Cisco IOS: password recovery notes I’m pretty sure any CCNA worth his salt has this procedure down pat, but here’s a summary with things to remember if you’re too lazy to plow through Cisco. 1. Reboot the router, have your console terminal all connected and ready. 2. Send break signal to the router before the POST - on Teraterm this means Alt-B [...] Video: So You Think You Can Dance - Will/Courtney & Twitch/Katee Two hours spent watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV tonight, elimination time for the top 8 dancers so far. And these two performances were simply excellent. Will & Courtney Slow hiphop routine choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon Emotional isn’t it? The longing and the feeling of being embraced by the ghostly male lover, memories long [...] Keinian ideals - Costs of living in Melbourne (versus Singapore) part 3: Transport Back after a long, long interval. Let’s continue looking things over shall we? The focus of this post: transportation, also a very important part of our lives. How much difference is there in the transport systems available? *Disclaimer: all of the below are my opinion, and do not form any basis for factual arguments - I’m not [...] Birthdays: V-Day 2008, and contentment. (This is a little out of order, but I thought I should type this out before the other backdated posts.) A happy birthday once again to V, who’s been sharing my life with me for the second year now. This year’s birthday was a pretty quiet one; we had dinner out at a cosy Japanese cafe, [...] Photography: Jay Chou 0, Cookie 1 RIP Jay Chou concert tour 2008 figurine, Singapore Edition. Apparently Cookie decided this figurine looked like a nice toy to chew on while I was at work today; I have since disabused her of that erroneous notion, and she will probably be fleeing from all Jay Chou figurines in future. Three reasons why I did not [...] Keinian ideals - Talking straight to your boss Taking into consideration the fact that your boss is the one who keeps you on a stable income, would it be right to shut up when he makes a mistake? The tried and tested theory comes into mind here: “Keep your head down, shut up and just work.” I’m pretty sure a lot of people out [...] Tech: Polarcloud’s Tomato firmware for Linksys WRT54G router This post is to written to remind myself and all the people out there of this - use a Linksys WRT54G series router only after applying third-party firmware on it. Here’s what the router looks like, incase you have no idea you actually own one. (img via spreadfon.org) Why? Quoted from Wikibooks: Tomato is free open source Linux-based [...] Keinian ideals - Showing appreciation for good work This is a real-life application of a previous post titled 6 important management qualities, a practice-what-you-preach kinda post if you will. A customer dropped an email off the other day to compliment one of my guys (Let’s call him B) on his excellent customer service. The customer didn’t exactly request that B be rewarded for his [...] Keinian ideals - Outsourcing your tasks, regaining your life Just a short blurp on something I have been talking about recently. Disclaimer: I am writing this post towards the people who can reasonably support themselves, not those who are working their asses off just to get three meals a day and a roof over their heads. Not to be brutal, but the hierarchy of needs [...] Amigurumi handicraft: Geek Central Station Quoted from Wikipedia (because I know nuts about it and I’m lazy to spend too much time researching): Amigurumi (編み包み, Amigurumi? lit. Knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects [...] Poll: Resume and cover letter vetting service Quick poll to anyone and everyone who hasn’t seen the poll on my sidebar (when you click on the individual posts): Would you be interested in paying for someone to vet your resume and/or cover letter? Tags: poll, vet, resume, cover, letter Photography: The Proposal aka OPRIBY (Refer to NZ’s post titled The Proposal) It all began somewhere in May, when I came across this unbelievably well-shot proposal by Shay Stephens on the digital grin forums. In case you were wondering, the photographs are not available because .. Quoted from Shay Stephens’ website: “Our server is undergoing remodeling, and the website is currently constrained [...] Blah! hail fellow human beans, I know it’s been two weeks since my last post, and I have been absolutely crushed with friends coming over. Honda, ZM, Nick, LS, NZ and MS. Thanks for dropping by guys! Continuous trips out including: Mornington Peninsula Ballarat Puffing Billy NZ’s proposal at St Kilda Falls Creek So I have finally finished uploading some pictures to Facebook, [...] Music: Mayday 五月天 - 麥來亂 I have been listening to this song on repeat non-stop, every morning and evening. Very emotional, and so very achingly touching. 《麥來亂》 曲：怪獸 詞：阿信 眼淚鹹 哭到眼淚 不鹹 過一天 痛一天 一天親像 一冬 過一冬 你又找阮 開講 你說你 你想我 我的一冬 攏無採工 最怕你 講你猶原思念 擱再給阮希望 最怕你 說你愛我 心擱破洞 我擱山崩 電話我也不接 找我我也不睬 麥來亂 無緣的人 麥擱來亂 去愛別人 真感謝 感謝你的 陪伴 自屏東 到基隆 走過這多 美夢 夢醒了 咱是無緣 的人 拜託你 麥回頭 麥擱問我 目眶怎紅 為怎樣 我奈這白目 我奈這飯桶 [...] Keinian ideals - The importance of money, and what defines you? It might be just a contemplative phase now, but I have been mulling over some topics for quite a while. Connected, but not really connected. I’m sorry if this post seems to go nowhere, but that’s the way my thoughts are flowing. The Job Too many people I know are bogged down by the neverending ratrace and [...] Keinian ideals - Costs of living in Melbourne (versus Singapore) part 2: Accomodation In this post, we visit an integral component of our lives: our homes. Most of us live in a HDB flat (read: public housing) in Singapore, and married couples (usually) apply for their own little domestic haven eventually. For the sake of privacy (read: recreational physical activities without your in-laws wondering what that rhythmic thumping noise [...] Literary - Crossroads The junction once again Of various choices Of conflicting paths A single step taken Erases other paths Burns all bridges Factors to be weighed For, or against? Better, or worse? Time is of the essence. But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail. - Lady Macbeth: Scene VII, Macbeth’s Castle, The tragedy of Macbeth. Tags: literature, poem, keinian, crossroads Keinian ideals - Costs of living in Melbourne (versus Singapore) part 1: Taxes I came across this post by mrbiao, titled Analysis on Canada vs Singapore, again (Day 94 in Vancouver). His post raised quite a few relevant points that could have just applied to Australia as well as Canada. This is probably the most popular question that friends endup asking. “Australia tax so high, good meh?” Income tax: Australian’s [...] Cookie: mama no more V took Cookie to the vet last Thurday for her desex operation, and brought the pup home with stitches down her belly, and so very quiet. (The anaesthesia hadn’t worn off yet at that time.) She had to wear this protector around her head to stop her licking/biting the stitches. Methink the vet went too [...] Massive brainburn I spent the better part of today designing a billing system at work. It was pretty abstract, because design considerations included stuff like database schema design (deciding what information had to be stored), workflow redesign (understanding the current policies and improving them) and interface design (aka how to make it friendly to the user), ouch. [...] Antivirus - AVG 8.0 Network Edition I had the honor of deploying AVG 8.0 Network Edition in my office recently. I’m actually running a Microsoft SBS, but we skipped out on the SBS Edition because of the price tag heh heh. That aside, server and client setup was relatively hassle-free, SBS Edition or not. I had a bit of a problem [...] Literary: The Perfect Loss (in progress) - Prologue and Chapter 1 Note: I posted this up in a previous post, and it did not have a working title back then. Prologue Life was perfect. At least, as perfect as it could be. He had a job that he liked; he wasn’t exactly in love with the boss, but things weren’t too bad. And most of all, he had [...] An update on recent reality It’s going to be the Queen’s birthday next week, and that’s a public holiday around here: the last public holiday in a long, long while. A long countdown to the next one, and that’s Melbourne Cup in November (5 months Z). I have been pretty occupied with mundane (aka boring) matters recently. Stuff like bashing up [...] Literary - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… This is a really good one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), enjoy! I shall be writing of current affairs in a later post. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal [...] Music: Joel Muston - In The Meantime I came across Joel busking at Swanston Street last year, and put up his song Move With It in a separate post some time later. It was probably pure coincidence that I happened to be walking up Bourke Street tonight, and came across Joel once again, playing his new songs. No photographs because I didn’t bring [...] Australia - The journey to a subclass 457 work visa This is pretty good news actually; as of 20 May 2008, I have qualified for a subclass 457 work visa that will allow me to work in Australia. It’s not exactly better than a PR (Permanent Residency) visa, but I don’t qualify for that anyway so who cares? One step forward in the great plan, [...] Keinian ideals - 3 questions to finding your life goals In the typical life cycle of a modern person, we easily spend up to ten years or more immersed in education; from a broad spectrum of subjects, and eventually settling to a specialisation. All too often, we end up studying and eventually working in a field we might not even like. The question then appears. “What [...] Music: 小松小柏 - 想你的爱 I remember the day when I began listening to Mandarin pop, and of course my very first idol. Or rather, idols. I’m not sure if you remember the twin brothers 小松小柏 (aka Anthony and Valentino Bao), but they were the very first singers I started on. Songs like 舞菌 (Dancing Virus), 留一片藍天, 超越另一个自我, and 狼來了; [...] John Grogan - Marley & Me: review First and foremost, thanks to MS and NZ for the loan of this book who have always been most generous in sharing good reads. Suffice it to say that my literary horizons have widened considerably under their influence, since the books they read usually do not fall under my list of preferred reads on an [...] Database: MySQL - Resetting the root password (Yes, it just so happened that I had the opportunity to reset passwords for different stuff in the same week.) Resetting the password is pretty easy for MySQL, so long as you have root access to the server. (I’m assuming Linux here.) #1 Stop the service We have to stop the running process before we do anything else, [...]