noel alanguilan

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.

it was too hot in the house — 37 degrees centigrade on the mercury and 39 on the digital clock. nifty little thing. and since ironman hit the big screens yesterday i invited my wife and son to watch it. it was a good excuse to go to the mall and pay my overdue phone bill.

as for ironman, i say watch it. watch it on the big screen because this is one of those effects movies that is simply “more” on the big screen. its begging for a sequel.

linkin park - breaking the habit

its been 19 days…

every once in a while it happens. i get an e-mail that looks legit but on closer inspection it turns out that its not. here’s one of the ways i find out if an e-mail is bogus or not.

this first e-mail (shown below) appear to be from rapidshare.com — a webhosting provider. the e-mail provides a link to “reactivate my disabled account”. when i put the mouse over the link, the firefox status bar tells me it points to another domain and not back to rapidshare.com. this alone should trigger some alarm bells.

out of curiosity, i clicked on the link and after a redirect it showed me the screen below. note that the page is asking the user’s login details for a rapidshare.com premium account but the real domain name shown on the browser’s address and status bars are not from rapidshare.com but from another webhosting service based in poland (az.pl). the alarm bells should be loud enough at this point.

the lesson here is to look before clicking. check if the link points to the proper domain by putting the mouse over the link and see if the status bar is showing the right domain.

this next e-mail (shown below) is a little sneakier and claims to come from e-trade.com — an online financial products and services provider. take note of the difference between the link provided in the e-mail and the one shown on the status bar. if you didn’t see any difference, take a closer look.

the difference is that the link’s domain name is etrade.com and the domain name in the status bar is thetemplab1.com. warning bells.

clicking on the link, the browser shows me a page (shown below) asking for the user’s id, password and trader’s password for etrade.com but the domain name in the address bar still shows the wrong domain name. really loud warning bells.

again, look before you click.

note: the target of these phising attempts are the clients of rapidshare.com and etrade.com. rapidshare.com and etrade.com, as far as i know, are legit websites.
disclosure: i am not connected with either company.

i am now taking out-patient physical therapy after my confinement in the hospital. each new session is harder than the previous one but i think i am making good progress. often times i feel that i am too slow to recover but the doctor told me that it is not true and she cut the number of medicines i’m taking by half. that is definitely better for my wallet.

since i cannot ride my bicycle yet, i am resolved to clean it up a bit–component by component. idle maintenace, if you will. that would probably help in my therapy. the rear derailleur would be a “fun” part to start with. the rear derailleur is that part of a bicycle that moves the chain from cog to cog and is attached to the back of the bike frame.

i am usually wary about upgrading to a new major version of a software program. any software program. in wordpress 2.5, which was released 29th march, my view has not changed. i have become naturally paranoid (thanks, in part, to microsoft) of any major software updates — current plugins may not work or the modified theme may get messed up a bit.

so when version 2.5.1 came out last april 25 i knew it was time to upgrade the test blogs and eventually the rest of the bunch.

but before taking the plunge, make sure that you visit the wp forums often to see what problems other people have encountered and if there are solutions for it. forewarned. forearmed.