On-The-Job Training at RPN 9

Hey guys! Yes, it's been a while. Really. This first semester of AY 2015-2016 is our OJT, ECE200B. They recently moved it from 2nd semester, to the 1st semester. According to the department, placing the OJT in the 5th yr 2nd semester (final semester for graduating students) breaks their concentration on academics. I agree. I can attest to that. Going to OJT really breaks the academic concentration of a student. Mainly because he/she is now focusing on his/her work rather than his/her studies. And there is A LOT of leisure time which made the focus (on studies) really difficult. They did this because the passing rate of our licensure exam is quite low, and inter changing the 1st and 2nd semester subjects, hopefully, will help the students focus. 

Okay. We did our OJT at Radio Philippines Network Inc., Manila. We didn't really decide, though. A friend asked us if we want to hold our OJT at CNN Philippines. Since it's new, (it only came to the Philippines last March 2015) we said, "Yeah, why not?". I was really excited, to be working in CNN. But unfortunately, we were assigned to its transmitter in mega Manila, RPN. If you must know, working in an STL (Studio/Transmitter Link) or in a transmitter in general, is not really exciting. And as a young, future engineer, I would like to make the most of my OJT. The hunger for action, adventure, and excitement. The only action we get during our stay there was during emergencies: power interruptions and fluctuations, and signal losses. 

RPN Tower.
"Tower of Ispleketengteng"
-Jonathan Mina

Anti Virus?

Hi guys. I'm going to share why I stopped using Anti Virus softwares. We recently concluded our PIIC (Philippine Institute of Integrated Circuits) training, and just this afternoon I felt the urge to share to you why I stopped using AV (Antivirus) softwares. Earlier, when they inserted a flashdrive to the PC, the contents were all shortcut files (*.lnk), and I thought I saw the user clicked on it. :O He had quite a struggle restoring the files. I know because it was projected on a projection screen using a projector. Haha.

Okay, so first, where do viruses (mostly) come from? The number one culprit (according to my experiences) are flashdrives. Flashdrives carry CTD's (Computer Transmitted Diseases, lol) since they get inserted into so many PCs. Who knows what kind of malwares (malicious softwares), worms, and other creepy diseases it might have come into contact to? The second cause of viruses are from the internet - downloaded applications. I'm going to share some tips to you to avoid getting viruses and malwares.

Tip 1.

Familiarize yourself with file extensions of your files. For example, executable files has an extension of *.exe or *.msi. Video files have an extension of *.avi, *.flv, *.mp4, *.mkv, and so on and so forth.

Go here and here for a list of file extensions.

To show file extensions, open an explorer (Windows key + 'e', or just open My Computer), click Organize>Folder and Search Options and go to the View tab and uncheck Hide extension for known file types. Now you will be able to see what are the file extensions of your files.

For example, if you are downloading a video from the internet, and the download window shows an extension that is different from what you are downloading, cancel that immediately. It may contain malwares, PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs), or worse, may infect your computer with viruses. Be vigilant.