New Stuff

So it’s been awhile or should I say quite a long time since the last time I wrote to the blog. I introduced some new stuff in my life. There’s only one new addition but it is two new different experiences. The new stuff would be a new laptop.

It is a brand new (that is new from the store) Acer Aspire 4315. People would be amaze by the spec but whatever, it’s new! The best thing is I got it for free. My father signed up for some long-term savings account at Ambank under my name. Free laptop was part of their promotion so here it is. I don’t care about the savings account though. The laptop runs on Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz and 512MB DDR2 (this sickens me) with features like intergrated webcam, wireless and DVD-RAM.

I actually quite fond with the design. The PVC (I think) surface looks great with the Acer’s logo made from aluminium. As you can see, the keyboard is white and the whole interior except the LCD. The exterior is in black

It came with Linpus Linux. Got rid of it and installed Windows XP. I wanted to install Vista but I hate it. And the other new addition is Ubuntu I’m using Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” to be exact.

This is my desktop. I customized it a bit with new theme and wallpaper. Ubuntu is Linux-based operating system. Ubuntu is just another distribution. Linux is pretty damn complicated and it showed when I first run it. I can’t get my wireless running until 2 days later.

This is desktops when they are ‘exposed’. I love the virtual desktop feature. The graphics are amazing. They are more advanced that Vista I guess. I could run those basic Vista’s GUI features like Flip3D and even more! I got my Ubuntu from www.ubuntu.com, downloaded the .iso file (disc image) and burned them into a blank disc. My Ubuntu was installed via Wubi, to make life easier. I also ordered the free Ubuntu LiveCD just to make sure I got the hard copy.

So that’s all for this time. Hope that I could right more after this.

p/s: Just right click at the image and View Image under Firefox to view them large.

Trip to KL: Thrilling Sepang!

 I went to KL on the weekend for one reason: 2008 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix! It was loud, exciting, thrilling, fun, you name it. I went on a school trip with my classmates and all. Apart from F1 race, we also went to Eye on Malaysia on the arriving night, Putraya for lunch before the race on the second day and the race before heading back to Alor Star in the evening. My friends and I did a lot of ‘fancy’ stuff throughout the trip! So here are some photos I took:

I was at the Eye on Malaysia. Rode the wheel and had a nice time there.

The view from the gondola. KL doesn’t really have a nice skyline to show off, seriously.

My friends and I in the gondola, we were shaking up the gondola. I managed to beat my fear of height I guess.

2008 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix on the second day!

The crowds were very tight at SIC’s paddock area.

Inside the circuit. You can see how pact people were at the race. This is one of the hillstands available. I just can’t explain the noises of the car in words!

The closest shot I can get. I took this at the bottom of the hill. The noise were loud and amazing. You can’t go down here WITHOUT a pair of earplug.

‘Politik kedai kopi’ emerged as ‘politik Starbucks’

Malaysians are very familiar with the term ‘politik kedai kopi’. Since Malaysians now more ICT-exposed, people can get easy access through Internet, SMS, blogs. etc from the most rural place that you can name in Malaysia. This surely shows that communications among Malaysians are getting better. What used to be ‘politik kedai kopi’ has now changed its face to emerge as ‘politik Starbucks’.

‘Politik kedai kopi’ is a term which people would say when going to a coffee shops in the morning, meet with their peers and talk about their MPs and local politics. These coffee shops were usually located in many kampungs and towns where people can meet and chat. Topic evolve in ‘politik kedai kopi’ is of course Malaysian politic scenes. People get the ideas and information from the TV and radio, which were the only source I guess back in 70s, 80s and early 90s. These mainstream medias were and still now control by the government so everything that you heard is already filtered by the government.

Comparing with ‘politik Starbucks’ which is now what is happening, people get their ideas and information from unfiltered source which are the Internet and through SMSes that are being flying in the air. The Internet has no boundaries so this is THE PLACE where freedom of speech is really happening. Unlike ‘politik kedai kopi’, the ideas and information on local politics are discuss in a very open environment. People talk based on facts and these facts are raw facts compared to ‘politik kedai kopi’ which the facts are filtered by the government. Although these raw facts can sometimes be (most of the time actually) rumors through the blogsphere, I think people will get the main idea on what’s going on and people will also tend to think. As a result, there goes the politic analysts on the TV talking about these raw facts from the Internet. Starbucks now has Wi-Fi Internet and the citizens are getting the information through the Internet while sipping the coffees.

So there you go, ‘politik Starbucks’ based on what I observed.