Older blog entries for fallenlord (starting at number 53)

Got a new toy!

And so I got myself a spanking new cool toy.... the last time I really felt excited about getting my own machine was way back in August 2005, when I got my Thinkpad T42p.

Got myself a brand new Macbook Pro 13" yesterday. After taking it for a spin, here's what I've found:

• The machine, even at 2.26GHz CPU speed, doesn't feels slow. Quite a snappy performer after doing some programming stuff. And at 4GB of RAM, it shouldn't be slow at all!


• At maximum brightness with wifi and a long download going on, the Macbook Pro can go on batteries as long as 5 hours. Not bad.


• The glare from the glossy screen really hurts my eyes. It's that bad that I'm still suffering of headaches from the glare.


• When the CPU is taxed, the Macbook Pro's chassis becomes one whole heatsink. Given that there are no grills on the bottom part of the chassis - the only part with the grill is at the hinge - it does get hot after a while. But not to the point of being "too hot to handle".


• Having a keyboard that illuminates in the dark is pretty neat. While I do miss the Thinklight from a normal Thinkpad, the illuminated keyboard does its job pretty well.


• I still miss the keyboard layout from my old Thinkpad. Having no dedicated Page UP/Down and Home/End keys is really a bummer. It really feels weird especially that I use those keys really often whenever I'm coding (in vim normally - an IDE is too much overkill for my tastes).


• 1280 x 800 resolution in a 13" screen is anemic in 2009. My old Thinkpad T42p has a glorious 1400 x 1050 resolution on a 14" screen way back in 2005! Come on, Apple! Then again, my eyes would hurt far worse should the resolution be a 1440 x 900 on a 13" glossy screen.


• Transferring gigabytes of data on USB 2.0 drives is really dog slow, whether backing up via Time Machine, or copying my old files from my wife's Macbook. I should've invested on external hard disks with Firewire connectors!


• I really appreciate the two years I've been using Mac OSX. It's a balance between powerful and hassle-free. Sure, it's not as powerful as Linux (which I will continue to use and advocate), but it's hassle-free enough (as running Linux on random hardware doesn't produce good results compared to having an OS tailored exactly to the machine like the Macs).

Overall, I'm enjoying my time with the Macbook Pro, just as I had done so many years ago when I got my Thinkpad. It may not be a mobile workstation, but the Macbook Pro just suits my needs of having a fast machine for development with a very usable OS.

Syndicated 2009-08-16 13:28:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Cito Beltran's Faulty Logic

In his column for the June 17, 2009 issue of The Philippine Star ("The great pumpkin", p. 14), Cito Beltran writes about some of his impressions about the Netherlands and Europe in general; his pen ranges from pigeons as big as chickens to the zeal with which hidden wealth is denounced in the United Kingdom. In the finest tradition of Filipino self-deprecation, Mr. Beltran also uses his impressions to reflect in a generally unfavorable manner upon certain aspects of Philippine society.

Towards the end of his column, Mr. Beltran observes that after centuries of being devoutly Protestant, the Dutch are no longer a churchgoing people due to "various influences, war and disillusionment." Yet he maintains that the Dutch people remain imbued with Biblical values in their daily conduct. Indeed, that he can't resist comparing the formerly Protestant Dutch people with the still-Catholic Filipino people in order to make a point at the expense of the Catholic Church.

Mr. Beltran writes:

"Even the staunchest Dutch atheists end up stammering when I point out that their character and conduct reflect the core values of the very faith that they reject. In the many days I spend just walking around The Hague, it became clear that the respect, courtesy, work ethics, social conduct of ethnic Dutch people reflect biblical conduct.

They are not religious or pious but centuries of Protestantism has (sic) resulted in generations of people who are sensitive to others, responsible for themselves and for their surroundings.

In contrast, 400 years of being "the only Catholic Country" in Asia has produced a religious society but not necessarily one where people live in their lives based on biblical standards. In other words we do the talk but we don't walk the walk.

Who was it that said, "one has faith that does not bear fruit, the other bears much fruit, but has no faith. Who then is better than the other"?

Thus saith Mr. Beltran, the self-proclaimed Born Again Christian.

First, we are astonished that someone who considers himself to be a Born Again Christian would consider it better to have no faith but have much fruit, than to have much faith and yet no fruit. Neither state is ideal, and surely even Born Again Christians consider both faith and good fruit to be essential to being Christian. However, since Born Again Christianity stands precisely on the embrace of faith alone as the path of salvation and the rejection of the view that good works -- good fruit -- have any bearing on one's salvation, one would think that Mr. Beltran would still consider someone who has faith to be better than someone who has no faith at all.

On the other hand, we are elated that Mr. Beltran concedes that Filipino Catholics have faith - after all, that is something that many of his fellow Born Again Christians refuse to even concede. At least there is hope for us Catholics!

Second, according to Mr. Beltran, the "social conduct of ethnic Dutch people reflect biblical conduct" due to their Protestant past. Is Mr. Beltran aware that the Netherlands has gay marriage, euthanasia even of children, and some of the world's most liberal abortion and drug laws? Does he consider these to be reflective of biblical conduct as well? Or is he just so dazzled by Holland's economic prosperity and neatness and the social graces of its inhabitants that he could no longer see that moral aberrations have struck deep roots in that same country? Using Mr. Beltran's line of reasoning, we must also consider Protestantism to be the source of the Dutch people's acceptance of gay marriage, euthanasia, drug use, abortion, and the abandonment of church-going. After all, as Mr. Beltran declares, their social conduct is due to Protestant influence!

Mr. Beltran would like to attribute to Protestantism the virtues of the Dutch people while remaining silent on the moral situation of the Netherlands. Why then would he link Catholicism to the lack of biblical conduct among the Filipino people? By what standard of reasoning does he apportion praise and blame? How convenient for him to attribute the virtues of a formerly Protestant country to Protestantism, while attributing the vices of a still-Catholic country to Catholicism! We have a term for this: double standard. The fact is that no country is perfect, and Protestant and Catholic countries alike have their peculiar strengths and weaknesses, their singular virtues and vices.

Neither Catholicism nor Protestantism claims to be able to eradicate sin completely from this world, and by that same token no Christian society can ever be a perfect image of the particular form of Christianity that it by and large espouses. No Christian society will ever be free of blemishes, blemishes that should not always be blamed on the principles upon which that society stands, for no society exists that can perfectly replicate Christian principles.

Before we leave this topic behind, Mr. Beltran should be corrected on one important point: the Netherlands' positive attributes are not due entirely to Protestantism. It has had a Protestant royal family since the 16th century, and until the 20th century it had a Protestant majority, but Holland has always had a large Catholic minority, and the roots of its prosperity and work ethic go back to the high medieval ages - when Holland was still one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in the whole world.

Syndicated 2009-06-21 23:34:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

The Creed

The Nicene creed is a statement of faith of the early Catholic Church ratified by the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 AD in opposition to certain heresies, especially Arianism. These heresies, which disturbed the church during the fourth century, concerned the doctrine of the trinity and of the person of Christ.

This creed serves as the bar of orthodox Christian belief - to confess to parts of the creed without confessing to the entirety of the creed is to confess to being in heresy.

Here's the Latin and English versions of the creed. As I am more familiar with the Latin (as I chant to this every Sunday), I'll place the Latin first followed by the English transliteration.

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

Et in unum Dominum, Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum, ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum Verum de Deo Vero. Genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri, per quem omnia facta sunt.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem, descendit de caelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et Vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per Prophetas.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

Et Unam, Sanctam, Catholicam, et Apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi+.

And I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess in one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Syndicated 2009-03-26 22:07:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Mobile Internet using my Nokia E71 and Debian GNU/Linux

I never expected connecting to Globe's 3G network using Debian GNU/Linux Unstable and my trusty Nokia E71 to be a walk in the park, but I was dead wrong. Configuring the connection via Gnome's Network Manager applet proved to be a breeze.

1. Right click on the Network Manager icon, and select Edit Connections
   


2. Connect the Nokia E71 via USB cable to your PC. Make sure you select the PC Suite mode of operation in the phone when prompted.


3. Select the Mobile Broadband tab and click the Add button. A popup will appear and show the Nokia E71 as one of the options.


4. In the username and password, provide the values globe, and set the APN to internet.globe.com.ph. Save the connection (for me I labeled it as Nokia E71 - Globe).


5. The Mobile Broadband option for your new 3G connection is now ready! Select it from the options in the Network Manager applet and enjoy your 3G connection.

Syndicated 2009-03-26 22:04:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Fasting during the Great Lent

Below is an excerpt from St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople during the 5th century and one of the early Church fathers, about the noble Christian tradition of fasting and abstinence during the Great Lent.

The value of fasting consists not only in avoiding certain
foods, but in giving up of sinful practices. The person who
limits his fast only to abstaining from meat is the one who
especially lowers the value of it.

Do you fast? Prove it by doing good works. If you see
someone in need, take pity on them. If you see a friend being
honored, don’t get jealous of him. For a true fast, you cannot
fast only with your mouth. You must fast with your eye, your ear,
your feet, your hands, and all parts of your body.

You fast with your hands by keeping them pure from doing
greedy things. You fast with your feet by not going to see
forbidden shows or plays. You fast with your eyes by not
letting them look upon impure pictures. Because if this is
forbidden or unlawful, it mars your fast and threatens the safety
of your soul. But if you look at things which are lawful and
save you increase your fast, for what you see with your eye
influences your conduct. It would be very stupid to eliminate or
give up meat and other foods because of the fast but feed with
your eyes upon other things which are forbidden.

You don’t eat meat, you say. But you allow yourself to lis-
ten to lewd things. You must fast with your ears, too. Another
way of fasting with your ears is not to listen to those who speak
evil or untrue things about others. “Thou shalt not receive an
idle report. “This is especially true of rumors, gossip,
untruths which are spoken to harm another.

Besides fasting with your mouth by not eating certain foods,
your mouth should also fast from foul language or telling lies
about others. For what good is it if you don’t eat meat or
poultry, and yet you bite and devour your fellow man?

Seems like I have much to learn, do and undo. I must say I've been guilty of observing the bare minimum for the fasting practice - since 1537 the Filipino faithful have been exempted from much of the laws of the fast and abstinence, reducing the requirements of the fast to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. By contrast, the early Christians fasted a lot!

Syndicated 2009-03-08 22:27:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Debian Lenny on the Dell Vostro 1310

In my quest to run the web application project I am working on in a saner environment (read: 64-bit, modern versions of software and libraries, and faster execution time in native mode vs virtualized mode), I attempted to install Debian Lenny 64-bit on the Dell Vostro 1310 issued by my employer

What works:

• 802.11b/g wireless LAN (via compiling the 64-bit Broadcom STA driver). All this time I thought my current Vostro is capable of draft 802.11N. Boy I was so wrong!


• Sound. I thought sound support was hopeless as I really couldn't hear a thing coming out of the audio port (after installing Pulseaudio and even upgrading the kernel to Linux 2.6.28) ... until I messed around with the mixer controls and found out that the sound card of this laptop have differing controls for the front and headset channels!


• 64-bit Flash player plugin for Firefox. The alpha-release for Adobe Flash 10 has native support for 64-bit Linux. It's about time you've released this, Adobe. We've had 64-bit Linux since 2003!


• Sun Java 64-bit plugin for Firefox. Finally.

What doesn't work:

• Bluetooth. After some time searching via Google, I found out that Windows Vista upgraded the firmware driver for the Bluetooth module. Great. The only solution is to go back to Windows XP, download and install the Windows XP driver for the Dell Wireless 360 Bluetooth module. To think I already had XP wiped out... This is trouble (as I won't be able to tether to my Nokia E71's HSDPA network without Bluetooth) that I must resolve soon.


• Compiz. Seems my Vostro has a blacklisted PCI ID (8086:2a02). That means no 3D desktop for me.


• Global Address List for Evolution 2.22. Too bad the OpenExchange plugin isn't code complete... I'll have to wait for 4 more release cycles before I can even test this! Right now Evolution is just way too buggy to use as an Exchange client.

My list of TODO's:

• Make the entire web application project run on Debian Lenny, with new versions of software. Freaking tall order, but I believe I can do it.


• Configure PPPOE support for my DSL line at home (in the event that my wireless router craps out)


• Fix the Bluetooth mess!


• Configure tethering to my Nokia E71 via Bluetooth or data cable.


• Install and configure Eclipse 3.4 Ganymede as a development environment.


• Get an IM client that supports the Yahoo! Messenger webcam streaming protocol.

Syndicated 2009-03-08 22:05:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Is ALP dead?

Is ALP really dead in the water?

CES 2009 featured the debut of Palm's new phone, the Pre, running Palm's own Linux-based mobile OS, the Palm webOS.  This, however, doesn't bode well for the Access Linux Platform - the supposed successor of the PalmOS.

As we do all know, PalmSource was acquired by the Japanese company Access a few years ago, and they have developed their own evolution to the old PalmOS. With Palm going their own way with webOS, what's the future of ALP? Samsung has already buried their plans of releasing an ALP-powered phone, no mention of other ALP-powered phones released (note - all that has been seen are just announcements), Orange cancelling its adoption of ALP in their smartphone offerings, no other telco or mobile phone manufacturer announcing adoption of ALP , and with other manufacturers like HTC that has pledged to make more Android-powered phones - this doesn't bode well for ALP's future.

Sayonara ALP. I was kinda have been waiting for an ALP powered phone for a very long time.

Syndicated 2009-01-11 12:35:00 (Updated 2011-08-20 17:30:59) from Living Core Dumps

Food Shortage Facts vs Population Control

One of the most common claims of RH Advocates is that the Philippines is facing a food shortage because of the size of our population. “There are too many Filipinos and there is too little food and rice available” is a common refrain from anti-life advocates.


One of the real reasons for the food shortage in the Philippines is not the population, but the unbelievably massive losses of food supplies in our country.  According to DA Secretary Arthur Yap in his speech “The Challenge of Sustained Agriculture Growth in the Philippines”, given at the Manila Overseas Press Club “Farmers’ Night” at the Intercontinental Manila (May 18, 2007), spoke of:

“..the need for a program that will address the post-harvest losses of our grain crops, vegetables, livestock and fisheries products. In grains, we are losing 10-15%, and in vegetables and fisheries, close to 50%..The losses in terms of spoilage and reduction in volumes translate to billions of pesos and impact directly on farm incomes and consumer prices.”

In the same speech, Sec. Arthur Yap mentions that “in the 70’s, our thrust was to produce at least 99 cavans of rice per hectare… today, we are a boisterous and democratic nation pushing beyond 86 million Filipinos, working with shrinking areas for lands and watersheds. And yet, we have the technology and the testimony of farmers from all over the country, which make it possible to harvest an average of 200 cavans of rice per hectare of irrigated rice lands.”


Instead of investing billions of pesos in pills and condoms, we should invest this money instead in warehouses and rural development in order to prevent more senseless waste of our food resources and in order to produce more rice with better technology. This is a more sensible and long-term way of addressing poverty and hunger. It will also leave a more lasting impact on the lives of congressional constituencies.

Syndicated 2008-09-29 08:56:00 (Updated 2011-09-07 17:56:32) from Living Core Dumps

Separation of Church and State: What does "Separation" Really Mean and Why RH Bill Supporters Don't Understand what it Really Means

Syndicated 2008-09-29 08:49:00 (Updated 2011-09-07 17:54:46) from Living Core Dumps