There is a drawback when using mobile phone for browsing the net. Apart from having to pay for the data charges (that is assuming if you are not not subscribing to any data plan provided by your mobile carriers), the screen is just to small to look at all those amazing design and features a normal web browser can provide. Nevertheless, when using these tiny little small screens, we only want to read text or maybe some resized pictures or images.

Because of this, it would be best to provide your blog with tools to help people who loves your blog but only have time to read them on their mobiles. There’s a solution for this, Onbile.

Whenever a mobile user logs, the javascript provided will detect whether you are browsing using a mobile phone or a normal browser. This would really help your mobile readers and encourage them to visit your blog more often.

The only issue I have is:

• Only 2 pages of your title list will be available (I am guessing this would depend on your feed setting)
• You can’t revert back to your original layout once it’s loaded on your smartphone

I am still going to try this tool for a while and see if suits my need or else I am going to remove it and search for another tool or WordPress plugin.

Enough of the comparison crap. Last week, I represented my company to attend a brief presentation by Oracle Malaysia about Oracle’s Enterprise Single Sign On (ESSO). I was a bit surprised to find that Oracle Malaysia has moved from Citibank building near KLCC to The Garden Midvalley City since my last visit there.

There were a handful of people already arrived when I got there. Had a cup of coffee before the presentation started. The presenter for Oracle Single Sign-On was Peter Rajnak, Solutions Specialist Director, Identity Management Fusion Middleware APAC from Oracle Corporation. What a long title for a job title.

Which Single Sign On (SSO) is right for me? I’ve heard about single sign on before, simply saying you only need to remember 1 username and password. The presenter did a very good job at explaining how the mechanism work, he somehow manage to balance between the technical aspect and the business aspect.

The next presenter was Swapnil Mehta, Director of Global Access Management Practice of SENA Systems of AurionPro. A winner of the Oracle Titan Award, the firm has taken a lot of identity management jobs for enterprise level of Fortune 500 companies.

Let’s look at some brief “About Enterprise Single Sign On”:

1. Too many users IDs and Passwords
2. Security Risk
3. Enterprise Single Sign On Must Be Easy to Use

In order to solve the issue above, Oracle has come out with Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite Plus. As usual, enterprise level product would require an enterprise level of implementation and that would involve some initial investment.

If your organization would like to lighten the IT department hassle in managing IDs and password, this would be a solution to look forward to.

It doesn’t really matter which product is the best or not, it is a matter of preferences. If I can afford to buy a BMW, I would definitely owned one. Unfortunately, I can only afford a basic car at the moment but I can still dream of a BMW nevertheless. Back to my Oracle training of course. The training was held at Oracle’s HQ up in Level 38, Menara Citibank Kuala Lumpur. Check out their front desk:

I can only wish I am working with a huge corporation such as Oracle. It must be really tough trying to score a job there, don’t you think?

Anyway, my trainer is a guy name Sachin, I am guessing he’s from India from his thick Indian accent. Prior to this training, I have no idea what SOA or the longer version Service Oriented Architecture means. Even after reading Wikipedia, I still couldn’t picture what SOA is all about. My trainer tried to give some clue on what SOA is all about but all I see is a bunch application pool represented by jargon linking with each other. I must give credit to Sachin although his presentation was a bit bored, he’s quite a tech nerd when it comes to hands-on training which came in late in the afternoon since the Oracle JDeveloper installation file was almost 1GB and had to be copied manually from person to person. The requirement was 3GB of RAM for the training laptop just for the VMWare containing the SOA suite to run while I only have 1GB of RAM. Lucky there was an alternative.

The training class became more livelier when the hands-on approach began. With Nescafe coffee served, it was very enjoyable to crunch the tutorials given. Right up until my developed SOA scripts got corrupted and could not be deployed apart from the wireless networking changed setting. The journey continues tomorrow morning.

The best thing I found out about HTC Touch is its lightweight, running on Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the battery’s life is not bad and the touch screen is just something cool. Of course if you compare that to an iPhone, the iPhone is way much cooler. However, the iPhone is more expensive plus there is a lot of softwares that I need doesn’t work in iPhone. The only downside in terms of network connectivity is my HTC Touch is running on EDGE and doesn’t have 3G connection. Because of that, I choose to subscribe to DiGi HighSpeed Mobile Access with Data Unlimited Plan. I’ll cover my experience using DiGi Internet service in my next blog post.

At first I wanted to replace my Sony Ericsson W810i to this HTC Touch. Unfortunately, I found out that typing SMSes using the HTC Touch is so difficult and required precise touching of the screen for the right alphabet to appear. It then became clear that the HTC Touch can only be my second gadget in my pocket.

Thanks to my brother who is using Windows Mobile much earlier than any person I know tip me on a great mobile browser call Opera Mini. I once used my boss’s iPhone and recalled how the browser on his iPhone could just slide, zoom in and out. It was so cool, little that I know this browser installed on my HTC Touch could do the same.

Another application that I like to use is Google Maps for Mobile. Since my HTC Touch doesn’t have GPS, the My location function which tells me the nearest node of my DiGi coverage as you can see on the dot on the screenshot below:

The star is my favourite places where I used to hang out. It can also be used to estimate the distance of location where I intend to go and show me the route to go there. This is the best application I always run whenever I am hitting the road. If you noticed on the screenshot, I am using a Pocket Controller software. This way, whenever my HTC Touch is connected to my laptop, I don’t have to tap the device using my hands anymore. It can work with my mouse and keyboard. Simply genius..

I guess I am becoming more of into gadget junkies with so many electronics I have on my hands. Got to keep on getting more and more resources to fuel my hunger of information technology.

Compaq Presario V3751AU on Brochure

At RM2199, it’s quite an affordable price to pay for a decent laptop with the technical spec listed. However, I needed more financial leverage since I wanted a monthly installment over the full amount which I needed to pay. I don’t want to pay in full cash because it will affect my monthly budget and savings.

So I started making some analysis on ways I could do to finance my new laptop. At first I wanted to apply for the RM125 per month under AEON Easy Payment scheme. However, after getting the information and did a rough calculation, the total amount I would have to pay under the Easy Payment plan would be (RM125 X 24 months) is RM3,000! WHAT? That’s RM801 more than the selling price! I’m not going to pay the credit company (in this case AEON Easy Payment scheme) that amount. On top of that, there is another 0.84% of interest per month equivalent to 10.08% a year.

My second option is to reduce the throat-choking Easy Payment scheme interest to a personal loan. The idea was to apply for a RM3,000 personal loan and pay back on a monthly payment. There was 2 option (CIMB Cash Express Micro Finance and AEON-Cash Personal Financing) since a lot of personal loans are not meant for small amount. I had to eliminate CIMB Cash Express because it’s a financial killer. At 24% interest yearly, it is one of the highest interest personal loans ever based on my findings. As for AEON-Cash Personal Financing, I had to apply for an AEON Credit Card in order for my loan to be approved. If I went for this, I would have to wait for another week or so to get my credit card approved and so on so fourth. Not what I had in mind.

My third option is to use my Petronas CIMB Bank credit card I just received a month ago. Utilizing the 0% monthly installment, I can just buy a laptop by just dividing the price of RM2199 with 12 months. That would make RM183.25 per month and best of all, interest free. The only issue is there aren’t many shops that provided this facility. Most of the shop I found have Maybank and Citibank 0% interest free payment plan. I’m not going to get another credit card for my financial sake. From my reading in forums and some blogs, I find that in order for me to get an interest free plan with CIMB Bank, I need to find a shop that uses a CIMB merchant processing machine. So, my quest for searching for the right shop begins.

After searching high and low at Low Yatt Plaza, one shop that I’ve found charge 4.5% on top of the laptop price before dividing it with 12 months. I didn’t go for that one. I finally found a shop that provides me with the monthly installment facility using my credit card. The shop wasn’t as busy as any other shop; in fact I was the only customer inside the shop. After dealing with the sales guy for 15 minutes, my transaction went through and I was on my way back with my brand new Compaq Presario V3751AU.

At home, I joyously unpacked my new laptop:

My New Compaq V3751AU package

Unfortunately the package I bought only got me an original Targus HP laptop bag and a RM35 optical mouse. By the way, the laptop I bought only comes with FreeDos so there was no Windows or any other operating system. I had to add more money if I wanted an operating system installed. This is where the hassle begins.

My Brand New Compaq V3751AU Unpacked loaded with FreeDOS

It took me one night for me to install a fresh copy of Microsoft Windows XP and then another 2 days for me to search for all the drivers since the package doesn’t include a driver CD. Even worse, the system is configured for Windows Vista when I tried searching for the drivers on HP Compaq official website. After searching around, I’ve gathered all the necessary download and bundled all the driver’s link into this single URL link:

I downloaded most of the drivers but only a few of them really work. Here’s a list of it which I did managed to note down that really works on my Compaq Presario V3751AU:

• SP34842A – BlueTooth Driver
• SP35333 – Wireless Assistant
• SP37950 – Network Controller Driver
• SP35414 – Webcam Driver

After all the driver was done installed, it was then time to make the transition to transfer all my working files from my previous laptop to my new laptop. I’m not the kind of person who uses back-up software because I know there will be a point where complication will arise. So I did it manually using a portable hard drive and thumb drives:

The Manual Side by Side Laptop File Transfer Process

It took me my whole Sunday weekend to complete the transition. Performance wise, since the processor is a dual core processor, there is a huge improvement when I’m running heavy multiple applications. The temperature is cooler and the CPU utilization is less likely to reach 100%. My only problem is I can’t play my Simcity 4 most probably because of my display card issue.

My Compaq 3751AU on Windows XP is ready for action

Why I didn’t choose Intel Core 2 Duo over AMD Turion 64 X2? Based on my finding from benchmarking charts, using Intel Core 2 Duo is slightly ahead of AMD Turion 64 X2. Then again, I’m looking for a bargain and not performance so I think I made a good choice.

Anyway, my boss owned an iPhone so he checked out The Mac store at the ground floor in Low Yatt Plaza. Inside the Mac store, I saw this:

MacBook Air Display at Mac Studio Sdn Bhd Low Yatt

Taking a closer look at the MacBook Air:

The MacBook Air

Testing the Mac was like the last time I tried using Ubuntu. Although it seems exciting and more fun to use Mac compared to Windows, I don’t think I’ll ever fit in being a Mac user. Here’s a list of why I will never use a Mac:

1. Change requires time to get used to, to learn new features, to utilize it to the max thus is can waste your productive time and lowers your output productivity
2. A lot of application I’m using is not built for Mac.
3. A Mac is just too flashy for me.
4. The current price for a MacBook Air is RM6229. I can get three lower end Core 2 Duo blank laptop for RM2,000 a piece.
5. I will never convert to a Mac

Now you have it, my 5 top reason why MacBook is not for me.

I was told that the new RAM had a slightly higher speed than my older one. I didn’t care about that much as long as I can do all my work on the laptop. Then again, it doesn’t hurt to get to know more about your own hardware and get fascinated by it, eventhough it is now considered old. I then used a freeware application that can track my hardware detail without me having to dig around dismantling all my hardware stuff. It’s called CPUID. Here’s how I know what my RAM type and the speed difference of both RAM I have:

My Old 512MB RAM

My New 512MB RAM

If you noticed, the software detects what kind of RAM you are using, what speed does it have, the manufacturer, the serial number and when the hardware was being manufactured. Not only that, it detects other stuff as well such as the mainboard, the chipset and the most important part of a computer, the CPU:

My Laptop’s CPU Details

I guess having a basic Celeron CPU laptop is not too bad after all.

Check out for information using this awesome freeware application.

Anyway, one of my colleague here at my office circulated an e-mail on how to remove RavMonLog virus. I’ve tried it myself, and it works:

THREAT NAME
Worm.RJump.A

CLEAN INSTRUCTIONS

1. Right click on an empty space from the taskbar (or right click on the clock from the right corner) and select Task Manager.
   – Select the Processes tab, locate ravmon.exe, right click on it and select End Process
   – Delete the following file: C:\Windows\ravmon.exe
2. To clean the removable storage device (USB stick, PEN drive etc.) right-click on your USB stick / PEN drive icon and select Explore.NB: Be careful NOT to double-click the icon because the malware will be reactivated.
   – Locate and delete the autorun.inf and ravmon.exe files
3. Click on Start, Run, type regedit and click on OK.

NB: Before you edit the registry, please export the keys that you plan to edit, or create a backup of the system before you proceed.

1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
2. Delete the "RavAV" = "C:\windows\ravmon.exe"

SYMPTOMS

1. Presence of the autorun.inf and ravmon.exe files in the root of the storage device.
2. Presence of a copy of the ravmon.exe file in the windows system folder.
3. Presence of the RavMonLog file that contains the port number for the backdoor component.

DESCRIPTION

1. Worm.RJump.A spreads by creating a copy on removable storage devices or mapped drives.
2. It drops the following malicious files:
   • autorun.inf
   • ravmon.exe
3. Also it drops a clean msvcr71.dll file that is a part of Microsoft Visual Studio.
4. It opens a port for the backdoor component.

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

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

1. I don’t have to buy those expensive PC/Server stuff that will cost me thousands of dollars
2. The VPS is always online 24/7 and I don’t have to worry about high electricity bill because the extensive need of cooling system the computers/servers need to have
3. The download connection in the US is superb. At 1GB per second network connection, it is hundred times faster than my normal internet connection. Of course, getting that file to my PC requires FTP that is limited by my internet connection
4. I can use a unique static IP address for my website or web apps for a fraction of a price rather than leasing one from my local ISP

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

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

I found this free application a couple of weeks ago. It’s called SafeSpace. So, how does this virtual application works? Well, a picture describes a thousand words:

If you can’t understand the figure above, let me just brief you a little bit. See that red box surrounding the registry, file system and application. SafeSpace actually creates some kind of layer on top of what your windows system have. Basically it’s like a protective layer that protects you from getting something harmful. If that layer gets an infection, you just tossed away that layer and you’ll have a new one. Sounds like a condom to me. Anyway, based on my experience, my Internet Explorer version 6 has been hijacked by numerous toolbars that suddenly appears out of nowhere. There was one time, my Internet Explorer 6 just went unusable because it got corrupted by these malware stuff. In fact, even before I installed SafeSpace on my system, there was a pop up box that keeps on appearing whenever I launch IE6. I tried cleaning up my registry and boot up applications but it was still showing up. Luckily, after I’ve installed SafeSpace, that pop up kind of dissapear. My problem was solved.

There is however one issue that was quite significant. The installation of SafeSpace caused my boot up to become longer. I had to wait almost 5 minutes before I can launch any other of my other application. Then there is this annoying coloured box surrounding the application which I don’t like. Since I’m using Firefox for my browser and normally Firefox doesn’t get hijack like IE6, I removed Firefox from the default setting of SafeSpace where it includes every Instant Messenger and browser that you have. From what I heard, this application is still buggy so it’s not really recommended if you are the kind of person who just use a computer for basic need. Oh, there is one more issue concerning SafeSpace. When I tried to insert attachments in my e-mails, the files just went corrupted. Most probably because of the layer filtering the files you are trying to put in.

The plus point of SafeSpace is that it prevents your internet browser from being hijacked and most of all it’s FREE (for personal use of course). Some screenshots of SafeSpace in use:

Visit SafeSpace from Artificial Dynamics for more information.