Swordie Bloggie

A new chapter will open soon. Have you fulfilled this year’s chapter? The 2008 vision, mission, resolutions… or what ever you would like to call it. Every year, at the beginning of the year, people lay out their plan, their yearly master plan. And some love to frame their resolutions and probably call it Holiday frames resolutions.

But plan or resolution is just something you promised to fulfill… hoping to fulfill them without knowing what are ahead of you for the next 12 months, 365 days or 8760 hours.

This year, 2008, I believe most of us never expected the oil will shoot up to almost $150 per barrel in the middle of the year. But some were so excited that it will shoot up to $170 by the end of 2008.

But look… just look at the whole world economic right now! You don’t see $150 or $170 per barrel right now! Not even $100. It drippings to almost $30 per barrel right now! The whole world economic has tumbled down.

Although cheaper oil means cheaper gas, petrol or diesel for us, but the drippings of oil price as usual bring along with it bigger trouble… economic meltdown.

Countries which do not have other resources other than oil… Countries which depend too much on their oil revenue… will face the greatest economic meltdown…

But let’s hope the economic meltdown don’t bother us so much next year. Hopefully everyone will be happy with what they have.

Happy New Year 2009… P E A C E

How many of you stuck in the traffic jam during your recent Christmas shopping round? With the sale carnival on going, shopping complexes are like circus. Roads are jammed with vehicles and shopping complexes are jammed with shoppers. And if you were driving yourself, you also have to face another problem, parking!

But if you said you did not experience any of those, then you must be shopping somewhere else… online shopping right? I’m sure some did their shopping online. It is much more convenience than wasting time stuck in the jam.

I did not do much shopping for Christmas through online or at shopping complexes. But I did my online shopping for some stuffs for the coming New Year… only 3 days away… I hope I can receive my stuffs before New Year 😛

While searching for information about Cisco hub, I came across with Sapia Network. They are selling used network stuffs like router, switch, VoIP phone, and many more. The used network devices in their offering are from well know brands like Cisco, Juniper, Foundry, Extreme, Marconi, Riverstone and Brocade.

I was not looking for used cisco hub or anything but I just want to get some information about our old Cisco FastHub. You must be wondering why I keep on mentioning ‘hub’ instead of ‘switch’.

Well, our network was setup in the late nineties, around 1997. During that time, switch is not that commonly available and it can cost a bomb… but not as much as a warhead 😀

Our backbone are taken care by the 12 ports Cisco FastHub 100 FX, all 12 ports are fiber port. And the rest of the hub are Cisco FastHub 300 series, which has 16 ports only. The 16 ports are 15 100BaseTX ports and one 100BaseFX port for linking UTP devices to a fiber Fast Ethernet backbone. If I ask you to guess the price of the 16 ports Cisco FastHub on that time, you will not be able to give me a correct guess. Well, the cost of the hub at that time is almost RM10K each… yes almost RM10k for a mere 16 ports hub… not even a 16 ports switch!

Today, a 16 ports switch will cost less than RM1k, depending on the brand and features it has. But although switch technology is faster than hub, some of today’s switch will not be able to beat that more than 10 years old Cisco FastHub technology… it is rock solid! They have been working 24×7 since 1997. Of course we lost some of it because of bad main power supply… but 80% are still working.

Duty calls… no choice but to attend it although it still Christmas week. The air-con in the server room supposed to be fixed a couple of weeks ago. I reminded them again before Christmas, that’s was on Wednesday.

I have been warning them that the temperature in the server room is too warm… both air-cons are not in good working condition. Even the air-con compressor outside are making loud noises.

So here I am… on leave but in the office. While waiting things to be done, I sit in my room doing what I need to finish. Well, I guess it is blessing in disguise… at least I can do some work while no one disturb me… I’m not going to answer any calls or entertain anyone coming. Sorry… I’m on leave OK.

So, looking at my desk, I was thinking, do I need computer desks? Yea, computer desk… you know, computer table… for my two CPUs and a monitor… which are enough to accommodate a desktop PC, a server, a monitor and a KVM switch.

But I don’t really like using computer desk. I prefer my monitor to be on my table and the CPUs under the table or at the side of the table. That’s why I like to have slightly bigger table so that it can act as an office desk and also as computer desk. It is much convinient to do work… because I can say that more than three quarter of my office hours, I will be using the computer. I don’t have to switch desk.

What I actually need are filling cabinets… the files and documents are pilling on my office desk cum computer desk… and yes, it looks very messy, you don’t have to remind me for that 😛

I’m sure you all noticed in today toys’ box, some has ‘suitable for’ age sticker meaning if it state ‘6 years old’, 5 years old or younger are not supposed to use the toys, it is not suitable for them.

But today toys are also very complex, I’m not even referring to Play Station or Xbox kind of toys. During Christmas, my nephews got few presents and also puppies. Early morning, they are already ransacking the Christmas tree.

But I think this one particular toy is not meant for kids. Even adults will have a hard time to assemble them. Well, it is good that the kids can think, imagine and solve on how to assemble them at early stage, but this one is just too difficult to finish.

My nephew asks for my assistant to assemble his toy after he can’t go on anymore. The toy when fully assembles will supposed to turn into moving pods. It will carry marbles from the bottom to the top of the tower of the moving pod using chain and ‘bucket’. Once on top, the marble will slide down along the ‘cables rail track’ attached at the side of the moving pod’s tower.

Assembling the tower, chain and the electric motor is no problem… my nephew did it.  But assembling and aligning the marble’s cables track is the problem. It took me morning, afternoon, evening and night to try to align it but it just not perfect. The marble can slide down but the shape of the cables track is not perfect… I have to assemble and unassembled it, and it is not done yet. Clipping and unclipping the clips is hurting the fingers. There are more than 200 parts in this toy to be assembled.

You might think it is easy… what so difficult about assembling rail track cables? I have installed all kind of cables… UTP cables, fiber cables, armored cables… above the ceiling, under the ceiling and even under the ground, but these two less than 300 cm steel cables are just giving me a hard time. You see, if your alignment is not correct and the turning radius is not right, the cable will not end at the same length, although the outer cable has a longer length.

Today, I’m on leave, but got a call about office ‘server room’ air-con… I’m lazy to drive, wish I have moving pods or teleport pods…

Christmas is here bringing good cheer to all mankind… let us celebrate together the peace, joy and hope it brings.

Merry Christmas

You wanted to watch tv while lying on your bed. The tv is in front of your bed. But you can’t have a good view of it, so you have to lift your head a little bit using some pillows or you have no choice but to sit on your bed and lean on the headboard… which will cause you neck pain or back pain.

To have it at good viewing level and to avoid severe neck or back pain, the tv has to be on a higher level, higher than the usual 3 feet high cabinet that we usually have in the living room.

How about fixing the tv on the wall? Or how about fixing it on the ceiling? Yea, ceiling will be nicer since you don’t have to use additional pillow or sit and lean on the headboard. No more neck pain or back pain, just lie down and enjoy the tv shows until you fall asleep 😀

But how are you going to lift and fix the tv on your ceiling? You definitely are going to need a lifter to do that… probably tv lifts. But I don’t think you want to install the tv on your ceiling if you don’t want the tv kills you while you sleeping… kaboom… the tv falls on you while you are sleeping.

Even with plasma or lcd tv, they are still not suitable to be installed on the ceiling. The best option is to get a tv cabinet with an adjustable tv lifts so that you can have a better viewing level.

But yesterday at Karamunsing Complex shop, Micron, at the 3rd floor, I saw a neat gadget… handheld projector. The projector is the size of a pda phone. You can project the image anywhere you like while holding it, just like pointing a laser pointer. And the best part, you can point it upward to the ceiling. WOW… can watch movie while lying on the bed lah… 😀

Just look at the picture, I took it using my hand phone camera. Although it was projected to the checkered wall which is like silk and very reflective, the image is still very clear. Imagine if it was projected on to a white plaster ceiling… 😀

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL of YOU… and if you want to give me a present, you know what I want, it’s only about RM1,000.00++ 😆

This is a back posting for my Journey around Sabah – Tempurung Seaside Lodge, Kuala Penyu. I woke up as early as 6.00am on Wednesday, 17 December 2008.

It was already bright… coz Sabah gets the sun earlier than peninsular Malaysia but of course Sandakan at the east of Sabah facing the open Pacific Ocean gets the sun much more earlier.

The sound of the waves hitting the beach in the early morning is very soothing. It makes you forget the world around you… as if you are in another free world.

I took my digital and video camera and went to the balcony. Birds are singing and dancing happily while sucking the flowers’ nectar around the resort. I was frozen until I forgot to take their photos.

I guess I was the only human being awake in the resort at that time. Everything is still frozen… the office, restaurant, etc… Usually I don’t wake up so early but that day I guess I was awaken by the beautiful sound of the waves and the singing birds. The other resort guests and workers must be still enjoying their dreams… not sure what are they dreaming.

I went down to the beach… enjoying the surrounding while walking down the long and steep wooden stairs… probably more than 50 meters long.

While at the beach, I felt like a lot of stuff brushing on my legs… but I can’t see what are brushing on my legs. The feeling is like some cobwebs tangled on you. But when I look closely, they are actually small insects. They are about 1 mm and white in color which make it very hard to see… combined that with the white beach sand and the early morning lights, makes it even harder to see.

The day after my encounter with the insects at the beach, I felt my legs are all itchy. I was scratching my legs all over because it was so itchy and I’m not sure which spot to scratch. Then red spots are appearing like mosquitoes bites and growing to about 2 cm wide. The harder I scratch the spot, the better the feelings are… and you don’t want to stop scratching it coz it felt so good… until the skin peeled.

I was quite worried at that time… I don’t want to be infected with malaria or dengue… and bed ridden with cerebral palsy when nerves breakdown. I was very worried with the itchiness and red spots, but lucky someone commented at by earlier post asking about ‘sand fly’ at Tempurung Seaside Lodge. When I Google ‘sand fly’, I got all the answers I needed. I don’t have to worry about nerves breakdown, malaria or dengue anymore because it’s just sand fly bites. But I still went and buy MOPIKO for the itchiness… and mosquitoes repellent spray to add into my medicine bag.

When I came home from Journey around Sabah on Friday, I thought one of my PC’s RAM is broken because the system’s message keeps on popping up telling me my PC is low with system memory! Crap… don’t tell me one of my 2GB RAM is broken.

After cleaning up the temporary and history files, then cleaning the registry… then tweak here and there… at last the message is gone. Yes, my RAMs are OK. The most logical reason why the message was popping up is because of the latest Windows update related to the serious security flaw in the Internet Explorer.

Then Kota Kinabalu City is also in major traffic jam on that Friday. The next day news said, it was caused by the combination of early payday and the ongoing Badminton World Foundation Super Series Master Final which started that day until today (Sunday).

Then on Saturday, the breaks of three submarine cables which link Europe and the Middle East caused disruption to the internet and international telephone services in parts of the Middle East and South Asia.

This made the internet at crawling speed or in non-existence state but not as bad as last time, when 7 out of 8 submarine cables near Taiwan breaks after they were hit by earthquakes. The Taiwan earthquake triggers a “digital tsunami” in Asia on that time.

This is the best diet pill you can find in the wild!!! It is super strong, once you eat it, you will throw up until you loose all your weight… 😆 just kidding… ok, let me introduce you to Petai or in its scientific name, Parkia Speciosa.

This is a ‘back posting’… during our way home on the 24 October 2008 in our Journey Around Sabah – Sandakan Region, we stopped at one of the stall along the road somewhere in Ranau. I bought some petai coz I do eat them… not raw but cooked with sambal 😀

Petai also know as sataw, twisted cluster bean, yongchaa, yongchaak, zawngtah or stink bean… yea a stinking bean! If you never come near to it before, most probably you will faint if you ever come near it… when the beans are pealed from its cocoon the strong aroma will fill the space.

The smell is stink and taste super bitter… once you eat them, your pee will smell the same 😛 They said, eating petai brings lots of benefits, especially when eaten raw!!! No way can I eat them raw though. But anything taste bitter always brings lots of benefits to our health… which good medicine don’t taste bitter?..:D

I also bought some local durian called ‘dalit’. Dalit is very different from durian especially its spike. Dalit spikes are more sharp, thinner and longer unlike durian’s. Dalit’s flesh are also not white like durian but red or yellow depending on the species. Dalit can be found in the jugle wild… but some are planted in the orchard. Dalit are more expensive than durian too coz they are quite rare.