Laziness Café

Thoughts of Buddha...

2023-04-11T10:28:00.006-05:00

They asked Buddha what surprised him most about humanity, and he answered:

"Men, who lose their health to make money, and then lose their money to regain their health. They think anxiously about the future, and forget the present, so much that they end up not living in the present or the future. They live as if they will never die and die as if they have never lived."

Only when you are at peace with yourself can you be at peace with others

2023-04-10T09:50:00.002-05:00

I share this reflection because I agree with some points...

Only when you are at peace with yourself can you be at peace with others.
Only when you handle your solitude can you handle a relationship.
You need to value yourself to value, love yourself to love, respect yourself to respect, and accept yourself to accept, because no one can give what they don't have within themselves.
No relationship will give you the peace that you don't already have within you.
No relationship will provide the happiness that you don't build yourself.
You can only be happy with someone else when you are capable of saying to them with conviction, "I don't need you to be happy."
You can only love when you are independent, to the point where you don't have to manipulate or control those you claim to love.
Two happy people can only come together to share their happiness, not to make each other happy.
To love, you need humble self-sufficiency, self-esteem, and the practice of responsible freedom.
Pretending that another person can make us happy and fulfill all our expectations is a narcissistic fantasy that only brings frustrations.
Therefore, love yourself a lot, grow up, and the day you can say to the other person, "I can have a good time without you," that day you will be more prepared to live in a relationship.
Only by being well on the inside can we attract valuable people into our lives.
To be able to love another person, we must first learn to love ourselves.

~~Full version in Spanish is here: http://titosan.blogspot.com/2008/10/slo-cuando-ests-bien-contigo-mismo.html~~

Update: It seems that the original website no longer exists, which is a shame!

How to customise your Office 365 installation

2023-04-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

Hi. Since now Microsoft doesn't let us customise our Office installation and you probably don't want to install programs you're never going to use such as Access or Outlook (in my case), I made this brief guide to circumvent this annoyance.

To be able to customise your installation, you need to perform two steps: download the Office offline installer and install this offline installer using a customisation file. Let's get to it.

1) Prepare your setup

Since I have an education account, I performed the steps for Office for Business; if you have Office for Home, your process is a little different. In either case, you can see a very detailed guide by Microsoft here.

Create a folder on your hard drive and name it ODT. For this example, we'll create it on the c:\ drive, like so: c:\ODT.
Download the Office 2016 Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center. Select Save As and save it to your downloads folder.
In your downloads folder, double-click the Office Deployment Tool exe file to install it.
In the Browse for Folder dialog, select the ODT folder you created in earlier, and then click OK.

2) Download the Office offline installer

Once again, the process depends on the version of Office. In this example I'm going to download the files for Office 365 32 bits. If you want another version, see the full guide by Microsoft here.

1. Create a new text file in the ODT folder and name it installOfficeProPlus32.xml.

2. Copy and paste the following into the newly created text file (you can also change the language ID if you need another language):

3. Press Ctrl + R to open the Run dialog.

4. In the Run dialog, type the following exactly as shown below and click OK:

c:\odt\setup.exe /download installOfficeProPlus32.xml

A blank dialog box appears with c:\ODT\setup.exe in the title bar. The Office installation files should start downloading to the ODT folder on your computer.

It can take a while to finish downloading and it may look like nothing is happening while the files are downloading. You'll know the installation is complete once the dialog box closes on its own, and a new folder called Office appears in the ODT folder you created earlier.

3) Customise the installation file

Great, now you have the offline installer.

Before you install, let's edit installOfficeProPlus32.xml once again to add the programs you want to exclude from the installation, like this:

As you can see, you should add for each program you don't want to install. Pretty easy.

This is the list of the allowed IDs by the way:

ID="Access"
ID="Excel"
ID="Groove"
ID="Lync"
ID="OneDrive"
ID="OneNote"
ID="Outlook"
ID="PowerPoint"
ID="Publisher"
ID="Teams"
ID="Word"

For a detailed guide of how you can customise the installation file, see this guide by Microsoft.

4) Install Office

Finally, open Run (Ctrl + R) once again and type the following:

c:\odt\setup.exe /configure installOfficeProPlus32.xml

Click OK and your customised installation will begin.

The Rat Race

2023-04-09T20:52:00.000-05:00

The book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki describes something he defines as "The Rat Race," which is more or less the way many of us enslave ourselves for life. Let's see what he says:

"If you look at the life of the average-educated, hard-working person, there is a similar path. The child is born and goes to school. The proud parents are excited because the child excels, gets fair to good grades, and is accepted into a college. The child graduates, maybe goes on to graduate school and then does exactly as programmed: looks for a safe, secure job or career. The child finds that job, maybe as a doctor or a lawyer, or joins the Army or works for the government. Generally, the child begins to make money, credit cards start to arrive in mass, and the shopping begins, if it already hasn't.

Having money to burn, the child goes to places where other young people just like them hang out, and they meet people, they date, and sometimes they get married. Life is wonderful now, because today, both men and women work. Two incomes are bliss. They feel successful, their future is bright, and they decide to buy a house, a car, a television, take vacations and have children.

The happy bundle arrives. The demand for cash is enormous. The happy couple decides that their careers are vitally important and begin to work harder, seeking promotions and raises. The raises come, and so does another child and the need for a bigger house. They work harder, become better employees, even more dedicated. They go back to school to get more specialized skills so they can earn more money. Maybe they take a second job.

Their incomes go up, but so does the tax bracket they're in and the real estate taxes on their new large home, and their Social Security taxes, and all the other taxes. They get their large paycheck and wonder where all the money went. They buy some mutual funds and buy groceries with their credit card. The children reach 5 or 6 years of age, and the need to save for college increases as well as the need to save for their retirement.

That happy couple, born 35 years ago, is now trapped in the Rat Race for the rest of their working days. They work for the owners of their company, for the government paying taxes, and for the bank paying off a mortgage and credit cards.

Then, they advise their own children to `study hard, get good grades, and find a safe job or career.' They learn nothing about money, except from those who profit from their naïveté, and work hard all their lives. The process repeats into another hard-working generation. This is the `Rat Race'."

Regardless of whether one believes in the tenets of the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad," I think we all agree that the majority of us fall exactly into that rat race...

How to create exact-size (50 GB, 100 GB, 200 GB...) partitions for Windows 10

2019-01-28T16:14:00.001-05:00

So you want to see a round number when you open the file explorer because for some unexplainable reason it gives you inner peace? Well, to each their own I guess!

TL; DR formula:

(X + 0.566) x 1024 = Y MB

Where X = the partition size you want, and the result is in MB because the installer prompts to enter the size in MB and not GB.

So, the explanation for this formula is that you have to do is take into account the fact that the Windows 10 installer creates several small, hidden partitions when you're partitioning your hard drive, so when you enter the partition size you desire, the installer takes some of that size for its own small system partitions, and that's way it was difficult to calculate a round number for the partition size.

What you should do instead is that, during the installation, when you have enter the partition size, you're going to sum the size of the system partitions in the total amount.

For this, just keep in mind that Windows 10 creates 3 system partitions with the following sizes: 450 MB, 100 MB and 16 MB = 566 MB

Now, if you want, let's say, a 200 GB partition, you need to include the additional system partitions for a total of 200.5660 GB.

Last but nos least, the installer needs you to enter the size in MB. Since 1 GB is actually 1024 MB, you have to multiply:

200.5660 x 1024 = 205,379.584 or 205,380

And that's the value you need to enter during the installation in orden to have a round 200 GB partition.

Let me know in the comments if this worked for you!

How to bypass the Google account protection (FRP) on Moto G5s Plus (and probably others)

2019-01-25T13:26:00.000-05:00

This tutorial is for those who got locked out of their phones due to a security feature that prevents you from using your cellphone without entering the last used Google Account. This feature is called FRP or Android Device Protection and this tutorial tells you how to bypass it.

Step one: Prepare your computer:

Download and install the Motorola drivers (Motorola Device Manager) from: https://support.motorola.com/us/en/solution/MS88481
Download a program called Motorola FRP which is included in the following .rar file and removes the protection: https://mega.nz/#!gUowkCZA!mvAKiDc5Iq3LftqOwz4qpfJ_S3rkywaTqtIqmFz4aKI

Step two: Phone

Turn off your phone.
Turn on the phone in Fastboot mode like this:

Press and hold the Volume Down button.

While continuing to hold Volume down, press and release the Power button but continue to hold Volume down until the boot mode screen appears.

If you see an image of an Android like the following, you're on the right path:

Step three: Unlock

Now, connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
In your computer, open the file Motorola_FRP.exe which is within the .rar file. This file asks for a password which is in a text file next to the program.
Now you should wait, the program will detect the device and will restart the device several times.
After the 3rd, the program will prompt us to allow USB debug -- Wait until the USB debug message appears on the cellphone and allow.
The device will restart for the last time, the program will display the message "DONE" and our Moto G5s Plus will be unlocked :)

This works for Android version 7.1.1 and it probably works for other Motorola models.

Did you find this useful? Did it work for your phone? Let us know in the comments!

My favourite part from "The Theory of Everything"

2015-01-30T18:53:00.001-05:00

[2014]

"It is clear that we are just an advanced breed of primates on a minor planet orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. But ever since the dawn of civilization people have craved for an understanding of the underlying order of the world. There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the Universe. And what can be more special than that there is no boundary. And there should be no boundary to human endeavour. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”

Since I'm in a good mood, here's a little bonus :)

One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.

— Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Some motivation...

2012-11-02T22:46:00.003-05:00

Instead of wondering where your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.

– Seth Godin

How to export book annotations from Kobo Touch

2012-10-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

Highlighting text from the books you're reading is one of my favorite features in my very precious Kobo Touch. They are called "annotations" and unfortunately there is no obvious way to export these to your PC in case that you want to use them or save them. However, here I'll explain a not-difficult way to export your annotations to a file in your PC for later use.

Your Kobo has a database which saves information about the books you're reading, including the annotations your take. What we'll do is take the annotations from such database and save them in a file. Piece of cake. Here's what we do:

1. Let's find our database!

Connect your Kobo to your PC. Browse the content with your file browser and you'll see Kobo's folder: ".kobo", inside you'll find a file called "KoboReader.sqlite", that's our database.

2. Let's prepare our environment:

Create a new folder somewhere in your PC, I'll call it "Koboann". Copy the database KoboReader.sqlite from your Kobo device to this folder.

3. Get the program to read the database:

This database can be read with a small and very practical database engine called SQLite. Go here http://www.sqlite.org/download.html and download the procompiled binary (the executable) for Windows (or your OS whatever it is).

Unzip the file (sqlite3.exe in the case of Windows) in the Koboann folder.

4. Let's read the database and extract those annotations:

Create a new file and call it "work.bat", edit it and copy the following:

sqlite3 KoboReader.sqlite < extr_annotations.txt

Now create a txt file and call it "extr_annotations.txt" and copy the following:

.output annotations.doc
.separator "\r\n"
SELECT VolumeID, Text, Annotation
FROM Bookmark;
.exit

5. Final check and result:

Now you must have 4 files in your Koboann folder:

Now double click work.bat and that's it! A file called annotations.doc will appear in the same folder with the annotation info you need.

--------

The original idea comes from the Kobo Reader forum in MobileRead forums (I can't find the exact post :s), I tweaked the parameters to fit my needs, feel free to add your own ideas and share them.

Depressing comic: So true!

2012-08-25T13:28:00.004-05:00

Is it possible to build a friendship on the ashes of a relationship?

2012-02-02T23:33:00.001-05:00

What do you think?

Human thinking

2011-12-26T11:15:00.002-05:00

This is usually the cycle of human thought, isn't it?

A nice quote from "Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows"

2011-08-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

(...) It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.

-- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, p 718.

Invictus

2011-06-17T19:27:00.000-05:00

"Invictus" is a short Victorian poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) (and also that film about Nelson Mandela, which is great by the way).

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

According to the film "Invictus", this poem was one of Nelson Mandela's inspirations to endure 27 years of prison.

How to configure PCSX2 to play Ico!

2010-12-08T21:35:00.003-05:00

Today I wanna tell you how I managed to play Ico on my computer using PCSX2, the popular PlayStation 2 emulator. If you're here you probably know that Ico is one of the most beloved games for the PS2, and maybe you know that this PS2 emulator sometimes can be a little tricky to configure. So, first of all, let's see what you need:

Checklist:

PCSX2: version 0.9.7 beta (r3878), it's the latest beta so far and it's available here http://pcsx2.net/
Ico: the game, I used the NTSC-U version ;)
PS2 bios: the version I used is USA v.160 ;)

Emulator plug-ins and settings:

Go to Config > Plugin/BIOS selector to see the following screen... The plug-ins I used are the defaults. I used the Pad plug-in to map my controller buttons the way I wanted.

Now let's configure the video (GS) plug-in. Note that in 'D3D Upscaling' I selected Native... normally you can input a large D3D internal res and the game will not look so outdated, but doing so caused some ghosting in some rooms and it looked pretty bad, using native resolution solved it throughout the entire game.

Now go to Config > Emulation Settings, you'll have to do some tweaking in the following tabs: EE/IOP, VUs and Speedhacks.

In EE/IOP, make sure Full is selected.

In VUs, make sure Extra+Preserve Sign is selected.

In Speedhacks, match the following screenshot (I read some people recommend setting EE cyclerate to 2 but I didn't need to):

And that's it, this way I was able to play the whole game with no crashes whatsoever, awesome!

My system settings:

Proc: AMD Athlon II X2 240
RAM: 2 GB
Video: ATI Radeon 4600

Unfortunately I cannot guarantee that with these settings the game will work for you, but consider it as a starting point.

Cheers!