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Monte Carlo Simulations for Retirement planning (in Perl)

Posted Fri, 10/16/2009 - 21:00 by admin

I got hit by inspiration today so I wrote a short
program (Took me about 2 hours) that does Monte
Carlo Simulations for retirement planning
purposes. I've GPL'ed it so people can extend it.

In this example, I've put the variables as:
The person is 18 yrs old and currently has $5,000
in his/her investments. This person adds $10,000
yearly to the investments. The person plans to
retire at 65 and hopes to have $3,000,000 by then.
The yearly rate of return on his/her investments

My salad foodhack

Posted Sun, 10/04/2009 - 13:37 by admin

a.k.a. Quick and cheap dinner

Go to Jewel/Dominicks or any local area grocery

- Get precooked chicken (Whatever you prefer e.g. nuggets, strips, wings)
- Get salad ingredients (Whatever you prefer e.g. lettuce, spinach, mushrooms, alfalfa, walnuts, eggs, cheese, olive oil, vinegar etc)
- Bring the items home
- Prepare the ingredients as desired e.g. clean, peel, steamed, boiled, raw
- Combine and add dressing (I use Olive Oil and vinegar), seasoning etc.
- Enjoy!!!

NOTE: There are some food items that are cheaper to buy than make yourself:
Olive oil
Cream Cheese
Cereal

How to enable remote XWindows on Portable Ubuntu

Posted Sun, 04/19/2009 - 21:41 by admin

D/L and install portable Ubuntu from http://portableubuntu.sourceforge.net/
Click Applications, Accessories, Terminal [Alternately, you can also use the GUI to install new software. ]
issue the command: (root password is 123456 )
sudo apt-get install xorg xserver-xorg xterm x11-xserver-utils
shutdown Portable Ubuntu

Restart/Start Portable Ubuntu
Click Applications, Accessories, Terminal
at the prompt: (substitute user and domain.com with your system's values)
ssh -C -X user@domain.com
at the prompt:
xeyes&

If the eyes come up on your desktop, then it works...

Updating ipfilter.dat using wget

Posted Thu, 03/19/2009 - 12:10 by admin

You won't be able to download ipfilter.dat using a regular wget. Apparently, the server checks referer and what agent is downloading the file.

Solution: Make your wget request look and act like a regular browser.

#!/bin/bash
# NOTE: change "user1" to the user's directory name OR where the ipfilter.dat file resides

Strange emails I get

Posted Fri, 01/16/2009 - 00:39 by admin

Okay, I got a weird email today... So I researched it a bit.

A couple of searches for "Rey Tampos" gives:
http://profiles.friendster.com/41259307
http://profiles.friendster.com/80007115

which seems to be the same person with 2 accounts. Both claiming to be in the Philippines.

BOTTOM LINE: I'm not selling anything...

----
From: Rey Tampos <rey_creation@yahoo.com>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com

Establishing a Low-cost Web Presence

Posted Fri, 12/05/2008 - 14:14 by admin

NOTE: Basically, your desktop does double duty. Ergo, you'll need additional resources e.g. More memory, slightly more diskspace, Uninterruptible Power Supply. I built my system as a learning tool.

  • Make a server
    - I used linux (You may use any distro you want)
    - Make it into a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP)
    - Install SSH for remote access
    - install the other stuff you might need as a desktop
    - Be mindful of security! Update/Patch your server regularly and do NOT use weak passwords!
  • Get a high-speed internet connection

CTA Text Tracker

Posted Fri, 12/05/2008 - 13:39 by admin

How to use the CTA Text Tracker application?

1. just text or email ctatracker@gmail.com with the request in the subject or message body.
2. For help text ? or help
3. Use the following format to request the Bus times

Bus#,Direction,Street1,Street2

For example:

9,N,Ashland,Lake

will pull up bus times for bus #9 (& X9 if applicable) going north at the ashland and lake intersection.

Since 9 is an ashland bus.. you can also use the shorter version ..

9,N,lake

You can play around to find the shortest request which will work for you!

Skype Settings with Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Posted Wed, 11/05/2008 - 21:45 by admin

I've been having problems with Skype since the upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10. It seems I got it to work:

[Adapted from: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=231111 ]

My settings:
In Ubuntu's VOLUME CONTROL
DEVICE: HDA NVidia (Alsa Mixer)

In the "Options" Tab, both "Input Source" is set to "Mic"

In Skype:
In the "Sound Devices" Options menu:
Sound in: NVidia (hw:NVidia,0)
Sound out: Pulse
Ringing: Pulse

As for the video/webcam, I followed the instructions here:

Script to copy Podcast files to USB drive

Posted Tue, 11/04/2008 - 22:56 by admin

Comments/Improvements are welcome...

- The script won't work if the file HAS a space in the filename (I'll leave it up to the user as an exercise to add this routine)
- I placed this script in my crontab to download the various podcasts/vidcasts I listen to/watch.
- The script will copy starting from the largest files to the smallest files (if space is available.) That'll minimize the available space on the USB drive
- Remember to delete the podcasts/vidcast files on the destination drive after you are finished listening/watching them. New files will added when free space is available.

New Pics!!!

Posted Sat, 09/06/2008 - 22:11 by admin

http://www.randometric.com/gogallery2/main.php/v/events/20080906wedding/

It's my 1st wedding photo album... Hard to take photos inside a church w/ relatively low light and also inside a dimly lit banquet hall... And I don't use flash!

Critiques and suggestions are welcome...

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