-f.l.y-: May 2007

"Singapore to host F1 Grand Prix next year" http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/275566/1/.html

Hardly surprising. Haha. And despite the Minister saying that it could "potentially" be held at night, I think that's just being diplomatically correct. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been a staunch supporter for night races in Asia to increase viewership in Europe. I would be very surprised if the Singapore GP turns out to be a day event. Let's just sit back, relax and enjoy the smell of the burning rubber... Heading to a durian near you.

The so-called Whale-Jet is finally coming. The 1st A380 to be delivered to SQ is finally out of the paint shop and scheduled for delivery in October this year and will be initially deployed on SIN-Sydney sector. Why not Melbourne?!

Take a look at the "O" in the "Singapore". It's actually slightly 'taller' than the other characters. Hmm.

Notice the engines are not yet installed on the wings.

The long-standing saga with HP finally came to an end when I collected my notebook from the Post Office. It has been an annoying and agonising few months without my laptop and the hassle of having to fight for the replacement. I knew I was fighting a losing battle right from the beginning despite the obvious problems with the unit. Being a student and overseas certainly didn't help matters, after all, what can a soon-to-be 22 year old do from 3700miles away? By handing over matters to my Dad, i knew already the Battle would be won. Not if, but When.

Case No. 1 - I sent my Desktop in Singapore in Feb for repair after my cousin told me the unit failed to start. When I eventually collected back the unit from HP just before I returned to Melbourne, the Customer Service Officer informed me that it was a software issue, but should hardware issues arise in the future, HP would not be able to fix the problem as the model was out of the Product Life Support. Alright, fair enough. After all, this Desktop is more than 5 years old already. When the same problem re-occurred shortly after I left, my dad sent it back and was subsequently informed that there was some hardware failure and there was nothing HP could do as they no longer have spare parts for this unit. At this stage, what would any of us have done? More often than not, we probably would believed him.

But not my dad. He knows nuts about computers, but yet he argued that it has just been fixed just days earlier and it had only been used a couple of times thereafter. HP should have detected any possible hardware issue on the previous occasion anyway. He refused to accept their explanation of hardware failure and if it really was an hardware issue, my dad demanded that HP declare in Black and White that there was indeed a hardware failure and that HP could no longer support the model. Immediately the customer service officer backed away and reassured that they would thoroughly check the unit again. Just 2 days after that, HP called and informed my dad that it was indeed just a software issue and that it had been fixed at no extra cost. Wow. What can i say..

Case No. 2 - As some of you might have been aware, my laptop have been giving me problems since the 2nd week of purchase and have been sent for repair numerous times here in Melbourne as well as in Singapore. Despite the promise from HP that it will be replaced if there was further hardware issues after the inspection in Singapore in Feb, HP still refused to replace after my laptop encountered Ram problems and failed to start. They claimed this was just a minor issue and the ram could be replaced easily. I know this, but I could immediately see that there was no way they would ever replace the unit, with the kind of tactics they are engaging in. Sounding like they are so supportive of my stand but was actually just trying to coax me out of the idea of replacement. Once it was handed over to my dad, HP agreed to replace the unit not long after. But there were to be more tricks up their sleeves. They were only able to offer me the 17-inch model and I had to pay the price differential + GST which would amount to about $600. Again, my dad slammed the door on them. Shortly, they finally offered a similar model to what I used to own at no extra cost. (My original model has been discontinued, presumably due to the launch of Vista i think).

And so, I finally have a laptop to use now.. Equipped with Microsoft Vista, but not after having to explain to the Australian customs that the laptop was a replacement unit and thus exempted from taxes.

Just downloaded shots from my k800i..