I. New York, New York
II. World Pyro Olympics
III. Uranus Actually has 27 Moons
IV. Christmas Porn and Video Hosting

I. New York, New York

Hey everyone, Mayo is back from the States. Yes, Patrick, RJ, Jayman or whatever you call him is back. The reunion is on January 2. So please do come. He’ll be leaving again on the 4th so don’t miss it.

He changed a bit. He has this new accent. He’s even a friggin’ stock trader now!

We saw Mark last night. Some mofo hit his head with a bottle. Three stitches at the back of his ear and seven on his forehead. They play regularly at Mayrics every first and third Sunday of every month.

II. World Pyro Olympics

We’ll be going to watch the World Pyro Olympics on Friday. You can buy tickets at selected Jollibee outlets or at their main office in Makati. The show has been on since the 26th and will end on the 30th.

I bought the tickets earlier at Jollibee in Alabang Town Center and this guy Bobit, the manager, was so lousy. I snapped and told him how sloppy their service was in front of the other customers.

I think Jollibee really sucks in general. I think the food is overpriced because of poor service. The branches are undermanned. I know it really takes a while to have food ready but I paid for “fast” food. Considering that Jollibee is one of the biggest companies here, and I wonder how they got their. People must have been putting up with their crappy “service”.

III. Uranus Actually has 27 Moons

I have geeky news. Uranus has two more moons. It was spotted when astronomers were looking at its rings with Hubble.

It’s time to rewrite kids’ textbooks again.

IV. Christmas Porn and Video Hosting

My blog has been getting a lot of hits lately from searches on Christmas porn. Here’s something from IFILM. It’s an episode of the Suicide Girls beating up a dressed up Santa. Nothing hardcore by the way.

I was always curious what these Suicide Girls did everytime I saw an ad about them at MySpace.

I found another site that lets you upload video clips like IFILM, Google Video and YouTube, MetaCafe. It doesn’t let you upload clips yet but they will soon. It looks pretty much like YouTube.

I like YouTube the most because they use flash, making the clips play on almost any browser on any platform/OS. IFILM uses Windows Media and Google’s okay but it takes so long before your clip gets live but you could turn your clips into pay-per-views. Highly applicable to independent film makers.

I. Merry Christmas?
II. Wanted, Pt II

I. Merry Christmas?

I though that I was going to be grouchy and scrooge-like this Christmas. I still think there’s nothing special with Christmas. Ramel went here last night, we went to Bel-Air to play DotA. After that, it was Christmas eve so we passed by 7-11 to get something to eat before we go home.

We saw this group of street children going to share on one cup of instant noodles. I decided to buy them one each. I was also thinking of giving money to the village guards but I gave the money to the kids. So Ramel bought them donuts and coffee instead.

Like I said, nothing special. Not bad but nothing to be merry about. It has been a very good year for me but of course, there have been some setbacks and losses, people and things. Even for Ramel, he’s earning a lot now from servicing speed boats, yachts and cars. Not to mention that there are a lot of benefits. This year has been definitely a good one.

And yes, I know. I’ve had everything I ever wanted. An electric bass, amp, my own laptop and a bunch of other things. But there’s still something missing and I don’t know why and what it is. Greedy bastard.

Here’s more. I didn’t get any failing grades this term but nothing to be happy about. May average is just a scrony decimal above 1. But still, thanks to my kind professors for not flunking me. I learned a lot but didn’t put enough effort. I guess I prioritized work more.

II. Wanted, Pt II

Here’s one more thing before I close this post. We are looking for LAMP developers. Knowledge in PERL would be a bonus. Fresh grads are welcome. Must be enthusiastic, hardworking and all those requirements for any person. This is urgent so please contact me via email, , as soon as possible.

I had more stuff to write but I forgot them. I’ll just put them on the next post if I remember them.

SimCity 5
Box Upgrade
Future Plans
Wall of Shame, Pt. II
Yahoo! Music Engine

SimCity 5

Rumor has it that SimCity 5 is on the way. On some screenshots that I found, it seemed great (but needed a lot of processing juice). It should be good because, in my opinion, SimCity 3000 and 4 wasn’t that good.

I’m planning the continuation of my upgrade phase to cope up with the new games being released (see next section).

Box Upgrade

I’m still having problems with playing Civilization IV and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I’m getting a 200GB Seagate hard disk drive next week. Hopefully, it should fix some problems and improve performance. I need more storage space anyway. Also, I should expect a higher setting for video editing. It feels like the hard disk is starting to fail anyway. I’m not getting a SATA until I see significant improvement with the hard disks. Probably when 10,000 RPM hard disks become cheaper. Yes, the drives are the problems, not the interface.

Next in line for the upgrade (next month) is the RAM. I’ll be getting two sticks of 400MHz 512MB DDR-SDRAM. Then I’ll get an AMD-64 processor and a compatible motherboard with SATA ports, this will be a three month saving (unless I get a raise or a bonus). I’ll be opening a new bank account tomorrow with BPI to store the cash.

When I finish the upgrade phase, I’ll be salvaging the old parts for a new box which will serve as my development server. Its services will be backup web storage for my web site, backup storage for the local network and IP-PBX. It’ll run on Linux and serve 24/7.

It should be up and running by April, 2006 (wow, such long term plans). I have one problem though. I don’t know where I’ll be putting it.

Future Plans

I’m thinking of what I’ll be saving for next, a new laptop or a PDA. It’s 70/30 with my preferrence in favor of the laptop. I’m even thinking of saving for a digital SLR camera (and a tripod because I lost mine). Or my own car. But all I could do now is dream.

My choice for the laptop currently is the Samsung M70. It’s more of a desktop replacement. I liked the idea of a removable 19-inch LCD screen. It looks bulky though.

Then for the PDA, I’m getting a Sharp Zarius. It runs on Linux so this way I don’t have to bring my laptop to school and still get to work somehow. But only if I get to use an FTP and SSH client on it.

Wall of Shame, Pt. II

I was going to add another item to the Wall of Shame but the bastard got away. I was so pissed off I threw it all off at the guard. Yes, I’m sorry for that.

Too bad I didn’t get to jot down the license plate. Asshole.

Yahoo! Music Engine

I’ve heard about it being advertised on Yahoo! Messenger’s LAUNCHcast radio but never tried it out since LAUNCHcast isn’t that free.

The only reason I tried it is because I saw it supported by FoxyTunes. So far, it works good. It really deserves the “engine” name because it’ll keep playing unlike Yahoo! IM’s native LAUNCHcast client and works better than the latter. But, it looks like a resource hog. I can’t feel it with 768MB of RAM though (I’m still conscious about it because I have to remove the extra RAM soon).

It also reads MP3 tags faster than Winamp does. I switch from Winamp and Y! ME every now and then. So yeah, check it out if you like streaming music and cute reflective fancy UIs.

I read from Yahoo! News that Google (oh the irony) will be starting their music service too.

Yahoobadoogle willy fashizzle prickle.

I. Wanted
II. Arrovo Bills: Collectors’ Item
III. Hit Counter Test Broadcast
IV. Ad Browsing

I. Wanted

I’m looking for this guy, Karlo Paolo Tagle Pagtalunan, at school. I wonder how he’s related to Michael. I’ve seen some of his code at his blog and it was nicely done. He has to get in my organization.

Please let me know as soon as possible when you spot this guy. Or if you know him.

II. Arrovo Bills: Collectors’ Item

The Arrovo hundred bills are up for grabs at eBay Philippines. There are a couple ranging from floor prices of PhP210.00 to PhP3,500.00. Obviously, nobody has bid at the latter but the seller claims that it has this “cool” serial number.

III. Hit Counter Test Broadcast

I started working on my own hit counter. I’ve made some experiments with the GD library. A live sample below of how far I’ve gone is below. As of this post’s publishing, the image below will show your public IP address.

Your Public IP Address:
Test Counter:

Update:
2005.12.12 04.04 - copies images to produce the LED-like digits (was ordinary text)
2005.12.12 14.49 - not sure if it’s working yet but it shows 0 everytime.

IV. Ad Browsing

Ads could be considered as the best short films (somehow) because they’re supposed to send the most information, largest impression and instill the idea as long as possible. I even come to a point where I don’t want to erase these clips that I download.

I found this funny ad for Napster (I’m not sure if it’s banned though).

There’s another one for XBOX 360, nobody knows why it’s banned though. You could find more funny/banned commercials at YouTube.

The IT Admin at La Salle University, PA, USA has a copy of McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i on their public server. If you’d like to test if I’m telling the truth, it’s over here. If it’s not there, they took it down already.

I’m not going to Cagayan anymore because the plane’s leaving at 5.00 something. I can’t go because I’m not available for the day. It’s okay though, I’ll have more time to focus on the dialer, for some school stuff and rest.

It sucks though because I won’t get to see the place and the people [and the girls agents]. Oh well. There’s always next time.

I. Cops That Need Some Serious Ass-Fucking
II. I Need Thomas Edison

I. Cops That Need Some Serious Ass-Fucking

Wow! I’m horrified by these two video clips that I saw last night (it was this morning actually, when I got back from work). The news is quite old but I don’t really read the papers. This really showed me never to trust anyone but yourself (not your wits or instincts). Not even your best friend or even the cops. In this world surrounded by junk, you can’t really tell what might happen next.

The following links lead to two video clips where unmarked cops shot dead or injured carjackers as claimed by the cops. I may not know all the details but it’s enough to really scare me.

Clip #1
Clip #2

This blog, called Blogging For Justice, aims to inform people the real information about one of the said suspects which was shot. I guess the crime level is so high that even cops (not all) are criminals. Even if the people in the car were really carjackers, they still tampered with the crime scene and was overkill. I’d like to get the medal of the “honored” cop and use it to slit their throats.

Adding the fact that it happened in Ortigas, it makes me rethink of how often or how long and at what time I should stay at work.

II. I Need Thomas Edison

While throwing some time off, I was looking for some stuff for our film project with Animo Teatro. I was looking for some parts that we could use to construct some equipment. Most of the hardware stores that I visited doesn’t have the parts or don’t even know what I’m talking about (somehow they lacked experience or didn’t understand me).

Seeing all these materials makes me want to build something else too. I was looking at some parts that I could use to build a customized Go Kart. I also saw some mounting stuff that I could use for my audio rig.

Going back to the agenda, I ended up knowing that it’s so hard to be an inventor (sort of), because it’s so hard to look for the stuff that you need. Maybe that’s why I should just be a software developer. Maybe programmers should be called inventors. They even have software patents (although I really don’t like the idea).

I. Bedspacer
II. Wall of Shame, Episode 1
III. [One] More Road Shots
IV. Befriending the Prince

I. Bedspacer

I’m looking for a room with a bed that I can rent. It has to be in Ortigas and if possible, one parking space. I’ll be crashing just once, sometimes twice, a week.

I seriously need to get a place to crash that is closer to work. It’s hard to drive and think well without getting enough sleep.

If you guys know a place or anyone, please drop me a line. Thanks!

By the way, We’ll be heading to Cagayan de Oro this coming Saturday night and be back at Manila by Monday noon for my NETCENT exam. That is, if we don’t get kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf.

II. Wall of Shame, Episode 1

I’m going to start a new series called “Wall of Shame”. I remember reading a poem entitled “All I Needed to Learn was in Kindergarten” (if memory serves me right). Let’s get back to some things that shouldn’t be forgotten to be practiced at a learning institution.

1. I don’t want to be the parking police but the driver of this car was considerate enough to eat up two spaces. I was going to blur the license plate but the smell of sweet revenge changed my mind.

2. One quote that you’ll get when your civilization researches ecology in Civilization IV, “We don’t inherit the land from our children, we borrow it from them”. Need I say more (this is at an elevator)? I hope they can call themselves educated people when they graduate from college (they should know how to dispose their trash by now anyway).

III. [One] More Road Shots

I wonder what would happen if this guy (on the motorycle) gets crushed by a truck or gets involved in a high-speed collision.

I swear I had another one. It got lost somehow.

IV. Befriending the Prince

I came up with more ideas on how to approach Prince Shuttle and other bus lines regarding the smoke belching buses issues. Another problem that I might encounter is that they may refuse to cooperate or won’t listen. So I decided to divide the plan to three stages.

Stage One, research. I, or if I get help, we will get all the information there is to find about how harmful the emmisions are. This will include statistics, surveys, proof of damage, measurement of CO levels along Laguna Blvd, recommended levels, recommendations by professionals and other stuff.

Stage Two, proving it. I or a couple of people willing to help, will get pictures of the license plates of the buses and the bus operating with the visible smoke emmitted.

Stage Three, contact. Before we start communicating with Prince Shuttle, it should be made sure that getting their buses in better shape shouldn’t be too much for them (although it is a lot). This will involve getting discounts are rebates for replacement part suppliers, referral to a repair shop (but I’m sure they have mechanics, training for the mechanics if it’s better) and more business related things. Then we reach the point where we send the letters or call the meetings.

Yes, it’s a big job that’s why I’ll be needing a lot of help. I can’t do this right away though because I already have other priorities in the way that I have to finish first. I remember an organization that involves the environment and cleanliness around the area. I should conact them too.

Okay, I accidentally logged in at Yahoo! via an XSS (Cross Site Scripting/ed) page. I got the link through Y! IM from Boogs. It seems like a virus but I’m trying to trace its source. If you get the url , from me through Y! IM, don’t open it. I hope that this is not a Y! IM security hole.

Boogs says he got it from Lahaina but he’s using his computer at school. But how did he get it (the virus)? Then this afternoon, there was a computer that kept writing a file named SharedDocs.exe (via the wireless network) to my Shared Documents. Luckily, it was intercepted by my antivirus.

I’ll try to investigate on this and see what happens. People, consider yourselves warned. Boogs lost his phonebook already and there was a breach already earlier. Lahaina can’t login to her Yahoo! account anymore (probably).

In case you do login through the scam site, change your password (and related accounts with the same password or usernames with that email address) as soon as possible.

Please tell me if you find other sites so we can gather them (I don’t know why, but it could help). I checked if I can report to Yahoo! on such cases but I guess they haven’t thought of that. Please enlighten me if they did.

Update:
12.55, Sunday, December 4, 2005

It all makes sense now. It’s not a virus. The author of the scam login page logins with your Y! username and password, sends the URL to everyone then logs out. There’s no virus or security threat related to Y! IM. If the author doesn’t find anything useful, he/she will erase your phonebook or probably mess with your email.

Boogs lost the contents of his phonebook.

Just a short post again. Still, I’m too occupied with the stuff that I’m working on.

I’ll be having my first business trip to Cagayan de Oro. I will be providing a call center solution for the Abu Sayyaf and interested parties. Not. Actually, I still don’t know who the client is (like it really matters).

Then tomorrow, we’ll be conducting the first session of our FSAP cascade. I hope all goes well. But of course, expect the worst. After that, I should have more time for things.