Despite the conveniences of PDA’s and organization software, and the fact that I work in I.T., I still can’t get over my paper fetish, as evidenced by the number of post-its all over my PC, the stack of notebooks on my computer table and the ever-present ream of bond paper tucked under my printer.

I know some people — writers, for instance — don’t like to be entirely dependent on digital documents. There’s this fear that one fatal press of a key and an entire file will be wiped out, never to be seen again. This is possible, of course, but a sensible computer user always finds ways of making sure data will not be lost despite any incident short of a nuclear attack on the city. Make backup files on your computer, and if you accidentally delete the one you’re working on, you’ll be fine. If you backup on disks or external drives, you will survive a hard disk crash. If you’re the really paranoid type who likes to keep her backup disks and drives at a remote location from her workarea, well, that’s another step up.
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Although I’m quite happy as a freelancer and not looking for a full-time gig, I do look at job ads in my industry if only to be aware of trends. The kind of expertise companies are looking for have much to do with what kind of technologies are popular these days.

It always annoys me when I see ads that specify the sex of the person they want to hire. It’s one thing to open up a modelling job for females only, but it’s different in I.T. Or at least, it ought to be. After all, a penis or lack thereof has no bearing on the work of programmers or systems analysts. Granted, a female is less likely to use variables like “$guwapo_ako” in their scripts (yes, I’ve seen it happen)*, but in the first place, managers really ought to be stricter with coding guidelines.
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After having done a series of posts about the oft-overlooked text, I thought I’d write something about colors. Specifically, background colors.

Some web sites use background images. Which is fine, if the color is decently matched to the text (read: the two do not induce headaches in the readers). Sometimes, though, the web developer forgets about the background color and doesn’t make sure it goes with the text color. Why is this important, you ask, if you don’t actually see it because of the background image? Read more

(Via Lifehacker.)

ChowsChina has produced a rather interesting USB gadget: a coffee warmer that plugs right into your computer.

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“Grey’s Anatomy” has replaced “The O.C.” as my official guilty TV pleasure. It was looking like “Desperate Housewives” was gonna take that title, but after season 1, I found myself not laughing as much — plus Mary Alice’s voiceover was getting tedious.

Anyway, I’m watching “Grey’s” right now, and I got to thinking: why are there so many medical dramas, but not a single drama about people working in the computer industry? After all, geeky occupations are now cool, thanks to Bruckheimer and his CSI television franchise. Plus, we I.T. geeks can be very good looking — it’s not hard to picture, say, Ann Curtis, Kristen Bell or Chad Michael Murray playing us on the small screen.

Now picture the drama, the tension, the unbridled passions in a tv series like no other: “Ada’s Notes“.*

Episode 1: Love v. 2.1
Ada: Did you let me work on the Mercer system because I slept with you?
Michael: Yes. Just kidding.
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Intel is dropping the Pentium brand, according to a Slashdot article. Personally, I’m gonna miss it. That brand was something even non-techies were familiar with — after all, it’s easier to tell which processor rocked more, the Pentium III or the Pentium IV. Now we’ll just have names like ‘Intel D 920′ and ‘Intel 672′.
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Recently, I’ve been complaining about how much space my CDs are taking up in my flat. I’ve been aiming to get a DVD writer soon, because if I could move the content of my CDs into DVD’s, I’ll be able to free up more than 90% of that space.

However, I still do worry about how long these disks are going to last before they start deteriorating and I start losing my data. I already have a few old CDs which stopped being readable a while back. Read more

As much as I don’t want to be horribly prosaic and start doing new year’s resolutions, I think I can stand to make a few improvements in my work habits. So here are my work resolutions for 2006:

6. I should avoid grunge music while working, as air drumming gets in the way of the actual working.
5. No alcohol before 11 a.m. All right, I’m kidding: I meant 10 a.m.
4. Stop eating lunch in front of the computer. I mean it.
3. I will stop making fun of clients’ badly written site content as it is not professional behavior for a web consultant.
2. I will practice better debugging behavior. Yelling at the function script will not make it work.
1. I shall learn to talk to clients about money without my eyes glazing over or falling asleep.

As you’ve probably already guessed by now, I’m on holiday. Read more