VirtualBox

I was playing with Sun’s VirtualBox for a couple of weeks now; I was able to install Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux 8.04. My main OS is Vista. Used 1GB for each vdi to use.

XP seems to work perfectly just fine; the only thing I am having some trouble with is the USB devices. Sometimes I got it working sometimes I don’t. I was able to access folders from my main OS by adding a shared folder and then mounted it just like a network drive on the XP machine. I was able to use sound as well.

I’m still trying it out with Ubuntu. Play with it a little bit more I guess and see what works and what doesn’t.

One thing I like too is I was able to just copy the XP vdi file from the desktop to my laptop and works perfectly fine. Just a little tweak there for the shared folders and sound and it works, no installation or re-installation of drivers whatsoever. One difference though is I have to lower the memory that it will be using since I only have 2GB on my laptop compared to 3GB on the desktop, and refresh rate is a little bit sluggish, it could be because the desktop has its own video card and laptop does not.

It’s great if you wanna try out an OS or a new version of an OS and you don’t have an extra hard drive.

Screenshots:

Why OSS?

Most people nowadays prefer open-source software. Some would say they are an advocate of OSS. Some would bash commercial software and brag that they use OSS counterparts. How many of us really understand the concept of OSS?

Let’s say GNU/Linux, it is open-sourced, but for you to use it you have to pay for it, would you still use it? The reason that it is widely used as a server OS is because you can basically use it at no cost. Same goes with Apache, MySQL and PHP. Do you really care it’s because open-sourced? Would you really use it because you want to see the source code? How many of us have downloaded and use this OSS softwares and also downloaded the source code? We use OSS because it is FREE.

Take MySQL for example, have you checked how much it costs if you use the enterprise edition instead of the community edition? And for serious photo enthusiasts, would you use GIMP instead of Adobe Photoshop or Corel’s Paint Shop Pro? Inkscape instead of Corel Draw?

Most commercial softwares are I must admit have such a high price tag, and maybe they could lower it down a little bit. That’s why there’s piracy. Piracy has been here since I can remember, back in the DOS days, we don’t pay for the license, we just disk copy. Wordstar? We just copy. Clipper? FoxBase? DBase III? We just copy. And no one really cared.

Now, why do you use OSS?

MySQL Server has gone away error

As I was trying the back-up feature of MySQL Administrator, which  I think is good since you can backup your database(s) on a scheduled basis. It uses the mysqldump command that comes with MySQL which you can use to manually backup your database to a <filename>.sql file.

After a successful backup test, I am ready to try the restore feature. then when I reached about 95% of  restoring the database, I encountered an error “MySQL server has gone away”. Searching the internet for possible answers, I found this.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=310265#post310265

3. You can also get these errors if you send a query to the server that is incorrect or too large. If mysqld gets a packet that is too large or out of order, it assumes that something has gone wrong with the client and closes the connection. If you need big queries (for example, if you are working with big BLOB columns), you can increase the query limit by starting mysqld with the -O max_allowed_packet=# option (default 1M) or via max_allowed_packet variable in your /etc/my.cnf file and restarting mysql after you edited your /etc/my.cnf file. The extra memory is allocated on demand, so mysqld will use more memory only when you issue a big query or when mysqld must return a big result row.

I changed my max_allowed_packet to 12MB and then tried the restore operation again, this time it works. I’ll try to test this again backup and restore option on my workstation before testing and applying it on the database server.

Got me again!

My brother and my aunt from New Jersey arrived last friday. Without telling me, again! They just love it everytime they do that, and then tell our relatives how surprise I was and my facial expression when I saw them. I knew something fishy when my other aunt went to our house at around 9pm asking me to come with her to their place because their computer as what she told me “crashed”.  I said what? I just fixed it a few days ago. Then when I told her that I’ll tell my Anne first that I’d go with her, my brother suddenly appeared from the darkness and gave me a tap on the shoulder and said “Kuya!”

It turns out that my aunt who told me just a month ago that she can’t make it to their Medical Mission here in Lingayen was just a bluff. It’s been almost 2 years since I last saw them, surprised or not I’m still happy they’re here again. *smile*

Rides 2

I wasn’t able to post this yesterday, because I have to finish up some stuffs at work. I layed down around 10:00 pm the night before to stretch my back, but I slept instead. Good thing, Anne, was still awake and woke me up telling me it’s already 12:00 midnight. Prepared myself and wait for a tricycle for about 20minis, and I arrived at the bus station at 1:20am. Well, I missed the bus, but still rode the same bus on my way back to Dagupan, where the kundoktor even noticed me and said “O, ikaw din yung pasahero namin ule kahapon di ba?“. I took a jeepney with a different route this time because I have to go home first before going to work. I was wondering if I will still have rode in the same jeepney if I go straight to work. Maybe yes, maybe no.

Things happens around us for a reason. It may involve and affect us, or it may mean nothing at all.

Rides

I travelled again to Manila this morning for the 2nd of 3 consecutive days for my sputum samples. The buses that I rode in going to Manila and back to Dagupan on the first day was the same buses that I rode in today. Well, maybe that is their schedule, which is practically the same time I left Dagupan and Manila and I am expecting it again to be the same buses tomorrow, unless I change my schedule. But when I arrived here in Dagupan, the jeepney that I rode in is also the same as yesterday. Coincidence? Let’s see again tomorrow.

Irony

I went to Manila yesterday, and as I was going home, guess what’s they’re showing on the bus, Speed 1. How ironic, since that movie is all about a bomb on a bus.

Earthquake in Taiwan

Taiwan was hit by an earthquake yesterday, December 26, 2006. Telecommunications and Internet connections has been affected because underground and cables under the seas are severely damaged. Since this morning, I have not been able to connect to most of the sites that I frequently visit. I was still able to check my email at Gmail.com, although I haven’t tried to check again my email on my Yahoo! because this morning I can’t even go to yahoo.com.

There were also false alarms about tsunami warnings being released because of the said earthquake. Philvocs later dismissed the said reports and there is no tsunami.

Microsoft Firefox (no really!)

Has anyone ever heard or tried Microsoft Firefox? I don’t know if this is an official Microsoft product, because reading from its official website, you’ll see Microsoft bashing left and right.

Gotcha!

“MONEY” Pacquiao

Millions of Filipinos are looking forward for the Pacquiao vs Larios fight. What’s more enticing is that they will be fighting on Philippine soil, which like basketball, puts Manny with a homecourt advantage.

But then TV Network Giant ABS-CBN played a spoilers role and killed all the excitement one would feel while watching the fight LIVE! Why? because of their delaaaaaaaaaaaayed telecast. Ordinary Filipinos who watched the fight on local channel are stucked with commercials longer than boxing rounds. “Nakakasawa at nakakabwisit yang dami ng commercial” says one boxing afficionado. “Sana kahit delayed e hindi naman ilang oras na delayed, sa Pilipinas na nga naglaban e. Hindi mo na kasi masyado mararamdaman yung laban kasi alam mo na kung sino nanalo“, added another. Even if it is available on pay-per-view, not every Filipino has cable tv or internet access for that matter.

Even ticket prices are too high. P47,000 for the ringside and the bleachers is P528.00, where the minimum salary in this country is P300($6)-350($7) a day in Metro Manila and much lower in the provinces. They even made a joke on Manny’s song entitled “Para sa’yo ang Labang ito (This fight is dedicated to you)” to “PERA sa’yo ang Labang ito” where PERA is money in english. One wonders who is Manny dedicating his fight to now, is it really for all the Filipinos? or selected Filipinos?

What was that slogan of ABS-CBN again? Ah yes, “In the (delayed) Service of the Filipino.”