neural.brew

Karmic.on.the.HP.mini.110

2010-01-14T11:05:00.002+08:00

My friend Jon bought a brand new HP mini 110 last week and asked me to install Ubuntu 9.10 on it (Karmic Koala). I suggested we install the remix edition instead as it designed exactly for netbooks (eeePC, Wind, HP mini,etc). The HP mini come with Windows XP installed and is actually pretty snappy for a netbook. I also liked its keyboard and it comes as no surprise that Jon chose it because he is a journalist and will actually be using the mini primarily for writing. After playing with it for a while, I prepared an Ubuntu 9.10 remix installer on a usb drive, stuck it on the mini, rebooted, and installed it. The installation was a breeze and after a few minutes or so I got the familiar orange-brown scheme and the remix interface. So I did the usual checks and was happy to found out that all of the mini's hardware work (at least that's what I thought at that point).

Now Jon is a Skype user and since Skype is not installed by default I promptly downloaded the Skype package from their site, installed and configured it. Audio and web cam worked fine but that's when I discovered that the internal mic does not work. As usual the first thing to do to is to install back ported drivers and hope that it might fix the situation. For the mini this is what I did.

sudo linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic

You can also use the Synaptic Package Manager, search for the package and installed it.

I installed the generic meta package so that all supporting packages are installed and should ensure that upgrades work correctly. I reconfigured Skype again and this time the internal mic worked. And just to make sure the package is loaded correctly I did a reboot. One of the stellar improvements in this Ubuntu version is its fast boot loading, I was up in running again in a few seconds. The back ported alsa driver definitely fixed the internal mic but somehow broke the mini's wireless connectivity. Sensing a driver conflict, I attempted to use ndiswrapper and loaded the windows drivers instead. The procedure failed but it reminded me to just use Ubuntu's Hardware Drivers app. This app allows users to load proprietary drivers to hardware that either don't have a Linux driver or have an untested implementation of a Linux driver. Their are two choices for Broadcom (the mini's wireless card) but for the mini you need to choose the STA drivers. Activate the driver and just do a reboot to be sure. Everything worked well in my case and I hope you'd be able to do the same for yours! :)

the.koala.arrives

2009-10-31T10:49:00.005+08:00

I've just installed Ubuntu's latest release nicknamed Karmic Koala (9.10) and I still can't wipe the smile off my face. Once again Ubuntu/Canonical has release a shinier more polished version of the popular Linux distro. My main gear is an MSI PR-200 laptop and virtually all of my devices worked without a single tweak (the TV-card might need work). Gnome-do now sports a dock interface and it comes with the latest release of Firefox (so far no Flash issues). If this is an indication of Canonical's dedication to making Ubuntu the best Linux distro then I think they're on the right track. Minor design changes actually enhanced the whole experience. Kudos to Canonical and the Ubuntu community! :)

can't.wait

2009-10-07T10:31:00.001+08:00

Karmic Koala Beta is running smoothly on my machine...I do hear a few issues from my friends but no showstopping bugs to far...its fast, well polished and will definitely upgrade to it once its officially released.

ideacampdavao.channel.on.vimeo

2009-09-25T08:48:00.002+08:00

Ragingmon just posted the latest batch Ideacamp videos
Thanks mon!

post.SFD.blog (long post)

2009-09-24T09:51:00.013+08:00

Another Software Freedom Day was successfully celebrated at the UIC Auditorium last Saturday. Some familiar faces from last year's SFD were there as well as a fresh set of students coming from different schools. Here are the highlights of the event.

Councilor Peter Lavina opened the event (see video below)

SFD2009 Keynote - Pete Lavina from ragingmon on Vimeo.

followed by Dominique Cimafranca's interesting talk on Teaching Opensource in The University.

Kevin Paquet of PinoyTeens.net talked about his passion for the opensource blogging platform, Wordpress.

Marloue Pidor talked about OpenStreetMap (OSM) and how everyone can contribute to this wonderful mapping project. Marloue, Mark and I co-author mapping mindanao so you can actually shoot me an email as well if you have questions regarding OSM.

Evamay dela Rosa talked about FOSS solutions for Business Intelligence...putting emphasis on Pentaho. She also announced that their company is hiring...so there you go, learn Pentaho and you're assured a seat in Citi Hardware :)

SFD09 Business Intelligence - Evamay dela Rosa from ragingmon on Vimeo.

Mark Maglana talked about Opensourcing IdeaCamp...the unconference for people who want to make a difference.

SFD2009 IdeaCamp Open Sourcing Ideas - Mark Maglana from ragingmon on Vimeo.

Holden Hao, Afterfive and DabaweGNU President, presented network booting and virtualization, showcasing the same technologies that powered DabaweGNU's laboratory. Low-cost yet powerful solutions fueled by FOSS.

Lastly, I got to present Ardour, Hydrogen and JACK...FOSS-based digital audio tools that deliver high quality output. I would have wanted to show how to actually add each audio track to Ardour but due to time constraints I had to settle with a canned Ardour project. I hope the audience at least get the basic concepts so they can start their our music projects using these tools. Btw, I used Impressive to render the presentation and as well as use Ubuntu's built-in bluetooth hid support to use my k750i as a presentation remote. (see! libre rocks!)

Again if you have question feel free to shoot me an email.

SFD09 Ardour + Jack + Hydrogen - George Tujan from ragingmon on Vimeo.

special thanks to Ragingmon for the videos!

neuralbrew.on.sfd

2009-09-18T15:57:00.003+08:00

I'll be at the UIC Auditorium tomorrow from 1pm to 5pm for the Software Freedom Day 2009 celebration. Here's a link for tomorrow's programme >> software-freedom-day-2009

IdeaCampDavao.version.2

2009-09-11T14:21:00.002+08:00

I got my hands full these days but I would just like to remind everyone to join IdeaCamp Davao 2

When: Saturday, September 12, 2009 (10AM - 4PM, registration starts at 9:30AM)
Where: Whistle Top Bar (Matina Town Square, Davao City, Philippines)
How much: Admission is FREE (But slots are limited)
What to wear: No dress code, as usual

See you there!

an.alternative.to.the.usual.presentation.apps

2009-06-13T11:29:00.006+08:00

Hello guys, I've been quite busy lately juggling fatherhood, work, ideacamp and setting up the mapping party that I haven't been able to update this blog as much as I want to. So now that I have a few minutes to spare I'd like to point your attention to a pretty cool application (more of a script really) I came across yesterday, must have been what we drank and ate at Talaba Joe's (thanks Mark... I enjoyed the quantum physics talk hahaha) because I just randomly searched for presentation apps online and managed to stumble upon Impressive.

Impressive is a program that displays presentation slides. But unlike Impress or other similar applications, it does so with style. Smooth alpha-blended slide transitions are provided for the sake of eye candy, but in addition to this, Impressive offers some unique tools that are really useful for presentations. Its not as flashy or feature-loaded as the usual presentation software but what I like about it is its simplicity and the potential to do more (it is after all a FOSS app), its just a 150k python script (fully configurable and free) that allows you to render your PDF files as presentation, providing hardware-accelerated effects (page transitions), a smashing overview screen that looks like Compiz or Cooliris, a highlight box that stays that way until you disable it and the cool spotlight effect (so you can throw away that laser pointer). Of course its not as complete as Keynote,Powerpoint

or Impress but in some ways I find it more impressive :)

improving.intel.graphics.on.ubuntu.jaunty

2009-06-06T18:17:00.003+08:00

Here's a link to a very helpful howto that not only improves the speed of your Intel integrated chip but also solves the Google Earth 5.0 flickering (and logging-out issues). Btw, I have an MSI PR-200 notebook with a GM965/GL960 chip running Ubuntu 9.04 64bit, the fix (or should I say work-around) manage to drastically improve glxgears frames from 600+ to 2700+ (I followed the bleeding edge option), yet remained stable with no apparent memory leaks. Hope this helps

post.ideacampdavao.post

2009-06-01T16:28:00.004+08:00

I'd like to thank all those to came and participated in the first ever IdeaCamp Davao! We had a full-packed room of people willing to share what's on their mind. I personally enjoyed the whole experience, not just because I'm part of the organizing group (it was fun btw), but because of the ideas that were introduced. Engr. Espina's talk on renewable energy was both an eye-opener and a window for opportunity, I could have sworn I saw light-bulbs on people's heads when he presented his ideas. The presentation was limited to 10minutes (plus another 10mins for questions) each and although I personally would want it to be longer, it was at least effective in keeping the speakers from talking to much and the audience from losing interest (maybe we should consider parallel session on the next IdeaCamp). This is just the beginning guys, We hope to bring even more interesting ideas on the next IdeaCamp (schedule will be announced in a few days).

Btw, I'd urge anyone even those who haven't attended IdeaCamp Davao (and therefore did not see the presentation) to checkout G.ho.st's virtual computer, its a new paradigm for computing and quite helpful for those who wouldn't want to lug around a laptop when travelling, just sign up and go!

flickr stream >> click me!

ideacampdavao!

2009-05-29T17:35:00.003+08:00

ideacampdavao is set for tomorrow, 1:30pm @Kublai's Cafe (Ponce Suites) so see you there guys and hope to share ideas with the rest of you! :)

riding.the.city

2009-05-22T11:37:00.010+08:00

I was tinkering with the GPStogo unit (loaned to Marloue by OSM) the other day and made a simple Delphi app to fetch GPS data from the device and plot the location to an OSM map of Davao. The idea is to create a DIY real-time GPS tracking system suitable for mapping (and for the upcoming mapping party), using only stuff in the office. However, I have not figured out a way to effectively render downloaded OSM tiles in my app (no offline-support yet) and my application is currently making use of Cloudmade's powerful API to request and render the tiles for me online. So unless I use WeRoam or Visibility it won't be as useful for mobile mapping (using the telco's 3G service for mobile mapping isn't as practical either). The next day I decided to install tangoGPS on my notebook and saw that it practically has what I wanted in the first place (plus its free and supports offline maps). Since Marloue and I are scheduled to meet a client after lunch, we figured that it would be the best time to try out this DIY setup and start logging POIs (Point of Interest) as we travel along the road.

Here's what you need:

1. GPS device...we used the GT-31 but any GPS device that outputs NMEA sentences will do
2. A notebook with Ubuntu 9.04 (or any distro you want) installed
3. tangoGPS

You can install tangoGPS via synaptic:


sudo aptitude install tangogps

Ensure that gpsd and gpsd-clients is installed as well:


sudo aptitude install gpsd gpsd-clients

Gpsd is a service daemon that monitors one or more GPS devices attached to a host computer through serial or USB ports. It then serves this information via port 2947 and allow multiple client application to access the to GPS devices without contention or data loss. You can actually use one GPS device for navigation, wardriving, mapping or whatnot all at the same time!

tangoGPS does not interface directly with a GPS device, however it accesses GPS data by listening to a gpsd service. So before you can actually use Tango you'll have to make sure gpsd is running. You also have to check what particular USB port the GT-31 or any (GPS device for that matter) is connected.


dmesg | grep ttyUSB

Normally it should give you /dev/ttyUSB0 but it could be any other number depending on which port is available. Next, run the gpsd service:


gpsd -N -n -D 2 /dev/ttyUSB0

Once the service is running, fire-up tangoGPS and proceed to configuration. The default setup should work (IP: 127.0.0.1 port 2947) as it uses a loopback address, change the IP if you're accessing the service from another machine. Thats about it, once the GPS gets a satellite fix tangoGPS will draw a marker that shows your current position and bearing. Righ-clicking on the map allows you to add POIs, which was exactly what Marloue was doing during the trip. I managed to discover a better driving route while doing this experiment and I hope something similar happens to you as well, have fun riding the city!

lazarus.on.ubuntu.jaunty.64bit

2009-04-30T18:20:00.005+08:00

Being a big fan of Delphi I've been wanting to port my apps to Linux...unfortunately Kylix (Borland's RAD tool for Linux) is no longer supported since...well years ago, the obvious path would be to use free pascal and Lazarus. Free pascal is an open-source Pascal compiler with two notable features: a high degree of Delphi compatibility and availability on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, Lazarus on the other hand, is an open-source development system that builds on the Free Pascal compiler by adding an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes a syntax-highlighting code editor and visual form designer, as well as a component library that's highly compatible with Delphi's Visual Component Library (VCL).

In Intrepid, I found that Lazarus and fpc is best compiled from the svn repo, however this is not the case with Jaunty (9.04) or at least with Jaunty 64bit. I have not installed Lazarus or fpc on Jaunty's 32bit edition so I can't say for sure but in the 64bit version it won't compile, I'm pretty sure its a dependency issue but as of the moment I don't have the time or the patience to trace all of it, enter CodeTyphon (shouldn't it be CodeTyphoon?) a distribution of FPC and Lazarus with a nice graphical build tool that makes building (to any OS) easier. Until the Lazarus wiki reflects a nice howto here's an easier way to install and build fpc and lazarus.

Download CodeTyphon here
Extract CodeTyphon zip to a folder of your choice
Double-click CodeTyphon_ln64.ex (a CodeTyphon window should show up)
Go to main menu FreePascal -> FPC Extract Source (it should automatically extract the FPC source to its own directory...usually /usr/share/fpsrc)
Next select FreePascal -> FPC 64bit Build Compiler (could take a few minutes)
Go to main menu Lazarus -> Lazarus Extract Source(it should automatically extract the Lazarus source to its own directory...usually /usr/lib/lazarus)

*Step 7 actually failed in my first attempt, I found out that later after looking at the error logs that a few dependencies have to be satisfied first (so much for no time and patience hehehe). So fire-up your terminal and type this:


sudo aptitude install libX11-dev libgtk2.0-dev

Next select Lazarus -> Lazarus 64bit Build IDE
Create a link or launcher that points to /usr/lib/lazarus/startlazarus
Start coding!

Hope this helps! :)

Jaunty.Jackalope.arrives

2009-04-25T09:35:00.005+08:00

I decided to shift to 64bit Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) yesterday and installed it over my existing Ubuntu partition, now you might ask why I bothered with a clean install when I already upgraded to Jaunty a day before...To be honest, I really don't have a concrete reason except this weird feeling that the distro upgrade I performed was half-baked, notifications didn't work and it still has a sluggish feel. I might have been too excited about the whole thing that I didn't even notice that the automated installer did not wipeout the existing swap partition so I actually ended up with two swap files! Again the obsessive-compulsive in me was triggered and I performed the installation again, this time wiping out both my swap and root partition (using gparted) before installing Jaunty to disk. Ext4 is not the default filesystem for Jaunty btw and if you want that to happen you'll have to use manual partitioning. I chose ext3, deciding to shift to ext4 only if I find Jaunty slow the after installation. So after a few minutes I finally got it up and running and was immediately impressed by how fast it boots...22 secs! (cold booting) and thats even ext4 yet!

This time my notification system finally worked. Everytime I receive a message in pidgin or a wifi signal is detected, I get a nice unobtrusive message that tells me what just happened. Jaunty is quite polished and has a very stable overall feel, not a very objective observation I know but Jaunty does live up to its name, its fast and the user experience is definitely improved. The wallpaper and theme hasn't changed much but thats what customization is for. Firefox is more responsive this time and flash support(flash64bit beta) has definitely improved. With Intrepid I experienced flash movies suddenly turning white and stopped playing or crashed the browser without warning...so far I haven't experienced that in Jaunty. If you want to install the 64bit version of flash make sure you removed the 32bit version first using synaptic then download here. I got the tar.gz version extracted libflashplayer.so and copied it to ~/.mozilla/plugins (create the folder if it doesn't exist).

Compiz worked fine after I upgraded Intrepid to Jaunty but curiously did not function once I did a clean install. I read somewhere that the devs explicitly blocked Intel graphics controllers because of stability issues with the driver (mine was GM965 Integrated Graphics Controller) however once I disabled the checks, Compiz worked fined without a hitch (however I'd still want the devs to fix whatever issues they find and add that later to the repos). If you have a GM956 like me you've been warned but if you like to make it work here is how I did it.

mkdir ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager
echo "SKIP_CHECKS =yes" > ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager

This is strictly a workaround folks...up until a real fix is given. Also you can install fusion-icon via synaptic(or add/remove) and reload the window manager, that should trigger compiz.
I'm still rebuilding my system right now, installing some of my favorite apps like gnome-do and vlc so I'll be a bit busy, you guys should try it out for a spin...again you can use the live-cd or better yet wubi (ubuntu installer for windows) if you're new to Linux and just want to have a feel for it. Otherwise forget about your current Intrepid installation and start upgrading :)

because.I.can't.wait.another.day

2009-04-21T08:56:00.002+08:00

I've been testing Ubuntu 9.04 RC for two days now and it seems to live up to my expectation. So I've decided to upgrade to the latest release just because I can't wait another day...It's that good :)
Wish me luck and I hope I don't break things.

the.jackalope.is.coming

2009-04-06T18:16:00.001+08:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/904/countdown-9.04-1/00.png" alt="Ubuntu 9.04 - on desktops, netbooks, servers and in the cloud" width="180" height="150" border="0" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

just a few more days :)

OpenStreetMap on Linux & Kape

2009-04-02T15:23:00.009+08:00

DabawenGNU's Linux & Kape (coffee) or L&K sessions has always been my favorite avenue for tech talk, conceptualized by a few years back it has given local FOSS advocates a powerful tool for spreading their advocacy or simply mingle with other people and be enlightened with what new FOSS related technology can offer. Its intended to encourage everyone to talk about their area of interest and expertise without the baggage of preparing formal and time consuming presentations.

I enjoyed every L & K session I've attended, that is why when Marloue and I were invited to talk about OSM and GIS I did not hesitate so set a schedule. Finally we can spark the interest of Davaoeños and get more local contributors to the OpenStreetMap project.

Due to time constraints we decided to focus more on OSM and clear up a few misconceptions as well. We also discussed some of the online services that made use of OSM as well as an overview of the Cloudmade's API and showed a sample application written in Delphi. Andrew was kind enough to document the session and even snapped a few photos while he's at it. Most of the participants were from the academe and we hope they will impart what they learned back to the classrooms so we'll have even more contributors.

OpenStreetMap is an amazing project its not just a simple online map but there is a wealth of information that can be derived and put to good use. Do take time to listen to the discussion, if you don't understand some of the words (as this is an informal session after all) feel free to shoot me an email. We'd like to thank Emmanuel Sambale for the presentation, he has done a lot for the OSM movement in the Philippines and we'd like to support that effort as well. (Videos on Andrew's blog)

Another Ubuntu related freebie

2009-02-11T10:45:00.003+08:00

"A great resource covering Ubuntu
from A to Z without all the extra fluff"
Ryan Troy, administrator, Ubuntuforums.org

Ubuntupocketguide.com is nice enough to offer this useful reference guide as a free download. But if you got the extra cash, please buy this book. I'm pretty sure its worth way more than $9.94.

apps.for.the.FOSS.musician

2008-12-06T15:44:00.013+08:00

It's quite a busy week for me work-wise, we've been planning on setting up a product launch for the GPS tracking solution we've been developing since last year, so its really nice for the weekend to come and allow me a day of R and R. This also means that I have time to blog about another passion of mine and that is making music.

I've practically been a music fan all my life. When I was a little kid, my sister and I sang along songs we heard on the radio. My earliest percussion instruments were my mom's collection of aluminum and steel pots, my main instrument however, was my father's comb, which I had covered with paper on one side and sang through it to generate vocal buzzes much like a kazoo. But it really wasn't until 6th grade when I signed up for our school's guitar club that I really got into making 'real' music (Thanks sir Jacinto for triggering the musician in me).

When I got introduced to computers (which came in late in my life), I wanted to incorporate computers into music, or at least make use of software to either make the whole music making concept easier or make it more interesting. My first attempts were obviously recording applications like SoundForge (which was the primary application used in the recording studio where I worked on a couple of years ago), later I got into Cakewalk and other similar applications. These apps were very good with their respective areas but now that I'm leaning more into FOSS(Free & Open Source Software) I've been scouting applications that can replace these tools.
Here's a list of a few applications that can definitely help musicians like me that are looking for FOSS alternatives to popular proprietary music applications.

Audacity. A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X , and other operating systems. This is a good SoundForge replacement and is also being used for voice and audio analysis.
Hydrogen. An advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. It's main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming. Quite easy to use and given the right drum kits (which are also free!) can produce very life-like sounds. I've used it to produce the drum tracks for my demos.
JACK. A system for handling real-time, low latency audio (and MIDI).
JACK Control. Offers a user interface for controlling the JACK sound server daemon. At the same time it figures as a JACK patch bay and monitoring tool.
Ardour. A digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Its very close to ProTools and has a completely flexible "anything to anywhere" routing system, and will allow as many physical I/O ports as your system allows.
Creox. A real-time sound processor that mimics guitar effects. Its not as powerful as GuitarRig but for simple needs this is more than enough.
GT-6 Fx FloorBoard. A midi editor for the Boss GT-6 floor effects. A recent discovery that got me really excited. This app allows me to control the GT-6, mix and modify effect settings as well as load and save my patches. In my experience the linux version worked even better than the windows version :). Finally a software that rivals GT-Manager!
Tuxguitar. An opensource multitrack tablature editor. This is a great compositional tool and works quite the same way as Guitar Pro except that this one not only read and writes GPx files but Powertab files as well. Beat that!
Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS). free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio, which allow you to produce music with your computer. This includes the creation of melodies and beats, the synthesis and mixing of sounds, and arranging of samples. You can have fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more; all in a user-friendly and modern interface.
Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

There are of course more applications for the FOSS musician than what I have listed and I will definitely post them in the future. But the list above contains most of the really good ones. Moreover, by installing Ubuntu Studio I'm pretty sure you'll encounter more applications that will fit your needs.

Before I end this blog, I'd like to show-off my Ubuntu shirt! :)
I had commissioned a friend 2 weeks ago to create the artwork for the Ubuntu shirt I'm currently wearing (unfortunately, the yellow paint partially wore-off) .
This will serve as my 'gig' shirt on my band's next gig or it can also be my shirt on the next DabaweGNU L & K session :)

workaround.for.mounted.samba.shares.io.error

2008-11-27T17:16:00.010+08:00

Hi everyone, before blogging any further I'd like to congratulate DabaweGNU along with FOSS Nepal Community and SFD Nicaragua for bagging Software Freedom Day 2008's Best Event Award. I'm pretty sure this recognition will further encourage DabaweGNU and other organizers to do even better next time. Moreover, this will definitely boost support for FOSS and assure a bigger audience next SFD. Each of the winning organizations will also receive a pair of OLPC laptops...can't wait to take it for a spin :)

>>DabaweGNU team report

Now back to the topic at hand, I visited a client the other day and they reported a problem with saving documents in OpenOffice (Writer in particular). This client recently decided to migrate some of their windows PCs to Linux and as expected there are bumps along the way, I will be talking about specific software related issues and how it can be mitigated. This would also serve as reference for future projects where I might encounter the same issue.

When saving a document to a mounted samba share(mounted remote folders) Writer issues an I/O error, creates the file and prevents the user from further saving the document. This issue seems to be isolated in Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) because I don't recall encountering this in Hardy. You can however save the file locally and then drag (copy+paste) the file to the mounted folder, also if the folder is mounted via nautilus the bug does not occur. So naturally that was the work around, the problem was that my client wants to be able to save directly to the remote folder without having to manually mount the share via nautilus (I know what you're thinking...its only a 3 step thing but hey they want it done!). So here is how I temporarily solved the problem ( the permanent fix is to wait for the samba fix to be included in the repos).

Disable the samba mount definition in /etc/fstab by inserting a hashmark(#) at the start of the definition (this is specific to my client because I had setup the system to automount the samba shares)
Nautilus like most linux apps accepts commandline parameters so we are going to use that to our advantage simply create a script to automate that.
```
 sudo nano /home/<user_name>/mountshare.sh
```
Type the following lines
```
#/bin/sh
nautilus smb://<ip/hostname>/<share_name>
```
Save the script.
Make the script executable
- chmod +x mount_share.sh

Add an entry to the current session so it is executed on startup. System --> Administration -->Sessions --> Add Entry. Browse and point to /home/mount_share.sh

Hope this snippet helps those with similar issues...at least until the bug is fixed.

linux.pimping

2008-11-11T09:39:00.009+08:00

Hello folks, I'm once again encouraging everyone to shift or at least try Ubuntu. The recent release (Ubuntu 8.10), although not perfect, is very good and quite easy to use.

A few years back I had Mandrake installed, along with Windows, in a home PC. I forgot to set the default boot option to back to Windows so it boots with Mandrake every time its turned on. My father, a casual computer user, turned the PC on and was surprised that it didn't looked quite like Windows. He assumed that I simply changed the Windows theme to make it look different. He didn't mind that the boot screen say "Mandrake Linux", he didn't mind that the icons were totally different, he didn't care that the start button has a star on it. What he care about thought was looking for something that says "Word" because he needed to type a document. He saw KWord, launched it and typed away. When I got back he only asked if I had changed the "theme" because it looked way different. So there I was surprised that my father is a now a Linux user without him knowing it, plus he actually printed the document and shown it to me. I can never forget that incident and that's precisely why I smirk whenever I hear people say Linux is hard to use and why I believe that given the right mix (as in the case of Ubuntu) Linux can definitely be successful as a desktop OS as well (Linux has been enjoying its rule in the server OS space for years).

I've always been eager to promote the use of Linux as a desktop OS ever since Ubuntu's Dapper release (6.10). It was, in my opinion, the first distro release that made it easy (at least for me) to make an ordinary computer user actually sit down and use it. The next releases made my Linux pimping life even better. Just think of the benefits, it's advanced, it's virtually immune to viruses (yup, no need to buy an anti-virus), totally customizable, fat free (meaning none of the usual bloat-ware you get from bundled software packages), it's a good way to start a conversation unless you still prefer to talk about the weather in which case there is even a widget for that :) , and most of all it's free!

Download the latest Ubuntu release and try it for yourself. If you're around Davao City feel free to drop by (PM me first) bring a CD/DVD and I'll burn a copy for you. We can even talk about it while sipping a cup o' joe (and yes the coffee is free too).

crossover.is.free.for.today

2008-10-29T12:43:00.005+08:00

Crossover a commercial compatibility layer for running Windows applications to Linux and Mac is being given away by Codeweavers for free...just for today!
CEO Jeremy White offered a challenge to George W. Bush. If the president achieved one of White's six "Lame Duck" goals during the twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE GUI CrossOver free to customers for one day. Codeweavers' main page was temporarily replaced due to the day's unusually high traffic ;)

A day from now Ubuntu 8.10 will be officially released and two days from now will be All Souls' Day or "Undas" (as we pinoys call it) something like Dia de los Muertos only we don't have the grim fandango-like images. It's a time to remember those that touched our lives and for most pinoys, a time to bond with relatives. See you guys next week.

Can't.resist.the.urge...to.upgrade

2008-10-10T09:30:00.005+08:00

Oh boy, I've tested Ubuntu 8.10 Beta (Intrepid Ibex) for 3 days via Wubi and I have a strong urge to drop Ubuntu 8.04 and upgrade to the beta release. Its only about 20days more but this particular release seems quite stable on two of the notebooks I've tested that I just got to do the upgrade. I have not encountered any bug that I'd consider a show stopper and the only one I saw thats annoying was the fact that the security key for wifi is not stored by the network manager (which prompts you again on the next reboot), but thats ok I'm pretty sure it will be solved on the next update. I've downloaded the alternate- installer iso yesterday, burned it on a cd and upgraded the system and what did I get? A warm fuzzy feeling that I got a new and improved version of my favorite desktop linux distro :) ...they say pulseaudio will be better in Ibex, I'll check this later. Also my Lazarus was broken but it just might be the libraries getting messed up after the initial upgrade(via cd)...I went online this morning and the update manager prompted me for a partial upgrade, which basically means there have been a considerable amount of difference between my packages as opposed to the online repositories (the iso must have been a few weeks older already). I'm still running an online upgrade while I'm writing this blog and from the looks of things (ISP slowdowns and all) It will probably take 2 hours or the rest of the day before the upgrade is done.

For the brave ones you can upgrade your system online (slower but more complete) by typing this on the commandline:

update-manager --devel-release

then click on the upgrade button.

or use the alternate installer cd:

The upgrade script is supposed to run once the cd gets loaded but there is a bug in the script (path issues I presume) that prevents it from launching and would therefore do nothing on the GUI side...so drop down to your terminal and type this instead:

./cdrom/cdromupgrade

On a totally unrelated but equally cool news, a friend of mine sent me a url to Google powered search site that uses commandline interface similar to sh and aptly called it goosh...greate use of ajax btw :)

Good luck and may the force be with you!

the.countdown.begins

2008-10-04T09:19:00.004+08:00

It's October once again and another Ubuntu release is due (don't you just loved the predictable release cycle?) I'm currently downloading Ubuntu 8.10 beta a.k.a. Intrepid Ibex and will be testing it as soon as its finished. I'm actually very satisfied with the previous release (Hardy Heron) but I'd also like to see what the new release will put into the whole Ubuntu experience table. Aside from tons of bug fixes (and bugs to uncover, since this is beta) a slew of new features are added into Ubuntu. Some of the more notable improvements are (based on Ubuntu.com):

X.Org 7.4. Which bring better support for hot-pluggable input devices and at the same time allow the greate majority of users to run without a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This ensures that users spend more time using the system rather that fixing it. A new failsafe X is introduced, to give better tools for troubleshooting X startup failures...I'd wish better support for dual screen monitor btw. Also fglrx (thats ATI folks) and two of the older nvidia binary drivers are not available for X.Org 7.4 yet, so users of these drivers will be automatically switched to the corresponding open source drivers.
Linux kernel 2.6.27. Better hardware support and bug-fixes obviously
Encrypted private directory. Support for an encrypted secret folder in your home directory. Nice!
Guest session. The User Switcher panel applet (package fast-user-switch-applet) now provides an extra entry for starting a Guest session. This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges: the account cannot access any users' home directories, nor permanently store data. This is sufficiently safe to lend your laptop to someone else for a quick email check.
Network Manager 0.7. Includes system wide settings (i.e., no need to log in in order to get a connection) and management of 3G connections (GSM/CDMA). I just hope it works out of the box.
"Last successful boot" recovery entry. Ubuntu 8.10 will retain a copy of your running kernel and make it available from the boot loader as a "Last successful boot" option . This makes it possible for old kernel packages to be safely auto-removed by the package manager, instead of being kept indefinitely(and eating disk space).
DKMS. allowing kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released. This makes it possible for kernel package updates to be made available immediately without waiting for rebuilds of driver packages, and without third-party driver packages becoming out of date when installing these kernel updates.

Software.Freedom.Day.2008.Davao.City

2008-09-26T14:01:00.004+08:00

I'm still in General Santos City and I'm wrapping up my blog on Davao City's celebration of Software Freedom Day. I must say the whole experience was enjoyable, informative and very successful. Students from different colleges flocked together to learn more about free/open source software (FOSS).

Mark Maglana of Morphlabs started the program by talking about the Ruby language and the popular Ruby on Rails framework as well as showing everyone how easy it is to use for developing web applications. He also showcased two of Morphlabs latest services appSpace and appCloud, revolutionary web products that utilize opensource technology. Next was Nathaniel Jayme of DabaweGNU who talked about FFEHR (pronounced "effer") the free and open source Electronic Health Record project. FFEHR, according to Nathaniel, uses the Mozilla framework which includes XUL and XBL. It's interesting to note Nathaniel's passion for FOSS in fact I'm pretty sure he imprinted that passion to the students attending the celebration (I noticed a few students asking him a lot of questions after the event). Next on the list was 17-yr old Kevin Paquet of PinoyTeens.net who talked about Wordpress and why he thinks its the best blogging software ever :). Andrew Abogado wowed the crowd with his skills, showing everyone that GIMP and Inkscape is just as powerful as proprietary graphics software. Lastly we have Ragingmon aka Marlo Noval whose Blender talents never fails to amaze me, raises the bar by showing everyone how Blender with the help of Vodoo can do add 3D objects/effects into live-footages/movies (a process called camera tracking or match moving).

An animated short film made entirely with FOSS (Big Buck Bunny) was shown and signaled the end of the celebration as well. I hope next year's celebration will be bigger and better and will include more topics (w/c means that you guys wanting to contribute shouldn't shy away). See you on the next SFD!

SFD '08

2008-09-24T10:42:00.006+08:00

Holden and I are currently conducting a private seminar on Linux administration in General Santos City. It's turning out to be quite a busy day and we're only in Day 2 :) but I do have enough time to post this link to Ragingmon's video of last saturday's Software Freedom Day '08 celebration

Software Freedom Day - Davao 2008

More on this on the next blog.

software.freedom.day.2008

2008-09-16T16:14:00.003+08:00

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual worldwide celebration of free/open-source software (FOSS). SFD is a public education effort, not only to celebrate the virtues of free/open-source software, but also to encourage its use, to the benefit of the public.

From 2006 onwards, it has been decided that the Software Freedom Day is to be held on the third Saturday of each September.

Dabawegnu is spearheading its celebration here in Davao by conducting a free seminar on FOSS at the University of Mindanao, 1:00pm -5:00pm on Sept. 20, 2008.

Additional details can be found on here.

See you there!

Delphi.2009.is.officially.released!

2008-09-11T11:10:00.002+08:00

I just got a nice email informing me that my favorite development tool has released its newest iteration. Delphi 2009 aka Tiburon is now officially released and a trial version is available for download. This version offers new language enhancements like generics and anonymous methods as well as unicode support plus more. I only want it to be the same kick-ass IDE i've always loved :)
Here is a list of 3rd party tools and components that are Delphi 2009 compatible. Devexpress users will have to wait a bit but I'm sure we won't have to wait that long.

IBM CSC Lecture Series on Project Development and SDLC

2008-07-30T17:45:00.003+08:00

It came at a short notice but for those interested, do attend. Seminars like this don't come often in our part of the country. Thanks to IBM volunteer Sreejith Sankarapillai and DabawenGNU for making this happen. See you there.

The.Heron.lands.on.the.eePC.900

2008-07-10T09:32:00.010+08:00

A friend of mine is planning a trip and wants to carry along a lightweight, ultra-portable laptop for her travel. She ended up buying a black eeePC 900 and called me up to soup it up for her.She's a proud macbook pro owner by the way, and when I asked her why she preferred to bring along an eeePC instead of the MBP, she pointed out that she already broke two macs on two separate travels and would not want to suffer the same costly experience again. In her opinion the eeePC 900 is still cheaper than having to repair a MBP, I'd say just use a mobile phone instead :). Anyway, its a good opportunity for me to try out Ubuntu 8.04 on the eeePC and to test the eeePCs "viability" as a personal tool as well.
I was having lunch with wifey when the unit arrived, I had to stop eating and enthusiastically examine its physical features. All black unit with a nice 9" screen , 3 usb ports, sd/mmc slot,a gig of RAM, 1.3 integrated webcam and 20GB of solid state drive space! Its amazing how this all fits into one package that weighs barely a pound. The eeePC 900 includes a CD for installing either Windows XP or Xandros but my friend already installed Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy heron) on it (probably reading good reviews on Ubuntu as a linux desktop). It was a good choice since Xandros for eeePC tends to be minimal feature-wise (but definitely has more features vs the windows XP version).
With Ubuntu most of eeePCs features works out of the box, except for wifi and the power not being properly cut off when you shutdown (one has to remove the battery to shut it down), these however are minor problems that are easily fixed.
The wifi issue was fixed for eeePC 701 but the current kernel update seem to break it for eeePC 900. The problem is remedied by simply re-installing madwifi drivers like so

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
wget 'http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz'
tar zxvf madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
cd madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007
make clean
make
sudo make install
sudo reboot

Should new kernel updates disable or break wifi just redo the steps.
The shutdown problem is cause by the sound module not being properly unloaded, we can tell the system to do that by editing /etc/default/halt and adding the following code:


rmmod snd-hda-intel

There are scripts available online that allow you to automate the fixes but like most things please make sure you understand how they work first before you apply them, they won't brick your eeePC but they might introduce new issues you can't solve. I personally don't use the scripts since I don't think I'd need all the tweaks but I do examine them for ideas I missed out. Here is a picture of the eeePC side by side with my MSI PR200...suddenly my 12inch notebook looked massive compared to the eeePC.

The eeePC is a cool device indeed, great features, good price, way better processing speed than other ultraportables, and lightweight too. The tiny keyboard however is a letdown for me especially when typing codes in the terminal application (Palm's foldable keyboard feels much much better). Still, its the best ultraportable I've come across...until maybe the next version comes out :)

spread.the.fire...fox!

2008-05-30T08:46:00.004+08:00

Let's help Firefox break the record for the most software downloads in 24 hrs!
Great marketing strategy for an equally great browser.
Sign up here and spread the fire...fox :)

the.heron.has.spread.its.wings

2008-04-26T09:11:00.003+08:00

I know its a bit late for me to declare Canonical's Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) release, but I intentionally did it for two things: 1) I'd want everyone to wait till all the other Ubuntu "flavors" are updated and 2) Let's give their servers a breather before we swamp them again with downloads!

So boys and girls get your downloaders ready, get Ubuntu 8.04 and enjoy the experience.
If anyone here in Davao City is interested to install and learn to use Ubuntu, just message me and bring a blank DVD, I'll burn the distro for free :)

Penguin convention

2008-04-09T19:37:00.008+08:00

I'm currently attending Dabawegnu's Linux Systems Administration Training, dubbed LiSa 1.2 , and actually enjoying it. A former officemate and co-LiSa attendee asked me why I bothered to join when I probably knew a lot about the topics already. Good question, I probably knew the topics but I always believe that one should only stop learning when one is dead :)...besides I enjoy the whole idea of interacting with people of similar interests, you'll learn something new everyday and gain more friends.

Oh btw, Hardy Heron is just around the corner!

sad.goodbyes

2008-03-28T08:42:00.003+08:00

Development of Automatix, the popular tool for automating the installation of commonly requested application in some Debian-based distribution (including Ubuntu), has now officially ceased. It's a sad day indeed for the casual Linux users as they have one tool less they can use, and a sad day for Ubuntu advocates such as me as I have one tool less that I can use for convincing people to switch. My only wish is that another similar tool would be able to replace it or better yet Canonical gives us a better tool tightly integrated with Ubuntu (you guys can always redesign your add/remove applications module right?).

Hardy.Heron.28.days.and.counting

2008-03-27T14:22:00.003+08:00

Canonical is set to release the next version of the popular desktop Linux distro, Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) next month. Being an Ubuntu fan since 5.04 this is a welcome thing for me specifically because Hardy Heron is the latest Ubuntu release that comes with LTS (Long-term support), the previous being Dapper Drake (6.04) and thats 3 releases ago (roughly a year and half). This means that we get to enjoy another release that has stability in mind, good news for those who want to switch. I have downloaded the beta release and installed in on my office desktop via wubi, I will be evaluating it for a couple of days and explore the new features and if it proves to be top notch (which I seriously think it is), I will be upgrading my notebook to use it as well. Note that this is beta release guys, so unless you're ready to solve possible annoying bugs wait till the stable version is released.

*I haven't been able to update this blog as much as I want to but I will definitely be keeping it up to date in the coming days. Too many bloggable events so little time :)

the.good.the.bad.the.ugly

2007-11-23T10:59:00.000+08:00

Finally ATI released a new fglrx driver (8.42.3) that supports AIGLX. The good news, We no longer have to setup an separate XGL session just to have our fill of Compiz eye-candy. The bad news, its too slow when you compared it with previous driver releases. And the ugly part? Compiz runs quite well but some applications like Firefox is really slow when scrolling. I also got a few artifacts when I rotate the cube (which btw does not exist if I use XGL instead) . VLC and Totem had problems with fullscreen (you'll have to switch the output to X11). Ah yes the pains of upgrading...But if you can live with those problems then do the upgrade. I on the other hand have downgraded back to 8.40.4-1 it doesn't have AIGLX support but it was fast and responsive. I'm happy that ATI finally listened to what the community wanted but I'll just have to wait for ATI to fix the bug.

*UPDATE:
ATI released v7.11, and notice that fglrx drivers are now following Catalyst version numbers, I wonder why they didn't follow that numbering in the first place. Anyway I've upgraded to v7.11(8.43.3 internally) and it offered a little performance improvement over v8.42.3 but not enough to outperform v8.40.4-1 (XGL) however it 'seems' to be more stable (at least it didn't randomly conk out on me) but just like v8.42.3 it broke hibernate/suspend on my Gutsy install, still had problems with full screen video output, and still has artifacts when the desktop cube is rotated. The release notes indicate that the kernel module is now working on kernel version 2.6.23 (that at least is good news) but I haven' tested that yet.

monkeying.around.with.gutsy.and.fglrx

2007-10-30T11:35:00.001+08:00

Val posted a followup on a promise a made in a previous blog, and here it is.
If you happen to own an ATI Radeon card, you might notice that Gutsy Gibbon's (Ubuntu 7.10) default setup makes use of ATI's restricted drivers, this will actually allow you to have a working desktop but note that it won't allow beryl/compiz to run. Being a desktop effect junkie, I find this unacceptable and as soon as I got the basic apps installed I started poking my way into configurations to find the best way to set things up. In the course of searching for a solution however, I managed to render my Ubuntu desktop useless a few times before finally finding the right mix. I also tried using envy but at that time the only fix I see for Envy on Gutsy was to replace the Linux Mint line into 'Gutsy' and cross one's fingers that it works...I crossed mine and it didn't :)

I hope to spare you guys the trouble of experimenting...so here goes.

first things first, make sure we are updated!:


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

download the official driver from ATI's site (ati.amd.com)

next step involves generating our own packages from the official driver


sh ati-driver-installer-8.40.4-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy

Install .deb packages


sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_8.40.4-1*.deb
sudo dplg -i fglrx-kernel-source_8.40.4-1*.deb

Remove old fglrx debs from /usr/src/...if any:


sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb

Compile the kernel module:


sudo module-assistant prepare
sudo module-assistant update
sudo module-assistant build fglrx
sudo module-assistant install fglrx
sudo depmod -a

*note that you will have to do this every time the kernel is updated

Configure the driver:


sudo aticonfig --initial

according to the official wiki, you can replace the string "ati" with "fglrx" in the "Device" section. This way you won't lose your old "Screen and "Monitor" settings. Afterwards you can use aticonfig for setting overlay.


sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

reboot and run fglrxinfo in the terminal to confirm installation.

*Note: Ubuntu's linux-restricted-modules includes the fglrx module from an old driver version. We need to blacklist his module to ensure that the new kernel module is used.


sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Edit the DISABLED_MODULES section to include fglrx:

DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"
You should be able to install and configure compiz-fusion easily after this, just don't forget to recompile the modules once you update the kernel. Btw some of the niftier improvements I've noticed with Gutsy is that it practically fixed the wireless issues I had with Feisty Fawn (7.04), network manager is working A-OK with my ralink card, another one is the screen tearing/flickering I experienced since my Dapper Drake days, where my screen tears/flickers on screen updates (window updates/object refresh) this time the refresh is handled well by the OS update. Lastly, Gutsy's XGL will automatically start the next time you log in after it is installed (no need to setup an XGL session).

the.monkey.is.out!

2007-10-19T09:09:00.000+08:00

start your downloaders gentlemen, Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) is officially released today :) ...I've been testing it since last month and the beta version running on my MSI s270 is working as expected. I'll blog about the details later and a warning for ati radeon x200m users like yours truly. In the meantime enjoy the upgrade.

Ubuntu.All.The.Way!

2007-04-27T11:27:00.000+08:00

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn was finally released last April 19...Edgy Eft (6.10) users frequently updating their distro packages won't be seeing anything new (some say its more stable but in my case I never had a problem with Edgy so I can't really say), but first time as well as casual Ubuntu users will surely enjoy trying out its features . Feisty is a more simplified Ubuntu experience, it removes most of the fuss associated with configurations and applications simply just works!
Compiz is now integrated and is referred to as "desktop effects", you will now be able to make use of the desktop cube and wobbly windows effects out of the box. You can also opt to install Beryl instead of compiz since it has more plugins plus the Beryl community is very active, highly recommended for eye-candy lovers like yours truly.

I've been using Ubuntu (starting with Dapper Drake) for almost a year now (basically the first OS i installed after I got my notebook) and I can confidently say that you won't miss Windows (except maybe for games :) )

To help out would-be Ubuntuers (I know it sounds corny, but thats the best I've come up for now) I'm putting out a list of apps that you can try out with Feisty to improve your computing experience.

Web Browsers. Ubuntu comes with Firefox by default, Opera on the other hand is another browser you can try out.

Email Clients. Ubuntu comes with Evolution Mail but I'm an avid Thunderbird user since its beta days and I find it to be better when it comes to mail handling. Evolution however is an excellent Outlook replacement if you're looking for one.

Media Players. Although Totem is installed as the default player you might want to grab and install VLC player from videolan.org. VLC player allows you to play most media files without the need to install additional codecs. ( Windows and Mac versions are also available). RhythmBox is an excellent iTunes counterpart...and it syncs your iPod as well.
Update: Exaile! is my current favorite audio player...its like Amarok but uses GTK instead so performs better in Ubuntu. It gives you statistics, fetches artist info via wikipedia, provides lyrics, album cover art and even tablature! man I love this software! :)

Torrent Client. Azureus is my tool of choice...the default torrent client is too plain for my needs...but then again if it works right?

Office Suite. Ok, Microsoft Office is still the best...but trust me, most of what you need is already in OpenOffice. Aside from that I'd like to plug my personal favorite word processing apps, AbiWord. Its got less features but its lean and fast...exactly what I need. Gnumeric is also an excellent Excel replacement, I haven't done programming on it, but for usual needs I'm sure it will suffice.

Project Management. Planner is the best open-source project management app I've seen, but I would love for it to be better.

Photo Apps/Image Manipulation app. Photoshop is king but until it goes open-source GIMP gets my vote for the best Image manipulation app for Linux. Another app that might strike your fancy is F-Spot but I'm urging the developers to come up with something close if not better to Picassa.

Application Launchers. I can only think of two effective application launcher interfaces and thats
1. Application Dock (like in OSX). In this case Avant Window Navigator might
just be what you need

2. Search-based launchers like Quicksilver. KDE already have their Katapult,
but if you want to keep it clean (meaning less KDE based apps as possible in
Ubuntu), you might want to try gnome-launch-box.
Its a simple yet very effective way of launching apps that got its roots from the
original MacOS-based app Quicksilver. I'll post my configuration on the next
blog.

Take the time to try this apps out, I'll blog about a list of other cool utilities to enhance your computing experience on the next blog as well as their corresponding configurations. Until then happy Ubuntu-ing. :)

Bolshoi Booze, Feisty Fawn, White sands and 4D Puzzles

2007-04-18T13:12:00.000+08:00

Its been quite a while since i've updated this blog. fact is, work has eaten so much of my time, that i can't even blog about it even if I wanted to. The only time I can remember having a well deserved break was during the Holy Week (and its not even a full week). I'm not going to talk much about tech stuff today but rather blog about my period of "pseudo-vacation" a.k.a "refuel-my-work-mojo".

Bolshoi Booze...You just gotta watch Prison Break!(thank God for torrents)...Heroes (The Fox TV-series) took a break, and for lack of anything fun to watch (Korean Telenovelas just won't appeal to my viewing habits...sorry Flo :P ) I grabbed a copy of Prison Break Season 1 and 2 and had a grand time watching it from start to finish... *note to self: don't ever do that again or lose sleep in the process.

Feisty Fawn...Although it won't be officially released until April 19, I couldn't wait that long so I went ahead with downloading and eventually installing Ubuntu's latest incarnation. Just a quick review guys, its the best Ubuntu release yet (the perfect linux desktop is just around the corner I guess) but I would recommend you wait for the official release date before you zap your beloved desktop's OS...unless of course you're the type that can't control your inner geek and subject yourself to a bleeding edge version's sadistic nature...but then again only the brave gets the fair right?

White Sands...Ever been to Chemas? (weird name for a resort). Its a small resort in Samal Island that appeals to those who want to relax or have a quite time while having the beach and the sun as their background. It's relatively new so only a few people actually go there, so you end up having the whole beach to yourself or in my case my family. The food is great btw, and priced just right.

4D Puzzles...Getting the chance to own one was actually one bloggable experience but I'll spare you the gory details for now. Let's just say that the 8-yr old in me woke up the moment I saw a 4D puzzle of a Dragon and a Gryphon...now can anybody tell me where I can find a 4D puzzle of a Unicorn? ;)

random.links

2006-08-11T11:22:00.000+08:00

iPod-ready jukebox...for $700 you can have the vintage look with modern features...or you can always buy a pair of Levi's with iPod support :)) (Thanks for the link Jhoe)

Ever wanted to retrofit a PC on your car?...The CarPC
Korea's Ever-1 Android and China's Rong Cheng...Inflatable dolls goes hi-tech? What happens if robots turn out to be sexy?

and finally, the reason why every city council needs at least one geek.

random.links

2006-08-01T11:34:00.000+08:00

Voice wreckognition....Microsoft's voice recognition software is in a bad mood :D
What's wrong with the mouse and keyboard anyway?

Finally we have an excuse to knock our laptops :D

Eggs that tells you when its perfectly boiled...so what's next? chicken wings that flap when its golden brown?

The Airhockey goes hi-tech!

random.thoughts

2006-07-25T13:52:00.000+08:00

Another successful GGD jammeeting was held last Monday (July 17) at the Elevation bar. Everyone managed to play their respective guitar pieces with barely a few mistakes…It’s a very interesting challenge guys and quite honestly forced me to pick a favorite musical piece and really learn it.

Two days after, we had a special jammeeting session at the Kanto Bar (MTS Davao) along with Joey Ayala and Cynthia Alexander! When I said I was hoping for bigger things for GGD I didn’t expect it to be that soon :D

A few days back our big boss entered the office and showed me her new Fujitsu Lifebook P1510, she needs me to basically transfer everything (well most of it) from her Toshiba Tecra M3 (lets just say that the M3 isn’t water-proof :D ). The lifebook is a nifty little ultra-portable notebook that is best described as an oversized Clie UX50 but with way more features. It sports a Pentium M 753 (1.2 GHz), 512mb of RAM and 30GB of hard drive space. It’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible and with a little twist (literally twisting the LCD) it transforms into a tablet pc. All this are packed into conveniently light form factor. The only problem I have with it is the keyboard; w/c proves to be too small for my fingers, comparing it with my foldable PalmOne keyboard, the Lifebook’s keyboard leaves little to be desired. Other than that it’s a fine piece of hardware and you can really see how much effort was put on the design engineering of the Lifebook P1510.

Yesterday was my birthday (yay! to me) and wifey was bugging me to ask her for a gift, but then again I can’t think of any…the macaroni was more than enough, but give me time I’ll think of something (nyahaha). A few weeks back I sold my desktop PC and bought a brand new MSI megabook s270 from a friend, and I’m happy I did… I’ll be posting a review next time.

random.thoughts

2006-06-30T11:25:00.000+08:00

My arms and chest are sore…that’s all I can say after yesterday’s gym session. May all this hard work payoff :D

The ixus err...the ixus replacement is back! I got a call from Canon’s customer service that a replacement unit has arrived (the model was not mentioned) and is ready for pickup. A few weeks back I bought a brand new ixus 800 from a friend who didn’t need it (a few thousand pesos cheaper than retail I might add). The ixus 800 is top notched in terms of features and quality, it’s the best digicam I’ve used to far and I’m pretty sure the ixus replacement won’t be able to top that. So anyone interested in a new ixus, give me a ring or message me. I’m very willing to sell it :D

A good friend and fellow GGD-mate, Jon Joaquin blogs about our recent Jammeeting. No amount of rain could stop us :D. We brought our guitars and played along backing tracks provided by Dante's T5

Thank you guys for coming, hoping for better things to come on the next meet

random.links

2006-06-29T11:13:00.000+08:00

»» Extension phone. Wait till PLDT and BayanTel hears about this one :D
»» A new radar system than is undetectable when used , but will it detect this stealth plane?

can't.scratch.me

2006-06-26T11:54:00.000+08:00

Once again I've been too busy to blog, well honestly I have a lot of “bloggable” experiences lately but the minute I try to write about it the whole essence of the story is lost. I guess I was in a blogger’s rut and needed a real vacation to change the routine. In fact I was on a vacation for a few days and snapped a few pictures that would be worthy of posting here. Once again I promise to post it on another blog :D

This morning I got an email from a reader asking about what happened to my iPod Nano and another one asking whether the Invisible Shield works as advertised. Sorry for my rather late blog guys, but I hope it helps in your decision to buy one.

Let's start with the iPod Nano. I own a 2GB model and bought it from a local-based online trading site. I got it cheap, along with a crystal case, 3 earphones and a charger. The nifty player works like a charm and my only complaint is that it scratches easily (not to mention the whole metal backside was full of scratches when I acquired it).

I’ve read a blog where someone used a can of Brasso to remove the scratches, I’m pretty sure his idea worked except that in this country, I’ve yet to see a can of Brasso :D. So I searched for alternatives and like most Pinoys, settled for the lower priced, readily-available versions. I visited ACE Hardware trying to look for anything remotely similar to Brasso, unfortunately I never saw one. But a small vial of acrylic polish did catch my eye. I bought one and applied it on the nano without even thinking. The Php 80.00 polish was took take care of the minor scratches but took a considerable amount of time to polish. Back in my high school days, I used to shine my buckle with GLO metal polish, and it never failed to impress our training officers, so I thought “Hey, the backside is metal and it needs polishing, it just might work”. OK, I know I’m crazy for subjecting a $199 piece of equipment to corrosive substances but it worked! Btw, I’m not saying you go gung-ho and do what I did, All I’m saying that it worked for me, It might work for you but I’m not promising anything. I started with the metal backside, coated it with GLO and left it to semi-dry then started polishing using a soft cloth. It removed the dirt and grime and left the backside shiny and scratch-free. I did the same on the plastic side but this time using a 3M micro fiber cloth (readily available in HardwareMax @ NCCC mall hehehe plugging sir yet!). My theory is that the micro fibers are better at polishing the acrylic side since it does not retain dusts and other micro-abrasives. Repeat as necessary guys, once you’re done, put it in a dust free plastic container or a zip-lock it until you have your invisible shield ready.

For the second part of this blog, let’s look at the Invisible Shield, it’s a tough plastic material that’s thicker than your usual iPod screen protectors. Read the instruction manual carefully and make sure everything is ready before peeling it off. Make sure you are in an environment that is clean and dust-free because I’m sure you’d panicked the moment you see specks of dust on your nano. Btw, the plastic has to be immersed in water then applied to your nano, sounds crazy right? But that’s what the manual tell you and I suggest you follow it. Just make sure you don’t wet the interface ports and the audio output jack. More often than not, your first application usually is the best one. If you found yourself taking it out 4 times already it won’t get any better. The nice thing about the iShield is that it comes with a small vial of liquid that allows you to remove the shield if you’re not satisfied with how you applied it. My only gripe is that they should have included more of the liquid, because unless you have been doing this for quite some time, it might be pretty tough to install. The application is relatively easy, but it’s the specks of dust I’m more concerned about. But here’s a tip (one that I’ve been using for my PDAs) if you run out of that bundled liquid, Mix semi-cold water and a glass cleaner (etc. gleen or kiwi glass shine), and use that instead. Once you’re satisfied use a credit card to force the extra water/fluid out. Target the big air bubbles first; the smaller ones will usually go away in a day or two. Leave the unit alone for 24hrs, yes it’s a sad feeling when you can’t use it for next 24hrs, but trust me, you don’t want to mess with it while it’s wet. After 24hrs you’d notice that your iPod is still alive and the click wheel still functions the same, but this time you can attempt to scratch it with a coin or your keys and you’d be happy to know that the shield does its job quite beautifully. So buy yourself a pizza and celebrate, or better yet buy ME a pizza so I can celebrate with you. :D

scratch.me.not!

2006-05-19T17:03:00.000+08:00

I just got the Invisible Shield from Sharlene this morning (thanks Sha!), the supposed military grade protection for helicopter blades, is now made available for the iPod..now that’s TOUGH!. She was also generous enough to include a vial of iClean cleaning solution with it.

Looks like I'll be able to restore the Nano to its former glory after all :D
But with the ixus gone, I won't be able to snap pictures of the whole process. I'll let you guys know if it really works on my next blog. Let's see if their "Pay once, protect forever" tagline holds true.

out.with.old.in.with.the.new

2006-05-18T16:09:00.000+08:00

Two new "versions" of uber techy tools were released this week and I'm starting to drool, so please feel free to visit the links while I wipe my office table dry :D

»»Treo 700p. And I thought Palm was dropping PalmOS. No GSM versions as of the moment, I guess I'll have to wait a little bit longer...better form factor, 1.2 Bluetooth and 128mb RAM...gotta have one
»»MacBook. The iBooks replacement sports a dual core Intel processor, is available in jet black and can run windows XP hmmm could it be that Apple is releasing a Dell notebook? :D

And for those of you who are virtually clueless regarding the difference between a PC and a Mac visit this link »»Mac TV Ad

ixus.goes.bye-bye

2006-05-15T17:03:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, wifey woke me with sad news...our digicam (Canon SD110 Digital ELPH aka ixus IIs), the first gadget that wifey and I bought after we got married, has finally given up. A few weeks back I did notice some partial color casts which I manage to solve (temporarily) by doing it the old fashioned way...the ever reliable "beat the hell out of it!" approach, or in this case shake it up a bit till the lines clear. Of course it never really works, but that’s how we’d tend to do it when we’re frustrated at any gadget that doesn't work right? I had a hunch something’s wrong with the camera’s CCD chip but its almost 3yrs old and already out of warranty. The repair is definitely going to cost me.

To avoid unnecessary guesswork we took it to a local Canon dealer and have it checked, to my surprise the store manager told us to take it to their service center ASAP. Hmmm…something is definitely wrong but he’s not talking. These days all the answers you’ll ever need can be found by googling it.

So let see what Google found out »»bad CCDs and this

I guess I was semi-right, it was at least CCD related, no one is confirming it but the evidence points to the package type used for those CCD. Its cheap and as expected turned out to be sub-standard. Initially, I was a bit irritated that the cam needs to be repaired I am a Canon fan and I’ve always thought they made the best digicams, but the Canon shop was quick to point out that in case they won’t be able to repair it (which they probably won’t) they will replace it with a new one or possibly a better model. I talked to a few “victims” and they told me Canon will replace it with an ixus i zoom. I’m not complaining till I get my hands on it. And if it sucks I’ll blog about it :D.

But I’m quite happy how Canon handled the problem, they could have simply told me the item was out of warranty but they offered to repair it or replace it if need be. Let’s see how thing turn out in a month’s time.

random.links

2006-04-17T10:45:00.000+08:00

»»flashbag ."The size of the device changes depending on the amount of data it holds." interesting, except that your officemates will now have a clear idea how much porn you're carrying :D
»»Ron Mueck's sculpture rocks! This is what you get when you mix Jim Henson and Da Vinci.
»»3rd Grader changes Apple's policy. Yeah!
»»Patent for virtual displays for inputting characters and symbols on mobile phone. Will it fly?
»»Robot give's birth. Shouldn't they make a Dad-bot that faints when the baby-bot comes out? :D
»»Beolink Wireless. Bang & Olufsen for my birthday? I can always dream right?
»»Nice addition for your Frankenstein kit. Anything that runs on orange juice and soy sauce is fine by me!

lemon.drops

2006-04-05T13:03:00.000+08:00

After subjecting myself to a weekend of another neuron hanging, brain bashing RPG session (topic: subfiles arrrghh!!!) the gods of IT were not finished. I got a call last Sunday (no rest for the wicked eh?) from IT branch support asking why they can't access the "Beast" (iSeries 825)...How the hell should I know? Its Sunday and I'm about to extend my blessings to an "inaanak", oh well duty calls. So I told the staff I'll be there in a few minutes. Fortunately I'm only about 4 blocks away from the data center, so I rushed to the place, secured the keys, opened the server room...and just when I'm about to turn on the monitors, IT support calls in and tells me the server is ok! Arrgh...*!@#$%^&*! Why can't the Beast behave for crying out loud. So I left without so much as a whim, thinking its over and spent the rest of my Sunday with Gavin and Wifey.
Fast forward a day after, its about 10am and I'm talking with the training staff, another call comes in informing me of the same problem as yesterday, so I grabbed my pc and lo and behold! I got a gazillion jabber messages all asking the same thing "what happened to the server?" at this point my mind was flying in all directions...did the apps failed?, did the subsystem die somehow? did it finally gave out after 3 years of constant pounding by ever demanding users? Nah it couldn't be, the Beast was built for this, its self optimizing; self managing and self healing...well apparently those attributes don't really apply this time. So I opened up the server room door, turned on the lights walked straight to the console PC to view a message I'd never forget..."CRITICAL STORAGE CONDITION EXISTS", I examined the system status and there it was in big highlighted letters "% system ASP used....99.7298"!

99%?!, it was just 73% the last time I checked, needless to say I was about to faint at this point, I'm sweating (in a freezing room I might add) and I'm having tunnel vision.
The Beast is definitely sick, I mean who wouldn't be? If someone forced feed you, you'd be sick too. But in this case its not food, (but I was very hungry at that point :D ) but a renegade file spewing gigabytes of info and choked the Beast's innards. How did I find out? Here is something you might be able to use yourself.


SBMJOB CMD(DSPFD FILE(MYLIB/*ALL) TYPE(*MBRLIST) OUTPIT(*OUTFILE)
OUTFILE(MYLIB/MYFILE)) JOB(MYJOB) LOG(4 0 *SECLVL) LOGCLPGM(*YES)

where:
MYLIB = library you need to check
MYFILE = output file to store the results

After the job finished you need to review the results by creating an SQL query using MYFILE. You could then sort the result by file size and find which ones are the largest. One thing you should remember, and probably what most iSeries admins forget is that the largest figures might not be the biggest ones in terms of space consumption. Also take a careful look at the bottom of the listing, assuming you sort then in descending order(large file sizes first), and find files with negative disk spaces. These files may be negative because they exceeded the figure allowed in the output file and may well be the one you needed to trim down.
In our case the unexplained system usage was due to two entries at the bottom list and a failure on one of the 15 hard drives. Fortunately the Beast healed the disk after I told it to (so much for self-healing). After backing up and purging the contents (which took about half a day!) the Beast slimmed down to 56%...and my blood pressure and heart rate when down as well :D

So where do the lemon drops (my blog title) fit in the story? I've consumed a pack of Orbit Drops(lemon mint) through the whole ordeal. Its sugar-free and quite relaxing in the mouth, so I don't have to clench my teeth so much every time I see the usage meter rising! :D
------------------------------------------------
A slew of Ajax-based calendars for you to try
»»Trumba, Kiko, 30Boxes, Yahoo! Calendar & Spongecell

random.links

2006-03-28T18:59:00.000+08:00

»»On Target.One really smart way of preventing "spills" and improving "accuracy" :D
»»Case mods. Check out the Kana case

not.so.random.links

2006-03-21T08:37:00.000+08:00

»»the iPod Hi-Fi is Time's gadget of the week. Nah, I'd pick my JVC component over this one
anytime :D
»»check out iPod's latest ad
»»WinXP on Mac. Now its the Mac's turn to be violated :D
»»Dual booting WinXP on the MacBook pro...and a nice video of the real thing!

Weekend.RPG

2006-03-21T00:51:00.000+08:00

I haven't been able to program in .NET as much as I wanted to. I've promised myself a few months back to take it seriously and make "real" apps with it. But as of the moment I'm preoccupied with work and this weekend RPG sessions. No, I''m not talking about role-playing games nor am I talking about rocket propelled grenades. RPG in this case stands for Report Program Generator, the ever so popular programming language for the IBM AS400 /iSeries machines, the "Beast" preferred lingo :D

It’s a rather old programming language much akin to Cobol but a bit modernized to suite the evolving needs of the OS400 developers. I have a love-hate relationship with it. The IDE, if you could consider it as one, is extremely crude, confusing for novices and can be extremely frustrating to use if someone hasn't shown you how. Keywords and commands needs to be aligned to certain columns in order for the compiler to understand it. In the end you get a fixed-format and seemingly cryptic coding that more often than not results to a convoluted hodge-podge of spaghetti code. Check out the code below and you’ll get the drift.


0051.00 C                   EVAL      HLD_USER = $USER                        
0052.00 C                   IF        $USER = 'QSECOFR'                       
0053.00 C                   MOVE      '1'           *IN(33)                   
0054.00 C                   ELSE                                              
0055.00 C     $USER         CHAIN     EMPLYFL                            72   
0056.00 C     *IN(72)       CABEQ     '1'           END_IT                    
0057.00 C     STS           CABEQ     'X'           END_IT                    
0058.00 C                   EVAL      HLD_DEPT = DEPTCD                       
0059.00 C                   IF        DEPTCD = 'MIS' AND $USER <>   'RICH'    
0060.00 C                   MOVE      '1'           *IN(33)                   
0061.00 C                   ENDIF                                             
0062.00 C                   ENDIF                                             
0063.00 C                   MOVE      '0'           *IN(76)                   
0064.00 C                   IF        DSP_TEST = 'DSP'                        
0065.00 C                   MOVE      '1'           *IN(76)                   
0066.00 C                   ENDIF

There is a way to overcome this problem, it’s a partial solution but quite helpful to improve your code, and I promise to post it on the next blog.

Code maintainability for RPG can very difficult that I’m quite surprised why even today these RPG codes still power the business applications that run on many AS/400 machines. Most banks still has an AS400 running at the back, and I know ATM machines uses an RPG based application for backend processing. On the other side, RPG can be quite interesting to learn. It makes you think, it encourages you to outline your program flow (because its not that easy to follow logic unless you’ve written it or drawn a chart), if wielded properly it can be a very powerful programming language that allows you to do just about anything on an OS/400 platform.

Now the obvious question is, is it worth learning? I can’t really give a good answer for this one because unlike most programming languages this one is very machine specific. You can’t run it on other OS simply because its not implemented anywhere else nor is there an emulator for it. But the bottom line is there is a growing market for new iSeries/AS400 developers. There is definitely a good opportunity for developers, IBM is not abandoning the system and companies are still using it, even Dole Philippines recently purchased one.

I’m fortunate that I’m given a chance to learn and use it. Training alone would cost Php 16,000 per module per person, that’s about a week of training and its not even available locally. On the other hand its also unfortunate that I’m killing my brain cells each Saturday to learn it, hopefully saving enough to last me another week. :D

So there i’ve blogged about whats keeping me busy for 2 months now. I’ll be posting RPG and CL (control language) codes and tips on my next blog. I’m currently working on a project that allows me to manage iSeries user maintenance using an external Windows application. I’ll post codes snippets based on the project to help out other developers that are caught in same predicament as I am. It’s a win32+CL code hybrid that’s quite useful for any iSeries administrator. I feel that I might help someone out there trying to learn the ropes as I am, and making sure that they don’t strangle themselves in the process. :D

new.year.new.gadgets!

2006-01-12T00:53:00.000+08:00

Another year has passed, and I'm suppose to make a year in review blog featuring the best products to ever come out of 2005, But I guess everyone already did it so I might as well spare you the long read and blog about something else.

But what did I get for 2005? its a short list I guess but one I'm very happy about

Toshiba Portege a100 ( nice price)
Palm Tungsten T|5 + keyboard + Wifi Card ( nice discount)
SE K700i (nice trade)
iPod Shuffle (got it for free)
Desktop PC (rock bottom price)
Nvidia 6600GT (got it cheap)
Lexar Jumpdrive (thanks! especially the ***** heheheh)
Morris W-18 (It's a solid-top guitar not a gadget, but hey you can't blame me if I want it on my list)

As far as gear acquisitions are concerned I think I got what I wanted and maybe even more. And you probably know by now that I'm a cheapskate :D. So I'm looking forward to another year of cool gears at rock bottom prices.

But what is in store for 2006? A lot of surprises actually, the Treo700w is finally out, its a marriage of Palm's superior hardware and Microsoft's superior(?) mobile OS, but from the looks of things I'd still be lusting for a Treo 650. Apple's almighty Steve Jobs launched the Apple MacBook, sporting dual core Intel chips...yes boys and girls you read it right...Intel chips! no more PowerPC for the next generation of Mac users, so stop crying because hell didn't really freeze over :D

Frankly, I think its a welcome change, the new macBooks will be 4x faster and about an inch thin. The only drawback I guess is the absence of a 12” model (you just gotta love those ultra-portables). I'll leave you guys to read the specs because I'm pretty sure you'd be surprise at how powerful the macBooks has become and how cheap the older G4s will go( hopefully!) . Btw, the magsafe feature is a clever idea that only the guys at Cupertino could ever think of, how I wish my a100 has it too. Telecom giants Globe and Smart will be offering 3G this year, so expect an onslaught of mobile phones with model numbers that are too confusing to remember.

2006 will also be the year of web apps utilizing both .NET and AJAX ....finally the vision of a truly portable desktop can be realized. Visit www19.meebo.com and get a taste of what I'm talking about.

another.shuffle.in.the.works?

2005-12-19T14:06:00.000+08:00

Apple's 1GB iPod shuffle is completely sold-out on their online store and won't be available 'till mid-January...hmmm, now that Mac World Expo is fast approaching I get a warm fuzzy feeling that another iPod is in the works...an iPod Invisa perhaps? :D

»»washable optical mouse...will we see washable PCs in the near future?
»»feeling all tangled up? Wisair has the perfect solution

random.links

2005-12-15T10:22:00.000+08:00

»»Booting Linux on the Treo 650. Oh Yeah!
»»Audi A6 + Apple Front Row + SEK750i. Integration galore
»»W-Zero3. Too sexy for my pocket? :D

serendipity.online

2005-12-14T14:18:00.000+08:00

No, i will not be talking about the movie. Instead I'm going to blog about some of my recent freeware-related discoveries. You see I used to be a Downloads.com junkie, checking out each and every freeware released till I got bored in trying out the same thing over and over again. Fortunately a new batch of applications has again revived my interest in trying out freeware applications. I guess the main thing here is that these applications are interesting because they either introduce a new concept or they improve existing ones. I hope I can encourage you guys to try it out and maybe enjoy them as I did.

First on my list is Konfabulator, a widget based application with probably the weirdest app name ever, maybe thats the reason why Yahoo! changed it to Widget Engine when they bought it. It used to be a commercial app later made freely available by Yahoo!. It's definitely an innovative application that is arguably the reason why Dashboard came out for the Mac. I have reason to believe that Apple copied the concept, if you don't agree with me then that's your problem not mine :D
Anyway, should you download Konfabulator make sure you include my favorite widgets

1. The Weather Widget
2. CPU Portal
3. Memory Gauge. I need to know if things are getting too heavy resource-wise
4. My Songbook.com. Did I mention I'm a tab junkie too?
5. Nestat. Shows a graph of network activity
6. Nibble Time. I'm a geek and proud of it :D
7. Dictionary. Because I don't carry one
8. What to do?. Just to keep things organized
9. Calendar. Because I hate the default
10. iPod shuffle player. I'm going to keep this for a few days more
11. Google Images
12. Lazy Launcher. Quick silver clone...because I still don't have a Mac :D

*UPDATE: If you downloaded Widget Engine (Konfabulator 3.0) Lazy Launcher won't work, they might have done drastic changes to the engine which caused the widget to crash(or it could just be the widget author's fault). Anyway, I need Lazy Launcher more that the other widgets so I reverted the installation back to v2.1.1, as the old saying goes "if it ain't broken, don't fix it!"

Second on the list is Picasa, an image/picture archiving utility brought to you by Google.com. Did you notice the trend these days? big dotcoms buying cool apps and making them available to the public for free...or is it really free? :D
Picasa is by far the best in its class, It's fast, unobtrusive, and very user-friendly.
I do hope application developers follow their design philosophy, as I had the grandest time using their application. It works just the way I expected it, no need for manuals, nor online support.

Third and fourth will be Writely.com's Web Word Processor and Numsum.com's Web Spreadsheet...although both are still in beta phase, these are not your typical office software applications, these are FREE online apps, which means you don't need to install anything to make it work except a modern day Internet browser (who doesn't have one nowadays?).
Writely.com uses ASP.NET to deliver a rich online-based word processor experience for their users, offering amongst other things a spell checker, auto saving and get this...collaboration!

Numsum.com on the other hand is an AJAX-based (thats Asynchronous Javascript and XML...not the detergent :D ) online spreadsheet that is fast, reliable and relative easy to use. It doesn't have a collaboration feature as of the moment though, But if you take a closer look you'd realize that both are actually very revolutionary apps...no more MS Office plus your data is available anywhere you go.

I guess that should be enough for now, I'm be scouring for more "cool" applications such as these. Btw, this is a bit old but its one of the first online applications that caught my attention. have fun!

gadget.list.for.the.holidays

2005-12-08T13:29:00.000+08:00

Christmas is just around the corner, here's a list of some interesting (but definitely not a priority) gadgets you might want to check out.

I guess nokia finally run out of numbers to use
»» Nokia E60 , Nokia E70 and the blackberry-ish Nokia E61!
Or you can hold on to your cash and wait for next year...you'd probably saved enough to buy the N91 :D
»»Laptop case that goes "spread eagle" on your desk!
»»the i-Bob nano! plays video and costs half the price
»»A funny clip for the iPod haters/lovers
»»Can't find someone to listen to your type of music? get the SEGA iDog

PUG@D + Microwarehouse+Blugre = PARTY!

2005-11-18T17:30:00.000+08:00

Blugre incooperation with Microwarehouse and PUG@D(PDA Users Group of Davao...I promise not to commit the same mistake Jim :D ) held a well attended and very successful WiFi Party the other night, this is supposed to be Davao's first WiFi Party and I've heard PUG@D will hold another one next month. The first 50 registrants via email got free coffee as well as some of the few early birds at blugre cafe.

A two-piece live band supplied the much needed jazz music to soothe the attendees caffeine infused nerves :D Someone took my coffee cup without me knowing hehehe I ordered choco loco instead, my favorite cold concoction at Blugre.

Microwarehouse also presented the new PalmOS PDAs to hit the market(Palm TX and the Z22) along with the previous models like the Tungsten T5 and the LifeDrive as well as Apple products like the iPod family (shuffle, mini, nano, iPod video). Models, wearing skimpy shirts strutt their stuff...err the devices :D generating wide smiles from the male crowd. The fun part was when Andre of 3G-Com announced a contest where anyone with a WiFi device can participate. All we have to do is answer 11 questions and email the answers afterwards. The first email to arrive and got the 11th question right gets the bonus prize. The sender who gets the most number of answers will receive the grand prize...a 512mb iPod shuffle. Honestly, if any of the participants read my blogs they would have gotten 10 of the 11 questions right [laughs]. I'm pretty glad it was a contest because I've never been the one who gets lucky with raffles, I'm as random as one can get (so I'm like the shuffle in some ways hahaha). To make the long story short, I walked home with a wide grin on my face and an iPod shuffle in my pocket. I didn't get the nano for my x'mas.wish.list but hey! I'm not complainin' :D

Thanks to all the event sponsors, especially Microwarehouse, I definitely had a fun night!

computing.zen!

2005-11-11T17:42:00.000+08:00

After two days of taking a slightly damaged (long story but everything works) Powerbook 1.5Ghz G4 for a spin, I discovered why Mac switchers never went back to Windows, and why Mac users never bothered to look at other OSes. Everything just makes sense....but don't take my word for it, go and try one out. It might cost you an arm and a leg but with a Powerbook who needs a leg :D

High.on.ideas.but.low.on.power?

2005-11-09T14:07:00.000+08:00

Firefox.com is giving away a dual-processor, Firefox-skinned Alienware machines (price tag: $4700) to the three developers who can extend firefox in ways that are worthy of such raw computing power. Probably the most amazing bounty I've seen online. Maybe its time for me to really learn XUL :D

another.one.for.the.xmas.wishlist

2005-10-13T14:25:00.000+08:00

Palm T|X , a.k.a. Tungsten T5 incarnate, >reviews have been sprouting all over the place, seems like Palm finally made a PDA worth buying after the T3. Althought it has only about half the memory (128mb, but only 100mb usable) than that of the T|5 and sports a 312 Mhz processor (as oppose to 416mhz for the T5), it does include built-in WiFi and Bluetooth enough to satisfy any road warrior's needs. I'm still waiting for a chance to demo the unit, but as it is, the T|X is one cool tool for those you have skipped the PDA upgrade bug for so long.

Palm is also offering a free service to promote the new product. Hmmm, I hope it works on my T|5...wish me luck

btw, Apple also released their video iPod, which is basically an iPod Nano with a dose of multivitamins...oh well this is going to be one expensive list :D

random.links

2005-10-12T09:45:00.000+08:00

»»My my Palm wants a triple whammy, rumours of a Symbian-based Treo is circulating. After an almost unbelievable alliance with Microsoft on the Treo 700w, Palm's next move might just be a Treo700p? :D

»»Digital.guitar.stompbox.smackdown. Might come in handy during gigs...im adding this to my christmas wishlist.

yet.a.nano.music.player?

2005-10-11T15:30:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the pun guys, i just can't help it. I attended the CISCO breakfast club this morning but instead of checking out CISCO's offerings I found myself testing out and playing with the iPod Nano (thanks to Grace of Microwarehouse). Contrary to my blog title, the iPod nano is definitely not your average mp3 player. I'm not really a big fan of mp3 players, as i feel that my pda can do more than this tool can offer, but the nano is a definite exception. Just think, its about as thin as a chicklet pack (if your familiar with it), stores 2GB of music, sports the same click wheel technology and get this...a colored screen!

Like always, this iPod does not disappoint when it comes to playing music (Even if I was listening to the Big Brother Theme :D ), the audio quality is definitely top notch, which I attribute to the exceptional senheiser earphones that Apple bundled it with.

The price is about the same as an iPod mini but this one looks way better and more handy.IMHO, we're definitely going to see a sharp drop in iPod mini sales because of this. Lastly, some of the iPod nanos are known to scratch easily, so unless you find battered-looking Nanos as fashionable, I suggest you get some sort of protection for it...or ask Apple to retrofit it with carbon fiber :D

On an unrelated but equally important note, an OSS awareness campaign is being sponsored by DabawGNU. I hope you guys can come.

random.links

2005-09-20T14:42:00.000+08:00

»»Firefox 1.5 Beta is out!
»»Anders Hejlsberg & LINQ. Something tells me i'll be C#-ing soon :D
»»Dumping Windows for Linux?. Read on

random.links

2005-09-10T14:43:00.000+08:00

»»The iPod Nano comes in black & white...oh my iWant one :D
»»Who's afraid of software piracy?
»»Linux scores in Thailand
»»Microsoft tried to recruit Eric Raymond :D

VOIP.wars!

2005-08-25T11:24:00.000+08:00

They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google is getting pretty aggressive these days. I wonder how Google Talk fares with the likes of Skype and Gizmo?

HotSyncing.the.T5.via.WiFi

2005-08-22T15:43:00.000+08:00

I have always enjoyed the freedom that wireless technology offers, especially when it comes to portable devices like PDAs/handhelds and notebooks it makes them truly portable, so imagine my surprise when I can't successfully sync my T5 with the Palm Wi-Fi card i just bought. The T5 just gave me an error stating it can't find my pc or something like that and I was freaking out because PalmOne's knowledgebase doesn't mention anything about this.
I was curious why it didn't work, the T5 wasn't the culprit as I was able to hotsync using the included USB cable as well as via Bluetooth. Network connectivity issues was nil with my old Tungsten C so I can't understand why a newer product such as the T5 would have problems. WiFi connectivity was also not an issue, we have both an 802.11g and 802.11b network in our office and using the T5 (and a Wifi card) to browse the Internet and for checking emails was flawlessly simple. I can even ping the T5 and have it ping a remote pc on the network, but again I was clueless as to how a simple network hotsync was not possible with it. After days of testing different configurations (some even hilariously stupid ;D just because I got so bored with it) I finally narrowed down the problem and provided a fix. It seems that the hotsync application found on the T5 (possibly brought by firmware fix v1.1?) had a bug, it cannot recognize a pc (on this case your primary pc) on a network if you provided a name (yes, weird huh?). The solution is to leave it blank or replace it with two exclamation marks("!!").

To make matters easier for would be T|5 WiFi hotsync-ers(pardon the expression) i'm posting the "complete" and in this case, corrected guide :D (excerpts taken from PalmOne's website)

Preparing your PC
Before you can synchronize wirelessly, you need to set up your network computer for synchronizing.

Right-click the HotSync Manager icon on your system tray and select "Network" (make sure it is checked.)
Set up your username.

From the HotSync Manager menu, select Setup
Click the Network tab and select your username if it is not already selected

Click OK , and then synchronize your handheld with your computer using a local connection, that is, thru cable/cradle or bluetooth. Its important to note that this step must work without errors before proceeding.

Preparing your handheld
Follow these steps the first time you synchronize wirelessly to set up your network connection on your handheld.

In the Applications/Home screen, select HotSync
Select Network in the Modem Sync Preferences dialog box:

Open the menus
Select Options, and then select Modem Sync Prefs.
Select Network.
Select OK.

Select the service for your Wi-Fi network

Select Modem.
Select the service box.
Select the Service pick list and select Wi-Fi.
Select Done.

Verify the Information about your computer is correct.

Open the menus
Select the Options menu and then select Primary PC Setup
Leave the Primary PC Name blank, but verify that the IP address of your computer is correct on the Primary PC Address field.
Select OK

And we're done

Btw, leaving the Primary PC name blank might be a problem the next time you inspect the configuration because it will be filled up with the correct name and again will prevent it from hotsyncing, the best way as far as I'm concerned, it to replace the Primary PC name with two exclamation marks ("!!"'), works flawlessly on my end. Hope this is a big help to those of you trying the same thing. 'Till next blog ;D

not.so.random.links

2005-08-10T15:31:00.000+08:00

The Treo 670 is real...and they got the videos to prove it. First, the Mac goes x86 and now Windows on a Treo? the sky must really be falling :D

Forget Multiplicity, the opensource community has the latest and coolest app called Synergy. I've been waiting for an app like this and now its finally here, not only does it support multiple monitors but it also supports multiple OSes as well. Beat that! Now if only it allows me to teleport ;)

random.links

2005-07-30T14:51:00.000+08:00

»»handhelds get a price cut!
»»4GB SD cards are out!. Hope the 2GB sd card's price goes down as well
»»Tapwave|go. do. play. killed?

weekend.life.driver

2005-07-30T14:30:00.000+08:00

I'm supposed to write a full review of Hamachi but I guess I'd blog about my latest gear acquisition first lest I forget to write about it again. Besides, I'm not finished evaluating Hamachi just yet. Anyway, after 2 weeks of deciding and about a week of 'PDA-less' existence, I finally submitted myself to the urge of buying one. I phoned microwarehouse(palmOne distributor in Davao) and inquired about their latest offering,The LifeDrive. Palm (they already dropped the PalmOne moniker guys) came up with a so called 'mobile manager', a new line of handhelds (the LifeDrive being the first product in its category) that basically 'carries all the essentials of your busy life and use them as you will' in other words, listen to what all the Palm users have been wishing/ranting about for years and slap a 4GB harddrive in the mix :D

The new device sports built-in WiFi (802.11b) and Bluetooth (yeah, finally they listened) it uses the same 416Mhz processor as the Tungsten T5 and IMHO, has the best form factor that Palm has ever released. Audio output coming from its internal speakers is considerably better than all the older Palm units, and pairing this with a set of very good Senheiser earphones would make the LifeDrive a very capable audio/mediaplayer (it supports *.asf movies too). Although not a direct competitor for the iPod but considering that the LifeDrive is more than the usual PDA gives it a more compelling reason to buy. I would go to the extent of saying that the LifeDrive is the swiss knife of the PalmOS-based PDAs, but like the usual swiss knives we use, its not necessarily the best tool for a certain job.

The LifeDrive's main advantage is its internal 4Gb harddrive...imagine the number of documents, audio, movies and other data that you could store, on the other hand, that is also the LifeDrive's achilles heel...while older PalmOS-based PDAs are known to be lightning-fast in loading applications in memory, the LifeDrive lags tremendously, of course some users will disagree with my statement, but anyway I was a Tungsten C user so permit me to say that it was, as I have experienced, very slow for my taste. The system waits for the harddrive to spin so there really is a considerable delay. There is a 3rd party application called Sharkcache that is supposed to fix this, I downloaded a demo copy online and played around with it for a few hours, Unfortunately the application is limited to only 4MB of ''cache"(out of 4GB), there are reports of users getting huge improvements in application load times but in my case I have to be honest that the speed boost was not noticeable.

The LifeDrive is basically a very good concept that was poorly implemented. Bugs are always common on a first generation device, but when you pay Php 30,500 ($1=PHP 55) for a handheld you'd expect it to be worth every penny.

I eventually decided to return the unit and got a T5 instead. I finally convinced myself that I was better off using a universal keyboard + T5 + WiFi card + Nokia 6230, very bulky I know but they all fit in my pocket and more importantly it works...better than I expected :D

random.links

2005-07-24T02:15:00.000+08:00

"Happy 27th birthday to the boy who lived...and became a man. God bless and may the prophecy of good health and wealth come true" --flo

Got this SMS greeting from a good friend and an obvious Potter fanatic :D thanks flo, and yes I owe you a free lunch! (yes I will read the book, promise!)

I'm finishing my LifeDrive review this weekend, hope to put it up online by monday.
Longhorn is long gone! well they changed the name anyway, and moved the release schedule to 2006. With a new OS coming we might need a new approach to application interaction, suddenly the computer UI in Minority Report seems so real.

»»http://tactiva.com/tactadrawmovielarge.html
»»reactions on the name change...its supposed to be a big deal?

hamachis.that.doggie.in.the.window

2005-07-15T16:42:00.000+08:00

Want a secure zero-configuration VPN for your LAN gaming needs? Check out Hamachi. A detailed review later guys, I need to finish a few things up first.

random.links

2005-07-05T16:07:00.000+08:00

Parabolic Heat Transference Case Mod - another classic example of using a chainsaw when a knife would do :)
I've been scouting for stompboxes lately, so far this has the most disturbing name. Hypnorays and magnetic cannons, the next generation WOMD. And lastly, another reason why we should learn Phyton.

HP.Trade-in.Promo

2005-07-05T15:08:00.000+08:00

Wifey and I went to the mall the other day, HP held a cool promo participated by its partner stores here in Davao. All you need to do is bring an old printer(any brand) working or not and replace it with any of the 3 models they are offering. Obviously this is a marketing effort by HP to push their entry level printers (because they can't compete with Canon in this market segment) as well as selling a lot of ink in a few weeks time :D...the concept actually worked and there were a lot of people interested. We eventually exchanged an old defective HP printer for a brand new HP PSC 1315, of course we had to shell out PHP 2,999 but for a printer/scanner/copier valued at PHP 4900+ I think thats a good deal already. We had to wait for a two hours before the unit arrives but thats ok, at least we don't have to wait for 1-2 weeks (like the people on the next both). Incidentally they were also showcasing two gadgets(Ipaq h6335 and Ipaq rx3417) subject to the same trade-in scheme except that you'll have to trade it for a mobile phone instead and get PHP 10K off from the regular price. Looks interesting, so I talked to the product rep. and ask him about the device. Of course my first question was how fast is the rx34127? and he answers "it has a Samsung processor". Ok so maybe he didn't hear me right, so I asked again "I'm deciding on which one to get, how would you compare this with the h3665?" and he tells me "the h3625 has an OMAP processor sir"...OK...I'm pretty sure it wasn't going anywhere so I guess I'll have to ignore his answer, play with the gadgets and judge it for myself :D

I never really liked the h6365's form factor so even if it has a cool package(triple wireless) I opted to skip it. Besides, the 29K tag price (after the phone trade-in) made the decision even easier :) so I toyed with the rx3417 instead and it seems pretty cool. It has Bluetooth, IR and WiFi, a camera (but the cam was not that impressive) and a good LCD screen except I found it to be a bit dull compared to most models. The system response wasn't as fast as I wanted it to be but overall it was a good device. At this point I really wanted to buy it. I told the rep that i'm buying it except that I don't have a mobile phone for exchange, so he tells me to go buy an old one so I can have it exchanged for the rx3417. I insisted that the bottomline was for them to push the products right?(because not a single person bought any of the rx3417s anyway) so why deny me the purchase. After a few minutes of convincing, the rep still wouldn't allow me to buy it without a phone for trade-in so I told him to forget the whole thing because I'm no longer interested. The supervisor cuts in and tells me to reconsider and forget about the phone, I can now buy it if I want. And I was like What??!!! Man, I hate it when that happens...so did I bought it? Nah, too much hassle...I'm getting a T5 tomorrow ;)

pda.dilemma

2005-07-01T15:10:00.000+08:00

After more than a two-week hiatus I finally got to blog, a lot has happened the past few days that has diverted my attention. Well, anyway i'm back and this time suffering from day1 of my PDA withdrawal syndrome :P . I sold my Tungsten C the other day without thinking of a device to replace it with and now im in search, 'again', of a possible candidate. I'm down to 4 options as of the moment

1. Get a LifeDrive and carry along my Treo 600
-LifeDrive offers Bluetooth + WiFi
-LifeDrive costs around Php 30,000!

2. Get a Treo 650 dump the Treo 600
-No WiFi option for me
-costs around Php 39,000!
-I basically need to sell my Tungsten C and Treo 600 for this

3. Get a Tungsten T5 + Nokia 6230
-Swap my Treo 600 with wifey's 6230
-Pair the T5 with the 6230
-Buy a WiFi card for the T5

4. Stay with my Treo 600
-I need more screen estate

Still too many choices, I could just take option 4, save a lot of money and forget everything. But I guess I'm forever a technolusting geek, and I must admit that with these gadgets around I can no doubt double or even triple my productivity.

So while I mull over this otherwise trivial matter, you guys download and play around with Google's latest toy. Oh btw, Big Brother is watching :D

random.links

2005-06-08T06:20:00.000+08:00

Google Code: Summer of Code program is a nice way of making use of your summer rather than just wallowing on a caribbean beach...because if I can get the $4500 bounty then I can wallow on a caribbean beach anytime of the year, right? ;)

Some cool ideas for Gaim, Ubuntu, GPE/Opie/Familiar and Samba!

Sacha Chua is m|ph guest blogger for june

linux.on.iPaq.episode2

2005-06-08T04:30:00.000+08:00

For the second installment of our Linux.on.iPaq series, I'm going to give you guys a tour and have a much closer look on how a little patience and a few finger-crossing moments can do so much to improve the usual iPaq experience ;)...I'd also like to point out that Opie supports landscape mode (which is not supported by PocketPC 2002) which obviously enhances the viewing/editing of spreadsheets, documents as well as webpages.

Btw, after installing Familiar 0.8.2 there are a few minor things you should do.
The default password for OPIE is blank, so you might want to change it first(you can use the usual passwd command for this)

Familar's 802.11b wlan support is excellent on my iPaq. All i needed to do was setup the SSID and the WEP key(optional). Once you have Internet connectivity, you should run these commands

# ntpdate -b time.handhelds.org
# ipkg update
# ipkg upgrade

this will sync your iPaq's system date/time as well as show the packages that you might want to install.

linux.on.iPaq.episode1

2005-06-02T15:12:00.000+08:00

A fellow PUG@D comrade has reintroduced me to the Familiar Project and got me excited about the endless possibilities of zapping..err modifying your PDA's OS. Althought I have known of the project for quite some time now, I have not mustered enough guts to use it, since no. 1: Its too dangerous when you don't know what you're doing and no. 2: Even if you knew, its not a guarantee that you would not render your device into a useless paperweight (and void your warranty!). Ok, so now that you guys have been warned I can proceed. This btw is not a definite how-to guide (lets be clear on that), I guess there are a lot of "better" sources online. This is just my contribution to the community and hope that someone trying the same thing can pick up ideas from what I did.
So after a few months I finally decided to try this out and I did so by reading first...and then read some more (just to be very sure). Basically on the software level you need 3 things, a bootloader(boot strap program), the actual Linux distribution for your device(Familiar v0.8.2) and a GUI environment (you can choose between GPE, Opie) if you don't like the default console interface. I then downloaded Familiar distribution version 0.8.2 (with Opie as GUI). Take note that I'm using an iPaq H5450 and Familiar's bootldr does not support the display(meaning no interaction of the iPaq's screen) and CF/PCMCIA. Having said that, you are only supposed to use a host machine runnning a terminal emulator (such as HyperTerminal) connected to the iPaq via a serial cable (the usb connection is apparently not enough).
Ok, so lets start by installing the bootloader, there are a lot of options on this one but in my case I used ActiveSync because I already had it installed and my USB connection is way better than the serial port when it comes to file transfers (note that this will be the only time I'll be using the USB connection). The idea is to copy the bootloader files to the device and then create a rom image of your current device (as a failsafe) so that in the event that you might encounter a problem and probably decide that you're better off going back to PocketPC, you can actually do it without doing irepairable damage to the iPaq.

Follow the instructions carefully on installing the bootloader using Active Sync

If everything has gone well, you have successfully installed the CRL bootldr program, which can run either Linux or PocketPC. As yet, your PocketPC image is intact and should restart normally; the next step actually installs Linux (the fun part!).

Installing Familiar 0.8.2 with a serial line

You will need a serial sync cable, serial sync cradle or the dual USB/Serial cradle. You will also need to use a terminal program such as Hyperterminal (you can also use minicom and kermit but hyperterminal, more often than not is already install in your Windows PC).

Hold down the joypad and push the reset button on the iPAQ. You will need to remove it from the cradle to access the reset button.
When the iPAQ buzzes, release the joypad. The screen will not change from whatever was previously displayed (blank, PocketPC, etc). If the iPAQ does not stop vibrating, remove the AC adapter and the battery, then reinsert the battery and the AC adapter and perform try this step again. On my first try the iPaq actually stopped responding (heart skipping at this point), but I managed to restore it by following the step above.
Make sure the terminal emulator (in my case, Hyperterminal) is up and running, and is properly interacting with the bootloader. Proper interaction consists of being able to issue commands, and get responses (e.g. the help command should return the bootloader usage). Your terminal emulator must be set to
Failing to use these settings will lead to trouble, so double and triple check all settings
If you cannot interact with the bootloader, make sure your terminal settings are correct, the iPAQ is properly connected to the host computer, and the iPAQ is actually on. If everything seems fine, try restarting the host terminal emulator and resetting the iPAQ again.
At the "boot>" prompt, issue the following command: load root
Proceed to send or "upload" the jffs2 file (if you selected Opie it should be opie-image-h3900-20050407140814.rootfs.jffs2) with ymodem, using the terminal emulator.

Note that the bootldr now expects ymodem by default, but hyperterminal uses Xmodem as the default file transfer protocol. So make sure that before sending the file you have set the Protocol to Ymodem

When the upload is done, you should see something like:
And finally, the cross-your-fingers portion of our activity ;)

At the "boot>" prompt, issue the following command: boot

Linux should now start booting.

On the next blog I'll be showing the results of our little experiment ;)

reboot!

2005-06-01T06:49:00.000+08:00

After months(close to a year maybe) of waiting and trying to squeeze it in my free time, I finally managed reincarnate my defunct blog (digital.kitchen), tweaked and relabelled it. One of these days I will explain why I had to sacrifice digital.kitchen and put neural.brew in its place, but for now I'm hoping to finish some, if not most, of what I have started in digital.kitchen and probably talk about more interesting tech-related(for the most part) stuff.

In the meantime I do have a few interesting links to visit.

Protect the women of your life? I do get the feeling women would prefer their privacy than having this installed on their underwear. Stalker's tech tools perhaps? or would you rather want a bugbot on your innards. A nice cool hack that makes your winXP Home go Pro! (read the EULA first guys)