Archive for the ‘About IT’ Category

New blog – olivian.ro

Hi,

I’ve created a new blog – olivian.ro. The blog will gather some online blogs I currently have.

I will gather everything I post in a single place, it’s easier to handle for me and easier to read for you.

The prices for my camera have fallen

OK, I told you before I bought

after a long process:

Today, I saw a promo on eMAG:

OK, the price cut is not HUGE (1349 + carrying pack + extra battery is about 1.500 lei), but, still, it’s quite a cut. :)

I did use my camera a lot, though:

How to have a care-free phone

Sometimes, my phone, in the pocket, does strange things, like calling people. Two days ago, it rang a person, the first in my address book. And I thought of a thing to prevent this from going wrong.

The solution?

  • Put in the address book first persons with whom you have a very good relation and with whom the cost of a call won’t be high (same network, for example).

So, I added four “Aa. First name Last name” contacts in the address book (actually, I renamed old ones). And now I’m happy with the result. :)

How to quickly send an image embedded in Gmail?

A simple solution is: +Continue Reading

Shortcut for Task Manager

I just found out a new shortcut for Task Manager, which is Ctrl + Shift + Esc. :) (via This Is What Using Windows 8 Actually Looks and Feels Like)

How to measure distances?

I found out, using piata sudului – Google Maps, that I live at pretty much the exact distance between M Piața Sudului and M Constantin Brâncoveanu. Sure, I can estimate this myself, and I’ve always said this (“I live at the middle of the distance between the two”), yet now I know for sure:

View Larger Map

“Chip” magazine – buying or not buying

I was at various times in my life subscribed to IT magazines (PC World, Computer World, CHIP, Xtrem PC, Computer Games – for some of them I only bought a few editions, for some I had yearly subscriptions).

I always thought that CHIP Computer Magazine (CHIP Online) had the best solution for telling you what to buy and what not. I would read product reviews, I would compare products and prices. At any given time, I could tell you quite a few things on what to buy and what to avoid.

Years passed and this December I bought a PC – My new PC – i5 2400, 8 GB RAM, SSD 60 GB, 24″ BenQ LED monitor + video camera – Get a result now!. I didn’t do the research myself for some components, but for others I did do it. What is striking to me at the moment is the fact that I didn’t read the magazine to get advice. Internet was far easier (at, most of the times, a better option).

Sure, IT magazines are fine, and you can still read them and get good value out of them. Yet, you may want to consider the Internet as a better alternative.

On ACTA

There is some buzz about ACTA – “stop it”.

A few thoughts:

  • Right now, in Romania, there are laws similar to ACTA, yet they are mostly not applied. So, even if ACTA will be enforced, I don’t think that there will be much trouble with pirating things.
  • It will be easy for ACTA not to be signed, since only one state needs to say NO.
  • Even if ACTA gets implemented, with today’s technology in place, there will be solutions to get the latest movies without paying (or, at least, without paying directly for the movie).

I don’t really understand what’s with all the buzz around it.

Stop download (via YouTube)

It happens to me a lot. I open a page, there are a few YouTube videos in the page. I click on one video. I don’t like it. I stop it. Then I click on another one. I stop it. Another one. Stop it. (OK, this repeating mechanism doesn’t happen all that often, but still)

The thing is, YouTube still continues to download the video, even if I’m not interested in it. And this is a big problem, since online videos consume a lot of bandwidth (more on this – Bandwidth is running out. Let’s save the bandwidth « Flash Video Technology and Optimizations).

What you can do about this is simple – once you notice you don’t like a video, right click on it and hit “Stop download”. All YouTube videos seem to have this functionality. It’s simple, it doesn’t download the video anymore, it’s reversible (you can click “Play” if you change your mind. And it’s good for the bandwidth.

Nature will thank you. So will I.

My policy on Facebook’s “Add me as friend” requests

I thought about this for a long time. What should I do about new friends requests? +Continue Reading

Breadcrumbs – how to make sure that people can go back their trails? Case study: Premier Service – residential areas right from the developer

I’ll talk in this blog post about Premier Service’s web site: Ansambluri rezidentiale direct de la dezvoltator. Comision 0% la apartamente noi. +Continue Reading

Make Gmail better

There are a lot of things to make Gmail better:

But I won’t bother you with these. +Continue Reading

Why put the highschool in a CV?

It may come as a surprise – I allocate one row in my CV:

to this piece of information:

High-school in Informatics (2001)

Nothing more than this, no mentioning the name of the high-school, or the town (it’s Năvodari).

Why do I do this:

  • I don’t believe the name of the high-school is that important. Also, where I’ve done it (in a town by the seaside – Năvodari, Constanza). Much more relevant would be my performance at the high-school, or the correlation between the three (It was not the best of the high-schools, it was not in a big city, but I entered first, and graduated first. Considering it’s one of the high-schools with a very high number of pupils in the county, I can say I did much better than the average, although I wouldn’t have been the first at a National College). But even my performance isn’t that important.
  • What is important is that I did an Informatics profile, for two reasons:
    • Informatics is highly related to my current job (SEO). It’s very relevant if for four years I studied Informatics as a main subject. Perhaps not the most modern programming languages (Turbo Pascal? C++? FoxPro?), perhaps not with the most modern equipment, perhaps sometimes the subjects weren’t taken very seriously, but for studying four integral years in informatics is a much better predictor of who I am today than an internship or a single client I may have. Think about it – as a teenager, I studied informatics. It matters.
    • For a success predictor, Informatics was considered the best classes in the high-school (So, if you wanted a good experience in a high-school, you should have looked for Informatics). This is a rather minor reason, though.

My new PC – i5 2400, 8 GB RAM, SSD 60 GB, 24″ BenQ LED monitor + video camera

Below you’ll find the history of buying a new PC. +Continue Reading

BenQ G2420HDBL Monitor LED 24″ Full HD, 16:9, DVI. From clickshop.ro

In November 2011 I decided I needed a monitor, I wanted to buy one (due to a rather complicated story concerning my family, I decided to buy myself a monitor, and send the old one to Năvodari). +Continue Reading

A thing you can do with 3 Euros

With around 3 Euros, you can buy a DVD cake with 10 blank DVDs. That’s about 43 GB of data. If I were in other people’s shoes, I’d make a few DVDs like these, and if I traveled to other parts in the country, I’d back-up important data in my PC, and leave them there. Or I’d put the box somewhere safe, in a building different than mine. This way, if my computer has a problem (and lost of things can happen), I can get the data back safely. Not all of the data, but surely, data more valuable than the 3 Euros, the cost of a 10 box.

Comcast Offers – what do I like about this web site?

Let’s have a look at Comcast Offers; what do I like about this web site?

  • Clear fonts; I can easily read most of the things on the web site;
  • The logo is in the upper-left corner of the web site, where it should;
  • Clear contact phone right in the header;
  • Toll-free number;
  • Minimal requirements to submit a form (address, unit, zip code);
  • The packages prices are placed up front, you can easily know how much you’ll end up paying;
  • Lots of text in the footer, it makes you keep browsing the current web site;
  • Distinctive colors for the call-to-actions;
  • As a business, they have a presence in a lot of states in the US;
  • The image in the offer is attractive;
  • The use call-to-actions (call, please enter, find);
  • They have legal disclaimers right on the page;

P.S.: You can also see Comcast Cable TV Deals.

Components testing vs. components endurance

Sometimes, you read a component testing – a video card, a hard drive; sometimes, you read about electronics testing – a video camera, a fridge; other times it’s about cars;
The thing which strikes me most is this – tests focus on functions: “This product has the following 10 functions, which do this and that”; or “The design of the product makes us think that …”;
Wait! I want to know more not about functions and capabilities, but on endurance; how long will this product work fine? Will this car, which is cheap to buy, cost a lot to maintain?
Sure, if you really want to, you can find out about reliability tests on car; but these tests are mostly restricted to some fields; I would like more if these tests applied to much more fields than just one.
So, I would prefer to know more about product endurance than on products functions.

A good idea with a less-than-perfect implementation: silicone keyboard

Silicone Keyboards (Amazon.com: Portable Flexible Silicone Keyboard: Electronics) are a great idea – keyboards which can be folded; on the other, hand implementation does matter and, in this case, it’s relatively difficult to easily type on it; the keyboard seems great – big, foldable, stress-free; but it also has to be a good product, which, currently, in my opinion, isn’t.

Why should “I” buy from PCGarage.ro? Why should “you”?

First, have a look at this image:

Since the image is not self-explanatory, let me do the job for it.

  • I order a DVD Writer in August 2006 (152 lei); I cancel the order;
  • I order a printer in August 2006  (162 lei); I pay the order, and take the product home;
  • In August 2006, I cancel some headsets (26 lei);
  • I pay for a 17″ monitor in September 2006 with 947 lei (it’s a huge price, even for today’s standards, I bought two monitors since, one with 22″ with ~350 lei, and one with 24″ with ~630 lei);
  • Ka-boom! For a friend, in December 2006, I get a person from the Internet to create me a PC configuration within some budget limits, and order a PC & a monitor; my friend comes with me to pick the order and doesn’t like the headquarters (we were supposed to get to the headquarters, but they move slightly to another block, I didn’t know this, and got to the wrong address; my friend didn’t want to hear about looking for it again); the big problem - the PC I wanted was a custom configuration; I paid no money in advance; the PC Garage team had to assemble it (for free, of course), and me & my friend weren’t there to pick it up; what to do with such a PC? Sure, it’s new, but it’s not easy at all to sell a custom made PC, even if new; you can’t put the pieces back into their boxes and sell them as new, either; you’ve just got a new PC which won’t sell; the PC was 1,000+ RON, the monitor was 650+ RON; +Continue Reading
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