Driving to LA For Thanksgiving

Started 8:30, arrived at Simi around 14:15.

Drive By Texting

Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 7:48 PM: Start
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 8:01 PM: CA134+I5
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 8:13 PM: I5+CA118
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 8:27 PM: I5+CA126
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 8:54 PM: Gorman
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:01 PM: Fort Tejon <- going down the hill!
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:06 PM: Grapevine <- bottom of the hill
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:10 PM: I5+CA99
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:22 PM: I5+Exit#234
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:30 PM: I5+CA119
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:01 PM: I5+CA46
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:26 PM: I5+CA41
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:34 PM: I5+City:Avenal
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:47 PM: I5@Harris Ranch
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:00 PM: I5+CA33
Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:22 PM: Leaked and refilled the organic glob in Mobil Mart at Panoche Rd
No time stamp:at 12:00 AM: I5+CA152 <- no texting from here
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:47 AM: Refilled car at Shell - Gilroy
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:51 AM: CA152+US101
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:08 AM: US101+CA85
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:13 AM: CA85+CA87
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:18 AM: CA87+I280
Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:35 AM: New Home <- signing out!

I Hate Packing Again

I hate packing my crap again, now it is for good: I need to survive in Sunnyvale.

Talking To Human Is Better

Ordering AT&T services from website is a pain in the @$$. It is still easier and nicer to talk to human.

Monterey Bay Fish Grotto

1411 Grandview Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15211
Tel: (412) 481-4414

http://www.montereybayfishgrotto.com/pittsburgh/

Great view for dining and hanging out (bar/lounge is downstairs)
Food: go straight for the Chilean Sea Bass. The tuna cut is horrible. Raymond said the crab cake is good, better than Barbara Jean's.

Jerome Bettis' Grille 36

393 N. Shore Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Tel: 412-224-6287

http://www.jeromebettisgrille36.com/

Il Pizzaiolo

703 Washington Rd.
Mt Lebanon, PA
Tel: (412) 344-4123

Save your money for Mozza, it might be authentic, but it is crappy.

Killing RDP Session

It seems that some idiots prefer to click the x, of RDP client, rather than logging off the session properly. Clicking the x would leave the session exists in disconnected status, but not destroyed.

This is the remedy (besides bashing their heads repeatedly).

Query for the session IDs:

> qwinsta /SERVER:[server name]

SESSIONNAME       USERNAME         ID  STATE   TYPE        DEVICE
console           username          0  Active  wdcon
rdp-tcp                         65536  Listen  rdpwd
                  jackass1          1  Disc    rdpwd
                  jackass2          2  Disc    rdpwd

Now, kill those stranglers:

> logoff 1 /SERVER:[server name]
> logoff 2 /SERVER:[server name]

Remember: you need to be an administrator of [server name] to do this.

More command line goodies: http://dev.remotenetworktechnology.com/cmd/tscmd.htm

Supported microSD Capacity for BlackBerry

Found this KB via BerryReview.com while plugging 16GB microSD @ amazon.

BlackBerry Device Software	Media Card Size Limit
BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.0	Up to 2 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.1	Up to 4 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.2	Up to 4 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.3.0	Up to 8 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.5.0	Up to 8 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.5.0.81 and later	Up to 16 GB
BlackBerry Device Software 4.6.0 and later	Up to 32 GB

My Sister the Sadist

Sent me on an errand finding LA Times (or any reputable paper) after 7PM, knowing them would be hot cakes. Upon arriving home empty handed, I caught her giggling at one hissing and pissed off Gordon - the Beeb version.

John McCain's Concession Speech

A noble speech delivered by John McCain. I'll miss rooting for him.

Link: FoxNews.com RAW DATA: Text of John McCain's Concession Speech.

Flu Vaccine

I hope it doesn't drag me down this week.

Mitsuwa Food Court

675 Saratoga Avenue
San Jose, CA 95106

Te: (408) 255-6699

http:/www.mitsuwa.com

OMG! It is horrible! C'est abominable. I am going to miss the one in Costa Mesa.

Joy Restaurant

1489 Beach Park Blvd
Foster City, CA, 94404

Tel: (650) 345 1762

Signing My Life Away

My prison for the next six months: Sunnyvale.

Drive By Texting (While It Is Still Legal)

Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 8:00 PM: Start, filled up @ arco, pasadena, rosemead+foothill 2.75

Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 9:22 PM: Me at bakersfield - jct 5 + 99
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 9:42 PM: Jct 5 + 119
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 9:52 PM: Gps sez eta in 3:45
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 10:13 PM: Jct 5 + 46
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 10:41 PM: Jct 5 + 41
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 10:50 PM: Wth is avenal, ca?
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:04 PM: Harris ranch!
Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:31 PM: Bored. 40 mi to 152

[Extremely bored ... decided to hit the warp drive]

Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 12:03 AM: Junct 5 + 152
Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 12:43 AM: Jct 152 + 101
Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 1:11 AM: Jct 101 + 880
Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 1:18 AM: Here at ida's

[Finally arrived... so tired]

Chuck Norris' Roundhouse Kick

Another Chuck Norris dialogue by John Hodgman:

New Orleans: What is the force of a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick?

John Hodgman: The force of a single roundhouse kick from Chuck Norris=one American Chuck.
In England, however, they use the old Imperial Chuck, which is the equivalents to 1.34 American Chucks.
That is all.

Where Is Your Cheese?

Found the best analogue between the bankers, who are supposed to safe guard the financial system, and the doctors:

When Britto started learning how to fly an airplane back in the 1999,
he was struck by how much easier it was for pilots to accept flight
support software. "I asked my flight instructor what he thought
accounted for the difference," Britto said. "He told me, 'It is very
simple, Joseph. Unlike pilots, doctors don't go down with their
planes.'"

Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres, Pg. 110 - Ch. 4 How Should Physician Treat Evidence-Based Medicine?

Syndicating Website Updates

Several good websites just don't have the latest technology, e.g.: News Releases page of National Ignition Facility web page doesn't have RSS feed. Yet, they have the biggest laser gun that you want to pay attention to.

Kephra is another editor written in Perl and wxPerl, it is very promising project, but it still doesn't have the major functionality that I want: folding. I need to monitor the updates from time to time.

Knowing me, I'll forget to visit them later in the future.

Enter getNews.pl.

Currently the script downloads those two web pages, parse the news section for updates and send it to my GMail account. There are several reasons why it has to go to GMail:

1. Google Reader for Mobile (GRfM) on BlackBerry is web based application, extremely slow to skip junks.
2. GRfM is build on GWT framework: the URL of all anchors begins with http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=[URL encoded URL]. It is extremely messy and unusable when I want to email it and save the URL to delicious later.
   
3. GMail client on BlackBerry is well suited for quick feed browsing (it supports short cuts), except it suffers at displaying web content: it doesn't display format, image and anchor (let along embedded web content), but it does recognize URL in plain text and anchor it.
4. GMail has been my premier to do list, I just star the item as a reminder to delicious it - yumm.

Me Too - In The State Of Shock And Disbelief

I am in the state of shock and disbelief over Greenspan's state of shock and disbelief.

This is the problem: the people, he thought, would safe guard the system could live in relative comfort - 7 live times over - even if the system recesses by 50%.

The scenario could be a lot different, if the people that safe guard the system should stand to lose their wealth (along with their heads) if the system recesses by 10%.

It is all about incentives.

Gordon Ramsay at The London

1020 N. San Vicente Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Tel: (310) 358-7788

It is alright --

BlackBerry 8830

Go to hell with the world, they can follow CR, he blogged while hiking too.

I am in love with my new BB8830.

BB8830 World Edition

Just received the good, makes me wonder: what is world edition?

Next: customization time!

Bailout Related News

DJIA 9387.61 +936.42 (11.08%)

You thought DJIA is good indicator of credit crisis? CR begs to differ: Credit Crisis: Watching for Signs of Progress. BTW, that TED spread still too high: 4.5+.

I would have put that article on my best reading for today if only Krugman wasn't chosen today as a Nobel Laureate. Congratulation!

Free money! NY Times: U.S. Investing $250 Billion in Banks. According to this graph: BOA 25B, Citigroup 25B, JPMorgan Chase 25B, Wells Fargo 25B, Goldman Sachs 10B, Morgan Stanley 10B, Bank of New York 2-3B, State Street 2-3B. Should I be happy about this?

Great DJ By The Ting Tings

Never use bad headphones.
Give any music a second chance.

Beautiful Day

Apparently the Canadian left the door opened last night and chilly wind blew across Southern California.

The result, chill, clear day bathed by the warmth from the sun.

Bailout Related News

Mr Bush spoke this morning at 10:30 PT and I think he spooked the wrong people since the DJIA tanked. I didn't parse his speech since I was in bug hunting mode.


CR wasn't too happy about the credit market: TED spread hit 4.65.

G7 said something vanilla and Krugman was not impressed at all.

DJIA 8451.19 -128.00 (-1.49%)

Bailout Related News

Ah... beautify morning, no bloody news and DJIA was up by 100+, CR quipped about TED spread being the highest (ever) at 4.13, and then NY Times broke a sobering news: U.S. Considers Cash Injections Into Banks.

Ms. Perino said the “capital injections” into the banks would involve “an equity stake” for the federal government but would not amount to a takeover.

LOL - what a good BS, this is hostile take over plan.

Apparently Treasury intended to execute the plan, played by the Brits yesterday. This caused DJIA to tank 670 something points. Later, NY Times provided explanation: Plan B: Flood Banks With Cash. No wonder the rabbits were running away from the hole.

Skimming through Economists (latest edition):
Silent busts: More Chinese businesses are collapsing—though you would never know it

DJIA 8579.19 -678.91 (-7.33%)

BB8703e Replacement

Conversation around 2PM PT

Debbie: Are you ready for your new phone?
Me: Yeah!

Bailout Related News

This morning, the Fed dropped the key interest rate 0.5% to 1.5%, along with its buddies around the world. And why is marketplace.com shocked?
NPR: Fed Orders Emergency Cut In Key Interest Rate
NPR: Fed Cuts Rate In Conjunction with Europe
Market Place: Coordinated rate cuts unprecedented

I was wondering where are these people getting their TED spread graph, now i know, thanks to NPR Money Blog.

I was chuckling yesterday when McCain mentioned 'stabilizing home value'. Yeah, how do you stabilize a bursting bubble? After thinking the debate through, I thought: yet another debate, nothing to blog about. What I didn't expect was he is dumb enough to run with a new plan. 300B? I'll try to default too, sign me up! Let's race to the bottom.
NPR: McCain Proposes $300 Billion Mortgage Buyout Plan

A.I.G. got another blood transfusion, now the real question is: How much will the execs blow off for fun? Last time they blew off 400K in CA.
NY Times: Fed Gives A.I.G. $37.8 Billion Loan
NPR: AIG Executives Visit Posh Retreat After Bailout

DJIA 9,258.10 -189.96 (-2.01%) - still the God of Destruction is not appeased.

Bailout Related News

Several stuff happened today/late last night:

NPR: Mr. Bailout: The Man Chosen To Oversee $700B, eerily reminded me of Paulson. Mr Suck Up or is it plain shaving accident?

NPR: Bernanke Hints At Rate Cuts, as the market tumbles.

This American Life: Episode 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy, listening to this just ruined my day.

DJIA 9,447.11 -508.39 (-5.11%) - Fed buying CP doesn't appease Wall St too.

Fed To Fund Commercial Paper (Asset Backed Or Not)

FRB: Press Release--Board announces creation of the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) to help provide liquidity to term funding markets.

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the creation of the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF), a facility that will complement the Federal Reserve's existing credit facilities to help provide liquidity to term funding markets. The CPFF will provide a liquidity backstop to U.S. issuers of commercial paper through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will purchase three-month unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper directly from eligible issuers. The Federal Reserve will provide financing to the SPV under the CPFF and will be secured by all of the assets of the SPV and, in the case of commercial paper that is not asset-backed commercial paper, by the retention of up-front fees paid by the issuers or by other forms of security acceptable to the Federal Reserve in consultation with market participants. The Treasury believes this facility is necessary to prevent substantial disruptions to the financial markets and the economy and will make a special deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in support of this facility.

...

OMG - why do we have to do the stupid 700B when we could do this too boost liquidity in the first place?

100 Skills Every Man Should Know

Scored 28 - man that is low. Also: do I have to have a kid to prove that I am a man?

Links:
Popular Mechanics: 100 Skills Every Man Should Know: 2008's Ultimate DIY List

Bailout Related News

NY Times: Lehman Managers Portrayed as Irresponsible, this public flogging will not help the situation.

DJIA 9,955.50 -367.02 (-3.56%) - exciting, 700B bailout virgin doesn't appease Wall St.

Bush's Lackey Talks

Ok, I was driving along I-5 when this commentary came up via KPCC. I can not believe the audacity of the comparison between the bail out between Wall St and Main St.

Let's calculate the real number, shall we?
Pennsylvania Ave - 3T wasted on bailing out of the 51st state (Iraq).
Wall St - 700B (1st installment of many to come) + 85B AIG bail out + Lehman + ... = 900B
Main St - 100B for the stimulus package (1-2008) + 180B (supplement to 700B Wall St bail out) = 280B

Man ... Talk about progressive bail out. Me? Receive 0 dollar so far. This pisses me off, I haven't been bailed off, yet I am part of Main St.

Weather

WTF - Temperature variances are high!

Day	High	Low	Diff
Mon	88	59	29
Tue	94	61	33
Wed	94	59	35
Thu	85	58	27

NPR Will Implement OpenID - Just Not Now

Great! I just noticed that NPR put comment box at the end of the article.



But, I'll wait until OpenID is implemented - just as promised or hoped.

Spring Street Smoke House

640 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel: (213) 626-0535

http://www.sssmokehouse.com/

California's Financial Problem Causes USA To Pay 700B

Huh -

I didn't expect Boxter comes forward to clean her hands so quickly, apparently nanny needs to roll over her credit cards, badly.

Pathetic.

Paulette Macarons

9466 Charleville Boulevard at Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Tel: (310) 275-0023

http://www.paulettemacarons.com/

After Mozza, we decided to go to LA Farmers Market at Fairfax and walked into Mr. Marcel Gourmet Market, I found out that they sell macarons by Paulette. Lisa tasted one of them and green lighted me to buy them.

We brought it home and I am instantly hooked after eating the sweet wedding almond, besides: it doesn't taste like the original macarons - it's better!

Pizzeria Mozza

641 N. Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel:(323) 297-0101

http://www.mozza-la.com/pizzeria/about.cfm

We (Lisa, John and I) had:

• Bone Marrow al forno
• Funghi misti, fontina, taleggio & thyme
• Tomato, mozzarella, sausage, salami, bacon & guanciale
• Butterscotch budino

Heavens!

Free BlackBerries!

Holly molly! Sprint throws away tons of BlackBerries (8830) to LPS.

We'll see when I'll receive mine.

Bail Out Is Passed By House

NPR: House Passes Financial Bailout Bill.

This is the list of the sell outs.

I'll give Paulson 4 months to vaporize the fund. Apparently Krugman agrees. Have fun paying it back America.

Update:
Whoa! I don't know that NPR could be so cynical by equating the bailout of the riches to WWII and Civil Rights: Bush's Quick Signature Not Unprecedented.

The House of Representatives passed the big bailout and almost immediately President Bush signed the measure. There have been other occasions when the wheels of government have moved this quickly: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's declaration of war on Dec. 8, 1941, and President Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Bill on July 2, 1964.

California Bans Texting While Driving

Nanny state in action again, according to SB 28 (status), a person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication.

It was approved by Governor Schwarzenegger at September 24, 2008.

KPCC (August 22, 2008 2:55 PM) Bill to ban texting while driving passes both houses in Legislature.
KPCC (August 25, 2008 9:58 AM) Text messaging while driving may soon be illegal.

Best Response so far from berryreview.com: How about putting on Make-up and driving? Can’t they ban that too!?!

While it is rolling down the hill, why not ban:

• sleeping
• daydreaming
• fiddling with your stereo
• finding stuff in your glove box
• ... (help me find ridiculous idea and put it in the comment box)
  

while driving.

You May Now Mount Your GPS Properly

Nanny state decided that you now may mount GPS on your windshield, read carefully certain restrictions apply.

Links:
Engadget: Windshield GPS mounting legalized again in California.
California State Senate: SB 1567: Windshield: GPS device by Oropeza, chaptered.

iPod FM module

I have been jonesing for public radio since I got the iPod nano. Just bought the iPod FM module, and I think I like it since the sound quality is excellent.

Let me take stubby on the train.

Link:
Apple Support: iPod Radio Remote: Frequently Asked Questions.
Macworld: Review: Apple iPod Radio Remote.

The Olden Day

I miss the time when cynicism was still running wild and Mortgage Pig was cute.

Update:
Calculated Risk: Congress keeps hammering on the Paulson's plan, no CEO knee capping yet.
Calculated Risk: Meanwhile WAMU is picked up by JPMorgan.

I need to start keeping tab of market cap of JPMorgan, Citi and BOA.

Congress Goes Dark On Bailout Plan

No wonder I didn't hear much today, it is still the same rant. Looks like Paulson might buckle, since the constituents are flooding their reps with rage.

OTOH: papa bear comes out with a speech that similar to his Iraq war sales pitch. FUD no substance. Remember guys: it was just a matter of emphasis.

Link:
Calculated Risk: videos.
NY Times: Paulson Works the Hill, Trying to Close the Deal.
NY Times: Lawmakers’ Constituents Make Their Bailout Views Loud and Clear.
NPR: Lawmakers Hear From Voters Angry About Bailout.
CNBC: Paulson Agrees to CEO Pay Limits in Bailout Plan. <- more good stuff in here besides the pay limit. Pointed out by Calculated Risk.

Gmail Webmail Push

Every time I send email to my Gmail account, it pops up on the web client once it arrives.

Push in action.

Shifting ItemTo The Top When It Is Viewed

This is a nice feature of Google Reader, when an item is viewed, it will shift the item to the top of the view.

Open any item: it will be shifted to the top.



Hit 'j', it will open the next item and shift it to the top.



This actually helps me with quick scanning the items: instead of hitting page down to expose the next headline, I always see it and immediately hit 'n' to skip it.

Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke Testify Before Senate Banking Committee

Apparently the blackmail doesn't work. What do you expect from a plan that doesn't have accountability? Not to mention 'moral hazard'.

Links:
NY Times: Buyout Plan for Wall Street Is a Hard Sell on Capitol Hill.
The blogs are a blazed with outrage Krugman, CR, Freakonomics, even Tyler is cynical with hanky-panky.

T Mobile G1 Announcement

Didn't have time to check the video of the first android phone.

Link:
Video here.

Two Largest iBanks Go cBanks

Two largest investment banks (GS and MS), the last of the big 5 ibanks (GS, MS, LEH, MER, BSC), decided to restructure it selves into commercial banks. Need liquidity.

Link:
Market Place: Last 2 investment banks throw in towel
NY Times: Starting a New Era at Goldman and Morgan

Looks like we are alone.

Relevant news:
NY Times: Europe and Japan Balk at U.S. Request on Bank Aid
Russia (Putin) won't deal with lame ducks.
The middle-easterners were burned when they bought the shares of banks last March.
It is all quiet at China's front.

Paulson Bailout Plan

Pointed by Krugman.

I, as non economist, don't like this:

Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority
of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and
may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Great, now I want to be the Secretary of Treasury.

Link:
NY Times: Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan

Update: comment by boing2: Hank Paulson's bailout 419 letter
Update: relabeled as 'hanky-panky'

Short List

It's amusing to watch the Free Market warriors are turning to the government to 'regulate' or bluntly: halt the shorting of financial stocks, yet it is LMAO, reading other companies (such as: General Electric Co., American Express, Capital One) are fighting their way into the list.

The free market rules are being rewritten nowadays.

Links:
NPR: SEC Bans Short Selling Financial Stocks
Calculated Risk: Non-Short List Companies: Me Too! Me Too!

Setting Up Display On Dell Dimension 3100/E310

Get the graphic driver:

1. Go to Dell.com
2. Click Drivers & Downloads
3. Enter Service Tag
4. Download Intel video driver that applies to 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family
5. Run the executable file (R126541.EXE)
6. For ViewSonic vx1935wm, set the resolution to 1400x1050, 16bit and 75Hz refresh rate.
   

Love The Automated News Harvester

I love it when machine makes mistakes:

1. Automated News Crawling Evaporates $1.14B: 2002 calls, wants United Airlines to bankrupt again.
2. Google News Has Russian Army Invading Savannah, GA: apparently there is only one Georgia in Google News' mind.
   

Concentration Of Credits

As more banks fail, coins are being concentrated to lesser institutions.

BOA has:

1. Picked up Countrywide to bolster their mortgage division
2. Picking up Merrill Lynch to create security brokerage division

Merger through docile takeover ...

Sumiya Japanese Charcoal Grill

5160 Moorpark Ave.
San Jose, CA 95129
(408)-973-0604
http://www.sumiyakitori.com

Liver and grilled scallop with wasabi sauce...

John Wayne Airport Is Not Friendly

Pro:

1. Close to office.
   
2. Lots of chairs.

Con:

1. Horrible TSA line: one TSA person per line (experience/casual/business).
   
2. No electrical outlets.
   
3. No free wi-fi.
4. Wi-fi (t-mobile or admiral room) signal is horrible at gate 6.
5. Airline ticket via SNA could be expensive, LAX or ONT is cheaper.
6. Parking is expensive (the cheapest one is $14/day).

Bitching circumstance:

1. The TSA manager made us walk to the entrance at Terminal A from B.

The Economist Redefines Recession

From the economist.com:

To the average person, a large rise in unemployment means a recession. By contrast, the economists’ rule that a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of falling GDP is silly. If an economy grows by 2% in one quarter and then contracts by 0.5% in each of the next two quarters, it is deemed to be in recession. But if GDP contracts by 2% in one quarter, rises by 0.5% in the next, then falls by 2% in the third, it escapes, even though the economy is obviously weaker. In fact, America’s GDP did not decline for two consecutive quarters during the 2001 recession.

However, it is not just the “two-quarter” rule that is flawed; GDP figures themselves can be misleading.

Thus:

This suggests that it makes more sense to define a recession as a period when growth falls significantly below its potential rate.

I really don't like "potential rate" slapped at the end, I believe I like "expected rate", in which tightly coupled with population growth and "realistic" prevailing wages.

Related link:
Bernancke Refuses To Say R....

Busy Fall

Monday

• Top Gear (BBCA) 20:00 or 23:00
  
• Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicle (FOX) 20:00
  

Tuesday:

• House (FOX) 20:00
  
• Fringe (FOX) 21:00
• The Shield (FX) 22:00

Friday:

• Clone Wars (Cartoon) 21:00
  

Blogs I Am Following

... is another bad implementation of Google's recent spark of enhancement.

I saw double entries in my Google Reader when I add a blog from it. Plus - why is it accepting entries such as boing2.net?

Abominable!

Francophile

Yes, it's oxymoron, but consider these:

1. Metric system
2. Gastronomy
3. Liberté, égalité, fraternité

The Google Chrome: Lame!!!

Several thoughts about this announcements of Google Chrome:

1. OS is not Browser, vice versa.
   
2. OMG, let's go move on - I thought the browser war has ended: when FF was released, while Webkit and Opera were suckling on the mobile market.
3. Google is lamer, each day.
   

Relevant links:
Google OS Is Actually a Browser: Google Chrome
A fresh take on the browser

Omnivore 100

Following Justin Mason's Omnivore 100, I decided to do one of mine.

It is created using Google doc and it is published here.

Lightscreen Portable

I am following RSS of Portable Apps and 3 days ago the outfit released Lightscreen: an application that automates tedious task of saving the screen shots to files. The application saves the image of screen/window/screen, stored in clipboard, to a specified folder (several formats available: jpg, bmp or png), and the files are distinguished by number or time stamp.

This application would be a good addition to the toolbox of any QA person, and the portable nature of this application allows it to be used on any computer by user, even the one that has the lowest permission.

The application is available for download here.

Groogy Day

It is not my intention to bore people, who happened to encountered this channel, by writing dry excerpts of what have I done in the office for a day ... but I believe it keeps me sane.

AgentTrax smoke test scripts execution @ qaweb-jax always fail with unknown application server failure. To remedy this, I am switching it to 4:ooAM PT from 6:00.

Trax smoke test scripts execution @ scmjaxbld2 is fully automated, double clicking RDP icon will launch the smoke test for qac environment. This environment is reserved for SCM people.

Setting up Trax smoke test scripts execution @ qaweb-jax, this environment is reserved for QA.

1. Merge Trax's Common library to main, execute AgentTrax's helpdesk script to verify.
2. Removing static folder references in Trax's code.
   

Pack and send LoadRunner controller machine to JAX.

Side note: JAX office is closed due to Hurricane Fay.

Gremlins In The System

HP machines for Dan and FJ arrive today, will add Windows XP to the secondary drive. While building the XP special installation image, I accidentally killed the FAT32 table of my flash drive, I pay this mistake dearly: staying up late restoring the files.

I have no idea why the Trax automation script fails fairly often today. Also, RDP process is sucking CPU resources dry when the Trax automation script is running. DLP (fcag.exe) is acting up too.

Side note: JAX office is closed due to Hurricane Fay.

Installed OS4.2.1.119 On BB8703e

Upgrade from OS4.2.1.110. I am digging through the web for change notes for this version.

Work

Did:

1. Transferred AgentTrax smoke test scripts to qaweb-jax, set the tests to go off daily.
2. AgentTrax: lender1 script is barfing at bus_nm for lal. Still examining the SQL.
3. Trax application is down today - can't do anything.
4. Didn't do anything on eDoc Portal

Sansa e260 Media Player @ Woot

Have to decline:

1. Hate the custom USB cable: I hate having tons of cable, USB A-B should suffice.
2. File transfer has to go through special software

OTOH:

1. The price is sweet: 4GB for 40$ total
2. Expansion slot for Micro SD
3. FM tuner & recorder

I have iPod Nano, but I hate it since it is such a pain to upload audio files, plus it doesn't have FM tuner. Looks like I have to wait until Creative drops something on woot.

Globalisation And Health Care

Taken from The Economist: Operating Profit

Slavoj Zizek On Love

I was cleaning up the RSS items when I stumble upon this post from MR about Slavoj Zize:

Q: What does love feel like? A: Like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.
Q: Have you ever said 'I love you' and not meant it? A: All the time. When I really love someone, I can only show it by making aggressive and bad-taste remarks.

Ah ... the curse of men.

A Month Of Using Twitter

After a month of usage, I believe it is a pretty good platform to monitor the quick status of the person/entity, you are following and jotting down random non-sense.

I need to blow these nags out:

1. The 140 characters limitation is cramping my style!
2. No line breaks.
   
3. Invite from other networks function keeps crashing and burning.

First Time In SNA

Modern, narrow, and tall: those are the qualities that rush through my mind when I stepped into the terminal.

If only I knew iphang will be late, I could have paid more attention to the details of geek traveling amenities: electrical outlet/station, wifi and elixir of life dispensers (coffee vendors).

Ramen House Ryowa

859 Villa St
Mountain View, CA 94041
Tel: (650) 965-8829

Weekend In San Jose

Gitesh and co are visiting family up there and I decided to tag along. We started the trip from the office at 2:45, but it took more than 3 hours to go through the muck of LA's Friday afternoon traffic.

In the end, I arrived at the hotel around 10:30PM.

Nobody Drive 55 MPH Anymore in SoCal

I was driving 55 mph all the way to Simi Valley to conserve fuel, amazingly, I noticed that people were still driving 70 mph on average.

We are doomed...

No LA Tofu Festival This Year

Links:
Tofu Festival Killed
Quoting from The Official Site, which content might change anytime:

Dear Tofu Festival Attendees, Vendors and Supporters,

Thank you for your many years of support. We’ve enjoyed delicious tofu dishes with you under the sun for the last twelve years and thank you for helping to make the LA Tofu Festival one of the top food festivals in Los Angeles. As redevelopment in Little Tokyo and Downtown Los Angeles continues to boom, venues for such a large scale event have become scarce.

As they say, all good things must come to an end and so the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) says farewell to the LA Tofu Festival. We hope you will continue to frequent the restaurants, shops and events in Little Tokyo. We also hope you’ll stay in touch with the LTSC family and join us at “La Vida Sake,” the 3rd Annual Sake and Food Tasting Benefit on Thursday, May 22nd. For other sponsorship opportunities, please contact Noelle at nito@LTSC.org.

Sincerely,

The LA Tofu Festival

Damn, I was looking forward to attend this event.

Earth Quake

It hit when we were eating lunch at CostCo this morning, one might think that it is weird to eat lunch at 11:40 but a trial of hot dogs bee line at 12:00 might change your mind. When the first shock wave hit, I thought a truck might hit the building, afterward I just enjoyed the prolong shaking.

The earth quake caused all kind of havoc, Metrolink trains were rescheduled, since the company ordered a rail inspection and the first train to pass the route has to run at 20 mph. Luckily ours was not late, San Bernardino people were going home 60 min late.

Circumventing McAfee DLP Filter

The application is blocking iTunes library definition file (iTunes Music Library.xml)

Tried these steps to trick to filter:

1. Compress the file using winzip and transfer - fail.
2. Change the extension of compressed filename to .mp3 and transfer - fail.
3. Change the extension of compressed filename to .txt and transfer - fail.
4. Compress the file using 7zip and transfer - pass.
   

All the sudden, I remember Darwin.

Second Shift, Second Job

Works for 3 hours trying to piece together a news/content website, thank god, I am tired. Mainly dealing with Joomla and WordPress.

Man, I really hate Joomla, it is POS.

Menu Unlock Doesn't Work

If I can't unlock using the menu anymore, why bother having the "Unlock" button/selection?



Clicking Unlock will send you this dialog:

Alarm Menu Is Not Intuitive

Why the menu is defaulted to "Copy" after I change the time? Shouldn't it be "Close"?

Installed JL_Cmder To Capture BB Screen Shot

Downloaded JL_Cmder from blackberryfreaks.com, and using it to capture the screen shots on the BB. There are others commands such as deviceinfo, eventlog, wipe and resettofactory (hopefully I wouldn't use the last two).

I will write more of this utility once I figure out more.

The Flaw Of Twitter Private Message Workflow

Interesting, the problem, I encountered, is due to me following a fellow, so he could send me a private message. But, since he didn't follow me, I couldn't reply to his private message.

Screwed up workflow - me think.

Wrong Again

Took a wrong train again, instead of going to LAUS, I was being taken to San Bernardino. Luckily, I wised up and jumped off at Corona.

I could have arrived home at 6:30 instead of 8, damn.

Going Home Early

Someone took down the DB to the app that I am testing and conducted maintenance for 10 hours. I am going home.

Twit Error

wth? This is achieved by replying to direct message.

Sign Up With Twitter

Alright, I will sign up with Twitter. It doesn't really matter much since I have already treated this blog like micro-blog.

Atomichelix Notify! For BlackBerry Works

Read about it from BerryReview.com and I like the functionality, it is better to have some email saved to your Notes application instead of on the saved folder. It starts working after I upgrade to OS4.2.

Installed OS4.2.1.110 On BB8703e

We'll see how it works, if I am not saying anything: then things are working fine. If not, expect tons of complaints in this channel.

Sad Day For America: Senate Passed H.R. 6304: FISA Amendments Act of 2008

The law, roll call, and notes from media (all mentioned retroactive immunity):

Wired's Threat Level: Senate Approves Telecom Amnesty, Expands Domestic Spying Powers

/.: Senate Passes Telecom Immunity Bill

NPR:
Senate OKs FISA Bill, Immunity For Telecom Firms
Senate Approves Hotly Contested FISA Bill

NYTimes: Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers

At least Krugman saw glass half full, and like the fact that Medicare funding is cut: Kennedy’s Big Day.

Notes:

1. Obama voted yea, as highlighted by Boing2 Gadget: FISA passes providing immunity to wiretapping telcos, although he had sworn to filibuster it.
2. McCain didn't bother to show up: clever.
3. Wired's Threat Level pointed out the sinister side of the swing vote: Telecom Amnesty Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Dollars
   

Linux Server

Update machine with the latest security packages.

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

439 N Wells St
Chicago, IL 60610
Tel: (312) 828-9800

Chicago's signature deep dish pizzeria place the crowd sez, I find BJ's is better.

Ticket #34 Of googleappengine

It is now counting 900 against Ruby (1159) and PHP (1218). It is very good growth considering it is half that of Ruby two months ago.

googleappengine issue page.

Bounced Back

Alright - I feel a lot better tonight. Hopefully, it is not the false feeling from the codeine.

Average Robot Prices Relative to Labour Compensation

From The Economist:

Chicago - Day 4

To we travel home, and it is a sad day, so I'll be brief.

Check out at 12:00, take taxi to State and Lake, hop on Orange line to Midway. The defender of our safety confiscate my toothpaste and a jar of Nutella. Fly for 4 hours to LAX, wait for 1.5 hours for Ida's connecting flight to SJC.

Take the Fly-Away bus to LAUS and gold line to Sierra Madre. Lisa pick me up and we arrived home around 7:30.

Chicago - Day 1

Taking the green line from IIT, transfer at Roosevelt to Red, dismount at Chicago. The walk to Avenue Hotel is pretty taxing since the weather is warming up again.

After checking in, I decided to tour around the premise. Apparently the penthouse on 40th floor is under construction and no one bother to lock the door, so I help myself in. The view is facing the lake and extremely gorgeous. The pool, located at the same floor, is alright. I decided to move on since I need to scout the city.

Do a quick city tour, visit Hancock Tower, water tower, up and down along Chicago Blvd until 12:30PM, take the train to Midway to pick up Ida. By the time we are back I hope that there are rooms available on the upper floor, but apparently most of them have been taken. The manager told me to come back to the front desk around 4.

To pass the hour, we decided to go to have the "Chicago" hotdog, and the concierge pointed us to Portillo's, which is pretty festive and interesting.

By 4PM room transfer is done. We have the 38th floor, the view is better and although the manager told me that there is a possible construction noise from the top, we don't (and won't) hear anything, in fact, we couldn't head the construction noise from the ground floor (unlike the 28th floor) anymore. Talk about weird ...

Tonight we go to Café Spiaggia Restaurant, everything is good, except my own food. The veal is fatty, I was warned and I am fine with it. It is nice that the veal is fatty since the skin and fat is crusting very well, but the meat is dry. I am not enjoying my meal, but I do enjoy the Navy Pier though. It is good to view Chicago from the pier at night.

Portillo's Hot Dogs

100 W. Ontario
Chicago IL 60610
Tel: (312) 587-8910

http://www.portillos.com/

We were hungry and tired, since we haven't gotten the room that I want yet. Since we have 1 hour to burn, we decided to get a quick grub. Portillo's Hot Dogs was recommended by the concierge and it is within a short walking distance, remember: we were hungry!

Anyhoo, the menu is great and the service is good to the crowd that expect fast food. The ambiance of the 30's gangster paradise also works.

Spiaggia Cafe

980 N Michigan Ave # 2
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: (312) 280-2750

http://www.levyrestaurants.com/

I like the table where we were seated, it is a small table facing the window and Ida had a great view of Michigan and Walton. The service and the recommended wine is great. The appetizing squid was excellent, the soft shell crab was scrumptious, too bad: the veal was too ... dry, apparently the fat couldn't seal in enough juice.

Gibson's Steakhouse And Bar

1028 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel:(312) 266-8999

http://www.gibsonssteakhouse.com/

I should have known better and avoid [WR Chicago] rib cut, instead I am salivating over Ida's sirloin. Life is not fair, sometimes ...

YAPC NA 2008 - Day 4 - Checking Out

Checked out at 8:45AM sharp. Met pm at front desk, and I amazed that there were two Patrick Michaud(es) attending YAPC.

I had problems with the dorm's nazi rules:

1. No coin laundry - and I couldn't get some credit after fiddling through the website.
2. 9AM check out time - with 150$ late penalty!!
3. Student lounge (by TeeVe) is steamy HOT, although it is cold outside.
4. There is only one washroom per floor, and the man/ladies washrooms are staggered, men on 2&4th floor, women on 1st and 3rd floor. I stayed at 3rd - now you know why I complained.
   

Head to student lounge, catching up on caffeine, emails and rss feeds. Left IIT around 10 to downtown.

YAPC NA 2008 - Day 3

Woke up crappy but all in one piece.

Attend James E Keenan - ‎Parrot and Perl 6 Workshop‎, it was horrible since I couldn't full compile the Parrot code, the configure.pl bitched about cl not found. Coke told me to run configure.pl --verbose and I realized I was missing ws2_32.lib file. I thought I need to install PDK, but the session ended before the PDK was downloaded.

[Skipped lunch]

Lightning Talk has already begun when I showed up and I could only remembered: cog frag was talking about PyConf.

Googlemen were creepy and confusing. They played bad cop and bad cop very well.

[Met Rich Derr and Robert Pfankunche with Jen for dinner @ Rock Bottom Brewery]

YAPC NA 2008 - Day 2

It was a bloodier morning since I couldn't sleep well, and as I found out later, no amount of coffee could sustain my attention.

I like all of the morning presentations:
Maxim Grigoriev - Perl XML Binding framework (PXB) - A bit slow and Maxim totally blew the time but I like it since it synced with my wavelength. Managed to see that my implementation of data structure of XSD resembles Maxim's data structure. I think I am on the right track with my project.
Dave Rolsky - Fey(::ORM), YA(F)ORM - should I implement this for data check for importer?
Perrin Harkins - Scaling Databases with DBIx::Router - I don't think I would use this, but it is a good presentation and knowledge.
Stevan Little - Moose - A post modern object system for Perl5 - It was a good presentation but I'll reserve the comment about Moose to myself.
Patrick Michaud - Rakudo: Perl 6 on Parrot - It was interesting, but my bio-sign was running low. Pardon the snore.

[Lunch at the China Town with Alvin and Jen]

Skipped Kent Cowgill -Testing Code and Assuring Quality and Leonard Miller - Perl::Critic and Perl::Tidy, Your guide to better programming practices since I had to run to dorm, suffered from stomach problem.

[Attend job fair]
DRW Trading Group only hires local Chicago resource (no telecommute).
ITA only hires local Boston resource (no telecommute).
CheetahMail hires QA manager/engineer local to Manhattan (no telecommute).

I enjoyed Patrick Michaud - Building Compilers with the Parrot Compiler Toolkit but I totally blanked on Bob Rogers - Advanced control structures in Parrot.

[TPF Perl / Eclipse Integration Project BOF is cancelled]

No matter ... banquet and auction afterwards were entertaining. I won a book (Google Apps Hacks, 1st Edition, by Philipp Lenssen), an ActiveState t-shirt, and 2 pins for $55.

BeerBoF was almost a dud, Jeremy was half awake, but thankfully Devon saved the day by rounding up some people for TheGreatDalmutiBoF. Magog and gang showed up later to combine MartiniBoF.

Slept at 3AM after consigning Jeremy's bags at the front desk.

Downloaded And Installed FF3

To help the world download record pointed out by Andrew Johnson.

YAPC NA 2008 - Day 1

Groggy as heck, I dragged myself to Hermann Hall to meet Jen and Alvin.

The first day of the conference was pretty boring. The whole morning was dedicated to the newbie's guide speeches such as:
Karen Pauley - The Bluffer’s Guide to the Perl Community - OK.
José Castro - How to get the most out of a YAPC - Good.
Josh McAdams - Welcome to YAPC::NA 2008 - To the point.

But: Jim Brandt - TPF Annual Report - is interesting, and Larry - Keynote - was surprising since Larry gave a technical presentation. No philosophy speech? ... Yawn ...

[Lunch alone since I needed to work: fixing RFT code].

Next 2 were alright, nothing new if you have wrangled code for 10+ years:
Michael Schwern - Skimmable Code: Fast to Read, Fast to Change
Fred Moyer - Handling the Ball of Mud

I was only interested in Adam Kennedy's session on Strawberry Perl - Achieving Win32 Platform Equality, it pretty much stroke an accord with me, since I too, experienced problems with ActiveState's PPM library. If I couldn't find any of the PPM that I want at uwinnipeg, I considered myself out of luck. Hopefully, I could managed to make Strawberry Perl works.

I couldn't decide which last speech I should attend, but I finally picked: Chris Dolan - PAR + FUSE + PDF - I found the explanation of FUSE and the PDF data structure very interesting.

After the sessions, I went to eat @ Bubba Gump in Navy Pier with Bruce Gray, Jen, Alvin and Suda.

YAPC NA 2008 - Day 0

The trip began awfully since I had to wake up early in the morning and I haven't packed yet (I fell asleep right after I got home last night around 11 PM). Southwest tested me again, for being late, but I made use of the flight delay to catch some serious sleep, I knew that I wouldn't get any good sleep in the airplane.

And ... a fidgety she elephant planted her arse next to me ... oh bother.

Midway was busy as a zoo when I arrived around 3PM, but I managed to navigate my way through, bought a ticket, get to the CTA's platform. The walk was pretty arduous since the weather was hot and muggy, plus the strap was digging into my shoulder, note to self: no more bringing beers and a bottle of wine when traveling with the duffel bag.

The travel to IIT was good, I was supposed to transfer from Orange line to Green line at Roosevelt, but I didn't know which direction to go, the people of Chicago were friendly enough to let me know which car I should hop on.

I was drenched in sweat when I arrived in the dorm YAPC check in area since I had to walk a quarter mile from the 35th station. The dorm check in and YAPC registration process was fast - Thanks McAdams!

... opening my bag - I realized that the defender of our safety riffled through my checked in baggage. thank god they didn't steal my beers and wine ...

After getting myself situated, I decided to go and visit the Parrot hackathon happening downstairs.

Rolsky's plane was late, so we (the anti pre-conference gathering/vegan/vegetarian crowd) were waiting for him. Mark from Summersault bussed us to Soul Vegetarian, we went ahead first but arrived last since we took the local street. The food and the companies were good and I went to sleep as soon as I uploaded some pictures to flickr.

Father's Day BBQ

Went to Simi Valley for Father's Day BBQ, Lea & John's family decided to push the event a day forward since I am not going to be available this Sunday.

Packing For YAPC::NA::2008

Pack lite, there is laundry machines in the basement.
1. 4 days worth of clothing.
2. Quarters
3. Italian wine and Lagunitas IPA
4. Chargers, ethernet cables, adapters.
5. Bread+jams (emergency meals)
6. Camera.

Net::SMTP::TLS

For no apparent reason, I poked around mail client setup for gmail last night and I found it mentioned STARTTLS on their SMTP setup. Several month ago I didn't find any working Perl module to send email via google, so I decided to conduct a little search again using that keyword.

Enter Net::SMTP::TLS.

use Net::SMTP::TLS;
my $mailer = new Net::SMTP::TLS(
   'smtp.gmail.com',
   Hello   => 'gmail.com',
   Port    => 587,
   User    => 'tracelogger@gmail.com',
   Password=> 'pwd',
   Timeout => 10,
   Debug   => 1,
);
$mailer->mail('tracelogger@gmail.com');
$mailer->to('anybody@world.com');
$mailer->data;
$mailer->datasend("To: anybody\@world.com\n");
$mailer->datasend("\n");
$mailer->datasend("Sent thru TLS!");
$mailer->dataend;
$mailer->quit;

Kucinich Begins Impeachment Process For GW Bush

And so it begins.

iPhone 2.0

Looking at the spec sheet:
Pro:

• 3G - [pray] - AT&T signal is good in my area.
• Photo geotagging

Con:

• Microsoft Exchange solution using ActiveSync + Cisco IPSec VPN? Stupid - should use BES instead.
• Enterprise-grade networking via Cisco - WoW - The malicious hacker, that steals your phone, gains instant access to your intranet.
• 2.0 megapixels camera - What? So 2007.
• 30 pins dock connector - Kill this shit already - use USB.
• Battery - I still couldn't swap the limped bunny?

Q:

• GPS - what is the chipset? WTF is assisted GPS?
• BT - what services are available besides headset?

I wouldn't consider this POS if not for multi touch.

OCTA #472 Is Online

Arrived at Tustin this morning and OCTA #472 began serving the Tustin commuters.

Side notes: I am baffled that Tustin is considered podunk station by Amtrak (not stopping here). Jeez - it is the closest rail stop to SNA.

Statistics

It sucks when you or your family is part of the bad statistics. Today, my older sister joined the unemployed statistics of June 2008.

Me? I am happy that I am still part of the employment side, albeit the job is brain damaging and non challenging.

OCTA #472 NB

3:46
3:56
4:26
4:46
4:55 <- sweet spot
6:05

Amtrak Burns

I am burned by Amtrak today. Supposedly, A595 was to departed from Irvine at 9:56PM, but it hadn't arrived from San Diego until 11:56PM. The trip to LAUS took roughly one hour and I arrived around 00:50, instead of the scheduled 11:00PM.

Since the last Gold Line train left LAUS at 11:54PM, I have to take the earliest one to Sierra Madre at 3:45AM.

I am having so much fun waiting for 3 hours at LAUS. What a nightmare.

Nokia N800 For Cheap

Micro Center cut the price of N800 to USD 220, need to check for availability at the Tustin branch.

OCTA Route 471 Is Retired

OCTA is retiring route #471 and replace it with route #472 (with changes).

Thank god, it is not affecting me.

Lisa Went To Paris

Woke up at 3:15AM in the morning to send Lisa to LAX. After helping her checking, I was reminded why I hate traveling Continental US via LAX.

First, it is not convenient to park, if you drop people off at terminal 4. You have to circle the airport to go to P4.
Second, TSA blocked off all escalators access to the bridge that connects P4 and terminal 4, for first class and business class passengers. I had to exit the terminal, take the stairs to the bridge, quite annoying since TSA could have open the other escalator.
Third, some TSA personnel were standing by and accepting baggages but the waiting area was overflowed with baggages so they stopped accepting more baggages until 4:30AM while the bee line has stretched over half the length of the terminal. Interesting.

In all, I just glad when I made it home around 5:30 in the morning. LAX could be very depressing.

Linux Server

Install the latest security updates ... (again)
Install xalan:

> sudo apt-get install xalan
[...]
> dpkg -l | grep -E \(xerces\|xalan\)
ii  libxalan110       1.10-3.1     Provides XSLT support for applications
ii  libxerces27       2.7.0-5      validating XML parser library for C++
ii  xalan             1.10-3.1     XSLT processor

Where can I find AxKit package?

USB Charging Station @ SJC

IMGP1299
Originally uploaded by plwizard

Interesting find when I commute to work...

Trip To SJ

SW333 is leaving ONT on time, arriving at SJC on time. No surprise since the plane took a nap in ONT.

Once upon arrival, I was whisked to attend IPA cherry picking event in Pomeroy Ranch.

[2do] insert photos here

Linux Server

Install the latest security updates ... (again)
Check if sshd is running, if not install the package:

> ps -ef | grep sshd
1000    8168    7633  0    21:59 pts/0  00:00:00 grep sshd
> sudo apt-get install openssh-server
[...]
> ps -ef | grep sshd
root    8349       1  0    22:03 ?      00:00:00 /usr/bin/sshd
1000    8373    7633  0    21:59 pts/0  00:00:00 grep sshd

Looking for Axkit package now ...

Linux Server

Install the latest security updates.
Install apache2-httpd:

> sudo apt-get install apache2

Forgo Sailing With Matt To Santa Cruz Is.

Still coughing!!

Appropriated ThinkPad T21-2647-8AU

[...] and installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

Metrolink Accident

An accident happened around Norwalk station canceling our train back to LA (689). I have to take San Bernadino Northbound (808) to Santa Ana station, and wait until 7:04 to catch A785 to LAUS.

Sick

On and off - slogging through the workday from home.

Little Door

8164 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 951-1210

www.thelittledoor.com

We went there to celebrate Lisa's birthday, we liked the Couscous Royale.

Sick

Decided to call in sick

Southwest Has Been Testing Me

When I was kiasu - they were late
When I was late - they were on time.

Now I am kiasu - they are late again - ETD is now 6PM (previously 5:25PM).

ONT Parking Lot Is Filled To The Brim

It reminds me of the parking at CSUF during mid morning rush. I have to tail someone, who dismount the shuttle bus, to get his/her spot.

YAPC::NA::2008 @ Chicago

Registered and ...

Shithead

Biggest crack for today:

My friend, a nurse, once had to come out to the waiting room to call for a patient named “Shithead” on the clipboard. After my friend said the name a few times, an angry mother came over and said, it’s not “shit-head,” it’s “Shi-thead.” True story.

Toast to Axel Molotov

Debate Or Smack Down?

Apparently a lot of people are pissed about the questions that George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson were asking BO and HC during ABC Democrat Debate last night.

1. Mark Thoma
2. Tabarrok
3. Readers of NYT

Count me in, KPCC decided to air the hot air, and I should have switched to KCRW last night after the first 20 minutes.

Upgrading The O2 Zinc To Mobile 6

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I managed to upgrade the device to Mobile 6 (CE OS 5.2.1437) successfully, and I really like it:

1. the OS is stable
2. WIFI setup is easy and connecting to the network is a snap
3. syncing the device is effortless, ActiveSync 4.5 recognizes the unit once it is connected to the USB cable
   

Now: Let me see if I could install Skype on this unit.

Koi Palace

365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015
Tel: (650) 992-9000

http://www.koipalace.com/ - silence your speaker: cheezey music ahead.

The website might be cheezey but I warn you: the food is serious. It is simply the best dim sum restaurant in the bay area outside SF.

O2 ActiveSync Experience Is Horrid

I have to bounce the unit in order for the ActiveSync to recognize it.

Aggregators That Matters

Back then, I accepted an invitation to join Plaxo since I liked the functionality of Pulse, an application that puts forward the idea of viewing aggregated shared items from my friends.

Several months later - surprise, surprise - Facebook is offering the similar idea by importing all of your publicly shared items into your mini feed.

So far, I still prefer Plaxo's Pulse over Facebook's little hack, since Pulse tracks all of the updates where as Facebook truncates after certain amount of items. Do I need to mention: more sites (Facebook only supports five: flickr, picasa, yelp, del.icio.us and digg as of this writing), rss, filtering and search capability?

Microsoft Mobile 5.0: Journey of Pain

Alright - someone called and I didn't answer it. The OS was not able to destroy the dialog box at the bottom when I tried to dismiss it.

I wasn't able to power down the device since the dialog box was hovering on top of mini confirmation ribbon at the bottom, hence I need to peel open the battery cover. What a pain.

I'll take photos of the failures next time.

Net Neutrality Is "Bollocks"

From boing2: uh-oh.

“This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks,” Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media said.

One more moron and evil company to add to the shit list.

Winter Scripting Loot: Certificate And Vista Ultimate

Now I have to buy a 1000 rUbbiSh worth of PC for the Vista.

Mom And Dad Left

...

O2 XDA

Alright - dad left an O2 device for me to play with.

Petraeus And Croker Are Useless

Instead of fixing Iraq - they have become lawyers for the inadequate Nouri al-Maliki.

Let's face it: US of A doesn't like looser lap dogs, and Croker needs to break it to al-Maliki. Recite Vietnam. While US was tremendously generous back then, current/future administration should make sure that Iraqi higher ups, that fail, are to rot in Iraq, not somewhere else in the western hemisphere.

Freak Accident

This happened yesterday in front of our office.

Dan could not go home via the normal route, so he went back to the office and sent me to the train station, since the bus route was blocked too.

Code Hosting @ Google

I just created a project @ Google Code to host majority of my scripts. Project name is: nyet.

Netsh Is Not Working

If you encountered a problem where netsh couldn't pull the interface name and show the UID instead:

>netsh interface show interface
Admin State    State          Type             Interface Name
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabled                       Dedicated        {38E7FAC8-FC0C-46CE-BA06-59C5323F1CEF}
Enabled                       Dedicated        {59F5094B-3EC3-4F9B-892A-DF5F773292D9}
Enabled                       Dedicated        {92C5A1C0-8075-486C-B8A8-AAF8914F7E96}
Enabled                       Dedicated        {A9BC217F-9B17-44C9-843D-7C1B8471EAC3}
Enabled                       Internal         Internal
Enabled                       Loopback         Loopback

This inability to get the name of the interface is a problem since netsh will not work properly. The command only will take interface name, not UID.

The solution is outlined here.

I am unable to get this to work when I try to specify the interface name. "Local Area Connection" is considered invalid, and gets me no where. When I dump the netsh info, it lists all my interfaces as some gibberish like "{ADB7473C-C67B-49DE-B0D9-A25E990A39F5}", but even using that, and otherwise following the examples, the interface is called invalid.
i have enabled remote registry service then it's working [...]

>net start remoteregistry
The Remote Registry service was stopped successfully.

>netsh interface show interface
Admin State    State          Type             Interface Name
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabled                       Dedicated        Local Area Connection
Enabled                       Dedicated        VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter (basic host-only support for VMnet1)
Enabled                       Dedicated        VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter (Network Address Translation (NAT) for VMnet8)
Enabled                       Dedicated        Local Area Connection 2
Enabled                       Internal         Internal
Enabled                       Loopback         Loopback

This only took 2.5 hours of my life. No biggie.

Missing Books From Pasadena Central Library

572.8633MOU 2004
ISBN-10: 0879696877
Bioinformatics: Sequence and Genome Analysis (Hardcover) by David W. Mount.

005.133 PERL DOM
ISBN-10: 1558607013
Higher-Order Perl: Transforming Programs with Programs (Paperback) by Mark Jason Dominus

Orchid Restaurant

3033 Bristol St # B
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 557-8070

We went here to treat Leakna since it is her birthday. It has good food and the service is reasonably prompt.

I wonder why people hate this place [link to google]

Red Claw

9475 Heil Ave
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 531-3500

This is my last dinner with Danny, before he leaves for Atlanta next Friday. Gitesh bussed me there since his workplace is the closest one to me, besides, he could easily drop me off at the Irvine train station on his way home. Aamer (and spouse) attended the gathering and Brent suggested the place, I wonder where he got it from...

I ordered one pound of mild crawfish with half cob of corn and 6 slices of sausages. Nevertheless the food is wonderful and the garlic sauce is great. I had to order a toasted french bread to mop up the sauce.

This is a great place to fill up on mollusks and crustaceans.

Free MP3 From Amazon.com

http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2008/03/mac-ffoss-freewarefree-and-ope-4.html

Democrats Are Pussies

Republican are right about Democrats being pussies, they don't know how to protect their main man.

Related links:
Portfolio.com: Eliot Spitzer's Stat of the Day
NPR: Spitzer Resigns After Sex Scandal, Pressure.

It Is 75

75/100 - got to have 100 next year.

Link: score.

Yohannes Called

I received a rather surprising call from an old friend this morning.

Return To The Land of Endless Headaches

Arrived at ONT around 8AM in the morning, waltzed into the office at 9:30AM.

Today, I managed to stabilized the sync method when AJAX call is invoked after a page is refreshed.

Sunol

We (Ida and I) spend this Saturday hiking at Sunol Regional Wilderness with Tony, Maria and Nani.

The trek is nice: lots of flat surfaces and low gradient climbs, surrounded by lush green hills and docile bovines.

Yet Another Black Friday

Last Friday, I missed Tustin train station, and this Friday, I missed flight 2452 to SJC - arrgh! Luckily the next flight isn't overbooked.

The bright side: I finished the script that slurp the goodies from easynews for Freeman.

Dinner

It is nice to meet everyone from the FAST project again. I think only Gitesh, Leida, Mahtab, Neelam, Danny and Rao are the ones that stay.

Uwe and I are the ones from the darkside.

Event 10 - Advance

Skipped this one since I ran out of juice on the train, took me a while to finish it.

Stranded In Laguna Niguel

This is the price if I fall asleep in the train and miss the Tustin station. I took off at Laguna Niguel station, and it took 1.5 hours of bus (OCTA 91-83-59) to get myself to the office.

Morale of the story: don't fall asleep at all cost.

Send In Event 9 - Advance

Done in 15 minutes.

Send In Event 7 & 8 - Advance

I'll be damn - I am using this medium as twitter now.

Sprint EVDO Coverage Is Spotty

Take Metrolink #689 from Tustin to LA-Union Station today (Orange County line) and chat with Freeman along the way. Apparently Sprint's EVDO coverage is fairly spotty since I lost connection a couple of times.

Working from the train is going to be tricky, unless you are playing with stateless protocol.

Note: the little bugger sucked half of the juice of the laptop to top itself off.

Back To Working on Java Again

Section.java from Freeman is killing me.

Windows Desktop Search 3.01 Is Draining The Juice

This morning, my D400 died on me after 45 minutes, it is highly unusual since it was not hooked to the BB unit (that little thing sucks - not leech - the juice).

Back in the office, I:

1. started intelppm service - but it didn't help much.
2. un-installed WDS 3.01 - which helped a lot.
   

Relaunching Process(es)

Time server on SMURF keeps dying for no reason and it prevents the NGS test from starting. Write a quick script that checks and launches the time server process if it is not found every 15 minutes.

WR License Server Backup

For an odd reason, Dan is sweating about the license server and he wants it to be backed up.

Apparently it is using Sentinel LM from Rainbow Technologies.

This is the plan:

1. Backup the content of lsdecode.exe -s lservrc
2. Backup lservrc file,
   
3. Just to be sure: I'll image the partition and make the current drive configuration RAID 1 (mirrored).

Dashboard PP

There is no memory leak - the script run for 24 hr without any problem.
Fixing the 24 hr log roll.

Write instruction to Poore and Rapin.

Send In Event 5 - Advance Only

Damn laptop ran out of juice this morning when I was finishing #5.

Sent it out at 8:03PT from the office, dunno if Jan accepts this.

Going Wireless Via USB

Sprint has an installer that setup USB data connection from your PC/laptop to BB 8703e, so you don't have follow this instruction.

EVDO is sweet, with 3 bars (out of five) I could browse gmail without problem, vpn to SSH and RDP with minor lag too.

Deploy Dashboard PP

Twist the code to log the performance time in 24 hr time period, and run the script to see if there is memory leak and other snafu(s).

The script doesn't shut down properly, fix it.

While the script is running, I am looking into running RFT scripts without RFT being installed.

Troubleshooting RFT With IBM Support

Woke up 3:00AM in the morning and in the office by 4:30.

It was a good session since IBM team managed to solve the problem.

Cold Boot Disk Encryption Attack

There goes pointsec - it is hacked.

Green BS

Another potential green bs from Honda. Q to the all mighty:

1. What is the saving if the car is traveling on the average of 25mpg (LA scenario)?
   
2. How much weight this system adds?
3. Any additional services?
4. How long will this system last without service?

I don't want to bus additional 30lb of dead weight when the system is out of commission (since the repair might cost more than the car itself).

Blasted! I Forgot To Send In Event 4 Last Night

Too busy getting well.

Received BB 8703e

Sick

Send In Event 3 - Advance

Send In Event 1 & 2 - Advance

I read about 2008 Winter Scripting Games when skimming through RSS from usePerl.org.

Raising The White Flag

I gave up on fixing RFT on SGADSH-SPQINT04, let IBM slaves through this.

BB 8703e

I am going to get BB 8703e from Sprint instead of the 8830. The reason is simple: cheap.

But I believe it is better to have 8830 since it has microSD socket, and those units only have 64MB of memory.

FISA Stalled In The House

Finally, the Representatives' inaction is actually beneficial, FISA law lapsed in the House.

Bush, House Democrats Face Off on Wiretapping Bill

From NPR: Now, it is up to House Democrats to stop this craziness.

FISA - Dodd Amendment

From senate.gov as pointed out by zulchzulu:

These traitors voted 'No' on Dodd's amendment to strike the provisions providing immunity from civil liability to electronic communication service providers for certain assistance provided to the Government.

NAYs ---67
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ) <- Double freak!
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Senate Passes FISA Bill with Immunity for Telecoms

From NPR and senate.gov:

Blame these traitors when corporation dares to fuck with people's right again.
YEAs ---68
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ) <- I can't believe he did this.
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)

Super Sensitive RFT

Something is really wrong with RFT, it is easily broken. I spend the whole day figuring out what is wrong with SGADSH-SPQINT04 without knowing what's wrong.

I really need IBM's help now.

Official Reserves

From The Economist:

China is by some distance the world's largest holder of foreign-exchange 
reserves. Its currency hoard passed the $1.5 trillion mark at the end 
of last year, little more than a year after it reached $1 trillion.

AWS

Just signed up as AWS dev, let the hacking commence.

Thank You God... None Of Your Moronic Administrator Is Our Law Maker

From NPR: British Archbishop: Law Must Accommodate Muslims.

We are having shit loads of problem with a law released several years ago (PATRIOT), yet some one feels alright with 600 years old law.

Perl Will Be Y2038 Safe

From use Perl: the code is tested and will be deployed to 5.10.

BOO!

Fished this out from Engadget. Love the subversive value of the picture accompanying the article.

Handling Objects

Starts writing code to handle the objects properly:

1. Browser: invoke(URL). Handles IE's security alerts window.
2. Editbox: set(data). Set the value of data to input, textarea or password object.
   
3. Button: press. Handles IE's security alerts window.

Enough to handle login.

Republican National Delegates

According to AP:

NATIONAL DELEGATE TOTALS

Needed to nominate:	1191
Total delegate votes:	2380

			Pledged
Candidate	Total*		To Date	Feb 5
McCain	504		495	402
Romney	200		184	107
Huckabee	142		139	99
Paul	9		9	5
Uncommitt.	23		1	0

Feb. 6, 2008 12:56 AM EST

*Includes pledged delegates plus party and elected officials.

Chinese Leapfrog

From The Economist:

Woke Up Late Today

Suffering from reading lots of material about dynamic class loading and interfaces, so instead of taking 682, I am taking 600 - looks like everyone is in the late mood today since the train arrived late at Tustin too.

[write what the boyos have done]

Gluing the KWDT class and the code that Freeman and Latisha have written ... and in the end I decided not to use dynamic class loading.

This is the basic of KWDT [link to the implementation of kwdt].

In nutshell, to handle pressing of button object.

String AUT = "app";
String objtype = "button";
...
Class c = Class.forName("com.fnis.application."+AUT+".object."+objtype);
button uiObj = (button) c.newInstance("login");
uiObj.press();

But, a problem arises since the code needs to handle the object based on the type of action:

String action = "validateenabled";
...
if (action.eq("press")) {
   uiObj.press();
}
else if (action.eq("validateenabled")) {
   uiObj.validateenabled();
}
else {
   // action not handled yet
   throw ...
}

It is apparent that the code needs to have a lot of "if .. else ..." statements to cover each action, and to minimize the branch statement, I settled for Reflection. It cuts the "if ... else ..." statements down to nothing.

import java.lang.reflect.*;

String AUT = "app";
String objtype = "button";
String action = "validateenabled";

Class c = Class.forName("lib.applications."+AUT+".object."+objtype.toLowerCase());
Constructor ct = c.getConstructor();

Object arglist[] = new Object[6];
arglist[0] = window;
arglist[1] = objName;
arglist[2] = data;
arglist[3] = expectedResult;
arglist[4] = timeout;
        
Object obj = ct.newInstance(arglist);
Method m =c.getDeclaredMethod(action);

Hopefully, using Reflection won't kill the performance of the test code.