Life as an Application Developer @ Dell..

Sad. That’s the perfect word to describe my current situation @ Dell. When I first accepted this job, I was expecting to do ASP.net and write stored procedures. But now I end up doing support, dealing with ADAM issues those China users are facing.

It is very frustrating, issues reported are always short and unclear which make you guessing and think “what the hell is happening? and what the hell do you want me to do?!?” Whenever a new issue is received, I have absolute no idea what to do, not even where to start! Let me show you some issues they have reported..

8. Pending OP List, OP Process Start Time , this column should how order flow to OP’s time.

50. Sales Remarks should be listed on the top of the download processing page, not combined with previous history in the bottom of the page.
51. Pls put the Approval History of Download processing page to the top and the bank in info at the bottom. As History is the one DL must check while bank in info is not.

57. Can’t approve order, BID: 92618, Total rev must be more than 79.9%

OMFG, what is “Total rev”? What “Approval History”? Which “Sales Remark”?? As far as I know, there are almost one Sales Remark to be entered in every page of Sales module! And this person who reported the issue does not reply to my emails, and the supervisor is asking me to solve them by today! Wah lao eh, how wor?

I want to go back to coding!!!

“Ghee Hiang” Biscuits

Nice shop interior

See the boxes of biscuits behind the cashier?

One of the best things to bring back to your hometown from visiting Penang, would be the traditional Penang biscuits. “Tambun Pneah” or “Tau Sar Pneah” is manufactured by 2 major shops - “Ghee Hiang” and “Him Heang”. For this entry “Ghee Hiang” will be known as GH and the latter HH.

Cupboard displaying the range of “Ghee Hiang” products

GH is the original and oldest manufacturer of this biscuit. They started the business exactly 150 years ago from now, 1856. According to some rumors, because they were so successful and dominating the business, they eventually became arrogant and started to lack in customer service. Customers had to make bookings and often made to wait a long time in order to purchase even a box of biscuits.

Nice packaging - even for biscuits

What you get in the box, freshly packed in small plastic bags

This resulted in their rival, HH’s gain of popularity. Now you can see more customers in HH’s shop compared to GH. However, GH still holds the upper hand in quality of the biscuits. It is still the best “Tau Sar Pneah” brand

15 decades of experience in making biscuits

2 decades old Mee Goreng

Allow me to present you my breakfast today, the best Mee Goreng @ “Jawa Char” in Hokkien. It can be found in BM, fried by an old chinese couple in Taman Bak Hai for nearly 20 years. I still remember when I was small(primary school) I would tarpao this for dinner if I didn’t really felt like eating my mom’s cooking. Their stall is so near my house, a 2 minute walk is enough to reach. Sometimes I would even bring eggs our reared chickens/turkey laid, giving a 20 cents discount on each pack.

Fried prawn paste @ “Heh Chi”

The nicest thing in this Mee Goreng would be the fried prawn paste. Unlike those you find in the Indian style, they are not soft but very crunchy. 1 piece costs RM0.50 and I would normally request for an extra 2 pieces. Besides Mee Goreng, Singapore Bihun and Char Koay Teow are also sold here. Many people like to tarpao the economy bihun here as breakfast before going to work. It has been about 4 years since I last ate this, the taste is still the same and surprisingly, it is still being priced at RM2.00 per pack!

Penang Curry Mee

This is how a bowl of authentic Penang Curry Mee should look like..

And if you are wondering how it should taste like, come to Penang to taste it for yourself

Dell badge

Got my Dell badge finally earlier today
Badging is used to mark attendance, accessing the building and to purchase food at the bakery or cafeteria. All Dell employees, no matter vendors’ or not, are entitle to RM32.50 food allowance a month. Not much, but better than nothing.

APCC = Asia Pacific Call Centre? Not so sure..

My unique little “collection” :)

These are not ordinary papers They denote memories, sweet ones.. Some even dating back to 2 years ago.. It has been my norm to collect receipts/tickets when I go out with my special one I have another stack of restaurant bills in my car’s glove compartment lol.. It is a great alternative to store memories, as they all usually have date and time stamped, along with the things you ate/bought/watched..

Do you have your own special collection?

“Chili’s Grill & Bar Family Restaurant” @ Midvalley

Yet another food post LOL. I believe those of you who studied/worked in KL/Selangor area have seen the restaurant. From my observation it’s always packed during evening and there are always people queuing for seats, especially in the weekends. Reason is this is a nice place to hangout after a hard day at work.

The interior of the restaurant is lightly dimmed with orange lights, creating a soothing feeling, as though to cure heal your body, mind and soul after a long week There are small televisions placed strategically in every corner of the restaurant providing sports entertainment.

What’s Chillis called without chilli?

Some of the drinks here are labelled with “Bottomless” in front of their names, like “Bottomless Apple Juice”. This type of drink entitles the drinker to have unlimited refills. A good choice if you plan to stay around for a long time. When we tried to order a cup only, we were told they cannot refill it if we intended to share the drink So we ordered “Southwest Sling” instead, the ultimate milkshake that is made of chilled pineapple juice, orange juice and vanilla ice cream.

“Southwest Sling” - Rm7.95

The restaurant is divided into areas in which each is served by a specific roster of waiters. Chilis serves mainly steaks and burgers. In norm, meals are served orderly: appetizer, main course and dessert. Triple play(3P, not that “3P” ok :P) is an appetizer consisting buffalo wings, fried chicken and egg rolls. 3P.. lol Fried chicken

The egg rolls are the best, buffalo wings is a bit spicy(prefer roud side BBQ chicken wings more) while the fried chicken tastes like KFC OR chicken… There are three different types of mayonaisse for you to dip. Not sure which is for which but they all taste about the same anyway.

The main course we had was Chicken + Beef steak, Cajun style. Cajun style means its spicy The steak wasn’t great, I have had better in F1 LOL.. the specialty of this steak is that they provide you with a 4 slices of roti prata(?) and some fillings(not sure what they were) I wasn’t sure of the correct way of eating, so the natural thing to do was to make sandwiches out of it. Tastes good for the first few bites but it tends to get old pretty soon.

Steak turned sandwich

Lastly was our dessert, the nicest we had for the whole night. Ironically, we also enjoyed the dessert the most when we went to TGI Friday. The dessert is actually a piece of chocolate cake topped with ice cream and nuts. Heavenly Our bill came to RM80+. The waitress didn’t bother to return the last few cents.. well I hope she enjoyed her 7 cents tip.

Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie

Recommended for a first visit only

0P now..

KLCC Park

I watched a documentary on how KLCC was built in Discovery Channel’s “Mega Structures” earlier this afternoon. Immediately, it struck me how much I missed this place I like to stay in big cities that have a lot of skyscrapers and shopping malls. I heard there’s another shopping complex going to be built near KLCC, and it’s Malaysia’s answer to Singapore’s Orchard Road.

These photos were taken 2 weeks back when I was still enjoying my short holiday before returning home.

“White Wings” Chocolate on Chocolate Cake Mix

Step by step instructions on how to bake your first Chocolate on Chocolate Cake I purchased a box of ready cake mix from Sunshine supermarket for RM7.65. According to its instructions, it’s incredibly easy to make and the required ingredients are amazingly little: egg, water and butter.

1. Read the instructions, this is a must before doing anything for the first time

2. Prepare the ingredients as instructed behind the box.
3. Open the box and retrieve the packets of cake mix and chocolate frosting mix.
4. As instructed, pour the cake mix into the mixing bowl and add in an egg and 250ml of water.

5. Beat the mix using an electronic mixer for about 5 minutes. Speed of the mixer doesn’t really matter. When you see the mix is creamy and smooth, it’s ready.6. Pour the mix into a baking pan, preheat the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 180c, contrary to the instructed 45 minutes of baking time. I think the baking time depends on the size of your container.

7. To ensure your cake is well baked and can be removed from the oven, use a skewer(toothpick is recommended) and poke it as deep as you can into your cake. If there is nothing sticking to your skewer(it comes out clean and dry) your cake is ready

8. Now is the time to prepare the topping. Mix the chocolate frosting into your mixing bowl and add in 2 table spoons of butter and 3-5 tablespoons of water. Beat the mix using high speed and if it turns out too starchy(ball like shapes) add more water, it should be very creamy.9. Pour the chocolate frosting over your cooled cake and spread out evenly.

10. Cut and serve Tastes good too if refrigerated.It was fun to bake the cake, especially during beating the mix. The cake came out good looking(as shown on the box) and tasty, but the frosting was a bit too sweet. So if you aren’t really into sweet stuff, I suggest that you add more water to the frosting mix. Hope you enjoyed it, try it if you are free

“Sri Sentosa” Coffee Shop

“Sri Sentosa” coffee shop is owned by one of my grandmother’s sworn sister. When my grandparents came to Malaysia from China about 50-60 years ago, they were alone and got to know some friends. Eventually they became so close that they became sworn sisters and took care of one another.

Usual scene in the weekends

People from all corners of BM will flock to this coffee shop every weekend to have breakfast. The most popular food sold here is none other than Dried Hokkien Noodles, “Hokkien Ta” - Highly acclaimed as the best in BM. The others are so-so, nothing worth mentioning.

BM Style Chee Cheong Fun.. much nicer than HK style IMO, 80 cents only leh!

The famous Dried Hokkien Noodles, can add-on pork ribs on request

Char Koay Teow, nothing special.. used to be great