LibriVox ? LibriVox Catalog: Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.

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Merry Christmas! Everybody! Happy new year too!

Gmail Mobile!

Been using gmail a lot using an email client and rarely do I use a regular browser to access my mail. So was surprised that it now has a mobile page specially designed for mobile devices -> http://m.gmail.com

Just in time for the holiday season. Thanks Google!

BeJUG - Transactional J2EE Apps with Spring


Wicked use of flash. Instead of just having a powerpoint download, this uses flash to present both the slide and the speaker to a web audience.

Imagine a world where the best teachers would make their lessons available for everyone! Opensource based education! Pancit-eating promdi's like me has now access to the same type of lessons as their Fetuccini-eating metro manila counterpart.

Of course the Internet as it is, has more or less has the features I described above. The problem is how do you bring the Internet to the poor or bringing the poor to the Internet.

Linux successfully installed on Treo 650 - Engadget - www.engadget.com.



It would take a while before it would become usable. Elsewhere Palm announced the move to Linux for the Palm OS. Hopefully they follow nokia's path and opensource the sdk like what they did for maemo.

Found the download link at last -> Google Earth for Mac OS X Beta. Lazy web at its finest.

Ganda talaga ng mansion ni Mang Hefner. :D

Google Earth for Mac OS X: it's here

Cool! I can once again drool over Hefner's place.

Btw, The download link given has exceeded its bandwidth allotment. Bummer... Can't find the official link on earth.google.com either.

get-visibility.com, unlimited gprs plans for globe. their answer to pldt's weroam service.

the weroam wireless sierra card have no xp 64bit driver. so our mobile executive is using a spare bluetooth enabled phone to act as a conduit for dialup networking. this works well if you have other gadgets that can also take advantage of the unlimited gprs connection. frustrating if the laptop was your only device.

hopefully sierra could come up with the drivers soon. checking lazy web if those sony erricson pcmcia gsm modems have 64bit xp support.

LBS again...

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have an RSS feed of all points of interests (POI) in the Philippines (with location information). This can be arranged via categories.

Next step is to find a decent vector map that can be overlayed perhaps on top of Google map.

The RSS feed can be voluntary and for free. Meaning establishments could register their location and maybe a bunch of other metadata.

- Name
- Category (Pre-defined? Restaurant, Motel etc)
- Website!
- Contact Person
- Contact Numbers

This would fit nicely into the scheme of things since POI's aren't mobile. Maybe we could place shotcode stickers there or a code of some sort where you can send the code via sms to indicate where you are. That way your social network could be notified of your location. This eliminates the need to triangulate your location or require the user to have a GPS device of some sort.

This would enable you to perhaps ask a bartender at a new bar what their Location Code is and send it via SMS indicating you want to send the an MMS map to all your friends on the way to there. Maybe business cards would perhaps include your Location Code so that your associates can know the locatino of your office. Nice isn't it? The Location Code can just be a simple concatination of your latitude and lontitude to make it easy to decode.

This could immensely change the way you search things on the internet. Radius can be included as a search parameter.

Or maybe hire somebody with a GPS reciever to go to POI's and record their metadata.

Now to find somebody to fund this idea.


Everywhere you go, you shout it!
There's no need to be shy, about it now...
- U2 (Original of the Species)

John Lennon documentary playing on TV currently. Rockin' musician. Genuine ability to blend thoughtful lyrics and pleasant melodies.

Somewhere out there, my guitar gently weeps. Damnably missing the good old electric guitar. Make no mistake, I have absolutely no musical talent whatsoever.


Imagine all the people,
Livin life in peace...
-John Lennon

Typical 1am routine

Typical 1am routine
Originally uploaded by nocs.

Coffee and bread to calm the stomach. Search engines to feed the starving mind.



Always loving the serenity of early dawn. A time when thoughts can wander freely. Bandwith all mine.



The terminal blinks, seducing the subconcious. Hands that dance in vi restrained rythms. A new day begins.

Cyberspace Santa, would really love a copy of this.

The Apple Store (U.S.) - The Sims 2 by Aspyr

With the introduction of genetics in Sims 2, you can control your sims over a lifetime and pass their sims' DNA down from one generation to the next. The sims evolve by genetically passing on physical and personality traits. Create and play your own virtual sitcom by choosing one of five different aspirations--Popularity, Fortune, Family, Knowledge or Romance. These aspirations in life cause your sims to have wants and fears. Will you give them a long successful existence or leave their life in shambles?

The Sims 2 also opens up endless new creative possibilities. Make your own sim films with the new movie-making feature. Create the cast, set the stage, take control of the camera and capture your own screenplay in action. Zoom in close with the new camera to see every last detail.

Wish ko lang....

Aardvark'd Trailer: Twelve Weeks with Geeks - Google Video.

Four interns are brought into Manhattan and given 12 weeks to design, develop, debug and ship a program that will change the way computer geeks around the world fix their friends' computers. Boondoggle Films presents a journey through the world of software development from the perspective of a unique upstart, four quirky interns, and the world of The Geek.

Would love to watch this film. A 320x320 version would do.

Btw, this is the first time I tried out Google Video (beta) and man it does rock!

Overview of Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8.

Jolly Kamote! This is hot! Check out the collaboration tool. Truly, we live in exciting times.

Adobo Blogging in Real time.

Adobo Blogging in Real time.
Originally uploaded by nocs.

1 kilo pork

2 large potatoes

4 medium sized onions

Lots of garlic

Half bottle of Silver swan soy sauce

Half cup of vinegar

Half liter of drinking water



Cut pork and potatoes into bite size chunks. Mix everything in a large frying pan. Let it boil and simmer until pork is tender and the kitchen is filled with hunger inducing aroma. Hopefully everything was mixed just right. Marvel at finally demystifying one of the best kept secret of modern day Filipino takosas.

Testing the company PLDT WeROAM account for our mobile executive. Feels just like dialup. According to some forums Globe's similar service seems to be better.

The SIM does work when you put it to another phone with bluetooth and use it as a wireless GPRS modem. Works great with the treo after fiddling a bit with the weroam apn and corresponding settings. Too bad you can't make phonecalls or recieve text with this SIM.

Waiting in vain that this type of data service could be offered for P500 a month or less...

Roaming charges: Can you base my location now?

Another stab at the enevitable copulation of the web and the nextgen GPS enabled cellphone.

Location-based software has held concepts of safety and privacy in counterbalance since its inception. Mologogo.com and other Web 2.0 contenders are now entering a third concept into the mix: social convenience, fueled by technology.

LBS integration to web pop culture hits like Flickr is not so farfetched. The basic computer bundled with GPS can open posibilities like DNS traversal based on your geographic location. The mighty Google would likely consider giving you search results in relevance to where you are located.

Exciting? Scary? Kalokohan?

Treonaut

5th day with the treo 650. Finding the builtin thumboard convenient and weirdly usable for both two or one hand typing. Remarkably stable, it does help to be a late adopter. Lovin the chat like interface for SMS. It helps a lot in picking up where you left off on your last conversation. Great battery life, finished a 40 minute vidcast, played a bunch of mp3 songs, halfway thru an ebook and several RSS feeds and it still has 17 percent left. Dunno how it fares for cellebabad scenarios, as I havent found someone foolish enough to test it with me. A pleasant surprise, your GPRS connection settings are automatically configured. No more fiddling around with GPRS chat scripts.

It also plays nicely with Tiger. No problem syncing via the USB cable or bluetooth. This has no wifi, unlike my old clie. So the most practical means of getting avantgo content is via syncing with an internet enabled computer.

Not treo sprcific, Avantgo's RSS support is a most welcome feature. Now you only need one mobile web content manager for handling RSS and web clippings for sites designed for mobile devices. The best part is that the software and service is free (up to 3mb). The wireless option also lets you choose which channel gets updated. Quite useful to cut down GPRS connectivity costs.

The bundled Realplayer is quite capable of handling mp3s, and the freeware Tcpmp is an insanely reliable video player that can play movied at 30fps.

Photoblogging is also an easy to do on the treo. Am using flickr and blogger combo to simplify posting a photo taken from the treo to flicker and to my blog. Can be done via MMS or as a versamail attachment. Although the former would be cheaper since MMS messages are billed on a flat per transaction rate. Unlike email which is billed per kb.

The usual Palm PIM goodies had also recieved some nice updates. Color coded calendar entries makes it easier to group events.

The main killer app would be PSSH, which works smoothly with the treo (just like isaw and cheap red wine). This allows you to login to your ssh enabled server whenever and wherever you like as long as your location is covered by your celco.

More on this treonatical adventures later. For now all I can say is: its a damn slick and functional convergent device.

cheers!

nox

Rojan and Me.

Rojan and Me.
Originally uploaded by nocs.

To be hugged and kissed, to hear her sweet voice say "I love you Dad!", PRICELESS... Life is good. There still is hope.



Am the happiest father in the world!

Market! Market!

Market! Market!
Originally uploaded by nocs.

Family fun at the mall. Trying out if this place has something for cheapskates like us.



Yes the guy wouldn't move. Obviously we haven't put anything on his box yet. When it does, the kids love it to the max. Ah yes, you can just watch em' for free.

10 kilogram bundle of joy

10 kilogram bundle of joy
Originally uploaded by nocs.

Janro with his refreshingly infectious smile.

Gary Mercado blogs about the newIpod Nano on INQ7.net. The wonderment does start when you hear the songs and how Apple managed to make it so simple. Simply, music in you pocket.

Now, I still don't own an Ipod. But Kiyosaki is the one to blame. I want the next purchase in my "want" category list to come from my asset column. Suddenly paying 20k plus for an ipod video doesn't appeal that much anymore.

Must resist, must resist...


Heto na ang pinakahihintay natin...
Heto na tayo magkayakap sa dilim...
-APO Hiking Society (playing on an imaginary ipod)

Disconnected

No DSL connection yet on the new apartment. Bayantel can't commit a timeframe, as it depends on the availabiliy of a slot on our area. Other than that, loving the only one jeepney ride routine from the MRT. Its actually much cheaper than the tricycle ride when we were in munoz.

On another news, seriously pondering kiyosakis' book "rich dad, poor dad". So true, we direly need to teach our kids the value of financial literacy early in life. Truly worth reading.

Also got a new tool/toy! Allows me to ssh into our servers in virtually any area where there is cellphone coverage. Provides audio/video entertainment, manage my schedule, and yes, can also handle phonecalls. An added bonus, it doesnt run on windows :D

Cheers!

Nox

Disconnected

No DSL connection yet on the new apartment. Bayantel can't commit a timeframe, as it depends on the availabiliy of a slot on our area. Other than that, loving the only one jeepney ride routine from the MRT. Its actually much cheaper than the tricycle ride when we were in munoz.

On another news, seriously pondering kiyosakis' book "rich dad, poor dad". So true, we direly need to teach our kids the value of financial literacy early in life. Truly worth reading.

Also got a new tool/toy! Allows me to ssh into our servers in virtually any area where there is cellphone coverage. Provides audio/video entertainment, manage my schedule, and yes, can also handle phonecalls. An added bonus, it doesnt run on windows :D

Cheers!

Nox

MacDevCenter.com: Getting the Video out of Your New iPod--for Cheap!... all you need is a videocam A/V to RCA converter! no need to buy those expensive ipod video accessory. they basically just switched the default video output (yellow) with the right stereo (red).

still hoping santa would give me an ipod so i can test this undocumented feature.

found the recent discussion on pinoyjug regarding code/application performance rather amusing.

somebody was foolishly pitting his flawed arguments against a bunch of battle hardened veterans. looking on it on another perspective, some developers would probably take a lifetime to finally "get it". these are the types who doesn't understand you can go to from point A to point E without going thru point B,C, and D. in short clearly lacking instincts. worse this typical stereotype would defend to death that you need to go thru B,C, and D to in order to go from A to E.

for example, why waste your time which looping construct is faster (while(true) || for(;;))? isn't it common sense that you should be looking more at what is executed inside those loops?

simple, readable and elegant code is the key to creating "tune-able code". focus first on making the code work correctly and predictably. then do your benchmarking. premature optimization is the root of all evil.

me? nahhh, am no guru. but man, i've got instincts.

Opera Mobile Platform. AJAX gone mobile. Ohhhhhh. Titilating.

5 days of flu, 1 day for moving to the new apartment, 3 days without an internet connection. Life is still good.

I held the new ipod in my hand. But my credit card didn't comply. Forever out of reach.

Just got off from a phone call. Was rather uneasy since I haven't been into that situation for the longest time. So weird that I keep forgetting am talking to a foreigner. Crappy cellphone reception didn't help much either.

Slashdot | MD5 Collision Source Code Released.

Patrick Stach has also announced the availability of the source code. Jolly Kamote! 45 minutes to find MD5 collisions on a 1.6ghz P4!!! Take note that is for finding the collision. Incorporating it to various MD5 attack algorithms is another thing. nevertheless might improve those algorithms by a certain magnitude.


Neck still hurts.
-nox

Stiff Necks

what a way to start a great morning. anyway managed to find out why the backup imap files are showing up as a bunch of empty emails yesterday (no header data, so subject and to fields are annoyingly empty.). chown'in the imap user dir to its rightful owner did the trick.

onwards to trying out a new webmail imap client. previously used horde. but attracted to the oven fresh goodness of hula and zimbra. downloading the sources as we speak. google seems to indicate uphill wrestling building those two on FreeBSD. but a rather nice excuse to refresh unix build debugging skills.

back to my stiff neck. hurts like hell. crossing mmy fingers salonpas would help a bit.

i posted about the free vmware player a while ago. it is interesting to note that you can save the state of your virtual machine with vmware. imagine using your ipod as a portable storage of your virtual machine. you can hook up to your home machine do your thing, save your vm, go to your office, plug your ipod then continue where you left off. that feature is taken a bit farther by IBM research in a project called soulpad.


SoulPad is a portable storage device containing the software stack shown below. The three-layer SoulPad software stack enables a paradigm of mobile computing where a user can suspend his computing environment on one PC and resume it on another PC that he may have never seen before. The PC boots an auto-configuring operating system from the SoulPad, starts a virtual machine monitor, and resumes a suspended virtual machine that has the user's entire personal computing environment, which includes the user's files, user's operating system, installed applications, desktop configuration as well as all running applications and open windows. Essentially, SoulPad enables a user to hibernate a PC session to a pocket form-factor device and carry the device to some another PC and resume his session on that PC. SoulPad has minimal dependencies on PCs that can be used to resume a user session. In specific, PCs are neither required to be network connected, nor have any pre-installed software. The only requirement is the support of a high speed local connection to a SoulPad device for an acceptable suspend/resume times and acceptable runtime performance. Our approach differs from Internet Suspend/Resume in several ways: we do not require a known software stack on the PC and also do not rely on network connectivity to fetch suspended virtual machines. In our first prototype, we installed the SoulPad software stack on off-the-shelf hard disks with USB 2.0 interfaces. Since USB 2.0 provides power, we do not need a separate battery to power the SoulPad. In addition, USB 2.0 is fast enough that the performance bottleneck is not the communication link between the SoulPad and the PC. Further, many PC BIOSes support the ability to boot directly from USB disks simplifying the resume operation to one of connecting the SoulPad over USB 2.0 and instructing the PC BIOS to boot from USB. Since the SoulPad device carries the entire personal computing state of a user, it is important that the storage capacity of the device be large enough to hold all of the content that the user needs. Many USB hard disks are based on the same technology as disks on laptop computers, and have similar capacities. Given the popularity of laptop computers, we believe that the capacities of USB hard disks are adequate for a majority of the user population. Since it is possible that the user may lose his SoulPad, we encrypt sensitive data on the SoulPad, namely the virtual machine state using the AES128 block cipher.

nah, just one of the excuses am coming up to justify/convince the love of my life that I need an ipod. hehehehe.


Somewhere over the rainbow...
-Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole

Handwritten Web Interfaces



Holy kamote (again)!DUB - DENIM! An Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design. Available in Windows, Unix, and OS X. (Courtesy of Java's WORA). Check out the video. That was a very slick wacom tablet used for "drawing" the web interface there! More awesome was the fact that the system was able to understand his handwritting.

Someday interface designers are going to rule the application development landscape. Hopefully that leaves a few highly skilled backend developers benefiting from the enevitable scarcity.

IBM T43, probably the best linux/*bsd intel laptop. more power, less weight category. now if only priced at $999 or lower. might be possible since the acquisition by lenovo. even the older T42 or the ultra portable X* models are just perfect for real mobile use.

if you like ebooks and like me have developed a habit of reading them on your daily commute, check out Cory Doctorow's Literary Works. available for FREE on various PDA friendly formats.

Architosh: News >Tidbits: Apple patent shows company possibly preparing for OS War. Excerpts below:

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first operating system is selected from the set consisting of Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the second operating system is selected from the set consisting of Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.

is this true? how does it compare to the current virtualization technologies employed today? not surprising however, since the mac os has both rosetta and virtual pc available today.

we live in exciting times.

LBS: Web 2.0

In relation to my previous post on pareng migs (feeling close) blog about Google Map API and LBS. Wouldn't it be super slick if social networking services are enhanced with LBS? Voluntary perhaps, something the user can REALLY turn off/on or restricted to his first degree friends? Emphasis on REALLY turn off/on unlike mobile spam.

How about instant messaging. Add a plugin to the Google desktop sidebar to display the location on google map whoever you are currently chatting with. Can be whacked on Jabber. Although the current Philippine layers are restricted to 20k feet?. It would still be fun to map out where everybody is on the archipelago, or any other place around the world for that matter.

LBS can be text based too! Imagine finding out the nearest cash-in/cash-out for your Smart Money or G-Cash within your location. Make any willing soul to advertise himself as a mobile cash-in/cash-out agent by turning on his LBS. Should make adoption a bit faster. Hmmmnn. I have blogged about this feature before. How about the nearest Botika (Medicine Store). Even the nearest manong who can deliver the tastiest isaw. By this time you should know how isaw goes so well even with the cheapest red wine. The possibilities are endless, lots and lots of ideas to titilate the wet corners of the mind.

Yes, privacy issues and a ton of other things. But you can release early, release often. Follow the opensource model. More people scrutinizing the model, more chances of securing.

LBS is going to be the next big wave. Time to take your surf board out. Let Filipino's take the lead on this one.


Pinoy, ikaw ay pinoy!
Ipakita sa mundo.
Kung ano ang kaya mo...
-Orange and Lemons (Pinoy Ako, Big Brother theme song)

Potent Little Soldiers

Whilst waiting for my lovey', I scanned the contents of the cosmo? magazine and found this interesting fact:

"The average count of those little soldiers that a male releases after taking a ride on the wild elmo, is good enough to impregnate all the women in the US, twice!".

Ok. No mention of the wild elmo there. It was described pretty much straightforward. Got that wild elmo thing on nat friedman's post regarding Teen Sex and the Linux Desktop. It was in response to Mathew Szulik, Red Hat chief executive article saying that the Desktop Linux is like teenage sex. He said "The desktop (probably the linux one) has become a lot like teenage sex: a lot of people are talking about it but not many people are doing it."

IMHO, Opensource desktop especially GNOME is a lot like casual sex. Not as wild, as intimate and mind blowing as OS X. Not as worse, or as crappy like a Windows experience either. Good enough for regular use, and plenty of areas to experiment/improve with. Probably mixing the two here (desktop and sex), but you get the drift.

Going back to the potent little soldiers. Just like em', opensource desktop is potent enough to be on most desktops. Unfortunately, success rate is not yet that high. What we need is more power, less weight, every woman's dream.

this is to inform the public that the iPod, is the gadget I want for Christmas!



and of course, world peace!


p.s.
now accepting gifts this early.

Google Maps API in Java - Migs Paraz - Random Takes

slick! pasted my comments below:


cool migs!

it would be great if one can store his/here whereabouts privately/publicly whenever the urge strikes. sort of like checking where have i been for the past few days, weeks, months and maybe years!!! or bundled with mobile blogging you can store your location together with your blog post. imagine adding this to something like onlife (www.ethomaz.com/onlife).

hopefully LBS of telcos can be opened to soonish to 3rd party developers ;)

Google touts new features in desktop tool | CNET News.com

holy kamote! just like the opensource dashboard project. very soon when wearable computing is the norm, we could have search agents of varying functionality beaming results back to our goggles or contact lenses perhaps. everybody will in some point be connected to the net. dunno if thats good or bad news. after all, we are all but packets in the internet called life.


you really freak me out,
i'm so afraid of you.
-Weezer (Freak Me Out)

more googledesktop news: Inside Google Desktop

moving out, moving on after staying more than 3 years on our current apartment. the place is a bit bigger and has ample space where the kids could run about. excited but unfortunately, Bayantel has no way of determining when a DSL slot would be available in the new apartment. that might mean out of the grid whenever am home till christmas. maybe its time to configure that old dialup modem and stick it to the FreeBSD box in the office.

DSL downgraded to dialup, just like good old days.


Looking up I saw nothing but blue in the bluest skies.
-Gin Blossoms

hampas

ihampas mo sa hangin
ang nagpupumilit na damdamin
iduyan mo sa kawalan
hinagpis ng nakaraan

nakaukit na lang sa panaginip

HOWTO Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod Using Free Software. Actually not just for iPods. Same software can be used to make your DVD collection available to your Palm or PocketPC device via TCPMP. Actually the PDA's have long had the capability of viewing movies on the go. The only problem is the limitation in terms of storage. Now put a 4 gig flash drive (like the one found in nano) and stick it to a treo and you have an all in one device to rule em all (adding a wifi adapter wouldn't hurt either). On the software side, allow it to sync with itunes and you have an all time winner for the highest technolust ratings the world has yet to see. Price it at not higher than $299 please.

And if isn't too much make it widescreen and follow the T3 design. The treo thumboard remains, but the screen can be "expanded" for a wide screen viewing experience. Make the battery last for 5 hours on video.

Yes am talking about an iPod + Treo offspring.


Everywhere you go you shout it
You don't have to be shy about it..
-U2: Origin of the Species

Sarcasm

In my youth, a bully once asked me.

"Can I have a word with you?"

In which I gleefully replied.

"You can have two. Fuck and you."

Rounded, random, and seemingly cute face art forcibly installed on my face moments later.

AvantGo for RSS. about time. been waiting for this feature. I currently use Hand RSS on my Palm powered clie.



now only one app to use for Internet clips and RSS feeds. Interesting "slideshow" feature to view RSS embedded images.

New browser gives taste of Web 2.0 | CNET News.com.

Browse...
Feed...
Blog...

Browser wars! Browser wars! Browser wars!

Till all there is left, is one browser to rule em all...

The mind of the married man.
-nox

VMware Player: could probably restore your faith in humanity, nevermind the recent fad of visiting mendiola nowadays.



But wait, I forgot to mention its free! If you don't have an existing virtual machine config, you can get one here here.


Emulate the style,
Competition smile...
-Gin Blossoms

Fresh from Canada, my good friend Jay bought me a Linksys WRT54G wireless broadband from Villman at a discounted price of P3.7k. He couldn't bear my poor man's access point setup (a.k.a. adhoc mode), and he will be staying at our house for a couple of days and direly need to connect his toshiba lappy to the net.

Now would be a good time to try out the OpenWRT project! Next step would be to save for an NLSU2, which would be perfect for a 24x7 home server with relatively low power consumption.


I'm high and I'm hopeless
So help me to get untied...
-Gin Blossoms

The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!. Great idea! hmmnnn...

1 peso per pixel local version available today! contact me for payment details and own a piece of philippine internet history!


Wouldn't it be nice...
- Beach Boys

sweet gulay! just saw from a fellow MRT passenger a tiger airways ad stating around P328.00 pesos for a one way fare to singapore or macau.

at least prices are going down in that area. wouldn't it be nice if all prices go down.


Wouldn't it be nice...
-Beach Boys

Apple - Aperture - Quick Tours... am not a pro photographer, but this new photo editing app from apple is slick. Core Image all the way baby.

Check out the product tours!

Now how can I afford a Canon 20D and that new high-res 15inch Powerbook?


Only in dreams...
-Weezer

Unix Mages: a free downloadable eBook for those newbies wanting to learn unix. Lots of humorous tidbits there. All in all a nice guide to learning unix.

Just remember, don't forget to NEVER execute this command as root -> "rm -rf /"

Diva: a Cairo/Mono based open source iMovie killer...



It seems GNOME is attracting a good bunch of desktop applications nowadays. F-Spot, Tomboy, Muine, Banshee and now Diva, definitely a nice step towards opensource conquering the desktop segment.

50 First Dates (2004) currently showing on HBO. Its a wonderful romantic comedy of a guy who makes the girl of his dreams fall for him every single day. Must have seen this more than 3 times already, and it still manages to somehow to send a few butterflies into my stomach.

Ah, love... Exactly what the world needs now. Fortunately for me, I already found the love of my life, the only living mammal able to look straight into my soul and strip me down to the bare human kernel. Thats limbic-system-overload for the discovery-loving-anatomical-travelog-fanatic in you.


And all these years, I never really knew what love is.
Till I found you...
- Bamboo

Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Slick and AJAX based. Will give this a spin. Check out the demo. Novell has something similar called Hula, though not yet as polished as Zimbra.



Hmmnn... I think Web 2.0 is moving towards Sun's slogan -> "The Network is the Computer".

World Wind on Linux.

[WW2D] [..] is cross-platform, free and open-source version of NASA World Wind software, see http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov for details. WW2D allows you to explore Earth using satellite imagery, topographic maps and image from other data sources also providing large placenames and boundaries database and allowing you to install community-made add-ons for even more information about our planet.
In basic configuration WW2D uses images from Blue Marble (1 km/pixel), LandSat7 (15 m/pixel), USGS Topo Maps, USGS Digital Ortho imagery, USGS Urban Area imagery.

WW2D is designed to dynamically download needed data from internet, however you can download data you want for faster access and offline usage.

Runs on Linux via Mono. Cool!

This was bound to happen.

Mobile GMaps - Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth on your mobile phone!

What is MGMaps?

Mobile GMaps is a free piece of software that displays Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth maps and satellite imagery on Java J2ME-enabled mobile phones or other devices.


The world in the palm of your hand.

Move over Google Sidebar | CNET News.com. Another addition to the Desktop Search Wars (TM). The opensource community has something similar in alpha/beta? state via Dashboard.

Sabi nga ni ka edong, it will only be a matter of time before there would be a technology that can search your brain. Now that would be terribly Google-rrific!


"Resistance is futile..." - Startrek

From a Bancnet AD today:


G-Cash Bancnet tie-up

Sept 23, 2005: very soon you will be able to transfer funds from your ATM account in a BancNet-member bank to your or somebody else's G-Cash wallet.

Just go to any BancNet ATM, log on to www.bancnetonline.com or text through BancNet Mobile Banking.

Choose which account to debit from linked to the ATM Card, select (BANK) as your destination bank (Asia United Bank) as the destination bank and enter your Globe cellphone and the desired amount to be transferred.

Regular Interbank Fund Transfer fees will apply.


Sound's eerily similar to an idea we had been pushing thru in a not so distant past.

Didn't I tell you everything is possible in this
deja vu? - Roxette

Law enforcement agencies deny raids on local Internet shops - INQ7.net... hmmmnn... Confusing... Wonder who is responsible for spreading FUD among PC users? With most shops closing and switching to linux, the online gaming companies are probably scratching their heads due to lost sales.

On the bright side:

NOW! is the time for opensource to spring into action! This would also mean more kids being exposed to FOSS. Which is probably better than them getting rather too addicted to online games. A typical opensource *Linux/*BSD is probably good enough for "typical" desktop use.


"Gusto mo ba? Gusto mo ba? Sumama!" - eraserheads

Some nagging thoughts on m-commerce.

I think G-Cash and Smart Money (S-Money) should augment their platform with LBS (location based services). Users should be able to inquire the nearest cash-in and cash-out center based on their location. Or should be able to locate users within their proximity willing to do cash-in/cash-out.

The ability to locate other users willing to do cash-in/cash-out could work by allowing them to text their cash-in/cash-out availability (ala instant messenger status). They have the option to turn the feature on or off and indicate perhaps the amount they can currently cash-in/cash out. This has the potential of accelerating the adoption rate of m-commerce in the Philippines.

Of course nothing beats making short access codes and m-commerce API's somehow more accessible to modern day pinoy technopreneurs.


Am not like them, but I can pretend. -Nirvana

When I first got a taste of Mac OS X via bookah, I sorely missed the tomboy application. It is a personal wiki of sorts, and could readily kick your current post-it note app. It was only available on the linux platform and uses GNOME-Mono combo and is generally Beagle friendly. Tomboyless, I immediately felt the urge to port or manage to create something similar on OS X but as always haven't managed to find the time to do so (as if).

While browsing to Apple's dashboard download repository this morning, I stumbled upon inkspotting : WikityWidget



Problem solved. Works nicely and best of all FREE! It doesn't support Spotlight at the moment, so you search using the widget itself. Still, all in all a nice addition to my dashboard collection.

And yes, I turned 28 last Saturday. And what better way to start it than a seemingly endless series of group hugs and kisses. Ah, life is good. I cooked my infamous spaghetti and bundled it with barbecue and everyone was pretty happy.

Rock on!

The GNOME Journal: GOCollab -- Peer to Peer Document Collaboration. Technologies like this will greatly accelarate the adoption of opensource technologies.

What we need is a collaboration standard/spec that opensource apps can take advantage of. Realtime collaboration is also one of the next big thing in the nearby future.

Onlife, very slick! it automatically creates the record of the most common apps you use (safari, mail, etc.).

Hmmnn... Taking this for a spin.

Yesterday, day two at linuxworld PH.

- Met with Melvin Vivas Java Developer/Photographer extraordinaire and Ian Dexter of PhilRICE LTSP'ed ubuntu workstation fame.
- Attended mysql replication sessions. Postgresql also have this even prior to 8.x but it was a non-free solution. Should check if the current 8.x version has replication built-in.
- Had a chat with emacs loving Zak and Claire. Nah, still Vi for me. hehehe.
- Had fun at the microsoft booth. Tried my best not to look too pleased with the scenario. Hopefully get some pictures up by today.
- Also attended the linux audio sessions. Trommler was slick! And it seems audacity could really cut it. Althought you need some background on sound engineering to take full advantage of its features. Nevertheless, it proves that linux could rock!
- Went home a bit inspired to try out music editing on GarageBand. Unfortunately I couldn't understand how to input even a basic drum loop on Garageband. The input is asking for musical notes. Bummer...

More non-sense linux world news later.

I went to the LINUX WORLD Philippines conference at the Dusit Hotel in Makati and have some uhmmn non-sense comments.

While having an opensource event is great, its pretty ironic that the participation fee is quite expensive! At P3.5k (students), P5.5k (government/NGO/academe) and P6.5k (Corporate/Individuals) it doesn't exactly fit into the idea of opensource as a less costly alternative to the propriety solutions from redmond. To make matters worse, the registration process was a mess. If I had known they wouldn't be strict on ID's, we should have registered as students and shaved off P2k on the registration fee. Also, all the sessions seems to be open to the public? My gulay! Better yet, we should have walked-in, and just have lunch at nearby food stalls. Generally they should have lowered the participation fee or even have it for free to entice more participants. The organizers also failed to provide conference kits and would not even hand you out the topic listings if you don't ask for one. The opensource company exhibitors also suck in a way that they don't even hand out sample cd's. I mean it wouldn't hurt if at least redhat, sun and novell/suse would have something to give to potential users.

On the other hand, some interesting topics on day one: FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) for debian. The LTSP front end management tool by the good folks at ASTI's bayanihan linux (Although, I am curious why it has to be QT dependent. It would be nice if it would be cross distro and cross platform perhaps). IPTraf and PAM were also discussed.

It was also nice to see the faces of some people on the now defunct pinoy tech scene (which I asked migs for the opml, which he gladly gave, so I can revive it when my schedule eases up a bit, hopefully this weekend again, and this time I want talking heads). Shook hands with clair ching and zak elep. Also seen some familiar local opensource figures there like Jijo, and Dom. Throw in a bunch of ph-freebsd guys like jimmy and barry. I didn't get a chance to say hi as my introvert alter ego kicked in. Aside from the fact that i'm nowadays a promiscuous opensource unix lover/user, so that probably was a factor too.

The good thing is I didn't feel too akward being the only(?) Mac toting user there, not because Mac OS X is unix underneath (a variant of unix resulting from the of Mach and FreeBSD), but because... microsoft was there, giving away an xbox and with a bunch of testosterone inducing representatives to try to win you over to the dark side of the force. Although in scenarios like this, it makes you wonder why opensource choose to have penguins and cute little daemons instead? hmmmmnn... At least were getting there, I remember the Redhat booth having a big banner with a slogan like "fsck me?" (should have taken a picture). But then again that might send a wrong message to potential redhat users... does it need fsck lovin?

Wonder what tomorrow brings?

Rojan can rock!

Taking a break after debugging a malfunctioning dbms session.



Too old to be a rockstar, too young to give up being a rockstar... hehehe

Yay! I might be sent to the upcoming Linux World Expo at the Dusit hotel September 14-16, 2005.

What I find ironic is that for an Open Source event the registration fee is a bonafide wallet punisher.

They should invite Alanis to sing Ironic there.

PROPAGATION_REQUIRED is a necessity if you invoke or spit out native sql using spring frameworks Session object. Else, you would have dbms sessions closed pre-maturely.

Installing the Java 1.4.2 Release 2 DP4 for Tiger from ADC Member Site seems to fix the gradual slowing down of the Eclipse IDE (including the entire OS) after prolonged use.

Hopefully this means I don't have to Restart Eclipse every 3hrs or so.

Bug 95475 - Eclipse get progressively slow under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Turns out, am not the only one with this problem. Time to try XCode's Java support perhaps?

downloading jdub's planet repository. hopefully will have planetpinoy very soon.

Deggy and Bookah Comic Strip:



Expect more non-sense comic strips to follow. Another peek outside the room inside my mind.

blainekendall.com - DeliciousMind = del.icio.us FreeMind mindmap... A delicacy for your mind.

Looking forward to the "Anatomical Travelogue" in discovery channel. Really cool!

Google Talk!, seems to work with iChat. Have no luck making iChat work with Yahoo via jabber tho.

I think I finally found the words that best describes a Mac: "Its a creativity machine. Designed to bring out the creative creature in you!"

ChickenPox by: Jun Lisondra is out! You can download it for free! Reminds me of the good old IRC days at the #forum channel of PDI. Mabuhay ka pareng elmo!

addendum to the render/encoding farm concept, it could have a feature where you can inquire the status of your encoding job via SMS, WAP or via the internet!

hmmmmmnnn... pweeedeee!!! (ka edong effect)

Now if only there is an equivalent tool like ffmpegX for linux or *BSD's! Command line would even be preferred. That would mean easy to use video editing via iMovie and encoding to VCD/DVD via an idle unix powered generic PC!!!

The workflow would be like this Capture/Edit via iMovie (or whatever video editing tool you prefer). Then encoding on a unix PC which should produce a disc image ready for burning on any popular CD/DVD burning software. Ah, even an "encoding farm" would not be a remote possibility. With an "encoding farm", I can even rent it out to Video editors eh?

Yeah... Am a technopreneur wanabeee!

Another oddity of the MacOS X is when copying over a shared drive (WinXP host), it bails out if the size of the file(s) you are copying is greater than your current amount of local hard disk space. Internally it uses samba (SMB), but can't find yet if there is a setting that could resolve this problem.

While editing a family movie is fun on iMovie, making a vcd copy of your work is another story. Encoding takes time and hard disk space and CPU processing power. Too bad the external USB enclosure (GL811USB chipset from Genesys Logic) doesn't work with MacOS X, it could at least help in the hard disk space dilema. On the encoding front will try this out: ffmpegX a DVD, SVCD, VCD, CVD, VOB, DivX, XviD, H.264, PSP, MP4, MOV encoder for Mac OSX. as other iMovie to VCD solutions is rather frustrating for an amateur video editor like me.

iMovie rocks! I really need to get the external USB hard drive working. Video editing can consume an insane amount of space.

MacOS X offers a great Java Development platform. It comes bundled and works pretty much the way it should. Installing the eclipse IDE is a simple download and drag n' drop affair.

The default comes with Java 1.4.2 with Java 5.0 downloadable via Apple's developer site. Performance on the 1.33ghz ppc is comparable to my previous Centrino 1.6ghz x86 machine. The difference tho is the somewhat distinct creativity inducing allure generated by the general combination of slick hardware and drop dead gorgeous software. Truly inspiring.

iBook PMU reset. Keeping this for future reference.

Darn! hit the first snag. My GL811USB based external Hard Disk enclosure could not be detected by Tiger. Something Linux, FreeBSD and Windows could happily detect and use with relative ease, out of the box. Formatting the drive to HSF or FAT32 doesn't help a bit.

EZ does it on MRT and Buses -- Pinoy Tech Blog - The Philippine%u2019s Premier Technology Blog another informative article by ka edong.

My how time flies. When I was in Singapore a couple of eons back this was still new. At that time they were using the same type of card that we use today at the MRT. The one which you need to insert into a card reading machine. But the infrastructure was already there. The same card can already be used on taxi's and buses. It was even used on devices mounted on cars which are automatically "transacted" on roads that require a toll fee (look ma no toll booths!). Currently in the Philippines, aside from the MRT's and LRT's, only a few Parking Lots are using this kind of technology.

Been using WiFi for the past 2 years and it seems scp never gets passed 650kbps (with access point two 3 feet away). Tethered on the otherhand can reach up to 7-8mbps. Maybe what I need is a WiFi Speed Spray.

At last. I finally found the /etc/rc.d/ or /usr/local/etc/rc.d (that would be /etc/init.d for linux users) equivalent of MacOS X. Tada! its:

/Library/StartupItems/

My gulay... So babaw, aking kaligayahan.

Downloads - Mono. There is a MacOS X port. Hmmnn. It does have cocoa bindings. Wonder how hard would it be to port Tomboy to the Mac?

Or maybe I should learn Sacha's PlannerMode for emacs. Since emacs works out of the box on a mac. The trouble is, am still too attached to old school Vi.

Which reminds me. While Mac has Fink for getting most OSS apps. I can't find a tool that lets me view all the packages that comes with OS X. While the GUI ones just require dragging the thing to the Trash can, I couln't find a CLI equivalent. Heck, I don't even know yet the list of userland stuff that comes with it.

beatnikblog ? Blog Archive ? Note of the Day plugin: Pretty neat plugin. This is the app that I seem to be missing on OS X. It has a bundled app called stickies, but is nowhere near as useful as Tomboy.

A good friend, Jessie seems to be doing well with his business: TechTribe Systems. Ok yan. Payt sana!

Fortunately I have a bluetooth enabled Sony Ericsson T630, that pairs quite well with bookah's builtin bluetooth. I can use this feature out of the box -> O'Reilly Network: Use Bluetooth for SMS.

Sweet justice.

Also, using the phone as a temporary dialup modem worked like a charm. Although since GPRS is just ridiculously expensive, I need to refresh my ultra rusty ipfw skills to filter just the right traffic for a given task (e.g. Only allow ssh traffic for emergency server interventions). I haven't found yet an email client that allows partial downloading of emails. Like, say limit the size to 5kb per email, or just download the email subject. So email via GPRS is a big no-no on bookah, unless of course I want my wallet to scream.

Good news! To support my GSM modem addiction, the kind folks at itegno emailed me a copy of their Mac OS X drivers. Next step is to find a javacomm API implementation for the Mac. Which inspite of its FreeBSD lineage (Mac OS X uses FreeBSD for its userland implementation), doesn't support the javacomm API out of the box.

Gasp! 5 hours and counting! With wifi on :D

Onwards to Fink'ing. Debian'ish installation of common OSS tools.

And before I do countless paeans to the engineers of "bookah", I would like to thank ka edong for making it possible to acquire this undeniably sweet machine. Another fine example of the inherent generosity and kindness of the human spirit.

Yipeeeeeeeeee!!!

uname -a
Darwin nox-ibook-g4.local 8.2.1 Darwin Kernel Version 8.2.1: Fri Jun 24 23:31:10 PDT 2005; root:xnu-792.3.2.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc


Unix with a pretty face! Beautifully engineered hardware! Definitely titilates the geek in me.

The Bus That Could Rock!



A similar local project could provide a literally last mile mobile training center.

But then again, that just might be wishful thinking.

ahhh... Ganyan talaga ang life... Must control how I must react. Tomorrow would be Janro's 1st Birthday! More important than the gear held by the Pampanga Clark Customs. A series of events beyond my control.

But yes, painfull experience indeed.

Shit! There is no www.customs.gov.ph???

TARIFF AND CUSTOMS LAWS OF THE PHILIPPINES - CHAN ROBLES VIRTUAL LAW LIBRARY.

And I can't find reference saying that there is a 10% VAT charge for items bought abroad by a Filipino tourist!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

ka edong has landed! bad news, customs is asking for 5k tax for his hand carried item!!!

M-Audio FastTrack USB, you could be my technolust. Wonder how much this would cost locally? Ah, maybe this could motivate me to dust off my electric guitar and play some half-decent music.

Gitara kong hubad, liwanag ang hangad...

Suspeeeense! (kris aquino effect)

Suspense, suspense, suspense...

ka edong,

Since I can't reach you (I tried calling...). If you by chance could read this, Janus has reserved a unit for us, ready for pickup.

================================================
Hi,

the stocks arrived an hour ago... I'll reserve one for you
immediately.

Please tell your friend to pick it up from me as soon as he can. I
can only hold it for one day because there's quite a queue of
customers waiting to get them.

Regards,

Janrius
================================================

Thanks!

On another news, for the past few days I was generally worried that the slippery firewall like device has failed to stop the Darwinian river of source code flowing via my one and only output device. Good thing the firewall worked as intended, no security holes discovered. I should really write an article about this, ala "The Tech Of" show in Discovery channel. There is a fair amount of technology thrown in there for those firewall like devices.

The economics of raising your meat space succeeding versions, is something even we mortal geeks should seriously and responsibly consider. Specially, when you are currently installed in the Philippines.

Long distance circumstance...

How I wish those SG computer stores have skype contact details readily available. Same with HK stores too. Otherwise, you couldn't help but anticipate the pain induced by your incoming telecom bill.

Imagine the pain.

no lappyness,
no tappyness,
no coded mess,
oh man I need some more.

I miss my lappy tappy...

Apple - Mighty Mouse

Apple really rocks on the design and implementation department.

After upgrading my workstation to jdk 1.5, I realized I lost all my keystores located in the previous 1.4.2/jre/lib/security. Now all the my test cases against unsigned ssl http ports flooded me with red strips in a fit of rage.

Next step is to go to a PC with an IE to export all the certs again. Wonder if there is another way to do this? I can't find an export function for certificates in Firefox running on linux. Next step is to add it one by one using the java keytool utility.

keytool -import -file eas.crt -keystore $JAGUAR_JDK13/jre/lib/security/
[cacerts | jssecacerts] -trustcacerts

Back to eclipse, change the correspoding property file to point to the new JDK1.5 JRE security directory. Then click the run button. Oh yeah! the world looks good in green.

Since it's a holiday today, I decided to do some tweaking. First on the list is to enable horizontal and vertical scrolling. Am using this xorg.conf as a guide.

Also foolishly upgraded hoary to breezy. I ended up with a non-working X. The culprit was missing font.dir on the new font directory location -> /usr/share/X11/fonts. Breezy also does not include mkfontdir and mkfontscale so I had to download from an existing install. So far everything seems to be working.

The good news is the mouse seems to work reliably on wakeup after suspend to disk/RAM now. Still using the stock xorg ATI driver's and will try using the fglrx binary later on and see if it doesn't break the suspend-resume .

The breezy kernel is based on 2.6.12 and *seems* to be snappier than the 2.6.10 series. Still contemplating if it would be worthwhile to do a custom compiled kernel to make it some what lean and mean.

More on this later...

Had been playing around Beagle for a while. Its still in its alpha stage but seems to be ok for everyday use. One feature that it should have is the ability to stop the beagle daemon when the laptop is on battery. Continous disk activity doesn't make your battery happy. Wonder if Apple's Tiger spotlight feature has this feature.

One of the notable feature of Beagle is the Gaim plugin. I find it useful to search for previous online conversations. Provided of course that you enabled logging for Gaim.

INQ7 Syndication... Finally! inq7.net has RSS feeds.

FACEANALYZER daw.

G-nius The search for the great G-Cash Idea! - Bringing Philippine schools into the M-commerce era

Saw this via ka edong's blog. This could be a great opportunity to harvest fresh ideas for m-commerce. The criterias are:

- Originality (uniqueness and differentiation from competition/ other products) – 40%
- Business impact (market significance, cost saving/ profit maximization, feasibility) – 40%
- Social impact (alignment with Globe values, impact on nation-building) – 20%

The best gets to keep 1M in cash/G-Cash!

If I were a student what kind of G-Cash idea would I come up with? hmmmnn...

You can't use G-Cash to bribe your Professor since there would be an electronic trail. Same goes for other under the table transactions so ubiquitous in your campus life. This means we have to think of an idea with a bit of social impact. On the other hand it could be ideas that can somehow lessen those not so good practices inside the campus.

Maybe G-Cash could be a great tool for those PTA contributions. One account per PTA group. Parents could pay conveniently and perhaps be entitled to a verifiable copy of the account transactions. So that everybody knows where did all those PTA contributions really go.

During my student years the "paluwagan" system was a great way to save and earn. It can also sometimes help fellow students who suddenly find themselves financially handicapped. Applying G-Cash to that "paluwagan" system wouldn't be a bad idea either. And of course it could also be applied to facilitate micro-payments for student loans.

Book recycling was something I wish were available during those tosterone driven years. When school year ends, lots of textbooks are wasted and not re-used when in fact it can be sold or given away for the next batch. I could imagine an application where a student can submit the list of old books available for sale (hopefully cheaper than a new one) or to be given away for free. Then another student can query for a book title in the database, if there is a matching one he can pay or reserve via a payment gateway (could be G-Cash or Smart Money or _______). I guess this one meets the criterias, though not necessarily m-commerce specific.

Good luck to the participants! Hooray for the Filipino Youth!

Optimus keyboard

That's what I call "The keyboard of the near future".

*drool*

irresistibly cute. getting more and more curious about his surroundings. you cannot afford to take your eyes off him when his awake. i guess he has a passion for climbing, and is more likely to smile when she hears her mother scream ("janro mahuhulog ka dyan! wag kang gagalaw!"), and he can't even walk yet. we could just imagine when he starts to walk and run.

and yes, how time flies! not too long ago i blogged about it here. With a picture taken just minutes after his birth.

SubEthaEdit: a powerful and lean text editor. And it's the only collaborative one you can actually use. by combining the ease of Bonjour with the world's best text collaboration engine, it makes working together not only possible but even fun...

This could be a fun tool to use for those user group discussions (like pinoyjug meetings), or hackfest like scenarios. Wonder if there is an open source alternative. A Vi or Emac integration would be slick!

LanceArmstrong.com | Your portal to everything Lance | About Lance...

Truly inspiring! Truly inspiring! Truly inspiring!

Reading on articles about this man can really motivate you and remind you that everyday is precious, and that every step matters.

Live strong!

choices, choices, choices...

the good news is that finally there's a solution to my stuck lcd problem. it is now possible to get a refund for my dell 600m.

now am torn between returning it, since i got a really good deal for it (hand carried from the us, so it was way cheaper than its current local price).

for $1,200, what would be a good laptop deal locally? one that i would not miss the 1400x1050 lcd, 512mb, 1.6 centrino, 64mb of dedicated video ram, ATI radeon for video, 5lb's travel weight specs of the dell. thats the dilemma, for that amount can i buy a brand new one here with almost the same specs as the dell?

maybe i should just stick with the dell, its just annoying that for that hard earned money, you expect some level of build quality. and it doesn't help that the stuck pixel is right in the middle of the screen.

its hard to let go of the current dell gear, due to several economic reasons, since there's no clear alternative yet. but should i just let it be that way, should convenience be my main priority? or should i do more research and ask around for a better alternative?

*sigh* i think my last paragraph is in some ways related to the current political landscape.

NOVELL: Cool Solutions: Multi-tiered Service-Oriented Systems with JBoss

The article outlines JBoss Service-implementation fundamentals as well as techniques for instrumenting services using JBoss and JMX.

The Core Pocket Media Player - About TCPMP.

If you have a Palm or Windows CE/ Windows Mobile based device, be sure to check out this nifty smooth media player. Supports a wide variety of formats. Bundled with pocketdivx you can watch those DVD series during your daily commute on the MRT.

Best of all, its FREE!

rant mode:

The Philippine Social Security System service sucks! I was trying to follow up on the status of my loan filed months ago. Even if I have that stub signifying that I have loaned It still does not reflect on their online query system. The online query system would bail out with java exception errors more often than not (Hmmmnnn... I could see Oracle on those exception messages). Worse, the numbers they gave me to follow up the loan status (9206446 to 55) are always busy, and I have been trying for several weeks now to get thru.

*sigh*, SSS you can do better than that!

i give up, i can't resist whacking (wacky hacking) maps.google.com's publicly available API. and here's what i ended up with, a few minutes later.



give me a latitude! give me a longitude! and let's whack it into google map dude!

treo Addicts ? Blog Archive ? Google helps send text to your Treo.

haven't tested this send to phone yet. but shoud be really handy. i would assume the user will be charged for a push message.

on the other hand, can this be used for mobile spamming?

i wonder... do sites like Google News need to request permission on all the news content on that page? or is it ok as long as:

1. you acknowledge where the blurb came from.
2. you provide a link to the actual news article.
3. ?

interesting...

Wired News: Map Hacks on Crack. Nice to know yahoo is following google's open platform approach.

If only our telcos would follow this model. Its really a win-win situation. THE MORE MOBILE APPLICATIONS, THE MORE TRAFFIC!

I'm dismayed everytime i hear them say "this is an open platform", especially for m-commerce. For m-commerce this is the way to infuse more electronic cash into the system. A google like approach of opening the platform would mean more innovative applications! If they do that, then it would accelerate the increase of the level of awareness of potential users.

For the meantime, i don't wanna wait in vain...

HNS - Laptop Theft - An Insider’s Guide To Not Becoming Another Statistic.

i don't know the statistics locally, but in these trying times, better be safe than sorry. i regularly see people who are obviously just showing off their laptops (using a regular laptop bag) and even goes to the extent of opening their laptop at the mrt. good luck to them. i'll stick to the not so obvious laptop backpack rather than use a regular laptop bag.

wonder if there's a local insurance company for laptops....

at first glance i thought doing the UCP/EMI via Kannel ain't going to be easy. the docs remind of the early NET HOWTO days. was pleasantly surprised to have a working setup after i really took the time to read the doc. RTFM, read the farting manual. yay! sweet justice :D

Planet Surfing! via Google Earth is now my new hobby!

Mother earth is really lovely...

still playing around with Google Earth. the slick aerial view. you can't help but notice how frighteningly congested the NCR is. on another context, you realize there is so much that the earth could offer. rojan would be delighted to see this!

next stop, singapore (darn, can't find chua chu kang, i stayed there in northvale a few years back) and hk. then new zealand and canada. i'll hover thru the eiffel tower in paris and check out mount fuji in japan. what's next? hawaii? thailand? around the world in 80 seconds.

this is an armchair-aerial-traveler's dream come true.

long distance, circumstance...

bilog ang mundo!

Google Earth. download it now! prepare for an awesome jaw dropping experience!!!

pan, zoom, tilt! even elevation is included.

3d terrains!

check out mount mayon!

Wired News: Google Gets Earthy... another amazing app from google... it has a wiki like feel into it as it allows the user to add notes to locations. and of course, staying true to the google tradition, has an open architecture for the whacker (wacky hacker) in you!

i had long been a fan of location based services, imagine binding it with mobile phones! even without the ability to triangulate, just a database of cell site locations would do. when an sms is received by a CP/VAS the cell site id information is attached to it.

imagine the possibilities:
* want to know the nearest G-Cash/Smart e-money cash-in/cash-out? done (? kilometers away)
* want to know the nearest drug store? done
* want to see an aerial view of an environmental NGO's project site? done
* want an mms map of where you are? done
* want to know if your near a point of interest (POI)? done
* want to find the nearest hospital? done
* want to know if ka edong is nearby? done
* the lists goes on and on...

the POI sample above can be expanded by allowing you to make a comment on a POI (e.g. this restaurant sucks!). or just simply allows you to rate a POI. and when 90% of the mobile user phones has a camera and at least gprs wap enabled, technologies like shotcode could make things more user friendly.

another location based application would be presence initiated services. e.g. during an emergency, all persons near a vicinity gets an sms -> "calmly run for your life..."

of course some of these are already possible with the current telco locator services. but those are still too limited. there are far too many wonderful uses of mobile technology. wouldn't it be nice if those guys follow the google model?

according to Wireless Developer Network - From The Editor May 12, 2000, a local telco was using kannel to serve thousands of SMS requests per day (circa 2000).

i can't find the UCP/EMI spec anywhere, so no go whacking a home brewed java implementation. no luck on a free java library either as most of the libs out there (simplewire, jsms etc) aren't for free. so am now trying out kannel, hopefully would make things easier.

bicolano.org dns seems to have propagated enough. if your a bicolano and has a blog, let me know. am trying to setup a planet.bicolano.org.

cheers!

Not only that telecomms are not exactly developer friendly, the protocols used are different (UCP, HTTP, SMPP etc.). the likely solution is for JSR# 212 to be widely adopted. wonder how the patriot is coming along.

just another manic wednesday... oh UCP, can't you see what your doing to me (with shampoo commercial effect)?

cmon' pareng bob, sing me "no telco, no cry"...

iAudio X5. pretty slick alternative to an ipod, and cheaper too.

Sassy Lawyer's take on the political landscape of callow-politicians-ladden-philippines. recent entry on GMA's latest TV appearance and the corresponding reader comments is definitely worth reading.

Eclipse and laptop-mode:

for some reason Eclipse won't start when am on battery. i had to do a laptop-mode stop, then run eclipse, then do laptop-mode start for eclipse to run.


SJSAS on Ubuntu Hoary:

been trying to install SJSAS on ubuntu hoary. it bails out with the following error:

./sjsas_pe-8_1_01_2005Q1-linux.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

cant find the proper libstdc++6.2-x on the default hoary sources. so i tried the following:

sudo ln -s libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.2-2.so.3

it worked... and the sjsas installation went thru.

currently looking for a free CMS. Mamboserver.com looks quite nice. also testing drupal and other java based alternatives.

and last friday we discovered a notice on our mail box informing us we have something at the post office. yes the Ubuntu Hoary cd's finally arrived! so i took a cab and went to the post office at NIA road. quite secluded and the building has seen far too many summers. the post office was charging P30.00 and additional P50.00 since it was the second notice "daw". i have no idea where the first notice went. i inquired who received the first notice and they just insisted that somebody must have received it. oh well, P80.00 ain't too bad considering the Ubuntu cd's were free courtesy of the kind folks at canonical.

so after giving away the installers to friends in a futile effort of coercing them to use a non-MS alternative, i still have 5 pcs left for the x86 platform, 2 pcs for the AMD 64 and 1 for the PPC. if anyone would want a copy and you are near the SM North Edsa area or somewhere near makati let me know.

now playing:



gotta love Mahal Kita by tropical depression and Beautiful Eyesore by Gaucho.

Sharp Zaurus in the Philippines... from fellow *BSD'er barry of UP.

nice sweet little machine... not for the practical techie juan tho. at 38k, all my pocket can say is "ouch!".

AIM grad finds micro-financing future in mobile commerce - INQ7.net

sikat na si pareng edwin. clap! clap! clap!

isulong ang m-commerce! freedom for CP/VAS providers!

in this troubled times, its refreshing to know that some people still has the capacity to share:

from migs:

The Smart GPRS gateway sends these:

X-Nokia-msisdn: 63918xxxxxxx, 63918xxxxxxx
X-Nokia-ipaddress: 10.155.141.201, 10.155.141.201
X-Nokia-imsi: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
X-Nokia-CONNECTION_MODE: CMODE
X-Nokia-BEARER: GPRS
X-Nokia-gateway-id: NWG/4.0/Build64
x-nokia.wia.accept.original:
*/*,text/x-vCard,text/x-vCalendar,image/vnd.wap.wbmp,image/gif

and from mark:

...while globe use cookies :)

if (isset($_COOKIE['User-Identity-Forward-msisdn'])) {
$x = $_COOKIE['User-Identity-Forward-msisdn'];
for($cell='', $i=1; $i<=strlen($x); $i+=2)
$cell .= $x{$i};
}
?>


it seems you can get the msisdn of the browsing phone! sweet! hooray for mailling lists :D

now, the next question would be sun. hmmnn... time to buy a sun prepaid sim...

yesterday the jeepneys and busses started implementing the 2 pesos fare increase, and the extended VAT issue is still quite fresh. the government is testing the patience of the Filipino people.

ineluctable? but it just seems too soon.

and here is my own shotcode, can you guess where it will take you? ;-)



independently mobile!

ShotCode.com. interesting! should be handy if i started marketing mobileindie? could also be used for bar code hungry apps.

hmmnnn... this could mark hotspots! you do the shotcode thing and viola you are given a username and a password. plenty of ideas you can throw in there. yeah, you can do this via sms. *sigh* why not just put up a sign that tells text whatever_keyword to access_code. but, gasp! it requires an access code, {...}.

lets just do the funk, the first day funk...

itaas ang kamay at iwagayway. if you don't know the answer, eh di lagot.

lets do the funk :D

Digital Life by Chin Wong -- Wi-Fi for the people astig ang mga to. right in the middle of NCR. samantalang si barangay wireless nasa mindanao? pa yata pero medyo ingat pa si kapitan.

now, if this can be duplicated in the regions, i'd be skypeing at the foot of mount mayon :D

rojan + janro = happy me

Image(009)
Originally uploaded by nocs.

post father's day musings. and i just can't imagine life without these two.

rojan the nerdy

Image(016)
Originally uploaded by nocs.

janro the wacky

Image(023)
Originally uploaded by nocs.

Steve Job's Commencement Address. its for you, fresh grads out there.

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".
- Steve Jobs


but don't take it too literally, the Philippines is always an exception.
- Nox

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus... slick! see the demo!

same concept can be applied to a wiki? a visual wiki perhaps? how about the web represented visually like this? google, would you like to try?

wouldn't it be nice to visually navigate the web?

Boing Boing: Everything Bad is Good for You: How TV and games make us smarter... hmmn... wish i could find one at the local bookstore...

the last time i had read a real book (and i haven't even finished reading it yet), as opposed to an ebook was a book entitled "How to discipline a child without shouting and spanking". boy! you can't even begin to imagine the weird look on people's faces on the MRT when they saw me reading it. now that was disorienting.

Is Linux For Losers? - Forbes.com

let the flamewars begin... :))

i think linux is *great* for desktops/laptops. but i'm still biased to freebsd and openbsd on the server front. hmnnnn, haven't tried opensolaris yet. my memories of good ol' solaris is still fresh, those machines (oozing cool blue sex appeal) were way slicker than the macs of today.

yesterday, was rojan's first day at school. the hard part is waking her up at 6am. after the initial crying session, and she got dressed up everything went smoothly. as when she was fully awake the excitement of going to school got her to forget the need to go back to her pillow.



both nhelle and i accompanied her to school. Excited as I am, its no match to my wife's excitement.



the added bonus was the kwento-kwento during dinner where rojan gets to narrate what happened in school. the only downside is the 10 month old janro seems a bit sad when her sister was away.

life is a blur.

had a fantastic weekend up north in a place called botolan zambales. nothing beats swimming with 3 feet high waves. food was great, everything fresh and hand picked from a nearby organic farm. seafoods galore!

went with rojan, she had a blast playing in the sand.

when its time for my sunset, i want to retire to a place like this. somewhere in bicol :)

FreewarePalm: Idea Pad v3.0... killer app for the mind mapping enthusiast in you. wiki based tomboy should have plugin that lets you view your notes as visually connected stick-on looking notes.

still dreaming of a treo 650 tho. why does it has to be so darn expensive...

can't seem to install sjsas on ubuntu. google doesnt seem to have the answer either.

Jon Udell: language evolution in del.icio.us. a screencast to see del.icio.us in action. i still dont have any use for it yet, but seems to be another slick online tool to tame the chaotic web.

Seth's Blog: Small is the new big

GNOME Bluetooth Control Remoto (GBTcr)... wicked! too bad my lappy doesn't have a bluetooth module. still waiting for pareng winston's advice on how much does it cost in hk as i can't find a shop that sells a dell bluetooth module here that is compatible with the 600m series.

Just finished watching The School of Rock (2003). needless to say, it rocks :D

hehe, enjoying ka edong's Technobiography: Hotspot Hunting Episodes. my oh my. getting a internet connection is rather trivial in urban areas nowadays.

waiting for episode 1...

Linux radio show - LugRadio... been listening to this whilst on the daily mrt trips. lot's of swearing, but generally entertaining and provides a way to listen to the actual voices on some of the popular persons behind open source. i particularly like the mono discussion with de icaza. insightful comments there on both the pros and cons.

Istanbul - GStreamer... great for screencasting!

gnome women... flower power!

FavIcon from Pics -- favicon.ico for your website... nice little web utility...

Mamboserver.com - Home... looking rather nice...

anyway, am on a random reckless hunt to finally create a CMS for mobileindie.com...

www.bobmarley.com | Official Bob Marley Web Site...

in life i know there's lots of grief, byt your love is my relief...
-Waiting in Vain

JarWars... how duke went to the darkside... hehehe....

6uadec Bertha, one of the streams from the ongoing guadec... the streaming component simply rocks... the lightweight java applet client is incredibly smooth!

New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain

mono::live... no more excuse not to try it out...

This Live CD contains lots of exciting software. You can:

* Develop, compile and run software with MonoDevelop.
* Listen to your music collection in style with Muine.
* Take notes with Tomboy.
* Manage your photos with F-Spot.
* Search music, photos, chats, and documents with Beagle.
* Explore web applications such as ASP.NET Forums, IBuySpy, and mojoPortal.

(ootips) Should Distributed Objects Be Stateless? picked this up from pinoyjug... will read later...

Maemo SDK Tutorial... gotta love this developer docs!

Nokia - Nokia 770, bummer... you can't use it as a phone... voip perhaps? cant find where the mic and speaker is placed. but it does have bluetooth.

now this competes with palm's lifedrive, albeit 4gig seems to be on the lifedrive's favor. on the linux front, this one goes head to head with the zaurus product line.

more reason to pursue my "as titilating as the wet corners of the mind" pet project. but damn, its a bit akward to go back to developing stand alone apps when you're basically surrounded by 365 degrees of server side programming in the past few years.

Nokia - Nokia 770 runs on linux! way to go nokia!!! palm, do take the hint ;)

Google personalized page also supports drag and drop for arranging your portlets... google's javascript hackers really rock!

Personalized Google... hmmnn... getting more portal like as each day passes by eh?

i like the quote of the day feature... i just hope it could be much more like the fortune cookies that unix has... and word for day is a nice feature too. today's word -> suffuse: spread through or over; to flush; so instead of saying " flush me baby" you can say "suffuse me baby... suffuse me".. . the latter sounds a bit sexier...

Planet GNOME's new look is rather sweet... wonder what it would take to coerce migs to upgrade pinoytech's look to something similar... :D

Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby... oh ruby...

Matthew Thomas ? Blog Archive ? My first 48 hours enduring Ubuntu 5.04... reality check for ubuntu... still a long way to go, but at least its heading there...

bob marley... the man knows how to make sweet music...

good good lovin'... turn your lights down low...

testing code dump..

   

       test value

   

wan tu tres...

Plugins in Mono... a good place to start for my "an idea as titilating as the wet corners of the mind" pet project...

wonder what it would take if we can form a community that aims to build on ubuntu's success and produce a distro based on that with the typical Filipino desktop user in mind. bundle that with the ongoing tl translations and massive word of the mouth campaign and just maybe, just maybe, we could have something better than the current efforts to bring open source to mainstream pinoy desktop users.

iaudio X5... should be cheaper and BETTER than the proprietary ladden ipod...

A Conversation with Anders Hejlsberg... for later reading... AH is one of those Giants in the phrase "standing in the shoulder of giants" when spoken in a hacker context...

The BileBlog... interesting take on the harmony project...

Too much backend work for the past few years... Thats why using Glade feels somewhat weird... also the fact that my undergraduate thesis is exactly like Glade... except of course it was made to run on top of DOS...

an idea as titillating as the wet corners of the mind. :D

Miguel de Icaza comment's on firefox search model that takes away the annoying popup dialog box for searches. mentioned there was that the feature has been available for emacs and xemacs forever.

not to be outdone, am posting here a screenshot of vi:

yes, it has that feature too :D

managed to get the acegi working at last!!!

the current getting started articles on the web are quite confusing... now is the time i really wished i had not slept on english class... it would make writing tutorial type articles easier...

at any rate, i will take a stab at doing an article about acegi authentication for web applications soon...

got this from the jaredean blog... Main Page - FreeMind - free mind mapping software... just exactly what i need to visualize an itch i need to scratch...

the problem with open source is the itch in question constitutes of gargantuan monstrosity and as an individual you only have pin sized wooden scratcher? in hand... :))

after relentless qwerty pushing, i managed to fix this Spring Framework :: View topic - weird xsl form behavior on 1.2-RC2...

the culprit is the getStylesheetSource() of the AbstractXsltView class... it gets stuck to the first xslt you call... so the template used to cache xslt for performace reasons will repeatedly call the same pre compiled stylesheet even if you are calling a different xslt file...

if you dig spring xsl, this
spring.jar will save you from cursing the console...

but be warned i havent tried it with other application servers aside from resin, so this problem might be resin specific as i am using resin's xslt classes for the transformation (e.g. jaxp javax.xml.transform.TransformeryFactory is set to com.caucho.xsl.XSL)... you can use other jaxp compatible implementation like xalan if needed...

yes, i am being punished for sticking to xslt for the view component...

now, back to the acegi thingy...