唔...........

Would you work harder if you pay for your own education?

2012-01-22T13:38:00.002+11:00

The answer is.... YES!

1st subject of my Masters of Business Technology, Principles of Marketing. While I think some of the concepts are full of shit, others are the "ideal" concepts. As they say in the books, it's one thing saying, it's another doing.

Working with Marketing and Products a fair bit since I moved into the new role, I just can't help but laugh at the difference between what is supposed to happen vs what happens in the real world. It seemed that product managers also have to be marketing managers, and product development as well as knowing the product in side out. It's three roles squashed into one!

Maybe it's my company that does things like this, other companies are willing to dedicate much more resources - pay more, separate the roles. Sometimes it gets so multi disciplined that you won't get any focus done.

Hello from Whistler!

2012-01-22T13:36:00.003+11:00

Hello Hello!

My first stop was in Vancouver, and we spent the 1st day stocking up on warm clothes. Layering up really helps!

This photo was taken from Whistler Peak, and what an awesome view. Unfortunately I am not a good skier, and I slammed my head into the hard snow on the 1st day. If the instructor was as patient as the guy we got on the 2nd day, I would probably have skied down the mountain, even once! Instead I spent 2 days seeing the doctors to make sure that I was ok. My neck was stiff but after one session of physio I have my range of motion back.

Anyway, the view was breath taking. the peak to peak was even more impressive. it was awesome.

On the 1st day we arrived we saw the girls in mini skirts, at -7 degrees Celsius... brave girls haha. In some ways Whistler is a crazy place. And there are Australians EVERYWHERE! It might be because they want to get away from the heat we currently have back home.

I hope that next time I can enjoy it more, the snow was amazing! I have to get my friend to teach me how to ski. We also joined Club Intrawest so there are plenty more opportunities for skiing so need to get used to the cold!

My nose was running non stop so it's very annoying - and you don't know whether you are sick or hayfever? I ended up getting my nose covered and it looks ok. Should have realised that more sooner.

Overall, I am very conservative, so didn't do too much! PS: was thinking about all these physical activities that we are doing would make me lose some fat, haha

Dead... DEAD!

2011-12-28T17:06:00.000+11:00

Dead pot plant, sure... but dead tree?

The google world

2011-11-30T15:50:00.000+11:00

In the past, I have always been frustrated with Google products. It always felt like that it was 60% complete. Look at Gmail for example, which I live by, was in beta for how many years? Being in beta is one thing, if you want to control demand, and scale your backend infrastructure, but during the beta phase there was almost zero feature additions. Look at Blogger. No change for 4-5 years (although I kept blogging, although less than before).

Fastforward to now. Eric S has finished his baby sitting duty and the founders are now running the show. From an outsider it is also the time that I see there are actual improvements other than the backend - features. While there are decisions to discontinue products like google labs, I don't see that move is holding back google. Obviously any development requires money, and if you look at Google wave, it just was not sucessful in it's time. Timing is so important any products to be sucessful. Imagine computers 100 years ago. I can't see how that would be sucessful at all. I think the development of wave actually gave google docs some pretty nice collobration features.

As a consumer, I finally see that there are developments in the things that I use every day. Gmail, google calendar, google news (although i still don't really like it too much), google reader.

In the tech world, 1 year is such a long time. I just hope that google products keep developing.

Spider with a perfect web. Its round!

2011-11-09T15:57:00.001+11:00

Pity its right in my face. Otherwise I would have left it!

On the Career Fast Track: Why Some People Learn Faster - Knowledge@Australian School of Business

2011-10-27T16:13:00.001+11:00

http://knowledge.asb.unsw.edu.au/article.cfm?articleId=1497#.TqjocBtH6PE.blogger

Interesting article, but not sure whether I completely agree.

Yay! New phone!

2011-10-27T15:38:00.001+11:00

Blogging from my new phone :-)

6 Months on

2011-08-11T18:22:00.000+10:00

I wrote the title "6 months on" last month, so I guess it should be 7 months on in my now not so new job. Feels a bit indifferent, probably because it's the same company.

People ask me "are you happy" in my new role? For some reason I never said yes. I reckon that it's just that pessimistic side of me that's the problem rather than the role. It's actually a good role. Good supporting boss, and I get to learn more than my previously narrow product knowledge.

I love the technical stuff, love the fact that I get to play with stuff, and now not so much - more involved in political games. I miss the tech actually.

The higher you progress in any company, the higher level you have to deal with and some times it's bullshit on an epic level. The worst thing about BS on an epic level is, that the people who got sucked into it were super intelligent in their own right. They just did not seem to agree on anything because they are so intelligent.

But heh, with all things in life, you will have to move on somehow, sometimes it's by choice, and sometimes it's not by choice. One thing that I think I do ok is that I'll survive somehow.

To summarise this all, is I think I said it before: "same shit, other side of the fence". I have to say, having operational experience in my old department helped me understand almost everything: design, R&D, IP, RF, DBA, system analysis. Coming over to sales helped me understand the commercial aspect, contracts, product management and development. As a whole, it's not so bad being a "jack of all trade" person - which many people would not have the opportunity to do so.

I was talking to my badminton coach who works in engineering, and he described my career to be "quite smooth". Yes, I have been lucky. I would like to think that my attitude towards work contribute to it, as otherwise the luck would always run out.

FITT Event - Journey of a CIO

2011-07-07T00:56:00.001+10:00

Today, I went to the FITT Event - Females in IT and Technology event. I met up with a woman that I met in the last event and we had a great time catching up what we have been up to in the last few months.

The interesting thing about today's event was there were two speakers, 1 male, and 1 female. Both CIOs. I have to say, I was more attracted to the female's speaker as her journey was much more challenging and interesting. She's also much more real and down to earth - which she took the time to emphasise support, and balance. Her reason to move on was because she was bored. That's it. She's looking towards her next challenge was the motivation - it was not the ambition that drives her, but her "boredom" once she overcomes the challenge. That took her to where she is today.

Her male counterpart, was all about him, him and himself. From his speech I gathered that he is a very ambitious man, and are willing to make "sacrifices" at other's expense. It's a feeling that I got, not necessarily accusing him of doing that. He is also quite charismatic. After his speech, I did ask him the question of "At your level, how do you find and retain talent, as I see time and time again where very talented people were abused and overworked with no support, only to crack and leave the company." his answer was a political one.

Now listening to both speakers, both although interesting, I have to say that I am much more drawn to the female speaker. If you ask who I want to work for, I would say the female CIO rather than the male, partly because I know that she will drive me. I am not sure about the male one, although I would probably think that I will be a lot more crusier working for him.

The female CIO left us with this:

"You need 3 things to stay within a job.
1. You love the job that you did.
2. Pay is reasonably well. (ahem: be realistic, don't over/underestimate yourself)
3. You have a great supporting boss.

If you have all 3, you have your dream job. if you have 2, it's ok. If you have one, start to look for a job. If you have none, why are you in your job?

True statement, as I see so many unhappy people who are stuck in their job wondering why they are going to work everyday. I rarely see people who has the love and passion to do their job.

Looking at the 3 statements, in my current job I actually have 2. Point 2 and 3. Number 1, I would love it more if I am more busy. I don't like twiddling my thumbs - while my colleague is flat out. But it's a funny thing, with contacts. They like dealing with one person, since I am still relatively new in the job, workload is not building up at the moment. Whenever I offered to help he doesn't know where to start, as some leads have one hell of a history, so I understand that as well.

Maybe I need more patience.

New Bed - TEMPUR

2011-06-29T00:05:00.000+10:00

Tonight would be my 1st night on the Tempur. My old bed was breaking my back - it was too soft (although when I bought it it wasn't soft!) Everytime I walked into a showroom with Tempur, everyone says that it's the best bed that they've ever come across. Weird at first, but after spending sometime in the show room, it's not that bad!

At the price of 2500 with 2 free Tempur pillows, I bought it. Delivered today - so see how it goes. If I don't wake up 4-5 times a night, I am happy.

New Vocabulary of the Day - Deduplication

2011-06-22T13:56:00.001+10:00

“DeDuplication” – the Process of eliminate the transfer of duplicate data.

What goes on inside the Apple Store

2011-06-16T19:04:00.001+10:00

Out of curiosity, went into an Apple shop to have a look around while waiting for my brother and sister in law to arrive to have dinner.

Out of the people who are "testing" their mac in the apple store, 1 was doing some scripting on the terminal, 2 kids are playing with mindcraft, one was looking on youtube on Streetfighter videos, and other "Adults" who don't know how to use their computer waiting in line to speak with the "Geniuses"

People are walking out with Macs/Macbooks, and accessories.

Other kids are showing their parents on how to use a computer.

So what the heck, since it's free browsing, so I should also contribute to the "community". Oh, someone behind me is looking at what I am writing too.

Found something stupid on the IPAD that explains the "reasons to love a mac":

Der! It's a Mac, of course it doesn't get PC viruses. It gets Mac viruses......! Remember Macdefender?

Blog posted :)

The tea not to buy - bengal spice celestial tea!

2011-06-10T17:07:00.001+10:00

All I can say was, I regretted opening the packet.

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Saying NOOOOOOO!

2011-05-21T16:53:00.001+10:00

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Have you EVER got into a position that you just simply cannot say NO? Don't lie if you said that you haven't.

Yup, I have. To be honest, initially, I had no problem saying Yes. I actually said yes. The person asking me for the favor was my old boss's boss. I thought I was doing them a favor. Then I was palmed all the work. The request was whether I can help CHECK (note the word CHECK!) some documentation that was written by a Business Analyst sitting across the room from me. Sounds harmless I thought.

Then I was sent the document. WTF! Not only was it wasn't up to scratch, it was written by someone who might not have finished primary school, and english is my third language! It showed zero understanding of the technology, and on top of that, most of the content (the ones that was written ok) were copied from a checklist that someone had written 6 years ago.

Me being me, I slammed whoever wrote the document with comments and sent it back to the person who asked me for the favor, and told him that I won't be rewriting anything, and suggested that the author who wrote that crap spend at least sometime understanding what the processes are before writing anything.

Then I got the email: "Thanks, that is exactly what I need! Currently working version 2, do you mind checking it?" WTF? Thanks that's what you need? You need me to tell you that you don't know how to write in English?

I told him to spend time at the department to understand what they actually do first, and I refuse any meetings.

Regardless of how I felt (and I usually overreact anyway) about this, is that I don't mind helping people, but when I asked for help, I would exhaust all revenues first before asking someone. I have done so much spoon feeding that I have decided to stop doing it. And yeah, I got the "I am pretty hurt (ego) when you said that you were spoon feeding me ..." too.

What I don't understand is, that why the fuck people think that they can understand someone's job by reading documentations? A picture means a thousand words, and doing something means a hundred times on top of that. Why is it so hard? Why do people don't want to get off their fricken arse and do something?

So yeah, I have to say that I took out my frustrations out of that guy and slammed him against the wall. It does piss me off when someone screams help when they have shown no attempt to trying first before asking for help. I wouldn't say it's Gen Y syndrome, as I see it in every generation. People's attitude is just crap, and there are more of them, because they were able to get away with them.

Anyway, sounds like a rant (It IS a rant!) but remember, if you want to ask for help, put some attempt into trying it first before screaming. To date, I don't remember getting any rejections when you put forward your question as:

"I've got a problem with this, I've tried X, Y, Z and still stuck, do you have any ideas on how to get around/fix this?"

It shows that you have demonstrated at least reasonable attempt in trying - and 99% of people will help you. Sometimes they don't even mind doing the work for you, because you have earned their respect.

And lastly - LEARN! No one wants to keep help you with the same issue. Be responsible for your own shit.

Chowder Bay

2011-05-19T17:30:00.004+10:00

My first kickstart... Initially I did not know what the hell is a kickstart? Apparently it's some sales hoo hah thingy.

Anyway, because they had a wonderful last year and had record sales, they decided to treat us to a great location. Chowder bay. I had been there once before on the other side of Chowder bay, but this is kickarse views!

The facilitator is great, although the speech at the end was getting boring - since I heard it all before I was unlucky enough to sit right next to my director and he made me ask questions and give ideas in front of the whole room of 200 people. I don't like speaking in public (shouting into the internet black hole via blogger doesn't count) but when you are told to do it by your boss's boss, you just have to "do it".

Anyway, they hired some "inspirators" and they took the morning speeches and turned into comedy. I was flabbergasted at how fast and talented they are, you know that they are thinking on their feet, they were the most entertaining pair all day.

The hoo-ha thing in general was a bit gay in my opinion, but in general it was a good day. Motivating people, is certainly an art!

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Rework

2011-05-16T12:47:00.000+10:00

Norm, this one is for you :-)

This book was recommended by the TWIT guys (http://www.twit.tv/) as many of them are Entrepreneurs. It is very interesting to listen to their stories of their struggles and how they came on top of it. Took me around 9 months to read it, as I read half the book in a couple of hours, then I forgot about it (job changed, uni etc etc). So I put all my unfinished books right next to my bed and a couple of days ago I finished the rest of it.

It's very entertaining - although I don't agree with it completely, but it's what matters - it's working for THEM.

I got some great tips for this book though, but I don't see myself being an entrepreneur, nor hiring people. However if I was, I would do what this book highlighted (on the parts that I agree with):

Hiring - NEVER, NEVER be forced to hire people who does not fit the job. I saw my old boss struggle with hiring incompetent people because they are the best one there in the available pool. Personally I think what's not on the resume is what counts, not what's on the paper. However:

If I can't trust you, why should I hire you?
If I have to keep an eye on you, why should I hire you? (Gen Y and I syndrome and the know it all syndrome that is across all gens)

Planning is guessing - It only works for very small companies who the boss can change the direction of the company overnight. In a large enterprise you have the added complexity of Shareholders, and they can and will stop great innovation.
The drug dealers got it right - Very interesting chapter. (I won't spoil it :)
Meetings are toxic - There are times that meetings are productive, but there will always be that someone who wants to take things off a tangent. If you have good control and stick to the things that has to be discussed (and not things that you want to discuss), meetings can be productive. However, with more people involved in a project you have to have meetings to track progress. Now, 37 signals has some very interesting way of sorting that out, but trying to apply that to a larger company then it fell apart.
Culture - Absolutely true. I can see that within teams, let alone a company.
Damage control - When I look at this I would compare PSN and Lastpass - the way they handled the same type of issue makes me felt very differently. That falls to the relationship you have with your customers. If the relationship was good, then they are prepared to put up with boo boos.
Rewarding - Its a given, but if you have a culture of non trust, then you don't want to reward your staff anyway. Everyone should get what they deserve in performance, and if they were exceptional, they should be rewarded. If they consistantly don't perform, then give them the flick. I don't know why in enterprise it is so difficult to get rid of incompetent people (for the risk of suing and unions I guess)

All in all, it's an interesting book, especially when you are struggling with a fresh new business (and not a startup :)) This book gives you insights to how you may want to run things different culture. You need to have passion, dedication, and be unique to stand out. With the internet, you have access to talent across the globe, thats an additional plus. I find it entertaining, and funny. But then, I still don't want to own a business! :)

The thought of Large companies cannot do this is incorrect. I believe that top level changes are required, to change. Large companies should break into their own area, and concentrate on it. There are just too many groups that does overlapping work of others - creating fat. Slimming down should not be about culling people, it should be about effectively maximising their potential - which I think is my number 1 reason for leaving my job. When you get over a certain level, money is secondary, NEVER the primary (you will be pretty lost if you do).

There are so many things that companies can do better, but seriously, you need a dictator who has the vision AND get it right to drive it. There isn't many of them around. (OK, Steve Jobs, you are the only one that I know.)

Realistically, it should take you 1 day to finish the book, I was just being slack and yeah, easily distracted. The guys on TWIT kept mentioning a free audio book but I couldn't find the link. Nevertheless, it's 15 bucks on book depository (http://www.bookdepository.com/) with free shipping across the globe.

Enjoy!

Sony PSN intrusion email

2011-05-11T22:27:00.000+10:00

I quite liked sony products, but lately the way they handled the breach is appalling. Like the rest of the 77 million users, I had a credit card details with Sony. What's worse, was that I had an expired card there, and 2 days before it was hacked, I updated it to buy Might and Magic for PS3 on PSN. Big fucking mistake.

Then, like the rest of the 77 million users, I got a seriously unapologetic letter from PSN:

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. (This was related to the DDOS attack from anoymous.) In response to this intrusion, we have:

Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services; (So you should!)
Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and (That means that internally they have no one competent enough to find out what went on)
Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information. (After my information has been let loose.)

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable. (I don't think I am that understanding)

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. (Why the fuck was it NOT encrypted?) It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. (And this too?) If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained. (Now this is really serious. They are not telling us whether our credit cards have been encrypted properly. They do know, and they are not telling us.)

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security, tax identification or similar number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. (Why would I log on again, if ever?) Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit or similar types of reports. (So you are not taking any responsibility?)

We thank you for your patience (Actually I do not have any patience) as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. (Oh really. we regret any inconvenience? really? I am not one of those gamers who live on the PSN, but this is my credit card that 77 million of us is talking about, and it's "regret for any inconvenience?" Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us atau.playstation.com/psnoutage should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Teams

Steve Gibson has talked about this on Security now (www.grc.com) and the fact that they advised that the hackers may have got your password, means that it was stored IN THE CLEAR. If it was stored as a salted hash, then there would have been no risk. Same with the credit cards.

Later reports have advised that they were using an old version of Apache AND, NO FUCKING FIREWALL to the PSN! Then it was very quick to point the finger to Anonymous.

Sony's stock has dropped a fair bit since the incident. If it was transparent, like Lastpass, and tell us exactly what went on, then it wouldn't have turned out to a PR disaster. But then, they couldn't could they? How can they tell the public that they were using unpatched web servers and not have a firewall, and on top of that, stored all passwords and customer information in the clear?

It is unforgivable that a company the size and wealth of Sony did not care about security (or so it seems with what was done). I don't care if its free - after all, we gave you credit card details, AND bought from you.

On a side note, working in the ICT sector, the price on security is not a price until there is a breach. The backend networks are mostly, more complex then required due to uncontrolled growth, and management is quick to get scapegoats (the guys who did the work) and fire them all, then announced that "we've fixed the problem." My opinion is, that the senior management who continually reject request for additional funding and resources are the people who should be fired, not the poor bloke who did what he was told.

Personal development review

2011-05-11T19:32:00.001+10:00

Today I had my PDR with my boss. Feedback was that he was happy about my progress. Well, if he's happy, I am happy! We did exceptionally well in the last financial year, and my entire team was in the top 30 percent of sales staff. A couple of them did so well that they are flying to Paris for a all expense paid for holiday with their partners! So happy for them, especially when I came to work to discover they all worked overnights on some huge deals. They really deserve it. In sales at least you can see the result but if I look back to engineering, they don't get crap even they work twice as hard. Its a pity. No wonder there is the them vs us mentality.

Personally I think people should get what they deserve in ratings but it doesn't happen that way. As usual a couple of bad seeds spoilt everything. Now there is no culture of trust.

But then, this is life. I rather put effort doing something about what I don't like then procrastinating. Take that leap of faith, ask yourself the right questions then jump off the right cliff (not literally ok!) . You might not hate where you land.

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Why no Career Goal?

2011-05-08T14:56:00.003+10:00

Last night I ran into my friend that I haven't seen for quite a while. Somehow the topic goes to the subject of Careers and the question was asked "What do I want to do in 3 years time?" when I told him about my postgraduate study that is so killing me.

He then asked "What do you want to do?" and "Why are you doing this if you don't have a career goal?" in which I answered nah not really. Somehow at my level if I was to go up from my current role then it would be management, which I hate with a passion - very short lifespan, and having to deal with people issues which is just plainly painful. I admire those who did this well - it is not an easy job to do. Plus I don't think I am geared up for it.

Now it got me thinking though. People think that I am ambitious because I am pursuing more knowledge out of interest? I definitely think that there is some social stigma to it though. There is one thing that I can't deny: That is I really like to learn. Most people that I came across love teaching me stuff and I always wondered why. Maybe I am just interested? Bear in mind, that you cannot know everything. But when the opportunity just land on your lap (say older people wanting to pass on their knowledge), then why say no? Surely it doesn't hurt to learn more stuff?

But seriously, in this job (now I am 3 months old) I am starting to get the hang of it. There will be very difficult moments but my reason to take this up is to face and difuse those moments without losing it, so it will be very interesting indeed.

Going back to career goals: Of course there is always one. It's just whether the other person accepts that is a career goal or not. I don't think it's associated with positioning in the company, I think it has to align with your personal goals also, otherwise it would be incomplete. Some of my friends live in the office - and I seriously don't think that is healthy (for me anyway, as I have not met one person who lives and work and being happy about it) - you need something to balance thing out.

Maybe guys who work at Google would beg to differ on my last point though. Its great to see a company that people love to work in.

PS: finding it a bit plain without photos so I'll write/draw stuff and publish that out. Don't really want to rip photos out (unless it's advertising for stuff I like!)

Somewhere between the Victorian and NSW coast.

2011-05-03T22:56:00.001+10:00

I take a fair bit of photos on my phone, but don't want to start another blog just on photos. :)

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Easter trip :)

2011-04-28T22:42:00.000+10:00

During the easter break we drove down to Melbourne via the coastal route - 1st Stop, Batesman Bay, 2nd Stop, Lakes Entrance. It was great, although I would like to spend more than 1 night there. Lakes Entrance is quiet and not as crowded as Batesman Bay, and I liked it a lot more.

Stopped by Phillip Island and saw the Penguins getting onshore, they are cute little things. For some reason, I felt like that I was not supposed to be there, and maybe because it's the easter weekend, it was FULL and people get so excited. If they did not put some controls there the shear number of people visiting would have destroyed the habitat.

Melbourne was more like a stop over, although it's 2 days - so it was a tight itenary. Luckily I didn't get sick.

I have to say, I had the biggest impulse buy that I ever did... I spent 600 bucks on a leather jacket. It was a 5 minutes decision! It was a classic/timeless style so I can wear that for years, and being leather it's windproof.... heh! Now I am looking at my credit card bill and it's not looking good!

Overall, it was a great trip - :)

Now THAT's juicy stuff that I wanna read!

2011-04-16T22:06:00.000+10:00

The Bug became the Bugged. Hugh Grant takes his revenge!

http://www.newstatesman.com/newspapers/2011/04/phone-yeah-cameron-murdoch

Well done Hugh, well done!!!

Top 10 most annoying tech inventions

2011-04-11T23:54:00.001+10:00

According to PC Authority: http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Gallery/253824,the-top-10-most-annoying-tech-inventions.aspx/1

Number 10: Alarm clocks
Number 9: Computer Virus
Number 8: DRM
Number 7: Game updates and patches
Number 6: Twitter
Number 5: HTC Blackberry
Number 4: Captchas
Number 3: Popups
Number 2: AOL CDs
Number 1: Crazy Frog

Hmm, interesting list, but I wouldn't put Crazy Frog as number 1, although it's damn annoying. So, Ahem's top 10 most annoying Tech inventions are:

Number 10: Alarm Clocks - well, it is designed to be annoying to annoy us out of bed. Surprisingly it is probably the only thing that will kick us out of bed for us night owls.
Number 9: Google analytics - Donno why, but it's annoying nevertheless. Thank god for no script.
Number 8: DRM - Agree with that, the music companies should concentrate on getting their prices lower and easy to buy instead of wasting time doing this. Someone is going to crack DRM, and then the pirates will come in and sell the DRM free version of your music.
Number 7: Scareware - DON"T USE IE!
Number 6: Trojans and Worms - makes me rebuild my machine everytime it happens. Annoying.
Number 5: Tracking Cookie - what can I say... well, this and the bloody supercookie!
Number 4: Facebook and Facebook places - I personally think Facebook is more annoying than twitter, especially the attention seeking low self esteem people who only wants to hear flowery comments and flood my "what are your friends doing". Why do you want to care where someone is, unless you want to stalk those people? Its like "come rob my home dot com" in reverse..?
Number 3: Crapware and Bloatware - on phones and laptops that is embedded with your laptop/phone. No we can't get rid of them. They slow the PC/Phone down and why can't I have a Vanilla version of the software? Why?????
Number 2: Windows software updates/and Mac software updates - If I do a new build on windows or mac, I will be slapped with at last 1Gig worth of updates that I have to do before it's ready to be used. Even occational updates are around 500Meg.
Number 1: Ads. Don't even know why it didn't get a mention, but this is one thing that really ruin my browsing experience. I wouldn't click on it, because I ignored it. So the advertisers go another step further, they flash. Damn annoying.

Now I might as well do the ahem's best tech invention list :) They are equally as important!

No Script - Blocks Everything if you want to, even legit stuff!
Crashplan - automatic backup that supports external disks!
Dropbox - Love it!
Podcasts and On demand media - As a result of the ability to watch the things that I want whenever I want, it changes my life big time.
Bittorrent - It's not just used to pirate stuff! Microsoft use it for windows update too.
Android contacts sync - Can't live without it now!
Yubikey - I wish every login uses the Yubikey or other one time pass
Crypto - AES - the unbreakable crypto is the thing that keeps us safe from your virtual thief
Tabbed Browsing - first got a taste of that with Mozilla firebird. Now I can't live without it and yeah, it fuelled me being lazy and not close tabs.
Evernote and Google Calendar - my life is more organised as a result :)

I cheated, it's more than 10. Looking at this list, I can conclude that I am migrating my life into the cloud. In some ways, I have to forgo my privacy a bit. How much of it would you forgo is quite subjective. If you have your stuff in your house and it burns down, would you rather have an online copy at that moment that you wish you let go of the privacy a bit on? It is a tough question to be honest.

PS: uploading your photos on Facebook is NOT backing up (Having said that, it's better than nothing).

Amazon Webstore

2011-04-09T23:21:00.001+10:00

When TWIT talked about the launch of the Amazon Webstore, I was so excited about the "1 free app a day"

http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?ie=UTF8&node=2350149011

Well... that lasted for an hour. And then I wish I lived in the States (well not really) or have a US credit card.

I even installed the App store, hoping that I can get the free apps at least, but I couldn't download unless I have the credit card number in the system. Noooo.....!

So, yeah, I hope with a big website like Amazon would at least launch their services in more than one country, but I guess legislations stopped it.

With the Try the app feature (that Android marketplace don't have) with VM emulations, I really wanted to try it!!!! That is so cool.

So, I will still hope that it will be released internationally. The original Android Marketplace is so hard to navigate, and Google doesn't really care about it.

First thing that gmail annoyed me...

2011-04-06T11:25:00.000+10:00

I don’t even mind the ads, but this! annoyed me....!

You can’t click Hide either, as it will pop back up on next reload!

Sure, thanks for advertising, but I don't ever click on the ads in Gmail, but this somehow was very "in your face".

One notice to say this is enough, no need to keep popping that up everytime I load Gmail! I don't care!

Dropbox

2011-04-01T13:25:00.002+11:00

While listening to TWIT, many of the hosts were talking about how they organised their digital life - using Dropbox, and I ignored it, but at the same time trying to find a solution for an online file depository (not backup, but live folders that I can put files in at home, update it at work).

None of what was offered can do that (Crashplan, Carbonite). There are others but I have great issues with - such as finance, uni documents (uploading to Google docs is a pain), at the end I ended up with multiple copies of Uni documents everywhere.

My issue was that I would like to manage my finaces, and uni documents using different computers. I have 3 (work, home PC, Macbook Pro).

Whatever I use must be multi platform, plus I can't install anything on the work PC (obvious reasons), so what should I do? I just want to pay my "virtual" bill!

The I got a Dropbox invite from one of the guys at Badminton. Then out of boredom I installed it on my Mac. THAT was just what I needed! Why didn't I thought of that.. Why didn't I listen to the TWIT guys?

Maybe I was spending too much time checking out services like Carbonite and Crashplan, and as I got a fair number of Terrabytes on my Drobo, I was just dumping files here and there, and that needed to be backed up.

The main difference with Dropbox is that after you install dropbox, the folder would just appear as a Local folder. Therefore you can get applications to write to it, and that is great for database files for 2 different PCs, you can get it to write to the same db file - which is Grrrrrreat!

Yup, there are security issues as it's only one password - I crave for the day when dropbox supports the Yubikey/~~RSA~~.

Anyway, Dropbox is great! (although pricey!)

Marketing - New Media

2011-04-01T13:24:00.000+11:00

My first subject in uni is Marketing 101 - Introduction to Marketing. First time I am studying via correspondence and it's HARD. Not so much as to the content of the course, but HARD as I need to be super duper displined.

How do I map out my week? I don't know what I spent my time on, but I just know that my calendar is full doing something. When I go home, I just did nothing instead of some very badly needed housework. It's not presentable at the moment, and that is the problem with doing the bare minimum. sighs. I seriously need to pick up my game, at least put things back where they come from! How hard is it!

Anyway - we are on week 3 marketing, and I am already behind in my readings! Today, I got half n hour out for that, and I read 2 articles from Journals about Market research. What a load of shit. The articles were written 10 years ago around the time of the internet bubble burst, and it was 15 pages of how market researchers should ultilise more tools, more technologies, and ultilise forums.

My understanding of Marketing is not that positive. Having said that, you see great results when you see companies get it right (Apple, for example) but most just don't get it, and they wonder why they did so badly.

They talked about the globalisation with the use of technologies and how cultural boundries are blurred due to the instant access, so therefore, technology should be used as well as traditional research tools, and you guess it, the use of CATI (computer aided Telephone Interviewing) and how that is so great and adapted elsewhere.

As a consumer, if someone calls me and put me on CATI, the first thing I would do is hang up. If I feel like it, I'll put in crap data. It's simply offensive for someone to use a robot to get genuine data out of me about the product that I have to use, not that product that I am passionate about!

I do think that Market researchers have to understand while the internet is full of useful information, the internet is also full of useless information - and how do distinguish between the 2? How much real data do you put into a webform?

And then there is the cultural issue. Different cultures operates differently on all sorts of levels, and the articles compeletely ignored that fact. This issue is not just limited to international borders, it's happening within Australia.

Hotmail Spam

2011-03-29T13:20:00.003+11:00

You know, there is a reason why we all use Hotmail to register for sites that would sell your details to spammers, and get hacked.

I haven't been in my Hotmail for months, and today I decided it's time to clean it up. The moment I logged on I get people that I know who sent me emails with subjects like "cheers :)", "is that you in that photo", "OMG check this out", "ways to boost your sexual performance" or just plain, "no subject".

It was no less than 10 friends that I know who was sending me spam.

A couple months ago, my own Hotmail account was hacked (shame on me on putting a weak password on it), it makes me wonder, why Hotmail? I don't get this crap on Gmail?

I think there are a few reasons for that:

The fact that we give out our passwords to websites that can "find friends for you" is one big thing. We trust whatever we read.
We put weak passwords on the password field, simply because the sites don't accept other characters other than numeric, or have to be 6 characters in the early days
Since sites have weak passwords, and machines are now a lot faster than they were 10 years ago, they can easily brute force your account. Hotmail should have a login limit on this.
Too many sites, too many systems, and too many password changes. So people use an easy to remember password.
No password managers that works. Only a few years ago services like Lastpass became popular because the passwords have really became unmanagable.

Everyone has a hotmail account. But then, most people would have a Gmail account also. I really don't get spam on Gmail as I don't use my address to register for Forums, and even if I do, they go straight to my spam folder.

Microsoft, have added new features like Msn messenger built into Hotmail, nice but should have been done ages ago. Then came Skydrive. I saw it, and thought it would be interesting to click on it and see how much Skydrive space I have. I was greeted with this:

"This account does not have an Outlook Web App mailbox. I need to sign out and back in via Outlook web account to do that. Come on! Yet another login? What is Outlook web account anyway?

Single signon is not that difficult. Gmail has google docs/calendar/reader that is integrated to your gmail login. Why can't Microsoft do the same? Considering Outlook web account is a new service, why did they choose to have their own login?

Anyway, another sign that Microsoft is too big. I reckon that to get single login done equals to decades of infighting and politics. I think, they have forgotten about the user experience. By the time they get this done it will be another decade. Too many people = Too many opinions = Too many directions = nothing gets done (What happens in a democratic society). Most big corporations are like that, I think.

Sometimes it's good to have a bit of dictatorship there - now before you get your bow and arrows and try to shoot me, hear me out. Example one: Apple and Steve. Don't think I need to elaborate on this but we see what happens when a company is streamlined with one direction. We spend less time fighting and more time working. Downside is that you have to do what you are told, even if you don't agree with the idea. At least, you are not all running in different directions. If it doesn't work, at least we know faster than spending 10 years working on something, since speed is the key.

But then, when someone in power gets it really wrong, because they do not have enough Vision or foresight, being dictorial = digging your own grave. Look at the Zune phone... !

Anyway, going waaaaay off topic here, back to my rant:

Back to my Hotmail Spam experience, I was concerned by the number of my friends that got their accounts hacked - as the spam that I received from people I know = the spammers were using their logins to do that. I also know that they do not even look at their accounts.

PS: Feel that I should put out a disclaimer of some sort. Yup, the stuff that I wrote is just my personal experience, and it's what I think. I can be talking out of my arse here. Technically it works, and it works perfectly. You can't flaw 2 signons, as Microsoft have their own reasons to do so. However, it inconvienced ME, and it deters me from keep using MS services, since Google offers the same thing anyway. You can argue that MS Skydrive might have more features, but unless I am desperate to use your service, I would not switch. It's not about what's right and what's wrong, it's about what I FEEL about a service.

Even then, I still have a SPAM problem. AND, I am looking at an RSVP AD that is half my page! I aint putting my documents amonst spam, not to mention that tomorrow I might get hacked again!

Why don't people back the hell up!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-21T15:49:00.003+11:00

Last year, I gave my brother my 4 bay Drobo for his birthday present, hoping that he will backup his very important photos. Every time I see him, I asked how is it going, in the hope that he'll put my Drobo to good use. Uh huh. Nah. Nope. Too busy apparently. Will get to it one day. I gave him lectures and empasised how important it is to have your data backed up. You don't want to lose it trust me. I lost 60Gs of very important stuff when my last Western @#$%^$% Digital HD went up in smoke. Yup, burning smell and all.

I asked him whether he want to back stuff up online just in case someone rob your house/fire/etc. Nah not interested.

Anyway my brother doesn't seem to be all that brothered by it.

Sighs........

Fast forward to today. You guessed it, I got an email from him - My Macbook air died... HD making a noise, then system crashed (Obviously). Reboot, it's stuck on the Apple logo. No noise from HD, doesn't seemed to be spinning and EFI does not detect it.

Uh Oh.

I resisted the urge to tell him "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!! WHY DON"T YOU LISTEN TO ME!!!!" and told him to go here:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/MacBook-Air-Models-A1237-and-A1304-Hard-Drive-Replacement/860/1

Get the HD out and I don't know whether I can stick it in the freezer and use Spinrite to bring that out from the dead 1 last time, no guarrentees.

"It's ok the photos are not on that Mac".

ok.

"The photos are in the iMac, and it won't read the Drobo."

Backup?

"No... no backup, cos it won't read the Drobo"

Burn it on CD/DVD?

"Do you know how many gigs there is?"

Well do you want to have no gigs of photos when your iMac dies? Up to you, I guess.

"Hmm... ok..."

WTF!!! Why do people find so many justifications when they don't do things!

I gave him one last warning about getting the data out of his iMac, and if it dies then I can't do anything about it.

Anyway, I really can't be pissed off about other people's lack of action. Sometimes, they have to lose something in order to be proactive about backup, despite I gave him a 600 dollars Drobo, and constant reminders about backups. I really resisted the urge to grab it back from him and sell my Drobo on Ebay whenever I heard "nah haven't got time to look at it"...

If you are reading this, I suggest you backup all your important data, in at least 3 copies, 2 on different media, and 1 offsite if you haven't done so! (Thanks Leo! http://www.twit.tv/)

Initially I was going to fully switch over to Mac pros when my PC dies, but it seemed like that I can't - since Spinrite can't run on EFI :( That itself, warrants keeping a PC guys....

People are so Superficial!

2011-03-20T01:41:00.000+11:00

It's 1:30 in the morning right now, and the rain for the last couple of days is getting quite annoying.

Just came home from a friend's 30th, and on the way back we saw a homeless guy and people started labelling him "freaky" and "smelly" and "disgusting. I started to walk faster so that we can get away from the guy, not because I find him freaky/smelly/disgusting, but I want to turn around the corner so that people would stop calling him all sorts of names. I guess I could have told them off but at 1am, I really just want to get home.

I don't know, why do we look at someone, and instantly we judge people for who they are. They dress flash and drive nice cars, and we assume that they are rich. They have a hole in their shirt, and we assume they are homeless.

When I was doing my soul searching a while back, I realised that judging a book by it's cover would be the number 1 mistake for unhappiness, or at least send you on a very long path. Don't people get that? Having friends that are shallow means that they will leave you as soon as something better comes along.

When I was in Malaysia last year, I found that although people are not rich by any standards, I found more warmth there than in many places I see. People welcome you with open arms - and they are genuine, as they did not expect anything in return. I felt the same warmth from a Homeless man at Circular Quay, when I waited for my Dad to pick me up for over 2 hours (before the days of mobile phone), he was the only person who approached me and asked me whether I was ok, and do I need to eat, while drunk people were bashing each other up over a chic.

Large cities are so insensitive, and cold.

Anyway, rant over. it's almost 2 o'clock!

6 weeks on..

2011-03-17T19:30:00.001+11:00

6 Weeks on my new job, it's been...

Great?

Hmm not really.

Shit?

Definitely not.

OK?

Yeah probably.

Having said that, I don't have the excitement that I had when I walked into my last job. It is the "same stuff on the other side of the camp" so it actually gave me a bit of insight to how the who business runs. There is a fair bit of freedom so you organise your own work, and give me results. Sometimes my days are quite free, but other times it's kinda hectic with meetings after meetings. It's different to my old job, that's for sure.

Being Sales it comes with Pros and Cons, but that's with every job. The conditions are much better than my old job, so I ain't complaining.

Today I caught up with my old colleague for lunch today. He and I went for the same job, he got it and I didn't, and I got another job. I was asked the same question over and over again, "are you HAPPY with your job?" I think, I am being unrealistic if I was over the moon with my new job. He was unhappy, although with good money, he felt useless and bored. As usual, I told him not to do anything drastic and think it through before doing anything.

We all make wrong choices in life, the important thing is to learn from it. It's ok to make mistakes, we are not saints afterall.

Wow it's been a while

2011-03-05T23:56:00.000+11:00

Quite a while! last time I wrote anything was in December. Quite a lot of things happened, there is this saying that the older you get, the more complicated things get in your life. So true.

I've changed to my new job, turned older, started uni. Doing uni via correspondence is quite different, after all it's ONLY 11 years since I was last there... heh

This year, either I'll handle it, or I'll crash and burn. I wonder what will it be? Hmm.

Have to adjust the colour a bit...

2010-12-19T22:55:00.001+11:00

Hurts my eyes when I read it. heh

Westpac customer service - What's above and Beyond?

2010-12-18T22:50:00.000+11:00

I think the concept of "above and beyond" in the customer service world is now a bit skewed.

During the week I got a call from Westpac to tell me that the cards are ready to be picked up. Sure, ok, the guy pushed hard to get an appointment - which I don't really care about, as I'll pick it up in my own time. Since the guy pushed, and we'll "talk about getting a savings account while I was there" I went, thinking it will be over in 5 mins since I had an appointment.

You guessed it, nope. I got there, the guy told me that one of the staff is sick and he's filling in for her, not a problem, I'll just wait. When it's my turn, she asked for my Driver's Licence, and she'll grab the cards for me. When she came back she asked for my payslips.

me: "Payslips? I wasn't told that I need to bring them in"
staff 1: "Well I can't release it without it"
me: "First of all, it's part of the home loan so it's already with the bank"
staff 1: "I need to see it"
me: "It was never a requirement before, why now"
staff 1: "well we can't release it without seeing it"

Now, besides thinking WTF question number 1: why would you approve a credit card without even seeing payslips in the first place? Isn't attached to my file?

me: "I wasn't told when I was advised to make an appointment"
staff 1: "You should get that in your letter"
me: "What letter, I never received any letter?"
staff 2: "Well I called you as this was a courtesy to let you know that your cards are here. In fact, I am already going above and beyond what I need to do, as I don't need to."
me: "Look, payslips are a show stopper, it's not a problem me getting it, but I need to know".
staff 2: "Well I had no obligation to call you."

At this point I was thinking "this is above and beyond" customer service? I couldn't care less about the cards, I only need Mastercard secure code to buy stuff on the web, and I am more than happy to wait till I get the letter of advise, which I never got. Asking me to go in and potentially wasting my time was the bit that piss me off. I guess in the past I would have stormed out of the bank but I went:

me: "ok, I think I have my payslips in my email. I'll get it. Got it on my phone anyway, not a big deal"

Sat there and played on my phone - and staff number 2 asked me if I want to do that somewhere else. I ain't giving up my seat since they wasted my time, and I am going to waste theirs.

10 mins later, we got print outs. Card released. Ok. But what about the Mastercard secure code? I asked Staff 2 over the phone when he insisted on an appointment that I need it, he said okok but when I asked about it in branch he knew nothing about it. Staff 1 was even worse, she bragged about being in the bank for 15 years and know the product inside out and never heard of it.

"It's on your website". Comment ignored by both. Too busy attending other customers. Staff 1 was saying hi to everyone she knows that walked by. I was getting quite annoyed at this stage and this is obviously going nowhere. Resisting giving anyone attitude, I round things up and walked out. At least I got the cards anyway. Staff 1 told me to email her about it, and staff 2 wants to talk to me about savings account. Not a chance. If they don't know their own product and are too lazy to read up on their own website, they don't deserve me doing any homework for them.
.
.
.

So, I have worked in customer service, and this is certainly not above and beyond servicing. In my opinion I think their attitude is rude and I almost wasted an entire morning with them. What I think is above and beyond servicing, is this:

Customer get phone call from Bank advising that my cards are ok to be picked up.
Customer get a list of what documents to bring. Advise customer that they cannot release the cards if documents are missing.
Book a time.
Customer advise that Mastercard Secure Code is required. Research on the feature of the product as customer requires it.
If customer turns up without the appropriate documents, don't waste their time and let them go. Book another appointment.
Do not ever tell the customer that it's their fault when they fail to provide adequate instructions for the customer.

Just because they made a phone call that they don't have to, and that I don't need, doesn't mean that they provide good service. After all, I already submitted my payslips with my home loan! Also, it is ok that you don't know something, just do the work and get back to the customer. People will see effort and appreciates it. I stated what I want up front with plenty of notice, instead I was made to feel like an idiot for asking for a feature that is in their own product.

Golf = Lemon?

2010-12-17T23:10:00.000+11:00

I don't know whether this is good or bad......

I was getting "Exhaust Alarms" when I was on a pretty high gear (like 6th gear doing 40 or 50Km/h), and the exhaust warning lamp came on. I thought it was the low speed that triggered a false alarm. Ignored it. Then one day.......

I had the car on idle, was talking on the phone and left my car on. In the rear view mirror as I happened to look up, I saw smoke. Smoke?????? It was grey and it smells like burnt rubber. Doesn't happen all the time. Talked to colleagues about it and they told me that it's unburnt fuel. Hmm but unburnt fuel doesn't smell like rubber. Anyway, booked in to get the car checked with VW, just in case.

4 hours later, I got a call. "bad news for you madam"..... "your car needs a new engine".

"Are you joking?" NOPE. But you get a brand new engine, it will be replaced by warranty and at 24000Ks, it's not bad eh?

I can no longer drive it, but how am I going to get to work?

I guess it's not bad getting a new engine at 24000Ks. But it does make me wonder about the quality of the build of the engine though. When I asked what's wrong with the engine they said that they don't know, HQ advised them to swap it out, and all they know is that compression is low. I guess something is wrong in the combustion area then.

At least VW organised me with a rental car while they strip out the engine, so I guess it's not too bad. Hope I'll get it back next week.

Am I really lucky to get a lemon engine? Oh while I am at it can I get the gear box to be swapped? It still crunches.

Blogger VS Facebook

2010-12-15T22:08:00.000+11:00

In the old days, Blogging was my online presence. You write about your life, and say the things that you want to say (and sometimes should not say), and you invite everyone you know to read it.

Then Facebook comes along. Sure we all have friends who absolutely want to put EVERYTHING and check everyone out on Facebook, and put down details on whether they are in an open relationship etc. People make comments. They praise, they criticise. All of a sudden, all the things that you said that you shouldn't have said, comes back to bite you. They assume whatever is on Facebook, is your entire life. I certainly assumed that at one stage.

As I left my blog to rot, I remembered it after a few months. After reading it I decided to give it another go. All of a sudden, I don't want to pass this to people I know. I don't write stuff that are too personal to be published, but this blog does have a lot of MY history.

What the heck, they are my past. Would I want people that know me to read all about my past? For some, I don't mind, for others, I don't.

So, like Twitter, my blog is my megaphone. This is the place that I vent my frustrations, and share happy moments (without the 160 character limit). Obviously comments are welcome, but spam are not - which is why it's moderated now.

To the people who brothered to read this far, thanks for reading :)

Choices

2010-12-11T23:53:00.001+11:00

I am not an old fart yet but throughout my life I have never been presented with so many choices. 3 jobs. 3 different type of careers. What shall I choose?

6 months ago I felt that I was stuck, and started to hate my current job. I told my boss that it's time for me to move on, and I explained at length the reasons why. I need some new challenges in my life. Its one of those "could have" moments. His response was "you've done your time" - although it does sound like that yeah, you've done your jail time, so you are free to go whenever you want to. I guess if he was not in support of me moving on, he could have made it hell too. Being open about it definitely helped.

Job 1: Another company, pay most, doing the same job that I was doing.
Job 2: Same company same division, in pre sales, pay 2nd
Job 3: Same company different division, in post sales, pay 3rd

Now I did apply for all 3 at the time I have no idea what I'll be getting. 3 weeks of silence later, I got phone calls for interviews. The timing couldn't be better, or worse depending on which way you look at it. On top of that my boss wanted a conversation with me asking "would you stay if there is a pay rise?" I rejected it, personally I think it's too late. I think before you start looking a pay rise will definitely help, but once I took the first step in getting out, my mind was made up and its too late.

I was fortunate that I don't have a massive debt, so that I am not limited to just the money. I guess it's hard to see past the money if I was drowning in debt.

Last weekend I spent the whole weekend thinking about what I want to do. To do that I have to look past the money. I asked myself the following questions:

1. What do I want to do in 5 years time?
2. If I was made redundant or fired in 5 years time, how employable are you?
3. What interests me the most?

Job 1:
1. Same shit, no payrise, no bonus, and not a lot of change
2. I will need to rely on the technical skills that I learnt in my LAST job to find jobs, as this one was more process related. Process analyst maybe?
3. I don't really want to just churn out documentations.

Job 2:
1. Commercial experience, pretty stable role, and VERY challenging. Very large payrise with uncapped bonus
2. Extra skills picked up along the way that are quite general, possible routes to account or product management
3. Challenge will engage me for a long time.

Job 3:
1. Commercial experience, department just came out of a culling exercise (aka not that stable). Least pay out of the 3.
2. Commercial skills that are quite general, higher base salary
3. Less challenging compared to job number 2 as it's not too different to what I do now.

It's hard trying to pick against these 3. And you can only pick if you are offered the jobs. However when I started asking myself the really hard questions like what do I really want deep inside? Then Job number 2 became the obvious winner.

And, Job number 2 picked me! I guess I did played a bit of politics, as I progressed to the second interview with the director for job number 2. Odd that the director decided to interview me, apparently its standard process for him. This was the hardest interview I have ever been to, because it's the cultural fit, so there is no right or wrong answer. I guess if I haven't been thinking about it for the last 2 weeks, I would have failed it. Guess having a mid life crisis did help! The questions were very deep questions about your "DNA" which are your core values. You cannot lie, there is just no right or wrong answer to this. You don't know what they are looking for either.

I will know the result for Job number 1 next week, but Job number 3 is just the 1st interview with plenty of competition, so that was the least likely to be successful. Job number 1 and 2 I have almost no competition, and right now, people may even tell me that I am cocky. heh.

I discovered that Job number 2's range is my boss's range. I don't know how he feel about that, but he did tell me what he think the chance of me getting that range is zero, you might get one less than the advertised range at most, and if was him he will give me one less than that = 1 more grade than my current job and give me an impossible task to break me. HMMMMMMM. ok.

I am quite curious to what I will be offered though. If the money is less I guess it's a pity, but this job will give me the life skills that I want, so I won't leave it even if Job number 1 gives me an insane amount (which was what happened to other people who has gone across).

Getting Married

2010-11-30T23:19:00.000+11:00

One of my very good friend is getting married in a couple of weeks. It was supposed to be a happy moment but he looked stressed. Initially I thought that it was the nerves but as time goes by, the situation goes yo yo.

Girl is overseas, he's here, great job and high pay, willing to support the girl financially. The catch? The girl would have to move here leaving her family and friends.

So began the huge struggle to reach a consensus. The girl needs to move here. He's not willing to give up his career to go overseas to restart his life. Lately they haven't been talking much. Sounds like a crack to me.

Does long distance relationship work? Probably, when the couple has a common goal with similar values. Probably not, if the relationship is not based on principle or values, and based on materialism.

What was more disturbing was that when he told me that he was getting married his first words were "shit she's pressuring me to marry her."

me: Don't you want to marry her?
him: I don't mind marrying her.
me: What the......

Now I don't know about you, but "I don't mind marrying her?" I have never heard that before from anyone. Doesn't sound like that is much love there from him either.

He's still prepared to go ahead with it, since they really need to talk face to face rather than over the phone, but the response was "I'll see how it goes".

The only thing that I can say to him was:

"Don't hate me if it what I am going to say sounds like shit to you. This is a 3rd person's point of view - I think if you are going to get married, you need to be absolutely sure = 100% before you say yes. If you are seeing cracks and you are unable to find a permanent fix for it, patching it can only goes so far. If it's yours, even holding the relationship for a few months longer will give both of you time to really think it through."

Marriage is for life, I think most people did not give it enough thought before they go ahead with it because of family/social pressures. Sure some will turn out fine, but a lot headed down the toilet.

At the end of the day, if you are not 100% sure about the person you want to marry, don't do it.

Yeah!

2010-09-26T17:08:00.002+10:00

First time I won anything in 8 years of badminton!

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GHD, the saviour for curly hair people who dream of getting straight hair

2010-09-25T16:52:00.002+10:00

Today, I picked up my GHD!

Have to admit, the packaging must have worth 50 bucks out of the 200 bucks that I paid for.

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病咗…

2010-09-23T22:27:00.001+10:00

病咗三日,訓咗足足三日,原來乜嘢都做唔到,嗰種感覺係好慘嘅. 上一次我訓咗咁多日係三年前. 訓到我有啲depressed.

所以,今日我好番啲啲,堅持一定要返工,如果唔係我一定會癲!

健康真係人生最重要嘅嘢.

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Mystery SMS

2010-09-19T16:28:00.000+10:00

Down with the flu today, I spent all day trying to find a online money management site. Closest was Buxfer, but unfortunately it seemed that the developers have abandoned it. What a pity.

Anyway...
A mystery person smsed me:

@Unknown number: Hope you had a good time yesterday (me: huh?)
@ahem: Whos this? Don't have you on my contact list
@Unknown number: David you deleted my number (me: wtf??)
@ahem: David who? There's a few Davids in my phone
@Unknown number: How many of them would ask you how you went yesterday (me: What the hell is he on about?)

@ahem: What was I doing yesterday then?
@Unknown number: Going to prayer (me: now definitely the wrong guy)
@ahem: Who do u think you are talking to?
@Unknown number: Daniel (me: haha)
@ahem: U got the wrong guy
@Unknown number: This is his number who are you (me: as if, not telling!)
@ahem: Check again, I had this number for the last 4 years. Whats the nos that ur sms ing to?
@Unknown number: Definatly this number are you in melbourne (me: he's not willing to give away his details either)
@ahem: Sydney
@Unknown number: Ok see you when i come to sydney ill have to meet you seen where been talking (me: yeah right)
@ahem: Heh u better find Daniel first
@Unknown number: Yeah i will what is your name (me: nice try)
@Unknown number: You have stopped talking to me i was having fun (me: of course, wasted my credits!)
@ahem: Not sms ing while driving. Cheers (me: obviously that is a big fat lie)
@Unknown number: Smart boy talk soon mystery man still dont know your name (me: sure. sure.)

I seriously thought that it was one of my friends who decided to change phones whenever he felt like it initially.

Time for a change...

2010-09-18T20:56:00.002+10:00

After 6 years using the same template, I've decided to give my blog a bit of an update. Hope you like it.

The NEW!!!! IPOD Shuffle

2010-09-17T16:34:00.004+10:00

Erm, how is this NEW?

Password Reuse - Sad but true!

2010-09-16T13:13:00.002+10:00

Finally........

2010-09-07T22:30:00.001+10:00

Finally we have a frikken election decision. Choosing between the idiot and the moron, it really the lesser out of the 2......

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ASCII AQUARIUM :-)

2010-09-03T10:36:00.002+10:00

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Ahem's HTC Desire review - HK Version

2010-08-25T17:10:00.003+10:00

After being disappointed by Google on the Nexus one (Love to have it but they did not want to sell in Australia unlocked without carrier), and having problems with Google checkout (Took me 3 weeks to get the verification), I decided it was all too freaking hard and ask Ken to get me the HTC Desire instead.

Full Spec is at www.gsmarena.com so I won't repeat it here.

After using it for a month or so, my thoughts with this phone is this:

Day1: Ken bought the phone, tested GPRS and GPS, all ok. He bought it from CSL unlocked.
Day7: Other stuff were tested and it came back good.

Shipping: He couldn't send it over the air, because Australian customs think that the Lithim battery will explode, uncharged. WTF(!). Got Melody to bring it over, its ok if it's traveling with Humans.

Day10: I received the phone, started playing with the data etc etc. GPS was working ok over WIFI, but not 3G! WTF(!!)

Day13: I put the phone on speaker playing a podcast, the speaker cracked..... and there was no sound.....! WTF(!!!)

Day13-18: Tried everything under the sun (Hardware resets donno how many times) but no rooting the phone as that void warranty. Emailed HTC to confirm whether I can do anything before sending it back. Nothing if Hardware reset doesn't fix it

Day19: Melody took the phone back to HK so Ken can get it fixed.

Day20-23: Kudos to HTC customer service - HTC sent a courier to pick the phone at Ken's workplace, took a day to fix it, and courier it back. Great, except they took my purchase receipt. Luckily I got a copy.

Day25-34: Enroute back to me.

Now, after I received it, I really started testing the phone. As with anything, there are pros and cons.

Pros:

SYNC OVER WIRELESS: If you are a Google anything user, or a person who put information to the cloud a lot, this phone is perfect for you. It syncronises contacts and Calendar on the fly over 3G. If you make a change on your google calendar or contacts, changes appear straight after syncing. Beat that APPLE!
GMAIL: Fantastic gmail app - it's almost as good as the web version. I live by Gmail so this is a must.
INTEGRATION: The phone integrates your contacts automatically with Facebook! This is a HTC feature, so I can't speak for the custom ROMs by other carriers, they might have removed the Default HTC Apps.
FRIEND STREAM: The Friend stream syncs with Facebook and Twitter (and other stuff that I dont' use)
EXCHANGE: Supports Exchange mail as well, but it forces a passcode to unlock the phone so if you had it enabled to use exchange, you will lose your unlock sequence (fixed in Froyo). Yes you can download an app to get it back but I don't want to load too much stuff on it. Plus who would want their work emails on their phone! :D
POWER CONTROL: The phone has great widgets to control power. I can turn on/off 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, Flashlight and WIFI at will. There are others as well like brightness control, I don't really use it.
APPS: 1 great app for everything you want to do. SMS can be backed up to your gmail under SMS tab, disk usage utility, offline maps download, Lastpass, Evernote, and ANTIVIRUS!
APPKILLERS: 1 press and all your background apps are Killed. Great for preserving your battery.

Cons:

No Froyo YET! (see my last post)
The Android Marketplace is not viewable by html. I hate browsing on the phone, it's just too small! I got a replacement app management software called Appbrain (www.appbrain.com) that sync with your Gmail account to pull a list of what you have downloaded of the Android marketplace.
Apps would just run in the background. I understand that if something is loaded as a widget, but if I was in a middle of a game and you exit out to the home screen, it should save state and exit. Instead, it runs in the background chewing my battery, doing nothing. OK for some apps that you want this feature on, but I prefer this to be an option on an per application based, but this is not an option.
FEATURE CONTROL: No choice on whether you can change the access the app is asking for. E.g. An camera app wants access to your contacts to tag people for example, but you only want the camera function, and not tag people. There is no way to change it. You either accept it or you don't.
BATTERY: Drains battery at an astronomical rate, have to take the USB cable wherever I go, to recharge my phone.
SCREENSHOTS: Can't take screenshots without rooting the phone!
BLUETOOTH: I think this is a bug with the 2.1 firmware. When you enable WIFI and you are transmitting via Bluetooth to your car for example to play podcasts/songs, every so often you'll get a pause. Turn off WIFI, it's gone. Took me ages to figure that out.
GOOGLE MAPS: Doesn't load with Optus sims! It loads well with WIFI, and the Data connection is fine as Google Earth works, and Locus also works. Something is interrupting the data connection on Google maps when I am using the Optus SIM, had a SIM replacement and the problem is the same. Many other people in the forums also experienced the same problem - I think it's a problem on Google Maps itself.
MUSIC PLAYERS: I am still trying to find a decent Music Player for Android. The Ipod is 10 times better in music management, and integration into the device.
SPEECH TO TEXT: I hope HTC release this into the Desires soon. I have to download a custom Keyboard to use this.
UI: Not everyapp support system features, I couldn't use speech to text, a killer feature on the Nexus One. It's integrated into the OS but it was not activated on these phones. You have to install other apps to enable it. It's the same for multitouch. Only some apps can use multitouch.
OVERHEATING: This phone being faster than most computers 5 years ago, runs hot. When it overheats, it will continually to reboot, and if the SD did not initialise properly it will also go into a reboot loop.
UNRESPONSIVENESS: When the RAM is loaded with Apps running in the background, the UI becomes unresponsive. That's when Appkillers come in.

My list of apps:

http://www.appbrain.com/user/ahem/apps-on-the-phone
I have tried and tested many apps, they are not perfect (as in the best app for) but it's what's working for me at the moment. Let me know if you find something better.

Thoughts:

I think, this version of Android is closer to being an Iphone competitor. As many people would say, it's like Windows Vs Mac on the phone platform. Although I am a Mac user for the last 7 years and love their Laptops, I totally hate the Iphone and Ipod. Simple things that they built in were so restricted to the point that a user like me can't justify paying extra money for less features. Android, is a totally open platform where anyone can do anything to the phone to maximise the phone's features. If you don't like it, don't use the app, at least you know that it's an option! You bought the hardware, so of course you should utilise every bit of feature you want to use on the phone. You can also customise your phone to your heart's content.

Sure the UI is not fully mature but this is rapidly maturing. By version 3 I think most of the basics would be nailed, if it's not by google, it would be done by someone. For applications, online crowdsourcing is very powerful, as most people would read other people's comments before using the app, and people are brutally honest about the app.

I think Android is now moving out of the Geek territory and into the mass market.

As for me:

I think if I bought the Iphone, I would regret it because I will get frustrated with the "I can't do this, I can't do that!". With this, you can do anything to the phone, and use all the features on the phone if you want. However, if you want to pick up a phone, and just use the features with standard UIs, then Iphone is the phone for you. I spent the last month playing with the Android UI + research. Learning curve is high which will deter many people. Most of my time spent is trying to configure the phone interface so that it works with me, and find useful apps that I would use everyday. Would the Iphone, no configuration is necessary.

With the Iphone, there is none of that which is why it's so popular I guess. However, they can't now say "theres an app for that", because although Android doesn't have that many apps, most of it are very useful. I only need 1 useful data measurement app, and 1 AV app etc. There is no "rejected due to taste issues" on Android either. I like playing Coloroid or Floodit, simple but it's not pretty. I don't think with an ugly interface like that, it'll get approved by Apple.

However:

I still think that Android is not for everyone. If your life is not in the cloud, most of the Android features won't really appeal to you.

緣份

2010-08-24T22:45:00.003+10:00

Today, we had another visit to a colleage of ours who had a bike accident in January. This is the 3rd time we visit, and he was making so much progress compared to the last time we went to see him.

Sometimes, unexpected things happen in our lives that changed its course forever. His was a freak accident that left him paralysed. He was never a close friend, but from the time that we first met I always felt that 我同佢好有緣份. Its not like, but it feels like that he was a mentor that guided me, and I felt that knew him from long ago althought we have never met.

Since his accident, it became a reality check for a lots of us who know him. Over dinner we were talking that life is too short to take things for granted, and we really should appreciate what we have now, your health, your families and your friendships and relationships. Over the last 6 months, I lost my road rage, instead I now listen to podcasts and audio books when I am stuck in traffic. Better arriving late then never.

Jag, please get well soon. Everyone is thinking of you, hoping your recovery is speedy. You might not know it, you have inspired me in many ways. The hardest thing to do, is to let go.

cheers

HTC Desire Froyo Update for HK version

2010-08-20T15:31:00.001+10:00

Everyone I know had bought the UK version, I was impatiently pressing the "check software update" on my Desire like, everyday.

I ran out of patience and decided to ask HTC when, and unfortunately they gave nothing away.....

Dear Ahem,

Thank you for choosing HTC! Regarding the Android2.2 upgrade for Desire is under processing now. Because different countries have different customer design for a same model, HK version upgrade will come later than UK version. Please wait patiently. Regarding to difference between the UK and the HK version for Android2.2, We are currently working on the testing for the update for your phone and it will be available soon. We cannot be more specific yet as exact dates still need to be confirmed. In addition, we had recorded your information, and we will inform you in advance once any update related with HTC Desire. Thanks a lot for your understanding and cooperation. For any further inquiry, please feel free to contact us! Have a nice day! HTC Hotline : (852) 3520 1234 Service Hours :Monday to Saturday, 8:00am - 8:00pm (except Sunday & Public Holidays)

To send a reply to this message or let me know I have successfully answered your question log in to our ContactUs site using your email address and your ticket number xxxxxxxxx.

Sincerely,

HTC

So, I guess it's coming soon?

:(

PS: I won't root my phone until my warranty's out, as it was in once for repair to replace the speaker, it's working great now.

Open badminton competition, Adelaide

2010-08-02T13:32:00.002+10:00

This weekend is my first trip away watching a badminton comp - its so different then the normal casual comp! I learnt a bit, is that the girl in mix doubles all move back when they are defending. At the club the guys all wanted me to stay at the front... 2nd thing is that I got myself a coach - will be training with kids, but they are already better than me, just need to practice!

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The visit to the Optometrist

2010-07-15T18:01:00.000+10:00

When I thought my eyes were blurry, I thought I needed new glasses, since my existing ones was making it worse. So, I checked in to my Optometrist, and found out that the last time I visited him was in 2004.

I remembered this guy - when I first met him I was a kid, and thought he was a huge wise man. Obviously he didn't remembered me, but the moment he sat down he started to tell me about the work he was doing with the Flying Doctor's service.

He was looking very reflective as he was telling me about his 4 day trip, he went to very remote aboriginal communities where people are forgotten by the system, and government. It brought a sense of hopelessness to the people there - with high abuse rates and high mortality rates. It takes a certain kind of people to even want to work in such places, and let alone staying in those conditions to help others.

With limited funding from the government for the programme - it's extremely hard for people who wanted to help others.

I thought with the news coverage of the things that the government was doing in remote communities, at least things would improve? It doesn't seem to be the case. I guess, I probably had my head in the sand.

People in big cities are so protected that we bitch and whinge at the slightest interruptions and discomfort to our so called perfect lives. We value materialism over everything and we pursue relentlessly for instant gratification. Just look at the queue for the Iphone 4/Ipad launch.

His final comment was: It was rewarding on a spiritual level, and the best thing to do is to give. That is why it is so tough but he kept doing it.

I agree. However, giving money is only the easy way out. I would volunteer my time and effort instead. I just hope that charities are not so commercialised. No one actually get any help out there, it was almost a money grabbing exercise using helpless people's misfortunes. My financial advisor told me the same thing because he used to do the books for charities and it will infuriate plenty of people when he tells you how much was spent on "administration fees".

Anyway, back to my eye test: I am almost 20/20! My astigmatism was almost gone and my long sight-ness is down to .5..... !

The Mac Genius - NOT!

2010-06-27T23:39:00.000+10:00

This is the 1st time that I went back to Apple for any sort of help for the last 10 years that I used a Mac. Unfortunately, the Mac Geniuses is overrated.

After the last OS update, my Mac became unresponsive after leaving it on overnight. I used to leave it on for over a month and it was still good to go. With the last software update, I have to reboot the Mac everyday because I thought it "crashed" as it wouldn't wake up from sleep. I also got a few Kernal Panics and "I have to reboot".

So, I thought that it was time to see a Genius. I was also curious to know whether how close they are to a real "Genius" :). Booked in a time a week in advance, and hoping that I'll be enlightened by the Genius.

I don't know whether the Genius that was supposed to see me was sick or I was reassigned to another person. I got a bimbo who doesn't know shit. After telling her what the problem was, she goes: "Yeah there isn't much we can do right now, you gotta leave your machine with us so that we can run some diagnostics on it to see if there is a hardware fault". I told her that it only happened after the last major software update, how can you be so sure that there is something wrong with my mac, and I wasn't going to let her go that easy.

Looking very uninterested she had to ask the "lead genius" what she can do, and she was trying to flirt her way out of it. Every time I asked a question, she went over to the lead genius, and flirtatiously asked him what to do. Being in a super busy store, he was increasingly annoyed by her.

At the end I didn't agree to leave my mac to be checked, because I am so sure that it was caused by the OS update. Fast forward a few annoying weeks later....

"MACOSX 10.6.4 OS UPDATE" -

What's included?
General fixes and improvements

improves compatibility with some Braille displays
resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
etc

AHA!!!!

So it was caused by the last OS update after all, because it's 12 days since and I had ZERO crashes.

Going back to the Geniuses - I guess I got a crappy one. Colleagues have gone in and they had better experience than I did. Disappointed!

The first VW service with Engine software update

2010-06-15T23:40:00.000+10:00

Yerp, my windows and Mac needs it, why not the engine?

At the 15000kms or one year service, I got a software upgrade too. The letter that VW sent me was kinda scary:

"Dear Customer,

During the constant monitoring of th eproduction process, VW AG has established that on selected VW vehicles with 1.4L TSI engine operation complaints can occur in certain driving conditions.

An update of the software for the engine control unit of your vehicle is necessary. The necessary repair work is free of charge and takes about 1/2 hour.

Please contact your local VW blah blah blah blah and sorry for the inconvenience "

I truncated the last bit. I did had lights coming on with the coolant a couple of times, and took it back and was told that I need to add more water. I did already! So now theres an software update for that eh?

Now to the software - according to the letter it's just the monitoring but they added a couple of interesting things:

Now the dash actually tells me what gear that I am on. Personally I think if you drive a manual and don't know what gear you are on, you should be shot :P

The funny thing is that it does more than just telling you what gear you are on. It also "recommends" you what gear to switch to, after calculating revs and speed. It recommends me going 5th gear at 50 if rev is higher than expected. I think if you follow the "recommendations", you can save a hell of a lot of fuel. Oh, only follow the recommendations when you are accelerating, when you slow down it tells you to switch to lower gears, which chews more fuel. I rather let the car roll on a lower gear to a red light then changing to lower gears - partly contributed by laziness too.

It is kind of distracting though, adding the extra "useful" information to the dash, makes me look at it more. When I get sick of it I hope that I can turn it off... which might not be possible. Need to play with the menus a bit more to be sure.

Now with the software out of the way, I still have the gearbox crunching when I go into reverse (intemittently) and it's "not severe enough" to strip out the gear box to have a better look... I've driven many manuals and none of them crunch. Didn't took me long to convince the guy that it "needs more investigating". I just have to take it back one morning to get a senior tech to look into it more. As usual, I can't replicate the problem when I need to.

I still think that the gear box is shit. It's one of the noisiest ones I have ever used, feels like that the bearings are loose in there. Sad thing is that it's easier to break the gear box then trying to prove an intermittent fault. sighs.

It's also mighty expensive! 560 bucks for "change the oil, clean the filter and check brakes, and other stuff" and yeah they also charged me to change tires from front to back. Hate to know what they charge when things starts to break. Although it's on a lease I kinda missed my old mechanic. He charges 130!

GLEE CAST - DEFYING GRAVITY

2010-06-13T01:48:00.000+10:00

It's only the 50th time that I listened to this song, somehow when I first listened to it in Wicked something clicked within me. I really liked the music. When the cast of Glee sang this song that's when I went nuts replaying it (great for on demand TV - aka downloaded episode).

There is something special with music, especially ones that that has great lyrics. Glee is really a great series.

Chris Colfer really made this song interesting. Love his voice!

"Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I am defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!

I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!
bring me down!
ohh ohhh ohhhh!"

Kikki-K Organisational Workshop

2010-05-21T17:16:00.002+10:00

Are you buried in uncontrollable paper graveyard, thinking that you know where that "piece of paper" is?

Do you have "stacks and piles" of paper that you think you will get rid of, but never able to?

Is your desk at home and at work full of paper that you think you will need to get rid of, but too scared to because one day they "might be useful"?

I answered YES to all of the above. I can never get rid of my "pile" and every time I tried to do something about it, I gave up becuase it's "TOO HARD". Most of my receipts that I need to claim back on tax were missing or forgotten.

Kikki-k was one of my favorite stationary shops with good ideas. Super expensive, but the ideas were very good. There were always workshops but most of them are during business hours. I found one in Hornsby that was just after work on Monday. Perfect.

The person running the workshop was a Catherine Zeta-Jones lookalike super organised woman. When we started she spent a bit of time asking us what is the major problem that we currently have? Most of us has an issue with piles and not knowing how to reduce it. I just look at my pile and a sense of hopelessness just overwhelms me. I didn't think I was a drama queen but everytime I look at my pile I do get a sense of hopelessness.

She then elaborated that we need a break down of steps, starting with the inbox. then you go to your little folder with daily tasks, then a bigger one with info but you don't need to touch it everyday. You stop here, then you archive year by year.

Most of us only keep paperwork for Tax purposes, so we only need to keep the last 5, and we should get rid of the rest.

By then I discovered what my ultimate cause of the problem is: My problem, is that paper comes in, but never leaves the system!

As I walked out of the workshop, I don't really believe in myself that I can clear the pile out. However, I am inspired as I discovered what my problem is.

So I did do something at home, but it's not completed yet. At least now my dining room table is not clogged with paper. I kept everything inside a box for the "inbox" and clean it once a month.

The 1st real guinea pig is my work desk. I cleared my stack, not thinking about the "i might need this and that" and setup the system according to what she taught me, I skimmed 3 feet of paper to the bin. I can actually see my desk now :D. Everytime I clear my desk and the piles kept rebuiding themselves thanks to me.

So far, so good. It's been a week and my desk is still the same. I don't need to do tidying up at the end of the day because they will either be in my work in progress folder or the bigger one. I never cared about naming it, they did name it in the workshop but I forgot the name.

The next challenge is to clear out my desk at home. It's going to be quite an exercise. The pile is not building up, but I need to reduce it and make sure that stuff that is 10 years old is out of the system.

So far, I can say that my 40 dollars for the workshop is money well spent!

I hope that I can gather all my lost tax receipts and claim them. They say that we should reward ourselves too, which I will once it's done!

PS: No amount of reading books would change my behaviour. I needed a system, and realise what my problem is. It's hard to brainstorm a practical problem from reading.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

2010-05-21T16:47:00.000+10:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

It's been a while since I read a book - and a recent trip to the Solomon Islands gave me that opportunity. I like books that has good plots and good endings, and this is one of them. The plots were reasonably complicated, but it does have a linear storyline.

In short, this is a great book. Steg Larsson was a wonderful writer. RIP.

iPhone 3Gs.... so tempted!!!!!

2010-04-21T16:38:00.001+10:00

I've been resisting this for a few years now - but the iPhone is getting closer and closer to what I want in a phone. Maybe one day I will buy this!

Spending
the last couple of years on my P1i, I wasn't able to ultilise most of
the features because it is so fiddly. 1st of all, you have to back up
using the PC suite (sorry mac users) and you cannot edit your backup.
So if I want to make changes to my notes, I can't. With the concept of
cloud computing coming at us fast, big phone companies is just so slow
to catch up, until some competitor ate into their market share.

I want to:

Make changes to my calendar and notes on the PC
Rearrange where program lives on my PC, then resync to the phone
Look at my sms on the PC

They are what I think are basic feature of a smart phone and it seemed that only Apple is the only company that can get it right. They are very dictatorial but they do get it right. And other makers are wondering why their "iPhone killers" didn't work? pffft.

The PC suite seemed to be just for backup - and no, not many people use windows address book either to syncronise your contacts.

The one thing the P1 has is a full keyboard which the iPhone doesn't have. I don't need to type fast with sms but the feel of the buttons is much better, even with a rocker key which the P1 has.

So now, I am getting more and more tempted by the iPhone! :S

Jordon Belfort - the Wolf of Wall street

2010-03-08T20:06:00.000+11:00

Today, I finished reading the book "The wolf of Wall street" by Jordan Belfort. I first came across his second book "Catching the wolf of wall street" at the airport bookshop - and after half a chapter, I bought it. At the end of "Catch" there were many unanswered questions, so I went and bought the 1st book to tie up the loose ends.

I love biographies. I love reading about other people's lives. To sum things up this guy, is a genius. Although incredibly insecure with huge ego, there is no denying that he is a genius. He was the best at everything he did - motivational public speaking (whether it's for good or bad), selling, trading, authoring and lastly, even his drug use.

If you are a person who is into the latest and greatest Hollywood scandals, this book will not disappoint. His life is not only bizzare, it's outrageous, glamorous and strangely to me, addictive.

The 1st book is about how he learnt how to trade, made his millions and ended with him in rehab, and the 2nd book took on from there starting with the arrest, then the co-operation and lastly, learning how to write.

Jordan's brain seemed to be spinning faster than anyone's - if my brain spins at 10 miles an hour, his is more like 200 miles an hour. No wonder he was doing drugs, and amazingly with no permanent damage.

Moral of the story: We all have a gift, and Jordan abused his gift to the max with biblical effect. He also realised his potential, which 90% of us don't. To be honest, he is the type of guy that can be the top of anything he wanted to be, if only he wasn't so chained to money and power.

I think for a guy like him, keeping in jail is a waste. I hope he does motivational speeches for the good (and I am sure he'll rake it in just doing speeches for companies) and although I missed his Australia visit, I will hope that one day I'll see him speak.

Movie: His story is being filmed with Leo Dicaprio in it. I guess he'll make his millions back in no time.

A great Day

2010-03-07T16:07:00.000+11:00

This week I was on Checkpoint firewall training. While lunch was provided and food was great, I found the training not worth the money it asked for. What I do with our firewall isn't exactly beginner level, and the training was more about marketing BS than troubleshooting at times. If I want to know what type of firewalls I can buy, I can get the info off sales... for free! They also spent a lot of time on VPN tunnels, which we don't use at work.

Anyway, the week finished at 3pm on a Friday afternoon. I decided to hang around the city - but my friends couldn't take time out for a coffee, so I decided to go to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts:

Art, is subjective <-- Obviously.. Der! I seriously don't know how to appreciate some of the stuff that was churned out by the artists. Having said that, I find Olafur's exhibition interesting. It makes me think of things in a different perspective. Some of the stuff is just over my head, but others makes me think. Suddenly I realised that over the years I slowly restricted myself, until I went to the exhibition today.

In the middle of the exhibition, the MCA has included 5 tonnes of Lego blocks bought by the Queensland Art Gallery for people to play with. Boy it was AMAZING! I couldn't help myself either, and started to get "creative". Truth is, my brother was the more creative one with regards to Lego, and he always made prettier stuff than I was (when we were kids, I wonder what he would make if he goes?)

I spent a good half an hour thinking what I should make, while looking around for inspirations. There are 2 dudes next to me, going flat out on making their masterpiece (something like a Prymaid with stuff inside it), and other people like me. There were a lot of "finished products" on the floor and they are truly amazing. There were a pair of Aboriginal father and daughter team across from me, and looking at them makes me envious :)

Anyway, without thinking much I also made a tower, which ended up looking like this:

Work in progress - Trying to make staircases with 2x2 blocks is difficult, and my engineering soul tells me that I should reinforce it... :D

While I have the camera, I snug a few photos of other completed works:

and

I remembered a lady walked past and said to her friend - "OMG.. I made the base of this last week - Wow!"

The finished work on the floor. It was across the entire room. Everyone pulled out their cameras only to be told that they can't take photos. Doesn't stop the occasional "snugged in" photos before the warnings.

It's a bit frustrating that there are no cameras allowed, and I begged the guys to let me take my own "creation" and snugged these in.

The creativity in here is truly amazing. Most landmarks in the world was made here - I guess people don't need to be too original at that thought, and the wonderful thing is that people made something and build on top of other people's work to make it into something bigger and better.

I spent a bit of time sitting on the bench just observing the whole room afterward whilst talking to the museum staff. It's been a long time since I felt really good and relaxed - another reason for me to slow down and enjoy things that I like more. It seemed that I have forgotten this side of me while concentrating on stuff like careers and money. Money certainly does not make me happy!

I left my newly created tower on the bench and instantly a very young couple sat down in my place - the girlfriend goes: "hey lets join these 2 towers together" and when the boyfriend tried, my tower's staircase instantly collapsed in his hand. I looked at them and smiled at myself.

Superficialism, materialism, values, fear and Liars

2010-03-04T17:05:00.000+11:00

I guess, society today is just so superficial. I admit that I am materialistic (I buy heaps of stuff that I don't need), but I am not superficial. I can live without most things I own (just a trip home would do), but I always keep myself in check regarding "being fake" and "wearing a personality mask". I always tell myself that if I go there, I would lose my identity. To me, that is a very scary thought. To many people, they have already lost it.

It is so hard to find someone who would even speak their mind any more - that is probably one of the reasons why we are all hiding behind an anonymous screen saying things that we would not otherwise say if it was face to face. It has become hard to have any real relationships if we are all hiding behind a fake mask. Having said that, we all do. We tell white lies all the time, because we don't want to be responsible for making someone feel bad.

A few days ago I watched BBC - exposed - Liars (great program btw) and now I started to count how many times I lie just to be "not be rejected" and it's more often the I would like it to be. e.g. tonight I had dinner at wagamama, and the food was shit and expensive - when the waitress came around asking me how the food was, I said "yeah it's good". But is it worth me telling the truth and someone gets upset over it? I don't ever have to go back - so therefore I choose to Lie (ah here's my justification)

Just who are we today? When I observe most people I sense that their identity is purely based on how other perceived them - and that became their drive. For the last few days I have been training in the city and I took public transport because it's faster getting there - can't help but to notice this kid (looked under 25) that wears LV from top to bottom, sunglass/accessories and for the last couple of days he was proofreading his own justification for his half yearly review. (Yeah, shouldn't read over people's shoulder but when the font is 14pt, I can't help but to ~~notice~~/read). Then my mind already made a few judgements and the most noticeable one is: How sad and fake. Mind you, he's probably on triple my yearly salary - but I would hate to be him though. Having to keep up an image, continue to justify how good I am (I mean, how come managers never notice when employees do good things, why do they have to justify themselves so that they don't get fired in the next review?) Having said all that... he probably loved it.

I remembered a Witch (yes, a real witch!) once said:

The brain justifies what you want (the heart) to do no matter what it is, The heart tells you what you want, and your gut always tells you what is right for you.

Unfortunately, this is the part that we ignore most because it is not we want to hear.... People say, listen to your heart - while you have this bad gut feeling on the inside. The heart just tells you what you want, and your brain justifies it! Then we blame everything else but ourselves when something goes wrong.

Respect

2010-02-18T22:19:00.000+11:00

Question:

How do you deal with people that you have lost respect for? At the moment I am choosing not to open my mouth, but it is inevitable that I have to. (as in, I can't cut ties) How do I restraint myself?

***tearing my hair out over this***

Executive Committee

2010-02-02T00:11:00.000+11:00

Today, the president asked me to join the "executive committee" as they were 1 person down. When he wanted to talk to me for 5 mins that flashed through my mind for 1 sec, but I was pretty sure it was for my balcony defect.... my 1st thought (gut instinct) was correct!

My instant reaction was NO. I hated the politics. Hated the conflict of interest. I've seen what happened in my previous residence and when it gets down to punch ups, you know it's not worth it. Having said that, my block has 1 page of issues for the whole year compared to half an inch worth of stuff and suing everyone else in my old place.

His question then became... why not? No there isn't much politics, you don't even need to do anything. I lived here for 2 years now, and this bunch seemed to be a relatively peaceful bunch. They did a pretty good job looking after the place after all. I was stuggling for a rebuttal, and the best I can do was "I don't think I can commit to being on the committee". To be honest, I wanted to say that I don't really want to care but with the "what do you need to commit to? it's only 4 meetings a year and you don't have to do anything" seemed a pretty good deal eh?

It's just easier to surrender. How Lame of me, I can't even give a good reason to say no. Some how, my instinct is to run from potential exposure to politics (guaranteed to be in this game when you are in the group) but I always got caught up in it. Maybe I should just accept it? And I thought I was good at saying no. I guess I am not so good after all.

Anyway, I have agreed to do this for a year and see how it goes. I can just see the storm coming. Sighs.

Ahem's Volkswagen Golf 118TSI 2009 review

2010-01-31T21:35:00.001+11:00

After owning the car for a couple of months, it's time to blog about what I think about it. Got the 118TSI Comfortline, the mid range Golf 2009 model. Because of the GFC, VW has scaled down productions so the average wait went from 3 months, to 6 months. It was a decision between this and the Lancer VRX.. and I chose this because the size is the same as my Impreza RX. I don't need a bigger car.

This is just purely what I think of the car btw, from a consumer's point of view. As usual with everything I write, it's down to the Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Options are totally separate. It's amazing how many other cars do not offer leather seats as a separate option, you have to spend 5000 dollars more for a "luxury pack" that includes other stuff that I don't need like Bose speakers and Sat Nav. I ended up getting the options that I need.
Fuel Economy - compared to my old car, this car can do at least twice the distance on the same amount fuel.
Cruise Control is pretty nice.
Very solid, although my bicycle scratched it, totally my own fault.
Safety - can't say much about that, I hope I'll never need to use any of the safety features in this car, amen.

Cons:

Front wheel drive. Mind you, my old car is a AWD and I really missed the handling. Going fast in a straight line does not mean much if it doesn't corner well. Compared to a Subaru, this is miles behind - yes I read the car reviews and they all say the handling is great, personally I think it's not so great. Its frustrating how many times it wheel spin on anything that has a gradient of more than 15 degrees. A wet day is especially bad.
Insurance. The policy makers soooo does not get it, just because this car has a low power turbo and a super charger on a .... ahem... 1.4 Litre engine, doesn't mean the premium should be the same as a hoon car! I paid 1300 for insurance, and I paid 600 for my RX - although technically the RX is the hoon car here. Anyway, as more cars pops up in this category made for the purpose of fuel economy, the insurance cost will be a deterrent to buy these cars.
The so called rain sensing wipers. It comes on sometimes when there is no rain, and doesn't come on when it was pouring. Talking to other people, all rain sensing wipers have this issue sometimes.
The Speedos. It is NOT EVEN! The analog speedo separator goes from - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140 etc. My brother and I suspected that this is actually for Miles per hour instead of Km per hour, because because the 60 mark doesn't make sense since we accelerate from 60 to 80 a lot, and it's very hard to watch out for speeding. It's just weird because I expect the analog needle to move at the same rate when acceleration is constant, and all of a sudden, you are speeding, by more than 10Km/hr. Oh, the digital speedo can be used, and it's not in line with the analog one. If you don't understand what I am saying, watch out for it when you test drive the car, and you'll know what I mean.
The turbos. Yerp, the turbos. To be honest, I prefer a 2.0 Litre engine than a 1.4 Litre super charger + turbo. It's really hard to get used to, as it's hard to tell at low speeds to use 2nd gear or 1st gear. Oh.. too much rev and it wheel spin again.
Gearbox. It's a REALLY crappy gearbox. It's noisy, and its not smooth. People tell me why didn't I get the auto with DSG? It's 3000 more, AND I know how to drive a manual. $3000 = a lot of Options which I rather have.
Expensive. Everything that VW sells, especially accessories is just sooo expensive.

I still say this now: if my RX did not die, I would not have change cars. If the newer model of the RX wasn't so damn ugly, I would have definitely got myself another Subaru because it feels so good to drive. Having said this, I like the Golf, but I can't say that I love it (to keep it till it die).

Discrimination and bullying

2010-01-22T03:26:00.004+11:00

Today, I met a woman. What started off as a casual chit chat turned into something serious. That is: Being discriminated and bullied in the work place. Working in a male dominated environment, trust me, you do get discriminated, whether it is subtle or obvious.

Bullying, is a bit more serious. I can't say whether I have really being bullied, I tend to not think about it much. From past experiences, many guys try, but they always back off when they discover that I won't just "take the shit". Unfortunately for my ex colleague, she could not fend for herself and ended up having a nervous breakdown.

I am not having a bitch session here though, its just whenever I tell people about the environment which I work in, I constantly get the question of "How can you do it?" which almost translates to "How do you put up with it?" as if they are so sure that I was bullied and discriminated already.

The answer is, that I don't put up with BS. I don't tolerate bullies and I don't care if I am discriminated. It doesn't make me the most popular person in the world, but at least people get the message to NOT try to bully me. It's easier to not get them started then to try and fix things once the damage is done.

The truth is, I really like working with guys. Very little bitching, and a lot of action and you get things done. We have 2 females in my group, me as an engineer, and another doing admin. The constant bitching and moaning about the tiniest issues of the admin girl drives me mad, and yeah you got it, her biggest complaint is her being discriminated. What she didn't know was it was her attitude that drove us away, for example: she whinges about not being invited out for lunch because she was a contractor, and when you do she always turns you down. That is a sure way to be Miss Unpopular.

Guys have a funny attitude. When I first started I got the silent intimidation, but once you get the recognition then you are right. They treated me pretty well after that. However, they are much more egocentric and many have self esteem issues, and those tend to be the bullies. I always joked that I sense ego oozing out of the building. heh

How to deal with Bullies - Ahem's way:

Don't play victim. Pretty obvious but people always wanted other people to pity them. But eventually it becomes emotionally draining to the people around you, and many don't feel that they have the obligation to protect you and it's unfair for them to.
Don't give an inch. When something offensive was said make sure that you voice your concern on the spot.
Don't be bitchy - sure guaranteed way to make you public enemy number 1.

Getting Recognition:

Know what is a joke and what isn't.
Make sure they know your boundaries. Let them know what is acceptable and what's not acceptable. I take the stance of "I don't care if you swear, but I do care if you swear at me".
Don't have double standards with what is acceptable and what's not. Guys get confused.
Show that you do know your job. If you don't, what are you doing in the job anyway?
And lastly, none of the "I am a female so treat me special". Guys automatically have a soft spot for females already, so you don't want to go too far.

Having said all that, if you are an overly sensitive person and easily offended, then a work environment like this is not really for you. Be careful if you landed a job where men view women as an object - you may want to think twice about going into such an environment because there would be a hell of a lot of sexual harassment issues you have to deal with. If you don't have a choice, then you may have to become "a nut cracker" or "ball buster" <-- I don't like these terms btw. If this happens, then it's going to be really tough for you. Are you getting the support from your manager/HR? Can you deal with the situation if you have no support? If not, you might have no choice but to get out. But don't let it affect you to the point of mental breakdown.

While some have it harder than others, the most important thing is don't give up - at least your bottom line anyway. I have to admit that I have picked up some guy traits - in 1 ear and out the other. Amazing what it can do to a bully.

Another thing: Don't try and find out how much your male counterparts are getting paid, you won't like it. Take this stance - if you want to get the pay rise, go for it and back it up with achievements. Don't say "well so and so is getting this much, I should be paid the same too." If you presented your achievements and your manager is still finding every excuse under the sun to deny you for your pay rise, it's time to leave. At least you have the "Achievements" portion already written in your resume :)

Accept the fact that you can't be friends with everyone. Somewhere, somehow, someone will hate your guts from day 1 for no reason. To believe that the whole world loves you, is naive. To expect that the whole world loves you, is just plain stupid. Amazingly, quite a lot of people do.

Investing - Why do people resist so much?

2010-01-14T17:14:00.001+11:00

When I was young and naive (makes me sound old now..), and got my first job - the first thing I did was to spend money on all the things I wanted to buy and eating out all week, every week. As time goes by, and I wanted even bigger things such as a house, or an apartment - that's when my realisation of "if you save what you make from a job, I STILL won't be able to afford a house, or an apartment"!

Out of chance, over dinner I was talking to my friend who told me he had a bit of help from a financial adviser family friend when he was made redundant during the dot-com bust, and told me to have a chat with this guy. I did, and in the first meeting it was about financial information collection.

He then went on to tell me about investing - and one of the phases which I remembered was:

"You worked so hard for your money, why would you not make the money work hard for you?"

I never thought about that, either I spent it all, or save it, I never though of using money to make money. With term deposit rates being very low, the only other way is to invest it.

However, after my first conversation with my financial advisor I thought: "PFffft. I can do this myself". So, I spent the next year studying in this area (not formally, just learning whatever I can pick up like money mag and news) and saving. And, I poured a few thousand dollars into a Property fund in CFS through Etrade. It gave me good returns... until 2 years ago (and that was way before the financial crisis). On top of that, the capital kept dropping. Lesson 1, get some capital guarantees from a big bank (which you really need your Financial Advisor for).

Many people also told me that "it's better to do it myself", and yes it is better, but I don't have the time to watch the market since I have a full time job. I need diversification.. and at this point I really need advice, since I don't work in this industry.

So a year later, I went back to my financial advisor, and he is one of the few guys who in my opinion who won't try and sell you anything, and most important of all, being ethical. At this point I still think that buying property is the way to go, but eventually, I dismissed the idea because of all the issues that comes with owning a property (and it's a pretty looooong list from my own experiences) and the "hidden costs". Just having to deal with developers and unreasonable tenants is just the tip of the iceberg.

If one is to rule out property investment for the time being, then what else is left? For most people that I discussed this issue with, they told me that property is the only way to go because they got burnt in the stock market and won't ever touch it again. However, who have not lost money in the last financial crisis?

Going back to the question, why do people resist investing so much? Most of my friends either spent it all, or poured all their earnings to their house, or rent. I think, to invest a few hundred thousand dollars (and rising) on a property = having all your eggs in one basket. It's a big risk... but it give people a comfort zone I guess. However, it puts people off because the initial sum needed takes years to save up.

And yes, I also know about the "property will rise in captial" etc, but I just do not have the eye out for the timing and bargains, and it's just too hard to try since it's a few hundred thousand dollars in a hit.

So, I'll just stick with small sums with closed funds and capital guarantee. It is safer like that than worrying about the mortgage.

Google Nexus One

2010-01-07T14:07:00.001+11:00

I swear that my attention span is very very short. One minute I was very tempted by the Iphone 3Gs (doesn't help when my colleagues were waving their Iphones and Ipod touches in my face) but today, I was caught up by this:

Welcome Google. Because it's Google, it's all over the news and "the only one that can take the iphone head on". True in a sense, IF they do it properly.

I was also a Sony Ericsson fan, and still have my P1i. Maybe it's time to upgrade, but I'll miss the buttons. The newer smart phones do not have buttons, and it is one of the things that deters me from buying it. This though, looks very promising to me. Although I am a Mac user, I resisted the Iphone because it wasn't "perfect" to my needs. I guess I am biased towards Android, and with version 2.1, it looks REALLY good, especially with the google maps and gmail applications.

I don't know about most people, but I almost had my entire life with google. Gmail, Blogger, Google calender, Google docs, Google maps - what is the best thing to put them all together better than the Google phone? Sure the 1st attempt was shitty, but this is better than anything that I've seen. Seemed like I am sold on the Google phone already!

As you can see on the site, unless you are in the 3 countries that they release this phone in, you will have to wait. They better release it world wide soon, because there's Ebay.

Its been a while since I blogged ... bye bye 2009!

2010-01-06T16:42:00.005+11:00

In hindsight, 2009 was my worse year so far.. and it's goooone! This year, will be a lot better.

I did not have any new year's resolution for 2010, but:

I have canceled my Gym membership - not motivated to the gym, riding and running to nowhere just does not appeal to me. I got even less motivated when all the girls in my Tai Chi class were getting competitive with Kung Fu..
I bought a bike! Yes, this one!!!! I bought it from cellbikes with a recommendation from my colleague and the yellow and black makes it cool. Funny thing is that I was buying all the bike accessories when I haven't bought the bike yet! :D

On second thought, I think I do have a new year's resolution: Save more. I spend too much.

iPhone 3Gs..... so tempted!

2009-10-26T18:18:00.001+11:00

I've been resisting this for a few years now - but the iPhone is getting closer and closer to what I want in a phone. Maybe one day I will buy this!

Spending the last couple of years on my P1i, I wasn't able to ultilise most of the features because it is so fiddly. 1st of all, you have to back up using the PC suite (sorry mac users) and you cannot edit your backup. So if I want to make changes to my notes, I can't. With the concept of cloud computing coming at us fast, big phone companies is just so slow to catch up, until some competitor ate into their market share.

I want to:

Make changes to my calendar and notes on the PC
Rearrange where program lives on my PC, then resync to the phone
Look at my sms on the PC

World Masters Cup 2009

2009-10-11T18:50:00.002+11:00

The photo is a bit dark but this is as the athletes are marching in. My phone isn't good for taking photos.

I didn't know that the masters cup is on until my friend told me that she got free tickets for the opening ceremony (didn't think that it will cost anything anyway). I was surprised that there wasn't much media coverage for this, especially when this is 'the biggest sporting event in Sydney this year'.

Entry is FREE for watching the sport on the list. So this week I am all set for my social activities - I'll go and watch the games after work since badminton finishes at 10pm! However its a bit disappointing that right now, sitting in the opening ceremony where there are more athletes than spectators. If only there were more media coverage and being school holidays, this would be a great family outing day. They can watch sports for free, then enjoy the opening ceremony for free, and gave the athletes great moral support. Bring your own lunch and all you need to pay is just transport cost. Perfect.

It was getting too late for dinner and we walked out early from the opening ceremony. There was a guy who was in the soccer team that had his hair done... like a soccer ball. Pity that I didn't take a photo of him! :D

Website: http://www.2009worldmasters.com/ for times, the games finishes this sunday.

Life is a Bitch!!!!!!

2009-09-23T17:26:00.003+10:00

This year, has been the worse year for me so far. Too much as happened, and it has exploded right in front of my face... It started off very nice, and it went into free-fall from May... and probably rock bottom now.

Thank god for blogs. You can vent to your heart's content.

Sometimes I wish that I was one of those protected species so that I don't have to go through crap like this.

I was so lost that I went to get Tarot readings done, because you don't know what I should choose next. There were many "dark cards" and I even got the "death" card - if you put a positive spin on it, it's a new beginning apparently..

She told me a few things:

I'll be changing friends - apparently my existing friends have very "light" links and I'll be moving on
I'll be considering a career change - apparently a someone at work will appear in my life that had his eyes on my skills, relationship is optional. (work and relationship don't mix ok!) <--- very skeptical at this one... and it hasn't happen.
I'll be taking on a more leadership position. <-- I think I'll avoid this one, hate managing people, too much mind games and politics.
I had enough of a lot of things (never good at drawing boundaries)
I'll be doing a lot of soul searching <-- yes, trying.
I am creative and I'll be ultilising it a lot - although I am in engineering, but not designing! But I was given an almost impossible task of fixing up mess. I had to be really creative on this one.
Females are jealous of me and I tend to avoid them <-- yeah, that's right but you can't be real close to a guy either. But I still think that pick the right females and they are better to talk to.

The cards, are frighteningly accurate about my present situation. It's nothing that I want to hear, I know some readers tell you what you want to hear, but not mine. They were all blunt and they all told me that I have to get out of my rut now. All of them tells me that work is going great. Every other areas, not so great.

What I found out of all this is, a deeper understanding of myself. They told me that if you ignore your issues now, when mid life crisis hits it will be waay too late.

This year, life has picked me up, and literally slapped me in the face at least 4-5 times. It's hard to just analyse "what can I learn from this?" although I can still say "well at least I am a lot luckier compared to so and so".

After heaps of crying, anguish, counseling and grieving later, I think/hope that I am climbing out of the toilet bowl. Being an introvert it's hard to open up but I am happy that I got support when I do. Sometimes, if you don't ask, you don't know. Sure there are people who doesn't care, that is when you give them the flick.

So, trying to look above the water, and with suggestion from my friend, I should try to work abroad for a short time. I ended up telling my boss about my situation, and surprisingly he was very understanding, a lot more than I expected. He told me about his "almost the same" experience so I guess he can relate. It's not the job, it's everything else, and I need a break personally.

I always wanted to travel a bit, and check out museums, enjoy the the culture in another country. If there is a chance I would really like to visit countries like the middle east. Working abroad means that you don't have to find someone to go with you, plus you get $$$, and you get to meet new people/friends which is what I need right now. And you come back to the stable job.

It will be nice if it turns out this way though..

Now I understand why there are so many people who gets depression out from this. Thinking too much with no vent to ease the pain/pressure. If I don't know who my real friends are, maybe I would spiral into depression too. Some people are really lucky to have a very smooth road, I envy them.

Connecting Huawei E160e USB 3G modem to Optus 3G on Snow Leopard

2009-08-31T21:34:00.010+10:00

I recently got a Huawei 3G modem from Optus for the 3G network, but sadly the application that came with the modem crashes every time I tried to run it.

I am posting this because I spent a very frustrating hour on the phone to Optus with the rep telling me that "Snow Leopard is not supported" and doesn't know much else. I'll be posting what I think of Snow Leopard later.

Some people can get it to work, I am going to post 2 ways that you can set this up (and also for my reference one day if I need to set this up again).

Method number 1:

Easiest - Instead of running the program on the USB Key, right click and select "Show Package Contents". The icon you see is a container.

Open the folder "Contents --> Resources --> MobilePartner.mpkg"

After installing, it will create a dock icon and you can now connect.

Easiest. You can stop here if you want to.

HOWEVER, my CPU was running 100% as long as that app was opened.... so I did this instead:

Method number 2:

This method is mentioned in a number of sites, but the E160e is quite weird. You can apply the same method to Windows XP, Vista and windows 7 (if you have it). I personally like this better because it's one less app to worry about.

You still need the drivers for the 3G modem, so the method number 1 still applies. You can get rid of the app though, you don't really need it, and I don't know why it chews up 80% memory of my 1st CPU core.

Go to System Preferences --> Network.
Click the + button.

Select Huawei Mobile-Modem driver (not Pcui), name your service to whatever you want, click OK.

In the Telephone number type *99#, click advanced. (if *99# doesn't work, try *99***1#)

In Vendor, select "generic",
In Model, select "GPRS (GSM/3G)"
In APN, type "connect". The APN is the Access Point Name for the modem. Without this name it cannot connect to the network.

DNS, WINS, PROXIES and PPP can all be left in default if you want.

The 3G SIM authenticates itself when it logs into the network, so no password necessary.

Click Apply, then click "connect".

NOTES: In the modem selection screen (advance tab), if you select "others", Huawei driver (path included), it WON'T WORK. Tired that for an hour today, I think because the APN was not in the terminal script (as the application failed to install). Unless you want to write your own (there are guides on the net that give you terminal scripts for Linux), stick with this one. The CID is always 1.

You can still check your usage on the following link:

https://memberservices.optuszoo.com.au/ms/ium/currentHsdpaUsage.htm

There is no need to login, as long as you are connected using your 3G USB dongle.

If you have "show modem status in the menu bar" ticked you can use it to connect instead of going to the Network preferences to connect.

If you have "show status while connecting" ticked, it will show status as "disconnecting....." forever until you reconnect to another network. That made me think whether the driver was buggy for a while... it's probably a new Snow Leopard feature :P but I find that annoying.

Nan Tien Temple

2009-08-30T15:37:00.001+10:00

Vege spring roll and drumstick - what an interesting snack for afternoon tea! Apparently in the cafe downstairs they are serving food, and because we went after lunch, we managed to fit dumplings and the spring rolls. Next time I have to check out the lunch there! (btw its still all vegeterian)!

Meet the Colleagues

2009-08-07T00:13:00.001+10:00

Today is the 40th birthday of my colleague - and we planned a surprise birthday dinner for her. We went to Hugos on Manly and it was good, with full view of the wharf. Watching the ferries docking was fun, as tales of "well there were times that it failed to break and hit the barrier 10 feet from our table" and "amazing ferry trips" came out.

It was the 1st time that I talk with any of these guys. I worked in the building for 4 years now, and maybe because many guys are on shift it is very difficult to see everybody at once, and when we do see each other we are too busy to stop and chat anyway. A bit of alcohol later for some of the guys, and they start to talk.

It's sometimes quite weird that although we know about each other's existence, we don't know what the hell each other was doing. Swapping "what we do" took up an hour or so, but we naturally take the topic to something else as we are sick of talking about work heh. Naturally with a bunch of guys, the conversation topic always turn to "something gotta do with the toliets"...!

Doing something like this outside of work is interesting. On work grounds we are all quite guarded and we only hang around our own teams, so we'll never get to talk to anyone else. Thats our own fault I guess. With everyone being dad's age, and the nature of their work makes them anti social. When they loosen up and started talking, it's very interesting to listen to them :)

The food at Hugos is ok. Bit pricey but with the views, no complaints. I should check out their award winning pizza, but I opted for the Lamb instead.

Evony, Tap defence, Flash element TD

2009-08-03T23:45:00.004+10:00

As everyone knows, thanks to the iphone we have tap defence. As I don't own an Iphone, after having more than a few goes on my brother's iphone I was addicted just like other people out there. So I googled. I found flash game called "Desktop Tap defense" which was nice, but not as nice as Flash element TD (which is probably closest to the iphone version of tap defence).

Flash Element TD is great, but when you finish flash element TD1 in 1 hour you want to see change.

Then, I noticed a banner : EVONY!

I registered not really knowing what I am getting into, as the website didn't give us any screenshots of the game interface.

3 weeks later, I am on it more than 5 times a day.

Until... some dudes decided to continuously plunder my city because they have a bigger army. A bit like hit dice type of DnD games, it's all numbers and stats. The frustrating part of this game is, that it takes AGES to train up any army. I am talking about Days. It's painstakingly slow, and it test the patience of every player. One wrong move and you are gone. You might be able to last a bit longer if you spend money - this is a game that bets on player's impatience. I think you can only get so far not spending.

When you are raided again and again and there is nothing you can do about it - asking for help was inconvenient because, I think I am in a different timezone to my Alliance. You can't self recover as you lose all your resources and it doesn't recover in a day. Maybe the game designers want to make a change there? Have a limit to the number of raids you can do in a week. Having said that, if 100 people raid your city, you are gonners anyway.

While some people are really good, and great micromanagers and they do great, it will take more than this to keep an average newbie like me interested in Evony. But I am impressed at the design on it though, its a great effort - and I would never guess a flash game can do this.

Rip-off

2009-07-27T22:05:00.001+10:00

It's not me. It's my neighbor and being an old lady, she was always the target of getting ripped off by people especially electricians, plummers and especially, computers.

I really felt sorry for her when she told me that her electrician charged her ahem... 250 dollars to change out 4 halogen lights and 1 transformer. That I can do for 25 bucks! There is no special tools required, so why is it so expensive?

Anyway, when she told me that the computer guy has to charge her 50 bucks to look at her internet problem, but not fixing it, I offered my help. 3 hours later, I found out her modem has a few issues. 2nd time I went over, her modem was also having problems. So I pulled out my contacts and see if my friend has some refurbished stuff that's good enough to use. Luckily for her, it was FREE. I have to say, I was really tempted to charge her something, but that would be immoral for me (since I am on my high horse) so I thanked my friend, and gave her the modem, set it up for her.

10 mins later, she's on. She's on Hellstra ADSL and she wasn't very convincing in telling them that it was a modem fault, and of course, it's 250 dollars.... that's half a computer AND a rippoff.

Now, I hope that this fix her problem permanently. As much as I like computers, spending hours trying to troubleshoot something isn't my ideal way to spend time. But I am happy that I helped her though.

I just hope that people are more reasonable and more honest, if you can't fix a problem, don't charge people so much for it!

Food Steamer

2009-07-19T23:18:00.002+10:00

Bing Lee in the city was closing down and they are currently doing a sale till the 31/7/09. This is the 2nd time I went, the 1st time the salesman wasn't keen on selling. It's closer to closing date, so the prices dropped even lower. I always wanted a steamer to cook/heat food while I spend some time in the gym after work.

When I walked in, I saw this:

with a "REDUCED to $139 from $179.95!!" screaming at me with "BUY ME BUY ME!!!"

So I asked. "For you ma'am, $100." Ok.. I thought, but... the rice bowl was missing. So the salesman offered $85.

Feeling bold I asked "How about $70?" - After checking, I must be pretty close to the cost price and he agreed "you win :) $70 it is."

I walked out feeling pretty proud of myself. I was never a negotiator, but I felt that with stuff missing plus that it's the display model AND they are closing down, I should, and this was a good result! :)

Sucess

2009-07-10T05:57:00.003+10:00

Lately, actually, my entire life - I have found it so hard to focus. At one stage I thought I had ADD but later realised that it's not. There are simply too many things around me that I allowed them to distract me.

After reading on many articles about my "problem", I realised that it was my ability to Focus was the cause.

My high school science teacher once told me "You know something about everything, but you know nothing about something". I knew exactly what he meant, but 15 years later, I am still struggling at the concept of "Knowing everything about few things".

It wasn't until I read this article that I had a lightbulb moment:

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/05/14/how-to-focus-five-levels-of-mental-focus-you-might-not-aware-of/

From my observation of other people who are quite successful, this is a common trait.

I was always very proud of my ability to multitask. But multitasking also meant that I cannot concentrate 100% on 1 thing. And when I got used to it, it became a habit that my mind starts to wonder when I am doing just 1 thing. It became inefficient, and it's very noticeable at work.

It was only yesterday night that I was frustrated at why I couldn't advance with badminton and I was told that I lost focus right after the first shot. That is after 5 years of weekly playing. That equates to: I was never the best at anything.

But it seems clear now that if I want to advance further in anything I have to focus on 1 thing only.

Dick Smith Live

2009-07-08T00:10:00.001+10:00

We got a special guest at work today, Dick Smith. He was returning a favor after we showed him our station - he decided to give us a little presentation on his whole life, how he got started, which actually made it quite interesting. As most of the guys in the station is my dad's age, many grew up with at least a purchase with Dick Smith's electronic kits - which my colleague got his handbook for Dick Smith to sign. Now that's worth something.

Most of his talk were about radios, and his adventures. He's definitely a guy that is passionate at what he does, and with that sucess came with it. He worked harder than most, and the say "the harder you work, the luckier you get" is certainly true, as during the process he opened many doors without realising it. He lives down the road from work, (a bit of drive, but down the road still) and he flies to work on his chopper everyday. Neat.

He reminds me of Richard Branson, not as wild as he is, but I see resemblance in terms of the adventuring. There isn't much mention of his wife, especially during the solo flight around the world (where he left home for 12 months with the possibility of never coming home), it was probably quite hard for his wife to have a husband like Dick Smith.

I really enjoyed his presentation, he is a really down to earth man. Initially when I saw his interview on ACA I thought like most people on camera they project an image of themselves that are nice and friendly, but off camera they are either a bastard or a bitch - and surprisingly, he isn't.

The month of May

2009-07-06T22:44:00.000+10:00

The month of May, of 2009 was one that was most unforgettable... for the wrong reasons. We celebrated... then we suffered a huge loss, a precious member of the family. It was unexpected. It is too painful to write this down - and unfortunately, the first goodbyes were always the hardest. Made me re-evaluate life again.

I was talking to mum the other day and she insisted that she remained miserable, and kept asking why. Although we don't know what the answer is, we insists on asking questions like that. I told her that I'll develop mental problems if I don't attempt to get life back to some normality. I guess that is my way to cope. Being miserable is not helping myself, and definitely drives other people away. I am negative as is ... there is no need to do that intentionally.

Angry

2009-05-02T23:51:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I went and bought 2 presents for 2 cousins that got married last year. But unfortunately....

My cousin had a fallout with his family (us) sometime last year. My other cousin told me that he deleted all of us out from this profile. I was curious so I checked my profile to see if I was deleted. I wasn't, but I came across a note that he wrote last year:

失望

這陣子忙著籌備婚事，本是開心的，但卻給我看見人自私的

一面。今天，我的親戚令我很失望。

由於我特別的家庭背景，以致多了些東西要兼顧，媽對此的期望、親戚及生父、阿嫲的期望，兩邊我都不想缺失，但無奈兩邊的意願是有衝突的，我在中間只能協調，以「顧全大局」為已任。只是每當我向親戚們提出與我媽的衝突位，需要他們的理解、體諒，從而得到大家歡喜的解決方案時，只換來：

「妳阿媽應該要識諗！」、
「我覺得你有啲地方處理得唔好。」、
「我地冇所謂，但你自己諗下咁樣啱唔啱啦！」、
「你係姓司徒的，要顧及我地呢邊的感受！」。

處處都是為已方的利益為依歸，步步進逼，將責任推在我身上。我提出來是想一起想個協調方案，不是要他們再加一把力逼我。每次問我：「你諗住點搞？」，其實只是想套我說我的想法，從而批評。所以我一開始聽他們這樣問我，我就反問他們：「不是我想點搞，而係你們想點搞。」、「不是我跟你們衝突，而是我媽與你們衝突，而我需要在中間平衡、協調。」

老實說，如果真要排priority，我點都排我媽的意願為先。她養我、育我、供我讀書，可他們呢？我嫲在我幼年時照顧我，老豆也養過我，但親戚可沒甚麼。不過我也尊重他們，珍惜這段血緣關係，所以雖然是較多心力付出，我也為他們設想，還不時向媽為他們講好說話。終於說好了，分兩邊搞婚宴，河水不犯井水。

只是一談到婚宴，失望就來了。又是親戚們要搞婚宴，為的是要「面子」，要我支付幾圍酒給他們。OK，有權利必有義務，當我說我地這邊男家要給女家一些甚麼，他們竟說：「唔洗架喇，你阿媽０個邊俾就得架喇，我地呢邊唔洗。」我當堂O咀說：「夏柯？！（其實想講甚麼二字，不過O緊咀，所以音都歪了）」為何口口聲聲說甚麼姓司徒，要我理他們感受，當一講到責任，竟是全推在我媽這邊身上？！

我失望了，我生氣了！

這件事讓我看到誰錫我。也讓我知道我有幾需要顧及他們這班親戚的感覺！

I would not recite this to my own family but theres always two sides to a story. He's not as diplomatic as he wrote himself to be - because:

He did not mention that his mum paid for the reception on the condition that none of his dad's side turns up, including his own Grandma who spent 10 years raising him. Sure, you didn't need to fork out a cent, your mum had an affair with a rich guy, and because money is no object, she's using that to control you, you stupid spineless dumbass!
My uncle asked him to grant him one wish - I just want to see you in the signing ceremony, it is ok that you don't need to invite us to the reception if you don't want to. And guess what! He REFUSED. His own dad.
我點都排我媽的意願為先。她養我、育我、供我讀書? I am sorry dude, but from the age of 2, your mum abandon you to have an affair with another guy, and left you with our grandma. She and my aunty along with my uncle raised you till you reach high school - then cry "I need mum". 供我讀書? Where was your mum when you in your most dependent time?
當我說我地這邊男家要給女家一些甚麼.... WTF! Why? In a normal family, yes - but given the situation that your mum demanded that the 男家 cannot even turn up to the reception that she pays for, then going to ask your dad to give stuff out, isn't that unfair?
責任 - Look in the mirror first, where's your responsibility as a son to your dad? NONE!
失望? I think your dad is the most 失望! Not you!
顧全大局 ? You were blinded at the fact that your mum showered you with MONEY. You spineless shit! You don't have the spine to stand up to your mum, because she threw money at you. Since when, did you even considered your dad's feelings, your grandma's feelings? 10 years of bringing up when you were most vunlerable you get this as a result. PATHETIC.

Money talks - and he was caught up in it. If it was me I will say to my mum: Well, no reception then if dad and grandma can't turn up. FULL STOP - because I wont' enjoy my wedding reception if the people that are most important to me is not all here. But obviously, from just this one post shows that you can ignore the time, effort and money spent on you when you were the most dependent and most needy, but it doesn't count. Because you still want your reception - so you bow down to your mum because she's paying for it.

Well, this is a guy who wouldn't pay for yum cha with his grandma after all. He is the most selfish cousin out of us all - and this event, really is the last straw. They told me that they are no longer in contact because my uncle, through sms told him that he was disappointed once by his mum, and 20 something years later, dissappointed again by his own son who would not grant him one simple wish.

I was fuming when I got to the end of the post. Bet he didn't mention what really happened to his own friends. My family, has a big down fall - pride, as with most chinese families. And pride cost me another cousin. If they play it smart, they should have made him real guilty regret this for the rest of his life. But they are too emotional, that makes all of us stupid in effect.

I was a spectator when all this was unfolding, probably I am not in HK. Now looking back, he really shown his real colours. His real colour is that he can abandon his own family in the face of money. His most unforgivable action, is denying his dad to even see him sign his wedding certificate. My uncle is not a stubborn, nor a proud guy, but this event changed him. He has changed to be closer to his sisters, where as before he wasn't. He even offered to pick us up from the airport next thursday when my brother and I fly back. We were never that close so I was surprised when he said that. When your own son abandons you, you turn to other family members for support. I really feel for him.

This is just so sad. Another reason for me not to have kids. If you do have one, make sure it's a girl. At least most girls are more considerate to their families (in eastern culture anyway).

I really hope that none of my family members read this post. Somehow, I don't want them to know about this.

So after reading this post, I changed my mind. I decided to give his present to my other cousin.

Drobo..... they finally got it right!

2009-05-02T23:02:00.001+10:00

Remember this?

Well, as I complained about the lack of ethernet, they released this:

The Droboshare that doesn't do much, and pricey!

But it seemed that our prayers are answered with the release of this:

The DroboPro - perfect for everyone... and yeah it's VERY expensive. Built in Ethernet, firewire, USB, iSCSI (GIGABIT ethernet!!!!!)

It's a bit big for me, but eventually I think we will all need one of these. People neglect about data backups, and unfortunately that put them in the poo poo when their C drive decides to throw in the towel.

林志炫 - One of the best singer ever!

2009-04-13T02:07:00.001+10:00

http://blog.sina.com.cn/linzhixuan

I was browsing Youtube for the last couple of days for old MTV and I came across 林志炫's videos. He, is one of the best male singers ever - and I am glad that he's chinese.

Lately the chinese singers are really not up to scratch. I think most people realised this also, and that's why we have so many 80's singers coming back to perform. Unlike the western world, at most eastern singers can only be really popular in Asia at most. With HK singers, with the exception of Jacky Cheung and the likes, none of the new singers are even up to scratch.

So anyway, I was listening to some of his old songs, and recent concert, and on and on... and all other stuff that he appeared in. He's not one of those pretty boys, but there was no one (chinese), that can beat him in his range.

He's one of those singers that is born to sing. I can never get sick of his voice :)

I would definitely go to his concerts, if I have the chance!

林志炫-爱情酿的酒MV

My brother's Baptism

2009-04-11T02:09:00.000+10:00

A few days ago I received an email from my brother asking me to go to his baptism...

my first reaction is... what the?
my second reaction is... ok.... since when did you take religion seriously?
my third reaction is... Hmm... can I not go?
my forth reaction is... SIGHS.

What actually happened was:

"I would love to go, where is it?" --> "Westmead" ---> *thinking* can I not go? --> sure, wanna meet up for lunch?

If friends turn up and family don't, then I am not a good sister. Family should be there to support each other ge...

I was tempted to call my colleague to ask him to swap on call with him if something broke I can't meet SLA... but then I found the on call laptop in the boot of my car.

They have to do a testimonial before the priest dunk their entire body into the water, (it's kinda cool that they have a hole in the floor for baptism purposes, just remove the floorboard) and after listening to his reasons for baptising, I personally think it's not strong enough to justify. But maybe it's just me.

The atmosphere is nice, everyone is friendly - I can see why he's drawn to it. Spiritually, I found another way to get peace I guess. No right or wrong, so it's hard to even know if you are on the right track. Or is there a right track even?

But having said that, I am happy for him though - But has he told mum and dad??? HMMM.....

sobs..... bye bye my powerbook!!!

2009-04-08T18:29:00.001+10:00

Sobs.... bye bye my old 12" Powerbook.... !

I was always going to do this, but didn't really brothered until this morning. I am letting it go finally after 4 years of use... and SOLD! I really couldn't be brothered to sell it on ebay, so gave my collegue a bit of a discount, plus I was bad in my neogiating skills...

The Powerbook stacked against my MacBook Pro.

Comparison to my new mac, my old one came with a lot more stuff like adapters, and my new Macbook Pro, has nothing :(

The old box is twice as high, they both have approximately the same weight.

The pretty box, it seems to be a lot better at packaging compared to everyone else. So good, that everyone that I know kept it.

The person I sold it to, was really happy about it. I have to say, for the price that I sold it for, it's enough to get a brand new PC.

Hmm

2009-03-22T23:43:00.001+11:00

Hmm... haven't blogged in a while. I have to admit that I was getting lazy. I was letting things pile up and then feel stressed about it. It's getting annoying - that all the things that I have to do just snowballed into something monstrous (and the teeth is growing). I felt like that I haven't achieved anything, but I feel like talking today - heh. Lets start with what I have done lately.

Tai Chi level 5 complete - That pretty much means that it is formally the begining of the training. Finishing the moves means that the basics are in, and there is no short cut, now it's training, training and training. Our si fu told us to choose a piece that we like (out of the 108) and he will turn that into the signiture move for self defence. Transferring energy from the arm to the legs are so hard - it always stopped at my hips somehow. I do get it a few times when I am relaxed though.
Corporate games NSW - I decided to play badminton finally available this year. It was on today, and my partner and I lost, naturally. At least we weren't the worst team out of our pool. I don't think it's fair to not have rankings and separate male and females, as we played against 2 teams of males, even we are on the same grade we were disadvantaged. AND Macquarie uni is such a rip off, telling spectators to pay an entrance fee. The courts were shit with bad lighting and no room, and you are always in risk of getting a parking ticket if you forget to renew your parking ticket every 2 hours. I hope next year, they have gradings and play at ryde aquatic centre instead. I also need to get another partner, like a guy (or mei, she is as strong as a guy) - at least I have a bigger chance to play against men's doubles.
Work - PDR period has started and the numbers are out. I don't know what I have got but I am mighty happy that I still have a job so far looking at the state of the economy. I don't know anyone that I know have been made redundant, I hope that does not happen, but I know that companies are also cutting people quite willingly to meet their balance sheets. So I am a bit deflated, bit stressed out and need a break. (Don't we all want a break?) heh.
My house is in a mess - naturally. And usually.
Should start looking for plane tickets to go back to hk - for grandma's 80th. And naturally my lazy bro asked me to buy him a ticket - because he couldn't be brothered looking.
Done my tax... and my parent's... finally.
Listening to Steve Gibson's security now podcasts. Excellent and I am learning heaps. Its so good that I am revising all his older podcasts, from episode 1 to ep 188 (one every week) and they are mighty long podcasts and discussions too! This neverending so can't list that in the list of things that I done.
Watched Anime series Vampire Knight Guilty (but not the 1st season - gee I felt lost), Code Geass, Gundam 00 seson 2, excellent!
Found a place that you can get really cheap meats for very cheap price - Glenmore meats in Ultimo. If you live around the area, check it out - it's opposite the greyhound racing track. On the subject of cheap food - Lobsters are really cheap too, when they are in season. 29 bucks for half kilo of lobster at hurstville, if anyone live down south it's a good time to go when it's really cheap.
Bought tickets to David Copperfield, he's coming in August for a show.
Wrote my 2nd toastmaster speech. I am still scared of public speaking.

Moving down to the list of things I want (I should empasise the WANT):

An MP3/MP4 player.
Ebook reader. My library is getting kinda big. Checked out Dymocks and they gave me a dry run on the ebook readers that they have... interesting!
Maybe a bigger TV. Heh.

And lastly, down to the list of things I have to do or get started:

Finish off the many books that I've started reading but haven't finished....
Tidy this place up
Sell some stuff on ebay
Eat all the meat in the freezer before buying new ones
Have a routine for meditation - empting the mind of junk is sooo good for the mind helps you to think clearer :)
Fix the curtains
Fix the windows...

And the list goes on and on somehow....

An interesting Night

2009-02-20T23:12:00.000+11:00

1st of all, I totally forgot about my own birthday (and all my friends' birthday around the same time - I am just bad on these). I was on a meditation course and the teacher who didn't finished in the 2 allocated days, came back and did a 3rd session. He was very nice about it, maybe I asked too many questions, as it doesn't fit into my own beliefs, or it takes a bit of explaining to get my head around their beliefs.

So here we are, him talking away and me asking questions on stuff that I don't understand trying to get my head around it (which is most of it).... I noticed that his iphone kept ringing, but he didn't noticed it. I didn't think anymore of it then. When we got around to finishing the session, and the teacher's wife turned up (well I assumed that it's his wife anyway) and said to him "why the fuck didn't you answer the phone! we are supposed to have dinner remember?" their other friend was already waiting downstairs.

As we have finished anyway, we packed up, I put some $$ into the donation box (thanks for the efforts) and she invited me for dinner at a resturant just around the corner. This is at darlinghurst btw, just off william and crown street - not really my turf, and I certainly don't know about resturants buried in the side streets.

It was a fantastic dinner conversation - as I didn't really know them and very different to my world I guess, the conversation was very enjoyable. We were chatting away, and we foudn out the couple's friend's birthday was on the same day as mine! I didn't know whether I should tell them or not, but I did eventually... and they decided to shout us dinner. How nice of them.

Obviously it was an interesting night, passing my birthday this way. I didn't think I was going to do anything, but that day I opened myself to something different and it was very unexpected. (I did declined the dinner invitation twice before).

iphoto 09

2009-02-15T22:57:00.001+11:00

Hmmm first try using iphoto after I finally found out how to not import photos automatically (on my old powerbook it was painfully slow when it automatically tries to import into iphotos directly compared to usb copy). I decided to give that another go.

The most noticable feature iphotos 09 (part of ilife09) is the face regconisation feature. I am unfortunately disappointed with it. The face regconisation feature is supposed to work by picking a few photos, and it will do the rest for you. One thing that I find that it was very difficult, is that it doesn't regconise most of the "faces" at all, or it regconises anything in the picture, even if the face is in portrait mode.

So, with 20000photos that I have to index, it's not something that works well. Especially for the Japan trip, where with 5 of us we took over 3000 photos alone.

Need a lot of improvements, but iphoto is on the right track to the most popular photo application! :)

Meditation Space

2009-02-11T00:05:00.001+11:00

I always wanted to get a further understanding of meditation and a bit of guidance - so I signed up for the "introduction to Meditation" course. (free btw, donations welcome)

I found myself a teacher today. Apparently I was the only person to sign up for the meditation workshop so I literally had a one on one! My teacher, was much younger than I thought. (Somehow I thought teachers are the "umm" enlighted type of monks heh) But no! They are run by professionals, to my surprise! They meditate in the mornings 3 days a week before work and some sessions in the weekends.

Then my session started. For 2 hours, it was another world for me. Not the "oh wow I am enlighted" sort of world, but it was 2 hours of shift in thinking. It felt like an exam, except much more difficult.

1st of all, they are meditating using the teaching of the Raja Yoga. For those who does not know, in short these are medtation methods based on the Hindu teachings.   I have studied a few regions in my high school days, and culturally I relate to Buddism more, but never done meditation in Buddism before - the Hindu mindset (not so much as the values) are very different. Letting go of your conventional thinking is most difficult. However, my teacher was able to able to correct when I asked him questions. Getting the theory and truely understanding it is 2 different things.

Feelings and Emotions are 2 different things (obviously). But emotions can be fabrated (by your trusty old/young brain) to give the illusion of feelings. 1st thing is to separate this. Now that is something new.

Overall, we did 10 mins of meditation. AND there is part 2 (which my teacher was nice enough to do another one on one session again)! I was told that after you complete the course, then I am welcome to join the disscussion and meditation sessions. If only it's closer to me and not at Darlinghurst!

Unfortunately because of the shift in thinking, I only absorbed 10 percent of what I was taught. I did pay 100% attention (without dinner btw!) to my teacher, and also there were many unanswered questions (because it requires deeper understanding before they can be answered).

When my techer dismantle my understanding of a situation something came to light - I really think waaay too much.

On a separate and similar topic, we are revising Tai Chi (level 1 to 4 - I ahven't completed level 5 yet). The methods of meditation taught by my master is very different. It was more physical in a sense. Very interesting.

WRT-610N - First feel..

2009-01-15T17:43:00.001+11:00

Thanks to the Linksys $100 cashback I decided to get the WRT610N choosing between this and the Dlink DIR-655. My WRT-54GS is on it's way to the grave crashing all the time, I think it's time I retire it.

I've read so many -ve comments about this router, it's hard to tell whether the settings have been screwed around. But it's always best to do a factory reset, just in case.

So far, so good for me. I left most things on default settings and it's stable. transferred an ISO to my desktop and it's ok. It's not as fast as they say this can do, but over 5Ghz I can get up to 3.5MB/s but it does fluctuate. I am not fussed over the top speed but the average speed.

Streaming: I don't know whether other people are experiencing it, but IF you are streaming SD videos, it is OK. IF you are streaming HD videos, its way too slow. I didn't benchmark it, but that makes it slightly faster than my WRT-54GS. There maybe an increase of 1MB/s BUT it does jitter. If you think that N will solve all your speed problems, it won't.

The USB port: It's useless so far, who would use FAT nowdays for NAS? Don't get me wrong, it's still very good and it's faster than NTFS, but I can't use it because of maximum partition size. The Drobo is formatted to NTFS already, I can't reformat that! I think it was done to support the most number of OSes, but Linksys should think about supporting more than one file format. It sounds lazy to me.

Other issues: It's Hot. Some people say that it's warm to the touch, yes, on top. Feel the bottom part of the modem and it's very hot to the touch. I think if you want maximum performance, either put a fan to it, or rip it out and give it a bigger box with proper ventilation. Bad thing is that I can't stack it on my modem anymore.

What's left: At the moment, i have to test out the 2.4Ghz range with the PS3 and the Wii using WPA. And double check that it doesn't interfere with my Cordless phone.

Wishlist: DD-WRT Pleeease get it working! I missed the real time throughput graph and VLANs!

New years - 1st post of 2009

2009-01-06T23:25:00.002+11:00

Another new year, getting older! Many people asked me whether I have made any new years resolution - and it took me a number of years to realise that they don't work!!!!! My friend made a resolution to "not made any more new years resolution". I think i should copy that, it'll definitely work for me :)

Realistically I had a one week break, and now work, life and everything is back to full throttle. I think I really need to take a month off or something like that to rest. This is the 1st year that I had extra leave accumulated from the previous year.

On the news 2009 all doom and gloom etc etc, I hope it's not as bad as everyone makes out to be!

It's arrived! My macbook pro 15"!!!!!! Mini review for Ahem

2008-12-25T00:59:00.005+11:00

After continuously ringing the credit card company to tell them that I am going to do a big transaction and not ended up going to the store to get it, the sales guy at Myer - Reza (great guy thanks for the help that day) decided to not hold it any longer and deliver it to me for free!

I have to admit that I was ripped off by Apple on the RAM and the HD AND the 2.8Ghz CPU - if only I can get my hands on the CPU separately, then I wouldn't have spent so much money (I am talking at least a grand less, Apple's 2.8G configuration only comes with 4G so effectively I am ripped off by RAM with no choice)! By the way, whether you think this is worth it is purely subjective, but I've saved for so long for it. It did bugged me for a while that I hanged on for the last 5 years to get a aluminum 13", then realised that in that size the desktop is also too small. Felt a bit weird waiting for 5 years for the release of the 12" or 13" aluminum Macbooks only to get the 15" because I could have got the last release of the 15" and salary sacrafice it. I can't now :(

Everyone is paying me out at work with my excessive spending - except the MAC users. They are extra keen to offer me "assistance" and "suggestions". heh. Linux users (which sits surrounds me) wanted to see if anything linux can be run. Of cos it can it's freebsd :)

So after updating the OS and other stuff (like itunes that I never use), I get down to the nitty gritty of the insanely expensive lappy to see if it's my money's worth. So in analysis style comparing the old with the new (that's the only thing that I can compare it to):

Pros:

It is VERY light, only slightly more than my 12" Powerbook
Enchanced screen, I am not a graphic designer so I don't need the Matted version
FAST - very fast boot up (unlike my old Powerbook)
Much bigger screen
2 (finally!!!) mouse buttons with multitouch
Not hot at all (I think I need to run something that is more demanding to know)
Small sized updates (obviously comparing that to Microsoft)

Cons:

I don't like the keyboard. I'll get used to it, but I don't like my finger landing between the keys. Plus they are plastic.
Screen is heavy because of the glass. I constanly sit the laptop on an angle, and the screen will collapse into the keyboard. Normal use is ok. I also don't like the black frame!
Insanely expensive! The RAM is a rippoff!
I think this size of the keyboard can fit a numpad in it (like 17" HP laptops) which I use all the time. No it doesn't have any num lock or number pad unlike my old powerbook.
inputs - Firewire connectors have gone "mini" i know it does faster speed ok. I just hope they use the same plug.
Instead of Mini Dvi input they have a smaller one now. I have to get another adapter for video output. Good that they throw that in with the laptop.

The other thing that I want to confirm is whether Time machine can write to Drobo without formatting it. My colleague said that it doesn't format anything, but that was before the day that I installed MACfuse and NTFS-3G on it. I need to try again.

Last thing: Virtualisation - VMWARE 2 or Parallels 4? Reading the reviews it's a pity that Parallels is very buggy. I am not keen on Boot Camp but the statistics points to that in the mean time. They have come a long way, but not far enough yet. Obviously there are still so many things that only run on windows. On that note I think I need to check out Crossover too.

I need to take a photo of the old and the new Mac, it looked so cool lining them side by side, and especially that I kept the box! Apple did get tighter and tighter in terms of what's included in the box, I didn' tknow that they didn't include the remote! Lucky that I don't really need it ... yet.

The final verdict on the old power book is:

Excellent, excellent! Considering its 5 years old, it was able to run MacOSX 10.5 with all these added features with very low loss of speed. Not comparing to the new Mac, I am comparing the hardware 5 years ago. You simply cannot do the same with a PC laptop. I was able to do everything that I do with the exception of super high res mkvs (someone ripped a series in 1902 resolution!) . If Motorolla was successful in making a G5 chip for laptops, it's a pity that we are no longer using Motorolla chips, the G4 is excellent!

So I guess I will be spending a hell of a lot of time on this, and should I sell my old mac? I am emotionally attached to it. Hard decision!

Oh it's christmas day now, Merry Christmas!

Shopping Shopping Shopping Shopping.... broke!

2008-12-12T10:47:00.005+11:00

Thanks to the exchange rate, things are getting cheaper and cheaper here.... to the point that I can't resist not buying! Check this out: www.catchoftheday.com.au and www.dailydeals.com.au is an absolute wallet killer. Every store is now going for 30-50% off, the retailers are desperate to get your money!

The Linux version of the Acer is like, 315 after cashback! How cheap is that! Maybe if I hang on I can get that price down to 250 bucks? heh.

Failblog

2008-12-02T21:47:00.002+11:00

This site, is so good! Thanks to my colleague at work who spent his free time searching for weird (clean stuff) sites, he came across this site and it was absolutely gold!!!!

Check it out: http://failblog.org/

This is something that during a really stressful day, will lift you up. It's not like Aust funniest videos where people laugh at people getting hurt, this site has genuine stupid and funny things, sent in by people all over the world.

Highly recommended and a great lift when you are stressed!

The Howard Years

2008-11-24T21:45:00.000+11:00

I didn't catch the start of it, don't know how accurate this was, but after this I really felt sorry for Peter Costello somehow. It seemed that after all he has done for the Australian economy, he got the short end of the stick. Maybe its a mistake to show your intentions. The more you want the job, the less likely you'll get it.

Maybe he should do what Kev did, no one knows who he was, and suddenly he was opposition leader. Although I voted for Labor, I have to admit that Peter Costello knew what he did with the economy than this government. But after being shafted so many times I don't see how he would want the job either. And John Howard is one sly old man! I don't see how the "accidental slips" with his comments are accidental. He would have one of the most successful prime ministers if he retire on a high, if only he didn't get arrogant. That put a big black mark against him. Pity.

Credit? What Credit?

2008-11-24T00:26:00.001+11:00

Got a bit of a whinge to get off my chest. Myer decided to extend the "family and friends" discount to apply for many items in store ending saturday. I wished for a Macbook pro for a long time and with 10 percent off no haggling, I decided to go for it. They had the 12 months interest free, but you have to go with the Myer credit card or store card - and all I need to do is to apply on the spot.

Maybe it's a sign already, but being honest is not necessarily a good thing in this case. I had an excellent credit limit, with whatever credit card I hold constantly offering me credit increases. Makes it so easy to spend big isn't it. But I use Credit card as what they are designed for: for just in case. The 2nd reason is the rewards. And I pay it off every month, never late.

Anyway, I disclosed my info honestly... and guess what, it was declined! Not very happy about it, I rang up and advised that I do have another credit card with excellent credit ratings (with GE money) and got offers of 5 times my current limit just a month ago. Don't credit ratings take into account my payment history? Obviously not. They take into the account of the current limit and that is it. To show them my dissatisfaction, I canceled my other credit card I have with GE money on the spot and told them I will never be a GE money customer. Obviously the Indian dude on the other end is just doing his job, and there isn't much he can do about it.

That's not the end of the story though. Because it's very rare to get 10 percent off Apple anything without begging and spending a great deal of time haggling, and my old 5 year old power book is due, I decided to do a custom made 2.8 G 15 inch Macbook pro. That's a fair sum, so I have enough credit on my current card, so I decided to go for it.

Now if the guy decided to just do a deposit sum at this point, it's fine. But maybe it's store policy, they want to put the full sum through. That somehow triggered a "security alert" with citibank - declined. At this stage I am starting to think whether I should get this or not. Sure I don't need it, I want it but maybe the Gods are telling me something (I am by no means religious btw, but when things doesn't go well one after another, makes me think). We did a marathon transation, trying about 10 times with declined while on the phone to citibank who insisted that we do a "manual transaction". After various phone calls to Myer's bank/Mastercard and Citibank the team leader decided to hang up on me. Great customer service there.

What's weird is that on the terminal it says "declined" and I was told that transaction was "approved" and "Pending" - so it ate my credit too. At the end I spat the dummy and said that I'll just pay a holding deposit by eftpos, please cancel my transaction.

So it's definitely not smooth sailing to buy something, and I have never thought that it's that hard! The most ironic thing was that I was reading a book called "Don't get Mad, get wise!" just before I encounter this nightmare experience. If I turn into a Budda then maybe I can have no temper.

The whole process took 3 hours.

And today....

I swear that either the gods are really looking after me, or punishing me for my shopping. I said to my colleague that I'll swap his day for next week and 3 hours later.... page. Something has failed at work and unable to contact the people on site I have to ditch Dave and go back to work. He said that he was going to come with me but if he was going to wait anyway, better leave him at home playing PS3 rather than doing nothing at work. When I turn up I got the "aha x 2 someone just walked in, why didn't you call us to tell us you are coming in?" Yeah i did call, wrong number - both of them! Checked equipment and I smelled something burning, but dimishing.

Took me 4 hours to get that fixed.

Great thing is that I get extra cash next pay. Bad thing is that I had a shit weekend, and possibly I have to dispute the refund (if they don't get through with the transaction cancellation)

Fate and Karma, it went in a full circle in one weekend!

Things I have to do for a new MAC!!!!!!

Heartless Hotline!

2008-11-06T17:10:00.003+11:00

Bloody heartless callers to the Kyle and Jackie O show! I don't even know why this was created in the first place, but after listening to a week of "I don't care how unfortunate this person is, I wanted the money. Stuff everyone out there. If I don't get it someone else will".

To "test" if there are heartless people out there is ridiculous! Obviously there is, like that Kelly Archer who in the end, guilt got too much of her and she gave the money to the boy on a dialisis machine. I swear that I heard the poker machine going off while she was on the phone. But yesterday's guy, the Vietnam who has no conscience at all, I feel like trying to get him out and punching him in the face.

I've been trying for the last 2 days to get through, to try and beat those people.. bloody hell! If anyone who thinks on the same line, call up to beat them. Someone's greed will get the better of them and since it's proven that the guilt thing won't work, I hope them all rot in hell.. and I am not even religious!

You'll never survive in corporate Hong Kong!

2008-10-29T23:27:00.004+11:00

Had a great chat to my beautician today - forgot the initial chit chat that we had and the most memorial one was how my character is not suitable in Hong Kong.

We started off talking about the financial crisis that is happening, and how it's affecting Hong Kong. Then we talked about friends that went back and some came back because they couldn't handle life over there.

The typical culture there is:
1. you don't leave earlier than the boss, even if you hang around for hours waiting for the boss to go.
2. You have to belong to a mob, get singled out and you are dead meat. Backstabbing is pretty bad there.
3. Always never make friends with your colleague. Watch out for the back.
4. Show you can do more with less.
5. Blend in, say, getting the LV bag that you simply can't afford and the latest phone. People would get nasty and they will openly critisise you in front of you. (WTF!)

Dare to be different? Then you will be singled out and they will bully you. There is no such thing as rights in the work place over there. Everyone is so scared about their jobs that they are putting up with anything.

For me, well, speak my mind and I don't see how I can survive there, unless you go back to be boss. What is the point of hanging around work just for the sake of hanging around? Pretending to be hardworking? How productive can you be in a 13-15 hour day? 6 hours?

And then we compare to what is happening here in Aust. Why do people don't get so hung up on the latest bag and phone from so and so? (I am sure some does here but in HK everyone is like that, it's so in your face).

I think, it's because Western mentality is very different. They are willing to spend money on ENJOYING life. Go out, socialise. Comparing to this, Westerners seem to really know how to enjoy life, where as people in HK doesn't seem to have their own identity or they mask it to protect themselves - which is so shallow in one aspect.

Globalisation of corporations with their "in your face" advertising (with celebrities really fuelling this) seem to throw out a msg of "if you buy this, you'll be like celebrity X, It's your dream!" and it seem to work every time.

Why can't people be themselves? There is always the mob mentality, go with the flow since it's the path of least resistance. I had a friend who went back last year and he complained that the only thing people are interested in was how much money he makes. He said that no one is interested in him as a person, just what he has materialistically, and all they can talk about is sex and money!

So yeah, that isn't a rosy picture of Hong Kong corporate/business world, in my perspective. If I go back I'll be cast as an outsider anyway, and I get the same treatment here. But at least here, people are willing to know me as a person, not by what I wear and what phone/bag I use. I guess, I can't survive in Hong Kong - I'll end up being miserable! So yeah, my beautician is absolutely correct. I don't see how I can survive either.

Dramatisation of real life disasters

2008-10-22T21:03:00.000+11:00

Just watching channel 7 just then, and they were showing Crash investigation and then, Medical Emergency. I know these shows were created (maybe initially) to raise awareness of what goes on with the daily life of cops and forensic units, and hospital. But when I look at it now it looks like that they deliberately dramatise someone's misfortune to raise ratings.

Bondi rescue is a prime example. Its probably ratings more than anything - but using real life disasters as a topic is so unethical.

Macbook 13" - It's arrived!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-15T16:58:00.005+11:00

It's here!!!! After 4 long years of waiting it's here!!!!!!!!!!! Looks like my prayers have been answered. No more plastic Macbooks! I am upgrading.......when I have the money.