“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
– Aristotle

17
Dec

Text scam, you told me to report

And so I did.

If you received one of these scam messages, just call your network provider. I found out they already warned the user, now his line is for disconnection.

Tags: , Posted in me stuff, not about code | by Marvin No Comments »

06
Dec

Star city, been here years ago

Stuff you might want to know.

  • Entrance fee: PhP60.00
  • Dino world: PhP100.00
  • Snow world: PhP100.00
  • Ride-all-you-can with Snow world and Dino world: PhP365.00

In case you’re up to real ride adventure, get the ride-all-you-can PhP250.00, add PhP115.00 to get unlimited entries to Dino and Snow world. Will surely save you a lot of money.

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l_640_480_39C8D1F4-8064-4B40-91B0-FDBBC05C5AEF.jpeg

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , Posted in me stuff | by Marvin No Comments »

02
Dec

Server is back online

At last, host is back! Stats tells me how long it’s been unavailable. Zero traffic at all. So this one maybe an entire day, as I have been sending support ticket to hosting since last night.

Tags: , Posted in me stuff | by Marvin 3 Comments »

01
Dec

Found this cheap surround system

It’s a JVC TH-G31 Home Theater system. We bought it last Saturday but unfortunately wasn’t able to take it home, and it was delivered yesterday, on a holiday. And that ate up my time, waiting in the morning and setting up in the afternoon. I wasn’t too excited right?! :D

24107

Well it’s lacking of iPod docking support but that really can go. It has HDMI out with 1080 up-scaling conversion which is perfect for LCD TV. It also had radio, USB port and two mic ports. I tried playing AC3 encoded *.avi files in a USB thumb drive but surround option is disabled, I don’t know why. It would have been really cool for it to decode Dolby Digital audio embeded in the file, or I maybe missing something. I was originally aiming for a 5.1 speaker set at around 14K and then we found this item in a brochure at 14,990.00 plus 1,500.00 discount if you pay cash/straight payment. So its a good deal!

If in case I cannot extract surround sound audio off from a USB video file with AC3/DTS encoded in it, there’s the AUX Optical Audio-In at the back, which I am not familiar with. Something new is always fun, either way, I can go back to collecting high quality DVD movies again.

Tags: , , , , , , Posted in me stuff, movie | by Marvin No Comments »

10
Nov

If Windows, Linux and OSX Opened Cafes

What if really… LOL! I found this from DaniWeb, it’s short and entertaining! Read on…

The New York Times reported today that Apple has opened its first Apple Store in Paris, underneath the Louvre no less, and just two weeks after Microsoft opened up a Windows 7 cafe in Paris in another location. The idea of these two companies competing in a retail environment, and especially a Windows-themed cafe, got me thinking about what would happen if three cafes opened each run in the same style of the operating system it was named for. I figure it might look something like this:

Windows Cafe

The Windows Cafe is in a bland store front. The furniture consists of straight wooden chairs with tables with sharp angles. Unfortunately, every so often when you sit in a chair it crashes the to the floor, but you get used to this and figure it’s just part of the experience of going to the Windows Cafe. (To be fair they have been testing chairs from a new manufacturer and they are reportedly less prone to breaking in this fashion.) Pictures of a smiling Bill Gates and Windows logos adorn the walls. The coffee tastes fine most of the time, but a surprising number of patrons get sick there, so that it’s become standard practice to use hand sanitizer before you go in to protect yourself. The coffee is expensive, and refills are definitely not free, but it’s a known quantity, and many people are comfortable going there.

Linux Cafe

The Linux Cafe is a funky place in an artsy neighborhood with eclectic furniture donated by the patrons. It doesn’t match, but it’s comfortable and the walls are covered with donated pictures and paintings by local artists. The coffee is free, served in black cups (or you can just bring your own), but you need to make it yourself. If you can’t do it yourself, the cafe has consultants available to help you for a fee. It’s great for people who know about coffee brewing, but many people are intimidated by the idea of making their own coffee and stay away, even though very few people ever get sick who go there.

Apple Cafe

The Apple Cafe is a modern, state-of-the-art facility. The tables are stainless steel and the chairs are ultra-contemporary. Shrines to Apple CEO Steve Jobs are dotted around the wide space. The cups are cool and come in a variety of bright colors. The coffee is well made by a highly trained staff, and even though it costs a lot more, people line up around the block for a chance to drink it. Just don’t ask the staff about their coffee-making techniques because they are extremely tight lipped about this. People occasionally get sick there, but it’s rare enough for the cafe to brag about its safety record.

So there you have it. Three cafes with three distinct personalities just like the operating systems they represent

Source: http://www.daniweb.com/news/story236836.html?urlhash=yp4q&trk=nus_ritm-title by Ron Miller

Tags: , , , Posted in me stuff, productivity, work related | by Marvin No Comments »

27
Oct

Quickie Visitors Country WP Plugin

This plugin is dependent on WP/GeoTrack by Johannes Lietz, this is NOT a stand-alone plugin, it won’t work if WP/GeoTrack is not installed anyway, so it’s safe.

And don’t look for it in WP Plugins repo, you won’t find it there :D 

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/*
Plugin Name: Top Visitors Flag
Plugin URI: http://www.marvinmarcelo.com/
Description: This plugin displays visitors on sidebar as widget dependent on <a href="http://dadabase.de/weblog/archives/2006/05/23/wordpress-geotrack-plugin">WP/GEO-Track plugin</a>.
Author: Marvin Marcelo
Author URI: http://www.marvinmarcelo.com/
Version: 1.0.0
*/
function tvf_get_topvisits()
{
  global $wpdb, $table_prefix;
  $sql = "select count(*) as `rows` , `country` , `flagname` from `".$table_prefix."geotrack` group by `country` order by `rows` desc limit 0 , 12";
  $flagstats = $wpdb->get_results($sql);
 
  $html = "<li id='top-country-flags'><h2>Top Visiting Countries</h2><div>\n"; /*  id string */
  foreach ($flagstats as $cf)
  {
    $cf->rows = number_format($cf->rows, 0, "", ",");
    $html .= "<img src=\"". GEOTRACK_URL . "flags/" . $cf-/>flagname . ".png\" alt=\"Flag of $cf->country with $cf->rows visits\" title=\"$cf->country with $cf->rows visits\" />\n";
  }
  $html .= "</div></li>";
  echo $html;
}
 
function init_tvf_init(){
	register_sidebar_widget("Top Visitors Flags", "tvf_get_topvisits");
}
 
if (defined('GT_NOT_INSTALLED'))
{
  echo "<!-- You need \"http://dadabase.de/weblog/archives/2006/05/23/wordpress-geotrack-plugin\" installed first-->";
}
else
{
  add_action("plugins_loaded", "init_tvf_init");
}

Also, you have to forgive the function, constants, and variables names, we all struggle for a better and sensible one :) Happy coding!

Tags: , , Posted in job, me stuff, productivity, work related | by Marvin No Comments »

23
Oct

Windows Social, didn’t complain

2qa6yp0Ok, this is actually the first post I did about Windows. I haven’t used it as my working platform for more than 2 years, though honestly, it’s also where I started, back in Windows 95 in my school years. Even if that’s the only available version we had in 1999, it was huge then! I am now more in the FOSS community, and have been enjoying doing my stuff in Ubuntu Desktop. But what I really wanted to point out in this post is the new Windows Social, it is just like any social media but it runs real time feeds, “popping in” every second into the stream area with streams coming from different major social media out there – Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc. And that is a “WOW”, I admit. That’s the feature Facebook Developers haven’t really implemented in full capacity. But Facebook already rolled out their version with that feature, sort of saying “we’re on the way!”, as they had also announced in that release.

Windows Social

I still remember way back the upgrade of MSN’s Hotmail (or not exactly sure if older versions work smoothly on Firefox), it was always complaining that it’s not compatible with my browser. But this one, this one is really good, so Kudo’s to Windows Social team. When I found this in the Twitter’s box in popurls, posts just started popping in, sweet! Though I suppose it would do the same as on MS and IE platform. But if someone knew of a “flaw”, “fail” or “weak link”, complain about it properly to their support, and if you can bother to let me know ;) LOL

Tags: , , , , Posted in productivity, work related | by Marvin No Comments »

12
Oct

SSH Login without password

This is actually a repost from the tutorial I often ran onto when working with servers. Lately, the sys-ad I was working with changed users home directory and also changed their passwords, but gave me the root pass. However, I don’t want to bother him for new passwords, and I guess he setup new ones from password generator apps/scripts, which are of course, really really recommended nowadays. Since I have the root pass, and I don’t want to go back to chmod-chown each and every files/folders I created via root, I thought I can automate logging in with each account I need to work ‘as’ their respective users. Or I can use cat /etc/passwd to know their home directories.

First log in on A as user a and generate a pair of authentication keys. Do not enter a passphrase:

a@A:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/a/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/a/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
3e:4f:05:79:3a:9f:96:7c:3b:ad:e9:58:37:bc:37:e4 a@A

Now use ssh to create a directory ~/.ssh as user b on B. (The directory may already exist, which is fine):

a@A:~> ssh b@B mkdir -p .ssh
b@B's password:

Finally append a’s new public key to b@B:.ssh/authorized_keys and enter b’s password one last time:

a@A:~> cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'
b@B's password:

Now I can work as ‘owner’ and ‘user’ within each user home directory.

a@A:~> ssh b@B hostname
B

Some notes, depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes:

  • Put the public key in .ssh/authorized_keys2
  • Change the permissions of .ssh to 700
  • Change the permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys2 to 640

Source: http://linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

Posted in job, work related | by Marvin 1 Comment »

06
Oct

Mastering CSS Coding: Getting Started (Smashing Magazine)

I’ve been practicing strict CSS rules for years now, but it was only this year that I changed the way I fix floated containers inside another container, to stretch the height down to the bottom of the floated inner container. I guess almost everyone started with <br /> with ‘clear’ or the next element with CSS ‘clear’ in it to fix the issue, but we all know it’s ‘dirty’.

I found this great tutorial that would make a ‘css nobody’ become a ‘big guy’ on CSS, and I myself is going to keep this page available when needed.

6_b

Mastering CSS Coding: Getting Started covers:

  1. Padding vs. Margin
    • What Is Padding and Margin?
    • Margin and Padding Values
    • Quick Tip
  2. Floats
  3. Center Alignment
    • Horizontal Alignment
    • Vertical Alignment
  4. Ordered vs. Unordered Lists
    • Customizing Unordered Lists
    • Using Unordered Lists for Navigation
  5. Styling Headings
  6. Overflow
    • What Is Overflow?
  7. Position
    • Adding Flavor With CSS
  8. Background Images
    • Using Large Backgrounds
    • Text Replacement
    • CSS Sprites
  9. Image Enhancement
  10. PSD to HTML

Tags: , , Posted in me stuff, productivity, work related | by Marvin No Comments »

30
Sep

List of verified relief centers for ‘Ondoy’ victims

This is the list of verified relief centers where people can drop off their donations for the victims of “Ondoy:”

MANILA

De La Salle University

Go to: 2401 De La Salle, Taft Avenue, Manila. Enter south gate near McDonald’s, people at the registration center will entertain you.

Hotline: 524-4611 local 128; 523-6158; 526-5612

Members of the academic community requiring immediate assistance may contact the following numbers:

0906-4200732; 0919-8018121; 0922-8877495 for students, faculty, and staff

0905-3603655 for alumni

Look for: Paulo Mutuc, Bro. Bernie Oca, and Kat Regaladao

Operations: 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday until Saturday

Web site: www.dlsu.edu.ph

You can:

  • Donate food like rice, noodles, and canned goods; drinking water; toiletries; clothes and blankets; and medicines
  • Help through cash and check donations through:

DLSU – Ondoy Relief Fund
UCPB Vito Cruz Branch, Taft Ave., Manila 1104

Peso Account No. 001201147119
Dollar Account No. 011203000358
Swift Code: UCPB PHMM

Kindly remember to include all details listed above in your deposit slip, and send an e-mail to sc@dlsu.edu.ph confirming your donation.

QUEZON CITY

UP College of Arts and Letters

Go to: College of Arts and Letters (CAL)
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Hotline: 09296454102 (Prof. Roselle Pineda)

Look for: Guard on Duty (in UP CAL)

Operations: 24 hours until Wednesday tentatively

You can:

  • Donate medicines, clothes, blankets, food to be distributed by Citizens’ Disaster Response Center.

Erica Paredes

Go to: Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City
(Call or text contact number for complete address) Contact #: 09174741930

Look for: Erica Paredes

Operations: Throughout the week tentatively, from 10 am to 6 pm

You can:

  • Donate ready-to-eat foods like hard-boiled egg, bread, packed juice, sandwich filling
  • Volunteer to prepare sandwiches and distribute goods

NoyMar Relief Operations – QC

Go to: Balay Expo Center, Farmers Market, Cubao or in White Space, Pasong Tamo Ext., Near BMW, Makati

Look for: Clare Amador or Jana Vicente

Hotlines: 09285205508, 09285205499, 0908-6579998, 0939-3633436, 9137122

Operations: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the week until further notice.

Website: www.marroxas.com

You can:

  • Donate drinking water, old medicines, clothing, blankets, canned goods, noodles
  • Volunteer to man stations and repack food.

Miriam Quiambao and World Vision Development Foundation

Go to: One Orchard Road Building in Eastwood or at the World Vision office at 389 Quezon Avenue, corner West 6th St., Quezon City

Hotline: 0917-8623209

Look for: The guard in the lobby (on One Orchard Road)

Website: http://www.twitter.com/miriamq, www.worldvision.org.ph

Operations: Until Sept. 28, 2009 (Monday), 24-hour operation

You can:

  • Donate goods like clothes, blankets, canned goods, crackers, mattress, hygiene kits, noodles, bottled water, oatmeal, instant coffee, sugar (for relief pack to be distributed by World Vision)
  • Volunteer to help repack relief goods for World Vision starting today at 7pm
  • Deposit cash donations to World Vision Development Foundation, BPI savings account number 4251002415 and BDO savings account number 270043411

Philippine Army

Go to: Philippine Army Gym inside Fort Bonifacio, Makati or General Head Quarter’s Gym in Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, EDSA, Quezon City

Hotline: 892-3417 (direct line), 845-9555 (trunkline) local. 6464 and 6466

Look for: Any personnel on duty

Operations: Ongoing everyday for 24 hours until further notice

You can:

  • Donate relief goods (no cash)
  • Call hotline for rescue, evacuation or relief assistance.
  • Call to report missing persons

Papemelroti Gifts and Decorative Accessories

Go to: 91 Roces Ave., Corner Scout Tobias, Quezon City or mall branches in Ali Mall Cubao, SM City North EDSA, SM Fairview, SM Megamall, Glorietta 3 in Makati, SM Centerpoint, SM Southmall

Hotline: refer to website for individual branch numbers

Website: www.papemelroti.com

Operations: Mall hours (10am-9pm), ongoing everyday until further notice

You can:

  • Donate goods like canned goods, clothings, blanket, cooking utensils and other relief goods EXCEPT cash.

Ateneo de Manila University Disaster Response Group

Go to: Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights , Quezon City, Manuel V. Pangilinan Building Center for Student Leadership Lobby, University Dorm Cervini Hall

Hotlines: 09089977166, 09178952792, 4266001 local 5050

Look for: Gio Tiongson, President, Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral

Website: www.ateneosanggu.com

Operations: 24-hour operations for the entire week

You can:

  • Donate goods like bottled water, sardines, canned goods, candles, cup noodles.
  • Volunteer to help repack relief goods, administer basic first aid.
  • Report missing persons.
  • Seek evacuation/temporary shelter at University Dorm Cervini Hall.

Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC)

Go To: 72-A Times St., West Triangle Homes, Quezon City.

Hotlines: 9299820, 9299822

Operations: 8 a.m. onwards.

You can:

  • Donate money, old clothes, blanket, bigas, munggo.
  • Volunteer to help distribute goods.

Radio Veritas

Go To: Veritas Tower , West Ave. corner EDSA

Look For: Karla Turingan

Hotlines: 9257931 to 39, 0918VERITAS

Operations: 24-hours, tentatively until Tuesday.

You can:

  • Donate old clothes, food, assorted goods, bottled water, cash.

Our Lady of Pentecost Parish

Go to: 12 F. dela Rosa cor. C. Salvador Streets, Loyola Heights , Quezon City

Hotlines: 632 4342397, 63 2 9290665

Operations: 7 a.m. till 10 p.m. Sunday, until further notice.

You Can:

  • Donate packed meals, bottled water.

GMA Kapuso Foundation

Go to: GMAKF warehouse at Charles Conrad St., Dona Faustina Village, Tandang Sora, QC

Hotlines: 632 9317013

You Can:

  • Help repack donated items, send donations.

WARNING: Please ignore emails instructing you to send donations to various bank accounts. There have been fraudulent users who send emails instructing people to send donations to specific bank accounts not owned by GMA Kapuso Foundation. Here’s a list of legitimate bank accounts:

METROPOLITAN BANK & TRUST COMPANY (METROBANK)

Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 3-098-51034-7

Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 2-098-00244-2
Code : MBTC PH MM

UNITED COCONUT PLANTERS BANK (UCPB)

Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 115-184777-2
: 160-111277-7

Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 01-115-301177-9
: 01-160-300427-6
Code : UCPB PH MM

BANCO DE ORO (BDO)

Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 469-0022189

Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 469-0072135

Code : BNORPHM

PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK (PNB)

Peso Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 121-0032000-17

Dollar Savings
Account Name : GMA Kapuso Foundation, Inc.
Account Number : 121-0032000-25
Code : PNB MPH MM

MAKATI/TAGUIG/MUNTINLUPA

Victory Fellowship – Fort Bonifacio

Go to: Victory Fellowship, Every Nation Building , across Market-Market, Fort Bonifacio

Look for: Pastor Bernard Marquez

Hotlines: 813-FORT, 8171212

Operations: Tentatively until 5pm, may may extend hours. Entire week until Friday.

Website: www.twitter.com/VictoryFort

You can:

  • Donate canned goods, milk, bottled water, clothes, cash.
  • Volunteer to help pack relief goods

Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaplaincy

Go to: Hillsborough Village, Cupang, Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila

Hotline: 8428148, 8079847

Look for: Genelyn Sembrano, Meanne Cuneta

Website: www.sacredheartofjesus-alabang.org

Operations: Tuesday-Sunday (Sept. 29-Oct 4). 8 am to 12 noon, 2 to 6 pm

You can:

  • Donate water, blankets, shoes, clothes and other goods
  • Donate in cash

PASIG CITY

LUZON RELIEF: Volunteer / Donate / Pray

Go to: Renaissance Fitness Center, 2nd Floor, Bramante Building, Renaissance Towers, Ortigas, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City

Hotline: 0929-8713488

Look for: Warren Habaluyas, co-founder

E-mail: luzonrelief@gmail.com

Operations: Monday to Saturday (Sept. 28-Oct. 3), 9am-7pm

You can:

  • Donate non-perishable food items, beddings, pillows, blankets, clothes
  • You can donate cash but it is not encouraged

- Compiled by Annalyn Ardona and Patricia Faustino, GMA NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Source: List of verified relief centers for Ondoy victims

Tags: , , Posted in me stuff, not about code | by Marvin No Comments »

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