Feeling the excitement of the launch of the new Mac OS X 10.6, i quickly opened the Malaysian Apple Store page and placed my order. As the page states that it will only start shipping on the 28th, it will still be a few days before i’ll get to see how it has improved Leopard.
The web is full of reviews from developers who has had a chance to try the OS before launch. All good so far. As the OS only costs RM129 (as opposed the the other OS’s +-500), i didn’t really think much before ordering. Not that i would regret it. After almost 4 years a mac user, i know i wouldn’t buy a PC for myself. But i’m not gonna stop you if that’s what you want.
And so Snow Leopard promises to be a great enhancement to Leopard in terms of speed and performance. To be fair, i can’t really say if it really works as advertised for me as i still haven’t received my copy. So here’s hoping that i will receive my copy early early next week so i could have a new mac on my mac before that friend of mine…haha
Continuing with my fascination with the great conquerors of the past, i read Tamerlane. Not really knowing what i would find, i was quite surprised when i found out what i did.
It turned out that what i hear about the West always trying to suppress the true story of Temur (as he should be known) has foundation. I discovered that he was not a mindless monster. He did not kill everyone. He was never defeated in battle (no easy feat). His name is not Tamerlane. He was not just a destroyer. But he was really something.
And to know what he was, you should read the book.
I was at the KLIBF on Saturday. Unfortunately, i went a bit late and didn’t have enough time to explore the whole Fair. The good news is, it’s going to be there until next Sunday (26 April), so that means i’m going again on Saturday, and this time, i’m going early early. I have to admit that not all books are sold discounted. But a lot of them are, and the discount rates are good, and the range of books to choose from are fantastic. Honestly, i didn’t go to find books that can be found anytime at a bookshop near you. I go to the Fair to find cheap books. Yes. Cheap good books that may be hard to find elsewhere. And you would be surprised at what you may find beneath those stacks of books that is of no value to others but may be a gem to you.
Recommendation: No argument. Just go.
(I’ll update the post after my next trip to the Fair)
(Will find time)
(Maybe not)
We all know that the traffic in KL can come to almost a standstill when it’s just drizzling. And this may be the very reason why some take the train to go to work. The LRT service, to be specific, is said to be efficient, reliable and fast. Its efficacy is not dependent on the traffic or weather.
I really doubt that.
I take the train to work (the LRT service formerly known as PUTRA LRT). And everytime it rains, the train slows down, and the door opens for so long at every other station it makes me feel like an exotic monkey standing in a box to be watched by those standing in line. It is also a mystery why the train stops midway in between stations, and it feels like a scene in one of those movies when the train stops in between stations in the tunnel (e.g. betwen Masjid Jamek and Dang Wangi), and stops moving for minutes. (I sometimes see shadows of zombies lurking in the dark outside the train). And if it is raining and you’re standing close enough to the door, as i normally do in the morning coz the train is so packed that i almost get cut in half by the door whenever it closes, you could actually feel the rainwater (whether this is a manufacturing defect or a wear and tear condition, i wouldn’t know. Just stating the facts).
Notwithstanding all the above, i have always thought that the LRT line formerly known as PUTRA LRT was poorly planned. For the high density areas that it covers and its importance for those who depend on it to travel to work everyday, the train is small. I would not even try to describe how hellish it is to even get on the train in the morning (no proper queue, too many people, everyone pushing, small train, imagine yourself). The effect is exaggerated if you take the train from Terminal Putra. I’ve read a few years ago that there is a plan to make the trains longer as to cater for the ever growing number of passengers depending on the service, but that was years ago and the news remains just that. I guess the fact that they did plan to extend the trains indicates that those who make decisions are aware of the problem, but i guess there are much much more important things than this.
Until the service is improved, as though i have a choice, i will still use the same train service everyday, hoping for the best, experiencing the worst.
Apple on Wednesday announced the new iPod Shuffle. It’s so tiny one wonders how it could actually fit all those 4 GB’s of songs into it. Its got new features as well. Apple calls it the first music player that speaks to you. It announces the name of the song and artist if you desire so. It can also play your playlists (the previous Shuffle..well..just shuffles your songs). And to top all that, it’s got no control buttons. At all. The controls are located at the supplied earphone cable. This makes it so much simpler but at the same time, it may be a minus point for those who prefers to use different earphones.
Wanna know more? Check out the guided tour here.
I use internet banking regularly. And for this to happen is a bit unacceptable considering that this is not the first year this particular bank is offering it’s online services. With all the hype on it’s revamped online site, this becomes more unacceptable.
I did an online transfer to pay my loan last week. A few moments later a notification came out saying that my transfer was unsuccessful. And there was a ‘make another payment’ button at the bottom of the page. So what did i do? What would anyone do when you’re told that your transaction is not successful and a button for you to make your payment appears. I clicked the button to tried to make the payment again. This time, i had no problems. Except when i checked my account balance and saw that the amount shown indicated that i made the payment twice. Which really irritated me considering that this is supposed to be a ‘revamped and updated’ site and stupid problems like this should not occur. I called the bank and the silly answer i got was “..sir, actually even if the notification shows that it is unsuccessful, you should not retry instead you should call the bank to check..” And he told me about a pop up notification that should appear to explain the need to call the bank which i can promise you never did (i still find it weird that you have to call the bank to check whether your transaction is successful or not when internet banking should be just that).
The worse part is that the bank told me that now they cannot reverse the transaction made, even the supposedly unsuccessful one. I was told that the transaction has reached the server and there’s nothing they can do to stop it. What the hell were they thinking? Launching a half baked internet banking website with misleading notifications and yet there’s nothing they can do to remedy the fault. And so after a few minutes of making my unhappiness clearly known to the bank, they finally say that one way to reverse the transaction is to notify the receiving bank of the cancellation, but there will be a charge of RM10. Now why on earth did he not tell me this earlier is still a mystery to me. And frankly i didn’t really care by then. I just told him to do whatever he has to do. And do something about the website. You don’t tell people things that are not true especially when people are relying on the integrity of your services to do business. Especially, when it involves someone’s hard earned money.
unacceptable considering that this is not the first year this particular bank is offering it’s online services. With all the hype on it’s revamped online site, this becomes more unacceptable.