Faith and Grace

25th of June 2012. It was the day I named my mountain bike. I never had any real intentions to name it but that day – on a Monday at that – I had to.

I went to SM Fairview from our house using my then-unnamed bike to meet up with Pao. We planned on spending the morning going up to Timberland in San Mateo, Rizal. We’ve been there countless times and we just wanted a quick fix for our biking needs. After loading our bikes in Pao’s Revo and as we were on our way, heavy clouds started to appear and it started to drizzle. We decided to push through with our plan hoping that it would stop as soon as we get there. When we were on the vicinity of Batasang Pambansa Complex, the Sun was out and the road was dry. I remember thinking that it was going to be a great ride since the paved road after the basic trail will not be scorching hot. Boy was I wrong! Dead wrong!

We got there at around 10:00am so we decided to start at the clubhouse (hindi pa naman ako nag Wall 1 or Wall 2 e). After unloading the bikes and finishing up with the safety checks (naks!) we started to ride to the trail head. Our dear friend Sun gave up on us and heavy clouds started to settle back in. After the first climb or so, rain started to pour down. We thought that like before, it would stop soon. But the rain did not stop. The Sun did not come out. There we were, in the middle of the trail with nowhere to hide and only one stop to run to which was at the end of the trail. We pressed forward trying to enjoy the wet and wild ride with hearts pounding, body fats shaking and mouth pursed to hide the silly childish grin brought about by biking in the rain and keeping mud out at the same time.

We reached the end of the trail and like clockwork, the rain stopped and the Sun was out again. As we started the ascent on the cemented road leading to Giant, I remember looking up and seeing the road literally give off steam as if the rain that just poured down was evaporating. Sala sa init, sala sa lamig.

Every now and then, we usually talk during recovery portions (flats, no gradient/incline) of the route. Pao asked me if I wanted to try a new route which included fire roads and single tracks. And being the adventurous type that I am (ahem!), I said yes. So we went to this trail called AFP (dunno why). This is where everything started to go downhill (or uphill – depending on your outlook in life). The entrance off the road was covered in soil. The type of soil that is clay-ish, brownish-orange in color and is very sticky when wet!!! It was so sticky that my tires were quickly covered in mud and the harder and faster I pedal the slower I became. Para akong kalabaw na nag aararo ng lupa. My tires were like fat tires. Mud was everywhere: in my rear derailleur, both pulleys, cogs, chain, front derailleur and fork arches. Both Pao’s and my bike were no longer functioning as they should so we had to walk and remove all the mud. Walking was also hard because even our shoes’ sole accumulated mud and made it loose grip. As we were shaking off all the mud, Pao’s chain got stuck between the granny gear and the spokes of the rear wheel. I think it took us more than 20mins just to free the chain since we did not have the proper tools except for an allen wrench which we used to pry the chain off (which we also forgot to pick up sa sobrang excitement pagka-ayos). Once we got the chain to its proper place, we started to ride out once again. And as if some unknown force was trying to keep us in the middle of nowhere, Pao’s rear derailleur hanger broke off!!! There was no way we could repair it so we had to walk all the way to our destination.

When we got to Giant, we ordered our brunch and started talking about how much misfortune we’ve had and it wasn’t even time for lunch. I asked the vendor if there were other bikers earlier that day and to my surprise, she said that we were the only ones (adik lang). As we were eating, it started to rain again. This time, it was seriously pouring down. Since we had time to kill, we fixed Pao’s bike so that at the very least, he could ride downhill. We tied his chain and rear derailleur to the chain stay with straw ropes just to make sure that nothing will get caught in the spokes of the rear wheel when riding downhill. Good thing I also tried my bike and discovered that the second pulley in the rear derailleur was not moving at all due to the mud. The whole rear derailleur assembly was being stressed by the chain coming from the crank. I suspect that this is what happened to Pao’s bike which ultimately led to the rear derailleur hanger’s failure. All we had to do was to clean the pulleys, cogs and crank and I was able to ride it again.

Improvisation after a broken rear derailleur hanger: Downhill free rider!

After “fixing” his bike and waiting for about 10-15mins, the rain turned into drizzle. We decided to start on our walk back to the club house. I remember talking with Pao on how lucky we were because instead of walking under the heat of the Sun, we get to walk on a relatively cooler cement road without the Sun. I can’t exactly remember who said it but one of us joked that God doesn’t love us because of all the things that had happened to us. It was like we were abandoned or something to that effect. Then it rained again – hard. It rained so hard that every piece of clothing that I had on me was soaking wet. Every. Piece. Of. Clothing.

What we did next was to look at the brighter side amidst the gloomy weather. How often can you ride a bike on a Monday? When was the last time you played in the morning rain? When will you be able to ride a bike on a Monday and play in the morning rain at the same time?

We may have been unlucky the whole time during that ride but somehow, we managed to reach the end of the cemented road and the start of the basic trail without any new misfortunes aside from Pao forgetting to put his phone back on its waterproof case! We went inside the guard house and asked for permission from the guard on duty to allow us to wait out the rain before hiking back to towards the basic trail and to give Pao enough time to put his phone inside its waterproof case. As we were about to walk back in on the rain to start our hike, we saw what could be described by anyone who was in our situation as the most beautiful thing anyone would ever want to see. It came almost out of nowhere or maybe we just didn’t notice it approaching. It was a white Mitsubishi Strada 4×4 pickup truck! We asked the guard if he knew the driver and wondered if we could hitch a ride. The guard told us that the driver was known in the area and is a priest.  We had this ridiculous looks on our faces! And even before I could finish my question on the possibility of hitching a ride, the priest was already nodding his head! We were on a state of disbelief!

We loaded our bikes on the truck bed and stayed with our bikes. As the 4×4 was moving up the trail, we could see the torrent of mud water running down. This would have been against us if we hiked back. We estimated that at certain points of the trail where it was flat, the mud water was knee-deep. Thank God for not letting us hike back! Thank God for all the delays so that we would be where we were when the 4×4 was passing by!

As we were patiently waiting for the 4×4 to reach the end of the trail, we decided to name our bikes to remind us that wherever we are, whatever we do, God will always be there for us no matter what happens. The names will remind us that there will always be difficulties along the way but they make the journey much more worth it and that there’s a bright side in every situation. And if all else fails, if everything seems so hopeless, God will send you a sign, an answer or maybe even a white 4×4 pickup truck.

So without further ado, I’d like you to meet Faith and Grace:


Left: Faith with a broken rear derailleur hanger (before “fix”). Right: Grace

Toilet Competition Below The Fold

In today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, there is a story entitled “US toilets compete for the top seat.” Its about an on-going contest to find America’s Best Restroom.

Home Grown

I viewed the ten finalists at http://www.bestrestroom.com/us/vote.asp and I must say, some of them really are good. Keyword: SOME. I don’t know why four of those entries are there nor why this story is on the front page nor why I am writing about this.

All I know is that I’ve seen better. Maybe not something that bests all 10 finalists but definitely better.

 

Sample? Go here: At home

Facebook Mail is here

I got a very nice surprise when I checked my “Messages” on facebook a few minutes ago.

I was prompted to create my facebook mail and was done in about 2-3 steps. This might be old news but as far as I can remember, facebook started gradually rolling this out late last year and maybe it was just really unexpected, I had to blog about it.

Anyway, what happened was there was a pop up message saying that I need to upgrade to the new “Facebook Messages”. I clicked the button and it showed my profile username (facebook.com/profileusername) and stated that my facebook email address will be the same as my profile username (e.g. profileusername@facebook.com). I clicked next and was told that emails/messages from my friends would appear in “Messages” link and emails/messages from non-confrimed friends would appear on the “Other” link. After completing these steps, it displayed the different ways on how I can be contacted/sent messages.

So what changed?

Aside from the changes in the way messages are handled mentioned above, messages coming from emails and chat messages share the same interface. You can reply on either chat box or main Messages window. There is a quick reply mode where if the check box is ticked, all key presses on the enter key sends the message immediately or if unticked, gives a new line instead. You can also attach a file or take a picture or video before sending.

Just for fun, I tried sending myself an email and here’s the header details from GMail:

CKEditor.Net Does Not Work Inside Multiview

I’ve written in a post a few months ago about a javascript-based lightweight WYSIWYG rich-text editor that can be used in web pages called FCKEditor. The developers have upgraded it and called it CKEditor. I tried to use it two days ago and up until now, I still cannot use it for my specific purpose. I am near the end of a project with this WYSIWYG editor as the second-to-the-last-module. I am convinced that I have encountered a bug and have yet to find a solution. I will blog about this for documentation purposes.

CKEditor + AJAX + UpdatePanel + Multiview = Problem

The bug I am encountering now appears only on when the conditions are right. I created a new AJAX-enabled website project in Visual Studio 2008 with C# as my code-behind. I downloaded the latest (as of time of writing) version of CKEditor 3.5.2 and CKEditor.Net 3.5.2 control from their website.

From Solution Explorer in VS2008, I added a BIN folder and placed the `CKEditor.NET.dll` (from CKEditor.Net 3.5.2) there. The ckeditor folder that contains the core files (from CKEditor 3.5.2) was also placed in the root of the website. I opened the Web.Config file and added the following line to the node:

<add tagPrefix="CKEditor" namespace="CKEditor.NET" assembly="CKEditor.NET" />

Then, I opened Default.aspx and add the following line:

<CKEditor:CKEditorControl runat="server" ID="tbContent1" />

So that the whole Default.aspx would look like this:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" />
    

    </form>
</body>
</html>

If you try to view it by debugging it (hit CTRL+F5 while on VS2008), you should see the CKEditor.Net Control working as intended.

Now if we put the CKEditor.Net control inside an update panel, it would still work. If the update panel contains a multiview control with only one view panel and the CKEditor.Net control is inside the only view panel, it would still also work. But once the multiview control has two or more view panels and the CKEditor.Net control is on the second view panel (or any panel for that matter, as long as it is not on the default active view index of the multiview) that’s where things start to get ugly.

We can change the code of Default.aspx to:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" />
    

      
    

    </form>
</body>
</html>

Notice the button on the first view panel. We’ll be using that to switch the active view index of the multiview control to the second view panel. We need to handle the OnClick event of that button so we do the whole code-behind (Default.aspx.cs) file like so:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

    }

    protected void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        //MultiView1.ActiveViewIndex = 1;
    }
}

Once we debug it again (CTRL+F5 while on VS2008), we get a button on the initial page load since the multiview’s active view index property is set to zero (ActiveViewIndex=”0″). If we click on the button, the OnClick event of the button sets the multiview’s active view index to 1 (where the CKEditor.Net contol is at). This produces a javascript error and the CKEditor.Net control is rendered as a plain textbox.

 

Line: 5
Error: Sys.ScriptLoadFailedException: The script '/CKEditorMultiview/ckeditor/ckeditor.js?t=B1GG4Z6' could not be loaded.

 

It happens on Internet Explorer 8.0.7601.17514, Google Chrome 10.0.648.151, FireFox 3.6.13 (although the javascript error does not show on GC and FF – might be a in-browser error config thing – the CKEditor.Net being rendered as a plain textbox is present on all three major browsers).

As I’ve said at the start of this post, I have not yet found a solution to this problem. If you have any information on how to fix this particular problem, kindly drop me a line at the comments. Thanks!

Over Speeding at SCTEX

So I got an over speeding ticket.

Last Saturday (March 5, 2011), I went with my fiancée’s clan for a summer outing. At around 7:30AM we were at SCTEX’s Clark South toll booth. The expressway is still very nice to drive on and is very very free from congestion. Running at a 100kph seems like 60kph as you zoom past the green scenery.

Apprehension

Call me crazy and irresponsible (and guilty as well) since we were on a 4-car convoy going to Subic with speeds in excess of 160kph. I was the last car on the convoy and all the while, they were moving from left to right and vice versa, weaving our way through the other cars. Most of the time I stayed on the left lane (over taking lane) even if there were no cars on the right lane (slow/cruising lane) while the other cars in our convoy kept returning to the right lane. I also noticed that there was a parked white pickup truck on the side of the road a few kilometers before the exit booth at Subic. Why am I saying all this? Because these are the tell tale signs that they’re on to you. Heh.

Upon reaching the exit booth at Subic, I was immediately flagged by the traffic enforcers and guided me to stop the car on the shoulder lane. I opened my window and was told that they detected that I was over speeding and that they’d like to see my license. I gave the apprehending officer my driver’s license and upon seeing my address, he asked me as if to confirm “Sir, taga Caloocan po kayo? (Are you from Caloocan City?)” I said yes and he walked away with my license.

A few minutes later, he returned with the traffic violation ticket already filled out and explained to me that I was caught by their speed gun running at 129kph (!?). I asked him a few questions and I learned that although the “advertised” speed limit at SCTEX is 100kph, a 15% speed allowance is given to motorists in the event that the car needs to speed up to overtake another car. I asked why was I the only one caught over speeding when in fact, there were four of us. He said some BS excuse and just offered some tips so that I won’t be caught next time (at this point I felt really weird because I was with my fiancée, her mom, her cousin and there I was guilty as hell and the guy who just apprehended me is giving me tips on how to beat their system).

I was also told that there would be a picture of my car with the speed reading superimposed on it as proof but can only be showed when I claim my license. He said that since I live in Caloocan, I will be claiming my license at the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) main office at East Ave. in Quezon City. In lieu of my license, I was given a temporary license which is good for 3 working days. 

Claiming My License

I went to the LTO main office on Wednesday (March 9, 2011) at around 2:30PM. I asked the guard in the parking lot where to go next. I was with my dad who was going to renew his license (expired for more than a year!!!).

The processing was fast but was a bit unorganized. I went in to one building to have my violation ticket be numbered for a queue then waited for about 15 mins. before my number was called. I went to the personnel who called my number and gave me a sheet of paper with the break down of the charges that I need to pay first. PhP 1,000.00 for Reckless Driving, PhP 200.00 for Research and Legal fees and a few more (around 60.00) for computerization and training fees (!?) for a total of 1,26x.xx pesos.

The cashier is at another building and took me another 15 minutes. After I was issued a receipt, I was not told where to go next. There wasn’t any postings or directions for the next step. I went back to the first building and asked the guard where to go next.

I went to another building where the exam and film showing (a.k.a. the seminar) is held. The questionnaire is 60 items (multiple choice type of exam) and I was given three pieces of paper: (1) Pre-exam answer sheet, (2) Case details and (3) Post-seminar. The pre-exam answer sheet should be filled up using “stock knowledge” before the short film is shown. The case details was filled out with the case number, ticket violation number, license number, dates and other information related to the apprehension. The post-seminar sheet was filled out during the short film’s playback. As the instructor said, “If ever you get your answers in the pre-exam sheet wrong, write the correct answer in the post-seminar sheet.” I guess they were hoping that the mistakes made on the pre-exam sheet will be realized by the ones taking the exam due to the short film’s playback.

The film was short. I guess it was less than 30 mins. but was really boring. It starts with the history of transportation from (and I kid you not) carabaos, the naming history of the LTO and the requirements for applying for a student and non-professional license. Ok the film might not have started with saying that transportation started from carabaos but it was that freaking boring. It was very illogical as well since our violation was reckless driving and not driving without a license. The exam never had a question that touched on the name or history of the LTO nor did the short film discuss the tonnage limit per axle on an 18-wheeler truck which was a question on the exam. I think this is the “torture” part for those who violated traffic rules.

After submitting the exam, we had to wait for what seemed like eternity on the 2nd floor of the same building. And in true graduation-style roll call, we are given a certificate of exam completion and a booklet entitled “The Filipino Drivers Manual”.

Upon receiving the certificate of exam completion, I went to the 2nd floor of the 1st building that I went to where I had to surrender all certificates, tickets and receipt then wait for my name to be called. The only thing that I got back was my license and my receipt.

It was about 4:50PM when I got back to the car with my license, booklet-souvenir and my dad waiting patiently. He was done renewing his license for about 30mins already.

So if you’d want to speed up along SCTEX or NLEX, make sure you allot about half a day and PhP1,500.00 to get your license back. hahaha!

Stocks and Patience

Ever since I opened an account with an online stock broker, I quickly used up almost all of the funds that I deposited for buying stocks of other companies. I bought a few shares from a telecom giant, a couple of hundred from holding companies, a popular real estate company and a few thousand shares from a property development group.

Daily Monitoring

I monitored the stock market on a daily basis for the last week and found that I didn’t move as much as believed it would. The market fluctuated daily and even in the span of three hours – at which the market is open for trading – the fluctuations are not as big as I’ve hoped. Although the fluctuations are not of leaps and bounds, I’ve lost a couple of thousand pesos without doing anything on the first two days. On the third day, the losses ballooned to almost 10% of my initial investment. I thought that it was already on a downward trend and that the losses would soon snowball on me and eventually take my investments away.

I was caught in a dilemma. Either I cut my losses and sell the stocks now or hold on and hope for the best. I was told by my friends to hang on and that patience is a virtue. To sell the stocks now would actually be an acceptance that the investment that I had so much hope in, was gone. I listened to their advices and slept on it – hoping that the stocks that I bought will be performing better the next day.

Better Day

On the fourth day, the losses were down to 8% and on the fifth day to 5%. Over the weekend, I tried not to think about it so much because I might jinx it on the opening day of this week (heh). Last Monday was the starting day when I saw the stocks play between 3.3% and 4% until today. Last Monday was the day when I realized that investing on the stock market is not just about the money.

 

Its more about that darn patience that you need.

Stock Market: Day 1

The market opened at 09:30am today. Placed stock orders to my online broker for five (5) local companies for a total somewhere north of PhP50,000.00

At around 10:00am, loss value was around PhP356++. So much for beginner’s luck. Ate breakfast, took a bath then headed out to the gym.

12:00pm, the market closes. Finished my workout. Total loss value was at 842.14 (pesos not calories though).

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Stock Market Adventures

Today is the day when I first opened an account with an online stockbroker. Everything happened so fast, it looks very promising.

Stockbrokers? You mean like the Wall Street movie?

Yes and no. Yes in the sense that I can now buy stocks from publicly listed companies in the Philippine Stock Exchange. No in the sense that I don’t need to call/deal or talk to a stockbroker directly.

The company that I signed-up with is CitiSecOnline. From their FAQ page:

CitisecOnline was established in 1999 with the vision of allowing a low-cost and easily accessible means to invest in the Philippine Stock Market. Over the years, it has developed a full sweep of services to empower the retail investor. These include real-time quotes, research services and reports, as well as expert-broker support, by providing him the tools to assist him make intelligent decisions. It also allows real-time execution of trades, which is the best practice in the local online trading industry. With its experience in servicing experienced investors looking for more convenient ways of stock trading, CitisecOnline is well-poised to drive the development of the online trading investor market in confluence with the increased penetration of internet access, broadband services and increasingly tech-savvy investing public.

I downloaded their application form online, filled it out and prepared the necessary photocopies of my government-issued IDs before going to their office at 2401-B East Tower Philippine Stock Exchange Center, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. When we got to their vicinity, the place was really busy. There were a lot of cars going by and a lot of business people walking about. We found a pay-parking lot in front of their building and tried our luck with the parking space for about twenty minutes but ended up with the valet parking.

Like Fastfood

We went directly to the 24th floor and asked the guard where we can find the new accounts section. We were brought to a cozy room with tables and chairs meant for discussing any concerns that we may have with the account officer. The account officer asked if I already have “the necessary documents for application” and I said “yes” while pulling it out from my envelope. She just replied with “please wait for a moment as I check these and have them approved” and left. After five minutes, she came back with my new account number and said that the account is now ready to be funded and can be used immediately. She asked us if we have any more clarifications and/or questions – we had none – so I guess the opening of my account is complete. All of these in under fifteen minutes. Just like that, just like ordering fastfood.

Before I can reach my car, I got an email from them reminding me of my account number and how I can fund the account with step-by-step instructions for three different big banks. I can use any of these banks to transfer my funds online – how cool is that?

Technical Problems

Being in the IT industry, I can’t help but notice that they are still using older technologies such as ASP classic and frames. Not to mention the use of tables for the site layout and some misaligned displays here and there. But what’s really puzzling me is that I was not provided with a password. There was nothing in the email they sent, not even a default random password that I will be required to change upon logging in for the first time. All I got is a username. All they’ve got is a login box and a forgot password link. I’m hesitant to use the forgot password since I never had the password. The “open an account” link leads to the list of requirements to be submitted.

Call me stupid for not knowing what to do, but I’d call myself sleepy and tired. Yeah. Whatever.

Loaded with projects

So I’ve been busy

Time passes by real quick these days. Being directly involved in three IT projects under my current employer which deals a lot with the Philippine Government is what’s really eating up my time. Fortunately, the first project that is a nationwide statistical performance reporting system is in the final stages of the knowledge transfer phase via trainings on the technologies used. We have conducted the .Net training and we will be doing the database training next week for maintenance purposes.

Projects that matter

That first project gave me a lot of insight as to how our clients expect their contractor (us) to handle each and every idea/suggestion/improvement that they want to see in their new system. I also learned that emphasizing the “must-haves” versus the “nice-to-haves” is a very important concept if you want to finish on time. It is essential that some nice-to-haves be pushed back and be implemented after the system’s deployment to production just to hit the deadlines. Even after the UAT and during the roll-out/training in regional offices, changes in the UI and processes have cropped up due to new business policies or the lack thereof. I can’t wait to see all of their suggestions and recommendations for the years to come due to the more-than-enough warranty period which is longer than what most multi-national software development companies are offering.

The second project is an enhancement of a system that was started by my current employer ten years ago at about the time when I was still in high school. This project was originally created using a portal development toolkit created by a software giant whose strength was in a relational database management system. In the decade that this system was up and running, its source code and database schema went through the hands of a couple of software development houses who never bothered to update the documentation or to document even only the changes that they introduced. I know this because when I asked for the latest user’s manual, I was given a copy of the manual that my employer gave a decade ago. Now that we have been contracted to fix the system up, we did more than what was needed to be done. Instead of just fixing bugs and/or customizing reports and/or normalizing tables and/or updating affected modules, we re-wrote the whole thing and at the same time upgraded it to a more relevant technology platform. We are now in the process of creating the necessary reports for departmental use before conducting the UAT. If there won’t be much changes, then the project will soon be ready for the public.

The third project is a bridge between the first and the second. The statistical performance data from the second system will be fed automatically to the first system so that the bureaus, departments, field and regional offices can focus on data analysis rather than waste their time waiting for the field reports to come in and consolidate those reports for submission to the higher management.

Startups left and right

I am also busy trying to create a company that is composed of my closest friends. This company will be used for a lot of things and not only for IT-related business ventures. It is always good to diversify your portfolio and to keep an eye out in different industries that is why this new company will be venturing in the stock market, financing, trade of goods and merchandise and as well as food and beverage. We have started to pool our resources and I have acquired the necessary documents from the SEC. We just have to finalize some details and we’ll be good to go.

A former non-IT boss has also invited me to help him start up a new business venture that primarily caters to the thriving tourism industry in the country. We have been on meetings for a number of times now and during those conceptualization meetings, the provisioning of the back-end system will be on me.

On my personal free time (yes, surprisingly I can call it that), I am slowly developing a system that utilizes the publicly available developer’s API in each different web categories such as social networks, entertainment, games, news, photo management and productivity. This system is not yet affiliated with or owned by any company and it will be a mash up of features and functionality from different popular websites which should make it a bit more interesting to see from a regular user’s point of view.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines

I hope to finish all projects from my employer before he first half of this year is over and to be able to establish the company with my friends before the first quarter is over because I really need to focus more on the thing that is really important to me – getting married. But I guess that would be for another blog post.

Charging the Apple iPad via USB

After forgetting to bring the iPad’s wall charger, I got a bit frustrated when I tried to use the USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable and connected it to my laptop for charging. The iPad showed the “Not Charging” message beside the battery indicator on the top right of the screen. 😦
How could that be? 😐  The same USB cable, when connected to the same laptop, can charge my iPod touch, my nephew’s iPod Nano and my fiancée’s iPhone 3G. After some slight reading on the internet I learned that apparently, I am not alone. 😀
When Apple released the iPad last April 3, 2010 many early adopters encountered then what I’m writing about now. They were having problems getting their new devices to charge via USB. Some users had luck while using a Mac, but the success rate is not a 100%. Other users speculate that it has something to do with the OS that is running on the machine which added more fuel to the OSX-vs.-Win debate. But from what I’ve learned, it’s really more about the power that comes out of the USB port. ;))
The most common type of USB port is the “Standard A.” It is the flat-type of plug as opposed to the “Standard B” which is a boxy-type of plug (different from mini-USB and micro-USB). Both of these plugs types follows the USB standard specifications which states that it should provide around 5 volts (+5v with more or less +0.25v) to power a device connected to it. A USB controller or hub should at least provide power to one unit load or 100 milli-Ampere (100mA), which is considered a low power load. It can optionally power up to five unit load or 500mA, which is considered a high power load.
To give you an idea on the discrepancy of the power supplied between charging the iPad via USB connected to a computer versus charging it with the supplied USB wall power adapter, let’s me show you some computations:
Power or wattage (watts) is computed as P = (I*V) where I is Current and V is Voltage. It is read as Power is equal to the Current multiplied by the Voltage. So, if we do the math, (5v*100mA) = 0.5Watts for low power load and (5v*500mA) = 2.5Watts for high power load. Still with me? 😀
The supplied USB wall power adapter is… Wait for it… 10W. :))
I am guessing that there is programmed logic in iOS that checks for the supplied power for charging and if it doesn’t reach a certain value, say 5.5v (1100mA, 5v), it displays “Not Charging”. x_x
But don’t worry if the iPad displays “Not Charging” when connected to a computer via USB because IT IS charging, I tried it. Although much slower due to the big difference in the power supplied coupled with a much bigger battery and a big ass screen compared to the iPod/iPhone. 😛
It also helps if the screen is turned off or the device is put on stand-by mode as the screen really eats up a lot of juice.