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.