My Life With IT

Been spammed by SMS from mmm143net yet again. I think more than 5 such spams have been received since that time. The unsub number instruction doesn’t work. It’s the same as the last time. I refused to reply the first few times. I tried to unshubscribe and they have happily continued their spamming. What can I do?

I don’t know how my number ended up with them but I would like to smash their equipment to nano pieces if I could as of right now. Is there a way to stop the erotic or fitness or whatever-services-they-have-to-offer messages from coming in? Call my phone provider? Or report to the police?

If someone can tell me of a way to have a throw-away number to use, I would be very happy to use it.

A system was to be built to deter information leakage. All information should be highly secured. The developer should build it such that he/she won’t be able to access the actual data after the roll out but must be able to troubleshoot whenever the user calls.

So, when the user calls, the problem must solved. The irony is that the user assumes the developer is able to check on the actual data. Unfortunately, no. The developer is not supposed to.

The next issue is that the problem can’t be replicated in the test environment. So, the developer has to go the user’s desk to see what was the issue. All these can take place for 2 days. The rectification takes another day at least. Testing by the user takes another day depending on the availability.

In the end, it takes about 4 days to complete the rectification including the testing and confirmations. Security is important so even if it takes this much days to resolve, it has incurred the wrath of public users. Lose will be incurred.

If it’s for internal users, the wrath will still be faced. So, security has to be in place and even if it takes longer to resolve, it still has to be in place.

I feel like porting over to Lah.cc. It supports Nuffnang that I signed up for! I know Wordpress is good but if I have limitations to the template editing, I might as well join something that allows it, right? I am a betrayer.

If I port over, I won’t have to find a host. Lah.cc is using Wordpress too. Hmm.

Random links that I found.

• Previously, I mentioned about password issue. High time I regenerate new passwords. Too many accounts, I have.
• Why web designers are rare.
• Selflessness of top bloggers. Good read.
• Get paid for embedding videos in posts. Ah ha! Another way to earn some moolah.
• Creative Favicon. I like it when I see an icon I can identify and immediately know which website it is.
• Stopping malicious script. For Firefox.

I’m stuck in the office because of a demo that I’m to do on Monday. It’s Friday and late and I don’t know how to solve the problem. Rats. It’s supposed to work. However, it’s not working and I think my Saturday will be burnt by one silly bug. I wonder if it’s to do with the server or the database has been corrupted somehow.

I think I go home and return tomorrow to burn my time here for 1 little bug that’s hard to squash. Too tired to continue anymore. And I want my dinner.

After working for 3 days, the code decided to fail today. I don’t even want to know why. I just want it to work. It worked for the other database using the same code. It’s valid. It’s available in the library. So, why doesn’t it work? I need to give a quick demo to my superior. However, it seems to be scared and I don’t why. It just throws me the error “Illegal reference to: FIELDSETTEXT”. *takes a deep breath*

Where did it go wrong? I don’t know. The prompts that I put in never came up. The LotusScript Debugger never came up with anything useful either. I’m just tearing my hair out. No, wait, I can’t tear any hair because I don’t want to be bald.

So, what is wrong with the code? First start with the form itself. In the PostOpen I put:

Sub Postopen(Source As Notesuidocument)
 If Source.EditMode Then
  Call Source.FieldSetText(“Form”, “frmMtnCatFNo”)
 End If
End Sub

In the QueryClose. I put:

Sub Queryclose(Source As Notesuidocument, Continue As Variant)
 If Source.FieldGetText(“NoClose”) = “1″ And Source.EditMode = True Then
  Msgbox “Please use the ‘Close’ button provided.”
  Continue = False
 End If
End Sub

Both worked, no errors. Next, I put a “Close” button. That will check if there are any changes made in the form and prompt the user. That’s where I use FieldSetText to change the status of the form:

Call uidoc.FieldSetText(“NoClose”, “0″)

So, what’s wrong with the code? Perhaps I need a break.

These days, social networking sites are sprouting up on the net everyday. There’s no way to be able to join all of them and still keep track. Essential Keystrokes has given some food for thought on social media. One of the points caught my eye, “Don’t spread yourself too thin!”. True. I have too many accounts to worry and just adding the codes to show that I’m part of those accounts is simply too much on a blog. It clutters up the blog.

Joining the social media does not guarantee a high traffic everyday. It just brings new visitors for that one time, perhaps you’ll see a peak on that day you joined but they won’t continue to come or add your blog feed if you’re not creative or interesting enough to keep their interest in reading your past and future posts. Check out Pick The Brain on the secrets to creativity. It may just help you on adding subscribers to your feeds.

Another tip is writing your own style and attract readers.

Somebody, somewhere, is sharing the same knowledge you are, and odds are they’ve been doing it longer and have more authority.

Ouch. Being new doesn’t help, does it? However, it is never wise to just pull the information (claim it your own) from one blog to your own without being accused of stealing information. It’s called plagism and you don’t want to be infamous because of it. It ain’t worth it.

Involvement in social networking and bookmarking takes up your time. But how involved can you be? Problogger here has some reflections and thoughts about it. I haven’t been very involved in some of the networks I’ve joined. Perhaps during the initial “high” of joining them and discovering new blogs and others who enjoy reading the same blogs as me.

Finally, check out Go 2 Web 2.0. I like the candy logos or whatever they are called. They look cool. Wonder if I will be able to design one that’s suitable. Any tips?

My original list has changed since I did some more search on cameras that read CF cards, so I won’t have wasted my money. It’s a heart pain to have wasted the money on a new CF card. I did my search on DP Review, my favourite site to search for cameras and reviews. It includes detailed reviews on quite a number of cameras.

While my research on SLR-like or prosumer cameras produced some results, I still wasn’t satisfied because I like a camera that is able to have a zoom or more than 3x. I found some and narrowed down to Nikon D200, Sony DSLR-A1000 and Canon 400D.

I went straight to the pros and cons of Nikon D200. The pros I shall not place here.

I guess, the memory management may be an issue for me. Next, Sony’s 1st DLSR.

Now, the shutter noise is something that I don’t like. The grip is something that I have to bear in mind too. The proprietary hot-shoe is what may stop me from considering this. Finally, the cons of Canon EOS 400D.

Looks like EOS 400D has better ISO noise control. However, I find it silly that by opening the CF compartment door will shut down the camera. Even with this narrowed list, I’m still undecided which would be my preferred camera.