vincentkong.com

Launch wiki.vincentkong.com

Vincent Kong — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:58:14 +0000

It’s been several months since I’ve finally updated my blog. The fact is, I found that organizing my notes and thoughts to write a clear and precise entry takes more time than I sometimes anticipate. However, when I stopped my notes started getting disorganized as I had no place to put them. As well, I often learn about some quick tips which are useful, but not worth blogging about.

This is where the wiki site comes in. It can quickly allow me to add, and organize my rough cut notes, and tips, as well, give me access to my all information online.

The wiki software which I decided to use is MediaWiki, which was original developed and used by Wikipedia, but now has become one of the most popular wiki software.

You can visit my new Wiki site at http://wiki.vincentkong.com

Refer to my wiki page for information on how to installing and configuring MediaWiki.

Virtual Deskops for Windows

Vincent Kong — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:19:27 +0000

My computer desktop in the office is always clutter with many windows of open applications, and since I couldn’t get a second monitor I decided to go for an alternative solution: virtual desktops. The concept of virtual desktops is not new, it’s available on many operating systems such as Mac OS, and Ubuntu, but for some reason Windows doesn’t have this feature.

VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system. After installing VirtuaWin, I configured it with the settings displayed in the screen shots below.

To navigate between virtual desktops (also called ‘workspace’), I simply drag the mouse to the edge of the screen.

Tabs for PuTTY

Vincent Kong — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:02:08 +0000

A lot of people including me uses the free PuTTY application as a SSH client for Windows. However, the most annoying thing about it, is the lack of tabs; making me having to manage multiple PuTTY windows for multiple SSH sessions.

PuTTY Connection Manager is a free PuTTY Client Add-on for Windows platforms uses tabs for managing multiple PuTTY instances!

When PuTTY Connection Manager is first started, it’ll ask you to enter the location of where your PuTTY is installed.

And finally, you can start using a tabbed version of PuTTY!

Tonkatsu Curry Rice

Vincent Kong — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:56:55 +0000

The first time I made tonkatsu with udon, it wasn’t real tonkatsu because I cheated by using Shake ‘n Bake. I remember watching a Japanese cooking game show a few months back which demonstrated how to make tonkatsu, and since I had some time Friday night I decided to make tonkatsu curry rice.

Ingredients:

cut pork loin
1 egg
bread crumbs
Japanese curry sauce mix
white rice

I began by marinating the pork loin with salt and pepper and had it sit while I prepared the white rice. While waiting for the rice I prepared the pork loin. I poured oil into a pot, ensuring there was enough so that the pork can submerged, and started to boil it. I whipped the egg inside a bowl and dipped the pork loin inside so that the entire pork was covered with the egg mix. Then I placed the pork onto a separate plate and evenly spread the bread crumbs on both surface of the pork. When the oil was boiling I submerged the pork inside. Once the breadcrumbs looked brown I removed the pork and dried the excess oil with a paper towel. Once everything was about ready, I microwaved the Japanese curry sauce mix and served it with the tonkatsu and rice.

If you noticed there was only one tonkatsu at the end, but I prepared two pork loin in the beginning. Well, to be honest the first one didn’t make it… oops! The challenge was to find the right amount of time the pork should be boiling inside the oil. If it was too long the breadcrumbs would be burned, and if it was too little the pork inside won’t be done well enough. It would also have helped if the pork loin wasn’t as thick as the ones I used. Maybe next time.

NekoBean Paper Craft

Vincent Kong — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:46:19 +0000

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on a paper craft template of NekoBean on the nekobean.net website. The last time I did any art and craft was in junior public school, so I definitely didn’t have the talent for this kind of work.

I printed a few copies using the laser printer at work, and went to work using some white glue and a pair of scissors.

After a few failed attempts and numerous hours I finally put it together!

NekoBean Paper Craft

For readers who aren’t geeks…

What is NekoBean? NekoBean is the mascot for NetBeans introduced by the NetBeans Japanese Speaking Community in Mar 2008. The actual author is Mutsuki san who seems to be a very talented designer. The mascot is derived from a cat (“Neko” means “cat” in Japanese), and the NetBeans grid/box logo.

What is NetBeans? Without being too technical, NetBeans is a free software development tool for programming Java, and other programming languages.

If-Else in Ant

Vincent Kong — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:59:31 +0000

When I need to write quick script to perform a simple task, I opt to use Ant instead of a shell script. Unfortunately, the Ant core tasks doesn’t provide any flow logic like the everyday if-else statements.

Ant-Contrib provides a collection of useful tasks missing in the Ant core.

Installing Ant-Contrib

There are 2 methods to install ant-contrib:

Copy ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar to the lib directory of your Ant installation. If you want to use one of the tasks in your own project, add the lines

Keep ant-contrib-1.0b3.jar in a separate location. You now have to tell Ant explicitly where to find it e.g. a lib directory relative to the build.xml

Example Using If-Else Task


  
  
    [...]
  
  
    [...]

GnuPGP Quickstart Guide

Vincent Kong — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000

“GnuPG uses public-key cryptography so that users can communicate securely. In a public-key system, each user has a pair of keys consisting of a private and public key. A user’s private key is kept secret; it need never to be revealed. The public-key maybe given to anyone with whom the user wants to communicate.” – The GNU Privacy Handbook

GnuPGP or GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) is a computer program that implements the OpenGPG standard; an open source alternative to the PGP commercial product.

The core package for GnuPGP gnupg is installed by default on Ubuntu. This quick start guide will discuss about performing file encryption with GPG.

Generating a Key

Type the following command:

$ gpg --gen-key

After executing the command you will be prompt with the following:

Please select what kind of key you want:
(1) DSA and Elgamal (default)
(2) DSA (sign only)
(5) RSA (sign only)

Enter option 1 to allow encryption and decryption.

What keysize do you want? (2048)

Enter 2048 which is the default recommended by GnuPGP

Please specify how long the key should be valid.
0 = key does not expire
= key expires in n days
w = key expires in n weeks
m = key expires in n months
y = key expires in n years

Enter 0 so that there is no expiration date for the key.

Next you will need to enter your user information.

You need a user ID to identify your key; the software constructs the user ID
from the Real Name, Comment and Email Address in this form:
"Heinrich Heine (Der Dichter) "

Enter your “Real name”, “Email address”, and “Comment” is optional.

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit?

Confirm your information by entering O, and the key generation will begin.

Enter passphrase:

Next you will need to enter a passphrase; remember that if you forget your passphase then your key will be useless.

We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
+++++.++++++++++.++++++++++.+++++++++++++++++++++++++.+++++++++++++++.+++++++++++++++...+++++.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>++++++++++>.+++++............................................................................+++++

Not enough random bytes available.  Please do some other work to give
the OS a chance to collect more entropy! (Need 283 more bytes)

During the key generation follow the instruction mentioned above and wait patiently for your key to complete generating.

When the key has completed generating the following summary will be prompted:

gpg: key 2DFD492E marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.

gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   1  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1u
pub   1024D/2DFD492E 2009-10-14
Key fingerprint = FCAC 0686 401B A333 546E  F081 0459 61E9 2DED 490C
uid                  Vincent Kong 
sub   2048g/457534BF 2009-10-14

The new generated key ID is 2DFD492E

Listing the keys

$ gpg --list-keys

Importing a Public Key

$ gpg --import KEYFILE

Encrypting a File

To encrypt a file for another user, the encryption must be done with their public key, which needs to be imported first.

$ gpg --output ENCRYPTED_FILE.gpg --encrypt --recipient USER_PUBLIC_KEY_ID ORIGINAL_FILE

Decrypting a File

If a user sent you a file that has been encrypted with your public key, it can be decrypted with the following:

$ gpg --decrypt ENCRYPTED_FILE.gpg

Exporting Your Public Key

$ gpg --armor --export KEY_ID

Signing a Public Key

In GnuPG, if you get an error saying There is no assurance this key belongs to the named user when trying to encrypt, you need to sign the public key.

$ gpg --sign-key PUBLIC_KEY_ID

Edit a Key

$ gpg --edit-key KEY_ID

Information associated to KEY_ID will be displayed followed by the Command> prompt; type help to display the list of command which can be used to modify the key

A detailed how-to guide about GnuPGP can be found here.

Running VirtualBox in Ubuntu

Vincent Kong — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:09:15 +0000

To install VirtualBox in Ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose

To run VirtualBox type

$ /usr/bin/VirtualBox

: VirtualBox in Xubuntu

Inbounding the Ball

Vincent Kong — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:19:49 +0000

Option 1

(3) inbound the ball from the baseline
[5] sets a pick for [4]
[2] sets a pick for [1]

[4] uses the pick from [5] and cuts to the other side of the key
[1] uses the pick from [2] and cuts to 45 degree
[5] rolls to face the basket
[2] rolls to the top of the key

(3) can pass to [4], [5], [1], or [2]

Option 2

(3) inbound the ball from the baseline
[4] sets pick for [1]
[5] sets pick for [2]

[1] uses the pick from [4] and cuts to the basket
[2] uses the pick from [5] and cuts to the baseline
[4] rolls to the baseline
[5] rolls to the top of the key

(3) can pass to [1], [2], [4], or [5]

Learning the Triangle Offense

Learning the Triangle Offense

Vincent Kong — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:38:32 +0000

This year I got a chance to join my friends whom played together for many years in a church basketball league. While the team has been running the triangle offense together for many years, I’m just a rookie trying to learn the system, and the best way for me to learn is to write about it. I will continue updating this post as I learn more options or to make corrections.

Notes:

(?) indicates player with the ball
[?] indicates player without the ball

Setting up the Triangle

Option 1

[3] V-cuts to receive the ball from (1)
(1) passes the ball to [3] and cuts to the baseline
[2] fills in for [1] to become last guard

A triangle is now formed between [1], (3), and [5]

Option 2

(1) dribbles the ball to 45 degree
[3] slides to the baseline
[2] fills in for (1) to become last guard

A triangle is now formed between (1), [3], and [5]

Executing the Triangle

When executing the plays I will always refer to the diagram S-1b as a starting point.

Option 1

(3) passes the ball to [1]
[5] sets a pick for [3]
[3] uses pick and cuts to the basket
(1) passes the ball to [3] for layup

IF (1) can’t pass to the ball to [3]:

[3] runs to the baseline
[5] sets a pick for (1)
(1) uses pick to drive to basket

Option 2

(3) passes ball to [5] and sets pick for [1]

[1] uses pick and cuts over top of (5) to the basket
[3] rolls to the basketball
(5) passes to [1] OR [3] for layup

Option 3

(3) passes ball to [5] and sets pick for [4]
[4] slides inside 3 point line
[1] cuts across to other side of the baseline

[4] uses pick and cuts to free throw line
[3] rolls to the basketball
[1] runs to 45 degree
(5) passes to [3] for layup OR [4] for jump shot

Triangle – 2 Man Game

The 2 man game is executed on the other side of the court and is played when the triangle can’t be executed.

IF (3) can NOT pass to [1] or [5]

(3) passes to [2]
(2) and [4] plays 2 man game
[3], [5] sets a double pick for [1]

[1] uses pick and cuts to free throw line
(2) or (4) passes to [1] IF 2 man game was NOT successful
[3] slides to 45 degree above the 3 point line