Finally, My Dream Phone

As a budget conscious guy like me, i seldom invest on gadget. However, having a smart phone has always been my top priority to replace my feature-less Nokia 3610.

With the price well below 1K and comes with wifi support, running on the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, this particular phone is simply irressistable.

The objectives of getting this phone is to be as my laptop best companion. Opening my laptop while on the move is really a hassle. A smartphone features would surely meet most of my needs. Here is the list of the useful software that i have used.

1. Clearvue suite - Open MS office doc, powerpoint, excel and pdf file. This suite helps me keep up to the work-related or vice versa document all the time. The downside is you will need to zoom in everytime and scrolling across the screen is abit slow.
2. Repligo - Convert whatever PC document into a readable format in smartphone screen. One of the most sought after software because i have a lot ebook but have no time to open my laptop to read it.
3. Agile Messenger - Similiar to PC version of Trillian, I able connect to all messenger services such as MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk and etc. The only thing required is the internet connection either through Wifi, GPRS/Edge (Expensive) or USB cabel which acts as LAN cable.
4. Lextionary - Have to admit my english proficiency is not yet top graded, sometimes still need to flip the dictionary for some mistery vocabulary. This smartphone dictionary helps me to find the word faster. At least now i don't need to flip the bulky Oxford Dictionary or search Answer.com for this purpose.
5. Windows Media Player (built-in) - Play music or movie: mp3, wma, wmv, 3gp & avi that spice up my life while waiting for those unreliable public transport.
6. POP mail (built-in) - Allow me to read my gmail, hotmail and my outlook email anytime i want. The only shortcoming is my primary webmail - yahoo required subcription in order to have th POP function.

Looking back on how this smartphone changes my life in term of working or leisure, this was really a good buy. Value for the money i spent and features packed. There are a lot more useful software in the market that i haven't try it out. Maybe i can describe further in my next post.

Easily Forgotten Command

Map Drive through cmd
net use * \\Ip\Sharename
- will use the next available drive
net use D: \\Ip\Sharename
- map to D drive

Telnet Particular Port in PC
telnet IP PORT

Find Domain Information
cmd>nslookup
cmd>set type=AmxNSANY....
cmd>TYPE IN DNS

Display Network Status
cmd>netstat -na
- Display connections and listening port in numerical form

Force delete a folder (Linux)
rm -rf ./folder_name

Add route to network gateway
route add destination_ip gateway_ip -p
- dash p in the end would add a key in windows registry thus make this route permanently

Change unix file mode
chmod 755 *.sh

Incompatible .Net Framework Version in IIS

Situation:
Having a ASP.NET project written in VS .Net 2003. Apparently the codes version is based on ASP.NET 1.1.

Problem:
The Windows Server 2003 is installed with MS .Net Framework 2.0. This should be due to the windows Auto Update because the OS comes with .Net Framework 1.0 initially. Some of the codes failed to run properly and throwing up strange error. Cannot downgrade the .Net version.

Diagnosis:
I can't uninstall .Net Framework 2.0 from the server because there're a few application depending on it. One of the common application is MS SQL Server 2005. Therefore, both frameworks need to be co-exist. Unfortunately, there's no option to switch the ASP.NET version in the server IIS. I managed to have that feature in Windows XP when i installed version 1.1 follows by 2.0. I have tried reinstall 1.1 Framework but errors indicated the framework has already been installed in the system.

Resolution:
Force the OS to install Framework 1.1 by:
1. open cmd, go to C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\
2. Type aspnet_regiis.exe -i
-i - Reinstall corresponding framework version
3. In case you want to uninstall Framework 2.0, type aspnet_regiis.exe -u
-u - Uninstall this version of ASP.NET. Existing script maps to this version are remapped to highest remaining version of ASP.NET installed on the machine.

After i reinstall .Net Framework 1.1, now i can switch the ASP.NET version by right click properties of the virtual directory, then press on ASP.NET tab, select version 1.1 instead of 2.0 from the ASP.NET version dropdown. Finally enable the ASP.NET 1.0 web service and you are done.

Goal! It had been awhile

This experience was happened last weekend when i returned to my hometown. I would say this is a belated blog since i only managed to post it now.

For some of you may not know that i actually have a very strong interest in football either by watching or playing. When i was in secondary school, i would go to the football field near my house every evening, regardless to a sunny or rainy day. That 'was' me. Things started to change when i entered university. I only have limited time to play with my peer. Nevertheless, i always try to make myself to the field whenever i go back.

Last weekend, finally i got a chance to play with them again. I was the earliest one to reach the field since i have anticipated this moment for a long time . The only fear in my mind was they may not playing on the day. Luckily i wasn't being let down as a lot people turned out afterward.

In order to conserve our stamina, we only play on a quarter of the field size with both end having a small goal. For that, our shooting need to be accurate enough to enter those small goal. With 8 on a side and a small goal, it required nice skill and tactic to get a goal. Normally, we will not have a high-scoring match unless the defenders leave too much open 'holes'. Under our own rule, whoever that score the first goal will have their opponent shirt taken off. The reason being is to allow the team to identify their teammate easily. Sound INTERESTING right, gal.

After not playing for a while, it takes some time to discover back my form. Then there comes a great opening. All started when my friend passed the ball to me, with my pretty well controlled over the ball, i was able to dribble for some distance before unleashing a gounding shot toward the goal. Lady luck with me that day, the ball literally went passed everyone in the opposition. Their defensive wall appeared to has a hole and i took advantage of that. 1-0, our opponent have to take off their shirt. Haha, what a feel of scoring a goal. It indeed has been some time i didn't score such a decisive goal.

End of the match, the score remained as 1-0. I was the only goal scorer of the day. Feeling GREAT...

Supposed to be a 'Quiet' and 'Saving' weekend

It should be a 'Home Alone' weekend, without my regular companion. Not really a big deal, I already prepared a TODO list to overcome this. The plan was to stay at home and spend my free time on playing games and reading my latest fiction. Most importantly is try to hold my wallet as tight as possible by reducing whatever unnecessary expenses. Apparently, it's quite difficult to cut down our expenses during the weekend. I would say it can easily becomes the 'Most Expensive' day in a week if you are not aware of.

The plan worked pretty well on the first day, Saturday, with total expenses as low as RM0 until 6pm. We all know plan doesn't always goes as expected. The day started when i bought my gf's parent 'thong sui' at Petaling Street. Twenty plus debitted into the expenses account. Well, i think the money was well-spent, no way you can save on this. :p Next, my friends called me up to watch EPL at the 'mamak' nearby. With the drink less than 2 ringgit, the spending also considered well-worth by allowing us to watch the whole match and talking crap. The day ended with total expenses less than 30. Not too bad for a day.

Sunday, plan didn't goes accordingly at all. When i wake up, the time is almost noon. First sms i got from my hp was we'll have a 'Old friend Reunion' in MidValley at 1pm. No escape for this, sure need to spend. With my friend driving, i had to pay the parking. Sigh, traffic congestion outside MidValley and RM3 parking during the weekend. That's why i normally shopping on weekday. Subsequently, we need to have our lunch. 'Old Friend Reunion' has to be a better dining place. We decided Pizza Hut. Phew, twenty plus per person. After that, one of my friend want to look for a shirt. So we just accompanied him. This guy really good in window-shopping. I and another friend of mine were walking like mad. Normally i only do this for my gf. Eventually, we split off and went to have some casual reading in MPH. My this friend only came back to meet us after 1/2 hour with his bargain. The time for him to buy a shirt is approximately 3 hours.

My expenses account closed after my dinner with the total of 70++ for these 2 days. Still unable to cut down cost over the weekend even though i had a plan. At the least, it turned out to be a busy and exciting weekend which's not supposed to be :D

Installing SQL Server 2005 Express

Here’s the guide to install the SQL Server Express Edition into your system. Firstly, grab the installation program from the ms msdn web site. The required programs are as follow: .Net Framework 2.0, SQL Server 2005 Express Ed., SQL Server Mgmt Studio Express and the MSXML 6.0.

1. install the dotnetfx.exe (MS .Net framework)
2. install the msxml6.msi (latest MS XML Parser)
3. run the SQLEXPR.exe installation (SQL Server Express Ed.)
4. run the SQLServer2005_SSMSEE.msi installation(SQL Management Studio Express)

If you are switching from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005, you need to transfer your SQL Server 2000 database to SQL Server 2005 by using the backup db and restore db function. After restoring the backup, you need to remap the user login to the db. In this case, there may be some existing login for the table. In order to remove it, you need to remove the login user schema, then only the user in security.

For J2EE database connection, the TCP/IP protocol need to be enabled in the SQL Server Configurations Manager. Under Network Configurations, double click on the TCP/IP protocol, enable the protocol as well as the ip address. In the IP address portion, you can choose to open your LAN IP, localhost or both. Another portion is the TCP port, the port number that J2EE used to establish connection. Mine is defaulted at 3408. FYI, the defined port number for SQL Server is 1433. I wonder the port number may be vary because i installed the SQL Express on top of SQL Server 2000. Make sure there's no port conflict. Finally, change your port number, normally in .properties file to be the same as SQL Express TCP port.

JBoss Start or Stop server

List of bat command and argument for starting or stopping a jboss server:
Start Server
1. run.bat ~ start the default server
2. run.bat -c server_name ~ start the correspond server, apply when you have server with multiple instances. Example, run -c default

Stop Server
1. shutdown.bat -s localhost:port_no ~ stop the correspond server based on the jboss:service=Naming port settings. Default port is 1099.
Example, shutdown -s localhost:1099

*Note: the command can be run without the .bat file extension.

Jboss server running on multiple instances

*Note: This manual has been tested on the MS IIS server.
First and foremost, you need to get the slim down version of jboss. What i mean 'slim down' here is the server will only run relevant services and application and it'll reduce the server startup time tremendously. Next, follow the step by step instruction:

1. Create a port-bindings.xml inside your jboss folder. There's a sample of this xml in jboss folder/docs/examples/binding-manager. You can just copy the content in the file and paste it into your new xml.

2. Once you have the xml, next thing to do is define the server name and the port. By default, we will have one ports-default. Define your new server instance based on the default port. Make sure the jboss:service=Naming binding port has been set other than the default port 1099 and tomcat port binding is other than port 8080.

3. In jboss folder/server, duplicate the default server folder and rename it to the server name you prefer. Move to your new server folder/conf, open the jboss-service.xml. In the service binding portion, define server name based on the ports-new_server you have created in port-binding.xml and store url to file:../port-bindings.xml depends on where you put your xml.

4. Go to the server deploy folder, open the jbossweb-tomcat55.sar. In there, you will see a server.xml. The only thing you need to modify here is the jvmroute. The jvmroute should point to the IISRedirector worker name that created in the worker properties.

5. Before we proceed further, let us have a run through on the ISSRedirector. This tool is available to download in Apache website. At the first place, you need to have IIS installed in your system. After you install IIS and then the redirector, you need to configure the ISAPI filter to the Apache IIS Redirector. Next, create the different worker in worker properties. The most importance part to watch out is the port no. Default port is 1099. Your new worker should use port 1100 and the subsequent port. After that, go to the uri properties file to configure the instance name ties to the correspond worker. Exp, /ABC = testWorker, ABC refered to your war file name. Once done, restart the WWW service in windows service.

6. When you reach this stage, you are clear to go. Open MS-DOS console and go into the jboss bin folder, type "run -c server_name " and the server will be started. Do the same if you want to start another server. The command to start the default server would be "run -c default".

7. To make our life easier, we can download the javaservice from the web and create the server start/stop service in our window services. In this way, we can start and stop our server from the gui instead of command prompt. We will look into the javaservice in my next posting. Happy exploring!

Cycling in Bukit Cahaya Agricultural Park

Sunny sunday, my gf and i planned to go cycling at Bukit Cahaya Park. As usual, i have difficulty to wake up early in sunday morning. Hence, we only managed to depart around noon with the hope of cycling under the shade and not the sun.

The agricultural park is located near to the Shah Alam city centre. We took the Federal Highway and turned out on the Shah Alam exit. It tooks us 45 mins to reach the park from Serdang. Since we agreed to meet up our friends at 3 o'clock, we still have 1 hour to spare. Therefore, we had our lunch in a McD restaurant along the way toward the park.

We just took half an hour to settle our lunch. The eagerness of getting on the bicycle make us shoot straight to the park without waiting. The entry ticket cost RM3 per pax. We found that there are actually 2 types of transport we can take which are the bicycle and the sightseeing bus. For bicycle, there's a cycling track that is not accesible for the bus. We decided to take the free bus ride while waiting for our friend. Iniatially, i thought of cycling the whole park. After the bus ride, i have to accept the fact that it may takes days to do that. The park compound is simply too big to cover in 3 hours, to be accurate.

When our friends reached, we quickly jumped onto the bicycle and started our expedition. The rental of each bicycle is RM3 per hour. That's why we need to pedal faster. Apparently, we couldn't go any faster because the track is slopingly. There are areas that you simply can't pedal through. I ended up pedalling while standing because i don't want to push my bicycle up. Only me alone became the sole 'Hero', the rest of the company gave up by pushing. Similiar to our life philosophy, 'Hard work bears fruit', you have to go through the hardship first before you can enjoy in return. The most enjoyable and thrilling moment was during we descending from the slope. Going up and down the slope, the best part of cycling, took us almost 2 hours.

I never cycle in such condition before, though quite exhausted, i really enjoyed the whole process of cycling and looking forward for another round. My only doubt is whether my gf and friends will be joining next time.

Table tennis after years...

Just couldn't recall back when was the last time i played table tennis? Digging back to my memory, i used to play with my younger sister and even represented for school. That was the old time story. Nowaday, 9 out of 10 people i ask whether they can play table tennis usually comes with a standard answer - 'NO'.

To my surprise, few of my colleagues know how to play this game. Further more, they can play pretty well. Finally i can have a hold on my old ping pong bat once again. Although the response was not very encouraging, 2 to 3 peoples, we still managed to organise this table tennis session after work.

All these while, i'm not required to pay a single penny for the table tennis session. The rental of the table really shocked me for a while, it's RM7 per hour. Well, have to accept that private venue always priced like this. Since we only have limited participants, 1 hour is good for a start.

1 hour passed pretty fast. We all enjoy the fun of this game very well. I anticipate for the next session but it may appears to be a bit difficult because most of us will be joining other project in different location. Let's just HOPE :)

Driving Range Debut

Wednesday Evening, nice day to play golf. As a newcomer to the game, the most common place to start with would be the driving range. We went to the Bukit Jalil driving range in a group of four.
100 balls for RM9, still affordable for me. Since i'm new to the game, my colleagues offered me the balls they bought

My initial plan was to jump straight to the bay and whack the ball. Look pretty simple to me at first but it was not apparently. My boss gave me my very first lesson of golfing, 'How to hold the club correctly?'. For some reason, i just couldn't made a smooth swing. Before i make my first drive, i had to practice my swing a number of times without the ball so that i won't throw my boss's club into the field. After a couple of minutes, I gained my confident and felt it's time to begin driving with 'ball'. It appeared to be a painful experience as my swing hit the floor, bad shot. Luckily my ball didn't go to the wrong direction.

Practice makes perfect. Though my shot is not perfect for every drive, at least i managed to make a few clean shot. Not too bad for a beginner to hit more than 50 meter right, consoling myself. My target for the next session would be 100 meter with the 100 balls i buy on my own. We will wait and see.

Bukit Tinggi Half Day Trip

Bukit tinggi is located along the Karak Highway just after the Genting Highland exit. It was sunday. My gf and i departed from Serdang quite late in the morning. The good news was it's a 40 mins journey. I should have reached there earlier not because of my 7 yrs old car.

The Berjaya group is damn good in doing business. Before we can have a glimpse of the French buildings, we are required to pay RM16 per pax. The tickets covered the entrance for Colmar Tropicale (the main attraction), Japanese Tea Village, Botanical Garden and the Rabbit Part. The money seem to be worthy but follow on first. First, we visited the Colmar Tropicale, well known of its English or French (not sure) style of buildings. Impressive i would say, but we managed to walk through each corner of the street within half an hour. I think the overall distance should be less than 2km. After getting bored, we decided to go Botanical Garden and Japanese Tea Village. It was nice that they offer shuttle bus service to the venue. Or else, my old car may has some difficulty climbing because the slope is quite steep. Well, botanical garden as stated in the catalog, has the strawberry, apple and pear cultivation. Not the day for us, we couldn't even find any of these fruits in the garden. It was more like a jungle trekking in the garden. Similar experience in the Japanese Tea Village, nice view but nothing much to do over there. We only spent roughly 1 hour in those two venues.

As a conclusion, Bukit Tinggi appeared to be a nice place to rest especially for those who want to escape from the city. Not very suitable for children and teenager because i doubt they can get bored very soon. If you plan to have a stay there, be prepared for burning a few holes in your wallet. Expensive accomodation and meal.