BoonJin.com

I have been using Lunarpages as my web host since July 2007. I am using the Basic Hosting plan with a main domain with 2 other additional domains.

• Performance

Although the servers are located in US, accessing the server from Malaysia or Singapore is still fast. The latency is approximately 200ms and I can almost maximize my upload and download bandwidth when accessing the website. With a high-bandwidth Internet connection, I could upload the the server via FTP at 130KBps per connection with 7 connections (about 1 Megabyte per second).

• Up-time

I am not sure about the total percentage of up-time for the whole duration I am here. However, there is once I have experienced an outage for about 10 minutes. Currently, I am not monitoring the website accessibility 24/7 but might do so later.

Lunarpages might relocate the site to other servers if needs arise. For example, my site was shifted to a new server a few months back when they increased the web space and monthly bandwidth.

• Registration/Setting up

The registration process was quick and they required authentication for the payment. Before they proceed to confirm the order, they will call to your provided number and ask for additional details. They called me at around 3am at night due to my extremely different time-zone.

The domain and website was ready within 24 hours. Lunarpages emailed an in-depth guide on how to access the server, email, FTP etc.

• Features for Basic Hosting Plan

The amount of storage provided is 1,500 GB or 1.5 TB. This is more than enough to host several blogs/galleries and also back up several hard drives . When I registered last year, the storage space provided was only 350 MB but they have upgraded the storage and bandwidth without any extra charges.

The monthly bandwidth is capped at 15,000 GB or 15 TB per month.

A domain name is provided free for duration of the plan (as long as the bills are paid). Additional domains are currently at $7.95/per year.

Unlimited sub domains can be added for free. For example, boonjin.stylze.com.

Unlimited MySQL databases, FTP and Email accounts can be added.

There is also the Fantastico Script Library which is integrated into the control panel. With this, scripts can be installed with several clicks easily. This is useful to set up portals/CMS and blogs (Wordpress). Beginners would not need to worry about setting up the databases, file structure, access rights and other installation tasks.

• Cost

The cost per month is $6.95 for 24 months of Basic Hosting. For a 12 months hosting, the cost will be $7.95 per month. Currently, there is a Spring Special where by using the coupon, “spring” the Basic Hosting is only $4.95 per month (key in the coupon during registration). You can go to Lunarpages.com to obtain more information.

There are two coupon codes which are applicable to the 1-year subscription plan for the basic hosting. The coupon code “25OffHosting” will entitle you to 25 dollars off the total bill. For example, if you registered for the 1-year basic hosting with the coupon, the total payment will be 12*7.95 - 25= 95.4-25 = $70.40. Which comes to about only $5.87 per month.

The other coupon, “2FreeMonths” gives you two additional free months.

Note: The information used are based on the time of writing (29th April 2008). The currency referred in this post is US dollars.

With today’s cumulative grade point average (CGPA) system, we would like to keep track of our CGPA to ensure we are on the right track to achieve our goals. This is crucial because this might determine how much effort we put in for certain subjects.

This Excel spreadsheet contains the formulas used to derive the CGPA with the input of the subjects, grades and Academic Units (AU). It was actually created by my father when I was in the first year. I have modified the spreadsheet to accept more subjects per semester (10 subjects).

Enter the Subject Code, Subject Code, Academic Units (AU) and Grade

Note: Editable cells are colored in light yellow

It is currently based on the 5 point GPA system where the maximum points attainable is 5.0. This can be easily changed into the 4 point GPA system by modifying the VLookUp table.

The CGPA calculated for the total 8 semesters

It allows the input for 8 semesters but not inter semesters (because I do not take inter sems ). To circumvent this limitation, just enter the subject taken in the inter semester, into another semester’s entry.

Each semester’s entry is in a separate sheet

Download Here: CGPA Calculator Excel Spreadsheet

I made this handcraft for my loving baby Stephanie while I was in Ipoh. I was inspired to create a unique gift that can entertain her when she was bored and can be used as decorative item. Therefore, I created the handcraft which I called MarbleNLamp. The name signifies two aspects of the handcraft:

• Marble: Marbles for play
• Lamp: As a simple light source/décor item.

MarbleNLamp Introduction Video

There are several main components in the design which are the light source, spiral tracks, returning tube, marble launcher/top cover, and a hard base.

The spiral tracks allow the marbles to roll down along side the walls. The balls will be released from the top using the funnel-shaped top cover. The marbles will be stored at the bottom portion and to take out the marbles, I created a special tube at the center. When the body is flipped upside down, the marbles will be rolling through the center tube and by-passing the tracks.

I originally thought of inserting my own components to have the lighting effect. However, it would be aesthetically displeasing if there are sights of wiring and batteries. Therefore, I just used a commercially available LED light source from Energizer which uses two small CR2320 batteries. It is compact, bright, long-lasting (30 hours) and most importantly it fits nicely for the craft.

Top view of the MarbleNLamp without the top cover.

The most difficult part of making the craft is the spiral track. To make the tracks, I cut approximately an inch-width of transparent plastic sheets. Then, I made perpendicular half inch cuts approximately one inch a part. Next, I overlapped the plastic sheet slightly where I cut previously and stapled it. This enables the track to be curved.

Close up view of the spiral track

The tricky part is to glue the track into the cylindrical body and adjusting the gradient of the spiral.

The next step was to create the return tube at the center. A funnel shaped ending was added to the tube with a small opening at the sides. This enables the marbles to roll along the tracks and enter the bottom compartment but prevents it from going back into the tracks when the item is flipped. Therefore, the marbles will be forced to roll back through the center tube when the MarbleNLamp is flipped.

The cone-shaped top cover was made with two layers of colored sugar paper to give it thickness. The purpose of the top cover is to reflect back down the light and also to be used to release the marbles onto the track.

The base was made using a hard black cardboard. The base is needed to hold the LED light source into place.

Finally, the finishing touches were done. To hide the glue from view, a pink ribbon was used to spiral around the body alongside the track.

In 2007, I was involved in the Design and Innovation Project which was compulsory for all EEE students. As the project was done in the school holidays, the feeling of staying in school after exams is just not right. This was evident during the first week of the 5 weeks project. Keng Yew introduced to my group members the wonders of Yahoo! Games. We became poker addicts.

We will be playing against each other online and cheating each other of others ‘cash’. Wen Jian became a pro quickly and his cash stash slowly increased. Even the ‘goodie’ boys and girls started to join us, thanks to the boredom of acting busy.

Group members looking at friendster accounts

Finally, towards the end of the week, we began some serious discussion and the project was really worked on.

Our supervisor requested us to create a system where he will be given a list of car parks nearby his required location through SMS. However, we took his suggestions a step (leap) further. We developed from scratch a working system where drivers can just SMS to the service phone number and the system will reply the number of car park vacancies in the vicinity of the requested area.

Our system was complete in the sense that we have also developed the car sensing hardware system which feeds the central computer with the car park vacancies. We bought several infra-red sensors to detect the passing of cars through a car park entrance.

However, we faced a barrier at this point because of the difficulty to input these signals into the computer system. We went shopping at lowyat/ finding professors / researching but could not find any simple method. We even tried to explore the usage of LabView but it was too difficult.

Finally, we found an ingenious solution, which was to use the mouse and keyboard to input the signals. How? Just by replacing the mouse buttons or the keyboards button with the switches from the sensors. When we found that this was working, we continued to solder the wiring into the keyboard controller (no more keyboard left). We created the Visual Basic program to receive the input and analyze the signals to determine the number of cars passing through.

Two weeks later, we have been busy developing all kinds of features for the system. There was a website for computer users, website for pocket pc and WAP site for mobile phones. Maps, car park pricing rates, and vacancies can be found through all these media.

We also have our detailed model car which was featured with antenna and side mirrors. Hard work was done on posters, decorations and…….the flash presentation video!

Click here to watch the flash video. Warning: It is 5MB!

Presentation Powerpoint Slides
Proposal PDF Document

As my attachment involves a lot of programming, I required a lot of copy and paste work. This becomes tedious when a lot of codes are required to be copied because by default, Windows can only store an item in the clipboard. Furthermore, sometimes codes which were copied into the clipboard were accidentally overwritten. Therefore, I decided to create a tool to enhance my own productivity.

This program is programmed in Visual Basic 6.0 and heavily uses Windows API to interact with the desktop.

This program has some friendly (for myself) features such as always on top mode, transparency effect, hotkey shortcuts, capturing bitmap, drag-and-drop file(s), resizable window and configurable settings.

Limitation

I have limited the saved clipboard items to 30 as large amount of saved items will lead to the program to crash. Furthermore, each saved item is restricted to approximately 8000 characters. The rest of the item will be truncated.

Requirements

You will need VB 6.0 Runtime files. However, most computers have the required files preinstalled.

How to use?

It is easy to use but you will need to get familiar at the beginning. This is because most of us will be used to not having multiple clipboard items in the memory.

Just execute the ClipboardManager.exe directly and it will open with the default settings. Your changed settings will be saved into an .ini file.

To copy an item into the clipboard manager, just copy like you will normally do in windows. The program constantly monitors the Clipboard to detect any new entries and will add the clipboard entry into the list when it finds a new text string. If it finds a bitmap entry, it will add it into the picture box (on top of my icon).

To retrieve/use a saved item, just click on the item from the list in the application. It will be automatically saved into the Windows Clipboard. You will be able to use it by pasting to any application you want. This also applies to the bitmap image.

Tips:

If you hover your mouse over a saved item, you will be able to see the full/partial contents of the item.

You can drag-and-drop file(s) into the list box and the file(s) full file path will be added into the Clipboard Manager.

Important Note: Please be aware that this program is not fool-proof or error-free. Use it at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for any loss of data or the destruction of your computer.

You can download the application here: Clipboard Manager.exe (Version 1.2 - FIle Size: 258 048 bytes)