A Better Title

Unfortunately, despite the success of so many people, WordPress 2.5 failed on me for some reason. While I don’t wish to speculate why it could be so, I can only say that the experience was not a good one. Thanks to tanfwc for helping me in troubleshooting the error, though in the end we decided we couldn’t do much about it.

I attempted to upgrade to WP 2.5 this afternoon. Thinking that it would be a smooth one like all my previous upgrades, I didn’t bother to create a back up. Unfortunately, the script to upgrade the database stalled and gave me a blank page instead. When I tried to roll back to WP 2.3.3, I couldn’t log on to the site admin, and got a password error message instead. Thinking that for some reason my password was changed during the upgrade process, I requested for a password reset. Even with the new password, I couldn’t log on to the admin panel, still getting the password error message.

In case I made further mistakes, I immediately created a back up of all my database and all files in the blog, somewhat belatedly. At this stage I didn’t know that the upgrade process had totally failed, and my database was actually preserved at the WP 2.3.3 state. Nevertheless, the fact that I didn’t make the back up before trying to run the upgrade script made me panic for a while.

It turned out that the reason I couldn’t log on to the admin panel of WP 2.3.3 was because for some reason, the attempt to upgrade to WP 2.5 resulted in some additional cookies that caused a “session expiry” error. Clearing my cookies solved the error, and I managed to log on to WP 2.3.3.

Still curious, I attempted to install a fresh WP 2.5 (i.e. with a new database) with the intention of importing the old database later on. Unfortunately, even the install script failed with a blank page. The last thing I tried was to import the upgraded database tanfwc had helped me create, but this failed too with a blank admin panel.

I finally gave up and resorted to use the older WP 2.3.3 for now. I may be trying to install WP 2.5 again in the future once I’ve found the solution… One thing I learnt today, though, was to always create backups whenever I have to modify the database, no matter how confident I am in the process.

Whee, looking forward to the event this Saturday. It’s the LandWaterSky tour, which I’ll be going with my girl friend, my boy friend, and another girl friend. Thanks to the Prime Minister’s Office for the treat! I just hope that it doesn’t rain on the day itself.

0845hrs - Gather at NTU ISC for bus transport
0930hrs - Gather at FunVee Counter located at Lau Pa Sat food centre
0945hrs - Captain Explorer Amphibious Tour (Land & Sea)
1045hrs - 1 hour FunVee City Hopper Double Decker Open Top Bus
1145hrs - Board FunVee Double Decker Open Top to Harbourfront
1210hrs - Cable Car Ride to Jewel Box
1230hrs - Refreshments at Jewel Box
1300hrs - Depart Jewel Box to NTU or Vivo City

I think it’s going to be fun! Too bad the package doesn’t also include the Singapore Flyer. I’d love to see how it’s like being inside the largest ferris wheel (currently) in the world! I’ll try to do a live moblog on the day itself, so stay tuned!

After the trip, I will be heading down to ACJC for the Fun-O-Rama. I was so looking forward to go at first, then hesitant knowing that a lot of things can happen between now and then, but after a while of thinking, I decided I will go no matter what. It’s my alma mater after all!

I may go with the girl friend, the boy friend, and the another girl friend, but even if they can’t make it, I will still go. At least to catch up with the teachers there. Maybe I’ll drop by ACS(I) too… I heard there are a lot of new developments down there. Can’t wait to go there again after two years!

I hope it’ll be a wonderful week for everyone!

I’ve been obsessed with WALL•E for a couple of days now.

Just have a look at the trailer below.

Isn’t he just adorable? Here’s a quick plot taken from Apple trailers website:

What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE.

Have a look at more trailers, especially this one. Make sure you watch the Quicktime High Definition version if available, as the quality of the videos are much higher.

Take a look at the official website too, as well as Buy n Large, the (fictitious) maker of WALL•E. They even claim they have a branch in Singapore, at the following address:

Buy n Large
Block 8N7
Kallang Way
#04-05 Buy n Large Industrial Estate
Singapore 344297
Singapore

I wonder what’s really at that address…

I’m definitely going to watch WALL•E. Will you?

Obsessed,
hendri

As the system clock ticked past midnight on 19 March, my age register was incremented by one and before I knew it, the value was 0×17 (one byte is enough to contain the value of the register).

For the benefit of those who don’t understand, let me rephrase that sentence:

I turned 23 on 19 March.

Damn, I’m no longer so young now.

Thanks to those who remembered, either via Facebook messages, Friendster messages, SMS, MSN messages, email, even those automated emails from the likes of Care2.com, WhoLivesNearYou.com and subscribed forums.

To those who didn’t know/remember… now you do.

So what did I do on that day?

I woke up at 9.30, pressed the snooze button until it was 10.30, cooked instant noodles for breakfast, and went for class at 11.30-12.30.

The rest of the day was spent in the Computer Engineering Lab, doing my EE4455 Embedded Systems continuous assignment. When the lecturer said CONTINUOUS assignment, he really meant it. I’ve been doing the assignment for 4 days, and I’m still not done yet. Well, blame my anal nature to have to check and recheck and recheck my 0xFF80 0000’s and 0xFF90 0000’s before I dare to put them in the report.

Spent about 5.5 hours on the CA, from 12.30 pm to 6 pm, totally forgetting about my lunch. Had dinner, and then whiled some time away and started doing the report for the CA. I wrote for about 17 pages before realizing that it was 2 am in the morning and I went home afterwards. Slept at 3, and woke up at 8 this morning, and came a little late for 8.30 class.

So, that was how I spent my day.

How did you spend yours?

0×17,
hendri

Phew, finally done with the first draft of my FYP report and academic paper… Hoping that the supervisors can give some comments to improve on it before the final submission.

I can only thank these two songs by Olivia Ong, which I played on repeat on IMEEM the whole day when I was doing my report. I thought that her voice sounds really nice, and the beat of the songs drove me to finish my report.

Make It Mutual

Make It Together

Read more for the lyrics.

(more…)

FYP sure brings out a lot of types of people.

From the not bothered…

… to the enterprising…

… to the relaxed…

… to the enthusiastic…

… to those who are counting down…

… to the desperate…

… to those who are still trapped in game world…

… to the amnesiac.

Special thanks to Ivan JL and Theresia for the WLM screenshots.

Amnesiac,
hendri

Did you know that 90 years ago, the United States Post Office issued a postage stamp with a picture of the Curtiss Jenny airplane.

The only problem was that the Jenny was printed upside down.

It turned out that the printing process in 1918 was tedious and error-prone, and at least three of the stamp sheets were printed inverted. They were subsequently destroyed, but one slipped past unnoticed and was sold in a post office.

A collector by the name of W. T. Robey happened to chance upon the misprinted sheet, quickly bought the sheet, and resold it at a higher price. Since then enterprising collectors sold the stamps in blocks of fours, eights, and individuals to achieve higher profits, and the price of the inverted stamps shot up.

Misprinted stamps are highly sought after in the philatelic world as they are rare. It is believed that the inverted Jenny is one of the most prized in the philatelic world due to the fact that only 100 of such stamps were ever found. A single inverted Jenny can cost up to US$977,500.

[source: Wikipedia]

Jenny, what’s your problem? Why you always change your mind one? Just now you say you won’t what, how come now you say you will already? Like that then we cannot move on leh… It’s killing me you know?

(This post is an inside joke)

Read more for the lyrics.

(more…)

Case closed. Let’s move on.

Holding hands, singing songs, and moving on,
hendri

I can’t believe that there are still people who dare to pong cheat, even though it is now crystal clear who has ponged an entry, unlike the olden days. At least if you really want to cheat, then cheat smartly.

Here are some of the telltale signs of pong cheating:

1. Those who pong have similar user names
2. Those who pong have user names associated with the pong cheater
3. Those who pong signed up at Ping.sg at a time close to each other
4. Those who pong have no blogs or descriptions associated to them
5. Those who pong use default avatars (thanks chillycraps!)
6. Those who pong have the same IP address (currently only Uzyn can check this)

So please, the next time you want to cheat, cheat smarter. Be more creative with your user names and descriptions, don’t sign up all the fake accounts all at the same time, don’t use the same PC to pong, and create at least one blog (with proper entries) for each of the accounts.

Or you can also “cheat” the legitimate way: ask your friends to sign up at Ping.sg, participate in the community, and pong your entries.

Anyone else from Ping.sg has anything to add? Feel free to leave a comment.

Not a Pong cheater,
hendri

PS: This is an edited post. Please refrain from bringing up the past. Thank you.