Technology – Cesar Ramirez

The Life of An Entrepreneur

Posted on July 12, 2022July 12, 2022 by Cesar Ramirez

I spent a good amount of years as a fulltime entrepreneur. During these years, I attempted to teach my sons the same values that drove me to become an entrepreneur. I guess you can say my parents didn’t really buy us stuff over $20 that we wanted so it drove me to learn how to make money. That was a great lesson in itself. If you always give a handout without a lesson, what did that child really learn?

Those were the 90s. That’s when I knew I had to find methods to teach myself how to make money. We didn’t have the internet in 1989-1990 so I found out that I could be a paperboy. What that did for me was build my personality around the people industry. Ironically, I don’t know if I’d trust todays methods of people on their phones driving with kids delivering paper early in the morning. Maybe I’ve become too soft.

I knew I love working with people. Especially the senior citizen community because I found that they have the greatest of hearts and were cut, for the most part, from the same tree of values I was. Not all of them of course but many. That career as a paperboy had me knocking on doors to collect payment and also building a timely manner to deliver the paper. Little did I know this would teach me the values of customer service as an entrepreneur.

One of my first businesses during my marriage life was running a computer service company, Affordable Computer Doctor, that allowed me to service the residents of Hemet and San Jacinto cities for over 5 years. I enjoyed the connections I made with people as well as the amazing stories of their WWII experience. I take a lot of pride in my work and I treat other people’s businesses as my own and work extra hard to make sure expectations are delivered on time.

So how do you inspire a 17 year old to build their own business or go get a job? Well you simply cut back on the luxury of paying for their cell phone. It begins with that decision and I know how addictive a smart phone can become to all of us so removing that definitely would drive someone to get to work. I told my boys a few years ago that they’re no longer kids. I’ve been working since I was 11 and if I can do it you can do it too. You can find value in building something on the internet now that they have access to the internet. Anybody can create something they love and enjoy. I always say you’re going to do best in something you’re passionate about rather than just doing anything. After all, we are all here to either build a business to survive and chase our dreams, or we are around to help someone else build theirs (Employee). Either way, if you’re needed that’s a good sign you have value that nobody else has.

I hope this small article inspired you. Just some thoughts that have been running through my mind. These are times to be creative and know your self worth.

Go out and fill that void and make it happen. After all, nobody can duplicate your personality. You are you because you are loved.

Cesar Ramirez

Elon Musk’s Important Favorite Job Seeker Interview Questions

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Cesar Ramirez

Even if you’re not interested in working for Tesla or SpaceX, CEO Elon Musk’s favorite interview questions are also important questions to consider. If you find a good answer, it can help you find your next performance in your next workplace.

Back in 2017, Musk asked all the candidates at the World Government Summit:

“Tell me some of the most difficult questions. Musk interviewed many engineers from Tesla and SpaceX, so this question is significant: I wanted to gradually understand how they solved difficult problems. ”

“At that time, the people who actually solved the problem according to the latest Inc. column, Musk’s question has solid scientific reasoning: those who really know what they’re talking about tend to give detailed presentations (sometimes detailed details), and those who have to rely on BS tend to cover up, better (they don’t know).

No matter where you are in the interview, no matter what type of job you are involved in, one thing should be clear: providing as much detailed information as possible will only help you, whether you are dealing with recruiters in the early stage or in at the end hiring managers in one round.

Most importantly, you’ll want to use all of these details to show how you can add value to your old business, overcome incredible challenges, and / or ultimately make a project better than what you find.

At the same time, you should also explain (in detail) how to use all your experience and knowledge to help your potential employer achieve their goals. This requires researching the company, the position, and the skills they are looking for. Remember, one of the most important ways technicians can mislead interviews is by failing to understand the hiring manager’s needs and pain points.

Before starting the interview, be sure to review some relevant stories from your professional experience. If you can, ask a trusted friend or colleague to listen; they can tell you if you want to omit the necessary details. If you know ahead of time that the interview will include a whiteboard or keyboard test, go through some sample coding questions to get the right mindset.

Returning to Musk for a moment: This is not the only question he conspicuously asks potential employees. As early as 2015, tech journalist Ashlee Vance’s CEO’s excellent resume indicated that he once posed a particularly confusing puzzle to would-be SpaceX engineers “knew exactly how to solve the problem and they knew a few small details,” he added at the time.

“You are standing on the surface of the earth. You walked a mile south, a mile west, a mile north. Eventually you will start from where you started. The answer is simple: the North Pole. As you can see in the comments when posting the question, there are many creative answers (“Still on Earth”, “Where the compass is broken”, etc.).

It’s unclear if Musk still asks candidates this question, but finding a job at SpaceX requires a series of interviews to test his skills and knowledge. After all, you are helping to build, launch a rocket and return it to Earth, so you really have to know your stuff.

Building your own Network Attached Storage at home

Posted on November 26, 2020November 26, 2020 by Cesar Ramirez

Not my server, for illustrations purposes only.

Friend — For the longest time I’ve been a geek of audio and video. Many of you know I’ve been a DJ and a video editor because I love media that much. It’s a fun pass time hobby to make these edits. Especially during this Covid 19 downtime, I’ve worked on some pretty cool stuff.

As I sit here next to my fireplace on this chill winter Thanksgiving day with a bit of overcast, I’m happy to write to you that it’s been a cool project to build your own media server at home. What exactly is a media server? Think of Netflix + Your cellphone data + your computer data all in one and you can access that content from anywhere.

I’ve collected digital content for years (since the 90s) as a method of backing up my physical copies. Many DJs that are vinyl junkies even eventually moved to Serato as a mixing system because of the ease and ability to be able to drop a song on the fly for guests. They all laughed at me in the beginning but I saw the trend coming and guess what, most professional DJs these days use just that – Digital media to mix. Don’t get me wrong, original vinyl sounds are much better because of that fullness sound wave but not practical to flip through a crate when your guests want their song to be played next.

With that in mind, I’ve collected every single top forty song from the 40s until today. It sits in the corner somewhere in my server room. I’ve collected every single picture from my young adult life as a photographer to now from people I came in contact with during these years. I’ve collected my favorite movie and tv shows that you’ll not be able to find in many places because they’ve been dumped as old media. Over 30 years of content!

There is no better place to run all this content than through using Plex as a media server. I originally bought the Plex server to use on Windows platform and it has grown far and beyond what it use to be. The latest updates of Plex have allowed for the use of streaming live TV and recording those streams in a DVR format. I haven’t come across any other server platform that can do this smoothly and efficiently. And I was a fan of Kodi for many years.

Kodi – before there was Kodi there was XBMC (Xbox media center). I say this with a heart of love for this community — I was at the early stages of tweaking and learning this with the first xbox that came out. I give a big shoutout of love to all the developers who kept this platform open source. It still is to this day and freeware. Unfortunately, these ideas got robbed and put for sale when the XBOX360 came out as a media center. Now most game consoles have a media center after this discovery.

Back to Plex, I’ve been a big fan of Plex for years for the simple fact that I can use it anywhere I go from my Tesla, mobile devices, to my Smart TVs. I highly recommend you look into it for yourself. You can visit them at Plex.tv for more information. I started my first server with a basic Windows 10 workstation. Although this method is ok, it can be a bit heavy on resources. So then I started to study other platforms and along came…

FreeNAS – FreeNAS is exactly what is in its name. It’s a FREE Network Attached Storage (NAS) platform running under the FreeBSD platform. It utilizes ZFS. What is ZFS? Best described from the FreeNAS site: “ZFS is an enterprise-ready open source file system, RAID controller, and volume manager with unprecedented flexibility and an uncompromising commitment to data integrity. It eliminates most, if not all of the shortcomings found in legacy file systems and hardware RAID devices. Once you go ZFS, you will never want to go back.”

FreeNAS also has many plugins that allow for the install of “apps”. These plugins get created in the form of a jail. A jail is an instance of your FreeNAS OS through a “port” or a “virtual IP”. For example to be able to see what jails are currently installed, you will have to have SSH enabled if you’re a command line geek, you can type in jls. After you see your list of jails and you pick that number, you’ll have to “jail in” to that jail using the command “jexec # csh”. Frankly, I’m not sure what the different shells (csh, tcsh, etc) do but maybe you as a reader can share the insight on that. I just get in there and make some edits to the scripts and file permissions (ie. chown and chmod).

For those that are wondering how I’m running IPTV with the ability to record (DVR) inside my Plex system you can review xTeVe. It took a bit to understand how to install and pull the IPTV content with EPG but once it’s setup it’s pretty rad. Not all the logos get imported in so you may have to tweak your own and add the thumbnails. Here’s a screenshot of my xTeVe.

My current server setup is maxed out almost. I’m at 84% utilization. I have 5 * 10TB drives. All RAID which means I can lose up 2 drives and the system will still function. I will have to most likely buy more drives and my External hard drive enclosure can take up to 8 total drives.

One of your plugins that you may be interested in adding is NextCloud. It’s like running your own Dropbox and you can move files to that “jail” from your cellphone or any computer. It’s nice when you have Terabytes available to you on a box and it’s not costing you a monthly fee. Actually that goes true for most of these services / plugins because they’re open source.

Feel free to message me with any questions regarding this topic. I’m very passionate about YOU housing your own data.

Credits and shoutouts: To all those developers out there that believe in the open-source world. Additionally, my great friend Liam who I’ve known and geeked out with since 6th grade for assisting me with the understanding of the BSD / Linux Platform a bit more. I’ve been rusty but now use it daily.

Enjoy a movie on me,

Cesar Ramirez

What’s The Big Deal About Water From Tlacote Mexico? Active Hydrogen, of Course!

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Cesar Ramirez

It is reported that Magic Johnson traveled to Tlacote, Mexico for water for medicinal purposes and later had it shipped directly to him in the U.S. Fortunately for Magic he discovered Kangen Water and is now able to produce his own FRESH active hydrogen water in the comfort of his own home.

Magic Johnson took a proactive and holistic approach to his AIDS problem. Whatever he’s been doing, it’s obviously worked well for him. Over 20 years since his AIDS diagnosis and still going strong! Go Magic! Go Kangen!

Over 40 years ago a group of Japanese scientist set out to study “miracle waters” from around the world (including Tlacote, Mexico). They found that the properties of these waters CAN be scientifically engineered so they began producing active hydrogen, restructured water and installed these powerful water ionizers in their hospitals in Japan. Today, these medical grade devices are available for home use and the health benefits of those drinking Kangen water are nothing short of “miraculous”.

I’ll bet you couldn’t pry Kangen water away from Magic Johnson, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Jillian Michael’s, Martha Stewart, or anybody else fortunate enough to be drinking this water. Nothing would make me give mine up!

What about you? Will you travel to Tlacote, Mexico or will you opt for an endless supply of active hydrogen, miracle water in your own home? That should be a no-brainer for you. It was for me when I saw what the water did over 10 years ago to my son Adam when he was dealing with a health issue. I’ll be happy to share the story offline during a phone call… just ask!

CHANGING THE WAY THE WORLD LOOKS AT WATER…

ONE DROP AT A TIME!

Contact me for Active Hydrogen Water!

Cesar Ramirez
760-297-0366
kangewater@CesarRamirez.com

Maui Vacation 2017 Doing It Right on a Budget

Posted on December 15, 2017December 16, 2017 by Cesar Ramirez

Hello my friends,

You either stumbled upon this post during a Google search or you are one of our faithful followers on our list. You can subscribe at anytime in one of the boxes on this page or far down on the page.

So here’s my Maui story. Can you believe I, Cesar Ramirez, finally turned the big 4 0. Yeah, forty years old and I can’t even tell you that I feel any different, but I can tell you that I have yet many goals to accomplish. It all started in early summer of June 2017. I was planning a 40th birthday party in a local winery that I formally DJ at called The Temecula Coach House for my family and friends. I thought it’d be nice to get family and friends over to celebrate a pretty huge year. It may even be called over the hump for some. Then I realized that I may not spend the quality of time I wish to with my 3 sons and wife…

So during a snapchat session, I was watching a couple in June 2017 that were posting sunset videos of Maui, Hawaii. And I was like, wow, that would be awesome. I asked the snapchatter, hey when is a good time to start planning a vacation like this? He said 5 to 6 months ahead of time. And at that moment I realized, that’s it!!! December 8th is my 40th and 6 months from now I will be prepared to pay this trip off :-). I shopped around different sites and came across package deals from Costco, Travel sites and so on and I found that it would be good to break down my reasoning for not picking an all-in-one package.

#1 – Hotel – AirBNB – Why? Because I have a family of 5 and the 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment we got is amazingly big compare to hotel space. It has a full size fridge and we stored food we cooked with for the week. Saving big money on not eating out. – 7 Days costs us just around $1100 for stay and about $400 in groceries.
#2 – Car to get around – Since I have a lot of points with Avis, I decided to take advantage of this and I got to save about $350 renting a van for a family of 5. You may not need such a big space.
#3 – Flights – I went through AAA since I have a membership and the flights cost us just below $450 each. Total = $2250

Costco Price= $5500 | Me shopping around price= $3700.
#4 – Paid Events to do with the kids and wifey – broken down below (I avoided Time share activities since I value my time.) There we paid a small amount more to dictate our vacation our way.

We left Saturday morning at 6am from San Diego and had a 1 hour layover in Los Angeles (LAX). We arrived in Maui 5 hours later. Remember Hawaii Time goes back 2 hours. So set your clock back if you’re coming from California 2 hours or more if you’re coming from elsewhere.

Sunday Day: We are devout practicing Catholics so we attended early morning Mass at Christ The King Catholic Church.

Christ The King Church Maui, HI Ramirez Family

The first event we did after our car rental and checking into our hotel was the Maui Aquarium. Since you’re on an Island, I recommend educating yourself on the sea life around you. They have a 15% discount if you buy your tickets online. We ended up buying and booking there on the spot. Remember, it’s not what you make but what you keep. We really enjoyed this show and I recommend getting the audio commentary so that you know the history of what is what. A great spot to take pictures next to the yachts and boats.

My sister Veronica assisted with some of the must do places. I will cover these in a few… Thanks sis!

So I have a friend who I’ve known since 6th grade. She was someone who I actually had a crush in for all of my middle school years. That’s besides the point but she knows Maui, Hawaii and I decided to ping her on Facebook because she’s a great friend. Chantelle is awesome and recommended some great spots… accept this one. She didn’t recommend the Road to Hana. We actually had 2 people tell us they didn’t but we did it with fashion. There’s an app called The Gypsy Guide of the Road to Hana. I highly recommend spending the $5 and getting it from the app store. You learn the history and the travels to the Road to Hana. Here are some of our pictures from this amazing trip… And yes, planning ahead by reading this post is key to winning a bad ass trip to Maui….

Don’t these pictures look like a fake backdrop? Seriously though!

Ok so enough with this awesomeness. I absolutely unequivocally believe you deserve the best. And YOU do.

Xochilt, myself, Lil Cesar, Adam, and Luke believe it also!

When you’re spending time in Paradise. Oh my goodness, time just suddenly stops and calls for you. Why would you have it any different?

We visited Our Lady of Guadalupe on her Feast Day Dec 12th. It’s amazing that Maui’s Catholic Church honors her appearance in Mexico in the 1500s. Respect!

You must try the Gelato on Front Steet! We also Enjoyed the Pizza!

More to come stay tune…