Connection Marathon

Managed to connect for 503 hours straight. Need evidence? Look here:

End of Semester, Starting a New Phase

We had our last final Machine Learning examination on Thursday morning, and we had lunch at steamboat after that. Here are the satisfied faces after the very fulfilling meal. (Never judge how much a person can eat by his/her build - another lesson learnt)

I'm not a big fan of steamboat buffets because I can never eat so much. But well, this is the end of the semester after all, what we have been looking forward to for four months. Phew.

When are we going for karaoke? Sorry that I 'duahed' everyone the last time ... I really slept too late. Next time just go there and start without me, I'll catchup. Apologies again. :)

Also bought a cool aluminium hard disk enclosure (at Storage Studio, slightly overpriced) and DVD-RW drive (a $69 bargain at VideoPro's new showroom).
Too bad the 250GB capacity hard disks are out of stock. The perils of shopping close to the weekend, and during X'mas season at that. I'll try again on Saturday, after I sort things out in school.

Started my first day (orientation) of internship at Encentuate on Friday. Feels wierd becoming an intern especially after working for five years already. Man, it has been that long! It is quite cool to experience how another company operates, it opens up a whole new perspective, very enriching experience. Apparently my project is quite highly sought after, not to mention being quite expensive too (cos of the equipment involved). *Pressure*.

Got a pair of Creative 1700 headphones, not too shabby, heh ... has a long 1m extension cable.




Wow, I'm spending a lot of money. :P:P

Went browsing around at Best Denki, looking at DV Camcorders. There was a guy promoting JVC models, but he was enthusiastic enough to discuss esoteric features like Canon's (and Sony's) AV-DV passthrough with me, although, like virtually all salespeople I have talked to, had no idea what I was talking about at first. This one is good though, he was patient enough to listen, and really understood what I was saying.

The new Canon DVD camcorder did not have the passthrough function, apparently, so he kindly let me plug the power into one of the DV tape models to browse through the menu screens. I finally found the setting "AV-DV recording (on/off)" while in VCR mode. Sweet success!

Also saw the spare battery for my wireless headphone at Best Denki, but it costs a whopping $30, so I decided against it for now. Need to amortise the spending.

Plan to go back to school Saturday morning to clean out the waste paper, scan handwritten notes and burn stuff to DVD.

USB2.0 drives finally works on my Linux machine! Had to use a 2.6.12 kernel. USB development has stopped on the 2.4 series of kernels, so even the 'latest' 2.4.30 cannot make it.

Made a Knoppix 4.0.2 LiveCD a few days ago and booted from it. Viola, the USB drive worked with the EHCI-HCD driver! Wonderful! But I've been afraid of migrating to a 2.6 kernel, which is rather unfamiliar territory. Since I am running a RedHat9 system, even though I have already heavily patched to keep it up-to-date, the system and some initialization files (namely /etc/rc.sysinit and /etc/modules.conf) also need some tweaking to get them to support a 2.6 kernel.

Instead of trying to compile a 2.6 kernel myself (which takes a terribly long time, by the way, even on my Pentium4 3GHz with HyperThreading), I just copied the kernel and modules from the Knoppix CD's Live filesystem! Guess what, it actually works! (Well, but not without some adjusting of configuration files of course).

For those who are in the same boat as me, here are some useful links.


http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
http://kerneltrap.org/node/3106
http://www.mobydisk.com/techres/linux_2.6.1_kernel.html
http://www.linux-sxs.org/upgrading/migration26.html

The Knoppix 2.6.12 kernel has now replaced 2.4.30 as the default kernel in my Grub configuration.

Found this new NDAS technology while looking for an external drive enclosure http://www.ximeta.com/technology/ndas/index.php, looks rather promising since it includes both USB and NDAS. NDAS skips the overheads of TCP/IP and CPU processing, even allowing RAID configurations and unlimited expansion options. It comes standard with Gigabit Ethernet too (you can't do any fast file transfers with Fast Ethernet anyways)! The case by Sarotech is going for S$179, seems a good buy. A 250GB drive is also going for the same price ... hmmm cheap cheap ... but getting both will set me back by another $400! Not to mention that I need to get a replacement DVD writer.

Hmm ... I'll make this my X'Mas wish list! :P

Bummer!

Wasted a lot of time today doing anything but work. This is very destructive. No one who expects to succeed would lack this kind of discipline.

Heard this from the prof while watching AI lecture video ... "Eating your own dog food..." what does it mean?

It means to use your own software that you write on a daily basis, just like your end customers would. Joel's Definition

Finally cleared my Machine Learning lectures! The next one will be out pretty soon, and there is still so much homework and readings to catchup on.

Ganbatte!

Secure Your Machines Folks!

It's interesting how many times you are being hacked daily when you have a machine connected to the Internet via broadband ... Here are some logs ... hopefully this will guide some readers to secure their own machines and remove those simple logins if you really want to leave your machine connected to the Internet.

[Edit: This entry is a bit too long. Trimming ...]

 Authentication Failures:
    nobody (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    root (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 18 Time(s)
    adm (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    apache (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    mysql (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    games (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    mail (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 6 Time(s)
    news (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)
    ftp (bluejay.sanasys.com ): 1 Time(s)


Failed logins from these:
 adm/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 apache/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 ftp/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 games/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 mail/password from 65.122.184.1: 6 Time(s)
 mysql/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 news/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 nobody/password from 65.122.184.1: 1 Time(s)
 root/password from 65.122.184.1: 18 Time(s)


**Unmatched Entries**
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user guest from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webmaster from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user oracle from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user library from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user info from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user shell from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user linux from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user unix from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webadmin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user guest from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user master from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user webmaster from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user user from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user username from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user username from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user user from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user admin from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user test from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user danny from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user sharon from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user aron from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user alex from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user brett from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user mike from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user alan from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user data from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user www-data from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user http from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user httpd from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user backup from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user info from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user shop from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user sales from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user web from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user www from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user wwwrun from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user adam from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user stephen from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user richard from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user george from 65.122.184.1
Illegal user michael from 65.122.184.1 -- By GOLLY! George Michael!  

Another Quote

GREAT SPIRITS HAVE ALWAYS ENCOUNTERED VIOLENT OPPOSITION FROM MEDIOCRE MINDS - ALBERT EINSTEIN

Quote of the Day

Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you need is someone who'll take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

The Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? Assignments and deadlines? These times are even worse than the toughest working hours that I've ever had. Three subjects, totally new, without prior background, not enough time to get familarised. How to find the strength and discipline to carry on? Argh! Help me!

Today marks the end of deadline week, and is also when I had slept the longest for a long long time. There is a deadline every day of the week for many different subjects. Compiler project and paper discussion, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence. Not to mention having to go back to camp for pre ICT briefing, and my deferment is still pending after 3 months! I want to stay in the SMA program, but if I am forced to go for the ICT, I'd definitely fail the program. Just hope my CO would get around to processing my deferment soon enough.

Kudos to classmates who have been patient and helpful, without you, I would not have made it this far. You know who you are! Thanks to all the good friends who have been supportive and encouraging. Apologies to the people I have neglected, I feel really bad, and I hope to make it up.
Some tell me to be more modest, some tell me I should love myself more. Looking back, it's all the same, just that people are looking at me from different perspectives. I'm a confused man.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF MARRIAGE

COMMANDMENT 1
Marriages are made in heaven. But so are thunder and lightning.

 

COMMANDMENT 2
If you want your wife to listen and pay strict attention to every word
you say, talk in your sleep.
 
COMMANDMENT 3
Marriage is grand -- and divorce is at least 100 grand!

 

COMMANDMENT 4
Married life is very frustrating.
In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens.
In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens.
In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.
 
COMMANDMENT 5
When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure
of one thing:
Either the car is new or the wife is.
 
COMMANDMENT 6
Marriage is when a man and woman become as one;
The trouble starts when they try to decide which one.
 
COMMANDMENT 7
Before marriage, a man will lie awake all night thinking about
something you say.
After marriage, he will fall asleep before you finish.

 

COMMANDMENT 8
Every man wants a wife who is beautiful, understanding,
economical, and a good cook. But the law allows only one wife.
 
COMMANDMENT 9
Marriage and love are purely matters of chemistry.
That is why wife treats husband like toxic waste.

 

COMMANDMENT 10
A man is incomplete until he is married. After that, he is finished..

Leaving MIT

Typing this from Boston. We are 3 hours away from departure, bringing an end to 3 weeks of life at MIT. We've been to many places, done many things, spent a lot of money, and we wish that we had more time to do more things!

However, it is time to pack up our overflowing luggage and exhuberent feelings to return home, to get on with a life that we are all happy to take a break from.

We'd be landing in Changi airport late Sunday night. So see you on Monday! Luckily there are no lessons! Hee hee.

SMA Plug

Six graduate programmes will be offered by SMA for a July 2006 intake.

Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) is collaboration between NUS and NTU in Singapore and MIT in the US. SMA offers DUAL DEGREES: either a Masters degree from MIT and a Masters degree from NUS/NTU; or a Masters degree from MIT and a PhD from NUS/NTU in addition to direct PhD degrees to be awarded by either NUS or NTU.

SMA Graduate Fellowship Benefits:
· Full support for tuition and fees at MIT and either NUS or NTU
· Monthly stipend of up to S$2500
· Roundtrip airfare between Singapore and MIT
· Living allowance of up to US$6000 during residency at MIT

Study Burnout

Spent so much time revising the chapter on normalisation and decomposition. Managed to finish going through the notes and understood them with reinforcements from the textbook and help from my classmates. But some doubts still remain. I guess these must be clear through practising with questions and working through the assignments.

Had not touched the project yet. Was so obsessed with the normalisation and decomposition that I didn't do anything else. My lack of background in databases is killing me. I am falling behind everybody else.

Almost didn't want to eat. Couldn't get to Funan like I originally planned because I could not finish the damned studying in time. Left the lab at 9:30pm and went to Tiong Bahru.

Went into LJS wanting to try their Spicy Lemon Baked Fish. Already had a stressful day - and guess what happened? The Spicy Lemon Baked Fish comes with a soft drink. I said "regular" Coke, only to realise later that I was being charged 30cents more. "Regular" is the MEDIUM capacity drink; "Small" is the actual smallest size! Come on! Can everyone standardise on the convention!!! Alright, my fault ... I cannot expect the staff to remind me that regular is the medium size and it costs more. Nevermind that this is a very common mistake made by customers.

I paid, the drink came, and I was told to take a seat, presumably while the main course was being prepared. So I went to take a seat (expecting to at least be called or have my order brought to me once it was ready, since there were no more customers), and took out my notes to study, examining the difference between the text and the lecture slides - text book says a BCNF decomposition of R with X->A violating BCNF goes into R1=(R-A) and R2=(XA), while the lecture slides say R1=(R-X⁺ )∪X and R2=(X⁺). In fact, I managed to analyse that both are in fact valid methods - BUT my order STILL has not arrived.

After deciding that even if they had to catch the fish from the tank and cook it, it would be done by then - anyway, IT IS FAST FOOD isn't it - I went back to the counter, and in no friendly tone, ask if my order was ready. The supervisor said "yes" and tried to confirm with me my order, saying something that I couldn't make out what it was. True enough, the fish was on the kitchen window, cooling off. The sup plunked on the tartar sauce and gave it to me.

"Was I supposed to come get it myself?!" "Umm ... no". He pointed to the girl who took my order, standing in front of the counter ready to go home, "you forgot." She giggled, yeah right, like it is very funny. No apologies, no explanations, NOTHING.

Very good service, LJS! Very good indeed! (I am being extremely sarcastic here). Instead of a bell that people ring for good service, put up a LOUD buzzer that people sound for bad service. That will tell you if you are doing well or not!

The gliding support of my mouse has fallen off and gone missing.

Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse is next on my wishlist. The Logitechs are more expensive.

Been looking for a new handphone. Possible candidates are the Nokia 3230 or the Nokia 6020.

Cool!

Just came back from SMA Orientation Day 1. Tiring, even though the whole day was spent inside the Lecture Theater.

We met our classmates, got our rooms and workstations, got shown around the place, not too bad.

Have to be at the video conferencing lab at 7:30am tomorrow! Gosh, what time must I wake up to make it there? I'm never going to make it man.

Kenna suan 3 times by Yuet Ying today, insinuating that I didn't know how to read instructions properly, and that I'm a latecomer. She's right about the late part though. Hope to be able to change it.

Hmm, cool. It seems like nobody reads my blog, muahahaha. Which is well, so that my identity would not be compromised.

My last day of work was last friday. I'm on 'paid' leave until end of July, which is well too!

Popped by the Microsoft Embedded Seminar yesterday. Met some old friends as well as new ones. Of course, being a free seminar, there's nothing much to be learned from such events except the opportunity to maintain, if not expand your industrial network. If I were not on leave, FAT chance that I would be able to attend. I know the company only too well.

Starting SMA Orientation later today at 8:30am. Have to wake up at 7am. Hope I can drag my lazy bones up.

I hope the team holds out fine without me. I may be over-estimating my importance to the team, but I believe they would be able to sort things out on their own.

New Photo Album

I've got a new photo album at MyPhotoAlbum.

Feel free to look browse some photos from my recent trip to the US, as well as some photos that I have taken of my niece and nephew.

Hmm ... does direct linking work?


Well, it should, but MyPhotoAlbum happens to be hosted by FortuneCity. Hmm ... do referrers work in a link, or in Javascript?


Enjoy!

Job Interrupted

I've just received news - I've been admitted to the highly competitive (28 students were accepted for the Masters program out of a total of 700+ applicants) and intensive Singapore-MIT Alliance program for a Masters Degree in Computer Science. The program comes with a full scholarship and a tuition subsidy. The best of both worlds, studying at home in NUS with the prestige of a MIT certificate. There will be a Summer Conference in Boston starting mid-July. I'm really looking forward to learning much from the program and going to Boston.

Many thanks to the people who have encouraged, informed, supported, and helped me in one way or another. There is no way that I could have done this without these wonderful people. Keng Peng for introducing me to the program, and believing in me. Sam for giving me the push to go ahead with the applications. Boon Pang being such a great help for coordinating the completion of evaluation letters at UIUC. Profs Lockwood and Lumetta, Hon Kit and Tony for writing glowing evaluations. Ms Komathi, Profs Wong (Sorry Prof Wong, I didn't manage to see Prof Hwu when I went back to UIUC earlier this month) and Hsu at the SMA for being so kind and accomodating. Dixon and He Jun for your support, encouragement, and reassurance. Thank you all for believing in me!

Will be putting my job on hold for a year until I finish the course. My boss is kind enough to hold the post for me until I get back. Ultimately, we realise that it is a win-win situation for both the company and myself, because we both get to benefit from the extra insights that I will gain from this intensive, enriching course.