Abby and Win’s Blog

Archive for June, 2008

Last week I left my TL at the dealer to do some recall work. They lent me a 2007 Acura RDX. I’ve been curious about this vehicle ever since they announced the model but never got a chance to go to the dealer and check it out. I had my opportunity for a few hours.

This was the first time I ever drove a turbo-charged vehicle. It feels weird. I accelerate but for the first second or so it seems the vehicle isn’t responding. But as soon as the gauge goes up, then it accelerates. I guess that’s what that turbo lag I hear people talk about. It’s pretty fast considering it’s only a 4-cylinder engine.

The car can sit 5 people comfortably. The trunk is pretty big as well. It has a nice interior with a more updated version of the navigation system than my TL. It has XM radio, a disc player that can read CD, DVD-A, MP3, and WMA. There is an auxiliary out that is accessible. Unlike my TL, the screen on the RDX isn’t touch screen. To navigate, you must use a dial-like knob in the middle of the console. It took a couple of tries to figure it out but was able to use it. As you drive, there is an audio feedback whenever a menu is selected on the screen. This comes handy to keep your eye on the road rather than messing with the menus on the screen.

The paddle shifters are pretty cool. They can be used while on “Drive” but it shifts back to automatic if you don’t use it “properly”. You can override this by shifting to “Standard”.

I didn’t notice an option for memory seats. I’m not sure if this model came with it. The hood doesn’t have hydraulics so you must lift the hood and use the stand to hold it up. I forgot how hoods are heavy. I guess I’ve been spoiled with my TL which has the hydraulics on the hood that hold it up. Another thing I didn’t like is the poor gas mileage. For a 4-cylinder car, we averaged 17 mpg for few hours. I’m not sure if it has been broken in but it has over 19,000 miles. My TL at that age was getting over 24 mpg and it’s a V6.

Final thoughts: It’s a nice vehicle, feels like a car to drive. The interior is great. I’m not too sure on the mpg performance and the price tag at around $36k with navi. I’m not sure I would be getting one any time soon. There are other vehicles in the same class that would be more cost effective. I took some pics and uploaded them here http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1n78/sets/72157605836470694/detail/

I’ve been using Firefox 3 for over a week now and so far it’s been good. It has some improvements over version 2. Here are some of the new features.

• Smart location bar: This feature is great. If you visited a website before but can’t remember the exact URL, you can type a portion or something about it and Firefox will try to list the URL it thinks you want to visit.
• The new password manager is less annoying. When you visit a site where you enter a password, it no longer creates a pop up asking you what you want to do – remember the password, not now, or never for this site. Instead a little bar up the top asks the question, so you can continue to browse the page uninterrupted.
• On OS X, Firefox 3′s look and feel is similar to Safari but has a ton more features.
• New and better security.
• Saving bookmarks is easier.
• The add-ons manager is better.

Those are some of the things I like. It is not a perfect browser. It still crashes from time to time on OS X. I’m sure it crashes on Windows as well. But what I miss the most from FIrefox 2 is browser sync. This is no longer compatible with version 3. I did, however, installed the toolbar. It has it’s own bookmark management system. So far it’s been good. I just have to play with it more and get used to it.

I still have Firefox 2 running at work. I haven’t upgraded it yet because I have to continue to run web applications on it. I feel many of our users haven’t upgraded yet so just in case, our applications must continue to support it. I doubt there will be any problems though but who knows. All my other computers have already upgraded, I suggest you try it out.

It started out Sunday evening, I am feeling something different without telling my husband first of my suspicion I took the pregnancy test. After a year from my miscarriage we are finally having one again. Hopefully, this time it will get through and that our baby will be healthy and my pregnancy will be safe as well. As compared to last year, this pregnancy is not as hard at the moment in terms of symptoms. I remember last year, before I even know I was pregnant I was having chest pain, chest tightness, upset stomach, palpitations, etc. Unlike now, what I feel different is that I feel hot. Even if I just took a bath, I feel as if I have a fever. Well that is way tolerable in comparison to what I had last year. This has been in my prayers after I had miscarriage last year, that the next pregnancy would be easier, safe and that the baby will be healthy. Thank God!
Secondly, Wednesday this week, I got my result from taking the pharmacy technician test. I took it as a back-up plan in case I would not find a job as an intern pharmacist. The test was quite easy, I got an average score of 831 with the score range from 650-900. I studied a week for this and I am really happy that one hurdle has been passed through.
Last but definitely not the least, I sit in for the TOEFL iBT last May 30, 2008 in Ontario, CA. This is my first attempt for the test and I was very anxious since the requirement for the National Pharmacy Board is too high in some areas for instance in a scale of 30 we need 26 for the speaking which is around 89%. This has been the waterloo of most pharmacist intern. Thankfully, I was able to meet all the requirements and I will be able to start to work as an intern already. There are several materials that I used for this exam. I wouldn’t personally recommend it for everybody because that is just how I react when I am stressed. Books are my security blanket. To mention some of what I have are Barrons 12 ed. TOEFL iBT this is helpful as a practice test, Princeton’s TOEFL iBT is more of techniques which I will highly recommend, another is the ets official guide since it is from the test takers themselves this is good view of what is to be expected for the test, and Longmans speaking guide focused more on the speaking section. Although I have this books, I never had a chance to read everything. Well not because of time constraints, it was more of I am lazy to do so. I had two months to prepare for the test but in most days I would only put 2-4 hours a day. I think if 3 weeks of 8 hours study would be enough to prepare for this test. The reason why I had two months is because that was the only date available in our location. There are a lot of people taking the test so depending on the area one should schedule the test months ahead. Also, I studied how to type faster since in our country in the Philippines we didn’t have this subject to improve our skill. It is important to learn this since for the writing section the time is limited, it is already hard to compose an essay that is why it would be an advantage to learn how to type faster. I underestimated the reading the section, that is why after mt exam that is the area that I was worried about. During the practice test, I would often get a high score and I would even have spare time after each passage. This was totally different during the actual test. In the reading section, since this was the first area of test there were a lot of distraction since some of the test takers are just being seated and they are making noise as they test their microphone. This should be taken into consideration since I would often practice in a quiet environment. For all those taking this test, just practice a lot and put a lot prayers cause that always makes a difference and it has always been the key for me.
With all these blessings, it is really pouring this summer in CA! it is now time to look forward to our future as God has set everything for us. It is through his guidance that we will be able to achieve what seem to be impossible dreams. God is very good:)

Starbucks started a program with their card. It’s a rewards program. As long as you keep your card active (use/reload at least one a month), you can get free refills on brewed coffee, extra syrup or milk options, and my favorite – up to 2 hours of free AT&T wifi access. What’s great about this is that AT&T wifi is not just available at Starbucks, it’s available in many other places. So even if you hate Starbucks, as long as you have an active card, you can use the free wifi access where it’s available. It saved me from boredom and endless complaining this morning. I had to take Abby to Victoria’s Secret semi-annual sale. There was a Coffee Bean next door with AT&T wifi. I just grabbed my iPod touch and was surfing the internet while I wait – like a good husband I am .

I recently found out how to install PEAR on a Godaddy shared hosting account.

1. Visit http://pear.php.net/go-pear. Save the text displayed onto your desktop and name it go-pear.php. Upload this to your server. If you’re hosting multiple domains on the account, it’s best that you should upload this file in your root folder. Run this file on your browser and follow the on-screen instructions.
2. After completing the installation, it is time to edit your php.ini file. If you are running PHP4, there should be a file in the root directory called php.ini. If you are running PHP5, there should be a file in the root directory called php5.ini. If not, create one and add the following: include_path = “.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php:/home/content/s/a/m/sample/html/PEAR”. Keep in mind that /s/a/m/sample is just an example. Doing this will ensure that every page, you create, will look in the PEAR directory so that you it will use the installed packages.
3. This installation will include Pear_Frontend_Web which is the web-based admin interface. It may have created an index.php file in the directory where PEAR is installed (root). If not you can get a copy from PEAR/docs/PEAR_Frontend_Web/docs/index.php.txt. I would suggest creating a folder called pear_admin in the root directory and storing this file there. If you didn’t install PEAR in the root directory, you may need to edit this file accordingly.
4. You will need to create a .htaccess and .htpasswd file in the same directory as the index.php file. An example of how the .htaccess file should look as follows:
   AuthUserFile /home/content/s/a/m/sample/html/pear_admin/.htpasswd
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName “Web-based PEAR Frontend”
   Require valid-user
   

   An example of how the .htpasswd file should look as follows:

   
   admin:cGyUX9QugYMgE
   

   This will create “admin” as the user name and “password” as the password. You can generate your own by going to this link – http://www.htaccesstools.com/htpasswd-generator/

   Be aware that files beginning with a dot are invisible. You may have to edit your settings on the FTP app you’re using so that you can see them.

Once the files are created and saved, you can now go to http://your-domain.com/pear_admin/index.php. It will ask for the user name and password. Once you are logged in, you can now manage Pear via web browser. That’s it! Now you can run PEAR on a shared account from Godaddy. One less complaint