My Office "Garden"

The usual comments when other colleagues visit our office & they will say "Wow there are so many plants & fish tanks on almost every desk!" Frankly its really true, almost 90% of the colleagues sitting in IT area either have at least a minimum of 1 pot of plant on their desk or 1 or more fish tanks with either water plants or gold fishes or guppies or even lobster!

Side track on the lobster... The original owner resigned & left the company. Another colleague whom replaces her job also inherit the lobster. Unfortunately he got WFM yesterday & the lobster is out for adoption mention by our dear Sharon... :( One good thing is that every morning cleaner auntie will feed the lobster without fail....

Coming back to the plants! Oh yes there are plants every where. Not loosing out I also have my own as well. Let me present you with my mini office garden!

From the walkway this look like just any ordinary empty cubicle. Ya there were many colleagues whom got WFM & many pockets of empty places all around.

Well if you walk into the cube... here are all my plants!

A closer look on the plants. Let me also introduce these plants 1 by 1 to you as well.

This is actually my 1st plant. A money plant which I inherited from Winnie Teng. Sorry dear, over all these years I only manage to grow 4 stalks of leaves :(

The next plant I brought to the office - Cactus. A gift from my 6th uncle whom has such great green fingers. Anything he plants will grow fat & tall!

Ah... this one is another inheritance - from Yeow Loye after he left an African Violet. Hey YL see it is growing well & blooming with flowers since the past couple of months.

A new addition to the family. Another African Violet just potted last week. I hope it will grow well :)

Lots of Long Weekends

Singapore's 2010 Public Holidays just published couple days ago. OMG!! OTher then Hari Raya Haji which falls on a Wed, the rest are either on Fri, Sat & Sun!!!
The best for us is we shall get Monday off when the PH falls on Sat. Hooray!

Another Team Order?!?!?!

After Qualifying on Saturday, I really thought its going to be different for this this race? Why so different? I really though Vettel may take the lead & win the race being pole other then Button. Unfortunately Vettel lost his grip & spun out of the track. Button overtook Vettel & the race winner had been decided...

What so frustrating is, Vettel was put on a 3 Pit Stop strategy while Webber was on 2! Was it a team order? Was it a punishment for Vettel loosing his position to Button during the 1st 3 laps of the race? Was it?!?!?!?!

During mid race, Vettel was so close to Button - < a fraction of second apart. You can see Vettel was pushing Button hard & almost made Button loosing his foot hold on this position. But the unexpected happen! Vettel being called it pit for a regular pit stop! What kind of strategy is this! I believe if Vettel to continue to push further, Button will loose his cool...



Well its obvious you wouldn't see a happy Vettel on the podium as well....More news from www.f1-live.com
Sebastian Vettel admitted feeling somewhat frustrated following the 58-lap Turkish Grand Prix that saw rival Jenson Button extend his already large championship advantage with another win while poor team strategy cost him second place to team-mate Mark Webber.

After running wide into turn nine and then losing time out of turn ten on the first lap, pole-sitter Vettel dropped out of the lead and behind Button. This would prove to be a decisive as Vettel then focussed his attention to keep the Brawn Mercedes in sight and Red Bull Renault team-mate Webber behind.

However, Red Bull opted to keep Vettel on a three stop strategy in the hope that later in the race he could catch and pass the championship leader to record the race win - an unlikely scenario given the pace of the Brawn in practice and qualifying. This was also a surprise to the young German star as well as to the paddock.

"After the first stint it was more or less clear that I was short on fuel and therefore I was surprised that we still went on a three stop strategy as from there onwards it did not make much sense especially as I caught up Jenson in my middle stint and lost time there," Vettel explained. "I basically lost the race to Mark as well, so all in all we probably didn't do the best job there."

The battle for second however still remained. Following his third stop for fuel and tyres, Vettel quickly closed in on Webber before team instruction told him to save the car and not to try and gain second position.

"I was surprised it was that much and then my engineer came on the radio and said Mark was faster," he continued. "I think I just have to ask you what you would do in this kind of situation. You start from pole, you realise that your strategy doesn't work as it was supposed to and you're not in the position you want to be, so the last thing you do is just go round slowly and drive the car home. I think both of us turned down the engines but I enjoy driving, so I would rather continue to go quickly than start to slow down and carry the car home."

"At this point I haven't spoken to the team but at this point I don't yet understand why we were still on a three stop. I think a two stop would have just secured second position. We tried; it didn't work, so we'll know next time."

Vettel is clearly frustrated this evening as he now trails Button by a massive 32 points, a gap that is almost impossible to regain. Furthermore, Webber's second position moves him just 1.5 points behind.

Team Principal Christian Horner was keen to diffuse the issue in his post race statement claiming that Vettel's lap one mistake had essentially forced the team to remain with a three stop strategy.

"Unfortunately for Sebastian, after a good start and having led on the first lap, he made a small mistake which allowed Jenson to pass," Horner stated. "Our only chance to then have a go at Jenson was a three-stop strategy, which is what we elected to do. It relied on us overtaking Jenson in the second stint, but unfortunately Sebastian didn't manage that today and the time lost was the difference between second and third."

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International

Google expanding their Global Footprint

Google is almost every where! You log into Google homepage, there are so many things which this primary search machine can offer.
You can search information, images, news etc.. Plus now there are Google Mail, Google Apps & even Google Earth!
Hehe my blog is also Powered by Google too!

Now they are even more adventurous. Google may enter F1 as a sponsor. News from www.f1-live.com

Google may enter F1 as sponsor
Co-founder Larry Page takes in Monte Carlo

The famous internet brand Google could soon be seen on the painted carbon bodywork of a Formula One car.

The company's co-founder Larry Page, one of the world's richest billionaires, was a guest of McLaren title sponsor Vodafone at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Interestingly, the 36-year-old American is a friend of Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire who has been considering ramping up his Virgin backing of the dominant Brawn team.

Page was married on Branson's own Caribbean island, and the pair have also been linked in various business ventures.

Brawn is not the only team interested in Google sponsorship, however; every major outfit on the grid is believed to have put out the feelers as to how serious Page's interest is.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

Gmail

You know our company wide had gotten rid of using Microsoft Exchange as our general email application & switch to Google Mail. Gmail for short. Initially when all of us started using this we really felt "Cheap". Why is it so???

Lots of functions which were so simple in MS seems like impossible in Gmail. For example

• No drag & drop into folder.
• No folder filing concept.
• No sub folder concept.
• No copy & paste from a source like picture or charts to compose mail body.
• No nice word formatting like what we see in MS.
• No mail attachments
• No many many more just to name a few above.
  

Gmail is a web base application therefore all of us have to use Firefox & most of us here are not familiar with multiple tab browsing concept. However with these said, there are also lots benefit having us to switch. Not mention the amount of $$ being saved, also now one can read their emails any time any where if you have a browser phone & also VPN is not required to read mails as well!

Lately Google also introduce new patches that allow theme customization on the Gmail skin. What got me so facinated was the theme that I chosen actually changes its images base on the timing of the day. Come to think of it, this Gmail thingie is really not that bad after all... :)

 

Another Button Win

F1 beginning to be almost predictable over the last Races. Its like...

Button will take pole
Button will lead
Button will win

What happen to the rest of the drivers?
Ferrari struggled for the last 5 races of being diffuser-less. Car not performing per standard & also reliability issues.
McLaren is worst. Crappy car & Heikki Kovalainen crashes out almost every other race. Hamilton struggles with the most crappiest car throughout his entire career in racing. Overly pushes car & bang out he goes in Q1 for Monaco!
BMW don't know what happen, keep scrapping the bottom. Is it KERS or the driver???
My dear Renault - Alonso!!! haiz.. still unable to move up the grid...

Well we know the diffuser gang are doing well. When will the rest catch up????? If this going to maintain for the next few races, World Champion & Constructors Championship shall be decided Spa or Monza!