Should I head down south to Singapore?

I was having this thought for a long time already. From the day I started work here till now, this question always comes out everytime. Unfortunately it came out more frequently as of late.

There is something I am sensing not right here, have to somehow cabut before it is too late. I know some of you already cabut across the causeway, now I am wondering if I should go too.....

Patriotism is something from yesteryear. Gone are the days where you ask yourself what you should do for your country and not what your country should do for you.

Now recently I received 1 e-mail stating that if you have RM 3000 and a family (sole breadwinner) you simply cannot survive in KL. I did a little calculation so to speak, assuming I live in SJ and go to work in KL. Simply put, it is tough!

Petrol
Kilometers to and from work		30
RM per km		0.2
Average working days		21
		126
Kilometers to shopping/lepak		30
RM per km		0.2
Average days to lepak		5
		30
	Total petrol cost	156
LRT cost
LRT ticket (LRT only)		100
LRT station parking (RM 4*21 days, Taman Jaya)		84
Makan
Lunch at work		6
Working days		21
		126
Family cost
Parents and brother (good son)		600
Cost of Makan lunch and dinner weekend		50
No of weekend days		9
		450
	Sub-total family cost	1050
Car Costs
Road Tax (1.5 liter wira, from parents)		7.5
Servicing car (every 5k, 630km a month)		56.7
Insurance (1.5 liter wira, costs 10k, provided the insurance company such as P&O insurance dun hate old cars)		50.25
		114.45
House cost
Internet (RM 88 with line rental)		100
TNB (3 air-con in house, 1 for parents, 1 for bro, 1 for me)		350
Water (free, TQ PAKATAN RAKYAT!!!)		0
		450
	Total cost per month	RM1980.45

Oh dear, that is not even counting the following:-
Entertainment
Daily Newspaper
Insurance (our lives are so worthless)
Dating (you think can be single till die meh?)
Parking at shopping complexes and other locations when you go to site/meetings
Handphone
Toll
Toiletries
Car Loan
House Loan
Breakfast (forget makan roti, minum Milo and the like)

And to have someone saying we should change our lifestyle? Maybe we should change the country we live in or change where we live. Or maybe change the person who said we should change out lifestyle.

Ok, maybe can cut somemore, like not using air-con, not giving parents money and not using my car. But as a consultant which need to go for meetings and site meetings, you NEED a car. How about sales engineer? They too need a car to meet potential clients and bring along the brochures to let their clients see them. Using motor? Imagine how embrassing it is to tell your client "sorry sir, rain too heavy, cannot see you" or "sorry, I got motor only, cannot deliver sample board".

Can someone in Singapore/Korea/US/Australia do a cost calculation like the above to compare?

P.S: Sorry to rant so much on Hari Raya, just need an avenue to release all the negative thing in me.

Something Work related: Can a king size mattress fit into a lift?

As per the topic, can a king size mattress enter a normal lift? Yes ? No? Apparently this was one question my client asked me last Monday during a meeting.

Well I looked up bed sizes (kingcoil.com.my) and a king size mattress is 1830mm (W) by 1900mm (L). A typical 15 person lift is 1600mm (W) and 1550 (D). Looking at the numbers, 1.6m x 1.5m sure dun fit 1.83m x 1.9m.

However if one were to push the mattress horizontally on its side into the lift and place it across the floor in the lift car, the mattress can barely fit in. It can fit, I have drawn the mattress inside the lift car in autocad, but you do need to "bend" it a bit. If your mattress is thicker than 300mm then maybe it will be a little thougher. The mattress can go through the door because the door is 1m (W) by 2.1m (H), slightly bigger than our normal door. The lift car height is also high, 2.2m, so no problem hitting the roof of the lift car.

Of course the best option is to have a stretcher lift, where a stretcher lift of similar capacity can carry 2 or more mattress without bending the mattress to fit inside. A 15 person stretcher lift is 1.2m (W) and 2.1m (D), so you can just slide in the mattress into the lift on its side without bending.

That is why some condos dun have a stretcher lift, coz technically it is possible to fit a king size mattress into lift car. The questions is, can you actually do it when moving up into your unit?

The number of Legos I have to date

I did a inventory check with all my Lego parts, trying to sort all the pieces and bricks into their respective sets so that I may reconstruct them back. So far, some of the sets can be reconstructed fully, while others, well how do I put it, is missing a key "backbone" piece and cannot be build at all! not to mention the Lego man which came along with the set is missing.

So just how many sets do I own? After looking through some mysterious part and looking up the part directory Peeron.com to see which sets I have which I dun remember I even have (most probably bought for my brother, and I never saw it), the the total number of sets I have is a staggering 66 sets. Inclusive the latest acquisitions this year and the ones from yesteryear, Duplo, Fabuland, Technic and mostly Town. Even I was shocked to see I got so many :sweat:

But sadly when I was small I am not really that good in taking care of my stuff, so lots and lots of pieces are missing.

Transformers Revenge of the Sith

The new TF movie is coming up, called Revenge of the Sith...err, Fallen.

Hope that the Decepticons put up a HUGE fight and kill everyone :) Will optimus die? Well optimus die maybe Bumblebee got a change to be a the leader of the Autobots and maybe even better than that useless Rodimus.

As to if I will want to buy any TF figures, well needless to say, I have NOT bought a single TF 2 toy yet. The reason is:-
1) I have other more longer lasting, valueble "toys" to collect
2) My budget CANNOT sustain buying TF2 toys which have increase in price
3) TF toys dun a nostalgia or collectible impact compared to say Lego, where the pieces last a lifetime and my kids' kids can still play with it.
4) My BB08 is broken coz I accidentally push it the wrong way. So now stuck in robot mode lol
5) Running out of space to keep all these figures.
6) Transformers dun really have a big impact to my childhood memories unlike Matchbox Tomica Lego etc
7) Will try to focus on something other like trying to get in a relationship with someone, hopefully.

Majlis Daerah Bentong and Genting Highlands

As we all know, Genting Highlands is part of the Bentong District in Pahang. It comes under the district office "Majlis Daerah Bentong" located in Bentong town. But what a coincidence that Genting Highlands is directly in front of the Majlis Daerah office?

Picture taken in September last year during a really clear day. Its not everyday that the biggest economic generator in your district is right in front of you :P

Toys? Collectibles? Prefer Girls

I dunno why, but my interest seems to change from time to time. Started with computer games in secondary school when I got my Pentium 100 back in 96, then:-
1) Mechwarrior collectible minitures game in college and 1st year of uni (2002-2004)
2) Xbox during 2nd year in uni and 1st year of working (2005-2006)
3) Transformers (2007)
4) Matchbox, Hot Wheels and Tomica (2008 to present- cheaper than TFs as TFs are too expensive to buy)
5) Lego (2009 to present, only selected sets)

Would really love to add in "Girls" too, but so far I just don't have the luck finding the right one :(

For no. (1), (3), and (4) somehow somewhat the item I want just magically appear after a short while waiting. Like this weekend found this Blue Hot Wheels 09 Bluebird (looking everywhere, cannot find) in Subang Parade as my parents somehow decided to go to Cold Storage. If only I had that kind of luck when it comes to meeting girls.

Starbucks Malaysia 2009 Bearista Destination Series

Another cute toy which caught my attention recently, the new Starbucks Coffee Bearista (Bear + Ballista.. err, I mean Barista). It was very very cute, plus it was wearing denim pants, a T-shirt with a Wau and a cool brown cap. Costs RM 53, 10% discount with Jusco card, original price RM 59.00.

Anyway, let the pictures do the talking :P

The front view


The side


The tag: Destination Series Bearista 2009: Malaysia


Isn't he cute? :)


His T-shirt


Great bear to buy since the he has high quality fur which is unlike those cheapo toy bears.

Something Work related: Suspended Lift Pit

Here's something which usually as a mechanical engineer will definitely face during the design of shopping center or any other building for that matter. Say you have a small lift to serve a small number of floors, so you proceed to place that lift there with all the dimensions requirements. But sometimes you have a lift which does not serve all the floors, such as in a shopping complex, a small lift is placed at the center of the shopping center as part of the facade to serve the retail floors but not serve the basement car park below it. In this case you will definitely have a suspended lift pit since you do not want the whole lift shaft right through your car park as it will eat valuable car park space.

Below is 1 such lift, located at the new wing of IOI mall Puchong.


As you can see, it only serve only 4 floors and does not serve the basement below it. I can see it is a small capacity machine roomless lift since it appears there isn't any machine room at the top. This kind of lift is called a machine roomless lift, whereby all the motors and equipment are located in the shaft. This kind of lift is good for a short building as it does not need a huge room right at the top, but not advisable for tall buildings 12 storeys or more since if anything goes wrong, the poor repair guy have to be suspended up to 60-70 meters at the top of the shaft to get to the motor.

The close-up of the lift car.The counter-weight is at the side of the car. Some lifts have it behind the car, but in this case the counterweight will block the good view out of the lift. It is also why some lift have very long widths or depths to cater for the placement of the counterweight. The car operating panel for this lift is only located on 1 side of the lift car. Ok for a small lift, but if it is a big lift for a office building, it is better to have it on both sides.


To the visitors to this shopping mall, they will not notice all the finer details that went into the placement and installation of this lift. Even during the design stage, we as the mechanical engineer must coordinate with the architect and civil engineer on the placement of the lift so that is does not affect items like headroom, beams, columns, car park etc. It becomes important as we take a look at the lift pit from Basement 1, the floor below.


As you can see, the lift pit is something like a very big concrete box suspended from the ceiling. Lift pits vary in depth depending on the speed of the lift car. Some like in this case maybe 2m deep or less, while high speed lifts may have lift pits up to 4m deep to house the large buffer (something like a spring) to absorb the impact of the lift should the lift free-fall (very very unlikely, since it has a safety governor). But it can be a big issue when you have very little headroom to place the lift pit. As you can see, it is eating up 2 car park lots that might otherwise be available. But this is something like a compromise when you do the lift pit placement; you cannot have it in the driveway, you can't let the lift shaft run all the way down to lowest basement otherwise you would lose 4 car parks.

In a way part and parcel of being an architect is to watch out for stuff like this during the design stage. Sure on the Ground floor and above the placement of the lift is fantastic, but then it will obstruct the drive way or eat into some car parks or worse, fan rooms, electrical rooms, domestic water tanks etc. Always spot these stuff during the design stage because once the pit is casted and the mistake is realized, it will cost ALOT since a suspended lift pit must be able to withstand a lift free-falling onto it and not crack. No way you can hack this if such a mistake is done.

To the consultants and architects doing IOI mall, great work for coordinating this lift pit into a location where it will at most, eat only 2 car parks and not obstruct the driveway.

I'm just a frequent shopper to IOI mall, so this is my first time to the new wing since it was opened.

Lego again, 1980s Duplo

Here are some of the old Duplo sets which I had from the 1980s. Duplo is like a baby version of Lego, but nonetheless have the same plastic toughness of its more mature brothers. The pieces are large and the pieces are few, but then again how an a baby play with so many pieces?

Anyway, here are some of the stuff which I have:-

2705 Passenger Train. Items missing :( include 1 of the roofs, 1 more dude and a shovel



2632 Duplo Delivery Truck



2619 Duplo Helicopter and propeller plane (dunnot the number)


and my biggest Duplo set, 2655 Farm set. Features include 1 large barnhouse, horse, cow, pig, chicken, tractor, conveyor, table, chair and windmill. The current barn isn't as big as this anymore. Items missing: 2 more chickens and 1 sheep :(



All of them shown in 1 big picture. Got somemore, but the data bout the Duplo sets are very sketchy since there isn't much documentation on the internet bout Duplo. I believe that all these are 100% classic Duplo sets and are fit for a museum. The best part is that it is still playable and looks like new even after a good 20 years. Looks in way better condition than my Tomicas or Matchbox since it is all plastic and not paint nor metal parts. Another plus point: NO STICKERS!!!




Sometimes to escape the realities of life, you dig out some of your childhood memories and look back at how care-free you are during those times.

Year of the Bull

Its been more than a month since I last blog. CNY passed by and not a blog post to accompany it.

Anyway I have been busy lately with my work so dun have much time to blog. But judging from what is going on in the year of the bull, this is going to be 1 very hectic year. Reading the local newspaper with all the political news is one hint things aren't going smoothly.

They say the economy is slowing down, especially in the States, which I can see it slowly coming down here. I'm a building services engineer, mainly doing mechanical stuff like fire-fighting, air-con, plumbing, lift etc and some of my projects are either Keep-In-Viewed or scrapped. Got 1 semi-conductor factory in Banting which we were supposed to build but since the semi-conductor industry is the hardest it, that is the 1st to go. On the bright side, it has barely moved past the tendering stage and the job was not awarded yet.

Anyway, let's not talk bout the real-life stuff, more on what I have been doing lately.

Recently bought myself a Lego City set. The first set using my own money and the first set in my working life. The last set was during my final year in Aussie back in 2005.

The set is the 7632 Crawler Crane. When I first saw it I was immediately hooked to it coz it looked like the real thing on the construction site.

The front of the box


The back


Overall it was a great set, although the item it lift (the green building panel) is a little out of place and practically useless. Realistic sets like these usually attract my attention.

Currenly planning to buy one Technic set which is coming out later this year. Not a kids set, but more of an adults set since only an adult can afford it. So gotta save up.

CNY coming

CNY is coming!! Too soon after the 2009 new year somemore. Just when we work and the pace starts to pick-up, then it is CNY!

Errr.. I can't hear the word beer?

I was listening to the radio as usual, Hitz.fm on my way back from work. So happen the latest hit song "If I were a boy" by Beyonce, that I realized that something was amiss. I heard the song at one time with something "silent" out, and on the second time I heard it it confirmed my suspicion; they silented the word BEER!!!

It was something like " go out drinking ....... with the guys".

Gosh, are the sensors so protective that they assume ppl will drink beer after listening to beer? Its not like she sang that she will go drink Clasberg, Iceberg, Anchor, VB or Budweiser, it is just the word beer!!!

Another reason NOT to buy ORI or local version. Better download at this rate.

Year End Wedding (my cousin's)

Yesterday was my cousin's wedding whereby my cousin was the bride. So naturally my family was at her house to welcome her future husband when he come to collect her in the morning. The usual procedure is that the groom comes, tips the person to open the door, tip the house (parents, sisters, friends guarding the door), meets up with his bride, offer tea to the bride's relatives (unhygienic as they use the same cup for the tea ceremony, can't they use disposable colored cups), then off they are on their way to the groom's house.

But unfortunately for the groom, the bride's friends has a little bit too much time on their hands. Instead of asking the groom for more money and tips, they made him and his friends so some time wasteful stuff.

Basically it was like this:-
1) Groom arrives, unfortunately due to lack of coordination from the bride's friends, made him wait out in the car for a while so that they can get the stuff awaiting him ready. Booboo 1: They should let the groom in as soon as possible and not wait outside in his car.

2) They want the groom and his friends to do some "chores". They even came out with a list of stuff the groom have to do b4 he can enter. The chores are:-
a) Eating some food blind folded and with hands tied. Very bad since the groom is already dress up nicely and done his hair etc. Also you let him eat some food might cause him to have stomach upsets on his biggest day ever.
b) Brushing teeth with wasabi... which made him cry and his eyes red. YOU WANT HIM TO SEE THE BRIDE LIKE THIS?
c) One guy lie down on the floor, banana in the mouth, and the groom has to eat that banana. AGAIN, THE GROOM HAS DRESSED UP NICELY AND YOU WANT TO RUINED HIS SUIT?
d) Give big fat ang pow to the groom's torturer's, which was ok, till they counted EVERY FRICKING SEN INSIDE THE ANG POW. LADIES, THE ANG POW IS MEANT AS A SYMBOLIC GIFT, NOT YOUR INCOME!!! EVEN THEN IT IS TO THE BRIDE!!! THEY EVEN COMPLAINED IT HAS TOO MANY COINS (which the bridegroom mentioned, want it to be 8.88)

3) They ask him some questions like:-
a) when was their 1st date (wow, can remember, even I dunno when)
b) Time and location where they propose
c) How to write the bride's name in chinese (I will kalah teruk this one, as even I can't write my name in chinese)
d) How many molds does the bride have (errr..... what about areas I can only see AFTER the wedding night?)

So it took 1 hr from the car to the bride's room, at which point the groom is sweating a BIG river in his best suit of his life.

My parents were not amused at the bride's friends antics, as during their time it was short and simple and none of this nonsense, which I think it true since weddings are supposed to be simple and not to squeeze the groom dry. Ladies, the more you go on like this, the more we are reluctant to marry you (well, not that it matter anyway, since this is the age of the Alpha-female). This is one chinese custom I am willing to omit and let go.

It really did not help that during the wedding dinner the bride's friends jokingly said that the ang pow collected is enough to cover the wedding! Again in extremely bad taste. I know they did not count every sen, but certain things are better left not said. Well I guess such things are funny to accountants since my cousin is an accountant and her organizers are from the same university.

So all the guys out there, better negotiate with your future wife on how you gonna pick her up on your wedding day, otherwise you will kena tortured like the above!

Merry Christmas!!

Its time of the year again! Where there are Christmas trees decorated and carols blasting from the speakers everywhere!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!!

Yes, that is Santa sitting next to the Christmas tree!

Arrgh!

Ever encounter a situation like this?

You spent the entire morning preparing your materials to meet your client, only at the last minute your senior comes in, have a look at have you have prepared, only to say that you should add in this and that or you miss out something?

Well when you are new this always kinda happens since you dun know what is required or simply dun know what you ought to do (which unfortunately this can only be learned by experience lol). However when you realized what's lacking it really makes you wanna scream "AARRRGGHHHHHH~!!!!!"

Other than that, had the usual lazing and digging up the store during Hari Raya Haji weekend. Miss those days where I had more toys in better condition that it is now. Among the toys I used to have:
Lego sets, ranging from Airport to Parking Garage with elevator
Matchbox cars, lots of it with some HoT wheels, Tomicas and Majorettes and Corgis as well as Cap Ayam brands.
Micro Machines playset, got toolbox, carwash, bridge, motel, quarry, train and aircraft carrier

and basically those were the big 3 types of toys which I remembered having the most nostalgic value. They simply DUN MAKE TOYS LIKE THEY USED TO.

Micro machines> small and easily chokable. Lawyers today are too free. Or many too labor intensive.
Lego> Not as detailed as last time, and alot of unique pieces. Look at the airport set of today against the one from the 1980s, the old one is WAY BETTER.
MB> Bought over by MATTEL, heresy to the MB brand

And dun get me started on cartoons (good old days where ppl shoot each other with guns are long gone).

Of course during the whole weekend I was thinking, I really ought to be going out with someone :(

Vintage Tomica Tomy Die-cast car

Taking advantage of the slightly long holiday, I decided to dig up my store to see my die-cast cars which I used to play years ago (and extinguish the nagging feeling of "where the heck is everything?").

What I found brought back some nostalgia to me, but I was surprised that even back in the 1984-1990, I had a few Tomicas in my collection!

But unfortunately they were bought back then, I used to PLAY with them instead of collecting them. Play = treat them like toys. Collecting = treat them like collectables, keeping the paint mint, the box intact etc.

Anyway, these toys have come a long way since then and somehow it is still playable, although they are paint is worn off and some parts are missing :)

There are 5 tomicas I have here:-

• Toyota Celica XX 2800GT
• Nissan Caravan Ambulance
• Nissan Diesel Truck Crane
• Big Rig Racer
• Moon Craft Special
  

Toyota Celica




Nissan Ambulance




Nissan Diesel Crane



Big Rig Racer




Moon Craft Special



So will these toys live up till the day my cucu-cicik be able to play/collect it? Well judging from how intact it is (except the paintwork), I believe it could tahan until then.

The best part was that I DID NOT EVEN KNOW I HAD VINTAGE TOMICAS UNTIL TODAY!! Hey as a kid I only know Matchbox and Hot Wheels, but never in my mind it occur to me it there were Tomicas!!!

BEWARE OF WHEN RECEIVING MSN PMs!

Was listening to music from my computer when an msn pm arrive from someone in my contact list. Hmmm she rarely MSN me b4. So I decided to have a look at the pm.



Looks like a message from her. But something just isn't right. I know her not that well but I suspect something is not right coz:-
1) I heard she dun like to go clubbing, so its odd for her to have party photos (from her blog somemore she is working her socks off)
2) Even then she is not the type to share photos
3) We are not VERY close friends, not even in her click
4) Why is her photo account using my MSN nick ljm16? Shouldn't it be her msn account?
5) Some really unknown website, unlike photobucket/flicker/imageshack
6) Plus she is offline

I really felt something is not right with this message. This is not the first type of message coming from her account. Previously alot of other similar type of message coming from her, but maybe just the usual spam.

So I decided to click the link mentioned and see what the website show. I was expecting some porn website, since it has such a suggestive message.



You will come to a page asking for your msn nick and password. Which to me is weird coz PHOTOS SITES such as Photobucket/Flicker WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOU MSN account or password to VIEW the stuff. Unless the user set a password, which is 100% not tied to your msn account.

True enough, a simple google of "cefcell.com" reveals this page.



SO please, if you receive any MSN from me, or anyone from that matter, PLS BE ALERT. My MSN nick is quite common and worth alot (ljm16), so there could easily be alot of impostors out there. ALWAYS SPY-CHECK! (like in Team Fortress2)

Red Alert 3

Been playing the newest Red Alert recently, Red Alert 3. Graphically it is wayy more superior than the previous versions. Since they added more naval warfare into this game, they made the water effects extremely nice to look at, with reflections of the units on the water.

The story is wayy over the top this time around. Red Alert 1has a more serious tone to the units and story took a slightly more realistic path with units based on their real-life counterparts. Red Alert 2 was slightly wacky, with its expansion going wayy over the top with flying saucers, giant brain on treads and mind controlling botak fellas.

Red Alert 3 throws everything out of the window. Its so over the top that EA decided to make it more like Boob/Playboy Alert 3 with the more female characters and cleavage. The hero for Allies, Tanya, is now a blond, which unfortunately as expected from a blond, isn't that very good in the game. Previous Tanyas from RA1 and RA2 can mow down infantry like a giant lawnmover. This Tanya lacks range to kill infantry and can be killed by even a big group of conscripts. Last time Tanya range is wayy more than normal infantry range, hence can mow down infantry which is what she excels at.

Other than that, the units are also bizarre or copied from elsewhere. The developers really took their imagination way ahead than any sane designer would do. The most ridiculous is the Japanese Hero unit which is a ..... school girl. NO JOKE!!! Geezz you think they would think of a more crazier unit.

Anyway:-
Mecha tengu = Macross veritech with gerwalk and jet mode
King Oni = Giant Gundam
Athena cannon = Take the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War and make it a giant trailer
Mirage Tank = Mirage tank and prism tank in one, but with less range.
Dolphins = Like in RA2
War Bears = War Bears that can attack ppl

Ok, there is alot of units, but if you think EA did a QC check before shipping the game, you are wrong. The game is buggy out of the box. Luckily mine is ori so can patch it up and now it is running ok.

The problem when you play it for the 1st time is that the game will try to access the EA site to check for updates, hence freezing up the main menu. I solve the problem by literally pulling my LAN cable out of my pc, to stop it from connecting to the internet. Makes you think if they did it on purpose....

Anyway the game is quite simply, WHY SO SERIOUS?

Unlike other serious game like World in Conflict, which other game got gerwalks? Might be cartoony to some ppl though, hence it is sometimes called Toy Alert 3.

Some Lego I want

I always liked Legos. Especially the ones where there are big, complex, expensive and quite unlikely your parents will buy it for you if you ask for it.

So when I saw the latest Clone Wars stuff from Lego, I kinda like the Clone Republic Gunship. Its big, has lots of stuff and unfortunately, overpriced. Here it costs a WHOPPING RM 800 (or 799.9999999999). I could have sworn I saw it costing SING 199.90 when I was in Singapore (or was it? cannot remember). Converted to Ringgit, even if it is SING 1 = RM 2.50 it is still less than RM 500!!! Tempted to get one, but after seeing how overpriced this thing in M'sia (like CBU/CKD/any car here), potong stim to get it. Available funds I have, but too much to buy over a short period of time, so buying one of these will easily blow 2-3 months allocation for "other stuff". And by the time Masterpiece Grimlock arrive which will cost more than this thing I think got no money left :P

Some pictures of it.




The one available is the second version after the Episode 2 version shown below.

The vista isn't fully clear.

On the online dictionary, vista means:-

–noun

1.	a view or prospect, esp. one seen through a long, narrow avenue or passage, as between rows of trees or houses.

2.	such an avenue or passage, esp. when formally planned.

3.	a far-reaching mental view: vistas of the future.

sauce:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vista

But on my computer, Vista is an operating system from Microsoft which installed when I bought it. Since my pc is a new pc and is capable to run Vista, plus a graphic crad which utilizes Vista's Direct X 10, I decided to install Vista Premium with almost all the fancy bells and whistles. Vista Ultimate was in a way, overpriced.

Anyway, like the title, the vista isn't fully clear.

Some wierd things about Vista:-
1) I have to DISABLE the firewall that it came with so that Windows update can contact its server. You heard it right, I have to off Windows Firewall coz W. Firewall is blocking Windows update and W. Update cannot contact server. To think that both are from the same family....

Oh, apparently Windows firewall doesn't like Windows Defender as well...

2) It will pop up a window asking to continue or not whenever I try to do some things which it thinks is supposed to be the work of the admin.

Like to disable firewall it will ask if I should continue or not.
Like trying to run an install program on an ORI CD game it will ask if I should continue or not.

I have heard that it is good in the sense that if a malware decides to install something, the pop-up will come out, so its a mixed blessing.

3) My computer can start up on its own when there is power connected to it.

No, my house dun have ghosts, but kinda weird when you are half way sleeping and it turns on by its own. I dun remember my XP or windows 98 pc turning itself on when I was in college. I dun remember my parents calling my why my pc suddenly turn on its own.

Could be the "wake up on LAN" is enabled, but I never had a problem with previous pcs. Wierd.

So these are the 3 things which I find it weird on my pc.