Through My Window – Bunkface

shakir    Nerd Public Journal?    

Few days ago I blogged about a song that has been played in our local radio stations but the singer / band remained a mystery. It was until today that they reveal themselves at their website, Everyoneconnects.net.

The band was acutally our very own local band, Bunkface. I personally like their song, and so do the video clip. It reminds me of this lovely clip;

Facebook feed not showing latest friend’s updates

shakir    Information Insemination    

Facebook changed its layout recently and I have few friends complaining that they are not seing their friend's latest updates on their facebook's main page. This is because Facebook has introduced News Feed which will display whatever Facebook think is the most relevant for you instead of showing the latest updates.

Changing it to display the latest updates is just a matter of clicking one link, which I show in my other blog, TechRecipes.

Richard Stallman and The Church of Emacs at FOSS.my 2009

shakir    Information Insemination    

I attended FOSS.my 2009 today, and managed to record this video during Richard Stallman's opening keynote;

I'm sorry about the quality of the video, because it was shot handheld using my Nikon D90 using fixed length lens (50mm) which cannot zoom in closer. I have few more videos and photos of him and the event in general, and I'm hoping to slowly upload them here.

Sorry, Linux only!

shakir    Nerd Public Journal?    

Was attending foss.my earlier today, and one of the sessions I joined in was MySQL Multi Master Replication Tutorial moderated by Walter Heck. It was a very interesting session as it's a hands-on session where we get to form groups and each group is to configure a MySQL multi master replication from start to finish. What's more interesting is…

The photo speaks for itself

Upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7

shakir    Information Insemination, Nerd Public Journal?    

Microsoft has released it's Windows 7, and I am eligible for free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium from my current Windows Vista Home Premium. What I needed to do was to go to Microsoft's website to check for appropriate link,, and as mine is a Dell laptop, I followed the link to Dell's Window 7 Upgrade site. After submitting the online form, I got the following email in my mailbox;

I honestly don't feel excited about this upgrade at all (even the writing style of this post feels bored to me) , and is actually counting days for Ubuntu's Karmic Koala to be released…

Through My Window

shakir    Information Insemination, Nerd Public Journal?    

It's a song being made available at http://everyoneconnects.net/ . I like.

What makes the song different? Read about it here: http://twitter.com/every1connects

Through My Window

Don’t want much, I just want everything
Thought that I could, do almost anything
One step in front of the other
Thought that I could do it alone

In the blink of an eye, it's just another day
Telling me why, I'll find another way
Got this feeling, got me reeling
I can almost start believing

Now there's me and you
And we are not alone
You and me
We are together now
Through my window, I can see there's
More than you and more than me
Me and you
And we are not alone
Different view
We are together now
Through my window, I can see
Our wildest dreams could be so real

I see a spark, it starts a fire
Is this the one worth waiting for?
Thought that I could do it without you
Can’t exist like this anymore

Now there's me and you
And we are not alone
You and me
We are together now
Through my window, I can see there's
More than you and more than me

Now there’s me and you, you and me
We are not alone and we are together
Through my window I can see
Our wildest dreams could be so real

Do not use default password, please

shakir    Information Insemination, Nerd Public Journal?    

While waiting for someone at a local fast food restaurant here I decided to use the free WiFi. My habit when I'm at a public WiFi is to see how many people are sharing the line, and then to tunnel my connection if necessary.

The person I've been waiting still not turning up, and I got interested in the one with the IP not in the DHCP range.

It's actually a webcam and is not running on the default HTTP port. I Googled for the default password of this webcam, and managed to log in.

Thank God that I don't have Java plugin, or else I would be able to see what the girl beside me is doing with her laptop.

Invitation to Google Voice

shakir    Information Insemination, Nerd Public Journal?    

I was one happy guy yesterday when I received this email from Google:

I was invited to Google Voice, yeay!!! My happiness was however short lived when I tried to activate my Google Voice, upon getting this error page

Ah well, I guess I just need to wait a littlle longer till it is made available to Malaysian users. At the same time, I'm also waiting for Google Wave invitation, something that I'm really looking forward to…

Donate blood, save lives…

shakir    Information Insemination, Nerd Public Journal?    

I'm not the brave type of person who would volunteer for wars in Afghanistan, and I'm not always in the position of being able to give away money. I don't have the doctor's knowledge to help sick people, and I don't even think my company would let me take long leave just to go help the recent Indonesian earthquake victims. These however do not mean there's nothing I can do to help others in need. We can always play our part that's within our capability, but unless we stop procrastinating and start doing, we'll never actually be doing anything…

I actually want to talk about blood donation; a fine example of how making great impacts doesn't always mean making a great effort. We can save lives by just spending half an hour of our time at a blood donation drive; something most have come across but only a few have actually stopped by and donated.

Ever knew people that went into surgery, accident victims, patients with leukaemia, cancer, heart and liver diseases, and haemophilia? Unless they are someone close to us, most of us just wouldn't care. Imagine yourself being in their shoes… These are the people you're helping by donating. Maybe today you're helping others you don't even know, and tomorrow who knows if you need to do the same to help your loved ones. What if one day, others will need to donate to help you?

If morals are not strong enough to drive you to a blood donation, consider the followings; Each donor will be tested for their blood type, so it's a free blood type test for you. As each donor is tested against common diseases such as syphilis, hepatitis viruses, and the AlDS viruses (HIV), you can consider this as a free health check as well. Collectors would be pleased as they often provide goodies during their donation drive, and they also produce donation certificate which might be helpful during interviews (just maybe, as I don't really know. I'm not an HR guy). Hepatitis B vaccination is provided to donors, and donors would also enjoy these benefits at local government hospitals;

Produce your donor record book (or request for GL from the National Blood Centre) to enjoy these benefits at Malaysian government hospitals.

If you are an apheresis donor, you're also advised to do a full blood test (which includes renal function, liver function, etc2) twice a year which would cost hundreds of Ringgit each time if done at private labs, but yes, they do it for you, for free. Above all, for me it's just for the indescribable good feeling I get after each donation and as a time-out to have a peace of mind once in a while from the hectic live I have (I think so, though some take it as otherwise..)

The time when I can actually cool down and relax.

So, you're interested and want to go donate straight away? Sure you can, but you need to be sure of the followings (things most of us wouldn't have problems with)
- You are in good health today
- You are between 18 to 60 years of age
- Your weight is above 45 kg
- You had more than 5 hours of sleep
- You are free from the following medical problems; high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, operation in the past 6 months
- You have not taken any antibiotics in the last one week
- You are not pregnant or just delivered
- You have taken breakfast or light lunch before donating blood
- You are not involved in any of the following activities:
– Homosexual relationship
– Bisexual relationship
– Multiple sexual partners
– Having sexual contact with those mentioned above
– Drug abuse

/* List copied and edited from www.ummc.edu.my */

Many people would give excuses to not go donate though in reality they're probably just scared without even giving it a try. Reasons given are mostly baseless and more like myths. I'm not going to detail them out here, but I'm probably one of the living proof to negate all the excuses;

That's mine, yet, look at me!!

So, what are you waiting for? Let's go donate blood, and save some lives today!!!

/* I normally go to the National Blood Centre (www.pdn.gov.my) to donate. If there's no blood donation drive in your area, do check your nearest hospitals */

Upgrading to a Flickr pro account

shakir    Nerd Public Journal?    

I've not uploaded a single photo to my flickr account, but here's what I did just now; upgrading to a pro account. And I paid for 2 years!!!

It has always been a problem for me, for making impromptu decisions. But then, hope I'll make full use of what I've paid for. Time to upload photos, loads of them, yeah!