Saturday 28 January 2006

Got me a laptop on an impulse...

Yup, I've gone and placed an order for a Dell Inspiron 6000.

Saw an ad in the back of a newspaper pull-out. The RM3k+ price tag drew my eye. First thought was, "this has got to be one of those entry level laptops." Just curious, I checked out the specs. Good RAM, decent HD, large-ish screen, DVD writer on promo. I was a bit surprised. So I asked around for opinions, and checked out a couple of online reviews. It's a 6-mo.+ old release (US-side of course), but got good reviews.

Only had two days to decide, cos they were throwing in the DVD writer and a RM200 online rebate for CNY. Nany had talked about getting a laptop. We discussed it, then decided to go for it.

So, I placed my order yesterday. 5-7 days for delivery, but not sure if that's going to be affected by the long holiday break next week (Friday's the only work day next week here in KL).

Key Specs:
Pentium M 740, 1.73GHz, 533MHz FSB (upgraded from default 1.7, 400 at no extra cost)
2x256MB DDR-2 RAM
60GB HD
8x DVD+/-RW
15.4" Wide Screen (max res: 1280x800)
XP Home
Integrated graphics (but that's ok, cos it's mainly for my wife)

Thursday 26 January 2006

Land of the Free!...?

Just had to post a link to this Slate piece on the current state of affairs over there in the good ol' USofA.

Westerners have always been of the opinion that their civilizations are the best societies, the most free, the most socially evolved, blah blah blah. Yes, that's a generalization, but read enough history and it wouldn't be hard to come across that theme. And, sorry to say this, Americans always seem to be the most vocal about it.

"The world would be a better place if everyone else did things the way we do it."

One of the things they seem to be most proud about is their system of government. Not only is it democratic and representative, there's accountability, and separation of powers, etc.

Or at least, there used to be.

They have the three branches: the executive (the President, his Cabinet and their machinery), the legislative (Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives), and the judicial (the Supreme Court and all the other lower Courts). Actually, looking at their Federal Constitution, I should have listed that: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.

(Aside: Why do I, a non-American, never having lived there, know all this about their system of government? I'm not sure really, and not in the mood to start on about cultural imperialism...)

So the three branches are supposed to provide the checks and balances to the system, to keep the system "honest", and protect the people.

And now? Do you not see power pooling in one branch?

Wednesday 25 January 2006

Baby pics

Siti Nur A'isyah - 12 Nov 2005

The last time I posted pics on blogger (see November 2005 Archive) I didn't know you could have multiple images per post. ‹sheepish grin›

No worries. This post is a single pic. I'm going to slowly post more pics of my daughter. Btw, her full name's Siti Nur A'isyah bt. Meor Azmal (that's to help people find us, in case they want to - there's a story there).

Now, besides cropping this pic, I've also done a little picture editing to change the colour tone (original was too...pink - now there's a line from one of my favourite movies!). Used Picasa. :-) Nifty program that.

On to the pic. This is A'isyah in her baby hammock (is that even the right term?). It's the afternoon, and she's sorta, half asleep, half waking up. And she's wearing pink, including pink mittens, lying on a pink pillow, in her pink baby hammock. ;-)

Tuesday 3 January 2006

This goes under "Paying more attention to the local news"

It's old news by now. I'd actually heard of the accident on Sunday evening, at a friend's barbeque get-together, but I didn't get the details (like who it was).

I'm talking of the freak accident that cost Dr. Liew Boon-Horng his life. Check here and here for the story. I can't say I knew him, but I've met him, and I know one of his (new) colleagues.

Bit of a shock when something like this happens to someone you know. That's just the way things go. It's not inherently sadder than if the same thing happens to someone you don't know. It's just that the event connects with you more when it's someone you're connected to.