Life...

Citrix Receiver to Citrix Workspace App

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 15:40:00 +0000

Citrix Receiver has a large footprint across the enterprise, both on physical and virtual machine. Rightfully so, allowing users access to their virtual machine from a remote location as well as their hosted apps.

Citrix has two different paths for Receiver release, LTSR (Long Term Service Release) and CR (Current Releases). LTSR is preferred by large organizations since it is more stable and offers the comprehensive updates and bug fixes from CR.

So, how large is the footprint?! 338,000 roughly…let’s keep that in mind for now.

Towards the end of 2018, Citrix first announced the Citrix Workspace App with new enhanced features not available in Citrix Receiver. The following three things happened during this time frame also:

1. October 2018, Microsoft announced a vulnerability in one of their products. MS11-025. It affects the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 redistributable package which is used by Citrix Receiver.

2. In response to the vulnerability, Citrix recommended customer to upgrade to the Citrix Workspace App instead.

3. As of this writing, Citrix Workspace App (CWA) does not have a LTSR and CR version of their CWA app like Citrix Receiver.

With an impact to such a high number of systems, I had to decide on which path to proceed. For a while, it looked like Citrix was going to keep both Citrix Receiver and Citrix Workspace App around. However, from my experience over the years I know that won’t be the case for long. And as suspected, Citrix made the announcement to replace Citrix Receiver with Citrix Workspace App.

In my next four writeups, I will highlight each of the areas that were impacted by this transition.

1. Release Cadence: the release cadence of the Citrix Workspace App (CWA).

2. Removing from base app: as the title says.

3. Self Service Enablement: here I will also discuss the auto detection.

4. Cleanup and Compliance revolves around businesses that still requires Citrix Receiver instead.

5 Miler Since 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 01:07:00 +0000

Last time I raced was in 2005 at the Sunflower State Game in Topeka, Ks. It was a 3K race on a track. I still remember, after that first 400 meter turn the heat on my back and thinking to myself, 'Oh boy I am done.'

Since then a lot has happened and I never muster the courage to race again. I'd always find an excuse to put it off. That is until this year. Starting February, I decided to become serious and approach my running in a more scientific method. By April it was clear I needed to set a goal and strive towards it. On a later post, I will describe in grueling detail about my run and training for this year, 2019. But for today, I wanna discuss my experience running my first race after almost a decade.

On October 20, I raced the Rocktober Fest and competed on the 5 miler. At the beginning of the race, I was very cautious and stayed pretty much all the way on the back. Once the race started, I let my body find it's sweet spot, the groove, the rhythm. The first mile I passed was 9.50 and I knew I needed to star pushing more. So, I started picking up the pace.

Around 2 mile, came across a group of runner blaring the Bluetooth speaker attached to the back of one of the runner's hip. After the first few minutes, I am getting annoyed and planning on moving past him. For the next few minutes what seemed like a loooooong time I am trying to shake off the group. That's when I come up to the downhill slope. Instead of charging down the hill though, I decided to focus on my rhythm and posture. I think that paid off. Because by the end of the hill, I had passed the group.

Mile 3 pretty uneventful. Just focusing on my run and enjoying the different view of this awesome city.

Mile 4, came across another runner complaining to all the passers about how terrible whatever is. Put my head down and completely ignored him. Mile 4.38, just passed someone and she decides to catch up and pass me. Instead of sprinting forward and possibly costing my leg I decided to hold my pace steady and focus, Within a minute, I pass the runner for the last time and crossed the finish line soon after.

Crossed the finish line in 45 minutes and 21 second according to my personal time. Official time is a little lower than mine....=)

Everything I am learning on this journey can transcend over to my professional and academic life. And it has been. More on that oat a later post as well.

Along the way, it is important to call on others for support, rely on. Here I am looking for encouragement for my 10 year old.

Smile, Love and Believe...

3.30am Illumination

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 09:06:00 +0000

This happened last night. At 3.30am I woke to dreaming I had a solution to our problem, well the problem that has the potential for escalating quickly at work. Here's the summary of all of that:

The Environment/Setup:

So, we have couple monitoring servers that monitors and manages the kiosks out in the field. The IPs for the monitoring servers are hard-coded within the image. Every 30 minutes the kiosk pings the gateways to check if there's any tasks waiting for it. For security. on the router end we also have the IPs setup so when the router sees incoming traffic it will allow it to pass.

The Problem:

Up until recently the monitoring servers had Class C IPs. Life was good. But then the decision was made to migrate the server OS from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 R2 AND move to Class A IPs instead. By this point the kiosk themselves are coming to end of life and we made the decision to retire the whole platform by the end of 2019. Yay!!

With the IP changes on the monitoring server, we had to change the IPs on the kiosk agent themselves. And we were able to accomplish that working hand in hand with the network folks. That particular event went down like this:

1. Week 1: network ACL adds 1 new IP to the list keeping the old ones still in
2. Week 2: migrate that one particular monitoring server that was added on the network ACL and update the agents to replace the Class C IP to Class A for that particular one.

Few months later after verifying all are functioning OK, repeat the same process for other server.

This is great for existing devices. What's not great is any devices that have to be re-imaged or new kiosk installation. Remember I said the kiosk itself is coming to an end.

Oh and the old IPs has been reclaimed. Meaning they are gone. Disappeared.

Finally the Illumination:

Since now there's no way for us to contact the kiosk in order to update the IPs on the agent, I had THE grand idea. Oh BTW, did I mention I designed the whole platform in such a way even if we considered having a tech manually update the agent there's absolutely no way to do it. You can't do "CTRL + ALT + DEL" or "CTRL + Esc"..nada. Without being able to check-in with the monitoring servers these machines are useless.

So, my theory was since we are killing the platform there's only a handful of instances where devices are completely down. How about update the agent on the devices via some type of autorun application that the tech can use? So techs will walk up to the downed device, plug in the stick drive and boom it will update the agent on them and reboot and reseal.

The Solution:

With that in mind, by 4am I am writing the different pieces of the whole solution. Ideally there has to be two instances. a) an AutoRun.inf file and b) the application that will update the agents.

Writing the code for either one are very simple. I was so excited I has having a hard time deciding whether to write the second one in VB, bash, script file among others.

By 5am, I was done with all of the coding and now time to test. I waited anxiously to drop our daughter off at the bus stop and then ran to the lab for testing.

For testing, I devised to only reboot the kiosk. So, if I plug in the USB stick and it reboots correctly then I can enable rest of the code for other changes. I could see the USB sticks gets recognized and but nothing else happens. What gives??!!

Heads down I am working away. Trying to figure out why the autorun.inf is running and nothing else is happening. After some digging I come to find out, MS has disabled the support to run any program automatically from a flash drive for security reasons for Windows 7 and upward. There's one of two ways to handle this:
1. Use some type of Autorun USB Creator
2. If there's a native application in the kiosk that the autorun.inf can call on and then the second application will pass the parameters for the actions.

Now time to take a pause and rethink. I search the company database for any USB creator that is approved and can be used. I am not going to download something from the web that is not approved within the company. When I can't find anything, I decided to hit up two of my colleagues with whom I occasionally discuss life, work and everything in-between. Ironically both are named John.

So, John A. I give him the rundown and my idea. He points out that's about the same as updating the current image and less time consuming than the extra component that I am trying to add on. Even though I am thinking few instances of devices being hard down, eventually he points out this little solution will propagate to all the field techs.

hmmmm...interesting point. Oh and we chatted about getting old and taking more care for our bodies...=)

John B conversation: I give him the run down and let him know I am already leaning on ditching this idea altogether. He reminds me the security protocol we have in place and how unlikely, impossible it would be to get any solution like that to be approved by the security team for release. What if someone decided to swap out the executable and update the .inf file. That means in order to safe guard the flash drive I will have to come up with another solution. Overall a time consuming process that likely won't be approved. AND we talked about our long weekend plans, beach and boat.

ahhh...it was a great idea putting on the engineering hat at 3.30am. By 11am, this is not a viable solution and all work around it ceased to exist.

Remote Install Software

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 04:11:00 +0000

So, as the component owner for the Citrix Receiver, for a while I had been testing Citrix Receiver 4.9 LTSR CU2 quiet extensively.

Generally once a new version of Receiver comes out, I spend at least a week testing it in every possible version (laptop, desktop, VM, thin clients) before submitting the app for packaging. Once the packaging team is done, they hand over the installer to me for UAT. This is when I spend another week or two of testing the installer that will essentially hit thousands and thousands of computers both virtual and physical. During this time, I will pick several users and systems to pilot the package and gather feedback.

And that's where few PowerShell commands makes it a little bit easier.

There's the antique way of installing the package. Which kinda looks like this: notify user, hand over or share the package out from a shared location. Make sure user has the rights to install the software. Give user instruction on how to copy and run the program. Check back after a week to make sure if the user was able to follow instruction successfully.

With this method as you can see, we are already loosing a week of going back and forth just trying to install the darn package.

Or the other method is:

1. Notify user that they have been selected to pilot the software
2. Notify user in the event of multiple system, which one will be updated
3. Run a PS command to find out if the user already has the app you intend to install. No point reinstalling the same app. Like that never happens.

In the event if it is too small to see here's what the command is:

Invoke-command -computer Computer 1, Computer 2, Computer 3, etc. {Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate

| Where-Object {$_.publisher -eq "Citrix Systems, Inc."} | Format-Table -AutoSize }

The Invoke command basically tells each computer to return the value of all the installed software on those machines.

The second pipeline is to weed out and select only few of the information I really care about from the returned value above.

The third pipeline is from the whole list again I really want info on certain application. In this case, it is application by Citrix such as Citrix Receiver.

The fourth and the last pipeline is to make the whole list look more pretty.

Now Instead of typing in computer1, computer2, etc. I could also say read the names off of a text or csv file but since here my pilot user list is relatively small, I chose to type out the name. Do keep in mind, this does increase the chance of typo.

4. If the intended app is not installed, copy the installer over to the local drive of the system

In this case, I copied them to the local C:\Temp folder.

5. Use PSExec.exe to install the software remotely from your admin machine.

Psexec.exe \\computer1 c:\temp\Citrix\CitrixSystems_CitrixReceiver_14.9.2000.21.exe

6. Once completed, notify the user that their system has been updated and you will check back with them after a certain time to gather feedback.
7. After the certain time gather feedback.

Few things, I can already think.

1. item no. 5 instead of typing in or arrow upping several time and editing the name of the computer have a command that will install the software in iteration and return value.
2. OR simply write a whole script that will do all these items from 3 to 5 in one run taking in the name of the machines from another source. This way, I simply have to copy the machine names into the source file. The script should read off of it, execute the command. If the software I intend to installed is not on already, copy it and install it and return the success/failure value.

Thoughts?!

Camping at the Table Rock State Park

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Tue, 29 May 2018 11:10:00 +0000

Traditionally, we have always went for family camping during memorial weekend and this time was no different. Although in hindsight maybe a beach trip would have been a better choice than camping cuz how it had rained almost every evening.

So, this time knowing the weather ahead of time I decided to spend extra on getting a canopy. And boy, I am so glad I did. It meant we were able to stand in shade, keep our food, silverware dry, cook in shade and made the wife happy....=)

We arrived around 6.30ish that evening at the Table Rock State Park. We had reserved campsite 37 with water and electric hookup. We really lucked out on that site. As we were driving thru the sites to get to ours, wife was groaning about how uneven, steep some of the sites seemed. Honestly, there's some slope but nothing too bad. When we arrived at our site, it hadn't started raining yet. So, both wife and I got to work taking advantage of that. I jumped to setup the small tent first so we can put the kids in there while wife kept them busy in the car. After the small one was setup, put the kids in the tent and then wife and I started setting up the canopy. Once those two were done, we started on the big tent primarily the one for sleeping and everything for next three nights.

By the time, we started on the big tent it started raining on us. In a rush and with some confusion, we were able to get it setup albeit some mistakes as clear on the pic above. In the middle of that night, I had to get up and readjust our sons' side of the tent cuz it was leaking. Next morning we realized water had got in on our daughters' side as well.

Where the park is located, there's no restaurant or grocery store within a short distance. There's one restaurant but it closes by about 8/9pm I believe. By the time, we were done setting up tents, it was almost 9pm. Kids were hungry, but more tired than anything. We had to drive 20 minutes into town to pickup pizza.

Next day, we took advantage of many of the activities the park has to offer. There's a play area, it is big and in a pretty decent shape. Because of the continuous rain, the playground appeared somewhat dirty but I believe it actually is kept well. Kids enjoyed burning off steam playing at the playground, watching ducks, visiting the nature center.

And it rained on us that night again. However, this night was a little more festive. I had downloaded few movies on our iPad from Netflix. So, this night during dinner wife and I setup the movie in our small tent and they were thrilled. They loved the whole atmosphere of eating their favorite dish while watching a movie inside a tent.

Next morning, I woke up quite early as usual. Realizing I won't be able to get back to sleep, I decided to take advantage of everyone else sleeping and go for a hike. I would've loved to do the Pinnacle Mountain Trail which takes you all the way to the summit, however I knew I wouldn't have enough time for that hike. It is 4.2 miles one way and very strenuous. Instead I decided to hike the simple Carrick Creek trail.

This trail is a simple 2 miles loop trail starting from the nature center. Earlier we had planned to hike this trail as a whole family. However, part of me wanted to assess what the trail holds for hiking with kids, since I didn't have our trusty Kelty child carrier with us. And boy I am glad I did the hike by myself. Without the child carries, it would've been quiet challenging with a 3 year old. Trying to get up on some parts of the trail, crossing the streams would've been a challenge. And that is always a recipe for disaster and make everyone miserable.

I had an awesome time exploring the trail by myself alone in the morning. Towards the end, I ran into two people on the trail. During this whole time, I was taken by the sound of nature, noise from the waterfalls, and on occasion cars and trucks driving by in distance.

Hiking with Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 11:50:00 +0000

This past Sunday, we went hiking with the kids. I would like to think it is just the beginning of the season and be able to keep up during the summer.

So, first about the hike itself. Gave wife two options, either a) Crowders Mountain which is about 40 minutes from our house or b) Latta Plantation, 5 minutes distance. She wanted something far and challenging. So Crowders it is.

For this hike, I focused on getting the kids moving. While the wife focused on snacks. Unfortunately, that meant I didn't pay attention to amount of snacks and water she packed. She had packed more than necessary amounts of snacks just for the four of us with only one water bottle. We hiked the Backside trail which is a strenuous hike, albeit .90 miles. By the time we made it half way through, wife herself had pretty much finished up all the water.

I was also hoping that I had remembered to bring my towel or bandanna. Carrying the little one on by back going up, I was sweating profusely.

Ian on my back in our trusted Kelty Kids

Hiking up with the kids, as an avid hiker myself I focused on few things.

1. Made sure the wife is going to be OK to go up herself since her pace is slower compared to mine

2. Get the kids moving at THEIR pace

3. Be silly, have fun.

If I was hiking by myself I would have focused on either speed and length or the natural surrounding itself or both. But here since kids are involved, I decided to trek along at a good pace that our daughter set and just keep moving. While making it fun, pointing at trees, dogs, singing silly songs.

Once we made it to the top, I made it very clear to both kids that since we are all the way to the top they must stay with me all the time. And then let Ian out, and let both of them explore a little. Wife joined us shortly. Took a small break. Sucked to put the backpack back on with a sweaty back.

Going back down was rather simple but had its own challenge. Since now I have an added wait on my back, top of the waist lets just say I wasn't excited about looking down at the stairs the whole time.

But finally we made it down. Once we made it all the to the bottom, instead of jumping in the car and taking off we decided to have a little picnic and enjoy the weather and watch other people and dogs. After that, change out my sweaty t-shirt, takes the hiking shoes off and put on a sandal (ah.....) and then drive back home.

For next time, I will be sure to followup on the items below.

1. Snacks

2. Water and/or energy drink

3. Towel

4. Sandals for everyone.

Recently I came across this awesome blog all about hiking. I will try to follow her and thought others might enjoy it too.

http://homemadewanderlust.com/

Disabling TLS 1.0

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 19:20:00 +0000

Recently I had to deal with an issue where the f5 load balancer had turned off any incoming and outgoing TLS 1.0 traffic which caused a system wide outage for a set of identical machines across the company.

We were in a time crunch since the change has already been implemented and had to be rolled back. We were given 2 weeks to determine the root cause, come up with a solution and apply the fix before mgmt will be forced to decide whether to move on with the TLS 1.0 traffic denial to meet the deadline or hold off.

At first logically, we thought maybe the TLS and SSL settings within the systems are to be blamed. But that wasn't the case, the settings for the most part was the default IE 11 settings.

While troubleshooting, we discovered the issue only happened when logged in with a particular service account. When logged in as an admin, the issue on the same machine doesn't appear to be happening. (I think you can already see where this is going).

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn786418(v=ws.11).aspx#BKMK_SchannelTR_TLS11

The link above discusses how to enable/disable TLS/SSL settings on a machine via system registry. NOTE: even if you made changes in a system via the IE Properties, those changes will not show up in the registry.

So, from the article above I thought Ok, we will simply disable TLS 1.0 in the system and that will resolve the issue. To disable TLS 1.0 do the following:

1. Open registry.
2. Local Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProvider\SCHANNEL\Protocols
3. Create a subkey Client.
4. Create the DWORD entry Enabled and set the value to 0. BTW, to disable it is 0 and to enable set it to 1.

Crossed my finger hoping this will force the system to using anything other than TLS 1.0. Nope!
It didn't work. Issue still persist with the below error screen:

So, the search continues. Thanks Google!

BTW, we were able to determine via a packet capture (thanks Wireshark) that for each web request the system would start with TLS 1.0 request first. It's suppose to be the other way around. The request always start top down, from TLS 1.2 and down.

Then I stumbled across this article below from MS:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3140245/update-to-enable-tls-1.1-and-tls-1.2-as-a-default-secure-protocols-in

Basically this article describes how you can force a system to use either TLS 1.2 or 1.1 via registry. Below are the steps to do just that:

1. Open registry
2. Local Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\WinHTTP
3. Here add the subkey DefaultSecureProtocols and enter the desired value.

If you want the option to use both TLS 1.2 and 1.1, you can just add 0x00000A00.

Within the same article, there's also the option to Download the fix and apply it to the system. However, I didn't like this particular solution.

I didn't like the solution because it is forcing a system to use a specific protocols for each request which means, I will have to have that documented and that piece of info will have to be passed on for anyone other than me in future responsible with this particular platform. Also if any changes were decided upon in future with TLS settings like this time, we will be revisiting the issue again.

So the search continues. And that's when I noticed the Note section right below the Download button within the same article.

Hmmm, interesting.

I immediately had a feeling that the particular User(Service) account that's having the issue has an entry for that subkey. I took the below steps:

1. Open registry.
2. Load the user hive.
3. Browse out to: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
4. And lo, behold! There it is. There's an entry for SecureProtocols.
5. I deleted the entry and voila, we are up and running like nothing ever happened.

Bottom line: instead of disabling the TLS 1.0 in the system and create a subkey DefaultSecureProtocols which would force the system to use either TLS 1.2/1.1, I simply deleted the SecureProtocols entry within the user account where the issue was.

Being Thankful to our parents

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 11:24:00 +0000

Yesterday, talking to my dad he reminded how in high school I used to cover my head over minty hot water to take in all the steams.

For a moment, I was thinking really?! I did that? Can't remember why? Maybe clear my voice for singing?

Anyway, since moving to NC each Spring I have been continuously coming down. This time was no exception. I came down hard on Saturday night around 2.35am and it has been non stop suffering.

So, he suggested I try that to sooth my pain from cough. Around 6.am I woke up and was greeted with some good old cough and I am not even a smoker anymore. Ran downstairs, drink some water, no good. Take some med, still no good.

Going thru the pantry trying to find some Halls and no luck. That's when I remember our (me & dad) convo from yesterday. Put up some water on the stove with the intention to drink some hot tea with some fresh ginger in it. As the water starts to boil, I stand tall over it just inhaling the steam, kinda like a steam bath but more efficient and economical.

Wow, slowly I start to feel much better. The cough subsides. Now, that could be either because of the prescription med or the steam from the ginger hot tea. That's yet to be experimented on and determined.

Either Thanks dad.

BTW, I was able to manage a good 3 milers in yesterday. It's funny. My leg and body is still ready but my lung says otherwise, wheezing like a old man from the damn cough.

Hiking Latta Plantation the Second Time

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 19 May 2016 14:51:00 +0000

April 24, 2016:

Since I wasn't able to head out to either Stone Mountain, Uwharrie or Kings Mountain, I decided to head over to Latta instead.

It was also later in the day. Due to time constrain, I hike about 6.45 miles in 1 hour and 57 minutes.

This time due to the challenge of the Cove trail, I started off on my right side after parking the car. Started off on Hill Trail to Cove Trail connector and on.

Things I learned:
1. I certainly prefer a banana during the hike. It seems to rejuvinate the mind and body.

Hiking at Latta Plantation

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 19 May 2016 14:44:00 +0000

April 10, 2016:

In preparation for the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park hike, this is the first extensive hike I did. I used Runkeeper to track my progress.

I hiked about 14.08 miles in 4 hours and 31 minutes.

This hike taught me a lot on items I should carry, I would need. My style of hiking and such.

I started about 7am in the morning, keeping in mind when the gates are opened.

After parking the car, started off on my left side of the trail. This is the trail, I mostly run o. Hill trail to shady trail. What got me, was I kept deviating from the map to explore other sceneries.

When you are running, you are brushing through the landscape, and it is hard to take in the beauty of a place. But hiking certainly opens up all of the senses.

The last leg of the hike certainly kicked my butt quite a bit. I didn’t expect Cove trail to be such rocky. Pretty much the whole trail is rocky and there’s also a sign warns on that.

Things I learned on this hike:

1. I like to have a headphone on during the hike but not listen to anything

2. I like wrapping a hotel around my neck

3. I have a bad habit of not taking break, practically at all.

Coming back

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 11:12:00 +0000

I have been away for quiet some time now. I am going to interject myself again.

I am going to break up the blog in 3 different category.

Main Page: Will blog about most stuff as well as any miscellaneous topic can stay here.

Running & Biking (R&B): ah...running, my biggest passion. Also when I say biking, it is motorcycle and not bicycle.

Startup & Tech (S&T): things I am learning as I working to start my own business. Also technical stuff I am learning at work.

I am also going to tie this blog with my professional Google profile.

So, stay tune. More to come. Till then here's a pic of one of our newest member:

Rescued Husky

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:00:00 +0000

Few days ago, I am driving home during lunch hour to log in from home. As I get close to our house, I see a Husky walking down the main road, without an owner.

Immediately I realize, he must've escaped and now lost. So, I turn on the emergency light, pull up to the side of the road and call him to me. He comes up. Which tells me he's OK with other people. He's panting quiet heavily. I pet him for a while to calm him down. Check the dog tag, and call the owner. No one answers the phone, so I leave a voicemail.

Not wanting to leave him by the side of the road, I pick him up in our car, and get home. Once home, I am not sure if he is good/OK with other dog. So, I ask my wife to hold Hunter. I put the leash on him and bring him inside. Put our dog in crate, since the Husky won't go in the crate and our dog is too excited to sniff/check out the new dog.

I give the Husky some water, and treats. He comes down quiet a bit. In between this, we found another number and get a hold of the owner who actually happens to leave few doors down from us. I talk to the owner and ask her if his dog is OK with other pet. Once she confirms, I let both of them loose. They start checking each other out, both of them pees on the carpet and the Husky (Dallas) immediately establishes itself as the Alpha.

Hunter playing with Dallas

Flatulent Guy on the Plane

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 19:21:00 +0000

A lot of has been going on since my last post. Lately, as much I want to post about different things I have been doing, just can't find the time to do it.

To start off, me and my cousin we made an attempt to hike up and back to Mt. Mitchell from Black Mountain Campground. We weren't sure if we would be able to do the whole thing, specially the first hour was the most challenging. But we did it. Lesson: start early so you are back by daylight and not hiking through dark, falling 3 times like me. We got tied up on other things for too long. Also rationing food is a must during break and salt cracker is a life saver. When you start the ascend, you might feel a light headache. I felt like I am about to get a headache, best thing to do at that time is to simply breath and be quiet. Below is the video of our journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGYHhEFOPU

We both are thoroughly excited and have talked about Rim to Rim next year and back country at the Yellowstone the year after.

At the moment, getting back home from a week long summit at work. Several thing were discussed, and one of the big topic was 'Office of the Future.' Not so much what it would look like, but how the end users will do their work. No pointer/solution came out of it. It was more along the line, hey I am working on this just so you know.

My proposal, look at it from a gamers perspective. A gamer wants to play game, he/she has preference on what kind of game to play. Imagine the end user as a gamer. Now, the gamer can play certain games on either PC, Wii, Xbox or PS. Depending on which system meets the need, the gamer will choose a system to play on. So, how can that be applied on corp world. Offer three/four delivery system to the end user to get their job done. User can pick which system they want to work on, but the delivery, experience should be consistent, seamless for the user.

I will into more detail in terms of the system that I believe will be viable. But we see the same approach on other places. Take flying for example. Several airlines offer service. The job is the same on each company, deliver customer and goods to destination. Users pick airlines depending on many factors.

Speaking of flying, on the way to layover had to sit next two a flatulent guy sandwiched between me and another guy, who was drunk, passed out, passing gas and who knows what else. We both were just hoping he doesn't throw up.

Yeah, it's a 1300

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 22 May 2014 13:19:00 +0000

Finally rolled the bike back & forth and cleaned the chain yesterday evening.

Was a bit weary on my way to work. Making sure, I didn’t mess things up. Cleaning and lubing the chain is really not that hard.

On my way to work this morning. Kinda glad about the early start, 7.20am. Hoping to avoid the school traffic. Wave at few bikers on the opposite site, focusing on zooming past cars. And that’s when the HD shows up on the right lane on red light. I suspect he would’ve come to my lane, had I been not filtering on the right side of the left lane. It’s a big bike, definitely bigger than mine. However, I am not sure what kind. All HDs look same to me.

Light turns green, and we have lift off. He moves over to give me space and I go for it. But wait, is he trying to race. To my absolute amusement, my ‘Elanor’ keeping up with his HD. We are in formation, weaving through cars & trucks a little faster than the 55mph. Traffic ahead, we come to stop behind this Lexus. As we stopped, pull my visor up and turn to look at him. He won’t make eye contacts; he’s too cool for that. Not the first, have seen the same attitude on other HDs before.

Light turns green, traffic is moving. We see and opening and we are both reading for it. He jumps on the right lane, and guns it. I do too. I felt a little jerk and look down. Wow, I am going 80 on 3^rd. The rpm jumps to red and then jumps back down. Elanor doesn’t like it. Caught up in the moment, I didn’t have enough time to shift up and didn’t think of it either. I start to shift up while trying to catch up with the HD. Adrenaline kicks in, all the while I am thinking ‘Dude, don’t be stupid.’ HD able to squeeze through between a landscape truck and a car on the right lane one car ahead of me. We start to slow down, and I catch up with him again.

Still no eye contacts. We take the same right turn, and after that we go our separate ways.

Funny, just yesterday I stopped all the way before making a left turn as another Sports biker going past me. And we both threw our hands down (waved).

Last week, came up next to a HD. Complement the guy on his bike, and his response, ‘Yeah, it’s a 1300.’ Oh, thank you for that useless info, honestly I could care less.

Catching the ball

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 14:30:00 +0000

Wednesday evening. Daughter and mom got home after me. My wife is busy preparing dinner. I am trying to play catch with our daughter with a football. Instead of throwing the ball raising your hand, I am trying to teach her how to toss it, more like glide it.

But it’s not working. She’s scared of the ball and she’s sticking her palms out every time to prevent the ball. Naturally the ball hits her palm and just drops on the floor. Ughh, this is getting a little frustrating.

I can tell, I am starting to get upset. And just then, in a last effort I tried something different. Instead of standing three/four feet apart, I actually get really close to her, about half a feet.

Now I am throwing the ball up close and slow. It’s working. She’s getting the hang of catching the ball, instead of just sticking her palm out. Slowly over time, I distance myself. And she’s still with me. Awesome.

Next, I throw the ball with some variations to make sure she’s getting the hang of it. And she is. She’s catching it every time. I am amazed at myself of course for taking the time to invest rather than get mad. Next we play 50 catch, counting up to 50 catches. After that, I get my wife to join us on a three catch. So, we take turns throwing the ball to her, and she’s catching it every time.

And she’s super excited, confident and happy as well for being able to finally catch the ball.

LESSON: kids can teach you how to be patient or get bad real fast. How we choose to invest in the relationship is up to us, the adult.

Coleman Rocks.

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:16:00 +0000

For sometime now I have been eyeing a 8/10 person tent. More for the room, than anything else. We go camping at least twice a year, and so far I have been able to get buy on the 3 person tent. But it is time to get something a little bigger, so we have more leg room. Wife won't have to lie down to change.

For a while, I was eyeing the Ozark Trail 10 person tent, but it is just big. Too big whereas I would have to check out the X Y Zs of the tent site before booking to make sure my tent will fit. Just then, saw a sale go up on vminnovations.com for the discontinued Coleman Bristol WeatherTec 8 person tent. I couldn't resist anymore. We own a Coleman 3 person tent already and love that tent. So, I bit the bullet and purchased it.

A day later (yes one day later) the tent showed up. Both me and our daughter super excited to set it up, counting down days for the weather to warm up. 4 days after delivery, yesterday it was warm enough for us to jump outside and start setting it up after I got home from work. But the temp was dropping fast.

After the initial setup, daughter wanted to sleep the night outside. Wife was taking pictures and videos. But the temp is still dropping. So, we start to break it down. Fingers are freezing. After we pack everything up, when we go to put it back in sack, we didn't tie it enough. The load is too wide for the carrying bag. The zipper won't close. Mess around with it for few minutes, when the zipper just comes off. Wife gives me the 'I knew it' speech. I listen, drag the whole thing inside the house.

After everyone goes to sleep, I sit down with my tool. Put the zipper back in place and repack the tent. Went to close the zipper and it snapped again. What the hell?! Take a look and the bottom plate is broken. Ughhh.

Stayed up a little longer wondering if Coleman doesn't fix it, how hard would it be for me to get a replacement zipper and fix it myself. Wondering all day next day (today) about if I could do it myself.

Called Coleman few minutes ago about the carrying bag. They didn't ask for the order number or SKU, just took my name down, address and another carrying bag on its way at no (absolutely no cost) to me.

Wow....Coleman rocks. I love this guys. Thank you.

Dad Reflexes

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 03:09:00 +0000

It's a very funny thing being a dad. I realize I've never really talked about that part of my life.

I guess for me it was more or less natural. Kinda hard to explain, but being a dad is something that's just part of me. That's a big part of my life.

Reading about 'Dads are Great' on Reddit, stirred up few times I was there to save my daughter vs. few times I choose not to.

Like the time, as we usually rent a two bed hotel, my then two year old daughter was playing in one bed. Me & wife hanging out on the other bed, all the while my eyes are locked on my daughter. As expected, all of a sudden she starts rolling , gets too close to the edge and about to fall. When I sprint to her and save her fall.

But also the time, when we are hanging out in KC and my daughter is playing on a chair. The floor is slick and just by the look, I know she's going to fall. But she also was a cushioned backpack on, as she's falling I know she will be fine falling on the backpack rather than anything else.

Funny, how I sometimes these memories comes back. When we went to the community pool. I just took her life jacket off and put her up. As I am getting ready to get out of the pool, she decides to jump right back. And yet again, I catch her fall.

What I don't remember, is my own father saving me such way. I remember him throwing me in the water, being how scared I was. I remember him mocking me, dragging me down. But not saving me.

Was he too busy because we were two brother and one sister? Or too much of a man?

The Oil Change

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 15:08:00 +0000

Saturday morning I woke up between 7-9am. A little ticked about not being able to go for a run and plus not feeling well. I am running a bit late already as well. Need to change the oil in our car, and then get going to VA.

I just don’t feel like driving. But might as well, get started.

So, I change the oil. Take the filter out, oil drips. After a while, put a new filter in and fill it up with new Castrol Synthetic 5W-30 and we are good. A little surprised to see not enough oil dripped on the pan. Hmmm, maybe the car read the oil level wrong.

Wake Tina up, and convince her to go with me. Talk to family members in VA and make the arrangement. Approaching 11am, we need to head out. I have this bad feeling about something wrong, something about to go wrong. Regardless, we start off. Drove about 4 miles when I see some serious smoke coming out from the tail pipe and the car jerks once and starts to slow down. Something is wrong, big time. Turn signal on, and pull into a small road. Check the filter, oil level and stupidly oblivious to the super high oil level. Put some more oil and try going few inches. Nope, the car doesn’t like it.

Pull into a local shop parking lot, keep head cool to figure out what’s next. Wife & kid with me, and their wellbeing and safely is most important. Call the insurance first and ask for a tow since that will take time. Ask wife to call one of our friend for a ride home and then call family members to let them know about our misery. And then call insurance back for a possible rental car expecting the worse. Progressive declines rental coverage based on break-down issue. Oh well, worth a try. Good friend shows up to pick up wife and kid and drop them home. And actually his showing up was the best thing. Till then I couldn’t figure out where to go. He suggested, I take it to the Toyota dealer. Hmm, interesting.

It has been almost 3 hours since I called for the tow and as I am waiting I jack the car up to figure out the problem. As soon as I went under the car I realized my mistake. I never took the cap off after taking the old filter off to let all the old oil out. The biggest giveaway should have been when I didn’t see any oil in the pan. Now, the car starts up just fine and drive ok as long as the engine is cold. Only when it hits up, all that extra oil tries to expand and get out. Ouch. Well, better suck it up and wait for the tow and hope for the best.

Tow drops me and the car off at the Toyota of NorthCharlotte. Ask them for an oil change, explaining my stupidity. After another hour they come back and it’s all done. Take it on the freeway for few miles to make sure things were really OK.

Lesson: when in doubt, check it out!

Turned Around

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:05:00 +0000

This particular one happened a while back and it has been on the back of my head for a while now. So here it is.

On my way to work, left the house a little after 8am. It is cold. As I go past a signal, I see a cop going the other way. I can clearly make out his look, the look that says 'Are you kidding me?' By now, I rode about 4 miles into my 11 miles commute. Can't feel my fingers especially on my right hand. Kinda surprised since usually it is the left hand that causes most grief. As I am approaching the next signal, I am thinking pretty soon I will be going close to 60mph and the windchill will drop even further for me. I might end up not being able to break safely at that point.

That's when I said hell with this. I am going back and working from home. Did you U-turn at the signal and headed home. Stopped at the gas station. After going inside, the right hand vein started to hurt and I feel it wanted to pop out. I also started to feel warm, like sweating warm.

Went home. Took my time to warm up while drinking coffee.

Lesson learned: get good gloves, and know your limit.

D & D

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:49:00 +0000

No not Dungeons and Dragons. I had friends who used to play it religiously, but I myself never really got hooked on it.

D & D = Dream and Determination.

I was out on my usual 2 mile run on the trail at work. When towards the end, the 'D & D' dawned on me.

I dreamed of riding a motorcycle, made the determination after dreaming of it and it came to fruition. My wife dreamed of a big (at least bigger than what I had in mind) nice house in a good neighborhood, we made the determination to find such house without much compromise and it worked.

Running is pretty much same way. I dream of running nice and smooth, like floating/walking on water. Determine to do it, and try to follow through.

Respect

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 21:19:00 +0000

I think it is time for me to come out of shell. I think it is time for me let everyone around me know about my disbelief. Why?

Last night wife got a call during dinner. She let it go to her voice mail. After dinner as we are settling down to finish the new Will Smith & Jaden Smith movie, she listens to her voice mail. Immediately she calls her friend back and tells her we are on our way. One of her good friends father has passed away.

So, we change and head out. We go to their house. People coming and living. The whole atmosphere is not as somber as I thought it would be. Someone reading a religious book, another person talking about afterlife from time to time. After a while they all stand up and pray, except for me. I seat quietly. After their prayer everyone gathers around to talk and pray for the departed.

Well, in this case it was mostly one person talking during this time and everyone else just bowing down. Out of respect, I join them and sit in. I can tell already where this whole conversation is going. It is directed towards me. I am amazed. The guy that was reading from a book earlier talks about why we should pray or how god will be super mad and all. And then we all pray for. Even during this prayer, only two lines, two sentences were about the person who has passed. I thought it was rather self-fish.

The guy that lead the prayer, pretended to cry comes up to me, holds my hand and tells me how I should pray. I should think about my daughter and wife, and pray. If I don't, they won't and on and on.

Out of respect to my friend, I keep quiet, keep smiling. I check up on my friend, how him and his wife doing. I tell my friend, if they need us for anything to let us know.

So, I think it is time for me to come out of the shell.

Kawi Shoutout

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:33:00 +0000

I would like to give a shoutout to Kawasaki for their awesomeness, both bike and the company. September 25, when the one year warranty on my bike had expired. Before that I reached out to them about an issue with one of the plastic fairing.

Ealier this summer, I had taken my bike to Ridenow Powersports Concord, to have them install the plastic protector on the back. They did an OK job. It was only later when washing my bike, I found wires hanging between the protector and the fairing on the back. So, I took the whole thing apart to put the wires back in place and a little screw section under the passanger seat of the fairing broke. According to Team Charlotte Motorsports, I had over tighten the screw and broke that section in the process. They didn't think Kawi would replace the fairing, but they promised to give it a try.

Next day I got a call from Ben at their service department. He said, Kawi came through and agreed to replace it. Kawi said, 'well mistakes happen. Let's take care of him.' Amazing. I took the bike over the week after and got a new fairing at no charge.

Thank you so so so much Kawasaki. Thank you. This nice gesture means a lot to me.

With that I also wanted to give a shout out to the bike itself, Elanor. She is a saver. Last night I went riding to pick up 'Iron Man 3.' If you haven't seen it, don't. I couldn't wait for that damn movie to end. During the whole time, the only entertainment was cuddling with my wife. On my way from, making a left turn at the signal. As I am cornering, I realize too many things going through my head at once. I am calculating the distance of the on-coming car, looking for gravels on the road, it is super dark and I am also trying to find my focus point for a smooth cornering. It was dark, urban living dark and as I am cornering fast I lock my eyes right in front of me, nope wrong place. And then between the cars on the other side and the road I try to find the spot. And Elanor responded to my each moves and she was smooth.

This morning I am coming up to a signal light fast and at the last moment it turns red from green. This is one of those time when I don't have enough time to speed up and just go and the distance is not long enough either for smooth breaking. I had to pull the brakes with all my grips. And she came to a nice beautiful stop just where I needed to.

Love you Elanor.

One Morning Commute

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:16:00 +0000

On my way to work I am feeling pretty good. Riding a good speed on Harris Blvd. Traffic is light, just a perfect day. And that’s when I notice it bouncing.

You see I USED to tie my badge to my bike. I’d tie the neck wrap around the left mirror and then just stuck the badge in between the speedometer and the windshield. Usually I would do that after I get home from work, park my bike and made sure it was tight. I guess that particular night I forgot to do the last part.

Anyway, as I am traveling 60mph on Harris enjoying the morning coolness, I notice the badge holder starting to bounce. Immediately I check my mirror to see if there’s any car behind me. If there is I won’t attempt to save it. In a matter of second going 60mph the badge starts flying, hits the plastic fairing, the holder breaks and my badge flies off. Ughhh….

I put on the signal and pull over to the side. Park my bike. Have a pretty good idea where it could be based on my speed and wind direction. I start walking. See the bike right across the street. Check for traffic. Yup oncoming cars, however still a bit far. I walk over, trying to pick it up. Hear an engine roar. Another bike pulled over to a parking lot to make sure if I am doing ok. I give him the thumbs up and so does he. Again trying to pick up my badge and I can’t pick it up with the gloves on. And cars are coming fast. So, I kick the badge to the side. Move over and then pick it up.

Pushing the limit and Riding at Night

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 14:25:00 +0000

Over the long weekend, Labor Day weekend, we decided to go camping on a very short notice. We made the decision so sudden and then after that tryint to get everyone to agree was even a bigger chanllenge.

By the time, we had a large enough group, most sites were booked out. We were primarily looking at Kings Mountain. Desperate I booked a Primitive Group Camp site at the Crowders Moutain. The site was a mile hike from the parking lot. And it was a test of our endurance both mental and physical, it was also a test of our friendship.

Overall, we hiked about 10 miles in two days and there wasn't a singles mile we were empty handed. We all had heavy loads on us and despite that we cared for each other, showed kindness to each other.

It was awesome.

Went riding during night the other day. I can relate to the coolness of riding at night. It felt cool and awesome. You do have to be more cautious at night making sure a SMIDSY doesn't happen.

The Insignificance of Significance

noreply@blogger.com (Geeks Widget) — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 11:29:00 +0000

Recaps from a conversation last night:

We may say the world is perfect, things are balance and who could’ve done such a perfect job than god. But in the grand scheme of everything, the world we know is not perfect. We human are not perfect.

Looking at the universe, the earth’s revolution around the sun, it may appear grand. But when you stop to think the same is happening at galaxies near you and the process itself is same all around, now the whole scheme is not so magnificent from an earthly perspective. From there, the question should not be why we, the earth, universe are here but rather how?

Take a tablet, or software as an example. We wonder as to how it came to be, how does it work rather than why? Asking the why question, will invoke many different answers and each one is different and will not satisfy the general knowledge pool.

It is extremely hard to teach ideas, understanding vs. experience. Experience is knowing how to open Microsoft Word. Understanding is the knowledge of how the process works. However, if we have made this far, we are doing great. So far, we have established this marvelous world, human, peacocks, universe are amazing, beautiful; from an understanding point of view.

Now from here, for one/two months do not pray. Do not invoke/call/thank god in any shape or form. It will be extremely hard at the beginning, may take even longer than one/two months to get over the initial anguish, your own demon. If you are able to get over the initial uncomfortableness though, you will realize two things:

1. How judgmental religious people are? Rather than asking question how religious people love to poke, comment on others.

2. The absolute beautifulness of going beyond god. Seeing the Niagara Falls you won’t stop at thanking god but go beyond that. Explore how it happened, appreciate humans’ marvelousness of engineering the fall for our amusement.

‘There is no solace above or below.

Only us--

Small, solitary, striving,

Battling one another.

I pray to myself,

For myself.’

- Frank Underwood (fictional character from the House of Cards)