In America, an architectural firm, especially in residential architecture draws the plans and elevations for construction. In house or with associations we would provide all structural, electrical and mechanical plans to give the client a full set of plans to take to the building department for permitting.

The best view the client would get was the black line, no more blue lines or blueprints, elevation drawings showing all four sides of the building. Sometimes we would draw basic interior elevations to show cabinets, built-ins or any specialty carpentry. At times the client would request a colored elevation for marketing.

For high end houses, especially if being build to sell, the developer would hire a company to do a perspective drawing. This style of drawing was usually drawn by hand and would give the look of a 3d representation. There were some specialty graphic companies that would make this perspective drawing look more like a photo, or at least more realistic. These drawings were for marketing brochures or advertisement. There were some 3d modeling programs on computer, but this type of service was expensive and timely.

I did not work with or know anybody who did this type of work in America. Then I moved to the Philippines and was hired for about seven months with an Engineering, Architectural and local building firm here in Davao. There I met a young man who started his career as a graphic artist before attending Architectural School.

This man is amazing; with the use of Google Sketchup or AutoDesk 3D modeling and 3D StudioMax he can take a floor plan and elevation and turn it into a 3D model. From this model he can show views that look as a photograph of a finished product or even a video walk-thru of what looks like someone with a video camera recoded their visit to a real home. He has also taken a photograph of a street and inserted a rendering of a building to show how the block will look after the new project is built.

With my contacts and lists of architect firms and developers in America, we teamed up and just opened a website offering these services. Even if you are not in the building trades or an architect, I think you will enjoy seeing his work. If you are in the industry, or know of someone who is, I would appreciate you letting them know about us. We offer amazing work with lower prices than you can get anywhere in the States, Canada, Europe or most anywhere.

The site is BestRender4U and I hope you will enjoy it. This is the beginning, over time we will add more examples and more U.S. style representations. Feel free to comment on your thoughts.

When I first moved here so many people talked about the Coffee Shops and the ones they liked. If I contacted someone to meet, or they contacted me, it would usually end with which coffee shop to meet.

It would go like this, “what part of town are you? Then let’s meet at xyz coffee shop.” Now I love the taste of coffee, but I need to be careful. If I drink too much coffee I can get Ocular Migraines, which cause little squiggle prisms in my eyes.

Everywhere or I should say most everywhere there are coffee shops and more opening all the time. There are coffee shops in the main concourse in the malls, in office buildings and all over town.

There is one at Gaisano Mall where Elena and I would meet all the time. If she was out running errands, she would tell me to meet here there. I would bring a book, sit on a comfortable sofa and read while I drank coffee. The nice thing here in Davao, they are more relaxed. People can site at places with tables and seating without buying anything. I would always order something and if I was to be there for a long time, I would always ask if it is ok.

Then I bought a small light weight laptop to be able to work on the internet, check emails or research and work on writing articles. I then would go to the Coffee Shops that have wifi. The only coffee shops without wifi are the open shops in the mall concourses.
With this now in mind, my eye would notice more of the coffee shops while driving around town. I am not going to list all of them because I probably will miss mentioning some and there are many sites already that have a long list.

There are some I enjoy and from visiting them on a semi regular basis have gotten to know the employees and some of the management of a few.

You can order coffee, coffee type drinks, other beverages, sweets, sandwiches and even a hot meal. There are electric outlets to plug in your charger and comfortable seating. Some have smoking areas. One even has an air conditioned area for comfort.

Many all have some theme or style. One has a tree theme and their Restroom looks like you’re inside a tree. Prices vary but not more then maybe 10 pesos. Some have discounted refills and one chain gave me a discount card to use at all their branches.

These places are needed here because many Filipinos realize the need to have a computer, but the added expense for internet access at their home might be too much. So they will buy a laptop and when needed just head to a coffee shop. Unfortunately I have heard of large groups will meet at a shop, one will order a cup of coffee and for a few hours conduct a meeting with their laptop open. Because of this I know of one shop that charges internet access after 3 hours of use and another charges a fee to use the electricity to charge their computers. Well, with the culture not to insult, this is a problem that they have to deal with.

So, if you are here in Davao or plan to visit, you might just see me with my little laptop and a cup of coffee in front of me typing away. If not, just text me and ask which shop we can meet.

They recommend 6 to 12 characters with a mix of upper case and lower case letters and numbers included. One company I worked for had software that when you inserted your password it had to be minimum 8 characters and had to include a minimum of 2 uppercase letters and 2 numbers.

Since my 3 passwords were used in many places, I wondered at times if someone stole my password and then found out the places I visited, they could get into many places such as my banking and credit card online accounts.

One day I was visiting one of the Project Managers at one of my client’s sites and we went to go online to check something. He went to the site where a logon and password screen showed up. He clicked a button on one of the toolbars and the information was automatically filled in. I thought he had the browser set to remember passwords and I knew all employees had access to that computer. I was shocked and mentioned it to him. He pointed to his USB memory stick and showed me a program.

I have used this for a few years now and lately friends have asked me what that was when I always plug my Flash drive into my laptop every time I turn it on. That is why I am writing this and have added their ad to my site for conveniences.

The program is called RoboForm.  I use RoboForm2go. This program resides on a USB Flash Memory drive. All you do is plug your Flash drive into any computer. Once you open your browser a toolbar will open. If you want to go to a site you click the “Logins” tab and you get a list of all your sites that you have a login and password. Once you click the item, it will take you to the URL; fill in your login and password and poof you’re in the site.
It also has a password generator that will create a password per your requirements, number of characters, if you want upper and/or lower case, numbers and/or special characters. It will then fill it into the form and let you save it.

If you do a lot of contests or sweepstakes where you need to fill in name, address and all other info, or buy things online and need credit card info, you can store it in the forms area and one click will fill in the form for you.

The program has a Master Password that you need to enter the first time you start a session using it. If you ever forget that password the program is useless. And when you’re done and eject it, there is nothing left on the computer you were using. No files or footprints. I have tried to get into the data file to see if someone stole it, could they get my information? It is so encrypted; I do not think anyone could.

With the use of internet cafes, it is a great tool, just take your Flash drive out of your pocket, and plug it into the USB port and away you go. When you are to go just eject it and put it back in your pocket. It also has a setting to log it out after a period of time, so if you forget it and someone sits at that computer, after your time setting expires, they would have to log in again to use it.

Now, with all the places I need to log into, they all have their own unique password and I do not have to remember them. I do periodically copy the data file to my backup flash drive in case I lose one.

There is a free version of RoboForm that allows 10 items or a Pro version that has unlimited passcards and more.

A lot has been going on. I stopped working and had many things to catch up on. In the middle my desktop computer got so virus ridden that I had to format and restore the computer and get all my programs back.

I tried to use my laptop but it has a problem that does not open a browser and ties up the router to no other computer can access.

Then I had about a week of on and off of Internet access. It would die in the middle of downloading programs I use.

Later today or tomorrow I will write another post with some nice pictures of a beach resort in Samal