Convocation

Finally the day has come, after 2 years and almost 40k spent, it was my convocation day @ INTI Nilai !


We headed down to nilai on 10th Nov because we didnt want to rush down the next morning. Maybe it will cause us to look tired after travelling early in the morning. I finished packing at around 2pm but mum and sis are still not back yet. Later I received their calls saying their on their way with a bouquet of flowers ! I thought I told them its okay to not buy but still they bought it. Also I was waiting for lenren's flower to arrive here. He wanted me to bring it down to Nilai for Q* without her knowing it.


So we departed from Penang at around 4pm after all the dilly dally. Initially I was to drive them all the way down to Nilai. But actually dad drove till Juru only then I took over. From there start, I wasnt able to continue smsing simply because the smsing on the iphone @ 130km/h on Malaysian highways proved too risky for me to take. To quote a friend , type correctly too dangerous , type safely too many typo. Damm.


So I drove from Juru until Ipoh where dad wanted to have dinner there. It was only 6 something. Nevertheless, we switched back and he turned on the gps and brought us to Lou Wong nga choi kai. It took us several attempts to reach there. After eating it was time to continue our journey. Piggy called and wanted a salted chicken so we diverted and bought 1 for her.


The gps couldnt route to the hotel but only till INTI Nilai simply because there was no address for the hotel. I used my phone's 3g to go to google maps and find out the address for the hotel and inputted that address into the gps then only we're able to find it. Activities for the night includes taking photos of the lobby with other coursemates who happen to stay there too. Nothing interesting until the next morning.


We dressed up early and left for INTI Nilai. It was a big campus. Very big compared to our own penang inti. We had some difficult times locating the registration center and the venue for the convocation. Eventually, before the sun turns from hot to soaring hot, we're already ready in the assembly hall for photos and briefing before being allowed to the main convocation hall.


My first time on stage collecting a piece of certificate that worths around 40k ish. Nice.


After many speeches and degree awards, the convo ended at around 1130. What follows next is endless photoshooting. Luckily we managed to extend the check out time for the hotel till 1pm. After finishing the lousy lunch @ nilai we then rushed back to change for our attire to our next destination.

Interview with Company I

This morning i attended an interview session with Company I. The host was quite a friendly person and i learnt some new stuff from him. Basically I think I leave with him a NOT BAD impression.


He called later to ask me send my resume to his mail. I wonder what does this mean. Certainly i hope for the best.


Awaiting good news here....

Bad day

11AM this morning i received a call to attend an interview @ Company B. This was supposed to be a good news for me if i hadnt send my car for servicing.


The next hour involved me frantically looking for a transport to go to company B on time. My sister had class until 3PM. And mum isnt answering phone calls.


Finally she called back and agreed to send her car back for me @ 1PM and due to a meeting she had after work I had to send her back to her office immediately. The entire journey started @ 1PM and the round trip cost me an hour. It wasnt a long journey but due to the terrible traffic jam I look at my precious time wasted away bit by bit.


I was back home @ 1.55PM and then rushed to prepare myself for the interview @ 3PM. I left my house @ 2.20PM, quite rush but this is to ensure I had ample time to look for parking spots later. I reached Company B @ approximately 2.40PM despite the heavy jam. I was able to navigate skillfully past the jams. Hehe.


And so as I was about to park @ 2.50PM the manager called and told me I need not come personally to Company B as HR will send the assessment test within the week to my email and I was to do it in the comfort of my home. So all the rush earlier was wasted. Sort of.


The bad day doesnt end here, later i received an sms from Gary. He said the test was quite tough and I had to pass it else the cooling down period is 6 months. 6 months !


I hope all is well for tomorrow's interview @ Company I.


And so here I am, hanging halfway in the sky, posting this post from JCO @ Qb Mall while waiting for time to pass.

One picture is worth a thousand words..

Or is it not ?

I originally intended this blog to be a text only blog.

But as i keep reviewing the blog it seems stale without photos.

As much as i hate it, photos do seem add the extra bit of attractiveness in the blog.

Still, nevertheless i hate the troublesome process of transferring photos from my camera to the computer for uploading purposes.

A funny poke at the phrase :

Will I have photos much later on ?

Hmm..

Time will tell..

We shall see...

My first paid apps

Today i bought my first paid apps 

Fruit ninja was awesome along with its stunning graphics and addictive gameplay. Attractive unlockable blades and background was also the primary motivation to complete the game. With the latest game centre update it allows you to compete with friends anywhere. Great buy.

I played cut the rope lite when i first had my iphone and it was so addictive too. Today i finally couldnt withheld my urge to buy it. The full version had so many levels more than the lite version and the levels wasnt so easy too compared to the lite version. Not bad buy.

Flight control on the other hand wasnt so fun as expected. Few months back i always got to play it on my friends iphone but now having in right in my hand wasnt so fun and im not a good air controller anyway. 

In a whole, i think these 3 apps were well worth the money spent. 

Having said that, I hereby promise myself not to buy any more apps for the following month. Kind of a self-control to avoid myself being over spending. Ha..

Happy - A very beautiful song

I dont wanna live a day without you,
I just wanna be the one that makes you happy, happy..

Apple iPhone 4

I have used previous generation iPhones and gotta say this is a real upgrade from the rest.

Having said that, I am going to give an unbiased opinion with my iPhone 4 @ iOS 4.1

Display : Retina display @ 640x960 is just awesome. Have a 3Gs or 3G beside to an iPhone 4 you will notice that Apple really did a great job with the display.

Some shots regarding the Retina Display comparison. Boasting 4X more pixels in the same screen.

Processor : Apple A4 chip. While this uses the same chip with the iPad and with 512MB of RAM there was little or absolutely no lag when running multiple apps or switching between them.

A4 chip - 1Ghz CPU , 512RAM , GPU blablabla. More info at Apple A4 :P

Interface : As usual , the iPhone uses multi touch as the main input system and did a fairly great job with this, and along the way, revolutionizing the phone industry. What the hell is an accelerometer ? Bet you wouldnt know it 3 yrs back before the first iPhone.

Battery : This i gotta say is an extreme disappointment. With conservative usage, I am just able to squeeze out 6hrs of usage and 2 days of standby. Bear in mind the phone condition is as below :

Push Mail and Notifications : Off

Brightness : 30% with Auto ON

3G : Off

Wifi : Off

EDGE : On

Gaming , talk time , surfing on the net , app store time are all included in the 6hrs usage time. This seems fall short of the claimed battery life by Apple. Or did I get a unit with a faulty battery ?

Dell XPS M1330

As seen from previous post, this is one of the fabulous gadgets that i owned and now going to make a short review after 2 yrs of ownership.

Below are the specs for the item :

Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 @ 2.16GHz

RAM : 3GB DDR2

HDD : 250GB

GPU : NVIDIA 8400M GS <-- this is what fucked up everything

Display : 13.3'' widescreen

and along with the rest of standard stuffs found in a computer

The xps m1330 is a piece of masterpiece , design wise. In my 2 years of ownership I had absolutely no problem whatsoever that couldnt be handled by myself. Except the dreaded nvidia gpu failure. Well you see, when i bought the model the "scandal" wasnt that widespread and the general public wasnt made known of this GPU failure.

The GPU overheating issue make playing a simple game like PvZ shoot the temperature into the high 90 degrees Celcius.

Apart from the hard disk getting real hot when running some basic tasks and the GPU issue, I would say this is a magnificent piece of equipment even by today standards.

Am now currently planning on whether to extend the warranty , throw in a faster processor and SSD or just to get a macbook.

edit : Just to add, i got a Logitech V470 Bluetooth Laser Mouse to complement my XPS laptop which is also blue in colour coincidentally. It was a bad choice, not only the bluetooth running on the laptop decrease the already bad battery life, also the mouse was showing lagging and gliding issues while using it. Bad buy.

My gadgets

I would like to share something about my gadgets.


To date ive been the lucky owner of some of the fabulous gadgets of their time
Among the 4 I would like to note here are


1. Dell XPS M1330
2. HP Mini 210
3. SE K770i
4. Apple iPhone 4

Why ?

Why is there so many vacancies for software engineers ?


Because most ppl that study engineering never expected to write programs !

The importance of C++

int main ()

{

As a student in electrical and electronic engineering, it never cross my mind how important programming will be. We have computer programming and software programmers and even IT specialist for those right ? No.

Engineers are also expected to have strong knowledge in C languages. What the hell. Out of my various interviews there are more than half that came to me this question :

" How strong are you in C languages ? "

Although i am proficient in MATLAB, it is still not good enough. One particular interviwer pointed out it is no use if you only know to call the function.

" You need to know how to write that function out in C. Only knowing to call the function is useless. MATLAB is just a learning tool that has no value outside in the industry. "

Like I am supposed to know that since im studying ELECTRICAL and ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING.

Not a PROGRAMMER.

return 0;

}

-END-

My 14th professional interview

Come Wednesday, it would be my 14th professional interview as I have not secured a job after graduation. It puzzles me as to why am I in this position.

My past 13 interviews involve the following companies

1. Renesas Semiconductor

2. Intel PG12

3. Crest Systems

4. Intel PG8

5. Venture Electronic Services

6. JAC Recruitment

7. Vitrox

8. B.Braun

9. Agilent Technologies

10. Aemulus Corporation

11. NCS IS

12. Motorola

13. Knowles Electronics

I hope the list ends here , right now.

I may be the only one that have attended THIS much interviews and yet fail to land a job.

I may also be the one that went to almost all companies in Bayan Lepas.