Abby and Win’s Blog

I stood in line in front of Best Buy to try and get myself and Abby an iPad. I had already planned on getting the 32GB model while she gets the 16GB. Why didn’t I pre-order it or go to Apple you ask? Because of Best Buy’s reward zone points plus Best Buy has no interest for 18 months, that’s why. There were about 20 people in line right before they opened. The manager came out and said that they normally handed out tickets but for the amount of people in line, they will have plenty – plus another truck arrived minutes before with more. So much for worrying about getting one but I was excited to get ours so I didn’t mind standing in line for 30 minutes. I was in 4th and the guy in front said he has been there for 3 hours haha.

Anyway, we got our iPads and it’s better than I thought it would be. First off, I have a 13″ Macbook Pro, a Compaq Mini netbook, a HTC MyTouch 3G phone – so why would I want or need an iPad? What can I do with it that I can’t already do now with my portable devices? And finally, many have made fun of the iPad asking “What is it for?”. Well here is how I look at an iPad device and how I would use it.

• Instant start up. The iPad powers on with a touch of a button and is useable right away. No waiting for boot up. I do leave my Macbook Pro on and sleeping most of the time but the battery drains – slowly but surely.
• Size. It is the right size for what it can do. It’s smaller than my laptop and netbook (weight) and it can do the common things like surf on the internet, check emails, read files, and some word processing – I say some because of the virtual keyboard, it can get tiring typing on it. You can however use a bluetooth keyboard if you don’t mind carrying another item. It is larger than my phone but my browsing experience is better on the iPad because it’s larger.
• iPhone OS. I just love the iPhone OS. I had the first gen iPod touch and iPhone 3G and I missed the user experience after I got rid of them. The functionality and ease of use, no one has been able to match – although Google Android is getting there. But I’m a Mac user and I guess I expect to have a similar experience on other devices other than my computers.
• Apps and games. Similar to the iPhone OS experience, there aren’t many apps or games you can use/play on mobile devices that give the same experience as they do in the iPhone OS.
• Ebook reader. This is one that I didn’t care too much for but I’m glad it’s there. There are other ebook readers out there like the Amazon’s Kindle that do a good job. But the iPad not only can do what other ebook readers can do, it can do more , it can be more.
• Portable video player. It is an excellent portable video player. You can play videos purchased from iTunes, videos encoded with Handbrake or other software, portable formats that come free when you buy the Blu-ray or DVD version, online videos from apps created by ABC network, Netflix (subscription fee), Youtube, etc. And I’m betting more to come, it’s just a great platform for developers to develop on.
• Battery life. It last longer than my other portable devices even when watching video.

There’s so many things you can do with the iPad even if you already have other portable devices. Many compare it to the iPhone and iPod touch – but just a bigger version. It’s more than that. Yes it’s bigger so your internet surfing experience is better – close to being on a computer… still no Flash support. With HTML5 standards coming soon, this shouldn’t be a problem in the future. Also, the iPad comes with a more powerful processor. Typing on it is a lot more smoother than my iPhone 3G. Apps and games load quicker and more responsive.

I definitely recommend getting one.

This post will be addressing 2 things.

1. How to use PEAR’s Pager class with PHP PDO
2. Addressing PDO bug #44639 (http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=44639)

Two queries will be used for this task. The first query, you will count the rows of the recordset. The second query is the same as the first but it will have the LIMIT – this is what will be used to display the data on each page.

Let’s say we have the following table.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS`blog`
(
`blog_id` int(11) not null auto_increment,
`blog_text` varchar(4000) not null default ”,
PRIMARY KEY `pk_blog_id` (`blog_id`)
) ENGINE=INNODB;

Now we’ll query the database and get the row count using PDO.

<?php

require_once(‘file-with-pdo-db-connection.php’);

$sql = “SELECT * FROM `blog`”;
$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql);

if ($stmt->execute())
{
// begin pager
require_once(‘Pager/Pager.php’);
$params = array
(
‘totalItems’ => $stmt->rowCount,
‘perPage’ => 10,
‘delta’ => 5,
‘mode’ => ‘Sliding’
);

$pager =& Pager::factory($params);

$links = $pager->getLinks();
echo $links['all'];

// offset setup
list($from, $to) = $pager->getOffsetByPageId();
$from = $from – 1;
$perPage = $params['perPage'];

// 2nd query based on 1st with LIMIT – this will be displaying data per page
$stmt2 = $db->prepare($sql.’ LIMIT :from, :perPage’);

// address bug 44639 – forces the variables to have the property of integer instead of string so no quotes will surround it
$stmt2->bindValue(‘:from’, $from, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt2->bindValue(‘:perPage’, $perPage, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt2->execute();

while ($row_blog = $stmt2->fetch())
{
echo ‘<div>’.$row_blog['blog_text'].’</div>’;
}

}

$dbh = null;

?>

If you don’t use the bindValue, you will get an error in your query. Your second query would look something like this… SELECT * FROM `blog` LIMIT ’0′, ’10′ and the error would occur right after LIMIT. You cannot have quotes surrounding the numbers. It took a few hours of Googling but found the solution.

If you want to read more about PEAR Pager, visit http://pear.php.net/package/Pager/docs.

Here’s a tutorial I found that helped me out a lot – http://www.codediesel.com/php/simple-pagination-in-php/.

Hi everyone, it has been a while since I last blogged.
It’s just a month to go then I will be completing my internship hours. I know that after passing the FPGEE and TOEFL this is another obstacle since the recession made it difficult for foreign grads to find internship position in the location most accessible to them.
It has been a great experience overall since the practice of pharmacy in Philippines is totally different. Pharmacist here are called “doc,dr” and they do deserve it, they know not just the drug but they can even diagnose which I did not know how after graduating from a pharm school. Maybe I do but not as in depth from what they studied here but it can be learned through books, reading and experience. It is a plus factor being a doctor of medicine of course but I know if I did not pursue graduate school it is not impossible to pass FPGEE but it will just take more effort and patience.
Anyways, I worked with clerk and technician in an independent pharmacy and mostly we handle derma prescription since we are next to dermatologist. It is not as busy as the big chain so I was able to learn everybody’s task, which is good so that if you don’t have the tech or clerks you still know how to manage on your own. It is a whole new experience for me answering a call, dealing with the customers, greeting everyone “Hi , How are you, How may I help you, Thank you and Have a good day”……. we did not have these in Philippines. I do not remember going to pharmacy being greeted like this well hindi lang siguro ako sanay since when I got here I have to get accustomed to that not just in pharmacy but in any establishment here. Being able to compound some RX is nice too since not a lot does that. What I had difficulty with at the beginning is running the computer, there are commands that you have to know so you can transmit to the insurance. Wala din insurance sa Phi to transmit the prescription bills, mostly its cash in Phi. Well in the end I guess in any field thats why there is such a thing called internship is for us to get used to the ways and system so that it will be easier to troubleshoot and work when we become full-pledge professionals.
I know everybody has different experiences, good or bad share it here so that others can learn from it and expect these things to come.

My mother-in-law bought me a PSP Go for Christmas, thanks Mommy! I’ve had for almost a month now. So far it’s great. But first, let me just say that I came from a PSP 2000. I love the console but I didn’t play it as much so I sold it last year. Now the PSP Go comes out and I started to miss my PSP. I had a choice between the PSP 3000 or the Go. So I spent a few days to weeks trying to figure out which to get. I heard both sides and I have my reasons.

Here are the reasons not to get the PSP Go and some notes as to why I still went with the PSP Go.

1. More expensive. (It’s free for me since it’s a gift.)
2. Can’t sell downloaded games when you’re done with them as oppose to old UMD games. (I never sold any of my UMDs either even after I was done with them.)
3. Not all games are available for download. (I’m more of a classic guy. I like playing older titles.)
4. New games aren’t available the same day as UMD versions are released. (As I stated above, the new titles aren’t such a big deal to me. I have a PS3, Wii, 360, iPhone, Google OS phone – so the PSP won’t be my primary gaming console let alone the only portable gaming console I have.)
5. Frequent deals on UMD version games versus the downloaded games. (See #4 and I’m a patient person.)
6. The controls are awkwardly placed. (As with any new console, we all have to get used to the newly shaped controller. You can also use the “claw” position when playing the PSP.)
7. Smaller screen size. (No big deal for me.)
8. 802.11 B only. (I know it doesn’t support at least G or N, I doubt the PSP can process that big of information even if it did. Also, Sony’s servers are slow most of the times, even if it had the capability of 54mbps, I doubt you’ll be downloading at that speed anyway.)

Here are reasons why I like the PSP Go over the old series.

1. Smaller. It’s more portable and fits easier in my pockets.
2. Lighter. Not that much lighter, but lighter.
3. Downloaded content. I hated UMDs. I hated carrying them around. I’ve lost too many in the past. With downloaded content, I don’t have to worry about losing games. I can re-download them.
4. Bluetooth. You can connect headsets and the PS3 controller.
5. Pause a game any time. This feature is great. I can pause a game any time without having to look for a saving point. Of course you can only do this one game at a time.
6. 16GB internal memory. It’s plenty to begin with. I’ve downloaded a few games and demos and still have 10GB of space left.

Other things I noticed.

• It took a little over 2 hours to download God of War (1.3GB) and 34 minutes to install. If you have a PS3, use it to download the content and extract – it is so much faster.
• Downloading content from PSN is noticeably slow whether on my PS3 or PSP.
• There is no L2 or R2 buttons on the PSP. You may run into problems with PS1/2 games such as Twisted Metal and the Street Fighter Alpha series – they use L2 and R2 buttons. You may have to reassign them.
• When connected to OS X, it mounts as if it’s an external storage device. Transferring data shouldn’t be a problem. No official software from Sony is available if you want to use your Mac and download from the PSN website (of course).

So far I like it. Many others don’t like it but for what I need and use it for, it fits me just fine. Here are a few pics next to the old PSP.

I just picked up 2 Compaq netbooks from Best Buy. It was part of their black Friday special. Because I’m a premiere reward zone card holder, I was able to get their door buster deals on Monday, 4 days before the deal and was able to call them to place the order. I really didn’t need the 1105DX model but I was limited to one per so I had to get the higher one.

I bought 2, one for me and one for my mother-in-law as her Christmas gift. Both netbooks are fairly the same. The 2 differences I see is one comes with Windows XP Home and 160 GB hard drive (110C-1100DX). The other Windows 7 Starter and 250 GB hard drive (110C-1105DX).

Here are some pics I took. I have them next to an Asus EEEPC 900A (8.9″) netbook and Macbook Pro 13″ to get a size comparison.

Overall, the netbooks are great. I’m replacing my Asus 900A with this one. I just needed a bigger keyboard and hard drive space with a web cam. Here are a couple of things to watch out for.

• Make sure you figure out a plan for restoring the netbook if something happens. These do not come with restore CDs. You can buy them from HP for around $16. Even then, netbooks don’t come with CD/DVD rom drives so you may have to use an external USB CD/DVD drive.
• There is no hidden partition that contains the restore data for the 110C-1100DX. There is a restore program installed by Roxio. What the program does is creates an image file (proprietary) that can be used to restore your netbook. It is not the usual restoring of only the OS and default programs from day 1 (unless this is the first thing you do after the first boot). You can use a memory card or USB external drive. Unfortunately, it requires a format of the device – unlike Time Machine (OS X) where it can use an existing hard drive or memory card and doesn’t require it to be formatted. Kinda a bummer there. There is also a program that you need to download (SP42226) which will format a memory card to make it bootable and allow you to restore an image created by the Roxio program in case you cannot boot into Windows. Don’t bother searching for it outside HP’s forum. At the time I wrote this, it can’t be found. I’ll save you the trouble – http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-72722-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3943766&os=228&lang=en. It’s 184MB. It’s a wonder why it wasn’t included with the default HP programs. You will need a memory card that has at least 2GB and it will format it so make sure you don’t have anything on there.
• There is a partition that will restore the 110C-1105DX. There is a program that can create a restore CD but again, netbooks don’t have CD/DVD drives so you will get an error that it doesn’t detect one. You can use another program to create one using memory cards. The program will tell you that it needs at least 8GB. Another tip, get a 16GB. After it created one for me, it ended up close to 12GB.
• The F and J keys have the usual “bumps” that let you know you’re on the home row keys. To me they aren’t as obvious as the keyboards I use. They could have been raised a little higher.
• There is only 1 memory slot. It’s using 1GB DDR2 PC6400 and according to HP it isn’t upgradeable. I have read people already have upgraded to memory to 2GB but you must use DDR2 PC5300. I haven’t upgraded it yet but am planning on doing so.

Aside from the list above, they are great netbooks. It’s my second netbook. If it’s going to be your first, get used to not having a CD/DVD drive, smaller keyboard, and installing things via memory card or internet. Also, they feel sturdier than my Asus 900A netbook.