Reminders
“What did you have for lunch?,” the father asks while driving home. “Same as usual,” he replies. “And that is?” “I just eat random sandwiches of what comes to whim.” The father processes that for a bit. “I see.” Later, at home, “what’s there for homework today?” “No much,” he says. “Brush your teeth,” he is reminded. Later, in the evening. “Take a shower.” A few times.
Just before the father goes to sleep, and sees his bedroom lights on. “What are you doing up so late? … ⌘ Read more
AP classes
Yesterday (15 October) Kent told me he doesn’t want to take AP (Advanced Placement) classes next year. He also told me he might not want to be a neurological surgeon after all, and that he really doesn’t know what he will want to be, professionally. We talked more, but the rest of it has no place in here.
Amongst the many feelings I am experiencing, regret is one of them. If only my parents were alive. I can’t express with words how very sorry I am for the many bad times I made them go through. ⌘ Read more
Backing up and restoring GPG keys
If you use GPG to occasionally encrypt and/or sign your email, or to encrypt your files before placing them on the cloud, you will understand how important it is to have a backup of your GPG keys. Similarly important will be to know how to restore them as well.
To back your private, and public keys, as well as your trust database, you will do1:
gpg --armor --export-secret-keys > ~/Des ... ⌘ [Read more](https://collantes.us/2015/10/13/backing-up-and-restoring-gpg-keys/)Good office slave manual
Yegor Bugayenko has a few tips—a short manual, per se—to help us be good office slaves.
Don’t Nag. No matter what is happening, you should never criticize your direct manager. The boss is always right. Everything else may be wrong — the situation, colleagues, suppliers, computers, the CEO, investors, the market, or the weather, but not the boss you directly report to. The word of this person is the law. The boss is the god. … ⌘ Read more
The Martian
We just came from seeing the movie “ The Martian.” Minus the obvious, very predictable, Hollywood scenes, the movie was quite alright. It made me wish I could live to see the first few missions to the Red Planet. Being the selfless guy that I am, thought, I would be willing to settle if my child gets to see them instead.
While on the topic of movies, and theaters, it is amazing how expensive it is to see a movie these days. For three tickets we paid $36 … ⌘ Read more
Enticement
Someone decided to entice us to fill out a survey, by sending us a “lucky” two dollars bill with it. Normally we do not fill out any type of surveys, unless proper remuneration is provided. Two dollars isn’t really worth the effort, and normally would not be accepted as a fee. Yet, since there is no way to send it back with assurances it will reach the original sender, we have a small dilemma on hands.
Thus, as the survey is only two page … ⌘ Read more
Russians and Syria
We bomb. From the air, from the ground, from afar, from ships. And so do the Russians now. We target what we belie … ⌘ Read more
Of no use
A farmer got so old that he couldn’t work the fields anymore. So he would spend the day just sitting on the porch. His son, still working the farm, would look up from time to time and see his father sitting there.
“ _He’s of no use any more,_” the son thought to himself, “ _he doesn’t do anything!_”
One day the son got so frustrated by this, that he built a wood coffin, dragged it over to the porch, and told his father to get in. Without saying anything, the father climbed inside. … ⌘ Read more
Prediction
Next year we will have our Presidential Elections. Everyone knows that, of course, because the politicians have been campaining for almost a year now.
Below is the name of a file with my winner’s prediction on the United States 2016 Presidential Elections written on it. It is a hash algorithm of a file containing a sentence with my prediction. I will refer to this post the day after elections, as the results are known.
2016-Presidential-Elections-Prediction.txt
eeb872df145294d1c7c2547 ... ⌘ [Read more](https://collantes.us/2015/10/05/prediction/)Tempus Fugit
Time seems to be passing by too fast. Way too fast.
A week starts and then it is over when I blink. Same applies to weekends. It used to be that time seemed to pass quick only when engaged in something. Lately it is the same, whether I am busy or not. I am afraid I will blink again, and I will be gone.
Amongst the many things we can’t control, time is the one that hurts the most, especially as we grow older. I think I am having a déjà vu. ⌘ Read more
Space for the dead
I read an article today on The Guardian, which showed up on the eight page of Hacker’s News. It talks about the lack of space for the dead, in the world of the living.
“Some 55 million people are reckoned to pass away each year (about 0.8% of the planet’s total population – equivalent to 100% of England’s). Yet urban planners and developers focus overwhelmingly on accommodating and making money from the living. Ceme … ⌘ Read more
Nix 1.10 released
Nix 1.10
has been released. See the release\
notes for a list of changes and new features. ⌘ Read more
On a rock
From our last vacation—which occurred four months ago—to Colorado. This one was taken somewhere around Pikes Peak. Kent was daring, and Kim was afraid. I took the photo. ⌘ Read more
OMG I have like 10 repos on Google Code, time to move them http://t.co/9Rm21YVP1K
NixOS 14.04 released
NixOS 14.04 “Baboon” has been released, the second stable
release branch. It brings Linux 3.12, systemd 212, GCC 4.8,
Glibc 2.19, KDE 4.12, light-weight NixOS containers, and much
more. See the release\
notes for details. You can get NixOS 14.04 ISOs and
VirtualBox appliances from the download page. For information on
how to upgrade a 13.10 system to 14.04, check out the [manual\
section on upgrading](/manual/nixos/stable/#sec … ⌘ Read more
Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL
A serious security\
vulnerability has been discovered in OpenSSL. All stable
NixOS releases prior to version
13.10.35708.15a465c are vulnerable. (You can
see your current version by running nixos-version.) To
upgrade to the latest NixOS version, run nixos-rebuild
switch –upgrade. You can verify whether you are safe by
running
$ nix-store -qR /run/current-system | grep openssl
If this shows any OpenSSL ve … ⌘ Read more
NixOS 13.10 released
We have released NixOS 13.10, the first stable branch of NixOS.
Its goal is to provide a safe branch for production environments
that need bug fixes and security updates, but not the
potentially destabilising changes that sometimes occur on the
unstable branch. You can get NixOS 13.10 ISOs and VirtualBox
appliances from the download\
page. See the announcement
for … ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Ken Ash
And this will be rotated yet another 90 Deg’s and called new wall paper the the next release with a .1 tenth increase in the smudge factor…… ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Jazzyboy1
In reply to Amir Dizdarević.
… How do you know? ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by John Porter
In reply to Tobias Müller.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I’m just gonna wait til 13.10 is released though, then switch to Ubuntu again. ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Michael Zimmermann
In reply to Ali Najafi.
I think the same but this wallpaper is more a indicator of the product and not of the brand.
a brand wallpaper would show the ubuntu or canonical logo. ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Tobias Müller
In reply to John Porter.
Elementare is super fast and god looking… An OS I would recommend to,… well, my mother maybe, but I’m missing some features and I like unity dash More than their equivalent ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by John Porter
In reply to Tobias Müller.
That’s true, I didn’t take that into account. ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by John Porter
In reply to Tobias Müller.
That matches my experience exactly. I’m trying Elementary at the minute, but I’d say I’ll be back with Ubuntu when 13.10 is released. ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Stinger
Looks like a blurry banana : D ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Tobias Müller
In reply to Devon Garber.
Shell people talk about me having an IPhone and an Ipad… While I have a cheap Android Smartphone and a nexus 7… People using Apple terms instead of the type of machine bothers me more… ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Tobias Müller
In reply to Jonathan.
Whell, it got faster and more stable… Long requested features I guess there will be lots of changes with unity 8 ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Tobias Müller
In reply to Jebril.
Your opinion… I’ve been using Ubuntu (with breaks) since 2007, I tried mint, I tried Kubuntu, Elementary and a few other derivates. I stayed with gnome-shell for a while at the beginning of unity, but always came back to stock ubuntu. It combines a decent look, decent performanc … ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Ali Najafi
Maybe unlike everybody, I think the default wallpaper should indicate the brand. This is good enough to unite with previous ones. ⌘ Read more
Comment on Ubuntu 13.10 Default Wallpaper Revealed by Tobias Müller
In reply to John Porter.
I don’t know about that, I guess the combination of it both is Quite a good idea… Cause you can easily see that 13.10 is newer than13.04, you can’t see that from raring ringtail and saucy salamander… Unless you know its alphabeticaly. And in non english speaking countrys … ⌘ Read more
Morale
Last week I wrote about Kent’s Spelling Bee, and how preparing for it was hard for him and I.
Well, the Bee came and went, and I forgot to come back to post the results. He misspelled “ _morale_” (he spelled it as “ moral”) and finished in 4th place—for me, it doesn’t make sense, as I have always considered first, second and third place relevant, but fourth?—, which still qualified him to go to the State competition. That, of course, means more pract … ⌘ Read more
Spelling bee
As a foreigner, trying to go over a Spelling Bee word list with my kid is nothing less than a challenge. For the both of us. First, there are the words I have never seeing; those I can’t pronounce. Second, there are the words I will mispronounce. And third, there are the ones I don’t know what they mean.
If you add to that the fact that the kid is learning them, hence bound to make many mistakes… well, yes, a challenge, to put it mildly. It gives me a headache. I will be glad when is over. 26 Oct … ⌘ Read more
I got a 8.4/10 in Color, a color matching game http://t.co/M8r86859
Stephen Fry on Steve Jobs
Stephen Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He is also an awesome human being.
As always there are those who reveal their asininity (as they did throughout his career) with ascriptions like “salesman”, “showman” or the giveaway blunder “triumph of style over substance”. The use of that las … ⌘ Read more
Steve P. Jobs, 1955 - 2011
A great man has passed away. While mourning, we celebrate all he brought to us… his many accomplishments. He will not be forgotten.
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011 ⌘ Read more
What I thought when my plane crashed
From CNN Opinion, this\
article, written by Ric Elias I liked. I liked it
so much, I decided to keep it here, for when it is not longer available
at CNN. As I did with a previous\
article I kept from the WSJ, if CNN
does not likes what I have done, let me know and I will remove it, or
adapt it to a compromise. Please do not sue … ⌘ Read more
Ricky Gervais - Why I’m an atheist
This is an article
written by Ricky Gervais, for The Wall Street Journal back in 2010.
Reproduced entirely here, as SpeakEasy seems not to be keep articles
around long enough. If WSJ does not like what I have done, let me know
and I will remove it, or adapt it to a co … ⌘ Read more
Good job! You’ve successfully completed 10 steps! You’ve earned over 250MB! We hope you’ve enjoyed the hunt! #DropQuest
#DropQuest anything after step 10 ?
Dragons can be killed
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
“By confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happened, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For … ⌘ Read more
Bright House saga
In two occasions I have written about Bright House service, or the lack of. Ever since my last entry, many issues aroused, but I never came here to document them.
They vary, and cover a wide range. So many Bright House technicians has passed by my house, I lost count. The proverbial “how many technici … ⌘ Read more
Да намеря време да си направя някой ден: http://kottke.org/10/02/balls-of-mud-that-shine
Glad I am not in North Korea
From the Wall Street Journal:
North Korea said on Monday it would issue new won currency this week that would in effect lop two zeros off the old —requiring 1,000-won bills, for example, to be exchanged for 10-won notes with, theoretically, the same buying power.
It said it would limit the amount of old currency it would accept in exchange, to the equivalent of about $40 worth at unofficial exchange rates.
— [Wall Street Journal](http://online.wsj.c … ⌘ Read more
Ubuntu 9.10 (Кармична Коала) e готово. http://www.ubuntu.com
The Hero
I am in love with the HTC Hero. I do not have one… yet, still, when thinking on a mobile device I would love to have, the Hero is what comes to mind. And what better song to keep my hopes alive than “Holding out for a Hero”, by Bonnie Tyler? So, here it goes!
Edited: Song removed. Did not wanted to get sued for hosting a sound track which copyright might forbid wide audience availability.
Can you feel it?! (smile) ⌘ Read more
Selling iPhone
In an effort to start saving money towards an Android based device (would love HTC Hero), I am selling my 2G 16GB iPhone. As the eBay listing reads, it is a very well kept, 2G 16GB iPhone, unlocked and jailbroken. No scratches, no blemishes. Bid starts at $1, no reserve. Yes, $1. ⌘ Read more
Bright House follow up
You will remember my previous Bright House post. The same day I wrote that, I got a call from a Bright House customer service representative. Since there is no need to know names, let’s call her Christine. I like that name.
Christine told me Bright House was aware I had publicly written about my displeasure with their services, and that her job was to make sure I was completely satisfied. Fair enough. After patiently listening … ⌘ Read more
Avoid Bright House if you can
I live in Central Florida. In my area, if I want cable TV and Internet, I have no choice but to use Bright House services. The competition is satellite TV/Internet and/or DSL (for Internet). Why am I recommending to avoid Bright House, if you can? It is simple: their service is far from being of a good quality and/or reliable. I will elaborate a little.
On cable TV, you get black screens (no video or audio), or “ Please wait” screens, constantly and randomly. You call, the … ⌘ Read more
От къщи до княжево и обратно е около 10 км. Идеална тренировка само дето след околомръсното става грозно.
Not allowed to tell
A local bank in front of which I sit quite often has a locked metal box sitting outside the branch. Yesterday my curiosity got sparked when I saw one of the employees (which I greet daily) opening it and taking a canvas bag out of it. When I asked what was the box for, she stopped like frozen, and muttered “ _Company doesn’t allow me to tell._”
Now, won’t you agree with me that such answer was a very silly —and dangerous!— one? ⌘ Read more