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Preparations

The past few weeks I’ve been busy upgrading the car in preparation for the long-planned road trip. A few weeks ago, I replaced my front shocks and front shock mountings. Last week I replaced my rear shocks, tie rods, rack ends, and brake pads. The brake pads were actually still fine except for one which was way thinner than the rest. It turned out to be caused by a sticking caliper. So, I also had my front brake calipers overhauled to fix the problem. I also had the tires rotated front to back. All these I had done at Sprinter at Morato. Good quality of work. Maybe not as good as dealerships but not as expensive either.

Today, I installed fog lamps to light up dark roads, a need I discovered some time ago. I went to Banawe and stopped by the first shop that caught my fancy. I didn’t bother looking for other shops. Whatever you’re looking for in Banawe, the shop you go to usually just starts calling for whoever has that part and pick it up. They do charge a small premium (read: I probably got ripped off) but at least you no longer do your own canvassing. I got my fog lamps but because I don’t like the typical Banawe hack job, I didn’t trust them to install. Instead, I went to Wizzard at Morato for installation. The guys there did a neat and very professional job. Definitely the place to go for electrical work.

Next up would be spark plugs and oil.

It’s not a BMW but it sure is getting as close to an ultimate driving machine as it can get.

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LDAP and JNDI

Today, instead of just dealing with people and papers, I actually worked on something a bit more interesting. I needed to allow users to change the passwords of their Active Directory accounts using a web page. Being a Java zealot, the solution I chose was JNDI which made things pretty much straightforward.

Of course it wouldn’t have been fun without problems and I encountered two, albeit minor, hitches with LDAP and Active Directory. LDAP is supposedly easy but it never ceases to give me just enough trouble to roundly irritate me. Active Directory only allows modification of passwords via a secure connection, either TLS or SSL. The latter is actually a good thing but I had to do a few extra steps. Besides, like I said, they were minor hitches.

So how to do it?

Continue reading “LDAP and JNDI”

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Allez Au Boracay!

L’été arrive! Il est temps pour les vacances. Allez au Boracay! Il est une petite île avec beaucoup des possibilites. Le soleil brille toujours. Le ciel est bleu. Il y’a plages blanc tres magnifique. Il y’a beaucoup des belle femmes (et beau hommes aussi). Il y’a beaucoup activities d’eau: plongée sous-marine, ski du nautique, surf, voile… Allez au Boracay en été. Vous ne le regretterez pas.

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Knight Rider

Just watched the pilot of Knight Rider. KITT is back but instead of Knight Industries Two Thousand it is now Knight Industries Three Thousand. I wonder if they will call the next model KIFT or Knight Industries Four Thousand. There are of course less subtle changes. Instead of a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the new KITT is now the iconic Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Now that is a car. They should have called it HOTT! And instead of Michael Knight who’s off hiding (Malibu probably) it’s now Mike Knight. All very original as you can see. But I suppose the new target audience doesn’t remember the original Michael Knight and KITT, anyway. So what’s in store for these new fanboys (and girls?) ? What else but the usual cars, gadgets, guns (if you don’t have a car like KITT you should have guns, lots of guns), and hot girls. What more do you need, right? After all, boys will always be boys.

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Half-Sleepy On The Road

Drove my dad (actually Jem drove since my car got trapped by neighbors’ cars but I was co-driver so there :P) to the airport early this morning.

A Menudo song came up on the radio. They we’re the original boy band though not exactly Boyz II Men.

Saw a billboard of Centrum with Piolo Pascual saying “I want to be complete”. Guess he’s waiting for his Jerry Maguire.

Saw another billboard, this one of a movie. The Half Blood Samurai. He must get plenty of dizzy spells.

I need sleep.