Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Skills and Qualities Needed by Systems Engineers





















Skills and Qualities Needed by Systems Engineers

* Good math skills
* Strong time management skills
* Aptitude for systems thinking
* Good common sense
* A strong desire for organization and efficiency
* Excellent communication/salesmanship
* Creative problem solving
* Quantitative skills
* Technical competency
* Continuous drive for improvement
* Resourcefulness
* Listening skills
* Negotiation skills
* Diplomacy
* Patience
* Ability to adapt to many environments, wear many hats and interact
with a diverse group of individuals
* Inquisitive mind
* Continuous desire to learn
* Leadership skills
* Ethics

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Connecting Huawei E220 HSDPA Modem in Ubuntu


+


You know how to use it on windows, but how about on Linux? This is what I've done on my office mate notebook who're recently using Ubuntu Linux. There are only few steps need to be done to enable it. Some information for a new beginner on Ubuntu, root user is not automatically enable. So, we require quite a number of time using the sudo command.

sudo definition: sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user, as specified in the sudoers file.

Modify the /etc/wvdial.conf as below:

[Dialer Celcom3G]
Phone = *99***1#
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Username = user
Password = pass
ISDN = 0
New PPPD = yes
Baud = 1843200
Init2 = ATZ
Init3 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Then dial-up the Celcom3G as below:
DragonX@xzone ~ $ sudo wvdial Celcom3G
If there's some error mentioning that the modem is not responding, you only have to issue 2 commands to remove and add the uhci_hcd module (USB Driver):
DragonX@xzone ~ $ sudo modprobe -r uhci_hcd
DragonX@xzone ~ $ sudo modprobe uhci_hcd
After that, try to dial it again using the command mentioned above. If it dial successfully, verify it by using the ifconfig command. It will present a new network interface (ppp0) with IP assigned to it.

Here's is a script that will help to easily connecting the modem to the internet.

#!/bin/bash

sudo modprobe -r uhci_hcd
sudo modprobe uhci_hcd

echo "Waiting kernel to detect modem device"

# Wait till the kernel recognizes our E220
while true; do

# Read log
tail -n 20 /var/log/messages > access.history
sleep 1
tail -n 20 /var/log/messages > access.current

LOG=`diff access.history access.current | grep ">" | tr -d ">"`

# Check if it is detected
if [[ "$LOG" =~ "converter now attached to ttyUSB1" ]]; then
echo "Modem device detected, dialing..."
# If it is, get out of the loop immedietly
break
fi
done

rm access.history access.current

# Start dialing
sudo wvdial Celcom3G

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Monitoring network using scripts

I've been working on some script for this few days to monitor the network connectivity for one of my servers. Technically the server have 2 network interfaces connected to network which is "eth0" & "eth2".

Each of this interface will have a different vlan and pointing to a different gateway:
eth0 -> 192.168.10.254
eth2 -> 192.168.11.254

The main interface used will be "eth0" and there are services which will point through this vlan, in case that the interface or the switch connected to this interface fail, it will need to switch to the other interface which is "eth2".

I've created the script as below:

#!/bin/bash
# Script for system monitoring with ping command
# Editor : Mohammad Al Ghazali Ismail

# Gateway
GW1="192.168.10.254"
GW2="192.168.11.254"

# Email
EMAILADD="someone@somedomain.com"

# Mail Subject
SUBJECT="Network Server Fail"

# Number of ping request
COUNT=5

count=$(ping -c $COUNT $GW1 | grep 'received' | awk -F ',' '{print $2}' | awk '{print $1}')
# If 100% failed
if [ $count -eq 0 ]; then
# 100% failed, check for GW2
count=$(ping -c $COUNT $GW2 | grep 'received' | awk -F ',' '{print $2}' | awk '{print $1}')
if [ $count -eq 0 ]; then
# send notification to user
echo "Unable to resolve ping from gateway $GW1 and $GW2 on $(date)" | mail -s "$SUBJECT" $EMAILADD
else
# start the service on 2nd vlan
start servicename on eth2
fi
else
# check the service on 2nd vlan
check servicename on eth2
if servicename is up
stop servicename on eth2
start servicename on eth0
fi
fi

I save the script on some directory and added it into the crontab which will execute it every 2 minutes:

# crontab -e
*/2 * * * * sh /directory/script.sh

Notes : The italic word need to be replace with the right method of checking, starting and stopping the services.

Google Snake Game

Here’s a party game which needs nothing but a working internet connection (say, a notebook or cell phone), and Google.com’s web search. The goal is to create the longest phrase that Google can find by alternately adding one word to the end of the other player’s search phrase.

Say, the first person starts with “Feelings”. Now the second person adds a word, “are”, so we get “Feelings are”... (Note the use of quotation marks in the search query.) Now every time a word is added, the phrase is searched for in Google, and the resulting page count is announced to the group. The one person who creates a sentence with zero results in Google loses and has
to do something silly (or if you want to play with points, he loses a point, and the last person who created a sentence with results in Google will win a point).

To prevent cheating, the one whose turn is next is not allowed to look at any search result snippet. Let’s take our sample, and see what we get:
  • Peter: “Feelings” (53,200,000 results in Google)
  • Mary: “Feelings are” (2,100,000 results)
  • Jake: “Feelings are nothing” (1,090 results)
  • Susan: “Feelings are nothing and” (19 results)
  • Peter: “Feelings are nothing and we” (0 results)
  • Susan gets 1 point, and Peter gets minus 1 points (or has to do something silly).
If you create too obscure a sentence there won’t be any results and you will lose, but if your sentence gets too many results, your opponent will also be able to create a sentence with results. The basic strategy is to try to create sentences so silly that there are only a few results, but not so silly there are no results…

Have fun!!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Majlis Perkahwinan Effy dan Rosli


Mempelai dua sejoli
Album perkahwinan


And for those yang selalu tanya2 dengan aku, dan masih tertanya2 siapa sebenarnya pasangan aku,jeng jeng jeng...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Memory of bumi kenyalang....


Aku sampai kat bumi kenyalang ni dalam jam 11.30 a.m. Terus aku pegi mencari hotel penginapan, as suggested by my dear, aku pun pegi la hotel supreme. That evening, hujan lebat turun mencurah2, dah la lapau, hujan plak tu, nak kuar mkn pun tak bleh...huhuh....
Around 4.00 p.m hujan pun reda, aku pun start la jalan2 kat sekitar bandar kuching ni, dan aku dapat snap gambar ni, kuching besau bersama pintu gerbang masuk ke jalan yang seakan-akan pekan koboi, aku pun tak berapa ingat nama jalan ni...
Since ada tourist yang tgh bergambar kat situ, aku pun minta la tolong dia snap kan gbr aku gak, kuching tu lagi friendly dari aku, siap lambai2 lagi posing depan camera,hehehehe....
Punya la aku pusing2 cari makan, at last,Q suggest suruh aku makan kat TopSpot. Dia kata try sup gamat, guess what it look like? you can see it as above,heheheh, and how do it tast...well great!!

Outerier design yang aku sempat snap kat depan TopSpot...artistic isn'it.....
Here's are a few scenery yg aku sempat capture lepas aku da siap keje. Aku minta driver teksi tu bwk aku pusing2 around kuching....


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

My last state...


6.15 - As usual, wake up as usual, performing my pray as usual. Getting ready to visit my last state that I've never visit b4. SARAWAK.
7.15 - On my way to LCCT, I seldom take a cab here from Putrajaya, but it's better to be early than late. It cost me around RM56 from Putrajaya to LCCT...sheeeeesh...
8-15 - Check in my luggage.
8 - 30 - Here I am, having breakfast at the Coffe Bean.
9.15 - In the flight.....Sarawak...here I come....weeeeee...