Chatter Of The Squirrel

Metrologic Laser Scanner fun-ness

This laser barcode scanner came with a keyboard wedge that plugs into a PS/2 keyboard connector.

Saleshead needs to demo it to an overseas client, and naturally, his fancy notebook does not have a PS/2 port.

Solution: buy a USB -> PS/2 KB&M thingie. Only MYR 15.

Problem: The thingie works when a keyboard is plugged in. But not when the barcode scanner is plugged in.

Troubleshooting: The USB thingie needs to be ‘primed’ first. It won’t function until it has ’seen’ a keyboard plugged into it. After which, you can unplug the keyboard, then plug the scanner in. Scanner will then attempt to work. But the code read is errorneous.

Solution:

which enables Stand-Alone Keyboard Emulation

… and …

To set InterScan Code Delay 15msec.

Now it works.

Strange New Virus

Something strange happening in the office today.

GMail and Google Docs were very problematic. But the problem mainly targetted the computers of middle-aged women in the office.

Working perfectly fine for me though.

Movie: Harold and Kumar Escapes from Guatanamo Bay

Harold and Kumar flies to Amsterdam for weed and romance.

Kumar smuggles a bong on-board and tries to join the mile-HIGH club.

Sky Marshall gets them. NSA (or one of those American govt acronyms) throws them in Guatanamo Bay. They meet Big Bob. Escape. Ride over to Miami on a refugee boat. Meet an old friend. Drove a sweet ass car into a black neighbourhood. Meet a cyclops. Meet Neil Patrick Harris. Meet George Bush. Crashed a wedding.

And flew to Amsterdam and smoked weed.

Not exactly ground-breaking movie making. But you’re gonna be curious about that cyclops. No ? And also, Doogie Howser gets shot in the back with a shotgun.

My First Randori

I created a category for Shorinji Kempo ages ago, and has thus far failed to write anything about it. My plan was to use it to make notes of each technique I absorb after every session. I’ve been going to most of the sessions twice a week since April. And the technique I learnt in my first class, is still relevant 4 months later. Every time I revisit that one technique, I discover something I missed earlier, some nuance, a different follow-up to the move, a slight shift in body weight that magnifies the efficacy of the technique two-folds etc…

After more than thirty classes, the whole mess of information is overloading me. Had better start making notes, even rough sketchy notes will be better than nothing. Just a few words might trigger the needed scrap of memory, and I might be able to clean-up the info at some other point in time.

To begin though, today I had my first Randori. A young man was leaving for the UK to study, so Hosoe sensei gave everyone a chance to spar with him. Just for fun.

The fellow took it very seriously though. His first bout against 2 girls and a small boy. Funny. He kept grabbing the boy and used him as a shield, or pinballing him at his other opponents. Funny to watch, but everyone took it in good fun.

I was up next, the only other white belt around that day. Spent most of my minute running and dodging. Took a rather solid kick in the ribs when I lunged forward just as he raised his leg to kick. Still, very exhilirating.

Lessons

Already forgetting much of what I’ve done today… But every little helps I guess.

Kote Nuki

- left foot forward, without shifting the torso (which would signal your intention), THEN meuchi. Pointless to meuchi when you can’t reach his eyes.

- after meuchi, the yoshiashi (?) ie the half step forward with right leg… this step forward is to be similar with the hip swing of the gyaku-zuki. This is part of the principle of 刚柔合一. From the gyaku-zuki, same hip-swing forward, the same motion to push the right elbow out, WITHOUT moving the elbow back / sideways or in a manner weakening one’s own defence.

- it’s alright to move in close. You WANT to move in close. The whole point of baiting the opponent with the pro-offered right wrist, IS to get in close and land a flurry of blows while standing in a position where it’s too close for him to hit back effectively. As demonstrated by Kito-san, a rather intense martial arts enthusiast. Took a lot of pain, and pointers, from him while learning the finer points of gyaku-gote.

Gyaku-gote & Okuri-gote

- _Rolling_ motions. Literally rolling. Rolling in a circle, like a wheel. Grip the opponent’s hand, lock it, and roll the hand in a circular movement to bring it down to navel level. Pulling the hand doesn’t work. It’s the circling motion on the locked hand that twists the locked shoulder and bring it to where you want it to go.

Creating ODBC for MS SQL Server 2005 Express

Stupid buggery that wasted a good 20min of my life. Installed SQL Server Express, but when creating the ODBC, it can’t open a connection to the local server.

Found the solution here,

“It turns out you must specify the instance after the server name, so in the server name in the dialog box for creating the ODBC Data Source, you must enter it as either: MyServer\SQLEXPRESS or .\SQLEXPRESS”

Wonderful. Why that level of un-intuitiveness ??

Also, to change sa password:

osql -U sa -S servername\instancename

sp_password @old = null, @new = ‘complexpwd’, @loginame =’sa’

go

OR

EXEC sp_password ‘old’, ‘New’, ’sa’