I am fired.

Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to REVENGE.

Someone posted 2 questions in the local forum related to specialized certifications.

"Can you answer these questions without making any references?
(Just answer yes or no, dun need to type the whole answer out)

1. Do you know how to change the admin password for WinXP if you do not have the original password?

2. Do you know where are the startup processes located in the Windows Registry?

If you are vrey familiar with the above, then yes your experience should be good enough for any desktop support job without taking any course or certification "

He meant the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician course.

Wow, I can answer YES to both questions. Being in my current job as a tech support engineer for MNCs Axyz123 and Av123 (in an outsource company) for H_ for almost 4 years.. I'm not sure any of my other 2 colleagues can answer them.

Oops. It's gonna be my ex job actually. I've just been FIRED.

Fired because H_ think that 2 people can handle all the requests from both companies. As if. But what to do leh? So my company just told me yesterday to go in 2 weeks.

One colleague is the leader of the team and the other perhaps draws the lowest pay among us. Therefore, I have to go. I committed myself to hours of OT and trying to reduce cost for the company, I didn't even claim for my OT. Just wanted to finish as much as possible so that Hentai People won't breathe down our neck and kao peh kao bu so much.

In the end, it's all for nothing. 3 people are barely able to handle the whole situation and now they want to cut down to 2 people? Right, Mr Whoever-is-in-charge, report more higher percentage customer target requirements reached. Why not just reduce it to ONE? That's like the ultimate cost savings method! Why not reduce to ZERO! And let a call center in India do EVERYTHING!

Let's see, recently, your call center in KL just...

1. User requested to free up more spaces in C:\ drive to install additional programs. The helpdesk over NetMeeting advised to delete the "i386 folder". That's ok. What other files are useless? Erm... yeah, they deleted a whole bunch of other unnecessary files in the root directory, including BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM & NTLDR. Good job.

2. User's CD/DVD rom drive does not work anymore. Can't you realise that he has uninstalled a previous CD burning programs and it did something to the drivers? Just a simple edit in the registry will do.

I have solved these 2 problems without needed to use the final solution recommended - a system REIMAGE. Users so freak out when they hear it.

Why not just take a freaking trip down and try working here for a change? COST CUTTING COST CUTTING?!?! I will not buy another H_ product ever again! LABOUR EXPLOITATION! I HATE YOU ALL! Even though all my current and previous printers, all my current home systems (except my server) are all your brand! I'm gonna go back to DIY my own again. You can go kiss my... whatever.

Yikes... I blabbered. Anyway, paiseh, I'm sorta angry... I want to cry liao... I'm gonna miss my 2 great colleagues... I love my job...

... ...

Crap.

I hate my job.

Assholes.


I've been working here where I am for about 4 years now. Recently, times have changed. Top management overhauled. Company sold to this W*w* group. There's this cost-cutting-centric new Indonesian taking helm of the company. Everything's changed.

My ex-commando manager is now quite the demon. He gets angry easily. Hurling verbal abuses and sending FULL CAPITAL LETTER CONTENT EMAILS to us. Throwing his tantrums around like a child seeking attention.

He complains that people told him we went for an hour long breakfast. Does he know that many times we have to skip lunch because of demanding customers? DOES HE KNOW?!?!

"OH, I HAVE NO TIME FOR YOU TO FIX MY LAPTOP. CAN I HAND MY LAPTOP OVER TO YOU DURING LUNCH TIME? BECAUSE I HAVE TO EAT.

AND YOU IT GUYS DO NOT HAVE TO BECAUSE YOU ARE ALL LOWER THAN DOGS.

SEEYA AFTER THE BREAK!"

Great. So we sacrifice time and health for our company. Due to more-detailed-than-ever listed out processes to follow, especially during computer installations. Using those godforsaken media discs provided to us. We have to sometimes even take DAYS to finish with a simple installation due to the installation media fucking up and we need to redo the WHOLE DAMN BLOODY THING ALL OVER AGAIN.

And back at the bosses side? They just SCREAM and SHOUT and DEMANDS AN ANSWER to...

"WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU FINISH YOUR WORK ON TIME?!?!?!
DO YOU KNOW HOW BADLY THAT AFFECTS MY YEAR END BONUS?!?!?!
DO YOU KNOW?!?! HAR?!?!? YOU PUNY LITTLE PRAWN!!!"

So what do I know? I KNOW YOU ALL CAN KISS MY ASS! GOD DAMN YOU ALL!!!

Just last Friday. I went without eating anything except FOUR CUPS OF MILO (Cocoa) for OVER 24 HOURS! Since my dinner on Thursday night, my next meal was a nice pizza bread from a fellow colleague who came back to office and joined me at 10pm on Friday.

I HAD TO BLOODY GO HOME TAKING A FUCKING MIDNIGHT CAB.

AND THEY ASK WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU DO THE UPDATING OF THE BLOODY CASE STATUS INTO THE ONLINE WEBSITE??!?!?!?!



DO YOU HAVE ANY BLOODY NAH BEH IDEA HOW LONG THE SHIT SITE TAKES TO LOAD?!?!?!? WOULD YOU RATHER I PROCEED AND DO MY CALLS RATHER THAN DO SOME SHITTY UPDATING?!

WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BREATH YOUR STINKY ODOR DOWN MY NECK SO MANY TIMES EVERYDAY LIKE YOU NEED TO URINATE?!?! (On that point, I even have to put on hold going to the toilet at times until my bladder hurts. Just to attend to customers.)

DUDE! I know you're a part of a 7-men team posted here before I came in. That doesn't make you a know-all, do-all, capable of anything person. AND I HATE YOUR STYLE OF GOVERNMENT! There's nothing I hate more than imposing what you learn and know in the army (all the screaming and CB language) on a real world company.

And losing your temper at us!? Don't you have any ounce of proper respect for another human? Are you even a man? You cannot even for one instant show some kind of appreciation for what we are doing? To put it in a gay way, we have feelings too you know?

My colleague just ask you why you lose your temper over a small matter and you just said WHY?! I CANNOT GET ANGRY AT YOU AH?

Are you a loan shark? Or just an obnoxious little prick?

We tried our best to help make everything work. Just because a company's policy changed. Because everything have to be cost-cut. Because of whatsoever bloody mofo reasons. You have to be like an animal.

Instilling fear and enforcing a fake respect from others is your strategy right? Who taught you that? A pig?

Great. Come lah. Take back my turf. It's yours if you want it that badly that you're biting.

I hate your squinty eyes. Please smoke more and get lung cancer.

I hate your kiddish accusations that we are not doing our work. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. Please do not assume. PLEASE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO DROWN YOURSELF.

You don't know nothing. Why not just fire us and hire guys from India and China? They're gonna be cheaper cos of no CPF. You threaten us all the time anyway. Why not just have some balls and JUST DO IT?

Nice move by our government btw. The Singapore government is just so brilliant. Fucking up the lives of her citizens. Embracing foreign talents like SPGs going for big asset ang mohs. Maybe you really enjoy taking it up the ass?

- Wise Words from The Professor

A decade ago...

Ten years? Has it been that long? :)

10 years ago in December, when the Titanic sank, I was formally introduced to my wife.

At that time, little did I knew that she will turn out to be the most important person in my life. She didn't have a good first impression of me that time. She found me an obnoxious, temperamental and cold person I think. I guess I was at that time. LOL.

Nope. Contrary to popular beliefs, we did not watch the romantic Titanic together. She was with someone else and so was I. It's just kinda funny how we got together eventually... months later.

Anyway, that's another story.

Maybe one day we'll have a chance to watch Titanic again... together this time.

Windows Vista sux... for me.

Crappy Microsoft.

Guess it needs some getting used to. Or just given up on.

I fondly remember upgrading to XP a few years back. Almost everything works. My printer, scanner, web cam, and most of the software I had. I do miss Southpark Rally which kinda rawks back on Win 98. :)

And my server had a seamless upgrade from Windows 2000 to XP as well. No problems whatsoever.

I remembered being in awe of the new operating system from Redmond... Windows XP... How stable it was even in a gold release. SP1 was good and SP2 made it better. A merge of user friendliness from 98 and the stability of Windows 2000. It was... a real Wow.

So XP became my primary OS for all my machines. And along the way I've picked up Linux (Mandriva, Fedora, SUSE etc) for casual exploration and decided I'm just not 1337 enough for the *nix stuffs. And I even did a partial switch to Mac OS X. I have a final generation 14" iBook and a Core Solo Mac mini for my "life apps" needs. I love my Macs, but... it's just not an everyday machine for me. I'm not sure how to explain that, perhaps all along I've been pretty much a DOS based person since MS-DOS 2.11 in 1984 on my IBM PC XT. I was 7 years old then.

Moving along since then with Windows 3.1, the revolutionary Windows 95, the improved Windows 98, the Not-so-friendly-but-rock-stable Windows 2000 and finally to the wonderful Windows XP.


I still amaze my colleagues and friends with simple DOS batch commands. :)

And along comes Vista. I had my first hand experience on an evaluation of the final retail Windows Vista Ultimate.

I think I scribbled my journal somewhere, lemme look it up... There it is!

Day 1 - Cloned my XP. Installed Vista. Nice GUI. Aero effect. Hmmz... Need to search for the right beta drivers. ATI and Creative. Webcam doesn't work. Sound is horrible. Where's my 7.1?

Day 2 - Nero is not compatible. VLC doesn't work. Every time I want to watch something I have to switch to another mode which turns off aero. Very distracting. Graphics feels a bit sluggish due to erm.. beta drivers? Firefox crashed with random problems. AVG doesn't work right. Keep disappearing from tray. God, not iTunes too...

Day 3 - Maple Story doesn't work. Haha. More old freeware programs doesn't work. My trusty encoders and portable applications are now legacy programs? Development has stopped for some of them. What are my choices? Crap. Why does media player always lags and opens in the stupid library tab I never use? Nvm that, fixed with a startup switch. Something's wrong with my Warcraft 3. Everything looks funny.

Day 4 - Bought a Sandisk Cruzer U3 Titanium 4gb flash drive. Doesn't work.

Day 5 - Cloned my XP back. Shredded the Vista evaluation disc.

I'm not sure what the future holds, but it will be interesting. Perhaps we can give young Vista a chance and see if he'll grow up with SP1 or SP2.

Just today, a client of mine has bought 2 machines from HP for his business. A media center PC and a Compaq Presario. Both comes with Vista and he's desperately trying to find some way to downgrade back to XP to work with AutoCAD. HP's hotline wouldn't help and HP's website doesn't even provide XP drivers so that he can install a retail copy. Too bad. Perhaps he should have done his research first? But as far as I know, other brands are practicing the same thing.

"Take the beautiful Vista and use it. Resistance is futile. XP is not an option. Legacy will not be tolerated. Offenders will be forced to use only Hotmail. All your base are belong to us. The wow starts now. Welcome to the social..."

Unfortunately, Vista is here to stay. Evolution? *shrug*

Ah well. I was glad that an effort was made for each of the new OS to maintain compatibility with the predecessor. I'm not sure what they did for Vista but I don't like it one bit. It may look nice and everything with the bells and whistles and what-nots and flip flops. End of the day, I just need something that works. And hopefully work better.

Why is Vista released now? There's obviously a lot to be done to it still.

Hasta la vista, Vista. I guess for me the wow ends now.