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I am not in the market of looking for new car, but happened to test drove the newly launched, Pedordua’s Alza for a brief moment.
The Alza is very similar to Avanza in many ways: 1.5L engine, 5+2 seats, assembled in Perodua etc.

I’ve been driving a Avanza 1.3 for many years (weekend car), so I am going to list down the “immediate impression” while driving on Alza vs Avanza instead.
The test drive modal was a Alza Advanced Version, which featuring some additional body kits, leather seat and GPS navigator (doesn’t look “integrated”).

- we have 3 adults (2 with standard BMI, but the 3rd one definitely out of shape), 2 children in the car, the pick-up was ok, but slightly lag compare to Avanza.

- driver position is lower compare to Avanza, more stable and confident on cornering.

- engine noise was almost not audible in the cabin. Unless I rev it up over 3000 rpm.

- throttler wasn’t as responsive as Avanza, the gear switching gets very confuse when I stepped down and let go randomly and quickly.

- ride comfort was definitely way much better than Avanza. Avanza basically connect your entire body to the road surface, despite the fact that you are sitting higher up from the road. The Alza extra equipments on suspension and longer wheel based definitely helps.

- Avanza is more responsive in low speed cruising, although I believe Alza should do better while cruising on the highway (we didn’t manage to go onto highway).

There wasn’t any urge for us to replace Avanza with Alza, as we think the Avanza is a better workhorse. The ride comfort is a big plus, specially for long distance traveling. Avanza cabin seems larger, and easier for the 3rd row passenger to get in and out.

I believe Alza will eat into the Avanza sales for sure, as both vehicle offer similar functionalities, with Alza on lower price range.

Although it has only one set of blower at the front panel, it is really strong and “windy” – strongest in all the cars that I know.

I will pick the Exora manual transmission version if I am in the MPV market, and Alza if I am in the sedan market – forget the 3rd row seat on Alza, you get a pretty decent 5 persons wagon on the run.

我第一次接触蔡礼旭的讲座，是四十片VCD的“如何做一个真正如法的好人”。
单看他的讲座标题，已经觉得罗嗦，还滔滔四十片，讲四十个小时，真是不可思议。朋友把这四十片VCD推了给我，我一放就放了好几个月。

我对古圣先贤没有什么好感，因为他们留下来的文字，不但苦涩难明，而且太过模棱两可。
蔡礼旭浸泡在大量的古书之中，以正面和积极的观点加以诠释，以柏杨的说法，就是“自从孔丘先生之后，四千年间，没有出过一个思想家！所以认识字的人，都在那里批注孔丘的学说，或批注孔丘门徒的学说，自己没有独立的意见”。
蔡礼旭站在巨人的肩膀上，借了古圣先贤一臂之力（好大的一臂），将“弟子规”的精髓，以大量的生活例子诠释出来，如果没有“独立的意见”，是很难做到的。

这一套“如何经营无怨无悔的人生”，同样是四十集，要把它看完，是很难的。除非里头有香港连续剧的天马行空，五光十色。
但是如果你对教育下一代感到力不从心，面对新时代小孩的叛逆和顽固头痛不已，这里头可能给你答案。

谨以这四十集的下载，送给有缘人。
01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 39, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

我去年八月到过金马仑一趟，逗留三天，前两天都下绵绵细雨，户外活动非常有限。
这次再上山，气象局预测也是天天下雨，所幸山上完全不是那么一回事。
早上的空气清爽冷冽，中午过后，烈阳高挂，照在皮肤上，炙痛难耐，只有一阵风吹过，还有一些寒意。到了夜里，又是另一番气象：我们住农村屋，没有暖气供应，村屋的设计也不能卸寒，睡到半夜，如入冰窖，尿急也不舍得离开被窝。
我们住的地方，海拔1650 米，靠近一个市聚（KEA Farm），买菜倒很方便。村屋周围种满各种有机蔬菜，农村的气息浓厚，给城里的孩子体会一下农家的环境，的是个好去处。

我们当夜到小镇上吃有机火锅，蔬菜类是很新鲜，鱼虾类就不敢恭维。我们点的多是蔬菜类，和少量鱼丸、菇类，吃得蛮过隐。

隔早进了蝴蝶园，一个小型的花园。虽说是蝴蝶园，蝴蝶的品种却不多。蛇虫杂物却不少。

走到尽头，有一条山径引向一间类似已经荒废的木屋（夜间拍鬼片可矣），那可是一间标本博物馆呢。

当然，里头的标本对乡下长大的孩子是见怪不怪了。

傍晚的夜市摊是蛮多东西的，只是看起来跟吉隆坡的很相近。
我们星期五傍晚在街上行走，觉得气候凉爽，次日多了很多游客（周末的关系），竟然有点闷热。

最后的一天，我们去茶园，有一个挂半空的咖啡厅，览望大片茶园，可以长人志气，宽人心胸。回路时想到另一个小型动物园，可惜还没走到，因为山路越来越窄，越走越是陡峭，只好放弃了。下山时还得跟上山的车子对卡，那条山径，一辆车也嫌窄，莫说两辆车上下了。

在山上的感觉蛮好的，我的无线宽频3G表现不错，比较往年，简直天壤之别。对那些想出走又走不开的人，至少上网还算容易。

我想我们明年会再来这地方一次。

[text written in iPhone]

Got this email from friend, I trust what in it is mostly true, the punch line is:
有这么好的疗法,只要大力的在医院推广，就能够减少因心脏病而丧失宝贵的生命，黄医生告诉我医学界也有他们的苦衷，大力推广将会影响到专科医生的生计。

Modern medication sucks.

Here goes:

一位朋友严重心脏病，动脉95%阻塞，医院建议做导管手术，不保证100%成功，手术过后还需要修养一段时间、长期要吃药，还好遇到贵人相告，做了螯合疗法的系列疗程，效果显著，不止阻塞问题解决了，高血压、胆固醇也没了。
我好奇亲自到诊所找医生了解，原来是我之前就已经认识的黄医生。
黄医生七十多岁，还很精神，拥有连锁诊所。黄医生告诉我螯合疗法其实是很简单的，既是静脉注射，也就是打点滴两个小时，过后不会有任何不舒服，可继续工作。
利用螯合媒介 EDTA乙二氨四乙酸 (Ethylene Diamine Tetracetyc Acid), 去除体内有害的重金属，如铅、水银、铝等等。EDTA是一种合成氨基酸与重金属链合后，随尿液完全彻底被排出体外，绝不残留在体内，因此，它是一项安全无副作用的疗法。
过去五十年来，螯合疗法已在欧美被使用。美国、纽西兰和澳洲的医生以及毒物学者，以此进行铅和水银等引起的‘重金属中毒’的治疗。今天，在这些国家里，不少医生和内科医生采用螯合疗法，治疗各种因动脉硬化导致血流受阻，形成血液循环不顺畅或血液不足而造成的疾病，例如缺血性心脏疾病、糖尿病性坏疽、糖尿病视网膜病等等。螯合疗法对血管有关的疾病有非常显著的疗效与效果，例如：高血压、高胆固醇、缺血性心脏病( 血管堵塞 )、已进行心脏绕道或导管手术数年后旧病复发者、糖尿病和糖尿病的并发症、脑血管疾病 ( 中风 )，手脚容易冰冷、手脚容易麻痹、记忆力衰退、容易疲劳、视力逐渐衰退等等。而且此疗法收费很实惠,每次 只收费 RM300 一个疗程10次只收费 RM2,500。
这里有一个很大的疑问？有这么好的疗法,只要大力的在医院推广，就能够减少因心脏病而丧失宝贵的生命，黄医生告诉我医学界也有他们的苦衷，大力推广将会影响到专科医生的生计。
这段话让我更深深感受到，人生中很多时候在这大环境里，真的是人在江湖身不由己。
想帮助很多人，他们就会有机会受到帮助吗？大环境能允许吗？好东西就一定会被推广吗？所以在人生中当我们遇到困难、挫折、病痛等等，是否有机缘遇到贵人的相助或相告，真的就不能不相信运气的重要。
就好像几十年来我从来都没听说过有螯合疗法的存在，不然的话，我已经告诉了身边的朋友，他们相信的话就可能不需要受动手术之苦，有一些朋友更会因为此疗法而得救，没有离开人间。

黄医生的螯合疗法诊所：
康福保健中心
Natural Health & Wellness Center (Ng & Wong Clinic, Dr. Ng)
349-C, Jalan Pudu,55100 Kuala Lumpur ( Pudu PLaza 附近 Tiara Hotel 斜对面 )
Tel: 603-92227989/6989 Email adress: ngahkow@pd.jaring.my

I don’t wear watch, I know time from cellphone, or the corner of computer screen. I don’t like having a piece of thing on wrist just to tell time, it would be overkill.

I used to like Casio Pathfinder or Fisherman, but they are not pocket friendly

Until I learn about this Casio Riseman 9200, a watch that basically does a lot more than just telling time.

It predicts weather, tells temperature, gives me altitude reading, and runs on solar.

We have a lot of fun going outdoor, being able to know the weather condition in advance is essential as we have excessive of rain all year – the watch predict the weather accurate enough.

I am now wearing it each day. I like the way it is so un-watch.

It has no compass, somehow Casio decided to keep the feature to Pathfinder only, which is the only thing I missed.

We store many data in XML format, as small file in the disk in many of our application projects.
We’ve got a crisis with one of the projects, where the 700 Gb hard disk filling up rather quickly on the intensified data entry event – they lose 5 to 10 Gb each day.

We’ve spent days tracing on the issues, and realized that all the small XML files actually eating up quite some disk space.
We have 2 choices:
- store these data in database.
- convert them to something more compact.

As the server is losing up disk space rather quickly, we have only a few days to perform the stunt.

We have tried:
- migrate data to database. No luck, since the database server also running low on resources.
- compact the XML data file with GZip. No luck too, as it eats up too much of processor power in compress and expand.
- change XML format to good old raw data type. Yeay!

We have managed to free up 370 Gb just by abandoning the XML format! That was almost 1/3 of the original disk space required.
And we were using a simplified XML before! The full XML standard would be even larger.

Now, let us look at the different here:

Simple XML:
<name>John A. Sam</name>
<id>1234567890</id>
<optional-data></optional-data>

Raw data format:
name=John A. Sam
id=1234567890
optional-data=

See the different? Look at the chart on the day we trigger the migration. It took the server 4 days to convert countless XML. But the result was worth it.

[ click for full size ]

One of my servers has just hit a 1000 days uptime.

[root@us root]# uptime
18:04:20 up 1000 days, 11:30, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

I am in this business far too long.

I’ve just performed a whois lookup on google.com. The result was rather amusing. Here goes:

whois google.com
Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZ.DOWNLOAD.MOVIE.ONLINE.ZML2.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZOMBIED.AND.HACKED.BY.WWW.WEB-HACK.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZNAET.PRODOMEN.COM
GOOGLE.COM.WORDT.DOOR.VEEL.WHTERS.GEBRUIKT.SERVERTJE.NET
GOOGLE.COM.VN
GOOGLE.COM.UY
GOOGLE.COM.UA
GOOGLE.COM.TW
GOOGLE.COM.TR
GOOGLE.COM.SUCKS.FIND.CRACKZ.WITH.SEARCH.GULLI.COM
GOOGLE.COM.SPROSIUYANDEKSA.RU
GOOGLE.COM.SERVES.PR0N.FOR.ALLIYAH.NET
GOOGLE.COM.SA
GOOGLE.COM.PLZ.GIVE.A.PR8.TO.AUDIOTRACKER.NET
GOOGLE.COM.MX
GOOGLE.COM.IS.SHIT.SQUAREBOARDS.COM
GOOGLE.COM.IS.NOT.HOSTED.BY.ACTIVEDOMAINDNS.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.HOSTED.ON.PROFITHOSTING.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.APPROVED.BY.NUMEA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.HAS.LESS.FREE.PORN.IN.ITS.SEARCH.ENGINE.THAN.SECZY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.DO
GOOGLE.COM.CO
GOOGLE.COM.BR
GOOGLE.COM.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
GOOGLE.COM.AU
GOOGLE.COM.ACQUIRED.BY.CALITEC.NET
GOOGLE.COM

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>>> Last update of whois database: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:23:42 UTC <<<

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