Of summer and blogging

This is the kind of title that you'll see when I attempt to combine two topics that are supposed to be discrete... I'm just too lazy to create two separate posts instead of one. Nevertheless, they're somehow related for me to weave them into one post. Read on.


My blog is half dead

I realised that there are many many broken promises on my blog - from my assurance to update more frequently and to my pledge to provide more follow-up posts. Ironically， the music I'm currently playing on my blog is 约定 ("Promise") by Michael Wong. I should've posted more updates especially during the summer holidays, which is about to end by the way. Close to four months... yet only four updates during this period (not including this post). What am I doing?

My (and maybe some others') interest in blogging has probably declined since using Facebook. Being on Facebook has sapped much of the time available for me to be active in blogging. With Facebook, I can keep up with updates from bloggers and non-bloggers alike, on one single website - convenient eh? No need to go blog-hopping and waiting for (some painfully slow) blogs to load. Naturally, updating my status on Facebook is much easier than writing a full-length blog post.

So why am I still writing this? I should've ditched this blog long ago! Actually, not a chance. Here are my five reasons:

1. This blog can be designed the way I like it.
2. Freedom to write as long as I want. Status updates are for short updates.
3. Facebook Notes? Limited capabilities. Here I can include pictures, Flash animations, CSS, Javascript, Java applets, even ActiveX in my posts if I know how to use it.
4. Facebook Photos? Again limited. I can write a photo story here instead of displaying my photos album-style.
5. Unlimited stuff that I can include here, unlike my plain old Facebook profile.

So Facebook or blogging? Hopefully both, if I have the time. In fact, I've just added a Facebook badge at my blog's sidebar to keep this blog updated with my Facebook status. This way, my blog will never be dead!


Summer summary

OK, so you know I didn't spend my summer writing lengthy articles on who-knows-what (I didn't even bother to think about what articles to write). I'll classify the happenings in summer in two categories - good and bad.

The good:

• Visited Indonesia for the first time.
• Earned some money.
• Got an external hard drive.
• My house is now a Wi-Fi zone.
• Bought myself a new handphone (more about this later).
• Played DotA with my cousin. He's getting better than me!
• Met some old friends, both during work and late-night mamak sessions.

The bad:

• Didn't do as much as I planned to do.
• My external hard drive suffered a fall. It's still working, but not without minor glitches (more about this later).
• My grandfather in Penang had a stroke, still recovering. Will see him next week.
• Broke my laptop, due to me leaving it on for insanely long hours. (Or rather, it broke on me.) Come on, it's only slightly more than a years' old and a day is only 24 hours at maximum. So this is the lifespan of my laptop made by DELL (more about this later).
  

Notice the fancy bullets I used when writing out my list. This will never be possible on Facebook. So fellow bloggers, keep on blogging. Rest assured, I'll be monitoring your blogs through my blogroll on the right. Keep your blog updated to stay on top!


P.S.: If I missed out any of your blogs, feel free to shout at me in my Shoutbox.

Last day at TMpoint Melaka

One and a half months... and my part-time job as a HP Broadband PC (BBPC) promoter had ultimately came to an end yesterday. There are lots of things that happened during that time that will serve as perfect blogging material, but due to tiredness (just had a game of DotA and it's late), I'll let the pictures do the talking first.


TMpoint Melaka at Gajah Berang.


My HP BBPC booth.


Me with TMpoint counter staff. From left: Kak Siti, Kak Akmar, Kak Nane and Kak Ramlah. Thanks for helping me with new BBPC applications!


Posing with Encik Yussaini, Customer Service Consultant.


Me with (from left) SME Consultant Kak Su and TM trainees Kila and Nani.


Last but not least...


TMpoint Team Leader Encik Firdaus and myself.


Nice working with you guys and happy fasting!


P.S.: Hope to get another update on my job posted soon...

Streamyx free PC promotion

Packages

All packages include Streamyx 1.0 Mbps unlimited access and a modem.

Desktop Package

Compaq Presario CQ2035d Desktop PC	UPGRADE: Compaq Presario CQ3060d Desktop PC
Intel® ATOM™ 330 Processor (1.60 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB) Genuine Window Vista® Home Basic 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB Hard Disk DVD+/- RW Drive with LightScibe Technology Compaq 15” Wide LCD Monitor (Upgrade to HP w18.5" Wide LCD Monitor for only RM6/month)	Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor E7400 (2.80 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz) Genuine Window Vista® Home Basic 3GB DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB Hard Disk DVD+/- RW Drive with LightScibe Technology Integrated Wireless & LAN Compaq 18.5” Wide LCD Monitor
RM99.00 per month	RM128.90 per month

Notebook Package

Compaq Presario CQ40-518TU Notebook PC	UPGRADE: Compaq Presario CQ40-510TU Notebook PC
Intel® Pentium ® Processor T4300 (2.10GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) Genuine Window Vista® Home Premium 1GB DDR2 SDRAM Memory; 250GB Hard Disk DVD +/- RW Drive Integrated Wireless LAN 802.11b/g Integrated Webcam 14.1” WXGA TFT High Definition Wide Screen Free Carrying Case	Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T6500 (2.10GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) Genuine Window Vista® Home Premium 2GB DDR2 SDRAM Memory; 320GB Hard Disk DVD +/- RW Drive Integrated Bluetooth & Wireless LAN 802.11b/g Integrated Webcam 14.1” WXGA TFT High Definition Wide Screen Free Carrying Case
RM139.00 per month	RM158.90 per month

Comparison with Streamyx Combo 1 Mbps

	Combo	Desktop Package	Desktop Upgrade	Notebook Package	Notebook Upgrade
Speed	1 Mbps	1 Mbps	1 Mbps	1 Mbps	1 Mbps
Monthly price	RM110	RM99	RM128.90	RM139	RM158.90
Phone Rental	FREE	RM25	RM25	RM25	RM25
Total price per month	RM110	RM124	RM153.90	RM164	RM183.90
Contract period	12 months	24 months	24 months	24 months	24 months
Total price over 2 years	RM2640	RM2976	RM3693.60	RM3936	RM4413.60
Extra (when compared to Combo)	-	RM336	RM1053.60	RM1296	RM1773.60

FAQ

Is the PC really free?
Yes, because when comparing the standard Streamyx 1 Mbps package with the desktop package above, the price of both is RM99/month and comes with a modem. The difference is the desktop package also comes with a PC.

What's the catch?
The monthly payment must be made through credit card from any of the following banks:
AmBank • Citibank • EON Bank Group • HSBC Bank • Bank Islam • Maybank • OCBC Bank • RHB Bank
The contract period for these packages is 2 years.

Interested?

For more details, contact me at .


Note: All details are correct at the time of publishing.
Last update: 2 August 2009

Summer

It's summer time in the Northern Hemisphere, did anyone notice? I think not. Nobody cares by the way, since it's summer whole year round in Malaysia, nothing special. I personally wouldn't care less, except that this is the time where my university has its longest holiday in a year - the summer holiday - which lasts for about 4 months.

"Four months???"

That was the reaction of my friends who have never heard of summer holidays before. I can see why. No college or university in Malaysia (except maybe the foreign ones) have such a long holiday at one go. Their holidays are no different in quantity, but rather scattered throughout the academic calendar.

I'm now already more than one month into the holidays, and yet I've not accomplished much that I originally planned to do. Here are my plans:

1. Relax

When is a good time to relax except for the holidays? At the beginning of June I went to Jakarta and Yogyakarta with my family. Jakarta has nothing much, but Yogyakarta is a nice place to visit with many awesome attractions - I visited Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple and Mount Merapi - all of them can never be seen in Malaysia. I will post some photos as soon as I got them uploaded. Also, saying at home is considered a form of relaxation, except that it's sometimes boring...


2. Earn some money

I was recently hired by HP to promote their Broadband PC package. Basically, you can own a PC plus a 1.0 Mbps Streamyx connection at just RM99/month for 24 months. I'll be going to KL for training next week, after which I'll work near my home in Malacca. After my training I'm going to post more details on the benefits of this package, so make sure you give your support! In addition, I'm answering questions on Mahalo Answers, which offers at least a 25 Mahalo cents (≈ 19 US cents) tip if my answer is considered the best. Not much, but still something...


3. Get a new handphone

Partially the reason to get a job. I'm currently eying touchscreen-based Google Android-powered phones, like the HTC Magic.

HTC Magic

Although I'll get enough money after working for 2 months, but still I'm wondering whether it's a tad too much to spend on a phone.


4. Learn something new

A way to ensure that the mind doesn't get rusty. There are many things I would like to learn, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to get things started...


5. Hang out with family and friends

After spending a year at Semenyih, now it's the time to be with my family and hang out with old Malaccan friends. Fancy a cup of coffee anyone?


Have a nice summer everybody!

Goodbye, Foundation

Yet another post after a long silence. This time, the silence is 2 months long. Those days where I can keep my blog updated at least once a week seem unaccomplishable looking back from now. Simply put, I've been busy with so many things that I've neglected my blog.

With a bit of luck, this blog could be up and running at full steam once again since I'm now on a 4-month long summer break. Yes, 4-months long! Despite celebrating the fact that I'll be free for 4 long months, an unexplainable feeling of sadness has crept over me, knowing that I'll be progressing to another stage of my life, that is from Foundation to Undergraduate.


Time Flies

Time flies like and arrow, always in the forward direction, never backwards. I could still remember as vivid as yesterday the time when I was exploring and getting to know people around the campus of the University of Nottingham. Sometimes I feel one year is too short to fully familiarise ourselves with the environment here. There are still many people here who had been in the same class as me whom I do not know. Even in my last semester, I finally got to know the names of some of the people I've met once too many. At times, this short time period may fail to create strong friendship bonds, especially with the summer break where fellow course-mates are separated by distance for 4 long months.


Foundation Life

Life in Foundation is a major change from secondary school life. Learning to live without parents, spending more time with friends instead of family, greater freedom... I would say I'm pretty much used to this life already, although I find myself lazy and preferring to rely on parents when I'm back home. Meeting friends after class has never been easier with friends living within metres of each other. Weekends are usually spent going out or having the occasional DotA party.


Thoughts on Studies

Much of the time spent in Foundation is about studies, assignments and studies. The lecturers were OK, each with their own distinctive style of teaching. When it comes to marking tests and exams, their grading criteria can range from extremely lenient to awfully picky. On one occasion, a lecturer gave me extra marks for my Maths quiz when I went to see him, even though I was careless when answering the question. Yet another lecturer deducted points for another quiz simply because my answers were not presented in one line. "Your answers are scattered everywhere," she said (or something to that effect; I forgot the exact words). "I did underline the answers though...," was my reply. No point arguing.

Speaking about Maths, the Maths modules are the ones I love to hate. Firstly, I've always enjoyed a love-hate relationship with Maths - love because it is an essential part of Physics and Engineering and hate when things get too complicated. Come on, do we really have to differentiate an expression with powers here and there and then simplify them? I bet a real-life engineer wouldn't encounter such an expression to differentiate while doing his job; even if he does, there's such a thing called a computer that will gladly churn out the answer in a mere milliseconds with near 100% accuracy (taking into account the fact that computers can have bugs too). Can't risk a human error here.

Overall, I had learnt quite a lot (and forgotten most of them too) during my Foundation course. But sometimes I think a blending of social science subjects like economics into the course would be useful...


To all my Nottingham Foundation friends, we shall meet again as fellow undergraduates in September.


UPDATE: A section of this post has been deleted due to reasons I would not discuss here.

Assignment: Virtual reality poster

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Illustrations Virtual Reality Poster

Di rin ove sc g Creating A Virtual Reality Environment 1. System and Software Computers are used to develop and run the software necessary to create virtual environments. Console Workstation Game Software 2. Immersion Sensory stimulation must be consistent if a user is to feel immersed within a virtual environment. Head-mounted Displays VR Dome Simulator 3. Interactivity Immersion within a virtual environment is one thing, but for a user to feel truly involved there must also be an element of interaction. Motion Trackers Wired Gloves 3D Controllers Applications of Virtual Reality Military Training Virtual Therapy Immersive Gaming © 2009 http://polywj.blogspot.com/ 

This is the poster I created for Digital Media's Assignment 1, with lots of input from my groupmates of course.

Busy final semester

Before I knew it, I'm now in the last semester of my Foundation studies in Nottingham University – not to mention that I'm halfway through it already. Two semesters seem to be a long time, but yet less than 9 months has passed since I started my course here. If I were to say the 9 months is short, it's not either. Much has happened since the day I got here that made the 9 months seem much longer. It's probably the departure from school life that made the days here feel more packed, hence 'longer' because much more has been done each day.

It's impossible to find another busier time to update my blog other than the middle of the semester, but if you hadn't noticed my blog hasn't been updated for 3 weeks. Besides, I haven't been providing any updates related to this semester. Although it has been only been 6 weeks, much has been done that can be filled into several blog posts. But sadly, all of these occupied my time until I've no time for blogging. The first week of this semester, I already went hiking up Bukit Lalang (Broga Hill) early in the morning at 5 am – and that was done during a weekday where I have an English class at 11 am. I've some photos of the scenery that I took which I’d like to post here if I'd time. The rest of the weeks were not devoid of other activities; my friends and I celebrated the birthdays of 5 friends – Esdelyn’s during the third week, Rod's and Hwa Siang's during the fourth week, and just recently Weng King's and Hui Yen's. During this semester I also joined two clubs that I’m interested in: Robotics and Tai Chi.

Moving on and as per the convention, I'm going to give a brief overview of the modules I’m taking this semester.


Foundation Mathematics (HG1 FND)

Lecturers: Mr. Balrama, Dr. Rohaizan, Ms. Thong
Tutor: Ms. Grace Yap
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of tutorial class per week
This module continues from last semester, which means that everything including topics and marks will be carried over to this semester. Most of the topics to be covered this semester are calculus-based, from applications of differentiation to integration. This is the first time I'm having a Malay lecturer. Mr. Balrama is no stranger to us, having taught us since the first semester.


Applied Algebra for Engineers (HG1 M02)

Lecturers: Dr. Harikrishnan, Ms. Thong, Dr. Rafi
Tutor: Ms. Grace Yap
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of tutorial class per week
Another maths-based module. Nothing much to say here because it's also well, about mathematics, with topics from matrices, vectors to 3-D geometry. Dr. Rafi is another Malay lecturer here, but so far it hasn't been his turn to teach us yet.


Electricity and Magnetism B (EN0 EMB)

Lecturer & Tutor: Mr. Lim
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of tutorial class per week
The only science-based module in this semester. Pretty disappointing because the previous semesters we had three. The topics involved which are magnetism, inductance and alternating current are not really my favourite. However, we're glad to have Mr. Lim from Semester 0's Basic Engineering Mechanics A back as our lecturer.


Digital Media (XXA C04)

Lecturer & Tutor: Ms. Geetha
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of tutorial class per week
Ms. Geetha is also a lecturer from Semester 0. She taught us Information Technology & Design then. For the first few weeks of this semester we learned about multimedia, namely audio, video and 3-D animation. The problem is nothing practical was taught, and we were expected to produce edited versions of audio and video by ourselves. For our group assignment, we have to produce a poster and a short 3-D animation. Our lessons now are about JavaScript – not a problem since I’m quite familiar with it already.


Communication Technology (XXA C05)

Lecturer & Tutor: Ms. Yong
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of tutorial class per week
For an tech-enthusiast like me, anything that has a whiff of the letters "I" and "T" should spark an interest. Despite that, what was taught in this module is plain boring – I guess even technology has a boring side. I would say it's good to know how a network operates, but learning about types of cables and network topologies has no practical value. They're either forgotten quickly, obsolete after 5 years or couldn't be bothered by people unless they're network technicians. And I hate memorizing.


English Language and Study Skills B (EN0 ELB)

Lecturer: Mr. Emmet Whelan (Profile)
Duration: 4 hours per week
This module is not so much about English as were previous English modules. 60% of our marks will come from our group assignment – and that's a big project. We have to do a research – not the usual getting-information-off-the-internet kind of research – but much more. We have to get the data ourselves by conducting a survey; that means distributing questionnaires to people and analyzing the data. My lecturer is the same as last semester's, and we got to know quite a lot about him already.


Lab

Supervisor: Mr. Tan
Duration: 2 hours per week
As usual. The difference is that we have only 3 experiments, thanks to reduction in science-based modules.


Finally, no government compulsory subjects this semester.

Writing such a long blog post surely takes a lot of time and effort. You should see why I’m sort of regretting it when you see my to-do list:

• Digital Media Assignment – I'd done the poster (will post it here sometime this week), but we seem to have trouble with the animation.
• English Assignment – We haven't done the research yet. Hopefully you guys can help me fill in the questionnaire.
• Communication Technology Assignment – Practically untouched.

Apart from that, there're mid-term tests, maths quizzes and homework coming our way. Very busy, that is.

Cameron Highlands Trip 2009

After the visit to Kek Lok Tong during the Chinese New Year holidays, my extended family and I continued our journey to Cameron Highlands. For 3 days and 2 nights, we stayed at an apartment in Carnation Park.


View from our apartment.


Mini-cactuses in cute pots at a plant nursery.


Part of the Boh tea plantation at Sungai Palas.


Workers collecting tea leaves.


Family photo! (Taken by Ying Ying)


These photos are basically the main highlights of the trip. Looking forward to the next family trip to Java, Indonesia...

A visit to Kek Lok Tong

One of the key aspects of Chinese New Year is family reunion. During the Chinese New Year holidays, my family and I went together on a trip to Cameron Highlands together with my aunt's and uncle's families, not forgetting my grandmother too. There are five families altogether, though one of the members was missing due to study commitments (Don't fret, I'll be posting photos of the trip)...

Before going up the winding roads of Cameron Highlands, we stopped by Kek Lok Tong (极乐洞), a natural cave in Ipoh being used as a temple.


Limestone hills surrounding the entrance to Kek Lok Tong.


The entrance to Kek Lok Tong.


Can you feel the enormousness of the cave?


See how tiny are the people down there...


View of the cave entrance from inside.


Paradise on the other side of the cave.


Kek Lok Tong is only one of the many wonderful caves that can be found in Perak. Sadly, most of them are only known to locals. Maybe the new BN government in Perak formed courtesy of jumping frogs can help popularize these tourist destinations.


Next stop: Cameron Highlands

The Year of the Ox

在这牛年里，希望你能够：
In this "niu" (ox) year, I hope that you can:

穿“牛”衣、
Wear "niu" clothes,

买“牛”鞋、
Buy "niu" shoes,

驾“牛”车、
Drive a "niu" car,

做“牛”人、
Be a "niu" person,

住“牛”屋。。。
Live in a "niu" house...

最重要的是， 小心别踏上牛“金”！
Most importantly, careful not to step on bull shit!

祝大家新年进步、万事如意
WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

The REAL Cloud

The last time I tried to guess the identity of Cloud was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did I wrongfully implicated that person, but because of this our friendship was put to test. Luckily it all ended well. Since then all the leads that I had were exhausted, so I have nothing else to do except to stow away my CSI hat; it seems that Cloud is destined to remain anonymous until he decides to reveal his identity.

Not that I'm desperate to know his identity, but something happened this morning that made me want to put that hat on again. While browsing through blogs by fellow Nottingham University Foundation students, I stumbled upon a blog with the following URL: http://cloudcws.blogspot.com/. Now since the blog owner is the only person from Nottingham University Foundation using the pseudonym "Cloud", there is a high chance that the Cloud person commenting here is the same person as Cloud the blogger.

To prove this connection means finding out whether Cloud the blogger is someone I know (or rather, someone who knows me). The "cws" in his blog URL seems pretty much like the person's initials. As there are hundreds of students in Foundation, recalling someone's name based on his initials is a somewhat difficult task. Truly enough, CWS did not ring a bell to me. Still, there is an whole mine of information I can glean from his blog. I found out that he is [EDIT: Cloud has requested that his identity be preserved]. Case closed.


To Cloud a.k.a. CWS: Good job! I'm surprised that you managed to evade the radar screens of mine and others guessing your identity all this while...

P.S.: If I'm wrong again then I'm going to retire from this CSI business - permanently.

被Alex点了 (Tagged by Alex)

I know that English is THE language that all my blog readers would understand, but sometimes using another language in my blog posts is inevitable... especially when I was tagged by someone using Chinese.

Although this will probably alienate some of my blog readers, I take this as a chance to halt the decay of my Chinese proficiency (now inching towards its half-life). As a matter of fact, the last time I wrote a paragraph in Chinese was during my SPM a year ago. Who knows, this might be the start of the "Chinification" of this blog... (Just kidding!)

For your information, there's a great tool out there called Google Translate that can convert web pages between dozens of language pairs, including between English and Chinese. Just be aware that the translations might be inaccurate, so don't sue me if the translator spewed out something that I didn't mean to say.

Click here to translate this post into English. (UPDATE: The translation sucks.)

---

Rules #1: 被点者请在自己的BLOG写下答案。
Rules #2: 请传给另外其他人。(至少3个)
Rules #3: 传阅人请在这时个人的留言板中，告知他/她已被点名了。
Rules #4: 这些被点名者，被点的会得到幸福，愿望立刻实现。
“幸福套餐”开始咯......

幸福套餐1
01 你的绰号:没有
02 年龄: 18岁
03 生日: 7月12日
04 星座: 巨蟹痤
05 兴趣: 上网，出外旅行，阅读，写博客，打羽毛球
06 专长: （不必炫耀）

幸福套餐2
01 你有没有喜欢的人: 可以说有
02 是否在交往: 简单朋友而已
03 现在幸福吗: 怎么会？人生的路途还很长呢。。。
04 如果上天给你勇气，你最想做的事是: （只有勇气而已吗？）
05 如果有一天你爱的人跟你告白，你会: 让我也向妳告白吧！

幸福套餐3
01 点你的人是: Alex曾庆坚 （没写错吧？）
02 他是你的: 朋友
03 他的个性: 友善
04 认识他多久: 中学开始
05 你觉得他怎样: （好久不见，做不出评论。）
06 你想对他说什么: 希望你尽早能够找到心目中的人。。。

幸福套餐4
01 最爱的节目: MacGyver
02 最爱的音乐: Can I Have This Dance - HSM3，Crush - David Archuleta，退后 - 周杰伦
03 最爱的季节: 春天吧。。。 （拜托，马来西亚没有所谓的季节！）
04 最爱的卡通: Kung Fu Panda　
05 最爱的人　: 家人，朋友
06 最爱的颜色: 橙色
07 最爱的国家: 美国 （科技一流）
08 最爱的天气: 阴天

幸福套餐5
01 如果上天给你3个愿望：我会许:1)身体健康 2)心想事成　3)无忧无虑
02 你是个专一的人吗: 差不多
03 最深刻的回忆: 学驾车
04 你是个很有信心的人吗: 看情况
05 你很爱微笑吗: 喜欢
06 如果要你放弃现在的生活，你愿意吗: （新生活会更好吗？）
07 妄想什么样的生活: 幸福快乐的生活
08 是否横刀夺爱才是爱: 应该相反才对。。。


问卷到此结束，点人者请至于被点者的留言板。
现在，我要把幸福套餐送给。。。
会华语的人

Happy New Year!

Things I look forward to this year:

January

• Chinese New Year.
• Possibly a trip to Cameron Highlands.

February

• Start of the last semester of my foundation studies.

March

• Launch of NASA's Kepler Mission in search of extrasolar planets.

April

• April Fool's Day.
• This blog turns one.

May

• Start of long Summer holidays.
• Possibly a trip to Thailand.

June

• Getting a part-time job.
• Hopefully will earn enough to buy a new handphone.

July

• My 19th birthday (getting old?).
• Screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

August

• Rotting at home.

September

• Becoming an undergraduate (another sign of getting old).

October

• Launching of China's first Mars probe.

November

• New version of Windows?

December

• Another end of the year.