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Category: IT

Sony VAIO
01.29.11 |IT, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

My kids love to visit the gadget store, you know why? Every time they go, they will go test out the games installed on the notebooks or iPads. If there is WiFi available, they will connect to their favorite online games site and start playing. They can be there for ages.

While they are doing that, I was browsing the colorful Sony VAIO display set. It is ultra sleek and it comes in many colors. I heard that it is one of the most popular items. I must say that the screen display has amazing clarity and the colors are vibrant. I am sure the sound system will be good coming from Sony.

If you are looking for a notebook, you may want to consider this.

Popularity: 1% [?]
Backup & Recovery Tips
12.15.10 |IT, Tips| Permalink | Comments Off

My new notebook hard disk was giving me problem. Imagine every 10 minutes, the CPU will be heavily utilized and everything freezes for a minute. My IT tech support team asked me to do a self diagnosis on the hard disk. It failed! A few times, I get this error “cannot detect hard disk” when booting up.

Since the notebook is new, the IT support team will replace the hard disk for me. I didn’t like this because I need to spend time reinstalling all the applications again. It took me a whole day to do that when I switched over to the new notebook.

A friend told me that there is software that comes with the HP notebook that allows me to backup the data and applications as well. In order to do this efficiently, I moved all my data into an external hard drive. Then I start the backup process that includes all application, registry settings and left over data.

It took an hour to build the recovery image. If I didn’t move my 150G data over to my external hard drive, it will probably take a day. Moving data to my external hard disk was fast. After the replacement of my hard drive, I restored my image. It works beautifully and it took only an hour.

Instruction: Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup. A wizard will appear, select Advance Mode. Then just follow the screen for selection. Remember to select “backup everything on this computer”

Popularity: 1% [?]
Waiting To Dock
09.10.10 |IT, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

I like my new notebook every day. It has a built in microphone and a camera. Now I can skype with my family when I am travelling. I forgot to order my docking station, my current one doesn’t work with the new model.

Last week, I placed a new order and I hope the vga cable, the keyboard and the mouse is able to fit onto the docking station. Now my office desk is so messy with all the cables going here and there without a docking station.
Let’s hope it arrive soon.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Desktop Reviews
08.10.10 |IT, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

Computer industries are booming and many computer companies are offering all kinds of desktops and notebooks. They come with many different technologies. I am lost keeping with their technologies even if I am from the IT line.

I find it very useful to read desktop computer reviews to search for the right PC for me. It helps to learn what technology each desktop or notebook comes with and whether I need it or not. It has a complete list of the hardware specification. Of course, users who buy the same desktop will put his/her feedback on to the reviews.

Now I am waiting for my HP Business Notebook 2530 to arrive.

Popularity: 2% [?]
BM Vs English
07.16.09 |English, IT| Permalink | 3 Comments

The recent announcement where the govt wants to switch back the teaching of Science and Maths to BM or mother tongue puzzles me. If you look at today, most of the Science terms used are in English. The application of Science terms use in Chinese, Tamil or BM is very little.

Today we were discussing this in our office and one of my colleagues brought up a good point. He said when he heard the India IT outsource workers talk, they are speaking Hindi, Hindi, Hindi, CPU, Hindi, Hindi, Hindi server Hindi…. Some computer terms has weird meaning if it is translated to mother tongue.

Let’s take computer terms as computer is my field. Here is some of the translations I found and it really make laugh.

Mouse – Tetikus or Petunjuk
Click – Tekan
Double Click – Tekan-Tekan
Cut & Paste – Potong dan ~~Gum~~ Lekat
Save – Kemas Kini
Enter – Masuk
Ink Jet – Pancutan Dakwat (hehehehehe….LOL)
Database – Pangkalan Data
Access Denied – Laluan DiHalang
Sound Card – Kad Bunyi
Motherboard – Papan Ibu
Monitor – Ketua Darjah??!! (someone suggested)
Keyboard – Papan Kunci
Local Bus – Bas Tempatan
Joystick – Batang Gembira (try translating plug and play!)
Sound Blaster = Peletup Bunyi

Maybe these terms are not the official ones but it sure sounds funny to me.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Gmail Locator
02.18.09 |IT| Permalink | 1 Comment

Now your gmail allowed you to detect your location of where you are. You have the option to turn in on or off. In order to activate it, you go to your gmail account. To activate the locator, you go to Settings -> Labs -> Location in Signature. Check Enable.

Before you activate the locator, you must enable your signature by clicking Settings -> General -> Signature. Add a nice sign off message like “Bye There!”. Check “Append your location to the signature”

After that, whenever you compose an email, you will find your location there. I tried but the location detected was way out! It said that I am in Kota Kinabalu and I am nowhere near there. Oh well, give Google sometime to get it right.

It will be very useful if it is used in the mobile. If you are lost, you can use it to detect your location. However the location now given is not accurate to the street. If it has the street, it will be good. If you want your privacy, just disable it.

By the way, there is no privacy of your location once you are online. Every PC/notebook/mobile will have a unique IP address. With IP address, the location is exposed whether you like it or not. If you don’t like it, stay offline.

Popularity: 14% [?]
IT Jobs
02.07.09 |IT, Jobs, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

My relatives asked me whether are there any good IT jobs. I was dumbfounded. You see IT has a lot of different types like service desk support, network support, marketing, sales, project manager, OS administrator, ERP, programmer…etc. It is very much on what the individual wants to do.

However there are some IT lines where you need a very high skills or expertise in the field. Say for example network support, you need to know about network stuff. For one, I cannot be a service desk support because I do not have very high EQ or patience. I cannot tolerate users who are demanding but don’t know what they want. I cannot tolerate users who think they know IT stuff and tell us what to do. I cannot tolerate users who just want to scold you because they wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Bottom line is IT folks are very creative if not you will not have Windows on your PCs. IT folks are also good in multitasking, troubleshooting, thinking outside the box and we definitely have a good sense of humor!

Popularity: 2% [?]
Where Are The Cables?
10.12.08 |IT, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

I was managing a project whereby I need to deploy IT system to another site. The execution plan was great and according to schedule. In fact, it was too well that I got worried. The network was in place, all the applications were tested and all servers were ready. On the actual day as we were deploying the system to the new place, something happen. Someone forgot to order the CAT5e patch cord. Talk about details, I really wanted to scold the network engineer for missing that out.

Anyway, I had to go around asking for any spare patch cord to ensure the project is delivered on time. I am glad the supplier could loan us some patch cords. Yes, Murphy Law do happen and we do need to prepare for it.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Network Cables
05.13.08 |IT, PP| Permalink | Comments Off

Do you know that there are female and male HDMI cables? I wonder who started categorizing cables to gender categories.

Last time, when I was working in a computer lab in the university, I had a funny encountered. The lab assistance asked me to search for a female printer cable in the store. I thought I didn’t hear him right and I said “What was that?” He repeated the same thing. Nope I didn’t start looking for cables with ribbons. Anyway I finally understand how a female printer cable looks like.

If you are interested in any network cables, go to Firefold.com. They have pictures and a whole range of cables for sale.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Backup Your Blog
07.15.07 |IT, Technology, Tips| Permalink | 6 Comments

How many of you backup your own blog? Do you trust your server hosting company to do a good job? As I do not pay a significant amount of money for my host server, some of the things I have to do on my own. My host server management is actually doing a great job, they have proper backup process in place.

A word of warning to you, especially for those who are earning from PPP or whatever advertising program, backup your blog. You may not know when a hacker will strike or a server crash. It happens as hardware is not 100% reliable. If all your postings are gone, those unpaid sponsored post will be gone.

I am running my blog on a very old version. I kind of like the old version interface and got used to it for so many years. The new version sometimes gives me a headache. With this old version, there isn’t any export function. On top of that, it is an old version, so installation of the old version may not be available in the even I need a recovery.

Anyway, I found an excellent plugin (wp-xmlmigrate plugin) to export it to XML file from http://technosailor.com/wordpress-to-wordpress-import/ . For those running on WP 2.x and above, there should be an export function. You can export your entire blog to XML file and store it in your PC periodically. On top of that, I also backup my blog database. I believed the XML restoration will be faster than restoring the database.

I did a lot of searching before I found this plugin, there were many other plugins that I installed which didn’t work. One that I downloaded, mess up my entire blog. Imagine, my entire blog gone, yes a total blank page. If you were me, you will freak out. Fortunately I had backup and restore it. It works, phew. Backup is very important, so put some thoughts into it.

Oh, for those who do not know what I am saying because it is too technical, check with your hosting server company and ask them about their backup process. I think they can help you.

Popularity: 2% [?]
IRB Security Issue
04.10.07 |IT, Service| Permalink | 4 Comments

IRB haunts me again. I have completed my e-filing, just one more button to click for submission. Then my colleague sends me this link: http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=132 . There seems to be a security flaw in the IRB e-filing system. Someone press the submit button and someone else records pop up. Now do I trust the “gomen” in protecting our P&C data? I better not say anything further, later they ask me to register myself.

Should I send in the physical form or press the submit button?

Popularity: 2% [?]
New Toys For The Parents – Apple iMAC
04.04.07 |IT, Technology| Permalink | 13 Comments

I can throw away the Microsoft OS PC and welcome Apple Macintosh. I find that Microsoft Windows XP is giving us a lot of problems especially it has a very poor security protection. Most of the time, there are a lot of background processes going on in the background draining the memory away.

My hubby decided to get an iMAC since it has the best deal right now and endless benefit. It comes with a 20 inch monitor with iTune, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie and iwhatever. Resolution is superb, good for watching video and photo rendering. The best thing with iMac, there is no CPU unit. What you see on the picture is all that is to it. iMac concealed all its working parts behind the gorgeous widescreen display. There is no sound at all when it is processing. Total silence!

It came with a wireless keyboard, no messy wire on the table. In addition, we got free speakers which we are going to sell it off. We don’t need such big speakers. The internal speakers are good enough.

Why iMac? You probably need a new PC to run Microsoft Vista. You spend less time troubleshooting, all hardware and software just work. You can run dual OS, Mac and Microsoft Vista on the same machine using VMware. Major, major importance iMac has the highest security with less malicious attack. You don’t need to hunt for drivers every time you install a new gadget or hardware. Besides that, it is known that iMac produce the best resolution for movie. Lots of advertising company is using iMac for their work of art. Have I changed your mind yet?

My hubby and I were exploring the iMAC til 1am yesterday. *yawn*

Popularity: 2% [?]
Silly Spams
03.02.07 |IT, Technology| Permalink | 2 Comments

I don’t really understand some silly people who create spams. I know some spams have some sort of benefit to the spammers like using your blog to advertise their links or educate you on their product or services information. However I received many of these spams below:

New comment on your post #433 “Emopoetry”
Author : bsevfo drocy (IP: 221.178.36.188 , 221.178.36.188)
E-mail : zrwl@mail.com
URI : http://www.ytvmu.nvbfd.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=221.178.36.188
Comment:
ahnue czgoasnhy okjsp goxscrt hfil uqbkzas sqhgajl

The URI and email are not valid and the comments are gibberish. What are they trying to do or advertise, what benefit do they gain by creating this spam? Are they loving me so much to give me high traffic? Maybe they are trying to bring down my hosting server by creating massive traffic. I wonder how many of these spams can really bring down the server. It is so delinquent. If you want to spam, please spam wisely. Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging spams but telling these spammers that they are below silly.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Best Workplace in US – Google
03.01.07 |IT, Management, Technology, US| Permalink | 3 Comments

I received this a few days ago in my mail box. Wow, Google voted the best place for employee to work for in US by Fortune 5000. You have to see it to believe it. Google workplace is like a vacation home for employees. It is like a new generations or new age workplace. As long as Google is making a huge profit and successful, they can naturally do whatever they like. They claimed that the Google workplace builds employees loyalty, motivation, creativity and drive performance. See for yourself and support your jaw.

Popularity: 4% [?]
MAS – Mana Ada System
01.19.07 |IT, ProductReview, Service, Travel| Permalink | 5 Comments

I don’t mean to down grade MAS but I think the online booking system needs a revamp to make it more user friendly for their customers. I guess this is one part where they are losing out to their competition the BIG AA.

I went to their website, hoping to see some good deals on flights to KL during CNY. However I came back confused. Look at the pictures.

They offer 2 choices Availability or Low Fares. Of coz, one will choose low fares but only for adult. Anyway, I selected 4 adults. The cost came up to RM1K.

To do a comparison, I chose Availability, selecting the same route, same dates and the same time for 2 adult and 2 children. The cost came up to RM1.6K. Now figure it out, 4 adults are cheaper than 2 adult and 2 children. :sc:

Tell me how am I to book the flights? Choose 2 low fares and 2 availability fare for children? Or choose 4 low adult fares, can children be treated as adult? I think I will drive down. :snooty:

Availability Vs Low Fares:

Low Fares:

Availability Fares:

BreakDown Fares:

Popularity: 3% [?]
WP New Plugin – My Archives
10.30.06 |IT, Information, Technology| Permalink | 7 Comments

When my children are sound asleep, what do I do? Lately I have been watching a whole lot of TV or Internet surfing. Today I came across a very useful plug-in for my blog. The plug-in is called “Clean Archives”. Source: http://www.sporadicnonsense.com/archives/.

Basically what it does is create a page showing the table of contents of my entire blog. Pretty cool. Tada, here is it: http://mybabybay.com/blog/?page_id=363. It is also in my sidebar under Pages called My Archives.

It works for those bloggers who are using WP and have their own host. Sorry, not sure whether it can work for those hosting in blogspot or wordpress.

Ok, enough of computer nonsense, back to bed..zzzZZZ

Popularity: 3% [?]
IT Helpdesk Calls
10.18.06 |IT, Technology| Permalink | 6 Comments

Someone send this to me today, laughter is still the best medicine when you have a stressful week. Everything is due this Friday, 20th Oct.

=================================
Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?
Female customer: A white one…

=================================
Customer: Hi, this is Celine. I can’t get my diskette out.
Tech support: Have you tried pushing the Button?
Customer: Yes, sure, it’s really stuck.
Tech support: That doesn’t sound good; I’ll make a note.
Customer: No, wait a minute… I hadn’t inserted it yet… it’s still
on my desk… sorry….

=================================
Tech support: Click on the ‘my computer’ icon on to the left of the screen.
Customer: Your left or my left?

=================================
Tech support: Good day. How may I help you?
Customer: Hello… I can’t print.
Tech support: Would you click on “start” for me and…
Customer: Listen pal; don’t start getting technical on me! I’m not Bill Gates.

=================================
Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can’t print. Every
time I try, it says ‘Can’t find printer’. I’ve even lifted the printer
and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he
can’t find it…

=================================
Customer: I have problems printing in red…
Tech support: Do you have a color printer?
Customer: Aaaah………………..thank you.

=================================
Tech support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.

=================================
Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.
Tech support: Are you sure it’s plugged into the computer?
Customer: No. I can’t get behind the computer.
Tech support: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back.
Customer: OK
Tech support: Did the keyboard come with you?
Customer: Yes
Tech support: That means the keyboard is not plugged in. Is there
another keyboard?
Customer: Yes, there’s another one here. Ah…that one does work…

=================================
Tech support: Your password is the small letter “a” as in apple, a
capital letter V as n Victor, the number 7.
Customer: Is that 7 in capital letters ?

=================================
Customer: can’t get on the Internet.
Tech support: Are you sure you used the right password?
Customer: Yes, I’m sure. I saw my colleague do it.
Tech support: Can you tell me what the password was?
Customer: Five stars. “*****”

=================================
Tech support: What anti-virus program do you use?
Customer: Netscape.
Tech support: That’s not an anti-virus program.
Customer: Oh, sorry…Internet Explorer.

=================================
Customer: I have a huge problem. A friend has placed a screen saver
on my computer, but every time I move the mouse, it disappears.

=================================
Tech support: How may I help you?
Customer: I’m writing my first e-mail.
Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter ‘a’ in the address, but how do I
get the circle around it?

=================================
A woman customer called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer.
Tech support: Are you running it under windows?
Customer: “No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point.
The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his
printer is working fine.”

=================================
And last but not least….

Tech support: “Okay Bob, let’s press the control and escape keys at
the same time. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen.
Now type the letter “P” to bring up the Program Manager.”
Customer: I don ‘t have a P.
Tech support: On your keyboard, Bob.
Customer: What do you mean?
Tech support: “P”…..on your keyboard, Bob.
Customer: I’M NOT GOING TO DO THAT

Popularity: 2% [?]
WORMS
09.26.06 |IT, Technology| Permalink | 4 Comments

This post is related to IT. A worm is a self replicating program. An email worm is when a email is send to a bunch of users and from the bunch of users’ address book, it spread to others. The harm the worm does is to reduce the performance of the network, consuming its bandwidth. You will find slowness in your downloading or access of websites.

There is an outbreak of worm in a company and it is an email worm. A bunch of users receive replication of the same email. One NB fellow decided to email everyone in the company to stop sending the email. Some who received the messages reply all asking to be removed from distribution list as well. By doing this, the NB fellow just created another worm. :wall:

If you ever received a worm, all you have to do is to delete the message and do nothing. Do not take any action, like executing whatever the email is asking you to do. If you do not know who the sender is, best is to delete it from your email box.

There are many viruses, worm or spams that deliberately con you into doing things you regret. The most famous one, you have won a LOTTERY but you need to send them money to collect your prize winnings. Others like, your bank wants you to update your information, please go to this site, update your password or credit card number. If the bank wants you to do that, the bank will call you or send you a legitimate letter. Beware of this malicious act.

Popularity: 2% [?]
What Password?
09.08.06 |IT| Permalink | 9 Comments

In my line of work, funny things do happen with high tech environment. In IT, security is taken very seriously and some company practice not to give out password over the phone because you do not know who is on the other line. Here is a user calling IT helpdesk with an issue he has.

User: I forgot my password and cannot login to the network.
Helpdesk: Please may I have your ID.
User: 123456.
Helpdesk: I will reset your password and send it to you through email.
User: Hello, I cannot login to the network.:mad: I cannot get to my email to view the password.
Helpdesk: Sorry, I cannot give you the password over the phone. Maybe I will post it to your house address.

Deadlock. User cannot login to the network, he will not be able to work until he received snail mail on his password. :giggles:

Go ahead and test it out to see what your IT Helpdesk response. You probably can shake legs while waiting for your password.

Popularity: 2% [?]
Yahoo Account
08.25.06 |IT, Information, Technology| Permalink | 6 Comments

When I was in vacation, back in July, my yahoo account was hacked in to. I could not log in. It is partly my fault, because I didn’t really put an unbreakable password. You probably knock me on the head since I am from IT line, I should know better.

Anyhow, the account was open more than 10 years ago. I had all the chat/IM and my old geocities website, link to this account. My yahoo IM friends will be gone. It will mean that it will all vanish if I don’t get my account back. It seems like a total lost of connection, ha, just like your identity. Fortunately I still have MSN IM.

I tried, “forget your password link” in the yahoo login page. Obviously, that will not work, as hackers will change the information of your profile. Next I wrote to the security team, account-security@cc.yahoo-inc.com. One of the admin requested some verification check like security questions and my postcode. It was more than 10 years ago, how would I remember what I put in? Anyway, I gave them a few answers but my postcode was easy, I only stayed with my parents when I was in KL.

After about 1-2 months, a whole lot of emails flying back and forth, finally, the admin send me a reset password. I had given up then but the good news came.

I heard a lot of cases that are in the same shoe as I am. By the way, for those who still can get into their yahoo account, it is time to update your profile and security question.

Here is what you have to do:

Yahoo Help!

Popularity: 2% [?]