My World in 8 hours

Tonic Size Gardens

2011-05-12T23:31:00.000+08:00

Koh Kood

2010-04-20T22:31:00.000+08:00

Peaceful

2010-04-02T09:14:00.000+08:00

The answer to the question of quite a number of problem.

2009-09-17T23:56:00.003+08:00

In the world right now is quite a number of pressing issues. Things like global warming, green house gases, lack of portable water, lack of living space etc. Basically a lack of resources. I think have the answer. Reduce demand. We can't or can we?

However about reducing population? Spare a thought for the other species. We need space so do they. Some country are doing their part. Some are not. Reducing the population will reduce the need to produce green house gases. Solar power plant and hydro electric dam will be sufficient.

Less population also mean that each individual has more space. And will not accidentally step on another toes. Less chance for aggression and hence less chance of war. We have more resources to go around hence less need to fight for it.

Updates: 19/9/2009 6:18am +8 GMT
I am right. Popular Science just posted an article http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-09/contraception-cheapest-way-curb-carbon-dioxide.
In there is a research article to back it up. India better start doing its part to control its population.

But what is making it difficult is that people do not see it that way. Economy itself preach a exact opposite. You need to be increase year on year to have an improving economy. Insurance. As the pool grow, the maturing account will get more money. Government are pushing for a higher population to prop up demand, GDP and also internal consumption.

Why can't we automate and live with the current population.

My I30 - Stock Condition.

2009-08-10T08:25:00.000+08:00

Believe in God not man.

2009-07-26T12:26:00.002+08:00

Looking at what happen recently, monk in financial tussle, preacher in sex scandal, pastor turn singer, people in position of power due to religion. This reiterate the statement "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupt absolutely."

Everyone do something for the sake of another. Cause and effect. Action reaction.

Marketing and Sales.

2009-07-18T01:39:00.003+08:00

What is the difference between them? Marketing and Sales? Marketing is the action of convey the information that it is good and beneficial. Sales is this context is a noun. It refers to the activities where a certain good or services is exchange for services or money.

What is the difference between a person working in marketing and a person working in sales?
I have no idea but this is what I think are the difference.
1) Marketing make the services look good. Through the use of verbal and visual media.
1a) Sales folks make the services look good verbal and influence you into feeling the good or services are good enough for you.

Rainbow Connections

2009-06-28T21:44:00.001+08:00

Rainbow over SengKang. It is a good sign that this estate would be a wonderful place to stay.

Jasper Server Install in Glassfish

2009-02-14T06:21:00.003+08:00

JasperServer, a repository for your Jasper Report template-ing needs.

Recently my colleague approached me to help him setup a reporting server and come out with the report templates for our "project". He did some research and decided to use JasperReport. (Because we have to pay for Crystal Reports haaa.)

So JasperServer was the facto for scheduling of the report. At the same time it can also help consolidate the templates and resources created from IREPORT.

So we downloaded JasperServer. But it was running on Tomcat. The installation instruction only come with Tomcat and JBoss. So well what the heck, I was familar with GlassFish and Java 6 has such good monitoring tools build in, I setup the JasperServer in GlassFish.

It was not hard.
1) Install Glassfish as per their instruction. (Their instructions is as good as it can get so you will not hear it from me)
2) Open up the Install instruction of JasperServer. In it, it will inform on the database setup. In one of the section it will list down the steps to setup mysql server. Follow it. Execute it in MYSQL. You are almost done.
3) Create the connection pool in Glassfish. The account and password are define in the steps you took in step 2. By default you may only connect locally. ie Glassfish and Mysql are on the same server. The database name is jasperserver and username should be jasperdb if you follow the instruction in 2.
4) Next create the JNDI name and tie it to the connection pool. The jndi name to create should be found in the jasperServer.war/WEB-INF/hibernate.properties. The default would be jdbc/jasperserver
5) Deploy the jasperserver.war.
6) Make correction to the hibernate SQL dialect. (This is also found in the install instruction package with Jasperserver) Then depending on which kind of installation your Glassfish is in, either Standalone or Cluster enable, you will also need to change the dialet properties in /domains//applications/j2ee-modules/jasperserver/WEB-INF and /nodeagents///application/j2ee-modules/jasperserver/WEB-INF.

Why 2 place? Well just to be safe. You can just update the domain site and upon restart the configuration should sync over to the instance. I have not figure out which portion of the Glassfish configuration control this sync process at every restart of the application server instance.

So there you have it. JasperServer in Glassfish. Much better than in Tomcat.
For someone who have been meddling with Java and middleware installation long enff, this ain't that difficult.

Debugging SSH Digest Login.

2008-09-16T13:22:00.002+08:00

I recently when through some issue trying to find out why my SSH digest login did not work. I would like to share this experience. (Assuming that you have root access.)

Before we start off, there are generally 2 kind of ssh daemon, those based on openSSH and based on ssh.com. The difference is in the way these 2 differentiate the public key and the private key.
Hence it is important to know which is which to prevent a headache in troubleshooting it.
(You can use puttygen to find out the difference. Basically they are the same except for the formating.)

I normally use a mixture of putty and Ubuntu ssh (aka openssh ) to navigate around my work servers and my home servers. So I am pretty comfortable with both. To start off, check your sshd.config which is located in /etc/ssh/ in ubuntu. Turn the log level to debug or verbose. If you do not know, do a man on the sshd. It should tell you what sort of values you can put. Then restart your sshd daemon. Otherwise restart your server.

On your own server execute the ssh-keygen and generate your private and public key. Then cat the which is offen in the file of id_rsa.pub into the authorized_keys files within the .ssh directory.
Assuming everything is correct, you can ssh localhost and bypass the login prompt. If it cannot then execute ssh -v localhost to show more information. Still cannot, ssh -vvv localhost. Using the -v, -vv or -vvv options will throw out information with regards to the key exchange between the ssh client and ssh server. From there you will find it easier to debug your ssh digest login failure.

Common Problem:
Usually it is due to permission issue that caused the login to fail. The permission on the home folder also plays a part not just the .ssh directory. It needs to be at least a drwxr-xr-x for the ssh transaction to be successful.

Drop me comments if you want more details.

Triple Same Letter phrase.

2008-09-16T13:18:00.005+08:00

I have started putting my msn with message starting with the same letter. Just for the sake of fun.
Today is J. My msn message for the day is James Jolly Jet.

A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
F:
G: Great Good God
H: Holy Holly Hole
I: Ideas initially innocent
J: James Jolly Jet
K: Kermit Kick Kelvin
L: Lame Loose Line
M: Mary Make Money
N: Never November Night
O: Open On October
P: Pink Panther Palm
.
.
to be continued....... (AKAN DATANG)

To Be or not To Be? That is the Question.

2008-08-10T23:44:00.003+08:00

Severity 1 or Not Severity 1, that is the question. How can there be a breach when there is no border in place?

Over the weekend in my company mail box bounced a few mails from the management. Someone breach an imaginary line and caused a severity 1 situation. (I did not see someone dying ? ). So the top people sent not 1 but 2 warning email to all the middle management. The email brush the incident by and concentrate on just the warning.

This is a case where by the decision making criteria is not made known. The top and the operation people do not see eye to eye in how the decision should be made. Hence when things happen on the ground, the ground people make the decision. The top felt the pain and feedback the pain in the form of procedures, red tape and warning.

The more I see how things are being run, the more I feel that I cannot stay long.

2008-06-18T23:19:00.000+08:00

Kent Ridge Park Car Park.

Big and alot of cars. Too bad the view of the sea is block by Pasir Panjang Port.

Something about VirtualBox

2008-06-12T07:02:00.002+08:00

I would like to share something which I observed on my VirtualBox. Each virtual machine you have can have up to 4 network interface card. These 4 cards are not really related. What I meant is that you can have VM1 using network adapter 0 and VM2 using network adapter0 too.

This has caused quite a confusion for me before today. But then trial and error finally get me to know.

Resouce No Enough

2008-06-07T23:14:00.003+08:00

The title is one which only a Singaporean will comprehend. Not to long ago, a few colleagues and I were discussing about natural resources and the world economy and right now we know that the price of crude oil is poking out through the roof and growing taller by the day.

Capitalism, although it is driven us to our current state may not be able to push us further on the track of evolution. The rich and poor divide will drive the society apart. Capitalism basic is greed. The more you have, the more you want.

I see that demand has far exceed the supply. The demand for oil and energy. The demand for food. These demand has far exceed the supply for them. Some people are facing famine and blackout on a daily basis. Just yesterday night, the news reported that due to the current situation with the growing fuel prices, Japan ministers now need to cut back on the subsidy given the countries. Malaysia has announce the ending of cheap oil. All this will always translate into a rise in living cost. Looks like another round of price increase.

Which come down to and back to my heading "Resource No Enough". Conservation it is the way to go. How about the other way? Cut back on demand? Can we do that?

I say we can. We cannot depend on capitalism or the economy any more if we are going to do that. Economy or the growth in the economy is the current indicator used by government world wide to gauge how well they did. However with this, it also indicate that the demand for every thing increase too. How do we control the demand? We reduce the source of the demands. We need to reduce the population on earth. (Unless we can start to colonize other planet, we need to stop the growth)

I see that some countries had started to adopt policies towards this goal and also develop beneficial technologies in this area. Like China had adopted the "1 Child policy" in the last 30 years and they are slowly seeing the effect. Japan has developed technologies that would greatly enhance the lives of those in the graying days. Robotics and exo-skeleton technologies are just a few of that examples.

Although reducing the population will increase the work load for the adults, but on the whole it is sustainable. With improvement in technologies, people can contribute more efficiently and for a longer period of their live time. Hence reducing the dependency on society. This however will result in economy shrinking. Lesser population will mean lesser demand and will eventually translate into a shrinking economy. Our current mentally is that shrinking economy is not good. (Heh even our minister peg their pay to the growth our economy. ) Do you think people can accept it? A shrinking economy? Some of the financial institution and financial products on the market now depend on this growth. Some of our savings depend on it too. What will they do? What will you do?

I applause the actions of some and appalled at the actions of the other. The top 2 most populated countries in the world currently listed in Wikipedia is China and India. 1 has taken action to control its population. The other is shipping its citizens out in an effort to reduce the demand on their country land.

My stance is the earth is like a pie. Now how your look at it, cut it, the surface area is the same. Yes, there can be innovative ways to cut it but it is still the same. Furthermore, we share the same pie as the rest of the animal kingdom.

I hate to be around with the earth is like a can of sardines. 6 millions on a little red dot?! Hey wake you your idea!!

View from the Study Room

2008-06-04T07:15:00.000+08:00

Better Looking Shelf

2008-06-04T07:14:00.000+08:00

Changes.

2008-06-04T06:37:00.006+08:00

It been a while since I put any entries or even try to put in any character in this space of mine. Since, I was awake at 4:40am in the morning and I still have a few more hours to go before needing to go to work, I decided that now is a good time to write something.

Since early this year, things has started to change. My darling wife has decided to call it quits after teaching for close to 15 years. Me, if she quits how can I? So she decided that to try to become a sales person. Selling properties. Hence if you are in need of a property agent, let me know.

So I am where I am and was loving it until yesterday. I went to the my client place for a meeting. The meeting was successful and things go well. Jobs was assigned to the correct party. I even had lunch with them and things was well. But then after I came back to office and boss tell me this, "Please get the SQP ready by Monday."

WTF?!!!

The Pen is mightier than the sword no doubt, but ultimately, you still need the sword to do the work. In Office context, although the manager is important (especially a good manager), you still need to the employee or subordinate to get the work done. A manager is only as good as his team. Doing is my forte. Getting things done and not writing report is what I do best. Should I learn to like it? Writing report that is. Is this the only to move up?

What have I agree to?

What up with my personal life? Well after moving in, it was a few months of packing and unpacking, customizing out furniture. I had an sudden interest in making my house green.

I had a Rosemary plant and a Citronella on my service balcony. I am also trying out to compost my used tea leaves. I like moss alot. My place is also now a host to 2 species of carnivorous plants, namely the Venus Fly Trap and the Pitcher Plant.

Announcement : I offical moved in!

2008-03-15T10:29:00.001+08:00

Finally after months of anguish and hard work, I finally moved in.

CNN vs BBC

2008-03-15T10:25:00.002+08:00

I noticed that there is a fashion gap between the English and American newscaster. This is very much in evident in the dress and coat they wear on screen.

I think the BBC are or will be conservative as compared to the CNN counterpart.

No offense or perhaps it is just the time which I chose to turn on my cable.

Hosptial

2008-01-10T13:59:00.000+08:00

Never really like being in a hospital. The waiting for your loved one to come out from the surgery room is really long even if it is only a few minutes.

Apart from the NHG project and AMS days where I need to go to work in TTSH, this is the only time I am in a hospital during the day for so long.

I would not like to die in the hospital.

My Passion: Java

2008-01-05T20:58:00.000+08:00

Since my days in part-timing days in RMIT where I flung my Java Implementing module once, I have gotten to know Java much better. From the days of Java 1.1 to the current Java 5, I have been diligently following its progress and development.

Recently (not really since it was a year ago), due to my work environment, I was not able to follow and do reading up. In fact for a while I felt uninterested. So on a bored and tired day, I pop into java.sun.com and read up the development for Java 6 and was really impressed. Again.

A few thing caught my eye, the ability for Java to utilize the native scripting language and the out of beta monitoring abilities. I think Sun site is really filled with good information and should be what a good corporate site should be. Unlike some other companies sites (Internet or Intranet pages like wise)

So pop on by to java.sun.com to do some reading.

Resolution for 2008

2007-12-29T21:50:00.000+08:00

End of 2007 in just 2 more days.

Time to make resolution.

Lets start simple and easy.
1) I want to be more flexible and I will do more stretching. I will do stretching every other day.

What to do on a boring weekend?

2007-12-09T18:07:00.000+08:00

1) Catch up on sleep.
2) Watch TV
3) Play game

2007-11-09T13:43:00.000+08:00

Not been blogging for a while. Part of it is due to being busy. Busy with? Renovation, new toy and then of course work and tiredness.

I seems to be playing middleman now a days pretty offend. Not to long ago, I help my friend obtain a position in my company. Now I am helping to broker another position for a friend of mine. Both are friends.

Which bring me to another topic:-
What do you do if the boss wants to hire but is not too keen on sending the job description?

When one is hiring, there will probably be a position to fill. That position will have certain set of responsibilities and that will require a certain skill set. That skill set will be the job description.

What happen if there is none? Does this mean, you will need to handle everything? Without this, there is no security. Like a "garunguni man" you will be deployed to where there is is shit and need people to clear. How do you feel? What will you do?

Victory! It is filed as Bug 6600234

2007-09-03T19:29:00.001+08:00

Ha. Finally recognition. It is a bug. Hmmm wonder why it was not return in the search. Yet.

Missing Left Mirror.

2007-08-31T08:10:00.000+08:00

I fetch my wife to school. (She being a teacher.) And early in the morning what greet me was a broken off left side mirror.

Some fat brute must be rushing off damn fast to have broken off the side mirror. There was no dent, scratches associated with a car bumping it off. Furthermore the mirror has some flexibility to flex forward or backwards.

Oh Well ... $100 down the drain due to someone else's mistake.

Nothing compare to Ms Ho executive decision. That one cost $2 billion in paper lost. We still dunno the real amount.

"I don't think it is a bug.", he said.

2007-08-31T07:44:00.000+08:00

So Mr Sun Tech support guy came back from vacation and finally find time to my query. He called and asking plenty of information which I had already provided in my email. The most important question asked was "Can you recreate it?"

An engage debate beings. The debate revolves around, if the person reporting the bug is responsible to prove that the problem happen or should the tech support people be responsible to prove that what i reported was due to the "Stupid user" syndrome. This is similar to how justice is implemented in US and Singapore. You are innocent unless proven guilty by the prosecution vs You are guilty unless the defense proof that you are innocent.

So after the debate. Yes I proofed the scenario is reproducible.
The steps are as follows.

Prerequisites:
Sun Application Server
Oracle DB. (I suspect that it would happen to other DB too.)

Steps in Sequence:
1) Limit the number of concurrent session for a particular db user to eg: 150.
2) Configure the min/max pool size to be the same and large number like 300.
3) Restart the server to have a clean start.
4) Notice that the server starts up fine and then access the application using the connection pool. This will kick start the initialization of the connection pool.
5) Then you will notice that the connection pool will initialize until it is 150. (as define by the DB concurrent session limit)
6) Using the Server monitoring feature, you can observe that the number of connection created was 150.
7) The DB should report 150 at this time too. The strange thing is that, although there are connection in the connection pool, none of them can be use by the application. The application requesting for connection will report that the SQL Exeception that the number of concurrent session for the DB user has exceeded.
8) Then request the DBA to up the number of concurrent session to 500. This is to simulate a situation which the server encounter problem when initializing the connection pool.
9) Try accessing the application again. This time the application will return with the correct and successful results.
10) However using the server monitoring feature, you will realize that the number of connection has exceeded the number which you define. In this example 300. The total number of connection created and in the pool is 450.

Conclusion:
The server failed to completely initialize the pool to the required size and the application server is not smart enough to detect that there are available connections which the web application can still use. When the problem was resolve, the pool is reinitialize. It failed to detect the current state of the connection pool and re-run the initialization process fully. It then establish the x+(steady state connections) where x is the number of connection previously initialized. Eat these! This is a bug. BUG BUG BUG I tell you.

There are however a few question marks. Is the problem caused by having a large number of connection? Is it cause by having the same min max values? If I need to find this out, might as well give me the source code and I fix it for them. Damn it, earn your pay Sun Support Staff. Where is your customer service Sun Microsystems!

It is a bug!!!

2007-08-23T20:50:00.000+08:00

So to find out if it is a BUG, I asked the official people. SUN. The origin of Java. The Write Once, Run anywhere language. So I raise a support request with Sun Support. Although it is not an critical issue, it is still an issue. It may even be a bug.

I email Sun Support with my problem description, the server logs, the monitoring data and the domain.xml early this week. After an exchange of email to get more information, I got my first explanation from Sun.

I was utterly disappointed with the quality. And this is why.
1) They send me an email with the explanation in plain text. The text was so badly formated that it was unreadable. The sentence was chopped off at inappropriate location. Words was broken such that it did not make sense. (It is not a bad case of Justification gone wrong, it is horrible formating.) The points did not flow. ( As in point 1, 2, 3, 5.... what happen to the 4) The paragraph has no indentation and there is reference to non existent information (eg P15).

I tried to adjust the page size but to no avail.

2) So I replied that I could not understand. So he "here by send the document in word format". That was his exact words. I expected better formatting. But alast........... the same thing. What he has done was to cut and past the text into the word doc. Atrocious formating, incomprehensible English and all. No effort to clean up the formating at all. There was even a few cases of symbols which is evidence that the article was cut and paste from somewhere where the character encoding did not match.

Is it a case of Open Office converting to MS Words? I doubt so. The plain text in the first place already say it all.

3) Lastly, with a colleague we attempt to decipher his text. We found out, it did not answer the question. The text was a rip off from somewhere informing that there is a problem with Sun Java Application Server's connection pool having an issue if there is a firewall between the app server and the db. The text also try to explain how the connection pooling mechanism work.

Conclusion:
After a discussion with another colleague, we decided that it is a bug. Under no condition should the application server create a pool that is more than the maximum pool size specified in the domain.xml.

The person who answered was from XXXXX, XXXXXXX.

Although I still support Java and Sun MicroSystems, this incident is really shaking my confidence. This is why:


AS 8.x JDBC Connection Pool
===========================
Let take the following configurable Connection pool properties from AS8.x
e="  
oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource" fail-all-connections="false" idle-timeout-in-
seconds="300"  
is-connection-validation-required="true" is-isolation-level-guaranteed="false" m
ax-pool-size="32" max-waittime-  
in-millis="60000" name="oracle" pool-resize-quantity="2" res-type="javax.sql.Dat
aSource" steadypool-  
size="8" validation-table-name="dual">




In this pool setting in domain.xml, you will notice some of the pool attributes
1. is-connection-validation-required, connection-validation-method, validation-t
able-name  
2. fail-all-connections
3. idle-timeout-in-seconds
5. max-pool-size, max-wait-time-in-millis, pool-resize-quantity, steady-pool-siz
e  
Connection pool behaviour before P15
1. If . is-connection-validation-required is true,
a. And if connection-validation-method can be table. In the case, before t
he JDBC connection  
is returned to the application (when asked by calls like DataSource.getConnectio
n()), the  
connection is checked that is it is valid by select count(*) from table. N
ot that the table is  
configured by validation-table-name. This is the recommended validation fo
r Oracle and the  
table name is normally DUAL
b. If connection-validation-method is auto-commit, then connection is test
ed by sequences of  
calls to Connection.setAutoCommit(), getAutoCommit() and isAutoCommit(). It has 
been  
reported that for JDBC drivers like Oracle, this method of testing is not reliab
le (hence table  
validation is recommended for Oracle).
c. If the connection-validation-method is metadata, the database Connectio
n  
DatabaseMetaData query is used to test connection is valid. If one notice that t
his is used by  
HADB JDBC driver.
2. Next, the fail-all-connections is a flag to indicate that if the while 
taking a connection from the pool  
and it is detected or encountered an exception, then all the connections in the 
pool will be failed (if this  
attribute is true).
Normally, fail-all-connections should be false since all the other connections i
n the pool might still be  
valid and instead it would be more drastic to fail all of them due to that conne
ction.  
3. Next, the idle-timeout-in-seconds is an attribute of how long the connection 
can be in the pool if it is  
idle. Note that implicitly, there is a background thread that is scheduled every
idle-timeout-inseconds 
to do operation on pool cleanup. We will discuss this next.
4. The pool size is governed by steady-pool-size and max-pool-size.
a. Initially when the system is started the pool will be empty. On the first req
uest to ask for a  
database connection, in P13, a new connection will be created up to the steady p
ool size.  
b. When a new connection is created and all the other other connections in the s
teady pool size is  
already taken up (ie there is no free connections in the pool), then ONE connect
ion will be  
created.
c. So lets take an example,
Steady pool size is 0, and the max-pool-size is 32 and the pool-resize-quantity 
is 2, when you  
ask for a new connection, and return the connection, the pool should now contain
 1  
CONNECTION (for idle-timeout-in-seconds).
So after for idle-timeout-in-seconds, when the JDBC cleanup thread runs, this co
nnection will  
be cleared and the pool size will be 0 (since the steady pool is denoted 0)
d. Now as for the max-pool-size, it is obviously binds the number of connections
 this pool will  
create.

5. The role of the JDBC cleanup thread in P13 is
a. Periodically wakes up idle-timeout-in-seconds
b. For any connections in the pool that exceed the steady pool size, and for the
se connections if  
they are idle > idle-timeout-in-seconds, destroy them (so that they poo
l goes down to steady  
pool size). Note that the number of idle connections that is clear is BOUNDED to
 be only  
pool-resize-quantity
c. Note that the cleanup thread also tries to maintain the pool to be steady-poo
l-size.  
d. However, do note that connections that is inside the steady-pool remains in t
he pool. The  
implication is that these connections can be prone to firewall timeout. The fact
 is that if these  
connections in the steady pool are not touched, the firewall may decide to timeo
ut the TCP  
connections. If that happens, bad behaviour will happen when these connections a
re validated.  


Connection pool behaviour at P15/16/17
=======================================
Now all the attributes in the above are still there. However there is some subtl
e behaviour.  
In P15, an RFE was implemented so that connections in the steady pool those are 
idle more than idletimeout-  
seconds will be destroyed. So the following is what the cleanup thread does
1 The role of the JDBC cleanup thread in P15 is
a. Periodically wakes up idle-timeout-in-seconds
b. For all connections in the pool that are idle idle-timeout-in-seconds
, destroy them (so that  
they pool goes down to steady pool size). Note that the number of idle connectio
ns that is clear is  
BOUNDED to be only pool-resize-quantity. Note that ALL idle connections AR
E destroyed.  
c. Note that the cleanup thread also tries to maintain the pool to be steady-poo
l-size. This implies too  
that if the above connections is destroyed and less than steady-pool-size then a
 number of  
connections is created (up to the steady pool size)
Due to this behaviour, the connections in the pool should be firewall friendly a
s long as the â€œidle-timeout-insecondsâ€  
is well below the firewall timeout (Typically that means for a firewall friendly
 timeout the value of  
idle-timeout-in-seconds should be firewall timeout.
2 Next, there is also some subtle behaviour to the way â€œpool-resize-quantity
â€ means. In P15, this parameter  
applies not only to resize the pool downward to the steady pool size but applies
 too in terms of growing  
the number of connections in the pool.
Take the same example, Steady pool size is 0, and the max-pool-size is 32 and th
e pool-resize-quantity is  
2, when you ask for a new connection, and return the connection, the pool will h
ave 2 CONNECTIONS  
(since the implementation will grow them at pool-resize-quantity everytime.).
Now, due to the new cleanup thread and the pool resize behaviour, you probably n
otice that having a low  
â€œidle-timeout-secondsâ€ may cause an extremely many database connection creat
ion calls (since idle  
connections will be destroy

Is it a bug?

2007-08-19T01:23:00.000+08:00

Sometimes an application server can really be a piece of puzzle that is so hard to solve. Recently encountered this problem when starting up the application server. The server starts up and initialize the JDBC connection pool. However it did not manage to fully initialize the JDBC pool. It is suppose to initialize the pool with 300 connection but it hit a snag at 191. The DB did not allow it to as it has reach the allowable session limit.

A few minute later, the session is release and the application server continue to initialize the pool. It continue to initialize the pool from the start and added another 300 connection to the pool. It now had a total of 491 connection. So is this a bug?

23 Aug: Just to add on, the server did not complain that it has more than the configured connections. The DBA also registered the higher number of connection.

Humans make mistakes.

2007-08-16T14:26:00.000+08:00

I was browsing through the release notes for the Java 5 release 12 release notes and saw this on the list of bugs being fixed. And I saw this entry

6524112

tooldocs

all

sloppy developer missed testcase when fixing 6490790

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/ReleaseNotes.html#150_12

Human make mistakes.

The version I like.

2007-08-08T00:07:00.000+08:00

Singapore Song for food. Of food. I like!

Fairy Shrimp

2007-07-29T20:07:00.000+08:00

This is a fairy shrimp. A cousin of the Brime Shrimp. This species live in fresh water instead of salt water. Other than that, the generally appear the same.

Block 275A

2007-07-29T20:05:00.000+08:00

Save Gaea?

2007-07-11T08:05:00.000+08:00

Recently a concert was organize and held in promotion of a Greener Earth or a more environmental conscious human. Then some environmentalist, reject the concert as a positive impact stating that the preparation of that concert did more damage to Earth than what it was trying to promote. ie. Artist taking private jet from place to place to performed and the amount of trash it generate, fliers etc.

To me, if you treat Gaea as person, you should give her more space. In recent years, (relative to the age of the earth) human population has grown. There is less space for her and this has caused pressure on her ability to heal herself.

If you take the analogy of Gaea as a human and all the species living on earth as organ or cell in the body, then the human is an unusually large organ. Bordering on being cancerous.

Perhaps human are starting to see that our Earth is ailing. We are trying to save it. In my honest opinion, the way to go is to allow expansion out of Gaea. It is in our nature to procreate. But we can no longer support the large population. (Some countries are still trying to boost the population so as to improve the economy). Technology is the key to living with a smaller population on earth. Technology should not be a commodity where only the rich will have it.

Earth can support our need, but not our greed.

Make your money work harder.

2007-07-07T20:15:00.000+08:00

Recently I have been trying to figure out how to make my money work harder for me. The simplest, easiest and safest way is to put it into a fix deposit account.

But hey! Banks in Singapore are offering peanuts interest rate for Singapore dollars. But they are offering higher interest rates for Foreign currency. Hmmm.

I did up a spread sheet with the current interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates and publish it in Google Spreadsheet. Take your time to analyse it. The example inside is based on SGD and the Foreign currency is USD.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pbzuB1birNRo0hOK2yYjHCg

It is what I think can help my money work harder for me. It is up to you to think.

Faber Fab

2007-07-02T19:09:00.000+08:00

The view from the hill of Mount Faber.

Fixing a shacky LCD Screen

2007-05-31T07:44:00.000+08:00

Recently, the laptop lcd (Dell 640m) screen had gotten shaky on me. So I decide to fix it.

First of all, turn the laptop belly up and remove the battery. Remove the 2 screw located at the red arrow.

Secondly, turn it back up and use a flat head screwdriver and gently pry the top out. It should come out easily. Then you will see 4 screw anchoring the LCD screen. Using the philips (Cross head ) screwdriver and tighten it. Presto !!! The LCD is firm again.

Steel Duck

2007-05-27T13:36:00.000+08:00

Steel duck, amour feathers.

Mirror Image

2007-05-27T13:33:00.000+08:00

You are not seeing double. Just a well engineered piece of naval vehicle berth side by side.

My new phone.

2007-05-12T14:59:00.000+08:00

I got myself a K800i phone yesterday. It looks good and feel good and hopefully its compatible with my new Linux laptop. I am still having problem connecting it using bluetooth.

However, this morning, I tried to charge it again. It did not charge. Shit.

I need to check it using my brother charger.

An emerging trend.

2007-05-05T05:35:00.000+08:00

This something which I only started to notice, with the clarify of though of a person who just woke up. (Like a Eureka moment)

I noticed that the leaders of Singapore are never really leaders. The ideas are never really original (Most of the time). Take for example the starting of the use of bio-diesel. They are about 5-10 years behind Europe or America in terms of mindset and use.

The leaders seems to be adopting a wait and see approach and then play catch up when the idea take off.

Being Environmental

2007-05-05T05:26:00.000+08:00

Roughly a year ago, I was telling a friend of mine, that it would be great if Singapore start to use bio-diesel as a source of fuel.. Only now the government of Singapore start to come public on the move to going in the direction of being a regional hub of bio-diesel.

Apart from the Economical benefits, there is also the environmental one. (The see more $$$ than anything else) . I think it is the way to go. In this sense, I would say, well done Singapore.
You are only a few years behind.

Static Electricity

2007-04-27T06:35:00.000+08:00

Static Electricity are electrical charge stored in or on a non conduction material surface. (In layman term)

Ever since I step into my old/new office in Jan. I have been noticing that, I am very susceptible static electricity shock. The cubicle partition wall seems to be storing quite a bit of static electricity. Every time when least expected, I would be shocked (mildly) while brushing pass the partition wall.

I wonder if this is a SIGN?

Ubuntu Installation on a wide screen laptop

2007-04-08T21:06:00.000+08:00

I am not sure if you own a laptop or not, if you ever had the same problem that I had when I install Ubuntu. So here is my experience with the feisty installation.

The desktop installer cannot boot up properly as it was unable to detect the monitor/screen properly. The GDM cannot start. So this is what I did. I downloaded the alternate installer and installed the Ubuntu using that. As expected, the GDM did not start up. So using Aptitute, I installed 915resolution.

After reboot, it worked. The GDM started properly and I am back online in Ubuntu!

Ubuntu Feisty Upgrade.

2007-04-08T09:46:00.000+08:00

I finally gave in and upgraded my Edgy to Feisty although it is still in the beta phase.
I was rewarded but at the same time I also encountered a major boo boo.

Well I was impress with the new desktop effects and stuff but my Accessories category failed to work. Everytime the accessories menu is listed the panel restarts. I still have no idea what and where when wrong.

Given the current situation, I am going to re-install the Linux with the Feisty Herd 4 beta again. How it all started was the "update-manager -d"

Well, here I come for some investigation work. Help me if you can. I am a Linux Convert not a Linux Expert.

Hao Xin Ren

2007-04-05T06:42:00.000+08:00

www.haoxinren.info. I got the domain back.

Questions: Why is time faster when we are asleep than when we are awake?

2007-04-01T06:46:00.000+08:00

Do you ever had one of those time when you wake up with a question in mind. Today happen to be one of those day. I realize that I have fallen asleep on the living room. Then I had this question, Why does close to 8 hours pass in just a blink of an eye? ie Why has time moved so fast when I fell asleep?

Some personal knowledge of time:
1) It is an unit that measure passing of a moment.
2) It is derived from the speed of light.
3) It is relative.
4) It cannot be reversed. (At least with the current technology)

I guess time is just a perception thingy. Some perceive that a year is 365 days which in fact is 365.25 days. Hence the leap year. Some see that a work week is 5 days. (Others see it as 7 but not me). So perhaps the brain interpret time differently when we are in the rest mode. The passive rejection of external inputs from the environments coupled with the speed of the neurons firing in the brain caused the perception of time to change.

This is just my simple theory. Share urs?

An Interview

2007-03-25T15:38:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, I had my first ever opportunity to be on the other side of the interview table. I was sitting in with my boss to interview this guy. He is a FT from the Myanmar and obtain his tertiary education in UK.

What strike me to write this entry was the mention of the word "Passion". His passion for networking technology and networking has driven him to get work all over the globe. (Well at least in Europe and Asia).

From this I know that he will be a good person to work with and I hope very much that he will join. Passion is a commodity in this line of work that is sorely lacking. It is infectious in a good way. It drive people to do better than what is required, to perform to excel and most importantly to learn.

I had no doubt about his ability. From his mentioned of the open source monitoring tools that he has used, he knows what he needs and where to fulfill his needs. I no doubt can learn from any knowledge sharing session we can have.

On the other hand, observing my boss interviewing another person other than myself, I inferred, that his skills as a interviewer is not really that good. What he asked is have you ever used this equipments, what brand, what version, what model. He will just quote some product and feel that using that product is a great thing. The product he quoted was CA UniCenter Enterprise Management Tool. Nothing too big deal about that product from what I know.

I think an interview should allow one to find out the experience the interviewee has and also to attempt to confirm that he has that knowledge. Of course as a fellow employee in the same team, it will also allow use to make a rough estimate of if he can be a good team player on the same team.

Team dynamics are a science in itself. It will allow 1+1 > 2. That is what I feel I want.

Ranger Office.

2007-03-25T08:17:00.000+08:00

This is one of the reason why being a ranger is quite good. For some of the more obvious reasons are:
1) They have this nice office with Aircon.
2) They get to breath fresher air.
3) They get to be closer to nature.

HSBC Tree top Walk - Bridge

2007-03-25T08:08:00.000+08:00

This is the one and the only tree top walking experience in Singapore. When you are on the bridge, you will see the Lower Pierce resevoir to the north. To the south you will see Mcritchite itself.

The canopy is yours to see on this bridge. Not that there is much in that span of a 200m or less.

PS: It is grill you will be stepping on. You will be able to see all the way down to the forest floor. If you are afraid of heights, don't look down.

Car Ownership and Road Availability

2007-03-18T09:47:00.000+08:00

If you find that driving in the little red dot is getting more and more unbearable, you are not too far from the truth.

Using the data from @ http://www.lta.gov.sg/corp_info/doc/Stats%20In%20Brief%20(2006).pdf

We have this table.

Year	All Vehicles	Motorcycles	Road Length	Lane Kilometers	Vehicle/KM	Vehicle/Lane KM
2004	727395	137029	3188	8354	228.17	87.07
2005	754992	139434	3234	8459	233.45	89.25
Delta	27597	2405	46	105	599.93	268.83

So there are 27597 more vehicles on the road. (2 wheeled motorcycles included.) As compared only 105km of roads has been added (not necessary distance from point A to point B. )

For every kilometer of road, there are approx 228 in 2004 and then it increases to 233 in 2005. Well lets discount that most of the time cars are parked in the car park and not all are on the road. If 40% of them are on the road, then it will still be 91 cars on the road in 2004 and 93 cars on the road in 2005.

New Breed of Irritating Drivers

2007-03-15T23:35:00.000+08:00

I was driving back to my Mother-in-Law place in Woodlands when I encountered the most irritating driver ever.

I was cruising along the right most lane at around 90++ km/h with 2-3 car length behind the car in front. A white Nissan Sunny came up and cut in behind my lane. I noticed that it had normal head lights while cutting in and suddenly it change to high beam.

The beam bounce of the rear view mirror and proof to be a pain in my eyes. What the fuck is he trying to do? Force me get out and give way to him?

So I turn the rear view mirror up and ignore him. Happily cruising home and keeping a safe distance from the car in front. The center lane open up and he quickly change and move. Given the situation, he changed but before he accelerate enough to over that the car in front of me, he came up to the traffic and had to slow down. Since he got out of my butt, I lowered the rear view mirror.

He change back to the right most lane with normal headlights. Within a second, he was shinning high beam again. I was damn pissed. Wanted to jab the brake and warn him off but I did not.

What does this tell you? Some drivers have simply no courtesy and no patience.

Stress. A Evolutionary Force.

2007-03-13T00:06:00.000+08:00

When face with a certain kind of stress the person will more likely succumbed to the stress and change. The lack of money is a stress. It changes a person perspective of how life should be live.

Stress is a force. It is exerted in physical, mental, financially or even emotionally.

I eat stress for breakfast!! Stress come in, out as daydream.

Freedom and the Internet

2007-03-10T13:34:00.000+08:00

Previously, internet was confine to the length of the CAT5 cable. But in recent years, that has change to the radius of your home WIFI router. So that I can now blog in the openness of the void deck facing the gardens.

Now is that call freedom or what!

Now that that has happen, I would wish some one should come up with a notebook screeen shield to block out the direct sunlight when using the laptop in the open. The screen look like an under powered pieces of glass. The back lighting is almost non existent.

The feeling is great.

NS and Reservist.

2007-03-07T08:16:00.000+08:00

There was another topic about globalization and I failed to impress on my migrant friends (now turn Singaporean) what is the frustration a native Singaporean face.

I do agree with him that things in general are base on merit. However given the liabilities of reservist that Singaporean males are facing in the workforce, it will never be a fair playground. Although employers are not allow to make such discrimination, it is bound to happen. Let me give an example, suppose you went for an interview and you have an excellent profile but need your to start work on a short notice. However you are not able to do so as there is reservist coming up and you may not defer. The company has another candidate which is of similar caliber who is the next in line. Due to this constraint, the original candidate is not chosen.

These incidents are not uncommon but they are not documented. So who know how much missed opportunity a Singaporean has gone through.

Given the amount of emphasize that the government is giving to the reservist, it is sad to note that the treat money as more important than the time the Singaporean has committed. They are given only the expected renumeration as compensation. What happen to the OT? The missed sales commission? The promotion due to being pass over to lead a project? This are not recognize. The analogy of the country as a company cannot apply. One can switch a company as there are many around, however one cannot just change a citizenship. There are too many factors. One is family others are economics and emotional.

These are the frustrations. But I guess that is what a Singaporean convert may fail to understand. Yes. 1st generation Singapore does not have the liability. Perhaps when the global government is there we will not have such frustration. If we can do things without emotion contributing a factor, I guess it is time we can call ourselves robot.

Decision are made based on merit at that point in time. It has a temporal factor in it.

Lunch topic - What is the norm?

2007-03-04T07:20:00.000+08:00

A few days back we had this discussion between 3 of us. How much is too much?

It started with some innocent comment about communication and control. Is it too much to for a parent to know his/her children are safe? When does it becomes a form oppressive control? What happen to the kid freedom? Is asking them where they are a form of communication or is it a modified form of control feedback?

What I think?

I think that communication is very important. Communication in all it aspects help to foster bond between the parent and child. Asking where you are shows that you care. This may just be a starting point to another conversation that lead to a life changing experience.

E-Mart - What is it selling that are good?

2007-02-28T07:33:00.000+08:00

The E-Mart. Those who are in similar shoes will know what that terms means with respect to being a Singaporean and a reservist. If you are observant enough, you will notice that quite a number of people who jog in the park wear a NB or a Brooks jogging shoes. There are also plenty of people in the train wearing those. It is not that these 2 brands are popular in Singapore. Neither is their design very attractive. The reason that it is common is because it is available to Singaporean reservist cheaply and it looks decent. (It use to be free. It is still free. Sort off )

The Emart sells them to reservist or NSF. Maybe selling is not a correct word. It is more like distributing. So people will get them for their use or their family to use. Grandfather wear it, the younger sisters wear it, the mother wear it. If you look around sometimes, even the non Singaporean wear it. (I guess there are more than 1 source for that design other than the Emart.)

The other alternative item which I think are worth it are the towel It quality is quite high compare to those generally available. And at approximately SGD$6 it is worth it. However those whose waist are not of the normal size, then it might be too small for you. For me, it is only overlapping about 6-7 inches.

This end the review of the Emart "Selling items"

6.5 Million?

2007-02-24T23:10:00.000+08:00

Today's paper. "Singapore Planning for 6.5 million population". Do we really have that much space for so many people? Hello!! When you make the comparison to other City with so much people, you need to understand that they are cities!!!! Whereas this little red dot is a Country!! Other people living in the cities can escape to the rural areas. They can choose. Where can we go too? Living from hand to mouth, just to pay for a space to stay, where would we have the ability to get out of country, to work or play? If we are moving in that direction, the price of the space to stay is definitely going to rise. Spare a though for those that are not so elite. Who would want to bring up their children into a cramp little red dot then?

Is this a conspiracy theory to get all the Singaporean to stay in country?

Roller Blade.

2007-02-14T07:40:00.000+08:00

Roller Blading is a good sports. That is the other only sport that I have been involve in since the days of canoing.

I bought a pair of blades and well after about 6 hours of blading session over a span of say 3 months. I might say, I know how to blade and can be consider a novice.

Yeah!

400th Post

2007-02-14T07:28:00.000+08:00

I think Blogging has become a way for me to grumble about stuff. ie Voice my resentment.

Received a call yesterday, let call this person, L. "Have you sent the documents to her yet? Please sent it in by tomorrow 4pm. I don't need to see it. I don't want to be nagged by her again."

Somehow, our own internal process has just gone out the window. From the statement you would have realize that, when it went out the window was not made known to me. Oh well ... so be it.

The more support I get from my client from doing a good job or playing the correct human factor card, the more painful it is for them when I say "No. I do not want to continue." Time is ticking. So far the work and the work condition is good. But then let see how things go. I might strike Toto you know?

What do you do when you cannot sleep at night?

2007-02-11T03:02:00.000+08:00

Night time are a good time to think. There is less noise and less conscious brainwaves being broadcast by other humans.(Those on the other side of the globe are too weak to interrupt).

I would wonder, what make a human, human? When you break down a human, they are basically protein cells. Bits and pieces of protein. The thought processes are basically electrical response at the cellular level and in-between the billion of billions of protein cells, bone cells, fat cell, water....... Things that make up a human. What are coherent thoughts to these cellular entities? Why are we born and what make these molecule and cells and atoms behave like humans? Why is it that when all the required elements, in the right proportion thrown together don't make a human?
Are we mere shell which the soul enter and control?

Why do power corrupt? Why do the government think they have good of the people in mind? Why do they think they are need to play golf? Is it because, just like business, some policy are thought up in the greens? Like our free trade agreement with the US. I recall Mr Goh mentioned that the deal was agreed during a golf session with President. Democratic society? Or capitalistic state? Or Capitocratic state? Where those with more capital are more democratic. Since I contribute more to the economy, I have more say? Group decision is not shared risk. Why do Temesk holding not admit that it has made a bad move in its recent investment in Shin Corp? Why must english be use to mesh up the state of the matters? Why is it a long term investment? Is it because it cannot be cash out, sold? Cos if it was sold, then it would really realize the lost. Currently it is only paper lost. It HAD the potential to recover. Why can't they admitted that the mis-judge a character in TT Durai? The government back him up when he was in his glory day. Now when everything is in light, they back away and distant him from the ministers. Why? A wrong is a wrong. A wrong can be made up but it cannot erase history. Just like that, Mrs Goh thinks that SGD $600,000 is peanuts. Well, comparatively most folks earn less than $3000 a month. Has living too good a life left the leaders too out of touch with the general public? Has drawing too high a monthly paycheck change their perspective of what is important and what is not? If you say public transport.... then why is it privatize? When you say it is transparent, why are some of the public figures hidden? White Horse, why do they deny it and years later confirm that there was such a category of soldier?

Ok. To summarize things. Thinking really take up energy. Cos right now, after about 1/2 hour and a glass of water, the Sandman has come again. I think I am going to bed now. And the neighbour living above us finally has their kitchen light turn off. And the bed room is back to the peaceful darkness. (Except for the light from the laptop.)

Almost done.

2007-02-06T07:52:00.000+08:00

Ok. This is my flat. Almost complete. They are finishing the surrounding area. The question now is when we can get the keys and start the renovation. Another big lum sum of money is being pictured going down the drain. I am going to make it worth my while.

House Theme?

2007-02-05T21:45:00.000+08:00

What should a your house or home feel like? Does it need a theme? Must it be presentable or just comfortable will do?

?? To spend or not to Spend? That is the question.

Phrase of the day

2007-01-28T20:34:00.000+08:00

"What matter more is the perception rather than the reality of things".

from someone in channelnewasia.

So true. So so true.

Thought of the week

2007-01-13T07:21:00.000+08:00

Human are fickle minded. They are stereotypical. Which is why we can find that we can generally group them into category and why human can be studied. 'Cos if you find one person with that kind of character, you can find another one of similar character else where. We cannot however rule out that there is always a possibility of uniqueness.

Ok. So why I am writing all these? Sometimes being honest has consequences. But I shall be honest with my opinion here nevertheless. Take it or leave it. Judge it for yourself.

Just started work this week after a moderate period of rest. Back to the same company that I left, as an contract staff. Why I went back? I guess was the way in which I was asked to return. As a norm, the office has an electronic access entry and going in an out of the office requires an access card. It took them 2 day to issue me with an temp card. Whoa and behold! It was the same card I had. Hmmm. Either they had expected me to go back within 3 months or someone did not do their job.

So I check out the IT support, people which I knew. They gave me my account to access the office network and email and stuff. Another surprise, my mail was flooded with emails. The old mail are still there. Not efficient.

So I guess, from the few incidents the opinion is form and reinforced.

Teachers and Teaching.

2007-01-09T23:18:00.000+08:00

I remember back in those days, when I was still green, inside and out. (ie, green in the ways of the world and wearing the ugly camouflaged No.4) Everytime when we have an exercise we would have a safety briefing and there would be tons of safety regulation books to bring out and to go through. The briefing would be boring and long. (I am not saying that this is bad, unnecessary or anything. It is more like common sense at work. If you happen to have no common sense, then people around you would inject some into you. Usually append with the F!@#$#% and end with #$@#. You tend to remember more from the #@$$@# than from the "Please do that" )

I found out some interesting happening within the government's offices from my daily chats. Namely the SAF and MOE. There is a new department called School Safety in MOE. The government being the good people that they are, provided SAF personnel with an avenue to work after their retirement age. (FYI: SAF combat personnel are no longer an asset after their age of 45. They can no longer hold combat position. They will be switch over to administration or instructional role. Of course the position of General is exempted. Not that they have seen any life action before.)

These retired people from the Uniform services, namely the SAF, Police Force or the Civil Defense take up position in the other various ministries. MOE being the largest employer in Singapore (In my opinion only. Vague recollection of seeing it somewhere before. I did not really check it out), absorbed quite a number of these retired personnels.

They take up position as the Operation Manager of the School. They bring with them the years of experience in running the uniform groups into the schools. Sometimes they bring about a discipline and injected some into the students. Some other times, they help out with the logistic of the school, in helping to co-ordinating the building management and school buses. It relieved the School Administrator of some work. The teachers work load still remains the same.

Safety is an important aspect in our daily life. It is aided by common sense. This group of "retired" people from the Safety committee wants to document down the safety procedure in school. So what did this committee do, they delegate it down to the people on the ground to generate, collate and compile it for them to review. So these people who has no prior knowledge of the situation on the ground start to review this documents. What can they do? Do they know what is right? Have they done any job? Did they come down to quietly observe the situation? Sounds like easy money to me. They are bringing the "Eye power" from the SAF to MOE. 3G army so what? You still need people to run it. Scholars only read about it and talk about it. You need people to talk the talk and walk the walk. Do what they preach.

Who are the people on the ground? The teachers! The HODs! The principals! Every day they spent time handling the normal school stuff. They also had to handle the discipling, the morals, disputes, the homeworks, the parents, the queries brought up by the parents, the CCAs of the students, the co-ordinating of the CCAs events, school functions, staff welfare, small financial matters, photocopies worksheets, read emails, update the daily class lessons, do projects from MOE, provide feed back to new systems, mark test papers, handle teacher work load, arrange meetings, conduct workshops, managed expectations of the parent or public, source of vendors, generate publicity for the school, attend meetings, write email, write report, perform ranking of staff.... the list goes on. (I am sure there are more. But not being a teacher myself, these are some of the activities which I see happening from some of teachers, friends. And no wonder a large number of teacher marry within the same profession. They had no time to have a normal social life.)

So why do these committee had to generate additional work for the poor teachers? Why ask the teachers or HODs to come out with a school safety document? This is a huge task. Ask the committee to do some work. What is being done to help them? Mr Education minister can you say thing? You had admitted that the 5 day work week was an impossible thing. Yes, some teachers had to work on Sunday and public holiday too. And they do not get off-in-liew to compensate them for working on a rest day. (Like bring the children to the National Stadium for National Day parade)

Teaching is a joy. Imparting knowledge and morals is noble profession. However it is is being killed by tons and tons of paperwork. Sometimes unnecessary paper work. Too much meeting means lesser time to do work. Too many committee means too many meeting. Education industry has change plenty, but something still stays the same. Grooming and imparting values take a lot of time and it cannot be hurried. Express or Normal. EM1 or EM3, it is the same. Used to be that there are teachers who are in the teaching force all their life. Now, most wants to retire early. We still only have 8 hours a day.

Please don't give them more unnecessary work. Let them teach.

Ubuntu Edgy Eft on Intel T2400 processor

2007-01-09T22:53:00.000+08:00

Haa. Finally understand what all those article in the forum meant. I shall put that down into simple layman terms.

What I was trying to do was to update my standard Edgy Eft installation of Ubuntu to an SMP version of Edgy Eft.

Hardware:
Dell Inspiron 640M/E1405 with a Intel T2400 Duo Core processor.

Steps:
- Using the Synaptic Package Manager. Go to the Base System (Restricted) on the right hand side.
- Mark the Linux package. The description will say complete generic Linux Kernel.
(see the screen shot)
- Install the package and reboot.
- During the boot menu, choose the generic version and boot up that image.
- After system up, execute the command "cat /proc/cpuinfo". You should see 2 cpu registered. Alternatively the system monitor should show 2 cpu instead of 1.
- (Optional) Uncheck the Linux 386 package. Update the "/boot/grub/menu.lst" and remove the 386 option.

Thanks to the folks in the Ubuntu Forums! Thanks to google too!

Now you know too!

Linux Ubuntu- Edgy Eft

2007-01-08T22:52:00.000+08:00

Today is official. I am a 95% convert to Linux platform for my desktop.

Apart from Picasa, I am doing everything on my Linux desktop.

Google please update your picasa for linux. So that I will totally convert.

Go Ubuntu!! Go Linux!!

Will post my adventure on the installation soon. I hope.

Quotes

2007-01-03T12:46:00.000+08:00

I tried to capture the exact words that was on screen but before I can do that, the commercial was discontinued.

This is from the Discovery Channel.

"In Life, nothing is certain.
If you feel frighten, don't.
Embrace uncertainty and allow it to lead you to places.
Allow it to lead you to places.
Don't waste time on regrets.
Take each moment as it come.
And you if you find yourself lost,
simply take a break and start over again."

I am 95% sure I got the wording correct.
But heck this statement is motivational.

Hello 2007

2007-01-01T15:46:00.000+08:00

How did my 2007 start off?
If it made any sound, it would be like the turning of a page in a 1000++ page story book. IFF.

I know some had a loud bang! Other whizzing and popping of champagne. Maybe some minute number of people celebrate the passing of 2006 with some loud snore. Mine was just another page.
I spend the last few minutes of 2006 at a good friend house. A modest 3 room flat that was very much cosy for the newly wed. Some drink and home brew made me grounded for a few hours. During these festivities season, the traffic police are very much active and it is wise to avoid them and have a brush with the law with you standing on the wrong side of it. So just like another page, with lines and lines of sentences, we exchange notes, share our recent holiday photos. We talk about car, houses and career.

"What about the future?", people will ask. I don't know. What I want for the future? How about world peace? Nah. I am not that noble.

Getting Angry

2006-12-26T22:30:00.000+08:00

Today I witness another case of children going out of control. My young cousin is nagging his father, my uncle to go home. But he keep pushing it to later. He keep nagging and finally showed his temper.

I lose my temper too. Why are our children getting to be like that?

No father material in me.

5 more days to the death of 2006

2006-12-26T08:35:00.000+08:00

5 more sleeps till 2006 is over. How time fly.

This year was pretty eventful. Election was held this year, I left my company, rainfall was measured to be the highest in approx 20 years for Singapore... the list goes on and on.

Day 7 Eumundi market

2006-12-20T15:25:00.000+08:00

Eumundi Market. It is a pretty good place to spend some tourist buck. It full glory only open on Wednesday and Saturday from between 8:00 am to 1:30 pm in the afternoon.

This place is great. It has what the big supermarket lacks. Character and Art. Various artist , craftsman or woman gather here to sell their wares. Food included.

My recommendation is to visit this place at least once, when you are in Brisbane. Eumundi Market.

As you can see it is very popular. The carpark is full!!

Part of the Gold Coast

2006-12-20T15:13:00.000+08:00

The Gold Coast, the place to surf. Sun, Sand and the Sea.
Yes I got a sun burn.

Day 1 and 2 at Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort

2006-12-20T11:36:00.000+08:00

Day 1. After touchdown, we were whisked away to the jetty to catch the 1st boat ride for the day to the tangalooma, wild dolphin resort. This is our ride.

This is the view of the resort from the sea.
This is the resort from the jetty. That is not the reception build.
Yup. This is it.
The activity there are plenty. From snorkeling, diving, tanning to 4WD ride and sand toboggan.

Australia, DreamWorld Day 2

2006-12-13T21:43:00.000+08:00

I tried this ride too.

Tower Drop

2006-12-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

This is the tower drop. You are sent approximately 12 storey up. Then drop you down at terminal velocity.

My heart was at my throat when the drop happened. It slowly crawl back to it original place in my chest after a few seconds. Then when I started enjoying the speed and adrenaline , it slowed down. That was day 2.

Sunrise from 11000m in the air

2006-12-12T21:48:00.000+08:00

Seeing the sun rise so high up in the air, it is a sight to behold. No matter how many times I see it, it never fails to give me a sense of awe.

Sunrise sunset. It is another day again.

Sprains.

2006-12-09T10:34:00.000+08:00

A fall when I was in the army came back to haunt me. After that fall, I had a hairline crack in my little toe on my left leg. In addition, my knees had a sprain. I was unable to run properly for 1/2 year.

Now recently, it seems that taking up blading has cause unnecessary stress to the knees.

Now is all "ouch".

This site provides quite a bit of information on knee injuries.
http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/Knee_ligament_injuries.html

Singaporean and Lift

2006-12-04T18:53:00.000+08:00

At the end of 2006, I realize one thing. That thing is that there are some minute number of Singaporean who are ignorant of how the lift button works.

I was in the lift returning from my evening jog. The lift stop at 11th floor. A young girl of around 15 approached the lift wanting to enter. "Going up?", I asked. She turn towards an unseen companion and laugh. The lift door closed and continue its way up.

Lift Button and how it works
If you want to go up, press the up button. Any lift that is going up will stop when it is at your level.

If you want to go down, press the down button. Any lift that is going down will stop at your level.

Wireless at SG

2006-12-03T08:45:00.000+08:00

IDA's wireless at Sg plan seems to be working. However, the capability to handle large volume of traffic might not be there yet.

I was in the library yesterday with my laptop trying to surf using the wireless@sg connection. It prove abit of hassle as it did not reflect my password change. So I had to flip out my handphone to reference the password.

Apart from that, it was relativly smooth. Speed was acceptable from a public kiosk accessing internet.

However towards the end of my session, my connection dropped. I was redirected to a singtel wireless login page.

Huh?????? WTF!!!

I did not have time to find out more. to be con't ........ (if there is a 2nd time)

East Coast on a Thursday Afternoon.

2006-12-01T10:57:00.000+08:00

Must applogize for my sms. But I also want to share the view. It was a great day!

The big yellow and blue funiture mall

2006-11-30T18:37:00.000+08:00

This is day 1. Opening day for this big yellow and blue funiture mall. The big yellow sign point to the way we should enter. However, due to it being day 1 and crowd control measure being taken, it does not actually point to the place you enter.
What I did was to take the cargo lift to bypass the crowd queueing up to get into the mall.
Look at that queue! There are people more infront of them.
This is not a mall!! It is a wharehouse with airconditioning builtin. Furniture Furniture everywhere. All of them flat packed. Ready to roll from the shelf to your car, to your house. The size is huge. It took me more than 2hrs just to leisurely walk from the start to the end. This is without taking a look at all the stuff. Anyway it is just like the other branch. The only difference is the size and the spaciousness of the display.

A case of "Huh?"

2006-11-30T18:27:00.000+08:00

Caught this by chance. The expression on this kid face tells me that he is very interested. However he does not understand a heck bit of what his older sibling is trying to tell him.

"You lead. I will follow"

Fitness

2006-11-29T23:23:00.000+08:00

For 2 days in a row, I jogged.
Day 1:
I jogged continuously for 15min and 47 sec.
Did 2 sets of 4 chin ups, dips and some crunches.

Day 2:
I jogged continuously for 20min and 31 sec.
Did 0 chin up as my muscle are totally aching. Did 3 sets of 10 backpress and 3 sets of crunches.

Bear, watch out. I am going to be fit again.

Trends when having a break

2006-11-27T09:31:00.000+08:00

Now that I have way too much time to use, it is perhaps time to buck up on the use of grammar by writing. They say practice makes perfect.

The whole point of this blog is to document the fact which I noticed. Everytime when I am having a long break, I will fall sick first.

I had a bad flu on Friday. It was so bad that my muscle spasm. I feel the chest muscle and shoulder muscle tense up. Almost to the point of having cramps. Saturday feel the same. Not too many sneeze, but cough also conjured up the same muscle spasm. In addition to that, the flesh beside the spinal cord ache. It is like I did some hundreds of trunk bending exercise. Sunday feels much better. Muscle ache is still there. Sore throat subside a bit. Nose is blocked. But overall much better.

Well .... time to get things in action. Let me have a fresh start.

I am reinstalling my PC/Laptop.

Chapter 30: Frontline - End

2006-11-25T09:16:00.000+08:00

Another chapter of my life ended on the 24th Nov 2006. A short stint in or at the frontline*. I cannot say that it was a bad experience but neither is it a good one. There are also plenty of experiences in between the good and the bad.

Let start with the bad ones. I realize that argument is a argument is a argument. There is no good think about an argument. It leave me drain an unmotivated to work. Why is it an argument? It is because, the parties involve do not see eye to eye. My explanation does not answer the others question, neither did is reply address my concern. This is also the workplace where someone sitting close to me has to send an email to tell me what is going on. I hate this kind of environment. I also don't like it when you share ones opinion, the answer you get is "From the way I look at it........" (It stay that way. I still see it my way) . Lastly, for a company that claims to be a technological company, ie dealing with IT, you have to explain to the managers what are servers. Servers are servers and are valid in both the physical and software context. Weblogic Application Server is a software server. A cuboid metal box with wires sticking out of it, running HPUX, with 2 RISC CPU and a few hard disk is a hardware server. (There is now a new definition that is becoming more and more valid and that is a VM. A WM serving information from within another computer is also known as a server. The server within a server.)

The good things are always the hardest to part. It just happen to be the most intangible part of the whole experience. You gain friends and you share ideas. Lotiki - www.lotteryintelligence.com, bears the fruit of a small discussion starting from how to strike it rich. We talk about statistics and probability. Slowly we mind the official website for information. Stripping 20 years of 4D results and putting it into our own database. Surprisingly, we found that there are still numbers yet to be open on the 4D lottery. Sharing of experiences, some bring in view point of another part of the globe. How you think is influence by how where brought up.

Along the way in the middle of all these good and bad:
- I restarted my class 2B license lessons. (For those non local reading, in my country you need to have a license to ride a motorcycle. That license to ride is known as the class 2b license. It only allow you to ride motorcycle between the 0-200 cc range.)
- I learn a little about data center operations.
- Server relocation is a simple, but tough job. The dependencies are plenty and most are hidden within the complex, deceiving configuration files.
- I think someone deserved to be spank. If you say the thing is easy to do, then you do not need me to do a sizing of the work for you.
-IBM notebook are really good. I was issued a notebook with a warranty sticker shown to expire in 2000, it has a WIN98 compatible sticker. It is still running and its performance is rather decent if I do not open to many things at the same time. The thing is that it still works after what 7-8 years at least. The 12.1 inch form factor also make a the lightest laptop I ever had. Correction, it is a desktop replacement. The battery is dead. No plug in, No playing.
-My boss is really overloaded. Handling so many project at the same time and still don't display much signs of being burn. I am actually quite impress. But then signs being burn are creeping in.
-There are Naruto fans here too!
-The mince meat noodle at the coffeeshop near to the NTUC is great!
-I am getting better at playing pool. I won the last game against my colleague in the last game, 2-1.
-A colleague keep saying that I'm just too nice.
-Taking taxi some times can be a hassle. Some taxi drivers are full of complaints and while some has great philosophy of how life should be. But in summary, all of them disagree with the government on how they should handle the taxi company.
- I don't like to work late. I want my life, even if it is plain and boring.
- Things get done not because of an email, but because of a nice "please" and "Coffee on me".
- I get to work on my birthday. Which I normally try to take the day off.
- There are quite a number of female staff with very nice curves in the frontline.
- Drinking milk give you power. The term is milk power.
- There are backline in the frontline.

Well now I am in search of new ideas, a future, healthier and better life. I wish whoever is coming in good luck.

* not referencing the war. Frontline is a local Company doing IT.

Slow. Turning Ahead.

2006-11-23T02:30:00.000+08:00

In a matter of hours, I would be free. Free from the mundane tasks impose by the need to survive in the mordern society.

I see myself making a big change ahead. Time to slow down and prepare myself for the turn.

This is our beach.

2006-11-19T21:48:00.000+08:00

This a first world country's beach. Somehow, the education of the citizen is still not up to standard yet. I guess all the elite's hands cannot be dirtied and will not soil their hand to pick up the trash that was generated by them.

But then as a responsible earthling, we must all do our part to keep the environment clean. Less plastic, more plants. Less waste, more money.

Photo Shoot.

2006-11-13T21:18:00.000+08:00

Had a great time over the weekend. The five of us meet up for breakfast at TiongBahru newly renovated market place. After a bowl or Lor Mee, we move on to Telok Blangah Hill Park.

So like we move around the hill 6 times like this, 2 camera men and 2 cameras. The total photo equipments on my car at that time was probably in the range of 10K ++.

Suprizingly, all of us had a car of different make and model. We had a Honda Civic, Renault Megane, Hyundai Matrix, Toyota Altis and Mitsubishi Lancer.

From Car Photo Shoot

Rain.

2006-11-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

Dark clouds was in the horizon as I was traveling on the TPE towards Woodlands. I can see the not just the dark clouds but the rain that was falling from heavens. It was like fuzzy dotted line being drawn from the clouds to the earth below. It was visible.

That was even before the first drop of rain hit my vehicle. The raindrop was big and heavy and the sound on it made on the roof of Matrix almost drown the radio blasting away. It was one of the heaviest rain I ever encounter.

Budget Terminal

2006-11-08T22:01:00.000+08:00

This is the departure hall of Singapore Budget terminal. Big and open, like a big warehouse. Hey wait a minute, it was a big warehouse. This is also a case where budget was terminally small.

2 Person 3 Glasses.

2006-11-08T08:19:00.000+08:00

2 person sitting down with 3 glasses.

Changi Airport Terminal 2

2006-11-08T07:58:00.000+08:00

The new terminal 2. Recently renovated in conjunction to the hosting of the IMF talk in Singapore. Another effort to that failed to impress.

It does not mean that it is not good looking or energy efficient, but the reason for the renovation is totally wrong.

Furthermore, the T2 viewing gallery is now no longer there. Back in 14 years ago the viewing gallery was right at the glass. It was the closest we can get without actually being a paying flying customer. Now that space is reclaim by the transit lounge.

I want this for my Birthday Present

2006-11-07T23:34:00.000+08:00

I always wanted a Remote control plane. This baby really looks good. Power and speed. I wonder about the endurance?

Air, Land and Sea. Wooww!

I want one for christmas. I just cannot wait till my next birthday.

Footlose

2006-11-05T10:36:00.000+08:00

Sandals and slippers. Comfort and convience.

Slip on and slip off. Wear and go. With the sturdy, durable and hard rubber sole, this pair of Outlander Slipper is really great.

Giving up seats.

2006-11-03T21:24:00.000+08:00

Call me a bias but I noticed that males give up their seats in public transport for pregnant lady more often than females?

Whereas on the other hand more ladies give up their seats to those who had small children or babies?

Why?

Setting your Targets

2006-10-31T23:04:00.000+08:00

Every now and then your bosses will pester you with target settings. The normal questions asked are, what do you see yourself doing 1 year from now? What do you intend to achieve? The standard managerial questions.

Me, I never know what to say. In IT the things changes so fast. So does my goals. But something never change, I want to be happy.

Well another kind of target settings, which are hard but in the physical sort of way. Here we are setting the targets in the GPMG range. 3G army still uses the old method to set the targets, hammer, target board, sweat and muscle ache.

MIB

2006-10-24T14:05:00.000+08:00

These are space shuttle in disguise. Actually the country has establish contact with extra terrestial and they has established a space port here.