Device failure one after another! Must be Murphy's Law

Just my luck, I got several electronic device failure one after another. Must be Murphy's Law at work here! First after a battery change, my wife Toyota Wish car remote control didn't work. The Toyota service people should have known better than to change the car remote batteries. Now it needs to be reset in order to work. That's probably minor compared to my car remote when I accidentaly shorted my Toyota Altis car remote while changing the broken casing. Should not have used a screwdriver to pry out the electronics. Now it doesn't work anymore. Next was the old HP fax printer, the modem was strucked by lightning long time ago but still could be used for printing and scanning. While trying to print some documents, the roller was making a ruckus, and finally I got ink cartridge error. I could try buying a new ink cartridge since the current one was already very low on ink anyway. After giving it some thought better not. It could be more than just a faulty cartride because the roller was making such awful noise. Besides ink catridge are expensive and I would have wasted money if the HP printer would not print. So that' the end of life for this HP printer. And finally the church PC which I was attempting to reinstall Windows XP. Well some people weren't too keen on using Ubuntu Linux though it would be far more virus resistant than Microsoft Windows. So I got down planning to dual boot it. The partitoning went fine without a hitch. Installing Windows XP was a different story. First round I got boot error. Strange, tried reinstalling a second time and the PC just hung after the initial booting diagnostic start up screen. Tried several reboot still got the same "hanging there not going anywhere" leaving me scratching my head. It could be the BIOS going crazy on me. For now the PC is not working. If the BIOS goes, the motherboard is just another dead wood. Schucks! And this good old Pentium 4 Intel 3GHz with an Intel 915GEV motherboard is a rather good piece of hardware. I should know, I picked the parts myself when I bought it in 2005. But now it no longer works. Argh! Looks like I will need some replacement hardware starting with a new printer like this Epson Stylus T13. Oh, well.

[update 15/11/11]

Fixing my Intel D915 GEV computer system

Spend the better part of my late nights fixing up the good old Intel D915 GEV motherboard PC. Apparently the hard drive died causing the whole system to freeze up. Hard drive kaput means just change the dead drive without having to purchase the entire PC system, because if the motherboard died, it would be a major replacement. Unfortunately due to the flooding in Bangkok, Western Digital plant is underwater, and that plant account for 50% of the world's hard drive supply.

Which means there is a shortage of hard drive in the market driving up the prices 100% or more! When last I check some vendors are selling at double and some at triple the price! And in All IT Digital Mall section 14 PJ, much to my indignation the sales guy didn't even want to sell to me and was reluctant to give me any price indication!

I'm not going to spend that money yet until Bangkok recovers and Western Digital production is back online. Fortunately I still got an old 40GB PATA IDE WD 7200rpm drive. Well it won't be as fast as a SATA drive, but it will have to do for now.

Working on public holiday

Should have checked my calendar before saying yes. So now I will have to do some work on a public holiday, today. Anyway, it could still be a good point and show willingness to work on off day. I do get a replacement leave for it which was not too bad. However, my timing with wife and son would be a little skewed for matching. Anyway looking forward to another family time together next round. For now, show some work enthusiasm, hopefully would get into the good books of eccentric boss. Bible always says work not unto man for they will have a tendency to let you down but instead, work as unto a worship to Lord and build your treasure in heaven. For now, just be thabkful that I have a job, though it has poor direction, but I still able to sustain through all its misgivings and live through it to tell the tale and get an income from it!

Time for car wash! At Esso near Damansara toll

Yeeach! Shouldn't have parked under the tree, it was splattered with bird droppings! So time for car wash! When will city hall organise a crow shooting coz the population is increasing and now my car is very beautifully decorated! Anyway it has been a long while since my last car wash however being a holiday weekend, most car wash centre around my house has packed for the weekend. Fortunately manage to find one at the Esso station just after the Damansara toll exit. Fortunately the queue wasn't too long as many people has gone for some holiday somewhere or balik kampung to see their family. Usually car wash centers are packed during weekends but this time round was rather short. My car washed and after back home applied the Rain-X for rain repellent. Most likely as luck would have it (in my experience) it always rains after you have washed your car! Haha! Cheers!

MPSJ 10km Run 2011 Route Map and Event

Time to go for MPSJ 10km Run. Got the form and now signing up for it. It's been awhile since I last ran for 10km after laying off from running. Initially I went for 7km for the last two races, and this time round the race for my category is 10km. So it would be good to see if I can stretch to 10km this time round.



As usual the race will start from the MPSJ grounds and go around the Subang Jaya area and then back to MPSJ. I'm not a fast running so I would most likely take about >1 hour to complete the race.

The run will be on:
Sunday, 4th December 2011
Flagging off at 7am in the morning
Starting point: Kompleks Sukan Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ)

Might be a little tough for me though I hope I would be able to complete the race within the allotted time frame!

Baby 17 Months Old

My baby is 17 months old! And according to Baby Centre, "you may notice baby ability to do things by himself such as undressing herself, brushing her teeth without your help and tenderly nursing her dolls and stuffed animals. She's learning how to take care of herself, and others and she'll refine this ability as she gets older."

Well, he still a long way off for that. But I did notice he is asserting himself and wants things his way or he will throw a tantrum or fake cries. Can't be giving in to whatever baby wants as that is a sure way to spoil him. Loving him is sometimes requires doing some tough love, as he would need discipline. Because in future, a disciplined person would be able to take care of himself as well as others.

Ady boy beginning to assert himself and wants his way. I think time for discipline. Any suggestion for toddler this young?

Hmm... Ady boy beginning to assert himself and wants his way. I think time for discipline. Any suggestion for toddler this young? It would be good to start early otherwise it will become difficult when he gets older. Yet on the other hand we would like him to explore the world and learn new things for child development. Must be a way to balance what he can and cannot do. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Super heavy rain, super traffic jam!

The heavy rain brought about a very massive Friday traffic jam! Took me double the time to get pass rush hour traffic. On top of that, almost had near collision with another car when the car ahead stop suddenly. Fortunately my brand new tires plus my quick reaction avoided knocking the car in front of me. Had to move away from the lane as the two lady drivers negotiate on their compensation. From my quick glance there was hardly any dent. Anyway the slow stop and go traffic made me rather sleepy and tired. And many parts of the road was catching the running waters slowing down traffic further. A flooded road was not so easy to drive. Eventually arrived home in one piece! Phew! Tired but at least home sweet home for now.

Chartis Insurance Failure to Pay Reimbursement and many others

Insurance companies are not as trustworthy as before. They take our money easily but fail to reimburse when it comes to claims giving excuses such as non-failure to comply to some obscure terms or information or on a technicality. Chartis, MAA, IHM (now dead), and what other insurance companies? And yet, when Obama bailed out AIA, they have the gall to pay large hefty bonuses to themselves giving excuses that it was in their contract!

I have seen the failure of payment by these money leeching insurance company who find ways and means not to fulfill their obligation. It was so easy for them to say if you sign up for this policy or that policy they will reimburse you when something happens to you just so they can close the deal. But when it comes to actual claim, they will say you didn't disclose this/that, or the illness you mentioned occur on a different date stated or some other technicality. Simply put, they will wriggle themselves out from fulfilling their obligation.

Default Cluster Size for NTFS, FAT32, exFAT

I needed to reformat my SanDisk 16GB USB flash drive to NTFS file format as I wanted to transfer a large 9++ GB movie file to view it on my media player box. So when the format dialog box came up, I was wondering what would be the best default cluster size for NTFS and what did the "default allocation size" meant.

 

Although I would like to keep my thumbdrive in its default format of FAT32, it was not able to handle any files larger than 4 GB. NTFS filesystem although has more features (encryption, compression, ownership, etc.), it would also mean using up more computer resource in Windows when processing files. Hence I still prefer the simpler FAT 32 drive format, but I have no choice here as the file size was greater than 4 GB. (Note: exFAT or extended FAT can store files larger than 4GB but this disk format is not supported by many media boxes, unfortunately! It was introduced to overcome the 4GB limit but due to lack of support from many devices, access to the files would be limited to Windows Vista/7 onwards.)

Baby Fall Down From Cot

Oh, dear! Baby fell down from the baby cot! Don't how he managed to climb out from it. Cry like mad of course! Will have to observe him as the height was quite high. Wife said it is time to use playpen where the side walls are higher and the distance from ground much less.

---[update 11/10/11]---

@klroadblock roadworks at entry to section 17 PJ from former rothman circle

What they doing? Blocking everybody

Streamyx is absolutely bad today!

It's been a week long and Streamyx is still trying to fix its server or junction box or whatever. The connection is intermittent and if I do connect, is absolutely horrendously slow! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

[update 13/10/11]

How is one suppose to work if streamyx slows down to a crawl every few days? And this is definitely got nothing to do with the damaged undersea cable to the USA. Even accessing local website and data is so, so, so slow! Thumbs down yet again for streamyx. I think there is too many problems with streamyx for the month of October.

Streamyx down again due to Sg Way exchange problem

And yet again, my office streamyx was down again. Just last week we couldn't connect for more than 24 hours due to streamyx server problem. And now due to an exchange junction in Sungai Way the internet was down since 6am this morning.

Couldn't do any work until they fix it. So no choice but to wait for a few more hours. I requested to boss to switch to UNIFI. Perhaps that would resolve some of the frequent downtime of streamyx. The cost will double and there is no guarantee it will have more uptime since it is under the telecom company namely TM.

I have a friend who was complaining like mad about his poor download speed from UNIFI. Never getting the 80-90% of the stated speed. But basically UNIFI should be working according to as much as the stated figure.

Anyway never know until try. But once in will have to use it for the contract period.

Meanwhile my recent upgrade to windows 7 has left my dial-up modem dead. There is no drivers for it. So I can't even use the old slow dial-up to access internet.

Only a quick tap here using my mobile phone to kvetch a little!

---[update 11/10/11] ---

be weary of email misinformation

Friends and contacts and mean well when they pass you bits and pieces of trivia via email. Unfortunately some of those information is more like misinformation. I don't know why some people got so much time in their hands to concoct such fallacies, incorrect understanding as well as myths and urban legends. And once it was let loose into the wild wide world of web, it will become viral and spreads.

 

The thing is, some of this bits of misinformation seemed plausible. Especially if you don't have the background academic knowledge or remembering a partial bit of information that you may have studied a long time ago but then you forget and when you receive the email, the explanation seem rather possible because your memory was a bit hazy on that subject matter. This brings to mind the show, "Are you better than a fifth grade" reality show. And yes, we don't have perfect memory, and things that we studied at one time is gone with the wind after many years of not referencing it in our brain.

 

Although for me, I still have good recollection of some of things that I have studied especially on those subject matters that I liked (but unfortunately for me, I don't know why I'm so poor at remembering names with people that I met! Must be the way my brain is differently wired). Anyway, we don't all have that good memory and we use whatever means to memorized information be they important or trivia.

 

So whenever I receive emails about some interesting discovery, trivia, and even warnings, it is best to do a little research online to find out just how accurate those information. Some people just have too much time in their hands, and will take real information and give it a little twist. So when you receive it, the information seems correct at first glance, but in reality it is already in error due to bad interpretation or overly simplistic view or misunderstood or could even be a joke or malicious intent of creating disinformation.

 

Thank goodness for sites like Snopes, BreakTheChain and various website and individuals trying to debunked bad information. Yes, internet communication (websites and emails) may be the best thing that has happened because it provide vast information for your research and reading at the touch of the button. And yet there are also sites or individuals whose grasp of their subject matter that may be less than well researched or poorly understood or just plainly made wrong intentionally to create disinformation.

 

So while you are surfing around or receiving emails with those pieces of trivia, do be weary of misinformation. Don't be lazy, but do a little bit of research and find out its accuracy before passing it along to your friends and family. Perhaps you might learn a thing or two about the subject matter that was circulating in the wild and avoid the disinformation and to inform the sender that the information they are sending should be more accurate so that they won't learn the wrong thing and pass bad information around.

 

 

 

 

 

Once a week exercise is better than nothing

I had a lively discussion with my colleague about exercise. Due to work and other commitment, I suppose a once a week exercise is better than nothing at all. Exercise is important as it improves our overall health fitness level and staves off illness. And if we do get caught with a malady, the boosted immunity will help you to recover much faster.  -- ..

 

Although the simplest of all exercise is walking, I found that rather mild in comparison to running. Typically the basic recommended amount of exercise is three times a week for a continuous 30 minutes mild workout. Getting just once a week exercise is already so difficult to schedule, so I go for the once a week approach with a simple jog of between 15 minutes to 25 minutes.

 

It took me a long time to get that kind of physical fitness running level despite doing it once a week. The first time I did a run, it was terrible! Barely able to do a continuous run even for a 50 meters distance! It took a lot effort to try again and again using run-walk-run to slowly build it up!

 

Eventually I could run continuously for 10 minutes, than slowly push it up to 15 minutes, with a one minute of walking break before going for another 5 to 10 minutes run. Nowadays I manage to get myself to go for a full 20 minutes to 25 minutes non-stop run before quitting. I notice if you don't attempt to run too fast too hard, you can get longer mileage.

 

A good pair of shoes is important too. When I injured my plantar fascia tendon, it was excruciatingly painful for one whole year! I had to lay off running, and walking was a big pain at the sole of my feet. I come sympathize with a fellow church goer as she too recently got plantar fasciitis. This pain is very uncomfortable and healing process is really slow. Even with so many prayers for healing, it still took time for such a wish to be granted.

 

Though now my feet is no longer suffering too much from plantar fasciitis, I can say it is about 90% cured. I need to be careful. So a good foot insert is necessary to provide cushioning while at the same time provide stability. Mind you, those foot inserts are not cheap!

 

Anyway, it is good to be back running and keeping fit. Although I would like to do more than once a week of exercise, sometimes other condition such as the potential for plantar fasciitis to happen as well as time constraint and weather condition makes it a little difficult to do more.

 

So in this case, the once a week exercise is better than not doing any exercise at all!

Which #Android Phone Brand You Like?

Each Android phone maker is not the same. There is HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, and various others as well as the made in Malaysia CSL.

I may not have tried them all, but having owned a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, briefly with HTC Wildfire and now using HTC Cha Cha, played with my sis-in-law's Samsung Android mobile phone.

I find I liked HTC. The interface and layout is much better thought out. The battery is a little more lasting but still gets drained during heavy usage. And there is a lot more widgets available for the android desktop and the contacts has better integration not just with Google, but also with Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps in future it might integrate with LinkedIn now that they have IPOed.

Anyway I'm enjoying my new HTC Cha Cha so going to tango with it while I figure out what to do with my Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro.

---[update 11/10/11]---

Taking a break at Papa Rich the Curve

It was a weekend out for baby and family. Decided to take a coffee break at Papa Rich at The Curve KL shopping mall.

Baby was having a gala time roaming about Metrojaya despite the disapproval from mom. I tried to carry him but boys will be boys, especially inquisitive active boys! At 16 months old, he has a very curious mind. And yes he loves exploring!

As papa, will have to shadow him as he goes about pointing out interesting things and make sure he didn't mess up the displays and go where he was not suppose to go.

After an hours of following him, I needed a break! Mom and grandma came around after their little shopping. They needed to go back as the weekend cleaners would be at the house soon.

Anyway, I decided to take a break here at Papa Rich, Curve shopping mall. The house wasn't that far and I'll just walk back once I'm done.

Service here is a little poor as the waiters and waitresses seem to just ignore me. They are either tired or poorly trained. Anyway, i got my little cuppa. Once I'm done with this little blogging, I'm outa here!

Heiyah! As my little boy would exclaim! Ciao!

Streamyx down yet again!

It seems like every few months, my office streamyx broadband will be down. No idea why the service like. I will have to dial tm 100 help line to sort it out.

They will usually go through the process like finding out whether your modem kaput lah or you messed with the IP or something. But since I never touched any of those things it usually end up that they need to reset their servers to get it going again.

Sheesh, Malaysia internet access still got ways to go before they can be as good as other countries world class internet service providers.

Maxis Multi-SIM 1 Line

Finally went and applied for the Maxis multi-SIM 1 line service. I think it would be useful considering that I got spare mobile phones here and there. Besides, my Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro battery seems to knock out very fast these days. So perhaps a second phone with the same line might come in handy. However, after getting the new multi-SIM card it didn't work with my X10. Hopefully when the 2nd line SIM card becomes activated would work. Now waiting for activation which takes 24 hours. So keeping my fingers crossed. Otherwise I would need to visit the Maxis center again to sort out the issue.

Meanwhile, I'm using the main SIM on my old Palm Centro nicknamed 'the Whiteberry'! Haha! The SIM card has no issue with this mobile phone.
It's been a long while since I typed on the teenie weenie keyboard so it is a little slow to tap out this blog!

Truly bad Friday traffic

It was work. No choice. I would rather not drive around Friday evening rush hour. From airport to hotel took me a whopping 2 hours of grinding, slow, traffic jam! Not to mention contributing to the CO2 emmission to global warming...

Decided to take my dinner first before heading back home. Hopefully the traffic would have ease off. Perhaps a bit of stroll through the shops to clear my head. A later drive might be better with the easing of rush hour traffic.

Oh, well. Life's like that.

Home sweet home

It's good to return home to good old Malaysia! Sure the trip was short, but I felt it was enough. My legs muscles are aching from all the walking!
Time to unpack, take a shower and go for sleep. Back to work tomorrow...

Now at KLIA enjoying cup of coffee

.. just arrived KLIA airport. Still got many hours to kill so end up having a nice cup of coffee at some cafe.
The taxi journey was interesting. Never knew the taxi driver was a millionaire. He made hiis fortune as an engineer in oil and gas exploration. Due to an accident, he quit his job but found retirement too boring and wasted much money to fill in his time. So now to control himself, he decided to take on a taxi servicing.
In life you just don't know a person's background. An assuming person could well be a person very well off!
Well, that's life and for the rest of us, we just have to work our butts off to have any semblence of a lifestyle!

Co Trip to Shanghai

Well, we be going for company trip to Shanghai 4D/3N. Leaving behind darling wife and smiling baby. This morning was last chance to see baby as tonight I won't have time to see his happy face and hyper active mode. The flight would be rather tiring as it a very early morning flight way pass midnight and arriving early morning, bleary eyed and off and about sightseeing after clearing immigration.

The arrangement is very tight as boss only allowed for very short days as he would like to avoid disruption to work. It was rather difficult to find a travel agent willing to take such a small group and with such a short duration tour and travel. So the travel package was necessarily expensive in order to cover all expenses while making sufficient commission for the travel agent as well.

Anyway, the trip is more for the staff as a reward for making enough for the company. I've been to Shanghai perhaps some 10 years ago. This trip is not so intriguing for me, but I still have to tag along.

For that kind of pricing it was not worth it for me to bring along my dear darling wife along. Besides, my financial is rather tight at this moment, so I'm trying to conserve some money.

Anyway, a trip is still a trip, and many preparation has to be made.

Checked the Shanghai weather forecast and it looked bright and sunny. Hot weather just like here in Malaysia!