December 21st, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
Where would you live? By the Ocean or in the Mountains?
If I had the opportunity to choose, I would pick the mountains. For one, I don’t like the beach and second, I love the environment in the mountains.
The reason i don’t like the beach is because it is cold. I have been to the beach many times. During those times, I have always been cold and I did not like the way the wind made my skin feel wet and grainy. I have heard many people claim that they love the beach for it’s appearance at sunset. For it’s romantic feel and it’s feeling of being one with nature. I think I would feel more one with nature in the heart of the mountains without the clash of an ocean against it.
The environment of the mountains are that of unpredictable thunderstorms and even snowfall. Granted I have never lived in the snow, I think I would like that experience. Personally, I hate being cold and would prefer it to be hot and humid. Being in the mountains is something I would be open to experience even if it means sacraficing being cozy warm. Thunderstorms are a natural occurance in the mountains. I like the environment that thunderstorms bring with it’s power and awe with a twist of a lightshow. I would welcome those events as a natural place to live.
If I had a choice, I would choose the mountains over the beach anyday. I think the environment of the mountains would out weigh the beach anyday considering my likes and dislikes. Although I live in the bay area, the mountains would be my choice if it were given to me.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: beach, environment, living, mountains
December 17th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
This is a follow up to the following articles:
Linux - Stop Holding Our Kids Back
and
Character - Assasinations Ain’t Us
In-a-Nutshell: A Teacher had disciplined a student who was showing other students Linux from a distro CD provided to him. The teacher proclaimed that it had to be stolen software because it was a burned CD and it contained an operating system he didn’t pay for. The teacher proceeded to contact the Linux distro and condemned them for providing software that are “holding kids back”. The teacher was also going to investigate the legality of the software and company while proclaiming Microsoft’s absolute dominance in the OS world.
The Linux Distro responded in a blog post that made the teacher look stupid, and contacted the School’s Superintendent to schedule a meeting.
There was a second article as a followup. The second article talks about how the posts became wide spread in it’s viral glory and became a mess. It began as a witchhunt for the teacher and the blog poster refusing to give up the teacher’s identity. She confessed that she didn’t know that free software like Linux existed and was set to install it to see it’s capability. The writer then acknowledged his fault in writing a hateful post similar to the message sent from Karen (the teacher). To this day, no one knows the identity of this teacher.
In response, I think a response like the one given was needed to direct people to an understanding of Open Source software. I don’t think it had to be directed at someone in perticular (such as Karen in this case), but it should have been an open letter.
However, being this was a directed letter, I think the main points could have been made without making the teacher look stupid. There are easier ways to get points across without clubbing them over the head.
Karen maybe treating Linux like it is some dangerous narcotic, but I think as a teacher, she should not point fingers of shame or disgust. People should advocate and support Linux since it is the pursuit of knowledge and what will be. Linux is an operating system that is not only stable but allows for exploration without the need to interfere with existing setups.
It does not hold children back. In fact, Linux acts as hosts, websites, emails and other online applications and functions around the world. It would provide a gateway for the next generation of children to learn and prepare for the real world. Learning to use and administrate Linux and it’s distros opens a whole field of work in the future of these children. Microsoft would charge large amounts of sums to learn theirs (which also forces Piracy that Microsoft has been combating for years now).
Children will learn from open platforms such as Linux and other open source software than they could ever learn from Microsoft directly.
In reflection, I am glad Karen learned about Open Source and is able to swallow everything she was taught about software and embrace a reality that is upon us. Karen may have learned it the hard way, but free software (such as Linux) is real and it is not endangering our kids. Our kids are the ones programming it, they are accepting it as the new norm and learning from the collective source of others. It is not holding our kids back. Instead it is preparing our kids for an important future that is real.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: helios, heliosos, linux, os, teacher, ubuntu
November 4th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
Yah… I voted…
I was surprised at the lack of security at the voting booth. I feel that if I played the cards right, I could have voted more than 1 time.
1) They never checked my ID.
2) They just needed to know my address and…
3) Have me sign a book.
Now, If I had registered a fake name at my residence, I feel that I could have gone in and voted. Go back later in the day and vote again. I feel this situation may have consequences. I’m wondering if people out there are actually doing this. Registering to vote and voting more times than they should.
What is preventing this type of situation? Unfortunately I didn’t see anything otherwise that would count against it. It’s just a concern that I see that would ruin this democracy. But then again, at least I voted.
Posted in: Uncategorized
September 27th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
I heard about the Obama / McCain debate the day of. I didn’t know when the debate was to occur, however I became excited to know I didn’t miss it.
I was fortunate enough to find the scheduling for the debates. I was an hour early which allowed me to surf around both the web and twitter. During that time, I was able to locate the website Current which tracked the debate about to occur. However, Current was combining with Twitter to give people the chance to participate with thousands of others. People were able to comment into the debates and respond to others who left comments as well on the website. People could do this mainly through the Election section of Twitter.
When the debates started, I was able to hop into this election channel setup by Twitter, and relay the comments through Current with the #current marking. Through the channel, people left comments and others were able to leave comments or reply. These in turn started threads which turned into mini-conversations which I think took full advantage of the Internet. The power of Twitter, being a micro blog, allowed people to express their ideas, thoughts and speech widely for everyone to share. Current combined Twitter and the debates into one channel, and in turn allowed people to come together for the same cause. I think this idea is a great idea since people can express themselves in a public forum where-as the technology did not exist years ago.
I am glad this idea has been implimented. For once, I felt I was on the same level as everyone else out there. The idea of commenting while watching the debates and seeing what everyone had to say just left me thinking that these debates were so much more than the whole of the primary men participating in it. Those who tap it’s power for the new social media will be able to participate in a world that is greater than any one man who may indeed become the President of the USA.
(on a short note, Al Gore didn’t know about Twitter until the day of the debates. He should be joining soon since he’s greatly impressed at the technology and power behind Twitter).
Posted in: Something Organized
Tags: current, debates, election, internet, mccain, obama, twitter
September 19th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
Sorry it’s been a while since I wrote. I will recap the best I can…
About a month back, I had planned on traveling to Southern California to visit some family we have down there. We decided to leave on On September 4th (after work) and start our trek down there. We ended up staying the night in ButtonWillow that night and finishing the travel that Friday. While there, we ended up hanging out with cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, everyone (from my Dad’s side of the family). The first night we were there, we had a big dinner. My Aunt Carol had a great time cooking and preparing for the onslaught that is our family and those already there. During the first night there, my cousin and I had a game of ‘Age of Empires 2′ going. Since he had our family converted to play that game, it was awesome playing with family members.
The next morning, we had a get together of all our cousins and second cousins for a big dinner. During that time, we setup a tent for camping the backyard and my Aunt Carol got a massive dinner prepared. During that time, we visited and talked and had a great time. Dinner came and went and we even had a classical performance from my cousin Tom (who used to be a music major). We ate some smores and afterwards, everyone went to bed. I slept in the tent with a few others (mainly the kids who wanted to sleep in the tent).
That evening was a restless sleep, but good non-the-less. The next morning, my Uncle Dave and Aunt Trisha came over and we had a feast of a breakfast. It was littered with bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, etc. We then wasted the whole rest of the day (after breakfast was completed) in playing some strategy games such as ‘Age of Empires 2′ and ‘Age of Mythology’. We literally played the hours away since it was a cool down day from all the busy activity from the past couple days. We did have a Del Taco dinner which turned out to be one of the best things we did that night. (Del Taco is a restaurant that needs more spots here in the Bay Area).
Monday morning was spent traveling back up to the Bay Area in which nothing particular happened. Lots of sleep ensued.
The trip itself was restful and exciting. I think we have decided to visit again, we are just not sure when. My cousin won’t be going back overseas for 3 more months so we may visit again soon.
As for work, I have been really busy lately. One of our clients have been really demanding on resolving some issues that are just trivial. We provide so much support yet to have them reject the changes we suggest. It’s rather unfortunate in these areas. It turns out to be a big waste of time. I’ve been on site for the whole week and a half afterwards. I feel like I have been out of touch with everything. I think today was the first time I felt like I caught up on a few things. I did however had my annual review today. I received an 8% raise today which is probably more substantial than any previous raises I have had.
Anyway, I am tired. I think I will head to bed.
Posted in: Life, The Universe, and Everything
September 2nd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
It looks like we finalized our plans for this weekend. We plan to head into Santa Ana to visit some relatives. It’s a long needed vacation. My cousin whom I worked with before had come back from overseas. He lives in the Phillipines where he owns a Quality Assurance business. He comes into the US once every 3-6 months. When he comes in, he stays in Southern California where we have other cousins, aunts and uncles down there. We decided that if we were going to visit, it was not going to be during Labor Day weekend because that is when everyone was going to be traveling. Instead, we opted to go afterwards to avoid un-necessary traffic. We plan to leave Thursday night and arrive there in the middle of the night. We will probably head back into town Monday afternoon sometime. We’ll decide when the time comes. The last time we were down there, it was during Easter. I think there are pictures somewhere from that trip. We had taken the kids to Disneyland for their first time where they rocked the place until they passed out.
On another note, I finally downloaded Google’s Chrome browser. It’s definetely a good clean browser that I can see so far, but I will decide further after I use it for an extended amount of time. So far so good though (I am writing this blog post inside Chrome). I’ve used all sorts of other browsers. I’ve used Opera, Nautilus, IE (obviously), Safari, etc. So far, this browser seems clean. I have much to poke through. More will follow…
Posted in: Uncategorized
August 28th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
Tuesday was the live taping of Diggnation at the San Jose Center of Performing Arts. The show itself was sponsored by the NVIDIA’s NVISION 2008 show that was going on. I had been to a Revision3 party before when they did their launch a couple of years ago, where Alex and Kevin were mingling with the crowd with other Internet people such as Patrick Norton, Martin Seargent, Jessica Corbin, et al.
At 5:30pm, we had to wait in the enterance of the building until we were told to line up in 2 lines. It was really pointless because after we lined up, we were lead into the hallway where we were merged into 1 line at the front of the performance area. We had to wait until 6:30pm when they opened the Hall to the people. We ended up mingling with the people in line. That’s where I met Michael and Christina. They had been to the previous Revision3 / Diggnation meets and parties where they did some photography and mingling with the crowd. We had conversations about photographies, parties and other semi-related events previous. At that time, the doors opened up (it was a little after 6:30) and we took a seat near the front and behind Glenn.
The show started with a dramatic crowd cheer as Kevin and Alex took their places on the couch. They started their stories with the Olympic Sex story that hit the front page about a week ago. I won’t give away the other stories that were presented as you’d have to watch the episode when it comes out. At the end though, Alex and Kevin were making fun of Glenn and his hippy ways. They then mentioned the ‘hot chicks’ that were in the front behind him and they zoomed into our friend Nichol with Glenn right there in the background. Needless to say she was really embarassed and although I nudged her to give him a hug or something. She refused. Then they went into emails where the Wii Fit Girl sent then a video email message.
They concluded the show with much fanfare and tosses out some NVIDIA graphic cards and t-shirts. After the show concluded, they informed us that there was an after party at the local ‘Britannia Arms’ bar/restaurant down the street. While regrouping and figuring out what to do afterwards, we decided not to waste time and go to the bar to meet up with the Diggnation group.
While there, we met some awesome people. We met Miles, Jesse, Joe and Amanda and shared a table with some of them. We ordered some food and while waiting for it to arrive, we mingled with our company. During that time we awaited the arrival of Kevin and Alex. The only other people that we knew there included Colleen, Jim Louderback, David Prager, et al.
Apparently after speaking with some people, Alex and Kevin did a brief show but had to depart. Alex had to film the TRS the morning after and Kevin was working on projects so they didn’t stay. It was a bummer, however we did have a good time staying around and hanging out with the people there. We ended up leaving around 9:30pm and decided the night was an awesome success.
Posted in: Life, The Universe, and Everything
Tags: diggnation, nvidia, nvision, nvision 2008, san jose
August 25th, 2008 / 1 Comment » / by Charlie
I finished reading the book ‘Snoop’ by Sam Gosling. The book talks about how to translate the behaviors of people into the type of people they are. Using habits, choice of music, common items placed in certain areas, and some knowledge of psychology, one can determine (for the most part) what type of person someone is.
I was able to follow this book really well. I did some minor personality research back in the day for my college psychology class. I can’t say i learned a lot from this book, but it was indeed a breeze of fresh air about the topic. It got quite confusing when the audiobook asked to reference pdf files that were not included in the audio program, however it wasn’t too hard to manage. I had to pretend I knew what was going on..hehe. I will be starting another book titled ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ by Timothy Ferriss. I don’t know too much about it. It was recommended and something I will check into.
On a separate note, here is a question for the average person.
“What takes priority? Personal Life or World Events?”
I got one response already on twitter for that question..
FiestyCharlie - Personal life, as selfish as that sounds. Without a sense of order in your own life, you cannot extend a hand to others….
The reason I asked in the first place was because I was not only doing laundry, cleaning house, preparing a list of essentials for the house. During this time, the Olympics were having their closing ceremonies.
Now, I know there are lots of people out there who didn’t even get the chance to watch the Olympics. But for those who did and watched when they could (myself included), how many people felt involved in a way that almost put themselves on location? How many people watched Phelps race and get his gold metals? How many people got excited at home rooting for their country? The events took place over 2 weeks which allowed you to catch up on any excitement of the Olympics. The closing ceremonies however took place in 3 hours. What if you missed it? Sure there is bit torrent. It just doesn’t have the magic of knowing that it was going on as you sat and watched. Do you think that watching the live broadcast of the moon landing would’ve been held in higher reguard if it wasn’t done live? I think those who saw it on tv at the time it was going on would say that it held a type of magic in it. Knowing it was going on as they sat and watched.
So which takes priority? Watching the landing on the moon live.. or laundry? I chose both.
Posted in: Life, The Universe, and Everything
Tags: laundry, man in the moon, olympics, priorities, sam gosling, snoop
August 24th, 2008 / 1 Comment » / by Charlie
The USA Men’s Basketball Team just won the Gold metal. Hard to stay awake for, but seeing the end was worth it.
Posted in: Uncategorized
August 22nd, 2008 / No Comments » / by Charlie
I recently upgraded to the lastest Wordpress 2.6.1 (From 2.5). One thing that I have to say is when the upgrade is complete, it may appear that you can’t login to Wordpress. Don’t go requesting a new password. Instead, clear out your browser cookies and try again.
The instructions recommend clearing cookies before attempting to log back in. I myself reset the password about 5 times before I actually read the detailed instructions on what to do aftewards. I hope this helps somewhere.
Posted in: Something Organized
Tags: cookies, password, password problems, upgrade, wordpress, wordpress 2.6.1
