Today I lost a friends....(14 August 2005)

....in loving memory

During afternoon tea, i got an urgent call from Adie informing me about the depature of one of my closest friend. I didn't believe it at first until i called Riez's family and they confirmed my worst fears. Riez passed away on the 14 August 2005 at 4.00 pm malaysian time at his home. The funeral service was done at 10.00 am the next day.

Our last conversation was a few days ago where he told me that he suffered with some breathing complications and is going to be hospitalised. My initial reaction was anger. I was angry with the haze. I was angry with the unpredictable weather. I was angry at the people who had no concern about the environment.

In the 5 years that I had known Riez, he was not only my best friend but also a strong believer of love. He has a big heart which can only be match by his body. He is more concern about other people's feelings than his own. He is also comfortable with himself and takes no concern about what other people thinks about him.

brunodiehard: aku tak sangka sampai camni, last week yg dia masuk wad sakit paru2 bengkak tu. Dia mintak balik rumah lepas sehari pasal katil sempit tak selesa. lepas balik dia makan medication dooktor bagik tuh, dua hari lepas tu ada side-effect dia kata, badan dia sejuk semacam, pastu entah badan bintik2 merah. Aku suruh dia bawak ubat tu gi jumpa doktor ckp pasal side effect tuh, mata dia yg jahit dulu tu pun merah dia kata. Aku suruh dia refer doktor jangan pandai2 sendiri tapi dia stop ambik ubat tu dah 3 hari tak makan. Sebab dia taknak gi jumpa doktor tu balik pasal doktor tu cakap dgn dia 'takmau tengok muka dia lagi kat hospital tu' sebab rizal cerewet.

To Kebab, be brave and take this as one of the test in life.

Rizal a.k.a Riezchub, we will all miss you dearly....

Ummmm.... Cakkk!!!

Sebenernye moks dah update dah blog terbaru. Kisah2 gi lepak kat Cameron Highlands and Penang baru-baru ni. Tapi entah camano, tetiba je the server kat opis ban plak. Nak kata penuh ngan carut-marut, tak der la plak. Nie musti gara-gara kerajaan ban site2 lucah. Tapi blog moks maner ader benda2 lucah? Iskk.. poning! poning!

Anyway, moks malas la plak nak tulis pepanjang macam pagi tadi. Cukup la ngan blog pendek ni.

FAV MOVIE
- Star Wars / Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy / I Robot / Bicentenial Man (mostly sci-fi)

FAV TV-SHOWS
- Tremors / Babylon 5 / Star Trek / Queer as Folks

FAV FOOD
- Assam Pedas / Steak & Lobsters / Sara Lee Ice-Cream

FAV PAST-TIME
- surfing the net / writing stories / computer programming

FAV ACTOR
- George Dzunza / Paul Sorvino (Chubby Italian Daddies Type)

FAV RADIO STATION
- Light & Easy / Gaydar Radio

FAV WEBSITE
- MyChub.ORG

FAV CAR
- Proton Satria GTI / Gen-2

Cuti Cuti Malaysia

"Bersama kapitan tokey kebun durian"

Dah lama tak update blog nih. Maklum le aku kat Johor sekarang ni. So takde masa sangat nak online lama-lama. Ini pun aku postkan entry pendek je, tapi harapnya menarik perhatian korang.

Ari tu si kap ajak pegi makan durian kat dusun durian bapak dia. Haiyoo, makan free beb... mesti tak tolak punyer. So pegi ler kami berempat; abu, moks, arwah riez ngan syed. Tapi kami tak tahu pulak yg dusun tu punyer la jauh masuk ke dalam estate.

Sesampai kat dusun tu, Kap plak lupa bawak kunci pagar dusun. Jadi terpaksa le lalu ikut celah kawat pagar berduri. Riez (sebab badan dia besor), terlekat kat kawat pagar tu. Kami dlm gelak ketawa, tolong le dia.. kesian gak, terkial2 dia nak lepaskan badan (ada la dekat 15 minit). Merah padam muka dia.

Tapi tak per la.. dia sporting. Dah lepas pagar, terus kami kumpul durian untuk makan. Hmm.. best jugak. Tapi tak dapat lepak lama kat dusun tu, sebab hari dah nak gelap. (mcm biasa le, kalu plan gi mana2 mesti last minit). Kami cepat2 la makan, sbb biasanya kat dusun durian ni ada HARIMAU !! Fuiyooo...Takuttttttt

Balik kenyang perut.. senang hati. TQ Kap! Musim durian lain kali jemput le lagi kami melantak kat kebun ko tuh.. sure habis nyerrrr.. ahaxxx

Pejam celik pejam celik, cuti sekolah pun dah bermula. Tapi aku punya cuti tinggal lagi sebulan. Sepanjang cuti ni aku jarang online dan tak berkesempatan nak update blog. Sebenarnya banyak cerita yang aku nak cerita, tapi asyik tertangguh-tangguh sampai lupa topik yang nak diceritakan.

Cuti sekolah, juga dikenali sebagai ‘musim mengawan’ di kalangan orang-orang muda masyarakat kita. Ye'lah, time ni lah ramai orang memenuhi chatroom mychub dengan pelbagai harapan. Tak kurang juga bapak-bapak budak yang mencari anak-anak ikan. Kemeriahan terasa terutama diwaktu malam. Tak menang tangan berceloteh melayan kengkawan.

After 6 hours...

Phew!!! Managed to reconstruct 1/2 of the server functions. It was no easy task. The Active Directory keeps fumbling with all sorts of errors. My back-up server was an old Win2K. It didn't connect very well with Win2003. But after a few trial and errors, i managed to find a trick to fool the system into believing it's a PDC and overwrite the old configuration.

The second problem was Oracle 9i. The enterprise edition was very fussy about it's settings and with the scarce documentation that I had with me. I set about to re-install the whole thing instead of trying to salvage whatever i can from the old back-up tape. Fortunately for me, there was a system snapshot of the old config so that I have at least a way to revive the database.

The third problem was with the ApacheTomcat installation. The provided documentation was totally different with what my system was configured. So with what little I have on my hands, i changed the whole lot of the XML files to suit the system need.

Well.. things to do:-
1) Optimize and tweak the system for peak performance.
2) BACKUP! Backup! backup!
3) Harden the security of the system to prevent my stupid apprentice from fumbling with the system.
4) Claim exorbitantly for the service so that it could pay my trip to Europe (i wish*)

Hahahha... 6 more hours to go

Server FUBR!!

My boss called me up today and asked me to come to the office PRONTO!!. Took me about 6 hours of driving just to find out that my apprentice had fucked up the main Xeon server beyond human repair in just about a week of my absence. Even the back-up recovery software could not help much. Darn!!! This will set us back about 1 year of development. What I really missed the most is the fact that i had lost all the data collected last year. This is a terrible loss as it took me months to program. Now I have about 12 hours to re-construct all the data back into the server before the end of the week.

NOTE TO MYSELF: Never ever use Windows 2003 again. It's slow.. it's buggy and it's totally fucked up. Kudos to Bill Gates for successfully making such a "pain in the ass" OS.

GOAL: Rebuilt a Windows 2003 Server in record time of 6 hours. Additional software to install:-
- Oracle 9i
- Apache Tomcat
- Apache HTTPD
- MySQL
- SquidNT
- Mail Daemon

Ok.. that's about it.. (for now)
BTW: FUBR = Fucked Up Beyond Repair

Sabbatical Holiday

Today is the start of my sabbatical holiday. Yeap.. i've taken 1 year off to finish my thesis and pursue my doctorate degree. But that does not mean I won't be around. Just not as frequent as i use to be. I'm really looking forward to this holiday as it means I can better focus on my studies and take my mind off of things.

Besides that, I am thankful that some of the problem that have been around mychub have been eliminated. The culprit have been found. Thank you to all the Mychub Webteam members who had work so hard in keeping and maintaining mychub in order.

So what's planned for my holidays ? Hmm.. well.. I will be going to Taiwan for a a couple of months visit. There are a few places in Taipei and Kaohshioung that hold the key to my thesis as well as a few old time friends that wants me to visit them.

I'm doing research on VLSInet (Very Large Scale Information network). A new concept of bringing broadband internet via multiple points to provide critical information and data across remote areas. (Through mountains and Sea using atoms and molecules within the matter to convey data). That is all that i can say, other information is classified at the moment. It's very exciting for me as this sort of work has never been actually produced.

Okay that's all for now.. hope to write more soon.

Points to ponder

every once in awhile, for no particular reason, something good just happens. And when these good things happen, no matter how small, it's worth taking note.

There are so many times in life that things are at their worse and yet when we stand strong something good comes out of it.

Provocation

Recently that has been some surges that tries to provoke me and my work with mychub. But their efforts were futile. It's not because they didn't try hard enough... but the fact of the matter is, if they have dark intentions and it can never succeed. People nowadays know better... they are more learned.. we have seen them do the same "modus operandi" again and again in the past. They try to sabotage us by copying our work and bad-mouthing our efforts in more sinister ways under the veil of internet anonymity. Posing as some unknown nickname and spreading more lies.

I just realize something too.. that writing is more powefull than the sword itself. My writing would be copied, twisted and spread all over the internet. But's it's still my writings and people would still revert back to the source and that's me.

In short, these people are just afraid. Afraid of losing power.. afraid of losing popularity. Jealous of the success that MyChub had gained over the years.

When people ask me, "What is the secret to MyChub's success over the year". All i could think of is sincerity. If you are sincere in your work, sooner or later... people would see that and appreciate it.

As I was walking along in JB one day, a guy actually stopped me and asked.. are you GemukChub ? and I replied "yes". he continued thanking me because of my work in MyChub, he has met his lover and he is happier now that he has come to terms with himself.

To all the people who had supported mychub, I give my deepest gratitude. Without your endearing support.. we would not achieved this far.

Lots of huggsss.

Chinese New Year 2005 - Headache

"Gadek Hot Spring, Melacca"

Yeah.. this chinese new year holiday was not as good as the year before. I got a splitting headache all due to my giddyness of taking a 7-Eleven Slurpee at 3 AM in the morning. Felt bored and went driving aimlessly.

Slept at 6 AM. Woke-up in the afternoon and still feeling sober. So went out and had a bowl of chicken soup. Felt really better after that. Went to the office to check my mails and messages. Didn't do much programming with this headache still on me.

Went out with a friend on a shopping spree. Bought some stuff which i think i can use later.. or maybe not.

My be I'll just drop by the local "Gadek Hot Spring" for a hot swim. That probably that will cheer me up.

Making up plans to travel to Singapore to meet old friends. Been ages since I got in touch with them.

Penang Trip 2005

Went to Penang for Hari Raya Haji. We started from Melacca at 2pm. Me, Abu & Ben Mashimaro. Stopped by KL and met-up with Hardchub & Ezam. BTW Happy Birthday Ezam. Hardchub was estatic showing his new Lasik Eyes (Lazer Eye Treatment). Maybe I want to get those too. But I like my glasses as well. We all parted at 6.00 pm. The road was jammed up until Tapah. Luckily, i was driving Abu_Chub new Gen-2 car with auto transmission. So it was just a breeze.

Reached Penang at 4.30 am. Imagine driving on a high-way at 3o mph. Anyway, it's good for the car's engine running-in. Abu went back to his mom's house. While me and Ben stayed in Butterworth coz Abu's house was full with family and friends.

Later we met up with Usman for a KFC lunch and then Imran joined us at Usman's house for Hari Raya ketupat & rendang (courtesy of Abu's mom). I was so tired that the day time ended with me sleeping the whole day, while Ben played some games with on PS2. At night we went for some kareoke sessions at bandar Perda. Alimin joined us in the midst of us trying to croon to Mariah Carey "My All". Which was really like a low key a rendition.

The next day the 3 of us went to one of Abu's schoolmate house on Penang Island for a Hari Raya treat. Nasi Briyani Penang style. Got really bloated.. food was good. Later Usman & Alimin joined us at Komtar. We all went to Gurney Plaza for a movie titled "Elektra". Imran went bitching about how bad the movie was, which I couldn't agree more. We all came back to Butterworth at 2.00 am. Had a light dinner cum supper at Subaidah.

The next day woke up really late. Then had some lunch with all of the gang. After which we all went to Penang Megamall for some shopping. Then Alimin brought us to Kulim for a traditional massage. It's a new experience but can't elaborate here.. maybe later. Then went back to sleep.

The final day, went to Bayan Lepas to send Ben back to the airport. Then me and Abu drove to Penang Road to find some souveniers. There had been a massive traffic jam all around the city area. Had lunch at "Line Clear" Restaurant. Arghhh.. still the same.. with motorbikes going through the kitchen and serving food with their raw hands.

Went back to Melacca afterthat. This time the roads were smooth and no traffic jams on the highway. Had a quick bite near Bukit Merah Laketown Resort. All due to Abu had taken a wrong road. Anyway, the food was nice.