Virtually Working

Ruby Game Library

2011-07-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Game libraries fascinate me no end, I'll write something just to play around but I have never complete any meaningful games for the past 2 decades. Sigh.

Anyway, I just came across a Ruby game library. Looks fascinating. I could learn Ruby just to figure out how this works.

http://mon-ouie.github.com/projects/ray.html

Let's see how far my itch takes me.

Page to unlock AD accounts

2011-06-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

I've not touch IIS and C# for a long, long time, and I'm just curious enough to want to write something that I've been itching to write for a long time - like having a web page to unlock AD accounts.

My current role is a pure Word+Powerpoint+Spreadsheet kind of job(yeah boring I know) so I'm bored enough to try this. Let's see what I can come up with in the weekend.

The lazy coder vs Garbage Collection

2011-05-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Automated Garbage Collection has made me lazy.

I'm building a libgdx android gamelet for the past few days and I've intentionally left a few dynamically created primitives in my game loop to hammer out the logic first.

Game performance wasn't enough to irritate me until I started adding Strings for status display updates. Boom, jerky gameplay every 20-30 seconds! LogCat was showing GC triggering every 20 odd seconds for as much as 300 milliseconds. Close to 8k objects were being recycled. Ouch.

Went through the code and weeded out for(int i=.......) codes. Removed variable creations in critical functions. Replaced Strings with StringBuffers(I finally realized libgdx BitmapFont.draw uses CharSequence interface instead of String object.. d'oh.

Game is looking good now. No more GC triggering for the past few minutes.

Dell 24X7 Support number: SINGAPORE

2011-03-07T03:59:00.000-08:00

Can't find the Dell 24X7 support number via their webpages, normally this won't be a problem because I was in shop that had tons of Dell hardware, the support number is pasted on almost every server in our datacenters

Now that I've left my previous job, I'm kinda stuck when I need to log a call about my dying Alienware. I'm putting this for anyone who's trying to find the 24X7 support number for Singapore

24x7 Phone support: 1800-394-7464

Good luck!

Gimp annoyances in OSX

2010-02-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

I realized I had to click twice on Gimp buttons to get the function to work - wasted some time undoing some damage when I forget to check if the functions were double clicked and activated.

To fix this double clicking annoyance, you'll have to change OSX's X11 settings.

Open Terminal app and type:

defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm true

Restart X11.

Powering down XPS 1210m webcam in Linux

2010-02-07T01:49:00.000-08:00

The built in webcam is always an annoyance because it gets pretty warm and consumes power. It's pretty easy to disable it in Windows but for linux you will have to send the commands to suspend the device.

I've just reinstalled Ubuntu 9.04 and I had to disable it again.

To suspend the QuickCam in XPS 1210m:

1.switch to root

2. issue:

echo suspend > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-7/power/level

echo suspend > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/power/level

You can read the power management writeup here:

http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/devices-power-management/usb.php

Android code finally coming together

2010-01-10T08:56:00.001-08:00

Got the code up and running reasonably well, going collect my HTC Hero phone later. I'll load the apk in the device to give it a go.

Back from Genting

2010-01-03T02:13:00.000-08:00

Chilling out with friends, waking up neighbors with Rock Band and coding in the cool weather. Fun times.

Back to reality for now.

Android app development on Netbooks

2010-01-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

I like the size of netbooks, their small size means that you can bring them around easily. What I didn't anticipate was how underpowered the processor really was.

I've been doing development work on the Android platform and I wanted to use the netbook so that I can bring my code around and work on it when time permits.

Problem

Eclipse runs fine on the netbook but the emulator that comes with ADT is another matter. I was totally unable to launch my program from Eclipse using the emulator. It takes ages to get past the Android splash screen and I get a lot of error messages .

Speeding it up

Since android code runs on a Dalvik virtual machine, I could simply grab a x86 android machine and test my code on it. The x86 version should run pretty well on the netbook. I got a copy of Live-Android and a copy of VirtualBox x86 VM and tried the image.

Be sure to boot it using VESA in VirtualBox. Normal boot will produce strange flickering and blank screens.

It works!

How to install app onto Live Android

Live Android is a live cd, which means all data is transient. Once you reboot, all data will be wiped. That includes installed programs.

How do you get around it?

In Virtualbox, configure the Android vm, set your OS to Linux and Version to Linux 2.6

Create a hard disk (I used 100mb which is sufficient for my needs), attach it to the VM

Boot into Android Debug Mode.

You should see a Linux prompt, use fdisk(or cfdisk) to create 2 partitions.

Run "mdev -s" to create the device nodes for your new partitions.

Create file system for both partition

mke2fs -j -L /DATA /dev/sda1

mke2fs -j -L /SDCARD /dev/sda2

Reboot box

reboot -f

At the Android bootloader menu, select VESA and hit TAB, edit DATA=/dev/sda1 and SDCARD=/dev/sda2

Hit enter to resume boot.

To verify that you have mounted both partitions - hit ALT + F1 and issue "mount"

You should see /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 mounted.

That's it for the VM configuration. Remember to issue the boot options every time you reboot. I save the machine state when I need to shut it down so I don't have to go through that step every time.

Development Host

What you need:

Eclipse with ADT installed
Mongooose HTTP server (or any web server of your choice)

In Eclipse, right click on your project, select Android Tools->Export Signed Application
Follow through the dialogs, if you don't have a new keystore and key, create it now.
Export it to a directory( say e:\projects\Exports)
Copy mongoose.exe into e:\projects\Exports
Run mongoose.exe

In Android VM

Configure the Application Settings to allow Unknown Sources

Launch browser, open HTTP://192.168.56.1:8080

You should be able to browse your directory. Download your apk and launch it.

That's it!

Resources

Mongoose HTTP server (http://code.google.com/p/mongoose/)

How to install apps(http://code.google.com/p/live-android/wiki/howtoinstallapps)

Live Android(http://code.google.com/p/live-android/)

Sun VirtualBox(http://www.virtualbox.org/)

My god it's full of tennis balls!

2009-12-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Busy weeks

2009-12-26T19:27:00.001-08:00

So much for the Neoteny updates, last two weeks has been a case of Murphy's Law unleashed. Barely had time for anything else besides the events unfolding at work.

Catching up on Android development now. Getting the hang of it. Eclipse integration makes it a wonderful and painless experience.

Neoteny Singapore Camp 1

2009-12-13T15:44:00.000-08:00

Attended Neoteny at SMU on Saturday, primarily to meet up with James and to get a feel of what the VCs and entrepreneurs are doing here.

I'll do a writeup later. Plenty of work keeping me busy later part of that Saturday till today.

Renting stuff off the Cloud

2009-12-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

While chatting with the owner of BuUuk.com(Jon), he briefly mentioned that he was using Amazon EC to serve static content at a cheap rate. This got me thinking - perhaps I can host my lab machine on the cloud and rent it at a far cheaper rate than what I would pay for a physical machine. I'll have to do my calculations( or best impression of it ) and then dive in and hope for the best :)

Being clever and not following standards

2009-12-06T15:45:00.001-08:00

Had a quick glance and will look it over later. Programmers sometimes(or is it most of the time) have the habit to perform a 'quick hack', a duct tape approach if you will, when approaching a problem. It solves the problem fast but by not following coding practices set by the organization will cause headaches later on for the rest of the team.

http://www.omninerd.com/articles/Coding_Practices

Ubuntu on MSI Wind U100

2009-11-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

Got my Wind Netbook yesterday, took out Windows 7 and installed Ubuntu Karmic Koala. The distribution do not run well on Wind. The brightness control will increase and decrease by itself for about 2-3 minutes till the system settles down.

The solution was to downgrade to 9.04(Jaunty Jackalope). That worked well enough but I'm a little disappointed that I can't use 9.10. Karmic has nicer GUI and package management enhancements which I was used to.

Hoping that the bugs will be fixed in the near future.

Todo:

2009-11-26T10:11:00.001-08:00

http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/

Where did lighttpd go?

2009-11-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Bummer, site seems to be down. Think I'll use Mongoose httpd instead.

http://code.google.com/p/mongoose/

Subversion and Google Projects

2009-11-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Installed Subversive

Useful link

Checking out projects from Google Code - the URL should be configured as:

https://yourproject.googlecode.com/svn

SVN client on eclipse

2009-11-21T12:29:00.000-08:00

SubEclipse works perfectly when installed in Windows but not Ubuntu. You'll receive a dialog "Unable to load default SVN Client". It's because the Linux version does not come with JavaHL .

What is JavaHL?

Getting it to work under Ubuntu

Apparently installation of JavaHL isn't straightforward.

I've found an alternative:

Subversive

Will be trying this out.

HTML 5

2009-11-20T23:47:00.001-08:00

I've avoided doing any HTML/Javascript related work since HTML 3.2

Lately I've noticed HTML 5 being talked about in the usual tech forums and I thought it's just some incremental improvements with a video tag being thrown in. I was mistaken.

The proposed HTML 5 standard apparently covers not just video, but how you can manipulate images and shapes in the browser as well. The appearance of the canvas element should be a welcomed specification. Finally Flash will not be the only player in town(Silverlight too?).

I'll be looking closely at the canvas element. Graphics is something I love playing with since the microcomputer days( 10 GR: 20 PLOT 10,20)

Back to my google wave gadget...

Server Name Indicator

2009-11-01T15:46:00.001-08:00

Something to think about next time when deploying servers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication

Noticed Google App hosting doesn't support it now.

Hello World in Android

2009-10-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you put a hot weather , a bored programmer and a bottle of tequila together?

You get hello world in Android!

Downloaded the bunch of dev kits, Eclipse IDE (bye bye Netbeans) and read the docs from Google.

Here's the result!

Regular Expressions on a rainy Sunday afternoon

2009-07-05T01:56:00.001-07:00

Since it's raining and there's nothing much to do outdoors I've began coding the portion of the code to parse Subject of an smtp mail to check for magic code for my pidgin plugin. Revisiting some rusty regexp knowledge.

Nmake 1.5 doesn't work on 64bit Win7

2009-07-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

grrrr.

Replacement is http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/

Hope it works

S/MIME for Windows Mobile

2009-06-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

Some reading up to do.

http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/networking/windowsmobile-smime.html

Gmail has POP3 too?

2009-06-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't know that. Guess I shouldn't have signed up for hotmail if I could POP using gmail...

Switching to IMAP, LiveMail POP3 has connection limitation, you can't poll every 5 mins for hotmail.

Ran into an issue with my CPAN as documented here

http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=706074

More Perl stuff

2009-06-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Done with the SMTP code for pidgin, now writing the script for checking live.com pop3 email.

Doing an upgrade to the CPAN module and then installing Mail::Message( yes to everything). I need this to read MIME messages.

http://search.cpan.org/~markov/Mail-Box-2.090/lib/Mail/Message.pod

CPAN install failed:

Appending installation info to C:\Perl\lib/perllocal.pod

PLOBBES/Mail-IMAPClient-3.19.tar.gz

nmake install -- OK

Running install for module 'IO::Scalar'

Running make for D/DS/DSKOLL/IO-stringy-2.110.tar.gz

Fetching with LWP:

http://ppm.activestate.com/CPAN/authors/id/D/DS/DSKOLL/IO-stringy-2.110.tar.g

Alert: While trying to 'parse' YAML file

'C:\Perl\cpan\FTPstats.yml'

with 'YAML::XS' the following error was encountered:

Usage: YAML::XS::LibYAML::Load(yaml_sv) at C:\Perl\lib/YAML/XS.pm line 70.

Going to snag a copy from:

http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/dist/Mail-Box

Treasure hunting for Perl Modules Part 2

2009-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Windows Live Mail has recently enabled Secured POP3 so you could connect using any normal modern email client to retrieve email. I've wrote a Perl script using Mail::POP3Client to retrieve email from my hotmail account. The script kept returning DEAD when I checked the connection status, the script completed way too early, indicating that it probably didn't perform any socket connections at all.

Dumping the Connect(); and Message(); calls to STDERR gave away the error:

IO:Sockets::SSL wasn't installed.

AS PPM doesn't have the required modules so it was off to http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/ to grab the IO::Sockets::SSL and the dependancies.

ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/Net-SSLeay.ppd

install Scalar-List-Utils from default ActiveState PPM repo

ppm install http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/IO-Socket-SSL.ppd

Works now :)

Off to grind on the warlock.

Treasure hunting Perl Modules

2009-06-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to render HTML content output as plaintext much like Lynx, I found some posting suggesting to try HTML::FormatText.

Fired up ActiveState PPM to install it but the .pm apparently wasn't in the repo. Found a similar module on PPM :

HTML::FormatText::WithLinks.

Installed it, problem was that I couldn't figure out why I was getting this:

Can't locate object method "new" via package

Yes that's with the example from the module documentation. Grrr...

Had to install it via CPAN, which started to complain it didn't have a make tool.Download NMAKE 1.5. Wow it's been a long time since I had MS NMAKE on my system.

Finally the code works.

I'm off to play PVP to let off some steam.

iTunes under XP 64? Tough one

2009-06-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

This isn't the first time I've encountered lack of device support for XP64. The recent one was my Huawei hsdpa stick. Works in xp32bit and Window 7 64bit rc hmmmm.

I had some problems with iTunes too, it kept insisting that it needed s 64bit Vista. Downloaded Orca from Microsoft and removed the restrictions from the iTunes64 msi. It... works now.
-posted via mobile while travelling on a crowded bus

How i wasted a tuesday evening

2009-06-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

My old Dell XPS notebook runs at home while I go to work and I occasionally RDP back to it. I usually see some IMs on my Pidgin IM when I log in, thought it would be a good idea to script something in Python+ D-BUS to send mail to my gmail account once I get any new messages, so I can check them on my work desktop, or Wince mobile. Till I realized the Win32 Pidgin doesn't have D-BUS.

The next best alternative calls for a quick and dirty scripting using Perl(ActivePerl 5.10). Boy the documentation is pretty sparse. After googling around(http://sriunplugged.blogspot.com/2009/03/autoreminder-in-pidgin.html) I've managed to come up with a script that works. Phew. Todo: presense + stripping html tags from the messages.

Bedtime now.

use Purple;

use Pidgin;

use Net::SMTP;

%PLUGIN_INFO = (

perl_api_version => 2,

name => "Email New Message Plugin",

version => "0.3",

summary => "script to mail to user any message received",

description => "Sends an email when a new message is recieved",

author => "Alvin Ng (Rebooting at gmail) ",

url => "http://pidgin.im",

load => "plugin_load",

unload => "plugin_unload"

);

sub plugin_init {

return %PLUGIN_INFO;

}

sub plugin_load {

my $plugin = shift;

Purple::Debug::info("testplugin", "plugin_load() - Test Plugin Loaded.\n");

Purple::Signal::connect(Purple::Conversations::get_handle(),'received-im-msg',$plugin,\&im_received,

'received-im-msg');

}

sub im_received {

Purple::Debug::info('incoming', "im_received\n");

# SMTP details here

my $smtp_server="smtp server";

my $sender='sender@domain';

my $recp = 'recipient@domain';

my ($account, $imsender, $message, $conv, $flags) = @_;

#log it

#send it, TODO: mail it when the client is set to any other status but online

$smtp = Net::SMTP->new($smtp_server);

$smtp->mail($sender);

$smtp->to($recp);

$smtp->data();

$smtp->datasend("To: $recp \n");

$smtp->datasend("From: $imsender\n");

$smtp->datasend("Subject: New Message from $account::$imsender \n\n");

$smtp->datasend("$account : $imsender \n");

$smtp->datasend($message);

$smtp->dataend();

$smtp->quit;

}

sub plugin_unload {

my $plugin = shift;

Purple::Debug::info("testplugin", "plugin_unload() - Test Plugin Unloaded.\n");

}

Iron Python

2009-06-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

Putting this posting to remind me to find out about iron python. can I use it for WMI?

How to Install VMware ESX 4.0 on Workstation 6.5.2 as a VM

2009-06-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wonder if VMWare Player works too?

http://xtravirt.com/node/177

Umm.. I just remembered Kubuntu

2009-06-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Having some trouble compiling the VirtualBox Guest addons for Fedora. I'll just snag a copy of Kubuntu off bit torrent and see if this one's any better. What a pity, FC 10 really looked good.

Hello Fedora 10

2009-06-04T08:08:00.001-07:00

It's certainly nice to try Fedora again, the version I last used was FC 3 and that was it. I'm getting tired of using Gnome on Ubuntu and wondered how the KDE version of Fedora looks like. Just got around installing it. I'm going to use it to develop stuff and see how it goes.

Got to have one of these

2009-06-03T22:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/

Free iSCSI Target from Starwind

2009-06-02T18:40:00.001-07:00

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/free

The hidden challenges of Virtualization

2009-05-26T16:49:00.001-07:00

A definate must-read from an operational perspective.

http://www.virtualization.info/2009/05/hidden-challenges-of-virtualization.html

Do virtual entities deserve names?

2009-05-24T01:31:00.000-07:00

I've been naming my machines after World of Warcraft places, it's no surprise my Ubuntu's called IceCrown and my new Windows XP's called Barrens :) I hope none of my machines will turn into a Molten Core....

Unison

2009-05-23T03:07:00.000-07:00

happened to glance at my #linux channel on freenode irc:

Unison

Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

great stuff

Revisiting C++

2009-05-21T23:51:00.002-07:00

I've just had an opportunity to revist C++ programming when a good friend of mine asked me some advice on an assignment question. I've cleanly forgotten the pain of having to manage memory ... has it been that long ago since I've touch that language?

C++'s only fun when you're trying to score that assignment - hee hee.

Note to self

2009-05-20T19:28:00.001-07:00

Installation of Solaris with 512MB ram is bad.

Back, finally

2009-05-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

Almost half of 2009 has gone by and I've not done a single thing, I'm reviving my virtual machines and getting back to my python stuff.

I love VirtualBox

2008-11-06T19:25:00.001-08:00

I've been playing around with VirtualBox lately, it's a lot smaller than the new VMWare Server 2, and it takes up less disk and memory footprint since VMWare Server 2.0 installs a tomcat HTTP management server by default.

I was rather biased against VirtualBox in the past, I didn't feel the need to replace my VMServer test lab till the changes in VMWare server 2.0 made me re-evaluate using VirtualBox as a test lab.

I've gotten used to having to bridge the Virtualbox network interface to the Host's LAN to enable the guest machine to connect to the Host's network ... I must admit that VMware is a a little more convenient in that aspect. I've also managed to BSOD my 64bit XP bridging the interface. I couldn't boot up either. I'll face a dump screen before even seeing the loging screen. It was caused by Comodo firewall driver, uninstalling made the BSODs go away...

Duplication of virtual harddisks isn't as simple as just doing a "cp source.vdi target.vi", you've got to use "vboxmanage clonevdi source.vdi target.vdi" but nevertheless I'm quite used to it by now.

iSCSI on Solaris

2008-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a page of useful information about setting up Solaris as a iSCSI target:

http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=779

Good stuff.

It's back!

2008-08-17T04:07:00.001-07:00

Say hello to the new machine! I'm back in business!

Time to replace this Desktop..

2008-08-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Looks like I've managed to back up all my data to the new disk (or so I hope). Time to take apart this old PC and upgrade the motherboard and RAM.

Step One: Download X86 Solaris

2008-08-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

Getting an iSCSI Target for the cost of nearly zero

2008-08-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

Building a cluster for HA using say Redhat Clustering or Microsoft Cluster Services involves getting a shared storage to act as a quorum as a form of communication between the nodes.

As part of the plan to run some tests on clustering I'll be needing a iSCSI target to act as a quorum slice for the various operating systems that I'll be working on. The problem is, I can't find a spare iSCSI target lying around the workplace. The last Dell MD3000 has been deployed for production. The only option left is to see if I can build an iSCSI target as a VM(of course).

Thanks to Google, I've managed to unearth some articles on how to turn an operating system into a iSCSI target. There are a couple of software avaliable, most of the Windows software are payware while the Linux and Solaris ones are the roll-your-own-for-free options.

No prize for guessing that I chose the free options :)

Solaris : Solaris iSCSI Target

Linux 2.6 kernel: http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/

I'm pretty tempted to go for the Solaris iSCSI target.

Time to do some reading.

Goodbye world.... of warcraft

2008-08-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

With the new job boring me to death and the apparent launch of the expansion WOLK at the end of the year, I'm not really keen to play WoW right now. It seems like a gigantic waste of time, or tedious work at best. I'll rather be watching movies, cycling, drinking with friends or just mgging for my certification. Sorry guys :)

Where do we go from here?

2008-08-09T18:58:00.001-07:00

I've been sitting on my desktop upgrade project despite having purchased the hardware. They're all lying around the house -

500gb SATA disks
2GB ram
a new Asus "green" motherboard P5K/SE

I think I'll have to upgrade it Real Soon(tm). I need to run a couple of MS software to test their functionality - starting with Exchange 2007 and I don't think the current system running on 2gb ram is going to be enough for the purpose.

I'll have to purchase the additional RAM this week and get the upgrade going the next weekend.
Time to bust out the vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust bunnies and get a spare SATA cable for data transfer!

Introduction - A look at Virtualization now

2008-08-09T18:30:00.001-07:00

In 1999 and the early 2000s, the only real choice for virtualization was VMware Workstation during . Fast forward to today, the demand for virtualization has exploded with business users clamoring to shrink their datacenter footprint.

Major players today includes VMWare and with Microsoft and Citrix Xen Souce with VMWare still being the primary VM solution provider and numerous competitors entering the market to get a foothold in the virtualization market.

YankeeGroup has performed a survey for 2008-2009 and have stated that 75% of the surveyed affirmed that they will deploy Virtualization solutions for their datacenters, with the driving factor being that of Disaster Recovery, License and Server consolidation.

Desktop virtualization has a more interesting slant, according to the report, 23% of the surveyed reported of using MacOS as a host platform to run virtualized Windows XP/Vista.

Source from: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/yankee-group-report-validates-virtualization/story.aspx?guid=%7B8961E254-B7CD-4565-8676-DFBF9A55EB67%7D&dist=hppr

First Post

2008-07-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

in a virtual world!