Be careful when paying next time

I nearly got conned yesterday when making payment at the cashier.
Even though it's just 5 cents, if they have 1000 customers a day, 1000 branches around the world, you can imagine how much it will be.



At the rack, the price stated is 2.30 bucks.

However, when I went to the cashier.



They charged me for 2.35 bucks!

Logitech Wireless Keyboard - Shift key stuck

This morning we encountered a very strange issue with all the Logitech wireless keyboard which is being used in our Windows system, it's the same with Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7, but not in Windows 2003 and Windows 2008.

The shift key is stuck! When we just click some icon on the desktop, it will select a region automatically. And when we just do nothing, sticky key alert will prompt out.

We tried rebooting the PC, change the keyboard batteries, disconnect and reconnect, re-sync between keyboard and the controller, disable USB port and enable again, and it does not help at all. After that, we almost wanted to reinstall the driver and if it's still does not work, we were planning to reformat the PC and install a new one on top of it.

Then we saw a genius comment in one of the troubleshooting website, press any 2 alphabets together in the keyboard to disable this behaviour. We tried it in all the problematic PCs, and the problem is gone!

Who would have thought the solution is so easy. Thanks for the guy who posted it up.

But stuck keys on keyboard is no fun at all. :(

Hanuta & Giotto - Heavenly Ferrero products

Malaysians like poor me have only tried the Ferrero Rocher before in my life, when I first got this from my girl's sister, I was quite curious, what in the world? Another type of Ferrero? Ferrero Rocher is already quite nice, since it's only available at a premium price here and everybody likes to chew nuts.

This is what I got from her:



This is one of the man's greatest creation!
Wondering what skill and knowledge has been bestowed into the person who thought of combining nutty chocolate filling with crunchy waffer.

Once you have tried it, you will be addicted to it.

No doubt, if it's available here in supermarkets or grocery stores, I'll raid it everyday until it's out of stock.

But a bit of googling shows that Hanuta is only sold in Germany, which is much to my disappointment. And a lot of people have been trying to get the distribution rights for the other countries.

Man, whoever that got the rights to import these things into Malaysia, they will become millionaire in a year.

Anyway, we shall plan for a trip to Germany next time no matter what, just for this!

Next, is the smaller cousin of Ferrero Rocher, Giotto!



It is just like Rocher, with chocolates covering nutty fillings, but the taste is at least 2 times better!

Rocher is bigger than this and this is cute and petite.

Between Rocher and Giotto, I would prefer Giotto. It fits just nice in the mouth and it has more nutty feel.

Easier to keep it in small compartments for quick snack too.

I'm feeling hungry already from all these.

Information vs Time

Information, nowadays we can get it almost everywhere. All powerful Google search engine, the informative Wikipedia, Google Maps/Wikimapia, Blogs, Online news portal, Social networks, and the rest. It is no longer important that if somebody has the information but somebody else doesn't. Even if somebody does not know about it, just give him Internet, he shall be enlightened in less than an hour, or probably even less than that.

Information nowadays is not valuable anymore, the more important aspect of the information is the source of the information, and also the time of the information. A piece of information is only valid if it is from a source that is proven. Wikipedia, as far as I know, it's not a proven source of truth, there are some users without any creditability who are also adding information into the online encyclopedia. Science is one way to prove things, but not all things can be proven using scientific method.

Time of the information is also very important. What is compiled back in 2009, might be already not true anymore by now. Information will also depreciate with time, and at a much faster rate as well.

Lunch

Managed to spend 10 bucks on lunch today.

5 bucks = Curry mutton rice
1 buck = 2 glasses of chinese tea ice

And the rest...

Donation to one guy who was holding some pictures of home for the disabled.

Considering I haven't been making any donation for so long now..
I guess it's alright.

If only

If only everyone practise selflessness in work, work place can be such a nice place.

If only we only need to work fixed number of hours in a week, hell I can finish a week's job in 3 days.

If only we won't feel tired after a long days work, we can actually work for the whole night long.

If only everyone can see the need for teamwork, I believe all of us can be happier in the long run.

Fame and friends

Fame is a food that dead men eat,—
I have no stomach for such meat.

In little light and narrow room,
They eat it in the silent tomb,

With no kind voice of comrade near
To bid the banquet be of cheer.

But Friendship is a nobler thing,—
Of Friendship it is good to sing.

For truly, when a man shall end,
He lives in memory of his friend,

Who doth his better part recall,
And of his faults make funeral.

An old poem by Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921)

Fame and fortune can never be compared to the true friends we have by our side.
Spent a lifetime chasing fame or fortune, is not meaningful compare to a life spent making friends.
When we die, fame and fortune can help us nothing, but true friends will be able to take care of the things we left behind.

A word of wise from the past.

Finger nails

Mine is growing way too fast. I think I need to trim it every 2 weeks, or else it will start to get in the way and it's either breaking off somewhere, or scratch myself or others, or get a lot of dirt stuck inside (hey, I wash my hands all the time).

I wonder if it's caused by my diet. I eat vegetables too. But I like fish. I can eat fish all the time and won't feel bored with it. When Popeye came out with fried fish fillet fast food, I guess I was one of the happiest around. Steamed fish is nice to go with noodle or rice. Deep fried fish, where the bones can be chewed like crispy stuff, is equally good too. I don't know if I'm too carnivorous or what. Hey, I don't eat chicken that much.

Last week we went to a restaurant named Samosa cafe near Kakee corner there. The food is really good, especially the grilled stuff. Can't wait to be back there again.

X301, Elitebook, E4300 or Z?

Last when I saw an offer for E4300 for MYR 3k only, but it's cherry red colour and it's refurbished unit. While I was hesitating to buy, it was sold to someone else. It's light and funky, backlit keyboard and all. Looks good but I think Dell is going to replace it soon with some new model, why not wait for new one?

Saw someone selling Elitebook for about same price, but it's 2nd hand. Well, we should avoid 2nd hand stuff unless we know the stuff inside out right? Comes with lots of HP utilities.. do we really need all of them?

Z is probably most stylish of all, but the price tag is also a premium above average. Lets wait for some time and see if her Sony is working fine in long term usage.

X301 is the like the cream of the crop. The hefty price tag also requires a lot of consideration and re-consideration. Plus, not many people will use this kind of baby so it's a prime target for theft!

Fedora upgrade to Fedora 13.

It requires 500MB of boot partition space. How absurd is that.
Previous release only created a boot partition of 200MB.

Now where's my Live CD when I need it the most.

VMWare Player and Cisco VPN client issue

I suspect that the VM created by VMWare Player, no matter the VM is running Windows or Linux, Cisco VPN client will not be able to run inside the VM. The client can get connected successfully, but when we try to send some traffic over, the traffic is not getting through to the tunnel.

I'll dig further into this and get back to you guys.

Update

So it is confirmed, it is not possible to dial out using Cisco VPN inside a VM when the VM is running in VMWare Player/VMWare Workstation.

When I get the chance, I shall test it in the bare metal platform, VMWare ESX/ESXi

Cheers!

Update
Alright, finally found out the real issue.

When the network is set to NAT mode for the VM, it is not possible to use the VPN client to connect by default.

When the network is set to Bridged mode for the VM, then the connection using VPN tunnel is successful.

There must be certain port in the NAT which we need to fix for the VPN client to go out. It is likely that there is a solution. Shall dig deeper and update again.

No space left in the boot

After upgrading from Fedora 7 to Fedora 10, the /boot partition is now 88% used up. Well, I think it would not be able to fit the upgrade from Fedora 10 onwards.

[root@localhost vpnc]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted On
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
55636348 7711344 45098764 15% /
/dev/sda1 194442 161763 22640 88% /boot
tmpfs 451172 76 451096 1% /dev/sdm

Will need to edit the grub.conf and empty the boot folder later.

This is the downside of installing using default installation option all the time.

Update

Gee, so we don't have to edit the grub.conf manually.

I just issued a yum remove kernel-* (old ones) and the /boot partition is cleared automatically.

Cheers!

Update further

If you are using a laptop/machine with Radeon Express 200m graphic chipset, do not attempt any upgrade to Fedora 11.

It has a major compatibility issue with Fedora 11.

Definition of stress

Just heard it from my colleague a while ago:

S.T.R.E.S.S = Saya tidak rasa emosi saya stabil

That's why stressed people always get angry easily.

Are you stressed or not?

Schmidt Sting Pain Index

Wondering what kind of insect can jab you with the most painful stings?

1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.

1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch.

1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.

2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.

2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.

3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.

3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic and burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.

4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.

4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

I think I don't want to bitten by any of these though.

Game of life

It is always good to encounter failures earlier, which turns into valuable experience later. No one can maintain perfect record of success in life without experience. Some might get far with luck, how many lucky person can we get in every moment?

One of the most important lesson which I always keep in mind is that, when we are angry, do not act, and when we act, do not be angry. This is because when our mind is filled with rage, angst, we are no longer ourselves. Sane mind is teetering on the edge of insanity. Often when we act when we are angry, idiotic actions will follow. Some will live to regret it, some won't.

I wish everyone will be able to keep this in mind, lets make the world a nicer place.

God helps those who help themselves

Last time I always thought that it is easier to teach someone new and inexperience to adapt to the standard that we want them to reach. Somehow, I guess this is one of the biggest mistake I've made.

I thought all human would be able to do self-learning by themselves when they are idle. Apparently, not all of them are like that. Some are lack of initiative, they just sit there and do nothing until somebody whack them at the back. Some are simply just good in acting and downright lazy, they can be hardworking when we are right beside them, when we leave them, they just do nothing and fool around. Some are taking things for granted, they thought they knew everything and just take things easily. Some are just too stubborn to listen, we tell them to do stuff number 1, but they do stuff number 2.

Of course hiring inexperience staff is cheap. But the time needed to train them to the level we want them to be at, is priceless unless the staff himself would be able to learn by his own initiative.

It's never too late to get rid of a staff, better than letting them bleed the company resources.

Jakarta - How 'macet' can it be?

I took a 300k IDR cab from the airport to the customer place in Kebagusan area near the Nestle building, in Pasar Minggu region. The cost is still acceptable compare to other country rate, but the time taken is.. way too long. Almost 2 hours and 30 minutes! It is also pricey because I took a private cab.

Then during my way back to the airport, the cost is approximately 200k IDR (cheaper!) because I took the Blue Bird, where you can find almost everywhere in Jakarta, but the time taken is still approx 2 hours.

KL 'macet' is nothing compare to the Jakarta 'macet'.

Hopefully we don't have to endure this kind of traffic while we are in KL. Phew.

You know there are even motorcycles used as cab over there, as motorcycles can avoid the traffic pile up everywhere, just that motorcycles is a bit inconvenient when we have a big luggage to haul along.

I tried once in India, taking tuk-tuk from airport to the city, that is no fun. It's hot, humid, dirty (polluted by smokes and dust), and congested!

Tekken

Console games can never be successfully converted into a good movie. Except for Resident Evil, I guess.

Just downloaded it though, thought it was showing in the local cinema not so long ago, but I was busy preparing for travel then and did not have to time watch any movie.

It's all about fighting and stuff. And there is no plot at all. Good guys and bad guys can be identified already in the start of the movie.

*Yawn*

Even popcorns won't help in this kind of movie.

Microsoft Outlook and IMAP issue

Sometimes when the email is too big, outlook will freeze while retrieving the email, causing us unable to use the email client totally for a few minutes.

Outlook 2003 has an archive file limit of 2GB, when it reaches that size, we will need to move to a new archive file. When manually moving the emails (drag and drop, copy and paste, etc), there seem to have no limit on 2GB, I have experience going up to 2.5GB and we still can copy emails over there in the new *.pst file, well, I stopped at 2.5GB just to be safe.

As IMAP is fetching headers only from the mailbox, generally IMAP is faster than POP3 protocol in searching for new emails. And especially if we get a lot of large emails and we want to delete them without downloading it, IMAP is the way to go. Especially on cellular network where each bytes of usage would cost some penny, using as little volume as possible is important.

Cheers!