"Ugly" Taxi Drivers

Read this in The Star today

Students pay RM250 for KL-PJ taxi ride

KUALA LUMPUR: In the wake of calls for everyone to be friendly to visitors from abroad, some students from China had a first-hand encounter with “the ugly Malaysian.”

The students had attended a talk on Friday about how Malaysians were friendly and hospitable and were inspired to tell their family and friends back home about it.

Their enthusiasm, however, was short-lived when they boarded two taxis outside Wisma MCA here and were allegedly fleeced by the cabbies.

One group of students claimed they had to pay RM250 to get from Jalan Ampang to the Stamford College in Petaling Jaya. The other group, travelling the same route, claimed they had to fork out RM200. ...

Well, I had similar experience back in college days as well. One fine day, I was rushing for the next upcoming lecture (I was late), and I fell down the steps and sprained my left ankle joint. I could hear the loud "crack" sound and I knew (at that time, I had no anatomy knowledge what-so-ever) my bones were broken (later I found out it was just ligament tear)! And the pain was so intense, that I had to call and inform my lecturer that I couldnt make it to her class.

I limped towards the nearby bus station, but knowing that all those buses won't travel to my house, so I had to wave at a taxi, and painfully I climbed into the cab and said,"Mister... I have a broken leg, can u please send me home at XXX garden?" The wicked man turned to me and grinned -- then he said "Well, sonny, 100 bucks, how 'bout that?!"

WTF! 100 bucks! Usually it only cost Rm15 to get home from college!

I pleaded to him again hoping that he was a kind soul, "Please mister... I am really in pain, but I really don't have that much of money... can we go by meter instead?" And now he was angry,"Sonny, take it or leave it... there are better clients who can pay me this amount, get lost!" I was stunned by his rude attitude. I had to get off the cab, painfully and slowly...

Finally, to make story short, I reached home after transitting 2 buses, and walked another 20 minutes to my house doorstep -- 3 hours in total. My ankle was so swollen up that I nearly fainted then! So painful. (That's why nowadays I always give ample of pain relief to my patients, becoz pain is a very subjective experience!)

I could never forgive that taxi driver. I wish he ended up one day in the hospital (for whatever reason) and I could be there to return him a "nice treat"! ;)

MAS Domestic Fare

In the Star today:

MAS agress to relook its domestic fares following complaints

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Airlines will look again into its domestic fare structure following public complaints that they are too pricey.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said the national carrier agreed to re-look certain sectors after a two-and-a-half hour meeting at his office here yesterday.

“MAS and the ministry will look into the fares and come up with a proposal later. These involve only certain (domestic) sectors but in comparison, I must say that the fares are still quite competitive.

“Whatever it is, since there is a lot of public concern, MAS is quite prepared to look into it. The airline has agreed to meet up with my officers as early as next week,” he told reporters after a meeting with MAS managing director Idris Jala....

I really hope that the Ministry of Transport will look into this matter, and in near future there will be a reduction in the domestic airfare by MAS. Currently, I have to pay RM888 (cheapest) to travel from Sibu to KLIA. That's really expensive! But when comes to AirAsia, although it's much cheaper, there is always delay and strict hand-carry item policy imposed. I still enjoy travelling by MAS despite the expensive airfare.

Monetary Temptation

Saw this in today's The Star paper

Malaysian doctor jailed for selling drugs in Singapore

A Singapore judge today sentenced Malaysian doctor Yap Cheng Kwee to 12 and three months' imprisonment for selling sleeping pills without a licence and possession of illegal drugs respectively.

The sentences are to run concurrently and the judge set S$120,000 bail pending the hearing of his appeal. The court also ordered Yap to surrender his passport.

On Aug 17, Yap was detained by Central Narcotics Bureau officers in a car park in Woodlands Town Centre just as he was sealing a deal with a drug trafficker. He was found with 10,000 Dormicum pills and 16 triazolam sedative tablets. On Nov 9, he pleaded guilty.

Such a pity for him and his family members, must be very heart-broken. My parents always remind me not to be tempted by illegal ways of getting rich fast. Work hard, work smart; slow and steady wins the race in life!

VGA Pocket PC Phone

Saw this dream device today -- O2 XDA Flame at PocketPC Thoughts. And I think this is truly a device I am drooling over these years! Finally O2 is answering to the requests by all the PDA geeks. But just hope that they will shrink down the size to that of a O2 mini, and it shall be a perfect convergent device!

Running with an Intel XScale PXA270 520MHz CPU, 2GB ROM, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, USB On-The-Go, a 2.0-megapixel camera, SRS Mobile HD surround sound support, and TV-out support... What else can I ask for more! :)

Bilitool

Came across this site today, BiliTool, and I think it is a very useful tool for pediatric trainees in post-natal wards, checking on babies' serum bilirubin level prior to discharging them.

This nifty little freeware is also available in Palm platform. So for those with a Palm handheld, it should come in handy when checking SB for the newborns.

For those doctors with only PocketPCs, you can try Styletap, which essentially is a Palm emulator. But it's not a freeware though!

O2 Mini

Just received my second hand O2 Mini, off Lelong.com.my. Bought it for RM1k, and one month warranty. I thought it was still a little expensive, but I dislike spending hours and hours everyday, just to grab the better deal, probably just 50 bucks cheaper!

Anyway, after trying it out thoroughly for one full day, I realise a few things:

Pros:
1. A 2-in-1 device is really convenient! I dont have to carry a phone and a PDA anymore!
2. Small and decent weight when held in hand
3. Clear display (although cant compare to my x50v VGA screen!)
4. SMS using the built-in virtual keyboard or graffiti is just so simple and fast, compared to conventional T9 method in my phone!

Cons:
1. Digitiser drift problem...!! Really serious! Have to do the re-alignment 4-5x/day!
2. Soft speaker compared to other convention handphones
3. Still WM2003, and not WM5

Now that my wife is eyeing on it, since it is small and a convergent unit -- I might exchange this O2 with her TX! And so I might be out of the darkside again?!

Rule of Threes

Rule of Threes:
Can't live more than 3 minutes without air
Can't go more than 3 hours without shelter
Can't go more than 3 days without water
Can't go more than 3 weeks without food
Can't go more than 3 months without hope

My thought: It's for hope that humans strive to live on...

PDA in Education

Came across this site Globalclassroom.org and I am amazed to see this little girl (2nd grade student), using her Palm IR function to print documents! I wonder how many Malaysian primary two students know about PDA, let alone knowing how to activate the IR function and do printing!

But I am really looking forward to one day in near future, that all students use PDAs in classes -- no more cheating by rubbing off wrong answers, and then ask for marks from teachers! ;)

Disaster Drill

Today while conducting our usual ward rounds, the speakers of each ward started beeping with a monotonous sound for a few seconds, and followed by a voice announcing "To all HODs and MOs of every department, please be on high alert; there is a plane crash landing in Sibu Airport. Standby for Disaster Plan". Everyone then stunned. All ward rounds stopped. Patients who didn't understand English, started gossipping around, asking neighboring beds what was going on...

As Paediatric Team, we had to rush to the assigned clinics, to standby as Green Zone Triage Support Team. And other disciplines will mainly stay put at the A&E. We could hear the wailing sounds of sirens all over, and even the Pertahanan Awam ambulances are sent off to the airport too. Nurses and attendants getting ready all the resuscitation trolleys and equipment; security guards controlling the traffic at every point of entry and exit of hospital; and every doctor had their hands gloved up (nice to see this for the first time in my working career!) Everyone of us was anxious, and anticipating what worst scenario there could be, in such emergency disaster. Which plane could it be involved in this? AirAsia or MAS?

2 hours later, another announcement made "Thank you for your participation in this emergency drill"! Everyone was like WTF! and minutes later all of us started to disperse ourselves back to ward. Although it was just a drill, i think it was necessary to make it like real life scenario... otherwise, if it was announced as a drill from the start, I am sure the turn up rate will be probably just 50% or less... and everyone's mood will not be there too!

Interesting experience for me for today! And thankfully there isn't a real crash landing happening in this peaceful town...

Do We Really Need GPS?

I bought a GPS receiver not long ago, and was frantically using it whenever I went driving around town, especially when I was back in KL. Recently, I have stopped using it, partly because I am in Sibu (oh c'mon you don't really need one to navigate around... nobody gets lost here in Sibu!), and also partly due to the fact that my PDA recently gives me a real headache... crashes too often!

I happen to read this article in PC Magazine, entitled "Overrated GPS Annoys Dvorak". Very interesting, and I find it particularly hilarious in this paragraph...

One of the most annoying aspects of the GPS in-car system is the vocal directions. "Keep going straight" is one of my favorite commands. It's telling me to do what I'm already doing? Why? Surely it knows that I am going straight, doesn't it?

The voice itself needs to be changed. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for third-party vendors. For example, a bickering old lady would make a great voice for the thing. "Hey, don't you think you're going a little fast, sonny?" Or the voice of an out-and-out shrew. "Slow down, you idiot, there's a left turn coming up!" "Turn left now, you moron!"

Actually this is really true, you know... after a while, I get sick of that female voice, keeps on asking me to turn right, when there is no road but only a drain! Gosh!

Having said that, I must admit that the maps contributed by a bunch of enthusiasts at Malsingmaps.com are really good and afterall it's free! I have tried Navitech as well, but found that the Garmin-Malsingmaps combination is still the best for me!

Well, I don't use the GPS for now. But probably when I go back to KL someday, I need it again!

Palm Addict

For the past few months, I have been rather addicted to a website -- Palm Addict. It used to be only blog about Palm OS related hardware and software; but recently, there have been a lot of entries discussing about WM and Linux. Every morning, before I go to work, it is always a habit for me to surf the internet; and I usually will start off with Palm Addict. The updates are so frequent, and there are so many interesting write-ups by people all over the world. It is very enjoying reading people's usage of PDAs in their daily life, and in fact at times, I learn so much from them, as to further utilise my PDA.

There are of coz many other sites which I visit daily, but since I am blogging about Palm Addict today... that's why I am not mentioning other excellent sites for now. But afterall, I am a PDA-addict!