So I'm sitting in Dubai International Airport and I see all those people either getting on their airplanes or waiting for their flights--like me--and I look around me and notice all the stuff we have that are there just for our comfort: chairs for people to sleep on, charging stations to charge people's phones, ready-to-eat food, fligts on which you can sleep and wake up when you arrive, and the list goes on!
Considering we're just evolved animals, this is way too much; we've invented way so many things for our comfort, maybe even too much!
If, for one reason or another--God forbid--we lost all these things: No comfy chairs, back to sitting on rigid uncomfortable chairs; no airplanes, back to traveling on ships and busses; no cell phones, back to using land lines. I know I can't live like that. And I doubt anyone can. We got used to living in a civilized manner that it became impossible for us to live on our own, hunt for food, and al the other things our ancestors used to do.
Don't get me wrong, all these things are nice, but in case anything happens and we have to give them up we're doomed!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
A Story That Touched Me
Today in church, after the worship, before the speaker starts his talk, a woman wanted to share something, she's from Iraq, it was related to the last hymn we sang which had to do with God breaking the chains.
Her son, an architect, after graduating from college, got excited so he started working on these big projects to make big profit, of course, that also means big risk.
His father and uncles advised him not to do that but he still did it anyway, he ended up losing a lot of money and borrowing money.
One day, one person he'd borrowed from wanted his money back, since he couldn't pay, he was arrested until he could pay.
Now, cells in Iraq aren't up to par, they're small with lots of people jammed into them, there are so many people that they can't sit so they'll fit, they have to stand. The toilet is in the cell itself. It's hot and dirty.
He was put in a police station in an area where there are no Christians.
His father and uncles didn't do anything 'cause they'd advised him and he didn't listen. But his mom went to the police station every day, once in the morning and once in the evening bringing him food and stuff, she even brought bibles and distributed to the people there, though they are Muslims.
Every time she asks her son to pray to God to get him out of trouble and every time he says to her "Don't tell me that, find me money!" and she'd tell him "Son! If only you pray! God can do anything, he can shake the foundations of this cell and set you free!"
After two weeks she said to him "If you want me to keep visiting you have to pray!" so he promised her he will."
Next morning, on her way there, when she was near the police station she saw a big crowd gathered.
When she went closer, one of the guards that knows her 'cause she goes there everyday told her "Saddam ordered that all prisoners are set free"--I remember the day that's happened.
It's really amazing.
Hallelujah! :D
Her son, an architect, after graduating from college, got excited so he started working on these big projects to make big profit, of course, that also means big risk.
His father and uncles advised him not to do that but he still did it anyway, he ended up losing a lot of money and borrowing money.
One day, one person he'd borrowed from wanted his money back, since he couldn't pay, he was arrested until he could pay.
Now, cells in Iraq aren't up to par, they're small with lots of people jammed into them, there are so many people that they can't sit so they'll fit, they have to stand. The toilet is in the cell itself. It's hot and dirty.
He was put in a police station in an area where there are no Christians.
His father and uncles didn't do anything 'cause they'd advised him and he didn't listen. But his mom went to the police station every day, once in the morning and once in the evening bringing him food and stuff, she even brought bibles and distributed to the people there, though they are Muslims.
Every time she asks her son to pray to God to get him out of trouble and every time he says to her "Don't tell me that, find me money!" and she'd tell him "Son! If only you pray! God can do anything, he can shake the foundations of this cell and set you free!"
After two weeks she said to him "If you want me to keep visiting you have to pray!" so he promised her he will."
Next morning, on her way there, when she was near the police station she saw a big crowd gathered.
When she went closer, one of the guards that knows her 'cause she goes there everyday told her "Saddam ordered that all prisoners are set free"--I remember the day that's happened.
It's really amazing.
Hallelujah! :D
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
(10+2)*5
While browsing Lifehacker today I stumbled upon a post that features a simple application called Procrastination Killer.
The idea behind it is explained on the page, simply put, you work for 10 minutes then you take a break for 2 minutes, thus the 10+2, you repeat that for 5 times (12*5=60) and you get a full hour.
I've been using it the whole day now and it seems to be working; I'm finally getting some work done! But it's so annoying, you HAVE to take a break, and it's just 2 minutes long, by the time you have something fun and interesting to do the break is over. Like, just when I started to type this post the message popped up saying that my break is over, luckily, it doesn't start counting until you press the button so I'm taking a 5-minute break instead!
Let's see how this goes.
The idea behind it is explained on the page, simply put, you work for 10 minutes then you take a break for 2 minutes, thus the 10+2, you repeat that for 5 times (12*5=60) and you get a full hour.
I've been using it the whole day now and it seems to be working; I'm finally getting some work done! But it's so annoying, you HAVE to take a break, and it's just 2 minutes long, by the time you have something fun and interesting to do the break is over. Like, just when I started to type this post the message popped up saying that my break is over, luckily, it doesn't start counting until you press the button so I'm taking a 5-minute break instead!
Let's see how this goes.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Windows 7
Just recently, I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC and I've gotta say I'm impressed.
All my laptop's Vista drivers worked just fine, Windows installed most of the drivers through updates.
Everything just works, which is something I really missed in Linux, the closest it got was with Ubuntu but even then it wasn't as easy as it is with Windows 7.
It's fast, it's light, no unwanted features and an amazing new UI.
I'm a big fan of the changes they made to their UI, I like how you can keep only one window open by dragging it and shaking it, and all the other windows will be minimized, do that again and they're back.
And I like the new taskbar I don't know why no one's thought of it before.
I can safely say that M$ has officially outdone itself and that I am actually willing to pay for Windows 7 when it's released.
All my laptop's Vista drivers worked just fine, Windows installed most of the drivers through updates.
Everything just works, which is something I really missed in Linux, the closest it got was with Ubuntu but even then it wasn't as easy as it is with Windows 7.
It's fast, it's light, no unwanted features and an amazing new UI.
I'm a big fan of the changes they made to their UI, I like how you can keep only one window open by dragging it and shaking it, and all the other windows will be minimized, do that again and they're back.
And I like the new taskbar I don't know why no one's thought of it before.
I can safely say that M$ has officially outdone itself and that I am actually willing to pay for Windows 7 when it's released.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Playing .3gp and .mp4 files on Ubunut
I know, I know, I've been posting lots of how-tos but that's basically for me to find them and share a method that works with others.
The codec works for mplayer (not totem) so you need mplayer, and, if you want, gnome-mplayer so run the following command:
It'll pull some dependencies, including mplayer itself.
Then you need to go here and download the tarball for your architecture.
It has a README file, just follow the instructions there, copy the files and your videos should play.
Source
The codec works for mplayer (not totem) so you need mplayer, and, if you want, gnome-mplayer so run the following command:
sudo apt-get install gnome-mplayer
It'll pull some dependencies, including mplayer itself.
Then you need to go here and download the tarball for your architecture.
It has a README file, just follow the instructions there, copy the files and your videos should play.
Source
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Getting Prism firefox 3 extension working on Ubuntu
I've been trying to get it to work for quite some time now but never really bothered to look for a solution... Just now I decided to google a bit, and I found a solution.
To fix the problem, all you have to do is to open the .desktop file that the plug-in creates on your desktop and change “/usr/bin/firefox-3.0.3/firefox” to /usr/bin/xulrunner .
That's all folks!
To fix the problem, all you have to do is to open the .desktop file that the plug-in creates on your desktop and change “/usr/bin/firefox-3.0.3/firefox” to /usr/bin/xulrunner .
That's all folks!
Connectiyo, again!
Yes, I have worked on Connectiyo before... This time it's not going to be an all-in-one website, in fact, it's going to be exactly the opposite of that; It'll barely store any data, here's how it'll work (I think I've blogged about this before):
There are so many social websites today, each has its own profile, status, info, etc... There are websites that try to put them all in one place but they end up adding to the mess rather than fix it; they all have "what are you doing" and their own profile.
Connectiyo is different; it won't store any data of its own, it won't even have its own accounts: It'll use facebook connect.
It will allow you to gather all your contacts from everywhere (Yahoo, Google, facebook, twitter, etc) all in one place, merge the same contacts, eventually, you'll everything you need to communicate with your friends in one place, and the cool thing is that, unlike similar services, they don't have to use the site for you to see their updates.
I really think this'll work out 'cause I actually have a problem to solve unlike before.
I started designing the interface, and I started reading about using facebook's API with Flex, however, I still need to finish my final project (final changes), after that I'll be free to work on Connectiyo, I might even start a blog about it (Yey!).
PS: I had to choose between this project and another crazy idea I have. I might blog about that one soon.
God bless you all!
There are so many social websites today, each has its own profile, status, info, etc... There are websites that try to put them all in one place but they end up adding to the mess rather than fix it; they all have "what are you doing" and their own profile.
Connectiyo is different; it won't store any data of its own, it won't even have its own accounts: It'll use facebook connect.
It will allow you to gather all your contacts from everywhere (Yahoo, Google, facebook, twitter, etc) all in one place, merge the same contacts, eventually, you'll everything you need to communicate with your friends in one place, and the cool thing is that, unlike similar services, they don't have to use the site for you to see their updates.
I really think this'll work out 'cause I actually have a problem to solve unlike before.
I started designing the interface, and I started reading about using facebook's API with Flex, however, I still need to finish my final project (final changes), after that I'll be free to work on Connectiyo, I might even start a blog about it (Yey!).
PS: I had to choose between this project and another crazy idea I have. I might blog about that one soon.
God bless you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
