Danny's Space

The Asus laptop that Imee left us was low powered for Windows so I immediately planned to use a linux distro for it. I installed Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on it not really thinking about it. Well it installed alright but it was slow. It starts slow and most applications starts slow. Ubuntu requires a 64 bit processor and at least 4 GB of RAM. This machine only has 2 GB of RAM. I need an desktop environment that can work in less than 4 GB of RAM. I figured XFCE would be great with it.  I installed Debian with XFCE today. It went very well. 

I have been sending application requests to PLDT for their Home Fiber all year 2020. The first two applications end with - we're sorry but Fiber is not available in your current location. I even entertained switching Internet providers and sent applications to Globe or even Sky. Sky happen to be a company close to ABS-CBN which was losing their franchise. Globe reps made a valiant try but installation was fettered by a lack of available boxes to which they will connect my house. They advised me to try applying again later perhaps when they have enough of their boxes hopefully closer to my house.  When November came, events began happening fast. First PLDT is ending support for ULTERA. It means I can't expect online support and I can't get help from the hotline number 171 and *1888 if my call even gets through. The twitter DM for which I depend on forwards a message that "all ULTERA concerns are strictly over-the-counter". I have to go to PLDT aftersales people to ...

I have been edging past the thousand points mark for the last weeks or so and now it is definite. I have earned 1,200 heart points for two weeks in a row. Heart points are awarded to physical activities where you exert extra intensity. The goal according to the WHO is to earn at least 150 heart points a week.

Three pharmaceutical companies so far, has announced successful and promising vaccine trials for Covid-19. This is the best news of the year 2020. The world waits for these vaccines to arrived on to the public free and without technical glitches. Even the Philippine government wants to offer vaccines free to everyone. That's from the mouth of Duterte. Optimistically, experts estimate the public will have them by 3rd quarter next year, 2021. Flood waters from Typhoon Ulysses wasn't receding as fast as we hoped. Cagayan Province still covered with brown silted water from the Magat River system. Our drinking water was affected by heavily silted water from the source. It has to be cleaned first to get the water system up to full delivery. Some homes are still without electricity.  Lino sent a balikbayan box a month or so ago, and it arrived Friday here. Mom received folding chairs and cane. We got chocolates and food in cans and pasta in boxes. I got an Acer Aspire laptop which I c...

Mom and I ate our macaroni cheese around 7 pm. She cheerfully finished her portion plus more. Around 8 I assumed the worst when I heard a deep cough downstairs. I found mom vertical on the couch and her face contorted. She was still. She was not responding to my questions. She would later deny any memory of this and the 30 minutes it took us to get her to the emergency ward of the hospital. Mother is 78 years old. Doctors found that she has a low calcium level. They had to add the calcium to her glucose bag. After 24 hours I am relieved that this event won't deteriorate to a full blown stroke. Personally. It felt like I overreacted when I saw her drooping like that. I knew that it is a symptom because father died of a heart attack and that is a common symptom for the two. Doctors agree that knowing the symptoms of a stroke save lives. Getting sufferers to the emergency room as soon as possible le save lives.

It has been 5 months of this virus now. What have I been listening to all these weeks? Let's see.  top 15 artists of my personal scrobbles in last.fm for the last 90 days I know I listen to the stones a lot. 

I ordered a new Seagate Skyhawk 4TB hard drive. While waiting for it to arrive, I thought I could write a post about how to replace a failing old  drive in a ZFS system like mine.  The first thing to do is get as much information about the system hard drives. I'll need information on the drives. #ls -la /dev/disk/by-id        #to list all my drives with their model and numbers donato@donato-ubuntu : ~ $ ls -la /dev/disk/by-id total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 720 Aug 3 12:34 . drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 160 Aug 3 12:34 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Aug 3 12:34 ata-Crucial_CT240M500SSD1_14210C259405 -> ../../sda lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 3 12:34 ata-Crucial_CT240M500SSD1_14210C259405-part1 -> ../../sda1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 3 12:34 ata-Crucial_CT240M500SSD1_14210C259405-part2 -> ../../sda2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 3 12:34 ata-Crucial_CT240M500SSD1_14210C259405-part3 -> ../../sda3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Au...

The ZFS file system uses a lot more RAM during the course of the day as I read and write data. A LOT MORE. At start of session RAM use read/write statistics for my pools composed of ssd and 4 hard drives I use ZFS as a root filesystem and transferred my data to  hard drives managed by ZFS. My data (mostly music and video files) is on a raidz (single parity) pool of 4 hard drives with slightly varying sizes.  RAM usage goes up to 80% after 5 hours with normal activities like browsing and productivity.

After replacing the old red SATA cables with the new black cables, I cleared the zpool status.  #zpool clear dpool   I had to reboot. I get some un-refreshed messages perhaps. After rebooting I got this welcome messages.

Reuters reported that Chinese consulate in Houston were told to close. Now the Chinese government is considering a retaliatory move to order the closure of the US consulate in Wuhan. Trump has been laying the blame of the corona virus pandemic at China calling the virus, the China virus. The US Navy fleet also moved into the South China Sea this week. It released photos of its carriers and warplanes patrolling the disputed area.  Could Trump be starting a conflict against China to bolster his dipping numbers in the polls? A fighting president can always use this crisis to win an election. Trump isn't above using his country's military to score points.  A conflict in the South China Sea will always impact the Philippines as well as the ASEAN countries. Closure of diplomatic offices tell us that relations between the US and China is at its worse. 

"When you see something that's not right, not just, not fair,  you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something." -John Lewis

l am using the note app to compose this email for the blog post. It has been a while since I write long hand. The period and the comma are annoying me. I don't have good penmanship so I really don't know why I'm doing this. just so strange that it has come to this.

I have switched the format for email composition to html from plain text. It is for the simple reason of convenience. The dpool zfs filesystem is degraded because one of the drives is returning "too many errors" status. I ordered new SATA cables. I also ordered new compact lights. I am hoping to solve the drive degradation by using more reliable SATA cables with locks.  A certain Camile Samarista sent me a message about my PLDT Home payment last June. That there was an error. I checked my bills and there seems to be an item I can't explain. It seemed like I got my service back even if there is a question with my payment. My bill is now in question then. I did not receive an email for my April and May bills. I only got my July email for the bill and I can't explain the gap in the bill. It has been a month since I applied for Home Unli fibr from PLDT. The application is still in progress. I have to check that again. I also remember that I applied for my credit card at B...

Alam mong nagdidilim na kaya nagsisindi ka ng ilaw. Pero ang iba pilit hinihipan ang kandila. Ayaw nilang may makakita ng kanilang kabuktutan. Isang kandila na naman ang namatay. Hindi binigyan ng pagkakataon ng mga nagtatago sa dilim. Kaya sikapin mong huwag mamatay ang liwanag na hawak mo. Bagkus sindihan mo pa ang ibang walang ningas upang ang sulok mong iniikutan ay magliwanag pa.

M Roger our carpenter and all-round repair man completed repairs and cleaning of roof and gutters. The rainy season began a few weeks ago and these repairs are needed for the rest of the year. He also removed screens in the drain pipes so we can see the natural status of water drains. We have been experiencing higher levels of water backed up in the drain system during the heavy downpour. The neighbors also began construction of their commercial and residential building this week. (additional 8-9 feet of wall there) Mom has been showing signs of forgetting what time of day it is. She has been oversleeping a lot of times. She is 78 years old.

I need to get back to my diet regimen. That involves eating macro nutrients in specific ratio. I have a body fat of 29% and that's high. I need to reduce that to below 22%. I really like how my muscle mass "look" now. The problem is that most of that muscle mass is really fat. The real danger in having a high body fat number is the location where my body stores it. A male body usually stores all that fat around the mid torso or the belly. A lot of studies suggest that accumulation of fatty tissue very near the vital organs isn't healthy at all. So regarding my macronutrients or macros, I have calculated that a daily calorie intake of 1,800 - 1,900 should be the norm. I exercise daily and burn about 600-700 calories per session. My macros are: 25% Protein 112 grams - 118 grams daily 70% Fats 140 grams - 147 grams daily 5% Carbohydrates 20 grams - 23 grams daily A ratio of 5-25-70 should move my body to use my fat stores instead of sugar. ...

I am enjoying Warrior Nun in Netflix. I am on my 4th episode now. It stars Alba Baptista as a young woman accidentally given the powers of walking through walls and slaying demons. She chose to help a group of nuns who have battled these demons for ages. I am also alternating re- watching Voyager.

I have been using Evolution Mail uninterrupted for three years in Arch. I posted that upon installing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS I learned that Thunderbird is the default email app. Now I'm trying to get Evolution back in my daily tools. Installing it in Ubuntu 20.04 is no problem. I tend to use the terminal and issue the "apt" command to install packages. It is now sitting in my desktop and downloading my emails. I need to get my openPGP keys too. The backends are alread there. The calendars, and the todos are already working and being used in the desktop reminders. Okay so no fuss. Contacts are working automatically. I am composing the first message and it is in plain text. But let me try this first. I don't want to change defaults unless it is necessary. I'm inserting an image to test embedding images inline. Okay the default seems "to attach" it. But I'll go with it and then eyeball the result in the blog itself. I have no proble...

I thought I have to post this because it has been days of me trying to take a simple image screenshot with my phone. I learned how to take a screen recording before I learned how to take a screenshot. Taking a screenshot with my Samsung is done several ways. One, you could press the power button and the volume down simultaneously. Two, you could press the Bixby button and let the genie out of the bottle and say a wish (kidding), say "Bixby take a screenshot." Third, you can use the S-pen and click to access S-commands then choose Screen write. The S-pen path is recommended if you're going to write on the image, or annotate it.

Indoors running mostly.

Since installing Ubuntu 20.04, I am now using Thunderbird as my default email app.   I installed the enigmail add-on to add some security. I used openpgp in evolution mail back in arch linux. So this is not a new concept. But some UI implementations not only in openpgp but in the general sense, there are differences.

Something happened during the pacman update. Nothing I tried unfreeze the computer. So I reboot which threw me into a console. I can't boot the kernel and the ram disk. The kernel was one of the updates so I think the update was interrupted. I tried mounting the root directory and chroot for maintenance. I tried reinstalling linux kernel or maybe downgrade if I can. Today I am installing ubuntu 20 04 LTS with ZFS. I am erasing everything. I am relying on my cloud backups once again to restore them back. Luckily I have most of my mobile apps up and running. There was no big disruption but my confidence is shot.

Hi Reese Ronnel Tan the new tenant informed me of a water leak in the pipes. They used the shut valve to close it temporarily. I'm going to call M Roger. I'm submitting business permits and DTI clearances to BDO for my bank account. I paid the Philhealth 2nd Quarter premium. It's now 900 pesos, 300 / month. When we first use Philhealth at Padre Pio they asked for receipts, proof that we paid the last two quarters. I have been keeping Philhealth receipts since that experience. I have the last payment I made of Imee's Philhealth last January 8th. Filled me with melancholy.  I still have Imee's ATM, SSS ID other personal things. I feel guilty, sad and emotionally tired all at the same time. I try to second guess myself. Did I do everything for Imee? Did I hold back anything? Would it make any difference? These emotions came out because the events following one after another pushed it to the surface. People are still dying of COVID-19 in the hospitals. Cases are spiking...

In my opinion the classic keyboard is still the best input device there is. Note, not virtual keyboards or screen keyboards but real tactile keyboards.  I happen to be using the basic  logitech keyboard here.

Hi Reese I am being squeezed by the downed wifi. I didn't pay on the 28th May when it was due. I paid on the 5th June. PLDT cut the service on the 6th June. It is now the 13th of June and they are dragging this issue. We are in the middle of a general quarantine when the normal payment channels are closed. I have been a subscriber of Smartbro until PLDT took over. I am not happy with this kind of service.  Then there's the issue of upgrading existing subscribers. I have been sending my application since 3 years ago to get the Homefibr plans. Then this is what they do. I was happy with Smart though. Their stated reason for the delay is that the fibr is not yet available for my location. This simply means that it is a loosing proposition for PLDT to invest in fiber optic cables from their nexus or whatever to my computer modem. 

Cebu City displaced Manila as center of COVID-19 infection this week. Whether the Philippines is flattening the curve or not, is a matter of dispute. But a steady march to relaxing quarantine restrictions is on the way. Restaurants and eateries can now offer dine ins although they can do so at 30 percent capacity. 

I just got my Internet connection back and with it a 267 MB update via pacman which includes the linux kernel.

Iris slipped on wet floor inside R6 Mina's unit. It rained Sunday and the water leaked from the neighbor's 2nd floor through our walls.  Another low pressure spot coming our way. It is the rainy season announcing itself.  Sent from my Huawei phone

Hello Reese I paid the PLDT Home bill but sad they cut it off on 9 am the 6th. I opened my Huawei Nova 5t and surprised it went on. No data because the load expired on the 27th. I have to load it and subscribe to Gigasurf to have data.  I received my SSS loan in the amount of 28,296.85. The amortization is 1,338.20 every month until July 2022. I deposited the cheque at BDO San Jose. I deposited Mina's cheque at Metrobank San Mateo.  My Huawei nova 5t is dying or dead depending on its mood. I stupidly put it under the water faucet to wash it. It wont charge. It's not water resistant I guessed. I ordered a new phone from Lazada.  Mother has been asking for lechon every Sunday. Lechon is now by order only. The sellers only prepare it when you pre-order. The ones on display are already sold to customers.  Every one is eager to restart their lives. Covid-19, the corona virus that killed more than a million people this year has changed lives and society. Talk about restarting, Arnold...

I finished watching Unbelievable, a limited series about rape in America. It restores my soul and faith in people after learning that police take their jobs seriously to the extent that this series portrayed it. I have lost friends who think that by default the burden of evidence should all fall on the accuser who is more likely a woman. Even in this show, where the subject is a serial rapist, you would assume that police work would be top notch but you would be wrong. Two female detectives from across America stumbled upon each other's work to crack and build a case. Unbelievable indeed.

My daily driver when it comes to a browser is Mozilla's Firefox. I am upgrading to version 77 today. 

I have not provided a complete history of my upgrades of the linux kernel so far. The last time I mentioned an upgrade of the linux kernel was last August 2019. [2019-07-12 22:14] [ALPM] upgraded linux (5.1.15.arch1-1 -> 5.2.arch2-1) [2019-07-17 08:05] [ALPM] upgraded linux-firmware (20190628.70e4394-1 -> 20190712.d52556e-1) [2019-07-17 08:06] [ALPM] upgraded linux (5.2.arch2-1 -> 5.2.1.arch1-1) In this post I mentioned the upgrade from linux 5.1 to linux 5.2. This happened in July 2019 when I was on vacation. Then on September 2019 I upgraded linux from 5.2 to 5.3 but never mentioned it in any of my post. There's a gap in my reporting here in my blog. Sorry about that. [2019-09-20 07:14] [ALPM] upgraded linux (5.2.14.arch2-1 -> 5.3.arch1-1) [2019-09-23 08:59] [ALPM] upgraded linux (5.3.arch1-1 -> 5.3.1.arch1-1) [2019-10-02 06:58] [ALPM] upgraded linux-firmware (20190815.07b925b-1 -> 20190923.417a9c6-1) Later, I upgraded my system to the linux kernel 5.4. [2019-1...

I upgraded to gnucash version 3.10. I am also using the Android version on my smartphone. I wish somebody somewhere would tell me how to use gnucash on multiple machines and sync automatically. hmm.

I went to SM San Mateo to have my smartphone checked. My fear is that some moisture got in and messed up the electronics. It started to fail after I washed it over the faucet. I am suppose to be smart but I did something stupid. It did not charge after that and now it won't turn on anymore. The tech support said I have to go to Trinoma where the Huawei Support is. Since the community quarantine is still in effect, I will need a travel pass for that. I am not sure this case is covered by the warranty. I am considering buying another phone.

Inkscape is a vector graphics tool for linux. You can use it to create shapes, drawings and to make simple designs in your website. A nice youtube channel dedicated to inkscape would be the DIY Graphic Design. I upgraded from the 0.92 version this month to the 1.0 version.

I'm watching Mindhunter for the second time. It's a broad stroke of fiction on how the Federal Bureau Of Investigation utilize Psychology and Criminal Behavioral Science in their investigations. As it tells the story of three people pursuing the dark logic behind the criminal mind, the series followed their family histories as well as the real people in their case files. The blending of fiction with the criminal cases as well as the historical background makes the plot tenable. I like the choices of music as well. It stars Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford, Anna Torv (Wendy) and Holt McCallany as Bill Tench. I remember Anna Torv in the mind bending series Fringe. Holden played by Groff was a hostage negotiator and FBI instructor. Tench was a mid level FBI man who goes on the road helping local sheriff departments on tough cases. Wendy came from the academe. All of them were highly interested in the violent sociopaths of society. Additionally, I want to mention that Cameron Britton ...

The hair trimmer I ordered from Lazada during the lockdown arrived in time for my second haircut in the time of a community quarantine. Hair salons and gyms are still unable to reopen. I figured I have to learn how to do this. Cut my own hair. It's a Kimei KM-1990 Professional Trimmer Basic haircut. Clean. One satisfied customer.

"The death rate has been higher in poorer neighborhoods where more people of color live. When Covid-19 came to New York City, rich people threw their Rimowa rolling bags into their Audi Q8s and decamped. But people who are less likely to have access to health care, less likely to have jobs they can do from home, more likely to share housing—as usual, they're the ones who bear the brunt of the disease." from WIRED story about the corona virus No the pandemic isn't targeting black people. It was thought that because COVID-19 is a communicable disease, population density is a primary determinant of how devastating it is. But population density doesn't explain why some cities with higher population density had lower mortality per population than a city with lower population density but a higher mortality per population. Population density does not explain why poor people and old people and health care workers make up most of our deaths. Or why in a rural setting, a m...

The community quarantine was extended (in our place) up to May 15th. It is the last day of the isolation. Tomorrow is uncharted territory. But even now a tropical storm is bearing down on us with heavy rains and winds up to 125 km per hour. Rizal province where I live belongs to the moderate risk communities which experienced some cases of the corona virus but was able to control it. Metro Manila, Laguna and Cavite are still on lockdown due to ongoing cases of COVID-19. Some businesses are opening. The food shops (take outs), utilities, the hardware stores, IT shops, the laundry shops, the list goes on, are allowed to open with caveats. Their staff have to wear masks. They still have to practice social distancing. Generally, offices can open and tell their workers to come to work. The thing is mass transport is still closed. No way for an ordinary worker to commute to their place of work. The government is urging offices to institute a work-at-home set up. My brother and his wife have ...

I'm a voluntary member which means I am formerly an employee with an SSS contribution deducted from my monthly salary. I now choose to continue paying my SSS contribution without an employer. You can choose your income bracket here . I pay quarterly so multiply the amount by 3 months and you know how much you should pay at the end of the quarter. To pay your SSS contribution which is what this post is about, you need the PRN or payment reference number generated for you by the SSS. I registered via sms to 2600. Send TXT to 2600 like this: SSS REG [SSS number] [birthdate mm/dd/yyyy]. Then wait for the confirmation and your PIN. I requested for my PRN by sending TXT to 2600 like this: SSS PRN [SSS number] [PIN] [birthdate mm/dd/yyy]. Use the PRN to pay for your SSS contribution. Replying to you through your phone the system messages should contain your PRN and the amount you have to pay. Let me make an example here by using my BAYAD CENTER app. Assuming you have available balance,...

My mother is a seventy-eight year old woman suffering from gout. She would have these sudden attacks of pain in her feet and hands. They would swell and she will have a slight fever and can't sleep at night because of the pain. That's where she is today. I had to bring her water to drink in bed. She asked for coffee and biscuits. Luckily, we have a toilet in her room. That's very convenient. When the quarantine period began, she remarked that nothing would change. She had been unable to attend christmas parties and reunions with family and relatives. She is looking forward to skype and video calls from my brother and sister abroad. My Huawei phone won't charge. My Asus laptop is ready downstairs. When Lino called the video showed him playing the barber in their bathroom. He is cutting Joy's hair his wife. At first I thought I was looking at a still from the film "The Ring". Joy's gold hair is wet and combed down. Mina's messenger screen showed her ...

I upgraded to Firefox 76 last May 06 without fanfare. about Firefox window

A lockdown needs an exit strategy. We need to know if it is safe to play in the sandbox once more. We test and then we test again. Then we'll know. image is from https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/how-many-people-did-the-aztecs-sacrifice/ When asked US President D Trump said: "We have to be warriors." Trump suggests additional deaths are necessary if we want to open the economy. There are 71,000 deaths in the US so far attributed to COVID-19. I can't sit still after hearing this. So I just went for it. my facebook post May 7 My sister lives in Houston, Texas with her three kids. I have many friends in New York State and New Jersey. Most of them work as nurses and doctors. They are trying to save lives. I pray to the Gods, they stay safe.

I have been planning this trip to Montalban Municipal Hall. The only ATM Phil Veterans' Bank have for Mom is there. Last year they decided to not join other banks. So she can't use other banks' ATM. The Municipal Hall is about 3 kilometers away, a good 7 minutes by public utility vehicle. But now under the shadow of a pandemic, it's a challenge.  Luck smiled on me. I got passed the checkpoint going to Montalban. I hailed a motorcycle man waiting for a passenger. He told me he could wait for me on my way back. So I won't have to wait for another motorcycle man which may or may not be there. On the way to the ATM there were people lining up for bank service and pawn shops. It is clear that people needed cash to purchase something. And for most of us that item is food. I checked Mom's bank account and it is accesible. I checked her pensions. And the two months which were not collected were ready to be withdrawn. Very well. Mission accomplished. I paid my motorcycle...

I have added myWorkout graphics of the last 10 days to this Health app monthly report. The last two weeks have been more hectic than the Health app would suggest with its numbers. It is still the lockdown period. I can't go out to run. But I can run in place. I run indoors. It is dismal but the numbers are not that accurate as I happen to use myWorkouts more often because I feel that the chest Heart rate monitor I use with it is more accurate. I met my weekly goals in the last two weeks ( 93% and 120%). The important data points are duration of workouts and the energy burned per week. The recommendation by the World Health Organization WHO, is to exercise at least 150 minutes from moderate to intense activity weekly. I exceeded my 6 hour goal by 3 hours this last 7 days. The real question is if I can keep this up through May 2020. I hope so.

On hindsight this will probably go faster and more secured if I did a backup first and connected the laptop by cable not by wifi. Asus laptop with ubuntu 18.04 First upgrade the packages. $ sudo -i ## to get privilege of a root account root@desktop # apt update && apt upgrade ## to update and upgrade packages to their latest Second step is to install "update-manager-core" root@desktop # apt install update-manager-core ## if you don't have it yet Third step is to upgrade. root@desktop # do-release-upgrade -d ## begin the upgrade, the "d" flag is to force the upgrade to the next new release It took 90 minutes to download packages on my wifi speeds. I have a slow home wifi. There was some prompts here and there, primarily to ask me about packages being removed here and there. Answer with the first letter of your response and press enter. Configuration and installation took about another 60 minutes. The instal...

Ubuntu introduced me to the world of Linux and open source. Ubuntu Download Page link Ubuntu 20.04 is a Long Term Support version. I had used Ubuntu before and it is an excellent operating system coming from Windows or Mac OS. I currently have it on my ASUS laptop which needs to have its RAM upgraded. Mom and I use it for the occasional skype video chats.

Philippine President Duterte extended the community quarantine to May 15. Well life goes on. I bought 2 gallons of my favorite ice cream flavors instead of 1 for mom and me. Iris came visiting yesterday also, I sent a text message last night when I finally found her number. It was in my old phone, uploaded to Google contact. She's taking care of Mom's feet and nails. Also she's coming back Saturday for the laundry and house cleaning. Yes, we're "flattening the curve" and Duterte's word to "shoot and kill them" pointing to the law breakers got a retired soldier with post-traumatic mental problems killed. Police said they were within protocols as video shows the soldier reaching down his bag for something. He was carrying ID's, family photos, a quarantine pass and a water bottle. There was a note telling the public who to contact if he got lost and could not go home. The Department of Defense issued a statement that he was indeed a veteran of ...

I want to write about my Huawei nova 5t phone. I developed some kind of OCD thing and started washing everything I touch with water and soap including my phone. There after the battery of the Huawei nova 5t stopped charging. Now the sensor says it is down to 0% charge and the only way I can use it is if I keep it plugged to the USB adapter. I have the option to plug the cable to the wall, the desktop computer or to my portable battery pack. My portable battery pack is 10,050 full charged. My phone has to be looked at by a phone tech, but I believe I would need a new battery for the phone. Ordinarily, it is just a 30 minute trip to the mall shops but the lock down made all trips a challenge now. Speaking of trips, I can't deposit my sister's checks to the bank. I don't even know if the bank is open. I can't make the trip to the postal office to get this month's checks. I suppose I can walk the 5 kilometers but I am not sure the postal office is open. All these places...

Although business in general has closed down, there's a boom in businesses trying to go online. A lot of small businesses are developing new ways of delivering their goods through Messenger and twitter. Payment online is the only way of collecting and paying for goods and services. My bank's online service warned users of peak and off-peak times to use the online features. Alibaba the Chinese marketing giant, released a statement that they are investing 20 Billion dollars in online stores and payment facilities in light of the corona virus pandemic that hit China. Closer to home, I expanded my payment facilities from BDO online banking to Bayad Center and Lazada's bill payments. I can only sympathize with a lot of Filipinos who do not have Internet access to be able to make the jump from over-the-counter cash pay to electronic. Both Meralco and the water utilities have issued company statements to extend payment deadlines by 30 days and to institute a policy of no service d...

Going back to work and the public transportation without knowing where we are now with the corona virus threat is crazy. We sacrificed a whole month staying at home to get infected on returning back to work. Testing should tell us what else we have to do, what is needed to be done. It isn't meaningful to individuals in the sense that you could be negative Monday and by Friday you're infected. The value of testing comes from them being the basis for policy. The value of testing comes to resource allocation. It doesn't really help YOU as an individual. It isn't a cure. It isn't a vaccine. Hopefully good policy comes out of testing data and those policy help us protect our lives better.

Audacious is a music player that's focused on the sound quality. The interface is Qt but you can choose the Winamp classic skins.

Nutrition is a highly subjective decision. My goal is to lose weight. To lose weight I need at least a 200 cal deficit. My BMR is 1,458 cal. I estimate that I'm eating 1,500 to 1,550 cal a day. Here is my average meal for the past weeks: For breakfast: eggs fried on coconut oil x 3 180 calories extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp 120 calories coffee 1 cup 5 milk .25 cup 100 ground pork 3 oz 250 calories total 655 calories For Lunch - Dinner: ground pork 3 oz 250 calories vegetables 2 cups 100 calories tuna canned in oil 3 oz 90 calories coffee / turmeric / milk 1 cup 150 calories fruits / banana / mangoes 1 100 calories total 690 calories Additional: fruits / mangoes / banana 1 100 calories coffee / turmeric / milk 1 cup 150 calories total 250 calories GRAND TOTAL 1,595 calories I need to drop my milk and breads. Then up my oil and butter. Watch my ...

The quarantine began the later half of the month. I shifted from running outdoors to xfit workouts indoors. There is a tremendous effect in physical activity when you are prevented from going outdoors. COVID-19 restrictions are in effect since March 15 until April 30. I have since added at least 8 to 9 kilograms after 4 weeks. I am adjusting my caloric deficit after the facts. I mean I can't continue eating 1,600 if I can't burn fat. I will add on weight. My BMR of 1,473 cal should be the cap and the goal is to eat 1,316 cal everyday. No more than that.

I've been using gnucash since I started managing our rental business. https://www.gnucash.org/ You can browse the documentation for gnucash here. This is a pdf download of the manual for gnucash. Basically it is a bookkeeping course plus a bit of light financial accounting. If you had a bit of financial courses or bookkeeping subjects in high school, this is a refresher course. You should start with how to build up your chart of accounts.

In the period of the corona virus lockdown it is a challenge to satisfy requirements for validation of senior citizen status as well as other benefits requiring annual validation status. I live with my mom and we made the trip to the SSS branch in San Mateo just before the start of the lockdown. That's very fortuitous. Unfortunately, her Philippine Veterans Affairs Office PVAO validation notification came inside the lockdown period. I was informed that she could avail of a skype interview so that's the primary option. I sent an email requesting on her behalf, for a skype interview schedule. I sent her ID's along with the email and some requested information. After 5 days an email reply from PVAO gave us a date and time of interview for the skype validation. PVAO email for skype validation: vrmd_skype2017@yahoo.com

The every month upgrade tempo of Mozilla firefox browser is dizzying. But I want to keep up especially when we're talking about a vital piece of software. Here is the release notes for the latest firefox. The biggest take away from this version is the improvements in search from the address bar.

Archlinux repos made linux-kernel 5.6 available today. The linux-kernel 5.5 came out last February 2020. Linux-5.6 comes with Wireguard support, USB4 support and F2FS data compression using LZ0/LZ4 algorithms. It also provides solution to AMD cpu overheating on ASUS laptops. And other hardware support.

I got this digital thermometer when I was taking care of Imee. It's been routine to Mom and I to check our body temperature everyday now since the quarantine. How do you know if you have the virus? What are the symptoms? The number one complaint of those who have tested positive of the corona virus is fever. Your body detects a foreign invasion its immune system goes to a higher alert status. The normal body temperature ranges from 36.1 Celsius to 37.2 Celsius. If you register a body temperature above 38 degrees celsius, it most often means a fever. In these weird times, a fever will land you in the isolation ward of your house, with your own things like spoon and fork and plate and things like that.  The second symptom to look out for is dry cough. There's fatigue and loss of smell. So if you have all of these simultaneously, isolate. Wear a face mask. Of course in the Philippines everybody is wearing a face mask.  Mina and Lino live abroad. They're my sister and brother....

I love getting email like this from dlvr.it. It means I'm posting as promised. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen frequently enough.

Today is Palm Sunday. With the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in full spread, Catholics begin the Holy Week with the blessing of palm branches to remember Jesus Christ entering the city of David, Jerusalem. It's in Mt 21 and Mk 11. "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Obviously people can't attend Mass in churches because of social distancing. But priests are going to go around with holy water to bless palm branches without physical contact. I am wondering about the execution. We have to be careful about any activity that solicits some kind of social interaction.  There is a small guarded bit of good news for Filipinos who are in our 3rd week of quarantine. The latest number of cases moved up to 3,094 today. It took 5 days for this number to double. Most countries fighting this virus are suffering under a 3 day doubling of their cases. It is good news that we seem to be "capping" the spread of the virus here in the Philippines. We can ...

Yesterday twitter told its firefox users to be aware that firefox browser handles their data differently compared with other browsers. Some personal data are cached by firefox so that it would not have to download them repeatedly. No problem. Unless you share your computer. The solution is to configure the firefox browser to delete any downloaded data. Or if you want to see the bigger picture here, don't share your computer with somebody, because it's not just cached data you have to worry about. I upgraded my version of firefox from 73 to 74 today.

Upon issuing the pacman upgrade command today there's a warning message added. Here's the complete text in the command line. [ donato@archdesktop ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu :: Synchronizing package databases...  core is up to date  extra is up to date  community is up to date  DEB_Arch_Extra                           3.1 KiB  1043 KiB/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100%  DEB_Arch_Extra.sig                     181.0   B  0.00   B/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100% :: Starting full system upgrade... resolving dependencies... looking for conflicting packages... warning: dependency cycle detected: warning: ruby-irb will be installed before its ruby dep...

Upon issuing the pacman upgrade command today there's a warning message added. Here's the complete text in the command line. [ donato@archdesktop ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu :: Synchronizing package databases...  core is up to date  extra is up to date  community is up to date  DEB_Arch_Extra                           3.1 KiB  1043 KiB/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100%  DEB_Arch_Extra.sig                     181.0   B  0.00   B/s 00:00 [#####################################] 100% :: Starting full system upgrade... resolving dependencies... looking for conflicting packages... warning: dependency cycle detected: warning: ruby-irb will be installed before its ruby dep...