My Own 802.11g Network!

There! Thanx to Kudeen & the bunch of friendly people in MyMug, finally I managed to set my own wireless network. Finally got the router connected - without using the installation CD nor a Windoze machine! For a non-technical dude, it is another milestone for me in appreciating & utilizing technology. This weekend the network will be tested with multiple OS devices connectivity....goodbye to the wires!

Stuffs for Yoda

Waited more than a year for this purchase...The Considerable Embarassment & sidekick Thirsty Al meet KOSS the UPS

Yoda has no proper sleepingBAG, not until I got my first Crumpler on Tuesday this week.....its just natural for a MAC to have a Crumpler as its proper sleepingBAG....
Waiting for the MAC compatible see-through mousie to arrive from Vietnam next....and the router to work properly!
Looks like I have to borrow Kudeen's T42 to do that......or maybe try what the MyMug dudes mentioned in the forum...

Gheez....lotsa pix & story to post.....last scan of Baby Aliya, our small garden rebuilt, the twin's bedroom and stuff......need more effort! Need more effort!

Texas Trail revisited

We have been eating hotel foods since Monday...but today is a little different.....I got to meet the guy who hosted our team when we were in Houston TX for a project couple of years ago.

He is a very friendly person. He actually came and picked us up at Galleria Houston for a dinner at his place, a solid (if I recall correctly) 45-60 minutes drive (Texas Trail, Sugar Land). That was the first time I had turkey! Aww come on! It really was my first time tasting daging ayam Belanda! Orang kampung first time gi Amerika laaa beb!

We spent a couple of hours berborak then he drove us back to the Galleria....a very good, friendly, humble and generous host.

I realize it was the same guy when he walked on to the stage for his speech. After prayers, I looked into the Contact List in my totally outdated P900 and found the name and address in TX still intact! I actually recorded that info into my IBM WorkPad C3 Palm OS device which I used those early years, synch it with all other devices that I have been using all the years after that.

I walked to the table he was sitting and showed him the address, he immediately recalled our visit to TX! We talked for a while and we found out we live quite close to each other - BTHO and Saujana Impian is not far at all!

He's now based in this region - a big guy to the company he's been working with.

To Megat Zariman of Schlumberger, thank you so much for your kindness & hospitality dude!

If you are arrogant, please don't come here again!

1.
Was walking out of the airgate after maghrib prayer when this one guy from one company I used to work was about to walk in. He stopped me and asked me what is the best PDA phone to get now.

I answered casually, perhaps you could consider the XDAii Mini.

His response was, "Shit! Small memory lah" and walked on without looking at me or say anything else.

WTF?!! Techies used that device and they can live with it and do stuffs with it, possibly more than the guy would ever be able to do stuffs with his.....ookaaayy let's not go there...

How rude....some people kan, are really stupid with regards to tech and yet try as hard as they can to be tech savvy. Be (or pretend to be) as tech savvy as you want but please BEHAVE properly when talking to others. The blardy gadget won't make you any different of an asshole at all laa richboy! So you have ( or going to get) a state-of-the-art smartphone, tell the world about it.....in the end you'd probably use it to make & receive calls, SMS and put some stupid porn pix/ movie in it and go wank the hell out of your fat arse. WTF do you mean "small memory"? Is it the RAM or ROM or the stupid card that come with it in the IO SD slot? Gheez in the first place, do you really know those jargons I just used? OH you don't? Damn...and I thot the company you are in is full of smart young (and THINK they are smart, and young!) people.

(Dang....am I really mad or what!)

If you happen to come across people like this jerk, what would you feel?

Anyways, I am slowly moving out from the mainstream of tech.....I would not be able (read: refuse!) to support any of them very soon, reasons:

1) I don't use Windoze & Microshit.....the laptop you use is perhaps twice the price of all my outdated IT stuffs in my bag.
2) I don't use sexy smart phones on Microshit platform - the one I carry with me is totally outdated but I cud do more stuff with than....ok ok let's not go there again!
3) This wannabetechsavvy tribe - most of them - are just too rich (or think they are rich) and trying hard to look tech savvy, I am allergic to this tribe....very allergic
4) I don't upgrade everytime a new product is launched so I don't really know what it is for....maybe to make & receive calls and do some SMS? Those functions savvy enough for you?
5) The sector of my brain that stored the memory of using any other devices other than MAC & Symbian/ EPOC based would just fail to retrieve information asked by arrogant wannabees.....go ask Bill Gates, OR ANY OTHER ARROGANT WANNABEES...


2.
As a person, it is just a normal wish to end the day in a good mode. Agree? Well not everybody would like to end the day in a bad mood…if you are one of them, something must be wrong with you then…Perhaps you should get together with the arrogant guy I mentioned above...

I was having quite a good day until towards the end (yeah the arrogant richboy really made my day!).

Was very excited when I collected the wi-fi router & UPS from Kudean around lunch time and went through the user manual of the router. Looks easy, only thing is…..I have to bring back the bloody 4C3R machine to set thing. No documentation on the pack saying it can be done from a MAC. Well, if iths the way to do it, and I must use the dreaded machine, then I just must lah....

Fast forward…..what was supposed to be 20 minutes work turned out to be almost 3 hours labor! Setting up the UPS was a jiff, definitely but the router….totally different scenario. I followed the procedures in detail, to the exact alphabets of every words! Everything went well until the final section of the procedure, where the router could not connect to the laptop, LAN light blinking furiously! Re-tried and re-tried and retried, to the point that I decided to dump it and try get help from the Jedi Mahagurus…

Well at least I can still get connected on wire, and with the UPS as the vanguard, I don’t have to worry about having a fried MoBo for sahur!

The failure pissed me off a bit lah….but I don’t actually feel that bad, considering the fact that it is mentioned in the manual that setting the router up with an office networked PC/ laptop is not really recommended, since thee may be some settings that need to be cleared by the office administrator. Dealt with the IPconfig on DOS but to no avail so I guess I have to ask help from the real expert lah! Posted it on MyMug already….real techies here, not arrogant wannabees...definitely not richboy's club!

3.
I pray that Alisya & Naufal won't become a character like that guy lah......Amin!

A cool gadget for mummy & daddy....

We can hear what our baby is doing in
mummy's tummy with this little device....is that not cool!

Towards the end of the first trimester, wifey bought this litle device called BebeSounds - Prenatal Heart Listener. She did that after doing some research on the net and found out the device has landed on Malaysian shores about one or two years back.

No side effect on the baby for using this device - claimed by the manufacturer, confirmed that with our gynae. If I am asked to explain what this device is all about, I'd just say its like the stetoscope (is that the correct spelling?) used by doctors, only not in its conventional form.

We - including Alisya & Naufal - have listened to our baby's movements, heartbeat and hiccups...yeah hiccups!

I think there's another model that would allow us to record the sound, but that one comes only with one headset jack if I am not mistaken....but.....hmmm.....let's see.... maybe we can record the sound using this model we have too.....

Goodbye T23!

That's my old faithful T23, my first notebook I ever bought. Been with the family since 2003, until last night, I finally sold it off to the vendor who has been paid to help me maintain it since 2003.

The machine was a refurbished unit - up-spec here and there, add this and that....but it did a very good job since the first day I bought it from an online deal.

It started deteriorating when loads of patches and fixes were automatically installed (should have disabled that in the first place) and one night the downloading went too long and being the workhorse, the T23 was still doing the stuff I use it for and then being left on for too long to cater for that stupid patch/ fix download, the next day, the screen saver was still, that's when I realized the machine has gone overboard. After a few attempt to revive it, I suspect that the MoBo was fried. Sent it to the vendor......

Fast forward, after replacing the MoBo, things went down hill. The soul of my T23 was not the same.

If I am ever to get another notebook, it will be the IBM. The T23 has convinced me, IBM built tough & reliable machines. My kids have whacked it's keyboard and case, dropped it from place I use it to work my stuff, I once threw the bag containing the T23 to a cabinet due to uncontrolled anger to one boss (long story but I am glad I lashed the anger on the bag, not the person otherwise it may have been pretty ugly) the action I did shocked the office floor but the damage on the T23 was only on its hinge, it just slipped a bit and was fixed in less than 30 seconds .

The T23 was very tough and reliable, except for the OS its using, which is a totally overrated screwed up junk.

Well, I believe the T23 is now under operation, maybe down spec-ing it to fit the market price of current P-III machines, some of the hardwares may be replaced.......whatever it may going to be like in the end, I'd always remember my T23 like the first day I got it.

Good bye T23! You will always be with the family, as far as we are concerned you are now a stack of RM in my wallet, which will be used to fund the new gate, so technically, T23, you will always be here!

Breaking fast with pontianak.....

Orang mau amik gambau wei! Control ayu.....

Semalam, our unit had a berbuka puasa arrangement - self sponsored!
Coincidently, the place we booked was also booked by Pontianak II crew, so the people started getting excited lah, celebrity around, makan pun tak penting, amik gambar pun boleh kenyang.

Sampai ader laa sorang manusia tu excited sangat, tangan pun terlupa basuh.....

Since I have my FZ10 with me, it was natural of a photogwannabee to join the real main stream photogs with their expensive stuffs lah....here's a few of the best I can do lah....

Doesn't look scary at all?

Wonder how's the movie going to be like...

Malaysian Batmobile? (WongAhBeng kasi explain sikit please!)

Shell looks like a Ford Escort from the 70s (maybe Ghia)....

On our way to work one day.....lovelywifey spotted a batmobile.....kinda cool, definitely far cooler than any riceboy rigs with stickers! So she took some pix using her FX8...

I just wonder what's that thing sticking out on the side is for.....rocket launcher?!

Mana pulak si Wong Ah Beng ni...kasi komen sikit beng, lu kan SuperSifuMurahGuru Liceboy....

Who won?

From old folder:
At the RenaultF1Team command centre in F1 Sepang

Remember Achoncho...the mission is just to bring the V10 engine home, and we are done for this season....faham aaa? OK aaa?

Heheheh! Who won? Who again? Who?

R is for reliable. R is for Renault. Renault is not for boastful braggard handsome drivers, Renault is not for snobbish successful yuppies (or self proclaimed wannabees)...they tend to prefer Hondas or Beamers or Merce, generally speaking lah..... hehhehe jgn marah aa sesiapa yg ader keter2 nih!!

Apakellass pakai keter French!

Say what you want but it was Renault who started the V10 development, the turbo charged engine....they laughed at Renault as the Yellow Teapot those early years.....it was a long journey but we are here already - THE CHAMPION CONSTRUCTOR & DRIVER FOR F1 2005!

Lesson learnt: Never underestimate an underdog, especially if its striped yellow & blue!

Buai Laju Laju....

Caaakk!!!

There you have it. The twins on their new swing.

Now they can enjoy main buaian whether its raining or hot since the buai they own is parked on our small little porch.

They have been very very active these past few months. Alisya has taken over the function of my wake-up alarm. Almost every morning after sahur she'd woke up and if she sees me with my eyes closed she'll be pestering me:

"Ayyaaah....ayaaahh! Banyun ayaah.....Chen-up, nak tutung, ayaaah, wake-up....."
Translated: Ayah, ayah, bangun ayah, stand up, nak dukung ayah, wake up

Naufal on the other hand would be using a different method....he'd just slamdunk on my tummy and giggle! (Thank god Alisya does not subscribe to this school of method!)

We have been attending pre-natal classes at Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre (GIMC) since last week, which means that we have to sacrifice Saturday, which also means that we have one the Sunday to bring them anywhere. Alisya has been saying things like "Nak jalan, nak pegi Alam anda....jom, lets go Mama".....

I think I know why she miss Alamanda, the last time we went there we were allowed entrance to the playground meant for kids above 3 years old. They really enjoyed the time they had. Almost had to drag them out of the place!

This Saturday we did not have time for that but we did went to Alamanda for berbuka @Mama's favorite steamboat restaurant.

Looks rainy from my desk, Alisya is with her Usu Ani and Naufal is still tertonggeng in their room. Not sure what we are going to do today but the afternoon is booked for the final race in Shanghai....if the weather permits, maybe we'll do some playground thingy later....

Talking about the final race circuit of this season, we were surprised with the Renault front row result and hoping for the best result today - winning the Constructors Championship. I think I'll take my bath now and wear the Renault bandana till the end of the race no matter what's the result going to be like, we still have a Renault as part of our family!

Workstation with no views!

The image was captured one fine evening at the workstation of my "used to be workstation roomie". Even to my untrained eyes of a photog-wannabee, the reflections on the window surface of the office llighting can be seen, but for the sake of originality I did not do any editing on this image.

Its been quite a while since we moved out from the room given to us earlier - meant for Senior Managers - and for that we are now given proper workstations each, the ones that fits our working status. Che Lie got a neat manager workstation with a nice view and actually more spacious than the room we had. The pix taken above was composed from her new work area.

On the other hand, I inherited a workstation originally occupied by 2 execs, one is now in a project team and another one is completing his masters and moving out. In other words - I get a third hand workstation lah...

On my left are my colleagues workstations - Eju & Rina, they are closer to the glass so they got view, which means they have nothing to bitch about (Yeah Right!!).

On my right is the manager workstation of my team mate in the previous project setup, Hisham.

If I raise my head all I see is the wall separating the smoking room, pantry, utility room, communication hub etc. etc.....

....and (here's the best part) behind me is another wall that separates my workstation from the room of team's Senior Manager! Nice huh?

No I am not complaining, I am just telling, infact I like my new workstation and try to make is as cozy as possible and since there are no rules saying we are only entitled to x-number of drawers and cabinets, I took as many as I can handle and use the cabinets & drawer to make it like a cubicle. Here it is from one angle:

Note that when this pix was taken I still have my T23 (the black thing next to that bright screened 4c3r laptop in the middle). Not long after this pix was taken all went kaput, and I lost lotsa of works done on that 4c3r's HDD. The only thing that left breathing till this moment is my Dino - the smallest one on the table.....and that little Dino has been with me everywhere I carry my backpack to. Lesson learnt: EPOC machines are really cool! MACs are cool! So not like the ones majority of the world is logged on to.....you know what I am talking about!

Outside of Ramadhan, plain water and tit-bits are still served to visitors of my workplace - officially or not, well mainly unofficially cuz the occupants of this floor seems to be very hungry bunch of clowns!

So, there you go, my new workstation. Will be there for the next few years till I decided where to go next!

Seriously hungry?

Seriously hungry?
Originally uploaded by torqxic.

The puasa month is different this year. Alisya & Naufal are now able to join us for berbuka & sometimes sahur too.
This one was taken when we were buying foods for berbuka, at the Pasar Ramadhan near our place. Alisya seems to like murtabak, like her daddy! Naufal, well he'll just take anything and chew it for hours and be happy!
After berbuka, one day they did join us for a terawih at home, almost wreck havoc lah! Bila angkat takbir ok lagi, then they started to run around us and do their stuff, bila orang dah bagi salam & baca doa,, they'll be on their small sejadah again lah!
OH...they sleep on their own now. Maybe I'll post up a pix of their own room....once I get to figure out how to do scripting to make multiple images in flickr + blogspot.....sat aaa....let me godek this thing kejap.....
(learning is always fun....as long as its not just full of failures and no glimpse of success!)

Well well well....it seems that I may have figure out the scripting to add images in one entry using a MAC.....That's the ayam golek, we had one of those over the weekend. The kids love it!
Time to sleep lah......good nite Yoda!

Byyyeeeeee!

Revisiting Section 14 PJ

I wrote this on my Dino (PSION Netbook) a few weeks back. Converted into .rtf format, transferred to a laptop (not T23..sobs!) and then transferred to my Yoda (nick for my iBook), edited on TextEdit before finally transferring it online. So, this simple entry actually came a long way before it reaches here lah!


REVISITING SECTION 14 PJ

Its been quite a while since I last came here, McD opposite of Jaya, Section 14 PJ. I had to send the Scenic to its workshop and while waiting for it to be completed, I decided to take the short walk to the place I used to lepak when I was a student, Section 14 PJ.
Had lunch at my favorite Nasi Ayam place. It is still the same as those days, well almost. Am happy to see the uncle who sells the best sotong kangkung, tauhu bakar, kerang rebus, he is still running the show there! I enjoyed the lunch and it costs me only RM5 for a good helping of nasi ayam & ABC.
Then I went into Jaya. There is an Adidas factory outlet shop in there. Talking to the workers, I found out that they have just started business less than an hour when I stepped in. Bought something for wifey and me. A good quality track-bottom (almost like NZ All Blacks) and a lady sport's tee both totaled up to only RM50. Damn cheap!
I left Jaya and headed to the small surau where I used to pray whenever I came here lepaking during those students years. Its still there but its not as inviting as it used to be, has no more carpet to cover its floor. Upon completing my prayer, the workshop called, with good news! The damage on the Scenic was not due to compressor, its just the ball-bearing pair and the belt of the compressor that's causing the rampage. This means that I am not going to spend RM2,800 on a compressor lah!
So, feeling happy, I went up to McD to grab some drinks and read some Nona Roguy article wifey printed for me and decided to do this entry. My T23 is expected to be out of the workshop today or tomorrow. So its still the old reliable Dino for me....hope I would be able to post this entry on my T23 soon lah....

Well..since my drinks are done and I have nothing else to write, I will be walking back to the workshop in a while. Hopefully by the time I reach there the Scenic will be ready.........

Mama's New Toy

Been a very long time since I really update this blog....not going to tell what happenned lah, already mentioned in the past postings.

Anyways, to start off, Mama has a new toy! A Lumix FX8. The kids have been posing for Mama these past few weeks, and more to come....especially when Baby Acheecha arrives!

Oh oh oh!!! I did not do the update on that....on the last scan, Baby Achoncho has already been confirmed as Baby Acheecha! Its confirmed that we are going to have another baby girl, end December 2005....alhamdulillah...

MAC-ed!

.....moved from a black box to a white box....from a Darth to a Jedi!

After so much undesired encounter with the OS used by majority of the world....today the torque has finally converted to become a MAC user....

This is not the first time I moved away from "the darkside"........learning from my experience moving from Palm OS to PPC then back to Palm OS and Symbian, I am pretty sure the move to MAC will be a long one....if not forever!

though my T23 is still around it is not pretty much the same....I am very disappointed with the result of the service done. Yeah maybe I will keep the T23, it can be used as spare and for visitors to my hut. Maybe I will sell it off...still have not decided actually....

Anyways....tried to change some setting on the blog and due to some limitations imposed by blogger and haloscan, I have lost the comments to some older postings....sheesh! Have to pay/ donate to get everything up perfect but I think I will do it the torqxic way aje lah!

Some templates does not work well with the editings I have done on my sidebars, I decided to keep the dark background (maybe for now?)

Incompetents....

I have been without proper laptop/ PC for more than two weeks....yeah I have done some entries in my Dino but I was expecting the T23 or the hopelessly bulky, heavy, slow & incompetent Acer to be ready a few days after I sent them to their respective doctors.

The T23 is yet to be delivered - I don't expect another week of waiting and I don't expect a lousy result and slow machine either. The Acer is now with me - and I have to spend half the day to rectify some more problems the so called technicians and engineers failed to resolve / settles after 14 days.

What a waste of my time.....the ZEN works was not done properly - I was not able to work my slides, sheets & words - I would be happy to use my "personal license" on latest edition of the Microshitofficesuite but somebody will be jailed laa nanti kalau Microshit decided to do crackdowns. Then pulak....the printer server protocol was not done, I have to use IP to get print jobs done (good thing jugak lah...tak payah logon to the slow network and I can also do stuff!) heck....talk about competencies, the bloody machine BIOS was altered and all wireless connectivity was denied, tak apa laa, I thot they know but I have to teach the lead team member of the team how to get the IRda and the other wireless protocols working and why it default setting may cause problems on any machines running XP / 2000Pro.....since he finally came up to my place to see why his team did not completed their job after two weeks, I decided that's the least I can do to educate them laa....at least they should be able to do it correctly for other people lepas ni....at least tak der aaa blog entry on incompetents like this one!

Sheesh.....with all due respect to all IT people.....why can't they be dynamic and get to know the business requirement on IT / Systems and not just dwell in their world of 1 and 0......and for crying out loud...be dynamic and get updated on issues and how to resolve them.

Waste of time.....dah la lousy machine - I WILL NOT BUY ACER AS LONG AS I LIVE! Lousy OS pulak - I WILL TAKE ANY OS THAN ANYTHING THAT CAME OUT FROM BILL GATE'S SHITFACTORY! AND HERE WE HAVE A BUNCH OF CLOWNS RUNNING AROUND FOR TWO WEEK JUST TO REPLACE A STUPID HDD.... Shhhheesh....IMBECILES....IMBECILES.....AARGHHHHHkkk!!!