New Theme

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.