Sunday, August 31, 2008

Day +788 : A potluck birthday party

I am fine today.

We had combined a cell group meeting last night to celebrate the birthday of a cell group member and churchmate. About 35 cell group members attended the party.

As usual, every family brought along a dish to the function. My wife and I prepared reddish cheese fried chicken(南乳炸鸡). The dish is quite easy to prepare. Just season the chicken with reddish cheese, wine, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar for a few hours, and then fried it :-)

This was the second potluck dinner that I attended this month :-) As we all like to eat, we enjoyed the event very much :-)

Now the question, how old is the birthday boy? It still remain a secret but everyone see 4 big and 3 small candles on the cake :-)

Introducing the birthday boy - captain Khor. He is a sea captain. If you have any questions on sea navigation, ask him :-)
High fibre cheese cake. Very special and delicious.
Another cake. Other candles had been taken out. If you don't believe, see the holes on the cake :-) The birthday boy said he is as young as twenty years old :-)
Singing "happy birthday" song
Now cut the cake
Cutting the high fibre cheese cake could be very challenging. Big vegetable knife had to be used. 杀鸡用牛刀 :-)
Now introducing the dishes we had. Many chickens :-)

Chicken in clay pot

Fried Chicken
A zoom in view of the chicken in clay pot
Reddish cheese fried chicken
Satay
A zoom in view
Ketupat and satay sauce
Roasted duck
Spare rib
Beef
A zoom in view
Another chicken
Spring rolls
The only vegetable dish
Fruit
Busy taking food
See you next post :-)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Day +787 : It happened again :-( (6)

I am fine. Continue from yesterday...

In order to prove that he don’t want to service my car, I asked him to sign a note. Of course I explained to him clearly what the note said before he signed it.

26 August 2008

Subject : BEQ 429

This is to certify that Twine Auto Service has no interest to service the above vehicle which was condemned due to engine overheat on 24 August 26, 2008. However, the owner of the car is willing to pay RM50 to Twine Auto Service as the investigation fee in evaluating the extent of damage.

Twine Auto Service shall allow the vehicle be towed away with all disassembled parts.

We then towed the car to the third workshop a few hundred meters away “humanly” :-) This was the first time I drove an engineless car with three persons pushing behind – Richard, Soon Hui and another staff, Jack :-) What a good experience to drive a car powered by these three human valves engine! :-)

Mr Chin advised me to overhaul the engine instead of replacing it altogether thought replacing the engine is a lot easier. This is because we would not know the condition of a second hand engine. But when we do a major overhaul, we would be sure that the engine will be good as we put in new parts. What he said was quite true.

One thing concerned me was how to prevent the incident from happening again. If the car get overheat again within a short period of time, then there is no point to service it. However, Mr. Chin assured me that if serviced properly, the cooling system should work well. And he will give 6 months or 10000km warranty after overhauling the car, whichever come first. With this assurance, I decided to service the car.

I believe it would take some time for the car to be fixed. And now it is our prerogative on whether to present the case to consumer tribunal, not because of money but because of one important principle; the workshop owner should not denied responsibility after giving wrong advice to his customer.

See you next post :-)

Friday, August 29, 2008

Day +786 : It happened again :-( (5)

I am fine. Continued from yesterday...

Anyway, both the second and the third workshop owner advised me to go back to the first workshop owner and asked for discount. They said towing away might not be a good option as the car was already there and the engine was disassembled.

They also agreed that the first workshop owner should resume some responsibility in this incident. When I sent the car for servicing last Thursday, I reminded the workshop owner many times that the car will be driven to Melaka on Sunday, and I didn’t want it to be overheated again. I particularly requested him to make sure that the cooling system was fine. The workshop owner assured me again and again that the cooling system was fine. This made me very relaxed and didn’t bother to advise my niece that she should monitor the temperature meter closely throughout the journey.

I went back to the first workshop to ask for discount again, this time going together with my brother, Richard. Richard was very straight forward. He told the workshop owner that he should bear some responsibility and thus should consider giving us some discount. The workshop owner was very irritated and angry, and still reluctant to give in. He said he didn’t care what other workshop would charge us, but his price was fixed and there was no room of discussion. He then boasted that he had been doing business here for over 10 years and that was the price that he was worthy of. Richard and I were speeches when we heard what this stubborn man said :-(

When I called him again on Wednesday, he said he was not interested to service my car anymore and asked me to tow the car away because he saw me as a troublesome man :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Day +785 : It happened again :-( (4)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

I asked the mechanic to check the extent of damage in the Monday morning. Very unfortunately, it was found out that two of the three pistons were burned. There are two options to fix the problem; to replace the engine like what I did last time or to carry out a major overhaul.

Changing the engine would cost about RM3000 which is a lot more than the cost of a major overhaul. I asked the workshop owner to produce a quote for a major overhaul, and I noticed that the labour alone would cost me RM800. Given that the engine was replaced by him in October 2006, and he was also the one who serviced the car and assured me that the cooling system was fine, I believed he should resume some responsibility in this overheat incident by giving me some discount, at least on the labour cost. But the workshop owner was reluctant to give me any discount, even a single cent :-(

I brought the quotation to a second workshop a few shops away, the owner there told me that the labour cost of a major overhaul such as the one in the quotation cost RM450 only; almost half of the cost of the first workshop. But he dared not service my car because as he and the first workshop owner were friend, and he didn’t want their relationship to be damaged.

Another workshop nearby quoted me RM500 for a major overhaul. When I told the owner, Mr Chin, what had happened, he told me that the “fat guy” (first workshop owner) was well known for his stubbornness. One customer got his car serviced there due to overheat problem but the same problem appeared two months later. The fat guy quoted him exactly the same price as the first time's for fixing the same problem without giving any discount. So the customer “defected” to Chin’s workshop.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Day +784: It happened again :-( (3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

The highway towing truck immediately approached us after the “AAM agent” left and told us that in fact he could help us to tow the car to the nearest toll station, which is Pedas Linggi. He had to “pretend” that he couldn’t help us when the “AAM agent” was around. The “AAM agent” will complain if he knew that the highway towing truck would help us to tow the car to the toll station instead of the nearest rest station, because this reduces his chances of getting business. We were very happy when he heard about this. At least we didn't have to take the trouble to arrange for a towing service.

Richard sped off with the three students to Melaka while I followed the towing truck to the Pedas Linggi toll station. The truck driver told me that those agents on the road are called “cari makan(predator)”. They roamed the highway to look for “prey”. It was very fortunate that we didn’t fall prey to them. He said “cari makan” makes his life difficult and they also disturb him from carrying out this study. Always "kacau kacau(disturb, disturb)". So, beware of “cari makan”, and never accept their service.

When we reached Pedas Linggin toll station, I saw a towing truck there. The highway towing truck driver asked me to approach the driver to see if he could offer me a good price to tow the car back to Puchong. He said that the truck driver is not a “cari makan”. He is a sincere guy.

In the end, we agreed to have the condemned Daithasu Charade towed back to Puchong at a price of RM320, after a discount of RM30 :-) The friendly truck driver told me that he also run a small service workshop with his friend at Senawang, and towing vehicles is his part time business. Again, he told me that the “cari makan” makes their life difficult as people might think that he is also “cari makan” :-(

I found out later that the price is very cheap, as someone told me that towing service from Bukit Jalil to Puchong alone could cost as much as RM100 during day time.

Just in case you need any towing service somewhere around Seremban, you can contact this guy:

Ah Kuan H/P : 012-6091568 C.K.Yong Motor Workshop

We put the car at the workshop that I had the car serviced earlier. I reached home at 12:30am, and after a cup of hot TESCO Malt Chocolate drink (a cheap replacement of MILO, don’t believe? go and try it :-)), went into a peaceful sleep :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Day +783 : It happened again :-( (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

A guy approached my niece shortly after the car broke down. He claimed that he had a workshop at Senawang and he could help to tow the car there, and service it for us at an unbelievable cost; estimated RM140 only (RM60 for towing + RM80 for servicing the gasket). How much time it would take? Two hours only.

Even though the offer was unbelievable, I tended to believe it because it was too attractive. If he could handle everything within two hours with a cost of RM140, we didn’t have to rush there. The workshop could simply service the car and my niece and her friends can continue their journey. What a convenient way to solve the problem!

However, Richard warned me that these guys on the road were very tricky. Once the car was towed to their workshop, we are “finished(完蛋)”. They will charge us any amount they like, with reasons which we can’t really substantiate as the car was with them.

But not long after we denied the offer, another one appeared. The guy said that he was an AAM (Automobile Association of Malaysia) agent and he could service the car for us. He wanted to tow the car and also the three scared students to their workshop immediately. He said that we could discuss further once we were there. Knowing that we would be “finished” once the car was at their workshop, Richard angrily warned him over the phone, “Don’t touch my car! This is my car!”

In addition to handling these guys, we also contacted the highway helpdesk to request for towing service. So when we reached there, the highway towing truck was there waiting. And we also noticed that the “AAM agent” was still there. He is quite very persistent and would not give up so easily (不到黄河不死心). He kept on persuading us to let him service our car.

We planned to tow the car to the nearest toll station and arranged with the workshop here to tow it back the next day. However, when we discussed with the highway towing truck driver, he said that he could only tow it to the nearest highway rest station, which is not very safe.

We then asked the “AAM agent” to quote a price to tow the car back to Puchong. His price is RM600 which is too expensive. So we didn’t consider his service. The “AAM agent” left after knowing that he couldn’t get anything from us.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Monday, August 25, 2008

Day +782 : It happened again :-) (1)

I am fine today.

As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I planned to give our Daithasu Charade to my niece, Nga Ming. As the car looked very old, with dents here and there, we sent it for spraying and knocking two weeks ago. When we got the car back last Wednesday, the car looks as new as a brand new one :-)

The front view
The rear view
My wife with her old car
My niece with her "new" car
The total cost of spraying and knocking was RM2200. My sister said that she will bear the cost.

The breakdown:
  1. Spraying (original metallic colour) : RM1500
  2. Knocking : RM200
  3. Others : RM500 (parts replacement)

In order the make sure that the car was in good condition, I serviced the car in the same workshop that replaced the car’s engine after it was overheated in October 2006. One thing I kept on reminding the workshop owner was to check the cooling system to avoid another overheat. I told him that this car will be given to my niece and it will be driven to Melaka on Sunday, and I don’t want what happened in October 2008 repeats. The workshop owner assured me everything was fine, including the cooling system.

My niece was very happy with the "new" car. She and her two boy universitymates drove the car to Melaka yesterday evening. Not long after they started their journey, I received an emergency call from my niece saying that the car was overheated and the engine died :-( They were at a position between Senawang and the Pedas Linggi, 252.8km from Johore to be exact. It was very dark and rainy. One of the boys was too afraid that he cried :-)

I was quite shocked when I received the call, and I am not quite sure what I should do as it was already 8:30pm. After discussing with Richard, we rushed to the site. We had to handle many things on the way.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Day +781 : Cancer is Not a Death Sentence (4)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

A clinical trial does not report the success stories only, it also capture the failure cases. To determine that a product or approach works, the failure is as important as success. Since testimonies only tell the success stories, we won’t be able to find out the success rate of a treatment. We definitely don’t want to choose a treatment that is successful in one patient, but fail in 999 patients. This gives a success rate of 0.1% only.

If we tell cancer patients that Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC) can achieve magic cure to their disease and ask them to take it everyday. Sooner or later, someone will tell you testimony how KFC cures them.

Next time, if someone boasts the effectiveness of a product or a therapy with amazing testimonies, don’t believe it. Ask for published clinical trial result instead.

Back to the “Cancer is not a death sentence” email, those who are responsible might reap the same fate as the father of detoxification if someone brought a case against them.

See you next post :-)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Day +780 : Cancer is Not a Death Sentence (3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

A Leukaemia friend in UH told me a story about a product called Transfer Factor. If I were not mistaken, the product is sold by a multi-level company called 4Life. An agent from the company visited me and introduced to me the product while I was doing chemotherapy in UH. He was quite professional as he didn’t try to convince me that the product could work as a magic cure.

The Leukaemia friend told me that a patient from Sabah was receiving treatment in UH hematology in August 2006. His condition improved amazingly after taking Transfer Factor. Many patients in the ward were very excited about this at that time. And many of them started to take the product. However, no one was cured and the patient from Sabah passed away in December in the same year. But a very “powerful” testimony which described the situation in August 2006 might be used to make people believe that the product cures Leukaemia or cancers.

In order to prove that an approach or product works, a proper clinical trial must be done and the result published in an authoritative journal. Since a paper has to go through a stringent peer review process before it is accepted for publication, the likeliness of fraud or manipulation of trial result is significantly reduced. The author of the paper is subjected to legal action if he/she was found to fabricate research findings.

One example of well known research fraud was related to a South Korea stem-cell scientist, Professor Hwang Woo-Suk, who published the results of his research in two papers in the scientific journal Nature with fabricated result. What happened to him?

On May 12, 2006, Hwang was "indicted on embezzlement and bioethics law violations linked to faked stem cell research." Korea Times reported on June 10, 2007 that "The university expelled him and the government rescinded its financial and legal support. [Wikipedia]

He could spend as much as ten years in jail if convicted.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Friday, August 22, 2008

Day +779 : Cancer is Not a Death Sentence (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

It is very true that cancer is not a death sentence, but the content of the email is very misleading and irresponsible. It literally says that Dr. Lynn Tan’s Detoxification Rejuvenation is the RIGHT therapy to cancer because it makes your body heal itself. Not only this, it “dangerously” encouraged people to forward the mail to friends who are diagnosed with cancer.

A desperate cancer patient might treat this alternative therapy as his/her magic cure and thus delay the proper treatment, just like those who initiated the legal case against the father of detoxification. In fact, given a choice, I rather believe that this is true than going through the risky conventional treatment. But the question we need to ask is whether the approach works.

Given a testimony at particular instance, such as the one attached in the email, does not necessary reflect the effectiveness of the therapy. A cure can only be proclaimed if a cancer patient does not experience any elapse within 5 years upon treatment.

In addtion to this, a patient’s condition might fluctuate, and we can’t simply selectively capture the good time and use it as propaganda to lure people believing that the therapy works.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Day +778 : Cancer is Not a Death Sentence (1)

I am fine today.

Further to my post yesterday regarding the father of detoxification, I would like to talk about a local “expert” who also specializes on detoxification. This expert markets her approach and products through a multi-level marketing company.

I received the following email from the company on 11 July, 2008.

Dear Friends,

Here is a very informative article on how Theresa overcame her cancer without having to go through the ordeal of chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal treatment. There are many more like her story. Indeed cancer is NOT a death sentence. If you follow the RIGHT therapy, your body can heal itself.

If you would like to read more on such, please send me an email. I will be glad to email you Dr. Lynn Tan’s Detoxification and Rejuvenation booklet and other relevant materials.

If you know of friends who have been diagnosed with cancer and are in a dilemma, please forward them this article.

Keep healthy.

Regards

xxxx

The attached testimony (Click to have a larger view)
What do you think?

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Day +777 : Two years and six months jail term for you, father of detoxification

I am fine today.

I blogged about the once famous father of detoxification one year ago in the following blog entries:

The court sentenced him to two years and six months jail term not long ago. The relevant news in Chinese is as follow:

中新网8月14日电台湾“排毒教父”林光常被病患指控,不实宣扬只要吃他研发的排毒餐和产品,不用化疗就可以排毒治癌。法官依常业诈欺罪将林光常判刑2年6个月,但病患认为林光常在法庭上一点悔意也没有,2年6个月实在判太轻,因此决定还要再上诉。

  据台湾“今日新闻”报道,揭发林光常的岛内乳癌患者吕育娴,语带哽咽批评林光常不知悔改,当初就是因为相信他,放弃化疗想靠着排毒治疗癌症,花了新台币20万元买产品,三餐都吃排毒餐,结果癌细胞还是复发扩散,现在得靠吗啡片止痛。吕育娴还拿出电话簿,里面记着满满的联系人,都是像她一样的受害人。

林光常在法庭上坚称自己没有骗人,但检察官调查,林光常至少骗了57人,其中3个人还不幸死亡,诈骗金额超过新台币400万元,因此做出前述判决。

The man

Watch out for this man and his books to avoid being the next victim .

See you next post :-)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Day +776 : Someone hacked my website :-(

I am fine today.

Last night, I was surprised to see that one of my websites was hacked. Based on the language on the website, the hacker was most probably from Indonesia. This was the first time I experienced this.

My site after getting hacked
I did some investigation and noticed that my Super Administrator account was modified on the 14 August. This made me to conclude that it was hacked on that day.

The database recorded the last visit date as 2008-08-14 09:08:28. This is the time the hacker gain control of my website, then turned it off with some modification as seen in the first picture.

I lose control of the web application as the hacker modified my account password. However, I still have access to my hosting account. So I modified the above database and regain control of the website.

At the same time, I also reported the incident to my web hosting provider which later advised and helped me to restore the site back to a backup that was done a month ago. Since I didn' update the site much, no data was lost :-)

I am using a open source content management system called Joomla for my website. A security bug was reported on 12 August which allowed an unauthenticated user to change the first account's password, which is normally the super administrator account. I believe the hacker make use of this vulnerability to enter the website and do something funny.

I immediately updated the website after it was restored and everything is running fine now :-)

I learned some valuable lesson throughout the process, which I can only share with you if I have a technical blog :-) Thank you, hacker :-)

See you next post :-)

Monday, August 18, 2008

Day +775 : 4 Days 3 nights Langkawi Vacation :-)

I am fine today.

My wife and I are planning for a four days three nights vacation at Langkawi during the coming Hari Raya Puasa:-) Even though we shifted here from Sarawak for more than 10 years, we have never been there.

I managed to secure a Superiour Garden View Room at Awana Porto Malai Hotel through a promotion package called Astounding Awana Savers(Malaysia/Singapore) from 29 September to 1 October. The rate for the first night is RM129 as it is still low season, but I need to pay RM169 for the following two nights. This makes the total cost of accommodation RM467.

The hotel rate The flight did not cost us much either; about RM180 roundtrip :-) Of course, fly by AirAsia again.

We plan to rent a car and tour the island for the first day as we will be there quite early in the morning, then going for island hopping, and visiting Pulau Payar Marine Park the next two days.

We will not be bringing the children along this time. If we find the place enjoyable, then we will plan for a family trip later. Richard’s sister-in-law is a member of Awana Timeshare Scheme, and the package is underutilized. If I plan my holiday early enough, Richard will be able to arrange our stay at the same hotel free of charge :-) And in order to save cost, we can drive there.

Even though this week is the school holiday, my wife has to work everyday, conducting tuition class in the school. I hope she will enjoy a good rest during the vacation. We are looking forward to the vacation.

Now the countdown started… 43 days to go!

See you next post :-)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Day +774 : Ask and you shall receive? (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

Anyway, I was not angry because I am not really particular about the tint windows. Furthermore, I did get something free. I also understand that it was beyond the sales agent’s ability to give too much. If I was very particular about this, I will “fight” with them in the first place.

However, one thing I was uncomfortable was that the sales agent shouldn’t overstate the cost of the gift in the first place. Sincerity is a lot more important than the value of gift.

Asked and you shall receive? Yes, but not the one promised :-( Never mind, she is just a human. Humans can’t always deliver what is promised or even if they can deliver, what you get might not be the best.

If you ask God, you might be in the same scenario. You might not even get it, or you might get something different from what you have asked, or you receive exactly what you wanted. However, there is a significant difference between asking from a human and asking from God – God always knows what is good for you :-) He don't give not because He can't, but because He knows what is good for you. Just trust Him :-)

”Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7

See you next post :-)

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Day +773 : Ask and you shall receive? (1)

I am fine today.

When I purchased the Perodua Viva, my nephew, Chin Yung, advised me to ask for free gift from the sales agent. The sales agent promised me two gifts upon request: full tank of petrol and free windows tinting with an approximate worth of RM500. I talked about this on my blog Day +754 : Ask and you shall receive.

The sales agent fulfilled her first promise very well as there is not much room for her to play any trick regarding this. The simplest guy such as me could check whether the tank is full through the fuel metre on the dash board.

However, it becomes a little bit tricky when it comes to windows tinting. I was getting a little bit suspicious as the sales agent directed me to a car tint shop. One question puzzling me is how do I know that they didn’t team up to fool me by providing something that is less than the promised value?

“You can have these few types only,” the tint shop staff told me.

“How much does each of them worth? “ I asked.

“About RM180,” she answered.

This is a lot less than what the Perodua sales agent promised. So I contacted her to find out why she didn’t keep her promise? But she insisted over the phone that what was provided worth RM450, and before hanging up the phone, she talked to the tint shop staff. After that, the price for the few types of tint material all became RM450. As I expected, they teamed up to fool me :-(

In the end, I chose a grey colour tint material which does not fall under the few types that I could get if for free, and I have to top up RM50 for this.

When I brought the car to a car accessories shop later to swap the CD player – between the old Daithasu and the new Perodua – the technician there told me that the type of windows tinting that I got worth hundred plus only :-( This confirmed that I was fooled :-(

The bill, RM450 + RM50 = RM500
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Day +772 : Attending Tech.Ed SEA 2008 again :-) (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

One of the interesting tracks that I attended introducing us the new Microsoft programming language called F# (F sharp). The presenter claimed that the language has many advantages over the existing languages.

One of the most notable advantages which is of my interest is that the application written in this language is optimized to run on multi-core system transparency. This means that the application will be clever enough to divide a job into many concurrent sessions and send them to different cores of the processor for processing. This will make the application run very fast. Without F#, a developer has to manually code the application to fully utilize the power of a multi-core processor.

We are currently using C# (C Sharp) as the primary programming language in developing our software. Now Microsoft invented F# which is claimed to be more advance than C#. When I first heard about F#, I wonder if I had a chance to design a programming language, what I shall call it. I think the best name is Z## (Z Sharp Sharp). Why? Because you can’t have anything after Z, and in music, you can have the most two sharps(#) after a note. This prevents other to overtake me, and since it is the last possible name, the language should be the most complete one :-)

The delegates pass. The bag
Keynote address
Everybody was carrying the bag...
A photo with Justin Lee, a young speaker specializing in programming language and concurrency. I attended two of his sesssions - F# and parallel and concurrency programming. I have a crucial job to do - to increase the performance of our software. Thus these sessions were useful to me. Justin was very interested in what we are doing and who know, I will be presenting with him about the software performance and concurrency issues in the next Tech.Ed SEA, using our software as an example? :-)Apart from attending those technical sessions, which is the delegates primary job over there, eating can be said to be the next important job, at least for me :-)

Ready for lunch...


Self service
Long long queue... :-)
Fried prawn
Enjoying lunch with a colleague A table full of food with "hardworking" colleagues (埋头苦干)
Hey! My food
Another day's lunch Dessert
I enjoyed the conference in general and hoped that the next year Tech.Ed SEA will be held in Malaysia again.

See you next post :-)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Day +771 : Attending Tech.Ed SEA 2008 again :-) (1)

I am fine today.

I attended Tech.Ed SEA 2008 from Monday until today. This is the second time I attended such event after bone marrow transplant :-) As last year, the four-day event was held in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).

Just in case you don’t know what is Tech.Ed SEA, a quote from Tech.Ed SEA 2008 website below should give you a rough idea what the event is all about.

“After two (2) consecutive years, we are excited to announce that Tech·Ed SEA, Microsoft’s premier and largest annual conference, is back with full force! This year, you will get to learn, connect, explore, evaluate, problem-solve and ultimately experience and realize the full potential not only of the technology, but of your own! “

There were about 1800 (if I were not mistaken) delegates from over 30 countries attended event, but of course the majority of the delegates were from Malaysia. Seven software developers, including me, attended the event this year.

In order to attend the first track session which start at 8:30am, I left my house for the event at 6:45am everyday. As I am not familiar driving to KL, I parked my car at Petaling Jaya train station and then travel to KLCC by trains.

A passenger next to me was reading newspaper this morning. As he was sitting very near to me, I also started to read his newspaper “automatically”. A news about the controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and prominent lawyer Shafee Abdullah attracted my attention so much that I missed the station that I should get off :-( May be this is the “punishment” for reading others newspaper for free :-)

The primary reason that attended the event is to get to know the new Microsoft technologies and the direction that the company is heading to. I attended many track sessions and learned quite a lot this time.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Day +770 : Don’t talk!

I am fine today.

A small group of people in this country are allergic or sensitive to certain “food”. When they heard that some healthy people were discussing about the food, instead of growing hives (raised red skin due to allergy), they shamefully became insane and barbaric :-(

Interestingly, the self-claimed “wise one” (government) failed to indentify who were having problem and directed the force to act against the healthy one. This is analogous to a doctor whom upon seeing a patient with allergy problem, decided to treat all healthy nurses and staff around, because he/she is “confused” as who are having problem :-(

This is exactly what had happened when Bar Council was holding the “Conversion to Islam” forum last Saturday. I can’t agree more with what former MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng said (quoted from Malaysiakini):

"The fact remains that on one side the Bar Council was lawfully holding a forum in its own premises and on the other was a mob hurling racial abuses which were seditious and unlawful."

"The rakyat will also wonder why the police force, which have proven so effective in dispersing demonstrations of over 10,000 people before were this time unable to contain a 300-strong mob.”

"The rakyat will certainly expect to see arrests and prosecutions being made against those involved in this protest," said the former health minister.

Yes, the issue can be sensitive to some people, but the problem does not lie with the one who would like to address the issue with good faith. So it is totally flawed for the government to prohibit the discussion of the issue under the name of “sensitivity”.

What about close-door discussion?

Who discuss? The “wise” government? But what can you expect from a pro-barbarian government who can’t even distinguish an insane person from a normal one?

Furthermore, by saying that the issue can only be addressed through close-door discussion is in fact a big insult to the citizen; underestimating the wisdom of rakyat(people).

Shut up! Don’t talk too much, else I (not me, guess who?) C-4 you!

See you next post :-)

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Day +769 : A river fish feast :-)

I am fine today.

My friend, William, a Foochow from Sarawak, likes fishing very much. He is also our church member.

“I am going fishing later,” he told me after the church service last Sunday.

A taxi driver who knew that he is a fishing enthusiast leaded him to a rural area in Semenyih to fish. It took him more than an hour to reach the destination after going through some lengthy winding road.

He fished by a mountain river that is bred with different kinds of fish by someone. He didn’t expect much when he first saw the place, but he had a good catch in the end; catching more than 10 fishes :-)

He invited Pastor Andrew, Richard, and me as well as our spouses to have a dinner in a restaurant tonight. He brought two different types of fish, each weighing 3.5kg and 2kg respectively, and asked the chef to cook them for us.

We also ordered some vegetable and meat, and we managed to finish all of them; including the 5.5kg river fish :-)

Before I post the dishes, I must say that the river fish tastes extremely fresh and delicious.

What a marvelous meal!

Group photo. The big guy in the middle is William.
Teow Chew steam fish
A zoom in view
The fish head steamed with garlic sauce
Thai style - Badong steam fish
A zoom in view
DongPo Pork (东坡肉)
The vegetable
See you next post :-)