Monday, November 21, 2011

Belkin can suck - check this for one of their usb to serial adapters

If you bought the Belkin F5U409, which is normally ridiculously overpriced anyway, and you have x64 windows 7 like any normal human being in 2011, you will run into this beautiful snippet when trying to download drivers:



 Is the F5U409 USB PDA Adapter compatible with vista 64 bit?

No, this product is not compatible with vista 64 bit. It is compatible with Vista 32 bit computers. We do however have a similar adapter which is compatible with Vista 64 bit, you can use part F5U257 (USB-to-Serial Adapter).

http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/590/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzIxODk2MDc0L3NpZC9OeXp6OUhKaw%3D%3D

They really have no shame.


As your gut tells you, this is not true - the device must work somehow. I found this fine post via Google, by a good sysadmin:

http://www.clearchain.com/blog/posts/how-to-use-a-belkin-f5u409f5u409-cu-usb-to-pda-serial-converter-in-visawindows-7-64bit-mac-osx-10





Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tether with your blackberry - the quick way

1. Have a blackberry with internet, a usb cable, and a laptop (this one has windows 7 but XP works fine too).
2. Download blackberry desktop software. You need it so your PC can recognize the BB as a modem (in theory you just need the Blackberry device manager).
3. Connect the BB to the PC via the usb cable. The Blackberry device manager should appear in the taskbar.
4. Type "modem" in the windows search that appears when you click the windows key. Select "Phone and Modem" from the search results.
5. Choose a location if you haven't done so before - this doesn't matter.
6. Click the "modems" tab. The blackberry is one of the standard modems. Click properties.
7. In the new window, click on the "change settings" button so that you can modify parameters.
8. Choose the "diagnostics" tab, and select the query modem button. It should respond with proof that this is the blackberry device.
9. In the advanced tab, enter the following string depending on your carrier:
AT&T    +cgdcont=1,"IP","wap.cingular"
ICE       +cgdcont=1,"IP","kolbi3g"


read this post if you want to find out more carriers 

10. Setup a new dial up connection. For both of the carriers above, the number to dial is *99# and username and password are left blank.

That is it. If you run into problems, follow the tips on the post above, but these steps worked on a fresh windows 7 install - simple enough.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

If you have an SSD...

First of all, stop. and take a backup of anything you would not like to lose today.

Done? I don't care if you just moved everything to your dropbox folder, just do it, please.

If you don't have Dropbox (or know what it is), go here and watch the video. Create an account and choose a folder where important stuff will be synched to dropbox's servers and you can retrieve it at any time, from mobile devices or other computers. You might think lightly of this, but if you don't have some mechanism for daily backups, you will thank me - I wish I hadn't learnt this the hard way.

Now, all makers and models are susceptible to this, but I just had a terrible experience with an Intel 320 SSD. The worst part is, there is no guarantee it won't happen again. And it's not like magnetic hard drives; I lost everything. You can use a linux live cd to fix the problem, but you won't get your data back.

This is very important - DO NOT LET WINDOWS UPDATES REBOOT YOUR PC IF YOU HAVE A SSD. Really. Just hit i'll reboot later and do a nice shutdown. You will read why in the links below - for now just trust me lots of people have found out that a windows update re-start is not a graceful shutdown and it just bricks SSDs.

With an SSD, any shutdown or re-start is a potential disaster. The best thing you can do is just suspend and resume.

Update the firmware. It doesn't matter if you did it 2 months ago. This is the time when companies are realizing SSDs aren't as ready as they thought - new firmware is coming out all the time. You already have a good backup if you are paying attention - go ahead and update the firmware. It is not a guarantee but it will help a bit.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/24205

http://communities.intel.com/thread/24339?tstart=0

Last but not least - if you have a desktop, keep your important stuff on a magnetic drive. The tech is tried and true and you have a better chance of getting data back off a normal drive than a SSD. Use the SSD for applications where speed matters but you can get the files back easily, ie, OS files, game files, program files. Keep your documents and important stuff OFF the SSD.

If you have a laptop... dropbox or normal HD. The SSD WILL fail at some point.

BTW, if you ever get the 8mb bad_ctx error, look for the hdparm linux commands to secure erase it if you have a laptop, or the intel ssd toolbox if you have a desktop.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Move users from one group to another

Useful if you are cleaning AD. Note this overwrites the group members inside the dsmod with those members in the dsget part.

if you would like to combine two groups, use -addmbr instead of -chmbr, but this will fail if any users are present in both groups.


C:\WINDOWS\system32>dsget group "CN=redundant - group,OU=Groups,OU=someplace,DC
=childdomain,DC=domain,DC=suffix" -members | dsmod group "CN=original-group,OU=Group
s,OU=someplace,DC=childdomain,DC=domain,DC=suffix" -chmbr

I then deleted the "redundant - group", because it was redundant and used ugly spaces.

One good way to get the Distinguished Name of a group is with

dsquery group -name "groupname"

and then you just copy paste into the command.

easier, faster and better than using vbs's since it has no size restriction.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

I love Japan - JNTO, hear my plea!

I have a real crush on Japan. It's the technology. The temples and the cherry trees. The swords and karate. Mt. Fuji, the water and the green. The sharp knives and dedication to cuisine.

Ever since I saw my first anime I was hooked, before I knew what anime was. Imagine a 4 year old in Costa Rica watching Mazinger Z. Then an adolescent watching Ranma 1/2.

By the time I was in college, I had seen Dragonball religiously, but until Evangelion did I realize anime was a brilliant thing that could come to me by ways of the PC instead of through TV. Thus my long love affair with anime started (check my list in MAL, to the right).

Although lots of anime is available online, and with better quality each time, I did heed the internet groups and when something really struck me, I would buy it. There is nothing like seeing a great anime on DVD, and one of my first was the Princess Mononoke movie. "To see with eyes unclouded" is still one of the great goals in my life. I will enjoy greatly owning the best blu rays that come out.

 I sincerely thank all artists, publishers, and also, the fansub groups worldwide that continuously promote anime.

So imagine, my thrill, excitement, when I read that Japan was going to give 10,000 flights to people that would commit to exalt Japan in their blogs, to promote tourism. You can google it, but the truth is, it isn't true yet. You can read from http://www.jnto.go.jp/

"
Recently a number of media outlets have publicized reports about ”Japan offering 10,000 free flights to foreigners”.  

However, this initiative to be carried out from April 2012 onwards is still under examination for government budgetary approval and is at this moment undecided.

If the initiative is confirmed and put into operation, Japan Tourism Agency will officially announce details on this website.
"

Japan National Tourism Organization, I can blog in english. I can blog in spanish. I can even do a bit portuguese and german. I can build a website just for the purpose of talking about Japan and showing pictures. I have an IT and electronics engineering background, and have devoured pages of your culture because I find it fascinating. Please, take me into consideration :)

Domo!

checking out ubuntu 11

I'm selling my PC, and boy has it been fun. Between selecting a pricing strategy (I went with aggressive), coordinating delivery of parts and working around what's left, I've had fun.

When I sold my windows OS HD, I immediately felt a test drive of good old ubuntu was in order, as the install should be much quicker than windows 7 (not just the install but being able to work "out of the box"). I downloaded 11.04 and was up in about an hour (that damn installer still downloads a lot of stuff even if you tell it not to).

Pretty solid. I was able to RDP to my laptop, run fansub videos, browse. Getting skype to work was a bit fun - I'll put that and fail safe decoding Hi10P in another post.

I don't particularly like the new interface - it hides the applications behind at least 3 clicks - but it's not untolerable either. It feels like a tablet lol.


About 3 days into playing, 11.10 came out. I like it a bit better, except that it messed up my codecs a bit. Still, that I have only had to use the terminal for 3 things, is really an accomplishment and a long way traveled for usability.

Monday, September 26, 2011

ready for battlefield 3?

we're short hours away from the launch of the beta, and nvidia just released a new driver update. while still in beta, these are the drivers meant to be run with the battlefield beta, as there are important improvements:


http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/nvidia-geforce-r285-beta-driver-for-bf3-released

 New in Release 285.38

Increases performance in Battlefield 3 by up to 38%



Improves overall stability and image quality in Battlefield 3


Head on and get ready, soldier!


http://www.geforce.com/Drivers/Beta

**on the open beta**

codes have not yet gone out, but we are being assured they are being sent out. I can also assure you that the origin chat help is very busy as I have been waiting for 45 minutes lol

http://twitter.com/#!/BATTLEFIELD

Monday, September 19, 2011

Please! Like my wife's video!

Hi Blog reader!


I ask if you have a facebook account, to click like on this video. It's my wife in a contest, and the prize is the car! Few seconds of your time and you could make her, and myself of course, real happy!


https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150817137200246


Thank you!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Re: Decode hi10p using your gpu

Soon, a tutorial explaining how to enable dxva (using your gpu instead
of your cpu) to watch videos; an addition to decode hi10p, and a
comparison, maybe including cuda specifically for nvidia graphic cards :)



the best tutorials are:


for plain DXVA


http://imouto.my/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/


for a really short way of getting it configured, easiest tutorial yet - in spanish though, but you can follow the screenshots


http://www.mcanime.net/foro/viewtopic.php?p=7657223


and the best possible performance on new nvidia cards, I tested it out without the core avc software and worked great, but it's long!


http://imouto.my/configuring-potplayer-for-gpu-accelerated-video-playback-with-dxva-or-cuda-and-also-high-performance-software-decoding/comment-page-17/#comment-13750



Friday, September 9, 2011

vote for miss universe!

Don't forget to cast your vote here

http://missuniverse.com/members/contestants

And while you're at it, consider putting some votes in for Miss Costa Rica. I don't think we've had such a strong candidate in years! I'm proud that Costa Rica women's beauty is well represented, although my wife is of course, much prettier :)



She even appears 3 times! in the bikini video :)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

tether with at&t - in an airport - with no bb desktop manager installed! - THE STORY

If you want to achieve this in the shortest way possible, check the post that ends in - THE QUICK WAY


The bb has internet - and you don't want to pay t-mobile's wifi!


I had already configured tethering to work with Costa Rica's ICE and AT&T's network in the US, but, I just re-imaged my laptop a while ago and I lost all of my setup. Of course I didn't re-install the bb desktop manager.


With a good "can do" spirit, I decided to go into my blog in the BB browser, and double check the link I had saved where I learned how to do this the first time.


I did not have the BB software (bloatware?) installed on my desktop. But I thought, "no worries, i've seen that the device, in one of the USB drives, includes an autorun that activates a setup program. even if it's old, i just need the driver to make tethering work".


1st problem


Oh, it did not. After 5 minutes of nonsense and slow loading, it sends you to the webpage anyways.


Not to be discouraged, I thought, well, the browser on the torch is almost as usable as a desktop's - what if I can download it from BB's website and save it on the BB card, then transfer it to the PC with the micro usb cable?


So, I surfed, found and actually started downloading. Yay! WTG! oh wait... download error. That's weird. Let's try again. Let's see, good speed, 30 kb/s, 40 kb/s, i see peaks up to 60... this is going well. Then, around 4%, it errors out. I tried moving the phone, but signal is full - something else is cutting communication. Granted, its 115 MB and i've never tried downloading something so big.


What could it be? The browser? RAM? AT&Ts network???? Or something even more nefarious?


I can try to fix the first one. Let's download some other browser. So I try bolt. I download off the app store, and then that version is old, so I re-download from their site.


If that fails, I can then seek in third party locations for a suitable driver. Hope is not lost, there are many ways to get around this.


I head over to the BB site and try the download. Bolt recognizes I have a file to save and allows me to select the destination. I read it renders pages just like a desktop browser. It might not be a waste of time!


It does not download $h|7. There is no progress bar or error message - when I check in the downloads folder, I only see 0 byte null files. I didn't even see network activity for more than 1 second.


Rather disappointed, I overhear someone saying to a relative, I'm going to that place to get connected, and I remember: hell yeah! there's places that will give you a wired internet connection for your laptop for free!


Alas, I only find a place for charging, your device, but no free internet. Keep on walking, in the words of old Johnnie.


And then, something cool comes up. A google chromebook display. They actually have it for Virgin travellers, they can take it with them on the flight and browse all the flight, then return it at the end of the flight, with wifi on the plane. Now who wouldn't like that!


My approach was honesty. I want to see if I can download an installer I need, to a USB. 3 very nice persons heard my request, and although doubtful it could be done since it's a "cloud device", I reminded them there's a usb port and I have a usb device (coincidentally the phone).


Thankfully, I spark enough interest that they allow me to use a samsung chromebook. I mean, even if I don't get this working, I got free access to a device I won't probably buy, but I know it's neat. I use (and love) gmail, blogger and the chrome browser, so I'm quite happy to get my hands on one of these.


Chrome has an option to select the download location. This does not. The file browser also does not have a copy command. WTF, only delete and rename. Please don't tell me google brainpower could not figure someone might need that. I'll put a separate post on how I got around that, but to summarize, I ended up only downloading the BB usb and modem drivers, which I thought to be all I needed.


No boy, you are wrong. That installs the devices as ports, but you need more.


Basically I could not query the modem, for all I tried. After browsing a bit more, I remembered that in my past successes, I needed the blackberry taskbar tool, of which I could not really remember the name, to be active in order to dial out. Can I download only that?


Actually, you can. I googled and found it's called blackberry handheld manager (there's some irony here, as you'll find out). I am actually able to download the 10 mb's to my cel phone from BB's page. I install and... nothing happens. No taskbar icon.


WTF. There was another version, let's download that. Same thing. I google again to find where this exe gets put, and find it inside program files, common, research in motion. Aha! Let's get rocking.


I execute and it's... different. Like old. And worse, it doesn't work either.


You can imagine my frustration at this point. It would seem I have to have the full blackberry desktop software. I'm back to square one, having gained knowledge and with less time to kill at least.


I decide to take a break and watch football in the Samsung lounge. NFL is looking pretty good this year.


So, if I need to download 115 MBs, I better find those free internet places, if they exist. Google, and turns out DFW does have some, and one not too far. However, you can connect your laptop if you have an ethernet connection, otherwise it's a locked down browser.


Of course I have no ethernet cable. I'll actually pack a small one from now on. And I was sure if I found one on sale, it would be $10 or more. So we have to figure out a way to get the file to my BB.


Well, chrome OS users like dropbox instead of saving to usb (something I had learned while browsing forums). It has a BB client. Let's try that. In good old theory, it will sync whatever file i put on the account to the BB, and hopefully, they have implemented some superior transport mechanism that will survive cellular network's inherent instability and get me, some day, a working copy of the installer into my BB.


Did you notice the tone in the previous paragraph? Kinda emphatic on "hopefully", "should", "I presume" right? This tells you i'm assuming, which since I'm alone, makes an ass of me and only me. I clearly have not used dropbox before. I can't download from inside the dropbox interface, and I actually need a pc where I can designate a "dropbox folder".


Ok, I can't remote desktop anywhere in the world without internet. The only thing I have is logmein in my home PC's setup. Well, let's go see that "locked down browser" and see if the guys at logmein test their stuff.


Sure enough, it's a GUI lock of an internet explorer 6, which is the most compatible thing you will find (except by official standards). And it's wonderfully insecure. Logmein's activex plugin installed without a fuss and I was in my home computer with a pretty decent connection.


I download the package, download dropbox, setup the folder, and check my bb. Nothing. ok, might take a while to sync. Still nothing. Turns out, now that I made a folder, it first has to upload the file to dropbox. Until then, I cannot see the file.


Ok, minutes later, quantity dependent on my uplink at home, I finally see the file in the BB. Select, option, and ... there's no download. No copy, move, or save as. If I try to execute the exe, I get told this won't work on the BB. WTF. Really? You even make an app and you don't think someone might want to make a local copy, say to the SD card, of a file?


I don't know. Maybe it does copy. But at 3G speeds, I'm not waiting for something I can't see.


I'm starting to think of ways to split the file and sending it to the account that is tied to the BB service in 9 mb chunks. Idiotic, yes, but BB messages do download in the background, I get a sense of the progress, and if CRC checks fail, you get a nice X that allows you to retry.


But then, I get to wondering. What if... it's BB's servers that are cutting the communication off. I've had that happen when downloading the BB server software from them. And now I have this uploaded to dropbox, which has a web interface, and I bet BB's browser can detect the download and I can test getting a copy off the file from other, presumably, better suited, servers.


So, I do. It takes a while, but it does not fail, and now I have the software!


#1 if your download fails from the BB site, use something such as dropbox. I've left it on my public folder, if you'll trust I have not modified it or added a virus to it.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39584990/610_b034_multilanguage.exe


That should get you going. Connect your usb cable, enable usb mode, and copy the file from your download location to the PC, and execute.


#2 after browsing the BB downloads, and seeing the proper name for the Blackberry Device Manager, turns out you can download it (the BB handheld manager is on the site but is a very old version from 2004). Go to the same place you downloaded the handheld manager, https://swdownloads.blackberry.com/Downloads/browseSoftware.do but choose the blackberry desktop manager. The trick is that below the big download, there's a link to only the device manager in various languages, and that is only 30 MBs. I'll test it and if it works as expected, will put a new dropbox link to it.


#3 Go to http://www.blackberryforums.com/blackberry-guides/2019-user-howto-use-blackberry-modem-laptop.html and follow instructions. For 3G with at&t, the string should read:


+cgdcont=1,"IP","wap.cingular"


If you get a ppp error, and it already said connecting, you probably need another AP name. I've seen proxy, broadband, and others for ATT, but this worked for me on 3G.


And that does it. Pretty decent, 3 MB download, .3 MB upload, and I can surf very acceptably :)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

admirable

John Wooden, a life, from what I read, properly lived.

To love, and cherish that love; to live to your fullest, never betraying anyone, especially yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden#Family_and_faith

Friday, July 15, 2011

front panel audio connections for realtek nvidia 680i / cooler master stacker

I will admit I wasn't able to figure out the connections for the front panel audio from the evga manual. With a little more googling and experimenting, I finally sorted it out. It's rather convoluted but it works well now.

The evga 680i (probably an older model by now, but i'm running it pretty well with 8 GB) brings these connections for the front panel (I believe from what I've read this is standard AC 97):


















I however had cables that looked like this:


And I just couldn't make sense of it.

After googling a bit I found this graph, which provided a better explanation, from the evga forums:

http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=57929





















However I still wasn't sure as to what went where. Had a better idea though.

Now, this post from a user called "Antigod" led me in the right direction. Although the link to his picture is broken, I was able to make out the name of the file as mirage_audio.JPG . He also was right on when he said "do not put ground in 4", as that is actually VCC in a 680i board.

Knowing the file name, i googled images and found it here . Now, don't run and follow this diagram. There is a bit of tweaking to do.

Basicaly, the ground goes to 2, not 4. And, you need to know something else - setting up the software correctly afterwards!

Correct connections:










Once you connect this, you won't get audio either at startup. But rest assured, this is correct. Now you need to go to Realtek's site and get the HD audio software (90 MBs!). Correct, from realtek, not your motherboard's site. I put the link for Win 7 but you can surf to Realtek, choose downloads and then select the "High Definition Audio Codecs" download for your OS.

Once installed, now you have to follow this post to enable the audio - basically, tell the software to separate all input jacks and to disable the front panel detection (you might have guessed this wouldn't work from the pinouts). And once you do, surprise, everything works like a charm :D

As Antigod said:


I hope this thread can help others.

Thanks
Last edited by Antigod; 16th April 2008 at 09:29.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

re-posting


EL MIEDO DE LOS TICOS VISTO DESDE EL SALVADOR.

by Calle Lajas Escazu on Monday, July 4, 2011 at 10:19am
Articulo publicado en El Salvador.

Los ticos empiezan a sentir miedo

    PAOLO LÜERS*

    Los ticos empiezan a sentir miedo. No el miedo concreto como lo sentimos en El Salvador que en cualquier momento algo terrible nos puede pasar. Los ticos empiezan a tener miedo de que se termine su privilegio de vivir sin miedo.

    Y tienen razón. Aunque Costa Rica, en comparación con las cifras de homicidios, secuestros y extorsiones en Honduras, Guatemala y El Salvador, parece un paraíso, la violencia va en aumento. Cuantitativa y cualitativamente. Las estadísticas del horror que vivimos nosotros no pueden ser parámetro para otros países. Nosotros ya rompimos todos los estándares, sobrepasamos todos los límites.

    Costa Rica tiene toda la razón de discutir --ahora y con urgencia-- los mismos temas y las mismas medidas que nosotros estamos discutiendo 10 años tarde: control de armas, leyes anti-mafia, revisión de las leyes para delincuentes menores, previsión y represión, etc. Viendo lo que pasa a sus vecinos en el triángulo norte de Centroamérica, sería una falacia que los costarricenses no trataran de actuar a tiempo, antes de que el crimen sobrepase las posibilidades del Estado a responder.

    A veces hay que salir y hablar con los vecinos para entender bien su propia situación. Escuchando cómo la gente en Costa Rica se preocupa porque en un fin de semana ha habido 3 homicidios, uno toma conciencia de lo absurdo que estamos viviendo en El Salvador, donde nos alegramos cuando hay un día con menos de 10 homicidios. En Costa Rica sonaron las campanas de alarma, cuando el número de homicidios hizo un salto de 369 a 512.
    Pero al año, no al mes... Nosotros tuvimos 404 homicidios en enero de este año.
    Pero este aumento de 37% en un año convirtió el tema de la violencia en el número uno de las preocupaciones de los ciudadanos de Costa Rica.
    Y están viendo con intensa atención hacia El Salvador. Platicando con amigos o extraños en Costa Rica, un salvadoreño inmediatamente confronta interrogantes sobre: la violencia, las pandillas, las extorsiones, la ineficiencia de la policía, el despliegue del ejército...
    Los países son representados por sus grandes marcas. Estados Unidos por Coca Cola y Microsoft; Alemania por BMW y Bayer; España por Real Madrid y Telefónica; Costa Rica por Dos Pinos; México por José Cuervo y los Zetas... y El Salvador por MS y 18, sus marcas de exportación. Nadie en Costa Rica nos dice: "Ahh, usted es de El Salvador, la tierra de Adoc e Hilasal..." Todos dicen: "Ahh, ¡Mara Salvatrucha!"
    Que Costa Rica no tiene intención y entusiasmo para integrarse con sus vecinos centroamericanos, es evidente cuando uno traspasa la frontera entre Nicaragua y Costa Rica. Pasar esta frontera en carro es una aventura kafkiana. En sus fronteras y en casi todas sus políticas se manifiesta que los ticos tienen miedo de contagiarse de la pobreza de Nicaragua y de la violencia de El Salvador, Honduras y Guatemala. No quieren integración ni con un presidente de opereta como Daniel Ortega, ni con los conflictos internos de Honduras, ni mucho menos con la Mara Salvatrucha y el Estado fallido de Guatemala.

    Es entendible. Pero no es correcto. Así como nosotros tenemos que asumir que la violencia es hecha en casa, made in El Salvador, y no importada de Los Ángeles, ni del México de la guerra del narcotráfico, también los ticos estarían equivocados si piensan que el reciente aumento del crimen en su país proviene de sus vecinos violentos en el triángulo norte de Centroamérica.

    Cada país tiene su propio caldo de cultivo para su propia violencia. Todos los países del área padecen de la misma enfermedad, pero con síntomas y orígenes diferentes. Hace falta, en cada país y a nivel regional y comparativo, desplegar recursos humanos y económicos para investigar esta enfermedad y proponer soluciones. Es incomprensible que, siendo la violencia el principal problema de la región, ningún país haya puesto a sus mejores investigadores sociales, sicológicos, económicos, jurídicos y criminológicos a analizar las causas y las curas de esta enfermedad.

    Wednesday, June 8, 2011

    Lessons learned #1

    Be less ashamed of yourself. Make friends more. Strive to know people from different backgrounds.

    The simplest advice on money is also one of the most difficult to achieve. "Spend less than what you earn".

    Eat regular meals; this way you don't feel hungry and overcompensate eating too much. Make it a goal to eat fiber and protein.

    A happy life has fidelity at the center of it. Be faithful to your friends, your spouse and to yourself, and the rest will be easy.

    Laugh anytime you can. Focus on the positive. Always learn from mistakes - from your own and other's.

    Brush your teeth religiously. Tell your loved ones how much you love them, religiously.

    If you will get married, have a child, or even adopt a pet, make sure you can be responsible for the future happiness of those who will depend on you.

    Life is not a race; it is a journey. Make sure you prepare well and can see it through. Ultimately, the experiences you live and the wisdom you share is all that is left.

    Savor every age in it's own time. The past is to remember fondly, not to wish it back. Always create memories.

    Lifetime friends will always warm your heart, and you never have to wonder if they will feel the same way.

    Cats are amazing. Don't judge cats until you've had one. They can be clean, loving pets.

    Respect other's opinions and points of view. You don't have to agree, but you owe respect.

    Alcohol is better in moderation. I can't find a good reason to smoke.

    Make every effort to make sure what comes out of your mouth is of positive value to those who hear it. Learning when to remain quiet is a virtue.

    You are not a $100 bill - some people won't like you from the start. But be honest and true, and they might turn around.

    Peace, happiness and a life of value are the worthy pursuits of man.

    You can be great, but your power rapidly increases through teamwork. This will work in all areas of your life.

    The most important trait for success is determination.

    The universe is fair. Don't expect handouts - earn your way. If things change, adapt. Don't let bad luck influence a good strategy.

    Always say please, thank you and smile whenever you can.

    Read, always read. Even if you don't know what you are looking for - just start.

    Home cooking is cheaper, healthier, and with a little time and practice, tastier, than eating out.

    Don't assume. Observe, think, and ask.

    You need sleep and time off, to be and feel your best.

    Work will be a big chunk of your life's time. Make sure you always love what you do for a living.

    Friday, May 27, 2011

    Friday, May 20, 2011

    There has to be a network change management system

    Something, that I can:

    1. open up with a browser
    2. integrates with active directory so that we don't have even more credentials
    3. where I can select a site (from a configured and easy to maintain database, or add)
    4. a source network or hosts (from a configured and easy to maintain database, or add)
    5. ports and protocols (well known and custom)
    6. a destination network or hosts (from a configured and easy to maintain database, or add)
    7. can save it as a request, assign status, and e-mail it
    8. a list of approvers can be configured and e-mailed
    9. Can track when a change is ready and deployed
    10. Can run reports.

    Kind of like changegear, but it doesn't suck and is meant for networking.

    I don't think I ask for too much. Where is it? Can I start an open source project if it doesn't exist?

    Friday, May 13, 2011

    blackberry tether with ice

    I solemnly swear I am going to get this to work. Reading this I got it to reply back as a modem and was able to start a dialing session; but I always get


    734 PPP link control protocol was terminated


    I have to find out the ICE settings for any additional APN string, username, and password. Or it might be something else.

    **!!!update!!!**

    got it to work :D :D :D

    in the modem's apn string, put

  • +cgdcont=1,"IP","kolbi3g"


  • got the idea from 


    number to dial is
    *99#

    and username and pw are left blank.

    I'm a happy guy now :D

    Sunday, April 24, 2011

    and ichigo starts fighting again!

    let's re-joice in seeing him in a shinigami like robe and being all bad ass again :D

    by the way, mangastream is awesome. really nice work done by that page.

    Saturday, April 16, 2011

    Letra para que alguien la haga cancion #1

    Esta letra se ofrece en internet para que otra persona la haga cancion. Si ello ocurre, y se graba, quisiera ser reconocido como autor o co-autor de la letra.

    Este es un "re-make" de un poema escrito en 1997 que por alguna razon puedo recordar muy facilmente. Incluso un dia desperte sabiendo un nuevo verso para el final, pero lo he olvidado. Si lo recuerdo, lo completare en este mismo post.


    Trinan los pájaros, y pienso en ti.
    Eres un fantasma que se cuelga en mis venas.
    Desde lejos, tu presencia se ha impregnado aqui.
    Sin saber el como ni el por que.
    Ahora, mi alma esta en pena.

    Monday, April 11, 2011

    tensa zangetsu fansub

    I like the work these guys are doing - specially since no one would fansub bleach after the crunchyroll thing. I specially love that I can play these episodes on my Samsung TV :D

    http://tensa-zangetsu-fansub.blogspot.com/

    did you know there are wolverine and x-men animes? now you do :)

    April 11 - Juan Santamaría day

    Costa Rica suffers from 2 things:

    1) It's people are accustomed to not have to work very hard to get to a passable living. Thus, good is the enemy of great.
    2) Our national pride is actually more anchored on soccer games than in improving our country. There are very, very few persons who actually want to elevate Costa Rica in terms of its virtues. There are economic and tourism elevating entities, but not value, honor or virtue.

    We have not suffered many wars, and that is probably a good thing; the one we did suffer, at least with a neighboring country, was decided thanks in part to Juan Santamaría.

    http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Santamar%C3%ADa

    One thing my father in law jokes about is that the poor kid was the object of a prank, where after shouting the question "who will burn the enemy's fortress" everyone else took a step back and left him on the front. It could be.

    Thing is, he still is remembered for having balls and getting the job done, and lots of times, that's how we recognize the great men.

    google wealth tips

    You know how everyone says "you can find everything on the internet". I have decided to take some time each night, open google and think about a topic I don't know (and I need or just seems interesting) and just read until I have an idea.

    I googled 'wealth tips' and found many. The page I liked the most was this one:

    http://www.wealthtipsonline.com.au/

    Although there were others that were very good too, I liked that this one focused a bit on real estate and gave pointers to beginners, had personal finance and even finance tips for your company.

    Thursday, March 3, 2011

    I for one welcome our new computer overlords

    And thus it came. With some, quite easy to fix, programming errors (saying the same answer after someone else has missed with it - not constraining the answers to the facts such as toronto not being a us city) and quite a few more complex ones, was this "prototype" enough to beat human minds?

    I would like to point out Watson always got the first buzz when he was confident he had the answer - he either knew the exact moment the buzz was available or was microseconds faster than his compettitors. I saw Ken almost exasperate against the buzzer since he knew the answers but was not fast enough.

    Enough said. You be the judges.

    Friday, January 14, 2011

    Pokerstars homegames!

    I'm really excited about the new product Pokerstars rolled out. One of the most fun activities at this point in my life is gathering at a friend's house (or hosting our own) for a poker night. It's always kind of a pain - not everyone can make it at the same time or day.

    You could kind of agree on going online at the same time and for everyone to join the same tournament, but bragging rights are reduced to who finished up highest. |Seldom will you actually face your friends - until now!

    So far I've posted the info on my facebook account, but leave me a comment if you want me to send you the info to your e-mail :)

    if you don't have the software, click on the link to the right - if you turn out to be a poker star I'll make some money, just because you used my link!

    You are invited to join my private poker club for Home Games online.

    - If you don't already have it, download the free PokerStars software from www.pokerstars.com
    - Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
    - Click the 'Join a Poker Club' button
    - Enter my Club ID number: 58537
    - Enter my Invitation Code: (it's on facebook or ask me for it in the comments below)

    That's it! Once I've approved your membership request, we'll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.

    If you want to find out more, visit www.pokerstars.com/homegames

    Thursday, January 13, 2011

    watson, mientras el futuro te alcanza.

    You should read As the future catches you just so you can understand why this is so amazing:

    Meet Watson . He already showed today he can be the best assistant you can imagine. Today, he is an amazingly complex and expensive computer, owned solely by IBM. Tomorrow, He will be your phone/computer. By that time, you will be talking to one of Watson's descendants, almost more than to humans. He will be the voice in the call centers you reach out to, or at least their aid if you would rather talk to a human. He will be your doctor someday, he will fix your problems, and amazingly, you will wonder what education is really for, if we have this wonderful machines that can answer everything.

    This is the first step in making a computer indistinguishable.

    The next big breakthrough, will be when a PC thinks without an input. A computer that exists, takes in, communicates, interacts, creates and experiences - basically, lives.