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.

“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。

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.

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!

We Are Ready

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。

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

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.

with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;

procedure Tasking is

   task A;
   task B;

   task body A is
   begin
      for I in 1 .. 10 loop
         Put_Line ("A");
      end loop;
   end A;

   task body B is
   begin
      for I in 1 .. 10 loop
         Put_Line ("B");
      end loop;
   end B;

begin
   Put_Line ("Begin parallel tasking...");
   Put_Line ("The end!");
end Tasking;

The above program produces the following result which easily reflects the parallel execution.

A
B
Begin parallel tasking...
A
B
The end!
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B

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.

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!

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.

They thought they look cool and great because they were elected by students and represented the students’ voice. They thought they assumed power in negotiation with the university. But, they failed to get a waiver in recent imposition of IT service fee.

They thought they look smart but in fact they look like along (uneducated loan sharks) in black suits. It is so inappropriate and extremely rude to cross leg.

They thought they look like all-powerful tycoon. In fact, most of them are carrying so much debt (study loan).

They dare not even take their protest to strong vocal! Haiz… Bonafide puppet. What a SRC (Students’ Representative Council)! I can’t stop laughing…

Quick Googling found the solution: Clear the browser’s cookies and everything becomes normal again!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I spoke to a few students during tea breaks at the Ada Workshop which I conducted 2-3 days ago. It appeared that most students hate their university. Why? Because they are forced to become debtors before starting to have earnings. Most Malaysians have to take education loan to finance their studies. But what the universities offer them are sub-standard teaching and poor facilities. Besides paying a hefty sum for tuition, they are charged with miscellaneous fees. These university reaping off wealth from students, making them debtors to fill the university pockets.

A private university has the social obligation to educate future leaders. But most private universities put their profit above all. Students become victims of corporation and yet denied their rights to protest aloud. Students yelling with frustration and hate in blogs and forums with anonymity. What use?

In the recent proposal to impose IT service fee in MMU, we can see how the students being exploited for corporation profiteering and suppressed the rights of protesting and voicing out to the public.

There were a few students came to me expressing their frustration and seeking my assistance to voice up their concerns. They asked my help to arrange a press conference to amplify their vocals. In doing this, these students faced tremendous pressures from their ignorant and naive peers. They were blackmailed by their own peers for trying to make this imposition public.

These students who came to me had exercised democracy to defend basic human rights as knowledge and experience seeking students. They learned not to give up before running out of solutions and hopes. They learned how adults handling and working with youngsters like them. They learned how to analyze and think in multiple perspective. They learned the first lesson of politics.

I admire their courage and determination despite facing disciplinary action and peers’ pressure. I appreciate their trust in me for finding them a solution to voice up without any implication on them. I would like in return to encourage them to not stop here but keep moving forward. They bravely distinguished themselves away from their ignorant and naive peers and want to expand their ability beyond academic. Here is what Confucius said:

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

It was great experience to do my work at Honda’s showroom. I have a lot to prepare for the Ada Workshop tomorrow.

After a successful imposition of library fee, now MMU grubs for more! The latest announcement that MMU is planning to impose an annual IT service fee of RM100 from each student starting this trimester has exasperated everyone. Complaints are heard everywhere. But look, the Finance Division can’t hear you; the President can’t hear you. The voice of SRC alone is too soft. Now we need to borrow the foreign force to amplify our voices!

There will be a press conference held at DAP Dun Ayer Keroh Service Centre on this coming Thursday. Press and media will be present at the conference.

Date : July 3, 2008
Time : 12:30PM
Venue : 63-2, Jalan DB1, Taman Bukit Beruang Indah, 75450 Bukit Beruang. (Same row with US Pizza, second last lot)

MMU强收每位学生RM60的图书馆费还不够，居然还得寸进尺想再收取每人RM100的IT服务费，岂有此理？消息一放，怨声四起。但是，在网站上叫骂，有用吗？MMU的高层可晓得你对他们的不满？单靠SRC替我们请愿，有用吗？我们有近两万人的学生，为何只靠那几十位？我们自身的权利，应当由我们自己争取，而不是单靠SRC，因为到底付钱的是我们。试问SRC能为我们承担吗？ 现在让你站出来发言的机会来了。这个星期四在Ayer Keroh区民主行动党服务中心将有一项新闻招待会让MMU学生有机会发表有关课题和其它不合理的课题。多家媒体将出席这项招待会。

日期：3/7/08

时间：12:30PM

地点：63-2, Jalan DB1, Taman Bukit Beruang Indah, 75450 Bukit Beruang. (和US Pizza同排, 最后第二间)

(English version here)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the next version of the world most advanced operating system with a smaller footprint compared to its predecessor, Leopard. Snow Leopard will take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core technology to the height.

Since Apple introduced Mac OS X in 2001, thousands of new features have been implemented and introduced. In Leopard, the ability to take advantage of multi-core and 64-bit addressing have opened up new dimension in desktop computing. Virtualization becomes possible. New features such as Time Machine automatically backup the Mac hard disk without user knowing.

Snow Leopard, to be released a year from now, is going to be smaller than Leopard but more powerful. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the foot print on hard disk, using less disk space, freeing them for more music, photos and videos.

Snow Leopard fully makes use of 64-bit addressing to increase the RAM size to the theoretically 16TB, 500 times more than what is possible today. “Grand Central” a new set of technologies built into Snow Leopard brings unrivaled multi-core support and capabilities to Mac OS X. More cores, not faster clock speed, drives performance faster in today’s modern processors. Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. The result: more powerful applications at faster speed.

I guess I am happy of the whole week of activities and I am signing off to bed.

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.

Last week, we had thunderstorm in the middle of the night (I can’t remember which day). Dmitry was awaken by the loud thunder and he hit me on my mouth with his elbow. We were sleeping together on the floor. He insisted not to sleep on his double decker because he wanted to sleep with me.

The following night, I insisted him to sleep on his double decker because I feared he would hit me again when the thunder roar. Of course he refused initially. So I insisted and I had to sleep on the floor just beside his bed. In the middle of the night, it was so cold and I had to get up and move my bed farther away from his double decker. He climbed down to my bed no long after and I had to to insist him to get back to his double decker.

After a few nights, he is beginning to use to sleeping on the double decker all by himself (he used to wait for me to finish my work and go to bed together). I am seeing him starting to become independent in some ways.

Is it me to be thinking too much after reading articles about modern children reaching puberty earlier? I hope I worried too much.

Our dearest PM,

Let’s get straight to the point. To be honest to you, I was very angry to hear the rising prices of oil and foods and now electricity. I felt a little hopeless as income is shrinking but expenses are expanding. I know this is not anyone’s fault but the Wall Street speculation. This is another worldwide crisis after the 1997 world economy crisis.

Although I was angry and feeling hopeless, but unlike other most Malaysians, I am reasoning from multiple perspectives.

The fuel subsidy has to be ended as soon as possible because part of the subsidy to Malaysians has been enjoyed freely by foreigners for too long. The subsidy should have been ended long ago or it should never be initiated at all. The strategy for this round of fuel price hike was brilliant as it prevented foreign vehicles coming to rip off the last round of subsidy. When Shahrir made announcement on TV the night before the official announcement, I have caught the clue as he said “… tomorrow things will change…” and I filled up my tank one night before the official announcement. A clever strategy but misunderstood by many Malaysians. It would be too little time for foreign vehicles to enter and travel 50KM and to pack in a massive congestion rushing with other fellow Malaysians at the kiosks just to fill up their tanks. Brilliant!

The rising cost is inevitable, as I understand. But most other Malaysians do not think that way. I think, this time you and your staff have done a great job. But don’t make this the last. With the money saved from the fuel subsidy, I really hope tolls in KL can be abolished. Plus tolls should be reduced by 40%. Perhaps a reward system should be introduced to users of North-South Highways. The more they use the N-S highway, the more rebate/discount they will receive. It is not difficult to implement as there is Touch’n'Go electronic payment system which can easily track mileage of users. The problem is, does the government have the will and determination to implement and take PLUS Bhd. to compromise? N-S Highway can save distance and time and thus indirectly save fuel and increase productivity. Another way to do it is to collect all toll receipts and get a rebate from the RTD when Malaysian vehicle owners renew their road tax. I know this kind of reward system is kind of hard to implement but this can certainly prevent people from abusing it.

I also welcome the ideas of reducing assessment and land tax. This will help ease the burden.

The government should encourage people to do more video conferencing rather than traveling to meeting places. With high-speed Internet, this can be done. I have been using video conferencing for meetings and supporting clients (I am a software engineer). But, I do hope the government will issue more licenses to new ISPs. Current ISP, Streamyx is really slow and lousy, both their infrastructure and service.

Our government likes to compare our country with other country. Now, let me gives you some comparisons. In Okinawa, a fiber optic channel to the home carrying 15gigabits(down)/2gigabits(up) is only charging US$28 per month. That’s equivalent to RM91.38 (today’s exchange rate). We pay RM77 to Streamyx for a 1Gigabits service. Look! A great difference and Telekom still dare to claim their service is one of the best in S.E.A. and won an award! Malu tak? And recently, Telekom announced to invest billions of ringgit for copper wire network. Why not fiber optics? All of us, especially the government are ambitious to make our country an advanced country. But, thinking on the other side, can we? Why not invest in a good fiber optic network and encourage people and businesses to utilize IT to help reduce cost and pollution. Of course, the price of such fiber optic service cannot be too high and must be in the range affordable by all income groups. Encourage company to allow and trust their workers to telecommute to work.

This is the right time and the right opportunity to revamp Malaysians’ working cultures and habits.

Here’s a link for your reference.

The government should also improve public transport systems and to have proper walkways for pedestrians. Look at our cities and towns, none has good pedestrian walkways. It is not safe and comfortable to walk. Look at Singapore (another comparison). It is so nice, comfortable and enjoyable to walk in Singapore. Why do MBs and government officials need to spend so much money to go to countries so far away and expensive to study the way they build and manage their cities? Why can’t we take Singapore as a model city? Do we lose our honor looking at and learn the way Singapore government managing their country? Take Malacca for instance. Malacca government is spending a lot of money changing and maintaining flowers plants planted along road sides and dividers. We don’t need flowers to beautify the city. Flowers don’t last. Just trees with green foliage will do the trick and it can also help to reduce pollution. A green city is better than colorful flowers city. And trees do not need much care. I don’t see workers maintaining trees in Singapore every time I visit. But I see workers in Malacca taking and throwing out dying flowers plants and replacing them with new fresh one every two weeks or so. Everyday, I can see workers busy watering flowers everywhere in Malacca. These are all unnecessary expenses. After all, no one including tourists will slow down or stop by the road sides or dividers to enjoy the flowers. Flowers can be planted at tourist destinations such as the Stadhuys. That will be enough. So, please tell the Malacca Chief Minister, Ali Rustam to stop spending unnecessarily.

Are these good comparisons? No offense, my dear PM. I beg your pardon if I have offended you by any of my writings but this is truly from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you and I do hope you really change and care more to “Rakyat” Malaysia!

I wish you best of health.

Sincerely,
Adrian Hoe and family

I searched all the Subversion and Ubuntu forums but could not find any solution to my problem. In the past months, I tried to identify the source of the problem and even tried many solutions suggested by people on these forums but the problem persisted. I had been committing to svn server with post commit email notification turned off and lost quite a number of post commit message. I used to keep track of changes by these email notification.

Yesterdat, I was trying my luck again and I accidentally noticed sendmail and sendmail-mta were called after commit. A look into syslog confirmed that sendmail process was put into sleep by some unknown reason. Failing to identify the cause, I removed sendmail and related packages from my Ubuntu server and installed Exim4. It is claimed to be easier to installed and configured than sendmail. The problem diminished after I got exim4 up and running. Now I am able to receive post commit email notification after every svn commit. Every commit takes a few seconds to complete after this. Problem resolved.

I have been working on some documentation, new and converting existing from Lyx to DocBook. With DocBook, I am able to publish the contents easily to many formats, namely TEX, text, pdf or HTML. I had been trying to output some of my DocBook documentation to HTML.

This afternoon, I have finally succeeded to publish to HTML. I installed some DocBook packages on Ubuntu. Here are the packages you need to get DocBook going:

1. docbook
2. docbook-xsl
3. docbook-xsl-doc
4. docbook-xsl-doc-html
5. docbook-xsl-doc-pdf
6. docbook-xsl-doc-text
7. xsltproc
8. and optional xalan and fop

To output your DocBook document to HTML, simply this:

$ xsltproc --output paper.html \
/usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/nwalsh/xhtml/docbook.xsl\
paper.xml

You can turn on chapter and section numbering by setting chapter.autolabel to 1 and section.autolabel to 1. To include the chapter number in every sections, set section.label.includes.component.label to 1.

$ xsltproc --output paper.html \
--stringparam section.autolabel 1 \
--stringparam section.label.includes.component.label 1 \
/usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/nwalsh/xhtml/docbook.xsl \
paper.xml

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.

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.

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.

Congratulations!

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.

I quickly identified the cause and rectified the problematic logic in the program design. One down and many to do. One of the other critical problem is that KazeServer will get over with initialization and execute even without the MySQL server is running. A serious bug though.

Another 3 more days to release Alpha RC1 and yet so many problems and unfinished parts. I feel the release will have to be postponed then.

A very experience technician look at my car and he said my ECU unit had been somehow corrupted or messed up and needed reprogramming. There were many cars waiting for repairing or servicing and the technician told me I had to wait until 2 or 3 pm to have my car fixed. I negotiated with him that I could wait for 2-3 hours because I brought my MacBook so that I could work there while waiting.

He really did it in about 2.5 hours. Programming the ECU wouldn’t take much time but they had too many cars waiting in line. Thanked him for a quick service.

The programming cost me RM60 plus 5% tax. What a good pay for a simple job. To program the ECU is simple. Just plug in the cable to the ECU interface port beneath the dashboard and connect to a notebook computer with Honda’s software. The job will be completed in less than 5 minutes or so with a few clicks.

After the ECU has been reprogrammed, no more knocking sound and the car is more powerful again.

One of them is the gnat Ada compiler issue on Ubuntu Hardy Heron or 8.04. Hardy comes with gnat-4.1 with a number of packages not added. Without these packages, I can’t build AWS-2.3. So, I have to roll out Alpha RC1 on Mac OS X until Ubuntu Intrepid or 8.10 with gnat-4.3 is released (hopefully with gnat-4.3 by October). I have another option which is I have to move to Debian Etch with gnat-4.1 but including the libaws-2.2.

libaws-2.2 is a pre-built library for AWS on Debian Etch. I am developing using gnat-4.4 and AWS-2.3 on Mac OS X. Moving to Debian Etch means I am downgrading the version of gnat and AWS and I feel a little skeptical about it. This is one thing I hate most, version inconsistency among the Linux distro.

After talking to my friends on this matter, it looks like I have few choices but to target on Mac OS X for the moment considering the tasks of installing and get the Debian Etch up and a whole lot of uncertainties in gnat-4.1 and AWS-2.2.