Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Found an interesting story about Singapore...

Things that some Singaporeans Believe!

Do you know why New Changi Hospital (NCH) changed its name to Changi General Hospital (CGH)?
Because NCH stands for "Never Come Home". That's why business was very bad before it changed its name.

Now CGH stands for "Can Go Home". So business is picking up.

Business in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is still going strong because SGH stands for "Sure Go Home"!

Now National University Hospital (NUH) is also considering a name change. It stands for "No Use Hospital"!

What about Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). Not too good a name, no wonder so much problem.
It stands for "Tiam Tiam Si Hospital" and now 'Tan Teo SARs Hospital".

So, be careful of choosing which hospital to go if anyone is unwell.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 4

Had breakfast with Sumathi at 8:00. We should had met Liang at her hotel at 9:00 but we seems a little late, so I called her to wait at the exhibition center. Before 10:00 we met at sesion D. We took taxi to Ciqikou Ancient Town... around RMB30 from the exhibition center. Very nice place... maybe they want to keep its image like Kyoto in Japan. But China is far more civilised than any other country in East-Asia, that makes an ancient town in China more valuable for a visit than any other places in East-Asia (in my opinion lah, other people may have different view).

Took countless number of pictures and videos... and bought many souvenirs. But... alas... you know... I'm a 'kedekut' (mean) guy... all those souvenirs are for my family members, and very close friends in Japan. Others... I MUST say NO! I bring just a small amount of money here... and I'm in a very tight budget. I spent too much before coming here... new bags, new digital camera, new suit, new neck-tie, new black shoe, ... but didn't made any new girlfriend. I like to be single... having a girlfrind is tiring... it's like keeping a hamster in your room. If you don't clean it properly, your room will smell weird. A girlfrind is the same i guess... so, to play safe... being alone is a million times better. I love my life. If I had a girlfriend, it must be very hard for me to go out with my other friends, etc... it might be hard to xplain when your girlfriend get jealous, right? To me, to play safe is not "use condom", but "don't do it"!

[Update: I think I might need a girlfriend right beside me right now... my life is too lonely...]

Ohh... back to my story lah... bought a flower vase (extremely beautiful!), some "gantung-gantung" (hanging) thingy for cars, some "gantung-gantung" things to get good luck ("福"), some foods (like biscuits lah... not sure its name)... etc. The vase is very nice. I would recommend you to go to the Ciqikou if you visit Chongqing, it's a MUST!

At 19:00, Sumathi, Gadkari and I went to the muslim restaurant I went with Songying last Sunday. This time, a little wiser. I ordered a mutton hot-plate (also has meat, but Sumathi and Gadkari is Hindu, so they don't eat meat). And I ordered a Dapanji also (dapanji is like a chicked curry... with potatoes, etc inside, just like Indian curry). We got rice and Nan bread also. You know how much is it? ONLY RMB72! And it feeds 3 person, with some foods left on the table! It's damn cheap! Averyone was so excited, because we spent around RMB100 just to get a plate of nasi goreng/ vegetable curry at our hotel. The food we ate at Ciqikou was also at nearly the same price... RMB78... so generally speaking, RMB60-90 could feed around 3 persons at a good restaurants in this city. Quite OK... just like Malaysia. At cheap places, you can even get a meal at around RMB5/person, but I cannot eat pork/meat so the price I paid for what I got is just nice for me... even though I'm a little bit picky when eating. I remember what Gadkari told me a couple nights ago, "Good people should stay at a good place, and eat good foods!" I agree with that... but for me, I'll try to "Take the best at the lowest cost!" That's my "kedekut" policy... everybody knows that already... haha!

Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 3

Listen to presentations at session D since morning. There's a talk at 12:45 about photovoltaics by US Energy ??? Department. After that, met Liang at session D, and met Sophia during evening tea. Sophia told us about where to go for a travel / souvenir bargain... we planned for Chiqikou Ancient Town next morning.

Went to see Liang's poster during her session. She's doing about XRD on GaN stress, bandgap, etc... had a very worthful discussion about method to measuer stress using RSM. It's something I wanted to know since a few month ago... she's working with a guy from Bede XRD maker... so she must have a good knowledge about XRD, must be far better than I am. A simple comment about her... she's just like Murakami-san, my colleague at Egawa Lab a few years ago...

We had dinner in the evening at 19:00. But, I was a little late because I helped Liang with her poster... I sat with researchers/students form Chinese Academy of Science... averybody spoke in Chinese, so I was the most clueless guy in that hall (I think lah...). Seram aku dibuatnyer!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 2

Today, I joined the trip organized by Chongqing Science and Technology Co-operation (CSTC). The IMRC meeting itself is organized by CSTC in China, alogether with MRS in the USA. The trip started from Chongqing Exhibition and Convention Center at 13:30, when we're brought to Three Gorges Museum and Chongqing City Planning Museum. Today is my 2nd time at the Three Gorges Museum... already went there last Sunday with Songying. But this time, we make lot of jokes lah... especially among young students at the same age just like me (some are younger).

Today, I met with Sophia. Actually, she is a staff at CSTC... the one who send out the invitation letter for me a few weeks ago. How nice we can get face to face. I'm not sure one thing about Chinese girl... I think they're just too open to foreign guys like me. If they wanna took pictures, they just ask without hesitate. The opposite custome is with Japanese girls... the Japanese're more shy like Malays (in my opinion lah kan). Still wondering... maybe this only applies to Chongqing girls, because... hmmm... cannot explain too much here.

In the evening, I went out with Dr. Gadkari from Mumbai University and Sumathi from Universiti Sains Malaysia. All 3 of us bought a lot of souvenirs for our colleagues back home... maybe I bought the least because I don't want spend much on others... that's my "kedekut" policy. Nahh... normal lah, I'm a student... they're professor and lecturer. Actually, I just came back from dinner with Gadkari at Marriott Cafe downstairs. The cafe is quite good... I was charged RMB107 just for a plate of vegetable curry (with rice) and a cup of tea. Haha... dining outside is better, but most have closed when we came back from shopping. Terpaksa lahhh... (kedekut nyer aku...)

Monday, June 09, 2008

Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 1

We have the opening ceremony of the IMRC in the morning. Chinese Minister of Science and Technology was also there and gave speech on Chinese focus on managing their energy needs. Then, we have talk from Prof. Alan Heager (nobel laurette) who gave talk on his flexible polymer solar cell research. I think, this is the direction we're moving on for the future, since it can be easily produced with roll-printing technology, at an extremely low cost! This would bring Si-based solar cell division in Sharp and Kyocera in Japan to bankrupcy!

I've great interest also on lighting for panel display. I went to E session on flat-panel display during the evening session, and heard talks from researchers at Samsung Electronics, Univ. of Florida, and others.

My poster session started at 17:30 and a researcher from LG Electronics was very interested in InGaN-based LED on Si. Actually, he was from LD group at LG, but they have abandoned the research on LD since Nichia's LD on GaN is becoming too cheap, and he said that they can get a 400 nm InGaN-based LD for Blu-ray just for 3 US dollars per piece! That's pretty cheap! He said that their group is now working on green LED, instead of blue... as the blue emitting devices is controlled by Nichia. Quite a nice information I get from him. My poster have attracted quite a number of people/companies working on III-Vs and compound materials growth and devices. The other one is from Micro Materials, a company from UK who're working on GaAs growth. The other one is a guy from Asylum Research working on Emcore MOCVD instrument. Hmmm.... I'm using instrument from Taiyo Nippon Sanso, though. Others are students from Chinese universities... wanting to know about temperature-dependence PL, HR-XRD, etc. Like to discuss with them better than those guys from companies, because they would share their problems, instead of try commercialize my solutions. Great experiences though...

Before the meeting ends, I went around the poster session and met a colleague from USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia). Haha... finally, I could find somebody to speak in Malay with! Co-incidently, she's also staying at my hotel. So, boleh la ajak jalan2 skali lepas nih... haha!

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 0

Now settling at JW Marriott Chongqing.

Met with Songying this morning at 9 AM (she come to my hotel), and went to People's Hall & Chongqing Museum (they're nearby). She found me the Muslim restaurant at Zhong Xing Lu (Lu means road in English), at Jiao Chang Kou. The restaurant name is Shin Jiang Tien Shan restaurant. You probably need a Chinese speaking person to understand the menu. There's a mosque just next to the restaurant. The foods're fabulous! But they're hot like crazy! We ordered 4 kinds of foods... but its too much for us to finish them all. We left almost half of them... mottinai!

Went to Chongqing Zoo afterward. Sonyging's cousin and grandfather are living just next to the zoo. She's quite familiar with the zoo, she even went there almost everyweek since her child age. We went to almost every corner of the zoo, and took many pictures too! One of the best attaction of the zoo is PANDA! But, this panda is very dirty... it's not black and white, but black and yellow in color! From that trip I also learned that Panda is a very lazy animal... especially when its get older. The younger one is very active in playing though... and they're cute!

The IMRC (International Material Research Conference) at Chongqing International Exhibition and Convention Center started at 17:00, and I went there by shuttle bus from Marriott prepared by the organizer. I met Dr. Gadkari from from Mumbai University in India, and talk a lot with him. I also met some post-graduate students from Chinese universities who're interested to know about Japan and its universities. The Chinese're shy... just like Japanese... maybe most Asian is like that, so do I. But we managed to know each other very closely... that's so great. When boarding the shuttle bus to return to the hotel, I met with Dr. Ashwaal from US Naval Research Laboratory... he talked a lot about the politics and administration in India and the US. From the language and perspective he had, I knew that he's a very capable person and brilliant. He even was at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology - said to be MIT of India).

Okay, that's all for the moment. I've to prepare for my presentation tomorrow. See ya!

Friday, June 06, 2008

How to install Windows Live Messenger/Mail/etc... when you have problems...

Actually, I have experienced this problem too. Except it was when I was REINSTALLING WLM 8.5

This is what you do:
Go to:
C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data (in XP)
or
C:/ProgramData (in Vista)
and delete following folders: "WindowsLiveInstaller" and "WLInstaller".

Next, go to:
C:/Program Files/Windows Live (for XP and Vista)
and delete the "Installer" folder.

(remember to show hidden files before doing any of this)
Once you do that, you SHOULD be able to install WLM 8.5 with no problems.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Jejak Awang Goneng 1

Very nostalgic indeed...