The day I lost root privileges

I have (K)ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin installed on my Fujitsu Lifebook UH75/J (I've discussed about it in one of my previous posts). Needless to say, the experience was nice. It was the first time I ever used KDE as my primary DE for everyday use. I had used KDE on my desktop, but never thought about using it full-time, as I only switched to it whenever Unity felt a little boring.

Anyway, fast forward a couple of weeks, and suddenly I found myself unable to run commands with root privileges (with the `sudo' command). Every command which I prefix with `sudo' gets denied with a message telling me I was not in the sudoers file and that the incident shall be reported (gee, I wonder to whom they actually report these to). Frustrated, I've decided to log in directly as root with `su'. Then I remembered that Ubuntu, for some odd reason, does not allow logging in as root by default.

Instinctively, I turned to searching for solutions online. One solution told me to log in to Recovery Mode, log in as root from there, and then add myself back to the sudoers group. But even if I managed to do that, I still haven't answered one important question. How and why was I removed from the sudoers group in the first place? I don't remember intentionally nor accidentally revoking my own sudo privileges from myself. While trying out the solutions I have found, I thought of the reasons for my disappearing privileges in the background.

Then the realization hit me. I don't recall exactly how, but I remembered how exactly I lost my user privileges when I saw a command telling people how to add themselves into the `sudo' group (the group of users in an Ubuntu system who has sudo privileges). Quickly, I used the `groups' command to check what groups in my notebook I'm part of, then the horror showed up in my face:

aldo : vboxusers

Then I remember it all now. I was trying to get Virtualbox to work on my new ultrabook some time ago, and one of the things I had to do was to get USB devices to work from the host machine to the guest machines. It would involve having me put myself in the special `vboxusers' group, but because I don't really memorize console commands that well unless I have to use them a lot, I used a variant of the `useradd' command, which puts me in the vboxusers group ONLY, instead of appending the vboxusers group to the groups in which I belong to. I forgot that the `gpasswd' command was a much better solution when it comes to adding groups. I'll try to keep this in mind since I'll probably be administrating other people's boxes in the future. Screwups increase exponentially in severity the more users become affected by one's mistake.

Since Ubuntu doesn't allow root logins unless you were to go to recovery mode, I've decided to reboot into recovery mode, however, there was a conflict with the inteldrmfb and Vesa VGA drivers. After more frantic Googling, I removed `nomodeset' temporarily from the launch options of the recovery boot and I was immediately put into recovery mode. I proceeded to login as root, checked out all the available groups in `/etc/group' and `/etc/passwd', then added myself to the sudo group and other groups which I think I should be part of.

After rebooting, I was relieved to find that I now have my sudo privileges back. The world seems strange when you don't have root privileges, doesn't it?

I haven't told you about my Plan B: In case I get tired of fixing my problem, which usually never happens, I would replace Ubuntu with openSUSE since I was itching to try it out, and since I have quite a lot of free time this Philippine summer to reconfigure my system. However, since I have already fixed the problem, I don't feel the need to replace Ubuntu anytime soon. Perhaps I'll just move when another seemingly insurmountable problem arises.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Winner

If you check the handy little sidebar that I have on the right hand side of my blog, you'll notice that there's a little box there that says that I "won" the NaNoWriMo. Well, winning isn't really that much of a correct term to use to describe someone who has successfully gone through the trouble of churning out fifty thousand words in a matter of thirty days, because if it is, then everybody who finishes a five kilometer run would be considered winners. I know some people who might consider successfully forcing themselves to traverse five kilometers in a row on foot to be "winning", but I disagree.

Anyway, my novel, PH:2086 is far from finished, and also very far from having a well-strung together plot. To be honest, after the time and quota pressures of the NaNoWriMo was removed from me like a bomb collar on my neck, I have noticed that I am not really up to adding more stuff into the novel anymore. Or maybe it's because I've recently taken up drumming and I'm very much occupied with practicing at every spare moment that I can get.

I'm not a fan of leaving things unfinished, though, so I will set some personal goals for me to pursue so that I can manage to rack up to eighty thousand to one hundred thousand words, which is the average and most accepted word count for most novels. I have the feeling that I won't be able to compress every bit of the story into one novel however, so I'm thinking of making a sequel once I finish the manuscript.

I also have another novel in the works besides PH:2086, and it's something that I have been working on way before the NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I can get that done as well. Perhaps some excellent time-juggling is in order.

NaNoWriMo 2012

Today marks the first day for the National Novel Writing Month of 2012. Actually, that was yesterday, but I did plan writing this post earlier though I procrastinated by watching a couple of very well-made films made using the Source Film Maker on Youtube, and so I digress. Don't worry about the name though, NaNoWriMo is actually international. There's also conveniently a community of WriMos in the Philippines, which, of course, I immediately joined.

I took on the challenge of joining the NaNoWriMo this year because I find that it's a perfect challenge for me to pursue on my road to self-improvement. 50,000 words in 30 days. Not a pretty hard challenge to do especially with me being a man of dedication and perseverance.

I've been concocting a faint idea of my novel for a while, as I rode my commute from school to my home, a period where I am strangely more creative than usual. It's the story of a young girl who lives in a dystopian Philippine society of the future where the entire country was ruled by an autocratic theocracy. And that's basically an explanation of the story in one line.

I plan to license my novel using a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license once I finish it, so that I can distribute e-book copies of it for free here on my blog, and just earn revenue through the sale of physical books, similar to what Cory Doctorow did to his book, Little Brother. I don't really care about book royalties, I'm more concerned with delivering a message.

I'll keep you guys posted on my progress. Right now it's the second day of the NaNoWriMo and so far I've done 7700, according to my last word count update at the time of writing. My estimated time of completion should be somewhere around the middle of November, if not, a few days after mid-November.

Doing some work on a novel

Some friends and acquaintances of mine have noticed me writing and working on some sort of manuscript. It's neither surprise nor a secret, I am writing a book. More specifically, I'm writing a work of fiction. I've been writing a lot of prose fiction ever since I wasn't even in high school, though some of those works were lost either accidentally or intentionally by me.

I have had a lot of ideas for writing a fiction novel during the last five years or so, but none of them ever even made past the simple 10,000 word count checkpoint. The reasons are probably because I can't find the time to work, and that I can't seem to string together a coherent plot that doesn't entirely sound like I hastily pulled it out of my ass.

I am not going to put in any specific details on this novel that I'm working on, nor am I going to hand out a plot summary of it. Those things will come once the first self-edits of every chapter and scene in my novel are done and I'll have to go find and coerce an unlucky person to edit my work again. But here's a hint for the persistent: It's set in (sort of) present day September 2012 in the Philippines, and it has something to do with international politics. It's a work of fiction that branches itself out from real-world events of that time. A lot of the places I used in my novel are also very much real. The genre is mostly thriller with bits of mystery thrown in here and there.

To prevent myself from slacking off and procrastinating by just deciding to play Sid Meier's Civilization V or Payday: The Heist all day, I've set a short term and two long term goals for my writing. The short term goal is, write at least 750 words a day. Does that sound too easy for a goal? Not really, especially when you're trying to make the plot as realistic, plausible and detailed as something you can find in a Robert Ludlum novel. I have noted a few days where I was not able to meet my short-term goal, or even wrote a single word on the pending chapter.

The long term goals are 45,000 words and 80,000 words for the entire novel. 45,000 words is 5,000 words short of the word count requirement for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), though I have some recollections of their word count requirement being only 45,000 or even 40,000. The second goal, 80,000, is the average word count of a lot of popular fiction novels. The 80,000-100,000 word count range is also comically referred to as the "zone where the publishers and agents actually take your manuscript seriously".

I'm writing my work in vim, typesetting it with LaTeX, and outputting it in a PDF using pdflatex, because who needs "word processors" anyway? I also wrote a small Python script that calculates the word count of each individual chapter and the entire manuscript itself, and calculates how much (in percentage) I have done to reach my long-term goals. There is a margin of error in its calculation of word count, however, since wc also counts my LaTeX comments and commands as words.

Hopefully by the next week or two I'll be able to finish the entire first draft of the manuscript. I'll begin editing by then, and at the start of November, I'll begin work on another novel to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo.

Some friendly requests to professors and instructors everywhere

This probably isn't news anymore for some people, but I recently jumped ship to another college and I do not reside anymore in De La Salle University-Manila. Old news aside, I like my new school, and I'm going to be staying in it for a good two years or so. The place is great (the places around it are better though), and most people there have quite some eccentric tastes and are actually interesting.

However, there are some do's and don'ts (mostly don'ts though) that I'd like to point out regarding my professors and instructors there. These will probably apply to everybody else out who are teaching to at least one other person besides themselves.

Don't put your class's/section's group on Facebook.

I for one try to avoid Facebook like it is an ugly part of town, but sometimes it just comes back like a bad habit and I end up being there anyway. For example, this post gets automatically advertised on my wall and every unfortunate person on my Friends list's news feed. Other notable examples include looking for someone, trying to communicate with people I barely meet every week, and checking out a group my professor made for the class I'm taking.

And the latter isn't really supposed to be there. Facebook is still a long, long way from being a good choice to organize serious groups, like groups between co-workers or, in my case, groups between instructors and students. For one, every privacy issue associated with Facebook profiles apply to groups as well. You really don't want outsiders knowing what your little private group is up to. That's why some companies opt for private corporate "social networks" because apparently people can't communicate on the Internet anymore if it doesn't involve a news feed or an instant messaging platform. I still communicate through old fashioned e-mail, and handle most instant communication through IRC (and sometimes VoIP), so that probably means I'm old.

What's a good alternative for Facebook groups? I'd have gone and suggested Yahoo!, but to me Yahoo! is just a silly company trying to be like Google but instead became a Google clone for those with inept computer skills and awful English. Google Groups is a good place to start, and there are also a lot of other services out there besides Facebook and Yahoo! that you can try out.

Stop handing out documents to students in formats other than PDF.

I like the Portable Document Format ever since it became an open standard at around the year 2008. It does a great job of preserving the original content and format of documents and its sheer portability and commonness is due to Adobe pulling a Microsoft move and telling everybody that their PDF reader and authoring tools are the only things that matter, when there are actually a lot more better readers out there and numerous ways to create PDFs. I can read PDFs on my desktop, my ThinkPad, my tablet, my phone, and my Kindle. And that is good.

However, some instructors thought it was a good idea to hand out documents to their students in their original, editable document forms. The "editable" part isn't the problem here, I actually do not give a shit whether I can manipulate my copy of the document or not. The problem is, handing out documents in such formats hinders portability, because, for example, files that use Microsoft's new formats (*.docx, etc.) look messed up when you're not using something that has Microsoft's name on it to open them. Sure, LibreOffice has done a good job of at least trying to preserve the original formats and looks of Microsoft .doc and .docx files, but when I open these files in my tablet or my phone, things get really ugly. I haven't tried opening .doc, .docx, or .odf files on my Kindle yet, probably because I think that's a very stupid idea.

Instructors should save all the documents that they're going to hand out to their students as PDFs - this goes for presentations as well. This saves me (and other students as well) a lot of time trying to figure out the original format of the file when LibreOffice is having a hard time opening it. Don't know how to save a document as a PDF? Your (probably pirated) copy of Microsoft Office 2010 has that functionality built inside it already.

Don't upload your materials to Rapidshare (or some other bad "filehost").

Right now as I'm typing this, I'm also downloading an economics textbook encoded as a PDF about 69 megabytes big. The size really shouldn't be a problem here - 69 megabytes are downloaded in less than 10 minutes by my connection on average. But right now the estimate says it's going to take a bit like 40 minutes to download (not adjusted to compensate for how badly Chrome estimates remaining download times). The problem lies where the file lies - Rapidshare.

Rapidshare has earned its share of popularity for being the [probably most popular] site that annoys people trying to access it and ripping off people stupid enough to avail of their services by coughing up some euros. The site throttles down your download speed when you're just getting your files for free, and you can't even download more than 2 files at once; both problems are remedied once you've given in to your sanity and you've decided to pay up. They're also not the only one doing this, there are countless of other "file hosts" out there ripping off each other's business models.

The solution for this would be to use an actually decent file host, like Mediafire, or create a Dropbox account and share the files from there. And if the file is really big, it's not too hard to just make a torrent out of it.

Oh, and after finishing the first draft of this post, reading through it two times and doing some edits here and there, my download from Rapidshare isn't even done yet. That means I'm probably going to be staying up late again trying to create a very minimal presentation that no one can understand unless they listen to me talk while I'm presenting. Thanks a lot for making me lose my sleep, Rapidshare!

Why I suddenly want an iPod Nano

For some reason, the 6th Generation iPod Nano is currently on my wish list. That's weird, because I usually do not like Apple products, and mostly I just hate them. But the latest generation of the iPod Nano (as of this time of writing) has fulfilled one of my wishes: To make the conventional timekeeping watch do more than just tell me the time. I've tried that with a few sports watches, you know, the ones that come with timers, countdowns, barometers, a compass, and even altimeters. But I'm not trekking mountains or anything to use an altimeter, nor directionally-challenged to use a compass, or even too obsessed with the weather to use a barometer. Also, those watches are bulky.

And I am also in need of a more convenient portable sound system. Right now I roam around with my preferred pair of earphones connected to a Bluetooth headset hung around my neck, like a pendant on a necklace, while that Bluetooth headset is, in turn, paired and connected with my phone. I like this headset because it allows me to change songs whenever I don't like the one that's currently playing, since I play all my songs and just shuffle them around. Also, if someone is calling, I don't have to pull out my phone to answer it, I can just press the Answer button on the headset to answer the call, then I'll initialize the customary "Hold up I'm talking on my Bluetooth headset" pose (which is putting your index finger on the earpiece and bowing your head a little) so that I don't look like I'm talking to myself or to a random person in front of me (an unfortunate side effect of Bluetooth headsets).

Anyway, I'm here to ramble about the 6th generation iPod Nano, not my Bluetooth headset. And since I'm lazy, I'm just gonna post the things I like and do not like about the device in question in a list form.

What I like

• The watch form factor. The iPod Nano isn't actually designed to be worn as a watch, however, some guy probably looked at it and thought, "Hey, I can probably put a strap on this and wear it around my wrist".
• Low-profile. The iPod Nano is tiny, and I like that because I don't really like having big devices strapped on me (my phone is an exception).
• The plethora of other features on the phone. Like the pedometer and timers, which will probably be useful when I start running, and the FM radio plus other stuff.

What I don't like

• iTunes lock. This is given for all iPods and iDevices, especially those which are new. New iDevices do not allow the user to interface with their computer(s) with something other than iTunes which is a damn shame because (1) I do not want to boot into Windows just to manage my music, and (2) I hate iTunes, it's clunky and slow as hell.
• No Bluetooth. I would've liked the iPod Nano more if it had the capability to connect to a Bluetooth headset, because I think having a wire run up from my wrist looks kind of weird in general.
• No video playback. It would've been nice if the iPod Nano had video playback capabilities, but no, it didn't.
• Non-expandable storage. 16GB of storage might seem enough at first but I might need even more when the time comes. Sadly, I won't be able to buy a larger SD card when I need to because Apple doesn't use them.
• No GPS/Navigation support. Having a watch tell me where I am would be very awesome, not to mention convenient.

---

Right now though, I'm sensing that Apple is about to release a new generation of iPods again, particularly the iPods that aren't the iPod Touch (stop fucking calling it an iTouch for fuck's sake). So I'm thinking of buying the 6th generation iPod right now instead of waiting for the 7th because I am certain that the 7th isn't really much different from the previous one, I just heard rumors that the new one is much like the 6th but with a camera (of all things!), but I don't believe in rumors, the entirety of religion is built on that shit. Also, I think that if the 7th generation iPod Nano did come, it's gonna take a while for it to be sold in the Philippines (because this country is slow on everything), and if it does get sold the accessories for it, especially the watch strap, is also going to take a while for it to reach the country.

Still, I'm in a bit on a financial lockdown right now, and I'm just doing my part in being frugal and saving up money so that I can buy one myself. If you happen to know and see me personally though, you can try and donate to my worthy cause. :)

I'm back (after a long time)

For some reason I find myself writing again in this personal weblog/blog/journal/whatever of mine, after a very, very long time. The last post I made was dated around September of 2011, and now it's been 6 (or 5? My inborn capacity to count is very limited) months since I've been here. I've had many reasons why I've suddenly went dark for quite a while.

First off, and might I add is the most obvious reason, is that I got lazy of writing. I think I have lost my passion for it, but thankfully not my touch. I might have silently realized that I like writing code better than writing creative compositions and self-ramblings. But yes, I probably just got lazy.

Second, I'm trying to avoid Facebook. I made a pitfall during the time I started this blog (which is like, 2 years ago), in which I used this Facebook app (do they call it an app? I don't really know) that tracks this blog and then posts on my wall whenever I make a new post. For some reason I now find that annoying because I don't like people thinking I'm active on Facebook (I'm not, at least, I'm trying not to be), but then again, Facebook sure reels in a lot of traffic. So I'm in the middle of thinking whether I should leave it as it is or remove it.

Third, well, I've been busy with life, particularly the lazy parts of life.

I can't promise myself or to other people that I'll continue to write on this blog, but my fingers have been really itchy for a while and they're tired of typing any more code. There's also lots of stuff I wanted to write about, so maybe I'll be actively posting on this blog for weeks to come.

Hopefully.

The importance of defragmenting your file system

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 story of owning a Kindle 3

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.

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

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

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

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.

The worst part in riding a bus

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

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

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

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.

My quick experience of deleting my Friendster account

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 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.