All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor Parody - "All About That HAZE"

A creative video parody done to highlight the environmental issues of haze in Singapore.

Rebuild all Indexes on a Microsoft SQL Server

As part of database maintenance, a DBA may wish to do periodical rebuild of all indexes. The below may come handy.

EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER INDEX ALL ON ? REBUILD'

President Obama 'AMAZING GRACE' Eulogy For Clementa Pickney

President Obama delivered a 40-minute 'AMAZING GRACE' eulogy for Clementa Pickney who was murdered by a racist terrorist on June 17, 2015 at an evening Bible study at his church. This touching speech is a thoughtful meditation on the whites and blacks race in America.

Watch the video below:

NDP 2015 Theme Song: Our Singapore

The theme song, written by Dick Lee, for this year's National Day is released.

How do you feel about this song? For your pleasure, I have consolidated all NDP theme songs from 1998 to 2013.

Chen Tianwen's un-un-un-un-unbelievable song got a remix

The famous Mediacorp's 'Spouse For House' actor Chen Tianwen music video "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" now comes with a remix version.

If you are interested to listen to the original version, do check out this link!

MsSQL Split Function

The following demonstrates how to do a string Split using a character delimiter.

Edited: [dbo].[Split_PerformanceEnhanced] added - better performance results (31 July 2017).

--SQL function to do split (performance enhanced)
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split_PerformanceEnhanced]
(
 @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
 @Delimiter VARCHAR(5)
)  
RETURNS @RtnValue TABLE
(
 ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
 Data VARCHAR(MAX)
) 
AS
BEGIN
 INSERT INTO @RtnValue(Data)
  SELECT [Value] FROM 
    ( 
    SELECT 
     [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
     CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @List + @Delimiter COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, [Number]) - [Number])))
    FROM (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
     FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
     WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
     AND SUBSTRING(@Delimiter + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delimiter)) = @Delimiter
    ) AS y

 RETURN;
END
GO
--Test out the SQL function
SELECT * FROM dbo.Split_PerformanceEnhanced('one|two|three|four', '|')
GO

Below SQL function still works but prefer the above new performance enhanced version.

--SQL function to do split
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split]
(
 @RowData NVARCHAR(MAX),
 @SplitOn CHAR(1)
)  
RETURNS @RtnValue TABLE
(
 ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),
 Data VARCHAR(MAX)
) 
AS
BEGIN
 DECLARE @count INT
 SET @count = 1

 WHILE (CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) > 0)
 BEGIN
  INSERT INTO @RtnValue (data)
  SELECT Data = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@RowData, 1, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) - 1)))
  SET @RowData = SUBSTRING(@RowData, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn COLLATE Latin1_General_100_BIN2, @RowData) + 1, LEN(@RowData))
  SET @count = @count + 1
 END

 INSERT INTO @RtnValue (data)
 SELECT Data = LTRIM(RTRIM(@RowData))

 RETURN
END
GO
--Test out the SQL function
SELECT * FROM dbo.Split('one|two|three|four', '|')
GO

So stunned like a vegetable by Chen Tianwen's "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" music video

Mediacorp's 'Spouse For House' actor Chen Tianwen music video "Un. un. un. un. unbelievable!!!" is so unbelievably funny. What a multi-talented guy.

Spouse For House airs every Wednesday, 10pm on Channel 5.

Google Malaysia access disrupted and hacked

As of now, access to Google Malaysia (www.google.com.my) remains not possible and is showing 'Google Malaysia HackeD' message.

The disruption is reported to be due to DNS redirection as confirmed by a tweet from Google Malaysia.

Getting reports some users are experiencing http://t.co/uIvl6RbDzu DNS redirection. Please use http://t.co/AdkzwxVR4U in the meantime.
— Google Malaysia (@GoogleMsia) April 14, 2015

A WHOIS check on www.google.com.my domain confirmed the DNS redirection.

Introduction to Project Management

Greg Balestrero (Strategic Advisor on Corporate Consciousness, Leadership & Sustainability, IIL) provides a quick but thorough introduction to Project Management, how it is being used, and why it should matter to you, especially if you are into Project Management.

Charlie Munger in 2010: ‘Don’t ask Charlie Munger. Study the life and work of Lee Kuan Yew, you’re going to be flabbergasted’

In a Q&A at University of Michigan in 2010, Charlie Munger who is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation praised the Singapore system and Lee Kuan Yew. He said, ‘Don’t ask Charlie Munger. Study the life and work of Lee Kuan Yew, you’re going to be flabbergasted’.

Watch the segment in the video below.

Project Spartan: Beyond Browsing

Amazon newly revamped design - RETRO

As part of April Fool, Amazon has just launched their newly revamped retro design. See below if you like it!

My condolences to Lee Kuan Yew's family

Dear family members of Lee Kuan Yew's,

With the great loss of founder of modern Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, I would like to send my deepest condolences to PM Lee Hsien Loong and his family members. Without the late Lee Kuan Yew's courage and lifelong commitment, it would have been impossible to see what Singapore has achieved since independence day.

Lee's contribution will be remembered for generations to come. Let us continue building Singapore into a fine, gracious nation.

With deepest sympathies,
A Singaporean born and bred here

Remembering Lee Kuan Yew, 1923 - 2015

Restore wrong or unknown program icons in Windows 7 Start Menu

Should you see wrong or unknown program icons in your Windows 7 Start Menu, you may try the following steps to restore them.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Copy and paste %userprofile%\AppData\Local onto the address bar.
3. Find and delete IconCache.db. This file is hidden by default.
4. Open Command Prompt.
5. Run taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe on Command Prompt.
6. Run start explorer on Command Prompt.

I hope this helps.

How do I remove the cached username and password from SQL Management Studio?

You may have your reasons to want to remove the cached username and password from the SQL Management Studio e.g. before handing your laptop to someone else.

The step to remove will require deleting a file but differs depending on the version of SQL Management Studio you are using.

SQL Server Management Studio 2014
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\12.0\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2012
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\11.0\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2008
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin

SQL Server Management Studio 2005
Delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\mru.dat

One good news is as of SQL Server Management Studio 2012, you may delete an entry by using the tool itself without the need to delete a file. To delete, you will need to click on the 'Server name' dropdown in the 'Connect to Server' dialog. Move your mouse or use your keyboard arrow key to highlight the server to remove followed by hitting on the 'Delete' key on your keyboard. This is so convenient!

Infographics: When should we use JPEG, GIF and PNG?

The side-effects of young children using mobile / handheld devices

In current generation where penetration rate of mobile devices is high, we see many including young children often using mobile devices while travelling, in school or even before bedtime. A fact sheet published on Zone'in advised infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day.

The fact sheet researched on areas:

• Technology Use: usage statistics; technology addiction prevalence
• Physical Impairments: developmental delay; obesity, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes; movement deprivation, sensory overstimulation, elecrtromagnetic radiation, sleep disruption
• Mental Disorders: human detachment and mental illness; psychotropic medication, restraints, and seclusion rooms, touch deprivation, pornography and risky behavior
• Social Disorders: communication, aggression and declining empathy,
• Academic Decline: attention deficit; illiteracy, education technology;
• Implications and Solutions: costs, technology screening an management, playgrounds as epicenter for child development and learning

How to stop FortiClient from starting automatically?

Installed FortiClient recently but the challenge in disabling the application/service from running automatically on every start-up annoyed me. Attempt to stop 'FortiClient Service Scheduler' only return 'Parameter is incorrect' error message.

An article on Technet help solve my trouble. To stop FortiClient from starting automatically, try the following:

1. Shut down FortiClient from the system tray.
   
2. Run net stop fortishield on command prompt.
   
3. Run msconfig.
   
4. On msconfig, switch to the Services tab. Clear the FortiClient Service Scheduler check box and click Apply.
5. Run services.msc on command prompt to open up show all available services.
6. Look for FortiClient Service Scheduler. Switch Startup type to Manual.
7. Restart your computer.

FortiClient should not be running automatically the next time round. Hope it helps.

An interesting perspective on Responsive Web Design and getting it right

An article on the Smashing Magazine has an interesting perspective on what is responsive web design and how to actually get it right. Taking note on the performance is the right approach.

» You May Be Losing Users If Responsive Web Design Is Your Only Mobile Strategy | Smashing Magazine