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

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

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

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

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)

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.