The Akashic Field Chronicle

Lookie what I got in the mail:

Free Ubuntu 10.04 CD

I’ve been running 10.04 since it launched a couple of weeks ago, so this is mostly just for people who want to borrow an Ubuntu CD. I mean, it’s slightly better in terms of advocacy to give someone this nice looking CD than a CD-R marked with a Sharpie .

If you want one delivered at no charge, head on to shipit.ubuntu.com. It takes a while to arrive so you can just download the ISO if you want to check out this impressive, well polished Linux distribution.

Crowdsourcing is a God-send for large-scale projects (example, web translations). But before it can effectively work, there has to be an actual crowd. Take Wikipedia for example: there are so many eyes on Wikipedia that its crowdsourcing model actually works.

But without that crowd, we just get annoying results like the following:

Facebook account security settings (in English)

The same settings in the Filipino language

Roughly, the boldface sentence translates to:

Hello Mom! How are you doing? We hope you’re doing great.

Yes? or No?

I guess the Filipino translation of Facebook will never have an actual crowd, seeing as most Pinoys on the web actually prefer English. If you speak Filipino, and use Facebook in Filipino. Please participate in the translation process, it’s really really easy to get started.

Who doesn’t love watching TV? Nobody (okay, maybe somebody). I thought I’d make a short list of my favorites right now. Here they are:

10. House

I don’t know why I get sucked in into the same disturbingly similar plot line (Someone gets sick. Awesome techno-electronic bass drum beat. House makes several faulty diagnoses. House looks blankly into nothingness. Comes up with a brilliant idea and saves the day.) But for all it’s repetitiveness, the drama is still very real. Thumbs up for exploiting a well-worn plot line.

edit: apparently the drum beat is from a group called Massive Attack.

9. Community

This might seem an odd choice, but the show is really really funny. Maybe because I’m still in a school after so many years. I especially like the extra scene during the end credits. ‘Donde, esta, la biblioteca’

8. The Office

Awkward situations. Awkward boss who finds a way to make everything said about him sound like a compliment. That’s what she said!

7. Lost

A lot of people love this show and it’s almost over. However, I didn’t give it a top spot because I’m weary of J.J. Abrams (wait till you see #1) just getting ‘lost’ in his own mythology. I still hate him for the final season of Alias.

6. Chuck

Well, well, well. Renewed for a 4th season. What can I say? The storyline might not be topnotch. But that Australian/Polish chick is just mesmerizing. Reason enough to watch in my book.

5. Modern Family

This show is hilarious. Very creative writers with well-crafted punchlines. Great cast too.

4. Stargate Universe (SGU)

Oh Brad Wright, you had me at ‘SG1′. Now, with more money to burn and better graphics too, this is just sci-fi heaven.

3. FlashForward

Cancelled! I know. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Oh well. Moving on.

2. V

The aliens are coming and they are HOOOT. Besides the pretty aliens, the show is action-packed, fast-paced, and has enough mystery to keep me interested.

1. Fringe

Where do I begin? This show is just plain awesome. J.J. Abrams, you fixed the complex plot issues from Lost & Alias and you give us this amazing show that’s not that hard to follow (a lot of episodes stand on their own), but has such a deep mythology to keep the avid fans glued. I expect great things from this show .

There’s a lot of other great shows out there, but I had to pick 10. Any TV Series suggestions? Violent Reactions?

Philippine presidential elections (sans absentee voters) are coming up in just 3 days. As a grad student in a foreign country, I’m essentially isolated from the bickering, mocking and overall foul-play that I’ve long associated with Philippine politics. I find that most of my exposure to the upcoming elections has actually been through online publications (blogs, candidate websites, politicalarena.com) and social media (twitter, facebook). Even Filipinos here (who weirdly enough, call themselves Pilipinos), don’t even bother to discuss it, except occasionally to express their disillusionment.

The main problem with social media, and other online sources of information is of course representation. The views expressed in all these posts, status messages, tweets, (avatar ribbons?), are inherently colored by the type of people with access to these services. Sadly, this is not at all representative of the true opinions of the people (Oh, democracy!). The majority of the people (again, oh democracy) do not have access or have minimal influence over opinions expressed on the Internet.

I loathe the use of polls to gauge the general trend in the Nation’s opinion, more so their  blatant use to influence that opinion. Still, polls have the advantage of better representation. Some of them at least. The thing that pisses me off when looking at the surveys is not so much who’s leading (that’s gonna be manipulated for sure), but who’s just trailing behind. WTH?! Erap!

Erap, Pare, Pera, RAPE!

Because that’s what this is, rape of the Filipino dignity. The first time I discussed our upcoming elections to an Egyptian in my lab, he said: “Oh, the Philippines, didn’t you kick out your last president because of corruption”. Yeah! Proud to be Pinoy! Just try to hush the fact that this guy is not only running again (after being in jail), but is consistently in the Top 3 in the polls. Try explaining how that works to a foreigner. Trust me, it doesn’t sound good at all.

Another presidential candidate said it best:

Diba kinonvict nyo yan … Kakahiya naman tayo! Number 3 pa sa survey…

-Richard Gordon

You might be inclined to think that these are just surveys, and not an accurate study. I agree. Erap’s strength however, isn’t just in the surveys. My father gets to travel a lot in the countryside (he works in the agriculture sector, which is mostly in the countryside). He confirms that Erap support is pretty strong in the countryside. Do you read that in blogs? Do you see that in Facebook? Of course not.

Lord of Chaos

In the first place, why was Erap allowed to run? I mean, if he wins, wouldn’t it be People Power all over again? Edsa X or something. I lost count, seriously. I think, therein lies the genius of it all. If you ask me, the administration is playing Lord of Chaos here (pardon the Wheel of Time reference). It is always in their favor (and of course, our disfavor) to wreak havoc and chaos in the political arena. Their main motivation is to confuse, to disunite, and in general prevent the Filipino people from rallying towards someone with at least a glimmer of ability to actually lead us out of our situation. Erap is essentially a win-win situation:

• Break the votes - even if Erap loses (oh please Lord), he will still claim a huge chunk of the voting population. Win # 1 for the Lord of Chaos.
• Post-victory confusion – if Erap wins, then the country will again be in turmoil. Just as it was when GMA seized power. They’ve done it before, they can do it again. Win # 2 for the Lord of Chaos.

It just saddens me, and I believe any Filipino who still has hope for this country, to see how manipulative our political leaders have become. Even going as far as risking National chaos, just to ensure the preservation of their power.

What’s my point?

There is no point. If there is, it’s not a point that matters that much in this medium. As I’ve already pointed out, the Internet audience isn’t exactly the type of people who will vote for Erap. The ones that would, probably have marginal presence in the blogosphere. They might not have any concept of a Wall besides the one in their backyard, or have access to any of the things we take for granted nowadays. What this is, is a rant, and nothing more. I just had to get it off my back. So there. Please pray for our Nation. I hate to admit it, but we badly need it.

edit: Eventually turned out that the polls were quite accurate. Erap is ranked #2. So, win #1 for the Lord of Chaos.

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The newest version of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution, code-named Lucid Lynx, has just been released this week (April 29th).

Here’s what I think…

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I’ve been running the release candidate (RC) for a week now, so I’ve been able to put this version through its paces, and believe that I’m now in the position to fairly evaluate this release. Through my years of using Linux, I have gone from being hardcore Linux advocate to a more pragmatic view. I know the strong points as well as the shortcomings of the OS and I also know that as much as I would encourage people to use it, it still isn’t for everybody. Having said that though, I can confidently say that this new release comes pretty close to achieving that. In addition to this, it’s an LTS release so stability and security are primary motivations.

The Good

It’s free… I have to say this before anything else. Too many people complain about this and that bug, or the look and feel isn’t right. It seems the better the Linux desktop becomes, the more criticisms are aimed at it. Let’s not forget people, this software is completely free (as in beer). It’s not gonna cost you anything to try it.

Polish, polish, and more polish… The desktop is stunning! You can clearly see that a lot of effort went into design as much as coding. Of course, not everyone is entirely happy with a lot of the design choices the Ubuntu made, but I think the majority of long time users would agree that this is probably the sweetest looking Ubuntu release ever. They dropped the orange/brown motif and went for a darker shade of gray (and a lot of purple by default).

Here are some screenshots of my desktop (click to zoom in)

Default theme. Very Mac-like (but that's actually good)

Lighter theme with similar elements

Accessing the internet (Firefox, Chat, Social Networks)

Integration… Linux is primarily a result of independent efforts from different developers. As a consequence of this, it has always lacked the tight integration that Windows and especially the Mac OS had. Each new release has brought the Ubuntu UI closer to near perfect integration. This time around, they’ve really gone leaps and bounds towards this goal. Everything just works together.

This is particularly true for social networks and chat. The notification system works with all the default programs and works with almost all major chat (YM, GChat, Live Messenger, and Facebook) and social network services (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and others ). It also has a file sync service called UbuntuOne that syncs all your bookmarks, contacts files, music, and chat logs (Similar to Dropbox but with very tight integration to the desktop).

Flash Finally… This varies from different configurations, but I’ve always found it a bit clunky. This is the first version to actually integrate Flash flawlessly (Hulu Desktop!). Also, with the new and improved interface for the Ubuntu Software Center, it’s very easy to install Flash (as well as the thousands of free software in the Ubuntu repositories).

Me Menu: Where all your apps come together (even a text box for tweets and statuses)

Multimedia, A built-in music store, and Hulu (works flawlessly with Flash)!

Revamped install center UI with thumbnails and descriptions for the entire Ubuntu software repository

Fast boot… I have yet to time my boot-up, but it’s quite impressive. I’m not sure how they manged it but it’s blazing fast to get to the log-in screen.

The Bad

• Minimize, Maximize, and Close Buttons… I’m not a big fan of buttons on the left-hand-side of the title bar. I could easily change it of course, but it would have been great if they gave novice users an easy way to switch the layout back.
• Multiple Monitors… If you use a laptop most of the time and use an external screen once in a while, Ubuntu has this irritating behavior of messing up the order of your panel icons. Kudos to the Windows bar for its flexibility in multiple monitor setups.
• No more chat pop-ups… Chats are shown as notifications instead of pop-ups (you then have to click on the panel to open up the message). I know, this is probably a good thing in terms of productivity because you don’t get distracted all the time. Still, if you leave your desktop for a while, and a message comes in, you might miss it. Okay, so the message icon lights up to inform you, but sometimes you just have too many unread messages for it to make sense anymore.

Final Words

Ubuntu 10.04 is a clean, polished and well integrated desktop. It has reached the point where I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who has an open mind to try something new. Ubuntu is here to stay and I’m very excited to see what the Ubuntu community can achieve for the next LTS version. Whatever it is, I know it’s gonna be beyond any of my expectations.

Try it for yourself

• Ubuntu 10.04 Main LTS Features
• Linux Mag article about Ubuntu 10.04
• Download Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (The Lucid Lynx)

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