Bad Translation
Yes, that is an actual sign found in a secluded place in The University of Melbourne. It’s almost as if someone insert the Mandarin phrase into an online translation service and just copied the output.
Almost… as Google Translate gave even worse results:
Equally bad translation
Oct 20
Not to be confused with "Pondan" in Malay language. Product found in Indonesian supermaket in Melbourne.
Yea… coz’ apparently the word Pondan doesn’t mean the same thing in Indonesian language and Malay language. Heck, the word doesn’t even exist in the Indonesian language. And no, I am not making this up. Check it out, they have a whole range of Pondan product available.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not a homophobe. I really do want to see this kind of products made available in Malaysia, all Pondan products. I just hope they have a better marketing/branding team in Malaysia, lest they make the mistake in the urban myth of the Chevy Nova.
I just upgraded my operating system to the latest beta of Ubuntu Karmic Koala to test it and have fun with it. Overall, it has turned out to be a fine release so far. As part of my upgrade however, I thought I would change the way I use computer and access applications, which is why I install Gnome Do and enabled Docky. Here’s how my current desktop look like:
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta with Docky
Anyway, one of the docklets included in Gnome Do is the weather docklet, which allows me to see the current temperature and a six day forecast of the temperature and the weather conditions with just a click. So, there I was checking the forecast when I was extremely shocked to see this:
Yes, it's that cold.
If that’s not immediately clear to you, have a look at Docky alone.
Doomsday on Friday
Yes, it’s going to be -5572°C in Melbourne this Friday. Even colder than theoretical absolute zero, in fact exactly -5298.15°C colder. Hell is freezing over Melbourne literally. Come to think of it, how is a low of 5°C and a high of 5572°C even be possible?
On second thought, I decided to refresh the weather data to see if there is any glitch:
Now THAT'S cold
Immediately the temperature dropped 29°C. For other days, Melbourne will be expected to enjoy weather in commonly experienced in Antarctica.
On the bright side, at least it’s going to be “just” -1747°C on Friday. Yay.
P.S.: The only graphic editing done was cropping the pictures.
P.P.S: Still, how is a high of -1747°C and a low of -26°C even comprehensible?
Oct 1
A few days ago while I was watching NCIS, a brief news update flashed on the television during the commercials. As I very much hate the overly-formal, pseudo-robotic voice of the news presenter, I paid no attention to it. However, I heard her saying that she would be reporting on the “most dangerous car in Australia”. Again, I gave no attention.
It was not until the next news update that my sister alerted me about the label on the car. It spelled “PROTON JUMBUCK” in black bold font, all capitalised, which clearly stand out against the white paint of the test vehicle. Immediately, I went online to search for it and saw all the news.
More importantly, I went to the official ANCAP result for Proton Jumbuck.
One freaking meagre star. Even worst than the Chinese-made Great Wall Motors SA220 or V240, which scored 2 stars.
Luckily, Proton already has plans to phase out the vehicle in Australia. Seeing how close the date of the news was to the date label on the crash text vehicle (20 AUG 09), I can’t help but come up with the conspiracy theory that the the decision is linked to the fact that the vehicle would be undergoing crash test in the next few days.
Back in Malaysia though, none of the media seems to be reporting it. It’s a good thing the car isn’t available in Malaysia. Yet, if the Malaysian-made vehicle scored such appalling figure, what about other passenger vehicles manufactured by Proton? Then, I found this, and this, and finally this. So, it does seem that Proton has a bad rep for making sub-standard, relatively unsafe car.
A NATIONAL car company, which after over 25 years of protectionism from the state, still produces sub-par cars – if that’s not an embarrassment to Malaysia, I don’t know what is.
By the way, the overly-formal pseudo-robotic voice of the reporter with the Proton Jumbuck segment can be watched here:
Nov 24
The following is the greatest thing I have learnt in The University of Melbourne. It was shown during a preparation class on how to make good flow charts, and it was pasted on the board for the whole year just to remind people how important it is.
