Before our former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad stepped down, he made a radical change to our education – the use of English language to teach math and science subjects in all primary and secondary schools. His change was immediately welcome by many Malaysians, I was for one of them. This, of course, was disagreed by many other parties who champion pro-ethnic education. Dong Jiao Zhong (the association of Chinese vernacular school boards and teachers) is one of them to loudly protest.

Before we get deeper into education, it is worthwhile to mention a few racial and religious pandemonium which happened recently. One most recent uproar is the protest of the ruling of court over the use of the word “Allah” in a Catholic newspapers, Herald. Churches were bombed and torched by some unscrupulous citizens. Before this, a group of Muslim protesters trampled a severed cow head to protest the building of Hindu temple near their residences. You can find many reports on disheartening eruptions of racial and religious matters besides politics on the Internet so I am not writing the entire length and breadth but to mention one or two as examples.

Malaysia advertises herself as a beautiful country with multi races living together in harmony and tolerance. Where is the noble tolerance between different races and religions? What is contributing to this separation of ethnicity and religion?

Let us ask ourselves a very simple question: What has happened to Malaysia? This simple question has no easy answer. The answer is multifold and viciously lurking and recycling in every layers of Malaysian society.

If you ask me what my answer is, I think the best analogy to describe this is cancer! Yes, multi-stream education in Malaysia is like cancer, slowly suffocating and envenoming the pure untouched minds, silently consuming ethnic unity in Malaysia.

Before I go further, I would like to boldly correct a common mistake and suggest a term to address Chinese descendants or Malaysia-born Chinese as “ orang Cina” or “Cina” for short. In my opinion, only the native inhabitant of China can be entitled as “Chinese”. Like Peranakan, “Cina” will be the proper localized term to classify our ethnicity. While for Malaysia Indian, I would address them as “orang India” or “India” and Malays as “orang Melayu” or “Melayu”. To be fair.

As a Cina myself who has received 6 years of primary Cina education, I generalized the grass root Cina community as conservative and hardworking with narrow and superficial thinking and vision. Close minded, emotional and shallow. I personally have experienced these many years ago during school days.

I was a town boy and lived among grass root Cina. I had never communicated with a Melayu or India until I was in secondary school. I would see some Melayu ladies passing by my house every morning and evening.

In primary school, I was among the 100% Cina students except a few Melayu teachers and staffs. My limited exposure to other races did not come to the end when I went to secondary school. All students coming from Cina primary school would be put together in “Remove” class, 100% Cina with no India at all. I only began to have Melayu classmates during Form 1 and I could tell you, they were fun to call them friends compared to other Cina peers. This racial mixture had to come to the end when I entered Form 4. I was in Science 1 class and there was not a single Melayu classmate, only 1 India. In Form 6, again I was in Science 1 doing double math, my classmates were 100% Cina.

After more than 20 years, I can still remember an experience during my upper 6. Our teachers always advised and encouraged us to speak English in school and of course I was the only “stupid” Cina student to comply. As the result, one of my female classmate called me “Banana Man” （a racial discrimination term used by Cina to call other Cina who does not speak Cina, it is like banana, yellow (Chinese skin) on the outside, white (English) on the inside) and together with other classmates as well as our peers from other classes to desist from speaking to me. How shallow she and the others could be? This is the malignant product of multi-stream education. These shallow and superficial minds are poisoned and shaped by the monotonous environment.

About 5 years ago, my wife and I were to decide which school we should send our children to. Being a Cina educated who did not have confidence in Cina vernacular education and my wife received her education from national school, we decided to send our children to national school based on a few observations.

I was back to my former secondary school and coaching karate there. In my class, I had both Cina and Melayu students. And the Cina students were from both Cina and national school. I observed them for very long time and these were what I concluded:

1. the Cina students coming from national school are more willing to interact with their Melayu peers.
2. the Cina students coming from national school are more communicable and possess good interpersonal skill far better than those coming from Cina stream.
3. the Cina school educated students demonstrate self centered attitude.
4. the Cina school educated students shun themselves away from dialog.
5. the Cina students from national school are more active and socializing.

As a software engineer, I have not used Mandarin to communicate despite the fact that many years ago I had collaborated with software developers and engineers from China and Taiwan. Based on personal experience and observation, we decided not to send our children to Cina-stream school.

But to be fair, ethnic and religious demarcation happens in national school. This Chinese New Year, my wife prepared some cookies for our eldest son to bring to school and to share with his classmates. None of his Melayu friends ate or touched the cookies. It is pathetic to see how religion separates Malaysian children at such a young age!

Multi-stream education is the separatist which divides the ethnicity at the very young age. Children are separated by ethnic idealism in the name of education. And Malaysia is the only country in the world which practices multi-stream education.

Next, we should look at treacherous political influence and the historical mistakes in multi-stream education.

Mine is a 32GB Black iPhone. The specifications can be found on Apple website so I am not going to repeat them again here. I used a sleek Nokia 6300 before this so it took me some time to adapt to the bigger/wider iPhone. This is not really a problem to get used to, actually. So, let’s put aside the physical differences.

I had been looking into various smart phones by Nokia and Sony Ericsson before I settled for Nokia 6300 almost two years ago. Well, nothing is comparable to iPhone as I find today.

On the 4th day, I had already got a chance to take my brand new iPhone into action. I completed a task outside and needed to go back to my home/office. I usually made payment to my suppliers at the bank. Then I would go back home/office to scan and email my suppliers before they could send me the goods. This usually would happen a few hours later or in the evening because I have the habit of being cost-effective when running errands outside. With iPhone, I snapped a photo of the bank transaction slip with its built-in 3 megapixels camera and emailed the photo to my supplier immediately. By the time I stepped out the bank, my supplier had called me and confirmed receipt of the fund. Everything was done on the iPhone at the bank.

While the competition in smartphone market is mounting with Google’s Nexus One and Android enabled phones with attempt to take down iPhone, nothing has come closer to the 3 billion downloads of iPhone apps at Apple’s App Store.

I am using quite a number of applications for productivity and I find them all useful. I am able to check my schedule and make appointment, follow my to-do list, review some documents (PDF, graphics etc,) which my co-workers and I shared. More, I can email, facebook and tweet anytime, anywhere with the iPhone (the list goes on.) These tasks are a little over killed on a MacBook I can say.

When my dad was in the hospital a few months ago (I still had not had my iPhone then), I had been in and out of the hospital with my backpack. It was quite annoying trying to find a good spot where I could sit down, open up my 13″ MacBook and connect it with a 3G broadband. Sometimes, the seat had been taken by patients’ relatives. Most of the time, my MacBook and I became the attraction of bored people sitting around me. Some nosy people would peep at my screen. Checking and replying business emails had became a difficult task as my privacy was invaded. It was like houseflies buzzing around while you were eating your chicken pie. Were you able to enjoy anyway?

With iPhone, this scenario has changed a little bit. I am still able to communicate and do some light tasks without the need of my MacBook and houseflies peeping. I can add, modify or delete appointments and contacts on iPhone and sync with my Macs via MobileMe. I am also able to update my to-do list and sync with my Macs via WiFi later when I am home.

As a software developer, I spend most of my time at the keyboard spewing codes other than blogging, emailing, facebooking and tweeting. I would rather save this coding task on my Macs if there is any code editing app available for iPhone. When I am not at my desk, I would want to follow up with tasks like the reviewing of drawings/images (icons, logo etc), design and technical documents on iPhone.

The iPhone is handy during short discussion sessions (less than 15 minutes) with co-workers and clients. A relatively large MacBook would look clumsy in this situation.

I can also use iPhone as a remote controller to navigate Keynote presentation slides using Apple’s Remote. This app makes me look more professional (and well, cooler) when presenting because I need not walk to my MacBook to press a key every each time I want to change the slide. I can do it on my iPhone.

Well, the list goes on and on so long you have not run out of imagination of  how to utilize your iPhone. I would never go back to Nokia or Sony or anything else except iPhone.

Religion is a fraternity of politics which is engineered by politicians to control people’s behaviors and minds. — Adrian Hoe 2010.

This is why “Religion” has initial “R” which comes after “P”.

Well, I have only one New Year resolution for 2010, to fully implement my MIS (Medical Information System) at client’s site before 2010 ends. Simple as that.

Well, I admit that I was wrong. I am developing a cloud/web-based MIS (Medical Information System) which enables patient to be able to view certain information and interact with the clinic/doctor from anywhere. Likewise, it also provides doctors greater mobility and still are able to care for their patients while they are away.

After reading articles (on Apple’s website) how iPhones help hospitals in the U.S. to provide better healthcare at lower cost, I decided to build the MIS with iPhone support. I based my decision on these reasons:

1. Ease of use. I have been toying/using around with an iPod Touch for a few months and I find that it is easy to navigate/use. iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone. You get what I mean.
2. Beautiful UI. Apple is well known for its brilliant UI (User Interface) in Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Nothing else comes closer to it.
3. Security. All applications must be approved by Apple and be signed with license keys issued by Apple. Apple’s iTunes Store is the only place to download applications. I can be rest assured  to have less (or none) headache about spooky applications from unreliable sources. Of course, there are jail broken iPhones which do not play by the rules but I am not too worried about that.

So, I went ahead ordering one last week. Last night, I went to Maxis center to collect my 32GB Black iPhone. It is such a beauty.

Give me a couple of weeks mingling with it and I promise you I will write about my experience.

翯和合鹤
霞顺十鸣
霓蔼礼一
虹祥拜声
万气佛冲
里薿如云
暄重来霄
。，，，

诗里的藏头为贺姓氏的藏音。大儿子和二儿子的名字再以藏音各自藏二、藏三于第一和第二行里。第三儿子藏六在第三行，暄就藏七在第四行。

鹤为中华文化里的吉祥之鸟。鹤响亮的鸣叫声冲上了云霄而得到了光明（阳光）。是以明白事理的先导，要冲破隔障（云霄）才能看清楚（阳光）一切事理的对与错。

第二行看似有点佛教的味道。它是以佛学（非宗教）里的哲学为基础。在佛学和这诗里，佛的意义博大精深，指的是有高等智慧而非一般凡夫之人类。如来是指大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律。这第二行意味深长。指的是以底姿态、诚恳地追寻大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律以增加本身和人类的智慧。

第三行则有和气、顺利、慈悲和吉祥之气薿薿。兄弟姐妹之间和周边人和蔼地相处。

当之前所有三大条件达成之后，三兄弟不只德高望重，人人敬仰，还让贺氏的声望气势如虹，名扬万里。

他们能不能做到，那就要看看他们长大后对这诗的领悟和造化了。或许他们做不来也无所谓，但愿他们努力为达成诗意，将之传承于后代。

献丑了。

现代佛教看是昌盛，几乎全世界各地都有佛教的踪迹。但是若干都已偏离原本的佛学。在这金钱为上的现代社会里，没有钱，出家人哪来饭吃？出家人也还是凡夫一位，也会肚子饿，要吃饭。寺庙需要钱维持。水电费、杂物费等等，都是钱。出家人就好比生意人，只不过方法不同。出家人出外到处为人做法事，不为是赚钱维持生活。有的寺庙也有出售骨灰阁，从而赚取金钱以维持寺庙和众僧的开销。

让我先说怎么样无知，不过先说无礼，因为无知乃无礼的因；无礼乃无知的果。

在第一章里提到，很多素不相识的“念佛人”来到我父亲家，礼了佛就坐下开始念佛。他们会尊敬佛而向佛礼拜，却没向逝者家属问候安慰。连这个基本礼仪也没有，难道这些人知道入庙拜佛要恭敬，不知道进屋敬人的礼仪？好歹都得问候和安慰一下家属。毕竟家属都是凡人有七情六欲，难免丧亲之痛。

今天是我父亲的头七。我们到家里拜了之后，就到释迦院的骨灰阁祭拜。当周围没人祭拜时，我走到我父亲的骨灰龕前瞻仰。由于我父亲的骨灰龕很靠近位于正中的地藏王菩萨像，我所站位置差不多就在佛像的前面。这时一位青年人手持一柱香悄悄地走到我身后，也没请我暂时避开好让他膜拜，就这样跪下膜拜。究竟他是在膜拜地藏王菩萨还是我的屁股？正当我要退后离开时，我哥哥喝住了我。幸好没有撞上那青年人手里的香。这是对地藏王菩萨无礼，因为该青年人没请我回避就贸然向地藏王菩萨膜拜。该青年人无知因为他不晓社会礼仪风范，不顾及他人的安全（万一手里的香灼伤了人怎么办？）。

好了。说完无礼和无知，现在要说这些“念佛人”如何玩弄佛法。

我父亲于星期四入棺。入棺前，仵工问我哥哥要不要替我父亲遗体注射防腐剂放干冰。我小姑和她的弟弟坚持不要。我小姑说，多念佛求佛菩萨加持，没事的。准备棺木时，她的弟弟还自以为是的向仵工交代该怎么处理。究竟谁才是仵工？连瞎子都可以看得出来那仵工心里不高兴，但他还是忍了下去。我哥哥没出声，我看在她是我小姑也是出家人份上，也不出声。当晚，我注意到我父亲的面有尸水冒出，我告诉哥哥和姐姐。姐姐说待会她会看看。我哥哥却说这是水分蒸发，没大碍。隔天早上，我看见棺材里已经放了干冰。

我小姑和她的弟弟的行为乃无礼、无知和玩弄佛法。无礼是不尊重仵工的专业知识而冒犯仵工。无知是对尸体自然腐化过程和防腐处理缺乏知识。那几天天气酷热。我父亲的遗体还未入棺前是放在客厅的床上，至少有风扇让空气流通，使腐化过程缓慢下来。当遗体入棺上了盖之后，里面密不通风闷热，就会加速了尸体的腐化过程。生死是自然过程。尸体腐化也是自然过程。佛菩萨都不能防止死亡，更何况能防止腐化？这岂不是玩弄佛法？他们的无知种下了因，得了无礼的果，也得了玩弄佛法的果。

一位北京的朋友得知我父亲病危，送了我一句话：“缘起缘灭，了脱一切众生苦。”。她是一位军人、一位博士生和一位无神论者。她家人都是文武双全的世家。她的寄语包含了众生面对生死的大智慧。

缘起缘灭，了脱一切众生苦。缘就是一切因果。有了因就有果。有了父母，就有我。缘起就是当我母亲怀孕有了我开始，他们就成了我的父母亲。缘灭就是我父亲要与世长辞了，不能再看到他了。因（父亲）了果（我）还在。不过他在我心里还是我父亲，到我与世长辞为止。缘起缘灭即是一切没有永恒不变的也不虚无的，也有生生不息的意思。现在，轮到我（因）和我孩子（果）缘起缘灭，一代接一代的传承下去。到时候缘灭，就放下一切，不畏死亡，勇敢面对。这就是了脱一切众生苦。当然这是我凡夫的理解。要是用般若来理解这一句，焉此简单？

试问，一位无神论者以佛学的智慧来开解我这位信佛者，我何等惭愧？我宁愿做个无神论者。无神论者不一定不能学佛。念佛的人不一定是学佛的人。当我二姐往生时，我把佛学看做为哲学而非宗教。现在，我要以无神论者学佛。

前文我提到这些所谓的“念佛人”，常把佛号挂在口边，去到那，念到那。念佛消遣，消遣念佛。颠倒是非、对人体器官医学狗屁不通，玩弄佛法。何谓佛号？为何念佛？什么是佛？阿弥陀经是为何物？地藏菩萨本愿经又为何物？

我父亲在九月中旬再度入院。9月18日我得到吉隆坡复疹，刚好我大姐要回来看父亲，可以搭我的车一道回来。在车里，我听到她向“念佛”的朋友在电话里说道：“今天是地藏菩萨诞，念一句南无地藏王菩萨相等于念两句。”哗！念佛也有搞积分的吗？好像去某某购物中心用它的购物卡购物，每花费一元得两分。念一万句相等于念两万句的功德？还不快快念！

我记得小时侯（六到十岁左右），我父亲常带我到青云亭拜佛、吃斋和听禅道老法师讲经。禅道老法师说，烧香是为了驱虫、记时和提神。所以烧一柱香就够了。烧太多很多烟，对呼吸系统不好。禅道老法师也说，念佛要慢慢的念和用心的念，不能急。能够念到一心不乱才是真的，而非念越多越好。念佛也无需大声地念，无声胜有声。能念一句就达成一心不乱，那就是无量功德。

佛学的衰亡，就是取决于这些无知、念佛消遣和玩弄佛法的人。

怎么样无知？怎么样玩弄佛法？

母亲告诉我父亲的心愿是要在家里往生。可是父亲向我说他要去医院。我向母亲解释说：“让我带爸爸去医院让医生检验。要是医生说不行了，马上送爸爸回家。”最终母亲也答应送父亲去医院。

这时来了好多“念佛人”。有男的，有女的。全都是素不相识的人。他们都是我堂弟召来的。他们有多大声就念多大声。好刺耳。

不到一会，救护车来了。医护人员把我父亲抬上担架之际，这些念佛人就马上停止念佛号匆匆离去。我堂弟也马上收拾东西离开。之后就没再回来。我堂兄向我说道：“医院你要去你去，我不去。”

到了医院，医生给我父亲做检验告知我父亲不行了。从他的生理信号看来，他有可能今晚就走了。为达父亲的心愿，我即刻替他办出院送他回家。医生说父亲的肺开始积水呼吸困难，输氧气能舒解他的痛苦。我就决定向医院租用氧气筒，可是父亲他坚持不用，所以就退还了。

回到家，我小姑（我祖母领养的）的弟弟和弟妇也到了。我小姑是方外，他们此时赶来其中目的自然也是念佛，有多大声就念多大声。到了凌晨3时还在念。我眼看我太太和三个孩子都疲倦了（老实说我也很疲倦），就带他们回家。这时父亲向我大声说：“回去吧。”他也三番四次要说话，可是却没力气说也说得有点含糊，加上念佛和法器铿锵大声刺耳，很难听清楚他的说话。

早上我们过来时，他们还在念。这时父亲他已经不省人事了，呼吸也很吃力。不过他的左手时不时都要拿起来又力不从心，好象是想唤我们那样。我看了都快哭出来了。等到我的大儿子放学，我们逗留一阵子，我就送他们回家吃饭。我们离开的时侯大概是2时。这时我大姐已经回来了。她马上加入念佛。当我们回家时，只剩我大姐一人在念。其他“念佛人”呢？都不见踪影了！3时10分父亲就往生了。我们没亲眼看着他往生。

晚上又来了好多“念佛人”，又大声大声的念。我的孩子生性好动活泼，最小的三岁，最大的才七岁。他们都还年幼不懂事，坐不久就到处跑玩耍去了。我和太太拿他们没办法。小孩玩耍时，笑声大了点。过后有位念佛人过来向我堂兄问道：”我们在为这位念佛的叫什么名？“。我的天！连往生者的名字都还没搞清楚就大念小念，正如小和尚念经－有口无心！过后他又向我说道：”我们在为他念佛好让他安祥，叫你孩子不要吵闹。”。我即刻回顶了他一句，“你们念你们的”。小孩天真无邪，不知生死何谓，不能怪他们。念佛念到连小孩的习性也不理解，可哀！

我二姐在五年前也往生了。她走的时侯也一样，一大堆人大声念佛念到她断气为止。而且不让亲人接近她，连小孩都不能在场。

他们这些“念佛人”说，往生者要是听到亲人对他们说话、哭或笑（小孩的笑声），那他们就不舍得离开。而且念佛能让他们尽快往生。

自从我姐姐往生那天，我既笑看这些信佛庸众。他们把念佛当消遣吗？他们把念佛当做把人快快送西的工具吗？这是无知的念佛。读者要是“念佛人”看了这文章之后，若生气、若说我业障深重，那我就对你说，你也是愚昧的“念佛人”。

照医学来说，人要死时，肾脏功能衰退，肺功能大幅降低，导致脑缺氧。此时，人进入昏迷状态，五觉尽失。心脏和肺还在自律性的工作。自律性指心肌细胞不需意识来支配，就可以产生动作电位。心脏和肺功能不受大脑控制。它们此时会很吃力的工作至其功能完全衰退停顿为止。这是一切生命必经之路，也是宇宙万物的定律。既然五觉尽失，那逝者又怎能听到这些念佛之音呢？不管你念多么大声他也听不到，那又何必？

还有，如依佛经里说的，若是你造的业，你得自己来承担。那么，念了经，回向给亡者得以减轻他生前所造的业，这又如何说得过去？佛都说了，你造的业，你得自己来承担，那这些凡夫又哪来无边法力，念几篇经回向给死者，得以减轻他生前所造的业得生西方净土？这不是矛盾吗？还是笑话？

那晚，当务之急是给医生看看我父亲。要是还有得救，那就要救。要是不行了，就想尽办法让他过得舒服点，而不是叫这些“念佛人”来大声无知的念佛号。

I have been using Apple’s iDisk to sync and share files among my computers, iPod Touch (iPhone) and as well as clients and co-workers. Two days ago, I discovered Dropbox and I now find it easier to use than iDisk and it is faster! It is free for a 2GB storage or upgrade with a small monthly fee.

One cool feature of Dropbox is that when someone drops you a file in your folder, Dropbox notifies you using Growl. iDisk lacks this notification feature and usually the file arrives silently unless the sender texts or emails you.

Dropbox can work offline. Dropbox on Mac will sync your files and folders to your local hard disks and allows you to access later even when offline. The sync is done automatically.

I used to copy some files on my USB drive and take them to my clients. Now I no longer need to bring anything. Just use my client’s Internet browser to access my Dropbox and viola! The files will be transfered to my client’s Mac.

Of course, there are many ways to use Dropbox for your productivity. For example, taking your lecture notes to the lecture hall without carrying anything at all, not even USB pen drive. There are some other ways of using Dropbox, read here. But that’s not all. Please tell me if you find any other use of it.

Sign up here for extra 250MB of disk space!

Heredity, diet and health condition can affect a young woman’s menarche. This is something most parents with growing young daughters have overlook. Diet plays a very important part in young women especially teenage girls. Many teenage girls despite of having their menarche years earlier, neglects or intentionally limit their dietary intakes for body slimming purposes. This ignorance can seriously affect their reproductive system.

One most interesting fact I learned about menstruation is the term “Nightlighting”.

The word “menstruation” is etymologically related to “moon”. The terms “menstruation” and “menses” are derived from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon—reflecting the fact that the moon also takes close to 28 days to revolve around the Earth (actually 27.32 days). The synodical lunar month, the period between two new moons (or full moons), is 29.53 days long. — Wikipedia

In some traditional societies without nightlighting believe that women ovulate in full moon and menstruate in new moon. There are studies in both humans and animals where artificial lighting at night does alter the menstruation cycle. While none of the studies have suggested the lunar phase affects the ovulation cycle, bright light exposure in the morning stimulates more regular cycles.

Research also suggested that sensitivity of women’s cycles to nightlighting is related to nutritional deficiencies of certain minerals and vitamins. Again, balanced and healthy diet is utmost important to women’s health.

接下来的，不会只是一场暴风骤雨这么简单。现在最重要的是把手上的软件工程开发出来，抢先把一却安顿下来再说。

Fornax is a 6-year old PC running Ubuntu. It wasn’t working properly due to the cooling fan in its power supply unit. Until about two weeks ago, I replaced the old fan. I am not very confident about the replacement because it is a third party part and the replacement isn’t as good as expected, but it works. I have to shut it down every night before going to bed.

So, the last thing before I go to bed is to backup the svn directory and then shutdown the server. I am quite fed up with this extra manual works. Last night, before going to bed, I decided to automate this process. And I did it this morning.

I wrote a simple bash shell script to do the backup. I cron it so that the process will start automatically at 2300 hours and then shutdown.

#!/bin/bash

BACKUPFILE=/tmp/backups/svn-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz

rm /tmp/backups/svn-*.gz
tar -cj /svn > $BACKUPFILE
for COMPUTER in host1 host2
do
   scp $BACKUPFILE user@$COMPUTER:Desktop/
done
/sbin/shutdown -h +5

UPDATE (05/10/2009): I setup a password-less ssh login so that no password is required for scp (secured copy). Now, after the backup, the backup file will be copied automatically to two other computers for safe keeping.

My dad has been admitted to hospital for 8 days. He has been diagnosed hepatoma with huge lesions in both right and left lobe, metabolic syndrome X (full house), and renal impairment. Last Saturday, sonogram confirmed his hepatoma and renal impairment are in the end stage. His doctor started him on hemodialysis last week and he was doing really badly with all the reactions: fever and vomiting. Today he did much better after his 4th hemodialysis.

Yesterday, he told my sister, Mee, and I his last wishes. We broke into tears and this was the first time I saw my dad crying. I did not sleep at all last night thinking a lot of things. There are many problems interwoven and almost impossible to resolve. 4 A.M. in the morning, this idea suddenly flashed through my mind. I wanted to present him the certificate which I earned after passing a professional examination.

Actually, I intended to present to mom and dad after I acquired all three diplomas. But I should do it now to cheer him up a little and to keep his fighting spirit burning. Although the doctors said he has 3 to 6 months to live, we think that dad may do better if he hasn’t given up. You see, our dad is a fighter.

So was my decision. I went to the hospital very early at 5:30 A.M. Came home for a short morning nap at 10:30 A.M. After lunch, I was out to send lunch to Mee and to pick Dmitry from school. Then I went downtown to frame my diploma and to do other chores.

LA got the kids ready and we went to the hospital around 8 P.M. Dad was having satay for his supper. He had been taking satay as supper for the last few days. Satay is his favorite food since young. I have his influence. After he was done with his supper, I showed my diploma to him and mom.

Well, what diploma is this?

To be honest, I am no longer particular at how people see me and when they ask me question like “Where do you graduate from?”

Today, I proudly announced to the world that I am a self-trained software engineer without any tertiary education. And the diploma I am having is the certificate (level 4) accorded by the British Computer Society (BCS) after passing the level 4 professional examination in April this year. After completing the diploma (level 5) and the professional graudate diploma or PGdip (level 6), I will be able to do my Master in some accredited universities in UK.

I have three very good reasons to pursue BCS diplomas:

1. My commitment to my clients for continual acquisition of new knowledge and skills in computer science and information technology.
2. To pursue further in the field of Computer Science.
3. I have proven to be able to achieve to some extent without a formal tertiary education in Computer Science. (I actually showed him my posts and photos giving seminars and judging university students’ final year project at http://adrianhoe.com and explained to him how some students and lecturers feared my questions when judging their projects. He jokingly said I like to scold them.)

When I told dad, he was very happy and gave me a thumb up. He also told me that he dreamed of me receiving my Master degree. And now I have to live his dream and take it further.

I wish he can see me living his dream and going further. I wish, I wish and I wish!

And I also like to thank mom and dad for their support as well as many those who have inspired me and given me the will to start studying again.

Explaining to dad (with his intra jugular catheter or IJC on his neck) that I have two more to go.

Dad told me that he dreamed of me getting a Master. Now I have to fulfill his dream and take it further.

With Rich and Nik on his bed.

With Mee and dad stroking Nik's head.

Nik, the little "Monster", was sharing his cheers.

Nik: What's up? Huh?

Dmitry was admiring the diploma with auntie Mee.

About 30 minutes to midnight, the nurse came in to give dad some medication and his nebulizer. I told the nurse about the glucose level and she took the reading after everything was settled. I reminded the nurse to take note that the glucose level was taken post-supper. Then we tucked my dad to bed.

Half an hour later, he said he wanted to pass motion. I called the nurse to get help. Then there was some commotion. Two nurses and I helped my dad to get up the bed to sit on the commode. While waiting, the nurses changed the bed linen. Unfortunately, nothing had been passed out. Dad actually fell asleep around midnight.

Around 1:45A.M. this morning, he woke up again. He wanted to pee and to have some water. Then he went back to sleep. He was sleeping quite soundly that I could hear him snoring.

He woke up again at 3A.M. complaining his back was itching. He told me to rub some Betamethasone cream. He went back to sleep only this time he was sleeping sounder. Unfortunately, he was disturbed by the nurse again 5A.M. in the morning. The nurse took his blood pressure and glucose level reading. His glucose level was 6.5 compared to 13.5 at 11:30P.M. After the nurse gave him medication and empty his urine bag, he went back to sleep.

At 7A.M. another nurse came in trying to wake him up for a morning wash, I told the nurse to allow him to sleep. The nurse told me that there would be no student nurses today because of the Merdeka holiday. I replied without hesitation, “Then the nurse can do it. That’s what the nurses are for.” The nurse wasn’t quite happy getting a whack (literally) from me. She stood there for a while then took off.

As there were college students came to do their internship with me before, I really dislike the idea that businesses and company take advantage on interns as a damn cheap labor to do all sort of donkey jobs. I can imagine how these in-house nurses take advantages on training nurses and get them to do all sort of donkey jobs the in-house nurses won’t like to do. I think that nurse deserves a whack from me.

He woke up at 8A.M. to wash, took his breakfast and medication and watch the live telecast of Merdeka celebration on TV.

Mom, Mee and BS came so I went home at 9A.M. Before I went home, a nurse came to assist my dad to the washroom for passing motion and then gave him a morning bath.

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沉墨羽

As far as “Unity” or “One Malaysia” is concerned, the word “Bumiputera”, should be strikeout and will never exist in the dictionary of the Malay language. Literally translated, it means prince of the land. The ethnics Chinese and Indians, although they are the lawful citizens of Malaysia, they are not the prince of the land.

Let all be referred to as “Rakyat Malaysia” (Malaysia citizens). For example, there should never be “Bumiputera” and “Non-Bumiputera” pricing in housing properties sales. But when election comes, they call all “Rakyat Malaysia” to vote.

How can the country unite whilst the people are divided into “Bumiputera” and “Non-Bumiputera”? I wish Mr. Najib, the new prime minister, will critically consider to abolish the word “Bumiputera” if he is really serious about uniting the people of Malaysia.

Ahmad is Buiputera Rakyat Malaysia. Sivakumar is non-Bumiputera Rakyat Malaysia. I am non-Bumiputera Rakyat Malaysia.

So why divide citizens of Malaysia into Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera?

I called ISEC emergency number and spoke to a nurse on duty. She advised me to go to A&E of a nearby hospital to have my eye checked. One of the factor could be infection.

LA took me to Pantai Hospital. After the medical officer had examined my eye, he rang the opthalmologist on-call, Dr. Lim.

From their phone conversation, we could tell that he was reluctant to come. After many times of persuasion and insistance by the medical officer, he finally agreed to come. But we were told that we would have to wait. What an arrogant bastard!

A doctor on-call is a doctor on night duty. He has to respond to emergency cases at night regardless of the parient’s condition. This doctor’s attitude was really irritating. WTF! After some thoughts, I decided to go home without seeing him. I did not want this irresponsible doctor to earn my money. Furthermore, my pain had subsided due to the paracetamol I took before we left home.

The new fares will certainly burden a large group of citizens who rely on public transports as their locomotion. The increase of school bus fares will also stretch more burdens to households who depend on school bus service to send their children to and from school.

While the Najib’s administration has implemented some new economic measures to stimulate economic growth and unity, is this increment of public transport fares to balance up his check book?

Here’s the screenshots (click to enlarge):

On this page, it says “iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod Touch – Already have an iPhone? Update it with new features, free.

On the other page, it says “Download software update. Only US$9.95.”

On the page found at Singapore site, it says “Buy now for $9.95″

I hate misleading advertisement. I checked various websites and found out that iPhone owners are entitled for free update but the iPod Touch owners are not. What the ….

I am not going to pay for the f&$@*?# update so I searched the web. I found one blogger from Sarawak has written a blog entry about this. I also found some links to download the free iPhone 3.0 here.

It seems like, according to dzimonotion, Apple has mistaken published a free upgrade for download but the link has been taken down later. Someone was quick enough to discover that and downloaded the free upgrade and sharing it now.

You can download the iPhone 3.0 free upgrade here or here is a torrent link.

After downloading, connect your iPod Touch and option click the Update button in iTunes (8.2 or later). Look for a .ipsw file and select. The upgrade will begin immediately. The upgrading process will take a while. Do not disconnect your iPod Touch. When the upgrading process is completed, your iPod Touch will reboot. Enjoy!

Now, I can connect a bluetooth stereo headset (I don’t have one now), I can do copy-cut-paste, etc. Check the Apple website for new features in iPhone 3.0 Update.

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about Apple’s business practice, Is Apple Dirty? Why iPhone owners are entitled for free upgrade? Why iPod Touch owners are not? Now, you judge.

Upon hearing his comment, what I feared most had stricken down my spine. It was inevitable finally. What has to come, has come. I had to accept the reality. My mood swung 180 degrees.

We rushed home to have a quick lunch, called my mom to ask her to help MIL to take care of the three dinos at home. It was a public holiday tomorrow, so we had to rush to make it to the clinic before the clinic closes in the evening. LA drove and I guided her into KL and to the clinic at Mid Valley Mega Mall.

It was about 1:30 P.M. when we arrived at the clinic. The VR specialist confirmed the detachment area which was holding up by previous and fresh laser retinopexy scars. He strongly recommended vitrectomy to repair the detached retina. The story goes this way:

Last evening, we were told by the doctor in Melaka that everything was stable and the tear was held up by the laser and there was no detachment. But this VR specialist told me the other story. There was a big detachment area and fresh laser mark surrounding that detachment area. One question: Why did the doctor in Melaka give me more laser?

Obviously, (in my opinion) the doctor in Melaka had denied us the truth. I am damn f@$&#*? sure that he did not mention about any detachment in progress at all and what LA and I heard was that “Everything is stable but I just need (and feel better) to put more laser surrounding the blood vessel.”

So, I could wait to see if the laser marks would hold or the detachment would progress slowly until it would need a repair. I made the decision on the spot to be vitrectomized based on several reasons:

• if the detachment has been progressive, it will eventually need a repair.
• the longer I wait, the lower chance I have to have a better recovery because the longer the retina is detached, the retina cells will die and I will loose partial vision.
• since I am already consulting a VR specialist and he can immediate vitrectomize my eye, why wait until Monday or so? It is a long weekend and God knows what will happen during the weekend.

So the decision was made. The doctor immediately picked up his phone and arranged for a vitrectomy procedure. The vitrectomy is done as out-patient procedure with local anesthetic. The entire procedure takes only about 30 minutes and I can go home after that.

The doctor took me to another room to take some photos of my retina. Here are some snapshots of my retina. The first photo was taken in March this year at an optometrist shop. The “X” roughly marks where the tear and detachment area is.

Taken in March this year at an optometrist shop

The photo appears to be cloudy due to the blood and debris in the vitreous humor

The white dots are fresh laser marks surrounding the detachment area (U shape)

After the photography session, they sent me to consult a surgery consultant. At her office, she explained to us what the procedure is and what I shall do after the procedure. I have to sit, sleep, stand and walk with my head facing down so that the air bubble in my eye will push against my retina. Not so bad though, I thought. At least better than the previous one (on my right eye) which I had to sleep only on my left all the time. While she explained to me, my nervousness struck me and sent me a great chill. I was shivering with very obvious tremor.

We went for quick lunch at Gardens and went back to the operation floor. I felt warmer with a sweater which LA brought along. It was 3 P.M. Not long after we arrived at the operation floor, the nurses got me ready into surgical gown. Very soon, a nurse came out from an operating theater and called me in. Why so soon? We were told that my procedure would be around 4 P.M.!

I went into the operating theater and was told to lay down on the operating bed. Then the nurse put on a blanket on my body to keep me warm. Not long after, the door opened and my doctor entered. He gave me a warm greeting and ditto. We started some conversation while he and his surgical team were preparing.

The doctor instilled two drops of anesthetic into my left eye. After a minute, he returned to give me a local anesthetic injection. He pulled down my lower eye lid and poke the needle into my eye. Ouch! He told me to breathe in and out for him while he performed the injection slowly. When it was done, he applied a gauze and pressed on my eye. After a while, a nurse took over. I began to feel numb on my left eye. Later, a nurse wrapped my face with an adhesive film and then cover the other eye of mine with a cloth.

After a while, the doctor came back and started to cut a hole on the film to expose my left eye. I could hear the sound of the instrument knocking on the table and some noises from some equipment. While the doctor was operating on my eye, we chatted. He is from a small town called Jasin in Melaka. He has two daughters. And the gas he is going to inject into my eye is Sulphur Hexa-fluoride (SF6) and it will only last for 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks for C3F8.

I did not feel any pain except some pressures during the surgery. With our conversation, the surgery was over very quickly. It seemed like only 5 to 10 minutes having a chat with a friend. The experience was much better than the cataract surgery I had in 2007. My body wasn’t tensed this time. Perhaps, I am more prepared after the two surgeries previously.

If you are curious about what the doctor did to me, click here. It is the same procedure without the scleral buckle thing.

After the surgery, we went over to Borders at Gardens to browse some books. We left for home afterward and arrived around 8 P.M.

By the time we arrived at his clinic, all his staff had gone back after clinic hour. He was waiting in his office. After the examination, he told us everything was stable and nothing to worry about and he gave me another (4th) round of laser retinopexy. According to him, he felt better to give me another laser to secure the area surrounding the broken capillary which ruptured last Wednesday.

After the laser, he assured us again everything was stable and I would be fine. He sent us home and told me to check in again the next day for a follow up. He also told us that he would not be in so another doctor from Terendak Military Hospital would replace him.

We went home happily and had a good relieve. LA and I had been in and out of the clinic for almost three weeks since I had PVD (Posterior Vitreous Detachment) and retina tear on May 18. I guessed, at least for this moment, nothing to worry about.

After lunch, I took one tablet and felt very relaxing and fell asleep very soon. For almost two weeks, I have had too much bed rest and it becomes quite difficult for me to fall asleep. Xanax has been a great temporary relief.

After returning home from the clinic, I sat at the couch talking to my mum. We were catching up what had happened in the family and the conversation was delight and relax. At about 3PM, I got up and went to the bathroom to take a leak. Then I got some drink and went back to the couch. Not long after I had seated, through my vision, I could see stream of blood oozing out. I knew I was having a bad tear and a blood vessel on my retina had ruptured. That’s why I could see a stream of blood was flowing.

LA called my doctor and rushed me to his clinic. On the way there, the bleeding did not stop and I was extremely freaked out. LA was freaked out by my worries. When we arrived at the clinic, the bleeding stop. At this time, the blood in my eye was enough to cloud my vision.

The bleeding stopped shortly after our arrival. After the examination by the doctor, he gave me another round of laser retinopexy to reinforce the area surrounding the blood vessel. The doctor ensured us the situation was under control and we could return home but to come back for a follow-up the next day.

The market surveyor was taking too much time and when he was finally finished with LA about the survey, I told LA about it and we were worried.

We rushed to the clinic this morning and the doctor gave me second round of laser retinopexy. He said there was a large tear and required more laser to hold up the area to prevent retina detachment. He also said that there was no detachment as yet and not to worried. We went home after that.

I quickly returned home and told LA about my condition. We decided not to wait until the next day so she quickly contacted some people and got an appointment with a consultant eye surgeon in the town.

She sent me to the clinic and then went to pick up Dmitry with grandma. While she settled down with the kids at home, I waited for examination.

After a thorough examination, the doctor told me that I had weak retina and the gel in my eye was liquefying and it was going to tear my retina. No tear had occurred yet but impending. He suggested laser retinopexy to seal off those weak areas to prevent tearing.

Laser retinopexy is a procedure using short pulses of green Argon laser to make tiny burns on the retina. It is like stitching the retina to the wall. I hate this part. To perform the procedure, the eye has to be dilated first. Then, the doctor will apply gel onto a ring and attach it to my eyeball. I have to set my head and chin steadily onto the apparatus. The doctor will manipulate the ring so he can look into my eye and to search for the area to be treated. Laser will be targeted and fired in short pulses. Some discomfort can be felt when the laser power is too high or at sensitive areas.

This time I did rather well although my whole body froze as stiff as a wooden log. I managed to relax by taking deep breath and talking to the doctor, but still, I let out “Ouch!” occasionally. The entire procedure took less than 20 minutes and I received over 600 laser stitches, according to my doctor.

The doctor advised against strenuous activities at least for a week until the doctor examine my condition again next Monday.

My previous research indicates that retina detachment may occur when the head is traumatized or with high-powered myopia and aging. But how does this actually happen? I have done another research and the finding is very interesting. Of course, this is also partly due to my high-powered myopia.

The gel in the eye is called vitreous humor. The collagen fibers of the vitreous are held apart by electrical charges. The collagen fibers clump together when electrical charges decrease during aging. The gel will also liquefy when the electrical charges decrease. A condition called syneresis (in chemistry, the extraction or expulsion of liquid from gel) occurred, allowing cells and other organic cluster to float freely within the vitreous humor. These floaters are perceived as spots or fibrous strands in the vision. Floaters are generally harmless. A sudden onset of recurring floaters may signify a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) or other diseases of the eye. A doctor specialized in this area is called vitreo-retina specialist.

My previous experience was due to ignorant. I hope my posts will give you an idea so at least when you see sudden onset of floaters in your vision, you can seek immediate medical attention to save your eyes.

Ok. I am lazy. I have been using rsync to sync folders I am working on between my Macs. I have been using command line scripts in Terminal for almost two years and finally I have gotten lazy over the task.

The thing is, I need to execute the scripts in Terminal every time I want to synch my folders. Of course, I could simply use cron to automate the tasks at specific time but I ran the risk to cause havoc between the folders on different Macs. It is best not to cron the task.

So, I learned up AppleScript and after a ten-minute hack, I wrote a nice AppleScripts to do the job. It is quick and dirty.

set debug to false

with timeout of (30 * 60) seconds
	tell application "Terminal"
		set Window_Title to "Sync Documents"
		set Rsync_Cmd to "rsync -acrtv --delete
			/Users/username/Documents/
			username@xxx:Documents"
		set output_doc to do shell script Rsync_Cmd
		choose from list paragraphs of output_doc with prompt
			"Result:" with title Window_Title with empty
			selection allowed
	end tell
end timeout

Copy the script to ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder and save it as “sync documents.scpt”. Then launch Script Editor to edit username to your login name and xxx to your Mac IP address or computer name. This script will sync your Documents folder under your user home directory. To execute this AppleScript, at Finder, click on the script icon on the menu bar and select the script to launch.

rsync uses ssh. If you have not setup a password-less ssh login, you will need ssh-askpass in /usr/libexec. Unfortunately, it does not ship with Mac OS X. You can get it at Joe Mocker’s weblog.

I have several reasons to buy an iPod Touch but I am not going to talk about them here. One most ostensible use of it is that I am no longer required to lug my MacBook (code-named Uranus) everywhere I go. Since it replaces the function of Uranus when it is not with me, I name my iPod Touch, Miranda, one of the five moons of Uranus. Miranda is the inner most and smallest moon of Uranus and is also referred to Uranus V.

If you are running a business, your data lost can cause you a fortune. Data is the most valuable byproduct of any business. For example, customer database, sales and invoicing, stock inventory, etc.

There are numeral factors that can cause data lost. The most common are hard drive failure (electronic or mechanical), accidental deletion of file(s) or partition(s), accidental reformat of hard drive and OS failure. Fire and flood can also damage your hard disks. On advanced computing hardware, data lost can cause by the reasons mentioned earlier as well as RAID controller failure, rebuild RAID configuration failure, damaged or lost RAID configuration, corrupt or damaged partition table, etc. If you lose your data due to any of this or other reasons, you will need data recovery service.

If you are using a Mac, you need not to worry at all. The DataRecoveryGroup also provides Mac data recovery service to Mac users. They also provide server data recovery service to recover data from RAID disk arrays on servers.

We will switch off all the lights for entire two nights, leaving only the refrigerator and at least 1 (and maximum 2) fan(s) on.

In fact, I have been doing this since 2007. As the matter of fact, this initiative is not started by the Australians (as I heard from TV advertisement). Read here and here.

Why only an hour? Make it the whole weekend for our Earth. This will further reduce energy consumption.

Will Sun set and never rise again? Here is my encounter of the hot Sunny affair.

In October 2006, I installed Solaris 10 on an Intel box code-named, Pyxis1 (I love to name my computers after the name of a planet, a star or a constellation). The installation was successful but I could not get it to configured to work correctly. Some of the configuration would disappear every time I restarted the server. I could not find the reasons and I was on tight schedule to get the server up and running. I replaced Solaris 10 with Debian and eventually with Ubuntu. Read the story here.

Solaris 10, in my opinion, is by far a better and more robust operating system than Linux. The fallback was the lack of installation information on older machines. That’s the bottom line of the configuration problem I had three years ago.

Last May, I began the virtualization of my MacBook and I had Ubuntu installed and ran parallel with Mac OS X. I tried to install Solaris 10 on VMware Fusion. Installation was successful but I never got it to boot after the installation. Again, I gave up and went on with Ubuntu.

On Sunday, I upgraded VMware Fusion 1.1.3 to 2.0.2 and read about successful installation of OpenSolaris on Mac. I decided to give it another try.

OpenSolaris is a community-driven open source version of Solaris. Solaris is a proprietary UNIX operating system by Sun Microsystems. Sun plays an active role in open source software such as OpenOffice, MySQL and OpenSolaris.

VMware Fusion 2.x has many major improvements. One obvious change is the Virtual Machine Library window. It shows you the snapshots of your virtual machines.

The Virtual Machine Library window showing the snapshots of OpenSolaris and Windows XP

Ok, ok. I have a Windows XP installed. For those who know I have ditched all Windows since 1998, I have some inevitable reasons. First, I need it to support my clients on some hardware and software configurations. Second, I needed it to support my Garmin GPS device. And thirdly, I need it for some non-appealing reasons. I have it installed to avoid having the need to hunt for a Windows desktop for some petty simple jobs. I used the Windows virtual machine under 10 times since last May. Simple put it, I just need it to get some simple jobs done, otherwise it is just a piece of shit occupying 5GB of disk space on my MacBook.

Installation of OpenSolaris was quite pleasant and simple (although it took about half hour). During the installation, I was surprised to learn that OpenSolaris has something called Time Slider which is an automated backup software similar to Apple’s Time Machine.

My hardware configuration:

1. MacBook White, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2. 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
3. 160GB hard disk
4. Mac OS X 10.5.6

My virtual machine configuration:

1. VMware Fusion 2.0.2
2. 2 virtual CPU, 720MB RAM
3. 15GB hard disk space

Installation screen showing Time Slider

I will never need Time Slider on my Mac Book but I may need it after I switch from Ubuntu to OpenSolaris on Pyxis1. Until then, I am unable to tell if Time Slider is as good as Time Machine.

There are a few patches and manual installation after the first boot to solve some problems:

1. The sound is not working.
2. No networking (you may not experience this).
3. The Apple’s menu bar is not appearing when virtual machine is running in full screen mode.
4. Need some packages from OpenSolaris repository in order to get the Ada compiler working (for Ada programmers only).

OpenSolaris running at full screen on MacBook White.

First thing after restarting from installation is to install VMware Tools. At window mode, click on the Virtual Machine menu bar and select Install VMware Tools. A CD icon will appear on the OpenSolaris desktop. Open it and copy the zipped file to the desktop then extract and follow the steps below:

# cd Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl

OpenSolaris virtual machine running in window mode

After installing VMware Tools, you will be able to access to Mac OS X menu bar when virtual machine is running full screen mode. Move the mouse pointer to top of the screen and the menu bar will drop down.

If the two networking icons on the top right do not show green badge as in the screenshot below, then make sure your Virtual Machine Network Settings is connected and set to NAT (share the Mac’s network connection). The network should also work in Bridged mode. Also make sure the OpenSolaris network interface is connected to e1000g0 and is active.

Two networking status icons with green badge

Otherwise, click on System > Administration > Network to set it to auto configure. Your network should be up and running. 

Next is to activate the sound. Download OSS (Open Sound System) driver at http://4front-tech.com/download.cgi and install it as follow:

# pkgadd -d oss-solaris-v4.0-123-i386.pkg
# osstest

After the installation, run osstest to test the sound system. You will hear a tune playing on your speakers. You may need to reboot your system to allow the driver to properly load.

There are a few more packages to be downloaded and installed from OpenSolaris.org repository. To install gcc4ada from BlastWave, you will need SUNWgnu-libiconv and SUNWarc. Start Package Manager to download and install them from OpenSolaris repository. If you need source code management, you will need SUNWsvn as well.

The OpenSolaris repository does not have Ada compiler (gccada) and only supports gcc 3.4.3. You will have to install Ada compiler from another repository at Blastwave.

To download and install software packages from Blastwave, you need pkgutil. Download and install pkgutil and other necessary packages by following the instruction at Blastwave site. You can obtain a list of software packages that you need from Blastwave. After installing pkgutil, you may want to include /opt/csw/bin to your path.

If you need an Ada 2005 compiler, then download and install gcc4ada:

# pkgutil --install gcc4ada

Include /opt/csw/gcc/bin to your path and the Ada compiler is ready. I checked out a project from my svn repository and compiled. Viola! I am happy with the performance which I find is better than Ubuntu and any other Linux distros. One drawback of OpenSolaris or Solaris is the limited software packages. There are more than a thousand ready-built software packages to download in every Linux distros. That means you will have to build some of the software you need on Solaris (and OpenSolaris).

I removed and re-installed OpenSolaris yesterday after I found some broken links due to not following the instructions correctly. Always read installation instructions from various sources carefully before installing. I find the trouble is worthy otherwise I will not have a clear summarized steps to write about here.

With the recent IBM’s announcement to acquire Sun Microsystems, I hope Sun will not be cannibalized after the acquisition. And I hope that Sun is not setting but if it must, it will rise again. OpenSolaris and UltraSPARC processors are one of the leading technologies available.

I hope to find time on a weekend to install OpenSolaris on the Sun Blade 100. It is still running Solaris 9 since 2003.

The iPhone 3G that makes you drool...

I was truly disappointed after reading the details on Maxis’ website. The selling price is very high and apart of this, Maxis locks you in with either 24 months or 6 months contract. The worst thing is that if you breach the service contract or choose to opt out before the contract matured, there is a huge penalty awaiting you ahead.

We have paid so much for the iPhone with our own pocket, why is there still hefty monthly service fees and contract commitment?

Is that another dirty Apple’s trick?

It looks kind of odd for an Apple enthusiast like me to comment about Apple negatively in two consecutive blog entries.

In my opinion, Apple’s marketing and sales strategies have  leveraged Apple to become the most successful and profitable computer company. Ever since Apple released the first generation iPhone, it has become a hit globally including Malaysia. You will not be surprised to read petitions from fellow Malaysians to urge Apple to make available iPhone in Malaysia as soon as possible.

Well, like else everywhere, Apple does not only make profit from iPhone sales, it makes another tier of profit from the service contracts. The arrangement is made with service provider prior to the launch of iPhone. That’s why Maxis’ iPhone service contract comes with huge unfair penalty.

Very well, to me, iPhone is a nice to have it but not a must have but still wants to have it kind of thing. It is cool. It will make heads turn and eyes pop when you take your iPhone out of your pocket.

If you read carefully Maxis iPhone 3G rate plans here, you will find the data service is not unlimited. There is additional data usage charge after you have used up the allocated usage stipulated under your contract.

Now a dangerous pitfall that will lead you to huge phone bill is that if you are using some iPhone apps which automatically connect to Internet to update itself or sync information, your usage meter will be running without you knowing it until your bill arrives. Most applications will connect to Internet automatically even your iPhone is in standby mode. Beware!

Personally, I prefer using an iPod Touch and a regular cell phone to having the all-in-one iPhone. I will have total freedom to change my phone as I wish or when necessary. With iPhone, you are locked in with it unless you become to hate it so much and will just chuck it away into the garbage.

I still will consider getting an iPhone if Apple allows iPhone users to choose any service provider they like. I believe iPhone sales will leap even higher with this restriction removed.

As for the running meter of data service, I am not too concerned as I will be able to comprehend and prevent it as I am technically savvy. How about people who are not? They will either have to pay huge bills or to disable iPhone apps. What use then if you disable iPhone apps?

Why?

There are numeral reasons for that:

1. All Macs work straight out of their boxes. No configuration, no installation of sort. Gadgets like MiniDV cameras just work by connecting to any Mac with a FireWire cable, basically any well known brands of digital cameras will work straight out of their boxes with any Mac without installing any drivers (iPhoto), calendar and contact will sync with any supported cell phones and many more.
2. Friendly and stunning user interface make it easy to work on Mac.
3. Colors and graphics are superb on Mac. Nothing comes close to it.
4. The damn Mac just works without crashing the entire system (although sometimes they do but negligible) comparing to other systems running Windows and Linux.
5. Applications running on Mac are very easy to use and always come with great features and usability.
6. and the list goes on and on….

In plain simple words, Macs get your jobs done.

The other two compelling reasons are Apple’s brilliant packaging and product finishing which give value for money kind of feeling. The packaging boxes are usually compact and slim, using less material and they are environmental friendly. As long as the product design and finishing are concerned, no other PC manufacturer can rival Apple’s ingenious design.

Apple is notoriously well known for its secrecy. Apple was also the largest participant in Macworld Expo and Conference as well as several other similar trade show. Last December, Apple abruptly announced that it would stop participating in future events. Macworld 2009 which was held in January this year was Apple’s last participation.

By tradition, Apple would announce upcoming product release. Users would usually stop buying Apple’s until they got an idea of what was coming along and would wait until a new product was available. This hurt Apple’s business prior to every expos and conferences. The change of strategy will leave speculation high up in the stake.

The new aluminum MacBook lacks of FireWire port is under fire by many MacBook and especially MiniDV tape camcorder users. Without the FireWire port, it becomes not possible to transfer video from MiniDV tape camcorders.

The lack of FireWire port also disable the FireWire disk mode which is quite useful to salvage the contents of hard disk if there is any problem to boot. By connecting MacBook via FireWire, user is able to transfer data from one Mac to another.

New DV camcorders support USB for transferring video images, responded Steve Jobs to unhappy new aluminum MacBook users. Indeed, all new DV camcorders (with built-in hard disk or flash storage media) support only USB for transferring video. But there are still many old MiniDV tape camcorder users like me wanting to be able to transfer from an old MiniDV tape camcorder. My Panasonic MiniDV tape camcorder which only supports FireWire is still in excellent working condition and I have no intention to change a new camcorder. I have no intention to “upgrade” my white MacBook to the all new aluminum MacBook either.

Apple has been deleting all posts (about lack of FireWire in new aluminum MacBook) in its forum. You can read about users complaining in other forums here and here.

The all new aluminum MacBook is something nice to have but not must have. To a seasoned Mac user like me who is cautious in choosing my Mac, it does not have any better contribution to my computing other than its stylish outlook, the new multi-touch-buttonless-smooth-glass trackpad.

Although it sports 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, the price which differenced by $300 (RM1,100 in Malaysia) between 2.0GHz aluminum and white MacBook does not worth the performance per dollar. There is also a difference of 40GB between both models and other technical specifications are identical. With the extra $300 (or RM1,100), you can upgrade the 120GB hard disk drive to 250GB or 320GB plus AppleCare Protection Plan. If you top up about $100 (or RM390), you can upgrade your 2GB DDR2 SDRAM to 4GB in the white MacBook and it still will run as fast as the aluminum MacBook with original spec.

Let’s come back to the lack of FireWire port in new aluminum MacBook. All white and previous MacBook have built-in FireWire 400 port while the MacBook Pro series supports FireWire 800. FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200 and 400 Mbit/s half-duplex data rates. The actual data transfer rate is slightly lower, for example, at 98.304, 196.608, and 393.216 Mbit/s respectively.

Data transfer over FireWire 400 interfaces generally outperforms similar transfer over USB2.0 interfaces though it nominally runs at signaling rate at 480Mbit/s, slightly higher than FireWire 400.

The FireWire enables remote control (play, rewind, etc.) of connected camcorder/device. With the exclusion of FireWire support on latest digital camcorders, remote control of the devices becomes not possible.

Again, why does Apple discontinue FireWire support on the new aluminum MacBook? Is it an oversight or plainly to cut costs?

Does it indicate Apple’s intention to move MacBook users for video capability to higher and more expensive hardware such as MacBook Pro? The speculation is not without fundamental analysis. The argument for getting a USB-FireWire converter or even upgrade to newer digital camcorder does not justify dollars spent. Why should one spend extra money for extra gadget? Why should a person throw away a still working old camcorder just for a USB connection?

With the economic downturn, Apple is no exception to be affected by this world financial crisis. In the last week or two, Apple slashed prices and spiked up the specs to lure buyers. The white MacBook is there to stay to help ramping up Apple’s sales. How long will it be before Apple sends the white MacBook to EOL (End Of Life)? Definitely not within these few weeks. Three months later?

Another trend you can see or forecast is the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be released sometime around June or September, as we can already see that Apple has rolled out all new models from its arsenal. By then, Apple would have sold many Mac and those new Mac owners would be rushing to upgrade to the new Snow Leopard optimized for dual/quad core processors, unleashing more powerful multi-core processing power horse. Apple will cash in again for the upgrade. If you are not in urgent need to buy a Mac or upgrade or replace a Mac, do wait till Snow Leopard is released. It will be worth the wait.

Talking about Mac OS X upgrade, my iBook came with Jaguar. When Panther was released about a year later, everybody was rushing for the upgrade. I waited until Tiger was released and unfortunately, my iBook died not long after I gave it a Tiger. When I purchased my other Macs, they came with Tiger. I acquired a Leopard upgrade at someone’s disposal. I wanted the Time Machine feature to safe guard my data after my iBook was dead. I had sleepless nights worrying about my data and thank God that my data was safe. 

If you are in need of a lower cost MacBook with FireWire capability, do grab the white MacBook now because we have no idea when Apple will pull the plug.

Apple’s marketing and sales strategy exploit human psychology very well. Trend and new state-of-the-art hardware will make heads turn. Apple understands that perfectly well and it uses this intuitive human behavior to cash in. New and unseasoned Apple users, oftentimes teenagers, who are not giving a thought and are not following up Apple’s strategic plan will likely fall prey to coughing out hard-earned dollars for the new cool leading edge hardware to impress people around them.

Is Apple playing dirty tricks to feed its share holders? You judge for yourselves. Apple is no doubt the world most profiting computer company with very happy investors. So, if you ever need to buy a Mac now, do consider the facts and justify your needs and dollars wisely.

The upgrade is inevitable because some of my sites were affected by Yahoo! Counter  malicious malware. It is a nasty injection of script. I could not locate where it was injected and my web host wasn’t very helpful. I decided to upgrade, hopefully, to wipe out the code injection.

Now, I have to file a request to Google to clear the malware listing of my sites.

Dmitry took part in a multi-game and 4 x 50m event. His team was in 4th place thus he did not win anything but his old folks, LA and I won prizes in parents’ events.

LA won first place for threading a needle. She was the fastest of all leaving behind other mothers with a big gap. I won a second place for picking up a mineral water bottle using a drinking straw and ran 10 meters to the finish line. Both prices were bath towels.

The prize is not important. What important is to show Dmitry sporting spirit from his daddy and mommy.

Before the opening ceremony

Line up and get ready

In a multi-sport event

D was in action in 4 x 50m event

The organizer explained how to play the game

1, 2, GO!

Got tanned under the hot sun.

Not too long after the first news, came another one. LA’s ex-colleague and friend, madam Chua, was admitted to Malacca’s General Hospital on the second day of Chinese New Year due to lung cancer with metastasis to the bone and brain. She was literally coma laying helplessly in the bed. She has no children.

Her husband is a hemodialysis patient. He collapsed with high blood pressure (200+Hg) after hearing the news. LA’s friends were trying to seek some volunteering help to assist in taking care of her.

I called up my friend, Benji, in Kuala Lumpur and he helped to pull together some church members in Malacca to help.

This evening at 1700 hours, we were supposed to meet up with Chua’s husband and other family members at the hospital to discuss with doctors to make arrangement to send Chua to palliative care unit. I rushed home and then we sent our children to grandma’s. We were late. On our way to the hospital, we received a call from another friend informing us Chua had just passed away a while ago.

We were shocked. When we arrived at the ward at 1730 hours, the nurse told us that Chua passed away at 1700 hours. We had lots of mixed feeling. It is certainly good for her because she no longer needs to bear the sufferings in silence and in her motionless body.

Nothing ambitious, worked as a clinic nurse for more than 10 years, a passer-by has just passed the pathway of life. Gone were her agonies and yesterday tales. Finally, peace she found. We would like to thank Benji, Pastor Paul, Dr. John and a few others who have lent a helping hand and prayer. Thank you.

We were at the hospital to help her husband and her niece until the caretaker arrived. On our way back, we went to a temple to pray for her. May her soul rest in peace.

One plain reason for me to pick up Objective-C again recently is to develop Cocoa and Cocoa Touch applications for the Macs and iPhone (and iPod Touch). Trying to having nonpartisan mind after so many years of using Ada (and away from C/C++ and variants) is a difficult task to comprehend. As an individual Ada developer (having my own opinion) I am finding C/C++ very compromising in many ways, for instance, readability of codes and safety. Although Objective-C has many improvement over C/C++, it is still lacking what Ada offers.

By syntax, Objective-C is still very much like C. A few obvious clues to tell if it is an Objective-C are the use of #import, instead of #include; the @ sign; the Smalltalk-like message passing syntax and several others.

The #include statement in C/C++ has many drawbacks. One which seriously affecting compilation efficiency is the repeating includes of same header files. With #import, header files are included once only throughout entire compilation.

One deadly pitfall I have encountered so far is the way Boolean type is implemented in Objective-C. C supports Boolean data type, bool, which takes on the value of either true or false. Objective-C has similar data type, BOOL, which is 8-bit number that takes on YES as 1 and NO as 0. If you unwittingly assign a 2-byte integer to a BOOL type, the result can be catastrophic. Only the lowest byte will be used for the value of BOOL. If the lowest byte is zero, for example, 4608 which its hexadecimal value is 0×1200, BOOL will be zero or NO.

Ada’s strong-typing disallows this to happen and thus saving, possibly countless hours of debugging. Personally, I like neither bool nor BOOL. I prefer Ada’s Boolean.

Unlike the dreaded C++, Objective-C does not support operator overloading and multiple inheritance. In Ada95, a restricted form of multiple inheritance is supported. In Ada2005, multiple inheritance is supported by new form of type called the interface type, similar to abstract tagged type with no components.

It takes years of hard work for the People’s Coalition to win majority seats in a few states in northern peninsular. Sparrow became Phoenix by the power of people. It then betrays her own people and opts to be fowl.

Let us together despise them, spit on them.

PS: It is the fault of PKR for accepting the crossover from the other camp. They destroyed what they have sowed. Who is to be blamed?

With today’s miniaturization technology, a tiny GPS tracking device has opened up new potential. You can now monitor where your kids go after school. At the size of no thicker than a golf ball, these GPS trackers can monitor in real-time, the GPS location and movement of the devices from anywhere in the world using any standard web browser.

But GPS tracking is also a very controversial debate. Although,  you are able to know the whereabout of your kids, their privacy has been violated. Nobody likes to be monitored or tracked. While some overly concerned parents are worrying their children’s safety, privacy is still a debatable issue. Parents can inform their children about the GPS tracking devices and the reasons to have one, privacy will still be an issue to older children when they begin to understand their rights about privacy.

Privacy issue is not so much of a concern in commercial sector especially in fleet tracking. Company needs to know the progress of the drivers and the exact location for planning and in case of emergency. Drivers will be informed of the GPS tracking devices and have to accept the terms when accepting the jobs.

Discover is the best application that allows me to wirelessly transfer my files to iPod touch and view it. It is free and secured. Unlike other free applications of the same class, Discover is only limited to physical storage available on your iPod touch. It supports many file formats such as PDF, Office document formats (which I don’t use), and Unicode support (C/C++, Objective-C and more). Unfortunately, it does not recognize Ada source files. I hope BBase will support Ada in coming release.

Download Discover from iTunes store and install into iPod touch. Just launch Discover and connect (using any WebDAV enabled browser) to iPod touch with the IP address provided on the iPod screen. You can setup secured access with passwords to protect your iPod touch from unauthorized access.

User review is one thing. When come to pricing and offering, it is impossible to recommend a good shop offering good price. ShopWiki is a good site to shop for a digital camera. At ShopWiki, there are links to online shops offering wide range of digital cameras with good price.

At its Canon Digital Cameras page, you can select from Canon’s compact digital cameras to digital SLR cameras and a wide range of accessories, like the lenses, flashes and more. You can also browse other major brands such as Sony, Nikon and more.

With ShopWiki, shopping for a digital camera is so easy in the comfort of your home.