Raya 2008

It's been a while since my last post.
This year raya, we celebrated at my hometown in Ipoh.
My wife helped mum with the raya dishes..i think it's the mee kari..every year ade special raya dishes..(apart from normal lemang+rendang ayam, nasik impit+kuah sate, etc..)
My sis prepared the cakes and brownies..my younger brother helped to prepare the cakes and dishes.. and I got the chance to bring Meerul pegi semayang raya..seronok dia pegi masjid.

The only thing was he didn't want to have his breakfast..tu yang merunsingkan..
Dia behaved ok la..ikut when rukuk, sujud..Normally kalau duduk antara dua sujud, he will lunjurkan kaki ke depan, but this time, I had demonstrated how to duduk antara dua sujud masa maghrib prayer the day before...
After semayang raya, we went straight to Opah Yang's house..nasib baik meerul makan cake..at least ade la isi perut sikit.
Here are some of the photo collections masa raya..
2nd of raya, we went back to Kajang..

A night at Avillion Port Dickson

It was a memorable trip to Port Dickson although we spent extra for a Beach Room in Avillion. For RM252++, I got 2 single beds, a long couch(you can sleep on it) and a good service. Since I'm traveling with my wife and 2 kids, you would need someone to carry the luggage to the room.(with the stroller, VCD player, periuk nasi, food for kids, etc) And to my surprise, the guy who welcomed us at the lobby moved our things once I told them I've got my key. Sure they are fast, but maybe because, it's Sunday and less people check-in :)
The water chalet looks nice but a bit too expensive. I might give it a try on my next trip to PD.
Previous trip to PD, I stayed in Bayu Beach Resort. The service and breakfast are average, and the rooms are below average. I've stayed in their service apartment and the hotel room.
Back to Avillon..the nice things about this resort is they maintained the landscape and employ lots of staff(including foreign labor-a lot too) to make sure things went well.











You can take your kids to visit the pet farm on spend time at the swimming pool.(there's one for kids)
Every day at 10am, there's the 'feed the pet' time at the pet farm. If you are lucky, you can even see squirrels running on the atap roof and monkeys jumping from branches.

If it's raining, hey, they actually place an umbrella in the room so you would still be able to go out.
On Monday morning, I spent time at the kids area(a big size room with few toys to play with) At first, I was planning to make it to the pool with my kid, hesshh..have to cancel it last minute.
If you are bored enough, just pay rm10 and you can play playstation for 1 hour.(not sure what games they have for you)


To summarize the trip, it was a wonderful one and I plan to stay in the water chalet on next trip but.... I must be willing to fork out around rm500 for a stay there during the weekdays. Weekends are expensive and may be too crowded.

Proton Saga BLM

A new saga...
Well..talking about the new Proton Saga, it excites most Malaysian since our old Proton Saga has finally evolved to a new era, with changes on the interior and exterior.
With permission, I hope hostvibes don't mind me posting their pictures here, since the photos have been already signed with 'hostvibes'.
You can also visit hostvibes for more insight of this monster.(it's supposed to be a compliment ya)
The rear looks kinda cool, reminds me of toyota, and the interior looks a bit similar to Savvy.
Savvy at a price of 42k is considered expensive compared to the BLM Saga selling at 30k-40k. (maybe because Savvy uses Renault engine while Saga uses campro)
It could also be selling at a lower value to attract buyers.(with only basic specs)
MyVi 1.3 is also selling around 40k and this could make BLM attractive considering bigger boot space and lower FC.

If the FC is proven to be low and economical, the sales will be surely surpass MyVi.
Savvy and Gen2 showed a slight improvement in terms of quality and parts used. We just hope Saga BLM will further prove Proton is not just talking nonsense in terms of quality and their 'Dare to Change' motto.
All the best Proton..

why enterprise network monitoring tools important

In enterprise environment where service and network uptime is crucial in the daily operation, network managers requires uninterrupted monitoring tools to alert shift controllers.
Often tools are bought but are not fully used.
Among recommended tools are from Paessler (www.Paessler.com) , GFI and Opmanager.

Most elements depends on the snmp protocol to send the alarms and alert to the monitoring server.

to be continued...

Should you buy Checkpoint firewall?

I wouldn't be surprised to know that most of the telcos in Malaysia are running Checkpoint firewall in their data centres or even the UMTS network.
It's either the excellent marketing strategy made by the local partner/supplier/distributor or the proven capability of the firewall itself.
Firewalls are divided into 2 types, which is the software based and the 2nd would be the appliance.
In the early 90s, companies uses appliance firewall due to its effectiveness and faster thruput. Back then the firewall is just up to layer 3 filtering.
In todays environment, firewalls are evaluated based on their performance up to layer 7. That is how Checkpoint firewall differ with the rest of the firewalls in the market. Eventually most of the firewalls in the market today, claims that theirs are capable to run layer 7 fire walling.
Some of the points and advantages why I feel Checkpoint leading the market is;
1. ease of configuration via the smartdashboard
2. able to alert if there's duplication of rules or objects
3. ease of performing packet tracking based on current or past traffic.
4. sniffing made easier with fwmon
5. SPLAT(secure platform) friendly features
6. UMTS functionality for pdp context filtering

I've listed some that come across my mind and with the checkpoint community froup cpug in the net, the solution to most of the problems are easily made available.

The points above are based on my personal experience handling Cisco and Netscreen.

cheers..

Japanese humour from youtube

I found this clip funny.(just thought of sharing)Sometimes Japanese humor are creative, but most of the times they are a bit ridiculous.

Work! Work! work

It's been a while since my last post. Too many things happening with maid issue. I just can't believe how much Malaysian would spend to get good maid.
We'll, I've been changing maid 4 times in 2007.
It's a challenge of course, since your work, time and family is disturbed by some petty issues.
Other than maid, work of course is just another part of my daily task even when at home.
I have to live with it until I'm out of the around the clock kinda work. When no problem with the network, it's pretty ok. But when the fire started to build up, we are just the fighting the fire with fire. At this stage, experience came into play..'Only the know-how-&what-to do' people will survive the pressure and endurance.
Not necessary manuals are needed as they always say RTFM (read the f**kin manual)
I'm wondering how doctors deal with standby environment since they deal with human, and we(network support) deal with machines.
It's easy to blame the machine and kick them once we are sick and tired of their repeated problem, but can doctors do that?
Hmmm.. thank god I am no doctor. Me am cheap labor doing nite and day work :)
Just can't wait to be out of town vacation with family. (that of course if time permits)