DivisionByZero

Since people have been messaging me like I’m their 24-hour technical support…

#!/usr/bin/ruby
1000.times { print "I will not log-in to YM during office hours! \n" }

Mabus (12/7/2005 1:13:46 AM): it reminded me of pirates of silicon valley…. when Bill Gates was trying to hit some chicks..what a loser

mbaluyos (12/7/2005 1:14:26 AM): well.. now that he’s a zillionaire I doubt if he needs to even try…

And yeah, if you’re looking for something “amusing” to read, there’s the Sex Tips for Geeks by ESR.

For those whom I haven’t told yet, I got a few sentences media exposure in a Manila Bulletin Manila Standard Today column.

From the August 9, 2005 Digital Life column by Chin Wong:

… Matt Arnilo S. Baluyos tells us Katrina isn’t alone. This site http://gmailfeatures.grytoyr.net/, lists the most wanted Gmail features — and will even let you vote for yours.

The author happened to be a member of the PH-Cyberview Mailing List and it was in one of this threads that I was able to tell him about the Most Wanted Gmail features link. Below is the body of the email I sent to him:

On 8/2/05, Chin Wong wrote:
> In the year since I began using Gmail, I’ve discovered some quirks and
> gathered a number of tips from the Web that help me make the most of
> Google’s free e-mail service. Here are some you won’t find in the
> official Gmail documentation.

There’s this site that does a survey on what features gmail users most want.

http://gmailfeatures.grytoyr.net/

After what seemed like three years, I’ve finally put something on my Deviantart gallery (don’t ask why )

All of them are old artworks I did during my undergrad days - magazine covers for the student publication and posters done pro-bono for my org.

If I have the time and interest/inspiration, I just might put some new ones. I’ve always wanted to learn vector graphics, maybe now is the best time to start.

When Brent and I talked of organizing the CDO Linux User Group’s first meeting/EB, we agreed that if we’re able to get at least ten people to attend, we’ll be calling it a success.

What happened last Thursday was a surprise. A total of 21 people attended the meeting - most of them Computer Science majors from Xavier. No awkward silences as almost everyone was very expressive of what they expect from the group. And there’s that warm feeling of finally seeing the people whom you’ve only met online.

The first meeting was more of a getting-to-know you. For the next meeting (to be held this coming Saturday at 6 p.m., venue still to be decided), we’ll be getting to the more important details - the name of the group, election of officers, upcoming projects.

Pictures of the meeting/EB here:

http://cdo.linux.org.ph/pics/06232005/

A few days ago, I set up WAPP (Windows + Apache + PHP + Postgresql) on my workstation. As much as I’d prefer working in a Linux box for systems development, I simply have no choice as I’m on a tight schedule (less than 20 days) to produce a working prototype. For that reason, I’m compelled to use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, hence the switch to Windows.

Initially, I expected to get everything up by a few hours. Instead, it took me almost two days before I was able to finally get something useful done. Unexpected behavior and lousy documentation from new binaries had me figuring out why some things never worked out on the new set-up.

For those trying to set-up WAPP on their workstations or servers (with the latest binary versions, that is), here are some notes to make your set up painless:

Postgresql 8.0 - Needs an NTFS partition for its data directory. If you are running on a FAT32 partition, you can convert your drive to NTFS by running this command:

convert /fs:ntfs

Apache (1.3.33) and PHP (4.3.11) - Apache by itself gives no problems, it’s when you try to attach the PHP module that things start to break. Below are the steps I used to make both of them run:

1. Add your PHP directory (usually C:\php) to the system path. For this, I make an autoexec.bat file and put the line:

SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\Php

By adding C:\Php to your system path, Windows can now find the php4ts.dll without you having to copy it into the C:\Windows\System32 directory. This is the recommended procedure as stated in the new install.txt file as it makes upgrading to newer PHP versions easier since you would only have to worry about a single directory.

2. Edit apache’s httpd.conf file (C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\httpd.conf) and add the following lines:

# Add to the end of the LoadModule section
LoadModule php4_module "C:/php/sapi/php4apache.dll"

Use the line above instead of the one stated in the install.txt file. php4apache.dll is located under the “sapi” directory and not in “C:/php.” That is a bug on the official PHP documentation.

# Add to the end of the AddModule section
AddModule mod_php4.c

# Add this line inside the conditional brace
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

# For syntax highlighted .phps files, also add
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

3. Run apache by typing “apache -k start” on the command prompt. For some strange reason, Apache with PHP does not start when you start it from the Services menu or by typing “net start apache” on the commandline.

To make things more convenient, you can make a desktop icon of the apache binary so you can start it easily. Once started, there is a command-prompt window that stays opened. To shutdown apache, just focus that box and type Ctrl-C.

http://www.linuxisotorrent.com

Beats going to each distribution’s website and looking for the torrent file.

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
-Rich Cook

Yesterday, I finished migrating our database server from Fedora Core 3 to CentOS 4.0 . There were two reasons for the migration. One, I didn’t like the idea of having to download a bunch of updates every week. Second, I wanted to test the performance and stability of a Redhat Enterprise Linux server (albeit a recompiled one).

Installation went without a hitch. The only problem I was stuck with was in the Postgresql database. At first, I wasn’t able to get the \l and \du commands to work - I was getting a “pg_catalog… ” error. After much googling and reading of past Redhat/Fedora and Postgresql list posts that I was lead to the suspicion that SELinux might be the culprit. The problem can be solved by disabling SELinux on the Postgresql daemon (SELinux uses targeted policies on Redhat systems, you can still keep it running while disabling the the Postgresql daemon only.)

I recall a report wherein Redhat legal decided to warn the CentOS developers on infringing the Redhat trademarks and I think I’ve figured out why. A default installation of CentOS still shows the “Redhat” labels on the menu entries. Updating the system via yum or up2date will change the “Redhat” texts into “CentOS.”

So far, I’m pretty much happy with CentOS. It feels a lot faster than the previous Fedora set up. There are also some minor configuration differences which make it somehow more secure than Fedora (i.e. the screensaver has password protection).