Friday, September 29, 2006

Room With a view

And nothing much else…
This entry is done in the hotel which we will stay for the night.
When talk about ocean view, they were not kidding. In fact, I suspected that every single room in this hotel will probably offer a certain degree of sea view which I suspect, every other hotel will or at least try to offer. Seeing Meridien Hotel on my way just proves that, I have step into the land of continental vacation.
However, the room leaves much to be desired as it has a faulty remote, faulty tap and no working internet connection.
What caught my attention was a sail boat out there. It is completely white and from what I can gather from the weather, is probably out for a slightly bumpy ride. Of course I snap a picture of it as I would like to immerse completely into my role and responsibility as a tourist.
What caught me is the connection of the picture and what Mr. Tomato75 uses as his slogan as someone slogging it out in this ultra competitive world. The world, or rather the business environment today, even more so than it was previously, is getting more and more competitive. It is not unlike a choppy sea which is just about to get even choppier. As such, to see a small sail boat sailing in such a weather when even the bigger ships fears to thread, is something that shows that the captain of the ship truly have gumption (Or severe intoxication of 1 kind of substance or another). As such, while we might not be able to fathom the reasons, or for that matter, we might even think that the person undertaking it is doing a fools errand. But lets just give it that, the one that actually do it, has true courage and deserve at least a pat on the back for that, if not our moral support.
Well, so much for this entry, but I do hop that I have more to share in this 2 weeks of sabbaticals which I will while enjoying it, reflect on what was, what is and decide what will be in the days to come.

Getting there

It took ages of planning and just when we thought that its months away, we are now on our way to Malta to catch our cruise.
As things panned out, we are now on the forth leg of our second plane with 2 transfer each. Loads of fun but we are now close to freaking out and is just less than a hair’s breath to getting into our little air rage mode. And seriously, we are wondering if the whole thing was a diabolical experiment to test the limit of human endurance on how much a person can take, sitting and stuffing their face out. We had 1 supper, 2 breakfast and 1 light meal each and its only 3pm when we arrived.
So far, after taking off from Changi terminal 1, we went passed Colombo, Dropped off at Dubai, saw the impressive airport which is huge and we will have some picture to share after we sorted the,. We just took off from Lanaca, a port of Cyprus and very soon, we will reach Malta, spend the night and board Superstar Libra tomorrow night...

Friday, September 22, 2006

OT is better than Sex

Just came up with 10 reasons why OT is better than sex

1). It is never finished

2). You get shafted royally and sometimes, you dun get paid.

3). You will be too shagged to think about sex

4). Your spouse will be too pissed to think about sex

5). You dun have to fake a headache

6). You dun have to fake an orgasm during OT

7). There isn't a right mood for OT

8). You dun have to come for OT, just stay

9). Your boss still sux even after all those OT

10). Watching all your colleagues goes back while you are still at it totally blows

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Putting them at their right place.

Coutesy of some kind soul in SPUG

Which I found quite amusing

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=BGB1wXnZNFI

his reminded me what my primary school chinese teacher once told me.

In a nice way to remind his friend that he has overstayed his welcome, a poet wrote
下雨天留客天留我不留

What he meant was
下雨天留客,天留我不留.

But what his friend interpret was
下雨天留客天,留我不?留!

So his friend stayed on

The moral of the story. Put them, put them right where you want to be...

And if you still have no idea what I am talking about, I meant punctuation.....DUH!

Friday, September 08, 2006

男人不坏,女人不爱

有的时候,一些至理,总是会藏在一些不为人知,甚或风马牛不相及的地方。
好比以下这篇,为男人不坏,女人不爱这句明言作出其精辟的论点。
而这篇竟是从一篇原载在网上的一篇武侠小说,

在此与大家分享。


萧瑟《霸王神枪》
第八十章 情之所锺 的一段

为什么“男人不坏,女人不爱”这句话能够成立?它的基础便是立在女子的好奇和争胜的两种心态上。

  一般稍有姿色的女子,总认为自己魅力非凡,胜过别的女子,如果让她结识一个花名在外的浪子,起先她会因为好奇而接近这个男子,因为她想要弄清楚他究竟有何魅力,竟能不断的玩弄女性?

  当这个女子接近这种花间浪子时,眼看他身边聚集三、四个,甚至七、八个女子,她就会生出争强斗胜之心,施出浑身解数想要将他攫获,让他拜倒在自己的石榴裙下。

  她总认为自己不会像别的女子一样,被这个花间浪子给玩弄之后抛弃,总以为自己的魅力惊人,一定可以让这个男子“改头换面”,把全部的身心都奉献给自己。

  这种事自古以来层出不穷,它的结果只有两个,一是那个坏男人终於回心转意,从此金盆洗手、不再留连花丛,情归妻子,永爱不渝。而第二个结果则是这个充满自信的女人,仍然和其他的女子一样,被风流浪子玩弄之后,弃如蔽屣。

  放眼望去,前者居於极少数,后者要占九成以上。

  所以“男人不坏,女人不爱”这句话,害死了世上多少有自信的美丽女子,所谓“一失足成千古恨,再回头已百年身”,到时候后悔莫及就晚了。

  奉劝天下美女,迈入情关之际,千万三思,切勿中了“男人不坏,女人不爱”这句话的毒,一个风流浪子永远是坏男人,绝不会因你而变好的……

Thursday, September 07, 2006

雨一直下

雨一直下 - 張宇
曲︰張宇
詞︰十一郎

雨一直下 氣氛不算融洽
在同個屋簷下 你漸漸感到心在變化
你愛著他 也許也帶著恨吧
青春耗了一大半 原來只是陪它玩耍

正想離開他 他卻拿著鮮花
說不著邊的話 讓整個場面更加尷尬
不可思議吧 夢在瞬間崩塌
為何當初那麼傻 還一心想要嫁給他

*就是愛到深處才怨他 捨不捨得都斷了吧
那是從來都沒有後路的懸崖

#就是愛道深處才由他 碎了心也要放得下
難道忘了那愛他的傷 已密密麻麻

雨一直下 氣氛不算融洽
在同個屋簷下 你漸漸感到心在變化
不可思議吧 夢在瞬間崩塌
為何當初那麼傻 還一心想要嫁給他

重唱 *,#

不要再為了他掙扎 不要再為他左牽右掛
今後不管他愛不愛誰 快樂嗎 都隨他

重唱 #,*,#

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

IE, Who's your daddy?

This is one of those case that might go down in marketing history as the largest coup.

IE7 website asking people to go get firefox.



Saw it first from ZDNET

and if you are wondering where the website is,

its at

http://www.ie7.com/

Beep away the complains

I have wondered if we are now officially the whine hub of Asia if not the world. Our World class Main Stream Media is always quick to tell us ingrates how we should be gratefull and grovel at our feet with all the goods our government does for us.

Its not all serious worships and grovelling, there are times whereby people use the MS and/or online forum to air their grouses and unhappiness towards the government, the transport company and each other.

Thanks to Mr Apollo of Spug, we now get to see 2 sides of the stories at the same time, no need to wait for a reply or robust rebuttal. If this carries on, we will definetly take our Everitt Road culture to its next step of evolution, online.

For those too lasy to read in SPUG, here it is :

Dinner spoilt by beeping fellow diner
THE other day, I was having dinner with my wife and daughter in a coffee house. It was like any other day when we go to enjoy some good Singapore food, and we were having a fine time until another couple came in and sat a table away.
It wasn't their conversation that caught my attention but the loud non-stop electronic beep sounds that came from the man's PDA. It wasn't that he was playing computer games and he may well have been entering or retrieving some legitimate information from his PDA. However,after the non-stop high-pitched beep sounds went on for what seemed like 10 minutes, my nerves were frayed.
My wife is not the confrontational type and did not want me to speak to the man, preferring to avoid any incident that has even the slightest chance of turning into an unpleasant exchange. I did not expect an unpleasant exchange so I politely flagged the man to get his attention and asked him if he would mind turning the sound down on his PDA.
Imagine my shock when he replied: 'Are you telling me to turn off the sound on my PDA? This is a public place. I can do what I like.'
I composed myself and said: 'You're right, this is a public place. And I am not telling you to turn the sound down but I'm requesting you to.'
This man would have continued polluting the environment with his shrill PDA beeps had his food not been served. By this time, my wife was feeling self-conscious, all the while listening to the man and his companion complaining to each other about us.
What would you have done? Would you have suffered in silence or spoken out? Was I wrong to point out to the man his actions?
I went through the process from thinking he was ignorant, to inconsiderate, to downright rude. Perhaps I should have asked a messenger to take the message, and perhaps the waiter would have told him of the effect of his actions on others around him - but would he have cared what other people thought?
I find it hard to believe how much further we have to travel to arrive at what the Prime Minister has called a gracious society, when we cannot even extend consideration to others by reducing the stress level caused by noisy electronic gadgets. It saddens me that rather than be considerate, this man justified his actions based on his right to do as he pleases.
Indeed, courtesy is uncommon and we have a long way to go before we can call ourselves a gracious society.
David Neo Lian Kong


http://www.mycarforum.com/forum/TO_...528064/#1528064

http://straitstimes.asiaone.com/por...000430a0a0aRCRD

This evening, I went to Great World City for my dinner at the Vietai Restaurant just outside GV Grand Cinema. I was led to a seat which was about 1.2-1.3 metres away from a couple (late 30s) and their 6-7 yrs old daughter.

While seated, from the side of my eyes, I could see the wife beckoning the waiter to come over. When the waitress came over, she questioned... 'Why is the Laksa not clear?' She went on to flip open the menu and said it is not what she wanted. I went on with my nonchalant conversation as the waitress LPPL cart away her bowl of laksa and replaced it with Phad Thai. Less than 5 minutes later, I heard her summon the waitress again. This time, the wife complained why her daughter's Pad Thai has chilli? I took a cursory glance and was bemused as her daughter has devoured almost half her food already!

I just ignored them and ordered my food with the next available waiter. While waiting, I thought I will check on my calendar and do a little house keeping on my PDA mobile phone. While clicking here and there on my HP, I heard a loud voice.. 'Excuse Me! Excuse Me!' Oh, this time, the husband at that table is calling out to me.. in my mind, I was thinking.. now what do u want? He went on to say, 'Stop using your PDA. The beep is irritating me!' I was like, who the fcuk do u think u are? Just cause I am dressed in a polo shirt and look a little shabby doesnt mean I am a push over. I replied, 'This is a common area, I am free to do what I want. How does this affect u?' He went on to say.. 'It is irritating...' I told him off that I don't owe u a living and I have the right to do what I want. *** is wrong with these people? *** is this blatant display of snootiness? Why didnt this asswipe go ask the management to shut the loud music blaring from the speakers of the restaurant? It really pissed me off big time to have met such people who thinks we should pander to their whims and fancy. What would u have done if it happened to u? I am really ashamed to be Singaporean especially one who happened to be a family of complain kings!

http://www.mycarforum.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1523020#1523020

Monday, September 04, 2006

Tradeshow and me

Here I am, on my way to Sim Lim Square, and I just can’t help but to reflect on what brings about this journey and the events leading up to it. It all boils down to one of those things that had been there throughout my formative years, Trade-shows, and to be more specific, Comex.

Ever since I was first shown a home built Apple II by my uncle, it wooden housing, cassette tape drive and all, I have always been fascinated by computers. So much so that it is one of my greatest obsession and career. While others will be happy to just own a computer and use it, I probably can’t be happy until I get around dismembering it and figures out how to tweak and coax an additional ounce of performance out of it all because, I could.

For the longest time since getting the family notebook with little thanks to Starhub, I have wanted to tweak it and make it work even better, this is all because that even with a respectful 512mb of ram and all its purported 64bit processing powers its still running slower than a turtle with 2 shells. The cause of it, Ram not enough as it has to share its 512MB between applications and graphics. For  the uninitiated, while ram sharing is serious infringement to casual computing, it is considered cardinal sin for any performance computing if that’s your cup of tea and a definite death sentence with eternal purgatory after which if you are a serious gamer (No, I don’t mean a mean game of bejeweled). As such, what better reason is there to lug myself out of my cozy Saturday morning bed, kiss my sleepy wife before heading out across the entire island just so I can jostle my way with thousands of people in the sea of computer, gadgets, offers and other peripherals? No, I don’t think so.

Comex is now in its 14 incarnation and with every passing years, I weep for its lost and unfortunate soulless existence.

Comex, as with PC shows and other computer events in Singapore owes its existence to a bunch of computer companies to showcase their latest offering and a bunch of computer enthusiast and practitioners of the arcane art of computing for them to pay homage and make offerings with their wallet so that they own the latest piece of computing must have which they coveted for so long, also allows them to grope and gawk at those shinny blink blinks which they could have only drool at on the pages of magazines. In fact, I always suspected that without all these tradeshows, geeks might not even step into places like World Trade center then, Suntec City for some time, and Expo for now. In fact, you can even consider it a form of conspiracy with the owners of these places to attract the geeks to spend.

However, as time that flows, change ensures, and computing evolved from the arcane to the mass market and eventually to the mundane and while I still believe that it is mandatory for people who wants to use a computer to be trained, pass a test and gets a license before they are allowed to even touch a keyboard and mouse, I have to say that the mass-market ownerships of computers allows me to stay gainfully employed and to also allow me to even contemplate to start a business on computing.

Soon, the computer fiestas became that of a printer bonanza, seems like in every show, there will be a great many mindless minions tat deemed that their printer is too slow, too colorless, too big or just plain too last year that they need to buy a new one. As times changed, the minions of printers gave way to the minions of Notebook, the minions of LCDs and today, the minions of MP3 Players. Yes, how time has changed and you will now go into a tradeshow with choke full of credit card pushers, MP3 dealers and cartridge replacements. Seems like computer is now nothing more than an afterthought instead of the main attraction in a computer trade show.

Well, as long as there are still good deals to be have in a computer trade show, I shall still be the sucker that is being drawn to it like a moth to fire.  I did get a pretty good deal for another 512MB for my notebook but unfortunately it did not fit, and I was just told at the shop that they are not able to help me today as their technicians will not be in until Friday. Well, anyway, I just got the namecard and the logo for my new business ready (That will be another entry). And I will now dutifully rush home to meet the people that is suppose to fix the main gate of the house, just hope that they can get it fix.