Tips for admins and more wisdom from Linus

I was reading the August edition of Arch newsletter (http://www.archlinux.org/static/newsletters/newsletter-2008-Aug-04.html) and in it I found 2 articles which I was particularly interested in.
1) 10 Essential tricks for admins (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-10sysadtips/?ca=dgr-lnxw02aLinux10Tricks&S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR) is very useful and introduced me to a few things which I've never knew before. Haven't tried it yet but the combining of the screen session sounds cool. Gotta try it one day.
2) Linus Torvalds, Geek of the week (http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week) is an interesting read on this man, Linus Trovalds. I know some people doesn't really like him for his rather... err.. not so polite ways of saying things. But I like the way he thinks. And doesn't mind his reference to masturbation once in a while.. :P Choice is good..

Some tips for administrators and more wisdom from Linus..

I was reading the August edition of Arch newsletter
(http://www.archlinux.org/static/newsletters/newsletter-2008-Aug-04.html)
and in it I found 2 articles which I was particularly interested in.
1) 10 Essential tricks for admins
(http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-10sysadtips/?ca=dgr-lnxw02aLinux10Tricks&S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=GR)
is very useful and introduced me to a few things which I've never knew
before. Haven't tried it yet but the combining of the screen session
sounds cool. Gotta try it one day.
2) Linus Torvalds, Geek of the week
(http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week)
is an interesting read on this man, Linus Trovalds. I know some people
doesn't really like him for his rather... err.. not so polite ways of
saying things. But I like the way he thinks. And doesn't mind his
reference to masturbation once in a while.. :P Choice is good..

Humanity...

Some of you might notice that I rarely write about non-technical stuff. Most of them are just notes for myself actually. But here's a post that is a bit different.

kaeru introduced to me the book called "Time Management For System Administrators" and quite frankly it is a good book. And most of the tips are very applicable in real life unlike most "time management" ideas. But this week it has just been... emmm.. backfired, sort of. I can name at least two. The first one, my centro.

Oh my centro, what has happened to thee. I miss thy ever present memory of all things to come and needs to be. If any of you have been following my identi.ca then you would know that my centro has kinda bit the dust. First it kept on syncing until it's batteries are dead. Then even when I have recharged the batteries it stays dead. Called palm and they want to replace my battery first. I know it's not just the batteries problem. After this they would have to replace the unit too. Why not just take it first already and spare me the agony of being centroless.

So how did the book idea backfired? Well.. one of the great ideas in the book is that don't rely on your brains to remember stuff like todo's and appointments and stuff. Reserve your brain for more important things. Our tools like pda's and organizers keep a better record than our brains when it comes to just making sure you don't forget. So.. emmm.. I don't remember anything. It's all in the centro. If I had another one it won't be much of a problem, but I don't. Seriously thinking maybe I should just get myself an old fashion organizer. Won't be as effective but at least it is waaaay more reliable. Palm.. oh Palm..

What is the other one? Well.. one of the great ideas in the book is make a habit of filling your fuel consistently so that you don't get caught with no fuel. So you should set a certain time when you would fill your fuel tank to full even if it's not really empty yet (it cannot be completely full of course). So you don't have to every worry about suddenly finding that you are late for appointments and stuff but need to fill up your tank first. Mmmm.. I choose to fill my motorcycle's fuel tank 3 times a week. Going back from work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So today I went to KL to drop off my centro's battery at the drop off point. On the way coming back I saw my fuel tank almost empty. But thinking it would be alright because I'll be filling it up on the way back later, I didn't follow my gut feeling and went on with it. Guess what? On the way back right on the flyover heading towards Petronas at Precinct 8, my bike died (mmmm.. seems like my tools like to make a habit of dying on me). So I had to push my bike.. :'( Ohhh... the agony... It is the most exercise I've got since a long time. Pushing motorcycles is hard work. Lucky for me some guy saw me pushing my bike and came to ask what's wrong. When I said I was out of fuel he offered to push me to Petronas. So lucky me was pushed from behind all the way to Petronas. I am sooo grateful. I didn't even get his name. Not even his plate number. Once we're there he just said okay and went off. God bless you unknown stranger. God bless you...

But in the book there is also another tip. Which was, use mantras. Things which normally happen to you. Make decision early about it, and remind yourself to take that decision every time using mantras. So my mantra now is "if it looks like it needs to refuel, just refuel damn
it..'.

Oh well.. So that's what I wanted to share. Nothing all that spectacular and it ain't going to win a bestseller award or anything. So thank you for reading, and thank you unknown stranger for you help. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm on identi.ca too

Mmmm... I barely update this blog, maybe it's too big. I should try something smaller. What's smaller than a blog? A micro-blog. Just want to say I'm on identi.ca now.

MyMeeting in the wild

Thank you cikgu for finally committing mymeeting into sourceforge and introducing it to the community. Even ccharles blogged about it. As one of the developers of mymeeting I really hope this would be the beginning of something great in the Malaysian Public Sector. It would be good if we could get all of the great people out of the wood works of obscurity and make the open source community of Malaysia thrive with life.