Finally

Tonight I finally had the chance to sit down and properly listen to my music collection. By "properly" I mean using my headphones without constant interruptions. I haven't been able to do this in a long time with a wife and Frosty around. =P

I guess I wrote too soon... Frosty is already wagging his tail at me begging for snacks.

Halloween

Halloween 挺讨厌的，摆明了就是商人为做生意出的馊主意。

嘿嘿，今年倒是没有小孩来要糖。

Boring Saturday

What did I accomplish today? Absolutely nothing. I woke up at 1 pm, walked the dog for about 30 minutes, ate lunch, and dozed off in front of TV after a while. Dinner was take out from Pizza Huts, and here I am, wasting my precious weekend time again.

"Huge MRT profits question fare hikes"

In 2002 when SMRT raised fares, its profits increased 27 per cent. Last year, it was 24 per cent and its first quarter profits this year increased by 175 per cent.

Now, its latest results for the six months ended Sept 30, show that net profit rose 68 per cent to $48.6 million for the interim.

Makes you wonder again whether the MRT fares hike was justified in the first place?

My guess: greed?

Focus crash test results

I considered the new Ford Focus ZX3 when I was searching for a car. It was within the price range. Luckily I didn't buy one, as it did poorly in NHTSA's (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) crash tests.

NHTSA tests show the rear passenger in a two-door Ford Focus may be at risk of a serious head injury when hit from the side.

My same conclusion on Treo 650

After reading this "review" I am quite impressed with Treo 650 as a phone. Unfortunately the PIM portion remains a Palm.

Jabra BT800 Bluetooth earpiece

Darn it, this bluetooth headset sure makes my Motorola HS810 look crappy.

New clamshell-style PocketPC phone

It doesn't look too bleeding-edge, but the design is certainly fresh.

Blogger categories

Something just dawned on me: Blogger lacks a category system! I did a quick search and found some complaints plus a workaround. I am not too keen on relying on another engine/server for this whole thing to work, so I will just wait patiently (and hope) for Google to introduce this feature.

Lunar eclipse

Lunar eclipse at around 7:15pm. Picture taken at a carpark using my h6315.
Posted by Hello

The ultimate buy 1 get 1 free deal

A few dealers are giving away low price models like the Chevrolet Aveo with the purchase of higher priced trucks.

Buy a higher priced car, and get a small one for free!

我好有眼光啊

The Landrover LR3, a car I have been eyeing, just became the 2005 Motor Trend Sport Utility of the Year. 我好有眼光啊。 =)

First hands on review of Treo 650

This is supposedly the first hands-on mini-review of Treo 650.

Lunar eclipse

I think my wife would be interested in this, if she reads my blog in time (or at all).

See, there is good, informative stuff here. :)

Seidio 2 in 1 Retractable Earbuds Headset for iPAQ 6315

Hmm, this or a bluetooth headset? Maybe neither, since both are too expensive for how infrequently I would use them.

(Not my) Hands on with the Treo 650

*Drool...*

Too bad it's a Palm.

Car "less" again

I am without my (2nd) car again - I sent it back to the dealer get some touchup work done as previously agreed. So now I have to carpool again in the morning.

More pleasant T-Mobile encounters

Today I called up T-Mobile customer service again, and this time my experience with the representative was much more pleasant. We will see if whatever he promised me will actually get done.

Violent tendencies

I can understand why there are so many violent crimes nowadays.

And yes, I am aware that my blog entries are drifting toward the dark side, but this is where I can vent my anger!

T-Mobile stinks

I have been willing to overlook a few problems with T-Mobile service in the past, but today's encounter has just turned me into a hardcore T-Mobile hater.

Here is a recap of the past problems:

• Lousy coverage
• Repeated failings to activate my HotSpot account
• Screwed up billing
• Dishonest customer support personnel

One of the outstanding issues is that I am charged $40 for HotSpot/GPRS although it was supposed to be $20 as my physical contract stated. This is what happened today:

The T-Mobile store sales person has been trying to contact a customer support "manager" to resolve the problem. However the manager hasn't got back to him for the past week, I can only assume he/she is purposely ignoring us. Today I was told by this sales person that there isn't much he can do anymore. He suggested that I call customer support myself. I did and was told that there is no such $20 HotSpot/GPRS data plan, regardless of what my contract states. In other words, "F*ck your contract, use it to wipe your a$$!" At least the customer service person was willing to help me cancel the HotSpot service and credit me for the first month. Having forced to work with T-Mobile "intimately" for a while now, I can't help but wonder if the credit will happen as he says. I will verify tomorrow, somehow. The problem is that none of this information will show up in my T-Mobile's online account, EVER!

I am going to start telling everyone I know how T-Mobile sucks. Well, almost everybody. If I get the chance, I will tell the beasts upstairs to go for T-Mobile. Hehehehe...

On second thought, maybe the beasts upstairs already work for T-Mobile customer service?! Their "qualities" surely match what I have been experiencing from T-Mobile.

Learn to drive a stick shift

I think it would be much easier for some one to learn to drive a stick shift after he/she understands the mechanics behind it (although in my real life the sequence was reversed). So maybe my wife would have an easier time learning a stick shift after reading this. Then perhaps she could get some tutorials from here and here.

Working on Sunday

It is Sunday and I am here in my cube working because I just can't sit at home while I have a regression bug waiting. It's just not my style.

So so badminton game, but...

I was really out of form during today's badminton game. My shots were not consistent at all, and there were just too many unforced errors. I guess my absence from the gym the entire week might be part of the reason. However I do feel more awake after the short two hour stint.

But I definitely had fun driving my "new" Honda Civic Si to and fro.

Busy Friday afternoon

I thought I could coast through this Friday afternoon. It's something I was counting on, especially since I woke up at 6:30 am today. Things just didn't turn out the way I planned. There were customer issues, regressions, and other miscellaneous junk. And I have to continue this crap on Monday.

Finally done

This morning the three-year process finally came to a successful end. Nice.

Pocket PC Thoughts :: View topic - More Details on the HTC Magician/Compact MDA/Qtek S100

I thought this is supposed to be a low-end model? Then how come it is estimated to be $625?

It's just not the same anymore

More and more people are leaving my group. Soon I will be the only one left, minus the new hires. It just doesn't feel the same, the fun atmosphere is no more.

MCE 2005 dual tuner support

Hmm, I like MCE's dual tuner support. Maybe, just maybe, when I try to set up a MCE machine in the future, I would get such a dual tuner configuration with something like NVIDIA's card:

Alongside the MCE 2005 release, NVIDIA is introducing a dual-tuner single PCI card made specifically for MCE 2005 machines as a part of their NVTV tuner card line.  

 

Mercenaries once again

Once again I have the urge to hire some mercenaries to make certain people disappear forever. And it's the same family I thought of last time.

Yeah, yeah, I am only trash talking because that herd of beasts provoked me.

Treo 650 pics

Drool...

Windows Media Center 2005 info

According to this article, Windows Media Center 2005 will be available separately. The bad news is that it is based on XP Home instead of XP Pro:

Microsoft has informed us that MCE 2005 is based on Windows XP Home, not Pro. Also, retail shrink-wrapped OEM editions of MCE 2005 cannot be used to upgrade existing MCE 2004 boxes.

My "new" car

This is my "new" car. No, seriously, I just bought this used car today!

At first I test drove a 2001 Acura Integra GSR, but the engine of that particular vehicle sounded like it wanted to get out of the hood and run off to a service station. The clutch was pretty bad too. Next we looked at a 2003 Acura 3.2 CL Type-S just for the fun of it, because it's way out of my price range. Finally after some what-the-heck test drive, we settled on this 2002 Honda Civic Si for its fun-to-drive factor and low mileage. It was a bit more than what we originally budgeted for a pre-owned car, but you know how shopping is like. =P

Wish I could

I wish I could play badminton like this. Give me ten years...

View from restaurant

Seen from our window seat at the restaurant where we had dim sum.

Mental note: The camera on the h6315 is really really crappy!

Cute TVs

Can you find the DVD slots? If not, read this for answers.

palmOne Tungsten T5 review

Do you know why palmOne skipped over T4 and named the T3 successor as T5? According to this review, it is because:

PalmOne avoided the number 4, which in certain Asian languages such as Chinese, is a homonym for the word death.

BenQ P50 appearing in Korea

Man I am already drooling over this one, even though I just bought the h6315.

XP Media Center Edition 2005 review

I am still reading through the review, but I already like the fact that it will be sold separately (previous versions were only bundled with pre-built computers). However I don't like the fact that it does not fully support HDTV.

Update: Looks like the XP MC 2005 won't be available as a separate purchase after all.

T-Mobile customer service

T-Mobile customer service continues to annoy me. Some background info:

• My monthly service bill is supposed to be $50 voice + $20 data = $70 total.
• I had enquired via email how much the first bill would be. The shocking answer I got was $170.
• My billing cycle is up and I hadn't received the bill.
• I was not able to see the bill online via "My T-Mobile", but I could see that I have a $40 data plan.

Trying to be proactive and avoid late charges, I called T-Mobile's customer service last night and this is what I was told by the support personnel:

• She can't see the bill as none had been generated.
• I won't receive my first bill until one month later. T-Mobile sends bills one month after the cycle is over.
• She agrees that the $40 data rate is wrong.

Guess what, today I received the bill. So I called T-Mobile support yet again and this time got totally different but more correct answers. The $170 include $35 x 2 for line activations, $50 voice, $40 data, and $10 tax. I am supposed to get the activation fees waived, so the only problem is with the $40 data, which I will straighten out separately with the store that signed me up.

Summary? I just encountered one more customer "support" personnel who will happily bull his/her way to have you end the call ASAP. There are too many such cases that I don't even believe what they say anymore. Instead I try to rely on common sense and what I see in writing.

Checkin safety

Last Friday I was working on a tough bug (intermittent random crashes due to memory corruptions from indirect recursive calls). I wasn't familiar with the area of code where the fix needs to be, and unfortunately no one else does either. So I put in the fix and spent the entire Monday running semi-automated tests to make sure there is no regression. Today I finally delivered the fix into the integration branch but skipped the unix compilation checks since the code fix itself is relatively easy. Luckily someone ran a unix make with my fix and discovered that it broke on HP unix, which is unnecessarily restrictive (this break has to do with C++ labels). By lucky I mean the problem is discovered before the official build. I guess the lesson for me is to never assume and always be triple careful.

PS, I have always disliked goto statements, and this incident certainly enforces that believe.

Taiwan has not been part of China since 1895?

This "letter" suggests that Taiwan shouldn't be counted as part of China since 1895.

The fact is this: Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty in 1895, which had absolutely nothing to do with the civil war between the Nationalists and Communists in China.

Ooooooooooooooook, whatever you say dude. I guess everyone is entitled to his/her perspective.

I don't want to debate the merits of this person's opinion because I am too lazy and this is not a political blog. I am blogging about it because prior to this "radical" letter I had no idea there are people who think of Taiwan that way.

Another one leaving

There are three in our server group. Today I found out that in two weeks there will be only two left, two thin straws supporting the entire aging server.

Topic

There is always something to fight about.

"The Geopolitical Significance of Snot"

Must read for Singaporeans.

Testing new h6315 ROM update

If you see this post, that means the new ROM works.

Flashed my h6315

I just flashed my h6315 with this update that's supposed to fix the email-attachment-over-GRPS problem. Since I don't get signal at home, I would need to test this outside another time.

Automatied baggage screener

I wish all airports in the world can implement such technology to automate baggage screen as much as possible. This would save travellers much time especially in the post 9/11 era.

天价月饼

读这篇文章之前我还以为“天价月饼”是用来充阔的：

天价月饼是干什么用的，大家心知肚明——送人的。

“年轻女孩昏倒 陌生男子争做人工呼吸“

哈哈哈！

重庆一名年轻女孩前天晚上昏倒路边，引来一群陌生男子争抢着要为其做人工呼吸，其中两名男子还大打出手。后来更有人冒充女孩家属跟随医生到医院，但却在医生要求支付挂号费时消失得无影无踪。

布什

非常讨厌布什，真受不了他。

得意的陈唐山

我想陈唐山现在应该很得意，他的胡搅蛮缠竟然还有一点效用：

二十多位高雄市民上午呐喊着支持陈唐山的口号，在公园里面公开烧掉新加坡的国旗，对于LP粗话风波，他们也帮陈唐山解围，认为陈唐山说出台湾人民的心声，且是对着乡亲用在自然也不过的俚语，一点都没错。
...
另一方面，LP和鼻屎风波也延烧到台湾海外，美西泛绿台湾人士30日发起全美台湾人串联抵制新加坡航空行动，泛绿侨界表示，新加坡在联合国发表伤害台湾的言论，他们支持陈唐山说出台湾人的愤怒。