Reminscing the history of PC stores in Robinsons Galleria

Robinson's Galleria is a mall in metro manila. Located on the corner of EDSA and ortigas. This is the wikipedia entry.

Disclaimer: I am in no way connected with Robinsons. I'm just reminscing about my own personal experiences in the 1990's and the 2000's in this mall regarding PC shops. My memory is not what it used to be so forgive me if there are some inaccuracies,

Unlike other old malls, Galleria has not changed much over the decades, only a couple of small wings added. So it looks eerily the same as it was before. I went there recently and since I have not been there for several years, the eerie similarity hits me. My mind was taken back to the early days. I was in college and postgrad during the 1990's and the 2000's and I did go there from time to time. Before gilmore rose to prominence, virra mall and a few other malls like robinson's galleria were the best places to shop for PC and other tech goods.

Go into Galleria's EDSA entrance and you see the supermarket on your right and jollibee on your left, same as it was during the 90's. Go straight and you'll see the beginning of the food court on your right. Go further a little more and you'll see an escalator going down. This leads to the basement shops, the lowest shops in galleria. At the base of the escalator, there used to be on the left the hardware store and the PC shop section. It was a narrow circular corridor with pc shops on both sides. Go right instead of left and the long underground corridor parallel to ortigas has several shops. 2 shops of note that seem to have survived from the 90's are a small gun store (not sure if its the same) and a big appliance store across the entrance to the basement parking.

Going back to the EDSA entrance, go up to the third floor and with your back to EDSA you'll see an appliance store to your left and a narrow circular corridor to your right. Then as now its full of dental clinics, cosmetological clinics and spas. But in the 1990's there was something special there in tech. One of the early net cafe's in the Philippines. I remember going there and spending hours surfing and downloading to my box of 3.5 diskettes. Its gone now

A few years later, the PC stores all moved to the third floor, where Saizen is now. Kenny rogers and red ribbon were there before and are still there now. A gun store next to Kenny Rogers seems to have closed.

Currently, the PC stores in galleria have fallen on hard times. They are relegated to a small wing next to holiday inn hotel. Some cellphone stores are nearby next to the food court.

On a side note, garry lising's joke shop 3 floors up next to holiday inn seems to be gone.

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Ms Office 2010/2013 does not print part 2

 I covered this topic before. But if it doesnt work, there's another workaround. I got the idea from here. So thank you. I'm reposting what I did to fix it here.


Okay first some background. Your problem is that Office 2010/2013 apps dont print but other programs like notepad, browsers, etc can print. You already tried re installing office, changing to or from 64/32 bit office, and re installing the printer driver. You even tried the tip in my other post. If those dont work do this.



I'm doing it in win 8 64 bit but it should work the same for win 7.

* Go to control panel.
* Go to Devices and Printers.
* Click on "Add a printer". I chose at random the LPT1 and the HP deskjet 4320.
* Do not make it the default printer.


Thats it. MS office should print OK from now on.

Oishi Bread Pan White cheddar QR code

I previously blogged about the erratic quality of QR codes in Philippine newspapers in a previous blog post. My 2 megapixel samsung galaxy Y can't recognize the codes.

Well look at this new product I bought in the supermarket. Oishi bread pan white cheddar flavor. Now made with whole wheat.

I noticed that there was a small QR code in the back. Printing quality is good although under some lighting conditions the shiny surface is not the best for getting a clear picture. Of course I tried it and it doesnt work on my cellphone. Since the quality of printing is pretty good, its the size. It only measures 1.4cm square.

Again, my suggestion stands, test your QR codes with a low end cellphone to avoid alienating a section of the market.

BTW. It tastes good. A bit gritty due to the whole wheat but thats ok.

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Better paypal exchange rates

If you buy stuff online usually there are advantages to using paypal. But paypal is not without its disadvantages. One disadvantage is its "less than optimal" exchange rate. But here's a way to use your debit card or credit card's exchange rate instead.

Here's how to do it. First when you get to Paypal, click on the  "other conversion options

then click "bill me in the currency listed on the seller's invoice"

So, how much of a savings are we talking about here?

Okay, right now if I google "us dollar to philippine peso", I get a value of php 40.58 to one. In the first screenshot above the conversion rate is 0.0237523 or 42.10118599040935 to $1. My actual conversion rate for that purchase was $1.24 converted to php 51.14. Thats 0.0242471646460696 or 41.24193548387099 to one. I save  php 0.85925050653836 per us dollar.

Small but it adds up




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Ms Office 2010 does not print

Have you ever installed MS Office and it doesnt print however other programs like browsers, notepad, etc do print?

The first thing you should do is check your printer drivers.

If that doesnt work a workaround is to install a PDF converter, preferably freeware like Cute PDF. Set cute PDF as the printer, print and save as a PDF file. Then open the PDF and print.

But a workaround is not satisfying. Here's the real fix.

For MS publisher, go to the FILE tab then click options. Click Advanced then scroll down to Print. There's only one option : Use XPS enhanced print path when available. Un check this.


For MS word, go to the FILE tab then click options. Click Advanced then scroll down to Print. There are several options. Try unchecking Print in background.

A reboot might be necessary.

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12/21/2012 or december 21 countdown timer

This is all rubbish pseudoscience superstition anyway. But if you insist, here's a coundown clock. Its set at Greenwich mean time


The Official Countdown


source

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QR code quality in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a major Philippine newspaper that I read every day. A few days ago I posted a blog post about QR codes.Then a funny thing happened. I started seeing QR codes in ads in the Inquirer. Maybe 6 or so and one in real life in my local SM mall on a big sign. I dont know if its coincidence or I my consciousness is just primed to notice QR codes.

Anyway, maybe 25% of the QR codes in the Inquirer can't be read by my phone. My phone, a samsung galaxy Y, only has a fixed focus 2MP camera so it may be partially to blame. However, most of those that can't be read are either small (around 1 inch square) or are printed with low quality. HP ink cartridges have a QR code that is clearly printed but at 1cm square, my camera cannot read them.

My phone and its camera may be low spec but to include more of the reading public, advertisers should take into account that not all readers can afford a high end smartphone.


Suggestions: Advertisers should design the QR codes to be of sufficient size and they should borrow a few low end smartphones so they can test the QR codes to see if the print quality is sufficient. I dont know if the newspaper presses can do a test print before the actual issue is printed, but its always a good idea to test.

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