Lawrence and Christine Family Blog

Posted in: on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 0 comments  

In rounding up all over the Internet for strong alternatives to Windows Application, the Linux Equivalent Project lists Linux alternatives to dozens of popular Windows applications, from Adobe Photoshop to ZoneAlarm.

The idea here is to show potential Linux adopters that making the switch doesn't necessarily mean saying goodbye to their favorite software. You can use Scribus in place of PageMaker, Quanta Plus in place of FrontPage and so on.

Another strong reason to review a complete switch over to virus-free Linux environment for the corporate users.

Read more [here]

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Just as I thought, as everyone seems to kick into a slower gear whenever a year draws to a close, folks receiving their year-end bonus break a sight of short relief in this debt-driven society. As for me, I am likewise putting my clients on hold in taking on new projects as the spirit of this festival sets in.

But more importantly, it sets me to rethink about the purpose of our christian walk. Many see christians around them as hypocrites (sad to say), some just plain ordinary Joe like themselves (nothing special) while yet some are just confused if christianity has anything to do with them.

Christian = follower("ian") of Christ

where a genuine born-again believer is fully in the appropriate position to leverage the power of God (our Almighty Creator) in his or her life, moving His arm to do what the world sees as impossible through prayer and careful decisions - in a time frame predestinated before the existence of everything. So, you say, we are the chess pieces in the universal play set of God. Yes, we are! But if we fail to see this (to genuine believers I say) in our daily walk, there isn't a real, driven purpose to please God in our lives, is it? And if there isn't that passion, why then do you call yourself a christian? I believe God has not called christians to limp along in life aimlessly but to perform what ordinary man sees as impossible...God brings possibilities through us.

Without Christ, one can try (like the Pharisees) to fulfill the perfect law of God and be dead sure failure is emminent and disastrous. Only by believing in the finished work and power of Jesus to both remove your spiritual death and exercise a complete trust in what God can do in you , will you then begin to truly walk in the grace and the true purpose God has handcraft for you - A Super natural life.

Come to the Almighty yet gracious Savior of souls today and live supernaturally for Him henceforth...

Updated by Lawrence

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There are many who question whether a Christian should or should not celebrate Christmas at all. This is a legitimate question when you consider the pagan origins of Christmas and the pagan origins of the common traditions of celebrating Christmas today. I believe that Christmas can indeed be celebrated but not in the way the world does.

It is interesting to note that the early church never celebrated Christmas. They never heard of such a thing. In fact Christmas wasn't celebrated during the first 300 years of the Church. It never occurred to the early Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ. It wasn't until the Roman Catholic church's hold on the Christian world in the 300s that The Roman church introduced the mass of Christ's birth.

It is true that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th. He wasn't even born in December. He was born in the middle of summer. So why is the birth of Christ celebrated on December the 25? Put your comments up and discuss...

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For those restless geeks out there this festive season, here's a Christmas candy for you. Perform a theme overhaul for your Nokia phones!

Follow the instructions [here] and you'll be fine.

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I am not too sure who among you heard of LinkedIn but I thought it's an extremely useful tool to enlarge your professional circle of friends, may it be work or play. I personally have been using it for over two years.

Check it out and you may even find your ex-colleagues from your youth in this large network.

Have fun!

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HP StorageWorks 1/8 Ultrium 448 Tape Autoloader

2U Form factor (rackmount or desktop)
Native capacity  - 1.6 TB native capacity
Backup rate  - 24 MB/s native transfer rate
1 drive to 8 data cartridge slot ratio provides for weekly automated backup
Includes HP OpenView Storage Data Protector, Single Server Edition for Windows® 2000/NT/2003/XP
Interface: Ultra160 SCSI LVD/SE
Uses Ultrium generation 2 media; HP Ultrium or LTO Ultrium cleaning cartridge
Reliability - 250,000 Mean swaps between failures (MSBF)
Warranty - 1 Year next-day parts exchange warranty
Free U320 SCSI HBA worth S$235 (107O450)

S$8850 including 5% GST

Posted in: Technology on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 0 comments  

X60 T1300(1.66GHz), 512MB RAM, 60GB 5400rpm HD, 12.1in 1024x768 LCD, Intel 950, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, Secure chip, IEEE 1394, 4c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Home
3 Years Warranty
S$1850.00 including 5% GST

Upgrade to MS Windows XP Pro for only S$145
(FREE UPGRADE TO MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA BUSINESS EDITION)

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We’re all busy these days. We eat half of our meals in cars and the other half on the phone. Or at least it seems like it. One of the main excuses things I run into when trying to exercise is a lack of time. Well, if you’ve got 5 minutes you can do a lot of good.
Here’s the schedule:

Minute 1: Stretch
Stretching promotes blood flow and relieves tension in your body. It can help you melt away stress and relax, plus it helps with your flexibility and takes no equipment and little room to do. Find some helpful stretching techniques [here]. Don’t worry about getting in a full body stretch, you won’t have time. Just pick something that seems sore, or doesn’t get stretched often, and do that for one minute.

Minutes 2, 3 and 4: Push-ups
If you’ve only got time to do one exercise. This is the one you want to do. It’s a great upper-body and core workout, it’s quiet, and it takes zero equipment to do properly. Try and do sets of 10 with 30-45 second breaks in between. Do this for 3 minutes. Proper push-up technique is [here]. You may not be able to do the classic at first. That’s OK. Try it with your knees on the ground or even try it standing up and pressing against a wall in front of you like you would press against a floor. If you start either of these ways you can work yourself up (or actually down) to the classic floor push-up.

Minute 5: Stretch Again
Now that you’re slightly warmed up, the stretching will be more effective at increasing your flexibility and it still retains the benefits we talked about previously.

That’s it! Try it...

Posted in: on Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 0 comments  

After like what seems like eternity - 32 hours, Reba manages to reach home with her son's help! The intense fog at her last stop actually resulted in the pilot turning the plane back to the departure airport! But thank God she is fine and ready to do some "damage" while shopping and visiting families and friends.

Do continue to pray for her safety as she travels for the next 3 weeks.

Posted in: Friends Update on at 0 comments  

In an affluent society like ours, the rich man's diseases are plentiful and common...take cholesterol overloading for example. Well, here's a little project for each of us - find out the most practical way to help our dear brother John lower his astronomically high cholesterol!

A call or text message to remind him to stay from unhealthy food, a good recommendation of food combination, etc. would all be welcome to him...

Posted in: Friends Update on Saturday, December 16, 2006 at 0 comments  

Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Desktop Search 3.0. The software searches through all types of documents including emails, music, and even your Outlook appointments as well as through PDF files. The WDS provides the ability to re-index portions of the drive, instead of doing the whole drive in one shot. A checkbox allows WDS to index and search through encrypted files. It adds a search bar in the bottom-right corner of the screen next to your system tray.

The software can be downloaded from here.

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Ever wonder if the author of your travel guide book actually have been to Oslo? Well, I am not surprised if that's not the case. Turn the coin round and you now can ask a pool of members from all over the world about the place where they actually have been to...isn't that cool?

Check out Virtual Tourist [here] and bring authentic flavour and meaning into your next trip.

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Apple making a Phone? Yup! This world is getting more commercial by the minutes...its reported to embed a 4GB or 8GB drive for your MP3 and will be available Q1 2007.

It's so new this news that the specs of this is not yet known...

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Posted in: on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 0 comments  

We love things that are fast! Fast food, Fast Cars, Fast Internet. Why should my browser lag? Fasterfox is REALLY cool extension that adds a HEMI to FireFox. The extension works by tweakings network settings, adjusting the pre-cache, pipelining, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.

As an added bonus Fasterfox has a little page load timer that shows how much time it has saved you!

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A very effective plugin has been identified [here] named Fasterfox. It incorporates a cool extension that adds a HEMI to FireFox. The extension works by tweakings network settings, adjusting the pre-cache, pipelining, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.

As an added bonus, Fasterfox has a little page load timer that shows how much time it has saved you!

A valuable tool to end users when speed is essential.

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Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

• XHTML (or HTML) and CSS, for marking up and styling information.
• The DOM accessed with a client-side scripting language, especially ECMAScript implementations such as JavaScript and JScript, to dynamically display and interact with the information presented.
• The XMLHttpRequest object is used to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server, and in other implementations, dynamically added
• XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML. These files may be created dynamically by some form of server-side scripting.

Like DHTML, LAMP and SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies.

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Well, Tim is a dear friend of mine and I gladly welcome him into our extended SF! (clap, clap, clap) Just a brief intro, maybe Tim can give it himself!

Feel free to browse around and contribute your pulse to this SF!

God bless!

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For the travel gurus, a destination that would be out of this world to be in...expected completion date - 2008. Where it will be built? Dubai.

A sprawling 1.1-million-square-foot complex—with lavish suites, a ballroom, a shopping mall and a missile-defense system to ward off terrorists—Hydropolis is an ambitious vision of luxury at 60 feet underwater. As of press time, though, the project had stalled in the preconstruction phase. According to Mansoor Ijaz, deputy chairman of the board for Crescent Hydropolis Resorts, LLC, Hydropolis is on hold pending “land acquisition” and probably won’t be finished before the current opening date, set for 2008

Posted in: on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 0 comments  

R60 Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 (Merom 1.83Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache)) 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 80GB SATA DVD MultiBurner Dual Layer, Gigabit Centrino a/b/g 14"XGA+ XP Pro 3 year, Active Protection System, Rescue & Recovery, 128MB ATI Radeon X300

PP Price $2399 including GST
Street Price S$2699

Discover technical specification [here]

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Overview Business Advantages of Compiere include

1. Inherent virutally unlimited license-free operating costs
2. Stronger database integrity and performance offered by Oracle or MySQL
3. Simplified user navigation that has a maximum depth of 3 levels
4. Multi-lingual capability
5. Strong record history of successful deployment by companies like Good Year, Audaxis in Europe.
6. Built-in web access for report viewing and partner self-help web store
7. Open-source nature implying changes to source code or format/GUI is possible
8. Product not locked onto a vendor who can disappear over time as self-support is trully possible
9. Strong CRM/POS/OLAP/Partner Relationship management capability
10. Strong digital forms workflow processing
11. Coehesive functionality to cut down processing order lead time

A good read can be obtained [here]

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IBM OmniFind is a enterprise-level search software solution that enables rapid deployment of intranet and file system search for both employees and customers.

Supports up to 500,000 documents.
Search both the enterprise and the Internet from a single interface. Configurable integration with Yahoo!
Integrates smoothly with existing infrastructures and intranet sites.
Incorporates open source Apache Lucene technology to deliver the best of community innovation with IBM's enterprise features.
Access to IBM's expert service and support professionals, available through a paid support option, ensures challenges are resolved in a reliable and timely manner.

View Flash Demo

Hardware Included
IBM x110 Server
Intel Pentium D 3.0GHz Processor
1GB DDR2 Memory
Dual 80GB Drive with RAID 1
1-year Ons-site Warranty

Get a representative to contact [you]

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Joshua must be very afraid in his heart. With over 2 million Israelites under his care and been given the instruction to react to "Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them" command from God, I am pretty sure the level of anxiety of the unknown is what we may face at times too.

Well, I do. Quite many times a day in fact. It's not about our faith in the Lord in question here, but the knowledge that we have to tackle what our minds, qualification, experience cannot predict. It can be scary or peaceful...either camp implying a different depth of trust in Christ.

What then? Live each day with a reactive spirit, waiting to muscle your way to managing the unpredictables? Or simply submit and surrender your life at 7am through a simple prayer of trust.

Lord, I ask you to help me cross that river in complete trust today...amen.

Posted in: on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 0 comments  

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OK. Reba is going back to see many people across the three short weeks and let us remember her in our daily prayer for safety and blessing!

Driver appreciated to send her to the airport...

Cheers.

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Just in case you forgot, we will be making our way to JB right after Mike's 
kitchen demo at 360 Dunearn this Saturday. So, there will not be 
dinner on Friday! 

Be ready to leave from around 4.30pm that day. Venue - a world-class (but very affordable) restaurant just 10 minutes from the causeway.

Meet at church. 

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Posted in: on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 0 comments  

By shipping its first quad-core processors in December, Intel is beating AMD by at least six months. AMD doesn't expect to deliver its first quad until mid-2007. But upon closer examination, Intel's quads are actually pairs of dual-core dies slapped together in the same chip package, whereas AMD's will truly integrate four cores on a single die.

With Intel's architecture, the resultant is poor integration and poor performance, as all core-to-core communications must squeeze through the slowe front-side bus instead of through tightly integrated interconnects.

Our recommendation is to simply stay away from Intel's "stopgap measure" products until it rolls out what AMD's true quad-core sound architecture mid next year.

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I admit it's a rather unusual topic to talk about last Friday but I thought we could learn plenty about how we can overcome this common problem of mankind from each of you. As usual, we started with a few rounds of home-made Pizza, talk out loud how our week was. Looked like everyone has something to share about their encounters in this department.

Well, in summary, it's about acknowledging our weakness and asking God to replace that spirit of anger with the Spirit of love. You know, as Reba shared, it ought not to be looking at self continuously if we are to want to manage our anger. As we died in Christ of our sinfulness, Christ lives in us, and henceforth, not I but Christ. When that self is mortified, the light of hope and truth descends upon us, while all those lies of darkness (to justify our anger) - saying to the victim,"You deserved it!" disappears.

Having said that, we all have our fair share of trials last week (thanks HC, Reba and Daisy) and it sure looks like we need to pray for one another in this area. Prayer items - Reba heading back to the States, church activities, new SF focus for the new year, chinese construction ministry. We do want to remember John with his dry cough, and Douglas with speedy recovery from the common flu. Next week, our SF will be on Saturday, whereby we head out to JB right after Mike's cooking demonstration.

Stay tune...

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- Netplus 512k plan is due to cease after 3 months of free usage (Dec 2006)
- Internet gateway at present is 192.168.2.24
- Total 60+4 users on premise- static ip (DHCP disabled) for all users (bearing 192.168.2.xx)- Four 3com network switches in use today (topology unknown)
- currently one server Pentium 2 HP Netserver LC3 doing file service and Accpac backup instance (tape backup performed daily by a Sophia, not audited)
- one harddrive (fed by CDs given from overseas branches periodically
- India, Indonesia, HK, Philippines which are still not in MK yet; running Accpac stand alone; Seperate man power in Finance department managing this manual reconciliation today.
- Present server/s not protected by UPS- Ensure current lease line circuit (to be decomissioned upon ip-vpn deployment) should not share identical switch for load balance purpose
- No web proxy service in place
- one spare Compaq server which can be useful for future use found
- No centralized virus protection system in place
- Power requirement overloading suspected as limited power adapter are found at server room
- 2Mbps is to be shared for Internet/Mail/MK (Load balancer required)
- Redundant network switch required for site - for business continuity planning

Posted in: on Friday, December 08, 2006 at 0 comments  

Friday is usually a welcome and I say it sure is to many of us. I have not heard from you guys how things are in your prayer life. Please remember Nigel as his work load has just ramped up till next Feburary, meaning to say we may not be able to see him as often as we like to!

To some again, it's a long flight back the States for Christmas. So I wish you smooth journey back there. It's a brief pause for my work too as we look into the new year project schedules and more importantly, our SF direction and focus. So, relax, take a break, go somewhere, unwind and enjoy your own family reunion as HC, John and I come together to do a bit of brainstorming...

This year has been zippy. And I believe the role/function of the SF met your needs. But as usual, our needs grow with time and it's important they are met regularly. John has been very open to Helena's possible job opportunity in China/HK. Jenny as busy balancing between her pregnancy and her career. Robert working with his new boss and such. As for Christine and me, its the two boys, our service in the local church community, business development in HK and confirming the Lord's plan for the family this new year.

Remember our turn of service to serve in the Chinese ministry this Sunday! So, do join us if you can. Watch night service (or we call it Thanksgiving night) is just round the corner. As mentioned, we will be moving towards a two-service Sunday in the new year. Will keep everyone informed of the new schedules.

For the rest of us who is still on the island, let's attend the Christmas day musical (or you have another name), have a Christmas fruit rum cake, and have a round of sharing and thanksgiving today at HC's place.

See you later...

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I just got a set of the new 3.5G wireless modem today and will be telling all if it actually does the speed it boasts of. If all goes well, a minimal contract period of 6 months is all it asks for at only $38 per month!

The beauty is that it's wireless mobile, meaning I get to surf the net at 1800kbps anywhere I so choose. Now, that is cool.

Will keep you posted!

Posted in: Technology on Wednesday, December 06, 2006 at 1 comments  

In a continuous effort to track and analyze source of network attacks, Portal Phenom is please to introduce a tool that allows network administrator to track down location of IP address based on Google Map.

Use it [here]

Posted in: Technology on Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 0 comments  

It's just the Friday where our SF decides to go into mini caves, where small groups gather to wind down from our busy schedules. HC busily supervising her mansion decor, the Expats retreating into their "hibernation den", Nigel diligently choking up "career points", Lani dreaming up her wedding plan.

So, John, Helena and my family (only Dave was absent) decides to have a nice chinese dinner at Vivo City where the grand opening was accompanied by expensive 15 min firework. Andy and Angela was there too, and I was really hoping Hui Ling (my sister) and her hubby would join us too! I am sure John would be an excellent person to share the Gospel with Clement. But well, let us pray that God would open up door in this area again soon.

Besides, it's John's 50th birthday and 14th Anniversary! The menu was rather unusual and refreshing (unlike the usual egg noodles), considering it being the top-tier eating place for an establishment for Crystal Jade. We joked, caught up with one another and end the evening off with a coffee at a nearby coffee join. Helena was on a shopping mood and we all accompanied her...

It's really fun!

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With people around us falling sick more often, we often conclude around the lunch table that virus strains have no doubt mutated to be stronger and persistent. And some of us who can recall will initiate that prayer can have a positive effect on sick brethrens...so we pray for healing.

I was approached by a visitor last Sunday about the church's view on healing, on whether we take a composed stand for or against physical healing ministry. My reply is simple - our focus is in the divesting of our primary effort to evangelism and squabbling for a "Holier than Thou" view on healing is but pointless and non-edifying.

But again, I was approached this time by our dear brother John about christian healing and I think I should address this topic with a short article. Christian healing is a topic that may be wide open to interpretation and I qualify the focus to be simply addressing laying of hands with public prayers and anointing of individuals with visible, realistic healing against any form of mental, physical imfirmities. Do pardon me if these short paragraphs fail to set the boundary of relevance but do revert to clarify when compelled.

Basically, this article is to spur you to know your position in this matter and unite this knowledge with your God-given gifts and talents to be more effective ministers of His. It does not seek to affirm a "right" position as this pertains more to a conviction than a biblical principle.

OK...of all the different opinions and testimony I found and read, I recommend this brief site to be read as a [starter]. Feel free to reply via the Blog's comment link and share of what you think...

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 0 comments  

Two things at hand to let everybody know to determine this Friday's meeting venue:

1. HC will not be available for SF
2. John's anniversary dinner was not made due to sickness last week

If you guys are agreeable on this, we shall still make the trip into JB this Friday. It's said to be a 3 minute drive from the causeway with excellent food and settings...

Please confirm if this arrangement suits you by sms to Christine today. OK?

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This tool may come in very useful at times when vital information are accidentally (or even purposely) deleted from end users' PC or laptop.

Download it [here]

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Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a web content syndication format (XML-based) that is used for content distribution. One simple way to describe it - Television controllers allow you to set certain buttons on your remote for a specific TV station. Or your local news has a certain button for you to turn to watch the news i.e. Channel 3 news at 6 o’ clock. So you press channel 3 and boom, you're there.

RSS is KIND of like that for the web. RSS is better than TV channel saving, it’s like a TIVO. TV channel saving just saves the TV station number, unless you have a TIVO (DVR). A TIVO allows you to record specific shows that you want to watch. That is what RSS does. It records any new changes to a particular website that you frequently go to and it automatically updates for you. It basically narrows down any new updates to the website. RSS is used for a number of news websites, blogs, and vlogs (video blogs).

So how do you subscribe to a website? Well first the webmaster must have an RSS feed for you to subscribe to. Those feeds are buttons on the website where you click to subscribe.

You should know which button you pushed and that integrates with RSS reader (aka RSS aggregator). An RSS reader is basically a web based application that saves the subscription for you. If you have a my yahoo account or AOL/MSN then your subscription to the website will be posted on those main pages for you. However, there are separate readers you can use like feed demon ($29.99) or Google Reader (Free). Google reader is awesome and has a little video for you to watch about the reader.

So, instead of surfing daily across 20 favorite web sites for 30 minutes, your user can now do it all on one page in 5 minutes!

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The use of encrypted mails presents a valuable tool for hightened security and assurance that sensitive information does not get sniffed during transit. Here, we present the very basic of what PGP can do and if required, helping our client deploy PGP effectively.

PGP combines some of the best features of both conventional and public key cryptography. PGP is a hybrid cryptosystem. When a user encrypts plaintext with PGP, PGP first compresses the plaintext. Data compression saves modem transmission time and disk space and, more importantly, strengthens cryptographic security. Most cryptanalysis techniques exploit patterns found in the plaintext to crack the cipher. Compression reduces these patterns in the plaintext, thereby greatly enhancing resistance to cryptanalysis. (Files that are too short to compress or which do not compress well are not compressed.)

There is a few variants of PGP out there that are [free].

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

Our weekly roundup of tips and tricks comes from Speed Guide's TCP Optimizer. It's a program that runs without a need to install into your PC and can be remotely runned if stored on a central server.

Best of all, it works wonderfully to speed things up real well!

Download your copy [here]

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To keep abreast with the lastest development of multiple core processors, we would like to simply provide a layman explanation of what and how it actually benefit enterprise users.

A multi-core processor is an piece of silicon which two or more processors have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks.

Think of it as a having separate processors installed in the same computer. The advantage to having multiple processors on a single piece of silicon, is that the connection and intercommunication between the independent processors is faster then if they were on separate pieces of silicon.

It is easy to assume that a dual core processor is nearly twice as powerful as a single core processor. In practice, performance gains are said to be about fifty percent: a dual core processor is likely to be about one-and-a-half times as powerful as a single core processor.

A dual-core processor has many advantages especially for those looking to boost their system’s power, as clock speeds on processors not improving at the rate of speed as they did in the early 2000’s

For a computer to really get a speed boost out of a dual-core processor, both the operating system and applications running on the computer should support a technology called “Multi threading” (Basically allowing a program to simultaneously execute multiple tasks, on multiple processors)

Even without a multithread-enabled application Microsoft Windows XP, MacOS X or Linux (Which all support multithreading) will hand off tasks in an even manner to both cores of your processor making the compuer feel faster.

However, having more cores isn’t always better! The noticeable speed improvement all depends on the demand of the Applications trying to utilize the processor. For example, Microsoft Word open on a dual core machine is no faster then Microsoft Word on a eight core machine. The program isn’t demanding enough to fully utilize the extra cores.

However, if you run Photoshop, Illustrator, Avid all at the same time (besides using a ton of system RAM), these programs would greatly benefit, due to the complexity of the calculations they require.

So, do you need the newest Core2Duo machine produced? If you are just running a web browser, and email client - the answer is NO. However if you plan to do photo, video or audio manipulation we say get as many cores as your wallet can afford - and plenty of RAM

Updated by Darren

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John, Douglas both got a case of fluish spell late last week and are still recovering from it. Pray for recovery and well-being.

Helena (our Music teacher) had a bad fall last week as well. I pray she is well taken care of by the Doctors.

Anyone else I missed?

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It's the time of the year where the weather moves from hot and dry to hot and wet. And as usual most known air-borne virus comes out to play.

In church, as I welcome friends, I do see an increased number of people coughing, sneezing and stuff and I just want to provide a few practical tips to avoid getting a case. Apparently, for kids, they tend to get "stomach" flu and they usually throw up and visit the loo very regularly unless a proper dose of Anti-diahorrea concotion is applied.

1. Avoid crowded place if possible
2. Use an Air Ionizer (/w negative ions emitter) at your work place, home and/or car (I gave one to Brian) - capable of killing air-borne viruses within a 500 Sqft space!
3. Wear a mask (quite common in HK) when necessary to protect yourself
4. Common sense - rest and drink (I mean H2O) sufficiently
5. Get out of Air-conditioned space periodically for fresh air
6. Build up immune system by not being underweight or overweight and brisk exercise
7. Reduce or eliminate sugar intake (e.g. fizzy drinks, 3-in-1 mix) - sugar aids growth of virus and bacteria as they are food for them
8. Eat more frequent but smaller portions - 5 meals a day

Dr. Lawrence (for this article)

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You know, while our Savior constantly urges us to serve Him as the age closes, never did he mention that we should forget to rest. Rest not in the arms of the world but on the breasts of Christ. Save the occasions that we miss the blessing of Lazarus, whom sits eagerly in wait of his Master's comforting words.

As Christians, that is very important. A skill and a constant effort to sit in front of our Master's table, to bask in His consoling conversation and a lift of our weary spirit. So, come, I invite, that this sacred breaks be made periodically to sit at the table with Him. (John 12:2)

In fact, I occasionally allocate such break time to update the blog!

Posted in: on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 0 comments  

Posted in: on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 0 comments  

While preparing for the LETAS grant, PP will require the preused template from client to write the grant document as per fitting to the exact scale and requirement of the subsidiaries and group status.

It is anticipated that the grant document be ready in a week upon receiving the necessary documents and details from client.

Spring Singapore will be notified while a copy of the document be given to client for reference.

Posted in: on Monday, November 06, 2006 at 0 comments  

Built upon Nessus and Coyote, the entire software suite is constructed to fit CEH network requirement. PP will require an available PC for program installation and configuration before it be deployed in HQ network.

This server will be activated to sweep the entire network, including new VPNed subnet for vulnerabilities, spyware while eliminating them from the network.

As again, please provide a schedule to pick up the server hardware from CEH for installation.

Thanks.

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

The MailEdge MX server is ready for deployment in CEH, in replacing the current mail server. Recommended hardware changes will be the built-in Raided drives. All other hardware will be inspected for continual use. Please provide us a spare machine for the migration work when required for pick up.

A schedule can be set by client to perform the migration.

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

Please provide us the softcopy of brochures, images and any materials you have in mind to be on this web site that we can review and present several draft work this week.

Thank you. We will schedule a meeting with you when ready.

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

I am telling you, the Internet is exploding with various paradigm shifts... with more things fast
becoming common knowledge. And one excellent site worth visiting (again, only if you make time really) is the MIT Open Courseware portal.

Funtastic teaching material on practically all known areas of academic studies, all for nothing!

Check it out [here]

Posted in: on Saturday, November 04, 2006 at 0 comments  

I am not sure about you but I am definitely into Classical movement. 

This is a fantastic list of full-length, public domain songs available for free download. And it's a LONG list; anything from Beethoven's Pathetique to Handel's Messiah. What a great (and free!) way to add to your classical music collection. 

Check out this [collection] for download and easy listening while the weekend dawns upon us...

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

As you know, learning a new language can be expensive, inconvenient and draggy...until now.

NHK (which is like BBC for Japan) provides a great resource for learning Japanese right on their home page. You can stream "Basic" or "Brush up lessons" with Real player and view a lesson plan directly online.  Dive in [here]

And BBC has followed suit in launching "Quick Fix" courses for over 30 languages all on their web site. Have time to spare? Check it out [here]

Happy learning!

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Yahoo! launched its new food site today, offering recipes, health advice, restaurant listings.

Want to know how to carve a turkey? Watch a video demonstration from no less than Martha Stewart. Need help choosing a wine? Look to the wine guide. Put simply, Yahoo! Food packs in a wealth of material. All recipes come with nutritional information, always a plus.

The interface could use some work, though--it's busy and not particularly well-organized. But if you're willing to root around or you want to search for a specific recipe, you'll find loads of good stuff.

Check it out [here]

Posted in: Friends Update on at 0 comments  

I just want to thank God for Lani and John for once again making last Friday SF a delicious one. Dried Scallop Noodle Chinese style with English spaghetti with Fire Chilli.

Trust Nigel's work was fruitful to stay that late yesterday and Robert for having to work tomorrow! With HC doing up her new home, I sure want to visit it when it's done. Last night discussion was rather unique, with our usual topic of Christian fruit-bearing that ended with talks on human cloning!

Remember, the desire of bearing fruits in our lives can only come with a growing love for our Savior (by reading His Holy Scrip) May we bear fruits abundantly for His sake.

I am excited that one of you tried the "Get Things Done" article but I believe it's as useful as how conditioned we will be, with practice. Maybe, HC can share with us her style of GTD. Hope she will be back safely this weekend.

Good night and Good morning!

Posted in: Friends Update on at 0 comments  

In view of the need to streamline the allocation of the total 3.75mbps in HQ, the use of a Load Balancer is required to police the network throughput and ensure minimal predefined bandwidth is allocated to

MK - VPN
MK Web - IP
Internet - HTTP/HTTPS
Messaging - IMAP/POP3/SMTP

HP ML110 configured with HTB Load balancer, Pentium 4 Dual 3.0GHz, 1GB RAM and 72GB SCSI Ultra 2 Drive and Gigabit Ethernet will suffice for the task at hand.

Posted in: Technology on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 at 0 comments  

The order for two units of the Linksys 24-port switch mode SRW2024 has just arrived and waiting for clearance before delivery to client site.These two switches are meant to be hot-swap replacement units for business continuity purposes.

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

Just in case you have not noticed, Mozilla has unveiled a new version of the very popular web browser - Firefox. Verdict - Don't use it just yet as it's just too unstable! Take my word for it.

Wait for the next revision 2.01 before attempting to serve the web with it.

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

A new secure tunnel has been established between client and Portal Phenom. This is a new test scenario which allow dynamic office clients to still establish a secure VPN tunnel without the need of static IPs.

To date, the configuration for both tunnels have been to allow remote web traffic to still be managed on the remote end, instead of channeling ALL IP traffic to the congested VPN tunnels. Moreover, a standard security audit has been performed on the Cisco 877 routers to ensure the last-mile vulnerability be addressed.

Constraints now lies in the shipment of additional harddrives for the new ERP server (scheduled mid November) , to be then configured for the new instance for future VPN use.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: Technology on at 0 comments  

Remember Dr. Bruce Wilkinson? Yes, the one who brought us The Secret of the Vines. As I missed a series he did for the family, I started that with my family this week - The Heart that Makes a Home.

It was excellent as it manage to open up and deal with many known issues in my home! A must read for all husbands and wives in our family.The study is classified into six sessions and you only need the course workbook to get started.

Useful Tips include

• Don't let your husband have a mind of his own...join him!
• There's a fine line between a job well done and a job, well...done.
• In a Godly marriage, help is only a heartbeat away
• The first principles to obey are the ones we know today

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 0 comments  

Thank God last Friday, Helena could join us for dinner and prayer. It's extremely tough for her being in her new job (Yamaha music school), yet have the desire to join us for fellowship.

But we miss Robert's family and Nigel's, they being so drained by the week's events. Ban should be back in town this week and we hope to see him at Lani's place for this Friday's SF.

Posted in: Friends Update on Sunday, October 29, 2006 at 0 comments  

As opposed to the west, Halloween is nothing but a fad or a notion it's a day to have some fun. But it's always helpful to at least revisit its very origin and be able to respond when needed.

Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the Celts, inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, observed a festival on October 31st. Unlike modern-day Halloween, theirs was no children's holiday. The Celts and their priests, the Druids, celebrated Samhain, a festival that marked the eve of the Celtic New Year, which began on November 1.

The fall harvest was complete and winter loomed ahead. The Celts believed the power of the sun was fading. For the next several months, darkness would prevail.

The Celts believed that during Samhain the veil separating the living from the dead was at its thinnest. They believed that on the evening of October 31, evil spirits and the souls of the dead passed through the barrier and entered the world of the living. Departed family members would revisit their earthly homes.

The thought was frightening -- and exciting! The Celts believed these spirits and dead souls could torment the living. Crops might be destroyed, babies stolen, farm animals killed. But this was also an opportunity to commune with the spirits and divine the future. The Devil, the lord of darkness, was ordinarily feared, but during Samhain, his power would be called on to foretell the future.

To learn to respond appropriately, click [here]

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Every guy in the family must remember the day when we spent much of our time in an arcade, trying out every game machine that resembled fun. Now, to relive those good old days, I present the coolest game of the week to be played right from your PC!

Check it out [here]

Have fun!

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

From our yesterday's meeting, I conclude the need to write this article. From your eyes, I just know we are overrun, dragged, zapped and completely drained. Controlling our work day is sure a tough nut to crack, even for veterans who's been working for twenty years. No one is spared. No one is given a free access pass. So, like everybody, the race intensified and it's about time we take back what belongs to us with a nice twist...by learning how to control our workday.

When you're not clear and focused on your highest priority todos, getting out the door on a regular workday with a sense of accomplishment is impossible. Rush Hour - that last hour (or two or three) of the day - becomes your stressful closing window to get to the stuff you thought you had all day to accomplish a mere 8 hours earlier.

1. Get one thing done first - THEN check your email

2. Deliberately choose your MIT

3. Get your priorities straight

It doesn't feel like it - especially at the beginning of what seems like a long work day - but your time is limited. There are only a certain amount of hours in the day, but there are an unlimited number of things you could work on. Make sure you work on the most important tasks.

4. Make post-work appointments

5. Wrap-up alerts

One last "get out of the office on time" trick: decide what time you're going to leave at the beginning of the day, and set a "wrap-up" timer. If Love is cooking you dinner tonight and you need out the door at 6PM, set an alert to go off at 5PM, 5:30, 5:45 and 5:55 (more, if necessary) saying "Hey! Time to wrap up and get home!" Prepare yourself mentally to start closing up shop ahead of time so you're not surprised when your spouse calls at 6:30 wondering where the heck you are.

Posted in: on Saturday, October 28, 2006 at 1 comments  

Ywa, I know. It's an uphill challenge to keep your PC being infected with malicious code called Spyware and till now, programs like Spybots and Lavasoft just doesn't cut the job.

Move aside...Hot on the heels of Internet Explorer 7 comes the final version of Windows Defender, the anti-spyware tool that's been in beta for nearly two years.

Windows Defender, previously known as Windows AntiSpyware, offers real-time protection from spyware threats. The big news about the final release: It's still free, and Microsoft is even offering two free phone-support calls per user.

Get yours [here]

Posted in: Technology on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 0 comments  

Worms are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file. This is in contrast to viruses, which requires the spreading of an infected host file. Although worms generally exist inside of other files, often Word or Excel documents, there is a difference between how worms and viruses use the host file. Usually the worm will release a document that already has the "worm" macro inside the document. The entire document will travel from computer to computer, so the entire document should be considered the worm W32.Mydoom.AX@mm is an example of a worm

Trojan horses are impostors—files that claim to be something desirable but, in fact, are malicious. A very important distinction between Trojan horse programs and true viruses is that they do not replicate themselves. Trojan horses contain malicious code that when triggered cause loss, or even theft, of data. For a Trojan horse to spread, you must invite these programs onto your computers; for example, by opening an email attachment or downloading and running a file from the Internet. Trojan.Vundo is a Trojan horse.

A computer virus is a small program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. A virus must meet two criteria: It must execute itself. It often places its own code in the path of execution of another program. It must replicate itself. For example, it may replace other executable files with a copy of the virus infected file. Viruses can infect desktop computers and network servers alike.

Updated by Darren

Posted in: on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 0 comments  

As discussed, ClamWin limitation in slow drive scan for viruses will justify a weekly scan schedule as opposed to a daily scan but at least provide a very basic safety net against virus intrusion on PCs that currently are exposed.

Point of note is the huge lack of legal licenses and license type to cover any surprise legal auditing for this area and with the upcoming VPN connections to be set up in Asia Pacific, a platform that posts greater threats against overseas network threats.

We can relate ClamWin to Thunderbird in its strength in a strong development team and excellent commitment to improving this product over time.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 0 comments  

As discussed, Microsoft made a poor implementation of the DNS service in their Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, having been crippled from the start not to update itself properly with external DNS.

An abstract point of note is given hereby to assist IT department to tackle this issue professionally. Conclusion points that end users' inability to access certain web sites are mainly due to absence of proper proxy settings in their web browser and limitation of Windows 2000 DNS service.

First, why do you only have one domain controller? There is no reason not to have a second DC. Server hardware is cheap these days and being able to authenticate users while the first DC is rebooting during your scheduled patch maintenance is a valuable benefit. Also, having two DC's eliminates the need for the following fixes, assuming the DC's are configured correctly.

The biggest issue for Active Directory with a lone DC is that dynamic registration of DNS records will consistently fail. DC's use the Netlogon service to register themselves in AD, when the Netlogon service starts the DC will try to register with a DDNS server. Unfortunately the Netlogon service starts before the DNS Server service does. Trying to correct this problem by adjusting dependencies in the Services applet will only cause more problems.

Overcome this limitation by configure Group Policy to run this script at startup on the domain controller. The script waits a minute after boot, then restarts the Netlogon service in order to properly register itself in DNS. You can adjust the timing as needed by simply editing the script. However, the script will not work unless the domain controller is configured with itself as the only DNS server in the NIC properties. Resolving outside hosts is done through the forwarders configured in the DNS Server service properties.

Obviously, all clients that connect to the domain must use the domain controller as their only DNS server for dynamic name registration and Active Directory lookups work properly. Never assign a domain client outside DNS servers because this will only cause problems if the domain controller is unavailable.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

The third and final Cisco 877 for HQ has been configured and delivered to client. Current reservation applies to a small group of end users who reported to have difficulty in accessing certain SSL web sites when switched to transport traffic across existing Cisco 877 router.

The Singnet Proxy - proxy2.singnet.com.sg (port 8080) must be set in each end user;s browser to enable enhanced surfing experience. Review is done currently to enable seamless Active Directory usage on Windows 2000 domain in the new network environment.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Microsoft has today launched the final version of the complete Windows Defender solution - An effective yet free version Spyware Eliminator.

You can download a copy at [here]

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Let's continue where we left off (some weeks back) this Friday on this video series.

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 0 comments  

A highly recommended upgrade of the week for your end users if not done so already.

Download it [here]

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

This article applies to IT Manager who would wish to disable the file transfer feature of Skype in the corporate LAN.

Simply perform the following registry changes on machines that have skype installed

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype\Phone]
"DisableApi"=dword:00000001
"DisableFileTransfer"=dword:00000001

Updated by Darren

Posted in: on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 0 comments  

As a constant effort to keep our clients abreast with emerging technologies for business, part of that include informing our clients of what's new.

Microsoft's IE7 has just been lauched and we hereby flag out reservation of using it just yet as incompatibilities of existing web standards plague the new browser. Other factors include a higher memory footprint, slower performance. Several vulnerabilities have also been reported (previously not present in IE6) and we advise IT department to play a wait and see approach to this new browser.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Indicated by some of you having to work this coming Tuesday (being a holiday), I would just like to propose to those free if doing something fun like watching the NFL (proposed by Robert/Brian) together would really move us away from the dead-beat schedule of ours.

Blog back and tell us if we can make it happen on Tuesday morning.

Remember, you don't need your id and password to reply via the tag board (located on the bottom right corner of the blog site)

Posted in: on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at 0 comments  

As discussed over sunday lunch today, the Internet revolution has changed many things in our lives, including how conventional TV channels get into our living rooms! Why pay when you can watch them legally free! No, I am not joking.

So, do check out a more popular site [here] if you want to start getting yourself updated with many channels around the world.

PS But be warned...only viewers with high-speed Internet (preferably 10mbps and above) need apply.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

I am sure we know our rewards for every work we've done in our Savior's name is amplified many folds (Lk. 6:23) in heaven but I would like to make mention of the efforts of love to individuals who has acted sacrificially for the family:

• John/Helena - Co-cook with HC many a times for SF voluntarily
• Brian/Robert - For giving tennis coaching services to those who want to play the sport
• John - For initiating travel trips and bookings to all in SF
• HC - Cook up wonderful meals each week while sending Robert and gang back home after SF
• Christine - For taking care of the needs of the youngest SF members - Douglas and Dave
• Ban (PaPa Bear 63 years old) -For giving his valuable experience and life lessons to all, when he can
• Reba - For imparting valuable kids-raising experience to young mother/s in family
• All the rest - For doing what we do best behind the curtain scenes for the SF

Posted in: on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 0 comments  

Yesterday's meeting was an excellent one, considering not just about the big turn out in numbers, but what was shared by those who could. Being made up of mostly asian, the issue to bring up real needs among the family is hindered by unfamiliarity among friends (a process that simply requires time) and the "closed" mindsets of the chinese race.

It's just the culture I guess, here, that voicing out needs is but a sign of weakness, ignorance or inferiority (as opposed to the western culture). The "face" issue is much more predominant among friends and that may just stack up to support our current mindset.

But, we are thankful for sharing made by Robert, Reba, Daisy, Nige, John and Ban, that truly transform our usual dining experience to a spiritually meaningful evening. Those prayer requests are real and the needs, urgent.

In so doing regularly, ample opportunity presents itself to improve also in our areas of weaknesses. I sure need that! Thanks everyone.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Here's a good article to reclaim your time as a busy mother/mother-to-be...

Read [here]

Posted in: on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 0 comments  

I want to thank God for HC once again, for accomodating the whole bunch of us this Friday at her place. Time is standard time. Food has always been ready when we arrive - big thanks to John and HC. If more of us can chip in to prepare food, it would be a more fun affair.

So, this Friday, my family will be bringing chicken...any side dishes will be a welcome. More importantly, please find a few moments to check out the following mini topics we hope to cover

• Character of an SF - A Brief Revisit
• Freeing more time for ourselves Today - What can be done?

Let me know if you are unable to join us this Friday by replying to this article below.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Remember the days when we were still in college? Yah, the freedom to go the most interesting mall after the short morning lectures or drive to the outskirt to just spend a day in an aviation museum during a summer break...even date someone.

But hey, look at us today. Working in a cubicle 12 hours a day, eat 15-minute lunches and shuffles tons of papers for five to six days a week...for a corporate agenda we sometimes cannot rationalize. "Recharge" pitstops seems far in between. We are then further drained to fulfill our social responsibilities outside those hectic windows to fix a leaking pipe or visit a friend. How many minutes are we left for our own self...I say. Not many. In fact, according to corporate statistics, the longest interval before we get an interuption each day is approximately 11 minutes.

Let's stop everything we are doing now and revisit with me what needs to be done to address this challenge. We need more time for ourselves!

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

A request was made a while back to Portal Phenom to identify a program (preferably at no cost) to modify a conventional PDF document. We endorse Gimp 2.2 with GTK and Ghostscript to do the job. They are free to use at no fee.

We have made a CD for your use and will pass it when a client site visit is scheduled.

Happy PDFing.

Updated by Darren

Posted in: on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 0 comments  

I had the opportunity to air my views during the east zone sf meeting recently, and hereby like to provide our SF a summary of what is on the table as well. The more transparent I am, the better, when it comes to flow of these information...would you agree?

A healthy SF, which to some extent behaves like a church, ought to display certain traits or marks as some call it. In fulfilling the universal vision to be Christ-like in an SF, let us consider the following

1. Existence of phileo and agape love (i.e serving others than self)
2. Practical Relationship Circle
3. Biblical Understaning of Evangelism
4. Openness to growth and discipleship
5. Committment to act in prayer for one another
6. Holy-Spirit-led leadership
7. Biblical Understanding of Service/support in local church
8. Gospel-focused activity plan

Nothing new here...just would like to take this coming Friday to perhaps touch and go to hear each of your view with regard to making our family better with the above points.

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 0 comments  

The recent email notification on spam warning has been reviewed thoroughly from the server side, only to confirm the source of spam emails being received externally is caused by specific users' infected machines.

Steps to sweep every user;s PC or laptop is urgently required to clam down on the root cause of high number of spams being sent out by infected PCs within CEH network.

MailEdge is not infected in any form.

Updated by Wai Peng

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

With the availability of MailEdge MX, a 64-bit oriented messaging server will be rolled out in CEH upon the availability of suitable hardware from CEH. AMD's 64-bit processor-based system is still highly recommended as per the current MailEdge server in CEH.

New Features that will can be found in the server include

• LDAP GUI Administrator to manage users' mailbox profiles
• New heuristic-based Spam filter engine
• Munin Mail sever real-time sensors to track viruses, spam, CPU utilization etc.
• Webmin Server Administration to schedule cronjobs, quota, reboot servers etc.
• Firewall and Anti-virus integration
• Built-in backup role as DNS server, Windows File Server and DHCP server
• Jabber IM infrastructure to support current corporate IM securely

Please advice if a decision has been made to provide a new mail server hardware for the installation. The current MailEdge server can serve as a backup mail server.

Updated by Wai Peng

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

With ClamWin installed on every machine, the next agenda on the list is to deploy a 24/7 network vulnerability surveillance system in the network. This system will continuously probe each connected PC/laptop and feed side intel to the IT department on necessary action and correction.

Please provide a machine for this sole purpose asap.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Currently, both "Analog Proxy" servers in CEH should be decomissioned asap to speed up overall Internet performance while providing a platform for a Fairway Load Balancer to be deployed on the network. These machine will dictate the amount of traffic for various protocols to guarantee specified QoS.

We will be providing a suitable recommendation for the hardware today whereby it will be configured for use in HQ and/or Pumas site.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Our recommendation in moving towards virtualization is to endorse a 64-bit processing core for efficiency. Windows OS are today still primarily on 32-bit which disallow a realistic test case for meaningful use. To pilot this initiative, please provide a decent workgroup server hardware to configure that you can achieve a 64-bit OS core platform for virtualization.

AMD-powered box is preferred as they have both a lower price point but very strong 64-bit processing power. We will be happy to recommend a suitable hardware for this purpose.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

I have been asked by Lawrence to write a brief note about SPI firewall features for CEH. With the installation of the third and final Cisco 877 router in HQ, security offered by packet-inspected (commonly known as SPI) firewall will protect the entire CEH network, shielding users from

• IP Spoofing
  
• Port Scanning
• Ping of Death
• SynFlood
• DoS Attacks
• TCP flag Attacks
• Malformed Packet Attacks

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

All I ever read about on the Apple blogs, is iPhone this and iPhone that. Frankly if Apple will ever produce a cellphone is anybodies guess. But here is a way that you can make (and when I say make, I mean buy) your own Franken-iPhone.

BluEye from Gear4 has dropped in an iPod accessory that transform your iPod into some sort of cell phone. To make it work all you need to do is synch up your Bluetooth capable mobile phone with your iPod. The BluEye will take care of any incoming calls and the caller ID will show the number on the iPod. It doesn’t require any external power and gets the necessary power from iPod. The device does give your iPod the FM radio functionality and comes in two colors black and white.

Available for $94

Posted in: on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 0 comments  

How does converting files via your default browser sound? Media Convert does just that. Using a simple drop-down menu based interface, users can upload files directly from their own machines and have the respected file format converted to something new. Convert MP3’s into suitable ring tone formats for your mobile handset. Convert heavy JPG images into something more manageable (such as a .GIF, or .AVI).

Seems completely reliable - based on personal experiences converting generic MP3’s into appropriate ring tone formats for the bargain basement price of free.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Three things that are of focus curently in CEH were discussed yesterday whereby virus infection tops the highest priority. As mentioned, effective opens-source solution should be leveraged across the entire CEH network with tools inlcuding ClamAV antivirus (Good for both basic PCs and servers alike) and vulnerability survelliance tools like Nessus.

Please download them and install ClamAV on every machine to protect Outlook mailboxes and data with scheduled daily scan of each PC that has ClamAV installed. Nessus should be in place in one workgroup server dedicated for 24/7 network survelliance and flagging of new and emerging threats. A HP ML110 series machine will do the job cost-effectively.

Overseas office control can readily be achieved with a proper VPN linkup to that site. Upon a successful implementation, full control can be achieved by placing "spy" servers in the remote network that is fully managed by HQ MIS department. Data, information etc. can all be interrogated on-demand with this approach without need of a physical presence.

Hence, countries like China, USA, HK, Japan etc. can all fall under the IT jurisdiction of HQ Singapore, with full business visibility.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 0 comments  

The last discussion we had with regard to how MK can accomodate the upcoming VPN links to Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore indicate that a detailed study is suggested to evaluate possibilities of running two separate instances of the MK server - one on the new MK server, one on where it is today.

A big-bang approach to switch overseas offices onto the new MK instance is not recommended due to the inherent risk we face when it is performed simulataneously. Due to the way the MK database schemas was first designed, tables within the database are commonly accessed by the different business entities in CEH. Hence, a slice and dice approach to systematically migrate site-specific database is not possible.

The only recommendation to all existing constraints is to ensure two (AS-IS and TO-BE) instances are kept synchronized (accuracy discrapancies can increase during the migration process period) while individual office sites are systematically switched over to the new MK instance.

An observation period of approximately 2 weeks will be given to each site after the switch, whereby the existing contract be terminated upon the dust settling down for each location. Based on Mr. Sim's planned schedule, all six sites can be systematically switched over in 2.5 to 3 months period from today.

Updated by Lawrence

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

With steps put in to incorporate the second Cisco 877 router, an existing server running "Analog Proxy" has been identified. Close examination of this application and the network topology has revealed a double NAT-layer structure slowing users down to accessing the Internet.

This double-translation work (by both the Compact Proliant 1600 and Prolink Home-grade ADSL modem)can present a huge bottleneck in speed of access in the HQ site. We strongly recommend removal of the Compaq Proliant 1600 server with immediate effect while existing users are redirected to a second Analog Proxy box on level 2 temporarily.

Next, the second Cisco 877 has been partially configured to access the internet today but has yet to be incorporated back into the network for the fact it will have to be configured to be part of the network for usability, bearing an IP of 192.168.1.200. The first Cisco 877 today bares an IP fo 192.168.1.180. It is a matter of time that the current Analog Proxy server be removed to be replaced by a load balancer, having direct connection to both Cisco 877 routers at level 3.

In addition, any DHCP functions in any Microsoft Windows 2000/3 servers should be turned off immediately, before the Cisco 877 resumed this responsibility. What HQ currently have in terms of ADSL connectivity includes

• 1.5 Mbps ADSL Dynamic Plan
• 2 Mbps ADSL Static Plan with 16 Static IPs (please provide information on ALL static IP information)
• 256kbps ADSL Dynamic Plan (Level 2)

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

A delivery will be made next Monday on the following products to

209 Henderson Road
#03-06
Singapore 159551

1. HP DAT72 StorageWerk External Drive with 10 cartridges
2. Adobe Photoshop CS2 Retail Box
3. Microsoft Frontpage 2003 Retail Box
4. FREE Microsoft Windows 2003 Server CALs - 10 units

An invoice will accompany with the delivery.

Posted in: on at 0 comments  

Here's some hearty recommendation to those tired of honey-glazed chicken from Cold storage

1) The Mango Tree
The Mango tree is an excellent, affordable Indian restaurant specializing in cuisine from Goa and Kerela. The seafood is among the best in Singapore and you can feel the ocean breeze while you eat. Good prices, outstanding food, and a nice atmosphere.
2) Hai Tien Lo
The best view in the city. The restaurant sits on the 37th floor of The Pan Pacific. It offers incredible Cantonese food - roasted chicken, shark fin soup, dim sum, etc. The menu changes periodically and in addition to the Cantonese fare you can get Western dishes like lamb or Japanese favorites like Kobe beef.
3) The Gorkha Grill
Authentic Nepalese food and atmosphere in Singapore's Chinatown area. The place is relaxed, affordable and very memorable. And while the Nepalese dishes are showcased, you can also get Australian, African and Middle Eastern cuisines.
4) The Banana Leaf Apolo
Great South Indian food and a good cultural experience at a reasonable price. Eat off a banana leaf plate with your fingers (okay you can have a fork if you just HAVE TO have one... try the fish head curry!_z_goasia_z_);
5) mezza9
Nine different dining experiences wrapped into one restaurant on the Mezzanine floor of the Grand Hyatt in Singapore.

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Having a number of our members (in fact most of us) hovering around their mid-lives, I am pretty sure the reality of facing what many call a half-time crisis can be real and a daunting mindwash. Some of us perhaps are just over it, some in it, while others are about to enter it. Needless to say, prolong immersion in this state of mind can ultimately hurt our spiritual effectiveness for Christ as it has already done so in many christians.

For the record, "A mid-life crisis is an emotional state of doubt and anxiety in which a person becomes uncomfortable with the realization that life is halfway over. It commonly involves reflection on what the individual has done with his life up to that point, often with feelings that not enough was accomplished. The individual may feel boredom with their lives, jobs, or their partners, and may feel a strong desire to make changes in these areas. ..." (Wikipedia)

While surfing the world wide web (coz of HC's comment on not wanting to buy a fleet of yacht when asked), an interesting site caught my attention on this subject. And allow me to commend it to those burdened hearts who can truly see its value in helping many redirect their time, talent and treasure into something genuinely fulfilling and lasting for Christ, and perhaps turning it into a ministry in our church!

Check out the following material and pray for God's leading for you [here]

Posted in: on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 0 comments  

ASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--After nearly a decade of lying low, Starbucks has reentered the homosexual rights movement in a few ways that have put at least one conservative watchdog group on alert. The world’s most famous coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It,” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on Starbucks coffee cups, according to the chain’s website.

So, think again where you will have your next coffee...

Read more [here]

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As requested, a quotation has been faxed out to fulfill your network requirement

1. Linksys SRW2024 24-port Managed Switch
Purpose: Ensure redundancy for hot swap replacement in event of switch failure in Singapore HQ office

2. APC SmartUPS Back-UPS ES 500 Universal ASE - 1 unit
Purpose: Ensure backup operation of network switches in event of power failure

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Major upgrades are available to beef up securities, improve overall performance, together with more useful-friendly administration tools. The server has been in operation for two full years now and is due for a major overhaul.

Overhauling activity includes a replacement of the existing harddrives, kernel upgrade, hardware firmware updates and housekeep user data. This activity will require a temporary replacement server to be provided whereby user data be migrated and kept.

We anticipate minimal impact to user as upgrades go underway.

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