I'm drinking this when I go to Japan

It is awesome stuff.

Sarawak, Immigration and denial of entry

So, the "adopted Iban" was refused entry into Sarawak.

It is not the first time the Sarawak (read: Taib Mahmud) government has stopped people from entering Sarawak. As far back as 1974, Lim Kit Siang was denied entry at Kuching Airport during that election year. It doesn't matter that he was let in subsequently; the fact of the matter is, Padang Serai MP N. Gobalakrishnan was not the first to be denied entry into Sarawak, nor will he be the last.

And I want it to be kept that way.

Don't get me wrong. I have no love for Taib Mahmud. No one can stay with a straight face there is no corruption in his administration. Even the upper echlons of UMNO don't really like him. But compared to the alternatives, he is the smarter choice^TM. Give me someone better than Taib who has a chance of filling his shoes. And don't tell me Anwar: he's just a opportunist, two sides of the same coin. Dominique Ng may be a good lawyer, but I doubt that he can run a city, never mind a state.

Kuchingites will probably know the amount of controversy that followed when the late Chong Ted Tsiung was appointed as MBKS mayor, being the first non-SUPP mayor, and James Chan (Khay Syn) is dogged with all sorts of weird allegations. The fact of the matter is, Sarawak is a different place. If there is one thing the SUPP got right, it is the fact that it takes a Sarawakian to understand the problems and issues facing Sarawak.

I am not a supporter of the Ruling Coalition. I do support the Sarawak based component parties, despite all their infighting and (perceived) toothlessness. To equate that I am a pro-government supporter by the fact that I support a BN component party is like blaming me for the crimes of my great-grandfather. It is unfortunate that SUPP and PBB are part of the Ruling Coalition, but even the Malay hardliners don't like them. If it wasn't for their massively reduced representation in parliament, they would make their voice heard.

Like how they destroyed Sabah.

Frankly I'm quite happy with the remaining autonomous power Sarawak still have. Through I have to admit after spending a lifetime clearing immigration everytime I fly anywhere, it is a bit of a shock seeing the (lack of) checks for domestic Australian flights.

I, at least, do not seek any form of independence for Sarawak. Sarawak has never been independent (Brunei sultanate, Boooke dynasty, British administration, Malaya), can never be independent, and will never ever be independent, not in my lifetime at least. All we ask is for respect and understanding. Not dumping mat rempits in the name of national integration. Not chucking defective Proton cars here. Not thinking we live on trees and will take your head off if we don’t like you, as much as I like that idea sometimes.

And we would really like it if the Federal government stopped sucking 95% of our oil revenue.

I want Misae's cat

And to make things better, it actually goes "meow" like a real cat. :D

Ruminations on post-secondary school life

My table is in a perpetual mess. Has been before Christmas, since I can't be arsed to clean up.

It has been 3 years since I left Secondary School. 3 years since I wore a school uniform. 3 years since we could have fun, do stupid things and be able to get away with it. 3 years of growing up in the real world. 3 years since me and Class of 2005 parted ways and went our own way.



Being Malaysia, the land of multiple university entrance qualifications, all did different things. (Don't get me started) The poorer ones did STPM. Some went to do A-Levels. Most popular was the South Australian Matriculation (just a very fancy name for South Australian Year 12). A few decided to do Medicine and ended up doing a "foundation" in Russia and ended up in KSMU. But it was those few that went on into the real world that really struck me.

The thing about Malaysia (and many Asian cultures, but it is outside the scope this time), is there is too much emphasis on a post-secondary education. Practically everyone goes off and do something, be it STPM for the less endowed, Matrikulasi for the select few, or IB for the financially capable. It has reached to a point, where many Malaysian's I see, in and outside of Malaysia, think that university education is a God given right.



And that is a problem. Malaysia, as a country, as a economy, is still a very much a manufacturing country. In other words, skilled labor. People who work in factories, assembling anything from circuit boards to Dell's Penang manufacturing plant. (Take a look at your Dell; 90% of them are Made in Malaysia)

The job is not glamorous. You don't get to sit in airconditioned offices. Your pay isn't much. Heck, you probably spend a fair bit of time under the sun, which Malaysia being a tropical nation, is unrelentless, all year round. And when the sun retreats a little, rain and 98% humidity take its place.



But yet, these are the people that we need the most. We need people to clean the food courts. Man the registers, haul stock, fix wires. The works, literary.

I do know however, that my parents would be most upset if I decided to become a electrician. Family members who even contemplate doing a technical trade instead of a tertiary education will have the idea put to rest very quickly. Even an idea that I do Engineering in university was met with some opposition.



I do admit I am more fortunate than most of my peers and friends. Sure I may be doing a double degree, but the fact of the matter is at least I get the chance to (half) study and do something which I have an interest in, even if it does cause a Computer Science vs Information Technology debate amongst my peers.

The numbers of those who are doing a course not of their selection, willingly or otherwise, are not few. Others take out study loans, parents mortgage their houses, and some have their younger siblings forgo the chance to go past secondary education.

Then there are those who got a scholarship, either from the institutions themself, social foundations, or the Malaysian government. Some of the receipents were truly deserving. Others were from backgrounds where overseas education was within their financial capacity, but how many people say no when the government gives you money?



Yet, at times, I ask myself what is the point of all this? Sure, friend C may have finished his education at Form 5, only to the forced into the working world, but who is to say I may be working for him in the future? A wise man once told me that if I could see the future, I would be a very rich man.

There was a girl in my Secondary school days called Janet. We used to call her "Planet Janet" (^_^'''), and other things which I have (thankfully) forgotten. She wasn't smart, didn't stand out, but wasn't stupid either. She wasn't attention catching pretty (not to me at least), but she wasn't lacking in the brains department. I certainly didn't see her getting a CGPA of 3.94 for STPM. (For those not in the know, the highest score in STPM is 4) Or getting into UNIMAS's MD program for that matter. (And no, there is no difference between a MD and a MBBS in Malaysia)

I do not think less of my friends who are working in the real world after finishing high school, or any more highly of those lucky to be on the taxpayers tab. Yet, that is exactly what (Malaysian) society thinks: that one needs a degree to make it in life. Anyone who does not have a degree is destined to spend their days in menial jobs.


Source.

Looking at the 8000 unemployed graduates the government keeps bailing out through, I don't think so. What happened in the course of Malaysian social evolution, that makes everyone think that its university education, or bust? Why can't people realise it is still possible, in this day and age, to make a honest and reasonably decent living in the technical trade? Why must we be so picky, that we let immigrants (who eventually become Chief Ministers giving out brooms) do the things that can give us a honest living? Why is (Malaysian) society so rigid and slow to adapt to the changing world, that it is skills (ie what you can't see), NOT what you can see, that is what you are.

Where I come from, it is a sad joke that there are only 4 professional jobs: a doctor, a lawyer, a Engineer, and a accountant. Graduate with a Computer Science degree? "Oh, so you know how to fix computers." Come out as a pharmacist? Be prepared to spend your days being more of a salesman than anything else. No one understands what you actually do if you are a BECon graduate, and anything else there's MasterCard you might as well be speaking Maori.

I mean, seriously, RM30 billion later, what do you see for the IT industry in Malaysia? All I see is a factory in Penang employing Indians (ethnic or nationals) and the general perception that making a website is something the sectary can do in her free time. I may not like my double degree much, but I know going down a single path will be suicide, both from a employment and family perspective.

Hence the crux of my rant: why do we PhD holders applying to teach English in universities, while in many parts of the world it is possible to live a decent life doing a trade with nothing more than a Certificate?



Doing a double degree does have its side affects through. On one side of my friends can't understand XKCD and jokes about pointers, and the other side don't get the reference when I start saying things like "mere puff" and "unjust enrichment". Multiple personalities is also another unfortunate side effect.

Renai: CLANNAD

Tee Hee hee.

Yes, I've been playing the CLANNAD visual novel. Well, sort of. I'm using the Chinese language patch, so I am cheating a little bit. Not that my Mandarin is that great to start off with; in fact, I had to refer to the dictionary more often than I would like to understand Kyou's crude jokes. ^_^''

It was not easy getting it to run in the first place. Installing it was easy, as long as you read Japanese. I don't really, but I could see that アインストル is "Uninstall", so I started from there.


でも、なにもかも…変わらずにはいられないです

The Chinese patch is reasonably accurate, considering I could recognise the lines used in the 澄空学园 version. And they are linear with the translation job done by Baka-tsuki. It is complete, and it also works with the full voice version of CLANNAD.

Yes, complete with the voices of Nakahara Mai, Noto Mamiko, Hirohashi Ryou (I love the fact that I can go around saying "Kyou's voice is done by Ryou"), Nonaka Ai and gang.

They do sound weird through: I don't think voice and Visual Novels go well, as you don't exactly have a "conversation". It sounds a bit stiff. I kinda prefer the whole anime adaptation.


KyoAni have gone the whole way to really replicate the whole visual novel, through I must say the beatings of Yohei are mostly left to your imagination. I think it is a bit hard to put Misae smacking Yohei in a visual novel: remember, they are mostly still pictures.


Where there you go. It would seem like Anpan is the same as our Tao Sa Pau.


As to be expected, there is little interaction for the user in visual novels. Usually you end up making decisions, but 97% of the time you are just pressing the Enter key, or if you're really impatient, the Ctrl key. Just remember that right-Ctrl is the key used by VirtualBox to switch between the host computer and the virtual machine.


I'm having a lot of difficulty finding Kotomi's route. In fact, I think I'm on Ryou's route right now. Don't get me wrong: I love Ryou, I see her as the absolute of Kyou (notation: |Kyou|), but even game vets say Kotomi's route is notoriously hard to find.

I haven't seen her since the library. Maybe I took the wrong option when I decided to pay attention when Ryou brought out her cards.


This is the whole bit where Tomoya says the world has ended to a half-asleep Yohei. I kinda preferred the anime version: it was funnier than simply text.


It isn't easy through. Firstly Mandarin is hardly my first language. Secondly I need to run it in a Virtual Machine, as the Chinese patch does seem to have some stability issues. The bright side is with a VM, rebooting to change between the Chinese and Japanese code pages is a breeze. Secondly I don't have to go through the whole process of installing drivers, and if it does screw up I can go back to the clean image in one click. Awesome.

And somehow, I kinda prefer my main machine using the English (UK) page code. While I love UTF-8, if I change the page code of my main machine to Chinese (PRC) or Japanese, some Unicode programs will run with a Mandarin/Japanese interface, or default to the alternative language when installing programs. When Nero Burning ROM is one, it really becomes an issue when you have no idea what the error message says.

Give it a shot. The CLANNAD DVD ISO is not that hard to find, and getting the Chinese patch to work is easier than Tomoyo After's. Well, relatively speaking. It does help understanding what the error messages say, especially when the program does not have full direct access to the sound card. (The CLANNAD installation tried to install the Japanese version of DirextX)

Work: library shelf stacking assistant

Not many people know this, but over 2008 I was working part time. This was in addition to doing 5 subjects in one semester. Yes, I am aware I am going to die before I'm 30.

Introducing my job is always a problem, as it is not exactly what most people are familiar with. I worked in the QUT Law Library. Most people call me a librarian, but I'm not one. Technically, I'm a "shelf stacking assistant". So no, I do not have the power to check-out your books, or renew your loans.


My job was one of those out-of-sight ones, which suited me well. I also don't end up being asked questions by students, and no one watches me work, so there is not much pressure.

Essentially, all I did was to put back books in the right place on the shelves. Its not demanding, and frankly anyone with half a brain could do it. The thing is, it is always done at night, when there are less people and all the books have been returned for the day.

A work "day" started at 6pm, and went on until the library closed at 10pm. I loved the job, despite the late hours.

Usually when I arrived at "work" I went to clock-in, then went to the book level, where usually a pile of books would be there, on the trolleys. If I was lucky they would be sorted. If not, they usually were in random order. Usually I would sort the books in call-number order to help me put the books in the right position.

Interestingly, all that Sorting algorithm's that I slaved over for programming came in handy when deciding on which would be the fastest way to arrange the books in order before reshelving. I found the Quick Sort algorithm the best and fastest way to arrange the books in order.

Through when the books are partially sorted, QuickSort probably was O(n^2), and in this case I found a (variant of) Insertion Sort to be more efficient. Never tried the Library Sort through (Data Structures have changed the way how I arrange things).


It wasn't hard, and one could tell when an assignment was due when there were massive gaps in the shelves, or when a assignment was over, with the number of books on that topic. Popular books that seem to be in and out all the time were Equity, Trusts, Contracts, Crimminal Law, Family Law (it was depressing reading all the divorce cases and commentary), and for some strange reason, Getting to a Yes.

Okay, maybe not so strange considering it was the law library, but I was amazed a) how many copies there were in the library b)that there was almost always one to stack, regardless of time period.

The 3 books which were the worst to stack were : Carters guide to Crimminal Law, the Contracts textbook, and the cases and materials books for Equity. They weighed a ton, and there could be 4-5 copies at one point. On the bright side, since they were so thick, they were easy to stack, unlike those thin books which can be a pain.

Maybe this is why I like Kotomi so much: we spend too much time in the library.


How the library looks like from the floor.

98% of the time, stacking would be fine. Since I'm so tall, books at eye level or above me was fine. I just hated those books at the bottom.

I like the job a lot. Sure, the pay was good, but it was quiet. I liked reflecting and ruminating in the silence of the library, especially after a hard day. The job gave me time to relax and slow down, while sometimes a book would catch my eye and I would skim through it. And since it was a job with little human contact, I didn't have to dress up, or smile and be polite.

The number of books could be overwhelming at times through. And walking through aisles of law reports older than my father was humbling, but also made me wonder how much of it was still relevant, not to mention the musty smell of these old and yellowing books.

But if you wanted the constitutions of the world at 1995, I would be able to tell you. :D

The library is a scary place at night through. It was always my job to turn off the lights (after checking that no one was left in the library. You have no idea how many stragglers we get during assignment periods), and I can tell you, at 10pm, with the lights off, sometimes my mind wandered to Night at the Museum. No dinosaurs through.

All in all, it was a good experience. Nothing says knowledge like working in a library. Indirectly, you do learn something.

Oh, and all pictures in this post were from my phone's camera. not bad for something 4 years old eh?

Palm and Nova

Interesting news as of late: Palm has announced plans to release a new mobile OS at CES 2009. This is in addition to opening their own app store online.

The top executives have big plans, with talk of competing with Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry.

Source.

Does the mobile market need a 4th Mobile operating system, considering that we already have Apple's (Unix-based) Darwin OSX iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia's Symbian OS, RIM's BlackBerry OS and now Google's Android, already? Keeping in mind that Palm themselves have forsaken their own Palm OS, and defected to Windows Mobile.

And I still haven't forgiven them for that. I wonder how much of the Palm OS spirit will "Nova" bring with it, being Linux based and all? Mid-2009 isn't far away.

1 Megabyte a second

I am speechless.

Even my experience from downloading Linux ISO's from AARNet isn't that fast!

Review: Compaq Presario M2246AU

This has been my workhorse for the past 3 years. Bought at the end of 2005 for the princely sum of RM3000. A Compaq M2246AU.

Specifications:

* OS: FreeDOS;
* AMD Turion ML-30 (1.6 GHz, Socket 754, 1MB L2, 800MHZ FSB);
* 512MB RAM (upgraded to 786MB)
* 15" screen;
* Fujitsu 80GB HDD;
* HL-DT-ST DVD +/- RW Double Layer Drive with LightScribe;
* Broadcom Wifi 802.11b/g;
* 10/100/ Ethernet;
* ports include 3 USB 2.0, VGA, RJ-11, RJ-45, Expansion Port, 1 Headphone, 1 Microphone
* Texas Instruments intergrated digital media reader slot;
* ATI Radeon X200 128MB;

Yes, I still have her on my desktop. And this is actually offical wallpaper by VisualArts/Key.

By modern standards, this fella is old (No dual core?!), but considering it has been to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, it has survived the test of time and me. When sold in 2005 it was a decently spec laptop, and even today, it isn't half shabby.

I still find it a bit difficult to swallow that the modern 1.6GHZ Intel Atom ("Diamondville") packs more power than this fella through. But if there is one thing that this machine has taught me, it is how to make programs run efficiently on low powered devices.

The right side is still the best layout I've seen for any laptop. Chain socket at far right, followed by a all important USB port at the top, DVD drive by LG eletronics, IEEE1394 port, another USB port and a card reader.

While I don't really need a IEEE1394 port (never used once in all the 3 years), I do lament its passing. It was designed from the ground up for video data, and while USB 2.0 in theory has a bandwidth of 480Mbit/s, that is the peak. On average you are lucky to get even half of that. IEEE1394 was designed for 400Mbit/s, and has an average bandwidth of about 380Mbit/s. Video still needs something as stable as IEEE1934, not something as volatile (but more flexible) as USB.

Front is the usual speakers and sound jacks. Nothing special, through the catch for the lid in the middle has confused many a friend when trying to open the lid.

Side is basic. Power supply at far left, followed by VGA port, "expansion slot" (I really need to find out what it actually does!), RJ-45 port, RJ-11 port, USB port, and PCMCIA slot. I would have throught the ethernet and modem used the same transport infrastructure.

Portless and clean back. Silver finish still smooth and nice after all these years. Note the out-vent at the right.

Cover. Doesn't look like it, but it has had more than a few scraches and a small dent. This is what I want: simple black plastic, not something that tries to be a mirror. Its a cover for crying out loud: why do we need it to be glossy.

Also, I don't have to wipe it every day and it still looks okay.

Back is a bit iffy. CPU intake fan on the right is probably on its last legs. At one point it nearly died, but a bit of WD-40 gave it a new lease of life. Airflow intake rate as been reduced dramatically through. When it was new it kept the notebook cool quite well. Now it barely keeps up when playing x264 video files.

Hard drive is below the fan in this picture, and RAM slots in the middle. Yes, Windows XP was designed for 256MB of RAM, but it just flies with 786MB. In fact, the bottle neck becomes the processor, not the I/O.

It still is a very good computer. The SMART data for the 80GB HDD has hardly changed in the last 3 years or so: says something about Fujitsu's build quality. It does get very hot now through, and it is a bad idea to rest my right hand on the keyboard.

1 year warranty. Never used it.

While it says it was designed by HP, it actually is one of the last Compaq's to use Compaq design. The parts and company may have been HP sourced when I bought it, but the basic framework was still quite Compaq.

I still love it. It can't run any games now, but it still puts up a mean fight when decoding x264 and encoding XVID's. Of course, it means a lot of tweaking is needed. No rubbish of using "codec packs". No fancy software. As a matter of fact, Google Chrome will reduce it to a crawl, 1 Opera window at Youtube will take up 95% of the processing power, but Seamonkey can have 5 tabs on Youtube, and CPU consumption barely hits 30%.

I can't bear to part with it. Yes, my new CQ45-127 will outperform it anytime, but it has served me well, from compiling C# code, making Scheme/LISP binaries of my assignments, to watching blu-ray rips. It still does web sufing well, and even dual-boots with Ubuntu!

Vista has me running back to the stability and user-friendlyness of XP, and its not just because of UAC either. I have no plans to let go of it. It still is a very good machine, stable after a long uptime, and maybe I'll convert it to become a media PC or a BT box. Sans the stupid WebUI and hamachi through.

Compaq isn't all good, but they're not half bad either. The 15 inch screen is still preferable to a 14inch widescreen anyday.

12 days of Christmas: the Compaq Presario CQ45-127TX

Got a gift from home this time: a new notebook computer. My old Compaq Pesario was getting a bit long in the tooth, and a upgrade was called for. It was, after all, a good three years old when I got this replacement.

And it has survived all my abuse. People who know me will testify I can be very brutal to computers.


The Compaq Presario CQ45-127TX. Quite a well endowed computer.

Specs:

Compaq Presario CQ45-127TX Notebook PC

• OS: FreeDOS;
• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache);
• 1024MB 800MHz DDR2 (upgraded to 2GB)
  
• 14.1" TFT WXGA high definition widescreen LCD panel with brightview technology;
• Western Digital 160GB HDD;
• TS-L633L DVD +/- RW Double Layer Drive with LightScribe;
• Bluetooth;
• Intel Wifi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n;
• realTek RTL8168C 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet;
• ports include 3 USB 2.0, HDMI, eSATA Combo, VGA, RJ-11, RJ-45, Expansion Port 3, 1 Headphone, 1 Microphone, Consumer IR, Integrated FIngerprint reader, Compaq Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphones (VGA low-light);
• JMB 38X 5-in-1 intergrated digital media reader slot;
• Nvidia GEForce 9200M GS with 256MB dedicated video memory;

Cover of the notebook.

One very annoying thing I have noticed about notebooks in the past few years is that they all come with a shinny surface. While it looks good in the showroom, it is a horrible fingerprint magnet, and much much more susceptible to scratches. The thing that really gets on my nerves is that it is just plastic!

The shinny'ness is just a coat of varnish. Industrial grade varnish, but still, varnish. I don't exactly want my notebook to double as a mirror, through I have seen the ladies using a LG KU970 as a mirror. ^_^''


Connectivity wise the CQ45-127TX is very well equipped. Like all HP/Compaq computers, DVD drive is on the right side. 2 USB ports on the right is a good thing, as I am right handed and need my mouse on the right, and more crucially, the USB ports must be in front!

In a sign of the times, the 56K modem port is now away from the Ethernet ports. Its location seems to be a bit of a afterthought. Power cable plugs in from the right also, which is not ideal for me. I prefered them on the left side.

Also, is it just me, or do most modern notebooks have their power socket on the right?


Front is simple and basic, nothing but the standard headphone and microphone jacks. Hidden next to the sound jacks however, is a Infrared receiver.


I have a feeling it is used for the (optional) media centre remote.


The left side has (from left), chain locker port, a standard VGA port, an expansion port (I never understood what were they for, really), a ethernet port, HDMI, a USB port that doubles as a eSATA port, and a flash memory card reader. It would seem like PCMCIA is well and truly dead.

The eSATA port gives me hope. One day, all computers far and wide in the land, will have eSATA ports. When that happens, we can be finally rid of the disasterous use of USB for external hard drives. Don't get me wrong: the USB specification is the best thing to have happened to the PC world since the CD drive, but USB was NOT meant for external storage.



To be more specific, low level recovery of external storage devices. I still bang my head on the wall when I see wannabe's try to perform data recovery on external hard drives using a USB connection. Seriously, give me low-level access anytime!


The back is completely devoid of any ports. They have also have hidden the airvent ports quite well cosmetically. However, I think this came at the expense of proper airflow. The CQ45-127TX does tend to get a bit warm on the left side. It would probably be a good thing in winter, but the heat is very noticable and unwelcome in summer.


As stated earlier, the right side does get a fair bit hot. It would seem that the processor and the hard drive are quite close together, and they do generate a fair bit of heat. Seriously Compaq/HP, stop with trying to look so stylish!

Can we focus on practicality, instead of looks?


The keyboard is not the best I have seen. It is very small, and cramped. One peeve is that the arrow keys on the bottom right have been squeezed into the "mainland". While I do not expect a full length keyboard, the keyboard is really really small. I don't need my laptops compact; I need them a bit bigger!

Certainly, it is not designed for long periods of typing. I think my reports will still be written on the lab computers!


Status lights. LED's are white in color, a very unfortunate choice. Hard to see if it is charging or not in bright daylight. Orange would be a good alternative.


Speakers are Altec Lansing, so at least they are supposed to be of good quality. I apologise for the comparisons with my old Compaq, but the speakers in the CQ45-127 don't match up. It sounds okay, certainly heaps better than what Acer passes off as speakers, but it is hollow. Listening to Najib talk hardly inspires confidence in the best of times, but on this, he sounded like he was in a cave.


Music is okay. Just change the equaliser settings, and it's not half bad. In fact, it is quite powerful, and loud at its highest setting.


I blame Apple for this.

Ever since Apple decided that sensor touch was the way to interact with hardware, everyone has been following it blindly, with mixed results. The volume control and Wifi "buttons" use the same electro-conduct technology as Apple's ipod: it uses electrical conduct to activate the buttons.

It is the same reason it does not work when you press it with anything other than your fingers, or if you wear rubber gloves. I personally don't like it (which is also the reason why I don't like the ipod), and it is very easy to "press" it accidentally.


Case in point? When I use my left hand to press the backspace button, inevitably my other fingers will brush over it, turning up the volume. Can we have buttons that depress when pressure is actually applied to them, instead of being brushed over?


And I still have no idea what that button does. "Pressing" it does not do anything.


Webcam built in, which is a nice touch. VGA quality, and should do for basic web conferencing. No more fumbling around trying to connect the web cam to the USB port!

However, I still have no what the two holes at both sides so. Any ideas?

And I still finding it frustrating that there is no way to activate the webcam to test it under Vista without 3rd party software. Seriously people. Why change something under XP that worked?


Touchpad is, er, integrated. Looks like a metallic finish, but its plastic. Its okay, through I think I may have to adjust the settings a bit to increase its sensitivity.


The screen.

I'll be honest here: I am not a big fan of wide "16:9" screens, unless they are 22 inches and above. A 14 inch 16:9 is actually smaller than a 14 inch 4:3 screen. My personal take is that only a 19 inch 16:9 has the same screen real estate as a 14 inch 4:3 screen.

Of course, this "revalation" has been a boon to computer manufacturers, who can flog new notebooks with what looks like the same screen size, and most people are not the wiser. Sadly, it would seem that 4:3 screens are destined to the history. It is near impossible to find a standard 4:3 screen, both for the desktop and notebooks, these days.

So while my old Compaq had a 14 inch screen, the CQ45-127 is actually smaller than my old Compaq. Talk about going backwards.

I don't really know what this "brightview technology" is, but it also makes my monitor look like a mirror. Look closely at the picture and you can actually see me and my background. It also makes it a bit difficult to see the screen under fluorescent light. It is very bright and vibrant in darker environments through.

Conclusion
The specs are promising, and price good,and frankly I am happy moving into the future with a dual core. The GeForce 9200M is awesome. However, the CQ45-127TX is going to take some serious getting used to. Small keyboard and screen does let it down. Had the screen been bigger, Compaq would have been able to use a bigger, and more comfortable keyboard.

Would I recommend the CQ45-127TX? For the price, it packs a ton of power. The screen is a let down. There is plenty of room for improvement, but for RM2800, it doesn't get much more value for money than this.