A technology a day keeps life easier each day

Word

Adopting my experience from the command line window (boxed selection), I rediscovered how to make a rectangular selection in MS Word: Hold down Alt while dragging on the selection.  This can be very useful in extracting data from a columnar/tabular information in a document.  Simply select the desired column, copy & paste it in Excel.  Repeat this for each column.  Use the formatting techniques below as needed.

Rectangular selection/boxed selection: 

Alt-drag 

Excel

After years of using MS Excel, I still learn new things that makes work and life a lot easier!  For today, these includes removing leading and trailing spaces (blank spaces) after a paste operation and adding leading zeroes to an existing number.

Remove leading/trailing spaces:

=TRIM(C2) in a blank cell then copy back the value to the original reference cell.

Add leading zeroes:

=TEXT(A1,"0000") in a blank cell then copy back the value to the original reference cell.

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3992541/add-leading-zeroes-0s-to-existing-excel-values-to-certain-length by GSerg & Martin

Notepad++

I use this as intermediary between softcopies made in various applications, such as MS Office, and Dokuwiki.  Here I paste formatted (Wiki-compliant - all symbols included) texts, usually from Excel, and simply "copy-find-paste-replace all" things I want deleted (like extra spaces or tabs) or formatted in a certain way as defined in the "replace with" string.

I choose the Extended option whenever I find/replace carriage return/CR (\r) and new line/LF (\n) symbols.

I hope these learnings can help others searching for similar solutions.

Have a nice day!

ATM ATe My Card

It was my Metrobank Credit Card's due date and as usual, I came to the same Metrobank ATM machine in Cybergate 3-Pioneer where I usually pay my Metrobank Credit Card using my Chinabank ATM. But this day, technology has bitten me... the machine ate my ATM card!!!

I approached the building guard but he simply advised me to wait further as the machine will spit out my ATM card. Guess what??? It never did. So I went to the adjacent store to call 8700700 using a Bayantel Wireless Landline. The CSR made a report and gave me a reference number advising me that it'll take 5 or more banking days before I can retrieve my ATM card. I asked for the nearest Metrobank branch where I can do an over-the-counter transaction but he rather advised me to ask Chinabank to make a manual debit for this transaction.

When I approached Chinabank's staff, she told me that they do not do manual debit and advised me to transact online instead using my Chinabank Online Banking account. Unfortunately, I forgot my User ID, password, and email address and she cannot retrieve it for me. Good thing, she has another alternative: Bancnet Online!

www.bancnetonline.com enabled me to do balance inquiry for my Chinabank account free-of-charge. It also allowed me to pay for my Metrobank Credit Card dues by simply providing account and payment information similar to that found in ATMs when paying for bills.

Bancnet has done a very good job leveraging on existing online technologies and pairing it with a very familiar user experience similar to that in ATMs, which makes the facility useful to their clients with low technology learning curve.

Nice job, Bancnet!


Technologies used:

• Metrobank ATM Machine
• Chinabank ATM Card
• Bayan Wireless Landline Phone
• Blackberry Smartphone
• Nexus 7 Tablet
• Chinabank Online Banking facility
• Bancnet Online Banking facility
• Lenovo Notebook
• LAN

Software Piracy Isn't Theft?

Samsung Omnia and VoIP

I thought Samsung Omnia (B7610) has it all (business and entertainment) but I cannot use VoIP with it. Also, the messaging interface is too slow. I feel that I am shortchanged with this phone.

Continuous Development of PHP Community in the Philippines

Hi! If you are a code developer, an I.T. professional, an I.T. consultant, or simply a web enthusiast, you're invited to attend this event, which will be held at the very heart of the Philippines: Quezon City.

If you have further inquiry, just post a reply.

Thank you.

Hyundai Getz 1.1

This unleaded-fed pet is fuel efficient according to the sales agent. I have yet to prove its 10-12 km/liter claim. Any tips on how to attain or even surpass this limit is welcome. Thanks!

Typhoon Ondoy, Jollibbee, Shakey's and McDo

This morning, I walked in Jollibee-Sikatuna and ordered burger steak meal only to find out that the store ran out of stock of burger. Then I tried ordering another meal (hotdog-egg-rice) but, again, to no avail. So I ended up ordering pancake for breakfast with hot choco, which, later, I exchanged for pineapple juice when I felt that the weather is slowly becoming hot. Well, an indication that the sun's high and that I'm already late for work!

On my way home, I dropped by the same branch and ordered a burger meal. As expected, they still got no stock. I felt a little strange and wondered how a multi-billion company would fail on this aspect. So, I just suspected that all of these are caused by Storm Ondoy in one way or another.

Upon reaching KABAKA Library, I tried fixing the hotspot server. Then Andrei, Gigi, Bun Hua, and Eloisa insisted that we watch The Grudge on DVD. So, we did... with unset hotspot software.

In the middle of the movie, some other friends who are studying outside, along KABAKA Library's alley, thought of ordering Shakey's pizza. I called up 77-777 but unfortunately the Loyola branch delivers only up to 10:30 P.M. So we turned to McDonald online delivery (http://www.mcdelivery.com.ph/).

Although McDo's delivery site is available, we cannot put multiple orders in it. We suspect that either the food items are out of stock (just like Jollibee) or the site has problems OR both!

In the end, we were eating mani (fried peanut) bought from a street vendor in Krus na Ligas with freshly brewed coffee served at KABAKA Library.