My car repaired
Regarding my car, read here.
I went to the Honda service center personally this Monday because they did not call me last week as promised. I had prepared to go there to bang tables because I had rescheduled my business trip for the whole week so that I could send my car in for repair, but no one gave me a ring at all.
When I arrived there, I put up a cool face and demanded very seriously to see the service manager. They told me to wait for 10 minutes and when the manager came to me, he apologized before I could speak. So, he was prepared for it. Good grief.
He explained to me the problem would be resolved by changing the knock sensor. He also told me that the Honda engineer told me to change the petrol to the more expensive one. I responded quickly and said it was ridiculous as though I was car-illiterate and retaliated, “Why doesn’t the Honda engineer recommend me to change my car?” He smiled and replied, “Yeah, I told the engineer that the customer would fire him if he was to tell the customer to do so.”
After they had registered my car at their computer, they quickly took my car in to work on. No need to wait in queue. Oh yes! I reaffirmed with them that I paid nothing at all.
About two and half hour of waiting, my car was finally done!
I don’t know if the problem is totally resolved until I take my car for a high speed drive on the express way next week.
After all, thank you Honda and the Honda service center.
洁白的乳房与庄重的军礼
好几天因为忙和累的关系而没什么上网和写文章了。今天偶然看到了一篇文章，看了有些感动，在这里转贴和大家分享。
“乳房”这两个字，对一些年青小伙子来说，可以变成性遐想、猥亵。然而，这篇文章，的的确确地、生动和感性地，描写了女性的伟大。
这是二十多年的事了,是一场战争才开始的没几天。
云南边界崇山峻岭怀抱着的一个山窝里，一群人围着三十来个整装待发的战士。这是从侦察大队中挑了又挑，选了又选，拨拉出来的优秀士兵，他们要组成小分队去完成特殊的敌后穿插任务。
任务一，深入敌后，给炮兵指出敌方军事实力集中的准确位置；二、侦察到敌人的炮兵阵地予以破坏，炸毁其弹药库；三、在我军发起攻击前，摧毁敌人的指挥所。三项任务，每项都是刀扎在敌人的心窝子上，但危险程度都是到虎口狼窝里趟路。
枪是每人两只，手枪和冲锋枪，还配上了消音器。人人身上都满当当，沉掂掂的，背着挂着装着炸药、手雷、火箭筒、还有匕首等。每人的左前胸口袋里都装了一颗“光荣弹”，这是为防止万一被敌人抓住时“光荣”预备的。他们都写了一封信封好留在了大队部里，说白了就是一封遗书。战士的年龄都在二十岁左右，稚嫩的脸上个个都透着威严。
侦察大队的人都来了，这是一支身经百战，功勋卓著，抗日战争时就存在的部队。大队战史记录上有回来的英雄，有未归的烈士，但被俘获人名单上却是写着一片空白。全大队的同志，深深的明白，面前出征的战友死的比率要比生的可能大得多。他们，此时的心情是沉重的，但又为战友英勇的去完成光荣的使命而感到骄傲。心紧缩着，脸绷得象铁，表情里没有酸楚惟有庄严。万籁沉寂，空气里还透出了“壮士一去不复还”的悲壮。六十多岁的老军长也来了，也来参加这庄严送行。
大队长那锺一样的声音,咣咣地敲出了命令。老军长的话象慈父对儿子的嘱咐。他知道这也许是他戎马生涯的最后一场战事了，望着面前一张张娃娃面孔，他想到了当年敢死队里的自己。他是万马军中的首长，他的决策，他的意志，要由面前这些孩子不惜生命来实现，那张老槐树皮一样黑黢黢的脸有点微微的抽动。他从警卫员手里接过他从军部带来的不舍得喝的茅台酒，默默地为孩子们斟上。战士们双手托着茶碗，凝望着象父亲一样的脸。赤水河畔的酒香，溢在这南疆的空气里，在场的人都嗅到了。
随着一声“我等待着你们凯旋”那“干”字还没说出来，酒一饮而尽了。
大队长最后问“同志们还有什么话要说？”随后他要大手一挥喊出“出发”来了。
突然一声：“报告！”一个姓鲍，绰号叫“小豹子”的小战士一步跨出队列。
“讲”大队长说。
“我想看一眼刘军医的”小豹子把后边的话咽回去了。
“什么？说明白吗！”, 大队长有点生气。
“乳房”他竟喃喃地吐出了仅有身边人才能听到的这两个字。
周边的人震惊了。
“你混”大队长俩眼瞪得圆圆的，手里的大拳头都举过了头顶，就是没把那个“蛋”字说出来。
“可以”一句平静的女人声音，令大队长回过头来。
他吃惊的看到面前的刘军医在解里外的军装扣子。
刘军医是才分来不到半年的军医大的大学生，还不到二十四岁。她人长得漂亮，身材更好看，该胖的地方胖，该瘦的地方瘦。她待人和气，歌也唱的好，深得战友们的喜欢。
“——来，看吧！”她细声细气的声音竟然震动了这个小山谷。
她象拉手风琴一样，“唰”的一声拉开了胸前的绿色幕布，露出了雪白雪白的胸脯。那一对白嫩的乳房，挺拔拱起，再加上暗红的乳晕衬托，鲜活鲜活的。
几百个男人，几百双眼睛，不约而同地看过来，没有狎昵，没有猥亵，只有肃穆和惊奇。小土堆上的十几个人仿佛消失了，仅剩下刘医生了。.人们忘记了性.她真的很圣洁，圣洁的象一尊女神。
山林默默，空气似乎凝固了。
“敬礼”是分队长喊出来的。严肃标准的敬礼，来自小分队的队员，来自侦察大队的所有人。小分队的人拎着枪，飞快的奔去，脚踢着地面上的草唰唰地响。
小豹子眼里的泪夺框而出，对着刘军医大声喊了一声“姐姐”拧身回头真的象头豹子蹿出去了。那一个个军装裹着的矫健身躯，融进了这南国山林的绿色里。远方，传来嗒、嗒嗒的枪声，轰、隆隆的炮声。遥望，看到了弥漫的硝烟。
土堆上那敞开的绿色幕布，慢慢地合拢了，遮住了那耀眼的白皙。
此时的老军长心潮澎湃，他枪林弹雨里摸爬滚打了几十年，什么没见过，惟一没见过眼前的这一幕。他相信小豹子他们既是炮弹把他们炸八瓣也不会眨一下眼，而他怎样评估面前这位和她小女儿一般大的女性呢？————她比出征的英雄战士还要伟大！
他缓缓地走到她的近前，行了一个庄重的军礼。
当他走出几步后，身后传出悲壮的歌声。“再见吧，妈妈。再见吧，妈妈。军号已吹响，钢枪已擦亮、、、、、、”
这歌声从刘军医嘴里唱出，她在为出征的哥哥、弟弟们唱着唱给远方的母亲听那。
老军长，老泪纵横，人人都泪流满面了。
The most profitable business
As we, including the kids, know that a profitable business is when we purchase at low price and sell at higher price to make a profit. But the “law of profitability” in economics has been broken. I read a piece of news with mouth wide opened. Am I reading correctly? Here is the repost of the news from “The Malaysian Insiders“:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — American motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson has, according to the Associated Press, agreed to buy MV Agusta for US$109 million (RM360 million), in sharp contrast to the one euro Italian company Gevi paid when it bought the Italian bike-maker from Proton Holdings in 2006.
Harley-Davidson said in a statement out of Milwaukee last Friday that it was likely to seal the deal in weeks but the news is likely to unleash a firestorm of criticism against Proton, which was savagely assailed for the 2006 sale by no less a person than former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who conceived Proton back in 1984, according to the SingaporeBusiness Times.
Proton, then under the leadership of Dr Mahathir protege Tengku Mahaleel Ariff, bought a 57.75 per cent interest in MV Agusta in December 2004 for 70 million euros (RM357 million). Dr Mahathir had stepped down as premier a month earlier but had been appointed Proton adviser by his successor Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the time.
By 2005, Proton was floundering amid intense competition from better-quality Japanese models and relations between Tengku Mahaleel and the new Proton board, all appointed by Abdullah, were tense. These culminated in the chief executive’s contract not being renewed. Barely a year later, the company sold MV Agusta, with its debt of 107 million euros, for one euro.
Dr Mahathir took it personally, asking for an investigation of the sale decision and its beneficiaries, and questioning the urgency of the deal.
Proton defended itself by saying there were “no operational, engineering or technological synergies” between the two companies, a conclusion that it said had “been independently confirmed by its appointed advisers”.
When Tengku Mahaleel and Dr Mahathir decided on the buy earlier, it was precisely because of the deal’s so-called “technological synergies”.
Even so, the Harley deal would appear to vindicate both men and is likely to rebound upon Proton and, by extension, Abdullah and his administration, which has stoutly defended Proton’s new management against the criticism of Dr Mahathir.
MV Agusta makes a line of premium sports motorcycles under its own name and another line of lightweight bikes under the Cagiva brand.
Meanwhile, the deal will help Harley-Davidson expand into the European market as sales slump in the US where consumers are pulling back on spending. Performance biking accounts for almost 80 per cent of sales in Europe, where Harley’s sales have been growing in double digits over the past three years. The US bike-maker now has a 10 per cent share of the European market.
Meanwhile Bernama reports that Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told the Dewan Rakyat today that the sale of MV Agusta for one euro was profitable to Proton as there was no synergy between the Italian motorcycle maker and Proton as a car manufacturer.
He said Proton made the decision after taking into account the financial liabilities of Agusta which had debts of 107 million euros.
Under the agreement, the shareholder must be responsible for the company’s debts, he said.
“As there was no synergy between car and motorcycle and instead of shouldering the debt, Proton decided to sell Agusta,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping) during Question Time.
Take a look at the last fourth paragraph carefully. The speaker was really lack of intelligence. How can a business be profitable if it spends 70 millions Euros to buy a company and then sells it for 1 Euro? But in the first place, will you buy a company with 107 millions Euros of debts?
Hello? Is this a typo? I don’t think so. But the person who made such statement in Dewan Rakyat must be thinking the Malaysians are mentally retarded.
肚子里的野蛮
昨晚肚子里的野蛮作怪，搞到我整晚坐立难安。想必是今天吃不定时又吃了一些油腻的食物才会中招。吃了文明的药来打压肚子里的野蛮就去躺，然后就这样睡着了。到了半夜，拉了才舒服。今早迟起了。唉。
Are you ready?
August 8, 2008 will be the day. Are you ready?
Here is the song for the Olympic 2008 countdown. I love the song because it makes my blood rushing, full of dynamic. This song is a Chinese language song but music is a universal language. Enjoy!
这个世界是文明还是野蛮？
傍晚在电视上看到第二届世界大专华文辩论会（世辩贰）大决赛。题目是《这个世界是文明还是野蛮？》。马来西亚国民大学是正方，而反方是中国苏州大学。在我看来，反方比较明确的述明这世界的野蛮里的文明。不过，大体上，双方都在逗圈子，来来去去都在争论是文明是野蛮的。双方都拿不出一个标准。依我看来，反方比较胜卷在握。
看这场辩论赛而辩论这个世界是文明还是野蛮的，真是浪费时间。
这个世界是文明还是野蛮的不是世人能定夺。这个世界是一个灰色的世界。文明中带有野蛮、野蛮中带有文明。以文明来掩饰野蛮、而野蛮行为中带点文明处处可见。一位企业化黑帮老大坏事做尽、可他又是一位慈善家，那么他是文明还是野蛮？把一件事以多角度、多层次来抽丝剥茧的深入观察和分析，就会有好多不同的结论。以上两支决赛队伍都缺乏了多角度多层次的客观分析。
在一个文明社会的字典里，《法律》、《斗争》、《仇恨》、《战争》、《经济》、《利益》、《罪恶》等等是不存在的。在文明社会里是不需要法律来约束人民的。为什么？因为每人脑里都没有经济和利益的斗争，也不会有战争。社会上种种罪恶都是利益和经济的冲突所引起的。所以，在我们野蛮的社会里，需要法律来约束人们以防止罪案发生。有文明不代表没有了野蛮。只是野蛮被文明的法律约束压制了。
一个文明社会里，经济和金钱是不存在的。每人都知道自己对社会的义务而工作，而不是为个人的物质享受而工作。所有行动和思想都是和大体一致的为大体的生存而产生。
一个文明社会里，所有思想都是无极的，也不会有这场辩论会，更不需要辩论。一切仇恨斗争都是思想极化的产物。
在我眼里，这个世界是文明里带有野蛮、野蛮里有点文明的一个矛盾世界。
更新：中国苏州大学 胜。
Protected: Two things that annoyed me today
NSAID allergy case the 3rd time!
My dad was admitted to the General Hospital yesterday due to suspecting of food poisoning. He was actually going to the Community Polyclinic at Pantai Peringgit for his routine medical checkup. But he had been having diarrhea since last week and yesterday he began to vomit.
There wasn’t any vacant ward so they put him in the A&E ward. He was transferred to medical ward this morning. When I visited him two hours ago, I saw his eyes were swollen. His eye bags were filled with fluid. I knew he was having allergic reaction and I quickly checked with the nurse.
There were some young doctors there. A female doctor attended to me and my dad to see what’s going on. Her name was Dr. Ng. I told her that my dad was allergic to NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs). They prescribed him Aspirin. She said they had stopped giving him aspirin.
This was negligence and I pursued the responsibility with her. I am regarded as some kind of pain-in-the-ass by some people. I could see her facial reaction when I told her that I would pursue this responsibility. She quickly apologized and carefully worked through the documents. I backed off a little when I saw her diligence. I am not totally a pain-in-the-ass after all. I am not totally unreasonable.
She found a remark stating my dad was allergic to two unknown drugs. I told her, when a patient had informed the doctor or the nurse of his unknown allergic, then it would be the normal procedure to go through the patient’s medical history to find out what he was allergic to. Assessment had to be made accordingly if the patient was medically illiterate. The hospital should also immediately contact his family to find out what his allergies.
She apologized again and suggested me to speak to her superior tomorrow morning. She apologized again and I told her it was not her fault because my dad had been admitted at the same hospital with the same allergic reaction. Someone did not do their job well.
He was prescribed NSAID by an A&E doctor at the same general hospital and had mild allergic reaction. This happened in early 2007. In May 2007, the Community Polyclinic at Pantai Peringgit prescribed him Diclofenac Sodium and he had a bad allergic reaction and was admitted to the general hospital at night. I wrote about this here.
Why does this happen again for the 3rd time?
I am going to be someone’s real pain-in-the-ass tomorrow.
First astronomy lesson
After the TV, I went to lock the outer gate. The sky was clear and I could see the full moon and many stars. I saw the brightest star twinkling on the lower left corner not far away from the moon. I guessed it was Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet and one of the four outer gas giants or Jovians in our solar system. To be sure, I checked with Stellarium on my Mac and confirmed it was Jupiter.
Then I called the boys and mom to gaze at the sky and told them it was Jupiter the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in our solar system. I told them that Jupiter would take about 11 years to orbit the Sun compare to one year for our planet earth. The two older boys responded with a big “Wow!” Nik was rather excited and very vocal.
We could also see some other stars and Ara, Triangulum Australe, Libra and Virgo constellation. They were magnificent.
The kids had their first astronomy lesson and so did I. I learned that Pluto is no longer the ninth planet in our solar system. Instead, the International Astronomical Union or IAU has reclassified Pluto as one of the four dwarf planets together with Ceres, Makemake and Eris.
I will reconsider to acquire a telescope soon. I almost invested in a Meade’s ETX-90PE in 1998 but for some reason I did not. I will consider a larger model, ETX-125PE.
I became interested in astronomy when I was first introduced by two persons. One was Dr. Ghaffar and Khoo. Dr. Ghaffar is a nuclear physicist and Khoo is my ex-classmate and a mechanical engineer. Both of them were very involved in star gazing. Khoo had even built his own 12″ diameter Newtonian Reflective Telescope.
I almost invested into one as mentioned earlier but I didn’t. At some point, I became very interested in astrophysics. Writing software to model celestial body can be interestingly challenging. Perhaps I should go get a Ph.D. and become an astrophysicist. Or, perhaps, one of the boys will become a renown astrophysicist.
Are our soldiers competent enough?
When I was queueing up at the cash deposit machine in a bank, there was a soldier in his uniform in front of me. The banks in Malaysia have become semi electronics with machines for both withdrawal and deposit plus human counters.
Come back to the soldier in front of me.
When it was the soldier turn to make his deposit, he kindly asked the man in front of him to help with his deposit. This soldier was in his late 30s or 40s looking at his grey hair. One question sparked across my mind: How competent are our soldiers? He couldn’t even make an electronic deposit transaction! Perhaps he was the only incompetent soldier in the whole military. I wished I was wrong.
I remembered that I attended a beach party on Okinawa. The party was organized by marines and civilian security force. You can read and see some photos here. The two men at the barbecue were some high ranking marines officers. I can’t recall their ranks. The other man with blue shorts, blind-folded standing in the tub was a commander.
I spoke to most of the people there. From bottom to some substantially high ranking officers. Their attitude and manners, and the way they spoke to me and the contents of conversation suggested some high level of intelligence. They were truly professional soldiers.
Looking at the soldier who was queueing in front of me, it was a total distinction and a disgrace. I might have not met a bad US soldier on Okinawa. But both of my encounters have prompted me if our soldiers are competent if compare to our neighbors. Our soldier don’t even know to operate a cash deposit machines? I must be joking if you don’t see it yourself. But yes, I saw it right in front of me.
Go to YouTube, you can see some of our military performance. The military war dance is really a laughing stock!
Tycoon or dick heads?
Dressing is really a knowledge for both men and women. Dressing reflects professionalism and social status of the person. Those youngsters in the universities lack dressing knowledge. Universities enforced dress code to prohibit sandals, shorts etc in campus but that does not do any help in students’ dressing.
I read on a blog about a comment by Nemesis, where he described some university students as dick heads. His comment was deleted later because he used the offending term: dick head. Well, I read about it and had a good laugh.
Upgraded to WordPress 2.6
Just finished upgrading to WordPress 2.6. The upgrading was quite smooth except my ADSL speed was very slow. I had complained to the ISP last week and again yesterday. After upgrading to 2.6, I couldn’t login even if I reset the password.
Quick Googling found the solution: Clear the browser’s cookies and everything becomes normal again!
Chikungunya fever
My aunt and her husband were talking about some mosquito transmitted fever with joint pains when we visited her yesterday. They told us the epidermic was spreading in Segamat, Tangkak, Sagil and Muar. The epidemic they were talking about was Chikungunya fever. This disease is transmitted by infected Aedes mosquitoes. Today, there are 4 reported cases in Malacca.
The outbreak is caused by raining season. Singapore has reported an outbreak in earlier this year in January. Although it is not as deadly as dengue fever, I will take no chance to allow our kids to expose to the Aedes mosquitoes. No outdoor activities in the evening for a while.
One great Sunday out
We have planned to go to a temple at Muar for weeks and finally the day came. We went to pick up grandma at 1030, bought some fruits in the town and heading to Muar around 1130. The journey took around half an hour thanks to the new express way.
We went to Muar to find that temple with Richard some time in April. Being the agnostic me, I haven’t been to such temples in years. Being curious, I went with some hope. But I guess the effect will not come so soon. Those Chinese friends who believe in such “Gods” will understand what I am talking about.
There were many people at the temple and we finished our business around 1445 or 1500. Then we headed to Muar town center for lunch. After our late lunch, we visited an aunt there. Grandma chatted with her sister for a while then home we went.
When we arrived Melaka, we stopped over at Jusco to buy some more fruits and a few shirts. Then we all had our dinner at KFC. Reached home around 2030. We were so exhausted and went to bed quite early.
What a Sunday!
My car need a major repair
I sent my car to Honda authorized workshop this morning. I had a technician to go test driving with me so that I could convince him my problem. The knocking sound reduced tremendously after I sent in my car for valve gap adjustment last Monday. But the problem is still there when the vehicle velocity and road condition is right. Read my other posts regarding this problem here, here, here and here.
After some checking, they finally gave up. The service manager told me that they had to dismantle the engine compartment and he called Honda to have them bear the cost since I had good service records with them.
Actually, I was all ready to fire and to bang them because I had spent over RM1,000 and the problem was not remedied at all. Since the service manager guaranteed that they would call Honda to have them to bear the cost, I decided to hold my fire. He promised to call me today or latest by Monday. My car will be in for a few days and they will arrange a courtesy car for me to use. Let see how things go.
Hello? What is Ada?
I was giving an Ada talk this afternoon. The room was quite packed with students although not full. They were mainly 3rd year sem 1. Most of them were looking at technologies that they could work with their FYP (Final Year Project).
While I regaled them with fascinating true facts of Ada, I could see various reactions on their innocent and ignorant faces. Almost half of them gave an expression of “What is Ada going to do with my project?”, “What is Ada? Never heard of it.” or “Ada is old technology and is unpopular.” It was years of experience telling me not to waste too much time with such audiences. I quickly skimmed through some technical facts which they wouldn’t understand and continue regaling them with some interesting facts.
Finally, I had come to the end of the talk. It was the questions and answers session. No one had asked any questions except a girl who asked me about C# after the talk session was over. I explained to her the benefits of Ada over C# but she said she would have to start all over again. Again, my instinct told me not to waste time with such attitude and I turned my focus onto the two students whom I am supervising now. I continued with them a discussion of their project.
Unlike a couple of years back, I was too over-enthusiastic about Ada. I would talk regardless of audience reactions. After a few talks and a seminar this year, I find that I have changed. My enthusiasm is parallel to audience reaction.
Durian, durian, durian
It is durian season. Last night when we were at grandma’s place, she and grandpa asked D if he liked to eat durian. We had been talking about durian feast since couple of weeks ago. So, tonight we decided to buy some durian to give grandma and kids a treat.
We drove to Bukit Baru to source for durian. Finally found a Malay stall opposite SRJK Kek Seng. Bought 9kg of durian and proceeded to grandma’s. The kids had not been to grandma’s place for months. The kids were really enjoying at grandma’s place. We stayed until 2330. The kids will definitely wake up late in the morning. They usually sleep early but once a while we allow them to sleep during weekends so that they can adjust to adults’ timing. They must be sleeping soundly by now.
Thinking in a nutshell
Most Malaysia graduate students lack critical thinking and have narrow thinking in their small nutshell and yet they think they are thinking and handling problems like an adult. I don’t know exactly what makes them having this false perception but I think it is the lacking of critical thinking, experience and limited exposure in the real world of survivor. They are restrained only to academic and their activities circles are also bounded by non-sense laws set by the universities. These laws are designed to suppress the basic human rights of the students. Read more
Working at Honda?
I was working at Honda’s Showroom (KAH Motor) while I waited for my car to be repaired since 0830 this morning. One thing Honda has done right is the 3S (Sales, Service, Showroom) Center. They provide free drinks, Astro and WIFI for customers. The waiting area is very comfortable and cozy. One thing lacking is insufficient seats.
It was great experience to do my work at Honda’s showroom. I have a lot to prepare for the Ada Workshop tomorrow.
A great Sunday morning
Yesterday, we took two bicycles to the town for repair. I hadn’t been using the bicycle carrier since 2006. In the evening, we took the bicycles to the park. After dinner, we went home and the weather seemed like to rain. Actually, I thought of taking the kids and the bikes to the park again the next morning. But it started to rain before midnight. We changed the plan, no bike but jogging at the park.
This morning, the weather was so cool because after the rain and was perfect to go fill up the gas tank. So, we all woke up early and went to the petrol station to fill up the tank. After that we went to the park followed by breakfast.
We went to the old part of Melaka China town near by the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple for dim sum. This restaurant is Melaka most famous and oldest dim sum restaurant and one of the very few pioneer. My dad used to bought us buns and glutinous rice in lotus leaf. They were delicious 30 years ago as I could remember. That was one of the bad dim sum we ever had. Actually, the taste not too bad at all but certainly was not a good one. The service was very bad and not really kids- or baby- friendly. We quickly had some and left. When checking the bill, it was quite expensive. I will definitely not recommend that dim sum restaurant.
Forget about the bad experience at breakfast. Anyway, we all enjoyed very much today. At night we watched movies at home.
Ada Obsession
Well, well, well. Kazeserver alpha RC1 has to be delayed due to some design issues and I am rewriting most part of the software so that the source can be understood easily. For the past two weeks, I was troubled by the old design but I have got a new picture now.
Isn’t Ada code easy to understand? Well, yes. But I was using a lot of Unbounded_String in records which made my code hard to read and understood. While Unbounded_String is compatible with database operation, it lacks the understandability and readability if compared to String (1 .. 10) for example.
Today, I am totally obsessed in Ada and am feeling the strongest Ada obsession after a couple of years. The feeling is still burning. If my Ada obsession keep burning, I believe I can release KazeServer for alpha testing before of June. Hopefully.
Increased productivity
After solving the post-commit hook script problem (read here), I am a happy software developer again. I am able to receive post commit emails to help me keep track of changes in my development work. I have been experiencing the same level of efficiency and productivity before this problem struck me.
I guess I am happy of the whole week of activities and I am signing off to bed.
Gourmet Chocolates
I love chocolates! Recently, I craved for chocolates because of the increased brain activities. Chocolate is the favorite food while I am working on computers. Besides providing more energy for my brains, I love the way it melts in my mouth. LA has baked some chocolate cookies last week and I almost finished them.
I found a site which sells delicious gourmet chocolates. Gertrude Hawk Chocolates is made of fresh and finest ingredients. It is dedicated to create the best gourmet chocolates which include dark chocolate and other mouth-watering, delicious Chocolate Smidgens, caramel-dipped apples, gourmet summer taffy and many more.
Gertrude Hawk Chocolates also provide gift giving service. Their beautifully gift-wrapped assortments and pre-made gift baskets add more values to your gift-giving needs. Besides, you can also create your own personal gift with their Create-a-Basket program.
Hmmm… I wish to receive a Gertrude Hawk Chocolates gift basket.
Bar Code Printer
If you are running a business and have been using POS (Point Of Sales) system, you will find bar code is an easy and accurate way of inputting your stock code. Some products have bar code printed on the product label, some don’t. The Zebra 2844 bar code label printer is a reliable desktop bar code printer for your business needs. It features a 203dpi thermal print head with direct thermal or thermal transfer printing with good resolution and enhanced print quality.
My message to our dearest Prime Minister
Here’s a message I have sent to our dearest Prime Minister at Warkah Untuk PM. I hope he is personally reading all the messages and really put in efforts to ease our burdens and also make changes. Read more
Abrupt price hike of fuel
One day after the price increased, there are many fingers pointing to our PM Pak Lah. Many people including politicians and the honorable retired ex-PM, Mahatir are blaming the Pak Lah and his administration. Politicians are taking this opportunity to tarnish Pak Lah image and hopefully to quickly impede him.
IMHO, the abrupt increased of fuel prices has good reason that we should consider and support. The sudden increase of prices by as much as 40% will force citizens to be more thrifty. Malaysians have been pampered with low fuel prices for so long. As you can notice (if you really pay attention), many people go to grocery shops which are very near their home by cars. These shops are in within walking distance. This is just one of the example.
By forcing Malaysians to be thrifty and less travel unnecessarily, we can save more precious natural resources and emit less pollutants. The change of lifestyle is going to take place sooner or later as we know our oil production is going to cease in 2014. That is just 6 years away.
The people from our neighboring countries such as Singapore has been benefited by the fuel subsidy. It is the time to stop benefit them. The subsidy is to be enjoyed by our citizens but not others. It is very messy to handle this issue.
One day before the increase, there had been news about the price hike. But people treated it as rumor because there was no announcement on TV news channels. But Sharir said in the TV interview that things would change tomorrow. That’s the indication from the government. Again, IMHO, I think Pak Lah and his administration are quite smart in handling this situation. First, they sanction the sales of petrol. No sales to foreign vehicles within 50KM radius from the border. Kedah responded with a full ban on entire state. The ban was to deter foreign vehicles to fill up their tanks before the price hike. Smart strategy.
The government has sent enough signals to every citizens but no one took it seriously. Another indication is that one or two days prior the announcement, fuel tankers were busy refilling petrol kiosks. Did anyone notice that?
Although most of the Malaysians dislike Pak Lah and his administration, but we need more intelligence to address and to helm through this crisis. The fingers pointing is just another dirty strategy by some politicians trying to out throw Pak Lah.
Are we having another economy crisis?
Do you remember 1997 world economy crisis when currencies were speculated? Now, we have another round of economy crisis. Only this time, foods are speculated after oil. If we look back in the history, we can easily spot a pattern of this crisis. Almost every 10 years, we will face one round of crisis.
It is quite interesting to look at these facts and start speculating what will be the next thing be speculated in another 10 years to come.
Food prices are going up
Today, I could notice traffic volume had decreased quite substantially at some busy junctions. Tonight, when we were out to grab some groceries, we noticed the streets were quieter than usual. Guess this is the after effect of fuel price hike.
M has been advising us to stock up some food items with long shelf life. After reading news and considering Wall Street has begun to speculate on food prices, we decided to start stocking up some food items especially rice. I made some analysis based on Geography. The south-western monsoon season is approaching. The rice planting and harvesting season will end soon when the monsoon comes. Looking at the situation in Myanmar that was hit by typhoon Nagis, the future for rice supplies does not look optimistic to me. In addition, the price hike of diesel (RM1 per liter) has prompted transportation company to increase their transportation cost by 38%! This cascading effects will cause food prices to increase again very soon.
Just now, I grabbed 8 bags (80kg) of rice. That will last us for 16 months. Tomorrow, I am going to grab some more rice again for my mom.
Another good reason to stock up essential food items will be reducing the trips to hypermarket thus saving petrol.
Best Wishes to Michal and Monika
Today, my best pal from Poland, Michal got married with Monika. We received their invitation to their wedding party on a plane flying from Poznan to Kornik. We regretted that we couldn’t join their ceremony and party. Here is our best wishes to Michal and Monika.
Congratulations!
Gas Rush!
Our government announced this evening that the petrol price will hike up 78 cents per litter by midnight. After midnight the petrol price per litter will be RM2.70. This is a drastic announcement after the government decides to cut fuel subsidies when the world crude oil price soared above US$120 per barrel. This will definitely add more burdens after the hike of food prices due to worldwide food shortage.
We went to the hypermarket to see if we can grab something for stocking. On the way, we saw many cars queuing up a petrol kiosks causing massive traffic jam. Thank God I have filled up the tank last night.
Expect to see more crimes after the price hike.
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