Monday 26 October 2009

There are some things that money can't buy

Author's note: This post might be provocative and controversial to some readers. Reader's discretion advised. I won't apologize on what I am about to say in this post but I do still respect the freedom of speech. Just drop your comments in the comments section. :)

To most of us, including me, believes that money can buy everything that could be imagined in this world. But we need to realize that there are some things that can be bought with money (please exclude Mafia Wars' notice "This item is a loot drop and cannot be bought" :P). Safety, life, to name a few, are the things that fall under this category.

Let me be straight to the point. Today, in the afternoon I took a usual afternoon drive in my dad's Waja on my way back to my hostel in block V5E. I drove via the usual route from the roundabout near to V2 and V4, and proceed to the road that passes V3. Mind you, this road is a one-way road. This is a one-way winding road with sharp S-curve and there is barely any space left for the vehicles to move at this road as there are a lot of cars parked at the right side of the road. I was driving slowly today as opposed to my usual driving (I once cleared those curve at 70 km/h with many cars parked at the road side), suddenly there was oncoming motorcyclist going at the wrong way. There is barely any space left for the motorcycle to pass but I was able to dodge it since I was driving slowly at that time. Mind you, it was dusk at the moment where visibility is quite limited and I could tell the motorcyclist is heading to the mosque for the Maghrib prayer.

This makes me wonder. It is very good for him to perform Maghrib congregational prayer at the mosque, but why on earth is he risking his life riding motorcycle is such manner? Don't you think this is a selfish act despite his good intention to perform prayer at the mosque? In Islam, it is told to value life and not doing such suicidal act as Islam prohibit suicide. Is it worth to risk your life for the sake of saving the fuel to mosque by taking the so-called 'shortcut'? How ironic, isn't it? Please don't tell me I am bias to the motorcyclist as I am a motorcyclist myself. I also ride and OWN motorcycle in UTP. And I don't think most of the motorcyclist in UTP had ride motorcycle for long journey like I do. For that reason, I think I made myself clear on safety issues and I really hope that those irresponsible, selfish motorcyclist will not commit the same 'stunt' again.

Since UTP is infested with many engineering and technology students where facts and figures matter, I had came out with calculation that is hopefully can prove to these motorcyclist why such thing is not worth doing.

Here it is:

Assuming that a typical 4-stroke, 110 cc motorcycle tank capacity = 4.5 litres
Current RON 95 petrol price in Malaysia = RM 1.80/litre

Therefore,

The cost of filling up the tank (from completely empty) is = 4.5 litre X RM 1.80/litre = RM 8.10

Based on my experience, one tank can lasts up to 130 km on long journey.

Therefore, the fuel consumption is = RM 8.10 / 130 km = RM 0.062/litre

However, the fuel consumption on a stop-and-go daily commute will result in considerably more fuel consumption, let's assume 80 km.

So, the fuel consumption is = RM 8.10 / 80 km = RM 0.101

The journey to the mosque, back and forth is = 1 km

Therefore, the cost to the mosque each time is = RM 0.101

However, this selfish motorcyclist have managed to cut down the journey by 200m and risking his life.

So, the distance now reduced to = 0.8 km = 0.2 km saved on each trip

The price of his/her life by taking this shortcut = the amount of petrol expenses he/she tried to save.

The value of his/her life = RM 0.101 X 0.2 km = RM 0.02

Let say he/she is using the same route one time for each day in a month = RM 0.02 X 30 days = RM 0.60

Conclusion: Is it feasible to risk your life everyday for savings on fuel expenses of RM 0.60 per month? Please follow the proper traffic that had been gazetted. Diri sendiri pun selamat, orang lain pun tak menyumpah. :)

Saturday 24 October 2009

Rejuvenate!

Ia mengejar kecemerlangan tanpa lupa daratan,
Berperwatakan hebat, bersopan,
Sejauh mana kejayaan ditempa,
Balik mencium tangan ibu bapa,
Di barisan hadapan sebagai pembela,
Ilmu di dada menabur jasa,
Semakin memuncak cita-cita,
Semakin tunduk pada yang Esa.
I first read this long way back at year 2000. And today I found this again from my friend who quote this on his Facebook page. Thanks dude. This quotation really brings back memory to me. And each and every sentences brought deep meaning to me, making me reassess myself. It has been about five years since I left the place where I first read this beautiful and meaningful quote, am I complying to what this quote tries to say? Did this quote have done something good to me, moulding me to be a better person now? I really need to understand this quote deeply before I can untangle all of the confusions that I am enduring now. Somehow, despite horrendous period of final year study in UTP now, this quote has remind me about my aim, my focus in life. It is very rejuvenating when I discover this precious piece of words that I have been forgotten long ago. :)

Tuesday 13 October 2009

From Banting to Tronoh

Currently listening to this song repeatedly to alleviate my stress for the tomorrow's FYP seminar presentation and Power Systems II test. Gotta deal with possibly fussy evaluators and numerous knock-down questions for the presentation and massive amount of matrices operations and iterations in the test. Arrrrgggghhh!

The Cardigans
Daddy's Car

We took off that sunny day
Packed our things and went away
Me and friends in daddy's car
To find out how summers are
Found a card to send from wherever we went

From Luxembourg to Rome
From Berlin to the moon
From Paris to Lausanne
From Athens to the sun
Our car became a spacecraft
Flashing through the world
Crashed down in Amsterdam

We'll take off some rainy day
Pack our things and go away
Families and hotelbars
To find out how summers are
Find a card to send to some really old friends

From Luxembourg to Rome
From Berlin to the moon
From Paris to Lausanne
From Athens to the sun
Our car became a spacecraft
Flashing through the world
Crashed down in Amsterdam

Sunday 4 October 2009

A new lease of life

With the new motherboard installed


My aging PC finally breathe to new life today. After dealing with statics problem that made me unable to house the motherboard and peripherals inside the CM Elite 330 case, the PC finally beeped to life!


The problems

  1. The aging MSI P915 finally rest in peace. There are significant signs of aging capacitors all over the motherboard. They might have just vaporised and malfunction causing the whole system unable to power up.
  2. I came to Ariff's room to test the all the hardwares and detect the faulty ones as he has the extra hardwares. Later we found out that the graphic card (XFX GeForce 8600GT) is the culprit.
  3. Upon installing the new motherboard, the system beeped frantically. Checked the manual, the beeps indicate ROM problem. I suspected that this is due to statics problem.

The old MSI 915P motherboard


The peripherals waiting to be installed on the new motherboard


The solutions

  1. I replaced the aging motherboard with a new one (Gigabyte G41M-ES2L). RM 205 at PC Depot, Ipoh.
  2. Sent the GC back to shop for RMA as it is still under warranty. Lucky me!
  3. For statics problem, I have insulated all of the screw holes of the motherboard with cellophane tape. The frantic beeps gone and the system boot up normally!
  4. I also replace all the interface cables (SATA and IDE) with the new ones bundled with the motherboard and all of the drives are detected and works like a charm!

Biggest gratitude

  1. I would like to thank to Ariff for assisting me troubleshooting my PC problems. I owe you dude!
  2. I would also like to thank Ariff's roommate, Wira Aiman for lending me his a stick of 1 GB DDRII 800 MHz RAM as the new motherboard is not compatible with DDR2 400 MHz RAM.
  3. Gigabyte is generous enough to bundle the latest Norton Internet Security with the motherboard even it is the low end model. Surprisingly the antivirus does not bog down my system even though it only use the aging Pentium 4 630 processor with crippling 1 GB RAM (do not forget some of the RAM has been taken out by integrated graphic). No significant lag!

The new Gigabyte G41M-ES2L


Usual bundle

Thursday 1 October 2009

Dirinya Dalam Koma

Hari ini ku bangun seperti hari-hari biasa...
Ku lihat dirimu berdiri megah di depan mataku...
Ku hampiri dirimu yang terdiam kaku di sudut kamarku...
Lantas ku usap dirimu seperti selalu...
Jari-jemariku lembut mencari titik sentuhan yang bisa membangunkan mu...
Namun berkali-kali ku usap, ku picit dirimu...
Kau terus membisu tiada tindak balas...
Seketika itu ku terfikir...
Mungkin kau berpura-pura tidak bertindak balas denganku...
Mungkin kau ingin bercanda denganku, mengharap sentuhan yang lebih ganas...
Namun kau masih jua membisu...
Jantungku berdegup kencang, peluh mula membasahi tubuhku...
Kau terus terkaku disitu...
Kau langsung tidak memberi tindak balas...
Bangunlah sayangku...
Bangkitlah kau dari lenamu...
Ku merindui dirimu...
Ingin kulihat kau beraksi riang seperti selalu...
Adakah kau merajuk padaku?
Andai benar sangkaanku...
Ku pohon maaf darimu...
Dihari mulia ini...
Andai kau rasa terabai...
Percayalah, aku tidak pernah berniat begitu...
Mungkin aku terkhilaf seketika...
Kerana aku manusia biasa, bukannya mesin sepertimu...
Bangunlah sayang...
Banyak keje lagi tak siap weiii!!!!
Adoi~ gelabah laa aku camni~
Waaaaaa.....


Bangunlah sayangku~ come back to life!!!! aku da kopak nih~


Pakgad botak yang dengki ngan budak2 UTP yang baru dapat duit raye~ Parking elok2 pon die stil glabah cek stiker nak saman~


p/s: Post ini ditulis dengan ihsan dari laptop Qadir rumetku~