Just another girly night

Tonight was a bit funny but everyone was in high spirits. Especially Kaelynn. She is starting to be as happy and (unfortunately) as wild as her elder sister.

Kaleynn's literal interpretation of David Cronenberg's
1991 Naked Lunch. OK, so it was a hot day anyway.

After bath, all by themselves, the girls kept to
their promise of sharing stickers as Mommy
only bought one book since I bought them a
lot last week. We keep telling ourselves that
this will be the last time we're buying them
stickers as they stick them almost in every
place unimaginable.

Oh, and her bed's so soaked with wee-wee days in
a row, I sent Kristine to sleep with Grandma (which
she gleefully agreed). There were no mattresses
left as both beds have been nicely signatured done
by the infamous I-wee-already-before-going-to-bed
serial bedwetter Kaelynn

We're done doing it

Finally, our own Technical office/room is complete! But because I was busy with a customer for days, I did not really have the time to sit down and appreciate everything except today. Still, it was nice to sit in a corner with the air-con blowing behind me and my Techs on my left. Not only that, we'll have a repair area on my immediate left and also a testing bench behind me.

Yes! (No, I am not trying to be sarcastic here)

Only problem is, I am not sure if we're going to have
a door or not. But then again, this would not make
any difference at the moment. See the big box on
the right of my chair? That's all my junk which I'll
have to sort come this Saturday or else it will
be one big pile of crap which blocks everyone.

Of Professionalism and Ethics

While working on the customer, I noticed that they have spent quite a bit on cabling. And although the PBX system we're relocating for them is just temporary, it was done right. And I am impressed by the team who did the cabling. Not that we could not do the same but it would have taken us longer and there's only two guys in the company against an experienced team.

Still, I would very much like them to do such jobs but after seeing a Professional team at work, they were very much disheartened at the "David and Goliath" mind-set. Somehow, I have to get them to overcome this hurdle and boost their confidence. But the main problem is for them to think out of the box, plan their job and not take the easy way out.

I do not mind them taking shortcuts if its to complete the work faster AND in the PROPER way. Its the only way to ensure everything goes well. Because in this line and in any other service line, if you take shortcuts for the wrong reason, its going to come back to haunt you and possibly lose a customer too. And let me tell you this, in all honesty, Customers are not stupid.

Even if they act and look stupid. Trust me on this.

There was a problem with their old connector module
which I discovered after relocating their PBX system
and AFTER reinstalling back in place.

The problem was that one of the pins are not properly
aligned. This is not a good sign. I could take the easy
way out and leave it alone since the customer is going
to use it or two to three weeks before implementing
their own system (and effectively end our business
with them). Or, I could do the right thing even though
its a lot of work. What do you think?

The answer is obvious, of course! This one of the
reason why our customers keep calling us again
and again.

Whoever did this cabling, is a
Master. Its all arranged so
nicely.Must have taken them
a week to do this or even less.

And its all colour coded. Yellow
for voice and blue for data.

MalfreeMaps v1.56

I have been using the MalFreeMap since version 1.52 and its quite nice. Of course, there was a History between it and MalSingMap. For me, I don't care much at this point. I just want a map and I do not have to worry about contributing in order to get the latest map or whatever crap they dictate. C'mon, even if I want to help out, it would be voluntarily and after following their Forums, I still cannot understand how to do them.

But buying an expensive Bluetooth GPS for this purpose, if I am not mistaken, is totally unacceptable. Why should I follow YOUR rules and BEG to get the latest maps? Then again, nowadays, being married and all, I have absolutely no time for anything else but for the family. I just grab whatever that works and that's it.

For the past few days, I have been using it to guide
me to the customer and it keeps telling me to go to
a certain route, which I found out, actually makes
me do U-turns instead. Here, the image wrongly
shows me (the car) pointing to the opposite
direction. Note the T-junction "behind" me.

And when I finally was at that spot, (the T-junction), it
was not possible to go further unless you're driving a
4x4. And its not because of the cars parking there,
obstructing the road. It really IS a Dead End. And I
can report this to MFM. If I really wanted to, that is.

Everyone likes Toshiba

Since I my first job was with Toshiba telephone products, I do admit I am biased towards it. And so, given the chance, I would recommend or even, convince anyone to use Toshiba phones. Its a very popular brand. So popular, that others would even like to make it personal, like these guys below.

When my Tech picked up the phone, he just mentioned
that its not working. When I took a look at it, that oh-so
familiar smell tells me the bad news. Luckily, we did not
freak out when the phone was opened. However, 8 years
ago, I freaked out because once I opened the phone, all
these little critters ran out in all directions!

However, in this case, its nothing much to worry about,
just dead ones in there. Still, there was one or two that
played possum until the very last moment.

Over here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the crockcroach
cemetery. If you are squeamish about discarded skins
and limbs, I suggest you wait at the entrance until the
tour is over, thank you.

Anyway, back to the story. Apparently, the crockcroaches
have been living in the phone for ages and you can see how
much crap the motherboard has.

And did I mention that their urine is acidic? So, this
phone cannot be repaired. I mean, I am not going to
waste my time cleaning and disinfecting it, only to
find an irreplaceable component pee-d to oblivion.
Like it or not, I forced my techs to wash their hands
at least three times. Not because the smell won't go,
but you'd never know how dangerous the stuff is.

And so, everyone likes Toshiba. But in this case, to them, this is Toshiba City and not Toshiba Hotel. To me, its a Toshiba Phone and all who trespass inside must face the test of the Thinner Droplet....

Yes, sir! Yes, sir!

And so, as early as seven in the morning, I had to get up, freshen up and head off to the customer's office before eight. This was because on the day before, (Sunday), everyone was working except us. And I did ask the customer (on Saturday) if we should work on Sunday,ehich he said, to come on Monday.

And so, halfway enjoying our Father's Day, another customer called, which she wanted us to com eon Sunday. But I told her about my conversation and besides, its Father's Day, so its hard for me to get away from the Family. And so, for the whole of Monday, I was literally walking up and down, between left and right wings, avoiding crap and dodging flying shit, yada yada yada.

By the time I came back, I felt as if I had a nice workout on the legs. Boy, talk about free Gym membership.

Customer: Hmm........ this is no good. The system is too far away from the rack and too high.
Me: You asked me to mount it there.
Customer: Umm hmmm..... perhaps you should mount it slightly lower and closer, OK?
Me: Yes, Master, Lord of all IT Land and Photonic Data Servers.

So, now he has four unexplainable holes

There's something about Kaelynn,,,

She was being very naughty today. And so, I had to
separate her from Kristine. I ordered her to another
room and sit there as punishment. Within minutes
of boredom, she started to get some toys from the
toy box and play with them, cleaning up after she
has finished. Maybe she sense that I was angry
with her. Or maybe, she is learning...

The 1701-A Project - Deflector Dish First look

After so many years, I got this back from Kenny (minus the instruction sheet and decals which I lost it). I still cannot believe that this model will be at least one meter when completed. My problem with this is not the painting or accurizing it, but the lighting of the model itself. Since this is a brief first glance, I will tell you what I am going to do. I will create two versions of the circuit.

The basic circuit
This circuit will just give you the normal navigation strobes and that's about it

The interactive circuit
This one is more complex than the first. It would have the lightings for the deflector dish, the photon torpedo launchers, the impulse engines and also, the warp nacelles. And you can actually press the buttons for each effect (just like a museum piece? Ha ha ha). Due to the complexity of this, it would take a very long time to complete. (unless someone pays me Rm5000.00 a month to stay home and do "serious" work like this. Bwahahahhaahha!)

Anyway, here is the box. You would not believe how big
it is. The box is just big enough to cover the biggest part
of the model, which is the Main Saucer

And here, Kristine is holding the main saucer.
Big or not? Once the model is completed, I
will have a problem on where and how to
display it. And I am thinking, coffee table.

The hole at the back is designed to house a 3mm LED.
Here, I tried using a BLUE LED. Its not that bright as
this is roughly how bright it looked as without flash,
the camera would be fooled and then set the picture
to give a false image that it is indeed very bright
when its not. Still, I think using the BLUE LED alone
would not solve the problem. Why? Because I am not
sure about the "Ring of Lights" at the edge of the dish.
I must see the DVD again. Because when its warming
up (yellow) and fully operational (blue) I hope that the
"Ring of Lights" would follow the colour as well. Sigh

At the moment, white looks good but this is not what I am
looking for. Still, I suppose, with some reflective aluminum
tape behind there, it would make the effect more promising.
Not only that, the outer dish would have to be painted white.
Worse to worse, I would need to make the hole bigger to fit
in a 5mm LED is as the light dispersion would be bigger.
Or I could just fit in a 1Watt RGB Luxeon with Lambertian
Lens which would make the thing glow, but too much.

How are you doin' !

OK, so, a bit of a little bad news. My Senior Tech is on MC and this means he won't be coming to work. This means that I cannot take Wife to the Jalan Hang Tuah flats for her to look at some clothes (and also for myself to take a look at Miniature Hobby's new shop). What started out well ended up in a series of cock-ups. For one, we had to re-install the phone system after the customer saw for himself that it was not what he imagined it to be, eventhough we followed his instructions perfectly. And so, my Junior Tech had to go back all the way to get the hammer drill in the office. And not only that, as we were not consulted on the move, the customer did not realise that the digital phones uses the outer pairing or the connectors. Although he spent quite a bit on the Network cabling, there is no way we can re-punch the cables to cover up his error. And so, I proposed to do the cable change at the actual phone point via makeshift cable converters. Not only but the worst thing was that when I was about to finished the cable termination, we discovered that the list his staff gave him was not as accurate as it should be......

And so, this part of the renovation is now complete. Now, we
have to move the meeting table into Boss's room.

My desk is facing the window while my techs are
facing the wall. Oh, we won't get the sofa. Its there
temporarily until the Visitor area is done.

And so, we relocated the system
once again, leaving four holes in
the wall for no reason. After I did
some tidying, the cables now look
more organised.

And we went for lunch since everyone went out for lunch
as well. I waited for my technician to return with the drill,
where we moved the phone system before we went out
for lunch as well. This whole thing costs me RM11.50, with
drinks of course. My wife told me, it must be the seafood
which I took. But the tempoyak (fermented durian) was
worth it. Still, we won't be going back there anytime soon.
The service sucks as you have to get their attention for
drinks, wait for them to come over to your table to charge
your food. And ironically, there was a long line at the counter

After lunch, I set my technician to create 32 of
these cable converters.

With nothing much to do until the list
is ready, I sent my tech home at 5
while I waited. Once I completed this,
it was already 8 at night. And I told
the customer of the error.

ME: So, how? Can I come back tomorrow (Sunday)?
He: Everyone comes on Monday
ME: Are you sure? No one would be able to use the phone on Monday morning.
He: Well, if that's the case, thats the best we can do
ME: OK, if you say so.

[Update] The customer (other person in charge) called me up to get me to come over on Sunday afternoon as she was worried about the phones on Monday. I could not comply since we already planned for Father's Day Celebration for both lunch and dinner. (OK, so Boss said not to go until Monday) And so, I would make it up to her by coming before 8am on Monday. But after thinking much about it, the phone system could not be up until later because I am very confident that the customer did not realise about the patch cords needed to connect from the phone system to the selected tables. Although we did not get the cabling job here, it is my responsibility to keep the customer updated on the situation eventhough this phone system (serving as a backup system) would only be used for two to three weeks, which by then, would be replaced by the IP Phones, thus marking the end of our business with them. But the worse thing is, he has absolutely no idea how serious this will be, come Monday.

Unfortunately, by the time I was able to come out and reach the bookshop, it was closed and I could not prepare more IR pens for Loctor who was here for the weekend. Dammit. Sometimes, I hate this but so far this job puts food on the table. How I wished my other "job" can replace it.

Found my Judge Dredd Lawgiver

Since my customer was nearby, I decided to go back to KK to look for the black foam tape. Yeah, its times like this that I need to do things that needs to be done. Not only that, after the trip, I also did some reflection whether most of my friends who married and separated, did affect me or not. But most of them seem to be much stronger. I just hate it when they are being used and dumped when things get more serious. Both so far have kids and the father usually have nothing to do with them.

And right now, I am still not satisfied about the RM10,000 salary someone told me. I told my Wife and she was not too happy at all. I am afraid that she could be used as well.

Although I did not find the black tape, I did find my Judge Dredd Lawgiver. OK, so its not the real Lawgiver but the Playstation version. Long ago, I gutted most of the cables out, located the circuit which when I press the button, the 5 LEDs would light up in sequence, just like in the movie. But now, all the screws are gone and I cannot remember where I put them. Oh dear.

Here, Kaelynn was going around with it, and
saying "Pew, pew, pew". I kid you not

Mommy was not happy because she prefers her to be
a nice little girl and all.

Still, for me, if they like to play whatever they want,
they are welcome to do so but not so much as to
break things, especailly my things. Still, this is a
nice gun for me to develop the lights and sound
eventhough someone already has done it.

We're doing the doing it

Well, what can I say? One frantic call from a customer and I am headed to Kuantan so early in the morning. Boss just said, "Go, don't stop at the office. Just go.". One thing I can say about anger is that, no matter how hard you try to repair the damage, its almost impossible. And so, when I reached there, the customer tried to do this and I knew the whole story after talking to the staff there before approaching him. Just a case of mismanaged anger due to stress of some big shot coming over.

Anyway, what's done is done and I just try to be as professional as possible and ended up with everyone being happy. Of course, I could have him eating out of my hands since he was already willing but let's face it, you cannot ever do this because in the long run, Karma is keeping tabs. Not only that, I do not like it as well.

One thins about the DUKE Highway is that on the route
to Kuantan, you will have to pass by some electricity
pylons which sort of literally grew in between. Weird

I was taken aback when I saw this. Whoever did
this was smart and very imaginative.

He used some form of copper piping to create a
makeshift pillar for the long screws to secure it

Seemed like they do not want to wast cables too much.
But bear in mind, the cables were pulled into that hole
years ago. This white cable was recent. He could have
cut the extra but he did not. So I told the customer its
bad because when the cleaners come, the water would
seep into the hole, make everything wet and destroy
the cables altogether.

Before I knew it, he personally taped the whole thing!
Wow. You won't see a much dedicated Boss doing this
personally! Respect!

And so, after my Kuantan trip, I rushed back to KL
to overseer a system relocation. This time, we are
to relocated the phone system for them to use for
a few weeks until their new IP Phones are in. The
customer was planning so much for the new phones,
he did not anticipate the problems since he did not
call us beforehand. But for today, we just mount the
system as instructed.

Houston, we have a problem

We're doing it, doing it and still doing it.

And so, the next day, I had to go to Seremban. Nothing to shout about except that I have been and will be going to quite a number of outstation customers this week. This is just a routine service call and although I was driving under the hot sun, my main worry was on something else.

Its like when you're so worried about what you're going to wear for tomorrow evening's function, you did not care much about the cold shower eventhough you hated cold showers. So, this time, for me, its about the car. The shuddering is quite prominent now. Especially when my Boss drove it last week when we're on the way to Kuantan. Now, its shuddering even when going uphill or just on a straight road. I suspect its something to do with the axle or the driveshaft. When I turn left or right, under the right weight, it will shudder. What is more worrying is that when I do a turn to the right, in normal circumstances, there would be a loss of power, as if the engine is not there. However, once the turn is completed, the power comes back and the tires would screech due to the excessive force (Because I was pressing the gas pedal more, wondering why there was no power). In most cases, I would be dead in the middle of the road, halfway to completing a U-turn.

I have a decision to make whether to tell the Boss about it this month or the next. This was because although our work is a bit less, mine was more as I am now the only one with a Notebook. Moreover, most of the calls require higher skills, something which my techs cannot handle. And also, we're still in the middle of our office renovation. And I can say, were about 60% complete. Because there is still the meeting room which is going into Boss;s room and Boss have to crash into the old room.

This is the system in Seremban. I think someone tried
to do something with the phone system, failed and left
it open. Just like that. And with people coming in and
out in that place, its a matter of time before they snag
any wires there. Not that I mind though, but this is not
a good way to earn money. And the trip down here cost
me more in terms of manpower and petrol.

Oh, there it is, in the box of
junk. Really. They're about
to throw this box away.

Coming back, the glass sliding door has been installed and
so is the glass for the three rectangular frames. Part of
the wall was covered because it needs to be sanded smooth
of all the plaster applied the night before.

Now, the other part needs to be sanded down as well.
Our clerk was ordered to sit inside Boss's office and to
close the door these few days. The powder from us
sanding the walls are very fine and they were all over
the place. The cleaners are going to have a fit this Friday

So much powder, the vaccum cleaner
started to spew the fine dust from the
other end. So, we opened to find the
problem, cleaned the filters but to no
avail as we suspect its inside the fan
of the motor which cannot be opened

Oooh..... a temperature switch! If they junk this
cleaner, I will try to salvage this little thing.

Stick no smilies

On the way back from Prai, I got these beautiful smilies.
But there are now 96 missing stickers which I have
to find. This was a mistake of giving each girls
too much stickers. But then, for RM1.90, the
offer was too much not to buy them. Ha ha ha.

We're darn well still doing it

And so, clearing our appointments for the day, we have to continue with the office renovation. By now, the technical room's wall are ready. And so are the cabling. Half of us are concentrating on the technical room while the other half did the outer visitor wall. By late evening, it was almost completed. We had to get the walls up as by tomorrow, the glass door and window would be coming in.

This is the view inside the technical room.
The far end would still be my table, which
my Boss have to maintain as I am the Big
Shot in there. *ahem*

Minutes later, the inner walls were put up. Note that
this is our own office and we're the one doing all these
renovations. So, we do learn a lot of stuff in the process.

We also learnt that in the future, we would need this
"robot" (I prefer rocket) and should call the other
contractor well in advance to borrow it. So we
would not need an hour with strings and the
water hose pipes to get things done. But we do
learn a lot though. The rocket would have cut
our education short and get the things done in
minutes

Boss also taught me how to make holes,
especially the rectangular ones, with this
partition saw. Its sharp enough to stab
you and still be able to make a nice hole
in your abdomen/head/butt, etc.

After struggling with the saw for almost ah hour,
the holes are almost done. But I have to wait for
my Boss to get away from behind the wall in case I
stab him while doing the last rectangular hole....

By almost eight in the evening, the walls are almost
done. Now, its just the matter of reinforcing the holes
I have cut with more metal frames before sealing it
with the plaster wall. Once the window and the door
are in, we can start filling the gaps with plaster

Here is how the gap-filling plaster are being prepared:
You just add water and when the water have all been
absorbed, its ready to go into the walls. Due to my
expertise with non-electronics practical work, I am
not allowed to do any of this stuff in case I cause more
damage. But seriously, this is a job where if you cannot
do anything, you just try to help out or just stand away.