Against All Odds - The Rise Of An Industrious Country
It was two weeks ago, if my memory served me right, my kids were playing around the dining hall. One of them, took a hard-boiled egg and put it into a basket of uncooked eggs. Mum was getting crazy about this. I heard the incidence and I came out of my working room.
“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mum would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off. 
I took the two eggs in my hand and mum gathered the boys around the dining table. Mum told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”
I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.
Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?
归零
读了成彪登在新华网的作者文集，我对“归零”有很大的回响，也让我心中再次涌现了她的影子。读完文集，我热泪盈眶：
9月28日，神七顺利回家，举国为之欢腾。
从神七返回舱顺利落地的那一刻，一个词——“归零”立刻浮现在笔者的心头。在2005年神六完美落地后，航天员费俊龙、聂海胜异口同声地说：“所有的成绩都已经‘归零’。”而今，神七同样不辱使命，我们同样需要自信、自警、自强地对自己说“所有的成绩都已经‘归零’”，进而尽快回到那光荣而艰苦的圆梦历程上，继续向更高的科技高峰攀登。
从某种意义上说，航天产品研制的过程就是一个不断归零的过程。神七按计划成功落地，载人航天飞行的技术“归零”就同时启动，我们不仅要在这项系统技术上追求完美无缺，还要举一反三地消除前进道路上的每一个科技难题，在不断地难题“归零”、成绩“归零”中创造新的辉煌。
从差距到动力，中间需要一个“发现”——自我发现差距，产生奋起直追的内在要求。神七落地的那一刻就将成绩“归零”，就是要自我发现差距、内生前进动力。
神七回家日，成绩归零时。除了鲜花、掌声、贺辞之外，广大航天科技工作者又一次自信自强地站在新的起点，向着发射空间实验室、建立永久性空间站等更高更远的目标前进！
Two more kids get pox
Well, Dmitry had recovered from his chickenpox and began schooling this Monday. Unfortunately, Rich began to get the symptom on Monday late morning when LA noticed some red spots and small blisters popping out on his face. By Wednesday, he had blisters all over his body.
And today, guess what? Nik begins to show symptoms. His outbreak is slow with fewer blisters. We are supposed to meet up with LY tomorrow but it looks like impossible. They are so afraid that their daughter (same age as Nik) may get the chickenpox too.
Well, all three of them have gotten their chickenpox.
Nassi-Shneiderman Diagram
I came across a highly influential graphical representation method of stating algorithm while I was reading books of system analysis and design. This method is called Nassi-Shneiderman Diagram or NSD. It was developed by Isaac “Ike” Nassi and Ben Shneiderman in 1972. Isaac also helped design the Ada programming language.
Many people claimed NSD to be very easy to read and understand, especially for beginners. This is probably quite true but maintaining NSD can be a problem for system designers. Unlike flowchart, NSD lumps all the symbols into one large block and does not use connectors between the symbols.
Contrary to flowchart which uses connectors, NSD provides a better structural approach of design where Goto should be avoided in structured programming. NSD provides simplicity and a compact overview of a program that can show some relationship nicely. NSD, in particular, provides visual aid and guides thinking about nested conditional structures.
Personally, I find that NSD is useful for rapid prototyping. It is quite simple and easy to draw a conceptual design before expanding into a flowchart. Modifying a stage or symbol in NSD is rather tedious compared to flowchart. On the other hand, after a careful and thorough investigation, I find NSD most suitable for structured system analysis, design and programming. NSD was designed with structured system analysis and design in mind as mentioned in the above paragraph, it has many advantages over flowchart despite of problem maintaining it. I think it is worth to study and to use it.
Here is an example of NSD and flowchart stating an algorithm to find a summation given by the equation:
If S > 100, then display k and tell the user that k is in range.
Hit the books
I have eight books to gnaw in 4 weeks but I only found one and bought it yesterday. So far, I’ve managed to gnaw one and half chapters of all eighteen in one book. The list of the books that I need to chew is growing. Looking at the list and the progress that I have made so far makes me a little worry. It is one mission impossible.
Some of the books are available as ebook but I prefer a hardcopy. Downloading of ebook pages are quite slow. The other drawback of the ebook is that I am unable to flip between pages for cross referencing. Hence, I would rather to invest in hardcopy books.
Local bookstores have limited titles. I believe Borders and Kinokumiya may have titles which I am looking for. I have to travel to KL one of these days to search for the books I need.
Pox Party
Hurray! Let’s have chicken pox party! Wait a minute… Am I going crazy? Who wants to have chickenpox? Huh… You see. In the past, parents would throw a chicken pox party when their children got chickenpox. The idea was to let other children to contract the virus naturally rather through inoculation. Once a person has contracted chickenpox, he/she will have immunity to chicken pox for the rest of his/her life. The only drawback is that person will have a chance to have shingles when the immunity gets low.
Dmitry has got chickenpox this morning. I didn’t see any when I had bath with him yesterday. So, the doctor gave him one week medical leave and advised him to stay at home. Nowadays people are so afraid to let their children to get chickenpox. This is a sign of overly protective. Children should not be sent back to school. But I personally think that why not as long as the children have no fever and as long as personal hygiene is taken care of.
Lets go spread some virus! He…he… 
Algorithmic art
Jean-Pierre Hébert, a 68-year-old French artist, is an algorist. This is a name, proposed by Jean himself, for artists who create arts using unique computer algorithms. Apple featured Jean and his works in May 2008. You can read about him here so I am not going to repeating writing about him and his works.
When I was doing shopping alone this evening, the idea flashed in my mind. I could use Mathematica to explore algorithmic art. So, I sat down in front of my Mac and explored. Here’s my first piece of algorithmic art . It is not comparable to what Jean has done but is definitely a good start. I can’t call myself algorist yet because I created no algorithm.
The following examples are two very simple mathematics equations. The plots demonstrate that mathematics can be visualized as art.
Butterworth low-pass filters
I was reading about Butterworth low-pass filters since two weeks ago. Signal processing was not my favorite but this particular linear analog electronic filter had somehow captured my attention. I have interns working on some projects. One project uses Butterworth low-pass filters to process signal acquired from some sensors.
I have to verify their works using Mathematica on Mac OS X for data modeling. But there is a problem with this software. It does not have a built-in function of Butterworth low-pass filter so I need to build one.
The gain G(ω) of an n-order Butterworth low pass filter is given in terms of transfer function H(s) as:
where ωc is break frequency.
The Mathematica code with break frequency normalized at 1 rad/s:
butterworth[w1_, w2_, o_] = 1/(1 + (w1/w2)^(2*o));
LogLinearPlot[
Evaluate[Table[
10*Log[10, butterworth[w1, 1, order]], {order, 5}]], {w1, 0.01, 100},
PlotRange -> {-100, 0}, PlotPoints -> 100, ImageSize -> 400]
Export["butterworth.jpg", %]
Plot of the gain of Butterworth low-pass filters of the n-order 1 through 5.
The power of China
After watching the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic 2008, I wrote a Chinese post about it and the magnificent Olympic torch ceremony. Tonight, the world witnessed again China’s ability to stage such a huge magnificent show to the world.
One thing that caught my eyes was the double deck bus which then transformed into a stage. When I was young, I used to imagine to have a vehicle which could transform into anything as I wished. China has done it! It has become possible.
Both the opening and closing ceremony have attracted the world’s attention. The shows take a person’s knowledge and understanding of Chinese cultures and history. Without such knowledge and understanding, the shows were just merely gigantic stage performances, and nothing more than entertainment. The story went down the time tunnel from Qin dynasty to modern China. They told the spectacular transformation of China and its rising.
Writing a conceptual paper
This may or may not be the greatest invention or rather I will not call it an invention yet. I am thinking of how to write a paper to record the conceptualization of my idea which I talked about earlier. First, at this point, I can’t discuss my idea with anybody in order to protect my interest; that makes the writing more difficult. Second, I have nothing to prove so writing this paper is like writing a Sci-Fi novel. So, I need a different approach, may be.
I dug out my collection of conference proceedings yesterday afternoon, hopefully I could find some inspiration. Obviously, I haven’t.
Yummy little cup cake
LA had baked some little cup cakes. She decorated them so well that you wanted to eat them. If you look at them for a while more, you wouldn’t want to eat them because they were so colorfully beautiful.
These photos were taken in May and I did not have time to process them and to write a post. I was processing Dmitry’s graduation photos last night so I conveniently processed them together. Some good and mouth watering pictures to get rid of the eye sore.
Protected: Dmitry’s graduation photo session
Sudden flooding of wild ideas
I have a sudden flooding of wild ideas these couples of days. Most of them seem to be really wild and not practical or logical enough to implement. But I see one with great potential which may change the way of computing.
I need some time to think it over and if it is viable, I then have to look at possibilities to patent it. If I am lucky enough, I may get venture capital fund for research and development. I hope so. Let’s dream big.
This is going to be exciting though.
Distributed computing
I missed an opportunity to work on a distributed computing project many years ago. I was too engrossed in front-end dealing with GUI and stuff. Now, when I read more about Lamport’s works, distributed computing is becoming more interesting. I am also becoming more obsessed in reading distributed computing. Without me realizing at first, I have become Lamport’s fan.
I read his papers with great interest and the desire to read more of his works is becoming stronger in me. I have never had such feeling before. I will continue to find inspiration in his works.
Dmitry had a great start
Well, looks like the strategy is working. We decided to start Dmitry on reading books of older children like Enid Blyton. We bought some of Blyton’s books yesterday to cultivate reading habit. This morning while he was waiting for me to get ready to send him to school, he sat near the bookshelf and read one of the Blyton’s. I saw it but I did not speak a word about his action but just letting him enjoying his reading alone.
This was the story. Last night before going to bed, I took those books into my working room and wrote the post here. The books were on my desk till this morning. After I was done with emails, I took the books to the bookshelf. He saw me taking the books and asked me why I took his books. I replied, “well, daddy found it interesting to read so daddy read it last night.”. He replied without hesitating, “Those are my books. Why do you read it?”. I knew it was a right moment to inspire him so I replied, “Daddy finds it interesting so daddy wants to read it no matter what book it is.” Then I turned away without speaking too much and ate my breakfast.
After some moment, I saw him reading one of the books. He has been inspired and I hope he will continue to inspire himself. When I was ready to go, I saw the other two little brothers holding Blyton’s books in their hands. The two brothers are not at the level yet but, well, that’s a great start.
A ‘clack’ on my shoulder
This afternoon I had to rush to my karate class because I was late again. When I got into my car and sped off, I reached out for the buckle above my right shoulder. Suddenly, I heard a loud audible ‘clack’ coming from my left shoulder. I thought I would have worsen my shoulder bursitis. Miraculously, there wasn’t any pain but I felt having better mobility and greater degree of movement. Before this, I could barely lift up my left arm to touch the other shoulder without assistance of my right hand, and the movement would be slow. Now, I can lift up my left arm to touch the other shoulder at will. Of course, I still feel a little sore on my left shoulder.
Anyway, I was very much worried about my shoulder. I was so afraid that I would need a surgery. Thank God that it is improving now.
Cultivate reading habit
Dmitry is able to read some Peter & Jane’s books. He has done reading some of the books. We got some more books this morning at the bookstore. Three books by Enid Blyton. Well, perhaps it is too early for a six year old to begin with Enid Blyton but I think it is not too early. First, it is good cultivating a good reading habit at early stage. Second, it is time to introduce books with less illustration.
Enid Blyton’s books can be boring for a six year old without too much illustration. All the illustrations are in black and white, no color. In my opinion, the earlier to start off with more text will train a child’s critical reading skill. He may not understand too much at the start but eventually his mind will become more receptive.
Here are the three books we bought.
Blyton’s books often mirrored fantasies of young children leading their minds to imagination and to explore. Although I only read one or two of her book during my younger days in school, I like Blyton’s because of her unique presentation of stories with fantasies and allow imaginative freedom in young children. Her books will help improve children’s imagination and provoke critical thinking as well.
Well, let see how Dmitry moving along this direction.
Another inspiration
While I was helping students to plan and secure scholarship for their graduate study abroad, I realized two types of mind. One is the Chinese-educated mind and the other the opposite. The Chinese-educated minds are tend to be less receptive in ideas especially abstract ideas and are more materialistic. These minds are closed and also are obligated to relationship among their friends, peers and family members. The Chinese-educated minds are more self-centered, have no clear definition of goals, and have desires to outwit matters without investing too much efforts. There are more characteristic of these Chinese-educated mind but just to mentioned a few for the purpose of this post.
Well, a Chinese-educated mind I am talking above is referring to people who have gone through primary education in Chinese medium and many of them may continue studying Chinese in their secondary school which is in Malay medium.
I was a Chinese-educated mind for 6 years in my primary education and I took Chinese language in the first to second year of my secondary education. However, my thinking is quite westernized. I use English in my work but I do communicate in Chinese with certain people when English is not an effective language to them. Besides the 8 years of Chinese language class, I use English most of the time and I prefer English to Chinese. I was called a banana man by female ex-classmates during my sixth grade because I spoke English and they hated it. Banana man means a person looks like a banana not because of shape but the skin color. The banana skin is yellow in color analogous to the skin color of a Chinese. But when we peel off the banana skin, the white meat of the fruit reveals. The white meat symbolizes a westerner. A Chinese who speaks English and does not know (or forget or intentionally not to speak) Chinese is called a banana man among some Malaysia Chinese. What a ridiculous discrimination.
There are people purportedly against we sending our children to non-Chinese school. In my opinion, it is not necessary to be in the Chinese education system to learn Chinese and to maintain our own culture. There are many so called Chinese educated people can’t even write proper Chinese and/or have proper pronunciation of Chinese words. Many claim themselves to be the savior of Chinese cultures education in Malaysia do not even have a mere understanding of our own cultures. It appears that I know better than most of them.
But today, I am still able to write Chinese as you may see some Chinese posts and poems in my blog.
Let’s come back to the scholarship things. Most Chinese-educated students do not have a clear goal in their mind. It is a huge dark gray blank screen and they do not know where and how to start defining their goal. I have a clearer defined goal and audibly know what I want. This is another inspiration for my decision.
Another inspiration for me is to prove another impossible and also to set an example to my children so that they will see their daddy is still able to continue learning. Perhaps, this is one of another good way to bring up my children by setting an example of good learning attitude.
Clear things up
I wrote an article earlier today and after I have gone through it again this evening, I found some statements which some readers might have misunderstood. The reason I write this post is to clear things up so that the aforementioned article will not be misunderstood.
No one has given me a tick off or spark. I found my inspiration while working to help some undergraduate students to plan and secure scholarship for their graduate study abroad.
I wrote another post much earlier about Ada tasking on multi-core and received couple of comments yesterday. I have been a mentor to dragon and apparently she knows more than me about distributed computing with Ada. It is not about pride but an assessment to my knowledge which needs to be upgraded. I then got a bigger inspiration after I read some papers about distributed computing, quantum computing, computational physics, computational mathematics etc. These papers or articles have fascinated my imagination and of course have excited my long sleeping inspiration. Hence, a powerful spark has enlightened my stimulus.
As in the comment, the baggages which I mentioned were certainly not people around me. What I meant was that I was ready to let go many things like changing my car to a smaller car so that I could liquidate some fund for aid. What I meant was that I was willing to let go material things I was owning or longing to own.
I will be very sad if people has misunderstood my intention and purpose so I decide to write this post to clear things up.
Huge disappointment and backing off
I used to be firm with my principles in most things but there’s a huge disappointment after all I have done. It makes me realize at some point, I will have to back off and start thinking about my own ambition. In the past 5 years of experience working with university students, I learned a lot from them in the way of handling disappointment and also enjoying the fruits. One of the project I will never forget is the 2006 FYP at UTAR. My team won a trophy, a consolation trophy to be precise, but the students decided to present it to me for memory. I have seen most of my teams to pull through their projects and graduated. Some are continuing their graduate study which I am somehow proud of their achievement.
I have not revealed my feeling towards them so far. But somehow this comes to me suddenly and I realize it is time for me to move on and leave behind my principles and pride for the betterment of my life.
I have decided to continue my study and to pursue my goal once I dreamed so much. Some readers or friends may say I am impulsive. But this thought has been in my mind since 2 years ago and I am waiting for the spark to light it off. I have found the spark though.
最棒的奥运圣火
最撮目以待的奥运圣火点燃仪式在经过四小时的开幕仪式之后，终于在北京的夜空点燃。中国体操王子，李宁，手握奥运火炬，系上钢索，飞上鸟巢顶上，有嫦娥奔月的意义。然后用像武侠小说里的轻功，在鸟巢顶上奔跑。他双脚踏过之处，有动人画面以投影机投影出来。到了终点站，巨型奥运会圣火炬终于出现。李宁以手中圣火将之点燃。
李宁在鸟巢上踏步飞行的情景非常动人。自从1992巴塞罗那奥林匹克，西班牙神箭手以弓箭把奥运会圣火射向奥林匹克火炬将之点燃之后，再也没有比那更精彩的奥运会圣火点燃仪式了。今晚，北京再创神奇，以罕为观止的呈现方式，把圣火点燃。
要吊在半空，离地大约一百公尺，有点倾斜的顶上奔驰，非要有相当的体力和耐力不可。李宁这一幕，有很大、很远的意义。李宁就代表了中国，他那嫦娥奔月的姿态就代表了中国的能力、耐力和决心，走向世界，冲出太空。
科技奥运，名符其实。中国再一次让全世界的华人引以为豪。再一次，祝福中国北京。
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。
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.
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!
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.
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.
Blame, blame, blame?
I asked a foreman to take a look at my car. I told him about the problems and then we took my car for a spin. After that, he checked the engine oil and the transmission oil. He told me I was using the wrong oil for transmission. The oil should be red in color and he suspected the wrong oil caused the problems. I was very sure that I used the right oil as my car is a CVT (Continuous Variable Transmission) and uses CVTF (Continuous Variable Transmission Fluid) by Honda. I had seen the oil myself before and I remembered it was light golden yellow in color.
I did not agree with his opinions and I decided to take my car back to Honda’s workshop. I would rather spend more to make sure the car had proper maintenance and if Honda people screwed up, then I could jumped on them, screw them and rip them into pieces because they caused me to spend so much and yet the problems were not solved. So, decided am I.
Something is wrong with my car
The problems are becoming more obvious recently. Sometimes, it is difficult to kick-start my car even though the engine is still warm and the battery is in good health. My car sounds weird and the engine performance is deteriorating. I sent my car to the authorized Honda workshop for inspection and had my ECU reprogrammed on June 4. The problem came back after a few days and became worse. I decided to take it to authorized Honda workshop again for inspection.
According to the technician, something called “Flywheel” was causing the problems and it had to be changed. The flywheel and labor would cost me RM638 and RM350 respectively. It was so expensive and I decided to seek second opinions elsewhere.
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