Artan's Blog

jQuery Multiple Draggable and Droppable Source Code

2012-06-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

Previous Post:
http://williamartan.blogspot.tw/2011/07/jquery-multiple-draggable-and-droppable.html

Demo for jQuery Multiple Draggable and Droppable is here:
http://yy.jangmt.com/willart/testPackaging.php

The source code is here:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B52N9Zm_N1hFaGdEdWhwMktZc2s
After clicking the above link, then you can see all of the codes and you can download it as following:

Smaller Sigma in Microsoft Office Word

2012-05-26T03:26:00.004-07:00

Have you ever been so frustrated to Microsoft Word's formula because it doesn't give you the one that you want? I had once, a small problem that really annoyed me when I wrote my thesis; sometimes I get a smaller summation (sigma) symbol , but sometimes it gives me a big one. It makes my thesis become so messy because the symbols are not uniformed.

Here's the problem and the solution as depicted in the following picture:

Hopefully, this will help someone or save someone's time in the future!

Yet Another New Discuses

2011-11-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

Last time I just bought two discuses from 北高雄, one red and one orange, so unfortunately both of them couldn't adapt to their new environment and a week later the red one was die due to diseases and the orange one was die due to starvation.

Later on, I visited the aquarium store 魚世界水族 on 建工路 to look around their discuses. I just can't resist not to buy their beautiful small discuses. Then I bought four discuses with special price ^^ (The boss just so nice to me!). Really recommend this store, if you want to buy some cheap and beautiful discuses. So, here are the pictures of my new discuses.

They look a little bit darker, due to the shock during the way back home.

The skin looks darker, but actually the real color is not like that

Those two blue discuses on the right side are the old fishes that have grown so big now

How to Convert MySQL Database Character Set from default latin1_swedish_ci to UTF8

2011-11-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

Currently I am working with Joomla CMS (Content Management System) which is hosted in a foreign web host and its MySQL database is using latin1_swedish_ci character set. I need to convert it to UTF8 since the content of the website that I'm dealing with is in English, Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified.

After searching in the web, I found a php code that can do the thing I want. The solution is pretty easy (at least after I found this code), just copy and paste the code below in a php file, let's call it a converter.php file, and then on the second to fourth line of the codes below change the parameters so that it will fit to your database settings. Here's the code:

<?php
define('DB_NAME', 'putyourdbnamehere');    // Put your database name here
define('DB_USER', 'usernamehere');     // MySQL Username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpasswordhere'); // Password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');    // Mostly just use the localhost

function UTF8_DB_Converter_DoIt() {
 $tables = array();
 $tables_with_fields = array();

 // Since we cannot use the WordPress Database Abstraction Class (wp-db.php),
 // we have to make an a stand-alone/direct connection to the database.
 $link_id = mysql_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD) or die('Error establishing a database connection');
 mysql_select_db(DB_NAME, $link_id);

 // Gathering information about tables and all the text/string fields that can be affected
 // during the conversion to UTF-8.
 $resource = mysql_query("SHOW TABLES", $link_id);
 while ( $result = mysql_fetch_row($resource) )
  $tables[] = $result[0];

 if ( !empty($tables) ) {
  foreach ( (array) $tables as $table ) {
   $resource = mysql_query("EXPLAIN $table", $link_id);
   while ( $result = mysql_fetch_assoc($resource) ) {
    if ( preg_match('/(char)|(text)|(enum)|(set)/', $result['Type']) )
     $tables_with_fields[$table][$result['Field']] = $result['Type'] . " " . ( "YES" == $result['Null'] ? "" : "NOT " ) . "NULL " .  ( !is_null($result['Default']) ? "DEFAULT '". $result['Default'] ."'" : "" );
   }
  }

  // Change all text/string fields of the tables to their corresponding binary text/string representations.
  foreach ( (array) $tables as $table )
   mysql_query("ALTER TABLE $table CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET binary", $link_id);

  // Change database and tables to UTF-8 Character set.
  mysql_query("ALTER DATABASE " . DB_NAME . " CHARACTER SET utf8", $link_id);
  foreach ( (array) $tables as $table )
   mysql_query("ALTER TABLE $table CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8", $link_id);

  // Return all binary text/string fields previously changed to their original representations.
  foreach ( (array) $tables_with_fields as $table => $fields ) {
   foreach ( (array) $fields as $field_type => $field_options ) {
    mysql_query("ALTER TABLE $table MODIFY $field_type $field_options", $link_id);
   }
  }

  // Optimize tables and finally close the mysql link.
  foreach ( (array) $tables as $table )
   mysql_query("OPTIMIZE TABLE $table", $link_id);
  mysql_close($link_id);
 } else {
  die('<strong>There are no tables?</strong>');
 }

 return true;
}
UTF8_DB_Converter_DoIt();
?>

Source: http://blog.mashida.info/?p=1353 and http://bingu.net/472/latin1_swedish_ci-to-utf8_general_ci/

Save the converter.php file and then upload to your webhost www folder and execute that php by requesting that file using your browser. E.g. If your webhost domain is www.mywebhost.com, then you can request the file with www.mywebhost.com/converter.php. And boom, everything is done, your database will be converted from latin1_swedish_ci character set to UTF8. And don't forget to delete your converter.php file on your webhost since it will not be used anymore.

New Members of My Discus Family

2011-11-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

New members of my discus family

Feed the fishes in aquarium before releasing the new comer with hope that they will not bully them

Feed them with Artemia (Brine Shrimps) put in floating feeding net

Another angle of my new discuses in plastic

皇冠七彩

Red Pigeon Discus

New fish 1

New fish 2

"Sucking" fish

Quarantine the old fishes with separation net box, since they are bullying the new comer

Five discuses in my aquarium

Java Programming Thread

2011-11-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

什麼是 Thread?

Thread 翻成中文叫做執行緒。一個程式一般來說就是一個 Process, 會執行一個工作就是從 main( ) 或主程式(事實上是一個主執行緒)從第一行到最後一行，而執行緒可以讓程式可以同時執行好幾個工作。更清楚的解釋: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(computer_science)

A multithreaded process with two threads executing in time clearly showing that the threads execute separately and execute mutually exclusively in time. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Multithreaded_process.svg]

什麼時候要用到Thread?
當我們有很多動西要同時一起跑的時候就要用到Thread, 比如說你的程式要刷新畫面,同時也要下載東西,播放音樂,監聽事件(Event Listener 同時要有好幾個 while loop 在等待).

到底要 extends Thread 還是 implements Runnable (extends Thread VS implements Runnable)?
The difference:

1)If you want to extend the Thread class then it will make your class unable to extend other classes as java is having single inheritance feature whereas If you implement runnable interface, you can gain better object-oriented design and consistency and also avoid the single inheritance problems.
2)Extending the thread will give you simple code structure in comparison to Runnable Interface.
3)Using Runnable Interface, you can run the class several times whereas Thread have the start() method that can be called only once.

Thread .setDaemon(true) 的方法(method)
如果設成Daemon則代表這個thread在背後執行

從Main函式開始的是一個非Daemon執行緒，如果您希望某個執行緒在非Daemon執行緒都結束後也跟著終止，那麼您要將它設定為Daemon執行緒，下面這個程式是個簡單的示範：

DaemonTest.java

package onlyfun.caterpillar;
 
public class DaemonTest { 
    public static void main(String[] args) { 
        Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() { 
                while(true) { 
                    System.out.print("T"); 
                } 
            }        
        }); 
        thread.setDaemon(true); 
        thread.start(); 
    }
}

*程式碼來源: http://caterpillar.onlyfun.net/Gossip/JavaGossip-V2/DaemonThread.htm

Useful Linux Terminal Commands

2011-11-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

lsb-release (Linux Standard Base - Release)
- Print your linux distribution-specific information
for example:
# lsb-release -a

No LSB modules are available.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu

Description: Ubuntu 11.10

Release: 11.10

Codename: oneiric

iwlist (Wireless Interface list)
- Get more detailed wireless information from a wireless interface

This is useful when you use Ubuntu on your laptop and you want to connect to the wireless network but you don't know the SSID of the available APs (Access Points) around you.

Example:
# sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 54:E6:FC:E6:62:B8
Channel:3
Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
Quality=42/70 Signal level=-68 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"cse_f5011"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=000000bb0a5b09de
Extra: Last beacon: 48ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00096373655F6635303131
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
IE: Unknown: 030103
IE: Unknown: 2A0102
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101860003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C334E101BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 2D1A4E101BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C3403051B00000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1603051B00000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000004000
Cell 02 - Address: 00:02:2D:2A:3E:DF
Channel:8
Frequency:2.447 GHz (Channel 8)
Quality=58/70 Signal level=-52 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"WaveLAN Network"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000000001dd3a38
Extra: Last beacon: 6380ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000F576176654C414E204E6574776F726B
IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
IE: Unknown: 030108
IE: Unknown: 800600601D003600

ldconfig (Load Configuration)
- Configure dynamic linker run-time bindings

ldconfig creates, updates, and removes the necessary links and cache (for use by the run-time linker, ld.so) to the most recent shared librariesfound in the directories specified on the command line, in the file /etc/ld.so.conf, and in the trusted directories (/usr/lib and /lib). ldconfig checks the header and file names of the libraries it encounters when determining which versions should have their links updated. ldconfig ignores symbolic links when scanning for libraries.

">" (greater sign)

-Redirecting Output

Redirection of output causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for writing on file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the file does not exist it is created; if it does exist it is truncated to zero size.

The general format for redirecting output is:

[n]>word

If the redirection operator is >, and the noclobber option to the set builtin has been enabled, the redirection will fail if the file whose name results from the expansion of word exists and is a regular file. If the redirection operator is >|, or the redirection operator is > and the noclobber option to the set builtin command is not enabled, the redirection is attempted even if the file named by word exists.

">>" Appending Redirected Output

- Use to append the redirected output to the designated file

for example:
# echo "test" >> testFile.txt
if the original testFile.txt has content:
abc
then the result will be:
abc
test

Redirection of output in this fashion causes the file whose name results from the expansion of word to be opened for appending on file descriptor n, or the standard output (file descriptor 1) if n is not specified. If the file does not exist it is created.

The general format for appending output is:

[n]>>word

mkdir -p (Make multiple sub directories with parent directories)
-Make directory with also sub directory and no error if sub directory is existing and make parent directories as needed
E.g.:
# mkdir -p /home/test/dir1/{public,private,log,backup}

zip -r (Compress File(s))
-Compress a directory to a zip file
E.g.:
To zip directory called images in your home directory (/home/username/images), type the following command:
# zip -r myimages.zip /home/you/images/

It recurses into directories (all files and directories inside pics) to produced zip file called myimages.zip

unzip
-Unzip or extract your .zip file

高雄水族館評語

2011-11-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

上個禮拜為了要買七彩神仙魚特地去了高雄市好多好多的水族館，想說寫下來讓自己有個紀錄而且也讓大家可以參考一下，說不定大家跟我一樣想要試養七彩神仙看看。以下我用黃色標起來的水族館是我覺得不錯的而且推薦大家去看看:

* 新樂街的 公園水族:
沒有七彩，而且店面很小！

* 鼓山區華安街的 萬龍七彩水族:
七彩專賣店，有些還蠻漂亮的但是價錢偏高，其餘的魚看起來都普普，是老闆自己繁殖的。另外，這邊的豐年蝦好大一片只要120元而已(其他地方賣150元老闆說的)。

* 博愛路的 地中海:
有七彩神仙，但是都是大的而且沒有很多，店面感覺破破爛爛的東西也有些灰塵了。

* 大昌二路的 彩洋水族館:
專賣七彩神仙魚/Discus，漂亮的七彩很多但是都很貴! 最便宜150元的那種都很爛，不是身體有缺陷就是顏色不好看(比如很多黑點)。

* 明誠路的 北高雄:
有便宜的七彩一隻180元, 三隻450元，但是看起來不是很健康而且七彩不多，這家店是我最常去的水族館，環境很好，魚種很多，東西常常有優惠價(Tropical的魚飼料當時打7.5折，沒有其他更便宜的了)，推薦！

* 大樂 (Dollar) 後面的 北高雄:
跟明誠路的北高雄差不多，只是這裡多了貓狗的Salon。

* 九如一路的 永豐魚寵物水族生活館：
有七彩神仙，東西很多，賣場很大，魚種類很多而且大部分看起來都很健康養到胖胖的，可惜這邊的魚價錢有點偏高。

* 華夏路的 永信水族量販:
有蠻多七彩神仙，也有便宜150元的(皇冠和電籃)，然後有個店員叫Vincent感覺還蠻親切的而且Offer special price 原本500元變400元的紅色七彩神仙給我，但後來我都沒有跟他買。另外，這家店的其他魚種也很多，魚缸都很乾淨，有些魚算蠻便宜的，但是這邊的魚看起來都瘦瘦的，但是整體來說這家水族館不錯！

* 鼎山街的 永信水族量販:
有七彩神仙，也有便宜150元的那一種(皇冠和電籃七彩)還有打八折喔! 但是150元的那一種看起來都健康(快要掛掉的那一種，可能是因為他們剛買進來，魚還沒適應)，其他的七彩都還不錯看，只是有點貴！這家的魚飼料尤其是Tropical牌的蠻便宜，打八折。

* 鼎山街永信水族量販對面的水族館：
沒有七彩神仙而且魚很少！

* 後昌路的 龍鳳水族:
沒有七彩神仙，很多大型而且奇奇怪怪的魚。

* 藍昌路的 地中海:
七彩只有 4隻，漂亮但是應該很貴。

* 大順三路的水族館忘了什麼名子:
很爛的水族館，東西都是灰塵而且是很厚很厚的灰塵喔! 魚也不多，去那邊浪費時間而已！

* 應昇路的 山水水族量販:
沒有七彩神仙，這邊的魚和烏龜飼料算蠻便宜的。

* 建工路的 魚世界水族賣場:
便宜的七彩很多 150元的(皇冠和電籃)，而且大部分看起來都還蠻漂亮的。我最後就是在這一家買，買4隻跟老闆出價500元，但是老闆不給，最後老闆以 550元的價錢賣給我，哈哈好像賺到了！^^

以下是我在網路上找到的高雄市水族館優質商家的列表讓提供給大家參考參考

高雄市水族館優質商家介紹

高雄市水族館
http://www.petgd.com.tw/

高雄市水族館-永豐魚寵物水族生活館 07-3875986 高雄市三民區九如一路278號
高雄市水族館-彩洋水族中心 07-3803426 高雄市三民區大昌二路473號
高雄市水族館-畢格拜爾國際股份有限公司 07-3115688 高雄市三民區中華二路367號
高雄市水族館-雅格水族館 07-3964708 高雄市三民區民豐路41號
高雄市水族館-山水水族量販 07-3877990 高雄市三民區延吉街50號
高雄市水族館-優樾實業有限公司 07-2364135 高雄市三民區建國二路34號8樓
高雄市水族館-洪星七彩站 0800-331313 高雄市三民區鼎力路136號
高雄市水族館-永信水族連鎖-鼎山店 07-3978995 高雄市三民區鼎山街293號
高雄市水族館-地中海-鼎山店 07-398-3097 高雄市三民區鼎山街362號
高雄市水族館-萬隆水族量販廣場 07-342-4598 高雄市三民區鼎中路427號(文藻學院旁)
高雄市水族館-北高雄水族大賣場 07-3872033 高雄市三民區聯興路58號
高雄市水族館-萬魚龍水族廣場﹝高雄店﹞ 07-7232369 高雄市中正一路262號
高雄市水族館-徐文豐七彩神仙中心 07-3651635 高雄市左營區後昌路625巷72號
高雄市水族館-地中海-華夏店 07-349-8422 高雄市左營區華夏路971號
高雄市水族館-魚坊七彩工作室 07-2875683/0917539232 高雄市前金區自立二路73巷28號
高雄市水族館-地中海-獅甲店 07-334-9839 高雄市前鎮區中東五路1366號
高雄市水族館-豐源淡水魚批發 07-8128481 高雄市前鎮區衙忠路55號
高雄市水族館-海源七彩專賣 07-8222783 高雄市前鎮區漁港路145號
高雄市水族館-彩廬七彩 - 苓雅門市 07-3341234 高雄市苓雅區四維三路128號
高雄市水族館-綠色工坊 07-7151126 高雄市苓雅區宜昌街14號
高雄市水族館-尖端專業海水.水草水族工藝 07-3314623 高雄市苓雅區林森二路98號
高雄市水族館-地中海-鳥松店 07-733-1627 高雄市鳥松鄉中正路355-2號
高雄市水族館-地中海-博愛店 07-557-5546 高雄市博愛2路272號
高雄市水族館-地中海-民族店 07-223-3450 高雄市新興區民族2路136號
高雄市水族館-地中海-右昌店 07-368-0722 高雄市楠梓區右昌街715號
高雄市水族館-伊甸園七彩水族 07-6105543 高雄市楠梓區右昌街753號
高雄市水族館-混水摸魚水族館 0935-942912 高雄市楠梓區旗楠路26號
高雄市水族館-萬龍七彩水族 07-5213707 高雄市鼓山區華安街131號
高雄市水族館-海鯨水族大賣場 07-5350813 高雄市興中一路275號
高雄市水族館-尚美水族館 07-8156657 高雄市鎮國路40號

My New Pet

2011-10-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

Recently me and my dear Maggi just released all of our adult Cichlid fishes to a big pond in our school, since they are getting larger and larger and too crowded to fit in our fish tank. So we released them and they seem to be happy to swim in a large pond. When we released them, they swam so fast back and forward and swam around the pond like kids in an amusement park!

Couple days later, we went to our custom 北高雄 aquarium store on 明誠路 and tried to find some new fishes to fill our empty fish tank. We were attracted by a kind of fish that has colorful and unique body shape, as well myriad pattern on each of the kind. That special fish is called Discus, in Chinese it's called 七彩神仙! Discus has flat and round body shape and attractive color like metallic blue, red, orange, white, etc.

So..., we did some research online of where the places that we can go to see and buy Discus. We went to at least 14 stores before we finally decide to buy discus. I will post and give comments about the Aquarium stores that we have visited in the next article. Here are some of the pictures of my new fishes...

The tail shrinks, seems like it has not adapt to the new environment yet

They are so shy and afraid to face people, also may be haven't adapted yet

They only show their ass to me whole night long!

What a rare moment that they swim sideward to me

Standing on the corners

Electric Blue

Ubuntu Remote Desktop

2011-10-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

# Let's say you have installed xrdp (in Terminal: sudo apt-get install xrdp) and you have used RDP remote desktop quite a while to connect Windows to Ubuntu or one Ubuntu to another Ubuntu, then you might bump to a problem when you want to install or do some system settings. For example when you want to use synaptic package manager to install something. You will get an error or warning like:

"Failed to run /usr/sbin/synaptic as user root
Unable to copy the users Xauthorization file."

To solve this problem, firstly connect to your Ubuntu using the Remote Desktop Connection (in Windows: Start -> Run -> mstsc (Enter) in order to access the Remote Desktop Application; in Ubuntu: Applications -> Internet -> Terminal Server Client). After you have logged into your Ubuntu, then bring up your Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following instructions:
cd ~
touch ~/.Xauthority
chmod 600 ~/.Xauthority

# When you use one Ubuntu to "remote desktop" to another Ubuntu, there's something that might bother you. In Ubuntu's remote desktop application, there's no auto hide button or menu like Windows Remote Desktop Application that can let you minimize or close the connection. In other words, after you log in to your Ubuntu using full-display, you can only see the remote desktop. But the problem is that you might want to change the full screen mode to a window mode so that you can switch to other window without disconnecting the remote connection.

Here's how to do it, after you have log in to your Ubuntu using the remote desktop application, press Ctrl+Alt+Enter and congratulation you have change the full screen mode to window mode.

Something Useful for Ubuntu New-bee

2011-10-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

Below are some of basic settings and information that I think useful for anyone who just started to use Ubuntu.

# First thing to do after you install your Ubuntu:
(1) Set your Internet Connection: On system panel click "System=>Preferences=>Network Connections", add your internet connection either or both in the "Wired" and "Wireless" tab
(2) Update your Ubuntu: On system panel click "System=>Administration=>Update Manager", next click "Check" and then "Install Updates"
(3) Install software that you might need: On system panel click "System=>Administration=>Synaptic Package Manager", type in your root password and Enter, next search the software that you want, for example: "Chromium" (Google Chrome on Ubuntu), on the search result make a tick or check, then click apply button on the top menu, then it will tell you the dependencies that will also be installed together to make it works.

# To remote desktop from Ubuntu to Windows:
(1) On your system panel click "Applications => Internet => Terminal Server Client"
(2) On "Computer" put your IP address or domain name
(3) On protocol Choose "RDP"
(4) Put your username and password, and the rest of the input fields is optional, you can just leave it blank
(5) On second Tab ("Display"), choose "Operate in full screen mode"
(6) Click Connect

# To remote desktop from Windows to Ubuntu:
(1) Open up your "Terminal" by pressing "Ctrl+Alt+T"
(2) Type: "sudo apt-get install xrdp" and Enter your root password
(3) If your windows is Windows XP, then from "Start->Run" type "mstsc" and Enter, next put on your Ubuntu's ip address, if your windows is Windows 7, then click "Start" and type directly "mstsc" and Enter, put on your Ubuntu's ip address

# To change your Ubuntu 10.04 window button that located on left side back to the right side like Windows:
(1) On your desktop Press Alt+F2 to call a "Run Application" pop-up
(2) Type gconf-editor and Enter
(3) go to apps/metacity/general/ then see the right side panel and find the "button_layout"
(4) right click on it and click "Edit Key..." Change the value to "menu:minimize,maximize,close" and click "OK"
(5) Done!

# To enable typing Chinese Character with Pinyin input method:
(1) From your panel menu "System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Input Method (or iBus Preferences)"
(2) Find "Font and Style" and on the "Show language panel:" set the value to "Always"
(3) Enable following options: "Show icon on system tray", "Show input method name on language bar", "Embed preedit text in application window".
(4) Next, Go to the second tab "Input Method" and select an input method "Chinese -> Pinyin" and Click "Add" then Close
(5) Open a browser or a notepad or anything that you can use your keyboard to type, on your system panel find an icon like keyboard, click on it and choose "Chinese - Pinyin", then you will see the language panel and there you can adjust your preferences.

For more detail description with pictures:
http://www.pinyinjoe.com/linux/ubuntu-10-chinese-input-pinyin-chewing.htm

# Some useful Shortcut Keys:
(1) Ctrl+Alt+T : open up "Terminal"
(2) Ctrl+Alt+L: lock your screen
(3) Ctrl+Alt+D: show desktop
(4) Alt+Tab: change windows
(5) Alt+F4: close a window

For more complete list of shortcut key:
http://maketecheasier.com/useful-shortcut-keys-in-ubuntu/2008/07/14

Fish Mating Season

2011-08-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

I am wondering what kind of day is today... Can I say a happy day or not? Today I just saw two couples of my fishes mated. One couple was mating in the afternoon while I was coding. I heard bunch of noise coming from my fish tank. A male fish was chasing around another fishes and frequently they hit the shells or small rocks on the bottom and sometimes they splashed the water on the surface. I wondered what they were doing until I saw a male fish started to dance and a blue female cichlid started to approach. I didn't pay too much attention when they were mating and not so long after I saw the blue female fish has already held eggs in her mouth. I was actually shock, because this blue female just gave birth to twelve babies last month and now she is "pregnant" again!

Another couple of my fishes mated in the evening, they are a couple of red-eye yellow cichlid. For your leisure time entertainment may be you can watch this video below that I recorded during the mating process. After watching hopefully you can get a little bit knowledge of how this kind of fish breeds, who knows one day you might want to breed this kind of fish too. ^^

The video shows how African Cichlids do the mating ritual. Firstly, the male starts to shake the body or dance around the female and then the female will pursue the male's genital or secretion area near anal fin, then they rotate around the male pursues the female's genital. At this time, the female will lay eggs, then she instantly turn around to pick her eggs up, then the male dance again and the female pursues the male's genital to get sperm to fertilize the eggs in the mouth. Then they change position their position again repetitively until the female have no more eggs to lay. This mating ritual ends in approximately 10 minutes. This video is only a part of the whole mating ritual.

I put this couple of African Cichlids in a water bucket separated from other fishes in the tank to let them mate. The reason why they should be separated, because when they are trying to mate, the female does not dare to lay the eggs since the other fishes are approaching to steal the eggs when she lays it. And actually my fish tank is not really big, kinda crowded,
so I separated them temporarily and put them back to the tank again after mating.

How to see your fish is ready mate is pretty easy! To see which one is male, just pay attention to the fish that is chasing around the other fish and it has white or yellow spots near the anal fin (the female doesn't has the spots), the other thing that is quite obvious is that he will shakes the body like dancing. And how to see the female that is ready to mate is that the anus is swelling and she is trying to approach the dancing male.

So when you see this kind of situation, then separate them to the other place to let them mate peacefully without the interference of the other fishes. And after mating you can put them back to their fish tank again. The mother fish will keep the eggs safe in her mouth!

Blue female cichlid with mouth full of eggs, this is her second time to get "pregnant", last time was a month ago

Red-eye yellow female cichlid with eggs in the mouth too

You are more then welcome to give any opinion, idea or comment to my post! I will appreciate it!

Baby fishes growing up process (3.5 weeks)

2011-08-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Six of them are turning blue and another six stay the same, seems like the six babies that are not turning blue is the male one.

Put a white paper as a background looks better, right?

Close up 1

Close up 2

Close up 3

This is my favorite one, the stripes is not like the others, its more like tiger stripes then zebra stripes

Look carefully and you will see most of the fishes have stripes like zebra, unlike the previous one.

Close up

They know when I want to feed them. This is one of the reasons why I like to raise fishes, I love to see fishes feeding especially when they eat aggressively (but I don't like to see any carnivore fishes eating on the other fish)

They are growing up quite fast, aren't they? Just 3.5 weeks, now they are almost 2.5 cm.

Adult Fishes

The parent fishes, the yellow one is the father and the blue one is the mother

The mother fish (I like her color!)

(Front) Not yellow, not blue, don't know how to describe this one, but this one used to be blue!

Another not blue not yellow fish!

This one used to be blue as well, but then turn yellow

MySQL Query - count age by range

2011-08-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

Now I have a condition to query on my MySQL database like following: I have a table, let's called it user_table and in the table I have columns including id, name, email, phone, birthday as the following:

id	name	email	tel	birthday
1	name1	email1	2144	1976-01-01
2	name2	email2	5436457	NULL
3	name3	email3	0976564765	1987-01-01
4	name4	email4	1243412	NULL
5	name5	email5	87432145	NULL
6	name6	email6	5777	NULL
7	name7	email7	9875847567	NULL
8	name8	email8	9854875463	1976-01-01
9	name9	email9	27557666	1966-01-01
10	name10	email10	8765765765	1976-01-01
11	name11	email11	0912564421	1984-01-01
12	name12	email12	0955711114	1986-01-01
13	name13	email13	123	1991-01-01
14	name14	email14	0955711115	NULL

What I want to do is to make a query that will group and count the user by age range. The result that I want, is like following:

Under 20	20 - 29	30 - 39	40 - 49	50 - 59	60 - 69	70 - 79	Over 80	Not Filled In
0	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	6

Before I started to look for an answer in the internet, I was thinking to achieve this result, may be I could use php and did the looping of MySQL query which contains SELECT, COUNT and GROUP BY on different range of age, but this way is not a direct or a pretty solution. So, I tried to search on the internet of how to do it with pure MySQL query. And after searching on the internet I found out the solution as the following:

SELECT
SUM(IF(age < 20,1,0)) as 'Under 20',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 20 and 29,1,0)) as '20 - 29',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 30 and 39,1,0)) as '30 - 39',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 40 and 49,1,0)) as '40 - 49',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 50 and 59,1,0)) as '50 - 59',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 60 and 69,1,0)) as '60 - 69',
SUM(IF(age BETWEEN 70 and 79,1,0)) as '70 - 79',
SUM(IF(age >=80, 1, 0)) as 'Over 80',
SUM(IF(age IS NULL, 1, 0)) as 'Not Filled In (NULL)'
FROM (SELECT YEAR(CURDATE())-YEAR(birthday)) AS age FROM user_table) as derived

From this solution we see that actually it's not necessary to use COUNT AND GROUP BY to count on how many records that fit to certain range or condition. And in fact this solution turns the vertical data into horizontal data, which can't be achieved through COUNT and GROUP BY (as I know, correct me if I'm wrong!).

As a novice, this solution clarified my concept and ideas in MySQL, such as:

1. In FROM we can put another sub-query and what the sub-query return is actually a table that gonna be used to do another query by the main query. Let me give you an instance of what I mean! Usually we do the query like this: SELECT * FROM user_table [WHERE condition], but in another situation we need to select something from a query result and give it as an input or a source table to another query, particularly the main query as you can see in the above solution: SELECT SUM(IF(age < 20,1,0)) as 'Under 20', ... FROM (SELECT YEAR(CURDATE())-YEAR(birthday)) AS age FROM user_table) as derived

2. Another thing is that we can use SUM without having to use GROUP BY, I used to think that whenever I need to use SUM, I should also use GROUP BY.

3. In MySQL we can make a conditional test that return a value with this syntax: IF(condition,value to return when condition is true, value to return when condition is false), e.g. If age is smaller than 20, then return 1, else return 0. The corresponding MySQL is like following: IF(age > 20 , 1 , 0)

4. To get current year in MySQL use: YEAR(CURDATE());

Feeding My Turtles

2011-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

My small wugui climb up the rocks to take the food

Wugui: "Ahhh.. finally I got it!"

The one on the rock is going to jump and catch the food

Aiming on the target

Wugui: "Aaaa... come on... give me! give me! give me the food!"

Small Wugui peeping on me after getting his food

This Big Wugui have a bigger bite than smaller one, that's why he becomes bigger than the other one

Wugui: "Oopsss... the shrimp is sticking on my nose! Help me... help meee... pleaseee..."

Wugui: "S..t! now it sticks on my chin!"

Let's see who will get the food

Good friend~

This small wugui is saving power to give a shot to reach the food!

Got it!

Sometimes the Wugui bite on my finger instead of the food, but it's not hurt

I give them this small dried shrimp as a supplement food.
This food cost approximately 200NT per bottle, I bought it on 北高雄 on 明誠路

My Wugui's main food, way cheaper than the supplement food. Only around 80NT per bottle

Wugui daily food

2 Weeks old blue baby African Cichlid

2011-08-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

There are many types of African Cichlid fish, I have four kind of different African Cichlids in my aquarium which are Electric Yellow Cichlid, Albino Cichlid, Kenyi Cichlid and Cobalt Blue Cichlid as you can see in my previous post. The one that gave birth previously was the Cobalt Blue one, however the mate is a Kenyi Cichlid, so I don't know what or how the babies will be when they are mature. It's been two weeks and more since I stripped the baby fishes from their mother's mouth. Now they can eat grinded pellet or fish food already and have grown approximately 1.5cm long now.

Some of the baby fishes have started to become blue

They usually gang up in the corner when they are scared or shocked

Normally they are very active and aggresive

The air bubbles carries more oxygen to the water

12 healthy and happy baby fishes

Maximum filter rate to give higher water flow to let more oxygen dissolve in the water and to push the small fishes to swim so they can grow faster

Some of the babies are turning blue now! ^^

Don't forget to put the black filter pad on the filter tube to prevent your baby fish being sucked into the filter

Baby Kenyi is approaching a drown grinded pellet

Small fish tank that used to be the babies' parent's home

My African Cichlids Fishes

2011-08-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

My African Cichlids in a small fish tank (5 months ago)

My African Cichlids in a bigger fish tank (now), with four new added Albino Cihlids

Did you see any difference with the fishes except that they become bigger? May be you might notice that there's only one blue cichlid left and where the heck the other blue fishes have gone? Actually they are still there but their color have changed to be yellowish. You can see the pictures above those fishes with light black striped yellowish color fish were actually blue when they were small. As your information these blue become yellow cichlids are called Kenyi Cichlid and the male Kenyi usually is blue when they are young but turn yellow when they are adult and ready to mate, while the female Kenyi will still stay blue. So, don't worry and don't have to wonder if something has happened with your fish or your fish tank water. It is normal to see male Kenyi Cichlid turning yellow! I have confirmed this information by googling around, so just believe in me!

My new born African Cichlid

2011-07-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

As an information, African Cichlid is a mouth-brooder fish, meaning by the fish will put the eggs inside of her mouth until they hatch and grow mature enough to be released from its mother's mouth. One hand is to protect the baby fishes from predators or the other cichlid (p.s.: African Cichlid is cannibal that will eat the baby fish of their own species), in the other hand is to provide a nice and comfort environment for the babies to grow. How to see the fish is mouth-brooding or keeping fries in her mouth is pretty easy, when your fish doesn't want to eat and she is reluctant to open her mouth, then she probably is having her babies in her mouth.

Yesterday (2011-07-18) I just strip them out from her mother's mouth, so now is their second day living outside of their mother's mouth. It might be controversial to strip the mother fish, instead of letting her release her fries or babies naturally. The reason I strip the babies from her mother is because the mother has not eaten for nearly three weeks since she got eggs in her mouth, she became thin and thinner, so I decided to strip her out.

How to strip the fish is basically learned from youtube, here for your reference:

Here's the video of my fish being stripped:

Below are some pictures of my African Cichlid fries:

African Cichlid Fry Day 1 Outside Its Mother's Mouth

12 Babies of My Blue African Cichlid

The baby fishes still have their egg yolk on their abdomen.

Although they still bring egg-yolk on the stomach, they are healthy enough to live outside her mother's mouth

The mother of these fries is one of my blue African Cichlids that approximately 8 months old with length of approximately 7~8cm.

My African Cichlid mother fish

You are welcome to leave a comment, suggestion or question, and please give me your advice how to make my blog even better! I will appreciate your help very much! Thanks ;)

jQuery Multiple Draggable and Droppable

2011-07-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

For people who is starting to use jQuery like me, will find out that jQuery is really really a good javascript library and it is not just a library but also a useful UI (User Interface). You might have seen the full documentation of how to use its UI as well, but did you find something that is missing, something that you might need to achieve the functionality that you want? For me, I found out that there's no documentation nor example of how to achieve multiple drag and drop in the jQuery UI official website, I need this functionality in order to select multiple items, drag and drop them to different droppable area. Specifically, what I need is a better user interface to let a user to "pack" items from an item list to some boxes in an easy and convenient way. The functionality that I want is depicted as the following figure:

Figure 1. jQuery multiple draggable and droppable moving three draggable items from "Item Area" to "Box 1"

Demo: http://yy.jangmt.com/willart/testPackaging.php

People that have the same need as me, which is to select multiple items and then drag and drop them together to the droppable area might have tried to google around to find how to do it. So far, I found this: http://thechriswalker.net/select-drag/, but I haven't seen through its code; there are also some short answers in http://stackoverflow.com of how to do multiple draggable and multiple droppable.

In the next post, I'm gonna explain more about how I made the multiple draggable and droppable, so please keep on following my blog!