Gardens by the Bay : Singapore's newest crown jewels

Gardens by the Bay consists of three distinctive waterfront gardens – Bay South, Bay East and Bay Central, spanning a total of 101 hectares. They are set in the heart of Singapore’s new downtown Marina Bay, encircling the Marina Reservoir like a green necklace. The Gardens will complement the array of attractions around Marina Bay.

Gardens by the Bay is an integral part of a strategy by the Singapore government that further transforms Singapore from a ‘Garden City’ to a ‘City in a Garden’, in which the city is woven into a green and floral tapestry. This aims to raise the quality of life in Singapore with a more holistic and all-encompassing programme that enhances greenery and flora in the city. First announced to the public by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during the National Day Rally in August 2005, Gardens by the Bay will become Singapore’s premier urban outdoor recreation space, and a national icon.

An international competition for the design of the master plan was held in January 2006 to elicit the best designs for the Gardens. This attracted more than 70 entries submitted by 170 firms from 24 countries, from which two firms – Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter – were eventually awarded the master plan design for the Bay South and Bay East Gardens respectively.

The Gardens are being developed in phases. Bay South is currently being constructed and is slated to be completed by end 2011. Bay East has been developed as an interim park in support of the Youth Olympic Games 2010, and is scheduled to open to the public in late 2011 or early 2012. The full master plan implementation of Bay East and the development of Bay Central are part of the next phase of development.

- from Wikipedia

The Marina Bay enclave has been one of the most dynamic areas in Singapore for the past decade. It has seen the rise of iconic structures such as the Marina Bay Sands and Integrated Resort, the Singapore Flyer, the Helix Bridge and the Marina Barrage. Developments around the area haven't skipped a beat and we are witness to another world-class, eco-friendly initiative - the Gardens by the Bay.

This photo was taken from the Marina Barrage overlooking the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Singapore CBD skyline:

This one was taken near the Singapore Flyer showing the Flower Dome:

Straits Mosque, Malacca (Masjid Selat Melaka)

The Straits Mosque, Malacca (Masjid Selat Melaka) is one of the better known contemporary attractions in the historic town of Malacca. Lying off the reclaimed isle of Pulau Melaka, this imposing structure looks like it was lifted out of a fairy tale book. Viewed from afar, the mosque appears to float on water. The fusion of colours the mosque with the blue waters and the cloudy yet fiery skies (especially during sunsets) make this place every photographer's dream.

I had the chance to visit this place and take some photos with my colleagues. Here are some of my shots of the place:







PS: I haven't been updating this blog for God-knows-so long; but that will change. Updates may not come as frequent as before, but surely I'll be posting some of my (mis)adventures from time to time.

Listing Members of the Local Administrators Group of Computers in a Domain

Here's a script which lists all members of the local administrators group for each computer in a domain. The computers.ini file contains the list of hostnames of all computers in the domain whereas the results.csv file will store the local administrators information. The usual disclaimer applies:

Microsoft Technet Summer Scripting Games : Javelin Throw

I was invited to be a guest commentator for the Javelin Throw event during the recently concluded Microsoft Technet's Summer Scripting Games. For this scenario, I had to write a time logger with time-stamped text entries that describe a particular activity. I created a VB script that accepts user inputs as arguments, stores these together with the date and time of the activity, amount of time spent on the activity, the status of the activity and some remarks onto a CSV file.

You can find my write-up and solution at this link:

http://blogs.technet.com/heyscriptingguy/archive/2009/06/24/hey-scripting-guy-event-9-solutions-from-expert-commentators-beginner-and-advanced-the-javelin-throw.aspx

Checking for Remote Desktop Status of a Remote Server

Here's a script that checks for the Remote Desktop feature status of a remote server. The server hostnames are read off a servers.ini file. The server's registry is then queried for the DWORD value of fDenyTSConnections under the server's HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server registry key.

List Local Users of Remote Systems (Powershell)

Here's a Powershell script that reads the hostnames off a text file (hosts.ini) and lists all the local users of the remote host:

My Photos in Flickr Explore

It has been roughly 3 months since I first joined Flickr. Close to 200 shots later, I had four of my uploaded photos featured in Flickr Explore. As of 12 May 2009, here are the four photos and some background story regarding each.

The Old Clifford Pier (Marina South Pier) - EXPLORED (09 May 2009)

With the construction of the Marina Barrage, the Clifford Pier ceased operation in 2006 and was replaced by the Marina South Pier, which is currently being developed as a retail, leisure and an entertainment center. This SOOC shot (except for the sig) was taken from a vantage point at One Fullerton.

EXIF:
F-stop: f/18
Exposure: 30s
ISO: 200
Focal length: 21mm
Aperture: 3.8



Kwentong Kalye - Street Stories (HDR)

The Philippines is known to be the texting capital of the world. It is very common to see people texting (SMS) in every nook and corner of the country (well, as long as there is a carrier signal). I caught these two ladies happily SMSing and sharing notes at the corner of Aurora Blvd and Imperial St somewhere in Quezon City. I applied a dash of post-processing on the photo, specifically HDRed it for a more dramatic effect.



What you get with a loose tripod head!

Taken from the median strip on the Hotel Fullerton side of the Esplanade Bridge, this "strange" photo was the unexpected result when I wanted to shoot a long exposure shot of the traffic crossing the bridge. I had accidentally loosened my tripod head which caused it to tilt unevenly and by the time I was able to attach it firmly, the exposure finished.



'garilyo - Cigarette Street Vendor

They are a common sight in the streets of urban Philippines. They would snappily flick their wooden boxes for that catchy ta-ka-tak sound; to a driver all stressed out getting stuck in a jam, they are heaven-sent. I was on a cab on the way to Quezon City when I passed by one cigarette vendor; I managed to get a shot although the taxi was moving, albeit, at a slow pace. I did a bit of post-processing, added a li'l vignette and put more contrast to get this final piece.

Flaming Flower

Flaming Flower
Originally uploaded by Badz Manaois

I was trying to upload this photo to my Flickr account when I decided to play around with the filters that come with my GIMP installation. Under the Filters menu, I chose Render --> Nature --> Flame. I tweaked the default settings for this filter and came up with this surreal result. The rendering itself close to 10 minutes; this should be relatively faster on a more powerful computer. The photo somewhat retained its original vivid colors and the soft bokeh. I'm still trying to figure out how to do post processing of my shots; I'll try some infrared stuff later.

Rebooting a computer (VBS)

The script shown in this post pops up a message to the current logged-in user informing him that a reboot is required.




The user has the option to proceed with the reboot or he can choose to click the "No" button and abort the reboot. Clicking "Yes" will invoke the ShutMeDown procedure which uses the .Reboot method to reboot the computer. Clicking "No" will display the following pop-up:



Not clicking on either the "Yes" or "No" after 60 seconds will abort the script from continuing.



For what possible situations can this script be used? Follow the discussing from the following thread in The Official Scripting Guys Forum on Technet:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ITCG/thread/65e8699f-fca4-4e08-a181-8b621acbf963

Enumerating Members of a Group (including Nested Groups)

Here's another simple and straightforward script that queries and enumerates the members of an active directory group. If there are nested groups within the groups being queried, these will also be subsequently checked and their members listed.

This is the main body of the script. I have, for this example, three sites where two groups are being queried (one group, for example, is EU-ServerAdmins-G). There is a call in the main body to the EnumGroups function where three parameters are passed - strSite, strDN and strGroupName).



The EnumGroups function queries the strDN parameter where its members are checked. In the Select-Case loop, the object class is further checked; if the object is a group by itself, the function executes again with this group as part of the parameters passed (hence, nested groups will also be queried).



The output of this script is written onto a file (groups.csv). An example output file would look like this:

Stopping and Restarting Multiple Services using VBS

Here's a script that will stop and then restart multiple services using VB script. It stores the services under an array (in this example, I was working on the BITS, Browser, and wuauserv services). Do note that the Win32_Service.Name property should be used and not the Win32_Service.DisplayName; if you want to make use of the more user-friendly or readable .DisplayName property, you have to modify the query for the variable colListOfServices. This script can also be enhanced to accept arguments from the CLI or read off an input file for a list of services to stop.



This script was created for the following thread from the Microsoft Technet's The Official Scripting Guys Forum:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ITCG/thread/3db5d54d-1d7f-46c5-9129-2130a7bdfaa8/

Aiza Seguerra @ Singapore Mosaic Music Festival 2009

The 5th annual Mosaic Music Festival in Singapore kicked off last week and will end tomorrow (22 March). This event features a hotchpotch of bands, artists and musicians of different musical genre from across the world. The Esplanade has played host to this modern day Woodstock (sans the booze and drugs) where the musicians play both indoors and outdoors.

I, together with my wife and kids, had the opportunity to watch Aiza Seguerra perform tonight at the festival outside of the Esplanade. The total performer that she is, she was able to captivate the predominantly Filipino crowd with her OPM-laden set. She was a real gem to watch, a dervish with her six-string. Despite the heavy rain before the show and the slight drizzle when it started, the crowd overflowed even to the stairs leading to the Esplanade itself. She closed her set (her first of the night, I wasn't able to watch the last set though) with a tribute to the King of Pinoy Rap, Francis M, who passed away recently. Her rendetion of FrancisM's Kaleidoscope World literally brought the house down.

Here are some of the pictures I had taken including one showing my kids during the meet-and-greet session with Aiza.

Stage with the Singapore Integrated Resort as the backdrop:

Aiza weaves her magic onstage:

Aiza with Amberdawn and Raidon:

Macro Madness - Part 1

Okay, a lot of things has kept me busy the past days; I just might blog about some of these activities when time permits. But I did find some time to fiddle with my camera for a few shots. I've always been fascinated with macros, and I did try my hand on shooting some which I would like to share in this post.

Macro Angel (shot taken from my room):



Lilies (Singapore Botanical Gardens):





Photography has been therapeutic for me; it keeps me relaxed and focused. One need not have the best of the camera bodies nor the finest piece of glass. Even an entry-level P&S can capture vivid pictures. So for those looking for some relaxing and fun activity, try photography. =)

Moderating the "The Official Scripting Guys" Forum in Technet

Yep, I am now one of the moderators of "The Official Scripting Guys Forum" in Technet. I feel humbled to be in the company of the other moderators, the best of the best, whom I have looked up to in the past. This is my own little way of "paying it forward"...

Checking for the Uptime of a Remote Computer

I've created this script to query for the uptime of a remote computer. It takes, for an argument, the hostname or IP address of the remote machine. Here's the main body of the script:

The main body checks for 1 argument passed when the script is ran; if the number of arguments is not equal to 1, then the script exits. It then calls for the GetUptime procedure:

The GetUptime procedure queries WMI for the Win32_PerfRawData_PerfOS_System class, in particular the Timestamp_Object, Frequency_Object, and the SystemUpTime properties. To calculate for the system uptime in seconds (in my example, I used the iUptimeInSec variable), the following formula was used:

iUptimeInSec = (intPerfTimeStamp - intCounter)/intPerfTimeFreq

This value is then passed to the ConvertTime(seconds) function.

The iUptimeInSec variable was converted to an easier-t0-read format, eg. days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Identifying the current logged in user of a remote host

Here's a short and simple script to check for the currently logged-in user of a remote computer. This script has been tested on Windows XP and Vista; it may or may not work for older Windows OSes. Save the script as check-user.vbs and pass the remote host (or IP address) as an argument when launching the script (ie, check-user.vbs remote_host). You have to be an administrator of the remote machine being queried in order for the script to run properly.

Conficker.vbs - Conficker (Worm_DownAD) Detector

Heard from the grapevine that the Conficker (Worm_DownAD) worm is still in the wild (http://msforums.ph/forums/t/50980.aspx). This worm generates randomly named services which makes it a tad difficult to detect and contain. Here's a short script I created to detect for possible rogue services triggered by this worm. The usual disclaimer applies:

The code should be self-explanatory. =)

Walkthrough: Boot WinPE on a USB Thumbdrive

I was in a bind. I had onhand, a Lenovo X200 which I was trying to install a Vista image on. But this unit had neither a built-in nor an external CD or DVD drive. And all I had my trusted {Insiders} USB thumbdrive:



The WinPE image I was using to boot up is in an ISO format. I used MagicISO to mount the ISO file to access the image's folder structure and its files. Once I had the files and folders ready, I had to do the following steps to be able to boot from my USB thumbdrive:

1. list disk - displays disk information including disk number, size, and status
2. select disk x - focuses all subsequent commands on a particular disk
3. clean - cleans and removes all configuration information from the disk
4. create partition primary - create a partition (of type primary in our example)
5. list partition - displays partition information of the disk in focus
6. select partition y - moves the focus to the partition y
7. active - marks the partition in focus as the active boot partition
8. format fs=fat32 - formats the active partition with the FAT32 file system
9. assign - assigns a drive letter (the next available one) to the disk

I then copied mounted my WinPE ISO and copied the files/folders to the USB thumbdrive. And off I go, booting up WinPE from my {Insiders} USB thumbdrive.

New-Look Gmail

Have you noticed your new and spanking Gmail lately?



Log-in to your gmail account. Click on Settings --> Themes.



Choose a new theme (you can also add features under Labs). Save the changes and voila, a cool-looking Gmail UI.

Microsoft To Phase-out Live OneCare

Two years after a very hyped launching of Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft just announced today that the product will be phased out next year and a free security solution (codenamed "Morro") will be released to replace it. The yet-to-be-announced product will offer realtime anti-malware protection solution. OneCare, on the other hand, offers this capability on top of backup and management features. This is to be expected given the fact that Morro, according to Microsoft, is designed to use minimal computing resources to make it amenable to low-bandwidth scenarios and less powerful PCs hence the smaller footprint.

Microsoft also announced that sales of the Windows Live OneCare subscription service as well as Windows Live OneCare for Server on SBS 2008 will end on June 30, 2009. OneCare users will have the option to move to Morro (it will be available everywhere OneCare currently is). The fact that Morro is FOC may also entice end-user adoption. However, I doubt it is capable of dislodging the industry leaders off their roosts in the enterprise security field.

Microsoft's entry to the consumer/enterprise security market way back in 2006 was met with mixed reactions. And with this setback, whatever is left of Microsoft's foothold on this arena has taken a major beating.