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Archive for the Misc Category
Head over to my Tumblr site … at least it gets updated more often than my Blog 
Saw this on Kiyo’s Tumblr
(Source : Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen)
Do you have your dream job ? IMHO, I think I have.
This post in YB Lim Kit Siang’s blog is real sad, to think that Malaysia is slowly being overtaken by religous zealots.
I was sitting in the banana leaf shop this morning having a roti and a coffee when a group of JAWI officers entered the premises. 10 officers to be exact, into this little shop. They spent a good 20 minutes going through the place (and it is a small place!) and finally one officer writes out a writ and gives it to the cashier. They then left. Curious, I asked the cashier what that was all about and he replied that they were not allowed to have their little altars and pictures of their deities in their shop “because otherwise, Muslims cannot come into their shops” . What utter nonsense!
read the rest here.
It’s been more than six months since I last played golf, therefore, it was with much trepidition that I accepted an 18-hole golf challenge from Chuan and Shawn - Loser pays for dinner. I was a mess for the first nine holes but managed to claw back during the back nine. Ultimately, my game had not deteriorated as much as I expected. I still managed to get 4 pars and posted a 48 on the back nine. I thoroughly enjoyed myself today especially the vietnamese beef noodles after the game, which I did not have to pay for .
I received an Aquasaur aquarium kit for my birthday two weeks ago from Ann. From the manual, it says that :
The academic gods come a calling again. I have been invited by the IEEE Globecom committee to review a paper submitted to the conference. When you get invites like this, it feels as if you have gone a level up on the academic ladder ……. No, I don’t submit papers to conferences, I DO reviews now. It’s a short four page paper on some novel hybrid authentication protocol, so I’ll try to squeeze in a review during the train journey back to Manchester this weekend.
Another fantastic weekend of fine food and ales, this time to commemorate Yeng Yee’s last week in the UK. We (Shawn, Chuan, Yeng Yee, Annjee, and Me) had a great time dining at Manchester’s finest chinese restaurants and two late nights of fun and games.
P.S. Chuan, Shawn, and Yeng Yee, if you’re reading this, hope your arm ‘wiinjuries’ heals soon.
… that when you are trying really hard for something, things just don’t work out the way it should be.
During my two years in academia, one of my ultimate goals was to get a paper accepted for a prestigious journal. And so, during the later part of the two years, I submitted a number of my works to some IEEE and ACM conferences. Writing a paper is a tedious process, it took me one whole year to get the necessary background work done. This was then followed up by some novel contribution (in my field of research) backed up by implementation results and evaluation data. Of course, this whole process is part and parcel of a PhD student, but let’s not digress here. The main point is that, even with all the effort and long-nights that I have put in, I never did get my paper invited for a journal publication ….. until today.
The paper that I wrote was initially accepted at an IEEE conference in Bangalore and was recently selected as one of the top 8 papers for the conference - which warranted an invite for publication to a wireless networking journal. Why all this when I have finally left the ivory tower for the fast-paced world of London’s financial district ? Is this some kind of sick joke that academic gods play to lure back PhD mutineers ? Will I be tempted to step back into academia in the near future ?
Not a chance. I get more satisfaction from what I’m doing now. Heck, I still feel energetic now after a whole day of coding (starting with a two-hour coding session on the 6.45AM train from Manchester to London Euston). So, was the two years a waste of time ? I don’t think so. Being in academia has taught me to be more critical in my thought process. My writing and research skills have also improved tremendously. But somehow, something was missing. I longed for the thrill when I first discovered the joys of Open-Source/Linux, reading Slashdot, configuring/troubleshooting servers, programming useful applications/scripts, hacking Sourceforge projects, and solving real-world IT problems.
Right now, my new job is filling this void and MORE. I have no regret leaving my PhD studies to do what I really like, and best of all, I get paid really well to do what I like.
Chinese New Year performances at Trafalgar Square.
Hapig Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai.
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