[Self] Sweden 09!

Stockholm: Roasted Elk




Stockholm: IconMediaLab memories!









Stockholm: Pizza place - very good stuff. By 2nd Generation Italians staying in Sweden.











Stockholm: Girl making ... Viking Bread










Gothenburg: One of the streets near Central St.















Gothenburg: Fall and crunchy autumn leaves ... wonderful!

Gothenburg: I think this was some city hall place, I forgot. Too little time due to issues at work to really unwind there.

Stockholm: Love that ancient Nordic design feeling!








Stockholm: Met some famous Swedish actor dude .... Tomas Norstrom.

Stockholm: Yeah the Swedes used to fight in wars too! There goes that image of super peaceful and tolerant people!






























Stockholm: Ice hockey - physical and tough sport





Been talking about it forever, and finally a chance for me to go to Sweden came along.

Gothenburg was cool, but lots of work at night admist seminars at day. Nice city and very windy. Seminar was really worth it the horizons of telco was expanded, and howthe technology we have beyond telco was really interesting!

Gothenburg: Fish Church

Gothenburg: Dinner with the worldwide colleagues

Gothenburg: Very nice skies, very nice port area.

Then 3 days later, I took an overnight bus to Stockholm, and wow it is a very beautiful place with lots of history. I always thought of Sweden as a place of vikings, and then fast forward we have the people who created Volvo, Ikea, Electrolux and Ericsson [great place to work in BTW ;)] ... but in reality the history in Sweden is more complex and more tied to European history than I ever thought.

Stockholm: One of the King Gustavs, and his war horse

Stockholm: Random chat with a hot dog vendor, who came from Iraq just 17 months ago; and his brother did vetenarian studies in Malaysia and is now in Canada.

In Stockholm, bunked in with Mattias and family, and it was really good to catch up again. And also see the typical Swedish family lifestyle instead of being couped up in a hotel. Matty has the cutest kids.

Stockholm: Swedish hotdogs @ the ice hockey stadium, cool!

Stockholm: With Matty, post game (his team SKK lost though).

Cool stuff most definitely in Sweden, but had to skip Birka the Viking Village as they are closed in fall and winter; just like how my underground sewer trip in Gothenburg was canceled for the same reasons.

Ah well! It just means I have to come back to this cool place in summer!!!

[Self] Miami #3

Maybe it was Dwayne Wade's Miami Heat jersey my brother got for me (dumb kid still owes me a T300), or maybe my right knee tendon decided to behave a bit more today, but had flashes of dexterity and forced layups during the better (ahem ... younger) days. Felt good and the knee managed to last longer with less pain today.

Managed to win 4/7 games today - for the 3 games lost, two were close calls but the last game was quite disgraceful lost in clean sweep 7-0. Probably a bit of "old uncle" syndrom there....

[Work] tracert

Tech talk during some troubleshoot / investigation.... It is something new learnt today though :)


Keeno: Dude i got a tech question u can help??
Tech Dude: shure
Keeno: 1) I am in E// office and hence in E// network
Keeno: 2) I am doing a tracert test to URL removed
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: 3) What do these results mean?
Keeno: Tracing route to URL removed [ip removed]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 43 ms 2 ms 2 ms ip removed
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms ip removed
3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms ip removed
4 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms ip removed
5 136 ms 145 ms 138 ms ip removed
6 134 ms 135 ms 137 ms ip removed
7 136 ms 135 ms 140 ms URL removed [ip removed]
8 144 ms 141 ms 136 ms URL removed [ip removed]
9 139 ms 138 ms 137 ms URL removed [ip removed]
10 140 ms 141 ms 152 ms URL removed [ip removed]
11 138 ms 137 ms 139 ms URL removed [ip removed]
12 143 ms 318 ms 214 ms URL removed [ip removed]
13 289 ms 290 ms 288 ms ip removed
14 294 ms 286 ms 285 ms URL removed [ip removed]
15 342 ms 299 ms 292 ms URL removed [ip removed]
16 278 ms 281 ms 281 ms URL removed [ip removed]
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
Keeno: The question is what is happening btw hops 16 and 17
Keeno: coz it says time out, but on the front end, my web portal stuff is still loading...
Tech Dude: URL removed [ip removed] <--- This
Tech Dude: means that there is no reply from the next node
Keeno: if time out, i expect notihng to load at all
Keeno: but i still get page loads
Tech Dude: sometimes, the next node might disable its ICMP replies
Tech Dude: that's why you're not getting anything... but you still can get to the destination
Keeno: so nodes 17 to 28 disabled their replies
Tech Dude: nope
Tech Dude: only node 17
Keeno: and I can safely say I jumped 28 node?
Tech Dude: nope...
Keeno: Coz of node 17, the rest of nodes cannot reply properly?
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: OK I am a dumbass, educate pls :)
Tech Dude: the chain is broken
Keeno: Ah
Tech Dude: even if 1 link is broken
Keeno: so u won't know if u did jump to the end at Node 17 or theoretically up to Node 30
Tech Dude: well, we are sure that it arrives at node 17 because you get the page loaded
Tech Dude: tracert uses ICMP
Tech Dude: which is different from the typical tcp/ip protocol used by http
Keeno: i mean it stll registers nodes, but does it mean page loads at node 17, or there could be more jumpts we are not aware of (eg: Node 30 could be the real node where the page load actually happens)
Tech Dude: yes...there might be more nodes
Keeno: aha OK
Keeno: so I know the MINUMUM, not the MAXIMUM (which is what I am trying to prove...)
Tech Dude: because tracert dies at #30 if there are no replies
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: yup tracert is limtied to 30 only
Keeno: is there any other more reliable trace function then?
Keeno: something easy that bodoh punya PM can use?
Tech Dude: hmm... there are applications out there that can be downloaded
Tech Dude: but i've never tried any of em
Keeno: aiya malas and too much trouble :D
Tech Dude: hahaha
Keeno: OK so I will live with tracert then ... thx dude
Tech Dude: sure no probs
Keeno: oh a bit more Q
Keeno: which of the columns do I use to add up showing there is network latency??
Keeno: Eg:
Keeno: 43 ms 2 ms 2 ms ip removed
Keeno: is it 43, 2 or 2?
Tech Dude: those are the replies of 3 separate packets
Tech Dude: the first reply took 43 ms
Tech Dude: the second took 2ms
Tech Dude: the 3rd took 2ms
Tech Dude: a tracert command sends 3 packets for every stop
Tech Dude: it's thus safe to say that the MAXIMUM latency for that IP is 43ms
Tech Dude: this might help a lil...if you're into reading geek stuff - http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/providers/traceroute.html
Keeno: OK so I will add all the items in the first column then
Tech Dude: just use one of the entries...
Tech Dude: it's easier
Tech Dude: i mean...
Tech Dude: tracert does not tell the whole story
Tech Dude: because tracert sends out ICMP
Tech Dude: which is heavy
Tech Dude: compared to HTTP
Tech Dude: http might take less time
Keeno: OK thx
Tech Dude: sure no probs

[Work] Oh By The Way ....

User registration - provisioning for old users not working
Package purchases API not working
Confirm temporary option 2 for purchase and deduction logic
Security access for Hatem
Change consumption and resource type ID 2612 and 2613
Deploy reports
Revise MDT time
Cookies mgmt - Load Balancer fault or what to change?
Consumption of Platinum logic email
OnNet + OffNet for packages -- add this to EMM logic flow
Traffic impact projection
M3COM Code review
CDRs naming based on generation location (MSDP, EMM, Sub Manager)
Option 3b's FIFO md estimation
Operator manual
Migration to the current JawalNet structure
How does current version sync up with upcoming Platform 3.1?
Handover planning
Respond to the permutations and deduction scenarios

[Msia] Twits :D

Malaysian twits - results as per 13Aug09, taken after doing a People Finder on Twitter.

While I admit I am an Ah Pek checking out what's great about Twitter, these guys below are 'leaders', with political secretaries and helpers that in theory can help them out. Some try hard to connect with users, some in fact want to ban and censor the web so badly its pathetic, while some go to ICT seminars and talk about the great information age without even knowing buying many many computers under the notion of MSC doesn't mean much without hubs of infectious creativity + knowhow.

But on the funside, let's see how they fared: It is quite easy to judge visually. Reverse alphabetical order of names were displayed to enforce a sense of fairness.

Mixed results

- Anwar and Najib got a long list. Didn't click to see if the people were legit or not.

- Lim Kit Siang had 1 entry only, but it was a legit link with the most followers.

- Samy Vellu didn't get anything! Does nobody love him anymore? Do remember the man is a national treasure!

- Mahathir didn't get much on Twitter, probably his blog is the outstanding one not his Twitter persona.

- Rais Yatim got bad results. Probably we should check what's so "in" about this "in"ternet....

[Self] Ikea@Riyadh

A few weeks ago, some guys floated the idea of going to Ikea for lunch, which was a spinoff somewhere from Khurais Road at exit 16.

"Eh?? / Blah~ / Hrrrmphhh!!", I said and swat the idea with the (real) excuse that I didn't know how to get there, plus I was really sceptical about driving 30 mins out a for lunch (if I don't do it most of the time in KL, def not likely to do that in the 45C sun ); plus I usually avoid lunching in Ikea as its perpetually crowded.

But then today Test Plant 2 crashed for over 2 hours (Oracle cluster that was supposed to affect Test Plant 1 only in the end killed everything else), more crap happened, and a furry of strong exchanges with the customer occurred, and an impact analysis went to hell. So, with a "wtf let's just go out" attitude, I drove to Ikea with some chaps.

Now, the minute I stepped in after the rotating door, there was a really weird, real calming serenity that set in upon entering Ikea. Was it the harmless but universal cookie cutter feel that sparked a sense of hominess & familiarity, or just how damn good the Swedish are at artistic home decor?

Pic: Shawarma wrap (not the hot dog) - localization

I really don't know. But here for the first time ever, as I went thru the cafe menu and food, I just felt much happier and better.

Munching on a tortilla wrap, I talked to the guys, who felt a bit of the same too..... "Maybe it's the detachment", I said as I marveled at the tasty canteen interior & just-right-Goldilocks lighting, "You somehow get a feeling that you are totally not in KSA at all".

The chaps agreed with nods, and perhaps a follow up remark.

Pic: Familiar look, only its in Arabic

I think in many ways, it was a temporary oasis for a bunch of guys who were a bit homesick, and have been marooned too long, and too caught up with the desert terrain and unique customer headaches :)

[wtH] 嫦娥's Time Zone

路遥万里@沙城，怀乡盈月望夜空

.....突来个古怪妙想：
嫦娥 Time Zone 该是根据 GMT+8 吧？
反在阿拉伯半夜时，早跟兔而们睡了吗？


PS: 老是过于沉入项目中，不知不觉 ~~~ 中秋快降临了
33天 .... 继续倒数中！