DP | @ekhoophotography

When I got into the office this morning, and was making my coffee brew, a colleague asked me "How was your weekend?". A very ordinary question, to which I think many ask that out of habit and not because of genuine interest. Anyway, my response was "What weekend?"

Friday started with a frantic trip to Ikea to ensure that we get all our stuff for the house. Of course, I was also migrating WebAperture the next day so I had to start the file replication (there's gigabytes of data) on Friday as it take a couple of hours to finish plus I had to do verification. Anyways, off to Ikea for dinner and a frantic rush through the store to get things such as my new work area desks, bookcases, and storage racks. Looking at the size of the bookcases and the desks plus the fragility of the glass doors, we decided to split the load and come back on Saturday.

To cut the story short, by the time Saturday rolled in, we've had the second trip and lunch and the assembly started. Well, it didn't end until Sunday evening. Of course we took time out to have a simple dinner, go to Church on Sunday morning and did some groceries too.

Truck load #1

Truck load #2

My fave tools, and enough to assemble everything from Ikea.

Look, no need to refer to the instructions!

From experience (and analyzing the airwaves), quite a number of people ignore security when they get their wireless networks setup. Well, all that security is inconvenient I suppose but do you know how far your wireless access point or router transmits to? This is more apparent in a condominium or apartment setup where you not only have neighbors beside you, you also have to worry about neighbors above and below you. At one point, before I moved to a house, I could pick up networks three floors up. While the signal strength is not good, breaking into it was simple was it used WEP and a five character password.
More than half my surrounding networks at that point had no security! and worse still, many still had their default linksys, dlink or belkin setup IP addresses, usernames and passwords! I taught someone a lesson by changing his wireless router password and within a few days, the router got setup with WPA.
WPA itself is not invulnerable and I've successfully got into a few WPA networks around my condo unit with BackTrack because their WPA passwords were nothing more than simple strings like "linksys" or "mynetwork".
Anyways, after I got my soon-to-be-replaced Belkin wireless router up, I went around my house with inSSIDer and kismet. What you see below is inSSIDer's scan of my neighborhood. First thing I normally do is to lower the transmit power to ensure my router doesn't broadcast further than my main gate. My Belkin router doesn't do that but it's going to be replaced in a few days so no worries. Secondly, to ensure good connectivity, you make sure there's no channel overlaps. You can see my hopefaithandlove network all by itself on channel 1. You also can see most other networks have none (gasp!) or purely WEP security. Finally, I normally make the WPA2 key long enough. My method is to pick a favorite verse from the bible. If you want tighter security, don't leave spaces, substitute occasional numbers for alphabets, and perhaps throw in a Greek or Yiddish word in the process! Better still if you have more resources, go with WPA-Enterprise with a Radius authentication server... client certificates, the works! Ah, a totally different ballgame. For me, I stick to WPA2, put my wireless on a separate VLAN so that if someone gets into my wireless network, all they can do is get to the internet. Not good but better than having the ability to hit my main PC or File server.

Oracle finally buys Sun Microsystems after Big Blue gets the shakes and drops the deal. Any problem there?

Yes, MySQL. The big open-source database that has been the backbone of many a web site (millions actually) has been Oracle's big pain. Why? Because most of Web 2.0 is on MySQL, not Oracle. Now that Oracle gets its prized Java and Sun's Hardware biz, what happens to competitor numero uno?

Who knows, but heck, I'm concerned as many of the MySQL team has already quit and I'm sure more will follow.
Here's some web links on this issue:

• Oracle Buys Sun (and MySQL)
• What happens to MySQL after Oracle?
• Oracle, Sun, MySQL conspiracy
• Oracle Buys Sun
• Oracle now becomes a hardware player
• Oracle and Sun, whither now MySQL
• MySQL thrive under Oracle

There's been a dearth of new postings and photos on this blog for a while now. I guess it's comes down to time. You know, before the move, the move and after the move and all that sort of stuff. There's been a lot of work as well lately plus there's the little odd and ends that I need to do in due time. It was a big difference moving in 2007 when we took over a month of weekends to do things slowly and then later, a month to move things in slowly. Plus of course, the furniture was all newly shipped in and the place has been rented out before so it was already partially equipped.

Anyways, I'm still at a loss at why TM's Streamyx broadband (narrow band more like it) is slow at my parents place compared to mine. I wonder if there's something up with the modem, line, or router. Kinda odd considering that not much else is using the bandwidth. Anyways, I'll need to get a new wireless router soon for my new place (I'm soldiering on with a Belkin right now) so perhaps moving the belkin over might do the trick. Or possibly a change in wiring?

I'm thinking of using P1's Wimax service. Anyone has experience with it so far would like to share?

Tax time is also coming. Sigh, I really need to calculate out and figure out how not pay more tax. There's a difference between tax mitigation and evasion. Anyways, looks like I really need to get my PC desk and printers all setup in time for this weekend to do my taxes!

For some reason, the last two days, traffic is terrible on the Federal highway. I know it rained this morning and that makes for a long commute. Still unpacking and tired from the move. Probably takes a couple of weeks to recover!

Wanted to post this earlier but time did not permit. Anyways, when we went on a Saturday, traffic to mid-valley mall was clear despite the heavy rain and there was ample parking. Touted as the Malaysia equivalent of Photokina or Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show, DCIM or Digital Camera, Imaging and Media show was a let-down. Some people wondered why Sony was absent. I don't consider Sony a digital camera player still (sorry, my bias!) despite them buying Konica-Minolta. Most of the display consisted of everyday products like memory cards, light boxes, printers and all that. One part of the area just had prints from magazine contests and a few other local photographers. They didn't even have prints from Malaysia's most awarded photographer! Anyways, even the Canon or Nikon booth was just a glorified display area with cameras for everyone to play with. No 500D or 270EX flash, nothing new like radio poppers or the new pocket wizard. The only thing there was a lot of were underweight, leggy women. Yup, the whole show seemed to revolve around the models. There was a model search and every day, a model parade will be held and more. People seemed to be coming for that, all equipped with ladders and all. All very ho-hum for me. I think they should have called in the Digital Camera and Model show.

Oh, well, just have three photos to share. So disappointing generally that my Mark II stayed in my Think Tank most of the time.

Would you use SMS to make a flight reservation?
No, it does not include payment so you will not need to SMS your credit card number or bank account number.
You will need to go to the nearest ticketing counter, Maybank ATM or Maybank2U to pay for your flight ticket within 24-hours of your SMS reservation otherwise the booking is canceled.

Would you? I wouldn't but let's see who would?