July 18, 2008 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Technology, Personal
It is not really a week, just Monday and Tuesday, nevertheless, the experience is good enough to last me a life time.
It is not as big as Maris Stella. This I agreed. However, it is still very tiring. Everyone did their part, and hope we absorbed this lesson, move on and be more prepared the next time.
We are glad to have the Apple Education Team (Engineers) to conduct the training. I was so sick. Lost my voice, sore throat, down with flu and slight fever.
I still remembered I went straight home and slept from Tues 9pm to Wed 7am.. And still very tired.
The teachers are going thru basic Mac training with Junior. It is very refreshing to sit in the training and know how well and how far you are.
July 9, 2008 at 3:56 am · Filed under Technology, Personal
Man, this is real hard work.. We are not behind time but we faced a few problems:
1. Lack of Firewire Cables.
2. Server take whole day to create Netinstall images (to the extend that we gave up on Neinstall deployment).
3. Lack of Power plugs/sockets.
4. Lack of experiences on doing cloning and restoring (Many of the guys are new to this).
5. And lack of communications.
Apparently, we have a good start with completing 15 sets (with 3 firewire cables which I bought from Singapore). However, the communication part on the system image was horrifying. There are changes but nobody said anything. Until I made a few calls back to Spore to clarify.
And it is very hard to get firewire cable in Indonesia. I told them that in Spore, we are stepping on and throwing firewire cables everywhere. They laughed at me, dismissing it as a joke. But I am very serious! You want to work in Mac business, you better have at least 2 firewire cables with you.
We sort out the rest on the very next day. We are cloning 6 MacBooks at a time and things start to move fast. Below are a few pictures we took..
Fierce eh?
June 30, 2008 at 7:01 am · Filed under Political, Personal
We had this big sewage outside our Office compound. Right in the city, just along the road which you see Shopping Malls and heavy traffics.
No, you did not get me wrong. It is sewage. I will explain this as according to the explanation from Oxford Dictionary: “waste water and excrement…”
Everyday, the waste water will blast out from one of the two holes. The smell can be easily detected from two blocks away. The rubbish and dirt, including toxic.. OMG. My friend and colleague once made a comment that he will kill himself immediately if he fell into this “River”. And yup, it was supposed to be a River.
Despite how dirty this “River” is, you will still see local food stall situated beside, people fishing and more. One of the most exciting event I’d seen so far is pictured below:
Are you suspecting anything? Yes, bingo! The water is BLACK color, and there are people staying along the “River” side. The “bridge” you see is a two way road into and out the Shopping Malls.
June 28, 2008 at 10:34 am · Filed under Technology, Personal
Parallel Beta was launched shortly after Apple introduced Apple Boot Camp. I still remembered the very day Apple launched Boot Camp software, I spent a sleepless night trying to install Windows on it. I faced many difficulties, unable to get a Windows SP2 (single disc) was a major problem. Until till then, streamslip Windows installation CDs are the norm in the market. However, I still managed to get it up. Faced a few small problems but the Windows is up!
Very important. Simply because my boss told me that I will have a interview by Channel U tech program. There was I, trying to demo the installation and booting up of Mac OS X and Windows XP. The presentation went smoothly and I talked naturally. I’ve a uncanny talent for presentation and speaking to audience, in which many of my ex-colleagues would readily agree.
Boot Camp had increased Mac sales by over 75% and more. However, Boot Camp is a nightmare to the technical team. It means more confusion, more trouble and more problems. Partition failure, unable to remove Partition. HDD crash, etc.
Btw, if you meet partition errors, it may be because you have recently removed your Windows Partition (Due to Crash or Virus). And now, after restore your Mac OS into a single volume, you are unable to proceed to do another Boot Camp Installation. Just use your installer disc (disc 1) to run disk utility and repair it will do.
Most importantly;
1. Boot Camp only support Windows OS.
2. Shut down and reboot.
Only two disadvantages vs Virtualization software, but they are good enough to turn the audience to look the other way.
I’ve been using Parallels Desktop for more than 2 years. From its humble beginnings to now, I’ve seen it grow from a emulation software which enable users to run many different type of OS to a solution which stirs computer users, software developers and website designers to LOOK at a Mac.
LOOK, is very important. It represent interests and alternatives. Software Developers can now run their programs on different OS, Website Designers can see how their website will look when it is launched in different OS on their default web browsers.
Since when is the last time a Computer Users get to enjoy such flexibility with a Computer?
To be fair, Parallels is not the only player in the market. VMware Fusion did a good job. If you want to try virtualization and see how it goes for you, Sun MicroSystem ’s open source VirtualBox is good enough for you to try. Most importantly, VirtualBox is free.
The only thing about VirtualBox is, it’s development and features are still behind Parallels and Vmware Fusion. At least the biggest disappointment so far is I am unable to perform a drag-and-drop function onto it. And for some unknown reason, I could not get iSight to work.
Then again, it is FREE. I seriously don’t think that I need to explain much…
Attached some screen-shots I have with VirtualBox:
Like Parallels and VMware Fusion, you have to install a “Guest Additions” in order for the whole virtual OS to run seamlessly with your Mac!
The overall peformance is good. Same like others, it is resource-hungry! Don’t run this thing without 1GB ram on your Mac. I noticed that it is a bit slow.. the response is slower than Parallels and Fusion by half a seconds. Yet to find out why, perhaps I installed a funny XP which has all these Vista graphics.
Well, not saying Fusion is better. In terms of speed, Parallels beat them all. And Parallels’s Coherance is smoother than Fusion’s Unity. And my Mac seems to slow down (or hang) a bit when I start Fusion. On top of these, Fusion took a longer time to boot into Windows. Parallels is faster by 50%. However, Fusion is the only VM that works with my iSight.
*Photo taken in my Apartment Room. Ah, can you see Tombs? 
June 24, 2008 at 4:54 am · Filed under Personal
Have been to Jakarta a few times (Before I took up this job). Every time before departure, I will check in here 2 - 3 hours before the plane took off.
Not because this is the best place to do shopping, but rather because of this spot:
This window seat is better during evening onwards. Just sit on a comfort sofa, drink a coffee, surf net.. Typical Singaporean ’s “Relax-One-Corner”.
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