Archive for December, 2010

Posted by Mikko at 30 December 2010

Category: Personal

Tags:

Wall climbing is one of the things I really missed doing for the past few months. I first fell in love with wall climbing days before Valentine’s Day during the UP Fair 2010. Grip UP and Power Up Tandang Sora put up a climbing wall at the Sunken Garden for the fair.

Since then, I started visiting Power Up Tandang Sora (climbing gym) from time to time, bringing with me random friends. There were even times when I went there almost every other day that I decided to subscribe to two-week gym memberships.

Although strenuous, wall climbing is a very fun activity. It provides a glimpse of outdoor rock climbing in a controlled environment. Not only it will help you develop endurance, strength and power, it may also reinforce your willpower (to reach the top :D ).

How to go to Power Up Tandang Sora

For those who want to give indoor climbing a shot, you may visit Power Up Tandang Sora at 690 Tandang Sora Avenue, Old Balara, Quezon City. From Quezon Memorial Circle, enter Commonwealth, turn right on the street (Tandang Sora Avenue) right after Mercury Drug and KFC then finally turn right on the first street. You should see Power Up there.

Cost of climbing at Power Up Tandang Sora

For first-timers, it should cost you around PHP 220.00 (not sure). Included here is the climbing fee, equipment rental and belay card. For your succeeding climbing sessions, it should cost around PHP 200.00 (still unsure; PHP 150 for climbing fee and PHP 50 for equipment rental). In case you decide to make it a hobby, you may also avail of their 14-day (or two-week) gym membership at PHP 600 or a month membership at PHP 1,300. The membership will only cover for your climbing fee.

Here are some tips for those who want to try it out:

  • Don’t hesitate to try it just because you don’t have any climbing experience. Everyone who’ve tried it had a first time, too! The gym staff will teach you how to use their equipment safely. They will even issue you a belay card that you can brag to your friends!
  • Try to bring a friend with you. You will have to pay an extra for a belayer. Alternatively if you are friendly enough, you may make friends there and ask them to belay you. :D
  • Bring extra clothes. You should be comfortable with your climbing clothes. It should not be too tight nor too loose.

Looking forward to climbing again next year!

Posted by Mikko at 28 December 2010

Category: Android, How-To, Mobile

Tags: , , , ,

For those who want to know how to setup their Android devices to work with Globe Telecom, Smart or Sun Cellular mobile Internet, you may follow these simple steps.

  1. Press the Menu button.
  2. Then tap Settings.
  3. Choose Wireless & networks (usually the first option unless you have custom UI [e.g. HTC Sense UI, Samsung TouchWiz UI])
  4. Select Mobile networks.
  5. Then go to Access Point Names.
  6. Press the Menu button.
  7. Then tap New APN.
  8. Supply the following settings:
  • For Globe Telecom
    • Name: GLOBE (or anything you want)
    • APN: http.globe.com.ph
    • LEAVE THE REST OF THE FIELDS AS-IS
  • For Smart and Talk and Text
    • Name: SMART (or anything you want)
    • APN: internet
    • LEAVE THE REST OF THE FIELDS AS-IS
  • For SUN PREPAID
    • Name: SUN (or anything you want)
    • APN: minternet
    • Authentication type: PAP
    • LEAVE THE REST OF THE FIELDS AS-IS
  • For SUN POSTPAID or line
    • Name: SUN (or anything you want)
    • APN: fbband
    • Authentication: PAP
    • LEAVE THE REST OF THE FIELDS AS-IS

For SUN Prepaid and Postpaid, you may need to activate mobile internet service. You may request service activation by calling 888.

Enjoy your Internet!

Posted by Mikko at 28 December 2010

Category: RSS-

Based on experience, University of the Philippines College Admission Test, or simply UPCAT, results are usually released on the second Friday or Saturday of January. Most probably, it will be on January 7-8 or 14-15.

UPCAT Results will be released on January 3, 2011. Aside from the Internet, other ways to check if you’ve passed UPCAT is by going to the Office of Admissions of the UP Campus nearest you.

Posted by Mikko at 22 December 2010

Category: Internet

Earlier today, I read several plurks on my timeline saying that their karmas reached 100.01. I immediately checked my karma and yes, it was 100.01 too. At first I thought that they had a 0.01 karma give-away triggering a bug for those with 100 karma.

Just a few minutes ago, @plurkbuddy officially announced that they are removing the upper bound for the karma. The announcement said “Have you reached 100 Karma and are you bored now? We have a solution – Karma is unlimited now! Enjoy!”

Actually, I didn’t care much about my karma since I reached karma 100. What do you think about the recent change?

Plurk is a social networking and microblogging tool popular mostly in South East Asia, just like Twitter. Users post updates where people can reply. These updates are laid on a scrollable horizontal timeline. Replies are shown in a threaded way, unlike in Twitter. Karma is a measure of user’s activity.

Curious about Plurk? Join Plurk now.

Posted by Mikko at 15 December 2010

Category: Personal, Programming, Random

Tags: , , ,

I am the kind of person who really hates sticking into a routine. Everyday, I try to inject something new in my life. I do a lot of different stuff. I also read a lot of random stuff, excluding fiction.

As I was skimming the Top 500 Non-individual Taxpayers of 2009 earlier tonight, I happened to notice Golden Arches Development Corporation at Rank 95. Golden Arches is the corporation behind McDonald’s Philippines. Because of that, my stomach began growling but as far as I knew then I only had 20 pesos in my pocket.

As time passed, my hunger intensified. Hungry, I searched for the room for coins. I found coins on the floor, my bag, the cabinet, among others. I was able to collect 11 5-peso coins, 146 1-peso coins and 8 25-centavo coins (which one of them I later discovered to be a 1964 5-centavo coin).

Crazy as it may sound, even though I can already afford to eat at McDonald’s already I decided to sort the coins according to year before eating. First thing I did was to create a MySQL database for it. Then I wrote the PHP app where I’ll encode the coins. After which I started encoding data for my 1-peso coins. I made sure that the data in the database are correct by checking it on my physical count every ten coins. I failed to encode the year of one 1-peso coin since it was already mutilated to the point the year is not recognizable already.

Here’s the result in coin-graph:

And here’s the dump from MySQL sorted by year and by frequency:

As you may notice, among the 145 1-peso coins I had no 2005 1-peso coin. Oldest coins minted back in 1995 whilst my latest coins in 2010. As expected, 2010 coins took the lead. I can’t seem to understand why I got a lot of 2004 coins. I speculate that the Central Bank over-minted coins in 2004 to the point that they halted production for 2005. Another observation was that all of my coins minted from 2004 onwards were magnetic. I also got 3 magnetic 2003 1-peso coins out of the 10 I have in possession.

Enough of those coin stuff. Way back in high school, some of my classmates and even teachers suspect that I have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I tried running through the symptoms of ADHD in Wikipedia and now I’m diagnosing myself with ADHD. Hahaha.

Here’s the list of symptoms (those highlighted in blue are the things that apply to me [I think]):

  • Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another
  • Have difficulty maintaining focus on one task
  • Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable [sorting coins is enjoyable!!]
  • Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new or trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities
  • Not seem to listen when spoken to [rarely]
  • Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly
  • Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others
  • Struggle to follow instructions
  • Fidget and squirm in their seats
  • Talk nonstop [do I need to elaborate on this???]
  • Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight [and everyone, LOL]
  • Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time
  • Be constantly in motion
  • Have difficulty doing quiet tasks or activities
  • Be very impatient
  • Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without regard for consequences
  • Have difficulty waiting for thingI think my friends would agree on me s they want or waiting their turns in games

There you go. If you know me well I think you’ll have to agree with me. On the Wikipedia article, it also says “Untreated adults with ADHD often have chaotic lifestyles, may appear to be disorganized and may rely on non-prescribed drugs and alcohol to get by.” LOL.