Diari Hati

Yes… we will going to Apple Hills in few minutes time with Hilmi Pizza as our lunch kui kui kui. Wait for my update when we return this evening…

Yes.. i just got a baby. An electronic baby :). This is my 1st computer build after 8 years. My 1st build was when I still study at UTM, year 2000.

My 1st Baby Specification (Year 2000):
Intel Pentium III EB 667Mhz (after 3 years (1 week before 3 years), claim warranty and got 866Mhz P3)
M/B Asus P2B
256MB SDRAM, PC133
40GB Seagate HDD.
Riva TNT2 M64 (AGP x2/x4)
14" Samsung Syncmaster CRT monitorWindows 98 SE

My New Baby Specification (Year 2008):
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (2.5Ghz, 4 cores)
M/B Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3
4GB Corsair DDR2 667Mhz (actually 800Mhz when check through SPD. They mislabel perhaps ? :))
500GB Western Digital HDD
Chaintech Nvidia 8600GT (PCIE x16,540Mhz, 512MB GDDR2, 256bit)
19" Samsung SyncMaster 943NW LCD monitor (wide screen, analog only)
Microsoft Vista Ultimate SP1

What so interesting is, the budget for both my baby not different. The 1st one, is RM2400, and for my latest baby it cost me only RM2500. So, no doubt, my  requirement level almost on par even after 8 years.

What I love most with my latest baby is the Quad Core. Is really improve responsiveness and i have no regret to invest a bit more on it. My nature of usage usually involve heavy multitasking and do a lot of simulation and sometimes play the 3D games. Thats why my minimum spec that put to my self is quad core, 4GB ram and mid range graphic card.

Before I choose Q9300 (2.5GHz, 4 cores), I also consider seriously on Q6700 (2.66GHz, 4 cores) and E6700 (3.0Ghz, 2 cores) since the price is almost same. But at the end, i choose Q9300 since it based on 45nm (cooler) and support SSE4.1 which is able to speed up video encoding up to 80% compared then 65nm product like Q6700. I believe, in the long run, when softwares start to adapt SSE4.1, it will benefit my Q9300.

What I hate most is the Microsoft Vista Ultimate. It is buggy and the application run slower compared the windows XP. And what make it worst, some application not compatible with Microsoft Vista. Its remind me when Windows XP just launch, and I hate it since its run slower and hard to fix if any problem occur (usually need format to fix) compared than Windows 98 SE. However, when the time progress, I manage to migrate to windows XP and start to love it. With that experience, i hope i can do the same thing (slowly adapt) with Microsoft Vista Ultimate.

Be a long time supporter for Asus Motherboard, It little weird that I choose Gigabyte for my latest baby. I never be a gigabyte fan before but I have no choice now since current Asus motherboard (Asus P5K) really marketing gimmick. With lack of all modern motherboard features like multi-phase power supply and reliable solid capacitor (Asus use lousy solid capacitor) and simply add  marketing gimmick EPU, they claim to be energy efficient. Frankly said, I rather buy cheap mother board and install freeware software(RMClock), I can save as much as power (or better) then Asus EPU (hardware). Whoever know how Asus EPU work, sure agree with me. We no need EPU  to do that job. On other hand,  Gigabyte more honest and provide all modern motherboard features that i need. Even I need to pay little bit  more compare then Asus P5K (around Rm50-60), I know I pay for something useful.

And lets welcome my latest baby and pray he will pay back my investment > 10x :).

Link: Performance Summary and Power Consumption - Tom’s Hardware : First Look: Intel’s Atom CPU.

If you read the recent tomshardware review regarding Intel new processor (not yet sell), Intel Atom or the  CPU code name : Silverthorne/Diamondville, you must surprise how lame is this product.

I as the person who directly touch and play with it even more surprise. There is no doubt clock by clock performance for Silverthorne/Diamondville, is much inferior compared then Pentium E2160 (Allendale), however the Silverthorne/Diamonville, true musle is on cost & power consumption.

Silverthorne/Diamondville CPU should be only draw 0.2W - 2W power compared then Allendale (est 35W-65W), and there is no sense whole Diamondville system only save 19W compared then Pentium E2160 system. I believe its seriously misleading.

Talking about Silverthorne, originally in my group, I should be the product owner, before it was hand over to other person and I assign to Nehalem instead, which promise greater challenge and opportunity.

Sesiapa yang rapat dengan aku mesti tahu, aku bukanlah orang yang suka berbelanja untuk membeli benda-benda yang cepat jatuh harga seperti handset dan kereta. Walaupun ianya menarik, tetapi kalau kita fikirkan long term sikit, kita akan nampak betapa ruginya "investment" kita tu. Aku lagi sanggup invest ke Public Mutual Fund dari beli benda-benda macam ni tetapi malangnya benda ini adalah satu keperluan sekarang. Suka atau tidak, kita perlu "ada" benda ini untuk hidup secara normal. Jadi, jalan pertengahan yang paling cost efisyen adalah dengan beli dan guna sampai kiok. Stop sampai sini pre-introduction, aku nak teruskan pula dengan kisah yang sebenar.

Kisah aku bermula bila aku keluar "dating" dengan wife di queensbay untuk tengok wayang; 27 Dresses last week. Ini adalah kali pertama aku tengok wayang sejak ada anak kecik sebab takut nak bawak anak aku pergi wayang sama-sama. Takut dia meraung dalam wayang :). Tetapi sempena mengambil peluang si Nurul Iman kat rumah atuk dan nenek dia, aku pun keluar tengok wayang ngan wife aku. Nak jadikan citer, bila kuar je dari wayang, dah naik motor (sbb kete masuk workshop; accident) tiba-tiba wife aku tersedar handphone dia takder dalam poket. Aku try call, dh off atau takder line. Aku pakai Hotlink Finder, tak dapat detect pulak kat mana phone tu (cis.. akhirnya benda tak berguna dalam kecemasan). So suspect dah jatuh masa tengok wayang. Terus patah balik dan pergi tengok kat tempat duduk…. dah takder. Semua dah clear.. sampah-sampah pun dah takder. So, no hope. Mungkin orang yang sapu dah amik.

So citernyer, terpaksalah wife aku pakai handphone Nokia 3310 adik dia yang lama. Nasib baik adik dia baru tukar phone baru (Nokia 2630. Upah jaga Nurul Iman) so boleh la phone lama tu menjadi teman baik wife aku untuk telefon nurul iman kat kampung setiap sejam sementara nak beli handphone baru. Since dah lama giler tak beli handphone, aku tak tau trend terkini. Maklum lah, aku sendiri pun pakai cokia Nokia 1108 yang sudah wujud sejak zaman firaun tu.

Dan nak dijadikan citer… since aku nak gi US, aku kena pakai phone yang boleh access GSM 1900. telephone Nokia 3310 & 1108 yang kitaorang ada sekarang tak boleh support gelombang tu (leh untuk GSM 900/1800 je). Terpaksalah beli handphone baru yang agak mahal (Quad/Tri band).

So, aku allocate budget dan create kriteria phone yang patut aku beli. Lepas tu, aku pun mula la berjalan-jalan tengok model handphone yang dijual di penang ni, dan list down model dan harga, dan buat research spesifikasi kat internet untuk memastikan aku tak beli handphone yang memenuhi kriteria aku. Kriteria yang aku buat ini berdasarkan research aku kat internet untuk ciri-ciri phone modern zaman sekarang + keperluan aku.

Preferred Budget:
< RM500

Maximum Overbudget:
RM600

Wajib untuk aku
- GSM 900(Maxis/Celcom suburban)/1800(Digi/Maxis&Celcom urban)/1900(Most US carrier)
- Mesti dari  (Highest priority) Nokia/Motorola/Samsung/SonyEricsson (Lowest priority) sahaja

Wajib sebab standard untuk sekarang & next 1 years
- Kamera 1.3 Mpx
- Java MIDP 2.0
- MP3
- Slot Memory Card
- LoudSpeaker
- GPRS
- MMS
- Polyphonic
- Bluetooth

Sunat
- EDGE
- Push To Talk
- 3G (minimum kelajuan 384 kbps)
- Kamera 2 Mpx

Harus
- FM Radio
- HSDPA ( 3G kelajuan 3.6Mbps)
- LED flash
- HSCSD

Setelah buat research secara intensif, berikut adalah short listed aku denga harga terendah yang aku boleh dapat dengan menggunakan teknik menawar secara aggresif.

Nokia 6300 - RM599
Nokia 3500 - RM438
Motorola 580 - RM550
Motorola W510 - RM450 (harga muam)
Motorola Z3 - RM699 (harga muam)
Nokia 3110 - RM400
Samsung J750 -RM 540
Samsung J700- RM 600
Samsung Z230 - habis stok
Samsung J600 - tak ingat
Sony Ericsson K530i - RM495
Sony Ericsson K550i - RM588

Setelah berbincang dengan wife, dan membuat kajian dengan lebih terperinci.. berikut last listed aku.

Nokia 6300
Samsung J750
Sony Ericsson K530i

Dan aku sangat-sangat berminat dengan Samsung J750 sebab bentuk dia yang sangat lawa & canggih dan harga yang berpatutan. Hampir-hampir aku sambar handphone ni… tatapi nasib baik kedai tu charge 3% untuk kad kredit dan aku tak bawak cash. So, aku tangguh untuk beli next day. Nak jadikan cerita… sampai kat rumah, aku kaji sungguh-sungguh Samsung J750 ni dan menjumpai kelemahannya yang aku tak expect pun.

1) Selalu freeze/hang
2) Transfer melaui bluetooth "wajib" masuk ke internal memory dahulu dan internal memory dia sangat kecil (8MB). So, transfer byk file mcm mp3 memang tak boleh melalui bluetooh.
3) Tak boleh assign MP3 sebagai ringtone (WTH !!)

dan bila aku kat office semua kawan-kawan yang pernah pakai Samsung kondem Samsung sebab cepat rosak. So, immediately Samsung J750 dan semua jenis Samsung model lain out of picture.

So aku meneruskan research untuk Nokia 6300 dan Sony Ericsson K530i. Berikut adalah list kelemahan masing-masing.

Nokia 6300
- Cepat habis batery (3hrs talk time vs 7 hrs Sony Ericsson)
- Takde 3G

Sony Ericsson K530i
- Takde EDGE
- Takde Push To Talk
- Screen kecil (176 x 220 vs 240 x 320 Nokia)
- Screen color (256k colors vs 16M Nokia)
- Guna Memory Stick Micro (mahal vs Nokia microSD lebih murah)

Sekali imbas, memang jelas Sony Ericsson lebih inferior. Tapi sudah menjadi caraku pemilihan tak berdasarkan imbasan semata-mata. Aku gunakan cara yang diajar di Intel untuk membuat pilihan : Capacity vs Capability.

Di Intel,  capability adalah yang paling penting. Kemudian barulah capacity. Dan dalam capability jugak, kita kena tgk trend dan tahap penggunaan kita. So…pilihan akuadalah : Sony Ericsson K530i. Reason :

Lebih baik dalam Capability:
- 3G dalah trend masa depan dan akan menjadi standard di Malaysia dlm 2-4 tahun akan datang.Kekurangan mempunyai EDGE (2.5G) akan di atasi dengan cepat. Lagipun di Penang coverage 3G memang bagus.
- Push To Talk walaupun menarik untuk dipunyai, tetapi aku tak rasa aku mahu menggunakannya secara intensif since dia sebijik macam walkie talkie dna kebanyakan orang tak pakai pun Push to Talk. So, aku nak bercakap dengan siapa.

Kelemahan Capacity Adalah Minimum:
- Kelebihan 7hrs talk time berbanding 3hrs talk time untuk Nokia outweight lain-lain kelemahan Sony Ericsson. Penggunaan moden seperti internet browsing (guna EDGE/3G) akan memendekkan masa penggunaan dengan lebih pantas daripada talk time. So, 3hrs talk time Nokia bermakna dalam 1 hrs (1/3 dari talktime sbb screen lebih besar dan color lebih tinggi) je browsing. Sangat tak practical. Ia sure akan mencacatkan kelebihan Nokia mempunyai EDGE. Berbanding dengan Sony Ericsson, 7hrs talktime bermakna 3.5 hrs (1/2 talktime sbb screen lbh kecil & color lebih rendah) internet browsing. Lebih practical dan sangat suit dengan kelebihan 3G yang dia ada.

Conclusion: Aku beli Sony Ericsson + 1GB M2 card dengan harga RM525.
== { Semoga memberi manfaat kepada kawan-kawan yang lain }==

Alhamdulillah… we got our visa today. Total process 3 hours. Actual interview only takes 3-4 minutes. Now I can proceed to finalize my flight, car rental and house.

Below where we stay overnight :). From our room, we can see K.L Tower

Hotel Equatorial

Our Duluxe Room

Breakfast Here

Hari aku nak jiwang-jiwang sikit. Semalam, aku luangkan masa dengan isteriku untuk bercerita balik apa yang telah kami lalui sejak berkawan, bertunang, berkahwin dan sampailah sehingga dapat anak. Kami juga sempat bercerita bagaimana pelbagai aral melintang di tengah jalan yang perlu kami lalui sebelum kami berjaya di ijabkabulkan dan kebanyakan aral ini tidak kami sangka-sangka. Tak perlu lah aku detailkan di sini apa yang telah kerana ia terlalu peribadi, tetapi cukuplah  aku katakan air mata ini tidak sukar untuk mengalir pada masa itu.

Bagi kawan-kawan yang bakal berkahwin dan mungkin baru sahaja berkahwin, janganlah putus asa dengan dugaan yang datang. Hampir semua pasangan akan mengalami dugaan. Hanya yang cekal akan berjaya melayari bahtera rumah tangga.

Lagu di bawah ini aku hadiahkan untuk isteriku yang tercinta. Semoga cinta kita berkekalan hingga ke akhirat.

Tommy Page » A Shoulder To Cry On

Life is full of lots of up and downs,
And the distance feels further when you’re headed for the ground,
And there is nothing more painful than to let you’re feelings take
you down,

It’s so hard to know the way you feel inside,
When there’s many thoughts and feelings that you hide,
But you might feel better if you let me walk with you
by your side,

And when you need a shoulder to cry on,

When you need a friend to rely on,
When the whole world is gone,
You won’t be alone, cause I’ll be there,
I’ll be your shoulder to cry on,
I’ll be there,
I’ll be a friend to rely on,
When the whole world is gone,
you won’t be alone, cause I’ll be there.

All of the times when everything is wrong

And you’re feeling like
There’s no use going on
You can’t give it up
I hope you work it out and carry on
Side by side,
With you till the end
I’ll always be the one to firmly hold your hand
no matter what is said or done
our love will always continue on

Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on

everyone needs a friend to rely on
When the whole world is gone
you won’t be alone cause I’ll be there
I’ll be your shoulder to cry on
I’ll be there
I’ll be the one you rely on
when the whole world’s gone
you won’t be alone
cause I’ll be there!

And when the whole world is gone

Oh noo…. focal time again ! I hate focal.

At Intel, focal or performance review will be held every April (the process start from February) and it will determine salary / grade either increase/static/decrease. All will be based on our performance compared with our colleagues. There is 5 performance level:

Outstanding (Best)
Exceed Expectation (acronym : EE)
Successful
Below Expectation (acronym : BE)
Improvement Required (Worst) (acronym : IR)

What I really hate is, 10% allocated to be outstanding/EE, and another 10% allocated to be BE/IR. Rest, will be on successful. Thats mean, no matter how good you are, if other people better than you, most probably you will get BE/IR. Person who get IR/BE will be not get any salary/stock raise. Who got IR even can be sack from Intel after few more evaluation. Thats really stressful.

Today (1st April) is my turn to get my focal result. Unfortunately, I can’t share or give any hints, since Intel policy strictly prohibit to share/compare our focal result with other people especially Intellian. Thats really make sense since either we are happy or not with our the focal result really relative to other people. No matter how big  our salary increment, if our colleagues get more, we will feel down.

Track back to my contribution during last year, what i wanna said, I have only little
improvement compared year 2006. I should can do much better than what i did. I really have bad luck last year. Almost 40%-50% of my work contribute little/nothing to Intel business since it was canceled, or can’t be solved or not effective. Overall, I really worried about the focal result this year.

My only "key" contribution only rely on single case that I really put a lot of effort and fortunately, my work effectively screen out a lot of bad units across multiple product segment. Its really a bet since that case occur almost end of the year and traditionally that kind of failure very hard to handle. Thanks God for save me again and again.

This year (for next year focal), I foresee much greater challenge. Either I’ll shining or totally screw-up. I’ll be sent to USA (Folsom, CA and Beaverton, Oregon) to pickup MCH (chipset) debugging skills which none of our group member currently have any knowledge. What make the thing worse, there is no proper training for me. I will be sent there and learn myself through real case, and unfortunately US people are not "coaching" friendly. This one sure will test my technical and soft skill.

I’ll travel on 27 April - 13 december and my wife and kid will accompany me :). Please pray for my success. Ameen.

“Ya ALLAH ya Tuhanku, aku tidak berdaya lagi untuk menjaga agamaMu
di
Kelantan ini ya Allah, kerna amat kuat serangan yang datang dari
pelbagai
cara. Oleh itu aku meminta kepadamu Ya Allah, Kau pertahankan
agamaMU
sebagaimana Engkau pertahankan rumahMu dari serangan tentera
abrahah”
- Do’a Nik Aziz

Walaupun aku ingin bersifat neutral terhadap politik, namun gambar Nik Aziz
dan doanya ini berjaya menyentuh hati aku dan tanpaku sedari air mata ini turut
mengalir.

Nik Aziz is far from perfect (yes, I critic a lot of thing about him) but
its determinism to protect Islam and to avoid any misbehavior is highly respected.

Japan Posts the Biggest Trade Deficit in 2 Years

Like many other countries around the world, Japan is slowing.  The country is very much dependent on trade and the fact that the surplus turned into the biggest deficit in the past 2 years last month is extremely worrisome.

Exports rose 7.7 percent, but shipments to the US and China continued to slow.  Imports actually rose 9.0 percent, but that was due to a 41 percent increase in the value of crude oil imports and not robust domestic demand. Trade with the US has actually fallen for the firth consecutive month, but the fact that demand from China also slowed indicates that even the Asian Giant may no longer be immune to the US slowdown.

Written by Kathy Lien, Chief Strategist
Friday, 22 February 2008 15:20:58 GMT

No doubt… we are going to recession. Smart Investor (Malaysia) also suggest the same thing. Economy overheat and need to be cool down. I need to re-think my investment strategy. No Public Mutual investment this year ?

For my friend, who have thought to invest into Public Mutual or any EPF withdrawal… please do not do so. 40% gain last year sure very lucrative,  but previous profit never guarantee the future. In next 1-2 years, please avoid any high risk investment (also high profit, if economy is good), especially the one who invest on small and mid cap company. Please read their prospectus carefully. If u can’t wait (alias greedy) but u don’t have ability to analyze the prospectus (oh god… i know  a lot of people like this), please do cost averaging technique (through 1-2 years). Avoid lump sum investment at any COST !

And my final advice… don’t trust any agent word. They don’t care you lose or gain. They only care about commission that they got. If you want good and honest advice, please go to PAID financial consultant.

P/S: Badawi really smart to do election just before economy slow down. His economy adviser really know what todo.

Dah lama aku x pos apa2 entry. Busy je menanjang. Tapi kali ni aku x tahan lg… nk kena pos jugak…

Akhirnya Badawi menipu lagi. Apo nak jadi dengan PM kita ni. Semalam kata parlimen xkan dibubarkan… alih2 esoknya terus umumkan parlimen dibubarkan. Aku bukannya penyokong pembangkang sangat, tetapi tindak tanduk Badawi kan Khairi dalam 1-2 tahun kebelakangan ini, banyak menyebabkan  penyokong2 BN yang menyokong BN dlm pilihanraya 2004 tapi menyokong pembangkang pada tahun 1999, kembali menyokong pembangkang.

Sebagai penganalisis politik yang berkaliber (eceh :)) aku mahu umumkan status analysis aku:

Sokongan Rakyat:

• Melayu : 60% BN, 40% BA. Kebanyakan penyokong BA kat Kelantan & Terengganu
• Cina : 45% BN, 55% BA. Kebanyakan penyokong BA di Selangor, KL, Pulau Pinang
• India : 60% BN, 40% BA. Kebanyakan penyokong BA di Selangor, Melaka, Perak

Prediction:

• Pembangkang menang 40+ Kerusi
• Kelantan = Masih dibawah PAS
• Terengganu = Kembali kepada PAS sekiranya jumlah pengundi normal ( < 70%). Kalau abnormal mcm dulu (=90%, additional 20% pegundi senyap BN yg sblm ni x pernah mengundi), PAS sure kalah.
• Pulau Pinang = DAP 45% chance to win
• Perak = 25-35% chance for BA to win

Link: Utusan Malaysia Online - Berita Utama.