predictions

I made some predictions while I was in poly.

1. Java is the way to go.
2. Javascript will be great without the browser compatibilities problem.
3. Flash is wonderful, if only my network on a 56k is faster and more functionalities.

I think all came true. Sadly I didnt capitalize much on and thus not shown on my CV.

For number one, other languages are now written on top of java Like JRuby, Jython. Java has become a base platform for other stuff to be written on top of it. I personally like java a lot as it was way easier to program in java than to program in C/C++. The small bytecode really appeals to me. Plus the wonderful libraries (which provided code reuse) and GC really help in expressing my thoughts.

For number two, GWT finally came along. Without AJAX, javascript was just a fancy eye candy dhtml tool. haha, now I am just waiting, for (proteins) folding in javascript running on a mobile phone.

For number three, I sort of add it while writing this blog. Flash always reminds me of the demo scene. Actually shockwave was the more powerful one while Flash was the strip down version. I once wrote a 3 level pac man in shockwave. before there werent dynamic sprites, mhmm can't remember how I cheated the system. The only memory of it now is a distinction in advanced multimedia.

why did I write about predictions? after spending 11 years with computers... I finally finished my studies and need to write my CV. I realised I am not a good programmer. I lack intelligence in compare to the millions of China/India/World geeks. I am a disaster ...

Only these words
Every master was once a disaster ...(T. Harv Eker)
kept me going ...

On porn ...

Coding Horror:Obscenity Filters: Bad Idea, or Incredibly Intercoursing Bad Idea?
In short, he is "doubtful it will ever be possible to solve this particular problem through code alone."

What happened? Basically the filters block URL with words like sex, porn, Great tits, clbuttic idiocy ... "seven dirty words" This problem is known as The Scunthorpe Problem

Why do I post about this? I have suffered at the hands of URL filters at the university I was attending while doing some self studies on psychology and sociology on our basic needs. Masturbation 'cuts cancer risk'. How do you handle the stress of social isolation for being a social reject?

How do you go around it? There are several, like Tor, pasting the IP address directly (web based dns look up tools), Google Cache, Internet Archive, free online (bypass) proxy page aka browser-based anonymization services.

The human question: why was there a filter in the very first place (in a university)? The administrator thinks that stressful students should not look at porn but instead look for better stress relieve? This could save network infrastructure cost? Looking at porn increases crime rates (just like playing violent games increases the violence's nature of the person)? It is degrading to appreciate naked female bodies? It is disgusting to see the males lusty eyes? The students should conform and be more productive instead of looking at entertainments? Porn reduces birth rates? Porn tears apart couple hood and social fabric of societies? Porn aids criminal organization?

prostitution is one of the oldest profession. Are we controlling the negative aspects of porn? or are we controlling the women?

The negative impacts of Indonesian Pornography Act

Indonesian MPs pass anti-smut bill

"the anti-pornography legislation could be misused against Indonesia's minority Christian and Hindu communities and threatens the country's pluralistic culture."

Indonesia Legislature Bans Racial Discrimination

Inside indo: How to be Chinese

South Korean court upholds ban on adultery

Adultery Law: A Necessary Evil?

An interesting map of societies with sodomy laws

---

"No pornography exploits women. It exploits men. It’s the men that are made to look stupid, silly and ridiculous, chasing after the golden elixir. Women look beautiful, do what they wanna do and get paid for it." -- Lydia Lunch

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3 December 2008 bbc:Pupils can beat safe net filters

education, education to learn what is socially acceptable and what is not. 

bbc: Australian firewall trials start

Britain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand :voluntary and not government-mandated.

China, Iran and Saudi Arabia:widespread technological filtering or censorship regime.

our societies are becoming dark... 

UI of viddler.com

Objective: record down UI of viddler.com

Duration: 1hr 10min to screen capture and layout, 20min blog

Among video sites like

• youtube.com -- one of most famous. lowest video quality.
• veoh.com -- P2P video player
• imeem.com -- high quality but slow load time (25min video takes 3hr) in Asia
• viddler.com -- enable other users comments. Player customization.
• hulu.com -- (have not check out yet)
• tudou.com -- h264 video
• hd.tudou.com -- High definition. see Marc van der Chijs
• 56.com -- (have not check out yet)
  
• youku.com -- (have not check out yet)
• megavideo.com -- converting to a paid site, irritating advertisement
• hq dailymotion -- h.264, review
• metacafe.com
• videojug.com
  

viddler is special for its ability to allows user to tag and comment at specific video frame. And to avoid crowding, other users can layer comments on top of other comments. It was the first time I am exposed to video customization. For more features, see viddler

video url hiding site via go4ent

todo: usability analysis of a good flash player

GUI Testing

SWTBot
Marathon
TPTP automated GUI recorder

Java GUI testing with JRuby
Wikipedia.org Category:GUI_automation for more framework

Adding google image search to firefox search plug-in

Objective:
Top right corner of firefox 3.0.3 allows us to search google. But it doesn't offer anyway to search for images. Thus what I usually do is, type in {searchTerms} like "anime", which will take me to a google web search page, and then click on Images on the top left corner of the search page to access a list of images found.

Solution: Add a search plug-in

Duration: 1hr to figure out, 1 minute to add plug-in, 20minute to blog

Wrong way:
I browsed to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins and make a duplicate copy of google.xml Then changed SearchForm and SearchURL parameters. I restart firefox hoping that as mention in Learn to Create a Firefox Search Plugin in Less Than 2 Minutes that the newly added image search will work. (Similar goes for Build Your Own Firefox Search Engine.) And off course it didn't work.

Correct way:
At the top right search plug-in, click on the drop down for Manage Search Engines and then Get More Search Engines which will open a new tab to take you to Firefox Add-ons. Add Mycroft Project to firefox. At the search plug-in, select Mycroft project and search for "google image".
Select your desired new search plug-in. For my case, it was Google Images (images.google.com) by Stefan Hittler

You can test and generate your own search plug-in via Mycroft Project Submission utility without ever needing to deploy your own xml on to a webserver. Ctrl-K to jump to text field at the search plug-in. If you need to roll out your own page for adding a search engine, see Adding search engines from web pages

Readings on Security

SANS' Information Security Reading Room
VX heaven
define:Metamorphic code
cloudav

A knife can be a tool and a weapon. it depends on the user. reading the above increases the knowledge for Automatic programming

Packet Sniffing and Protocol Analysis Software tools like windump,wireshark
NetStumbler

about ‘mosaïc’ attack

http://www.petitcolas.net/fabien/watermarking/2mosaic/index.html

Splitting a image and then reconstruct using html tables in order to breakup the watermark is interesting. To add variation, you could even cut up the the shape in non-rectangular form and use layers to merge as one.

Other techniques include applet, activeX, flash.

Though if you just want the image, a simple Vista Snipping tool or screen grabber tool will let you screen shot the image.

any image manipulations will usually degrade the image and thus sometimes destroying the watermark.

how do you crash a jvm?

1. jni such as dereferencing pointers to wron memory areas (like Nullpointer) or illegal Opcodes
2. corrupted libraries via hex editing
3. buggy drivers
4. failed syscalls relating to hardware issue
5. bugs in the jvm (check the bug report)
6. missing os patch
7. using reflection to crash the vm
8. using the below class (by ralfs)

public class Crash {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Object[] o = null;

        while (true) {
            o = new Object[] {o};
        }
    }
}

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/65200/how-do-you-crash-a-jvm
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_17534

Day zero...

Objective: just a simple notebook of some of the stuff I have read.

How Did You Get Started in Programming
Joe O’Brien
Rick DeNatale
Sarah Dutkiewicz
Michael Eaton


How old were you when you started programming?
16 or 17, on my brother's 386dx computer (I also DIY pc with 286,486,P1, P3, P4)

How did you get started in programming?
I was in Audio Visual Activities club in secondary school, the computer terminals was running this cool yellow on blue DOS batch menu. I begged the teacher to teach me, but he refused, probably due to the fact that I am a NORMAL academic stream student.

Later on I attended a basic computer class of simple dos commands and Nibbles. I would spend numerous hours playing computer games like Dune 2, Wolfenstein 3d and Doom. I got curious on how the games were created and started playing with Qbasic and DOS batch commands.

What was your first language?
Qbasic (autodidact, via reading books & help file)

What was the first real program you wrote?
a Screen 13 (320x200) random pixel 'screen saver'

What languages have you used since you started programming?
QBasic, Dos 5.0, 6.22 Batch commands, Visualbasic for Dos, QuickBasic, C, VB6, Java (since 1.2 or 1.1.5 but strangely I couldn't find the 1.1.5 information), Lingo, ColdFusion 4, Javascript 1.5, VBScript, Bash, Cisco IOS, SQL on Oracle, VBA for Access and Excel, (was learning TASM, MASM32 on TSR), Borland C++, M68k, LTSA, SQL on MS SQL, Scheme+Prolog+C#, Perl, Rockwell Arena, Matlab, Tcl/Tk with VTK, POV-Ray, (learning python and maybe smalltalk, clisp, erlang, scala later)

What was your first professional programming gig?
I just graduated recently.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
A monkey banging on the keyboard can write codes. But to write easy to understand codes, is hard work. Communicating effectively with others is also a difficult skill.

What's the most fun you've ever had ... programming?
in the zone... seeing your CodeInvaders emerging champion ...