Putrajaya Immigration Department Doesn't Accept Passport Application

It has been a very lonely week at my office. A lot of my colleagues including my immediate supervisor is taking advantage of the year end to take their paid leave days before it get confiscated by the HR department. I on the other hand, am trying to save up as many paid leaves since I've just joined the company 4 months ago. So far, I haven't applied any day leave yet.

Anyway last Friday, because nobody supervising me except for the passcard which recorded my attendance time, after spending some time reading about how to make my Malaysian passport on the Immigration Department of Malaysia website. I might be flying to meet some international client most probably next year. So, I need to prepare myself just in case my company decided to send me out somewhere.

After my Friday prayers, I went off to Putrajaya Immigration Department office with a mission to make my own first passport. It is rather sad of me not being able to fly out of country. The last time I flew out of the country was with my family when I was 5 years old. Since then, I'm stucked in this country physically but I'm out on the web all over the world eventually. Just next to the building, there is a free parking space so you don't have to worry about parking fees.


Putrajaya Immigration Office Building
 

Putrajaya Immigration Office Front Entrance 

I arrived at the immigration office quite early since it was just a 10 minutes drive from my office. So, I decided to tour the rest of the building and found out that this is the place where immigrants register themselves:


Where Foreign Maids are Registered 

I then saw the flashing announcement board displaying something about the office doesn't accept passport registration. It was then confirmed that The Putrajaya Immigration Department office is only for diplomatic business and NOT FOR PASSPORT REGISTRATION! The officer I asked were kind enough to tell me that it was then too late to rush to the nearest immigration office which is in Kajang. They should have told about this clearly in their website.

Now I need to reschedule my trip to the right immigration office. Mmmm...

The Benefit of Using A Virtual Private Server (VPS)

I believe that every one of us are promoters. If we feel good about the stuff that we use, we will always tell it to someone else whether directly or indirectly. Today I'm going to write about a new high tech tool that I've been using for the past 2 months. Being introduced to Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) during one of my visit to a Microsoft road show, it has truly changed the way I've been looking at computers. If you are using Windows XP like me, the application is already built inside START > All Programs > Accessories > Communications:



If you have never used RDC before, you need to find another PC for you to connect and try out. However, it is best if you are familiar with IP Address and networking configuration before you use this facility. This application when in use and connected, acts like your normal Windows but you are actually controlling another computer remotely. If you want a free web-based application that is easy to use, one more tool that I use is a web service called LogMeIn:



If you look at the screenshot above, that is my remote computer or specifically known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS) located half way across the globe in Pennsylvania, US. I pay USD19 per month to use this VPS which is always online 24/7. If you do the math, I save a lot by leasing this VPS instead of owning one simply because:

1. I don't have to buy those expensive PC/Server stuff that will cost me thousands of dollars


2. The VPS is always online 24/7 and I don't have to worry about high electricity bill because the extensive need of cooling system the computers/servers need to have


3. The download connection in the US is superb. At 1GB per second network connection, it is hundred times faster than my normal internet connection. Of course, getting that file to my PC requires FTP that is limited by my internet connection


4. I can use a unique static IP address for my website or web apps for a fraction of a price rather than leasing one from my local ISP

My only problem for using this VPS is it can be sometime slow just to access and because of the low price, I only get 256MB of RAM which is rather limited. Occasionally, I need to restart my VPS at least once a week to free up the RAM or the VPS will crashed. Well as usual, you get what you pay for right?

If you are interested to use a cheap VPS for your Windows remote development or even Linux powered one, check out SWVPS. I'll write more of how and what I have use my VPS for in my next following post to come.

Talking Can Make You HAPPY!

I'm always on the look out for cheap but valuable services. Recently, I heard of a new phone services called "Happy". A couple of days later which was on the 14th of December, utilizing my Public Bank Visa Electron (after numerous frustration of the inability to pay online on 2CheckOut) I paid RM25 for the simpack. The website stated that they'll process my order in 3 business days, since it was a Friday, I thought I would only get it on Tuesday or Wednesday. To my surprise, the simpack arrive at my office on Monday 17th of December. The simpack was so cool, check it out:


My Happy Simpack

It is stated on the delivery mail that "TO BE RECEIVED BY THE NAMED RECEIVER ONLY" but that doesn't stop the courier service to just drop it by my office front desk counter. Luckily my colleagues are all trustworthy people so they drop the package to me after that.

Inside the package is the simcard but there were no fine print materials which usually comes with other simcard pack:



I've already using it for 5 days but I still have a balance of RM3 because it's so cheap. Besides, I only use the service to make long calls with my girlfriend while driving back home from work and during the midnight hours. Although the RM0.99 capped for each calls can only last a maximum of 45 minutes, it's so much cheaper than Hotlink RM3/call Super Savers. I might be going to Indonesia anytime soon, I'll bring my "Happy Phone" along with me to see whether the international roaming work or not. I'm lucky of not selling my old Nokia 3100. I now use 2 mobile phones instead of interchanging the simcards. I'm so HAPPY!


My Happy Talk Phone!

Major Website Downtime: What I've Learned from It

Last weekend was pretty much a miserable moment for me. Normally what I go out some where every weekend but for some budget reserving reason, I decided to become a geek at home and work on a few of my online projects I was neglecting. On Saturday, I noticed that I can't access my FTP and Cpanel. Suspecting something was going on so I went to my web hosting support page to find out. It was then I found out that the data center for my web hosting recently found some errors on the hard drive and they decided to check and upgrade the entire thing. They then found out that the some parts of the disk were corrupted and they had to scan and repair the hard disk. Unfortunately because of their clumsiness, the back up was also stuffed inside the same disk and in the end they couldn't restored the corrupted disk thus installed a new fresh hard drive. All of my years of web work went down the drain. It had crossed my mind to make a back up of the entire thing on my web hosting server but I kept on procrastinating it. So, the most important thing I learned is to always make BACKUPS! and DON'T BUY CHEAP STUFF.

My web hosting tracker reported that my web host was down more than a day:



Recently, I was trying to find a reason to change to another web host. I guess, I have found my answer but there is another reason why I don't think that web host matches my requirement. Oh well, I guess I need to do more web host hunting.

Lucky for me, I still have some of my old data in my laptop. By combining the practical use of Google cache and Google Picasa, I managed to restore my most recent blog posts and some other data that were lost. It required some hard work of re-coding back all my blog post to point all the images to Google Picasa but at least I don't have to worry about my image bandwitdh anymore.

I've also acquired some new tricks and triggered some new ideas because of this occasion. As people say, something must happen for a reason. I guess one can learn greatly from a defeat rather from a winning!

My current web host had learned their lesson. Hundreds of their paid customers will definitely find a new place including me. Now all I need right now is to wait for my domain name to expire and I'll subscribe to my new web host (haven't decided yet). If only my requirements were not so many..

I'm Heart Broken

My web hosting just recovered from a serious hard disk failure. All the data, my websites are all gone! I only had back up for just my blog. I had a horrendous weekend! I think it is time to change to a new web host.

I have to rebuild back all of my website thanks to not making back ups and thanks to my web host who was in hurry of upgrading their hard disk and corrupted all the data. I feel so miserable right now. Later..

Alien Vs Predator 2 Movie Tickets

3 days ago, I got a call from an Exabytes staff. Since I’ve attended the last Webmaster Gathering, they asked me whether I am free to come and watch Alien Vs Predator 2 at GSC Pavillion KL this 29th December 2007. I immediately answered yes! How can you resist free stuff right?



The Movie will be out after Christmas but you can check Alien Versus Predator official website (AVPR) and this fan made version of the trailer on Youtube:





This movie will be so scary to watch if you ask me. I’m guessing I’ll be jumping off my seat in the cinema. It’s so violent! Anyway, it’s a free show so I’ll definitely come! Thank you Exabytes!

My web hosting along with my domain name will expire in another 2 months time. I might be shopping for a new web host or continuing my existing plan. Although Exabytes is so generous of sponsoring events and free stuff, I still find that their web hosting offering is beyond my budget. Maybe I haven’t found my answer to what is so special about Exabytes that might lead me to become their client. However, it’s good to know that my question during the last Webmaster Gathering has been answered (Check out Exabytes VPS Offering).

Discovering The Open Source Issues Upclose

I am a heavy user of open source software for only ONE reason, it’s FREE! I don’t really mind if it there is a steep learning curve to it, as long as I don’t have to fork any money, I am willing to learn all how to utilize it. However, there are so many open source softwares available for download that you might get overwhelm if you like doing software testing like myself. One more thing is, I always have this question of how free is open source software? It’s one the question that has this vague answer if you are not the kind of person who likes to read fine prints.

A few weeks back, I was doing a research to get more information on an Autodesk product called MapGuide. The product is one of the component that can enhance the Computerised Facility Management System that my company is deploying. I was surprised to learn that there is now Mapguide Open Source. I then wondered, “Why am I seeing this trend of more and more commercial software being developed in open source?”.

Last July, I went to PHP Meet Up 3.0 and met Aizatto. From him I got to know the Free/Open Source Software Society Malaysia and from Aizatto’s blog feed, last Wednesday there was a meet up at OUM Angkasa Raya campus. The speaker was Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer from Sun Microsystems. I was surprised to see a person from a big corporate company came all the way down and give a talk to a small group of open source people here in Malaysia.

Unlike the recent Webmaster Gathering I went last month, the open source community is really different. I can understand that because normally developers are a bit reserved but are really well connected. Well, that is not what this post is all about. Here’s a few snapshots before I write about what the content of Sun’s FOSS Philosophy and Strategy is all about.


The Mesh Revolution

The software pattern

Mr Simon Phipps answered almost all my questions about open source softwares with his presentation. I have learned quite a number of new information that I might have never even think of before. One statement that is really interesting is that Gartner studies predicts 70% of commercial software by the year 2012 will be in open source. No wonder I’m seeing this trend is getting more obvious.

So where will the open source software will be heading? Mr Simon Phipps gave example of how Brazil is utilizing open source software to gain sovereignty in the country. Basically, the money spent on open source stays inside the country instead of going out to Microsoft or mainly the US. By keeping the money inside the country, the country benefits from skill development and resources. Apart from that, types of licenses such as the GPL, Gnome etc were also briefed and the way patterns in software development are created. Basically, an open source code is something that is given away freely but the provider is not responsible if anything happen. This might not interest corporate users as they need support whenever they have installed or developed a system for their use. Mainstream corporation is also making a move into the open source community, of course they have their own agenda.

The most interesting part I find is about the open source community roles. To summarize it, lets look at the diagram below:



Excitingly, the one that makes the most money is always the deployer developers. I do a lot of deploying and customizing so I tend to fall in that category. I however don’t make that much money yet but the opportunity is huge. There’s a whole lot of other stuff that Mr Simon Phipps presented all are which are related to the open source development. There are also stuff that I can’t really understand mainly because it were not related to me or its a whole different game plan.

In summary, the open source is definitely a fascinating world mainly because it is somehow free besides providing a level playing field. I love the idea of open source and will welcome and support its movement in the next coming years to come. Check out Mr Simon Phipps blog.

Being Locked Out From My Own Blog

I was trying to log into my blog control panel and all of sudden this screen showed up:



At first I thought my office IP address was being blocked. So I thought, maybe I'll try and access it from home and see if my home IP address can get through. Then I said to myself, "How come I am using my new found proxy server technique but still I can't access my own blog?", "There must be something wrong here!". So, using my new HTTP-Tunnelling proxy technique accessing through another web-based proxy called Guardster, I still cannot get into my blog control panel. Now this is ridiculous!

I suspect that there might be something wrong with my plugin, so I immediately went to Bad Behavior plugin blog. There it is, a download solution to my login problem. Now comes the most challenging part, replacing the plugin with the new updated one. My FTP was not working because there is a connection problem where the directory can't be retrieved. I had to do it using my web hosting control panel file manager and replace the files manually one by one. It took me longer than I thought because the download files were not being in the order as the previous plugin.

Luckily, I still managed to log into my blog eventually. Frustrated, I decided to disable the Bad Behavior plugin once and for all. It's a shame though because this plugin is good to prevent blogging spam. Without this plugin, I predict my Akismet spam plugin could easily reach thousands with the amount of traffic I received nowadays. I should have hacked into my Wordpress database and disable this plugin but I don't want to mess around with it since I haven't done my back up yet.

I can't imagine someone who doesn't have the necessary skill of repairing a Wordpress blog enduring this problem. Being blocked out from your own blog can drive you NUTS! I hope that this incident won't happen again in the future.

Breakaway From The Corporate Proxy Server

It has been a very busy week lately. However, that doesn't stop me from being idle. When you work for a company, you can't really work throughout the whole 8 mandatory hours, it is advisable to take a short break. What normally what happen is that break becomes a long break where for most PC workers would wander around in Cyberspace. That's when it affects the productivity of a company. I am guilty of doing that as well but eventhough it is unethical, I kind of redeem myself by not claiming for overtime hours when I come home late so that it is fair for both myself and the company. I think everybody do this type of thing, I even saw my superior got caught by me in the act.

Because of that reason, unlike home network where all the network ports are accessible directly to the internet. The IT department in my company deploys a proxy server and a dedicated network port for accessing the internet. To make it more comprehensible, here's a diagram taken from "Punching Holes into Firewall".



The reason of this deployment is because:

1. To prohibit the idling staff to surf time wasting websites such as blogger.com, friendster.com, youtube.com that can eat up a lot of your office time thus reducing your productivity


2. Instant Messenging is blocked because it is also considered time wasting as well. Think about it, which one do you spend more time on, chatting on Yahoo Messenger or calling people up on the phone?


3. These kind of social networking activities can consume a lot of bandwitdh and bandwitdh is expensive (except if you have chosen an unlimited plan). For critical moment, these activities can clogged the router's performance (if proxy server is not installed) and affects your internet connectivity


4. To prevent intruders/hackers from entering the network from outside of the domain beside protecting the network from any harmful viruses, malware or network attack


5. Why are you doing personal stuff on the internet during office hours? You are breaking the agreement you have signed when you were employed, right?

All those reason are so valid. I must say that I can even get fired almost everyday if I get caught of doing personal stuff during working hours but then again, as human we are not robots. We need some loosen up a little so that we can cope with the busy hectic environment or the quiet idling moment.

Luckily, Google Search website is not being restricted. This is where creativity take place. Using a combination of the right keywords, I found, "How to Bypass Most Firewall Restrictions and Access the Internet Privately aka The Surf At Work Page". I find the page to be quite technical and time consuming for me to understand how the method is. I saw an advertisement on the page and soon downloaded a software called HTTP Tunnel. Now this is what I am looking for all along, a simple Windows-based software that I can install and easily configure.



I wasn't happy about the restriction especially being blocked from Youtube. Using this software, I can now watch Youtube eventhough the corporate network has blocked the website. At first, I used the free server to connect but it was painfully slow. I wanted to pay the High Bandwitdh Subscription using my Public Bank Visa Electron but accidentally paid it using my Paypal credit. Oh well, it's only USD4.99 a month. Doesn't burn a hole in my pocket though.

Voila..I can now watch my favourite Youtube videos and my company wouldn't know what my online activities are. Although it says high bandwitdh, it is still limited to the internet connection my company subscribed from the ISP which in this case, TM Net Streamyx. I can now access Meebo, Friendster, Youtube and Blogger without fear of being blocked. The only problem right now is my Yahoo Messenger client program wouldn't work even after using this service. I then learned that the port for Yahoo Messenger is being blocked so I can only access the web-based Instant Messenging service such as Meebo. Oh well, that's not so bad.

It is good to know that there is no boundary what you can do over the internet. You just need to be a little creative and a little work to find the solution that you need. Happy proxyless surfing everyone!