Sparkfun Free Day

I don't believe I stayed up for this. On 7th January 2010, The Sparkfun Free day starts. You can order anything up to USD100.00 and after that, anything over the amount, you pay the balance. Oh, and you also pay the shipping. And Freeday will stop once the USD100,000 mark has been reached. Which is nice because this is their way of "giving" back. And so, on that very day, or shall I say, minight, all Hell broke loose......

This is was the only page I got after I wanted to checkout.
After that, everytime I hit F5, I got a "blank page"
And for the next 2 hours, it was the same thing and the
only information was from their Forum which generated
a lot of postings. So, I just hit F5 there to see them
fulfilling the USD100K target in the Forum.

Despite upgrading to a nice server, their suffered a DOS
(Denial of Service) as too many people were trying to
get in and make their orders. So, the webpages slowed
to a crawl thanks to the record 111,493 hits.

Even maximising their bandwidth did not help with
their new Sparc servers.

Anyway, reading through their Forums, there were a lot of sour grapes and annoyed first time customers. And there were a lot of rational arguments too. But then again, this is the Internet where a simple spark can turn into a razing inferno in a very short time. And yes, this is also the Internet where everyone want things for free, by yesterday. Still, some of the arguments were right. This is a successful publicity stunt which, for a few hours, made Sparkfun the number one search on Google. However, due to the immense visits, they were really overwhelmed. So, for every satisfied customer, there were 10 pissed of new and loyal customers. Oh well, if I did get what I wanted (A simple Digital oscilloscope and some Arduino) I would be very happy. Still, easy come, easy go.

In the aftermath, a lot of people complained about not being able to get in, get free stuff, alienating loyal customers and so on, while on the other hand, some did and ( some did not) preferred to be psychological about it saying its all about being web-savvy smart, be an adult and expect this, bla.. bla.. bla.. This is the Internet age where everyone takes for granted they can get anything for free and that its theirs by birthright. Don't believe me? Try this.

Do you get annoyed when:
1) You send a SMS to your friend and they do not answer within 30 seconds
2) Your Office does not allow you to surf the Internet during Lunch-hour
3) You cannot call your next door neighhour's Mobile Phone for the past 5 minutes

But for me, I am annoyed because I could not even get in just after 00.01 (0901 their time) even after I have made the purchase. And I could have made the purchase even without the Free Day. And for the rest of the two hours I stupidly wasted, I discovered that I do not need Sparkfun that much because after a short search, I found out the same Oscilloscope kit was being sold USD20 cheaper. Yes, and also, I can vent about Sparkfun and make childish noises of not being a customer or buying from them bla.. bla.. bla..

You know, they could have just said, "Yo, we've got new servers! The lucky 1000 who managed to get in will have USD100.00 worth of prizes but you have to pay shipping. And for loyal customers, we'll do a draw and the lucky 50 can have their shopping later." Or something to that effect.

Sparkfun can say, this is a test on their new servers and so on. But the precious publicity they generated is going fast the other way. Its a nice idea but poorly executed. Somehow, while passing the news from one to everyone, The "Spakrfun Free Day with a catch" has somehow mutated to "Free" which, like a "SALE" sign, turns every housewife into shop-till-you-drop-zombie.

Because now I know what Sparkfun is, I don't give a shit about them.

And I still don't believe I stayed up for this.

The Yam Cake

Let me put it this way. Yam is nice. You have it mashed and shaped into a bowl and deep-fried. You can cut it to little chunks and steam it. You can slice it and turn it into crisps. You can even turn it into ice-cream and colour it purple too. But a yam Birthday cake? This is a new one. Let' hope they don't come up with yam-flavoured Shandy or wine cooler or something. Still had anyone come across yam bread and yam pizza?

Anyway, today's weather is not that good. And so,
with nothing else better to do, my Boss rushed out
all of a sudden...

And came back with a Birthday cake. Yep, its one
of our Tech's birthday and this time, we're not
going to miss this one. Now, when we opened the
box to see a purple cake, I was half expecting it to
smell like one of those Lavender powder perfumes.

Anyway, it tastes nice. OK, I mean if you're
going to buy a cake early so in the morning,
its going to come in frozen. So, the middle
of the cake is frozen, and so is the yam.

[Later on, when we left it overnight in the fridge, it tasted blissfully delicious the next morning. Wow. The only thing missing is the Kampung Koh Chili sauce.]

Toast your Transformer

I'd never thought I'd see this. Yes, they
now have made a Transformer out of
a toaster. If this came out in the 90's
where those infamous flying toaster
screensavers were the rage, it would
have sold quite a tidy number.

The new Garden Hose

OK, I got a new garden hose. To replace the broken garden hose which I accidentally ran over while flushing my Bengmobile's radiator. That was a very #@%& expensive RM15.00 garden hose. Goes to show how smart I am.

Anyway, I went back to the same shop this morning and asked for the hose. Same hose, same price and I don't know what came over me but I said, "Got better design, ah?" which the guy said, "I have some better but expensive one, wait here while I get them from upstairs". Yeah, these guys keep their precious stuff "upstairs". Its always the same answer. Next time, I'll just brush him aside and go one a shopping orgy "upstairs". Ooh, what's this? A goldplated garden shear with diamond encrusted handles...... yeah, right.

Anyway, his "better one" costs me RM30.00 and
although some parts are metal, the trigger and I
suspect, the body are made of plastic. Still, it has
a very good grip.

Holding it like a gun, it can fire short bursts of
about 3 shots per second. Here, I am on the
lookout for some vermin... slowly... slowly...

Aha! There they are!

Fire!
(Missed)

Luckily I turned the tap off as their aiming
are quite good now, thanks to the NERF guns

High quality leather

Remember I ordered a new leather case for my Nokia 5800 months ago? No?

OK, read this.

Now you remember right? So, take it from me, when you buy stuff from eBay, sometimes its too good to be true. And if its good, then its seldom true. In other words, not everything you buy is a quality item unless you know what you're expecting or, you have lowered your expectations from expecting too much.

Anyway, the leather case is receiving a lot of abuse from the pockets of my jeans and from the two girls. However, on the outside, the surface still looks reasonably presentable. What is not, is the black plastic holder which had cracked and bits broken off just like this one I had long ago. It seems that for the case of this plastic holder, once it suffers a sharp force, it will crack and it does not matter if you used glue on it. It will still crack. Even the strong plastic melting PVC glue dow not work for long on this stubborn yet stupidly fragile material.

And so, I used my blade to scrape off the glue
that binds the plastic to the real leather. Whoa.
I didn't know cows are made from recycled
cardboard.

See? This is what I hate about this material. Its
flexible. It holds your phone. But once you go
and drop it, it will crack and suffer from the
Humpty Dumpty syndrome.

Why can't they just produce casings from those
wonderful aircraft grade aluminum like the one
I had for me HP iPaq?

Anyhoo...... I used the double-sided acrylic tape
and glued the Nokia 5800's back cover to the
real leather casing.

Note the slightly out of alingment placement of
the phone with the casing. This is to ensure the
screen protect slider function is easily reachable.
OH, OK, so I fudged when I stuck it on the stupid
thing. Happy now?

In theory, I have given the casing another lease of life. How long it will last, I am not sure. But because of these touch screen devices, making casing for them is not easy:

1. Silicon wraps (condoms)
I hate this. They're either sticky or collect fluff from your pockets. Touching it is like holding a vulcanised condom with a chocolate bar in it.

2. Faux leather with plastic windows.
This is even worse. Its like going to the supermarket, and fondling the mince meat in polystyrene packs. Only difference is, the is a big hard bone in the pack. And and when your ear sweats, you can bet all your little public hairs the sweat would not go anywhere but into that special little cut-out. Weeks later, you find strange dark greenish stuff in the electronics and keypads. And don't even try smelling it.

3. Non-silicon wraparound
Its on my hate list but not so much as hate-hate. Its a good casing but for class, its like wearing a pair of worn Crocs. And as usual, this is CSI's God's Gift to them. Because if you die, they can, from all the sweat, ear wax, hair, sperm, public hair, etc. in the casing, determine how bad the conversation was when talking to your Mistress.

4. Swag bag pouches
Not sure what you call them but they resemble those Santa Claus bags except in a smaller scale. Calling them Santa Bags is just as wrong. Anyway, these are made of cloth and you know, as well as I do, what happens when you do not wash your underwear for months. And gluing small little diamond or glittery stuff on it is just asking to be sent to a Mental Asylum. No, wait, opening the bag and taking out the phone with your thumb and forefinger qualifies. I'll even donate a whip if you happen to be a man.

5. Clear 'crystal' cases
This used to be the rage years ago. But now, its as useful as using acrylic plastic sheets and superglue to make a fish aquarium.

6. Leather pouches.
Oh Lord! I hate this one! By the time you figure out how to unlock the latch/button and pushing the phone out, you have a missed call and you will waste more money calling them back.

No follow ups.

So, my Boss said, "I want this to be done in one day, OK?"
And my Boss said, "No follow ups. The manpower and transportation costs are too great."
Then, my Boss said, "One day, you hear?"

Yeah, the downturn is really affecting my Boss now.

And so, we drove, all in my itty bitty Bengmobile, to good old Seremban. I am not going to bore you with the, "Oh you guys are new. The last @#$& forgot to do this and that" story. We're here to install an automated-attendant/voicemail system for our vendor's client's customer. And without much instructions apart from a piece of paper, we're going in blind.

In other words, this is going to be a FOLLOW UP job. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

What I was not prepared was, the phone system there is a NEC and not a Panasonic as we were led to believe. Yes, we technical people are a gullible lot. I lost count the times we got fooled by the Sales people to do 'Heaven & Earth' stuff while cleaning up after them. Anyway, we came through and the job is almost finished except for.....

What do you mean you want
KL people to do the voice
recording?

Flushing the Radiator

You know what? The problem with having too much time on your hands is that you think you can do things better than anyone else. And when you do that, you found out that its actually much better to pay other people to do things for you. But sometimes, there are things you can actually do without killing yourself or losing a limb in the process.

And so, today I shall show you how to flush a car radiator without getting your hands burnt (much).

Just as I opened the car bonnet, its unbelievable
that the Bengmobile has deteriorated to such level.

For those of you who do not know where the radiator
is, look for anything that has a silver cap that says,
something to the effect, "Do not open when hot". But
most of us would already know it because of frontal
collisions where the radiator is the first to go and also
the tell tale signs of leaking water. Oh, alright, its in
the front of the car, the part where it burns your fingers
when you try to open the bonnet when the engine's hot.

Its been years since I flushed my own radiator. I have
not seen anyone flushing it when they service my car.
The closest would be to drain it and then use a hose to
pump the water in before opening a fresh bottle of "El
Flouro-green" into it. There is a reason why they use
this, which is very useful when detecting leaks. So, I
never ask them to flush it because it costs extra.

OK, after successfully removing the drain plug at
the bottom, the water from the radiator is brown
which is bad news. Also, its not easy to remove
the plug because my Bengmobile is very low.

Keep the plug in a safe place because once you lose
it, not only does it cost money to buy it back, but
you cannot drive the car further than 10cm.

And so, emulating a bored worker, I let the water
hose into the radiator opening and sort of used
the pressure to "flush" out any big rust particles
even though I believe this is a stupid thing to do.

OK, once I screw the plug back, its time to pour
in the RM12.00 radiator flush chemical. Funny.
For a moment, I thought it smelled of oranges.
Then, add water until the radiator is full. Close
the radiator cap but not completely, just one
notch. Well, that's what is said on the label. Run
the engine for 10 minutes.

10 Minutes? I have a much better idea!
Vroom! vrooom! vroooom!

After that, let the engine cool down a bit before
opening the radiator cap. You can see the froth
which, I think, the chemical is working.

This is the part which I hate because I have to stick
my hand into the engine bay again and this time, its
not a nice thing since the engine is still hot and I can
get burnt from the exhaust extractors. So, after
waiting for awhile, I used the water hose to cool the
extractors while I put my arm in. Drain the stuff out
and this time, fill up with water and go vrooming for
another 5 minutes before draining it again.

This is the last stage which you will be putting in
the new coolant. Make sure you have screwed the
radiator plug tightly or you'd be wasting the Long
Life RM24.00 Toyota Coolant. I wanted to use this
for a very long time. I bought one years ago but I
lost it during the move. It was sttee (RIP) who then
suggested to use this as he said it was quite good.

So, instead of green, I now have ribena red coolant
in the car. I wonder if hey have blue.........

Anyway, time to clean the injectors too. Can't
afford to pay for ultrasonic cleaning though.

And so, this is the easy part. For the next few weeks, I would need to find a workshop which can change my oil filter, fuel filter, engine oil, and most importantly, flush the brake system. Yes, yes, all these can be DIY too but its too difficult for me. Moreover, I have to get a proper set of jacks or stands for the car. I still have the car's electronics to worry about as well. Let's see what my next and final paycheque will let me do......

Kaelynn's First Day

Today is Kaelynn's first day in school and because of this, I had taken the day off just to take her there. So, it is an important day for her and just the night before, I noticed she was quite excited about it. Actually, she is quite cool with the concept of school since she has visited Kristine's school a few times, with her sister showing her around and proudly telling her classmates that, "This is my sister."

And unlike Kristine, Kaelynn did not make any fuss or cry on her first day. Which is good. And the first thing she did when she entered her class was to go to the corner where all the books were.........

OK, so today is Monday and if I am to follow the
old timetable, they should be wearing whites. I
made the call to Wife and she said they should
be wearing blue since today is the first day.

A quick change later, they're ready
In fact, Kaelynn is getting impatient

Alas. My Bengmobile is blocked and I could not
sound my Horn since the school's PA system is
louder than my cacat horn. So, I had to borrow
Dad's car. I hope they don't do this tomorrow.

Yes, it rained this morning but
by the time we all woke up, the
rain had stopped. I parked the
car far away, anticipating new
parents there. Yes, they're
walking very fast. Too fast even
for my Nikon D50.

After the orientation day, its
amazing that all the teachers
actually do remember each
student's names.

We followed Kristine to her class first

And then to Kaelynn's. As soon as she dropped
her bags, she went straight to the book section.
I guess she knew where they were as I am sure
she visited her class on Saturday with Mommy.

And so, she read and read and read...

My classmate's daughter was there too. I suggested
this school to him since it was the most suitable
school nearest to his place. And it was half the price
of a Montessori which he was looking at in the first
place but rejected since there were too many expats

Over breakfast, we catch up on old times. Seems like
all his siblings and In-Laws have migrated to Down
Under and his Wife is nagging him about it but,
"It never crossed my mind." when I asked if he wanted
to migrate. However, he did touch on Night Trading
which packs in about USD100 per night if you're
consistent and disciplined enough.

Meanwhile Kaelynn is still reading.......

And reading.........

And so is Kristine

I am surprised they even get to sing during
toilet breaks. Oh, if you do this now, you'd
be suspected of molesting and other crap.

Right after the toilet break, everyone or in other
words, the whole school has porridge & orange
juice for breaktime.

I missed Kaelynn's Gym session as I was looking
for a place to cut my hair. But I did catch up when
she was about to return to her class. As Krsitine's
was next, they both tried to say hello to each other

Another toilet break. This is one of the two
boys who cried so hard that their dams
broke. Twice.

At the end of the session, Kaelynn got a nice
stamp from her teacher for being a good girl

Time to go home and cause more havoc