Download website still confuses you, get this book—“Switching to Microsoft Windows 7” —-the painless way to upgrade from Windows XP or Vista. This paperback by Elna Tymes and Charles Prael covers a lot of situations that Microsoft did not document.

 The first procedure that I tried was creating a second partition on the 500 GB drive and loaded the system on the empty drive and this was automatically renamed the “C” drive.

Now I have two partitions, one loaded with Windows 7 Ultimate, and the other still has the Windows XP Pro. Upon startup, the bios prods you to choose which operating system you want to open. This went okay for a time until I deleted something from one of the drives. It seems one partition still affects the other because when I deleted something from the System 32, the whole caboodle went down.

 Problems on startup are “skillfully” fixed by the Windows 7 software, from cd/rom  drive strappings to sound and graphic settings. The Recovery and Restore programs are better contrived than the XP Pro, although if a problem is insurmountable, the Ultimate just gives up and recycles on the same spot or just stands still with a blank stare. The XP Pro bypasses an insurmountable problem and keeps up a dialogue to lead you to the bios as a last resort.

While I had the Netvista testing the Ultimate, I had the Intellistation M Pro desktop running beside it with the XP Pro. This arrangement provided me with bases for comparison of the operating systems. Both are IBM desktops with IBM bios.

 The Netvista has a very quick startup and it opens files with a snap.  Even though it has only 1 Gb ram as against the 2 Gb of the M Pro; and 2 Ghz speed as against 3.4 Ghz of the M Pro, it kept up the pace. It had nothing, however, of the IBM delay (or buffer) to its executions in such a way that when a mistake is done on the keyboard, there is no correcting it. The mistake just goes through the consequences. The M Pro, however, simply isolates the mistake and refrains from executing it.

 The files of the Netvista is neatly organized and categories are well classified. Compared to the M Pro, the Netvista has more shelves and cabinets for each category. However, I find it easier to locate a file in the M Pro, which has fewer shelves, for the simple reason that it is in that one cabinet and not anywhere else.

 The Netvista was upgraded from XP Pro to the Windows 7 Ultimate, but it never did exhibit the hangups and crashes the way it is doing now after the upgrade, probably because the Ultimate OS is so sensitive to anything that is not in order, like a loose adapter or connector somewhere, that it refuses to budge anytime it senses that something is amiss. The XP Pro, having a delay time, ignores the problem and just bypasses it or beeps and beeps until the problem is aright.

 (To be continued)

It’s been a challenge…..

Sorry,  ladies, I’ve been busy. it’s been a challenge putting up a working Windows 7 desktop.  For this end, perhaps you should skip the next post after this—it will be very technical. But don’t fret, I’ve been keeping an eye on you ladies, actually two eyes, oh you lovely, lovely ladies.

You might be interested in the stats for you ladies—-after the the video clips of the “Ninja Dance” and the “Rated Next Generation Dance”, the most searched for title is Zen Hernandez, then Rhea Santos, then Maiki Oreta. Some people must really be interested in them. Next of course come Wowowee, Luningning, and Tricia Zafra. The one dancer that is paired with Luningning must have that name which is hard to spell, so no search stats came up for her.

Surprisingly (?), the Philippines revved it up to lead the viewings now with 19,339; followed by Canada with 18,701, and the US with 18,537; then China and Saudi Arabia.

The reports from the Norton Internet Security 2010 reflects a profound increase in the attempted illegal intrusion to my dektop, or this one that I am using now and am still configuring to run the Windows 7  Ultimate.

My next post may just about show them what they want to know about my Windows 7  findings—

AWSTATS

From the Just Host Control Panel is reflected some crazy turnovers of the leads. The US readers burnt out a 600 hit lead by Canada to come within 200 hits, or a 580 jump in hits on this website. The Philippines did good, too, wiping out a 1400 lead by Canada to come to within 700 hit deficit. The Canadian Lead was brought about by a marked interest on the Ottawa Canada Day Celebrations. Marie-Josee Lord’s rendition of God Save the Queen has now edged Stephen Harper’s speech for the lead. Of course the Americans got interested on this site upon the introduction of the America’s Got Talent video clips.

Filipino T-Shirts

http://www.zazzle.com/filipino+tshirts

Check out this url for Filipino T-Shirts for sale.

(Sent in by the De Gray Family from Orlando)

Michael Grimm

Michael Grimm on Americas Got Talent.mpg

Future Funk

Future Funk on Americas Got Talent.mpg

Senator Trillanes

Senator Trillanes, Incarcerated.

For an administration that uses ‘People Power’ as a byword, it still continues to imprison duly-elected Senators, like Trillanes here.

The number of Filipinos that elected him as Senator would fill up the spaces in front of the Luneta Grandstand several times over. Now if THAT is not PEOPLE POWER I do not know what is in this democracy.

The term PEOPLE POWER has been maligned ever since it came out at EDSA. In fact, so many offenses have been done in its name that it has now become a sham, and shameful are the people that use this phrase to justify a cause.

Trillanes has been put in jail for what they call ‘rebellion’ wherein nobody was hurt, no hostage was taken, and the ‘rebels’ surrendered. That ‘rebellion’ was more like a protest, if you ask me. But why the harsh punishment. He was not doing anything more different than what Gringo Honasan did, nor Ponce Enrile, nor FVR. But what would make his actions different from what the nuns and the priests did? Is it because they did their ‘protests’ in the name of PEOPLE POWER? Does any protest have to start in EDSA before it becomes a ‘legal’ protest? If the only way to describe the term ‘PEOPLE POWER’ is a show of force on the streets, then what the hey are we going to the elections for?

Let me put it this way—-There just might be some elements of the Philippine Democratic Government that are not in deep accord with what Senator Trillanes has to say. Come to think of it, what was the ‘rebellion’ all about? He was not allowed to explain his motives. He was just clapped in jail. Now some elements are preventing him to do his duties as a Senator and attend the Senate meetings. What would they be afraid of? Most probably they are afraid of what Trillanes will say in a privilege speech as a Senator!

This should be interesting, referring to what Senator Trillanes would say.

I may have an idea of what he is going to say, and upon this note let me put it this way—what the Noynoy Administration will do after hearing what Senator Trillanes say in public will prove its sincerity in  making ‘Pagbabago’ and ‘ituloy ang paglalaban’!

 (It might be that I have to start consulting my crystal ball more often now)

Nina Corpuz

 A color combination that belies the existence of water shortage.

or shortages of anything, for that matter!

Maiki Oreta

Ok, ok, I get the message. Here’s Maiki—–

.

21 million peso-chicken and burgers!

The PNP certified that they consumed the chicken and burgers.

The PNP did not receive 21 million pesos in cash.

The food was given gratis by PAGCOR.

Nobody questions the PNP’s need for such food.

Nobody questions PAGCOR for providing such items free.

So what the heck is all that hulabaloo about corruption.?

21 milli0n pesos is less than 500 thousand dollars CAD. This should buy about 100,000 Big Macs.

15,000 policemen are able to eat 100,000 Big Macs in 6 days, according to my giant pocket calculator.

21 million pesos was spent for the wholesix  months, according to the giant PAGCOR.

The only possible question that would bug anybody is ——did somebody or did some people skim money from the top?

Let us not investigate for the sake of investigating just to prove our worth.

I mean there is such a thing as being the eager beaver, before he gets his foot in the beaver trap.

Sunrise, Sunset

We’ll try this again—

Sunrise_Sunset.pps

(click on above-captioned Sunrise, Sunset to watch the powerpoint presentation)

Composition  by  Ha Quang Thuan

Japanese Garden

So you like gardens, ne?

I noticed that chinese gardens emphasize the strngth of rocks and the permanence of stone. This is why only chinese emperors would think of ordering the creation of an army made of stone and mortar to guard the tombs.

Japanese gardens are different. While they also emphasize harmony with nature, the main thing is to attain peace and meditation in this harmony. These gardens are therefore incorporated in their houses and are intended to be seen at all times and from any angle.

Harmony with nature is accomplished by following the curves of trees and flowers as occuring in nature. The Japanese architecture is lower and flat, as if to get as close to nature as possible.

In contrast with this type of architecture is that of the American Frank lloyd Wright. He achieves harmony with nature using straight unnatural lines. His designs bring the edifices to harmonize with nature. Japanese architecture frowns upon straight lines, and will even modify the environment to create curved lines.

Japanese Garden.mpg

To modify his environment, the Japanese would even shrink a whole tree into a pot. They call this ‘bonsai’. (Not banzai)

Windows 7

It is fast! I have a 9 Gb ram, though, and a 64-bit file system to boot! Maybe that’s it.

And so continues the reloading of the programs a lot of which has to be updated to fit the Windows 7 OS. I just had to reconfigure the printers for the Windows 7. It appears that Microsoft has a phobia with scanners using the Arcsoft system pf Epson and Canon. Adobe has to be configured in my printers. It does not accept my Laser Tally Printer from UK.

I am using another desktop aside from the Dell, and I am satisfied with the speed of this. This pc runs on 2 Gb, Windows XP Pro. This is the one I know right and left. There is another two desktops and those are which I use to try various programs and operating systems. The Apple laptop with Leopard Operating system is taking the sidelines for now although it offers some items better than Microsoft.

The Windows Vista OS, which preceded Windows 7, could have had similar successes similar to Windows 7 had Microsoft gave the public the compatibility lists as was provided for Windows 7 now. In truth, there is good reason to believe that Windows 7 is a rectified Windows Vista, and that the OS is based on Windows Vista.

I found something good in Windows 7 now—-it has more pc game programs than the other OS that preceded it. I like most the CHESS game which I beat already. Of course I started off as a neophyte to the game just to test it, and it did try that mate-in-five-moves the first time around. I must have thrown it off its rocker when I forced an early exchange of queens which forced him to open up his right side and got himself caught with his left undeveloped.

These computer chess games are only as good as their programmers. Didn’t the IBM computer called “Big Blue” beat the world chess champion Kasparov?

I mean, if I keep my moves off the expected moves in chess, I could beat this computer game up to the end, even if it has started to make notations of the moves I make under some such situations.

The very good rule that my Father taught me in chess—never make a move which does not improve BOTH your offense and defense! I have found this advice very gratifying in most cases in life.

The Concert

Yeah that was an entertaining concert last night.

But there is nothing new.

What I noticed is that some people up the stage do need a little more stage craft.

Again I say it was entertaining. This is nothing new.

Pia Arcangel

Pia Arcangel

Browser disabled?

If for any reason your browser suddenly becomes sluggish or disabled after connecting to this website, or coolambo.ca, it might be the domain SERVING-SYS.COM that has cookies on it.

Try this procedure—–

1. Click start/control panel/network and internet connections/internet options

2. Click on Privacy Tab

3.Click on Sites

4. type on cursor prod ‘serving-sys.com’

5. Click on BLOCK

6. click OK.

It appears that our vengeful domain serving-sys.com is bent on bringing your browser down (not mine) for viewing at Shrapnel Off The Wall.

(Another Ahab, eh?)

Charice Pempengco on Oprah

Charice on Oprah Winfrey.mpg

A Slow down…..

yes I did. The new Dell XPS Studio 9000 has arrived, with 9 Gb ram, and 1 terabyte hard drive. It has kept me off my blog.

Now we can see what Microsoft has been publicizing that so many millions have bought the Windows 7 operating System and that they are satisfied with it. I have now posted this on this new desktop.

My first impression? F-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n. The 64-bit software does not necessarily make the processing faster, it is the equipment that speeds things up.

And Windows 7 appears to be that fast because it anticipates what you are going to do and does it before you think of it. However, if you change your mind about going that way, changing lanes is most difficult to do. There is no backing away from one path to go to another path. The files that are supposed to be collected after the process is finished, has been written aqlready into a file already so you end up deleting half the file.

Moving the files from one computer to this new one also presents some swear-ridden procedures.

I tried to open a jpeg photo and the computer prodded me to insert a disk on the drive.!!!!

MAMMMA  MIAAA!!!

Huweteng—-the numbers game

A move has been initiated to legalize the numbers game of huweteng. They have been trying to do this ever since I can remember.  We do realize that this does not necessarily mean simply giving the operators a license to operate this type of lottery together with a revenue number towards the payment of taxes.

While this numbers game makes the operators rich, it in turn gives the lowly people a ticket to that springey step, the smile afore the meager meal, and the dreams of happy times in anticupation of a winning ticket.

In more tinmes than many, the numbers game of huweteng has afforded the simple folk  with the strengthening of purpose in life and their immunity from hardship.

Legalize Huweteng you may try to do, but do away with it is something one has to carefully think over and over again. For Huweteng is probably as ingrained to the Filipino as much as religion is to a priest.

tell me not in mournful numbers-

life is but an empty dream,

for the soul is dead that slumbers

who does not dream of the winning numbers.