Quick Blurp - Snow Leopard and Lock Screen

Got this tip from a comment here => http://www.gkoya.com/2006/11/23/locktight-for-mac-os-x-intel/

As of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, there is one more way to accomplish this, without any extra or third party software.

Use Automator to create and save a ‘Start Screen Saver’ service that accepts no input and is available to all applications. You can find the appropriate Automator action under ‘Utilities’. Then you can simply assign this new service a shortcut from the Keyboard Shortcuts preference pane.

If you would prefer to lock the screen rather than use a screen saver, use Automator to run a shell script with the following command:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

Then set the keyboard shortcut as before. Huzzah!

Perth Trip – Snacks and Breakfast

Of (unfounded) fear that I would die from not having a chance to eat lunch and no mamak stalls around at night (which is true), I bought tons of snacks on the first day.

Made my own sandwich. The loaf of bread was so big that I could not finish it in time.

The fruit cake from Woolsworth was surprisingly OK.

Here is the horde or food that I bought, which many of them I could not finish in 2 weeks coz I was so stuffed all the time. More on that later.

   

Did not miss out having to taste ultra fresh Royal Gala apples, my favorite type.

 

I thought ang moh’s cannot stand spicy food, but hot damn, these Kettle chips were smoking. Took me 3 nights to finish these.

Perth Trip – Hotel Room

I took too many pictures during my trip to Perth that I got to post these in small batches… Starting with the hotel I stayed, which is “The New Esplanade Hotel”, located on, surprise surprise, The Esplanade Road, which in front of the esplanade. You get the idea.

The rate was going like about AUD110, which is rather cheap. I think they gave quite a fair amount of discount since I stayed there for 14 days straight.

The rooms were pretty decent, with a queen size bed and another single. Had a ViewSonic flat panel and small fridge. Room was clean, but toiletries were minimal. Just towels, no toothbrush.

Here’s the view from the hotel room at daylight.

 

And at night. The Eye of Perth was on display, but did not bother to try out, as there were many more things to do, and eat. Will show you guys in pictures in coming posts!

iPhone 3GS Maxis Malaysia Pricing is out!

http://www.maxis.com.my/iphone3gs/rateplan1.asp

Too bad no price drop for the previous 8GB iPhone 3

One Tiny Painful Step Forward...

No dates yet, but confirmed this month (d'oh). http://www.maxis.com.my/iphone3gs/index.asp

So Easy Even Isaac Can Do It...

Singapore Science Center

Here are some of the vids I took at the SCC:

Rotating Tesla Coil

Tesla Coil super spark

Wireless energy transference

Tesla Coil goes Ka-boom!

SCC has a IMAX theater too, and we watched "Space Station", which was narrated by Tom Cruise, using actual space footage taken from Space Shuttle missions and from the ISS. The theater is not like the one in Berjaya Time Square, because the screen was round, like a football cut in half! Definitely a very difference experience, especially looking down the Earth from ISS.

Singapore Trip/Exchange 14 Ignite

So I was down at Singapore for about a week to attend the Exchange “14” Ignite, as well as to take some time off to get around and about. Here are some of the slightly more interesting stuffs that I saw during my trip. (56kbps warning!)

First up, for LCie: MOS burger!!! I think I had it for at least twice.

I was so excited that I ordered 2 burgers! Yay! But I was in a rush that I left the 2nd one on the table. Darn.

For Juls, CH and Ivy: Look at the big cannons!

For Justin: Star Trek in DLP was awesome! And with some UOB credit card the tix price would just be SGD6.

For Andy and Corra: Although it was on sale, it was still too expensive (for me) la. SGD240 for slippers? Ended up with Nike @ SGD55.

Singaporeans really like their arts. This was on the MRT station wall @ Chinatown aka Niu Che Shui. Took these while waiting for CK.

For Funj: Here was how the event look like. See? I saw in front row, good student leh. Cham didn’t like it at all though :P

For Funj: Without breaching the NDA, here is one shot of the Dell Latitude 17 inchers that everyone was using with 8GB of RAM. That’s almost 200 units in one room…

 

For Justin: They had the Maverick in transparent case! Is this authorized version or china ciplak?

For Daniel and LCie: Asahi beer from the tap! Damn smooth! SGD9.90 per pop. Too bad the ramen so so only. Thanks Joseph for insisting to pay for the dinner!

Toilet also got flat panel TV, don’t play play OK. Even my house is still on CRT TV :(

For Justin and Julian: Tons of camara bags, @ top floor Sim Lim Square. Not sure about pricing though. Kata, National Geographic, Tamrec, Lowepro – complete collection!

For LCie and LH: Went to Night Safari with Cham. Thanks LH for the recommendation! It was well worth the SGD22 tix. Came out and lo and behold, a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor! You’d wouldn’t find this in Malaysia… (fresh anyway.)

For Funj: Only wish that I could lug these babies back! SGD160 at South East Asia computer store @ Funan.

For Julian: This is the Intuos that I saw, it was huge! Too bad I am artistically crippled :P

Ah here is the place where I had the Asahi beer on tap. Shokudo. I heard there is a outlet in KL?

For CK and Isaac: I went to the Singapore Science Center, and I think it was well worth the visit. SGD25 and we spend the whole day there.  SSC had a huge animatron T-Rex at the entrance. It was huge and very articulate, compared to the Dino and Monster expo at Midvalley…

Look closely. The model is even made to be “anatomically correct”…

All Red Alert fans: SSC has a real tesla coil on demo! Video @ next post.

Me and CK were very lucky as the Da Vinci expo was there and it was suppose to be the only stop in South East Asia. Too bad no pix allowed inside.

McSpicy (Singapore) = Chicken McDeluxe (Malaysia).

 

One more round of MOS burger before going back! Yakiniku Rice (beef).

 

For Edwin: I did get to Computex after 3 train line changes and 1 bus ride later…. Thanks for the info anyway :)

For Funj and Cham: Polycom units on sale…but why no stock one leh. Challanger @ VivoCity.

For Joey: The garden is actually on the roof of the building! @ViviCity.

Isaac would had love it there.

Pseudo lake garden on the roof – magnificent!

 

For LH: ALDO was on sale, 20% off.

For Justin: National Geographic’s signature outlet was at VivoCity – it has a zero Celsius chamber to test out their winter wears… but even a sweater costs SGD250…

For all burger/hotdog lovers: This is the ultimate place to go. Albeit the corny name, the burger I ordered was fantastic! Check next pix!

 

Ben and Jerry’s again! For SGD3 more on top of the meal.

This is the Super Burger. Aptly named, the meat patty consists of BOTH beef and pork. And I ordered extra bacon and eggs… inside the burger! Yom yom yom!

For all Sarawakians: Kolo mee rocks! @ LG2 VivoCity.

Wireless @ SG

Bumpy registration process but after finally gone in, pretty good performance for free Internet!



The hotel room one is either SG28/24hrs or SG0.50 per min....

Social Experiment

I wanted to perform a social experiment on the guys in the office, and this was my evil plan :)

1. Talked loudly about Street Fighter 4 for XBOX360 to get everyone excited,
2. Went out and buy the game, knowing that there is only one fresh set of batteries for one controller only,
3. Got the game back, started playing first thing in the office,
4. Then made an excuse to pass my controller to someone else.

Guess what happened:

1. They have not stopped playing, despite there is real work to be done,
2. And it's 10:30am, right smack in the middle of office hours,
3. And no one bothered to walk downstairs and buy a fresh set of batteries for the other controller.

And many of you wonder why employers always complain that employees are an ungrateful bunch :)

People Say That "Malaysian Government Hospitals Suck" For A Reason

I promised to write this entry a few weeks back, but my schedule has been shot out of the sky... Anyway, it's about our experience of having a baby at Selayang Hospital.

Actually, let me pen down all the mistakes they made first:

1. Did not want to take any action even Joey was overdue. There was nothing we could do about it, as it is hospital "policy" to wait 7 to 10 days overdue. The subsequent result is that baby Tim got too big too fast in the last week of pregnancy. Tim was born at 4.29KG, which according to my doctor friends, the attending doctor will get questioned by his/her boss for not monitoring the weight of the baby closely.
2. Joey's planned C-section was bumped last minute, due to the reason that "there were too many emergency cases in the surgical theater, therefore the anesthesiologist's schedule is full and our surgery has to be postponed". OK, sure - fair enough. But Joey had been fasting for more than 8 hours *and* without a drip, so upon hearing that news, Joey went ahead and had her meal. 15 mins later, the anesthesiologist walked in and was surprised that Joey was eating. Apparently the intern doctor (or "medical officer", as they are called in Malaysia) that broke us the news earlier was mistaken. Too bad, the surgery has to be postponed to the next day.
3. They got Joey's blood group wrong. And she almost got a transfusion with a wrong blood type, because she lost more than 1 liter worth of blood during surgery.
4. The nurses almost gave Tim BCG shot, TWICE. Apparently the nurses in the maternity ward and NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) did not communicate.
   

There are many more nauces to be told, but that's 4 major ones that I can recall. Stay tuned for more background stories.

HP OfficeJet 5510 - How to skip the dreaded "Print Align Page" screen after ink catridge replacement

Short answer - press "Setup" button + "OK" button at the same time.

Just want to post it here so I can remind myself the next time I change ink cart.

Welcome Baby Timothy!

Tim's under observation overnight. He weighed in at 4.29KG, hence the C-sect. Both Joey and Tim is safe :) We are due to check out of hospital on Friday. Thanks for all the congratulations and well wishes! It really means a lot to us~

Crazy Jam

When the cyclists is in town, this is what happens:



Stuck on one end, dead on the other.

Further down the road, I saw the traffic police blocked the road and no car could pass. The traffic was backed at least 10KM away.