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Joining A Toastmasters Club is a Must

I have started attending the Toastmasters club at the downtown S.U.C.C.E.S.S. office called “Talk for Success Toastmasters” as a guest. It was started by my neighbor Suddhodan and the sessions have been helpful so far. It is held on Wednesdays from noon to 1PM and I’m petrified everytime I attend. Stage fright is the hardest thing to conquer I think but I know I have to get over it. I have yet to take on some of the roles like time keeper, table topic evaluator, speaker, etc and to be honest, I’m not looking forward to it. Their membership benefits include books that clearly spell out the roles, etiquettes, and best practices. I have just attended two sessions and have already learned the following: – Do not apologize and never say ‘sorry’. In previous public speaking engagements, I would apologize in advance at the start of the speech because I wasn’t a skilled speaker. This is apparently a no-no. – Do not draw attention to your gap-fillers like ‘uhms’, ‘ahhs’, ‘you know’ , etc.

Using an external USB drive on your PS3 game console

I have just spent all day today trying to fix what could be mechanical issues on a 115GB Western Digital external USB drive. Every so often, I would hear that deathly clicking noise from the external hard drive and then lose connection to the contents of the drive. I fear that it’s life is numbered so I moved the contents to another location and low-level formatted the disk with hopes of getting more life out of it. In order to use a USB drive with a Sony PS3 game console, it has to be formatted with FAT32 file system. Using the utilities that come with Windows XP SP3, I cannot format the entire drive with FAT32 using “format /fs:fat32″ because of FAT32 file system limitations. I searched around for a utility and found freeware SwissKnife. This software let me format the entire 115GB capacity. After that, I tried to copy all the contents back to the extenal USB drive but I ran into roadblocks again. Using Windows Explorer, the copy would start but fail after a few minutes with an u

Completed a course at BCIT: Relational Database and SQL

Back in December 2011, I just completed a 12-week evening course COMP 1630 at BCIT in downtown Vancouver. This was a great course worth 5 credits, and delved into database design, architecture, a little systems analysis, and a lot of SQL syntax. We learned about Crow’s Foot Notation in building an initial requirements design before translating that into actual tables, columns, indices, contraints, etc. It helped strengthen what I already knew of database systems and look forward to taking database administrator-type courses this year.

Why Do My Google Blogger Sites Rank Lower Than ISP-hosted Sites in Alexa.com?

I asked the following on a guest post by Chuck Rylant on ProBlogger.net, expecting to get some concrete answers to low Alexa.com ranking for my other websites. Just like Chuck, I personally think it’s because of the SEO tools available on self-installed WordPress websites that may not be available on Google’s Blogger. I am re-posting it here because I didn’t get the answer I was looking for and am hoping someone can help me out. Here is the comment I made below, also linked here Guest Post by Chuck Rylant ————— 11/4/2011 at 1:26 am I am also not a professional blogger and average around 2-3 posts a month on my computer blog https://www.aminsolutions.com and post more frequently on my personal weblog blog https://www.chromiloamin.com. I also use Alexa to see my progress but am currently stuck at 5 million on Alexa for the computer blog and 23 million for the personal weblog. It’s been at 23 million for a long time and won’t budge. I thought post frequency would improve my ranking.

Dang, We May Have Lost Another Staple Client?

This is a followup to a previous post in the summer of 2011, about how important customer service is to the health of a business relationship. Just recently, our most loyal client since 2004 has just announced that they would like to postpone or hold-off on monthly managed IT services in the “short-term” while server upgrades are performed by their other IT provider back east. They are also looking at options for an offsite server, possibly outsource their email infrastructure and sign up for SaaS provider. They are starting to use a lot of mobile devices to do a lot of their work, including Blackberries and Android tablets so their datacentre is changing. It’s unfortunate that we will not be involved in transitioning their infrastructure. I hope the GM calls after the dust settles so that we can continue with our business relationship. My single most important advice to others is to frequently and continuously revise your customer service strategy.

Notes on Freelance Camp 2011 – How to Write a Book (Session #3)

This is a continuation from my previous post What Clients and Consultants Really Think? (Session#2) . The third session that I attended is on writing and publishing a book. How to Write a Book, by Kathrin Lake This was a very interesting session for me because I aspire to one day publish my very own paperback. Kathrin says that for her, it usually takes her 2-3 months to write a book. She says that it is about trust, in that readers wants to get to know you. She also says that successful writers have memorable stories to tell. They are about life stories and must have a message. Everyone knows how to write but Kathrin says you must intimately know the process that you use to do that. If you don’t already, then you have to figure out your own process for writing. Her suggestion for finding your writing process is to: 1) write blogs; 2) get the bulk of your book done; 3) read, educate yourself. Editing If you are starting out, you probably should send out an electronic copy of y

Notes on Freelance Camp 2011 – What Clients and Consultants Really Think? (Session#2)

This is a continuation from my previous post Contracts for People Who Hate Contracts (Session#1) . The second session that I attended is about Clients/Consultants and what they really think. What Do Client and Consultants Really Think? by Corwin Hiebert and Mark Shiah In the presentation, Mark was the client and Corwin was the consultant. They re-enacted many things that we all go through when in a client-consultant relationship from introduction to project finish. Some of the things I learned from the consultant side of things: – Help client make better decision. – Be the expert by diagnosing and analyzing the problem. – Know your role. – Caring for the client or the project. – Don’t let clients chase you down. – If you have multiple clients, make sure you manage and prioritize your time. – Use online collaborative tools like “Smartsheet”. – Make client feel that they are the priority. I got burned by this previously and I have more details if interested. – Give your hon