setup qmail

I have spent the whole day to work on the qmail server and finally got it done!

Now, my mutt works fine on my freebsd machine, which receives email from the imap server and deliver email through my local qmail server.
The qmail server relays every email to the smtp server in the cs department, which requires smtp auth over SSL/TLS.

The SMTP AUTH over SSL/TLS really causes a big trouble to me, because I was struggling to grab and save the certificate from the server. However, I failed. But, without the local storage of the certificate, the qmail-remote (the program relays email to other smtp server) still works!

All my effort haven't been wasted. I've got a better understanding of SMTP and MUA/MTA/mail relay now. I also spend a lot of time trying to figure out the TLS/SSL certificate related to the smtp protocol. Oh, man. It's so complicated.

I've fixed a bug in the qmail-send-auth-tls patch. (A simple sig. fault)

Played with the muttrc file, I've changed the "From" field in the email header from "freebsd.lrh516.net" to "cs.sfu.ca". Thus, everything works fine now. Bravo!

Use FreeBSD

This week, I started using freebsd intensively on my old desktop.

After hundreds of test-and-try, I am now a bit familar with the freebsd system now.

The following is my short review of the freebsd 5.4-release

1) Installation. With the help of documentation, the installation is not too difficult. I may point out that it involves a lot of network configuration, which might be too hard for newbies. As I had already got used to the text-based installation of Debian, the text-based freebsd installation doesn't give me much trouble.

2) Software installation. You may use both binary package or source based ports system to install softwares. It's flexible. The dependency problem seems no trouble. However, because my desktop is so slow (Celeon 550M), that I can do a "world" source based upgrade.

3) The other part is quite similar to other Linux/Unix system.

Anyway, I have figured out the sawfish configuration a little bit. That's a good thing.



FreeBSD tips

1) LS color: to enable colors in 'ls' command, you have to use 'ls -G' command option. Also, you must set the value of the LSCOLORS variable for propers. It is not as flexible as Linux LS_COLORS variable.

Congratulations to myself!

Received the offer letter from Broadcom yesterday! That's so great!
I can't help waking up so early today, even though I fell asleep at 2am last night.

Many good news are coming in these couple of days.

1) we moved to a new apartment
2) I got the offer from Broadcom
3) Tina got her work-permit approved, on the way.
4) Andy got his first paycheck and RA contract.

yes, life is improving, after enduring a period of "ordeal".
As some old saying said, "don't give up, find your hope out of despair".

Feel blue today

I feel not bad in the interview at Broadcom last week. However, I haven't yet heard from them although they said that they may get back to me on last Friday or this week.

I have no idea about the result. Thus, I feel a bit anxious and nervous, coz I really care about the position and the company. What can I do? Anyway, I have to wait and stay peace.

Maybe my preparation is still not good enough, I haven't prepared the normal questions and I just try to answer them impromptu.

Basic Principles of Life

When I think of the summary of the stock trading, this sentence jump into my mind.
"Cut Loss, Let Profit Run".

Did I fellow this classical epigram of stock trading? I don't think so.
Otherwise, why did I lose 20K last year?

The biggest lesson for me is "Cut Loss".
It is by far the most important rule of stock trading, because you should preserve your money for the next opportunity. Or you will be kicked out of the field, since you have nothing to bet.
I lose more than 15K on one single stock "PROX". It is the most bloody lesson that I have to learn.
The reason is that I didn't cut the loss. I missed so many opportunities to cut the loss and wait until it slides to the abyss.

The second lesson for me is "Let Profit Run".
I just found that "CLHB" has been up for the whole last year and it is almost ten-fold price of my purchase price. However, I didn't catch this one and let it slip away from my hands too early.

The other lesson that I have to learn is the "combination".
I should keep a combination of stocks even though I don't have enough money now. :(

If you are still a rookie of stock trading, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I think that I must have learned something for the 20K.
Actually, it is almost the similar wisdom of your life. All the wisdoms are similar. Simple and Beautiful.

Your life, study, job, everything, you may apply the similar wisdom to your whole life, principally. Actually, I think that your lifestyle is almost determined by your habit, your attitude, and your personality, besides all the external factors.

So, re-think yourself and find out your basic principles.

Search tips for aMule

Some tips about search in aMule.
Besides searching for the exact title that you want, you can search for the following keyword in each category, when you just want to browse the available resources, without definitive search goals.

Movie:
osloskop
realworld.de
verycd
shareconnector

TVShow:
verycd
YDY
[by.HCK]
kangxicom
guess

Mp3:
andrewfox
Koopman (classical)

EBook:
laxxuss
AMACOM
sharereactor
Lotb
Lib
rbs (ebook, exam cram)
publisher's name (ebook) such like O'reiley ..

Software:
shareconnector

Other keywords:
full album
flac
audio book

Amarok is a nice music player

I tried Amarok today and I love it immediately.

It has many interesting features, such like "auto score the songs", "auto download covers", and "song title OSD".
The one I loved most is the "auto fetch lyric" function. It is able to download and display the lyric intelligently. No wonder it was once recommended by an article from newforge.com. Besides that, the GUI is intuitive.

I love it and I gonna install it on my laptop.

I love donkeynetwork

Recent trials of amule (p2p client of edonkey2000 network) bring me to the world of p2p file sharing.
Known about the p2p file sharing more than 3 years, especially the bittorrent (short as bt), I haven't tried this new, yet already mature technology until last week.
One reason is due to the lack of broadband access. Another reason is the shortage of motivation. I don't like downloading tons of movies, sitcoms, which are the most popular types of files shared over the p2p network.

However, along with the shutdown of many mp3 file downloading website, p2p network becomes the last resort of downloading my loved music files.
Anyway, the experience of using the p2p network last week make me really happy. It's just like Alibaba suddenly found the treasure of bandits. I finally found the free music download base. I've downloaded more than 10G music from p2p network during the last week. I learned a new word, "Discography", which means a collection of all the songs performed by a certain artist, and I love to download the "Discography"!!

I've downloaded or been downloading "Discography" of
* Celine Dion
* Eminem
* Elton John
* Queen
* Shania Twain
* Air Supply
* U2
* Enya
* Enigma
* Dido
* Avril Lavigne
* Eric Clapton
* Bon Jovi
* Roxette
* Green Day
* Michael Jackson

All are my favorite artists. Also, I've downloaded tons of audio books, including Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Saga" series (1-8), "Harry Potter" (1-5) and some "Foundation".
Ah, I don't know what I will download next. ;-) Seems that I've downloaded all I want know. I am still resisting the allure of downloading movies that I frankly am not very interested.
Oh, yes, I forget to mention that I've downloaded couple of Linux Games produced by Loki, although I may not play those games at all. Just for collection. :-)

I know that most of people are already quite familiar with p2p networks such like BT or KaZaa, even got bored sometime.
But, it's really new experience for me and I do enjoy it very much so far !!

Interview result

Received the reply from UBC about the failure of the interview last week. Feel so bad.

Apparently, I didn't perform well in the interview. Here is a short summary of reasons for my failure.

1) I should blame my answer of that two questions: strength and weakness.
2) The verbal communication is apparent not effective. I can feel that I was too anxious to clearly convey my ideas.

Anyway, don't give up, keep applying and be more prepared next time.

About the Interview

I did an interview with a research center at UBC, for an open position of programmer/analyst, performing data extraction and analysis tasks.
This job fits my background perfectly. I did data analysis and prediction on a huge real-world dataset in my master study. I also love this job coz it requires Unix experience and shell scripting skills.

I thought my interview was successful initially. However, I have been contacted after one week and I start to doubt whether I have survived the interview.

The interview was conducted by a 5-person team consist of two technical managers, two programmers, and one operation manager. I was asked various questions for about one hour.

I believe that I have passed most of the technical questions, but I think that I might have missed two important personality questions.

The first question was "What is the first three strong points that people will say about you, when we ask for a reference" (something like that)
I remember that I said those three strengths: creativity, programming skills, and organizational skills.
Apparently, I haven't really prepared to be interviewed with this question. However, this question is just a variation of "strength" questions or like.
I should answer the question with more thoughts and be consistent with my resume. I should have answered, fast-learner, self-starter, and organizational skills or programming skills.
I think that those three answers are much better than my original answer.
I could use "scjp", "R", and "Latex" as my fast-learning examples.
"Latex" and "Perl" could be two good examples of self-starter.
Organizational skills are easy to prove.

The second question is closely related to the first question. I didn't answer it very well, either.
It's about my weakness, when it is asked from referrer.
I responded with a very stupid answer, "communication problem, because of multi-culture conflict". That's really bad, coz nobody would like to hire a people with communication problem.
To make things even worse, I cited two examples for this question. That's damn stupid!
I now have a better answer and it is also the fact, that my writing skills are not perfect. With this answer, it is so understandable and it won't affect my personal image, I think, because you can always improve the writing skills.

Anyway, I think that those two dumb answers might have ruined my interview if I am rejected. Sigh! I really love this job.

I'll contact the operation manager tomorrow for the result, if any.

Be more prepared, next time.

Amazing Race is fantastic!

I watched the finale of the "Amazing Race" season 7, tonight. It's really amazing!

The couple won the 1M prize have been experiencing a really hard last journey, because they were deprived of all of their money and luggage.
It's an odysse and they finally made it. It's unbelievable!
They are warm-hearted and have demonstrated amenity to other people, such like the old couple.
Yes, they won the prize and everybody love them.
In this last episode, this couple had to beg for money to pay their food, drink, and taxi.
They are lucky enough to catch up the plane from Jamaica to Florida.
Their taxi driver are smart enough to figure out the "little Havana".
Oh, all those things are not easy and we are so glad that they made it.

We finally applaud for them in front of the TV, just like the other contestants.

I have watched almost every episode of the Amazing Race 7.
It's one of my favoriate reality show and I just gonna keep watching the next season. (Who knows when?)

My personal Internet Radio Station

I've setup an Internet Radio Station. It is accessible from the following URL:

http://24.84.72.25:8000

tested using "window media player" and "xmms" for Linux.

NO COMMERICALS AT ALL!

Send email to me, for anyting you want to listen.

I use the icecast streaming server version 1 and 2. And I use "shout" for icecast version 1, "ices2" for icecast version 2, to provide streaming sources.

Enjoy!

Set Streaming Server

I've successfully setup streaming server on a Linux box.

1) Yesterday, I setup an icecast2 server, and use ices to feed ogg streams. But I have to convert my mp3 to ogg, which is boring.

2) Today, I setup an icecast1 server, and use shout as feeding client. It streams mp3 streams. I like it.



Bad MOOD! Money Loss !!

"Take Profit, Stop Loss"

studying perl lwp modules

I spend about 1.5 hours tonight studying the perl LWP modules, by playing with the HTTP::Request,
HTTP::Headers, HTTP::Response, HTTP::Message modules in my little utitlity 'now'.

'now' is my little perl utility to retrieve the "now playing" items from various online radio websites, including http://sky.fm and http://hitzradio.com/.

It basically gets the html page and print out the current playing title, filtering by regex.
I also pop-up a xmessage window to notify the latest title.

Oh, forget to mention my favoriate online radio site, http://wcpe.com. However, due to the "Server Full" problem, I have not listened to it recently.
I used to have another perl script to retreve the current title playing in wcpe.com. It's broken though.

Anyway, tonight's practice gives me more insight about http procotol, although I claimed to be proficient of it. :)

job hunting

don't forget to add statistical computing skills into my resume

R programming

到了重庆才后悔结婚太早:重庆三宝美女+火锅+夜景(图) - 文学城 www.wenxuecity.com

到了重庆才后悔结婚太早:重庆三宝美女+火锅+夜景(图) - 文学城 www.wenxuecity.com

Check it out. The three beauties of Chongqing, my home city. I love it.

Welcome to Chongqing.

Congratulations!! I've passed the thesis defense !

My master thesis defense passed !!
After proper preparation, I did a good job in today's defense.

Let's remember today. Valentine's day of 2005. 2:00pm at L9014.

The hidden slides I prepared at last week did help me out today, especially for answering the question of Oliver. I knew it! I knew that it is a weak point of my thesis and that's why I prepared it. No earlier than last week did I understood the ARIMA modeling method.

Anyway, well-prepared is really working. Based on all my past success and failure, for example,
the chemical competition, job interview, GRE, graduate courses, I really should keep in mind.

BE PREPARED!

Just some thoughts, after the defense.

ONLamp.com: More FreeBSD for Linux Users

ONLamp.com: More FreeBSD for Linux Users

Will a Linux user transfer to FreeBSD? I don't know, maybe i'll try it out sometime. Seems the package management in BSD is pretty good.

Tools to make a faster Python apps

I'll try it with my gentoo emerge scripts.

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-cppyrex.html?ca=dgr-lnxw07Pyrex

Crazy Idea: Running Windows Viruses under Linux

Sounds Crazy! Right.

This guy is trying to run windows viruses under linux using wine.

Check it out.

http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1430222&from=rss

A Joke (Earth Class)

An interesting joke about the earth class. I like it.

Universal wireless charging: the Splashpower solution (not really wireless)

MobileRead Networks - Universal wireless charging: the Splashpower solution

It has been one of my dreams about the gadget, wireless power charging. However, this solution is not a real wireless solution. It just get rid of power cord on your devices. Your toys have to attach to a pad instead.

Anyway, technology is evolving. Hopefully one day, we will have "TRUE" wireless power supply.

UGO.com DVD - UGO's Top 50 DVDs of All Time

UGO.com DVD - UGO's Top 50 DVDs of All Time

How many have you seen?

I bought the Lord of the Rings 3 DVDs this X'mas.

20 Year Archive on Google Groups

20 Year Archive on Google Groups: "Linus Torvalds' Linux announcement"

The first announcement of Linux !!

Check it out!

start using a new window manager

just upgrade my X system to Xorg. Unfortunately, I found that my fluxbox quit working now. Tired of recompiling fluxbox, I start shoppoing around new window manager. A really new one: window manager improved, bumped into my eyesight. This project starts from almost end of 2003. It claims to a be lightweighted and command line friendly window manager. Oh, and with some best features of ION, which is too complicated to configure for me. Anyway, I tried this one, and found it is really good. The program is simple and fast, much faster than my old fluxbox. The configuration is not too hard. I was struggling with the workspace switching with my favoriate "Alt-F1/F2..". I found that the FAQ is wrong, at least, it is not suitable for my wmi-10 version. Instead of "switch-workspace workspace name", you should use "switch-workspace+workspace name" in the actions.conf file.

Anyway, I am using this one. It is good. I have 4 workspaces. #2 is used for my urxvt, with nothing but a full screened terminal. #3 is my browser. It is fullscreened too.

One pity is that the mouse support is too primitive. Considering that it just passed its 1 year birthday, it's not a bad one. It's functional and minimalist.

Just it a try. I am happy with it now and expecting the new release.

new AMD SoC

A powerful AMD SoC, suitable for embedded system.

I like that.