Tag: english

Dear MySQL,

July 1, 2010
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you’re not MySQL. You’re SomeoneElse’sSQL.

I don’t get this. Linux was supposed to be the ideal operating system for servers. And yet, on Windows it takes roughly two clicks to download and install for example EasyPHP to get a working AMP (Apache-MySQL-PHP) server, while on linux…

The whole reason i had to reinstall Ubuntu was that the MySQL update would always hang, so would any attempt to remove it, thus blocking all other updates and virtually any installations as well. Definitely not fun. And now MySQL is haunting me again.

It’s really supposed to be simple. Install Apache, install MySQL, install PHP. So far it’s easy, three consecutive sudo apt-get install commands and there i go. Quick edit in the Apache config file, and my web folder is already online. PHP working out of the box. But not MySQL.

Just after the installation i vaguely recall being able to start it once in an attempt to test it (through command line). Then i exited, changed the data folder to the one shared with Windows and since then, no MySQL. Of course i made a backup copy of the default my.cnf, but reverting back to that didn’t help either.

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Credit card

June 30, 2010
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It’s really useful. The past two weeks, i didn’t have any cash on me, just my credit card, because i can pay with that at the local supermarket, and i hardly go anywhere else to shop. Except for the exceptions. For example, yesterday i would’ve needed just 200 yen to do my laundry, and of course i didn’t have the coins. Today, i wanted to buy fried potatoes for my late lunch, but of course i couldn’t pay with my card there either.

And here i was thinking just a few minutes before that, that credit card is just another kind of money, no different from the notes or the coins used nowadays. It doesn’t matter anymore what form the money is in, since the money we use, itself has virtually no value. Try to sell a piece of paper like that, however elaborately designed against copying, in a society that doesn’t recognize its issuer, and probably you’ll find it has no value. I guess it’ll be just a matter of time until there will be some kind of next step in the evolution of money, where i use money as a means to measure material value. I wonder what it will be like. Globally accepted, immaterial, simple. I’m waiting…

ID3

June 29, 2010
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I’m a bit fed up with mp3 tagging already. Seriously, i’m spending more time tagging my music collection than actually listening to it (obviously not true, since i’m listening while tagging as well), and it’s annoying. When i was using foobar on Windows, i had the impression that all my files were correctly tagged, i could mass-rename them to my scheme, it was all fine and working.

Then came childhood’s end, and i started facing problems. Many problems. First, apparently there’s no standard way to store replay gain information, or just all players ignore it and use their own way, because although my whole library had the replay gain calculated, the difference in volume is striking when playing on ipod. Also, ipod apparently requires some specific format to store the cover image in the files, so i have to add those manually too–after my first few searches for some automated method gave no results, i was just too lazy to look for it anymore.

But this was not all. Rhythmbox apparently can’t handle tags normally, favouring id3v1 tags even when id3v2 is present, and what’s worse, it writes its “unknown artist” tags into the files, so it’s not even simple to fix.

So now i just got fed up with the recently oft problem when the song title is longer than the allowed max for id3v1, and i decided to strip id3v1 once and for all. Unluckily, many files were left with “unknown”, but that’s still easier to find and fix than erroneous tags under correct tags, not even displayed most of the time.

Story of the Year @ CLUB QUATTRO 名古屋

June 24, 2010
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June 22, 7 pm was the start of a great event at CLUB QUATTRO in Nagoya. Although due to school schedules i was late by roughly twenty minutes, i could still catch a few songs of the support band Supe. They played the same kind of music that Story of the Year played later, but i simply don’t know its genre. It’s a great genre for sure, a mix of In Flames and Sum 41, or something along those line, i hope you get my drift. The thing is, gigs of this kind tend to be great. Great. Although Rancid is not of that kind, their speedy music is what made their live in Tokyo so great, and i probably need not say how fantastic In Flames was.

Even though i had no idea what Supe was, after their performance i was seriously considering buying their album as an act of good faith. They played great.

And after a short brake came the main event of the night, Story of the Year. To be honest, i don’t know Story of the Year but for a single song (Wake up).

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Starbucks Sumatra Lake Toba drip

June 23, 2010
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One more Sumatra limited coffee from Starbucks. Actually i was pretty surprised that they offered this as hot drip coffee of the day, since this Sumatra line seems to be cut already. (At least the Siborong-borong i bought today was the very last package left at the local shop, i’ll write about it sometime i can sit down and enjoy it not just gulp it down during a class.) I can’t even find any official description of what it’s supposed to be like, so what i write is no way influenced. It was drip coffee, and drip coffee for me is much thinner in body and taste than that i make myself, but i tried to consider this.

Sumatra Lake Toba coffee has a really nice smell, reminding me of lying in the grass on a still flowery field in early autumn, warm and sweet, and there is the distant smell of fallen leaves i love so much. It doesn’t have that strong body i expected (the only info i could get about it was it being “extra bold”), which may be because it was drip coffee. Even though, the roasting gives it a really nice darker taste, like a shade of an old tree on the earlier field.

Its taste has a touch of acid, but that sour feeling fits quite well with the almost salty overall impression. Reminded me of some old, quality red wine, some that you would drink from those elegant glasses even if with friends. (Fits in the early autumn scenery quite well, doesn’t it.) As for the aftertaste, probably because its acidity, it left a feel like mint, refreshing my throat.

Too bad it’s over.

(Un)healthy?

June 17, 2010
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Yesterday i woke up in the morning and made a huge load of porridge, ate it with maple syrup and was full.

Then i went to the gym, worked out for an hour, then run roughly a mile, and was ready for two english classes, but luckily the japanese teacher of the second class didn’t show up, so after ten minutes i declared it freetime and came home.

But on the way came the urge to eat, to have one specific meal my mom used to do quite often, meat roasted in fat. So i went to the nearby supermarket and bought pork for it (couldn’t find beef in block, just sliced up for yakiniku). I looked a while for fat, but couldn’t find it. Then i stumbled upon it at the beef section, tiny cubes offered for free. I guess japanese hardly ever use it, so they can afford giving it away. Came handy, i picked up a bunch and headed for McDonalds.

Because however much i love potato food, be that fried or mashed or whatever, i have absolutely no patience to clean the potato, boil it well and prepare it. So i just went to the fast food deposit and picked up a load of fried potato. Made my meal, and it was good. (No Biblical reference intended for now.)

I watched Stargate SG-1 for a while, then started studying bookkeeping (successfully, the test was today and there was hardly a few questions i didn’t know the answer to), and when i was done with that, back to Stargate. Around midnight i decided to have dinner, so i made hot dogs, and munched in two with mustard and ketchup.

Does the morning training and the afternoon study null out all this “healthy” food? (Not as if i actually care… I’m like Yui in K-On!, apparently: no matter how much i eat or work out, my weight is fixed at 67 kgs.)

El Dorado

June 9, 2010
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Today i was doing nothing when it occurred to me to check the Iron Maiden website for new tour dates. Maybe they’re coming to Japan anytime soon (i pretty much hope so).

At first i didn’t realize there was something amiss. I visited the tour dates page so many times that i can go there straight from link history. But then something… And i checked the front page. And i was close to fainting.

16th august 2010, the fifteenth Iron Maiden album, The Final Frontier will come out. I seriously can’t wait. To make things worse, just around then is the Sziget fest in Budapest, with an Iron Maiden live. I want to be there! (Just can’t, filthy money.)

Also, there is a new song called El Dorado, available for free. It’s on Youtube, and also available for download on the band’s website (though hurry up, only till the 21th, and sometimes it’s just down). Absolutely worth downloading.

It’s a great song. (Though i don’t like the new design for Eddy, but hey, i’m not looking at the artwork but listening to music, i mean, Music, like that, with capital M.) At first i wasn’t sure… it starts strange… Bruce’s vocals seemed powerless… But i was wrong. It’s just that was the first time. Now i’m in love with it. I can’t stop listening to it. And i want the new album badly. Come, august!

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Diet

June 9, 2010
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I won’t start eating stuff that only rabbits are supposed to be eating (which reminds me of the Clancy Brothers song titled Water is alright in tay, where the chorus ends “water is alright in tay, (and) for fish and things that swim in rivers”), but i really have to think of what to eat. It’s all nice and fine i started going to gym and running quite a lot compared how much i was moving earlier, but i really don’t like how i’m constantly tired. It’s not easy to tune what i eat well. I don’t want to over-eat, i don’t want to feel hungry, and most of all i want to get rid of this constant feeling that i have to eat some chocolate or something sweet. I’ve been experimenting for a while for the right type and amount, but suggestions are still welcome.

Though i wonder if this is the reason why in western meals the courses are separated and sweets come last. Might not be accident.

Kno

June 8, 2010
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I don’t know where i stumbled upon Kno. First a bad point: their search optimization is simply terrible. Their official website is not even on the first page of Google when searching for “kno”.

As for the device itself, i like it. I loved Microsoft’s Courier, and Kno is quite similar. It’s a double touchscreen tablet computer book. I write book because it’s intended to be one: the purpose is to reform the textbook market. It might work, especially since they’re testing with university students. Which makes me wonder, none of the students complained about its size? Okay that a huge screen is good and stuff, but with double 14″ screens it’s not compact anymore. I think it might be the biggest and heaviest tablet. But at least that’s the only weak point i could mention for now. I’m really looking forward to the tests of some final thing, because what was shown at D8 wasn’t even close to complete. It’s running linux, which gives me hope it might be used in ways different from what it’s originally designed for (eg having a keyboard app on one screen or playing games on it).

Three days

June 6, 2010
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It all started on friday morning. I woke up a bit later than usual so i didn’t have time for breakfast, got to class just a bit late, as usual, had more tests in the PE class (grip strength, sit-ups, flexibility, jumping and shuttle running) with relatively good but still unsatisfactory results (meaning although i got a score equal to a C grade, it’s still loads better than most of the japanese). It was fun, i’m starting to consider PE a class with meaning, which is again funny considering it’s totally unrelated to economy.

Had lunch, a terribly boring class and a fun japanese lesson. I wonder if the はば of 幅 and of 阻む is related or just accident. Considering both mean something like range… But the teacher says they’re probably unrelated. (It baffles me how little japanese care about their language…)

Then i went to buy a D-string and a pick for my guitar, former because the one on the guitar snapped, latter because the one i’m using is too easy to slip from my fingers. Then i helped with cleaning the garden of the dorm. And the fun started here.

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