At a traffic light…

Enzo : *VROOOM VROOOM*

Modified national car (MNC) (on the Enzo’s right) : *krepek pek pek pek pek krepek~~~*

Enzo : *VROOOM VROOOM*

Ah Beng in MNC : *eyes scanning Enzo’s original bodyworks*

Dr. Liew in Enzo : *scanning Ah Lians in MNC*

Ah Lians in MNC : *giggle giggle*

Ah Beng : *tulan* *tekan accelerator*

MNC : *KREPEK PEK PEK PEK PEK KREPEK~~~*

The traffic light turned green…

Dr. Liew : *engage afterburner* *tap lightly on accelerator*

Ah Beng : *switch off aircond and headlights for greater acceleration*

Shortly after the short stretch of road…

Dr. Liew : *engage reverse thrusters*

Ah Beng : “YAHOOOO!!!” *shot past Enzo*

Enzo : *roll over speed breaker gently* *boing~~~ boing~~~*

MNC : *crash against speed breaker* *SPARK SPARK SPARK from undercarriage*

Dr. Liew : “OOOOH! That’s gotta hurt!”

Ah Beng : “TNMCH! Why nobody told me got speed breaker here wan???”

Ah Lian in MNC : “NMCH your car bounce until my tampon also drop off liao!”

Dr. Liew : *flip switch engaging flux-capacitor and gently accelerate to 88mph*

And the rest is history…

This morning…

Phone : *ring ring*

Dr. Liew : “Hello?”

Phone : [electronic voice recording in Mandarin] “Blah blah blah this is Malaya High Court (馬來亞高等法院) blah… You are requested to appear in court on 23rd this month blah blah blah… Please press 9 for further info…”

Dr. Liew : *press 9*

China girl : “Malaya High Court. Can I help you?”

Dr. Liew : *fake Peking slang* “I received a message telling me to appear in court just now.”

China girl : “Yes.”

Dr. Liew : “For what purpose?”

China girl : “Can you give me your name?”

Dr. Liew : “I’m Mr. Chua.”

China girl : “Your full name?”

Dr. Liew : “Chua Lek Soi.”

China girl : “Your Mandarin name?”

Dr. Liew : “蔡力水.”

China girl : “Your IC number?”

Dr. Liew : “381225…”

China girl : “Then?”

Dr. Liew : *look at last 6 digits on next patient’s card* “14… 5218…”

China girl : *frantic keyboard typing sound* “Is the IC number correct?”

Dr. Liew : “Yes.”

China girl : “If you give us the wrong IC number…” *duuu~~~t duuu~~~t duuu~~~t*

Dr. Liew : ”~~~DOHHH~~~!!!”

Related news:

For those of you who have seen 300, here are some deleted scenes.

For more deleted scenes, go here.

Recently, operating systems are getting more and more powerful as well as complicated. An operating system now usually comes complete with most essential applications - web browser, calculator, some games, email client, instant messenger (with VoIP), media player, word processor (or even an office suite), graphic editor etc etc.

Another main feature for OSes these days is the ability to keep itself updated via internet, as evidenced by the whole folder worth of Security Updates from Microsoft eversince you installed Windows, probably already amounted to more than a gigabyte in total.

In the past, some tech-savvies have been trying to come up with ways to create portable medias in order to lug around their favourite operating system. For the old Applesoft and DOS, they are basically portable OSes, existing on each and every floppy discs. From Windows 3.1 onwards to the recent WinXP. The whole world have been trying to create a personal bootable CDs that run on almost every if not majority of the PCs.

So what if I’m going to tell you that you can now have a decent operating system stored in your 1GB (probably worth less than MYR 50.00) thumbdrive?

The moment you plug your thumbdrive into a PC, any PC for that matter, chances are that you’ll have your entire favourite operating system with you on that PC, together with all your favourite applications.

And after you unplug your thumbdrive, nobody (hopefully) will ever realise that you’ve been there before. In another word, you left no trace on that PC you’ve just used.

Ubuntu has this bootable LiveCD that you can insert into any PC to have a taste of a Linux system. But it’s just a CD, not rewritable. You can’t customize it. It will behave just like itself previously, immaculately, everytime you boot it.

So, how do you store the Ubuntu system in a thumbdrive and at the same time, remember what you’ve done and remember whatever programs that you’ve installed, at every booted session?

Once upon a time, there were these bunches of people that got together and developed ways to ask an electronic machine to do their work. They designed a certain ‘friendly’ ways to interface the user and the machine, calling the interface as ‘Operating System’.

There were different machines and different user interfaces. From the well known DOS, to the more ancient Applesoft, Atari, Commodore, Unix as well as the later OS/2, Linux, the current Microsoft Windows and Mac OS etc. Please don’t forget about the PalmOS on your PDAs, Symbian, Windows CE and Mobiles. They are OSes too!

They have come a long way.

Most of the time, when you install an operating system into a PC, it will take control of the hardwares entirely or almost entirely. From then on, your operations will depend on how powerful the operating system is able to take control of the hardwares.

And some people think that you should pay them for the ‘operating system’ in order to interface with your computer easily. But some other people think otherwise.

The Unix people thought otherwise and created a branch of operating system, free for all. It has undergone lots of improvement and is now comparable to other commercialised operating system. They call it Ubuntu.

Were there times that you wished you had your notebook with you but unfortunately, you didn’t? And you wandered into a cybercafe only to realise that they didn’t have your favourite application installed; or MS Office, for that matter? Of course you can use online document and spreadsheet editors but what if there’s no internet connection?

One day you may find that a certain hotel has a T3 line and wish that you can just jack your laptop into it to continue downloading your unfinished prawn with your favourite bittorent client. But the staff in-charge insists that you can only use their PCs. Worse, they are all in weird Japanese or Korean interface!

You may have played a game half way and wish to continue playing it on another PC. You may like a wallpaper so much that you wish every PC that you use has the same wallpaper.

You wish that you can carry your browser and bookmarks with you without resorting to using Google Toolbar. You may even wish to carry the whole planetarium, Google Earth, media players along with their codecs, photo editor, input methods etc. Heck! Might as well carry the whole operating system with you!

If you don’t already know, it can be done! And it’s easy. In fact, everytime you switch on any computer running Windows or Linux and plug your portable storage device (a memory card or external HDD for example) into a USB slot, all your favourite programmes are already in place!

Welcome to the world of portable operating system.