Thursday, April 26, 2007

Is the search for the perfect distro over?

My peers (in person... yes, I do have a life outside my computer) has asked me whether I my quest for the perfect distro has come to an end. To answer that question, is Hell No! I have to explain over and over again that Linux is that flexible and has a lot to offer no matter what distro you choose. That boggled them since they thought that all distros uses the same base, the same source codes, the same applications... that is true! But the distro is not defined by what applications are installed and offered, but by how active and accomodating a community is. It's always the community... Softwares and Operating Systems evolve, including Microsoft Windows, but you don't see me using Windows... Community on the other hand are a bunch of humans driven by their passion and emotions. Let's face it, it's not always their brains that's working.

Fact: there is no end for my quest. Softwares will move forward, but a community may regress (almost 100% caused by emotions). And that is the reason why I won't stop downloading and installing new distros.

3rd Quarter last year, I migrated from Gentoo due to petty quarrells. Their package manager is  the best in the world. I have to admit that it has superseded Apt when it comes to dependencies and functionality, but it's not all that. What's the use of a perfect application if the people you're working with keeps on pushing you around. Don't get me wrong, I still love Gentoo, and their new Code of Conduct has  forced me to reconsider my thoughts. As for Fedora, well the most recent (at least for me, I've been out of touch lately) reason why I still haven't tried Zod (FC6) was because of this (complete). ESR may be at fault here, but a professional (and a representative of Red Hat) isn't supposed to act like that. It's all about respect, it always is and will always be. Community, always driven by emotions and almost always the cause of their success or downfall.

Now I'm into Ubuntu... who knows, maybe next year I'm back to Gentoo or Fedora. Well, let's just see...

Additional Note: No, I'm not starting a flame war here, this is my opinion and you have to accept it as that.


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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Pinoy Geniune Kit... Bwahahaha!

So have you read your morning paper lately and discover another gimmick?

Yup! A very enticing offer.... And I suggest you go validate your XP now before it lasts. At Php7,748.00 it sure is a nice deal, so again... better buy now! You'll also have a chance to win another PC, an O2 PDA-Phone, XBox, etc. Wow!!! I'll go get one myself... Zzzzzz!

Oh right, sorry for falling asleep. Hey, look go validate your windows now, shell out Php7K, and you'll have a chance to win gadgets... you'll also win malwares and spyware 100% guaranteed! It slices, it dices...

After making Microsoft Php7K richer, you'll also be prompted to buy a Php4K Norton Internet Suite and a PhP15K MS Office 2003 Premium so you'll never be left out with Wordpad. As an added bonus, XP will drive you paranoid from email attachments, IM Spam, and internet browsing. And lastly, you don't have to be technical with XP, its' user-friendliness won't give you enough time to differentiate viruses from worms from trojans from spywares... coz they're all the same to you!

So, for the 3rd time... go validate your XP now, or you'll be sorry!

Scam.... legal or not... it's still a scam!

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Hours Before Feisty

In a few hours, the Ubuntu community would release Feisty Fawn (v7.04). There's an alarming stillness, like a calm after the storm, like silence before an impending disaster. Only a few devs and testers are at work, the rest are unaware of what's in store for them. But everyone is talking about it... anticipating...
Feisty is considered another milestone for the Linux community. The needs of both regular users (who loves or used to using proprietary codecs, plugins, and softwares) and Open Source Software-only advocates were met. This compromise will suit everyone... and I'm happy about it.

I implore you to download it, use it, and experience the freedom you've never tasted before in Windows.

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

SmartBro is listed

...  by CBL and won't be long before we get listed by SpamHaus. Yup, no turning back now, there's hundreds of SmartBro subscribers and almost 90% of them are using Windows. The problem is viruses and trojan mailers which try to send out spam to their contacts. Why is this a problem for us? When that happens some of our friends might not recieve our emails, especially if they are using DNS blacklist (or something like that... no time to research) like SpamHaus. Today I tried to post a comment on a WordPress site and got the message below.

So of course I gotta check this out, so I clicked on the link so I could release my (and a hundred subscribers) IP address.

Yup, I understand this. Spam not only comes in the form of emails, but also comments on blogs and news articles. So I gotta check my IP out for myself and see what comes up.

Aha, CBL has blacklisted my IP address. I clicked on the link to see if I could fix it.


http://cbl.abuseat.org/remove.cgi?ip=203.87.200.214

Yeah, I was able to release it my IP from CBL, but it says here that if OUR IP address gets listed and delisted multiple times, they're gonna have to permanently blacklist us. And like I said, we'll have a hard time sending out emails to our friends, families, and even our employers or clients (we'll lose money). We'll have a hard time chatting with our friends via IRC and IMs. Some of the sites we go to would have an Error telling us that our IP is blocked. And we won't be able to comments on our friends' blog. What causes this again? Viruses, Trojans, you name it. And it only happens if you have a Windows machine.

And NO... if our IP address gets permanently blocked, even SmartBro won't be able to do anything. And because you are using a Windows machine, you'll affect innocent users like me (and there are hundreds of us subscribed with SmartBro). Please think about what you're doing... Do you really need Windows?

"Mandadamay pa kasi e!"

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Monday, April 02, 2007

Baguio Ko Mahal Ko April 1 Article

Firstly, I need to ask forgiveness from Madam Virginia De Guia for infringing on her article without asking permission from her, though I'm sure she wouldn't mind me posting her article in full. Here's her Sunday article.








As we say goodbye to the month of March, we seem to remember it mainly as the month of ashes on our foreheads, of graduation marches and togas, of the last gasps of chilly Siberian winds, and the first warm embrace of summer drafts. And yes, in anticipation of the multitudes of holy week, the month city officials, businessmen and police get their acts together. Not to mention squads of volunteer groups like REACT and Boy Scouts to help lost visitors.
Few can remember the energies of March 1945. The infamous month of carpet bombing of Baguio by American B-24s. It was six months before the close of the war. I was 29 years old with a two-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. For almost 60 days, American B-24s were raiding our beloved city, razing it to the ground to flush out General Yamashita.
We were refugees within our own city, herding ourselves at the Baguio Cathedral. Make-shift shacks were built around the slopes of the church knowing (or at least hoping) the bombers would spare the refugee center.
It was a terrifying March - an atmosphere that we see only in documentary films from the viewpoint of the bomber's cameras. On the ground it was hell. James Halsema describes the horror: "Few participants have clear memories of the events of March 15. What they remember is endless running, exhaustion, terror, smoke, and dust. Some refugees including seriously wounded people remained in the Cathedral..."
He describes how the b-24s came in single file. Two squadrons discharged their loads from south to north and two others from southwest to northeast. Altogether 170 planes... came to Baguio that day to release their loads... so dense and devastating that they were termed "carpet bombing". I didn't realize that the expression was formed from the Baguio air raids. (Just like the American work "Boondocks" came from our word "bundok.") Pilots reported that "two days after, we were having difficulty seeing buildings through the black pall".
I remember that one stray bomb fell so close to the church, many refugees were wounded. we would return to our homes in the evenings and return to the Cathedral early next morning after cooking our daily baon. Many had dug air raid shelters near their homes -- little cuevas to run into. One day a bomb fell so close to our home and my mother, sitting near the mouth of the cave was buried live. It took almost an hour to dig her out - with neighbors and some Japanese helping. She was brought to St. Louis hospital and she survived.
we had moved several times - from our home on Session Road (present La Azotea) down to the Hotel Plaza (the DBP corner lot), which my husband Victor was managing and later to my sister-in-law Leonila Madrid Oteyza's house in Aurora Hill. When it seemed to be a never ending nightmare, we evacuated finally to Tubao La Union - walking five days and nights. I was carrying my one-year-old Genie on my back, while Eric was carried by my nephew Poping de Guia.
A report on the March 15, 16, and 17, 1945 bombings said: "The heap of rubble, which represented Baguio was no longer the beautiful, healthful, peaceful, or the gay rendezvous in the Philippines. It was with deep sorrow that pilots saw their bombs crashing into swimming pools [sic] (in reality Burnham Park Lagoon), golf courses, beautiful hotels, and other luxuries, which they had dreamed would be ours to enjoy on the capture of Luzon."
Halsema concludes: "Even over 40 years later it is not easy to understand why the US Air Force bombed so many civilian occupied buildings in Baguio on the Ides of March 1945."
Yes I can never fully understand the need for war at all, today. Six decades later, the memories of March 1945 still haunt me - as images of war continue to grace our TV screens. Kailan tayo matututo that World War II should have been "The war to end all wars?"

End of Article. My comments below.

So there it is, a chilling 1945 memory. I can't help but wonder how Baguio recuperated so easily after multiple monstrous attacks. But that made Cordillerans stronger. It's true that only a few remembers that day, but as long as someone remembers.... we'll be OK.

Why did I post this article here? 'Coz it wouldn't take long before Microsoft invades FOSS and their community. Everyone knows (and experienced) their aggressiveness and indifference. We have to prepare for the larger battle to come. War? Oh yes, we're already at war. It started way back in 1980's, and we initiated it. The day Stallman created GNU & GPL and Linus, the Linux kernel, was the day we declared war over injustices and monopoly. We won't see the end of this war for another 20 to 40 years. But we should strive to win one battle at a time. Every convert is a battle won. And every convert is another General waiting to lead an army against the Big Evil.

As for me, I'll be waiting for the D-Day... prepared!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Google, you gotta love 'em

Now what does Google have that makes it the top dog?

GMail, Google Calendar, Notebook, Personalized Homepage, Search, Code Search, Blogger, Videos, YouTube, AdSense, etc. etc. etc.

Google actually manages my life, just a few snags though (Calendar and Notebook integration into KMail and we're all set) but it does its' job well.

But what really cracks me up is their developers, and managements, sense of humor. Yup, every year we get treated to a few laughs. And today, I managed to  digg two of them.

http://www.google.com/tisp/

and

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

Google, you HAVE to love 'em...

To the devs, Thank you!

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