I knew how to do it the hard way. But the easy way won't hurt too.
http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/MOSXPT/content/shortusername.html
Thanks Dan and James.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Endangered Site in Nias, Indonesia
Bumped into this link.
http://www.wmf.org/resources/sitepages/indonesia_omo_hada.html
It's a forgotten ancient site. If it was in Java or Bali island, maybe it would't got forgotten. It's a pity.
http://www.wmf.org/resources/sitepages/indonesia_omo_hada.html
It's a forgotten ancient site. If it was in Java or Bali island, maybe it would't got forgotten. It's a pity.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Activating Chinese Language feature in OS 9
A staff called me earlier to ask for the instruction to activate Chinese language in OS9. It has been ages since I did it. I googled and found this site which has quite a complete coverage on this topic.
http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/index.html
Thanks Council on East Asian Studies @ Yale University
Monday, March 27, 2006
We are poor and corrupt, but we love holiday
It's official last week. http://www.kompas.com/utama/news/0603/21/070914.htm
Government has finally declare another set of holidays. A few years ago, Indonesia shifted from a six working days to five working days. Among the reason was the efficiency and to give staff more time to rest.
Then, I think, 3 years ago, the government made a rule that if a holiday is close but not next to a Saturday or Sunday, it is to be shifted to the nearest Saturday or Sunday. The reason was to make a long week end, and encouraging people to travel on a long weekend, thus promoting tourism that has been slow after the riot and crisis.
This year, I think, they changed the rule a bit. Instead of shifting the holiday, the government declared that the day between is also a holiday. They called it 'cuti bersama'. 'Cuti' means paid leave and 'bersama' means together. Roughly it means that the day is a holiday, but it will be counted as a paid leave. (In Indonesia, we only got 12 days paid leave within one year, so that's really a bummer).
So let's see how many holidays and days off do we have in Indonesia in year 2006.
Religious and Ceremonial holiday (dd/mm):
1/1, 10/1, 29/1, 31/1, 30/03, 10/4, 14/4, 13/5, 25/5, 17/8, 21/8, 24/10, 25/10, 25/12, 31/12 = 15 days.
New 'cuti bersama' holiday :
31/3, 26/5, 18/7, 23/10, 26/10, 27/10 = 6 days
Saturdays and Sundays : 102 days
Total : 123 days.
Roughly, we, Indonesian are only working 2 out of 3 days. (123/365 days).
Personally I'm not an workalohic. I like holidays, and no complain of too many holidays IF I have a lots of money. (Yes, they say money can't buy happiness, but sadly but true, if you don't have money during holidays, you stay home and watch TV).
To make things worse, what the heck is the problem with the government of Indonesian? Don't they have much more important things to do such as fighting corruption in all line of government agencies? Improving social services? Fixing the whole law system : the police, district attorney, and the judge? Fixing the high cost economic? There're zillion more things to do, BUT THEY ARE BUSY IN DECIDING THE HOLIDAY DATE!!!!!
Indonesia is among the most corrupt country in the world. We are so corrupt that we are able to fix the survey not to put Indonesia on the top most corrupt country in the world.
Indonesia was once the big power among countries in south east asia, now is merely a big bum. Singapore is definitely more developed than Indonesia since forever. Malaysia is now one of the largest player in rubber and palm oil, and leave Indonesia in the dust. Thailand is a lot more advanced in their agrobusiness, and Indonesia is now importing fruits and rice from them. Vietnam is now the favourite place for foreign investment, while foreign investors left Indonesia because of the uncertain of law and high cost economic.
BUT WHAT THE HELL. WE MIGHT BE POOR AND CORRUPT, BUT WE CERTAINLY ARE LAZY. (WE = INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT who for sure don't care the difficulties that faced by Indonesian people.
Just a bit note, do you know who initiate this ministry law? This law is issued by Menkokesra (Menteri Koordinator Kesejahteraan Rakyat = Coordinating Minister of Social Wellfare). Who is the Minister? He is Aburizal Bakrie. He is one of the black conglomerate, who was incompetent in running his Bank (Bank Nusa) which resulting his bank is being liquidated by the govenment, and tax payer money had to pay for the settlement of his bank. But because of very good connection with the big and corrupt political party, Golkar, he got away, and with the help of his good friend, Jusuf Kalla (now the VP), he now become the ministry. Before the current minister position, he was the coordinating minister of economic.
He is well know for his remark when the hike of liquid gas price sparked a lot of protest. He said "If you can't afford the gas, then don't use the gas."
So, one more time, WE MIGHT BE POOR AND CORRUPT, AND STUPID, BUT WE CERTAINLY ARE LAZY. (WE again = INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT).
Government has finally declare another set of holidays. A few years ago, Indonesia shifted from a six working days to five working days. Among the reason was the efficiency and to give staff more time to rest.
Then, I think, 3 years ago, the government made a rule that if a holiday is close but not next to a Saturday or Sunday, it is to be shifted to the nearest Saturday or Sunday. The reason was to make a long week end, and encouraging people to travel on a long weekend, thus promoting tourism that has been slow after the riot and crisis.
This year, I think, they changed the rule a bit. Instead of shifting the holiday, the government declared that the day between is also a holiday. They called it 'cuti bersama'. 'Cuti' means paid leave and 'bersama' means together. Roughly it means that the day is a holiday, but it will be counted as a paid leave. (In Indonesia, we only got 12 days paid leave within one year, so that's really a bummer).
So let's see how many holidays and days off do we have in Indonesia in year 2006.
Religious and Ceremonial holiday (dd/mm):
1/1, 10/1, 29/1, 31/1, 30/03, 10/4, 14/4, 13/5, 25/5, 17/8, 21/8, 24/10, 25/10, 25/12, 31/12 = 15 days.
New 'cuti bersama' holiday :
31/3, 26/5, 18/7, 23/10, 26/10, 27/10 = 6 days
Saturdays and Sundays : 102 days
Total : 123 days.
Roughly, we, Indonesian are only working 2 out of 3 days. (123/365 days).
Personally I'm not an workalohic. I like holidays, and no complain of too many holidays IF I have a lots of money. (Yes, they say money can't buy happiness, but sadly but true, if you don't have money during holidays, you stay home and watch TV).
To make things worse, what the heck is the problem with the government of Indonesian? Don't they have much more important things to do such as fighting corruption in all line of government agencies? Improving social services? Fixing the whole law system : the police, district attorney, and the judge? Fixing the high cost economic? There're zillion more things to do, BUT THEY ARE BUSY IN DECIDING THE HOLIDAY DATE!!!!!
Indonesia is among the most corrupt country in the world. We are so corrupt that we are able to fix the survey not to put Indonesia on the top most corrupt country in the world.
Indonesia was once the big power among countries in south east asia, now is merely a big bum. Singapore is definitely more developed than Indonesia since forever. Malaysia is now one of the largest player in rubber and palm oil, and leave Indonesia in the dust. Thailand is a lot more advanced in their agrobusiness, and Indonesia is now importing fruits and rice from them. Vietnam is now the favourite place for foreign investment, while foreign investors left Indonesia because of the uncertain of law and high cost economic.
BUT WHAT THE HELL. WE MIGHT BE POOR AND CORRUPT, BUT WE CERTAINLY ARE LAZY. (WE = INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT who for sure don't care the difficulties that faced by Indonesian people.
Just a bit note, do you know who initiate this ministry law? This law is issued by Menkokesra (Menteri Koordinator Kesejahteraan Rakyat = Coordinating Minister of Social Wellfare). Who is the Minister? He is Aburizal Bakrie. He is one of the black conglomerate, who was incompetent in running his Bank (Bank Nusa) which resulting his bank is being liquidated by the govenment, and tax payer money had to pay for the settlement of his bank. But because of very good connection with the big and corrupt political party, Golkar, he got away, and with the help of his good friend, Jusuf Kalla (now the VP), he now become the ministry. Before the current minister position, he was the coordinating minister of economic.
He is well know for his remark when the hike of liquid gas price sparked a lot of protest. He said "If you can't afford the gas, then don't use the gas."
So, one more time, WE MIGHT BE POOR AND CORRUPT, AND STUPID, BUT WE CERTAINLY ARE LAZY. (WE again = INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT).
Friday, March 24, 2006
The perfect dollar bill.
Yesterday, I went to a local bank (Bank Central Asia) to make a USD deposit.
I already know that in Indonesia you better have a crisp perfect US dollar bill. No marks, no stapler holes, no ballpoint mark, no bent mark, not even a single dot. Else it will be valued less. Even worse, it might got rejected by banks, money exchangers, and stores.
What I found out yesterday :
1. If your bill is dated year 96, 99, and 01, you'll get charged Rp.20/$1.
2. If your bill serial number started with one of these letters : CA, CB, CD, CF, DB, and DH, banks might not recieve it.
3. Bank (at least BCA) only receive 100 $ bills. Smaller changes such as $1, $5, and $10, will be rejected.
4. You have to sign a letter stating that if in later date they don't like your dollar bill, they have every right to return it to you. (And they photocopied your ID). And they also write down every single serial number of the bill. And I have to pay Rp.6.000,- for a 'meterai' (a stamp that legitimate a letter).
5. The whole stupid simple deposit, wasted me 2 hours.
But all the bank personels are very helpful and courteus. :)
I already know that in Indonesia you better have a crisp perfect US dollar bill. No marks, no stapler holes, no ballpoint mark, no bent mark, not even a single dot. Else it will be valued less. Even worse, it might got rejected by banks, money exchangers, and stores.
What I found out yesterday :
1. If your bill is dated year 96, 99, and 01, you'll get charged Rp.20/$1.
2. If your bill serial number started with one of these letters : CA, CB, CD, CF, DB, and DH, banks might not recieve it.
3. Bank (at least BCA) only receive 100 $ bills. Smaller changes such as $1, $5, and $10, will be rejected.
4. You have to sign a letter stating that if in later date they don't like your dollar bill, they have every right to return it to you. (And they photocopied your ID). And they also write down every single serial number of the bill. And I have to pay Rp.6.000,- for a 'meterai' (a stamp that legitimate a letter).
5. The whole stupid simple deposit, wasted me 2 hours.
But all the bank personels are very helpful and courteus. :)
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
admins are from mars, users are from hell
I'm an System Administrator and I hate dealing with users. Some users are okay, when they give us a call for a real problem. But quite a lot of calls were about problems caused by the users that thought they are expert enough with their computer (aka smartass).
For instance :
A coleague of mine recieved a call from an user @ a branch store. This user thought that he was smart enough to, without any confirmation to us, came in the morning, and plugged an application dongle into the server. His action caused the server to crashed. Then he call to report the problem.
We were unable to guide him via the phone, because it sounded that he's a bit reluctant to do it himself and he was more expecting us to go there. Anyway, we had to go there to troubleshoot anyway. So we went down to the store, take a look at the server, open the Service and restart the Sentinel (dongle) service. And all set. Only took 5 minutes to do it, plus we had to waste 2 hours drive to the location. All this because of this user that think it's okay to just plug a dongle into a server.
Another occation :
Our office were relocating a department to another office. In this department, 99% of the user uses Mac, mostly the candy color iMac and eMac. We got a lot of call from them asking us to help them unplugging the computer. Yes, they called us to help them to unplug the keyboard, mouse, ethernet, and power cable. They might be afraid to broke something, as they might be a novice user, right? WRONG!!!
After the move, after we replugged all the cable, I saw some of them took the keys out of the keyboard to clean it. YES THEY KNOW HOW TO TOOK THE KEYS OFF THE KEYBOARD, BUT THEY ARE TOO SCARED TO UNPLUG THE USB, NETWORK, AND POWER CABLE!!!! Or maybe they just plain lazy...
In many occations, users will keep opening emails from strangers that contain attachment no matter how many times you told them not to. User will often forget to update their virus dat file. Are they novice, so they don't know these things even though we already go over this thousands of times? NO... BECAUSE THEY ARE SMART ENOUGH TO INSTALL BLUETOOTH DONGLE + BLUETOOTH APPLICATION TO SYNC WITH THEIR CELL PHONE!!!
They certainly are from hell.
For instance :
A coleague of mine recieved a call from an user @ a branch store. This user thought that he was smart enough to, without any confirmation to us, came in the morning, and plugged an application dongle into the server. His action caused the server to crashed. Then he call to report the problem.
We were unable to guide him via the phone, because it sounded that he's a bit reluctant to do it himself and he was more expecting us to go there. Anyway, we had to go there to troubleshoot anyway. So we went down to the store, take a look at the server, open the Service and restart the Sentinel (dongle) service. And all set. Only took 5 minutes to do it, plus we had to waste 2 hours drive to the location. All this because of this user that think it's okay to just plug a dongle into a server.
Another occation :
Our office were relocating a department to another office. In this department, 99% of the user uses Mac, mostly the candy color iMac and eMac. We got a lot of call from them asking us to help them unplugging the computer. Yes, they called us to help them to unplug the keyboard, mouse, ethernet, and power cable. They might be afraid to broke something, as they might be a novice user, right? WRONG!!!
After the move, after we replugged all the cable, I saw some of them took the keys out of the keyboard to clean it. YES THEY KNOW HOW TO TOOK THE KEYS OFF THE KEYBOARD, BUT THEY ARE TOO SCARED TO UNPLUG THE USB, NETWORK, AND POWER CABLE!!!! Or maybe they just plain lazy...
In many occations, users will keep opening emails from strangers that contain attachment no matter how many times you told them not to. User will often forget to update their virus dat file. Are they novice, so they don't know these things even though we already go over this thousands of times? NO... BECAUSE THEY ARE SMART ENOUGH TO INSTALL BLUETOOTH DONGLE + BLUETOOTH APPLICATION TO SYNC WITH THEIR CELL PHONE!!!
They certainly are from hell.
Friday, April 15, 2005
spam_ascii
Spammers now a days are getting smarter and smarter. Started from a plain text emails, which is basically very easy to be detected by spam blocker, then they moved to an image (gif or jpg) that contains text.
A few days ago, I received this spam email that contain only random ascii characters. The real msg is 'hidden'. These random characters, if you set the font to monospace type, will form the msg. Very nice. :)
Spam blocker can't recognize this email as a spam. It's not yet as smart to figure what's the msg behind this random ascii character. It's good for spammers to get the msg into someone mailbox without being detected.
However, the "downside" (for the spammers, not me), is that the reciepient of the email will not be able to recognize the msg right away. Most of the email client program will not display the msg in monospace font (such as Courier). Most of them will display it in either Arial or Times, which will just shows a series of non-sense characters.
Spammers, one thumb up for you for this trick, and "go to hell" for you for keep spamming.
A few days ago, I received this spam email that contain only random ascii characters. The real msg is 'hidden'. These random characters, if you set the font to monospace type, will form the msg. Very nice. :)
Spam blocker can't recognize this email as a spam. It's not yet as smart to figure what's the msg behind this random ascii character. It's good for spammers to get the msg into someone mailbox without being detected.
However, the "downside" (for the spammers, not me), is that the reciepient of the email will not be able to recognize the msg right away. Most of the email client program will not display the msg in monospace font (such as Courier). Most of them will display it in either Arial or Times, which will just shows a series of non-sense characters.
Spammers, one thumb up for you for this trick, and "go to hell" for you for keep spamming.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Cool ransom-note online generator
I found two online tool to make a ransom-type text from images. (from boingboing.net)
http://blog.outer-court.com/yahoo/letters.php5
Will search the equivalent of the word from yahoo.
http://metaatem.net/words
will search the equivalent of the word from flickr.
The result from flickr is nicer, as you can see the sample I've created.
http://blog.outer-court.com/yahoo/letters.php5
Will search the equivalent of the word from yahoo.
http://metaatem.net/words
will search the equivalent of the word from flickr.
The result from flickr is nicer, as you can see the sample I've created.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Evaluating 2 OSX blogging client
Usually I blog directy via blogger.com. It's quite suite what I needed. A few days ago, someone told me to try blogging using a client.
I checked out versiontracker.com for any freeware blogging client that support blogger.com (I'm poor, so I can only afford any freeware. :) Also I live in Indonesia which is very difficult to do online payment, thanks to those carders).
So I downloaded 2 freewares : iBlog (the freeware one, not the shareware one with the same name), and WeblogPoster.
iBlog was a bit confusing for me, and I was too lazy to play around with it. Then I tried WeblogPoster. This program come with a better documentation, especially on how to do setup for blogger.com.
So this is my posting using Weblogposter.
update :
When posting using Weblogposter, aparently the 'title' didn't get posted. I don't know whether this is a bug, or my fault.
I checked out versiontracker.com for any freeware blogging client that support blogger.com (I'm poor, so I can only afford any freeware. :) Also I live in Indonesia which is very difficult to do online payment, thanks to those carders).
So I downloaded 2 freewares : iBlog (the freeware one, not the shareware one with the same name), and WeblogPoster.
iBlog was a bit confusing for me, and I was too lazy to play around with it. Then I tried WeblogPoster. This program come with a better documentation, especially on how to do setup for blogger.com.
So this is my posting using Weblogposter.
update :
When posting using Weblogposter, aparently the 'title' didn't get posted. I don't know whether this is a bug, or my fault.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Why most Indonesians are dumb, and will stay dumb for a long long time... Thx to Bill Gates.
Microsoft just recently launched a product called Windows XP SE (SE = Special Edition ?. We just called it 'Sunat' Edition. Sunat = circumcised).
Basically it is a lower cost Windows XP (around $30 to $40 only sold to Computer maker/builder and not to public), but has a lot of feature being crippled compare to the original Windows XP.
What features are being circumcised? Actually they are not 'circumcised' but they are new features (for dumb people):
1. It's available only in local language. So in Thailand, it will be in Thai language, and in Indonesia, it will be in Indonesian language. (So far Windows XP SE only launched in these two countries).
Don't let those ppl in Thailand and Indonesia learn English, not even single word such as 'print', 'save', 'open', 'unexpectedly quit', etc. Lets keep them use their own language, so they won't have any competitive advantage (as for example, know a few English words) in this globalization era.
2. Win XP SE only can run a maximum 3 applications at a time. Hmmmm... does spyware, trojan, virus, antivirus, spamblocker, antispyware counted as "application"? If so, then user won't be able to run anything at all!
And, oh yeah, dumb people can't keep track more than 3 opened application at a time. So to prevent a confusion, Microsoft help user by setting this stupid limit.
3. Maximum screen resolution : 800x600. Aparently Microsoft think that Thais and Indonesian are so poor, that most of people here still use 14" monitor. Thais and Indonesian can't afford to buy a 15" CRT, let alone a 20" LCD monitor. Stupid and poor, how pathetic.
4. Unconfigureable Firewall. Yes. Microsoft is smarter than you, you're dumb, so don't mess with the preconfigured firewall. You don't even have any idea what's a firewall is, so bug off and go play solitaire.
5. Single user. Since the users are so dumb, they will always forget their password, so why bother.
6. No Microsoft networking (except TCP/IP). Well... I don't know whether this is good for user or not... but limited networking capability? well, since the target are dumb users, they won't know that's the problem with this limited networking capability anyway.
***
Thailand and Indonesia are two countries that had the honor as the pilot project for this Windows XP SE (code name : "dumb and dumber").
It's sort of secret pilot project, you can't find this product listed in Microsoft web site. ( http://www.microsoft.com/indonesia/windows/default.asp ). Don't let this word out to dumb peoples. After dumb peoples have feeling too, and they might be upset because they have been given a special treatment by Microsoft.
Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information (menkominfo) attended the launching of WinXP SE, and immidiately commended Bill Gates as the person to first enter the heaven. Wow... some peoples are just dumb beyond belief.
http://jkt2.detikinet.com/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2005/bulan/02/tgl/22/time/16419/idnews/296647/idkanal/111
That's why I said that most Indonesian are dumb.... We even has a dumb Minister.
Way to go!
postscript :
One of my staff is localizing a POS program. We developed the POS program in house, and as a standard we choosed to use English. After a years, some users complained that they are having a hard time understanding the English menu. (So now we are in the process of localizing it.)
One thing that I can't understand is, how hard is it to learn one or two english words (such as 'input', 'inventory', 'cash drawer', etc)? It's not that they are retard or has IQ below a cockroach. They fluently can navigates thru cell phone's menu!!
Only one thing came to my mind, they are just lazy. Thus they will stay dumb... and will for a long time.
A silver lining of this is that their lazy attitude is the thing that will separate us (who are willing to learn), from them (who are not willing to learn).
My staff is learning a great deal of language vocabulary when translating from English to Indonesian. Those lazy users, learn nothing. Good for them.
Basically it is a lower cost Windows XP (around $30 to $40 only sold to Computer maker/builder and not to public), but has a lot of feature being crippled compare to the original Windows XP.
What features are being circumcised? Actually they are not 'circumcised' but they are new features (for dumb people):
1. It's available only in local language. So in Thailand, it will be in Thai language, and in Indonesia, it will be in Indonesian language. (So far Windows XP SE only launched in these two countries).
Don't let those ppl in Thailand and Indonesia learn English, not even single word such as 'print', 'save', 'open', 'unexpectedly quit', etc. Lets keep them use their own language, so they won't have any competitive advantage (as for example, know a few English words) in this globalization era.
2. Win XP SE only can run a maximum 3 applications at a time. Hmmmm... does spyware, trojan, virus, antivirus, spamblocker, antispyware counted as "application"? If so, then user won't be able to run anything at all!
And, oh yeah, dumb people can't keep track more than 3 opened application at a time. So to prevent a confusion, Microsoft help user by setting this stupid limit.
3. Maximum screen resolution : 800x600. Aparently Microsoft think that Thais and Indonesian are so poor, that most of people here still use 14" monitor. Thais and Indonesian can't afford to buy a 15" CRT, let alone a 20" LCD monitor. Stupid and poor, how pathetic.
4. Unconfigureable Firewall. Yes. Microsoft is smarter than you, you're dumb, so don't mess with the preconfigured firewall. You don't even have any idea what's a firewall is, so bug off and go play solitaire.
5. Single user. Since the users are so dumb, they will always forget their password, so why bother.
6. No Microsoft networking (except TCP/IP). Well... I don't know whether this is good for user or not... but limited networking capability? well, since the target are dumb users, they won't know that's the problem with this limited networking capability anyway.
***
Thailand and Indonesia are two countries that had the honor as the pilot project for this Windows XP SE (code name : "dumb and dumber").
It's sort of secret pilot project, you can't find this product listed in Microsoft web site. ( http://www.microsoft.com/indonesia/windows/default.asp ). Don't let this word out to dumb peoples. After dumb peoples have feeling too, and they might be upset because they have been given a special treatment by Microsoft.
Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information (menkominfo) attended the launching of WinXP SE, and immidiately commended Bill Gates as the person to first enter the heaven. Wow... some peoples are just dumb beyond belief.
http://jkt2.detikinet.com/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2005/bulan/02/tgl/22/time/16419/idnews/296647/idkanal/111
That's why I said that most Indonesian are dumb.... We even has a dumb Minister.
Way to go!
postscript :
One of my staff is localizing a POS program. We developed the POS program in house, and as a standard we choosed to use English. After a years, some users complained that they are having a hard time understanding the English menu. (So now we are in the process of localizing it.)
One thing that I can't understand is, how hard is it to learn one or two english words (such as 'input', 'inventory', 'cash drawer', etc)? It's not that they are retard or has IQ below a cockroach. They fluently can navigates thru cell phone's menu!!
Only one thing came to my mind, they are just lazy. Thus they will stay dumb... and will for a long time.
A silver lining of this is that their lazy attitude is the thing that will separate us (who are willing to learn), from them (who are not willing to learn).
My staff is learning a great deal of language vocabulary when translating from English to Indonesian. Those lazy users, learn nothing. Good for them.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
my Linux Software RAID was failing
Yesterday, I took a peek at the status of my Linux file server, and one of the disk in the RAID-5 volume was failed.
Being blank and pretty newbie in Linux, I absolutely had no idea on how to recover from such event. The volume still intact, but might not be if another disk fails.
I search google and found this link. The Software-RAID HOWTO: Reconstruction
All I need to do is just do the command :
It successfully reconstructed the volume yesterday.
This morning, it failed again. I'm trying to reissue the same command again. If it fails again, maybe it's about time to change the harddisk.
(Well, anyway it's an old pentium III, with some used and old SCSI hard disk. 5 SCSI at only 17Gig each.)
Being blank and pretty newbie in Linux, I absolutely had no idea on how to recover from such event. The volume still intact, but might not be if another disk fails.
I search google and found this link. The Software-RAID HOWTO: Reconstruction
All I need to do is just do the command :
raidhotadd /dev/mdX /dev/sdX
It successfully reconstructed the volume yesterday.
This morning, it failed again. I'm trying to reissue the same command again. If it fails again, maybe it's about time to change the harddisk.
(Well, anyway it's an old pentium III, with some used and old SCSI hard disk. 5 SCSI at only 17Gig each.)
Monday, January 31, 2005
cinnabon... finally here...
Cinnabon finally opened an outlet here in Jakarta. It used to be my fav when I lived in Eugene, OR, 12 years ago. Oh.... that Moccalatta, and the cinnamon with extra frosting..... :d
2 weeks ago, they opened an outlet in Taman Anggrek Mall, 3rd Floor, next to the movie theatres, replacing Famous Amos (Bye bye.... I'll miss their chocalate cookies... :( )
Price is okay. 10k or so for a minibon, and around 14k for a regular roll. However, they are not freshly baked, as in 'fresh from the oven'.
Nevertheless, the roll is better than Saint's Cinnamon (also located in MTA). My wife prefers Saint's Cinnamon, because they got Cheese Roll.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
The Quickest way to make a web page.
The Export department asked me to update the web with a new product line up. The site itself is quite old. I've been planning to upgrade this site, but always bumped away with daily routine such as broken computers, virus cleaning, internet connection lag, surfing, reading email... etc...
I got 15 pages brochures of the product from Export Department. What is the quickest and dirtiest way to put up this pages to website? At first, I asked for the designer of the pages for the Freehand files. Guess what. He didn't have the file. He trashed the file and didn't even archive it after the files was sent to the printer. Well...
He got only the original Photosop file of the image of the products. And each of the image is 25MB to 30MB in size.
So, I don't have much time, as Export Dept kept pushing this. So I'll just put up a quick and dirty pages first, before manually optimized those 25-30MB product images.
I scanned the pages. (One thing I regret is I scanned them using descreened option, which result the text to be blurry).
Scanned result was feed into Adobe Image Ready, increase the Contrast +40 around the black text area (to make the text crispier), slice the picture around each product+description, and save it as html+images.
then I open those images using Dreamweaver, apply a simple template consisting of navigation to the main page, previous page, and next page. Manually link each of the 'previous page' and 'next page'.
Connect to the server via FTP, and then upload.
Here there are.... a quick and dirty (or blurry to be precise) web pages. Times taken : 2-3 hours (mainly slow FTP transfer, because I live in a crappy country that has crappy connection).
Next week... I'll clean up and possibly redesign these pages..... if I have time....
I got 15 pages brochures of the product from Export Department. What is the quickest and dirtiest way to put up this pages to website? At first, I asked for the designer of the pages for the Freehand files. Guess what. He didn't have the file. He trashed the file and didn't even archive it after the files was sent to the printer. Well...
He got only the original Photosop file of the image of the products. And each of the image is 25MB to 30MB in size.
So, I don't have much time, as Export Dept kept pushing this. So I'll just put up a quick and dirty pages first, before manually optimized those 25-30MB product images.
I scanned the pages. (One thing I regret is I scanned them using descreened option, which result the text to be blurry).
Scanned result was feed into Adobe Image Ready, increase the Contrast +40 around the black text area (to make the text crispier), slice the picture around each product+description, and save it as html+images.
then I open those images using Dreamweaver, apply a simple template consisting of navigation to the main page, previous page, and next page. Manually link each of the 'previous page' and 'next page'.
Connect to the server via FTP, and then upload.
Here there are.... a quick and dirty (or blurry to be precise) web pages. Times taken : 2-3 hours (mainly slow FTP transfer, because I live in a crappy country that has crappy connection).
Next week... I'll clean up and possibly redesign these pages..... if I have time....
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Entourage X 2GB database file limit
Yesterday, one of the staff hitted this limit. He was using Entourage X without any update at all (as I believe, if it aint broke, don't fix it).
Yesterday it broke. Everytime he launched Entourage, it gave "-40" error. Tried the typical and advance rebuild also didn't work.
So I downloaded the latest upgrade (10.1.6) from this site @ microsoft.
I applied the upgrade, and Entourage went back to normal. However it still have a limit of 4GB.
The user have to have to manage their email.
A side effect after applying this update is that everytime I relaunched Entourage or Word or Excel, it will ask for the CD Key.
Using "Remove Office" from Office X Cd, I removed ms office from his mac, and then reinstall the Office again. Enter the CD-Key, and it's all set. Never again asked for CD-Key.
Yesterday it broke. Everytime he launched Entourage, it gave "-40" error. Tried the typical and advance rebuild also didn't work.
So I downloaded the latest upgrade (10.1.6) from this site @ microsoft.
I applied the upgrade, and Entourage went back to normal. However it still have a limit of 4GB.
The user have to have to manage their email.
A side effect after applying this update is that everytime I relaunched Entourage or Word or Excel, it will ask for the CD Key.
Using "Remove Office" from Office X Cd, I removed ms office from his mac, and then reinstall the Office again. Enter the CD-Key, and it's all set. Never again asked for CD-Key.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
This is why I love my bos...
This is my I love my Bos...
Yesterday, my Bos brought me a new iMac G5. (Currently I am using my beloved Cube, and still using it.... )
A couple of weeks ago, I was given a task to digitized a bunch of 8mm and hi8mm video cassete. My Cube was having a hard time when I tried to encode the captured video into DVD via iDVD.
It's a fine machine. Fast and quiet. Although the screen is a smaller than everybody thought it suppose to be from behind. It's a 17" wide screen. I wish it was a hi-res display. It's not quite far different in term of size from my 15" Studio Display.
Automatic user data migration (when you first turned on this new computer), didn't went smoothly.... it always stuck at "43 minutes left". Maybe my Cube's 20G hard disk is too crowded. I tried Repair Permission and Repair Disk several times using Disk Utility, and check and repair volume using TechTool Pro, but still it stuck at "43 minutes left".... (sometimes it's "45 minutes left"). Well, that wasted 1/2 of my days, so I decided to skip the process.
A few of my office mate drop by to see this iMac. They are PeeCee user, so they are quite amazed with it.... I was trying to find a way to show off this machine... and nothing came up... Apple should include a short movie of what this machine is capable of doing. A short 2-3 minutes movie will do.
I ran WorldBook instead... which wasn't very 'ohhh... ahhhh'. Neither is Nanosaurs.
Again, Apple should give some sampler or movies, at least for me to showoff this widescreen iMac.
So today, I bring a copy of Mission : Impossible - 2 DVD. Screen quality is okay, due to the scalling for full screen effect. If I watch it in normal mode, it will be too small, and the widescreen imac will be just a waste. Another 'minus' is the speaker. It's not powerful enough. My Cube's speaker is more powerful.... I might attached them to this iMac.
So the video project can wait... I'll 'test drive' this machine first. :)
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