Abby and Win's Blog

TOEFL FOR FOREIGN GRADUATE PHARMACIST

abby — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:47:30 +0000

I sit in for the TOEFL iBT last May 30, 2008 in Ontario, CA. This is my first attempt for the test and I was very anxious since the requirement for the National Pharmacy Board is too high in some areas for instance in a scale of 30 we need 26 for the speaking which is around 89%. This has been the waterloo of most pharmacist intern. Thankfully, I was able to meet all the requirements and I will be able to start to work as an intern already. There are several materials that I used for this exam. I wouldn’t personally recommend it for everybody because that is just how I react when I am stressed. Books are my security blanket. To mention some of what I have are Barrons 12 ed. TOEFL iBT this is helpful as a practice test, Princeton’s TOEFL iBT is more of techniques which I will highly recommend, another is the ets official guide since it is from the test takers themselves this is good view of what is to be expected for the test, and Longmans speaking guide focused more on the speaking section. Although I have this books, I never had a chance to read everything. Well not because of time constraints, it was more of I am lazy to do so. I had two months to prepare for the test but in most days I would only put 2-4 hours a day, I think 3 weeks of 8 hours study would be enough to prepare for this test. The reason why I had two months is because that was the only date available in our location. There are a lot of people taking the test so depending on the area one should schedule the test months ahead. Also, I studied how to type faster since in our country in the Philippines we didn’t have this subject to improve our skill. It is important to learn this since for the writing section the time is limited, it is already hard enough to compose an essay that is why it would be an advantage to learn how to type faster. I underestimated the reading section, that is why after my exam that is the area that I was worried the most. During the practice test, I would often get a high score and I would even have spare time after each passage. This was totally different during the actual test. In the reading section, since this was the first area of test there were a lot of distraction since some of the test takers are just being seated and they are making noise as they test their microphone. This should be taken into consideration since I would often practice in a quiet environment. Listening part is the easiest and the dreaded Speaking part is easy if you did practice a lot by recording your answer so you can keep playing it back and improving your response.
For all those taking this test, just practice a lot and put a lot prayers cause that always makes a difference and it has always been the key for me.

iPhone 3G tethering with MyWi

Sherwin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:32:03 +0000

I recently jailbroke my iPhone 3G running OS 3.1.2. Then I installed MyWi to check out the tethering capabilities for the iPhone. With this app you can tether using USB, bluetooth and wifi.

Here is the speed test results.

The latency is pretty high but the connection seems consistent. I used to run a Verizon V740 internet card and was getting higher speeds – close to 2x faster download. I’m also getting a full signal on AT&T 3G – surprisingly.

Anyways, my Verizon contract is up and I terminated the service. I hardly found use for it. With MyWi, $10 seems like a good deal. Hopefully, AT&T doesn’t pull a “switch” to somehow disable this app.

Wordpress [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Sherwin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:10:11 +0000

I’ve been getting the [an error occurred while processing this directive] error every time I go to my website. I googled it and found this http://wordpress.org/support/topic/204631?replies=4. People suggested it was caused by the WP Super Cache plugin. I’m currently running 0.9.7. Well, how could you get to the plugins interface if every page displayed that error?

I ended up using phpMyAdmin that my host has and went in the database to manually disable the plugin. Luckily the tables and data entry values were specific so it wasn’t hard to figure out where to start looking. The table you want to look for is “wpau_active_plugins_info”. This table should have records of plugins that are active – hence the table name. Inside this table, look in “plugin_name” column. This is where I found the WP Super Cache entry. I deleted it and reload the page. It fixed the problem.

Snow Leopard UTD finally arrived

Sherwin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:31:41 +0000

After 6 days since the release of Snow Leopard, my UTD discs finally came in the mail yesterday. I was somewhat upset during launch day when my order status said backordered. It’s puzzling that the company who made the software and distributes it, is backordered. I could’ve gone to the store and bought a full version. I heard they had a ton there.

My co-worker got his full version copy 10am that day. I couldn’t wait so I borrowed it from him after he upgraded his MBP and upgraded my MBP. So far I’ve gotten a few app crashes but it seems after the first crash, they tend to run normal again. I hear 10.6.1 is around the corner so it should fix some stuff.

Anyways, here are some pics I took.

As you can see from the 3rd pic, the UTD (Up to date) discs are upgrade only. The retail $30 ones should be full versions. Another thing I noticed is there is a Optional Install folder now on the disc. It has OS X applications such as Mail, iCal, Address Book, etc. Also has Rosetta. This is great coz in the past, if any of the apps needs to be reinstalled, you can either copy it from another working OS X and fix the permissions or reinstall OS X. Now just pop in the Snow Leopard disc and you can install it anytime.

Here’s a before and after pic of my hard drive on my Mac Mini MB138LL/A. Notice the changes to the hard drive size.

Here’s an article that explains about the capacity change – http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=589.

Logitech MX Revolution

Sherwin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:45:45 +0000

I just picked up a Logitech MX Revolution mouse and I must say it’s a great mouse. It’s a wireless mouse using RF. The USB receiver is small and it comes with a cradle that recharges the mouse. The shape is nice and my hand feels great when using it. There are a lot of buttons that can be customized to open different programs or websites. What’s really impressive is the scroller. There are 2 modes – hyperfast and traditional. The hyperfast scrolling allows you to “flick” up and down. This is beneficial when viewing tall and long documents and/or web pages. You can toggle between the 2 modes by clicking down on the scroller. Here’s a pic that compares the size and contour of the MX Revolution, MX 310, MX 1000, and a Rocketfish bluetooth mouse.

ExpressCard Adapter for MBP 13″

Sherwin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:08:01 +0000

One of my few gripes about my new Macbook Pro 13″ is no ExpressCard slot. Coming from the first gen MBP 15″, I used it for my Verizon V740 internet card. Well I found the solution. Apiotek made a USB to ExpressCard adapter – UB-EC01. I bought mine from Macsales.com. It took only 2 days to arrive.

I had to reinstall the Verizon software before it recognized it and worked. Because it plugs in the a USB port, I lose one port and the device sticks out. I don’t mind much since I use a bluetooth mouse and I got my portable internet device working again. Verizon wanted me to sign a brand new 2 year contract if I wanted to get a new device that plugs in to the USB – hell no! Here are some pics I took.

My new MBP 13″ MB990LL/A

Sherwin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:09:04 +0000

I finally bought the new Macbook Pro 13″ MB990LL/A last Saturday. It’s replacing my first gen Macbook Pro 15″ MA464LL/A. It’s 3 years old and still works great but it overheats. I was able to get a free iPod Touch 8GB and a $100 towards a printer – after rebate. I thought I could pull out my old hard drive from my 15″ and swap it with the 13″ but I was wrong. I’m guessing because the processor is different – Core Duo and Core 2 Duo. It took half of Saturday to transfer my files over but I got it to how I had my old laptop on the new one. With the help of Migration Assistant, the task was simple. It only took longer than I thought because I had a lot of files to transfer over.

I’ve already upgraded the storage with a Seagate 500GB hard drive and I’m planning on upgrading the ram to 4GB. So far, what has impressed me is the battery life compared to my old MBP. Here’s a comparison between my old and new MBP current setup.

	MB990LL/A (new)	MA464LL/A (old)
Processor:	2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo	2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory:	2GB 1066MHz DDR3 (Upgradeable to 8GB)	2GB 667MHz DDR2 PC2-5300 (max)
Hard Drive:	500GB SATA 5400rpm	100GB SATA 5400rpm
Grapics Card:	Nvidia GeForce 9400m 256MB shared	ATI Mobility Radeo X1600 256MB GDD3 dedicated
Display:	13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy 1280×800 resolution	15.4-inch TFT 1440×900 resolution
Expansion:	One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps), two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps), SD card slot	One FireWire 400, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Network:	Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet	Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet (didn’t know it had Gigabit)
Wireless:	Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module	Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g standard); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Weight:	4.5 pounds	5.6 pounds

My old MBP was a work horse so I expect nothing less with the new one. I am however, taking a big hit on the video card being shared but I won’t be doing much video editing as I thought I did in the beginning.

Here is my initial Pros and Cons on the MBP 13″ compared to my old MBP 15″.

Pros:

Improved battery life
Upgrading HDD and ram is painless
Runs at a lower temperature
Trackpad gestures similar to the iPhone
Firewire 800
SD Card reader
Cheaper
Ram is expandable to 8GB
Core 2 Duo

Cons:

Shared video memory. I noticed a much lower FPS while playing WoW and visit a heavy populated area – while running other programs in the backgroun (ie: iTunes, Firefox, Quicktime, and other apps)
No ExpressCard slot
No Firewire 400 port
Scratches easier
Being a pound lighter, it doesn’t feel at all lighter

I’ll probably extend my list more as I continue to use it. So far I’m impressed. It’s a great upgrade for me. Here’s some pics I took http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1n78/sets/72157621866087202/.

Printers need this feature

Sherwin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:37:30 +0000

I ran out of the cyan cartridge on my Brother MFC-490CW printer. All I need is to print something in black and white. I thought there would be a feature that can disable the color. I don’t see it on the printer’s LCD. I set my print properties to print in grayscale – it won’t let me print. The printer just won’t print until I replace the color cartridge that is not going to be used.

At least my HP 1600N printer allows me to override the cartridge message and continue to print. I wish this was a standard feature with all printers. Guess I’ll have to wait for the cartridge to come in. I’ll continue to use my laserjet which I started to pack up and store.

Updating PHP 5 with Godaddy and a Dedicated server

Sherwin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:29:24 +0000

Jeff called me up asking for help with his dedicated server on Godaddy. He needed to update his PHP 5.1.6 to the latest stable version. His server is running Centos 5.2 (Final). He tried to call Godaddy for assistance and of course they were no help. I’m no expert myself but have played around with different systems. I found out that you can use the yum command to manage the installed packages. The problem is that the current repositories yum looks at does not contain new versions of PHP. This is why you get an error that says something like – cannot find PHP. What you need to do is add a repository that does have a newer version of PHP. We’re going to add Jason Litka’s repository.

Log in to the Simple Control Panel
Log in using SSH
Type “su – ” to log in with root privileges
Type “nano -w /etc/yum.repos.d/utterramblings.repo”. If you’re not comfortable with nano, use whatever editor you’re more comfortable with.
In the utterramblings.repo file type the following

[utterramblings]
name=Jason’s Utter Ramblings Repo
baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka
Save the file and close it
Now you can use “yum update php” and it should update it to the latest that the repositories have
Restart Apache

This tutorial is based on the one found at http://www.jasonlitka.com/yum-repository/. It took awhile for me to find the solution. I hope this helps out people who had the same problem as I did.

Sony PRS-505 eBook Reader

Sherwin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:18:07 +0000

A couple of weeks ago Borders bookstores had a sale on the Sony PRS-505 eBook ready. I decided to pick one up. I didn’t need one but I’m starting to get a couple of eBooks so for the price, I though it would be worth it to check out. After opening it, I didn’t realize how light and thin it was. The device felt sturdy and the text are easy to read. The battery life on it is great as well. Mac users can use Calibre to transfer books to the device or use a SD card/ Memory Stick with a card reader. So far everything seemed good. Here’s where it started to become impractical for me.

I wanted to use this with my small collection of eBooks – most are in PDF format. Everyone has noted that PDF files do not display well but you can convert them to other formats like EPUB, LRF, or MOBI which Calibre can do for you. I’ve tried it and noticed some improvements but some sentences wrapped too early. It’s not a big deal though but STRIKE 1.

Most, if not all my eBooks are reference books. I didn’t realize that there is no search feature on this model. Reference books are useless if I can’t search for things. Granted it has bookmarks, it’s less efficient if I can’t search – STRIKE 2.

I recently bought 40 Years of X-Men on DVD and thought wouldn’t this be great to have on the PRS-505. Again, the files are in PDF. The pages would not get larger as I increase the font size because it’s a comic book (images). I even tried to convert them to another format. The text in the bubbles were hard to read and the watermark on the pages didn’t help any either – STRIKE 3.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad eBook reader. For $200, it’s a great basic one. If you can still get one at that price, I would recommend getting one if you are looking for one. For what I need it for, it just won’t work.

Luckily, the Borders where I bought it from was kind enough to return it.