Phew, what an end to 2008!

My dear friends,

Firstly, I really really need to apologise for the rather abrupt silence that has fallen over Kindasophically Speaking.

Contrary to popular belief, I was not, in fact,

• abducted by aliens, 
• nor was I bitten by a poisonous spider lurking under the toilet seat, 
• and I certainly have not run away with some cute twentysomething millionheiress!!

Rather this old bloke here had been bogged down by more mundane issues...

#1 -- I'd decided to renovate my house some time in Nov 08.... with us still living in it!

Yep, imagine rubble, lots of hacking, dust everywhere, a regular war zone right in my living room! Imagine having 3 hammer-drills going off in opposing walls simultaneously! Its an experience even a THX system can't (and shouldn't ever) reproduce!

Fortunately, my wife had the foresight of sending my two boys over to their grandparents' for the whole duration of the renovation! Thank goodness for: 

(a) wonderful in-laws, 

(b) school holidays, and 

(c) Astro, PSP and lots of fun places in Penang to keep them busy!

I should show you the before-after photos one day (of the reno, not the kids!), when I get my things organized.


#2 -- End-of-year during good times is tough (raking in the orders for a wonderful close).... but end of year during tough times is *painful*.

Well, at least I still have a job (for now!) so keeping busy at work is a good thing. 'Nuf said!


#3 -- One of my boys (when they finally got back) decided he missed my PC so much, he gave it a kick.

My workhorse was already whirring a bit too noisily for my liking the past days, but my boy's kick looked like the final straw. It actually just died that very instant! That IBM Netvista had been chugging along 24x7 for nearly 3 years without any fuss in an un-air-conditioned room. It even kept running during the dusty renovation (yeah, dumb thing to do on my part). I think its earned its retirement!


So the combo of these 3 things effectively kept me out of active blogging for these many weeks.

My priority now is to get 2009 started -- back to work tomorrow!

After that, find a worthy replacement for my trusty Netvista... and hopefully, get back to some of my usual ramblings! Hmm, that's going to cost a pretty penny!

And nope, I still haven't gotten the X1 yet, and nope, am not settling for the E71 either.... but am starting to get interested in a couple of other things!

Tell me, what do you think of the LG Renoir? ;)

And all of a sudden, existing 29" TV looks rather inadequate in the newly renovated hall....

My mind's thinking of a 46 inch LCD, but with the huge dent the renovation has put in the pocket, my wallet's screaming "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLINKING MIND???!?!!!?!?!?"

Oh well, back to work....

(I hope to get back to regular postings once I get a replacement PC... so until then, please excuse what's likely going to be very sporadic postings!  My sincere apologies....)

TARA 3 - Congrats to the winners..... (Spoiler ahead!)

You've been warned... do not proceed if you haven't watched the final and don't want to know who just won! :)






Really... read at your peril....






Alright, I give up, so the winners are...





Actually, I'm more interested in first, proclaiming the most sports-person like, most bubbly and fun-loving, most liked and best national ambassadors ... i.e. the 'true' winner of The Amazing Race Asia 3... IDA and TANIA!!! Congrats, you guys are the clear winners in my book. Okay, so you missed the USD 100k top price, but I think nobody can claim to have as much fun as you guys! Way to go ladies!!!

Ida and Tania

Congrats also to Sam and Vince! You guys really gave your best, came up from behind and trumped the rest to grab the top price... well done, you guys really deserved to win! (ps. So glad you guys beat Mr. Motormouth ... me and the boys were rooting for you during the very last, kan-cheong minutes!!) :P

Sam and Vince

Will be back next with a 'proper' technology post... soon .... cheers!

Congrats Obama!

Saw this featured in Time today and thought it was really funny...

Source: Time Cartoon of the Week

Barrack Obama sure has his job cut out for him... and will take something short of a miracle to really fix the problems that US has. Time will tell if Mr. President Elect is all talk and hype, or he's a man of substance. Good luck!!

Source: Time Cartoon of the Week

ps. Oh yeah, and the poor critters back in Alaska better watch out... cos She's back!!!

Source: Time Cartoons of the Week

When Generations Collide

While surfing around blogs back in September, I came across this interesting post by FongPC titled Are you Generation X or Y? That was an interesting post as it shows the change in mentality of folks of different ages. For those who care to know, I'm firmly planted in the Generation X category. Kinda the sandwiched-in-the-middle generation, if you asked me!

Anyway, I started looking around for more information about that and came across this piece of work by Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of the book When Generations Collide (hence the title of my post today!)

Basically what was interesting for me was how this study changes the way I look at things. It used to be that we think people think a certain way because of their age. And when we too reach that certain age, we'll too would think like that as well. Well, the study says we won't. How we think is not just dependent on our age but on what we experience in our lives.



Gen-Xers ('65 - '80) went through events like the fall of the Berlin wall (and subsequent thawing of the cold war); Contra war and Iran vs Iraq; the dot-com boom; AIDS; MTV; Reagan, Gates and Madonna -- and in a way, these events and people shape our generation.

Gen-Xers were the 'me' generation who learned to rely on ourselves. We were the original latch-key kids who grew up being independent, resourceful but at the same time skeptical and even aggressive.

In contrast, the Gen-Y ('81 - '95) youngsters grew up with 9-11 and two Gulf wars; the dot-com bust (dot bomb); cellphone, IM and all things digital; Clinton, Osama and Buffy.

Gen-Y have started entering the workforce, and if you ask the older guys, they get uneasy around Gen-Y 'kids'. The study tells us why we feel like that. Gen-Y are smart, very tech-savvy; multi-tasking and multi-networking (i.e connecting with people). They thrive on learning and excitement and is not afraid of authority (Don't command me, collaborate instead!).

Most of all, Gen-Y is the instant-everything generation. They demand instant feedback, expect instant results, have no problem seeing themselves as tomorrow's leaders. Nothing is fast enough for these folks, yet, value work-life balance.

Granted, these studies have a decidedly US slant to it, but you have to admit that wherever you may be, you should be able to identify with those traits associated with 'your' generation.

Chances are most of you reading this right now are either an X, or Y. Perhaps some Zs too? And hello there if you're a Baby Boomer, glad to see you here!

Interested to learn more? Check out a good presentation and even download it here.

What if.....??

A couple of days back I decided to just kick back a bit, switch off the brains and let the TV do some of the thinking for me. On the Discovery channel was a special about alien life. There are loads of such documentaries that try to give both sides of the story.

The believers will tell of their experiences -- seeing this, hearing that, getting abducted and poked around a bit.

Then there'll be the cynics and people who profess to be men and women of science. And these guys just can't wait to pooh-pooh all this claims as wild hallucinations of nutjobs.

"Forget your leader, take me to Krispy Kreme!"

I'm sitting there listening to each side's accounts...

"They had almond shaped, dark eyes..."
"The guy probably had too much to drink!"

"The saucer flew at such incredible speeds"
"Um.. it was a weather balloon, yeah, or an unmanned vehicle..."

"Thousands of reports came in, all claiming to see the same phenomenon!"
"Its not unusual to have cases of mass hysteria..."

"Those beings are evil, and they are systematically abducting humans for experiments"
"Ah, people will say anything just to go on TV!"

Must not have been too bright, since he got caught!

And so the argument continues. Some of these are supposed to be famous scientists.
So who would you believe, some small town person who may have had too much moonshine or sun or both?

Or a distinguished professor who has chewed through a million dry facts and figures?

I've always wondered what would happen to these very public debates, if one day, the real truth really came about? What would the many vocal skeptics say if really, some green-grey skinned visitor came down one day ... took a look, decided we weren't worth their time and left.... right in plain sight of a hundred TV cameras?

I for one would love to see that day.
And for the record, I do believe there is sentient life out there! Its inconceivable for me that of the bazillions stars in this infinite universe, we are unique.

Remember, just barely a couple of centuries ago, the brightest scientific minds of that time though the earth was flat... um, no, round but in the center of the universe, not that... but the sun rotated around the earth... strike that... the moon is made of cheese....

Flat Earth - circa. 1225 AD

Well, perhaps not that last one. But you've seen scientific and religious dogma being proven wrong with every leap of new discovery and knowledge. Makes you wonder what other 'facts' that we hold as irrefutably true today would turn out to be yet another of our misunderstanding of nature?

I leave you with these famous words, spoken eloquently by many of the world's brightest minds. Its not about aliens or anything funky... but you'll be surprised how people felt about things which we take for granted today.....

• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

• "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

• "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

• "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" -- Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

• "You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." -- Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

• "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." -- Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.

• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

• "The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

• "No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris." -- Orville Wright.

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- T.Watson, chairman of the board, IBM, 1943

• "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechnics, 1949

• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olsoon, founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1972

Happy 51st Birthday Malaysia!!!

Happy Birthday my dear homeland

Merdeka -- we commemorate the struggles of our forefathers
Merdeka -- we commemorate our freedom and independence

Yet today, the struggle continues against 'new' enemies
Enemies within our country, not without

Yet today, we continue our fight against agents of destruction
Agents of disunity and chaos .... against You --

Ignorance, prejudice, complacency
Intolerance, false-pride, mediocrity --

You and your ilk are not true Malaysian Values
You are our true enemy, and we are still slaves to You

Real independence will only be upon us
When we, as a nation, have rid ourselves of You!

Happy birthday Malaysia
Let our struggles continue...

Malaysia wins the debate!

I know I'm supposed to be off this keyboard and enjoying my holiday sans technology, and certainly without blogging.

Instead here I am, pecking away at these words, and later on, will have to go around looking for an internet connect to post this.

I couldn't help myself -- had to -- after thoroughly enjoying the debate between the ex- and the present CM of Penang this evening.

Often, it is hard to admit it when one is wrong. Even rarer is it when one admits a mistake happily. In an earlier post just after the debate between DSAI and DASC, I predicted that chances are, that would be the first and last debate.

I am so glad that I was WRONG about it. And I HOPE to continue to be wrong in that aspect, and that there will be many more of such debates in the future!

I personally think these debates are great. This gives a public platform for both sides of the political line to air their points, raise arguments and defend themselves. Admittedly, it remains to be seen if such debates will yield any long term benefit to the people. But at the least, the real judges (i.e. we the Rakyat) get to hear the (hopefully uncensored) exchanges and form our own opinions.

A great use of technology to serve the masses!!

BRAVO to the powers that be who allowed the 2nd debate -- keep it up!

BRAVO to the 2 speakers, who, contents aside, showed a very strong command of the Malay language -- they were articulate, fluent and witty in what is obviously their 2nd or even 3rd language.

Hmm... perhaps Bangsa Malaysia may not be a pipe-dream afterall....

So permit me to resume my holiday, and fantasise a bit about that....

Be right back...

Alright... the bags are packed and we're ready to balik kampung.

Well its not quite Raya yet (we're Malaysians, we celebrate *everything*, remember?), but it is the school holidays! So, we'll be headed up North, hopefully for a few good days of R&R and some fun at the beach.

Away from the KL/PJ crowd.... away from computers and the Internet.... and away from blogging for a while.

Should be back in 5 days or so.... and until then, take care y'all, stay well and happy!!

World's most adoroble trash-compacting bot

You really have to give it to the geniuses at Pixar.

Movie after movie, they manage to churn out the most lovable and endearing characters, pen the most beautiful stories, and produce the slickest movies without missing a beat.

Count them -- 9 movies to date, and not one of them deserving of any serious criticism. OK, so Cars was a relative disappointment compared to the other greats, but still, it stands as a pretty decent movie and is still miles ahead of the plethora of crappy children's movies around!

• Wall-E - 97%
• Ratatouille - 95%
• Cars - 75%
• The Incredibles - 97%
• Finding Nemo - 98%
• Monsters, Inc. - 95%
• Toy Story 2 - 100%
• A Bug's Life - 91%
• Toy Story - 100%

List from Rotten Tomatoes

I loved the way Pixar put so much effort into bringing life to the characters.

Think about it -- the characters in Wall-E are CGI-drawn robots rendered in massive server farms. They don't have real human voices behind them. They don't even look vaguely human!!

Does he remind you a bit of Johnny from Short Circuit?

Yet, the true stars of the show -- Andrew Stanton (writer & director) and the animators -- successfully bring 'life' to the string of ones and zeroes! The amount of human qualities the characters exude -- love, an appreciation of life, comradeship and loyalty; the intensity of happiness, sadness, excitement, fear, curiosity, sense of duty and responsibility....

Sure, we could marvel at the gagillion-bytes and thingamaflops of computing power that went into rendering the movie to absolute perfection. We could step back and be amazed at how many light years ahead the CGI is from Pixar's early days. But that would be missing the point.

Wall-E and Eve are the representation of all things human -- and they are so *much more* human than the many cardboard-thin 'real' characters in so many human-acted movies!!!

Yet, it is not 'just' a fun movie about friendship and first love. Behind that story is a message of the danger of unbridled consumerism. Of people who have traded in a real life for convenience and creature comfort. Of loosing sight of Mother Nature... until eventually losing Mother Nature. Of Man's arrogance which then led to the total destruction of his home planet.

But it is also about the all-redeeming hope.

Wall-E wondering if he'll get his own sequel like Woody and Buzz...

All of that is wrapped up in a nice package without being over preachy or moralistic.
Good fun, a warm-fuzzy and something to learn from. What more could you ask for?

Do yourself a favour... go watch the show and discover your inner robot! :)

Totally awesome

Its fun to occasionally talk about something that has nothing to do with technology.

Take this video for example. I started noticing it appear on the Discovery channels a some time back. And I absolutely love it to bits!!

Its got a great catchy tune, simple but lovely lyrics, and boy, what a concept and message.

World, I love you -- you're totally awesome!!




Thank you Discovery and all you wonderful hosts of Discovery shows, who participated in this 'music video' :)

Fittingly, this video was also played right before the screening of Wall-e. If you've seen this sweet and touching movie, you can see the video placement was just apt.

I found in YouTube yet another rendition by Mike Rowe and other DC hosts ... just as wonderful! :)




OK, OK, so its Discovery Channel's 2008 advertisement. Even so, its one advertisement I'd gladly have it sitting in my mind, going Boom De Ya Dah!!!

Where did all the days go???

Good gosh!! It felt like a blink of an eye, but wow, I'd not been posting for over a week already!!

The past week has been crazy. Very late nights meant absolutely no time to indulge in a bit of story telling or tech-surfing. The rest of the couple of days that I did manage to get home early was spent trying to catch up on some precious ZZsss...

Next week's going to be just as bad (or good, depending on how you look at it, I guess!!) -- will be away during the school holidays... and chances are, where I'm going, it will be pretty hard to find a broadband connection.

Hope to be able to continue posting regularly again real soon.

Until then, take care.... and to those of you pending time with the family during the school holidays.... selamat bercuti and drive safely ya!

Healthy pinch of salt necessary

When we first moved into our place over 10 years ago, my better half and I went about the task of getting all the electricals we needed for our home.

Again, as with planning our purchases, we'd make a list, define our budget, see what we like, and then buy. Easy right? Well, yes, sort of. Things went great all the way until we hit the 'and then buy' part.

That was when we encountered this near-human species called the Mega-legenda-cheapo-ban-hock-leong-guan-hin-seng electronic appliance salesman. You've probably encountered these beings before. Its not hard to spot them. There are good ones, and there are those who make pond scum somehow look wholesome.

Here are some highlights of what I remember of them:

• The "Yes sir, how can I help you" opener (hands clapsed, body bent forward in commission-driven sincerity)
• The "Oh ya, we can get you everything you need" guarantee (brings out reams of photocopy lists)
  
• The "You better beware of the other sharks (points next door) who give you low price but never deliver" well-rehearsed advice
• The "Sir, I'm already making a loss selling to you at this price... how to go lower?" puppy-eyed plea
• The "Tell you what, I'll.... if you'll.... " nudge-nudge-wink-wink deal closer

But largely, the most defining, albeit least desired highlight of this species is the "rip-every-shred-of-faith-you-have-for-humanity-by-utterly-reneging-on-every-single-promise" act. You'd probably have experienced it in one way or another, when dealing with these guys.

• Eg 1: Promises to deliver at 11am and manages to turn up at 3pm after 27 calls

Source: websiterevernge.co.uk

• Eg 2: Promises the best deal in town, only to tell you they're out of stock -- the next best deal would 'only' be a couple hundred bucks more

Source: abyss.uoregon.edu

Closely resembled me when I screamed out of frustration!

• Eg 3: Promises you great after-sales service, and when you need it, crudely points you to the manufacturer's service centre instead. ("you want to send through us also can one, but this will take extra 5 days woh")
  

Saw that in: Flickr.com

• I could go on but there's no sense in telling you what you already know, eh?

So here's the deal. Everybody knows these guys make American 2nd-hand car dealers look like the Salvation Army. Yet, why do we still go there? Why not go to Harvey Norman or Best Denki or even Carrefour (pronounced "kar foor", ok) / Giant hypermarts where you'll be assured of a 'fair' value and not get ripped off?

Looking for a deal eh mate?

Hai, hai, honto ni this izu best0 dee-ru in town neh!

Oui, oui, cest si bon, I give you ze magnefique deal in ze town ya?

I think its because, secretly, we all believe we're the better bargainer, and far shrewder then the worst (technically, best) salesman! We have done our homework -- walked up and down the streets 4.57 times and can memorize the model number and 7-page specs by heart! NOBODY is going to sucker me! We all believe that, right?

Sure, I believe you!

You could get the better of some of these guys. And yes, to be fair, not all of them are as terrible as how I'd described them to be. Some could be worse! But there are many decent guys out there as well (2 is many!).

So whatever your preferred way to shop, good luck, have fun, and shop smart!
Oh yeah, and set aside an extra 2% more budget if you're paying by 'card'!

There... finally!!

Hellllloooo there!!!!!

So here I am... with some hesitation and not much fanfare... typed rather sleepily in the middle of the night (1:41am to be exact)... I have finally started my first blog!

Woo hoo... big deal, I have but joined in the line of another bazillion other bloggers just ahead of me! No Columbus award here but hey, one has to start somewhere, methinks!

Okaaay, just 2 paragraphs into this game and I can't already be suffering from bloggers' block, can I? What was it the beginners' tips said...? Write what you know... be yourself.... have a think first what you want to do with your blog... keep it alive... don't be self centered...be nice...

Right, with all these tips stuffed into my brain, its no wonder I'm having trouble getting beyond to the next paragraph.

So I'm going to keep this first post short.

Firstly, many thanks to MG, T, V, AiHua and my blogging mentor, Alex, for giving me your honest and open feedback and suggestions when I asked you what you thought about me starting this blog.

Secondly -- what will this blog be about?
The current thinking is that I'd go into writing about BBTs (big boy toys -- you know, tech-stuff, cars, cameras, watches, games, movies .... just about anything cool and fun in my books).

I am consistently amazed at how those brilliant marketing folks are able to churn out item after item of really neat stuff -- nicely packaged with a healthy dose of oh-now-I-really-have-to-have-one-of-these aura about it. And since I neither have the inclination nor the financial resources to just about buy every one of those cursed things... probably the next best thing is to write about them.

Occasionally perhaps, I may give in to an oddball rant about food ... or the state of this world, if I happen to peek beyond my immediate surroundings. :)

I don't know -- that's the plan for today anyway. Will see how things go. And, hopefully it will be a fun journey for you, me, everybody.

Till then... cheers and take care!