noel alanguilan

it has been 30 days since my last cigarette. and 30 days since my last stroke. i must say that it hasn’t been an easy 30 days — there’s physical and occupational therapies, visiting doctors for check ups, doing those everyday chores of living all the while recovering from my stroke. the handful of close friends that i have have been more helpful than they know. my family have been extremely supportive. its that kind of help and support that is truly priceless and made recovery much easier and faster.

its funny, a couple of nights ago i had a dream. i just bought a pack of cigarettes. i opened it up and pulled a stick out and as i was about to light it up, i saw my girlfriend with that fearsome “you’re dead if you light that up” expression on her face, and then i woke up. but i honestly think i won’t be smoking again. they say the first month of quitting is the hardest. i went through the first month already so the next few should be easier. i think i have to find a good vice though and i’m leaning more into being a bike tool geek and learn to make bicycle wheels. that shoud be interesting enough.

so its been 30 days and my therapists are quite happy with my progress. my neurologist seems to be happy at my development during my first visit to her clinic. next week there will be more check ups and visits to the doctor but i am hopeful that the results are good.

getting there.

givens:
server is running samba on linux; users are on windows

problem:
a single or group of files need to be “isolated” from the users, i.e. certain executables, malware, spyware, etc. on the server.

it files cannot be deleted yet because the malware in the users’ computer will jusT recreate them. a remedial solution is to set the file permissions of the files to non-readable; non-executable and the file ownership ‘root’. once the workstations are cleaned then the files can be deleted.

commands:

• go to the top of the shared subdirectory
• set the ownership and file permissions using the commands below; ‘research/’ and ‘root.root’ are examples, change to what applies to your setup

$ find research/ -iname *.exe -exec chmod 0000 {} \;
$ find research/ -iname *.exe -exec chown 'root.root' {} \;

links:
samba ownerships and permissions

wine is a bunch of software programs which allows a person to run windows programs on x86-based unixes which includes linux, freebsd and solaris. wine is not an emulator.

this is a bit exciting for me because with wine i can play my windows games on linux. and i could possibly run photoshop (up to cs2) on my linux machine and test some customized programs that runs only in a dos-box. they have a database of windows applications that have been tested to run on wine on a handful of linux boxes. not all windows applications run flawlessly and some not at all so check the applications database if you can run your fave windows program on your linux box. lastly, they also have a faq of sorts on why wine is important.

with windows xp on the way out and vista on its way … somewhere (or nowhere-my opinion) maybe it time for people or businesses to seriously consider linux as a real and viable replacement, if not an alternative. i stumbled on to this interesting comparison by infomationweek between seven linux distributions. there are literally hundreds of distros out there but the article compares only the bigger ones — or the ones that would matter to businesses.

personally, i haven’t had a major problem with ubuntu since i started using it seven or eight months ago.

i have been using amaury balmer‘s simple tags plugin to extend wordpress‘ tagging feature since wp 2.3.x and it has been great so far. i recently had a glitch which prevented me from installing the latest releases of simple tags. to be fair, its not the plugin’s fault. the problem stems from my hosting server, yahoo — it doesn’t allow a dot (.) in a subdirectory’s name. the plugin has two subdirectories named “2.3″ and “2.5″ and when the ftp program tries to create those subdirectories it receives an error. the result is the plugin doesn’t work because some of the needed files doesn’t get uploaded.

as a workaround, i dove into the code of simple tags and just changed the directory references from “2.3″ or “2.5″ to just “23″ and “25″, respectively. of course, i had to rename the directories as well before uploading the whole simple-tags directory to my wordpress plugins subdirectory.

i went through my first session of occupational therapy (ot) yesterday which i found doubly harder than my physical therapy (pt) sessions. the therapists and doctor had a lot of “torture” gadgets that they use to exercise various parts of my left and right shoulders, arms and hands. fun people though. my shoulders and arms were a bit sore this morning but i don’t really mind too much. the little pain reminds me that i’m getting better with each step.

there was this other guy there going through his session of ot. he also went through a stroke but he can barely move his left arm although i can see that he’s trying his darn best with a smile after each exercise. good man. as far as i’ve heard, he doesn’t have a vice but there was a lot of pressure at work. i was asking myself If life is really that hard that one gets enough pressure from a deskjob to trigger a stroke.

i realize that in most cases i’m lucky. i’m lucky that the stroke was mild; that it didn’t affect my functionality in a major way; that i have a family that helps and support me; that i am still alive.

i came upon this interesting article (via /.) that china has started cyber attacks on indian sites. hmmm… why india? i don’t think that china would limit itself to just this one country. which got me into wondering if china would pay any attention to the philippines and if we are ready for such an attack. i do get my share of portscans and low level attacks every now and then and a denial of service (dos) attack once. and not once did any of these succeed. linux firewall. i hope the gov has it.

some people have been asking me how i was after the stroke — do i get dizzy and nauseous; am i paralyzed; can i move and some other questions. to answer, i’m generally fine. i do not get dizzy or nauseous and i can move about. and no, i am not paralyzed nor any side or any part of me. my balance seems to be a little off some times. my walking is a bit sluggish and a little unsteady but i can walk and Given the right music i could probably dance. going up and down the stairs is a bit of a chore though so i try not to do that often. i haven’t tried running yet but i did try driving a little earlier — just forwards and back in the garage — without bumping into anything.

i have not tried riding my bicycle yet. i think that that is pushing it a bit. i have been doing chores around the house though — dishes, cleaning up and some cooking today.

i have been ordered by my doctor not to lift anything heavy yet. although i know i can, i’m following the doctor on this one.

i can obviously use the keyboard and type and i have been online since i got discharged and got home.

strangely enough i somehow do not feel any widthdrawal symptoms from the lack of caffeine or nicotine which i think is good.