Installation of Clarity at home

As one of the preparation steps for CA Clarity Technical Certification, I did a fresh installation of Clarity 7.5.2 in my laptop.
I've used Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition as the application database because of the operating system requirement for Enterprise edition. However, please note that this edition of SQL Server is not certified under the Clarity PAS for 7.5.2.

When I try to install the database from NSA, it seems that JDBC was unable to connect to the SQL Server. Then, I wrote a simple Java program to attempt to connect to the SQL Server using the shipped JDBC Driver (msbase.jar, msutil.jar, mssqlserver.jar), still the result remained.
Without wasting more time, I downloaded Service Pack 4 for SQL Server and installed it. This time, the connection was successful.

During the application database installation, the process terminated prematurely due to some collation errors. Geez, the server collation is Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS and the database is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS and I suspect the installation script face difficulties in converting between these collations.
The installation guide specified SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS as accepted collation for the database. SQL Server Enterprise Edition don't have this issue as I did numerous installations using Enterprise Edition without any bumper. Anyway, I dropped the database and created a new one with server collation instead.

No major issues faced after that.

And remember to fill in that installation report for submission to the support. :p

Kingston Data Traveler II - Round 2

As far as I recalled, I tried to copy some hundreds of varying size files into the new Kingston Data Traveler II flash drive which I bought last week. Well, somehow the drive got strewed and it is permanently write protected. I can't create, rename or delete anything, besides reading out those files previously copied into the drive. After exhaustive googling and experiment with some low level disk formatting tools like killdisk, I gave up and sent an email to Kingston technical support regards this issue. They replied within 24 hours and recommended that I get a new replacement from one of their authorized distributor in Malaysia. Ok, the suggestion sounds logical and reasonable, but I prefer to get back to the shop where I bought it. That's it, finally I got a new drive from them and hopefully nothing will go wrong with this new born.

Yummy! Yummy!

My B'day cake

Got this cake from one of the local bakery store. Obviously enough, it is cappucino flavoured with strawberry garnish. Too sweet though. I still prefer cheese or tiramisu cakes. :)

New Storage Capacity

I managed to increase portion of existing personal IT storage through acquisition of the following items:

1.) SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo - 1GB



- Previously using SanDisk 64MB, which comes with the cell phone package.
- Price at RM175.00
- 5 years warranty
- Comes with adaptor


2.) Kingston Data Traveler II - 1GB



- Previously using Kingston 128MB
- Price at RM75.00
- 5 years warranty


Other future upcoming storage upgrades might includes:

• Two 300GB Desktop HDD

Thunder Storm in Kuala Lumpur

3 hours of non-stop raining in Kuala Lumpur, not that surprising caused traffic congestions of nearly every single routes and railways within the parameter of the city. In the past, this kind of natural disaster wouldn't be matter to me as I used to work or travel between outskirt of the city. Just how lucky I am, yesterday stuck at one of the little tiny bus station in front of KLCC, with my foot soaked with the water flooded out from no where. Waited for 5 minutes, then 15, the rain just seemed to get heavier and the lightning stroked endlessly. Ok, time's up, got to march to the KLCC LRT station before rush hour. Rolled up my pants and ran towards the building. Hit by the rain hard and almost blew by the strong wind to the sky. Oh yes, I’m totally wet, from top to bottom. Given no alternative, I had to purchase a shirt immediately from Isetan.

Story continues. The LRT station was way too crowded. I managed to cut through the queue (Which is not that ethical anyway), and tried to squeeze into the first train that came, not successful though. The experience is like you hitting a concrete wall or tries to squeeze into a matter where no space exists between atoms. Embarrassing though :p

Finally, got up on the next train. Picked up my car and jammed in the highway for 1 hour; reached home around 8pm. Phew, what a journey.

Well, it's just another rainy day in Malaysia. You just need to get use to it.

Procrastinating usual productivity and knowledge discovery.

Virtually everyone I know, at certain period of time, suffers from the effect of procrastination. I, a mortal who tagged with the "nerd" label can’t really escapable from this universal law of human behavior.

So, that's it. Put aside all my reference e-book, paper books, and journal papers and shut down my Microsoft Outlook forcefully. I'm going to focus on one particular objective: To be extremely unproductive..... for a short moment.

My counter-productive measures include the following:

Walked mindlessly within house parameter - 10 minutes
Sat on massage chair and relax - 15 minutes
Took a nap on sofa chair - 20 minutes
Ate dinner (Without newspaper and reading materials around) - 15 minutes
Tried to speak to my dogs and failed - 20 minutes
And other similar activities - 1 hour.

It's kinda difficult for me to prolong my planned procrastination period. Felt so eager to sit down to my precious workstation and start to type something. Envy those slackers that are able to survive without using their brain for long period. Bravo, slackers.

Back to work.

Optimality Measure for CART