Kyle's Storey·雪泥鸿爪

Moving!

2011-02-12T14:47:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, long time no see.

It was a busy 6 months I had in Kota Bharu. Anyway, if you're not in the light, you should be aware that Nokia and Microsoft ("the two turkeys") have just teamed up to go big time challenging Apple and Google, creating a 'three-horse race' (sorry RIM and HP). With this announcement, I guess we all who love Symbian will have to give up eventually (approx. after 2012) and move to WP. With this I've decided to move my blog to wordpress.com, which happened to be in partnership with the evil Microsoft to host all the latter's spaces.

The link

Hope to see you over there! Hope that I can update more frequently too.

Kelantan

2010-07-06T12:49:00.001+08:00

I have just received my KKM placement of the year: Kelantan.

Hope to update after I get to Kelantan. Some people may cry because they got Kelantan. In fact, the grumpy uncle HA who handled my body check also got softened when he heard that I am going to Kelantan. swt. Not very sure why. But I definitely look forward to going to serve in the Malay heartland for different experiences.

Hope to see you soon.

Windows Live Skydrive 2010 & Why a PC user should have one

2010-06-20T10:30:00.001+08:00

After facing fierce competitions from especially Apple's Mac OS X, Microsoft launched several features a few years ago to make up for Windows' weaknesses. Windows Live Essentials was born then. Most of these apps were launched as counterparts to Apple's iLife suite, which comes with any Mac purchased. Some of the apps include Windows Live Messenger (iChat), Windows Live Photo Gallery (iPhoto), Windows Live Mail (Apple Mail), and Windows Live Movie Maker (iMovie). However, there is one thing in the package which has no free counterpart in Mac, and it is the Skydrive.

Skydrive is a free storage provided by Microsoft, giving a user up to 25GB of cloud storage. Each file upload, however, is limited to 50mb, meaning each individual file you upload should not exceed 50mb at the moment. 50mb is actually a comfortable size for backups of documents, musics, and pictures, because these files rarely even reach 50mb in size. Therefore, it is a great choice of online backup.

You can also use skydrive to store important documents that you want to access anywhere. For example, an important presentation, an important document which you wish to look and edit when you're not in front of your PC. From my experience Skydrive has little downtime, meaning it should be there most of the time when you need it. You can also make files private, away from those prying eyes, make files available to friends only, or simply public for everyone.

Picture sharing is also available on Skydrive. Most Malaysians use Facebook instead of Microsoft's MySpace for social networking, but the quality of pictures in Facebook is plain horrible. To say it really, it is meant for just browsing, more like a preview. And the most important thing is that most pictures without people usually don't get uploaded to Facebook, simply because there're no people in it (note: Social Networking). With the massive amount of storage in Skydrive, you can easily upload original sized pictures to Skydrive, and later share it with friends of your choice or just make it public. Viewers can even download files as .zip archive.

Massive uploading is also very easy now, thanks to Siverlight. Just use any browser to go to skydrive and upload files, you will be able to drag and drop files into the box provided in the page, with Silverlight installed in your PC or Mac.

That said, there are also quite a few weaknesses in it too. For instance, user cannot upload folder to Skydrive; they must select files. Folder management in Skydrive is also highly uncomfortable, and it hasn't been changed since its inception. Viewing Skydrive on mobile is also a PITA, as it gets unresponsive sometimes (Tried on a Nokia Symbian and iPhone before). However, it is a very useful place for online backups of your documents and files which you wish to access anywhere with Internet.

Life @ 12/6/10

2010-06-12T20:34:00.001+08:00

It has been busy for me.

Lots of things were done since a month ago, and although I still get rest, tiredness still set in quickly.

World Cup fever is going on, but don't expect me to catch any action unless Germany, Spain, England and Brazil are playing or 16 team onwards LOL.

The iPhone 4 has also been launched a few days back, featuring a big leap for iPhone, although not very much if compared to the competition. Of course I must say the Apple A4, 960x640 screen, internet speed and design are all very great, but the single LED flash is bound to suck, and FaceTime, if only available via WiFi & iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only in Malaysia, this means almost nobody is going to use it. However it is, it is still iPhone, means the focus is on the phone as a mobile computer. In this field the iPhone is truly great.

Lets await the battle between Nokia N8 (If they don't fail it), HTC EVO and the iPhone 4G. This surely is a very interesting summer.

"Statistics"

2010-06-10T18:03:00.001+08:00

A recent dispute in statistics between a federal minister and the nation's Treasury has again reminded us on the importance and potency of statistics.

People may still remember another set of disputed statistics between a research institute and a federal agency causing an economics researcher to resign, a few years back. The moral of these stories is that statistics can always be misused and read differently. When people quote statistics, they should quote results from reliable sources, not just "according to statistics" or "according to poll". God knows any liar can create a poll or statistics in split second.

The dispute between the Treasury and the federal minister may go beyond statistics deep into politics, but whatever the reason is, both their 'statistics' methods and results should be evaluated further because we deserve to know the true amount of money involved.

Nokia N86’s v30 firmware

2010-05-05T11:27:00.001+08:00

Nokia has released v30 firmware for the N86 device. I installed it and unfortunately it seems buggier than V21. T_T

Some of the problems I experienced were:

1. Laggy camera: the display on camera lags from time to time, even during video capture. Howevere there seem to be no effects on the actual recording though.

2. Dropped calls: I experienced dropped calls which has never happened before.

3. Random restarts: The phone now restarts very suddenly, especially during web-browsing T_T this totally sucks.

The firmware also claimed bugfixed email client, though I didn’t see any improvements in its speed.

Come on Nokia, you gotta do better than this.

湖岸记

2010-03-28T22:15:00.001+08:00

雨后湖畔凉风转明月相伴千杯还

忽闻琵琶哀怨声伊人亭内叹沧桑

把酒欲询伊人感只顾琵琶不复旁

如此相见在天涯仅诉心音勿有他

天籁音间恨愁茫心有所托情更长

明日嫁作他人娘非所好也非所想

自古称羡戏鸳鸯比翼连理人皆唱

不如湖畔千杯乱笑尽人生多少难！

For the egocentric ones~

2010-03-28T15:24:00.001+08:00

If you have a great interest in self-worshipping, you can try this website and make yourself the Hero of Sweden.

For self-worshipping purposes, I used my Avatarised picture which you can see in the movie above (click link for larger version). Looks great huh?

Firmware update 21.006 and free Ovi Maps for Nokia N86 now

2010-03-18T12:56:00.001+08:00

Good news for all N86 users lately, as a minor firmware update was released a few days ago and now: The much anticipated Ovi Maps with free driving navigation! Go to your Software Update app to download (approx 8mb download) it now!

Feels like 37 degrees currently… that’s killing T_T

Symbian^3 UI

2010-03-11T19:07:00.001+08:00

More details for the next generation UI for Symbian…called Symbian^3.

Apparently, Nokia has ‘taken’ a lot of good points from other UIs and improved on their own advantages. Of course copying isn’t exactly a nice thing to do…but if you’re losing out and copying is the only way, then it should be. Whatever it is, I think the single feature which I’m most interested in will be the graphical multitasking which is “not a trick”(Quote: video). It gives me an AeroPeek feel which I think will definitely make multitasking so awesome that you won’t want to miss doing it at all! I mean, look at iPhone OS.

Log 4/3/10

2010-03-04T19:29:00.001+08:00

Few days of integrated seminars have passed. After today’s seminar, I guess everyone has a reason to be wary of their classmates. Hehe.

Today I read about Ovi Mail having combined its address book with Ovi contacts. For unknowing people, Ovi is a set of services provided by Nokia to almost all Nokia users, maybe except 1208 and the likes. I was first exposed to this Ovi thing after I got my N86. Ovi Mail came as part of the free Ovi services to compete with the other smartphone market players, I believe.

I reminded myself of the number of times I have switched my mailboxes. Switching mailbox is never an easy thing. I used to have a Yahoo Mail account (Yahoo Mail was a big thing back then, compared to its petty competitor Hotmail, which I never like at all, but was forced to use when I started an MSN messenger account.), then changed to a second Yahoo Mail, then added a third Yahoo Mail together with the second one, then hotmail (MSN!~), then 163 (Chinese) mail, finally gmail when it was in its early beta stage. Of course, gmail remained until now.

Now that Google is on the verge of ruling the virtual world, I thought of leaving it by jumping to Ovi mail. Very ironic huh?

Of course it is always very good to see Nokia trying to protect its smartphone market that it once ruled with customer services. The pressure of free market. It even provides OTA sync of your details with Ovi server, which I think is very great.

But I guess I wont be switching to Ovi Mail yet huh? Gmail works perfect on Nokia Messaging anyway. I still write blog on blogspot (Google owned), read on Google Reader, and use Google search instead of Bing or Yahoo (which again something I have never liked to use).

Whatever it is, good job Nokia, and hope you continue to provide more conveniences and innovations to your users!

Log 3/3/10

2010-03-04T00:46:00.002+08:00

最近这几天终于又何多月不见的友人们重聚，可惜时间未允，尚未与所有人叙谈。

这几天里，大家都在分享过去数月的事情，算是共同学习（共同三八）的一种吧。

这才知道其实到处都发生了很多趣怪之事。三八当中又叹有笑。

又有谁能预知未来的日子里会发生什么事？也许朋友也会改变了。还不如趁现在把小小心结给忘记，过得快乐一点。以警戒及不信任之心对待所有身边的人，只会让自己老得更快。把一切事情看成一面倒对自己不利，只会让自己更加忧郁，没有信心面对接下来的挑战。

有时候看的比较简单，反而会快乐。

iPhone coming to DiGi!

2010-03-03T19:41:00.001+08:00

Finally iPhone is now available to a second telco in Malaysia. Too bad my interest in iPhone is now replaced with iPod touch/iPad…and my money with N86.

Let’s see how Digi, who has a long record challenging the two taikos of Malaysian telco arena with all kinds of low prices, is planning to outsell Maxis. Hehe…interesting war ahead. I doubt if Digi has enough 3G coverage though.

My dirty iPod Touch's invisible shield

2010-02-26T13:00:00.001+08:00

After almost a year of using, the invisible shield seemed to have the ability to accumulate dirt, causing the entire shield to look so yellow. Finally i cant bear the sight of my yellowish iPod and tore it away.  You can see that the yellowish colour on the shield is so ever evident. Finally my iPod looks like steel again..^^

Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone/iPod Touch

2010-02-23T21:09:00.001+08:00

This gotta be one of the more fun games I’ve played in a while! Well, indeed, considering I haven’t played any iPhone games in the past 3 months.

Plants vs. Zombies ($2.99) is a port from the Windows version of the game. Just like many games else, playing Windows games on the iPhone/iPod Touch sometimes give you even better experience and excitement, because it’s now touch screen! Price is just right for me so no hesitation necessary ^^

Recommended if you like the Windows version of it for different experiences! ^^

Tweetdeck: Twitter+Facebook+Linkedin client

2010-02-23T15:13:00.001+08:00

I’ve recently discovered a great application for users to track their twitter and facebook updates. It’s tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck uses Adobe AIR technology. It auto-updates your twitter and facebook account status every few minutes and notifies you when there are new updates. It’s useful for people who have multiple social networking accounts and doesn’t like going to each and every webpage on their own.

Generally, I found the app very convenient and nice to use after a few days. The only down side to this is the amount of RAM it eats. It starts with 100mb+ and can easily reach 200mb. It’s not exactly a concern for me (I have 4gb), but it may not be quite suitable on older computers.

Again, do try if you have the luxury of large RAM and facebook and twitter accounts. Follow my twitter too if you wish @kyle8c.

Will do updates when I’ve evaluated the other similar applications.

Tiger Woods Apologizes

2010-02-20T07:22:00.000+08:00

Symbian^3 Preview at MWC 2010

2010-02-19T18:33:00.001+08:00

The two most exciting change in the mobile world this year are Symbian and Windows Mobile. Preview of Symbian^3, the next generation Symbian touchscreen OS is as below:

I think the whole concept is good to begin with, it maintains the life of the OS while modifying the entire user interface to make it much more usable. While Symbian^4 will be following introduction of Symbian^3 shortly, we still have reasons to be awed by Nokia’s latest innovations in its flagship OS.

I’d have waited for Symbian^3 devices if I hadn’t bought a new phone. LOL.

Log @ 18/2/10

2010-02-18T23:54:00.001+08:00

It has been a while since I last posted anything here.

As what my last post here suggested, I went for clinical attachment in Hospital Melaka . The whole thing just finished right before Lunar New Year, so kinda lucky for me. While I have subscribed to a wireless broadband provider, it didn’t work very well from my location in Melaka, so sort of wasted too. Its a pity because it worked very well in TI. I even got 2.++mbps from speedtest.net in TI.

In the mean time, I also tried blogging at tumblr, but it seemed to have not worked out well so far, so I’m back here at blogger.com for now.

Anyway, I have to be prepared to return to school on 1st of March later. Still lots of work and some articles to churn out before that. I hope I can do everything before 28th this month, which is like 9 days away.

I also look forward to updating this blog with much more stuff than it used to have. =)

Lastly, happy Lunar New Year and welcome the year of Golden Tiger according to Chinese zodiac.

谨賀新年！恭喜發財！虎年大吉！

Secret Recipe in Teluk Intan

2009-11-27T16:09:00.001+08:00

A picture says everything. Expected to open next month in Bandar Baru. The shop will be occupying the MCA building and an adjacent shoplot.

This is a map for anyone who doesn’t know where will it be (follow: red circle).

It’s a pity I most likely won’t be there when it opens. 'Because I will be in Melaka as soon as tomorrow for 3 months of hospital attachment.

Wish me luck and hardwork =)

秋

2009-11-16T18:22:00.001+08:00

她在我耳边细语道：

“又是秋夕之节，借你黄粱枕一个；

深秋之时，勿忘奉还。”

忆梦里一切在风中漫步的湖边

而我望着阵阵秋雨想起你在阵阵秋叶里啊娜的背影

而我在枫树下止步见你对我一回眸深深触动着我心腑

而我们席坐湖中轻舟一艘你妩媚的眼神仿佛向我倾诉心中许多郁闷

如今深秋已至

这场黄粱美梦让我深陷其中多时

美梦将尽我却早已无法自拔

告诉我

孤掌尚且难鸣

难道梦里一切仅是我一厢情愿？

也许美梦将尽才是我们最好的结局

也许天不作美才是最想你的季节

Forever Jam

2009-11-09T19:41:00.001+08:00

MV导演：Kyle 词：王力宏/Kyle 曲：王力宏

请听原曲forever love以便享受本词的效果

（MV开始，看见以KLCC为背景的早晨吉隆坡塞车）

驾车不是因为我有钱而已
我每天都要驾车每个公里伤透我薪金
因为你让我看见forever 公车放飞机
上班这些日子要好好珍惜

驾车有些痛苦有些不公平
如果真的驾车不是理所当然的决定
看到其他汽车在我车边用力的鸣笛
温柔的咒骂前面的司机

所以我要每一天早起来开车哦多不自然

forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后你会是所有迟到的理由

上班是场最久最远的旅行
沿途车祸频密偶尔阻碍我们的前进

看到其他司机赶抄车牌迟点买4D
巧妙的勾起我的火脾气

不可思议证明我骂人的理由哦多么自然

forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后你会是所有迟到的理由

你超多的toll gate 我鸣笛的声音仿佛就是最好的抗议
就让我再说一次 I HATE YOU 哦！直到永远！

哦 forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后你会是所有迟到的理由

forever jam forever jam
forever jam...（MV在不尽的车龙中 fade out 结束）

Please vote my friends!

2009-11-04T22:35:00.001+08:00

My friends are currently taking part in a New Zealand Natural fanpic contest.

I sincerely appeal to all my blog readers… please vote for them if you have a facebook account! Thanks!

You can vote by following these steps:

1. Become a fan of New Zealand Natural.

2. Click this pic and choose ‘like’!

This is the pic!

I’m sorry to tell you that I can’t offer anything in return…your efforts are voluntary and will be much appreciated! I myself too, although not taking part in the competition, tried to help them and resulted in being called a spammer by friends T_T It hurt me, but it should not affect our will to fight to the end! My only purpose in helping is just so that my friends can overtake another winning pic and win! (Now don’t ya try to vote the other pic =P) My friends are currently 40 votes short for a tie.

If you are reading this, please help! I offer you much thanks on behalf of my friends!

P/S: The voting ends this Saturday, please be quick if you want to join the Force!

Life @ 19/10/09

2009-10-19T16:56:00.001+08:00

In 87 minutes’ time, I will be collecting my final results.

Have been feeling awful these few days. All friends in the group have finished their tests except me. Stress arises when they are already preparing presentations, analysis, and what. When I see them, I feel STRESS.

I hope the stressful feeling will be alleviated tonight. Missing Aidilfitri has less effect on me (except missing a week’s holiday; nobody invited me to any meals). But I cannot afford to miss Deepavali because along with that I miss at least three great meals T_T In deep sadness now. Anyway, happy belated Deepavali to everyone.

Today is also the second day of the ninth Chinese lunar month, where Taoists will observe nine days of vegetarianism as part of the nine-day Nine Heavenly Emperors festival. Vegetarianism observed during these nine days are supposed to be very strict, i.e. only plain and simple vegetables, but the twisted business minds of the Chinese sure have changed a lot of things. Nowadays people just take vegetarian ‘char siew’, chicken, pork, anything which was in meat form originally. Some temples even invite artists to perform in sexy dresses. It is no wonder why Zahid Hamidi said such dances are part of the Chinese culture. Because these dances appear in even the holiest religious festivals of all! Relevant bodies may want to look into such insults on the festivals. Not Zahid Hamidi’s insult; I mean, that’s ignorance. They might want to look into why temple committees allow such performances in temples.

After all these tests, I will be looking forward to go back very soon. I’m so sick of the IMU building now, the mere sight of it induces emesis.

Sigh.

Life @ 12/10/09

2009-10-12T13:56:00.001+08:00

Today my research work had a good start.

Apparently the cells are now growing very well. I have subcultured the cells and hopefully they will be enough on Wednesday for the ultimate test.

Anyway, tomorrow I’m going to do my third positive control test. The first one failed because of big variation, and second one failed because of…bad reagent? Don’t know.

This week must proceed without any errors, mistakes, bad lucks, and bad incidences. I hope so. I sincerely hope so.

I don’t want to be the last person to remain in the lab.

Life @ 10/10/09

2009-10-10T12:05:00.001+08:00

Happy anniversary day to what is left of the Republic of China now.

Finally my cells are showing signs of growing. I hope they can grow so well that I can finish all my tests next week.

I have also got my laptop back yesterday. The service personnel at Asus told me that the LCD screen holder caused the crack. The holder, apparently, caused too much stress on the plastic casing while the LCD screen is opened and closed, thus the crack. Now the entire bottom casing is new (even the touchpad buttons! Wow! Thanks 'cos my left touchpad button was slightly damaged before).

However, the laptop was crawling so much so slowly compared to my desktop that I had just done a reinstallation yesterday night. It didn't seem better today, anyway, so I gave up hope. Afterall, Vista is Vista. No service packs will be able to save it from its self-pitted downfall.

I have also gone to the Discovery Week organised by Epicenter Pavillion. The unibody Macbook Pros are looking as great as ever, especially after my experience with Vista and this crack out of nowhere. It is a pity that money spoke to me, and I had to leave that place in a sorry mood.

I have also taken a look (finally) at a demo iPhone 3GS. Suddenly I realised that I had lost interest in it. LOL. Maybe I had only loved iPod Touch all the while. Macbook and OS X makes more sense for me. At least for now.

I hope nothing will happen to my laptop again for at least another year before it finally take its last breath. Who knows what my evil heart might be plotting against the laptop in order to find a replacement...

IT & I

2009-10-07T20:13:00.001+08:00

I could not remember when did they begin to associate IT so tightly with me.

It probably began when I offered to help setup projectors and school's awful PCs.

When I offered the first help, I wasn't even aware of what many of the buttons on the projector remote control were supposed to do. The help offered was on a goodwill, and desire to hasten lectures so that they wont go beyond their time limits, which may in turn deprive me of my toilet breaks. Of course, skills come with experience. Projector setup did not become a problem soon enough.

School PCs are another story. They were awful and they still are awful. It took me an hour to print just 4 pages last week, having to go through 5 PCs, 4 printers and 3ELLs.

Somehow, I was said to be extremely good in IT and people came after me with many questions and problems. I didn't mind. Helping is good. And I get to learn a few things on the side. Soon enough, I even started looking for viruses in people's computers because the real expert has become sort of unavailable, both time and person.

Whatever it is, I wasn't an IT expert. I am still not an IT expert.

I profess an interest in gadgets. I admit my fancies for Apple products. I may have helped many people in their computer-related problems.

But I am not an IT expert.

When I was supposed to take pictures as a 'silent potato' (as they call in Malay), its OK. I am silent most of the time, especially in front of people that I am not well acquainted, people that I dislike so much, people that I secretly admire :-$, and during meetings which I don't have additional opinions to make. It is also true that most of those in the silent potatoes group don't make noise in the public (as evident in the last meeting). Taking photos in lab coats is less fine, but still acceptable for me. Asking me to pose like an IT expert is too much.

I feel like I'm becoming a geek in no time. Now have I realised that I am the computer geek in most people's eyes.

The association of IT and I had also nearly changed my research project for this semester.

Apparently, someone (which I have yet to identify) mentioned me as an IT expert in a certain e-PBL, causing the e-PBL facilitator, who happens to be my current research supervisor, to ask me if I had wanted to do 3D QSAR work instead of plant extraction. The supervisor for the 3D QSAR project had also came to meet me to see because he thought I had a genuine interest in it.

Sorry, I said. I am more interested in trying plant extraction.

You can still ask me about computer-related problems. I will try my best to help.

But please do not call me an IT expert. I don't know C, Java, and so many things. I can't even do a proper flash movie.

Don't embarrass me in front of the real experts. Please.

My Next Semester's Posting: Hospital Melaka

2009-10-01T20:49:00.001+08:00

It was confirmed in the e-mail today: I got posted to Hospital Melaka.

I have never expected myself to be posted to Melaka for my junior clerkship. All the while Melaka was reserved for students of Melaka & southern origins.

I went crazy for some time and realised that it is not going to have any effects. It is destined. Just accept it.

I hope my clerkship in Melaka will be a fruitful and memorable one.

New Theme

2009-09-29T14:52:00.001+08:00

I hope the new theme looks good. Credit to its creator and porter.

As an update to my research project, it seems after analysing the data with all possible methods, I have got positive results for all extracts.

Now, many people would have been excited. I am not. Afterall, I'm the only one in the group getting all positive result, and with the positive result being unconvincing, I doubt if anything useful would surface in the cell death differentiation ELISA test later. So I have three choices now: MTT, repeat XTT, or accept it.

On the other hand, my positive control test result had gone all haywire. It could be caused by the unhealthy cells, or improperly dissolved drug causing variations in concentrations, or my poor skills. This is really, really unfortunate compared to my all-positive XTT result.

I hope my meeting with supervisor later can provide a good future direction.

28/09/09: My Lappie back in factory

2009-09-28T12:59:00.001+08:00

My Asus laptop is now taking a break from the hectic lifestyle.

It has succumbed to the infamous Asus hinge crack. I'd strongly suggest any Asus laptop users who are not aware of it to Google, read up, and be pray that it happens within the 24 months warranty period.

Fortunately mine is still under warranty. So no extra cost incurred for now, except for possible loss of productivity for the next two weeks.

It was a pity I did not take a picture (Even if I did, it wouldn't have reached this computer anyway, not without bluetooth), but all Asus users should be aware of the hinge crack.

I remembered once a salesperson told me why Apple laptops are the choice. He said, "Acer quality simply sucks. Dell covered its quality issues with good service, but build quality still sucks. Vaio is overpriced and simply not worth the extra bucks. Asus, well, good quality overall, except for the hinges that will break sooner or later."

Of course, that was a year ago. Things might have changed. Macbook Air has hinge problems too anyway. Potential Apple buyer can forget about Macbook Air. Just consider the unibody Macbook Pros.

I guess I'll have to stick nearer to this desktop and iPod Touch for now. Apple probably marketed it correctly this time, at least for me:

Life @ 26/09/09

2009-09-26T18:32:00.001+08:00

Finally I am back from Teluk Intan after spending 3 days back there.

Unfortunately I was not able to meet up with friends. Attentions were much needed at home and at the company. I wasn't even able to talk to my friend who had just came back from Taiwan. In fact, I didn't even let him know I was back.

TI's traffic was almost a mess. It is very apparent that so many people from Hilir Perak are now calling somewhere home, coming back only during long holidays to visit parents and hometowns/home villages. In fact, the story applies to many Perakians who are now living in Selangor, KL, Penang and Johor as well. This is the brutal reality of the current Perak's economy situation: no jobs, so everyone has to look elsewhere. One lecturer had made an interesting remark when he enquired on my hometown. "There are a lot of Teluk Intan people in KL huh? I have seen many." I was a little shocked then; the idea of 'many Teluk Intan people' did not occur to me since it's so small a place.

I have also taken a newly constructed Bidor bypass which leads to the federal highway 1, somewhere between Bidor and Sungkai (It seems that a certain tempat pelupusan sampah Majlis Daerah Tapah is also nearby, if not beside that road). Part of the road is still naked without bitumen, but the sights were quite pleasant, with occasional lakes (I assume they were tin-mining lakes) and only little oil palm trees. That road is probably built on a ex-tin mine wasteland. Most importantly, it bypasses Bidor! I won't totally disagree if you say I dislike Bidor. It so happened that I disliked Pun Chun Restaurant and the pain to bear the sight of it everytime I pass through Bidor. Otherwise, Bidor has a really nice main street, with historical Chinese shops lining both sides of it. It would have looked great as an example of the history of Chinese settlements in Malaya. Of course, without Pun Chun.

Push GMail for iPhone…finally.

2009-09-24T16:11:00.001+08:00

A few months back Google launched push contacts and calendars for iPhone. What’s lacking was mail push. It was finally activated last week.

Now, for those who don’t understand push, it means actively notify you of updates. On an iPhone there are two ways to obtain information: fetch and push. Fetch means you actively retrieve info from the server (e.g. fetch mail from mail server), while push means the server actively notifies you of your incoming info and sends you the info. Using Push means you don’t have to work; everything comes to you. As you can see above, I have activated push for mail, contacts, and calendars.

In this case, Google is utilising Microsoft Exchange technology to provide push services for iPhone. If you’re using iPhone and GMail, you can follow the instructions here to get push notifications for your emails.

Apple introduced Push notifications officially this year as a way to compensate for the iPhone OS’s inability to truly multitask. Multitasking doesn’t really matter for me though, and anyway Push is a nice simple feature which doesn’t add much to iPhone/iPod Touch’s CPU and RAM workload.

Life @ 21/09/09

2009-09-21T20:48:00.001+08:00

Finally I have finished the positive control assay for my project. This means things can now stop for a while before I proceed, that is, if there's anything to proceed to.

Today's result is going to have a large SD. It's unfortunate.

I found that I have grown lazier in time. I used to care about many things. Nowadays, I probably gave less opinion when I was requested to give one. I guess I'm not that bothered with people's problems now, or was I so all the while? I don't know.

I guess I should focus on analysing the results for now.

Salam Aidilfitri

2009-09-20T19:37:00.001+08:00

I'd like to begin the post by wishing Happy Eid-ul-Fitr to all Muslims. Eid-ul-Fitr, or Aidilfitri may not have a very significant celebration in other countries, but in Malaysia and Indonesia, it is one of the most important event throughout the year.

In a country like Malaysia, everybody, Muslims or non-Muslims can all enjoy the festive mood, albeit in a different way. The most important thing is, everyone gets holidays to return to meet their families and friends. For those who cannot go back, like me, we more or less still get to feel the festive mood, but slightly lonelier.

Yesterday after the announcement by the Keeper of the Royal Seal on the date of Aidilfitri, people began playing fireworks everywhere (in KL). It is heartening to see fireworks; they bring out festive mood from almost everyone. It is good to feel that although it is a Muslim celebration, we all enjoyed it, or felt happy about it at the end of the day.

I'm currently stranded in KL because of my research tests. This is the second time I have spent Aidilfitri in KL. I could remember the first time I did so was in 2006. Back then I used to take a bus home but somehow I could only go back a day after Aidilfitri because all tickets were sold out. I spent the whole day sleeping, watching TV (live from Seri Perdana I think, I forgot), doing some work, accompanied by prayers from nearby mosques.

Today, I did almost everything minus the TV (there's no TV here), but of course, yesterday night was much better because there weren't fireworks back in 2006.

Recently, many things happened to my project. It may not be as serious as some other people's, but it is still something. I was especially upset at how my cells could have been "accidentally taken away". Although I have successfully recovered one of the two lost flasks, cell count in the flask was low already. I definitely hope it won't affect my test outcome tomorrow.

There are also certain things which have tested my patience. I guess I have chosen to just take a laugh in the end as usual. After all these years, these events are not much of a surprise to me anymore. I also believe that others will begin to have a deeper understanding of these events, sooner or later.

Salam Aidilfitri again. Maaf zahir dan batin.

New iPod Touch 3G

2009-09-14T20:37:00.001+08:00

The new iPod Touch 3G was announced last Wednesday. Contrary to all previous rumours, the new iPod Touch does not have a camera. However, the graphics is updated, processor speed is now believed to be ~800MHz and RAM should be 256MB by now, therefore beating iPhone again by offering the best gaming experience.

After seeing the announcement, which many say as the dullest event in many years, I’m glad that I do not have the pressure to dump my love for now. ^^

Life @ 6/9/09

2009-09-06T20:44:00.001+08:00

It’s Sunday night again. Tomorrow will be the beginning of a series of hard work until Aidilfitri.

I vividly remember spending my last Sunday night resting after moving boxes and files out of an office. I spent an entire day today sitting, sleeping, eating, and answering calls of nature.

I have not been in the pink of my health for the past two weeks. I had ILI (Influenza-like Illness) last week and and today I felt like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Headache and drowsiness ensued.

Malaysia was not in peace either. A small group of Muslims chose the holy month of Ramadhan to demonstrate against the construction of a Hindu temple by stepping on a cow’s head. It is most unfortunate.

It also happened that the month of hungry ghost falls on this month, and probably as a result, many people’s projects were stalled. Even mine was affected (multiple times). Still, it could be pure coincidence.

Of course, things again changed a lot from last Sunday. Thanks to visually alert friends who showed concern for me. Also thanks for not blaming me on the mixing of leaves and roots extract. T_T I cry secretly in my heart everytime I was reminded of it.

Life @ 26/08/09

2009-08-26T12:09:00.001+08:00

Finally, it seems that my research work will be stalled for at least 1 day after all. My cells are now totally infected with bacteria of unknown strain (A type of diplococcus, which means Strep is very possible). The origin is most likely to be the culture medium, since my friend’s cells in the same medium were infected as well. This, together with my sore throat + cold symptoms (certainly hope not Strep infection) means I can take a day off today. Maybe tomorrow as well.

When things are turning out negatively for me, I usually just accept it, sometimes with a cruel smile. When people had the same dilemma, I sometimes too give a cruel smile and even a laugh. Some people said that was quite cold-blooded and cruel. I believe when something is beyond help, why not just laugh at how things have turned out to be and go on from there while we are still able to. If life is cruel to me, there is no need for me to be cruel to myself. The only exception for me is probably when I have been cruel to myself. Then that would not be funny, and would need serious thoughts over it.

Love thyself when life loveth not thee.

杂记于28/08/09

2009-08-20T20:46:00.001+08:00

每天都写“无题”，有点无聊，有点废，所以该题为‘杂记’，更贴切，更符合。

今天忽然有种不满足的感觉。做什么都一样，就是不满足，不开心，想着难道世上没有比较好的了吗？例如说，个人其实很喜欢Linux式操作平台，可是Ubuntu在我电脑播放影片时却有许多问题，让我大失所望。老大不愿地开启缓慢的Windows Vista，虽然能用，可是毕竟还不是心里真正要的。再举一个例子。个人也是很喜欢iPhone的操作平台，可是iPhone当年竟然只有2.0MP的相机，缺这缺那，实在是烂了一点，于是买了iPod Touch。现在好了，iPhone大跃进，终于能买了，可是经济也跟着萧条了，口袋也紧了（想说腰带也紧了，可是那样就有两个意思了，等一下就有人可以说，“啊！你也认肥了哦？”），就继续看回iPod Touch好了。虽然跟iPhone差不多，可是毕竟还不是心里真正要的。

有些事物，也许曾经想要过，可是在认真考虑了以后决定放弃了，忽然间因缘巧合，彼此开始交流，直到某刻才发觉到自己已经日久生情，放不下了。虽然不是当年真正要的，可是却因为时间、机遇的改变而不一样了。此时，我们应该要继续与旧爱在一起，还是展开一段新的感情呢？举个例子。当年抛弃iPhone后，曾经拿iPod Touch与PSP比一比，到最后还是选了iPod Touch。现在机缘巧合，从弟弟那里拿到了PSP，相处几天后忽然觉得其实还不错。当然，有人会说“一切都太迟了。”也有人会说，“干脆都买了！”可是如我友人话哉，“有超过一架宠物机就会减少你应用它们的时间。”而且现实中没有多少个人有那么多时间养两架宠物机，我亦是如此。

又有时候，终于得到了某些长久以来要求的事物。也许一开始对事物的操作条件并不了解，开始相处后才了解到要求麻烦，条件多多。那时候应该怎么办呢？尤其是如果还有其他选择的话呢？来个例子。你对父亲大人说，“我要一辆车。”父亲大人说，“好，给你。”即便给了你一辆第一代Proton Saga。也许一开始并不介意车的款式，又或者第一代笨蛋傻瓜是你蒙昧以求的款式，总之是一辆第一代Proton Saga。你便开始驾了，起初有点不惯（旧车款，有点麻烦），不过你很需要，管不了那么多。不久后，你父亲说，“现在你每次驾车都要Log in + Log out，并摘录去了哪里，走了多少公里，打了多少油，载了多少人，换了多少次机油，总之在车上的每分钟都要写进Logbook里。还有，汽油、维修费自费。还有，每星期要载父母出去一次。还有，必须要在午夜12时前回来。还有，……”等等要求。此时此刻的你，应该怎么办呢？看朋友驾着更好的车而没有你那般繁文缛节，会想怎样呢？放弃驾车？与父亲商讨妥协？或者等有些钱后自己买车好了？

虽说是杂文，却写了这么一大篇。难怪有人说我长气。我其实不是很长气罢了，只是想再三确定，又或着讲到明白为止。希望有人看得明白以上三段。呵呵。

无题

2009-08-02T10:12:00.001+08:00

今天早上在校门外买椰浆饭时就这么巧地遇上了旧房东。两年半没见了，她竟然还认得出我。

互相问候一般后，才知道原来我的旧屋友早已搬走，搬走时连房东新买的床也弄坏了。房东只用三个字来总结，“不像样！”想了一下，其实当年我都把房间照顾得还不错嘛。比上不足，比下有余。犹记得当时提出要搬走的时候，房东还有所不解；现在她应该都懂了吧。毕竟，没有人能够在夜店月高人骚动时还可以一面听着舞曲一面睡觉的。

想到这里，我又想起了她。

她是个很模糊的角色。她的大部分时间都小心翼翼的匿藏在她男人的背后。她平时把房子打理得干干净净，做功课，看电视；男人回来后便紧贴着，算是小女人一个。房东来收租了，她会很快的消失人迹；仿佛她做的一切都是为了她男人。有时候看着她（文章需要，别想太远），我会怀疑她男人是否值得她那么死心塌地地付出？他会懂得珍惜吗？

那天，我在劏人杂货店又看到了她。她依然那么脆弱，依然小心翼翼地跟在她男人的背后。也许，她男人还算懂得珍惜吧。

Yesterday… and Today

2009-07-21T13:44:00.001+08:00

(Image Adapted from The Sun, Tuesday 21 July 2009 page 6)

Somehow this antisocial sticker made its way from a Sunlight taxi to a lonely traffic island, just a day after its launching.

Anyway, what it said was right…”rain is a blessing, not an emergency; there’s no need to turn on the hazard light.” Anyway, hazard light have more uses than ever now. I have seen big Mercedes Benz storming on North-South Highway with both front lights and hazard lights on. Some even have strobing front lights! Makes their rich cars look like ambulances.

iPhone 3GS by Maxis: It’s coming

2009-07-09T17:17:00.001+08:00

I remembered when I did that lousy presentation on iPhone 3GS in class, I mentioned that it is coming on 9 July. At least it is partially true now. The pic above just appeared this afternoon.

Sign up here if you have interest! Maxis will tell you when it’s really available. I hope the pricing will be about the same, much better if reduced :D

Three Stories

2009-07-06T19:17:00.001+08:00

Morning. 1130.

My friend and I went to visit the future benches of my research group with my supervisor. So happened that one another group was washing their seaweeds to prepare for future extraction.

There was this girl who saw my friend. There was I who saw this girl. So the girl waved hands at my friend. At the same time, I also greeted this girl out of politeness. But my friend was too busy talking to the supervisor and she didn’t notice the girl’s friendly smile and waving hands. And this girl didn’t respond/notice to my greeting too. Finally she gave up. Finally I gave up.

So both of us probably ended up looking like idiots.

Morning. 1135.

I saw him. So he is a postgrad student. Why does postgrads prefers undergrads and vice versa anyway? Knowledgeable and smart? Maturity? Cute juniors? Let’s hope I can find out when I’m a postgrad student. That is, if I ever join postgrad.

Evening, 1645.

I was reading dissertations. It’s amazing how they can make the acknowledgement page so noticeable. I’d like to thank A, B, bla bla bla. They say Malaysians are one of the most religious people around. So it is no surprise to see I’d like to thank God for His wisdom and strength, etc.

Until…

“I’d like to thank Buddha and God for giving me wisdom and opportunity...” Wow, two (contradicting) religions! Who gave you wisdom and who gave you opportunity? Buddha gave wisdom and God gave opportunity? Or the other way round? Either way, it must be interesting to know how Buddha and God worked together to bless their common believer.

Update @ 25 May 09

2009-05-25T16:02:00.001+08:00

Time flies, and May is soon over.

Very apparently, I have been very inactive here. I am postulating that there is a law of proportionality between free time and laziness to blog. The more busy you are, the more you want to update your blog. The more free you are, the less frequent you see your blog. Makes sense huh?

Many things have happened since my last update. Giant Teluk Intan’s finally opening in 28th May.With a working cineplex, a (or two? I’m not sure if TF is considered) working hypermarket, and a working McDonalds’, I think Teluk Intan is finally functioning. I even noticed a significant increase in traffic (means bad) nowadays; so many cars waiting at the traffic lights and even more cars beating them. This probably means more people will stay here instead of visiting Ipoh every now and then. Even PAS had just organised its state convention here at the newly-built Arena Square yesterday.

Good signs that this place is gaining significance? Convincing signs that people here have deep pockets (usually refer to the Langkap population who often has more money than ordinary town people like me) and can’t wait to spend on movies, McD and shopping? Yeah, hopefully, minus the traffic part.

Chitrapurnami in Teluk Intan

2009-05-09T13:44:00.001+08:00

Today is the day of Chitrapurnami in Teluk Intan in the chettiar temple in town. The festival is definitely the largest Hindu festival in Teluk Intan. Every year, Teluk Intan Hindus from the entire country will return and pray to respective deities for blessings.

So I was there. Of course, it continues till tonight, but I am most likely not going (too tired). So here are some pics that I captured this morning.

Actually there was a DAP and a Makkal Sakthi booth among the stalls. I even saw Ngeh Koo Ham while I was walking towards the temple. But I did not expect this:

Apparently, the (former) Menteri Besar of Perak is here. (From the MB) Mohd. Nizar, Hj. Anuar (ADUN of my area), emcee, unknown, and Siva the (former) Speaker who was dragged out of the Dewan two days back.

Yes; Siva the (former) Speaker is very popular. I think the main reason I recognised him is his smile. He can easily advertise for Darlie or Colgate for that matter. Haha.

My ADUN speaking, and another close up of Mohd. Nizar.

Datuk taking his puff, while sitting on a faithful. It is very easy to identify a Datuk; he likes curut (cigar) a lot, and most of the time he walks with a cane. Sometimes he takes two cigars together. I remembered the last time I went to Chitrapurnami one Datuk puffed three cigars.

Another Datuk giving blessings to a devotee.

The one in the centre, I believe, is Kaliamman.

Devotees shaving their head.

The leaning tower in festive atmosphere.

Giant Teluk Intan: It’s coming, finally.

2009-05-07T13:14:00.001+08:00

Sorry for the distance at which this pic is taken,but it seems that the Giant signboard has been put up finally. This means one thing: Giant is coming after all. Indeed, I had assumed it didn’t make it here because the building renovation hasn’t been progressing for many months now.

There is one thing good about opening all these ‘new’ things in small towns: the town folks who are very bored already will take turns visiting all these new places (e.g. McDonalds and BIG Cinema). Now let see how many will go to Giant on its first day of opening, which I think, will be soon.

BIG Cinema in Teluk Intan opens

2009-05-01T13:47:00.001+08:00

It is official: BIG Cinema, run by Lotus FiveStar Group who operates similar cinemas across the country (including Sitiawan) has opened in Teluk Intan. It is located at the former site of Rex Cinema. The pulling down of Rex Cinema means the oldest surviving cinema in Teluk Intan is officially no more. This new cineplex is said to have 3 halls, sitting maximum 150 people each. Not bad for Teluk Intan…

May do a follow up when I go back.

UPDATE: Cinema showing time available at here. At time of updating (10am 2/5/09) there are only 3 movies available! WTH?

Visitor from Epping

2009-04-30T16:44:00.001+08:00

I don’t know how and why, but it seems that I had got myself a visitor from Epping, Sydney!

Epping means a lot to me. I stayed there for quite some time when I was in Sydney. It is a very nice suburb with several small forest reserves surrounding it (and parks too). Nearby Epping are two Chinese majority suburb of Carlingford and Eastwood, which will make you less home-sick, at least by a little bit (roasted pork, char siew, dim sum!) Although you will still feel some cultural differences with the Chinese there because most of them are from mainland China and Hong Kong, I think food is more important than accents and the minor cultural gap!

Now, I kinda miss Australia again…

Swine Flu Outbreak Map

2009-04-28T14:04:00.001+08:00

Yes; the latest talk in town, apparently, is swine flu.

Click here to go to the Swine Flu Outbreak Map. Avoid going to these places, if possible.

P/S: It seems like Korea and Australia are already having suspects! Hope they are disproved.

UPDATED: An impressive map. Maybe it is a good idea for everyone to avoid Europe and America for now.

The Star: Najib wants immediate attention to ease city congestion

2009-04-25T20:36:00.002+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Three weeks after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak went down to the ground to visit three localities in the heart of the city, the prime minister Saturday sprung another surprise when he went on a walkabout at the bustling Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (Jalan TAR) and Puduraya here.

…(edited)…

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at Masjid Jamek LRT station.-Bernama

Later, he hitched a ride on the crowded LRT (he had to stand) from Masjid Jamek station to the Plaza Rakyat station where he walked to the infamous ever congested Puduraya where the express bus terminal for the northern and southern zones is located.

Taking break from the sweltering heat, Najib then stopped by one of the stalls in the building for a cool drink.

Najib, flanked by a phalanx of bodyguards and an entourage of officials, also attracted a large crowd of onlookers, who wasted no time snapping photographs of the nation's sixth premier.

An excited woman, armed with her cameraphone and squeezing her way through the crowd, was heard saying: "Saya mahu ambil gambar perdana menteri saya" (I want to take pictures of my prime minister).

Later, Najib inspected the long-abandoned Plaza Rakyat building project located next to Puduraya before departing at 4.25pm.

"He wants the project to resume as soon as possible," Raja Nong Chik said.

The project, which initially cost RM1.2 billion, had been abandoned for 12 years after it changed hands many times. Its current developer is Global Upline.

The Plaza Rakyat project was supposed to comprise three buildings - a 79-storey, 49-storey and 21-storey for offices, condominiums and a budget hotel.

Finally! Finally one Prime Minister noticed that Plaza Rakyat has been abandoned for such a long time! Although it is much too late now to resume work on it (even if it is finished I wouldn’t have chance to use it so frequently anymore), nevertheless it will benefit future generations (and future tourists).

Please, Mr. Najib, please finish this thing which I always describe as the biggest scar on the face of KL as soon as possible! I am so sick of Puduraya already, which is heavily overcrowded, both passengers and buses. Just forget the 79, 49, and 21 stories if necessary, we just need the bus terminal.

P/S: Why nobody bothered to offer him a seat on the LRT huh? Anyway, if he sits, people sitting next to him would probably have to move to make way for his guards?

Nice song to share: Koko ni Iru yo

2009-04-23T23:06:00.001+08:00

Enjoy this nice song, read the English subs!

Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Seeded

2009-04-23T21:12:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux based Operating System, has just been released minutes ago. You may follow this link for desktop edition (Japan’s Yamagata University’s server which I think is very fast, at least for me. UPDATE: Go here and choose other server if you can’t get into Yamagata’s; it seems like it is congested already.) to get a copy and start enjoying! Several features have been highlighted in this release, including boot speed as fast as 25 seconds, better power management, even a netbook version!

Food Review: Poh Loong Banquet Hall

2009-04-22T18:23:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure to go to a steamboat buffet at Poh Loong Banquet Hall in Teluk Intan. Poh Loong Banquet Hall is formerly Garuda Restaurant, which specialised in Indonesian food. Anyway, it was bought by Poh Loong Restaurant last year and has since converted into a ‘banquet hall’.

Poh Loong Restaurant has apparently put in a lot of effort to modernise and renew its image recently. Part of the effort, I imagine, is to use plenty of English and impress town folks with ‘canggih’ terms. That is probably why the restaurant was named ‘banquet hall’ instead of just another restaurant, although I remain doubtful of the name. The ‘banquet hall’ opened as a steamboat buffet restaurant more than a month ago. Price is per adult RM17.90.

Anyway, the usual story goes. My father’s friend’s birthday and so everyone went there for his celebration. Besides that, there is also a nice 10% cut currently if you can show the discount coupon.

One Stop Steamboat Solution! I’m sure there are a lot of effort to modernise the restaurant’s appeal by using English, but the advertisement manager may want to look into the grammar a bit.

So we arrived at this ‘banquet hall’. There seem to be a lot of people here, given the fact that it was a Tuesday, and economy wasn’t that good recently.

Yeah, there’s really a lot of people around! So I went looking for food.

My god brother who looked very depressed for the purpose of this picture. Don’t be cheated! He was playing with a SE Walkman phone (of an unknown model ‘cos I don’t keep track of SE phones)!

Directly at the centre of all foods is the sauce table. Seem to have a lot of sauces huh? And “Thank you for not wasted!”.

Doesn’t look bad…plenty of variety, majority of them being all kind of balls and meatcakes. Pork balls, big fish balls, small fish balls, salmon fishcakes, etc. Molluscs et. al. seem very much absent, and later I learnt that that was because everyone made clean sweeps everytime they were out from the kitchen.

In the end, I contented myself with these first. Fried chickens. Not that they exist for long. I was luckily the second person to attack these poor fried chicken pieces before everybody else cleaned the tray.

Some dessert. Quite sweet.

I was actually quite satisfied with the food provided (I don’t eat that much molluscs) except the soups. We got ourselves a tom-yam soup and a normal soup. I must say the tom-yam soup is a disappointment. Didn’t taste like one, didn’t smell like one. The normal soup also tasted a bit bland. Soup is such an important part of steamboat, and it should not be omitted in any situation! They probably added too much water to cater to plenty of customers?

There seems to be side orders as well! Let’s try one of them.

Lobster! Both salad lobster and kam-heong lobster that we ordered actually tasted quite nice. Of course lo, it is lobster ma.

This is actually something I liked best in there. Ice-cream on bread. Prepared by first toasting the bread and then put two scoops of ice-cream on it while hot. Fruits are optional. Yummy. I ate two of these.

And so I left the place in the end with a guilty stomach and 2kg heavier.

Verdict: The tom-yam soup is actually quite disappointing. The shortage of seafood also seemed to be a problem (maybe they’re trying to save costs), but it didn’t bother me since I don’t take seafood much. Food variety is OK. Just remember to sweep at the first opportunity if you really love seafood. Environment good. Image and arrangements good. Service good. Just lots more to improve on, especially food and the soup.

Teluk Intan@20/04/09

2009-04-21T12:17:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was such a hot day. I felt like almost drying up even when driving with air-cond on full blast in the afternoon. However, today is a complete opposite of yesterday; it’s so cooling after a midnight shower and the sun is not even out yet. Here are some pics of the blue blue sky of yesterday.

It reminds me of the scorching Australian summer everytime I see a cloudless sky like this. Not that we get to see this often here. Well…probably just 7 days in a year. I’m grateful we have lots of clouds throughout of the year. Gosh, I’m still feeling the heat from yesterday by looking at this pic!

On another note, the infamous Arena Square which had killed a worker during a construction accident 2 years ago is now up running. Not sure what it can be used for though. Probably for events and weddings, and political talks.

View from Dewan Bandaran.

The Pirate Bay declared Guilty

2009-04-17T18:47:00.004+08:00

http://www.thelocal.se/18908.html

The Pirate Bay, one of the largest torrent hosts in the world, was declared guilty for "promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws".

"The four defendants in the case, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were each sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.56 million) in damages."

Having known TPB for a very long time, this is definitely saddening to me. I hope they can continue to maintain the site, and most importantly, continue to appeal until the highest court possible.

Good luck TPB!

Susan Boyle: Prejudice and Suprise

2009-04-16T12:03:00.002+08:00

See the ugly side of humans in this video. (Embed disabled; please click and go to the youtube site to watch)

Humans are often prejudicial in daily lives. Prejudice, in turn, is often a result of stereotyping. Stereotyping is not something bad/fault. It is a way to ease the work of human brains. By stereotyping all humans, billions of people can be classified into several hundreds classes only. Obviously it saves a lot of memory.

I believe I don’t have to give examples of stereotypes; there are already too many. In this story, apparently, when a normal-looking (many say ugly), overweight women stood on the stage and said she wanted to be a singer, everyone scoffed. Everyone stereotyped her as somebody who couldn’t sing (very much like William Hung), and was prejudiced against her. Therefore, when Ms. Susan sang rather well, everyone was surprised, and in the end the three judges gave a big big big approval for her.

I, too, stereotype people. When I see women of Susan’s size standing on stage, I expect them to sing quite well! (unless they were already talking with croaky voices) To be fair, she sang OK and all that, but I’m not sure why the Britains were shouting and clapping half of the time, making so much noise and drowning her voice altogether. So I couldn’t be so sure as to whether she sang GOOD enough to receive such a big approval from the judges.

The conclusion is, when we have low expectations for someone and that someone outperformed our expectations, we feel surprised, slightly embarrassed (for having low expectations for that someone), and we thought that someone did very well! When we have high expectations and that someone barely reached our expectations, we thought it was just acceptable afterall. Below is a diagram illustrating my conclusion.

If you’ve ever had this feel of people only modestly satisfied with you even though you have worked hard, feel free to look at this diagram, and be glad that people are having a lot of expectations on you, therefore placing a lot of trust and responsibility on you. I kindly present this graph as a gift to our new Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

May this graph motivate you (everyone) to work harder! :)

Congratulations, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

2009-04-10T18:54:00.001+08:00

This man was made Minister of Defence in Mr. Najib Razak’s cabinet which was unveiled yesterday. He was born in Bagan Datoh, which is one of the many fishing villages around Teluk Intan. So, Bagan Datoh’s kinda related to Teluk Intan.

Therefore, as a Teluk Intan citizen, I congratulate you for being the first Defence Minister from Hilir Perak. I don’t have many wishes like other people/ your cronies. I only hope you can do two things for us in Hilir Perak: :D

1. Build a (preferably free) highway connecting Hilir Perak and KL. Then we can forget about Bidor! (I will be glad to do that.)

2. Develop Teluk Intan/Bagan Datoh/Wherever you like in Hilir Perak.

Congratulations again.

Face of the day

2009-04-08T23:39:00.001+08:00

I can only say that today is not my day. After ending up as the worst group in Toxicology presentation, I went to Buddhist Society’s semester gathering and ended up like this. T_T Apparently, there was this ice-breaking game that I was not good in at all (with SO many ppl there), so I ended up in the losing team and got punished like this.

Anyway, I practically asked for this to happen to me by staying in the losing team. So, :) It’s just something that I sometimes do after having a disastrous day (自虐倾向）.

Now I can only hope for better luck & life ahead, especially during my study break and EOS.

Congratulations to Mr. Mohd. Nizar!

2009-04-08T00:36:00.001+08:00

Congratulations to Mohd. Nizar who triumphed over his BN opponent with 2789 majority votes. Now Perak will have a vocal Menteri Besar in the Federal Parliament! All the best for you Nizar!

Best wishes for you, Ir. Mohd. Nizar.

2009-04-06T17:32:00.001+08:00

This man is in the midst of a very tough battle to wrestle a former BN stronghold and defend his state government. May you win tomorrow. And win big. UMNO and its friends may call you many names, but we know you are not. UMNO is just being jealous of how a Malay (and not their kind) can become so popular across all races, because they can never produce one of his kind.

Best wishes for you.

Welcome to Mr. Mohd. Najib as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia

2009-04-03T12:02:00.001+08:00

Kyle welcomes Mr. Mohd. Najib as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia…

Hey, don’t bash me just yet. My welcoming is sincere. It comes from the bottom of my heart.

We may be unhappy with the way he steals Perak from PR, but we must remember that it was two Pakatan Rakyat Excos and a deputy Assembly Speaker who made it possible.

We may also hear many stories relating him to a Mongolian woman, but those are stories; we should always try to make evidence-based judgements (of course, you will never find the evidence in this case).

We may have also seen large commission fee exchange hands after we purchased two submarines and some helicopters, but we must also remember that commission fee is relatively common in sales. When you work as a promoter for a product, you get commission fees for your sales (that is if your boss promised to pay). It is just that the fee is much bigger this time and we became green-eyed.

We may even hear stories or have first-hand knowledge that he is said to be a playboy, but hey, that is people’s private life! If Ms. Rosmah is not bothered, who are you to bother?

Besides that, change is after all, a change. A change means a time to dream. And we have till 8th of April 2009 to dream (the day when new Cabinet will be nominated), at least.

And now with UMNO’s leadership changed, folks may now be convinced to return to BN and ensure that Malay dominance is continued. Of course, Malay dominance here means strong political influence by the group of people who identify themselves as Malay. If you think you can identify a Malay without themselves identifying to you, you definitely need to update to the latest definition to prevent false negatives and false positives. Below are some exercises for you to try. (Task: Identify who is a Malay and who is not by just looking at the pics. Answer’s at the end of the post, don’t look just yet!)

No matter who were to become the chief executive (Prime Minister is the head of the Executive branch in the Separation of Power) of Malaysia, we must still give him/her a good welcome. So welcome, Mr. Najib. May you lead Malaysia towards new heights (of course, in a positive manner, not corruption index and car accident rates)!

(You may bash me now. Not our new Prime Minister. All PM/BN bashing comments will not be tolerated. I want to go for EOS still.)

Answer: 1 (Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir) and 3 (Raja Petra Kamarudin) are Malay Muslims. 2 (Muhammad Shafee Abdullah) is an Indian Muslim. 4 (Khalil Idham Lim Chuan Hing) is a Chinese Muslim.

茶是故乡浓

2009-04-02T11:31:00.001+08:00

当人们说“茶是故乡浓”的时候，大多数是因为思念家乡的茶香而有所感叹。可是，对我而言，茶是故乡浓却是千真万确的。

吉隆坡，对我们大部分来说，是因为政经文教的需要才会逗留的地方。

政：要参加政党，要更上一层楼（有如许博士当年），要参加国会，都要上京。
经：要血拼，要看戏，要买电子器材，都要上京。
文：要买书，要看戏、剧场、去博物馆、国家科学馆，全部在京。
教：要读书、中学、高中、先修班、大学、硕士、博士，最好的选择，是上京。

（岔语：说到这里，我想到了Lat的一篇漫画。话说马新外交官正在对长堤重建一事争论的不可开交。新国外交官道：“我国坚持认为拆掉长堤对我国是无利的”，于是大家不欢而散。离开会议后，两个外交官便讨论一起返乡过年一事。最后，两人一起驾车回到了Batu Gajah。非常讽刺的一篇漫画，却又非常真实。毕竟，马新始终是同根生的。）

可惜的是，吉隆坡是一个长期受到唯物主义影响的地方（也许是因为长期受到华人和外裔移民经济文化熏陶吧），处处散发着浓浓的唯物主义味道。“赚钱至上。”这是一个的士司机教我的。“没有钱，怎样生存？怎样买美车，美厝？”临走之前，还教我，“斯文是没有用的！”真有一股“百无一用是书生”的气概。

话说回头，就因为人人都在努力通过合法与非法方式赚钱，许多旧时的价值都逐渐消失了。为了钱，有人可以假装汽车抛锚抢劫路过相助的好人；为了钱，有人可以拐带小孩，加以勒索。结果，人心惶惶，处处居心叵测，想帮忙也要三思而后行，最后干脆当看不到。有了钱，我们宁愿买一大堆自己不需要的东西（例如三个人+一个女佣在富有区住两间两层半的屋子），也不愿回馈社会。

就这样，为了钱，连咖啡和茶都冲淡了。为了弥盖已淡的茶味，卖茶的干脆就加多点炼奶，以重口味遮盖那茶香。为了钱，食物也可以乱煮一通，最后加一大把盐，又以重口味遮盖个人的贪念与懒性。人在吉隆坡久了，吃得太咸、喝得太甜，实在是连舌蕾麻痹得都快死光了。此时若喝到一杯带着家乡人情味，不甜却带着浓浓香味的海南茶，我才发觉到，为了金钱，我们损失的实在是太多了。为了钱，我们损失了人情味；损失了浓浓的茶香，过后干脆以重口味麻痹自己，欺骗自己。当我们回到了家乡，喝到了正宗的海南茶，才猛然醒悟：原来平时自己已经是在hypernatremia以及hyperglycaemia的边缘了，而个人知觉已经严重地hyposensitive了。

也许，这一切就是让安顺每年大塞车三次的原因吧。

B106 Garage Sale: Day 2

2009-04-01T21:20:00.002+08:00

Finally it has ended, although we have lesser customer than yesterday…

Basically this is the tie that I was talking about yesterday. I also had the pleasure to find out the owner(Hyperlink: Facebook account required) accidentally. Well, definitely accidentally because the owner himself told me without me enquiring around. So now we know whose taste was attacked by that student who talked to me yesterday.

As I continue to look for interesting objects, the below came out.

Maria Sharapova in BNF!

Somehow this reminded me of my form 4 History textbook. Back then, we borrowed our textbooks, and so happened that the copy of History book that I got happened to have something similar to this. There were a total of 3 pics of some pretty girls in bikini, posing in seducing positions (on bed or sofa? can’t remember). WOW. Luckily my nose didn’t bleed back then, ~~given my vast experience in related fields~~. History must have been a torment to the former owner of my textbook, so much so that he needed extra testosterone to study it.

While going through clothes, we found a very good combination which will make anyone turn into a pseudo-Vietnamese trader instantaneously.

(Thanks Jun Yan for being the model)

The only sad outcome (to me) of this garage sale is that nobody wanted my iPod Guide. One guy told me, “hey, I know how to use my iPod. I don’t need a book to tell me how to press the ‘play’ button.”

Come on man, if you need a book to tell you how to press the ‘play’ button, you must have been a total idiot (or it means you didn’t at least go through the simple instruction sheet provided by Apple Inc.). Of course the book is not there to tell you how to press buttons!

Let’s end this post with the decorated joker lion (who unluckily was not pick up by anyone as well. Too bad it looks much better than the innocent tie.)

P/S UPDATE: The Chinese dictionary was taken...after being untouched for 2 days.

B106 Garage Sale: Day 1

2009-03-31T20:07:00.002+08:00

It seems that the sale went on well today. I handled the RM1 stall and saw early birds packing away many, many stuffs which worth more than RM1, among them notebooks (PAPER notebooks), file boxes, photo frame, paper boxes, girl belts, etc, etc. The pitiful leftovers of the day include an innocent-looking ING (The insurance company) tie. One of the students actually told me, “Whoever had this tie really have a bad taste in ties.” No offense meant on the donor of the ING tie. :)

Meanwhile, I found something very interesting among the piles of books on sale.

最新学生词典？A primary school Chinese dictionary in a University garage sales?

EDIT:[Pic removed on request]

There are not many Lees in our class. After excluding Chai Yuin, Yi Jing and Hua Loon, we think it must be…

So it seems that this is the one who donated his sister’s dictionary.

DNA test shows 13-year-old Alfie Patten is not a dad

2009-03-28T12:09:00.002+08:00

Source

A DNA test showed a 13-year-old boy in Britain is not the father of a baby born to a 15-year-old he had unprotected sex with once.
Chantelle Stedman told Alfie Patten, who was 12 when he slept with her, he was her newborn daughter Maisie's father.
The story caused a worldwide media frenzy after it was first reported by Britain's Sun newspaper, while politicians criticised what they called Britain's declining morals.
At first Stedman said Patten was the only boy she had ever slept with, but soon after other teens came forward saying they too could be the baby's father, because they claimed to have had sex with the girl.
It is still not clear who the baby's father is.
Last month a friend of the Stedman family claimed Patten was scammed by the girl's parents who wanted to cash in on the sensational story.
The Sun reported last month that Alfie had been seen wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the message: "I’m the daddy, if not f*** you all I’ll still be there".

This is the boy who thought he became a father at the age of 13. As the story shocked the world, it seemed that his girlfriend didn’t just sleep with him afterall; now it’s proven altogether. This shock-cum-shame story just remind us on how sick and complicated our life can be, especially when we sleep around, or sleep with somebody who sleeps around.

I’m sure the boy (哎呀老豆) and his father (哎呀Grandfather) must be having a hard time swallowing a good fish (好鱼啊~) and a dead cat…

Hi…I’m back. + Life Updates

2009-03-27T19:50:00.001+08:00

After jumping to Windows Live Spaces for a week, I’ve decided to stay onto this site… because Live Spaces, although being extremely easy to use, is still no match to blogspot (in my opinion). I expect myself to hang around here for a longer time now. This is also going to be my primary blog dedicated for myself. I will also look forward to set up a photo album here.

So, after 3 days of presentations, I’m finally breathing in Teluk Intan again, despite being sick already. Went to the doctor this afternoon, had temperature measured (37.8C), and was given Roxithromycin, Paracetamol, Simethicone, Omeprazole, and Dimenhydrinate.

Since CP1 hospital attachment has come to an end, it simply means people can now finally detach from their attachment partners, a form of liberation for some who found themselves with not-so-ideal partners. Therefore, it is also only normal to hear certain people complaining about their partner’s misdeeds and ill-wills (Quote KT: Dunch kill your partners!). As a result, it is also only normal if we become a little bit 8 and listen to the other pair’s problems and complains bout each other.

However, it is always recommended that one’s intepretation of a story should always be based on solid evidences published by reliable sources (For example, any rumours published in this blog is considered not established because the source itself is already unreliable :) But I will still publish rumours because we like to listen to rumours, don’t we? Makes life interesting). This is why I usually listen and forget about many stories. Unless, of course, when it needs to be dealt with.

Hope to see you again soon.

P/S:
And to all my toxicology group members: I’m sorry. It seems that our toxicology report is sleeping in an external hard disk in KL at the moment. Please allow me to email you a copy when I get back to KL ASAP (on Sunday).

Music Video Remix

2009-03-14T13:31:00.002+08:00

Source: Gizmodo

Very interesting remix of Youtube Music Video into something which is still pleasant to the ears! Awesome.

B106 Garage Sales

2009-02-26T15:20:00.004+08:00

After going through the massive amount of junkies in my backyard (wardrobe), I have decided to donate this two things for sale:

iPod: The Missing Manual 7th Edition by JD Biersdorfer and D Pogue. This book is as good as new, since I have only **browsed** through it twice. Market price $19.99, Amazon price around $13, so this book should worth at least RM40 in the market. I hope it can be sold for at least RM20…hehe

The second item…well, how bout this?

Windows 7 BETA Build 7000 DVD. Valid & Legal till Aug 1 2009. Nice?

感想

2009-02-24T22:13:00.003+08:00

孔子曰：知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。

给看过不懂，没看过也不懂，看过不屑一顾的，这句话的意思是：知道就说知道，不知道就说不知道，乃是一项智举。红毛语说：know say know, dunno say dunno; that is wise.

在典型的我国社会里，很多人都是知之为不知，不知亦不知，是知也，是生存之道也。如果不小心知道了当政人的秘密，当然要会诈傻扮懵，要不然可能免不了流浪他乡，甚至炸尸的命运。当上司/老师讲错了话，也要诈傻扮懵，适当地给先辈一个下台阶。替上司认屁的事件并非罕见，只是那肚里风每次都长得不一样。正是因为如此，通晓知之为知之的人很多时候都得罪了习惯有台阶下的上司，从此发配边疆。

除了这些占大多数的人之外，我们之中还是有例外的。比如说，不知却自以为知之，还可以强词夺理，说得别人无话可说。不懂了，还要硬辨，把别人的道理都硬讲成不通，非要证明自己知识渊博。必要时，还会放出杀手锏：逼使对方实践证明对方所言都是对的。在唆使别人证明他们自己的立场时，这些人却忘记了自己也需要证明自己是对的。很多时候，他们并非忘记了，而是因为觉得自己站在立场正确的中心点，所以是不会错的。

有些人更是对孔子的格言怀着大大的不信任，相信世上的人很多都是知之诈不知，不知装知之，才是明智之举也。当这些人从对方得到了答案，便怀疑答案的正确性，想办法证明答案是错的。一旦出现小小的问题，便伺机而入，指责/奚落对方；可是，更多时候，这许多小小的问题都是因为自己对答案的不了解而产生的。当这些人得不到答案（“不知道”），便一面鄙视的模样，好像在哀怨对方不愿分享知识一般。

作为旁观者/听故事者，遇到了这些事，不如还是提醒自己“知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也”，避免成为知之诈不知，不知装知之，又或者不知却以为知之呀！

Untitled

2009-02-11T14:42:00.003+08:00

Click Here if the above doesn't work.

WARNING: Offensive Content.

I guess it reflects the state of many electronic goods that we buy huh? Like those from China...lol.

No offense meant on Sony.

Happy Lunar New Year!

2009-01-31T11:09:00.002+08:00

In the year of the Ox, it is everybody's wish that global economy will be bullish. Wish however we can, recession is arriving. Take care not to greet “财源滚滚” (裁员滚滚)，“招财进宝”(遭裁禁饱) in this New Year!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and...

2008-12-27T10:03:00.001+08:00

Recession is coming to town...

McD (2)

2008-12-13T10:29:00.006+08:00

It finally opened at 9am this morning, and when I reached there at 9.10am (by impulse, did not intend to go there originally), there're this many ppl there! Crazy!
There're just so many people inside there. My dad is an avid McD fan (for unknown reason, that's the only fastfood he takes), but he rejected my offer to buy him a breakfast outright(SMS read: No No No). I understand...it is fattening. A bit high in cholesterol too, but I know he can't resist it for long.

The first coin in the box...my 50 cents.

Anyway, they did my order wrongly, so I got my tea, coffee and orange juice only when they should've come with another 3 muffins and 3 hashbrowns. Finally, I walked away with 3 sets by paying only for 2 (guess they're all muddled up since it's a bit chaotic inside there). First day lucky :D

Hope this outlet can stay long enough for our benefit!~ Ahaha

McDonald's in Teluk Intan

2008-12-04T16:03:00.006+08:00

I never expect to see this one in my lifetime, but it happened. Apparently, the first McDonald's in Teluk Intan is opening in 9 days' time. It comes with Drive-Thru and most importantly, 24-hour service!

Behind the McDonald's building is an unknown shopping mall (said to be hosting Giant Hypermarket, many stores, and even a cineplex), which is also believed to be opening soon. This definitely comes as a relief to Teluk Intan folks, who are deprived of a literally functioning cinema since...? years ago. I remember now; the last movie I watched in Teluk Intan was Jurassic Park.

Indeed, it has been a long time since Teluk Intan last saw a major change. Home to a mere 190,000 population, it is not exactly easy to sustain a McDonald's here (Sandakan didn't get one either), let alone the mall behind. My only hope for McDonald's and Giant is: don't go bankrupt. Anyway, I'm sure both places will be flooded by people for the next six months, especially those deep-pockets from the neighbouring small towns and villages (even richer than town folks, kinda hurts to think of it huh?).

First Post

2008-12-04T15:41:00.003+08:00

This blog is the continuation of my former blog in Friendster. As usual, I'll write on issues that interest me, hopefully with higher frequency in the future.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!