Sometimes, I wonder what kind of things get into peoples’ heads. At work today, I was given access to a number of servers in order to install our application on it. Another department had set it up for our usage. Unfortunately, I ran into problems real quickly. I was not able to install any application on it. Turned out that while I had root access via sudo, I did not actually have root permissions.
Sometimes, things happen that give me pause. I wonder.
Last weekend, I decided to browse around for an ergonomic keyboard. I dropped by the Digital Mall, PJ right after attending the local network IET AGM. The exact model that I am using at the office, Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, seemed to be the only mass-marketed ergonomic keyboard in the market. It was selling for around the RM200 price range at most retailers (cheapest I found was RM199).
What I did notice however, was that Microsoft seemed to be flooding the channels with their older model keyboards. Most of them were going for about 50% off their RRPs. Unfortunately for me, the ergonomic keyboard was not one of the models being flouted. So, I would either have to settle for an over-priced piece of plastic or find some other solution.
I feel that for most ergonomic keyboards, the proof is in the pudding so to speak. One should actually use one before deciding whether or not they are actually useful as ergonomic keyboards. Unfortunately for me again, the only model that I have used and come to love is actually a Microsoft product. However, I was hoping to find similar ones from other manufacturers.
I looked and looked but did not find many. The only other ergonomic keyboard available was the Logitech Wave series and another Microsoft series. Honestly, I found this rather sad. As someone who spends most of his time typing away at the keyboard, I have started to appreciate the use of ergonomic keyboards. I may actually end up shelling RM200 for the Microsoft one at some point.
And I thought that the only way to make people cry using sand was to throw it in their eyes. The winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent managed to accomplish that without throwing sand at anything except a light-table. She told the story on Germany’s invasion of Ukraine during WW2 with nothing but sand and looking at the audiences’ reaction, I would think that she was a worthy winner. I never knew that one could do that with sand. Amazing!
Always by your side.
PS: I wonder what she could do with a Microsoft Surface?
I had just completed my book club reading assignment – Air by Geoff Ryman. It made an interesting read because I had never read anything written like that before. The story itself wasn’t particularly special but I found the writing style quite interesting. The author uses very short sentences and descriptions throughout his book. I do hope that it is his style and he had not been needlessly edited out by his publishing company.
Air is the story of a town’s fashion expert Chung Mae, a smart but illiterate peasant woman in a small village in the fictional country of Karzistan (loosely based on the country of Kazakhstan), and her suddenly leading role in reaction to dramatic, worldwide experiments with a new information technology called Air. Air is information exchange, not unlike the Internet, that occurs in everyone’s brain and is intended to connect the world. After a test of Air is imposed on Mae’s unprepared mountain town, everyone and everything changes, especially Mae who was deeper into Air than any other person. Afterwards, Mae struggles to prepare her people for what is to come while learning all about the world outside her home.
The story itself is grounded in some facts, which is good. I like my fiction to be at least believable to an extent. It was all the more interesting because the book touched on certain issues that I have been considering recently. I particularly liked the fact that the people who lived in the story seemed to be made up of a eclectic mix of various races and religions, all living in constantly tumultuous harmony. In some ways, it reminded me so much of home.
However, I kind of dislike the way that the author made up the names of stuff, just for the sake of naming stuff differently. Like instead of a credit card, the author calls them Clever Cards instead. I ended up spending quite a bit of time distracted by this and trying to figure out what it was that the author actually meant. I could usually find a direct analogy to a real-world word that meant what the author was trying to say. Also, the bastardisation of so many words by spelling them out as they sound phonetically rather than using the actual word was rather distracting as well.
This reminded me of the recent XKCD comic about made-up words:
All in all, if Geoff Ryman writes books like this, I don’t think that I will be buying many more of them. He has some nice stories to tell but his style is too distracting for me.
A beautiful story, woven off a tapestry of lost innocence, broken promises and opportunities denied. Although I got free tickets to watch this film when it first came out, I missed it because I had some other things to do. However, I had always felt that this was a film worth watching and so I bought myself the DVD a couple of weeks ago. Although the story was told almost entirely in a foreign tongue (possibly Pashtun) nothing was missed in the telling.
The acting was not particularly good but it was good enough. I liked the fact that it showed an Afghanistan, a modern Afghanistan, free from the ravages of war just before the Russians invaded. It was just like any other country in the 70s. However, things got really screwed up after that. No matter how bad things already are, they can always get worse. That is my belief. I particularly liked how kites brought everyone together. There was some interesting CGI work done on the kite battles.
Anyway, it is a film worth watching if one has 2 hours of time to spare on something a little different from your normal Hollywood fare.
I’m confused about the Island of Tioman. I am not sure if it is part of Pahang or part of Johor. It is really odd. Supposedly, it belongs to the parliamentary constituency of Rompin, Pahang. However, the school seems to belong to the district of Mersing, Johor. Aside from that bit of geographical brain-teaser, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time on the Island and more so in its surrounding waters. Tioman is a beautiful island with fine white sandy beaches and crystal clear emerald green waters.
It was a family trip and we decided to go there by air. That itself was an interesting flight, particularly on approach. Our plane basically flew straight into the mountain and made a sharp turn to the right and immediately landed just before actually hitting the mountain face. We landed and immediately made our way to one of the places where we were staying – Paya Beach. The atmosphere at the beach reminded me of a UCPA youth-hostel kind of environment. There were plenty of young people there as well as families. The food and service were both pretty good.
The next day, we went off on a snorkeling excursion in the sea. We hired a private boat to take just our family out to a couple of good spots. Our first visit was to a place where the fishes were colourful and corals were bright. I had never done any snorkeling before and as a virgin experience, this was a good one. The fish were excellent sport and kept coming around. They seemed not to be afraid of people.
After that, we were brought to a beautiful beach on one of the out-lying islets. The water there was crystal clear and the sand smooth and white. While the kids were busy playing in the sand, I decided to go out snorkeling around the beach instead. The fish were a little less colourful but just as interesting as they were further out. We were the first to arrive at the beach. Unfortunately, lots of other people began arriving about half an hour after us and the place turned into a giant boat park. At one point, I was even chased out of the water because a boat was trying to come in.
Then, we went to the marine park. Oh, I forgot to mention that Tioman collects a sort of ‘marine tax’ at the airport. All visitors are required to pay a small fee that contributes to the maintenance of the marine park. That is where the fisheries department takes care of the fish. Snorkeling there was fun too. The fishes there were huge and obviously well fed. I particularly liked swimming smack into a school of fish and have them scramble for cover.
That very day, I discovered what a whole day of snorkeling in the sun could do to you. I had blossomed into a bright red fruit. I was totally sun-burnt and it hurt as hell. Thankfully, the very next day was my last day on the island. So, I could limit the damage. If I had another whole day of swimming in the sea, I think that I would have probably turned brown instead. I have trouble practising self-restraint.
Anyway, I spent my last day at Japamala and boy is that a beautiful resort. It is nestled in amongst the trees and everything is constructed out of nature. The sea breeze was also excellent and never stopped blowing. The staff and services were par excellence and I would really recommend that place for anyone considering a nice quiet getaway in Tioman. It is a little pricey but totally worth every last sen spent.
Well, I guess that I have said enough and it is time for photos! I’ve not done any retouching on any of these as I do not have the time to do it. Just imagine things a little less grey and a little more gay.
If anyone has been trying to visit this blog over the last few days, you would have gotten a 503 Service Unavailable error. I have experienced some unscheduled downtime due to some problems on the server. I’ve replaced the server and will hopefully have fixed the problem now. However, things may still be a little bumpy over the next few days while I iron out any kinks that may exist. I am actually testing out a new distribution architecture for this blog.
Anyway, it took quite so long to fix simply because I was away on vacation! I’ll have photos and an update after this.
Sybreon Ones Nought 