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Team Fortress 2: Meet the spy

Shaun
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0
Team Fortress 2: Meet the spy

As part of the series of “Meet the cast” in the uber cool game, Team Fortress, which sadly had saw me playing for a good ol’ 10 years since 1999 with team fortress classic and now it’s sequel, team fortress 2. This latest installment is an early leaked version not released by VALVe yet, but it’s still cool as hell (no pun intended). As with this video, a keen eye may be needed to get a foothold or what to expect on future item updates for the game- other new in-game items can be seen in this video as well, such as the new “Saxton Hale’s croc-toothbelt” sniper hat and the heavy’s football helmet in the intel room which are new headgear entries for the respectively classes. Anything related to the scout’s mom, well that’s dealt in pure James Bond style.

With the game’s mature theme, expect gore to go with the video haha.

Ahem, now gentlemen, the video at the click:

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Guide for applying to UK universities via UCAS for polytechnic students – Part 2 (Employment, personal statement and reference)

Shaun
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10
Guide for applying to UK universities via UCAS for polytechnic students – Part 2 (Employment, personal statement and reference)

This is the second part of my guide for applying to UK universities via UCAS for polytechnic students in Singapore, covering the remaining sections, employment, personal statement and reference.

4. Employment
If you’ve have any working experience, say part-time at a fast food joint or being your own boss, list them here, if you do not have any, you can leave it blank and mark it as “completed”. I work mainly as a freelancer, so I put “freelance” as part of my job experience, an example as follows:

Employer: Shaun Chng – Self Employed (or your employer’s name)
Address: 288B Singapore Street Singapore 123456
Nature of work: Web developer and product designer
From February 2005 to April 2007, part-time

5. Personal statement
Many will shriek in fright when first faced with a daunting task to write a personal statement, you should see a personal statement is your way of picturing yourself, the applicant, towards the university admissions staff. Yes though it can make or even break your application, the low down is that your personal statement is a powerful way for you to strike the lasting impression as well as stand out from monotonous grades, particularly in situations where universities have to choose between 2 academically evenly matched applicants.

What should I write?
Everybody is unique and everybody will definitely have much to say about themselves, talk about a hobby, a sport you enjoy doing, your Co-circular activities, a person you’ve helped or your community service work. The key things to mention here are anything you’ve NOT mentioned in any other part of your application, that is, do not mention what fantastic grades you have or what bombastic company you worked for, that will turn against you and whats more, that’s repetition and wasting valuable space in your statement which can be put to other good use.

It’s like telling a story, but not your life story!
Usually write in a first person perspective, using “I have done various activities”, rather than “Joe has done various activities, ranging…” it gives it a more personal touch and paints a better picture of you to those accessing your application and please do yourself a favor by not starting each paragraph with an “I”, be creative!

Those thinking of taking a year out or doing a deferment because of national service may want to justify why and what you intend to do and achieve during that year out. Also, be straight to the point and do not include hangers, ambiguity or areas open in your statement which requires interpretation. If you are applying for language majors and wish to show off your skills here, I say, leave it to the barrage of entry essays from your college after your application is submitted, remember we are here not to access the people accessing your application!

It’s not vacuum packed
I won’t recommend using point form to list details, such as awards or achievements. Though it can be more effectively displayed/listed in that manner, it will effectively take a whole single line off your statement, imagine wasting a single line to “Medisave award 2009” or “NYAA award 2009” where you can squeeze in 4 times more content if it were a full line, stick to paragraphs and list multiple instances separated by commas, grammatically you are not wrong.

No nos
Big no nos will include grammar and spelling errors as that reflects very badly not only on you as an applicant but also on the possible quality of work you can produce as a student. Another big no will include lifting or copying someone else’s personal statement, plagiarism is dealt with very seriously in UCAS and they have automated systems to check statements for plagiarism.

Seek opinions and always edit edit edit!
You are strongly recommended to compose and edit your personal statement on a word processor, say Word, or in Open office, which thankfully almost completely eliminate spelling errors (but laughingly at the expense of inviting you to spew more words in). When done, print it out for your teacher or parents to go through, it helps getting views from another party- Is it too boring? Is it trying to hard? This helps you tone out the writing on top of correcting your language as well.

Characters, paragraphs and lines!
Thereafter, confirm your character count using the review function on your word processor, copy and paste your essay into your UCAS application, do note that the line count in Microsoft Word is not the same as that in UCAS due to text formatting differences, so it will take quite a bit of snipping here and there to get your essay in. And yes, do need not have a line break after each paragraph as that effectively steals a precious line off your line count, the next paragraph can always go on cleanly on the next line.

6. Reference
The final part to your UCAS application process. Once you’ve completed your personal statement, give yourself a pat on the back and reward yourself with a cup of coffee as you are almost done. If you’ve registered on UCAS as a mature student, you have the flexibility to fill out this section on behalf of your referee, otherwise you will be given a separate login which you can give to your referee to log into the site and complete this section for you, either way, they will be faced with the same fields, it pays to inform your referee what to and write for you so he/she will accurately draft a good reference which best describes your true abilities, anyway, your referee is already doing you a favor, don’t leave them hanging!

Some fields of note:

Predicted grades: Nil (The applicant has not entered any pending qualifications, unless if you are an A level student, then your Prelim results will come here.)

Date(s) when applicant is unavailable for interview: Nil (Usually it won’t be recommended to fill this in as most university schedules are packed and won’t entertain change of interview dates, but again this only applies to universities who require an interview as part of the selection process.)

Referee details
The only hard part of the reference is to bug someone who knows you well to write a statement for you. Preferably look for a close lecturer who taught you. A great choice will be one who took you for your FYP (final year project), or if you want bragging, rights, try asking the director of studies to be your reference. You will need few personal particulars from your reference but nothing that too personal. Fields will generally include the full title and name of referee, post/occupation/relationship. The others are standard polytechnic address details which you can lift from your polytechnic website, for example:

Organisation name: Singapore Polytechnic
Address: 500 Dover Road, Singapore 139651, Republic of Singapore
Telephone number: +65 6xx xxxx
Fax number: +65 6xx xxxx
Email address: referee_name_here@sp.edu.sg

Do note that though this seldom happens, do let your referee know that there is a chance that UCAS may contact your referee directly using these details to clarify your relationship and submitted details, so that they will be more prepared for it and avoid last minute impromptu shocks!

Generally a reference is rather similar in nature to your personal statement, but it is generally written in a third person perspective with respect to you, the applicant. The content can be new or reaffirm what you’ve written in your personal statement. You can list pointers in point form I will recommend passing a copy of your personal statement together with a brief reference guideline to your referee to get them started, after all they are not exactly people with much spare time in their hands and they are still doing you a favour!

Sample guideline for reference
A general guideline (similar to what I’ve submitted, with explanations in italics):

To Whom It May Concern

Letter of Reference for Chng Shing Ji, Shaun, IC No: S8XXXXXXX

Mr Chng Shing Ji, Shaun, was a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering student in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in Singapore Polytechnic from June 2005 to…

(This is the header of the statement, serves more or less to address the applicant and acknowledge that you are a valid student)

He was an outstanding student…
Exceptional analytical skills to problem-solving tasks…
Punctual carry out his duties…
Deliver his best performance both in academic and non-academic pursuits…
High level of motivation and self-discipline…
etc…
etc…

(An excerpt from my referee in point form for illustration, generally what we are looking here are personal qualities seen from another party, also skills which seem out of place and can’t otherwise “brag” about in your personal statement. These of course have to be genuine and true to paint an accurate picture of you as a candidate)

Mr Referee Name
Position
Singapore Polytechnic

(End off like how any letter will end, with the details of the referee here)

And that’s it, a reference is totally not that difficult, it is infact easier and shorter than your personal statement.

Ok, that is all I have for this guide for UCAS based on my own successful application. If you have any additional questions, do feel free to leave it in the comments below or reach me via the website contact form. Cheers and all the best in your studies!

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Guide for applying to UK universities via UCAS for polytechnic students – Part 1 (Personal details, choices and education)

Shaun
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14
Guide for applying to UK universities via UCAS for polytechnic students – Part 1 (Personal details, choices and education)

After my successful application as an international student from Singapore via UCAS (guess many found their way here from a dated blog post), I’ve been receiving quite a number of questions about the application process, particular for non-mainstream poly students like myself. I have written a small guide condensed from the replies I’ve given out, going section by section as from the 2008 application year.

This guide follows closely the 6 structured sections applicants will have to go through in their UCAS application and can be completed in any order. Moreover, though this article may cater more to Polytechnic students, it is rather general in nature and can apply to anyone applying via the mainstream route on UCAS. Read on more with my more of my pointers, tips and hints highlighted from my application.

The first section, your personal details:

1. Personal details
Filling out your details here rather straight forward, it’s mostly all your personal particulars, with some additional fields of question (and what I have filled in place to confirm with your own)

Area of permanent residence: Singapore
Residential category: O Other
Unique Learner Number: Nil

Student support
Fee code: 09 Overseas Agency (Note I chose this as I was offered sponsorship for fees)
Student support arrangements: Nil

There is one field however, called nominated access, which requires the full name of nominee as well as his or her relationship to you as an applicant. Nominated access is put anyone, who can be a parent/guardian/acquaintance you nominate who will be able to talk to UCAS on your behalf about your application, it’s not compulsory and is not in anyway to be confused as the reference.You can leave this field blank if you do not have one, I did.

In addition to your personal details, some universities may thereafter send you additional form to fill out after you’ve submitted your UCAS application, requesting more details such as the particulars and job of your parents and siblings if do, this is so for a financial guarantee which some universities may offer as conditions to offer as an applicant.

2. Choices
This section is where you specify all your desired major as offered by your chosen college. You first have to specify the university and additional detail fields will follow:

Campus: Specified if your university has colleges to chose from (e.g in Oxbridge)
Live at home?: Usually it is “No”, this only indicates that you intend to use college dormitory facilities, there is no harm indicating “No” here first unless you already intend to live in a home or rented property already residing in UK, but you can always make arrangements with your college when the term starts.
Start date: October 2009 is the usual start date for normal point of entry
Deferred entry?: No, unless if you intend to take a year out and start your term the following year. This is in particular for guys in Singapore still serving NS and are applying one year before their intended year of study.
Further details: Usually can be left blank, otherwise, do specify other needs such a visual impairment, mature student or otherwise areas of need not covered in the disabled needs section.
Point of entry: This is only for if you are about to do the second or final year of the same course but at another university. Usually you should leave this blank, otherwise, do specify 1, 2, or 3 in the box which would denote the year you are starting the course.

In my application, I used 3 choices in total, but I believe you are only offered 5 choices, so do make the best of what you’ve offered. UCAS will charge an additional application fee if you intend to have more than 5 choices. But remember it’s the quality and not quantity which matters!

3. Education
For my year of application, there were actually no options for application for Polytechnic, let be JC, you specify your education details under the “education section”, so it’s kinda general in nature. Under this section, you will be faced with a javascript drop down menu to choose your school/college after selecting your country, only after you’ve done your first step where the form will expand with more options.

For me, in my application, the option available was (together with a list of all the polys in Singapore as well):

SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC, SINGAPORE (05/2005 – 05/2008, FT)
Singapore-Polytechnic Diploma (For me, this was the option available, along with the JCs in our region as well)

If so say UCAS had updated the school selection part for that year you are applying, and there are no such options for application, the other will be to choose unconventional qualifications (others), such as the international barculate (IB) option (or alternative). However, I believe it should still be the same as what I mentioned previously above.

After selecting your school, for that school you will be provided an option to “add subject/modules” with actually requires you to add each polytechnic module as a subject you’ve studied. It’s quite a painstalking process having to key in each module info one by one on the system, what I can recommend is to have access to your polytechnic student admin system (we call it SAS in SP, if its still called the student admin system) open it by your side, navigate to your past exam result archive. There, copy the subject module names text which are already pre-typed and paste them into Microsoft word, where you can format the text with the right caps before pasting them into the fields required, what should be needed is the module name, year/date taken so it can be like 05/2009 for may 2009, followed by your grade. Once done, a line may look like that:

ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICS (MM3405) 09/2007 A

Remember to save regularly.

Once done, go ahead and fill in your other educational details up to secondary school level, this is important as your GCE ‘O’ level English result will free you the need to take English proficiency programs/tests (e.g IELTS, TOFEL) which are prerequisites prior to enrollment, you may need to take to support your application and/or taken as part of a foundation on your first year of your accepting college.

Next I will go on an cover the other remaining parts of the UCAS application process, such as your dreaded personal statement and reference.

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Mizuno Mount Faber Run, 14 Jun 2009

Shaun
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0
Mizuno Mount Faber Run, 14 Jun 2009

In the third year running, the highly successful Mizuno Mount Faber Run is back again, taking runners through the sights of the southern hills of Singapore.

Mt Faber 2009 Route Map

Race Details

Venue: Open carpark space between Block 121 & 123 Bukit Merah View
(There will be multiple tents erected in the carpark itself)
Distance: 10km
Race Start Time: 0730hrs
(No reporting needed, just arrive on time with Bib)
Registration Closing Date: 24rd May 2009

Getting There
Based as of previous year events, baggage deposit is provided for all runners at the surrounding HDB void decks near the event main tent.
Otherwise you can leave your bags in your vehicles (if you are driving), there are ample HDB parking lots around the area.
Nearest MRT station: Tiong bahru (head into the mature HDB estate opposite Tiong bahru park)
Buses: 961, 855, 197, 147, 14, 196 (From Jalan Bukit Merah)

Race Route (See map image above)
Distance about 10km, but with relief feats. Similar to last year’s race:

  • Henderson road up skipping the industrial distripark, across the AYE towards Pasir Panjang road, then turning up the Mt Faber hill from Pender Road.
  • Passing round the route through Mount Faber landmarks such as the cable car station and comm tower.
  • Down Mt Faber from Faber lodge towards CHIJ at Bukit Purmei towards Tiong Bahru park, then Delta House before circling Gan Eng Seng School and back up to Henderson road for the finish.
Race Categories ($35 all categories)

  • Men Open
  • Women Open
  • Men Veteran
  • Women Veteran

For the purpose of age verification, the age of competitors shall be taken as of 1 January 2009.

Corporate Registration
For corporate registration (20 participants & above), please email to mizunomfrun@vgocorp.com

Modes of Registration

1. Online registration
You can register online. Registration page.
Online credit card payment (only VISA or MasterCard) is accepted.

Online only, World of Sports & PAssion card members’ Promotion!

  • First 500 World of Sports or PAssion card members will receive a FREE pair of Mizuno running socks (worth $8.90) on the Race Pack Collection Day.
  • Indicate and key in your World of Sports or PAssion card number during your registration.
  • A separate email will be sent to you 1 week before the Race Pack Collection Day.
  • Present your confirmation slip, promo email, together with your World of Sports or PAssion card on the Race Pack Collection Day

2. In person, walk-in registration venues:

  • Mizuno VivoCity #02-16 Tel: 6377 0261
  • World of Sports AMK Hub #B2-14 Tel: 6752 4267
  • World of Sports Jurong Point #02-29 Tel: 6792 0547
  • World of Sports Tampines 1 #03-14/15 Tel: 6786 6705
  • World of Sports Paragon #04-29/30 Tel: 6735 4187
  • World of Sports Velocity @ Novena Square #02-69/72 Tel: 6259 9656

3. Registration forms are also available at the selected community centres:

  • Henderson Community Centre
  • Cairnhill Community Centre
  • Radin Mas Community Centre
  • Bukit Merah Community Centre
  • Queenstown Community Centre
  • Leng Kee Community Centre
  • Tanjong Pagar Community Centre
  • Tiong Bahru Community Centre
  • Tanglin Community Centre
  • Pek Kio Community Centre
Race Pack Collection
Date: 6 & 7 June 2009
Venue: Velocity @ Novena Square, Atrium
Time: 10am to 8pm
Participants are reminded to present receipt and I/C on the Race Pack Collection Day.

To appoint your relatives, friends or representatives in Singapore to collect the race pack on your behalf, please click here to download the Authorisation form.

Authorisation form must be presented on the Race Pack Collection Day.

Race Pack contents:

  • Running Tee
  • Runner’s Tag
  • iTag for Electronic Timing
  • Mizuno Waist Pouch (worth $29.90)
  • Mizuno Limited Edition Running Singlet (worth $32.90)
  • Lucky Draw Entry
  • 30% Discount on Mizuno regular-priced merchandise

Excludes selected nett priced items. Other terms & conditions apply.

Launch of Dell Swarm

Shaun
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0
Launch of Dell Swarm

Due to be launched on the 5th of May and the first of it’s kind in the world, Dell Swarm by Intel and Dell is an online ordering portal targeted at students and value hunters alike. So it works like a mass order system we usually see taking “lobangs”, only that this time, you are dealing the lobang directly with the supplier. You start by picking the laptop you would like to purchase, which is the “Buy” part, so you are the first buyer to join a Swarm and you’ll enjoy a price lower than dell.com.sg’s best discounted price (after cash rebates). So say your starting price is $899 SGD. You enter and the price drops so $854 SGD.

Dell swarm 2009 site main page
Dell swarm 2009 site main page
The swarm page
The swarm page
Keep in touch with social networking or SMS
Keep in touch with social networking or SMS

Here comes the good part, for every member you comes in and joins your “swarm” you will get a lower price for every member which comes in, so say after 8 members joined your swarm, the prices drops to $809 SGD. To reach the maximum discount, you can grow the Swarm by Sharing with your friends through social networking sites and functions, such as facbook, tweeter, etc.

When you’re ready to join the Swarm, click on the Buy button, register and the website will contact you once the Swarm ends and the price is finalised. This happens once the limit of 15 buyers or 72 hours is reached.

For users not ready to buy yet. You won’t be left out either with a range of monitoring services available, you can also choose to follow your choosen Swarm through updates via email and SMS.

To test drive the site, visit http://dellswarm.com/sg/ and log in with the following information (Prices shown in beta site are placeholders only.)

Username: dellswarm
Password: buysharesave

Read more about the new spanking new website on the click:

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Site revamp progress, right on track

Shaun
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1
Site revamp progress, right on track
Shaunchng.com site revamp design 2009

Well, progress on the site revamp is rather fruitful. It started with a rather tough fight to get div containers to go fluid on percent values for a 3 column layout, fixed width divs are more predictable over a range of browsers, so I am still contemplating whether to allow the fluid width option for content. Nevertheless I am quite happy with how the site is coming up so far. Though the site looks very similar to the current one, I can say that the codes are 50% leaner, is world wide web consortium xhtml 1.0 and CCS compliant and can easily load just as fast, the best of all, there are no tables in sight now! Now it’s just a matter of fixing PNG transparencies on IE6, which most users still browse with.

The design is almost 100% finalized but that is just it. Now it’s a matter of upgrading some of my code and content throughout the site, thereafter, it’s quite alot of coding for the upgraded shoutbox, so there is quite alot to do. A cool new feature on the site is that since it’s running off a single stylesheet at any given time, I can get it to automatically load a new one whenever there’s like an occasion, say Christmas, New year’s day, National day, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Earth Hour, etc duh. So it can be rather interesting to check out the site on these days.

This new design has it’s primary focus on the user, so there will be lots of accessibility enhancements such as AJAX search, dbx-boxes, font adjustments and readability. The site’s main font size will be increased as well, to Arial 12px. The blog will be running on the latest version of wordpress and gallery. Though I have yet to get used to the new admin layouts on my test environment, I still prefer the old wordpress top admin bar.

More updates to come.

Classifieds impersonations!

Shaun
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0
Classifieds impersonations!

I’ve been receiving quite a few emails asking about my “Ad” on few popular online classifieds sites, such as 88db. Which left really really puzzled as I do not feature my freelance services anywhere else on the internet other than my portfolio pages on this website. So I went about a search on the net and found ads placed on those sites and written in a way that I’ve posted it. Oh my god, impersonations!

Whats more the adverts and classifieds postings also feature images and photos ripped from this site as well. A little bit of post-mortem suggests that the list of services listed came in a very reassuring format presumably lifted from my namecards. So I guess it could be added from an acquaintance from my networking sessions.

Though I never accepted any jobs from such sources and personally, I have nothing against those people who post these ads. But what I fear are the exploits which could result from this- anyone can steal your work and claim it theirs, which could be rather worrying. After all, there is no safeproof method to copyright your work and often watermarks and text can all be lifted and altered without consent.

So, I guess the best rule is of course not to post anything online that you can’t afford to lose that is.

Followup of the hacking situation

Shaun
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0
Followup of the hacking situation
Server Rack

Am updating all scripts on my servers as I type along in this blog post, there is quite much updating to go, I guess I just sneak an update here. After much investigation of the previous hacking attempt in my last blog post, it seems that the DoS problem narrows down to a vulnerability in the roundcube webmail program, so if you have that running on versions before 0.2.1, please do an update.

In layman’s terms, what the hackers did is to exploit a code injection vulnerability in Roundcube towards Apache which causes it to eat up so much resources that it forces Apache run a safety shutdown to terminate the script, thus explaining those sudden SIGTERM disabling all your server’s webservice. But once that happens, it will unable to start itself up again as a Apache is “still” running the service and using the ports, thus resulting in a denial of service.

I’ve updated all my servers and did a full rootkit scan, currently all is running fine and A-OK. (Keeps fingers crossed). Oh yes, do note that roundcube-0.2 requires PHP 5 to run.

I guess, the cool thing about being your system administrator is that you get you get to learn all kinds of shit which comes thrown at your server.

Mmm don’t know should I try to install PHP 6 on my development server, I am sooo liking their new date functions.

ShaunChng.com servers hacked

Shaun
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3
ShaunChng.com servers hacked

Sorry for the 1 hour downtime last night from 12:30am to about 1:30am (Singapore time). The site is up and functional now. I jumped when I got a downtime message from my servers, strange, the server can be reached and pinged, so not a hardware or network problem, but my website cannot be reached. A short search later led me to finding Apache stopped and unable to restart automatically. After viewing my logs, it seems that my server was issued a SIGTERM to terminate Apache, possibility hacked with a Trojan:

A snippet of the logs:

--08:07:28-- http://[some ip]/barbut
Connecting to [some ip]:80... barbut: no process killed
brb: no process killed
barbutLinux: no process killed
--08:07:28-- http://[some ip]/barbut
Connecting to [some ip]... barbut: no process killed
brb: no process killed
barbutLinux: no process killed
--08:07:28-- http://[some ip]/barbut
Connecting to [some ip]... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 35336 (35K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `barbut'
0K .200 OK
Length: 35336 (35K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `barbut.1'
0K ................ ........... .......... .......... .... 100% 54.5K=0.6s
08:08:33 (54.5 KB/s) - `barbut' saved [35336/35336]
chmod: cannot access `barbut': No such file or directory
sh: ./barbut: No such file or directory

This is like 1 of the 10 trys this hacker from Germany tried to spam my servers with. These bastards seem to trick the server to killing my processes and downloading a Trojan called Kaiten. But based on what I see in the logs, they are unable to run it. Think setting all downloaded files unable to execute in the temp folder was a good choice.

So it’s very much a DDoS attack. It managed to get a service to run under the “apache” username which blocked the ports required by Apache itself. I managed to find the pesky process blocking port 80, killed it, restarted Apache successfully and changed all my passwords. I am puzzled if the file was not run, then how the file managed to kill Apache in the first place.

So if you try to run Apache, you get an error with this message:

httpd start 2>&1

for a quick fix to the solution, what you can do is to find the pesky service running by entering the following command as root

ps -aux

Carefully look through all the processes for suspicious ones. Then kill the process using the process id listed by it’s side XXXX
kill -9 XXXX

Then restart Apache
/sbin/service httpd restart

The next thing is to do a complete scan of your server for any residual files lurking. Who knows what could be installed with the Trojan, I will be damned how they got in the first place. Now I have to consider whether to reload all my backups and do a fresh install of the OS on the infected servers.

Mmmm, I guess say the wise saying goes “No server is unhackable”, but I think with every such incident, you just get stronger every time you combat them.

Update: Updated post and removed the hacker’s IP to prevent it from getting indexed here.

Site upgrade planned in next month

Shaun
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3
Site upgrade planned in next month

Always wanted to get a site revamp up since last year, but just do not have the time and commitment to do so. I guess I has been more busy creating and building websites for my clients that I think that I am starting to neglect this very site. Bummer.

Furthermore, in the age of code compliance, web 2.0 shit obsession, this design conceived around 2001 is starting to show it’s age, still spotting tables and hard-coded styles which can send any other webmaster snickering in the darkness. I guess I am not doing justice for the site I call my own.

This revamp to design 12.5 version v1.0 will “grow” up abit, but still retain much of the site’s look, colour and layout, but will spot a more clean and user-friendly backend. It will be less database intensive despite the increased number of functions, sounds along the pitch of “increased horsepower with lesser emissions?”, maybe, to auto manufacturers.

Maybe the difference is that I ain’t needing any bailout here. With the jokes aside, this upgrade/revamp will also mark a new start in my life as well. This old design was for my transition from secondary to JC/Army/Poly, this new design will be dedicated for my time in college and doing my masters. Now, only to get it all coded by the end of next month.

The updates, as planned.

User orientated and accessibility features

  • User customizable module layout (planned)
  • 3 levels of user defined site-wide font setting (currently only on the blog)
  • Fixed or fluid site width
  • All settings and user fields are saved for all site components (avatars, comments and shoutbox)

Code improvements for faster page loading

  • Full table-less CSS driven site
  • Condensation of all JS files (currently about 5) into one
  • Condensation of all CSS files (currently about 3-4) to one
  • iframe-less div scrollable shoutbox
  • Re-writing and cutting down on queries of certain functions
  • New backend integration and facility for article, tutorial management

The ability to have a single CSS file will simply many of the wants I always wanted for the site, such as the ability to change the site colours on the fly by loading in another CSS file, currently most of the styles are hardcoded in the template, so that will be quite a pain to change. Now I can get the site to automatically say load a white look for the site for Christmas, a black one for Halloween and say maybe a red-white one for national and on!

Furthermore, much of the site content will be revamped I find few sections of the site quite irrelevant on the site now, considering these had been here since the site started. This also catered to the needs of my users and backed using statistical evidence on popular pages. Those getting the hook will be the photo galleries as well as the links section:

Site content re-arrangement

  • Expansion of about and portfolio sections
  • New “column” page for articles
  • Addition of apparel store
  • Removal of photo galleries (who visits them anyway haha)
  • Removal of links section
  • Various re-organization of content for SEO

Same as always, the site will always be Ad-free! (who likes ads anyway).

Singapore is a “fine” city, of course, aren’t you proud of it?

Shaun
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0
Singapore is a “fine” city, of course, aren’t you proud of it?

It’s ain’t no april fool’s joke, but hey Singapore does have a reputation of a fine city. And what better way to see it through the eyes of a rather chatty taxi driver.

Though I think the expats have not really seen much of Singapore to make any firm creditability from their remarks, I guess Singapore will still be a stack contrast to the other countries in the neighborhood. More on the click:

Here is an excerpt of the author of the short film:

This film is part of a multi-episode series over the course of a year…of students abroad…of crazy experiences…about life…and about China’s journey into the future…I made this just for fun…also as a fond tribute of my memories in the last year of college (2007-2008).

Singapore:
We arrive in Singapore. Where nocturnal humans sex it out in our hostel, where interesting people take us around, and where we have a night safari.

This is my almost real-time almost-no-budget 365 Day Journey in China, leading up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. I am a film student from the world’s best film school – The University of Southern California, School of Cinema and Television in the United States.

Remember to flick the switch on earth day, tomorrow

Shaun
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1
Remember to flick the switch on earth day, tomorrow

Vote Earth! On Saturday 28 March 2009 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth, your light switch is your vote to climate change.

Vote Earth Switch Shepard Fairey

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour. Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

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Welcome to ShaunChng.com! My humble little home on the internet. Showcased here are various musings and works of interests I enjoy doing. Whether it is checking out foodie places in town, fun with technology, backpacking around the world or riding myself silly on themepark coasters, join me on my adventures in documenting the world, one blog post at a time. Feel free to wander around the site. Have a thought or question? Do reach me. Your say, your stay, enjoy yourself here.

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