iRant

Nobody's Home

2006-07-19T10:59:00.000+08:00

I've moved my blog to blog.jploh.com. Goodbye Blogger! Please update your bookmarks and feeds.

Jollibee Food Corporation and Worm Patties

2006-07-18T14:49:00.000+08:00

Okay, follow the instructions. Open this page. Hit "ctrl+a" or highlight everything. Unless they haven't changed it yet, you should see this: Wow. To be honest with you, I hate Jollibee's service. But I have to hand it to them, from a case study or thesis (whatever you want to call it), they became one of the largest corporations in the country. I think their webmaster hates them, is unethical or was forced to do this. The squares near the bottom are non-Unicode characters (letters that your browser is not set to understand). This is what they are:

jollibee food corporation, home based franchise, hot dog manila and hot dog philippines jollibee food corporation, kiddie party, palabok pancit recipe and palabok recipe jollibee food corporation, restaurant chain philippines, spaghetti and swirly bitz, Yahoo Web Sites, yahoo.com [snipped] earthworm hamburger patties, employment fast food and entrepreneur franchise opportunity, DMOZ.org jollibee food corporation [snipped] Lycos.com jollibee food corporation [snipped] earthworm hamburger issue and earthworm hamburger patties, Northern Light.com jollibee food corporation, fast food, fast food job and fast food job restaurant, Google.com jollibee food corporation, food delivery, food recipe manila and food recipe philippines, Search MSN, MSN.com jollibee food corporation [snipped] ebay.com jollibee food corporation, peach mango pie [snipped] food manila, franchise business opportunity and franchise buying opportunity, compuserve.com

Then if you view the source and check the meta tags, this is what it says:

<META NAME="object" CONTENT="jollibee food corporation, earthworm, earthworm hamburger, earthworm hamburger issue, earthworm hamburger patties, earthworm meat, earthworm meat price, eating fast food">

What this does is it cheats search engine rankings like Google's. Everyday, pages all over the internet are scanned by computers that run spiders, programs or scripts that index information about the page it passes. What Jollibee is doing is completely unethical because it ruins the beauty of page ranking and returns irrelevant search results. So if your search includes "ebay.com", Jollibee might pop out as a result. Wouldn't that piss you off? Or as some might say, "WTF?!". Way to go. I guess they haven't heard of this. The earthworms are here to stay and they have an evil plot to conquer the world. Follow the thread over here.

Evolution: When Monkeys Became Human

2006-07-17T21:06:00.000+08:00

No, I'm not going to be in the Darwin Awards. I'm trying out Wordpress and I might move my blog there (as soon as I figure out how). I really wanted to be able to sort my entries by categories and put tagging too (in an automated, organized way). I also tried MediaWiki and it's great. I might try Joomla! for my site too. Wordpress seems to have too much that it becomes a bit too confusing. I just wanted categorized posts but what the hell, change always comes with getting used to something new. By the way, it's been raining everyday and I don't like it. Specially last week when we celebrated Bheng's birthday ...at Tagaytay.

Microsoft Varsity Program (MVP?)

2006-07-10T17:58:00.000+08:00

Personally, I don't like these publicity articles but what the hell. This year's Microsoft Varsity Program kicks off (hey, it sounds a lot better thang FSAP!!). I accidentally passed by that night because I attended a talk on XAML by MSDN Connection. XAML really looks promising or heartbreaking, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, DLS-C is not included anymore since we're really not part of NCR (or we messed up last time). But Rose said the program is expanding. This year's program is now organization-centric. Unlike last year, there are selected faculty and students, hence the Faculty and Student Ambassador Program. In other countries it's just for students, we're a special case. FSAP was not as bad as as I thought. I didn't have to endorse Microsoft products. In fact, we didn't even "cascade" the knowledge given to us in the trainings. The look on the teachers and students learning new and cool geeky stuff gives a different feeling way better than getting multiple orgasms (I can't tell, I'm a guy). That is, if they did learn from us.

Blasted Compiler!!

2006-07-09T21:32:00.000+08:00

I have experienced different results from two different compilers with basic operations so I think I know what the author[s] of IZArc is talking about.

I received many emails from people that have problems with archives containing files with non English filenames. Also some peoples ask me for x64 version of IZArc. Unfortunately I can’t help them because IZArc is created using Borland’s Delphi but it doesn’t support Unicode names and can compile only x86 (32-bit) applications. That’s why I decided to rewrite IZArc using Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005 (Express Editions are not applicable!!!). To be able to do this I have to purchase a licensed copy of VS 2005 and probably some additional components. Anyone who wants to support IZArc can donate some amount of money and help me to create one better and more reliable version of IZArc. Just follow this link and donate as much as you want (change the quantity field for more than 25$).

IZArc is my favorite application for handling compressed files [for Windows] because it's not much of a resource hog and it can read/write TAR and ISOs. I want to donate but I can't. I'm also curious why the author[s] didn't choose to make it open source. It's not like they're going to lose anything. Should that explain the need for VS 2005, that's a pretty hefty price tag?

Tux Gets A Chance in the Philippine Government

2006-07-06T19:01:00.000+08:00

Got this from the PLUG technical mailing list.

I'm a legislative staff of a partylist congressman in the house of representatives. we are in the process of drafting a bill on open source, compelling the gov't to adopt open source software, among others. As a measure of goodwill, we will be migrating to a linux distro this month until august 2006. We're considering ubuntu, bayanihan and redhat, though I'm more familiar with redhat. I'm soliciting opinions, suggestions/recommendations on the proposed bill, on the Linux distros to use and anything that you want us to consider. Thanks and more power! Carlos Panlilio Garcia Legislative Staff Officer Office of Rep. Teddy Casiño +62922.815.0676 +632.931.5911

If this bill gets approved, the government could save a lot of money. I hope that the savings will not go to the nutrition of the pockets of our politicians.

PLDT's NGN

2006-07-05T10:11:00.000+08:00

I got this from PLDT's Annual Report 2005, "Broadbanding the Future". NGN, Next Generation Network as they call it, is some sort of bundled package of DSL-W or SMART WiFi/Bro.

Simply put, NGN is the coming together of voice, data and video in a single network.

I wonder how good the service is. Our ISP in school is Meridian Wireless (now SMART WiFi) and the service is so bad. Also, I haven't heard any good feedback from the wireless broadband services of SMART and PLDT. Anybody in Cavite who got to try this?

In late 2005, residents of several residential subdivisions in Cavite, where traditional phone facilities were sorely lacking, finally had PLDT phones connected to their homes. These subscribers were the first NGN subscribers in the country.

Is the video being provided IPTV? The voice, VoIP? The article says they're using non-proprietary equipment. Are they using Asterisk and/or ATAs? Maybe we'll find out if this surfaces more.

With the first NGN lines already installed, PLDT plans to increase the capacity to at least 300,000 lines by end-2006.

Due to PLDT and SMART's nasty reputation in wireless internet services, it could be doom for those who'll get tricked to switch.

NGN lines will first be rolled out in such areas as Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan where landlines are in short supply. Eventually, these facilities will be installed in area where existing customers will be migrated from traditional telephony to the bold new world of NGN communications.

My First Contribution to Wikipedia

2006-07-03T10:44:00.000+08:00

I don't know why I feel so accomplished about it even if the addition/modifications I made wasn't obvious. Anyway, I edited an article on Davao's international airport (first paragraph) and added a link. I got the information from a republished article on Manila Bulletin. I'm curious if the expansion of the runways included widening for the incoming A380 fleets. It's good to hear that most facilities, specially the control tower, are better or at par with NAIA's. I'm looking forward to more international flights to and from Davao. It could be cheaper if I flew to Davao through a cheaper domestic airline like Cebu Pacific or Asian Spirit then transfer to an international flight to Malaysia, Indonesia or Singapore.

Possible Phishing Scam/Fraud Sprouting in Pinoy Tech Communities

2006-06-28T22:19:00.000+08:00

Watch out for promogirl's, occasionally called pornogirl, "contests". Expect them to pop out on most online Filipino communities, the first three are tech-related. I have this gut feeling that it's just a scam. TipidPC Thread PC Tipid Thread PinoyPC Thread The "prices" are USB to IDE adapters and threads entitled "Sino may gustong manalo ng FREE tech stuffs taas ang kamay!". There have been various reasons for the "promo". Here's a quote from Cottonfields of PC Tipid

I have a hunch in the back of my head about this. Sometime ago, I have a friend, a hacker, that purchased computer peripherals on online store such as newegg.com using hacked accounts. Then guess what he did for it to be delivered to the philippines? Ingat lang. We don't know her/him in person. We are not certain about the legality of this game/promo.

And one from SIKYA of TipidPC who "won" and claims to have recieved his price.

this is no scam guys. this is inline with promogirl's upcoming computer store. be ready co'z as i've heared, there will be more contest to come in the following days. Be glad that there are still persons here who is giving out free items like this just to have some fun and at the same time promote themselves here in our communit, not just to be notice but to be respected.

But there really is no straight answer. The questions to the quiz-type contests are pictures of motherboards with the logos blurred out. Whoever gets to give the model of the board wins. After that, the "winner" will be asked for their home address. Looking at SIKYA's profile, it seems authentic since he does have comments and has been a member since May 7, 2005. So, scam or some generous attention whore?

Programme pour le Manille Fete de la Musique

2006-06-28T11:00:00.000+08:00

Stage 1

Main Music Hall: Pop, Blues, RnB, and Commercial 16.00 - Lazy Lorelei 16.20 - Mike's Apartment 16.40 - Twitch 17.00 - ~~Sando~~ The Automatics 17.20 - Uneven 17.40 - Purplechickens 18.00 - Free Beer 18.20 - Plug 18.40 - Soul Kitchen 19.00 - ~~Cover Me Quick~~ Hale 19.20 - ~~Phantasma~~ Sugarfree 19.40 - Sophia Bolo 20.00 - ~~Kjwan~~ Syalam 20.20 - Pumping Pluto 20.40 - Sino Si Kat? 21.00 - Snake Jones 21.20 - Snakecharmers 21.40 - Grass 22.00 - Jimmy Bondoc 22.20 - Irish Chavo 22.40 - ~~Pinup Girls~~ Kapatid 23.00 - Blue Rats 23.20 - Delta Slim 23.40 - Soul Benders 12.00 - Firebottle 12.20 - Cambio 12.40 - Mahasa 1.00 - ~~Kapatid~~ Naima 1.20 - ~~Sugarfree~~ Phantasma 1.40 - ~~Hale~~ Cover Me Quick 2.00 - Pepe Smith 2.20 - Pin Up Girls 2.40 - Sando

Stage 2

South Wing: Ska, Reggae, World, and Ethnic 16.00 - Lokal Grounation 16.20 - Good Leaf 16.40 - ~~Peace Pipe~~ 17.00 - Pink Cow 17.20 - Koolai Kahon 17.40 - Tether 18.00 - ~~Shalam~~ 18.20 - Sruvaleh 18.40 - Wanwurd 19.00 - Kalumad 19.20 - ~~Chakra~~ Zealots 20.00 - Chrome8 20.20 - Nutrib~~and~~un Experience 20.40 - Oppressed 21.00 - Oi Wag Dito 21.20 - ~~Sucketseven~~ Mofo 21.40 - Kampai 22.00 - Humble Sauce 22.20 - Triggerbliss 22.40 - Camote Chunks 23.00 - Juan Isip 23.20 - Kadangyan 23.40 - Salindiwa 12.00 - Porks & Bean 12.20 - Placid 12.40 - Rub-A-Dub 1.00 - Reggae Mistress 1.20 - Tropical Depression 1.40 - Cocojam 2.00 - Jeepney Joyride 2.20 - ~~Milagros Dancehall Collective~~ Coffeebreak Island 2.40 - ~~Coffeebreak Island~~ 3.00 - ~~Moyg~~ 3.40 - Peace Pipe

Stage 3

North Wing: Jazz, Fusion, Lite Rock, New Wave, and Pop Alternative 16.00 - ~~Dahon~~ 16.20 - ~~Milkteeth~~ 16.40 - Switch 17.00 - Milkteeth 17.20 - ~~The Out Of Body Special~~ 17.40 - Squeezers 18.00 - ~~Project Fusion~~ Reklamo 18.20 - Rain 18.40 - Taffy Trip 19.00 - Makopa 19.20 - ~~Johnny Alegre Affinity~~ Dahon 19.40 - ~~Rubber Inc.~~ 20.00 - Talahib 20.20 - Earth Fish Fish 20.40 - Astro Juan 21.00 - Elemento 21.20 - ~~Crayola~~ Dale Ibay 22.00 - ~~Law Of Thirds~~ Project Fusion 22.20 - Shades Of Ivory 22.40 - Moyg 23.00 - ~~Juan Pablo Dream~~ Pupil 23.20 - Wunjo 23.40 - Darryl Shy 12.00 - ~~Caliph8~~ Publico 12.20 - ~~Nyco Maca~~ Out of Body Special 12.40 - ~~Drip~~ Whateverittakes 1.00 - ~~Sheila & The Insects~~ Sleepy Heads 1.20 - ~~Sleepy Heads~~ Dream Kitchen 1.40 - ~~Dream Kitchen~~ Sheila & The Insects 2.00 - Late Isabel 2.20 - Atomflot 2.40 - Skies Of Ember 3.00 - Slavedrum 3.20 - Scarlet Tears 3.20 - Inflikt

Stage 4

Rock, Indie, Alternative, and Punk 16.00 - ~~Eternia~~ 16.20 - ~~Haneps~~ 16.40 - ~~Naima~~ Eternia 17.00 - ~~The Brew~~ Haneps 17.20 - Sand Pipe/Attic Sessions 17.40 - Potter Noster 18.00 - Kontraluz 18.20 - Childzplay 18.40 - ~~Nora Aunor Fans Club~~ Sacramento 19.00 - Aizo 19.20 - Blazing Bulalakaws 19.40 - 3 Day Silence 20.00 - Lazersquadron 20.20 - Chubibo 20.40 - Datu's Tribe 21.00 - Moomtaz 21.20 - ~~Selling Side Mirrors~~ E.R.F. 21.40 - ~~Hard Boiled Eggz~~ Sucket Seven 22.00 - ~~Mad Scientist~~ Hard Boiled Eggz 22.20 - ~~Publico~~ Too Late The Hero 22.40 - ~~Erf~~ Selling Side Mirrors 23.00 - Boy Elroy 23.20 - Tolonges Death Squad 23.40 - Live Tilapia 12.00 - The Betrayed 12.20 - The Wuds 1.00 - ~~Dong Abay~~ Deceased 1.20 - Marcus Highway 1.40 - Mano Mano 2.00 - Spoons 2.20 - ~~Slapshock~~ Dayuhan 2.40 - ~~Razorback~~ Publico 3.00 - ~~Monsterbot~~ Einstein Chakras 3.20 - Valley Of Chrome 3.40 - ~~Chrome8~~ Monkeyspank I havent decided yet if I'm going. The factors revolve around who I'm going with, the location and the crowd that will be there (flashback from last year). I'm also wondering why Sitti and The Brass Munkeys are not included in the Jazz stage. I hope they'll be included in the last minute changes. [Updated 2006.06.30 ~02.00] Last minute changes from this morning.

More Futbol Madness

2006-06-26T12:51:00.000+08:00

Germany is enjoying the tourism right now. This giant LED screen by Philips is, according to personal accounts on forums, three stories high. It is anchored at the River Main between the Alte Mainbrücke and Ignatz-Bubis-Brücke bridges in Frankfurt. I spent a lot of time researching on this because it was a bit fascinating. Fitting thousands, even possible to be a million, of people into a stadium is impossible, so they had this solution which they call the Main Arena where Fan Fests are held. Viewing is free but you have to be there two hours before the kickoff to compete for good spots. Philips is an official partner for this year's World Cup. They provided the RFID ticketing and the Plasma screens scattered in the city. That's a 16:9 screen, spanning 144 square meters. You could compare the size to the surrounding structures and objects to get my point. My sources: Football by the river in Frankfurt Fan Fest Frankfurt Fan Fest Frankfurt (2) Giant TV for World Cup 2006 I decided to revert back to single posts because the collective long posts took longer to complete

Deus Ex (2/X)

2006-06-22T10:44:00.000+08:00

I. The French's Contribution to Mankind: Art and Music II. POR-MEX 2:1 III. Leaving the Embryonic Phase IV. End of Part II I. The French's Contribution to Mankind: Art and Music Le Manile Feté dela Musique aura lieu Juin 30, 2006 au SM Mail de l'Asia. There were rumors that there will be no celebration this year. But there are messages flying around looking for bands to perform for this year's event. It looks like we're going to be celebrating after all. The event is, of course, sponsored by the Français Ambassade. There's also the art festival, not sure when and where though. II. POR-MEX 2:1 Futbol season is up and everyone's been busy staying at their homes watching the games. In fact, more restaurants in Singapore have started delivery services for the futbol season (Star News Asia). I happen to watch more TV now, just because of the games. I also found out that we don't have ESPN. The other day was the only time I got to go jogging. For that day, I couldn't move anything below my ankles. My stamina became faster now (did I say that right?). I couldn't run as long as I could. I'm trying to remove this growing belly I have right now. I'll start attending futbol practice on Monday. Maybe I could lose more weight there. III. Leaving the Embryonic Phase Last Friday was the acquaintance party at DLS-C. The event is themed Unhushed: Breaking the Silence. It was well planned (despite the fact that it took only a week or two). My band played but I was just too tired to do anything right. I wasn't hitting the right notes and I often lost my timing. Like last year, I got to bring home food. There were a lot of extra food. I got to bring home half a tray of baked macaroni (last year was tacos and pizza). The Digital Arts Club, which I'm no longer "leading", sold barbecue and C2. We also had shirts printed. The shirt kicks so much ass. It's nice to see the organization alive and active (..and filled with members). I knew I'm not a people-person. Bryle, Dwight and the rest of the team have this charm for attracting people I guess. This schoolyear seems bright (do I have to say this every year?). I also have my hopes of graduating this schoolyear, I have to undergo nine units of mathematical torture and one dance class. IV. End of Part II That's it for now. Yes, there's still more from last week.

Too Long, Too Late (1/X)

2006-06-15T13:44:00.000+08:00

I. Outsource me, damn it. II. Clutter III. Stop Following Me! IV. End of Part I I. Outsource me, damn it. I posted a link to an article with Autodesk claiming that the local 3D/CAD outsourcing business isn't stressed so much. Here's a follow-up article with Autodesk now making the move (better than just calling press cons and blabbing away). Hats off to them. I hope they could just give a special version (less features) to students for free. Thirty percent of x-hundred-thousand-peso software wouldn't make any difference. Academic versions are not affordable either. Blender (F/OSS rocks) is used for the school's 3D animation course. Too late I guess. II. Clutter I guess a lot of people know where/that I work now. It's also the reason why this post has taken days to complete. Here's a picture of my desk a few weeks back.

Consoles: "Work, werk, wurk!!"
Turns out I'm not really working, eh?
Octa Ramis (a 40GB 4G iPod --Jedi Edition)
My favorite working chair (although I still want the chair I had at HK)
The room doubles as a bodega! And the boxes serves as blinds too!!

And I though my desk is messy. On other news, the Clumsy Assasin has struck again. The accountants took our room but amazingly, the boxes kept haunting us. We really have to live with the bodega environment. You wouldn't want to meet Michelle. III. Stop Following Me! This is old news but this was in the span of the "no post" season. I didn't know I had excellent map reading powers! Both markers were placed when the shots were still blurry. I must be cursed. Clouds keep following me. IV. End of Part I This post is taking too long. I'll continue the rest on another post (it's already Monday the 19th).

Trash

2006-06-04T23:47:00.000+08:00

I. My First iPod Accident II. The Power of the Mouth (or the Pen/Keyboard) III. The Future of Mobile Phones I. My First iPod Accident iTunes really sucks. It sucked so bad I really went into more iPodLinux research. I turned on the automatic update option and it erased all the songs I moved to the other computer. This such a bummer. Now I have to retag all the songs and add album art again (the screen looked better with the album art on). I also hate the way that iTunes refreshes when you edit the tags, it suddenly focuses itself. It's also not that friendly to the Windows taskbar. Okay, I saw a lot of cool features for the iPodLinux and lots of games but the core and new UI is still in beta. I'll just wait later. I also found out that the iPod has two ARM processors. Cool! Also, the reason to making iPodLinux kicks ass (although used commonly, it still sells to me), "because we can". II. The Power of the Mouth (or the Pen/Keyboard) I got this from my mail in one of the Yahoo! Groups that I'm in.

Subject: BEWARE OF CUESHÉ!!! Mga kapatid kwento ko lang sa inyo itong nanyari sa akin nung last Saturday. Nag-back up ako for Ara Mina sa Ratsky Morato. Guest nya yung CUESHÉ. May 3-4 song number sila in the middle of our set. Para mabilis ang set up, iniwan ko na yung snare, hhats, ride at pedal ko. Eto na pasok na ang crew ng cueshe, kinalas lahat ang cymbal stands at naglagay ng sangkatutak na boom arms at multi-clamps. Ginamit pa din nya yung ride, hhats at snare ko nagdagdag lang sya ng cymbals nya. After nila tumogs, kinalas na nung crew nila yung gamit, eto yung badtrip, DI NILA BINALIK YUNG MGA KINALAS NILA BAGO SILA TUMUGTOG. Naiwan naka kalat yung mga stands nakinalas nila. Ginawa ko kinausap ko yung PA sabi ko, "Pre baka naman pwede nyo ibalik yung mga kinalas nyo". Ok naman yung PA binalik naman nya. Mga brad di ba pag may mga tinanggal ka na gamit sa drums ng venue ikaw na magkukusa isoli sa set-up kung paano mo inabutan bago mo ilagay ang mga gamit mo. Respeto lang sa drummer na susunod sa iyo at respeto na din sa gamit ng venue. Pagtingin ko sa snare ko puro DENTS yung head. Eh bagong palit pa naman. Nilapitan ko yung drummer sabi ko, tsong bakit mo naman nilagyan ng dents yung heads ko. Bagong lagay pa lang ito sinira mo na", sumagot sya na papalitan nya. Nagpalitan kami ng number ng road manager nila at sabi Sunday or Monday papadala nila yung replacement. Nakakainis dito di naman nya gamit yun hahatawin nya. At ako more than a year ako kung magpalit ng heads di ako nagkakadent ng heads. Again respeto lang sa gamit ng iba. Kung hindi sa iyo wag mong WARAKIN. EASY KA LANG DI BA? Galing din ako sa rock na tugtugan and I consider myself a heavy hitter din. Baka may mali sa pagpalo nya kaya nagkakadent ang heads sa kanya. I called the road manager Monday afternoon to ask when will I get my replacement head, sagot nya dadalhin daw niya sa Ratsky ng gabi. Sabi ko sa Off the Grill ako that night. So sabi nya dun na lang daw.matatapos na yung gig ko di pa din dumating, tinext ko pero di sumagot tinawagan ko di rin sinasagot. Hanggang ngayon wala pa rin akong nakukuhang reply sa kanila. DI KO NA HAHABULIN YUN. SA KANYA NA YUNG 600 PESOS NA PAMBILI NG HEADS, basta sa akin nakatatak na KUPAL sya at yung road manager nya. Head lang yun. Baka nga bigyan ko pa sya para magpraktis sya kung paano pumalo ng tama! Eto pa kwela, may nakausap ako na events organizer nung SMB Oktoberfest, may sinira din daw na drums yan nung Oktoberfest. Kaya ingat kayo kung makaka-alternate nyo yung drummer ng CUESHÉ, baka wasakin pa gamit nyo nyan. Kung may nakakakilala sa inyo dun sa drummer na yun paki-forward itong e-mail sa kanya. He he he he. Mga kapatid tandaan lang natin RESPETO lang sa kapwa nating drummers. -Vinci Rodriguez

I don't forward this kind of emails becuase I consider them junk (hey, sometimes there's good junk). So I just posted it to keep your mailboxes clean. III. The Future of Mobile Phones Apache now has a port to mobile phones and Python has been on them for quite a while too. You could server dynamic server-scripted pages with a mere mobile phone now! With microprocessors getting smaller and powerful at the same time with storage costs going lower by the Megabyte and physical size as well, what will be the future use of phones? There are many possibilities, mobile phones could soon be turned to an ultramobile computer. You could use cordless mice and keyboards via Bluetooth or RF, connect a monitor wirelessly or with a thin cable. Internet access is not a problem, most phones are GPRS/EDGE capable and newer models come out with WiFi capabilities. Don't forget that we have wireless speakers and earphones now! I could picture the future of mobile computing already. It will be beautiful.

Audiophilia and Geekness

2006-06-03T00:08:00.000+08:00

I. Treasure II. Your Friendly Neighborhood iUG III. I'm a geek. Are you? IV. Fun with Templates I. Treasure Some stuff that I got in the past days. My productivity is doomed. I loved this game so much, I bought it even if my laptop can't run it and I barely use the desktop that can. Sid Meier still kicks ass. Sitti's "Café Bossa" with a [fake] autograph, all the tracks are great! This is a must-buy for Jazz lovers. I kept on hearing this on the radio but I thought it was some concert or something until I saw her perform at the Ortigas park. I've heard great reviews from friends so I bought it without hesitation at a concert at Megamall for PhP290. Is it the same price from the record bars right now? I saved the best for last. Apple's iPod Photo 40GB Jedi Edition. Jedi Edition because it has a light sabre accross the screen! Bought it at TipidPC with a Belkin FM Transmitter. I originally wanted the transmitter because I could plug it to any device with a 3.5mm socket and I liked the brand (I bought a KVM switch of the same brand) but the guy was selling it for over two grand. I saw other sellers at eBay with cheaper offers but they weren't responding so I took the bargain. I'll be moving all my audio files to the iPod and keep a copy on another machine so I could regain the ~20GB hard disk space on my laptop. Here's a closer look: The 40GB iPod Photo Jedi Edition playing 'way 'cross Georgia by David Sanborn. II. Your Friendly Neighborhood iUG Since I now own an iPod, I have this curiosity. Is there such thing as an iPod user group? <searches Google> Oh there is. If nobody from the country has started one, I'd like to start one and call it Philippine Users' Group for iPodLinux (PUGI). Changed iPod to iPodLinux. I'm still thinking when I could reformat it. iTunes sucks. It doesn't seem to read tags correctly and the Library and synching is messy. III. I'm a geek. Are you? Only a geek will find this funny or corny. If you don't get it. You're not a geek. My laptop; with a quad-core setup: Intel Centrino, AMD Sempron and an Athlon64 X2!! Designed to run Windows XP and works fine with GNU/Linux. The second Athlon64 badge made it look fake. I want to remove it but it might leave a sticky mark (like the old ATI badge that is now occupied by the Sempron). I wonder where I could get a GNU/Linux badge. IV. Fun with Templates Tonight was the only time that I made noticable changes to my blog's template in ages. If you click on the comments link, it'll "draw" an inline frame with the comments page instead of moving to the comments page. I'm still looking for a better way of doing this because it looks crowded with that small frame and the page not fitting inside. I added a Yahoo! IM link for a few days but it wasn't that discreet. When I'm online, it says, "Send me a message". I just wanted the dead smiley when I'm offline and the big-ass smile smiley when I'm online. I removed the Stickam thing because it was large and completely useless since I never go on cam.

Freedom and J-Ska

2006-05-27T16:29:00.000+08:00

I. Senseless Post ...well, almost II. The world would be boring without YouTube I. Senseless Post...well, almost We found a stray love bird at school yesterday. This is one lazy bird. Or maybe it really is the DLS-C environment that makes everyone lazy. I think I'd rather have a bird as a pet. They make nice sounds (well most of domestic bird species) and not that messy. II. The world would be boring without YouTube I tried a search for Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra at YouTube. I found a couple of videos. I just love this band, I can't get enough. They're a must for Ska lovers (calling Ms. Dianne!!). Here's my favorite track: I want that upright electric bass. Maybe I should start learning Nihongo so I know what the lyrics mean. I searched for it but I can't find a translation (only for the title). At least I can somehow sing with it. "Utsukushiku moeru mori" means "a beautiful burning forest". It's so hard to search for stuff for this band even if they've been around for more than twenty years. I got lucky and got to download a complete collection. It sucks that it's so hard to get rare CDs here. I even had to buy Four Play's last record from the US and Marcus Miller's "Tales" from HK. Other clips that I liked:

Minute Men

2006-05-23T00:03:00.000+08:00

I. Prepaid PCs II. Official Opus Dei Reaction to the Da Vinci Code movie III. Too Late I. Prepaid PCs Microsoft and a couple of PC component manufacturers think that a prepaid system will remove the digital divide. Sounds great. But charge by the minute? What the hell? I use my laptop 24/7 if I paid by the minute it wouldn't be cheap. II. Official Opus Dei Reaction to the Da Vinci Code movie Read here. Still haven't seen the movie but just sharing the link for those hooked up to the book and the film. III. Too Late Moks beat me to impersonating a professor for the freshman's first day in DLS-C. Damn. ~~Oh well, there's always next year.~~ I hope this will become some culture that will happen every year. The video will be posted soon.

Hey Vista, Eat This!

2006-05-21T12:29:00.000+08:00

Okay, I posted before a technical session about Vista last March. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of users who are after fancy graphics and cute eye candy because in DevDays, many people's reactions were, "Ooohh... Aaaah... Wow! [applause]". Also considering that most of these people were [MS] developers. Well, if you're so hyped about Vista coming out next year or mid-next year if they postpone it again, you might want to check out Project Looking Glass and XGL. XGL Demo Project Looking Glass Notice the cool animated backgrounds both on XGL and LG3D? That idea was scrapped on Vista (the moving grass background). By the way, Project Looking Glass was started before Vista did so you can't claim that these are Vista clones. Old news but it was only last night when I saw the XGL demo clips. Personally, I like XGL better but it wouldn't hurt if both (Novell and Sun) worked together to combine their work.

An Itchy Ode

2006-05-19T09:36:00.000+08:00

The Da Vinci Code movie is now showing and there's been a lot of fuzz about it. Many people said, it was far from the way stuff were depicted from the book. Some said the book was badly written. Me? I don't know. I don't know what the fuzz is all about. I don't even want to watch it because I haven't read the book (my personal rule of thumb). I don't want to read the book because it's too mainstream. That's why I haven't seen Lord of Pranings, Horny Peter and The Miracles of Darna. I'd like to see more organized crime movies like The Italian Job, Ocean's Eleven, Twelve ~~and Fifteen~~. That reminds me of SSN by Tom Clancy. It was so boring! It was so repetitive. They encouter an enemy submarine, shoot a torpedo get shot back, panics, gets away and encounter another submarine a day or two later. It was bragging about American power and superiority over Russia and China. Anyway, my uncle had an interview at CNN the other day and on CNBC yesterday about how the Opus Dei was portrayed in the film. I also noticed how superior CNN's content is compared to CNBC.

Optics

2006-05-15T23:15:00.000+08:00

Inspired from (or copying the ideas from) Sir Nash's blog, it's all pictures today. Nothing exciting to blog about since everything's about E3, Wii and PS3 lately. The first and last gaming console that I had was the revolutionary Nintendo Family Computer which lasted for only one week (after I soaked it with water; I didn't want it to get dirty). First batch, shots from our client's space during Labor Day (no one was around so I took the chance). As you all can see, this is nothing compared to European architecture. Anyway, if I were to post pictures, it would either be modern architecture/engineering, computers or something really funny. Like when I went to HK last year, I only brought back pictures of the popular buildings. Oops, ran out of pictures. Here's a screenie. This was sometime before a group project gathering. It's amazing how the text culture is taking over the way people communicate even if it's not through SMS. I also found it funny that the way this person used chatting linggo with live verbal conversations like OMG (pretty fancy; compared to the original one, it has the same number of syllables if you say it). O-M-G! O-M-G! O-M-G! Waaaah! Before I end this post, I have to leave a small note to myself, "Don't forget your dad's birthday next year". I just remembered, a couple of minutes back when I went down to check what food is left. Bah, we already celebrated yesterday anyway.

Some things are cool, while some are not. Which are they?

2006-05-10T22:04:00.000+08:00

I. Spot the difference II. I eat babies for lunch III. Old School I. Spot the difference Exhibit A: My sister's reciept for enrollment for the term where she took her practicum. This was paid in full amount. Portions of the image tampered for privacy purposes only. Exhibit B: My assessment form for the coming term where I'll be taking my practicum. Same number of hours as my sister's and she took her practicum in a company with a facility in LTI. If you haven't noticed, we're going to pay almost three times the amount they charge in DLSU. The reason: nobody knows. I asked our acting dean and I didn't get a straight answer. I asked the registrar but I was told to ask the acting dean. I asked a couple of my professors, they didn't know either. I don't know what's so special in DLS-C that they could charge us that amount even if DLS-C is in a location where the cost of living is lower than that of DLSU and that the quality of the facilities are not as good as in DLSU. We have a corny comedian in school and I want the balls/tits of the person responsible to be stapled on his/her forehead. * Click on the images for higher resolution II. I eat babies for lunch Although I do not encourage hacking, defacing or vandalism, Some dude did a funny prank. Like the comment I made in this guy's "extensive" investigation, I want one of those scrolling LED sign boards in my room with a synonymous message, "I eat babies for lunch". They think, some guy named Joshua did it. III. Old School Eric found this while we were looking for something else. It's so funny when you find other interesting things while you dig through a pile of stuff. This is from my fourth grade. I could still recognize a lot of faces. Some of the names that I could still remember:

Carlo[?] Valerio, red shirt on the left (he always had a "Good Morning" towel on his shoulder)
Renee Bulgar[?], blue shirt on the left
Paolo Mabasa, black shirt, third person to the right of Renee (with glasses)
Suzanne Gardiola above Paolo M.
Christian Garcia above Suzanne
Ziggy Hagamman, to the right of Suzanne with both arms raised
If I'm not mistaken, it's Lim (forgot his first name) with the mask
Mark Gianan, second to the right (peeking)
Patrick Mayo below our adviser (the lady in black)
April Reyes is below Mayo

Half of the remaining faces are familiar but I can't pick up their names.

Outsource me!!

2006-05-07T20:47:00.000+08:00

Autodesk says that we're not addressing 3D outsourcing opportunities. I disagree. I've read a couple of job openings from 3D animation and design studios starting up here. The only thing difficult to start one is the huge capital you'd need. With Autodesk buying Alias, the guys behind Maya, you have fewer choices and the pricing is ridiculous, it's not Peso-pocket-friendly. We also have a lot of good 3D artists, most of them are abroad though (please come home!!). Or maybe our investors haven't seen the potential yet since the call center (or BPO if you want a nicer name) market is getting all the attention. Reading more on the business section of today's paper (we only get the newspaper every Sunday), office space rentals will go up, you probably know why.

Mushy Cheesy Touchy Feely Stuff

2006-05-07T16:37:00.000+08:00

I just saw the girl next door walking with some guy. She didn't change at all, still cute. She changed her number again, probably still running away from my stalking skills. Things that I didn't know about myself:

I love reading but limited only to 1-2 paragraphs or short articles
I'm an excellent stalker

Things would've been great if I courted her and if her father wasn't a ~~[bent]~~ cop. I could take her out somewhere nearby. We could do old school romantic stuff like calling each other with tin-cans and strings, throwing stones at her window to wake her up. In fact, all I needed to do was to yell to get her attention ...until I moved to the other room. Note: I remember reading somewhere, "If a geek was locked up in a room with Angelina Jolie and a computer (with an Internet connection), the geek will do nothing and blog about getting stuck in a room with Angelina Jolie". I still qualify.

Stuff I Forgot to Blog About Last Night

2006-05-03T19:39:00.000+08:00

I. vSocial: The Flickr for Video II. Pictures Speak Louder than Words III. The content of this section is more fancy than this title. I. vSocial: The Flickr for Video I found vSocial because I clicked on a link to a kickass condom ad. It's even Web 2.0 ready! II. Pictures Speak Louder than Words I'll let the pictures talk. This was part of the things we did when we ran out of stuff to do in our OJT scam. The empty stomach and effect of coffee got in at that time that my hands couldn't stop from shaking. We should have done a trace on who ratted out on our black propaganda in the IS lab. Notice: The persons and names in these pictures are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons is unintentional. Here's another set by JC. He did a great job with tweaking the camera. I saw him walking around chasing the butterflies and finally found proof of life from outer space (yes, they're watching us). Or maybe not. III. The content of this section is more fancy than this title. Action flicks depicting high end touch screens are about to become non-fiction. A holographic and 3D version should be next. See the clip below [URL]. I want one!!

Bad Day

2006-05-02T23:13:00.000+08:00

I. Another day, another rant II. Just when you thought you didn't have enough time I. Another day, another rant I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I usually wake up on this side and it doesn't turn out to be bad like the other days. Although if I did wake up on the other side, I would've crushed my laptop. Oh I'm such a geek I slept last night with my laptop beside me. I just found out that the school's provider is Meridian (now SMART WiFi) and we have been down for the second time (the whole day) in the past fourteen days. Adding more tension on this OJT scam. Then this morning, our phone line went dead (along with the data line). Mom asked for a technician to come over and fix the thing. The technician claimed that the router is causing the line to malfunction. Is he kidding me? I could bet my life for it. The line is connected to the motherfucking modem, not directly to the router. He even messed up my cables and turned off one of the PCs since he's too dumb to operate a KVM switch. Fucktard. Barely did anything too, since I was virtually disconnected and I was dead tired and stressed out. This sucks. II. Just when you thought you didn't have enough time I'm starting two new blogs. Wang-Wang Ko To, another rant blog but this time specifically targeted to the atrocities of the defunct Philippine government. The other one, Magic Gulong, a blog where I'll post ome of my crazy ideas. Please check them out [next week when there are more entries] and tell me if you find them interesting. Other candidates for Wang-Wang Ko To were "Wang-Wang" and "Masamang Damo". Then "Bumbilya" for Magic Gulong. I didn't know it was so hard to think of a good name without beating someone else to it. Maybe when I have a kid, I'll name it Hpurtylireuvhtal. Yes, sixteen letters.