Blaming the game, not the player; the broken democratic election system in the Philippines

Preface

During the 2022 Philippine presidential election, probably the biggest comeback on top of the political pedestal was Marcos Jr. winning the presidential race, son of a deposed former dictator-president Marcos Sr., against a self-portrayed progressive candidate, former Vice-President Robredo, and a few other traditional political aspirants. The outcome of this election was not really surprising given the trend of previous presidential elections, but the real difference this time was the very vocal dismay of people who supported Robredo over to others who chose the other candidates. Many of them claimed that others made a bad choice, sometimes even comparing it to committing a carnal sin, and concluded that didn't give a care to improving the state of the country.

It is unfortunate that the very system of giving citizens the choice to elect all their leaders became a reason why the Philippines has languished to being the bottom feeder in the region in terms of overall progress. The country is hugely overtaken by their ASEAN neighbors in economic growth who were initially criticized during their formative years for not being "democratic" enough to their citizens. Long ago our country boasted being the first South-East Asian nation to restore and operate a democratic system with the citizens retaining the power to directly vote their leaders. But looking at those other countries under a hybrid parliament or even communist-led party looks to be more prosperous, with their own domestic problems seem to be not a major impediment for overall progress.

With the 2025 mid-term elections fast approaching and campaign sorties already in full-swing, candidates once again loiter on mainstream media and their faces plastered on the streets. The tone and mood looks to give yet again another upsetting outcome of traditional politicians continuing to win their retained or previously held positions. 

This write-up will not judge or pick which government system turned out to be better, but just to ponder why the current Philippine democratic election system is broken. Many would probably criticize this as a delusional work of fiction what-ifs and possibly speculate it was just made with AI. At the time of this writing even the AI might probably gain existential realization if it did consume this information. I just hope the Filipino people would also be the same.

Buying a Steam Deck OLED directly from US using BuyandShip

 

Just want to share as a guide or forewarning about ordering a Steam Deck OLED directly from the US. The post is a copy-paste from my own reddit post (in Filipino).

Preface: the plan of buying the OLED happened around January 2024

Steps and preparations I did before purchasing through the Steam Store US:

1. fully verified GCash account and activated the GCash AMEX virtual card; will be using this at the US Steam Store

2. About sa Steam Account, need mo talaga ng looks legit na steam US account. Gumamit ako VPN and signed-up sa browser ng account, hoping that the VPN US IP address is not flagged as VPN traffic. Then after the email verification and added some info na pwede ilagay, disconnected sa VPN and logged in with steam client to continue to complete some details and profile. Use the GCash AMEX to purchase at least $5 worth na game, then activate the steam guard (ginamit ko lang PH mobile number ko). Tapos wait roughly 10-15 days to check and observe if babawiin ung transaction and lapse the period na need activated ung steam guard. Yung billing address na gamitin mo is basically the US address info shown ni GCash for the AMEX card.

3. If wala pa buyandship account, sign-up for one and complete the instructions for you to get your own member ID and address you will use for shipping information. Yung portland address ang gamitin para tax-free yung purchase na gagawin mo.

4. Given wala naging problema yung 1st purchase mo and still appearing in US$ yung steam store pag login ka duon with client app na hindi naka-VPN, the next big step is to do the purchase nung mismong Deck. Make sure yung information ng address ni buyandship ang mailagay mo as shipping address and should exactly be the same. Wag mo piliin ung "recommended" address and stick with the one you encoded.

5. Pray na lumusot at maging successful yung purchase. Pag umabot na sa stage na for shipment na siya at tracking number, hindi pa siya ang endgame mo. It seems may instances na bawiin nila if mapansin nila anomalous ung transaction origin or duda sa shipping address information.

6. Pag may tracking number na, you would need that to submit kay buyandship to lodge your incoming parcel.

Given all is still well at shipped-out na siya (mine was via FedEx from CA to OR), had to wait na dumating siya mismo kay buynship, with matching bantay sa fedex tracking at whether mag-update si buynship na received parcel na talaga on their end.

Some add'l info to consider:

• conversion rate ni GCash ay kung ano man current market rate... +3 pesos. So yung bili ko eh rate was 55.4, sa conversion ni GCash eh lumalabas 58.4/$. For better math appreciation, $550 would be equivalent to +1650 pesos offset dahil sa exchange rate, $650 would be +1950 pesos.

• in a way risky ang pag-ship nung commodity and warranty might be the trouble. As of writing this post, eh inaantay ko pa nga dumating sa HK warehouse ni buyandship yung parcel ko. Even with their add-on na mala insurance (+1050) you still can't say how well things will go.

• Baka by now, si buyandship eh nag-aalok na ng pasabuy ng steam deck OLED via Komodo Japan at a reasonable markup inclusive of shipping to Manila.

All this in hopes na nakatipid ng 4k man lang (for either 512gb or 1TB OLED model) after landed cost vs. sa mga benta na price ni DB or GamExtreme

So ayun, kung hindi makati ang palad at willing to wait mala-jollibee champ or mcdo chicken, antayin nyo na lang magbaha ng stock sa HK or Japan at baka mas mura pa.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TLDR

Cost breakdown and landed cost:

• Steam Deck 1TB OLED model - $649 = PHP 38,030.50 (approx 58.4/$ conversion GCash AMEX)

• BuyandShip freight to Manila - PHP 2180 less 400 thanks to BDO promotion

• BuyandShip+ insurance - PHP 1083

• TOTAL LANDED COST: PHP 40,893.50

Timeline:

• Purchased Steam Deck @ Store - Dec 23

• Departed from Valve Warehouse - Dec 29

• Arrived at BuyandShip Oregon - Jan 2

• Arrived at BuyandShip HK - Jan 8

• ETA Manila - swerte na kung Jan 15

• TOTAL DURATION: almost a month

Disable the screen resolution dialog for Paw Patrol On a Roll Game (Steam)

 If you are a loving parent/tech-uncle who just wants to make your child have a seamless way to play the "Paw Patrol On a Roll" game purchased from Steam and you either use Steam Link or Steam Deck, the window dialog asking about the screen resolution can sometimes become a nuisance.

There's an old discussion thread on the Steam page of the said game, but seems the OG devs aren't paid enough to maintain support on old games. A very kind-soul under the username "Pahiro" gave some general idea how to do the fix on your own copy of the game. For some technically-blessed people, they were able to understand and make the workaround fix using the Unity Asset Bundle Extractor published in Github performing the following steps.

1. Download the UABE release from GitHub (nowadays everyone by default is using a 64bit windows machine so please pick that).
2. Run the AssetBuildExtractor.exe
3. Select File -> Open, select the "globalgamemanagers" located inside the local game install folder of the Paw Patrol game; by default it is located in... C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Paw Patrol On A Roll\PawPatrol_Data
4. Click on the first line with the type PlayerSettings, do an export dump as text file
5. With a notepad or other text editor, look in the dumped text file the integer variable "displayResolutionDialog" and change the value to 0.
6. Save the modified text file, then back in the UABE click the import dump and select that modified dump text file.
7. Select File -> apply and save the new globalgamemanagers file (better to backup the old one before swapping them). If it prompts an error saving it, save it with a different file name then just use the file explorer to make the file renames as necessary.

After applying the fix, game launched fine on my part.

Now the backstory has been all said and done, if you just want the actual file (disclaimer: I have no liability should there be unfortunate outcomes when using the file I shared), see this drive link to download the modified globalgamemanagers file.

Hope this helps.

 

workaround for Acer E1-572G with HD8750M GPU and Win10 freezes

From the moment I opted to upgrade/format my Acer E1-572G to Windows 10 (since its initial release encouraging those in Win8.1 to avail the free upgrade), it was plagued with driver incompatibilities particularly the secondary AMD/ATI Radeon HD8750M graphics chipset. Initially I found a workaround wherein I left it stuck at the Feb2017 Crimson 17 (version 21.1 driver) release at the time of the 17XX update and kind of left it there throughout 1803 and 1809 release. But when the 1903 update finally popped up, the problem resurfaced and this time neither that old driver or the current Oct 2019 release didn't work and kept on freezing the OS even prior to logging-in. Just doing a fresh install will land you on the same problem.

I relied once again to the old ye faithful Google search and found an interesting post in the AMD community forum describing the same issue. The correct solution came from the user handle "lmarcelus" which described modifying the extracted inf driver file and disable the UIps. I've included the screenshot of his solution for archive sake in case AMD wants to clean house.

 I'm not entirely sure what the UIps is for or how it may affect graphics-intensive apps/gaming but it was worth a shot and actually worked! On my experience, I did a fresh install using the Windows10 1903 update and yes I finished the installation wizard process while staying offline. You will need the drivers ready and at-hand (USB perhaps?) if you don't have a spare PC/device that you can use to download it. Another item you may need to read-up is how to turn off the enforcement of driver signature (hint: through the same way how you boot to safe mode but this time select option 7 or was it 8).

If by chance reformatting is not in your itinerary, best thing I can suggest is to try and boot to safe mode (with no networking) and use the AMD cleanup utility. The tool will remove/disable all the AMD/ATI drivers installed, which will leave you a clean un-initialized video card device listed on your device manager. Only after doing that clean you can then perform the said modifications.

Scrolling further down that same forum page there's another comment by "ax7" (Github user "qbsa") who made a service/script that you can install to your machine to automatically modify any new/updated drivers being installed similar to the solution initially provided. The exact instructions and files are in his GitHub page. I suggest you put the install files (the exe and cmd file) in its own folder somewhere hidden or safe from normal browsing view before attempting to install because those files will need to stay there in order for the script service to remain working.

I hope this helps anyone out there who just wants to bring their laptop with that infernal ATI HD8600/8700M GPU back to working order. Cheers!

Touchpad fix for Ubuntu 18.04 & Acer Nitro 5

I have an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52 with the Intel i7 and GTX1050ti. For the first few months I just used it as a Windows machine and only relied on the Ubuntu terminal add-on for some remote linux legwork. But after a few months I tempted fate to dual-boot with Ubuntu as I hoped some basic issues would already pass and work out-of-the-distro, which fortunately didn't.

As a backgrounder, I used an Ubuntu 18.04 64bit Desktop ISO sometime Dec 2018. Most of the basic stuff worked except the touchpad. I also read that there might be some issues with Nvidia and the audio output of the HDMI port but wasn't planning to use it just yet.  The touchpad however was a big deal especially I don't usually have a mouse at hand. This once again led me to journey the vast forum pages in the internet to find and eventually compiled the answer in this post.

You may have landed to some answers where you need to install "i2c-tools" package as it was hinted in the BIOS settings for touchpad that you needed i2c drivers, but since you landed here means that didn't work. Changing the BIOS setting from "Advanced" to "Basic" wasn't an option for your either because of the touchpad functions when you go back to Windows.

The next thing I did was to install the Nvidia proprietary driver package, since touchpad input is usually associated with the graphics card... which also did nothing.

Another one would be to install the "xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" package as the default libinput package wasn't enough for our machine... and once again it didn't do anything.

I was about to give up but saw a suggestion in another forum page to sort-of force synaptics to be used for detection of touchpad input. It required you to modify the synaptics xorg config file and made sure to have the following:

Section "InputClass" 
             Identifier "touchpad catchall" 
             Driver "synaptics" 
             MatchIsTouchpad "on" 
             Option "TapButton1" "1" 
             Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1" 
End Section 

Now most of the stuff was already (uncommented) in the config file except the last 2 "Option" lines. I just added those, restarted, and then my touchpad finally worked!

To summarize all what happened or what I did, here's a recap along with some of the commands used (to help those linux beginners):

1) Install "i2c-tools"

sudo apt-get install i2c-tools 

2) [I think this can be optional] Install the Nvidia Proprietary Graphics drivers. You can do this graphically by going to the "Software & Updates" -> Additional Drivers -> enable the Nvidia proprietary drivers.

3) Install the xserver synaptics package and do a restart

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 

4) Modify the config file located at /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-synaptics.conf (or the XX-synaptics.conf) and append the necessary stuff I mentioned earlier. You can use your preferred text editor. Do a restart once you have saved the settings.

5) End

Here's an output of my "xinput --list" when my touchpad worked. The ELAN touchpad finally showed up after the stuff I did.

⎡ Virtual core pointer                        id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                  id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ELAN0504:01 04F3:3091 Touchpad              id=12    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                       id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard                 id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                                id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                   id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                   id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                                id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                                id=10    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HD WebCam: HD WebCam                        id=11    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard                id=13    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Acer WMI hotkeys                            id=14    [slave  keyboard (3)]


Credits to the participants/contributors in the UNIX stackexchange I read. 

TP-Link WPA4530 kit review & fix for random disconnect

I've recently purchased a TP-Link WPA4530 kit for roughly less than $70 (3500 pesos) to extend my WiFi coverage and eliminate a particular dead-spot that so happened to be my desktop PC workspace at home. The device I bought is a consumer-based version which is both a powerline adapter and WiFi AC750 access point.

The next few bits is sort of a background of the item I've purchased; sort of a pseudo-review. For those who just need the answer to your "WPA4530 TP-link random disconnect powerline" Google search, scroll down (or click here) to the workaround part

The Backstory

At first I was a bit skeptic about using a "powerline" (powerline communication or PLC) but this is actually an old technology based on data communications used by power distribution companies to monitor and control their power grid. I was willing to try this out because it fell within my budget and I've already tried using a high-power AC2400 router (Asus AC87U) which was a tad expensive for the intended purpose and performed sub-par as I have wanted, but it did the job of removing the dead-spot.

You might think that "hey, why not use those WiFi Mesh network devices" solution compared to using PLC devices. To answer that, I'm not YET a firm believer of that technology, especially if the product hasn't gone mainstream to other manufacturers. I guess that's a good bet for a different scenario where PLC devices are not possible (i.e. old houses with old wiring). 

The Review

Bottom-line, it did work on my setup at home. It does work even if the house layout wiring of the source outlet and destination outlet are at two different circuit breakers, as long as it is still under one master breaker.

I used a universal adapter on the source PLC device (PA4020P) because it was a three-prong and my power outlet was the two-prong ungrounded version located at the ground floor near my gateway router. The wireless device PLC (WPA4530) is plugged at the second floor of the house and has the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi enabled. I also use the in-built ethernet (LAN) port for my desktop workstation.

this photo not mine; was too lazy to take a shot of my own unit

The PLC kit has a rated transfer rate of 500Mbps, but for real-world specs I'm getting a decent 130-175Mbps which is still good and enough for HD streaming for my Chromecast and online gaming using my desktop PC.

Workaround / Fix for random disconnect

For those who may have problems with random disconnection of their TP-Link powerline devices (given you've configured it correctly and have used it for a couple of minutes), I found a workaround based on forums that there is a "power-saving" mode for the PA4020P that turns-off the connection after 5 minutes of inactivity between the PLC devices. The power-save mode is sometimes persistent even after unplugging and plugging it back in. I think this fix is not exclusive for the WPA4530 kit and can also be used for other (older or newer) models.

From the official product page of TP-Link for your model/device, go to the "Support" section and look for the Utility tab. For the WPA4530kit, the link is this one You will need to download and install their TP-PLC utility program. This will let you monitor and manage your TP-Link PLC devices.

Once you have finish installing the program, just play around it and look for the advanced settings for the PA4020P devices and you should see a way to disable the "power saving" mode.

This fix is actually based on an old article (from digiex.net) I read that tells of a tool to disable the power-saving feature of TP-Link powerline devices. However it only provided the old program that no longer support Win8 and above.

By the way, I did not bother updating the firmware as they're still up-to-date once I got it out of the box.

I hope this article helps people out there, both looking for ways to solve their WiFi dead-spot or those who already have this powerline device and looking for answers.

Cheers!

Tuxera NTFS for MacOS Sierra Workaround (Toshiba license)

With the release of MacOS Sierra by Apple, you might have opted to update your Mac machine with that new OS especially if your gadget ecosystem revolves on the Apple-sphere of things. Upon completing the long wait of downloading the OS update and its installation, you may think at first that everything seems to work fine. Once you attached your NTFS hard drive thinking it will be a routine access to your files, you notice that it goes back to a "read-only" file explorer view even if you have Tuxera installed.

I got my copy of Tuxera from purchasing Toshiba's external USB3.0 hard drives that included the said software, specifically the Canvio Connect II. The drive is a sweet deal for the price + Tuxera, especially the fact that it doesn't care whether you use your Toshiba external drive or any other brand (boooo to WD and Seagate).

What I initially did and the error I got

The usual course of action to fix Tuxera after a major MacOS software update is to just reinstall it. So I have a copy of the ".dmg" installer of Tuxera somewhere within my directories and proceeded to run it. Once the installer was mounted and clicked on the installer icon, I suddenly got this error prompt about an "Error 1 while launching Tuxera NTFS...".

At first I thought that my installer was perhaps corrupted so I accessed the installer inside my Toshiba HDD, but that was an older variant (2014 I think). When I used that version and after the installer ran smoothly, as expected it didn't work on Sierra.

I initially sought help from Tuxera (via email support) but they told me to ask Toshiba for a solution/fix. Not seeing an email support from Toshiba US, I tried their Twitter account to no avail as well. This left me no choice but to MacGyver my way out of this predicament.

The Fix

This guide of mine is to fix your Tuxera installation on your MacOS Sierra if your license came from your Toshiba HDD.

Step 1a: Go to the support page of Toshiba and download the updated Tuxera for Mac installer

 http://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?contentId=4008404

The installer published in this support website will only work if you own any of the following Toshiba external hard drives:

• Canvio Connect and Connect II (HDTC7 and HDTC8 series)
• Canvio Slim and Slim II (HDTD1 and HDTD2 series)
• Canvio AeroMobile (HDTQ112XCWF1)
• Canvio AeroCast (HDTU110XKWC1)

This installer of Tuxera (2015.2 version) will work on both El Capitan and Sierra.

Step 1b: Specify a different download destination for the Tuxera for Mac installer
When downloading the ".dmg" installer, don't just save it in your "Downloads" folder. I suggest you save it to your "Desktop". This is an important step as this is somewhat related to the error.

Step 2: Disable Gatekeeper
To disable Gatekeeper and "Allow apps from anywhere", follow the instructions from this website...

http://dispatchist.com/macos-sierra-gatekeeper-run-applications-anywhere/

Step 3: Run the installer
Once you have finished downloading the Tuxera installer and saved it elsewhere (your Desktop), mount and run the installer as normally as you would in previous versions.

Step 4: Keep your Toshiba external HDD at-hand
When you're already inside the installer and doing the usual clicking of the "Next" button, connect your Toshiba external HDD. This will enable the Tuxera installer to detect the hardware and activate the Toshiba-Tuxera license.

Step 5: Restart your Mac and enjoy
Yes you need to restart it so that it will properly load and use the NTFS driver


The reason behind the error

After much digging on why the said installer kept giving me that error was because of a particular feature that Apple included in the Sierra OS, which is something called the "Gatekeeper".

The purpose of the Gatekeeper was to provide another means of security to prevent users from using installers that may contain malicious workarounds/exploits. It also generates a random file path for the application to be installed wherein I'm not really sure why but it is also part of the security and application digital signing.

The Tuxera 2015.2 version was published for the El Capitan didn't have that Gatekeeper functionality. When you run the same installer in MacOS Sierra and the ".dmg" installer was saved inside the Downloads folder, this will screw-up the packaging of the Tuxera installer as it doesn't play ball with that Gatekeeper.

A "semi-legit" speed test of PLDT Fibr 2899

I've recently applied for the PLDT Fibr plan 2899 around April 2016. After almost 4 weeks of follow-ups and service request with the "accommodating" PLDT hotline and dispatcher number, I finally got my subscription installed at our house in Mandaluyong (Barangay Namayan to be exact).

A lot of my friends started asking if it was any good... and I typically start my response of it being expensive. As for the aspect of is the connection any good compared to sticking with existing broadband DSL subscription, that is a bit tricky. Fortunately, somebody gave me an idea to do a "speedtest" of the fiber-based connection going to nodes/servers located outside the Philippines.

Background of the PH internet

Based from the marketing material and advertisements of PLDT, they're saying that you can get speeds up to 50 Mbps (100 Mbps for the first 6 months, but that's just a teaser and will only be "fun while it lasted"). But those speeds can only be achieved if you measure your speed going to servers located on the same PLDT network. What's really important is how fast your internet connection going to outside of the Philippines or even to the other local network competitor (e.g. Globe).

All the content that we usually access are not hosted within the Philippine territory and are typically in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and even the US. The latency, which is the "ms" thing you get when you do a ping test, going to servers located elsewhere is the one that matters the most. The lower the latency value the better; anything < 100 ms is sort of "acceptable" for most cases, higher than 200 ms and you're pretty much screwed especially in online gaming.

My Set-up

• PLDT Fibr plan 2899, with provided modem configured as a bridged-WAN
• Asus AC87u AC2400 Wireless Router with stock firmware
• Intel Core2-based Desktop
• Windows 10 Pro
• 4GB RAM
• RT2870 150 USB Wireless N LAN network card (Belkin) connected as 11n

The "Tests"

Without further delay (unlike what PLDT usually does), see below the screenshot of some "speedtests" I conducted.

Japan

Singapore

West Coast - US

East Coast - US

Conclusion

If comparing it with other internet subscriptions and DSL connections, I believe they're not too different if the latency is the one you'd consider. Bandwidth-wise, definitely it will be faster simply because it now uses a fiber optic line versus a copper line for DSL.

If you want my opinion if you should switch... I leave you with this message...

"With great (bandwidth) power comes great (adult) responsibility"

As long as you think you can afford the monthly subscription fee and if it is available within your area, why not. But as early as now, I'm bracing myself and thinking of ways to re-align the utility costs we have for the household because it is simply expensive for "just" internet (PHP 2,899.00 per month isn't really a joke).

Error 80040154 when PST migration using GAMME and Outlook 2013

Hi guys! It's been a while since I posted something I encountered or stumbled upon that can help anyone... so here it goes.

Prelude...

I recently got a stint to migrate a client of mine to Google Apps for Work. Their old email set-up was relatively simple, and they asked me to migrate their old email data that was stored in their desktop-installed Outlook 2013 client. Although they're using a 64-bit Windows 7, I'm not quite sure if it was also a 64bit Office 2013 that was installed as they're the ones who did it. Once I exported their data with the "export to file/PST" function of Outlook 2013, I was about to make my move.

What I initially did...

I used one of their workstations (that already has Outlook 2013) and installed GAMME (ver. 5.0.25 to this writing) to be my migration staging area. I then followed and executed the necessary pre-requisites (API and json token permission and service certs). Once I was ready and prepared the userlist file and PST folder structure, I proceeded to start-estimate-migrate using the GAMME tool.

Everything went well initially and passed the testing and estimation. Once I reached the migration part, all the user accounts failed to migrate, with an "Error 80040154" kept showing up for each user.

What wrong?

Initially I thought it was the network but I was easily able to rule that out after some cable management and connected directly to our broadband modem/internet. I also checked if the Outlook 2013 was up-to-date, which apparently it was. I tried and looked for quite a long time across various support materials, forums and How-To manuals of Google for the GAMME tool but to no luck or even a mention of that particular error code.

It led me to conclude that the culprit might be the Outlook 2013 itself as I already had experience in the past that the migration tools Google provides only behaves correctly on legacy (or not a recent release) Microsoft products. Despite the GAMME website saying it supports Outlook 2013, it's not the first time I didn't believe in Google as they have a reputation on not properly maintaining any support/admin tools nor keeping their documentations up-to-date.

My Solution

I used a different workstation without the Outlook 2013 installation and then installed an Outlook 2007 (32bit) and downloaded the Office 2007 SP3 standalone patch since the GAMME tools requires Outlook 2007 SP2 at minimum. Once that's done, I installed again the GAMME tool and made the necessary set-up requirements... then it now works.

Hope I'm able to help anyone out there who might face (or currently in) this same dilemma. Cheers!

Linux Driver for Canon ImageClass MF3110/3112

I recently stumbled upon a treasure trove while looking for ways to make my old Canon ImageClass MF3112 all-in-one laser printer work with the latest OS around.

Background of the situation

If you're looking for drivers of this printer at the Canon official website, it only provides drivers to support 32-bit Windows XP, Vista and 7... none for Linux nor MacOS. This is pretty much a bummer especially if you have up-to-date workstations that "need" 64-bit OS (the > 4GB RAM thing). In my case, all my workstations and laptops run a Windows 8.1 and an Ubuntu Gnome 14.04, both 64-bit.

Canon actually published a package to install printer drivers for Linux-based OS, called the "UFR II". However, this is only for their not-so-late models, and apparently the one I need is the one they developed prior to this. The older models seem to be an implementation based on a raster-like format that I have no particular clue how it differs.

After a day of two of digging around the Internet, and exploring the vast "Page 2 and 3" Google search results, I found a guy who made a custom linux driver to support this "rastertocups" print driver thing that Canon has done and left to rot. He has a GitHub repo page which sort of discussed what the driver is and what other canon printer models are supported.

Since there's no HowTo wiki entry to use his codes, I opted to share what I did in order to use and install it (credits to ondrej-zary for the source code).

Pre-work Requirements

• sudo rights (or root)
• gcc and compiler (e.g. make, build-essential) is installed
• cups, libcups2-dev, and libcupsimage2-dev is installed
• even though it doesn't have the required drivers, I installed the UFR II Canon Linux Drivers because it seems that it is needed for the custom drivers to work

The Steps

1. Download ondrej-zary's carps-cups source code (there's a zip file download link present)
2. Extract it on the desired work-area folder (temporary use; mine was inside my home folder)
3. Using the terminal, go to the location of the unzipped folder and run "make" 
   

   $ cd ~/carps-cups-master 
   $ make 

   
   
4. If there are errors of missing dependencies, you can try to use "apt-file search " to check which packages you need install before trying to make it.
5. If things look fine and there's no error, proceed with "sudo make install" (or make install for root users);

$ sudo make install

The Result

I've done this and made my printer work with Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 64-bit (cups 1.7.2) and Debian 7 Wheezy 32-bit (cups 1.5.3). I added printer and selected the compiled driver via the cups web interface (usually running at your linux machine "localhost:631").

Hope this helps somebody out there... and again a huge thanks to ondrej-zary!

Dual boot Debian 7 Wheezy on existing Win8 UEFI machine

I don't want to bother giving a lengthy background or info... So I'll just try to make this post a short mash up of what you need to know.

Prelude: Dual-booting a laptop/machine wherein there is an existing Windows 8 installed in a UEFI boot-up environment

First off, you'll probably need to do some shrinking of existing partitions. In my case, I just shrank my Windows8 drive C: using the disk manager build-in under the "Computer Management".

Afterwards, you'll need to use a UEFI-bootable linux image. For me, I used a PXE bootable Debian 7 Wheezy-stable image and created a root, swap, and home partition from the unused space. Do take note that you need to use the new GPT partitioning (for those with fresh hard drives); this option is usually asked or selected when using the "advanced mode" when installing.

Now here is the tricky part... after you proceed to install GRUB, that grub instance will not work later after finishing the installation. You will need to use an external USB linux image or disk that can boot as UEFI. This is not necessarily need to be a Debian USB image as I used a Kubuntu 13.04 image and placed it in a USB stick.

Use the USB stick to boot the machine up and use its GRUB rescue to manually boot the already installed Debian. For those a bit lost on using the GRUB rescue command line, below are the lines I used.

set prefix="(hdX,gptX)/boot/grub"
set root="(hdX,gptX)"
insmod normal
normal


Note that the prefix is just to denote the location of the grub installation folder, so the value might change depending on your partition layout. On the example I gave, I only have a root partition so I had to specify the "boot" folder. If your case is that you created a separate "/boot" partition, the prefix would probably look like...

set prefix="(hdX,gptX)/grub"

Once you have managed to boot-up to your installed Debian partition, log-in to your root (or use sudo if that's your preference) and install the following packages:

# apt-get install grub-efi-amd64 efibootmgr

We then have to mount temporarily the partition containing the already existing EFI loader of Windows. This is usually around 250-300MB in partition size and contains files and folders with names like "Boot" and "EFI". I'll leave it up to you which or what partition number that may be.

# mkdir /boot/efi
# mount /dev/sdaX /boot/efi

Next is loading the driver/module for the EFI support, which will then aid with the re-install and detection of GRUB of the existing EFI Windows 8 partition and creating a Debian EFI entry.

# modprobe efivars
# grub-install /dev/sda
# update-grub

Kindly check if there is a new EFI entry present on the output displayed upon executing the "update-grub". Also, check inside /boot/efi if there is a new folder or entry that matches in terms of the name of the EFI entry listed a while back.

If all goes well, you will see a new UEFI boot priority inside your BIOS apart from the UEFI Windows Boot Manager.

Hope this helps!


Other resources that you might find useful:

• http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=81120
• http://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article51/debian-efi

GAM: basic scripting for Google Apps Admins

Hi everyone! It has been a while since I posted something useful in this blog site of mine...

I'm currently kept busy by one of my on-the-side projects recently, in particular deploying Google Apps for Education. One thing that I noticed is a need by some admins to automate some bulk task in managing and keeping up-to-date user accounts management in their respective domains. Since time is usually at the essence, and also a luxury, for most IT administrators... they don't have too much time to develop their own robust apps to deal with this kind of work.

One solution that I suggest that you guys can try out is using something called the "Google Apps Manager" (or GAM). It similarly works like the provisioning API of Google Apps but already ready for CLI usage (in my case, it works like a charm in linux).

To sum what GAM is, it is a python based library/command that you can use to connect to your Google Apps Admin Console and make the necessary administrative or user management work. Now the good thing with this is if you combine this with some basic scripting magic, you can now automate some bulk tasks like massive user creation or moving a huge amount of people to a mailing list.

For more info or to check what the Google Apps Manager can really do, check this link out.

Amazon AWS as a good help for start-ups

I was quite happy and satisfied for being able to attend a talk about a demo/intro about Amazon's cloud-as-a-service solution, the Amazon Web Services. Apart from acquire more technical knowledge, it sort of gave some options to prevent too much cost on set-up of a server for public-viewable production use.

I don't want to bother talking and putting more details on what's the technical differences and the pros and cons of AWS from traditional in-house or other cloud-hosting providers since there is really no absolute truth or "standard" that can explain this in concrete sense. But one thing that I'm actually keen is on their "free tier usage" for new AWS account holders.

Well, on a marketing standpoint, the "free tier usage" is their proof-of-concept or demo-to-purchase to reel in customers and use their offered service... which is all true perhaps. But for tech-enterpreneurs who are looking for ways to deploy their apps or products over the net and be accessible to their target customers, I could really say that AWS should be there on the potential list for achieving it.

The "free tier usage" from what I understand is good for 12 months upon sign-up of a new AWS account... which for the record requires you to provide a credit card. But despite of that uneasiness for people that are not entirely comfortable of letting someone save your credit card credentials... it is a gamble worthwhile. The main agenda at the end of the day is to try out if the 1-year free trial service that AWS offer can meet the requirements of your start-up tech project. In turn, it will make you actually move forward to realization of launching your start-up project into production.

Everyone would like to spend (too much) money on a start-up that has to prove its value, and releasing it to the public market is the driver or decision-block on determining a winning formula or just another rubbish in the bin. Of course, when it does become a huge hit upon release to the public, you would likely need to think of scaling the capacity and performance. In AWS, you can scale your set-up as convenient as you can, and as their saying goes "pay for what you only use".

For more info on this matter, I suggest you to read their program details at Amazon's own website at this link.

[Bug] adding gateway route but with different subnet from network

I encountered a weird behavior from my recent projects that were related to some setup of gateway servers, for both Linux-based (Debian) and BSD-based (FreeBSD) systems... wherein there is an issue when adding static gateway routes that does not match or fall within the defined subnet network configured on a network interface.

To give a better detail or explanation of this predicament of mine, below is a sample network configuration scenario...

• Network IP address subnet is 10.10.1.0/24, so that's basically 10.10.1.X correct?
• Gateway IP address is... let's say 10.50.1.27...

Clearly on the scenario given, the IP address of the gateway is outside of the network subnet defined for a network interface. Here in the Philippines, this is a common case for leased-line internet connections coming from telco providers. 

From previous engagements, I don't have a problem hard-coding this on either the interfaces config file or in the rc.conf... but in the recent turn of events and experience, it seems that the latest linux kernels and BSD builds have incorporated a sort-of mechanism that prohibits this kind of configuration to be enabled and up upon start-up of the operating system. I've experienced this issue with a Debian Squeeze server and a FreeBSD version 8 I think (am not really a BSD proficient guy, just the basic UNIX made me survive).

The setup still works with this kind of interface configuration, but upon boot-up, you have to manual place the static routes (using "route" command) for it to recognize and see the gateway IP you want it to use.

My initial solutions involved adding static routes on the interfaces config or on the rc.conf files.

For Linux-based:

post-up route add -net 10.50.1.27 netmask 255.255.255.255 dev eth0

post-up route add default gw 10.50.1.27

post-down route add 10.50.1.27 netmask 255.255.255.255 dev eth0

post-down route add default gw 10.50.1.27

For BSD:

defaultrouter="10.50.1.27"

static_routes="net1"

route_net1="-net 10.50.1.27/32"

Sadly though, my attempts in fixing the BSD-based system ended up in failure. As for the Linux machine, well I have yet to fully test it out since the project suddenly reached the end without further testing.

Hope this rather weird post of mine helped to shed some light to their problem and looking for an answer.

Finally part of the "exclusive club"

This is just a short brag-out post...

Finally, I was able to convince and treat myself into getting a Macbook Pro. Since I was still eyeing much on the budget, I just got the entry mode 13" with i5 processor. The unit came with a pre-installed Snow Leopard but I was able to register and get the Lion OS upgrade for free.

All I can say is... no wonder a lot of people like to have and own a Mac. The feel, look, the power and convenience...

Simply bliss!

At least I could now say that I know how to use a Windows, a Linux, and now a Mac.

Toshiba Folio AS100 mod-ding

To those who were able to purchase and get their hands on a quite rare Toshiba Folio AS100 and are suffering greatly on the poor performance of the stock Android OS, there is someone who just saved us from almost throwing our tablets off the window.

A guy by the name (or screen name, not sure) Dexter Picard was very kind enough to develop and release a good and working "FolioMod" image for our tablet PC. There's an active thread running in the XDA Developers forum which discusses further about the actual ROM created and how to install it to your Folio device. Refer to Post #1 on this thread and follow the instructions.

Some key features that you get when using the FolioMod are:

• fully working and somewhat latest Google Apps (Gmail, Maps)
  
• a working Android Marketplace App (Yes, the same market app we have come to love and familiar to any Android device)
• better tweaked response and performance
• root privileges of course (very useful for uninstalling the crap-ware pre-bundled by Toshiba, but still it's up to you to remove them)
  

I'm currently using the FolioMod v1.3c and frankly, I'm quite happy with it. Hope that you will also do and feel the same.

A great deal of thanks and cheers to Dexter and the rest of the people who have contributed heavily on developing and improving the FolioMod image.

Rooting my HTC Desire

Disclaimer: This is not a fool-proof guide on rooting your HTC Desire phone, so using my guide is at your own risk. I won't be held responsible should something goes wrong and bricked your phone throughout the process. I personally did all these preparation and setup and it worked just fine on me.

Just want to share my experience as to how I rooted my HTC Desire (A8181 GSM).

Before I continue further, some key factors and reasons for rooting the phone:

• A better or functional "recovery" menu compared to the stock
• With the recovery, I could create/restore a backup image via Nandroid.
• Using a different OS image available around the net (i.e. CyanogenMod, Oxygen, etc.), but you can stick with your stock rom like I did (HTC sense lol!)
  
• replacing my stock Baseband version (for signal and battery performance)
  
• Root permissions of course

Some stuff needed to perform/download/install before rooting your phone:

• USB cable
• phone must be at least 30% charged (but don't push your luck on this, just charge it to the most you can)
• "unrevoked" application (you can search it via Google or get it here)
• RA-desire-v2.0.0 recovery image (highly suggested; Google it)
• HBoot Drivers (only for Windows users; can be downloaded on the unrevoked website)
• extreme levels of caution and patience

One main reason why I used the RA-desire-v2.0.0 image compared to the stock ClockworkMod (v3.0 at my time) recovery image that came together with the unrevoked application was that it did not support some mod images available in the web, most especially the Oxygen Gingerbread mod (for those itching to try Android 2.3).

Once you have all these stuff prepared, you have to perform the following changes in your phone...

• enable USB debugging inside "Settings" -> "Applications" -> "Development"
• enable Unknown sources inside "Settings" -> "Applications"
• set default connection type to "charge only" and uncheck "ask me" in "Settings" -> "Connect to PC"
• backup your sms messages and other stuff (your data in the SD card is safe)
• no need to remove your SIM card and SD card
  

These are the steps I performed for the actual rooting...

1. Run the unrevoked3 application (for Linux users, it should be in "sudo")
2. [For Windows only] install the HBOOT drivers, so that your PC can correctly detect your device
   
3. On the menu, select "Custom recovery" (similar to this wording) and select the RA-desire-v2.0.0 image from the directory you saved it. There will be a "custom" indicated in the bottom center of the unrevoked application if you did this part correctly.
   
4. with your Desire turned on, connect the phone with your data cable and onto the PC
5. upon connecting the phone, the unrevoked application should detect it and prompt a message in which it will be a go or no-go confirmation. Hit the ok button or yes (or whatever)
6. the unrevoked application will now commence the rooting, just watch your phone and application, and NOT touching your phone or anything
7. wait for it to finish
8. yes... wait a bit more... it will restart on its own and do some stuff by itself even more...
9. it will probably be already at a portion testing or doing a "root"... wait for it...
10. it should be then loading and replacing your recovery menu
11. wait for the unrevoked application to be "Done" (literally)... just wait until there's a "Done" shown on your PC screen.

If all is good, it should have landed on your new recovery menu. Congratulations!

To resume to your normal usage, just let it "reboot" and you're good to go again.

Asus K42Jk and K52Jk laptops

I was able to get my hands on two very similar and current models of Asus that has the latest Intel Core i3 series processors. The Asus K42Jk-VX027R and K52Jk-SX055 have replaced the previous K40I series that put Asus back into the value-level market in laptops during the 2nd half of 2009.

Just to start off, let's list down the specs that are packed inside these models. Both of these units have identical specifications and differ only on the size and keyboard layout.

• Intel Core i3 - 350M Processor, 2.26 GHz
• Intel Mobile HM55 Chipset
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145, 1G DDR3 VRAM
• 4 GB DDR3 RAM
• 500 GB HDD, 5400 rpm
• Maximum Screen Resolution of 1366 x 768, LED Backlit Screen
• Wi-Fi b/g/n. Bluetooth, LAN
• 6-cell battery
• DVD-burner, 3-in-1 Card reader, multi-touch pad
• the other usual stuff in a laptop

From my first hands-on experience, it feels solid and more robust compared to the plastic-hollow feel from its predecessor. With the rough carbon-lookalike chassis on the palm rest and solid-chiclet keyboard similar on what Sony Vaio has, it really isn't bad.

These models support Linux-distros and Windows 7 (as it only has drivers for this OS) from my experience, so don't bother trying to install an XP in this machine as I think it will be a waste on this. The latest Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid and Mint 9 Isadora works out of the box, but of course with very minor bugs. Some of which that I've encountered is the proprietary ATI drivers not working well (in fact, the default modules work better and boots faster with it), and the suspend session when the lid is closed hangs-up. Overall though, it is still good and with some reading from forum sites, you'll find some fixes and workarounds.

I do think Asus has once again created another laptop that is again reasonably priced and I think was bit ahead against other manufacturer brands. The 14" K42Jk is priced at around PHP 42,000 that already includes a Windows 7 Basic 64-bit installed, while the 15" K52Jk is at PHP 39,000 doesn't have any OS included but has numpad keys. The 15" variant I believe will have another version that comes with a Nvidia graphics chipset, which might be a good news for those who are more comfortable and loyalist on Nvidia.

If you're looking for decent laptops at this point in time, I would recommend these... but of course, other manufacturers will definitely show up with something of similar calibers as these two.

Samsung Spica i5700 Galaxy in the flesh

As a somewhat avid fan and user of anything by Google, be it the simple Gmail to the complex power of Google Apps, of course I wanted an Android-powered phone which will fit my budget. This constraint of budget-issues was then answered when Samsung released the Spica i5700 Galaxy during this Q2.

Samsung did a brilliant job of immediately tapping this consumer market of tech-savvy but budget-restricted people with their introduction of the Spica i5700 Galaxy. At first it was a far-cry from my old conventional phone (I came from a SE K810i) which is somewhat weird at first. The Spica ain't that all good looking but rather kept a practical and simple look. Indeed it is all made of plastics and all compared to an iPhone, but hey, you get what you paid for, which is around Php 15,000 or even lower (I got mine on a deferred payment scheme of 12-months 0%-interest, with a total of Php 16,290... yeah it costed me a bit more).

The unit initially entered the market with an Android 1.5 (cupcake) OS, but of course this was a very slow and restricted version until they introduced an official update to the 2.1 (eclair) series. I bought my unit which was already updated into 2.1 (a good call if you ask me) and with an extra red back case. Packed with Samsung's own 800 mHz processor an a pseudo-AMOLED (yep, it is only a TFT screen), it actually looks good and feels good. I installed a Tag-Home app which replaced the defaulted Home-theme developed by Samsung, which I think was a bit sluggish in terms of response, and didn't have a landscape view when tilted on the "Desktop" area.

The Spica only has a 200 MB internal storage memory that covers all your caching (mail, browsing, text messages, etc.) and your available space for installing other apps. Of course the hoped-for Android 2.2 (froyo) that supports installing apps into your SD card is in the window, its only the matter of whether Samsung will create an official update to it. Leaving the internal storage space aside, it is actually a jam-packed unit which covers everything that you might and will possibly look for; bluetooth v2.1, wi-fi capable (BG range), in-built GPS, micro-SD slot that supports up to 32 GB, accelerometer for sensing orientation and for other apps, 3.2 mpixel camera, and of course 3G capable since this is targeted as an internet-reliant phone because of all the Google services built-in.


Now onto the Google services I mentioned. The Android OS requires you to have a Google account, which is no biggie. This is initially troublesome for other people, I myself wasn't spared, because of the initial task of migrating from your old phone. It did however proved me wrong of being hard to migrate because all you need is a way to export your contacts to a file that will be accepted by Google Contacts for "import contacts" option, and the power of the Internet. Having my own Google Apps account made things a lot easier because of the immediate integration of my mail, contacts and calendars... if you think of it, it is actually the same for a regular Google account.

The functionality of the Google Latitude, which is already tied with the Maps app in the phone, is something that I suggests to be tried-out and played in this phone, although I admit Philippine support in terms of roadway and traffic are still in need of updating. But just a reminder, if you are hiding from people, better turn this service off or make sure you know whom you granted access to see you on Latitude.

The phone, after a few settings tweaked, will automatically sync all of these when it has an Internet connection, be it a wi-fi connection or 3G. This ain't exactly a user-friendly phone at first glance, and will probably require some patience (for total newbies in anything Google) but of course everyone will get used to it. As for the size and weight, it is relatively light but not exactly a slim phone as people initially think of when comparing with an iTouch or iPhone.


Overall, I think this phone is worth it in terms of the functionality and definitely on its cost. Of course if you want to make sure you get the most-responsive unit around the market, the Spica ain't exactly that one and will definitely costs you a bit more (like it's brother, the i9000 Galaxy). But of course, in a practical perspective, this is a must-buy and it will surely be of good use, giving you a new look on how you use a mobile phone (more like a PDA of sorts) that won't hurt your wallet too much.

O&B is now an Authorized Google Apps Reseller Partner

Google has formally recognized and authorized Orange and Bronze Software Labs to be its Google Apps Reseller Partner here in the Philippines this May 2010.

This has been in progress since the Q4 of 2009, when Google has been starting to penetrate the market of hosted mail services, particularly here in the Asia-Pacific region. It targets companies who are looking into alternatives on upgrading their current Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes (with Exchange 2010 just officially released on Nov. 2009) and following a growing trend where companies are outsourcing some IT-related services that they use.

In a nutshell, Google Apps Premier Edition is Google's business solution for communication and collaboration for the corporate setting. Quoting a portion from the Google Apps Official website, "Google's web-based messaging and collaboration apps require no hardware or software and need minimal administration, creating tremendous time and cost savings for businesses.", which is basically it's main selling point... reduced cost but still a powerful tool for your business. To know more about Google Apps Premier Edition, visit the product's homepage.

For those interested, most especially companies here in the Philippines, do not hesitate to forward your questions or inquiries to this email address. If you wish to know more information about Orange and Bronze and other services that are offered, visit their website.