Just watched the trailer of season 2 of Game of Thrones which covers the events on the book A Clash of Kings.
Looking to be another epic (I can’t believe I just used that word) season!
UPDATE March 7, 2012: Second trailer is out!
PSMonitor 1.3 is out! Added 30-day candlestick charts. It’s the first step to more planned charting functionality. Check it out!
I’ve always believed that the IT department’s objective is primarily to enable and enhance business operations primarily and ensuring compliance is secondary to this. Not saying that I’ve always been successful but in my previous jobs, I’ve always tried to align the objectives of my IT departments accordingly whether the end-users are accountants or software engineers. But now, I’m in operations and I’m seeing a lot of incongruence between IT and business.
For example, one initiative being undertaken at work is virtualization. But with a twist: they’re utilizing virtual machines supposedly for security. What the heck do they mean by that? Virtual machines are great for efficient provisioning (setup/configuration of machines) and efficient and effective use of hardware (e.g. consolidating servers, consolidating multiple desktops, shared desktops, etc). But there is not much additional security benefits. A virtual machine is practically the same as a physical machine sitting on your desk. Okay, maybe they’re just poor at communications and really want the provisioning, efficiency, and effectiveness benefits of virtualization.
But now they’re testing out virtual machines by deploying them to old machines whose hardware specification did not factor in virtual machines. Or did but have since been left behind by increasing requirements of newer software. There is always a performance hit from virtualization and using hardware not designed for it compounds the issue. And that has a direct performance hit on day-to-day operations.
And exactly what are they testing anyway? I was informed performance is not their concern. That it’s security. Do they have specific and measurable objectives with respect to this testing? What are the security parameters? Is this testing going to be scientific at all? Do they really believe in the supposed security benefits? I suspect that all they’re concerned about is really the provisioning benefits of virtualization. Saves them a lot of work but, again, that’s not the primary objective of IT.
PSMonitor Free is now available at the Apple App Store. It was initially rejected because it was too limited. They’re very particular in that way. But after adding some functionality and resubmitting, it was finally approved. Yay!
PSMonitor lets you monitor the Philippine stock market activity real-time and on the go (requires a WiFi or data connection).
- Real-time updates from the stock exchange
- Simple and intuitive interface
- All Stocks tab for viewing actively traded stocks by symbol
- Active Stocks tab for viewing actively traded stocks by value
- Gainers tab for viewing gainer stocks by gain
- Losers tab for viewing loser stocks by loss
- Flick up and down the list of stocks
- View stock symbols, prices, and price changes at a glance
- View details such as symbol, name, last price, previous close, change for the day, %change, trade volume, and trade value.
By purchasing PSMonitor you get all of the above plus:
- View 30-day candlestick chart (coming in v1.3)
- Refresh button for refreshing data on demand
- My Stocks tab for storing your portfolio or watch list of stocks
- Add stocks along with quantity and buy price to My Stocks
- Edit stock quantity and buy price
- Delete stock from My Stocks
- View your stocks’ position value, and profit/loss for the day at a glance
- View additional details such as your position, position value, profit/loss for the day, profit/loss to date, and buy price.
Also available for Android. Full Version available for iOS only at this time.
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Yesterday, Michelle went to Divisoria with Yvette and my mom-in-law. So I was left with Jeanne after breakfast. We played with her Duplos and watched YouTube videos on the iPad. I also told her we’re going to Gymboree in the afternoon.
After lunch, I gave Jeanne and bath, dressed her up, and then took a shower myself. We were sitting on the sofa watching TV while waiting for Gretchen, when Jeanne suddenly went over to me, asked me to carry her, and then in minutes was asleep. She slept for over an hour while I continued watching TV. When she woke up, the first thing she said is “I want to go to Gymboree.”
So off we finally went. Since this was her third or fourth visit, I decided to go ahead and get a membership. They offered me the annual membership which costs P1800 and comes with 5 GymPlay coupons (GymPlay normally cost P350). They were already done with the paperwork when I noticed a “lifetime” membership in their literature. I inquired about it and it costs P3600, comes with 10 play coupons, and it’s good for until the child reaches 5 years old (I guess “lifetime” sounds more enticing marketing-wise). I went for that instead.
After Gymboree, we went to get groceries, another activity Jeanne enjoys. We didn’t have to buy too much stuff so we were done pretty quickly. Just as well since I needed to join a family meeting.
We got to the meeting just in time. While it was going on, Jeanne played, drew, and occasionally would ask for my attention. After the meeting, we headed home and to mommy.