The Heroes, Season 2

Hey, I think I have finished watching Heroes, Season 2, only 11 episodes this time, it was so short.

Now, I confused who is/are vallain(s) and who is/are the good ones, Peter has 'hooked up' with Tenshi, the immortal, aimed to save mankind by destroying the world with the deadly virus, Shanti, which could potentially kill 95% of the earth population. The virus was later destroyed by....Peter, when he realised what he had done.

Syler is slowly recovering his power, oops, the end.

Season 3 next....

Work and no play

There goes my leave plans for today, the tomorrow and probably the day after next. My work can't seem to finish, never ever!

Trying to find time to rest and have some fun outside work is tough, 2 more weeks and it's Christmas and new year. I just don't feel that holiday mood now, thinking about the work that I have to complete.

Let's see how, maybe I should try to squeeze some time and catch a movie on Wednesday, I got a free movie ticket.

Thought I could go on leave

Just when I thought I could clear my leaves from Thursday onwards, I was told we will be having a Disaster Recovery exercise to do.

The last 2 days at the DR site was terrible, had encountered a couple of issues, e.g. restoration failure due to incompatibility of tape drives/library. Problems that we did not see at our office surface. LTO2 tapes (HCART3) written using LTO3 tape drives (HCART3) cannot be restored from a LTO2 tape drive (HCART2), which is for Veritas Netbackup 6.0, tried to re-configure the LTO2 tape drive as HCART3, it didn't work!

Oh dear, guess don't think I can finish clearing my leaves by end of the year.

The Heroes

"Save the cheerleader, save the world!"

Hey, I have just finished watching the season 1 of The Hero's serial TV show. It took me almost five days and nights.

What's the fuss about this show? Well, it's about heroes who found out that they have special innate capabilities (in the show, they called it 'power') to fly, talk to machines, listen to other people's thoughts, mind control, self healing, turn invisible, etc.

Naturally, in such show, there will be the good and bad guys (or gals), but wait, the line between them is gray. There's this guy, Noah (played by Jack Coleman) who would pay any price (even killing) to protect his adopted cheerleader daughter, Claire (played by Hayden Panettiere) from harm. Good or bad? You guess.

Season 2 coming up....

Lost in translation

When I walk on the roads of this city, I no longer understands what people are talking about. It's seems to me when I pass-by someone or a group of people, the language used sounds so alien to me. No surprise that 1 out of 4 people here is a foreigner!

Everywhere you see Indians, Chinese, English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Chileans, Brazilians, Germans, koreans, Africans, Arabs, Russians, Indonesians, Thais, Malaysians, Australians, etc... the list goes on. Foreign people who are working, studying, holidaying, etc. here, each speaks a language most locals may not understand.

I hope I do not lose my way in this city, asking directions would probably be a difficult task. I think.

Memory, perishable and enduring

I would like to share something that I read...

"Memory, perishable and enduring, is the brain's archive. It is a marvel of neuronic circuitry..... It's loss can be cruel, but remember this: It is through memory that we hold on to those we love." - Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Society's Magazine (November 2007).

True enough, without memories, how could we still remember our love ones, or the things that we love, e.g. house, pets, food?

Side track, I have found out the reason why I have not been eating well. It is because of my tooth-ache. Still waiting for the dental clinic to call me to schedule an appointment with the dentist.

Don't feel good

Lately, I have been feeling very perturbed and uneased.

Just don't know why, too many thoughts are flowing through my mind, and waking up in the middle of the night is just not good. i don't think I am eating well for weeks, in fact, I don't feel like having my meals sometimes, have that tendency to eat more veggies and stays away from meat. Nope, I don't want to be a vegan, yet (not at least until I retire!). Also, I have started drinking Coffee, I don't used to do that, strange??

There is just something that is happening around me and is disturbing. Maybe something to do with my job, my life or it's something else....I really don't know.

Trying to configure Netbackup

For the past weeks, our team has been trying to setup the Netbackup for backing up DB2 database. It is really tough, and I simply couldn't find much information on the Internet in doing this.

We had to get the Veritas (or Symantec) technical support to help, frankly, it is not easy, but, we finally got it working, doing backup (restore not tested yet!).

Well, just to share, if you are using Netbackup version 6.0, and requires the 'Backup, Archive and Restore' (BAR) GUI to browse the DB2 instance and objects, you will need at least MP5. When logon to BAR GUI, you have to use the DB2 system ID, e.g. db2inst1. These are not stated in the official Documents. You can create templates with the GUI, you know what I am talking about, right? By the way, we are using scripts.

One note, however, the GUI does not allow you to browse previous backups, already stated in the documents, we are trying to find out more for Veritas support on this. The last thing we would want to do is to use commands, not many people like to do that, including us!

Roller-skating

A month plus into learning to roller-skate, it seems to have bear fruits. At the very least, I have learned how to stand up on the skates and able to skate!

Initially, wanted to take up a inline skating course at one of the community clubs, 70+ dollars for a couple of lessons, but, guess they couldn't get enough headcount to start a class. So, I was on my own.

Armed with the skates, protective gears, i.e. elbow and knee guards, helmet, I began skating around my neighbourhood.

Just yesterday, I lost focus and fell backwards, two little girls laughed. Well, lesson for new skaters, falling down is ok, don't worry and don't be embarrassed, it happens.

One more guy leaving...

We are going to lose another DBA soon. He got an offer to work in Europe, and a huge jump in his salary. The weird thing is that his wife and baby have recently just join him in this country, he's non-citizen here, by the way.

I guess many foreigners are just using their work experience here as a step board to venture out for a more lucrative career after working here for a while.

Well, if anybody out there is interested to work as a DBA, messing and playing with Oracle, MS SQL, Sybase, DB2, etc, send me your CV only if you are interested to work in this part of the world where I am in. Let me warn you, we don't pay as good as European or US companies, and working at unexpected hours is expected.

Yet another exercise

Went down to the DR site with the Unix admin who is supposed to take over my duty soon.

Day 1, not so bad, although encountered a problem with the setup, the system was unable to detect the tape (use 'mt stat') in the tape drive. Managed to get the site's DR specialist to help swap the drive connection to another SCSI port on the server. It worked! This issue took us almost 5hrs to resolve.

Day 2 ahead tomorrow, heard one of the customer's senior officers will be there....

Free, free, free from toxic wastes

The other time, I wrote about detox, cleansing the body of toxic wastes, and at the same time can lose some weight. The best program that I have found in the Internet so far is from chet Day's 21-day program. It can be downloaded from here --> http://chetday.com/21day.html

Actually, I don't want to lose weight, so, I have not start on this program, but, for the past few weeks, I have to trying out something different, a change in my eating habit.

In the morning, I will have a glass of Soya bean milk and two pieces of white bread, giving me about 600mg of Calcium ( daily recommended is 800mg). I ate a least 2 shares of fruits, apple, orange, pear, etc. and 2 shares of vegetables a day. I also try to have a light lunch, staying away from fried food.

I just want to take better care of myself......

Hand-over!

It's time. What time?

It's time for me to hand-over the HP Unix systems that I have been helping to managed for the past 2 months. Not that I am sick of them, but, I just can't manage it anymore, too much work, too much stress. Haha...

What did I say? I love my job, do my very best, but, I am not perfect. If people respect and treat me well, I am willing to put in that effort to help. Well, probably you have guessed it! Sometimes, it's just not worth it helping some people, they don't know how to appreciate it.

I'm currently researching into Shares investments, may be, in the next few weeks, I will share some of my experience in trading shares....

DataProtector Backup

Recently, I was being roped in to troubleshoot a DataProtector backup issue at one of the customer's site. The day I went there, I was already presented with the problem, I don't even know the software well, not even a bit. This is the type of situation you would sweat (not swear!) and didn't know what to do, and people were just waiting for you, looking at you, to solve the problem.

How in earth am I doing here? I thought. If the resident Engineer couldn't even resolve the issue for weeks already, how could I? I thought, again.

Lucky enough, with the help of HP Support and Operations, we managed to resolved the problem, Cheers!!! This is what I call TEAM WORK!

Hey, if anybody out there has a copy of DataProtector Windows Clients GUI or knows where to download the software, let me know, ok?

1 Terabyte Hard Disk Drive!

Cool, the 1 Terabyte hard disk drive is out!

The hard disk drive industry is really advancing fast, 10 years back when I was still working for a hard disk drive manufacturer, the highest capacity was around 50GB, and the hard disk drive looked like a piece of brick, and as heavy as 5 (to 10 kg). A 1/2" height drive could only have about 9.1GB, as compared to now, same size, 1 Terabyte! Where most SAN and NAS implementations are still using 140GB hard disks, this monster could create a revolution to this storage industry.

I guess the demand for disk space drives the growth in this storage (i.e. SAN and NAS) sector, if you are intending to change jobs, seek one in the storage field, I heard they (storage companies) pay employees well.

Check this out....

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.b5bc67ba7b48099056fb11f0aac4f0a0

Massive Human Jam! @@

I mentioned that during the National Day Parade processing, there were massive human jam, people, people, everywhere. Here is a picture to show you how massive it is.

The bridge in the background was where my friend and me stood, facing towards the Parade ground.

Lucky thing, it was breezy on that day, and no rain, else, everyone, not just us, would have been drenched, wet, for sure.

National Celebration

Last Thursday was the country National Day (or Independence Day). I went there with a friend, primarily aim was to watch the fireworks during the parade processing, but, we had to be there early in the evening, because we knew may people will be there also.

It was a massive human traffic jam, there were police barricades everywhere! An estimate of 50 to 100k people were there, maybe? All roads, open areas and bridges were filled with people. We also couldn't get a good view, but had to settle with standing on one side of the bridge. We waited for about 2 hours plus, finally got to see the fireworks! It's worth it.

Japanese Anime

Recently, I have watched alot of K-movies, e.g. Windstruck, Blood Rain, Trace of Love, and J-Movies, e.g. Ghost train.

In the movie making, I can see that the Koreans and Japanese make a big effort in creating each scene setup, no matter whether it's a house, hut or the location. I think their production costs should be pretty high. Their artists are also very professional, especially the Koreans, heard mostly gratuates of Arts academies (Universities).

I have also watched a Japanese Anime named 'Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place'. Check the website, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2324.

What's Anime?

It's a work of self-expressive art, where it transcends the realism of the world that we see it with our eyes, hear with our ears, feel by our touches, and transform it into an imaginary and dream-like sub-conscious appearance of true human behaviour moments, which are visible to the conscious ones. To me, that's Anime.

Detox

Is Detox good? I have seen such Detox products in almost all pharmacies in this city.

The common believe is that it is a method of cleansing your body, remove 'toxic' waste within, improve your skin tone and best of all, slim you down. Some claimed that it rejuvenates and makes you feeling good and less stress.

Gee, wondering whether this is true, or just some kind of advertising gimmick. But, I do know, heathcare products are selling like hot cakes these days, and mechants selling them are simply laughing all the way to the bank.

Hello again!

It has been more than a month since I last wrote. Been busy and lazy, as usual. I had worked for the passed 2 Sundays, one, helping another team solving a backup system issue, the other, doing system testing after an upgrade.

An ex-colleague of mine invited me to her new born child's 'first month' reception this coming Saturday, thinking of going, but can't, got to meet up someone around the same time.

Hey, take a look at the picture above, see the mountain in the background? Yes, that is a magnificent mountain which can only be seen during clear weather, no haze, no rain and no mist.

PC Show

I went to the PC show today, and bought a new ASUS VW192T model LCD monitor.

There were a couple of other brands available, Samsung, LG, Acer, DELL, Phillips, Hanns,...

The Samsung 931C, cool, but no more stock when I got there, LG's 19" L196WT, not bad too, wide screen, 2ms response time. Acer and Dell were the cheapest deals with the 20" LCDs, less than $300. Nowadays, people are not just looking at the price, but also the looks, response time, the LCD panel types, .e.g A, S or C, The 'S' type panels being the best, I heard.

Finally, I got the ASUS LCD, the promoter claimed it's a type "A' LCD panel, the price just alright. Not bad, I set it up, works fine, not for gaming though, but ok. It's wide screen, so have to try getting used to it.

Changed Blog's URL

Yes, I have changed my blog's URL address. The new one is much more easier to remember now.

I was at the library today for a couple of hours (rare!), grabbed some books to read, mostly IT related. I really like the cosy and quiet atmosphere there. Well, since I don't have a lot of things to do during the weekends and I have also completed my PC game of 'Hidden and Dangerous', I think I should go there more often.

Security Audit

Again, it's time for one of the systems that our team managed to be subjected to an external audit, this is done once per three years. Unlucky me, I have been chosen to front this audit exercise.

Althought, I have had experiences dealing with auditors, but I do still get scared sometimes, not because they are intimidating, but rather, what kind of information they will try to probe. They are smart people. On our part, each question should only respond with a simple answer, no more than that. To them, people are the weakest link, so they will always focus on people questions.

Read this: "There are those who will say that network security is an oxymoron - that if you put a computer on a network, it is no longer secure. To some degree, this is true. There is no such thing as a perfectly secure network." - Randal K. Michael's AIX 5L Administration book.

Hidden & Dangerous

It's 2.24am on a Sunday morning. I just had a game of Hidden & Dangerous, trying to figure out how to grab that decoding machine on the floor. Spent some time, but still couldn't find any help from the Internet. Bored, I drifted to another websites, reading some posts on the recent Fighter jet crash news which killed 4 soldiers in Taiwan. It's a pretty sad thing to happen, that made me pondered about the days when I was with the army. You look out for your buddy's back and he do the same for you, a simple logic to understand in order to survive. Yawn....time to sleep now....

Here we go again....

*Sign*....It's time, finally, our experienced DBA is leaving us, he tendered his resignation last Friday, 20/4.

I was told that he had found a new job in the finance sector, but still in IT field. The funny thing is that, his new job is on contract basis, for six months, I heard, but enough to make a decent pay equivalent to one year's salary here in this company. If I got an offer like this, maybe I will also consider, job market is good now.

Oh well, have to start doing knowledge transfer, again, kind of getting used to it now...

My new D-I-Y PC

Finally, I went down to the computer stores last Friday to get all the hardware needed to setup my new PC. A new ATX casing, MSI Mainboard, 1GB Kingston RAM and 250GB HDD are all that I needed. The Mainboard has built-in Sound and Video, so, I don't have to buy separate cards. Also, I saved a bit more by having to built it myself, usually, this costs about $40 if you get the guys at the stores to do it for you.

I have not done D-I-Y PC setup for years, but lucky, with all the diagrams and instructions given in the manuals, I managed to it set up and running in about a day, phew, but wait, except for one small issue, although the BIOS recognised the 250GB HDD, but the Windows XP Professional OS doesn't, this was due to the '137GB filesystem' limitation. The problem was fixed by installing XP SP1 or the most recent SP2 (in my case) from update.microsoft.com, of course, you must make sure you got the legitimate version of XP to download the patch.

The moment I turn on the PC, WOW, it was faster...than my old PC. So, what's going to happen to my old PC? Guess I will dismantle it, salvage what that can still be used, and maybe sell it in the Internet, ebay?

Thanks, uncle!

Today, when I was on the way home on a crowded train, a family boarded the compartment where I was lucky to have a seat. Seeing that a young kid from the family could not get a seat, I gave up mine, as usual (I am nice?). Most of the time, people will just take the offered seat without saying anything, but, this time, it was different, the small girl said to me, "thank you, uncle!". I was happy, over the sky, really.

Kids are kids, they are so innocent and sweet, but, when they grow up, will they still be that courteous too? I am not sure. We shall see then.....

A friend

I saw, yes, I saw this friend of me on a train home today's evening, guess what, we haven't seen each other for more than five years.

I think this is really pure luck, because I usually don't go back that early. Somemore in the same train cabin, board at the same door, but at different stations.

Obviously, she didn't see me, that I'm used to it, in the past, I'm always the first to approach her. She's married, I think, how I know? She is pregnant. She still the same with a tired and worried looking face.

So, did I approach her? Nope, don't think she still remembers my name. Maybe next time.....

Dreams can come true

The other day while I was day dreaming away on my couch, I dreamt about playing football on a large patch of green. The air was fresh, a light breeze was blowing, it was sunset time, warm, but not hot. Far in the distance south were mountains and hills. To the north, a river cut through the dense forest.

I was on a high ground, with my old time buddies of 15 years, we were playing football. How times flies, it has been that long since we were together again.

As I awoke from my day dream, I heard my pager beeped. Strange, I have never seen this number before, who could it be? A long lost friend, perhaps?

I called the number, well, you just couldn't believe it. It was one of my old time buddies! Who says dreams don't come true? It does for me, at the least expected...

Surprise!....No thanks.

Geez....I was shot by a surprise "arrow" last Friday, I was given a new task.

Apparently, some business "bighead" decided to cut cost, cut man-power, wanted to send me down for that task. Hey, this was last minute, just when I was about to knock off for the week!

This is tough, man, never expect them to do that, I'm too good to take advantage of or what? Later as I found out, they have been working on this piece of task for quite a while, someone was already fronting it, why the last minute change?

Till now, I haven't got much clue or info...*Oh...Oh.....*

Surprise!....No thanks.....really.

Old friends gather

Back from a friends gathering, some haven't met for more than 3 years. From the look of each other's face, we know we are getting old! Most of the guys are already married, they brought along their spouses and kids.

Hey, I know you guys are better off in that area, maybe, I need some little fixes in my life, but well, I guess I am still comforable now with my singlehood, I still have a job to do.

haha....take care.

Hungry king

When I am really hungry, I could eat a cow. Just joking anyway, I don't eat beef, what I am trying to say is that I could eat a lot more when I am, well, hungry. This is what I found out recently, if there is anything that stands in-between me and my food, I will go into a high RECON mode, eliminate and destroy! Ha...ha....not really true always.

I eat a lot at times, but my body is still ok, not thin nor fat, stike a balance in the middle. I think I am more health conscious these days, been trying to cut down on FATS in-take, especially saturated fats, there are quite a lot talks about this type of fats, last heard not good of the body, you shouldn't take more than 5g per day.

Windy season over?

Guess the north-east wind has passed, no more windy nights! The weather was so cooling for the past weeks that I don't even have to switch on the fan when sleeping at night, save a lot on the electricity. The heat is slowly creeping back, though the rain comes once in awhile, but hopefully, the haze doesn't appears again.

Rain, rain, please come! I miss you....

Manpower issue

The other day I was talking about a System Admin in my team leaving, the one who is supposed to replace him is from another department.

Just yesterday, the Resouce Manager spoke to him, and he highlighted his concern about the pay package. Apparently, the company may not be adjusting his salary if he comes over to our team. If this the pay that he is drawing after joining us, then it will be lower than what he's getting now. At the moment, he works on shift, so there's a shift allowance, with our team, nope.

Well, the Resouce Manager will talk to the HR, check whether there is anything can be done. Keep our fingers crossed.

Family gathering

Tonight, everybody will gather at my parent's place for dinner.

We are going to have a sumptuous meal of seafood steamboat, the prawns, crabs, abalones, noodles, etc... My mum's home cooking is the best, no comparison. I am looking forward to having the dinner tonight. Yummy......

Someone's leaving...

*Sigh*......a Windows System Administrator from my team has tendered his resignation, his last day will be on the 21 Feb.

He is an ok guy, who works hard, pro-active, willing to learn and have a good attitude, people with these traits are pretty hard to find these days.

What motivates?? Pay and opportunities to advance are the top most criterias of job hopping. There has been talks that company is not paying people well, maybe it's true. We tried to make him stay by counter offering, but failed, offered pay too low.

Nevertheless, I wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Take care and keep in touch!

St Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day, actually to me, this is nothing special, just a normal day. You wash up in the morning, go to work, knock off after that, go home, have dinner, pick up a book and read and then go to bed.

I think this Day is being "blown up in proportion", a day where it creates opportunity for shops, restaurants and hotels to make money. A bouquet of half dozen roses could cost more than 100 bucks, worth it? Nope, I say.

I prefer a Day which is special and unique, like a birthday, not everyone around you celebrates the same birthday as you are, it's SPECIAL, I say.

To me, treasuring each day is the most importance, another day, another fresh start and your future is charted based on what you do today, don't waste it. Live on!

February 2007

It has been quite awhile since I last wrote, not that I have forgotten but simply was too lazy to write. So how's everyone? Enjoying your new year? Did you guys watch the fireworks on new year day? I was there, it was fun-fair and fantastic.

I was actually pretty relaxed at the start of the new year, not many projects work to do, so things were still manageable then, got some free time to do something else, e.g. jogging, swimming, sightseeing. But, come the next two months, work will start coming in.

Want to share with you guys, if you understand the Hokkien dialect, check this out....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjUX5hB74zs

Happy New Year 2007!

Hey, how's everyone? Enjoying the holidays? Have you any plans for the coming new year?

The Internet link in this region was crippled by the earthquake last week, it was very slow, and most of the time couldn't even access sites hosted in Nothern America. Kudos to the guys who fixed the broken under sea cable lines. There's this guy in Taiwan saying that this will never happen in another 100 years. I think this incident clearly shows that it's just too much to rely on these links alone, especially most links goes to Taiwan and Japan, the high risk earthquake regions, then to the America, having an alternative cable path is just too expensive, they say.

Oh well, let's hope this will not happen again....in another 100 years, perhaps.