Shopping spree : Sofa

Went to Courts around 12 p.m today. Want to buy a sofa set and a set of dinner table. After thinking and discussing we agreed to buy a L-shape sofa.





We also bought the dinner table. I'm not sure which brand. My wife choose the table, I just paid for the total price. Because I don't want to increase my debt, we decided to pay by cash. Our sofa will arrive in 1 month time while the table will arrive in 2 weeks time. Both are out of stock.

Shell-Ferrari cars

Just enjoy the pics. I've nothing to write. ;)

Shopping spree : Books

I love buying books. As I told someone before, I can't go into bookshops because I will dream of buying this or that books.

So, while waiting for the shop to install new software into my wife phone, I pay a visit to Borders (I visit it before during lunch time but I didn't buy anything) to just take a look at their offer.

First I went to the Computer section. At first I wanted to buy book about Snort 2.6 but I'm not sure whether 2.6 is the latest version for Snort so, I look for another book. I saw another book about Anti-Hacking Software but I also didn't buy because I'm afraid the software in that book is outdated. So, what book I buy? ASP.NET 3.5 published by Wrox and Kevin Mitnick's book.

Then I went to children's section to buy a book for Danial. More specifically special books for baby. Because all the book is wrap, I just took something that I think Danial will like. So, I took Elmo's book.

The Elmo book. I hope my son like it.

After that I went to my favourite section. Fantasy and science fiction. I had to admit not all fantasy and science fiction books are at the section. It also available at teens and a couple more section. But what do I care. I wanted to buy Asimov's books but it is too late. I saw books by Alastair Reynolds. Books that I really want to buy. I took all available books written by Alastair. And I also saw book 2 from The Wheel of Time series. I have only book 1 and book 4. To read book 4 I really need book 2 & 3 right?





I wanted to buy more books but I afraid it will reach to RM 500 if I didn't stop. It nearly reach RM 400 but Borders is offering 15% discount for full price books so, I got lots of discount today (because all the books that I've choosen are full price books). And on top of that, I've got RM30 coupons that I need to spend before 18th of May. I'm thinking to buy Harry Potter book (the last book - I've got all of it, so why not complete the collection).

Danial and his two walkers

Danial has two walkers. One from Vtech and another from Sweet Cherry. We rarely use the one from Vtech because we need to hold Danial to make sure he can walk properly. Then we decided to buy another one at Jucso. After we look at several types of walker there, we bought the one from Sweet Cherry. The walker from Sweet Cherry has 8 set of casters, and a musical box. The nice thing about the walker is that it can be converted into a rocking chair.

These are the pictures of Danial go around the house with the Sweet Cherry walker.

Kereta

Aku bawak kereta ku pergi workshop ari nih. Tukar tayar baru (empat-empat) sambil mintak diaorg check segala macam part dalam kereta ku itu. Itu pun sebab bawak keta pun tak best. Berat semacam je. Pastu tayar kena pam selalu especially tayar depan. Jugak brek kereta ku yang lambat nak respon. Bawak-bawak, mekanik cakap "Tayar lu dah botak". Isk..isk..aku admit ler yang tepi tayar tuh dah nampak botak tapi bunga nampak cam ok lagi pun takkan dah botak. Anyway, memang niatku nak tukar tayar, so, aku pun cakap ler untuk tukar empat-empat. Aku amik tayar Continental tapi aku dah lupa nombor pada tayar tu apa. Tapi apa-apa pun aku bawak sedap je lepas tukar tuh.

Tayar ku tengah ditukar kepada yang baru

Lepas diaorg dah tukar, sorang mekanik tuh bawak keta aku pegi untuk test drive. Pas tu masuk balik workshop untuk buat alignment. Diaorg guna WinAlign nyer sistem. Bila pasang je alat-alat tu nampak ler tayar keta aku yang dah herot-herot. Tak selari pun. So, mekanik tu cakap sebab aku hentam lubang yang dalam. Hah yea. Hentam lubang kat parking depan Queensbay. Tobat dah pas ni aku tak nak dah masuk parking tuh. Kalau tak nanti tak pasal-pasal kena hulur RM 60 untuk wat balik alignment + ganti skru dalam tuh.

Tengah buat alignment

Dah abih buat alignment diaorg pegi test drive lagi sekali. Pas tu mekanik cakap dah ok. Handling pun ok. Aku masuk-masuk keta yea sungguh. Pergh best. Pastu pegi kedai aksesori untuk ganti alarm + wiper ku yang sudah jahanam. Alarm memang dah jahanam lama dah. Wiper lak asyik tinggal line je kalau dia wipe air dari cermin depan. Tensen. Dekat 30 minit gak tukar alarm. Tapi ku amat ler puas hati dengan alarm tersebut.

So, total damage ari nih dengan campur-campur segala menda-menda aksesori yang aku beli ada ler dlm RM1000++. Tayar dengan alarm ler yang amik banyak. Tayar adalah dalam RM700++ dan alarm dlm RM220. Tak ke dah sampai RM1k kat situ. Aduih. Tapi apa-apa hal pun janji bila bawak rasa selamat.

Handphone : Bought

I bought the new handphones (1 for me and 1 for my wife) today. Still use Nokia but I change from what people term as 'dumb phone' to 'smart phones'. The Nokia 6120 classic use Symbian 3.0 as it operating system. The phone internal memory is not as big as Motorola Razor v9 where the former is at 20++ MB while the latter is at 40++MB. The phone also has 2 camera, front camera (for video call) and back camera (for taking pictures). The 2 megapixel camera can take pictures quite alright but it is not as specialized as digital camera.

Because most of its application is written in Java, the phone is quite slow in responding to the command. For example, after I unlock the phone, and I want to make a call, I need to wait for a while (around 3-5 seconds) before the phone call the person. Its quite frustrating sometimes but I currently studying on how to tweak the phone so it can respond faster.

The nice thing about it is that I can develop my own program (using J2ME) and put it on the phone. I still think what program that I want to develop.

Oh, the phone also has GPS features although to activate it you need to register to GPS server.

How the phone look like? I attempt to take several pictures of the phone but failed miserably. These are the only pictures that can be shown in this blog.

I bought a black 6120 while my wife choose pink although we change it later to white because of the technical issues with the one and only pink model at the store



The menu now look more manageable but if you use these 'smart' phone for the first time, you can get confuse for a while. But only for a while.

Handphone : Surveying

Is there such a word? Surveying I mean.

Currently survey handphone for both my wife and I. I've surveyed Samsung and Motorola handphone. If I have time, I want to go to see what Nokia is offering now. But still, HTC pda-phone is in my heart.

After surveying for 1 hours at Queensbay while my wife is choosing her handbag, I conclude I wanted 3.5G (HSDPA technology) phone. These are the contender :

Motorola Razor v9

Samsung U700

* All images taken from mobile88 website

For specification of both phones, just click on their name.

Lazy

I want to blog but my brain are too lazy to think.
I want to coding but somehow I can't even look at the code.
I want to read but I don't know which book I need to read.
I want to configure servers but I have too many servers to configure.
I want to watch something but then I have too many series to watch.

What can I do? Oh please. Is it a lazy Monday as anim said in her status at YM? Why can I do anything. Darn!

Digital Divide

I write this post on 27 April 2005.

We talk about Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to the world,
Yet, there are so many Malaysian still illiterate in using computers,
We talk about our oh so fine infrastructure,
Yet, our broadband penetration is still low,
We talk about increasing broadband limit,
Yet, our Streamyx is full of problem.
Enough say.

On Monday morning, I went to bank to withdraw some money (it's a payday BTW). Then, I saw two guys having problem in using the ATM card.

Me : What happened?
Guy 1 : He want to use the card to withdraw money but cannot.
Me : Is this the first time you use the card?
Guy 2 : Yes
Me : You need to change the pin number.
Guy 1 : I've told you that you need to change the pin number. Could you show it to him? (Aku dah habaq dah yang hang kena tukar nombor tu. Boleh tunjuk sat tak?)
Me : Can.. *I take the card from them and go to the one of the ATM available there*. *Insert card* Now, select the language.
Guy 2 : * Push BM button*
Me : Enter your pin number.
Guy 2 : Which one?
Me : Do you get the letter from bank? The pin number is in the letter.
Guy 2 : This one?
Me : Yup.
Guy 2 : *Want to punch the button suddenly*
Guy 1 : You are too slow. (Hang lambat laa)*punch the pin number*
Me : Now you need to change the pin number.
Guy 2 : I can use any number?
Me : Yup, any number.
Guy 2 : *want to enter a new pin number*
Guy 1 : You are too slow. What the number you want?
Guy 2 : x-x-x-x-x-x. Can?? (x-x-x-x-x-x. Boleh ka?)
Guy 1 : *enter the new pin number*
Me : You need to enter the new number.
Guy 1 : *re-enter the new number*
Me : *shake head in disbelief* Now you can withdraw the money. *explain the menu*
Guy 1 : *push the withdraw button and withdraw RM1000*
Me : *want to punch him hard in the belly*
Guy 2 : Thank you so much.
Me : Your welcome. Please remember your pin number.

Now, could you see it? We talk so much about MSC, broadband, digital age and etc. Meanwhile, there are other Malaysian out there that cannot even use ATM machine. For God sake, the ATM machine is the most easiest to use (beside vending machine of course). So, what can we do for them? If we want to move towards digital age, we need to bring everyone there. If not, forget about MSC, broadband, digital age and etc because at that time, the digital divide will become bigger and deeper.

These are the comments from my loyal readers.
At 11:52 PM, Blogger obiwan said...

Complete the sentence! Please! I NEED CLOSURE!!!

At 9:30 AM, Blogger - mie - said...

hehehe..sorry obi. tak perasan pun tak complete. main copy and paste je from the text file.

At 10:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hahaha... ape la bengap sgt budak tu... selama ni tak penah pakai kad atm ke? kesiannya...

dah masuk u pun tak reti2 lagi.... kalau budak sekolah yg masuk hostel tak reti guna tu, paham2 gak la... ni umur pun dah tua...

lain kali, baca la surat bank tu, baca arahan... ni main buang aje.. kan dah susah... hehhheh...

- aurinh -

Exporting from old blogs

You will see more and more articles (from my older blogs) in this blog soon. That if I has enough time to do it.. ;)

Oh, if you have noticed I removed all ads from this blog. Its not fun to host any ads anymore because it take time to load. And not to mention, I has other means to generate money now. ;)

/me hope my previous readers will come back to this blog.

Bila ko blog?

Selalu orang tanya aku soalan nih bila aku buat entry baru. Usually kawan-kawan ofis (yang tak de blog) dan kawan-kawan lain (yang juga tak de blog). Bila ko blog? Sempat ko tulis untuk blog?

Sebenarnya ada rahsia. Kalau aku bosan + ada idea, aku tulis ler blog. Kalau ikut kan banyak lagi aku nak tulis. Tapi aku rasa semenjak dua menjak nih anger management aku makin elok kot. Kurang sangat aku maki orang waktu tengah drive. Ari nih ada lalat-lalat yang bawak keta tak reti bagi signal pun aku tak hon walhal aku nyaris nak terlanggar bontot keta dia. Ada ke dia brek mengejut dan terus ketepi tanpa bagi signal. Aku laju pun tak laju sangat ler. 30km/h je aku bawak time tuh.

Selalunya aku tulis blog time-time malam bila Danial & wife aku dah tido. Jarang la aku tulis blog kat ofis. Kadang-kadang tak sempat. Dan kadang-kadang kat ofis lagi banyak pikir menda lain dari pikir content blog.

Oh, sebenarnya aku ada beberapa berita gembira nak ditulis tapi tak tertulis lagi. Tunggu ler bila sampai masanya. Insya-Allah, kalau jadik, satu akhir bulan 4, satu berita akhir bulan 7 dan dua berita lagi tahun 2009. Tak ramai lagi yang tahu. Elok ler menjadi rahsia lagi. :)

Snippets about my online life

At SWC
I currently at Tapani sector to retrieve 27th and 101st Squadron. The only problem one of the ship that I need to take back to me is not there. I contact my Commanding Officer to clarify about the current situation. I hope I can get back to my current home sector soon enough to get some rest. Oh, I forget, it will took me days in hyperspace before I get back to that system. So, I can get much more rest than what I hope for.

At TW
With the support from my tribe, I successfully expanding to the northwest of the continent. Our arch enemy is only 10 hours away by riding the war horses in my armies. My armies are restless now since my tribe and friends are vanquished their enemy one by one. The training for the new recruits are still on schedule although I encounter some hiccups at a few village. My nobleman are working round the clock to convert those barbarian and my enemy villagers to acknowledge me as their new and true leader. Last night, based on the news, I'm the top 30 important leaders at the continent. Need to encourage my minions to spread my images throughout the continent.

At DG
Production at my main planet is halted because lack of resources although I has to admit one of my advisor mistakenly inform me that the resources and energy to produce ships and build more building are enough for the entire week. Building is back on track although production of outpost ship need to be halted for a few days until I get enough resources. I really need the ship faster because I need more planets to collect more resources for my ever expanding armies. Only research team work tirelessly to get new technologies for the benefit of my empire. I need to plan more towards dominating the whole galaxy.

Rants

Today finished off another batch of work. The eprints configuration and administration, the pra-tender preparation for buying another batch of machines (my machines mind you..ahaks) and some administrative works that I hate the most. Anyway, the organization pays my salary and I need to give out all the best so...

I'm not sure why I still afraid to touch that code. Its not that I don't understand that code. It just whenever I'm near the code, I feel I can't think..hahaha..nice right? How can I be a better programmer if I don't do coding.

So, I rest at 5.00 (only 10 minutes before the office hour end) by browsing news at The Star, BBC, ABC and other news website when suddenly I saw "CAP:Hypermart's discounted tainted food a health risk" at The Star. Let see what The Star write :

"CAP president S.M.Mohamed Idris told a press conference on Wednesday that a hypermarket here was offering such items at a discounted rate of 50% or more to its customers.

He said the hypermarket placed these items on a separate shelf.

"We found mostly food items such as infant milk, fruits and drinks in dented containers,'' he said, adding that one damaged tin of infant milk originally priced at more than RM70 was being sold for RM32.

Mohamed Idris said that the shelf life of some of the items had also expired, while packets of assorted biscuits and flour were badly torn but resealed with cellophane tape."

Damn! I never encounter that when shopping at Tesco but I discover that Tesco (or its workers) still put dented cans and tins on the shelf. But I never take it even when the expired date still far away. Its dangerous if you buy food contains in the dented cans and tins. The internal structure of the cans is not as strong as you might think. I also discover that Tesco still put expired eggs on the shelf (maybe eggs expired date is much shorter than other items).

Why this happening? Maybe because of lots of competitor nowadays that they need to decrease the price but still obtain profits. Just a maybe.

Anyway, I agree with this CAP statement :
"He urged the Health Ministry to take immediate and firm action against retailers and traders who sold food in containers or packaging that had been damaged."

I really want to know which hypermarket that CAP talks about. Beside Tesco Jelutong, it also happened at Sunshine Square (dented cans and tins). I never shop at Giants Bayan Baru, Carrefour Seberang Perai, Sunshine Farlim and any other hypermarkets in Penang. Oh, at Jusco Queensbay, I still not encounter any dented cans and tins. Maybe I'm not purchasing much from Jusco as I do at Tesco and Sunshine.

Back to my life. I really want to repair those bugs in my programs. Wish me luck tomorrow.

On the other note, I think Pak Lah will defend his president post for UMNO with new running mate (which I think Mohammad Mohd Taib or Shahrir Samad - who knows, they got most of air time on news now) and Najib will challenge Pak Lah as UMNO President with Muhyiddin Yassin as his running mate. There are new allegations arises now which are include Muhyiddin and some big shots in UMNO. Hehehe..that unrelated notes. Its interest me on who will become the UMNO President. I has my prefer candidate but I will reveal if he win. :)

Tiredness

Very tired today since I woke up all night to finish up previous meeting report. Then I proceed to draft a presentation with somebody higher up in the federal government. If the project approved by them, I will not accept any other part-time job for a very long time. That's it if they accept my project.

I'm waiting for my servers to arrive. Tentatively, the servers will arrive on 12th April but considering that previous backlogged and some miscommunication between my vendor and distributor, I expected the date will be pushed much further. After all, based on what my vendor said, my organization is the only one in Penang that used this kind of servers. I'm really speechless (on the other hand, tetiba terfikir "mantap gak aku nih tau nak install server jenis nih").

I really glad that my co-workers can clear most of my unit backlogged. Since last month, we are receiving lot of requests from users regarding various system and hardware that are under our jurisdiction. Most of it we put on hold during ICT week. I think most of the backlogged will be cleared somewhere next week considering most of the backlogged are caused by a bug in my software. I think I've pinpointed that bug but experience told me that sometimes one error can be caused by several bugs in the system.

I'm thinking about developing a system that can do most of data update autonomously. I understand the concept but to put it into coding is much harder and also my time to build a program is much limited. Thats why sometimes during office hour, I go to the lab to concentrate on my job. And that is the reason why people can't reach me sometimes.

I'm also think to register another line for my personal usage. Current number are already clogged with personal and official use. And usually I get a call when I'm on leave. I don't mind if it came from my department but...And some of the user/client can't understand that you take the holiday because you want to spend some time with your family. Isk..Isk..

Anyway, I think I better sleep now. I need to do various task at 3 or 4 p.m. Hopefully..

What Danial can do now?

I'm repairing and cleaning my camera when Danial played around the house. He look at me when I focus the camera to him. His smile (when he look at the camera) are priceless. So, I decided to take several of his pics around the house.

Cuti

Awal-awal pagi Rabu, pengasuh Danial call cakap dia kena balik kampung pagi tuh jugak. Aduih..aku dgn wife aku dah bersiap utk ke ofis dah. Pastu cancel ler. So, pikir-pikir nak wat cam ne..Aku call anak buah aku ckp aku tak pegi ofis. So, aku mintak tolong diaorg concentrate install cluster sambil aku dok baca mailing list cara nak solvekan problem kitaorg yg dah masuk seminggu usianya tapi tak solve-solve lagi. Diskus-diskus dgn wife aku, kitaorg decide nak pegi makan kat Suri.

First time bawak Danial kat Suri terus brader kat situ dok galak usik-usik dia. Agaknya tak de org penah bawak baby kot pegi bfast kat situ. Ah..lantak ler..Waktu dah sampai sana baru teringat stroller kat umah. So, kena dukung ler si budak kecik tuh. Masa mama dia tengah makan, abah dia ni ler yg dok dukung. Even bila dah abih dan nak bayar pun abah dia dukung. Mama dia tak larat pastu si kecik nih cam suka lak aku yg dukung dia.

Hari Rabu tuh kitaorg dok basuh baju yg bertimbun. Aku kuar dua kali lagi pas tuh. Beli lunch dgn dinner.

Hari Khamis aku ada meeting. Pagi just beli kat bawah ni je. Nasi lemak yg tak best. Tapi makan gak ler sebab dah lapar. Amik anak buah aku kat ofis jap, pastu terus pecut ke bangunan admin atas bukit. Meeting kat sana. Masuk-masuk je tengok tak de sorg. Tanya bro Mat Noor dia cakap tak de sorang pun lagi. Dengar citer bos dgn big bos ada meeting dgn somebody dari some organization. Sorry aa guys, tak leh citer lagi. Nanti website dah up dgn citer dah confirm aku bagitau ler satu Malaya. Sekarang still peringkat diskusi.

Meeting berlarutan sampai 12.45 p.m. Aku jenis tak kisah dah meeting lama-lama cam nih. Memang dah expect. Meeting paling lama penah aku attend dari kul 9 smpi kul 2 ptg. Ada sekali pegi on-site training tak stop pun for lunch. Direct smpi kul 4. Sib baik pagi dah makan berat-berat. So, jgn ingat keja kat gov senang. Cuma tu ler, bila kitaorg mintak naik gaji, ramai le ckp "Ala, setakat keja goyang kaki wat pe nak mintak banyak-banyak". Ketahui ler org-org Malaysia sekalian bahawa aku pegi site dgn keta sendirik, klu outstation (lebih dari 25km dari stesen) baru leh claim. Tuh pun kadang-kadang let go je. Kalau datang keja hujung minggu mmg tak penah claim pun. Anyway, pegawai kerajaan tak leh claim OT tapi dpt cuti pampasan. Itu pun ada kelainan dari satu department dgn department lain.

Pas meeting beli lauk kat Awet Muda. Lauk banyak dah abih sbb kuar lewat. So, tapau ayam masak kicap (kot) dgn kacang bendi sket dgn sambal belacan (3 senduk - ahaks!). Nasi masak sendirik kat umah.

Hari Jumaat je mengong sket. Mungkin sbb aku rasa cam bosan dok kat umah, aku terus mop satu lantai umah. Petang kuar makan kat Qbay pegi Sushi King. Sempat gak tangkap gambar Danial satu dua gambar. Dia seronok tengok sushi gerak atas kaiten belt. Melilau tengok kiri kanan. Sambil-sambil tengok, mama dia suapkan sket nasi. Makan la lak kalau nasi sushi tu. Bila bagi bubur ari tuh tak makan dia.


Tengok, galak sungguh si kecik ni kat Sushi

Pastu pegi carik mainan sket utk Danial kat Toys R Us. Sambil tuh survey-survey helikopter yg aku ngidam nak beli. Ish, bila ler gamaknya aku dapat beli helikopter tuh. Jumpa mainan yg Danial boleh gigit-gigit. Hajat nak beli sebab ketam yg kitaorg beli utk Danial kat Tesco cam tak sesuai je utk dia gigit. Kadang-kadang nangis anak sulung aku tuh pas dia gigit ketam tu. So, beli satu dari Fisher Price dgn satu lagi dari Jolly Baby. Tengok ler kalau aku ada mood esok-esok aku tangkap gambar mainan tu.