When one has nothing to do...

... one posts a blog entry ;)

Right, probably the only time I'm able to post during office (training) hours. Nothing much to do at the moment. I've done my bit for a tender, a portion thats worth nearly $200,000. Networking equipment is pretty expensive eh? Could by a bungalow house here or something.

The IP phone project at the lab is not completed yet, so my two training colleagues are still working on it. Since my desk is outside of the lab itself, I could only access the switches and routers through telnet. We've done so many different configurations, yet we still have issues with voice traffic being dropped. Quite frustrating for all of us *scratches head*

I feel like taking another swipe at the projects at CE Labs of CrazyEngineers. but just the thought of it exasperates the heck out of me. I can't do much about the CE Bot since the structure has changed somewhat, but the CE Arm, Earth Initiative and even CE Linux would need quite a jump start to get it rolling. The sewing machine powered lighting system is taking shape too, thanks to cranky's commitment to it. The Earth Initiative will definitely be top priority for me.. the faster I can compile my results, the faster I can post it up on CE to encourage others to do the same!

Another project that I'm quite excited about is the car HUD system. Not a CE project (yet), since I don't want dilute whatever remaining focus we have there. I had aimed to get a small netbook as the platform for the car processing unit, but alas, funds have nearly dried up again. The remaining portion left is dedicated for CE. The least I can do for now is plan.. THAT's free ;) The Smart Home and EXRRIG projects are also sidelined. Man, EXRRIG has been perpetually on hold =(

I've also managed to install Drupal on the ashytized domain.

http://ashytized.net/home

Nothing much yet. Will use it to host my project documentations and research material like I've done on the Wiki.

The H1N1 virus is quite a scary issue. Was reading up articles of the 1918 Spanish Flu and wondered if events like that could repeat itself. A third of word's population had been infected. Thats equivalent to 2 billion humans today. And if it mutates with Bird Flu? Catastrophic. I wonder if people are really taking WHO's Red Alert seriously or not.

And last and maybe the least, Lakers had won the 2009 NBA Championships *shrugs* But I can at least feel glad that Rockets almost knocked them out a long the way.

A chat with a wise friend

Went to my uni to visit a close friend of mine, Mustafa, which I havent met for a while. We had some discussions, and I always like to listen to him since his wisdom and knowledge transcends his age.. and his words are always contemplative, whether its about religion or life in general (but often, the two are the same).

He told me something that could potentially cause the paradigm shift that I've always seek for. A few statements so simple, so succinct... yet so darn explicit in its delivery.

I can't remember his words to the dot, but here is the gist of it. Imagine each one of us as spheres with layers of shells and a core. The outer shell represents our physical appearance. The next layer represents our mannerisms, speech, etc. Finally, the inner core represents what is within us, like our intent (one can say our heart or soul).

Now, to change to be a better person, there are two possible ways. Going from the outer shell towards the inner.. i.e. work on our physical appearance. However, that does not guarantee that the next shell can be changed, since mannerisms are not always based on physical appearance, and so on.

However, how about starting from the core itself? Our inner self? If one can change the core, the rest of the shells will automatically be changed.. since, those shells are dependent on the core.

So how can we quantify what is within us? We can't, I guess. All your actions and deeds are a manifestation of our principles and intentions.. which resides within our heart and soul.

I know I said that the concept is short despite this long explanation, but it all boils down to this:

use what is inside you to guide your actions

Whenever you are faced with something that you know is against your principles or intent, but your desires are tempting you otherwise, take a deep breath and try to "feel" your heart. Sounds corny? Its the same feeling when you apologize sincerely to someone "from the bottom of your heart". Use that power to guide you to choose the right course of action.

The moral of all this is, to change oneself.. one has to do it from the inside out. That is the only way that can guarantee the propagation of change to the rest of yourself, such as the way you treat yourself, as well as interact and treat others. I've always tried to change myself to be a better person, but I've always rebounded back to my old habits. Procrastination is the biggest one of all. I think this shift in thinking is what I've been missing all along.

=)

WTHWA in June?

.. lamely abbreviates to Where The Heck Was Ash ;) Though, I'd probably use that whenever I'm MIA at times in the future.

Anyhow, this week was a pretty intense week. I tagged along with fellow office mate to assist Cisco demo some products at the National ICT 2009 conference held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (NICT 2009, PICC). The equipment we were assigned to, an IP Command Cente, was not overly complex, but the labourous start up and shut down sequences had to be followed to the word. I like going to these company seminars & exhibitions. I get to eat some great food for free ;)

Some pics below. The somewhat low quality is attributed to my camera phone =P

The Cisco IP Command center demo (right most). Consists of a cisco router virtualized into 4 different servers, a voice gateway and a couple of IP phones. On the left (on top of the table itself), called IPICS, is a solution that allows those working with walkie talkies to contact directly to the IP phone network, and vice versa.

I forgot what this demo unit was called, but it uses a video as well as voice over IP, IM system and allows mobile phones to call the office through a VPN system free of charge (or out of office calls using just local rates, eliminating roaming costs).

Our competitors.. *grin*

Actually, Oracle and Cisco have created a partnership at some level, but it is not really advertised much. I only found out after a Datacenter seminar hosted by Cisco. Also, you see that green patch at Oracle's stall floor? Its actually a golf putting mat.. I suppose to entertain delegates and exhibitors a like ;)

On another front, I managed to download free Microsoft software offered by IEEE (via the MSDN Academic Alliance initiative). When I posted on CrazyEngineers when I first heard of it, there wasn't much buzz. Oh well, just to prove the skeptics wrong, here is a shot of the download screen:

One can check the full list of software at this CE thread:
http://www.crazyengineers.com/forum/ce-infocus/3697-special-surprise-ieee-student-members.html

Microsoft Expression is a relatively new line of web development tools, a giant leap beyond the past initial offerings of Frontpage. Pretty much a lower cost alternative to the sublime (or not) Adobe tools like Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.

I used MS Expression Design, and it turned out to be pretty intuitive. Here was something I quickly wipped up:


I'm thinking of drawing more of the stickman, and call it the "anon engineer". I doubt I could do something on the likes of the XKCD comic or that cool Xiao Xiao animations, but.. see how it goes ;)

Out of curiousity...

... I tested the complimentary "high speed connection" at a hotel room in JW Marriot.


Now thats more like it! ;) 16 Mbps is great, but the fact that the upload speed is even faster... impressive. Even for a metropolitan region.

A test to a US server:


Thats not bad at all. Still faster than my home connection's MAN speeds!

I usually don't use the LAN connections in hotels because they charge exorbitant amounts. What was it.. RM 20 (about $5) per hour? Thus I end up watching TV the whole time.

Despite the free LAN at JW Marriot (I'm not sure if its available in all rooms), the snacks are still worth a bomb. A measily handful of pistachos, with a mass of 80g, is RM20? Ouch.

Respect for the beats

Its nearly 5am, and I've been looping awesome techno songs created and synthesized by DigitalPiece. He's a maestro!

Another masterpiece here:

Both are absolutely epic. Enjoy folks :) *bobs head up and down*