First post in a long while!

Hi All

Sorry I disappeared in the wilderness for a long TIME. Haiz, half a year already gone. Unbelievable. Making headway in terms of my career, but not getting anywhere in terms of being happy with alot of things.

First thing first, was my best friend wanted to be alone after his ex-gf return to Singapore. He and I didn't talk for almost 3 months e.g. March, April, May and June. We are alright now. I've forgiven him for ignoring me but I have less tolerant of his fickle mindedness and hyporcrisy over many things he said he was going to do. I have not gone out clubbing this year although I've been to the casino two times as well as the movies. Been staying at home, doing reading and reading of IT knowledge as well as catching up on friendster which is super addictive.

Also, I did successfully completed my 3 month contract up on the Service Desk (fancy name for helpdesk). I was on the phones for the 12 weeks and it was mad. Sometimes I get compliments, jubliant comments on how I handle customer on the service, sometimes I get nasty people on the phone who are intolerant and uncooperative who just want to let off steam at somebody.

I've recently gained my first MCP ~ Microsoft Certified Professional. I've been waiting for this for a very long time. It is a long story...etc. But I am working towards my MCSE. I will also try and study for the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). Another important qualification these days if you are working in IT Services Management such as helpdesk or desktop support or dealing with people in relations to IT issues is the ITIL cert. ITIL Is Information Technology Infrastructure Library. This was developed by the UK Office of Government Commerce which deals with the best practices in IT Services. ITIL is examined via EXIN a netherlands based neutral certification organisation and used widely in Western Europe, Canada and Australia. It is catching on in the United States and in East Asia.

My mum just came back from a trip to Guangzhou, mainland China to visit relatives and the place. She enjoyed amid some things she didn't like about China. In China, because many people from rural areas migrate to the city, they bring with them some behaviour which is abhorrent. Such as people spitting everywhere, littering and dumping garbage everywhere as if they were still in the village. There is also alot of theives and people using coarse language daily. I can understand the mentality of these people in the city, but I hope once China improves the economic well being of its country folks and the city folks who have secured jobs, the attitude of the people in general will change for the better, more courteous and politeness instead of the rough and rude treatment as it doesn't matter how the world perceives them.

Weekend

Didn't do much today, did some weights. Lifted 7.5 kg dumbells. Did 3 sets of 10 repetitions, then did 3 sets of flyovers. I had a thank you letter from my japanese friend. I feel really great. I helped out her with some stuff with her laptop.

I listening to the BBC programme on 585 AM. It is talking about Taiwan. This is relating to the anti-secession law enacted by the rubber stamping Chinese Parliament "National People's Congress". Taiwan experiences 140 Earthquakes every year. Taiwan first settlers come from Australiasia and Southern China. Strategic location and natural resources.

Spanish briefly occupied, 1642 was occupied by the Portugese. Manchu estabalished 1683 and ruled it 1895. Ceded after first Sino-Japanese war. Education system overhauled, Japan made it a priority to make it industrial centre for Japanese industries. 1945 Chinese Forces occupied Taiwan (part of Allies) 1952 Peace Treaty signed and Japan return Taiwan to RoC. 1.5 million civilians + military fled to Taiwan during 1946-1947+. Taiwan was a one party state with the KMT. Back in 1987, democratic reforms were introduced with multi-party democracy. 1996 democratization reach a peak with the direct election of the head of state -> President. In 2000, Chen Shui Bian was elected President, first time in history a President elected from a party other than the KMT. Mandarin is the national language established by the KMT. Taoist 4.5 million, Buddhist 4 million, Christian 890 000. Taiwan feels very Chinese but what is different, influence of the West (American feel), American TV and speak English with American accent, lingering influence of the Japanese in Taiwan. Ecliptic mix of cultural influences from China, Japan and American.

Political cold war now but economic ties are very strong, US $26 billion of Taiwanese investment in China. China accounted 43% of Taiwan FDI. Taiwan makes high-tech products and export all around the world. 1 in 2 mouse sold around the world made by Taiwanese company. China wants Taiwan to brought back into the fold of the PRC. Taiwan is seen as a breakaway province. RoC has given up hope of recovering the mainland, main goal now is a move to strengthen democracy. This will lead to reunification with the mainland on Taiwan's terms not on the Chinese terms. The majority of Taiwanese wants the ambigous status quo to be preserved. Anti-seccession law by PRC is to create the Legal basis to use force if Taiwan asserts its independence. In reality, never exercise restriction of the sovereignty over Taiwan.

Got Mepis Linux to work

Today I installed Mepis Linux. I downloaded the iso image from one of the mirror links last night. I slept through the 4 hour downloading session. My P4 2.8 GhZ is loud, there is this loud chugging noise from the case fan and cpu fan in my computer. Luckily today is my day off from work. I'm sitting at home mucking around with mepis linux. I learnt how to use linux during my 2nd year at uni. It has been a while to get used to the linux user interface. Very similar to Windows but slightly different. One click to open programs.

I am getting 20+ hours a week in my current work. I feel no pressure to look for a full-time job yet. After all I am getting a good deal at uni. Eventually I'll have to get full-time work to support myself and get myself a car. I can't just use public transport because its still not very convenient. Buses take half-hour for one way journey to the city or a destination. There are frequent stops and timed stops where the bus driver goes out for a cigarette or a little break. Time wasters!.

Getting tired of people sms-ing me for stuff. Fiona sms to find out a cheap place to buy a notebook replacement hard disk drive bcos her existing one failed. Then Bow asked if I was free to go to the Police station with her since they found a notebook and request her to come and identify it. Bow had her notebook, digital camera, wallet stolen last year when she left it in her room. She was staying off campus. She suspected was her housemate's bf who came from Singapore to accompany his gf. But now I think it was probably a local thief that nicked her personal belongings. Bow can be really needy. She should start trying to be independent and stop relying on others for help all the time. Last year she asked me for help to revise for one of her course. The reason was she didn't rock up to the lectures and tutorial class frequently so her unit preparation and knowledge of the course was spotty at best. Anyway, today is the first day of March 2005. Wow, time fly so fast. I can't believe it.

WA Election

Today I voted in the state election. I voted Liberals. Although the incumbent Labor Government is doing a pretty good job in terms of building the rail link from Perth to Mandurah line going through the Freeway, I do not like their policies such as the introduction of the compulsory services and amenities fee for university students. That is a blanket extortion of money from students to siphon off to the student guild (union) which does a really poor job in managing the organisation's finances. The Liberals did had an idea to build a grand canal to pump water from the Kimberley region (north west of WA) down to Perth with a series of overpass for transport and human movement. Also I am very disappointed with the prediction of the referendum of trading hours. Two questions was, the first in regards to extended trading hours from 9 am to 9 pm weekdays and the 2nd question 6 hours trading on Sunday. Most people here feel that extended trading hours will not benefit small business which employed a substantial portion of people and also people really do care about leisure and recreational times. I am really fed up with this backward mentality, slacker attitude to work and shopping.

Wednesday Nite

Worked wednesday night shift. It was very quiet except I had to help out a friend's sister to reinstall her laptop. She has a fujitsu laptop. It was a nice 13.3 inch screen with a very neat biege keyboard layout. I also saw the tantalizing powerbook G4 12 inch LCD one. That was also stylish and neat.

Facts & Figures

Oil Reserves (billion barrels)

Saudi Arabia 259.4
Iran 125.8
Iraq 115.0
Kuwait 99
UAE 97.8
Venezuela 77.8
Russia 60

Gas Reserves (trillion cubic feet)

Russia 1680
Iran 940
Qatar 910
Saudi Arabia 234.5
UAE 212.1
United States 186.9
Algeria 160.0
Nigeria 159.0
Venezuela 148
Iraq 110

Sunday

Nothing much really. Just surfed the web and look at news. Boring and political news that most people will find dull and tedious. I was reading out on operating system. of particular interest to me was the MacOS X. I read on the Apple's website that it is a deriative of the rock solid and proven BSD version of unix and also based on Mach 3.0 Microkernel architecture. Hence the MacOS X operating system is built on a well tested Unix platform which provides rock solid reliability and feature set. Microkernel architecture is all the services of the kernel partitioned off into server processes. Hence it is easier to maintain software code and if one service needs to be shutdown the whole operating system can be still operating. It allows new services to be added without ever having to recompile the whole kernel. This modularise the software into neat compartments and isolating problems which will not affect the entire os itself. HURD the os the FSF has been working on for a very long time but have not made it available as a stable release as such. Debian do a distribution but HURD is still in the testing phase to ensure reliability and eventually become the open source kernel for many distributions. Linux is still built on using the monolithic process whereby all changes have to be recompiled and kernel restarted. Linux has an advantage that it has a large installed base that cannot be ignored and there are numerous developer community feeding in new changes and fixes to make sure it survives.

I was looking at my Fortune magazine with Steve Jobs on the cover. The article in Fortune reported Apple is doing well in the consumer electronics space with its ipod range of products as well as software namely iTunes. This will help Apple increased spillover sells of the venerable Macintosh line of computers. Bill Gates invested about $500 million in Apple in 1998 and now it is worth over a $1 billion. The article suggested this gave Steve Jobs time to think of a plan to arrest the market share decline for mac computers worldwide. Their first hit when the legendary Apple boss return was the colourful iMac in different flavours. Then recently it was the desklamp designed iMac about 2-3 years ago. Now the iMac is like a LCD monitor encased with a chip and the inner guts of a Mac computer inside. Dunno what will be next? Some say Apple will launch other consumer electronic products as soon as their is a new market out there and a need.

just stuff

On saturday it was a good day. I got to meet up with my cousin Gill. She has been in Perth for the last week. She will be studying at Curtin Uni this year doing Psych. I drove to her place to fetch her and bought her back to our house. My mum was very pleased to meet her. Gave her some cold drink and some food. She told us the weather here is volatile and varies considerably throughout the week from hot to cold then to cold again. She still trying to get used to seeing ang moh here go out shopping without wearing shoes or dressed shabbily. I told her, nobody cares here what u look like or what u wear. In Australia people dun care and generally keep their opinions to themselves. It is only in Asian countries where conservative values and formal attitudes are the mainstay of cultural life. Over here, people dress very simple, wear simple and easy going. Asians wear proper attire, proper covered footwear when going out. She lives near Curtin. She said she was surprised to see that shops closed so early and things comparatively more expensive than in Malaysia. The exchange rate is indeed very high for $A 1 to RM 2.999+. I then drove my cousin around my uni and look at the other major shopping centre south of the river "Garden City" at Booragoon. She noticed also people here do not try and force themselves in like getting in a bus. People here do "queue" up and wait for their turn in line. That is the nicer things of living in a westerned society. People in someways are more civilised. But people in eastern society are better dressed in going out and more filial.

On a different issue, friday I had to work a shift down at Rockingham campus. I had a shit day, it was a debacle without a doubt, shit. First of all the shuttle bus leaves at 8:15 am and the student services office open at 8:30 am to purchase the ticket. So I missed the only available service to go to the Rockingham campus. I had to trouble my boss to go and loan out a car from the uni to drive down their. In the end, I did get down to southern campus in a late 90s Toyota Corolla sedan car. It was alrite, I enjoyed driving the auto transmission car and relaxing air conditioned car. Rockingham has changed since I was down there earlier last year doing some tech support there. It was quieter this year because most students got their student ID done up at the South Street campus. Someone must have told them to get it there. Hence when the students came to the campus, alot of them had student cards. The weather was hot on friday. Blistering 35+ degrees celcius, hot and dry. I met my friend CP, Fifi and Scott at the south street campus. I was advised to call me boss to see if they needed me up there. They did and I drove back and return the car and finished work up 5 pm at the main campus.

I am thinking of getting a Mac Mini later this year. I am saving up for one. I checked and compared the prices from the www.apple.com.au and the www.bookshop.curtin.edu.au website. Looks like the Mac Mini prices are very similar. But the USB keyboard and USB optical mouse, wireless keyboard & wireless mouse were definitely cheaper at the Curtin bookshop. So I might get the accessories there but by the Mac Mini online from the Apple Store. All up I think it will cost around $1600. Options for the Mac Mini includes getting more RAM to 512 MB or 1 GB, DVD Burner, Bluetooth and Airport Extreme Card. I think I'll get it once Apple puts the next release of their MacOS X.4 mid year. So when I do buy the MM, it will come with MacOS 10.4.

My stupid Athlon XP 2500 keeps on crashing at home. I also need to upgrade to a P4 Motherboard and Intel P4 3.0 GHz if I got the money saved up. I'm sick of my PC crashing, getting infected with malware {spyware}. It really affects my internet experience to read news or check email. I am very irritated with those sort of nusiance that every windows user have to experience. Recently, Microsoft announced they will update Internet Explorer to version 7 and also have a 3rd service pack for Windows XP. Thank goodness for that announcement, it is about frikking time they updated or start from scratch to make Internet Explorer more secure, reliable and stable. Everybody knows the Windows is really buggy and full of holes that malicious code writers can exploit and do damage to millions and millions of computers worldwide. I hope the next version of Windows when it does arrive late next year that it will be alot more feature orientated and hassle free than Windows XP. But past experience indicates that not the case.

saturday night dinner

Yesterday night went to dinner with friend's family. We were eating a set course meal in a chinese restaurant on Canning Hwy. The food was alright. We ate crayfish, some soup, roast chicken, steamed fish. Desert we had orange slices and watermelon. The watermelon wasn't that sweet at all. My friend spotted one of our friend, Amir, he was with his friends eating out also. The restaurant was packed with people. Originally we were going to try some other restaurants down in Maylands but it was all booked out. My friend's father poured XO for me. After one glass, I was a bit tipsy. My face was really red. I had a glass of beer afterwards which I didn't finish. We went to Utopia to get some bubble tea. I ordered snow lychee. Listened to a live band. Nice atmosphere. Not that many people. My friend and his gf wanted to go to Karaoke. So we went upstairs and sung a few english and chinese songs.