More Apek stories

The other day, I was out for lunch with a bunch of colleagues. As a Mr. Y puts it, if they start speaking in Chinese, you know you are in shit trouble. The conversation was about the new law in Malaysia, requiring back-seat passengers to buckle up. It started when they asked me why I buckled up. Before I could answer, some wild ideas where thrown about.

Fact of the matter is, this is a good habit I picked up from Australia when I was there for four years. But my colleagues started to concur that the new law is just a way for the police to collect more bribes, and started to debate would the passenger or the driver be fined should a violation occur. I went, what the eff. They appear to be hell a lot more worried about the RM 50 bribe when it is their body (supposedly priceless) flying about in the car or hurting the passengers in front.

This is the biggest problem I've noticed about the 'Malaysian' (more like Asian) mentality. People do things for all the wrong reasons. The buckle up because of the police. What the eff. Honestly, the police is more worried about having to deal with the mess of having to pick up someone's brains in a traffic accident. Then again, some of them won't have much brains to start off with.

Coffee Money

Many months ago, a apek (old man of Chinese decent, speaks like a China-man, acts like one, looks like one, but isn't exactly one) complained about the cops. He alleged that the cops are very corrupt. He then related a story that just the other day, he was stopped by the police for no apparent reason while driving in a small town. Then they asked for his licenses, he had to hand them RM 30 (that's about USD 10).

This is the part I go, what the eff, apek? People stop you, you dish out money. Wei. If that's the case, I would also do the same. Just stop someone, and you get RM 30 - all in less than 5 minutes. Really, I would do it too. I doubt it very much if it is even a bribe. Why? Bribe, by nature, is to influence the way someone acts. So, if the police did stop them, maybe it was just a random thing. There could have been no offence, but what the eff - if you offer money, I would take. That didn't influence me in letting someone go (there was no offence to start off with).

So, thanks to the stupid public like this apek, they give the cops a bad name and then, they blame the cops. Frankly, it would be stupid if they didn't collect the money. After all, if someone is dishing out money (say if Donald Trump did that), I really don't see anything wrong in just collecting it. I am against bribery, but hey - it takes two to tango.

For the record, I've never bribe anyone before and will not do it either. Have been stopped by the police on a couple of occasions, but usually it's nothing more than just a glance at my driver's license. Fair enough - they are just doing their jobs.

Designed for Security, Not

There are two houses near my place, just complete their renovation. Every time I drive past, I look at it in awe. The renovation work is not too bad actually, but my mind boggles. The first house, has a new gate installed. The gate design? Square frame with horizontal bars spaced about 20cm a part. What the eff? Hey! It looks like a bloody ladder to me.

How on earth can someone come up with such a design. I mean, sure, you can love Jeff for his ideas of a gated community (refer to previous posts), but this is a new 'high'. The other house, has the same darn design as their fence. Horizontal metal bars, placed like a ladder, looks like a ladder, but it is not a ladder. But it darn well functions as one.

So, people, please ...unless this is a new trend, please think and design properly. No idea if it is the home owner's bright spark or were they taken for a ride. Either way, the mind boggles.

Rule by Example

This morning, I read that a fatwa has been issued to discourage / ban Muslims from doing yoga in Malaysia. No comments from me, as I am not a Muslim. A couple of days ago, a chap called Abdul Razak Baginda, formerly accused of blowing up a lady, walked free and held a press conference. That bothered me.

Putting two and two together, why isn't Abdul Razak Baginda is charged for khalwat or zina? After all, he did admit having an affair, which is haram (at least that's what I thought). I sure hope someone out there can clarify subject matter. Someone admits zina, which is - I think, haram - yet he has not been charged at the Syariah Court? Or is khalwat only charged if they happen to 'kena tangkap basah' by the religious department? I am still trying to figure out how it all works. The mind boggles.

Wally No More

Sadly, I can no longer be a Wally. Darn busy with work nowadays and with a shitty economy, I really have to get my ask moving. Before someone moves it for me. Don't get me wrong - I do work hard, but at any one time, I prefer to work smart. It's a fine line, but hey - why work too hard.

Been dating a pretty gal - let's call her M. Nice gal, very very sexy body and yeah - I hope to have a long term gf. Random fun is fun, but at times, something long term is good. Let's see what happens. It is sure damn hard to get a gf nowadays. Half the gals I know expect their future husbands to provide them with a RM 5000 allowance per month. That's almost my entire paycheck. Damn - some would want the money and it's fine if their hubby strays, as long as there is money in the bank. Sign of times. Other gals are already married to their work.

So hard to find someone who wants to be in a relationship. That goes for both guys and gals. Some guys want to play. Others, married to their work. Some want their dream cars. To me, I rather save some money, build a good home (mind you, not a house), and have enough to retire. Not too much to ask for right?

Malaysian Politics

Ah... So sweet to read that the Second Finance Minister for Malaysia Nor Mohamed Yakcop proudly anounced that Malaysians are safe from the financial storm as we have lots of savings. In may ways, that's true. But then again, it is also the government's idea - The First Finance Minister - Najib, who mandated that monthly contributions to EPF, the savings for old age, be reduced beginning January 2009.

This is when I go, What the Eff? Is Najib trying to ruin the country? Or is the Second Finance Minister lying? How does this all work out? Silly isn't it? And to think that Najib will be prime minister... oh lordy lord. Wish we have God Save the Country...

***

MCA on the other hand is busy killing itself. Chua Soi Lek is being sidelined and that's bloody obvious. The Number 1 in MCA says that's not the case. You know what? I say, in the next general elections, the rakyat will sideline the both of them. Whatever it is, Chua has done some good when he was the health minister. Don't recall Ong doing much. Then again, who cares... like diapers, they should be changed often.

The "Secret"

Notice anything odd on some people's Facebook or MySpace sites? See if you observe this - most females do not want to display their age. They will only disclose the day and month of birth. No year. As such, it is difficult to guess someone's true age. Photos may not do justice.

Look carefully. Most of these profiles will also have information such as "SMK Puteri 2000" or "University Malaya 2002". Well well. With this new information, all of a sudden, the age can be calculated immediately. People usually get their degrees, without honours, at about the age of 21 or 22. Completion of high school, or SPM in Malaysia, would be at the age of 17 or 18. Too easy.

The moral of the story - always be careful with what we disclose. Never tell too much. Or worse still, unwillingly let others know too much!

My new toy

Got myself a new toy today. A GPS. It was out of necessity rather than the fun of having one. I was getting lost way to often in the city. Anyway, I got a Nuvi 205 by Garmin for only RM 790. There was a promotion on. Got it from a shop in Sri Petaling's Endah Parade - IM Lifestyle. Friendly staff too, but they preferred cash term. Well, I could understand it well.

Tried it on the way home - it works well, despite its insistence to use tolled roads. Hahaha. I don't suppose it is ploy by Samy Vellu. Will test it out over the next few weeks. Yeah - it is very easy to use. I've only used a Tomtom years ago in Germany, so when it comes to GPS, I am an idiot. But I did find my way home.

Speaking on Endah Parade - gosh, that place is full of massage parlours now. Wonder if they are those that offer extra services.

Singapore Gone Mad

This is a clear case that the world is going mad. To be fair, Malaysia and many other countries are included. I've picked on Singapore for the sole reason that the Singaporeans have documented, very well, their moment of madness. I doubt it if Malaysia will ever be good as such documentation.

It has been proven that human beings are most worried about the least likely, lowest risk threats. I worry more about fuses than dying of a heart attack. And for me, the risk of having a heart attack is significantly higher.

I got really pissed off when I read the "Consumer Advisory - an Update on Products Detected to Contain Melamine", by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). Report appears to be undated. First, it states that more biscuits were found to be tainted with melamine. In particular, there were those from Julie's and Khong Guan - both Malaysian companies. Report mentions some Chinese product as well.

On the tainted biscuits, AVA requires the importers and retailers to withdraw the affected Malaysian-made biscuits from sale with immediate effect. Products have been duly listed down. Sounds serious. It goes on to say that "All the 17 affected products will be destroyed under AVA's supervision". Sounds very serious indeed.

Later in page 3 of the results, it says that "based on the level of melamine levels detected by AVA, a consumer can safely take in..." Here, I will quote a few examples, of the "tolerable levels for an adult of 60kg weight (amount daily over a lifetime)"

• Hello Kitty Strawberry Cream Filled Biscuits (20g per pack) - 342 packs!
• Julie's Golden Kaka Crackers (500g per pack) - about 6 packs
• Khong Guan Assorted Biscuits (1 kg/tin) - 5 tins.

This is the part that I went....what the fuck??!! For adults, it is safe to take up to 5 tins of 1kg per tin of Khong Guan Assorted Biscuits? That's effing 5 kilos of biscuits a day! Over a life time before it is dangerous! Come on... who would eat 5kg of biscuits for the rest of his or her life? Or 6 packets of Julie's Golden Kaka Crakers. I am sure you will go gaga before the 2nd pack is over. Crackers indeed. or 342 packets of cream filled biscuits?

In short - the biscuits are safe for consumption. No one in the right mind will eat that much to suffer the ill effects of melamine in the biscuits. If somewhere were to eat that much biscuits, that poor chap might be obese or be dead from diabetics way before melamine gets him or her.

So, looks like some governments are just doing hell a lot of fear mongering. If you test any food product, bet my ass some lead will be present. Bet you there is mercury in fish too. But as long as the levels are low, they are safe. In any case, common sense calls for moderation.

Since the Singaporean government is at it, why not ban the following products: Johnny Walker - surely the consumer will be dead with just two bottles (1litre each), if consumed daily for less than a month! Or ciggies... proven to be dangerous. Hell - even drinking 12kg can of Coca Cola a day would cause serious problems. 12kg of water itself could lead to death - will someone please ban tap water? And don't even get me started on McD or Burger King. Those definitely sound more dangerous than the 'tolerable level' of biscuits. It is realistic to eat two Big Macs a day and die of a heart attack in a year or two - assuming a lack of exercise too. Not even a lifetime. Last check, nasi lemak was a killer too.

So, what the fuck? If I were the biscuit manufacturers, I would have sued the Singaporean Government. After all, they are such a small market, but putting up so much bad publicity. To be fair, the idiot of the Malaysian Health Minister was even holding a tin of Khong Guan biscuits during a press conference for added effect. That picture made it to the front page. I feel like sponsoring 6kg of perfectly good, untainted with melamine, Khong Guan assorted biscuits and ask him to finish in a day. I would love to see that!

For the record, I have no vested interest in the biscuit or FMCG industry. It's just sheer stupidity that gets on my nerves.

Financial Jokes

Got these from the internet. Very funny, given the current finanial situation.

One of these days, I'm going to borrow enough money to get completely out of debt

I've determined that this financial downturn is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my assets but I still have my wife.

The stock market may be terrible, but I slept like a baby last night. I woke up every couple of hours and cried.

Q: What's the definition of optimism?
A: An investment banker who irons five shirts on a Sunday evening.

An investment banker said he was going to concentrate on the big issues from now on. He sold me one in the street yesterday.

A man went to his bank manager and said: ‘I'd like to start a small business. How do I go about it?' ‘Simple,' said the bank manager. ‘Buy a big one and wait.'

The credit crunch is getting bad, isn't it? I mean, I let my brother borrow a tenner a couple of weeks back, it turns out I'm now Britain's fourth biggest lender.

Q: What is the difference between an investment banker and a pigeon?
A: A pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.

Q: What is the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza?
A; The pizza can still feed a family of four.

Q: What does a hedge fund manager with no fund to manage say?
A: Would you like fries with that sir?

Q: What is the capital of Iceland?
A: About $3.50

I tried to get cash from the ATM today but it said “insufficient funds.” I don't know if that meant them or me.

Mark Twain was ahead of the curve: “October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”

Alarms

Home alarm systems are key to preventing crime. They will be the first system to alert you if anything goes wrong. However, it is only good if it is turned on. So, if you have one, please turn it on. It doesn't cost extra. Turn it on when you are out of the house, when you go to bed or when you have no intention of going out of the house for the next couple of hours - e.g. when you are having a romantic time in bed with your gf.

To select an alarm system is difficult. Chubb Malaysia used to provide some good ones, but rumors have it that they are no longer that good. The house alarm industry is a cowboy industry. Prices are cut, quality takes a dip. Bad systems are useless. They will have so many false alarm - crying wolf all the time, you just give it up. Criminals know that too!

Some critical success factors for home alarm systems:

1. When it comes to wiring, make darn sure the wire between the panel to the sensor is one piece. Never allow the contractor to join wires. Imagine, after plastering the wires inside the walls, the joining breaks. You will have a hell time finding the fault and fixing it. Wiring is the most critical. If the panel is bad, change it - it is easy. If the sensors are bad, have them replaced. But you don't want to re-do the whole damn wiring.
   
   
2. Ensure each cable is properly labelled. Else, no one knows what goes where after a year.
   
   
3. Better still, have the wiring inside a plastic conduit, or pipe. This is very expensive, but can be worth it.
   
   
4. There are motion detectors, or infra red sensors. Use them only for the roof / ceiling. For fuck-sake, please do not put it in the kitchen or living room. It will trigger tonnes of false alarm. You may also wish to turn on the alarm when you are cooking. No harm!
   
   
5. Most suppliers no longer provide good vibration sensors because they are very expensive. Look for one that does. Vibration sensors are good to protect windows, especially when the sensors are installed on grills. Any knocking or drilling will set them off. This way, you can leave the windows open for fresh air - but please shut them if no one is at home.
   
   
6. Ensure that the magnetic switches installed on doors are good. How to tell a good sensor? Quality ones will usually have CE, FCC or even UL approval. CE is a standard mainly for safety and emission of RF noise in Europe. FCC would be emission of RF noise for USA. UL would be the safety standard for USA. You get the idea. A sensor without any compliance to standards cannot be good!
   
   
7. Check if the main panel itself has any certification / compliance to standards.
   
   
8. System should have one internal and one external siren; and one external strobe light. For the sirens, have a switch - inside the panel. If you are at home, at night, you may not wish to have the internal siren on (but leave the external siren on) and scare the daylights out of you if it goes off. Similarly, if you are away for a long period of time - say a week, turn the external siren off but leave the internal siren on. Don't bugger your neighbour's Chinese New Year, for example.
   
   
9. Ensure that the system has two panic buttons. Press it, alarm should go off. One in the master bedroom, the other in the kitchen is usually good. Same goes for the keypad - there should be two. Panic button can be and should be located away from the keypads. Keypads themselves should have a panic button. The panic button should have a key - that is, once activated, you need a key to deactivate it.
   
   
10. Alarms usually have CMS feature - that is, it calls a Central Monitoring System if something happens. If you do not subscribe to CMS (since most of them is bullshit anyway), have the panel programmed to call you handphone instead. So, if there is no one home and your house calls you, at least you have a clue what has happened. You can then alert your local guards. That's what the guards are for, not for doing sentry duty and looking at cars driving in and out.
    
    
11. When the system is designed, think like a criminal. Where would you break in? How? Then, secure those areas with sensors.

Another very important note. If your alarms, car or house, keeps going off without rhyme or reason - be on the alert. You could be already targetted. Criminals are known to trigger the alarm off - e.g., kick your car to cause it to vibrate - some cars can sense vibration. They keep doing it until you are fed-up and turn off the alarm. Never ever turn off the alarm!

Let me know if you have any other suggestions. I am rather sure I have missed out one or two critical items.

Lights

Oh boy. Spending the whole night blogging isn't doing much good to my beauty sleep. Hope I am not to tired when I meet H later. That would be a waste.

Visibility is a key factor in crime prevention. It's a fact that turning on lights at night prevents crime. It is cheap, yet very effective.

But, there's something you must remember - do not give the criminals any information. For example, if you only turn on the lights when no one is at home, that's a dead give away. So, do turn on the same lights even if you are at home. Worried about the waste of energy? Install and use a energy saving light bulb. They use less than 10W of power. In Malaysia, if it is 10W, it will be turning it for 100 hours before it will cost RM 0.30 (USD 0.08). It's a bargain.

When you leave the house, remember to deliberately leave one room light on, or the kitchen lights on. Give the impression that there is someone inside the house.

Hope it helps. And if you must know, yes, I do it.

Show of Force

OK. Back to the problem of Jeff. Besides providing proper toilets, what else is a more effective use of guards? The first is, carry out a show of force. This was successfully carried out by British soldiers in Somalia. Every morning, they would put a good show - marching, fire some shots and fire some big guns into the sea. Make hell a lot of noise. And it was effective. Prison guards do that. FRU (Federal Reserve Unit - the Malaysian anti-riot police) do that. They do? Yes - they march by stomping their boots. Beat their shields with their batons. Shout when they march.

So, if you have guards, do the same. Make them march. Do a roll call every morning. Get the police to show up occasionally during such 'parades'. Frankly, it is just a physiological thingy. I am not advocating for an armed force of private guards.

Residents can do their own show of force. In UK, they have the Orange Hat Patrol - the Malaysian Rukun Tetangga (RT). RT works well. A group of residents, on schedule, would petrol the place. This shows unity. Think about it - I am sure we all know. When driving through a kampung, the pre- PLUS highway days, always go slow. If you happen to accidentally run-over a chicken, do not stop. Why? Because we all 'fear' that the united kampung folks will beat us up.

In reality, the same 'fear' can be used against criminals. The community needs to be united. That's the key. Show them that we are united. That's why you never hear of crimes in kampungs. True - criminals caught will be bashed up. I do not advocate vigilantism. But facts are facts. So, we need to do it in urban areas - that is be united, not bashing up people.

Start a RT - and patrol in bright orange hats. Why the orange hats? It is some kind of uniform and yes, it is highly visible. You want to be seen at night, for safety.

Another method - imagine the scene if at night, everyone turns on the light - odd numbered houses with their front lights on, even numbered houses lighting up the backlanes. That would be a sight to behold. Residence uniting and that's a good show of force. The message will be - try and you will be sorry. Right now, the one or two guards does patrol in this area, but since most areas are pitch black, I am unsure if the guards are equiped with night vision for the task. Oops - another idea for Jeff to spend more money.

Another very simple show of force - how do we interact as neighbours. If everyone knows everyone, greets each other, talks to each other - that means we are united. It sends the same message. Trust me, the criminals would be watching.

Isn't this better than a few oil drums and residences are seen fighting with each other? Show of force, either by guards or residences, are perfectly legal (blockin up public roads are not) and guess what - "Hello. How do you do?" is free. Time to love thy neighbour - no, no, not in the 'hamsap' sense.

Under Attack!

The worst that can happen is someone breaking in when you or your family is at home. This is especially so when they are foreigners / illegal immigrants. Or some violent psycho.

But should that happen, and if you deem it safe - the first thing you do is to sound the home alarm system, if you have one. Also, press the panic button for your car alarm. Let your cars make as much noise as possible. Turn on all the lights. Call the police. Call your neighbours. Shout for help. Lock yourself in a room - it helps if your room has a solid door.

I sure hope it never comes to this. The house has many weapons. Putting toilet cleaner and splashing it on someone can lead to blindness. Your usual aerosol spray - such as the trusted Shieldtox - is a good flame thrower. Light up the spray with a lighter (careful! It can burn you.) and it will throw out flames. Will it explode? No. The flames will not go back into the can and cause it to explode. There is little to no oxygen inside the can - thus, it cannot burn and explode. Don't overheat the can though - that will cause it to explode! And please note - it only works on the NON water based type. If it is water-based, it won't burn. Please note.

Something to note - even if you lock yourself in your room, there is a chance they will force you out by setting the place on fire, for example. The whole idea is, buy yourself enough time for help to arrive. So, if you so wish to, call the fire department as well.

Some of these are dangerous but everything goes when the situation is 'in extremis'.

Another safety note, not related to security - never ever mix bleach (such as Clorox) with other cleaning agent (such as detergent). The reaction can be violent and it releases a lot of clorin gas - which is toxic. A joker of my friend made that mistake when he was cleaning the loo. Bugger. Not to worry, he lived to tell the tale.

Ring Ring

After knock knock, it is only natural to think about ring ring.

The policy here is the same. To commit a crime, information is important. So, limit the amount of information you give the criminals.

For the same reason as turning off the bell when no one is at home, you should be very prudent with who gets your house phone number. If they cannot ring the bell, they will call you. That's actually better - they won't have to bother showing up to ring the bell.

How often do we give out the house phone number when we buy a new air-cond? Or when buying a new plasma TV? Or like some idiots in this area, publish their home phone numbers on the community blog, together with their photo and address? Sometimes, we do it without even thinking about it.

So, as much as possible, do NOT give out your home phone number to strangers. Use your cell phone / mobile number instead. It is hard to figure out where you are when you answer your mobile - unless the background noise is like the fish market. But that will at least give the criminals a run for their money.

If you are really careful, get either call forwarding or an answering machine. That way, even for those with your number cannot get much info out of you. Just forward calls to your mobile phone. Or have a machine, with a sexy welcoming message, answer it!

Knock Knock...anyone home?

So, enough bitching about dummy Jeff. How do we make our place safer?

And knock knock won't be a dirty joke like:
Knock knock.
Hang on dear... I am cumming.

Hehehe. Ok, I could not resist that.

When there is no one at home, please turn off the bell. It is fairly usual SOP (standard operating procedure, some call it MO - modus operandi) for the criminals to send someone round to check if anyone is home. The criminals usually call up a fast-food delivery service and sends a fake order to your house. If they observe no one answers the bell, that would usually mean the coast is clear. Some would just ring the bell before they break-in. So, turn the bell off when no one is at home. The downside is, remember to turn it back on! Else, your visitors or the postman might be pissed.

How to turn it off? Check the fuse box - there is usually one fuse for the bell. Try the fuses till you get one that turns the bell off. It will usually be a low-amperage fuse - e.g., fuse of about 5A. The fuse should be only for the bell. If you find it, and turn it off, make sure it doesn't affect any other appliances - such as the fridge. You don't want a warm fridge when you get home. If you cannot find the fuse, just get a wire-man and add an additional fuse to the bell. Easy! Cost some money, but hey - it does work.

So, if you start receiving pizzas that you didn't order - be on the alert. You are already targeted. Inform the police. Tell your neighbors.

The Moving Barricades

After about 3 weeks of starting this gated community thingy, nothing much has improved. It does give a sense of being safer, but that's all. There has been very strong protest from disagreeing residents. Public has also complained that roads cannot be blocked. They are public roads! But alas, Jeff thinks he has the right to reclaim all the roads.

There was a robbery. After the gated community started. Came by bike, and robbed a group of friends. Guards didn't know about it. So, it is not all that well. Now, Jeff wants to fence up the whole place. I mean, eff - do you want your kids growing up in a prison?

Comments vary. Jeff keeps telling everyone that if there is no gates and guards, your family could be next. So, someone asks him - if there are guards and gates, would he guarantee that nothing will happen? Jeff calls them unreasonable.

More critically, there are serious shortcomings. Firstly, it is close to impossible from stopping motorcycles from zooming in and out. Snatch thieves are usually on bikes. Then, this area has about 4 or 5 entrances / exits, after blocking up half of them! This means that the six guards employed are tied up with sentry duty. No more guards on patrol. So, even if there is a fence - just climb it, or cut it, and you are free to break-into houses.

Then we started noticing a more serious problem. Imagine this as a housing area. Where on earth are the guards suppose to go to, when they need to go? Yup - they need to walk all the way to the shops - thus leaving their 'checkpoints'. The irony of this place is, they need to go to the shops that Jeff has openly declared that the shops are not part of our community.

What happens when it rains? The lack of proper shelter puts everything to a stop. Some guards have just an umbrella, others have a hut. Either way, that's not enough shelter to continue to verify vehicles into the area. So, it fails, yet again.

Oh, being Jeff - there is still no statement of accounts, no telling who are the signatories to the bank account and still no clue how many is actually against this idea. I am all for a safer community, but for fuck-sake, please do something that works. This is just too "Barisan National" for me. Another resident has commented - if you think a bunch of disused oil drums (the barricades) and a bunch of foreign workers (the guards) can actually make the place safer, think again.

Another matter - if you need to use oil drums to barricade a place, please make sure they don't collect rain-water. Dengue is more deadly than snatch thieves. And imagine - this is a fairly well-to-do housing area - now barricaded with disuse oil drums. This bloody place looks like a scene from Somalia. So, please have some taste and have something proper.

Will CCTV help? Bugger, no. Remember the footage of the guy dumping poor Nurin's body? The entire act was captured on CCTV. Polis DiRaja Malaysia even sent it to the FBI. Alas, nothing came out of it. Why? Firstly, the image quality is bad. Just imagine, if you need about 150 dots per inch (dpi) for a person's face - what's the resolution you need for your CCTV covering an area about 5 meters by 5 meters? That would be about a 10 mega pixel image. Not many CCTV, (mind you - not a camera with a still image) has that resolution. How the eff are you going to store the images? And for a moment, let's say all the technology is there - someone could put on a helmet with a full visor and commit crime on a stolen bike. You try to beat that! As usual, Jeff now wants CCTV.

The part I cannot understand is, instead of educating the public, instead of teaching your kids to be streetwise, they decide to fence themselves in. What more, the measures don't even half work.

Hot Air - All the Talk

That would be Anwar Ibrahim. Good grief. When it comes to empty promises, he should really lead BN! Gives the whole lot in BN a run for their money. Many deadlines have past, poof! Nothing has happened. No credibility. Once BN, always BN!

So, my utmost respect goes to DAP. Firstly, they have clearly stated that regardless, Abdullah Badawi has been elected by the people. And he should be voted out by the people. Not some handover of power, or walk over by MPs. That's what I call doing things right.

I think overall, DAP and PAS is doing a great job. PKR, has somewhat lost its credibility. Another of my hero is the guy called Citizen Nades - the assistant (?) editor for The Sun. His columns sure pack a punch. Better than the ACA reports. Hahaha.

My thoughts on politics remains the same. Politicians should be changed as often as diapers, for the same reason.

The grass is greener

How's my new job, I hear a lot of friends asking. Well, a Mr. Yoong puts it the best. The grass is greener on the other side, but it is also harder to swallow.

It is a new industry for me, so, there is hell a lot to learn. I am use to the international business scene - domestic is a new creature to me. New bosses have a high expectation, which isn't good - because it means I can no longer be Wally.

To make things worse, there is these new culture shock. The shock of switching from XP to Vista. I still think XP is better. Vista is really Windows for idiots (aren't we all idiots when we use Windows). Great for my grandmother but hey, for the engineers, etc - this is an insult to our intelligence. I still believe in good old UNIX / LINUX.

Then, I have the shock of using Office 2007. A very over-rated type-writer. Page break is in one tab. Section break is another. What the eff. The bloody page number is a nuisance. You can never get it to number pages you want - it just numbers it for idiots. (You try counting down from iii, ii, i - then Page 1!). The damn thing doesn't do it. Page 1 must always be the first sheet. Ok - now they allow the second sheet to be Page 1 - by starting count with Page 0. But guess what - the last page will be Page 9 out of 10 - coz, it starts counting from 0, but the total pages is actually total sheets. Bloody idiots.

Compounded with the culture of the small workplace - e.g. "one leg kick" aka doing everything on my own, it sure takes some adjusting. There is also the new software X1 (cool searching tool), Mozilla (tonnes better than IE), Googles Doc (hate to say it, but I prefer Office! Then again, I think LATEX is the best), and Google Mail. You know, Google Mail is just plain silly. You cannot delay a single email. Say, I have this long thread of business email. Then, I get some returned mail (wrong email add, etc) - and I just cannot delete those returned email. Who the heck wants some junk to polute a otherwise perfect thread of emails? Buggers me.

OK - enough of bitching. It's the weekend and generally, I am enjoying it. Will be meeting up with H tomorrow. Yummy!

Farewell Nible2

Oh, and long last, I have left Nible2 with a heavy heart. The last day was last Tuesday, and yes, this is now Day 2 into my new job. For the past few weeks, there have been way too many farewell lunch and dinners. Putting on weight and not going to the gym often enough. Sure do miss my pals at Nible2. Cannot say I miss the problems!

Many have asked. How's my new job. Well, it is way too early to tell, but I do foresee tonnes of work to be done. It is not unusual for marketing to be lagging when the place is filled with engineers. It's just like all the Beckhams in a football team, but no goal keeper. Guess a team must just be balanced. Sure, we would love all-rounders, but really, I don't think such a person exists. All have our strengths and weaknesses.

The place is sure closer to home, but I am burning more petrol due to the traffic conditions. Bummer. Toll is slightly less.

Oh, colleagues, they are OK. One warning light though... most of them speak Mandarin. I will be able to work with them, but won't be great friends. More importantly, I sure as heck hope they don't have the china-man attitude. That would pretty much bugger me. Hahaha.

Enough about work. More later....