Open Source Free Seminar

It was raining heavily this evening. After finish my duty at the kindy, I rushed back to the office. Picked up my two friends and send them home. Kg Bharu's road was terrible. We were on the road for almost an hour. Dropped her off, quickly rushed to Putra Damai LRT Station. It was 6.50pm. Damn. I'm gonna be late for the seminar. It starts at 7pm. The last time I had a ride on the lrt was few months ago. Thank God I have the Malay Mail with me. It accompany me throughout the journey.

I arrived at KL Sentral station at 7.10pm. I asked the officer of Putra for the direction to Plaza Sentral. Great, it is only behind the station. I walked as fast as I could. The rain had stopped and the road was wet. I stepped into the lift at 7.20pm, there were 4 others who were also heading towards the seminar. I was greeted by the KMDC staff at the entrance, registered myself and paid RM 50 to book a place for the two days Linux hands on workshop which will be held on 6th and 7th of November. Click here for the details

The seminar will starts at 7.30pm. I thought I was late and kinda surprised to knew that only 16 people turned up from 50 who registered for the programme. Maybe open source is still a new environment to Malaysia people. The speaker is Mr Teoh Eng Sin. He was among the devoted Microsoft products for years before his company asked him to try on the open source. He has been using it for almost a year. Only one participant is familiar with Linux (he said Trovalds pronounce it as 'Linix'). The others are microsoft users.

I was eager and excited to see the interface of Linux Operating System for the first time. Huh, it looks like Windows-based. I always thought that Open Source OS means only black screen where you have to type a lot of command. Just like those old days of Dos. But hey, it's also a click away, just like Microsoft product. Mr Teoh showed us the comparison between MS(Microsoft) and OS(Open Source). He also showed us the environment of openoffice and I must admit, I was facinate at the product. I should have learn about this long time ago. The session ends at 9pm. I met Mr Teoh after the session and had a short chat with him about the licensing of Linux (no such thing. It's totally free except if we want customer help, we gotta pay) and I also asked him about the MS latest product which will be launch this November, the Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2003 and the news that Obiwan Kenobi alerted me at slashdot bout office 2003.

Anyway, the 2nd seminar will be held same place on 23rd October. It's free, seats are limited. First come first serve basis. Hopefully I will be allow to take 2 days leave to attend the Open Source workshop. Can't wait to experience using it. Hey, maybe I'll have two type of operating system in my laptop after that :D

I've received information from the master franchisor of Futurekids Malaysia that we will be starting using Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 next year in our education program. Then, I saw a Microsoft Office 2003 Contestheld by Microsoft to promote its coming Microsoft Office 2003. Free hands on will also be available at several learning centres across Malaysia. Urrghhh...I will have a really tight schedule till end of the year. Not to forgot the final exam also will be around that. I wish I have finished studying. This is getting tougher. Study and work. Need to quickly finish it up.

Oh well, on the way home I dropped by at QC Photo shop (man...the customer service sucks!!) and asked for the priceof the Sony TRV 350. It's RM 1750 at their place. Wow....I should go to Pertama Complex tomorrow and see what's the bargain looks like there. I hope it's cheaper. I really hope to get the camera before 19th October. Then I can test it at one of the kindy's concert that I work with. But I need money and time to upgrade my pc. I need to install firewire port and get additional hard disk to edit the video later. Worst part, the pc is at my brother's house in Klang. Arrgghhh......better get some sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a tough day..zzzzzzz