The Beanster Blog

I will miss your advice, your kindness, your laugh, your smile, your friendship, teasing you, and most specially your version of Hong Kong Engrish. Thank you for touching our lives. Rest in Peace my brother. Until we meet again. Kenneth Christian T. Yap II 6/12/80 ~ 8/12/15 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152933127281851&type=1&l=cddf90f0ca

Dateline: July 31st 2015 I have been harping on social media that I would wait a couple of weeks before upgrading the work laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.  I could not hold on any longer and decided to update it even though I was out in the field.  So I just I installed Windows 10 Single Language on my work machine an ASUS X450L notebook, didn't time the preparation cause I was working. I pressed install  2:24PM , welcome screen by  3:42PM . Not a bad upgrade experience at all. YMMV of course.  -- Live to serve, Aim to please Vincent Benedict P. Castro http://about.me/bnycastro Do or Do Not, There is No Try.

Earlier this month I bought another Lumia 535 Dual SIM, that brings my total to three (3) devices of the same model. My first unit I gave to my mom while her iPhone 6 is out for repairs My second unit I gave to my colleague, I bricked my redmi 1s which he was using so I had to give him the Lumia. My third unit is for me. Even if I've revived the redmi 1s, I'm not going back to android because of the contact email bug with exchange. It has been a nightmare going over contacts and correcting errors periodically. I just don't have the time for it. I was supposed to purchase a Lumia 640 LTE Dual SIM but those are smart exclusive and I hate getting phones from carriers. So it's back to the 535, it's not a flagship phone but it suites my work needs and it's very affordable. MSFT writing off the Nokia purchase is kinda disheartening... I hope Satya Nadela doesn't get rid of WindowsPhone / Windows Mobile completely. Since this is a work phone I am a little...

INC in the BOC  For the people, by the people is a myth. We live in a failed democracy, it's all an illusion. No different from president BS Aquino's mantra of "Daang Matuwid" (Straight Path).  No less than four (4) I would say highly placed government officials have pressured Sevilla to quit his post because the ex-chief of customs refused to give Atty. Raval the helm for the Bureau of Customs (BOC) intellectual property division, enforcement and security services (ESS).  The Raval appointment is being lobbied by Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC), a popular religious group in the Philippines.  It is a fact that corruption is rampant within our government. It is also a fact that religious groups with their claims of a "bulk vote" can exert a lot of influence onto our morally ambiguous and power hungry politicians. So there are no surprises there.  My questions are... 1. Are the four cabinet dorks, members of INC? Did they act because they were instructed by the higher...

THIS IS A TECHNICAL PREVIEW, BUGS ARE A PART OF IT. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL THIS FIRMWARE IF YOU ARE FAINT OF HEART, OR IF YOUR DEVICE IS MISSION CRITICAL. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Windows Phone 10 Tech Preview Updated while I was sleeping As a member of the Windows Insider Program , I was able to get the 1st release of Windows 10 Tech Preview for my Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM. In retrospect I shouldn't have enabled automatic updates with the TP. I knew it was going to be buggy but I guess curiosity got the better of me as it always does with new versions of an OS (I play around with Windows 10 Tech Preview for PCs, iOS firmware betas, and OSX betas)  The 1st tech preview is very buggy if your device is mission critical please do not install it. That being said I am very pleased that Microsoft is going with a wider release on Windows Phone 10.  So as I am typing this I am using the Windows Phone Recovery Tool to rollback to 8.1  waiting for th...

Jeepneys are a not a symbol. They are a symptom.  Jeepneys are not a sign of Filipino ingenuity. They are in fact a sign of Filipinos refusing to move forward and clinging to an obsolete and unsafe concept left over from WWII. Until we remove jeepneys from our roads and move them into art galleries or museums, this country will not truly move forward.  The DOTC / LTO / LTFRB do not have the balls to do the right thing and slowly phase out these rolling piles of junk with a misplaced sense of being engineering feats and works of art, while in fact they are not. They are a scourge to other motorists, traffic, safety, and the environment.  I'd love to see a plan implemented that our roads would be Jeepney free in 5-10 years. Start by not giving new franchises, then stop renewing them, and of course you need to re-educate / retrain the drivers and provide them with modern safer vehicles.  Being anti-Jeepney is not anti-poor, it's pro-safety and pro-prog...

The bad news: abrasion of the cornea again, this one is bigger than the 1st time. The good news: only one eye this time. The right eye. 

Native Advertising 101: cross promote Kanye West + Glastonbury Festival, write "news article" pitting asshole "performer (?)" vs rock fans / attendees. No mention of comments from event organizers or the artist being petitioned off the stage, be sure you have the dates and line up link in the article.  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thousands-sign-petition-to-cancel-kanye-west-glastonbury-2015-performance/   When I read this article, it felt more like native advertisement for the Festival with a dab of promotion for Kanye West.  https://www.change.org/p/glastonbury-festival-cancel-kanye-west-s-headline-slot-and-get-a-rock-band   As of this writing 118,450 people (or bots) signed the petition but is this really the best use for change.org ? Does the performer care? Do the event organizers care? Why should we care?  I think Mr. West's music is garbage but should the event organizers go back on their plans (I'm sure a contract was signed at some point) opening the...

I saw that Star Wars Battlefront from EA will be featured during Star Wars Celebration 2015. Good news for FPS gamers but what I want is an RTS set in the Star Wars Universe... Something like "Red Alert" or "StarCraft" Imagine it! Missions set in the Prequel Trilogy, Original Trilogy, and possibly DLC / expansions for The Force Awakens!!! That would be so wizard!!! (See what I did there? Ha!)

posting on social media is not enough Are you pro or against Bansang Moro Basic Law, you should write your representative. Remember: PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL Mandaluyong residents our representative is: Hon. Neptali M. Gonzales II District Representative Mandaluyong City, Lone District  Email address: nmg@nmgonzales.com Source: called his office for the email address. Look for your representative here: http://www.congress.gov.ph/members/ Tips: You can type your letter in word and export it as PDF then sign it electronically. Export Microsoft Office Document to PDF  [Office support] How to Electronically Sign Documents Without Printing and Scanning Them  [how-to-geek] I copied the text of my letter as the body of the email and then attached the electronically signed pdf. 

More thoughts on Bansang Moro Basic Law The National Gov't wants to give them: territory, money, resources, their own parliamentary gov't, allow shar'iah law, their own flag and whatever else they plug into the Bansang Moro Basic Law (if it's passed) In return we get peace, resource sharing, and probably some taxes. Is this really a good idea? I do not believe the Moros view themselves as Filipinos. They are Moros, and want to live as Moros and they want to do it their own way. So after 30 or 50 years when they get their shit together they will probably secede from the Philippines fully and create their own Moro state, it is highly unlikely that Indonesia or Malaysia will accept them (the balance of power in those nations would be upset if that is allowed). So they will go at it on their own Malaysia and Indonesia will support them tho. I do not believe for a second they will be content with autonomy. I do not believe there is a clause that expires their a...

Zero interest in the Papal visit, except for the fact that the government is actually telling telcos to shut down their network and the dumbasses are actually complying, I'm talking to your SMART. I think it's all just security theater anyway. Working during the holiday. Spent most of the day yesterday working on Excel files and Blogger for my day job. Work would have been faster if SkyCable's broadband connection stayed up most of the time. It's been three (3) months and still having intermittent connection daily. I get the standard "we are sorry" but service is still poo. Well my head is spinning and my eyes hurt from staring at the screen for majority of the day yesterday so it's time to rest. Check out my work blog here [ vdararealty.com ]

If you're a returning reader you know that I was heavy into PocketPC / Windows Mobile before jumping to iOS & Android. I have been having issues with the RedMi 1S messaging app always crashing, and I have always been curious on how far Microsoft has come after they reset their mobile device program. So the prodigal user returns...  A ( few days) few weeks ago I decided to purchase a Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM. Yes, you read that correctly: Microsoft Lumia, not Nokia. Product page: http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/lumia535-dual-sim/ The orange color was not in stock so I went with boring black. Price ₱ 5,990.00 (US$ 133).  The display is 5in with a resolution of qHD (960 x 540), IPS LCD, all in all it’s ok. The finish feels plasticky and slippery. I suggest you get a case, speaking of cases, I can't find any in both Greenhills and Megamall. Goes the same for screen protectors, so I had to get stuff from eBay, which will take up to a month or more to arrive....

Nothing like beautiful trance music to uplift the spirit when someone calls your mobile :-) Airbase - Panache [ iTunes ] Free ringtone in  M4R or MP3  

How to prepare your MacBook for re-sale or to give away.  Recently someone asked for help on wiping her MacBook so she can sell it. So what do you need to do before selling your MacBook?  This is what I did on her machine.  1. Backup w/ Time Machine 2. De-authorize iTunes. -- You only have 5, why waste them.  3. Log-out iMessages. 4. Download OSX create bootable USB. -- I borrowed my brother's bootable Yosemite stick.  5. Erase Mac using Find My iPhone app (or iCloud) -- I think this is the easiest way to delete everything on it.  6. Re-install OSX. -- After step 5, you will have a computer without an operating system. You can re-install using your recovery partition but the whole OSX will have to be downloaded (that's what happened to me first) that's why it's better to have a bootable USB stick with the OS ready.  Here is Apple's official guide, which I did not follow, because I only thought of searching for it after I had fi...