Unifi at 2 and a Half Storey House

We just gotten ourselves into the so-called fast lane, virtually - the high speed broadband service, by Telekom as well. My streamyx is still on. Unifi is in together with streamyx - at least until they start charging the service or until we can decide which one we want to keep.

The installation, because it was the first time in our area and our house being the first one in the area getting this service, took hours to complete. They need to do a little bit of hacking at our ground floor to kind of connect to the Telekom port outside. Inside the house, it's just using the electrical line to distribute the signal (if I got this right). The team started work at 10am and didn't finish until 8pm! So many unforeseen and technical issues. They still have to come back another day to fix the IPTV issues.

The premise is 5MB with Unifi compared to 512kb that I am having with streamyx. But for a house as tall as ours: (it is supposed to 2.5 but it is almost like 3.5 storey with its high ceiling and all), was a challenge to get the performance at its peak. So, the main port is plugged in at the lowest end of the house, and then we have the adapter port with wifi router is placed at the boys room at the back side of the house on floor 3.

Verdict: Signal was mediocre and speed was acceptable. Speed test showed somewhere around 2.6-3K MB from the my bedroom - also at floor 3 and distributed evenly within the room on the top floor. If we put the adapter and router at the living room on 2nd floor, the signal is stronger and speed wise, you can get up to 4.8k MB for download speed and more than 5K MB for upload speed. That was awesome actually. The downside of it, signal and speed was much lower than streamyx at the boys and girls room at the back of 3rd floor. So, to be fair, the secondary port (adapter) was placed backed at the boys room. Sacrifice the speed a bit, it was still good though comparatively. Friends, when I watch the online korean drama at any channel, it is still real-time. I don't have to wait for it to load for hours. Just at a click, after few seconds the movie will run without a glitch. Of course, if the server hosting it is also ok-la. Youtube has an even better response. Downloading thing is very much time efficient.

So, the next thing to figure out is how we can place the secondary port to the 2nd floor, which is closer to the main line at the ground floor and have the router at 2nd floor talk to another signal device (which I have no idea what that is - all depends on dear hubby) so that it can boost the signals and performance at the 3rd floor. Oh, the service comes with IPTV. But so far, we haven't used that one yet. They hasn't resolve the small screen issues, plus it has to go with the router, so, that's troublesome. Astro is still the preferred provider for now. I think, higher chances, actually definitely we will stick with Unifi.

I am thankful that at least we have high speed services for the consumers now, even though at limited areas. I used to bitch about even China has high speed broadband - a friend of mine says at 8MB lagi. It was a good move the government made to promote and make this happen. I hope Telekom will not mess this up and continue to provide services with quality. I am glad that Shah Alam is one of the 4 areas that they (Unifi) started to cover. And I am glad that I live in Shah Alam to see that happen:) ha ha.. soon, I will say goodbye to streamyx - tak payah nyanyi potong lagi... the fiber optic is on!

The Darndest Thing Again

Where do kids learnt all the phrases that they utter? Family? TV? Friends? Teachers? Maybe, and maybe books. My not-reading-yet going-to-be-6 year old son, Alif said this to me just now...

"Mummy, when you're older and your husband die and you're old too and cannot move anymore, can you give all your money to me?"

What triggered this comment?

He was watching transformer toys demo in youtube and loves the toys sooo much and keep on bugging me to watch to so that I'll be convinced that they are good toys and get them for him...so, I said, that needs lots of money which you haven't earned yet...yes, that triggers his comment after much sighing and whining on how good the big transformer toys are, especially Optimus Prime.

Where did he learn this, I ask....and his famously consistent answer was ... "I think it all by myself!"

PhD? Maybe...maybe not

To do or not to do? I work in the field where mastery of technical and vast knowledge is a requirement to succeed. From day one, after graduation, I had ventured into the field of Industrial Hygiene also known as Occupational Hygiene in most countries. I went in by chance -- its the job offered to a fresh grad who didn't really know what she's getting into. Acceptable as long as the job was within vicinity of the town I lived and pay was good:)

Anyway, I had 2 choices if I choose to continue locally. A little bit of a background... continuing education in the field as specific as Industrial/Occupational Hygiene in Malaysia at any level, is not possible now. There is none offered yet. Maybe demand is not high... most of my colleagues went to UK or USA for their Masters and stopped there. So far, no academician that I know of pursue this field for their doctorate degree... well, somebody told me, just recently 1 UKM staff now, doing her PhD in this field in Australia.. Anyway, going abroad is not a choice due to family reasons (and also career reason). My choices if I were to try and do a PhD in Malaysia are:
1) take the general PhD from UiTM or UPM - not specific to IH but can be a related study in the science field. Be prepared to be totally independent (I heard this is expected for a PhD candidate) and maybe for help or advise, I have to get it from my own external network. or...
2) Wait...few more years maybe, the program will be offered in Malaysia. Who knows, the current project with UiTM that I am working on with my colleagues will materialized, and we will have post-graduate course in this field and thus..more research available in Malaysia...very ambitious of us actually.

If I were to pursue this ... lotsa things I guess, I have to sacrifice, if I were to start on this within this 1 or 2 years...
1) Reduce or totally stop the pleasure of watching TV especially the Korean drama series that I enjoyed so much :(
2) Maybe quit the Korean Language course that I am in currently. And this relates to number 1 actually. Watching the drama helps me with listening practice (ha ha!).
3) I will have to switch from more pleasure readings (novels of course) to little pleasure readings and more academics, text and journals reading ... ahhh..
4) What about family? vacation? what do I have to sacrifice?
5) Maybe at some point, I have to take unpaid leave or work part time only? Can I afford it?

At this age... I don't know if I still have the physical and mental power to do hard study. This is actually part of my "retirement" plan though. To teach/lecture. And to do this, I need to have that academic qualification. I do not plan to work full time till retirement age...hopefully, when the family is financially stable with enough savings, I will not need to work full time. Part-time lecturing is something that I look forward to ...

To do or not to do...? *sigh*....