Marvin’s Place

Also visit my Sunday School Director Blog at http://sundayschooldirector.co.cc

My title is a bit exagerated. But somehow there is a truth on it. This is an experience of Nhatz, a Linux user and an instructor in AMA CLC in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan when he faced robbers and was stabbed 3 times. But let’s see how Linux saved (somehow) his life.

This is a rephrase of his story as posted at the Ubuntu Forums Philippine LoCo (here).

May 9, 2009 evening, Nhatz was walking on way to home (his motorcycle was borrowed by his brother), he crossed with 3 men who, without warning, stabbed him before declaring a “hold up” (Filipino slang for declaring robbery). He was able to catch one of the fatal strike by his hand. He was stabbed at his side (mild cut) but he went down. When he was trying to get up, he was stabbed by one of the robbers at the back. This is the part where he was thankful for Linux. He was wearing a bag and inside it is his book “Linux Administration for Beginners”. The knife hit that book and the knife didn’t wounded him that much. He was robbed but he survived and is currently recovering from his wounds.

I remember movies that has the same scenario. Being shot but the bullet will hit a medallion or something and it will save his life. Well. as for Nhatz’ case, he was saved (,,, somehow) by that book.

Times are getting tough.

marvin All other things

I have successfully transferred my blog to a new host. After a long time staying on my previous host. I decided to move to a different webhost provider. It’s not that my previous host is “horrible”, they actually has good service and fast response for trouble tickets, but there are some reasons I am forced to leave them:

• can’t use .htaccess – I am not an expert on this but I I have set some security settings on my blog using .htaccess
• connection to external servers are not allowed – which hinders me from automatically updating wordpress core, plugins, and connection to akismet (which resulted me to moderate all comments, that contains hundreds of spam).
• some restriction on server settings that is crucial on protecting wordpress (specially from spams)

My new home for this blog is DripHost. They offer good hosting for a good price (though I won’t elaborate on that). I am just happy that I was able to find a good hosting provider that has most of my needs. Now, I can let akismet do the job for the spams.

Soli Deo Gloria.

marvin blog

Last April 24 to 25, our church held an overnight children’s camp in our church. I was one of the coordinators (since I am the head of Christian Education). Most of the time I was standing up. I felt a lot of stress on my leg and feet, but it didn’t bother me (no pain).

Second day of the camp, we had a morning run, and I wasn’t able to catch up with them. I was with no run for so many years, that a short jog made me catch my breath. At the church the same morning, I played skip rope with the kids. I was able to make a lot of skips. But that’s the time I felt my right knee and right foot a bit sore. I stopped and everything went on.

Evening, still at the church, finishing some materials that will be used in tomorrows awarding ceremony (kids already left for home, it was Saturday), I felt pain on my right knee and right ankle. But I was so tired I didn’t mind it. Sunday morning came and we did the awarding during the church service. Afternoon,me and my wife took a nap. Upon waking up, that’s the time I felt more pain, not on my right side, but on my left foot. I thought It was just because of the skip rope. Monday, around 3 am, I was awaken by a tremendous pain on my left foot. It was so painful that I am actually growling (that woke up my wife). The last time I felt that pain, also on the same foot, was when I worked (just for one day) on a chiken meat processing plant (I was assigned to the freezer, pushing stacks of cart filled with chicken meat). It took me almost an hour before I was able to sleep again (my lack of sleep due to my work might have overcome that pain). At around 7 am, I woke up again, growling in pain. I tried to stand but I can’t stand the pain on my left foot once I press it on the floor. I walk skipping and using only the toe on my left foot.

The whole day passed with the same pain. I took some pain reliever (that relieved “some” of the pain) but its effect was short. I wasn’t able to go to work that night due to the pain and the fact that I can’t walk. The pain was persistent for two days. By tuesday morning, the pain subsides but I can’t still walk. I was absent for three days at work.

I went to the doctor and the suspect was (mild) gouty arthritis. I am overweight by almost 30 kls. My blood pressure was high (140 / 100). My uric acid is almost above normal. I was told to go on diet.

Gouty arthritis refers to a form of arthritis caused by deposits of needle-like crystals of uric acid.

I am only 25 years old and I already feel a lot of pain in my body. I should have taken care of my health before it was already hard to control.

The pain on my foot had already subsided, but there are still stings on both of them, maybe due to the gout.

marvin Health

http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc

After a long time of inactivity, I was able to rebuild our Church’s website. I first made interest on making a website for our Church due to possible contacts from foreign sponsors. Also, some of our members are abroad, and our main denomination, Presbyterian Church of the Philippines, is scattered all over the country. Having a website, we will be able to bring them news, latest events, projects, prayer concerns, etc., and communication will be easier.

What’s new:

• First, new domain name. Previously, we are using a long subdomain under freehostia. In search for a free domain, I was able to find co.cc. They offer free domain (depending on the actual domain). You can manage name server settings and others. And it is not just a subdomain, cause it is actually recognized by search engines. After testing a few domains, I came up with lpcgumaoc (the only one that was free). lpcgumaoc stands for Liberty Presbyterian Church Gumaoc (the barangay of village). Other combination gave me a yearly price. And since we’re (I am) on a tight budget (there is actually no budget for this), I chose the free domain. So the new domain is http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc. Someone commented that it is hard to remember, but I don’t think so. Well, maybe in the future, I would switch to a .com or .org domain (if money permits). For now, we’ll stay with the .co.cc.

• Second is a new webhosting. My previous webhost is great. They have fast response, good speed and goo plan (free of course). But since it is free, there are a lot of restrictions on the hosting. I can’t connect to external servers. Meaning automatic upgrades (for wordpress and its plugins) are disabled, and this is very critical. I can’t connect to the Akismet server (which helps a lot with spam protection). I was able to find a new host at http://driphost.com. They’re offers are great. And there are very little restrictions even on free accounts. Though they told me that free accounts will have, in the future, banners (unlike on my previous host which is bannerless), I was offered a free upgrade for no additional cost. Maybe in the future, once the site has already built up, I might take advantage of the offer, maybe just request to remove the banner. I really hope that they’ll be stable. Ever since I used their servers, I only experienced one downtime that lasted for around 1 minute

• Third is a new look. On the previous site, it is blog style. Now I am using a simple, clean, magazine style template from theme hybrid. My initial plan was to create my own theme. But due to my status as wordpress user (noob), I opted to search for a free (of course) good theme. I was able to find the hybrid news theme. I set it up. Found it hard to configure at the beginning. But once I was able to get a hang of it, I was able to set it up properly.

Some of the stuffs that I haven’t yet placed are:

• Articles for the past activities in our church.
• Informative about page (beliefs, history, etc.).
• Church staff info page.
• Change the colors (if I would be able to learn how).
• Move to a .com or .org domain (I pray someone will donate, cheers! but might stick with this)
• Some other stuff that might come to my mind.

Me and my pastor is hoping that it will serve as a communication between members afar, members of the denomination, and potential sponsors (specially for Children’s Ministry).

So please do visit the Liberty Presbyterian Church Website at http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc

I consider this website as my first project (production website). There are still a lot of things that I have to learn. The good thing is, I am learning.

On with the learning.

Soli Deo Gloria.

marvin web

After long wait, Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope is now available for public download. Servers might be busy right

now but I would prefer you get it via torrent. It will be faster than regular HTTP download.

Ubuntu had been one of the most popular Linux distro and had been penetrating users from home, schools, business up to the government level.

Get Ubuntu 9.04 at http://releases.ubuntu.com/jaunty/. Or for those with slow internet connection, you can request a free CD from http://shipit.ubuntu.com (which in the time of writing is currently down).

I haven’t yet downloaded it since I am planning to get a copy from the Ubuntu Philippine team meetup tomorrow (for those intersted, you can join us, details here).

You can read a first look review from Lifehacker.com

marvin Linux

It’s summer and the heat is on. Some goes to the beach, some to Bagio, some goes to their hometown for their vacation. But for me (and my family), we’re staying at home (well, they spent a week in Laguna for a week of vacation).

With the currently temperature we’re experiencing here in Manila Philippines (from 28C to 35C), it is not impossible for many things to overheat. And since most are at home (specially students), one of the things that will be used most are computers. Unless you have an air-conditioned room, your computer might go freakin’ hot.

That’s what I have experienced lately. I am using an Intel Pentium D 3.2ghz system. At idle, the temps are at around 42C (before summer). But due to the current temperatures (we have no air conditioner), idle temp is around 50C. Playing games (need for speed) would make the procie go to a temp as high as 65C and my PC will buzz telling me I am reaching a high temp already. I tried changing the airflow on the PC, but nothing changed.

Last resort, check the processor’s heat sink for blockage. I opened up the case and removed the fan on the processor (I didn’t removed the heat sink as I don’t have any thermal paste on hand). To my expectations, I saw lot’s of dust covering the fins of the heat sink, blocking the air that the fan is blowing on it. I removed those nasty dusts and cleaned some other spots on the computer. Hoping for the best, I placed everything back, turned on the PC, and checked the temps, and idle is 40C-43C (waited for a few minutes and still on the same range). Then I played need for speed for a few laps (usually, I will hear the warning once the race begin), and heard no warning. After playing, I checked the temps and it’s only 45C-49C. I will still be testing tomorrow playing longer.

Dust accumulation on heat sinks are number one enemy on good cooling system. Cleaning it regularly is a good habit. Just make sure power is off and power cable is unplugged to avoid hazards.

Cheers.

marvin Tech

It’s been almost one week now that my wife and son is on “out-of-town”. They went to her sister in Laguna (with her mother and niece).

I miss them…

They’ll be coming back Saturday afternoon. I am excited.

marvin Family

Here’s an update on my previous post regarding the diet pill spam lurking on Yahoo Messenger (and as I researched, on other IM networks as well)

After further research, CA Security Advisor Research Blog tells that this is actually a phishing scam.

I never clicked the links included on the spams I receive. But as the article indicates, links on the spam (each message might contain a different link) points to a single IP and it is a website about the pills offering a free trial of the popular fruit. However, upon checkout, it is not using the “https://” or secure http, which definitely means phishing. So if the unfortunate victim clicks submit, his credit card information will be sent to someone so he/she can use it for fraud.

So how does this spam works? This is only my theory. Either a malware on our computers or from some net cafe we went to was able to catch our username and password. Due to reports that the spam is received from clients that are “logged off” from Yahoo (which is my experience), I believe that a certain spambot on some server (maybe the same server as the phishing website) logs in using the username and password, sends a buzz to the poor clients contacts then sends the spam message with the link. So the unsuspecting receipient thinks that the message is legitimate, clicks the link, attracted by the offer (since Acai berry was really promoted by Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray), takes the trial, fills the credit card info, hits submit, and his/her credit card details are now in the hands of the criminals for their use.

Some possible but reasonable tips on how to avoid/solve this problem (take note, this might not solve the problem, but you won’t lose anything if you try):

• Update your operating system, softwares, etc. with the latest patches from the manufacturers.
• Update your security software (anti-virus) virus definitions.
• Do a regular (on your own terms:)) full system scan.
• Don’t trust files from the internet (unless you are sure, don’t run or install).
• Change your YM password.
• Inform your friends who are sending the spam to do the same thing.

I have already changed my password and will be monitoring if someone will still receive a message from me.

Notes: (from www.wikipedia.org)

Spam – A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages

Phishing – the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Acai Berry (açaí palm) – a member of the genus Euterpe, which contains 8 species of palms native to tropical Central and South America, from Belize south to Brazil and Peru, growing mainly in floodplains and swamps. Recently, the açai “berry” has been touted and marketed as a highly beneficial dietary supplement. Companies sell açaí berry products in the form of tablets, juice, smoothies, instant drink powders, and whole fruit.

There can never be a “spam free world”, but at least we can do something to minimize it.

marvin Tech

Yes, I created a new blog dedicated on my experiences as a Christian Education Deparment (commonly known as Sunday School) Director of our church.

The purpose of that blog is not to give ideas or tips etc., but merely to blog about what we are currently doing in our department. Of course I hope and pray that people might get some ideas from my posts here, but I also hope that other experts could comment, or share what they are doing in their own churches.

So, please do check it out at http://thesundayschooldirector.marvincruz.com (sorry for the long URL, I’m planning to purchase a domain for this one soon – donations accepted ) http://sundayschooldirector.co.cc.

God bless..

Soli Deo Gloria

Update: Due to some functionalities I need, I moved the blog from blogger to my selfhosted Wordpress blog.

marvin Christian Education, blog

Turn off your lights for 60 minutes to promote the fight against global warming. March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

VOTE EARTH

YOUR LIGHT SWITCH IS YOUR VOTE

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm, Philippine Time (or whatever country you are)

marvin events