Ten

This post makes ten posts for today.

p/s: say... I've been using numbers for quite a few of my last posts. At this rate, I'm gonna run out soon.

One

Notice that for the past few months I have been putting only one word for my topics.

Four

Why four? Because it's four more minutes 'til NINE~!!

(See? I said I was unstable right now...)

PHP

PHP is defined as Hypertext Preprocessor. Yes. I know. It doesn't look like it can be abbreviated in such a way. But the original term for PHP did (Personal Home Page).

I'm not going into a lengthy narrative of the history of PHP, but I'm gonna kinda tell you a story.

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PHP - Infiltration.
By: 'Umayr Sayfurrahman.

Once upon a time, there lived a race of people in a city called, The Server. That race was called PHP, and they were called so because they were of a race that has to modify, process and combine themselves as Client Pages as soon as they get a Request from outlying homes called Clients. Which are of course, where Users reside. The owners of Clients. Collectively, the PHP Pages form a Program Software; a community of collective functionalities (which the PHP Pages were when they do their jobs).

Ah~! They were a proud race. Proud of what they do. Taking glee in doing mt_random(1, 2) specifications in their jobs, or even just plain being required_once() by another PHP page. Hey... It was all fine with them.

The Server was known as a secure place. Nothing besides PHP pages can be placed on that Server. Except, of course, with permission from The Creator of Pages. As it is, the Creator of Pages has made it such that Client Requests should not harm his beloved PHP Pages. Well... They *were* his beloved creations. He also had to protect other Clients from Malicious Clients, thus the permissions and security.

Many CPU Cycles went by. The PHP Pages went on with their existences, gaining more and more Pages as The Creator added more and more of his creations to the Server. Before, there were only Pages that looked after jobs liked Logging in like Login.php and VerifyLogin.php, or pages that did the PR with the User and serves processed Front-Page information like index.php. Now, there were Pages that did other jobs such as Mathematics Calculations such as MathCalc.php and Advanced Mathematics Calculations such as AdvMathCalc.php.

Now, even the demeanor of the Pages has a certain variety. NeuralNet.php has an aloof demeanor, constantly demanding Resources whenever a Request needs her. All her AI sisters tend to have the same demanding nature. Pages like RegistrationForm.php however, had an inquisitive nature. Always wanting to ask questions about Users. Then there were the Delete Pages, Pages dedicated to deleting from The Server's storage faculty; MySQL.

One day, a User Requested to Upload A File. So Pages FileUploadForm.php took care of receiving The File and passed it on to FileUpload.php who put The File in the UploadedFiles Folder; a home for Uploaded Files.

The User then disappeared again.

Another few CPU Cycles passed. It was then that The Creator logged into the Server. The PHP Pages were excited with wonder and fearful at the same time. Would any of them get Edited? They knew from previous experiences that any Page that was Edited would change in nature; if not wholly then partly. Or would there be any additions? But the worst fear they had, was of Deletion. Any page that was Deleted never, in their experience, came back. It was a destruction that lasted forever. With nary a hope of returning. But then The Creator was The Creator. He was free to do what he liked with his creations. And the Pages were accepting of that.

The Creator made a few Requests. Edited a few Pages, making them more efficient at their tasks and made changes to The Directory. He made specific new Folders for Pages with similar or related jobs. And he logged out.

Then before any other Client made any other request, the User Requested to execute The File just uploaded in the FileUpload folder. All of a sudden, a few new PHP Pages appeared the top-level PHP residence in The Server and The File disappeared from the FileUpload folder. They were GetMeYourCreds.php and YouAreWormed.php. Then the next few Requests came. The first, was for GetMeYourCreds.php who went in MySQL, searched for The Creator privileges, and returned the The Creator Username and Passwords. Then he deleted himself, smirking dangerously at the other Pages. Then the next Request came...

YouAreWormed.php immediately went to work, Editing some Pages and deleting most others. he also forced the AI Sisters to execute over and over until the CPU was running at full power to sustain the Resource demands of The AI Sisters. Then the Server shut down.

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When the Server went online again. The Creator was aghast at what he found. His beloved Pages were destroyed. The Software he had so tediously been building was now destroyed. He knew now, that he had been hacked, by the last User, who was apparently a Hacker.

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The END.

Okay... I got lazy enough to stop writing.

©2007, 'Umayr Sayfurrahman. Ask permission to post elsewhere!

Ads

I took 'em off... It became rather off character for this blog to host ads. I've decided I'll probably create another blog for my ads.

This one tends to draw ads I don't fancy.

Adverts

Some of you might have noticed that I've put up some ad blocks on this site. I'm actually trying to test AdSense out and see what might come of it.

Right now, I guess, there have been some ads that I don't prefer having shown on this page. Unfortunate. Since I thought Google scans the site for content before putting up relevant ads.

Children

Heheh. This funny this:

Dick Cavett - "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either."

Copied from Web Clips in GMail. Heheh.

Who?

Who am I?

The greatest question to be asked with regards to spirituality.

So... Who am I?

Fire

With this... I am starting a fire on my blogging network. How?

1. Just write ONE sentence with words or even only one word related to "fire" and post it (can be in any language).
2. Then tag as many people you think reads your blog.
   

My sentence:
My fiery nature sparked an interest in quite an amount of people.

I tag:

• 'Abidah
• 'Ammar
• Alifah
• Aliya
• Amirah
• Ansari
• Awla
• Fathimah
• Hafiz
• Intan
• Maimunah
• Moshimoshi
• Nazihah
• Nusayba
• Qurratu 'Aini
• Raihan
• Sakinah
• Sarah
• Shahidan
• Zakri
• Zaynab

Anyone else wanna "catch a fire"? Eheheheh...

Blogs

Eighteen out of fifty-two people (some of whom have more than one blog) whose blogs I read are guys.

Hmm... Is it so weird for guys to blog? I wonder... Somebody told me once about a friend who said that guys (with reference to me) blogging are weird. Hahah! Now I think what's weird is that comment. I don't see no genderification of blogging yet... Plenty men blog.

Hmm... What'd you guys think?

Counting

Waaaa!! Another 4 months!!! Waaaaa!!!!


Tralala... Best nyer jadi orang grad nanti...

Tapi tak best sebab dah kene cari keje...

Sape nak bagi kerja kat saya?! Meh la sini! Saya beri resume... Nak?

ITC

IT Convention UTM: An MSP's Perpective
Wednesday 1st August 2007

25th July to the 28th marked an IT Convention at UTM as never done before (at least in UTM, ;) ). It was organized by Kolej Tun Hussein Onn (KTHO) with Microsoft as the coorganizer.

There were several key events during the four days, manning the Microsoft Windows Vista booth was the prevailing one for all four days. And even in the hecticness of coorganizing the whole event, we had to plan and execute some sub-events which gives and exposure to Vista (especially) and other Microsoft products.

The simplest activity we did was called Explorace Windows Vista, or more passionately knownto the committee members as 7 Wows. What we did was to place 7 laptops at 7 locations with 7 attendants where each told of one of 7 highlighted features in Windows Vista.

It was a cool experience. From my perspective as an MSP, I had to tutor the whole group of attendants to understand the features they were supposed to demo/explain about. The guys were very compliant and passionate that they stayed up until three o'clock just to listen to me babble on about Vista. It's been quite some time since I've seen that kind of passion.

I then had to demo Vista and Office 2007 on Friday afternoon. Two half-hour sessions with quite some time for clarification on features and questions. There weren't as much response as we hoped for. I guess many were more interested in activities such as teh 7 Wows rather than listening to demos and talks. But anyhow, those that came generated quite an amount of interesting questions, thus it became quite the event just for the interactivity.

The next sub-event that took energy and and a LOT of preparation was the Vista Gadgets Workshop planned for Saturday 28th. The plan was to give away Vista Business (under the MSDN AA of course), but requiring the students to learn something before they acquire their copy of Vista Business. We targetted 120 Computer Science students, in 2 days of active marketting. We also targetted to accomodate all 120 students in 6 half-hour sessions ranging from 10am to 1.20pm. The students may choose their own time.

The active marketing we did was for one and a half days. Almost the whole of Thurday, and pretty much all of Friday morning. The excitement was quite something to behold. Fellow students came in groups just to know what it's all about. They even asked their friends to come along, putting the names down even over the phone. Nice experience.

The end response? It was so good that eventually we had to turn down people just because of limited seats! We couldn't accommodate too many due to limited computers and time for the hands-on. This is also due to the fact that we had to accommodate for the Vista Launch that happened on the same day, only later in the afternoon.

There were some setbacks however early on. Due to some constraints and limits, the computers just weren't ready by the 10 o'clock deadline. There were even computers that had to be put aside because of the limits in supplying power. The setbacks were overcome nontheless, although we did have to resort to some unorthodox methods of rearranging the workshop venue. :)

The workshop experience was also cool. I don't think I ever did 6 back to back half-hour sessions in one go! Man... It was tiring. You can guess how sore my throat was by the end. But then again, the fatigue only adds to the sweetness of actually being able to pull it off albeit with some setbacks early on.

The Vista Launch was done in the afternoon of Saturday 28th. At about 3 o'clock. The speeches aside, there were some cool gimmicks that the event committe did. They utilized a UTM Robocon robot to pass a hammer to the Dato' (oh by the way, the officiator of the Vista Launch was Dato' Dr Alias Mohd Noor, the TNC HEP of UTM), who then used the hammer to get rid of the ice surrounding a mock Vista DVD. The TNC then put the DVD into a CPU placed on stage. Then the Vista Launch video was played. By the end of that, balloons were dropped from above revealing "Wow of Vista" spelled out on the balcony of the hall.

Overall, the whole event was an experience to be remembered. There were a whole bunch of new people to meet. There were cool and passionate committee members to help us out. There was also a hectic atmosphere before and during the event. All of which adds spice to an event that creates memories and impact for the participants and organizers alike.

I guess that's all for now. Maybe the next time will be more interesting. :) I sure hope so...

'Umayr Sayfurrahman bin Ainullotfi
UTM Skudai Microsoft Student Partner.

"It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein." Qur'an [Qaaf:16]

Mihnah

Dedikasi buat yang lemah dek ujian dan mihnah...

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Mihnah
- 'Umayr SRA [21.06.2007]

Sebuah rangkap madah indah
Menjadi sentuhan penghibur jiwa
Agar kau merasakan hilang gundah
Merawat jiwa yang dihambat lara

Perkasakan dirimu hai jiwa mujahid!
Kuatkan dirimu hai jiwa mujahidah!
Engkau penjunjung kalimah tauhid,
Pastikan engkau tabah menghadapi mihnah.

Engkau akan lalui pelbagai ujian
Maka hadapilah dengan penuh ketabahan

Engkau bakal diuji dengan dugaan hati
Maka siramlah ia dengan dzikir ilahi
Moga kan terbit dan hadir kembali
Sinar cahaya dari ikhlasnya hati

Ikhwaniy dan Akhawatiy...
Sabarlah...
Tabahlah...
Istiqamahlah...
Moga kita bertemu di Jannatu lLah!

Sun

Heard of Surah Asy-Syams?

That's what this song is all about... [Ays-Syams:1-10]



In English:

"[1] By the Sun and its (glorious) splendour;

[2] By the Moon as it follows (the Sun);

[3] By the Day as it shows up (the Sun's) glory;

[4] By the Night as it conceals it;

[5] By the Firmament and its (wonderful) structure;

[6] By the Earth and its (wide) expanse;

[7] By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it;

[8] And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;

[9] Truly he succeeds that purifies it,

[10] And he fails that corrupts it!" [Ays-Syams: 1-10]

In Melayu:

"[1] Demi matahari dan cahayanya yang terang-benderang;

[2] Dan bulan apabila ia mengiringinya;

[3] Dan siang apabila ia memperlihatkannya dengan jelas nyata;

[4] Dan malam apabila ia menyelubunginya (dengan gelap- gelita),

[5] Demi langit dan Yang membinanya (dalam bentuk yang kuat kukuh yang melambangkan kekuasaanNya);

[6] Serta bumi dan Yang menghamparkannya (untuk kemudahan makhluk-makhlukNya);

[7] Demi diri manusia dan Yang menyempurnakan kejadiannya (dengan kelengkapan yang sesuai dengan keadaannya);

[8] Serta mengilhamkannya (untuk mengenal) jalan yang membawanya kepada kejahatan, dan yang membawanya kepada bertakwa;

[9] Sesungguhnya berjayalah orang yang menjadikan dirinya yang sedia bersih bertambah-tambah bersih (dengan iman dan amal kebajikan),

[10]Dan sesungguhnya hampalah orang yang menjadikan dirinya yang sedia bersih itu susut dan terbenam kebersihannya (dengan sebab kekotoran maksiat)." [Ays-Syams: 1-10]

Jerit

Aku rasa sengal... Haha!

baru membaca sedikit, tapi telah terasa kesengalan dan kejahilan diri ini...

Adeih... Teruknya aku...

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Aku dah lama tak menulis yang berisi. Diri sendiri tengah rasa cukup tak berilmu... Aqal dah tumpul kot. Kene tajamkan balik.

---

Agaknya aqalku tumpul sebab dah jarang kot amalanku. Entah la... Hati rasa tak tenteram...

Kalian du'akan ya...

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Allahumma... Kau ampunilah segala dosa yang mebuatkan hati ini gelap Ya Rabb. Kau hindarkanlah diriku ini dari terpijak dan terjebak ke dalam perkara yang Engkau munkari. Sungguh, aku rasa terlalu teruk diri ini Ya Allah... Kau turunkanlah ketenangan ke dalam hati ini ya Allah...

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Hati Meraunnggg!!! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh~~!

Jealousy

I get jealous of the Islamist movements in Indonesia. Why? It's because of their sincerity and their ability to push and push and push the da'wah to all kinds of people.

They even have "Usrah Pencopet Saku.*" One story regarding this group went something like this:

An Ustaz went into the area where pickpockets were rampant. And he lost his wallet. He complained to a friend of his, who apparently was the murabbi of this "Usrah Pencopet Saku."

The murabbi then went to his group to ask about his friend's wallet.

Murabbi: Here... My friend, an Ustaz, just lost his wallet. I wonder if any of you knows where it is.

Mutarabbi: Hmm... The color and appearance?

The murabbi told him.

Mutarabbi: Hold on moment.

The mutarabbi goes off for a while. Then he comes back with the described wallet.

Mutarabbi: Here it is.

Mutarabbi passes the wallet to his murabbi and the murabbi passes it back to the owner.

When I heard of "Usrah Pencopet Saku", I laughed. Although the irony of it does strike me, I have to say to say that here in Malaysia, I doubt anyone from any Islamic movement group has achieved that kinda level. With the eagerness to actually reform people extending even to these kinds of people. People who would usually receive looks of disapproval just because of what they do. Granted, pick-pocketing is not an honest job. But who knows why they do it, if people do not care to approach them and try to understand them?

Whenever I think back on this matter, I get jealous. Not jealous as such that I intend to take them down outright, but jealous in reflectance of our (me especially) inadequacies.

I really hope that one day, Malaysia becomes an Islamic nation in the purest of senses. A nation that fears God with sincerity and it reflects in the society.

Allahua'lam.

* Usrah pencopet saku is my designation of their usrah. Just for easy reference.

Lawan-Arus

Saya suka bila ada cetusan idea yang menentang arus. Saya tak percaya dan tak suka jika orang yang memanggil diri sendiri sebagai pendakwah tidak berfikir dan mempersoalkan kebenaran apa yang dibawanya dan apa yang dipercayainya. Boleh jadi dia tersesat, dan kerana terlalu percaya apa yang dibawa, dia terus sesat.

Pendakwah yang takde sifat kritikal tak robust, dan tak mampu bertahan berhujah dengan orang yang fasiq yang tersusun nilai dan ideanya. Pendakwah yang tidak kritikal juga tidak mampu untuk mengalih paradigma dalam situasi yang memerlukan pengalihan paradigma. Pendakwah yang tidak kritikal juga akan banyak copy-paste. Kata-katanya, tulisannya dan ideanya hanya sekadar muntahan idea tanpa cernaan makna. Apa yang dia dapat, bulat-bulat tu lah yang dimuntahkan kembali. Kefahaman? Belum tentu.

Saya nak adik-adik dan ikhwan akhawat semua menjadi kritikal. Bukanlah bermaksud anda semua semua kene mempersoal dan mempertikaikan semua hukum-hakam yang tersedia establish secara qat'ie. Tapi sekurang-kuangnya persoalkanlah perkara berita dan isu semasa. Naik tahap sikit, persoalkanlah tentang cara bekerja dan the "how of things." Naik lagi sikit, persoalkan "the why of things." Biar faham bebetul apa tu jalan dakwah dan cabaran jalan dakwah, bukan sekadar muntahan apa yang dipelajari di sekolah-sekolah agama dan sekolah-sekolah Islam yang dah merata-rata kat Malaysia nih. Bukan juga semata-mata apa yang dipelajari dalam liqa' yang dinamakan usrah atau halaqah di universiti-universiti.

Tapi dalam berlaku kritikal janganlah sampai tahap melampau. Sehingga tak terlaksana perancangan kerana terlalu kerap berbincang. Terlalu kerap mempersoal.

Berlakulah kritikal dengan adil. Tegur bila sesuatu tidak betul. Tegur bila perlukan peneguran. Tapi tidaklah sampai merosakkan niat dan perancangan. Jangan sampai jadi paranoid kerana semua dipersoalkan.

Allahua'lam...
Yang gembira melihat adik-adik dan saudara-saudari yang bertungkus-lumus dalam da'wah.

Al-Akh 'Umayr.

Disagree

"Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long." - Martin Luther

I soooo don't agree.

Anticipation

Milestones of life are those defining points where you reevaluate yourself and your identity. You think back on who you are. You think about who you currently are. Then you think about who you will be in the future.

These milestones might come at any point of your life. When you are still small, still unable to understand the significance of events. When you grow into your teenage years, able to think yet still lacking emotional control. And later on in life, when you mature into your years, able now to appreciate and grasp control of a significant portion of your life. Yet still, however, subject to fate and destiny.

It could be that the milestone is one significant event or a multitude or few. A tragedy or a victory. But always... Always we remember those events. The divorce of parents, or a marriage of two people. The death of a dear one or the birth of a child. The failure at university or a graduation with first class. The worst exam score or the best. But always, always a significance. Always, always leaving a deep emotional touch to the soul.

What defines us is how we learn from those events. How we take lessons from our experiences. How we analyse the aspects of the events. How we feel the emotions related and manifest them in our lives. Ultimately that is what forges us to be what we are. Who we are.

We cannot see what is to happen in the future, but we can plan. We can anticipate current events and act for the future. Thus there is no reason as such to blame God for the path he has determined for us. He has given us will. He let us have ikhtiyar. He gave us what we now have to use as our resources. From our minds to our sights to our hearts to our expressions and emotions. He gave us the right to utilise all we have at our hands to be creative with. To explore our possibilities, to plan, to hope for the future with. To assist with solving problems.

Thus we can anticipate milestones as best we can with the faculties Allah has provided. It may not come to pass as we might have foreseen. But nevertheless, it will always be something to be learnt from.

As of now... I am myself anticipating a milestone in my life. Would it come to pass as I hope it would? I should hope so... For the time between now and then, I ask Allah for the best. Though best for me might not be the best in my limited view.

Du'a for Moms/Dads of Newborns

I like this du'a.

From Anneesa who got it from Hadith - An-Nawawi, Kitabul-Adhkar, p. 349.

"Baarakallahu laka fil mauhoobi laka, wa shakartal waahiba, wa balagha ashaddahu, wa ruziqta birrahu."

["May Allah bless you with His gift to you, and may the receiver give thanks and reach the maturity of years and be granted piety.”]

The reply is: Barakallahu laka wa baraka ‘alaika, wa jaza kallahu khairan, wa raza-qakallahu mithalhu, wa ajzala thawabaka.

[”May Allah bless you, and shower His blessings upon you, and may Allah reward you well and bestow upon you its like and reward you with open hands.”]

So I'm gonna say it for Ustaz 'Athif and Kak Amrah who just got a new baby son:

Baarakallahu laka fil mauhoobi laka, wa shakartal waahiba, wa balagha ashaddahu, wa ruziqta birrahu.

Oh yeah... Tahniah also to Awla and her other siblings for becoming more "makcik" and "pakcik" than ever. Heheh!