Steve Jobs

I love Steve for his iPhone and his words was revolutionary to me.

To be honest, the video that I watch by Steve Jobs a year or 2 ago, woke me up. It gave me sense of reality of what has happened, what is happening and what I need to look forward. You solved one part of my life puzzle. Thank you Steve. RIP.

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." - Steve Jobs

The Curse of Twitter

Twitter has slowly taken over my blogging days. I find twitter is super fast, efficient and easy to convey my thoughts. Although 140 chars limits somewhat, but it beats writing long blog post.

My prediction, blog is eventually become a knowledge/content repository and Twitter will take over as number 1 information reference. It's so much easier to follow a person on Twitter and reading content which interest you rather than looking thru blog posts.

So, if you are interested in my ramblings, follow me at @ganee or click the icon below.

By TwitterIcon.com

HTC Magic from Celcom Part III - Rooted!

Out of desperation, I had no choice but to flash my HTC Magic ROM. I went all over to mobile shops looking for help. No help.

Then I found out my friend @ebernie did something on Android as well. I chatted with him, and he was very resourceful in helping me source for my problem.

For those who are in my situation and bought HTC Magic from Celcom, here is what you can do to flash your ROM and make it a Android phone which is suppose to be, not just a dumb phone.

The instructions are here :-

http://www.arbitraryuser.com/blog/2009/06/20/rooting-a-vodacom-htc-magic-and-upgrading-the-firmware-in-south-africa-to-get-android-market-and-more/

* Just a note the step 10 - Rename daldroid-htcmagic1-signed.zip to update.zip kindda wrong. It's suppose to be daldroid-htcmagic1-signed.zip.jar to update.zip.

I did the step using the Mac, anyone on Mac, remember to use ./adb devices. Need to add ./ command. To download the fastboot, please download it here - http://www.htc.com/www/support/android/adp.html

It was a pretty traumatic experience trying to flash the ROM. I was so nervous that it would have bricked my phone.

Successfully Rooted!

Now I have Gmail, Calendar, Contact all synced with Google App. It's awesome. Mails comes in as push mail. It's the perfect business solution that I wanted in the first place.

Shout out to @ebernie for your help.

A special note to Celcom and a female customer support person in SIS - UP YOURS...!

*Update on 9th July 2009

Sorry, once you have done the flash part, you will need to do 3G settings. For Celcom 3G settings, please visit this site - http://forum.mypdacafe.com/viewtopic.php?t=13703&start=30

HTC Magic from Celcom Part II

I saw this ad running on thestar.com.my. Download infinite app? Bullshit! There is no Android Market app in the first place! How can you download anything without it?

HTC Magic from Celcom

I am a big Google user. I use Gmail, Calendar, Task and etc. I needed a new phone, and found out HTC Magic which is running Android fits my requirement.

I bought HTC Magic from Celcom. Since they are the first one to bring Android here officially. Behold people, do not be cheated. HTC Magic from Celcom does NOT include Google Services. Meaning, the phone does not have Gmail, Calendar, Market and Maps. The phone is as good as a brick! If you are not a heavy Google user and just need the phone to SMS, Call or occasionally need to throw it at a dog, then this phone is for you.

It's a nice slim phone, but I can't believe how dumb SIS and Celcom are to bring a phone to Malaysia without Google Services. I should have done more research before buying this phone. I really thought it came with Google Services after reading all the reviews.

So people, please be caution. Do NOT buy HTC Magic from Celcom if you are looking at using Google App with it. You are better off buying it from Lelong or something.

Oh yeah, btw, I am selling it... any takers?

A New Career Path

2nd of June, 2008. On this date, I have officially decided to launch my own company. It's called Green Cube Solutions Sdn. Bhd.

Green Cube will be focusing on Microsoft range of product. Following is my services:-

• Web development based on ASP.Net platform
• Microsoft SharePoint, Dynamics and CRM
• SMS / Mobile development
• SAP

My ambition for this company is to deliver quality product and more importantly, it must makes sense to our customers. Its been always client vs vendor, but very rarely we can see vendor doing what will make sense for the client. I hope to change this. It must makes sense! Hey looks like I have an unofficial motto.

 

 

 

I face a lot of resistance in this endeavour, many said "Don't do it, bad economy, its not a good time.. etc"

I have only 2 dreams in my life. One was shattered a long time ago and 2nd is business. I decided not to wait to long to carry on my 2nd dream, thus Green Cube was born. I lost one dream, should I wait and lose another?

If I don't do this, then I will regret the rest of my life. One mistake was costly enough.

Right now, sleepless night is nothing new. The amount of stress is incredible. Being a CEO of a company is no walk in the park. Not a day goes by without thinking, have I closed a deal today? Do I have enough to sustain? What new technology that I can sell?

Its exciting but terribly stressful. However, if you want to be a entrepreneur, these are all part of it. Nobody said it was easy. Wish me luck guys!

ganee@greencube.my
www.greencube.my

Being a Tech Freak!

My first post for the year 2008. I am going to start the year by being a tech freak. Below are the items that I want to buy NOW!

iPod Classic

I don't want iPod Touch. I just want this. It has 160 GB of storage. Now, I just need to test it whether it will work better than my Windows Media in my Dopod.

Amazon Kindle

This is God-sent device to me. I am so in love in this machine. I want one but life is ever cruel. This item is only sold in US.

I don't understand why Americans loves to tease and torture us by taunting us with videos of such marvelous device yet unattainable. I freaking migrating to US. My dream of completely disposing paper is here. The e-books reader of all time. Save the trees, save the world. And no, Hiro didn't came back from the future and told me this.

Sony Reader Digital Book

Kindda lame name for a ebook reader. I thought since I couldn't get Kindle, this would be it but yet again, the Japs screwed us. This product is not sold in Malaysia and the eConnect website is only available to Americans.

I just don't get it, did we do something wrong? I mean, we let you run our country for few years and then we forgive and we drive your cars, we buy your tvs, fridge, aircon, washing machine, laptops and we worship your anime and what else did we do wrong? Tell me!?

Nokia N95

No, I haven't gave up on my Dopod and defected to Nokia. Planning to get this for my wife. But of course in the same time, I get to play with it as well.

Seems like a pretty good phone with all features that you can think of jammed into one tiny box. The price has dropped since the initial price of RM 3K. It has GPS, WiFi, 3G, 5 Mega pixel Carl Zeiss Optic lens and etc... very cool.



Garmin Nuvi
This is a GPS navigation tool. Why do I need it? Its like a chicken and egg situation, you don't need all the time, but when you need directions, you go like "Damn, I should have bought the GPS thing!".

I am not sure what model I am looking at but in the US it seems they have more range than the one I saw in Digital Mall (why I am not surprised?). And the bugger tried to pull a fast one on me, when he tried to sell me a Nuvi 750 for 3K and in Lelong its only 2K++. Bugger....


Well that is my tech wish for this year but not limited just the above. I just hope I can get my hands on all of them.

PC Fair

PIKOM PC Fair is back. I need few things, so I head down to KL Convention Center. I parked my car in Avenue K and made my way to KLCC. I didn't know exactly how to get to KL Convention Center, but then I use the technique called "Follow the herd of nerds". This kinda PC fair is a nerd magnet center. How to spot one?

• Skinny pale looking youth with spectacles
• Over sized t-shirts and jeans
  
• Must carry a knapsack
• Must be in a group of 5 or more all looking as listed above
• No offense, but its really true.

Its was really crowded as if it was another BERSIH event. The hall is quite large and split into 2 section. I didn't realise that I was shopping for about 3 hours until my back pain was acting up again. I got some good buy I hope. I bought

• Canon laser printer - RM 350
  
• 160 GB external HDD - RM 270
• A bulky weird looking mouse - Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse - RM 290 (This mouse suppose to help my wrist, but it seems to be making it worse. And the bloody receiver is huge - bad buy)

Not so ergonomic

• Total - RM 910. ouch..... getting deeper into debt.

A word of advise - never bring your plastic into this kindda place.

Disaster - I dropped my Dopod

I just dropped my 9 month old Dopod 838 Pro. I was just finish talking and was juggling around with my letters in the other hand and ooops... it slipped and crashed hard on a concrete cement. The cracking sound didn't sound nice. As I picked it up, I saw similar to what we often see in a dark storm - lightings streaking across. My LCD is cracked. The touch screen is not working anymore.

A badly bruised PDA phone..

The problem with this Dopod model is its quite slippery. Maybe that's the reason why HTC TyTN II has a rubber grip around the phone for better gripping. Read it here.

Rubber grip

Sob sob... my baby is injured. Now there is only 2 choice. Either I get a new phone - the HTC :) or get it repaired. I hope it will not cost that much to fix it. I will be the first person tomorrow at SIS office. Sending the phone for a major facelift.

Facebook

I tried to resist as much as possible to not join any social networking tool. Yes, I am anti-social. But unfortunately, my friend cunningly sneaked me into joining Facebook. I am one thing to say, it's impressive.


Everybody that lives on earth is in Facebook including your neighbour's cat, ok I am exaggerating it. But seriously, its like everyone is in it. I made contact with friends that I haven't spoke or seen in 2 years. It's great, but in the same time you get to see others whom you don't want to see and as well you don't want them to see you either. :)

Its just a fad, similar to Friendster and Myspace. But truly its a great tool to keep in touch with long lost friends. Now you have a excuse to not call your friends, "Why never call ah? Haiya, I saw you yesterday is FB mah..... i sent you a gift some more, what more you what!?"

FeedDemon vs Google Reader

Update 14th January 2008

I decided to give FeedDemon a try for a month, but I hate it that I can't play my podcast directly from the feed instead I have to download it. You can play it online via Gator online, but there isn't a direct link to it either. Sux.

Update! 13th January 2008
FeedDemon is now FREE! I have downloaded the version 2.6. Looks like they have upgraded the interface. Whats new?

• Free online Gator account. Now you can sync your view your feeds online and sync with your mobile phone as well. All FREE!
• Thumbnail images instantly shows up on top of the feed listings.
• Have a Panic Button to mark all feed read.
• Prefetch items for offline reading.. cool
• Able to read in 3 modes, full post, summary and headlines - similar to Google reader.
• Add feeds to My Clipping for later viewing. Nice.

Overall, its still maintains the same features as before, however I don't think I will be switching just yet. The loading seems a bit slow. (I am just used to Google Reader's speed). Furthermore I have a lot of junk feeds, which I don't feel its necessary to take my hard disk space. But if you want to hear about the argument which is better? Lets see what Nick Bradbury has to say...

---

Its been a real challenge for me to decide which RSS reader I am going to be using. I have been using FeedDemon for a year now, but after watching this video, my interest in Google Reader was renewed.

FeedDemon

• Includes Podcatcher and syncs to my Windows Media which in turns syncs to my PDA. A real advantage.
  
• Offline reading.
  
• Newsbin
• 3 column view (Configurable)
  

Google Reader

• Fast!
• Simple to use with AJAX features
• Love the OPML import features
• Offline reading now with Google Gear
  
• AJAX integration with keyboard keystrokes
• Play podcast immediately from the browser

Finally I have decided to go full ahead with Google Reader although I will miss the Podcast sync with my PDA. Anyway, I hardly listen to them ... Lets see how its goes.

Installing PHP 5 & Apache 2 on Windows Vista

I wanted to use IIS 7 with PHP, but just couldn't get it right. I tried all solutions, installed the ISAPI extension, run the mapping script - zitto. After hours of trying I gave up. Screw it. 

So I decided to install Apache. Thinking it was an easy task... but no sir, it was equally time consuming. I just don't understand why. After much tinkering, finally got it to run. 

No, I refuse to use those all-in-one installers. No WAMP, XAMPP and etc for me.

Before you begin, this is a good site to refer to http://wamp.corephp.co.uk/index.php.

Who those who might be in the same predicament, here is the steps that I took:-

Step 1: Download PHP and Apache

• Download PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php. I first installed the MSI version, but then it caused more problem than good. I download the zip package instead.
• Once that is done, download Apache from http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. This one I choose the MSI version.

Step 2: Install

• Unzip the PHP zip file. You can store is anywhere, but the usual practise is C:\php. But its up to you. 
• Once done, now run Apache setup file. For installation steps - http://wamp.corephp.co.uk/step_07.php 
• For Apache, you can run it as service using port 80 or via console using port 8080. Its up to you. I am using console since I still need the stupid IIS to run .Net. 

Step 3: Configure

• Now, go open the C:\php folder. Rename the file php.ini-recommended to php.ini. Open the file. Look for the value "doc_root". After the "=" sign, type this "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs". This will tell PHP to look for the web files at the mentioned folder. You can always change the path. 
• Now save the file. You can do the other tweaking later on.
• Open your Windows Explorer to "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\default". 
• Rename the file httpd-win.conf to httpd.conf. Open the file in notepad or any editor of your choice.
• Now comes the part that caused me the most headache. Telling Apache to parse PHP. 
• Look for within .conf file for DSO. Under it there will be a bunch LoadModule statements. Just on top of the first statement, type this
• # PHP5
  LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2_2.dll"
  PHPIniDir "C:/php"
  
  
  AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
  AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
• Next look for the value DocumentRoot. Make sure it looks like this - DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs"
• Now save the file and copy the file out to "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf" folder level. 
• Almost there... now depending on your Apache setup earlier, try this http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/.  You should be welcomed with "It Works!" message. 
• Make sure Apache is running. If your running console, use the CMD command and "cd" to "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin" and type httpd. Don't close the windows, its your web server running!
• Now the acid test. Create a php file with the following syntax

  <?php
  
  phpinfo();
  
  ?>

  Save it as phpinfo.php in C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs. 
• Now run again http://localhost/phpinfo.php or http://localhost:8080/phpinfo.php.
• You should be able to see all the PHP config information. 
• If you don't, then probably there is some PHP or Apache config error. Good luck!

Installing Ruby on Rails on Windows Vista

Ruby? Rails? Keretapi Tanah Melayu? Doesn't make sense? http://www.rubyonrails.org for explanation.

If you are new to ROR and want to find out about installing it on Windows, here it goes.

Before that, here are some other tutorials for your reference.

• http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/20/rails.html
  
• http://allaboutruby.wordpress.com/2006/01/09/installing-rails-on-windows-step-by-step-tutorial/

But the above URL uses those all-in-one installers. I hate those all-in-one installers. Where is the fun? So, this tutorial is for those developers who are looking to install each package separately.

Actually the steps are outlined at http://www.rubyonrails.org/down. Just follow them. Also, I didn't thought of screen capturing the installation. So most of the steps here are text based.

Step 1: Downloads all the necessary stuff

• Head to http://www.rubyonrails.org/down
  
• Download Ruby from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167. You can download this http://rubyforge.iasi.roedu.net/files/rubyinstaller/ruby186-25.exe. At the time of writing, Ruby is at version 1.86.
• Download RubyGem from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126. You can download this - http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/20990/rubygems-0.9.4.zip. RubyGem is a packager for Ruby. You need this to run many stuff later on. At the time of writing, RubyGem is at version 0.9.4.
• Next is MySQL. Head to http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#win32. Download MySql 5.0 Community Server. I assume you are not running enterprise level application. Download the Windows Essential version. http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.0/mysql-essential-5.0.41-win32.msi/from/http://mysql.oss.eznetsols.org/
• Your download folder should look something like below:-

Step 2 : Install

• Run ruby186-25.exe. It will do all the installation. Just sit tight. Once its done, go to your search box and type in cmd. Once the command prompt screen pops up, type this "cd c:\ruby\bin" (I assume you have installed Ruby in C drive). Then type "ruby -v". If you have installed correct, it will show the version. If not, you have to reinstall Ruby again.
  

• Excellent. Now lets install RubyGem. Unzip rubygems-0.9.4.zip. Click on setup.rb. The setup will run in command window.
  
• Once done, now you need to run post-install.rb. This will create the RUBYOPT environment variable to the value rubygems in Windows. More information at http://docs.rubygems.org/read/chapter/3.
  
• Well, we are done with RubyGem, now Rails. Open the command prompt window. Type "c:\ruby\bin ". Now type this "gem install rails --include-dependencies". What happens now that it will fetch the latest Rails framework from http://gems.rubyforge.org/ .
  
• Don't worry if its slow and looks like its hanged, its downloading. There is a standalone package, but I haven't tried installing it that way. Once done you will see the screen as below (look at the 3rd last line in the screen):-

• Now is MySQL. Unzip mysql-5.0.41-win32.zip and run the setup.exe. I am not going to explain on the steps here. You can refer to to section II of http://allaboutruby.wordpress.com/2006/01/09/installing-rails-on-windows-step-by-step-tutorial/
• Thats it. Your done! You are ready to launch your Ruby application. Just to note, your Ruby application file can reside other drives either than C.

Step 3: Create and Run!

• To create your application, open up the command prompt. Assuming its at D drive, type "D:\", then "mkdir projects", then "cd projects", then "rails myfirstproject". (You can replace the word "myfirstproject" with any words of your choice. Rails will create all the file structure for you.
• Then type "cd myfirstproject" if you are not in the newly created directory. Then type "ruby script/server". This will boot up WEBrick web server. Btw, don't close this windows as it will shutdown your webserver.
• Type in http://127.0.0.1:3000. Tada! You have your Ruby application up and running. Well almost....
  
  
  
  
• There are additional steps, however you can refer to section IV of http://allaboutruby.wordpress.com/2006/01/09/installing-rails-on-windows-step-by-step-tutorial/.
  

Enjoy your ROR!

Maxis e-billing with Mozilla

Beware, if you are using Microsoft Vista and IE7, you can't view your Maxis bill online (e-billing). However there is a workaround with Mozilla. This steps was provided by Maxis Customer Support.

1. Open your Mozilla browser (version 2 and above).
2. Type into your address bar "about:config". This will list out a list of parameters.
3. Below the address bar there is a filter bar. Type in the word "security". This will be bring you to the first parameter on security.
4. Look for security.ssl2.des_64 until security.ui.enable parameter. Mark them and all other parameters between them, double click on the value column and make sure all of them are changed to "true".
5. Restart your Mozilla browser.

Open Source Symposium 2006

I attended a 2 days event on Open Source held at Ritz-Carlton Hotel. I took the monorel for the first time. Not bad.

Clearly evident was the numbers of participants. This could be due to TechEd event going on simultaneously in KL. The numbers for TechEd estimated over 1000 while Open Source had less than 300 participants. On the second day, most sessions was attended no more than 50 people.

But the food was good. They really spend money to feed everyone. I don't think you can get that at TechEd.

I found the content of the symposium to be interesting to a certain extend however the selection of title and the quality of speakers was poor. There were only a few select exceptional speakers such as Shane Owenby - Red Hat APAC, Dinesh Nair - QubeConnect, Dr. Yusseri Yusoff - former Consulting Project Director for MAMPU and few others.

I can't comment on the rest of the talks which I didn't attend. Most speakers do not speak in passion about the technology nor offer new insight although everyone was knowledgeable. The talks was mostly catered for experienced Red Hat users or developers. No afford was taken to introduce the basics of Red Hat. I hope there will be more improvement in the following year.

The 2 days events had a tagline which was notable in every talk - TOC (Total Ownership Cost) and Vendor Lock In. Very Anti-Mircosoft atmosphere. The cool part was the presentation was done using a Linux OS notebook using OpenOffice (or was it Star Office?).

I am not a Open Source or Microsoft evangelist. To me, what is important is what technology that can deliver the requirements that I have in a productive, fast and efficient manner. If I have to pay for a software, then I will if it really helps my productivity. If Open Source can provide the same solution and helps my productivity, then by all means I will use it.