Some Wacky Stuff

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Japan Trip 2006

Well, I am finally in Japan after 2 long exhausting flights all the way from KLIA to Singapore, then Japan. Both flights were pretty full and inside the plane is like a microwave, I was sticky and sweaty by the time I got to Singapore. The flight was pretty packed, and having to sit in the middle aisle is not fun at all. I actually quite disappointed with the Singapore Airline this time. Their food was nothing exciting and man, they were so tight with their drink. I asked for a Coke, and they poured me a glass but won't even leave the rest of the can with me which they usually do on other airlines. And the heat isn't helping so I had to keep asking them for more drink the whole time. Not to mention the infotainment was pretty boring, there isn't many good movies on the flight so the whole flight was unexciting and boring. I was pretty much stuck in there and couldn't move. But it was late, so I pretty much slept all the way through.

I arrived at Narita Airport around 7am, and just the usual queueing up to go through the custom and ready to go out and explore the city. But hey, seems like they decided I should have my journey more exciting start right at the airport. I was at the custom counter, and the custom officer is asking me where's my visa, I said I don't have one. Uh oh!!! Wrong Answer!!!! So I ended up detained in the custom room for half an hour or so, filling up forms before they letting me into the country. It was a bit of a drama, but all went smoothly, despite my rugged look and I still able to convince them I am not an illegal migrant trying to get a job here.

Mr. Nakamurasan was waiting for me at the airport lounge. He was bigger from what I had expected. The sumo clad pics he sent to me was sure an indication he was an ex-sumo wretler. I apologized for being late and he was polite enough to wait for me. He then purchased my first JR train ticket to catch the train from Narita Airport all the way into city. We stopped at the Tokyo Central Station and it was pretty much a blur. It took us some time to exchanged our JR Rail Pass ticket, and also lugging the heaving backpack around station trying to look for the Tazai Railway line to get to our hotel isn't funny. But we did manage to find it and got here at ease. Thank god the concierge of the hotel is very nice and let us check in early into Kayabacho Pearl Hotel. Hence, I will have a shower and head back out again into the city for bit of sight-seeing. Wish me luck!!!

I went out to check out the local touristy stuff around Tokyo for the rest of the day. We went to the Imperial Palace for a walk and check out the Shogun emperor used to live in during the Edo period. Afterwards, we walked back to north to check out the Tokyo International Forum. The building is shaped like a ship and made of glass, but inside is just a big wide space. While we were there, there's an antique market happening outside the forum. There were so many good Japanese antiques and wish I could buy them but carry them back with a heavy luggage does worry me. Then we headed back towards Ginza to have a walk around and window shopping. The area is filled with expensive posh boutiques like Hermes, Christian Dior etc. We walked into the Sony building and checked out some really cool gadgets, but we were fascinated by the staircase inside which will play the octave notes while stepping on each step. As this is our first day, so we played it casually by just taking some cheap Japanese curry meal. It was bit comprehensive to order food, as it was my first time, but I did manage to order without any problem and able to speak few Japanese words.

The rest of the night, we took the metro to go to Akihabara to check out more latest gadgets. Akiban (Akihabara) is quite a fascinating area, there are just shop over shop, selling mobiles, game consoles, everything, you name it. And not just that, there were also young Japanese gals dressing as servants (maid) to lure the businessman to have some relaxation time in the love hotels. Then we also saw some guys having cosplay there, promoting a Halloween party at a night club. Definitely an eyeful for a single day before we heading back to hotel and ready for tomorrow adventure.

HatYaii, Thailand

Just for the sake of putting up pictures again. Hey guess where I was at ?? Hatyaii, Thailand. If you squint, at the back there is a military personnel standing. Actually there are a lot of them. Apparently, security has tighten in the south of Thailand after the bombing and Tak Bai incident.

Recently there was a bombing in Hatyaii near where we stayed. Send shivers down my spine thinking about it. It could have been us !!!

Back in Vienna

Finally back in Vienna. After quite a stint in Malaysia. I finally got the green light from my sponsors to come back to Europe and start my 1st classes.

It was not easy since the recent Muslim Comic uproar, it's not really safe to go anywhere in Europe. Fortunately, in Vienna they are oblivious to such things and I managed to convinced my sponsors that I should be fairly safe here.

The Faculty of Computer Science is a huge complex which houses all of the computational departments in here. There was a small get together with the professors and I was formally introduced to much of the facilities available here. I have access to the supercomputer grid and ample computing time given for my use.

These 2 girls are my research assistant. Jessica and Larissa. They have been assigned by the university to help me out while I am here.

I accidentally saw a faculty that interest me: http://www.univie.ac.at/gender/
The Faculty of Gender Studies. I might take up a few extra courses there.. hehehe

Picassa from Google

I've been using this new software from Google called Picassa. It's really cool coz I can now manage the thousands of pictures in my Harddisk and some I have never seen before hidden away in some remote folder.

It also has the functionality of uploading it to a blog and making a webpage out of it.

The final kick was the functionality of viewing videos as well as pictures.

It's really fast since it uses the google desktop engine under it's hood. Here are some jewels I found tucked inside my HDD.

A candid pic of my late friend Riez ( ...miss you so much! )

The late Riez, Syed & Me

The 1st JB Gathering - Circa year 2000

My Computer

Okay I know it's lame to brag about one's own PC. But this machine has served me well and I am proud of it coz I built it with my own 2 hands. Up-to-date, i currently have 2 PCs. One running on Windows XP and the other on Linux Fedora Core 4.

Here are the specs:-
PC1 (win XP)
- Intel Pentium 4 - 1.7Ghz - Overclocked to 1.8Ghz ( with Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz as backup)
- 1 DVD Combo Drive, 1 CD-Writer
- Nvidia Geforce 5200 - 256MB RAM - AGP
- 15" LCD Display - HP 1502
- 1GHz DDR RAM
- 3 Harddrive (160GB Maxtor, 2 x 120GB Maxtor = Total 300GB).
- 1 External HDD (80GB IBM) - for backup

PC2 (Linux)
- Intel Pentium III - 553Mhz
- ATI Rage 8MB PCI
- (no monitor)
- 40GB HDD

The primary PC1 is used for all my work and stuff (surfing the net, e-mail, video editing etc)
The secondary PC2 is for proxy, website development, code experiments etc.
PC2 has no monitor since I prefer to use linux via remote which is faster than using the conventional KDE/GNOME GUI.

In all these years, I have technically owned 6 PCs. Starting with a modest AMD 486 - 100Mhz with a green monitor (coz I couldn't afford a a display monitor). The monitor was a hand-me-down screen from the matriculation computer lab. 8MB memory was the in-thing at that time. DOS 6 was the only thing it ran. I found the motherboard which someone has thrown away. Fixed it up and it works. Walla.. my 1st PC. Bought a printer EPSON LQ-100 (money shared with my roomates) for thesis typing purposes.

The second PC was a Pentium 1 - 133Mhz. I bought the parts bit by bit from the extra money I had when I was working part-time when I was a student. It was running Windows 3.11. I gave this away to my brother as he badly needs it for this studies.

By this time, the third PC was in the making. It was an Intel Pentium 1 MMX - 200Mhz. The processor was a thing of beauty with a black encasement. This one ran Windows 95. It has a Sound Blaster 16 Card. Someone stole this machine when I was moving to a new house in Serdang.

Fortunately, when the 3rd PC was gone. I was already using the forth PC was an AMD - 300Mhz. Running at a 75 Mhz FSB. I had a copy of Windows 97. I also added a TV card so I can watch TV from my room. An El-cheapo Sound Forte 16 card. I traded this one away to a friend for some networking parts (a 16 port 10/100 3com hub etc etc).

My fifth PC was Pentium II - 350Mhz. Running on Windows 2000. Later I upgrade the processor to Pentium III - 550Mhz. Bought a CD-Writer for this one. Added a Sound Blaster Live Card. It had a Geforce 4 card. Later this was stripped down to make way for the sixth PC. But I still retain this one as my Linux machine.

My sixth is a Pentium 4 - 1.7Ghz. Initially I planned to built a dual processor machine. But due to budget constraint, I use only one processor. It's my current one running on Windows XP. Added an Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers. It had an internal display, NIC and sound card. But I added the Sound Blaster from the old machine coz it just sounded better. Later added a Geforce 5200 card for 3D gaming purposes.

It was a love and hate relationship. I had many sleepless nights trying to get all the components running. Installing and re-installing software after each hard-disk crash. There were many things added/removed/borrowed/never-returned. But overall it has served me well and I'm already preparing for my seventh PC as we speak.

Who knows, it might be a Pentium Duo with a Mac OS Tiger inside.