A change of theme

Phew, I’ve finally decided to change the theme of my blog. The previous “Torn” theme have been in use for more than 7 years! So this day I finally gathered the courage to upgrade to the latest WordPress version and finally changed the theme.

P/s: I dont expect anybody to read this, but if anybody still does. It means that I’m still alive. Cheers!!

Top 5 things I do with my Ubuntu Linux

I haven’t had much time since I migrated my blog to a new VPS server. However, here is a little treat for all my readers out there. The top 5 things I do with my Ubuntu Linux:

  1. Surfing the internet
    Pretty obvious – I usually surf the internet using my Ubuntu Linux on my Desktop computer. I’ve a dual-monitor setup computer with Intel Core i5 CPU (12GB RAM), It is not a gaming pc, but I do occasionally play DOSBox games as well as Need For Speed: World from another operating system. The seamless Unity integration with the web intrigues me though, wished I had touchscreen monitor
  2. Developing Android Application
    The qemu-based Android device emulator runs nicely on Ubuntu, with no sign of lagging presents in other operating systems. Plus with 12GB of RAM, I can say that I could study and do mobile application with relative comfort. For Android 4.x development, I prefer to use the x86 images, because put less contraint on the CPU for skipping ARM-related code translation.
  3. Torrents
    Usually this is being done in parallel with other works. My current favorite bittorent client is Deluge. For some reason, I find Azureus/Vuze too cumbersome and I haven’t got around to use Transmission. I used to study bittorrent protocol in my spare time, but has since abandoned it when I realise that I’ve not much time to spend on side-projects anymore.
  4. Writing Manual
    I’m now in the process of writing a Lab Manual for those who just begining to learn about Mobile Computing. Although I wouldn’t call myself as an expert, I think every little bit of knowledge-sharing helps. I’ll promise I’ll share my progress with all of you sometimes at the end of the year. Though, I usually prepare my academic papers using Latex (IEEE templates), I choose to write my manual in LibreOffice, for reasons that I’m more familiar with WYSIWYG word-processor, plus, the publisher would prefer to receive the written manuscript in OpenDocument or Microsoft OpenXML file.
  5. Internet Radio
    Though I rarely if ever listen to MP3 in portable devices, I do listen to internet radio station from Rhythmbox. There are sizeable collection of preset Internet Radio station in Rhythmbox according to genre and age-group. I prefer to listen to trance or easy-listening radio stations.

There you go, the top 5 things that I usually do with my Ubuntu Linux. Nothing fancy, just that I prefer to use Ubuntu for reasons of application development. I’m a terminal-emulator typed guy. I prefer to switch/change the environmental settings using terminal emulator, something I find very easy to do in Ubuntu (or any GNU/Linux distribution for that matter).

Until next time…

What to do when your Google disabled your Gmail account?

Recently I managed to get my gmail account disabled by Google. At first, I didn’t think that it would be a big deal since free email account can be registered every now and then, if it managed to get disabled/suspended.

gmail disabled

But…. It turns out I WAS WRONG.

See, when Google disabled a Gmail account, it also disabled all other accounts that associates with that account, including (but not limited to) :

  • Youtube (your videos will be inaccessible)
  • Blogger (all your blogs will be made inaccessible)
  • Google+
  • Google Play / Android Market (partially affects your Android phone and contacts, your paid apps will not be available)
  • Google Drive / Google Docs (you won’t be able to access your files /documents)
  • Google Code (loose access to your code repo)
  • And anything that is related to Google service

How does a Gmail account gets disabled ?

Officially Google states that each accounts holder must comply with Google Terms of Service.

Unofficially, there could be tons of reasons why Google disable a particular Google account, which includes:

  • Suspected partaking in spamming activity
  • Age factor (based on D.O.B data entered, those under 13yrs old aren’t allowed to use Google
  • Suspected using illegal credit card (in case of purchasing through Google Wallet or Google Pay)
  • When Google suspect that your account has been compromised
  • etc…

Anyway, they didn’t tell me exactly what I did and why they disabled my account (they tell me that they won’t disclose details to avoid their automated system from being compromised by hackers).

What they do is ask me when the last time I access my account, using which browser and what are the things that I do with my Google account recently before my account being disabled.

After that, within 24 hours, my account has been restored! So if you find yourselves in similar situation, then you should try get some help from Google Products (Gmail) forums. The people there are helpful, as long as you don’t get too emotional and push them too much.

Note that you should understands the Google Product Terms & Policy when you are using any Google Products. Because from what I’ve seen from the forum, there are also those who aren’t as lucky as I am, getting their accounts permanently disabled. Once it is permanently disabled, there are absolutely *ZERO* chances of recovering your precious data.

Be warned.

Almost out

whoa, I almost forgot to update this blog, btw if you are reading this, thanks for still following me

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