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November 2006

Viewing posts from November , 2006

all the girls’ stepping out for a public affair

yay. the singapore grrls are coming soon! coming to a chocolate buffet near you.

speaking of choc buffets, i kinda missed the last one. anyone up for a second round? 🙂

the timing of stuff happening this month is just… really dangerously close to each other. big system bug will keep me at work tonight and tomorrow night probably. i must get it fixed before the weekend cuz i’ll be up in terengganu checking out the monsoon cup. then the following week i have more training with SAP, and right after that the girls arrive. phew.

6-day gauntlet

Wednesday:

Level 1: eloquence: explaining a program bug that made a mess to users.

Thursday:

Level 2: orientation: driving to Kompleks Antarabangsa, KL, without knowing exactly where it is. well, i thought it was along Raja Chulan, but it was actually on Sultan Ismail nearby.

Friday:

Level 3: reflex: driving to Kompleks Antarabangsa, KL, with the usual route being blocked by traffic police. Tun Perak closed.

Level 4: being an informed buyer: went to Low Yat to buy a CCD webcam. Cycom guy (Ah Hei or something) tells me the camera is slow on the demo computer because the demo computer is USB 1.1. thinking something is amiss, i double check in Device Manager. guy gets offended cuz i don’t believe him and makes a scene. i just buy the damn thing anyway.

Saturday:

Level 5: confrontation: the webcam doesn’t seem to perform on my home computer. went back to Cycom to check. they (Darren) installed it to another PC that has 2.0 USB (something which I think they should’ve done in the first place). seems fine. reiterated their need to upgrade their demo PC. Ah Hei continues his “we are honest people” argument. in any case Darren was helpful enough, so I didn’t care what Ah Hei thinks.

Saturday/Sunday:

Level 6: patience: attempted to reinstall windows, since i didn’t do so when i changed my motherboard hoping that it’ll fix the USB problems (slow, s3 resume). system partition somehow got corrupted after installing sp2 (and i wasn’t even overclocking). had to reformat system drive, losing all my emails and maybe some pictures. computer seems slower after i successfully reinstalled everything though. grr.

Monday:

Level 7: health: down with fever. started off with a sore throat saturday morning from friday night’s BBQ at shud’s place with USC alumni. went to dispensary twice to get medication and mc.

Level 8: big boss: had to explain the program bug and proposed solutions again to the users’ GM. while being sick too.

And what did I get at the end: nothing, really.

sap netweaver tech tour

rm3 parking + hours of technological showcasing = picnic bag + 1gb thumb drive.

not bad for a day’s worth of listening to marketing gimmicks and buyins. would’ve gotten myself a nice purple umbrella too, if i wasn’t too busy munching down slices of marble cheesecake.

my colleague won a nano. how lucky.

brain overheating

T’was the normal pain in the head. Annoying but never crippling. Today was the same, except on a slightly larger magnitude.

Hence the EL, which later got converted into an MC.

So that’s a migraine. I’ve always had it, but had usually attributed it as a common headache. And I thought it folly to assume that they were migraines without actually knowing the symptoms, and without a doctor telling you that they were.

And I’m starting to love painkillers. What migraine? But no, only if prescribed. Too much medication = bad.

Still, I’m wondering if I should turn in this MC. If I recall correctly, I haven’t taken MC this year at all. And that might warrant an award of sorts. 🙂

yada yada yada

It’s amazing what you can find browsing people’s forum signatures. I was doing just that a while ago on LYN and found a banner of this Jpop group Hinoi Team. Wondering what their performances were like, I downloaded this torrent called the “Hinoi Team Compilation”, which seems to be videos of their more popular songs.

Yummy. While their vocals aren’t much (think Japanese PCD, but worse), it’s sure fun to watch ’em dance their Para Para tracks. Yup, good enough for me. 😛 Who cares if their Night on Fire song is a ripoff. 😛

One video tho that caught my eye was their revocalisation of Glay x Exile’s Scream, with Yamada Yu. I think that was really well done, such that 5 sexy grrls are much better than 4. 🙂 And Yu is suprrrr hot. Anyways, that led me to the original version of the song, which isn’t bad either. Good for you, Glay. Looks like you won’t be forgotten just yet. 🙂

Anyways……

Manager, or specialist?

Manager: initial grade jump = 1. Higher glass ceiling.
Specialist: initial grade jump = 2. Lower glass ceiling.

Hmmm…. that probably boils back down to my brain. Engineer, or politician?

Anyways……

Our excursions around Klang Valley with the Italians, Valeria and Marco, interns at the Italian embassy, have been very pleasant. First it was desserts/supper at KTZ Jalan Imbi with Merv and nAf, then the start of the Raja Muda Intl Regatta at Port Klang. We definitely have so much more to cover though, especially the makan parts.

Anyways……

In between excursions the gang saw Casino Royale, which I think was pretty good. Straying from the traditional series depicting Bond as a perfect being, this one gives a look at the hero’s humane side, and how behind the coolness he’s still vulnerable to a lot of things that don’t kill.

Next movie: the prestige!

Oh, and I finally met piffles. 😛

first impressions

italians seem pretty nice. especially ones willing enough to leave their country and experience the world.
jusco member sales are mad. the amount of people and the amount of traffic are.. horrific. good discounts though.

man in the middle

Throughout your lifetime there will always be an event, or a series of events that will force you to reevaluate your life. Such a thing happened for me over the weekend, and as usual I’m feeling all shitty about it.

Such is the path for one uncertain. Repeated questions with answers ignored. Obvious answers. Either way, whatever decision is made, there will be persons displeased. Family, or friend.

Wait equals suffering. And death does not wait.

softcam development

Before I mentioned that I’ll be trying to build an Astro set-top box replacement via a HTPC. Due to limited availability and functionality of the necessary hardware, it’s going to cost a bomb.

But sympathizers of people who can’t afford most things like myself have developed a method to allow softCAMs (i.e. software-based Conditional Access Modules) with Media-Portal (MP), which is my HTPC software of choice.

This new filter or plugin will allow MP to gain access to what is called MDAPI, which is something that handles the decryption of signals (I haven’t quite looked into yet). But this new development looks promising.

And… it’ll lower my hardware costs tremendously. Instead of spending perhaps RM800 on a DVB-S card with CI support and a hardware CAM module, I’ll only need a normal DVB-S card (RM250) and perhaps a smartcard reader (RM200).

You can get the info, and the filter, here. You’ll need to register to enter the forums, but for me it was worth it.

Also note that softCAMs can be used to access pay channels illegally. This is rampant in regions full of satellite TV, like Europe, but for us here in SEA, the possibilities and gains are quite limited.

i love the internet!

I found this awesome classic RPG, Castle of the Winds, while looking through a box of 5.25″ floppies I was about to throw out. It wasn’t hard to find a reference off the net! 😀

Other things I picked out were Commander Keen, Maniac Mansion, Last Half of Darkness, Solar Winds, Cadaver, and Zone 66. 🙂