The iPhone is dying

My phone 2G is dying. No doubt about it.

Originally, I bought two, and it was a good thing because after some time the phones started developing problems. In the end, I took it to a shop and merged all the good parts together. I got me a new battery for the 'good' phone and now my wife uses the 'bad' phone as her nokia died an untimely death too.

Every 2-3 days I put the phone in the freezer for 15 minutes just so I can get the wifi to work. Not sure how putting it in the freezer works but the wifi works right after coming out of the freezer. After a few days I have problems with the wifi. It just refuses to connect or even show the available wifi in the area. The phone technician says it's the motherboard. All those cheap car chargers and plug chargers I used messed up the board.

So now I'm just waiting for Maxis to launch the iPhone 4. It's going to be a long wait until the end of the year!






In one of the Iphone after the technician took it apart to replace the battery.


Writing from my iPhone

Laser gunsight for my toy gun

I bought a toy gun for RM2.50. Saw it in a shop that sells all these plastic stuff from China in Kelana Jaya.

I added a laser pointer I bought to do presentation with it. The effective range of the toy is only about 5 meters.

Having a lot fun shooting and trying to calibrate the laser sight. I might buy another gun and another laser pointer to use with it. Two gun always better than one!




Writing from my iPhone

Update on the Android versus Iphone 4 in Malaysia

Did a bit more research about my search for an Android phone that can compete with the Iphone 4 in Malaysia. I just read about the Motorola Droid 2 release in the US and it's the phone I wrote about earlier. In Malaysia, the Motorola Droid phone is called the Motorola Milestone.

I hope Motorola launches it soon in Malaysia, hopefully before the Iphone 4 actually enters the Malaysian market. This the Android phone I have been waiting for to finally compete against the Iphone 4. I would want to hold one in my hand before finally deciding to buy it.

So far Maxis doesn't offer any packages for the Motorola Milestone so I don't expect Maxis to offer a package for the Motorola Milestone 2.

Update: Okay, I got it wrong. I shouldn't be writing postings at 3:18AM in the morning. The first phone I wrote about is the Motorola Droid X. This Droid 2 has less hardware specs than the Droid X. However, I'm quite excited about the Dell Streak which might give a good fight.

Looking for an android phone to beat iPhone 4 in Malaysia

I was going to post the below as my facebook update but it was just too long. So I thought this would be a good post to re-start my blog again.

I think I finally found a phone that will beat the Iphone 4, it's the Droid X by Motorola. 2 LED flash, 3 mics! It's even got 2 antennas and the phone can double as a wifi hotspot for up to 5 devices.

Hardware wise, everything else is the same. Only the iPhone resolution is higher. It's like motorola made a phone specifically to outrun the iPhone 4. The T1000 to beat Apple's T800.

The itunes apps market is over rated. They may have more apps than Android but most of the apps are the same type and most of it are crap.

Too bad it's a CDMA model, doesn't work in malaysia's GSM network. If motorola makes a GSM model and maxis sells it with a package, I'll pick it over the iPhone 4.

As a long time user of the Iphone 2G, I've been through a lot with the Iphone. I've tried many different jailbreak and unlocks on it. I've tried all sorts of apps too. Some time back I realized all that work just to get the damn phone to perform like a 'normal' smart phone.

When I say normal, I want mms, working YouTube and wifi and email on it. The rest are all extras. I dont want to have to worry each time a firm ware comes out the damn phone will stop working because I unlcoked it.

I'm not sold the facetime app on iPhone 4. How many people am I going to find with another iPhone 4 to use it with? as it is, I only have 4 people on my Skype.

I was waiting for a very long time for the iPhone 4 to replace this Iphone 2G. The wait was so long, other competitors can along and are offering products that can beat it now. Now I don't have to be loyal to Steve Jobs anymore. I never liked Mac and have always been a PC getting and iPhone 2G at first had been a fluke.

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is still a fantastic phone and there is no other phone in the malaysian market that can beat it, I'll probably get it. I don't mind waiting longer but I don't know if my current iPhone can hold out. Every three days I have to put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to fix the wifi problem. Yeah, the crazy stuff I have to do to get the phone working like 'normal'.

You know what? As I write this I feel much better about myself. At first I was torn about thinking about another phone but after writing my thoughts down I can think clearer.


Writing from my iPhone

Should I start blogging again?

Hola. You know, when I first started this blog there was no facebook, I wasn't married and basically a whole lot of other stuff just wasn't around.

Gradually, creating content for this blog just lost it's appeal. I started spending more time in facebook.

Recently, I've been thinking about this blog again and if I should make another attempt at writing again. Should I?

Strange Coincidence

I was reading this book some anonymous person placed on my table last year. It was about the teachings of Buddhism. I always flip to a random page and read an except from it.

A colleague walks by and sees me reading the book and says he's seen the book before in a hotel before. Then it struck me, yes, I've seen it before too!

It's the same book I saw in my hotel room in Bangkok. Instead of Bibles, they put these books by the bed. I read excerpts from it when I was sick in the room. I had food poisoning so I stayed in bed for a few days. Out of boredom, I opened every drawer in the room. I found the book in a drawer next to the bed. I liked the idea how they have a book promoting Buddhism instead of the Bible or the Quran.

Now I wonder if someone stole the book from a hotel room in Bangkok and put it on my table. Don't know what to make of it but it is a wierd coincidence.

Fire!

I took this picture of a house on fire when I was visiting the Digital Mall on the 28 of January, 2010. I was there to check on the status of repair on my notebook.

It was quite exciting. The fire department almost put out the fire by the time I took this photo. When I saw the front of the house, it looks like it started from the first floor of a house that had its ground floor converted into a car wash. Probably a worker's quarter on the first floor.

I think these houses are really old, probably build in the 70's. Back then, there was no Digital Mall or market. There was Jaya Supermarket and a wet market where the Digital Mall stands now.

Those low-cost houses were right next to the market. Back then, everything wasn't higher than 2 stories, except for Jaya Supermarket. The other large building was the mosque just a kilometer away.

Those were the day. So it's sad to see the houses damaged by fire. I hope they rebuild it.

Got my notebook back!

Yes! Got my notebook back today.

Yesterday was crap. When there and the technician didn't even look at it yet. Today, they called and they said it was ready so when in the evening with my wife to pick it up.

They fixed the speakers and said there was a damaged cable. Not quite sure what they guy was trying to explain but I think he was trying to tell me the cable got brittle and was damaged. Hrm, odd. Benq could be using sub-standard cables.

Anyway, the bill came up to RM360 to repair the video card. Ouch... for that money, I could have done so much. Don't even want to think about it too much. The money has already left my hands.

Sitting in my living room with the notebook now. Going to give it a run and see if everything's okay.

Not what I was expecting

Today, I drove to the Digital Mall in Petaling Jaya to pick up my notebook. As I was driving up the parking ramp, I saw a thick trail of smoke coming from one of the row of houses.

I took a closer look and two of the houses had extensive fire damage. Its roof was burned of and the immediate neighbours of the two houses also had fire damage on its roof. The two houses without its roof had its upper floors totally gutter and I could still see flames burning on the wooden frame.

I parked my car and ran up with my digital camera to get some pictures. I had my small video camera but I forgot to bring any tape with me! So all I got was some low-resolution videos with my digital camera and some still photos.

After all that excitement, I walked to the shop expecting to pick up my notebook.

At the shop, they handed me my notebook and as I was testing it, I noticed after a few minutes there was no sound coming out of the speakers. I did some trouble shooting and the sound card was working. I could hear audio when I plugged in my headset through the audio jack.

The guy who was attending to me asked me to leave it for another day and another service guy said normally, what happens is that customer sends it in and the speaker wasn't working already. That pissed me of, because when I brought it into the shop and booted it up in front of them to show the display problem, I could hear windows starting.

I when to see the owner and after talking to the person who usually attends to me, they said I would still have to come back tomorrow as the technician who fixed it was on his off day. Hopefully, its just a speaker that has been unplugged. I don't want to be paying money for the damn speakers!

Another trip to the Digital Mall tomorrow. Argh!

Damn! What a waste of time.

The call I have been waiting for

3 days ago, I called the computer shop to check the status of my notebook repair. I asked the guy what was wrong with it, at first he said

"yeah, have to change the motherboard".

I think my heart almost skipped a beat when he said that. Then I said

"motherboard, are you sure not just change video card?"

He puts me on hold and I could hear him shouting at the technician at the background asking what was changed.

"oh yeah, just change video card only. It's RM380 to change, if you confirm now ready in one week".

Phew! Lucky just video card! So I told him okay.

Today, just to bug them and see if they made any progress, I called them again and asked what was the status. The guy said

"well, we just told them confirm so it would be ready in one week"
"but I you said one week 3 days ago?"
"yeah, it always take one week"
"..."

So I left it at that. Surprisingly, a few hours later, I got a call and the guy said "your notebook is ready for collection". Wow, now that's pretty fast!

I couldn't collect it today because they were closing early because they had a company dinner. Hrm, okay... I guess I can wait one more day.

RM380 is kinda steep to pay for a NVIDIA 8600GS replacement chip. I did ask the guy initially if it could be upgraded to the 9600 chip. The Benq Joybook S42 is basically the same infrastructure as the S41 I am using now. The only difference is that they have a faster processor and a NVIDIA 9600 video card. The guy just said its going to be very expensive, better buy a new notebook. So it sounds like they would do it but they rather I buy their S42.

I think instead of upgrading to a new notebook next time, I might just do that, upgrade the processor and video card. If the LCD screen still holds out, then it might be cheaper I think.

Anyway, this Chinese New Year is going to be really expensive. Ang Pow's to give out; a notebook to repair; and I got to repair a leak in my kitchen ceiling (that's another long story). I hope there's no more big expenses!

Giant Chinese lantern

Check out the huge size of the lantern!

I when with my wife and in-laws to buy some Chinse New Year decorations at a shop near the Kelana Jaya LRT Station.

I think this shop was once a mini market and they changed their business model and started selling all these CNY decor and other stuff from China.

They have a huge variety of cut out decor like tigers and lamps.




The monk wasn't sure if he should get it. I'm guessing it's for his temple. I don't think this would even fit though my apartments door.

video card burn out and firewire ports

On Monday, I downloaded a movie on my notebook and I hooked up my notebook to my TV with the HDMI cable to watch it.

The movie kept stuttering and wouldn't play finish after a few minutes. After that, I got a blue screen of death. So I quit and thought maybe it was just a bad file and my notebook didn't like it, thought looking back that was quite strange. I've never seen an AVI file crash a system before. I had more than the minimum specs to play it.

At first I thought it was the new NVIDIA drivers that installed on it. So last night, I uninstalled the old drivers and then put in the original drivers from BENQ. The same thing happened. In fact, it got worst, the Graphic User interface on the desktop started going crazy. The notebook started restarting by itself.

Then I knew what it was already as I have seen it a few times before. It means the video card was dying. When I was first doing research 14 months ago before buying my notebook, I did read a lot of complaints about NVIDIA cards (8000 series, and probably the 9000 series also) on notebooks burning out. It had to do with their manufacturing process. The constant ON/OFF of the notebook caused the soldering to burn out. What happens if, the soldering will warm up and then cool down and the long term effect of this contraction and expansion of the soldering will result in it breaking of.

So last night, when my notebook when totally black, I was cursing NVIDIA, BENQ and myself. Myself for not taking the extended 3 year warranty. I bought this BENQ Joybook S41 in October 2008. Just a few months after its 12 months warranty, it had to die on me. Damn!

I took it down to the Digital Mall today to see what were my options. My first stop was this small stall that I knew fixed notebooks. They said if it was the video card, it was RM280 to replace a new one. They will replace it with a brand new one, not a reconditioned one. They didn't do it at their shop, so they have to send it out to be done. It would take them 2 weeks to do.

I've never used their services before so I didn't quite trust them. So I when back to AonePlus, my trusted IT supplier. This was the shop I bought the notebook at anyway and they are also a Benq vendor. I have been doing business with them for almost 8 years now and their customer service has always been great.

They told me, since it was passed the warranty date, better not send back to the manufacturer to repair. They have trained technicians who can repair it. Since they can order the parts, the technicians can change it themselves. I would pick AonePlus over a small stall to repair my notebook any day.

I don't want some dodgy technician changing or stealing my notebook parts, which I know some people have experienced before.

I told them I must have it back before Chinese New Year, as I would like to use it then. So hopefully they get it fixed and do it for cheap! Hopefully, they don't have to change the whole motherboard as that would be more than RM1K.

As I was in the digital mall, I walked around looking at the new notebooks. I realized that most of the large brands use ATI instead of NVIDIA now. I think they also realize about the burn out problems. Also, most of the new notebooks didn't have a firewire/1394 port and a express card slot. This is going to be big problem the next time I want to upgrade to a new notebook.

Most of the video cameras still use firewire ports to connect to the notebooks. If there is no firewire port, at least I can buy an express card with firewire, but if the new notebooks don't even have it, then I don't know how I am going to connect the video camera.

Some of my colleagues have already bought these new notebooks for editing video and when I take a look at it, I tell them they can't capture any video from the camera because there is no way to connect it to the camera!

Maybe there is a USB device out there that can convert firewire signal to USB, haven't heard of it before but I assume some guy in China would have thought of it already.

Anyway... so here I am, using my old desktop writing this. I use it rarely as I had my notebook. It feels like an old car I haven't driven in a long time. All my current bookmarks are not here. Even staring at this monitor is giving me an eye strain as the notebook had a higher contrast ratio.

I'm gonna have to rely on my Iphone more these few days to connect to the Internet. I hope I can last through the next few weeks!

Figuring out what I want to do

So it's a new year and I haven't figured out what I want to do this year. Looking back, I think a lot of my goals have changed.

When I just back to Malaysia after I graduated from uni, I wanted to travel. Do the whole backpack thing and travel to Europe maybe. Then I got a job and the travel thing never materialized.

After I got a job, I wanted to apply for a scholarship and go to UK and do my masters in broadcast journalism. I got as far as applying for the scholarship, they put me in the waiting list, I declined.

Then I got married; got a morgage; and a car loan. Now I'm totally tied down. So much for wishful thinking eh?

Ah, where has all the time gone? Soon, I'll be too old! Hopefully, I will have something I can look back on and be proud of.

New shoes!

Hey check it out! I got new shoes!

I was walking to my desk and one of my colleague called me over. He pulled out a plastic bag and gave it to me and shook my hand. I took a peek inside and he said thank you for all I have done. It was my 'reward' for some help I had rendered to him last year. I never thought he would give me a pair of shoes all the way from the UK. How the heck did he know my size? It fit perfectly (with my socks on). Either he got lucky or he's been spying on me!

Anyway, never look a gift horse in the mouth! New shoes, I like! Now here lies the problem.

First of all, I'm not really crazy about shoes. At any one time, I probably have only 4 pair of shoes. The every day Timberland work wear (which I wear almost every day); my slippers; my dress shoes for weddings and events; and my boots which I rarely wear.

Now with this 5th pair of shoe, I have one too many options to decide what shoe to wear to work. Yeah, I know it's dumb but I like it when I don't have too many choices, I get too picky and confused. In the end, fret and spend too much time deciding.

Heh... wait till I show my wife.

The morning

Man, this morning was wierd. Woke up at 7:15am with a stomach ache and sat in the loo. After that, I stood by the window watching parents drop of their kids at the primrary school. There was a small puddle of water at the drive way up to the school gate. You'll be surprised how many parents actually stopped right next to the puddle and the kids had to tip toe across it.

When I have kids, they'll probably go to the school next door. I told my wife I'll buy a telescope just so I can keep an eye on them from the apartment. From my study room I get a pretty good view of the school already. With a telescope I bet I can look into the classes also.

I might turn out to be the most irritating parent. What's that, drawing doodles in class? Send SMS 'pay attention in class, I'm watching'. Yeah, the kid would turn into a privacy freak with multiple locks on the door.

After the wife when to work, for some strange reason I thought the best way to get ride of the stomach ache was to do some sit-ups and push ups. All I got was a stomach cramp and when right back to bed exhausted.

First post of the year

Oh man!

I haven't update this blog in a few months!

Well, I haven't been doing much actually. Since my show ended, I took a long break in December. Basically, I didn't do anything the whole of December. I took a few weeks of to finish some of my annual leave. The plan was to go on a road trip around the country but I ended up staying at home instead. Why? Because I'm like that. Procrastinate.

It's January and I still don't have anything to do. Hopefully something comes along. Man, bored already.

Murni Discovery at Sunway Mas Commercial Center

Today me and my wife had dinner at Murni Discovery. It's the new branch of Murni mamak from SS2. If you ever seen Murni in SS2, Petaling Jaya, it's an extremely popular and crowded restaurant.

I hardly ever eat there because you can never find a table and there's hardly any parking as they place all their tables on the parking lots already.

So when I saw that they were opening in Sunway Mas, I was quite interested to try their food. You can find them here in the wikipedia map that I have already marked out here. The cross marks the spot.



My first impression is that parking is a lot easier now. Its the only mamak in that block so at night parking should be plenty. Also, they have a corner lot and more tables. Hopefully, they won't have to resort to putting tables outside their shop here. It was only their 4th day of opening so word still hasn't gotten out about the place yet.




Check out the interior design of the shop. Before Murni took over this place, it was a cafe that hardly had any customers. Murni didn't change much to the decor except to add some bamboo decor. My wife said she saw the owner come in a lorry with bamboo and he must have cut it himself as he was wearing an army ranger outfit. Cool, I always like DIY!

If you haven't tried Murni before, they're famous for their fusion mamak and western food. I ordered their fried rice with soft shell crab because it was the most unique thing on their menu.



The soft shell crab needed a bit more seasoning. It was just the crab dipped in flour and fried. Not much taste to it. However, the fried rice was excellent. Not sure why there were french fries in the combo, didn't go well. Next time, I'm just having the fried rice.

Their chops and sirloin steak is also very popular.

I looked around at what else people were ordering and I saw the portions that were serving were huge! Rhey're like for 2 people for each single person dish.

Also, the price is really cheap for their mix rice. My wife took away 3 dishes for my mother-in-law. There was some prawns and rice and it only came up to 2 ringgit! That's like the cheapest mix rice I've ever seen! Not sure if its just a promo price but the guy told my wife its their normal price.

Well, now I know where to go when I'm hungry!

Malaysian Ideas that need better definition

Lately, there has been a lot of talk on what I would call themes and ideas in the media that, I feel needs better explanation. Let's start with the first one, "1 Malaysia".

1. When Najib started this idea of 1Malaysia, my first thought was One Utama, the shopping mall in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya. When Najib first started talking about unity and how its about bringing Malaysians together, he never clearly explained how he would go about it through implementation of policies.

Instead, what happened was, the media started interviewing smaller politicians on what they thought it meant and they got a variety of answers. To make matters worst, companies started to cash in on this 1Malaysia idea with such slogans as "product X for 1Malaysia" or "product X in support of 1Malaysia". How do you support 1Malaysia when you don't even know what the heck it is? Is 1Malaysia assimilation? is it multiculturalism?

I think Najib is just keeping it vague so that he can use it as a political tool. Let's say for example, someone on the opposition proposes an assimilation policy, for example... "all Malaysians should go to single stream schools!". If it gets a lot of opposition from the public, Najib can always say "no, we can't do that, its not in-line with 1 Malaysia".

Now let's say if another politician says, "government should review the NEP and make it more friendly to the non-malays". If there is support for it, he can always say "we will study it in the spirit of 1 Malaysia".

Everyone in their head would have their own vague interpretation of 1 Malaysia and think, "oh okay, I guess I'm going to get what I want! Since I don't even know what 1 Malaysia, so Najib's probably thinking what I'm thinking".

The government has a publicity campaign potraying it as a feel good campaign with multicultural kids playing together (how come its always malay, chinese and indian? where are the other races?). Maybe peninsula Malaysia has more of a cultural unity problem then Sabah and Sarawak?

2. The Greater Unity Plan
This Ong Tee Keat is quite a crafty fellow, he only tells the inner MCA circle what it is and he has said it's not a mathematical model. Doesn't really explain how its going to make MCA better. Maybe he learned a thing or two from Najib.

3. New Economic Model
One economist I talked too told me since this new economic model that Najib has been talking about is based on a service based economy, it sounds a lot like an old idea that was already proposed along time ago, the Knowledge Based Economy. It was proposed more than 10 years ago and it started things such as the Multimedia Supercorridor project.

Not much information is forth coming from the policy makers yet on what is this new economic model. Probably the likes of NEAC are still tinkering with the idea and trying to figure it out.

How do we get 6% GDP growth every year when we're stuck in a middle-income trap? A lot of people like to compare the Malaysian economy to the South Koreans. We started of after world war 2 at the same time but South Korea has soared way above us and literally over-taken the Malaysian economy. They've gone on to be a high-income economy, but here we are still stuck at a middle-income economy.


I bet there's a lot more ill-defined slogans out there, care too name any?

What I've been up too lately

Hola!

What's up amigos? As usual, it's been awhile since I wrote anything. I've been busy with quite a few things lately. First of all, I've been logging into another blog that I've been maintaining so I haven't been logging into this one in awhile.

The other blog is work related, it's for the program I've been producing. I'm not going to write it down here as I don't want google searches for that blog to push people to my personal blog. I'll like to keep it separate.

Anyway, the other things that I've been busy with is work! Yes, work! This show I've been doing is aired every Sunday night and it's live. So now I work Wed to Sunday. I get Monday and Tuesday off... and most of the time, Saturday too if there is nothing to do in the office.

I kinda of like working on Sunday nights now. I find it quite peaceful in the office. When everyone's winding down to prepare for Monday, I'm all psyched up getting ready for the live show. By midnight, I'm extremely relieved that the show is over and I have my 'weekend' to look forward too. On the other hand, my wife is complaining that she has to go back to work on Monday morning.

So what have I been doing on my Mondays and Tuesdays? Well, the original plan was to take short drives to remote places for day trips. In reality, I've just been sitting at home doing nothing. I wake up at 1PM on Monday because I sleep at 3AM on Sunday night.

On Tuesday, I wake up at 1PM again and by then... it's too late to drive anywhere. So the furthest I go is around Petaling Jaya. So much for being adventuress.

At home, I've been downloading stuff of file sharing sites. So that's turned into sort of a hobby of mine now, looking for the latest versions of software's to download and music files.

Recently, I spend a few days trying to get the latest version of a software I was using that hardly anyone outside of my industry would use. After I got it, I installed it and it was so new, it had problems with the old version my office used. In the end, I had to uninstall it. What a waste, it was too advanced for its time.

Anyway, I got to go now. I'm in the office and I have to get back to editing!

Neck & shoulder pain

Stayed at home the whole day today. The right side of my neck and shoulder hurts. Yesterday, it was already hurting, must have slept on my side and strained it. I when for a massage yesterday and today when I woke up it was worst.

Now all I can do is lie in bed. If I stand or am upright, my neck hurts as it has to support my head. So I spend the afternoon lying bed listening to some music and surfing the net on my iPhone. I can't use my notebook because I can only face the ceiling.

This sucks. I hope It heals before the Raya holiday starts!