Year: 2007

Secure Your Wireless Network

Since a couple of months I’ve heard quite a lot of concern in the Internet about Wi-Fi security. The WEP encryption standard has been widely known and easier to crack. This means that a guy next door can easily sniff your packets and break into your wireless network after he manage to get your key.

WPA was an interim solution to cope with this problem, which was later finalized by WPA2.

I have less time nowadays to look into such matters but I do realize I have to do something about it. Not that I suspect my neighbors hacking into my wireless connection, but then again who knows?

After work yesterday I poked around my WRT54G v2.2 and see whether I can implement WPA2 in my own wireless network. I was using Sveasoft’s Alchemy as my firmware and the highest security level I can set is WPA. I was not satisfied and do some more research until I find DD-WRT which is based on Alchemy, meaning it should have all functionalities of Alchemy, and much more. WPA2 security is indeed included.

Continue reading Secure Your Wireless Network

Portable Application – A Reality

Not everything that you dream of can become reality. But one of my oldest dream has come true. I really wanted that my frequently used applications can be brought along anywhere I need them, and be used in any computer I want to.

I found PortableApps. It can be used as a suite, and can be used individually. And the software list is great, comprising of most important software you’ll ever need. Well, almost. Obviously huge software such as graphic design software is not in the list (yet).

Coupled with my Maxtor OneTouch III Mini, it’s going to be a portable powerhouse. Here’s a screenshot of PortableApps running from my 128MB USB thumb drive.

PortableApps

Bad Domain

I just tried to register to Chitika and Nuffnang and they both rejected my email address with this domain – @romantika.name

I thought all systems have updated the checking code to include .name as well, as it has been around for quite a while now.

Invalid email

Well I sent them an email to notify about this glitch. I think they’ll want to update, as this decreases frustration when bloggers with .name domain try to register.

Update: My email to Nuffnang bounced went through but I think the error I received was due to forwarding to multi recipients (like what I usually do for important email addresses). In this case, Timothy’s mail address was unreachable.

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

timothy at netccentric.com
(ultimately generated from admin at nuffnang.com.my)
retry time not reached for any host after a long failure period

—— This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ——

Return-path: <ady at romantika.name>
Received: from [206.190.53.33] (helo=smtp108.plus.mail.re2.yahoo.com)
by server.nuffnang.com.my with smtp (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <ady at romantika.name>)
id 1Hawvh-0007WZ-9g
for admin at nuffnang.com.my; Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:41:22 +0800

Oh well no big deal. I’ve registered using another email anyway 😉

Update: I received a reply from Nuffnang. Well done, people. Good speed.

Automated WordPress Backup

Since I am maintaining several WordPress installation now, I feel that it is quite a tiring chore to backup the databases every now and then. I used to do it once a week, and it is even a recurring event in my pocket PC. It was WordPress Database backup 0.8 and every time I clicked on the link on the plugin page, the site is no longer there. I thought Skippy was doing maintenance and because of other commitments I let the thought go.

A few days ago, I was thinking of writing an automated plugin, and I searched for it first not to reinvent the wheel. I found it at a different site: http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup, and learned that the plugin has changed hands from Skippy (Scott Merrill) to Austin Matzko.

I was excited to learn that the new plugin support the cron hook provided by WordPress 2.1. Yay! And the plugin worked flawlessly:

WP DB Backup

One thing you might want to take note is that the cron event is not a real, system cron event but it is triggered when your site is accessed. I noticed that when I installed and configured the email function on a newly set up installation (hence no traffic) it didn’t work until I access the site.

The plugin can also be configured to save the backup files to the server, but of course this is not recommended because of security reasons.

Have a try, I believe you’ll love it. However do remember to also backup your image files separately!

Another Reason Not To Host In Malaysia

Would you register your blog if the Government ask you to? Although I rarely write about any sensitive issues related to the Government, I have to express myself on this one.

So now Malaysian Government is planning to make it compulsory for bloggers to register themselves. Here is an article from The Star: Bloggers may have to register

According to another this news in The Star Online, “… plan to register all bloggers using locally hosted websites …”. If this is true, I am not related anymore since I moved out from Malaysia hosting. So was my decision to move from Exabytes the correct decision to make?

We have to wait for the official announcement from the Government.

My opinion is that this is entirely not necessary. From what I see now the Government is creating another enemy, instead of embracing bloggers for a better country. Why can’t the Government take it as a challenge to make things better, or even take it as the voice of the people living in this country? There must always be a reason why people talk about bad about the Government, not only in Malaysia. A Malay proverb: Kalau tak ada angin takkan pokok bergoyang which means exactly that.

And really, this is the classic case of kerana nila setitik rosak susu sebelanga (because of one bad thing/person the entire group receives bad reputation).

So after this there should not be any question anymore why Malaysians do not host their website within the country. Not that the service is good anyway.

As usual I include the original news below in case the original article is no longer available.

Continue reading Another Reason Not To Host In Malaysia

Changing Jobs

Next week is going to be my final week serving my current employer. I am leaving because I received a much better offer (and prospect) for employment with an American company. From the security field, I am crossing back to UNIX servers, with a twist – I am going to work on Oracle as well.

The hardest part of leaving any job for me is friends and colleagues. Well, not that they will be lost forever but you leave a part of your life behind. Because of work, and other commitments you’ll have less chance to meet them. It’s even harder for me since I am leaving in very good term even with my direct managers!

There are other things that needs to be taken care about, such as HR matters, tax, etc. And you’ll never be certain what’s the new place will be like. My experience in the workplace started in small Malaysian companies, then to a medium Malaysian company, then to a medium European company, and to a huge European company. I’ve never worked in a huge American company before.

To be honest, it’s a bit scary even for someone who have worked for many years. But life must go on and a man has to decide which path he needs to take…

How’s your experience in changing jobs?

Hi Metallica, I am Megadeth

Listening to Hitz.fm this morning on my way to work, heard a news that a couple in Sweden wants to name their daughter Metallica (and the authority does not allow them to).

Searched the Net and found some news:

Apparently they are trying to combine their 2 first names and came out with Metallica.

If they have a boy later they may name him Sandman? 😉

Although I am a fan of Metallica I really don’t think that the name is suitable for a girl. Just as weird as my name is, I still remember a teacher laughed and said when I am a old grandpa people will think that I have lost my mind if I tell them my real name.

Right, granny Metallica?

McDonald’s Taman Equine

Last night (Sunday morning) at 2.50am my stomach started to rumble as I was staying up late to finish up some work. So I went to McDonald’s to get some food at the 24-hour drive thru. I arrived there exactly at 3.00am, and there were 3 cars ahead of me in the queue.

I didn’t expect anything weird until the first car in front still have not moved after 10 minutes. And 2 more cars arrived behind me. Not that I can reverse the car and get away or anything (although the thought did enter my mind). I turns out that I had to wait until 3.25am in the queue before it was my turn. Yes, 25 minutes in queue at McDonald’s drive thru.

After ordering (with very limited choice) I saw the supervisor was manning the drive thru counter while all of the other staff was playing around, taking drinks from the dispenser and do nothing. And the manager had to record orders on a paper. At first I thought they were on break or something until I decided to ask the supervisor why the hell did he write records on paper and does he have to do it every night? He said, “yes, we have to wait until the system turns back on in the morning to key in everything”.

Hmm… can’t the staff go around and pickup the food while the manager takes orders and record them? Beats me. I don’t know fast food business that well. I just eat them.

That’s a new lesson for me. If you’re starving in the middle of the night don’t go to McDonald’s. And I thought they had a perfect “system”. Quoting my entrepreneurship teacher in college:

Why McDonald’s can succeed in their business? They have a perfect system.

Yeah right 😉

Migration Complete

This site has once again moved. Now nobody can say to me that I have not tried to support the Malaysian hosting industry. I tried, and I don’t like it.

All of the other sites hosted on the previous server has also been migrated here. Hopefully this would be a better home. It would be slower for Malaysia visitors to visit, but at least it’s because of distant and not because of overloaded server resources! Monitoring for this server showed 100% uptime. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Bye, Exabytes

It has become worst since these last few days. Mails are missing, and site is not accessible many times. I’ve set up server monitoring at host-tracker.com and I receive on average 6 downtime alerts per day, with monitoring triggered every 30 minutes.

I’ve seen people writing about my plugin said “if you can’t access the site, try again later“. And my AdSense stats reveals that very little impression made meaning that many people are having problems to access this site, and 4 others I have set up in this server.

Accessing this site is slow, very slow. I have to do something about it now.

As I have SSH access to the server, I can see so many cron jobs that have been running for a few days, not finishing its job. One thing about Exabytes’ servers is that they have a lot of features and allow people to do things that many overseas hosting company does not allow you to do. That’s a good thing except that when a user do something stupid, there’s nobody to look over the problem.

Well, the Engineers are fast when you report something, and they are doing a good job in reactive work. But I don’t see any proactive work being done. Once I reported that the MySQL server is taking a lot of load and freezing and asked them to check which user is doing this (even if it is myself), so that it can be prevented in the future. All they can say is that the MySQL server is now running fine.

Even though it is not downtime, it is certainly close to one. The server load sometimes goes as high as 34 (this is not percentage, this is a 1 minute average load on a UNIX machine – number of process fighting over CPU resources).

pangkorload.jpg

And I don’t think they are going to do anything about it. I am not sure how many domains are hosted on this particluar server but I am guessing there are a lot. I checked PHP’s max_execution time using CLI and it is set to 30 seconds. So why does the ones running from cron did not die?

Continue reading Bye, Exabytes

WiMAX In Malaysia

Ok ok I know this is old news for most of you. I just can find this time to write a bit about it.

Technically speaking WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is a common misconception to consider WiMAX and Wi-Fi as similar technologies. The fact that they both start with same letter and governed by IEEE standard 802x. makes them easier to be confused.

Wi-Fi, which most of us are familiar with and use everyday is targeted for short range access (10m) and is suitable for Intranet or hotspot coverage for a small area. It was never meant for ISPs to distribute Internet access. Wi-Fi uses unlicensed radio spectrum, otherwise you’ll need to apply for a license from MCMC each time you buy a wireless access point 😉

In the other hand, WiMAX can go up to 70km and is suitable for last mile/km distribution of Internet access from ISPs. The issue with licensing that we saw in the news is because WiMAX utilizes a licensed radio spectrum so not just anyone can operate a WiMAX access point.

Do take note, however all of the maximum ranges are still effected by the line-of-sight limitation so even if you live very near to a WiMAX access point but you live behind a hill you might not get the maximum 70Mbps speed that WiMAX can handle. That’s a nice pair of numbers – 70km/70Mbps.

Continue reading WiMAX In Malaysia

Rest In Peace

It is a sad moment indeed. Prayers and Al-Fatihah to our dear friend Rafizul Elmy, or better known as Ali. He passed away on Monday evening around 10.00pm after suffering for a month plus in chemotherapy. May he rest in peace. Ali leaves behind a wife and a little daughter. May they be blessed, always.

From Him we come, and to Him we return.

AdSense Referrals Beta

I received my email subscription to Inside AdSense just about 20 minutes ago. There’s good news – AdSense is launching a referral program where you can refer products from advertisers now, not only Google products. When a visitor clicks on your referral link, if he/she completes an action defined by the advertiser, you get paid!

AdSense referrals beta

This program however is in Beta and not everyone can use it for now. You can try applying here: http://www.google.com/ads/adsense/referrals/

(No no this is not a referral link. I am merely spreading the good news here).