Sticky ply for a fly guy

I was sitting on a table with the sticky flypaper, flapping dangerously about in the wind.
Then I spotted a fly that was still alive.
It was a funny sight but also a sad one.
The fly was trying to get itself off the sticky flypaper.
But it looked more like it was trying to hump the paper.
It was pushing itself up with its legs and behind it was an ex-fly which motivated him.

My thoughts were also on my Rm7.20 lunch, a plain fried rice with fried egg serve with Kickapoo.
I was upset that they did not add any chili to make it spicy eventhough I told them to.
But at least they remembered not to put in any prawns.

As I was finishing my lunch, I was thinking of freeing that poor old fly.
Should I pick it up and risk breaking its legs?
Shall I cut a hold around its legs?
Or shall I use my fingers to flick it free?
Then another fly got trapped too.

All his friends were flying around them.
Maybe saying, "Ha ha. I told you so" as they fly-by
Yes, there were a lot of flies.
So I let them have some of my lunch instead.

This is an obscene picture.
The new Proton Savvy on the road

Guard House trick

I always hated it when the guards want to check on my car upon leaving the place. Its not so much of my opening the boot for them but on why they do it. You see, my car is full of stuff. From customer notes and floorplans, to cables, to loose items, to phone connectors, to toolboxes, to... well, you get the picture.

What I angers me was the way they examine each car. For you see, they did it because their Boss told them to. But they were not told why. So, at the end of the day, you have these dumbasses insisting on opening car boots and pretending to look for things that might resemble a nuclear bomb. (Yes, I have a Sony Sub-woofer that almost look like a bomb in there). Just as quickly as they open it, they slam it close, dissapointed because there were no dead bodies.

Most of the time, its like as if companies are paying these stupid Guards to peek into car boots, and try to damage them. Believe you me, I have so much stuff in there, even if I had stolen something, it does not even make a difference. (Unless I told them)

Anyway, I have a nice little piece of fibreglass bolted to my car boot and most of the times, stupid people (who do not drive cars), will think its part of the boot and therefore yank it open, breaking it. I will have to rush out of the car before that, which usually results in an ugly scene. It happened this afternoon and I really saw him doing it, so I had to yell at the top of my lungs to stop him from making me lose money for his stupidity.

There is one slight detail which not a lot of people know. The bolts which holds the fibre gets loose with time. But they did not realise this and when I showed them the "damage" they really freaked out because no one can pay me the RM450 for the damage. So, we negotiated down to RM100 and he began to look white in the face. Suffice to say, since the fibre did not break, I had my "fun" of making their hearts stop for a while.

1,2,... split

I met one of my friends for an impromtu lunch today and she is getting on well.

Although the papers are yet to be drafted, it is so sad they have to end like this. There is no possibility of any recociliation as both parties have already started on their own paths and swept or threw away all the broken pieces. Both their life's goals are different too. As far as their children's future is concerned, once the draft is ready, their education is guaranteed. With one at growing 5 and the other at inquisitive 3, its not going to be easy.

Still, with some stories from her side, it is not that easy to take it all in.

But we both agree, this is the start of the same cycle and there is actually no change in him, except for the outer shell.

With that in mind, whatever appetite I had, was lost.

But on the other hand, we're invited to her place for gatherings and maybe some swimming too.

Oh well, life goes on, even if you have stomped on the brakes.

The most wanted Man on Earth

Yep, that's me.

Remember the PABX installation yesterday? Apart from getting a sore back and thighs, I knew I had to go back there again today.

So, the moment I stepped in, everyone was literally all over me, because they don't know how to use the new phones. You see, although its the same brand and all, there are some subtle changes which the user has to be aware of. Although we did our best to make sure the new system works like the old one, some of the people won't be pleased. That is why, our policy is to spend at least some time (standby) with the customer after the installation to make sure they are familiar with the new system and how to use them PROPERLY.

Anyway, I was hoping I could get it all done before lunch but I hit a snag. At the back of the site, there is another connection box which connects to nine other phones I must connect. Somehow, that box is blocked by large cages (yes, cages) in the front. Rather than get into the cage (and looking like a stupid monkey) and using my tools to poke around, I decided its better to walk to and fro 18 times to connect to those phones one by one. Ok, I had to walk because the last time I was there, the staff accidentally locked me in during lunch hour.

Unfortunately, by the time I got things done, it was about a quarter past seven. While waiting for the Manager, I helped myself to many cups of Milo/White Coffee, (making my very own Neslo).

Twice the Sugar
Twice the High

System Installation @ Jalan Sungai Rasa

Today is a Sunday. I keep telling myself that.

But the job must be done. The reason is that the customer is very busy from Monday till Saturday. And Sunday is the time where we can move about in the Office without bumping into their staff and make them drop whatever they're carrying.

The job was supposed to start at 10 in the morning but unfortunately, the "help" I was promised did not arrive on time. So, while waiting for him, I prepped the system, re-counted the phones and make a rough floorplan so that we know where the new phones are going to go to.

Everything should be finished by mid-afternoon but due to unforseen circumstances (OK, there were too much cabling to clean up) we worked until late evening. The staff who had the keys turned from being nice to woefully nice.

Still, tomorrow I have to go back there to complete the remaining extensions as the other part of the office was locked after five. Yeah, and also to teach the staff how to use the new phones as its a bit different from their current ones.

And today WAS Sunday.

They're putting some flyover parts on the Federal Highway near the Subang interchange


The poor man standing has nothing to do, so he waves his itty-bitty flag around to amuse himself


Before:
The system is quite old and needs replacing, we figured the job would take about 4 hours, tops


Gaaaarrghhhh!
When we opened it, the wires came out looking like this. There goes our Sunday


After:
Ok, its not complete yet and just 9 more extensions to go.
But after 6 hours, we're too tired and the staff wants to enjoy what's left of her Sunday evening

Auto-Dialers or VoIP for Joe Public Part III

So, when do you actually need one of these infernal things?

It is not possible to have them installed in your Office for the reason no other than "just in case". Your Office must be making ENOUGH calls and to the right DESTINATION or else they would not be interested at all. Some of them would be asking you about your monthly phone bills and even taking a look at it. This is because the auto-dialer works when you make calls to mobile phones, trunk and International calls. So, even if you make about 1000 local calls, no one is interested.

But there are a few problems:-

1) Paying for the Bill
Everytime you make a call with the help of these VoIP companies, you are actually paying to two parties. Let's say you dial to a mobile phone number. The auto-dialer detects that number and uses the Terrokom line to call into their Gateway. At this stage, Terrorkom owns you. And when the call is through, the VoIP company owns you.

2) Cost of the call
Here is the problem. Even if your call does not go through, you still get charged, by Terrorkom. At peak hours, sometimes its quite difficult to get your call through. Say for example, at the third try, you succeeded in making the call but your first two tries have already been charged. Here is an example:

First successful call scenario:

Charges = Terrorkom + VoIP

Third successful call scenario:

Charges on First try: Terrorkom

Charges on Second try: Terrorkom

Charges on Third try: Terrorkom + VoIP

3) Reliability
Do not forget that these VoIP companies are riding on Terrorkom lines. So, during peak hours, if they do not have enough lines, (afterall, Terrorkom has their own "Loyal" customers too) your call cannot go through. And if the Internet connection is "slow", the quality of voice is affected as well.

4) Service
After years of "testing" these auto-dialers, a lot of customers has become wiser. Now, it is not the rates which attractes them but the service. Just think, when your auto-dialer is fried, see how many days it takes for them to comeover to take a look at it and perhaps charge you as well.

5) Equipment
Some companies would literally give you those auto-dialers for your lines. Some do not. And when those that do not, they would tell you a lot of things why you do not need them. Trust me, you NEED those auto-dialers. The reason is simple. When there are no auto-dialers, they would engage outsiders to reprogram your PBX system into becoming a big auto-dialer. This is fine if you like their services. But there will come a day where you do not want to see their faces anymore. See how long they will take to un-program (if ever at all) your PBX system. And if you're using ISDN lines, the cost of the auto-dialer is prohibitively expensive. So, at the end of the day, having the auto-dialer connected to your PBX is a better solution. If you don't like it, just unplug it and patch the cables back (OK, you still have to call outsiders in). So, there you have it. Unless you're making a lot of non-local calls, the auto-dialer is not for you. Some auto-dialers do come with a "bypass" switch which when things goes wrong, it will not route your calls. However, being easily fried, most of the time the switch is useless.

So, these are the pros and cons with VoIP.

But if your company has their own IP lines, then you do not need these unless you need to make fixed line calls intead of calling your branches.

Saturday in Mid-Valley

So, after finishing all the work, we went to Mid-Valley. Surpisingly, although there were a lot of cars trying to get in, we took a big round and went into one of the entrance, there were some vacant parking bays.

I met one of my friend, or rather, she walked up to me. I am not going to say much but she would make a baby very happy, looked a bit like Sarah Mickel Gellar and almost became my girlfriend. Anyway, she is still available, but you must have 5C's to qualify.

Secondly, remember the Laksa on the Second floor of JayaJusco? Trust me, its not the same taste as it was last year. This time, it sucked.

Remember the Shell Lubricant ad? This reminds me of the same guy, all beaten up and bloated, hiding his head somewhere in the garden


Yeah, someone threw Pampers on the rubbish bin.
Ok, actually I wanted to take some photos of the three "it" (men biologically trying to be a woman) but chickened out in case they can whack me.


At Carrfour, there is a new promotion from F&N


The drink promised to be something new and hip. Hence the youngsters here, preparing their dance routine


The drink is actually fizzy mango


More of them but we did not stick too long as we had some shopping to do

Dropped Pants

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! This just occurred to me when I was having dinner when Kristine's nappies fell:

You were having tea at your friend's house and then her Mom walked past the both of you to the back of the room. Something made you turn around to take a second look at your friend's Mom. Her pants have worked itself loose and fell to the floor. You want to alert your friend but how do you tell her?
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"Nia Ma Foo Latt"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha [I know, I have a warped mind]

Auto-Dialers or VoIP for Joe Public Part II

Why I hate these auto-dialers are quite simple:

1) Installation
Usually, when they install the auto-dialers, they do it without your knowledge because you do not matter to them. In the end, they will install as they please and this compromises the PBX system. So, most of the time, when the customer calls us for troubleshooting, it turns out to be the fault of those auto-dialers. You would have to have one auto-dialer per line and if the customer has 40 lines, you can guess the mess in there. And I hate messy cabling. Although the auto-dialers are designed to be stackable, they are not. They prefer to topple like Jenga blocks if you do not install some sort of mounting frame for them.

2) Lightning protection
Ha ha ha. Most of the time, these auto-dialers are installed "in front" of the PBX system and before the Terrokom lines. So, when there is a lightning strike or surge of some kind, these little buggers get it first. But the bad news are:
a) There is no dialing tone
b) Your phone bills went "up"
c) Sometimes your phone does not ring
d) You can't dial at all
e) No one can hear you or you cannot hear them.

Yeah, and the customer calls us first instead of them. Bastards

3) Cost
The cost of these little buggers are not cheap and the "VoIP" companies would only invest in
them if your phone bills are high. However, with everyone trying to outdo each other, the auto-dialers would come free. However, there are cases where we are engaged by the auto-dialer companies to re-program the customer's PBX system to divert your calls to their Gateway. I hate doing this because most PBX systems have some "customised" programming done and we have to get the customer to compromise a lot of things. In the end, we told the auto-dialer people to stop fucking up other people's Phone system and use the Goddamn devices instead. Which is also easier for the customer because if they do not like the first company, they can try the next one. Pity the first auto-dialer who went in there because they have to invest on the cabling for the auto-dialers.

4) Troubleshooting
Most of the time when we were called, the problem was usually because of the stupid auto-dialers. And also, because of the shoddy installations.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you when you need these auto-dialers.

If you see these, the place is quite old.
I was called to troubleshoot an incoming line. Found out some bugger screwed the wires so hard that it got cut.

Auto-Dialers or VoIP for Joe Public Part I

Look around your office, chances are, you would have spotted one of these infernal things. They are always stuck next to your Office PABX or near the Fax Machine.

And I hate them.

These small little boxes monitors the telephone numbers you have dialed. If the numbers are for local calls, they would ignore them. But once it detects a mobile phone number, trunk or International calls, the auto-dialer would "trap" the number briefly. It then uses the Terrokom line to dial into its own Gateway number and then inserts your outgoing number after that. It other words, it hijacks your call away from Terrokom lines and into its own line which then routes it to other places in the World via VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). So, in the end, you have a very cost effective telephone call.

And Terrorkom hates them.

But then again, it was their fault for not taking the VoIP step. All Hell broke loose when the Multimedia Act was drawn up which allows VoIP companies to enter into the fray. So, Terrokom can do nothing but join in or risk losing out on the diminishing piece of the lucrative Telecommunication Pie. Nowadays, you have a lot of companies approaching you, like some Insurance Salesmen with these services and each one promises the best rate and/or service in town. There are many tiers where the Big Fish are the main Telcos like Celcom, Maxis, Digi and Terrorkom who sell to ASPs or VoIP companies like Nationcom, Astiva, and RedTone to name a few. And then they sell to smaller fries are those Wartels and small booths catering for the foreign labourers from Indonesia, Pakistan, etc.

This customer has 14 lines, and the nice auto-dialer people actually put up a frame for them


This is how its connected. The Terrokom line goes in on the left and comes out on the right and into your Fax or Phone system.

"The Curve" @ Jalan Kuching

I am not sure what they're going to do there but its quite a big road diversion. This is just about 100metres before the demolished Toll Plaza (if you're coming from the City, that is). But its a very nice curve which makes my morning more bearable. Ha ha ha ha.

"The Curve" on the way to Kepong. Ha ha ha ha
This was started two days ago


Well, I don't know what to comment but I am sure his fuel consumption and tire wear is going to kill him.

System Installation @ The Place

OK, we had another system installation today, this time at "The Place". I cannot understand why they called it "The Place". Last year, we had "The Curve". And years ago, we had places with stupid names where they put the "d" in front, like d'Putera just to give it some speeshial name.

But "The Place"? I think they ran out of names or rather, imagination. But in real life, I would say, they ran out of things to copy. So, you go to The Place with The Car and The Wife to buy The Lunch, and the crap goes on and on.

Anyway, we got this deal because we were referred from someone who got our names from another one whom we met & helped from the one who..... God, I lost count. Anyway, this guy got us to supply the system to his client, who turned out to be his sister. He pulls the cables, we install the phones. Simple, right?

Ha. Ha. No.

The first sign of bad news was when he called me up in the morning while I was making chocolates. He boo-boo'd on the cabling.

So, I told him, its not a problem because I've know the types of phones they will be using, so, its Ok. But when we arrived in the afternoon, I realised the type of boo-boo we had to clean up. Its like cleaning your friend's PC monitor of Tipp-Ex after their Delete key was spoilt. Yeah, stupid was the word.

Apparently, he skimped on the cabling by getting two phones to share on one 4-core cable. (It will work but in the long run, its going to be trouble). Each phone takes a pair of cable. But what he did was to mix up the four cables altogether for every table. So, a simple 2.5 hour installation turned out be more than 6 hours, where 90% of the time was spent on getting the stupid cables right.

So, instead of being sarcastic and emotional, we concentrated on the job on hand while he sits quietly in a small room, watching DVDs and eating his lunch.

Damn it. But the money is dem good, which balances the crap.

Reminds me of some sacrificing altar.
Stab, stab, stab and all the blood flows to the pool on the right


The entrance to "The Place"


After walking around this place, I kind of start to like it.
Except for those stupid Ground Floor cafes which played the wrong songs


So darn hungry, by the time we finished, I stopped to buy some food on the way back to the office but they were too greasy

Marvel Figure Factory

I just received good news that one of the Toy shops in Malaysia has the Marvel Figure Factory, selling for RM19.90. I am not sure how big it is, but think of them as Marvel's entry into gashapon, I guess. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to get them. Was thinking of Iron Man and Spider-Man.

You wan, ah? Ha? You wanna wanna want, ah?

When GOD is angry....

Whenever there is a heavy thuderstorm, your parents would tell you to get off the phone or switch off and unplug the TV (usually when your must-see or-die program is on) and any other electrical appliances. Being mystefied as to all the hoo-ha, you did as you were told.

Sometimes they will give you the reason and provide examples such as person killed while talking on the phone, their fax machine/TV/Astro/modem blew and there were blue sparks, etc. This is because, your device is connected straight to the Telekoms line, without any protection such as a good lightning arrestor (so, please buy a good one, and not those RM19.90 and below) which means you are vulnerable. Where you are, also play an important role whether the place gets struck or not.

I, too, had my experience in the late 90's at the Sungai Buloh area where at that time, it was not as developed as you see now. The customer's office was actually behind a sawmill (now replaced by condominiums) and when I stepped in, they told me to look at the phone system which apparently, was not able to get a line to call out. Halfway in, I saw their fax machine which was horribly melted. The customer told me that it was destroyed by lightning. Liftting up the machine, there was burnt marks on the floor and the explosion took a fair chunk of concrete off the floor too. Anyway, while was I looking at the phone system, the thuderstorm has already started.

One thing about this PBX model, the telephone cables were connected via screws. So, I took my screw driver and proceeded to uncrew the tabs for any signs of loose connections. Just as my screwdriver was an inch away, a small blue bolt jumped across from the screws to my screwdriver. At the point in time, I was really glad my screwdriver was heavily insulated with black rubber (Ok, a few days before, someone swiped my test pen)

So, when GOD is testing his Sub-woofer or doing his target practice, us lowly & humble subjects have to take cover. The only protection between you and GOD is the telephone. And when it explodes, so will some parts of your head.

A customer's DIY Lightning Arrestor solution
The (circled red) resistors blew and you can see the burnt marks on the box cover

[update: 14072005]

This is almost the same screwdriver that saved my Life but mine was totally black. Now, its rusting away somewhere.

2000AD Action Figures

Heh. I just finished taking the last picture of some action figures I borrowed from my friend. (I still have to take more, such as side profiles, etc). I have my own 2000AD action figures but they're packed somewhere and unopened as well.

The three figures were popular characters from the British comic called 2000AD. I started reading them in the mid-80's until the 90's when the price of the comic went up ridiculously. Anyway, these figures were designed to closely follow the art from the comics (except Anderson) and was created by the now defunct Re-Action company. The other character I loved was the Rogue Trooper .

Judge Dredd
Joe Dredd (ol' Stoney Face) is MegaCity-1's top Law Enforcer and who is also a clone of Chief Judge Fargo. In the future where most cities were ravaged by Nuclear wars and the collapse of Law & Order, the Judges were created to dispense instant Justice. With his Lawgiver that fires 6 types of bullets (Ricochet, Incendiary, Heatseeker, Armour-Piercing, Hi-Ex and General Execution), Judge Dredd is the Law.

P.S. Whatever you saw in the movie, esp where Stallones removes the helmet, is blasphemy to 2000AD fans as Dredd never show his full face.

Read all the 2000AD comics and you will either love or hate him. And do not tie Sylvester Stallone with Judge Dredd. He was created based on Clint Eastwood. The toy show him with his MkII Lawgiver

Psi-Judge Anderson
Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson has unique psychic abilities which allows her to read minds, even those of who just died. And she also has psychic flashes which warns her of danger and also of future events. Her main enemies are the Dark Judges (Death, Fear, Moris and Fire)

I had problems photographing her while lying on the floor.
She looked more like Saavik the Vulcan (Robin Curtis) from Star Trek in The Search for Spock
The toy show her with the standard issue MkI Lawgiver

Johhny Alpha (Strontium Dog)
The fallout of Strontium 90 caused a lot of mutated babies on Earth. Mutants are recognised as worse than second class and they have no other jobs other than being bounty hunters. Although they are called Search/Destroy Agents, they are more familiarly known as Strontium Dogs. Johnny Alpha is one of them. With his mutant piercing Alpha Eyes, he can see through walls and tell if a person is lying or not. Johnny's weapon of choice is his Westinghouse variable-cartridge blaster, electronux and time bombs.

You know, I always liked the way he holsters his weapons, both front and back. I wonder how he can sit....
My favourite story was "The Killing" or something like that. Its an annual alien event where participants register themselves to kill each other on the planet. The rules are simple; use your permitted weapons of choice and kill. Johnny Alpha and Wulf attended because most of the participants were wanted criminals

Durians for Dinner II

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Thanks to my Sister-in-Law, we got a few more durians. This time, I wonder how I can cope with them in the rice (again) and mixed with Bak Kut Teh.

Yeah, I could die of involuntary nosebleeding. Must get Dr. Liew's emergency number....

A plastic bag full of goodies. There goes my Gout

My apologies to you all.....

My wife has gotten me a very soft pillow (she broke mine a few months ago) and I slept peacefully for nearly 12 hours straight today.

So, I must apologise for unintentionally appearing in your dreams and spoiling your mood this morning.

Ok, just two more of this and its done

Dinner at A&W

After the installation, I quickly send my assistant back to the Office and I was just in time for the family outing to A&W for dinner. Don't ask why we went there.

In the early 70's, A&W was the only fast food place in Malaysia and it was the place to go to if you want burgers and other sugary stuff. But sadly, after the 90's it was never the same again. I can't put my finger to it but it felt so gloomy and depressing when you're in the restaurant. Being own by KUB did not help the downhill slide either. However, the same cannot be said for the PJ State outlet which holds a lot of History. It enjoying a resurgence where young kids who were there before, now brings their own kids there. Its a 24-hours outlet where anyone (and I mean anyone) can go there to have a nice meal, do their homework or even get bored to death by those evil MLM and Insurance salespeople who actually diguise themselves as your friends. (who become fiends after their story-telling presentation ends)

Since I was carrying Kristine, my order was simple. Get whatever my brother likes which can never go wrong. But when I saw my burger, the feeling was like biting into an apple and it tasted like oatmeal. (Yeah, What the fuck?!!)

And for the first time in more than a decade, I had a Rootbeer float, which I greatly detested. Just like my Dad said, the Rootbeer is already full of sugar and now they added a dollop of ice-cream too. Then again, I can never understood why people like to add ice-cream to their Guiness Malta as well. But seriously, after drinking it, someone in the family was a bit high from all that sugar.

No, it wasn't me.

WTF!!! This is an A&W burger? Its so bland compared to MacDonalds and Ramli Burgers.
But then again, A&W is famous for their Rootbeers and Coney Dogs


Kristine is becoming a very hands-on person


She was so engrossed in the food that she did not notice the fly trapped in her hair


Little sister helping her little brother washing hands


Like Father, Like Son.


The Princess and her date


Kristine's new BMW

System Installation III

So, today is the final day for the installation. It was quite exhausting and a bit eventful because:

1) Cabling problems
Out of the 88 telephone points we went through, we experienced three loose socket modules, three loose connections, six wrongly labeled points, two wrongly wired modules and one insufficient point.

2) Incoming Lines
The Time Telecom people came and put through all eleven incoming lines. Unfortunately, no one could tell me if all eleven lines are going into the system or not. Only when we were about to leave, did I find out which is the Fax line, and which is the main line. I have asked the fat person-in-charge (Fat PIC?) twice about the Fax and she said she does not know.

3) Wrongly labeled Floor Plans
Well, the version of the floor plan I got was very different from the one the cabling guy got and its not even the same with the one the IT Network guy got. Yeah, hence the wrongly labelled extension points and we wasted hours going through the whole floor

4) Miscounted telephone points
On the floor plan, there were 93 points. Unfortunately, they only ordered for 88 points. And it did not sink in until I reminded them that the floor below needs an extra 8 points which they did not take into account. All in all, plus the Operator's console, the system needs 102 points. If the customer needs to increase to that capacity, they would have to purchase more interface cards, phones and poor old me would have to do a bit of rewiring since the open-frame can only accomodate up to the existing capacity.

5) Faulty walkie-talkie
While we were going through the floor checking on all the points, the new walkie-talkies we were using picked up a lot of other signals and we could barely hear each other. So, my other colleagues who happened to drop by, decided to "play" with them, giving opposite instructions to whoever is listening. It was quite hilarious when the poor guy went up instead of down and exited the door when he is supposed to go in and so on.

6) Reprogramming of phones
The customer has a few different types of keyphones in use and because of one particular model's design, they cannot be swapped just like that or else some of the buttons would not work. So, by evening, we tried using the walkie-talkie to check on all phones again and reprogram where necessary.

The wires are all neatly tied once I installed the third cabinet taken from their old office yesterday


Overall shot of the system, with its cabling and batteries
Yes, you need batteries which is quite useful when there is no power


My assistant did this, so its a bit "loose" But all the incoming lines and 88 points are there.
This is called an "open-frame" system where wires from the system is on the left and wires to the telephone extensions are to the right. Each side is connected via the blue/whie "jumper cables". The reason is for easy maintenance such as when customer wishes to relocate a few extension, you just jumper to the new point instead of moving the cable.


There are 88 extensions and 10 incoming lines in there


How it looks when I closed it all up

Chased by a Honda Stream

Well, it happened this morning, as I was taking the usual short-cut to my Office. This guy in a Honda Stream was right behind me and for some reason, he was unable to overtake me even on clear roads. So, he has no choice but to tailgate me.

As I was doing my best to speed up, I did notice that I am faster while taking the corners. But on straights, he had me beat.

So, the moral of the story is, I'd better get my car's ECU board and the sensors fixed. Ha ha ha

Instant Electrolysis

One thing I hate about customers is when they employ Aunties to clean their offices. As such, these Aunties are so efficient to a point that they never realise their actions have expensive consequences to the customer. take for example, the humble 4-way socket.

This is a small little grey plastic box whole sole existence is to connect the cables from the PBX to the cables to your phone. You can throw the little guy on the floor and he will sit there quietly. Sometimes you can see him stuck to the wall/table courtesy of some sticky double-sided foam tapes. So, there he is, minding his own business on the floor when Auntie came with a very wet mop. With one big sweep, the tiles are clean but our little guy is momentarily drowned in a potent mixture of Terracare/Savlon/spit (or some other washing liquid on Sale at Makro).

And all of a sudden, voltages from the PBX surges through the metal inside the little guy and we have a very nice Chemistry lesson on Electrolysis. As a result, the copper in the cable are eroded and becomes green (just like those you see on your spectacles) on the outside. But inside the cable, it becomes black where the poor old innocent guy (like me) would have to take his blade to scrape out the black stuff.

And if its too severe, the little guy gets replaced and sometimes, the worst thing that could happen would be that the cables would either have to be cut short or get replaced too. Because moisture inside the cable is bad news. You would get complications like shorting, unreliable signals or even permanent damage. This is expensive because you'd have to pay the guy (like me) to lay a new cable all over again.

See the green stuff at the top left of the screw?
Its Copper Sulfate. In other words, the metal connectors and the cables are "screwed"

System Installation II

While my assistant was doing the cabling, I was inspecting the other cables at the Riser. Tomorrow, the Time Telecoms people would comission th eline and I will then connect these lines into the PBX. Too bad I cannot shorten the installation time due to the customer's insistence that I cannot remove their remaining PBX equipment until after 4PM today.

So, for tomorrow, my tasks are:

1) Commissioning of incoming lines
I will have to wait for the Time Telecom guys to tell me where their newly relocated lines (from UPM) are before I can connect them to the PBX.

2) Mounting of the third cabinet
Yep, the cabinet I removed this evening is going to go up there. And again, more cabling to be done.

3) Removal of Panasonic PBX at 12th Floor
Once I have removed the Panasonic system, I will have to trace and connect the previous cables to the new PBX system located two floors up.

This is the telephone riser which you can find on every floor.
The tenants would then engage cable contractors to lay cables from there into their own office.


This is the old 80's Hansa tag.
The source cable comes from the back while the connecting cable is in the front.
You use your screwdriver to connect the cables.
You screw it too hard, you're screwed.
You screw it too soft, you're screwed too.


This is the modern connector made famouse by Krone.
The source cables would be on top while the connecting cables would be at the bottom of each Tag.
You use a special punching tool to connect the cables.
Very systematic and neat


I have split the calbing between the PBX (left) and the telephone extensions (right).
To connect, I just punch in the "jumper cable" between the two sets of Krone Tags
My assistant of the week can be seen punching the cables in.

Aedes Carrier

Just as I was going up to the 14th floor, there was a mosquito in the lift. While waiting for the lift to reach the 14th floor, my itchy hand touched the 7th floor. So, when the doors opened, the fat mosquito, full of blood, flew lazily out and into the Office there........

Those poor, poor people. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Ok, I wanted to take a clearer picture of the missing M&M.
But it rolled into the car's floor and I must have accidentally stepped on it with my boot while driving.