Jack's Workshop

Problem Solving Quotes

2008-04-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Saw these few quotes from the internet, and many of them suits well to our job. Have a reference. :)

1. "If everyone had a can of play-doh in their favorite colour, then there would be no violence in the world, only a bunch of content people."
-- Kate Dennis

2. "It's easier to see the mistakes on someone else's paper."
-- From 'Really important stuff my kids have taught me'

3. "A problem well stated is a problem half solved."
-- Charles Kettering

4. "A good problem statement often includes: a. what is known; b. what is unknown; and c. what is sought."

5. "Striving to be better, oft we mar what's well."
-- William Shakespeare ("King Lear")

6. "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

7. "The cure for anything is salt water- sweat, tears, or the sea."
-- Isak Dinesen

8. "If the problem is not settled within, it will come out."
-- Heather (me)

9. "Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together."

Election - To those who win or lost

2008-03-10T00:14:00.000-07:00

What we need to do is done. Now, your move...

Remove saved network password

2008-02-26T01:15:00.000-08:00

Have anyone ever think about removing a network password that has been saved when you tick on the "Remember my password" checkbox in the "connect to XXX" dialog box?

Well if yes then try to run this in Start -> Run...:

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr

You'll get to see a list of saved network pass word and you can do Add/Edit/Remove. Cool huh?

奸商越来越多...

2008-01-03T00:02:00.001-08:00

今天收到以下一个邮件，是真是假自己斟酌咯：

这个世界变了样！
我在佳礼看到这篇独家新闻。
看完了真的要吐了！天啊！
不只是中国才有黑心食品啊，这回可是远在天边，近在眼前了！！！
"曾和家人到金馬崙高原遊玩,
当時的時间是中午3点多 ..
我们在巴刹一帶逛逛看看,当时有很多一档一档的小贩在做生意, 顿時我的視線被
某一档小贩的"奇景"
吸引住了 ,這一个档口是贩卖炸食物的档口...一大锅"熱勝腾" 的油...竟然有一个装5
公升的空油桶 "切成一半"
在熱油锅中慢慢的在溶化！当时我看到整个人都傻了！还以為那17..8.岁的女孩子不小心把油桶掉進锅里去？可是看她用一双筷子把油桶翻耒翻去的！看情形不是不小心掉了油桶
,很自然的赶紧叫家人一起看！這時那个女孩子和坐在旁边的双親就把眼光转过來？以那种 "
惡意"的眼神盯着我们？？天啊！果真是以空油桶溶化了炸出来的食物? plastic
bag用来炸香蕉。他们在油里参了PLASTIC，原因是要那些食物放久了不会软绵绵。不会软绵绵的原因是因为 PLASTIC被溶化再硬固的关系。
试验结果如下试验了!!!
两公升油500ml矿泉水瓶一只没加料（矿泉水瓶）时炸一次 -
炸出来的有点硬,但很快软绵绵!!
加料（矿泉水瓶）时再炸一次- 出来是比KFC
的还脆!!
请你们不好再买香蕉炸，咖哩puff， Keropok Lekor
，或是炸鸡饭了。大姐一吃了喉咙就不舒服，应该是这原因吧！
以后要吃什么，还是叫mummy 炸给你们吃比较安全。我明天就来去买香蕉！！！
我恳请你们花点时间，去爬完这张贴吧，爬完后，我打包单，你们一定不会再吃街边的炸食物了。
不只是金马伦的有问题，原来这是他们的secret recipe
家传秘方。我看十摊，十一摊有加料啦！那摊主不是很笨就是胆大包天！不会在家里先把桶丢进油里，竟然笨到在众目睽睽之下，做这些丧尽天良的事。真的他妈的 !

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奸商当道，如今的社会，也许是经济萧条影响吧，一般人都想尽办法赚取更多的利润。以后有什么还是自己弄来吃好了..... :P

SUPER Boring!!!

2007-11-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well well... it has been 4 days that I doesn't have anything to do in the office but just sitting there. Spoke to the management and they're still in the progress of trying to fit in all the new comers to the company, according to the schedule I guess I will only be bored till next week, hopefully.

My shcedule for this few days:
Day 1: Tried to do some self research, try to do some revision on layering design, and revise some of those OO concepts, how to use them etc. But without any aims I got bored after a day. okok maybe I am just too lazy for that...

Day 2: Start flipping through all the manuals (for company's product) to do some revision. Then at the same time also send out many emails to everyone I know just to "buat kacau" and hope for some response so I have someone to talk to. Really nobody to speak to here, unlike my old time in old office... :( but noone got time to "layan" me... But luckily, managed to find a few colleagues to go for movie "Beouwulf", but that's after working...

Day 3: Really just sit there and sleep with eye open... so send out email to buat kacau again, but also no reply :( sob sob... guess I am the only one who is so free. But luckily someone find me for help after lunch, first time I am so happy that I got some work to do! But it is just for about 2 hours and I am back to suspend mode...

Day 4: WHich is today, and I am typing this now, just to update my long forgotten blogs, boring blog until myself also lazy to update it. Got to think of some specialise topic for my blog anyway.

I REALLY NEED SOMETHING TO DO!!!

Ok, back to suspend mode, Zzz....

[星座测试] 十二星座全套撒谎伎俩

2007-10-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

在某论坛发现的，还蛮准的...

白羊座(3月21日～4月20日)
牡羊座不容易说谎,因为他们动作太快;要知道,谎言是需要一点细腻心思的。但对牡羊座而言,谎言还来不及编织,他们的脾气已经爆发了。但不会掩饰自己的缺点,也是他们可爱的地方。

金牛座(4月21日～5月20日)
金牛座的诚实不是因为不爱说谎,而是他们的反应本来就慢半拍,等他们好不容易把 "假" 表情堆上脸来,舌头却早已等不及地打了结,然后脸红脖子粗。唉!你就算是想相信他们也很难。

双子座(5月21日～6月21日)
双子座的人反应灵敏、口才一流,天生善于胡编瞎凑而且不着痕迹,丝撩挥泻晡舶涂梢跃?一面说谎一面还对你晓以大义,再加甜言蜜语,有声有色。如果想骗你去外地旅行，连山上的小花小草都会编得活灵活现呢！一路说来天衣无缝鲜龙活跳，最厉害的是--通常，他一说完自个儿就会忘啦!

巨蟹座(6月22日～7月22日)
情绪不稳定的巨蟹座,高兴的时候说实话,不高兴的时候说谎话,前后矛盾是常有的事。但是其中也有些成了高手,善于察言观色,还能针对不同的人说不同的谎。难怪有许多的成功商人是巨蟹座呢！

狮子座(7月23日～8月22日)
狮子座是十二星座中最爱听谎言的星座。非要狮子说谎,会让向来光明磊落的他们全身不自在,可只要一点善意的谎言,绝对叫他们晕头转向。据说，童话故事”国王的新装”中的国王，就是标准的狮子座，那两个颠倒黑白的裁缝师一定是双子座，而当国王穿上”新衣”游街时，那个不识相、大声笑道：”哈哈国王没穿衣服！”的小孩，就铁定是射手座啦！

处女座(8月23日～9月22日)
挑剔而追求完美的处女座,虽有诚实的本质,但若是遇到不能忍受的事,不说又很难过,只好勉强说点谎。比如说:"唉!你们家厕所好像不太有人关心哦!",这真正的意思是:"你家的厕所太脏了,没想到你是这么邋遢的女人,真使我失望!"

天秤座(9月23日～10月21日)
天秤座说起谎来招数也不弱,他们的谎言绝对振振有词,理直气壮,好像错都不在他,都是你不好,让你听着听着竟愧疚起来。而且,天秤座绝对会在谎言上下工夫,甚至会把说过的谎言写进记事本,录以备考。

天蝎座(10月22日～11月21日)
天蝎座不易说谎,因为天蝎座爱憎分明,谎还没说脸色就变了,他们的最佳策略就是遇事干脆一走了之,先消失了在说,不过.天蝎座具有天生的敏锐,最能动悉别人的谎言,儿一但被他们发现你在说谎,他们眼中那冷冷的鄙夷,绝对令你心寒!

射手座(11月22日～12月21日)
坦率的射手座喜欢冒险刺激、开快车、旅游,当然说话也是有啥说啥,要他说谎掩饰,真会憋死他!处女座还含蓄一点,换了射手座绝对大大咧咧地批评那厕所 "这么肮脏、这么难闻、这么低级!"

魔羯座(12月22日～1月19日)
性格保守、木讷的魔羯座,不仅不易亲近别人,也不易信任别人。假如有人向他们撒谎,他们如果不是亲耳所闻,亲眼所见,是不会轻易相信的。魔羯座的男女不喜欢说谎,也很瞧不起那些欺上瞒下、说两面话、像根墙头草以及很装腔作势的说谎者。

水瓶座(1月20日～2月18日)
水瓶座看起来很老实,言语不多,勤劳肯干,但要小心,老实人的谎言才骗死人不偿命呢!他们说起谎来是面无表情,简直无法分辨真伪。更酷的是,他们谎言既出,概不退换,一个版本到底。

双鱼座(2月19日～3月20日)
温和的双鱼座也是满嘴谎言,不过双鱼座的谎言充满了唯美浪漫的色彩。爱做白日梦的双鱼座,真实与幻想总是分不清,说谎也不例外,不太骗别人,倒常是骗自己,算是一个损己不损人的说谎家。双鱼座的男女，常在心灵深处埋藏着一段又美丽又凄迷的恋情--究竟真相如何呢?也许你知道我知道，只有说谎的浪漫无边际的双鱼，他们不知道

Canon in D

2007-10-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

突然收到个朋友发过来的Youtube短片，听一听可是好久没听到的音乐。发上来和各位分享分享。

After about a year, Magic: The gathering, I'll see you thie weekend

2007-09-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

I've been playing this game for about 5 years, and decided to stop it. Reason being it's too $$ consuming. Can you imagine how much I spend in this Trading Card Game? Well I am not going to tell here but it's a large amount that you can't imagine. But I do really meet some good friends in this game, even though all of us are out, we do still keep in touch quite often. The "Old man" team never dies! Why "Old man"? Well we are the oldest among all the people who play this game... Sigh...

Stopped at the Time Spiral block, selling all my cards trying to cover back some of my money (got back about 3k but still far away from what I spend...), one of the team member decided to continue his career to Singapore and leave Malaysia, one decided to go into investment and no time playing anymore. So what's left in the team is just me and another "Jin" guy :P

It has been about a year since my last join a magic tournament, which would be the Grand Pix Kuala Lumpur. So just suddenly get ichy hand and wanted to play for the weekend, and it's Pre-release time again with some new features in the game. So I decide to give it a try and call up the old team member and manage to get them out.

So see you guys again in this week end! And here comes the new Planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering!

New Job... Again?

2007-09-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

After working for 2 months in my previous company I decided to move out due to the environment issue there. (but I've to admit that there is a very good place for technical skill growth, just that the environment is really bad)

So after resting at home for about a week, today I started my "another working life" in this new company. It's near to KLCC and the environment here is much better than the previous one (of course the pay also :P). But problem is the expenses here seems to be higher too. First will be the parking, cheapest here will cause me 6 bucks, the good old 3.5 buck parking was no longer there... sigh...

Not like the previous company that I get 2 LCD, but I get a personal laptop here! Well not a very good thing since that means you got to work at home :( Haven't get to know well with all the colleagues here though, maybe I do need somemore time, but I guess I can hardly get good colleague like my previous previous company...

Well this is just the first day, I really hope everything will go well here. All the best to myself. :P

How to see people's MSN password

2007-08-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

First, simply find anyone from your MSN list. Open a chat window, in the message area, key in "I AM " (note that you need to key in the space after the "AM" as well). Do not send out the message yet, make sure your cursor is located after the space, then hold the "ALT" key and use your numpad to key in "29482", then quickly let go the "ALT" key and press ENTER and you will get the password.

Try it if you don't believe it!

Note: I know it looks like kind of a virus but I can promise this will definitely do no harm to your computer!

Nice T-SQL trick

2007-08-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

Got this from a colleague, something nice to share:

If you ever need to write a T-SQL query to group rows of a same column as 1 value, here's how you do it
(i didn't know this method existed till today :D)

DECLARE @tblProducts TABLE(Product VARCHAR(10))
INSERT INTO @tblProducts SELECT 'Product1'
INSERT INTO @tblProducts SELECT 'Product2'
INSERT INTO @tblProducts SELECT 'Product3'
select * from @tblProducts

DECLARE @Products VARCHAR(1000)
SET @Products = ''
SELECT @Products = @Products + product + ', '
FROM @tblProducts

IF LEN(@Products) > 0
SET @Products = LEFT(@Products, LEN(@Products) - 1)

select @Products

It will return 'Product1, Product2, Product3' as 1 value

The using statement in C#

2007-07-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

When we are writing statement to connect and get data from database, we'll usually just wrote it in this way:

SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
SqlCommand cm = new SqlCommand(commandString, cn);
cn.Open();
cm.ExecuteNonQuery();
cn.Close();

But note that in C#, SqlConnection and SqlCommand implement IDisposable, which means they could have unmanaged resources to cleanup and it is our job, the developers, to make sure Dispose() gets called on these classes after we are finished with them.

So here comes the use of the "using" statement. Internally, this bad boy generates a try / finally around the object being allocated and calls Dispose() for you. It saves you the hassle of manually creating the try / finally block and calling Dispose().
The new code would looking something like this:
using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
using (SqlCommand cm = new SqlCommand(commandString, cn))
{ cn.Open();
cm.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
}

Can't imagine that this code is actually equivalant to:
SqlConnection cn = null;
SqlCommand cm = null;

try{
cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
cm = new SqlCommand(commandString, cn);
cn.Open();
cm.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
finally{
if (null != cm);
cm.Dispose();
if (null != cn)
cn.Dispose();
}

Cool huh? But do note that "using" also work similiar to import as in VB Net. Depending on which section of the code that you put it in.

Source From: http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2005/01/13/773.aspx

Partial Class

2007-07-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

One of the language enhancements in .NET 2.0—available in both VB.NET 2005 and C# 2.0—is support for partial classes. Partial classes mean that your class definition can be split into multiple physical files. Logically, partial classes do not make any difference to the compiler. During compile time, it simply groups all the various partial classes and treats them as a single entity.

One of the greatest benefits of partial classes is that it allows a clean separation of business logic and the user interface (in particular the code that is generated by the visual designer). Using partial classes, the UI code can be hidden from the developer, who usually has no need to access it anyway. Partial classes will also make debugging easier, as the code is partitioned into separate files.

Using Partial Classes
Listing 1 contains two class definitions written in VB.NET, with the second class definition starting with the partial keyword. Both class definitions may reside in two different physical files. Functionally, Listing 1 is equivalent to Listing 2.

Listing 1
'---File1.vb---
Public Class Class1
Public Sub method1()
End Sub
End Class

File2.vb
Partial Public Class Class1
Public Sub method2()
End Sub
End Class

Listing 2
'---File1.vb---
Public Class Class1
Public Sub method1()
End Sub
Public Sub method2()
End Sub
End Class

So, what are the uses for partial classes?
Here are some good reasons to use partial classes:

They allow programmers on your team to work on different parts of a class without needing to share the same physical file. While this is useful for projects that involve big class files, be wary: If you find your class file getting too large, it may well signal a design fault and refactoring may be required.
The most compelling reason for using partial class is to separate your application business logic from the designer-generated code. For example, the code generated by Visual Studio 2005 for a Windows Form is kept separate from your business logic (we will discuss this in a later section). This will prevent developers from messing with the code that is used for the UI. At the same time, it will prevent you from losing your changes to the designer-generated code when you change the UI.

Source From: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/22603

為什麼悲傷

2007-07-12T01:57:00.000-07:00

古希臘哲學家蘇格拉底見到一位年輕人茶飯不思，精神萎靡，其狀甚哀。
蘇格拉底：孩子，為什麼悲傷？
失戀者：我失戀了。
蘇格拉底：哦，這很正常。如果失戀了沒有悲傷，戀愛大概也就沒有什麼味道。可是，年輕人，我怎麼發現你對失戀的投入甚至比對戀愛的投入還要傾心呢？
失戀者：到手的葡萄給丟了，這份遺憾，這份失落，您非個中人，怎知其中的酸楚啊。
蘇格拉底：丟了就是丟了，何不繼續向前走去，鮮美的葡萄還有很多。
失戀者：等待，等到海枯石爛，直到她回心轉意向我走來。
蘇格拉底：但這一天也許永遠不會到來。你最後會眼睜睜地看著她和另一個人走了。
失戀者：那我就用自殺來表示我的誠心。
蘇格拉底：但如果這樣，你不但失去了你的戀人，同時還失去了你自己，你會蒙受雙倍的損失。
失戀者：狠狠地傷害她，我得不到的別人也別想得到。
蘇格拉底：可這只能使你離她更遠，而你本來是想與她更接近的。
失戀者：您說我該怎麼辦？我可真的很愛她。
蘇格拉底：真的很愛？
失戀者：是的。
蘇格拉底：那你當然希望你所愛的人幸福？
失戀者：那是自然。
蘇格拉底：如果她認為離開你是一種幸福呢？
失戀者：不會的！她曾經跟我說，只有跟我在一起的時候她才感到幸福！
蘇格拉底：那是曾經，是過去，可她現在並不這麼認為。
失戀者：這就是說，她一直在騙我？
蘇格拉底：不，她一直對你很忠誠。當她愛你的時候，她和你在一起，現在她不愛你，她就離去了，世界上再沒有比這更大的忠誠。如果她不再愛你，卻還裝得對你很有情誼，甚至跟你結婚，生子，那才是真正的欺騙呢。
失戀者：可我為她所投入的感情不是白白浪費了嗎？誰來補償我？
蘇格拉底：不，你的感情從來沒有浪費，根本不存在補償的問題，因為在你付出感情的同時，她也對你付出了感情，在你給她快樂的時候，她也給了你快樂。
失戀者：可是，她現在不愛我了，我卻還苦苦地愛著她，這多不公平啊！
蘇格拉底：的確不公平，我是說你對所愛的那個人不公平。本來，愛她是你的權利，但愛不愛你則是她的權利，而你卻想在自己行使權利的時候剝奪別人行使權利的自由。這是何等的不公平！
失戀者：可是您看得明明白白，現在痛苦的是我而不是她，是我在為她痛苦。
蘇格拉底：為她而痛苦？她的日子可能過得很好，不如說是你為自己而痛苦吧。明明是為自己，卻還打著別人的旗號。年輕人，德行可不能丟喲。
失戀者：依您的說法，這一切倒成了我的錯？
蘇格拉底：是的，從一開始你就犯了錯。如果你能給她帶來幸福，她是不會從你的生活中離開的，要知道，沒有人會逃避幸福。
失戀者：什麼是幸福？難道我把我的整個身心都給了她還不夠嗎？您知道她為什麼離開我嗎？僅僅因為我沒有錢！
蘇格拉底：你也有健全的雙手，為什麼不去掙錢呢？
失戀者：可她連機會都不給我，您說可惡不可惡？
蘇格拉底：當然可惡。好在你現在已經擺脫了這個可惡的人，你應該感到高興，孩子。
失戀者：高興？怎麼可能呢，不管怎麼說，我是被人給拋棄了，這總是叫人感到自卑的。
蘇格拉底：不，年輕人的身上只能有自豪，不可自卑。要記住，被拋棄的並非是不好的。
失戀者：此話怎講？
蘇格拉底：有一次，我在商店看中一套高貴的西服，可謂愛不釋手，營業員問我要不要。你猜我怎麼說，我說質地太差，不要！其實，我口袋裏沒有錢。年輕人，也許你就是這件被遺棄的西服。
失戀者：您真會安慰人，可惜您還是不能把我從失戀的痛苦中引出。
蘇格拉底：是的，我很遺憾自己沒有這個能力。但，可以向你推薦一位有能力的友。
失戀者：誰？
蘇格拉底：時間，時間是人最偉大的導師，我見過無數被失戀折磨得死去活來的人，是時間幫助他們撫平了心靈的創傷，並重新為他們選擇了夢中情人，最後他們都享受到了本該屬於自己的那份人間之樂。
失戀者：但願我也有這一天，可我的第一步該從哪裡做起呢？
蘇格拉底：去感謝那個拋棄你的人，為她祝福。
失戀者：為什麼？
蘇格拉底：因為她給了你份忠誠，給了你尋找幸福的新的機會。

上班族一周的心情

2007-07-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

Employee Expression From Monday through Friday

Monday

Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Indexes

2007-07-09T01:44:00.001-07:00

There are clustered and nonclustered indexes.

A clustered index is a special type of index that reorders the way records in the table are physically stored. Therefore table can have only one clustered index. The leaf nodes of a clustered index contain the data pages.
Clustered indexes are best use to select multiple row of records, for example:
Select * from Emp_table where Emp_ID between 3 and 8

A nonclustered index is a special type of index in which the logical order of the index does not match the physical stored order of the rows on disk. The leaf node of a nonclustered index does not consist of the data pages. Instead, the leaf nodes contain index rows.
Non Clustered indexes are best use to select single row of records, for Example:
Select * from Emp_table where Emp_ID = 1

Index Optimization tips

Every index increases the time in takes to perform INSERTS, UPDATES and DELETES, so the number of indexes should not be very much. Try to use maximum 4-5 indexes on one table, not more. If you have read-only table, then the number of indexes may be increased.

Keep your indexes as narrow as possible. This reduces the size of the index and reduces the number of reads required to read the index.

Try to create indexes on columns that have integer values rather than character values.

If you create a composite (multi-column) index, the order of the columns in the key are very important. Try to order the columns in the key as to enhance selectivity, with the most selective columns to the leftmost of the key.

If you want to join several tables, try to create surrogate integer keys for this purpose and create indexes on their columns.

Create surrogate integer primary key (identity for example) if your table will not have many insert operations.

Clustered indexes are more preferable than nonclustered, if you need to select by a range of values or you need to sort results set with GROUP BY or ORDER BY.

If your application will be performing the same query over and over on the same table, consider creating a covering index on the table.

You can use the SQL Server Profiler Create Trace Wizard with "Identify Scans of Large Tables" trace to determine which tables in your database may need indexes. This trace will show which tables are being scanned by queries instead of using an index.

You can use the sp_MSforeachtable undocumented stored procedure to rebuild all indexes in your database. Try to schedule it to execute during CPU idle time and slow production periods.

sp_MSforeachtable @command1="print '?' DBCC DBREINDEX ('?')"

Nice Guy card?

2007-07-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

Been talking to one of my Taiwan friend recently, he told me that he just received a "Nice guy Card" from a girl... well... I told him back, I don't even get a card but just something like "Thank you and bye bye, I don't want to see you anymore". Even worst right? Hurts a lot but this is just things we got to get pass it...

Note: Nice guy card. Meaning usually when a girl rejects a guy, what will happen is she'll just says "You're a nice guy, but really not my type, so we better just be friend." . So you get a "Nice guy card" for this. :P it is a very popular term that they use in Taiwan.

Regular Expression... Now I get it...

2007-06-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Sometime I really do think that things in our life is somehow being planned by "someone"...

I do remember in one of my interview before that one of the interviewer do ask me a question:
" If you have a paragraph of string, how do you capture which is the name and which is the address?" And the hints is: there's a class in .Net that provide this function...

Well I couldn't answer that question at that moment. I've try searching for it, but there's too many namespace in .Net and I couldn't find it. So end up I just give up :P

But just in yesterday, one of my colleague throw me an question suddenly: "Do you know regular expression?" I don't know that, never use before. So I just went google and search for it, and end up finding this useful website: http://docs.python.org/lib/re-syntax.html

After some research, I find out that .Net actually do provide this function, it is in System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegEX!! After a few try on it, I suddenly realize that this is the solution for the question that I've been asked in that interview...

Well nothing much for the morale of the story, just for my own reference anyway...

First Report using Reporting Services

2007-06-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, finally got something to do in the new company yesterday. Time to get expose to something new to me, the Reporting Services in SQL Server! My feeling is back that I am really happy to get to use something new, and I really do feel happy and satisfy when I completed it. Guess I am really a technical guy...

But come to think about it, like what my friend and also many peoples asked me, "so meaning that you still gotta continue being a technical programming for the next 5-10 years?", I really feel lost... I do not want to just sit there and do programming forever anyway, that isn't really the future I wish to get.

After some thought, it's really time to make my mind up. By being a programmer for 6 years, can't say that I only did technical, I do understand many business flow in different area, IT is to be bound with business, there's no escape for it. My aim should be a cheif information officer, understanding both business flow and knowledge in technical, then provides the most appropriate solution. Not very good in technical, but able to link business and technical together. The idea might not be very clear for now, but I will further strengthen it when time goes. This will be the way I would follow for the future.

So here is a way to solve an issue (it's still technical for the moment :P):
When you need to pass in a string variable that looks like this "Australia, Germany, China" to a select statement in SQL server, like this: Select * from locations where country in (@Country_List), you will find that this actually doesn't work. So one of the workaround will be to make a user defined function, to convert this string to be a table, the function will looks like this:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Split
(
@List nvarchar(2000),
@SplitOn nvarchar(5)
)
RETURNS @RtnValue table
(
Id int identity(1,1),
Value nvarchar(100)
)
AS
BEGIN
While (Charindex(@SplitOn,@List)>0)
Begin
Insert Into @RtnValue (value)
Select
Value = ltrim(rtrim(Substring(@List,1,Charindex(@SplitOn,@List)-1)))
Set @List = Substring(@List,Charindex(@SplitOn,@List)+len(@SplitOn),len(@List))
End
Insert Into @RtnValue (Value)
Select Value = ltrim(rtrim(@List))
Return
END

After creating this function, you can then pass in the @Country_List using:
select * from locations where country
in (selecT convert(int,Value) from dbo.Split(@Country_List))

My new workstation

2007-06-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

Have a look at my new work station. Spending whole day to setup the new PC but failed... Going to continue setup tomorrow.
I still miss my previous company's colleague... sob sob. But it is time to pick up new skill. Everything will be new challenge from now onwards!

New Job, New Office!

2007-06-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

First day of work in the office, and finally I got my LCD and that is x2! Well, people here is friendly. But my seating place is some how isolated from others :( bad bad...

Environment in the office is good, but the environment outsite the office is really not that good (well it is city center what do you expect?).

No work today... just setup my PC, so blogging here in the office. Anyway MSN can be used here and I guess I won't feel bored at least.

Just had my lunch, but not a good lunch indeed. We went to one of the "lorong" in KL city and eat wantan noodle... besides a toilet somemore... swt... The price is cheap, Rm3.20, but I guess next time if they are going to that place again I am going to tapao McDonald...

Knowledge of the Day:

There's 3 type of database replication: Snapshot, Transactional and Merge:

Snapshot replication is just as the name implies, it is taking a snapshot of the database at any given time and sharing it with subscribers. This is a very time consuming, labor-intensive process, and isn't typically used on a frequent basis.
Snapshot replication is typically used to give a baseline of the database when first establishing replication. It is also used when databases do not undergo much change.

Transactional replication is more flexible, and used more often if the database changes more frequently. Then, the replication agent will monitor the publisher database for changes. The agent will send the changes to the subscribers. This type of monitoring can be done immediately or on a periodic basis, depending on how often database is updated.

The third type of replication is merge replication. With this method, both the publisher and the subscribers can make changes when they are not connected to the network. Once the connection is reestablished, the changes to the database will be made.

Last Day in GfK

2007-06-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

After waiting for 2.5 months, finally it comes to my last day in GfK. When I am about to leave, I really do feel I will missed many people in GfK very much. Especially to 2 of my good "sister". And also...

But I've decided that I should move on, to do what I really wanted to. Time to put myself back to the right track. Well... after second thought I feel that there's really no need to be sad, we can still meet sometimes since we will still be friend forever ^^

I will back to find you guys when I am free, farewell for now~~

Say good bye to my monitor that I've spend 2 years with:

~~ Everything that has a begining has an end, and all ends comes with a new beginning ~~
-=- Oracle, Matrix -=-

It's weekend! But soon will be Monday again...

2007-06-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well just as my usual weekend. Went out for movie "Shrek 3" yesterday with one of my "old firend". We've seen the first episode together, about 4 years ago. Time pass really fast... The movie is good, but not as good as the first one. I guess reason being we're some sort of getting used to it and it doesn't give us much of the surprise we get in Shrek 1.

As for today, just spend some time to complete the figure that hurts my neck (bought it for about 2 months...), here it is:

Doesn't really looks very cool though, well it is just a HG anyway...

The first blog and first post

2007-06-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

First blog, first post, created while feeling too bored in the office. No work to do? Yeah I guess that's what happen when there's 2 day left to resign. Feeling? Let's talk about this later (when I am really leaving ^^

Raining very heavily today, and it is Friday, and some policeman blocked the road... so traffic jam lor, took me about 1 hour to get back home. Argh my neck still hurts, it has been 5 days and still not recover yet. All I did is just sitting on the floor making GUNDAM GP02 (MLRS) figure for 3 hours. And this is what I get for the pain at my neck: