More birthday presents

Look what my mum gave me for my birthday!!! I needed them. 

Birthday 2010

Hi there,
Today is my birthday and my sister-in-law's too. We have celebrated it in my cottage spending a day out in the country. Everything was just fine but it started raining late in the afternoon. Too bad!!!

After that my nephew and me have feed the hamsters and checked the new born ones. They seem perfectly healthy. Their mother didn't mind us checking their nest. I'm glad about that because I thought she might get really angry after all I've read about them on the net. Anyway I need another cage. It's impossible that they all fit in this one when they grow up. It's 10 animals where there were only two!!! In less than a month I need to find people interested in adopting a hamster. Think about it!!! They are nice, friendly and cheap to keep. Interested?????

I'm publishing some pictures of my birthday presents as well as some photos of the celebration.

Brother in law (Typical photo)

Emperor penguin (car) 

In-laws [Hooked on the (same) phone]

Spongebob collection

Spongebob collection (again)

Hooked on Tiny Core

I'm really hooked on Tiny Core Linux It's only 10MB. It's really awesome. I quote from their website for your information:

Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux GUI Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, and Fltk. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly. Also offered is Micro Core a 6 MB image that is the console based engine of Tiny Core. CLI versions of Tiny Core's program allows the same functionality of Tiny Core's extensions only starting with a console based system.

It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access.

The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a netbook, an appliance, or server, selectable by the user by installing additional applications from online repositories, or easily compiling most anything you desire using tools provided.

The latest version: 2.10

Yumi's given birth

Today, exactly 20 days after Skippy and Yumi met for the first time, she has given birth to 8 lovely little hamsters. I hope everything goes fine and they grow healthy and strong.
(Usually they give birth between 16 - 18 days)

I suppose I'll have to buy a bigger cage. That's great! Weekend shopping!!!!!!!!!

ING

Last month I opened an Orange Savings Account at ING Direct a virtual bank owned by ING Group and I have to say that it is one of the best things I've done in my whole life. It works great and it is simply because they practice what they preach. I mean that they keep their promises. They are serious and efficient. I had a similar feeling when I switched my phone company to simyo

I changed because I started to feel like a prisoner with my former bank. I had to pay for using my own money!!! I do not usually have to care much about banking as you do not often have to worry about what you do not have.  Not having money is a great source of tranquility... But lately I've had to do several money operations which have revealed me the true nature of what's behind a smiling face at the counter.

Naming the full list of advantages of ING would maybe be too long. Let's cut it short by saying that I truly believe that I've made a change for the better. Fingers crossed again as usual!!!

First tomato plants of the year!!!

This weekend I've been working in the garden for a while and I have prepared the first tomato plants of the season. Some may say it's way too soon because days are warm but some nights are still cold but I do not think they run any risk of freezing. At least I hope so. I watered them and as you can see they look perfect!!! This year the harvest is going to be extraordinary.

What else? Well as you can see in the picture there are a lot of stones but the soil around my cottage is rich but rocky. Nevermind a few little stones on the way. They are a nuisance only when it comes to remove weeds. But I use plastic to avoid them as much as possible.

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DSL

Apart from Puppy Linux I have also revisited DSL Damn Small Linux  A tiny linux distro of only 50 mb. Yes, I know it is possible to make even smaller bootable systems but this one is ok apart from being one of the most populars out there.

DSL works great out of the box. The only problem I have encountered though the different versions is that I haven't been able to properly configure my printers. The script didn't work with my former Epson and it doesn't  work with the HP either. Too bad, but it is a secondary issue for me as I only use DSL as a toy, similar to the way I use Puppy.

Puppy is more gorgeous and a bit more powerful for it includes more drivers out of the box. It also has a good package manager, similar to apt. Puppy is supposed to implement a debian compatible repository in a future release. Wait and see.

usb modem speed test

Two months ago I bought an Alcatel X060 usb modem from Simyo. Unfortunately I haven't got any 3G network available so the usual speed in my village is 45 mbps. It's hilarious!!! But yesterday I tried it in the capital city and the results were pretty good. Here you can see the speed test. Its 1 Gb approximately, not bad at all to check mail in an unusual situation like this when you are not home.

There is just one thing. I still haven't been able to make the modem work with linux but it's just a matter of time.

Easter Monday 2010

Sister and nephew preparing desserts

It's a very nice tradition to celebrate Easter Monday with chocolate eggs!!!

It's almost a tradition to publish it here in my blog.

Hope you had a nice day too!!!

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Pictures of Yumi

I promised to upload some pictures of Yumi, our new female hamster. You can see her playing with Skippy and with my nephew, her new house and food can. I hope you like them!!!

Car fiasco????

It seems my Toyota Auris was defective. The gas pedal was sticky. I took it to the garage on Monday 29th March to have it fixed. To tell you the truth I haven't been able to try the fix out because yesterday Thursday 1st April the battery drained and although I charged it all night it is no use, it goes out in several hours. Too bad, I hope the guarantee covers that.
.

UPDATE (11th April, 2010): Fortunately I got a new battery replaced at the garage for free. The gas pedal seems to work just fine. I haven't been able to notice any other defect after the fix. Let's keep fingers crossed!!!

By the way yesterday I got the letter informing me of the possibility of a defect in the gas pedal. It's not that it arrives too late. It's just that I first received an e-mail from Toyota and took the car to the garage. And this letter comes from the Traffic Department of my country. Everything's ok. Of course I do not have to go to the service again (lol)

Now I can say again that 'I love my Toyota'.