Month: February 2005

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SugarCRM

Things will start to get better for me at work. Finally frustrated with
Maximizer CRM, I decided to go PHP and look for an open source CRM application.
Found SugarCRM. Sure, Sugar
lacks some features that Maximizer has but as long as it’s open source and PHP,
I have the confidence to make changes to this application to suit my client’s
needs.


I believe I’ve convinced my boss that this would be a better option for our
clients and us. SugarCRM is free. The source codes are readily available for use
and modification. The catch is, I cannot charge for the codes. But I can charge
for hosting it or adding new features. Existing files that are modified do not
belong to me. New files that I’ve added do. View
SugarCRM Public License.


Maximizer on the other hand, charges by user accounts. For every user you
want to create and use in their CRM program, you would have to pay for a
license. For every user you want access through the web portal, you need another
license. This way of charging, is in fact, worse than their rival CRM program,
Goldmine. Where
you only need to pay for the amount of concurrent connecting users (which means
if you pay for 10-user license, any 10 users can login into the system at the
same time. The 11th user will have to wait for someone to logout.), and you can
create any number of user accounts.


Maximizer may be better than Goldmine but the charges are simply too absurd
if your company has a huge number of salespeople or people whom you want to
empower them with Maximizer.


Also, Maximizer is too cramped to use on my 15″ LCD monitor (resolution
1024*768) at work. You would need at least a 17″ LCD (1280*1024) to work with it
comfortably.


If I had continued generating white hairs over the process of customizing Maximizer, I would
have ended up spending time to go around the world to all my client’s offices and set up
the Maximizer software on their system should it be approved. Thanks to SugarCRM, I no longer need to
as it is a web application. Oh yea, unless it’s Japan, I hate travelling overseas. ;)

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Slow and steady income

For this week, I levelled my Ranger job and White Mage. Ranger is an expensive job. Each shot you fire costs 5 gil. And each monster I kill, I shoot up to 10 times. White Mage can be easy if the other members in your PT performs well and the tank wears updated equipment.


Other times, I farm for Silk Threads and Beehive Chips. Sell them off for 15K and 5K respectively. My Jack-o’-Lanterns are selling very fast in Jeuno’s AH. Going for 2900-3000 a piece. I make roughly 1K profit from selling a stack. The demand is so huge I think I’ll be bring 1 or 2 of my mules to Jeuno so I could put up more JoLs into the market.


If this goes well, I could save enough money in 1 or 2 months for a Haubergeon. A very good piece of body equipment for melees. Increases strength, accuracy, attack at the expense of lowered evasion. This ultimate equipment sells for up to 2 million gil. [X|]

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Darn me

Over the weekend, I attained Rank 6 thanks to Joachim and Puipuipui for helping me defeat Shadow Lord. Joachim and I died the first round, second form. Puipuipui was able to drain and aspir and slowly kill Shadow Lord but alas, we ran out of time.


So Joa logged out to read up on Shadow Lord. Turns out that during the first form, when Shadow Lord uses an ability that makes him immune to physical attacks, he is actually weak to magic. Something we didn’t know. Equipped with this new knowledge, we went for a second round and defeated him with ease. No deaths too!


On Sunday, the Linkshell tried to form 2 parties for Promyvion-Dem. Congrats to PT#1 (Ladyrikku, Joachim, Triston, Puipuipui, Tatomi, Seraphx) on winning. My PT however, failed 3 attempts, largely because of me [:(]. I lost track of provoking the boss and caused the death of the other tank.


My reason at playing badly would be because it’s been a long time since I played a tank role. But giving excuses is not what a man should do. I accepted the blame quietly and apologised to the other members. I wouldn’t mind losing since I’ve completed Dem but since I’m the cause of our defeat, I feel terribly bad.


So for now I’ll be avoiding activities that involve other players except those from my Linkshell. Crafting Jack-o-Lanterns and farming for some gil now to complete the gobbiebag quests and increase my inventory space. I just soloed my Ranger job from level 1 to 7 last night just for the fun of it.


This morning, I brought my cooking skill from 47 to 48 from crafting Apple Pies. Attained Journeyman status and the option of purchasing a Chef’s Hat from the cooking guild is now open to me. I just need to rack up enough guild points for it. Currently 14K, target 70K.

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Here we go again

While viewing photos of other tech geek’s workstations, I feel an urge to refurnish my room a little. Perhaps a longer computer desk from Ikea to comfortably seat all my monitors and machines. As of my current situation, my second CRT monitor is placed on my old Pentium 2 PC and my Athlon PC casings. To make up for the difference in height, I used some old mangas I no longer intend to keep. It’s stable but a little scary considering 17″ CRTs are heavy to kill someone.


Since I switched my main monitor to an LCD, I’ve noticed a drop in my electricity bill. About S$10-15 dollars. The electricy consumption of a CRT is a lot, and the amount to power an LCD is about that of a ceiling lamp (if I’m not mistaken). So again, I’m tempted by technology to change my secondary monitor to an LCD, preferably 17″. This would give me more viewing space.


My current secondary CRT monitor was given to me by my mother’s friend. And to sum it up in 2 words: it sucks. It’s too dark and if I increase the brightness, the text blurs. I managed to adjust the Overlay brightness good enough for watching anime though.


I desperately want a third machine. One where I can really experiment different OSes with. But I guess that will have to wait for I have no more space in my room.