The Archives

Vexed & Brain Tuner
08.31.08 | Permalink |Game, iPhone| 1 Comment

After upgrading my iPhone to the new 2.0 firmware, I am overwhelmed by the things I can do to my iPhone. iPhone is great because it is a music machine, a phone, a electronic book, a camera, a voice recorder and a game station.

Talk about games, now app store has over 500 games for me to download. Obviously I have a bunch of free games that I downloaded and tested. Let me share some with you.

Vexed:

Vexed can be very addictive and it is an award winning game. The mission is to get rid of all the colored balls by putting the same colored balls together. It sounds easy right but of coz it has its difficulty. It is a good game to train you on problem solving skill. Sometimes it needs you to think outside the box in order to solve the puzzle.

With the iPhone version, there is a “solve” button which allow you to see the answer of the puzzle. With that, you can proceed to the next puzzle and not get stuck. Very cool for a free game.

Brain Tuner:

Another additive game. The game is to see how fast you can identify a 20 or 100 correct math problems. All you have to do is to select wrong or right to the problems on screen. It is very challenging to break your own record. Of coz for any wrong answers, points will be deducted. My fastest time for a 20 math questions is 17 seconds that is less that 1 sec for each questions. Try it yourself and see whether you can beat my record.
Made In Ireland
08.28.08 | Permalink |Shopping| 2 Comments

When I was young, I love to look for “Made In” label. At that time, I can find things made everywhere. Now most things are made locally or Made in China. China produces a lot of stuff and shipped worldwide. You can find “Made in China” things almost in every country.

Last time, I had a friend who went to Hong Kong to get some electronic gadgets. He bought a Sony brand. The price was alright. Later he discovered that it is made in Malaysia. We called that “the return home” gadget.

The other day, I was surprised when I saw this:

Guess what is made in Ireland that I own and used every day? I am sure you have one too. It is the last place I would thought that this was made in Ireland. Reason is the cost of producing it will be high. Now that I know it is from there, I have the quality assurance.
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Answer: My Dental Floss
What Holiday?
08.26.08 | Permalink |Malaysia, Penang| Comments Off on What Holiday?

So close, yet so far…

By now, I am sure all of you know it is the Permatang Pauh’s election. Lim Guan Eng said “This is not an ordinary by-election as it is an election to choose the next Prime Minister”. He wanted a full attendance for the election, he declared a public holiday for Penang.

However many companies do not agree with his proposal due to money loss for 1 day of holiday. So it is a working day for me. How sad? Anyway, many companies do give 1 day or 4 hours off for voters of that area to vote.

We should have an election to vote who we want as a PM. That will be so cool. Then it will be power in the hands of the people and not the party. Oh well back to work for me!
Home Refurbishing
08.26.08 | Permalink |Living| 1 Comment

I will be refurbishing my house and repainting some areas of faded paint. I will need all the power tools like air tools, driller, cutting tools, finishing tools and others. It will be hard work for me. First of all, I will need to learn how to use those tools. Oh well, maybe I do the painting and leave the drilling to the man.

Anyway I will be browsing eToolsNow.com to see what promotion items I can get to fix the house. I am sure I can find good deals there.
Full Tummy
08.24.08 | Permalink |Food| 1 Comment

I had another pig out session at Kampachi Hotel Equatorial for a Japanese buffet. For RM 86++ per person, it was not that great. I didn’t see much variety. Oh well, it is a Japanese buffet, what can I expect. I am impressed that they have oysters and mini lobster or they called it crayfish. Those were great, I had more than a dozen oyster and a dozen crayfish to get my money worth.

Other stuff would be sashimi, sushi, hand rolls, tempura, sukiyaki and Japanese dishes. It’s what Japanese places would served. The sukiyaki was too salty.
Last, it was some western desserts. I was expecting mochi but didn’t get any. The crème bulle and tiramisu was too sweet. At the end of the day, I got a full tummy with no perspective about the buffet. I think they can do better with the amount they charged. Fortunately for me, it is free for me and my family.

They charged RM46++ for children above 4. How much can a child eat at age of 4-6? Not much. Verdict, it is not worth bringing children below 6. They should bring up the age to 6.
Notebook LCD Drank Water
08.15.08 | Permalink |Technology| 1 Comment

They don’t make notebook like they used too. I always thought the LCD screen is water proof. I was so dead wrong. The other day I was rushing for an offsite meeting. I packed a bottle drink into the notebook bag. I forgot to tighten the bottle cap. As I was walking to my car, I felt water spilling over my pants. Oh no. The bottom of the bag is wet.

Next surprise when I open my notebook, I saw water stain on the LCD display. I thought it will damage it. However the notebook did boot up without any problem. Now how do you fix a wet notebook LCD screen?

I was searching in Google to see whether I can fix the water stain in the LCD screen. Hey you can find lots of fixes in Google. I found this cool post showing step by step how to take the LCD screen apart.

No of coz I didn’t do that. I decided not to do anything because it is only water and water dry up. I will let it dry up by itself. If it doesn’t, I just send it into my company support team to repair it. It is still under warranty.

Today is the second day and it dried pretty well. Take note, if you have water stain on the LCD display, just let it dry up by itself. However if you spill water in between the keyboard, I would suggest you not to power on to prevent short circuit. Use a hair dryer to dry it up first.

The white area is the water stain.
Of Banana & Egg
08.12.08 | Permalink |Technology| 2 Comments

If you are called a banana, you are yellow on the outside which means a Chinese but white inside, which means westernize inside. An egg is a person who is white on the outside, a Westerner but yellow inside which means a westerner who stick to Chinese culture or ways. Sounds interesting isn’t it?

Sad to say I am often called a banana because I am a Chinese but I don’t know any mandarin or write/read any Chinese characters. I do speak Cantonese, one of the Chinese dialect and love watching Cantonese Hong Kong TVB series.

The other day a friend of mine gave me a Chinese website with lots of goodies about iPhone. I wanted to install some application but I have no clue what was on the website. It is Babelfish to the rescue. Now http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ allows me to enter the website URL and it will translate most of the Chinese characters in the website. It is just so cool.

Now I can understand Chinese sites using babelfish. Try it, it is fun.
Lousy Courier Service
08.08.08 | Permalink |Service| 3 Comments

The company is Nationwide Express. Last week I discover a yellow receipt in my post box. I am not sure what it was but looking at the company name, I soon discover it is a courier company. I assumed that there is a parcel for me but it wasn’t clearly stated. There is no contact number on the slip.

I decided to wait for them to call me. After a week, no news from them. I decided to search their website and left a feedback, also asking for a local contact number. They email me with a contact number. I called but no one picked up the phone. I tried after a few hours, the phone is engaged. I wrote back to customer service to request them to call me.

The officer called and first thing she asked me, when are you coming to the office to pick up the package? I was stunned by her question. The customers pay them the courier fees to have people collecting the parcel from them. It must be a good business for them

I told her to have the parcel delivered on Friday where I will be at home. She didn’t ask for any other information and I thought everything was settled.

Today, I still haven’t heard from them. I wrote to customer service asking when will my parcel arriving and provided my contact number again. The officer called me asking me when I will be home. I told her to deliver the package today as per instructed previously. She complained to me that she is short staff and that is not even my problem.

She also kept telling me that I wasn’t home when they delivered the parcel. First she could have contacted me before delivering it, my contacts are on her record. Secondly, I asked her when was the last time she delivered the parcel, she couldn’t answer me.

I am impressed with Pos Laju, DHL and ABX because they would call me first before delivering the package. DHL is the best because they route it to my company as there is a station there. It saves lot of petrol this way.
Felt The Pinch
08.06.08 | Permalink |Economy, Myself, School| Comments Off on Felt The Pinch

When petrol price went up, I didn’t feel anything. When food price went up, I didn’t feel anything. When café food went up, I didn’t feel anything.

Today, I felt the pinch. This morning I didn’t have time to go for morning breakfast at my local kopitiam. I decided that I will go to office and get something to eat. First I went to the vending machine to get my usual cup of milo. I put in 60 sen and a cuppa of hot water came out. Darn vending machine was out of order. Never mind, I scroll down to my office convenient store to buy a small pack of 3-in-1 milo powder. It cost RM1.00 (40% marked up). I also went to the café to get a piece of marble cake, it costs another RM1.00. Total spend: Rm2.60 and my tummy still growling.

I should have gone for the local mamak store, eat 1 piece of roti canai and a glass of teh tarik ice. Total cost: RM1.80 with a happy tummy. Sigh!

People are suffering and what does our gomen doing? They are more concern with the darn politics and internal affairs. No one taking care of the haze (people’s health), no one taking care of the poor people, no one taking care of upgrading kebangsaan schools and the children education system. I feel more than a pinch!
Café Food Price Hike
08.05.08 | Permalink |Work| Comments Off on Café Food Price Hike

A memo was sent out that there will be a hike in café food prices. I have no complains over the price hike but the way they do it. It is so similar to our gomen’s method. First similarity, they claim that the café food price is still the lowest compare to other cafés. Second similarity is that they send the memo out the day before the price hike. Third similarity, the day before the hike, everyone was eating in the café making it a little congested.

I wonder will they put a cap on the price hike too. By the way, we do have subsidy for eating in the café. It has been a long time since they revised the subsidy amount. I will called this The Ripple Effect, lets hope it doesn’t bring any Tsunami, if you know what I mean.