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.
Showing posts with label Grumble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grumble. Show all posts
Resouce No Enough
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!!
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!!
Changes.
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.
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.
CNN vs BBC
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.
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.
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?
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
Ha. Finally recognition. It is a bug. Hmmm wonder why it was not return in the search. Yet.
Missing Left Mirror.
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.
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.
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!
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!!!
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:
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.xe="
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 “idle-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 “pool-resize-quantity
†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
“idle-timeout-seconds†may cause an extremely many database connection creat
ion calls (since idle
connections will be destroy
My new phone.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Car Ownership and Road Availability
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.
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.
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 |
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
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.
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.
NS and Reservist.
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.
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.
400th Post
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?
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?
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.)
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.)
Thought of the week
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.
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.
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.
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.
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