Monday, December 22, 2008

Solution for the current Internet speed problem

This afternoon, I got really fed up with the slow Internet when suddenly an idea came to me:

Could using freegate help with this?

I'm not going to explain how it works here; you can read all about it on wikipedia.

You can get it from here.

You'll have to set your proxy to localhost:8580.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Traditions

Just in case you don't know, I'm from Iraq--I had to say this 'cause this post is all about traditions so it helps to know what traditions I'm talking about.

I left Iraq 3 years ago, came here, studied in the Philippine school for 1 year before joining college at the age of 16.

During that one year, I learned a lot of traditions and since I'm open-minded I adopted with them and accepted them easily.

Last week I was chatting with my Iraqi friend and I was surprised to hear her say that in our traditions a girl isn't allowed to date a guy until they're engaged!

I never knew this before, really!

Engagement isn't just the guy proposing to the girl; the guy's family goes to the girl's family and propose.

I've heard people say "(some guy) proposed to this girl and she and/or her family rejected him" and I think to myself "how could (some guy) and that girl know each other before?".

It wasn't until now that I knew what really goes on: they propose THEN they get to know each other.

It's stupid! A couple should get to know each other first BEFORE getting serious...

If they break up even before getting married, people will say "They disagreed", well, none said they will agree!

Traditions are useless; they were started years and years ago and they can be wrong, bad, harmful, useless, etc...

It's not like they're based on any scientific facts or any thing that backs them up, they're just started by people because they think something's good or bad.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Great people (seriously this time)

So, I was gonna comment about ESR's post--kinda tired of linking to it here--last night but I found something much cooler so I blogged about that instead.

So, how can one define "great people"? Personally, someone is "great" if he does good things in his life and is remembered by them after his death, and that's exactly what Gilgamesh came to conclude by the end of his trip; he traveled seeking immortality, but tried as he might, he couldn't do what Utnapishtim asked him to do to become immortal.

Look at him for example, he died thousands of years ago yet he's still remembered until today! Look at the prophets! Look at Albert Einestein! And the list goes on and on.

So ESR may have missed his chance of becoming a great physicist but he's still considered a great person, he's gonna be remembered after his death, every book about Linux and open source will mention him, he has a wikipedia page!

As for believing in your thoughts, well... Every kid is born like that: they believe what they think is right, but over the years, they get discouraged to do so by their parents and other adult people.

"But I can start my own company" "Earth is calling, get back to reality!"
"Fine, I'll work for a great company (Google, MS, etc)" "Yeah! Go tell them you can count from 1 to 10"
"Ugh! I'll come up with a new product" "A bidet? Already done" :|

Personally I believe that every person can be great if they really want that.

Maybe some people are more talented than others which gives them an advantage but that doesn't mean that others are completely hopeless.

I can talk about this all I want but will anyone care? After all, I'm just an 18 year old kid!

Great people... NVM! Let's talk about Noah!

I was gonna comment on ESR's post and I wanted to reference something in the epic of Gilgamesh when I found something AMAZING.

The epic is written on 12 tablets, the eleventh is about Gilgamesh talking to Utnapishtim, who tells him about a flood that happened and how he was ordered to build an ark and all... It's like the story of Noah.

You can read tablet 11 here.

If you think about it, it's written thousands of years before the bible and there's no way that the people who wrote the bible have read it, how can you explain the similarity?

Atheists, take it as a challenge!

Peace!

Updates again

OK... So I haven't posted in two months now.

Here's what's new:

Trying to finish my project on time so I won't have to do it next semester and I'll be free to work on Connectiyo.

Connectiyo is going pretty well, although still far from it, I'm steadily approaching a usable version, and I'm kinda confused about some details. The development is kinda boring 'cause there aren't interesting stuff to do in it for now.

I have been asked to create a website... I'll be working on it after my exams are over (31 of Dec).

I need to rant about traditions but it's too long so I'll do that in a separate post.

I came to some conclusions about YFC (Youth For Christ) that I'll blog about soon.

What else? Can't wait till Christmas ;)

Oh! I also feel like commenting on ESR's post.