People First?

This morning I was checking my students' exercises when I saw one of the books is damp. I was about to tick my student off for not taking care of his books when I caught a whiff of kerosene. I immediately guessed what had happpened but I asked him anyway.

He told me that his mom had spilled over the oil lamp while he was doing his homework. Luckily the book did not catch fire. I was horrified.

Most kids, even adults nowadays had never even seen or used an oil lamp and here is my 10-year-old student, using it every day to study.

Would any of the young parents now allow thier children to use matches? Or even use an oil lamp with a very flammable liquid inside?

Here we are, forwarding email about the dangers of handphone while filling up gas for our cars and this kid is using it in front of him every day in order to study.

Where is he? Why is he not using an electric lamp?

I can easily answer the first question. He is in Kanowit. The second question is much harder to answer. We don't have electricity here. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The nearest electrical pole is about 10 km away.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/22/nation/4953964&sec=nation

Windows XP Login then Logoff! (Solved)

Remember my last post about Windows XP login and immediately logged off?

Finally I solved it after 2 weeks of troubleshooting. *Sigh*
The solution is simple, just finding it was the hard part.

I've done all the advice given in most pages I've found.
That is creating/copying a new set of userinit.exe from the recovery CD to windows\system32\ folder.
Most people manage to solve their login/logout problem after doing this.

But I can't. I need an extra step which is editing my registry.
Caution!!!
Registry editing is dangerous. Make sure you backup first before doing any editing.

I used BartPE to boot and there I can edit the registry.
This site has a good explanation and screenshots on each step needed to be taken to edit the registry.

1. Insert the BartPE CD into the drive, and boot the system from the CD.

2. Type Regedit.exe in the prompt, and press Enter. Select the HKEY_USERS hive

3. From the File menu, choose the Load Hive option. Browse to your Windows installation drive, for example the following location:

C:\Windows\System32\Config\

4. Select the file named SOFTWARE (the file without any extensions), and click Open
5. Type a name for the hive that you've loaded now. (Example: MyXPHive)
6. Now the SOFTWARE hive is loaded, and present under the HKEY_USERS base hive.
7. In order to fix the Userinit value in the loaded hive, navigate to the following location:

HKEY_USERS \ MyXPHive \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon

8. Double-click Userinit and set it's value correctly. Example: Set it's data as follows:

C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe,

(Include the trailing comma also. The above assumes that Windows is installed in C:\Windows, and Userinit.exe file is actually present in the System32 folder. You may want to verify that as well.)

9. After entering the correct data, you MUST unload the Hive. To do so, select MyXPHive branch, and then in the File menu, choose Unload Hive. It's important to note that you'll need to select the MyXPHive branch first, before unloading it.

10. Quit BartPE and restart Windows. See if you're able to logon to your profile.

My problem was that somehow my registry got corrupted. The value for the userinit is:
C:\windowsstem32\userinit.exe,\s So I changed it to the value given above.

Sibu in the Blue Ocean

I think I did post something about a speaker, Mr Tan Kee Hian quite some time ago. Well he is back and now he is going to have a public lecture in Kingwood Hotel next month. Usually I don't like speeches or lectures but this is an exception. He is a Senior Global Expert in Blue Ocean Strategy and you would learn a lot from him.

Actually it is better if the target audience is those involved in decision making or policy makers. For us normal day to day person, I'm not sure what we can do. Maybe he'll tell us.

Details are as follows:

Date: 2 Nov 2009
Time: 7.00 pm
Venue: Kingwood Hotel

Please drop a comment if you are going.

Autochk not found

It was quite some time I had problem with my computer. Now it is solved.
Only after I added a line in the registry.

Yes!!!
Now I can defragment my drive.
Now I can scan my drive.
All after doing the autochk in the registry.
before that it was ???. ???

Here was the post that I found.

>I am running win2k sp3 and when I boot the computer I
>receive:
>
> \SystemRoot\Windows\System32\Autochk.exe program not
>found - skipping Autocheck
>
>This lasts for about 2 seconds and then the system boots
>normally and seems to run fine. I have tried chkdsk /r/f
>and it doesn't help. I have located the file autochk.exe
>in C:\winnt\system32 and have tried replacing the file
>from another similar machine with no change. If I rename
>the file it recreates itself. If I delete the file it
>recreates itself. I am not sure what else to try, any
>suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
What is in the registry at the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\BootExecute

It should be a REG_MULTI_SZ data type set to
autocheck autochk *

If not, set it to
autocheck autochk *

Windows XP Login then Logoff!

Have the problem stated in the title. Damn frustating when you can't get into windows to do some fixing. Found a few web pages. Here are some of the tips.
But it doesn't work for me. Need to find other ways!!!

Anyone has any idea????

http://www.logicnest.com/archives/90
- http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-22087-xp-auto-log-off

Basically what they advice is that we need to have a Windows Setup CD.
Enter the Recovery Console

Boot the system using the Windows XP CD-ROM. In the first screen when the Setup begins, read the instructions press "R" (in the first screen) enter the Recovery Console. Type-in the built-in Administrator password to enter the Console. You'll see the prompt reading C:\Windows (Or any other drive-letter where you've installed XP)

Type the following command and press Enter.

CD SYSTEM32
(If that does not work, try CHDIR SYSTEM32)

COPY USERINIT.EXE WSAUPDATER.EXE

Quit Recovery Console by typing EXIT and restart Windows.

You'll be able to login successfully as you've created the wsaupdater.exe file (now, a copy of userinit.exe)

Now, change the USERINIT value in the registry (see Phase II in this page) and change it accordingly.

Grand Blue Wave Hotel

Went to Shah Alam for KMK. Stayed at Grand Blue Wave Hotel. Supposedly to be a 5 star hotel but personally, I think the 3 star hotels in Sibu are better than it.

Rooms are small and looks old. Paints are flaking off the walls. And NO WIFI!!!!!
Not even in the lobby!!!

And try guessing how much they charge for the broadband service from the room???
Look and the screen capture below.



Anyway here is the setting from the hotel.


http://vbn.inter-touch.net/UI/UM/template1/usermanager/GuestPortal.php?loginflag=-1&PHPSESSID=fp5ahdpjirjl6bmbpkt1bm636tce38u5


Error Number [25] : This port is locked. Kindly use another port, or contact the interTouch helpdesk for further assistance. Error code 25.
Toll-free interTouch Helpdesk number: 1800801372
Please close this window


IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 210.19.67.144

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.192

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 210.19.67.129

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 202.75.242.254

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 202.75.242.254

203.121.72.76