Linux User Wakizaki 2.0

End of the Line (of Sorts)

wakizaki — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:00:50 +0000

I’m kind of losing energy with this blog, so I decided to make a “reboot” blog of sorts here. Maybe someday I’ll delete this blog, but for now, I keep it up for archival purposes. The end of something always brings forth new beginnings If anybody reads my stuff (I think hardly anyone do ), don’t fret. It’s just a coming of age thing for me.

Research Before You Try

wakizaki — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:07:25 +0000

I was surfing along LXer when I saw this article. Yes, it’s one of those “Johnny Six Pack” articles about Linux. Man, people should stop writing such articles, it’s kind of sickening already. For crying out loud, if you bought a netbook with Linux pre-installed or trying out Linux for the first time, before doing anything else, you could have fired up Google and search for some complete guides on using Linux. These people should shut up with the “command line horror” argument and start learning it. LINUX is NOT WINDOWS, ALWAYS WAS AND NEVER WILL BE!!! Go blame being accustomed to the whole Windows “point & click” culture for your misery!

And stop whining about that stupid iPod not working on Linux. The iPod is one of the worst portable media players around. Go get yourself an iRiver or Cowon, no iTunes needed! If your really feeling the iPod love, you should have tried Floola for Linux first.

College Girl Drops Online Class, Reason: Ubuntu?! :O

wakizaki — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 04:55:10 +0000

Wow, I “kind of” blown away by this story because it’s a first time I heard a local news outfit anywhere said Ubuntu But I was a little sorry for the girl too, because I feel Dell doped her. But I have to say, ignorance and haste are part of the reason too. You don’t plunge to Linux just right away if you don’t know someone personally that do Linux, face-to-face interaction is the best. She should not have acted upon on peer recommendation that just fast, she should have insisted for a Ubuntu demo machine or find a friend that could have lended her an Ubuntu machine so she could play around with it, to get a feel of it. She should have though that Windows and Linux are very different, so the usual things you do on Windows may not work on Linux (point on the Verizon DSL CD and the Microsoft Word as a requirement for the online course, although, her school should have not “advertised” that MS Word is only requirement).

Moral Lesson: Don’t get into Linux when you don’t know what you are getting into…

Ron Barrett Has a Crushed Mind

wakizaki — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:27:26 +0000

Wow, the world is really a flood of FOSS-related FUD. In my radar today we got this piece of trash from Rob Barrett. Let me point out the ways:

Powershell is a Bash wannabe – I know for a fact that Powershell is a copycat of Bash. Which one is the tried and tested command shell? Of course, it’s Bash. Any Linux distro has it, so does Mac OS X.
FOSS = Higher Support Cost notion – Well, it’s a case-to-case basis. For some, initially, the support cost is high. The long term is a different story though, an organization can actually save. Many factors affect support costs. Availability of competent labor and initial support funds, what country you conduct your operations (which will reflects the labor force salary cost), how entrench on closed systems you are. Mr. Barrett sounds like he’s jumping to the scenario that FOSS = High Support Cost dead on, which is not always true.
Choice is a bad thing – True, there are a lot of Linux distros out there. Mr. Barrett makes it seem bad to have a lot of choices. It can only seems bad if one is accustomed to only to the “one choice mentality”. Personally, using Windows for a long time can be a prison experience altogether.
Windows 7 Features – Who needs Aero when you can have Compiz Fusion (or maybe soon Compiz++), and you don’t need to have a monster of PC to run it (based on my personal experience). I bet DirectAccess is Microsoft proprietary answer to VPN, but no thanks. I’ll go with OpenVPN, at least it’s open source, without the usual Microsoft lock-in mannerisms. BitLockertoGo? HA! Another MS lock-in BS. What’s the use of TrueCrypt? One can use it to encrypt USB flash disks. Applocker? There’s a lot of security mechanism like that on Linux (SELinux and AppArmor of course). UAC? Heck, sudo is very mature compared to UAC, and that’s a fact! Speech Recognization? if your’e a well-bodied being, keyboard still rules! Touch-screen and handwriting recognition? just “feature candy” if you ask me.

Me, switch to Windows 7? HA! Over my dead body!

No CLI on HP Mini Mi Netbook >:(

wakizaki — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:41:48 +0000

Nope, I’m not dead yet! Time to break my blog vacation once and for all It seems HP has just released their Linux netbook today, the HP Mini Mi. It’s really just a modified version of Ubuntu, given a slick and easy interface for the Average Joe. The tech specs is not bad either. There’s one cleveat though… the CLI (command-line interface a.k.a command prompt) is disabled > : ( WTF HP?! Your’e killing one of the very essence of using Linux! I know that the Mini Mi is intended for masses, but having the CLI enabled anyway doesn’t hinder user-friendliness. Mac OS X, for example, is pretty easy to use, but you can use the CLI (Terminal). Add to that, I’m SO sick of the “I’m scared of the command line” rhetoric, it’s SO used up! The CLI is your best friend, it’s not your enemy. The stuck-up “I’m used to Windows” mentality IS. If you’re going to buy a Mini Mi, just wipe the hard drive clean and install any Linux distro on it, it will do you some justice…

Windows BSOD in Olympics Opening?

wakizaki — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:29:19 +0000

Well, the Blue Screen of Death (also known affectionately as BSOD) can be considered as a staple in the Window$ world. It even made it’s way to the 2008 Beijing Olympics! Image manipulation or not? You’ll be the judge! )

Samsung YP-U3 on Linux

wakizaki — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:04:39 +0000

Just yesterday, I decided to give myself an early birthday gift. With 2000 pesos at hand, I got myself an audio player. It’s a Samsung YP-U3 (a YP-U3ZB/XTC to be exact). At first I was hesitant to get this player, mainly for two reasons: First MTP devices on Linux can be pain to use. I read you need to do a firmware change to make it a mass storage device. Second would be the “so-so” sound quality. I was tempted to get a Creative Zen Stone at a marked down price of about 1500 pesos, but I resisted. The primary consideration was I want a flash-based audio player that plays the Ogg Vorbis format. I just don’t want to re-encode some of my music to mp3, all are on Ogg Vorbis. So, after a grueling search for the elusive black model, I finally got my YP-U3. The first thing I noticed is the design. I really like the small “gum stick” form factor and its light weight. I also like the fact there is no USB cable needed, because of its retractable USB connector. The included cable organizer was a welcome extra. After charging it for about an hour or so, I was quite shock to find out that the YP-U3 sold in the Philippines is already a mass storage type device. I just plugged it on Zenwalk and bam! it’s seen like a flash drive with a device label of U3. Sweet, no more flashing needed! The player worked very well on Amarok. I got it to work using the Generic Audio Player plugin. Transferring tracks to my YP-U3 on Amarok is quite easy. After configuring Amarok to save the track to the Music folder of the device, it’s just a matter of drag, drop and hitting “Transfer”. After trasferring music, it came done to the sound quality test. Suprising, for such a budget-friendly player, the sound quality is nice. Ok, it’s wasn’t spectacular, but it was nice, added to the fact that most of the Ogg Vorbis tracks I got are in variable bit rate encoding. While it all sounds “sunny”, this player does have some nagging problems. The most notable is the touch control system. It’s so darn sensitive. But, eventually, you will get the hang of it. The other thing would be the LED, it’s just for cosmetic effect. But luckily, you can turn it off. I just wished Samsung could come up with a more higher capacity version, I can’t find anything higher that 1 Gb.

The verdict: The Samsung YP-U3 is an example that having a good audio player need not be expensive. If you are looking for a good audio player and you’re cash strapped, this player is highly recommended.

NOTE: I’m not sponsored by Samsung to make this review.

Novell: Linux Ingrata

wakizaki — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:54:27 +0000

A persona ingrata, in English, literally means an ungrateful person. Such a person does not have respect in relation to his/her roots or origins. Such is the case with the recent action undertaken by Novell. In the tradition of its overlords from Microsoft, Novell commissioned this FUD-laced marketing ploy. The thing that really offends me with this is that Novell IS now a Linux company (well, sort of, they should rename Suse Linux to M$ Linux). Does having paid subscription based support make them superior to community based support? Not really, because a good in-house support infrastructure can augment the need for third-party paid support, especially if one goes the route of free, community-driven Linux (unpaid Linux is such a stupid term). Money doesn’t give you the right logic, you know. That goes to the whole machinery behind FUD attacks. The financiers of FUD often rely on “pseudo-experts” (self-proclaimed technology journalists, writers or consultancy firms but do not know anything about open source or technology and most often just know number crunching). I think Novell should be slapped to death by such action. Clearly, Novell has gone down to the level of just a Microsoft minion. I wish a fate worst than eternal damnation for that company, I just wish…

Technorati Tags: Novell, Linux, FUD

Idiotic Rules

wakizaki — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:50:42 +0000

I don’t know about you, but don’t you hate rules that has a hindering effect? I’m quite pissed at the moment I made this post. I can’t get the remittance by aunt bestowed on me because of a idiotic rule of having 2 IDs. Why would I say idiotic? Well, the problem is I really have one ID, they really insist on two. For me, it’s quite illogical. Having two IDs doesn’t really guarantee proof of your identity. And you know what, we really need that remittance. Rules are made for people, and not the other way around. Fsck with SM Cubao and BDO Remit!!! I don’t care if it’s a BSP circular or whatever, it’s still an idiotic and illogical hinderance.

To ISO: Shut the Fsck Up!!!

wakizaki — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:24:44 +0000

It seems that ISO (the International Standards Organization) is calling for the stop of “personal attacks” against the just approved (foolish,foolish,foolish…) Office Open XML, sans ISO/IEC DIS 29500. Well ISO, here is something for you, STFU!!! One does not have to wonder why the opposition for the ISO approval of OOXML. It was quite absurd that another electronic document file standard is needed when there is already ODF. The existence then of two standards is quite outrageous. There should be only one, for simplicity sake. The OOXML approval then defies logic and common sense, plain and simple. Besides, why would a standardization body approve a standard when it is heavily influenced by one vendor’s product line AND does not use ISO and W3C standards. One has to agree: the passage of OOXML as an ISO standard defeats the underlying purpose of ISO. So ISO, shut up and man up!!!