Sunday, December 31, 2006

A few words before end of 2006

I got this message from a friend

''Wake up! Wake up! Today is d last day of 2006! Dun let d day slip away! Do all d evil things u wan to do! Then start anew in 2007! Hehe! Happy New Year! James (Maxis)''

Thanks James for reminding me some evil things left undone. :) There are couples of word I would like to say before end of 2006.

To my wife: Thanks for being understanding and a lot patient building this family together. I'm really blessed for having you as my wife and I’ve learned a lot from you as about family values. I'm looking forward on next year to build a more fun and joyful relationship together.

To my dad, sisters and brother: As I have my own family now, we've been seldom to see each other. I hope the coming New Year we would able to spend more time together. I miss you all.

To my friends: I hope most of you would understand my situation and that does not mean the end of our gathering. If you guys have any events coming up, please do let me know. I’ll try to squeeze out some time with you guys. ;)

To my current colleague: As you know, I’ll be moving to new company next year. It’s been wonderful working with you guys and thanks for guiding me along the way on my job. It’s been a very fruitful year to me and I hope we would able to work together again in future.

To my blog reader: Thanks for keep coming back for supporting my blog. This is the last post for 2006 and I hope you keep coming back for year 2007. For those who haven't start blogging, why not make one for this New Year? Not just for yourself but for the people who cares about you. ;)

Finally, I would like wish all the best, a prosperous and fruitful 2007 to you. Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Working Panda

There was a quake near Taiwan and it caused entire asia having trouble to surf the internet. most of the website is either slow or unable to reach at all and that's bad news for my company.

My company is fully dependent on internet in order to operate. Developers and QAs depend on internet connection to download the latest update or upload their work. Since the internet was down, consequently not much of productivity can be done from employees.

So, the management came out a 'brilliant' idea. Flexible working, that's how they called it. Working schedule were change from normal '9 to 6' to '12pm to 6am' or '3am to 9am'. taxi fare can be claimed since there are no public transport available on that hour. After some discussion with my team, I end up with the schedule '3am to 9am' as agreed with all my team members.

I woke up at 2 am and I'd book the cab to pick me up at 2:30 am. I reached the company at 2:50 am because the taxi driver drove so fast since there was almost no car on the road. Anyway, when I reached the company, the driver laughed at me after he found out that my working hour was 3 in the morning. I was embarrassed and quickly paid up my fare.

When I reached to my office, I was hoping the internet connection would perform much faster than daytime connection speed. Unfortunately, the speed hasn't change that much even we're work at 3 am in the morning. People in the office raise their voice in disappointment due the 'flexible hours' wasn't help at all. Anyway, we found out a trick to use the external proxy to do our work although it's a bit slow. Nevertheless, an external proxy trick is better than no proxy at all.

Internet connection speed would be much faster at early in the morning. Yeah right.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Nightmare after Christmas

No. It's not the movie that I'm talking about but the experience going home one day using the train service.

So, it wasn't the first time that the Putra LRT station had a technical problem. The train was moving slower and stay longer than usual at each of the station. I ended up as one of the office worker who queue up within a long line of people, eagerly getting back home as soon as possible. Some people was complaining while waiting and some people decided to choose another alternative way to go home. But I decided to stay quite and wait. Unfortunately, it took me 45 minutes in order to get onto the train.

I thought that was end of my nightmare when I get down on Central intersection. Well, the KTM train wasn't turn up so nicely as I thought it would be.

First, the air-cond was off. In my opinion, they can turn off anything but the air-cond. Second, a lot of people took the same train as I did. Third, the windows were tightly shut. When I was in the train, I thought I'm unable to breath due to the crowd and the tightly shut windows. Subsequently, the compartment was getting hotter and hotter. All the people started to feel the air humidity and temperature raising. I bet everybody's mind was thinking how fast the next stop would reach and looking forward the door to open again. At this time, we all would be relieved to get some fresh air gushing in.

While we all was day dreaming, the train moved for 5 minutes and then suddenly stopped in middle of nowhere. Later on, came an announcement that our train has to be halt for the commercial train to pass by. "Oh man!". That's the response came through everybody's mind.

We all waited patiently for 15 minutes and the air became so humid that all the windows were misted. Some people still had the humor to draw a "SOS" message on the windows. :D Fortunately, some people manage to get one of the window opened and this bring a little relief to us. However, that didn't solve the air problem in the compartment and it became harder to breathe. Then we saw 2 trains passed by and our train moved on after that. Some people got down on the first stop due to unable to withstand the air quality.

Anyway, I decided to stay in the train even though my mind was tempted to get down at the first stop; and I was right. After a few stop, then came a staff with special tool which specifically used to open those windows. Then the whole environment started to live up a bit due a lot people was frowning their faces all the while, including me. :D

When I get down on my stop, there was a temptation to kiss on the floor and said "I'm alive".

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Company Gift Exchange Event

Group photo of my cost center with their gift.

From Merry Christmas
So, what do I get for Christmas? Photo frame.
Gee. Thanks dude.

P/S : In the photo, don't you find like there are 2 gang. One with black and the other with purple and white? Funny.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Treasure Hunt

It was bright sunny Saturday and we (I and my wife) went for a morning workout in the gym. After that, we stop by Sunway College just to check out some IT courses. We got some heading from the internet and newspaper regarding IT courses that are offered in a very affordable price from Sunway College.

After some enquiries with the staff there, the funny part came when we trying to pay the parking ticket. The parking ticket costs RM2. However, both of us do not any small change and the machine only accepts RM1 and RM2 notes. (By the way, an RM2 note has been obsolete by the government). The total amount of coins we have were merely 1.20 and it's not enough to pay for the ticket.

We tried the college canteen to ask for small changes but they weren't open on Saturday. So, we went back to our car to find any coins just to pay up the amount. Unfortunately, the ash tray is empty. :O

So, the hunt began. We search through both our seats and bags. We're laughing while searching and unbelief that this would happen to us. Luckily, I remember I've drop a few coins in my bag and in the hollow, which just beside my seat. After a shake here and there, finally we make up the total of the amount to pay the parking ticket.

It's not a bad idea to drop few coins here and there in the car because some day, it might save you from some embarrassment.

A group of travelers

I like watching anime but not a fan for it. Don't get me wrong that I'm still a kid who watches sailormoon or dragonball. There are some anime which made for adults and some even made it into the movie.

Well, one of my favorite is Cowboy Bebop and the good news is, the same director has made a new series (Not so new actually because it was made in 2004). It was called Samurai Champloo. I picked it up when I was in a book fair and this series turn out to be quite good. Each of the main characters in the story have their own unique style and thought, which made the whole story very interesting to watch.

Anyway, I'm not going to start a review about it here due to a lot of review has been out there (Try Google). However, the interesting part which I found in this anime and Cowboy Bebop is that, both story start with character on a journey. He/She found a companion along the journey and they all traveling together. A lot of fun and interesting event happened on their way and they all overcome their obstacle together. Finally, the journey came to the end and the group of travelers gone to their separate way.

Somehow, I wonder all this reflect to my life (I believe this affects everybody's life). I went change my high school once and so I end up having 2 groups of high school friends. Nevertheless, everybody has to go their own way. I've change my job once and the same thing happened again.

It always been sad to me when the anime character has to go their separate ways in the end, but I believe that's how life should be and waiting to begin another new journey again.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Malaysia bites back or ...?

Previously I've written a blog regarding a column written by a foreigner, who talks about the politics and economy in Malaysia. It was well written and a lot people (Malaysian and non-Malaysian) talks about it. Eventually, it become a heated debate on what he has written.

Now, there is a respond from "the authorities" regarding his article (By the way, if what he has written wasn't real, who cares? But there was a "respond", which I think they made even more mistake.). The author replies it with even more points to ponder.

So, does any action (either good or bad) will take against it? My bet was None. Does this make people who concern on Malaysia future to think? I don't know, but I'm one of them who choose to think.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Programming can be fun

In my colleague years, I have done my first program using turbo pascal. Then I moved up from there using C programming. Unfortunately, the way of the tutor teaching C programming was too dogmatic and it makes the whole class very boring and dull. Nevertheless, I still pass the subject in a hard way.

Then I went into university and heard something about C++, which is more advance than C and most of my friend said that this language is too hard to learn. (I've learn pointers in C and it took me some time to figure it out.) Anyway, I get a sense of fear when people talks about C++ even though I haven't touch and see the language itself. Well, perhaps it was because the "++" follows behind the "C" word makes it sounds like very advance, tough and only genius knows how to use it.

So, it's been 5 years now and people still using C programming to write their program for commercial use. It's hard for me to believe due to I'm VB fan and I thought people should have advanced to a more high level language (like .Net). Due to this fact, I went to the internet to find something about C programming.

The site provide a lot material and resource regarding this language. I started to find my initial perception on C++ wasn't quite true (perhaps it was Object Oriented Programming language that cause a lot of people to stay away it). After looking through the book review section on that website, I bought myself a book on C++, titled "C++ without fear". How nice. The best thing was, I got the book through a book fair with a very affordable price.

Perhaps it was time for me to pick up a "new" language. Not for academic purpose but for the fun of learning and knowledge. :)

Christmas Tree

KLCC has put up the Christmas tree to welcome the festive season. I believe it's the same tree they used for last year. :P

From KLCC Christma...

Anyway, Merry Christmas...., although it's a bit too early.

Updates on 20/12/2006: I've uploaded 3 more photos

From Merry Christmas