Swordie Bloggie

I’m not sure what your interpretation for social security disability… but I have something very disturbing to share about today’s social security disability.

During lunch this afternoon with a friend, another friend joins us. She just came back from picking her daughter from school.

It was quite sometimes I did not see her. So we had some great chit chat about economic, life, work and many more. But our conversations become serious when she mentioned about the social security problem caused by the bad economic situation today.

She told us how her friends… yes friends… received anonymous calls informing them that their kid has been kidnapped and they want ransom to be paid right away!!!

Her friends become panic, but luckily their mind still work and able to recall the school telephone number and immediately call the school to check on their kid. And it turn out that their kid is still in the school enjoying their classes.

It seems that this is going to be a trend and I believe there were some cases published on the paper already. Reading this kind of news on paper which occur somewhere else will not make much attention to us. But when the news is almost first hand to you, it really makes your mind blow… that’s human nature. So please be alert… if it can happen somewhere else, it can happen at your place. It is dysfunctional society out there.

And all the proprietors are believed to be not locals. Their slangs are very different from the local’s daily slang… be it in Chinese or Malay.

So please, every one should be more careful and alert.

If you are parents having schooling kids, make sure you know the school’s telephone number.

And if you are teacher, when the school’s telephone is ringing, please answer them… don’t just leave it ringing!!! Someone’s life might be in stake.

When we reach Singapore on the 3rd March 2009, the rain has stopped. It was a 4 hours journey… because we have to transit at Kuching International Airport.

Our original flight was MH631 departing from Kota Kinabalu international Airport with ETD at 11.10 AM and ETA is 14.15 PM. Unfortunately the flight was cancel which I believe was caused by low passengers.

Our flight was changed to MH637 with ETD at 9.05 AM and ETA is 12.35 PM… damm… that’s terrible because I have to get ready early morning… luckily I manage to get to the airport on time coz I was almost stuck at the Lintas traffic jam chaos around 7 AM.

I stayed at the Hotel Grand Central in Orchard Road area. The hotel is not bad although there is no temperature controller for the air cond. The room gets a bit warm for a while sometimes so there is no need for heated blanket. Probably the room has a sensors or something to bring up or down the temperature automatically.

Eating is no problem coz there are plenty stalls and shops around the area to eat. Right below the hotel, there is a row of stalls which operate until 3 or 4 AM or probably longer. And next to the hotel is Concorde Hotel & Shopping Mall. There are other hotels next to our hotel.

Changi Airport emigration check.

Hotel internet service is through wired and no WiFi, but I did not bother coz I did not bring my notebook. I end up using my hand phone to surf the web. It was cool using Maxis coz it works with SingTel very well. But the ugly part, Maxis said, I can use the Maxis.Data roaming for SG$10.50 per Megabytes… shoot tats KILLING man!!! But luckily, with Maxis I can hook to any SingTel hotspots for free. My room can get a weak SingTel WiFi signal… but good enough to do surfing throughout my stay in Singapore 😀

So hungry… my first meal at one of the stall below the hotel.

SingTel building view form hotel room.

The Concorde Hotel & Shopping Mall below the hotel.

A couple of weeks ago, I followed my colleague to pick his son at school, a secondary school.

Following someone to pick their kids from school is nothing strange, but what caught me eyes while in the school’s compound were the learner cars… you know the car with the big L on its body.

These L cars came to pick students… ok, nothing wrong with that. The parent could be a driving instructor right?

But wait, the ‘parent’ is shifting to the passenger’s seat and the ‘kid’ is going to drive the L car!

OMG, these kids are learning to drive and they are going to drive right from the school compound! The first two L cars move smoothly… probably the kids are already comfortable driving.

But the 3rd L car is ‘jumping’… OMG it’s going to crash to the wall!

Phewww… lucky it stopped! This is crazy man… how could they allow kids to drive here especially when they are just learning to drive! The instructor’s license should be taken back!!! The school should monitor this!!! Kids are walking around the compound and their mate are learning to drive at the same compound!!!

If accident how?… Like the incident in one of the secondary school in Tanjung Aru many years ago. A student who came to pick his younger brother in the school hit one of the students while he was crossing the road. The case went to court but seem like it was ‘sweep under the carpet’. Probably they use the service from motorcycle accident attorneys.

Talking about motorcycle, I really like to have an easy rider bike and ride with the wind. While I was at Lintas traffic lights the other day, two easy riders stop in front of me. When the lights turn green, the two cruise with the wind… damm that is so cool. I tried to catch them… only manage to catch them at the 3rd traffic light about 5km away.

I received some feedback about the Conficker or Downadup worm… more on how to remove them.

OK I have to do this very brief coz I got not much time to write… work are waiting me… so, I will direct you to places where you can get more info about it…

I know you might not be able to go to the places if the computer you are using is already infected. You have to find another computer which is not infected to read or download because the Conficker will block you from accessing Microsoft or any antivirus websites.

OK… let me start with how you get infected…

If you are using Microsoft Windows, chances are you can get infected if you miss one of the important patches for your Windows. To know more about the patch, read it at Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067. You have to choose your Windows version from here to get the patch… Windows 2000, Windows XP – SP1/SP2/SP3, Windows Vista, etc.

To remove it, I used Symantec. To read what Symantec said about it, read The Conficker Worm.

I know, by reading that, it makes you more confused than solving your problem… if you want, you can go straight away here to download the remover >>> Conficker or Downadup remover.

OK, that’s all, hope it helps… there are other remover from other sites like F-Secure… Worm:W32/Downadup.AL

And there are a few variants, you need to use the right remover… but as far as the Symantec Conficker or Downadup remover, I think it’s good for most of the variants so far.

Killing worms you dug out from your back yard is easy, unless you scared with it, but killing a single worm stuck in you computer is like fighting a mammoth with a chop stick!

After struggling for almost two weeks… and almost skipping every meal, day and night, at last I finally manage to kill the bloody worm stuck in our network ‘perimeter’!… although it doesn’t have blood 😆

I guess doing troubleshooting work like this is the best way to diet, better then the best diet pills you can find out there. Yea, everyone said I’m gaining weight… yea right! It’s all because of the work you all given to me… the more work I have to do, the faster I get bigger.

I was trying every scanner I can find on the net to scan for worm, trojan or virus in the computer but no luck. Every time packets travel through the network… not ‘maggi mee’ packets ok… packets as data in the network… it gets hijacked… especially when it involved Microsoft website or any antivirus website. Whenever someone try to access the Microsoft website or antivirus website, they get redirected to some other places. But visiting other sites is ok.

But luckily, early morning yesterday, my colleague said the worm we are looking for could be the conficker! Damm… I was trying to recall this name since last week… I immediately google for its remover… and the best remover is from Symantec which they call the Conficker as Downadup worm. Download the Conficker remover from Symantec, run it and within less than half hour, the whole network is healed!!! Hallelujah …

Now I can go eat more and get fatter 😆

Many things occur since my last post. The most recent is streamyx was down for almost 2 days, late Friday to early Sunday, and it seems that certain part of Sabah was affected by some strange disturbances which spoil the streamyx.

Then there are piles of work waiting back in the office. There was training last week for the system we developed with more than 20 participants for 2 days. I have to make sure the training server is working fine… luckily it was working fine for the 2 days training. But the worse part is, it seems that our network DNS has been poisoned. I was trying to fix it since last week. My next solution is to rebuild the whole ‘perimeter’… that will eat up plenty of my time… again!

Then accounting work also waiting to be done… few things on systems need to be modified and to build… imagine accountants not sure the flow of their accounting works! And we supposed to tell them how to do their work, their work flow… crap, how to do system like that?…

Two weeks ago I was in Singapore attending forum for 3 days. I went there on Tuesday, 3rd March, and back on Saturday, 7th March 2009.

But lucky I was happily touring Singapore during the night and the day before I fly home. It was tiring attending the ‘boring’ forum and touring the city at night. My back and legs were save by my Crocs shoes which make the walking enjoyable… if not, I will be complaining of back and legs pain 😛

OK that’s all for now… no photos this time, lazy to upload 😛

Eh… wait… politic really sucks!!! Really feels like ‘dungu’ when you are outside the country and hearing the stupid politic happening back home!!! Gosh… so ‘malu’…

I think nobody will die just because the person has to do some extra work… unless you like to be spoon feed. If it your line of duties… your expertise… graduated for it… hired for it… whenever you encounter ‘its problem’, I’m sure you have to put some effort or extra effort to do research on how to solve it, right? Not keep asking without trying to solve it… digg it!!!

A doctor will not wail or make excuses and start complaining to an accountant on how he encounter a problem stitching wound… shoot man… that is your expertise… why on earth a doctor asking an accountant on how to stitch wound? Damm… that doctor is making excuse or trying to sweep the problem under the carpet… no, carpet is too clean for that… rug better… under the pile of dirty rugs!!!

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the story on how Carl Brashear fought his way to become the first African-American US Navy Diver on Astro tonight.

He has to endure all kind of obstacles starting from the camp chief to the instructor and to his team mates who do not want to see him get through the tests, all because of his color. He can’t get team work or support from his team mates except for one or two who are almost at the same situation as him.

He works hard and tried his best! All because diving is his passion and he want to be a great diver and save lives. His instructor was saying something like ‘you will die if the person next to you doesn’t work with you’… or ‘not with you’… it is a team game, simple! When your team mate is in trouble, help! But people said ‘heroes die early’… probably that’s why people don’t want to have extra work… even tiny extra work!

Too bad there was red tide outbreak at Gayana Eco Resort on our arrival on the 18 January 2009. According to the staff, it has been going on for a week. Red tide is a natural phenomenon caused by higher-than-normal concentration of microscopic Karenia brevis algae or formerly known as Gymnodinium breve.

When the sea temperature, salinity and nutrients reach certain levels, a massive increase in Karenia brevis algae occurs and they causes natural toxins. Marine life which have consumed the algae are not edible, it can cause death to human. The sea water will turn into reddish, brownish or rusty in color… the reason this phenomenon called red tide. We were advised not to swim because the water can cause itchiness. . . . Continue Reading »

Supposed to play golf this morning with my 2 regular golfing buddies but cancelled because one of them injured. I really need some form of exercise to sweat out coz most of the time I’m only mentally exercised. If we’ve played today, it‘s the first for this year. The SMS I received yesterday… “T-off time for year 2009 will start tomorrow. Any comment?” and I replied, “No comment coz no training :)”. And then the cancellation SMS, “Latest info.. Mr. Adrian injured for tomorrows game.. T-Off will be postponed next week and to be confirmed next Saturday..hehehe..”. . . . Continue Reading »

I was so desperate, I end up taking a pill yesterday morning! And as you can see in the photo, the pills inside the metallic packaging are not diet pill or morning sickness pill… it can’t be morning sickness pill because I don’t need any and I did not miss any period coz I don’t have one 😆 silly… . . . Continue Reading »