Download Ubuntu 14.04 Final Release

Ubuntu 14.04 is now available for downloads.

Check this download page and choose which channel you prefer.

Ubuntu 14.04 Released - April 17 2014

Hi Reese

I checked twitter and Ubuntu 14.04 is released.

I clicked the download page and found the bittorrent file. I started downloading at 11:45 pm local time. The Update-Manager is not returning a positive for a new version yet. Which only means that the local server in the Philippines has not been updated for the new image. bummer!

So here is what I'll do.

I am going to wait for the Update-manager to register positive and upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 as soon as it is available here. I am continuing to download the image through bittorrent to my downloads partition. I check the size. It's 1.02 GB, too big for my old 1 GB USB. I have to purchase a new one because a bootable Ubuntu image in a USB stick is a very good idea. Believe me.

Roof Repairs At Maly San Mateo

The old is pulled out and thrown in a heap. The new galvanized sheets are laid out and nailed tight.



Under the heat of the summer sun they both labor at extending the life of this old house.



They laid the sheets and top it off with the ridge roll. They put the borders later to protect the boards.

Storage Made Easy


This note is prompted by Canonical announcing the shutdown of UbuntuOne-file-sync-service. I think they are giving users until May 2014 to grab their data. I have no other option but use GDrive.

Also I’m tidying up the file structure of my GDrive so I’ll have an easier time using it now. I’m making this document the first one I am making and saving for the year 2014. Maybe I’ll have a luckier road with GDrive as my online storage. I still am looking for a tool to synchronize the folder in my local file structure with GDrive. So far I’ve installed insync but on a trial basis. I don’t think I like it when a service gives me 15 days to make up my mind.

So for the time being the only reliable tool in my desktop is Dropbox.

I’m still using Ubuntu 13.10 saucy salamander even as Ubuntu 14.04 is fast coming the stable version this month. Some are already using this LTS version because it is so stable.

I’m leaning towards using the GNOME Ubuntu 14.04 because without UbuntuOne and my growing dependence on GDrive, it would be better to use the GNOME desktop with its closer integration with Google Documents.

I am still trying out some other alternatives. I’ve dropped insync. I have grive, open-source but command line only. It doesn’t have auto-detect changes. But it works fast. I have SME=storagemadeeasy which is like a blanket service with 5 GB of storage and you can add other storage providers like dropbox and Google Drive.

SME is a really exciting service to have but the details. What SME does is put file links in your hard drive so working with them in your desktop is very slow. It means every time you access the file, save and edit it, you work with your network connection. Desktop applications gray out indicating it is waiting for a process to end or to hand over data. The work around here is to download the file to your hard drive and then open it with your desktop application. But then you would have to save that file on the cloud folder to sync it with the service. It could be made more elegant.

I like that SME is open source. It works with docx, open document format. It works with other cloud service providers. I can view my dropbox files and Google Drive files from the SME-file-folder. If you prefer to use your browser, everything is in the SME dashboard. In fact, it is faster and more intuitive to use the SME dashboard. I can imagine this to be very useful to ChromeOS users. Or to users who are at home in the cloud than their desktops.

20th Anniversary of the Internet in the Philippines and I'm Watching...

We remember the first time Filipinos tasted the Internet twenty years ago and the date was March 29th. To be honest, my recollection of first using the browser to connect to the world wide web was around 1998. I was doing research for work and one of my sources asked if I have an e-mail. I don't have one so I quickly applied for one at Yahoo. Since then I am hooked.

Last Saturday I celebrated this milestone by watching the very first viral clip in Youtube I can remember capturing my attention and my imagination. The clip was the Battle at Kruger.
It's more than eight minutes of pleasure watching the wildlife drama play out in Kruger National Park, South Africa. The video was uploaded by Jason Schlosberg.


the buffaloes return for their young


they start charging at the lions

An Opinion on the South China Sea Crisis

Some important matters before I give my opinion on the South China Sea crisis. Exclusive Economic Zones are legal prescriptions based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Our own Constitution mandates us to defend it and protect it.

It is unfortunate that our Armed Forces is ill-equipped to answer the security threat that is China. Upgrading our Navy and Air Force to the standards of a modern Defence force will take a lot of our resources away from social programs and maybe even impact needed infrastructures for economic development. Our lawmakers and opinion movers should now be undertaking a comprehensive assessment of prioritizing where our limited money goes. These matters extend beyond the term of a congressman or a president so it should not be left to the vagaries of an election or mood of the public.

The Philippines submitted documents to a United Nations court for a clarification of the UNCLOS as it applies to the South China Sea crisis. The Philippines do not believe that there is overlapping of EEZ in the South China Sea simply because the width of the SC sea is more than 500nautical miles and the UNCLOS provides for only 200nautical miles for each nation claimant.

In other words, the Philippines believe that by just following what the UNCLOS prescribes, the South China sea crisis would be prevented. And it would then just be a matter of sharing intelligence, working out scheduled naval patrols and a lot of respect for each nation.

China believes in the 9 Dash Line and that historically it claims almost the whole of SC sea. Historical claims are not recognized in international law because nations' armies and navies fight and wage war to impose their will on history. This is precisely what international laws want to prevent.

China is throwing the idea of shared development of the SC sea which when analysed in its details provides for sharing of disputed areas only (read: other nations' EEZ) and do not include its own EEZ. China is simply saying: What is mine is mine and what is yours is mine but we are willing to share.

The international community should call on China to join the civilized community of nations who want to uphold what is legal based on international agreements.

My Apology

I kept a blog for about a year in Posterous before it was devoured and sold. I thought then it's all right because I have Bloggers as a back up. I was wrong.

I usually upload images for that blog in its servers. I did not transfer those images to another server and I lost them. Some of the images I have in my local hard drive but some are forever lost. Wu-who.

Now I've learned my lesson. Back up. Back up. Back up.

You might want to browse my Wordpress blog which I kept in parallel with the Posterous one and kept the images in their own servers.

So I apologise to you if you browse the archives and come across some posts which are missing some images. I am trying to edit them and connect them to the back up or to link them to relevant images.

I am sorry but this is my fault. I am lazy. I'll do better.