Sulatang Tapunan

Nightmare House 2: A Game of Pants-Shitting Misadventures

2011-09-02T11:31:00.000+08:00

Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers in here.

At some point during the Steam Summer sale I bought the Valve complete pack out of instinct. I did not actually plan to buy the pack, I only thought that it would be a good idea to buy it right ahead while it was 75% off its original price. It was one of the best fifty dollars I've ever spent, however, my desktop messed itself up during that time period, but that's a different story.

I've been playing most of the Source games included in the pack, most notably Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and the Half-Life series. However, I've been lurking Reddit for a while and heard about this awesome Half-Life 2 single player modification called Nightmare House 2. It is a survival-horror game that strangely enough, starts off in a creepy old farmhouse. I went to the mod creator's workshop and was glad that it was completely free, and only required the Half-Life 2 Episode Two game content files, which I have thanks to the Valve Complete Pack. I wget'ed it from my laptop (seriously it's sooooo fast from there) then transferred and installed it to my desktop.

The Good stuff

First, there's the game's really excellent level design. The actual first chapter, called the "Prologue", was actually the first Nightmare House game, just included in the second installment as a supplement. Most of the game occurs inside the creepy old farmhouse, however, they made excellent use of the entire house, everything was nicely and creepily decorated, and there were absolutely no loading screens during the chapter. Seriously, one thing I hate about Half-Life 2 are the annoying loading screens because apparently because of the limits of the Source engine. Nightmare House managed to go around that.

As some people put it, "Nightmare House 2 is a combination of Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R.". This is correct. Most of the enemies you are going to be facing in the game are zombies, the dark, and the instinct to involuntarily crap your pants. Also, the final boss showdown in this game is really, really similar to GLaDoS in Portal. You don't actually "fight" the boss directly in Nightmare House 2.

The Bad stuff

One thing I didn't like about Nightmare House 2 is that the farther you get through the game the more weapons you will get that will help you survive. A survival-horror game is defined as a game where you have a limited amount of things that will help you survive and the simple fact that you have only 5 bullets in your gun is the creepy part. In the Resident Evil games I'd really happy if I manage to find a box of shotgun shells, while in Nightmare House 2 finding a box of shotgun shells is as easy as just looking around. Or maybe because I played it in easy difficulty, I got a crapload of weapons and ammunition.

Overall, I think Nightmare House 2 is a great mod to play if you have bought Half-Life 2 Episode 2. It's just that if you're expecting the game to be very much like Silent Hill, Resident Evil or Amnesia, don't bother, because in this game you can kick anything's ass with the vast array of weaponry you will be receiving.

The 3 best and worst websites I have visited this 2011

2011-07-27T21:25:00.000+08:00

With computers being one of my areas of expertise, it comes to no surprise that I'm an avid user of the Internet. I've been on the Internet since 2004 and from my experience, the standards in website UI design have changed dramatically over the years. There are some who took the aspects of design further, leading to beautiful websites that are also easy to navigate. However, there are also websites who disregard UI design, which impacted the overall usefulness of their websites.

Here are the 3 best websites I have visited this year, along with their bad counterparts.

1. Good: Newsmap.jp

URL: http://newsmap.jp

Don't let the URL fool you, the site is not in any way written in Japanese. Newsmap is a small website that grabs news from various news feeds around the web and displays them in a neat, color-coded grid boxes. These boxes are arranged according to importance and popularity using size. So essentially, the most breaking and controversial news are displayed in large text, while the not-really-that-popular ones are in smaller text. You can untick categories in order to hide them and give more space to other categories. Finally, news feeds can also be arranged according to country and region, although support for all countries and regions are still incomplete (unlike Google News).

Bad: Inquirer.net

URL: http://inquirer.net

Inquirer.net is the web site of the Philippine newspaper "Philippine Daily Inquirer". Like most other Philippine websites, it has lagged behind in terms of UI standards. For example, it uses an awful lot of tables for its layout, resulting in too many columns and rows displayed on the homepage. It makes navigation difficult, despite multiple navigation bars in the top and bottom of the site's home page. However, they are successful in their efforts to put the most breaking news on the front, where they are easy to spot. Additionally, they use a pleasant and well-balanced color scheme that is easy for the eyes. They need some work on the layout, though.

2. Good: Reddit

URL: http://reddit.com

Reddit is a place where people share links and rate them by giving upvotes and downvotes (similar to Youtube's like/dislike system), and give comments to content posted on the site. One good feature of the site is giving the users the ability to create sub-reddits, which are similar to subcategories. There are subreddits for different kinds of topics, like gaming, worldnews, etc.

Bad: Digg

URL: http://digg.com

Digg is a competitor to Reddit, since Digg also allows its users to share, rate and comment links. However, content on Digg has been recently monopolized by large media outlets, leading to most of its users leaving and finding more "open" link sharing sites (a large number of them migrated to Reddit). Digg had a good design before the "Diggpocalypse", however, after that everything became too blue and it was a lot harder to navigate than before.

3. Good: Imgur

URL: http://imgur.com

imgur is an image hosting site. The description probably ends there, but what I like about imgur is its very minimalistic approach to hosting its users' images. You just have to select your images, upload them either individually or as an album, and when it's done, you will be given links of all kinds. And those links are free from URLs to imgur, unlike other image hosting sites like Imageshack...

Bad: Imageshack

Imageshack is another image hosting site. It is reliable, however, the interface of the whole site is very, very messy, with advertisements everywhere and such. Also, the interface is not very intuitive, and new users can get lost trying to navigate its screens. Worst of all, Imageshack adds URLs to the links it gives to you for your images. For example, its pre-generated BBCode for forums has a link to Imageshack ("Uploaded with Imageshack.us"), and if you remove that part, the BBCode and the image will not work.

The importance of defragmenting your file system

2011-07-20T13:09:00.000+08:00

Some time this month my desktop decided to die after three years of proud service. I ran all kinds of diagnostics and found out that it was due to my GPU constantly overheating (it was due to dust completely blocking off the airways of the heatsink). So I replaced the motherboard and the GPU and got a new copy of Windows (because apparently Windows recognizes a new motherboard as a completely new computer). I left the other partition and hard drive intact, hoping that my games are still runnable after a fresh new install.

I reinstalled Steam in the same directory on the other partition where it was before, and it recognized all my games there instantly. It even read my previous download queues. For a week I let Steam download most of the Steam games from the Valve Complete Pack, which I have bought for $50 during the Valve Summer Sale).

After acquiring an almost complete set of Valve's source games (HL2 w/EP1 and EP2, TF2, CS:S, DoD:S, etc.), Steam started to act weird and froze frequently. It freezes the first time I start it. I'm getting pissed with this because my PC is new in a sense, and that I haven't even done anything with Steam when it happened. So something was definitely wrong there.

I googled for some solutions and they recommended turning on background processes and services. So I did. I even got to turning off MSE for a while, but still to no avail. I even deleted the .blob files inside the Steam directory so that it could update itself again, but still, it completely freezes.

At some point I just let Steam freeze and unfreeze itself while running. Then a dialog box showed up telling me that my Steam game files are horribly fragmented. Then I realized that file fragmentation was the cause of Steam constantly stopping.

I ran Defraggler and I let it analyze the drive where Steam was located. The result was both surprising and sad: The total size of the fragmented files has reached 38.6GB. That's the largest amount of file fragmentation I've ever seen, since I constantly defragment my NTFS partitions. So I let it work its magic, hoping that my problem with Steam will be fixed after defragging.

The real insult here is I get these shitty problems when I've already bought legal copies of games. I've done Valve a great favor buying their games instead of pirating them (which was what I have been doing for eight years until now), and now I'm faced with this dilemma with Steam.

I will edit this post and write an update if Steam gets fixed by Defraggler or not.

(My) best and worst Android app of June 2011

2011-07-01T12:29:00.001+08:00

So now I find myself writing a post about my best and worst Android applications, at least just for the past month of June 2011, anyway. I don't usually do these, because a post describing the best, worst and/or both of [something here] usually calls in the fanboys. And nobody wants that.

WARNING: Opinions follow.

The Android Market is known for being a complete mess with tens of thousands of incomplete and/or useless applications created by hundreds of incompetent developers. However, just like with every big pile of crap, there's always something valuable to be found underneath (or on the top of) the Android App Market. There are also numerous good apps in the Android Market and some of them actually prove that Android is better at certain things where iOS isn't. But I'm not here to spark a war against the iOS fans, I'm here to criticize two Android Apps.

The Best App: Lookout Mobile Security

The one thing that sucks about an app market that isn't regulated by a team of Nazis led by a guy in a black turtleneck sweater is that most people aren't responsible with freedom. Apple prunes the bad apps from the good, while Google doesn't care that much unless the application is a duplicate or malicious app. Therefore, there will come the inevitable time when you accidentally download a fake, duplicate copy of some paid app that turns out to be malware that steals everything valuable within your phone (and no, it's not the photos of yourself).

There are many applications on the Android Market that offer malware protection and "app scanning" (comparing your installed apps to a list of known malicious apps), but I think the best choice for this is Lookout Mobile Security. Lookout Security scans every new application that you download from the app market, compare it with their list of known malicious applications, and give you the signal on whether the app you downloaded is malicious or not. Not only that, Lookout Security scans all the apps installed prior to your installation of Lookout, and you can set it to regularly scan your apps every once in a while in case one of them are late bloomers.

You might notice that Lookout Security is a "suite". That means it's a bunch of services grouped together into one program. Not only does Lookout Security check your apps, it also offers a phone-tracking service. Using your phone's GPS and phone network, you can easily find your phone through Lookout's website. Some phone manufacturers provide their own phone-tracking software into some of their devices (I'm looking at you, HTC), but those services require the GPS to be on. If you happen to have lost your phone without its GPS turned on, Lookout can remotely turn on your phone's GPS so that it could track it. If that fails, Lookout will try to find your phone using Wi-Fi connections and nearby cell towers, which is inaccurate by a lot of meters, but reliable. Want to lock access or even wipe the valuable data off your phone (you shouldn't trouble yourself over your pictures)? Lookout can do that for you.

Lookout Mobile Security also offers backup and restore of your phone's data. While all free features are good enough for basic security, you might want to purchase premium, which you can buy for $29.99/year or $2.99 a month. Luckily, all users are able to try out the Premium for free for two weeks.

The Worst App: Vaulty

Vaulty is a small application whose primary purpose is to hide questionable content from your phone's main gallery. At least, that's how I used it. But sadly, it did not do its job well.

First of all, Vaulty works to hide photos and videos from your phone's gallery, where all of your multimedia content is displayed in full glory. It works like this: Pick a couple of photos and/or videos that you would like to hide, and Vaulty will put them in itself, all while removing those photos and/or videos from the gallery and moving them to Vaulty's app folder in your phone memory/SD card. To top all of that, access to the Vaulty...vault is restricted by a password of your choosing.

Seems good enough right? But why is it my worst app for June?

First, moving your files to Vaulty is a tedious process. You can either (1) Do it directly from Vaulty, but Vaulty does not have an option to choose multiple files, so if you got more than 20 files to hide it's gonna take a while. Or (2) You can "send" it to Vaulty by using the Share function in the gallery, which is faster, by the way.

However, once your files are hidden, it's really difficult to navigate through them inside the Vaulty vault. For example, if I hide a manga that's sorted and organized in its own folder in the gallery, and is arranged according to ascending file names, they will ~~most likely~~ be separated if I put them alongside another manga. They will be helplessly jumbled especially if every separate page has a filename like [pagenum].jpg. You put folders in Vaulty, Vaulty lets you see them spread out and cluttered. What shame.

Finally, Vaulty is not really that secure - Vaulty puts your "hidden" files in its folder, which is located in /sdcard/DCIM/vaulty. That means anyone can access your hidden files if they use a file browser like Astro.

A paid version of Vaulty is available, although the only feature it has over the free version is that Vaulty Premium is disguised as a Stocks App. That wouldn't be worth the money especially if you're hanging out with nosy stockbrokers.

What's a better solution for hiding your content from nosy people? Delete them and don't put them on your phone in the first place. However, if you really need to put these on your phone, but just want to hide them from the Gallery, the Gallery has an option to Show/Hide albums from view. This is great especially if you've arranged your questionable photos and videos into separate folders. They are still visible using a file browser though, but at least you're protected from nosy people who aren't that competent with Android phones.

Best Game App: Gun Bros

Gun Bros (pronounced as either Gun Brothers or Gun Brows) is a third-person survival shooter that pits the player against endless waves of monsters. You control one of either of the two Gun brothers, Percy and Francis Gun, the two superhuman members of F.R.A.G.G.E.D. (Freakishly Rugged Advanced Genetics Galatic Enforcement Division), and fight the T.O.O.L. (Tyrannical Oppressors Of Life).

Gun Bros is mainly survival. You are pitted against endless waves of opponents that get stronger and more numerous until your lose by either dying or quitting. As the player increases his level, new weapons and armor are unlocked, giving the player an edge over stronger opponents.

The best part about Gun Bros is its wittiness and humor regarding the age-old genre of shooter games. It has smooth, responsive controls, and every playthrough is bound to be challenging. And what's more, it's free.

Worst Game App: Attack of the Fanboys

Attack of the Fanboys is a survival third person shooter like Gun Bros, the only difference is that instead of being a superhuman fighting evil robots and aliens, you play a superhuman fighting evil fanboy zombies.

While the concept of the game is great, the game appears to be bleak, with its uninspiring level and enemy design. The controls were not very responsive. However, the game did succeed in introducing strategy to the survival shooter genre by adding a limit on ammo - something that Gun Bros did not bother doing.

Book Review: Season of the Harvest

2011-04-06T22:03:00.001+08:00

Title: Season of the Harvest
Author: Michael R. Hicks
EPUB: Yes Kindle: Yes Paperback: Yes Hardcover: No

An exceptional read. Season of the Harvest is a techno science fiction thriller that takes us deep into the promising, yet dark world of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), that are commonly found in the plant food that we eat.

While the whole book itself is a work of fiction, it does lay an interesting question for the reader after going through the book. Are genetically modified food products beneficial for us in the long run? Is it possible that we are overlooking their possible unforseen consequences?

The book is very well written, with the plot steadily flowing, keeping the reader interested chapter after chapter. I actually find it hard to put down the book even if I've been reading for a long time. The action scenes in the book are well-detailed, and it gave me a good idea on what's happening, where something is happening, and who's involved in whatever's happening. The confrontations, gunfights, and even dialogues between characters are rendered beautifully, and they allowed me to vividly play the scenes in my mind.

The grammar in this book is top-notch, though I might be inaccurate because I did not have time to slowly go through the book over and over again in order to find errors in them. The author has edited the book well.

There was one part in the book that served as an annoying cliffhanger though - (WARNING: SPOILERS, highlight text to read) the part where they were missing that one bag of seeds. Perhaps the author intentionally put it in there in order for readers to draw up their own predictions to what's going to happen next.

Rating: 4/5 stars

My story of owning a Kindle 3

2011-03-30T21:01:00.000+08:00

I am a man who enjoys great works of literature. Reading is one of my prized pastimes, and I regularly keep track of my reading progress like I keep track of my exercise activities. My favorite reading material are works of fiction, however, I also enjoy reading non-fiction works like articles, opinions, etc., so long as they are relevant to my interests. I am fond of my ability to stay engrossed and lost in reading for extended periods of time. The average human attention span has reached an all-time low for the past few decades that reading an entire novel from beginning to end sounds like running a hundred miles while on crutches. If you have reached this far, congratulations. Most people wouldn't even get past the first sentence. But I digress.

To fuel my need of literature, I carry books along with me. I typically read them during hours where the time is better spent doing something other than just staring blankly into the distance, like while on the bus. It is uncommon for me to find time to read books full-time, as my time is divided more unevenly than the Philippine social system.

Books suck for a couple of reasons though. First, they take up space. I already think that my HTC Desire HD consumes too much space due to its 4.3" screen, despite it being almost as thin as a copy of Newsweek. An average pocket paperback weighs just about the same as my phone, though they are much thicker and larger.

Friends once asked me, "Why don't you get yourself a tablet?" "Sure," I replied. "Which one?" "The iPad." they would reply, and I would later contemplate why my dear friends would recommend such shitty contraptions. Knowing myself, I would probably root for an Android tablet, like a Samsung Galaxy Tab, but I couldn't afford such.

To hell with tablets. They're overrated expensive toys for little boys and girls. Besides, no one really uses tablets to read books anyway (unless comic books and manga count). Most people use their tablet computers to just play Angry Birds. I have no intention to spend more than half a thousand dollars just to play some game involving flightless, suicidal birds and architecturally-talented green pigs. If I owned a tablet, I would only read books and manga on them. So why wouldn't I just get a device whose primary purpose is to view works of literature?

So I lurked around the Internet (probably in a three-piece pinstripe suit, black, shiny loafers and a monocle), and I discovered e-readers. What makes e-readers completely different from tablets is the screen. Tablet computers use touch LCD screens, while e-readers use e-ink screens. E-ink screens are different from LCD screens because they use "electronic paper" that manipulate ink (real ink) to display text in different shades of gray. E-ink screens are superior to LCDs when it comes to contrast and reading in direct sunlight. Text is really much clearer on e-ink screens when compared to LCDs. However, since e-ink screens do not have backlights, it is impossible to read in the dark without an external light source. Additionally, since e-ink screens manipulate ink, it takes a while for them to refresh, which makes them incapable of displaying animation.

I've researched many different e-readers when I stumbled upon the BeBook line of e-readers. They were inexpensive and seemingly reliable (with a touch interface to boot). I have also perused the Sony line of e-readers, which were touch-capable but a lot more expensive. However, I immediately understood that choosing a not-very-well-known brand of e-readers would merit a small library of books. It's much like choosing an iPhone over an Android or a Windows Mobile phone because they have more (albeit shittier) apps.

I went to Amazon and examined the Kindle 3. There were two versions of the Kindle - one has both Wifi and 3G connectivity, and the other only has the former. I did not need a 3G connection - Wifi will have to do. For $139, it was a pretty sweet deal. I only had to add forty dollars for shipping and customs. It was scheduled to arrive a week after I ordered, but it came four days later, which was a great bonus.

The Kindle 3 was indeed an amazing device to read electronic books on. The screen itself was very crisp, and handled itself in bright sunlight. The device was lightweight and somehow pocketable, if your pocket can carry pocket paperbacks. I bought a jacket for it, which was not really a jacket built for the Kindle 3 but for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It fitted snugly since the Kindle was about as large as the Galaxy Tab.

It was happy moments for two weeks after that. I brought my Kindle everywhere, and nobody really gave shit about it because it looked like a small, leather notebook when I carried it by hand. I've finished reading George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita", and a couple of other classics with my Kindle.

All of those moments came to an end, however, in an unfortunate Sunday. I was sitting in a grassy meadow, with the Kindle in my pants pocket. When I fished it out to continue reading James Patterson's "Tick Tock", I was surprised to find the top of my screen "cracked", with a tear running diagonally from the top left corner to the middle right side of the screen. I thought it was just temporary so I began to repeatedly refresh the screen by using the "Alt-G" key combination. It was futile. The e-ink screen was cracked from the inside. The Kindle was broken.

My first instinct was to contact Amazon's Customer Service and kindly ask for a replacement device. I first contacted them through e-mail, but they replied that they could not process replacements through e-mail and I have to call their international phone line. Now, I've heard horror stories about customer service representatives on the phone, so I've decided to stall for at least three days before calling up Amazon. I read some comments of people on the Web about Amazon's customer service when it comes to Kindles. They say that the customer service was excellent, and they will agree to send me a replacement device with no questions asked, provided that I return the broken Kindle in return. I took their word for it and I gave it a try, and soon I was sent a replacement Kindle (which would arrive in about four to five days of course).

The Kindle has not yet arrived today, however, I am anxiously anticipating its arrival. Once it arrives, I'll send the broken Kindle back to Amazon. Hopefully I'll only have to do this once, though some people claim they are on their third or even fourth Kindle replacement.

Overall, the Kindle is a great inexpensive way to view electronic books. However, if you want something that can take a bit more wear and tear, I'd suggest something like the Sony Reader or the Bebook. Or just stick to reading real books.

Hate your life? Try writing self fanfics.

2011-02-06T17:14:00.000+08:00

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fan fiction as "stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet - also called fan fic". Most works of fan fiction are generally obscene, insane, unrealistic and written with grammar ripped from a fifth grader. But really, that's just the point of fan fiction. It's basically, "Who the fuck cares, this is my work, I can make anything happen." And in fan fictions, anything is ANYTHING. Some fan fictions actually make the story better. The rest are just literary Rule 34.

Although writing fan fictions has been a favorite pastime for both writers and non-writers, writers of the genre usually have a very, very small reader base (i.e. himself). So what's the point of writing something that only you are willing to read? The whole situation could be a little better if you wrote a fan fiction about you instead.

While writing a fan fiction for oneself would violate the definition given above (you are no longer writing about a fictional character), it's a great way to escape the harsh view of reality. Say for example you made a mistake that fucked your life up good. You can write a fan fiction as a recount of that event, but instead of portraying yourself as a failure you can actually fix everything by rewriting it. It sort of like photoshopping a shitty photograph to make it better. Remove some key events, change how everything happened, maybe even throw Chuck Norris in as some sort of equalizer for that story of your life.

However, as amusing or awesome your self fan fiction will be, it would be best that you DO NOT publish it to be read by other people. Keep it somewhere confidential. Nobody really wants to read your fan fiction about fighting dragons part-time being the reason you are late at work everyday. And when they do, the consequences are almost always never the same.

Books are dying, kept alive by tablets, e-book readers

2011-02-05T21:02:00.004+08:00

Books are, in my opinion, one of the best innovations known to man. While many earlier forms of storing information and literature have existed long before people wrote shit on paper then binded them together, books have remained living until today. And by living, I mean it's currently holding on for dear life.

Electronic book technology has allowed people to read works of literature on their shiny tablets, Kindles, iPhones, etc. My Desire HD carries a large collection of ebooks of which I spend an hour or two everyday to read. While I do have a large collection of ebooks, I also have an equally large collection of physical books. You know, those that are written on "paper" and binded together.

Reading on paper is way better than reading on some LCD screen. I've never enjoyed looking at electronic screens anyway. No matter how many innovations in display technology are being made every day, like high resolution LCDs, LED-backlit screens and the like, I just really don't get the hang of reading text on a bright screen. I've even had a hard time writing this post because it appears that my laptop's screen is fucking me with its brightness. And that's why when I read text, I try to invest a lot in anti-aliasing and high resolution displays. Also, something that's not too bright on my eyes.

This kind of ranting is strange to hear from someone who spends his time in front of screens of all sizes, be it dark UNIX terminals on my laptop or my phone. But seriously, nothing beats the sensation of reading a physical book in the presence soft light. There's even the aroma of aged paper that pulls you in to read further. Additionally, while reading physical books, there's the strange effect where you won't try to skim the story or skip parts the first time you read it. In reading text in screens, your TL;DR instincts start to kick in. With physical literature, the concept of TL;DR simply could not exist (unless you're reading a shitty book).

I know this ranting makes me sound like I'm sixty years old, but honestly I'm not even of legal age yet. But it really sucks that lots of people (old folks included) begin to favor ebooks over the original, physical ones we've been enjoying for more than a thousand and a half years. But then again, who reads ebooks? The longest piece of literature the majority of people read today is probably a Facebook status message. And statistically, 99.99999% of Facebook statuses don't even count as literature. "Random shit jumbled into decipherable words" would be a more appropriate term for it.

TL;DR: E-books suck.

HTC Desire HD Review

2011-01-31T18:50:00.004+08:00

I have recently acquired a kickass HTC Desire HD, for reasons I won't divulge here, but let's just say that I've decided to dump iOS and give Android a try. Particularly because anything bearing the Apple logo (with the exception of my IBM Thinkpad X60s, I sarcastically stuck an Apple logo on its front) means it can be used by kids and will only be used by kids, or old people. Also, they can cost a whole semester's tuition or two. Since I do not fit in either demographic, and is not the kind who wastes money on shiny crap, I've decided to give Android a try with the HTC Desire HD.

The phone set me back Php26,700 (roughly US$ 603). It wasn't part of any postpaid plan, just bought it open line (meaning it's not stuck to any network), and set it for prepaid. When compared to the rest of the world, the system is pretty different in the Philippines, prepaid network services are available here in this country, which means you don't have to be prisoner to a network provider, and SIM cards are easily bought and used anonymously.

This review won't be that comprehensive. I won't go and discuss the insides of the phone, its technical specifications that much. I'll usually only review the essentials, and I've categorized them into categories courtesy of myself.

Performance

Speed is of the essence.

The HTC Desire HD is the fastest phone I've ever handled, thanks to its Qualcomm MSM 8255 1Ghz Scorpion processor. By the time I'm writing this review, 1Ghz smartphone processors are apparently the norm, and the world is currently bracing itself for the hour when dual core phones are distributed on the market. Also, the Desire HD's 768MB of memory allows me to multitask to my heart's content, although it poses some disadvantages (see below). Finally, Android 2.2 (Froyo) is faster and snappier here than its predecessor and the iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G. Comparing the iPhone 3G's performance to the Desire HD would be like comparing the performance of a bicycle with broken gears with a 1996 Dodge Viper GTS.

Concerning storage capacity, the Desire HD carries a disappointing amount of internal space - just about a gigabyte, but you can add in a microSD card with a size up to 32GB, which is probably more than adequate.

Score: 9/10

Market

While the Apple App Store itself is pretty huge and filled with millions of useless apps like flashlights, compatibility machines and Tap Tap Revenge, the Android Market is pretty much the same, albeit smaller, and does not include Tap Tap Revenge. Unlike the App Store though, the Android Market is a complete mess. While some apps on the iPhone are completely free on the Android (one example is Angry Birds), some weren't, a striking example is Remember the Milk, which is pretty disappoint since me and my friends use RTM to organize ourselves. I think the reason for this is that most developers who write for the iPhone first must have rewritten the app for the Android as an afterthought. Consequently, this led to generally bad ported apps.

Also, since Android phones have a lot of performance differences with each other, particularly with screen size, processor speed, memory and whatnot, some apps are optimized for slow phones, others for fast phones such as the Desire HD. Not like I'm complaining, because [1] My phone is fast, and [2] There were a lot of game apps in the App Store which ran horrendously slow on my iPhone 3G.

Score: 6.5/10

Syncing

Since Android phones don't usually come with magical and painfully slow software like iTunes, the Desire HD can be quite a bitch to sync, especially when your music collection is in question. Android phones, however, are associated with your Google account, which means your contacts, calendar, etc. are all synced with your Google account. Winamp is currently touting its ability to sync to Android phones, however, my Winamp doesn't really store any local media in its library, it only imported itself from iTunes. Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party syncing applications available on the Web, some are even able to integrate itself with iTunes (if slow media players are your forte), and there is a chance that your phone's manufacturer bundled your phone with their own syncing tools, that usually suck like shit (according to my experience with such software).

Score: 7/10

Battery Life

As with all smartphones (especially Androids), the Desire HD's battery life is a lot shorter than the lifespan of a domestic house fly, especially if the phone is running on 3G signals all the time. While the solution for this is simple (don't use 3G, goddamnit), the Desire HD, along with other phones not created by Apple give you the ability to change your phone's battery without taking it to some shiny, white shop to be replaced. However, the phone's powerful processor and continuous multitasking, together with its huge 4.3" screen can drain the battery quickly. Some apps even quietly but quickly drain your battery in the background because some of them go on recursive loops trying to refresh itself (even when there is no Internet connection), so there.

Score: 6/10

Media

One of the key selling points of the Desire HD is its oversized 4.3" SuperLCD screen, so no wonder HTC decided to add "HD" to this phone's name, right? I find it great to watch videos of all sorts on the Desire HD, even Youtube videos (provided that I don't get the read the comments). Also, its 480x800 (218 ppi) makes reading e-books and manga very comfortable. Sound quality is excellent too, with its built-in Dolby Mobile surround system and SRS effects, which can be greatly improved more if you have the proper sound output gear (such as good noise-cancelling headphones or a true 5.1 surround sound system).

Score: 9/10

Uniqueness

While the Desire HD follows the design guidelines of Android phones (huge screen, four navigation buttons below), it does stand out from the rest with its non-physical navigation keys and its "totally-not-ripped-off-from-the-iPhone" appearance. The backside of the phone is in matte, unlike most other phones who imitate the iPhone's glossy finish.

The Desire HD is also highly customizable on the inside. You can use live wallpapers (something my iPhone did not have), have several home screens, and other customizable features common to Android phones. While customizing your Android is a little on par with customizing an iPhone, Androids are easier to customize than iPhones since you don't have to jailbreak your phone to have a totally different look. Unless flashing a new ROM is your thing.

Score: 8/10

Misc

There's one thing Google overlooked in Android. There's NO fucking proxy configuration support for wireless networks. Sure, my Desire HD is fast, not too shiny, but it's unable to connect to proxy servers. This sucks, because I spend the majority of my time in DLSU, where our wireless network there is protected by a proxy server. The only option to have proxy configurations is by gaining root (super user) access to the phone, or installing a new ROM (particularly Cyanogenmod), both of which will instantly void my phone's 1 year warranty. I don't really need warranty that much, since I can pretty much fix problems myself, but I think I'll wait a good two weeks first and see if the phone has any defects before I decide to fiddle with it.

Waiting for Gingerbread (Android 2.3) to be supported by HTC would be useless since apparently, from what I've heard from some comments, Google continues to flip the bird at corporate users by ignoring the requests (no, demands is a better term) for proxy support.

Score: 0/10

Verdict

The Desire HD is overall a great phone for media enthusiasts and those who thinks performance-wise in the phone while also being conscious about his budget, since it costs less than an iPhone 3G (at least in my country). It's also a great way to stay away from those kids who got those iPhones that all look alike, without sacrificing your dignity.

Overall: 8/10

Learning a new language: A great way to tell how much you hate yourself

2011-01-23T20:53:00.003+08:00

Recently, I've been studying 日本語 (Nihongo), because apparently I've decided that two languages weren't enough to make myself look presentable in polite society and that I don't already hate myself enough.

To anyone who've tried to study Nihongo like me, we both know that installing that language as one of your own is like trying to stab yourself with a plastic spoon. It's difficult and ineffective, but not pointless. For starters, you will have to memorize two new "alphabets" (or writing systems), Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ).

That shouldn't be too hard wouldn't it? After all, you only have to memorize 192 characters, and that includes their だくおん (dakuon) and はんだくおん (handakuon), as well as the よおん (yoon) combinations. While that seems like a feat that requires months to accomplish, I've managed to read (albeit at a slow pace) Hira and Kata without peeking into a reference sheet every ten seconds in three and a half weeks. Also, don't forget that you have to learn how to write that shit as well.

Memorizing the "alphabet" doesn't end with Hira and Kata. You will now have to go through memorizing Kanji. Kanji is basically Chinese characters borrowed from the...Chinese. The sad fact in getting your Kanji on is that you have to able to read, write, speak, and understand 1,945 of them. Now I didn't pull that number out of my ass, that's actually the number the Japanese Ministry of Education expects people living in Japan to know in order for them to be considered literate in the language.

Oh, and keep in note that Nihongo uses a completely different grammatical structure when compared to English. Saying "I am awesome" would turn into "I awesome am" when written in Japanese grammar. That's why no matter how great your translation program is, a clean automated Nihongo to English translation is almost always never achieved. Good translations are provided only by people who master both English and Japanese. Combine that with the fact that there are no Japanese syllables that constitute to the sound of "L" (hence "Engrish"), you might want to use a metallic spoon to impale on yourself than a plastic one, or you could use a lot of plastic spoons.

In addition to learning Japanese part time I'm also trying to get a grip of the Java programming language, as well as get acquainted with scripting languages like Python and Lua. While these languages are only used within a circle of geeks, the Java language is actually quite difficult, as it requires people to grasp an entirely new concept of programming which is called "Object Oriented Programming", also known as the sad attempt at making programming simple by attributing stuff in your code to real life entities.

At the rate I'm studying, I should be able to at least understand everything I need to understand so that I may pass the JPLT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, the exam designed to test a foreigner's proficiency in Nihongo) in all levels, in about a year or sooner if I focus hard enough. Then the time will come when I successfully did everything I had to do then stare into the horizon, thinking, "What the fuck did I just do?", then spend some time thinking what language should I learn next. I heard Russian and Deutsche (German) is pretty cool, though, might want to put them in my list.

The Great Reinstallation of '10

2010-12-11T12:07:00.002+08:00

A few days ago I have successfully finished the rigorous task of repartitioning my drives and reinstalling everything. Now this might seem like an easy job for some of you, but here are the objectives I have to meet during reinstallation:

1. All important data are to be backed up and restored as is. This is not entirely difficult, but it is one of the objectives with grave importance. Most of my important documents are stored in my external HDD, Network Attached Storage (NAS) and my offsite Winamp is known for its shitty way of backing up your files. I've decided to just backup its database (as well as with iTunes for my iPhone), and just restore the files in the same location and partition as it was before so that they could easily find it.

2. I will have to equally distribute my partitions. As planned, my Windows and Linux partitions will get 40GB and 30GB of space respectively. A central storage drive formatted as NTFS (the Windows NT filesystem) will be shared by both operating systems. I'll explain more of this later.

3. Instead of Ubuntu, I'm installing Arch Linux as my Linux distro. This reason is primarily because Ubuntu is becoming less of the "Linux for human beings" as it was advertised and more of the "Linux for Mac Users". It's filled with bloatware, and horribly now very easy to use. Unlike Ubuntu, which practically works right out of the box, Arch Linux is light, but reliable and, ultimately customizable. It will be harder to set up, but more rewarding in the end.

As a matter of fact, you can use this post as some sort of a guide if you're planning to dual-boot Windows 7 and Arch Linux on a single hard disk drive. To avoid repetition, I'll post my laptop's specifications here.

IBM Thinkpad x60s
Age: 5(?) years
Intel Core Duo L2400 x86 (32-bit) @ 1.66Ghz
2.25GB of RAM
250GB Seagate 5400RPM HDD

(NOTE: If you have multiple hard disk drives, this will not cover your needs. However, I heard that multi-booting using multiple HDDs is easier than just using one HDD.)

(NOTE: I will not be covering how I backed up my data, as that wouldn't be too hard to do.)

Phase one: Setting up partitions

The first step would be repartitioning the hard disk. Take note that you will not be able to do this in the Windows 7 DVD, as it is really only limited to creating NTFS partitions of its own. To do this, you will need the GParted live CD, or you could use an Ubuntu Live CD, as they have GParted inside.

(NOTE: I have first attempted to repartition my drives on the Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Live CD, but GParted crashed shortly after the process and I could not get back to GParted just to check if everything was alright. I ended up using the Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Live CD instead.)

After booting from the Ubuntu Live CD, I went to System->Administration->GParted. There, the filesystem table of my hard disk drive is shown. I deleted all the partitions, and then repartitioned them as:

/dev/sda (This is my HDD)
-> /dev/sda1 40GB NTFS (Windows 7)
-> /dev/sda4 30GB Extended (Arch)
-> /dev/sda5 10GB ext4 / (root)
-> /dev/sda6 2GB linux-swap (swap for Arch)
-> /dev/sda7 (the rest of /dev/sda4) ext4 /home
-> /dev/sda3 ~180GB NTFS (storage)

(NOTE: /dev/sda2 is used by Windows 7 as another partition, probably used for system restore. It is always 100MB in size, and takes up a partition in your HDD. There are, however, workarounds in removing this partition, if you plan on triple-booting.)

After successfully partitioning my hard disk drives, I prepared my Windows 7 Home Premium DVD (this is genuine, by the way, set me back Php5,500) to reinstall Windows.

Phase two: Installing Windows 7

I actually thought of installing Windows XP instead of Windows 7, as I enjoy XP better with its flexibility and being easily customizable (not to mention being completely compatible with LiteStep). But since that would mean tossing away five thousand pesos, I've decided to just continue with Windows 7. At least it's shinier.

Installing Windows 7 is a pretty straightforward process. It's particularly idiot-proof, so it's not really difficult. You can try to format your NTFS drives again here in Windows 7 (as it does the job better, I think), but take care not to touch the Linux extended partition. It will appear to Windows as blank and unpartitioned, but do not touch them or you will have to repeat phase one again.

After installation, I checked if my storage drive was present. It appeared in Windows as D:\, so I went ahead and created folders that would be shared by Windows and Arch (Photos, Music, Videos, Downloads, Games, etc.) and set the Windows Libraries to the location of the custom folders. Then I rebooted and inserted the Arch Linux Installation CD.

Phase three: Installing Arch Linux

The installation of Arch Linux is really different from Ubuntu's. In Ubuntu, you just input some information about yourself (location for UTC time, keyboard layout, etc.), and just let the setup do everything else for you. In Arch Linux, there is a semblance of a GUI setup present, but it's more of a list of everything you need to do before you copy the base files of the OS. Since describing everything I did during the installation would take too long, I suggest you consult the Arch Linux Wiki's Beginner Guide and the Official Arch Linux Install guide to get started. I won't be discussing how to use the Arch Linux installer, I'll be discussiing what I did after installing.

(NOTE: If you are just starting out with Linux, don't choose Arch as your first distro. It's difficult, and it's build primarily for Linux users who wants to know what's going on inside a Linux system. Ubuntu is primarily a good choice for those who are just starting out in Linux.)

After installing, I was transported back to the basic CLI terminal. I logged in as root (as there are no user accounts yet), and created a user account for myself. Using pacman (Arch Linux's PACkage MANager), I installed sudo (super use do, gives temporary root privileges for a command), the alsa mixer (for sounds) and the X Window Manager (xorg). As I want my Arch Linux setup to be minimal and un-shiny as possible, I've opted to install LXDE as my desktop environment, which turned out to be quite a pain to setup, so I removed it and installed the more familiar XFCE DE instead.

Right after installing my desktop environment of choice and starting X (using startx), I was greeted with the empty XFCE desktop. The extra packages that come with XFCE4 was not present, so I installed them using pacman. I also installed and configured ntfs-3g, which provides stable NTFS reading and writing, so now Arch can mount, read, and write to and from the two NTFS partitions in my hard disk.

Setting up my wireless network connection was the hard part. Although I was spared of having to find the drivers for my wireless device since the Arch repositories have them, managing the device itself was a pain. So far the method I used was through the CLI network management tool, netcfg. I added various network profiles like home (connecting to my home Wlan), home-eth0 (for connecting to my home ethernet), and others, which will make connecting to networks with profiles easily by just typing "sudo netcfg " to a terminal. Of course, this sucks if I am travelling and have to find a network to connect to, because I will have to manually scan and add a profile for that new network. But it works, and that's what matters.

Phase four: Restoring backups

This is pretty easy. I just move my backups back to the storage drive. I installed whatever is necessary to Windows and have successfully synergized it with Arch. Now they are pretty much working with each other, although I must admit Windows is a bitch. Currently I am in the never-ending process of customizing my desktops to get my dosages of desktop deviance (and shininess).

A sad case of focus loss

2010-11-16T18:37:00.003+08:00

It's been more than a month since I last wrote a post for Sulatang Tapunan. It's been a frustrating October for me, even though that was the month where my birthday sits on. My ability to focus on one task is currently unoperational, as I have been trying to train my mind to multi-task everything. The human mind is not really a multi-threaded machine, and trying to multi-task on it is like telling your dog to do a handstand while he eats his food. It's never easy nor comfortable.

I managed to grab some time to write to Sulatang Tapunan by eagerly anticipating the arrival of my copy of Borderlands: Claptraps Robot Revolution DLC, instead of wasting my time playing Call of Duty: Black Ops (not really implying playing CoD:BO is a complete waste of time, that game is kickass, it's just that I don't really achieve much if I play it). Also, I am trying to fully adapt myself to turn Xubuntu into my primary operating system, and just resort to using Windows 7 if some game could not be run by Wine. As a consequence I wouldn't be able to use Windows Live Writer, a very good blogging tool developed by the folks at Microsoft, which I use frequently to write to Sulatang Tapunan, for its smooth, intuitive interface that is very similar to that of Office's.

Although the smooth ribbon toolbars and aero transparency is visually appealing to the eyes, it is also very, very distracting. When I first encountered the Aero interface I was very dazzled by the incredibly smooth blurring and transparency of the windows, and I would exclaim in my mind, "Holy shit, how did they do that?". My amazement was short-lived, though, as I quickly found ways to replicate the same effect in Windows XP, and more recently in a Linux Desktop Environment.

I wouldn't even dare go back to Blogger's default web editor either. Trying to work in a web browser is very dangerous to your concentration, especially today where my browser has an average of 30 tabs lying around (all sorted cleanly and beautifully by the way), waiting for me to click them, scan them, then maybe use my middle mouse to spawn more of them, until I become so absorbed in clicking that I forgot what I was doing. I came across a post in Lifehacker one day and found some great options for distraction-free writers. Distraction-free, as in, I am not given a beautiful GUI to work on, but rather, a dark (it could also be bright) void, waiting for me to type in my words. I chose TextRoom because, (1) it works on Linux, (2) It's as minimalistic as it could get, (3) It looks like it's based on Q10, another distraction-free writer, which is also great.

My color scheme is light grey on black, my favorite combination of monochrome, as it sorta looks like a xterminal. I don't really need formatting as I work, I can just do that later if I wish. Maybe I could also just lay out the HTML for the whole post and add formatting there, though, I would have prepared the pictures I'm going to include first before I finish up.

Other areas of Focus Loss

I'm also losing focus in physical activites, like how I get to jog less often, because I'm too busy either absorbed in studying, coding, or just playing around. It's horrible. Everything I do everyday now is quite unplanned and if this continues on I would be in serious disorganization. There's plenty of things I should keep up with, like my writing, my exercise, instead of just coding and playing around.

I don't even enjoy social networking, but look at me, I'm probably more disorganized than them. Maybe I should just stop lurking around on the Internet too much.

Result of no-protection XP challenge

2010-09-27T20:07:00.003+08:00

When I installed Windows XP on a virtual machine on my laptop some time ago, it wasn't just because I want to experience nostalgia from using old OS'es, it's also to challenge my resilience on security and protection.

How does this challenge work? It's easy. I will never install any anti-malware software on my computer for some weeks or so. Additionally, since my copy of Windows is not genuine at all, it won't receive important security updates from Microsoft, so that's another layer of protection removed. Then I would do whatever I always do online. Trolling, researching, reading the news, maybe even download some pr0ns for...safekeeping. So there. I'll go out in the wild without anything watching your back for a few weeks, then I'd download Trend Micro House Call to scan for malware that came through.

Why did I use XP? Because with all the Windows versions I've used, XP was the most vulnerable, wherein I had way too many run ins with malware in the past. I believe XP is the most vulnerable operating system out there when it comes to malware. It's like a Thai prostitute - ugly and full of viruses. The only advantage XP has over its successors is that it uses way less resources than Vista and 7. So there.

Of course, I took every security precaution available. To safeguard myself against keylogging, I used LastPass to encrypt my logins and on-screen keyboards while inputting usernames and passwords. I even used Tor so that those tracking websites won't be able to remotely view my geolocation.

Results

House Call just finished scanning my computer for malware, and it found something. Great thing is, it's alone, and it's just some regular adware that I probably got from browsing pornographic websites (you know those popups of Adultfriendfinder and other sites? They give you that). The file detected was cmdow.exe, and its corresponding threat was, according to Trend Micro, ADWARE .0737EEDD. According to the data in the link, this spyware does nothing but take my browsing history and send it somewhere for marketing purposes. Well they're in for a big surprise then.

Also, cmdow.exe, according to further Googling, is not originally a fatal binary file, but a tool designed to modify commandline windows, such as not allowing the user to close the window (because some users freak out at the sight of an ugly DOS-prompt and close it immediately, hampering some installation procedures in the process). However, in this case, I don't recall having to use this, and I don't really need it, so I just removed it.

I also managed to install and run Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware (an excellent software, I might add), which managed to snag a trojan executable and a dangerous registry value. Also, it detected three potentially dangerous security settings, which was the Windows Security Center being turned off, but I intentionally set it that way for this challenge.

After a quick system reboot, I decided to run a scan again, just to be safe. I won't be posting any more details and its results, because that would be a waste of time.

Conclusion

It is possible to be malware-free without some sort of security software

Windows XP is very vulnerable to attacks

Virtual machines are probably the best way to protect yourself against malware, by using a fake OS as a shield

The worst part in riding a bus

2010-09-24T07:53:00.001+08:00

I love buses. I love them as much as I love my computer for always screwing up on me during some times when I needed it most. I am bound by forced love for buses because that’s the only mode of transportation that efficiently gets me from home to school and vice versa.

For our international readers, Philippine buses work a little differently than your bus lines. In the Philippines, we do not buy tickets before we enter the bus, we buy them once we get in. And those who sell tickets are not referred to as “ticket salesmen” but conductors, not the kind you see who waves a stick around in front of musicians but the kickass one who can withstand inertial forces in a bus while immediately computing the fare of the 40-53 sitting passengers, plus the unfortunate twenty or so who are standing on the aisle of the bus. Can you keep yourself cool and balanced while computing the fare of one passenger mentally while keeping track of the people who just walked in and are ticket-less? If you can’t, you’re not fit to be a Philippine bus conductor.

Another difference between Philippine buses and international standards is that we rarely have bus stops. Bus stops in the Philippines are self-established by the passengers themselves. A bus stop in the Philippines is somewhere where there’s a lot of people waiting for a bus and there’s no MMDA traffic enforcers nearby who are in the mood for ticketing buses.

That’s how the system works here in the Philippines. Like most other systems, this one has its flaws. Besides having completely undocumented, clueless, and unplanned routes that could kill somebody inexperienced in Philippine commuting, there’s also another flaw: the standing room.

When you step in the bus and all the seats are taken, would you [A] Get out and wait for another bus, preferably one with seats or [B] Stay? If you chose the latter, you’re gonna have to stand, sucker. Move over to the back so we can try to squeeze others in this standing room orgy.

So I made a comic depicting what I feel when I’m that unlucky person who gets to stand first.

Screw you, Philippine buses.

Nostalgia is a pain in the ass

2010-09-24T07:38:00.001+08:00

After successfully installing Windows XP on a virtual machine, I was immediately amazed at my recently-earned power of installing multiple operating systems on my notebook without having to buy another system or use multi-booting. I’ve decided to amp up my virtual machine craze and install one of Windows’ infamous builds: Windows 98.

Apparently I have downloaded not only an image of Windows 98 SE but also Windows 95. I don’t plan to install Win95 right now since I’d like to try out the operating system I’m more familiar with. The first build of Windows (and first operating system) I’ve ever touched was Windows 95, and that was like twelve years ago. But I’ve been with Windows 98 for a long time, before I made the jump to XP in 2002.

I used VirtualBox for virtualization, because I love open-source applications and I dislike the corporate feel of VMWare. The virtual machine for Windows 98 isn’t really that taxing for my laptop. I think Firefox would grab more system resources than Windows 98 inside a virtual machine. I just needed 64MB of RAM, which is really a lot for Windows 98, and a 4GB virtual hard drive. I took the specifications off my old Compaq notebook which is retired and resting in my closet. It ran Windows 98, and was one of the most powerful notebooks during its time. A Pentium II 366Mhz, 128MB of RAM, 4GB of HDD, what more could you want in 1998?

Installation

Windows 98 takes longer to install than Windows XP, because 98 has all that 16-bit crap that happens to slow down its processes on my virtual machine. I laughed at the fact that the boot setup installer mentioned that a HDD larger than 512MB is considered “huge”. I should probably go back in time and show them a 32GB SD card.

The installation process of Windows 98 was flawed and boring. Sure, it only has 8-bit colors during installation, and while I’m installing a new OS I don’t really need Aero effects. I think Windows 98 should have just used a text-based installer, because it does its job of looking pretty very badly. Also, the processes are not streamlined to a “set it and go outside” layout, unlike its older successors. After one hour of waiting, you are expected to input some information, wait for another twenty minutes, input more information, etc.

It even took ten minutes to set up “Plug-and-Play”, one of Microsoft’s failed attempts to monopolize by “supporting” numerous devices through easy installation. It was developed before the days of USB, wherein buying a mouse will most likely include a floppy disk inside for drivers.

Trying it out

After a few more setting changes by Windows 98, I was greeted by the familiar 16-bit interface, the gritty colors, the 640x480 resolution. The interface was very slow, probably slower than the average Filipino’s computer riddled with all sorts of crap. This was due to the fact that Windows 98 and its predecessors schedules (or prioritizes) its tasks poorly.

So, despite Virtualbox having the ability to run Windows 98, it does work, but it’s so slow it’s not really that useful. I can’t even connect to the Internet because this “MSN Internet Access” program thinks I’m some guy stuck in the late 90’s by trying to convince me that I’m using a dial-up modem to connect to the Internet.

Conclusion

While currently Windows 98 on my system is highly uncomfortable and slow, it works. Maybe the basics, but at least it boots up despite crashing and BSOD’ing itself a couple of minutes later. I’m yet to try out Windows 95 though, and maybe installing a couple of other operating systems such as Arch Linux and Chrome OS.

Virtualed XP

2010-09-19T21:26:00.000+08:00

Recently I have successfully finished the task of virtualizing Windows XP under my Windows 7 OS in my Thinkpad X60s. Since I'm fond of installing XP stuff for the sake of nostalgia (after a failed attempt to make Ubuntu look like XP), I knew adding Windows XP to my boot configuration would be unnecessary, so I turned to virtual machines.

What are virtual machines?

Virtual machines are non-physical computers running instructions inside a host computer, similar to a real, physical machine. In layman terms, it's like Inception: a computer within a computer. This is very useful for testing compatibility issues, like testing if your Windows 7 program could work on earlier versions of Windows without using another computer or installing the OS on a separate partition. You can go as many virtual computers as you like, so long as your hardware capabilities can permit. You can have like a computer within a computer within a computer within a computer, and so on.

Disadvantages of virtual machines

Virtual machines will always grab a chunk of the host OS's resources. This means your host OS (the real computer) should have some spare resources to give to the guest OS. Processing power isn't really that much of a requirement, unless you're installing a modern operating system like Vista, 7, or OSX. But memory is a must, and for virtual PCs, 2GBs of RAM or more is recommended.

Also, it can't run as fast as a real operating system can. But it can do whatever a real OS could do.

Cool stuff about virtual machines

One of the most important traits a virtual machine possesses, is that, it is not directly linked to your host OS. It only runs inside the host OS, but it rarely directly communicates or shares files with the host OS unless you set it to. This means that whatever happens in your virtual machine stays in your virtual machine. This is great, because if your guest OS catches a virus, it stays there and it will never infect the host OS unless the guest has privileges to write to a shared folder on the host OS.

You can use the guest OS as a sandbox, go to sites you never dare to visit lest your computer gets messed up, and see what happens. If the guest OS gets nuked by malware and whatnot, don't panic. You can always just remove it and install another one, provided you don't have much sensitive data on your guest OS.

On a side note, virtual machines could be excellent for trolling, as it adds an extra layer of anonymity and protection. Combine that with a good relaying service, some proxies, and good privacy ethics, and you're good to go as a faceless person on the Internet, e.g. a complete Anon. Just don't troll too much, ok?

What you'll need for a virtual machine

- Some spare RAM (256MB+ recommended)
- At least 8GB of HDD space
- A (hopefully genuine and legal) copy of your preferred guest OS
- Time

I used some Windows XP disc I found lurking in my disc archives, it was marked as "Service Pack 3" for the lulz, as I recall I have bought it sometime around 2006. Now remember that the SP3 for Windows XP didn't come until recently in 2009 or so. But this copy was good - uxtheme.dll was already patched, so it had custom themes of its own, it included a basic suite of Microsoft Office 2003, and 2005 versions of Adobe Reader, Mozilla Firefox and Winrar. At least there aren't any bloatware.

What not to do in the vicinity of a computer: Eating

2010-09-05T23:02:00.001+08:00

You probably must have heard this quite a million times. You have heard in it television, you have read it one of your computers manuals (you did, right?), and maybe countless other people on the Internet have told you so. Maybe you stopped eating after hearing them, or maybe you just let your inner glutton out and just gorged away in front of your keyboard.

And what would happen next? Most likely you’ll attract the nearest ant horde, or maybe even have roaches gnawing under your keyboard. Hell, there are even stories of worms and even baby mice found in all sorts of places in a computer.

And guess what? This happened to me, quite a number of numerous times. Thankfully, the enemy are just some regular fire ants.

These guys, although they appear much smaller.

First wave: Desktop keyboard

So I’ve been shitty in keeping my keyboard from being shitty. I became fond of eating all forms of breads and pastries in front of my desktop, usually while playing GTAIV or Left 4 Dead. The bread crumbs, which naturally fall down from the bread, also naturally attracts the local ant empire who illegally set base in my house long ago.

They immediately formed ranks and began scavenging my keyboard, making typing a thing for nightmares to come since every time you hit a key, there’s a high chance that a squad of ants will rush out from under that key and try to climb up your arm.

Thankfully the ants are no match for an air compressor. You don’t really have to kill them with fire, just a little blowing of wind would sort them out.

Second wave: Power supply

This was the costliest but least annoying of the ant attacks. Supposedly, a couple of ants made the weirdest and most retarded mistake of thinking that the best place to get their ant grub is the insides of my power supply. Of all places, my fucking PSU. So one night while I was probably sleeping or challenging sleep, they decided to raid my computer (which was on at the time) and committed mass suicide on my PSU.

The next morning I was surprised to see that my computer has mysteriously turned off, and believing ghosts are just pussies who believe in afterlife rather than zombification, I did what a good computer user would do. Turn the computer on again.

But it did not budge. I tried to turn it on again, but then again it didn’t. I checked the power lines for any loose or removed sockets, then traced the wires back to my power supply, where I noticed one little ant coming out of the PSU like a wounded soldier from Vietnam. I ignored him, but a few seconds later one of his comrades followed, and then another, and soon after you’ll discover a group of ants emerging from the PSU, battered and wounded, enough to inspire someone to create a Call of Duty game featuring ants.

I took the PSU out of the case and examined it. I lit up the inside and was slightly appalled at what I saw – a mass grave of dead ants, some dismembered, some clinging on the PSU cooling fans. Not that I’m appalled from what I’ve seen, as I enjoy witnessing corpses of all kinds, especially when they come in bunches, but I’m disgusted because I have to shell out a hundred and fifty dollars again to get the same exact PSU unit again.

Third Wave: My laptop, fuck

As much as I love or hate ants, I don’t really mind them running around in my house. I mean, they’re part of this weird thing environmentalists (read: hippies) call an ecosystem right? They’re just little fools whose main purpose is to clean up the little bits of food and help bacteria in eating off rotting carcasses. However, they appear to have looked for food in the wrong place.

Returning home after my finals, I received news that the ants have assaulted my laptop and is now making a forward hive inside. And I don’t mean that they’re just hiding underneath its keyboard or anything. I meant that they were inside, gnawing on the motherboard, riding the heatsink, etc.

My first idea was to blow the shit out of the ants using ~~explosives~~ ~~TNT~~ ~~nuclear bombs~~ compressed air, however it didn’t do much since I can’t blow much of the inside of my laptop with it being tightly closed. I tried the belief that ants hate heat, so I tried to keep my computer on for three days and two nights, but to no avail. They just get out of the laptop while it’s hot, then come back in when it begins to cool.

I opened up the laptop to peer at its internal organs and see that it’s currently infected with ant shit. Seeing that I don’t want to intentionally fry the components with vacuum or air static, I sent it to a nearby laptop technician, who accepted to clean up my system despite him insisting me to get an insect exterminator instead.

Currently I do not have my laptop with me, and I’m afraid it will stay that way for three or five days or maybe even a whole week if the technician decides to just procrastinate and wank off. Fortunately I won’t be needing my laptop at the moment, because I needed some time with my desktop, the whole week’s my semestral break and I don’t really need it that much.

Lesson

So, lesson learned. Don’t eat nowhere near your computer. If you are feeling the urge to gobble something up, make sure you stay out within a six foot radius from your computer. I’m sure you enjoy sitting outside, eating a pasty and drinking a cappuccino, while watching people get kicked in the nuts on Failblog, but don’t do it, for your computer’s sake. Otherwise, the situation with pests invading your computer could escalate to this:

Oh shit.

Cherry Mobile Q5i: A review

2010-09-04T22:13:00.001+08:00

I forgot to tell everybody about my new phone, the Cherry Mobile Q5i. I just bought it a week and a half ago and forgot to write a review for it because I lost track of time and I was having too much fun (aka procrastinating). Read long and find out why I prefer to call this phone the “poor man’s smartphone”.

The Phone

Overview

The Cherry Mobile Q5i is a Philippine phone with Filipinos in mind, but apparently has borrowed ideas from the big mobile phone players in the world. To keep up with today’s trends, it is equipped with a smooth physical QWERTY keyboard, similar to those of a Blackberry’s. It comes in four colors: Solid yellow w/black back, solid red w/black back, black w/blue back and trim (this is what I got) and black w/white back and trim.

Model

The Q5i is part of the Q series, which is, a bunch of phones who share a common trait – QWERTY keyboards. The Q5i is not really one of the newest and state of the art releases in its family, but it is one of the most reliable. Its successors include the Trident (triple SIM capability), and various other Q series phones.

Features

The phone itself is very feature packed. Here are some of them:

Dual SIM capabilities. Every local phone has to have this, since most Filipinos are part of at least two cellular networks.
Mobile Web Browsing. The Q5i handles true websites very poorly, because it can only use a GPRS connection and it has a very basic browser built mainly for mobile websites. However, it does its job pretty well.
Touchpad control. The phone uses a touchpad instead of buttons to navigate through the interface. Touchpads are similar to those used in iPods other than the iPod touch.
Java support. Not all local phones are capable of basic Java programs, but the Q5i is different. There are three Java applications installed by default – a mobile browser, a Yahoo! Messenger app, a MSN Messenger app, plus a couple of games.
Improved audio. The Wolfson audio chipset used in the Q5i is similar to those found in the previous generation of iPods. It allows for clearer audio and support for a 3.5mm audio jack, instead of some proprietary jack.
Dual MicroSD slots. The phone has two slots for MicroSD flash memory cards. Currently I’m using two 2GB MicroSD cards, however, I have no idea if the phone supports MicroSDHC (MSD High Capacity) cards (4GB and higher).
Other features such as FM radio, a 2MP camera, a video camera, video playback support, image viewing, and no TV (whew).

Interface

The interface is speedier and prettier than my previous Cherry Mobile D15. It has simple transitions that makes you feel that the phone isn’t slowing down on you. Also, the colors are smooth and easy to the eyes.

Portability

The phone is wider than my previous D15, due to the fact that it possesses a QWERTY keybaord, but the Q5i is very lightweight for its size. It fits in most pockets, and can be easily fished out if needed.

Its battery capacity is quite high, a natural trait for local phones. The battery stays alive for at least five days with constant audio playback using headphones. I’m guessing it should last a week if its just on standby and you’re using it just for texting and calling.

Durability

The phone’s exterior is very durable, as, contrary to popular belief, it can resist falls and shock without much permanent damage. The pins and sockets of the phone however, are susceptible to damage under pressure, I’ll explain more of that later.

My phone (no, I meant the Q5i I have, not the other Pinoy phone brand)

My Q5i has been in my possession and care for about one and a half weeks, and so far the only problem I had with it is that the 3.5mm jack socket got busted, and all the time the phone thinks that a headset is connected to my phone.

This problem is not a nuisance. It has very huge implications on the phone’s capablities. Since it thinks that there is a headset attached to the phone even though there wasn’t, it will always rely on its imaginary headset to transmit audio from the handset whenever you make or receive calls, which sucks, since you won’t hear the other person on the line unless you have earphones connected and using the loudspeaker is just too awkward in public.

How I fixed the problem

I would have sent my phone to a Cherry Mobile technician, but the place is too far away and I’m too lazy to go there. So, I sent it to the numerous cellphone repair “technicians” (read: people who think they can fix things because they can handle opening up stuff and soldering shit) who refuses to touch my phone because all they touch are Nokias, Sony-Ericssons, Motorolas, etc. Thankfully there’s a guy who managed to man up and tried to fix my problem, but to no avail. So we simply just cut off the connection between the port and the system board of the phone. Sometimes amputation of a certain part is just the only way to cure another.

So my Q5i has lost its main feature that’s very rare among China and local phones. I guess I’m going back to my shitty iPod.

Conclusion

Pros

Dual SIM capability
QWERTYY keyboard
You can attach any standard pair of head/ear phones to it
Mobile web browsing
Facebook capabilities

Cons

Ports can break if you’re not careful
Touchpad can be a pain in the ass to use for maneuvering the interface
QWERTY keyboard has a slightly steep learning curve for those who are not familiar with them.

Overall, the Q5i is a great phone, hands down. For Php3,499.00 (US$79.00), you can get a sweet QWERTY phone that can fit any lifestyle. Just please don’t mess up its audio port, as it’s quite fragile.

How to really make your desktop look good

2010-08-31T19:33:00.001+08:00

I’ve been customizing my desktop since I think a year ago, and it started from me choosing a different wallpaper, to arranging my desktop icons and to switching my shell style because the default looks retarded and everybody else is using it. In fact that’s really just the only reason why people customize their desktops. Most of us aren’t really into beautifying our desktops, we’re not Renaissance artists, we’re rebels. We design our desktops differently because that’s the way we want it to be, and not be part of a demographic wherein millions of other people are using the same look.

Want to stand out? Tired of Aero Glass on Vista and 7, tired of that lame Bliss wallpaper and overwhelming blue in XP? Here’s a couple of programs and tips that will help you stand out.

(Linux and Mac users, this isn’t for you, however, I’m thinking of writing a similar article for Ubuntu users. I don’t think I’m going to be writing a similar article for Mac since I’ve never even used one)

The Basics

Sometimes, the basics are already good enough to create an eye-catching and pleasing desktop environment. Here are a couple of pointers you should heed while designing your desktop.

Your wallpaper

DON’T use a wallpaper that everybody else uses. And I’m talking specifically about that wall of Arthas from Warcraft III, you know, the same face they use with the game’s box art. We do not care how much you love or how good you are at Dota.

If you are going to use a wallpaper, make sure it fits in cleanly with your desktop. An orange desktop on your blue taskbar is certainly bad for the eyes, because of the overwhelming color contrast. Try to stick to one color theme, like Cool colors only, Warm Colors only, monochrome, etc.

Choose a wallpaper that fits your style and your personality.

Choose colors that are pleasing to the eyes. High contrasts are generally kept at a minimum.

Where can I get good wallpapers?

There are many ways to start, like DesktopNexus (my personal favorite at the moment), DeviantArt, and Interfacelift, just to name a few.

Your icons

If you prefer icons, and you use them regularly, focus on keeping them organized than having them in a fancy formation.

As much as possible, use a dock instead. I’m not an Apple fan, but I find docks to be more beautiful and organized than desktop icons. Plus they tend to get out of the way. There are many docks available for Windows, one example is Rocketdock.

Advanced stuff

If you really want to customize your desktop, here’s a couple of tips and tricks that could help you design that perfect desktop design.

Windows themes

Since Windows 2000, the functionality of themes were added to the operating system. Themes back then composed of a taskbar style, a window border style, colors for different parts of your interface, and sometimes desktop icons. In Windows 7, sounds were an added feature for themes.

Where can I get good themes?

I don’t know what “good” exactly is, however, if you’re looking for various Windows themes, I suggest searching the Customization > Skins and Themes section of Deviantart and Customize.org. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, Google is your friend.

A word of caution: You will always be required to patch your Windows’ uxtheme.dll, the library that manages your Windows themes. Patching this will allow you to install your user-created themes, because Microsoft insists on users using their created themes. Take note that this involves editing system file – if you’re not used to risking the stability of your system – do not try this.

But you can use Windowsblinds if you’re too scared to patch your uxtheme.dll, however, Windowblinds is proprietary shareware. Its free version does not last for very long, and the full version costs money. Still, if you’re more willing to fish out a few dollars than mess with your system, you can try Windowblinds.

System Monitoring

If you managed to peek into a geek’s desktop (like mine), you probably seen these: moving bars, information about RAM and CPU usage, even animated gears that float above the desktop wallpaper. How do they do that? It’s not exactly magic. In fact, it’s not really that hard to do.

Rainmeter

Rainmeter is currently the best choice you can get to easily add system monitors and widgets to your Windows desktop that does not involve Windows Gadgets. Currently, Rainmeter has a very enthusiastic and active community, both for development and design, and currently there are a lot of setups you can use or base from. The introduction of rain theme files makes the process of installing Rainmeter themes much easier. I recommend you get it if you’re new.

Samurize

Samurize is currently a geek’s choice when it comes to powerful desktop customization, because with the right tools and skills, you can make it more functional and beautiful than Rainmeter. However, that trait gives it a steep learning curve, and can be difficult for users with little or no experience in coding to use and customize.

If you like to keep your hands dirty in code, Samurize might be up your alley. Currently, Samurize only fully supports XP, but you can use it in Vista and 7 using the compatibility mode.

Bootskins and Logon screens

Bootskins and Logon screens are a big deal. Just a quick tweaking of them can make your computer look like it belongs to the FBI, or the NSA, or whatever government agency you like. Just don’t make your Bootskin look like another flavor of Windows, like those “Windows XP Virus Edition” and “Windows XP: Elite Edition” skins.

Thankfully, Stardock, the ones who created the tools Bootskin and Logon Studio, are offering the two customization software for free. Go ahead and play with it.

NOTE: Bootskin currently supports Windows XP only. If you’re using Vista or 7, there are different methods of altering your bootskin, but they are at most, irreversible. Also, there are separate versions of Logon Studio. There is a Logon Studio for XP, and another for Vista and 7. So please be aware of that.

Shell replacements

Ah, my personal favorite. Shell replacement software, completely replaces your Windows shell, which is the one managing your interactions between yourself and the Windows kernel (the one who interprets your instructions to your hardware and vice versa). If you’re bored with the “taskbar at the sides look” of Windows, LiteStep is for you.

Litestep allows you to customize almost everything on your computer – from your explorer windows, your taskbars, basically everything under the Windows sun could be customized. The only drawback of using LiteStep is that it’s sometimes tedious to code properly to create a beautiful design. There are, however, numerous free Litestep setups available to download on the Internet.

Oh, and did I mention it’s for Windows XP only? Don’t bother using it on Vista or 7. No I’m just kidding. It works – somehow. An alpha build, according to a Google search, has improved support for Vista and 7, it’s just that it’s not perfect. So try it at your own risk.

How the Philippine National Police took the title “World’s Slowest” from Slowpoke.

2010-08-23T22:49:00.000+08:00

It’s official guys, the Philippine National Police has officially taken the title of “World’s Slowest Retard(s)” from its previous title holder (who managed to hold it from, say, the beginning of time, I might add), Slowpoke.

This guy.

You see, there happened to be a recent hostage taking that took place somewhere in the Philippines, as you can read here, here, and here. If you’re too lazy to click on those authentic links to real news sites, see the full coverage of the “event” and you just lazily wrote “TL;DR” in the comments, let me narrate the sequence of events to you, in my perspective.

The Crime

Apparently, some pissed-off cop who was recently kicked off-duty from the police force a year ago got tired of not being a cop and all, despite all his friends and family telling him that everybody hates cops. So instead of going into therapy session with other ex-cops and transforming himself into a metrosexual (as most of the squeamish would do), he stood up, put on some massive balls of steel, grabbed an M-16 assault rifle, three magazines, maybe a grenade or two, then went outside.

Everybody ignored him and all his gear because everybody assumed he was a cop, stolling around the streets more armed to the teeth than Duke Nukem. He stopped and thought what would he do to “impress” the folks at the camp and get them to get him back. A tour bus carrying Chinese nationals arose from the distance, and he thought, “Oh well, might as well take this bus, there’s a lot of cover inside plus, I fucking hate Chinamen.”

So he tried to pull the bus over, and it did. The bus driver looked at the cop before him and thought, “Oh great! A cop! Just what I needed! Now I can mindlessly drive around while masturbating and those MMDA folks won’t give me a ticket because I have someone with an automatic rifle on board!” They cruised through a little bit. The people on board noticed that someone who took a time machine to the present from the Vietnam War have boarded the bus, and seeing how much Vietnam war-machines hate people with slanted eyes, the tourists on board immediately shit their pants and put their asses on Guantanamo Bay mode.

Some folks outside saw the bus stopping all of the sudden and some guy with a powerful assault rifle inside, so after a little bit of hesitation deciding whether they were seeing some simulated airsoft match or a real hostage taking, they called the police, who happened to arrive in just a nick of time.

No, not really! The hostage taker actually had time to take a nap before the cops arrived.

They had time for a little bedtime story, too.

The “Negotiation”

When the cops did arrive, they barricaded the place and in a 1970’s Munich Olympics scenario revival, they let the press flood in. You know, people with cameras and crap who tell other people that someone just hijacked a fucking bus.

The hostage taker demanded a lot of things from the negotiators before he lets the hostages free. First he asked for some coffee, because he feels groggy after a long nap waiting for the cops to arrive. Secondly, he asks them to clear his criminal records, the same records that kicked him out of the force in the first place. Lastly, he wants some real policemen to come and get him, because those who came to apprehend him appears to be geeky cosplayers trying to look like Counter-Terrorists from Counter-Strike.

The cops just hanged around a bit, because they were waiting for their “superiors” to make the call. While they were having a pretty quiet excursion in the park in front of the Quirino Grandstand (it’s a nice place by the way), the hostage taker’s brother, who’s also a cop, appeared on scene and tried to approach the bus, where he was promptly taken down and got a nice dosage of ass-kicking.

Seeing on the bus television that his brother was having a bad case forced nightstick sodomy, the hostage taker flipped out, and began to empty his entire magazine into any motherfucker he sees inside the bus.

He must have called them cock-a-roaches too while he was at it.

After that, the cops called in the big guys, and began to barge in and kill the asshole who tried to do a Tony Montana on the Chinese tourists. Just joking! They just lied around the park watching the action.

The “Action”

The Philippine National Police must have big love for nighttime rescue missions, because they actually waited for night to fall before they send in the big boys, or, in other words, men with tiny balls wielding guns too big for them to even carry.

Armed with bulletproof vest, kevlar helmets, flashbang and teargas grenades that would make a COD or CS player cry in joy, these guys surrounded the bus to do – you guessed it – absolutely nothing, if you think posing for the cameras while in full gear is doing nothing.

Philippine SWAT team: We may as well look cool for the cameras while we make complete fools of ourselves.

They had a problem though: they had to get inside the bus, but the wise-ass hydraulic door would not break down, even when they tried tying an end of a rope on it, the other on a truck, then pulling it with machine force. They found an emergency door at the back which they could break into, but realizing that they left their tiny balls in the freezer again, they didn’t go in, and decided that chucking in flashbang grenades and tear gas was the only way to go.

The hostage taker then got bored of having his senses consistently disoriented by the endless barrage of flashbangs and teargas being thrown at him, so he stood up, and decided to do the Tony Montana again, this time with shit in his eyes and ears. He did manage to hit some random passerby outside, though.

After all the fun whirling around in circles relieving the scratch on his trigger finger, some wiseguy sniper, who probably earned his job by playing endless hours on Special Force, shot the hostage taker square in the head. That’s right kids. All those hours killing each other with AWPs in Counter-Strike will land you a good job as one of the Philippine’s greatest snipers.

Where sniping legends are born.

The Aftermath

So far, about 13 passengers in the bus made it out alive, but the remaining ones were dead, along with the hostage taker who attempted to play Grand Theft Auto: Philippines Real Life.

Also, the Philippine National Police earned two titles. The first is “World’s Slowest Retard(s)”, where, as mentioned previously, was previously owned by the Pokemon, Slowpoke. The other title they achieved was “World’s Shittiest Police Force”, where they beat the Nigerian Police Force out of number 195.

As for the Philippines, International tourism marked the entire country as “The Best Place to go to when you have a death wish”, and “The Best Country to experience a full hostage experience”. The country earned itself a sweet spot in the trending topics of Twitter, and the front pages of the biggest news sources in the world. Great job, guys!

Ancient Sulatang Tapunan attacked by lazy spambots

2010-08-15T10:05:00.000+08:00

I was surprised to see that my already rotting Yahoo Mail account, which I dumped due to the reason that it simply sucks, has received a blitzkrieg of emails in a short succession. About 80 emails with the same subject of “Friendster Blogs: New Trackback on your post “<some post here>” flooded my inbox. The body consisted of the following line:

San diego casinos

And that’s it. Usually another line that says “WIN WIN WIN” follows it. I laughed it off and presumed it was just lazy spambots who managed to penetrate the shitty security of Friendster blogs. I’m really glad I moved out of that shitty excuse for a Blogging platform and moved to Blogger, where it’s much more secure.

I’m thinking of limiting the comments people can post on Sulatang Tapunan’s blog posts, so that I can prevent simple HTML script injection (the one problem unprotected blogs face all day) from trolls. I don’t think I have to worry about SQL injection though, since I don’t own or manage the server Sulatang Tapunan is sitting on, and there are no login forms or whatsoever on the blog.

My quick experience of deleting my Friendster account

2010-08-02T08:04:00.000+08:00

Right now, those crazy kids are all about Facebook. Being a member of Friendster for about six years, and a member of Facebook for five years, I've decided I don't really need my Friendster account anymore, and the information stored there could impact my identity and the future. Not to mention that if I get to become a target of a raid, trolls would have more targets for them to mess up, so there.

This is also an opportunity for me to say that social networking sites nowadays are so desperate and have completely lost the sense of originality. Just take a look at this screenshot I took when I was on Friendster's front page:

Go to Facebook, login, and compare the Facebook front page to Friendster's. Familiar, right? I'd like to let you know that about three years ago Friendster never looked like this. It looked a lot more like MySpace.

So in conclusion, dying social networking sites are keeping themselves alive by stealing ideas from popular sites of their time. I can't argue with the logic, as 90% of people using social networking sites don't mind the difference anyway.

Although I have to give Friendster the credit of allowing me to cancel (or delete) my account quickly. I was just given one form and was not bombarded with regret with the "Your friends X, Y, and Z are going to miss you!" page in Facebook. Also, I don't have to freeze my account for 14 days, and I'm pretty sure they actually delete my files and information from their servers.

So goodbye, Friendster. Thanks for all the good times, and nightmarish memories.

I'm going to delete my Multiply next because it's another useless social networking site that could hurt me in the near future.

Why people should f*cking wake up and fix their Facebook profiles

2010-07-29T22:14:00.000+08:00

Right now, Facebook is in a roll. I actually signed up there when some of my machinima-directing friends made a group there for they find the site cool. I didn't, and I left my account rotting there for four years. Then the Facebook asteroid suddenly crash landed in my country and put Friendster into extinction, and quickly everybody had Facebook accounts which were indefinitely wasted on playing one-track games for one-track minds.

Right now I don't use Facebook for leisure. I hate it because of all the Farmville requests, force-tagging me in photos, and people ditching proper IM platforms because they believe that the shitty embedded Java chat is better than a regular IM client. If I were to use Facebook, I'd use it to track someone, organize myself with other people, stalk someone, and arrange events. I think social organization is the only "productivity" you can get with Facebook. Too bad people missed that part because they were waiting for their sunflowers to grow in Farmville.

Oh, and about that stalking part, that's actually a very easy thing to do. I've been doing that even before I'm into Facebook. But it's not about ethical hacking and making your screen look like it's from the Matrix just to stalk someone. You just need some skills on human psychology.

Take advantage of a common Facebook tradition of accepting everybody who asks using a friend request. Create a fake profile, add a picture of a hot girl or a douchebag and load up all kinds of BS you could think of into that profile. Then start luring in the morons. Earn someone's trust, make him/her think you're his/her boyfriend/girlfriend, and invite him/her to meet at some public place. Then don't go there, build an excuse, and promise to meet up again. Repeat. That's just one of the many things you could do to destroy someone on Facebook. I could go into more damaging and dangerous techniques, but I wouldn't go into any more details for the safety of others.

That's all thanks to Facebook's shitty privacy settings, where, by default, your profile and all its useless information are visible in Facebook's growing public directory. Think of it as one big phonebook - everything you have written on Facebook that is set to public is accessible there - from seemingly harmless information like your name, your applications, your Farmville, to more serious ones like your complete address, your telephone/mobile numbers, etc.

I actually tried the trick of texting a complete stranger in Facebook - I used an old SIM card and jacked it in my PLDT WeRoam 3G Dongle, picked a random stranger in the Philippines, and I quickly found her mobile number. I texted random shit to that person using my computer, and she responds like a charm.

Are you afraid? Want to change your ways. I'm going to help you with that. Here's what you have to do:

1. Remove all sensitive information from your public profile. You can choose not to delete them, just set them to viewable by "Only Me".
2. Remove and unassociate unnecessary applications from your profile. Applications are always given full view of your information, and that's not good. Keep in mind that quizzes are separate applications, and I found them hard to remove from my profile. Right now I only have my useful desktop applications (TweetDeck, Pidgin, Miranda, Trillian, etc.)
3. Remove yourself from the Facebook public directory. This can be done by going to Privacy Settings > Applications... > Public Search. If you're under 18, the setting is turned off by default, however, it is wise to turn it completely off even if you're over 18.
4. Remove Instant Personalization. Instant Personalization is a feature used by partner websites that automatically updates your settings and profile there using your Facebook profile. This could save you some time, but it is potentially dangerous to your privacy. It is wise to turn them off, just go to Privacy Settings and you'll find it there.
5. Limit the amount of information accessible to your friends. It's not just your friends - it's also for the applications your friends use.

However, the best defense for your privacy on Facebook is, to not use Facebook at all. You can deactivate your account on Facebook, however, it's difficult to do so, as it takes quite a long time. Since I'm lazy and don't want to point you in a certain direction, I'm just gonna give you a "Let Me Google That For You" link.

Think Facebook is still safe? Here's the torrent that contains over 100 million Facebook profiles harvested by an efficient person named Ron Bowes. This isn't illegal in any way, because every user included in this database actually agreed to have their information displayed in public. It only takes a simple dataminer to automatically collect the data, because Facebook is not protecting public data and it makes them available to anyone for anyone to use in any way. Go, download the database, and look for your profile there. If you find it, change your privacy settings right away, if not, good job.

Why it's almost impossible to perfectly couple Windows and Linux in wedlock

2010-07-22T21:50:00.000+08:00

Here's a story about how I recently seriously messed up the integrity of my computer and put myself into misery and disorientation. About a few days ago my Windows 7 operating system began complaining about "being lonely" and wanted to have the perfect companion operating system. Being a compassionate owner of the computer who listens to its needs while I bitch about mine, I introduced to him Xubuntu.

Why Xubuntu? Because there are those times when I needed to save resources and just want my computer to generally stay relaxed while I'm running applications. And I don't use the built-in Xcfe window manager that often, I mostly use Fluxbox while working. I think a very lightweight distribution of Linux is the best companion a Windows operating system could have. It's like pairing an anorexic girl with a 500 pound basement dweller.

However, there are problems. Xubuntu and Windows uses different types of partitions, ext and NTFS respectively. To put it metaphorically, anorexic Xubuntu keeps a neatly organized filesystem, while fat Windows does not bother cleaning up his basement base by himself. Also, they don't like visiting each other's flats. Xubuntu does not like her boyfriend's messy basement, while Windows it can't lift his fatass to stand up and go outside.

Luckily, there's a solution for that. Either I give Windows a Segway so he could go visit Xubuntu (using ext tools for Windows), or I could allow Xubuntu to go to my Windows partitions, using ntfs-3g. I chose the latter because my Linux partition is only 12GBs big and most of my files are stored in my two NTFS partitions.

While I am setting up Xubuntu to run with Windows 7, I actually did quite a lot of mess ups that will scar me for life. I first MOVED ALL (note that I MOVED, not copied) my important files to a storage NTFS. Now while I was installing Xubuntu I accidentally used that drive as swap, which completely removed it. Sucks, really. Thankfully, Windows saved my ass because it automatically saved a backup the day before I was screwed. Also, Dropbox has my important documents, so I can just restore in a breeze. However, this messed up my Winamp. I will have to reconfigure it to get it working again, or switch to Foobar2K because Winamp is getting old and unproductive.

Then another problem came up. I have allowed Xubuntu to read and write on both of my two NTFS drives. However, when I save files from Xubuntu there, then boot up Windows 7 to see if they can be detected, they were nowhere in sight. It appears that Windows overwritten them (in address, not in actualy memory). The files are there but Windows pushed them away from sight. Worse, it affects Xubuntu as well. When I boot back to Xubuntu all the files I have saved earlier are gone.

I got stuck like that for days until I found a solution: I stopped hibernating Windows 7 (as I was used to doing), restarted it, then ran a CHKDSK. It turns out there were so many errors in the storage partitions. Thankfully Windows 7 sorted it out and now it can see all files written by Xubuntu on either of its NTFS drives. I will have to refrain from hibernating Windows though, because it appears that it negates the changes made by Xubuntu when it boots up from hibernation.

I'm not happy with the state of my laptop right now. I'm planning to reformat it after the end of my term, when I can freely reinstall Windows since I'm done working with it. I will not completely remove Windows, though. I will need it for Windows programming (cross-platform programming is not my thing), and playing games that are laggy and unplayable with WINE in Xubuntu. I will continue to use Xubuntu as my primary OS, however.

A good phone is a useful one: the Cherry Mobile D15

2010-07-10T23:15:00.001+08:00

Right now good chances are, your phone is made by one of the big players in the mobile phone industry. It could be a Nokia if you don’t mind a slow UI, a Motorola if you’re a hipster, or even an iPhone if you’re an Apple fanboy or just easily drawn into buying shiny things that lose their usability when you hold them the wrong way. You take much pride in your phone because you nearly sold one of your kidneys by buying it.

Meet my new phone, the Cherry Mobile D15.

A new local player in the Philippine mobile phone industry (an industry, which, I must say, is so freaking huge), Cherry Mobile is the kind of company wherein a bunch of Chinese guys who got tired of imitating countless Nokia phones started incorporating creativity in their works. Cherry Mobile, much like the earlier and slightly similar phone manufacturer MyPhone, is evidently from China.

But don’t let its Chinese etymology make you think that the phone is shit. Yes, it is sort of shitty, but at least it’s a lot more reliable than typing horrendously on a virtual keyboard.

I’m going to go through my phone’s features, and rate them according to how good they are.

Size

My D15 isn’t big – it’s area is about the same as my Nokia 1208, but the D15 is much slimmer and lighter than the 1208. This is probably due to the fact that the D15 carries a much lighter battery by default (it can, however, use the batteries of my Nokia 1208, I’ll talk about that one later on). The phone is easy to chuck around in my pockets, and it doesn’t feel obstructive to my thigh movement, unlike my Nokia N95.

Score: 9/10

Durability

Chinese phones have an accepted stereotype of being one of the least durable on the planet. Still, I’ve seen Chinese phones last for two or more years, despite the ongoing belief of many folks that these phones break the minute you hold them in your hand. I just got this new so I can’t rate its durability just yet.

Score: Unknown

Reliability

The CM D15 carries a trademark feature that most Chinaphones share – multi SIM capacity. My D15 can handle two SIMs at once, which eliminates the need for me to bring a second phone along just to be connected to one network and another. Still, having two phones is intuitively better because if one of your phones gets lost or died, you can use the other.

Score: 8/10

Speed

Chinese phones are never known to be fast, because their operating systems work like they were written by an eight year old kid. But some lucky Chinese phones which make use of popular operating systems like Android and Windows Mobile are much faster than their lower quality counterparts. Too bad my phone belongs to the latter group.

Score: 4/10

Features

My phone is capable of listening to FM radio stations, play .mp3 songs stored on its memory, watch .3gp movies, take pictures with its camera, and even read e-books, but it’s never good at any of these. It’s a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It can’t browse the web and/or connect to wireless networks, but why would I even need those?

Score: 6/10

Accessories

The CM D15, unfortunately, comes with its own set of earphones that connects to the phone’s special audio jack. This means I won’t be able to use my own earphones with my phone. I’ll have to settle for its shitty set of earbuds where the bass sounds like cockroaches having an orgy.

Score: 2/10

Customization

I can customize plenty of stuff on my phone, like its wallpaper (it stretches the image all the way unlike the way Nokia does wallpapers), turning on/off screens, and basically almost its entire sound scheme. Transferring your own files to it is a pain though, because I have to take out the Micro SD card inside and plug it in to an adapter and to my PC.

Score: 7/10

Battery

My phone’s battery is generous – it allows up to 72 hours of standby time, and at least an hour and a half of playing music. Its charging adaptor fills up the battery with juice fairly fast. Also, if my battery dies permanently (that is, being unable to store any more charges), I can use some specified batteries of certain Nokia phones, like the one in my Nokia 1208.

Score: 8/10

Price

You get this feature-filled, dual SIM, shiny phone for Php 1,999.00, or less than US$45. That’s a steal, if you ask me.

Score: 10/10

Overall

The Cherry Mobile D15 is a great phone for those who are not easily drawn to shiny phones that brag about being able to get you on the Internet so you can watch porn on your phone. This is a phone that is able to do what you want it to do, unless what you’re thinking of doing is getting your phone to get you on the Internet so you can watch porn on your phone. For the basic Joe who like a basic phone that has plenty of basic features at a low price, the Cherry Mobile D15 is a good phone to start with. Sadly, it appears to be only available for sale in the Philippines.

Overall Score: 6/10

Our parents are pointing their fingers in the wrong direction: Why video games and television doesn’t lower our attention span

2010-07-10T22:35:00.001+08:00

Long title today. Ok, let’s get this started.

There are recent articles circulating on the Internet claiming that the reason for the diminishing attention span of people today is due to excessive video games and television.

In my own honest opinion, I believe that the statement above isn’t true. Yes, video games and television does contribute to the lower standards of attention span today, but they’re not the only ones that are responsible. The convenience of modern life today is most likely the main culprit in this growing problem.

Let’s compare how people get their news 100 years ago to how they do that today. A century ago, when people wanted to get their news, they would get out of their homes, go to the nearest store that sells newspapers, buy them, and take them home for them to read. Seeing that having to stand up and walk outside is quite a hassle, society invented convenience – instead of having customers go to the stores and buy newspapers, newspapers hired young children to deliver newspapers to those who subscribe to the service. When child labor was considered illegal, newspapers then resorted on news stands, a slower but less slave-labor’ey than using children for the job.

Right now, if you still wake up every morning, open your front door, and pick up that dirty slab of paper on your porch to read its contents, you’re most likely above 35 years of age. We just don’t do that anymore. It’s a hassle.

That’s just about it. Because technology moved towards speeding things up – making things easier, quicker and with less waiting times, we are forced to keep up with it, or at least encouraged to. Who needs snail mail when you’ve got email? Better yet, why use email when you could instantly contact anybody who’s online using the many instant messaging platforms available on the Internet?

We’ve got way too many stuff to make us lazy – televisions eliminate the need to go to an event and watch, phones and Internet communication eliminate the need to actually go to a friend’s house and have a chat, and we have the food delivery industry because most people are too fat to move their fatasses around just to get to the nearest McDonalds that they need to have people fetch food for them. People even came up and made the Segway, probably one of the those early spawns from hell that spells doom for humanity. It eliminates the need to do the one thing we have been doing since accomplishing bipedalism – walking. Walking. You’ve learned that when you were one to three years old. Why would you give up now?

Not trying to sound like a 60 year old deranged beardy man who constantly yells at children on the street to get off his “lawn”, but in my honest opinion, technology is really making us lazy. We’re even lazy to listen to people because we’re accustomed to just exchanging thoughts with each other through text messages and tweets that are less than 140 letters in length.

Did you read all of that? Good, you’re probably in your late thirties or more. If you just scrolled all the way down here and didn’t bother reading, get out of here, kthxbai.

Why 64-bit architectures are overrated (at least for now)

2010-07-09T22:48:00.001+08:00

When buying yourself a new computer (or building yourself one), it’s imperative to check the individual specifications of your new system, from the processor, the memory, the storage drives, etc. Basically the performance of your system boils down to the essential little details inside it.

But when looking at processors, most people who are new to buying computers or their components are confused when it comes to choosing a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) CPU. Professionals and enthusiasts alike encourage people to go for a 64-bit system, as they claim it is much faster and efficient than a 32-bit system. A lot of PC manufacturers and most CPUs sold today, be it by Intel or AMD, are capable of going 64-bit.

The Dream

People have long believed that “bigger is always better”. A bigger house could store more stuff, and a bigger road could accommodate more vehicles. Somehow I’m not going into nay more details here since sentences about making stuff bigger always go down to dick jokes.

The Reality

In reality, sometimes bigger isn’t always better. A bigger house would require a larger lot, and with society’s tendency to pack more people and stuff into every square meter, acquiring a big enough lot for your mansion without breaking the bank would be highly impossible, unless you drive five Rolce-Royces and those five cars shoot dollar bills out of their exhausts instead of fumes.

The term “bigger is not always better” could apply in choosing whether a larger memory architecture would be required. In a computer, the smallest data size is a bit, which is represented either by a 1 or 0. Bits, when packed together, form the essential pieces of data and information you see today. A single character that you can read in this article at the moment is actually made up of 8-bits, or a group of eight 1’s and 0’s packed together. Imagine having to convert all of the characters in this article to groups of eight bits manually. It would be torture. Thankfully, you have your CPU do that job for you.

CPUs rely on various bit architectures to do their work. The first microprocessors were capable of using an 8-bit architecture, but today most microprocessors are capable of performing in a 32-bit or 64-bit architecture.

The difference

The only important difference with 32 and 64-bit architectures is that, because 64-bit architectures have more bits than 32-bit (and water is wet, fire is hot) architectures, 64-bit architectures can handle more 1’s and 0’s than 32-bit. 64-bit can handle up to 64 bits, and vice versa. Accomplishing this, 64-bit architectures can handle larger numbers and floating point (decimal point in layman terms) numbers.

With a 64-bit architecture, a system can store, process and handle larger amounts of data. A 32-bit system for example, can only have a maximum memory of around 3.5GB to 4GB, because its address buses (aka places where your computer stores its shit) can only hold to around that amount. 64-bit systems can handle much more because they have more bits to store stuff into. This is why many computer salesmen, enthusiasts and manufacturers tell you that, “You should definetely go 64-bit, because you can hold more than 4GB of RAM! How awesome is that! More RAM = faster computer, amirite?”

Actually no. More RAM does not equal a faster computer, unless you completely take out your swap space (some space on your hard drive that the computer uses like RAM, but slower than RAM), and dedicate your oversized RAM space to your computing needs. With more RAM, your computer is able to multi-task more efficiently, because all the applications you are running can have some space on the RAM, making them quicker.

However, the part that RAM makes programs faster does not apply to every computer software, most notably 3D applications such as games. Games rely more on your graphics card than your RAM, so extra RAM in gaming would only be useful if you can’t shut down background applications while you’re gaming.

The Decision

Concluding this article, I’m not trying to steer people away from going 64-bit. 64-bit is GREAT. People are actually looking forward to have our computers go through a transition from 32 to 64 bit, even if it’s a bit slow. To support this campaign, modern microprocessors today are capable of running 64-bit. New versions of your favorite operation systems, be it Windows, Mac or Linux, have support for 64-bit architectures.

However, since not everybody in the world uses 64-bit systems, software developers have to create separate source codes for both 32 and 64-bit computers. You’ve probably noticed that on some applications you download on the web, there is a 32-bit installer, along with a 64-bit one. Although your computer will not blow up and burn in flames whenever you run a 64-bit application on a 32-bit machine and vice versa, your program will run much, much slower, because your computer will have to compensate for the missing/extra bits.

So if you have a 32-bit computer as of now, don’t fret, you’re not getting old, maybe at least not for the next five to eight years. However, if you’re looking to buying or building a new computer, be sure to get a 64-bit machine, so that your computer will be compliant to the new standards of the near future.

Why the games of tomorrow suck, and why we should stick to the classics

2010-06-27T21:43:00.001+08:00

Let’s face it – the future sucks. Being so obese that you can’t lift your fat ass off your seat will be so commonly accepted. Robots will be left to do the dirty work, and that isn’t cool because, unlike the sweatshop workers of today, they don’t look sad and you can’t laugh at them. Robots are programmed to be happy while they do menial tasks, which sucks.

The future of gaming is even more bleak. Ever since Nintendo attempted to touch the more unfortunate side of the gaming society (aka old people), with their devices of doom called the Nintendo Wii, everyone, even non-gaming companies, have tried to follow suit to make digital life better for people over 40. Apple, for instance, created the iPhone and the iPad because they knew old people would go all sorts of crazy with keypad buttons, and that they would love a device that resembles their fantasies of the future during the 60’s.

Sony and Microsoft have tried to appeal to the much older community too, because apparently Nintendo has made a lot of money selling gaming consoles with remotes that were accidentally thrown into flat screen TVs, smashing them in the process, because they thought you have to throw the controller forwards when you’re playing Wii Bowling. They wanted to produce the same effect of making you look stupid while you’re playing (which has been the standard for the whole gaming era), sans the weird looking controllers we have been with since the beginning.

Enter the Kinect and the Move. Created by Microsoft and Sony respectively, these accessories will be available shortly to the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Both have been featured in the recent E3 2010, where nerds and gaming enthusiasts have gathered to watch the impending horror of the death of the gaming industry before their very eyes, in a fancy and exciting convention.

Both of these motion controllers, which feature state of the art sensors (I won’t go into any details here, go Google for it yourself) that somehow intelligently perceives your motion in front of it. This allows games like dancing to be more “dance-like” without the use of a heavy metal pad with four direction buttons on it. Boxing and fighting games wouldn’t need a badly designed glove-like accessory or a platform with infrared sensors that does the contrary to feel realistic. Driving is probably the worse – instead of using an already awkward-to-use steering wheel and pedals, you now just have to raise your hands in the air, grip and imaginary steering wheel, and you’re good to go. It’s like reliving what you were doing in your childhood again.

There’s also new ways of manipulating this new technology, like using it for simulation games like having a pet tiger in a jungle. With these new toys you can actually own a virtual pet tiger that you can feed, pet, and punch in the face by just letting your hands do the action in front of the motion sensors. Of course, all this does is just doom children when they realize that tigers don’t like being fed, pet, or punched in the face when they grow up as adults.

If there’s such thing as too much technology, it’s very apparent for the coming years of the gaming industry. This makes me want to throw away all my new games away and just start playing games that were made prior to 2008. Those were all better than most, if not all the new games we have now.

Why I absolutely hate Yahoo (and why I am still using it)

2010-06-23T20:04:00.001+08:00

WARNING: Rant inbound. If you don’t like listening to a person bitch about what he hates, flee. Flee now.

These days, Yahoo is known as the international version of AOL. It’s clunky, cheesy, and the only Americans who seem to be using it at the moment are those who believe chain spam mail about a creepy girl appearing at your closet tonight or Bill Gates eating your hard drive if you don’t send an email to everyone in your contact list within eight minutes.

I absolutely hate Yahoo. Really I do. The search engine is just another crappy competitor of Google, and has failed miserably doing so. Bing is ten times better than Yahoo search, and we all know Google is ten times better than Bing. Yahoo search is clunky, full of ads, too purple, too family oriented, and too…friendly. It does not appeal to power users like me.

What I hate most about Yahoo is their mail service. Yahoo mail is one of the most crappiest mail services I have ever seen. It is like the greatest shitty e-mail service of all that you’ll think God himself crapped out Yahoo mail to remind people of retarded people sending chain mail to each other. The interface is just plain awful – very, very little space for people like me who use 4:3 screens, and there’s too much things going on screen – worthless ads about some untalented old “singer” named Kelly Clarkson, deals on car air filters, and other flash ads that were actually made in 2003 but Yahoo was too busy annoying the shit out of its users so they left it there on purpose. The interface is also very, very slow. The massive orgy of Javascript and Flash in the interface slows down any computer with a browser to a crawl. That’s why I switched to Mail Classic, in order to not have my computer molested with unnecessary JS.

But yet I’m still using Yahoo despite my opinions of it being the shittiest thing on the Internet since Geocities (funny thing to know, they own Geocities too). Why? Because of the same reason why I’m still on Facebook despite me hating it also – everybody’s on it.

My professors use Yahoo Groups to upload lecture notes, worksheets, etc., so not having a Yahoo account to access this groups would be a bad idea. And it appears 98.3% of the Philippine population uses Yahoo as their Instant Messaging client, so I still maintain a YM account, though I don’t use Yahoo’s crappy IM messaging client, I use a much more stable and lighter Miranda IM.

Yahoo is also where I got my first email address. That email address is what I still use today, as I have since 2004. I signed up for Hotmail shortly after that, but I realized Hotmail is somehow shittier than Yahoo during that time, so I quit and let it rot under a million spam mails every month.

Thinking of switching to Wordpress

2010-06-21T20:16:00.001+08:00

When you ask a web designer, a professional blogger, or a tech geek about a good blogging platform, almost all the time, their answers would be Wordpress. And it’s true, most of it anyway. Wordpress allows great flexibility, its engine is open-source and can be loaded up into your server (some popular websites such as the Cheeseburger Network uses Wordpress technology), if you feel hosting on Wordpress.com is a little sleazy.

I’m thinking of making that switch. As a amateur graphic designer and tech enthusiast I would definitely enjoy the flexibility of Wordpress. However, there are some things in Blogger that I cannot live without, like integration into my Google account. I don’t use any of those “account and password” management softwares, for I don’t trust them at all with my data. So having multiple accounts for e-mail and blogging would be hard to manage. I wouldn’t want that.

Next, Blogger is easy to set up, and even though it does not allow you as much flexibility as Wordpress, you can still make your own Javascript widgets if you would prefer so. Also, Blogger still has a pretty good user database, despite Wordpress overshadowing it. It’s not like people don’t like Blogger; Blogger is in fact, one of the most preferred platform for people when it comes to personal blogs. It’s only when people plan to make professional blogs that they use Wordpress and/or the Wordpress engine.

There are also other blogging platforms available other than Wordpress and Blogger, like Tumblr and LiveJournal. However, I don’t prefer Tumblr and LiveJournal because I don’t want sad people posting unnecessary comments on my posts just because I expressed disgust for Twilight or a lesbian named Justin Bieber or something. I like to keep things civilized.

So there you go. Hopefully I won’t get an aneurysm trying to decide whether to import my blog to Wordpress or not. Google is doing a good job maintaining Blogger, and as long as they keep it up, I’m staying there.

Why getting a 1337-ass computer nowadays is unnecessary

2010-06-21T08:37:00.001+08:00

Most geeks like yours truly possess at least two computers: One “main” computer is used for heavy work, such as powerful 3D gaming, video editing, etc. And then there’s probably a “secondary” computer, usually a notebook or a netbook (or an iPad if you’re an Apple fan), which is usually used in travel and generally browsing the Internet.

Nowadays, I don’t really need a powerful computer. They’re too overrated. I’m so very much buried in college work, and I don’t have much time playing modern video games. Maybe I could sneak in one or two hours of Garry’s Mod every Friday (where I usually don’t have classes), but that’s just about it. I rarely find fun in video games these days, unless that game is an open-ended sandbox.

My custom-built gaming desktop, which I named the “Warmonger” (from the countless CS, L4D and CoD4 games it was into), is slowly turning to deteriorating and the only thing that keeps its coolers from accumulating dust is the occasional “turning on the computer because not using it would deteriorate it even more” habit. Also, it’s getting old.

This proud piece of hardware once ran settings at max in almost all games (maybe not Crysis). It helped me win games because I just calmly do my business while the opposition is busy dodging projectiles at 8fps and complaining about how old their computers are. Sadly, it appears that the Warmonger is going through the same fate also. I ran “Aliens vs. Predator” on the Warmonger at DX10 mode (my Radeon HD4870 cannot support DX11), and it ran at 26-35fps on high settings (mild AA), but I get spikes often when I look at wide open scenery. It sucks.

Now I’m pretty content just playing GTA: San Andreas, Quake III Arena and Warcraft III on my laptop because they’re awesome games despite their graphics being shitty. I have tried importing Garry’s Mod on my laptop, however, it’s mediocre Intel GPU that’s good only for desktop and light 3D graphics could not handle vertex shaders, thus making the waters of HL2 invisible from the surface.

Who needs games anyway? They’re just good ways of slowing down your PC. I find more fun finding lols on Cheeseburger than watching marines die in AvP. It’s just too repetitive for my taste, sorta like working in an Asian sweatshop, except you watch people in heavy armor die after just being punched in the face by aliens.

The State of Sulatang Tapunan

2010-06-18T20:49:00.001+08:00

Currently I’m knee deep in college. It appears that when they said in the first day that I’m going to get my feet wet, they didn’t mention anything about getting my feet wet on five feet of water. Immediately I was molested by confusing figures, raped by long lines of code and hunted by long lists of homework. It’s crazy, but in a good sort of way.

Endless hours of study appears to have steered me away from the endless hours of gaming it succeeded (thank God), but unfortunately it appears to be steering me away from important things of note, such as running (I can only run three times a week now) and writing.

So it appears I do not have as much spare time on my hands as I had during the Philippine summer. But it’s not over yet. Sure, I don’t have much spare time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any. Let’s just hope that that spare time I’m talking about will get spent into the better like writing, running, working out or pondering about the fate of humanity instead of crushing people under five-ton buses in Garry’s Mod (and savoring the glorious bloodbath that follows).

Quotes I like to ponder deeply about

2010-06-13T09:08:00.001+08:00

I love quotes. I read at least five everyday. I have a Quote Reader in my desktop thanks to Rainmeter. I read through famous quotes by famous people, infamous quotes by infamous people, and sometimes not-really-famous quotes by not-really-famous people. Some quotes have the power to shape minds and civilizations, while others only send people clutching their ears because, well, it’s horrible.

Yet there are some quotes I come across that have some rather strange implications. These are quotes that have double meanings, or can imply something weird when you give examples based from it. Like for example:

You are what you eat.

Let’s take this literally. The person who spoke this (I forgot who) says that whatever you eat is you. Now for example I eat chicken. Does that make me a chicken? I eat pork. Does that make me a pig? I eat fish, etc. and so on.

But who wants to be an animal? Every human wants to be just as what he is – human. If people follow that quote above and wants to be human, guess what would be the trend?

Cannibalism. Pure and simple.

Here’s another one I like:

X to Y, Y to X.

Assume X and Y are variables referring to something in particular. Usually this widely-recycled quote is used with “Live” as X and a profession, practice, ambition, sport, etc. as Y. Like, “Live to race, race to live”, or “Live to steal, steal to live”, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Changed the layout again

2010-06-13T08:16:00.001+08:00

And so I have changed the blog layout yet again. Call me picky, but I think the last layout was quite getting bland and boring for me and most of my readers. Sure, it’s minimalistic, it doesn’t hurt your eyes because it’s not one of those “bright text on black background” templates, but it was getting boring.

So I switched the template to this nice little one I found on the net, named "Newspaper". Once again, my inability to have motivation to create my own XML templates are apparent, and led me to grab other people's templates from the web. Thankfully, these templates are free for my own personal use, so long as I credit them properly.

I have some problems with this theme apparently. Live Writer does not seem to read its XML properly, and now I have to resort to raw HTML editing, but it's ok, I never liked WYSIWYG editing anyways. However, when I switch to preview mode it appears that my paragraphs are not seperated into seperate paragraph, which leads to weird looking posts. I added approprite < p > tags, by the way.

Hopefully this blog will work well despite the difficulties. I tend to trade performance and reliability for aesthetics. If something goes wrong I'll just revert back to the old template, or go find a new one.

Why does technology evolve too fast?

2010-06-06T21:33:00.001+08:00

Why does technology evolve too fast?

- Me

That question has haunted me so many times. It has appeared in many inconvenient places, in my solitude, in my dreams, while I’m working in front of my computer, even when I’m writing this blog post (obviously).

It’s been a year since I have built my desktop. In fact, it just had its birthday less than a month ago. But look at it now. It’s now old by a gamer’s standard. The once powerful Intel Core 2 Quad is now overshadowed by Intel Core i7 Processors, while my ATI Radeon HD4870 is now the new HD5870’s bitch. Also, there are a number of games now that I could not max the settings on without my game slowing down to the speed of a 40’s film.

Even my laptop feels its quick aging. The proud ultraportable Lenovo Thinkpad X60s is now a weeping pile of shame as my battery – well, died out. Hopefully it will get fixed, however.

There is one way to smile despite these however – by looking at other people.

Take a look at those computers in derelict computer shops scattered around the Philippines. The computers are equipped with nine year old Intel Celerons and Nvidia GeForce 4400s that they couldn’t even run Warcraft III. I think my laptop even does a better job.

In addition to that fact, despite my laptop’s portability being very crippled due to its dead battery, it still manages to go through some world standards. Its size is pretty small, the 11” notebook is near the netbook 10” size, but manages to pack an Intel Core Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, features most netbooks and entry-level laptops do not possess. It’s also much snappier and cleaner than other notebooks, because its proud owner has done a lot to keep it oiled and powerful.

So that’s it. Even though my equipment are quite a bit old, they still manage to kick some ass, if not all of them.

A laptop without batteries - disaster

2010-06-05T20:54:00.001+08:00

And so it appears that after four years of proud service, my Lenovo Thinkpad X60s’ battery has suddenly died out permanently. It’s not died out as in it just ran out of stored charges, in fact, it can’t store juice anymore. My laptop suddenly turned from an angry skirmisher to an old man in a retirement home. It can’t move around from one room to another without bringing its life support anymore. It sucks.

I’m currently in the process of ordering a new battery from Lenovo, but I don’t think when it would be coming. It’s a good thing Lenovo is actually here in the Philippines, as it makes the job easier since I don’t have to order from China or Singapore or wherever the nearest country Lenovo is at is located. Hopefully before Friday I would be getting a new battery, or I’ll be clutching wires with my notebook forever.

Scratch: Get started programming, without the coding part

2010-06-03T20:39:00.001+08:00

Ever wanted what programming is like, but don’t want to get confused in a huge myriad of code? A good choice to start for programming beginners are visual-based programming languages. There are a lot of them out there, but most of the time, they’re not free, and their capabilities are somehow limited.

Enter Scratch. Scratch is a small and lightweight visual programming application, written in C++ by the very awesome folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s visual, meaning you only have to use logic and creativity to create a simple application, and more importantly, it’s free.

In Scratch, you are presented with a single sprite. This sprite can be manipulated whenever a certain event took place, for example, if the user clicks that sprite, or after an elapsed time of 3 seconds, etc. Once a trigger has been specified, you can now issue commands that the sprite will perform once its triggers are met. You can command the particular sprite to change appearance, move to another position, interact with the user, etc.

The possibilities with Scratch are limitless, given the amount of creative freedom the program offers to aspiring programmers. And since it’s visual-based, it’s easy to understand and use even for those who have no grasp of skill when it comes to coding.

Advanced Oxidative Stress Technology (OXIS)

2010-05-23T20:06:00.001+08:00

Are you feeling a little down lately? Bummed out on work? Just plain stressed? You could be suffering from Oxidative Stress, a disease caused when the body’s defensive abilities to combat free radicals (highly reactive species of oxygen and nitrogen), mainly antioxidants, become too scarce for normal body functioning.

Of course, some commercial “healthy drink” products offer a bit of antioxidants in their contents. However, these content values of antioxidants are usually minimal, and less pure due to the process of manufacturing and storage of the drink products. What you will need is something that, by itself, provides your body with the necessary components to reduce free radicals and prevent and/or relieve oxidative stress.

Thankfully, the kind researchers of Advanced Oxidative Stress Oxis International Inc., or more commonly and easily known as OXIS, provides just the right line of products to help prevent the buildup of free radicals and the eventual oxidative stress without any of the unnecessary additives found in certain “healthy drinks” that contain antioxidants. They have developed products containing their multifaceted “super oxidant” compound, L-Ergothioneine, or simply called as ERGO.

What is “ERGO” and what does it do?

According to OXIS, ERGO is a naturally occurring, water soluble, amino acid multifaceted antioxidant produced by microbes in the soil and most commonly found in (but not produced by) various species of mushrooms and grapes, meats and dairy products. It is not possible to extract ERGO from these sources, however, as the content of ERGO in their daily values are very small. Therefore, humans and most animals have low amounts of L-Ergothioneine in their regular diet.

Benefits of ERGO

Potential benefits of ERGO include its ability to (according to OXIS):

Conserve and maintain levels of other antioxidants such as Vitamin E (an essential antioxidant agent), Vitamin C (an important nutrient for the human immune system), and gluthathione;
Increase respiration and the oxidation of fat (possibly contributing to increased energy and exercise capacity);
Protect mitochondria from damage (this is important because potentially damaging reactive oxygen species are generated when oxygen is normally metabolized in mitochondria,
Reduce the damaging effects of environmental ultraviolet radiation (likely to be important in protecting the eyes against cataract producing oxidative injury);
Neutralize increased oxidative stress by providing an ROS (reactive oxygen species) and RNS (reactive nitrogen species) scavenging capacity, a property that protects key molecules in the body; and,
Protect against the effects of neurotoxins that are believed to have a casual role in the development and progression of cognitive decline.

So, in essence, ERGO certainly offers a lot of benefits for the human body. Aside from being an antioxidant, it can boost the immune system, increase respiration so that you can exercise more efficiently, and reduce the damage of ultraviolet radiation. They can also be useful for anti-aging purposes, as well as a whitening product, due to its ability to conserve gluthathione.

Where can I get OXIS’s ERGO products?

According to OXIS, they are developing and planning to sell nutraceutical and cosmecuetical products featuring natural ingredients, and more importantly, L-Ergothioneine, which, as mentioned earlier, has many benefits for the human body besides being a powerful antioxidant. They plan two product launches for Summer 2010, which includes:

“Ergo-Pur™” - ERGO-Pur is a pure form of our highly potent multifaceted antioxidant which we anticipate will be used in some cases in concert with:
“Ergo-Plex™” – ERGO-Plex is a combination of ERGO plus other functional nutraceutical ingredients directed at Joint Health.

Both products, and including other products in the future, are regarded in the market as penny stock.

Other Products

Aside from nutraceutical products containing L-Ergothioneine, OXIS Inc., are also evaluating a line of skin products, and are currently developing other nutraceuticals and functional foods such as nutrition bars, energy beverages, and others that will eventually lead themselves to traditional retail distribution.

OXIS Links

http://www.oxis.com
Oxis on Twitter
Oxis on facebook

The beauty of multi-platform im clients

2010-05-20T06:09:00.001+08:00

Instant Messaging (IM) has become an integral part of almost everybody who uses the Internet. IM evolved from Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and provides an easy platform for instantly communicating with other people in realtime without having to rely on an external server, or easily engage in private chat.

Of course, IM relies on servers to do its work. Luckily, several Internet companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and many others provide IM clients and servers for your convenience. You will just have to create an account, download their client, and start chatting.

However, there is always a chance that you will have a friend who uses a different IM client. Perhaps your crush is using MSN and you have AOL, and you know that communication with him/her is essential for your progress with your relations with that person. You can sign up for MSN and download its client, but having another IM client stand alongside your own takes up precious memory space that could have been used for something else.

This is where multi-platform IM clients come in. Multi-platform IM clients are IM applications that allow not only one, but multiple IM accounts for you to use. You can use AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Skype, and any other IM server in just one application.

Here are two examples of excellent IM clients, and how they compare to each other.

Miranda im

Miranda IM is a lightweight, open source instant messaging platform. It is very simple to use, and will not interrupt from your workflow, since it does not take up a slot on your taskbar. It only appears as a notification icon. It is also highly customizable – with skins, sounds, plugins, scripts – anything to your heart’s content. And if you got the skills, you can download the source and take a peek under the hood, and maybe tweak a little stuff while you’re at it.

Pros

Very, very lightweight
Open source
Extremely customizable
Supports many messaging platforms and IRC

Cons

Does not show up in the taskbar – can be hard to adjust to
Can be confusing for non-power users
You will have to customize it well to suit your needs

Trillian

Trillian is a proprietary multi-platform IM client. Unlike Miranda, it is not open source, and your rights to the software is quite similar to that of Yahoo and Live Messenger. However, it is a step up from the aforementioned two, as Trillian can support plenty of IM clients, and includes Twitter and Facebook.

Trillian, unlike Miranda IM, is also available in other platforms, such as Mac, the iPhone and Blackberry phones. A “Pro” edition is also available for Windows for a price.

Pros

Powerful and intuitive
Easy-to-navigate interface
Includes Twitter and Facebook support

Cons

Not very lightweight unlike Miranda IM
Proprietary software
Requires a Trillian account

Pidgin

Pidgin is an open source IM client that supports plenty of chat networks. It is originally a project for Linux, but has been ported to Windows for the convenience of the non-Linux savvy computer users. Like Miranda, it is lightweight, open source, and has many different plugins to improve its usability.

Pros

Open source
Supports Linux and its distros
Easy to use
Can connect to Facebook and Twitter
Has plenty of plugins

Cons

Not really that lightweight in Windows
Not as customizable as Miranda IM

Multi-platform IM clients are very useful if you want to keep up with your friends, co-workers, and family who use a different network other than yours. However, one noter about MPIMs: most of the time, they do not support some proprietary features of the default chat network clients, such as video conferencing, VoIP calling, and playing games. But if you don’t really need those features and would just like to simply keep in touch with your people, multi-platform IM clients are for you.

Pictures are worth a thousand words…

2010-05-18T21:26:00.001+08:00

…but a thousand words can beat a thousand pictures. What am I trying to imply here? After using a greatly minimal approach on making Sulatang Tapunan look pleasing, I have concluded that pictures are now quite unnecessary for this formal-looking journal. This layout idolizes typography, and pictures only ruin the flow, rather than imply points as they should be. I will now try to use as less photos as possible. Not only will it make my blog look better, it will also teach me to use words to better emphasize my ideas and save the precious 100MB of space Google allotted for photos. I’m not using Photobucket or Imageshack, as photos do not last that long there and will eventually be deleted.

The joys (and pains) of public transportation

2010-05-18T21:19:00.001+08:00

I am now officially enrolled and studying in De La Salle University – Manila, following a successful entrance exam, payment of my tuition for my first term and attendance of the recent LaSalle Personal Effectiveness Program (LPEP), a two-day program focused on getting the “froshies” (their fancy term for freshmen) on the right track. I just finished the LPEP earlier this day, after plenty of tiring activities, lectures and performances.

DLSU Manila is not located in a convenient distance from my home. I have to cross borders of two regions, since I live in CALABARZON and DLSU is in Manila.

To get there, I have to rely on public transportation. I don’t want my parents getting me to school, I’m old enough to go out myself. So it is public transit or nothing.

The Bus

The major form of public transportation that I will have to take is the bus. Sure, to reach the bus routes I will have to get to the highways they travel onto through a tricycle ride, but the bus is one of the most important modes of transportation for me to get to DLSU. Buses offer trips from provinces to Buendia Ave., where most provincial buses now stay and turn around because apparently they aren’t allowed to roam around Metro Manila anymore except from there to the Baclaran area.

A standard bus fare costs an average of Php25.00. If I find a bus at Gahak rather than the Aguinaldo Highway, the costs goes up to Php30.00. Obviously, I’m put at some sort of disadvantage, since it’s more expensive and the bus does not go inside Buendia Avenue. At least I have a larger chance to sit down on this bus line.

The Light Rail Transit (LRT)

The Light Rail Transit, more popularly known as the LRT, is an elevated train network that travels around various parts of Metro Manila. The first and often used line is the one that travels along Taft Ave., but there are also other rail lines that travel along other parts of Metro Manila such as Quezon City. The first line is, obviously, what I take to get to DLSU.

A LRT ticket costs only Php12.00 since I only travel no farther than Vito Cruz to Libertad. Sure, the jeepneys offer a cheaper fare of Php7.50 from Gil Puyat to DLSU, but jeepneys are usually more crowded, slower, and, more importantly, much more dangerous. They do not have security personnel on watch, unlike the LRT.

Verdict

Public transportation in the Philippines is risky, crowded, and at most times slow and congested, but it is a must to learn and experience if you plan to stay in the country for a long time. There will be times when private transportation is unavailable, and you will have to commute. As I have learned through my past experiences, mastering the ways of Philippine public transportation requires trial and error. There are no updated and regulated transit maps in the country, as transit routes are regularly changing and inconsistent. The only information you can rely on is from others, your research of the area, and your experiences where you struggle to find a PUJ that goes through that place you really don’t know where.

A strong piece of advice, if you do not have the courage to ride with strangers in packed conditions as if you’re inside a can of sardines with wheels, don’t use public transportation. Get someone to pick you up, or hail a cab, instead.

My back is killing me

2010-05-16T11:50:00.001+08:00

My back is really annoying today. I just woke up (normally) and after eating my breakfast and taking a shower, I went to my “office” (I call my room my office because that’s where my computers are located), and found out that my electric fan was malfunctioning because, well, it isn’t working. Looks like I’m going to have to rip it open and fix the problem. As most people engaged in electronic fixing would do, I bent down and removed the fan’s socket from the nearby outlet. And then it struck.

A massive wave of pain suddenly engulfs my upper back. Instinctively, I groaned in pain, and decided to punch the fuck out of the wall in front of me, for that is my usual stimuli when massive pain is introduced to my body. I then fell on the floor lying on my stomach. I lay there for five minutes, wondering if someone stabbed me in the back or if my body was just plain messing with me. I discovered that it was the latter.

I dragged myself into bed and grabbed the Electronic Nerve Stimulator. I stuck the two pads on my upper back and let the electricity relax my nerves by prodding them. Three sessions with this torture device later, my injury was still not alleviated.

I think I’m going to go out in town and get my back massaged and relieved. If I can get to town that is. Hopefully this problem would be resolved before I go to my orientation tomorrow morning.

Hacked the entire layout

2010-05-15T20:11:00.000+08:00

So, here it is, folks. Sulatang Tapunan has finally gone minimalistic. This is a huge redesign since most of the eye candy that were present in the last layout are now gone. No more of the annoying, common sidebar that most blogs use. That one’s getting old, and it’s a reminder of the web design of the 90’s, no matter what we add on them. Youtube widgets, translucency, Javascript and all other forms of 21st century Internet effects won’t make website sidebars better. That had to go.

Also, this typography style blog template that uses the “Georgia” font family is so elegant, that it feels soothing and relaxing. It helps the reader stay focused on what they are reading on the blog and will not get distracted by any unnecessary element in the website.

The template itself is focused on text. I wonder how it does for images…

Ah, it does the picture beautifully, just as I wanted it to. Take note that I am writing this post in the very awesome Windows Live Writer. It automatically adds the subtle shadow effect on every photo that I add while I write my posts. However, I can always choose to use other effects, but WLR does drop shadow by default.

Also, I hate color. Colored blogs hurt my eyes. Black text on colored background makes my eyes watery and tortures them in the process.

The countless incompetent people of the 2010 Philippine National Elections

2010-05-10T15:27:00.001+08:00

There are incompetent people everywhere. They could be your friends, your boss, or even yourself. Incompetence is born out of nowhere, and attacks without consent, and leaves quite some damage and angry people pumping their fists up in the air.

Yet in something as important and groundbreaking as the first automated Philippine elections, incompetent people are around, and they are as numerous as ever. People like…

The PCOS machines

The little counting machines that resemble small printers are used in the 2010 RP elections in order to accurately tally up the ballots fed into it. It works with such accuracy that it nullifies the 90% chance of a failed election through manual counting because 90% of Filipinos could not count well (even I couldn’t).

Like most other machines created by man, these PCOS machines have one flaw: they fragile, and will bitch you endlessly to either fix or replace it once it starts to break.

The thing is, the voters are too astonished with the primitive 20 year old technology of the PCOS machines, that they step up and, shall I say, touch it indefinitely. This includes inserting their ballots wrong, placing their index finger instead of their thumb when prompted with the thumb scanning process (mostly because they do not know what the thumb is), or just plain bashing the machine because they believe it’s a devilish contraption of Satan. Which brings us to…

The voters

It’s 11 o’clock in the morning, and you’re in a line chock full of people who’d like to either pleasure themselves by touching the PCOS machines or destroy it. Temperatures soon reach ape-shit insanely-high, and the tension is getting worse. What’s the best thing to do? If you thought, beating the shit of everyone you see, then you are truly a Filipino.

You see, heat has been scientifically proven by a bunch of old people in white suits living in sterile places to be quite a downturn for many a person’s mood. That’s why when cartoons want to portray someone being pissed, they draw the character fuming.

But hell, that’s probably natural, considering the long heat wave that’s terrorizing the country longer than the NPA or the Abu-Sayyaf. Speaking of terrorists, let’s go to…

The Security Personnel

Boom! Did you hear that? It sounds like a, wait a minute, an improvised explosive device! What do you do? If you decided just sitting back and watch people chunks flying all over the place from massive explosions, welcome to the Philippine Armed Forces!

As of the Philippine election day, all active military staff are reques…no, ordered to stand guard and make sure that the elections moves smoothly. Reserve forces are also deployed to make sure (almost) nothing goes wrong. But they’re doing a shitty job. Rivalries between political clans block the voters from doing their duties, while some freaks circumvent the delivery of the ballots and tries to take them away and burn them because, well, you guessed it, they think they’re the papers of the Devil.

Now there are these uniformed people with guns they call soldiers. They’re supposed to keep the situation safe by any means possible, just to make sure that the elections don’t get derailed faster than an coke-obsessed generic celebrity from Hollywood. Some dicks decided to sabotage the elections by blocking the voters. What do you do? Stand by and watch? What the hell is wrong with you soldier? You have a weapon, go and use it, shoot the bastards.

Verdict

The Philippine 2010 National Elections resembles what it seems to be some sort of city where you try to get to work to feed the mouths of your hungry children when some dick decides to steal your money in exchange for not getting stabbed in the gut. In the elections, you do your best to perform your duties as a member of a democratic nation, but there are just these people who, voluntarily or not, make the job more difficult than usual.

I own this blog

2010-05-08T11:15:00.001+08:00

Just the right place to find a schadenfreude

Blogger or Wordpress?

2010-05-08T10:19:00.001+08:00

It has recently come to my attention that I’m getting tired of using Blogger. I’m a fan of many Google Apps myself but Blogger is just plain awful. Nothing much has changed about it. The interface is still the same. The WYSIWYG editor only underwent an upgrade once.

Why would I want to leave Blogger and head for Wordpress, where the grass is probably greener? Here's why.

The interface is much more intuitive. The white interface of Wordpress is serene, and makes me more relaxed and creative at the same time, unlike the Blogger interface which says nothing buy, "Oh my God, your post is way overdue, get working on it now or else". Excuse me if you think I'm such a picky person, but writing requires a calm and relaxed mind.

There are more tools and widgets there to help out. Blogger has its own widgets, but the only useful ones are those bland ones created by Google, such as Pages, RSS readers and text on the side column, all of which are too common and just necessary for blogs. Wordpress offers more widgets to help me, such as Twitter and Facebook widgets.

I can get more traffic there. Wordpress does a much better job of displaying your blog than Blogger, because the Blogger "Blogs of Note" area features blogs that are handpicked by other people, or you and your recommendations. Wordpress easily lets people view the lesser-viewed blogs that deserve utmost respect and criticism.

All the cool guys are there. Well, not all of them, maybe. But there are a lot of interesting people and awesome blogs which may not host themselves on the Wordpress site, but uses the Wordpress engine. Have you seen The Cheezburger Network? Those guys use the Wordpress engine.

But I wouldn't move my blog to Wordpress right away, since the transition could be difficult. I have to redirect people from the blogspot domain to my wordpress one, which could be inconvenient for many. I'll just wait until Blogger seriously acts up, then I can move my blog somewhere else.

Possible worst-case scenarios that could happen this May 2010 Philippine elections

2010-05-04T21:02:00.002+08:00

The overhyped 2010 Philippine national elections are drawing nearer. It’s probably the most overhyped election ever in the Philippine democratic history, because, for the first time ever, the country will now rely on optical scanning machines to tally the ballots, because we’ve lost all our faith on our counting skills. A Chinese baby could count these votes better than a hundred Filipino mathematicians and in turn give us more appropriate leaders.

Even better.

But we shouldn’t lose our faith in machines. They’re machines, right? Powerful, emotionless beings that do what they are supposed to do, unless something goes wrong or some dick decides to mess up its work. But even with this ancient technology hitting the Philippine’s election shelves in a few days, there are still relatively good chances of bad scenarios occurring this election season, scenarios like…

Discontinuation of automated tallying'

Despite all the hype and assurances that nothing would go wrong with machines taking over the whole “counting up the votes” thing with the elections, many people, particularly those who are looking to get a little upper hand in the elections through giving everyone the finger and kicking them in the balls, are still against it. They disagree with letting robots count our valuable, valuable votes. For them, a manual counting is needed.
They already signed a manifesto (fancy name for an actually serious petition). However, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) already trashed the idea of having a manual count alongside the machines, calling it “highly unnecessary and would require accountants and mathematicians high on crack to perform”.

Why this would happen

Obviously, the Philippines relied on optical scanning machines primarily for one reason: to avoid mistakes in counting and to negate the possibility of people cheating the tallying of votes. When people ask to have the dirty, inaccurate, and easily-hackable method of counting back, you can only think of one reason why they would think of such an idea.
They just wanted to cheat the elections, yet again.

Election Rioting

The machines can be impervious to hacking, provided that the hackers the dirty-minded politicians hire couldn’t even be competent enough to keep viruses off their computers. So what would be the solution to this?
They would have to resort to the old-time age of vote diverting: beating the shit out of everything.
And they don’t have to hire a team of thugs, either. They could just hire one guy with a death wish to falsely announce a bomb threat while he’s in line to vote, or just say that the elections are rigged. People would go instantly nuts and grab their pitchforks and torches, where they’ll engage in a free-for-all 9,000,000+ man MMA-style deathmatch.
The Philippine society would collapse in the course of a few days.

Why this would happen

This is the election equivalent of nuking another country because they just won’t quit or their defenses are just too impervious to any sort of penetration (dick joke there, sort of). If you can’t beat them, might as well nuke them, they say.

Hell yeah!

Another People Power

This one is quite similar to the previous one above, but much, much less violent. “People Power” is the process of brainwashing the people with special false propaganda to precisely get them to riot, without the violence part, that is.

Why this would happen

How people start People Power Revolutions.

A peaceful rendition of the previous two stated above would be more acceptable to the world, and probably let a few tears stream from the eyes of the people outside the country. It would raise the particular person who called “hacks” status into a hero, and probably his whole family as a whole, and set of a chain reaction where members of his family would step up as leaders and mess the whole scenario even worse.
But I doubt if someone has the balls to do it. You have to kill yourself and falsely tell the world somebody did it, then get somebody close to you (preferably one of your parents) to take your position for you. The rest would be history.
The world has seen enough People Power Revolutions. The next one would be oh-so-boring, unacceptable, and more repetitive than the plots of Philippine soap operas.

Windows Live Writer: A Review

2010-05-02T10:54:00.000+08:00

I have finally concluded that the standard Blogger editor is powerfully boring and bland, so I’ve decided to give other blog editors a try. The first editor I’d like to try is the one offered by Microsoft to Windows users: the Windows Live Writer.

Windows Live Writer is part of the Windows Live Essentials, a bunch of programs offered by Microsoft to users of the Windows Operating system, from Windows XP to Windows 7. The programs include Windows Live Messenger (then MSN Messenger), Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, and the like. These programs are provided free of charge by the Microsoft Corporation for those users of genuine Windows software.

In case you do not know, I am using Windows Live Writer at the time of writing. I’m going to review vital parts of it, and give recommendations according to my findings.

The program

Interface

When you start Windows Live Writer, you are greeted with a splash screen. Do not worry, as this splash screen lasts only for at least 2-3 seconds, not 20 seconds like in Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop.

The interface is snappy, and behaves much like the other software and applications offered by Microsoft. Most of it should depend on your available system resources, though.

But unlike other recent Windows applications, Windows Live Writer does not come with the new “ribbon” interface. It comes with the boring menu bar interface that we’ve all lived with for more than fifteen years. However, the layout remains intuitive and will keep you focused on writing your post. It blends well with the Aero interface of Windows Vista and 7, but I don’t know what it looks like for XP users.

Editing

Editing or writing a post is very much like writing a document in Microsoft Word. You get formatting options such as boldface, italics, underlines, strikethroughs, etc. You can also freely edit your font face and colors if you like. It also comes with bullets, numbering, block quotes, text alignments, and many others. It also comes with tools to insert hyperlinks, tables, maps, and video. One useful feature of the Writer editor is the heading editor, which can be found also in word processors. You can edit your text and set them into the six different heading levels, or the default paragraph text. This feature is most useful for writing list-based articles.

When you import a blog, Windows Live Writer also downloads your blog’s CSS or HTML template and uses it as a basis for your editing. That way, while you are editing your blog, you are given a more advanced WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. You do not have to hit preview in order to see your post. Writer does it for you real-time.

Keep in note, however, that while Writer grabs the HTML or CSS template of your blog, it does not grab the widgets, title, sidebars, and other objects of your blog. Writer only gets the basic structure of your blog, its background images, fonts, and colors.

Additionally, if you are a power user who prefers to edit bare-bones HTML, you can click the "Source" tab on the bottom of the editor to switch to HTML editing, allowing you to fully edit your post under the hood.

Compatibility

Windows Live Writer was created with Microsoft’s blogging service, Spaces, in mind. However, Writer can also support most other blog services, including Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, and many others. If you use Spaces, Windows does the job for you. If you use some other service, you will only have to provide your blog URL (e.g. http://sulatangtapunan.blogspot.com), your username and password (when connecting to your blog).

Overall

Windows Live Writer is an excellent blog editor for many different bloggers alike, new or enthusiasts, who uses the Windows Operating System. There are many other blog editors out there, and possibly some of them could have better and more features, but Writer is a good choice for the Windows users who are looking for an easy alternative to their blogging platform’s online editor.

3 things that are just plain useless (in the Philippines)

2010-05-01T21:44:00.000+08:00

After refurbishing our old Lenovo Thinkpad x60s for (my) use in college, I'm happy to say that I have spent just enough to keep this computer running smoothly. To give an estimate, I've spent only $235 for the Windows 7 Home Premium DVDs, a new 250GB HDD and 2GBs of RAM. I didn't really want to go overboard. If I wanted to I would have just bought myself a new laptop, and not refurbish one.

On a side note, I thought up about a new list. This one is a little short, because I'm running out of ideas and I'm afraid that making things up won't be healthy for my current track record. There are just things that are plain useless if you bring it to the Philippines. Things like...

3. An HDTV

A High-Defenition TV (or HDTV) is a television screen that is capable of displaying and receiving high definition signal, which is butt-ton crisp picture and sound, or in layman's terms, either 720p or 1080p.

Much like gun and muscle size, the size of your HDTV is inversely proportional to your dick size.

Like in the USA, HDTVs are very popular in the Philippines. Go to any well-known consumer electronics store and there's a high chance that you'll see a huge-ass LED TV that you can't afford behind the glass displays. After using your child's college savings and a loan from the mafia (which you pay in blood a month later), you buy the HDTV, bring it to your home, and find out that yes, it does display HD signals, but can it receive them?

As of now, there are no HD signal providers in the Philippines. Those who claim that they have HD signal are false. Why is this so? Because for every 250 or so people with TVs, only 10 of them have HDTVs.

So why would cable providers deliver digital HD signals when almost everybody is using the century-old technology of CRT? And remember "bunny-ear" antennas? That shit is popular in the Philippines.

This shit is popular!

2. A sports car

Cars can deliver hints about your personality to other people. Driving an old Beetle around marks you as a hobo, a Prius means you're a tree-hugging mom, and a sports car of any make marks you as a douche. And what is a more better way to let people know that you're a douche by running down the streets at eighty miles and hour and watching the streetchildren playing in the asphalt jump away Die Hard style to narrowly escape death?

Much like this, but with kids.

It's hilarious. If you can get your sports car to run that fast in Philippine roads that is.

Most foreigners and speed demons come to the Philippines for the country has a pretty shitty traffic enforcement system. By spending the money that could have been used for radar and speed cameras to take down speeders for something else, most people are running down the streets at full speed, only slowing down everytime the stereotypical eighty year old lady crosses the street at a snail's pace. Then everything would go like Fast and the Furious again, minus good looking cars.

This could be yours!

Why minus good looking cars? Aren't we driving in sports cars, you know, the Lambos, and Ferraris that make you look like an Italian douchebag? Well, just so you know that the Philippines has one of the shittiest roads to drive your car into, and travelling in countryside roads that are covered in fresh, well-made carabao shit. And they bake their freshly harvested rice under the sun, presumably to kill off any dirty stuff clinging to the grain. Of course you'd enjoy running that over, but when you do, think about the children who could have eaten that pile of rice.

But then again, you don't have to.

Oh, and don't forget about this:

Yep, that pretty much sums it all up.

1. A really fast computer

The Philippines is not really known for blazing fast computers. Sure, thanks to Intel desperately trying to stay in the Philippines like Rambo trying to survive in Vietnam, we have the latest in processor technology here, mainly the new Intel Core i7, i5, and i3 series. But go to a common computer shop down the street and you'll notice that these computers still use processors older than the fourth generation of Pentium processors. That's right, computers in the Philippines are stuck in the late 90's.

Technology!

While not all computers in the country are shit, you can still buy or build yourself a pretty awesome machine. i7s are on sale on the Philippine computer market, and so does new graphics cards and the like for your custom gaming machine. If you don't like to build one yourself, Dell can sell you Alienware computers that equal as beastly gaming machines.

But what if you just bought or built yourself a powerful computer? What are you going to do with it? If you're going for gaming, what game are you going to play? Prepare to be nostalgic, because you'll find out that the most popular game in the Philippines is the infamous Defense of the Ancients, or DoTa as it is more commonly known.

An average DoTA player, in his prime state of concentration.

DoTa, in case you do not know (which is good), runs on the particularly old Warcraft III engine. And the Warcraft III engine runs on the twelve year old DirectX 7 technology. Now imagine yourself that you bought a computer like this:

Technology.

In hopes that you and your friends can play something like this:

Technology!

But be disappointed to find out that they play only this:

Technology?

You get the picture.

Why I really don't like a Mac

2010-04-22T14:21:00.001+08:00

In case you have been hiding under a technological rock, a Mac is a computer system that is proprietorially owned by the Apple Corporation. You've probably seen them in your nearest Apple Store - shiny, white computers, coupled together with handhelds such as the iPhone.

Macs are stylish and powerful. Of course, they were also expensive. Possessing a Mac will usually cause you to be the envy of your neighborhood, well at least, to the part of the neighborhood who actually cares about computers.

But as much as I have loved computers in my lifetime, I just don't like using a Mac. It feels like I'm restricted to do some things like change deep system settings or have a diverse range of applications. Here's a more detailed list of reasons why I don't like a Mac:

1. They are proprietary machines of Apple, which means they own all parts of it. Now, who would want to buy a computer, and be told that, "This computer is not yours. This is ours. We're only allowing you to keep and use it because you paid us"? Unlike a Windows computer, you do not have much freedom on a Mac. You're stuck with all the products that are "Built for the Mac" and those products don't grow on trees.

2. There are little applications there that I want, even if it has everything I need. Ok. So it's powerful. And it freezes and crashes less often than Windows. And I don't have to worry about viruses since Macs rarely have them. But the downside of being different from everybody else is that you don't get the good stuff they have. A good example are video games. Video game developers and publishers have long noted that Macs compromise only a small fraction of the computer population, so they don't bother porting it to that system. Thus, most games are built for the PC, only a handful of them are built for the Mac. And no matter how many programs and plugins are created to force the Mac to run a PC game, it will never be the same.

3. It's expensive. I'm not rich. Really. I'm not. If I were rich I shouldn't be living in the Philippines and instead sitting on a chateau somewhere in a French plain. Sure, I've spent a lot building PCs, buying components, etc., but these computers, which costed me a bit like $800, can do a lot more than a $999 MacBook. And most people who have known me personally knew that I don't trade aesthetics for performance.

So, Apple fanboys, here you go. Three reasons why I don't like Macs. Feel free to bash me and drop f-bombs on me in the comments below.

I don't like Macs, but that doesn't mean I hate Apple. I have an iPod Classic 5th Gen and an iPod Nano 3rd Gen, and I love both. My dad uses and iPhone 3G, which I enjoy "borrowing" from him. So in general, I don't have any hate against Apple in whole, but I really dislike their computers.

New Laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad x60s

2010-04-18T11:20:00.000+08:00

Well, folks, here it is, my new laptop. Although technically more on the refurbished than the new side, nevertheless, it works quite well. It's an old Thinkpad, provided free of charge by the PLDT when my father signed up for mobile broadband internet. It was a little shitty before I refurbished it.

It's pretty small, smaller than my old HP-Compaq Presario M2000, as my new laptop has a 11" something screen while the former had a 15" LCD. Of course, weight is drastically reduced if you compare it to my old laptop. I'm guessing the x60s I'm carrying right now weighs a less than two and a half pounds, while my Presario M2000 weighs in at more than seven pounds. Seriously, it's difficult to walk around carrying that monster. Yes, the x60s is small, but it's no netbook. It's just an ultraportable.

Here's the specs of my laptop before and after I upgraded some shit:

Old

Intel Pentium Dual Core L2400 @ 1.66Ghz
1.25GB of RAM
50GB HDD
Windows XP Professional

New

Intel Pentium Dual Core L2400 @ 1.66Ghz
1.25GB of RAM
250GB HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium

As you can see, one unlucky trait this laptop came with when it was shipped to us was its incredibly tiny HDD. Sure, it was big enough during 2005, but this is 10 years later and two 32GB SD cards can easily overtake this shitty Serial ATA. I bought a new one, a 250GB one, since according to a bunch of people that's as large as this laptop can carry and to my father, as large as his wallet can carry.

Here's a general review of important parts in my notebook:

Processor

The processor itself is double the power of my old one, as they share the same clock, but my new one has two cores, so that's a plus. I experience less freezes, and the only moments I feel freezing is when the app I'm running was written by someone who alternates playing CoD:MW2 with coding.

Memory

The RAM inside my laptop is sufficient enough for not-so-powerful computing, and it's good enough since I'll just be using this for coding in college. 1.25GB of RAM is a bonus from the PLDT, since stock X60s's come only with 512MB of RAM. I'll plan to upgrade it to 2GB in the future though.

HDD

The HDD was downgraded to 50GB from the original 80GB by PLDT to compensate for the free huge RAM (huge during the time). Now 50GB seems ample enough for 2004, but these days, you can already buy a 32GB SD card for a not really high price nowadays. That's why I bought a new HDD, a 250GB Serial ATA to replace the HDD. It seems that replacing it was a breeze. I just had to unscrew the lid, and pull out the disk through its two rubber grips. Then the rest was easy.

Operating System

As a bonus, I bought myself a genuine copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, since my dad think we're building ourselves a "new" computer and trying out one of history's overhyped operating systems wouldn't hurt. So after installing a new, clean, and bigger HDD into the notebook, I inserted the Win7 HP 32-bit DVD into my notebook's external optical drive (it did not come with an internal drive, which is good).

While installing Windows 7, I was immediately impressed by the simplicity of the installation process. Microsoft has been true about their claims that even a Neanderthal can install Windows 7 on his computer. The setup was easily navigatable, and it contained useful guides on what the hell this button does, and what the hell that button does, etc.

After installing, and my computer was good to go for me to play with, I met all those overhyped "features" Windows fanboys acclaimed, like the Super Taskbar, the improved Aero, improved speed, improved everything, and whatnot.

Keyboard

Unfortunately, to compensate for the notebook's ultraportability, I was given a small keyboard, in fact, one of the smallest I've ever seen. The keys aren't really small, they're just as big as regular non-membrane keys, but their layout was confusing. I was used to the big spaces of my old laptop's keyboard, now it seems that the keys are more packed in than usual and there's the red trackpoint mouse protruding through the middle of the keyboard like a sore, red nipple. The backspace key was as small as any other key on the keyboard, and the only keys getting the "bigger than usual" treatment was the enter, tab, Caps Lock, Shift, and most importantly, the Spacebar key. I took a small typing test course to familiarize myself with the keyboard, and, after typing out a relatively long children's tale, I even managed to top my accuracy and typing speed from my previous record, the previous record being done on my old laptop. My old record was (by average) 88 WPM, 96% accuracy, while my new record was 90WPM, 97% accuracy.

Battery

The only thing holding out this laptop from being awesome is its battery. Since it's pretty old and the battery has been through a lot of discharges and recharges during its duty, it's capacity was reduced to 48%. I manged to do a couple of battery maintenances and calibrations, and managed to ante up the actual capacity to 58%. Still, 58% actual maximum capacity still qualifies as "poor", so I may need to replace the battery soon if I were to take full use of my laptop's ultraportability.

Overall

This is awesome. Good power and ultraportability, all in one package. This will probably live for me in about three more years before it dies out and make me decide that some poor fool in the Philippines will need it. Or I could just throw it in front of a moving train, which to me is more environmentally-friendly, and the laptop will find its way to a better place than in the hands of an illiterate who thinks CRT screens are better than LCDs.

Top 10 FPS games (for me)

2010-04-12T19:58:00.000+08:00

FPS (First Person Shooter) games have been the staple genre of the modern gaming world. For non-gamers, a FPS is a game wherein you directly control a character and see through his/her/its vision and fire projectiles at targets. Usually FPS games lets you take control of a bipedal creature wielding some sort of weapon, but in some instances, like first person space shooters, you take control of something else, such as space fighters.

Many people have been arguing about what are the top 10 FPS games from the past, and today. So I've made this short list of the top 10 FPS games, according to my own honest opinion. But don't worry. If you want to share your own, you are free to do so in the comments section of this post.

Please note that these ten games are not arranged in ascending or descending order according to rank, but rather, they fulfilled a certain criteria that landed them on this list.

10. Best Graphics (Crysis)

When Crysis was released in 2007, it was quickly acclaimed for its amazing graphics, however, not everyone had the same reaction since computers were shitty during the time. But when I built myself a new computer sometime in 2009 and played Crysis on it, I was immediately mesmerized by the sheer awesomeness of the graphics. The small, isolated island in the Philippines was so beautifully rendered that it made me believe that it's just a prerendered video playing. Of course, those assumptions were called off, as my computer struggled to keep the game running at a steady flow of 39fps, even without any anti-aliasing at High. Even after three years, Crysis is still popular among those gamers who burns money, and is a standard benchmarking platform for those who create the most powerful of gaming computers.

It's awesome because, since I have been playing games with shitty graphics that look nothing more than half the real world for a long time, that I realized soon technology would render near perfect graphics, if not the best or the smoothest.

Brings a tear to my eye.

9. Best Cinematics (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2)

The three first Call of Duty games were, to be honest, stale and boring. Of course, it's historically accurate, but the drama of the WWII was just not captured during the first three games. The Modern Warfare series, however, changed the boring set of the first three games by moving the story into the future and adding exemplary cinematic effects into cutscenes, making the fictional plot more dramatic and realistic.

Another striking feature of the game, and the whole series itself, is that you always play with some sort of superior in the single player campaign who tells you to do everything while he sits back and pretends he's shooting at the bad guys. Not really much in the old CoD games, but in Modern Warfare, it's been there for a long time.

8. Best FPS bots (Quake III)

When I bought Quake III sometime in 2001, I became so addicted to the game that I finished my first gaming marathon (playing eight hours straight). It's not the gameplay that mattered during the game (although sometimes it did), but the simple, but powerful bots that are built in with the game. The same bots whom you'll bash with the words "cheater" and "hax0r" whenever they snipe you from the other end of the map with a rocket launcher. These bots are just so amazing that, it's quite impossible to find replacement bots on the Internet, and if there are, they're not really worth it.

7. Best FPS Storyline (Bioshock 1 and 2)

Bioshock takes us to the deep abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, where the fictional underwater city of Rapture, the metropolis of the free-minded people, crumbles and slowly dies. A man (whom you control in the game) apparently crashes into the ocean, and finds a bathysphere which takes him into an adventure to find out what is Rapture and what happened to the city. I won't go into any more details here, as it will spoil the plot, but if you happen to play or have played this game, you must understand that its originality, flow, and drama is more powerful than any other FPS game out there. It's like watching a movie.

6. Best puzzle FPS (Portal)

Portal is, by far, the shortest single player FPS game I have ever played. In my first playthrough of the game, I managed to finish it in about five hours, which isn't bad for someone who just begun playing it. The puzzles were somehow difficult, but is very rewarding once you finish them. And you won't get bored with the gameplay, as you can stick portals anywhere you like - provided that it's not somewhere metallic, or places you just shouldn't fire at.

5. Best FPS Series (Half-Life)

The Half-Life series takes us to the story of Gordon Freeman, a silent, and perhaps the only non-nerdy (who can explain his ability to climb ladders extremely fast?) physicist who works in Black Mesa, a fictional government science facility in New Mexico. Now suddenly something goes wrong and aliens start occupying the facility, and you must now escape and reach the Lambda Lab for help. The series itself has spawned forth other notable titles such as Counter Strike and Team Fortress, most of them popular through many years. The sequel to Half-Life, Half-Life 2, made the series better through the introduction of the Source engine, which gave us better graphics, AI, and added functionality of a full physics engine. Sure, the engine itself is dated, but it is one of the most versatile engines today, also one of the most stable.

4. Best multiplayer (Left 4 Dead)

Left 4 Dead is a Valve zombie game, and like most other modern games of Valve, it runs on the Source engine. But unlike other Valve and other zombie games, Left 4 Dead was one of those that are most centered towards multiplayer gameplay. It also introduced the AI Director, a full-fledged AI that controls different aspects of the gameplay, such as how many zombies will be spawned, where weapons will be found, etc. The game was such a success that it nearly overtook other famous Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2. Left 4 Dead's sequel added more weaponry, enemies, and levels to play in, but for me, the original was the best, as I had so much fun with it online in Garena. Sadly, my game friends moved on to Steam and left me in a desert hell full of Chinese people who can't speak English.

3. Most Freedom in an FPS game (Garry's Mod)

Garry's Mod is a mod of Half-Life 2 that allows you to do...well...almost anything you could ever imagine. Want to go on a headcrab shooting spree? Or build guided missiles? How about drive a wagon car with boosters to boot? You can do all three, and much, much more. Garry's Mod uses the Source engine to power itself, which means you also have cool physics to play with as well. You can also pose ragdolls, which is excellent for wacky photos or epic machinima. You can even just join in custom deathmatches, and even roleplay. It's also one of the best deals for a good FPS out there, just shell out $9.95 at Steam, and you already get near unlimited hours of fun with this game.

2. Best Action FPS (Duke Nukem 3D)

Duke Nukem 3D is the oldest game you'll find on this list. To be exact, it's just about two years younger than me, yet I enjoy it even now. But how did I discover this game? I salvaged through old CD collections and found this game alongside other games, and when I played it, it was hell lot of awesome. Sure, the graphics is incredibly shitty, but remember that in 1996, full 3D games with multiple floors were as rare, and FPS games with full 3D capabilities rarer.

Of course, Duke Nukem 3D did not deliver full 3D, only a full-3D environment. The enemies, pickups, and you were just pixely 2D sprites, augmented with bloody particles that were very gory and realistic during their time.

But what makes Duke Nukem 3D my best action FPS? The fast-paced gameplay, the awesome explosions, the hilarity of kicking aliens in the face, and the voice of a dude who speaks of nothing but kicking the asses of anything that's not a human female while going medieval on their asses and chewing bubblegum. Duke Nukem himself was a legend, a forgotten one, to be exact. And now that Duke Nukem Forever is officially dumped, there's no hint of what will be the future of the very badass Duke of Nukem.

1. First FPS (Quake 2)

I'm sure you're shocked. You might be saying, "Now hold on just a minute, Sulatang Tapunan, but Quake 2 isn't the first FPS. It's , and you're wrong. Sulatang Tapunan reader, in case you have forgotten, this list is based on me, and since you are probably years older than me, you immediately had those words in hand.

Quake 2 is, to be honest, the first FPS, and more importantly, the first video game I have ever played. My dad personally bought it for himself, since he had no idea what Quake 2 is. He even let me play the game, since those small squares of red that pop out of Strogg when you shoot them with a machinegun don't even look like blood. Or the gibs when you blast them with a rocket launcher looks more like mashed potatoes filled with ketchup than body parts.

But most importantly, it taught me composure, and the common-sense that everything in the video game world isn't real. It's a fantasy world. I had no thoughts, ever, in my life that video games are dangerous for children, the elderly, or anybody else for that matter. It's the awkward parenting and guidance that misled children, not the game itself. Quake II helped me become mature, logical, and open-minded. Sure, it glued me to the computer and gave birth to the nerd in me, but at least I didn't grow up the pussy way: children playing Hello Kitty Island and Mickey Mouse games because Mario depicts a plumber with a moustache stepping on turtles and shit.

It made me calm, and made me badass, because even if somebody told me that there's a serial killer-slash-pedophile is on the loose kidnapping, raping, eating, mutilating, and displaying dead bodies of children in plain view, I don't fret. So what if it's a little blood?

Special Mentions: Borderlands (most diverse), Counter-Strike (most frustrating yet addictive), Left 4 Dead 2, Call of Duty 1

Got something to say? Want to share a list of your own? Want to bitch the writer about changing the list above to your preferences (hopefully you don't)? The comments section is below.

Renamed Running for Freedom to Sulatang Takbuhan

2010-03-29T13:25:00.000+08:00

So, funny story. When I was just starting up my new blog about running I was unable to find a suitable name for it so I just named it to something cheesy and ridiculous. It's only a day later that I found a better name for it, and that new name pretty much fits my other blog (Sulatang Tapunan).

What is Sulatang Takbuhan? Similarly to my previous blog, Sulatang Tapunan, Sulatang Takbuhan (sue-lah-tahng thak-boo-han) is a combination of two Tagalog words that roughly translates to "Running Journal". Or something. Actual translation is "Running Writing", but it sounds pointless and retarded.

New blog - Running for Freedom

2010-03-28T22:23:00.000+08:00

So I've made a new blog today. I named it Running for Freedom because it's about running (who would've guessed) and it needs to complement Sulatang Tapunan well. Another reason for me creating this blog is because adding topics about running in the midst of rants and opinions would be very confusing for the lot of my readers. Writing them in a separate blog would be easier.

Oh, and I'm going to write a bit more frequently now, both in Sulatang Tapunan and Running for Freedom. The end of my high school life gave me a few months of leisure time, I do hope I spend it more on running and writing rather than procrastinating and fiddling with my computers.

Why Earth hour is kinda not worth it

2010-03-27T17:12:00.000+08:00

Earth Hour is about to commence worldwide tonight whenever eight and a half in the evening strikes at your timezone, and ends an hour later. In case you are either living under the rock or someone who thinks environmentalism is all hippy nonsense (good for you by the way), Earth Hour is a worldwide ~~cultist~~ environmentalist procession held every 27th of March. During this particular hour in the Earth time, some millions of retards who think the world is dying because of all the "greenhouse gases" and methane we fart out everyday is increasing exponentially.

Greenhouse gases in action.

While you were lost in my words, you are probably asking, "Why did people think of this idea?".

Some four years ago, a bunch of ~~hippies~~ environmentalists emerged from their 60's style cocoons called "Traveller" or "Stargazer" or whatever cheesy name pot-fueled individuals give to old Volkswagen vans painted with psychedelic colors. Emerging from their cramped homes, they looked up and were immediately blinded by the bright city lights. Shielding and averting their eyes from the barrage of lighting, they make a gesture of contact to whatever deity they made up and say, "Holy shit, that's bright! Need to do something about this..."

My eyes! They burn!

These environmentalists then packed together and thought of plans concerning this "problem". After paying various media companies with endless supplies of pot and manipulating their own media network, the National Geographic Network, they broadcasted mass propaganda of plans about turning off lights for a day on a particular day (March 27th), which they dubbed, "Turn the lights off for Christ's sake" hour.

Of course, people protested for turning lights off for 24 hours would be like forcing the US military to put their weapons down and let the terrorists ram suicide planes up their asses. The allotted time period for light-killing was reduced to 12 hours, then 6, then 3, and finally, they gave up and settled on an hour of darkness. Additionally, they changed the name of the said procession to "Earth Hour", because the previous name was inappropriate because of the vast variety of religions worldwide. People had to create variations for their respective faiths, which spawned horrible names such as "Turn the lights off for Mohammed's sake" and "Turn the lights off for my mom's sake".

One of the pioneers who penned the "Turn the lights off for my mom's sake" variation of Earth hour.

So why is it not worth it? Well the system of creating power goes this way: Power plants create power, distributors store them and send them to people. Now when you turn off every electrical device in your home for some time, the distributor will stop charging (no pun intended) you your electrical needs and will store the remaining charges (again, no pun intended) somewhere else. But the power producers and their power plants will not stop creating electricity, and will continue to burn fossil fuels (most of the time) and pump shit into the air.

Pumping shit into the air at its finest.

To make it simpler, it's only a handful of people who practice Earth Hour, and there are still people out there who needs the juice, maybe to engage in the lovely activity of Facebooking or the even more lovely activity of watching porn. If total Earth Hour would be implemented, that is, turning off all power production for an hour, the effects would be catastrophic. People who are thinking and denies hippy movements will go into total "holy shit it's dark" disorders and the porn industry will most likely topple for the lack of people watching because they turned off their computers.

My porn! It's gone!

Of course, the idea of total Earth Hour is very unlikely. However, when you examine Earth Hour in the whole, you'll find out that it doesn't do anything for the environment at all, it only makes everything bat-shit dark and may cause an exponential increase in battery, flashlight and mobile data charging sales.

So what will you do? Will you participate? Or not? As for me, I'm going to join in this commotion, since it's a growing trend and all humans (such as yours truly) have the utmost tendency to go where everybody else is at. I'm guessing that's the same reason why a lot of people join Facebook.

Above: Facebook, only less weirder.

5 things I hate about laymen

2010-03-14T22:14:00.000+08:00

Inside the very convenient "dictionary" that's located somewhere inside my brain (can't exactly remember where), a "layman" is not someone who is not a professional or does not follow a religious life, a "layman" to me is generally a common person, an average joe/jane, or a chav. These laymen occupy at least 81% of the human population, and are a grave threat to the awesome people who occupy the rest of the population. If the awesome people are the human race itself, then the laymen are the vermin and the rats that break inside people's houses and steal food faster and more efficiently than an obese burglar or Santa Claus on steroids.

I have five reasons to hate these laymen, some of which are...

5. Not moving too much (aka laziness)

Your typical layman spends at least 80% of his (or her, you feminists) time sitting around. These generally endless periods of sitting their asses down on something comfortable are usually paired with some other "sitting your ass down" activities, such as watching TV, eating, and playing Farmville. Of course, the remaining 20% of standing up is usually spent going to the bathroom to piss or the refrigerator to grab a snack.

As a result, most, if not all laymen are generally overweight.

Typical layman.

Without proper exercise at least three times a week, laymen are exposed to the fat disease, wherein the body starts to bloat and you begin to resemble a hippopotamus standing upright. Of course, these laymen give out excuses for exercise, one of these is the excuse that "walking is enough exercise" or "fitness is retarded". Whatever the excuse, it ain't pretty, much like their body masses.

Most of the fat accumulated within a person infected with the fat disease have their senses impaired, which leads to another nuisance, that is...

4. No sense of visual and audio perception

Let's say your driving down a typical Filipino road. Good for you! You finally took on the guts and possess the balls to drive a car through the worst roads in the world. Tossing the noisy street peddlers and occassional naked begging streetchildren aside, you await at the corner of an intersection, anticipating the traffic light to turn green. When it did, you slammed on the gas, going through sixty kilometers an hour when suddenly some dumbass driving a bus beside you decides to make your day bad by suddenly swerving at your direction. Of course, he can see you and your lowriding Porsche, but he just couldn't.

You knew this was going to happen.

Have you ever encountered people in FPS games, more specifically Filipino ones? When playing, their senses are commonly locked on to the 180 degree spot in front of them, completely oblivious to the world above, below and behind them. To add salt to the already n00bish wound, most of these players feel compelled to stare at the ground at all times in search for imaginary gold. They do it to such extent that even gold-hungry Jews in real life don't even perform such behavior.

Obviously, loss of sensory perception is linked to...

3. Hanging out in groups too much

Have you seen a layman who is out alone, in a dark room, with nobody to talk to or even look at? That's pretty much no problem with him if he's got some sort of communication device (in this case a cellphone) to communicate with other people outside his prison, to ask them to get him the fuck out of there fast because his grapes in Farmville are going to wither in ten minutes. Of course, if you remove the cellphone, the guy's not going to last even five minutes.

Oh my God, my grapes! They're withering faster than my penis!

One thing I hate also with laymen is that, they tend to go out in packs or bunches. And not just some pack, I mean, a huge pack, to be accurate. Most of the times when they finally convinced themselves that they have to walk to the food instead of calling the nearest McDonalds, they form a huge wall as they march to the fast food branch, very similar to an ancient Greek phalanx formation. This delays anybody unfornate enough to be behind the group, and if you happen to be that unlucky guy and is in a hurry during a marathon, you can forget about breaking your record time.

During most marathons, 74% of the runners are composed of this guy above.

Augmenting this annoying trait is another annoying trait, which is...

2. Talking too much

Upon taking the first step on the way to the nearest McDonalds to gorge on fat-enriched foods, a group of laymen can get bored quick. To suppress this boring feeling, these laymen pass the time by communicating with each other through vocal communication, exchanging worthless information and stories about their lives that you shouldn't dare hear as they go. In fact, the average layman's mouth can fire words faster than an AK-47 can fire bullets.

Also take note that an average AK47 can fire more than 200 rounds per minute.

Listen up, layman (as if you can read this anyway, since you have poor visual recognition skills), us awesome people require at least 20% of our daily hours to have total silence, away from the noise of the world. We do not care if you just got promoted, the American president is black, or that your mother committed suicide because she remembered that she was your mother. If you are going to disturb our quiet time, at least talk about something useful or logical, like why are we in a recession, if the chicken came first before the egg, or why your mother didn't abort you before when she already knew you were going to be born. Oh, and speaking of your life...

1. Wasting their lives away

Summing up the previous four reasons to hate laymen, it comes to one point where the inabilities to move, see, understand, remain in solitude and silence has the potential to completely suck away the layman's life.

Why don't you laymen move a little for a change? Like, walking your way to the store next block instead of having to drive your car there. Doing so would save the oil market and probably make your lags a bit more useful. And if you start to be aware of things around you, you'll probably save the funeral parlor the trouble of having to process each and every corpse you create after time and time you crash your vehicle at the intersection. Have you tried not talking, especially in groups? You'll probably save the world from noise pollution and the running person behind you who is hurrying to get to his wife dying in the hospital would arrive to his destination and save his spouse. If you tried all of those, congratulations. You've finally made something out of your life.

Additionally, you'll be one step closer to being like this guy above.

But if you're just going to stay there, sitting on your table, chowing on your third helping of McDonalds Chicken Fillet, with your other overweight friends, chattering with each other endlessly (with the food still in your mouth), exchanging worthless information while at the same time playing Farmville on your computer, you should probably reconsider life.

Hooray! No, wait, that ain't right...

2GBs of RAM

2010-03-11T20:49:00.000+08:00

Just installed System Information for Windows recently, and ran a quick diagnostic of everything essential on my piece o' crap notebook computer. Then I found an awesome discovery - my laptop could carry up to 2GBs of RAM. I know, that's still shitty in today's standards (it is the norm for norm computers), but doubling my RAM from 1GB is already a good upgrade, considering that when I start GIMP, and not loading up an image, my RAM is already full and I'm now using 80% of my virtual memory.

Although I don't think I'll be getting an upgrade for my notebook anytime soon. I'm about to graduate, and I promised to myself that I'll be getting a new laptop once I'm out of the shithole they call high school. I'm certain that I'll need more power once I step foot into college.

More is better

2010-03-10T05:49:00.000+08:00

Soon, I'll be posting more and more unintelligent and unfunny shit here on Sulatang Tapunan. I know that most good things are spaced so far apart, but sometimes it just pays to place something horrible between those good things, you know, just to keep it interesting. I'll be posting short posts here on Sulatang Tapunan more often, particularly within the range of "personal" and "shit you shouldn't see" categories. Though, I'll be keeping the "shit you shouldn't see" posts somewhere else instead, preferably on my physical journal, aka the journal I write to everyday which you won't see because it's somewhere up my...room.

Expect Sulatang Tapunan to spawn more posts as the Chinese and Filipino people spawns more and more babies everyday.

Final Periodical Exams

2010-03-10T05:44:00.000+08:00

And so it is the last day of my Final Periodical Exams today. This will be the final periodical exams, as it will be nonexistent in my college years. I'm going to make this one memorable by dedicating one short blog post in the Sulatang Tapunan about it.

One thing that surprises me every time, is that during big examination periods, such as periodical test and entrance exams, I keep an extremely high amount of composure. I do not feel any need to panic or even to worry about the exams at all. It seems that my rather unique ability to not give a damn about any given object, real or abstract, has helped me reduced anxiety before any given event. I'm glad to know that my habit of not giving a shit about everything at all has finally paid off, in the form of complete anxiety suppression.

And did I mention that I don't review my lessons that much? But I tend to remember more than my classmates who rush through their notes back and fourth hours before the exam. The advice that the human brain can remember things more clearly if you take note of it at least three days before the examination is really real. I believe in it.

Let's just hope my balls don't overgrow my brain (today, for the time matter), so that I won't let overconfidence blanket actual performance.

Legal matters: So-called "appropriation"

2010-02-23T21:04:00.001+08:00

WARNING: The following post is ~~serious~~ semi-serious. If you cannot comprehend serious and humor at the same time, I recommend you avert thy eyes before thy mind shalt asplode before thee.

So, let me get this straight. Most of my articles written around my blog are primarily composed of rants, opinions and satire that belongs to those "undesirable" and "inappropriate" for viewing for the church folks. Now that isn't really very alarming, seriously. Probably the only serious church folk that comes around here consists of only 0.00000001% of the total reader population of Sulatang Tapunan, and even if that number reaches a hundred percent, why does it even matter?

Ok, seriously, speaking like a man about this matter, WHO THE FUCK CARES.

This is MY blog. You (yes, you) are just the reader, the critic, the one to be entertained. If you are not entertained by my arts, go away. If you think they're offensive just because they counter your beliefs, go away. I mean, really, go away, nobody's keeping you from doing that. You're free to go and ~~masturbate~~ play along with other people of your kind. I've got other people, mostly of the sane and understanding types, who value what I write here and not the implications it will make on other people. There are people out there who actually read this, laugh, and feel entertained. It appears that you are not one of those people.

To be honest, this guy right here understands freedom more than you do.

Being that this blog is MINE, I am in control of whatever is posted in here. Not you. You do no have control over this blog. Nor you have any control of my mind. Or my fingers, or any part of my body that I use to express my thoughts (Fun fact: I can type with my toes, not just my fingers.)

I'm a freedom writer, and right now I can see that you do not understand the concept of freedom. Probably because you spent your years getting shoving instruments of worship up your arse in temples and getting bitchslapped by the clerics inside. You are living as slaves, and for that matter, I don't really care. If you like being bitchslapped, so be it. I hope you feel the same about my writing ethics. If I want to be offensive, so be it. I just hope you still have five functioning brain cells in order to understand.

It is also unethical to use your computer as a kite, but why should you care?

Why the pressure on freedom? It's just so absurd. It's freedom that allowed technology to flourish, which in turn created machines that helped man, and ideas to benefit the future. It created America, which is now today's center of commerce, technology, intellect, and many other things you didn't experience in your life because you were in your room all day with your head up your arse asking some guy up in the heavens for help.

What you probably do most of the time.

I don't care if that guy in the heavens is real, but if he is, tell him I said hello and that I gave him the finger for not effectively controlling his follower's obsession of being his bitches. I live in democracy, and I'm just practicing my right of expression and speech. If you prefer living in an imaginary despot's world, so be it, go on, live in your miserable little world.

Oh, look! I'm offensive! I'm going straight to hell! Oh sweet! I hope they have nice accomodations there for my arse, for I prefer my arse being pampered like a king all the time!

Some poetry to read while you're fuming there:

For the wise man does not think
Under other people's beliefs but rather
Continue to create and believe his own and refuse to
Kneel in the belief of others.
Yet most men are not wise, for they
Only believe in what others say and become
Under one entity or another.

Let the serious debate begin! Oh, and if you can't see the comments section because your head is up your ass again and asking the heavens to smite me with impractical lightning, it's right below this post. Be as narrow-minded and biased as possible to your beliefs - I dare you! But once you post, you're there for life, and no chance of self-deletion will save you from the mighty screencap. And if you're a coward, you can report this post being offensive, but I'll laugh at your futile attempts at trying to save your already unstable beliefs by clinging on to freedom of speech (when you're already trying to destroy it).

Catholic school introduces its latest innovation: Cockgrips!

2010-02-16T21:05:00.002+08:00

Ah, what a pleasant day here at the quaint, quiet school. I'm just minding my business here, all alone with a few books, English, Math and one titled, 'How to piss on a urinal while sitting on it'. I turn my head to my right and see a very gorgeous girl, all dressed in the conservative uniform for high school girls of the school. Relying on basic human social instinct, I open my mouth to introduce myself, when suddenly some nasty voice screeched behind me and overtook me before I spoke. Suddenly I felt something gripping my crotch - oh shit - it's a cockgrip! I now writhe and roll on the floor groaning and screaming in pain as this inhuman metal instrument force over 9000 pounds of pressure into my pen0r.

That, my friends, is a verbatim statement of your typical student after the implementation of sticking spiky metal rings into every man's dick that steps foot in the school, causing unimaginable pain and a new wave of "dick of steel" jokes.

Latest innovation in dong suppression.

The Idea

At some evil lair...
Sister 1: We've got a problem.
Sister 2: Don't we ever not have any?
Sister 1: Shut up. It's about our student's convulsive public display of affection.
Sister 3: Yet again.
Sister 1: Yes, and this time, it gets worse. It seems that they performed such malicious acts on our Foundation Day. On our Foundation Day!
Sister 2: Such malice!
Sister 1: And it is one of those days, when their parents come to the campus to watch our extremely boring exhibits!
Sister 2: The implications this would cause! Surely they would think we raised their children to be become raging sex machines as adults?
Sister 3: We need to do something about this immediately. Rules would be unnecesary. I think we need to apply some physical force. Any ideas?
Sister 1: Beating the shit out of them when they come five inches between each other would sound good.
Sister 2: No, that would violate their inexistent human rights. Let's try nagging them to death with our sermons.
Sister 3: That didn't even work. Why don't we threaten their parents instead?
Random passing retard: I love cockrings!
Sister 1: Yes, that's it! Cockrings! We'll use cockrings to supress them!
Sister 2: We are agreed. Cockrings, then. (Evil laugh)

Summed up (for those of you who does not understand American humor), what the administrators the schoolwould like to propose is to implement metal spikes to be worn by any male with a wang going inside the campus. Even those fat dudes who have dongs that barely reach an inch in length are not safe, MicroRings, as they have called it, are developed for the men with almost no dick.

The implementation of such horrid instruments would immensely supress the sexual thoughts and desires of any man, regardless of sexuality, walking inside the campus. Even a semi-boner would bring your wood to a "phallus-inspired" iron maiden hell.

Above: Installing the Cockgrip on an unsuspecting visitor.

Mass Production

More than 5,000 cockrings were built in the course of one week, thanks to the unsuspecting force of 5-year old orphans whom the sisters dragged away from the streets in order to work in dirty factories filled with rats and slave drivers. 4,000 of these rings were built for normal sized wangs, 500 built for those rated as "Dongzilla" size, and 500 for those under the miniature scale.

Actual photo of the production.

The cockrings will be distributed by various security guards who will shove these metal instruments of doom to every student passing by, even if they are female. These rings are not disposable and are to be worn by the student for the rest of the school year. Those who misplace their cockring will be prohibited from graduation and promotion rites.

Conclusion

If you're a nympomaniac, or would like to have your dong sent to near death trauma for the rest of your lifetime, head over a catholic school! You don't have to enroll or sign anything, just bring your john along! It will be fun, I'm sure, realizing that every part of your body is granted rights of protection, except for your wood!

Above: Video footage of a student being retrofitted with the innovative Cockgrip.

Aldo writes for the sake of the right of expression and does not hesitate to say what he has to say to anybody, regardless of whom that anybody is and his/her authority over the people! If you've got something to say about his writing, raise your hand and speak up, nigga!

4 things you probably shouldn't do on the Internet

2010-01-17T11:49:00.000+08:00

Let's face it, the Internet is very much like a post-apocalyptic world at the safety of your own machine. Everyone lives at their own regret, and nobody cares almost about anything except themselves. You know that "friend" who just invited you recently on Facebook? That's just the friendly neighborhood serial pedophile-slash-rapist-slash-Internet predator.

Typical Internet user.

You might go out and say, but the Internet is such as nice place! No, it's not. Perhaps yes, if you limit your activities to playing boring games such as Farmville, but when your activities expands to 4chan, Wikipedia, and MySpace, you and your Internet life can get killed easily in over 9000 ways possible and impossible at the same time by 500-pound nerds-slash-cyberbullies-slash-WoW players who spend their daily and nightly lives in front of their undergraded computers. Certain safety measures are to be observed, and the most crucial of them are here:

4. Posting too much personal information

The Internet is a place where people primarily does not care about stuff about other people. You go to that school? Who cares. You live over there? We don't give a horse's ass. You just read the whole Twilight saga? You have just reached the point that even Jesus doesn't care.

Well who does care? This could be one of your friends (whom you have met and befriended personally in real life of course) and/or your typical friendly neighborhood serial pedophile-slash-rapist-slash-Internet predator.

This guy. Yeah, that's him.

Keep in mind that when you post personal information over at sites like Facebook, it is possible that people (by default is your first-degree friends) can see them clearly. You might ask, "What's wrong with my friends seeing my address and sexual orientation?"

Take a good, hard look at your friends list and count those who you have met personally in real life. The average Facebooker has about 67 in 100. The 67 people might be okay to be viewing your personal information, but what about the other 33 who you just invited to be your friend just for the sake of giving you energy packs in Mafia Wars or as neighbors on Farmville? Can you guarantee that they'll just see your information and say, "What the hell, this is just some common, uninteresting person on the Internet whom nobody cares about"? One of them could see your address, go to your flat, and God knows what would happen.

3. Being overemotional

As a general rule stated earlier, the Internet does NOT care about what you feel about things, provided that they are about your personal life. If your boyfriend dumped you, we don't care. If your mother just committed suicide because your father ate your 3-year old sister and cheated on his wife over 9000 times (and presumably raped you too), you have again reached the point where Jesus does not care.

Your mom just died? Well, okay...Next prayer please!

Of course, there are two forms of emotion in the Internet: emotive and overemotive. Here is an example of an emotive statement.

My girlfriend just dumped me, but I don't really care. No really, no need for tears or anything, there's plenty of other girls out there, I just need to find the right one. Peace out.

Notice the sense of emotion in the statement. It is moderated and controlled, and that's good. Now here's the same statement, only this time, it's ~~gay~~ ~~emo~~ overemotive.

MY GIRLFRIND JUS DUMPEDM E!!!11 That BITCH!!!111!!one! :(( D: THAT SON OF A BITCH NW BOYFRIEND OF HER S IS GON DIE!!!11!! x(( AND WHILE I'M THERE, I'M JUST GONNA GO KILL MYSELF...!!!11!!!1 :(( :(( :( x(

Notice the difference between the two statements. On the first statement, the act of expressing emotion over the subject is moderated and controlled in a very civilized manner. However, on the latter, the emotion flows out like a volcanic eruption, or a shitstorm carried by some tsunami in Indonesia or something. Also, notice how the writer of the second statement loves the Caps Lock and his obsession with exclamation points (while failing to input them correctly) and smileys.

Keep in mind that being overemotional on the Internet does not only lay on the lines of personal conflicts and problems. You can also go overemotional if you, let's say, go on a cybertantrum, AKA repeatedly yelling why Farmville is on maintenance when you really need to harvest those weed you just planted.

2. Discussing serious subjects (religion, race, etc.) on social networking sites

Social networking sites composes primarily of many different kinds of people: the first one being teenage girls while the second being sociopaths pretending to be teenage girls. Both have almost or no grasp of reality and the world's most serious issues. Hell, they don't even know what serious means.

This looks serious enough.

But whatever you do, do NOT post anything serious on Facebook, or any social networking site for that manner, or even Twitter. Try using a forum that welcomes serious debate, such as Pointless Waste of Time, where all remaining real people with real minds and logic reside and discuss about many different topics. No sociopaths and teenage girls to ruin your day.

1. Posting indecent photos of yourself

You probably got drunk one way or another in your lifetime, whether during your angsty teenage years in high school or in your last dying breath and effort to gulp down the last bottle of whisky down your already dying system. Oh, the memories! What did you do after such an ordeal? Was it lay down on the sidewalk trying to sober yourself? Get behind the wheel and perform a nine-car pileup? No? Was it taking photos of yourself and post it somewhere where every dumbass with the Internets can see it? Yes? Well, good job, mate! You just gave yourself the title of "World's Smartest Retard"!

A failed miserable attempt at attaining the title of "World's Smartest Retard".

What's wrong with getting drunk and spreading a visual memory of it around the world? The problem is, once your butt-ugly shot of you wasted on the floor with dick marks all over your face exits your computer's hard drive and into one of Facebook's corrupted photo servers, everyone you considered as your friend on the said social networking site will be able to see it. Oh, you just remembered it was there? Go ahead and delete it, quickly! Whoops! Too late! They already saved it on their respective hard drives and are ready to spread the word (ahem, digitalized photographic memory) to those poor souls who are too illiterate to use the Internet!

A presumed photo of a poor soul who is too illiterate to use the Internet (and to speak English)

Note that being drunk is not the only ground for indecency. Nudity and violence are also grounds for indecency, but if you are a pornstar or a sociopath you're probably fine. Hell, even Photobombs and poorly shopped pictures can attain the tag of being indecent for thine eyes of public.

My eyes! They burn!

What you could do instead:

My personal (unreal) showdown with sudden flu

2009-12-23T20:06:00.001+08:00

WARNING: This is ~~fictional~~ REAL. If you do not know how to understand other people, we at ST urge you to close this webpage now.

Most of you don't know what happened to me recently. If I were to tell, I'd say it's a total mess. The Jee-Man decided to be a douchebag (hey, it's his birthday in the next few days), so with the help of his dad in the sky, they cast a case of "a-quick-flu-as-a-sign-of-God-giving-you-the-finger-itisis", then went on discussing their plans for the Jee man's birthday bash. I'm pretty sure it involves a stable, but I heard rumors about it being held somewhere else.

Anyway, I don't allow myself to fall for some shitty disease immediately. I fought it hard and well like a SPARTAAAAN, I even ran a five kilometer marathon even with the flu in my system. However, my body's immune system couldn't seem to keep up with my will's fighting spirit, and my body succumbed to the disease. I was bedridden for two days.It's probably no big deal, right? Considering it's the holidays?

I happen to have fallen on the day I have been preparing for, which is our final Christmas party. I have spent a lot of cash (read: OVER 9000) to buy presents for everybody, but look what happened to those presents instead. They now serve the purpose of blocking those little holes where mice and cockroaches can get through. I just spent thousands of Philippine currency for pest control.

I didn't even get a present myself. They promised that they will give me my presents next year when classes resume (and I did the same), but I'm worried that they'll forget after New Year's Eve.

Gee, thanks God. Thanks for making me miss one of the most important days this year. Thanks for trying to lower my self-esteem even lower (but your efforts are futile, thank you very much). Tell your son who is the reason of at least every damn problem I had this year that I said happy birthday.

Merry Christmas everybody. I'm sure the future will be better tomorrow.

Great writing recession

2009-12-11T21:30:00.000+08:00

I haven't been writing on Sulatang Tapunan for an alarming long while. Perhaps it could be writer's block, or it could be life dangerously expanding its timeslots against my writing time. I'm seriously running out of good ideas, inspiration and most importantly, time. My writing's gone FUBAR.

Primary reasons why I'm don't feel like writing:

Running. I am currently addicted to running various amounts of kilometers every Saturday morning, every weekday afternoon, and on marathons every Sunday.
Cracked. I'm submitting plenty of pitches (article ideas) to Cracked.com, and I plan to post whatever got rejected by the editors to Sulatang Tapunan. Normally, this shouldn't be hard, but take note that it will take me at least two days to build a decent article, because of responsibilities (see Real Life, above).
Relationships. I'm spending more time with friends and girls, and it's affecting the time I alloted for writing, since appointments and meetings can occupy those formerly occupied for pondering and publishing thoughts.

Not only my writing is affected, but other forms of aesthetics as well. I have not made some art with GIMP for a month, and so on. I need to budget my time more often, or my talents could be flushed away in the drain of ignorance forever.

If you want to help me with ideas, you can contact me at mrawesomer34[at@]gmail[dot.][com]. Pardon the symbols, they're meant to keep the spambots away.

Writing for Cracked

2009-11-28T22:15:00.000+08:00

I was just recently inducted into the ranks of the writers of Cracked.com, a well-known comedy site whom I have been visiting and reading for quite a while. The interest of writing for them sparked within me not long ago, and, having found out that they are freely hiring writers into their ranks for free, I've decided to join in the action. I am now promised good money (fifty US dollars) if one of my articles reaches a million viewers. Of course, that could be just a wet dream, but who knows. Fifty dollars sure is a lot for someone like me.

Of course, this will not completely divert my attention from Sulatang Tapunan. ST is my personal site/blog/whatever, and I will always budget my time every week to write on it every once in a while. Perhaps if one of my pitches (aka article ideas) were not accepted by the Cracked editors, I may publish it independently on Sulatang Tapunan. But there are some bad news.

If I'm lucky enough to have one of my articles published on Cracked, all of my rights concerning the ownership of the said article will be given to the Cracked editors. In exchange for the rights on my works they will give me recognition, and money (in case the article reaches a million views). So basically, we call each other as "comrades" in the Cracked writers guild.

Cracked.

5 MORE common Filipino myths and why they're false

2009-11-10T21:57:00.000+08:00

If you haven't seen the last installment yet, I recommend that you do so.

Once again I present to you five more Filipino myths that are false in modern science. The intense fatalism ('letting God rip your shit to pieces' beliefs) and superstitiousness of Filipinos gave birth to their intense collection of myths and old wives' tales that would make anyone outside the country classify it as total bullshit. Behold, as we open up another list-based article into number 5...

When you encounter a spirit, remove your clothes and burn them.

What is it?

Yes this is for real. Oh, and you don't need to prank the average Filipino college girl to see her stripping in front of you (or through a peep hole if you prefer) and setting her clothes on fire. Why? Because the myth is getting too old.

Why it's bullshit

Clothes in the olden times were made by hand, and all were unique and totally different from others (not the 'totally different' definition given by Hannah Montana). Old wives, wanting to get laughs at the mindless adolescent girls who lacks iPods to play their "Nobody - Wondergirl" songs, decided to use this fact as a base for their fake myth.

"I want nobody nobody but~ wait, our ankles are getting exposed!"

They made up a story that since all clothes are different, ghosts and spirits can remember the clothes you are wearing and will follow you till death does you part. The only way to prevent the ghost from following you forever (much like your perverted uncle stalks you everyday), you have to immediately strip your clothes, then burn them. Doing so will fool the ghost and will make it jump into burning fabric (in an attempt to sniff some pantyhoses) and go to purgatory. Boom. No more spirit.

Like this, but imagine the guy being kicked is the spirit.

However, failing to comply with the myth will result in the ghost memorizing what your face looks like and will now follow you forever, unless facelifts and plastic surgery are at your reach. The ghost will now serve as your local prankster. He will make farting noises that will immediately make people who are unaware of his presence to point the fart to you. And of course, we all know all women dread the "woman-who-farts-excessively-and-blaming-it-on-ghosts" title everyday.

However, we think this is worse.

Do not wear red during funerals (or anything with death associated).

What is it?

Old wives warned the youth to never wear clothes with the pigment of red when attending funerals or just about anywhere with death apparent. Failure to comply will result in you joining the recently deceased in a few moments. The actual result of the myth was the unofficial banning of wearing the color red, since during the Spanish colonization, there was a Filipino indio dropping dead every two minutes.

But who cares, Filipinos have the ability to...RESPAWN!

Why it's bullshit

Have you seen a fresh dead body? You probably must have seen one in the movies, in video games, or if possible, in real life. What's the most common thing that comes into your mind when you speak of a recently dead corpse?

Yes, that's right. It's blood. Old wives believed that when people die, the first thing they are going to look for is their body. Since God designed the dead-o-vision to be extremely shitty and unrealistic, dead spirits only have one thing to rely on to find their corpses - blood.

And dead spirits don't have noses either. They'll rummage around the vicinity of their death scene until they find a big body of red. The spirit, upon seeing you in your unfortunate reddish outfit, will attempt to "rejoin" his or her "dead body" (actually yours) many times like a dick. While the spirit is doing this, your own spirit will attempt to defend your body and retaliate. Unfortunately, like God kicking you in the balls, the attacking spirit is always likely to win, but he or she cannot take hold of your body. The result is both of you turned into mindless ghosts, giving you time to ask yourselves, "WTF just happened" and start blaming each other for being such a douchebag.

Like this. Also, get a load of those boobeez.

Never sneeze in a funeral lest you want to join the dead.

What is it?

It is rumored that when someone sneezes during a funeral procession, it is an invitation of the dead for the person to join the deceased. In order to counter this move of dead dickery, someone will have to pinch the one who sneezed.

She is totally going to die.

Why it's bullshit

Not another myth concerning death. To make this short, I'm going to sum it up in a simple statement:

It's coincidental. If the one who sneeze did die the next day, what are the causes? Remember, it's the 16th-19th century. Most causes of death are not pneumonia, AIDS or Swine Flu, it's the Devil, the will of God or evil spirits. Usually, old wives and lazy-ass priests choose the third. How convenient.

"What? John just died?"

"Yeah. It was swine flu~"

"No, you dumb tard. It was that evil spirit again. Quick! Get the local old lady to counter it!"

"Too late noob!"

Anything concerned with pregnancy.

What is it?

Eating of twin bananas will make you give birth to twins, and mostly other shit.

Why it's bullshit

More coincidences. Blame it on fatalism. Or, probably, Filipinos during ye olde times and even today are so pumped up about having children. Listen up Americans, in the Philippines, when we unintentionally get babies, we don't throw them in a river or kill them will they're still inside a woman's junk. We take care of them, turn them into mindless sheep playing DoTa and/or convulsive texters, then ship them to other countries to work as total dumbasses who don't know what the hell they're doing in their jobs. You've got to thank the Roman Catholic Church for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the common Filipino infant in its sixth month.

Any event is clearly the work of God.

What is it?

Did you receive a pop-up while browsing porn? Yeah, that was God. Did your girlfriend just dumped you? That's God being a dick. Did you just unleash a fart? That was God too, together with your stomach.

This is God sending you a pop-up about spreading His Word.

Why it's bullshit

Remember how people classified events and misfortunes back then? Arson was not made by a pyromaniac lunatic. Riots were not caused by black people who claim themselves to be "O.G.". Death was not caused by disease or homicide. Your wife divorcing with you was not caused by your horrible mistake of introducing your mistress to her. You know how they think who caused it back then? It's God.

"I didn't make the touch! It was God, I tell you!"

In fact, the tradition of "blaming it on some powerful spiritual entity" has evolved before the Spaniards introduced Christianity up to the modern Filipinos today. You may hear a student who got failing grades saying, "God was a dick. He made me fail", or a depressed 13-year old girl saying, "God has failed to turn me into a vampire so that I can look retarded and be even more depressing and boring like those in Twilight". Since Filipinos are people who can't stand blame, they blame it on something powerful. Not their lawyer, but God, who's in Heaven playing a game of "Civilization" featuring us humans. And He plays like a noob.

Yeah, that's just about it.

If you missed the last installment of "Common Filipino myths and why they're false", you may read it by clicking here. Also, don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and get all sorts of lousy Filipino myths and other shit shoved into your brain.

The Gift: A short first-person work of fiction

2009-10-23T19:55:00.000+08:00

After two weeks, I finally finished writing my first-person work, because the pressure of schoolwork forced me to sandwich my time for writing between both work and time for friends. So here you go, I named it as "The Gift", because I'm so bored and unimaginative tonight I don't want to spend any more time thinking of a good title.

Click here to view my work.

I saved it in Deviantart, because, I expect good criticism there. It's DA for Christ's sake, they have a good reputation of "retard-proofing" their website.

Aldo's birthday special: Resolutions and messages

2009-10-22T15:09:00.003+08:00

In case you didn't know, I just turned fifteen. It's not a big event, but it's significant one way or another, because it's something that occurs every year. Like Christmas, but this time the person whose birth your celebrating is real.

Your birthday, as all people generally agree, is the only 24-hour period everybody has where you can make yourself feel important, bitch people around, and do whatever you want that wouldn't normally. However, I beg to differ, and would like to do something people conveniently won't do, which is giving resolutions (that I probably won't do a few days later).

It's not going to be easy, as far as I and everybody else knows. There's tons of wrongs I did, and more I have to do that I haven't even started doing yet. To start with...

Parents - I am deeply sorry for what happened, and what happened is not the case of "freaking-out-because-hands-were-forced-off-computer" but my Anthropophobia (fear of people) taking place. I have had that phobia since birth, probably because my first hours were in total darkness and I started imagining the hospital staff as dark childish monsters (usually in the form of scribbles, since my imagination back then was the equivalent of a 60's computer). Again, I beg forgiveness.
Friends - I'm going to get us all a 18" yellow cab for a blowout. :)
Internets ppl - Imma firin m4h birthd4y l4z0rs!11!
Alter persona - Screw you. You should try to take over more often (especially when I'm taking to people), and stop forcing me to wank every once in a while.
My desktop - I know how you feel because I did not reformat you. Let's face it, reinstalling those 180GBs worth of shit back into you is going to take a really really long time.
My laptop - I'm probably not going to use you anymore in a few months, so enjoy my time in high school while you still can. ;D
My phone - GODDAMNIT NOKIA I WANT MY MONIES BACK
God - Hey, I've been trying to contact you, unfortunately the "prayer" connection does not seem to work, I checked with the saint concerned with prayers connecting to you, however, he seems to act like a dick and hung up. You need better customer support. Anyways, thanks for giving me one hell (Oops, I meant heaven) of a life. I enjoyed it.

Want to be included? Write in the comments!

Nuking your computer to consistency: How to reformat a PC

2009-10-18T10:23:00.000+08:00

Just recently I took the liberty of reformatting my notebook computer, a shitty, five-year old and heavily modified HP-Compaq Presario M2000. I've decided to reinstall Windows on it because I seem to have accidentally f-cked up Windows Explorer and I can't get it back without using conventional means. I decided a quick reinstallation would have to do.

A reformat and OS reinstallation is much like nuclear bombs. It clears all the shit that accumulated on your PC, until a timeperiod later they come back again as huge nuisances. It's not unnatural for a computer to have to go through a reformat.

To ordinary people, reformatting is a pain, and they would rather ship their computer back to their manufacturers (and independent geeks) to pay "special fees" to do something that the users can do themselves for free.

You can, right now, reformat your PC. You will need:
1. A backup storage (to backup your important files)
2. Your Windows or system restore disk provided by your computer's manufacturer (try to use the original disk of Windows that came with your computer, do not use another copy)
3. A working brain

STOP! Before going ahead with this, think about why you are proceeding with the reformat. Did your computer fuck up? Is Windows being too slow and unresponsive? If one or both of those reasons are met, you can resort to reformatting. In this case, proceed.

1. BACKUP ALL YOUR IMPORTANT FILES BEFORE PROCEEDING. This is an essential part. Back-up everything that are precious and irreplaceable on your system - family pictures, office documents, your artworks, and porn. Transfer them into an easily accessible storage - preferably a large USB flash disk or an external hard drive.

2. PREPARE EVERYTHING YOU NEED. Yes, prepare your copy of Windows, your drivers CD, and everything essential for the reinstallation of Windows. It would save you a lot of time to go digging your attic for these shit right now than doing it later.

3. INSERT THE WINDOWS CD INTO YOUR DISK DRIVE. Pretty simple.

4. GO TO YOUR SYSTEM BIOS AND CHANGE THE BOOT SETTINGS SO THAT THE DISK DRIVE BOOTS FIRST. Your BIOS is the software your motherboard carries around. To access it, turn on your computer, then start hitting the Delete key or the F10 key or whatever key your manual prescribes. After going to BIOS, select Boot settings or something and make sure that the computer's disk drive boots first.

5. RESTART, THEN BOOT INTO THE CD.

6. WAIT FOR WINDOWS TO PREPARE THE INSTALLATION DISK.

7. AFTER THAT, HIT ENTER TO REINSTALL WINDOWS.

8. AGREE TO THE EULA.

9. DELETE THE PARTITION YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY IN.

10. CREATE A NEW PARTITION OVER THE DELETED PARTITION.

11. DO A QUICK REFORMAT.

12. AFTER REFORMATTING, THE DISK SHOULD BEGIN TO DELIVER THE ESSENTIAL INSTALLATION FILES TO THE HARD DISK. Wait for it to finish.

13. AT INSTALLATION, follow all necessary instructions until the process is finished.

14. AFTER INSTALLATION, the system should restart. You may remove your Windows CD.

15. Windows should boot up and you will be at the Welcome Screen. Get through it and...

16. CONGRATULATIONS! You have just successfully reformatted your PC! Give yourself a pat on the shoulder for a job well done, and prepare for the difficult and time-consuming part, reinstalling all of your previous programs and drivers!

17. GET YOUR DRIVERS CD, then install all of the drivers required for your hardware. If you do not have a CD, look for the drivers online.

18. AFTER INSTALLING YOUR DRIVERS, INSTALL YOUR PROGRAMS. Your computer should now be ready for action.

5 essential things in life that most people fail to possess

2009-10-11T08:24:00.000+08:00

It's an understandable and acceptable fact that, the world is filled with retarded people. Not exactly everyone, but the majority of them can't seem to get a grip through life. We see them everyday, they walk mindlessly in school, lurk in Facebook and read this blog post.

Pic sorta unrelated.

Retards and dumbasses are formed when they can't seem to create a stable footing made of wit. Or, if they lack something like...

5. Logical reasoning

A human's daily lives is filled with more logical decisions than a supercomputer. In the morning, you decide if you should wake up or hit the snooze button. In lunch, you decide if you're going to send pissy emails to your supervisor because he's sexually harassing you (even if you're a man). In the afternoon, you decide whether to check that email with the subject line of gay dwarf pornography. Life is full of decisions.

There are people, however, who doesn't seem to be able to perform reasoning with credibility. They can't seem to pick the right choice for everything. Say, one of these people are driving down a road, and meet a fork. One path has a "One Way, Do not Enter" sign, and another has none. 70% of the time, that person will chose the route with the sign.

Above: What happens next.

4. Decent visual perception

Your eyes never lie. Well, maybe except if you got high on weed and drank gallons of alcohol at the same time. However, some people are still high and drunk even when they're not high and drunk. They perceive a world very different from what the majority of people see even if they are sober. Let's say, they see a a dumbass reading this post right now. Hey, that's right, amirite?

Are you seeing double? If so, you need to have your eyes checked.

3. Basic English proficiency

If someone speaks to you in English, would you answer them in Bulgarian? No, you answer them in English, no matter what the circumstances. However, if someone asks you something in Bulgarian, try not to speak English, because you'll only sound like a dick. The former is the main problem of the people here. They can't seem to get a grip at English.

Let's say, you're in a chat room, probably looking for a girl to cam with. You suddenly feel a hard-on for Asians, then you decided to go to the Chinese chat room. You eyed a beautiful petite Chinese girl with a great body, then you try to start a conversation by saying a simple. "Hello". Instead of the girl returning an also simple, "Hi", she says, "heyo me chinese mo no speak english good". You close the window and vow never to go back to that chat room and speak to Chinese people again, unless you have a good reason to.

Like this.

And please, don't give an excuse like, "But they not teach us English in skool" or something. Almost every school worldwide has English in their curriculum. Hell, they even have it in Africa. You probably slept through the whole English class or just too stupid to learn. If you can't speak English and would wish to participate in a chat room, please go to the room of your respective nationalities and/or languages. In other words, if you're Chinese, do NOT go to the USA room unless you are experienced in speaking to other people in English. I hope you understand.

Above: The only Chinese words everybody else can understand.

2. The inability to learn on one's own

They say, "You cannot learn without others". Sure, you won't learn to drive unless you have an instructor, and you can't train yourself to poop in the toilet than in your dog's face when you were three years old, you need the help of your parents to do that. However, there are some occasions where the task is so simple you just need to read the instructions carefully. Like, when you're going to install a game, or if you're going to download something.

This is one of the greatest nuisances in my life, considering it came with my "being awesome and all" package. There's bound to be people there looking for my skills and bombard me to death with their retarded, and ridiculously easy questions. Like, "OMG! I can't see the download link!", when the link is directly visible in the center of the screen, or, "OMG! HALP! I has virus!" when the freezing up is just the usual job of Windows and his shitty computer.

To respond to these entirely annoying questions, I just ignore and close. No use arguing to this shit, they'll just keep coming.

Oh! Jesus thinks you are too!

1. Common sense

The root of everything above. God gave man common sense in order to think logically, perceive things properly, communicate with others correctly, and to not ask Him retarded questions. If you don't have this, you're not fit enough to survive.

5 people we all hate in FPS games

2009-10-09T22:38:00.000+08:00

A first person shooter game is a video game wherein you play in a first-person perspective while shooting bad guys, or other players. First person shooters are becoming a popular genre for video games ever since Doom debuted in the early 90's. Game engines supporting first person shooters evolved ever since, from the first Quake Engine to Valve's Source engine.

Like every other video game, there are good players and bad players. However, there are just some players that you can't keep around in your game, because they act like dicks, or just plain stupid. Like...

5. The spammer

The spammer comes in two variations. He can be a fire spammer (firing excessively and unaccurately at people)or a chat spammer (chatting unnecessary words). Whatever the spammer is, he is always illogical, non-thinking and prefers quantity over quality.

Noticeable features: They pick guns with more capacity to spam with.

4. The Rambo or Leeroy Jenkins

A "rambo" is derived from John Rambo in the film "Rambo". Like John Rambo, rambo'ists charge at the enemy with little or no concern for self-preservation. Their chances of killing an enemy is mostly 60-40, but it could be higher or lower depending on the success of their attacks. Rambos usually attack solely on themselves, however, their skills can be augmented if one of their teammates bait themselves to the enemy, allowing rambos to freely attack their distracted enemies.

Noticeable features: Usually they don't listen to you about ambushing the enemy. They'll just charge right in and die afterwards.

3. The Sniper

A "sniper" is someone who is fond of using sniper rifles, or weaponry equipped for long range combat. A sniper usually sits somewhere hard to reach, with an open view of the battlefield, taking out targets as they go. They're usually annoying to people who are involved in the crossfire, therefore some games ban sniping to improve game performance. Nevertheless, sniping is still a popular trade.

Noticeable features: Brags about his AWP or similar powerful rifle and how he kills you a thousand game meters away.

2. The Grenadier

Grenadiers have a special love for grenades. They usually prefers grenades over everything, and strongly believe that grenades are the solution to everything.

Noticeable features: They meet you in close range and decides to lob a grenade at you instead.

1. The Dumbass

Dumbasses in FPS games are characterized by failing in a scale above normal. They usually brag about their skills when they have none at all. Dumbasses can be a fail rambo, a fail sniper, a fail shooter, or a combination of everything.

Noticeable features: It's you.

The Internet saves mankind: 5 ways technology helps us (with respective contrast disadvantages)

2009-10-09T20:13:00.000+08:00

It seems that one of the most sought-after subject for a thesis or a term paper is anything pertaining to technology. You name it - cellphones, the Internet, video games - people write shit about them. The recent boom of technology to some is as annoying as an old hobo deciding to live with you in your home. Your first thought would be to kick that hobo out as soon as possible, unless you want look like a dopehead yourself.

Nevertheless, technology, despite Christian groups and your mother trying to forbid it, have always found ways to assist us in our daily nuisances, like:

5. The Internet helps you find something. Really fast.

Hey, if the Internet, together with search engines, didn't exist, then we'll go back to the good old days of having to go to a dust-filled library and find an old book about ancient knowledge of dickery. To give you a perspective of how this works, the process is simple: You go to the cabinet of catalogs with index cards for each book, search for the book you want according to title, author, subject, etc., then, once you're done, you find the book's location according to the information written on the card. Now this wasn't really very accurate. Some dicks might think it's awesome to switch books from their original places. Also, making a card for each and every book in a library is an extremely tedious process. Nobody in the world would enjoy sitting in a dark library all night, printing index cards for each of the 5,000 books sitting there. No, not even the nerds of WoW, they have their elves to level up everyday.

However...

Search engines today rely on the filenames of the files you search. So, if you search for photos of old men, there's a good chance you'll find an emotionally-tearing photo featuring three old gentlemen that we won't be talking about here. Luckily, efforts like SafeSearch have easened the problem by blocking sites that are known to be malicious.

4. The Internet gets you known worldwide.

The Internet has been an ideal place to show your wares. Whether if it is the next Picasso or your nude photo with your 300lb mother, the Internet can get your work on the road, usually without any additional costs. If you have a crack den business, it's better to post it on the Internet - after all, cops are too stupid to use computers, right? Whatver you've got, the Internet can help you shout it to the world.

However...

WTF? Again?

Let's make a list of the good and bad shit people can share online. Good shit include pornography (except the German kind), photos of hot women (also except the German kind), pirated software, and each other's arts and thoughts. Bad shit includes shit itself, German pornography, your mother's porno flicks, 16-year old attention whores on Facebook and /b/. Unless the Internet can magically filter the bad from the good, you have to be careful viewing stuff online. All kinds of stuff online can lead back to your mother, and we all know everything that came out of your mother is shit (yes, that includes YOU).

3. Technology has helped to make communication easier.

The above statement is the main excuse of the many technophilics against technophobes. Technology has made our processes of communicating with each other easier, from the invention of the paper (when people thought delivering heavy clay tablets was enough), to the invention of the telephone, to the invention of the Internet, technology has done its best to bridge the gap between everybody.

However...

During the olde times, the idea of pranking is some chap taking to stroll to your barn, steal your cow, then send you a letter telling that the monarchy took your cow because the king favored it over his fatter-than-a-cow queen. Days after you protest to the king, the prankster sends back your cow - with its body missing.

Today, you can just dial any number, and then, once a lonely voice speaks "Hello" on the other line, you can just fart on the headset and immediately replace the reciever, hoping that the speed of telecommunications can send your gaseous wastes in time. You can also sell "viagra and penis enhancing pills" online and, once a 500lb sucker with a 0.00001in dick gets reeled in, you can send him a kilogram of fresh texan cow shit. In case you're in the Philippines and not in Texas, you can deliver your sucker Fresh Filipino Squatter Shit instead, it's much, much worse than a Texan Cow's, believe me.

We know them nowadays as trolls.

2. Technology entertains us.

When motion picture was revolutionized in the early 20th century, everyone flocked to the magical, moving images on the silver screen. Today, people flock to Youtube, where they watch things go boom in microwaves and the failures of every random person on Earth. No matter how retarded something in the Internet is, it still always manages to make us laugh (especially if it involves your mother).

However...

I don't think there's anything wrong with technology entertaining us right? Well, except if you're the one being picked on.

1. Technology saved us.

Ok, not everytime. Rifles, tanks and nuclear weaponry aren't supposed to kill anybody, right? However, as long as the people they kill are shitheads, we don't really care.

Phones can help us call help in an instant, as long as the 911 operator isn't preoccupied with watching pornography involving your mother. You can defend yourself with easily-accessible firearms. Artifical Intelligence has proven that they protect people from an emergency situation quicker and better than retarded humanoids.

However...

What could possibly go wrong? (Read: Robots)

So mothers, please stop yelling that the Internet is such a bad place, we don't care about your 13-year old daughter camwhoring herself on the Internet. School instructors, please stop yelling cellphones are bad for education, we don't care if your students are not listening to you (because you're boring) and are content texting as the class goes on. Christian peoples, please stop yelling that technology is the evil Satan gave us, because (1) The Devil doesn't give a shit, (2) God uses the Internet and (3) you fail miserably.

My notebook is on FIYAH...

2009-10-09T19:52:00.000+08:00

...and no, not in the sense that my laptop is experiencing a deep sensation of ecstasy and adrenaline at the same time. I mean it literally. Fire, red-hot flames are starting to form on my laptop computer, preferably in the area between the battery power and the processor. The computer is threatening to blow up anytime soon and send itself to computer afterlife.

From this:

Holy shit!

...to this:

Holy frickin' shitty laptop of hell!

...and finally this:

Look at that exploding laptop. What an asshole.

What the fuck!? Is this for real? Or am I just seeing shitty photoshop work?

Well, in a sense, no, this isn't real at all. My laptop isn't on fire yet, but I think it will in a couple of mere months. It officially lost the ability to cool itself. The only cooling material it has on its own is the heatsink for the CPU, nothing else. The small fan on the bottom of the computer, designed to cool the area occupied by the hard disk drive and a part of the graphics processor, is now inoperational. Not completely, there are some rare occassions where it springs to life, but most of the time, it just lays there dead.

As a result, the computer has been moving a lot slower than usual. Windows Explorer tends to freeze up, Firefox can fail in some occassions, and graphics processing efficiency is noticeably degraded. You could blame it on the crapability of Windows XP, however, the main culprit here is my dying hardware. WinExplorer (or should I say, FailExplorer) freezing and crashing is just regular Windows business. Nothing unusual about that.

What could have caused my hardware to deteriorate? The main reason is that this laptop is five fucking years old. This is as old as your grandpa's 1953 Chevy, if you convert the laptop's age to car years. The once "great" specs of the laptop, Intel Centrino 1.6Ghz, 512MB of RAM (now 1GB), and 40GB HDD space (now 80GB), is considered measly and is very much like ordinary Filipino computer specifications.

Another culprit would be abuse. I tend to beat the shit out of my laptop every once in a while, but the proper physical and emotional training I gave to it made it extra resistant to everyday keyboard slams and flying off the second floor window. Fans and cooling devices are usually the first once to get destroyed due to stress and abuse. So I partly blame myself for that (and the rest goes to Faildows).

It pretty much fits it.

There are a few solutions to this problem, mainly:

1. Buy a new notebook computer. This is pretty obvious. However, I have to wait until graduation, which is still a bit like five months away. I'm going to buy one between the line of gaming and mobility, since I can't bring my rig in college and I tend to move a lot outside.

2. Repair the onboard cooling system with better ones. There are some solutions on the Internet on how to replace the onboard fans of a notebook computer. However, not all notebooks are dependent on fans, since fans are heavy and noisy.

3. Bring a laptop cooler at all times. Yes, this is an obvious solution, however, my laptop's job is run and gun on different locations (that is, I bring it where I go), not be a fatass sitting on a desk. Coolers are for desktop replacements, and if I have to place a cooler just because I'm taking a vent in Starbucks, I'd rather tape my laptop in front of their airconditioning unit.

If I don't act upon this problem, soon enough, something like this is bound to happen:

MAH BALLZ!!11!

Why Typing Maniac should be nuked

2009-10-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

Introduction

Typing Maniac is a free application on Facebook. It is a game that encompasses three skills: Your finger agility, hand-eye coordination and your ability to quickly decide logically based on the visual representations on the screen.

The game itself is a good way to give your fingers a workout, in a non-geek way (trolling on 4chan). While playing the game, not only your fingers are exercising, but also your coordination and logical reasoning. While playing, you have to be quick at choosing which words pose as the greatest threat and look for the quickest solution for that nuisance. If all goes smoothly, you'll win (until you reach total RAM breakdown at levels 35-40).

Implications on society

The game started out as a simple way of bragging to your friends how many hours you've wasted typing nonsensical words falling down from your screen. Scores evolved from the mediocre 5,000 worm to the 600k+ alien. Everything was going fine. Those with overly-stretched fingers due from gripping basketballs too much were defeated by the geeks whose main lives is the Internet.

Like this, but worse.

Until recently, someone at somebody else's bottom of the list got pissed of how much he sucks at this game and how much time his geeky friend has wasted on the Facebook application. He thought of a plan to overcome his suckness. Some call it cheating. Internets people call it hacks, or h4x.

Cheat Engine (yes, they really named it that way) was a cheating tool (duh) that revolutionized how online gaming worked. It gave way to overly-protective game hack protection systems that usually think your defragmentation program running in the background is a hack. Slowly, Cheat Engine was dissolving like salt sprayed with water. However, the geeks who write their code (and not resort to copy-pasta techniques) kept the business alive.

See?

Numerous hacks surfaced the Internet. There is the simple Speedhack, which supposedly slows down the processing of your web browser. Its downside is that it also slows down the game and its responses, so your accuracy will decrease with noticeable results. Another hack is the Facebook bot, where a bad-written piece of code will do the typing for you, while you lurk Rule34 for homosexual midgets and post pictures of children in /b/. Again, the geek types invented more innovative ways to cheat, like the "get-the-same-word-over-and-over-again" hack, and the "score multiplier" hack. To take advantage of the retarded jocks trying to take advantage of those geeks, the geeks added price tags to their bots. That's right - just a bundle of text resembling code for only $9.99 a pop.

Am I pissed?

Now, my measly score of 1,190,872 is beat through underhanded techniques, or, in 1337speak, the h4x0rs. One of my friends posted a score of 2M+ ending on Round 38, method of hacking is probably FB bot, because those bots aren't written correctly or much to even be accurate.

Pictured above: You, while playing Typing Maniac

I'm not pissed at my loss. It's kinda better than being labeled as "typing-maniac-geek-with-elongated-speedy-fingers", or any other childish remark a child would label a civilized person. I laugh at the fact that immature children are trying their very best to beat my mediocre score.

Look, it's just a game. Who cares if you beat me. I don't care. Your mother doesn't care and would rather go as a hermaphrodite dancer than see her son/daughter turning into a hacker with no life. The world doesn't care, especially the Internets, for Internets laws forbids hax0rs. We frown upon hax here.

Only 1 in every 100 children in Nepal gets to touch a keyboard, nor even use a computer. In Afghanistan, it's 1 in every 1000. And in most parts of Africa, the figure goes up to an unbelievable 1 in every 10,000. Sometimes it goes up to 1 child touching a computer per 50,000 other children. Think about it, everytime you finish a word in Typing Maniac, the very souls of computer-less children haunts your very soul. Please keep note of that.

We're in your Internets, damning ur s0ulz.

Sometimes the best option would be to go to the nearby wilderness, get a cup of coffee, and ponder, "Why the fuck am I wasting my time trying to beat measly high scores when I can just get a life?" There's two ways that scenario can end. (1) You shoot yourself in the head or jump down a cliff, because you're too retarded to reflect in solitude or (2) You stand up, go back to the city, get a job, stop living with your parents and actually live. You're doing the human civilization a big favor just by contributing to its growth, instead of sticking yourself in the computer all day, all night, doing your best to beat someone's score on an entirely retarded game.

Have you finished thinking about it yet?

What I was doing before first wave of Pepeng

2009-10-02T20:36:00.000+08:00

20:30 HOURS
Friday, 02 October 2009
Some makeshift shithole in Imus, Cavite, in the Philipppines

So I'm here in my bedroom, my notebook computer on my lap, with my 32" LCD TV on before my eyes, with the news announcing that a hilariously-named supertyphoon (or hurricane in Western terms) called Pepeng is coming to wreak havoc upon the country. I tried my best to keep my fingers hitting the keys on my keyboard as much as possible, ignoring the cold sweat that prevents my palms from getting any grip on the aluminum frame of my laptop.

For now, I wonder if my house is well-protected and distanced from the danger zone. The news also said that it's lights out at 9PM tonight, which means I'll be down to batteries in my house - from AAs to 9-cells scattered about. My internet connection will be reduced to the new USB 3G modem I got when I replaced my shitty PCCardSlot2 modem (since PCCardSlots are obsolete).

I've built a barricade made of scattered materials, preferably plywood, on my doorway, to keep water, strong gusts of winds and faggots looking for shelter from coming in. In addition to the "protecting myself from faggots" part, I took the liberty to arm my Beretta M9 pistol, together with my Mosberg shotgun. If they're going to seek refuge on my home, they should talk to my 12-gauge first before entering.

Wait a minute, I just heard a loud thump outside. Could it be some retard trying to get in my fortress? Or floodwater already coming in when I don't even hear any rain yet? Or worse, it could be zombies. Fuck it, I'll stick with zombies. Defending yourself against reanimated creatures is way more fun than keeping yourself alive from inanimated beings.

I'm just gonna grab my 9mm, peer out my vantage point, and cap any dumbass stupid enough to call for help outside and bang on my wooden barricade. Oh, the hilarity.