Recyled Old Handphone

I spend most of my time working in Kedah and spend weekends with my wife and kid in KL. My parents stay in Kota Baru, Kelantan and I do contact them several times a week. As a result my phone bill is killing me. RM50 lasts only about a week. This is because I am still using my old Celcom number, which was registered in KL. So all calls I make here is treated as outstation.

In the end I finally got myself a Digi prepaid card, which only cost me RM18. No I can stretch RM30 for about a month. I was also pleasantly surprised when I discovered that International calls made using Digi were also considerably cheaper. For example, a few minutes call to Norway cost me only about RM2. However, the only problem was when I had to change sim cards. I would have to shut off the phone, disassemble everything and then exchange cards. I had an impulse to buy a cheap phone from the several handphone shops around here but put it off.

Last week while going through my storeroom, I noticed my old handphones in a box. The last one I had used was a very tough Siemens M35i, which was a present from my wife before we got married. It been with me through thick and thin and had even survived a dunking in water after it slipped from my hands into a drain once. Eventually like most handphones, it outlived its fashionable life. And I finally joined the rest of the crowd by buying a Nokia.

I suddenly had a thought – why not use this phone for the Digi sim card. I checked it and it was still working but the battery even when fully charged ran out after about half an hour. Yesterday, I went around a bit, going from one handphone shop to another searching for a replacement battery. I finally bought a lithium-ion battery (the original was nickel-hydride) for RM25. I was delighted. The phone still works fine. Now I have two phones - one to make calls in Kedah and the other for use in KL. However, I leave the Siemens in the office as I don't want to go around lugging two phones.

Abandoned Houses in Ipoh

I usually stop at Ipoh on my weekly trips back to KL. Over the years, I have noticed the development that has taken place there. It is still a small and sleepy town but they have a new bus stand away from the town now. I have heard that the recreational water park is quite popular. New housing estates are coming up everywhere. The Jaya Jusco supermarket has been running for quite sometime. They also have a brand new Tesco hypermarket. On the outskirts of the city I can see that the limestone hills are gradually disappearing.

Looking out of the bus window, I realized that Ipoh has quite a number of abandoned houses scattered around town. Most of these are colonial type bungalows. Some are old Malay houses on stilts. Their compounds are overgrown with undergrowth and they look a bit creepy. I would just imagine what happened to the owners of the houses. Did they move overseas and leave the place neglected. Or maybe all the residents died in an accident or something. Did the residents commit suicide and people refused to live in the place after that?

Yes! I realize that I have an overactive imagination but yes what else can I do on a boring 7 hours journey.

Project Pudu

Yesterday evening as I arrived in Kuala Lumpur by bus, I noticed that work on the Plaza Rakyat has resumed after several years. This project next to the Pudu Raya bus station, stalled during the Asian crisis and was left vacant since then.

This might change Jalan (Street) Pudu's reputation as the most ugliest road in KL. However, I am am a bit worried that a new shopping centre might not do anything to improve the terrible traffic jams so common along this road. In fact it might get worse.

Besides, the various buses coming to and fro, the traffic jam is caused by Taxis and private vehiles parking illegaly in the front of the bus station dropping up and picking up passengers. I guess I am guilty too as my wife would sometimes just park in front to drop me off. However, the taxis (most of them don't use the meter)are worse as they have made it their official pick up point. I often see poiceman there, some of them handing out tickets but it seems that it is not working.

Any suggestions?

Dear Systems Analyst

I am sure some of you must have read this before, forwarded by a friend. My wife sent it to me yesterday. Is she trying to tell me something? Hmmmmm!

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Dear Systems Analyst,

I am desperate for some help! I recently upgraded my program from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 and found that the new program began unexpected child processing and also took up a lot of space and valuable resources.

This wasn't mentioned in the product brochure. In addition Wife 1.0 installs itself into all other programs and launches during systems initialization,where it monitors all other system activities.

Applications such as "Boys' Night Out 2.5" and "Golf 5.3" no longer run, and crash the system whenever selected.

Attempting to operate selected "Saturday Football 6.3" always fails and "Saturday Shopping 7.1" runs instead. I cannot seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background whilst attempting to run any of my favourite applications.

I am thinking of going back to "Girlfriend7.0", but de-installing doesn't work on this program.

Can you please help?

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AND THIS IS WHAT THE ANALYST SAID:
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Dear Customer,

This is a very common problem resulting from a basic misunderstanding. Many customers upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 thinking that Wife 1.0 is merely an UTILITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM. Actually, Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM designed by its Creator to run everything.

You are unlikely to be able to purge Wife 1.0 and still convert back to Girlfriend 7.0, as Wife 1.0 was not designed to do this and it is Impossible to uninstall, delete or purge the program files from the system once it is installed.

Some people have tried to install Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but have ended up with even more problems. (See manual under Alimony/Child Support and Solicitors' Fees).

Having Wife 1.0 installed myself, I recommend you keep it installed and deal with the difficulties as best as you can. When any faults or problems occur, whatever you think has caused them, you must run the C: \APOLOGIZE\FORGIVEME program and avoid attempting to use the *Esc-Key.

It may be necessary to run C:\APOLOGIZE\FORGIVE ME a number of times, and eventually hope that the operating system will return to normal.

Wife 1.0, although a very high-maintenance programme, can be very rewarding. To get the most out of it, consider buying additional software such as "Flowers 2.0" and "Chocolates 5.0" or "HUGS\KISSES 600.0" or "TENDERNESS\UNDERSTANDING 1000.0", or even "EatingOutWithoutTheKids 7.2.1" (if child processing has already started).

DO NOT under any circumstances install "BarGirl 2.1" (Short Skirt Version) or "OneNightStand 3.2" (any version), as this is not a supported application for Wife 1.0 and the system will almost certainly crash.

BEST OF LUCK!

Your Systems Analyst

Latest News on the NS Dodger Saga

Just read on the Star Online website that NS dodger Ahmad Hafizal Ahmad Fauzi was freed by police today morning. A representative Perlis MB Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim paid the the fine at the magistrate's court.

I guess this is good news for all those guys who skipped the National Service. The authorities won't be be in a hurry to jail them this time around. If you have a valid reason like this guy I guess you can walk away with it, however, if you don't, too bad....

Brand Loyalty

As compared to other people, I always prided myself as one who was not being brand loyal. I do buy branded stuff but I buy any as long as they are good – based on reviews, recommendations and past experiences. I try not to fall into the Fad trap - buying something because it is “IN” right now.

However, I may be wrong. Last week I wanted to go to Jaya Jusco store at One Utama, Damansara to redeem my RM50 voucher. My wife was a bit pissed off with me and accused me of worrying about that "stupid voucher" over other more important things - like paying off credit card bills. I knew she was right and so off we went, settling our debts and in the end didn’t have enough time to visit the stores.

I suddenly realized that we have been shopping at Jaya Jusco stores a lot, either at Mega Mall or at One Utama. One reason was the J card. Using this loyalty card, they have successfully built up a pool of loyal customers. Last year it was estimated that they have around 375K principal members and more than 200K supplementary card holders. It is estimated that out of these, around 75% are active members (Annual report). That’s a lot of customers and any company would be envious of that.

I always thought that my father was not brand conscious. He’s a very down to earth and practical guy. It may be true about clothes (as long as they are comfortable), electronic goods (no extra frill needed), etc. For example, he has been using the same Siemens handphone for about 4 years now, while I have changed several in between. No need for colour screens, MMS, games or polyphonic tones or whatever for him. According to him, it is working fine and he only needs it to make and receive calls. I also noticed that he only buys Citizen watches. Not very fashionable but my mom has one and so do I. My younger sister who came back from Australia recently, also received one as her birthday present. According to my father, they are dependable and reasonably priced. Furthermore you don’t ever need to change batteries for the rest of your lifetime. I can’t argue with that but in a way, isn’t that being brand loyal.

FYI, Citizen Eco-Drive watches uses an amazing power generating and storage system whereby solar photovoltic panels on the dial use light from any source to generate electrical power. This energy is then stored in a special energy storage cell, which powers the watch.

Prices Up

Despite the Govt.'s call to businesses not to increase prices and absorb the increase in costs due to the recent increase in fuel prices, it is clear that almost everyone has ignored the call.

I was shocked to find out that bus tickets to Alor Star from KL by almost RM5. Fortunately, I had bought the tickets earlier before they increased the prices. My friend was not so lucky and he was grumbling: “a 20 sen increase in fuel and tickets go up by RM5”. That means extra expenditure for people like us who have families in KL and work elsewhere.

I feel that some of these companies are taking advantage of the situation to exorbitantly increase the price of their products. Forget about absorbing the costs they are looking at it as a way to increase profits.