Week 5: Grace Under Pressure

(Sorry for the late post! Had a lot of things to do last weekend.)


(No actual information of what I do will be posted here, for obvious reasons.)

It was only this week that I felt so much pressure in this on-the-job training. We all had individual things to do in order to achieve a bigger thing. Despite the fact that I love programming, it gets tiring to just stare at the monitor for a long period of time. It was only until Thursday that our boss decided to put life in the office by playing some music.


I was asked by him to play music in order to liven up the mood. It actually felt soothing, joyful, and disturbing at the same time. This was because whenever I think of a funny song, I would search it on Spotify and play it! Shock and laughter came about and despite the pressure we felt, I think we handled it great with what we're doing.


Shortly before I left the office, our boss asked me to do a vital part in the project. The thing is, I am the only one working on it, and I sincerely hope I could reach the deadline. It really feels like life's hanging in a balance. Good luck to me then.

The iPhone Experience: Introduction

For the next few weeks, I will be posting about my experiences with my recently acquired gadget and one of the hottest smartphones ever, the iPhone. I'm currently holding an iPhone 4 and it's been swell. I've been thinking left and right whether I should be doing this, but I will because I need help from you, the readers. I wanna ask you for suggestions on what I should focus on so that I will give you my unbiased thoughts on that. The first few posts though, will be based on my initial thoughts on it. Just comment down below. Thanks!

Week 4: It's ON!

(Due to contract reasons, I cannot relay details on information on what I actually do.)

Weeks have gone by, and I thought I would feel discontent that I got an OJT this early. That has come to an end, as someone important arrived later in the week.

It's our boss.

Back in April when I was still looking for a company to take my OJT (and almost was about to give up), I was in school because I was asked to go to the office/Room 470 for an orientation of the company and what they do. Satchel was with me, so at least the nervousness I felt before going in was Sir Alfon explained what type of programming we could do. After which, we were already accepted. I was surprised, since there wasn't a proper interview of some sort. I think this is probably because of recommendations from our teachers.

Back to this week, he arrived bringing interesting stuff that would be useful to what we're doing. He also gave us advice on how we maintain the passion we have for what we do. My favorite one is:

FIND BALANCE.

This means a lot to me since this has always been my secret, although at times I tend to overplay. If I feel like doing something productive, I do it diligently. Hopefully, I don't lose my relaxed self as I enter the new semester because it's gonna be tougher from that time on. Until then, calm down.

The Luminance of the Nokia Lumia 900

(Sorry for posting this late. I got tired yesterday and needed to sleep early.)

Source: Nokia.com

Nokia has been losing popularity in the high-end smartphone market because of the Apple-Google duopoly. Microsoft has Windows Phone, but it hasn't really taken off. Suddenly, Nokia and Microsoft went into a partnership that hopefully would bring Microsoft to the mobile space with a bang and Nokia back into the game. 


Enter the Lumia 900.


This is the phone I've been waiting for from Nokia simply because it is an eye-popper. The design is just well thought of, thanks to the N9. It looks simple and the unibody polycarbonate construction is really durable. In short, it is really usable. Here are the specs for this phone: 

• 4.3" AMOLED "ClearBlack" display w/ an 800x480 resolution
• Runs Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)
• 8MP rear camera w/ Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash
• 1MP front camera
• 512MB RAM
• 1830mAh battery

This phone may feel underwhelming in specs, but Windows Phone isn't really about specs. It feels really smooth when you use it and makes you think that it doesn't need the specs. Hopefully, Nokia will get good marketing for this so that future Windows Phones from them will get good street cred.

1 Ex? NO, It's the One X!

I've heard of HTC for a long time, ever since I saw early Android phones made by them. I never really thought of them as a major player, it has always been held by Samsung because it's more notable and CAN compete with Apple due to the plethora of devices they release every year. HTC has FINALLY nailed it. 


Enter the One X, an HTC Android device that I feel is completely thought out. It's like HTC went back to the drawing board and said, "What are we good at that others aren't?" That, my friend, is INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. When I saw it at the mall last Saturday, it looks very nice! :D I wanna say it again, HTC has FINALLY nailed this thing!


About the specs:

• 4.7" Super LCD 2 display w/ 1280x720 HD resolution
• 1GB RAM, 32GB internal storage
• NVidia Tegra 3 Quad-core chip
• 8-megapixel camera with HTC's ImageSense technology

I personally believe that this is THE Android phone that could possibly sway users of other smartphones, including the iPhone. I hope this can push Apple to do what they do best, or I may just jump ship. That Nokia Lumia 900 looks promising to me. Will be posting about that tomorrow. Later.

Happy Mother's Day :)

"You may argue, you may hate her, you may even run away, but there will come a time when you wish your mom's still with you."


Mom has always been there since the beginning. From the time when I walked my first steps, the final moments of my high school life, until now. She has always been supportive of the decisions I've made and guided me through those times when I was lost.


Without her, I wouldn't be here. I really appreciate everything she has done for me. No matter how many times I can make it up to her, it will never match all the love and support she has given me. I will forever be grateful for that.

I LOVE YOU, MOM! ♥

Week 3: Color Me Confused

I actually expected a lot from this week. I thought that someone important would arrive in the office. I thought I would be more productive.

I couldn't be more wrong.

This week destroyed all most of my expectations, but I liked what happened instead of them. The only thing I actually did in those that I listed was being productive. I was able to create a simple program through the language that we're currently using. It felt fulfilling that I finally did something useful. I was also able to print a page through that same program. I know, I know, it feels so shallow, but it just means something to me simply because I'm in an internship for a company.

In between the times we did other important things, some of us decided to play games! When they actually said that, I was excited since it felt like we're having a bond between us. The day before we started playing, that's when we told ourselves to do so and bring some games stored in external hard drives. After which, LET THE GAMES BEGIN! 


The games we played were Left 4 Dead 2 and Counter Strike, (I know, this is old) two of the games that I want to play with friends. We had a great time, noise was certainly went through the roof, and happiness went all around the room.


One thing that happened this week was that people were wearing colorful shirts! It was really a visual delight since whichever color was worn by many people, it would be called the color of the day. 


Hopefully, seriousness will FINALLY be felt next week.

Knock Samsung Out: Apple's Best Shot

Samsung has just launched their flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III. This is the phone that should try to take more chunks out of the plethora of current and new smartphone users, particularly ones from Apple with the hugely successful iPhone line.

The thing is though, putting the biases aside, I was disappointed with the Galaxy S III. The design looks cheap, despite having that quad-core processor and a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display. I actually thought that I would say, "Apple should wow us with the next iPhone or they'd get screwed". Instead, I thought of this:

"Apple, now's your chance."

The next iPhone should stand out, despite the fact that it will. The chances that it will not stand out are getting a bit higher, but I believe that if anyone can shock the world with an innovative device, it's Apple. Good luck.

The Galaxy S III is Not That Otherworldly

Photo from Samsung

Last week, Samsung has launched the phone that is said to be the main competitor to the iPhone, the Galaxy S III. 

Unleashed from the Mobile Unpacked event in May 3, the Galaxy S III was one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2012. Rumors were floating around the internet for the specs and features of this thing. It ranged from a dual-core to a quad-core processor, screen size of 4.6 to 4.8 inches.

Well, most of them came true. It will come with a quad-core Exynos processor, although it may come with a different processor when it reaches the United States. It has a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1280x720 resolution. It comes with Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich, out of the box, with TouchWiz Nature UX on top of it. Software features of the newest version of TouchWiz includes Smart Stay, which keeps the screen on when you look at the phone, even though you set the auto-off, and S Voice, which has advanced voice controls like being able to access the camera.

I honestly think that this phone has great specs, which is what the Galaxy S line has been known for. They really went all-out on this one, going so far as to "mimic" Apple with an exclusive launch event just for this, so I expected more, despite being an Apple fan.

Putting all biases aside, this is just a GOOD smartphone. And that means a lot. The specs were great, but I feel as if they've stepped back on the design. C'mon! This is a flagship phone, not some random phone release! I wanted to say that this is a true iPhone competitor, but it feels lacking at some point. Although I was surprised with the software they have shown, it really doesn't make up for the design.

Although the screen's very tempting, it still does not serve well for me as a phone, although it boils down to personal preference on this one.

Overall, I'm standing on my decision that this is a GOOD smartphone. This puts me in high hopes that Apple's next big thing will certainly compete well against the plethora of Android smartphones this year.

Week 2: What To Do

I kinda thought that we would be reading more things during this week.

YES and NO.

YES, because we really did at the start of this week. One reading I did had something to do with that word in the picture. (and they say a picture's worth a thousand words, HA!) It showed me that assets are one of the things a company must really consider because a lot of things can happen to them like it getting outdated and needs to be replaced by a newer model.

NO, because later in the week, we had to learn more new stuff that we have to do for the company. I always wanted to learn new things and this was one of those times. We were learning lots of new stuff, especially today when we laughed hard at how simple it is compared to what we did before that. 

I have to get ready though because important people are coming soon. GOOD LUCK to me.