A Day of Troubleshoot

I woke up today with a message from my cousin posted on my computer monitor. It seems that the computer shuts down after around 20 minutes of operation, and it won't turn on again.

I figured it might be the power supply. I started my machine and tried it for several minutes and it halted without any warning. Only the CPU's lights went out, the monitor is still blinking so I thought the power supply should be working properly.

Then I opened up the chassis to see if anything is overheating, that's the time I realized that the fan in the power supply is not turning. No wonder it keeps halting!

Now I have the excuse of going to PCX to get a new power supply or a new fan and some other "necessities"... He he he... >:)

Easter Ducks... Anyone?

We use to hear Easter bunnies and Easter eggs.

How come there's no mention of any Easter chicken or Easter duck?

Rabbits DO NOT lay eggs. But Chicken and ducks DO.

With a little bit of Googling, it turned out that Easter Celebration is an adopted Pagan holiday of the Goddess Eostre who's symbol animal was a hare or rabbit who laid eggs.

Click here to read article.

Windows Mayhem - Part 1 (Vista)

My sister just got herself a new Sony Vaio laptop from Singapore and she came over today to ask me to move her files from our old desktop to her new machine.

It was my first time to have actually used Windows Vista (poking around display units doesn't count). To be honest, I wasn't disappointed. Why? Because I've read enough bad reviews about it, so I knew what was coming... or what was not coming.

The first thing I did is to configure the wireless network to connect to my home network. It was pretty simple and straightforward so I was done in under a minute.

The real pain in the a** was when I tried to access my desktop. In XP, I would normally go to Start -> Run, type in the network path, then it prompts for my username and password and I'm done.

In Vista, either the Run button is missing, or I'm just blind. Which I am NOT. So I tried it the M$ way, I clicked My Computer, and a "new and supposedly improved" explorer window popped up. I selected a Network icon on the side panel to see which computers are nearby. And the only computer found was itself. I realized that this was a common problem for Windows Networking so I didn't bother to troubleshoot it.

Thankfully, the location bar was still there, but when I typed in my \\hostname, it could not resolve the IP address. This works for my laptop (XP64) and my 2nd desktop (XP32) and I don't understand why it wouldn't work on Vista. Grrrr...

Anyhow, I just used the IP address instead and was finally able to do what I wanted to do. After finishing the transfers, I gave my sister a lecture on how to search and download files through torrents/trackers. I also asked her to put a password on her administrator account. I told her not to use the administrator account, and create a standard user account instead. But before that, I had to scare her by telling her I could easily logon to her laptop and wipe all her files clean. >:)

So I created a standard account for the sake of security. At first, we were satisfied. But after 3 logons/logoffs, we got sick of the security popups asking for the administrator password each time we try to connect to the wireless network after logon, and I ended up changing her account type to administrator. Scr*w the Vista Security!

In the end, we still got to play around with some cool tricks with the built-in camera. Although it was nowhere near the Apple's iSight and Photo Booth. And I mean nowhere.

My encounter with Vista wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but it wasn't that bad too. Maybe I just need to spend some time poking around with it.

I am actually planning to get a copy of Vista soon, specially since Service Pack 1 was already released. Hopefully, it will be better.

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Just a few hours after my sister left, my uncle called, asking for help with his computer...

Some Abstinence and Hatred

I find it rather amusing that we practice meat abstinence at home on Good Fridays even though my parents doesn't consider themselves as Catholics. I guess it's just a case of false fear rather than true belief.

My mom have always been vocal about her disgust towards people going to church regularly and yet repeatedly commit evil acts. You can't blame her for type-casting all Filipinos as such. We live in a not so friendly neighborhood, where kids and even older ones, do bad and say bad things to us even though they just came from Simbang Gabi or a regular Sunday Mass.

She spends most of her time at our store so it's not unusual that she meets disgusting people, or hears kids or teens shouting bad words (in Chinese) in front of our house, obviously trying to mock us. And she gets deeply affected by all these.

These things have been going on for years. It's now difficult if not impossible to remove these closed-minded impression and hatred towards people, Filipinos to be exact.

But we live in the Philippines, this is a Filipino nation. It's normal to see bad things happening, people doing bad things to each other. I guess the only reason she hates this place is because she's living in it.

It's unfortunate that people tend to blindly focus on the not so good things happening on their lives instead of appreciating the good things. They pray that bad things will not happen instead of wishing that good things to happen. And end up living on an enclosed world which they themselves have created, lonely, fearful, and stagnant.

Taxation 101 - Part 4

This is probably the last of my taxation series. I went to BIR Manila last March 5 to get my certificate of registration and other tax documents. I began the registration process last February 19. Normally, it would only take a week for the processing to be completed, but we ran into some issues.

Due to some misunderstanding, instead of applying for a Percentage Tax Type, we initially applied for a VAT Tax Type, which means I'll be paying 12% of my monthly pay instead of 3% every month.

And because I didn't want to be late for the February 20 deadline, I immediately paid the 12% for the month of January. The following day, I found out that I was supposed to pay only 3%.

Ate Weng offered to return to BIR to have my documents fixed, including a late registration for the last quarter of 2007, and to ask if there is a way to get my incorrect payment back.

She had my documents fixed, but the BIR officer is no longer interested for the late registration for 2007. When Ate Weng insisted that we wanted to pay for our taxes for the last quarter of 2007, the officer told her something like "kung marami talaga kayong pera, ibigay niyo na lang sa amin" (if you really have lots of money, just give it to us.)

We decided not to pursue the taxes for 2007 since the BIR officer himself is not even interested in it. As for my incorrect payment (12%), we learned that there's no way to get it back or even credit it for next month's payment. It turned out that the "system" only takes and doesn't bother to give anything back. Anyhow, I just think of that 12% as my tax payment for the last quarter of 2007.

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Going back, I went to the BIR officer who processed my registration. To my disappointment, before I could get the certificate, I still need to do a couple of things. So what the hell was that 1 week processing time for?

1st step was to obtain a documentary stamp from the "collection" unit located at the far end of the office. The tiny stamp, similar to a postage stamp, officially costs P100, however the "collector", Normita Azurin, asked for P115 from me. P15 maybe not that much, but corruption is still corruption.

2nd step was to proceed to room #3 to have the stamp and receipt attached to the certificate, then have it signed by the office-in-charge in that department. The officer in this room was very different from all the other BIR employees. She's soft-spoken, polite and shows genuine concern to people.

3rd step was to give the documents to room #2 for some date stamps, a couple more signatures, and finally a dry seal. I had to wait for around 15 minutes.

4th and last step was to give the stamped and signed documents to the releasing section, where it will be stamped and signed for the last time, and finally given to me together with a tax certificate which we would normally find in establishments.

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My recent encounters have given me first hand experience with taxation, red tape and corruption. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to go back to that place and transact with those people anytime soon.

To end this post and this series, I would like to share some photos which I took from the BIR office...

This is a typical ceiling that you would see in almost all places in the BIR building. The building is really old and seems to be poorly maintained as what these ceilings suggest.

This is the men's discomfort room in one of the floors. The other discomfort rooms on the other floors do not exactly look like this but feels the same.

I wanted to take a picture of the office itself but I never had the chance to do so. But if you could just imagine, a big office with lots of tables, each table with lots of papers stacked and lying around, some employees not in their proper uniform, some playing solitaire during working, disorganized and unfriendly...

The Most Annoying Person

I met this person during my 2nd visit on BIR Manila. She was next to me in the line for the payment. I was number 40 and the line was moving very slow. It was one of the worst moments of my life.

I'm estimating that she's in her late thirties. Still single, and probably for the rest of her life, unless she finds a nice deaf guy. As you would have guessed, she's extremely talkative and intrusive.

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There was another young lady who was next to her and she became her first victim. It was supposed to be me but since there were few seats left, I gave them my seat and decided to stand.

Just a few minutes after she got the seat, she started talking about what happened to her earlier. That she had left home really early but got delayed by an hour because the jeepney that she rode had to stop at every corner for a long time. She repeated her story for at least 5 times to different people in the line.

After she throws her "tragic" story, she begins asking questions to the victim. Where's the victim living and working, what's the line of business, what's his business with BIR, among other things.

In the middle of the questions, she attempts to insert her own personal experiences with whatever business or topic which might be brought up. She tries to make herself look knowledgeable in these things.

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She turned to me when she realized that the young lady has no interest in her stories. That's when my misery started. She began asking my line of work, forcing me to explain Programming, Artificial Intelligence and the Stock Market, which is quite pointless because she admitted she has zero knowledge with computers. o_O

Anyhow, I managed to stop her further attempts for intellectual discussion. But she was insistent, she turned her attention to my registration documents, asking if I have all the requirements. I told her I already have the DTI permit. She told me I still have to get a mayor's permit, and that she knew someone in the city hall, and that she knew a lot of people in some government agencies, etc, etc. :|

I did my best to ignore her while making her think I'm not. >:P

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She mentioned that she's a member of some "charismatic" Christian fellowship group, but it seems that her words and actions doesn't support it. She kept on cursing the Landbank security guard for being rude and impolite, she even made fun of the unevenness of the eyes of the security guard. After finish her corn, she just threw it on the floor, and even reasoned that there are no trash cans around. And, she hates cats. I love cats, so there's no way we're going to get along.

Her third victim was an old man, in his seventies, perhaps. She went as far as asking the old man to buy her some snacks. Just because she learned that the old man had saved enough money to build a 10-storey building.

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I didn't want to waste my time doing nothing or listening to her so I decided to read the book that I brought with me. I haven't even completed a page when she started talking to me again, asking what's the title of the book, if I also read novels, etc, etc. Dammit!

Eventually, she got tired talking to me and to the others. She put on her shades and took a nap. It was nearing lunch time. I was getting worried that if we don't get called before the cut-off, she might asked me to have lunch with her. :-S

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The best part was the moment she got her turn at the cashier. She only brought 2 copies of the BIR form, while the requirement is 3 copies. Alleluia!!! The cashier won't process her documents unless she has 3 copies. She had no choice but to get a third copy somewhere. >:)

That was the end of our misery, and it was a happy ending. The old man even tells me to get to the cashier immediately, he's probably satisfied with what happened. I never saw her again. Hopefully, I won't, ever again.

P.S. The most unforgivable thing that she told me is that I look like Patrick Garcia. :|