noel alanguilan

after about a day of downloading 1,435 packages which boils down to 972 megabytes, i finally got interpid ibex installed and running. here’s what appears to be new, at least, in my eyes.

make usb start up disk: it will set up your usb disk so that you can use it as an installer for ubuntu. it was glaring at me on the menu under system > administration.

gimp 2.6.1: image editing program for those of you who doesn’t know. its a pretty good replacement for photoshop.

system cleaner: when i first launched this program it had a list of packages that were just sitting there doing nothing so i pressed the “clean up” button AND I RECOVERED ABOUT 200 MEGABYTES OF HARD DISK SPACE.

network connections: the type of connection is now organized and sectioned off by tabs. if i remember correctly, there were all mixed up in one section. the network manager has also been improved. i just hope that they fixed it enough that it doesn’t randomly shutdown my computer.

guest session: its for those times when a friend or officemate wants to borrow your workstation for a bit. go into a guest session and they will not be able to access your data or the system area. it seems like its similar to a guest account in windows — access is limited.

there are more changes but most of them are “under the hood”. the major change would be the use of a new kernel — 2.6.27. i also noticed that adobe’s shockwave player is not at version 10 and it now supports youtube’s high resolution videos. in general, viewing multiple videos from two sources is much better now.

there are also some let downs.

i was hoping that the upgrade included version 3 of openoffice. unfortunately not but i have heard that it will come.

and lastly, i was able to upgrade (but separately) to version 1.0.1 of wine.

its been about a year since i replaced windows xp with ubuntu linux. its been fun in a geeky sort of way. at the start i had a difficult time finding applications equivalent to the windows programs that i used on a daily basis but i eventually i found them. for the programs i use that have no equivalent in linux (games mostly like diablo), i learned to use wine to run the game.

these days, the only time i get to spend in front of windows is when i visit my clients — they run windows xp on most of the desktops/laptops but have the backend running on linux; or when i’m helping out my girlfriend with her eee pc which came with xp home pre-installed. my 10-year old son uses both xp and ubuntu.

to be fair, i actually find windows xp is one of the better operating systems that microsoft came out with. vista just doesn’t work for me. it certainly looks pretty but it doesn’t work for me. one of my friends says that vista has been good for her but, on the other hand, one of my clients actually downgraded from vista to xp out of frustration. your mileage may vary but, personally, i’m not going to go through vista.

but i don’t miss xp either. i certainly don’t miss all the viruses and worms that goes with the ecology of windows or the tediousness of checking the genuineness of windows every time i try update the software. i know what windows genuine advantage is for but i still think its tedious.

linux has its own problems as well. once in a while someone finds a vulnerability here or there but the linux community has so far been quick to respond and patches are soon developed, tested and applied. it somehow consoles me that every once in a blue moon a  linux system has been compromised not because of a security hole but an idiotic password attached to an administrative username.

so now, after a year, i am as productive as i was when i was using windows xp. maybe even more. i’m upgrading online to the latest version of ubuntu but this time i didn’t have to pay anything extra.

and for me its still fun.

the release date of ubuntu 8.10 is a few days away but i wanted to find out how its going to be like to do the upgrade online so i decided to perform it on one of the laptops lying around here.

in a terminal window issue:

update-manager -d

the system will present you with a dialog box to upgrade your operating system. note that the upgrade is from version 8.04 lts to 8.10. as of this writing, only the 8.10 release candidate is available for download and not the final version. i do not know about upgrading from an older version but it should work. visit ubuntu’s upgrade page for more details.

from my setup i would need to download around 404 megabytes of files. with an ordinary dsl connection, it would probably take a night to finish the upgrade to 8.10 and cosidering that several thousand other users are going to do the same when the final version comes out in a few days it may take longer.

version 2.6.3 of wordpress came out of nowhere. it has a security update for snoopy which gets the feeds being shown in the dashbard. they say the vulnerability is low risk but its still a risk hence the sudden upgrade. the good thing is that you only need two files to make the upgrade:

1. wp-includes/class-snoopy.php
2. wp-includes/version.php

just download them (they’re from trac.wordpress.org) and upload to your blog’s wp-includes/ subdirectory overwriting the two files there and you’re set.

this is the easiest upgrade i’ve done so far.

i practiced riding again today and it was better than the last time — i only fell twice out of more than 10 tries. hurts less. for now, i just wanted to practice dismounting and look for my weaknesses so i can correct them in the future. it seems i succeeded in that sense. found out that my legs are tight. i have to loosen up my legs more by stretching before and after any riding. i can try again tomorrow…

i just realized it now. its been six months since i quit smoking. its been a breeze. so far. i didn’t have any of the major withdrawal symptoms — intestinal disorders, headaches, mental confusion, irritability, axiety and depression. i don’t even have cravings anymore. but got bigger (my other word for fatter). according to my neurologist, i’m 10 kilos over my  ideal weight. so i’ve cut back on the rice and the sweets and it appears to be working.

six months. i thought i’d never stop. some of my friends still do not believe i was able to quit but that’s okay.

thanks to b, rebecca, berta and hoze for the encouragement. it is highly appreciated.

i was looking over the plugins page of one of the blogs i manage and the plugins program is telling me that it had disabled a plugin — reporting a file with an unfamiliar name and a series of ‘../’ before it. hmmm… alarm bells rang in my head.

a little looking and i find the file under the tmp subdirectory in my server. i tried deleting the file and the server kept giving me that ‘permission denied’ message. more alarm bells. i downloaded the file and changed the permissions to none executable and the only by owner and group — no public access and no one has write access.

taking a look at the file, i found that its a php file and the rest are hexadecimal values which leads me to conclude that its a malicious file and that its hiding it’s digital purpose — nothing good by the looks of it. i, myself, do not have the time right now to decode it so if someone out there is willing, i can send you the file. just leave a comment and i’ll send the file to you.

i tried biking a couple of days ago. the house where i live has an empty first floor. it is big enough to practice my, by now, rusty cycling skills. the last time i got on the saddle was a little over five months ago. i know i have lost some fine motor control over my legs after my strokes but i do not know if i lost my ability to balance a bicycle. that thought has always been a bit scary for me.

i had a little difficulty getting on the bike. muscles were tight. i was able to pedal off and balance the bike and myself for about three rounds. yey! but stopping is another thing. i slowed down a bit so i can come to a complete stop but i fell instead. but i got up and tried again. all in all, i fell about four times. i got two bruises on my left knee, a bruised left elbow and a little bruise on my right shin. there are parts of my body that hurt a little but i don’t mind. i found out that i can still hold my balance. i can still bike. i just have to work on my stopping the bike.

for now, i’ll let the hurting pass before i try again.

well, it crept up on me. food tastes a lot better after i quit smoking. lots better. even plain rice tastes good these days. it doesn’t help that my girlfriend’s culinary skills have vastly improved.

but the price is that i have a harder time tying my shoe laces. i come up for air every handful of seconds. and my pants can now be called corsets. i actually popped a button once.

my weighing scale tells me 67 kilos. my doctor’s scale is less forgiving — 71 kilos. but everyone knows this type of weighing scale is not 100% accurate. they may show more than you actually weigh. or they may show less. which is actually worse.

in any case, i’m putting on weight which is only good if i were a toddler. so i have to cut down on my rice intake. ugh.

i don’t get to exercise as much as i used to. i get to walk a lot but the kilometers taken in stride does not fairly match the calorie taken per bite. i have get back to cycling. and soon.

after preparing for it for more than a month, i wasn’t able to attend the first philippine wordcamp. bummer. i actually was dressed and ready to go already but fate and my mom had other ideas. you see, a few days before wordcamp was my mother’s birthday. she lives about 90 kilometers south of manila. she, along with my dad, boarded a very early bus to manila and was on my doorstep by 7:30 in the morning.

my mom wanted a late birthday celebration with her daughter-n-law, son and grandson.

how can i refuse?

so apologies to matt and migs for not attending wordcamp philippines 2008.

but my mom wins hands down.