Another milestone in my career - WDC

Time flies...it just slipped my mind. In the past, I always post either a month, 3 months or 6 months checkpoint after I joined a new company. Since the previous was back in my ex company Motorola, I didn't have similar post.

Now days past my 6 months tenure with Western Digital, SSD division(old Sandisk) things get very challenging and exciting. Everyday I have new code to crack. The team is rather green....both in age and experience.

Hope that I can still have similar excitement for years to come. Hope for the best for the company, its global and local leadership and of course for myself.

Oh not to forget to mention, I have made few good friends here.

RE:Hack - Smart Living 24 hour Hackathon

Honestly speaking, I know there's a lot, we developers and engineers can do but I have never imagined myself putting up a somewhat complete solutions in less than 24 hours.

Last December, I joined the RE:Hack - Smart Living 24 hour Hackathon, an event organized by TM with my 2 other colleagues. All these years in the industry, I was apathy towards development beyond my job roles or anything that brings no ROI to the company I worked for but since hackathon is widely talked about in M2, I went ahead and joined the crowd.

1 size fit all...is this right for us?

Came across this video early in the morning by Prince Ea and find it very interesting...so what's your say?

6 months check point

I was scanning over my past posts and decided I need to write this one like how I did in my past positions.

So I just past my 6 months probation in 'M2'. Even before the review session, I knew clearly that I would get over it without any problem looking at my involvement and deliverable so far.

As expected, nothing shocking from my manager. However I was shocked over my own honest remarks during the review session which includes a good mix of good and bad remarks like

Street Photographing with Huawei P9

When I first discovered about this phone, I was reluctant to own one as my previous, Google Nexus 5 was only half the price tag and was working perfectly and in fact way better than many other. However after giving it a thorough comparison between the successor version, Nexus 6 and P9, I am in favour of the P9. Both are manufactured by Huawei and carries premium specifications with 1 or 2 items which I can criticize on.

Goodbye Google Nexus 5

Hello Huawei P9

1 month in new Office

Decided to pen down this special day. How many more 1st month in new office can one have, right?

Few of the sweet treats from office...fat die me!!!

As expected many are puzzled with my move. After close to 8 years in the industry, I move down to Kuala Lumpur, out of Penang where I call home.

Day 1 - Exhausting day to begin with

May and I traveled to Australia from 10 May to 24 May 2015. We are glad and grateful to have each others companies in this new world.

10 May - We have traveled for close to a day with a layover in Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia. Our flight was pretty smooth and the landing was perfect. We landed in Melbourne Tullamarine International Airport slightly close to 1 hour ahead of schedule. The airport was really busy with passages from multiple flight clearing the immigration together with us.

After we cleared off, we went straight to the Redspot pickup center situated right opposite the terminal. There was much surprise at the counter as we have already prebooked our car in advance with 0 liability insurance package.
After picking up our car, we decided to head straight to Great Ocean Road. We stopped by the Geelong and Great Ocean Road Visitor Information Center at Little River along Princess Highway as advised by the Redspot's staff and this was the beginning of our adventurous and fun trip.

Anglesea Golf Club along Noble Street, Anglesea - see kangaroos in the wild. We didn't know what to expect until we finally discovery a large mob of kangaroos. There were approximately 15 to 20 of them grazing grass in the club compound.

Nothing better than self managed blog

I have stopped adding entries here on my travel experience for years. Few years back I stumbled into www.backpackmojo.com and find it cool since they promise to provide a hard-copy free to the its author. So then I decided to document my travel experience there.
When I wrote my first travel guide covering Laos, I was disappointed with all the restriction they have imposed in place like number of characters in each fields, currency quote, photo orientation and lousy Bing as the map provider.

Hate being in this position

Another long stop here. Life has been miserable. On top of the busy and black box like life, why am I stuck in office politics? I am just looking forward to the day where I would be spared from all these craps. Let's pray for me that this day is coming soon.

Exhausting months

Life sucks recently. It's either I am doing some shitty no value work or I am forced to deliver on tight schedule with all its dependency still in black box mode. Wonder which programmer can write effective code is she doesn't know what it is really used for.

On top of the usual task, I am overloaded with initiatives. As usual, the reward for good job is more job. :-( Hopefully my recent 'NO's or no show do not offend those haunting souls out there. Please spare me from more work. I don't get paid overtime and I am not calculative either. I just have already devoted more than 10 hours per day in office and I need some for myself.

Photobook review

I always prefer my photos in hardcopy as compared to softcopy. They just give me the thought of being physically attached with the past. The past is what made me today. I treasure them dearly. So I used to develop on average of 40 to 100 photos for a 7 days trip. With this limit, I could only develop selective ones and especially those with me in them.

time to change cc provider

I am one who is relatively aware of my spending and charges on credit card. But with the over spent incurred from recent trips, my senses just got blunt. I was charged RM165 for annual membership on my CTB credit card on July and I am only aware today in October. I'm going to cut this lousy card for making me call them annually to get the fee waived. Nowadays many Bank is offering free for life, so make sure you get one of such or else expect to pay fees which may end up higher than your entitled cash back saving.

We are human after all

I am writing this article on my bus ride to airport from JR Sapporo station. I was supposed to catch the 5.15pm train but somehow, there was an urge to leave early. Thank god I did. Else I am sure to miss my flight completely.
For the past days, Japanese have repeatedly impressed me on how structural and well planned their public transport can be. It always depart on time and arrive as plan with couple minutes buffer.
It was near perfect until this accident that obstruct my way. Be it Japanese or Malaysia, we are human after all. We are all subject to mistake. I just hope that no one is injured today and I can arrive on time for my flight.

Solo Travel in Japan

After 8 years since my first and last solo travel, I finally set out alone again. This time I am in Japan. This experience is completely different from backpacking with companion though at most of the time, I was the one responsible of making the plan and itinerary. Travelling alone gives me much flexibility as well as more worries. Worry that I would end up in an unknown place especially middle in the night. I have slept in couple of airports world wide and so, was convinced that a night in Haneda would not be too bad.
Despite knowing this, I left the airport near midnight, hoping to catch the last train. The moment I board the train, I regretted my act. It was a mistake. Riding train in Japan is extremely hard especially I can't speak or read their language. Finding people that understand me at this hour was tough. Anyhow, I managed to catch the last train to my intended station.
Second problem was finding my way to Junko's house. My second mistake was for not asking her for direction or map to her place. So  I got out on the totally opposite exit. Then my 3rd mistake surfaced. I only have her address. I didn't even have her phone number. Without internet connection, the address was close to useless for me and I can't get in touch immediately with her.
I was lucky to meet a kind passer-by who helped to search out on his mobile and tried to explain the way in Japanese. After few attempt, he agreed to guide me to the address. It was close to 1am and my destination as about 10minutes from where we were. Great that I met him.  After making conversation, I finally learn that he is a student from China...so we both have common language after all.
Thank god that I finally reached Junko's house after 1am. This was a memorable experience. I'm looking forward to the rest of my stay her in Japan.

Counting down to 2 years service completion at Motorola

No updates for the recent months as I was all tied down at home and work.

So hell yes, I will be completing my 2 years in Motorola soon. These are real busy and intensive years. The learning curve are steep and work are demanding...or at least I have been committing myself to this busy schedule....this is just me! "If not now, then when?" attitude.

However glad that things have been very fruitful. My projects are in good shapes and my trip was an enjoyable one. Meeting people and learning from each other always amazed me. Hope to get more of such opportunity :D

Grew to love books

Unconsciously over the years, I grew to love books so dearly...I just love reading random books and articles. I am fascinated with new knowledge, experiences and theories. Recently I find behavioural, religious and management are among the few that got my interest.

These are the 2 which I read while killing some time in mall waiting for friends and family.

Lessons from uni II

2nd post on lessons I have learnt from uni. This is based on my 2 years postgraduate program in MMU.

Learning is a life long journey. Learning is a self driven activities and it is by far the best experience I have. Formal education is just another channel to learn but doesn't simply mean once you signed up on formal education, you would learn. I am not the kind that remember notes and books by word. I just read, grasped and improvised the content. However not everyone has the same intention. Some were only after the scroll and the fame. So if you are the later one, please do not take up a technical postgraduate. You will suffer badly in ensuring the delivery of  your assignments, tests and thesis. You do not have the excuse to cheat. Your act do bothers me not because your result. It is because you may portrait my course wrongly to the external. Lucky you, that I am a 'mind my own business' person. So wishing you all the best in your future endeavour!

The major different between my undergraduate and postgraduate is the openness and equality we have. None was being discriminated. We are all the same in the eyes of lecturers. Bravo!

Finally, I would conclude saying that postgraduate on part time basis is not for everyone. Surely not for those like mentioned above and not for those lack of determination and passion. It really exhausted me to the max throughout the period. I salute those who have made it through honourably before me.

Another milestone

Being a goal oriented person really drives me far. Every time I set out for something, I always get it. Getting it  after efforts made and attentions paid, certainly not through the wrong or forcefully methods.

So my recent accomplishment and milestone is receiving my postgraduate degree. It has been real hard for the past 2 years. Coping with new office is nothing close to easy. It is really exhausting after the countless extra hours in office.

Thankfully it has finally comes to an end!

Proud to join 15 others in the graduates of Master of Engineering in Microelectronics year of 2012. Happy Graduation to my seniors and myself! 

9 months check point

Completed my 9 months is M. It will be my 10th beginning from next week. It has been challenging months for me as well as fulfilling ones. This is what I have signed up for. I appreciate the learning initiative they have put in place...another good example of "Leaders breed leaders". We will move forward cumulatively. Go APCO!

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Virtual Spring Cleaning

It's time to change...

I just finish cleaning up my blog. The template is really old and those links are long gone. From the initial slightly over a hundred, they are now down to less than 30.

As I was reviewing the templates and scanning my past post, I realize my life nowadays are less happening as compared to my early career years. Perhaps, I have grew older and with less excitement in life. I have to find something to cheer it up...what do you suggest?