Author: SeeJay

SeeJay http://seejay.net http://twitter.com/seejay https://github.com/seejay http://newsbeat.io

Bloging made easy with Firefox!

Hello Firefox lovers! Here’s some great news for you guys (or gals). Remember I told you about “Flock” in my post “Life Made Easy with Flock”? Well, this time I found an extension for Firefox that lets you post to your blog!

Actually, my good old buddy Chanux is the one who introduced it to me. It’s called “Performancing.” For me, it seems far better than the blog posting tool that comes with “Flock” because previous posts can be easily edited with this… and there’s much more!

Why don’t you guys give it a try?

C.J.

powered by performancing firefox

Emulate with QEMU!

The first day I met Ven. Ilgo (my Linux guru), the venerable thero showed me a magic trick (it was that surprising for me at the time) with his Linux-installed laptop by booting “Windows XP” within a window of his Debian Linux installation. Although we could see it in a window, “Windows XP” seemed to act as if it were the only OS running at that moment. He had even installed Firefox and a Python interpreter.

“First, I used this to make my machine useful to another monk who refused to work with Linux because he was a great fan of MS Word macros. But now I use QEMU to check how well my Python scripts work in Windows,” said Ven. Ilgo.

After a few minutes in “Windows,” we were shutting down WinXP. Guess what? Windows crashed!

“This is a joke! I can’t believe how people use this in their day-to-day life,” said Ven. Ilgo.

“Maybe it’s because of the emulation?” I replied.

“Oh no. It’s true that QEMU might be slower than a normal Windows installation, but not when KQEMU is installed with 1GB of RAM. At least it’s fast enough not to crash,” said the venerable thero. (KQEMU is a driver that allows the QEMU PC emulator to run much faster when emulating a PC.)

“What if we just close this window without shutting down Windows?” I asked.

“Then Windows will assume it’s a power loss and run ‘the famous disk scan!’”

That was enough for me that day, but it wasn’t enough for me later. So, I started using QEMU after getting a good tutorial from Ven. Ilgo. I always wanted to write a post about this but couldn’t do it earlier because of my lack of free time. Here it is now!

(Important: This is not a QEMU man page. This is just a simple intro to QEMU.)
(Disclaimer: I’M NOT GUILTY IF YOU GET BUSTED OR KICKED OUT OF “LKLUG” FOR USING ‘Windows’ WITH THIS EMULATOR.) D

First, we need to install QEMU:

apt-get install qemu

Once QEMU is installed, try typing qemu to check whether it’s up and running.

I assume you guys (or gals) are going to emulate Windows. Normally, Windows will need 2GB of disk space, so let’s create an image file that will act as an HDD during the emulation:

qemu-img create win.img 2048mb

Yes! You can change the name or file size as you like.

Next, create an ISO image of a CD containing Windows XP. You can do this by selecting the “Copy to Disk Image” option, which appears after right-clicking the CD icon. Name the file “winXP.iso.”

Now, to boot your emulated PC from the CD, type:

qemu -hda win.img -cdrom /path/to/winXP.iso -boot d

Make sure to replace /path/to/winXP.iso with the correct path to your ISO file.

A window resembling a normal BIOS will open. From there, proceed as you normally would during a Windows setup.

After installing, you’ll need to boot from the HDD. Type:

qemu -hda win.img -cdrom /path/to/ANY.iso -boot c

If you want to install software or drivers in Windows, simply create an ISO image containing the software and replace /path/to/ANY.iso with the correct path and name of the ISO image.

For further information, check the QEMU manual (man qemu). You can also use a SAMBA server to transfer files between Linux and Windows, though I’m not sure if it supports Windows XP.

Oh! For those of you wondering… Yes! you can use QEMU to emulate another Linux distro too. After all, why emulate just to be a fool?

C.J.

Digg this post!

Life made easy with Flock

Hi guys! I’m typing this post with the help of an open-source browser called Flock. It seems interesting because this browser has a built-in blog posting tool that supports not only WordPress but also Typepad, Movable Type, MetaWeblog, Blogger, and Atom. The next best thing is that this browser uses the source code of our good old buddy, Firefox! It looks like Firefox with a new color scheme and some extensions installed.

I’m planning to keep this browser handy for my blog posting, but Firefox is going to stay with me for a loooong time because I’m still using it for browsing. I think the Firefox team should be careful with this competing “twin brother.”

Oh! And for those of you who are interested in my results, check out the comments on my last post. 😉

C.J.

Blogged with Flock

Dear Department!

www.doenets.lk is the official website of Sri Lanka’s Department of Examinations. To my knowledge, this is the site most people are visiting these days, and it’s also the site that gets blamed and cursed the most. This is because of the stupid/false announcements made by Mr. Anura Edirisinghe, the commissioner of the Department of Examinations (DoE).

The results of the G.C.E. A/L exam 2006 are about to be issued, and students who sat for the exam, including myself and Chanux, are anxiously waiting to see what will happen to our future. But this so-called “commissioner” of the DoE seems to be playing with the heartbeats of every A/L result-pending student in Sri Lanka. We all remember what that nerd did last time (in the 2005 A/L results) and how he tried to hide his misdeeds by blaming those “good old” computers, like a cat defecating on a rock. 😆

Even this time, proving he hasn’t changed, he announced to the media that the A/L exam results would be issued on Saturday, 30th September. We checked the website the whole day and saw nothing. Then he said, “Oh, I forgot about Jaffna, so Monday will be the day, kids!” On Monday, we heard another announcement that we’d have to wait until Wednesday. And here we are, on Thursday, 5th October, at 2:45 AM, still checking the site (www.doenets.lk), which hasn’t been updated since April 2006.

Is this behavior suitable for a commissioner of a government department? especially the DoE?? I don’t know, because I’m just a 20-year-old guy without much experience in life. But believe me, I know enough to say that even a 13-year-old dumb kid would be far better for the post of Commissioner of the DoE than Mr. Anura Edirisinghe.

Anyway, dear Mr. President, why don’t you leave this position in the DoE empty? It’s far better than keeping this joker in the post. 😆

C.J.

Day before SF day 2006

So, Chanux and I came to the road with Randy and got ourselves onto the bus at about 4:30 AM, hoping Randy and Asanka would come to Colombo tomorrow to celebrate SF Day. It was about 9:30 AM when we got down at Majestic City. We were expecting LKLUGers all over the place, but not even a single Linux guy was present. Instead, we saw the EPSI guys (EPSI Computers) setting up their self-promoting campaign instead of promoting free software.

Chanux sent an SMS to Bud to find out what was going on. Bud was busy because he was lecturing at APPIT (an IT school), so he sent us the phone number for the Narada Center to call Ven. Meththavihari Thero. We tried that number but found no one there to answer the phone. So, we wandered around MC, kicking our heels, until we called the Linux Center, which was the next number BUD gave us.

While we were on our way to the Linux Center, Bud called us and asked us to come back to MC because he was there. So, we returned to MC and were introduced to the EPSI guys as LKLUGers by Bud. After that introduction, we were free to use all those “cute” Asus laptops and other powerful Asus hardware to install and configure Linux, or even play awesome 3D games.

At about 3 PM, Ven. Meththa came to MC. Ven. Meththa was very nice to us and stayed until 5:30 PM before heading to TLC (the Linux Center). We stayed at MC until 7:00 PM, spending our time handing out invitations to guys and gals to attend the SF Day events happening the next day.

We met Bud at 7:00 PM, and he happily spent money on our dinner at KFC. Thanks a lot, Bud ! Afterward, the three of us went to the Linux Center in Nugegoda. There were five of us at TLC at that time, including Ven. Meththa and a guy called Ruwan. We did a lot of work to finish preparing the Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu CDs, which were to be given out for free the next day.

Bud left TLC at 1:30 AM, and the rest of us crashed at TLC, hoping to have a nice day of FREEDOM.

C.J.

Hmm.. .Life is…

As I told you, we (me and Chanux, as always) went to Asahanaya’s house on Thursday (14th) evening. We were planning to catch the Colombo bus early in the morning with David and Randy (Asanka and Naya). Although we needed to sleep early to wake up on time, I couldn’t sleep because I’m addicted to staying up late at night. No need to mention Chanux, David, and Randy. Thanks to Suntel, they’ll never sleep early with their Night Owl Internet package. 🙂

After trying and trying, I finally managed to crash at about 11:30 PM. I just remember Randy configuring all four alarms (even phone alarms) to make sure we’d wake up on time.

When I woke up at 1:15 AM, I found that Asa had a problem with his health. It seemed like there was something wrong with his stomach. He was trying to hide how bad he felt and wanted us to go to Colombo, leaving him alone at home. But he was wrong about his friends. All three of us were planning to stay home with Asa and let the other two go. Asanka’s mango buddy, Randy, gave up the idea of going to Colombo without Asa and decided to stay. Nicely done, Randy! Asa is so lucky to have such a good friend like you, and so am I.

So, this whole scene ended with Randy staying home to look after Asanka.

It seems that the title of my last post is valid not only for me but also for the rest of the world, or even the whole universe. No need to be surprised, because I took that verse from the Dhammapada, a Buddhist book that teaches the way to live happily. After all, the Buddha’s teachings are universal truths. Anyway, here’s that part from the Dhammapada. See how true it is, not just the first line, but the third line also matches our situation:

Health is the precious gain,
and contentment, the greatest wealth.
A trustworthy person is the best kinsman,
“Nibbana,” the highest bliss.

“The Buddha’s way, the path to freedom”

C.J.

Arogya Parama Laba! (Helth is the precious gain)

OK, OK, OK! Sorry for the delay, I really mean that. I had a problem with my left arm, so no typing at all. Oh man, you don’t realize how useful a body part is until you lose control of it. 🙂

It all happened on Sunday, the day we came back home from Colombo. It was about 1 PM when I got back to 127.0.0.1 (home, for those who don’t know), had my lunch, and went straight to bed.

It was around 6 PM when I woke up. Suddenly, I realized that my left hand was cramped. I spent the night and the next morning hoping my hand would be fine, but no good news. So, our family doctor was my only hope. The doctor figured out the problem and told me, “Don’t worry, it’s just because your arm needs some rest.” 🙂 I wish that had been the last thing the doctor said during that session. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I couldn’t believe my ears when the doctor told me, “You’ll have to halt for a week.”

So here I am, typing my blog after that long week. My left arm works fine now, although it’s not at maximum performance yet. I spent the whole week using all my input hardware with my right hand. Now that sucks!

OK, enough excuses. Check out my next post, which I’ll publish within a couple of hours, to get an idea about the SF Day on the island.

C.J.

At last!

At last!
I’ve finally gotten myself into blogging. Ever since I entered the cyber world, I’ve been really good at reading blogs, but I never had one of my own. Even though there were lots of things happening in my crazy life, my busy lifestyle left me with no time to maintain a blog. Not that I was too lazy to post things 😉 I just never got around to it. But now, here I am, ready to share my life experiences with everyone.

I’m not planning to shout out a loud introduction about myself at this moment. I’ll let time introduce me as it flows. For now, all I’ll say is that I’m a 20-year-old guy who loves to live life free and cool. Not “free” as in free beer, nor “free” as in free software 🙂 Although I love FOSS, I absolutely hate it when people try to modify my “life source code.” It drives me nuts when that happens, and it’s definitely not good for those who try!

The reason I’m not introducing myself properly right now is, as usual, my lack of free time. And to make things worse, there are some special events coming up. Since “Free Software Day” is on the 16th of September, my worst best friend ChanuX and I, along with “Asa ha Naya” (check how it’s spelled), are planning to head to Colombo to join the LKLUG guys and spread the word of “freedom” across the mountains of our beautiful island. Our Linux guru, Ven. Ilgo, is planning to visit Peradeniya University to meet another monk and switch him to FOSS. So, ChanuX and I decided to use those free days to have some fun and meet other Sri Lankan FOSS users to see what’s happening outside our (cyber) world. Asanka and Nayomal (yes, you guessed it… Asahanaya!) also promised to join us, as they’re always happy to tag along.

Now, I’ve got to stop typing and head out into the real world to buy some essentials for our journey. I have a feeling the next few days will make me work like “Speedy Gonzales” because there’s so much to do in such a short time. I’ll try to post an update with the latest info as soon as possible. Until then, adios!

C.J.
(P.S. I couldn’t post this earlier because I had issues with my internet connection. So, I’m posting this on Sunday evening after finishing our journey to Colombo. Check out my next post to hear all about it!)