Missing Files

Left my office to attend a seminar yesterday and as I had some work left, came back in the late afternoon. I was shocked when I discovered that the entire content of 'My Documents' were missing. Nothing, not even an MP3 file.

I lost a good collection of some of my favourite songs in MP3 format (most of them, old classic rock). Now I have build the collection up again. I also lost a lot of pictures, some personal and some official. And again I didn't keep bother to keep a backup or burn these virtual memories to a CD. Thank God! I had most of my important files saved on my trusty old flash drives (3 of them).

However, I am baffled how this happened. I did not delete it, there was also no sign of a forced entry into my office and anyway, some guys were still around. The only other possible explanations are that, either some pimply-faced teenage hacker came into my system and deleted them (not very logical) or there is a new virus that leaves other files intact and destroys only the contents of ‘My documents’ folder. Another more likely reason- someone from our Computer department came through the system and did this. This is just a theory and I have no proof. If they did this, they are also probably reading my blog too. I would like to tell them or anyone who deleted my files, A__HOLES! MAY YOU HAVE A HUNDRED DAYS OF BAD LUCK (unless you ask beg for my forgiveness or undo what they did).

Why? I am not sure but I have heard that many companies do monitor the online habits of their employees. This includes the sites they surf to and the files they download. I have heard that some even put key-loggers into the systems of their employees.

So be careful, be very careful.]

One Year

I was in the process of introducing a friend to Blogger and the blogging world when I suddenly realised that I have been blogging for more than one year now – in other words, my blog is now 1 year old. I started blogging on the 8th of September last year.

I started reading other blogs and finally decided to have one of my own. I have remained faithful to Blogger, which has greatly improved its services since. I have moved through a few template changes (but not as often as Yaz) and list of links has increased. It's been a wonderful experience and I have made a lot of online friends - whom I have never actually never met but have shared their lives (or part of their lives) with me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you.

Would love to hear from other bloggers whether blogging has changed your life in some way or the other. How long have you been blogging?

Fahrenheit 9/11

Got my hands on a pirated copy of Fahrenheit 9/11 courtesy of a friend. I thought it would be a boring documentary but was at the same time wondering what all the hoo haa was about. I have to say, I really enjoyed the documentary. Watching it made me laugh, anxious and sad. I am not really sure whether everything presented in the documentary is a fact but Michael Moore is really convincing.

It shows the White House led by George Bush, manipulating and misleading the entire American public. Besides this, the documentary is not kind on the Saudi government. May be the reason that it not being shown on Malaysian theatres. The Iraq conflict is depicted from both angles and has some very graphic scenes. Definitely not for the weak hearted.

Not one to just believe a one sided viewpoint, did some searching on the interent and came across this site - Unfairenheit 9/11, The lies of Michael Moore by Christopher Hitchens and Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11 by Dave Kopel

However, Michael Moore has provided answers to the questions raised in his own web site at Factual Back-Up For Fahrenheit 9/11

Watch it an tell me what you think.

Winner

I am an auto enthusiast (I don’t like to use the word “freak”) and try to keep myself updated with the last motoring news. That’s why every Sunday; you will see me buried in the ‘Cars, bikes and trucks’ section of the NST.

Some weeks back I noticed that there was a small contest asking readers to send in their suggestions (throug SMS) on how to improve Proton's services and products. Of course I had a lot of suggestions (You can read my old post here) but I sent only one. Well, last week I was going through the old newspapers when I noticed: “ Following are this week's winners:” and my phone number was listed as one of them.

I was really proud and showed it to my wife who brought me down to earth with, "Well! What did you win?” I had to admit that I didn’t win anything and of course justified that getting my message printed was a prize in itself. My wife went “hrmphhhh!” with a look, which said a thousand words.

Maybe I am easily satisfied with small things but that's me.

Squatters

Just read in the Star today that public housing may not be guaranteed for new squatters. That’s good news and in fact some rotten apples have taken advantage of the policy of providing public housing to squatters to make KL and Selangor "squatter free".

In the beginning it may have been a good idea as there were a lot of poor people who had come to the cities from their Kampung to work here and were unable to afford other accommodation. However, some saw it a good opportunity to get rich without any effort. Many who could afford to buy a house would retain a squatter house, which they would either rent out or stay themselves. In fact, you can see expensive cars parked outside some of these houses with all modern amenities including Astro. So when the Government develops these areas, they would ultimately get a low cost house or apartment, which they would promptly rent out.

Besides the fact that these places offer cheapest accommodation in the city, this is one of the main reasons that you have a never-ending problem of squatters. Any comments?

PGL

Finally saw Puteri Gunung Ledang at TGV, One Utama last Friday. Sad to say but I didn't enjoy the film as much as I thought I would. Don't get me wrong. The visuals, the details and the acting was great. I can say that we finally have a World class Malaysian movie.

However, I didn't enjoy it for two main reasons. First of all, my wife bought tickets for the last show starting from 11:30 pm and that too after my classes at UM. The movie ended at around 2am in the morning. Tell me, how are you supposed to enjoy a movie when you are trying your best to stay awake. However, I think it was the second reason that really spoiled my movie watching pleasure. There were these group of a---holes sitting right behind us, who thought that it was funny making stupid comments and laughing for no reason. For example, there was that scene of Gusti Putri bathing in the stream. I know that you like what you see but you don’t have to shout it out in public.

Anyway, coming back to the story line, I felt like kicking Hang Tuah in his butt. On one hand was the Putri, who left everything for him, while he is there acting like a fool – all for a useless Sultan. Guys! What would you have done if you were in his place?

Blogger is Even Better

I love Blogger. They keep coming up with new features that we want. Now they have got rid of the ads on the top of the page, which we tolerated (it's free Mah)and have put in a search engine in its place. Now visitors to the blog can search my entire blog. This is something we bloggers have been demanding for a long time. Cos I remember a great blog but don't remember the date it was posted and can't find it. Now I just type in the key words, say, Phuket, hit the 'search' key and Voila! I have the page. Before I sound like an ad for Blogger, I have to say that I am very critical but I know how to appreciate good things and this is good.