ruby-debug on 1.9.3 (Windows)

Couldn't get the gems installed yet:

>gem install ruby-debug-base19 --version=0.11.26 -- --configure-options --with-ruby-include="C:\PROGRA~2\Ruby\1.9.3-p0\include\ruby-1.9.1\ruby-1.9.3-p0"
Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing ruby-debug-base19:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        C:/PROGRA~2/Ruby/1.9.3-p0/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb --configure-options --with-ruby-include=C:\PROGRA~2\Ruby\1.9.3-p0\include\ruby-1.9.1\ruby-1.9.3-p0
checking for rb_method_entry_t.called_id in method.h... yes
checking for vm_core.h... yes
checking for iseq.h... yes
checking for insns.inc... yes
checking for insns_info.inc... yes
checking for eval_intern.h... yes
checking for struct iseq_line_info_entry in vm_core.h,iseq.h... no
checking for struct iseq_insn_info_entry in vm_core.h,iseq.h... yes
checking for if rb_iseq_compile_with_option was added an argument filepath... yes
creating Makefile

make
generating ruby_debug-i386-mingw32.def
compiling breakpoint.c
breakpoint.c:3:21: fatal error: vm_core.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make: *** [breakpoint.o] Error 1


Gem files will remain installed in C:/PROGRA~2/Ruby/1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug-base19-0.11.26 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/PROGRA~2/Ruby/1.9.3-p0/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ruby-debug-base19-0.11.26/ext/ruby_debug/gem_make.out

Luis Lavena lent me a hand on this, but that couldn't solve the problem.

Update: Moving your Ruby installation to a path without spaces fixes the problem. I thought PROGRA~2 could work just find. Thanks Luis once again.

This interviewee would only answer the interview questions if I hired him

Over the past 4 days, I dedicated most of my time on resume screening and interviews. It is a boring job but you get some fun out of it sometimes.

So, here's some fun I collected this morning. An interviewee who thought I would hire him straight without asking any questions related to the job.

2011/9/29 Z* H* <*@yahoo.com>
>
> Hi,
> 
> I will be able to answer all your questions in the first day working at your 
> company. 
> 
> Thanks
> ________________________________
> 
> From: Yuen-Chi Lian <*@onapp.com>
> To: Z* H* <*@yahoo.com>
> Sent: Thursday, 29 September 2011, 7:43
> Subject: Re: Application for QA Engineer from H*, Z*
>
> Hello Z*,
> 
> I would like you to answer the following questions before we proceed.
> 
>  1. What does software quality mean to you?
>  2. How... *?
>  3. Do you think... *?
>  4. How... *?
> 
> Regards,
> Yuen-Chi Lian | www.onapp.com
> 
> 2011/9/29 Z* H* 
>
> Good morning,
> 
> Yes, I am aware of it and willing to work hard, whatever it takes. 
> Thanks
> ________________________________
> 
> From: Yuen-Chi Lian <*@onapp.com>
> To: Z* H* <*@yahoo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 17:08
> Subject: Re: Application for QA Engineer from H*, Z*
>
> Hello Z*,
>
> Just want to be sure, are you aware that this is not a manufacturing QA job 
> but an IT QA job?
>
> Regards,
> Yuen-Chi Lian | www.onapp.com

And here's my response

Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:33:09 +0800
Subject: Re: Application for QA Engineer from H*, Z*
From: Yuen-Chi Lian <*@onapp.com>
To: Z* H* <*@yahoo.com>
Cc: Malaysia Careers <career-my@onapp.com>

That's very interesting.

But, Z*,

Our team actually built the core logic of the Iron Man's latest armor "Bleeding 
Edge", appointed by Stark Industries after going through their professional 
selection of industrial partners.

We're very serious about QA, as the product is used (and will only be used) in 
critical missions that define the future of the mankind. I urge you to answer these 
questions and hope you understand why and how so serious they are.

Regards,
Yuen-Chi Lian | www.onapp.com

He hasn't yet gotten back to me 'til now. If you have someone better than this guy who is looking for a QA job, or to be a Sysadmin/Java/PHP/Python engineer, let me know at career-my@onapp.com.

Some JUG Politics or "Why doesn't a community grow under farcism"

A group with no/poor leadership is like a ship without a rudder.

I have been trying to reboot MyJUG (at a tangible level, a site and some blogs) for years with no avail, to take lead but got beaten down (continue reading), and when I wanted to talk about some MNCC stuff to the group just now, I found out that I was banned.

MyJUG is established since 1999, founded by Loke KS, owned by Loke, bossed by Loke. Once in a short while, some new faces come and new motivation generated to create new discussions and some ambitious to live up the group and technical talks. Most recently, before 2011, we were told by Loke that he's working something out with Oracle (and now, being the mid of 2011, the group still haven't yet organized a single activity) and looking for volunteers to help out (I have no idea why we have never formed a board or committee to have some balance of power and management, I raised it), and I did,

On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 2:34 AM, Yuen-Chi Lian wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I created two polls in Doodle, just click, no hassle registration:
>
> Vote for new platform
> Vote for next talk
>
> I wrote a blog post too, let's make some change to the group for 2011.

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 8:54 AM, Loke KS wrote:
>
> Yuen, why don't you take the lead in organising some talks?

Very good, I got a tap on the shoulder to go for it.

And I moved fast again, including finding a right place to document the activities of the group, to vote for topics, etc. (so I also started a Google Sites, as the earlier work I did is hosted in my ex-company server). Most importantly, I kept things transparent in the mailing list and opened them for better suggestions.

Then?

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Loke KS wrote:
> Can you discuss with me first before you take any action on any matter?

Come on, what the fuck?

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Yuen-Chi Lian wrote:
> I was acting based on the votes. I didn't know there was a concern,
> enlighten me.

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Loke KS wrote:
>
> If you want to work as a team, then we work as a team else we work
> individually, separately. What does working in a team means? What if I have
> other plans that I am working with other people?

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Yuen-Chi Lian wrote:
>
> Then always share with us.
>
> Secret agenda is no longer a weapon but stumbling block of a community.
> Being open and transparent is the initial driving force to start or change a
> community in this era. You can learn from some successful stories, GitHub is
> one, how Apache/Hudson/MySQL/OpenOffice left Oracle is another.
>
> There's just too much legacy to drag us from moving forward. When we
> sacrifice more individualistic controls over things back to community decision,
> you will see how things can be different.
>
> I'm sure you get my point. Oracle doesn't.
>
> It's not about working as a team, but working with the community.

Things went quiet again, until Bernie (great Android developer) started similar topic, but Loke, this time, never looked into the problem nor contributed anything practical to realize the members' desire.

About a week plus ago, I was told that Chee Aun is working on Connections.my, and thus I brought it up in MyJUG (although I misunderstood what the site is actually for in the beginning, but that's not important) and also mentioned about having a breakaway JUG, as, at that point of time, I was frustrated that Loke still hasn't yet done any real deal with the great Oracle. When emotion goes wrong, bad things can happen - I'm banned:

You have been banned from this group by the group moderator (Yahoo! ID banned: yuenchi.lian). You may not join the group myjug.

I'm not sure if I'm the first one to be banned, but I am seriously tired of dealing with one's fascism (there's only one owner and moderator to maintain the Yahoo! group) but nothing else every time I wanted to realize something.

So, here's an idea, is anyone up for a breakaway, to start clean, with no boss but the people?

At the same time, while the old Facebook page is deprecating, I have spawned a new one here, please join.

MNCC 23rd AGM

It has been quite a while since last blogging, been using Twitter and Weibo to deliver my ideas but not this time.

I joined the MNCC since almost a year ago, suggested by one of its then-member of council Ditesh. I have a strong belief that there's something I can contribute to the country through this platform, although nothing real has been done yet.

The annual meeting was held at Armada Hotel, with its annual report available here. And, I remember that we talked about the lack of funds, the low turn-outs to organized conferences and seminars, and most important, the lack of youngsters. I suppose 3 or less fingers can count those who're at or below the age of 30 out of ~40 attendances tonight.

I do have some opinions but I do not want to provide any analysis on MNCC at this stage to make myself judgmental and critical. Instead, I need to lend some helping hands.

Take a look at its website, very 90's, very unattractive. But I was shocked to find out that it has been maintained by Syed, someone who could be double of your age, knows enough of HTML to get the content up.

So here comes the purpose of this blog post, I am looking for a volunteer to set up a CMS and administrate the site (hosted at Exabytes according to Syed, but this is not important), the best person who can do this job better than me.

Anyone?

Yes, Riding on Linux

I received a free WiMAX USB dongle (called the Yes Go) last Tuesday, given how busy week days usually are, I only managed to really get it working on my Ubuntu now. In this blog, I am not going write about the Yes site usability, how interesting the speed can go (by the way, if you think 10Mb/s is impressive enough, that's the speed HSDPA can give. WiMAX can run up to 40Mb/s.); Instead, I speak about what I went through getting it to work on my Linux machine.

Yes Go doesn't have (publicly) a Linux driver (and its source), just like the Clearwire USB dongle and many others. Yes Go is manufactured by Infomark, IMW-U300, which uses GCT chip (GDM7205 most likely, with uClinux. It can push >30Mbps of download and 6Mbps of upload):

(Note: I'm not a Linux hacker, so all I could do is usb_modeswitch and some simple digging. I'm happy to learn how to grab the image and boot into it when I have the time.)

$ screen /dev/ttyUSB0

Model name: IMW-U300   
 Manufacturere: INFOMARK
%WIMAX MAC: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
/dev/usb0
3Parameter block: version 2 in NVRAM EEPROM

$ lsusb | grep 1076
Bus 001 Device 039: ID 1076:7f00 GCT Semiconductor, Inc.

Given that (and I-ANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer), GCT could have violated the GPL (see also this Taiwanese post).

After hours of research, I contacted @YesCare for the driver, the case has been escalated and am still pending for solution at the time I'm writing this blog. This left me with one ugly workaround to use Yes Go -- bridging from a virtual machine (I use Sun's/Oracle's VirtualBox) running Windows.

The basic steps (more discussions in this VirtualBox's forum thread):

• Create an ad-hoc wireless network in NetworkManager.
• Add a bridge adapter in VirtualBox, select your wireless LAN (e.g. wlan0).
• Turn off usb_modeswitch before plugging in the USB dongle. See /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf.
• Start VirtualBox with root (or configure fstab to allow current user to read/write the USB device nodes).
• Setup Yes Go, once connected, bridge it with your adapter added earlier.

That ends a chapter.

Meanwhile, for preregistered users, today is the last day to activate your account in order to retain your reserved phone number.

To make myself to really know what I'm going to pay for, I wrote a JS-based calculator last night using mvc.js (before Yes updated their site with the new calculator this afternoon). Feel free to fork it with jsfiddle or github.

The Malaysian Java User Group can be more than just a mailing list

Is simply just a mailing list for years. Continue reading.

Recently, I received an email (with a few in the loop, not through the mailing list) from Loke to discuss about some aspects of MyJUG. I found it hard to respond to most posted questions (such as "Best Practices" and "Strengths and Opportunities" of this group), simply because - the cruelest fact - there's nothing much to describe.

I join the mailing list about 4 to 5 years ago, when I innocently thought getting to know more people there could get some new hires for my former employer. It doesn't work that way (or at least at the moment), so if you happen to have the same intention, you may want to readjust or quit.

Every now and then, I whine and whine to some people about the lack of substantive committee to move forward the group, the lack of activities, etc. Then, every now and then, we voted for topics and things go silent. Then, recur.

StackOverflowError not yet.

To run a successful technical/user group seems really hard in Malaysia. FOSS-SM used to have consistent monthly meetup when Aizat was active. Chee Seng runs the Flex UG (MyFlex) but the number of participants is really low (also given the fact that Flex is barely a killer). Umm, the PHP UG seems pretty successful though. Why?

I don't know.

The community can change it.

• Vote for next topics
• Vote for new platform

Yes?

YTL Communications, a subsidary of YTL Power (YTLPOWR), will be launching their WiMAX service on the 19th of this month.

I attended its pre-launch event just now and here're some stuff to highlight to fellow Linux users or Android lovers.

• No, there's no official Linux software or drivers and I don't see why they shall release one. But things shall really work OOTB.
• No, HTC lovers, you can't run Evo 4G on it, as Evo works only with 2.5GHz-2.7GHz WiMAX. In Malaysia, WiMAX is currently deployed with 2.3GHz spectrum; although MCMC recently has granted the 2.6GHz spectrum - we still gotta wait.
• Yes, you have to buy the phones from YTL and given that WiMAX requires no SIM, I am not sure whether that'll encourage vendor locked down and monopoly. My question on this wasn't really answered.
• They are Samsung lovers and the available handset now is Samsung Epic 4G. I don't use and never like a QWERTY phone.
• I suppose they have customized their phones with their own software, but custom ROM shall work just fine with all the necessary apk.
• Yes, Android is the only platform for now. iPhone 4 is not a 4G network phone, yet.

IMO, within the next two to three years, we won't see 2.6GHz band and LTE being deployed. That also means, we don't get real 4G 'til that happens. What shall happen in between, it's too hard to tell now.