QrooniX

Mob Hatter

2010-04-02T17:30:00.000+08:00

This will be the name of my band or a comics character. :)

Pearl Jam - Backspacer: Album Review

2009-10-10T23:27:00.002+08:00

Here is my short review of Pearl Jam's latest album, Backspacer. I'm reposting this from my forum entry at PhilMusic.

So after weeks of waiting, I finally got the CD. The lyrics are included (typewriter font) with surreal artworks.

"Gonna See My Friend" is a scorching intro that sets the pace of the first three songs. Classic rock inspired with hints of punkish elements (a la Ramones). The rolling drums and guitar intro of "Got Some" have that old school rock and roll feel. Going to a happy feel then exits to a guitar solo on the background. The third song, "The Fixer" is similar to the feel of the first two songs; Catchy and optimistic.

"Johnny Guitar" is not as catchy as the first 3 songs but with a very nice guitar works. "Just Breathe" is a love tinged folksy song. Reminiscent of Eddie Vedder's solo album (Into The Wild soundtrack). "Amongst The Waves" is an ode to surfing. A ballad with an anthemic guitar solo. In "Unthought Known", the inclusion of keyboards bring some fresh notes. The song starts slowly then segueing into mid-paced instrument interplay and exits slowly.

Another classic rock-like song is "Supersonic". A short and fast-paced song with a brief slow interlude and lots of wah. The next song, "Speed Of Sound", is slow song with introspective lyrics. And like "Unthought Known", the keyboards add some nice flavor. "Force Of Nature" makes me want to just sit back and relax. The last song is aptly titled, "The End". The song is about a dying man saying his goodbyes to his family. And yet he doesn't want to go yet. The simple guitars and hint of string section give a very somber feel.

This album is a fun album in general. No powerful tracks like "Black" and catchy anthem like "Daughter". Traces of Vitalogy and Yield experimentation can be heard. The lyrics are more personal and less political. My rating (if I have to give one) is 4 out of 5 stars.

Enjoy!

Track list:

1. Gonna See My Friend 2:48

2. Got Some 3:02

3. The Fixer 2:57

4. Johnny Guitar 2:50

5. Just Breathe 3:35

6. Amongst The Waves 3:58

7. Unthought Known 4:08

8. Supersonic 2:40

9. Speed Of Sound 3:34

10. Force Of Nature 4:04

11. The End 2:57

Courier: Microsoft Tablet

2009-09-24T21:16:00.001+08:00

This is really cool! I'll be waiting for this tablet. Once in a while Microsoft can spawn some nice stuff.

New Season

2009-09-23T02:28:00.003+08:00

This is a great week for TV (at least in the U.S.). New season of Heroes, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. I hope that the local carriers here in the Philippines (Star World and JackTV) will carry the aforementioned shows on time. I hate it when the schedule is delayed for a full season! Tsk! You want filipinos to watch your channels? Then air the shows the same day or the same week (one week delay the most)!

Nothing New

2009-09-20T23:56:00.003+08:00

No new post here in QrooniX. I'll get an M4/M16 variant AEG next month. Or an AK variant. My AUG is still collecting dust. I haven't played airsoft in a long time! I've been busy with practice driving and darts. And Linux? Nothing fancy, I'm still using it on my netbook.

Kaboom!

2009-08-03T20:10:00.003+08:00

This is bad. Apple tried to silence owner of exploding iPod with gagging order. We have 2 iPods at home, a video and a nano. And I'm concerned about this exploding battery things. I know that there are issues of exploding Lithium-ion polymer batteries (some airsoft enthusiasts use this instead of Ni-Mh/Cad). But i didn't expect that to happen on a product from multi-billion dollar companies. I can understand that there hiccups from no brand cheap li-poly batteries (that is why I don't use it) but this? And preventing users to talk about it? Bad Apple, bad!

System Administrator Appreciation Day

2009-07-31T19:25:00.001+08:00

Happy SysAd Day to all my fellow SysAds!

Zoom B2.1u on Linux

2009-07-08T00:26:00.003+08:00

Zoom B2.1u works on Linux (Fedora)! No need to install drivers as the unit was detected automatically. Upon connecting the USB interface to my machine (Acer Aspire One), my B2.1u was detected:

Jul 7 16:37:17 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 10
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: input: Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.3/input/input11
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Device [Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC ] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=08bb, idProduct=2904
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: Product: USB Audio CODEC
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: Manufacturer: Burr-Brown from TI
Jul 7 16:37:18 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

I was able to record a simple clip using Audacity. To use the B2.1u as an input, go to View > Toolbars > Device Toolbar and set it similar to this:

Here is the sound clip. I used an SX Precision with Olympia flatwounds.

SX Vintage White Precision Bass

2009-05-22T12:07:00.002+08:00

Another GAS extinguished. Have to see/feel/experience by myself what is all the rage about SX basses. Last night I got my vintage white SX Precision Bass at JB Music Park Square (Thanks Lee!). My initial impressions:

Nice fret works, no sprouts or sharp edges.
Neck to body joint is superb.
Surprisingly, the thickness of the neck is comfortable.
Tuning pegs and bridge are pretty standard quality for the price range.
The pick up is quiet but the volume is a bit soft.
Stock strings, well, it is light gauge :) I'll buy some Olympia flats this weekends.

Here are some pics:

All-in-all, this is indeed best value for our hard earned money :) More inputs to come once I have practiced/gigged with my band.

Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown

2009-05-19T02:12:00.004+08:00

This is just a quick review of Green Day's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown. The album as a whole is similar to American Idiot due to a loose theme present (a bit socio-political). My personal favorite is the eponymous track. Most of the band's signature sound is present on the said track. The 3-chord attack, the segue of drums in 2:14 of the song and other tempo shifts.

Below are the track list:

1. "Song of the Century" 0:58

Act I: Heroes and Cons

2. "21st Century Breakdown" 5:09
3. "Know Your Enemy" 3:11
4. "¡Viva la Gloria!" 3:31
5. "Before the Lobotomy" 4:37
6. "Christian's Inferno" 3:07
7. "Last Night on Earth" 3:57

Act II: Charlatans and Saints

8. "East Jesus Nowhere" 4:35
9. "Peacemaker" 3:24
10. "Last of the American Girls" 3:51
11. "Murder City" 2:54
12. "¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl)" 3:48
13. "Restless Heart Syndrome" 4:20

Act III: Horseshoes and Handgrenades

14. "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" 3:14
15. "The Static Age" 4:17
16. "21 Guns" 5:21
17. "American Eulogy" (A. "Mass Hysteria" / B. "Modern World") 4:26
18. "See the Light" 4:36

Linux on Dell Netbook

2009-05-16T23:02:00.002+08:00

Dell netbooks will be available in both Linux and Windows. In my opinion it is good for Linux and Microsoft as well. For Linux, more exposure and better experience than the crippled Linpus on Acer Aspire One and jurassic Xandros on eeePC. The good news too, is that there are no hardware differences on both Linux and Windows offering.

On my personal experience, I have to wipe out WinXP home from Acer Aspire One. The reason is because there are no models available with Linux installed.

Freedom Bar Gig on May 29

2009-05-04T11:01:00.003+08:00

My band, BlissBuds will perform at Freedom Bar on May 29, 2009. Join Us!

Fedora 10 on Acer Aspire One

2009-04-18T00:02:00.003+08:00

Fiddling around with this netbook (we got the one with XP home version), I tried to use the XFCE Fedora 10 live CD. I was a bit surprised that all of the hardware were detected out of the box (WiFi, sound, correct screen, webcam and a lot more). I then decided to keep/install it on the hard drive.

And here I am, happily back with Linux on desktop. This netbook is not for heavy processing work. But for web browsing (Firefox), Music (XMMS), casual Word Processing (Abi Word), Video (vlc/mplayer) and IM (Pidgin/Skype), this machine is superb with Linux.

One thing that I'm a bit disappointed is the dual (mirrored/extended) display. There is no out of the box detection of the correct resolution of the second monitor. Well, I didn't try on XP though. If I'm not busy with work and hobbies, I'll probably give it a spin (dual display).

Highest Load Average

2009-04-01T22:02:00.001+08:00

That I have seen/experienced so far:

top - 08:29:34 up 306 days, 20:08, 1 user, load average: 6366.95, 2216.33, 848.21
Tasks: 3956 total, 13 running, 2161 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1782 zombie
Cpu(s): 10.6% us, 2.3% sy, 0.0% ni, 86.6% id, 0.3% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.1% si
Mem: 8165496k total, 6775984k used, 1389512k free, 7900k buffers
Swap: 2031608k total, 250964k used, 1780644k free, 90364k cached

ASUS KeeeBoard

2009-01-08T19:34:00.003+08:00

Another cool gear from ASUS! The KeeeBoard! Obligatory pic below:

Scratching Another Itch

2008-11-02T14:02:00.004+08:00

Last week, I have scratched my other itch, a Fender Jazz Bass. This one is a Standard Jazz Bass, Made in Mexico (MIM). Now, improving my skill is another issue, he he he.

Scratching An Itch

2008-10-14T01:37:00.002+08:00

Is there an option in 'tar' to add a file on an archive and delete it upon adding? Well, there is -r (append) but it can't add files to a gzipped file. Well, I came up with a small hack:

#!/bin/bash
for blah in `ls *.ext` # list the desired files
do
tar rvf foo.tar $blah ; rm -rf $blah # append and delete the added file on the archive
done
gzip foo.tar # zip the archive

------

I haven't scratched my other itch, that is a Jazz Bass, he he he.

Boy Gapang: My Choice!

2008-09-20T16:39:00.004+08:00

My vote for Philippine Blogger's Choice Award is for Marhgil (www.macuha.com). Why did I vote for him? Simple, he's a buddy, on-line and off-line :)

Go Boy Gapang!

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GAS

2008-07-22T05:35:00.002+08:00

Gadget Acquisition Syndrome

Peavey Milestone BXP

With Zoom B2.1u

The review? The sound clip? Next time, if I'm not busy :D

HorniX - Part 1

2008-05-14T23:53:00.005+08:00

I have rolled out the initial ISO of the installer/distro that I have spinned for the company I'm working for. Here are the steps (from my patchy memory) in customizing/spinning.

If you have a defined set of RPMs, put it in one group in comps.xml, this will save you some time, rather than editing the supplied comps.xml. How do we implement that? On the machine where the RPMs are installed, issue rpm -qa > rpms.txt. Have a comps.xml that is something like this:

customdistro
CustomDistro
My Custom Distro.
true
false

package-name
......

System
Base System
Various core pieces of the system.
99

customdistro

Place all the RPMs in one directory (e.g. /path/to/build/RPMS/). To copy only the defined RPMS, execute this line:

rpm -qa --queryformat "%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm\n" | sort > packages.txt

Have a simple script to copy the unmodified RPMs from the original ISO/DVD:

#!/bin/bash
for file in `cat packages.txt`
do
cp /media/cdrom/Server/$file /path/to/build/RPMS/
done

Then copy the rebuilt/custom RPMs from /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/{arch}/ to /path/to/build/RPMS/

Copy the xml file inside the directory where the rpms are located (e.g. /path/to/build/RPMS/), cd to the directory and issue:

createrepo -c comps.xml .

This will produce a directory named repodata with the following files:

comps.xml filelists.xml.gz other.xml.gz primary.xml.gz repomd.xml

That's it for now :) Too sleepy and a bit drunk to type :)

Nifty NiX

2008-01-24T22:14:00.000+08:00

I was asked if I can create a DVD/CD installer optimized for a targeted application [some LAMP and Java stuff (yes Java!)]. Being the impulsive, yes I can nut case, I readily accepted the challenge. I only realized (after creating RPMs and applying patches) that I am basically spinning my own Linux Distro! I'm aware of Fedora re-spins and other packaging what-nots, but it is only now that I'm actually getting my hands dirty.

Getting intimate with clean RPMs, that is, creating RPMs out of sources with third party patches. Oh, and that pesky beast called Java! Then again, the peskier, the more I'm challenged :). More RTFM sessions and more coffee to drink. Hoping that by April, I'm already one of those thousands who have successfully delved with distro-making.

------------------------------------------------

And for the performance monitoring of systems, I came across with SystemTap. I'm still getting the hang of it. I'm also dubbing with writing some Nagios plug-ins (not really plug-ins but bash scripts on top of check_generic). People doesn't like me when I'm horny, err, busy :)

-----------------------------------------------

As promised, I found the link to the Zoom B2.1u cheat sheet, the pdf is located here.

Java And Other Cup of Updates

2008-01-14T23:12:00.000+08:00

I was able to resolve the issues regarding getting some information about JVM. I had to set the $JAVA_HOME first, then execute the the simple query. Why am I getting these information? I'm doing a simple installation auditing and dumping it to a text file that can be parsed by PHP. Part of this is also getting the server's date of installation. Utilized the simple line below to get the '/' date of creation:

dumpe2fs -h `df -h | awk '{print $1}' | sed -n '2p'` | grep Filesystem\ created | sed -n '2q;1p' | awk '{print $3,$4,$5,$6,$7}'

On a separate note, I gave my wife the information about wget. She have a list of files from different http locations and she needed to downloaded them at once. Using '-i' option of wget did the trick:

wget -i list-of-files.txt

-----------------------------------------------

I've been experimenting with my ZOOM B2.1u bass pedal and loving it more. I found some information on easily editing the patches. I have the 'cheat sheet' but forgot to bookmark the site. I'll be posting the site as soon as I googled it again :)

Holiday Rants And Updates

2008-01-02T21:54:00.000+08:00

Apple forced us to upgrade from Jaguar to Tiger! Why? Because the latest ipod doesn't work on Jaguar! The music player function on Nokia 6288 sucks! Why? No easy way to shift to another directory or album! Java sucks big time! When running this code snippet remotely, it wont pipe to file!

ssh remote hostname "/bin/sh /opt/tomcat/bin/version.sh | /bin/grep JVM\ Version > version.txt"

And the PLDT WeRoam service in my area (San Pascual, Batangas) is excruciatingly slow (gprs only)!

There you are, what a post to start the New Year.

QrooniX Quickies

2007-11-30T19:41:00.000+08:00

I have a set of files (500+) to put on archive. The files from different directories were generated by script from a bug tracker. The pathnames we saved into a text file. To archive those files, I used the following command:

tar cvzfT archivename.tar.gz file-list.txt

A colleague created a patch/hack in order to have bulk closing function on Eventum. I'll be posting here some screenshots and code snippets regarding the function.

Due to my not so recent re-kindling of music interest, I procured a Zoom B2.1u Bass Effects Pedal. Looks and feels solid. The available patchsets and other functions are abundant. Once I get the hang of it, I'll be posting a more detailed review/information.

Zoom B2.1u Bass Effects Pedal

Eddie Vedder: Into The Wild (Music For The Motion Picture)

2007-10-28T15:47:00.000+08:00

Last Friday (October 26), I received the package from Ten Club. It contain a shirt and the album.

Now, for the review. This is the first solo album of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. The sound is far from regular Pearl Jam staple; the absence of 'grunge/dirt'. A folk-sy and soulful ride that fit accordingly to the fateful adventure of Christopher McCandless. Eddie Vedder used classic steel guitar, mandolin, banjo and other strings I can't decipher. My personal favorite is Society ".. I hope you're not lonely without me".

All tracks were written by Eddie Vedder, except where noted:

1. "Setting Forth" – 1:37
2. "No Ceiling" – 1:34
3. "Far Behind" – 2:15
4. "Rise" – 2:36
5. "Long Nights" – 2:31
6. "Tuolumne" – 1:00
7. "Hard Sun" (Indio) – 5:22
8. "Society" (Jerry Hannan) – 3:56
9. "The Wolf" – 1:32
10. "End of the Road" – 3:19
11. "Guaranteed" – 7:22

Oh, why did I post this? (Apart from being a fan). This is my first international 'on-line' transaction!

PLDT WeRoam

2007-10-11T14:58:00.002+08:00

On the road at North Luzon Expressway. No disconnection from Valenzuela to San Fernando exits. Speed is relatively fast even on the road. Monitoring off-shore servers are still hitch free. Tunnel connections haven't been disconnected.

Update1: The connection was cut when we entered San Fernando City. And I turned my laptop off due to battery reasons.

Update2: Connection is good inside Subic Free Port.

Oh, and the supplied software doesn't work on Vista [not that I care :) ]

Another Find: Finding and Deleting Files Based On Date Creation

2007-09-12T20:33:00.000+08:00

To find and delete directories:

find -type d -mtime +n -daystart | xargs rm -rf

For files:

find -mtime +n -daystart | xargs rm -rf

To be sure, we can pipe the result to a text file to double-check the files:

find -mtime +n -daystart > find-result.txt

Enjoy deleting!

Restricted Bash (rbash) and Hack-ish Jail

2007-08-24T02:14:00.000+08:00

Why hack-ish? Well, I didn't use the formal chroot and other jail technologies to restrict some users. The premise is that certain users will use very basic set of commands:

ls
less
ping
tail
ps
top
grep

Create a group for the restricted users:

groupadd monitoringteam

Create a common home and bin directory:

mkdir -p /home/monitor/bin

Add a user:

useradd monitor-guy -g monitoringteam -d /home/monitor -s /bin/rbash

Create (or copy from /etc/skel) .bash_profile and .bashrc inside /home/monitor and add the following:

export PATH=~/bin

Go to the bin directory under /home/monitor and create the soft links of the basic commands:

cd /home/monitor/bin
ln -s /bin/command_here commandname_here

Note: some of the commands are at /usr/bin/, just use 'which' to know the paths. You can fine tune this set-up :) As I said, this is hack-ish, quick and grungy.

Monit and Tomcat

2007-08-18T10:28:00.000+08:00

Tomcat is acting up. We need to see if it died gracefully or hanged. Using monit we can monitor tomcat's pid. But what if it is hanging in there? So, using some monit option, we could check the tomcat's http response at port 8080.

## Monitor Tomcat's pid
check process tomcat with pidfile /opt/tomcat/logs/tomcat.pid
alert some.alerts@some.domain
mode passive
#
## Monitor Tomcat at port 8080
check host localhost with address 127.0.0.1
start program = "/etc/init.d/tomcat start"
stop program = "/etc/init.d/tomcat stop"
if failed port 8080 protocol http
then restart
alert some.alerts@some.domain

Reset monit services, stop the tomcat services and check the logs.

tail -f /var/log/monit.log

ps -ef | grep tomcat

Hhhmmm... something's weird. Monit didn't restart Tomcat. Check the logs and got these:

info : 'tomcat' start: /etc/init.d/tomcat
error : 'tomcat' failed to start

Googled some. I then put the /etc/init.d/tomcat start/stop on a simple script.

touch start-tomcat.sh
touch stop-tomcat.sh

And changed the /etc/init.d/ lines at monit.conf to:

start program = "/somedir/start-tomcat.sh"
start program = "/somedir/stop-tomcat.sh"

Test the configs and voila! Back to playing some basic bass stuff: 12 bar blues progression.

*Nix Tidbits

2007-08-17T10:17:00.000+08:00

Got this error/warning while restarting Apache on FreeBSD:

No such file or directory:
Failed to enable the ‘httpready’ Accept Filter

To resolve this, issue the following command:

kldload accf_http

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, some some directory was filled with thousands of files. To remove these files, you will issue:

rm -rf *

But if this error occurs:
- /bin/rm: Argument list too long

You may use use find and xarg. To do that, you can issue this command:

find . -type f -name '*string_here*' -print | xargs rm

Others may ask, why not use the -delete option instead of xargs rm? There are a lot of deployments that has an old version of find. :)

Linux Local Yum Repository

2007-07-16T21:04:00.000+08:00

Create the directories to be used:

mkdir -pv /var/www/html/centos/5/{base,updates}

Populate the base repository by copying all the rpms from the CDs/DVD.
Check if createrepo is installed:

rpm -qa | grep createrepo

If not, then:

yum -y install createrepo

Then issue the following command to create the headers:

createrepo /var/www/html/centos/5/base

To populate the updates, you may have to choose the nearest mirror to rsync. Issue to following command to sync with your chosen mirror:

rsync -avrt rsync://ftp.iij.ad.jp/centos/packages/centos/5.0/updates/i386 \ --exclude=debug/ /var/www/html/centos/5/updates

Order some pizza and buy a six pack :)

Set the local machines to get their updates from your local repo:

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=http://10.2.*.*/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=os
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5

#released updates
[update]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
baseurl=http://10.2.*.*/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=updates
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5

Linux LVM -- Adding New Volume

2007-07-15T14:36:00.000+08:00

# fdisk /dev/sdb

Create the the necessary partitions. (e.g. /dev/sdb1)
Format the new partition
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
Label the new formatted partition
# e2label /dev/sdb1 New_name_here
Initialize the creation of a new volume
# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
Join /dev/sdb1 on a new volume
# vgcreate VolGroup01 /dev/sdb1
# vgchange -ay VolGroup01
# vgdisplay VolGroup01 | grep "Total PE"

Use the output of Total PE (e.g. 8677)

# lvcreate 8677 -n LogVol01 VolGroup01
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00

Change or add an entry in /etc/fstab

# vi /etc/fstab

Add the following:

/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 /home/USERS ext3 defaults 1 1

Save and quit :wq

# mount /home/USERS

That's it!

KSC Glock 26C Mini Review

2007-07-11T10:50:00.000+08:00

The 26C is a fictional mod for Glock 26 (the full auto function). A nice gun to hold and behold. As always, Glocks have that ergonomic design for the grips.

Easy to handle even for my fairly large hands. Using green gas, I was able to puncture the bottom of a soda can in 3 shots.

At 12 feet away, below is the result (I'm a lousy shooter).

I don't usually use the full auto function as I'm using a stronger gas. This pistol is a perfect back-up for my Steyr AUG.

Sepultura: Revolusongs

2007-06-30T13:20:00.000+08:00

In 2003, Sepultura released this EP in Brazil and Japan. There are seven (plus one bonus) cover tracks on Revolusongs.

"Messiah" – 3:27 (Hellhammer cover)
"Angel" – 5:13 (Massive Attack cover)
"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" – 4:02 (Public Enemy cover)
"Mongoloid" – 2:35 (Devo cover)
"Mountain Song" – 3:28 (Jane's Addiction cover)
"Bullet the Blue Sky" – 4:34 (U2 cover)
"Piranha" – 3:39 (Exodus cover)
"Enter Sandman" - 1:11 (Metallica cover)

I may not be a fan of Derrick Green (Sepultura's current vocalist) but this outing is respectable.

Airsoft

2007-05-30T13:35:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday night, I replaced some of the parts of my TM Steyr AUG A2. I acquired a tight bore barrel, new spring and o-ring for the piston head. The tight bore barrel is Mad Bull Black Python BP509 509mm (6.03 mm inner diameter). True to it's claim, grouping and range were improved. The PDI 260% spring added more power to my gun. And the o-ring sealed some airleaks. Come Sunday games, I was satisfied with the performance of my riffle.

Next upgrades would be the Guarder Infinite Torque-Up gear set and Half-teeth Polycarbonate Piston. Additionally, I'll have to procure a 9.6V NiMh battery set. Below is the picture of Mad Bull tight bore barrel (taken from their website).

Back to ASUS

2007-05-30T11:03:00.000+08:00

After using my wife's Apple iBook for 2 weeks, I'm now back to using my ASUS A6B00R (Fedora Core 6). I will have to upgrade OS X to 10.4 before I can install some *nix apps. In my line of work, I need monitoring tools like Wireshark and EtherApe. But I love GarageBand, thinking of installing OSX on this ASUS notebook (hint: Project OSX86).

define: perfervid

2007-05-24T12:25:00.000+08:00

Reading opinion columns causes my nose to bleed. I have to type define: keyword-here to let google search for the definition of some words new to me. Below is the definition of perfervid, I lifted it from WordNet:

Adjective

S: (adj) ardent, fervent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, perfervid, torrid (characterized by intense emotion) "ardent love"; "an ardent lover"; "a fervent desire to change society"; "a fervent admirer"; "fiery oratory"; "an impassioned appeal"; "a torrid love affair"

RTFM

2007-05-23T21:30:00.000+08:00

RTFM Qroon! I enjoyed the speed (70-100 KB/s) of the 'linksys' connection. I was able to download GIMPshop at Plastic Bugs. Then, engk! X11 is needed!

Leeching WIFI and Adium

2007-05-23T20:47:00.000+08:00

Leeching on generic "linksys" connection somewhere here in Makati. And I'm now enjoying Adium. It is similar to Pidgin/GAIM and Trillian. More info tomorrow or when I'm not busy. Below is the result of the speed test:

:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 338 Kbps about 0.34 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Download Speed is:: 41 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 160 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 20 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Server 2)
Test Time:: 2007/05/23 - 7:51am
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-ZV7Q5W1RD
U-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-J7PURLEYN
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3 [!]

Nothing

2007-04-25T15:38:00.000+08:00

New in this weblog. Endian Firewall si running relatively smooth. BitDefender on my mail server works nice. Well, my wife is not happy with Safari. She's now using Firefox. And I hate blogger's auto complete feature for tags!

Blogging From Safari

2007-04-05T14:33:00.000+08:00

On OS X 10.3.5.

I will have to update this iBook (my wife's). Still exploring the system. First thing I did? Go to the command line :) The buttons on Blogger's editor are not present. Will download Firefox later.

________________

I have updated OS X here (10.3.9). Will wait for Leopard (10.5) before we roll out a major upgrade. I'm still pissed off because scrolling on trackpad is not available. More information later.

________________

Since this iBook's RAM is measly 512 MB (compared to my ASUS, 1GB), we will have to upgrade to 1 or 1.5 GB to accomodate Leopard. Lest we will just content to Tiger.

Nissan Patrol - 2007 Super Safari Series

2007-03-15T16:06:00.000+08:00

The new Nissan Patrol

I will be posting more details tommorow. For now, you may contact this guys:

Jofer B. Tongson (jof.nissan.crvi@gmail.com)
Direct Line: (632) 818-4598 Mobile: 0917-8964296
Allan E. Rebosa (allan.nissan.crvi@gmail.com)
Mobile: 0919-2065398 Mobile: 0927-2342231

Ituloy AngSulong SEO Blues

2007-02-19T11:07:00.000+08:00

Well, the Ituloy AngSulong SEO contest will be over by Feb. 23. Who will win? Nothing is final yet. Our Ituloy AngSulong entry was targeted by black hat attacks. Hhhmm, I wonder why. We at Ituloy AngSulong Movement are hoping to get the top spot. An uneasy task for SEO newbies like us.

Unbreakable Linux?

2007-02-05T19:44:00.000+08:00

Unbreakable Linux?

I don't Think so...

Apple iPhone

2007-01-15T14:51:00.000+08:00

Bloggers, journalists, fanboys and techies are debating, ranting and raving about Apple iPhone. Just after a few days, iPhone themes for Windows mobile have popped up in the web. And the Apple sharks, errr, lawyers are bullying the bloggers and theme makers. Tsk! Oh, did I mention that Cisco is the trademark owner of the name iPhone?

Ricoh Card Reader on Fedora Core 6

2007-01-02T10:16:00.000+08:00

Jan 2 09:46:25 localhost kernel: mmcblk0: mmc0:0001 000000 62720KiB
Jan 2 09:46:25 localhost kernel: mmcblk0: p1
Jan 2 09:46:26 localhost hald: mounted /dev/mmcblk0p1 on behalf of uid 500

The only issue I haven't checked is the wifi access.

Wooden Beauty

2006-12-20T15:55:00.000+08:00

Now this is indeed wicked and cool for me. Made me think of doing the same thing with the old laptops at home or make a bamboo casing for an old computer. Check out this site for more information about this wooden beauty. Oh, and by the way, it is powered by Gentoo GNU/Linux.

Fedora Core 6 on ASUS A6B00R Update

2006-12-18T11:48:00.000+08:00

Wheeew... a very long title. With minimal contents. Anyway, sound is already working on my FC6 installation. After tweaking the some settings using alsamixer, lo and behold! Sound is working! My concerns right now are the wireless connectivity and the RICOH card reader. I will post some updates regarding the aforementioned issues.

Here is a snippet of lspci:

02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
02:01.1 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
02:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

Visitor

2006-12-06T19:45:00.000+08:00

A visitor from Redmond? What are the data centers there? Nah, grand illusions...

Search Engines

2006-12-04T16:05:00.000+08:00

This may not be a news, but I stumbled upon two relatively new search sites; SearchMash and Clusty.

SearchMash is owned by Google. It is aimed to "test innovative user interfaces." New algorithm and other functions are tested in SearchMash. In effect, this will be the new Google, as the innovations here will be rolled out in Google. The interface looks "modern" compared to Google.

The side panels present previews of Images, Blogs, Videos and Wikipedia search results. Users can also rate if the results were accurate or helpful.

Clusty is a metasearch engine from Vivismo. You may check out basic information from this Wikipedia Article or try doing some search at their site.

Happy searching!

Proxy and Everything After

2006-11-29T13:34:00.000+08:00

User: Why am I experiencing delays with Yahoo Messenger?
BOFH: No. 1, Yahoo doesn't guarantee the timeliness of their service. No. 2, you are accessing it via the company's proxy server, expect some delays as the server is caching the traffic.
User: I can't accept that! I need real time access to YM! I want to chat with my... my... my...
BOFH: Your..?
User: .. my client!
BOFH: Real time access is not possible.
User: And why can't I access YouTube and Friendster? You are unreasonable!
BOFH: Don't tell me that you need to communicate with your client via friendster and youtube...
User: Gaaaahhhh!

BOFH goes back to check access logs.

Dansguardian on Endian

2006-11-27T14:41:00.000+08:00

I noticed that dansguardian uses a lot of CPU resources. I'll be investigating more about this issue. Below is a snippet of top command:

Tasks: 70 total, 2 running, 68 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 33.3% us, 0.7% sy, 0.0% ni, 65.7% id, 0.3% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2059760k total, 966792k used, 1092968k free, 111504k buffers
Swap: 524656k total, 172k used, 524484k free, 653008k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
30674 nobody 16 0 36216 32m 1468 S 32.2 1.6 0:03.32 dansguardian
26836 nobody 16 0 36420 32m 1488 S 0.7 1.6 0:13.14 dansguardian
26837 nobody 15 0 36248 32m 1476 S 0.3 1.6 0:05.30 dansguardian
30522 nobody 16 0 36320 32m 1476 S 0.3 1.6 0:12.77 dansguardian
30673 nobody 16 0 36236 32m 1476 S 0.3 1.6 0:03.88 dansguardian

And here's the proxy server's specs:

root@kalasag:~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 2993.179

root@kalasag:~ # cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 2059760 kB
MemFree: 1089720 kB
Buffers: 111548 kB
Cached: 655368 kB
SwapCached: 168 kB
Active: 742396 kB
Inactive: 142920 kB
HighTotal: 1162428 kB
HighFree: 389056 kB
LowTotal: 897332 kB
LowFree: 700664 kB
SwapTotal: 524656 kB
SwapFree: 524484 kB

Network Martial Law

2006-11-24T14:17:00.000+08:00

For more than a week, my installation of Linux-Based Endian Firewall is already wrecking stubborn users in our corporate network. Initially, the default set-up was very strict. So strict that even my boss asked me to loosen up a little bit.

GMail Goodies

2006-11-24T14:13:00.000+08:00

If anyone out there who lives under the rock and interested to have a GMail account, send me a request at:

kapihan[at]gmail[dot]com

Yes, I'll pick up GMail over Yahoo Mail anytime.

Gin, Angelica and Photoshop

2006-11-23T11:20:00.000+08:00

These pictures of Angelica Panganiban have been flooding in my mailbox. All I can say is: Photoshop is great! (or GIMP). Other photos can be found at Kapihan ni Qroon.

The Java Experience

2006-11-16T19:35:00.000+08:00

How I love the old logo. :)

Network Security Blues

2006-11-09T18:53:00.000+08:00

This past few days I have been investigating the traffic in our corporate network. I'm looking into deploying some "canned" Open Source solution like Endian Firewall and Strata Guard. This will keep me busy tommorow until Saturday. I hope that by Monday, "martial law" in our network is already laid out well.

Gmail Hiccups

2006-11-07T12:30:00.000+08:00

Server Error

Gmail is temporarily unavailable. Cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

The Sweet Kiss of Death for the Penguin-Chameleon. From Microsoft

2006-11-07T12:09:00.000+08:00

Microsoft and Novell signed a historical partnership, that could not have been possible a year ago. Is that the beginning of the end for Novell?

It seems the negotiations have begun more than six months ago, but have been kept secret until now due to the importance of this matter for both parties: the open source community on one hand and the proprietary software companies on the other.

More from this article.

Updates

2006-11-07T10:30:00.000+08:00

So, I haven't posted any updates about my experience with Fedora Core 6 on ASUS A6B00R. Well, I haven't dubbed around it because of the soundcard issue. ATI IXP is still a hit or miss. I'm still trying out different combination in Alsa Mixer. Visually, the theme is the conservative Red Hat look, using the Bluecurve iconset. My consolation here is the speed issue. It feels faster than the Win XP installation on my other partition. More Linux blues in the next few days.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

2006-11-01T13:32:00.000+08:00

So, this is not technology related. But it's part of my lame attempt to write in english. Well, I bought this book yesterday and finished reading it this morning. A more mature story-telling of of the classic fairy tale Cinderella. Narrated from the point of view of the "ugly stepsisters". The book delves into human nature, sacrifices, and struggles. Some struggle to escape from the claws of poverty leads to the corruption of morals. A tale with murder, betrayal, greed and arts! Read it, love it and hate it.

Fedora Core 6

2006-10-25T12:01:00.000+08:00

I left the download of ISOs yesterday. I will be installing FC6 (Zod) on my laptop and will post some feedback tommorow. Happy Linuxing!

Fedora Core 6 Mirror

2006-10-23T18:04:00.000+08:00

Here is a mirror that works (read: not slashdotted yet):

http://coblitz.planet-lab.org/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/i386/iso/

Working in Computer Factories May Increase Cancer Risk

2006-10-20T12:04:00.000+08:00

Building computers may bestow an increased risk of several kinds of cancer, according to an analysis of a large mortality database available. Brain, kidney and breast cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were more common causes of death for IBM employees than the rest of the population...

Suzerainty

2006-10-20T11:19:00.000+08:00

Suzerainty (soó-zer-en-tee, -ze-rayn'-tee) is a situation in which a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which allows the tributary some limited domestic autonomy but controls its foreign affairs.

A new word a day, keeps my head OK. Tsk! Bad rhyming eh? Well, maybe I'll do better next time. :)

Pirates, Batman, Gun and Rogue

2006-10-19T12:10:00.000+08:00

Pirates, there are many pirates. Software, music, literary pirates. Almost everything can be pirated. I had some discussions regarding this issue. One of the reasons why piracy is rampant: Economics. Most the people who buy/download pirated things said that it's about the price.

The original CDs/DVDs are very expensive.

Why do I have to buy the original if I can download it?

These are some of their reasons. Indeed, the price of the original discs are very costly especially for rank and file employees like me. The cost of the albums by foreign artists is between 400 to 500 pesos. And the DVDs, from 600 to 900 pesos. Some people might snap, then why do you want to buy that discs/movies if you can't afford it? Uhhmm, because television sucks? Because even rank and file people can 'digest' it? I think the industry (music/film) are already working out to lower the costs. I saw some original (foreign) albums with only the discs (sans the booklets). those are priced at around 250 pesos. Not bad at all. But will they lower it? Maybe.

I already finished reading the Batman titles I mentioned before. Very nice read. The TPBs are worth collecting. By the way, here is a picture of my TM Samurai Edge. Finally, here is a preview of a new SUV from Nissan.

Back To The Meaning....

2006-10-18T17:09:00.000+08:00

I have been very busy with my family, job and hobbies. So what is the latest? I just finished reading DC's Identity Crisis. It is a seven-issue comic book limited series. I got the latest edition (Trade paper back) of the said title. An excellent read indeed. For spoilers, you may check out the Wikipedia entry. I'm also planning to procure the other crisis titles like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. Next read will be Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory.

On the wishlist at my other blog, I wanted a TM M9 Tactical Master. Instead, I got the TM Samurai Edge custom. And since I'm reading reviews about AEGs, I'm eyeing for an ICS C-15 Fixed Stock.

Next time I'll post a short review about my TM Samurai Edge and some Gundam blues.

Retro Mode

2006-07-06T21:50:00.000+08:00

My friend borrowed my laptop for a project. These past few days, I'm using an old box. Fedora Core 4 is running nice on Pentium III 450 MHz and 320 MB RAM. Of course I have to use a light window manager, this time it's my old favorite WindowMaker. WM is readily available on FC4's yum repository.

I'm also in the process of looking for lighter apps. Dillo web browser is fine for reading some news and blogs. But I'm still using FireFox for blogging and Gmail purposes. For other email services, I'm using Sylpheed-Claws. I'm also looking into using XChat for IM purposes via BitlBee. As always, I use XMMS (Classic WinAmp-like app) for audio playing. As for office application (though I rarely use it), I use Abiword and Gnumeric.

Uploadr for Linux

2006-07-02T20:01:00.000+08:00

I was looking for a Linux port of the Flickr's tool to upload the pictures I took a while ago. I then found this tool. It is very similar too the official Flickr uploader but there are some limitations. More from it's website.

Another Smart Bro Blues

2006-06-26T21:16:00.000+08:00

I decided to update one of my Fedora Core box. Below is one of the result:

(2/346): glibc-common-2.3 100% |=========================| 16 MB 30:53

Notice that it took 30 mins. and 53 secs. for a 16 MB file! Wheew! Craptastic connection!

Freeloaders Beware

2006-06-23T02:13:00.000+08:00

A reminder to WiFi freeloaders: WiFi freeloader arrested in Washington.

Next time, buy a cup of coffee at least. :)

SeaMonkey, Opera and IE Rendering

2006-06-22T23:24:00.000+08:00

Figure 1: SeaMonkey/1.0.2

Figure 2: Opera/9.00

Figure 3: Internet Exporer 6

All the screenshots feature the same portion of my other blog, Kapihan ni Qroon. SeaMonkey is the only browser that was able to correctly display the contents of the said blog. Both Opera and Internet Explorer (I.E.) missed a lot of portions. I.E is far worse because it inserts a blank space, notice the gap/spaces present at Bakya ni Neneng et. al.?

Opera and Firefox Rendering

2006-06-21T09:17:00.000+08:00

Work Route

2006-06-18T20:34:00.000+08:00

From My Place to Workplace, one of my justifications in letting Google Earth eat up some of my precious computing resources.

Audacity

2006-06-18T16:14:00.000+08:00

I did some search to find some plug-ins that can import AAC/M4A and convert it to OGG or MP3 using Audacity. Too bad, there wasn't a plug-in, more info here. Anyway there was a duct tape solution but it will surely degrade the audio quality.

Free Internet

2006-06-17T19:17:00.000+08:00

There used to be 2 spots here in the Waltermart area, GlobeQuest (with fee of course) and one generic Linksys SSID. But today, when I scanned the area for wifi connection, I was surprised to find a free connection with this SSID, FREE_INTERNET. The signal was good and the speed is fine. I asked around and found out that this free wifi access was provided by Don Bosco. Well, thanks guys!

Help Us Save the Barako

2006-06-07T13:27:00.000+08:00

Two hundred years ago, the Philippines was one of the world's top coffee producers. Today, the Barako coffee plant is on its way to extinction. To learn more about the plight of our local Coffee Industry and How You Can Help, visit our website at www.savethebarako.org

Fedora Core 5 Re-Spins

2006-06-05T00:33:00.000+08:00

Fedora Unity released the Fedora Core 5 re-spins, DVD isos for both i386 and x86_64. These re-spins are useful for deploying updated versions of FC5.

Ubuntu-PH Meet

2006-06-05T00:14:00.000+08:00

I've been to the Ubuntu-PH Dapper launch party at Green Belt 3. The usual Ubuntu-PH suspects are there (jsgotangco, ealden, CuriousCat, jmibanez, eclair, godiane, fishfillet, joelbryan and a bunch other people whose nicks I forgot :D). Some pictures are here. Godiane and jsgotangco, thanks for the stickers! CuriousCat thanks for the Xubuntu cd!

Laptop Blues

2006-06-02T10:58:00.000+08:00

Ok, it's my fault that I didn't researched first before buying our laptop. Then again, I was hoping that newer versions of Linux Distros will work fine. Now, I did some research but I think I have to wait for few releases in order for our laptop to be fully supported. Some info:

A6R on Ubuntu
A6R on Fedora

For now, FC5, Ubuntu and CentOS will just sit on VMWare.

Smart Bro Update

2006-05-28T00:43:00.000+08:00

Now I know why a lot of users are complaining about Smart Bro's services. Here's one of my tests:

Packets: Sent = 367, Received = 222, Lost = 145 (39% loss)

Picasa for Linux

2006-05-26T19:53:00.000+08:00

Google 'ported' it's photo tool Picasa to Linux. 'Ported' because it relies on WINE, much like native Win32 apps running on Linux. Thing is, the link is not available outside the U.S., might as well use proxies like WebWarper. Here is the WebWarper link to Picasa for Linux download.

More Smart BRO

2006-05-17T20:11:00.000+08:00

Below are the results from different bandwidth meters:

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 287 Kbps about 0.29 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)
Download Speed is:: 35 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Server 2)
Test Time:: 2006/05/17 - 7:04am
Bottom Line:: 5X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 29.26 sec
Tested from a 579 kB file and took 16.531 seconds to complete
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060404 SeaMonkey/1.0.1
Diagnosis: May need help : running at only 79.5 % of your hosts average (183.218)
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-6OLT5BWIF

SpeakEasy.net
Download Speed: 254 kbps (31.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 221 kbps (27.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

BandWidthPlace.com
Communications 258.1 kilobits per second
Storage 31.5 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 32.5 seconds
Subjective rating Mediocre

Get SeaMonkey

2006-05-16T00:05:00.000+08:00

From the SeaMonkey Project Page

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to deliver production-quality releases of code derived from the application formerly known as "Mozilla Application Suite". Whereas the main focus of the Mozilla Foundation is on Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird, our group of dedicated volunteers works to ensure that you can have "everything but the kitchen sink" — and have it stable enough for corporate use.

Smart BRO

2006-05-15T18:20:00.000+08:00

So, Smart BRO (fixed wireless broadband) was already installed at my place. The connection is intermittent. It's fast when connection is available. Imagine a Nissan Sentra trekking the Pinatubo slopes. My gripes:

Private IP Address (I can't put up a small live web/mail server)
Unreliable connection (below is the result of traceroute):

1 7 ms 4 ms 7 ms 192.168.XXX.1
3 11 ms * * 203.87.252.1
4 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms 203.87.128.91
5 11 ms 14 ms 17 ms 210.5.65.97
6 * 48 ms * 58.71.0.141
7 176 ms * * POS3-2.IG3.SAC1.ALTER.NET [157.130.195.181]
8 * 175 ms * 0.so-2-2-0.XL1.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.54.122]
9 * 187 ms * 0.so-5-0-0.XL1.SCL2.ALTER.NET [152.63.57.41]
10 * 179 ms * 0.so-6-0-0.BR1.SCL2.ALTER.NET [152.63.57.49]
11 * 194 ms 191 ms 204.255.174.54
12 * * 179 ms svx-core-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.214.133]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * 181 ms pax-edge-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.214.30]
15 * 190 ms 189 ms 72.165.46.26
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * 190 ms 72.14.233.131
18 195 ms * 197 ms 216.239.49.146
19 * 186 ms * 66.102.7.147
20 * 188 ms 191 ms 66.102.7.147

I'll test the connection further.

Oranges

2006-05-11T09:21:00.000+08:00

Here is a nice rant/article about Macs and the prevailing attitude of its users.

OSNews

2006-05-04T13:20:00.000+08:00

Is it just me, or OSNews is kinda flaky these days? I'm getting a lot of that default error regarding their database.

Disclaimers

2006-04-30T01:45:00.000+08:00

Through googling we found some solutions to automatically attach disclaimers (I know it is evil) on mails coming from a qmail-powered smtp server. The utility is altermime, and here is the link to deploy it on qmailrocks installation.

My Saturday Night

2006-04-24T07:46:00.000+08:00

Last Friday I installed the Ubuntu Dapper Beta on my laptop. Everything went fine (particularly, my videocard and the correct resolution was detected) until I reboot to see the set-up. My Win32 installation was borked! Google here I come, search galore. I ended downloading utilities like BartPE, Active Undelete, GetDataBack and a bunch of utilities for a Win32 Live CD.

Armed with the Live CD, my wife's threats, an FC4 box with SAMBA services, a cross-cable, music by Mishka Adams, Pearl Jam, Blind Melon and Butthole Surfers, and a pack of Winston Lights, I was able to salvage 85% of our files. What happened to the other 15%, asked by one of the guys at #ubuntu-ph? Well, the cluster where the files used to reside was already filled with the Dapper installation. Luckily most of my daughter's photos are intact.

Will I still continue using Ubuntu? Well, maybe, but to be honest my wife (and me) is more comfortable with Fedora Core. But whatever works fine will be enough. :)