In the internet world, Open Source Software or OSS isn't something unfamiliar. Terms such as Linux, PHP, MySQL, Apache and so on is something common and it was like everyone knows how to use them. But back into the business world, especially in our country, OSS is not something everyone would be talking about. Many of the big company here is still a strong supporter to Bill Gates's Microsoft products.

The company where I'm working now for instance, is using most of it's applications from Microsoft or using it's platform.

Why I Implement OSS?

Well, it was due to an improvement project which I proposed many months ago. The project objective is to slash do the A4 paper consumption in our department. We use about 17,000 copies of paper each month and I'm target to slash at least 80% of the consumption. Initially, IT department promised to source a suitable application to use on my project but month after months, nothing has been realised. So, like the saying, If you want something done correctly, you got to do it yourself! So I took up the task to develop our own application here in-house. But then, it ain't easy and there isn't much support from other department on this.

For the project, I need a web application to track data entry from several computer in the network and summarized all the data into a report at the end of the day. Since I have a bit of knowledge of PHP and MySQL scripting, I roughly have an idea how to make such application. At last, I get the green light to proceed with my Open Source Software thing and the only thing IT department provide is that they downloaded the PHP and MySQL program for me and I'm on my own. WTF!

I understand that they wont give me a server to host my web application cos it is costly but even an additional CPU or desktop also cannot get! I end up have to setup the programs into a shared computer. Yeah, talking about a US listed multinational company, cheh!

Setting up PHP and MySQL onto Windows 2000 IIS

I never did these things before cos usually I will just use XAMPP and get all the necessary stuff installed one shot in just a few minutes time. But these all-in-one Apache, PHP, MySQL programs is only good for development use. It is not that secure so I have to install each copy of the program individually.

Installing PHP and MySQL is not a difficult thing but to get both of them working accordingly is hell of a work. What I'm trying to say is that, I can't get the PHP script to connect to the MySQL database because the function is not enable by default! I feel this is kind of awkward cos I thought both PHP and MySQL has always be the set to operate with each other all the time but I was wrong.

The default PHP setting does not enable MySQL features so I'm getting connection error everytime I try to connect to MySQL. The solution to this is to copy all the required extension files (.dll) into the PHP folder and modify the php.ini setting to enable all the extension files. It took me several hours just to sort out this problem.

I almost spent the whole day working on the PC to get everything running accordingly and thank god I could get both PHP and MySQL running correctly. I just need to add in the PhPMyAdmin to manage the database and in a weeks time I will be putting up my first web application on a Open Source Software platform.

They have been getting more and more annoying and their population is getting out of hand. These illegal Budak Jaga Kereta (car watchdog)is everywhere especially on those hot spot where tourist mostly at. A good example is the Ipoh Beansprout Chicken place, you could find them just on any little streets guarding every single space enough to slot in a car.

While some may just take whatever amount of money people gave to them but some would even dare to demand certain amount of money or they will risk having their vehicle vandalized!

Their presence is not only tarnishing our tourism spot reputation but also posing threat to those people who park their vehicle there. There certainly has been cases where vehicles got vandalized by these fellow but the authority has never been putting any action against them.

Now, it is good to know that the state government is doing something on them. At least it would deliver a clear message that 'there's no place for Budak Jaga Kereta here!'.

Well, it was weekend's evening and I was trembling my head over what's for the dinner? Japanese food or steak?
The 2 shortlisted menu which I'm yet assure which one I wanted the most for dinner. As I was wasting another few more minutes thinking over it, my stomach starting to Grrr... giving me a stern warning that it is time to made up my mind and get it feed.

Somehow, this miracle name just pop up and it sure the perfect place where I wanted to be for the dinner.

Its Iro-Iro Buffet Restaurant located at the ground floor of Ipoh Parade shopping center. It was a place with cool environment, great ambience and certainly comfortable to be at. It gives a great feel of relax with some dim lights below it's dark painted ceiling. Ah, feels more like a place for couple on their first date :)

Anyway, let see hows the food goes about.

I love Sushi but as many of you should know, Japanese food are damn expensive and you could hardly fill up my stomach with RM30 or even RM40. Everytime I visit a Japanese Food outlet, it sure going to poke a big hole onto my wallet.
But here at Iro Iro, I could eat all the Sushi I want until it blow my ass off and yet I could still continue to eat. There are many types of Sushi available here and there's even Soba noodle if you would like to have some. At the end of the restaurant, I found that there are Miso soup and mushroom soup available.

Heres some spaghetti bolognese, fried rice together with some potato wedges and pop corn chicken. The spaghetti aren't so impressive though.

Our first round of steamboat. We had a plain soup and a super spicy 'Ma Lat' soup for our steamboat. Somehow, I feel the spicy soup taste so terrible. I only taste spice, very very spicy indeed and a very-very heavy '5 fragrant powder' taste. Duno why but I hate it. Anyway, I do enjoy the steamboat on plain soup. Since I was among the earlybird, there were plentiful food to grab.

Wifey grab some stuff to grill. Ya know, the grill stuff was awesome. You just need to pick the food you want from a varieties including chicken, fish, lamb, prawn, sausage, squid, mushroom and so on. Just pass it over to the Grill-Man and soon it will be send over to your table. Not only that, the Grill-Man does some extra effort to give you a nice presentation by arranging the grilled food nicely. Unlike some other restaurant which I been before, their grill-man will just grill everything and then dump in onto a plate and send it over in a pile of everything-inside-it stuff.

Uh, you know I love Sushi so I pulled another round of it and it was really satisfying. I can't help myself watching the waiter keep topping up the Sushi plate.

Wifey grab some seafood fried noodle which taste rather nice.

I took another round of grill with a piece of nice lamb chop with some onion and pepper. It taste very good, yummy..

Towards the end of our dinner, I grab some nice refreshing fruits and also ice cream. Wifey likes ice cream so much that she can't resist it's temptation.

I get a bowl of longan with white fungus dessert to put the dinner to an end. I was so awfully full that I feel like wanted to explode like a suicide bomber already. Yeah, this always happen when I'm going for eat-all-your-can-until-die buffet.

Overall, the buffet dinner at Iro-Iro was satisfying. For only RM25.90 per person, not only I get all the food I likes, but also in a perfectly nice place. They don't serve pork and I've seen Malay people dine here before.

Although the entire restaurant area was quite large but table are quite limited. So, if you plan to come here in groups of several or more people, I strongly advise you to reserve a table.

Address
IRO-IRO Buffet Restaurant
Lot G19c,Ipoh Parade,
No.105,Jalan Sultan Abdul Jalil,30450 Ipoh.
05 241 5785

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Pay up all you remaining balance or you will be charge interest right away for every credit card transaction!

It is already very bad that everything on earth become so expensive now but the worst is yet to come. Now even the credit card is no longer giving out the 20 days interest-free period for your new transaction, unless you clear up your previous bill.

If you pay only the minimum or leaving any balance even a single penny, you will be getting charge with interest immediately every time you swipe your credit card. The bank will be smiling making more money from those interest and for every each of us who had some credit card,
better go change a debit card instead.

I wonder how about those with some bills payment which automatically charge into their credit card, they sure going to end up paying more interest if they have any remaining unpaid balance.

It is better to stay away from the evil credit card!

I'm sure most people out there has already feel the burn on their ass over the recent price hike. As the petrol price skyrocketing beyond anybody's expectation, the chain reaction took place immediately.

It doesn't took long for every price tag in the market shows some increment. Just the other day when I go tapau some roti canai from an indian stall, the price for a plain roti canai has went up from 80 cent to RM1! That was more than 20% increase over a roti canai. And our so famous Yee Fatt curry mee cost RM4.00 each tapau. A cup of coffee for the breakfast cost 10 cent more and the so called economy rice went up by 20 cent.

You see, food is essential and no matter how costly the food goes, one still have to eat in order to keep survive. With the recent price hike, a small family would have to fork out at least RM100 more on food alone each month.

The evil petrol.
From RM1.92, it now shoot up to a shocking RM2.70 per liter. An incredible 40% increase. It is a drastic change that many people could still hardly believe it happened. Myself have to fork out additional RM100 on petrol alone each month now just for going to work. While I normally would stay at home during my offdays playing with my baby or go out for some shopping or Paktor with my gf, I would now being at office working overtime instead. Talk about quality time with family, haiii....

The petrol price increase nightmare has just started and there is no sign that the fuel price would goes down. The global demand on petrol increases rapidly over the recent decade and the petroleum are getting depleting. It is only the matter of years that petrol would no longer becoming the energy source for vehicle.

The alternative source for fuel
Many other country out there has long started to use alternative energy to fuel. New technology such as Hybrid, battery powered and even air powered vehicle has already existed in the market. Country like China has been using battery powered scooter which I feel really cool! They're cheap, looks cool and environment friendly too. I have always wondered why our Malaysian government never put such effort to drive the use of alternative energy but keep forcing us to use those expensive petrol hungry vehicle.

NGV
It is the only known alternative option available in this country over the expensive petrol. NGV or Natural Gas Vehicle uses natural gas instead of petrol as the fuel. Most of the current petrol based engine (except motorbike) can be convert into an NGV. Although NGV has existed in this country for quite some times, but its availability was very limited that only few major city has such facilities which driven by Petronas. I never know why our government never ever tries to promote them.
At 68 cents per liter, NGV is much much more cheaper that of petrol. But then, that is due to NGV still got heavy subsidy from the government. As if the use of NGV become so vast like petrol, I'm sure it will eventually end up like its petrol counterpart which loses it's subsidy from the government.

Proton
What would be the future of this pampered baby of our country. I'm skepticle that proton has the technology to produce a non-petrol engine vehicle on their own. While most other car makers is dropping away the petrol hungry engine and concentrate on alternative energy to stay relevant to the market needs, what capability does Proton have to stay relevant?

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