There's heaven in me

There's heaven in me when I see needed cats and dogs came forward for food and I am able to keep them filled.

It's really wonderful that peace of mind and joy of life shines, when you see them welcoming you not just because of your food, but joy of seeing you knowing that someone care of them are coming.

There's heaven in me and I wish you find your heaven within yourself


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DiGi, Chronicle of events leading to Self Destruction

Dear DiGi,

I am wondering whether you are serious in your business, that my problem remain unsolved, and with new surprises coming from you every now and then making me feel that you are either the great entertainer or I am just too small a customer that you don't even bother to look at.

First, let me stress a point:

I am not asking for your attention as your attention is the last on earth that I will ever expect. I am asking you to provide a decent voice service as stipulated in your contract either implied or expressed, that both parties entered the contract with seller provide its service and buyer pay according to contractual rate/price. This is the basis of Law of contract, I doubt you ever understand.

Let me start with what transpired during these great Chinese New Year season and how you have made my CNY a haunted dream instead of celebration.

2011 Jan 12

Ms Zatasha called and follow up with a mail that she will escalate my case to relevant channels and requesting me to be patient waiting for the outcome.

2011 Jan 21

I follow up with a mail to Ms. Zatasha that I am still experiencing missed calls and still waiting for her reply.

2011 Jan 22

Ms Tinesh replied my mail promised that relevant personnel will contact me pertaining to my problem.

2011 Jan 27

I follow up with email asking what is happening.

2011 Jan 28

Mr. Ravindran called and offered SIM replacement. I told him that I will only agree with SIM replacement if DiGi proposes plan B, i.e. if the replacement SIM still having the same issue, then what should DiGi and I do next.

Mr. Ravi keep insisting that my SIM failed, to solve my problem, I need to get the SIM replaced. I told him that I do not want to waste more time with DiGi rounding the bush, I just want a plan B in case plan A, i.e. SIM replacement failed.

Mr. Ravi finally agreed that he need to discuss with relevant parties, and will come back to me as soon as possible.

2011 Feb 01 noon

I tried to reach Mr. Ravi from Customer Service number 016-221-1800 to follow up on my case. According to Call Center staff, they are not able to pass my line to Mr. Ravi since he is at another department. After wrestling with the call attendant, I spoke to Mr. Phang, presumably a team leader or supervisor. Mr. Phang promised to sort this out with Mr. Ravi and get Mr. Ravi to contact me again.

2011 Feb 01 late afternoon

My SIM failed to register to DiGi network, registration was denied, both incoming and outgoing calls are barred. In short, DiGi terminated my account.

I was kind of panic, I called DiGi call center after I can get whole of another phone, and I assumed that my current SIM is faulty. When I checked with the call attendant on my account status, and network status, replied all positive, means account is good, line is active.

I then asked if I can get emergency replacement of SIM during CNY and any of DiGi center is open during the festive season. Replied yes, some centers are open for business.

The call attendant then asked for my alternate number in order for Mr Ravi to return my call. I did mention my case is handled by Mr Ravi. A 019 number was given, and I was expecting a call from DiGi the next day.

2011 Feb 02 9:42AM

Mr. Ravi sent an email that he has sent out the replacement SIM on 2011 Feb 01, I did not aware of the mail until I reached home mid night.

2011 Feb 02 5:02PM & 2011 Feb 02 1:04AM

I run several SIM diagnostic tests to find out whether my current SIM is really at fault or otherwise. I have concluded that the current SIM was barred by DiGi and it is not faulty.

2011 Feb 03 1:34AM

I replied Mr. Ravi's mail questioning why he sent out the replacement SIM without my prior consent.

2011 Feb 03 1:53AM

I emailed Mr. Ravi asking for date and time of which the replacement SIM was sent.

2011 Feb 03 11:04AM

Mr. Ravi replied via mail that replacement SIM was sent 2011 Feb 01 but no time given.

2011 Feb 03 8:38PM

A strongly worded mail was sent to Mr. Ravi on DiGi's fatal decision to send replacement SIM during festive season when postal service is not available, and humiliation and frustration that I faced when others suspecting that I may not settle my bill thus my line was cut.

2011 Feb 04 afternoon

Mr. Ravi called and insisted that I have accepted the replacement SIM offer. I told him point blank that I have never agreed on replacement SIM unless plan B is proposed by DiGi.

I asked what is the time replacement SIM was despatched for delivery. He finally told me that it was delivered on 2011 Feb 02 (the correct date quoted should be 2011 Feb 01, typo error) morning. He added that this is the resolution of his internal discussion with his peer that they believe it is the best option for me.

I protested by telling him that I was not even consulted, nor I have agreed on replacement SIM. I asked why he proceed with deactivation of my current SIM without my knowledge, he admitted that my current SIM is deactivated with assumption that I can use the replacement SIM when I received.

I asked him when will Pos Malaysia deliver the replacement SIM to my door step, and should I be carrying my phone with a dead SIM that I cannot use as a phone?

He said that it was unfortunate that the incident falls on festive season and I would be receiving the replacement SIM by coming Monday or Tuesday, i.e. almost a week of communication blackout.

He added that DiGi will consider waiving ONE month charge as compensation. I told him point blank that RM88 cannot buy a CNY back for me.

I have demanded him to re-activate my current SIM, and the SIM was activated about an hour after the phone call.

2011 Feb 04 afternoon

I called the call center again, spoken to call attendant Ms. Esther, to record my frustration. Further, I have asked Ms. Esther to record properly the following:

DiGi, as the seller of pronounced services, failed to deliver its commitment towards the buyer, i.e. ME on the expected service level, and unlawful termination of service rendered to me without prior warning nor due to unsettled payments.

I hereby demanded the contract to be terminated as per DiGi's will, and DiGi shall not charge me any early termination fee, and I shall not be liable to return the iPhone 4 purchased under this contract as I have performed my duty as a contractual party and duly paid the price of iPhone 4.

Lastly, I demanded DiGi to return my mobile number which I have ported to DiGi from Celcom to another carrier of my choice without delay, and all cost is to be borne by DiGi.

DiGi should not instruct any of its employee who are not able to make the above decision to contact me and discuss about the process above, it is a waste of time, effort, money, and brain cell talking to people whom the world is to be blamed but DiGi.

I think I have made the case very clear, DiGi, Over to you.

DiGi, What more shall I said?

This is my recent reply to DiGi after they sent me 2 URLs trying to prove that iPhone is bad.

the 2 URLs are:

Macworld
http://www.macworld.com/article/61187/2007/11/ukiphone.html

iPhone site
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/07/02appleletter.html

Read on:

First of all, I must said that you have wasted much of my time trying to defend yourself that you have no problem in any circumstances, and always blame it to the phone, or the owner.

If you ever read/listen carefully my previous conversations, you should then understand what I am trying to convey:

1. I complaint about poor reception not ONE place, but many places, and at random. The most serious location is Berjaya Time Square, both inside and outside the building.

Your earlier reply that your engineer concluded that there's no problem in my area, which area you are referring to when I am having problem in multiple areas at random??

2. You have consistently claimed that Apple iPhone 4 is the real problem, then you extended to other iPhone models AFTER I told you that I was briefly using the iPhone 4 from DIGI since I encountered dropped/missed calls and was initially thinking that it was the phone. Hence I exchanged the phone with my Wife's Maxis iPhone 3Gs after about a week purchased from you.

You have given URLs to substantiate your claim on Apple iPhone, yes, but I wonder have you ever read properly what it mentioned in both URLs that you sent:

a. The MacWorld piece is talking about original iPhone WITHOUT 3G, which uses different radio chip than the 3GS/4. How can you mix Apple with Orange when trying to prove that you are right? I have never said in my conversations with you that I have the original iPhone. I do own iPhone 3G, iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, and Nokia E55. So which one should the MacWorld article reflects??????

b. In the Apple statement on iPhone 4 reception issue, it was talking about the way iPhone 4 was held during calls, if the exposed antennas is touched, signal may be affected. Isn't this is addressed by putting the iPhone 4 on a protective case covering up the antennas? Furthermore, I am not using the iPhone 4 now, so you missed again.

By your reply, since you have concluded that it is the client problem and not yours, I presume that replacing SIM card will not address the issue. If that's the case, why should I take the trouble to be the guinea pig as your mobile test lab??

I did not raise this to your attention with impulse, I have personally tested many times with different phones that I have with different carriers that I am subscribing to, i.e. Maxis, Celcom, U Mobile, and YOU, DIGI.

The iPhone 4 which I originally thought problematic is running happily with Maxis network. My iPhone 3G tested running fine with Maxis and Celcom. But when both installed with your SIM, the problem comes.

OK, you said it is Apple's problem, what about my Nokia E55 on your network still having the sam problem at random??

I am expecting you to do your homework and not me doing the homework for you. Your attitude of continuing to deny that you have may some issue with your network is utterly unacceptable at my end, after taking all these trouble to test and ensure that this issue is not specific to iPhone with your network.

One last word. Please tell me how can I get back my main number to other carrier and how can I deal with your inefficiency of solving my problem. DiGi cannot enforce monthly charge on me if DiGi cannot provide satisfactory explanation and service level of basic voice service, let alone 3G.

This is really a MESS. I demand you to let me go with my number immediately!

Rgds,

chiacy

Building ultimate Macbook Pro within tight budget

Almost ultimate configuration for Macbook Pro 2.4GHx

So you want a macbook pro, and you want your macbook pro screams, but you have limited budget, how?

First, you need to determine what you need to do with your macbook pro. For example, I run a dozen of apps simultaneously, and running occasionally Windows XP and Ubuntu side by side using VirtualBox. Both are moderately disk intensive, and requires more memory to make them work smoothly.

In most instances, I need to compile my codes on Snow Leopard, Ubuntu, and occasionally Windows XP, which is very heavy disk-bound tasks.

But I do not want to spend more that I should be, i.e. I wanted to spend the retail price of Macbook Pro 13 inch 2.4GHz, i.e. I wanted to spend just RM3899 at most, but wanted to squeeze the best out from the MacBook Pro.

Here's what I do:

Identify the model. I picked MacBook Pro 13 inch 2.4GHz for its portability, price, and expandability. MacBook Pro allows up to 8GB of RAM, and user upgradable as opposed to MacBook Air which requires factory upgrade upon purchase.

First, I look around for people who recently bought MacBook Pro of the model I wanted, make sure that it is as new, and warranty is still available (in order for me to extend warranty for another 2 years, aka AppleCare).

I found one who bought one but virtually not using since his company gave him a notebook for his work. Battery charge cycle is low, i.e. around 18 times in 3 months time, which is pretty low usage, and the MacBook Pro looks new, complete with box and receipt from the shop he purchased.

It is important to make sure that the selling party is the first person or else you may be in trouble if it is stolen goods (complete box reduce the risk of being stolen goods, often thief will want to sell off quick instead of dressing the notebook up).

I bought this unit for RM3,200, which is around RM700 lower than the retail price.

Next, identify RAM module.

There's a lot of people complaining about after market RAM module for Apple notebook is hard to find as it uses special type of RAM.

This is not true since the day I use my iBook G3. However, you should get your RAM module from reputable store instead of simply walking to any computer shop who will only want to sell you what they have.

Original 2GB X 2 RAM Module

I surfed the net, look for a reputable Mac after market upgrade seller, and bought 8GB (2 X 4GB RAM) from them.

4GB X 2 RAM Module in its packaging

Total 8GB RAM Module installed on Macbook Pro

The price, including freight (I use Priority Mail, cheapest delivery) RM367.15

8GB RAM tested OK in Snow Leopard

Next, identify the hard drive.

Apple supplied 5,400RPM 250GB hard drive which is sufficient for those who have patience to wait, not me.

I have 3 options,

1. SSD (Solid State Drive, expensive, low capacity); or

2. 7200RPM or above hard drive with higher capacity (cheap, but power consumption is higher, means shorter battery life); or

3. Hybrid drive from Seagate, high capacity (500GB), fast mechanical drive (7,200RPM), and intelligent 4GB flash acts as SSD for the mechanical drive.

Seagate Momentus XT (near camera), and Apple supplied Hitachi 250GB 5,400RPM drive

I picked Seagate Momentus XT for its price and speed. Although many complaint that this drive is causing a few issues such as shorter battery life and noisy as compare to the original factory fitted drive, I have confident that Seagate will rectify this fast, as this is a killer product for those who wanted speed at affordable price.

So I paid RM 430 for this.

Snow Leopard recognizes Seagate Momentus XT without glitch

In total, I spent RM3,200 + RM 367.15 + RM430 = RM3,997.15 for the upgrade, and I have now spare 250GB hard drive, and 2GB X 2 RAM module.

I can sell off the RAM module for RM200, which reduce my total investment to RM 3,797.15. Further to this, I sold off my old MacBook for RM700, although far lower than expected, but in total, I actually came out with only RM3,097.15.

And I have a MacBook Pro that screams, virtually no waiting for anything I wanted to do, from booting up to shutting down, from app to app, from Snow Leopard to Ubuntu to Windows XP all running side by side.

古文今用：李斯《谏逐客书》

昔日秦王嬴政下逐客令，要把非秦部族的外人，不管已经住了多少代，统统赶出秦国。

这恰好跟那些动不动就叫非我族类的回祖家一样。

当时李斯呈下文与秦王政，秦王收回逐客令，大用外邦人士，终于一统天下。

当今跳梁小丑，一面向外求商求才，一面要把非我族类逼回祖家，终其一生守在椰壳下寸土称王，没有胸襟，不能百川汇海，国岂能强？民焉能富？

“昔穆公求士，西取由余於戎，东得百里奚於宛，迎蹇叔於宋，求丕豹、公孙支於晋，此五子者，不产於秦，而穆公用之，并国二十，遂霸西戎。孝公用商鞅之法，移风易俗，民以殷盛，国以富强，百姓乐用，诸侯亲服，获楚、魏之师，举地千里，至今治强。惠王用张仪之计，拔三川之地，西并巴、蜀，北收上郡，南取汉中，包九夷，制鄢、郢，东据成皋之险，割膏腴之壤，遂散六国之纵，使之西面事秦，功施到今。昭王得范雎，废穰侯，逐华阳，强公室，杜私门，蚕食诸侯，使秦成帝业。此四君者，皆以客之功。由此观之，客何负於秦哉！向使四君却客而不纳，疏士而不用，是使国无富利之实，而秦无强大之名也。

“今陛下致昆山之玉，有随、和之宝，垂明月之珠，服太阿之剑，乘纤离之马，建翠凤之旗，树灵鼍之鼓。此数宝者，秦不生一焉，而陛下悦之，何也？必秦国之所生而然后可，则是夜光之璧不饰朝廷，犀象之器不为玩好，郑、卫之女不充后宫，而骏马抉提〖“抉提”二字俱应为“马”旁〗不实外厩，江南金锡不为用，西蜀丹青不为采。所以饰后宫、充下陈、娱心意、悦耳目者，必出於秦然后可，则是宛珠之簪、傅玑之珥、阿缟之衣、锦绣之饰不进於前，而随俗雅化、佳冶窈窕赵女不立於侧也。夫击瓮叩缶、弹筝搏髀①而歌呼呜呜快耳者，真秦之声也。郑、卫、桑间，韶虞、武象者，异国之乐也。今弃击瓮而就郑、卫，退弹筝而取韶虞，若是者何也？快意当前，适观而已矣。今取人则不然，不问可否，不论曲直，非秦者去，为客者逐。然则是所重者在乎色乐珠玉，而所轻者在乎人民也。此非所以跨海内、制诸侯之术也。

“臣闻地广者粟多，国大者人众，兵强则士勇。是以泰山不让土壤，故能成其大；河海不择细流，故能就其深；王者不却众庶，故能明其德。是以地无四方，民无异国，四时充美，鬼神降福，此五帝、三王之所以无敌也。今乃弃黔首以资敌国，却宾客以业诸侯，使天下之士，退而不敢向西，裹足不入秦，此所谓藉寇兵而赍盗粮者也。

“夫物不产於秦，可宝者多；士不产於秦，而愿忠者众。今逐客以资敌国，损民以仇，内自虚而外树怨於诸侯，求国之无危，不可得也。”

Replace file extension with PHP

Sometimes we need to read a file from user upload, then save the file in specific file extension after processing, but retain its filename.

Most of the Googled examples assumed that the upload file name adhered to XXXXXX.YYY format, of which a period "." separates file name (XXXXXX) from extension (YYY).

In the event where there are more than one Period "." in the filename, these examples break.

Of course you may use the conventional string function to determine the last Period in the given filename, then strip it with yet a couple of string functions.

One of the way is to use array to achieve the goal, and here is how:

$filenamearray=explode(".",$filename);

array_pop($filenamearray);

array_push($filenamearray,'csv');

$filename=implode(".",$filenamearray);

分裂？

连花姐姐如晤：

姐姐您好，最近报章上看到您风采依旧，甚为欣慰。

姐姐为民政栋梁，日理万机，呕心沥血，亲民勤政，乃民政之光，国阵之光，民族之光，国家之光，妇女之光！

最近补选，姐姐不辞劳苦，穿山越岭，远征荒蛮，宣扬国阵之大德，德化疆民，为人所不能，巾帼英雄也！

姐姐纵横政坛数十年，过关斩将，所向披靡，敌酋闻之丧胆。如今教化疆民，句句珠玑，千锤百炼，疆民焉能不化？

姐姐深受分裂之苦，当年官拜新闻部副部长，受国阵同僚围剿，姐姐忍辱负重，以和为先，无视跳梁，依旧读稿，颇有精卫之风，弟所不能及也！

之后民政倒丁，姐姐沉默是金，盖倒丁倒许，事不关己，明哲保身，官运依然亨通。

今论分裂，乃姐姐穷数十年修行为官之精华。华族不能分裂，乃姐姐固本之肺腑。

姐姐甘冒陷民政不义，令马华蒙羞之骂名，独钟华族，为华族指点迷津，实乃华族救星也。

然姐姐有所不知，分而治之，乃国阵治国金科玉律，国阵以种族为界，华巫印本是一家，奈何国阵设下楚河汉界，诸多事端因此而起。

话说当今各大民族分为两派，或支持国阵，或拥护民联，三大民族化为朝野两派，种族分界日渐模糊，暗合民政创党理念，可喜可贺，何来分裂？

姐姐为民政大款，理应能倒背民政党章如流，如此现象，乃民政先贤期待，姐姐何以定为分裂？

弟愚钝，盼姐姐拨亢指正，为弟不胜感激。


弟
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