Of This & That

I have a few things to tell -

Cherita 1 (saya suka ejaan lama, buku lama, gambar lama etc etc. The old way gives more character to the language it seems)
I was late for my lunch hour class (Delinn, hush). So when I got to the 50th floor I dashed to the usual classrooms. There was an usherette at the door (there never was any) who said, the class is full so you have to sit on the tikar (our class was never ever this full). Anyway I quickly got a comfy place for myself and opened my book. And read quietly. Then I noticed the others are having different books. Must be new books on sale outside I had missed while coming in. Later the ustaz came in and I thought, ni mesti ustaz ganti sebab dia tall and fair. The usual ustaz is shorter, darker and more endearing. Ustaz kata kita kat muka surat 35. Barulah it occurred to me that memang sah saya masuk kelas salah. But out of respect for the ustaz, ganggu pulak semua orang nak kluar dari hujung kelas dan mungkin jugak atas dasar sabar dengan kesilapan (dan mungkin yang betul nye malu pulak salah kelas) I stayed till the class finished.

There was a lot of things being shared. And the least I learned is there is another good class I can attend.

Cherita 2
The kuliah today is on Ramadhankarim. I kept reminding myself I must not miss this session. The morning email confirmed the session. Allah penentu segalanya walaupun saya telah merancang lebih awal. I went to the wrong class instead; turned out that I had missed the second email on the change of class venue. Frust jugak miss kelas ustaz, tapi mesti ada pelajaran yang mesti saya belajar dari kesilapan ini. I am thinking I should sign up for the other class too. Dan sabar.

Cherita 3
Yesterday I thought that I had been to quite a number of classes (which is weird because yesterday was the first I attended this week). Mungkin sebab ulang dan ulang CD dalam kereta. My son Ilyas had made me this ceramah CD, which is so sweet of him (sambil berdoa agar Allah sentiasa melindunginya. I kept reminding the children, besarnya nikmat dari Allah kalau menyukakan hati ibubapa. I have to remember this myself too).

Semalam saya sangat envy (bukan jealous) ustaz cerita dia akan berpindah ke Madinah. Memberi tanah untuk tujuan agama. (Dont get me wrong. The ustaz told his story in the most humble way. If you get it differently from my words here, then that is a serious offense on my part.) Punyai baju empat helai sahaja ke pejabat, sebab yang lain dah tenggelam dek banjir dan tak ada minat nak ganti lagi. Membimbing anak2 agar solat jemaah di masjid. Tentang qiyamulail. Lailatulqadar. And the simplest act (though not necessarily the easiest) of makan sedikit semasa berbuka.

Maka nikmat Allah yang mana yang kamu dustakan? ArRahman (surah yang paling saya gemari)

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It Is A Mad, Mad World

These days I deep dive into lots of white papers. Amazing what findings you can surface with. Including interesting and funny stuff (In IT? Yes I know. Who'd have thought?)

Like the article on the dirtiest IT jobs that include being a reboot specialist (haha, we definitely needed these during the decentralized age), a help-desk zombie, or even an enterprise espionage engineer - slippery individuals comfortable with lying, cheating, stealing, breaking, and entering for penetration testing of enterprise networks (ooh, nasty.)

I also discovered that I was once an interdepartmental peace negotiator who is a self-starter and skilled at moderating tech disputes between warring factions within or between companies. And who must possess experience in ego-stroking, manipulative massage, and hand-to-hand combat. (heh-heh, yeap that about sums up the JTOR) Cats and dogs, Democrats and Republicans, Martians and Venutians -- they're downright chummy compared to warring departments within many enterprises. Unfortunately, at some point they've got to pull together for the good of the company. That's when you call in the negotiator to smooth ruffled feathers and break up the fights. (Smooth..)

Read more on dirty jobs here.

Also some hard truths IT people must accept - a) Your users will NEVER be able to support themselves. Even if the system works 100% (a miracle, I might add), it is too much to expect all the users are able to figure out the system completely. Thus you becoming the support zombie (see above).

b) between patches installation and upgrades, your network security WILL be breached. It is only a matter of when. c) you have lost control on how your company uses IT. Consumerization and cloud will invade. And last but not the least d) IT will never get the respect it deserves. They call it the 'Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome'. (fyi Dangerfield is an American comedian whose phrase 'I get no respect' made him popular in the 80's)

More IT hard truths here.

All Dilbert cartoons (and more funny ones) here.

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The Race Is On Again (Now That It Is - Almost - The Weekend)

Earlier someone remarked on my slouch (to which I had said, can I pretend it's Sat already?) There are actually three reasons for that telling posture. One, tell me what fun is reading "x86 architecture" or "security in the BYOD era" (do read the D as device not drinks..) anyway? Two, (allow me to repeat) why isnt it Sat already? Three, the back is playing its tricks again.

And the week had been wicked too. I got drowned in the game of strategy. Someone said strategy is about thinking. I went like hmmm.. Or it is about technology? Or about writing? So yes, I cant wait for it to be Sat already.

I have loads to do. My mom is in town. My sister had just recently gone through an operation. My sons have interviews. We've need supplies for the cookies. We also have an appointment with Fatin, the girl who's supplying the pelamin (have I mentioned there will be a wedding in the family? Yes, we are planning for one. In Q4 Insy'Allah. We have yet to really, really confirm the date. I am making bunga pahar, bunga hantaran, gifts etc etc - I know, who'd have thought?) So yes, I have loads to do. Every weekend is like this. In fact, weekdays too.

Maybe that's why I am already wishing for the weekend (the faster I can start everything, the faster I'll finish). And I do want to keep Ramadhan as clear as I possibly can.

Have a great weekend darlings; wherever you will be, whatever you'll be doing.

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Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan 1432

Hari ni 12 Syaaban. I suppose it is never too early to be ready for Ramadhan. Di masjid2 dan ceramah2 pun sudah berbincang pasal Ramadhan. Saya sendiri masih belum ada strategi untuk Ramadhan kali ini. What about you?

But ustaz dah war-warkan : Anggap lah ini Ramadhan kita yang terakhir.

& also dalam petikan dari Hamka which I had gotten from a friend some time ago (which I still read come every Ramadhan sebab hati amat terusik bila membaca) said :

Sesungguhnya, dalam kedamaian sahur dan kemeriahan berbuka puasa, serta rukuk dan sujud yang merehatkan jiwa, di sebalik semua nikmat beragama ini, tidak terhitung banyaknya telah mengalir akan air mata dan darah para kekasih Allah..

Di manakah kita?

Selamat membuat persiapan untuk menyambut Ramadhan yang paling bermakna tahun ini.

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Laju. Memang Laju

We recently had Unifi installed at home (after many, many times being questioned by Ilyas why we havent had it yet). Before this we were on Streamyx 512kb. After much complaints from everybody that was upgraded to 1Mb. It seemed that was not sufficient either with much so buffering (my take on this is budak2 mana tahu sabar..) But anyway, it was never a question of if we will get Unifi; it was just a matter of when.

My son thought we should subscribe to the 20MB plan. I said, have you boys decided to open up a CC in my home without my knowledge? We got the 5MB line instead (I insisted). They were rather disappointed. No issues, said I; we can always upgrade later if we think we need more bandwidth. They were mollified somewhat (with my err cough, cough half promise).

So now we are on Unifi. Happy with the internet speed. The TV is ok. On rainy days when you have service interruption on Astro you can switch to Unifi. They have a few good channels. Syfy and Warner tv have pretty decent programmes. The destination channel (ie a travel channel) comes in HD. So you get this crystal clear pictures of beautiful places. If you are ever that desperate MTV comes in HD too.

The fixed phone comes together with Unifi (it is after all a triple play service). I dont remember the new number as we are still keeping our old line. Everyone has that number already. Malas nak tukar2 lagi nombor tu. Tapi nombor baru tu cantik. That much I remember because the rep was so patient while we sift through the list of available numbers for me to choose from.

ps - My HQ office plays company ads over and over in the elevators. So in the early mornings ride (you can almost always have the ride all to yourself and all is quiet and peaceful) to the top floors you get to watch these ads over and over (depending on which floor your office is. My ride is rather long so I get to see ads repeating many times). Some mornings you get to see some EPL players doing some marketing talk for us. Other mornings it is Bunkface singing praises to Unifi. Or it could be Adibah Amin or some unknown faces extolling us credits. My fave is where Bunkface was jamming and then said "Unifi. Laajjjju bro" at the end of the video (they sound much like my son, that's why).

So anyway, have you installed your Unifi? You should. Laajjju bro. More info.

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Body & Soul

I am a mess these days. That's why there is no update on this blog.

But the other day I found this (and I like) :

We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings; going through a temporary human experience.

Something worth thinking about.

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