Trying out docker

Today , i decided to randomly check out docker as i heard some good stuff about it
www.docker.com
I decided to register and went through it's interactive tutorial and have to say it is pretty easy to do, but at the end of it i had merely understood how to set it up and it's general idea.
Basically docker is a kind of container within ubuntu/linux, the tutorial i went through was actually a command line tutorial , in the tutorial i learnt how to query the docker's server and client version, how to pull and push and how to provision a container, all in all it seems pretty straightforward and most people who have had a basic understanding of how the command line works should do fine , and in case you get stuck the answer is always a click away , helpfully positioned on the left panel of the tutorial.

with some helpful hints from the tutorial i managed to complete it pretty quickly and will look forward to exploring docker more

Using Azure to make a Minecraft Server!

Did you know that Azure doesn't just allow you to host websites and create wordpress sites easily, it also allows you to create virtual machines, virtual machines that can run minecraft servers!

In this post ,I will be detailing the simple process of creating a minecraft server on Azure

Firstly head over to http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partners/microsoft/minecraftserver/
and press create virtual machine.
( you must already have an azure account and be logged-in )

afterwards simply fill in the details such as username and password , choose your pricing tier and you'd be almost done, give Azure a few minutes to provision the virtual machine , grab a coffee or a nice cup of tea while you wait.


With theses few simple steps, you have successfully created a dedicated virtual machine within minutes that runs a minecraft server that anyone in the world can connect to, because it is within the Azure plateform, as long as your VM is running your server will be online , no need to host the server locally on your own computer and hog up your hardware , you and your friends will be able to enjoy playing together on your very own server without the hassle of you having to go through the installation procedures and relaunching the server every time you want to play, with Azure the server will be up 24/7 for anyone of your buddies to log in and play!

Awesome right? check out Azure today!

To connect to the server check out
 http://blog.diniscruz.com/2014/01/setting-up-minecraft-server-in-azure.html

Setting up a parse blog

www.asceansiontest1.parseapp.com
learn to set this page up with parse within 30minutes from
https://github.com/ParsePlatform/AnyBlog

firstly , what is this?
this is a sample project from parse to show how to host your sites in the parse cloud database
very simple and satisfying to set up and but it is not very usable, recommended for people experimenting with different cloud platforms, not for your everyday blogger.

But,
the instructions are really very minimal and you need some prior knowledge in
1. cloning git projects(obtaining the source files & codes)
2. modifying code
3. installing the command line for parse and using it ,

(Notably, the command line is a strange place if you have not ventured there before, and i took a quite some time to realize how to use it, tip, use cd to navigate , for example if you need to head over to desktop from user, type cd desktop and you'd be there)

I had trouble understanding the instructions and went to google,
then I downloaded this command line tool from this link
 http://blog.parse.com/2012/10/25/parse-command-line-tools-available-for-windows/ and proceeded to run my code from there, basically you just need to first clone the project on git into a folder, then create a web app on parse.com then using the powershell  navigate to the folder that has your clone of the git project then run the commands to authenticate you with the parse server and basically modify some values to customize the site with your name and then just deploy with parse deploy and then finally go back to the web app and set a custom subdomain name and then you will have a site like this up running.

 Full guide available at https://github.com/ParsePlatform/AnyBlog , makes you learn alot of things such as navigating the command line, how to install & use it, how to use the parse.com to set up services and yeah, good stuff

you may test the original working site at www.asceansiontest1.parseapp.com
it seem to have some sort of word limit for the blog posts , originally i tried to post this article there but the parse server decided to throw me and error so i decided to just paste everything here for now, will try to remove the limit when i have some time on my hands.

note to self there is an admin page at asceansiontest1.parseapp.com/admin/

Kyoto and its many wonders

A year ago a few friends and I went to Japan to look at the sights and generally tour around, it was wonderful to be able to spend a month or so touring Japan, although it has already been a year , the memories of my days in Japan feel fresh , as though as if I had just been there yesterday.

So while my memories are still rather clear, I decided to write a post detailing about the sights we saw that winter last year.

If you ever plan on visiting Japan , i reckon that this should be a pretty good list of sights you must see before you leave Kyoto

First and foremost if your're visiting Kyoto you must note that Kyoto's main attractions are it's shrines/temples , there are numerous shrines and temples everywhere but i will only be listing the bigger more popular ones, that said you should bump into a few of these temples while your're touring the place, the ones that i am listing are the ones that you should take a detour to visit even if it means changing your plans for they are truly magnificent and amazing.

When we first reached Kyoto from Tokyo via the shinkansen(bullet train) we were greeted with the sights of the Kyoto tower

The tower is one of the tallest structures in Kyoto and you should be able to see it once you step out of the train station. It should be noted that you are allowed to go to the inside of the tower but there really is nothing much inside the tower.

After putting down our luggage at a hotel near the tower, we then went to catch a bus from the nearby bus stations to Kinkakuji ( The Golden Pavillion)

This was truly a sight to behold as it was really shining in the sun, the surroundings have also been carefully landscaped by it's caretakers. (You might have to pay a slight entrance fee for this attraction)

Next we visited the Fushimi Inari shrine

this is the legendary shrine with tons of gates that even has a anime set in this location!

(i would suggest visiting this shrine during off-peak hours as having too many people there sort of spoils the atmosphere)

Afterwards we then visited the Kiyomizu-dera temple! it was yet another amazing temple and it was even featured in the anime ansatsu-kyoshitsu recently!

Effects and Consequence

Whilst surfing the internet or rather more specifically, youtube and it's japanese rival nico nico douga ,this rather strange topic of interrelation of certain actions and its effects suddenly came into my mind

To put simply what i observed was the power of a song, whenever a song writer releases a song , he most likely has a story to tell the world, and is using the song to express his story in his own personal style, may it be rock, pop or even heavy metal, every song has a story behind it.

In this instance, i realized that  songs are more powerful than i orginally thought, firstly, because of the power of the internet and the prevalence of technology, just about anybody with access to the net will be able to access the song, barring firewalls and censorship of course.

So onto the main story, i heard a song that was pretty good, then i tried to find related content,unsatisfied by the results that youtube presented me with i headed onwards to niconicodouga where the song was originally released, there i found a world beyond my wildest expectations.

What i found shocked me, it may not shock you but it most certainly expanded my opnion on the power of music and its effects.

I found many many covers of the song by various bands and individuals, i saw multiple groups of people dancing to a song i never thought was meant to be danced to, and they did it fabulously , stylishly even.

Most importantly, every one of those videos had their own ministories to tell, the performers of these covers also had their own mini fanbases and upon futher research i even realized that some of these
cover performers had gone on to form their own original bands / dance groups

And they were happy, and also successful!

So to all you song writers out there, keep on writing those songs, you'd never know who'd you inspire or what form your creation may morph into, but whatever it is, im positive that it will have an positive impact on the people who love it

Singpost's amazingly terrible policies and customer service

Many of you would have ordered from amazon before, for those of you who have not i suggest you buckle up and prepare for a ride, my experience with ordering from amazon has been amazing, the only issue is when they decide to use singpost as their local delivery partner.

Disclaimer, this story is my personal experience with singpost and its officers , you may have better luck than me in dealing with them.

Basically my story starts from amazon, i ordered a hard disk at a very cheap price during some holiday season, so i waited for it to arrive . The thing is it didnt, so i went to amazon and they decided to send me another one as a replacement and i thought everything would be fine this time, double checked my address and everything seemed to be in place, except it's not.

So i waited till the quoted arrival date and then i checked my mail box.. nothing was there. so i proceeded to ask amazon again, they asked me to wait for about 10 days because there may have been delays so i said okay  i will since they had been so nice to send me a replacement without much hassle.

So i waited. 10 days later i checked my mail box again, nothing was in it.. this time i was pretty frustrated so i asked amazon again. Do note that before i asked amazon i had used their tracking system to track my item, the problem is the tracking system broke down along the way. what do i mean?

i will provide an concrete example now.

Basically iParcel was amazon's export partner, they bring the parcel from amazon to singapore then iparcel proceeds to hand singpost the parcel and singpost is supposed to send it to me.

The tracking all the way to iParcel was smooth i got regular updates from amazon about where my parcel was and it was amazing

As you can see the tracking works very well until singpost started to handle it. Although it writes that delivery had been attempted, i saw no such notification on my door nor on in my letter box. I had no idea of what time they had intended to deliver and thus i was probably not at home when they delivered, after all they had not even notified me to stay at home and wait or arrange someone to receive it for me, singpost had absolutely no communication at all. 

That was fail #1 

The second fail came when i tried to trace the package .

so amazon told me that i-parcel was the carrier so i headed over to i-parcel's website to track my item using the code given to me 

try it out yourself , tracking number is AEIRIC20001268711 on this website https://tracking.i-parcel.com/Home/Index?trackingnumber=INVALID

See the link in orange where they generated the sing post tracking number? 

clicking on it links to SPEEDPOST's website

as you can see in the picture above.

So i did what any normal person would do, i clicked on the bright orange link and tried to use the code given to me to track

Guess what? the code didnt work.

So i then decided to contact i-Parcel to ask them as i figured that they  had given me a wrong code, 

after an email i finally figured out that the code actually only works on SINGPOST's website.. 

so i thought, okay fine ill track my code using the singpost website .. keep in mind this was 10 days AFTER the advised delivery date..

So yesterday 11/2/2015 i finally found out that my parcel was with WOODLANDS POST OFFICE

so i tried to ask for a redelivery but alas the form asked me for some strange beat number that i had no way of knowing 

So i though okay nevermind, since the item is nearby at the post office , i could just go down and collect it tomorrow. 

So i decided to go down to the post office and collect it today 12/2/2015.

Then after queueing for a very long time i spoke to one of the staff at the counter who then proceeded to track my item using their system and informed me that my item was no longer at the woodlands post office as of today and it had been processed to be sent back to the sender as of yesterday 11/2/2015

I checked the website myself to be sure .. and to my horror it really was processing to be sent back.. 

The counter staff then told me about singpost's policy of sending items back if they have not been collected in 12 days.. I had not been informed of this AT ALL. they had not sent me any emails or any reminders to collect my item and my tracking code had not worked until i did alot of digging around and asking different companies to realise how to make it work.

In my humble opinion singpost had screwed up, they did not send out any reminders at all, and had decided without my consent to return the item although they clearly had my contact details from amazon , they had my address and could probably have left a letter or two , they're a mail company too!.

So  i proceeded to ask about my options , the counter staff told me there was nothing she could do and she asked me to call their hotline 1605... so singpost just told me their their counter staff at their post office could do NOTHING for a customer who had went all the way to the post office to collect his parcel and received such news. 

Fine. i decided to leave the queue and went outside the post office to make the call..

i called 1605 followed through the phone menu .. inputted my information and then .. nothing. the phone menu was not functional it broke down into gibberish, press 1 for 28913 press for 237238 press 3 for 42423 

out of desperation i pressed 1 then they said sorry that service is not available please call again, so i called again, and again, the result was not any different.

At this juncture i was really really frustrated and almost ready to throw in the towel..

i decided to queue once again and asked the counter staff for help, luckily they helped me get through to a customer service rep using a short cut

Here's the short cut incase any one of you need to contact them urgently,

dial 1605, then press 1 and 0, ignore any other options, this is the only way i have found to be functional enough to lead to a customer service officer, the other options led me to some broken phone menu that cuts itself off for no reason.

So i talked to the rep and she once again told me that my item was being returned...

BUT i could try to get them to retrieve my item BEFORE they sent it .. at a cost of $21.40

i balked at the price and tried to negotiate, i told her about this entire story but she refused to budge and thus i told her to email me the details so i could consider it after some time.

below is the email she sent me

At my wits end i decided to ask amazon for help.

Amazon was amazing in this regard, i told them about the situation and they advised me to ask singpost to retrieve the item and they would refund me the fees that singpost had demanded.

Amazon had not been responsible for situation but they had been so kind to offer their assistance so freely, for that i thank them.

So i said sure, okay and then i tried to called singpost to arrange for them to retrieve the item.

i tried to ask them to redirect me to the previous customer service rep that had attended to me an hour before but they refused , so i once again had to repeat my story  again, at this juncture i had repeated my story to singpost employees about 3 times already, it is really annoying that the rep did not read the email that her colleague had sent me although i told her to read it.

She then proceeded to tell me that once again that i would need to pay and i said okay,

then she dropped a bombshell on me.

Ontop of paying, i would have to go the the singpost post centre post office located at eunos road personally to pay and obtain my item..

So let me get this straight, i need to head down all the way to eunos road , pay them $21.40 , then bring the parcel home myself?

What exactly am i paying such a high price for? although amazon had promised to refund me, if they had not , it would have been my own $21.40 just for them to find my item and leave it at the far off eunos road post centre for me to self-collect!? 

I tried to negotiate with the customer service rep and asked for my item to be delivered at least to my nearby postal office but she firmly declined, citing company policy saying 'every one who retrieves items must go to the postal office to collect'...

This was ridiculous, but because amazon had already promised to refund me i couldnt exactly cancel retrieval process, so here i am writing this complaint.. 

will be heading down to singapore postal office soon to pay singpost their $21.40 just to self collect because they failed to deliver properly or notify me properly before sending the item back without any notifications or communication at all..

Singpost has been horrible i will avoid it at all costs in the future if i am able to... 

i-parcel please fix the orange link on your website so that other customers may properly track their item.. 

and to amazon, thank you for being amaz-ing in your customer support .

Singpost, your're a national postal service please brush up on your customer support, you bring shame to the singapore brand...

update, tried calling them again and this time they seem more professional and willing to help , we'd see where this goes..

On Ideas Sharing

Ideas are powerful , they are a fundamental part of development, most modern development start from a powerful and awesome idea. Most people think that they have awesome ideas, and many do indeed have awesome ideas, thing the is, most people don't act on their ideas. which is a waste.

Some people cite a lack of interest, doubting the popularity or viability of their ideas even when they may be perfectly sound ideas. These are the ideas that are buried everyday as unique individuals decide to abandon them after a few brief moments of thought.

The thing is, it does not have to be this way. Several sites like IndieGoGo and Kick Starter have proven that crazy ideas that are built by a team of passionate individuals can indeed inspire enough confidence in the public to get people to buy-in to their ideas based on their ideas and some credentials and also maybe some rewards.

Although Kick Starter and IndieGoGo have created an avenue for established professionals in their own fields who have had a great idea and allowed them to actually pitch and put together a team to build the idea , what about the vast majority of ordinary people who have great ideas?

Most successful kickstarter pitches have great demos and big names behind them, this is essential for backers to be able to have enough trust to put in their money into these kick starter projects,
but what about those with no budget for demos , the ordinary joes who have come up with an awesome idea but has neither the skills nor resources to pursue the idea?

Imagine a platform that is pre-kickstarter , a platform that functions similarly but with a fundamental difference. A platform where ideas are voted on and where outstanding ideas created by ordinary joes can be noticed. A platform where the ideas are thoroughly vetted and tested by the public to test the waters of how much demand there is for the idea.

Imagine a wonderful platform where people propose the craziest ideas, rocket shoes, swords shaped cakes , or even the next facebook!

The idea is to create a platform where great ideas can be noticed , similarly to kick starter but without the initial set-up costs so that there is absolutely no barrier to entry and anyone with an idea will be able to pitch it to an active community of users who are equally excited to find awesome ideas and help them become a reality.

Would you spend your time to jot down your amazing idea?
I certainly would. The most important factor here is the community and the ranking systems and most importantly , the brillant ideas that are in every one of us, hidden

i truly believe that such a platform would help us reveal our craziest most awesome ideas, and then the skies the limit.

For now ill be leaving this idea here the idea for an ideas platform.

But first we'd have to build it.