I Hate Myself

.... for loving you

Can't break free from the the things that you do.

I wanna walk but I run back to you, that's why

I hate myself for loving you....

That's a 1988 song by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the first single from the album, Up Your Alley. The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100[1], Jett's third single to reach the Top 10 since "Crimson and Clover" in 1982.

Today's post is not about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts... Its about how I hated myself for making a (silly) mistake, more like a mis-prediction....

We were supposed to hit the Night Safari earlier in the evening for some Halloween Horror Themed Night but I supposed the Weather had other ideas. The plan was very simple... Hit the roads at about 630pm for the Night Safari, arriving approximately 730pm, just about the time the park opens. However, it was already raining cats & dogs by the time we came out of the theatre around 630pm. We can even hear the thunder from inside the theatre!!

I was both disappointed and mad at myself for the unexpected turn of event. Had I not waited until the last day of the Themed Night to visit, things would have turned out pretty differently and I probably might not be typing this post here as we speak...

We ended up heading back into the theatre for another movie :p

PS : Do read more about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Wikipedia if you are interested.

Singapore Funny Video

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooogle

Nope, there's no typo in the title above. I've indeed spelt Google with 25 "O"s.

Why 25? Its for a very simple reason of there having 25 additional ways by which you can search for information using Google other than the usual way of punching in whatever search terms you wish into the Google Searchbox. They actually have various syntax for you to key in in order to find information such as :

• Exchange Rate
• Weather
• Stock Quotes
• Time
• Simple Arithmetic
• Unit Conversion
• etc....

Amazing? Try it @ any Google Searchbox.... For more information, do check out http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html for more details!!

Travel Plans until end-2010*

Nov 2009 - Malacca
Dec 2009 - Kuala Lumpur
Dec 2009 - Cambodia (Tentative)
May 2010 - Bali
Aug 2010 - HK/Macau (Tentative)
Nov/Dec 2010 - New Zealand (Tentative)

*confirmed unless otherwise stated....

:)

Securing Your Wireless Networks

With the increase in recent years of the popularity of broadband access, connection sharing and falling prices of wireless routers, it's not at all surprising to observe the mushrooming of numerous wireless networks around the island be it in the residential nor commercial areas.

While it makes sense to use wireless technology to share internet access, one very worrying trend emerges; that many of these hotspots are lacking in basic security... Just like how you do not allow strangers into your home, there are plenty of such networks everywhere that failed to secure it's doors, allowing anyone out there to hook onto the unsecured network for the most harmless activity of FREE surfing to the most damaging acts of stealing your data for malicious intent.

It is precisely with securing your wireless network in mind that I've decided to pen this entry today... There are 101 ways to secure a wireless network but I'd not be able to cover all. I shall just stick to the basic defenses that you can deploy with out-of-the-box features that your wireless router should come with...

1. Do not broadcast your network SSID. The SSID is the name of your wireless network. Broadcasting it is equivalent to telling the whole world your home address, potentially inviting a whole lot of junk mails and other unwanted attentions.

2. Enable MAC Filtering. Each devices that needed to access the network must have a MAC Address and by limiting only those MAC Address which you are aware of, you are simply 'distributing your house keys only to those whom you know and trust'.

3. Limit IP Address Range to only as many as you need. Do not over allocate as this is similar to 'leaving excess sets of your house keys lying around'.

4. Change the default IP Range of your router. Change the default IP Range of the router to something similar but not the default. Some IT savvy folks may be able to guess your IP Range and conduct malicious tasks against you. As such, changing the default IP Range is similar to why some home owners prefered to change the locks to their homes when they initially bought it.

5. Enable encryption (WEP or WPA) on your wireless network. These 2 are the most common standards available in all of today's routers. WEP had been cracked before while WPA had proven resilient so far (phew). What happens now is that with either of the standards enabled, your communication between the PC/Laptop to the router is now secured. Think of it as if you are talking in some lingo that only you and your colleagues understand such that you boss will not be able to catch that you 2 are actually gossiping about him!

Do note that the above are not foolproof. They are only able to provide some basic defenses against evil-intentioned folks. To the experts, these defenses can be easily breached in hours, if not minutes. However, in the normal context, this is just about sufficient protection.