Tuesday 30 March 2010

Can’t get an IP address from the router

An odd thing to happen. All of a sudden, the PC only managed a limited connection. The PC is connected to the wifi router via Cat5 cable, while a laptop connects wirelessly. All connections are assigned a dynamic IP by the router via DHCP. Router was connected to the internet, and the laptop received an IP and working connection. The PC, however, was assigned IP address 169.254.154.171 (could be a different last number; I can’t remember, but it’s not important), with subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 (this is why the exact IP isn’t important).

The IP address on the network connection on the PC showed that it could not obtain a valid IP address, so it was assigned that IP by Windows.

Restarting the router and PC didn’t do anything. Assigning an appropriate IP to the PC resulted in it showing it was fully connected, but it could not ping anything. Not even the router itself.

I thought it could be a faulty NIC, or maybe there was something wrong with the cable. Could not find any other advice to solve the problem, so it was decided to have the PC taken to a shop to be looked at.

Their advice? After some fiddling around (not sure what they did), they advised my dad that it had to be reformatted. So they backed up the files in My Documents (and only those files; no program settings or anything else) and reformatted the hard drive. *sigh* At least the PC can connect to the router now, and there was no need to replace the NIC or network cable. But couldn’t there have been a better solution?

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Things you’d love to say on the LRT

… but probably won’t. (Bukankah kita prihatin?) In no particular order:


  • “That’s a lovely baju kurung, but I think you have way too many chemicals in your hair.” whisper: cos I can smell it from here

  • “That’s a nice big backpack you have there; you could probably kill a dog with that bag if you dropped it.” whisper: I know cos I’m still reeling from that shove in the chest

  • “Is there a water shortage in your area, or are you just allergic to water?” whisper: (yes, you guessed it) cos I can smell you from all the way over here



Would an “excuse me” prefixing those statements make it less caustic, or is it still overstepping bounds anyway?

Monday 15 March 2010

Home before the Sun is down

This is a rarity. As a matter of fact, I can count on one hand the times this year that I’ve made it home before the sun has gone down. That would be ever since I started at this new job. At my previous workplace, it was rare that I left the office when it was dark. This is more like back when I was in Dubai. At least I still get weekends though.

It felt a bit strange stepping out of the office and crossing the road to go home, feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. And the LRT was actually crowded. It’s not necessarily the holiday mood (school holidays just started), but that may have played a factor. The past few weeks my team has been really busy, and we’re coming into the home stretch now. Today was a bit of a slow day at the office, and we’re now just waiting for others in the process flow. So I took advantage of that to come home early.

Which reminds me, Amazing Race is on tonight... :-)

Monday 8 March 2010

So You Think You Can Dance – Season 6

(Yes, we’re late a season. Season 7 is about to start, but Astro is only just now showing Season 6 on AXN.)

I missed Amazing Race earlier tonight (timing’s just not right, and I haven’t recorded any of the episodes), but I managed to get home in time to catch So You Think You Can Dance. Tonight was the top 18, and I saw some really nice routines. I was truly enchanted by Kathryn and Legacy dancing Stacey Tookey’s contemporary piece. It was magical. I think I’ll keep an eye out for Stacey Tookey routines. :-) Another good performance I thought was Ellenore and Ryan dancing an Argentine Tango. Simply brilliant, and to think she did it with her dress caught in her shoe! Hope I get to catch more of this show.

P.S. I’m not going to comment on the Oscars, since I didn’t watch them, and am not familiar with most of the movies anyway. I’ve been falling behind on my movies for some time already.

Sunday 7 March 2010

A’isyah’s first train ride


She’s been sending me to the train station in the mornings for some time now. Today I finally took her to the train (LRT) station, as I promised her. We just rode from Bangsar to KL Sentral and back. At first the noise of the train as it entered the station freaked her out. She’s never been too fond of loud noises. But then the excitement of being at the train station took over, and she was busy looking around, at the tracks, the signs and billboards, and the trains as they approached. Bangsar to KL Sentral is overland, so she hasn’t had a full subway experience yet. We’ll save that for later.