A Local and Private Microblog using StatusNet

This is a continuation/additional post for my previous entry "A Local and Private Microblog using Laconica". Please see the previous post as well. Laconica has changed it's name to StatusNet and has been constantly active in improving their open source code.

Best Wordpress Plugins Part 2

This is a part 2 of the list of some of the best Wordpress plugins that I've been using. See Part 1 , which was written last year, December 2009, for more plugins. I'm no longer using some of the plugins in Part 1, and some I have replaced by those listed below.

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Backupify for WordPress

Backup of WordPress database and all files to your Backupify account.

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Understanding the Bible

Is there a contradiction between James and Paul?

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28)

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24)

Many do not want to believe in the Bible because they "found" existing "contradictions". They did not really find it themselves, but read it from websites established by atheists. There's no really contradiction in those verses, but rather our lack of understanding. How can we be swayed by atheists who not only do not believe in the Bible but do not understand what was written?

John Piper's sermon entitled "Does James Contradict Paul" helps me understand that the two verses do not contradict each other. Piper did not formulate some explanations or reasonings, he only connected the verses  and helped us to understand what was written. It is the truth and the message in the Bible, rather than the syntax and the characters that try to represent them that matters most.

What's the Problem When Preachers Want Fortune

There's certainly something wrong when preachers want fortune. It's not because they have to make themselves appear poor, but because they are preaching another gospel that reflects their desire to get rich.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Preachers who buy expensive furnitures, build big mansions, and travel using their private jets using donations or gifts from the people only show their excessiveness (lack of contentment) and their love for money. They probably have more in their bank accounts. It really shows their insecurities. They don't depend on God who says "I will never leave you nor forsake you." These preachers are in a hurry to get more money from the people before his/her popularity and reputation is over. It's simply because they are preaching the false gospel which is grounded on nothing but the love for money and deception. They count each day as an opportunity to advertise and to accept more cash.

Sandboxing Applications with Sandboxie

Sandboxing is a security mechanism where applications can be isolated and activities can be restricted. I find Sandboxie the most effective application to provide sandboxing. I have tried many free alternatives, but they were not able to support all applications. The first sandboxing application I know is GreenBorder which was founded in 2001 then bought by Google in 2007. There's already some speculations that GreenBorder will be integrated with Google Chrome. Other alternatives include Returnil and Comodo Time Machine. What can we do with these apps?

Our Questions Only Say We Do Not Know

Our questions only say that we do not know and that we need to know. How can just one question be the reason for someone not to believe in God? Our questions cannot invalidate anything. Our questions need answers. We cannot judge something out of our questions or when we do not know. We need to find and to ask for an answer, rather than taking the question as an opportunity or a reason not to believe. Our questions cannot prove anything, except the fact that we do not know. How can we conclude anything from something we do not know about?

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

True Desire

It's hard to be a Christian when we are still clinging on to so many things where worldly life dominates our life. Are we trusting too much in our money, our position, our career, our talents, our friends, and our dreams? Are we slaves of our own desires?

We should not only believe Christ is our savior, but we need to have complete faith and trust in Christ. We no longer fear death, suffering, and difficulty because nothing is more satisfying and valuable than to be under Christ. The offer of happiness, health, wealth, belongingness, achievements, and recognitions on earth are completely nothing when compared to Christ. Though many will agree that Christ is definitely above those things, we still fear so much of having to surrender these things.

Self-Honesty

How easy is it for us to appear honest to other people, but so hard for us to be honest to ourselves no matter how we justify ourselves and enumerate our excuses and reasons. We know our intentions even when we lie or when we try to make it appear honest. God knows them all.

For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. (1 John 3:20)

Problems and Solutions

We see problems as challenges. We believe that God won't give us problems that we can't solve. In times of desperation, we call on God to helps us. We know there must be a solution. We know we can do it. We believe God will help us. We start thinking every possible solution to our problem. We soon discover many paths that may lead us to solve our problem. Some seem to be impossible for us to do. There are paths that are easy to take, but not essentially a solution, but an escape to our problem. We begin to face temptations and decisions. Should we take the shortcut to solve our problem? Are there really no other options? Is the path to sin the only solution to this problem? Is this problem above all things?

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Launching Applications with Launchy

Launchy is an open source keystroke application launcher. This is quite similar to the new Start Menu with search capabilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, I find Launchy faster in terms of finding the app I need. It's easier to manage which shortcuts to index and you can also use it along with some plugins that allow you to perform arithmetic computations.

Pray Without Ceasing

Some months ago, I read and heard about "pray without ceasing" of which I thought that it was expressed figuratively to perhaps show the importance of prayer and that we should have more time for prayer. Just this week, while I was on my way home thinking about different things, I realized I was wrong.

When faced with some temptations that we wanted to get rid off, we would use different means. I would distract myself into other things. A retried archbishop would look at his list of achievements whenever tempted to smoke, and would ask himself if he would be willing to see all of his achievements be gone because of one cigarette. Others would seek the help of a friend. But most of the time we would still see ourselves failing and falling. I realized that our own efforts to fight against temptations are too weak, for we are weak in trying to battle our own weaknesses. We need God to win this battle against sin. For apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5)... No matter how hard we try.

Why We Tend to Steal

We steal at the office, at home, in the government, and almost anywhere, because we don't see the price of our souls, and the severity of sin. We don't love God and His commandments.

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. (Matthew 18:8)

The verse shows how displeasing sin is that there is such a desperate need for us to stop sinning as soon as possible, and the value of our eternal life is so much important, much more valuable than our physical body, physical needs, our ambitions, our achievements, and our positions.

...

Why We Filipinos Need to Stay in the Philippines

I agree in Prof. Monsod's "last lecture" to her students which centered on the initial steps to help in the development of the country. She told her students that if they are going to help this country, they've got to be in the country. There's also a published opinion by Dr. Marcaida which says Prof. Winnie can be wrong in generalizing that Filipinos going to abroad are traitors. For a country to develop, the economy and living conditions should improve. It means money should circulate and industries should develop. This is achievable when there are people trying hard to make it happen. There are some reasons which I think make Prof. Monsod's argument valid, and why Filipinos should be in the country.

Why Multi-level Marketing Is Not Good

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. -Wikipedia

This strategy has been more known these days, especially in social networking where recruiters will tag several people showing the check payments they've received. They often invite us to join them. They want us to experience financial freedom where money works for them instead of trying hard to earn money. They will try their best to meet with us and talk to us. They want us to live a healthy and wealthy life, to take risks, and to trust the system that will bring instant money. I'm neither connected to those groups nor connected to those against them, but I want to point out things that are not really good with such kind of system.

My Apple iPod Touch 4G

Last Saturday, I got my Apple iPod Touch 4G 32GB. I won't post the specs and the complete set of features anymore. What I really like in this device is the Retina display. I've tried 1G, 2G, and 3G versions, and the display of 4G is really different because I can't see the pixels anymore. It matters because it helps me read texts. The new processor allows faster processing, although the memory remains to be 256MB. Not really a big deal for me, considering that I usually focus on a particular app most of the time. The cameras (front and back) are not excellent when compared to smartphones today, but at least the 4Gs have them. I'll outline some of the features I want for future iPod Touches. Below is a screenshot of my iPod Touch unit. I just learned that pressing the home button and the power button will capture a screenshot.

No Smoking

Smokers will die soon. No, I don't literally wish that it will happen to them. I just want to point out that smoking is that dangerous that it can kill them, and that non-smokers are that unhappy. Whenever there's somebody smoking inside the jeepney I ride, and I'm still far from my destination, I stop them from continuing to smoke. I'm happy that some did follow. I did get down the jeep without paying when the driver seemed not to follow my request.

Eating Mud Pies

I read a quotation from a Facebook post...

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

– CS Lewis

I was wondering at that time if there's such thing as mud pie, or how they are made. The results in Google are shocking.

Faster File Copy

I'm currently using the Dell Vostro laptop which Datacraft gave to us. Last October 2, I transferred all my files from my Asus Laptop to the new one. I was thinking of an efficient way of transferring more than 30GB of files. The issue was not limited to the file size, but also in the number of files to be transferred. If they were just 10 big files, it would be simple, but there were many small files involved. I decided to make a network transfer, since our portable hard drive has only few free space remaining.

On Death Penalty

The Death Penalty in the Philippines has been in an on-and-off state with calls for its revival usually happening whenever there are new victims of heinous crimes that are reported. The law intends to punish criminals and to decrease the number of future incidents. On the other hand, human rights organizations think that death penalty is not the solution, as it even creates a problem where innocent and wrongly accused people are being executed.

SumatraPDF as an Alternative to Adobe Reader

In one of the PDF documents I've opened using Adobe Reader, I found out that it can use too much CPU cycles when hovered to an image with a tooltip. What happens is that the tooltip keeps blinking, causing the spikes in CPU usage. This however does not happen in SumatraPDF, a light PDF Reader. I find SumatraPDF easy to use, and is simpler when compared to Adobe's. Only the basic functions you need for reading (like search and jump to page) are available so you don't have to deal with many options and buttons that you don't usually need or use.

Why We Need and Want to Read the Bible?

I will try to present some answers which are not necessarily in order, cumulative, and entirely the ideal ones. I will use some analogy to drive a point.

1. To gain knowledge

If we are fascinated in science because we learn a lot of things, shouldn't we be more interested to read and to know the Word of God because it contains wisdom and knowledge?

2. It is a requirement

If those of us who easily get tired when reading, read the entire novel in just a month because it is a requirement in school, shouldn't we read the Bible because God requires us too?

3. It concerns us

If we spend time researching a particular disease not because we want to know about it, but because the symptoms we are experiencing affects our physical body and it concerns us the most, shouldn't we read the Bible because our eternal life is a major concern?

HeidiSQL as an alternative to SQLYog

Yesterday, I transferred my Wordpress blog from my local computer to the web server. I encountered this error from SQLYog after exporting my database which says that "SQLYog is getting terminated." I'm not sure what causes this, but I'm sure it's because of the installation process since I made my portable version of SQLYog. Exporting other databases and using the root user result to the same error.

OPM to be Played in Philippine Radio Stations

I learned from our HUMAART online group discussion that Pres. Aquino wanted at least 4 OPM to be played in Philippine radio stations every hour. The article in http://mb.com.ph/node/272301/noynoy-call discusses that in detail. But come to think of it, this order has been existing since 1987 and yet it's not even implemented. Some of the students in the group still complained about this, and I tried to respond to their arguments.

• It's hard to implement this, because stations need to adjust to it.
  • If radio stations can play songs requested by their listeners... Why will it be hard for them to accommodate the request of the president?


• It will decrease the number of people listening the radio.
  • It's just a minimum of 4 OPMs per hour.
  • The directive does not force stations to play it exactly in a particular time.
  • People can switch from one station to another as they wish.
  • Majority of Filipinos still loves OPM (I think)

My Best WordPress Plugins

Wordpress is the best blogging platform because it's simple and elegant. Currently the most active project with high community participation in themes and plugins development. Today I'm listing the plugins I use for my Wordpress. I'll just copy their descriptions and provide the link to their corresponding Wordpress' Extend page. This post also helps me update my plugins easier. My free server hosting this blog imposes time limits, thus I cannot benefit from the easy plugin update process.

Password Managers

Password managers are programs used to store your user accounts, passwords, and any secret text. Instead of remembering the passwords you use for your individual accounts, you only have to remember one password which is the one used to encrypt and decrypt or access your password manager.