SuperSuf 037

Some Things Should Be Made Obvious #DNN

2011-11-23T10:54:00.001+08:00

Q: What do the check boxes public role and auto assign under security roles mean and how does one use them?

A: Public role means that users can choose to "join" those roles by selecting the checkboxes for those roles at the bottom of their user profile page. Auto Assign assigns new registered users to that particular role automatically.

Snippet from: http://forums.asp.net/t/314593.aspx/1

Package Recieved

2011-09-22T12:40:00.001+08:00

From Chain Reaction Cycles! Yeay!

Respro Nitesight Mask (L) (which has the same specs as the City Mask)

http://www.respro.com/protection-faqs/#q2
"1. The City filter uses Dynamic Activated Charcoal Cloth (DACC) a 95% pure charcoal weave, originally developed by the U.K. Ministry of Defence for use in the protection against chemical and bacteria warfare situations. We use DACC to effectively filter out Primary pollutants associated with vehicle exhaust emissions. The DACC is laminated with medical grade non woven polypropylene material which filters particulates from the air and helps prevent them from entering the respiratory system.

The City filter offers protection against: - Hydrocarbons. e.g. Benzene; Pyrene;1,3 Butadiene. - Acid gases. e.g. Nitrogen dioxide; Sulphur dioxide. - Photo-chemical pollutants. e.g. Low level Ozone - Particulates. e.g. Black smoke; Pollen; Lead oxide. For a more comprehensive list of all the chemicals that have tested with DACC, please go to the Industrial section of the website."

According to the NEA, haze consists of:
http://app2.nea.gov.sg/psi_faq.aspx
sulphur dioxide,
nitrogen dioxide,
ozone,
carbon monoxide
particulate matter called PM10 (particulate matter of 10 microns or smaller in size)

ADSI Edit for Windows 7

2011-08-10T17:10:00.002+08:00

Need ADSI Edit for Windows 7?

Follow the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7887

Library Book Sale

2011-07-23T22:07:00.001+08:00

Today, I judged books by their covers.

They were categorized in broad categories in piles and with 2 kids in tow, I had not much time to browse.

The word "bicycle" on the cover? Grab.

Terry Pratchett? No brainer. Grab.

Jim Butcher / Dresden? Grab.

Grabbed John Saul for the wife.

Grabbed a book with a nice, red cover. No idea what's in it.

...and a couple more I'm sure I won't get around to reading.

But hey, $2 a book!

Going Home!

2011-07-22T18:54:00.001+08:00

Sure is nice to go home while the sun is still shining - on a Friday too!

Cars, Bicycles and Pedestrians! Oh my!

2011-06-10T12:17:00.000+08:00

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

PortQry - The Ping For Ports

2011-05-30T16:05:00.002+08:00

Need to find out if your port is correctly configured? Try portqry from Microsoft. It's command line and straightforward to use.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=89811747-C74B-4638-A2D5-AC828BDC6983

How to use:

http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.php?qid=117

There Is No Try

2011-05-22T17:45:00.001+08:00

Building a Build Machine

2011-03-16T15:22:00.006+08:00

So, these past couple of weeks, I've been tasked with building a build machine.

What's a build machine?

A build machine should automagically build your code project into something that is usable. Actually, the complete flow should be:

Get Latest Codes
Build Codes
Deploy
Test
Logging
Reporting

Since the keyword here is automated, that means a Scheduled Task is involved, to be executed every night so that developers can come in the next day to see how their project has performed overnight and maybe fix bugs that their new code may have introduced.

Developers go home.

Repeat.

For this post, I will concentrate on automating the first 2 tasks:

Getting the latest codes; and
Building codes

== THE BUILD ENVIRONMENT ==

Lucky for me, I have a dedicated machine and multiple VMs to play with, so here's the specs of my Build Machine, for a Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 C# Web Projects:

A clean install of Windows Server 2008 Standard Full x64
Set it up with a Role of a Web Server with default IIS7 settings.
Get the latest copy (in my case, version 3) of Microsoft's Web Platform Installer from http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx
Use it to install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Since automating everything will probably involve several different products (eg: SVN, Microsoft Build, Deployment, FTP, etc), executing a single batch file (.bat) seems to be the best bet.

== STEP 1: GET LATEST CODES ==

Getting the latest codes is the easiest of all the above-mentioned steps, if you're using SVN.

Get the SVN command-line client from CollabNet: http://www.open.collab.net/downloads/subversion/

The command to get the latest codes is, for example:

svn checkout https://PathOfRepository C:\ProjectPath --username MyUsername --password MyPassword

There are tons of SVN commands and options.

It's well documented and has lots of real-world examples online.

Go Google it for more details.

== STEP 2: BUILD CODES ==

If you've installed .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 correctly and successfully, check out this path in Explorer:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\

You should have a nice MSBuild.exe sitting there.

No need for a copy of Visual Studio to build your project.

To build, use the following line:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe C:\ProjectPath\MyProject.csproj

Again, MSBuild.exe can either build the Project or the Solution, so this also works:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe C:\ProjectPath\MySolution.sln

It depends on how your Project or Solution is set up.

You will probably need to tweak your Solution or Project file, by setting up Dependencies or References in Visual Studio (the GUI really helps, instead of tweaking the csproj or sln file by hand) before MSBuild.exe performs the way you want it.

== BUILD TIPS ==

The /target or /t flag

Since I am automating a build for an end-product, I set my /target flag like so:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe /t:Rebuild C:\ProjectPath\MyProject.csproj

I use Rebuild so that MSBuild.exe always deletes old binaries and dependencies before rebuilding them.

This may take up some extra CPU cycles, but ensures that you are always building and referencing the latest codes.

The /property or /p flag

Again, since I am automating a build for an end-product, I add on my /property flag like so:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release C:\ProjectPath\MyProject.csproj

This ensures that the build is in a "Release" configuration, rather than a "Debug" build or some unknown, default build configuration.

Also, since this is a clean install of Windows, adding this Configuration=Release might throw an error, with an error message that looks something like a path not found.

(I forgot what was the exact error was).

Look for the missing path in your Development environment and copy it into the build machine. This should solve it.

MSBuild.exe has a ton of options, and is probably documented by developers (read: not user-friendly!) and not many real-world examples online.

Good luck using this tool!

PHP on IIS7 on Windows 7 Home Premium

2010-11-21T03:25:00.004+08:00

As a follow-up on my previous post, here's how to set up PHP 5.3.3 VC9 (MSI) on your newly enabled IIS7 on Windows 7 Home Premium

(The reason I'm emphasizing on Windows 7 Home Premium is because the Windows 7 Ultimate machine I have at work doesn't seem to have these kinds of problems)

Now if you run setup normally, you'd run into some weird error after selecting IIS FastCGI

Cancel PHP's setup and go back to

Start -> Control Panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off

Expand Internet Information Services -> World Wide Web Services -> Application Development Features and check CGI

Click OK and reboot your machine

Run PHP's setup again and select IIS FastCGI again. The install should go through normally now.

Enjoy!

Enable IIS7 on Windows 7 Home Premium

2010-11-21T02:55:00.005+08:00

So I got this new PC and wanted to do some WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) work on it. After 10+ years of Win XP, here I am with a Windows 7 Home Premium.

Installed Apache 2.2.17 and PHP 5.3.3 VC6 but couldn't get the 2 to talk to each other. (Apache insisted it couldn't find the PHP module)

I figured it was some bizarre permission issue that I didn't want to lose sleep over. (If you can't find something on Google within 15 minutes, it's a lost cause.)

So, I turned around and decided to try a WIMP instead. Windows, IIS, MySQL, PHP

Enough backstory. Here's how to enable IIS7 on Windows 7 Home Premium:

Start -> Control Panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off

Check the Internet Information Services once.

It'll default to a filled checkbox with the default options. It was good enough for me (for development work, not a live machine)

Click around to see what else you may need

Click OK

Windows may say it needs to restart. Go ahead.

Open up your web browser and type in http://localhost/ and the big ol' IIS7 image appears. The default root is in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\

Steps beyond this (eg: configuration, etc) is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Enjoy!

Compare MS SQL Databases

2010-11-08T18:24:00.004+08:00

Found a tool today to help me deploy codes just that little bit faster by comparing 2 MS SQL databases.

Here's the link:

http://www.wintestgear.com/products/MSSQLSchemaDiff/MSSQLSchemaDiff.html

It's Freeware!

I don't think it will ALTER your databases for you. It just compares the DB structure. Doesn't compare data either, I think.

You have to resolve the differences manually and that's the way I like it.

MS SQL Fast SELECT a Random Row

2010-11-03T14:50:00.002+08:00

Found this bit of code for MS SQL to quickly SELECT a random row from a table of millions of records.

SELECT TOP 1 *

FROM table_name

WHERE Primary_Key_ID = (SELECT CEILING(MAX(Primary_Key_ID) * RAND())

FROM table_name)

This is faster than the usual ORDER BY NEWID() as this method creates a temporary table (or view) with an additional column of NewIDs

The downside is that, if you have gaps in your Primary Key, you should take care of the statement returning blank rows in your code.

Dell Zino HD Windows Experience Index

2010-10-08T23:36:00.003+08:00

Processor: 5.2
RAM: 5.9
Graphics: 3.6
Gaming Graphics: 5.2
Primary Hard Disk: 5.9

Posting to a Facebook Page

2010-10-06T16:38:00.002+08:00

Just spent 6 hours with the new Facebook Graph API to figure out how to post to a Facebook Page.

Firstly, you need to register an app to get the App ID and Secret Key

(the basic app registration process is dead simple now. 2 textboxes, a drop down list and a submit button!)

This is for the portion that says "This is my status update - 6 minutes ago via Your App Name"

On the developer's end, you need to do 2 things:

1 - Provide a link for the user to click to log in to Facebook / authorize your app with the relevant permissions
a) Facebook Authorization Docs: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/
b) Extended Permissions: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/permissions/

2 - Provide a page for Facebook to return to once the User has logged in / authorized your app

a) Facebook will return the access token (code) that the developer can use to manipulate user data

Extended Permissions

==================

Seems that the 2 minimum extended permissions you will need are publish_stream and manage_pages. This should come under the "scope" querystring when doing the Authentication link, as mentioned above.

Get the authenticated User's accounts details

Note that "Accounts" refers to the Pages that the User administers

"https://graph.facebook.com/me/accounts?access_token=" + strAccessToken

Account details will return Page ID, Name, and Page Token

Note that the Page Token is different from the User's Token in the sense that if you POST something to Facebook using the User's token, the User will be reflected as the one contributing the POST. Example, "Muhammad Yussuf posted an update".

When you use the Page Token, it will look like this instead: "[Page Name] posted an update"

Publishing to Facebook Reference:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api#publishing

Facebook User Setup

====================

The only requirement to this is that the User must be the Owner / Creator of the Page to impersonate it. That means, the average Facebook user does not have any data under the "accounts" API call.

Other Notes:

=====================

The Facebook Graph API returns JSON only. So it's a bit of a headache to integrate with C#. Google for JSON.NET at CodePlex

Guess What? I Just Completed Warcraft 3

2010-02-07T19:23:00.002+08:00

With all the amount of people playing DOTA these days, I picked up an old copy of Warcraft 3 and started playing.

I realized I never really finished the Night Elf campaign. And now I have.

After so many years.

And just in time too. The PC died again today. Sigh.

What We Did

2010-01-08T17:48:00.004+08:00

It's funny 'cos it's true. - http://xkcd.com/674/

Two Zero One Zero

2010-01-03T17:02:00.001+08:00

The future is here... so where are the robots and flying cars?

Attack Of The 7 Year Old PC

2009-11-22T02:02:00.004+08:00

Success! My PC's up and running again after buying a generic power supply ($40) from CyberActive at Sengkang Compass Point.

It's been down for almost a year as I simply couldn't find the time to go and buy one.

I have totally forgotten what crappy specs it has.

Gotta get some new parts so I can install Windows 7 RC and enjoy Aero.

2 x 1GB DDR SDRAM 266MHz at $50 each

http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=121

Currently, BIOS says I have 768MB RAM.

Manual (http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15322/eng/D845RG_D845BV_ProductGuide_English.pdf) says 'board can support 2GB of RAM max.

Largest 3.5" IDE HDD I can find:

http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=60&filter=&sortby=price&pg=0

500GB at $80

A new LAN card $20

http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/priceguide.php?id=34&filter=&sortby=price

I have no idea where my current LAN card or it's driver comes from. Windows 7 and Google can't find the drivers either

That's $200 to run an OS that WILL die in March 2010

Now I'm wondering if it's worth it

Work Stuff: System.Net.Mail Notes

2009-11-16T18:41:00.003+08:00

Spent a rainy afternoon wrestling with Windows Server 2008, IIS 7

First Error:
System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: Failure sending mail. ---> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:25
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Int32 timeout, Exception& exception)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Net.ServicePoint.GetConnection(PooledStream PooledStream, Object owner, Boolean async, IPAddress& address, Socket& abortSocket, Socket& abortSocket6, Int32 timeout)
at System.Net.PooledStream.Activate(Object owningObject, Boolean async, Int32 timeout, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback)
at System.Net.PooledStream.Activate(Object owningObject, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback)
at System.Net.ConnectionPool.GetConnection(Object owningObject, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback, Int32 creationTimeout)
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpConnection.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port)
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)
at webservice.sendNotification(Int32 iAppID, String strFromUID, String strToUID, String strMessage) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webservice.ashx:line 1001

Solution: Go to Services and make sure the SMTP Service is running (Don't trust the Feature Manager)

Second Problem:
System.Net.Mail.SmtpFailedRecipientsException: Unable to send to all recipients. ---> System.Net.Mail.SmtpFailedRecipientException: Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Unable to relay for nickfurry@live.com
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.SendMail(MailAddress sender, MailAddressCollection recipients, String deliveryNotify, SmtpFailedRecipientException& exception)
at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)
at webservice.sendNotification(Int32 iAppID, String strFromUID, String strToUID, String strMessage) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webservice.ashx:line 1001

Solution:
SmtpClient objClient = new SmtpClient();
objClient.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.PickupDirectoryFromIis;
objClient.Send(objMail);

The Delivery Method is the key.

Heroic Dinosaurs

2009-11-11T13:11:00.001+08:00

The real reason they're extinct

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

2009-10-31T01:09:00.003+08:00

It was a dark and stormy night, almost a conclusion to the long day I've had. But the day was not yet done with me.

The Mrs was sick, Sarah's fever had shot up overnight and Johan got his new nickname, "Grumpy Bear".

All alone and awake, after everyone has had their drowsy medicine, I decided to check in on Sarah in her room, to see how she was doing.

I opened the door and a careful glance told me she wasn't in her bed or mine. Since it was very dark, I entered the room silently and carefully explored the beds with my hands...

"Just a bunch of pillows and blankets," I thought. "The Mrs must have picked her up into her room. Or she got up and wandered in."

Knowing that the Mrs was in no state to take care of Sarah, Johan and herself that night, I went into her room with the intention of "kidnapping" Sarah back. The night light in the room was on. The Mrs was sleeping soundly with Johan beside her. There was no sign of Sarah.

Concerned and puzzled, I stepped into the room for a closer look. As quietly as I could, I searched the room. Johan was there. My wife was there. Asleep. Looked at the corners of the room: nothing. Checked the master bedroom bathroom: nothing.

Fought the urge to wake my wife up and ask her where Sarah is.

Went out, closed the door behind me and went back to Sarah's room and turned on the light. No Sarah on the bed.

Went into the hall, checked her play area. Nothing. Into the kitchen. The bathroom. Nothing. Opened the front door and checked her shoes. All accounted for. And the gate was locked.

Earlier in the evening, Sarah finally managed to open up the unlocked gate by herself, put on her slippers and wandered out. A small scare, but I caught her just in time.

A small lightbulb went off over my head.

I went back to her room, climbed into bed and examined the tiny gap between my bed and the wall.

There she was, face down and quiet, almost halfway under the bed.

Always fearing the worst, I checked her body temperature and for signs of breathing. She's alive!

Somehow, I managed to carefully pick her up from the cramped space without waking her up and settled her into her own bed.

Then I settled into my own bed and blogged about it.

The Next Singapore IT / PC / Computer Show

2009-10-25T13:57:00.004+08:00

So... how do you plan to blow your cash away? By following the annual IT / PC / Computer show timetable of course!

March

http://www.itshow.com.sg/

June

http://www.thepcshow.com.sg/

September

http://www.comexshow.com.sg/

November

http://www.sitex.com.sg/

Did I miss any?

How to set up (additional) MemCacheD servers on Windows

2009-08-25T17:57:00.004+08:00

Go find the latest Windows binary. Such as: http://code.jellycan.com/memcached/

Install the application somewhere like C:\memcached\

Open up command prompt

Type in the following line:

sc create memcached11211 binPath= "C:\memcached\memcached.exe -d runservice -p 11211 -m 2048" start= auto DisplayName= "MemCacheD 11211"

Notes:

-m 2048 is the amount of memory to use in MB. Default value is 64. Maximum value is 2048.

Don't use up 100% RAM. Remember to leave some RAM for the OS.

To utilize more memory on the same machine, repeat the steps given on the same machine but assign a different port number.

In the example above, all instances of the string "11211" refers to the port number.

Do take note of the space after each "=" sign.

Check out Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services for results.

This post is derived from:

http://www.mail-archive.com/memcached@lists.danga.com/msg02791.html

The (Growing) Movie List

2009-08-10T16:38:00.003+08:00

I've finally sat down and wrote a list of movies that I kinda wanted to see but missed since the kids were born. My goodness, what a crappy list it is.

Mostly involves comic books, video games, science fiction or Jason Statham.

Don't Promise Sarah Anything

2009-08-04T01:08:00.000+08:00

Sarah's memory at this point surprises everyone around her.

Top Things Not To Promise Sarah:
Go swimming (She'll bug you and bug you for days and when you finally go, and discover the swimming pool is under renovation, you jump into a cab immediately to go to another)
Go to the playground
Eat ice cream (if you do, she'll start licking an imaginary one)
Bathe

My BIL's A Funny Guy

2009-07-24T15:36:00.002+08:00

BIL = Brother-In-Law

Flickr Panda Madness

2009-07-01T11:09:00.001+08:00

I found some crazy API calls in Flickr called "panda".

The "Description" pages didn't help much, so off I went to Google "flickr panda" to get to the bottom of the madness.

Here's the direct URL to the Flickr DevBlog that sort of explains the crazyness.

http://bit.ly/vlm8s

Magmaniac Fish

2009-06-26T12:05:00.004+08:00

Caught with the following stats:

1,425,581pts
Fire Sludge Chum
Level 38 Cubey Incinerator
Top Skill: Secrets Of Favoria

Just documenting...

Catching Up

2009-06-13T00:44:00.003+08:00

Day 10162:

I wonder why I always feel apologetic whenever I think about my blog. It's probably due to the fact that I don't update it as often as I like to. I'm actually a pretty busy guy, even though probably don't look it.

A lot's happened in the past month. Johan finally came out and everyone's rushing about, acclimatizing themselves to his presence.

I saw in the papers about Singapore's first tweeted wedding. WTF? That got into our newspaper? The reporter probably knew the couple or something.

Check out mine: Singapore's (first?) tweeted birth! Starting from http://twitter.com/supersuf/status/1727134905

Sarah's in her 2nd month of full-day child care at Cherie Hearts. It's costing us a bomb, in terms of money AND time. The Mrs knows this and sometimes offers to pull her out, but I really like it, compared to the alternatives she offers.

She also misses her mummy terribly. I know this - as I'm now her sole, full-time caretaker at home. The Mrs already has her hands full with the newborn. But Sarah's coping well.

The workload at the office also eased up too - thanks to the nice people in the office. But I'm feeling bad about it and plan to start pulling my weight more.

Time! Did I say I'm a busy guy? Pick Sarah up by 1730hrs, feed her dinner (if the Mrs is busy), entertain her, bathe her, tuck her into bed, make her formula at 0100 and 0500hrs. Changing diapers.

Missed so many movies in the theatres. At this point in time, the last movie we watched was "Confessions of a Shopaholic" before Johan popped out. Next, the Mrs plans to dump the kids somewhere to go catch Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen. Really hope we can pull it off.

Flickr upload complete. Take a look-see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersuf/

Cicak Cicak Kita Yang Mulia

2009-05-03T00:53:00.003+08:00

Translated: Our Noble House Geckos

Sarah says the strangest things these days. Actually, the title above comes from her favourite line from the national anthem, which they've been singing in school. It just comes out of her mouth like that.

Also, according to Sarah, Daddy (that's me) has a space giraffe that he keeps outside the house. (Because he's too tall?) and Grandpa has an elephant in his room.

She also talks like a gangster on the phone. "Hello?!" she demands of the person on the other side.

Working Dad / Stay-At-Home Dad

2009-05-01T02:40:00.003+08:00

With the expected arrival of baby boy, things have gotten pretty hectic around here.

The Mrs is effectively immobilized - simply walking to the bus stop leaves her breathless, and takes her a good 1/2 hour. (It's a 5 min walk for me)

That means I've got to take a over a whole lot of responsibilities that were mostly taken care of the Mrs.

Here's what I've been doing the past couple of weeks:
0700-0800: Get up and get ready for the day
0800-0830: Send Sarah to school
0830-1200: Go to office and work
1200-1300: Journey back to Sarah's school to fetch her home
1300-1400: Journey back to office
1400-1830: Work
1830-2030: Home / Dinner / husbanding / fathering / son-ing
2030-2200: Shower Sarah / wind down / Sarah's bedtime

If I'm lucky, I'm still awake at 2200hrs to do my own things. Else I usually fall asleep beside Sarah.

This past week though, contractions have started.

So, after fetching Sarah home, I wind her down for her nap.

I feel like my days are really full and occupied. And tiring too! Bleargh.

So, as a compromise, Sarah's gonna start on full-day child care starting May. I can't, in good conscience, carry on taking half-days off from work even though the peeps there are so nice and understanding.

And last Wednesday was the Mrs' birthday too!

Went to Sakae Sushi. No pics yet though. It's somewhere in our phones.

Delicious!

2009-03-12T00:52:00.002+08:00

Been using delicious for quite some time for my online bookmarks and only recently discovered their widgety thingies.

Implemented them onto my sidebar under.... Delicious

I like tag clouds.

The Week Sarah Turned 18

2009-03-07T02:00:00.004+08:00

And what a week it was!

No wild parties. Just earlier bed times and earlier wake-up times.

18 months is the minimum for a childcare centre to accept a child (which is not classified as infant)

So what does that mean? It's Sarah's first days of school. Ever.

Monday:
The first day of school:
Mummy and Daddy sit in in class, hoping Sarah will get used to the atmosphere

Tuesday:
Mummy and Daddy send Sarah to school
Daddy goes to work and says "bye"
Mummy sits in to observe

Wednesday:
Daddy sends Sarah to school
Mummy stays behind, wringing her hands
Daddy goes to work after half an hour. Says "bye" to Sarah
Heartbreaking

Thursday:
Mummy and Daddy send Sarah to school
Mummy can't stand being Sarah-less
Daddy says "bye" and goes to work

Friday:
Daddy sends Sarah to school
Mummy goes off to see Grandma in hospital
Daddy says "bye" and joins Mummy
Daddy picks up Sarah
Sarah asks, "Where? Mummy?"
Daddy distracts Sarah with something else, takes her home, feeds her lunch and pats her to sleep for her afternoon nap.

As for Saturday, I think I won't dump her in. Let her enjoy sleeping in and being with her parents. (Haha! Actually, the parents want to spend more time with her!)

My First WMD - MWg Zinc II

2009-02-08T23:47:00.004+08:00

WMD = Windows Mobile Device
...but you can also call it a Weapon Of Mass Destruction. Originally created by Microsoft but innovated by countless OEMs.

After years and years of gadget envy, I finally brought myself to get a "smartphone".

Apple's iPhone 3G, of course, would have been preferred, but it was still way out of budget. So what did I get instead? A real steal, I thought. A Windows Mobile 6.1 device for $98 with a 2 year contract plan from SingTel.

What's more, I bought it online from www.singtelshop.com as it said the offer would expire the following day. So no prior hands-on before buying. Just a quick Google which resulted in mainly positive reviews.

...and so I waited for a week in glee. And in that time I Googled and Googled about the phone. Seems like I really did get a pretty good deal.

WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3G. This is one connected gadget.

Finally, it arrived. I popped in my SIM card and away we go.

Now, how do you copy all your contacts over from the SIM to the phone?
Answer From The Manual: Use the "SIM Manager" to copy contacts from SIM to phone.
Real Answer: Create a new Outlook contact, copy the number from the SIM contact and paste it in your new contact. The "SIM Manager" shows what contacts you have...but doesn't have the copy fuction at all. Bad.

I'm still slowly migrating all my contacts over to the phone from the SIM. I believe I'm somewhere in "F". Strangely, I'd rather do this on the phone rather than doing it in Outlook and syncing them in.

Okay, let's forget that. Let's do ActiveSync. And then, I realized with horror, that it only syncs with MS Outlook. I haven't loaded Outlook on my home PC for ages. Contacts, email, tasks, calendar, notes. Bugger. Most of my PIM bounces between Yahoo and Google (and occasionally Live). And so, I had to go and get MS Outlook and OneNote installed.

Solution?
I had to get a Google Calendar Sync gadget which syncs Google Calendar with MS Outlook, which syncs with my phone.

How about media?
Had to do LiveUpdate to get Windows Media Player 11.

How about movies with special codecs?
WMP11 just does syncing, and not conversion, so I had to go get Windows Media Encoder to do that. Great, now I can watch Bleach while commuting. Not really. The subs are way too small. Clone Wars, maybe? Oh, and conversion seems to be in real time.

How about GPS?
The pre-installed GPS Viewer doesn't seem to work for me. It always seems to be searching and never gets a fix. So I went and got myself Google Maps.

Simply beautiful. Clicked the blue icon and it showed a blue transparent circle layer and states that I'm within an 80 metre radius of this circle. All I need now is a simple app that gives me my lat / long / alt and speed.

Other apps I've installed over the week is Adobe Reader for Pocket PC - to read my PC Game manuals on the go. (currently Homeworld)

Another one is ComicReader Mobile for my DCP *.cbr files. (I'm currently catching up on Marvel's Secret Invasion). Had to install some Microsoft compact framework 3.5 .Net thingy to get it working.

Downloaded GMail's java applet for GMail, which is hidden in WinMo's Java engine. It's not in the All Programs menu.

Installed SkyFire web browser - just to have an alternative to IE. I heard Opera's better. Will get that soon.

Yahoo! Go finally got installed after avoiding me for the past 2 phones. Kinda disappointing.

TinyTwitter for my Twitter needs.

Today, I realized I don't have MMS. Which was strange. I heard iPhones don't have MMS. But WinMo's been around for a while and I don't hear anyone complaining about lack of MMS.

I'm kinda pissed off about that. I do use MMS regularly. (which was another reason for putting off the iPhone)

I lost the stylus too. Within a week. Unbelievable. Attempts to find a replacement have come up with nothing. http://shop.mwg.com has been down for the past week.

I'm suddenly itching to find out what a Symbian powered Nokia is capable of. And I think I “type” faster with the 12 button numeric keypad.

Catching Up

2009-02-01T15:32:00.004+08:00

Things have been busy the past month.

Clients coming down from the US for a 1 month stay to go over the entire project (main source of busyness here).

Home equipment breaking down: The PC was mostly down and out of commission due to being in the hands of a certain niece and nephew for the past couple of months. It was returned in an unworkable condition.

While I was busy fixing up the PC, the laptop finally died. Hardware problems. First it was the battery. Couldn't hold much of a charge. Then the power supply. The wire finally frayed apart.

No power = no laptop

The Mrs has been bugging me to fix it, but I've got no spare funds to do so.

Spent most of the IT budget on getting the PC up and running again. Bought an nVidia AGP card and a DVD Writer.

Then the Mrs lost her phone.

So I pounced on a chance to get a new one. Let's try a "smart phone" this time around. Was eyeing a Nokia with a Symbian OS initially, but a good deal for an MWG Zinc II caught my eye.

For less than a $100 too! (with a 2 year contract, with SingTel). Probably one of the few rare purchases I made without having some "hands-on" research first. After entering credit card details, I spent some free time over the next few days digging up reviews. Sounds like I made a good purchase!

Can't wait to get my hands on it. It'll be delivered in a couple of days.

I've finally made an effort to blog again 'cause more than 1 person asked me, "When was the last time you updated your blog?"

Looks like I got some readers!

That makes 3, I think.

To Rent

2009-01-05T00:32:00.003+08:00

The Mrs is proposing we rent out our spare (Sarah's) room for some income.

Will be weighing pros vs cons over the next few weeks and will decide by CNY.

Anyone got any input on this?

Day 10,000

2009-01-03T01:56:00.005+08:00

2009 January 2nd is my 10,000th day alive.

Rez and myself were having lunch some time back and he was saying how he's ignoring the "New Year" hype as just another typical day by living day to day. And we spent some time calculating leap years and how many days he's been alive and kicking. It was around the figure of 9,000 plus plus, and I told him that he should celebrate his 10,000th day as a landmark number.

The idea bugged me for the next couple of days and I finally relented to it and counted when Day 10,000 was for me. I had assumed that it was already over. Surprise, surprise, I found out that Day 10,000 would be in a week's time, a day after New Year's 2009.

And so I booked my day off on that day. Really undecided on what to do actually and so I asked around. Didn't get any definite answers so I thought I'll just live the day just the way I like it.

And so, here it goes:

0000 to 0300 hours: Did some work at home. Which I really wasn't supposed to. ("You promised!" the Mrs kept reminding me.) But heck, client's servers really pick the worst times to pull a stunt, I technically didn't do any work. I just assigned stuff for a colleague to look into when he came in the office.

Around 0800 - 0900: Awakened by the Dynamic Duo. I was really groggy due to lack of sleep from the last few days. I followed through their request for a glass of milk for Sarah. Then I crawled back into bed and under the sheets. I was vaguely aware of the Mrs saying loudly that Sarah had thrown up, but I was already falling asleep....

1145: Woke up feeling cramped. (Fatherly) Instincts told me it was not wise to roll around in bed. Turned my head to the left to see Sarah sound asleep next to me. House was pretty quiet too. Crept out of bed to discover the time, but no sign of the Mrs. Crept around some more to find her in the kitchen preparing food. Told me she and Sarah had come back from the supermarket and lunch would be ready shortly.

1200 to 1530: Basically did my own thing. Had lunch. Played with Sarah. Lazed on the sofa with the Mrs. Put the final touches on fixing up the niece's PC. Even had time to play some Republic Commando.

Rez arrived. Picked him up from downstairs with Sarah. Got some drinks at the shop. Went up, had lunch. Chit-chatted. Basically hanging out and he got a chance to play with Sarah after she warmed up to him.

1700 to 1930: We left the house together. Rez heading home to deposit his stuff. Me and the family heading out to Novena Velocity. Got the Mrs the promised FitFlops. Sandals that makes you exercise whle you walk. She's really happy about it. I didn't get my FiveFingers though. It turned out to be way over budget. But it's still so cool. I've got a feeling I missed my chance to start a fad. Wandered around Velocity a bit, then to United Square before heading home.

2030: Arrived home just in time to catch the tail-end of Harrison Ford in Air Force One. Starting from the scene where the President takes out Gary Oldman. "Get off my plane," he growls. I also came to a realization that the older one gets, the more familiar faces he sees in the movies.

As the night wore on, caught up on the news. Recalled one of my ATC Instructors, Leslie, is missing and unaccounted for in the Bangkok New Year Fire. Hope he'll turn up fine. He's a nice guy.

We have dinner. Sarah goes to bed. I do the dishes. Caught the Friday night anime on TV. Nibbled on some cheesecake that Rez brought. The Mrs turns in. Cleared some bills. Wrote this blog.

It's now Day 10,001.

Driving License

2008-12-09T12:34:00.003+08:00

Sarah, being only 15 months old, doesn't have a driver's license yet. So, naturally, this is how she parks her car. Over her favourite Cookie Monster. Tragic, yet funny.

Update: Sarah's running over everything! Stuffed kittens, flowers, feet.

Maybe I played (and enjoyed) Grand Theft Auto a bit too much...

First Words

2008-11-28T01:30:00.004+08:00

I've been putting this off for far too long. I'd better post it down before I forget.

Sarah's first words.

The first simple mono-syllables

Car - first word ever, spoken when she was a few weeks old.
Cat
Star
Nak (short form of "want", in Malay)
Mak ("mum", in Malay, despite the Mrs' attempts to get Sarah to call her "Mummy")
Tree
Yes
No
Whee!
Where? (a new word spoken today! - She was looking for the neighbourhood cat)

The next level

Daddy
Flower
No more

Of course, most of the time, she sounds like the lead from the movie: The Gods Must Be Crazy. I'll try to decipher her babbling and pick out the proper words.

Anime Festival Asia 2008

2008-11-23T02:23:00.004+08:00

Sarah's 2nd convention thingy! And again, saw lots of cosplayers, toys, and robots. Sarah doesn't like being in the BECO much these days and I had to hand-carry her throughout our wanderings on the convention floor.

The highlight of the day? Giant miniature robots! And the new series, Gundam 00. Here's a pic of the Exia - the lead character / mech. I still haven't decided which of the new Gundams I like best. None of them really seem my style.

My First Yes

2008-11-18T11:13:00.007+08:00

Whenever I'm having trouble with Twitter, I check this URL. I was never sure if it's a joke URL or the real thing.

Today, I'm having trouble with the big T, and lo behold. a big, red Yes greeted me.

I wonder how long I gotta wait this time.

http://www.istwitterdown.com/

Capistrano on Ruby

2008-11-13T11:37:00.003+08:00

Suf gets experimental!

Read http://www.capify.org/ about Capistrano and discovered that it requires Ruby 1.8 upwards

Ok.

Head on down to http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/ to get the "one-click" installer. For Windows. (I got 1.8.6)

Confirm the existence of RubyGems using "gem -v" on Windows' command-line.

Type in "gem install -y capistrano" to download / install Capistrano

Didn't work? Need to update the gems.

Type in "gem update --system"

When that's done, enter "gem install -y capistrano" again.

Should work now.

Another Way To Die

2008-11-10T09:29:00.002+08:00

I'm just rocking the new James Bond song now.

"A door left open, a woman walking back, a drop in the water, a look in the eye, a phone on the table, a man on your side, or someone that you think you can trust, is just, another way to die."

The Simplest Complex API

2008-11-06T15:05:00.003+08:00

Just a quickie here:

Playing around with Google's Chart API and honestly astonished at how simple it is to use and also amazed at the amount of complexity of customization options it offers.

Just a simple link:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=600x300&cht=lxy&chd=t:1,1.370,5.137,10.111,53.780,65.369,92.584,100|1,25.2554,22.2512,22.2405,24.58504,25.3351,25.459,25.6906&chm=s,115511,0,-1,5,0&chxt=x,r&chxl=0:|2008-10-23|2008-11-03

Can generate the chart image attached.

Check it at out on http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

Caucasion Tots on Channel U

2008-10-26T11:25:00.001+08:00

Caucasion tots on Channel U? On one of those Hong Kong / Taiwan variety shows.

Anyway, the kid sings a catchy tune:

1 elephant went out to play
Upon a spider's web one day
He had such enormous fun
He called another elephant to come

2 elephants went out to play
Upon a spider's web one day
They had such enormous fun
They called another elephant to come

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Rice, Rice, Baby

2008-10-25T13:14:00.002+08:00

Got tired of carrying her around at the supermarket yesterday, so I put her down and took a pic.

Geolocation

2008-10-24T01:08:00.001+08:00

Playing around with Google Gears Geolocation API... and well, it's not rocking in Singapore.

I suppose to have a high degree of accuracy, they'll need to have the coordinates of every public Wi-Fi to triangulate from.

Which brings another question.. how to identify a unique Wi-Fi router? Via a MAC address? That's an intensive task by itself.

I foresee... Router manufaturers rolling out firmware to place lat/long information for the routers to broadcast (along with their name, ID, etc...)

Hmmm....

Geolocation is the future. And here's my lat/long: 1.327797,103.859749

I wonder what they'll call the vertical coordinate. The z-axis. Azimuth? My router's placed approximately 18 metres above ground. I should calculate how much that is in local sea level.

Wait. Didn't I study this already?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

First Haircut

2008-10-23T01:27:00.001+08:00

I missed Sarah's first "official" haircut.

The Mrs and my MIL had a day out today and somehow they managed to get Sarah into a chair to have her hair cut.

Honestly speaking, I didn't notice at first. She did seem tidier but I thought it was the trick of the wind.

My first reaction was, "What?! Why?! Her hair was so nice and long!"
Then came, "Did you manage to take a video?"

Alas, the answer came back negative.

Oh well. Better luck next time.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Blueberry Cheesecake v 2.0

2008-10-20T01:43:00.003+08:00

Haha! I'm trying my hand at making blueberry cheesecake again! Why? The Mrs has been feeling down the past week. Exhaustion at the hands of baby Sarah, no doubt.

Same ingredients, but less thought went into it. Not enough sugar went into the mix, and well, the biscuit crumb base was totally ill-conceived.

However, I did manage to control the Mrs' intake.

Instead of making 1 big tub of cheesecake, I made 6 little serving-sized bowls. Ought to last a week at least.

The Busyness

2008-10-17T18:57:00.002+08:00

Been a tad too busy to blog recently and now I got to resort to this.

Moblogging.

TGIF.

Hope I manage to stay offline all weekend.

Macross on NES

2008-10-07T01:17:00.002+08:00

Remember this?

Started humming the "theme song" for the game today for no apparent rhyme or reason. Decided sometime during the day that it would make a kick-ass ringtone.

Also as a way to detect fellow fans / die hard nerds on your public transport route.

Sure, tons of people have the Super Mario Bros ringtone... Or maybe even The Legend Of Zelda. But Macross? No way...

Fired up the ROM on my NES emulator, recorded it (along with some Zentraedi missile fire and an explosion). After getting into the battleship, couldn't resist mechamorphing into Battloid Mode and shot the self-defending Protoculture matrix to smithereens.

No idea what I'm talking about? Read Jack McKinney's Robotech. ;)

If you're interested in the ringtone, drop me a line and I'll email it to you... Just a bit over 1 MB...

Surprising Results of a Twitter Hunt

2008-09-29T00:42:00.003+08:00

I've been hunting for active Singaporean Twitterers and came up with very little results due to my laziness.

Tonight, I just thought I'd crawl through search.twitter.com

Most of the search results are from tonight's F1 night race... and surprisingly, the 2 Twitterers I did find are 2 ladies. Twittering about the coming Hari Raya.

Feeling quite perplexed as they seem to be the unlikeliest of users. How'd they come across Twitter?

Or am I just being a male chauvinist pig who thinks girls are tech disinclined?

SIGG Rolling Pin

2008-09-24T07:04:00.003+08:00

The Mrs is using my SIGG as an improvised rolling pin! It's all greasy now...

The multi-purpose SIGG.

Get yours now.

Pineapple Tart Math

2008-09-23T11:10:00.002+08:00

suf starts to help make pineapple tarts at 11pm. for every batch of 25 tarts, suf eats 2 before they go in the oven. how much weight did suf gain when he got tired and went to bed?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Fortress Key

2008-09-16T04:01:00.002+08:00

I'm in the middle of another stint of NS Reservist - something new. It's the 5th Shelter Specialist Course. Apparently, it's an all officer course with LTAs making the bulk of it.

First week's full of theory - it's back to CIFE basics like structural, civil and mechanical engineering. Boring.

A little bit on group dynamics, psychology and a bit more on weapons effects, explosives. Cool stuff.

Second week is where the sweat comes out. And night training. When the world's asleep, we play "Worst-Case Scenario" involving large expanses of real-estate, manpower and equipment. Somehow, we manage to keep our brightly painted red and white vehicles in the shadows and execute large exercise operations quietly so as not to alarm the general public.

It never ceases to amaze me whenever I get to participate in this large ops.

Probably the coolest sounding terminology I've heard this past week and this coming week is the "Fortress Key"

What is it? Well, it's a key that turns your world into a fortress. Safe refuge.

'nuff said.

The Math Tutor

2008-09-13T16:33:00.005+08:00

As the saying goes, life is full of irony. A comedy of errors. Chaos theory.

If they were dead, I'm sure ALL my past math teachers would be rolling around in their graves causing a level 9 Richter-scaled earthquake if they somehow heard the news.

I've become a math tutor.

Hahahahaha... Me... Math...

Does not compute. Bad command or file name.

Anyway, it was a direct request for help from my wife to rescue her beloved niece from a bad graded PSLE result in Math. And who am I to refuse a cry for help?

Seriously. Ok, PSLE Math I can cope with. I can do it, understand it (most times). But how do you teach math? I know I shouldn't be saying, "Ok, you see these numbers? Do this, this, this and this"

That's just handholding and spoon feeding. I should be teaching and the kid should be learning. And it should all be done within a kid's attention span. Before they tire and zone out and get distracted.

Sigh... I ought to pick up some Primary school math teaching skillz by next weekend or all this effort is just going to go down the drain.

Anyone reading this? Any hints? NIE-ers?

Strange Random Thoughts: Marshmallows

2008-09-12T12:19:00.003+08:00

Here I am, sitting on a bus, happily moblogging away.

Thinking about the movie I have yet to finish watching: Be Kind, Rewind

Specifically, the hilarious Ghostbusters scenes...

"Are you the Keymaster? I am the Gatekeeper."

Then thinking about the Ghostbusters movie itself.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Mmmm... Marshmallows.

How do you toast them?

Soft, sweet, chewiness.

Rocky Road ice cream has them, right? Ice cream...

Ben & Jerry's...

Mmmm...

Guitar Hero

2008-09-11T07:37:00.003+08:00

Currently moblogging on a long train journey to camp.

Suddenly recalled a dream I had last night.

Dreamt I just picked up the guitar back in the office and strummed the guitar randomly. And what came out was actually music. Haha.

In amazement, I played at least 2 tunes. Too bad I can't remember what they are now.

Must be my suppressed genes acting up.

Still, I ought to try to pick up the guitar in the office and learn while I got the chance.

It's free anyway, besides picking up a brand new Guitar Hero set.

Renewed motivation.

Lights

2008-09-08T01:35:00.004+08:00

As a self-proclaimed nomad, I haven't had a solid place to call home since... well, years.

Every year, when Hari Raya came, I'd just look and admire the pretty lights people would decorate their home with.

Envious.

I didn't realize it was such a big deal to myself.

Now that Sarah's out, I would wish none of the hardships that I've gone through on her, of course.

And one of the smallest steps towards that is the lights. The really pretty Hari Raya lights.

I put them up myself, in the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping. I couldn't wait to see them. White and blue. To follow the colour theme of our living room.

Our home has the pretty Hari Raya lights now, this year. And every year afterwards.

Just for Sarah. And the nomad that has finally found a home.

News

2008-09-08T00:14:00.000+08:00

Last night, I recieved some news and as I lay on the floor, overwhelmed, was deciding if it was good or bad.

My wife, on the other hand, had retreated to the kitchen - the laundry area - and was putting up a brave front, sniffing away whilst ironing my uniform.

Something told me to be near, so I sat on a footstool behind her.

She started to cry, so I pulled her towards me and hugged her from behind as she sat on my lap.

For some strange reason or another, this song popped into my head and I've been humming it since, for 2 days...

I'll Be - Edwin McCain
The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful
Stop me and steal my breath
Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky
Never revealing their depth

Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

Rain falls angry on the tin roof
As we lie awake in my bed
You're my survival, you're my living proof
My love is alive and not dead

Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

I've dropped out, I burned up, I fought my way back from the dead
I tuned in, I turned on, I remembered the thing you said

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

The greatest fan of your life

The greatest fan of your life

http://www.lyrics.com/edwin-mccain-lyrics-i-ll-be.html

Proximity

2008-09-04T18:56:00.002+08:00

Suddenly recieved a message from an unknown, overseas number starting with +97.

Don't even know where that is.

Turns out, it's Zul, a buddy from the 28th BOC.

Isn't it strange that those so far away try to keep contact, while
those nearby can vanish?

Sarah's Day Out

2008-08-31T03:31:00.001+08:00

Sarah's first birthday is coming...! And everyone's excited! Not many people were when MY birthday was nearing. But what the hey, you only turn one once. Grandma Wan has arranged for a late lunch at Mad Jack's Cafe (which was supposed to be for MY birthday). Oh well, I suppose since our birthdays are so close, people will lump them together and emphasize on Sarah's more. I ought to get used to that.

Let's start the day with Sarah's first taste of chocolate! Ever!

What's that outside the window?

Sarah is still strangely terrified of Grandma
If she doesn't cry, she'll just zone out whenever Grandma carries her
Psychological defence

Sarah was looking very sleepy by the end of the meal. However, a last minute decision to go to Fidgets changed that.

Mummy's got a nervous smile on her face
She's worried about all the other kids playing rough around Sarah

That two-toothed smile was totally worth the trip

Sarah still needs some help climbing

Enthusiasm - She's got it

She's got balls too

Ball rooms were my favourite places when I was a kid; Hope Sarah likes it too!
I tried to bury her in balls but she managed to crawl away

Sarah gets pushed around in a red topless car!

Sarah is one tired baby by the time she got out. Fell asleep within minutes of being in the BECO

It was 8pm by the time we got home. Sarah grew increasingly cranky throughout the night and Mummy put her down to sleep easily, to no surprise. I still got Sarah's smiles, laughter and excitement in my head. Love Fidgets. We should go again. Prepared.

Why is it when kids have so much fun, it's the parents that are shagged out?

Say Cheese

2008-08-27T23:49:00.003+08:00

Master Chief...
Spartan-117...
John...
Sir...

Whatever you wanna call him, he looks good - better and better with every render

Sarah's Fever: 38 Degrees C

2008-08-27T23:32:00.002+08:00

Sigh... If it's not one thing, it's another.

Sarah's gotten a fever today. Currently maintaining a temperature of 37.9 degrees C. Luckily the Mrs has just recovered from her serious case of food poisoning / diarrhoea.

She suggested going to KKH once the fever hits 39. Reasons that if we go earlier, the 24hr ER would just take a look, prescribe meds and send us home with instructions to return if it gets any worse. Lucky thing she has siblings with feverish baby experience.

Keeping the baby cool in an air-conditioned room with the fan and a fever strip on her head. The 3rd one today, as she keeps peeling it off.

Previously we kept her in a cool water tub, splashing around. I'd better get back in and make myself useful

Blog From A Bus

2008-08-26T19:17:00.003+08:00

Stuck in a jam. Thought I'd try something with mobile blogging.

I think I see LTA Segar. He's in civilian. Uncharacteristically quiet
relative to his buddy. Talking about fire stuff. He must have left the
Force too.
Let me try to take a pic.

Work From Home

2008-08-23T03:35:00.001+08:00

Working from home... A nice thought; to be away from office and still be productive.

The problem is: you gotta have one heck of a disciplined mind to actually do any work.

Scenario:
Rain falls. The house cools down. The bed looks cosy.

What hot blooded mammal can resist catching some zzzs in dry,cosy shelter in a cool environment?

In any case, I did manage to do some work in between juggling the sick baby and the sicker mummy.

I really thought I could do it: being a stay-at-home dad. I really have to hand it to my wife. Been doing it for over a year now. Me? I'm thoroughly exhausted by 1600hrs.

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Yahoo..ooh!

2008-08-22T01:45:00.002+08:00

I've been a long time fan of Yahoo! and I just can't help but do this tonight before I go to bed.

First Post!

2008-08-18T02:49:00.002+08:00

Heh. I've always wanted to do that.