noel alanguilan

noel and robin (malikot)

i’ve sort of taken up photography again. no, not digital. analog–i use film. fun.

i (re)started christmas of 2008. there was a christmas party and i didn’t have a proper digital camera. my phone camera has a puny 0.3 megapixel resolution so it only counts in the desperate category. but i was deperate and used it anyway and, as expected, i was disappointed with the results. the only real camera that i have is an slr that i bought a little over 10 years ago so i can take pictures of my then baby boy. he’s not a baby anymore.

for the next christmas reunion, i decided to buy a couple of rolls of film, a pair of batteries and resurrect the camera. i haven’t used it for more than a year and i was afraid that it wouldn’t work anymore but i felt confident that it would because i stored the camera properly. as usual, everything was a little expensive since i had to have the roll developed and printed. it was by luck that i met someone in a chinese new year culinary tour of binondo who gave me tips on how to save a lot on everything related to film photography. it turns out that one (or two) of her photography arsenal during the tour was a film camera. she even gave me a roll of film. (thanks for that kat. i’ll pay it forward.)

so now, i get my film and batteries at about half the cost; i have the film developed,  scanned to cd and delivered to my doorstep at a good price. and i don’t have the film printed anymore. major downsides i can think of are:

• to save money on the cost of development, i have to wait until i have four to five rolls of film before i send it off for developing. this usually takes me three to four weeks
• i do not control of the scanning resolution. good film scanners are in the five-digit region and that is too expensive for me

the upsides:

• that i have two copies of my pictures–one on film and one on cd. if i have i digital camera, i wouldn’t have film as a backup. this saves me the worry on where to store my pictures
• i don’t have to spend for a digital slr camera. at least not now na now na now na
• i like the novelty of having a film camera. i get a kick at looking at surprised faces when they get to know that i’m using film. classic.
• i’m having fun with it and that’s what matters

look at him go. =)

it happened march 2009 in lola nita’s yard. his tito patrick was there to help him and he saw everything. using his cousin’s bicycle he learned how to balance already. unfortunately, i wasn’t around to witness it. bummer, i know. but fortunately, robin was all too happy to show off to me. so i pumped up the tires of his bike and off he goes…

i’m really happy and proud that he can bike now. it took me a while to learn but it seems that he got it faster than i did. yey!

like iron fingers desperately holding on to the one beside it trying to keep everyone together

i played around a bit with the color curves in gimp just to sharpen the photo a little bit.

the stock papt introductory letter

a client of mine recently received a letter from the pilipinas anti-piracy team shown on the left. with the exception of to whom the letter was addressed to, i received this exact same letter about a year ago. when i first got this letter i had the impression that the company i was working for is using pirated software. that’s strange. i know for a fact that all the software programs in the office are either properly licensed or legally free. reading the letter the second time puts it in perspective–its a reminder not to use pirated software, albeit worded rather aggressively so the first tendency is to panic. some might even consider it a veiled threat.

its nice to know that some people in government are doing their job.

so what do you do when you get a copy of this letter? first, do not panic. read that letter again. no one is actually accusing you of using pirated software. its just a notice.

next thing you do is to take their advise and perform a software license check. remember that for each kind of software there is a single corresponding license. so, if you have a windows set up like most of the world, each computer should have one license for microsoft windows and one for microsoft office. there is no one license to rule them all (we’ll get to the linux license later).

and the cost of those licenses add up–php7,700 for microsoft windows and php18,000 for microsoft office 2007; php25,700 in total. multiply that by the number of computers that you have. if you have 10 computers the cost is going to run up to a quarter of a million pesos. that’s jusT for 10 computers. that’s quite a hefty sum considering the recession and all.

if you do not want to spend that much on software there are legal alternatives. you can replace microsoft office with open office. that’s a savings of php 180,000.00 already for 10 computers. and yes, it can open all your word documents, excel spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations.

if you want further savings, replace your pirated microsoft windows with linux. that’s savings of php 77,000.00 for 10 computers. there are so many distributions (loosely, types of linux) out there. off the top of my head, ubuntu is a nice alternative if you’re coming from the windows world. you can look for more distributions over at distrowatch.

if you want to stay within the microsoft world then be ready to pluck down a hefty sum to use their software.

i have been preoccupied of late with security stuff. the first one is what they’re calling conficker.c which will activate on the first of april. no one knows what it will do but i would bet a beer that its not entirely good. symantec has a removal tool for this and previous versions of conficker (aka downadup).

+ + +

another news item that has been in that particular corner of my brain is the network bluepill aka psyb0t botnet. its a new botnet targeting routers/modems instead of pcs. these router/modems are the gadgets that give you access to the internet. imagine what bad things can happen when that’s been compromised. you can’t scan for the botnet either because the botnet code is not on your pc. according to dronebl–a real-time tracker of abusable ips–you are vulnerable if:

• Your device is a mipsel (MIPS running in little-endian mode, this is what the worm is compiled for) device;
• Your device also has telnet, SSH or web-based interfaces available to the WAN, and
• your username and password combinations are weak, OR the daemons that your firmware uses are exploitable.

the best way to ensure that you don’t get infected (or reinfected) is to perform a hard reset of the device, update the device’s firmware to the latest and change the administrative passwords to stronger ones, maybe use a passphrase instead.

+ + +

and then there’s the next version of ubuntu–jaunty jakalope or version 9.04–coming out by april (2009.04). that’s something to look forward to. at the same time i’ve been studying/ evaluating the server version of ubuntu as a replacement for some (or all my server installations).

+++

i have taken on a new project making a new website which will act much like a repository of information about a famous person. this will replace another project that i had to let go. its another php/mysql/apache install (spelled as web 2.0). this should prove interesting.

flash stores its own version of cookies in your computer. they are formally called local shared objects — linux planet just calls them flash cookies. unlike ordinary cookies, these things are binary files not readable by plain-text editors and, as you guessed, not readily accessed or removed also. you have to go to the adobe site and use their online flash settings manager to edit or delete these cookies.

aral (study)

the little boy got bored studying on his study table so he moved to the dining table. there was plenty of light for studying. i was just playing around with under exposing the film.

acacia

since i read about administrative order 254 formulating a national environmentally sustainable transport strategy and how it favors non-motorized transport (walking, cycling)  i’ve been thinking of how bicycles can be a large part of this strategy and what kind of bicycle is juan de la cruz using to commute.

i walk a lot these days and i get to notice that a lot of bicycle commuters use mountain bikes (mtb) modified for city use. these bicycles have thinner city tires rather than the knobby, fat ones commonly seen on them. recently i’ve noticed that bike owners would take out the front and rear derailleurs and just use the bike as a single speed just like the one in the photo. all you have to worry about are the brakes. life is made a little simpler.

i also see people moving about on bmx bikes but not as much as mtbs. occasionally, i get to see the japanese easy riders and banana bikes. i seldom see people commuting on a racer. the only time i get to see a lot of racer bikes on the road is on weekends. full disclosure: i ride a racer and i was a bike commuter for about a year or two. on weekdays you’d only see me on the road early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

it also got me wondering, how cheap can you get a mountain bike that can be used for cummuting? well, i asked around a bit and apparently, you can get a decent commuter mountain bike for around php 2,500.00. cheap. of course its made of steel and parts are not of high quality but good enough for a beater. just try to keep it out of the water for the next few years.