Googling on Apple and Microsoft

Software list of HP EliteBook 2760p

2011-07-16T21:22:00.001+10:00

Testing Windows Live Writer

Analysis of China's Green Dam Censorware system

2010-11-30T00:32:00.000+11:00

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June 11, 2009

By Scott Wolchok, Randy Yao, and J. Alex Halderman] (Computer Science and Engineering Division, University of Michigan)

We have discovered remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities in Green Dam, the censorship software reportedly mandated by the Chinese government. Any web site a Green Dam user visits can take control of the PC.

According to press reports, China will soon require all PCs sold in the country to include Green Dam. This software monitors web sites visited and other activity on the computer and blocks adult content as well as politically sensitive material.

We examined the Green Dam software and found that it contains serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors. Once Green Dam is installed, any web site the user visits can exploit these problems to take control of the computer. This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet. In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process.

We found these problems with less than 12 hours of testing, and we believe they may be only the tip of the iceberg. Green Dam makes frequent use of unsafe and outdated programming practices that likely introduce numerous other vulnerabilities. Correcting these problems will require extensive changes to the software and careful retesting. In the meantime, we recommend that users protect themselves by uninstalling Green Dam immediately.

Contents

1 Introduction
2 How Green Dam Works
3 Security Problems
3.1 Web Filtering Vulnerability
3.2 Blacklist Update Vulnerability
4 Removing Green Dam
5 Conclusion
5.1 Acknowledgments
5.2 Contacting the Authors
6 Source documents
7 See also
Introduction

Accordingly to recent news reports (NYT, WSJ), the Chinese government has mandated that, beginning July 1, every PC sold in China must include a censorship program called Green Dam. This software is designed to monitor internet connections and text typed on the computer. It blocks undesirable or politically sensitive content and optionally reports it to authorities. Green Dam was developed by a company called Jin Hui and is available as a free download. We examined version 3.17.

How Green Dam Works

The Green Dam software filters content by blocking URLs and website images and by monitoring text in other applications. The filtering blacklists include both political and adult content. Some of the blacklists appear to have been copied from American-made filtering software.

Image filter Green Dam includes computer vision technology used to block online images containing nudity. The image filter reportedly works by flagging images containing large areas of human skin tone, while making an exception for close-ups of faces. We've found that the program contains code libraries and a configuration file from the open-source image recognition software OpenCV.

Text filter Green Dam scans text entry fields in various applications for blocked words, including obscenities and politically sensitive phrases (for example, references to Falun Gong). Blacklisted terms are contained in three files, encrypted with a simple key-less scrambling operation. We decrypted the contents of these files: [data/xwordl.php xwordl.dat], [data/xwordm.php xwordm.dat], and [data/xwordh.php xwordh.dat]. We also found what appears to be a word list for a more sophisticated sentence processing algorithm in the unencrypted file [data/falunword.php FalunWord.lib]. When Green Dam detects these words, the offending program is forcibly closed and an error image (shown above) is displayed.

URL filter Green Dam filters website URLs using patterns contained in whitelist and blacklist files (*fil.dat, adwapp.dat, and TrustUrl.dat). These files are encrypted with the same key-less scrambling operation as the blacklists for the text filter. Five of the blacklists correspond to the categories in the content filtering section of Green Dam's options dialog (shown [#screens below]).

We found evidence that a number of these blacklists have been taken from the American-made filtering program CyberSitter. In particular, we found an encrypted configuration file, [data/wfileu.txt wfileu.dat], that references these blacklists with download URLs at CyberSitter's site. We also found a setup file, [data/xstring.s2g.txt xstring.s2g], that appears to date these blacklists to 2006. Finally, [data/csnews.txt csnews.dat] is an encrypted 2004 news bulletin by CyberSitter. We conjecture that this file was accidentally included because it has the same file extension as the filters.

Security Problems

After only one day of testing the Green Dam software, we found two major security vulnerabilities. The first is an error in the way the software processes web sites it monitors. The second is a bug in the way the software installs blacklist updates. Both allow remote parties to execute arbitrary code and take control of the computer.

Web Filtering Vulnerability

Green Dam intercepts Internet traffic and processes it to see whether visited web sites are blacklisted. In order to perform this monitoring, it injects a library called SurfGd.dll into software that uses the socket API. When a user access a web site, this code checks the address against the blacklist and logs the URL.

We discovered programming errors in the code used to process web site requests. The code processes URLs with a fixed-length buffer, and a specially-crafted URL can overrun this buffer and corrupt the execution stack. Any web site the user visits can redirect the browser to a page with a malicious URL and take control of the computer.

We have constructed a demonstration URL that triggers this problem. If you have Green Dam installed, clicking the button on our demonstration attack page will cause your browser (or tab) to crash.

This proof-of-concept shows that we are able to control the execution stack. An actual attacker could exploit this to execute malicious code.

Green Dam's design makes this problem exploitable from almost any web browser. At this time, the surest way for users to protect themselves is to uninstall Green Dam.

Blacklist Update Vulnerability

We found a second problem in the way Green Dam reads its filter files. This problem would allow Green Dam's makers, or a third-party impersonating them, to execute arbitrary code and install malicious software on the user's computer after installing a filter update. Users can enable automatic filter updates from the Green Dam configuration program.

Green Dam reads its filter files using unsafe C string libraries. In places, it uses the fscanf function to read lines from filter files into a fixed-length buffer on the execution stack. This creates classic buffer-overflow vulnerabilities. For example, if a line in the file TrustUrl.dat exceeds a certain fixed length, the buffer will be overrun, corrupting the execution stack and potentially giving the attacker control of the process.

The filter files can be replaced remotely by the software maker if the user has enabled filter updates. The updates could corrupt these vulnerable files to exploit the problems we found. This could allow Green Dam's makers to take control of any computer where the software is installed and automatic filter updates are enabled. Furthermore, updates are delivered via unencrypted HTTP, which could allow a third party to impersonate the update server (for example, by exploiting DNS vulnerabilities) and take control of users' computers using this attack.

Removing Green Dam

Green Dam allows users who know its administrator password to uninstall the software. We tested the uninstaller and found that it appears to effectively remove Green Dam from the computer. However, it fails to remove some log files, so evidence of users' activity remains hidden on the system.

In light of the serious vulnerabilities we outlined above, the surest way for users to protect themselves is to remove the software immediately using its uninstall function.

Conclusion

Our brief testing proves that Green Dam contains very serious security vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, these problems seem to reflect systemic flaws in the code. The software makes extensive use of programming techniques that are known to be unsafe, such as deprecated C string processing functions including sprintf and fscanf. These problems are compounded by the design of the program, which creates a large attack surface: since Green Dam filters and processes all Internet traffic, large parts of its code are exposed to attack.

If Green Dam is deployed in its current form, it will significantly weaken China's computer security. While the flaws we discovered can be quickly patched, correcting all the problems in the Green Dam software will likely require extensive rewriting and thorough testing. This will be difficult to achieve before China's July 1 deadline for deploying Green Dam nationwide.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank our colleagues at the University of Michigan who alerted us to Green Dam and assisted with translation.

Contacting the Authors

Please send questions or comments to Professor J. Alex Halderman.

Source documents

Green Dam censorship system internal brief to Chinese government, Jan 2008
See also

A technical analysis of the Chinese 'Green Dam Youth-Escort' censorship software
Retrieved from "http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Analysis_of_China%27s_Green_Dam_Censorware_system"
Categories: Analyses | United States | 2009 | 2009-06

NBN a waste of money

2010-10-31T21:16:00.001+11:00

* Rick Wallace, Tokyo correspondent
* From: The Australian
* October 30, 2010 12:00AM

ONE of Japan's richest men has labelled Australia's $43 billion National Broadband Network a stupid waste of taxpayers' money.

Masayoshi Son, who heads Japanese internet and mobile giant Softbank and counts Apple's Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates among his friends, attacked the Gillard government's signature project yesterday.

Quizzed about the NBN by The Weekend Australian after delivering a speech in Tokyo, Mr Son said it was completely unnecessary to spend so much taxpayers' money.

"It's a waste; it's a stupid solution," he said. "Without using taxpayers' money you can get 21st-century infrastructure."

Mr Son had just finished delivering his own vision of how to deliver fibre-to-the-home connections throughout Japan without any taxpayer contribution.

He claimed that his solution, recently put to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and several members of his cabinet, would deliver basic fibre connections for just 1150 yen ($15) a month, far cheaper than what is envisaged under the NBN.

That is also far cheaper than the current typical monthly price of Y5000 ($63) for cable in Japan.

Mr Son's proposal involves splitting the part-government-owned NTT into telco services and fibre network businesses and rolling out cable to all homes within five years.

Softbank and fellow carrier KDDI would fold their fibre cable infrastructure into the merged network business, which would then be 40 per cent owned by the government and 60 per cent by NTT, Softbank and KDDI.

Mr Son said that a one-time rollout of fibre -- similar to the NBN proposal -- would cost just one-third as much as cabling individual homes on an on-demand basis.

"My advice is forget about the demand basis installation, just do it with a plan. Replace whole cities: this month Hiroshima City, next month another city, and so on," he said.

"Replace entire cities with a plan and remove metal and replace with fibre. That way the installation cost is one-third and the installation speed is much quicker."

He believes that no new capital investment would be required from taxpayers and that the network business would soon become profitable because of lower maintenance costs stemming from the replacement of the decaying copper network.

"After five years it (the network business) would generate very profitable free cash flow. If that company generates profitable free cash flow over the next 20 years, then it can get all the money from banks, not depending on taxpayers' money.

In a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, he acknowledged Softbank would benefit from the plan, but said so would the country and potentially the world.

Mr Son said that while Australia faced obvious technical challenges in terms of distances and sparse population, Japan's mountainous terrain and thousands of islands posed challenges, too.

Breakfast and newspaper in Canberra

2010-08-20T23:17:00.004+10:00

Better software modeling is a key

2010-08-09T04:00:00.007+10:00

From: cnet.com - Bill Gates: Better software modeling is a key
by Ina Fried

LAKE TAHOE, Calif.--A key to many hard problems, from using nuclear power to combating diseases, is better software modeling, Bill Gates said on Friday.

While it's not surprising that he's a fan of using software to help solve hard problems, it is somewhat surprising that there aren't already good models for some diseases.

"There's no disease-modeling software," he said, speaking at the end of the three-day Techonomy conference here. "There is none. Why is flu seasonal? We don't know."

Gates said he aims to make sure that gap is filled, supporting development of the tools needed to do such modeling, while he also wants to use modeling to further explore nuclear power options, such as the Terrapower effort he is backing. "On paper it's quite amazing but it is hard to go from here to there," he said.

Gates said he also plans to offer up the modeling software package for free for others to use.

He conceded that the models never get things right exactly, but he said, "You are a hundred times smarter doing it that way than just going out there (without such models)."

"What you are doing is constantly tweaking them to match the finite data set you have," he said.

The risks, he said, of not using modeling can be immense. In malaria, for example, you really want to make sure your approach will wipe out the disease in a particular area lest the effort succeed only in creating more resistant strains of the disease and hardier mosquitoes.

Although he's a big lover of the free market, Bill Gates said Friday that there are a lot of areas where the market could use some help.

For example, Gates said that it takes a really long time to get a new nuclear power plant technology to market, longer even than the patent that might allow a successful invention to be profitable.

"You are not going to have a lot of people putting down money when the length of the project is longer than the length of the patent," Gates said, speaking at the Techonomy conference here.

It's not even certain that one could do it in their lifetime and he said a lot of people like to focus on projects that will happen in their lifetimes, "particularly if you aren't that religious," a category in which he said he falls.

Although some areas need help, Gates said creating new forms of energy will lead to new wealth. "A few somebodies will get very rich making those breakthroughs."

If we knew a particular solar or nuclear technology were a sure thing, he said, our power issues would be complete. But, he said, "boy are there a lot of problems that need to be solved."

As for how he spends his time, Gates said he reads two to three hours a day, but is also up for spending an hour or two watching video, particularly online classes. "There are dozens and dozens of mind-blowing courses you can buy from Teach12," he said. There are plenty of free options too, he said, but it is often hard to find the ones that match one's interests and for which they have the right background.

"There's a lot of dead-ends where a course might not give you what you want," he said.

Gates also said that he hopes that eventually the best online courses will start to get significant funding to get even better, not unlike concert videos and other entertainment.

"Why don't the best physics classes have a million-dollar budget for neat experiments?" he said. Gates also said he is still trying to give people some good book suggestions through mini-book reviews on his Gates Notes Web site, however he admitted "I'm about 20 books behind."

As for his effort to get more of the rich to join him in his philanthropic quest, Gates and Warren Buffett announced that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and about 40 other wealthy individuals and families have answered their call and pledged to give away at least half their wealth.

Gates noted on Friday that just 15 percent of the largest estates in the U.S. go to philanthropy. Plus, he said that is better than any other large wealthy country. One of the problems is that giving away money can be surprisingly hard because of legal matters and other complications.

"It should be as fun as making the fortune," he said.

* © 2010 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved

Nokia iSync for Mac OS X

2010-06-22T03:43:00.003+10:00

When I was using iSync on Tiger for the first time, I was impressed by its small, cute interface and especially its phone icon just for the exact model of my mobile. This may sound a bit too much fuss, but as a Windows user who was used to see the same generic icon for all related devices, it could be a little surprised. :)

Unfortunately, most recent Nokia phones are not directly supported by iSync even your Mac OS X is fully updated and even the OS is Snow Leopard. You may connect your Nokia phone with your Mac via Bluetooth and exchange files very well, but you just cannot synchronise the contacts and calendar between your Mac and Nokia phone.

To address this issue, Nokia has released related plugins to work with iSync for Mac OS X. Simply download and install the plugin for your phone and let the iSync go.

The compatible phones are Nokia C5, E50, E51, E52, E55, E60, E61i, E63, E65, E66, E70, E71, E71x, E72, E75, E90 Communicator, N75, N76, N77, N78, N79, N81, N82, N85, N86 8MP, N900, N93i, N95, N95 8GB, N96, N97, N97 mini, X86, 5230, 5232, 5233, 5235, 5320 XpressMusic, 5330 XpressMusic, 5630 XpressMusic, 5700 XpressMusic, 5730 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, 6110 Navigator, 6120 classic, 6121 classic, 6210 Navigator, 6220 classic, 6290, 6700 slide, 6702 slide, 6720 classic, 6730 classic, 6760 slide, and 6790 Surge.

Make sure you choose the right model otherwise you won't see its icon for your mobile.

Socceroo needs a better keeper

2010-06-14T05:10:00.005+10:00

0:2 for the first 45 minutes, Aussie vs Germany. :(

Anyway, I am crossing my fingers, hoping for a miracle...

Communist Party bosses on Facebook

2010-06-08T19:05:00.002+10:00

Windows 2000 support ends on July 13, 2010

2010-05-31T18:20:00.003+10:00

According to Microsoft, the official support for Windows 2000 will be ended after 43 days on July 13, 2010. The Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center is a starting point for planning your migration strategy from Windows 2000. For more information see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy.

How to block spamming countries

2010-05-29T17:21:00.010+10:00

I was recently asked about how to filter incoming traffic to a site by identifying the domains or networks of the traffic source, just like what a spam filter does on an email server, such as blocking all emails sent from the top spamming domains such as .cn and .ru.

If you intend to identify the source IP addresses for specific domains for ALL incoming traffic to your site, you have to reverse resolve the host's domain name from each source IP address. This procedure is called Reverse DNS Lookup, or briefly rDNS.

Unfortunately, not all IPs can be reverse resolved because not every IP has its registered domain name. So technically you can't use this approach (IP to host name) to identify all country domains that you want to block.

On the other hand, not all .cn or .ru hosts are using the IP addresses which are physically located in China or Russia. They may be located in the US or any other locations in the world.

Additionally, for every single IP, reverse resolving (rDNS) needs time to query your local DNS server, then ISP's DNS server, root DNS servers and all related DNS servers. It is acceptable for validating an email address, but NOT practical for filtering all TCP/IP connections.

However, if you really want to that, you may consider simply blocking the IP ranges of China, Russia or other countries on your firewall or router facing the internet. As no rDNS is involved, the performance is better, but the performance is still reduced if too many ranges are filtered.

You may get the IP ranges from Country IP Blocks. This site also updates you about the top 10 global spammers and provides you several popular formats to export the Country IP data you need. As of the first quarter of 2010, the top three spamming countries are Korea, China and India. "The biggest surprise on the list is Korea, as it takes over the number one global spammer spot from China. With the improved high speed internet infrastructure in Korea and ease of network access, we knew Korea would be on the rise. We just did not expect it to be so soon", the site comments.

Please be aware that this approach probably has impacts on your business if you are running commercial websites or Web Services behind the firewall or router blocking these countries, as all affected visitors from these countries can't see your websites at all, including your prospective clients just travelling in these countries.

According to MaxMind, there are 248,307,783 IP addresses for China, 86,613,071 for Korea, and 33,218,703 for Russia. Therefore you will must have a long list of IP ranges to be blocked.

The decision is up to you.

How to create a Drop-box folder on NTFS

2010-05-27T20:41:00.007+10:00

I just answered the same question at Experts-Exchange (EE) and found it might be a FAQ for other people, so I post my answer here for your reference. Another consideration is that most people are not EE's Premium Service Members who can access all solutions there for free, so you will not be struggling on Google caches just for digging out a solution from Experts-Exchange.

As I don't have a Windows domain on my home computer, I simply use a Windows XP for illustrating how to implement a Drop-box folder on NTFS, named "Submissions" as an example. It is the exact same method for domain scenarios, except by replacing the users with corresponding domain users.

Basically, Administrators have "Full Control" access to the folder "Submissions", Users have "List Folder Contents" and "Write" access to the folder, and CREATOR OWNER has special "Read" access to the folder. All NTFS permissions are shown in the screenshots below.

As the result, Users can list the folder, post files, and read the files they posted, but not the files of each other. Administrators can access all files with Full Control.

Permissions for Administrators

Permissions for CREATOR

Permissions for Users

Advanced Security Settings for Submissions

Detailed Permissions for Administrators - Full Control

Detailed Permissions for CREATOR - Read & Execute

Detailed Permissions for Users - Write

Detailed Permissions for Users - Read & Execute

105 XP updates since 2008

2010-05-24T22:24:00.006+10:00

As I need to use Excel 2007 to process some spreadsheets, I just restored my work PC from a VM snapshot back to October 2008. The virtual machine running Windows XP Professional has been suspended on my hard disk for 20 months. It can be the evidence showing my switch from Windows to Mac OS X. Yes, I am a Windows guy, but I do use iMac as the platform at home, though I always work (test) on varied Windows VMs on Mac OS X at the same time.

I have switched my productivity applications from Office 2007 for Windows to Office 2008 for Mac. I am happy with most Mac versions of Microsoft Office applications, umm... except Excel 2008. In my opinions, it is a kind of totally different user experience compared to what I used to with Excel 2007.

As for that XP, as the screenshot shown below, it needs to install 105 updates (including 91 critical updates but IE7/IE8 and .NET Framework) in size of 740.6 MB, and it needs more than 3 hours to install. 740 MB is just a CD. As I remember, Windows XP initially released on a single CD in 2001...

Apple Mighty Mouse replaced

2009-12-12T23:45:00.002+11:00

The Apple Mighty Mouse came with my iMac has been replaced today with a totally new one under the warranty of AppleCare. This is the second time for my iMac, as well as me, to get Apple parts replaced. The first one was the DVD drive.

Commonly, the Apple keyboards and mice sold individually are not covered by AppleCare. However, if the accessories are parts of your Mac purchase, they are covered, even by an extended warranty which is definitely worth buying. As we know, computer accessories are more easily broken because of intensive usage, including mouse, DVD drive, and cables/adapters.

The good thing is, the replaced part is also under the extended warranty.

The bad thing is, the scroll-ball design of Mighty Mouse is a great weakness for intensive usage and easy cleaning. The mouse is not intended to be opened and disassembled as its components are all permanently jointed together and I believed no one could actually make it as it was, including the Apple authorised repairers. You may find some blogs and YouTube videos showing you how to disassemble the mouse but unfortunately no one could actually recover the one-way operation. You have to use plastic glue to fix it.

As I remember, my mighty mouse got no scrolling problem after using it for half a year, and eventually got worst last week, stopped working at all. The one more annoying behaviour was every time I clicked the left button, the gadgets appeared instead of the left-clicking operation, which made the mouse malfunctioned at all.

The new mouse is very good, working perfectly with steady scrolling and fast response. My finger can feel the friction of scrolling, smooth and steady, which lets you know the mouse is under control.

The issue is, I am not sure how long the mouse can actually work...

Smart Grid traffic analysis

2009-11-14T02:51:00.003+11:00

According to my recent study on Smart Grid and the Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap (2009-08-10) published by EPRI, I summarised the following characteristics for the network traffic between Service Provider domain and Customer domain.

1. Nearly real-time

2. Small-size package

3. Large amount of clients

4. Asynchronous messaging

5. Connection-based messaging

6. Secure messaging

7. Broadcast and multicast when required

Overheard from Aussies

2009-11-13T19:00:00.005+11:00

The following is excerpted from the Overheard column of today's mX, a free afternoon daily newspaper available to commuters in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The Overheard column is for what people "eavesdropped in on something funny, weird or just plain dumb."

Guy 1: "Hye man, did you know the Winter Olympics are on the next year?"
Guy 2: "Oh really, where they holding them at?"
Guy 1: "I don't know, maybe somewhere where there is snow... maybe Mt Everest."
- Andrew

Girl: "Aren't Japan and China the same thing?"
Boy: "No, Japan is a little island by itself and China is in Aisa."
Girl: "Oh, so China is in Asia and Japan is inside of China?"
- Geography lesson

Hard disk accident

2009-08-19T22:13:00.005+10:00

I got my tablet notebook ready for work again, after the nightmare of crashed hard disk.

The hard disk of my tablet computer, Acer TravelMate C110, suddenly crashed last week. Windows XP froze at once while the mouse pointer still could move when the disaster happened. Tried rebooting, reading on another computer, and reparing with HD utilities, no one worked. I gave up, at all, eventually.

Thanks God I did have a copy of most data on the died laptop. I virtualized the whole laptop in 2008 therefore all old files, since I started using the tablet in 2005, were kept in a virtual machine on my iMac. The biggest lose for me was the books I just recently downloaded for preparing my CISSP and CISA exams. I didn't save the links in bookmarks and I therefore had no idea to find them out again. Google didn't help here.

Since there were no explicit signs before this crash, I was curious about why this could happen, at that time, and in that way. After checking the official specification of the dead hard disk, Hitachi Travelstar 5K80, I realised that its lifetime jsut reached according to how it was used in the past years. As per this specification,

"Service life of the drive is approximately 5 years or 20,000 power on hours, which comes first, under the following assumptions:

• Less than 333 power on hours per month.
• Seeking/Writing/Reading operation is less than 20% of power on hours."

My 5K80 (HTS548080M9AT00) was about 4.5 years old. But I believe the power on hours must be over 333 hours per month (11 hours per day), and the relevant operations should be more than 20% of power on hours. I used the laptop intensively. So basically, the hard disk's quality was very good, it was just too tired, tired to death.

I got a new hard disk last weekend: Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVE, 250 GB, 5400 RPM, at A$135. It is rich in capacity compared with the 80GB of 58K80. But it seems that this model is not that good in quality according to the reviews directly from the end uers. Bad sectors and heat issues are the major problems. The shame is: I knew this after I bought the disk. Probably I am too sensitive now, as I have heard of some kind fo symbolic sounds (scratching and clicking) while writing this post. According to DataCent, they are the signs of unreadable bad sectors. My God!

Nevertheless, here are a few very useful links from where I learned the lessons.

DataCent - Professional Data Recovery
http://www.datacent.com/

This site gives comprehensive information regarding common issues and recovery approaches of most hard disk available on the market. It also give recordings of disk sounds to help you understand different problems and situations.

New Egg - The most loved and trusted marketplace on the web
http://www.newegg.com/

An online shopping mall for electronics based in the US. The site offers an easy way to see the comments from end users by rank, date, and your keywords. That would be very important to know the downsides of a product before putting your money in. I love reading the comments from the field, especially those negative comments.

Retrevo - The ultimate electronics marketplace
http://www.retrevo.com/

This site puts vendor's information (spec, review, user manual, and etc) and 3rd party reviews together. The good thing is: those 3rd party comments are automatically gathered from the Internet, such as blogs, shopping sites, and forums. That would be very convenienet for readers seeing the real quality a product could offer.

What is the direction of information security?

2009-08-02T18:04:00.003+10:00

In regard to the trend of Information Security, one point of view is that Information Security is moving from the technical domain to the management domain.

Indeed. I agree with this, as in general speaking Security is a management issue, therefore Information Security will eventually become into management domain.

In management domain, Security Awareness is the key to make a security program successful. As a result, the relevant awareness policy and/or awareness training will be a direction.

Another direction should be, as always, Standardization in turn to adopt the best practices in the management domain in varied industries.

The above are just my two cents.

How important are standards and certificates?

2009-08-02T17:58:00.002+10:00

At first, I would say, theoretically, certificates are not that important for designing a secure infrastructure, as a certificate is just a kind of official document confirming some facts such as competence of an individual or an organization. In other words, it is optional.

Of course, however, digital certificates are essential for building a secure infrastructure. We know that is another story. :-))

In regard to the role of standards in designing a secure infrastructure, I would say it is not only important, it is essential, as standards are the best practices that have been widely recognized and well proven by authorities and experts all over the world. Standards tell people how to do the right thing in the right way.

Basically, standards are essence of knowledge.

Therefore, the best practice to do something is to follow the standard. The same for designing a secure infrastructure.

What is the biggest security threat this year?

2009-08-02T17:14:00.005+10:00

Someone recently launched a survey at Linkedin regarding the biggest security threat to a organization this year. The survey listed six options as the answer including proliferation of mobile devices, adoption of social networking, internal treats, hackers, regulators, and lack of understanding by senior management.

I think none of the above options points out the biggest threat. My point of view is:
Lack of Security Awareness should be the biggest, as it is the root threat of other threats.

We know most organizations already have their security policies in place, let's talk about why in reality people (average users and security professionals) do not always obey the rules people defined in security policies: Lack of Security Awareness.

One CISSP at Microsoft commented this in the discussion: "There are two kinds of systems - those that have been compromised and those that will be".

I think it is a good point. This kind of negative consciousness in security is actually a survival technique. People with this kind of awareness can prevent incidents and damage, as awareness is the prime factor to make a security program successful.

Therefore, as I mentioned above, I always believe the biggest threat is not from technical domains, it’s from people’s mind: lack of security awareness, the root threat.

No awareness, no security. Not only for this year, it is permanent.

ActiveX Killbits

2009-02-14T09:11:00.000+11:00

Microsoft released a new set of ActiveX Killbits for Windows XP on 10 Feb. It is a critical update rollup.

As per Microsoft, “a security feature in Microsoft Internet Explorer makes it possible to prevent an ActiveX control from ever being loaded by the Internet Explorer HTML-rendering engine. This is done by making a registry setting and is referred to as setting the kill bit. After the kill bit is set, the control can never be loaded, even when it is fully installed. Setting the kill bit makes sure that even if a vulnerable component is introduced or is re-introduced to a system, it remains inert and harmless.”

But from a view of point of software development, that is not a right way to achieve security. Security should be by design, not by patch.

IE – Intrude Easily. :-)) That’s I do recommend people using Firefox or Chrome, which has no ActiveX support at all. A simple browser is a good browser. IE isn’t.

Three years in Australia

2009-02-04T23:50:00.003+11:00

Time flies.

On 4th February 2006, three years ago today, I arrived at Sydney and started my new life in Australia.

I went to the Rocks tonight to take pictures of the beautiful city of Sydney, and also to record the milestone moment of my life in this great country.

Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Leica D-LUX 4, F/4, 1.6 secs, 12.8 mm, ISO 80, Pattern Mode, 16:9, 20:35 4 Feb 2009

Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Rocks, Sydney
Leica D-LUX 4, F/4, 5 secs, 5.4 mm, ISO 80, Pattern Mode, 16:9, 20:47 4 Feb 2009

Sydney Harbour Bridge + Sydney Cove, The Rocks, Sydney
Leica D-LUX 4, F/4, 6 secs, 5.4 mm, ISO 80, Pattern Mode, 16:9, 20:49 4 Feb 2009

Sydney Harbour Bridge + North Sydney, The Rocks, Sydney
Leica D-LUX 4, F/8, 25 secs, 5.1 mm, ISO 80, Pattern Mode, 4:3, 21:17 4 Feb 2009

Sydney Harbour Bridge + North Sydney, The Rocks, Sydney
Leica D-LUX 4, F/8, 40 secs, 5.1 mm, ISO 80, Pattern Mode, 4:3, 21:30 4 Feb 2009
I have got used to living here in Sydney, one of the most fabulous cities in the world. I also have started loving this country, Australia.

WD My Book Studio Edition

2009-01-28T17:55:00.008+11:00

I today bought an external hard drive for my almost overflowed iMac: WD My Book Studio Edition. I am going to use it as an "internal" storage for my iMac by utilising the external drive's FireWire 800 connection. The Studio Edition series is the only line that supports FireWire 800 (1394B) interface in Western Digital's map of external hard drives.

WD My Book Studio Edition has a pretty cool looking design, which is very well matched with the my silver iMac. The design of its case cover seems copied from Mac Pro, especially the power button. No wonder Western Digital promotes this model by saying creative power for your Mac.

New blogs launched

2009-01-08T13:01:00.005+11:00

Two more new blogs of mine have been launched.

Bengmugenr (嘣呒哏儿) is my Chinese Blog, and used for talking about anything in Chinese, including China affairs and my personal life. Almost all posts in Chinese I ever published have been moved to bengmugenr.blogspot.com, and are no longer available here at bbao.blogspot.com.

OZ Photographer is dedicated for my hobby in photography, and will be publishing my photos and comments.

This site is still my primary blog. It will be mainly talking about technical stuff, especially on Microsoft technologies, hence the name, Googling on Microsoft.

Australia next year to drink milk

2008-12-18T17:59:00.007+11:00

The above title is from Google Translate, a translation of "明年喝澳洲牛奶" from Chinese into English. Obviously, the proper translation should be "To drink Australian milk next year".

From: Bing Bao
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 4:55 PM
To: Workgroup
Subject: Chinese people next year to drink Australian milk

Hi Folks,

It is reported that the third batch of Australian cows has arrived in Sichuan, China. Some Chinese people will be drinking Australian milk from next year.

I tried to use Google Language Tools to translate the related Chinese news into English, but found the title has been translated to "Australia next year to drink milk". :-))

The first paragraph of its translation was:

"China Morning Post (Reporter Yanqing) yesterday (17) morning, with the third batch from Australia by air from the 483 Holstein cows into the four-Chuan Hongya County dairy import quarantine field, Sichuan Province, the first large-scale introduction of foreign The work of the official end of the cow. At this point, Mengniu Group's 1500 imports of cattle imported species have been arrived at. It is understood that the post-disaster reconstruction in our province as the focus of one of these dairy imports formal entry will further increase the income of dairy farmers."

Cheers,
Bing

Experience what MS is missing on 64-bit

2008-12-18T01:33:00.013+11:00

For a better 64-bit experience, yesterday I installed Internet Explorer 8 Beta x64 version on a pure 64-bit VM, a Hyper-V virtual machine running Windows 2003 R2 Standard x64 (guest) on Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise (host). Using this IE8, I visited ISA 2006 website to see if there was any 64-bit update or upgrade for this 32-bit only firewall product introduced in 2006. After that, the story began.

As shown above (of course, not including the lines and words I added in red), at the Home of ISA Server website, there was a big image prompting you to install Silverlight 2.0 in turn to "experience what you're missing on this site". Sure, I loved to do that. I clicked the image to install Silverlight 2.0.

Then the following screen appeared.

That's why I modified the title image above, because what I experienced was what Microsoft was missing on 64-bit.

As you know, Silverlight can be installed from Microsoft Update. So, with the same IE8 window, I chose menu Tools | Windows Update to try another way to install the Microsoft's Flash-Killer.

Wow, still not compatible! This time, it was Windows Update. I was asked to open a 32-bit IE8 window. An unknown error followed, as shown below.

At that moment, Windows Update was prompting me for an automatic update: a 64-bit update to set the kill bits for a few third-party software.

Actually, this kind of task (to set ActiveX Killbits in registry) can be done by any code (32-bit binary code, or even a plain script), but Microsoft officially released a 64-bit patch to do that..., though the patch loader (the ActiveX control of Microsoft Update) is still only available in 32-bit...

For Microsoft, a pure 64-bit world still has a long way to go.

Trunk Monkey Ads

2008-12-15T17:10:00.001+11:00

Got three Trunk Monkey video clips from a workmate today, and found the full set at YouTube from Laughing Squid. Really funny. LOL!

Source: Trunk Monkey Ads by Suburban Auto Group

FILESTREAM is just for SharePoint

2008-12-04T18:22:00.010+11:00

As a new generation of database engine, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is architecturally enhanced to provide a trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform for most demanding mission-critical applications.

A lot of cool features have been revealed, one of them is FILESTREAM, which can be used to provide better support for SharePoint Document Libraries. Therefore, large files can be efficiently managed by SharePoint, but no longer need to be physically stored in the SQL database.

According to MSDN, FILESTREAM "allows structured data to be stored in the database and associated unstructured (i.e., BLOB) data to be stored directly in the NTFS file system. You can then access the BLOB data through the high-performance Win32 streaming APIs, rather than having to pay the performance penalty of accessing BLOB data through SQL Server."

Unfortunately, MOSS 2007 currently does not provide any official support on this feature of SQL Server 2008.

However, the good point is: "Instead of being a completely new data type, FILESTREAM is a storage attribute of the existing varbinary (max) data type. FILESTREAM preserves the majority of the existing behavior of the varbinary (max) data type. It alters how the BLOB data is stored – in the file system rather than in the SQL Server data files."

"Because FILESTREAM is implemented as a varbinary (max) column and integrated directly into the database engine, most SQL Server management tools and functions work without modification for FILESTREAM data." Thus, it is technically possible to use FILESTREAM with current version of SharePoint.

Actually, a .NET Architect in Rome, Vincenzo Tenisci, just posted his solution for this last week.

BLOG: SQL 2008 FILESTREAM and SharePoint Document Libraries

It is worth giving a try.

For more information about managing unstructured data with SQL Server, download the white paper from here.

SQL Server 2008 Editions

2008-12-03T18:08:00.002+11:00

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has been released for a couple of months. There are more editions available for this 2008 version, sometimes users could be confused on choosing the right edition for their particular business, as well as the related licensing and pricing issues. I am here listing all the links I found when I researched on the above issues.

Microsoft: Choose the Right Edition for Your Needs
Microsoft: Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2008
Microsoft: Editions and Components of SQL Server 2008
Microsoft: Maximum Capacity Specifications for SQL Server
Microsoft: Maximum Number of Processors Supported by the Editions of SQL Server
Microsoft: Memory Supported by the Editions of SQL Server
Microsoft: Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2008
Microsoft: Compare Editions–Enterprise and Standard (the detailed comparison)
Microsoft: Compare Editions–Compact and Express (the detailed comparison)
Microsoft: Version and Edition Upgrades
Microsoft: SQL Server 2008 Pricing
Microsoft: SQL Server 2008 Volume Licensing
Microsoft: SQL Server 2008 Licensing Frequently Asked Questions

Blog: Compare all editions of SQL Server 2008 Express

Nokia 6131 in water

2008-12-02T18:17:00.004+11:00

I eventually found my Nokia 6131 yesterday, from the washing machine, at the bottom of the drum, after I collected all the clothes washed. :-((

Now, the mobile has gone back into the water again. In the next few days, the water will be its home. :-)) Like its little brother, my bluetooth headset, a bowl of clean water is the place to go after having a shower in the washing machine. :-))

My bluetooth headset experienced the same kind of incident six months ago, but it works quite well now. I am not sure if this Nokia can be back again. Just give it a try.

To see the photos taken by this Nokia 6131, just click the label below.

Considerations on building a SharePoint Document Library

2008-12-01T18:29:00.007+11:00

Lots of SharePoint deployment today simply move all files on the network drive straight into a SharePoint Document Library keeping the same folder structure and properties, and use the same methods to maintain the library, as what we dealt with a file share.

I don't see it is a right way to utilise SharePoint. This approach is not efficient for searching and re-using past work because only one category can be applied to each document.

Today, a new approach of taxonomy is to use labels. Multiple labels can be applied to a single document. A good example is Gmail, which puts all emails in one logical repository and uses labels to personalise email classification. Another example is blogging systems, most of them are now provide labelling ability for quick search and easy organisation.

To maximize the search ability of SharePoint, you may consider to:

Use labels, as metadata, to category documents in a document library. This can be implemented by using a document property or a custom column.

Store documents in a single specific folder (not several folders). One document, one physical location, multiple logical views (explained in Point 4.)

Enable versioning in turn to hide old versions for general access.

Instead of presenting end-users a friendly interface to browse documents, similarly as they browse file folders, use Customised Views based on the metadata that the system (better automatically) collected from custom list, document properties, and database if applicable.

Create simple, standard folders for each document library, such as Work, Published, and Temp. This is for easy file maintenance (Backup/Restore/Archive), not for document management from the point of view of business.

Basically, the above suggestions can be summarised into two approaches:

Use label based metadata;
Use customised views.

I think these two approaches would make your SharePoint solution special and advantageous, and better benefit the client’s needs.

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

2008-11-25T18:25:00.000+11:00

From: Rogers, Wendy
Sent: Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:31 AM
Subject: FW: Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.

This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

#10. Titanic ($150 Million)

The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).

#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge ($358 Million)

On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

#8. MetroLink Crash ($500 Million)

On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

#7. B-2 Bomber Crash ($1.4 Billion)

Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.

The crash was captured on video. It shows one B-2 Bomber successfully taking off followed by the B-2 Bomber which crashes. The crash starts at 2:00

#6. Exxon Valdez ($2.5 Billion)

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig ($3.4 Billion)

The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day.. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.

Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

#4. Challenger Explosion ($5.5 Billion)

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).

#3. Prestige Oil Spill ($12 Billion)

On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.

According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

#2. Space Shuttle Columbia ($13 Billion)

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.

In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

#1. Chernobyl ($200 Billion)

On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

Unlock ISA server from Lockdown mode

2008-11-24T03:08:00.001+11:00

Title: NO PING after stopping ISA Firewall Services
Tags: Microsoft, ISA Server, 2006
Zones: MS Forefront-ISA, Windows Networking, Windows Network Security

hi folks

i got a strange problem. i thought i could PING NLB-enabled ISA servers after stopping their FWSRV service, but actually not.

basic system information of the ISA servers:

W2K3R2 Standard in Hyper-V
512MB
4 NICs with 4 dedicated IPs (1 x external facing, 3 x internal facing)
NLB enabled on all NICs on IGMP multicast mode
additional 17 VIPs assigned to the 4 NICs (10 + 1 + 3 + 3)
ISA 2006 Enterprise with SP1 and Supportability Update
Back Firewall template with Block All
outgoing DNS/HTTP/HTTPS/NTP/PING traffic is allowed

NOTE: ISA Integrated NLB is not used as it does not support NLB on all adapters with IGMP multicast, WLBS used instead.

the network connection is OK as i can use ARP -A to see their MAC addresses though i could not PING the IPs

any clues? many thanks for any input.

kind regards,
bbao

Author Comment - Author: bbao Date: 09/09/2008 - 07:13PM EST

just an update:

i just did a test on another stand-alone ISA server and got the same problem. no PING. it seems the stopped ISA server has been locked down.

i also found the following from MS TechNet site:

"2. Put the ISA Server firewall in LOCKDOWN mode, by stopping the Microsoft Firewall service. At a command prompt, type net stop fwsrv."

Troubleshooting networking issues
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/isa/2004/help/CMT_TrblDialup.mspx?mfr=true

the ISA servers are now in LOCKDOWN mode?? if so, how to unlock in turn to allow any incoming and outgoing traffic as before?

regards,
bbao

Assisted Solution - Author: keith_alabaster Date: 09/10/2008 - 08:21AM EST

Its not a problem - it is by design. Stopping the services means exactly that. ISA has a system policy (not firewall policy) that says whether to allow icmp traffic from internal to the localhost (isa box) so if you stop the services you also stop the access. removing ISA would allow the connections OK - stopping the services stops ISA from being operational however the dll's, the configs etc are all expecting ISA to be running.

Keith

Accepted Solution - Author: bbao Date: 09/10/2008 - 10:00AM EST

hi Keith

you are right, it is by design - a very good design.

i have actually already found the way to unlock ISA lockdown mode: NET STOP FWENG /Y.

this command will open the ISA server to all network traffic by stopping the Firewall Engine which runs in kernel mode of W2K3. the engine is a kernel-mode driver (fweng.sys) "which is called whenever network traffic arrives or leaves an ISA server network interface and modifies it if necessary."

this command will automatically stop the upper-layer Firewall Service, so NET STOP FWSRV is not necessary.

i found the above information from a MS white paper "ISA Server 2006 Firewall core", the best MS document i ever read - clear, informative, and accurate.

regards,
bbao

Expert Comment Author: keith_alabaster Date: 09/10/2008 - 12:39PM EST

Nice one :) - I will have a read on that as I don't recall that paper, and I have read quite a few

Regards

Keith :)

Author Comment Author: bbao Date: 09/10/2008 - 05:41PM EST

FYI

ISA Server 2006 Firewall Core
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/prodinfo/firewall_corewp.mspx

Expert Comment Author: keith_alabaster Date: 09/10/2008 - 07:53PM EST

Thanks :)

Author Comment Author: bbao Date: 09/10/2008 - 09:08PM EST

hi Keith,

do you mind that i accept my second comment as the answer as i would like to PAQ this question. i believe this would help others who intend to hear the heartbeat after killing the ISA server. :-)

i tried to share points to you by accepting multiple solutions, but EE did not allow me to choose my comment in this way... thanks for your kind help,

regards,
bbao

Expert Comment Author: keith_alabaster Date: 09/11/2008 - 12:26AM EST

No its fine and an accurate reflection anyway. Besides, you likely know my EE email address if you ever want help with ISA Server.

Regards
K :)

Passport comparison on visa-free entry

2008-11-16T16:51:00.009+11:00

It was reported last week that, Gong Li (巩俐), who grew up in my hometown of Jinan (济南) and now is one of the most well-known Chinese movie stars, has been granted Singapore citizenship after 12 years since she married a Singaporean tobacco tycoon, Ooi Hoe Soeng (黄和祥), in 1996. According to what she later explained, this is because she travels a lot and it's convenient to hold a Singapore passport.

Like all passports of developed countries, Singapore Passport is also a well-recognised travel document for international travel freedom, which means that the passport holder may enjoy visa-free access to a majority of countries and territories for short-term tourism visits.

I am hereby listing several coverage maps in regard to visa-free or visa-on-arrival access using passports of several countries and territories. All the maps are from the Wikipedia, and the data is from Henley & Partners, as of 15 Nov 2008.

Australian Passport
Rank 7, Visa-free access to 151 countries and territories

British Passport
Rank 6, Visa-free access to 152 countries and territories

Canadian Passport
Rank 4, Visa-free access to 154 countries and territories

Hong Kong Passport
Rank 13, Visa-free access to 110 countries and territories

Mainland China Passport
Rank 79, Visa-free access to 33 countries and territories

New Zealand Passport
Rank 8, Visa-free access to 150 countries and territories

Singapore Passport
Rank 8, Visa-free access to 150 countries and territories

United States Passport
Rank 3, Visa-free access to 155 countries and territories

Recent readings in October

2008-11-09T14:26:00.005+11:00

Going to return the books borrowed last month from Chatswood Library. It seems to be fined for nearly 30 dollars because the books have been overdue for 10 days. :-((

* 《陈洁如回忆录》，陈洁如著，汪凌石译，台北新新闻文化发行（1992）
* 《陈水扁震撼》，陶五柳著，台北大村文化出版社（1994）
* 《父亲邓小平“文革”十年记》，毛毛著，香港中华儿女出版社（2000）
* 《活出历史－希拉蕊回忆录》，希拉蕊等著，钟玉玨等译，台北时报文化出版社（2003）
* 《李敖回忆录》，李敖著，北京中国友谊出版公司（1998）
* 《李光耀回忆录（1923－1965）》，李光耀著，台北世界书局（1998）
* 《任我帆游南半球》，叶子侨著，香港天窗出版社（2006）
* 《少年陈凯歌》，陈凯歌著，台北远流出版公司（1991）
* 《岁月苍苍－我与儿子王丹》，王凌云著，香港明报出版社（1999）
* 《我的父亲邓小平》，毛毛著，台北地球出版社（1993）

* Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses, Jeff Duntemann, Paraglyph Press, 2004.
* Implementing Virtual Private Netwroks, Steven Brown, MacGraw-Hill, 1999.
* Mastering Networks, William Buchanan, Macmillan Press, 1999.
* Web Stalkers - Protect yourself from Internet Criminals & Psychopaths, Stephen Andert, Donald K. Burleson, Rampant TechPress, 2004.
* Your Neighbor's Secret Life Online, Stephen Dean, New Horizon Press, 2008.

Little girl photo by Nokia 6131

2008-10-24T19:05:00.006+11:00

One more photo by Nokia 6131. The photo was taken in Sydney in Oct 2007, and was edited by Microsoft Photo Editor 3.01 for removing background, cropping, and applying watercolour effect. The cute little girl is a Chinese-Belgian mixed.

Sydney photos by Nokia 6131

2008-10-23T17:44:00.014+11:00

Here are two more photos taken by Nokia 6131 when I was in a building at Blue St, North Sydney in 2007. Nokia 6131 has a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom (1280 x 960 pixel resolution). Click the picture at right to see the large Google Earth image giving where I was when taking the photos.

2008 Australian International Motor Show

2008-10-20T17:46:00.004+11:00

Some pictures I took at the 2008 Australian International Motor Show at Darling Harbour, Sydney on 18 Oct 2008. All pictures were taken by Nokia 6131.

李朝旭、祝咏兰到哪里去了？

2008-09-29T20:12:00.016+10:00

我目前很关心这二位的下落。

一、李朝旭

李朝旭系“三鹿集团奶粉事业部技术保障部部长、研发总监”，主管三鹿的产品质量，应该直接对三鹿奶粉的质量事故负责。三鹿奶粉内含如此大剂量的三聚氰胺，必然是人为添加所致。不管是谁想下毒，都得过李朝旭这关。就算是董事长田文华授意添加或默许放行，都得由李朝旭具体执行，他能不知道这毒是怎么放进去的？？就算是奶农、奶站想添非法牟利，身为“中国食品工业标准化委员会特殊膳食分委员会企业技术委员，从事乳品新技术、新产品的科研开发、乳品生产工厂设计、乳制品安全检测及乳制品技术标准的研究、技术质量管理工作”多年的李朝旭怎能不知道食品市场上有不法分子喜爱的“蛋白精”和如何“加精”的套路？？

李朝旭，你是何等了得的“国家级”专家和“新世纪”人才，是你亲自主持研制了成为“三鹿集团支柱产品”的系列毒奶粉，也因此获奖、著述甚丰，还到处显摆以所谓“四个不能、四个为主、四个不放过”为原则的三鹿质量管理体系，还有那“震撼”国人的“1100道工序”。

李朝旭，你敢说你此前不知道奶粉有毒？你现在跑到哪里去了？你不会还逍遥法外吧？！

二、祝咏兰

祝咏兰是“借光”三鹿事件而在几日内就红遍大江南北的“紫人”（红得发紫却没有“户口”的人），据传是“国务院机关老干部活动中心、国务院中央国家机关有机食品特供中心主任”兼“北京国佑万悦有机食品有限公司总经理”。祝咏兰女士实乃不可多得的人才，一篇通俗易懂、言之凿凿的《在中央国家机关特供产品授牌仪式上的讲话》不仅揭示了国内百姓食品的有毒供应链，阐述了有机食品的安全性和营养性，展现了营造健康食品产业的伟大理想，宣传了“质优价优”的特供产品，感染了身在庄严授权现场的诸位领导、专家、老干部和“特供”企业家们，也震撼了中国网民在毒奶粉曝光后极其脆弱和敏感的神经，更吓坏了国务院机关老干部活动中心的某负责人及其所代表的整个被特供集团。

祝咏兰，您的“真知灼见”给中国的食品行业指明了“安全”、“营养”和“功效”的康庄大道，您的“亲身实践”更是证明了只要遵循定点生产、定向供应、定牌认证、定性评价、定头监管和定期抽查等一系列措施，中国人一样可以生产出“返朴归真”、“优质放心”的健康食品。这也是包括本人在内的众多小百姓们强烈推荐您出任国家质检总局局长的“根本原因”。

祝咏兰女士，您现在在哪里？该是您显身的时候了吧？您不会让全国人民失望吧？

Ups in Google Chrome

2008-09-23T19:13:00.009+10:00

Google Chrome has released for three weeks, and I have been using it irregularly in the meantime. I like the ideas and concepts behind this Google product. In this post, I would like to talk about some pretty cool features I found in Chrome.

I don’t hereby mention the stuff that other browsers have done or I ever expected. I only list the cool features that I didn’t see before but just loved in my first ride. Please be aware that so far I haven’t read any help of Google Chrome or any instruction document about it. I just operate it as naturally what I thought it should be.

What I like:

Newly designed user interface: simple, neat, and convenient

Drag-and-drop tab allows the user to easily organise existing web pages. An existing tab even can be converted into a new or existing window, which is very handy for comparing something on a wide screen, or re-organise relevant tabs into an individual window.

The traditional File/Edit/View… menus have been completely gone, replaced by a one-click drop-list just next to the Go button, and a simple right-click for the most relevant operations.

The New Tab button is always next to the last tab, at where the mouse pointer staying in most situations after the user just opened a new tab.

A new tab is, instead of the old-fashion empty page, a very informative starting dashboard for any new surfing task, which includes most visited pages with logo and thumbnail preview, full browsing history for review or search, and recent/other bookmarks.

Downloading status, as well as the Downloads link, appears nicely just as you need. All downloading status prompts you in a very proper way (using a lovely animated icon and without interrupting your current operation). The Downloads link directs you to a page to view and even search what you have downloaded.

Find in Page feature, a common functionality which every browser does, has been upgraded a little: it now shows total number of matches and location number of the currently highlighted one. It even has a preview on the vertical scroll area, so you always know where to see your keywords in the page. Just simply move the scroll bar to the colour marks at the scroll area, that's it. A simple but very useful feature, why didn’t others ever implement that?

Chrome keeps using most well-known hot-keys defined in Firefox and IE, such as Ctrl+H for History, Ctrl+J for Downloads, and Ctrl+T for New Tab. It is quite handy, and actually necessary as Chrome’s simple interface has no place to put individual buttons for these functions.

Intelligent search assistant: interactive, fast, and efficient

Chrome’s URL auto-completion works pretty well by presenting the most closed search items as you type, according to not only the keywords you ever used in your previous searches, but also the literally related items from instant queries to Google Suggest.

Chrome can even predict the URLs based on where you are. This looks trivial but practically benefits every user. So far, this kind of implementation hasn’t been done on other competitors such as Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8 (Beta).

Chrome also supports Quick Find search, an awesome feature introduced by Opera then Firefox, but in a more convenient way. A right-click on the address bar allows you to edit the search engines directly, without dealing with bookmarks as other browsers do. Moreover, by replacing the Quick Find prefix with the search engine’s name, Chrome shows the keywords plainly; it also lists the options using the prefix word as one of the keywords, just in case.

Built-in toolkit for IT professionals: amazing, powerful, and decent

Task Manager, hence its name, is intended to manage the whole Chrome world on your computer (OS). Like Windows Task Manager, Chrome Task Manager shows the information of dynamic memory, CPU, and network activity in a window. All threads belonging to the same process are associated, grouped by lines, and shown in the same colour when selected. As Chrome is based on multiprocessing architecture, Task Manager is an essential tool for the user to monitor Chrome’s activity. Every time you hit Shift-Esc in any Chrome window, the Task Manager will pop up at once.

Additionally, an option in the Task Manager window called Stats for Nerds may give you more technical information about memory by measuring memory usage in a multi-process browser, including all Chrome processes and the associated threads. Every time you browse "about:memory" link, you get the same page. The page may also tell you how other browsers use system memory.

Element Inspector is another powerful tool which can’t be overlooked. The tool can visually display all elements of a web page in a well-organised nested structure with coloured tags and the associated style information of CSS. All object properties of a page can be explored hierarchically, if you just want. Object metrics can be even visually illustrated, including margin, border, and padding. It’s almost as much as comprehensive as Web Developer, the well-recognised professional add-on for Firefox. This tool is a must for web developers, as well as those security nerds who are always curious about everything behind a web page. It is recommended to use a large screen when doing this kind of inspection in turn to view both the web page and the inspection results at the same time, as the web page or the inspector window interacts with each other by updating the HTML code, styles, and properties etc in inspector window, or highlighting the corresponding element in the web page.

Sanlu's website hacked again

2008-09-19T21:22:00.023+10:00

提示：因网络封锁，请中国大陆网友点击此　网页　查看屏幕截图，谢谢！
NOTE：Due to Internet filtering, Mainland China visitors please click this post to view the screenshots.

Sanlu Group, the manufacturer which produced most tainted dairy products in recent China milk scandal, suffered the second wave of attack to its website early morning today. As the result, Sanlu this morning shut down its ASP.NET web application with leaving a static plain-text homepage only showing two official letters from Sanlu management to the public.

In the first wave of attack, Sanlu's website was totally shut down for several days after the homepage's title "Sanlu Group" (三鹿集团) was changed to "The Melamine Group" (三聚氰胺集团) by a Chinese hacker. It was reported that the homepage was even became a chat room of the hackers. According to Netcraft, its last shutdown was on 12 Sept 2008.

The hacked website was running IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003, with a vulnerable ASP.NET search module talking to a Microsoft SQL Server at the backend. It's why the hackers could inject a comment at Sanlu News (三鹿新闻) showing in the homepage, and add one more product name "Melamine" (三聚氰胺) at their Products page.

The hacked Sanlu Group homepage retrieved at 05:14 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Hoho, came here just for fun, missed good time, will go after walking around here."

The hacked Sanlu News page retrieved at 05:12 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Hoho, came here just for fun, missed good time, will go after walking around here. The website is injection vulnerable, and should be fixed."

The hacked Products Show page retrieved at 05:17 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Products Show: Melamine"

The hacked Products Show page retrieved at 05:17 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Products Show: Melamine Bowl, Product Class: Congee, Product Series: Bowl"

The Official Letters homepage retrieved at 14:15 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Website closed due to large amount of visit. Please accept our apology."

The reloaded Sanlu News page retrieved at 18:03 on 19 Sept 2008 (Beijing Time)
The highlighted message reads in English:
"Page not displayed. You have attempted to run a CGI, ISAPI, or other executable program from a directory that does not allow executables to run."
It's HTTP Error 403.1 - Forbidden, which means Sanlu's web master has denied anonymous access to any object under the virtual directories of their website. Only two files are now accessible: index.html and bg.jpg (the background file).

AppleCare package delivered

2008-09-11T12:59:00.006+10:00

My AppleCare Protection Plan delivered this morning. I ordered it online yesterday afternoon, so the delivery was very quick, less than 24 hours, just as Apple claimed.

This protection plan is for iMac/eMac. The same plan costs only US$169 on American market (incl. Canada), but Apple charges you AU$268 (US$215) if you buy it from Australia. Apple makes extra money on the same product from Australian customers

It seems that you could buy the same product online at Apple.com for US market, but not in reality, as Apple doesn't offer international delivery across different markets. If you buy something at Apple Store (U.S.), you cannot input an overseas address for billing and delivery, only U.S. or Canadian address is allowed. The same thing for Apple Store (Australia).

Apple actually does international delivery for products ordered online, as most manufacturers of Apple products are located in Asia, such as China. For example, my iMac was made in Shanghai, China, and delivered to Sydney, Australia; and my iPod Nano was made in Shenzhen, China, and delivered to Vancouver, Canada.

Yang Peiyi sings Ode to the Motherland

2008-09-07T01:57:00.008+10:00

Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜), the little singer behind the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, singed her version of Ode to the Motherland again at an event at her primary school on 1 Sept 2008. The Youku video below reveals the lovely girl to the public.

Chrome started hitting my blog

2008-09-06T19:10:00.001+10:00

It is really amazing that Google Chrome could be so hot just after hours of its birth.

StatCounter reported that according to its statistics, "Google’s new browser, Chrome, has taken 1% of the global browser market within a day of launch." Another post at Slashdot claimed that "according to Clicky Chrome has hit 3% browser share" on day 2.

Chrome also started hitting my blog. As per my blog statistics from Google Analytics, 3.43% visits were from Chrome users after the new browser released, even higher than the average share reported above.

Chrome's Wikipedia article is also hot. According to its history statistics, the article has been revised for 855 times in the past 6 days, 3/4 revisions were major changes, 337 fans contributed. The first edition was created on 1 September 2008, just one day before its release date, with only an one-sentence description: "Chrome is the opensource browser developed by Google." Now the article is very informative and well wikipedized.

I have tasted Chrome, but not on production machines, only on a Hyper-V virtual machine running Windows Server 2003.

About recuperating senior chiefs

2008-09-02T00:28:00.007+10:00

Source: 中国人民解放军庐山疗养院
The above is a poster located at the PLA Lushan Sanatorium, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, China. This sanatorium is a well-known military hospital dedicated for senior top officials of PLA and the government. Former Chinese dictator Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, as well as their top officials, all had individual villa in that prominent national park.

The poster reads as follows in English:

PLA Lushan Sanatorium

Everything is for recuperating the senior chiefs
For everyone of the recuperating senior chiefs
For recuperating everything of the senior chiefs

The relevant comments from emails:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: B
Date: 2 Sep 2008 00:37
Subject: Re: Pictures from North Korea
To: W

LOL!!

On 01/09/2008, W wrote:
> 屁精的升级版是领导
> 领导的升级版是首长
> 首长的升级版是领袖
>
> 兄弟们要抓紧修炼阿
>
> 2008/9/1 B wrote:
> > 首长总是手长的，不仅多拿，还要多摸……:-)))))
> >
> > On 01/09/2008, Y wrote:
> > > 首长那么重要吗？有意思。
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: B
> > > Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 8:06 AM
> > > Subject: Fwd: Pictures from North Korea
> > >
> > > > LOL
> > > >
> > > > "首长一切"？？意思有点怪怪的啊，呵呵……
> > > >
> > > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > > From: L
> > > > Date: 1 Sep 2008 02:58
> > > > Subject: Re: Pictures from North Korea
> > > > To: B
> > > >
> > > > 互相学习，共同进步
> > > >
> > > > 2008/8/31 B wrote:
> > > > > http://q.sohu.com/forum/20/topic/3486630

You and Me

2008-09-01T23:55:00.005+10:00

You and Me (我和你)
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Official Theme Song
by Sarah Brightman and LIU Huan (刘欢)
(Live Recording (MP3))

我和你
心连心
同住地球村
为梦想
千里行
相会在北京

来吧
朋友
伸出你的手
我和你
心连心
永远一家人

You and me
From one world
We are family
Travel dream
A thousand miles
Meeting in Beijing

Come together
Put your hand in mine
You and me
From one world
We are family

来吧
朋友
伸出你的手

You and me
From one world
We are family

Ode to the Motherland

2008-08-29T00:00:00.031+10:00

Ode To The Motherland (歌唱祖国), one of the most well-known patriotic songs in China, was prominently performed at the Bird's Nest while the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games kicking off on August 8, 2008.

This song was written and music composed in 1951, but today it is still one of my most favorite Chinese songs because of its nice melody, though I started listening it even in my childhood. I love this song, that's why I was extremely moved when I surprisingly heard it from Channel 7's live video of the opening ceremony that night.

Originally, the song was in marching rhythm, but the ceremony's chief music director, CHEN Qigang (陈其钢), recomposed the song into a very lyric style, just for the harmonious atmosphere of the global event. Moreover, there were some political words in the original lyrics, and those words were all removed in this Olympics edition.

It has been revealed that the cute performer girl of the song, LIN Miaoke (林妙可), did not sing a note at the opening ceremony though the billions of people around the world did watch her lovely appearance on the screen. What the world heard was from another lovely girl, YANG Peiyi (杨沛宜), 7 years old, who had the perfect voice for the first song at the ceremony.

It was really a shame that we could not see the lovely Peiyi on the TV as the ceremony organizer did ridiculously think she was not good looking enough than LIN. In fact, CHEN disclosed more about the decision in a radio interview that the pressure was actually from the politburo!

However, you may now listen the song on YouTube with YANG Peiyi's voice.

I have also converted the live recording into MP3 format, so you may just download/listen the MP3 version with lyrics built-in. (Note: The latest video of Yang Peiyi has been added at another post)

The Olympics Version Lyrics (奥运版《歌唱祖国》歌词):

五星红旗迎风飘扬，胜利歌声多么响亮；
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国，从今走向繁荣富强。

越过高山，越过平原，跨过奔腾的黄河长江；
宽广美丽的土地，是我们可爱的家乡；
我们爱和平，我们爱家乡，我们团结友爱坚强如钢。

五星红旗迎风飘扬，胜利歌声多么响亮；
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国，从今走向繁荣富强。
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国，
从今走向繁荣富强。

Five-Starred Red Flag is fluttering in the wind,
How bright is our song of victory;
Sing for our dear motherland,
Towards prosperity and strength from now on.

Across the mountains, across the plains,
Over the turbulent Yellow and Yangtze rivers;
This vast and beautiful land,
Is our delightful home;
We love peace, we love home,
Our unity and fraternity is as strong as steel.

Five-Starred Red Flag is fluttering in the wind,
How bright is our song of victory;
Sing for our dear motherland,
Towards prosperity and strength from now on.
Sing for our dear motherland,
Towards prosperity and strength from now on.
* The above English translation in italic is from Wikipedia English - Ode To The Motherland, retrieved on 31 August 2008 08:32 UTC

The iPhone Girl

2008-08-28T17:36:00.013+10:00

I know that a lot people have already known the lovely iPhone Girl from recent news reports, but most reports were plain and similar. I just let you know that the AFP news mentioned in my email below was the most informative one I ever read.

From: Bing Bao
Sent: Thursday, 28 August 2008 13:54
To: Matt Doyle; Brett Payne; Andrew Solano; Matthew Weeks; Alma San Jose; Christopher Scalley; Maria Carriedo; Ann Ramos; Peter Nemeth; Robert Ilencik; Amanda Boyd
Cc: Jason Tornabene; Joel Cohen; Adam Merretz; Amanda Wang; Jessie Wei; Runi Nielsen-Candido; Jeff Daly
Subject: The iPhone Girl

A cute Chinese girl assembler at iPhone’s China factory became a worldwide well-known in just 6 days after her sweet smile incidentally left in an iPhone sold to the UK… caused a beautiful mistake.

Some iPhone customers even joked on the website that they were considering returning their phones because they did not come loaded with the lovely girl’s photo.

The AFP news: 'Beautiful mistake' makes China factory worker a celebrity

The original post: iPhone 3G - already with pictures! (393 comments in 16 pages, as of today)

The sources: More news from Google

A message to the hacker

2008-08-26T12:02:00.008+10:00

LOL!

Source: Boxun News - Chinese
This is a screenshot of one news post at a Chinese News Portal based in the US. The highlighted text in red reads as follows in English.

IP 218.77.97.163 INTENDING TO ATTACK THE BOXUN SERVER

(We are) very busy reporting the Olympic Games, so PLEASE don't give a hard time to Boxun now.

The IP address (218.77.97.163) is from Hunan, China. That's why the web site posted this reminder news in Chinese. :-)

Google Doodles for Beijing Olympics 2008

2008-08-26T00:47:00.008+10:00

Day 1 - 8 Aug 2008, Opening Ceremony

Day 2 - 9 Aug 2008, Cycling - Sheep

Day 3 - 10 Aug 2008, Weightlifting - Rat

Day 4 - 11 Aug 2008, Diving - Boar

Day 5 - 11 Aug 2008, Rhythm - Ox

Day 6 - 12 Aug 2008, Rings - Monkey

Day 7 - 13 Aug 2008, Basketball - Dragon

Day 8 - 14 Aug 2008, Badminton - Tiger

Day 8 - 15 Aug 2008, Soccer - Horse

Source: Google - 2008 Summer Games Doodle, Google China Blog

Optimizing Hyper-V

2008-08-21T10:53:00.003+10:00

Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008: Hyper-V
Resources for Hyper-V

Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers

David Lef podcast on How Microsoft IT Uses Hyper-V

Brilliant! The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony!

2008-08-10T20:34:00.006+10:00

I just love it! The brilliant Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony! Click on the following pictures to see the details.

The fireworks

The show
(See the people walking around freely in different directions on the ball/earth.)

The flying Olympic five-circle

The Water Cube
Photo source: 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Another Bird's Nest :-))

2008-08-09T22:51:00.000+10:00

Source: bullog.cn

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on Microsoft

2008-08-08T14:57:00.002+10:00

Today is 8 August 2008, the day of opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Let’s talk about Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and … Microsoft, and SharePoint, Office, and Silverlight etc. :-)))

Do you know MOSS 2007 is currently serving at the backend of the Games?

Yes, MOSS 2007 is being used as the search engine for INFO 2008, the internal system providing Olympics partners and media with continually updated information and event results.

Case Study - Beijing Olympics Builds Powerful and Flexible Information Search System (.doc)

Do you know you may download the full event schedule for the Games from Microsoft?

Event schedule for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic games (PowerPoint template)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102746411033.aspx

Event schedule for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic games (Excel template)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102750351033.aspx

2008 Summer Games (More Office templates)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT102778401033.aspx

Do you know you may watch the Games using Microsoft Silverlight?

Silverlight, your new way to watch the Summer Games
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/NBCOlympicsonMSN

Olympic 2008 official dresses

2008-08-03T21:23:00.011+10:00

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

CANADA

FRANCE

GERMANY

GREECE

JAPAN

KOREA

ROMANIA

RUSSIA

SPAIN

UNITED STATES

CHINA

As per Xinhua News Agency, China has announced to send their biggest-ever Olympic team, a 1099-member delegation (incl. 639 athletes), for the Beijing Olympic Games to be officially opened on 8 August. Just imagine what it will look like when the Chinese delegation enters the Bird's Nest stadium: a crowd of thousand, a crowd in red and yellow, a big dish of tomatoes with eggs. :-))))

The most popular Chinese dish: Tomatoes with Scrambled Eggs

Relocating to Artarmon

2008-07-26T00:26:00.002+10:00

Relocation has been a part of my Australian life. This was not what I did ever think about before moving to Australia.

As far back as I could remember, my family moved within my hometown for only four times in the past 30 years. But I have moved five times here within the Great Sydney. Today, Artarmon will be my sixth home.

See where I stayed in the past two years:

1. 2006, Lidcombe (2141)
2. 2006-2007, Chatswood (2067)
3. 2007-2008, Lane Cove (2066)
4. 2008, Riverwood (2210)
5. 2008, Sydney (2000)
6. 2008, Artarmon (2064)

An old man performing at Chinatown

2008-07-25T19:04:00.003+10:00

An old gentleman performing
at the intersection of Gouburn St and Sussex St, Chinatown, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/3 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:21 24 July 2008

Full Hyper-V released!

2008-07-16T11:56:00.005+10:00

I just noticed that Microsoft has finally released Hyper-V, a key feature of Windows Server 2008. As per the official site of Windows Server 2008, it has now released to manufacturing (RTM) and is available for deployment into production environments.

As a Hyper-V user, I have been waiting for the final release for months. Now the existing Hyper-V users may download this update to deploy it on their Hyper-V farm, or simply use Windows Update to upgrade a single W2K8 server. MS KB article Q950050 gives the details.

The official announcements:

1. Microsoft’s Hypervisor Technology Gives Customers Combined Benefits of Windows Server 2008 and Virtualization

2. Virtualization and Consolidation with Hyper-V

King Street at night

2008-07-12T00:57:00.001+10:00

The Grace Hotel
77-79 York St, Sydney, NSW
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, +1/3, 21:23 10 July 2008

The intersection of King St and Pitt St, Sydney, NSW
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, +1, 10:09 10 July 2008

The iPhone Eve on George

2008-07-10T23:32:00.009+10:00

I went to the Apple Store on George Street tonight, on the iPhone eve.

The Apple Store on George Street, Sydney, NSW
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.5, 1/50 sec, 8.46 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:10 10 July 2008

The steps inside the Apple Store on George, Sydney, NSW
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.2, 1/8 sec, 7.11 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:52 10 July 2008
The iPhone devotees I saw on the TV were still there. :-) They were staying in a line at the door of the Apple store in the Sydney CBD, regardless the crowd passing around them and the cold at night. They are real enthusiasts. :-))

The iPhone fans at the door of Apple Store on George
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/5 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:05 10 July 2008

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 3/5 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:07 10 July 2008
As per the store staff, the Apple Store would not sell iPhone tomorrow, they would only demonstrate the cool features of the newly revealed flag product. One store representative pointed at the Telstra shop opposite their store and told me that, that shop would be opening to sell iPhone tomorrow morning, not them. He said he had no idea why the fans were waiting there at the door.

There was only one guy staying at the door of that Telstra shop at that moment, the guard. The guard told me that the Telstra shop would start selling the first iPhone handset at 6am tomorrow morning, whereas the Apple Store should open at 8am, two hours after them. He was also really curious why no any of those fans came over there, though the shop already prepared tapes to partition the crowd they expected. But, no one was there!

The Indian guard at the door of Telstra Shop on George opposite the Apple Store
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.5, 1/8 sec, 8.46 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:08 10 July 2008

How Australian Red Cross uses 10 per cent deduction

2008-06-27T03:42:00.014+10:00

I believe the following emails from Australian Red Cross may answer the questions from my friends who concern about how the humanitarian organisation deals with their donations.

From: Pilapil, Arlene
Date: 2008/6/23
Subject: RE: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008
To: Bing Bao

Dear Bing,

I would like to apologise for my late reply.

Please continue to visit the following links for the updates:

http://www.redcross.org.au/ourservices_aroundtheworld_emergencyrelief_Chinaearthquake.htm
http://www.ifrc.org/what/disasters/response/sichuan-earthquake/index.asp

The Australian Red Cross has deployed Ling Chin to act as Reporting Delegate for the Federation for three months. Ling will be based in Chengdu, the coordination hub for the overall response.

All the operational and administrative costs involved in transferring funds and deploying delegates from the Australian Red Cross are part of the 10% that we deduct from your donation.

Thank you very much for your query.

We appreciate your support.

Kind regards,

Arlene Pilapil
Data Entry Team Member
National Receipting Centre
23 - 47 Villiers St., NORTH MELBOURNE / GPO Box 2957 MELBOURNE VIC 8060
Tel 1800 811 700 | Fax 1800 855 240
www.redcross.org.au

From: Bing Bao
Sent: Thursday, 5 June 2008 1:47 PM
To: Pilapil, Arlene
Subject: Re: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008

Hi Arlene

Thank you for your feedback. I would like to know a bit more about how Australian Red Cross uses 10% deduction "of any donation for an international appeal to cover its own costs."

As per the statement given at the Australian Red Cross website, "Australian Red Cross will not deduct more than 10% of any donation for an international appeal to cover its own costs. The rest of the donation goes to provide assistance to the victims. Should the funds raised exceed the amount required to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of the people in the affected areas, Australian Red Cross will use any excess funds to help people affected by emergencies within the same region of the world."

Do the "own costs" cover the cost of relevant international operations? For example, the operation cost to transfer funds to IFRC and then China Red Cross? And, any relevant relief aid provided by ARC or IFRC?

Kind regards,
Bing

From: Pilapil, Arlene
Date: 2008/5/21
Subject: RE: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008
To: Bing Bao

Dear Bing,

The money you donated to the China Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008 is forwarded to the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) which disburses the funds to Red Cross Society of China.

Please view the following link for the updates:
http://www.ifrc.org/what/disasters/response/sichuan-earthquake/index.asp

If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

We value your support.

Kind regards,

Arlene Pilapil
Data Entry Team Member
National Receipting Centre
23 - 47 Villiers St., NORTH MELBOURNE / GPO Box 2957 MELBOURNE VIC 8060
Tel 1800 811 700 | Fax +61 3 8327 7904
www.redcross.org.au

From: Bing Bao
Sent: Monday, 19 May 2008 9:21 AM
To: Pilapil, Arlene
Subject: Re: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008

Hi Arlene

Thank you for your feedback.

I am writing this message to inquire when Australian Red Cross can actually transfer the money we donated to China government or other organisations involved in the relief operation at Sichuan province, China. If Australian Red Cross could send aid workers to China, I would be greatly appreciated.

I am a Chinese. I am actually bearing the tears while writing this message, as there are already more than 30 thousands of Chinese people lost their life in the disaster.

China is open to the world in this relief operation at Sichuan province, China. I am really keen to see any actual aid operations that could be provided by the Australian Red Cross in a few days. Please help China!

Many many thanks in advance!

Kind regards,
Bing

From: Pilapil, Arlene
Date: 2008/5/16
Subject: RE: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008
To: Bing Bao

Dear Bing,

Thank you very much for your e-mail.

It is only when you make online donations will you receive a receipt of that kind.

Please keep all your receipts to claim tax deductibility.

We value your support.

Kind regards,

Arlene Pilapil
Data Entry Team Member
National Receipting Centre
23 - 47 Villiers St., NORTH MELBOURNE / GPO Box 2957 MELBOURNE VIC 8060
Tel 1800 811 700 | Fax +61 3 8327 7904
www.redcross.org.au

From: Bing Bao
Posted At: Friday, 16 May 2008 10:52 AM
Posted To: Appeals Info
Conversation: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008
Subject: The official receipt of my donation for Burma Appeal 2008

Hi

I just donated A$1000 online for China Sichuan Earthquake Appeal 2008 (No. 427735) and received the official receipt via email.

I prefer receiving such an official receipt for my donation of Burma Appeal 2008 (A251159, $945.50) which presented in cash at your head office at Clarence St on 13/5/2008.

Please let me know if could received this kind of receipt via postal mail or email. Thanks a lot.

Regards,
Bing

New Passport, Old Version

2008-06-26T12:27:00.004+10:00

Just picked up my new Chinese passport at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney.

New passport, new passport number, new photo (ugly, like a prisoner), and a new authority seal (Chinese Consulate General in Sydney).

But, the OLD version! :-(

I was expecting to obtain a new version of Chinese passport with redesigned cover page, printed authority seal, and an embedded photo on the second bar-code page. I was told by a consulate officer that that kind of new version is only available in China, not to be issued by the overseas embassies and consulates. If I would know that earlier, probably I would not be so eager to renew my passport.

Additionally, the new passport has NO domestic identity card number. "N/A" is printed instead. Therefore, I have become a no-ID guy, probably be arrested if I walked at 2am in a dark street in China. :-)

Groove 2007 and Windows 2008

2008-05-26T19:09:00.001+10:00

They are two MS products that impressed me much today.

Chinese portals lament the Sichuan victims

2008-05-20T15:19:00.000+10:00

All major Chinese portals yesterday changed the color scheme of their homepage to back/white to lament the deceased in the deadly Sichuan earthquake, including Baidu, China.com, Google China, Sina, Sogou, Sohu, Yahoo! China.

Lamenting the victims in the deadly May 12 quake

2008-05-19T16:28:00.007+10:00

This is 16:28 19 May 2008 Sydney Time, 14:28 Beijing Time.

Bearing the tears, I am writing this post to lament the deceased in the deadly earthquake that struck Sichuan Province, China on 12 May 2008.

This is the moment that China launch her grandest national mourning in the country.

I am really sad that so far more than 32 thousands of Chinese people lost their life in the largest disaster ever happened in China. The final death would be more than 50 thousands as the official estimated.

Take care, the Sichuan compatriots!

Take care, Sichuan!

Take care, China!

China blocks Carrefour online

2008-04-29T19:20:00.001+10:00

Just got a message from a friend living in Beijing that China has blocked "Carrefour" at almost all Chinese search engines including Yahoo! China, Google China, Sohu and Baidu.

Seattle at night

2008-04-19T01:44:00.002+10:00

The Space Needle
Canon IXUS 50, F/4.5, 1 sec, 14 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:27 16 Apr 2008

The Guitar Gallery, The Experience Music Project (EMP)
325 5th Ave N, Seattle, WA
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:59 12 Apr 2008

The Sky Church, The Experience Music Project (EMP)
325 5th Ave N, Seattle, WA
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1.6 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:05 12 Apr 2008

Victoria, BC at night

2008-04-13T18:43:00.003+10:00

Victoria West, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/4, 1/30 sec, 12.12 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:02 12 Apr 2008

Victoria Harbour, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 2.5 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:00 12 Apr 2008

Victoria Harbour, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 3.2 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:01 12 Apr 2008

The Empress Hotel, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.5, 2 sec, 10.09 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:12 12 Apr 2008

The Legislative Buildings, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 2 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:14 12 Apr 2008

The gate of Chinatown, Victoria, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.2, 4/5 sec, 7.11 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 22:37 12 Apr 2008

FLG protesting at the Chinese Consulate in BC

2008-04-07T04:06:00.002+10:00

The gate of Chinese Consulate in Vancouver
3380 Granville St, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 14:56 5 Apr 2008

Arrived at home

2008-03-22T19:25:00.005+11:00

到家了！
12小时的飞行，沉重的行李，疲惫的身体。
寒冷的上海，呛人的北京，脏乱的济南。
休息！
迎接明天开始的兴奋。
家人团圆，朋友聚会。
大吃大喝，海阔天空。
我的济南。

Farewell Riverwood

2008-03-16T07:10:00.000+11:00

Before today, in the past three weeks, every time I thought of Riverwood, a kind of awful smell came...

Farewell the odours...

Farewell the horrible carpets, farewell the nasty drain, farewell the damaged blinds...

farewell the endless dispute, farewell R.T. Golby, farewell Shenstone Road...

Farewell Riverwood!

Flash game driving you nuts

2008-03-08T14:07:00.002+11:00

Here is a litter, funny flash game that could drive you nuts, Maze Frenzy. See my score below.

Try it here!

Recent 50 keyword groups to find me

2008-03-08T01:14:00.002+11:00

The recent 50 keyword groups to find my blog from search engines are below.

Nearly 1/3 searches (highlighted in yellow) are related to Business Analyst, System Analyst, and their comparison. One in five searches (in light blue) are programming related.

This phenomenon has occurred for half a year. It is interesting. It probably indicates that more people are becoming aware of Business-driven development for building an IT system, no longer to focus on the technical stuffs only. I believe this also signals the potential requirements for skilled business analysts in the IT markets worldwide.

This is a right approach.

I reckon the above keywords statistics just show that the transformation is undergoing.

However, as per the stat table shown above, choosing a right programming language is still essential for building an application, that's why people are always looking for the hottest one, or keen to know what other big shots are using.

All the trends seem to have been shown in my recent 50 keyword groups. Right?

Got my Office 2008 for Mac

2008-02-25T13:15:00.010+11:00

Just received my Office 2008 for Mac delivered by UPS. I ordered it at Microsoft Company Store last week. It looks really cool, see below.

It is Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac with Expression Media, the most comprehensive version which is a special media edition for Digital Media Enthursasts, as per Micrsoft. :-)

The same version is now also available at Apple Store - Australia, though it seems to be too expensive there: AUD $899 for the Full Version (USD $500 at Apple Store - US).

It's a gift for myself, for moving from Lane Cove to Riverwood. :-))

Heading Riverwood

2008-02-22T03:31:00.008+11:00

This is probably the last post I blog at Lane Cove since I am currently packing stuffs for relocating to Riverwood, a western suburb of NSW located at south-west direction of the Sydney City, 16 kilometres away from the city.

I have stayed here in Lane Cove for nearly one year. I am actually located at the border between Lane Cove and Riverview, as my mobile phone always shows Riverview when I stay at home, and my window view from the lounge, over the full-apartment-width balcony, is just the large, green lawn of Riverview surrounding towering trees. I love living here, but I have to leave since the property is to be sold. :-(

Riverwood looks very similar to Riverview from the sky (using Google Earth or Google Maps), hence their names. It is a quiet, green, clean and convenient place. The only pity seems to be that there are almost no sailboats in the river flowing over Riverwood.

Lastly, I would like to thank Craig, Diana, Michelle and Mick, without their kind helps (as my referees) I could not get my application approved so swimmingly. Thank you mates. :-)

Bye Lane Cove and Riverview!

Googler's Home @ Lane Cove

2008-02-11T22:51:00.000+11:00

The lounge
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/4 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11 Feb 2008

The dinning area
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/4 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11 Feb 2008

The balcony
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11 Feb 2008

The bedroom
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/8 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11 Feb 2008

The kitchen
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/4 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11 Feb 2008

A practical guide for US visas

2008-02-09T18:49:00.002+11:00

I am preparing the documents for renewing my B1/B2 visa of US. I found the following guide while doing Google search for the related information.

United States Visa System (美国签证体系 - 赴美签证实用指南)
Source: ANSI

It is a very good, practical guide for people who want to apply for a US visa in China, though the document is initially intended to provide "information for experts from the People’s Republic of China attending meetings of the ISO and IEC held in the United States".

FYI: How to obtain a 10-year US B1/B2 visa?

The last keynote of Bill Gates

2008-01-12T00:10:00.003+11:00

Source Watch it at Microsoft at CES

Everyday Sydney Time Lapse Video

2008-01-06T18:08:00.001+11:00

Source: Download from Sydney Webcam

Sydney New Year Fireworks 2008

2008-01-02T18:15:00.000+11:00

Sydney New Year Fireworks 2008 (Part 1) - Channel TEN

Sydney New Year Fireworks 2008 (Part 2)- Channel TEN

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-01T01:33:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year to all my friends!

The following pictures and video clip were taken at the gate of Luna Park Milsons Point, located on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour, Australia, on the eve of 2008.

The Luna Park at Milsons Point, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/10 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:44 31 Dec 2007

The last moment of 2007 at Sydney Harbour Bridge
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 4 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 23:19 31 Dec 2007

The first moment of 2008 at Sydney Harbour Bridge
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 00:02 1 Jan 2008

The fireworks on Sydney Harbour Bridge
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/5 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 00:11 1 Jan 2008

Sydney Opera House in welcoming 2008
Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 4 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 00:31 1 Jan 2008

2008 New Year Fireworks, Sydney - Bing Bao
The Sydney fireworks were pretty cool, even so I still believe the best new year fireworks of 2008 should be London fireworks, see the following video posted by BBC One. It's really amazing and fantastic!

2008 New Year Fireworks, London - BBC One

Christmas Eve in Sydney

2007-12-25T02:22:00.000+11:00

The Christmas tree at Darling Harbour, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/640 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 19:28 24 Dec 2007

The ice Christmas tree at the lobby of Star City (Casino), Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/8 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 21:43 24 Dec 2007

Sydney CBD, the view from Darling Island, Pyrmont, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 2 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 22:01 24 Dec 2007

Sydney Opera House, the view from Macquarie St, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/4, 2.5 sec, 12.12 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 23:01 24 Dec 2007

Sydney Opera House, the view from The Rocks, Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.5, 2.5 sec, 8.5 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 23:21 24 Dec 2007

Malware attack redirected from 123greetings.com

2007-12-23T09:15:00.001+11:00

I today received a Christmas greeting card from a close friend in China. When I clicked the e-card link in Firefox, the page could not be displayed as I have disabled JavaScript and Cookies in Firefox by default. I then copied and pasted the URL from Firefox to Safari, the only browser having JavaScript and Cookies enabled by default on my iMac.

Something happened then. A page of 123greetings.com flashed on the screen followed by a few splashes showing me an animation of scanning through the system folders of my computer. After that, the following XP style window appeared on my Leopard desktop and forced me to download two PC executable files with randomized filename. The active web page has been redirected to scanner2.malware-scan.com.

As I illustrated in the screenshot above, it was a malware attack.

As for Cookies, only 123greetings.com left several items in Safari's Cookie records, as shown below. malware-scan.com didn't leave its trace.

The downloaded executable files were identical except their filenames. I ran one file in a disconnected Windows 2000 Server box (a virtual machine), the file's process appeared in Task Manager. It seemed nothing happened (of course it's not ture). I ran the executable several times, several individual processes appeared in Task Manager, as follows.

I also noticed that this executable file created a Windows registry item at:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ADP = "&swp=1&apx=%s" (where %s is the filename of this downloaded file)

I enabled the network connection on the W2K virtual machine. After a while, a "professional" anti-spyware program, MalwareAlarm 2.1, appeared on the screen, and has already started scanning the system. This bloody scanner reported that I had nine threats, and asked me to buy online in order to activate its Threats Removel function. TCPView showed that this program (MalwareAlarm.exe) was downloaded from 69.50.175.18.

There was a business behind this anti-spyware spyware. It even showed me such a screen.

Now, you should have known how the kind of anti-malware program works, humm? :-)

Futhermore, I did a google search for this, and found that someone already reported the a similar spyware two days ago, on 21 December 2007.

Farm sculptures along Wisemans Ferry Road

2007-12-22T14:15:00.000+11:00

Wisemans Ferry Road, Dharug National Park, NSW, Australia (sic passim)
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 18:02 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/60 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 18:04 21 Dec 2007

Billy Grech's Farm

2007-12-22T12:40:00.000+11:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/640 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 15:47 21 Dec 2007

2065 Wisemans Ferry Road, Mangrove Mountain, NSW, Australia
Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 15:47 21 Dec 2007

The Retreat at Wisemans Ferry

2007-12-22T12:22:00.000+11:00

The Retreat, Wisemans Ferry, NSW, Australia
Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/320 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 12:26 21 Dec 2007

Mailboxes along Wisemans Ferry Road

2007-12-22T11:20:00.000+11:00

Wisemans Ferry Road, Dharug National Park, NSW, Australia (sic passim)
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/50 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:12 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:21 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/124 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:23 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/100 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:24 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:26 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/500 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:27 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/250 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:28 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:29 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/320 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:30 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:31 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/125 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:34 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/125 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:35 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/80 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:37 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:39 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/100 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:43 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:46 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/250 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:48 21 Dec 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/160 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 18:03 21 Dec 2007

Having a cow

2007-12-22T03:27:00.000+11:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/100 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:39 21 Dec 2007

Tiger just works. Leopard just not works

2007-12-19T22:45:00.000+11:00

Today, I read an article of Oliver Rist, and I pretty much agree with this guy on Leopard, Apple Mac OS 10.5.

PC Magazine: Leopard is the New Vista, and It's Pissing Me Off

It's ture: Tiger just works. Leopard just not works.

Leopard looks wonderful but it has driven me mad. For example, if you enable Parent Control and Fast User Switching at the same time, your dashboard disappears. That sounds ridiculous but it does happen on Leopard. I rang Apple Support at 133MAC for this issue for several times, what they did was only asking me to back up my preferences files and recreate new ones. That did not help at all. The Apple Support engineers even did not know that Apple already published a KB for this issue until I told them.

Tiger is more nice than Leopard, so far.

Canada at night

2007-11-18T22:20:00.000+11:00

Comfort Inn Car Park, Richmond, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 06:39 3 October 2005

Regina Chinese Alliance Church, Regina, SK, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 19:49 3 October 2005

Canada Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 19:26 5 October 2005

Gas station, The Coast Mountains, BC, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/6 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 04:28 26 November 2005

Houses in the Rocky Mountains, Banff, AB, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 04:09 26 November 2005

Downtown, Calgary, AB, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/3.5, 3.2 secs, 8.46 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 18:42 26 November 2005

The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 4 secs, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 23:32 26 November 2005

Apple Support on iMac hibernation

2007-11-16T18:53:00.001+11:00

A few days ago I rang Apple Support at 133MAC regarding how to enable hibernation on my iMAC running Leopard. The reason of why I need hibernation on iMac is that I have been got used to this feature on my Windows notebooks for years, and I sometimes do need to move my iMac from one room to another at home.

Hibernation allows you to save and then restore your current work environment instantly, including opened windows, running applications, and their data in use. Actually, hibernation just dumps your computer memory in use to a file on hard disk, marks the system partition in hibernation mode, therefore you can restore what it was in the system memory next time you boot the computer, instead of loading the operating system step by step. I like this feature as I do often open more than 10 applications at the same time, so I hate to restart each application again and again every time I turn on the computer.

OK, back to the Apple Support at 133MAC. After I explained what I needed to the tech support, he quickly asked me to change something in System Preferences | Energy Saver | Sleep, where I had tried first when I was finding out this functionality on iMac. Then the following conversation between the Apple support (A) and me (B) started:

B: "No, no, no. I need hibernation, not to simply sleep, I need to unplug the power cord then."
A: "Why?!"
B: "I do need to move the iMac from one room to another, but I dislike to shut donwn, restart, and reopen the applications again."
B: "I think Sleep mode still needs the power, doesn't it?"
A: "Yes, it does. Umm... hang on, let me double check it..." (typing something on the keyboard)
B: "Are you searching from somewhere else?"
A: "Yes."
B: "Is it Apple KB, Knowledge Base?"
A: "Yeah, we have Apple Knowledge Base. It is very informative."
B: "That's cool. Have you found something helpful?"
A: "No. I am sorry, you can't do that. We don't support it."
B: "Really?! I just switched from Windows to Mac OS. I have got used this feature. It's very handy. I need it."
A: "Unfortunately, we do not support this on Mac. You are using an Apple."
B: "Oh..., is there any possible solution? I really need this functionality."
A: "Umm... can you please hold the line for a moment, I wanna consult other engineers."
B: "Sure. OK."
A: "Thanks mate."
...
A: "Are you still here mate?"
B: "Yes. Any good news?"
A: "Unfortunately, no. We do not support hibernation on Mac."
B: "Oh..."
A: "Even so, you may consider to get a long power cord, an extended one, so you can move your iMac..., you know."
B: "Hehe... is it a solution? An Apple's solution?"
A: "Well, it's a solution, if you like."
B: "An official solution from Apple?"
A: "Well..."
B: "I hate cords, cables, wires..., that's why I bought an iMac, a wireless iMac."
A: "Anyway, you still need, at least, a power cord for your computer, so an extended cord allows you..."
...

An extended power cord is Apple's solution for hibernation.

Translating Chinese bureaucratese

2007-11-14T20:59:00.000+11:00

A good friend of mine in China asked me yesterday to translate an abstract of his academic paper into English. I find that the Chinese wording and expression in this abstract is really interesting, especially for me who is from mainland China, throughly understands this kind of Chinese bureaucratese, but now reads English everyday.

Actually, I did use this kind formal language intensively in China, too.

Translating this kind of language into English should be a challenge. First because some expressions are only available in Chinese, the next some words do have different meanings in English, thirdly the relevant grammatical structures in Chinese and English are different.

I tried my best to convert the original meanings in the abstract into English. Here is the Chinese abstract and my translation in English.

政务门户网站设计概述

摘要
　　门户网站是政府运用现代信息技术向社会提供管理和服务的窗口。本文从政务门户网站设计所涉及的目标、原则、范畴和构成入手，阐明了政务门户设计要以服务为中心的观点，围绕信息公开、网上办事、公众监督和个性化服务等方面的具体内容，文章对以服务为中心的政务门户网站的设计进行了探讨。

关键字：电子政务门户网站设计

Overview of e-Government Portal Design

Abstract
e-Government Portal is a window for governmental organizations to provide public administration and social services by utilizing latest information technologies. This article begins with the essentials of e-Government Portal Design including the goal, principles, scope and its components, and presents the concept that e-government portal is necessary to be services-oriented. The article subsequently discusses how to design a services-oriented e-government portal regarding several practical aspects such as information publishing, online services, public scrutiny, and personalization services.

Keywords: e-Government, Portal, Design

Sydney Harbour Bridge at night

2007-11-05T12:37:00.000+11:00

Viewing Harbour Bridge and CBD Buildings from Milsons Point, lower North Shore of Sydney
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 15 secs, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 20:00 4 November 2007

Running Windows tasks in Mac OS X!

2007-10-05T04:11:00.001+10:00

See my new iMac's screen!

Please note that Windows tasks such as Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and even Vista Sidebar are running with other Mac OS X tasks, on the same desktop!

Thanks to VMware Fusion, the new VM solution for Intel Macs, You can move Windows applications out of its virtual machine onto Mac desktop.

I was at VMware Virtualization Forum 2007 - Sydney (Darling Harbour) this afternoon. A VMware guy there told me that the official release of VMware Fusion would be available in Australia next week. Its full package price would be A$ 119.

Long weekend photos from Canberra

2007-10-01T12:01:00.000+10:00

ANZAC Parade and Australian Parliament House on the Capital Hill
(The view from Australian War Memorial)
Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/640 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 14:00 30 Sep 2007

White in Yellow at Floriade
Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 14:51 30 Sep 2007

Red in Yellow at Floriade
Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 14:53 30 Sep 2007

A view at Floriade
Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/640 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 15:09 30 Sep 2007

Australian Parliament House and its square
Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 16:49 30 Sep 2007

Niklaus Wirth

2007-09-16T15:57:00.000+10:00

Niklaus Wirth, born February 15, 1934, Winterthur, Switzerland, early prompter of good programming practices; developer of the programming languages Pascal, Modula-2, and Oberon; recipient of the 1984 ACM Turning Award.

In 1995, he popularized the adage now known as Wirth's law: "Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster", although in his 1995 paper A Plea for Lean Software he attributes it to Martin Reiser.

In introducing Professor Wirth to present his Turning Award Lecture in 1984, ACM president Adele Goldberg commented: "In Europe he is called by name - Wirth (pronounced virt), while in America we know him by value - Worth (pronounced worth)!"

Source:
1. J.A.N. Nee, "Niklaus Wirth", International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers, IEEE, 1995, pp. 747-748.
2. Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia, Niklaus Wirth, as of 06:12, 15 September 2007.

Climbing up Christ Church Cathedral

2007-07-17T16:06:00.000+10:00

How did I climb up to the highest point of Newcastle, NSW
at 11.30am on 16 July 2007

Port Stephens at glance

2007-07-17T13:37:00.000+10:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 15:18 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 15:19 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/4.9, 1/125 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 16:55 16 July 2007

Newcastle at glance

2007-07-17T13:20:00.000+10:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/10, 1/200 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 09:32 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/250 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 09:34 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/15 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 09:37 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/320 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 10:26 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/320 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 10:35 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 10:46 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/5 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 10:56 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/200 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 11:36 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/640 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 12:21 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/10, 1/200 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 12:47 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/640 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 13:48 16 July 2007

Newcastle at dawn

2007-07-17T13:08:00.000+10:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, CWA Mode, 07:08 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/400 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, CWA Mode, 07:18 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/10, 1/500 sec, 17.4 mm, ISO 50, CWA Mode, 07:19 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/500 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, CWA Mode, 07:20 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/8, 1/500 sec, 12.12 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 07:23 16 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/5.6, 1/1000 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 07:26 16 July 2007

Darling Harbour at sunset

2007-07-02T21:14:00.000+10:00

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/10 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:03 1 July 2007

Canon IXUS 50, F/2.8, 1/6 sec, 5.8 mm, ISO 50, Pattern Mode, 17:04 1 July 2007
For more photos of the same day: Panoramic view of Sydney