When Boredom Strikes

Hi, it's time for another round of software reviews.

This weekend I got to work with EASEUS Partition Master. Remember I bricked my Windows box and installed Linux? I wanted to make it as a dual-bootable box with Win7 and Linux but had no such luck. The way I partitioned my hard-drive didn't allow me to.

So I had to choose only one of the two, and seeing as how I can't make game reviews with the Linux setup, not that I have anything against Wine—it's just too much of a hassle, I went with Windows.

So I had around 30+GiB stuck in the hard drive as useless space since it was formatted to ext4 file system. What I wanted to do was reclaim all that space and use it as part of my already existing Windows partition.

There was just one problem: that portion of useless space was at the start of the hard drive! The only way I could get it to work was if I were to move the primary partition back to the beginning of the drive and THEN extend it. If this happened around more or less 10 years ago, it just couldn't be done!

Good thing for EASEUS though. It's really easy. All I had to do was delete the unnecessary partitions, move the primary partition space to the beginning of the hard drive, extend the primary partition so it takes up the unallocated space, apply, restart and voila! Granted I took a really long nap; but by the time that I did wake up, it was just like I rebooted my laptop to the way it was before the entire hullabaloo.

On a scale of 1~5, 5 being the highest, I would give this nifty little piece of software 5/5. Recommended for all power users with partitioning needs.

Did I mention that it was free?

So I kind of bricked my Win7 installation, while tinkering with a linux installer.

I haven't been blogging in the longest time… So, for those of you who do know me, already know why.

For those who have no idea, let's just say that I have a non-disclosure agreement impeding me from posting it online. :P

I wanted to revive this thing because I wanted to get my creative juices flowing again. I'm really want to get into writing review, game reviews, places I eat, places where I get my coffee… You know… semi-everyday stuff.

Hopefully this will be a restart of the blog, although I'm not sure if I've got people reading whatever tripe I put up here, I'm hoping that my voice isn't drowned out in this urban jungle I'm in.

All right, so I've been around Cebu City for at least three months now, and I've noticed something interesting. Most of the time I've spent here in Cebu has been in Asiatown I.T. Park and I've noticed only three coffee shops worth noting around here: Figaro, Bo's Coffee and Starbucks and I've got to say, why is Bo's even here?

I understand Starbucks, having great coffee and all, plus the superficial social status one gets for being regularly there or some other crap of an excuse. Trust me, you wouldn't want to go there for Wi-Fi because they charge 100 an hour, but bottom-line-- it's great coffee.

Figaro on the other hand, has a lot of people with laptops since they offer free Wi-Fi. They also have great coffee but I wouldn't say it was better than Starbucks.

So going back to my question: why is Bo's even here? First of all, they don't make great coffee at all. They usually give coffee without sugar-- seeing as its roasted coffee, they don't even point out that people can get sugar, otherwise I wouldn't have always had a bitter experience-- every time.

So much for the coffee, sure they have Wi-Fi, but they'd charge you 30 pesos for every hour you charge, that's 2-3 times more the rate of even decent internet cafes.

So, if you're on the indifference curve between Figaro and Starbucks, I would suggest deciding what's more important for you, the "social"-ness of Starbucks, or the free Wi-Fi and still great tasting coffee of Figaro.

Do yourself a favor and not go to Bo's.

There are other ways to improve network security, and it comes in the form of security mechanisms. These security measures are more focused on prevention rather than a "cure". Among the most common security mechanisms are cryptography, access control lists, and authentication.

Cryptography - involves taking clearly understandable information and translating it into a ciphered (i.e. coded) unintelligible form using an algorithm and a key. Anyone who intercepts the information may find out which algorithm the source used; but without the key, it cannot be translated.

Access-control-lists(ACLs)- these are usually implemented in the router-level of the network, albeit a layer-3 and layer-2 mechanism. Any computer trying to access the network will be checked according to and(/or) its MAC address in reference to the access control list. If it does not coincide with the allowed addresses therein, it is denied access to the network.

Authentication - is basically trying to let a user identify himself, usually by use of a password, key card, or in more extreme cases, biometrics. If the user cannot provide the necessary information, he is denied access.