When we were roaming around SM Mall of Asia (calling it “MoA” is just… ewww), Irene stopped at National Bookstore’s display. Then we started talking about Harry Potter (which I never read and never will) and a bunch of other books. Then I told them about the books that I recently purchased.

First one is How Would You Move Mount Fuji by William Poundstone. I wanted to buy this book since I was in high school (I think) but just too lazy to look around for it. It’s about Microsoft’s hiring practice by using logic puzzles in interviews. There are logic puzzles in the book. The answers are at the last part so you won’t get spoiled.

The second one is Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington. It’s a random book that I picked up. Well, almost random. I had a couple of choices with interesting covers and this one had a lawn mower, a toilet, a hard hat and a bunch of other things. Quotes say that it’s a good comedy. I haven’t opend it yet. I want to read one book at a time and surprise myself.

There was this Dan Brown book that I saw. It was about hacking or something. I didn’t want a novel that revolved around computers so I skipped it. Also, Dan Brown is just too famous. I don’t like mainstream stuff.

I saw Robert Scoble’s book on blogging. Actually, I saw a lot of books on blogging, I just don’t know who the other authors are. I’m hoping that I won’t get the “one-more-chapter” syndrome.

Reading’s good. If I were to get stuck at a mall, I’d choose to be stuck in Power Books.

I don’t write very personal posts anymore because nobody wants to know how my day went. If you accidentally read my posts from 2 years ago, they’re mostly about how I had a blast from the previous night and complained about hangover.

I got a text message from a girl I used to date. Her name has the letters M and Y, bah, let’s just call her Malory for now. Malory, comes from bad luck in French by the way.

Peter, is this your number? Hi pala. Just wanna say sorry about those things that I’ve done to you. I know that years had passed. Kaya kahit pansinin mo ko o hindi, magtextback ka o hindi, basta gusto ko lang sabihin e sorry and thank you! Let’s get back together (Haha, I wish) Happy new year po!

As usual, I’m paranoid with anonymous text messages because I know that a lot of people are paying a lot of money to get my head on a platter. I replied with a whois and fingered her*.

As soon as I found out who she was, I said it was okay. I don’t know why, but out of no reason, I said, “I’ve met people who are worse than you.” Then five seconds after I sent the message, I noticed that it implied how mean she was. So I took back what I said. Luckily, she didn’t notice it (or was just too sorry, but that’s a fat chance).

What I originally said was straight out of the goodness and cruelty of my heart. Anyway, her message sounded like a New Year’s resolution.

Demmit! Why is it that I get a “sorry” and “thank you” as the last words every time? I never get “fuck” and “me” in the same sentence.

* Sorry, couldn’t resist.

PS - I wrote this about two weeks ago. I was hoping I could share this with Sans over lunch and see how she’ll react before posting this. But we’re both too busy to find time to catch up recently. She always has something very funny and interesting to say about things like this.

I want this toy!

That’s pretty funky! I can’t find the manufacturer’s site but it’s called Digital Light Sculpture Studio (YL300). If anyone finds a larger version, let me know.

More details at Amazon (USD19.99).

• Fun with Grapes - A Case Study
  A kitchen experiment
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• Happy Slip Productions
  …mom was always quick to remind me to wear a half slip with my skirts. She would say “Your hap eslip!! Be sure to wear your hap eslip!!”. So I grew up thinking - the term was always “happy slip”…
  Tags: videos indie
• install.exe Prototype
  Sweet mother of… it’s a Windows installer for Ubuntu! Note: doesn’t work on Vista
  Tags: linux ubuntu windows installer setup open source

I don’t have Flash 9 Player Beta for Linux working. I’m starting to hate any site that involved and heavily used Flash. I was even avoiding discussions with Flash. I can’t wait for Adobe to go full blast on supporting Linux.

It looks like that it broke when FFMPEG was updated. It only worked for one night then all I got is a very helpful message: “Segmentation Fault”. It resulted into YouTube deprivation. It was just a few minutes ago when I saw this hilarious film by Mokey. I recieved the link last week or something. If it weren’t for Firefox’s session restore, I wouldn’t have seen it.

I no longer access my Windows installation as often as I thought I would. I only checked it out today to copy some songs to my iPod. I have gtkpod compiled and working already but I just felt like doing it on Windows. I want to resize the partitions but I can’t find the time (or just too lazy to).

I didn’t get to check out Pat’s work on his video player. It’s amazing! Google should buy Pat.

Fast forward twenty minutes later: I just found out that the player just came out of beta yesterday.

Update: It works but don’t right-click on Flash player regions, they become instant kill switches to Firefox. I’ve never seen Firefox crash so fast! Hey, I’m not complaining as long. As long as it works, I’m okay.

There’s been a pretty interesting discussion at school regarding the preparation for the graduation ceremonies. More than half of the graduating students that will be marching, voted to have the graduation ceremonies outside of the campus.

It’s a very bad idea. Whoever thought of it is better off sucking a butt plug. Here’s an interesting message that I replied to.

Somehow, I missed *****’s reply.

I have nothing against the people who want our graduation ceremonies to be held in our campus; considering that it’ll really be much cheaper… but then, you’ll only graduate from college once – why not consider spending “a little bit more” for it?

Same case, it’s only once and it’s the last. Why not consider spending “one-more-day” for it? Besides, spending “a little bit more” means that the budget will be compressed. That’ll reduce the allowance for the budget unless the projected cost will be accurate.

Having said that; and the 16 respondents who said “no-to-campus-for-venue-of-ceremonies”, yes, I think that it would be nice if the graduation ceremonies would take place somewhere else. Yes, since we are the pioneering batch, the campus has a sentimental value for us. But pioneering batch or not, we’ve spent the last 3 or more years studying/ going to school everyday in the same campus.

I don’t get it.

I think that it’ll be refreshing if we held the special ceremony in another place. It’s like a debut party for girls, and stag party for guys;

I’m sorry *****, I really don’t get the similarity of a debut/stag party with having the graduation ceremony outside the campus.

would you rather celebrate the said occasion(s) at your backyard?

Hell yeah! I don’t know what part of being a “pioneer” you didn’t get but having the graduation ceremony in the campus is definitely a part of it. How is it going to be any different by having it outside the campus?

If the graduation ceremony will be a parting celebration for you, wouldn’t you hold your farewell party in your own place? It’s like you’re implying that you’re ashamed of where you’ll be coming from. Or are you?

The location mentioned by Wendy gives a nice backdrop for the graduation. Would you rather have a badly developed skyline+polluted sky of Makati or Alabang behind the stage (given that the location will be at Bellevue)? Or worse, a plain wall with red curtains and crappy decorations?

The only fear that I have with having the graduation ceremonies inside the campus is that the catering might be done by La Casita. But I trust the organizers that La Casita is the last resort.

Mokey added to my reply. I envy Mokey’s natural skill in disagreeing without pissing off anyone.

Ya you know, whatever..haha loko lang..

Ako din parang mas trip ko sa loob ng campus kasi nga parang tama si JP..Hell ye! haha.. eghemm.. Yung sinabi naman ni Lahaina na baka mainit, pagkaalam ko parang mga 4 o 5 ata gaganapin yung ceremony kaya medyo hindi na ganun kainit nun.. Ang problema lang siguro kapag umulan malas lang unless may backup plan.

you’ll only graduate from college once <-- tama, kung balak mong hindi na mag aral ulit. Pero yung pinaka point kasi tayo yung unang mga naging studyante sa DLSC. Kung sa ibang lugar gaganapin yung graduation parang sinabi mo na isang Pilipino sa Pilipinas mag dedespedida sa States kasi dun na siya titira (Tama ba? hehe).

Peace and Cheers!

Kamusta na kayo dyan?!
penge trabaho, yung madali na may pera na hindi illegal

And here’s another…

hello everyone!

Grabe na ito! Looks like the graduation will be done in school na. But don’t get me wrong..kelan pa naging sukatan ng pagmamahal sa DLSC ang pag grduate sa campus? Pag hindi ba dun ginawa yung ceremony ibig sabihin ba nun eh wala ng nagmamahal sa DLSC? Is that the only way we could show our love for the school? I don’t think so.

You’re right,it’s not the only way. But this was one argument that *****, and probably others, gave as an argument.

Personally, if given other choices naman ayoko din sa skul. Wat if umulan? Tatakbo ba tayo sa covered court in the middle of the ceremony?

Tama si Mokey, maglakad lang tayo. Baka mamaya madapa pa yung mga nakatoga. Kidding aside, I believe there are other places in the campus that is decent enough for the graduation ceremony. And yes, I’m referring to the auditorium.

The venue doesn’t have to be “bongga” naman na parang mauubusan ng pera ang skul. Kung budget ang constraint then yun ang sabihin nyo hindi yung may nalalaman pang “love the school” effect to convince people.

If it doesn’t have to be “bongga”, then what’s wrong with the covered court? Okay, so “bongga” is subjective. I also believe in simplicity. In fact, I want to deviate from the traditional practice and have no graduation ceremony at all! That would be so unique and different (yet simple), no one will ever duplicate it.

Regarding the budget, I wasn’t saying “love the school”. I’m after practicallity. It’s just not practical to have it outside the campus. I shouldn’t even be participating in this discussion because I’m not marching with you. Hahaha!

I don’t even love the school. I hate the school. When people ask me where I study, I can only meekly mumble the school’s name.

Let’s twist the arguments, if we’re so special, we’re pioneers and it’ll happen once a year, why won’t the school spend more for us? And to add to that, we’ll be representing the school. So the school owes us for lifetime advertisement!

They can’t blame us for misrepresenting the school either. If you look at it this way, we’re a product of the school, making those who misrepresent the school as defective products. There’s no valid excuse for that because they let us graduate and passed “quality assurance”.

Yun lang. Bow!

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  Tags: ipod psp ppc pocketpc portable mobile magazines
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  If you have nothing else better to do, you can beat his record.
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  Astronauts gotta have pr0n too you know.
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  A Debian based embedded http/file/mail/media server. Oh, it’s a BitTorrent client too.
  Tags: linux hardware embedded servers debian torrents
• Upside-Down-Ternet
  Fancy trick for wifi freeloaders in your neighborhood
  Tags: wifi wireless iptables security networking

I finally got to watch Steve’s keynote at MacWorld this morning. I wanted to write about the iPhone. But since I have this tendency to deviate from everyone’s positive reaction, I made the wiser decision to watch its introduction and save myself from humiliation.

First off, the multi-touch screen isn’t a new thing. I posted a link about it before and here it is again. I’m not saying it’s not cool. People are just too amazed like it was impossible.

One thing that Jobs didn’t mention is if it’s possible to install third party applications. Widgets are a different thing. Here’s a list of applications that I want in the iPhone that Apple wouldn’t probably bother to port:

• Vim
• a PDF reader
• an SSH client
• Parallels (I’m kidding)

It looks like that this looks unlikely though. I just read that Steve doesn’t like third party apps on the iPhone. The Inquirer isn’t much of a reliable source though, so there still hope.

Another factor is that wireless internet access here isn’t that cheap. I think that mobile Internet access isn’t something worth paying for.

I do like the fact that you get a full blown browser and that you can zoom in. WAP version of websites are limiting. Wait, does it have Flash player included? The Internet isn’t fun without YouTube.

Yahoo’s Jerry Yang didn’t mention Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone. IM on your phone would be a great replacement to SMS. Specially if mobile Internet access becomes dirt cheap.

So do I want one? Yes (provided that I can install third party apps). 8GB is too small for me though. I’m currently picturing a racing game in landscape mode with Multi-Touch and the Accelerometer.

I got teTeX working now. By the way, it’s teTex that you need if you want a totally free/GNUish package. I just found out that there’s a shortcut for subscripts on MediaWiki+TeX. Connection to most sites are a whole lot better now and allowed me to download a package that I needed to get the parser compiled.

One of my classmates is working at school. She’s temporarily assigned as the computer instructor for IS kids. She’ll be maintaining the enlistment app.

If I were to teach at DLS-C, I woudn’t want to teach small kids. I’m not good with handling spoiled brats. If I were to choose, I’d choose to handle Web Development class. If this wiki experiment goes well, I’d provide a class wiki. That should encourage knowledge sharing, collaboration and increase discussion.

I wonder if I’d be a strict or very lax instructor. But most probably, I’ll hate to talk and see students looking down while flicking their thumbs on their phones. I even find it annoying to see classmates do it. I get tempted to do it sometimes, too. There’s one thing I’m sure of though. I know I’ll be boring as hell.

One more thought. If I were to be assigned to work on the enlisment app, I’d say no because that’ll turn me to an 8-5 corporate whore.

Last night was so much fun. It was weird, half the people that I was sure that would be there backed out and the ones that were least expected got to join us. The attendance was me, the corniest mofo I’ve ever met, Ian; my favorite little punk rock princess, Dhen; single mom Gienny + her year-old son, Patrick; life-of-the-party, Jhing; Juday look-alike, Bheng + her new boyfriend, Chad and; hardcore architect, Irene.

We left at around 4PM, picked up Ian and Dhen. Gienny was invited at the last minute. Patrick is so adorable. I seriously want to have a kid. Jhing changed her mind at the last minute too. We had to meet her somewhere along the way. Then we headed to Pasig to wait for Bheng and Chad. We left Pasig around 8PM. Irene patiently waited for us at Mall of Asia until 11PM.

Here’s the sad part, we got stuck at EDSA. But luckily, when the second show started, we were at the flyover where we can see the higher-altitude fireworks. They went out of the car and other people started to make gaya-gaya. Eventhough we didn’t get to go there, we still had a lot of time catching up with each other and calling Irene.

We decided to pick-up Irene and let fate decide what should happen next. We ended up with an attempt to get out of Mall of Asia. A wrong turn got us back where we left so we parked and went down to check out the place to wait for the traffic to loosen up.

I swear, the contents of my stomach are making me sick. Everything inside is junk. Dinner was McNuggets and the midnight meal was a cheeseburger from Mickey D’s again. There was no other place to eat in Mall of Asia but McDonald’s.

Dhen is a Starbucks fan and insisted that we go to one. All the shops that we went to (around 3AM) were closed. We found one at the Fort. I had tea and boy, even Starbucks’ tea sucked donkey balls*. I swear (again) that I’ll avoid fast food.

We stayed there until 5AM, got Bheng and Chad a cab then went home. Dhen had to go straight to the airport and we got home around 6AM. I woke up about two hours ago and can’t get back to sleep.

It was a fun night. I miss the good (and bad) ol’ times where we got piss-drunk every Saturday night. And who the hell hasn’t seen Soul Plane? They didn’t get the tea-baggin’ joke when they saw me playing with the tea bags!

* IMNHO, Starbucks is the place to go if you can’t afford nice furniture and brew your own coffee.

PS - I just opened my Friendster account and I know who I wished was with us last night! Mira, the girl I stole a kiss from in high school! Hahaha!