Pentium II

Do you recognise this? Its a Pentium II processor. Back in the 90's, it was THE processor after the Pentiums and the 480DXes. It was so "special" that they made a hoo-haa over it. And not only that, PC motherboards must have special sockets/connectors for this chip.

More than five years later, its obsolete.

And so here is it, lying on a junk heap, waiting to be scrapped.........

This was the first sight I saw. At first, I thought it was
some fancy heatsink. And when it turned it over.......

Its a Pentium II!

But I was more interested in the heatsink design
One day, when I get bored, I might open it up, to
see what it looks like, inside the housing.

But I know, I wont be seeing the chip exactly like
what the hologram sticker shows. Because its all
covered in ceramic/resin back goop in there.

The Mask

Kristine was up this morning but she felt very moody
as if she does not want to go to school

I found out why when Dad fixed as mask for her

Although it looked cute but seriously, the prices of
these masks have either gone up or sold out
(according to Wife and Internet) but I am very
doubtful of its effectiveness.

But personally, I am not sure about the masks such as the N95 (Not Nokia) which I forgot I have read somewhere, only filters 0.3µm whereas the virus is 0.1µm.

Making a meal out of oats

Since I am still a bit early, I decided to go for
a warm breakfast. Again, the same oats and
the soup mixture but this time, I found some
of last night's dinner........ ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Brushing teeth

Nothing wrong, right? Not until you realise that
they are brushing their teeth TOGETHER and
HELPING each other.

Raining

Sunday afternoon......... and its raining

The girls are bored and they can't do much screaming
since they're scared of thunder too. Hearing the sound
of the rain, I wanted to sleep but not with them still
awake. So, I did what I would under the circumstances

Yeah, baby! Jump!

Woohoo!

Weird Dreams

I was tired. So tired and I can't even SMS properly. And so, I had to drag myself, mentally, towards the long road to slumberland. But....

But....

Why the hell am I still on the floor?

Dream 1
Damn. I've forgotten what it was already.

Dream 2
Not sure why but with all AirAisia passengers stranded at the Departure Hall, I suggested that each (of the five or more) flight's passengers move together on the long tarmac walk towards the planes. And slowly, other teams would indirectly herd the bad guys into a group. And once these bad guys were huddled into one corner and they realised they were fooled, there was no other choice but to go out blazing. Except that these bad buys were just old geezers.

And they have their own principles.

Rather than start a gun-fight, and possibly shooting at innocent passengers, they just calmly walked to the authorities, side by side, with their heads held up high and pointing the weapons at them. One by one, they fall.

One by one.

And those who survived, they took their own spare gun, at their backs and shot themselves in the head.

Om Mani Pudut bam bam........

I am not sure where she got this idea (Astro?) but for the past few days, Kristine was sitting cross-legged, pretending to well, act like a monk or something.

The lonely hermit at the top of Mt. Matress is
busy meditating and pondering on the meaning
pondering meanings.

Then comes a sweet little girl on a Magic Carpet
"Oh, Monky One, what is the meaning of Life?"

"Why, I am still pondering. What else you need, O sweet one?"
"Sweets"
"Cannot"

Bubbles

When I came home, Kristine and Mommy was playing outside the house. Kristine was discovering the joys of bubble (outside the bathroom) for the first time. And so, I took some shots but since it was already dark, most of them, well, did not turn out well but I am still satisfied. Only problem was I could not catch most of the bubbles.

There must be something wrong with the mixture
because when I was a kid, just one small puff would
produce a lot of bubbles. And they come out in long
streams. Kristine's just comes out in fours or sevens

Still, I will not tell this to her. Let her finish the
original mixture and we'll see what we can do
with dish washing liquids. No, no shampoos.

Also, I taught her there are other ways to produce
the bubbles apart from blowing into the hoop.

After much coaxing, Kaelynn decided to give it
a try. She was not that ready to give it a go as
maybe seeing Kristine running around might
not be her cup of tea.

But, after the first puff, she won't let go!

And Kristine was none too happy about it.

After that, I had a hard time stopping her from
playing with it inside the house. By then, little
Kaelynn has gotten my Nokia 5800 and made
herself busy with the games and video clips

Reparing my own tools

Well, this tester is more than a year old now, but its actually more than that. I made this tester long ago, and if I recall correctly, years before I joined this company. Sometimes, in order to save time or such, I will create my own tools if necessary, never mind if its on the market. Anyway, just to recap, this is the first version of the CCTV tester, where it tests for voltage polarity and cable shorts. Nothing more.

And right now, I am doing version two, which is much more than that and slightly more complicated in terms of wiring as well. But the problem is, once I created this tool I am not sure if I want the boys to use it, taking it for granted again. And I am also very sure that the company will not buy this tool. (Oho, I know you're going to say, if they want to use it, buy it, etc. But as you all know, talking is so much easier than done. Then again, you do not work here. Heh)

And so, this is that happens when I let the use the tools. It gets used until broken and that's it. No one would tell me that its broken or not working. And then, when they need to use it, they would just "remember" that is broken and I would not know until I probed as why was there a follow up to a certain customer. Sigh.

And so, this MKI needs to be repaired. Of course
they can just use a multitester but the complexity
of using such tool just overwhelms them. So, this is
the cheap and cheerful solution. But not robust.

I am still wondering how to "knock-proof" the
electronics because everytime this was dropped
(or more often) the impact would weaken the
solder joints to the point of snapping off. I have
tried using heat shrinking (yellow arrow) them
but to no avail. There must be a better way to
overcome such mechanical stress. I'm afraid the
MK II might suffer the same fate.

Where is my Brother?

While we were in the car, Kristine was asking my Wife, "Mom, where is my brother?"

"You don't have a brother."
"Then who is xxxxx?"
"They are your cousins."
"I don't want cousins. I want a brother. I want an older brother."
"You don't have an older brother because you were born first."
"I don't want born first. I want older brother."
"But you already came out. So you are born first, you are older than Kaelynn."
"This means I am leader?"
"Yes. You are leader."



Minutes later..........

"Where is my brother?"
"..........."

Giving me a hand

Guess what did Kristine learn at school today?
Yes, how to make a hand. And it comes in
very handy because it lets her go to MacDs
for the straws among many other things.

And she gave it to me! yay!

So, now I have an extra hand allows me to go
on a limb when things get out of grip.

Talk, talk!

Kristine: Bla... bla... bla...
Kaelynn: I want to talk
Kristine: Bla... bla... bla...
Kaelynn: I want to talk!
Kristine: yadda... yadda... yadda...
Kaelynn: I want to talk!!
Kristine: yadda... yadda... yadda...
Kaelynn: I WANT TO TALK!!!

So, I put the newspaper on my lap and stared at the both of them. They know they have created an incident and both of them looked back at me, worried.

"So, talk!" I told Kaleynn. She was quiet.

"What do you want to talk about?"
"Nothing" (inside my mind, I was slapping my forehead)

EVO in action

Wasn't able to stop in time due to the traffic lights
but I passed by them and they stopped a Merc....

Hotwheels Lelong

All of a sudden, the Hotwheels cars at 7-11 were selling
at RM4.90. I forgot which one but days later, everyone
was selling back at the normal price of RM6.50. So I got
this one. Its golden in colour and looks almost like a new
Batmobile (if I repaint it as black). Why I say that it is
because of the rear which has a very large rocket exhaust
but to me, its more like a loudspeaker so that everyone
can hear you fart at the traffic lights a mile away.

Letting out Gas

Remember this lighter? Well, try as I might, I have
used up only so much and the rest is still in the blue
container. Unfortunately, the lighter does not work
anymore. Oh yes, the sparking part still works but
there is no more fire. And so, just like Nexus said, I
have to let the gas out.

Kaelynn is curious about my antics. I shudder to think
if I actually use this R9.90 lighter only to realise its not
working after less than 50 sparks.

There is another theory that since I always carry it in
my pocket, the fluff might have clogged up the pipes
or something in there. But it could not be because I
can hear and smell the gas coming out when I release
it. Oh, nice spark, right? It got dimmer and dimmer
later on in the night. Still its ripe for my next project

The secret hideout

I had to park my car in one of these abandoned (but it was not) looking car parks today for about RM3.00. Normally, I would use the ramps instead of the stairs. But today, because there were so much cars, I had to park at the topmost level which has no roof. And so, feeling a bit lazy and not in the mood to be knocked down by cars, I took the stairs for the first time. And ....... wow.

Here we have someone living in the stairwells. I
think this is the main living room level. The floor
is quite clean.

In one corner, you have the wardrobe and clothes.
Note the personal air-conditioned on the bottom left.

Then on the other side, you have the entertainment
centre. Unfortunately, you can tell this person is not
a Playstation fan nor a Hi-Fi buff.

And just in case if there is any trouble, all the
person has to do is to slide down and hop into
the Batcycle........

On the upper levels, there I think this is the kitchen
which is most logical as the fumes from the cooking
needs somewhere to go. If its based on the bottom
floor, the upper floors would stink. Alas, from the
pieces on the floor, I think this person preferred to
eating out.

Nokia 5800 Firmware Upgrade V30.0.01

Something must be wrong with me. I stayed up the whole night, trying to log on to the Internet and download the firmware. And all the time, I was very afraid that any sudden Internet disconnection might brick the phone. (As in corrupted installation to the chipsets, turning the phone into one big paper weight)

But I needn't worry as the software would download first
and then install. This was the shot I wanted to show you
but missed it the first time when I was updating to V.25

And after it reboots itself, a quick #*0000# reveals
the new information. Nothing new here but I felt as
if the phone used slightly more power and some of
the icons were changed. Still, it hanged everyday.
But now, it turns itself off even more, as if it does
not want to live anymore, dreading everyday that it
would hang on almost every application and making
the owner feel stupid and lose confidence on Nokia.

The Show

And so, with nothing much to do, since we stopped them from watching TV too much (unless they escaped to Grandma's room during the day), I let the girls play in the room. Lately, Kristine has started to wear the "jacket" again. Which belong to either me or my sis when we were babies. She wears the jacket to represent long hair.........

And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a show for you.
Its all about me, Kristine, who will dance and sing for you

"But I want to sing and dance too."
"No, you go to the back and play the guitar or whatever"

"Hmmph. I will get her for this."

And so, Kaelynn stole the show with her cute cute smile

And also her singing. Kristine is starting to realise the
audience is not paying attention to her.....

And so, as usual, a fight ensued.

But in the end, the Evil Monst........er In the End, Kristine
agreed to give Kaelynn more time for her show.

And she even shared her treasures with her

Unfortunately, Kaelynn was so distracted, she was knocked
down with Kristine's super duper armpit pillows.

The End

The mysterious connector

Me: Your alarm line is out, issit?
Guard: Dunno.
Me: Let me check your phone too. Is it working?
Guard: Dunno.

Go inside the office, and talked to the person-in-charge, "Your alarm line is out, issit?"

"Yeah, the (alarm guys) came yesterday during their monthly routine check and told me its out"
"Alarm guys? And in those alarm guys who monitor your alarm 24 hours?"
"Yes"
"And no one knows until they came for a check?"
"Yes"
"Are you sure they're monitoring your alarm 24 hours"
"Yes"
"Wow."

[In this case, if they monitor your alarm 24 hours, any problem, their centre would have called you up after a set period of time if your system does not handshake with their monitoring system. So, in this case, the problem could have been happening since their LAST monthly check.]

And they mystery here is, that the connector blocks
are in a bad shape. This is a sign of water seepage but
the box was sealed shut. What is more worrying is the
plastic parts of the connector are crumbling. See the
green stuff coming out of the wire? It has turned to
copper sulphate, via electrolysis.

And it was so bad that the first four wires were affected
until the metal is gone.

So I had to re-route the cables to other pairs and updated the customer of the situation.

"Your Guard's phone extension is also out, you know."
"Really?"
"Have you tried calling them?"
"No"
"Have they tried calling you and complained?"
"No"
"........"