iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon

Book excerpt: Wozniak describes prankster days, harrowing adventures

The following is an edited chapter from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's book, ``iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon,'' ($25.95), to be released Monday by W.W. Norton and Co. In it, Wozniak describes his prankster side, playing with a device called a ``Blue Box,'' that allowed a person to make free telephone calls.

Losing my Pinto changed my life completely. One of the major parts of my life at Berkeley was taking groups of people down to Southern California or even as far south as Tijuana, Mexico, on weekends. Actually, my first thought after the crash wasn't, ``Oh, thank God I'm alive,'' but ``Man, now I'm not going to be able to take my friends on wild adventures anymore.''

The car crash was the main reason that, after this school year, my third year at Berkeley, I went back to work instead of coming back to school. I needed to earn money, not just for the fourth year of college but also for a new car.

If I hadn't gotten in the car accident that year, I wouldn't have quit school and I might never have started Apple. It's weird how things happen.

* * *

But for the rest of the year at Berkeley, I kept playing with my Blue Box. Captain Crunch's design had given me an idea: to add a single little button where I could preprogram a ten-digit number.

The number I chose to dial was this weird .. Read more..

Windows Explorer alternatives

Most of computer users are not-so satisfied with the built-in Windows Explorer from Microsoft.
So if you're one of them, or atleast just curious if there are some alternative out there, you can try others as well. For sure, you will find some alternatives that will suit your preferences or needs in file management in Windows.

And there's a comprehensive review for atleast 15 alternatives to Windows Explorer Take a look on this link.

Your iPod could be infected

Yes, you'll never know if your electronic gadget (like iPod,MP3 players, etc) is free from malicious programs like virus or trojan, as some of the manufacturers are not having such measures to make sure their products are virus-free before releasing to the public. More on this story here

Its just as simple as scanning for known viruses or atleast making sure that their source or builds are free from malicious programs. Or better yet, they must start thinking of hiring professionals that can handle this and avoid ridiculous story in the future.
..another opportunity for people like us *grin*.

MS Office vs Free Office!

Lots of MS Office's competitors are emerging nowadays. Of course the OpenOffice is the most popular, and now there are others like thinkfree and google.com is showing some interest to compete in this field against the software giant.

All of us have different opinions and preferences, but for me, which is free, supports several formats (like pdf, html,etc), and more secure, got my vote!

Below you can find some good comparisons between these office application offerings. Its up to you which you like ;)

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/printpage4765.cfm

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1909855,00.asp

Google (ha|ro)cks!

nice additional tool to "us" indeed =) http://www.google.com/codesearch/advanced_code_search

bling! naisip nyo ba, naisip ko?? hehe..

English-Tagalog Vocabulary!

wala lng.. natawa kc ako sa joke nato! =)

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English-Tagalog Vocabulary Iba To!!

ENGLISH-TAGALOG DICTIONARY à iba ‘to! (updated version)

01) Contemplate - kulang ang mga pinggan

02) Punctuation - pera para maka-enrol (pang-tuition)

03) Ice Buko - nagtatanong kung ayos na ang buhok (“Ayos buhok ko?”)

04) Tenacious - sapatos na pang tennis (tennis shoes)

05) Calculator - tawagan kita mamaya (Call you later)

06) Devastation - sakayan ng bus (The bus station)

07) Protestant - Tindahan ng prutas (Fruit stand)

08) Statue - Ikaw ba yan? (“Is that you?) 0

9) Tissue - Ikaw nga! (“It’s you!”)

10) Predicate - Pakawalan mo ang pusa (Free the cat)

11) Dedicate - Pinatay ang pusa (Dead the cat)

12) Aspect - Pantusok o pandurog ng yelo (Ice pick)

13) Deduct - Ang pato (The duck)

14) Defeat - Ang paa (ng pato?) – (The feet)

15) Detail - Ang buntot (ng pato?) – (The tail)

16) Deposit – Gripo (The faucet) -> (Call DIPLOMA if DEPOSIT is leaking)

17) Diploma – Taga-ayos ng gripo (The plumber)

18) City - Bago mag-utso; A number to follow 6 -> (Siete)

19) Cattle - Doon nakatila ang Hali at Leyna (Castle)

20) Persuading - Unang Kasal (First wedding)

21) Depress - Ang nagkasal sa PERSUADING (The priest)

22) Defense - Ginamit ng mga pangsulat sa kontrata sa PERSUADING (The pens)

23) It Depends - Kainin mo ang bakod (Eat the fence)

24) Shampoo - Bago mag-labing-isha (Sampu)

25) Delusion – Ginagamit pangpadulas (Lotion)

26) Delivery - Walang bayad. (‘Di,…. libre)

27) Profit - Patunayan mo (Prove it)

28) Balance Sheet - What comes out after eating a balance diet

29) Backlog - bacon saka egg (Bac-log, bacon at itlog)

30) Beehive - magpakatino ka (Behave)

31) CD-ROM - tingnan mo ang kwarto (See the room)

32) Debug - ang ipis (The bug)

33) Defrag - ang palaka (The frog)

34) Defense - ang bakod (The fence)

35) Defer - ang balahibo (The furr)

36) Deflate - ang plato (The plate)

37) Detest - ang eksamin (The test)

38) Devalue - 'yon ang susunod sa letrang V (Double u)

39) Devote - ang boto (The vote)

40) Dilemma - brownout!, a! (“Dilim, a!”)

41) Effort - 'dun nagla-land ang efflane (Airport)

42) Forums - apat na kwarto (Four rooms)

43) July - nagsisinungaling ka ba? (“Do you lie?”)

44) Liturgy - what comes after litur F (The letter G)

45) Thesis - ito ay.…. (This is…..)

46) Neophyte - bagong laban (new fight)

47) Lullaby - Lola, aalis na ako ("Lola, bye")

48) Crustacean - binibisitahan tuwing cuaresma (cross station)

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Budapest, New Frontier

I just want to share with you how to live and work here at Budapest, at least based on my two weeks tenure. I remember my arrival here at Budapest two weeks ago, it was kind of odd feeling because it’s different from other places I’ve been before the past few years. Aron and Peter picked me up from the airport around 9 or 10PM, and we headed to “my” apartment after a stick of cigarette. Yes, they provided me a two-room apartment in Bodafoki ut, where I can share the flat with the other colleague which is expected to be here before the end of October. Yahoo, me kasama nako! =)

At the apartment, they’ve bought some good tasting pizza ala Hungarian style, with matching diet coke in can. To my surprise, the refrigerator was filled with assorted items like sausages, cheese, yogurt, juice, bread, bottled water, beer and among others, which is good enough for 3-4 days of consumption. Not bad. After they've showed me the amenities and taught me how to use this and that, they already went home, past 12 midnight and I need to rest from a more or less 15 hrs flight from Manila to Amsterdam, then to Budapest. Oh before I forget,

they also gave me a new cell phone to use, but no international call please! Damn, my tired body was not about to give up, and my eyes were not closing the way I wished. So I immediately unpacked my laptop and checked the wireless connection. After one or two minutes of configuration, I was already surfing the net, chat here, chat there, check mails, send SMS to my family and other peeps in the Philippines. That was about 3 hours. Then, finally my eyes gave up and I got to sleep for some papers to process the following morning.

Aron (Office director/HR Manager), and Peter (Technical director/CTO) are such a good example how Hungarians are nice people and hospitable to foreign guests. Based on the statistics, Hungary has the least crime rate against foreigners. Well, good to hear that if that’s true. At least that’s how I feel the way they treated me. Or maybe just for the first few months? Let’s see... =)

Living in another country is always an exciting and an adjustment as well. In the office, I could hardly talk with most of my officemates, not because I’m not good in English (hehe), but basically because they could hardly speak English than I do =). Their native language is Hungarian (a Finno-Ugric), which is relatively different from any other European languages. But most of them know German language, and maybe other European languages. I tried to buy Angol to Magyar (English to Hungarian) dictionary, but I know its not gonna be easy to learn their language. Good thing is, Aron and Peter are very accommodating to me.

English to Hungarian Dictionary

Now, let’s talk some info about Hungary (Magyarország), and its beautiful capital of Budapest (bʊdɑpɛʃt). It is a landlocked nation in Central Europe, being surrounded by Austria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Serbia.

The Budapest (“Paris of the East”), long time ago were two separate cities, partitioned by the famous Danube river (or simply Duna). The lovely Buda to the West is the hill side, while the Pest is the urban plain side to the East.

Budapest and Danube River


Budapest Arena

What about the food? You may ask. Well, Hungary had produced some great Mathematiciaans and scientists, but they also have unique way of cuisine. If Filipino has adobo as unofficial national dish, Hungarians offer their goulash, a soup with potato and meat. At first glance you might call most of their food “patyam” (or patyambahan in tagalog) style of cooking, as they seem to just mix everything in there. But most of them taste good, though a bit salty most of them. I’ve also noticed that potato is very prominent in their recipes. So I’ve learned to grocery and cook my own food at home and during weekend. Thanks to google for providing me lots of help in my cooking chores =)

Mushroom chicken, rice, cucumber with diet coke =)

Their house architecture is also remarkable. Some are even more than a hundred years old, but able to maintain the gothic architectural design, which truly amazing! Some of the places I’m looking forward to experience or see are: the Castle District (the royal house) at the Buda hill, overlooking the Pest and the Danube river, the Budapest’s business center (maybe the noisiest and busiest place in Budapest – gimik time!), Budapest’s Stock Exchange (as others say “Europe’s biggest and most architecturally obnoxious trading room”), the Lake Hévíz (largest thermal lake in the world), Lake Balaton (largest lake in Central Europe), and maybe there are other places in Hungary that worth the visit.

Ok folks, got to go now. Its almost 12 midnight so.. Lets continue this with some techie stuff.

To be continued..

Welcome Aboard!

One boring night, while away, I tried my imagination to create this blog site to keep in touch with my friends, family and enemies as well. This is open to everybody who wants to speak something, or anything under the sun as they say.

So lets start rockin! =)

~cycl0nedude