Dinged!

Nope, it's not the sound of someone ringing the doorbell.

Imagine this - a working day like every other working day, driving the same route, nothing out of the ordinary to note until suddenly - wham! A grandma on a motorbike rams onto the back end of your 7-month-old car. How would that feel? It hurt. It hurt real bad. Heart and pocket. Sigh... Victim of an innocent minor 'crash'...

Let the pictures do the talking:

Looked like someone 'signed' on the bumper

Another look at the scratch

"Unseen" damage... cracked bumper

Bent steel rod holding the bumper

A scratch when the car was 5 days old - Thought I'd put that in for 'fun'

In the end, the bumper was fixed... RM200 flew right out of the pocket and as much as the car looks like it used to, it does not really feel the same. It squeaks now and then. Sigh...

A 'Painful' Read...

Tuesday August 26, 2008 MYT 8:16:36 PM

‘Blackouts’ for users of pirated Windows

By STEVEN PATRICK

PETALING JAYA: Starting Wednesday, users with pirated copies of Microsoft Corp's Windows XP Professional operating system (OS) on machines that are Internet-capable could find their computer displays going black and with no screen icons visible.

There are 8.6 million users of Win XP Pro in Malaysia and about three million are expected to suffer the “blackouts,” according to Microsoft Malaysia.

To continue working, the user would need to reset the machine’s desktop background. Everything will return to normal. But when 60 minutes are up, the black screen will reappear and the user must go through the whole process again.

This will keep happening until the user licenses the copy of Win XP Pro on the machine by going to a Microsoft reseller or getting a licence online at the www.microsoft.com/malaysia/genuine. Each licence costs RM580.

This initiative is part of Microsoft’s antipiracy campaign, dubbed Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), aimed at educating users on the benefits of using genuine software, K.T. Ng, Microsoft Malaysia’s director of client business group, told The Star on Tuesday.

Win XP Professional was chosen for the antipiracy blitz because it is the most pirated version of Microsoft’s Win XP operating system. The other version is Windows XP Home, which is for home users.

This is the second time that Microsoft is needling users of pirated copies of its operating system to go legitimate. Two years ago, it sprang its WGA initiative on local users of Win XP Pro and Win XP Home.

That time, a pop-up message showed up whenever the PC with a pirated Windows OS was switched on, with the intention of shaming business and home users into getting legitimate copies. The message said “This copy of Windows is not genuine.”

It was quite successful. At that time, there were about 5.1 million pirated copies of Windows XP Pro and after the exercise, about two million of the copies were validated, said Microsoft Malaysia.

“We are encouraged by that response,” said Ng. "So this time, we have escalated the penalty to a black screen that reappears every hour until the user validates his or her copy of Win XP Pro.”

Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, chief executive officer of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), lauded the WGA campaign.

MDeC is caretaker of the country’s MSC Malaysia initiative, which is working to build up the nation’s knowledge economy.

“MDeC respects the rights of companies to protect their intellectual property. It’s a reminder that software piracy doesn’t pay, especially when Malaysians are themselves putting a lot of effort into creating original software,” he said.

Not clear

Several users and industry pundits that The Star spoke to believe Microsoft is using its WGA campaign to herd business users into upgrading to its newest operating system, Windows Vista, which hasn’t garnered interest among companies because of its higher hardware requirements.

“Microsoft has stopped selling Win XP in the market, so you have to wonder why it is spending time and money to take down users of pirated copies of this OS,” said a PC user, who asked for anonymity. “Why isn’t it also targeting users who have pirated copies of Windows Vista?”

“So if I’m using a pirated copy of Vista at this time, I won’t be hassled? Got to wonder about that.”

Ng replied that the concern now is XP Pro, which is widely pirated. “Vista isn’t pirated as much. WGA is continuous and should there be a Vista piracy problem, we will address it down the road,” he said.

theStar Online

Ouch! Fair enough, a business is a business and whatever we use, there should be a proper fee to it, but RM580 is not even the least bit within the reasonable range of price to pay for people who cannot afford licensed products! Bad enough that they have to feel the pinch of the fuel increase (and all other price increment), but that is a tough fee to fork out even though it may be a one-off fee that could probably last for a couple of years.

Piracy is a problem, no doubt, but there has to be a root cause for that. Who on earth could afford a licensed software that costs RM2499 - Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 (for example), when you could get it off the shelves of a computer shop for RM5?! Or better yet, download it off from the internet for zero cost?! Clearly, someone is milking the very last sen from every layman they can get their hands on and the question is - Who will suffer at the end of the day? The ordinary layman, of course.

Oh well, my 60 minutes is almost up. Looks like I better log off from the internet before the doomed 'blackout' screen appears. Ishk!

Passion World Tour: Kuala Lumpur

I might as well strike while the iron is still hot. Passion: Kuala Lumpur was an amazing experience. The worship was superb, the message was simple yet effective but most of all, God's presence was, in Chris Tomlin's word - indescribable!

The intro video, for those who wanted to go but couldn't...

Editor's note: The beginning is a bit long, but stay on till the end. It's worth it. The original footage is clearer, but due to size limitations, this is the best quality I can get on the blog.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

I can't believe my eyes, Mulder and Scully are back! Six years after the series ended and ten years after the first X-Files movie (Fight The Future)... indeed, it has been a long time. Watching The X-Files: I Want To Believe was surreal to me, having not seen Mulder and Scully on a weekly basis for the past six years. Seeing how their relationship grew from when the series ended back in 2002 was believable yet unreal at the same time. I am, and always will be, an 'X-Phile' (it's a nickname for X-Files fans, in case you were wondering) and a semi-'shipper' (technically means, a supporter of a Mulder and Scully relationship beyond being FBI partners) but the last scene in this movie left me feeling a bit weird. I don't know.

Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the movie, although, it can be a bit draggy at times. It is set apart from the whole 'mytharc' (a term for extraterrestrials / government conspiracy theory) theme and a bit more on the 'monsters-of-the-week' theme, though there wasn't really a monster here! I was a bit bummed that someone had to die in the middle of it. What the... I was not too happy with that!

Overall, this movie brings back great memories of watching The X-Files in my old living room, occasionally not being able to sleep at night when a particularly haunting episode was shown and how my 'passion' for forensic science started. Ahh, good 'ol memories.

Scalpel, anyone?

A Day in the Rain...

There's something different about playing in the rain... Granted, things may get a little slippery here and there, but it definitely beats having the sun beating on you every minute of the game, at least, that's how I see it.

I have not played in the rain since... frankly, I don't even remember when. But I had the "privilege" of playing football in the rain last Sunday with a few kids (if you can even call them kids anymore!) from the Rifle Range blocks.

We were running on a drenched basketball court, certain parts filled with little puddles of water but it was a pretty entertaining game. Our team (the FPBC players) lost to the Rifle Range boys but it was quite a fun game overall. I think, the best part was that they waited for us to play with them, and even in the rain, we enjoyed ourselves.

I guess, sometimes, instead of soaking up the sun, we should just let go and soak up the rain...

Boring Weekends

Sigh... football season is still a month away. My weekends are currently lacking in the football 'watching' department. I have to say, though, that the current Frank Lampard and Cristiano Ronaldo saga is keeping me entertained at the moment. These are deals that are just waiting to happen; Frank Lampard misses old coach and is being offered to reunite with Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan and Cristiano Ronaldo is having the prospect of playing for Real Madrid, supposedly the best club in the world, and being paid a ridiculous sum of money to do it, dangling in front of him. This beats reading all the nonsensical political hoo-hahs plastered in our newspapers daily.

And to think dramas only come from TVB Hong Kong...

Oops!

Had a very funny and a bit embarrassing moment earlier. I was at eGate with my two aunts earlier this evening and after some drinks, we were heading back to our cars when I saw that the driver side of my car was blocked by a Kelisa that was stupidly parked so close to my car (not even a six-inch Subway sandwich could fit!) that it was completely impossible to get into my car except through the passenger side.

I was rather annoyed and was remarking what an idiot this guy is, parking the car so close to mine that I couldn't get into it. I remember telling my aunts, "What an idiot!" And then, suddenly, a couple standing next to us, who were already busy talking earlier on, stopped and looked at us and sheepishly asked, "Oh, that's your car?" The guy proceeded to move his car while my aunts thanked the lady standing there.

I didn't realize that the "idiot" was standing right beside us. D'oh!

Anyway, I nodded to the lady and proceeded to drive off, feeling rather annoyed still, but also a bit embarrassed. What a humbling lesson to watch my tongue... Idiot!

Time's A Changin'

For every storybook, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. The same goes for every season in life - there is a start, and then, there is a finish. I am wondering if my current season in life is coming to a close.

I have not felt so "out of place" in a while now, and I don't know if this is driven by the thoughts inside my head or that it is a tug from the heart to move on. I feel rather disconnected lately and I hope this is not stemming from an incident that, unfortunately, happened a while back.

Am I ready to give the "heave ho" and head on out or will I still miss being where I am at? It is not easy to leave and say goodbye to a wonderful chapter in life but there are too many instances damaging the circumstances. I don't know if I can bear going through those instances again.

A change is needed. The question is - where?

Shanghai Grand Prize Win

Ahh... yes, the long-postponed write-up on the long-awaited trip-of-a-lifetime that I won back in November 2007 and experienced in April 2008.

The sole reason for the trip: To catch Céline Dion - Taking Chances Live in Shanghai concert
The participants: Mom and myself
Length of trip: 4 days, 3 nights

The prize itself is a round trip from KL to Shanghai and back, so, being Penangites, we had to first make our way to KL by bus.

Here's Mom texting her way on the bus to KL.

We stayed at a friend's house for the remainder of the day before heading to KLIA via taxi at 10.30pm. We had a flight to catch, 1.40am flight, to be exact. It was a smooth flight to Shanghai. We reached at around 7am and was greeted by a lady holding a sign with our names on it. I didn't manage to grab a picture of that, though.

Leaving on a jet plane. At KLIA Terminal.

We hopped into the car that was provided for us and was driven to our hotel, which was about an hour's drive away from the Pudong International Airport.

They drive on the left side of the car, right side of the road. Ahh...

The ride was pretty quiet for most of the duration seeing as we had a bit (if not, a lot) of difficulties communicating with the lady and the driver. We managed to ask about a day tour and got ourselves signed up on the spot.

We checked in to our hotel first, the New Asia Hotel, dropped our luggages and practically ran out again as the tour has already started.

New Asia Hotel - night view. Didn't take a morning picture. D'oh!

We were rushed to meet with the rest of the tour group at the Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower. What it basically offers is a panoramic view of Shanghai from way up high. It was nice, but it was a bit hazy, so the pictures didn't turn out so well.

Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Immediately after the Tower, we were whisked away to a wax museum, of some sort, of The Shanghai Bund - old and new. It was a fascinating insight to how Shanghai came to be, from its humble Chinese beginnings to its Western influence.

Entrance to the Shanghai Bund Museum

After the museum tour, we went on a cruise down Huangpu River, where the famous Shanghai Bund is situated.

Cruisin' along...

After all that, we went for lunch, and walked around Nanjing Road, which is a famous shopping haven, apparently. I went there by chance at night, alone. I wasn't aware that I'm not supposed to be walking alone at night in China. Hmm... I'm still here!

Nanjing Road

Phone battery died? No problem...

Chugging along on the tram at Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road at Night

That's pretty much it for Day 1. Day 2 would be concert day, which is nothing to shout about, but I'll write it up soon anyway.

New Beginnings

The new has come and the old has gone. I have finally said goodbye to the old one. It wasn't easy, seeing as the old one was reluctant to go too. It was as though the old one had feelings. I guess, 10 years of being together is something, although I officially only had it for 7 years, but who's counting?

The new one is nice. That's all I can say for now. I occasionally miss the old one, but I guess, life has to go on.

Now, I am praying and trusting that the new one will be with me for a long time, faithfully.