Way Back Home

Its been few days after I arrived Kuching, a place which I’ll prefer to call it HOMETOWN. As usual, after the long tiring trip one need to take a rest and unpack the stuff (that explain why this post come in so late).

 

Edinburgh Chaos

Well the sub heading of CHAOS really mean disaster to me.  Once arrived at the airport, I realized that my total check in baggage weight around 40Kg which is 100% extra more than I was allowed.  The excess baggage charge is £58/Kg (£8/Kg for domestic route + £50/Kg for international route), a simple math had given me the idea of how much I need to pay (£1160).  The recourse for it, I need to repack my baggage at the airport and ask my friend to sell any heavy item i.e. my lcd monitor.  I managed to reduce my total baggage weight down to 33Kg and luckily the counter lady was kind enough to let me through without paying excess baggage charge.

 

London Heathrow

I just can’t believed that my flight arrived London 30 minutes earlier than schedule.  The captain says this is because the sky is clear and they are permitted to increase SPEED.  Despite the early arrival to London Heathrow, I’m still need to walk long way to my next departure gate which is from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3.  The duration for it including the transit bus is around 30 minutes.  Yes, 30 minutes!! So imagine how big is for the busiest airport in the world.  (Too bad I do not have the time to had my Japanese dinner at the airport which I initially plan for.)

 

Singapore Airlines A380

Yes, the A380 is one of the carrier in my journey back home.  The experience in the world largest commercial aircraft is just simply marvellous.  I started to think that the character A may resemble the word AWESOME.  It’s all started from the take off and landing experience, I am totally shock to found out that I already in the air or on the ground as I seat in the aisle area.  Imagine how quiet and smooth the take off and landing for this jumbo.  Moreover everything is huge, even in the economy class there is plenty of leg room to spare with (even for long leg person like me). 

The in-flight entertainment (KrisWorld) is totally drooling.  It can let you spend hours without feeling bored.  KrisWorld include a 10” Widescreen LCD, a controller which act as handset as well, tonnes of latest movie, drama, music, games and news.  The best part of all you can plug in your ipod, iphone or USB drive and work with whatever data inside. 

Apart from the entertainment area, the service provided is world class. There is a variety of food and beverages as well which fit for all types of customer either you like the western cuisine or the hometown flavour.  They really earned their award for the world best airlines.         

 

Kuching International Airport

The first feeling when stepping down the plane is HOT!!!  Well I used to the cold weather back in UK and started to miss it already.  Next is MASK, I saw every people wearing mask in the airport including the officer on duty.  This is something really different or contrast.  In the UK none of the officer or passenger wear any mask but things are totally contrast in Malaysia.  Should I take that  Malaysian are more paranoid in some way?! LOL …I’ll leave you to do the judgement. 

Health Curfew??!!

I don’t know whether this is the situation in Malaysia or not, people wearing mask around the street.  However, today news are quite shocking for me as the Malaysia’s government is actually thinking of going to the health curfew route.

“KUALA LUMPUR: Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the influenza A (H1N1) outbreak is a “national health emergency” but the government will only consider declaring a health curfew if the mortality rate goes above 0.4 per cent…” (source: NST Online)

Apart from the curfew route, the ministry of health also announced that a penalty (under Section 12 (1) of the Disease Control Act) will be enforced.  The penalty involve a maximum fine of RM10,000.00 or 2 years jail or both.  Wuu this is a hefty fine over here, so what measure or act that will trigger the fine? Well according to the health minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the act will punished people with influenza-like illness symptoms but who failed to seek treatment, isolate themselves or wear MASKs.  Alright fair enough for the later two actions but the seek treatment stuff??!!  What I heard is Malaysia’s hospitals or clinics are congested with people and in order to SEEK for treatment one need to queue an average of 4 hours to get treated by the doctors.  What the hell, FOUR hours just to meet a doctor??  For those student who have plenty of time its ok but howabout those who need to work?  Just get a MC (medical certificate) you might say, well in current economic situation no MC is allowed (of course this is only the rule of thumb not written in black and white) unless you want to eat FRIED SOTONG (get what I mean…).    

After all, just take care guyz and wear your MASK. LOL

绝代商骄 / You're Hired

Just finish watching episode 5 of the series and I think I should make a recommendation on it.  The reason damn easy its FUNNY and beneficial for those on MBA courses or who wanna become a CEO.  You must be wonder why on earth I will say it is beneficial for MBA student.  Well from the storyline of episode 1 till episode 4, the drama already covered the theory of organisational management, risk and value management, property management, people management and etc.  I don’t wanna list all of the related management theory to bored all of you but for those who taking the relevant courses you know what I talking about.  Maybe you guyz can take the storyline as your sample case study in exam with some modification of course.  By the way just like in every sector there is legal issue related stuff.  Although the law used in the drama is Hong Kong legislation, some of the concept might just be applicable in Malaysia since both countries are Commonwealth countries meaning the legislation system is based on English Law.

If you are not interested in all those business stuff than you still can watch this drama as it is DAMN FUNNY.  I keep laughing the whole time when watching it.  There is a saying that laughing is the best anti aging medicine but for me its just a great anti stress medicine (better than any spa treatment).    

Below is the synopsis of the drama (Obviously I just copy and paste the whole paragraph so its only available in chinese):

“商界黑武士麦提爽(黄子华)连累恩师轻生，黯然退出商界，但闻悉恩师的妻子佘慕莲(李綺红)因而负债累累，惟以卖"桥"给商人唐吉(许绍雄)赚取报酬代慕莲还债，但他爱耍个性拒做上班族，导致收入不稳，日夜遭收数妹林淼淼(佘诗曼)死缠烂打，两人尔虞我诈，你追我跑，遂成一对欢喜冤家。
直至提爽遇上同母异父的弟弟安祖连(谢天华)，勾起当年被母亲拋夫弃子的惨痛回忆，突然性情大变，逐步向安家上下大开杀戒，一向多计的淼淼也无所适从，看不清提爽的葫芦到底在卖什么药……”

Tian Tian Hot Pot

The photo above is my last night dinner. Yummy??!! Certainly it is…Me and my peers decided to go for a gathering and trying the newly open steamboat restaurant (Extra info: the local call steamboat as Hot Pot).  The specialty of this restaurant is it offer UNLIMITED seafood refill (except lobster and scallops which amount to 1 per person).  This is kinda rare in Edinburgh although the city is famous for its seafood selection. The price you might ask, they only charge you £15 per person and £2 for each drinks.  However the downside of this restaurant is they don’t provide much choices on drinks and dipping sauce (arghhh no 沙茶酱).  Below is a list of food offered by the restaurant:   

Jumbo Shrimp
Squid
Scallops
Razor Clams
Surf Clams
Crab
Lobster
Fillet Steak
Lamb
and a selection of tofu, noodles, vegetables and seaweeds

Back OnlineZzz

Testing..Testing..1,2,1,2.  Yo I’m back with my blog after weeks of struggling with my dissertation.  The compiling of my dissertation marked another milestone as it mean another path of life is awaiting me in front.  By the way I would like to thanks those who has spend their valuable time in completing my questionnaire. 

After completing the dissertation, it’s time to SAY GOODBYE to my mates at Heriot-Watt.  Really appreciate and enjoy the time with you guyz.  Hope that we can still keep in touch.

Alright I know the coming back post is a little short but I have lots of stuff to follow on (haizz hectic lifestyle).  I’ll update you all with the latest activity, software, music or drama series that i think worth to recommend.  Until then CIAO.

Windows Se7en’s User Experience

 

Preface

As mentioned in the earlier post, I’ll update with my user experience towards the Windows 7 Operating System (OS).  My comparisons are basically between Windows XP and Windows 7 as I never (or seldom) use Windows Vista.  Currently I’m using the latest RC Escrow (pre-release candidate) build 7077 of Windows 7.

Fresh Install or Upgrade

This section is basically for Windows Vista or earlier Windows 7 version where upgrading is possible. Sorry for Windows XP’s user as this is not an option for you!!  My observation is

• Upgrading take really long time if your previous OS have a lot of programme.
• Clean install is faster than upgrading if you do not mind reinstall all the software and configuring your system again.

 

Device’s Driver

Installation of driver is tweak in build 7077 making it slightly faster than build 7068 (which contribute to faster fresh install speed). 

 

Window’s Graphic User Interface (GUI)

This is the most dramatic part that you will notice starting from the installation process.  Once you finish testing your machine performance by rating it, aero peek will be activated (hopefully).  What is aero peek?  Well refer to the picture below :    

Hover your mouse to the opened programme in the taskbar, active thumbnail will show up for the relevant programme and once pointed on it all the opened window will become translucent (only the pointed thumbnail window will be shown).  Apart from the nice effect of it, it is really convenient as you can close the tab or window from the thumbnail itself. 

 

Desktop Gadget

This is initially called sidebar in Windows Vista but renamed to desktop gadget in Windows 7.  The reason for this is Microsoft finally tweak the tool to be more flexible.  You can move the gadget all around the desktop.  However, thing to be noticed is that enabling desktop gadget need some additional RAM to be burned (around 100mb for 5 Gadgets).

 

Networking

Ahh… the most annoying part in configuring a new system.  Surprisingly, Windows 7 make everything as easy as 123.  The new wizard make home networking very very easy even for person with limited networking knowledge.  The setting up process took me less than 5 minutes with minimal user input (most of the things are automatically configure by window).    

 

Multiple Monitor

For laptop user or multiple monitors user this is basically the best tool so far.  You can easily extend or duplicate your monitor.  A simple shortcut of window+P called up the utility.  A sample of my extended desktop is shown below. 

As you can see I dedicated my smaller laptop screen for all the gadgets and live messenger while the bigger screen as my main display.

 

Features On/Off

This new function allow most of the windows function to be turn off.  For example Internet Explorer, tablet pc function, games, etc.

 

Updates

• Seems like build 7077 will not be the public release candidate as build 7078 and 7079 had been compiled.
• Latest version of Kaspersky Internet Security 8 for Windows 7 will caused window explorer to be unresponsive.
• Please be caution when disabling IE as some of the application still dependent on it.
• Windows 7 release date revised to early September 2009

Edinburgh’s Future Transport

 

This is the scene if you arrived Edinburgh City in this time of year. Ahh blocked with major barrier due to city tram upgrading process.

   Some information on where are the planned stop for the future tram services.  Apparently the tram line run from the harbour till the airport. 

The much annoying construction process.

How the tram will look like in the year 2011 when it officially run.

Another photo showing the model tram.

Lastly a photo of a funny guy. This guy posed for me when I'm taking the model tram picture.