Bye Bye Palm TX

My sister called me up yesterday begging me if I could give her the Palm TX, as she needed a PDA badly. She has been using my O2 mini but she thinks that Palm OS is easier to use and it overall serves better as a PDA! Well, another Palm lover!

And so as a brother, how can I say no. Now that I have so many softwares installed in my Palm TX, and that it has become my laptop replacement, which I blogged about here... Now I have to painstakingly give it to my sis!

So now comes the important question: should I go get a new TX (since I love it so much now)? Or should I purchase a Treo 680 as a convergent unit?... but my iPaq rw6828 is not even 3 months old! Gosh... tough decision! :(

Probably I will stick to my old Dell x50v again temporarily, while waiting patiently for any new and cheap (dream on!) gadget coming up next!

Thumbs Up... Dell!

Yesterday I realised that my PC keyboard was not as responsive as it used to be. Whnenever I hit on the "+" or "=" button, it took me at least 5-6 hits before the screen would display it. I knew something was wrong about the keyboard. Without delay, I went to town during lunch time to look for a cheap keyboard replacement. And to my surprise, keyboards sold here are pretty expensive; and the tactile feel wasn't great too.

Disappointed, I thought I would call up Dell about this problem. At first i didn't know that even the keyboards and peripherals are included in the 3 year warranty. And so Dell made my day! :)

I called them up at around 2pm, and they were so helpful. No nonsense. They promised to send the replacement keyboard on Monday by noon. But today, at 11am, I got a phone call from the local courier service company -- my new replacement keyboard is here!!

And now at 12:30pm, I am already updating my blog using the new keyboard!

Thumbs up to Dell. You will continue to have me as your loyal customer.

Back To Sibu

Time flies whenever it is a holiday! :(
Today I am back in Sibu, and because AirAsia is full, I have to take MAS again... stopover Kuching for 1 hour. It's been a while since I last visited Kuching. The airport is so nicely built that I dare not even take photos of Sibu Airport and place them in my blog! ;)


This is a spectacular view from up above the sky. U can see the small little vessels and ships cruising elegantly beneath.


This is also another view of the Rejang River... something we don't get to see often (or at all?) back in West Malaysia!
Well, time to get back to work tomorrow.

CNY At In-Laws' House

My wife and I flew down to JB on day 2 of CNY for celebration at my in-laws' place. We took MAS as AirAsia was already fully booked! We had a few nice meals at local restaurants, and I think I really put on weight after this trip. And this year is also the first year I need to give out angpows... sometimes it is so malu because forget to give angpows to the kids around (not used to it mah!)


Here are the nice koi fish which have grown so fast since I last saw them months ago! My father-in-law is a koi lover, and so there is this little pond in his house which he will sit by it to read newspaper... truly relaxing! :)

CNY Eve Dinner

Every year my family will have the Chinese New Year Eve dinner at a Chinese restaurant. However we always think that the environment is noisy and over-crowded. The food quality is almost always compromised because of over-worked waiters, waitresses and the chefs. Therefore, this year my family made a change, and we had our reunion dinner at the San Francisco Steak House at Damansara Kim area. The environment was so cosy and elegant, and the food was excellent! We really enjoyed it so much this year!

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day. My wife and I had a great meal at the Sushi Tie Japanese Restaurant. It was a nice dinner! :)

iPod and Stethescope

What wonders can these two gadgets do when paired up together? See the pic above which I found at DoctorGadgets, and you'll know!

Frankly, I really wish that all medical schools should equip with this similar "toy" in order to let the medical students appreciate what the cardiologists hear! I really had a tough time back in medical school years during cardiology posting! ;)

Doctor Next Door

My next door new neighbours just moved in about 1 month ago, and they are actually a few bachelors working as timber camp supervisors (that's why the company pays them to stay in a double storey house!).

Few days ago, I got a ring at the doorbell, and to my surprise, one of them approached me and asked for my help to look at his colleague's body rash. He was standing behind the fence dividing our houses, and there I could take a clear look at the rash, and also to ask a few questions to elicit the clinical history. Then I gave him reassurance that he was just having a heat rash, and nothing more.

Before I left, I was curious and asked them how come they knew I was a doctor. And the answer was really out of my expectation -- one of them told me that when the house agent approached them to introduce this house, she told them that it was a good choice to take up this house, because their neighbour is a doctor, and if they have problem, or emergency, they can get help fast!!

WTF... how could the housing agent gain the business, at my expense! I wonder whether she told them also that opposite my house stays a high rank police officer, and that if they get caught for something, they can ask him to help bail them out?!

Terrible!

Water Purifier

It's been quite a while since I last "backwash" my water purifier at home. I installed the water purifier since I moved in to this new home in Sibu. Although it cost me Rm2000+ to install it initially, I have no regret at all everytime I cleanse my purifier monthly. Looking at the two photos, before backwash and after backwash, one can easily claim that the RM2k is afterall worthwhile!!

My Laptop Replacement

With the recent discussion about how Palm is dead in the PDA market, I feel rather sad to know that one day this might come true (if only Palm starts doing something to buck up its reputation). Nevertheless, I have recently move back to using 2 devices -- one PPC phone, just for phone and SMS functions; and the other one, the Palm TX mainly for PDA usage!

Pairing up with my Thinkoutside Bluetooth Keyboard, I think the Palm TX makes a good laptop replacement. There are two softwares I feel that as Palm users, they come top into the MUST HAVE list --
FontSmoother (latest version 2.06);
CJKOS (latest version 4.63)

Although they seem to cost a lot (coz in USD!!), they are the most worthwhile softwares in my TX now! I can have crystal clear and sharp display -- almost like VGA screen; and also I can read online chinese newspapers like SinChew and China Press.

Now that Palm is back to life again, I wonder I should move on to get the Treo680... or should I just keep to the TX and iPaq rw6828 combination! So far quite happy...

Gamat?

I came across a patient of mine -- a 12 year old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia -- who is undergoing chemotherapy at the moment, drinking something from a cup; out of curiosity, I asked her what she was taking, and to my surprise, she showed me this shampoo-like bottle containing 350ml of a liquid named Gamat Emulsion! I have never heard or seen this health product before, and quickly I did a search using Google, and the first result in the search page showed Gamat products by Healwell Pharmaceuticals (M).

Dose/Direction
1 or 2 tablespoon, twice a day. For children below 12 years old, 1 or 2 teaspoon, twice a day.
Advisable to take before meal.

Advantage
A unique health supplement naturally rich in protein, mineral, omega-3, mucopolysaccharide and vitamin which proven to stimulate cell regeneration, enhance body well-being and accelerate external and internal wound healing.
Helps in body refreshing, wound healing, regain healthy muscle, bone, nerves and skin.
Restore energy, boost immunity and reduce cholesterol level.

Cost
West Malaysia : RM59.00
East Malaysia : RM66.10

I initially thought of stopping her from taking it; but later I tried to put myself in her position, and I thought I might have done the same too in desperation.

HFMD New Treatment?

Post call today. During lunch time I drove to town with my wife for a nice meal. As we were heading back to the carpark, I came across this advertisement glued to the wall of a shop lot. I really hope that this is not one of the contributing factor to the many deaths of HFMD outbreak in Sarawak months ago! The public needs to be educated (again and again...) that all this crooks (I dont even think they are fit to be called bomoh) in town in search for "quick money" will do whatever to gain the monetary benefit, and yet the lives of those HFMD patients are at stake if no proper supportive management given promptly.

Animax

Have been very addicted to the recent Animax Astro @channel 25. Me and my wife love animation movies a lot, especially those from Japan (well, mostly are from Japan anyway!). I have been watching the God (?) Save Our King! (kyokara_maoh)... very nice and interesting animation movie to watch! Another one which I have great interest in is Dragon Ball Z, though an old movie/comic, I am still very fond of it!

Turtle Speed (Internet Outages)

With the recent internet outages due to the Taiwan earthquake, may Asian countries including Malaysia have been affected greatly. Despite the effort of restoring the internet connection, there is still obvious slowing down of the internet surfing experience.

Many sites which I must go to everyday, eg. PalmAddicts, myPDAcafe, TheStar and GMail are no longer affected, very fast connection indeed; however, sites like Yahoo Mail, LimKitSiang blog and emedicine are still connecting at turtle speed, most of the time showing signs of "Time Out in Connection" (really frustrating!).

I really hope that the internet connection will regain its usual speed ASAP; as internet is one of the daily necessities nowadays, no longer a luxury thing like in the past.

Happy New Year 2007!!

Happy New Year 2007! May this year be a prosperous and harmonious year! :)