Archive for November 2007

MySQL Linux PPC64 binaries

A while back, I built some PPC64 (powerpc 64-bit) packages for MySQL. They were built on a POWER5 box, running Fedora Core 6, with glibc 2.5, using a Bitkeeper snapshot (public bkbits, 5.0.45 tag). All tests pass on ppc64, for what its worth. I’ll do periodic builds for Linux/PPC64 as and when its required (i.e. someone pings me or I need them for some reason).

Grab them from: ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/people/byte/mysql/

Hat tip to dwmw2 (for power5, bombadil) and Bryce (for ftp.linux.org.uk).

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Workbench beta adventure on Linux with Mono/WINE

MySQL Workbench has a beta out! No idea why its version 5.0.9, but its highly exciting. This software existed before, but this is quite unlike its predecessor. One snag for me is that it is Windows-only at the moment, with Linux and OS X versions to follow suit.

However, due to excitement, I decided to try running it on Linux, anyway.

Seeing that it is a .NET application, I thought I’d pass it through MoMA (the migration analyser). Everything passed, so I got excited. Running mono MySQLWorkbench.exe however, led me to a failure:
** ERROR **: Method '<Module>:<CrtImplementationDetails>.DoDllLanguageSupportValidation ()' in assembly '/home/byte/Downloads/MySQL Workbench 5.0.9 OSS Beta/wb.wr.dll' contains native code and mono can't run it. The assembly was probably created by Managed C++.

So I hopped onto #workbench on Freenode, where the MySQL Workbench crew hang out, and spoke with Mike Zinner (team lead for this software). He mentioned to me that it probably wouldn’t work, as there are some 3rd-party FOSS controls that rely on Win32 API calls. Immediately, I think of WINE.

Running it against WINE, I get an error basically telling me I need Mono for Windows:
fixme:actctx:parse_manifest_buffer root element is L"asmv1:assembly", not <assembly>
install the Windows version of Mono to run .NET executables


Workbench fails on me in WINE

Downloaded mono-1.2.5.2-gtksharp-2.10.2-win32-0.exe, installed it via WINE, and then made another attempt at running Workbench, only to see a similar failure, this time in GUI form.

A little disappointed, I think the next option is to run Workbench in a virtualized Windows environment. KVM immediately came to mind, with only one minor snag – while its full CPU hardware virtualization, it doesn’t virtualize the graphic layer as well (it just emulates a graphics card, like it does for pretty much every device). Windows will see a Cirrus Logic card, from ages ago. This means, no OpenGL support, which Workbench really needs (otherwise, it drops down to software rendering, and becomes much slower).

However, there is hope. Check out VMGL, which is OpenGL Hardware 3D Acceleration for Virtual Machines. This should work with Xen and KVM, so I’ll give it a twirl, and see how it goes.

If you’re on a Mac, I am told that VMWare Fusion does not do OpenGL, so you’re out of luck there. However, Parallels does – so let that be your virtualization option of choice, if you’re on an Intel Mac.

Next stop, to go out and buy Windows Vista – wish me luck!

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My thoughts on how I can help the less fortunate

I realise I was really angry, on Sunday. I mean, I spent a little over a weekend, being a prisoner in my own homeland (thanks to all the police roadblocks, targeting people of the wrong skin colour). I’ve yet to feel this way in Melbourne, where I spend most of my time nowadays.

I am Malaysian. A Malaysian Malaysian. A country that still profiles via race, is doomed, and this thinking will disappear as the young, grow up. A Malaysia where the Gen-Y controls the country, will be a lot better and more open. Besides, with mixed-marriages, and all the normal inter-racial fun, I don’t see why Malaysia, can’t be Truly Asia. Welcome back, the idea of Bangsa Malaysia.

I applaud the protesters that go to the BERSIH or Hindraf rallies. They’re truly Malaysian. Khairil says it best :) I’m really happy that there are people I know of, ordinary folk, whom go to these rallies – read some accounts from Su Ann, and a couple from my junior at school Shazeea.

As a Malaysian, predominantly living overseas and spending copious amounts of time away from my country of birth, there is no point in I getting emotional over things. I’m probably from the upper-medium-class of families, and life is pretty cushy. Heck, by virtue of just not living in Malaysia, makes me not feel the day-to-day pains (like 20% fuel price hikes, toll hikes, etc.), felt by fellow Malaysians. That doesn’t mean I can’t get angry and request change.

So, in my spare time, while I’m in KL, I’m not going to spend it wailing away enjoying cheap drinks and the amazing night-life. I’ve decided that there are only several things I can do, that can really make an impact:

  • help the poor, by educating them. I remember back in 1998, there was a NetDay project, where we got old i386 machines, loaded PicoBSD onto them, and made them useful again. I plan on sourcing machines, to be re-purposed in community centres. If a community centre doesn’t exist, maybe the “village leader’s” home can be used. I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and realise that connectivity matters, and so on and I’m hoping that I get “help” and “assistance” to make this flow. I only have aims of ensuring people use FLOSS applications, and hopefully have online connectivity, because that’s clearly where the future is at. I can provide training, setup PCs, and probably do so much more. If you’re in shackles, its because of lacking education – breaking free, is my aim.
  • document the poor. One of my hobbies is photography, and I’m not half bad at that. I plan on taking photos of the less fortunate, their living conditions, and tell their stories. I’ll license it under the Creative Commons, so folk can also make use of it, if they see fit. This isn’t going to be easy, because its time consuming, and I’d probably need to get around in a car, but let’s see how far I get. Maybe it’ll inspire others to continue

The poor are everywhere. They’re not only ethnic Indian. There are ethnic Chinese and Malays that are poor too. The last couple of sentences can truly be summed up as – the poor are everywhere, in Malaysia. They’re Malaysian.

Enough ranting, its now time to work on the doing.

foss.in 2007

foss.in, describes itself as India’s Premier FOSS Event. I’m excited to be participating in it, and am leaving to Bangalore this Saturday evening (01 December 2007).

Schedules are out, and I’m giving a talk on 07 December (Friday) from 11.30am – 1pm. The title is generally aptly titled, and a similar (shorter) talk is one I’ve submitted for the MySQL Conference & Expo 2008 titled “Paying it Forward: Harnessing the MySQL Contributory Resources”. I will tell you what we at MySQL have done to help increase external participation, to actually be more like an open source project, and so on. Since there will be plenty of time for Q&A, I hope to harness some collective knowledge and find ways in where we can improve some more (maybe help create a 2008 community roadmap).

You can still register, so please consider doing so. You generally need a visa to get into India, and it just takes a couple of days, at the Indian consulate (ask them to rush it for you, even). Flights are pretty reasonable. And watch the registration statistics!

If you’re in Bangalore, from 02-09 December, I’m generally free for meeting up with you to talk about MySQL, Linux, open source, and lots more. Drop me some email!

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3 Skypephone: A review

I picked up the 3 Skypephone the day it got released. I figured I’d get a new prepaid number to boot. Rather than reviewing it the moment I got it, I decided to play with it for a little while, and formulate opinions on the phone. Generally, I like it, and think its going in the right direction. I can’t wait for improvements to this product line.

Size and Build Quality
3 Skype PhoneIts actually much smaller than the Nokia N73. Very thin, and smaller in size. Looks very much like a toy phone, and easily slips into the pocket. The build quality is quite impressive for a cheap AUD$179 phone. I did however note that sometimes I’d slip the back cover off (the back cover covers the battery, and beneath it is where the microSD and SIM cards are stored. I’d also be very weary of the one port on the phone – its a USB port, that allows you to plug in the hands-free kit, or the charger (this phone, charges via USB just fine as well). The cover, of multi-purpose port, seems to be very flimsy, and I’m quite certain it will break eventually.

Operating System
This is a Qualcomm BREW based phone. You can write BREW apps for it, however, you actually need to run Windows as the SDK is only written for that silly OS. The phone does support Java, so that in itself must be saving grace for writing applications for the phone.

Camera
Its supposed to be a 2MP camera (supporting 1600×1200 resolution), but as with most mobile phone cameras, this one generally sucks. It doesn’t come with a built-in flash, so taking photos using the night mode has got some serious digital manipulation. During the day, shots are passable, but you won’t be making any great art pieces from it. There’s a video recorder too, but its all just as bad.

Skype
3 Skype PhoneThe reason this phone is cool, is because of Skype. You have an always-on Skype connection wherever you are, as long as you are within the 3 Broadband Zone. When you’re roaming to Telstra, you’re obviously out of luck – which is kind of silly at this stage, since 3’s coverage is pretty dismal if you’re not within city/metro areas. I spent last weekend in Port Pirie (3 hours away from Adelaide, in South Australia) and there was absolutely no 3 coverage there.

SkypeIn or SkypeOut calls do not work. Initially, synchronising my Skype contact list was problematic, but that’s probably because I had Skype running on my laptop as well. Quickly shutting it down and restarting the synchronisation seemed to have fixed the problem.

Audio quality with Skype over 3G is actually very good. A drop out happened once after about 8 minutes into the call, in where I saw a message that my session expired. It reconnected automatically, and I made another call, and it just worked fine.

You can’t initiate a Skype call with multiple parties. However, you can participate in a Skype call with multiple parties, and I verified this with 4 people on a Skype chat. It seemed like the audio generated from the 3 Skypephone was actually very good, in comparison to most laptops, where their mics are nowadays pretty second rate, and you can’t get anywhere without a headset.

Chatting via Skype is pretty easy, though you kind of wish you had a full-featured keyboard (like on the e61i).

When Skype is set to forward to a number with the regular client, it does seem like there can be confusion and I might get one ring on the Skypephone before it just cuts off, and gets forwarded to my actual mobile phone. This can get quite annoying, as its pretty expensive everytime a call is forwarded! Disabling Call Forwarding seems to help.

Not having Caller ID on incoming Skype calls, seems kind of silly. You should know who’s calling you, as the regular Skype client has support for this, with no issue.
3 Skype Phone
USB Mass Storage Device
I like that the phone is just treated as a USB mass storage device in Linux. I’ve not trying synchronising it, as the software provided on the CD is completely Windows only (I didn’t even notice any Mac support).

Interface
The phone works very much like a Nokia. Keypad shortcuts all seem very similar, so if you’re a regular Nokia user (like of the N73 and the like), you’ll never have a problem getting used to the interface for SMS or Skype Chats.

Misc.
Its worth noting that the Skype client itself, comes from 3’s partnership with iSkoot. I know that I get 4,000 Skype minutes and 10,000 Skype chat messages, all of which, seems really reasonable. Consider reading 3’s Forum, if there are questions, and to follow the discussion. More photos at the wp-s1 tag.

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Ethnic Indians go to the street in Malaysia, for the HINDRAF gathering

For all my life, I have referred to myself as Malaysian. When asked for the “race” field, I usually just leave it blank. On 29 September 2007, I registered to be a voter, and for the first time, I was really required to either place “Cina atau India” in the field (Chinese or Indian). This was a request by the worker at POS Malaysia, because apparently, my identity card (IC) lacks such information. I looked stumped for a while, and said, “Indian”.

Today, on Sunday, 25 November 2007, I can proudly say, that I will no longer be referring to myself as Malaysian – I will be now referring to myself as a Malaysian Indian. The idea of Bangsa Malaysia is a farce, and I’m tempted to rip out the Visit Malaysia 2007 sticker from my laptop, which suggests that we’re “Celebrating 50 years of nationhood”. Malaysia, might be Truly Asia, but there’s just a cauldron, brewing hate, in where the contents aren’t happy with the cooks.

Sunday, 25 November 2007, is the day where the second largest protest (ignore the reformasi crap, where even drug addicts were payed to show up for Anwar) has been held, in about ten years (the last, was two weeks ago, at the BERSIH rally). Various news sources are reporting anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 as the head-count of attendees. I’d take these numbers with a pinch of salt, as 10,000 is the number of choice referred to by The Star (a governmental puppet), and 30,000 is referred to by MalaysiaKini (an anti-governmental puppet). However, let the photos, and videos help you make up your own mind.

People rocked up, around Jalan Ampang, where KLCC is situated, from as early as 7.40am, and the police mentioned that they were given an order to arrest on sight. Some democracy we live in, right?

The police are afraid. The government of the day are afraid. Malaysians, are awakening. And they’re sick and tired of this shit. The Star reports:

“Jalan Ampang, which had been closed from 3am because of the gathering, was reopened at 1pm Sunday. The Avenue K and City Square shopping complexes and the restaurants along Jalan Ampang were closed Sunday morning, while various hotels and Suria KLCC had strict security enforced at their entrances. The KLCC and Ampang Park LRT stations, which were closed from 6am, were reopened at 3.13pm. “

An attendee (or his sister+father), Danny, from The Danesh Project, writes a most interesting piece: Hindraf, proud day for Malaysian Indians. I consider this recommended reading for all. Remember, this was a peaceful gathering that the police, basically turned violent.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and of course today, Sunday, were nasty days to be on the roads in KL. Any road that was inbound, was backlogged with traffic jams, thanks to police roadblocks.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have urged the police to stop racial profiling of motorists in their roadblocks set up to quash a rally in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

Since then, there have been numerous reports of racial profiling by the police who only stop Indian motorists, often inspecting their vehicles and mobile phones. “They were targeting Indians only. They checked everything – our driving licenses, identity cards and even our car boot,” said Dinesh.

“As pointed out by Anwar Ibrahim, we disagree with Hindraf putting the blame for the plight of poor Indians on the Federal Constitution and Article 153,“As far as we are concerned, it is the corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government that is responsible for the marginalisation and neglect of poor Indians and also the poor of all other races,” he said.

Disgusting that a democratic nation has such “emergency” status. Anwar Ibrahim will not question Article 153, but he’s a bloody snake, and is highly untrustworthy. He might be an opposition leader, but the ex-convict, and sodomite, is not to be trusted (neither is his party) – after all, it was during Anwar’s reign in parliament, that there was further Islamisation of the nation.

Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, who’s not within the country as usual (he’s actually at the Commonwealth head’s meeting), gives a warning to the people.

KAMPALA (Uganda): Do not take the police action against three activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as a racial issue, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.

“It has nothing to do with race. People should stop linking or viewing everything that happens in the country as a racial matter,” the Prime Minister said.

“We are not out to victimise anyone. If someone is wrong, then the person must be charged and brought to justice,” Abdullah said.

He said that if people were allowed to openly commit offences, others who were law-abiding citizens would become angry and upset with the authorities.

Nothing to do with race? Really? Just read the silly social contract, and understand what the fuck is going on in Malaysia. Malay rights? For exchange of citizenship? Excuse me, but I was born in Malaysia. I am a bumiputra (i.e. I am truly, a son of the soil). Why do I not get a 7% discount when I need to buy a property? Why do I not get places in local universities? This list can go on…

Hapuskan ISA on Jalan Kamunting

Funnily enough, he mentions that if someone does something wrong, the person should be charged and brought to justice – why wasn’t Hishamuddin Hussein, our great keris bearing idiot, not charged already? Don’t question the ketuanan Melayu (Malay rights), or feel the wrath of the keris?

Badawi, at the Commonwealth meeting. Pakistan, suspended from the Commonwealth. Why is Malaysia, not suspended, yet? Why is the international community not interfering? It seems now the memorandum will be delivered to Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace – I hope they go there in droves, too.

Via Malaysiakini again, in a great article titled: MIC: Hindraf is stooge of the opposition, I quote:

“It is evident that with the presence of Lim with Hindraf supporters yesterday, the Hindraf gathering (tomorrow) is planned by the stooges of DAP and to a certain extent, PKR,” said Saravanan (right) in a statement.

Does this mean that the MIC is a stooge of the Barisan Nasional? After all, Samy Vellu, was referred to as a “mandore” on Al Jazeera earlier. Which I understand, is a supervisor of an estate, who’s main passion is raping the rubber tappers.

All this aside, this is just the start of more to come. The people, are fed up. Tear gas, chemically-laced water, out of the cannons, all on peaceful protesters? This can only lead to trouble. Rumours of a 20 year old man, being killed? More than 400 detained? Innocent peaceful protesters, beaten up? Up to four police officers to detain one fellow?

I encourage all Malaysians to start reading Gandhi’s autobiography, which he aptly titled, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth”. I picked up a copy from India, a few years ago, for Rs. 100 (about RM10). Its a good read, and it will inspire more to have peaceful protests, via non-violent resistance. His principles behind satyagraha, are just inspiring. Read: A Gandhi-inspired mass civil disobedience in MalaysiaKini (an online newspaper, I can certainly recommend subscribing to).

Resources

If you have some bandwidth, catch some interesting videos (I hope to update this list, the moment more videos become available), all via Al Jazeera (if I’m feeling particularly energetic, I might analyse them later, for your enjoyment):

  • An initial update
  • A more interesting update, this time with an interview with S.K. Devamany, a Member of Parliament, representing the MIC
  • There’s another video update, with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Musa Hassan, speaking about why the police acted the way they did
  • Yet another video update, had Samy Vellu on the phone, along with one of the Hindraf lawyers being in the Al Jazeera studios, giving his view on things


Must read resources:

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