A year has passed?

Wow, a year has passed since I created this blog and gosh, time flies hay?

So, this blog has served as my 'virtual' journal where I ranted and shared the good and bad stories, the funny or not-so-funny stories with the rest of the cyber audience. In this anniversary, I thought, let me just put the latest favourite pic that I have - it's my current FB profile pic. Lately, I've been putting at least a photo in each posting that I am so used to it. So, here it is... Taken on last Sunday, 22nd Nov, during Desmond's and Janice's wedding reception. Love you, Jaanu...

Yesterday (Tue, 24th Nov) was kind of a tiring day but it was productive too. We attended the Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010 launch. It was good to be in the Developer Track, where the Microsoft development team showed us the nifty enhancements in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, ASP.Net 4 as well as Silverlight 3. I didn't expect that Silverlight would be enhanced to have the database controls too!!!... We also bought so many books as they were going for minus 30% off the retail price. We are talking abt MS Press books here so it was definitely worth it!!! After that, hubby and I walked around the KLCC and decided to go to Kinokuniya bookstore (yes, another bookstore??? well, now, I can seriously say that I am a book junkie LOL). I saw 3 books by Debbie Brown (the famous cake decorator) and I just could not decide which book to buy. Hubby decided for me hehehe, he got me all 3 of them :-D Not complaining hehehe... but I better get myself a project a month to make sure that I don't forget the cake decorating techniques. Thanks again Hubby!!!

Ok, I guess that's all for now. I have a busy week ahead with all the new MS books and work...

Till my next post, peace to all of u, models & mortals out there!!!

From 32-bit to 64-bit?

I have upgraded to the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta today and installed an add-in called PowerPivot (was known as "Gemini"). Why do I have to trouble myself with a beta product, you may ask? Well, I am a SQL person but found that excel is such an easy tool for normal business users. Traditionally, I have been writing SQL statements and incorporate them into excel so that users can get the latest data (love the MS Query features for God knows how long...) On my end, once I have pulled what they need and then they can use the data for whatever they want to use them for, I am a happy camper ;-)

Now, I have to re-install my Windows 7 lappy though (from Win7 32-bit to Win7 64-bit). I just realized that although I have 5GB of RAM, and because I am going to need all the memory I could get (who complains when they are offered more memory, right?), I need to install 64-bit version. Do I really need to do this? Not really... but I want to do it anyway hehehe...

Anyway, let's leave the re-installation for this weekend. For now, I would want to try out the newly installed tools first :)

My initial assessment:

1. The user interface in Office 2010 is a bit different than Office 2007, but I think that it is easy to learn the navigations around the Office suites.

2. Installation of PowerPivot is simple.

3. After installing the add-in, Excel takes a bit longer to be launched. But, I find that it is weird when it tries to load an add-in with bluetooth (i wonder whether this is an excel thing or PowerPivot thing or just my lappy, hmmmm...)

4. The 2nd add-in (shown below) is even longer to be loaded compared to the rest of the other add-ins. This is actually for the PowerPivot...

5. Computer resources, especially memory, are high. So, it is a valid reason why I should move on to 64-bit (although I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the hardware drivers - hope all devices will still work)


Anyway, here's how Excel 2010 with PowerPivot looks like:

Ok, will try to give more feedback as I go along.

Till my next post, peace to all you models and mortals out there...

Pirate Language? Arrr, This be pleasin' to me eye...

This is something that my cousin posted at her FB and I find that it is so interesting. So, I've decided to share it.

For those who are not aware of the language setting in your FB, just scroll all the way down at your HOME page and then notice the Language which will normally be in English (US) or English (UK) depending on your computer regional setting. Mine has been changed to English (Pirate) as you can see here:

Just click on the Language and another window will appear with the various different languages supported by FB. Notice that there is an option of English (Pirate), choose it and see what how some words are changed in your FB.


Here are 2 examples; my profile picture link changes to:

and the FB navigation bar:

Cool huh? This is another geeks'tuff post from me LOL

Till my next post, peace to all of you, models and mortals out there...

Dirty Humour

Guess what?  An FB friend was tagged with this pic and I found it to be so funny...  Well, it is a dirty humour for some people but it sure did made my day.  I have been so busy lately and fatigue won't be the right word to describe my state at the moment.  I think that I can sleep for days - without even waking up for food.  And, who has been missing her gym session???  "ME?...?" (eyes looking down and slowly raising hand).  Yes, I have not gone to the gym for more than a month - yes, yes, now that I've said it out loud, I feel even more guilty.  Ok, I promise that I will go from next Monday onwards - no excuse and no more procrastinating (**fingers crossed**)

Ok, till my next post, peace to all you models and mortals out there...

In need of more powerful excel...

Without going to details, I have been working with Microsoft Excel 2007 a lot these days. While its predecessor supported up to 65536 rows, this version supports up to 1,048,576 rows. A lot of people cannot see themselves reaching that maximum row number. Personally, when a colleague asked for the full list of barcodes in the system, I reached the max row!!!

Tonight I am 'playing' with Excel again and I just noticed that if only Microsoft comes out with a function within Excel that Show Duplicates instead of Remove Duplicates... Oh well, we can't get all that we wish for, right?

About getting more rows in, Excel 2010 will definitely be good, especially with the add-in named "PowerPivot" (used to be code-named Gemini). I am definitely anticipating this add-in. Can't wait to get my hands on it. It will surely ease the workload on power excel users. To those who are interested, you can see its action in the official website (http://www.powerpivot.com/).

This posting maybe a lil bit different than my previous posts. In fact, I'm introducing a new blog posting label called "Geeks'tuff" where I can post anything to do with I.T. or technical stuff. Well, either we are models or mortals, it doesn't hurt to know a lil bit of geeky knowledge right?

Ok - got to continue with my financial reports in excel. Till my next post, peace to you all models and mortals out there...

Honesty and Rudeness?

I'm sure that all of us, at one point or another, had contemplated on how to tell someone the honest truth but at the same time, we do not want to be rude. While some of us may have stopped themselves from saying anything at all - just not to be labelled as rude, some of us may just have to face our 'someone' to tell her/him the brutal truth. For those who do the latter, are we rude for telling our honest opinion or are we just too honest for our own good?

As for me, I'm one of those people who can't stop themselves from telling others how I feel. Of course, when I do have the time to think through, the truth can come out very tactfully. But, when I am irritated and pissed, the truth can come out very bluntly though. For me, sugar coating the truth may also not be a good idea as there are just those some people who would not be able to get it. So, at times, we just have to be direct and straightforward.

The challenge that everybody commonly face is that how to be direct and not be rude at the same time. I am not the exception here... I can't stop myself from stating my point of view, but I still need to learn the art of diplomacy. Well, most of the time, I do get away with the whole rudeness thing (I wonder why? Maybe the 'Dragon Lady' label protected me?? **wink**)

Oh well, in all honesty (pun intended), I sincerely think that beating around the bush may just be confusing and may cause more damage than good. Sometimes we just need to tell people what they don't want to hear and I will continue to be openly honest when I give my opinions. But, there is always the right time, place and approach. In the end, honesty is the best policy, isn't it?

Till my next posting, peace to all you models and mortals out there!!!