This is an annoying bug of Ubuntu 14.04 but I found the workaround here:
1. Press the "Ctrl+Alt+F2" key combination (Warning: you will be sent to a
text console where you won't be able to read this).
2. Press "Ctrl+Alt+F7".
Saturday, November 01, 2014
Friday, October 31, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Metal musicians on mainstream shows
Just read that Mastodon appeared on David Letterman's show. I was kinda surprised even though Mastodon's sound has become more mainstream these days but it is still a prog-metal band. Is it an act of selling out? Doesn't seem so judging by the comments but I found one interesting comment: these hosts may not really care or choose the musical acts on their show. For example, Slash once appeared on Jay Leno's show wearing a Team CoCo pin (for those who forgot or don't know the back story from 2010: NBC initially put Conan O'Brien on the Tonight show to replace Jay Leno but later on it brought back Leno, which angered a lot of Conan O'Brien's supporters, i.e., Team CoCo)
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
The Apple post
I am writing this as part of my effort to cleanup my long-forgotten-unpublished draft posts. Before talking about old news, I will start with a new one: RiteAid and CVS (two popular pharmacy chains in US) blocked Apple Pay over the weekend in thousands of stores. My first question was: wasn't Apple Pay become usable very recently? Why would a business reverse its decision so quickly? Well, it turns out: (1) RiteAid and CVS have installed NFC (near-field communication) terminals at some stores some time ago, not for Apple Pay. (2) RiteAid and CVS are NOT partners of Apple Pay. It just happened that the existing terminal works with Apple Pay, for a few days before being disabled. The "casualty" also included Google Wallet. Some Apple supporters were very vocal about this and claiming they will not buy from those stores anymore. Well, is it that big a deal? Currently only iPhone 6 owners could use Apple Pay anyway. Do you think it's a high percentage of the drug stores' customer base? And, most people shopped at a pharmacy when they really need the stuff (e.g. medicine) quickly so they just go to the closest one or the one they know will have the stuff. Do you think people will do otherwise just because it doesn't accept Apple Pay? Is it so much more troublesome to pay with (gasp) cash? And one news article brought out another point to support Apple Pay: iPhone users are richer than Android users. I can't argue with that ('coz it's true when it comes to my friends) but is that relevant?
An old news from August 2012: More than $60,000 worth of computers, jewelry and personal items have been stolen from late Steve Job's home in Palo Alto. A report in the San Jose Mercury News says that the burglar made off with iPads, iPhones, Macs, Tiffany jewelry, Beats headphones and Cristal Champagne, among other items. He also took Steve Jobs' wallet, which contained his drivers' license and $1. McFarlin, a former San Jose State football player, has confessed and has written a letter of apology to Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell, the Mercury News reported. Maybe he could write about his experience later. I'm sure a lot of people want to know more about what the house is like.
Finally, I commented on a report from July 2012: ABI Research recently predicted that in coming years, smartphone users around the world will be downloading and using fewer and fewer apps. What will they be doing instead? Using the mobile Web more and more, according to senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. Do people still remember when iPhone first came out, no app developer kit was available and Jobs was pitching software would be available on the phone by 3rd party (non-Apple) as Web application? Once again it proved he was such a visionary. I am no iOS expert but read that some App are actually "wrapper" on top of browser-webapp-based library. Anyway, as of 2014, I found most businesses still prefer users to download their own apps on iDevices, like Yelp or Groupon (the links from emails actually won't work with mobile Safari for me)
An old news from August 2012: More than $60,000 worth of computers, jewelry and personal items have been stolen from late Steve Job's home in Palo Alto. A report in the San Jose Mercury News says that the burglar made off with iPads, iPhones, Macs, Tiffany jewelry, Beats headphones and Cristal Champagne, among other items. He also took Steve Jobs' wallet, which contained his drivers' license and $1. McFarlin, a former San Jose State football player, has confessed and has written a letter of apology to Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell, the Mercury News reported. Maybe he could write about his experience later. I'm sure a lot of people want to know more about what the house is like.
Finally, I commented on a report from July 2012: ABI Research recently predicted that in coming years, smartphone users around the world will be downloading and using fewer and fewer apps. What will they be doing instead? Using the mobile Web more and more, according to senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. Do people still remember when iPhone first came out, no app developer kit was available and Jobs was pitching software would be available on the phone by 3rd party (non-Apple) as Web application? Once again it proved he was such a visionary. I am no iOS expert but read that some App are actually "wrapper" on top of browser-webapp-based library. Anyway, as of 2014, I found most businesses still prefer users to download their own apps on iDevices, like Yelp or Groupon (the links from emails actually won't work with mobile Safari for me)
Ubuntu was borned 10 years ago today
Can't believe I wrote two posts about tech "birthdays" in this month! Let's face it: you lose "street cred" when admitting running Ubuntu instead of the more "hardcore" distro of Linux (like Arch?) but I really enjoy using it for "desktop activities" (i.e., playing back music/video, surfing web) rather than the "server stuff" (like serving up files or pages) I definitely feel the improvement during these 10 years: it became more and more usable "out-of-the-box" (i.e., right after installation) Less tweaking or installing additional drivers were needed to make things work.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Sports highlights: The Chase for the Sprint Cup
The last 3 NASCAR races were so interesting that I should dedicate at least one post to it (actually wanted to write last week and the week before but didn't get a chance) The last race I wrote about was the first race of the Contender round at Kansas won by Joey Logano who thus qualified for the next Eliminator round. The 2nd race at Charlotte was won by Kevin Harvick but the biggest story was the fights that broke out afterwards, centered around Brad Keselowski. Brad K got a poor result at Kansas and needed a better result at Charlotte. Otherwise he had to win Talladega to qualify for the Eliminator round. Well, Brad K did his best to drive but had a few clashes with Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. He ended up outside top 10 and didn't improve his standing. He was so mad at them that he tried wrecking them after the race during cool down laps, which was totally not cool. He accidentally bumped into Tony Stewart and the Smoke put his car in reverse to retaliate! What a scene!
Then we had the usually unpredictable Talladega race (because of the high speed and likeliness of big crash) One goal for the bottom 4 drivers: win to advance. And that list included Jimmie "Six times" Johnson, Dale Jr and Brad K. In the past years we saw Johnson playing it safe at this race but this new format kinda forced his hand and he tried staying in the front all race long but ultimately failed to do so. Junior had all sort of problems and was also involved in an accident which doomed his chance. The one who rose to the occasions was Brad K, who won the race and advanced. Another casualty was the originally Top 8 driver Kyle Busch, whose car was crashed without his own fault. He lost so many points to fall to the bottom 4. Kasey Kahne didn't make it either so only 1 our of the 4 drivers (Jeff Gordon) from Hendrick Motor Sports made it to the Eliminator round, which featured 3 former champs, 2 former runner-ups.
The Eliminator round started at Martinsville. Ironically, it was won by a Hendrick driver not in contention: Dale Jr. His victory came one race too late (he would still be in the chase if he won at Talladega!) but he totally deserved it: when he was leading the race late, he had to survive a late caution by passing the cars who didn't pit to regain the top spot. Jeff Gordon had a strong car too and almost caught Jr at the end. What an exciting finish! I think the new Chase format definitely added excitement to every race. Thumbs up to NASCAR (and proved the naysayers wrong! Still, a lot of fans are complaining that it's possible to win the cup without winning one race)
Then we had the usually unpredictable Talladega race (because of the high speed and likeliness of big crash) One goal for the bottom 4 drivers: win to advance. And that list included Jimmie "Six times" Johnson, Dale Jr and Brad K. In the past years we saw Johnson playing it safe at this race but this new format kinda forced his hand and he tried staying in the front all race long but ultimately failed to do so. Junior had all sort of problems and was also involved in an accident which doomed his chance. The one who rose to the occasions was Brad K, who won the race and advanced. Another casualty was the originally Top 8 driver Kyle Busch, whose car was crashed without his own fault. He lost so many points to fall to the bottom 4. Kasey Kahne didn't make it either so only 1 our of the 4 drivers (Jeff Gordon) from Hendrick Motor Sports made it to the Eliminator round, which featured 3 former champs, 2 former runner-ups.
The Eliminator round started at Martinsville. Ironically, it was won by a Hendrick driver not in contention: Dale Jr. His victory came one race too late (he would still be in the chase if he won at Talladega!) but he totally deserved it: when he was leading the race late, he had to survive a late caution by passing the cars who didn't pit to regain the top spot. Jeff Gordon had a strong car too and almost caught Jr at the end. What an exciting finish! I think the new Chase format definitely added excitement to every race. Thumbs up to NASCAR (and proved the naysayers wrong! Still, a lot of fans are complaining that it's possible to win the cup without winning one race)
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