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14 Oct 2012

bangsar.net now on Amazon

By Rudy

Due to the inability of the Synology 411j NAS to host this wordpress site, we’ve finally moved to Amazon’s EC2 service. This is Amazon’s cloud service with its micro instance starting at USD15 a month if you run it 24/7.

Yes, USD15 is a little pricey for just a private wordpress blog, but Amazon allows new users to try it for free for a year. And since they have a data centre in Singapore, I thought why not?

The migration was simple enough. First step was to set up the EC2 instance, so we used one free preconfigured image by BitNami. Picked it up on the AWS Marketplace, then it’s up and running in no time.

Second step was migrating the entries over from the old blog. WordPress has a built in Import & Export feature so all the posts, including attachments, were migrated over effortlessly. Though I just realized we’re missing the posts from our guest bloggers; not sure when this happened, but it’s the same as the old site so it must’ve gotten deleted or transferred to another user during previous migrations.

Next was to point the site address from the old site to the new. The DNS server will continue running on the NAS, so it was just a matter of changing the CNAME entry from our current dynamic DNS to the Amazon one. There was a mention somewhere online that the Amazon hostname will change if the instance is restarted, so we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

After that, WordPress was running off the /wordpress subdirectory, so we needed to SSH into the instance and setup redirection from the root directory. A quick uncomment in /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/conf/httpd.conf and it happens, but permalinks are still pointing to the /wordpress subdirectory so I’m going to have to figure out how to work that with redirection.

As you may be able to tell, the server is running zippy as ever. Will just need to keep a reminder to move the blog again to a paid local web host before the AWS Free Tier expires. 😛

11 Mar 2012

Installing Playstation Media Server (PMS) on a Synology NAS (411j)

By Rudy

So I’ve recently acquired a Synology DS411j, which I hoped would have flawless built-in DLNA compatibility with my PS3. I should’ve known it was too much to ask for proper transcoding.

There’ve been plenty of discussion regarding how to get the PS3 media server, something I’ve been using on my Windows PC, installed on a Synology NAS. The most complete guide I’ve found is here on Mark in the Dark. I followed it, but I had to do a few things differently and additionally to get it to work proper.

In the end, transcoding was horrifyingly slow on the 411j’s processor. I could barely get the first frames off a 720p movie. But for those who have more powerful units and would like to try anyway, here are the modifications to the original guide. Props to Mark and synops for the original guide. My DSM version is 4.0-2197.

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20 Feb 2011

Upgrading my 3.1.3 Spirit iPhone 3GS jailbreak to 4.2.1 greenpois0n

By Rudy

Just some notes for future reference.

Steps taken:

  1. Update stock firmware to 4.2.1
  2. Follow iClarified steps using greenp0is0n.
  3. Reinstalled Cydia apps, etc.

Encounters:

  • greenpois0n JB stopped at “firmware download etc etc 60000ms”. Waited 10 mins after that but it wouldn’t budge. Just reset the device and restart the whole JB process.
  • Old jailbreak files were not removed, particularly stuff in /var/stash. Will need to remove the old duplicate to get some space back.
  • Infinifolders is a good SBCategories replacement. 🙂
27 Nov 2007

azgalor dies~

By Rudy

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the pain-in-the-butt Azgalor is now dead. It was tough keeping the tank up and timing Shields before the AoE Silence while avoiding Rain of Fires (i kept running from one into another), but we managed to do it. Didn’t have time to move on to Archimonde, but the time will come for that.

Looks like this will be the last FTK for me before my trip to Oz.  Now getting all the minor details out of the way, like travel insurance and currency. So much to do… 🙁

26 Nov 2007

blog updates

By Rudy

whee updates~!

upgraded wordpress to 2.3.1, upgraded wpg2 to 3.0.2, upgraded K2 to RC3.

changed from a 2-column layout to 3-column layout cuz there was just too much info for a single column. the rightmost column (i tweaked K2’s CSS a bit cuz I didn’t like the extra column being on the left) will now contain stuff i wanna look at on a daily basis; external links basically. the rest will remain on the original column.

the new layout looks good on Firefox, but I don’t have IE7 to test on. do let me know if it looks borked.

wordpress has tag clouds now. not sure how to use them along with categories. :

26 Nov 2007

back into time: 2x mt hyjal 1-shot FTKs!

By Rudy

The guild went back to Mt Hyjal last night to continue progression for T6 content. I missed the 1st boss kill on Thursday, but am glad to have attended the raid last night in which we took down both Anetheron and Kaz’rogal in single attempts. Grats, WDK! ^_^

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Unfortunately, the random [item]32609[/item] didn’t drop, compared to Thursday’s 2x. 🙁

The 4th boss, Azgalor, is much more a pain in the ass. People were just dying to his Rain of Fire, and it was tough with me being the only Circle of Healing-specced priest (yup, just switched ^_^). Spamming that spell only managed to pull aggro from the adds. Hopefully we can take him down tonight, and move on to the final boss, Archimonde. So it’s Archimonday people! 😀

Btw, I lurve Fai-chan! ^o^

22 Nov 2007

The Eye in one night~

By Rudy

Now that Kael’thas is nerfed after the patch, everyone’ll want to do him. Guild’s second kill, and my personal FTK, we managed to clear the entire instance in one night. Awesome! ^o^ I’ve picked up my lovely [item]29307[/item] from Soridormi, and am now ready to rock Mount Hyjal! The guild will be making our first visit there tomorrow, but I’ll be in MV bowling with colleagues. I always miss the FTKs. >_<

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Yea, my framerate is terrible while raiding. Those numbers are just screaming upgrade.

Btw, I <3 Fai-chan. ^_^

05 Nov 2007

plans

By Rudy

Monday night: Kill Kael’thas Sunstrider. We’ve made certain progress on him, being able to survive all of Phase 3 and somewhat into Phase 4. Pyroblast timers haven’t been to accurate, so Julz couldn’t time his shield buff properly and kept getting one-shotted. Hopefully we’ll get him this time.

Tuesday night: My old old neighbor back in D’sara Heights will be back from London for a week. Gonna grab him for some good ol’ M’sian food. I’m thinking banana leaf.

Wednesday night: With all raid instances resetting the night before, we’ll probably start Tempest Keep again to down A’lar, Void Reaver, and Solarian. OR, if we manage to kill Kael’thas on Monday, we’d probably try our hand at Mount Hyjal. Woohoo, new content finally~!

Thursday morning/afternoon: Hang out. RE4? Karaoke? :O

Thursday night: Bring mom to a Deepavali open house. Indian food! *drool* I really miss good Indian curry.. Getting hungry just thinking about it. Hopefully tis not one of those standard buffet type layouts with a good selection but nothing particularly spectacular.

Friday night: Pack for Singapore… Gonna miss you more… -_- Spent most of the weekend with Fai-chan and her family. Never seems enough though. ^_^

31 Oct 2007

flake

By Rudy

The guild leader has now associated me with cornflakes. Good for nutrition, but for WoW it’s a bad tag to have. It basically describes someone who’s unreliable because he/she has been missing a lot of raids, and being AFK. So yes, I am now a flake, be it the ones you eat or the ones that fall off your hair.

I am rather saddened by this. It’s not like I want to miss taking down the bosses and doing things with the guild, but there’s just so many things happening right now that I must see to. My life is not as dandy such that I only have myself to care about. My family needs me, and my friends miss me. So what’s a guy got to do?

But anyways, I’m hoping that my flakiness won’t last. Hopefully I can sort out a schedule that works for all. But if that still doesn’t cut it, then I might as well quit.

31 Oct 2007

mewr

By Rudy

Watched P Ramlee The Musical on Sunday. It was really good, beyond my initial expectations. The group performances were alright, but it was the solos that totally hit the spot. Siti Nurhaliza and Liza Hanim’s songs were so good that I had goose bumps most of the time, and their lyrics were so meaningful as well. Sean Ghazi was just brilliant, and totally blew us away with his performance. Stage props were interesting, and well used as well. ^_^

Plus I had the pleasant company of Fai-chan and her mom, and that compounded the entire happy effect. 🙂

Tis another 2 weeks till my bro sits for his SPM, so there’s a huge amount of cramming to be done till then. Daily classes have put a major dent in the amount of things I can do in my time, but it’s this time that he needs our support most, so I’ll just have to suck it up. ^_^ Besides, I still managed to squeeze in some quality time with Fai-chan here and there. Hee.

WoW guild is still trying to lay the smack down on Kael’thas. 5 phases altogether, but we’ve only managed to survive up to phase 4. Coordination is just a lil lacking, and people were just having trouble paying attention to everything that’s going on. Mom’s guests tonight will be coming early, so I’m hoping to make the raid to take down the mini bosses I need for Black Temple.

Am now on a TV series marathon, catching up with the new seasons of House, Heroes, Prison Break, and Californication. Heroes and Prison Break remains interesting, and House is awesome as always. Californications is… risque, but behind all the sex lies a good story about an author (played by David Duchovny) trying to get his act back together. Haven’t looked up Battlestar Galactica though… I should do that soon.

There’s no longer any doubt that I’ll be going to Singapore and Sydney within the next two months. Leave has all been approved, and modes of transportation booked and purchased. I’m pretty much all good in ichaya’s hands for Singapore, with plans of yummy food and desserts. For Sydney, there’s a few more logistics issues to sort out. First of all I MUST find something to do for the 8-10 hour AirAsia flight. Was originally thinking of a PSP, but a book would be more prudent. *suddenly remembers Merv’s iPod Touch and starts drooling* We’ll be landing at Coolangatta along the Gold Coast, so we need to figure out how to get to Sydney and think about anything we’d like to do or see along the way. Ugh, am already dreading the 15-hour bus ride down. Looks like I’ll need a book bag.

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