Crashing Akademi Fantasia (TV Game)

To the truth, I've never watched one of Astro TV's premier shows in the region, Akademi Fantasia, mainly due to my lustful intimacy with my computer rather than my TV (take note however, I am now two-timing my computer with my cellphone, which probably explains why they never want to communicate peacefully via UBS cable anymore).

But last Friday was one of the hectic-est (can I patent this word?) day for the last 2 months and a half I've ever been in MyGO. Reason pertaining was that completing the new AF game was of the utmost priority, so that Astro can make the most standard-telco-rates-apply money while the momentum is running strong.

I can't really show you the full game we were crash testing, mainly because it's not fully completed yet at time of writing. Furthermore, I'm too cheap to hire a lawyer in case Boss Bun turns against me and sue for infringement of privacy, breach of contract, etcetera-etcetera. Now that I think about it, his attention span of two minutes would make court proceedings slightly difficult.

So I can only afford this secret cellphone snappy.

Everybody! Stop working and start playing. That's your boss's order! Now!

If you're an avid TV SMS gamer or just curious to know how game developers do beta-testing, read on at your pleasure. It was something new for me too.

When a system is done, head programmer (Supervisor-Christy) needs all hands on deck to abuse the game to the max. Once in the company's server, the main programmer of the game, in this case is green-jacket-guy Usuff, starts the countdown to tell the system how long it should run.

Meanwhile, anybody who's glued to a PC has to access this dummy site that simulates a cellphone SMS system (but without the standard-telco-rates-apply) which connects directly to the test server. Since it was a dummy site, most staff of MyGO opened two or three of them, since the game system was designed to accommodate a Mongol horde.


Dummy SMS site. This image was blurry on purpose but I'm guessing you get the idea.

The plan was to hit the AF game system with an overload of players, real-time scenario, so we can check for any bugs, failures or even sudden stalling of the whole thing, which Astro company most definitely don't want that (we work hard so you play hard, hehehe). This is what the cyber-universe community calls a crash-test.

Once the countdown started running, it was like provoking a pack of hell-hounds. Everybody had only 20 minutes to get the highest score possible and with no minimum charge, who the hell wants to be skipping out of the Numero Uno battle, even a mock-up was it was?

Not all the participating 8 staffs of building 2A, Jalan Wan Kadir 1, that's for sure. The greatest reward is in the play.

It was a lot of fun, being the very first players of a very brand new game based on a popular reality show. Especially since it was a shooter style game and pretty easy to catch on. Once the 20 minutes was up, I managed a respectable 6th place (but about 200 points behind the 5th, bleh).

Our top game designer Kenny, master gamer as he always have been, gathered 600+ point on the top. If this was a real TV SMS game, he would have spend over RM20 but since it was a mock-up, I'm sure he enjoyed his rich, dark, very sweet, one gula-gula Hacks prize.

Again, the best reward is all in the play (Head programmer Christy was too cheap-lar~...).


As for the AF game system, it survived our abuse and had kept its smooth run. After a bit of tweaking and a list of credits, it'll be ready for Astro TV's Channel @ 15 soon enough.


Later that afternoon, Boss Bun gave a minor party to everybody to celebrate MyGO's stability.

Love Thy Neighbour's Router

What I had always wanted for a long time was a kick-ass 3D capable portable computer with wireless processing so fast, it's only legal in a small group of selected WiFi restaurants (because it puts other users to shame... boo-hoo...).

See my new toy?

Smooth, silent keys...


Somewhere I belong...

It's my Acer Aspire. Though the specs were pretty mediocre as compared to my PC, the wireless modem, which is my most pressing need, is damn fast. And the webcam's icing on the cake.

Rejoice. There is a God.

My new sweetheart is second-hand, courtesy of older brotherly love (of which, the administrator-pic is still a football avatar) even though I had planned to pay him at least RM$800 for it when I heard he was selling. Reason pertaining for getting it as a freebie (a very good freebie) is that I suspect Mak had convinced him of an old story *cough* pinjaman Pity-Pity-Aunt *cough* [/pun].

But like a Ferarri lost in Tioman Island, no highway means no go.

So as blog topic hinted, I'm hanging on to my neighbour's very nice and very fast connection and never telling them about it too.

Oh, come one. Which do I ask? Neighboour Auntie-J or Neighbour Pak Guga? I suspected the latter since our houses share a wall. It started sometime back when MySis brought along her laptop to my house to do some work; she also brought along Oversized-BabyNabil (maybe in case she got bored and decided to chase after a diaper).

She didn't expect to suddenly discover an unsecured network in the middle of the living room and neither did we (then again, our laptop is a a year 2001 paperweight).

So ever since, though Prolink exists only as a name in the laptop's network device, it is always a very good friend of ours. Heck, nobody had paid a cent. Of course, availability is subjected to the will of the neighbour whose got the control (weekend nights are the longest online time) and if he/she suspected anything, which as unsecured networks go, neither had mentioned anything back in the last Hari Raya Open House.

Back then, it's only MySis's laptop that detects the signal. Now that there's a working machine with permanent residence in the house, obviously the whole family wants to dig in my Mozilla Firefox (though, without a USB Mouse, being touch-pad illiterate as they all are, I still rule... muahahahaha...). Mak wants Asian Food Channel, Ayah's checking on his new friends in Albania and Lil' Bro... being Lil' Bro, he just wants to register courses for school (Mr. No-Imagination).

Call it a guilt in the gut, but I do wonder if it's really okay to hog on my neighbour's router? I mean, they worked and paid to get the connection speed they asked for and here's me tagging on their bandwidth. Like a pedestrian with his bum on the wide bumper behind the bus, hogging free rides around town.

I can't be the only gal on the block who turns on their laptop for free ride. So I wonder, are there a lot of readers out there who enjoys their neighbour's signal as much as the neighbour does but never saying anything about it?

I know I do. I mean, I could say it's for work but I do more work at workplace than at home (also, I plan to super-upgrade its memory once I get more money). At home, whenever the signal's on, gaming instincts just takes over.


Love thy healing bubble...

First Paycheck is Like First Sex... Need Help

Wooooooow... Chinese New Year comes early-la for me! Yahooooooo...!

I don't care if you think I'm making a fuss over something as common as this for the average ordinary citizen, but for hell, there's only a few handfuls of 'first time's in your life (like first word or first civil arrest) so I really got to plan how to spend this memorably.

Especially being that it’s the first hard-earned cash I’ve been given that didn’t come straight out of a wallet *cough* Ayah *cough*, I just thought I’ll photograph it for memory’s sake (and to remind myself how damn cheap these people are, even for an intern).

The amount is only about RM$455 though. But as compared to my previous choices to work at, I’m still better off, I think. Companies with exposure to trouble-shooting, customer service and networking. Actually, I hate networking but I picked it out because that way, I build character (Character = Grumpy). Most internship jobs fluctuates between RM$200-RM$600 I’ve heard, but I didn’t do much research on that part though. I was more interested in a fast graduation and formally call myself a graduate.

Oh crap that. Please excuse me while I do money-check-porn.

I have MONEY! I freaking have money that’s mine! Mine, mine, mine, myyyyyyyiiine! All mine!!

Okay, I confess. I already know how to spend a bit of it already.

It's a trip to Majlis Bandaran Petaling Jaya.

To pay my parking fine.

Yeah, talk about a deflating orgasm.

Hey, why don’t YOU try to find a parking space around TTDI on every freaking weekday morning. Previously, I had resorted to get myself parking at the residential area near the Damansara Specialist Hospital. Unlucky me, it came the day when the men-in-uniform left me a pricey love note on my windshield. Of course I didn’t tell my dad. He had the bad habit of blowing things out of proportions when it comes to money (my first money, what's more).


The office party at MYGO. These were the leaving interns posing with the 2 bosses.


The project I had worked on is so top secret, even one of the major characters is not allowed to be seen in the intro screen *laughs*.

Still, the resulting three hundred bucks is nothing to sneeze at. But now I’m at a bind. As I had been living the beggar-student life, I have completely no idea what to do with the extra cash (I don’t pay taxes yet).
-I already got new shoes
-And a second-hand laptop
-My current favourite game is a free-to-play (heh...)
-I haven’t read my hefty new novel yet; Twilight

All that’s left is to eat something different. Maybe I’ll try Wendy’s at Giant Kota Damansara. Blearg, put it at the bank until further ideas. Or the next paycheck (hehehe!).

MySis and Abang Arsenal told me how lucky I was since they weren’t being paid for anything during their internship (both had internships close to their universities). Then again, my older siblings and I had a wide age gap between us so times must have changed since then.

It did got me wondering about other people’s internship jobs, particularly since it’s so interesting that nowadays, you can actually get paid to learn a real hands-on-skill, whereas back then, interns doing a good job is its own reward. Based on the current situation, how much do interns of today actually get paid?

Can anybody tell me about their first jobs? And what to do special with the first paycheck?

Things That Had Happened Since...

Just for the habit of updating, here are some of the stuff that I've been through since I stopped for a while. These events were in order between the months of April 2008 to January 2009. It's kind of a lot to squeeze into one blog entry but I'm going to try to put them in chronological order.

Well, obviously my cousin Cammy* got married. Apparently, she and Mr. Groom (a USJ guy) met at university in England and had a whirlwind romance. Though they were both still learning, they opted to get married straight away (no engagement period, holy-F, slow down girl). I suspected it's a genetic thing since her mom (my aunt) got married at age 18!

Baby Nephew No. 2 came into the world in late May. Thus, from now on, BabyNabil will be nicknamed as BratNabil and second baby shall be refered to as BabyNasar. Hahaha, MySis wanted the boys in her family to have their names start with the letter 'N' and any girls born shall have 'H' names. Reason pertaining is hinted at the said parents' own names. Heh, go figure.

Oh and her husband's youngest sister is getting married too. Unlike my cousin, she choose a period of engagement and the part was just recently last December. AbangHuzir's sister was my schoolmate back at primary-to-secondary school, one of the cool-crowd gals, so we don't really meet face-to-face. I'm mentioning it that since I'm confirming to myself that I'm now at the stage in life were women should be tied to a man by her ring finger or else she's considered strange without one.

*Sighs...* I'll worry about that one later. Luckily, with an intern job in my pocket, I'm excused from the comments, even though it won't stop the Surau-Aunties from poking he over their gates (Surau-Aunties are far nosier and scarier than Family-Aunties, eeep!).

I was at MdeC, btw. Took a look around in some of the best animators and programmers in the country... that are still residing in the country, of course. I still hope to work in here someday. I'm pretty obvious in one of the pics, hahaha...

Do I like my job so far? At the moment, it's 50-50 since it's still all new to me. And the thing I thought I missed, namely the back and shoulders pain from sitting around for so long, well, I still don't miss that (hadn't had that kind of pain since the beginning of university). And I'm missing it even less right now as I type this, aaaarrrgggghhh!!

*Stops to stretch* I'm getting pretty okay with the 2 systems they want me to get familiar with. One is a 3D SMS game with you play on TV to control your character. The other is for a super-massive 3D MMORPG project based on the early mythology of Langkasuka. I've read the tech book and the spoiler book and was impressed all the way.

At the moment my bosses/mentors (wow, I have 2 of them!), Kristie and E-Rick (the later being that I never seem to find him offline during breaks) are getting me to work on the engine system and get used to building the world before they assign me to any map-building or level-coding. It's almost as similar as my RPGMaker 2003, except that it's in 3D (3D, PEOPLE, I'M WORKING WITH 3D!!), so I'm pretty excited (woohoo!).

MySis had started out intern as a programmer too but now she's mostly in areas of trouble shooting, I think. In fact, my mom was a system analyst back when computers still came with punch-cards, 16-bits monitors and binary coding. So needless to say, computer's in my blood. Mak had built some of the country's first programs, MySis helps others how to make it better while I'm making programs that makes people useless.

In conclusion, yes, I like my job (muahahahahaaa!!).

Photos: Inner Voices on Out-of-Blog Living

: Aaaaacccckkkk!!!
: Now what?
: I’ve missed blogging here. *sob!*
: So? Why the screaming? Unless a nuclear virus had struck Blogspot, the blog’s not going anywhere.
: Yeah, but what is a blog is not to capture living experience in words for all to share?
: Don’t go poetry on me, Horny-Head. I’m trying to keep real life focused in my head and you’re crowding with junk.
: Alas! Poor Quickening! I knew her, Baddie. A girl of infinite jest and excellent drama-cy.
: Drama-cy? English bard, you are not.
: You rather go Yoda?
: If I could write my assignment reports in Star Wars’ Jar Jar Binks, I’ll be done in 15 minutes.
: Oooo, meesa writes bad fishy Jedi speak!
: Oh, go screw a fish.
: Speak for yourself. Oh wait, you ARE me. Bad mood today, aren’t I?
: Effect is the cause of bad Jedi speak and feeling so very, very tired from doing homework.
: You still got assignments E-doc and Java programming. Bummer.
: Yeah and I’ll need to see an Academic Advisor soon.
: How come?
: Well, since I’ve finished that thesis report last Wednesday, I want to do Part 02 next semester.
: Next semester is the short semester. Think you can do it, all that graphic and courseware design?
: As long as it’s the only subject I’ll be taking (4 credit hours), I know I can manage.
: But that subject is not recommended for short semester.
: Hence, looking for the Academic Advisor. Then the Supervisor and the Project Moderator.
: You’re trying to finish everything this year, right?
: I want to take my convocation in 2009, no longer than that. Besides, I don’t have any more subjects to take. What else can I do in the empty weeks of the short semester?
: Cuti-cuti Malaysia?
: *WHAM!*

Alamak, flat tyre!


No really, Ayah, I can do it myself-ler...

: Okay, aside from metaphorically hitting yourself, what’s with the photo?
: I was bored.
: So you took pictures of your dad changing your car’s flat tyre?
: I like work. It fascinates me. I could watch it all day.
: Ayah changing the Proton tyre is hardly Broadway exhibition.
: Who cares? I had wanted to do it myself but Ayah loves the car more than me so he was afraid I might hurt it.
: Once a car salesman, always a car salesman.
: Amen.


Was at the school’s balcony. They’re having a 10th year anniversary festival.


Guess who came to play the guest of honour.


Gee, the Jalur Gemilang blue jumpsuit must have been a clue.

: Don’t you think it’s odd that you seem to be the only student who enjoys sitting alone under the hot sun at the top of the school’s balcony?
: Call it what you will. Preferred isolation, peaceful viewing, catching cooling natural wind, extra vitamin D after all that PC sitting hours,-
: Influenced by Japanese anime schoolgirls?
: That’s a matter of opinion.
: Can’t hide the truth from me, sweetie. Passing over your love of solitary moments, what’s with the white tents on the school’s car parks?
: Why are you asking all these questions?
: I’m playing dumb funny so I can be serious genius when I need to do homework.
: Dumb, yes. Funny? Questionable.
: Haha, hoho. Oh, my ribs. Stop before you make me puke.
: School was having a 10th anniversary day and Dr. Sheik Mohd Shukor was the guest of honour.
: The Malaysian astronaut? You had a major, major crush on him once.
: Did not!
: Did too.
: No, you’re imagining things. He’s too much a celebrity than what’s good for him.
: You had his smiling picture as your desktop wallpaper for all the months he was in Russia.
: Well, that was long over. He’s getting redundant. Time will tell if he made any real progress to any local astronaut training in the future.
: Is that why you braved the crowds to snap pictures of his boyish good looks? And you don’t even like large crowds.
: ...


Patchy sleeps. Empty suitcases have this nice hammock thing he likes.


Original Turkish salami. Should be enough to last two months.


The most beautiful souvenir of all. And damn heavy.

: All the stuff had been unpacked, huh?
: Yeah. Mak and Ayah are doing the neighbourhood rounds, giving off presents to their old friends.
: Because said old friends gave them presents in their gallivanting trips.
: Impress to be impressed, that’s their freaky motto.
: Heh. And I can’t complaint.
: Yeah, check out the new ceiling fixture.
: Pure crystal?
: Pure crystal. This thing would have cost about RM 2000+ in the local chandelier shops.
: But they got it at RM600 in Iran.
: Yeah, and it wasn’t too difficult to put it up too.
: And it’s no small pretty balls hanging there. That thing took up an entire suitcase.
: Yeah, Mak had to buy a new Iranian suitcase to carry new Iranian chandelier.
: There was an even bigger one that Ayah wanted.
: He’ll probably chase after it in his next Middle East field trip.
: Oh yeah, there was a minor security scare at KLIA, wasn’t it?
: Yeah. X-ray machine scans their bags to see big round balls.
: Crystal show up as solids in the x-ray. Made the guards think of grenades.
: Well, they were coming in from Iran, of all places.
: Hehehe.
: But hey! Gave Ayah a reason to show off the chandeliers to the airport security.
: Hope we have enough wall lights to accommodate any more.
: Still, it IS very pretty. And you won’t see them in any other house for miles.
: Oh.
: What’s wish the ‘oh’? You sound dispirited all of a sudden.
: That means neighbors wants to come over and see the fixture right?
: Duh.
: Crap, more crowds.