LefthandedLayup.com

Author: Gabriel

  • Google’s Microsoftian Approach to Apps

    Taking a very quick break to write thoughts about Google Apps. Quick as in Photoshop and my power editor are still open, so I’m writing this midstream into my work. I wanna write it down because surely I’ll forget.

    Anyway I stumbled onto this Ars Technica Article re Google Apps, a thrust by Google to support independent application developers via handholding at the start of their project until they can spread their wings and fly so to speak. App development is a topic very close to my heart, being essentially the core of what I’m trying to do with the Exchanges, and having to do with the fact that I’m using subdomains under a main domain (exchange.ph), which I’ve always been convinced will eventually come together when time comes. As to how, I’ll keep that a secret, but it will one day.

    So anyway, Google’s guys know this, and also know the considerable technical and cost issues one has to face whilst trying to get things going. I for example am paying a relatively tidy sum for hosting alone, just imagine the cost if I hired developers (I do approximately 90% of the work myself), and / or I wasn’t using a popular CMS. The more complicated the project, say it be Facebook, Imeem, or what Amazon Web Services are doing, the higher the cost. So Google pays for it all, along with provision of an authentication service (wow), a free database (although I gather from the article it isn’t a ‘traditional relational database’, what is it I wonder?), and Google’s BigTable Project among others.

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  • 3 Step Process to Love

    First, Preparation

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  • I’m not their Coach anymore

    In our practice this morning one of my players got into a fight. It was getting ugly so I stopped the game and told the two to come over. I got the opposing player to stand with me, I was holding his wrist. I was calling out to my player Leo, and he wouldn’t come.

    He stood around the edge of the court shuffling his feet and muttering nonsense, while everyone watching was jeering and having a whale of a time. I called him again and again to come over, to just stand beside me so he could hear what I’d say, but he didn’t come. Finally he along with my other players left without me. I patted the other player on the back, I think his name was AJ, and I told him he was a good boy. Coming together after a fight, especially a silly basketball one (they are all silly), is a good sign.

    I think I’ve been doing my part for these kids, after coaching them on and off for two years we’ve come up with this:

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  • Dang

    I still can’t believe that people actually fell for this one. After all the fun we had with it and just when I thought it died down, I started to receive emails and comments that proved otherwise.

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  • Post Bar Exam err.. Post

    3 days after the announcement we’re still pretty happy. Ok about 10% happy and 90% relieved that it’s finally done and over with. I was with Jill on Friday when the announcement was supposed to have come out originally, learning it was postponed when it was too late and I was already on my way to her place. I’ve given it time to marinate in my brain and this is what I’ve come up with.

    It’s good that in our society, there are still things difficult to achieve – I read a book a few months ago about Indiana State’s high school basketball program, the very one that produced the miracle team Milan, depicted in the film Hoosiers in 1954 (ok I know this sounds like I’m digressing into basketball talk but hear me out). Back in those days, Indiana high schools regardless of size compete in a single tournament for a single championship, making their win even more dramatic considering they only had a population of 165. This changed in the 90s when, due to overzealous parents (accdg to the book) who wanted their kids to taste a championship at least once in their lives, divided the tournament, resulting in different ‘championships’ throughout the state. Obviously this watered it down and consequently (possibly without their realizing it), negating the glory that came with it.

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  • Congratulations Baby!

    passed.jpg

    Told you you had nothing to worry about.

  • Advice for Aspiring Freelance Writers and other Nonsense

    I enjoyed this article about writing for peanuts because it hits the nail right on the head about what it is to live in the world of Internet freelance writing. The example mentioned is somewhat off though because the writer the article talked about earned a ‘measly’ $40.00 which by our standards would be pretty good.

    The point of the article though is that there are thousands of writers out there making anything from pocket change to respectful amounts of dough writing for blogs, news websites, zines and others, mostly on the ‘net. I myself pay P200.00 / article and am willing to pay as much as P1,200 to P2,000 / month for more regular gigs, depending on quantity, quality and images. The great thing about it is most of our writers are even surprised they get paid at all, like the article says, they’re happy writing purely for passion (which is great because that’s what makes writers to begin with).

    Sadly, I’ve never been able to take advantage of that myself. Coming from the old school, I earned only from print publications when I was still working freelance gigs (listed down in my About page). I earned as much as P3.5 to P5k per article then, so I squeezed it for all it was worth and wrote up to 4 to even 7 articles in one month during my really prolific periods. Even the broadsheet I wrote for, known for paying the lowest rate in the industry, at least paid P900 / article (approx $20.00).

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  • Today I’ve..

    Updated Akismet in all blogs.
    Updated Wp-Polls in 2 of the 3 blogs.
    Updated MomEx Events with four schools’ Summer Programs (approx. 8-10 events each).
    Created a special feedburner feed for MomEx Events.
    Fixed those ugly Ad network ads, changed them to default sidebar colors.
    Wrote a blogpost about DLSU ADMU for BallEx (last night).
    Fixed the css of pagenavi to look better on MomEx and BallEx.
    Placed BallEx pagenavi code on archives.php for both top and bottom.
    Placed next and previous links at ballex on single.php for both top and bottom (far easier to navigate now).
    Invoiced Client.

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  • RIP Arthur C. Clarke

    I can’t believe Arthur C. Clarke is dead. He is one of the most influential writers I’ve ever read, whose books have become part of my life. His book Rendezvous with Rama was probably the first that forced me to think outside of what my eyes see. Space Odyssey 2001 brought me to far away places and situations and made me think of things that a city boy like me would never have thought of otherwise.

    Strangely enough, my most memorable is his story ‘The Deep Range’, which talked about farming whales as if they were cattle, eventually ending world hunger. After which at some point, religious influences caused the characters in the book to rethink their need for meat, and coincided with scientific advances that allowed for meat alternatives that were indistinguishable in every way from the real thing. I remember the main character’s acceptance of this difficult fact start to seed in their psyche, eventually leading them to acceptance.

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  • I love Laszlo. But..

    Ok fine. I’m starting to feel he’s a little underpowered. Hahaha. I know you’re laughing, Blen. But I can’t help it. Kapos e. Blame it on the fact I used to have a nice kick ass (ok, semi kick ass) Pentax SLR when I was a teen, and I took Mandy Navasero classes one bored summer way back 2,000 years ago in Makati. There I learned basic lighting and even *gasp* the lost art of film developing, which I eventually had to stop because it turned out I was allergic to the awful fumes. Sad, because I was actually getting pretty good at that.

    Anyway point is, I’ve been doing the rounds of events and have started to make plans of my own, all involving the nice – to – have ability to produce good great fantastic images. Laszlo’s CMOS or whatever image gathering engine it has (I forgot) is up to the task. The problem is the lenses, or rather, the flexibility I miss if you can’t change to macro or wide angle lenses, or even insert filters. I absolutely loooved filters. I was Da Master of filters. I don’t think Laszlo’s lens can even do basic 35mm stuff the older SLRs could.

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