The torrent sites went 2012

Yesterday, mininova.org went offline saying that they shall be conducting a regualr maintenance. When the site went back online, it appears that the massive list of torrents were trimmed down big time. The number of seeders, which before counts up to five digit (and we are not here of porn torrent), decreased drastically. A link at the top page of mininova.org mentioned something about limiting its services to just content distribution services.

What a sad day it has been. The web won't be the same way again without the good old mininova. Truly, mininova has been one of the safest and most reliable torrent sites around.

P2P and torrent is here to stay. While I agree that copyrights for movies, audio and books must be maintained, it doesn't hurt big time if major production outfits would released perhaps a "community version" ala Creative Commons in the open source world. It's good that open source products like Ubuntu have remained but only 1 Python E-book in mininova? That's crazy.

Isohunt.com, on the other hand, is battling it out on the court about the publication of copyrighted torrent. May they survive the latest challenge to the P2P world.

How to extend thy life

Simple, by following the health tips written below. I am 3 out of 6 on the list.

Picture was taken during CHITS Training in Orion, Bataan. Credit goes to the
Orion Rural Health Unit

Additional Quote for the day: Worry will make you hurry to cemetery.

Resolving Apache's apr_sockaddr_info() error

I just installed httpd (aka Apache) in Fedora Core 11 (Leonidas). I am planning a shift from Ubuntu to FC and trying to replicate the things I have been doing with former. The set up of httpd in FC 11 can be done via "sudo yum -y install httpd".

Unlike in many Debian-based distros, Apache web server does not necessarily run automatically. The command 'sbin/service httpd start'. It was noticed that during the process of initializing the apache web server, the error "apr_sockaddr_info() cannot be started, etc." was seen.

To resolve the issue, the command 'sudo hostname localhost' was issued. Apache was restarted and when http://localhost was accessed, voila ! there goes the web server's main page.

Operation SOPAS

"Sopas" is soup when translated in Filipino (and probably Spanish as well) is codename for my next programming project that I tend to implement using SaaS (Software as a Service). I just got reminded over this idea when Mike Mckay had asked me of any software projects that I would want to implement if only I have time. The technopreneural spirit became alive again. I can't divulged much of the idea yet but in involves multidisciplinary approach (pedagogy, marketing, health). I got reminded again how SaaS can be a powerful agent for rolling out IT projects over the web without much fuss in replicating it over and over again. Apps can be offered as "plain vanilla" or a customized version.

With SOPAS,I hope to have low-cost, high impact application that will ..... SaaS rules ! Curious peeps may email yours truly at darth_ali at yahoo dot com.

Honoring heroes

Last weekend, Manny "the paaacman!" Pacquiao made a history in the boxing world by capturing the an unprecedented 7th world title in 7 division. Such a feat for once the poor boy from southern Philippines. Yeah, Pacman is one of the best boxers of all time and a modern day pride for the Philippines. But one that I disagree for sure, Pacman is not a modern day hero.

I believe that to be qualified as a hero you must:

1. sacrificed something really important (i.e. opportunities, life) for the sake of many people and not expecting anything in return

2. have created an impacting and positive change

3. inspires people and brings out the best out of everyone

November is the month when the nation tends to commemorate the death anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, one of the great Filipino revolutionary. Currently, Efren Penaflorida of Dynamics Teen Company is an example of average individuals who can really make that big difference.

Modern day heroes can be seen to each and every Filipino who strives to make things better for others. I am not talking here of politicians though (bec it is your mandate to make things better with those large some of money from people's taxes). OFW's, health professionals especially those that are in public health, educators and teachers, rescuers, firemen, peace and order personnel, volunteer organizations and many others.

I would love to see another side of the cross in the Dambana ng Kagitingin showing heroism in the modern day era!

The Lost Symbol

Legend has it that the America or the "New World" was founded out of the beliefs and traditions of ancient cultures. And we're talking here of cultures older than the Romans and Greeks. This has been one of the prevailing themes in the book "The Lost Symbol" which was crafted and written by Dan Brown. In another fast-paced, highly suspensed and ultra informative story, Robert Langdon is on a mission to solve the ancient portal mystery at Washington DC while searching for his missing mentor, Peter Solomon. This is a book highly recommended for both science enthusiasts and history fanatics for it discusses stuffs such as noetic science and hands of mystery.

"The Lost Symbol" has lived up to the tradition and sensation brought by its precursors, "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons".


PS: I am still reading it though. 250 more pages to go!

Last quarter, quick recap

January - March: passive income, technopreneurship, tons of investments

April - June: NCC instructor, salesman in the weekend, SEO newbie in the night

July - September: going back to reality after the six-month "what if" experiment

October - December: doing things that I love doing ... health informatics and finishing my perpetual UPOU thesis

Making Intel HDA STAC92XX sound card work in Kubuntu 9.04

For the purpose of documentation and a "mini" achivement, here is the workaround i did to make the sound work for HP Compaq 510 running Kubuntu 9.04:

1. open the terminal
2. gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
3. append the following lines at the end:

options snd-pcsp index=-2
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

4. System Setting > Multimedia > Audio Output > make Intel HDA STAC92XX as the first output device > Apply
5. restart kubuntu