Sardonic Laughter of a Satirist

Cutting in line!

2011-12-22T21:23:00.001-05:00

Have you ever had people cut in front of you in a queue. Well, orang2 ini memang kurang ajar.
Unfortunately, rude people who cut in queue will always exist. Some with reasonable justification, and others with no reason what so ever. In Malaysia, I have experienced this happening to me many times. Especially the queue to the ATM. Though this is indeed a small matter, we should never tolerate such behavior. We cannot keep quiet cause that's going to ruin our mood. We have to stop queue cutters because, it makes people angry and will ruin someone's day. And that someone is going to ruin someone else's day and so on and so on. It will be a social chain reaction gaining negative angry energy outwards towards the community. Eventually, it will gain enough energy to be a social nuclear explosion. Hehehe, of course I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea. So stop the chain reaction occurring and escalating into a social nuclear explosion, you have to stop the chain reaction at the core.

The video above is one of the common methods that people use to cut queue.

Of course there are some exceptions.
1) Some people cutting a queue going to the toilet. They just have to pee and they can't wait. Usually ask, "Cik tolong, saya tak tahan nie, karang terkencing kat sini"
2) In cases of emergency, some people cut in line to use a telephone booth to call the police. You shouldn't be angry at this people. Their justification usually goes, "saya kena pakai tepon, emergency nie"
3) A pregnant with water just broke...."ketepi, beri laluan, nak terberanak".
I'm sure there are a few exceptions not listed here.

In any other cases, I have never tolerated queue cutters and always confronted them. However, in the past, I always thought that I didn't handle the matter smooth enough. I tend to get angry or end up in an argument. I guess, the best way to handle this issue is to remain calm. Some websites suggested the following method:

1) Get a witness. Ask the person behind you or in front of you if they saw the person cut in line. Doing so will help you get people to agree with you.
2) Nicely and quickly approach the person cutting the queue by politely asking a straight forward question. Like, "excuse me, I believe there is line here that starts over there and it looks like you just cut in line."
3) If an argument starts, I suppose its just not worth fighting over it. But the main idea is remain calm.

So be calm is the main idea here. Before blurting out ##$@$# .."get in line you idiot". Instead breath in, breath out.....find your zen and rethink and follow the suggested steps above. good luck and save the world from a social nuclear explosion.

A shit load of Diarrhea

2011-12-06T14:28:00.001-05:00

This blog seems to be updated once every year or so. Such anomaly almost occurs as sparse as the sun eclipse. Its starting to look like a ghost blog. Nobody comes here and nobody leaves a comment. Well, this is entirely my fault. I never put aside a little time to give this blog a little TLC. Anyhow, I feel like I was out of stories to tell. Or some are just too personal to be told online. Believe it or not, writing in a blog is like standing out in a park and shouting out your mind. If you don't filter what you say, eventually, someone will throw rocks at you, just to get you to shut the hell up. Just as an observation, a lot of people think personal blogs are personal. In truth, nothing is personal on the Internet. If you want it to be personal--just for your eyes only--well, keep the traditional diary. Or an alternative digital diary that is not so traditional but is well encrypted for your eyes only. If you are more of the, I want to tell my friends only gossip group,...well, there is such a thing called facebook, where you can filter what your friends see and who you add in your circle. If you don't like facebook for some reason. There is also google+ and a lot of other social network app. Of course there are pros and cons of being in the wave of social networking in this modern age. However, the rule of thumb is, it works just like the traditional social fabric that you and I are used to even before the Internet exist. It's as fundamental as a 2 year old child learns how to make friends. Its the simple formula of being friendly and don't poop on others. So the idea is if you don't shit on other people, people won't shit on you. And like the famous saying, what goes around comes around. Translated for the ignorant, if you don't like others to shit on you, don't shit on others. Cause shit goes around....really it does.....and people will eventually find out, and when they do, they will vomit a shitload of crap on your face like diarrhea. So whats the moral of this story? Safe your face, don't shit on others.

I have no intention of spoiling your appetite for your next meal,
I wanted to update my blog, and nothing comes to mind,
All I can think of is shit that looks like oat meal.
And so I bid you farewell and advice you to be kind,
All this talk about shit, makes me feel like i need to go shit for real,
Its time for me to go cause can't hold my behind.

Ambassador of Malaysia

2011-09-29T11:15:00.002-04:00

I was told, and I belief, that being a Malaysian student overseas makes me, to some extend, an ambassador of Malaysia. Hence I spread the good word about Malaysia and avoid the bad. I feel others should do same whenever they are overseas. Kalau bukan kita yang market negara kita, sapa lagi? Although each person's contribution is a small raindrop, Malaysians are everywhere, and an aggregation of us makes a deluge marketing campaign for our country.

Government Intervention or force capitalism?

2011-06-24T08:13:00.005-04:00

Mydin to create 1Malaysia shops? Is this nepotism? Too much government intervention. Not knowing the details, I would like to think that the idea is a positive one. Its a great idea to counter the effects of unscrupulous retailers taking advantage of the rising oil prices. Some say too much government involvement is a move to be feared since it's moving towards the socialism ideology. However, I doubt the governments main goal is trying to model a socialist country. As if Malaysia is not already the Big Brother trying to be corporate Malaysia. I would see it more like creating a large corporation with a huge social responsibility. A responsibility to help people. It just so happened that Mydin is one of the first to step up for this role. This bold move to take social responsibility will give Mydin the advantage of being the first in the market to do this. A lot of companies who decides to be more socially responsible tend to excel in the long run. Take for example Walmart, they take pride in helping consumers to get the best prices in the market. In the past, health companies like Pfizer have taken the philanthropic route to provide free medicine to victims, and it gained them trust in many governments to do business. Ford too have taken a social responsibility in the past to provide affordable cars for the common folks who were once only affordable to nobles and the rich. There are many more examples that shows, companies who thinks along the lines of "more than just making profit" can bring a company far. I'm not just saying it, but you can refer to the research done by Collins's et. al. (a bunch of Harvard grad students) in a book called, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Visionary companies that is built with "more than just profit ideology" tend to be very resilient and capable of withstanding major economic downturns. What the government have done here is to force capitalism. The more options consumers have the better for everybody. This is far from socialism or communism. I hope however that the government is not stopping any other tom dick and harry to start their own initiative to help the people by providing more options and cheaper prices. If they are, this is not in the spirit of 1Malaysia. Its about time for Malaysian corporations to think about their social responsibilities for Malaysia and the world.

Fathers Day and the Fortress of Solitude

2011-06-22T11:08:00.015-04:00

I have not written anything in this blog after I got married. Well, being married makes you busy ;)

Truth be told, I had no motivation to write in this blog for reasons I myself don't understand. Maybe its the new beginning in life, maybe its the transition or maybe after getting married I'm so eager to look forward in life that I had no time to reflect on the past. Today however, I decided to write a little something. Last Sunday was fathers day. So I thought about writing a little something about dad.

My dad was never around most of time due to his work. Which makes him far from winning the father of the year award. But I guess he realizes this and tried his best to guide me whenever he can. Because of his work, he can't be standing over my shoulder all the time to make sure that I'm ok. But Dad had a lot of stories to share. Some stories that goes a long way in giving guidance. At times I feel like Kal-el (superman's real native name) from the planet Krypton. Why, because I rarely see dad, but his advise seems to always be available whenever I visit my ice crystal palace (The Fortress of Solitude). Unlike superman, I don't have super speed, fortunately, my ice crystal palace was not somewhere in the north pole but just right there in my head.

Dad had many stories that tie back to a simple quote. One of his favorite quotes is, " Whenever someone hurt you once, you hold back, and if they hurt you twice, you hold back, and if they hurt you the third time you punch them in the face." He tells me a story of how he had a fight with a fellow classmate back during his younger days. I guess the moral of his story is don't ever take shit from people. You hold back when you can, but if its over the line, you show them truthfully that you are not someone that can be pushed around. Till today, I hold to the same principle and am glad that I'm not someone who can be pushed around and bullied easily.

There are many more stories that relate to his simple quotes of wisdom. Many of which have helped me through the hardest times in my life. I know now that Dad will always be with me. Whenever life brings me down, all I have to do is run back to my Ice Crystal Palace, my very own Fortress of Solitude to find guidance and I'll be flying again doing whats best for myself and the people I love. Nothing can bring me down for long, because dad, you will always be there in my fortress of solitude. Thank you Dad...and happy fathers day.

Discredited

2009-11-22T00:46:00.007-05:00

This is going to be a few entries about my life experiences. I will try to write minute pieces of my past as I remember them, while growing up in each entry.

A lot of us get discredited sometimes. It's meant to belittle our work, effort or talents. We hear it often, but we usually do not care much when it is about others.

But in our personal lives, being discredited is sometimes painful to hear. I remember when I was 9 years old. I was a late bloomer so I didn't know my ABCs and I didn't know how to read. I was always the last 5 in class because I couldn't possibly read the questions in the exam papers. I memorize the shape and order of letters to answer questions, which of course would read out nothing but nonsense. But one thing I was good at was math. It was the only thing that made sense to me at that time. I could do math because there is nothing to read. All I had to do was to understand how the numbers are affected by the symbols "+", "-","x", or "/". When the results for the math exams came out, a teacher came up to me and asked me, "Are you Rizal". I said, yes. Then she asked, "Betulker awak yang dapat markah penuh?" (Is it true that you got full marks?". I said I don't know, cause the results was not out yet. She said only two people got a 100 in the whole school, and then she asked me if I had copied the other chinese student(lets say Siew Yen) and where was I sitting at that time. Confuse by her remarks, I just told her I don't know any Siew Yen in my class. Then she realized that I was from a different class. She asked me again, "what is your classroom name?". I told her it was 3 Merah. She was shocked. I was from the worst class of standard 3, and yet I got a 100. Disbelief, she told me, "You are lucky".

I was hurt, cause it had nothing to do with luck. At least not for my math exams. For the other papers that would require me to read, it was pure luck. Even though I didn't know how to read, I have always managed to get around 50%, and that is what I call luck. Luck is when I was still able to write a few sentences to answer a question without knowing how to read. Luck is being able to infer what the questions were from pictures and diagrams and select similar words from other parts of the exam papers that would help my inferences. Luck is the ability to select a few random words from the paper itself, reorder them to look something that looks like an answer and got it half right. Of course more than half of the time, i wrote nonsense. But nobody suspected that I didn't know how to read. They just thought I was stupid.

But when I was discredited for something I was good at, I was hurt. In math, everything was clear to me, and it was definitely not luck. I knew every single question and knew how to answer them. It was just sad that a teacher who was suppose to encourage me, choose to discredit me instead. If she had investigated further, she would have found out that I suffered minor dyslexia.

Lucky for me, mom was a better teacher. I went home with all my exams papers graded. Though most of them were with bad grades, she was nonetheless proud of my 100 in math. She wondered why my answers doesn't make any sense for the other papers. It'a as if I was answering something totally different. It is as if, I purposely wrote something wrong. It is as if I didn't understand the question at all. She then investigated my weaknesses and came up with a theory of her own. Her theory was that I was bad at reading. She tested her theory by forcing me to read out loud the questions in my exam papers. She was surprised to find out that I could not read at all. Not a single word. I remembered, mom saying, "Don't tell me you don't know how to read. Do you really don't know how to read? or are you refusing to read". I remember her scolding me, shouting, "READ JOEY, READ.....what does that say....", and I just mumbled, refusing to show my handicap in reading cause both of my sisters were such good readers. They were reading novels by the time they were 8.

Of course when she realized that I couldn't read at all, she was disappointed. But it was an "Aha" moment for her. She was just amazed that I could still write some nonsense down without even knowing how to read. Lucky for me, mom wasted no time. She rolled up her sleeve and spent the next few weeks teaching me how to read.

Today, I can write though still hate reading. Some even say that I'm not such a bad writer. Well, thank you mom. Without you, I would still be playings crayons drawing pictographs in my room.

More stories to come later.....about historical past.

Blogimental

2009-10-31T20:40:00.013-04:00

The last entry I had was July 26th. That was a long time ago. Some, might even wonder what happened? Why have I not written anything new? But for most, nobody even comes to my blog, so I doubt anyone would even care. I choose to write on my blog, not only as a way of self therapy, but also to keep in touch with family and friends with the latter being the primary reason. However, recently, even my mom now knows how to use facebook. I am really proud of her for being so in tuned with the progress of cyberspace. A lot of moms out there don't even have an email account, but not my mom, she even have her own blog. Again she has proven herself to be ever versatile and dynamic. She keep true to her words, "Joey, nobody is stupid. What differentiate the stupid and smart people is the effort to learn". So the need to keep her updated with writings on my blog seems somewhat irrelevant as she now reads my status on my facebook profile and seems to participate in the comments a lot.

My sisters, my friends and office mates have facebook accounts too. This sudden change in cyber social activity changed the perception that technology separates people. Technology like facebook now strengthen the bonds of friends, increase envy within coworkers and foster the love within families. My particular facebook activity increases everyday, as more of the people I know and love uses facebook just as much as I do. Hence, the fun and luster of writing a blog seems to fade away.

Being in an institution that cares too much on what you say, writing a blog seems to be less interesting. I should have remained anonymous, cause then I can write what ever I want. But now, I feel like i have to shut myself up from writing acerbic stuff about the world. As arrogant and sarcastic as I am, I get no satisfaction from people trying to discredit me just because of my different views. A lot of people do not appreciate diversity. So I will try to comply with the norm of the world, being a mediocre boring arse in the monotonous cog wheels of society. Hence, I write only non controversial stuff.

Much of these days I spend my time doing research. It's about the only thing that keeps me excited and sometimes even euphoric. I know to some its boring, but one, like myself, can get lost in the world of what if this and that, that seems to linger in my head.

I have contemplated about closing this blog and quit blogging altogether. But, after thinking about it, i might keep it for a few more years. The thing is, this blog, is more than just a tool to keep family and friends updated.

"It is a history of my life, a collection of my thoughts organized in chronological order. It is the very essence of my individuality.

As I foresee, my inevitable future is to be one of the drones of society.

I feel myself assimilating into the collective behavior.

I feel myself getting lost in the thick hay stack.

I feel myself being just one of the pebble stones in the river.

Slowly becoming a grain of sand in the desert of swiveling dunes and disfigured sand domes.

Someday I'm sure I will lose myself in this monotony.

What was once colorful, will be dithered away into monochromatic halftones.

Eventually, the only way to save myself would be this blog, to remind myself, that a person did exist. To give me a chance to find my way back home. To look back of where I came from, and pick up the bread crumbs to return in shape and form of the person that I have always been...."

There you go, sentimental views about my blog....aka....blogimental.

Hopefully, I'll have more updates in the futre, but it will be irregular updates from now on.

Take care my family and friends, and see you on facebook.

Running to the beat.

2009-07-25T20:01:00.011-04:00

I have not been running for a while now. Particularly, because I feel that there is not enough hours in a day. If I run one hour, that means I'll be twice as tired, need extra rest, sleep and definitely lose one hour--most of the time wasting it anyways--which I could have instead done something more useful. I thought taking a break from a running will give me some extra time to concentrate on my prelims, but it seems that I am just getting even lazier than usual. It all started when my old Reebok running shoes got totally worned out and torned.

Needless to say, it was time for me to look for a new shoe. The criteria for this new shoe is that:

1) Must be a running shoe

2) Good ventilation, good cushion and very light

3) Not pink in color and does not look like a girls shoe

4) and most important, must be able to support my Ipod Nike+ running sensor.

So the shoe I got was the "Nike Air Max Moto+ 6". This shoe was the cheapest shoe I could find in the Nike outlet store that supported the Ipod running sensor. And it looked decent. Not exactly the most stylish shoe around but good enough to not get a ticket by the fashion police. The shoe is also light enough, feel very comfortable--though i prefer the previous reebok I had-- and it has enough holes for nice ventilation(which is important to make sure your feet gets enough air circulation to avoid it from smelling really terrible like a rotting cat carcass).

The nice thing about the shoe is that you can take out the cushion insoles, and there is a slot for your nike+ running sensor on the shoe soles. You can slide your running sensor nicely in the slot, and you can then put back the cushion insoles nicely. Hence, making the sensor practically integrated into the shoe. Now after all that, I can't wait to wake up early in the morning, to put on my Ipod, selecting all my power songs and running to the beat.

Berani kerana sengkek.

2009-07-06T00:32:00.021-04:00

Lama sungguh tidak diupdate blog ku ini. Sejak dua menjak nie, memang sering sibuk. Selain dari kerja research yang harus dibuat, ader juga hobi baru sekarang nie, yang mengambil masa dari activity blogging. Antara hobi yang terbaru ini ialah hobi menjadi mekanik kereta. Ada juga hobi hiking, hobi rock-climbing, hobi berjogging, hobi swimming, tetapi, hari ini, nak cerita pasal hobi menjadi mekanik kereta.

Hobi mekanik kereta ini bukan lah sesuatu yang datangnya dari minat. Tetapi datangnya secara tak sengaja. Mulanya begini, pada suatu hari jumaat yang lepas, saya mengambil masa untuk menghantar kereta ku untuk diservis. Sudah lama kereta ku ini tidak diservis. Kalau tengok ikut mileage, memang sudah tiba masa untuk masuk ke bengkel untuk menukar minyak hitam. Pagi itu, setelah memanaskan, saya mula berjalan ke bengkel berdekatan untuk menukar minyak hitam. Elok pagi itu juga, kereta ku mula merengek. Ada pula bunyi pelik dekat tayar. Tapi saya tak layan perangai mengada-ngada kereta ku, dah terus berjalan ker bengkel.

Sampai dibengkel, ku sampaikan hajatku ke mekanik orang putih tersebut untuk menukar minyam hitam kereta ku. Sambil itu, ku arahkan mekanik tersebut untuk tengok kan ape yang kereta ku itu sibuk merengek dibahagian tayar. Seteleh diangkat kereta ku, mekanik tersebuk turun dibawah kereta dengan penyuluh lampu dan kembali dengan kerut-kerut di dahi sambil senyum cover line. Saya dapat rasakan yang mekanik ini sudah tahu banyak benda yang perlu ditukar dan inilah peluangnya untuk mengetuk licin pocket mamat melayu nie. Apa yang diperhatikan mekanik tersebut ialah break pad depan kereta telah haus. Jadi itulah punca merengek kereta itu. Tambah lagi katanya, disc break rotor di tayar belakang sudah habis berkarat dan tidak ader grip, sambil break padnya juga sudah haus. Semua ini perlu ditukar katanya. Saya menyuruh mekanik tersebut membuat anggaran cost untuk membaiki semua yang rosak. Setelah sepuluh minit, dia kembali dengan anggaran sebanyak USD150 utk break pad dibahagian depan, dan USD300 utk menukar disc rotor dan break pad dibahagian belakang.

Tanpa termasuk servis, sudah USD450. Terkejut beruk saya, tetapi masih buat tenang. Saya kata, tunggu sebentar, kena pulang rumah tanya tuan rumah dulu. Saya ni tukang hantar kereta sahaja untuk diservis. Jadi mekanik tadi dengan kecewa, mengatakan, baiklah, dengan berat hati dia melepaskan saya dengan harapan akan kembali untuk menukar semua masalah break.

Setelah pulang, bermula lah hobi saya sebagai mekanik. Puas saya google untuk mencari tutorial. Terutamanya, utk menukar break pad dan disc break rotor. Semua nie sebab saya nie dah sengkek, tak sanggup nak bayar mekanik USD450. Kalau dulu takut benar untuk membuka screw kereta, tapi kerana nak jimat punya pasal, kenalah berani.

Setelah beberapa tutorial online, dan merasa yakin. Saya pergi mendapatkan alat-alat untuk membuat kerja mekanik ini sendiri. Saya beli, jack stand (bukan jack kereta, ini sudah default ader dalam kereta) supaya boleh jack kereta dan biar kereta landing dan berdiri atas dua kaki jack stand ini. Dengan adernya jack stand, bolehlah saya duduk bawah kereta membaiki apa-apa yang patut tanpa risau jack kereta tergelincir, gagal ataupun jatuh. Juga dibeli beberapa spanar untuk membuat kerja. Semua cost tersebut, termasuk break pad ceramic untuk depan dan belakang, hanya lebih kurang USD180.

Setelah tukar break pad tayar depan, minat pula saya untuk membetulkan kereta sendiri. Keesokkannya pula, saya membaiki disc break tayar belakang dan tukar break pad. Puas hati juga dapat membetulkan kereta sendiri. Selama nie tak tahu bukan nya susah sangat untuk membuat kerja mekanik ini sendiri.

Inilah Disc break kereta saya yang dah habis berkarat. Hanya separuh jer yang dicengkam, separuh lagi, dibahagian luar disc break habis dah jadi rapuh bersisik-sisik dengan karat. Sebelum masuk musim sejuk, kena lah tukar. Kalau tak, bahaya, kerana jalan licin dan campuran salji dengan garam yang ditabur untuk mencairkan salji akan menyebabkan karat ini menjadi lebih teruk. Oleh yang demikian, bahagian disc break rotor dan break pad kereta ini kena lah ditukar dengan segera. Barulah saya faham aper yang dimaksudkan mekanik tu dulu. Ingat kan nak ketuk saya jer.

Tapi dia ketuk part labor cost dan parts tu rasanya dia markup lah 100%. Yang puas hati bila buat sendiri, kita dapat pilih sendiri parts tu dari kedai dan tahu quality aper yang kita nak letak. Contohnya, untuk tayar belakang nie, saya pakai standard metalic base break pads. Tapi yang belah depan, saya pakai ceramic break pads. Ceramic break pads nie best, lebih senyap dan bersih tanpa habuk. Ini penting sebab tayar depan nie lah yang break banyak buat kerja untuk bentikan keta. Kalau pakai metalic base, banyak habuk lah dan bising pula bila kita break kuat. Tambah pula sebab habuk yang banyak, kena lah cuci tayar kereta selalu.

Kalau boleh, untuk disc break rotor belakang nie nak pakai yang mahal punya sikit. Tapi aper nak buat, nak jimat. Jadi saya beli lah yang standard punya disc break rotor. Janji ader warranty 2 tahun, dan tahan karat. Ader juga disc break rotor yang lagi murah, tapi takut tak tahan lah pulak. Ader juga disc break rotor yang cantik, siap ader lubang-lubang perhiasan untuk prestasi breaking yang hebat. Tapi yerlah, bukannya saya nak bawak racing. Bawak gie berjalan jer. Jadi buat masa nie cukup lah dengan standard rotor jer.

Kent State U Climbing Gym

2009-06-08T02:20:00.011-04:00

I have started a new hobby while I'm here. My new hobby is doing more sports, so that I can stay fit and happy. How is doing sports can possibly make one happy? Well, supposedly, more workout, produces more endorphins and endorphins suppose to make you happy[1]. So I have done a lot of running, swimming, trekking, bowling and the most recent one, rock climbing.

The thing with rock climbing is you need at least one friend to belay you as you climb the rock. Fortunately, recently, I managed to "racun" (coerced) my friend to start rock climbing. After much resistance, he eventually gave up and succumbed to my constant sales pitch about how cool rock climbing would be.

So we went to rock climbing gym in Kent State U, and started to register to take the examination for license to climb. We had a 30 minute safety instructions course, and the next day, we were ready to climb. The gym has a few nice beginner walls as well as some pretty challenging walls. Some are artificial holds (a point where you can hold on to, which could be a rock or a crack on a rock), and some are natural holds (not really natural, just meant to look like a real rock rather than something protuding out of the wall). Aside from the walls, they do have a nice bouldering rock with a nice overhang setup to test your upside down cliff hanger skills. Of course they provide cushions underneath the overhang just incase you fall. The picture above shows the boulder rock.

After about a few climbs, we decided to go check out some gears at a outdoor store. I have most of the rock climbing equipment, but I do not have a nice belaying device. I preferred using the figure of 8 before, but for some reason, using an ATC would be easier for my climbing buddy to start learning how to belay me. So I bought a sports ATC that would be easier to belay. A sports ATC is like any other ATC except that it is only for one rope. Hence, it can't be used for rappelling and it is mostly used only for sport climbs. However, because its small, and only for one rope, it seems to balance better while you are belaying. And it makes you perform better while you are belaying. Plus it gives you the needed friction, with the ridges at the opening. Of course, when it comes to climbing equipment, I prefer to use Black Diamond stuff. So previously I've bought a Black Diamond harness, Black Diamond Carabiner and a Black Diamond figure of 8, well now I got a Black Diamond, silver colored sports ATC[2]. I bought it at the Appalachian outfitters[3] which was about 20 minutes away from Kent.

Other than that, I also got myself a nice climbing/hiking pants. When choosing a climbing pants, its important that its light, and also flexible. So I got myself the North Face Meridian surplus convertible pants[4]. This long pants can be converted to shorts when you want it to by unzipping it at the knee. The nicest thing about it, is the material. It is superlight, and the material gives you freedom in movement. Plus, its also very breathable. It dries up superfast and makes your figure looks great. Okay, the last one is just an exaggeration. But, unfortunately, it was hard finding a size for me. Since the pants here are made for Americans. Minimum inseam is 32, and minimum waist is 30. So its hard for me, since my inseam is 30 and my waist is 28. I had to go to the boys section to find a pants that fit me. So in the US, I'm still a little boy.

I hope eventually, I will get to climb the rocks outdoors. There are some beautiful places around, but its been a while since I've climb, so I need to warm up first before I go out climbing and bouldering. However, in preparation, I need to drink a lot of water. And because I'm an outdoor lover nowadays, I support to keep the world a greener place. Hence, to show my support for a greener world, I bought the nalgene[5] water bottle and joined the pledge to reduce the number of water bottles in landfills. Nalgene water bottles are free from BPA, which makes it suitable to be recycled to create other water bottles, food containers and what not. This pledge is part of the filter for good program [6]. Why I choose the color green, well, I don't know, maybe its because of the greener world effort, or maybe, its just Islamic....:)

After much exercise, Paul and I went to Cheesecake factory to treat ourselves to some sweets. The strawberry cheesecake is the best here in Cheesecake factory. The environment is awesome, but the food is sinful. The cheesecake alone could be like 1000 calorie. But who cares, what's the point of playing hard if you can't enjoy the food. I play hard, I should be allowed to eat like a pig too. So here I am sinking my teeth into me delicious strawberry cheesecake.

References:
[1] http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/endorphins-101-your-guide-natural-euphoria.html?pageNum=2
[2] http://blackdiamondequipment.com/gear/atc_sport.php
[3] http://www.appalachianoutfitters.com/ao/index.asp
[4] http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/sc-gear/boys-pants-shorts/boys-meridian-surplus-convertible-pant.html
[5] http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/
[6] http://www.filterforgood.com/login.php

Pinoy puki-puki masarap

2009-06-02T23:57:00.009-04:00

Now, some of you might have reach my blog by accident, or you may actually know me--not necessarily mean that I would know you, but who cares. My ramblings are usually about nothing and it never seems important enough to read, and you may already know that about me. Since I'm such a showoff:). But I'm sure you are now reading it to this point, just because you saw the word "puki"[1] and that made you curious. If you are a guy, you're thinking that this entry must be something naughty and dirty, and you just have to find out, right?And if you are a girl, I'm sure you saw the word "puki" and though in a less imaginative state than guys would be, would be as curious and would just like to find out too. So read on....

Recently, my mind often wonders back home--across the oceans, across the deep blue seas--to my humble home in Shah Alam. Don't know why, but I guess its true what the famous adage says, "there is no place like home", and that it is just normal to miss the place where you grew up. The familiar faces, the familiar decor, the familiar colors and smells that we take for granted from the time moment we were born.

I would like to talk about something delicious. "Pinoy puki-puki masarap" loosely translated means filipinos puki-puki is delicious. But I'm sorry to disappoint all of you, this entry has nothing to do with something dirty and naughty. This entry is about something delicious. Well, wait guys and gals, dont be dirty minded, not that kind of delicious. What I mean by delicious is that puki-puki[2] is a kind of signature dish from phillippines. Now, being half filipino, I was obviously brought up to eat puki-puki almost every week. In fact, puki-puki--sometimes spelled as pooky-pooky, or pookey-pookey--is my favorite dish, and I love it soo much. Whether you decide to eat it with rice, or just spread it on bread, it is still a delicious and healthy dish no matter how you decide to chew it down. Puki-puki can be classified as a vegetable dish, and hence it is good for those of you who wants to keep slim and healthy.

So since I miss home so much, i tried to cook myself puki-puki[2], and another dish called mince beef with potatos, which was also another pinoy cooking that my mom used to make for us. I started with a recipe given by kak Shima[2] who was also interested in making some puki-puki.

I started by following exactly the recipe given at a website[2]. I started with two nice clean eggplants. And started to grill them on top of a stove. I used to remember mom doing this. She always told me, remember to make sure to burn it until it is charred. So here are some pictures of my silly attempt.

After it is fully charred, you have to peel the charred eggplant's skin, and get the good tasting eggplant inside.

After that i followed the instructions given in the website[2] and added beaten eggs. I should have just put in one beaten egg, but silly me, I thought more is better, so the output was a bit different from what it should look like. However, it taste as good.

After puki-puki, i tried the recipe my mom mailed me to make mince beef with potatos. The recipe is attached in the mail snippet below:

-----Mom's mail--------------------------

Ingredients:

1.Garlic - half clove

2.Onions - half big

3.Tomatoes - four big

4.Fish sauce - two laddles

5.Mince beef - half kilo

6.Potatoes - three small

7.Oil

Saute garlic, onions and tomatoes till soft. Add mince beef and the fish sauce , till oil comes out and the beef fried dry. Add water , say four cups and boil . Slow down fire when the water boils and let the soup simmer for fifteen minutes. Add the chopped potatoes and continue boiling till potatoes are cooked. Add a pince of salt to taste and pepper to taste. Can also add carrots or capsicon.

Enjoy cooking. Love Mom

---------------------------------------------

Anyway, after all that cooking, I was ready to eat....my pinoy homecook meal....it was just delicious, you can really taste the charred eggplant taste, and the delightful potatos.:)

Footnote & References:

[1] Puki is a female body part in the Malay language

[2] Puki-puki, http://mines45.multiply.com/recipes

Bau Ketiak masam Tengik Baceyn

2009-05-27T21:08:00.006-04:00

Di waktu musim panas (summer), bertambah lah bau ketiak masam tengik baceyn yang datangnya dari sesetengah individu. Hairan sungguh, kalau di musim sejuk(winter), tak ada lah pulak macam nie, tiba saja musim panas nie, bukan nak kata kalau yang berbau tu duduk sebelah kita baru bau, kalau yang sibusuk tu masuk kelas sejam sebelum pun kita boleh tau. Sesungguhnya, bau ketiak ni unique, boleh kenal bau busuk individu yang mana. Saya cukup tak faham, orang yang bau ketiak nie, tak perasan ker dia bau mcm tong sampah basah. Bau macam daging busuk pun ader. Kekadang ader juga yang bau mcm stokin basah busuk direndam dalam bawang masam. Macam-macam bau ader lah.

Tak faham saya, kenapa lah dorang nie? Mandi tu renjis-renjis jer ker? Kalaulah dah tahu bau mcm tong sampah kalau berpeluh, pakailah roll-on dekat ketiak, mandi dan gosok betul-betul dan pakailah syampoo dan minyak wangi. Malah, bukankah best kalau panas-panas nie kita mandi. Bukannya kena bayar pun bill air dekat negara macam Amerika nie.

Saya cerita pasal bau ketiak nie sebab ader lah sorang ni, sahabat X yang sering suka melepak dengan saya. Saya tak kisah lah kalau masa musim sejuk dulu. Tapi baru-baru nie, sungguh kurang menyenangkanlah. Kekadang, bau ketiak tu sangatlah tengik, sampai sesak nafas saya. Rasa nak muntah pun ader. Malah kalau lalat hinggap pun, mau pitam lalat yang hinggap tu.

Masalah dengan sahabat X nie, mcm maner lah kita nak tegur. Boleh lah cuba-cuba bagi teguran secara halus dan berkias. Tapi boleh pula si X nie, buat tak faham. Takkan lah kita nak cakap kat dia..."Woi, ketiak lu bau macam tong sampah lah oii". Segan pulak lah kawan tu. Ada sekali nie, sahabat X tumpang kereta saya untuk pulang kerumahnya. Saya dah kurang sedap hati, sebab memang tahu lah baunya akan melekat dalam kereta saya. Jadi bila dia masuk tu, saya cepat-cepat buka tingkap keempat-empat tingkap kereta saya. Lepas tu, saya cakaplah..."Awak ada bau tak bau macam tak senang", dengan cara yang berkias-kias bahasa. Dia pula terkerut-kerut dahinya. Saya ingat, dia dapat lah message yang ingin ku sampaikan. Lepas tu dia kata, mungkin pasal kasut dia yang dah buruk ni, dah lama dia tak basuh. Ler, ader ker bau kasut pulak. Orang nak bagi tahu dia yang dia bau ketiak, kasut lak yang dia ingat. So, terpaksa lah saya memberi teguran yang kurang berkias sikit, jadi saya tanya lah dia. Awak mandi tak tadi? Mr. X lak pandang saya macam tak faham. Lepas tu tergelak, dan kata, mesti lah mandi, apa kena mengena bau kasut dia dgn mandi nie, dia kata. Ler, tak faham jugak. Sebab tak faham juga, saya pun berputus asa lah nak tegur dia. Saya pun segan nak bagi tahu. Jadi, saya tahan aje lah nafas dan drive laju-laju. Yang pasti, tingkap terbuka dan aircon mesti tutup.

Saya pun takut juga kalau-kalau bau mcm terung busuk ataupun bawang busuk. Jadi, saya pun pastikan, yang saya selalu mandi dan pastikan baju yang dipakai tu kering dan tak berbau. Ditambah lagi dengan minyak wangi untuk memastikan yang kita nie tak lah berbau tengik. Jadi kepada sahabat-sahabat yang lain, jangan jadi macam sahabat X. Kalau kawan-kawan ader bagi teguran berkias tu, faham-faham jer lah. hehehehe

Summer is here!

2009-05-22T14:58:00.012-04:00

Yes, the spring semester is over, and for students like me, its an indication that summer is here. The sun is out and smiling again, the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and the deers are out and about running in the wild. As the nature surroundings becomes alive, the Kent State University oddly becomes dead. People are on their summer break, parking lots are empty and there is nobody left in the department except for foreign graduate students like myself who dreading the research work that we have to do and administrative staff who just can't wait for the day to be over.

Because of the summer break, some facilities in the Kent State University are close. They are temporarily close or their hours of operations are shorter. This includes the gym, which is currently closed for maintenance and will reopen on the 26th of May with shorter hours of operation. But that did not stop me from my daily routine. So rather than going swimming, Paul (my exercise buddy) and myself started the habit of running. At about 6.30, I would park my car at the department, and we would run to a reserve park own by the biology department for ecological research here in Kent. I believe the park is used by the ecology and biology researchers, but it has a nice trail for the public to use and run and enjoy the outdoors. The trail brings us all the way to the Kent State DIX football stadium.

Along the trail, there are blooming flowers, and sometimes, we are lucky enough to see a deer enjoying the green during the summer. We tried to get closer to the deer, however, it got scared and ran away disappearing in the midst of the forest. I guess, deers are not very social beings. Along the trail, there are also a few rabbits, ducks and gooses running around. We are not the only ones running though, some people cycle, some veterans walk romantically together, and there are also young couples walking their dogs. Most of the time you see single jocks running with their Ipod.

We usually head back before 8 since it would be almost dark by then. Anyways, can't wait for the gym to be open again. While it is nice to run outdoors, i do suffer from allergies, and outdoor running just make my eyes puff up and my nose clog up. :) So that's it, a short update from me. I know I haven't written anything in my blog for a while, I have been busy with research work and all. So buh-bye for now...and see you later on my next blog entry.

Kata-kata terakhir Lukman

2009-04-28T00:02:00.005-04:00

Baru-baru ini, saya mendapat email yang mengingatkan sahabat ku semasa membuat MBA dahulu. Email tersebut datangnya dari sahabat ku Razali dan bersama email tersebut, dia menyertakan hasil tulisan sahabat ku Lukman, yang saya berpeluang mengenalinya semasa mengambil MBA bersama.

Saya tidak lah begitu rapat dengan Saudara Lukman, kerasa Lukman adalah seorang yang introvert, pendiam, dah bersopan santun orangnya. Namun, dia memang baik dan sering menegur dengan senyumannya yang ikhlas dan manis. Pada pandangan saya, dia juga seorang yang sangat bijak. Saya sering mengambil perhatian apabila Lukman memberi pandangannya. Walaupun jarang bercakap, tapi bila bercakap, memang berisi. Saya percaya, sahabat2 lain pun mempunyai pandangan yang sama terhadap Lukman seperti saya.

Lukman merupakan seorang Lecturer yang hampir memperolehi PhD-nya. Saya percaya, jika Lukman menjadi seorang tenaga pengajar, Lukman mungkin akan menjadi seorang Professor yang akan banyak berbakti kepada anak2 muda dan negara Malaysia. Namun, setelah tamat MBA, Lukman didapati mengidap penyakit kanser. Tahun lepas, Lukman meninggal dunia dan berita terkejut itu membuat sahabat2 kelas MBA kami sangat sedih.

Didalam email yang baru saya dapat ini, ada disertakan hasil tulisan nya. Hasil tulisannya original dan datangnya dari hati. Terasa sebak dihati bila membaca hasil tulisan Lukman. Memang seorang yang kreatif, dan mempunyai bakat seorang karyawan. Disini juga, saya akan menghormati hasil kerjanya, dan memberikan luangan blog saya ini untuk menyampaikan pesanannya kepada rakan2. Semoga kata-kata terakhirnya boleh memberi manfaat kepada orang lain.

Kepada Lukman, seorang yang berbakti, baik dan dihormati, terima kasih utk kata2 akhir mu.....dan semoga mu selamat dan gembira bersama Allah.

AKU CAPEK YA ALLAH

Besarnya dugaanMu kepadaku Ya Allah

Sehinggakan ke tahap aku terasa betapa capeknya aku

Tidak ku jangka begini tahap ujianMu kepada ku Ya Allah

Bermula ujianMu satu persatu terhadapku

Berikanlah kekuatan untuk aku menghadapi semua ini Ya Allah

Hanya kepadaMu aku sembah dan kepadaMu jua ku pohon pertolongan

Berikanlah aku jalan keluar Ya Allah.

Tidak ingin ku tempoh perjalanan sebegini lagi.

Sememangnya aku sudah capek Ya Allah.

------------------------

Jalan Kebun,

1 November 2008

1.03pm

Ku tetap yakin dengan qadak dan qadarMu Ya Allah.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MALAM INI – LAILATUL QADR

Hadirnya pada salah satu malam-malam ini

Kutunggu

Kupohon kepadaNya

Agar dikurniakan ku kelebihan malam ini

Malam yang lebih baik dari seribu bulan

Mungkin aku tidak punyai tempoh ini

Untuk beribadah kepadaNya

Kupohon kepadaNya

Agar dikurniakan ku keselamatan pada malam ini

Malam yang lebih baik dari seribu bulan

Mungkin aku tidak punyai tempoh ini

Untuk beribadah kepadaNya

Hadirnya

Kutunggu!

-----------------------------

Bank Rakyat

8 Sept 2008 / 8 Ramadhan 1429H

11.20am

Meyakini firman Allah dalam surah al-Qadr.

Kupohan agar diberikan segala kelebihan malam ini.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAERAH INI SUNYI

Daerah ini sunyi

Tidak pernah ku ke sini

Cuma pernah diperingati

Akhirnya nanti ku kan ke sini

Daerah ini sunyi

Tiada teman di kala sepi

Hanya amalan yang memungkini

Nikmat atau azab yang bakal menemani

Daerah yang sementara ini

Mengingatkankan ku pada yang telah pergi

Sebelum aku lagi

Pada ayahanda yang sentiasa ku kenangi

Dalam daerah yang sunyi ini

Moga ku ketemu ayahanda di sini

Dalam redha dan lindungan Ilahi

Hingga ke mahsyar nanti

--------------------------------

Idaman Sutera

6 Sept 2008 / 6 Ramadhan1429H

745pagi

Mengenang ayahandaku yang telah pergi, takkan kembali.

Ku akan menyusul nanti. Itu pasti.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KU KETEMU RAMADHAN LAGI

Dalam syukurku kepada Mu Ilahi

Panjang usia ku hingga kini

Dapat kutambah amalan lagi

Satu Ramadhan lagi

Ramadhan yang lepas mengimbau kembali

Dapatkah usia ku menginjak ke Ramadhan ini

Kesihatanku yang tidak memungkini

Alhamdulillah, kini ku di Ramadhan ini

Moga Kau berikan segala kekuatan

Untuk ku menambah amalan

Sebagai bekalan

Di hari kemudian

Yang tiada keraguan

------------------------------------

Idaman Sutera

6 Sept 2008 / 6 Ramadhan 1429H

758pagi

Mensyukuri nikmat kesihatan yang diberi.

Dipanjangkan umurku hingga kini.

Ketika Ramadhan yang lepas,

ku tidak pasti dapat sampai ke Ramadhan ini.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like Poetry in Motion

2009-04-24T00:47:00.011-04:00

It has been a few weeks of stress for me. Life has been really busy building my prototype for my device. For weeks, I slept late, and woke up early. Finally, last week, I have deployed my prototype, and it was working about 70% of the time. Anyhow, it was good enough to retrieve the data required for my paper. But today I won't be talking about my silly inventions, I will blog about my embedded sensor device much later.

Today, I'll be talking about swimming. After all that hard work, I decided to revitalise myself with some swimming and running. Unfortunately, the second day I went to the pool, I lost my goggles. The next day I went swimming without goggles, I thought it was no big deal. After all, it's just water. However, after the swim, my eyes was blood shot red. The chlorine in the pool water made my eyes very dry and irritated. It felt like I had sand in my eyes. Driving home was difficult cause my eyes was watery and it is as if I was crying. If a police had stopped me then, he would be wondering why is this grown up man crying like a baby. But it was really bad, and I had to wash my eyes with clean unclorinated water for a while to get rid of the dryness in my eyes.

So the next day, before going swimming, I went to Aurora outlet stores to get some new goggles. I know I've seen Nike outlet store selling pretty cool looking goggles. I tried a few goggles and I decided to get the competition style goggles.

No, I'm not trying to be Michael Phelps, but I would like to eventually be as fit and good looking as he is. I would definitely skip his habit on smoking pot though.

What I got was the Nike Remora M goggles. It fits well and has a nice metallic shade. The goggles look and feel like sunglasses when you wear it. Of course it was a bit dark, but its not like I'm out to check out babes at the pool :p.

The high content of chlorine also made my hair very dry. My friend Paul who goes swimming with me, told me that I should wear a swimming cap. I didn't want to get one at first since I see no point of wasting money that way. But Paul convinced me that if I didn't wear one, I would risk losing hair. What did he say, "I can lose hair". Noway, I don't want to add the risk to my thinning hair, so I was convinced to get a swimming cap. I got a gray cap to match my goggles.

I couldn't wait to try out my new gear in the water. I even tested it at home, just to check out how it feels. It felt great, and I can't wait to try it out. So the next day, I was ready to brave the waters again. It was amazing what good goggles can do to improve your swimming. I was able to do 8 laps none stop with the new goggles, and the cap just adds some aerodynamics that help me glide on the water like poetry in motion. I never had to stop to get the water out of my goggles. There was no leaking and I was almost swimming like a pro. Almost that is, my style was a bit off, but I'm happy at my performance so far. Hope to improve more as I get to practice more comfortably with all these new swimming gears.

Mind your language

2009-03-07T22:57:00.008-05:00

Baru-baru ini saya mendapat email di mailing-list tentang berita rakyat Malaysia membantah Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI). Petikan berita ini boleh didapati di laman web Utusan Malaysia. Bila cerita tentang mempelajari bahasa Inggeris, teringat pula saya cerita "Mind Your Language". Walaupun mereka rakyat asing, masing-masing berani mempelajarinya, tanpa segan silu walaupun penuh dengan kesilapan. Tetapi, rakyat Malaysia pula kurang berani dan segan untuk menerima kesilapan.

Sayang sekali saya melihat rakyat Malaysia, berarak untuk membantah program PPSMI ini. Perarakan ini bermula dari Masjid Negara dengan ribuan penyokong kearah Istana Negara. Ramai antara ribuan penyokong bantahan PPSMI mungkin sekali orang melayu yang beragama Islam. Apakah kita telah lupa bahawa agama Islam mengalakkan orang Islam untuk memperolehi ilmu. Bukankah perubahan ini sejajar dengan ajaran agama Islam, agar orang Islam dapat mempelajari ilmu sains dan matematik dengan lebih mudah?

Apa yang menjadi isu ialah ada yang mengatakan setelah 6 tahun, program ini telah gagal untuk meningkatkan mutu pelajaran, terutamanya kepada penduduk luar bandar. Sememangnya, penduduk bandar lagi selesa berbahasa dalam bahasa inggeris, dan ini memberikan kelebihan kepada pelajar-pelajar di bandar.

Namun, tibalah masa untuk orang melayu berhenti merungut dan mula menghadapi perubahan. Perubahan juga merupakan satu revolusi, dan tidak semestinya kena mengena dengan politik. Perlulah orang melayu kita, terutamanya pelajar luar bandar, mengambil cabaran ini. Sebagai orang Islam, kita perlulah mencuba mengharungi cabaran ini, agar kita boleh mengikuti sunnah dan cuba mendalami apa jua ilmu yang tuhan telah berikan kepada kita. Berhijrahlah kepada kemajuan, berhijrahlah kearah membentuk rakyat melayu Islam yang maju dan berilmu.

Jangan kita biarkan orang mempolitikkan isu ini. Janganlah kita biarkan isu-isu kecil menjadi musuh untuk kita mencapai matlamat kita yang lebih besar. Janganlah orang melayu lari dari cabaran kerana takut akan gagal mempelajari bahasa inggeris. Sejak bilakah orang melayu ini jadi penakut. Bukankah orang melayu ini pantang dicabar. Tetapi mengapa bila dicabar akalnya, kita tidak pula mengasah keris mental kita dan menghayunkan dan menunjukkan ketajaman akal kita.

Saya tahu ada yang takut akan jati diri melayu kita akan hilang. Tetapi, Melayu itu bukannya pada bahasa sahaja. Melayu yang tidak berilmu, akan menjadi hamba bangsa asing. Melayu yang lemah akalnya akan mudah dijajah. Bangsa Melayu yang lemah akan gagal mempertahankan budaya Melayu dan cara hidupnya. Melayu yang enggan mengambil cabaran perubahan revolusi ilmu, akan akhirnya hilang dari bumi ditelan dunia moden.

Demi negara ku, tanah air ku, Malaysia ku tersayang.
Harap rakyat menjadi lebih berani untuk mencapai revolusi ilmu.

Tupperware Wifi Gateway

2009-03-04T21:41:00.006-05:00

I needed some kind of wireless router to work outdoors. So I used the embedded chip and programmed it to work as a router. I didn't have time to make it look nice and sexy, so the first thing I thought of was using a tupperware. Hey, it says that the GLAD tupperware is microwave safe and dish washer safe. So I'm sure I can put it outdoors without any problems. I thought this Tupperware Wifi Gateway looks funny and decided to share it with you. It's suppose to eventually be more than just a gateway, but I'm still working on that. As for now, I'm trying to make it more portable. It's hard carrying this thing around with wires hanging everywhere.

Until my work is done, this terrible looking prototype is what i have to work with while adding more functionality to the device. But for now, this thing should work and help me play around with it a little bit more, until I get a proper casing for it that is...

Bergaya di musim bunga

2009-02-28T22:09:00.010-05:00

Entri kali ini adalah mengenai fesyen pakaian dimusim bunga. Jarang sekali kedengaran lelaki menceritakan isu-isu fesyen pakaian. Saya bukanlah seorang yang mahir mengenai fesyen seperti Rizalman, gaya fesyen saya hanya terhad kepada gaya Rizalnor dan saya cuba seberapa baik untuk bergaya dengan perbelanjaan yang berpatutan. Walaupun fesyen pakaian bukannya kepentingan utama hidup, tetapi ia juga tidak salah diberikan keutamaan sekali sekala. Objektifnya bukanlah semata-mata untuk mendapatkan perhatian tetapi fesyen pakaian dan gaya bagi saya adalah penting untuk kesihatan diri mental. Jika kita merasakan diri ini lebih menarik dan bergaya, ia juga boleh meningkat "self-esteem" penghargaan diri seseorang itu. Memakai seluar dan baju yang berfesyen kini dan bergaya boleh membuat diri lebih berharga. Bukanlah saya hendak mengatakan bahawa berjubah itu kurang bergaya, tetapi, jika kena tempatnya, berbaju jubah juga ada gayanya. Apa yang saya tahu, dinegara Arab, jubah itu merupakan pakaian yang sesuai di tanah Arab. Oleh yang demikian, terdapat berbagai-bagai fesyen dan kain yang dijual, dan harganya juga semahal pakaian-pakaian jenama barat.

Walaupun jarang pergi membeli-belah, saya juga mengambil masa untuk mendapatkan pakaian untuk menyedapkan hati. Hari ini, saya telah mengambil masa untuk pergi mencari kedai jualan elektronik "Circuit City". Khabar berita, "Circuit City" akan menutup kedainya dan kini sedang cuba melelong barang-barang elektroniknya. Malang sekali, saya telah terlambat, dan nampaknya semua kedai "Circuit City" telah pun ditutup. Oleh yang demikian, saya mengambil kesempatan ini untuk berhenti sahaja di kedai factory outlet yang berdekatan.

Saya bersiar-siar melihat pakaian-pakaian di kedai kegemaran saya seperti di Calvin Klein, Nike, Banana Republic dan GAP. Oleh kerana musim bunga sudah hampir, cuaca disini kurang menentu. Ada kalanya, sejuk dan sangat dingin dan pada masa lain pula cuaca disini tiba-tiba terasa panas. Itulah sebabnya penting untuk memakai pakaian yang berlapis-lapis kerana jika cuaca diluar tiba-tiba bertukar dari sejuk ke panas, boleh kita menanggalkan lapisan baju supaya tidak terlalu panas, dan jika cuaca diluar tiba-tiba sahaja menjadi sejuk, boleh sahaja kita menambahkan lapisan baju itu. Oleh yang demikian, pakaian yang paling sesuai ialah baju thermal.

Baju thermal ini adalah baju yang kita pakai dilapisan pertama. Baju thermal akan cuba memerangkap haba dikulit. Jika pergi membeli belah baju thermal, penting untuk mendapatkan baju yang muat-muat badan, agar ianya akan melekat dikulit. Objektifnya bukanlah untuk menunjukkan bentuk badan yang seksi, tetapi ianya berfungsi untuk memerangkap haba badan. Di atas baju thermal, dilapisan kedua, akan kita pakai lapisan "sweater" baju panas dan diatas lapisan "sweater" baju panas, akan kita pakai jaket pakaian sejuk. Jika cuaca tiba-tiba bertukar menjadi panas, kita boleh menanggalkan jaket, ataupun "sweater" baju panas yang dipakai.

Dimusim bunga ini juga, haruslah kita mencari baju yang warnanya lebih terang dan berani ataupun lebih kepada warna alam sekitar "earthly colors". Jadi apa yang saya dapatkan ialah warna biru muda terang. Color ini sesuai dengan keindahan kebiruan di langit. Jika dipadankan dengan "sweater" merah, ianya hampir seperti tema warna Superman. Baju thermal ini boleh dibeli di kedai GAP dan diwaktu sekarang ini, ianya dijual dengan diskaun 30%.

Untuk pakaian yang berwarna alam sekitar "earthly colors". Saya mendapatkan seluar ala-ala jeans kuning tanah dan baju thermal hijau daun. Baju dan seluar ini juga boleh dibeli di kedai GAP yang berdekatan. Di waktu gawat ekonomi ini, banyak kedai yang sedang menjalankan jualan murah untuk meningkatkan jualan mereka. Jadi inilah waktu yang sesuai untuk membeli-belah.

Untuk tiga helai pakaian ini, saya belanja lebih kurang USD40. Bagi saya, harga ini berpatutan. Kalau di Kuala Lumpur pun, membeli 3 helai pakaian dikedai GAP mampu melebihi nilai RM160. Cuma disini, tiap-tiap musim haruslah menukar pakaian untuk keselesaan diri dan sesuai dengan perubahan musim.

Slow and furious

2009-02-24T00:35:00.009-05:00

I know this entry sounds and looks a bit too technical for the normal reader, but, I have tone it down as much as I can. I will give the technical details if there are people interested, and if there are people as geeky, I will take the time to post it on mydebian.blogspot.com at the latest convenience. Besides this entry is not about showing off my technical prowess, but more about how slow things have been progressing with my research.

Over the winter break, my embedded board finally arrived. I was excited to play around with it and hack on the open embedded Linux distribution on it. So as soon as I got back into the lab, I assembled it together. It comes in 2 pieces of embedded sticks that you can clip together with a module to attach the wireless 802.11 module. There was already a loaded kernel on it, and it seems to be able to detect everything nicely. The first thing I did, was booting the kernel through the RS232 port using Kermit and it was like a turn on looking at all the modules being loaded. This device is small, yet packed with a whole lot of sweet goodies that I can play with and savor every moment of the different flavors of potential hacking. I'm like a kid with a whole new pack of candy, and it gave me a similar feeling to being sugar high. It took me about a few minutes to edit /etc/network/interfaces with vi and get wifi working on it. Unfortunately, no emacs on it yet. Which will change soon, once I am able to mount my SD memory card on it, I will get emacs going and i can forget about using the cumbersome "esc-shift-:q!" command that I hate so much on vi.

Simply said, I need to do a lot of non-standard stuff on the embedded board. I needed to do some things on the board which may require me to do a lot more hacking than just getting wifi to work. So, I wasted no time, and downloaded the kernel source code from the svn repository. I've set up the environment, and tried to compile a fresh new kernel image for the embedded board. Unfortunately, the compile was full of errors and hence I am now without an image I can use to boot the board. I thought it was a trivial thing. But after hours spending time reading mailing-list for support, and googling around, I have no answers but just complains about the same problem. Apparently, everybody else are having the same problem. I've been digging around for solutions, but things have been moving really slow. Too slow and its making me pissed off...in fact furious.

My research would also require me to write some device drivers. Mainly for the real-time clock, sensor devices and creating my own real-time applications to compile with an implementation of my own real-time scheduling. So I'm slowly sourcing some of the devices. One of the first devices I got was a RS232 to SDI-12 converter. Unfortunately, I have bricked the first one we got. I think I somehow burned it with a wrong ground input, since it no longer respond to any of my messages. So my supervisor bought another 2 of these just to make sure that if I blow up one, I still have a spare one to work for my project. The moment it arrived, I was excited to get to work again. But my lousy luck again, both of it was not working. I'm pissed, again, how can they shipped over two devices that are not working. I mean, what are the chances to have both of them being faulty. So now, I will have to wait again for a replacement. Which will take me another week. All this delay is making things progressing really slow. So what else can I say about life here, things are just moving slow and furious.

Ketagihan kelemahan manusia

2009-02-16T02:38:00.011-05:00

Ini merupakan percubaan kali kedua saya untuk meningkatkan lagi bakat di dalam berbahasa ibunda. Dengan cara ini, saya percaya kita dapat mengekalkan jati diri melayu, disamping menakluki ilmu globalisasi dunia.

Topik yang ingin saya sampaikan kali ini ialah mengenai isu ketagihan. Jika ingin dibicarakan mengenai isu ini, sememangnya terdapat berbagai-bagai ragam dan cara. Manusia ini sememangnya tiada yang sempurna. Walaupun kita sentiasa berusaha untuk menjadi lebih sempurna, namun ada sahaja kelemahan di dalam diri setiap manusia tanpa kita sedari,

Selama ini saya percaya bahawa saya mampu melakukan apa sahaja aktiviti yang saya gemari. Mungkin hanya tinggal beberapa sahaja aktiviti lain yang masih belum saya lakukan seperti "sky diving", "ice climbing" dan banyak lagi. Namun, Seperti manusia lain, saya juga mempunyai pelbagai kelemahan. Salah satu kelemahan saya ialah ketagihan merokok. Sudah hampir beberapa kali saya mencuba untuk berhenti merokok. Namun, paling lama yang saya mampu bertahan hanyalah 3 hari. Itupun setelah habis mengigil dan mengigit kuku jari tangan kerana tidak mampu untuk bertahan. Mungkin jika masuk hari ke empat, berkemungkinan saya akan menggigil sehingga menggigit kuku jari kaki saya pula. Bagi saya, ketagihan merokok ini terlalu sukar untuk diatasi. Jikalau tidak, masakan syarikat rokok semuanya mampu menjadi kaya raya. Saya percaya, untuk berhenti merokok adalah terlalu sukar dan merupakan cabaran yang paling hebat. Lebih hebat berbanding belajar untuk mendapatkan PhD. Ketagihan ini juga sudah pastinya menjadi kelemahan ramai lagi lelaki-lelaki macho di luar sana yang mana jika dicabar untuk bergaduh, sudah pasti mereka berani untuk bertumbuk. Tetapi jika dicabar untuk berhenti merokok, pasti mereka tidak mampu bertahan terutamaya sewaktu “melabur” di dalam tandas.

Bukan itu sahaja, malahan terdapat pelbagai lagi ketagihan yang dihadapi oleh kaum lelaki. Seperti yang telah saya nyatakan, ketagihan ini terdapat di dalam berbagai-bagai cara dan jenis. Ada ketagihan pada arak, ketagihan pada dadah dan jugak ketagihan pada wanita. Walau bagaimanapun, masih terdapat ketagihan lain yang jarang kita dengar seperti ketetagihan berlagak alim yang mana seseorang itu perlu untuk menunjuk-nunjuk kepada orang lain bahawa dirinya itu adalah seorang yang alim. Saya mengkategorikan ianya sebagai ketagihan, kerana individu yang berlagak alim ini sememangnya perlu membuat orang lain merasakan bahawa dirinya itu seorang yang alim dan perlu dihormati hanya untuk membuat drinya merasa selesa. Samalah seperti merokok, di mana seseorang itu, perlu merokok hanya untuk membuat dirinya merasa selesa.

Bukan kaum lelaki saja yang mempunyai ketagihan-ketagihan ini. Malahan, ada juga ketagihan lain yang secara umumnya terdapat pada kaum wanita. Tetapi jangan salah sangka kerana kaum lelaki juga mempunyai ketagihan seperti ini. Contohnya, ketagihan mengumpat. Saya mengkategorikan mengumpat ini sebagai satu ketagihan, kerana terdapat beberapa individu yang sememangnya perlu untuk mengumpat hanya untuk membuat dirinya merasa selesa. Jika sehari tidak mengata perihal orang lain, sememangnya membuat dia merasa gatal dan tidak senang duduk sehingga terpaksa menggigit kuku jari. Ketagihan seperti ini sememangnya banyak terdapat di syarikat saya dahulu.

Bukan itu sahaja malahan ada juga yang lebih daripada mengumpat seperti suka membuat cerita perihal orang lain lalu di tokok tambah pula dengan mitos-mitosnya yang tersendiri seperti memburuk-burukkan orang lain dan sebagainya. Bila berkesempatan, ada sahaja modal mereka untuk memburukkan orang lain lalu mengheboh-hebohkan cerita kepada semua orang. Kononnya itu merupakan tanggungjawabnya sebagai seorang yang beriman dan warak. Baginya, sebagai seorang Muslim, dia perlu mengambil tindakan yang kononnya tidak dia ingini sama sekali. Padahal dia cuba berlindung disebalik alasan yang kononya dia tidak sesekali ingin menceritakan perihal buruk orang lain tetapi terpaksa kerana baginya perkara itu terlalu buruk dan mengakibatkan dirinya terpaksa memberitahu semua orang yang dia kenali. Padahal, sekiranya betul dia itu seorang yang beriman dan warak, sudah tentu dia akan menegur dengan sendiri setiap perbuatan buruk yang dilakukan oleh orang lain tanpa perlu membawa cerita dan akan cuba mempertahankan maruah individu tersebut dari tersebar luas. Tetapi, yang sebenarnya apa yang dilakukan itu bukan lah kerana kewarakannya, tetapi kerana ketagihannya. Jika tidak diceritakan kepada orang dan memburuk-burukkan orang lain, maka menjadikan hidupnya tidak senang duduk sama sekali.

Sememangnya Allah telah menciptakan manusia penuh dengan kelemahan. Masing-masing mempunyai kelemahan dan ketagihannya yang tersendiri. Cubalah kita fikirkan sejenak mengenai ketagihan lain yang tanpa sedar kita miliki. Jika kita tidak mampu untuk menghapuskannya, cukuplah sekadar menyedarinya agar menjadi satu tahap permulaan untuk kita cuba mengatasinya.

Diharapkan penulisan saya pada kali ini tidaklah berbunyi seperti warga Indonesia yang ingin berbahasa Melayu Malaysia.....

--Telah disunting semula oleh my beloved Editor 16/02/2009

Joey's Unproven Theory of Heroes Reality

2009-02-10T01:32:00.007-05:00

A while back I was reading Scientific American Report while taking a dump in the toilet and an article really light up a bulb in my head. The article that I read, had nothing to do with this blog entry, but with a little sprinkle of my silly imagination, and Eureka....behold Joey's Unproven Theory of Heroes Reality.

My unproven theory states that by 2100 man will start to evolve to be super humans with abilities far beyond what we are capable today. Man will take an image of god, being more perfect beings with abilities far beyond our ancestors. I'm sure all of you have seen the famous tv series Heroes. Where some genetic anamoly in the human race are creating exceptional beings with abilities to fly, telekinesis, time and space manipulation, spontaneous freezing and combustion, mind control, mind reading, midas touch, electromagnetic and etc. Well, I'm not saying that we will reach these abilities so soon, but may infact somehow reach closely to these abilities and evolve slowly through time.

I came to this theory with a few insights from the article "Rise of The Robots" by Hans Moravec in Scientific American Reports, May 6, 2008. Typically, scientist believe that computers maybe fast enough to do computation as fast as our synaptic nervous tissue are able to create impulses. Our nervous tissue is what creates our brain where all our memory and ability to think occur. A monkey's intelligence for example is equivalent to 5 million MIPS(Millions Instructions per second). A computer with this speed, can surely replace some of the people working in the government sector...hehehe. But how much speed do we need to replace human beings. In another article, "The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine", Scientific American Reports May 6, 2008 predicts that it takes 10 to the power of 15 to have a processing speed of a human brain. If we are able to download a human's brain into a computer of this speed, we may also say that we have already made a computer conscious. By 2060, the typical computer would have a processing speed of all the human brains combined in the world.

If this is true, computers are able to create robots with brain power much more than all the professors exist in the world. Well educated robots may function as scientist working diligently, cheaply, rapidly and increasingly effectively will ensure that most of what science knows in 2050 will have been discovered by our own artificial progeny.
This sounds like a science fiction story, but it is not impossible. Once we all thought that flying to the moon is impossible. By 2060 we may become gods by creating our own Adam and Eve and create a new generation of a robot race.

It won't be long when we will have to compete with our own creation for survival at work, sports, and scientific findings. It won't be long when our own creation will eventually choose to be closer to their creators, to follow the image of their god, which is humans. They will create biologically advance biocybernatic beings that far exceed the robots that we create.

By 2100, humans will soon have to compete with this super robot beings. And the human race may even perish from the face of earth where we are known as gods....but only exist as incorrect historical data like the idea we have about Zeus, Aries, and what not. But the human race are not as fragile as we think. We are very flexible and we have the ability to evolve. I don't think we will go away so easily. It is said that the human race only uses 5% of their brain's potential. In fact, some in my work place, even uses much less than 5%...hehehe. So there is another 95% of untap power which we have not evolved yet. According to Darwin theory of evolution, a process of natural selection is what makes monkeys evolve into human beings. Now, there have been a lot of arguments here, but we shall not dwell on it today. But, if this theory is true, the instability of the norm, where human's are complacent, will have to change. Natural selection can occur again, and only the smartest and strongest human beings will survive. And slowly but surely, genetic contruction of a more perfect being will evolve, slowly but surely. The evolve human being will use much more percentage of their brain. One that would have abilities to maybe to do computation as fast as machines, one that are capable to run faster than a cheetah. There is no telling what new abilities we may able to discover by tapping more potential of our brain. Maybe telekinesis, time and space manipulation or even spontaneous combustion....

Will heroes become a reality? We can only wait till 2100 to prove Joey's Unproven Theory of Heroes Reality.

IdeaPad S10

2009-02-08T19:42:00.013-05:00

Sebelum pulang ke Malaysia December lepas, saya telah mengambil peluang cyber sale sempena hari christmas yang diadakan dengan besar-besaran di Amerika Syarikat untuk membeli sebuah laptop baru untuk kegunaan peribadi saya. Mahupun laptop lama saya itu masih elok digunakan, namun ianya telah kelihatan usang, dan lebih baik diberikan kepada Kakak saya supaya dia boleh mengemas kinikan laman web facebooknya dengan mudah.

Laptop yang saya beli ialah Ideapad Lenovo S10. Ramai yang hairan mengapakah saya beli laptop yang sebegitu kecil sebegini. Kuasa processornya tidak lah begitu pantas dan screen terlalu kecil untuk keselesaan membuat kerja. Tetapi, objektif saya untuk membeli laptop Ultra Mobile PC ini ialah kerana ianya adalah begitu mobile. Mobiliti merupakan salah satu ciri yang penting yang saya perlukan dalam sebuah laptop. Kalau hendak cerita pasal laptop yang memberikan mobiliti yang paling maksimum, memanglah pilihan pertama saya ialah Sony Vaio ultra slim yang ringan lagi nipis. Namun harganya adalah terlalu mahal untuk saya perolehi, lebih kurang yang paling murah pun RM6k+. Laptop harga ribu riban ni kalau hilang memang menangis. Jadi, aper yang saya beli ialah Ideapad Lenovo S10, yang hanya 400usd. Ia adalah kecil, ringan dan processornya dicipta khas untuk berfungsi dengan menggunakan kuasa batteri yang paling minima. Lenovo S10 mampu berfungsi tanpa batteri selama 3 jam, dan dengan menggunakan batteri expansion, boleh bertahan selama 6-9 jam.

Adalah menjadi kebiasaan saya untuk pergi kemana saja bersama laptop. Yang penting laptop itu ada kebolehan untuk menggunakan wifi, dan ianya cukup ringan supaya boleh diangkut kemana saja saya pergi. Dengan camera built-in yang mudah untuk saya berhubung dengan keluarga tersayang dan buah hati. Saya juga sering mengembara, jadi kuasa batteri yang lama adalah penting bagi seorang pengembara seperti saya. Setelah 3 bulan menggunakan Ideapad S10 ini, dengan default installationnya iaitu Windows XP, saya tidak tahan lagi dan ingin memasukan perisian Debian Linux. Ini adalah kerana saya lebih selesa membuat kerja programming diatas linux dari menggunakan windows. Hari minggu yang sunyi ini, saya telah menggambil masa beberapa jam untuk mengisikan Debian linux keatas laptop ini. Segala maklumat terperinci untuk memasukkan perisian debian linux saya dokumenkan di mydebian.

Bila dirumah, saya sambungkan laptop kecil ini ke sebuah monitor, tetikus usb dan keyboard usb. Ini adalah kerana, untuk kegunaan berjam-jam dirumah, memang sakit mata melihat screennya hanya 10 inchi dan resolutionnya hanya 1024x600. Untuk seorang yang sering bergerak, laptop ini memang sesuai. Jika bukan sebab mobiliti, laptop ini terlalu kecil umpama mainan sahaja. Lebih elok beli laptop dell yang boleh dibeli dgn usd500++.

Back to work!!!

2009-02-05T16:20:00.007-05:00

Its been a while since I've wrote anything on my blog. The last time I wrote anything was right before finals. Then I got too busy. Nope, not busy with work, but busy having fun. I traveled back home to Malaysia and had a good time. They say home is where there is people thinking of you. Yes, I miss home, I miss my family, my cousins, I miss the weather, I miss my friends, I miss the food.

But it was not long and I had to go back to Ohio and start work. But before I started work, I just had to get the vacation mood out of my system. So I went snow boarding. Yes, I figured, I have to do this first before I really start work. And so I did.

I used to remember being really good at snow boarding. Or maybe I thought I was good at it. For some reason, snow boarding is easier to me than skiing. I've learned a while back that me on skis can be very clumsy. I just can't handle two pieces of planks stuck to the bottom of my feet. I feel like a duck learning how to walk. But snow boarding comes naturally. One plank is definitely easier to handle than two. A while back I remembered falling many times and feel no pain. A while back I can go down a double black diamond with no fear. A while back I can flip in the half pipe with no concern in my mind other than how cool I'd look at the tip of the pipe.

But I soon realized that maybe I was not so good before. Or maybe the air here is like kryptonite making me weak. Or could it be the snow here is far different from Philly. Or could it be, by a remote chance that I am getting old? Neah.....that couldn't be it. So after a few tries on the staging hill, I figured I'm fully calibrated and ready to handle the fiercest hill in the valley. I used to be able to handle a double black diamond. So how much harm can a single black diamond hill do to me, right? So after taking the lift up the hill, I went for the advanced black diamond hill called TIGER. It sounds fierce enough.....and "ONE" should be careful going down a black diamond hill....especially "ONE" who comes not from a country where there's a winter season. But maybe that "ONE"...is not for Joey. Me being me arrogant self again thinks I'm superman and was eager to fly down the hill.

I slowly approach the tip of the slope and position myself in a cool stance preparing myself. As I cut the snow down the hill, the first few seconds, I was looking good. Then suddenly the speed catch up really fast...and I.....wooopppsss....Well, I flew alright...I flew down the hill like no other. I flew down the hill backwards and upside down.....Like Jack I came down the hill tumbling over and over, just without the bucket.

It was a nice session snow boarding. However, I was aching all over. I seem to have hurt my wrist much from the impact I take during a fall. And the moment I reach home, I was so exhausted I slept straight away, only to wake up realizing bruises here and there.

The next day was even worst, besides the bruises, I got myself a flu and fever.
Well, I guess now I need recovery time before I start work. This sick time will help me get out of the vacation mood definitely.

Congratulations Kak Melati

2008-12-13T01:02:00.004-05:00

Let me introduce you to Kak Melati, Abg Rashid and their family. Abg. Rashid, Kak Melati and their family have been here for 6 years. Kak Melati was doing her PhD in Chemistry, while her husband was supporting the family with any way he can.....

I admire their family. I see them as a hard working Malay group, who would just say no to hard times. They have endured and gloriously came out of the hard times victoriously.

So after 6 years, Kak Melati is finally done. Congratulations to Kak Melati. She and her family will be moving back home to Malaysia. And after 6 years, they are also carrying some memories back home. So with all excitement, they've packed their stuff in boxes and were ready to get it shipped, while waiting for the day Kak Melati will stand up on the alter and receive her PhD title and cert.

I also offered my hand to help. It was a lot of boxes, and to carry these boxes from a third floor apartment into a truck and getting it unloaded to the shipping warehouse is a very challenging workout. The picture to the right is a picture of Abg. Rashid and I with the row of boxes behind us to be ready to be shipped. Yes, that row of boxes all belongs to Abg. Rashid and his family.
Any macho man will break his back carrying the boxes alone. Thank god for the help available.

After shipping the boxes, it was time to see Kak Melati walk proudly to receive her honorable doctorate degree. So we too some pictures with her, feeling proud of her achievement, and sharing her joy. Everyone was so proud of her, and we are all very happy even though we would miss her to see her going back home to Malaysia.

I also took the opportunity to try out her robe, and hope that maybe the robe will give me a positive aura to help me finish my PhD sooner. Everyday seems to be more challenging then the previous day. I just hope I will be as strong as her. And one day, will be able to wear the robe "tiga line" (the robe with 3 bars).

Congratulations Kak Melati......and have a good journey back home.

501 jeans....

2008-11-17T19:50:00.007-05:00

I know I haven't been blogging. To my parents, I must say, that ma and daddy, "this is actually a good sign, it means I have been busy doing work." My current research requires a little funding to help buy some equipment. Particularly, the embedded motherboard, GPS module, and satellite transmitter are not cheap. So we applied for a grant through the interdepartmental grant award.....and hence I had to do a lot of work to get some preliminary data from our experiment and embellish the specification requirements. Alhamdullillah, my proposal for A Cost-Effective Sensing Platform for Aquatic Hypoxia Monitoring code name "SensorBuoy" managed to get the funding required and won the inter departmental award to buy my equipment.

But this is not what this entry is all about. It is about me buying a pair of jeans. Last weekend, I went to Macy's to find a pair of jeans for myself. I figured I need to buy more jeans, since being a student, I have never found the purpose or the need to wear a pair of slacks or dress pants. Well, that's the privilege of being a student, your attire is basically, jeans and t-shirt...and sometimes....shorts and t-shirt. Provided the weather allows it.

So I went to the Levi's section....looking for a pair of jeans. I was particularly interested in my fav. pair, the 514 straight cut-slim fit size 32. The one I have now seems to look nice on me....so I decided to get one and tested it out in the changing room. I walked to the changing room, and took my pants off and tested out the 514...hmmmm, for some reason, the color doesn't suit me, and the pants was just too loose. So I put on my pants again, and went out to look for maybe a different cut. But as I was looking around, I saw a couple of the classic 501 button fly levis. I used to like the 501....and I still do. Although, putting it on would undoubtedly take you a few extra seconds more than a simple zip it up levis, taking it off is easy and for some reason gives me the weird feeling of satisfaction. So while im at it.... i took a pair of 501 size 32. I walked to the changing room again, took my pants off and put on the 501, and again the pants seems to just fall off. I figure maybe I lose some weight, I never noticed it because I have always used a belt. So again, I put on my pants, walked out of the changing room to take size 31 of the 501 jeans. Again, it fell right off. And I went in and out, until I reach size 29. Five times in and out of the changing room.....is this really right....am I a size 29 now...? Damn....the last time I was size 29 was freshman in college.

I guess, I can go back to Malaysia, into my old wardrobe and get all my old pair of pants. So maybe I should not buy more pants.....:) Save money there....

Selamat Hari Raya

2008-10-07T13:49:00.005-04:00

I don't have time to update about raya di perantauan. But I will soon. For now, just a few pictures. After sembahyang raya at the masjid, we all gathered at Rumah Kak T and Abg. Rashid, we had a lot of food ..... prepared by Kak Tie and Kak Shima.
I didn't get any new baju raya, just brought the one I was using last year, and recycling it for this raya.

And over the weekend, the Malaysians here had an open house at Kak Izan's house.

The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal

2008-09-15T01:59:00.010-04:00

Look, its a it's a bird, it's a plane, its wait....it's Dr.Rizal?....poing, poing, poing......
As I was day dreaming about the day I would finally finish my PhD. I dreamt about me having a Dr. title. I know, I can make better use of my time by actually doing some work and reading relevant papers, but even Superman have the right to dream....doesn't he? While berangan(fantasizing) having a Dr. title, I search the web to look for other Dr. Rizal's out there. What I found was there was not a lot of Dr. Rizal out there, which made me a little worried. Could it be people with the name Rizal don't really go far?

I did however found an action comic art about Dr. Jose Rizal my ancestral heritage, which I've blogged about not so long ago. The comic was called "The Marvelous Adventures of The Amazing Dr. Rizal". Apparently, the fictional comic is about a hero Character Dr. Rizal based on the real Phillipines hero Dr. Jose Rizal. I must respect the artist, Gerry Alanguilan and the Philippines people who support his work.

The artist really tries to understand Dr. Jose Rizal's character and try to immortalized him in his version of fiction based on history. We don't see this in Malaysia. In fact, our forefather, who helped build the nation are being questioned for their wisdom. Nobody actually takes time to study the characters of our Malaysian forefathers and try to immortalize them in a more superior form. Instead, we condemn them, like we condemn the tenacity and naiveness of Tok Janggut for being brave to go against the British, condemn the unfairness of Tunku Abdul Rahman for his wisdom to keep peace in Malaya and create a social contract between the three races which helped create the Malaysian constitution and an independent Malaysia or comdemn the cruelness of the still living Tun Dr. Mahathir for his shrewd mind to put Malaysia in the world map--is already being forgotten even before his death.

There are more heroes of Malaysia here, which are not mentioned, but the thing is, we Malays forget too easily of their heroic contributions towards Malaysia, and instead of trying to take their good characters and contributions and immortalized them, we slowly cover them in a veil of darkness and hate without knowing why. If this kind of attitude carries on, we would have no heroes that we can look back to, we will have no heroes that we can look up to and stand on the shoulders of giants like our forefathers, so that we can see further than what they saw. We can never reach above the horizons to see our future, and to reach our dreams. It will indeed make Malaysia fall into darkness and bring us further into a generation of hate and despair.

I do like the idea of Dr. Rizal being a hero. Better still, he kinda looks like me...hehehe, except for the mustache, and him being a bit chunky, he does looks like me. I mean the receding hair line is the closest resemblance. Anyway, attached are two more comic arts. Just to protect myself againts copyright laws here, and for your references, the artistic comic art belongs to Gerry Alanguilan and I got the pictures from....here, here and here.

Dad with courage, mom with love.

2008-09-04T00:09:00.013-04:00

This is a continuation from Family Visit (part 3)

From South Dakota, we drove back to Kent, Ohio on the 23rd, August and arrived back in Kent on the 24th. I was in a hurry to reach home for classes on the 25th. While being back home, I brought mom and dad shopping a lot. Mom and dad was particularly fond of the Outlet malls where mom got herself shoes from Hush Puppies, sandals from Crocs and handbags from Liz Claiborne. Dad got himself a really good deal on Samsonite travel luggage.

Also we had a chance to go to Cleveland. Particularly, to get more food. There is a really nice halal store here in Cleveland and many Asian stores that can help an Asian Muslim like myself go crazy stocking up on spices.
Mom wanted to have a gathering here for some of the nice Malaysian folks who have helped me out when I first arrived.

My small apartment is hardly a complete kitchen. I'm a bachelor so cooking is hardly a priority. Which makes a season cook like my Mom feel a bit uneasy trying to cook and entertain about 10 Malaysian's in Kent. So we also had to run to stores and get a few things like a nice serving bowl, a serving spoon, and a blender to blend the chilly. After all that, she was all happy as I helped out what I can to help her prepare the food. As always, Mom's cooking is the best.

So fast so soon, and they were already gone on the 31st. The night before, I helped them pack their bags. I was indeed sad, but always had problems showing it. Mom was emotional about it for a second, as my Dad remained calm and stayed macho.
Even all grown up, being independent for so many years alone in a foreign country, I know now that Mom never felt comfortable for me being away. I guess to her eyes, I'm still her boy. Undoubtedly, that's what a mother's love is, unconditional and always full of love. And I also realized, that Mom's strength comes from Dad's courage. I know he feels sad too, but Dad had always been good in showing a brave front, as he remain calm and assured Mom with his demeanor, that this is a parents sacrifice.

To Mom and Dad, thank you for coming and visit me. I miss the both of you a lot. I might not show it well. I guess like father like son, but I assure you, inside, I wish I could just keep my parents here in Kent. This entry can hardly utter the words of what I feel. Love you Mom and Dad, and come again next year yea....:)

Family Visit (part 3)

2008-09-03T00:47:00.006-04:00

This is a continuation from Family Visit (part 2)

We also heard a lot of stories about the Devils tower. The devils tower is a unique monument. It is also the first
National Monument declared by the US. "Devils Tower (Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means “Bear Tower”) is a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 386 m (1,267 ft) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 1,558 m (5,112 ft) above sea level", wikipedia.

What interest me about the devils tower is that a lot of people climb it. Once I hit my ideal weight, I will join a climbing club here. Hopefully, I will find friends crazy enough to climb up Devils tower nie.:)

After all the adventures at the devils tower, we also went to Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy horse is the Red Indian general who defeated General Custer. He was then killed in a treaty, stab in the back. Though, some records written by white historian claims he was accidentally stabbed.
Crazy Horse memorial will also be carved in a mountain like mount Rushmore, it has been 50 years now, and only the face part is done. Eventually, the mountain will depict the exact replica on the left.

Of course, we also had to visit the South Dakota Aviation Museum. Dad was happy here. He was excited to see the aircrafts that he had flown before and the kinds of aircraft he never had the chance to fly. We also learn a lot about the nuclear rockets that was installed during the cold war. We were given a tour of the missile silos and its history.

Family Visit (part 2)

2008-09-03T00:07:00.004-04:00

This is a continuation from Family Visit (part 1)

Being in South Dakota, we just had to go visit Mount Rushmore. The picture to the left is the faces of the famous 4 presidents of the United States. From the left, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

We had a lot of pictures here, and also learned a lot about the history of America. I shall reserve what I think of their history, because it is full of violence, but I must respect, good or bad, they have never forgotten their ancestors that helped build their nation. Yang keruh (the muddy waters) they throw out, and they just keep the good values of it. Wish that Malaysian people will learn how to cherish our history and respect our elders for the contributions that our forefathers have given us. I guess without knowing our history, it will keep us in ignorance.

A long time ago, there was about 20 million of these native Bison in the land of the Indians. They were hunted by white hunters to make coats and boots. Today, known as S.Dakota, America, there are only about a thousand left, and they are in the endangered species. This is the land where the Sioux and the Lakota tribe Red Indians used to live, the black hills and the Bad lands. There is a lot of history here and we sure did learned a lot.

They call it Bad Lands because nothing green can grow up in the Bad lands. In the olden days, the US government tried to give the land by government vouchers, which cost about a dollar or sometimes free. They tried to make people come here and build farms. But all who came failed to produce any vegetation in the Bad lands. They did managed to bring people here anyways, when they found out that there was gold at the Black Hills close to the Bad Lands.

Family Visit (part 1)

2008-08-18T21:41:00.016-04:00

Mom and dad came and visit me in Kent, Ohio. So I've uploaded some pictures. I arrive the airport, right on time, but apparently, their flight arrived much earlier, due to a tail wind, and they have been waiting for about 15 minutes.

So by the time I arrived, I saw dad waiting....
He looked tired and pissed off. Mom then appeared from the rest room and they both looked tired. So I wasted no time, took the bags and led them to the parking lot. I put their luggage in the trunk and drove ahead to my apartment. I'm sure they wanted to rest. We rested and they slept like a baby that night.
The next day, mom's friends, Auntie Marie Jane from Toronto came all the way to Kent to meet us. They drove 6 hours from Toronto, Canada. They met in a tour trip in Europe, and have been friends ever since through email. Finally, they met again, here in Kent. So we had dinner at a nice restaurant here in Kent. After the meal, we headed back to my house, to let them try some of Malaysian specialty, the Keropok.

The next day, we had lunch with Auntie Marie Jane, and her life mate at a Thai restaurant. After the meal, we continue a journey of 1200 miles towards South Dakota. It was a long drive, and it took us about 3 days to reach there. We also stopped along the way. Here are some pictures of the BadLands and me posing infront of the National Monument, Mount Rushmore.

Dead Mechanical Clock

2008-08-11T02:07:00.012-04:00

I am not a poet, but for some reason, I can't fall asleep but I have no motivation to do work, and i feel like writing poetry tonight.
Just one of those times....don't laugh
Keep in mind that this is my first attempt, my nephew emil does a better job in writing poetry. He's pretty good actually. So here's mine and it goes like this....

I hear it all the time,
---Monotonous tick and tocks,
Without feeling or without conscience,
---As I put on my socks.
Hoping that it holds the answers,
---But define me it does not,
Contemplating the sounds of a dead mechanical clock,
---It just keep me in an infinite knot,

Like a shooting star with uncharted path,
---Towards another space of darkness,
As wisdom takes me over,
---Nothing's here except the voids of loneliness,
It moves with reason like a sentient being,
---Fully aware and yet no signs of life,
It is undead but unmotivated,
---It tries with no reason to strive,

A sudden burst of movement,
---What was in order is now chaotic,
The ticks are now increasing,
---It makes no sense, it must be cryptic,
Moving in chaos its ready to break,
---It quibbles violently displacing with time,
Everything seems wrong and uncertain--
---An explosion is near just unsure if it is prime.

Once dead, and yet alive--
---Once it was right and in order,
Time progresses and maybe one day,
---A disarray of events fall together,
What once disappeared could reappear,
---In a different form of certainty,
What was once alive in an explosion,
---Can be calm and again deadly.

by Joey aka. Rizal

Police Image

2008-08-04T00:23:00.010-04:00

I don't usually talk about personal feelings in my blog, not because I'm cold, or indifferent, but because when I vent out, the dark side of me surfaces, and it is not a pleasant one. I don't usually talk about politics because I know that I have friends with many different opinions and views, and I try very hard not to offend their beliefs.

What I will talk about is constructive ideas. Which might be destructive, but I will try making the best of it. As we now know, the people of our country are having problems in trusting the authorities. Particularly, the authorities that are meant to uphold the law and justice are now questioned for their veracity. The recent events in our country made the police looked bad. The "vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified" (quoted from the movie V). True indeed, that once, we respected the police, we consider them protectors and they were the heroes that would voice out the truth and yet today they vitiate and we stand flabbergasted as their actions seems to be full of debauchery, and nothing less than having venal arrangement with what the people perceived as villains.

The police image is definitely infected and what they need are new ideas on how to help their image, to help morale in the police force and get citizen support to help them in their investigations. The sad thing is, there are a lot of honest police out there, and they are being discredited for their hard work. When heroes are looked upon as villains, the law and order of things will break down. And so, thats why we must help remind the good police officers the reasons for them being in the police force. People should know about their sacrifices, and the media should help in giving credit to good man and woman working in the force.

Unfortunately, for the police, everything they do now cannot be right. If they issue a summon, people will hate them, and if they don't people say they are not doing their job. If they do investigations, they are abusing their power and if they act on a hunch, their are not being thorough. So how can the police fix their image.

The solution is a reality show for police.

What if the public knows what police are facing everyday? What if a hidden camera is set up to follow a traffic police everywhere? How sneaky drivers would offer bribes to them, and how they are trying hard to avoid such corrupt practices despite their poor living conditions with the salary they are getting now? This will immediately give credit to the honest traffic police, the heroes that help our streets save, and give the respect that they deserve. Of course they are corrupt traffic police everywhere, and we can't do much about it. However, we can give credit to those who have abstain themselves from the path of corruption.

What about other types of police? What if the media shows the challenges of police officers in narcotics are facing. The fear of being poke by a needle as they come to arrest drug addicts. The fear of being shot at by drug offenders high in cocaine. These are the things that the people might not know.......and the reality of things is that the police is earning less than comfortable income, support a family with small kids while his wife worries everytime he walks out of the door, for he might not come back alive one day.

Of course I'm being dramatic. But politicians are also very dramatic, and the media extol their actions as if they are heroes. As they make seemingly biblical proportion sacrifices infront of the media, they still go back to their nice banglo houses, and tinted black luxury cars. So why not the poor man and woman who serves our country with no intention of gaining political power, owning nothing more than a motorcycle and living in rundown flats like our police, fireman and soldiers too get the attention of the media? They are well more deserving....as their sacrifices are real.

Swim Joey, Swim!!!

2008-07-30T12:34:00.005-04:00

Ever since summer started, I've been eating less and exercising more. I've been trying to get my weight down to at least within the healthy range of my BMI (Body Mass Index). Right now my BMI is 26.2, which is bad, since 25.0 - 29.9 indicates an overweight condition. It's not that I'm self-conscious about myself, but considering that body weight only increases with age, I don't want to be overweight now and by the time I hit 50, being obesely overweight. So consider it as a future health investment and my target investment is a BMI of 18.5 - 24.9 which indicates a healthy weight.

So lately, to reduce weight, I've been doing cardio workouts. Nothing complex, I just run, like Forrest Gump, and you might not believe me when I say, that I can run...."like the winnndddd" (hehehehe....a phrase borrowed from the movie Forrest Gump). I ran on a threadmill at the recreational center. The recreation center here in Kent is superb and comes complete with all the facilities that students like me can use. The problem with running, and perhaps because I'm getting old, is that my knee starts to hurt if I ran everyday. So two weeks ago, when I heard my friend linuxlah worked out by swimming, I thought I would give swimming a try. So I got myself goggles and swimming trunk and went to the swimming lanes.

As I dipped into the water, the water felt nice and warm. And I submerged myself to get a good feel of the water and the water tasted a bit salty. What can you expect, people are swimming lapses here nonstop. Anyhow, I looked at the lane to my right where a fat old man was getting into the pool as well. And on my left, there was another old lady getting ready to swim. As they get themselves ready, I casually started my freestyle swim towards the other end of the pool. Being an aquarian, swimming should be natural for me. Or so I thought, never guess that I was so wrong.

Its been a while since I went swimming, and the other end of the pool seems very far away. At first I was freestyling with good considerable speed, then suddenly I felt my shoulders feel uncomfortable, and every time i raise my hand flapping, it felts heavier. Not to mention that my legs which should be paddling the water seems to be moving in an irregular motion sideways.
I then realised I was not swimming freestyle, I was just flinching in the pool. I had to stop and change styles to frog-style swimming, since I needed the time to think what the hell am I doing.

Then, as I regained my concentration, fixed my hands flapping rhythm with my paddling feet motion I continued my freestyle swimming again. I noticed then the old men on my right lane was woooshing away with considerable speed and full of vigor. Well, I thought at least its an old man, he probably have a lot of stamina for an old man. Then came woooshing on my left lane, an old lady passing me. Damn, I'm basically a lame duck who can't swim. By the time I reached the other end of the pool, I was gasping for air like there is no tomorrow. As for the old man and old lady, they have made their way finishing another lapse. Panting and breathing heavily, the life guard looked at me with extreme concern. I'm sure she is thinking that she has to keep an eye on me, since I can suddenly sink somewhere in the middle.

It's been 2 weeks now, and though I can't swim like a fish yet, I can say that I'm doing okay. At least finish a lapse or two nonstop. I try to swim as many lapse as I can for 30-50 minutes. I never remembered swimming to be this hard before, running is definitely easier than swimming.

SENSYS 2008 DEMO SUBMISSION

2008-07-29T16:01:00.006-04:00

Lately our research group submitted a demo paper to The 6th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, 2008 (SENSYS). As one of the authors, I am very excited about it. We can't submit a full conference paper yet, since our research is far from what we are trying to do, and all we can do right now, with our preliminary data and experiments is show a demo in this respectable conference.
The reason why I am very excited about it is because SENSYS is one of the leading conferences in my area. Albeit, it is just a demo, but unlike many other conferences, SENSYS actually publishes their demo and poster papers. Furthermore, looking at papers, demo and posters being accepted in the past, much of the accepted papers comes from big named schools. Similarly, the review committee are from well respectable schools and well known individuals in our research area. I'm hoping our research holds some kind of significance to the reviewers, enough to get our demo publish in this conference.
Getting our demo publish will get us a feedback on whether my research area is something of interest to the Embedded and Networked Sensors community. It will also get us buy in on our research ideas and be a stepping stone for us to get funding as well as getting our papers publish in the future.
I'm praying hard that this paper actually gets accepted, and the wait is making me restless.
There is a possibility of being rejected due to the high volume of submissions, and this particular conference has been known to be very competitive. In the past, out of the many demo papers submitted from all around the world, only about 20+ demos gets accepted every year. I am not looking forward to be rejected, but I'm trying my best to not get overly excited to minimize the disappointment. So I'm telling myself, if we don't get accepted, at least we got rejected from well known individuals in the area, and the fact that I've tried.
If, I'm lucky, and I hope I am, we will get accepted. Which will also give me a nervous breakdown, since I will have little time to make my experiments good enough for the demo and get ready to face the public on my research work in the conference by early november this year. The good side of things, I will get to travel. This year, the Sensys Conference will be at Raleigh, NC.
So knowing that I really need it, wish me luck....:)

New Mrxvt config

2008-07-28T15:27:00.004-04:00

I've been using mrxvt for quite a while now. And I love it, it gives me the power of a light weight terminal like rxvt and still having multiple tabs to switch between terminals. But lately, when I ran mrxvt, i get funny deprecated warnings. It seems that my config (.mrxvtrc) file is already too old to be used.
Hence, I went online looking for the latest possible config file I can plagarize. I'm too lazy to figure it out myself.
Sure enough, the open source community has been good in sharing, and there is a ready template for anyone to play with. I got myself the config file and edited a few options.
I ran mrxvt and now its exactly the way I wanted it, with pseudo tranparency (you can have full tranparency if you want, but it will be too heavy for my old machine) that gives the glassy look effect and at the same time having the background tinted just enough for me to see my fonts clearly. Anyways, if you want to download the config file, you can download it at materm sourceforge website.

The tools of the trade

2008-07-27T22:55:00.007-04:00

Being a computer scientist is not all about doing programming, staring at the computer screen, with an inch thick glasses, while eating junk food. There are a lot of tools, that the academic community and especially the scientific community use. Particularly, all of the research work needs to be published. And publishing a research work can be competitive, and you will have to write nicely formatted papers. The problem of publishing papers is making sure that all the formatting are pretty and the formula and graphs gets displayed nicely. Apparently, despite the amazing tool that Microsoft create, called the "Microsoft Word/MsWord", it is rather inferior when it comes to publishing good scientific papers. Formatting on word is incredibly difficult. For example, putting complex formulas would be difficult in MsWord. There is just not suitable math symbols to help you write the formula. Furthermore, divisions doesn't really work well. Other symbols like delta, omega, phi,psi, lamda, summation and all of the greek symbols are sometimes not exactly how you want it to look like. For example, trying to write the formula below on MsWord would hardly be possibly, I have not tried doing it on MsWord, but I would say it would be a challenge to write the formula below on MsWord.

Hence, the academic community, particularly scientist, use Latex. Latex is an amazing tool, it's not really user friendly, but it create documents beautifully, format it like a professional, and help you display graphs and formula just like how you would like to see it on scientific journal papers. There are not much of a choice, and I too am force to use Latex, learn how to use it, to help me write papers.

The other thing that I need to learn and use as a scientist is gnuplot. Now gnuplot as the name implies, is a plotting application. Gnuplot are particularly a command line application to generate beautiful graphs. The flexibility on gnuplot surely beats MsExcel anytime. There are still a lot of functions on gnuplot that I need to learn, but I'm getting a hang of it. Of course you can use excel to make plots and graphs, but there are some things that MsExcel is just inferior in trying to make graphs for scientific research.

To the left is a graph generated by gnuplot. This is also part of the data of my research.

Under Where?

2008-07-20T01:42:00.009-04:00

Where is the post? Under there? Under here? Nope, not there? Then wear....over there......you mean...underwear?
:) hehehe

Yes, underwear. This post is about underwear. Nope, not Victoria Secret underwear, but Boxer Briefs. Today I had a little time to go shopping at an outlet nearby. Particularly, I was looking for a swimming trunk. I had to go swimming and rotate from jogging to swimming. I just can't jog everyday since its making my knee hurt. Anyway, I walked into Banana Republic and noticed really nice boxer briefs. I just had to get a pair of it. Cause it really looks comfy, not to mention sexy.

Why do I need sexy briefs. Well, I don't need one, but it can be convenient to wear one at certain times. Here is an explanation why...
Imagine after working out, running or swimming at the gym and then you go ahead and take a shower. After the shower, you will take a towel, wrap it around your waist and walk towards your locker. As you walk towards your locker, you noticed the weighing scale. Of course, after burning some fat, you really are curious about whether you have lost some weight, right? But if you take your weight while you are wearing towel, the wet towel will add a few pounds, about 1 or 2. Most Americans here, are comfortable enough to just drop the towel and measure their weight naked. I however, am a bit uncomfortable of being naked in front of people I don't know. So what I would do is, get myself dried with a towel, put on my brief and then walk back towards the weighing scale to measure my weight. Now standing almost naked with a brief in front of people is not less uncomfortable, but surely better than standing naked as your ding dong hangs clear for people's viewing. Hence, the boxer brief is really a convenient thing to wear while taking your weight. Also, while you are at it, you might as well look stylist walking in the changing room, right....so why not get a nice one to show it off.

Continue with my story.....Then I walked into the Calvin Klein outlet, where i saw another nice sexy brief. When it comes to brief, nothing beats Calvin Klein. Hence, I got myself a Calvin Klein underwear, but this one is not to show off, but for me to go jogging. Supposedly, this particular boxer brief that I bought is for active wear. The material is of a special kind, that would help evaporate your sweat quickly. It has ergonomic design with a breathable mesh to control moisture, tagless CoolMax waistband for extra comfort, particularly ideal for men with active lifestyle. So this avoid the wet pants look when you sweat like a dog. And in the gym, where there are a lot of people, you just don't want to make the person waiting to sit on the equipment you are using feel uncomfortable, especially when he sees your butt is sweating wet.

I thought about putting a picture of the model using the brief here, but I think some of you might feel uncomfortable. Though, I doubt most woman would complain, a men like me would naturally feel a bit yuck about it. But I can't deny the level of comfort it provides, of course i mean wearing one and not about looking at a model wearing one. I must warn you before opening the link below, it is a bit gay.
Here is a link of the Calvin Klein tech active trunk.

Work in Progress

2008-07-19T11:58:00.005-04:00

Dear Readers,

I don't have a lot of readers, but I believe I have some family and friends who are wondering why I'm not writing. I'm sorry for being busy lately but I am in good health though mostly sleep deprive. I must say that I have been taking a sabbatical leave on blogging for maybe a month. Particularly, I'm busy trying to finish the requirements necessary to convince funding for my 2 research projects as well as another project I'm working on my own. So a lot of work is in progress. Will update soon. Have much to say, just no time to put it down.

Freakonomics

2008-06-04T16:59:00.012-04:00

Recently, I had the pleasure to experience a book called Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This book is about a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything. Indeed this book was very interesting, it tries to explain a lot of things that normal people don't even try to explain. It tries to quantify things that aren't quantifiable and using empirical facts to reach astonishing conclusion.

The book explores why conventional wisdom is so often wrong, where criminologist to real estate agents to political scientist bend the facts due to ignorance or plain selfish motives. However, knowing what to measure, how to measure the necessary data, can help us understand life and enlighten us from conventional wisdom.

Some of the questions answered in this book are:

What do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers have in common? Do teachers cheat to have a better score for their Teachers Evaluation, similarly, are Sumo wrestlers corrupt....do they actually set up wresting matches? How do you find out?
How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-estate agents? What kinds of secrets does this too group keeps from you for their own benefit. What does the real-estate agent mean by "well-maintained".
Why does a car's value drops the moment it leaves the lot, and what do online dates cheat about and can you really trust what online daters say about themselves.
If you think a drug dealer makes a lot of money, why does drug dealers still stay with their moms. Or why prostitutes earns much more than an architect. What does a drug dealer, high school quarterback and and an editorial assistant have in common. How the invention of crack cocaine mirrored the invention of nylon stockings.
Where have all the Criminals gone? In the early 1980's, some criminologist and experts claims that the crime and violence in year 2000 would be a blood bath. But it seems that the prediction was wrong....what really happened? Why the 1960's a good time to be a criminal. Why capital punishment doesn't deter criminals. Do police actually lowers crime rates? Is a a gun more dangerous than a swimming pool?
What makes a better parent? Why a good school isn't as good as you think? Eight things that make a child do great and 8 things that don't. For example, would your children do better in school if you were to bring them to the museum once a month?

The book was more a combination of philosophy, math and science and some of the results was amazingly surprising. For example, could you think of how abortion could help to reduce crime? Well it turns out that abortion was the reason why crime in the US dropped in 1995 onwards. And this is because, about 20 years ago, the laws prior to 1970 was against abortion, and so when a single mother fights for her rights to abort a child because she thinks she is not ready and would therefore be an unfit mother. She won the legal case and change the laws of abortion, and 20 years later the crime starts falling.....why is that? You just have to read the book to find out. I shall not spill the beans here....

The book made me think. Why is it that in such a conservative country like Malaysia, there are some people who still throw new born babies in the dumpster, which is far from our cultural and religious beliefs. Why does this happen? Are they afraid of being charge of wetlock? Or perhaps, its more than that....could it be that the social penalty is more unbearable. I guess it must be something attributed to the laws of abortion in Malaysia. I do not condone abortion, but what are people like you and me doing to help against this from happening. If unfit parents are force to become parents...what could possibly happen to their children...if not in the dumpster while being a fetus or eventual criminals in the future. But if our cultural and religious beliefs are against that, then our people, you and me, and hence the government that we choose, and the country that we live, should do something to address this problem. Because just by teaching them morals, won't really stop them. Particularly, social scientist in Malaysia should study, why people throw babies, what made them to act so callous. What could be a social, moral or monetary incentive to stop them from doing so. To know the answers to that mystery questions, a sufficient study and data gathering should be collected. Most mother's who feel that they are unfit are afraid to face the public due to all kinds of punishment the mother would be facing.....social indignation, capital law punishments as well as being stoned to death in some countries. Sometimes, experts or so called experts hail their knowledge and put fear into local ignorant people (some call them sinners) who are claimed to be doom and damn. And so they act against their believe and start to act like animals. Can we stop this from happening....is there an avenue that will re-educate lost young souls from acting like animals? Or do we just ignore it, or face our cheeks the other way and call them sinners? What do you think?

I don't want to grow up

2008-05-09T21:20:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, I saw an advertisement again about a garage sale somewhere close to my house. I never thought about going, but figured why not and just check out what was there. I didn't expect to buy anything but when I was there, I found Lots and lots of toys for sale.

Like a little boy in toys 'R Us, I was counting my money of what things I could buy. While in my head, there was this Toys 'R Us Jingle playing.....
"I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys' R Us kid
There's a million toys at Toys 'R Us that I can play with! From bikes, to trains, to video games, It's the biggest toy store there is! Gee whiz! I don't want to grow, cuz baby if I did, I wouldn't be a Toys 'R Us kid!"

Anyway, I got myself a foosball table, a wall climbing harness, a Pirates of The Caribbean chess set, a set of dominoes pieces and a bunch of gambling chips. I don't know why I got them, not like I got anyone to play it with, but ever since I was a kid, I always wanted a foosball table, but it was always too expensive. But this time, it was selling for only 25USD. So I got it anyways, as a decoration in my gym/play room.

Who Killed the Duke of Densmore?

2008-05-05T13:10:00.008-04:00

The idea of using interval graphs in detective stories was exploited in depth by Claude Berge in his novelette Que a tuZ le Duc de Densmore? (Who killed the Duke of Densmore?, Bibliotheque Oulipienne No.67). The story presented ideas of using Graph Theories to help solve realistic problems. However, getting this as an assignment can be far from realistic of getting a good grade. So anybody knows who killed Duke of Densmore, please tell me. I know the answer, but i can't solve it using Interval graphs or the academician style of explaining it in interval graphs. The question is as below:

The Duke of Densmore is found dead in the explosion of its castle on the Isle of White. The murder was committed with a bomb placed carefully in the labyrinth of the castle, which would require a long preparation in hiding in the mazes of the labyrinth. During his last years, the Duke had received eight visitors at his castle; each of them was brought first to the island and then back to the mainland by a motor boat. None of them recalls the precise dates or duration of her stay on the island, but each remembers with certainty whom else she had met on the Isle of White:

-- Ann saw Betty, Cynthia, Emily, Felicia and Georgia
-- Betty saw Ann, Cynthia and Helen
-- Cynthia saw Ann, Betty, Diana, Emily and Helen
-- Diana saw Cynthia and Emily
-- Emily saw Ann, Cynthia, Diana and Felicia
-- Felicia saw Ann and Emily
-- Georgia saw Ann and Helen
-- Helen saw Betty, Cynthia and Georgia

The testimony of each woman is comfirmed by the others and collusion between any two is out of question.

If you are a detective like Sherlock Holmes, and also happens to be a Graph Theory enthusiast, how do you find the killer. The killer must have stayed in the labyrinth once, or perhaps several times in order to prepare for her evil plan. Also, none of the suspects are giving false testimony, cause the Sailor who transported the suspects confirmed their testimony. However, the possibility of two people were at the same place and at the same time, but not see each other is highly probable. Any ideas?

There are a couple of ways to answer this question, you either need to be good at graph theory or have exceptional googling skills. I tried Googling, but can't find the exact solution I wanted.

Joey Balboa

2008-04-28T18:02:00.005-04:00

I'm sure a lot of you have been inspired by the movie Rocky before. If you have not, maybe you should watch Rocky I, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V and Rocky Balboa (last sequel for now). Yes, 5 sequels after the first Rocky in 1976. It was the most successful movie for Sylvester Stallone, won a lot of awards and one of the best UnderDog Movie ever made. On the left is a picture of the famous scene of Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and it has become a cultural icon.

I myself have ran up these stairs before, just to have the pretend experience of Rocky ... and replaying my childhood dreams overcoming huge hurdles like Rocky Balboa.

Well, sometimes, in life, we often give up, but we have to continue, like Rocky says, "It ain't about how hard we can hit, but how hard we can get hit, and keep moving on". Sometimes, we lie down too long and by the time we know it, our next opportunity is gone. So we have to always stand up and continue, before the count down is over. Time is limited and we have to be committed.

Speaking of which, I too have set myself into a time commitment. One of it, is to exercise more and work harder on my research. So, on the exercise part, I decided to utilize my extra empty room and turn it into an exercise room.

Yesterday, I went to pick up my exercise equipment. Someone was selling off their weighlifting set, so I decided to get it for 45 bucks.

So before summer ends, I'll be exercising to better myself and have my muscles toned....just like Rocky. My target, by the end of summer--and the background rocky theme song starts playing, tgh perasan nie--I will be Joey Balboa.

How I've Been Settling Down

2008-04-26T22:40:00.013-04:00

Before.
It has been difficult trying to settle down. But I try my best to make this place my temporary home. In an attempt to survive for the next few years, I've been slowly buying cheap stuff when I can to occupy my new home. When I first arrived, I had to sleep on the floor. It was really cold, so I immediately got a comforter to keep me warm. It didn't work that well. But not like I had a better choice. I eventually had to resort to buying a brand new bed online, since my back was starting to take its toll.

Since I came in the middle of the year, finding an apartment was difficult. I didn't feel like staying in a sublet with someone, so I had to settle for a much bigger apartment, a 2 bedroom, though I only need one, there was no vacant one room or studio apartment. And I got the basement unit, which means, my window is as high as the surface outside. Which makes it a bit scary since people can see what's inside. So I got my shower curtains first to cover my windows. Thanks to Abg. Rashid, who helped donating some window curtains and Rice cooker for me to use later.

Like any immature adult, what I got first was a TV. I got a used TV for USD 150 by hunting through craiglist. The cable for the TV came a day after the TV arrived. The TV was nice, but, I still didn't have any furniture. And for weeks, I had to study on the floor, and eat on the floor. I also managed to get someone to deliver me the drawers to put the TV on. It was not in perfect condition, but the person was willing to get rid of it for USD 10. So I agreed, and after some clean-up, it didn't look that bad.

Finally, also from craiglist, I managed to get a dinner table. Eating on the floor really makes me feel depressed. So when I found in craiglist that someone wanted to sell their dinner table for USD 70, I wasted no time to get it. It was also in a bad condition, but after some manual fixing of tightening the screws, it was good as new. I also got some small corner tables from a second hand shop, for about USD 5 each.

While being here, whenever I can, I go and visit god's home in a Masjid near by. I must admit, sometimes I miss friday prayers at the Masjid, due to class,meetings with supervisor or just plain over exhausted, but I try my best to go when I can. And the people there are modern Muslims and I enjoy Kutbah, much more than the ones I can remember back home in Malaysia. The Kutbah here has a modern perspective to it, and encourages love and success in the present day lives. Back home, they talk a lot more about after life.

After
Being here for about 5 months now, I must say, I'm all settled. And the connections in the Masjid, with some of the Muslim brother's, has helped me settled down faster. I found out a Muslim family who was leaving the states and they were selling off their stuff. So I got some of their furniture, particularly, a 2 seat and 3 seat sofa, A TV stand, carpets and many more, and I got all that for USD 200, which was a pretty good deal.

With everything settled, I have no excuse but to concentrate on my research. This summer will be a new beginning. It will be a totally different challenge for me, as I try to finish up my prototype for my research, the view of the ahead journey looks like a very high ascending slope. I sure hope the view up there will be worth it, cause from down here, at the current moment, I'm sighing to myself with despair.....but still eager for the challenge. So family and friends, who care, come back to hear all about it from time to time.

Something lurking in the Dark

2008-04-11T22:08:00.014-04:00

It was close to 3am, and the only thing playing on the tv was just an unpleasant ghost story screaming about something gruesome. I dare not look at it, not because I'm scared, but I just don't want an ugly bloody image running in my head before I go to sleep.

Its almost spring, and the air was slightly warm. As the temperature got warmer, there was no need for the heater to be up, and at 3 am in the morning, without the mechanical fan clanking and whining from the heater, it was awfully quiet. I tried to listen for any ominous threat. Not that I'm paranoid, but one cannot be too careful while being alone.

After turning off all the lights, I just realized how ridiculous it was to even be afraid or even let myself be slightly concern. So I just smiled to myself, and in my mind, a self monologue says,"hay silly, go to sleep, its late. You're not afraid, are you!!!! hahaha". And, convincing myself, I smiled, and replied my own monologue conversation, "Me, afraid, heck no....I'm Rizal, never been afraid, and never will". The monologue was not as assuring as I expected, but went to bed anyways. I tried to sleep, but the room was warm and it made me feel uncomfortable. So I went to the window, opened it to let the cool spring breeze in, I just can't sleep when it is terribly warm.

It was cooler now, and I feel much more comfortable. I was about to dose off, and slowly I can feel the world of concerns floating away. And just before I was off to lalaland, a sudden noise disturbed my sense of tranquility. I was awaken by some clanking noise right at the window. My eyes suddenly opened wide in the dark. I can't see anything, but I can surely hear something breathing, whizzing, and scratching at the window.

What could it be? My heart rate jumped, my senses heighten and my mind was imagining 1001 things per second, as images of unsightly things races through my mind. There was definitely something at the window, and I just remembered, that the damn window was opened. If there was really something evil there, it can surely get in, and I cannot risk that from happening. So I rushed to the window to close it , and like in the scary movie, as I pushed the curtains to the side, and I saw a pair of yellow eyes looking straight at me. "What the f***?" I jumped, and immediately I was taken a back from the window, as the curtains now block my view from what was a mysterious pair of yellow eyes staring at me behind the curtain window.

I must admit, the yellow eyes got me shaken, but I can still think logically. And my logic mind says I got to close the window, cause it was still opened, and I got to do that fast. So I immediately turn on the lights and went for my second attempt to close the window. I push the curtains to the sides, and now, there was nothing there. Damn....was I imagining it, or was there really something lurking in the dark.

I close the window while keep looking what evil things could possibly be outside. Nothing, not a sound, no floating yellow eyes, there was just a few branches that was hardly a threat. Again, my monologue says, "am I crazy....could I be imagining it". I close the lights again to go to sleep, but then, I can hear the whizzing, clanking and scratching noise again. I brave myself, but this time, I turned on the lights before pushing the curtain to the side, and this time....I was surprise.....

I was surprise to see this creature that lurks in the dark. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't look harmful. Or at least, I didn't think it could harm me. I immediately ran to take my camera. I managed to take a picture of it before it ran away.

I'm not sure what it was. It looked like a rat, but it was far too big to be a rat. It was as big as a cat, or a small dog. It looked like a rabbit, but the ears were too small. It looked like a squirrel, but the tail was too short to be a squirrel. I'm not sure what it was, but it definitely looked curious, and was equally afraid of me, as I was afraid of him. After taking his pictures, he got afraid of the flashes, and ran away. I felt sorry for the creature, it was just probably hungry and just woke up from hibernation. I still wonder what this creature is called though....and what is it, what species....If anybody recognize this creature that was lurking in the Dark, please do tell me about it.

The Human Element

2008-04-08T16:11:00.008-04:00

I live alone in my small tiny apartment, and I must admit, my best friend is the TV, where I get to see the world in many ways, bending the space-time continuum to go back in time in the History channel, and warp ahead of time in the Science channel. I also get to see parallel universe of how our lives could be different if we were to do things differently. Other than that, I also get to learn all kinds of knowledge, from mathematics, home science, humanities, philosophy, musicology, physiology, biology, humorology, ... and etc-ology, just an abundant source of knowledge besides google-logy.

An interesting idea in an advertisement on the science channel is that humans are still trying to understand the world that we live in--in all aspects of life. To understand the world better, we try to classify things, and study the things around us. Hence, we create the periodic table with all kinds of elements that exist in this world. However, we are still trying to understand what makes us human. And the idea in the advertisement says that if we try to include ourself, the human element (Hu) in the periodic table, we can probably see how we tend to interact in the world that we live it, and the things that makes us special and what makes humanity.

If we try to put the human element, maybe we can understand a lot of things. Particularly, the human element would have two types, or maybe 4 according to some. Man, Woman, Man trap in a Woman's body, Woman trap in Man's body. Having that thought in mind, i received a funny email. The email tries to put humans in the periodic table. The human element (Hu) that they tried to classify was woman. I find it interesting, because its one of the first attempt to put humans on the periodic table.

This attempt of putting a human in the periodic table is ridiculous but yet could probably bring a lot of insights. Like any scientific endeavors, it will receive much criticism, and I'm sure a lot would criticize the validity or accurateness of such claims. But I think it is probably a brave start for such discovery and may help evolve to a lot more of interesting theories.

I'm sure a lot of man will agree with me that woman are impossible to understand. So maybe this attempt of classification of the human element will help us understand more about woman.

On the other hand, i know i will get a lot of hate comments here....But for the sake of science, and the advancement of humankind, I'm willing to take the risk....:)

Rizal's Shrine and The origin of my name

2008-03-30T18:41:00.010-04:00

My cousin, Dr. Yusoff Abdullah shared a picture with me, after he found Rizal's Shrine in his adventures to the Philippines. Yeah, my Shrine...Rizal's Shrine. There is a Shrine for me.!!!!! Well, actually, it's not me. It's a shrine for Dr. JOSÉ PROTACIO RIZAL MERCADO Y ALONSO REALONDA. He died 30 December 1896, Manila, Philippines), patriot, physician and man of letters whose life and literary works were an inspiration to the Philippine nationalist movement. Rizal is a national hero of the Philippines. He was a genius, a linguist who can speak several languages, a physician, a writer and also very good looking and popular among the ladies. He got it all.....and his rebellious demeanor was mostly his charm, which made him a hero and brought the Philippines and the people of the land to fight for freedom from oppressors. He was killed by his oppressors who feared his influence, but instead of making the people of Philippines docile, his death immortalized Jose Rizal and raise and united the people towards independence.

A lot of people knew where his/her name came from. As for me, I had two names. Joey, my nick name that most of my close friends and family call me, and Rizal, my official name on my birth certificate. Though my family always had two versions of the story, the one that I really dislike was that when i was born, I was so small and wrinkled up like a joey(a baby kangaroo). The other version is that my name Rizal came from Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero. But how did Rizal came to be Joey. Well, since I'm half filipino, half of my family is still in the Philippines. So they gave me the name Joey. Joey, a common nick name for people with the name Jose. And that would make me similar to Dr. Jose Rizal.....I just hope one day, I'll be following his footsteps as well, getting my PhD and be called Dr. Joey Rizal.:)

Shakespeare said that "what is in a name, by which we call a rose. By any other name, wouldn't it smell as sweet." I know that a name really doesn't make a person. But I can't help to wonder how a name shapes a person's character, or is it by mere coincidence. Unlike Dr. Jose Rizal, I'm not a genius, not a linguist, not popular with the ladies and not very good looking. But I can't help to wonder, that I am also very rebellious. Had I've been born in the 1800s, would I have been the man going against the British? Would I be the writer, to state the obvious, unite the people and protest on ideas of equality and human rights. I can't help to wonder. What purpose do I have in life, and am I meant for greater things like Jose Rizal. I just hope that I don't end up dead before making a real impact in society. Everyman quest is to seek immortality. Leaving behind a piece of himself before his life ends. Wonder what my contributions will be ....

Chicago, Illinois

2008-03-28T14:58:00.017-04:00

Here I was in the middle of Chicago City, at the Union Station(left). Standing and acting cool in front of the river thats flows to Lake Michigan. I found my way later to the Field's Museum(right), it was said to be the must visit place.

The museum had a couple of interesting artifacts, it was very huge, but an interesting exhibit that caught my attention was the Inside Ancient Egypt. It was said that after researchers in Saqqara, Egypt, excavated two of the original chambers from the tomb of Unis-ankh, son of the Fifth Dynasty ruler Pharaoh Unis. The mastaba (tomb) of Unis-ankh forms the core of a spellbinding exhibit that realistically depicts scenes from Egyptian funeral, religious, and other social practices. I put on my Dr. Indy Rizal hat and tried to decipher the heliographic writings on the walls. When I was younger, I always imagined to be the adventurous historian and archaeologists Dr. Indiana Jones.

After helping out pulling the large slab of stone from the pyramid's and discovering the secret of Unis-ankh and the book of the dead (me imagining again), i found myself hurrying off to search for another dangerous mystery. But I did, take some pictures before that. Here I am taking some pictures, with the Chicago City background. Think you can see Sears Tower behind me, disappearing in the clouds.

My other dangerous mystery was actually my growling stomach. I was told that a must try in Chicago was the famous Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza at Giordano's World Famous Stuffed Pizza.
I walk there and Giordano had already a bunch of people queuing up. I had to stand for about 30 minutes to try the famous pizza.
I had a great meal of cheese, tomatos, mushrooms and a really thick pizza. It was alright....it wasn't like amazing, but it was good. Good enough for me to save myself from hunger.:)

GPS to help me go around

2008-03-25T23:26:00.004-04:00

When thinking about going for a vacation, knowing where you are and how to get there can really save you time. So since I'm going to Chicago for a visit, I was thinking about getting a GPS to help me save time from getting lost with my bad sense of direction. So I went to Best Buy to look for this electronic device people call GPS, and I found to my liking, the Magellan Maestro. It was affordable and also had some pretty interfaces and nice features. The Magellan Maestro has about 3 million ++ Points of Interest in its database and contains GPS maps for America and Canada.

After getting the electronic GPS device, I was excited to use it. Immediately I mounted the GPS device into my car. The GPS came with a mounting kit, which has a rubber sucker that would stick the mounter to your windshield. Then you can clip your GPS to the mount, and this will you keep looking forward while driving, at the same time have the GPS help you give directions. The sweet thing about it, the GPS talks to you. It shows you the directions on the GPS and at the same time talks to you and tell you which turn you will be expecting to take. It would say something like, "Right Turn in 0.5 miles".

It was all good, but after a while the rubber sucker doesn't work that well anymore, and the GPS mount keep on falling off. It still gives directions but I've learned that the GPS does not really gives you the most efficient route all the time. I guess technology is no substitute for human intelligence yet. :)

Anyway, will post more about my visit to Chicago later. Over and out.

Brain Teaser

2008-03-09T14:49:00.003-04:00

When I started, I thought It was not going to be that hard. And I'll be following the true nature of my heart, and It would be easy. But then, the path seems to be much more difficult that I thought. It's not merely a brain teaser. How do you answer a question like below.....

Basic Chord requires log N steps to lookup a query. Even log N messages, per lookup may be too many for some applications. It seems Chord can be generalized to make longer stride in each hop. The distance to query can be reduced by a factor 1/(1+d) in each lookup hop for various values of d. Derive the generalized complexity of the following: How far each finger should point, How many hops will be required to lookup a query?

I don't know. I'm sure the answer is somewhere, but, it does get tiring trying to make conclusions of what the statement above means, and what possible answers it could have. I won't give up yet, but will try my best to endure it for as long as I can.

Chef Joey....Maybe Not

2008-03-01T00:29:00.009-05:00

The most time consuming thing for me is cooking. But if I don't cook I don't eat. And that can be a bad thing. Also, I have to take care of the things I eat, meaning a well balance diet.

But having a good well balance diet, also involves selecting your food carefully and cook a few kinds of meals. But I am too lazy for that, so all I do make sure is that I have some meat, some vegetables and some fruits.

I wish I can just buy food outside. However, I cannot possibly buy food outside every single day because that's going to eat through my pocket really fast. So I have to settle for a little work cooking. So far my cooking quality is really bad, such that the things I cook, I wouldn't want to eat twice. But out of some random occurrence, I think one of my cooking is actually chef quality....or maybe I perasan, or maybe I was just too hungry to even realize the real reality of my cooking quality.

But it looks good at that time, so I decided to take a picture of my masterpiece. Frankly, I have no idea what it was. I was so hungry coming back from class, that I just throw things together. I took the prawns out, cause it would be faster to defrost than meat. I just tumis(simmer) some onions and belacan (prawn paste) , throw in kicap masin, oyster sos, kicap manis, tomatos, chili paste and whatever seems right. I threw in the prawns and after 5 minutes it still looks kinda dull. I went looking in my fridge and saw some vegetables, and thought, this could be good to have some vegetable and fiber. Threw it in as well and after another 5 minutes, i thought it still looked dull. I went looking around my shelves, and saw some tomato paste. Think this would be good to add some color to my cooking. Threw it in my wok, and finally wala..... The end result was the one above. When my rice cooker was done, I tried my masterpiece, and damn it was good. I was thinking (berangan) I could be a chef if it was this good all the time, like in the animated movie ratatouille. But then again, its probably good just because I was hungry.

Snow Day!!! Mother Nature must love me.

2008-02-28T20:28:00.009-05:00

It's now in the middle of the semester. And suddenly, all my classes are in 6th gear, going 100 miles per hour on a winding road with full of bumps. Indeed the pace is now more erratic unlike a few weeks ago, where everybody was cruising on a beach road with birds chirping and flamingo birds dancing. I may have underestimated the extend of graduate courses. No more books, no more notes, just research papers that took hours to understand and very dull to read, especially if it is not of your interest area.

Last Tuesday was the day that I was suppose to meet my future Supervisor to discuss on a new setup for a new experiment. I am expected to read a few papers and specification of the new device and various hardware interfaces for the experiment. At the same time, I had 2 papers to present, which was heavily referenced. And when I got the email about weather alert, I was so damn happy. Snow day.....Yes, a declared emergency day due to heavy snow. Thank god, ader one more day to relax.

To be sure, I emailed my Supervisor, and he told me the meeting is still on. Apparently, he's in campus and expects me to be there anyways. So I quickly got ready to drive to campus. It wasn't like I was tired, but it's so cold. And the amount of work I have to do just to drive my car. Buried under 9-10 inches of snow, I have to scrape the snow of my windshield and dig snow out of my path, cause the snow was too high for me to reverse out without the snow getting into my exhaust.

Well, after the meeting, I was tired and cant wait to get back home, eat and sleep. But as I was driving home, I saw Kak Shima's kids playing in the snow. So I figured why not. I'm going to be a kid, be silly for a bit and just enjoy the snow day. After all, it's not like it snows this heavy everyday. I got out of my car, ran in the snow and lay down in the soft smooth icy cool snow. I was glad that I took the time to loosen up some stress and just watch the clouds rolling over the skies.

Anyhow, what I thought was 5 minutes, end up to be almost an hour. The kids and I spent some time playing snowball wars. We also spent some time making a snow man. It was a small snowman, but cute nonetheless, just like me....hehehe

Bootstrapping into Wireless Sensor Network Lab

2008-02-18T13:42:00.011-05:00

About one week after classes started, I was assigned to my would be supervisor, Dr. Mikhail Nesterenko, who is an expert here in WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks). This is the closest thing I can get into embedded systems stuff, and it sits in my domain of interest. Dr. Mikhail Nesterenko was nice to show me his lab and help me find a place to sit in the lab. He also made sure I had a table and chair for me ready, and a pc for me to work on.

So my first task was to bootstrap myself into the lab. First thing I did was delete the windows on my computer, and installed debby(debian) on my computer. Then, tweak around with it, and after it was running, tried to get my alpine--formerly pine--working on my workstation. Our email is on IMAP and I just wanted to be geeky and access my email from a text-based client like pine. Anyhow, the technical details are taken out, if you are interested about getting to use your pine over SSL, then you should go here.

The lab is the place I hang out a lot. Since there is no other place to hang out for a graduate student. Plus, I imagine, after I get a hang of WSN, I would probably spend most of my time here in the lab, doing experiments and what not. So looks like this lab is going to be my second home soon.

In the lab, there is a grid of wireless sensor networks. This grid is to experiment on a variety of network conditions. But I guess, most of the work going to be configuring and reprogramming of the t-motes wireless devices. It runs on tiny-OS, so I will have to learn how to use tiny-OS soon and start hacking on the embedded device.

The wireless device we get to play with are small and tiny. They are embedded devices meant for sensors. So it is supposed to be that small. The problem is, it will also have limited power as well as limited memory to keep your program and data. Not to mention the irregularity in transmission of wireless signals. I'm not sure what kind of research I will do first. I think I will just use up this whole semester to learn about tiny-OS, reprogramming of the embedded device as well as learn more about previous research being done. Maybe later, I will be enlighten about what to do with my research in WSN.

The WSN lab seems to be a lonely place where most of the time it is empty. There are 4 people in our group with Dr. Nesterenko as the supervisor. Good thing is, Mike, a research group member, sometimes hang out in the lab too. Occasionally, we have Tom and Najla come in and out the lab. The embedded devices can be access remotely through ssh, so we don't really need to be in the lab. Unless we want to stay in a quiet place to study. Anyhow, wish me luck in finding a research topic soon in WSN.

A little snow is a hassle, a lot of snow is hurray!!!

2008-02-12T14:51:00.001-05:00

Recently, I have not been able to find the time to write something on my blog.
I have been busy reading journals about network protocols for P2P, mainly,
the PASTRY protocol and MADPASTRY and papers about WSN (Wireless
Sensor Networks), aside from hacking alpine(or pine) to connect to the IMAP
server at my work station while doing hw for Advance Computer Architecture
and Algorithms Design classes. It has been over bearing, and I have hardly any
time to eat, what more to blog.

What I hate most is the snow. Not that because it is cold, cause I like the cold
weather, but it is such a hassle. It makes me late to go to class and the driving
conditions can be nasty.

Since yesterday it started snowing. And last night, I was busy trying to
finish up my work due today. I was terribly tired and what I thought was
a short break shutting my eyes for 5 minutes, was an unexpected sleep for
a few hours.

I woke up at 8.45 am, and my class suppose to start at 9.15 am. With my work
only half done, i was bitching and angry for falling asleep. So I quickly dressed up
and packed my stuff to class. Here is why the snow is such a hassle. In a moment
of haste, I still need to scrape the snow off my windshield, and wait for my car to
heat up before i start moving. The whole ordeal takes about 15 minutes, and so I
only have 10 minutes to drive to class. I want to drive fast, but, with the snow,
everybody was cruising at about 15 miles per hour. I too am a bit cautious with
driving in the snow.

I reached my parking lot, just about 9.15 am. I parked my car and run fast towards
the CS building. By the time I reach my class, i was sleepy, tired and wet. During
class I even fell asleep snoring. Luckily kak Shima woke me up.

After the 9.15 am class, I gave up about finishing my work. It was still snowing.
I checked my email and there was an email for weather alert. Apparently, classes
after 12.30 pm is all cancelled. Yeeeee...hhaaaa.....So a little snow is a hassle, but
a lot of it, can be a blessing. So I have another day to finish my work. Had I known,
I would just sleep soundly last night.

Kak Shima and myself were very happy. We took some pictures besides the heavy snow. Yeah, we are old people above 30, but we still like kids and happy to skip some classes:)

And so, you have that big smile, i'm going back and have a good sleep.

Classes in the snow....

2008-01-20T16:10:00.001-05:00

I arrived the Akron/Canton Airport, in Ohio at about 10pm. luckily, there was also another International Student from Italy, Aurora also waiting for the shuttle that we were suppose to take to get to Kent. I stayed over night in the temporary housing until Kak Shima came and pick me up the next day. I just had to try out living in the dorms for one day. It's been a while since I was just a freshmen student living in the dorms. But I'm a graduate student now, so I had to move out and find an apartment somewhere.
When I arrived, it was all nice and sunny. The weather was not so cold and surprisingly for the beginning of January, it was not as cold as I expected. Thank god for that. I don't think I can stand the cold weather that well anymore. I think its age. As one grows older, the body just gets weaker. But spoken too soon. After the first day of class, I managed to get an apartment, but then it started snowing. Kak Shima's kids however got really excited about the snow, so we went out and took some pictures. Above is a picture of Kak Shima's kids (Syasya, Zahin) and myself.

So I slept in the house after the first day of class and woke up early to go to class the next day. My house is damn empty for now, and I had to do a lot of shopping just to get some necessities--will talk more about shopping later. As I walk out of the door, I was surprise to see how much snow have accumulated. And it was really windy. I stop to take the morning air and took a picture.

I finally had to rush out and walk towards Kak Shima's house. Since, I'm currently a bagger who gets free rides to class for now. Thanks to Kak Shima, my rides to class are now free and I get to escape from the torturing wait in the cold for a bas. As I was walking alone, in the cold, I took a picture of myself. Well, thats an awful closeup, but thats the best shot i can take. I tried to smile, but I was trying hard to control the shivers.

Here is the walkway towards the CS department. I still had a lot of things to settle at the Student Center. So after my first class, at 9.15-10.30, I ran to do some errants. My next class starts at 12.30, so I ran to make my student accounts, and settle some other stuff that I had to do.

This is a picture of the Math Science and Computer Science building. Its the building in red, with the curvy roof top. I guess this is the building I will be spending a lot of my time doing don't know what..... Hopefully it's something to do with my PhD. hehehe

Well, that's some pictures for your eye candy.

Well, I will talk more about shopping and the pursuit of happiness soon. I really feel like a bagger here in the States. But, one needs to survive, and we have to do things to survive right....
Keep you posted later.....

Transit in China

2008-01-19T17:55:00.001-05:00

On my flight to the US, I had to transit at Beijing, China. What I thought was unfortune, is that I had to transit at Beijing and wait there for 12 hours until my next flight to Chicago, USA. My flight from Malaysia, would reach Beijing at about 5.30 am, and the next flight out to Chicago, was at 5.30 pm. So I thought, maybe I can walk around the airport to kill time. So the moment, I reach Beijing, I got a transit pass, and the Chinese immigrations issued me a one day visa. I did try to walk around in Beijing Airport. I walk around and tried the Starbucks....
However, at 7.30 am, I was already an expert around the Beijing airport.
I figured, I will die being in Beijing for the next 10 hours. So finally, I approach the help counter and ask, how do I get into the city. And the helpful lengloi told me that I can take the bas, and visit the forbidden city. Say what.....forbidden city....get me on the bas.

So I went a head and changed some US dollars to Yuen. Paid 16 Yuen for the bas ticket towards the city. Apparently, a lot of people in Beijing knows only very little or absolutely no english words. So while buying my ticket, I had to speak a little mandarin, which was also as bad as their English. At the ticket counter, I told them I wanted to go to Beijing City, and stop at the Forbidden City. They look at me blur, and responded with an annoyed tone, ni yao shenme. So I responded Wo yao qu Beijing City, Wo yao kan Forbidden City, which in English means I want to get to Beijing City, I want to City Forbidden City. Amazingly, they understood what I'm asking for and gave me a ticket. Happy me, I got on the bas with a little fear that I might get lost in Beijing city.

At first it was scary, cause nobody in the bas spoke english, and I don't know where to stop. So I waited until I saw a red building with people around it, which make me suspect that this is the forbidden city. I came down and started walking towards the forbidden city. The forbidden city is located at the Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 buildings. It's amazing place to visit, unfortunately, a lot of the things here are in Mandarin. So I had to get a guide to show me around. Plus its a huge place, and one can get lost in the forbidden city.

There is a river running through the forbidden city. It was so cold during this time, and I am shivering. Luckily there was no strong winds in the forbidden city, however, it was cold enough to make the river frozen. There were 5 bridges crossing over this river and if you have seen some Wong Fei Hong movies, you'll notice that people will have to walk across the river to meet the emperor. Its amazing what the emperor built a long time ago and yet it is still admired till today.

Thats the forbidden city and the large court where a bunch of soldiers used to stand infront of the emperor. The women in pink is my guide. Well, I didn't really find a guy, I was hunted as a naive tourist. She came to me, and told me that I needed a guide. She tagged along with me until i gave up and let her be my tour guide. I should have known better, but I am an inexperience traveller. So I was cheated to pay a guide who was not so good in english and can hardly understand what I wanted to know about the city. Anyways, she managed to entertain me for maybe like 2 hours until we finally came out on the other side of the forbidden city. Outside the forbidden city, was another guy who spotted a naive tourist.

And again I got suckered into going on this ride through the hunan village. The hunan village is where the mongolian settlement used to be. Here I am taking a picture infront of a hunan style house. I was told that the status of one resident is by the size of the door. A bigger door would mean you are richer, and the smaller the door is, the poorer you are. I guess it is still the same here, if you have a gate like the Sultan's house, you are royalty. But it doesn't holds true if you are living in a expensive condominium in KL.....well, times has changed.

So finally it was already close to 2pm. I needed to go back before I miss my flight. Although my flight was at 5.30 pm. I'm taking no chances, I was afraid that I might get lost.

Indeed I got lost on the way back. The rickshaw guy drop me off without giving me any sufficient clues as to where to get the next bus shuttle to the airport. I tried, but either he pretended not to understand me, or just wanted more money from me. I walked around trying to find the shuttle bus stop to the airport. But after half an hour talking to people who didn't understand me, I gave up and took the cab. It cost me 75 yuan. I didn't know the word for airport in mandarin. But luckily i got a picture of the airport. So I just showed the cab driver the picture, and told him, wo yao qu zheli (i want to go here).....showing the picture. Finally arrived at the airport and just in time to get on my flight with United Air, leaving Beijing, China to Chicago, US. What a fortunate turn of events. And an adventurous one.:)

Leaving on a jet plane...

2008-01-15T21:18:00.001-05:00

I'm finally leaving on a jet plane and the thought of going off for the next 4 years can make one in a state of ambivalence, tearing the heart into two. So heavy hearted to leave the ones you love, but yet excited to embarked in a new adventure in life.

Since my flight was on the 8th at 12.30 am in the morning, we left the house at about 9pm. Mom, Dad, Kak Leila, Emil and Abg. Fariz came together with the same car. Kak Lanie came later, from her house with Abg. Rizman and Aryanna. While waiting for my boarding time about 11.15 pm, we took a family portrait picture. Kak Lanie and Abg. Rizman is not in the picture, cause Aryanna was already sleepy and moody, and she had to entertain her to sleep on the bench.

Although I didn't invite any friends to the airport, cause if I were to invite my friends, the airport would be packed, and I would like to concentrate most on my family during the last few hours before leaving on a jet place, Syirman and Afrezal came anyways. Syirman sneak out from work and Afrezal came right after work from cyber. Thanks guys to drop by and see me go off.

Also who came by was Uncle and Auntie who was very supportive to see me go off, also donated a book in doa-doa. Which will help me pray for guidance whenever I'm lost in a foreign land.

Finally a group picture, dad was not in the picture, cause he's the one taking the picture. Syirman and Afrezal had to leave cause Syirman got to go back to work before his office realizes that he is not around. And I had to get on board on the plane since it was already boarding time.

Just as I was going through immigrations, I look behind at my family as they wave me off. Already now, I'm feeling so lonesome I could cry. While on the plane, sitting in economy class, I looked through the window, staring at the airport, as images of my family, my friends, my belongings, my country flashes by in my mind. All that I love whom I will be leaving behind, all that I care that I will miss a lot, and all that I know will have to remain as memories. I know I will miss all of it a lot, I know that I won't be able to be part of it anymore for the next 4 years or more, and at that moment my heart feels broken, teared apart and shattered.

All I can say is, I'm leaving on a jet plane, and I don't know when I'll be back again. Ohhh, I really hate to go........

Days before departure

2008-01-12T09:50:00.000-05:00

Exactly 1 week before my departure to the united states, I had a lot of partying and karaoke-ing with friends. Well, I had to try to get it out of my system before I will embarked into a life of monotonous study. But the best is the doa selamat/dinner session with family and friends. What I would miss most is the company of family members, cute nieces, and naughty nephews. Even though I have always taken it for granted, I really miss my nephews and nieces now. Yea, being alone here gives me no outlet to bully my little nephews and nieces. Sometimes its just fun looking at how they think and how they react as i toy with their minds. It's like a psychological experiment that I get to play with. But the most joy is to see them getting smarter as they grow older, slowly being wiser and less gullible to my mind games. Anyway, the picture on the left is Arissa, and her mother(my eldest sister). This picture was taken before the doa selamat in the house. Thank you uncles and aunties who took their time to come for prayers at my house from Zohor onwards.

Right after Zohor and doa selamat we were tired. The Zohor session was specifically for relatives and family friends, and the dinner session was reserved for my friends only. So hence, during the interim, we tried to get some rest, while chit-chatting with cousins and all. To the right is a picture of Uncle Chik, and his family. My favorite cousins.

Just the two of us. Yes, it was not hard to get Aryanna to make a cute pose on camera. She just loves the camera. On the left is baby Aryanna and I trying to make a "Just the two of Us" video clip.

Emil is no longer a baby anymore, but I still remember him like one. But he is now much cooler, and plays the guitar. Just like his uncle, who is also a cool guitarist....heheheeh;)....(perasan sikit tak perlah)

Here Emil and I posing for a hard rock, heavy metal album cover.

Here is another picture of two of my nieces posing to be a pair of cute little japanese girls.
It was hard to get the both of them pose like this together. Syncronization is almost impossible, but I managed to snap a picture in between the few milliseconds they stayed syncronized.

After the Zohor and doa selamat, the dinner session eventually came, and I think there were about 70-80 people who came that night from my diverse set of friends. I thank you to all my friends to take the time coming to my dinner session, where I managed to say last goodbyes and resetting the counter of sins.

I didn't managed to take any pictures, mainly cause I was busy walking around and saying goodbyes to friends.
But I would like to say thank you to my IIUM friends; the tech guys, apek, makrie and jamiri, Syed and wife, Tinie and her friends, Najmi, Hamwira, Sadri and Aishah, and Dr. Murni and her family; my Mimos friends--Afrezal, Suzie, Apai, Shahril and family; my MBA friends--Helmi and family, Azhar, Zaini, Razali, and Hafiz and family; my Business friends--Sahar and Azlanar; my MRSM friends--Ainnie, Fairuz (specky), and Loqman; My Mypm friend--Mr cool Shuhardi; My DRB and OSS buddy--Jep; My Shah Alam friends--Syirman, Sham, Ayen, Marina, Leha, Fero, Juita and Julia; My TNB scholar friends--Babang and Anuar(ustad) and Lastly my lovely cousins, Gigie, Bubut and Jogie. Unfortunately, i have no pictures to put up during this session. I might have forgotten a lot of names, I'm sorry in advance, but do remind me about it.

Exactly 3 days before leaving, even in my busy schedule, I just had to go to Apek's wedding. Apek aka Firdaus is now happily married to Suhana. I just had to say last goodbye to Apek and wish him all the best in his years to come as a good husband. Also said my last goodbye to makrie, my young hiking partner.

So that was it, the rest 2 days was just more karaoke-ing......and quality time with family.

Last trip with friends, Bandung

2008-01-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm waiting for the semester to start, looks like I have some time to do some writing in my blog.
So let me talk about what I did before leaving for the states. About 2 weeks before leaving for the United States,
my friends and I went to Bandung just to have some fun. We were a group of 7 people, Ayin, Syirman, Suzie, Apai, Rizduan, Afrezal and myself.

Our flight was about 9.30 am, so we were suppose to gather at the LCC Terminal at about 7.30 am in the morning. And so we did, except for the few of us. That cause some delay in our plan. Anyhow, we took our own sweet time and by the time we realise it, it was already 9.15am.

Anyway, they called our name for about 10 times and we had to hold everybody before we get on the plane. Everybody looked pissed as we were the last few to walk towards empty sits in the airplane.

So we finally arrive at the Bandara Husein Sastranegara Bandung. And so the first day in Bandung, I called my cousin Ismail, who is studying to be a doctor in Bandung. He arrange a van and a driver to bring us around the the interesting shopping places. Later on, we extended our drivers contract to drive us around for the next 3 days. I didn't shop much mainly because I had not a clue of what to buy. I'm not a shopping freak but i'm sure my childhood friend evelyne would enjoy it very much. But after going to the FOS spot of Bandung, we went to Paris.....Not Paris France, but Paris Van Java....a Paris like environment in Bandung. It was indeed a cool place to be, the cooling air, the sweet crowd....literally, they were sweet, the cool environment and of course accompanied with cool friends.

The second day we went to Jakarta.
A we managed to have some fun at Hard Rock Jakarta. Afrezal sneakingly told the band about me leaving for my Phd. and tomy surprise the band called me up stage and I had to go upstage to sing leaving on the jet plane with the band.

We like the band a lot, so finally, Afrezal and I, looked for our favorite singers and took a picture together with the band.

The third day we went to the summit of TangkubanParahu, a dead volcano crater. We didn't know it was going to be cold, so we left that morning wearing t-shirts. When we arrived the summit, we were pissed of at the driver for not telling us that it was going to be cold up the summit. We only realise that we were dope by the driver, as soon as we got down, where scores of men surrounded us to sell cold weather items. It was very windy and cold. Finally we gave up, and we had to buy cold weather clothing to stop the shivering.

After the interesting experience up the mountain, we continued to go shopping. After tired shopping for items at Pasar Besar for kain and baju melayu, we then stopped to have some dinner. It was all very interesting.

The 4th day came so soon, we had to pack our bags and went to the airport early. Its unfortunate that we had to leave so early, but all of us had to go back to work and back to our lives we call reality.

It was an interesting experience, and I shall always remember it....
It's not really the place, not really the people too, but i guess it was a synergy of these two elements, that makes it unforgetable.

Friends, you are all invited for Makan2x.

2007-12-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

Dear friends, colleagues and ex-colleagues.
Finally, it is time for me to continue my studies towards my Ph.D. I would like to invite my friends to my humble abode, on the 1st. of January, from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.

I hope to see all of you to reset the counters for if I have offended any of you.

Please come, save dinner, enjoy the company of friends and reminiscence in old memories.

Remember:

Venue: No. 5 Jalan Lurah 8/2A, Section 8, Shah Alam
Time: 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm
Date: 1st. January, 2008
Dress Code: Casual

Baby Arissa's Birthday

2007-09-15T03:09:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was Arissa's birthday. Arissa is my niece, Kak Lanie's third child. Kak Lanie arranged the party to be in McDonalds, with a small band of family members. MyDonalds was great, the kids liked it, there is a place for the kids to run around and play and the food is likable by kids, and adults alike. But it was so crowded. It was so crowded that even the air-conditioning in the small building cannot cope with it. It was so crowded that it was hard to even listen to yourself mumbling in your head. It was so crowded that we had to queue for like an hour to get our food. But nontheless, it was a good birthday. Arissa was a bit moody that day, but she was definitely happy to see her amazing looking cake. A princess looking cake. As you can see, Arissa (the little girl in the green dress) was mesmerized to see the pink princess looking cake. Kids these days are so pampered.

But along the way, Arissa little baby sister, Arianna (the little girl in the white dress with small pink flowers) was also enjoying the cake. She too tried to blow the candles on the princess. We all had a fun day celebrating Arissa's birthday, even though it was really crowded and hot.
The whole event was much fun. Of course it was a headache for Kak Lanie. But I'm sure it brings her joy seeing her daughters grow up and it was a well worth headache.

Fan Powered BBQ from recycling PC

2007-09-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

About 2 weeks ago, a group of us decided to have a BBQ at a river near Ulu Yam. Naturally, the thought of eating BBQ food is nice, but the work involved setting up the fire for the BBQ would be cumbersome. There was a few problems with the BBQ plan, first we didn't have a BBQ set, and second, we are lazy.

So our first resolve was to find a BBQ set. We can obviously buy one, but that's just wasteful. Apek suggested that we use some of the old PC thrown out. These PC's were there for like more than 3 years now and are accumulating dust, rusting away or have turned into breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

After salvaging one with the least rust, we figured we can modify it to make it into a BBQ set. Hence we have solved our first problem of not having a BBQ set.

Going through the rumble of old computers, we noticed that some of the PCs were still equipped with PC fans. They were rusty, but some of them seems to be working. We thought, wouldn't it be cool if we can use these fans to provide a steady ventilation system for our BBQ set, and totally eliminating one hard work of using our hands wavering a fan up and down to light up the charcoal. These would solve problem no. 2 of being lazy.

So the rest was just tool shop class work and some artistry. Using some card board paper from old PC boxes, we created the shaft for the fans. In the future, I would probably go with something better than the card board paper, something that wouldn't catch on fire that easily. But thats all we had at that time.

We made sure all of the fans had their own shafts for air flow to blow into the PC frame, we didn't want the air flow to be blowing out from the PC frame because the heat might melt the fans.

The 3 fans mounted to our BBQ set obviously needed a power source. We found out that the fans uses 12 volts to spin at a considerable speed. This is a lot of power and we decided that an acid battery from a motorcycle would do. So we got a battery to power the fans, wired it up all together in parallel and tried to power up the fans.

Finally, it was time to test our invention. After putting a wire grill on top of the PC, we lighted some charcoal with paper underneath it and powered our fan. The air flow into the PC made sure the fire was burning rapidly to a certain level quickly. Within minutes we had a steady flame and we were ready to start cooking.

It was perfect. However, word of caution, if you intend to use card board boxes as the shaft for your fans, it might go on fire. Towards the end of the BBQ, the shaft indeed got on fire. But we were all done by then with cooking and eating. The Engineers involved in the prototype development were Ajiz, Makrie, Firdaus aka Apex and Myself. So don't you throw away your old useless PCs. Turned it into something useful.

Anytime, anywhere, 3G and wait, with Debian Linux

2007-08-25T15:36:00.000-04:00

Finally I am totally free from wires. After playing around with 3G Maxis, I finally managed to browse the web using 3G and my Linux box. If you are a windows user, I'm sure it's no big deal. But if you are a Linux user, I know you'll be itching to boot on your linux box and hack away to get 3G to work.

Anyway, thanks to 3G now I can go to website that my office forbids. Particularly sites like meebo, friendster and other websites that I shall not mention here....hehehe

Anyhow, if you are even interested about how to get connected to 3G with Linux, try and take a look at
http://debianmalaysia.blogspot.com/2007/08/3g-sony-ericsson-and-debian.html
for some clues.

Good luck now...

Bukit Tabur East Side Pictures

2007-08-17T06:25:00.000-04:00

I've not been blogging recently. I guess work got the best of me, and laziness got the rest of it. A while back, I did find the path to East Side Bukit Tabur, and it was equally interesting and challenging. I can't really give full details, cause I dont think I have the time to be descriptive, but I managed to take some pictures on the way up. And East Side Tabur was my last silly adventures with Mark, before he left to continue his studies. Now I'm without a friend to go on my Indiana Jones adventures.

To go to Bukit Tabur East Side, we followed the water pipes coming from the dam. Right towards the end, there was a path going up to what is known to be East side of Bukit Tabur. Anyways, the hike up was not that long, its just very steep, and tiring. We finally reached the first peak of the East Side and managed to get a different view of the Dam, from the East Side, you will have a better view of the overall Klang Gate Dam.

We continued further, and had some rest at a shady area before continuing our journey towards the next peak. From there on, the climb was less steep, but the path seems to be harder to find and sometimes dissappear. At times we were just taking path by just gut feeling.

This was indeed the scariest part of East Side Bukit Tabur, you really have to be careful here, the ridge is narrow and a wrong move can have you falling to your doom; if you happened to stumble on either sides.

Some of the rocks here would make a really cool place for trad climbing. If only I have the money to buy my own crabs, I would have climbed the rocks and find me some beautiful crystals.

As we go on further, quartz crystals started to appear. I'm pretty sure, if we went further, it would be much
more abundant, but that would mean we have to rock climb, which we didn't have the gear yet. Maybe next year we will eventually reach the furthest peak and trad climb to the top. I hope nobody breaks the crystals in
an attempt to bring it back as a souvenir. It took thousands of years to make those pieces of quartz crystals.
Just take a picture please...dont be selfish, let others enjoy nature's beauty too.

Even though the path seems to be much more elucid as we went on, as expected, we were not the first people to come here. As evidence to this, we found a very steep hill, almost vertical that already had ropes all the way to the top. The ropes made us more eager to continue our journey, the only thing that was discouraging us at that time was how the ropes looked a bit brittle. We took our chances anyways, and even though it looked brittle, the ropes was strong enough to support our weights.

The climb up using the ropes are necessary due to the sharp steep uphill route, without it, a mistake would make you fall about 60-70 meters down, and only slowing down when you hit a couple of hard quartz rocks along the way. If you intend to keep your bones intact, and your face the way it looks like now, I suggest be very careful here.

Furthermore, like I said, its a long climb up a sharp steep hill, about 60-70 meters, and with the hot sun, fear factor and tired legs, it can be very challenging. So make sure you are ready for the physical stress if you attempt to go up this route.

Finally, we reach a point where we can no longer continue. We tried to find a path down, but the picture
above explains it all. Above is a picture looking downwards, and the closest path was that tiny piece of
standing rock. Mark actually suggested that we climb down a little and jump on top of the rock in the middle and climb down the rock to continue our journey, but I think I've grown old and lost a lot of my guts due to aging. What if we got stuck there, there was no easy way up or down without breaking a bone or two.

Next time with the proper gear, we intend to continue to the other peaks of East Side Bukit Tabur. Its either we climb down with a rope, doing some rappelling, and continue the path, or find a new path towards the 3 lonely peaks that we didn't managed to climb. It was a bit of a disappointment, but a disappointment that won't last long. Someday, sometime, we will finish this route towards the end.

Going back down was not an interesting adventure, we had to back track, the same way we came up. So we walked back and going down the steep route with the ropes again. Being all confident towards the end of the steep route with the ropes, i jumped and slipped down a rock. I fell with my back facing the rocks and I was sliding on sharp rocks. Thank god I managed to stop myself from falling all the way down. It was painful as the sharp rocks scrape my back like a bunch of forks poking on my back, but I couldn't imagine slipping all the way towards the edge of the rock and falling down the hill. It would be a long drop that would allow me to think about my whole life events before hitting the ground and die. Atleast a scar on my back is not as bad as having my head bashed into the ground....

Looking for Bukit Tabur, East Side

2007-06-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

Last tuesday at about 2pm, I thought about going for some adventures looking for the entrance into Bukit Tabur East Side. After going to the west side of bukit Tabur, I have always been curious about the less popular east side of bukit tabur. I'm planning to go there someday, once I am slightly sure about which route to follow. So that day, was just looking for a way into the east side of bukit tabur. Reaching there, somewhere, close to the Dam, I had to cross a river. There was a small bridge there and the path leads to an unknown settlement. There was some folks staying and taking care of the orchard there, where there were a lot of Durian, Nangka, and several other kind of fruits. I dare not take any fruits to wash my mouth with since the orchard belongs to someone.

While talking to the folks in the settlement area, I am convince there is a path up the east side. The only question is, which way should I go. So I was walking around in this orchard/jungle area for about One and a half hours when suddenly the rain starts falling. It was a clear indicator for me to head back and come back and explore later. Recently, the evening rains are quite heavy, and I didn't want to risk being stuck in heavy mud.

I was in a rush heading back to the car when I realise something sticky on my leg. And when i checked out my leg, I realise I had 3 tiny leeches having a buffet on my feet. It must be a special city boy blood buffet that day. It was not painful, but it was definitely uncomfortable. After losing some blood, I felt hungry and went along looking for some food. I had some meehun soup and alot of teh O ice.

The adventure ends there, but am hoping for another round of exploration to find a suitable path.

Embedded Linux Workshop

2007-06-20T03:08:00.000-04:00

About two weeks back, I went to embedded Linux workshop. The workshop was basically split into two sessions, one is the theory and programming part (2 days) lead by Dr. B. Thangaraju, CEO Wipro Technologies, India, and the other was the hands on part on an embedded box (2 days) led by Mr. Yutaka Niibe, Free Software Initiative Japan(FSIJ) President. Basically, the whole 4 days was an enlightening experience. I never thought I could learn so much, but I did. Among the topics that we discussed and learned are:

Day 1 & Day 2:

Signals and signal handling
Processes (orphan, zombie, and daemon) and of course forking
Memory Management
POSIX Threads
IPC (Interprocess Communication) which includes:

Communication Via Files
Pipes
System V IPC

Message Queues
Shared Memory(shm)
and Semaphores

Day 3 & Day 4:

Opening the Kurobox and understanding whats on the board
Understand the OS that runs on the Kurobox and the services runned
Understand the booting process by an open source bootloader (Das U-Boot)
Understand the use of Busybox, a light weight linux command utilities for embedded boxes
Building our own, Arms kernel from scratch, bootstrapping and cross compile
Loading the image into the embedded box
Implementing modules to work with IO ports, for example to drive a servo motor

I did take some pictures to capture this memorable events.
Here is a picture of my first embedded kernel loading,.....JORILBOX, which stands for Joey and Azrel (my lab partner).

And here is my embedded box driving a servo motor, i would really like to try to build my robot now, embedded linux robot, that would be cool.

And here is the remaining few people, we started of about 12 people, by the end of day 4, only this few remained.

I did try to include the gory details of this worshop, but it would be too geeky here and I thought some of the readers might find it too boring since this blog is mostly social stuff, so if you would like to get your hands dirty with some coding stuff on embedded and kernel programming, i am slowly trying to document it and putting it in http://debianmalaysia.blogspot.com. I feel the readers there would be more interested in the gory details.....if you are a geek, go to debianmalaysia......and check out my post....on signals and signal handling

Hot Girl Maisara

2007-06-07T10:21:00.001-04:00

Last sunday, was a hang out day, and as we grow older, a lot of our friends tends to appreciate weekends much more than we did before.

This weekend, almost all of the SA boys are back in town. So we hang out at the mamak stall discussing everything about nothing that comes to mind. To add to the havoc with chit-chats and gossip, a friendly couple, Awen and Abg Cik came to join us.

And along came the hot girl that hang out with us. Maisara. The hot girl that immediate got all of our attention and started to make us more humble, talking less about our consumed self.

Maisara really made us looking at a different perspective in life.
Along came, the thinking, what if...what if
I have someone like Maisara?
What if Maisara is always by my side?
Can I trust my friends to accompany Maisara for a while?
Is Maisara sleepy, should i bring her back home or something?

Indeed, it made us feel weird, cause all of us had this attention focused to one girl.....

It's weird questions to ask oneself, it brings out funny feelings, considering that Maisara is only 10 months old.
Its obviously nothing romantic in nature. But more like an inevitable calling that we know we will be embarking..... I think all of us were thinking, at that moment....what if I have a kid like Maisara...? ...

and I'm thinking....hmmm...but what about my late night mamak sessions...

Hutan Lipur Pandan Waterfalls

2007-06-03T14:26:00.001-04:00

(continued...from previous post) Right after getting out of the Gua Charas caves, we were desperate to wash off the mud and Bat shit on our shoes, feet and hands. I really wanted to find the places to do lead climbing, but have to reserve that for my next trip here since were were short in time and its already 5pm. Surely we won't make it in time had we walk and look for a place to climb. So we went straight to the car and drove to Hutan Lipur Pandan Waterfalls which was not far from here.

Hutan Lipur Pandan waterfalls is a recreational area for families and outdoor lovers. The place is complete with a small mosque, toilets, food stalls and picnic huts. There was a lot of people there, with their families playing games and enjoying mother nature's gift to creatures of earth.

The water was cold and it was just an amazing feeling to dip our tired feet into the river walking towards the waterfall. When we reach the waterfall, it was so crowded with people of all ages playing and having fun under the waterfall. We couldn't find a spot where we would feel comfortable without disturbing another party or family, so we decided to hike further halfway up the waterfall. The path was a little bit dangerous and steep, but we managed to find a spot where we could see the crowd down below and still had our little spot to take showers.

The crashing water flows rapidly and I wasted no time to wash off the bat shit off my feet and hands. It was refreshing and cooling, and the water tasted like mineral water. I lie down under the waterfall, feeling it crashing my tired back and my aching muscles. It felt like a jacuzzi massage just more effective. It was definitely a handsome reward for making that short 10 minute hike up to this spot.

However, there was some casualties that could have been fatal. I slipped off a rock and almost fell into the flow of the rapids. But my ordeal was not as bad as Mark's. Mark, despite my warnings, decided to crawl towards the middle of the waterfall. He managed to reach there all right, and beg me to take a picture of him, which I did. But on the way back he feel 3 times, and the third fall was almost fatal when he slipped off a rock and slide on it like a piece of slippery slippers. He managed to hold on to a rock just in time to avoid falling into the flow of rapids, and i wasted no time to take a long branch to save him from impending death. He was definitely shaken, and stirred, but grateful that he managed to come out of it alive, with some cuts to tell the story.

At about 6.15, we packed up and headed back to KL:).

Search for climbing sites after a friends wedding in Kuantan

2007-06-03T13:24:00.001-04:00

I have no gear to lead climb yet but I am eager to find real rock climbing sites all around Malaysia. In hope, after I am all geared up, I can go to all these places again. Last week, a friend of mine Syed Hazrul got married. The wedding was all the way in Kuantan. I usually hate the long drives, but thought this time, I will make my trip interesting by stopping over interesting outdoor spots. After doing some research and browsing over google map, I found out that his house was not far from a climbing site near Gua Charas, and that's just perfect....

Since the wedding invitation on the cards says that the kenduri is between 12pm to 4pm, we decided to crash over to their function just about lunch time at 1pm. We left about 11pm and and got there just in time to catch the two couples being escorted by their entourage to their sits.

After some 'Nasi Minyak', we hurried off to Gua Charas to start our search for a climbing spot. We had to make a turn into Panching, towards Sg. Lembing, and along the way, there was directions to go to Gua Charas.

We reach there about 4pm and decided to explore the cave first. When we entered the cave, we were surprised to see that it was like a big hall inside with several different chambers. You can fit an airplane in there. We tried to explore the caves as much as we could. The caves was damp, slippery and cold. Fortunately, parts of the caves are maintained by Buddhist Monks who religiously meditate in the caves. There was 2 prominent different path. One path leads to the sleeping Buddha, where there was a clear path with proper lighting to help people find their way to the sleeping Buddha, and the other, to a series of small caves with no lighting. We took the path which leads to the unknown, and walked further into the darkness. After 20 minutes walk, I was wet from a mixture of sweat and dripping cave water from the caves ceilings. We finally found our way to a dead end, and thought surely, we had missed a path somewhere along the way. I looked back and a sudden panic struck me. All I could see was total darkness and not even a trace of light from our initial path towards this unknown. It was so dark, that even a bat would probably feel uncomfortable. I thought surely its because my torch light is making my eyes not sensitive enough, so i turn off the torch light. And the darkness seems to loomed further into the abyss. Suddenly, a sudden chill starts to creep down my neck and it finally hits me that if something were to happen to this one torch light that I am holding or somehow dropped it and it got broken, there was no way for Mark and I to get out alive, and we would be walking for hours in the dark getting lost and never see day light till we die. It was really dark, and we did not have the proper gear to go further. We forgot to bring a heavy duty torch light and a bottle of water in case our excavation took longer than we expected. I immediately turn on the torch light again and decided to head back to the main path. On the way back towards the path towards the sleeping Buddha, we did see a different path towards another unknown, but decided not to risk it, since we were not properly geared. We have walked about 30 minutes, and fear that the batteries might go dead if went further.

Before we left the caves, we did passed by the sleeping Buddha and witness a Monk blessing some children with their parents visiting the Buddhist holy place. We greet them politely, respecting their believes and continued our journey to other parts of the caves. When we were out of the caves, we were so dirty with mud and probably bat shit all over our shoes. We definitely need a shower and hence, thats where our second exploration starts.......Hutan Lipur Pandan Water Fall....

Embedded Linux-Featuring Mr. Niibe

2007-05-15T23:41:00.001-04:00

Habitual early morning rituals, the first thing I would do is check my email. Almost every morning there would be at least 10 announcements about what going on for training, staff and etc in the mailbox. Usually, the normal algo. would be ...

foreach mail in list{
subject = grep("subject");
if(!relevent(subject))
delete;
else
view;
}

Usually, the algo. works well and the only mails that would be left behind are emails from friends.
But somehow it is different this time. The subject Embedded Systems came out and I just had to
find out what it is all about. I viewed the mail and read through a brochure that was attached.

The first thing that came up to my mind is, oh no...another Embedded workshop. Usually I won't be
that excited, but looking at the Trainer's background, i saw a familiar name.....
Wait a minute, that's Mr. Niibe, the Debian kernel Hacker and founder of debian group and FLOSS in Japan.
An old friend indeed.....I wasted no time and registered for the workshop.....
Would be nice to see that old Jap again....

If you are interested, you can check out the following details....

Embedded Linux Technology Workshop
OUM Open Source Community in collaboration with MNCC Malaysia, which will be organizing two workshops on Embedded Linux from June 5th-8th and June 11th-14th.

The workshop Objective

To provide an understanding of the essentials of embedded Linux
To give a practical experience in developing an embedded Linux system
To give a hands on experience of developing Linux applications code
To give the confidence to apply these new concepts to Embedded Linux projects

The remaining details can be found here:
http://www.mncc.com.my/embedlinux/index.html

and its suppose to be here too...

www.foss.org.my, www.mncc.com.my, www. thedreamsoft.com

The search for climbing sites...........

2007-05-13T10:07:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, I found myself alone with nobody to belay me safely. My climbing buddy was busy at work, and I do not know any other climbers that I can depend my life on. So I thought it would be a good idea to just go explore the Batu Caves area and look for a place to climb. I figured, even without a belayer, I can still get a feel of the Batu doing bouldering work around the rocks. I still needed a camera and a camera man to follow me around, well, I don't really need one, but I think I've establish the fact that I like attention....hehehe

And who else would stupidly follow me around other than my friend Mark, who stupidly follows me around, not because he liked it, but out of pity of an old man pretending to be cliff hanger alone. He tells me that he would feel bad if i get a heart attack, being an old fart and all that..... I picked him up from Gombak and followed the sign board to Batu Caves, drove around the Batu Caves, passing a Tourist Information Center, until we reach to a cement factory. We almost gave up and wanted to turned back, until we met a guy who told us where the Damai Wall and Damai Cave was, which is at Kampung Wira Damai.

The guy above actually asked for some money to fill up his tank, which I gave about 3 bucks from my coin box....kira kita kena pow lah gak....for asking some questions...

Finally we found Kampung Wira Damai, and indeed we spotted a rock climbing site. Thanks to the direction by the Pakcik, the place was awesome, and the moment we arrive, some guys came around to tell us what's available there. Besides the Damai wall, there was the Red Wall on the far right and the white wall on the far left. I was told, there was 9 climbing sites all together around the Batu Caves area....I was also told that the people maintaining that area provide several other outdoor adventures, one that caught my attention was cave exploration, which I will definitely like to do someday....below are some pictures of my adventures into the Damai Caves, taking some pictures from the top of Damai wall(there was stairs if one cannot climb yet), and me trying out bouldering on the Damai wall.

Bouldering on real rocks is quite a new experience, I didn't realise how sharp real rocks can be....which means a wrong move can cause severe cuts, and its terribly scary looking down....

Finally, we continued our search for the remaining 6 walls, and we suddenly found ourselves in Taman Bolton, which was right at Sri Gombak exit. We didn't realise it was that close. Next time, I'll just take the Taman Bolton exit, it would be easier. We turned back when we notice what I guessed was the Volleyball wall. We stop by and of course I had to try out some bouldering work here too. There is also a ladder to setup the anchor, but I still need to buy my own ropes, harness, quickdraws, carabiners and figure of 8, still a lot of money need to be spent there...

Under the VolleyBall wall was a small cave, which I can't resist but to explore. It was damn smelly since the water flowing into it is somewhat polluted with waste, after getting about 20 meters inside the cave, it got a little bit too spooky and I decided to head back out....I thought I heard something moving in the water......

After that, we were tired and thought we had enough adventure for the day. I have yet 5 more walls to look for....and so far only 4 have been located. I'm sure its behind those kampung area somehow....well, maybe next time, it was time for drinks and rest...

When men buys shoes....

2007-05-02T14:52:00.001-04:00

Recently, I got a few friends to come along with me for rock climbing. I have not been to the rock climbing gym for a while due to the fact that not a lot of people share this interest of climbing rocks. A lot more people prefer golf. Don't get me wrong, I like golf too, its just that I haven't found the right crowd yet.

I hate going to the gym or carry weights, cause it doesn't excite me that much and there is hardly a challenge going to the gym other than how many times you can do sit ups and how heavy you can bench.

So today, Nadira (who was one of the most enthusiastic friend of mine in rock climbing) met at the rock climbing gym for some climbing challenge. Today was the day for us to get some rock climbing shoes to perfect ourselves in climbing and also to enter a competition in rock climbing on the 20th of May. Actually, entering the competition will get us 20% discounts on the shoes. So who cares about losing when you can get 20% discount.

It took me a while to get a pair of shoes. According to the sales lady, men usually takes a longer time choosing their shoes. Yeah, it took me a while, I had to try a few pairs to be satisfied. Imagine a lady getting high heel shoes. Today, I'm the fussy lady getting the shoes. But its not that a man really spends time on getting shoes, most of time it would take me 2 minutes to decide on which sneakers to buy. It was expensive too, I couldn't believe that I will be spending that much, but I really need to feel it you know....I want to be comfy while climbing, I want to look stylist while climbing, and I want to look and feel cool while climbing. Now I know why women take hours trying out shoes.

Rock climbing shoes are specially designed to be tight and snug, so that it doesn't slip off when you climb. The shoes are also designed to have a very small front tip for your toes, so that you can step on the smallest minute piece of rock and still get a firm grip. Ultimately, the whole surface is used to maximize friction, making it easier for you to climb. Hence, wearing it for the first time really hurts, cause its tight and it feels like my toes are being crushed together. The amazing part of it, now I can stand on my toes....like a ballerina. Fortunately, rock climbing don't require me to where spendex, unlike balle (what an ugly sight that would be if spendex is a requirement for rock climbing.) So I guess I have to make it a serious hobby now, cause does damn shoes aren't cheap. And I hope it won't be one of those hot bubbles...But with a pair of shoes, I can go alone....(I kinda like the lone ranger, hero, adventure feeling.)

Anyhow, the picture below is the kinda shoe I finally settled to buy. Like I said, I tried a few, but this one--model named Pearl--seems to fit nicer, the others kinda hurt. I think its easier for a women to wear since women are used to high heels being narrow at the front toe.

Well, hopefully, one day I can go on my own climbing adventures and advance to lead climbing. Which is climbing without a belayer support, sometimes also called free climbing, like Thomas Mrazek(notice the shoes he is wearing), a professional climber . I don't think I want to make it as a day job, but I would be happy if one day I look and feel half as fit as this guy.

When I was a little boy...

2007-04-27T14:01:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a young boy studying in MRSM Terendak. He was both eager and motivated, while being arrogant and stubborn. Today, the young boy sits thinking of his past, realizing only that memories are indeed the only treasures we own and no one can take that away from us.

It all started when we had our mini gathering of ex-MRSM Terendak high school friends. It was wonderful to see how people have changed throughout the years. Some are successful business women and men, some are still as slim and some have grown triple their sizes. I realize then that along the way, we all had given up our youth to have a different life of our own. We would probably argue about what life means, and the fundamental views of a life is different from one person to the other, some consider work as their life, some have families as their life and some consider health as their life. We all have quite different views of what fundamental importance exist in life, but among the many, we would all agree that our memories were the sweetest treasures we all have in our lives.

Among the things that made us realise this is some old pictures gathered by our friend ainnie. She managed to salvage from a moldy box, hidden in a store room under a decade old of dust. And in that box was the treasures of our past. It was not gold, it was not silver but it was her scrap book containing some pictures of our lives in MRSM Terendak. She scanned some of the pictures, and shared it with us. It was amazing.....how we all changed so much.....

Here are some of the pictures that made me smile that day....
Out of the many things I did in MRSM Terendak--not talking about the naughty stuff, that was plenty, i meant the good kinda things that can built a positive character--I remember young Joey participating in a Southern Zone MRMS English Drama Competition, I played the
role of a Fairy God Father, later changed to Tok Bomoh due to the plot being argued by MRSM Judges and Officials as not Local, Islamic and Malay cultured. I remember this because I was the initial writer for this fantasy like drama. Even at that age, I was doing things that was just opposite of what the authority wanted. I guess being mischievous and rebellious is an innate talent I never really wanted....but always had....

Out of the many pictures taken, I remember the one above. It was at night, after prep. I was so skinny then, I even had a neck cause I was soo skinny. Now, you can hardly see my neck...hehehe. I like to think that my neck got shorter instead of me getting fatter. hehehe

Yes young Joey always loves attention and had dreamt to be a rock star once. But the dream never came true. I must add that MRSM had a balance of arts and sciences in their education system. It's just that the arts education was unofficial. This is where I learn how to play the guitar, in the dorms from friends. Look at how thick my hair was .... wonder where all my hair had gone to today....

Anyway, having seen that, do you agree with me that memories are the most sweetest treasures in life?

Annoying Beeps

2007-04-23T04:51:00.001-04:00

After having a new installation of Debian on my laptop, an annoying beep comes out of my laptop speakers every time i pressed the tab button on the X console, or whenever i do some kind of shell error. It's annoying, it keeps on beeping....
I tried to ignore the problem, hoping that selective hearing will prevail, but after making a scene in the meeting room with beeping havoc coming from my laptop during the last meeting, which I got a little too much attention from my boss. That's it, I decided to find ways to get rid of this problem once and for all.

So I googled to find an easy and minimal work around solution. One way was to edit /etc/inputrc and comment out....

set bell-style none

There was also an alternatives to this, which is to rmmod pcspkr, add it into the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist to make sure it doesn't get loaded again.

Now i can slowly and quietly steal precious time and not waste my time listening to the boss rambling during my department meetings.

When geeks go out...

2007-04-22T12:51:00.000-04:00

So what does a bunch of geeks do when they go out. Well, since the mydebian group have recently quiet down, we decided to have a friendly meet up at Starbucks, Jusco One Utama. It was nice to meet fellow geeks. When geeks meet, they tend to carry their laptops along with them. It's like a trademark for fellow geeks. What's a geek without a laptop with built-in wifi. We thought about having a meet up somewhere else, but the only place we can find with wifi was Starbucks.

And hence, we talked about a couple of things that were geekish, and something that would only be interesting to Linux/Debian/Ubuntu geeks. We talked about what kinda of jobs one could fetch with this geek knowledge we have and other stuff about what we would like to do if we had free time.

But finally, we decided to make our presence clearer. And so, with our laptops, we logged in into timezone at Starbucks and started to create our very first blog. It's not a big deal, but its a start to decide on what else to do....

So if you are a geek/Debian/Linux/Ubuntu fan, come and visit http://debianMalaysia.blogspot.com

Monkey-ing around with conky

2007-03-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

After changing laptops, i have lost most of my configuration files for my preferred eye-candy desktop. Besides having to install all necessary stuff on my debian, i also have to create new configuration files to optimize my desktop just the way I like it, as well as making some friends like Syirman envy the sweet eye-candy on my laptop .

Most users have their own style and preferences. So do I, and finding one that really suits you takes time and sometimes meticulous googling. Recently, I just customize my own .conkyrc file to work best for me. I didn't like how most configuration for conky takes too much space as well as run too many monitoring tools--which can be a bit too heavy....i thought it would be beautiful if it was slim and show only necessary stuff.

I also liked to know if i have new email on gmail. And so a python script is added into the conky configuration to check my mails on gmail.

First of all, i had to install conky. And on debian that is easy:

#aptitude install conky

After that, i have to create .conkyrc in my configuration file. Here is my .conkyrc file.

#avoid flicker
double_buffer yes

#own window to run simultanious 2 or more conkys
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorate,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

#borders
draw_borders no
border_margin 1

#shades
draw_shades no

#position
gap_x 224
gap_y 0
alignment bottom_left

#behaviour
update_interval 1

#colour
default_color bfbfbf
#default_shade_color 000000
own_window_colour 484432

#font
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:pixelsize=9

#to prevent window from moving
use_spacer no
minimum_size 700 40

#mpd
#mpd_host localhost
#mpd_port 6600

TEXT
Copyright Joey aka Rizal  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  $nodename - $
sysname $kernel on $machine
${color lightgrey}CPU Usage:${color #cc2222} $cpu% ${cpubar}
${voffset -1}Cpu: ${color 95956B}${font}${cpu}% ${color} Mem: ${color 95956B}${font}${mem} ${color} | ${color} Up: ${color 95956B}${font}${uptime_short}${color}  | ${color
} Net: ${color 95956B}${font}${downspeed eth0} Kb/s ${color} ${totaldown eth0} down${color}  | ${color} ${color 95956B}${upspeed eth0} Kb/s ${color} ${totalup eth0} up${co
lor}  |  ${color}Root: ${color 95956B}${font}${fs_free /} ${color} Home: ${color 95956B}${font}${fs_free /home} ${color}  | Gmail: ${color 95956B}${execi 300 python ~/scri
pts/gmail.py} ${color}

Of course you will need to have the python script to get your mails from gmail. Attached is the python script, which i have put it into my home directory under the folder scripts. I didn't develop this code, i took it from someone, I would like to give credit to the person who wrote this python script, but his details was not attached....anyway, thank you to him.

import os
import string

#Enter your username and password below within double quotes
# eg. username="username" and password="password"

username="xxxxxxxx" put your username here
password="xxxxxxxx" put your password here

com="wget -O - https://"+username+":"+password+"@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom --no-check-certificate"

temp=os.popen(com)
msg=temp.read()
index=string.find(msg,"<fullcount>")
index2=string.find(msg,"</fullcount>")
fc=int(msg[index+11:index2])

if fc==0:
print "0 new"
else:
print str(fc)+" new"

After all that, you can run conky, and have this slim monitoring tool. Results differs base on your resolution. There are some issues if you are using gnome though....I use enlightenment.

Sad Penguin

2007-03-04T07:50:00.000-05:00

Today I'm feeling a bit blue. Sad, and lifeless. With tons and loads of work bestowed upon me by the clients that I have, the responsibility of a lecturer to my students and the application forms that I have to fill up to continue my studies, I am overwhelmed.

Indeed, I am a sad penguin. I walk taking small steps, slouching as if I have something heavy on my shoulders, with my hands in my pocket, and kicking whatever that seems to be on the ground. A candy wrapper, a crushed tin can, anything that can give me a sense of pleasure and a feeling of control. The truth remains however, that I am far from having control, with all the work load, I'm losing grip of control.

I used to love spending hours hacking my linux box, but now, I tend to sit far away from using linux, why, cause i can focus on what to do and not get itch by adding another plugin on my emacs or trying to figure out the best way to set up virtual hosting so that it will make my web apps run easier for development. Or even trying to figure out how to make tomcat and eclipse integrates better in linux....

With all the stress, I neglect the things i care most. The nice evening naps seems to be more important than talking to dearest friend. To add to my miserable phase, is my itching throat that have been bugging me for the last 2 weeks. After my throat infection lurks further to my ear, fearing that I might go deft, forced me to see the doctor. And now I have to take antibiotics to get rid of the malignant infection in my throat and ear. The antibiotics have little effect on me though, its day 2 of my medication but I'm still feeling the same. I'm not sure if its psychological or the antibiotic given was somehow replaced with a placebo.

They say that everything we experience in life is how we choose to see it. Well, I'm not sure if all I see, is all that bad, but I am still feeling a bit sad and blue. Could it be someone I miss, or could it be that I am just feeling lonely. Or could it be that all this stress is making me crazy....

Well, I don't think I'm crazy, maybe I 'm just a little bit unwell.

Sad Penguin....needs to hibernate.....

I am Iron Man

2007-01-24T04:16:00.000-05:00

I took the http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/ quiz suggested by dear sis, and here is my results...
I am Iron Man, apparently,just like Iron Man, I'm an Inventor. Businessman. Genius.
Well, at least Iron Man won't look old, just make sure I'm all greasy, and I'll look shining all the time.:)

The Education Dilemma and the embodiment of knowledge

2007-01-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

It seems apparent that the government is now very concern about our university graduates not being industry ready. Why does this problem exist, and is this a common problem in other universities outside of Malaysia.

Well, lets just analyze the things they say about our students.

1) When they graduate, they find it hard to find a job because they are really not skilled in what the industry is doing.

I suppose this is acceptable, but its a chicken and egg problem. You really cannot expect someone who is fresh out of college to know everything about what the industry use or need, this kind of thinking is illogical. Let me illustrate how dubious this claims are, its as if that your son, who just graduated, can suddenly use Sun One technology to develop web applications that works with oracle server 10i complete with clustering capabilities. This is anologous to actually expect my son to write new paper articles just because he learned English in highschool and my daughter to be designing a Nike advertisement on the highway billboard on the way to KLIA just because she took some art classes. And what if the Sun Server changed to Sun Two Server and Oracle change to 11i. Worst, what if the industry suddenly stops using Oracle and use mysql. A good employee is an asset not only for the knowledge he has, but also his experience in planning, and solving problems. For the claims to be true, universities and academicians needs to be able to predict the future, and having capabilities far different from other human beings. They need to be born with somekind of X-mutation in their genes that can help them have premonition of the future.

What should be done is that active participation from the industry is necessary to increase our human capital. And its not a burden entirely on the universities. For a very long time we try very hard to make the industry feel easy to do business in Malaysia, so why not expect something in return from them. Training should be part of a company's long time goals. If they want good employees, they can train the employees themselves. Then they can expect lower turnover and higher return on investments.

2) Of course the common argument is that after giving training to the students, this newly appointed employees leaves to a different company.

Naturally, one would always go to greener pastures. If a worker finds that he is worth much more in another company like Shell, he will obviously leave his current job in search for a better salary. This is just the natural order of things. And companies in Malaysia must understand that they have to entertain their employees needs as well, and that they are hiring professionals, and not slaves.

Well, maybe its about time that companies in Malaysia should be embracing Islamic values for a change, which a lot of foreign companies have already done so to retain employees or to attain skilled workers. Profit sharing should be incorporated into their job offer package. Some foreign companies that does this are offering stock options, profit sharing and packages that seems to be more Islamic when it comes to sharing profit. It's a way for them to show the employees that their employees mean a lot to them and if they work hard, the whole company gets rewarded. This values are Islamic in nature and far from the archaic views of maximizing profits which was commonly practiced in the west. It also creates loyalty amongst employee and does decrease turnover of employees.

But do they do this? No, not even giants like Telekom, TNB, DRB-Hicom or Proton? Why? Most of these companies have muslim bosses, and kiss ass to our PM who promotes Islam Hadari. But I guess, its just for the sake of their own well being and not for the ummah. They might just help promote that Islam Ada-hari.

3) Pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Some smarter people says that, "the education sector should be training them so that students today have enough fundamental knowledge to learn advanced concepts later when they start working faster. So when students today enters the industry, they can get up to speed with any technology really fast.

But look at the people who are teaching them in the first place. They don't get paid as much as the industry and research funding, is very low. So you find educators doing network marketing to earn extra income. You'll never see a Dr. or a graduate student working in the lab trying to solve complex theories, cause they rather be outside making a few extra bucks at night to pay off their car loans and housing loans. And they try very hard to become part-time lecturers at other institutions to gain some extra cash here and there. They monkey around in their job and provide substandard commitment. But what can you expect, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

4) Internship programs can solve the problem.
Yes, internship programs can really solve the problem. But why aren't companies taking alot of intership students. In fact, this is what the government should encourage and even provide incentives to companies that take internship students. The government can reward companies who takes this responsibility to increase Malaysia's human capital by giving them tax deductable and other renumeration packages. Instead, we are sending off our students to work and gain internship experience in India, a company like Infosys. No doubt its a good plan, but we have our own companies here in Malaysia too. Why does it take a foreign company to provide such programs to our students. What happen to our own big national companies?

5) Malaysian research

Research increases the embodiment of knowledge. Speaking of which, our students, graduate students and our teaching force (Dr's and lecturers) are not given full support to do research. Hence, even if we had good students, capable to create new innovation, he will never win a noble price. At least not coming from our local university. Although the research funds are there, but they are not enough. Plus, a research culture awareness have to be inculcated in all of the universities. Without it, we will never be proud of our people, cause we have not contribute anything towards the embodiment of knowledge in our generation.

Disclaimer: The above are just ramblings that should not be taken out of context. I'm just rambling about what I think, and it should not be wrong to have ideas of your own. And my ramblings are copyrighted, and don't expect people to quote me without my permission.

GRE again....GRERRRR.....!!

2007-01-04T21:54:00.000-05:00

At 3.18 am, you can hear nothing except for the monotonous sound of my electric fan blowing. They usually cut off the centralize air-conditioning by 7 pm right after the sonorous "azan"--calling for prayers--during maghrib echoing throughout campus.

In the silence of the night, one can find oneself in serenity, only fit to indulge oneself in pure meditation to assimilate knowledge. The hall seems quiet and most doors are locked and the rooms seems dark. Among the doors in the hall, a irregular coughing and grumbling is heard behind one of the doors. Someone is still awake, and this fact is substantiated by the permeating light that managed to sneak through the small opening underneath the door.

I can't deny that I'm a procrastinator. Dilatory in nature, I'll wait for the last minute to do anything. I don't know why I am Indolent and with less than a week left, i remain torpor besides the fact that I am far from ready. Is not that GRE is very hard, its just that you'll need to have a copious vocabulary to do well. According to Dr. Y, I suffer from minor dyslexia, which makes it hard for me to remember all these words since often times i forget how to spell them.

I regret not listening to my other half telling me to study and nagging all the time at least 4 months ago. I wish I had listened, but what can I do, having a new job and all, with new bosses to impressed, I hardly find the time to prepare slides for my students, let alone study for myself.

Nonetheless, refusing to give up, besides the odds going against me, I choose to persevere and remain obstinate. Well, at least I'm working hard now.

This entry is meant to be verbose, superfluous and grandiloquent. It's just me being bored and wanted to try out the words that I hardly heard before to help me remember. Of course the whole entry is prosaic and undoubtedly an insipid write-up. I hope I didn't irritate or vex anyone, and give the impression that I was just being ostentious in my display of vocabulary.

Feel like blogging again!

2007-01-02T06:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything in this blog. I stopped, mainly for three reasons, I felt pressured to write something, I had no time, and the features in blogspot sucks (since what i needed is to categorize my entries). However, I'm starting to miss the times when i can purely express my thoughts and it--my little heart whispers to me in the dark as I slowly close my eyes to make myself fall asleep, the itch of ideas that I have befalling me during the early hours of the day and the constant what-if that seems to linger in my mind--needed to show itself again.

So here I am, setelah mendengar hati kecil ku bicara berkali-kali, am starting to write something only important to myself but inconsequential to others. Something trite, hackneyed and boring to others, but utterly zestfully interesting only to me.

Hence, its a blog of my own writing, who laughs sardonically only to himself and satirical only to some readers. It seems that I will continue to write again, what seems commonplace and uninteresting. What seems to be an everyday thing of nothing.

It all starts with the New Year. This is the year I'll be hitting 30. As I sit in my room, thinking of what wonderful things that could happen this year, I am struck with a sense of longing for which I cannot explain. There is something purely missing in my life. And as you read this entry, you'll probably be feeling the same.

For some reason we all feel that there is something missing in our lives. No person, man or woman feels that life is perfect for him/her. Some may say its money, others say its love and many others feel that it is friends.

I am not entirely sure what is it that I'm longing for, being 30 and still studying to build a career path, being 30 and still single or being 30 as I lose my friends to the common custom of matrimony, which ever it is, if its the reason at all. It may seem a combination of all of those but why does it bother me so much or am I wrong to think that it even bothers me.

I guess its what I like to do most that keeps me on thinking. Just like programming, I try to look for the algorithm that makes this so called life works. I look back and think if there was an algorithm behind the function of life. Is there a specific cycle, a loop or a branch in the code that make me choose such a life. What flags that I could have activated to make my life being programmed as it is today. Could I be a instance of a class only with different attributes, or is it even possible for me to reinitialize my class to start on clean.

After many hours thinking, I know now that life is not a program, and what I longed for is not about what I do not have or what I have already lost. Instead its the illusion of choice that we all thought we had. The fallacy in freedom of choice that we all thought we had is a spurious notion. Could we have changed our destiny? Do you think that we could have led a different life?

I can't helped to discern that its the absence of choosing our destiny is what I miss so much. When we were young, destiny is in our hands, what ever we do will effect our well being for tomorrow. But today, as I am reaching 30, as we grow older, we have made the choices that shaped our destiny. Hence, we cannot turned back to change it again. Hence we lost the chance to make a choice.

In my life, I have done a lot of wrong. Many of which I am not proud of doing. Along the way, my obdurate nature seems to shape my character. I never had the chance to say sorry to those I have hurt, and sometimes have never realise of it at all. So for all the family, my significant other, friends and significant others who are now obviously not so significant already that I have hurt before......I'm very very sorry. It's not like i had a choice. Life chooses me, not the other way around. There is probably a blessing for what have happened.....

Sorry for the deep philosophical thoughts, but as if I had a choice. My destiny have been made, and so is yours. So let it be.....bygone be bygone....and forgive each other.

One love everybody, for the wish of New Year.

Making emacs work for you

2006-05-03T22:58:00.000-04:00

Although I have used linux since i was 19, i never really use it for server/network infra seriously. Most of my work on the Linux machine is programming work. At first, I just liked how it looks like and that it could run the necessary server needed to test my development, like Apache Tomcat.

As time goes by, I tried to learn vi. Since alot of my friends was using it at that time. But thanks for Arimdem Dey who was not very supportive in teaching me vi, i decided to learn how to use emacs on my own. I'm sure its a no brainer thing and should be fairly easy to use. And indeed it was. Since then, all I know about vi is the command dd, !wq, and insert, delete and the use of the escape key.

But I see now that it makes sense for me to learn emacs as it is a terrific programming tool, if you don't like using an ide like eclipse all the time and prefer light weight ide. Of course the default installation does not have special features and you have to install php-mode(for php), c-mode(for c/c++), java-mode(for java) and html-mode(for html). With this modes, it recognizes specific pattern recognition for each language. It allows syntax highlighting to recognizes syntax based on the file extension like .php, .java or etc....

Emacs configuration can be a bit confusing, and sometimes the default configuration doesn't include the nifty things you can do on emacs during installation. Hence, running emacs can be cumbersome, as you have to run alt-x global-font-lock-mode to have syntax highlighting appear. And alt-x show-paren to do parenthesis matching. So I finally decided to load all of my favorite configuration during initial startup. To do this, i created a file .emacs on my home directory.

Here are my favorite configuration on an emacs.

$ emacs ~joey/.emacs

; turns on autofill on emacs
(setq-default auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill)

;; Make lines wrap automatically in text mode.
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook
'(lambda () (auto-fill-mode 1)))

;; Key binding to go to line by just doing alt-x g, to go to a line somewhere in your code
(global-set-key "\M-g" 'goto-line)

;; set tab width to 4 by default
(setq-default tab-width 4)

;; spaces instead of tabs by default...
(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

;;If at beginning of a line, don't make me C-k twice.
(setq kill-whole-line t)

;; Don't let me add new lines to the bottom of a file with the downarrow
(setq-default next-line-add-newlines nil)

;; Don't let next-line add space to the bottom of your file.
(setq-default next-line-add-newlines nil)

;; Set up hungry deleting for c and c++
(setq c-hungry-delete-key 1)

;Basic unit of spaces for each indentation level. You can change
; the 2 if you need larger or smaller indents.
(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq c-basic-offset 2)))
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq c-basic-offset 2)))

; Use only spaces for indentation (default is tabs mixed with spaces)
; so that our files will always look the same regardless of the viewing
; software.
(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)))
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)))

; Make Emacs automatically hit return for you after left curly braces,
; right curly braces, and semi-colons.
(setq c-auto-newline 1)

; Make Emacs use "newline-and-indent" when you hit the Enter key so
; that you don't need to keep using TAB to align yourself when coding.
; This is akin to setting autoindent in vi.
(global-set-key "\C-m" 'newline-and-indent)

; Turn on auto-fill-mode (line wrapping like in a word processor).
; This is VERY nice for typing end-of-line comments, since Emacs will
; not only position you on the next line when you go beyond the
; fill-column (set below), but it will line you up with the first
; slash on the previous line and then put two slashes and a space for
; you! (In C mode it's a "/* */" pair with the cursor positioned
; correctly in the middle.)
(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

; Set the default comment column for end-of-line comments to 40.
; When you want to comment the end of a line of code, put the
; cursor anywhere on that line and hold down Alt and press the
; semi-colon key (';'). Emacs automatically goes to column 40, puts
; in the appropriate comment characters, and then lets you type your
; comment. With the auto-fill feature turned on, this also allows you
; to have your comment extend beyond the end of the line and still be
; lined up and enclosed with comment characters for you on the next
; line.
(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq comment-column 40)))
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook '(lambda ()
(setq comment-column 40)))

;; Turn on global font-locking
(global-font-lock-mode t)

;; Turn on paren matching
(show-paren-mode t)

;; Displays the name of the file being edited in the title bar.
(setq frame-title-format "%b"

;; Makes the screen scroll only one line when the cursor moves past the edge.
(setq scroll-step 1)
(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
'(case-fold-search t)
'(current-language-environment "English")
'(global-font-lock-mode t nil (font-lock)))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
)

It makes a whole lot of sense when coding and makes it such a more powerful tool compared to for example, vi....But that is just an opinion.
Anyway, maybe later, I'll talk about using emacs with cvs and svn.
Yes, you update, add and commit files as you code;)

Deafening Silence, salsa with alsa.

2006-04-26T01:43:00.000-04:00

After so long I decided to install and enable alsa support on my debiana. And for non-gnu people, Debiana, is actually a Debian distro--(I give all my pc a name, since I'm a lonely person and giving them women names is an excuse for my reclusive lifestyle)

After uninstalling aumix, and installing alsa-utils and most of alsa stuff, i still had no sound on my debiana. I then realise that I had to run alsamixer to crank up the volume a little. After that things was working fine for my xmms and mplayer. Of course I had to change their configuration to use alsa now.

However, I noticed some applications still had problems. I then found out that applications like firefox and gaim are oss applications. Hence, I had to install something call alsa-oss, an alsa wrapper for oss applications.
How easy that was, with just a quick apt-get install, and i tried running my gaim again. Still, I get no sound. I then realise that since I'm using enlightenment, maybe i need to use esd. Quickly I installed esd (enlightenment sound daemon), run gaim, went to preferences and force it to use esd. And wala, debiana can talk again. Sexy, I also tried running some flash animation sites on firefox, to test for sound. Beautiful, things is just working again, in fact better. Now I can salsa with my alsa.:)

Google gives out 1 million Euro, Not!

2006-04-25T22:20:00.000-04:00

The normal routine for most of us early in the morning as we sit down on our chairs are:
1) Turn on the PC/Laptop
2) Check Office Mail
3) Check personal Mail
4) Reply all Mails.
5) Lunch
6) Come back from lunch.
7) Go through what we did at 2,3,4 again,
8) and finally work, if there is any:)

Well today, as I got into my office, I turned on my laptop and start to open my office mail. And then i got this interesting email...that says I have won 1 million Euro. Usually, I won't even bother, but the email was written in a very professional way and have tremendous amount of detail put in it. Here is snippet of the mail that I got....

FROM:LOTTERY COORDINATOR,
INT. PROMOTIONS AND PRICE AWARD DEPARTMENT GOOGLE. New Avenue 12900 kd .
RESULTS FOR CATEGORY "A" DRAWS

Congratulations to you as we bring to your notice, the results of the
First Category draws of E-MAIL LOTTERY organised by GOOGLE INT. We are
happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the First
Category, which is part of our promotional draws. The draws were held
on 28th of March 2006 and results are being officially announced today
25th of April 2006. Participants were selected through a computer
ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and
companies from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East,
and Oceania as part of our International Promotions Program. Your e-
mail address, attached to ticket number 675432890044/376, with serial
number 2200-33 drew the lucky numbers 1-0-11-44-03-22 and consequently
won in the First Category.

It almost got me excited for about 10 seconds, but 1 million Euro is too far fetch and that made me to do a quick search on google. What I found was that this email is already registered as a scam on scamdex. And poof, there goes my vision of buying myself a 13k VIAO, a bangalow house and a BMW:)

So if you get this email too, don't get excited. Being gullible is not what you want when it involves money:)
Pesanan Khidmat Masyarakat.:)

Thinking with other people's mind

2006-04-24T02:35:00.000-04:00

I have not been blogging lately. Mainly, I was busy trying to live my own dreams, writing software and exploring my creative mind. Thinking that somehow, someday, my life was destined for something so much greater than becoming an underpaid researcher trying to solve Malaysia's economic woes by creating tremendous value of research that could possibly bring Malaysia into a new age of technologically advanced country. Yeah right. Well, even superman have the right to dream right. So why not I. But all the technical thinking stretch the left side of my brain a little bit too much, and it starting to give me a terrible headache. So, I'm taking a relaxing time meditating on my right side of my brain with light reading.

They say that “Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own.” So last weekend I decided to buy another book by Jim Collins, the author of the famous book Build to Last. Well that and as a MPH member, I get a 20% discount on books on the red carpet.:) After reading Build to Last, I now know that Visionary Companies was created by normal people like you and me. And I have disregard the common dogma that a Visionary company are created by super affluent people, by charismatic leaders, by geniuses or by politically connected people or sons and daughters of politician--although this is still hard to be disregarded. In fact, most of the Visionary companies are created by timid, technical people who just loves what they were doing and wanted to create a better world for all mankind, and of course womankind.

So the book I got was Good to Great. This book is based on 5 years of research and it is a sequel to Build to Last. Well, it addresses the common dogma that Visionary companies started of with underdog leaders who made the company great and it remain great for more than 50 years to become a visionary company. But what about companies that are not so great now? Will it ever be a Visionary company. I mean will good companies like DRB-Hicom or Mimos end up to be able to change themselves from being Good to Great, and eventually a visionary company. Highly doubtful but I hope the book might show me some ideas about how to make it great....and eventually a Visionary company, or will it just remain a vague vision.....and never end up to have its "ary--(as for visionary) anytime in its existence.

Penguin Hype? Can it be popular enough to make it fly?

2006-03-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Lately, we hear less and less of open source software being talk about in the government sector. The trend and new hip thing to talk about is now "Open Standards". Now, I know to a lot of people, this makes sense. Yeah, sure, its standard, of course, we should use Open Standard. Standard is also an easy word to use and always keep you on the safe side. If it is standard, how can it be wrong. But then again, standard is not necessarily an answer. The use of the word standard have been overused to mean nothing substantial or an excuse for not knowing a definite answer. For example, note the use of Standard in our standard daily lives:

This is a standard car.
That's a standard size.
She has a standard figure.
Her standard is low.
Her work is above standards.
He is below standards.

But, believe me, Open Standard is no panacea to our computing problems. I find it disturbing as people use the term open standards without even knowing what it means or how it will effect us. So for now, I'm going to stick to using open source, cause open standards is just an idea. Until someone comes out with software based on open standards, but of course they have to define what open standard is first. And that the standards they define should be standard, for all of us. They say that Open Source is a religion, some say its communist, and some says its an idealogy. Having said that, what is Open Standards to some people?

Hello on Two’, a morning talk show running on TV2 daily...maybe

2006-03-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

When I started as a Open Source Software researcher in Mimos I had no idea that researchers demands so much attention. Being involved in Open Source Software in Mimos for only 4 months now, I was surprise to be chosen to be on TV this sunday in "Hello on Two" on RTM. It should be playing from 8am to 9am. Thank god that about 9/10 people in the nation will still be asleep. I must admit that I might not have been the right person to be interviewed, and definitely not the deserving one. I humbly admit it was more of, hay that's a guy we can bully, and blame, he's new and he'll be perfect to be blame if things go wrong.....

I was just suppose to help out in the Asia Open Source Symposium website and codefest development. My job was suppose to develop a program in mono with another friend in Mimos to be used in codefest. But now, I'm doing the PR work.....geez, are nerds like me even allowed to be on tv...?

Hence, I'll be doing an Interview with "Hello on Two" on RTM this sunday with my Senior VP, Puan Rohani Ismail. She'll be talking about the 7th Asia Open Source Symposium and I will be talking about the Codefest that is running in conjunction to the event.

I must admit I am nervous, cause too much attention is an overdose of self-esteem that I am not used too. Usually, a good buzz feeling is when friends praise me for good coding methods, shorter and more efficient recursive algorithms, or very good eye candy for my enlightenment gui on my linux box. But this is something totally way above my head. I hope I don't puke on the screen set, or accidentally choke before I can say anything smart. But worse, what if I say something stupid. I'll look stupid to the whole nation. It's different when you look stupid to friends, but looking stupid on national tv...hmmm...I don't think I can live with myself. Even if I don't say anything, I will also look stupid. Hence, what I don't know can't hurt me principle doesn't work here.....

To add to the pressure, I'm currently very sick, having a high fever and constantly having this aweful flu that makes my nose running all day. And the fact that I can't sleep the whole saturday till sunday morning because of the codefest doesn't help either. That will definitely get my metabolism low and susceptible to getting more sick than before. I hope I don't sneeze on national tv and get my gooey mucus all over the camera's lenses...that would be bad....

What's more challenging is that there will be live telephone interviews. People will be asked to dial-in and ask us questions. My worry is that I'll go "ummhhh....ehhh...mmmm...I don't know" on national tv. So please call in and help me with easy questions. Like what day will it be, who will be involve and how do I join kinda questions and the likes that I can answer.

Anyway, wish me luck.....and break a leg....what ever that means...

Jeffry's cat gonna be jealous with my mouse:)

2006-02-17T10:57:00.000-05:00

I got a new toy for a Valentine present. Yes, that secret someone decided to give me a mouse instead of something that I would literally forget where I put it once I get home. What I like so much about my mouse is that it's sleek, transparent and at the same time, colourful enough to attract anybody's attention. Especially when you decide to move it and it glows in a red bluish glow..... Anyway, while at work, I decided to explore my artistic side and practice my rule of thirds while taking pictures. Here it is.....I'm sure, Jeffry's cat will be jealous with my mouse....(Jeffry is a friend who is currently obsessed with his cat).....

Hit and Run....or just plain dumb!!!

2006-02-16T02:31:00.000-05:00

Last week is probably my most unlucky day of the month. At about 11pm, I decided to catch some friends practicing their song in a Studio in Seksyen 9 Shah Alam. So they played a few songs, some was good, some was terrible.. I thought, maybe I can join in too, playing a few songs and pretend that there is still hope for me to be a rock star. At 12.30, I thought, its about time for me to go ahead home, forget my dreams to be a rock star and go back to my low-end PC running bittorrent downloading the most current favourite tv series like shrubs and smallville.

Feeling a little bit out of it, I walk down slowly towards where I thought my car was parked. Along the way, I saw a banged up waja. Wandering off in my head, I was thinking, huh, look at this guy, he must be the idiot who doesn't know how to reverse slowly, but his car really looks like mine. I walk ahead and notice that my car was no where to be found. I turn around and looked at the banged up car, and notice how similar it looks to my car. I look at the plates to be sure, and damn it, its me. I'm the idiot with the banged up car!!!

Perplexed, confused and utterly speechless I stood there staring at my car for about 2 minutes before it hits me that I didn't fell asleep in the studio and this is a reality. Talking to myself in my head, why must it be me, again. I was determine to find out who is responsible for making my life so miserable. A guy who works in a mamak stall, right infront of my car then slowly approach me. He said, "abang, itu orang sudah langar, sudah balik". The guy that hit me, have left. He explained further and I kept an attentive ear to record the sequence of events in my head . Apparently, someone parked his car on the other side of the road and forgot to put his handbreaks. While he was ordering his roti canai and teh tarik, his car rolled down the road and went straight for my car. Damn...out of many car infront of the mamak stall, it has to be mine.

What I'm really pissed off about is that the person did not leave his number or even cared to give his details, car registration, insurance or etc. What was going on in the guys head, did he think nobody noticed that his car rolled down hitting my car when it is right in front of the mamak stall. Or could he be just plain dumb?. What's wrong with these people.

Luckily, the Bangladashi dude working in the mamak stall had a good memory. Probably from the practice of taking orders. He is way too smart to work there. He memorize the plate no. of the offender and told me that the plate number of the car that hit me was BEJ 9723. It was a Ford Laser TX5, maroon in colour. With the newly acquired evidence, I went straight to the police to make a police report that night. After some picture taking by the traffic police officer, I went home at about 3.30 am. There goes my good night sleep.....Damn....

Anyway, I'm gonna try to make his insurance pay for it if he has insurance. Wish me luck, you know lah how slow the insurance companies in Malaysia. Oh yeah, if you know the guy with the plate number BEJ 9723, can you please tell him to give me his insurance details. It will definitely make things easier and faster for me. Otherwise, I'll have to wait for the report from JPJ and etc.....that would probably take a whole month or so....

Consumer rights? It's an oxymoron. Consumers in Malaysia, Mana ada rights!!!

2006-01-17T22:31:00.000-05:00

I was reading the news today and read through this article about our court banning a website created by a very angry customer. No doubt that this person was really angry about the car he purchased and obviously, he went through all the trouble to get a website up and share his embarrassing and painful experience. I'm sure he is not the only person with such bad experience. I'm sure a lot of people feels the same way and wish that they themselves can put a website up to expressed their bad experience in buying a car.

A part of me feel that this person should be lauded instead of being condemned. His agonizing experience alone seems enough as punishment. But alas, he was punished by silence. His voice and concerns are force to be shutdown and his lips was sewn together while he have to carry a pejorative mark of insolence on his forehead. Consumers in Malaysia, Mana ada rights!!! (Consumers in Malaysia, they don't have rights!!!)

Rather than siding on the consumer who earns probably a basic salary, just enough to pay his housing, car loan and now repairs for his car, the court decided to shut him down. He was force to bring down his website which was all about his dissatisfaction with a car manufacturer company in Malaysia. Where is our freedom of speech? Wait, we don't have one....:)

So lets analyze the whole thing and think about it. What would probably be the fair trial:

Firstly, I think, consumers should have the right to express their opinions regardless of true or false. Besides, its only an opinion and the court cannot assume that others are idiots to take people's opinion for granted.

Second, if the opinions are making the company to have a bad image from any form of publication, therefore, the publication itself should not be stopped, but the content of it should be altered to sound more opinionated and objective rather than an act of defaming the company. If the company feels that the content was defaming the company in anyway, justification of loss in revenue or potential loss of revenue through customers sentiments should be presented to support the claim.

Third, if customers opinions are wrong, by no means that a company should have any rights to take away that opinion. It is the responsibility of the company to clear their own reputation, by keeping customers happy, by improving their products' quality or by showing off their products' good traits and rating or what not. Showing proof and justification from their own data would certainly vindicate them from any form of false claims by unscrupulous customers.

Well, it leaves me with some questions after thinking about what the verdict should be?

So what should the judge make Fong do?
Since when are the Judges really interested on how a company feels? (Poor company, don't cry, we will beat him up for you, don't you worry)
Where is the right channel to expressed problems with manufacturers and companies if they are indeed at fault. So that people like Fong will be legally represented? (Yeah, I wish we can act againts non-performing contractors, bad manufacturers with faulty products and etc)
Why is the company being such a baby about it? Have they lost a few millions already? What about Fong? How much have he spent to fix his car? Maybe helping Fong repair his car would be a better solution rather than making lawyers rich over this stupid dispute....

***As a disclaimer....This article in my blog is purely an opinion of mine, and it has no intention in defaming any company in Malaysia. Thinking so would be reading out of context which consequently invalidate any claims of defamation by the writer...

Snippet of article attached below....

Ruling to bar website upheld

PUTRAJAYA: A disgruntled engineer who had put up a website containing several defamatory allegations against Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) after purchasing a Kelisa with defects failed to overturn an interim injunction order barring the site.
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Justice Sri Ram said that if the article, written by Fong, was a personal grievance and contained true facts, he could consider it fair comment.
“But he went further and attacked the reputation and integrity of that company,” he said.
Fong, 49, was appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision on Sept 17, 2003, which granted Perodua, Perodua Manufacturing Sdn Bhd and Perodua Sales Sdn Bhd the injunction to bar his website pending the trial.
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Read all about it at........thestar.com.my