in retrospect…

Ever since 1998, when i started working on an NOS [network operating system] aside from Microsoft, i have always maintained that anything not Microsoft is infitely better… infinitely… better…

and i will still maintain that stand wherever i go, whatever compnay i am in… i have come back to work for an academe very recently, and so far, everything is working well… at least, so far as the desktops are concerned… but working with Microsoft really gives me a pain in the ass [and not because i am biased towards Linux], and I have plans now of transfeerring some of them over to Linux… of course, i cannot readily transfer applications needed primarily by the Finance and the Admissions departments, but all others, i believe i can…

for one, we have Citrix servers and about 100+ thin clients which I need to run, not because I have to, but because we already paid for them… yep, they’re not working, or if they do run, only about 40 of the 100+ clients can run all at the same time… more than that? the 2 servers will start to go crazy, and the clients will freeze up one by one… in APC before, i was able to createone whole laboratory of about 40 clients using only 1 server using LTSP… of course, i have had problems with it, like it doesn’t support a particular network card or a particular graphics card… but all in all, once the server settled down and my students started using the thin clients, everything worked fine to my satisfaction… now, i am left with the problem of making the Citrix environment run… *darn*

second, i plan to teach my people Linux administration… from there, we’d be able to plan better our next steps, i.e. which servers to migrate… prolly, we’ll start with the websites [which are, incidentally, made in ASP and dotNET] so i am now in the process of researching how to make those run in Apache…

lastly, only PLDT have lines in our area?? i am actually considering putting a redundant connection for the school, but i was told that only PLDT have rights to our area… so, do i go wireless, then?? **double darn**

anyway, that’s all for now… more [as in really more] to follow soon…

Ciao, sweetie…

Yes!! i am back in the academe, and i am loving every minute of my **still** short stay here…

you see, i have been in the academe before, on and off for about 7 to 8 years, and the longest was with Asia Pacific College, where i spent 4 glorious years of the 8 years teaching college students there…

in APC, i was the system administrator for the 1st 2 years, then moved on to being the Open Source Laboratories Administrator, doing what i loved doing: research and development of open source products!!

since then, i have been an IT consultant for 8 years, project manager, applications development manager, IT operations manager, and now, an ICT Manager for a school of up to 15-16 year olds!! yey!!

my day starts at 7am and finishes by 4pm, but i am wont to stay far longer to finish up on things, so i expect to be doing the same thing here, too… what school? I cannot tell you that, or i’d have to kill you [Bond-style]… hehehe

what can i say? i am just built for the academe, and i cannot stay away from it…

i will not be teaching, though [yebah!!]… i am part of the ICT support staff which i head, and i’ll be handling the IT needs of the whole school… i am also being asked to get at least 1 certification, and i am looking around for one… hmmmm… maybe, i can get a CCNA… hmmmm… or i can pursue my Linux studies, but the school is Microsoft-based, so i have to lean on them a bit to turn them around…

anyway, expect this blog to be technical again, from hereon, as i will be discussing all my actions here… [signing my contract as i am typing this, hahahaha]

Ciao, sweetie…

what?? this early??

apparently, Tom Merritt of CNET TV already have 5 of them… there’ll sure be more in the months to come…

Bill Gates must be turning in his grave already… oh wait, he’s not dead yet… *groan* ok, he must just be experiencing a New Jersey hair loss, then…

Ciao, sweetie…

Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian Linux distribution, was invited by Microsoft on February 20 to talk about, well, the Debian Linux distribution… what else??

the erstwhile chief technology officer of the newly-formed Linux Foundation will talk about the rise of Linux and its applications in general, and Debian in particular, in front of Microsoft employees in its “Invited Speaker Series”… Eric Raymond, open-source spokesman and author of The Hacker’s Dictionary and the controversial The Cathedral & the Bazaar, was also invited in 1999…

what can this mean for Linux?? nothing, really… but, i believe, the most important question is “what can this mean for Microsoft??” Linux is the biggest threat to Microsoft’s dominance in the OS wars, so why?? a case of “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” probably…

in any case, when will Microsoft invite Linus Torvalds next?? maybe never…

Ciao, sweetie…

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, everyone!!

don’t do what i wouldn’t do…

constant edits will happen to this particular post… these edits will happen as often as i find new material, so come back often if you want to be updated… this will form part of the talk i will be giving during iBlog3: The 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit entitled Blogging for Newbies

with the rise in number of pinoy blogs popping up left and right, it is only assumed that setting up a brand new blog is as easy as A-B-C… we often forget that there are newbies who don’t have the faintest idea on how to start setting it up… so, how do you start a new blog??

there are several things you have to take into consideration and options you can choose from, software to use, server, hosting, blog genre, etc, etc… but first things first… what is a blog??

a blog is short for weblog, an online journal [or diary or newsletter] that may or may not be frequently updated, where the author posts informal journals: his/her thoughts, comments, and philosophies… it can be private or public… it can be a group blog, or a blog all your own…

Windows VISTA finally [finally!! after 2 years!!] launches here in the Philippines… the formal launch will happen at the Mall of Asia on the 3rd of February [this coming Saturday]…

BUT, but, before you decide to take that plunge, note that Windows VISTA Upgrade Edition will likely frustrate all you XP users… according to the article, when you try to install the Upgrade Edition on a new machine, or a previously wiped out machine, Vista will not permit you to do a ‘clean’ install even if you could provide proof of possession or ownership of a previous version of Windows… simply, this means that you still need to install your previous OS AND install VISTA over that… if it takes 1 hour to install XP, and another hour to upgrade to VISTA, then prepare to waste 2 hours of your time…

also, VISTA upgrade edition will not allow you to do a clean install on a separate partition or a different hard disk on the same computer your XP is in, unless you do another install of your XP…

of course, you can always go the OEM way… buy a PC pre-loaded with VISTA… but that’s for another post…

Ciao, sweetie…

…not my words, though… that is the title of TechRepublic blogger Steven Warren’s post, and he hit the nail ight on the head when he quoted that “The majority of the world’s population is lazy, Microsoft is easy, Linux is a mystery!”… it is true, though, Microsoft is really relatively easier to use… all you need to understand is how to use the mouse to point and click [or double-click, as the case may be], and your keyboard to type in…

Linux is not for the following kinds of people:

• faint of heart
• without patience
• stupid

don’t get me wrong here… i am not saying that Windows users are stupid, ok?? all i am saying is that if you have no time and patience to spare, or you are easily susceptible to heart attacks when things go wrong, or when you don’t have the learning capacity to learn Linux, you might as well stick it out with your trusty ‘ol Windows box…

I do not believe either Gnome or KDE is easier to move around than Windows.

this is true, Gnome or KDE cannot compare to the ease-of-use feature of Windows XP or Windows Vista… the buttons are where they were yesterday, and you are sure that there is where it will be today… and tomorrow, for that matter…

Gnome and KDE applications are wont to crash whenever you use them, spoiling the hours of work done… but hey! isn’t this the same for Windows?? or maybe, i am wrong?? hmmm?? :s

Linux overall lacks standardization. How can you create a community of users when nobody can agree on the standard?

this one is true, too… it was Unix who created the Internet standards, wasn’t it?? not even Microsoft can claim that fame… what Microsoft did was use these same standards, change them a little around the edges, called them their own, patented, and created a community around it… thereby creating a closed-group of people who cannot communicate effectively within a diverse community… it is much like reinventing English and forcing other nationalities to use it… or more commonly know as vendor lock-in…

Most people do not want to use the command line and there is no reason in this day and age to have to be forced to use it.

yup, also true… but where did Windows start off with first?? anyone?? [i feel like a college teacher again... ]

Microsoft started creating a command line interface for the IBM-PC early in 1981, and they continued upgrading that until Microsoft came out with it’s first version of Windows in 1985… users back then, including this author, also started with a command-line interface very much similar to that of Linux… that was why i am at-home when i am in front of my Linux console…

There are too many weird names for things in Linux. THEY DON’T MAKE ANY SENSE. Gimp, Yast, Yum, oh my! It’s insane.

of course!! that’s the way it should be, right?? please remember that these FREE applications were made by a bunch of college-geeks with nothing better to do [no dates on Saturday nights]… they just whipped up a few thousand lines of code together, have a few beers, and calls it the frist thing that comes to their minds… geeks are not known for being creative, anyway…

giants, like Microsoft, hire an advertising agency to come up with a nice-sounding name like XP or Vista, whereas kids who only have a few bucks to their names cannot afford to… that’s why the names… but, really, so what?? if they work as they were advertised, i don’t care about the names they carry… right??

—-

now, i wonder what the author of that post would feel when i tell him that he was working on an application born out of Linux?? yes, mister author, you, or your server, were using Apache to show this rant to the Internet… it was easy, right? because that was pre-configured for you by people who know more than you, using the command line interface, and not being bothered by it…

but again, i just got myself baited by another useless trolling… when will i ever learn??

i can tell you a long list of items about Linux that Windows doesn’t have… but then again, that is for another post…

Ciao, sweetie…

Brian White of Background Exposure.com commented on my last post and sent me this link of retouching images… it shows how, with the proper tools, one can make a veritable goose into a very beautiful swan…

i have been an avid reader of FHM Philippines and Maxim Philippines… both have high enough appeal to me, or to any hot-blooded male [and female], that i have been buying it eversince its maiden issue…

but i have now been disillusioned into buying these magazines for the simple fact that i feel like a fool drooling over those semi-naked women when, now, i know for a fact that what is being shown is not really them, but a perception of what they [magazine editors] really want us to see, an image… a fake… aritificial… invented… an illusion… A FORGERY!!

and we have been eating it all up!! yes, you, you, you, and, sadly, me…

i have nothing against the use of tools to retouch images… but only when you see a smudge or dirt which is the photographer’s fault… i’d rather show all the imperfections of my subjects than do an Angelica on them… and by that, i mean the wholesale changes they made simply to make their photos more beautiful… more appealing…

i am a photographer myself, though still an amateur, but all of my pictures are real… nothing was done to them at all… yes, maybe a little retouch on the color scheme [to sepia or black and white], but that was all… oh yes, people have asked me to wipe off the pimples on their faces, or make them a little thinner [or fatter]… but those are what, to me, make them intereseting subjects!! because they’re real… no imagery… real…

and that is what i’ll strive to be… to capture images that show the real person behind the scenes i take… i won’t feel a real photographer when all i do is take the pictures and retouch them to come out with a totally different picture… they do not become my own anymore…

i will now be looking at pictures of models on billboards, posters, and most of all, magazines, in a new light…

Ciao, sweetie…

currently somewhere attending our yearly MANCOM planning… we are now on our second — and hopefully the last — day of planning…

anyway, i was watching The Simpson’s last night before going to bed, and i heard the following exchanges between Bart and Liza:

Bart: why is it destroying other toys?
Liza: maybe it is after the competition…
Bart: you mean, like Microsoft?

their words, not mine… :d

Ciao, sweetie…