Towards a New Frontier 2.0

Few days ago, I received 2 surprises from Citibank Malaysia:

Surprise 1:

Last year I applied to this Citibank Giant Visa Card:

As a reward for my support, one of the welcome gifts that they decided to give me was this travelling bag. It took them quite some time to have it delivered to me, but it is finally here! I don’t know whether there is a brand called “Travel Time” or not, but those are the only words on the bag itself.

Quite a standard bag actually, with the usual big and a zipped compartment.

This type of wheels is actually quite easy to break, since the wheels are exposed. The plastic covers also does not seem that sturdy. One entry into the cargo compartment of our airliners’ planes, and I can almost guarantee it will break. Since our “friends” there in Malaysia airports usually will handle our luggage without mercy.

The bag has a numbered lock with a three digit code. The handle is extend-able if one decide to engage it in wheel mode.

Surprise 2:

Now comes the greatest surprise of all. I received this gift from Citibank. But actually, I have already terminated my Citibank Giant Credit Card. (I have to terminate the card in line with our “beloved” PM’s advise to have prudent spending.)

Sometimes I think:

1. I am expecting too much from myself and others.
2. I don’t really know what I want and I don’t know how to find out.
3. I back off too often and easily when I feel something is not right but I never try to make it right.
4. I know why people say I am choosy. I admit I am but I don’t think it’s something bad. I have to right to choose! (others can do so to me too)
5. I am just not brave enough to take the first step.
6. I rely too much on assumptions.
7. I am bad in choosing/setting targets.
8. I never try to move on when I should be.

As of today, it’s all back to square one. I am not moving forward at all. And I have no destination to go to.

深夜，寺里一人一佛，智者坐人站。

人 : 圣明的智者，我是一个已婚之人，我现在狂热地爱上另一个女人，我真的不知道该怎么办。

智者: 你能确定你现在爱上的这个女人就是你生命里唯一的最后一个女人吗？

人 : 是的。

智者: 你离婚，然后娶她。

人 : 可是我现在的爱人温柔，善良， 贤惠，我这样做是否有一点残忍，有一点不道德。

智者: 在婚姻中没有爱才是残忍和不道德的，你现在爱上别人已不爱她了，你还犹豫什么？

人 : 可是我爱人很爱我，真的很爱我。

智者: 那她就是幸福的。

人 : 我要与她离婚后另娶她人，她应该是很痛苦的又怎么会幸福呢？

智者: 在婚姻里她还拥有她对你的爱，而你在婚姻中已失去对她的爱，因为你爱上了别人，正所謂拥有的就是幸福是的，失去的才是痛苦，所以痛苦的人是你。

人 : 可是我要和她离婚后另娶她人。

智者: 你错了，你只是她婚姻中真爱的一个具体，当你这个具体不存在的时候，她的真爱会延续到另一个具体，因为她在婚姻中的真爱从没有失去过。所以她才是幸福的而你才是痛苦的。

人 : 她说过今生只爱我一人，她不会爱别人的。

智者: 这样的话你也说过吗？

人 : 我，我，我。。。。。

智者: 你现在看你面前香炉里三根蜡烛，哪根最亮？

人 : 我真不知道，好像都一样的亮。

智者: 这三根蜡烛就好比是三个女人，其中一根就是你现在所爱的哪个女人，芸芸众生，女人何止千百万，你连这三根蜡烛那根最亮都不知道，都不能把你现在爱的人找出来，你为什么又能确定你现在爱这个女人就是你你生命里唯一的最后一个女人呢？

人 : 我，我，我。。。。。

智者: 你现在拿一根蜡烛放在你的眼前，用心看看哪根最亮？

人 : 当然是眼前的这根最亮。

智者: 你现在放回原处再看看哪根最亮？

人 : 我真的还是看不出哪根最亮。

智者: 其实你刚拿的那根蜡烛就好比是你现在爱的那个最后的女人，所谓爱由心生，当你感觉你爱她时，你用心去看就觉得它最亮，当你把它放回原处，你却找不到最亮的一点感觉，你这种所谓的最后的唯一的爱只是镜花水月，到头来终究是场空。

人 : 哦，我懂了，你并不是要我与我的爱人离婚，你是在点化我。

智者: 看破不说破，你去吧！

人 : 我现在真的知道我爱的是谁了。

I found an interesting tarot card application in Facebook:

It’s actually quite similar to other tarot card apps in Facebook but with some difference.

At the start, you need to select a category in which you wish to check: 单身运势、求职运势、人际运势、恋爱运势、职场发展、减肥瘦身、财运、学业、健康运势

Then you will need to input a question, which is quite unique. I doubt the system will actually know what question you ask. But by posing a question does help in relating what you want to know to the cards which you will draw later and their explanations .

The final step is to choose 3 cards randomly from the available cards. The explanation will then appear, something similar to the below:

占卜時間： 2010-01-18 18:44
占卜類型： 單身運勢
占卜問題： -Secret. But mainly about my single’s luck this year- [隱藏]

現狀：愚者
你現在一個人自由自在，就算偶爾有戀情出現，時間也都不會太長，並不是你的心不定，而是你對「一段完美的感情」，定義跟別人是不同的。

問題：皇帝
可能因為你太過於獨立，習慣自己掌握主導權，如果有人對你示好，你通常是反應遲鈍的，有時趕跑了一些人還渾然不覺。

建議：教皇
如果你苦無交友的機會，可以試著請長輩、朋友介紹，或是加入正統的婚友社，免去尋尋覓覓的時間，對你來說比較有效率。

Of course, this kind of tarot card is just for facebookers to pass their time. This is by no means a method to know the future. In other words, our future still hold in our own hands.

To play: Click me! (Opens in a new window)

Since my mum had been complaining on the instability of my house’s Streamyx connection, I had decided to spend some time to troubleshoot it. For quite some time already, my Internet had been a disaster. For a while it would connect and run super fast. After that it would suddenly slow to a crawl and websites refused to load. The cycle will continue in a gap of about 5 minutes each. I had always suspected the recent everyday-raining weather to contribute a lot to this scenario but can I do something about it? That’s what I am going to find out. I focus on downstream (download) only because upstream (upload) connection seems unaffected.

My house’s Streamyx is interconnected as follows: Main telephone socket -> Microfilter -> Internet wiring -> Lightning arrestor -> Modem.

Initial Stage (Before trials):

The initial SNR Margin and attenuation are: 18db and 52db.

When the SNR Margin dropped to 11db after a while, the Internet connection would hang due to the amount of noise in the line would be too much and almost every frames/packets downstream would contain errors. Notice the amount of frame errors below! Upstream packets/frames would seem unaffected. The SNR Margin would climb back to 18db after 5minutes and Internet resumes and then dropped again.

First trial:

So the first thing I did was to connect the modem direct to the main telephone socket to confirm the possible causes of signal drop due to the intermediate connections. The result from this shows the SNR Margin climbed to 22db and attenuation dropped to 48db. I still notice there is a signal drop every 5 minutes to around 18-19db. At 18-19db, the signal appears to be strong enough and did not cause any Internet problems. Some slight frame errors still occur though.

Second trial:

The next step would be to eliminate the lightning arrestor as the possible cause of signal drop. I connected the modem to the lightning arrestor which in turn connects to the main socket. The result was the same as the first trial. So far so good. SNR margin: 22db and attenuation 48db.

Third trial:

I then connect as follows: Main telephone socket -> internal wiring -> lightning arrestor -> modem. The result was the same as the initial stage. SNR Margin at 18db and attenuation 52db. SNR would drop to 12db and Internet would stop functioning!

Final trial:

One last thing to try: Main telephone socket -> microfilter -> external telephone cable -> lightning arrestor -> modem. The result was: SNR Margin 19db and attenuation 48db. The SNR still would drop till a level where by Internet stopped functioning at 12db.

Conclusion:

My Internet connection from the First and Second Trial was fast and very very stable. So I guess I shall connect as how I did in the Second Trial for the time being. My internal wiring and microfilter is causing signal drops for my ADSL link, which needs to be further investigated. For a good and stable ADSL connection, SNR Margin should be as high as possible and attenuation should be as low as possible. I am still not able to pin point the exact causes for the signal level drop. But from experience, it is possible to be caused by TM equipments at the RDSLAM or DSLAM side.