RedAsh's Blog

Mum, after a short shower, I have come to terms on not conflicting my promise to you, and draw up a plan for Ken's succession. As promised I shall not vie with Ken for the succession and to protect the whole family welfare, I had came up with some sort of "aggreement" that Master Soh had did when he wanted to embark on helping Dad recover what is his from his terrible siblings.

Some terms I had manage to draw up thus far:
1> If for a financial year, the company is not making consistent monthly profit without documents to show effort, commitment and dedication for remedies, the man-in-charge is required to step down immediately and his services terminated without terms.

2> The man-in-charge is to take whats left of profit as his salary. If the company is not making profit for the financial month, then man-in-charge is to draw upon his own savings or to make detailed claims to the company's fund for his own expenses.

3> The man-in-charge is allow to make drawings from the company bank account only, and is liable for all auditing discrepency and profit and losses.

4> Should the company ultimately be scheduled for closure, all rights and priveleges granted to the current man-in-charge to the company is immediately withdrawn.

5> This agreement of Oath is to validate the selected candidate for Koh Guan Chua's workshop next man-in-charge is truely keen in the operation of the business, not for personal gain.

6> The man-in-charge is responsible to all future expenses of the family, he shall not restrict the family expenses. He shall also be totally responsible to the welfare of Koh Kok Hua.

Mum the question here is that how am I suppose to allow the rulings above to be applied? And I also need to know where I stand in this situation... am I in or totally out of the picture?

On the surface, it looks like a simple "business succession" case. Some twists throw in however, is that the succession is made over a man with unstable condition to make proper decisions.

Mum. When I was involved with the business some years back, I took the role of consultant, where my goal is to introduce Sales, as a third party ~ although I was given a temp technican status and a 1200 monthly allowance. While I had failed in the 2 months attempt, I manage to trigger Mr.Lim to bring in C&C. In short, any earnings made in the process do not go to me, it still belongs to father, so at the end of the day, everyone gets a fair share.

This is now not the case of Ken. Mum. While as you had expected, Ken is taking over the workshop. But he is not stopping at that, but family affairs as well... including my affair... since when are we allow to intrude into other people's affair lest you a guardian or a parent? Not even an employer can intrude into employees' personal affair...

Will the Law allows a single person to have absolute total rule over another mentally-ill man's property? Even when there exist a father-son relationship? And more importantly Mum, is that the current family expenses is totally tied to that company's bank account.

What Law can do, in practicability, to ensure that the current necessary system processes are untouched, while ruling out those unnecessary system processes?

In short, can the Law do something to help to get my voice heard, and my concern addressed?

Bless Me Mum, for I now need it more than ever. I felt weak having to deal with own kind... and I seek your forgiveness for the inability to unite the family... for one with Karen and now Ken... I seek no excuse for my sins only your ultimost forgiveness Mum...

You know one thing Mum? Ken issue me a warning for something that has yet to occur to him. It all started when Mary told me about how messy my claims are, and how she need to recalculate again whenever I submit my claims. The question is, I made my claims every 3 months, hence, everything in summarised form, not like Ken's monthly claims. Anyway, he warned me to not to do "throw" the claims at him else he will throw them back to me. Haiz, Mum, the only good thing is that should he took over the workshop, I am supposed to be "free" from all future family expenses. Maybe thats is the only thing that can make me smile... ? Whats your say Mum?

Mum, sad day today indeed. While I am revising my RAID5 at 2345, Ken came over and started questioning about my claims and subclaims etc. Sounds like a total relevancy in terms of Fightning Over Property Issues? Yes you are right Mum...

He started to hint to me to get a proper job rather than temp job basis. In short, he is trying to say,
"Dun claim from father anymore, because what is his is mine now!"

Anyway, why doesnt he question the community why they agree with the signoff with my claims? If I am in the wrong, they do have the right to refuse. Rather than signing it then question about it later. They can just call me direct BUT not once, not even on call on it. They dont even call me for the meetings after 2003 Mr.Lim's infamous "Its is your father's property, not yours. Why are you so concerned?" in the meeting at Koh Guan Chua Workshop with ALL the family members and the community members, in October 2003. Oh well, that seems to be the last formal meeting other than the informal one in our Tampines House in 2004 Mum.

Mum, Ken told me that he wanted to took over Father's workshop and resume dominance and control over the workshop and family as well. And he will claim sole leadership and abolish the community. Well, the CURRENT community should LONG be abolished, but this only mean the need for new one, NOT without one.

Haha, if there is no community, then when Master Soh suggested to me to taking over Father's Workshop, I would had long agreed, seize total cash, property and control, or better yet, claiming massive entertaining fees and drawing HUGE salaries...

I refuse, simply because I had promised you, Mum, to not to touch that workshop... I know all these tricks, cause Master Soh had told me what can happened if I let one of my uncles/aunites to assume sole management over the workshop.

It happened! Praised Master Soh! At the end of the day, dated back to 2002, where there is a period Dad is under one of his brother's house, there is EVERY single claim made to Father from dinners over $100 to medical claims of Uncle William. And DAMN the community, they allow them to make the claims... even for the Hougang ... they just give them the claims they had filed... and yet they had terminated father's insurance and such... fantastic isnt it? All the while, they state that this is to save the lawyer's money yet maintaining that workshop to drain all the money... GREAT! They are just FABULOUS! Mum!

~ Mum I really felt bad now... I had yet to visit Master Soh's grave... Aunt SuiMuay retorted she dun know when I asked her... WTH (she failed to look after JyeShin properly and let her rot and now THIS!)! Mum. We really own him alot, even when I manage to get information on his mum... she suffered a stroke attack and landed in Tan Tock Seng Hospital before I had a chance to visit her and thank her for her wonderful son...

Mum, for what you had feared had actually happened now. Ken is the one who is doing all the Control and Manipulation, like what you had predicted. And he is thinking that he is doing the right things by assuming what Dad had done in his earlier years; snatching control of the workshop after Grandfather died with his siblings.

Haiz, I think Ken is blinded by the money in father's workshop (over $200k) and bank account; I only know that Ken is kinda cash-strapped now, and he is seeing a girl with 4 wheels while he only has 2. I am suspecting that the catalyst for this event, is the encouragement of his new girlfriend.

From Ken's characteristics, he would surely had told her about the workshop. And for sure he had taken her advice... Too obvious...

Mum, I am kinda troubled. For Ken had breached the very basic of trust between family members, he is too concerned about himself and had not spared a thought for the others. Once again, his "self-centered"-ness had revealed... and this time, he did not know or maybe ALREADY did know he is trying to vie over a life man's property...

Mum, I am looking at the worst scenario, Ken is only using that as front and he is attempting to seize father's cash for own pocket.

Some serious loopholes here, if the community hands over with the workshop making minimium profit that is less than what Ken had right now, this means the community is in the wrong.

IF Ken insisted in taking over the workshop while it is still not profittable for at least 1 Financial Year then Ken is up to something.

If KEn had access to father's total trustee and property, then Father is in trouble and the Law will protect father by default... unless it is flawed...

Mum, for ONE thing I am VERY SURE, Ken had never been able to keep things going for extended period of time; in short he is not consistent. From his beautiful N level results and ugly O level result, to his ITC education despite the good results he skipped classes, from his time serving in SAF and not trying to seek a diploma, to his insistence of taking after Karen - where he did not really bother about her future at all... no assignments, no tutions, no nothing... he throws her money and give her her wants, nothing more... and the end result? Straight Fs for all her tests, and continue to do nothing about it for several weeks then now he focused on trying to best father's property for himself...

Mum I think I had reached a conclusion, thanks for allowing me to throw my heart out... this had lead me to analyse the entire situation once again... and the position he and I are in... I am sorry Mum, looks like I have to deal with Ken and I pray for your blessing on my endeavour...

Anyway Mum, it is kinda ironic... just today I had reject the Project's Manager offer to renew my contract with SCS and this thing happens... anyway one thing good is that the funds I had bought rebounce thanks to the commodities raising... but I had also suffered a massive "opportunity loss" if I had place them in the money market when they are at their peak... but still I had to count my lucky stars that at least my loss is minimisise, HAHA :P

Today is a day with event of A good lesson though... nobility does not pay... cause there are always people who are not concern with principles and moral values... I sincerely hoped that Mum you will help me to continue to upkeep my principle and moral value...

Today Angie called me at my handphone but due to technical fault I cannot answer her call. She called me again on the evening and informed me that SCS is interested to deploy me in the new SOE project SCS had recently successfully bidded. The new position is call "Technical Specialist". LOL Sounds like a pay raise. Anyway, I intend to sign up with the Police Force, more specifically, CPIB (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau). Then maybe from there I shall make my advances to the financial industry with this unique background of mine =D Hmmm, lets see, I got a ISO 9000:2000 cert, and a CAT 2A clearance already... so this CPIB will be something nice under my belt. Anyway, the good thing is that it only requires a 2 years contract!

Anyway learn something from my past once again. VSS (Visual SourceSafe or Volume Shadowcopy Service) and CVS (Concurrent Versioning System), and with CVS, there is usually a SMB (Server Message Block).

VSS is a typically library system that tracks several copies of a file with each version change. That is, a version recording software. The activity involved is quite similar to ShadowCopy, except it is at a file level, whereas the latter is at the volume level.

CVS is similar to VSS except it is a server-client architecture, while VSS is merely local. CVS, as far as I remember is used in conjunction with SMB, which is used to regulate the authenticated access of shared files over the network. CVS is a shared system where multiple users can update the file concurrently. Being client-server, CVS is has 2 parts of software, 1 server 1 client. Interestingly, the server has to be a Unix base server, while CVS can operate on any system.

One thing I find inspiring about CVS is its manner of controlling concurrency. Each user has their own copy but each update to the main copy in the server will result in update to all copies. Hence, the update will always be relevant. There are lots of matching operation going on in the scripts.

Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers. Encryption provides confidentiality and integrity of data. SSH uses public-key cryptography to authenticate the remote computer and allow the remote computer to authenticate the user, if necessary.

SSH and TUNNELING
SSH is typically used to log into a remote machine and execute commands, but it also supports tunneling, forwarding arbitrary TCP ports and X11 connections; it can transfer files using the associated SFTP or SCP protocols.

An SSH server, by default, listens on the standard TCP port 22.

An SSH client program is typically used for establishing connections to an SSHD daemon accepting remote connections. Both are commonly present on most modern operating systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenVMS. Proprietary, freeware and open source versions of various levels of complexity and completeness exist.
Uses of SSH

Example of tunneling an X11 application (xeyes) over SSH.SSH is most commonly used:

1. with an SSH client that supports terminal protocols, for remote administration of the SSH server computer via terminal (character-mode) console;
~ like SCSpring NetProtect and DigiSAFE.

2. in combination with SFTP, as a secure alternative to FTP which can be set up more easily on a small scale without a public key infrastructure and X.509 certificates;

3. in combination with rsync to backup, copy and mirror files efficiently and securely;
~ rsync is a software application for Unix systems which synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction. rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.

In daemon mode, rsync listens to the default TCP port of 873, serving files in the native rsync protocol. rsync can also be used to synchronize local directories, or via a remote shell such as RSH or SSH. In the latter case, the rsync client executable must be installed on both the local and the remote host.

Released under the GNU General Public License, rsync is free software.

4. in combination with SCP, as a secure alternative for rcp file transfers;
~ Secure Copy or SCP is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local and a remote host or between two remote hosts, using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. The term SCP can refer to one of two related things, the SCP protocol or the SCP program.

5. for port forwarding or tunneling, frequently as an alternative to a full-fledged VPN. In this type of use, a (non-secure) TCP/IP connection of an external application is redirected to the SSH program (client or server), which forwards it to the other SSH party (server or client), which in turn forwards the connection to the desired destination host. The forwarded connection is encrypted and protected on the path between the SSH client and server only. Uses of SSH port forwarding include accessing database servers, email servers, securing X11, rdesktop, Windows Terminal Services and VNC connections or even forwarding Windows file shares. This is primarily useful for tunneling connections through firewalls which would ordinarily block that type of connection, and for encrypting protocols which are not normally encrypted (e.g. VNC);

6. for X11-forwarding for through multiple hosts;

7. for generally browsing the web through an encrypted proxy connection, using the SSH server as a proxy (with an SSH client that supports dynamic port forwarding);

8. for automated remote monitoring and management of servers;

9. for securely mounting a directory on the server as a filesystem on the local computer, using the SSH Filesystem;

10. as a full-fledged VPN;

How SSH uses public-key cryptography
First, a pair of cryptographic keys is generated. One is the private key, the other is the public key. As an analogy, they can be thought of as a matching private-key and a public padlock. The public padlock is what is installed on the remote machine and is used by ssh to authenticate users which use the matching private key. As a user of the system, you don’t care who can see or copy the padlock (ie the public key), since only the secret private key fits it. The private key is the part you keep secret inside a secure box that can only be opened with the correct passphrase. When the user wants to access a remote system, he opens the secure box with his passphrase, and uses the private-key to authenticate him with the padlock on the remote computer. Neither the passphrase nor the private key leave the user's machine. However, the user still needs to trust the local machine not to scrape his passphrase or copy his private-key while it's out of the secure box.

Today is a big jumble, Mum. I had decided to help Alvin out as he suggested that he wanted to try out CCNA. But I did it at the wrong place and time. Now my cover is blown... darn fuck me.

It seems alot of people take me for granted when I offer them my help. Maybe its the attitude I protrayed, as a happy-go-lucky guy. The same thing happens for Alvin as it happens with Terrance at ICA. I wanna help Terrance with his pursue of MCSE and he took the whole folder, without my permission. The same thing with Alvin... haiz...

It seems that Louis kinda hate me... and Hans but not Alvin; he knows who are valuable to him ... at that point of time. He did told me to do "shadowcopy" for him today; he seem not understand that shadowcopying the entire volume can only be done by him, the system administrator who had all the rights - if done by me, I will be so dead as it will be a total security breach... so I rejected.

He seem to have forgotten that he had made a total mockery of me when I try to help him out in the first few days. Whatever... I only had to do what I am suppose to do. I am just a temp worker! Dun touch me!

Learn something I nv seen b4... like using "net use" in CMD to map LPT1 to IP addresses...

Today is something TOTALLY refreshing! I helped out Uncle Chua with installing of a switch he had finished configured. It was kinda fun. But the real fun begins when he allow me to study Firewall Issues with him. That is a rare oppurtunity!

We had been trying to figure out 2 problems. First is why the DOS (department of Statistic) is not refering to Spring SSH Server but a total entirely of another thing else. This leads me to SFTP (Secure FTP which is much lighter compare to heavy cryptosystem in a enclosed environment). And also refresh me that the need to synchronise the servers at both ends to allow file transfer. The port issue also let me relearn the terms "source" and "destination".

Second is of opening of port 22 for testing when he wants to test-run the server. Uncle Chua faces the issue of trying to open the port 22 (or to recreate one). It seems that he was so frustrated with it that as he faces the error message several times. I managed to discover a online guide in doing so "opening a port for filetranser other than port 22, but Uncle Chua seems too busy for it as he is configuring the SGnet Router - since previously it is only partially configured for only 2 of its ports)

Also manage to correct myself alot on the Spring Infrastructure = 172.20.1.48 and 172.20.1.49 are AD servers as well as DNS servers, while 172.20.2.212 is a purely DNS server... interesting... as it is dangerous to do so to allow AD and DNS in a single server object. But Louis justify that it is the only way to allow access.

Anyway, I OT yesterday at Spring to help Louis in his quest to solve the VPN issue. FIRST TIME EVER!!! Today Louis uses the LMHOSTS (LAN Manager Hosts) file to resolve the issue... but as far as I understand... LMHOSTS is used to enable domain name resolution when other methods, e.g. WINS, fail. Do not tell me that WINS servers are down and Louis uses DNS and LMHOSTS to workaround them? No wonder he uses TELNET to troubleshoot... that is correctly used mainly for remote troubleshooting.

Anyway, also figured out that SCSpring uses SecureAge for its Laptop, just like ICA. NetProtect is the software use for SCSpring VPN Mgmt Console, and DigiSAFE is the client for VPN encrypted access.

Interestingly, El Gamma is involved in the context of what I learnt. HAah so it does has a use afterall =-D

REFRESH alot from Spring Singapore for the past few weeks, RAS (they call it "Big Bouncer" in SCS), WINS (Windows Internet Name Service - to referencing NetBIOS name). = a central mapping of host names to network addresses, alike what DNS is to domain names!

The key difference between WINS and DNS? The former is for LAN the later is for Internet.

One thing interesting here is that WINS is quite involved with DHCP. Unlike DNS the mappings are dynamically updated (e.g. at workstation boot), so that when a client needs to contact another computer on the network it can get its up-to-date IP address which may be issued by a DHCP server, aside from this the WINS functionality provides a way of keeping the client names unique on the network.

Networks normally have more than one WINS server and each WINS server should be in push/pull replication; where more than two WINS servers are required the best practice replication model is the hub and spoke, thus the WINS design is not central but distributed. Each WINS server holds a full copy of every other related WINS system's records. There is no hierarchy in WINS (unlike DNS), but like DNS its database can be queried for the address to contact rather than broadcasting a request for which address to contact (ICMP - ping). The system therefore reduces broadcast traffic on the network, however replication traffic can add to WAN/LAN traffic, although this can be set to replicate in non busy periods. By design any WINS client can register any name with any WINS server. This makes the system prone to abuse or unreliable through poor administration.

All WINS clients should be configured to use a primary WINS server and a different secondary WINS server. The secondary would normally be the hub server, The setting of which WINS servers to use is either in the DHCP scope options or a per client hard coded value. ~ this is also the reason why I see 3 IP for the DNS resolution... 2 of them are LAN for WINS, one is the primary(the spoke), the other is the secondary (Hub to DNS)

As of Windows 2000, DNS provides the favored alternative to WINS, as part of Active Directory.[1]

In theory, if DNS is available, WINS is only necessary if pre-Windows 2000 clients or servers need to resolve names. In reality, especially in large enterprise environments, applications such as SMS 2003 with its use of the 1A record, SQL Server 2000 for use of named pipes and Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 often still require WINS for full functionality.

The WINS service from Microsoft is only available as a service to run on the Windows Server family of operating systems. The WINS client from Microsoft is common across all its operating systems including DOS. ( note that WINS clients can be devices such as IP phones, and printers.)

An awesome day. Today at SIM, I ran around like mad, cant reach Cynthis (Course Admin) to pass my course work to Ms Mok. In the end, I pass to another admin staff to place it on her desk. Learn the entire course and the gease of this whole course... to understand that as system changes, what is not maintainable becomes maintainable = and that become preventive maintenance work, which will be translated into the other form of maintenance work.

The lesson was extended by an hour, and i report to work at 1400.

The first thing i saw was Han, Alvin and Louis at a user station. The first thing i asked, "what are the changes?" Indeed, a lot had been changed. The first topic I heard was the use of "ghostwalker" over the "newSID.exe". The former saves 15min per station. We tried the latter, then after sometime, I feedback to Louis that the initial estimate was 45min from the test run ytd, and the new run cost 1+hr per station. (Actually, Han ran from the network while I ran in C:\, as from what I know, in AD, all objects are assigned SID, and the program reassign newSID to each and EVERY objects of the user and station. Running in C:\ is faster as it only reads the files and such in C:\, running from H:\ is MUCH slower as it reset all files and folders in the network.)

Anyway, after hearing the feedback, Louis get to action and request for "Ghostwalker" from Zul. The change is fast as the station i first saw turned black screen, and required "Ghostwalker" to revive it. Han had also passed me a set of documents that proposed the new changes. All are fine until the step to add the printer and to migrate the user profile. The script was not granted the rights to access for editing. So i requested for change of rights, instead, i was instructed (by Louis) to grant the user admin rights so that the file can be access for editing. Kinda inappropriate if you ask me.

Anyway, the script is flaws and we still cannot properly add the printer. (its a 2 step job, one is to install the driver, and the other is to connect it to the network through use of a CMD command, "net use lpt1(or 2) \\dowmain/span name>\\ /persistent:y"

The user mitigation was also an issue, as instructed, we let the project development team run the "QUEST" script, and the result was that it was ran with a user profile with 14 GB of data !!! (in a meeting weeks b4, this issue was raised that only a profile size of 1 GB and below.) The cute PASALA also become a frowny man... He is one of the CMIS team (configuration management). Han had tried it out on the network with QUEST on a 500 MB profile and it took 30 mins on the migration alone. Gd Luck PASALA, u need an estimated of 7hrs... Poor chap his work will pile up the next day... the worst news had yet to come, Terrance state that if too long, it will auto halt hte process... GG

Thanked god that while PASALA is suffering silencely in a corner, we are tutored by an expert in Microsoft AD (I came to know later that he is call Terence). He taught us the steps in completing the user migration. "User profiles" refers to the user account folders found in the "Document and Setting" folder. It is created thanks to the UserID + ComputerID + Domain-ID (optional - exist only when you logon into a domain). Hence the user profile migtration is all about copying all the files in a user profile folder, then paste it into the domain user profile (Win XP).

Then it comes to the part of the printers, Terrance instantly becomes LOL surrender as this is not his part anymore. LOL nice one, a good thing to learn in a state of confusion. Oh well, the printer issue will be resolved tomorrow, the whole idea now is to segregate the task. For now, we shall solve the issue till user migration, the tools, technique and methods involved.

Anyway, Zul got a change of view from me. While we are discussing, Zul came over and took the step procedures from me. He stated that we should update on him abt this new TEST CASE. I always thought test case is something MUCH MUCH complex, from what I learnt in CIS... it seems to be useful throughout. Now, it is only a mere "manual" of a step by step walkthough. But it make sense, a TEST CASE into a manual... or vice versa... AND a CHECKLIST is a similar "manual" but with user signoff. Haha, the installation rollout team had to develop the proposed TEST CASE instead... oh well, at least we are doing stuff that can alleviate Louis "worries"

LASt but not least, THE BIGGEST SHOW of the day is tha Zul gave a showdown today in the office. It all started peacefully, Zul was "tutoring" Louis on how to get things done and how people work. the key is EMAIL. He used Terrance as an example, he said Terrance email to his boss what he had done for the day. (correct that how things work, a mini-daily report) Then Zul turn around and snooked Terrance, saying he sent 4 emails everyday, and Louis is to make sure that Terrance had done what he emailed. Terrance said "kao, yr office lecture also drag me in." and he left. All was fine and I learnt something on management and office work flow.

We are discussing about how the work should be carried out and done. Then it came the issue of the migration of user profile method to be used, they are arguing about QUEST or manual Cut and Paste. I suggest quietly about the latter then Louis said to all "Quiet, Marcus had to say something!". I shocked as I dun intend to show... but i repeat what I said and the Terrance backed me up that it is much faster. Then there a debate as there is a risk of corruption if Cut-n-Paste to wrong user profile. But I think the same with QUEST as the server can shutdown too if overloaded... and that is what leads to the HEAT....

Then Zul also snooked me saying that we (Alvin, Han and I) should share around the work, for he saw me drinking Soya Bean during work and doing duno what... in short, he implies those are not allowed.

Still peaceful, then Han, Alvin and I proceed with our "TEST CASE" development. But as mentioned earlier... the HEAT is on.... Zul was talking to Iwan about something, I did not hear as I was focusing on the the TEST CASE. Then i hear something about "no matter what I want to see an email from anyone by today..." from Zul - I thought it was the report he wants earlier... But what he wanted is an email of apology...

For Jasbeer told him that he was not doing his job, ~ Orrendo customers complained that the network slowed down to the point where the file could not be accessed.... and the complaints reached the "Ears of the High" and through it are "Words of the Power".

Anyway, Zul beautifully state his view... he mentioned when pple ask him why his engineers leave early he fights back that cuz there are some taking over the task and need not the use of full team. This assures the part that are invisible to his team. Zul mentioned he is flexible and he does not run his team like an army, there should be feedbacks should the changes are to be implemented. He would propagate them to the upper and let them fight among themselves and so they can bleed (they have LOTS of blood).

Anyway, the idea here is that he had said and done his part, so this serves as a final warning or reminder. Definately, he imples that the tnext time will be "action taken".

Funnily, Orrendo, Alvin and Terrane left early to avoid the scene. (Darn I am too slow) One thing that is offensive is that Zul mentioned that he is not leading a bunch of kids but adults, professionals who are old enough to think for oneself .... it kinda hurts and definately not helpful. Somehow it seems to be directed at me. >_<

After Zul left, there is definately a heavy air here. Louis then stood up and apologies., saying he will give everyone a treat after the project ends. This ended with a finale with Orrendo saying he will resign first than waiting to get "CHOP" and I add on saying that that is a wise man move.

Of btw, Jasbeer wonders if I can (if I willing... do i have a choice?) go to Sentosa and support some corporate events held there for 4 days. the issue here is that it will eat up a Sunday and Saturday... from 27th to 30th of MArch... Good Grace...

Mum, tonite there is a showdown.... Karen returned home almost eight, and Ken tight slapped her, for she lied and all her subjects failed for CA1. And to this day she had yet to inform 2nd Aunt about it. I already planted the seed in 2nd Aunt, 3 days earlier, I had a meeting with 2nd Uncle on 3rd Aunt house, it is regarding Karen, cause and effect. And 2nd Aunt position. Today, Ken suggested throwing her into the Home. Mum, you should now htat Karen will escape. For it will now rest solely on 2nd Aunt shoulders on the actions to be taken... hardly anything done thus far...

Hope you let nature takes it course Mum...

posted by RedAsh  # 6:15 AM 0 Comments

Today is an interesting day, Finally my first time investing using real cash in mutual fund. Commodities and global resources... its raising and its raising good.

Another interesting day at work at Spring Singapore SCS, I am currently involved in a project work in migrating PC from a Novell environment to a Window XP environment. The project lead is Louis, a "Software engin Nerd". He is a nice guy but he is totally disorganised.

In this project above Louis is a guy call "Zul", his boss, who seems to dislike me. And the project team, Terrace and another chinese Hokkien-style guy. The project team are the key development team who will act on Louis Plan; they know inside out of their job - from scripting to database n server setup
(they set up the test server - a requirement from the project team, an also a basic requirement of any software project)

HOwever, the issue here is that Louis is the overall admin coordinator, and he is causing the BIG bottleneck in this project. "He is THE bottleneck." Louis is suppose to set up the AD environment policy (AD security policy) for the server "Hardening" (also known as the implementation of the security policy). He screwed up on some security policies and took ages to resolve with the help of a network specialist (extra cost). But the biggest screw up is that when the test servers are setted up, he procastinate and let the test servers sitting idle. He never test the applications, never use the test serveers to test the policies (and hence the hangover), but the WORST of all, he does not accept the advice of others with grace.

On the earlier date, Peter got fed up with Louis over the matter that whenever Peter enters the server room, Louis will want him to do things immediately. Which is SOOO wrong. As Louis should plan the things carefully, then give time to Peter (and many others) to react. Rather than crafting something out of the air (from the stretch pad of his brain) and change it every now and then. And one thing Lousi did that kills him is that he introduced alot of irrelevant work for the others (like changing a password several times, or setting up more accounts)

SOLUTION: Draw up a version 1 plan, then alter the plan accordingly and update the version.

From today's observation, Louis had to crawl at his head for things he set up and had forgotten. If he had a plan, he can at least refer to it, and leave his brain space for something more important.

Everyone seems to be losing their impatience with Louis, even Alvin, who is so helpful in the last week, got kinda irritated with Louis. And Orrendo, the nice smiling buddha guy with ambition, who seems so friendly with Louis, also peck at his back. All are talking about Louis's "chop".

It seems that Louis already had a previous case owith Lotus Notes where he actually deleted all users' profiles. Now in this desperate times, he suggested another desperate measures, he suggest giving ALL the users the administrative rights... people work by closing all the nslowly open one by one, he worked the opposite by opening all and closing one by one <= a doing that by itself is an guaranteed "CHOP".

Today I also had a teaste of Louis "last minute" plan. He wants me and Han to test-run the migration at 5.30 pm. Time for home... dude. Orrendo comes overs at 7pm and tease us that whether we felt "his" power and are we high yet? Oh well, kinda high, but looking at the poor guy, ... lets give him another chance...

I had learnt a lot at the office today, not just AD environment but also of Novell. But MOST importantly, how the BIG BOYS run their work. They segregate their tasks and priortised their work. For instance, for the project meeting tomorrow, he knows what he wants, he need the Spreadsheet for the project meeting regarding which user for which folder, and he only wants the VIP only. The other users do matter but the VIP is the key. ~ of course while he says he only wants one, providing all is what he actually wanted. This task he assigned to the development team, but Alvin took up that task.

One thing that kinda irritates me is that while I try to help by helping Louis analysing the situation, Louis pick up the paper and tease me that it like poly days notes. My gain his lost, at least I learnt a lot from him. At least he accpeted the help on "Policy Setting" i downloaded from Microsoft. And that did resolve the policy issue.

If I am him, my SOLUTION will be...

making the best out of the worst...

that is...

Request for time to run the test and test cases with a proper plan. Even the project may fail and have slippage, at least the there will not be a system diseaster, and the project would at least be completed. Then last of all, I would hand in my resignation letter at the end of this project.

For I know at this point of time... the "CHOP" is in...