The Four-eyed Journal

Ever since the immensely popular anime and manga series Naruto by Masahi Kishimoto came out, the central character, Naruto has attracted a great following. It’s because of his abilities and personality that has led to a great success to the series.

However, perhaps to add more spice to the series, Naruto’s background has remained largely obscured much to this day even though many say that the manga series has passed the half-way point of the story.

The burning question still stands: Who are Naruto’s parents?

It was all revealed in Chapter 347 of manga series wherein Tsunade and Jiraiya reminisce the good old days while contemplating for the future of Konoha.

They confirmed all speculations that Uzumaki Naruto is indeed the son of the Fourth Hokage,Konoha’s Yello Flash; Minato Namikaze.

Here’s his short bio from Naruto Wiki

According to those who knew him, Minato was a very talented ninja-having graduated from the Academy at the age of ten. He came under the tutelage of Jiraiya, and under his guidance, learned to develop his skills. Impressed with Minato’s determination to succeed, Jiraiya took it upon himself to teach the latter the Toad Summoning Technique. Minato mastered the technique, being the only person to fully control Gamabunta, a feat not even his sensei could do. His skills would further grow with the development of his own jutsu, the Rasengan and Flying Thunder God Technique.

After attaining the rank of Jonin, Minato was given direction of his own team, which consisted of Kakashi Hatake, Rin and Obito Uchiha. Along with Kakashi, Minato’s reputation greatly increased during the Third Great Ninja War, where his skills earned him the moniker of Konoha’s Yellow Flash. As a gift for Kakashi’s advancement to Jonin, Minato gave him a unique kunai marked with one of the Flying Thunder God transportation markers. Shortly afterwards, he informed the team of their mission: destroy a bridge that aided the enemy Rock ninja force. For the mission, Kakashi took Minato’s place as commander of the team while he went to a different battlefield, where he was able to defeat a large number of Iwa ninja singlehandedly. His team, however, was unable to complete their mission, as differences between Obito and Kakashi lead the team to be caught in a trap. Obito, however, was unable to survive the mission, instead helping Kakashi save Rin by giving Kakashi his Sharingan eye before being completely crushed by rocks. When Rin used Kakashi’s kunai, Minato arrived and easily defeated the Iwagakure ninja. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived Obito was already dead, though he managed to save Kakashi and Rin. They would later go on to fulfill their mission and help repel the invasion.

Now for Naruto’s mother, Uzumaki Kushina,

Of course, here’s some information about her, again from Naruto Wiki:

She was the mother of Naruto Uzumaki. When she was young she was a talkative tom boy. It’s noted that she had long, red hair that came down to her lower back as seen in chapter 382. When she grew up her beauty, personality and Ninjutsu became known to many. It was this very personality and Ninjutsu skill which she would pass on to Naruto. At some point in time she met Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, and bore his child. When Jiraiya visited the couple during the pregnancy, he allowed Minato to read one of his latest books, a semi-biographical account of Jiraiya’s own life. The character in the story was known for his drive and determination. For that reason Minato asked Jiraiya if he would mind if he named his own son “Naruto” after the character in the story. Kushina offered her approval of the name choice. Jiraiya was embarrassed and honored. After the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked Konoha, which resulted in the death of Minato, and the demon fox being sealed within Naruto, Kushina’s status became unknown, but she is presumed deceased as she is referred to in the past tense.

Who would’ve thought Naruto would be born of these parents, just like or even greater than Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto’s heritage is deeply rooted in Konoha’s history we’re pretty sure his future will be too.

Though fans are asking, what ever happened to Kushina? It was never mentioned she died after giving birth to Naruto or she was also killed by the Demon-Fox when it attacked Konoha. Or perhaps she did die after giving birth to Naruto, it would make it a lot easier for Minato to pick his son as the container for sealing in the Nine-tailed Demon Fox. Or Kushina approved the idea and knowing that his lover would die from using the technique, his son would immediately be of great instrument in his success to save Konoha and carry on his great legacy. Or something else, but I’m sure though that we will soon find out as the series progresses on.

I just can’t wait for Naruto himself to learn of this truth. What would be his reaction and how would act from there on. This series is definitely one of the greatest stories ever told.

Lastly, here’s an artwork depicting Naruto’s parents together in combat-readiness:

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I have just received an email and I just pledged my support in helping Mozilla set a Guinness World Record for largest number of software downloads in 24 hours once Firefox 3 is publicly released.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 28, 2008 – Mozilla today announced its intent to set a brand new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. The record-setting attempt is planned for the launch day for Firefox 3, also known as Download Day. Mozilla is inviting its global community to spread the word and join the effort by pledging to download Firefox 3 and hosting regional download “fests.”

Since 2004, the Firefox community has grown to more than 175 million users. Firefox is available in more than 45 languages and used in more than 230 countries. Every day, the enthusiasm of the community is reflected in grassroots efforts happening all over the world as people share Firefox with their friends and families. Download Day continues this tradition by harnessing the energy of the Firefox community to improve the online experience for people everywhere.

Firefox fans can support the mission to set a Guinness World Record on Download Day by pledging to download Firefox 3, hosting a Firefox 3 party, inviting friends to participate, or by placing Download Day buttons on their Web sites.

Anyone who loves Firefox could join and pledge their support to achieve this goal by blogging about it, telling your friends about it, host a Firefox 3 download fest at home, at the office or anywhere with an internet connection, perhaps a blogger meetup, or students like could become a Firefox Campus Representative and gain more pledges from their fellow students to download Firefox 3 on Download day.

Spread the news by putting up banners of on your site, blog or social networking site. This would be a simple yet fun thing to do to show our support for Firefox 3, Mozilla and the open-source community.

Sign up now!

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Yesterday, was so to speak, the unveiling of my new Four-eyed Notebook to my friends and fellow student volunteers at school. I used it to take down notes during day one of our planning workshop for the SERVE Volunteers and while I was doing so, I cannot help but get some eerie and uncomfortable feeling whenever one of them goes round my back and takes a peek at my screen.

I’m no snob but this is my very first time to own and use a laptop in public so typing away and doing work on a computer outside the sanctity of my bedroom is a new experience for me. Somehow, it felt like I was using a public bathroom whose walls are made of clear glass, all the world could see what I was doing. Being mobile has its trade-offs, privacy being one of them.

Besides that, I have a strong feeling that this laptop of mine would be one of the regulars at the SERVE volunteers’ office, my fellow volunteers borrowing it to do their schoolwork and myself volunteering this notebook for official activities if the need arises. Of course I’ll share this to anyone who really needs it, but I can’t help but be worried that every time I do let others use my laptop, my personal files containing private and sensitive information would be open for unwanted and unintended exposure.

I want to add a layer of privacy on my laptop not only to protect my sensitive personal files but also to lower the risk of exposing my notebook to viruses, worms, trojans and other badware that is so abundant in campus thanks to hundreds of infected pen drives my fellow students have.

Thankfully, Tina of makeuseof.com has written a very good post about adding some layer of privacy that would do both: provide privacy for my files and keep nosy and uninvited folks from using my laptop. One of her advice that I really followed is cleaning up my desktop, getting rid of any icons I don’t really use. She wrote:

You wouldn’t believe how many people are stunned by an empty desktop. They’ll rather leave it alone than mess with the start button or some funny looking menus.

So now my desktop is almost empty with a single column of shortcut icons I use regularly. But I plan to move them to the Quick Launch menu to really achieve that “No desktop icons” look. Tina also suggests other tricks like changing the user interface into something not everyone is accustomed to like using transformation packs to use Ubuntu Linux or Mac OS X’s UI since these are not so familiar to most users. Other tricks are to change the icons into something of your own choice to the extreme solution of using apps that lock out everyone else except you who knows the password. So these tips have made my laptop less inviting to uninvited guests next is to protect my actual private and sensitive files.

This time, thanks to every-reliable GTD gurus at Lifehacker who has a nice guide on the best free ways to protect your private files. I opted for the simple yet effective My Lockbox which is a free a security software enabling you to password protect any folder on your computer.

The protected folder (lockbox) is hidden from any user and application of your system, including Administrator and System itself. It is impossible to access the lockbox not only from the local computer, but also from the net.

The program is extremely easy to use. You can set the lockbox location and the password during the setup procedure. After the setup is done, lockbox will be hidden and locked until you enter the valid password.

My Lockbox Control Panel allows you easily change basic lockbox parameters: lockbox location, protection status, password.

Downloaded and have it already installed in my notebook and right now, I feel much comfortable and secure once I go back to day 2 of our planning workshop in a few hours’ time.

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Today, I’m starting on a long journey of cleaning up my digital world. What do I mean by this? Ever since I got mobile with my awesome Four-eyed Notebook, a realization dawned upon me: my presence in the digital world/cyberspace/blogosphere/web 2.0 dimension is getting bigger it’s getting too much for me to handle.

It all began when I sat down to setup my notebook: installing the OS, my suite of computer protection softwares, the core set of programs I need to get my work done, migrating my digital media collection and again installing all the media players and editors I need and have grown accustomed to using over the years.

At first I thought my notebook would end up almost the same as the way my desktop PC is, in terms of the kind of applications installed, the way the file system was organized etc. It turned out completely different. As of now, only half of the total number of programs and applications I had installed on my desktop PC have made it into my notebook’s hard drive.

Removing the e-junk & clutter

On the dekstop, I had OpenOffice and Microsoft Office XP running side by side. Now on my notebook, there’s only the MS Office 2007 edition handling my core productivity needs. OpenOffice was a good alternative but after giving it much thought and looking back on my work flow, I only installed it to export documents and spreadsheets into PDF files. But there are plenty of free online services that do just that so OpenOffice was left on my desktop which in effect now belongs to my younger sister.

Also on the desktop PC, I had eight (8) applications for doing the same thing: record/edit audio files from .AAC to .WMA formats. Now on my notebook, I only use two: Audacity and Nero’s WaveEditor. Saved me a lot of HD space and puts less strain on my notebook’s processor.

There are plenty of other stories, but the overall effect is that my notebook is lighter in terms of the amount of applications installed in it. It’s more responsive, runs much much faster and now my work flow has become much smoother because there’s only not more than two programs that could do a task that I want unlike in my desktop wherein I had to choose from a wide selection of apps which eats up time and creates serious compatibility issues with file formats, drives etc. In other words, my working environment on my notebook is less cluttered.

Extending it to my online world

Because of its positive effects on myself, it has greatly improved the output of my offline work: research, writing concept papers and project proposals, reports and other mostly non-blogging stuff, I’ve decided to do the same thing on my online world: my blogs and blogging, my social network accounts and the blogs and websites that I manage.

I plan to do the digital clean-up in four major areas:

Email, subscriptions and RSS

Email is at the core of my online world and everything revolves around in it. I use it to communicate, send and receive work information, keep vital information about all my online accounts and connections and the subscriptions I use as sources for my work. Unfortunately, my inbox is a mess. It currently has over 2000 messages that need to be tagged and archived to be organized so that it will no longer be a distraction to me.

Next would be doing an audit of the subscriptions and newsletters that arrive and nearly fill my inbox daily. I would unsubscribe from the ones that I really don’t read anymore or the ones that have lost value for me. The ones I’m going to keep would then be tagged and archived so that I could come back to them at a time I would set aside.

Lastly, would be my RSS reading list. An audit would be put in place, group them according to topic and look for new feeds that would be good for me.

Blogs and blogging

This would be the easiest part, me thinks. I’d just upgrade the blogs I maintain to the latest version of WordPress and check them for hacks and security vulnerabilities. Redesign a few maybe but I just want to be reacquainted with all of them. Plus, review and prune the long lists of draft posts in each and get things moving.

My social networking accounts

I actually plan to set aside a day in my work week to do nothing but immerse my self in all the social networking sites I have accounts in. Send messages to my contacts, clean up my public profiles, update the photos basically spread some social networking love around. First and biggest on my list is overhauling my Facebook account. Honestly, I’m not only getting bored of Facebook, I’m starting to be annoyed by it because of all the apps that I really don’t use and the email notices that drown me in an avalanche of information.

The blogs and websites I manage

Friends and colleagues are well aware of this and I would like to extend my apologies to all of you who have been waiting on me to upgrade your site, fix a few issues and update your designs. I figure once my digital world has been de-cluttered, cleaned up and organized, our collaboration would be a lot smoother.

So once again I’ve taken on another huge assignment. I would be prowling the web and your blogs for some tips and how-tos on how to accomplish these tasks. If you have them, do give me the heads up so that I could learn from you and perhaps build on what you’ve started, it would be awesome. Blogging and documenting this process would be a good and fun exercise as well. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

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Found this on Bro Arwee, FSC’s multiply site. It’s an edit of a Wu Shu demontration wherein lightsaber effects were added to the jians or double-edged straight swords used in the demonstration. The footage is impressive on its own, but with added lightsaber effects, it’s so awesome I say it qualifies as p0rn for Star Wars fans! LOL

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Just received an email from the makers of the invisibleSHIELD, they have moved to their new home on the web:

If you haven’t visited us recently, we invite you to check out our new website. We have completely revamped the site’s design to give it a new look and feel, and we’ve moved our store to our new home: www.ZAGG.com

User videos, Reviews from Bloggers, and Media Coverage are just the beginning of the new features we’ve added to the site. Soon, you’ll be able to upload your own videos, comment and vote on other user videos, participate in our forum and read blog posts from Robert Pedersen, our CEO.

The last time I visited their website was December of 2007 when I ordered an invisibleSHIELD for my Sony Ericsson K800i. Installed it on my phone last January and up to now, it has done a pretty good job of protecting my phone from scratches.

What bothers me is why they moved from invisibleshield.com to the now www.zagg.com? Their product has been very successful and they’ve even sold 1 Million units already. Heck, even John Chow used the invisible shield on his MacBook Pro and he didn’t even mentioned it was by ZAGG.

The point is that people are more familiar with the name “invisible shield” as compared to ZAGG. So naturally, they’d be using it for their searches instead of the obscure “ZAGG” as a keyword whenever they want to know more or buy an invisible shield for their gadget.

Then again this could be part of their bigger plan to better leverage themselves in the market. In fact, their old domain www.invisibleshield.com now redirects to www.ZAGG.com. Hopefully it will pay-off because the invisible shield is one good product. This may not be a paid review or write-up, but I’d recommend them to anyone wanting to protect their gadgets.

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