rach was asking about this song from hearing it on tv for a hk drama preview advert.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Cardigans - My Favorite Game
rach was asking about this song from hearing it on tv for a hk drama preview advert.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
they don't want you to know this, but...
i think that the new okto is actually the old "channel i". remember that other english channel? yes, they took it off the air to not compete with channel 5 for ratings. so now that Vasantham has been established to replace Central (formerly Prime and Premiere) entirely.
Cyber Clean
Interesting new gooey product. Seems pretty useful for cleaning the car. Colleague introduced me to this, although it's not going to be in Singapore yet. I think.
Spotted via crave.
Spotted via crave.
Tomcat and SSL redirection
*GEEK POST*
As an addendum to the previous post, further configuration of the server.xml and web.xml is necessary. Setting of the redirectPort="443" (or whatever port number your https is on) in the server.xml requires additional setting in web.xml of your application.
<security-constraint>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Protected Context</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<!-- auth-constraint goes here if you requre authentication -->
<user-data-constraint>
<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
</user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>
Further info here.
As an addendum to the previous post, further configuration of the server.xml and web.xml is necessary. Setting of the redirectPort="443" (or whatever port number your https is on) in the server.xml requires additional setting in web.xml of your application.
<security-constraint>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Protected Context</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<!-- auth-constraint goes here if you requre authentication -->
<user-data-constraint>
<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
</user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>
Further info here.
SSL + Tomcat workaround
*GEEK POST*
The patience on my colleague and myself has been wearing thin for the past 2 days. This being the third day, I guess, should be considered part of the "third time's a charm" concept.
Our problem was, our Tomcat 5.5.26 on a Windows Server 2003 machine requiring use of SSL, but did not behave. Port 443 was open and ready. https://tomcatserver failed to worked where http://tomcatserver:443 (i.e. non-secure) functioned normally. Firefox returned "Connection was interrupted" error message, and IE came back with something similar.
We've tried everything we could lay our Googly hands on. From various settings in the server.xml to verification of the SSL cert we've gotten from our Certification Authority. Everything appeared to be in order!
Then just this morning, I spotted something in the Google search I had left open since yesterday. This gave me a bit of clue which led me to finding this and also this as a whole thread of emails relating to my problem.
The bottom line is, disable/remove/rename the tcnative-1.dll file found in your Tomcat /bin folder and restart Tomcat. For example, I'd renamed mine to tcnative-1.dll~ to "disable" it. Thinking back, I realised I was asking for it when my itchy finger selected the "Native" option during the Tomcat installation. Apparently, although this native library is meant to help with scalability and performance of the server, it does NOT work.
We've practically wasted 2 whole days trying to figure this out,
throwing aside (almost) every other task we still have to complete. Surprisingly, we got saved by a forum thread message from a year ago (20 Jun 2007 to be exact) and also the bug report email thread of Tomcat two years (4 Aug 2006) ago. This said, the question that begs to be asked then is: shouldn't this problem be rectified after all this while? The original bug report dates all the way back to 10 Nov 2005!!!
The patience on my colleague and myself has been wearing thin for the past 2 days. This being the third day, I guess, should be considered part of the "third time's a charm" concept.
Our problem was, our Tomcat 5.5.26 on a Windows Server 2003 machine requiring use of SSL, but did not behave. Port 443 was open and ready. https://tomcatserver failed to worked where http://tomcatserver:443 (i.e. non-secure) functioned normally. Firefox returned "Connection was interrupted" error message, and IE came back with something similar.
We've tried everything we could lay our Googly hands on. From various settings in the server.xml to verification of the SSL cert we've gotten from our Certification Authority. Everything appeared to be in order!
Then just this morning, I spotted something in the Google search I had left open since yesterday. This gave me a bit of clue which led me to finding this and also this as a whole thread of emails relating to my problem.
The bottom line is, disable/remove/rename the tcnative-1.dll file found in your Tomcat /bin folder and restart Tomcat. For example, I'd renamed mine to tcnative-1.dll~ to "disable" it. Thinking back, I realised I was asking for it when my itchy finger selected the "Native" option during the Tomcat installation. Apparently, although this native library is meant to help with scalability and performance of the server, it does NOT work.
We've practically wasted 2 whole days trying to figure this out,
throwing aside (almost) every other task we still have to complete. Surprisingly, we got saved by a forum thread message from a year ago (20 Jun 2007 to be exact) and also the bug report email thread of Tomcat two years (4 Aug 2006) ago. This said, the question that begs to be asked then is: shouldn't this problem be rectified after all this while? The original bug report dates all the way back to 10 Nov 2005!!!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
dead. line.
i think i'm currently trying to escape reality about the fact that i have a deadline but i don't have a proper plan drawn up yet. there seems to be some other distractions that my mind is going on about which probably explains the lack of focus. and the problem about my deadline being such a bitch.
i'm contemplating moving on, but like i said, there's so much going on my head is spinning from all that premeditation.
i'm contemplating moving on, but like i said, there's so much going on my head is spinning from all that premeditation.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
latest COE dirt cheap
Well that's it, our economy will surely hit rock bottom too. It was 4.20pm in the office and I was curiously poking around the web. Then I found out for myself, that the COE for Category A (for vehicles having engine capacity <1600cc) costs a mere SGD 2.00! I was very very amazed. Adding to the fact that I'd found out about this first-hand!
Then I'd started spreading the word. Although nobody can do anything to benefit from this piece of news, it's still an interesting topic to gossip about. My colleagues "benefited" from this, and a few others.
I don't think this will happen again in the next few months. There is speculation though, that this could have been caused by mass renewals by taxi companies banding together. Is this monopoly? But if it really is, will anyone object to having more of such occurrences?
It is quite exciting news...
Then I'd started spreading the word. Although nobody can do anything to benefit from this piece of news, it's still an interesting topic to gossip about. My colleagues "benefited" from this, and a few others.
I don't think this will happen again in the next few months. There is speculation though, that this could have been caused by mass renewals by taxi companies banding together. Is this monopoly? But if it really is, will anyone object to having more of such occurrences?
It is quite exciting news...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Oracle SQL Query - Rollup Analytical Function
GEEK POST
Okay so in the course of my work today, I learned something entirely new. Asking around the office did not turn up much. Everyone had practically no straight answer about it. It's the keyword ROLLUP used in Oracle. The MSSQL version is WITH ROLLUP.
I was amazed at how this little known and obscure word found its way into my company source codes. And since 2005 too!
Simply phrased, its job is to calculate a subtotal by grouping on multiple columns not part of a Count/Sum (or some other aggregating function). The outcome is additional rows in the results that displays the subtotal summation of the aggregate functions, grouped by the retrieved columns which are non-aggregate.
Fascinating!
Okay so in the course of my work today, I learned something entirely new. Asking around the office did not turn up much. Everyone had practically no straight answer about it. It's the keyword ROLLUP used in Oracle. The MSSQL version is WITH ROLLUP.
I was amazed at how this little known and obscure word found its way into my company source codes. And since 2005 too!
Simply phrased, its job is to calculate a subtotal by grouping on multiple columns not part of a Count/Sum (or some other aggregating function). The outcome is additional rows in the results that displays the subtotal summation of the aggregate functions, grouped by the retrieved columns which are non-aggregate.
Fascinating!
Monday, November 17, 2008
i think...
that my biorhythm is on the low currently...
apart from the fact that i just had Thursday and Friday leave from work hence achieving a super long weekend...
apart from the fact that i just had Thursday and Friday leave from work hence achieving a super long weekend...
Monday, November 10, 2008
waaaay too sweet
somebody in the office just treat me to a cup of takeaway coffee from some coffee stall nearby for helping out.
it's very sweet. and i'm not referring to the act of treating me to a beverage. i'd probably attribute it to the condensed milk or whatnot that's swirling around, and floating on top no matter how i stir it.
after taking a few sips i actually had to go refill it to water down the sweetness couple of times. and the swirly mass is back up again. it also leaves a phlegmy after taste in my mouth.
maybe i simply prefer instant coffee.
it's very sweet. and i'm not referring to the act of treating me to a beverage. i'd probably attribute it to the condensed milk or whatnot that's swirling around, and floating on top no matter how i stir it.
after taking a few sips i actually had to go refill it to water down the sweetness couple of times. and the swirly mass is back up again. it also leaves a phlegmy after taste in my mouth.
maybe i simply prefer instant coffee.
It's been that long?
About 1095 days ago, I just made my way home from down under. Took the flight back from my degree studies there. And now, after these years, I'm in my job and all, and with Rachel by me. Thinking back it really has been quite an amazing journey I've made, we've made.
And this isn't the end of the journey, nosirree. Everything feels surreal as I contemplate the past, the present, and the future.
If you're reading this Shan, when you are back, things will probably be what you'd least expect it to be. I know I wasn't exactly predicting my current rosy-lens picture right here when I left the country back then!
The time should be about right...
And this isn't the end of the journey, nosirree. Everything feels surreal as I contemplate the past, the present, and the future.
If you're reading this Shan, when you are back, things will probably be what you'd least expect it to be. I know I wasn't exactly predicting my current rosy-lens picture right here when I left the country back then!
The time should be about right...
Friday, November 07, 2008
resurrecting a dead laptop
Well okay so it wasn't entirely dead, just that because I'd dealt my Tie Sha Zhang (aka Iron Palm) on to my old Thinkpad laptop, its harddrive has gone a little wonky. Something about a linear verify problem.
People have commented mostly that it's a lost cause already. But I still harbour that little sliver of hope that it can be saved... somehow...
So anyway I'd just reinstalled the Windows XP to factory defaults and all. The wifi (B/G) seems back to normal and the response isn't as sluggish any more. The files were of course all backed up on to my new laptop though.
My best guess was the linear verify problem occurred in an area of the disk platters that is "further behind", in terms of the memory storage/allocation. While this may just be speculation on my part, it seems to hold true for now. Given that the factory wipe removes everything in the drive and only throws back in the original stuff which goes to the front of everything (since it's empty all over again) in the harddrive.
So I guess my laptop will live to see another day. Crippled no doubt, but if I slap it on a wheelchair... I suppose I'll try to run the linear verify diagnostic on it again tonight. It should still be there.
In other news, Rachel's laptop (Sony Vaio C series) had gone a little wonky as well. The Enter key insists on being pressed even when we don't actually do it. The issue is either a (prank?) virus or the keyboard actually being defective. Unfortunately, the warranty on the machine has JUST gone past. Coincidence? I think not. These machines are developed with material deterioration/wear and tear factored into the warranty period. Further testing is necessary to determine which of the two is the culprit. My bet is more on the defective keyboard.
People have commented mostly that it's a lost cause already. But I still harbour that little sliver of hope that it can be saved... somehow...
So anyway I'd just reinstalled the Windows XP to factory defaults and all. The wifi (B/G) seems back to normal and the response isn't as sluggish any more. The files were of course all backed up on to my new laptop though.
My best guess was the linear verify problem occurred in an area of the disk platters that is "further behind", in terms of the memory storage/allocation. While this may just be speculation on my part, it seems to hold true for now. Given that the factory wipe removes everything in the drive and only throws back in the original stuff which goes to the front of everything (since it's empty all over again) in the harddrive.
So I guess my laptop will live to see another day. Crippled no doubt, but if I slap it on a wheelchair... I suppose I'll try to run the linear verify diagnostic on it again tonight. It should still be there.
In other news, Rachel's laptop (Sony Vaio C series) had gone a little wonky as well. The Enter key insists on being pressed even when we don't actually do it. The issue is either a (prank?) virus or the keyboard actually being defective. Unfortunately, the warranty on the machine has JUST gone past. Coincidence? I think not. These machines are developed with material deterioration/wear and tear factored into the warranty period. Further testing is necessary to determine which of the two is the culprit. My bet is more on the defective keyboard.
YouTube - "I Got a Crush...On Obama" By Obama Girl
11 million hits on youtube. She's banking on Obama to get her 15mins. 'nuf said.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
dong gua dou fu (winter melon & tofu) aka miscellaneous
work in the office has been pretty intense lately. i'm not exactly concentrating on one particular task at hand per se, but there seems to be quite a handful of shorties (menial or not) dealt out daily.
i'm feeling somewhat drained from all of this.
nevertheless, i'm still hoping to arrive at my decision for taking an MBA soon. the year is coming to an end without me taking another step closer to that target.
i'm feeling somewhat drained from all of this.
nevertheless, i'm still hoping to arrive at my decision for taking an MBA soon. the year is coming to an end without me taking another step closer to that target.
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