Finally a new phone – Cingular 8525

My one year contract with T-mobile expired last June but it wasn’t until recently that I finally decided to get a new phone and a provider. I actually have thought about moving to another service provider a couple of months ago but just wasn’t sure about what the phone to get. I also didn’t want to pay $300+ on a new phone while downgrading my minutes from 600 (T-Mobile) to 450 (Cingular), so it took me a while to decide on whether switching providers would be beneficial, as well as what phone to get. I know for sure however that if I’m going to be stuck with a 2-year contract with another provider, it better be a damn good phone that I will love and tuck in my pillow every night (I’m just kidding about the last part LOL).

I thought about upgrading my phone through T-Mobile but they have some sorry ass phones and having used their service for a year, I don’t get signals on some locations while other people still get reception on theirs. It could be the phone itself or the provider, one or the either–but who gives a f*ck now LOL cause it doesn’t really matter anymore. I finally settled for Cingular 8525 (now AT&T), which is a smart phone (3G, WIFI, qwerty keyboard, Windows Mobile, browser, IM, etc.) just in time for school, which happens to start next week. I figured that it will be cool to have a new gadget just in time for school to keep me occupied between lectures, etc. and have nice features. I bought the phone for $99 but for some reason, it is listed as $199 (Refurbished) now. So I think it was some screw up in their system that I purchased the phone for that cheap. I bought it refurbished but the phone has been re-manufactured to be like new and everything. The price for a brand new one will be $599, but with a 2-year service agreement, it comes down to $299, which is still pricey! So I got mine for $99 after 2-year agreement, which is a really good deal.

I signed up for $39.95 plan (450 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends) and data plan for messaging for $4.99 (200)–but I might upgrade this later depending on my usage this month. I’m still unclear on whether the 200 messages outbound/inbound is being used by the instant messaging (AIM, Yahoo!). For the most part, I’m pretty satisfied about the functionalities…but I find it hard to get used to using the phone because it is touch screen. It also comes with a stylus to navigate, dial number, browse the web, etc. but that can be inconvenient when I just want to dial the number by hand (especially on the road). It’s still weird for me but it’s something that I need to get used to–at least for another 2 years!

I was playing with it last night and finally got my old number transferred over to this one and made some phone call to my friend just to make sure it was working. The instant messenger also works and it was pretty exciting (wait ’til the bill comes in…and I’m not looking forward to it either LOL). The sad part about the phone is it sucks all the battery when you’re using Wifi, so my phone died on me this morning while here at work. I was also playing with it a lot last night, so that also did it. I hope I don’t miss any important calls during the day .

Next best thing(s) next to Google

If you’d ask any geeks out there as far as Internet technology/site goes, they’ll probably say that Google is the greatest thing that came to the Internet…and I highly agree. Not only does it rule the search engine industry but they also offer plenty of products that are essential in the web. Next to Google, another thing that I can’t live without nowadays is Youtube–and it’s not great just for music videos anymore but also for informational purposes. Being on the Internet a lot, there are just so much things that you can do but after a while, it becomes dull and boring if you know what I mean. I remember one time saying to my friend how boring the Internet was and how I’ve reached the end of it (meaning, having browsed all the sites available)…which isn’t true by the way. I quickly discovered sooner than later that I was missing out on a lot of sites and there are infinite amount of them.

The great thing about Youtube is it bridges the missing link between users and media. Sure it bridges users since everybody is now interconnected one way or another with each other, which is the main foundation of the Internet to begin with. I don’t know about other people but I’d rather watch than read millions of text on the screen. With people uploading their own video clips to Youtube, it makes the Internet much more alive than they were. I just can’t wait for the day when television channels can be streamed through the Internet live and I’m talking about the channels they have on cable, not some crappy sh*t streamed from somewhere else. And yes I’ve gone to those sites that does stream tv media…and yes, they’re pieces of sh*t LOL.

So moving along, I would like to share some sites that I found to be an asset when it comes to Internet surfing. I first would like to say however that I’ve been to a lot of sites but I only bookmark those that are “book-markable” in a sense since I don’t like to clutter my Firefox bookmarks. Aside from Myspace, Google and Youtube…also check out the sites that I go to when I’m bored such as Digg, Delicious and Mashable and I’m pretty sure one of those will have you preoccupied for a while.   Another worthy site is Lifehacker, which is pretty good and interesting. If I would bookmark only 7 sites, it would be those.

Morning traffic is a b*tch

I was driving to work as usual today and left around the same time as regular but by the time I hit half-way on my route, the freakin’ traffic just stopped moving. If you’re thinking, this isn’t so bad, try being stuck in a traffic for 2 hours having only moved less than 1/4 of a mile…it’s pathetic. So I left home at 7:10 a.m. and got to work at 9:48 a.m. It probably would have been worse if I didn’t decide to exit and taken the back road. It’s one of those things or event when you just can’t do anything but sit there and be as patient as possible.

I was upset because driving and waiting that long just took all my morning energy, when I could have been doing something more productive. I also have to stay longer at work to make up for those hours and catch up on deadlines. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have brought a small snack with me LOL…jk. I was already hungry when I got in at work and I haven’t even done sh*t.

By the way, there are only 2 more weeks before school starts and I’m not sure if I’m ready for it yet. I will try to work on the website extensively once I get the log-in to the server, so at least I will do less work during the semester. There are so much things to do and so little time –it’s crunch time baby!

Where have I been doing lately?

Let’s see.

Finally finished the version 2 of my website, Menace Studio  during this weekend– and finally was able to configure it to connect to the SQL Server of my host. The final layout should be as what it stands at the moment but I definitely will be adding more database functionalities as soon as I come with a new idea LOL. I feel like I just have a need to implement some type of ’saving/database’ functionalities into the new version 2, because for one, it’s using ASP.NET. I like a more dynamic feel since it requires complexity and aside from that, code it from scratch since I insist on using a pre-made CMS like others. It demeans my pride and they’re also not very customizable to the t–and such thing as having no total control is just not my thing.

The next thing that I will implement is to save the guest book sign-ins into a CSV file aside from being stored in a database. It will just take the information from the input textboxes and somehow append it into an existing CSV file (if existing) and separated by commas. That file then can be read from excel or whatever CSV viewer a user is using–in this case, I will be the only one using it. Sounds like an overkill? Well for one, I’ve never done such thing and therefore I will need to do some further research on the subject. And second, if ever I will need to do such functionalities for work or for any future project, I’ll be ready to do the task. I know that these little time-consuming sacrifices will pay off and benefit me in the future. And besides, I love working on my site regardless of how much time I put into it. I see it as a invaluable possession and cognitive asset.

And yea, I’m almost done with painting my living room, which I also enjoy by the way. I just need to get it done though before the school starts. Within next week or so, just touch it up and add a spot light to replace the current light on my ceiling. That shouldn’t be too bad, I hope.

Coding: Using Stored Procedure – logic (VB)

Here’s just the logic behind using stored procedure within your code. This can be a good code snippet in Visual Studio for easy access whenever you need to connect to your DB.

Dim cs as string = “Data Source=.\SQLExpress; Initial Catalog=DatabaseName; Integerated Security=True;”
Using con As New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(cs)
con.Open()
Dim cmd As New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
cmd.Connection = con
cmd.CommandType = Data.CommandType.StoredProcedure
cmd.CommandText = “StoredProcedureName”
cmd.Parameters.Add(“@Param1″, Data.SqlDbType.Varchar, 50)
cmd.Parameters(“@Param1″).Value = AnyValue

Using reader As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader = cmd.Execute
GridView1.DataSource = reader
Gridview1.DataBind()
End Using

End Using

—–
Since a lot of developers, if not most store the connection string in the web.config file, another way of accomplishing the same task above is below: (forgive me if I’m missing any syntax as I hand-coded some of the codes here)

‘Dim con As New SqlConnection
Dim cs as string = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings(“KeyedConnection”).ConnectionString

objConnectionString.ConnectionString = cs
objConnectionString.Open()

Using con As New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(cs)
con.Open()
Dim cmd As New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
cmd.Connection = con
cmd.CommandType = Data.CommandType.StoredProcedure
cmd.CommandText = “StoredProcedureName”
cmd.Parameters.Add(“@Param1″, Data.SqlDbType.Varchar, 50)
cmd.Parameters(“@Param1″).Value = AnyValue

Using reader As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader = cmd.Execute
GridView1.DataSource = reader
Gridview1.DataBind()
End Using

End Using In the web.config file, you insert your <connectionstrings> section using the statement below (if using SQL Server):
<connectionStrings>
<add name=”KeyedConnection” connectionString=”
Server=yourserver.net;
Database=yourDBname;
User ID=user_name;
Password=password;
Trusted_Connection=False” providerName=”System.Data.SqlClient” />
<remove name=”LocalSqlServer”/>

<add name=”LocalSqlServer” connectionString=”
Server=yourserver.net;
Database=yourDBname;
User ID=user_name;
Password=password;
Trusted_Connection=False” providerName=”System.Data.SqlClient” />
</connectionStrings>

Coding: Use Javascript to select/unselect all (input box/check box)

Reference: (modified slightly to fit project)

Javascript:

<script language=”javascript”>
function check_uncheck(Val)
{
var ValChecked = Val.checked;
var ValId = Val.id;
var frm = document.forms[0];
// Loop through all elements
for (i = 0; i < frm.length; i++)
{
// Look for Header Template’s Checkbox
//As we have not other control other than checkbox we just check following statement
if (this != null)
{
if (ValId.indexOf(‘CheckAll’) !=  – 1)
{
// Check if main checkbox is checked,
// then select or deselect datagrid checkboxes
if (ValChecked)
frm.elements[i].checked = true;
else
frm.elements[i].checked = false;
}
else if (ValId.indexOf(‘deleteRec’) !=  – 1)
{
// Check if any of the checkboxes are not checked, and then uncheck top select all checkbox
if (frm.elements[i].checked == false)
frm.elements[1].checked = false;
}
} // if
} // for
} // function
</script>

VB Code:
If using the input box
<input type = ‘checkbox’ ID=’CheckAll’ onclick=’return check_uncheck (this );’ runat=’server’ />

If using the check box
<asp:CheckBox ID=”CheckAll” onclick=”return check_uncheck (this );” runat=”server” />