eek pc

'Tis the season for giving, and I just had to blog about one of the most exciting gifts I received this year. Feast your eyes on the lovely exhibit below, lovingly snuggled in the leather bible case from India that was last year's christmas present ...

It's my new Asus Eee PC! This is something I have lusted after since SITEX last month, but which I didn't get to attend the official launch of because I had too much wedding stuff to do. I probably wouldn't have braved the crowds anyway.

In my college days I was quite a gadget freak, but I suppose after buying the biggest gadget which is my car, I've since cut down a lot on everything else. But this laptop is really a dream come true because I really like little laptops. And compared to the $3k+ I splurged on my 10" IBM S31 in 2001, this little 7" beauty is only $600. Of course it's way slower, but I do all the heavy-duty processing on my desktop anyway. My mini laptops purely serve to surf and remote-control their bigger brothers. (Can you imagine using photoshop through Remote Desktop or TightVNC? I used to!)

Linux really tickles the inner geek in my because I have always wanted to play with other operating systems. Correction: as a computer science major I always felt that I should try other operating systems, but I never got off my lazy ass to do so. Even back in school when all my classmates were customising their Unix shells, I would just go to lab, finish the homework, and leave. Sometimes I think I was a programmer just because it was easy, I never knew another computer science major who was less interested in computers (apart from the girls who were forced into the course by over-eager parents).

So anyway, I figured that since I was already keeping my Linux in a bible case, the most fitting thing would be to install a bible on it. After some quick searching, I identified The Sword Project as the best available free bible for Linux, so I set about installing it. And that was where the problems started.

Firstly, the Eee PC uses a highly customised Xandros implementation of Debian Linux, which basically means it isn't as open source as you might be led to expect. It was only ever intended to be installed with programs that are made available directly from the Eee PC site. It does not come with a C compiler, which is quite essential since my bible comes in API form. So after some muddling around, I managed to install the GNU Compiler Collection on it, and the next step is to figure how to get make working. Not how to use it, but why I don't have it either. Sigh.

Ok, this is taking to much effort. The inner geek will have to wait until after the wedding. I guess I won't have a bible, or much else anytime soon.

grandmother stories

We were all gathered for a family Christmas dinner, and decided it was about time to show my grandmother the wedding gifts we had gotten with her money. My grandmother has Alzheimer's, so although we had gotten the gifts a long time ago, she would just have forgotten if we had shown her too early. So after a superb Christmas spread was consumed, the fiance and I bounced over (in very slow, heavily damped bounces) to present the gifts to her.

We watched her eyes sparkle in the reflected brilliance of the lovely pair of diamond earrings we had purchased with her generous budget. She gave a bright smile and gave her compliments,

"Very nice! Looks like fake jewellery, like this go out safer no one will rob you and steal."

After a split-second stunned silence, laughter erupted around the dinner table. And all eyes were on her, trying to study her body language if she really liked or did not like the earrings.

She continued to go on about the merits of costume jewellery, and how safety is very important. Later one I showed her my watch, but I didn't quite catch her comment in Cantonese. I guess I don't want to know.

food and fun

Last Friday was quite an interesting day of new discoveries and lessons learned.

Before dinner, we were walking around Clementi Central shopping for handphones when we came across an outlet of Munchy Donut. This is a chain my sisters have just discovered - delicious donuts for only a dollar each, and no crazy long line! I haven't yet bothered to brave the queue for Donut Factory, but I'd say they are almost as good as Krispy Kreme and Mr Donut (which we can't get here in Singapore), so need less to say we bought a dozen. All donut fans should go try it.

After dinner, we went to help out at the ARPC BASIC Camp to teach the youth there how to play various kinds of board and card games. After the kids had all settled down, we were ourselves introduced to Ubongo, a simple but addictive fast paced puzzle game of matching shapes. This is one of those rare games that is simple to learn for everyone, highly competitive and extremely addictive. Great for beginners and seasoned gamers alike. So I placed an order immediately.

And lastly, there was dinner. We went of a food exploration of the NUS area first being evicted from the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club for not being members, then finding out that Rolling Wok (near NUS Biz) was having a private function. Finally, the three of us had dinner at subway. One ordered a Subway Club and the other a Cheese Steak, while I had a little of each. Over dinner we laughed at our futile search for food and lamented that the Subway Cheese Steak just could not compare to the real Philly Cheese Steaks.

The next day, the two of them were down with severe diarrhea, but I was fine. This was rather interesting given the fact that I was the one that had eaten the most of both subs, and also because I have a very weak and sensitive stomach. Then I realised the connection.

I had taken out the vegetables.

So what's the moral of the story?

stupid singpass

Our government has finally moved with the times to introduce a security question for the SingPass. But I am utterly disappointed at their choice of questions!

1. What is the title of your favorite movie?
2. When is your mother's birthday?
3. What is the title of your favorite song?
4. What is the name of your favorite restaurant?
5. What is your pet's name?

Seriously, if I forget my password in a few weeks or months, I still won't be able to answer this question because they just have too many answers. The only one with a definite answer is my mother's birthday, and that is quite easily checked out by anyone.

Why can't they just do what everyone else does and let the user define their own question?