Author: gajahbiru

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Uncategorized

The Mini-Ubuntu leap of faith

This post is written on the netbook I bought three days ago after a series of events that made me realize that despite my home PC and Blackberry, i still needed a netbook. I must admit that the purchase was rather impulsive, despite the fact that I’ve contemplated buying a netbook for several months.

My PC was being repaired for the -nth time, and even though my thumb typing skills are more than adequate, I find it hard to write and edit articles on a Blackberry. It was fine for one or two online articles, but after four paragraphs my thumbs and eyes will start to complain. That and several other reasons.
So I set my budget, did a little browsing, and decided to go and buy an HP Mini 110-3014TU. I must admit that the main reason I choose that particular model is because of the price. My budget is IDR 3 million, and the Mini 110 is priced at IDR 2.780 million, at least that was the price listed on Bhinneka.com, a computer online store. Turns out, I only had to pay IDR 2.650 million for the Mini 110.
The netbook was sold sans OS, and although the seller was kind enough to offer me pirated windows, I declined. I can’t afford to buy the original Windows 7, the price starts at IDR 999,000 which is too much for me right now. I was planning to use the netbook to quench my curiosity for Linux.
I’ve been running a Knoppix live CD for sometime, and I find it rather interesting. But the OS I installed on my netbook is the Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10. Apparently, it was released at the binary date, October 10th, 2010.
Now I realize that I’m no computer whiz, not a weekend programer, not a tech geek. My degree is in English Teaching, not for IT. I’m just a girl who believes that Google will solve all my problems. So I bit the bullet and went ahead.
The absence of an optical drive made me decide to create a live, bootable USB drive. It was pretty simple, I just had to download the ISO image of the OS, and a nifty little downloadable software does all the work for me.
Then I plugged the USB drive in the netbook, and turned it on. Had to tinker with the BIOS a bit, telling it to boot from the USB. And voila, Ubuntu is displayed on the screen of my spanking new netbook. But it was still running from the live USB, not installed at the hard drive yet.
After doing some clicking and waiting, and retrying, I finally managed to install the OS. Then comes the learning part. I must admit that it was kind of a stupid move for me to install an OS I’m not familiar with on a netbook I’m not familiar with either.
I’m not familiar with the hardware, cause the instruction manual is provided on a CD. since the netbook itself lacks an optical drive, I guess I’ll have to wait till my PC is back from repairs. I’m not familiar with the OS, having spent most of my computer time with Windows. But hey, I’m feeling adventurous!
So this is the third day, and I’ve managed to do all the essential stuffs I needed to do. The netbook has delighted me so far. The OS had some glitches, but I decide that it was still an acceptable trade, knowing that I actually can function and do all my online and offline needs without having to use pirated software or draining my account.
I must admit that this overall move is a series of leaps of faiths, faith in myself at some part. I still have to pay for the installments, and I’m also determined to make good use of this netbook. One of it is a promise to write more often. Let’s see if this is a promise I can stick with.
this post was written on an HP Mini 110-3014TU running on Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10.
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Uncategorized

Change your view, switch your lens.

Today, I bought myself an adapter to attach a diana lomo lens to my DSLR, along with a diana fisheye.

The result of the pictures weren’t really that special, since the lens were designed to be used on a camera that’s extremely different with my Nadezhda (that’s what I named my DSLR). You can’t really see the fisheye effect except for several special conditions.

However, I decided to try and emulate the images produced by lomographic Cameras. So I played around with the picture styles, Experimented with the custom white balance, and the simplicity of the lens also limited me from doing things that I normally do with a standard lens.

So I snapped away. Having and adventure behind the lens, shooting from the hip, without thinking as lomographers usually do. And then I got home and checked the results.

Some of the pictures came out pretty nice, but most of them are blurry, with weird colors, shaky, and suffering from other kinds imperfections.

My usual style of photography is sharp, natural, realistic, with bold and contrasting colors. I had to constantly remind myself not to scold myself for taking those fuzzy pictures with funky colors.

In retrospect I realized that the lens had prompted me to break out from my habits, venture outside of my comfort zone. I really enjoyed the pictures that turned out alright, and honestly I’m planning to shoot that way more often, though I’m not planning on abandoning my original style. The way I see it, fooling around and experimenting might actually expand my skill and my style.

It’s funny to think that just by switching a lens and surrendering to the demands of exploration I’ve managed to unlock a new dimension. I’d like to think that a similar analogy could also be applied in my quest for personal development. By switching my lens (paradigm) and playing along with the role, i just might expand my own abilities. Worth a try don’t you think?

Posted via email from indieraw’s posterous

Categories
living-learning

Grateful living

Yesterday, my car refused to start at the gas station. I was on the way to repair my PC, and when I tried to make a phone call, my cellphone suddenly went blank.

the first thing that crossed my mind was, “why are all the things I own either broken or require constant repairs?” like any other normal human being, I complained.
And while I was sitting there, alone in my car, waiting for the battery to charge up, I realized that I really should be grateful
Looking back at those days when I don’t have a car, when I couldn’t even drive, or when the term “transportation” meant either Taxi or Bus, I should be thankful for my trusty old (literally old) car. even though he’s high maintenance, he’s actually quite reliable to take me places.
My PC might require a visit to the nearest service center every other week or so, but looking back at the old days when I had to go to my mom’s office just to experience internet, or when I had to wait till my mom gets home in order to type a report for school. Looking even more way back, there were even times a computer was only something I get to touch once a week at computer class at school. And I’m embarrassed when I realized that some people have never even seen a PC. I really should be grateful for that PC.
My cell phone has withstood 5 years of torment, believe me! it never leaves my side, and I go places. Even though it only has 2 spaces left at the messages inbox, and the camera can’t be used due to lack of memory, I can only play polyphonic ring tones, and say goodbye to mobile internet, I can hardly open anything from the WAP browser. But looking back at those pre-cellphone days, when a pay phone is all I could rely on for communication, I really should be grateful for my phone.
and stemming upon the realization of those things, I also realized that I should be grateful for other things:
I should be grateful that I’ve had enough experience from previous cases of broken cars to know how to push-start a car. And when I had to charge the batteries this morning I realized that I really should be thankful that my mom used to drive an old Mitsubishi minicab that required her to take the battery out and recharge it every month or so, learning from that experience i knew just how to take out the battery of a car. (I know it’s actually pretty simple, but I wouldn’t have known how to do it.)
I’m grateful for all those days working at an Internet cafe, it really gave me knowledge about computers. and when I found that this time it’s actually something that i can’t handle myself, I have the right connections to ensure that the PC is in safe and caring hands. And while the main board is being repaired, I am forced to rely on the internet stalls, which is a good thing, I needed the reason to get out of the house.
and after waves of other realizations, I realized that I really need to be grateful for many things in life, and also for many other past experiences, I wouldn’t be here, and things would not have been the same without all of them.
As I go on living, I continue learning, and who knows when a simple skill that I’ve learnt today would be useful in the future. And who knows how a thing that seemed like a bad thing in the past might actually turn out to be a good thing. One thing I’ve learned from the past 26 hours is that being grateful feels better than complaining. Why don’t you try it sometime?
Categories
Media

Megan Fox is not a Man, Okezone is not okay

When I got online this today I was greeted by the usual Today’s page from MSN. What caught my attention was the story about Megan Fox being a man. The issue has actually been around since a couple of months ago. When I first heard about it I did a google search and found that it had been sourced by this article by the Weekly World News. They did not provide any hard facts, no official statements, it sounded fishy. Since I couldn’t find any confirmation or any similar article published by a more reliable media, I dismissed it as a hoax.
I thought it was the end of that until i read the title Megan Fox: Saya Laki-laki (translated: Megan Fox: I’m a man) on the MSN page this morning. At first I thought “oh finally, a more credible media gives coverage about this,” but to my disappointment I find that the article was actually published from Okezone.com and it is nothing more than a translated and summarized version of the original World Weekly News article. Apparently the content of MSN Indonesia is fed by Okezone.com. With all the hype going around lately caused by Transformers II, they probably did a search on Megan Fox, found the piece by Weekly World News, and passed it of as news.
www.okezone.com is a news site owned by MNC group, one of the largest media groups in Indonesia. considering this fact i expected a degree of quality in the news they churn out. Unfortunately there have been some cases in the past where people pointed out that Okezone.com published a hoax. I did some google search and found another case of a hoax being published by okezone.com. who knows how many other cases i could find if i devoted more time for the search?
Now, I’m not saying that everything that’s published by Okezone is crap, but I think the editors really should give more scrutiny to their news. An established media wouldn’t want to be caught once publishing a hoax as news. And to make it worse, it is fed to MSN Indonesia and shoved to people’s faces right after they sign-in to MSN Live. Knowing the tendencies of the Indonesian people, they probably swallowed it whole as news and begin passing it around. Please people, check and recheck, get clarifications and confirmations.
Until I found an official statement from Megan Fox and her representatives, or at least some hard evidence (such as birth certificate, baby pictures, etc) I’m gonna presume that she is a she. Can anybody prove otherwise?