DG: "Are you happy with your work?"

Good question. My pause gave me away.

What am I really unhappy about? I can't say.
The workload?
The people?
The management?

Taken apart, none of them is serious enough to warrant job dissatisfaction. All of the above? Of course but is that it?

Bangkok insurance ad

Windows XP sales extended

-from forums
I think a few friends might flip over this...


Quote:
Originally posted by Joran on Fri Nov 23, 2007 23:46:
I doubt those are legal since MS isn't selling any more XP licenses. evil!


deLancie
Actually, MS has extended XP's end of life date to 2008.
See: News report

Responding to feedback from customers and third parties, Microsoft has extended the availability of Windows XP to both original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and retail channels through to June 30, 2008. Originally slated to be pulled from retail shelves and OEMs on January 30, 2008—only a year after Windows Vista's debut—customers requested more time to prepare for the upgrade to Vista.

System builders will be able to continue offering Windows XP through June 2009. For emerging markets where Microsoft sells Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft has extended XP's availability to June 30, 2010.

MS knows Vista is not selling well. They need XP's revenue.

Unwanted / Wanted

This is so funny. It's nothing new and many of you might say it's as good as a law of the universe. But it's still funny.

Credit Card
===========
This ABC Bank (not their real name) once offered me a credit card. Fine. I faxed them the first 2 pages of my employment letter.
"But you have 8 more pages right?", they asked
"Yup, all the typical rubbish. My pay details are on the first two pages"
After arguing, the caller acknowledge my point and hanged up.
Few days later, my application was rejected.

Now this bank has returned to me, offering free lifetime membership. Almost no questions asked; They still want my payslip. But I know they know; And they know I know.


Jobs
====
XYZ (not their real name) is a recruitment agency that posts a lot of job openings for SAP. When I was fresh in my second job, I sent my application to them via JobStreet; I was ignored twice over a period of a year. I took the point and never sent to them again.

Recently I updated my skillsets on JobStreet. They picked it up almost immediately and called.
Me: "Sorry, not looking for a job at the moment"


For the bank, I can live with it.
For the job agency.. Ho ho. No way I think.

Upgrade to Mac

NS call up & NS website

I just received a call up via SMS - nooo!!!

Then just as I was logging in to the website to check, I had to suffer through the slow speed of the site and hacking my own password. Is it going to be so difficult during wartime?

Are you too smart for your own good?

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/207402.asp#

Overseas training assignment - actual day

What went wrong...
==================
1. The SAP client is not installed fully on the training PC. Neither is the co-ordinator's laptop. We had to use PC-Anywhere to link back to her office PC.
2. I cannot retrieve my notes as our company's in-house email system cannot handle zipped attachments from Outlook. Pavi had to extract it for me.
3. I have no access to the Singapore server to reference codes I've done before
4. The return flight was delayed by an hour, upsetting my plans to return home early.

No big deal, but it was another stressful experience having to code on the spot while your trainees wait for you. Overall, it is an interesting experience to have. I only wish that the planning was done much better - if at all.

If ever I'm arrowed to teach again, I would choose SQ as my choice of carrier over MH.

A reply. *Gasp*

The big boss didn't reply but his "men" (or women) did. The subsidiary will provide me a laptop.

I can't help being cynical. Would I have gotten a reply if I did not send a carbon copy to my boss? -- same level as him

Training for subsidaries

Ok... I'm getting pretty pissed.

If management is serious about providing proper training, then they should give more support; they should set an objective. Not pull a group of people together with equally clueless trainers.

On my own initiative, I sent a mail to my trainees. They have between 1-4 years of ABAP experience - no small thing. I still have more experience than them, yes. But what can I really teach them that they can't pick up by themselves?

This is really bad planning, or rather the lack of it. What are they here for? No one set any parameters on who can join and who can't, obviously. I am given only 1 day - I can't cater to all levels.

The two original planners are keeping so quiet; They're not responding to my email queries; They cannot understand English? I am that close to complaining about them to my HOD.

Demise of "Nameless Journal"

For some time, CatLady had been the victim of theft of both her online identity and her writings.

A "friend" she met online approached her to teach her how to write better. Instead, this gave her access to CatLady's works. In defense, the site became password protected and at a latter stage, the writitngs were posted in GIF but yet the theft continues. Friends even asked her about the places that she had been to (except that it was by the thief).

With that, her blogs are now closed.

First overseas assignment & Beanbear

edit: deleted reference to person

--Assignment

[background]
Some time ago, various colleagues from our regional subsidiaries were invited to our office for training on operational knowledge. I was tasked with teaching them ABAP - SAP's own programming language. It was meant as a trial so see how well things could go. Lacking info onthis and fearing that this is a matter of "face" for our big boss, I tried to accommodate all their requests for advanced programming topics. This placed a lot of stress on me as they are competent programmers in their own rights, with years of experience that rivaled mine. I was unabashed to show how glad I was when it was over.
[/background]

Do a job well and get rewarded with another. That's the sad truth in this world. Now I got two problems:
#1, What the hell am I supposed to do?
#2, I'm still holding Lecture Notes that I do not have permission to use. Shit.

Where do we stay?
What do we pay with?
Where is their office?
How do we get to their office?
Who do we meet?
Do we get laptops?
Can we connect to their LANs?
What are we going to teach?
What's our trainees' background?
How experienced are they?

And the million dollar question is, "Who is organising all these?".

[snip-portion deleted]

--BeanBear

Beanbear (aka Shijie) came online to check on how I was coping. Since she never listens to me, she flipped through her notes to try to help me with something I was stuck with.
Gee.. I wonder why she brought her notes home..
Ty for the thought =)


--Misc

Lienoi and Yiahwee, ty...

Our Armed forces; While we aren't looking

[I started this thread in a forum; Decided to paste it here]


Due to the recent thread on NS, I went to do a little catch-up on my reading. Imagine my surprise when I came across an analyst saying that Singapore is considered to have the largest and strongest force in S.E.A.
I went, "What??!!"


A quick visit to wiki got me the figures.

We... (29th largest in the world, in terms of numbers)


1) compared against Malaysia (62nd largest in the world, in terms of numbers)
wins in every aspect


2) Thailand (19th largest in the world, in terms of numbers)
infantry: approx 75% of their size
armour: same qty but more superior
airforce: same qty but more modern
navy: greater numbers + more modern


3) Indonesia (16th largest in the world, in terms of numbers)
infantry: approx 50% of their size
armour: lesser but theirs are light tanks
airforce: same qty but more modern
navy: greater numbers + more modern



(opinion)
Some time ago, a country threatened us using veiled words. On one hand, they acknowledged that we have a modern army. On the other, they pointed out that our city is very good target for bombs. I couldn't understand why. Didn't we just render them aid? They fear us?

Things suddenly made a lot of sense now.

Short update for Oct

[Social]
The events I've planned have come to pass, with less turnout than I wanted.

--Fish n Co
Another meet up with Belinda. This time with Calvin and Germaine. When you put a bunch of ex-colleagues together, what do they talk about? SAP! Makes you almost wanna forgive guys talking about Army, haha.

--Black Society
Service was good. Sadly, I have a drop a notch in their food. Not say the food wasn't good. It was just.. boring. This is a sort of welcome back dinner for Duane.


[Work]
Nothing to do in mid-week and the excitement peaking as the end of the month approaches.
Doris wanted to "hammer me" to treat her team a round of coffee from TCC. I know she was joking but I agreed with the condition that they make no errors till month-end closing. So month-end closing came and there were little errors so I sent them a mail saying that I'm buying, which got them pretty excited.
Then of course, the problems have to hit me hard immediately after. Bish... Nevermind la, it's just a tiny mistake which grew big because too many people tried to fix it. It's still a small mistake. After my users' excitement at the coffee, they then said it's too expensive, said I don't have to buy...
Haha, Gals... I'll be just getting the coffees I think is interesting for them on Monday.

[Games]
Between Myth 2 and Facebook, I don't have much time!

[Mood]
Still good =]