“Chuck Bartowski”

I’m sure I’ve heard that name before the TV Series “Chuck” and I was right. The name “Chuck Bartowski” was also used by Fisher Steven’s character, Chuck Fishman, in an old TV series, “Early Edition”. In episode 3 of season 1 (The Baby was the title, I think), Chuck met up with a pregnant woman in her apartment and confronted her with an alias Chuck Bartowski.

Slumdog Millionaire (Trailer)

Before anything else

Before the tubes get clogged… before tempers (or actually they already have) … nevermind.

Happy holidays everyone!

Pinoy Classic Movie Still Lives

While many films spend a brief period in the spotlight before fading into obscurity, there are some which seem to grow increasingly powerful over time.

Source: edition.cnn.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/25/himala.liveson/?iref=intlOnlyonCNN

DO NOT SAVE!

‘They’ do have a point of not saving someone when in danger because you might make things worse since you’re not a professional. But it makes you think twice before saving someone else’s life. Perhaps the best thing a normal ‘nonprofessional’ human being should do is just call the professionals and watch & let people die.

Let’s just wait for proof that the act of saving the person made her paralyzed.

Moments

There are just times when things don’t go as planned. And there are times they just do.

 

April - OJT @ a power company
May - Rode on a sports-type motorcycle
June - Went to embassy alone
July - Diligent in waking up early (5:30am-6:00am) everyday
August - Had a “make-over” AND played in front of a much larger audience for Founder’s Week
September  - joined a motorshow
October - went to AHA Archon 2008 (my 1st VISIT to an Archon)
November -  gym! (sore muscles)

Not done: 
October -  go on a field trip to Cebu with the physics peeps
November - join a sport for Intramurals (SU) 

December - get some new horses?;  paint my bike metallic yellow

I never thought I could have my bike repainted. It has scratches and a crack on the fairings and I had little funds to do it but thanks to the people who brought me up, I finally have it started. Although the new horse(s) still remains a blur.

For SU Physics Xmas Party ‘08 (TEASER)

Software You’ll Need for your NEW Computer

You have your brand new desktop, laptop (and?) or netbook and you’re looking for essential applications which are decently lightweight and fast in loading.  Here are a few free (and a few open-source) software you will need whether you’re on the road or on your couch, alone or with your friends/family. (NOTE: Most links give the download URL for Windows machines only.)

1. VLC Media Player (video) - for your movie needs (whether it’s in a CD/DVD or in .avi format), this player does it best. You can tune up the volume to more than 100% especially for those low-sounding built-in speakers.
LINK: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html 

2. WinAMP (audio) – but what about iTunes? Well, if you’re looking for a faster way to play your MP3s without really organizing them, then this is the better software to use. It is light to download and runs very fast. Use iTunes only if you have an iPod or if you love organizing your songs.
LINK: http://www.winamp.com/player

3.  Foxit Reader (pdf) – you might have encountered Adobe’s PDF reader but it tends to lag especially when you’re trying to open huge ebooks or pdf files. Foxit offers a “small and fast PDF viewer” that will make you wish you knew about this sooner.
LINK: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm

 4. Google Chrome (web browser) – yes, Chrome. Firefox? Honestly, I still find Chrome to be very fast compared to Firefox (even 3.0+). You can open more tabs and quickly move between them without lagging too much.
LINK: http://www.google.com/chrome

5.  OpenOffice.org (office suite) – so you don’t have an office suite (like Microsoft’s Office Suite) and you’re looking for an alternative. Here comes OpenOffice, an open-source office suite designed for Linux and now Windows. Until now, I believe OpenOffice hasn’t fully achieved the fast loading time of MS Office, but the new version (3.0) runs decently fast and with the FREE price tag, how can you beat that?
LINK: http://www.openoffice.org/

6. IrfanView (photos/images) – every file you open is opened by Windows Picture & Fax Viewer, or worse, MS PAINT! Well, one of the fastest and easiest way to open a photo or image is using IrfanView. It can open almost any image file and can even play videos & mp3s (with the right plug-ins installed).  The convenience this software gives to the user is irreplacable.
LINK: http://www.irfanview.com/

7. Picasa (photos/images) – so what if I can open images with just a click (or two)? What about editing and organizing my dog/cat photos? Well, Picasa has come to the rescue. This helps you organize them so you could find your pictures easily. Red-eye can be removed in a snap. You can even make your own web photo album and slideshows! This makes things more easy and fun.
LINK: http://picasa.google.com/

 8. GIMP (drawing/photoshop alternative) – what about making my own drawings? Well, GIMP is the alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop. You have similar tools to that of Photoshop and the FREE price tag makes it.. well, FREE.
LINK: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

9. Inkscape (vector/coreldraw & illustrator alternative) – I need to make my calling cards but CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator is so expensive! So in comes Inkscape, which allows you to do the same things in other software. I personally use this when making customized calling cards and stickers.
LINK:  http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

10. Dia (diagram drawing) – you remember those “Choose-your-own adventure” books that you could finish in less than a day? In order to make that kind of book, the authors would have needed to make a diagram first on the story line. Dia helps you create these diagrams and story lines with extreme ease.
LINK: http://dia-installer.de/download.html 

11. Avast (anti-virus)  - okay. Perhaps it’s time to go back to the “essentials” for a Windows machine–anti-virus software. Avast offers a less-annoying spyware and anti-virus defense and has a resident shield. Their FREE version does the job well enough to keep those nasty viruses at bay. The only problem I’ve encountered was the scanning time–which is very thorough, but takes a very long time.
LINK: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html 

12. Avira (anti-virus) – what?! I need 2 anti-virus software? You don’t really need Avast and Avira-FREE together especially in one netbook or underpowered device but these two actually worked on my machine for months now. Personally, I use Avast to catch viruses, worms, and spyware which I don’t have to scan on USBs and I use Avira to quickly scan USBs since Avira does it faster (but not as thorough) which is perfect! But Avira’s updates can get pretty annoying.
LINK:  http://www.free-av.com/en/download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

13. Advanced Windows Care (general Windows optimizer) – it’s hard to find a software that does almost everything to make your Windows run as fast as it could–until Iobit unleashed its own system care software. Spyware removal, privacy sweep, security defense, system optimization, built-in utilities (actually, shortcuts to windows SCANDISK, DiskCleaner…etc.)–these are just a few of the features. You don’t have to be a nerd/geek to figure out how to use the software (although it would be wise to take extra care with tweaking your REGISTRY) and Iobit’s Advanced Windows Care Personal makes sure your PC runs to its fullest! 
LINK: http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download 

 

There are a lot of USEFUL free software and I cannot possibly write them all here. I wanted to include WinPatrol but it might take an intermediate user++ to really understand how it works. And I’m sure you have your share of software that you use so why don’t you share them. Just hit the comments button!

(If the links are broken, you may find the software @ CNET’s Download.com)

Pownce is shutting down

It is sad to see one of the more useful social networking sites out there go down.

Pownce has been acquired by the blogging company Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, TypePad and Vox.

Time to back up my data.

http://www.sixapart.com/pownce/

Gas Prices

Last week, I went to Caltex to refuel and the prices were at Php42-43. But today, when I visited, it was like Php32-33. I should be happy about the price drop, but something smells fishy. Food prices haven’t gone down! Not that it really amazes me but how could they not go down? I understand the whole “food is different from fuel” thing but still. Food has to be transported to different places and that will cost fuel. Cheaper fuel would lead to cheaper prices in food. Unless the prices in food increases more than the prices of fuel, then I guess it would be understandable. But WHY?