2008 | Ady's Blog

WordPress 2.5.1

I was really reluctant to upgrade my WordPress version because I have so many custom plugins to create many widgets. I was just afraid that they might break and I have to spend a lot of time to repair them. My colleague Shahrulazlan has been trying to get me to upgrade my installation for a while now

However today after a few hours of learning Linux HA I need some WordPress to ease my mind.

Upgrading this blog on my development copy is a breeze. I have to admit I had to upload 3 times because of some MAC encoding problems. For some reason after checking in the files to subversion and doing an export, the files are all encoded in MAC encoding. And the result was catastrophic.

The final result is beautiful. I really love the new UI and features such as permalink editing while in write mode, and version checking for plugins. I have yet to test the auto-update feature, though.

No regrets. If you are still using 2.2 or 2.3 series do consider an upgrade. You’re missing a lot.

This upgrade also provide an opportunity for me to test my plugins. I am happy to announce that they both work well on 2.5.1.

innotek VirtualBox

During the course of my daily work, I sometimes need to run multiple OS at once. I used to rely a lot on VMware to run Debian and CentOS on my Windows notebook. The problem with the free VMware server is that it is damn slow, and at startup it takes a few minutes before the VMware authentication service finish working.

One day during a nicotine session my friend Haidir asked me “why don’t you use VirtualBox?”. Oh man! I recall bumping over some articles about VirtualBox in magazines but I guess it slipped my mind.

Starting from that day, bye VMware and hello VirtualBox!

I am surprised on the feel of VirtualBox – it is too light to be a fully functional virtualization product. But it is.

Comparing directly to VMware server (free version) VirtualBox does not introduce any kind of lag at all to my machine. CPU usage never reaches 100% with normal usage of the guest boxes:

I loooooove the shared folder feature. Sure, you’ll have to compile kernel modules for the virtualbox functions but it’s easy and you can always remove gcc and make later if you want.

A little note about networking, is that when you use only NAT networking with the host you will be able to do a “port forwarding” setup from the host (so that when you access a particular port on the host you are accessing the guest). Look for it in the documentation.

"C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox\VBoxManage" setextradata "CentOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/CentOSHTTP/Protocol" TCP "C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox\VBoxManage" setextradata "CentOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/CentOSHTTP/GuestPort" 80 "C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox\VBoxManage" setextradata "CentOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/CentOSHTTP/HostPort" 80

In the commands above a port 80 on host is forwarded to port 80 on guest. Cool feature. However I want to demonstrate a hidden problem that might help some of you out there.

On my machine, IIS is running on port 80 (don’t ask me why). Meaning port 80 can’t be used by VirtualBox anymore. This will cause the virtual machine to crash when it tries to activate the network interface:

(I purposely captured along the JIT message, normal users might see a normal Send Error to Microsoft dialog).

VirtualBox will display the virtual machine status as “Aborted”:

VirtualBox Aborted

What you can do next is decide on which port you really want to use on the host. In my case I can simply stop IIS on my host machine if I really want to use port 80.

This is neither a big issue with VirtualBox, nor is a critical defect – it’s just a bit annoying. Perhaps next versions can detect used port before powering on the virtual machine 🙂

But then again, I am using this for my personal work and learn environment. For serious use and production, you might want to consider vm ware hosting for a more reliable solution.

Room To Breathe

As you can see I have just been granted with some room to breathe. 3 full posts in a row is a lot for my schedule, and hopefully more coming to this blog.

To my plugin users who have requested for enhancements and bug fixes, thanks for your patience. Work shall commence soon on upgrading the plugins.

Eclipse PDT, Zend Framework, PHPUnit

I am currently in love and coding some personal projects using Eclipse PDT with the Zend Framework as foundation. Unit testing is accomplished using PHPUnit.

I love the ability of Eclipse to be extended with plugins so that I can have intelligent code completion and integrated subversion client. To my surprise, Eclipse runs very well on my seasoned 4 years old notebook.

I am a learner by practice so late last year I tried to penetrate the Ruby team at my company. However I didn’t make it because of company re-organization so requisitions were suspended (or something like that). I guess Ruby and I was just not meant to be together.

Eclipse PDT

Zend Framework really helps a lot in building applications really quick minus the bells and whistles of nice graphics. I am incompetent when it comes to creating nice graphics with Photoshop. 🙁

I am relatively very new to the MVC concept but I am very comfortable with it. It was just recently that I realize the importance of unit testing.

I must grab the unit testing concepts very quickly because I have just moved into a new role as a release engineer for a week. 🙂

On another development, I was also doing some Flash ActionScript 2.0 a couple of weeks ago and experimented on the XMLSocket object. The Flash movie connects to a server, and since I needed threading I decided to use Java. Eclipse is also superb with Java codes since I think it was originally meant to be a Java IDE.

Signing off.

Shutdown Day!

I was casually cruising at a friend’s blog when I saw his post about the Shutdown Day. It’s just a simple experiment to see how many people in this world can live a day without their PC.

I joined the site, and will definitely turn off all of my notebooks on that day. My servers will remain online, of course 😉 but I will not be accessing them.

Interested? Please go to http://shutdownday.org

Oh yes, on that day I have not much problem because I will be celebrating my birthday! I have also received two early birthday present from my better half. One in the news contained in the previous post, and the other one is a secret I will only reveal when I am better at playing it.

Changes In Life

Believe it or not I can now feel the aging process creeping into my life. Body functions aside, I am seeing things from the psychology point of view. These days it is incomplete if I don’t watch or read the news. I wake up early even on the weekends. I cry when I read life stories in Reader’s Digest – especially the ones that involve fatherly love.

Having no experience of having a real father, I have always been scared of the commitment of being a father. Last week 2 tester sticks yelled at me saying that I should now be prepared to be one. I know this day will come, and I am glad it did.

I am beginning to feel changes in my life. It’s kinda an automatic thing.

I used to like to speed when driving especially when I am alone. Now I drive at speed limit, thinking that I don’t want my kid to be an orphan.
Spiritually, I used to be lazy when it comes to executing my religious obligations. Not anymore.
I think of quitting smoking a lot more frequently than before.
I am going to execute a well planned exercise plan to get healthy and reduce my unhealthy weight.
I feel less intrigued on the ideas of spending my money on my expensive toys.

One thing that amazes me the most is that when I went out for dinner at Alamanda earlier, I feel that kids I saw were cuter and more adorable than ever before. This is very amazing because I used to dislike kids and think that they are annoying.

I am worried, but I am very happy. I may not be jumping with joy like most first time fathers do (I was raised in an inexpressive family) but I am very happy.

God, please give me strength to go through life. I really want to be a good father.

Rain Inside Alamanda Putrajaya

This is the first time in my entire 29-years of life that I actually encounter real rain inside a shopping mall. After being disappointed that Sri Ayutthaya is no longer operational, we went to Rasa food court to have lunch. It was actually my wife’s birthday.

While we were browsing magazines at the newsstand, rain started to pour at a spot near us. It got even worst and started to spread to all the roof joints. I managed to capture a video minutes after the unfortunate event started. Even though you can’t see the water pouring from the roof, you can hear the sound, some water on the floor, and people running.

It was lucky for Alamanda management that the center roof didn’t leak or even worst collapse as there was an event by the Ministry of Federal Territory. Otherwise the Chief Secretary would have been soaking wet 😉

Going to other areas of the mall we found that the worst victim was Clarks shoe store, followed by Quicksilver, Guess, and Yamaha Music Store.

Clarks (the ceiling ripped off and a torrent of water fell through):
Alamanda Leak: Clarks

Quicksilver (a small leak but the amount of water was indeed significant):
Alamanda Leak: QuickSilver

Yamaha Music Store (lucky for them no water leaked inside the store itself):
Alamanda Leak: Yamaha

I also managed to capture another video where water was leaking along the window of the Guess shop.

It’s an unfortunate event, but I guess after this Alamanda management needs to be executing more routine checks on the building to prevent it to happen again. Indeed, it was a very heavy rain but it should have not happened.

I wonder whether this will change the intention of potential tenants to do business at Alamanda. I noticed that Burger King and Cold Storage are opening soon…

Rambo 4: Bloody Movie

After getting some art supplies in One Utama yesterday, we decided to watch a movie. Since Rambo 4 is now showing, we decided to take a look especially because the last Rambo movie were released about 20 years ago.

As a child, I’ve watched all of the Rambo movies and liked each of them. They always depict a tactical and strategical soldier who has been trained to be a deadly weapon in the jungle. As far as my brain can recall, I always remember Rambo were always involved in Asia wars or conflict (in contrary to high tech wars between all the developed countries).

Rambo 4 Rambo 4… not to say that I don’t like it but I feel that the technological advancement in the film industry has actually influenced this movie a lot. All the gory details are included, as the film maker tries to enhance the dramatic effect of high powered weapons.

Human flesh are splattered everywhere, people are cut in half, blown by mines, limbs cut using machetes, heads blown by handguns (and sniper gun). The cruelty depicted is real, and is necessary to make viewers understand the real situation in Myanmar at that time. However when high powered weapons are involved (.50 caliber truck mounted guns, the sniper gun) you’ll see body parts flying around and a lot of red colors used!

When I saw what the army is doing to the people I wondered, “what’s wrong with this army????”. But when I saw Rambo shoot the driver of the truck with the .50 cal gun until he became a hamburger I can’t help it to wonder, “what’s wrong with Rambo???”. In this movie he is a mindless soldier who I guess is effected by all the battles he have been in the past.

All in all – it’s a good movie to unwind yourself, and not to have to think so much. It lacks a proper plot but the action is there. However if I am a parent, I would be extra careful not to let any copy of this movie (in form of CD/DVD/downloaded) falls into my child’s hands. It’s simply too shocking and violent!

Fender Bender in Subang

I was involved in a fender bender in Subang yesterday, caused by a motorcycle. He was crossing a road divider (to save distance WTF) and slowly cruising in front of me so I had to slow down.

A car behind me (a Proton Wira) saw this and in turn he slowed down himself. But, an old lady behind him driving a 5th Gen Honda Civic didn’t slow down and hit the back of the Wira. It was a nasty blow and it ripped off the Wira’s rear bumper. The Wira grazed my Perodua Kelisa‘s rear end, caused some paint transfer and some dent. His left side near the tire, however, was dented quite badly and even effected his front passenger door. (So was it the super effect of Proton cars absorbing the impact, or whether it’s the bad material I don’t know).

Since I was in a hurry, I went to discuss with them and asked them what they were going to do. I don’t care, as my damage is tiny. We suggested the old lady check her own insurance, and how much her NCD was. If it’s a lot and not worth claiming maybe she could use her own money and save years of NCD.

In summary however – it was a nice accident. Everyone was very cool about it, and there were no finger-pointing or blaming each other. Well, we blame the idiot on the bike who escaped unhurt and nowhere to be seen after the bang occurred. It was a healthy accident. Everyone knew that the accident already happened and there is no need to make the situation worst.

After 10 minutes I was driving to Pelita Nasi Kandar in Subang to have lunch, as we all decided not to make a report and no insurance was involved. Those two unlucky drivers went to the workshop nearby to get an estimate.

MacBook Air Is Too Expensive For Me

Hey hey hey… looks like MacBook Air’s price has been released in Malaysia. However when I took a glance at Machines Sunway Pyramid last weekend I didn’t see any hint (not even a flier) about MacBook Air.

The least expensive model is priced at RM6,299.00 (~US$1,949.25) – which is actually logical for an Apple notebook. However, analyzing the tech specs, I can get a very high-end x86 machines with that kind of money! Unless I have a never-ending flow of money, or am very rich, I don’t think I will get one of those. The most expensive model is RM10,899.00 (~US$3,372.74) which is jaw-dropping. 🙁

In the States, the prices are US$1,799.00 (~RM5,813.46) and US$3,098.00 (~RM10,011.19) respectively.

Sure, the physical design is extremely beautiful. But if I really want to use Mac OS X I guess I can try installing it on a normal x86 machine. I guess we can’t expect a good balance between physical beauty and excellent tech spec!

I guess I’ll just have to forget about self-adjusting keyboard backlight and multi-touch trackpad. Michael Dell, I’m coming your way!

Sun Acquired MySQL

For those who have been busy or simply missed the news, MySQL has been acquired by Sun Microsystems (last month). There are many speculations on the effect of this acquisition, some good and some bad.

I just hope Sun will preserve MySQL as an open source project and keeps the dual-licensing option. According to Kaj ArnÃ¶ (MySQL VP of Community Relations) nothing bad will come. However Solaris users will definitely have an advantage as “Solaris has a special position in MySQL’s heart”. 😉 I never really knew that MySQL was initially developed on Solaris!

The thing I remember the most is that when David Axmark (co-founder) was in Malaysia for Fosscon 2003 he mentioned that MySQL is named after Michael “Monty” Widenius’s (co-founder/CTO) daughter My (pronounced “me”) in 1983.

MySQL certainly have a very bright future, and I am actually happy that David and Monty decided not to sell to Oracle when offered in 2006. MÃ¥rten Mickos (CEO) said, “We will be part of a larger company, but it will be called MySQL”. MySQL is here to stay.

This is the press release on MySQL acquisition.

Related:

Oracle Buys Sleepycat Software

Plant A Tree While Buying A Dell Server

Yes, I have been busy.

I just want to share you an interesting finding while “shopping” for a server at work today. While customizing a DELL 2950 III server, at the end of the customization page Dell offers and Environmental Options section.

Want to help the environment? Through Dell, you can plant a tree to help offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated to power your new system.

DELL Tree Planting Option

I think it’s cool what they are doing. I wonder if they have a planting site somewhere where each tree is labeled with the buyer’s name? 😉

Google In Malaysia II

More than a year after I wrote this post: Google In Malaysia, and more than a year after Hanson Toh was appointed as Malaysia Google Consultant, we may actually have a real good news.

I just saw in TV3’s Buletin Utama that Malaysia Prime Minister met Google’s CEO in Switzerland (World Economic Forum) and they do have intention to have a physical presence in Malaysia.

For everyone who have ever dreamed of working for Google (to become a Googler), there might just be a chance soon. A chance is good enough – I doubt that it is going to be very easy to get into Google 🙂

Apple MacBook Air, Anyone?

MacBook Air

I can’t believe my eyes when I saw this notebook. It’s as thin as air hence the perfect name is given. At 1.94cm, it is as thick as two foolscap binders stacked on top of each other. The weight of 1.36kg is simply acceptable.

It looks like I made the right decision not to get myself a MacBook Pro late last year. Of course, we still don’t know how much it’ll cost and when will it arrive in Malaysia. It has just been launched in the States.

At that thickness I would never though this machine would be able to have the “almost” normal configuration. It comes with either 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, standard 2GB RAM, 13.3″ screen, the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, built-in Micro-DVI output (VGA & DVI with provided adapters, S-Video & Composite with optional adapters), the cool backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor, and a battery that lasts for 5 hours.

Did I mention about storage? It comes standard with a traditional 4200RPM IDE (aka parallel ATA) or optionally a 64GB solid-state drive. The SSD is cool, and would be very invulnerable to shocks caused by moving round.

Well, that’s my summary. Go here for a detailed spec. Now, let me spend some time to watch the guided tour. 🙂