If you are Hiro, will you do that?

After watching the latest episode of Heroes Season 2, I just feel somehow emotional about it. It’s really hard to judge whether it’s right or wrong. Looking in the perspective of morality, what he is doing is definitely wrong but when taking into account that human is a creature with complex feelings, you just can’t help feeling sorry for him. I think before I go on, I need to brief you with the rough outline of the story first.

It first start out with Hiro going back 400 yrs later and help Kensei become what he is. Instead of Kensei himself going to save Yaeko, he went instead and saved her. And somehow after doing that, he managed to make Yaeko fall in love with “Kensei” himself. With the sakura blooming, such a romantic scene, it’s really hard not to fall in love aight? So Yaeko fall in love with Kensei and Hiro is always by her side to protect her. Going through many battle and finally to the big boss, Yaeko and Hiro was almost shot and he managed to teleport to somewhere safe. Somehow Yaeko realised Hiro is the real person she fall in love with, they both kissed(even though Hiro has the choice not to). Unfortunately, Kensei is just around and see that.

My point is not whether Kensei is around, but if you are Hiro, given the choice, would you choose to kiss or not to kiss? Is it really alright or it’s damn wrong? Arrrgh really so confused by it. Any suggestion?

Watch out anime lovers. Odex on the move again

Seems like Odex is bend on getting people caught for illegally downloading of anime. The page is showing a picture of Gundam 00. I was just intro by my friend to watch this. Ohhhh noooo. But hey you can always stream anime from veoh and crunchyroll so what’s the need to download and waste that time waiting. Well you have to sacrifice quality for it but hey me and others are living fine with pixelated anime. So it’s not really a issue to me. No point risk getting caught downloading anime.

SINGAPORE: Anime distributor Odex is not letting up in its quest to bring illegal anime downloaders to book.

At a closed-door hearing on Tuesday in the High Court, Justice Woo Bih Li allowed Odex to present further evidence to obtain the identities of Pacific Internet subscribers who had unlawfully downloaded anime.

The company’s application to access about 1,000 names had stalled two months ago when District Judge Ernest Lau ruled that Odex was only a sub-licensee for anime titles and had no right of civil action.

But in its appeal against the ruling, Odex has been allowed to present evidence to address the points raised by Judge Lau, for example, pertaining to the reliability of the tracking solution provided by Silicon Valley-based Internet investigators Bay-TSP and whether the company was in fact engaged by Odex to undertake such investigations.

Since May, Odex has been cracking down on illegal downloaders and was successful in getting court orders to reveal the identities of culprits who subscribe to two other Internet service providers, SingNet and StarHub.

Odex director Peter Go declined to reveal any information about the new evidence, as the matter will be heard again in court. No date has been set for the next hearing. - TODAY/ym

Pregnancy education needed

It is so funny to find that even dinosaur get pregnant even before their teenage years. What you call that? Lost of freedom? Well seems like dinosaur is also not able to control their hormones and lost their virginity way before that. Aiya at that time they also don’t have contraception method, sure very very tiring for the female one. hee. Is virginity the right word to use? sheesh…

Read the full article here.

Sunshine Empire on MAS watch list

It is already quite well known that normal MLM model can’t work and will collapse when the pyramid grows to a certain extent. Well well from what i heard friends(both insider), Sunshine has a very robust business model and has been investing in “sure-win” business. From technology(wimax in Taiwan) to real estate.

But from what I know, the only few person that is able to build such diverse business is Lee Ka Shing(my all time idol not because of his ability to rake in millions, also because of his charitable acts) But is there a sure-win business as what they say, we will only see will this business still thrives for the next few years.

THE authorities in Singapore and Malaysia have put out an alert on a firm operating in several Asian countries including Singapore.

The Straits Times understands that the Commercial Affairs Department is investigating the firm’s practices.

Based at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, home-grown Sunshine Empire, a multi-level marketing (MLM) firm, has attracted 20,000 people here since it was set up last July.

MLM firms, which are legal here, typically invite people to pay cash for the right to market goods to other people. They also get cash for recruiting other MLM marketers.

Under Sunshine’s scheme, people usually put down $12,000 to become a ‘merchant’, as it calls users of its online shopping platform offering thousands of goods, including health supplements, lingerie and electronics goods.

After signing up, they can buy Sunshine’s online goods.

But they are also rewarded with potentially hefty cash rebates, though these are not guaranteed. Merchants can build their own sales force as well.

The scheme is structured in such a way that participants are not required to use the rebates to buy Sunshine’s goods.

The cash rebates are based on Sunshine’s global turnover. The option of converting the rebates into cash only makes Sunshine more attractive than other MLM firms where people must maintain sales quotas.

But this is understood to be the nub of the concerns held by the authorities over Sunshine’s business practices.

The fact that its ‘merchants’ can notch up what seem like profits without ever buying or selling products means its business model looks like a pure financial investment scheme.

Sunshine was placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) investor alert list last month and that of Malaysia’s Securities Commission a few months ago.

The regularly updated MAS list warns people of companies which may be offering products regulated by MAS without authority.

Out-Of-The-World Office Prank

Check out this link. Sure to brighten up ur day

Using OpenSolaris ZFS on my MacBook

As part of the SCA (in short of Sun Campus Ambassador), I had went through the lesson on ZFS taught by Linh. It is quite cool to attend online lesson with other ambassador around the world. Just that sometime, the timing can get quite irritated. Had a Brazil ambassador, still up 4am attending the lesson. Well the lesson went on quite smoothly for 30mins before the QnA session. It’s good that the group is small so that we can ask a lot of question.

Still having doubt after the lesson and I decided to try on my own. It’s really not idiot-proof and had a difficult time figuring it out. Guess this is really what the Sun lacks in competing with Microsoft. Anyone will be able to get a program installed by clicking next next and next. Took me a lot of time trying out nexenta, open solaris 32bit and open solaris 64bit, all on my VMware, before realising that only 32bit is able to do a zpool create. hmmm maybe its time to email to the ambassadors list to get some feedback about it.

Found some of the useful links regarding ZFS
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/article/2006-02-27_getting_started_with_opensolaris_using_vmware/
http://swik.net/OpenSolaris+HOWTO
http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Best_Practices_Guide
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/virtual_learning_center.jsp
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/demos/basics/
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/howtoguides/zfshowto.jsp

Personality Test

First, identify yourself as right or left brain person:

1. Hold your hands together, as if you were praying. Look at your
hands. If you see

Left thumb is below the right thumb —> left brain
Right thumb is below the left thumb —> right brain

2. Fold your arms in front of you (as if you are angry)

Right arm above left arm —> left brain
Left arm above right arm —> right brain

Based on 1+2 (order important), below is the interpretation of your
personality:

Right-Left
==========
Considerate, traditional, indirect type

can instantly read other’s emotion, and respond
friendly by natures. Although not very into taking initiatives in
moving forward, but this person
will always take a step back in supporting others. Stable personality
and considerate, give
others a being protected feeling. But the weakness is they cannot say
no; regardless how
unwilling they are, they will take care of others.

Right-Right
===========
Loves challenges type

Straightforward. Once they decided on one thing, will take action right
away. Very curious, and
love challenges. Dare to face dangers without thinking through
(sometimes foolishly). Their
weakness is they don’t listen to others, will filter in only what whey
want to hear in a
conversation, and very subjective. However, because of their
straightforward attitude, they tend
to be fairly popular.

Left-Left
=========
Dedicated, cold, perfectionist

Very logical in all aspects. The only way to defeat (or win over)
him/her is through reasons. Has
a lot of prides, and feeling strongly about doing the right thing. If
they are your friends, they
are very trustworthy. However, if they are your opponents, they will be
very tough to deal with.
Because they can be very “anal” as a perfectionist, they usually leave
a bad impression of being
hard to deal with when first met.

Left-Right
==========
Likes to take care of others, leader type

Has a cool and keen observation ability to see through situations, yet
still can be considerate in
others needs. Because of their cool and calm nature, and strong sense
of responsibility, they tend
to become head of a group. Popular among people. However, they may not
be able to help themselves
in meddling because they want to take care of others too much. Very
concerned about how others
view them, and always on alert.

Tech Bubble Again?

With reference with these 2 articles Fear Bubble, Silicon Valley startup awash in dollars again, it makes me wonder if the tech sector will once again collapse under the pressure of impending financial crisis. The stock price is getting way to high its p/e and it is really irrational to pay such a high dollar for it. But this is only my guess, hope this won’t happen cos I will be graduating soon and may need a job.

Sex with robot

I saw this interesting article about having sex with robot. Will this idea be realized? I hope not cos it will be so eeek. But I guess Japanese will be the first to develop it considering their technology edge and also sex industry. Read the article.

Always listen to the nurse

This is what will happen when you don’t listen to the nurse. It is like quite a few days since I’ve donated blood and I thought my arm should have healed. After some chin-ups, my arms turned out getting bruised. Quite an ugly scene. Hopefully, it will heal this week. Damn, it looks damn ugly.

Pushing MacBook to the extreme

I got so bored at home that I start to open all Operating System I installed in my MacBook using VMware Fushion; Windows XP, Nexenta and Open Solaris. Trying to push my newly bought lappie to the extreme. Quite expectedly, my lappie was slowed down by what I have done (expected). Haha lucky my lappie can handle it and don’t crash like my old computer.

(clockwise from top: nexenta, win xp and open solaris)

Why It Is Impt To Leave Work On Time

Extract from http://videovidivisum.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/why-its-important-to-leave-work-on-time/

A friend of mine just sent me this great email detailing a speech by Narayana Murthy, one of the most famous IT entrepreneurs from India, on why we should go home from work on time.

I found it to be great advice, and thought that I should share it with everyone here. Of particular note is his advice that no matter what, life goes on whether we are in the office or out but the most important thing is that when we are in the office, we have the necessary energy to deal with whatever happened or happens.

Mr. Narayana Murthy is undoubtedly one of the most famous persons from Karnataka. He is known not just for building the biggest IT Empire in India but also for his simplicity. Almost every important dignitary visits InfoSys campus. He delivered an interesting speech during an employee session with another IT company in India.

He is incidentally, one of the top 50 influential people of Asia according to an Asiaweek publication and also the new IT Advisor to the Thailand Prime Minister.

Extract of Mr. Narayana Murthy’s Speech during Mentor Session:

I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more. Some people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I do not know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the office this long. Others put in long office hours because they are addicted to the workplace.

Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person and to the organization. There are things managers can do to change this for everyone’s benefit. Being in the office long hours, over long periods of time, makes way for potential errors.

My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made after 5 PM on Monday.

Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who are not working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky, or even angry. Other people avoid them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one another.

As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office. First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group e-mails with a time-stamp of 2 AM, Sunday.

Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:

1. Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2. Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3. Go home.
4. Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt, play with your kids, etc.
5. Eat well and sleep well.

This is called recreating. Doing steps 1, 3, 4, and 5 enable step 2.

Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are hard for some of us because that requires ‘personal change’. They are possible since we all have the power to choose to do them.

In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son.

When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit was, and no matter what time of day it was. He would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if he was afraid that he would miss some thing. Once our visitors left, he would go to sleep. By this time, however, he was over tired and would scream through half the night with nightmares. He, my wife, and I, all paid the price for his fear of missing out.

Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they do not want to miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is that events will never stop happening. That is life!

Things happen 24 hours a day. Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap. Things will happen while you are asleep, but you will have the energy to catch up when you wake.

Hence, “LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THE COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU”.

Feeling gutted

How come I still feeling this way even though it has been for so many years? I think when something doesn’t belong to you, you shouldn’t have taken it. Even though you feel shiok with it for a moment but over the long run, it make me feel weak and don’t deserve what it. Maybe I just don’t like to be sympathized. But who does? Maybe it’s time to return to it’s rightful owner.

Porn and its relation to life

It is really amused that someone would do this type of analysis. Hmmm really *enlightening to have a systemic thinking about porn itself. Extract from http://www.iamboredr.com/media/413/Porn_And_Its_Relation_To_Your_Life/

Creative way to insult people

A really funny post I got from http://hotdvl.kilu.de/blog/index.php/some-funny-insults/

• Hey, I may be fat, but you’ll always be ugly, and I can diet.

• Man: So, how do you like your eggs in the morning?
Woman: Unfertilized.

• John: Is this seat empty?
Woman: Yes, and this one will be too, if you sit down.

• Mary: Do you want to dance?
John: NO
Mary: Sorry, I think you misheard me…I said, You Look fat in those pants.

• Little Sister: You’re Ugly.
Big Daddy: And your quite good looking…for a Gorilla, that is…

• Do you notice how I’ve kept my youthful complexion?
Yeah, so I see…all spotty

• Man: Your place or mine?
Woman: Both. You are going to yours, and I’m going to mine.

• Man: So, what’s your sign?
Woman: No Entry

• Man: I know how to please a Woman.
Woman: Well, please leave me alone.

• Friend: I’ve just come back from the Beauticians
You: Pity it was closed…

• Man: Please whisper those 3 little words that would make my day!
Woman: Go to hell

• Friend: I’ve changed my mind…
You: Excellent, so does the new one work better?

• Boss: Employees like that don’t grow on trees you know…
You: How true Sir, they normally swing underneath them…

• Brother: Why do you smell funny?
You: It’s called Soap - don’t think you’ve ever smelt it before…

• Man: So, what do you do for a living?
Woman: I’m a Female Impersonator.

• Man: Hey there, haven’t I seen you some place before?
Woman: Yes, and that’s why I don’t go there anymore.

• Man: Say, haven’t we met before?
Woman: Yes, I’m the head Nurse at the VD clinic.

• Man: I can tell that you want me.
Woman: You know, you’re dead right…I want you to go away!

• Wife: Darling, do you think I’ll lose my looks as I get older
You: With luck, yes

• Work Colleague: Do you find me entertaining?
You: I reckon you are too dim to entertain a thought

• Old Wife: Shall I put the TV on? Old Man: Well it would certainly improve the view in here…

• You know, I’ve been asked to get married over a hundreds times.
Yeah, but your parents don’t count…

• How many people work in your office?
About half of them

• Brother: I love biscuits
You: That’s cuz your crackers

• You: I reckon you’d make a great exchange student.
Friend: Wow, you really think so?
You: Yes, we might be able to exchange you for someone nice.

• Man: Hey there, haven’t I seen you some place before?
Woman: Yes, and that’s why I don’t go there anymore.