Full week ahead

Looks like it's going to be a monster week. It will be a three-day week for me, before catching an evening flight to Kuching on Wednesday after work. I will be involved in a series of talk there, starting with a the MaxFamily patient support group meet up on Thursday. It will be more of a Congress giving the opportunity for patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia to meet and share experiences of their problem among their peers with Haematologists in the background offering guidance.

Then there would be the small matter of the Malaysian Society of Harmatology Scientific Meeting taking place at the Pullman, starting on the Thursday. I will be involved in a couple of the symposium as well as meetings. I will also be the photographer for the event, something I had been doing in the last couple of years. That should be fun.

Maybe I would be able to complete the list of things to buy which I would no doubt get off Anita. She has a cousin who is working there at the moment. I'm sure there would be plenty of stuff to do and things to blog. Really looking forward to that. The flight home would be on Sunday afternoon. Monday would be the Labour Day holiday, and I have taken Tuesday and Wednesday off.

TRON Visited

So, the whole household watched TRON yesterday. Even my boys were mesmerised with the plethora of bright neon colour on offer. It was certainly a feast for the eyes. It really brought the best out of the Blue Ray HD pictures. I wished that I still had my home theatre as I had to rely on the TV screen stereo sound.

The plot for the movie was also much better than I expected. It was complex enough for the adults while my children were left drooling on the visual effects. The fight scene were very well choreographed and would not be termed as violent.

Even though the overall tone of the picture was a cold blue contrasting nicely with the orange neon glow from the antagonist characters. It was a true cinematic treat. I could imagine the movie looking great on an iMAX screen.

By the end of the day, I was sure that Idlan watched the movie three times, mainly the lightcycle part. Great stuff! Next up, Inception.

iPhone tracker

In the last week, one of the bigger news hitting the Net - and I was not talking about the 1Malaysia email - was the unveiling that iPhone has been secretly recording its geolocation on the go without the user's knowledge or consent. Talk about breach of privacy.

Studying the news further, I decided to download the said software and try it for myself. And it was surprisingly easy.

First of all, head to this link. Load the software - appropriately named iPhone tracker - on the machine where the iPhone or iPad was synched. On loading, the program would search for the hidden geolocation data file and read them up. Within a few seconds, without even needing me to point the software to any target, I was presented with a map representation of the data.

I have been in JB, Langkawi and KB since I used the iPhone unit according to the program. And they were right.

Before you go all upset about the whole thing, I must point out that you must have your unit synched on the Mac for the data to be read. The program, as far as I can tell can only be run on a Mac - but I need to confirm this though. One can only read the data on the computer, so there was no chance for the data to be accessed remotely.

However, this did not explain the need for the data to be kept in the first place. One wonders who would have access to the data as I was sure, the data could be uploaded to a net server should Apple wished to do so. And when that happened, there would be no telling what it would be used for. It can be as benign as being used for targeted advertising. Or worst still can be used to profile the user as terrorist or to be uses retrospectively in the court of law. What ever it was, the fact that it was taken without consent would certainly tarnish Apple's image no doubt.

Dinner for Idlan

Believe it or not, the above snap was taken using an iPhone 4. Shows what an awesome camera it carries.

Yes, as I tweeted, we had dinner at Harrods at KLCC with my in-laws to celebrate Idlan's exam results. Sufficed to say, he did OK and Anita was really proud. They also served Irfan's favourite drink, the Fruit Punch Mocktail. And to be honest, the drink was gorgeous.

As usual, the boys had their roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I had some sandwiches. We had a good time and more importantly, we set out early and was back home to catch the football. It just ended and United had opened a nine points lead after beating Everton. Well done Hernandes.

Sports Day

Going through the photos from the last couple of months, I realised that I did not blog about the boys' recent School Sports Day. It was held at UIA main sports stadium, on a Saturday morning I happened to be free that weekend, so I became the designated driver. I was also asked to give away the prizes for the kindergarten. Irfan happened to be one of the participants.

Getting ready for the paradeIrfan and his friendsI knew I was not fully equipped when I only turned up with my dSLRThe weather that morning was gorgeous. Too hot in fact but luckily the boys' events were amongst the first. But first, there was the serious business of marching. Both of them were involved, Irfan with his kindergarten group while Idlan was with one of the main houses, the Yellow House, Rajawali.

Usain Bolt, eat your heart out!The anchor was a bit chubby.That was why they came in only third!As usual, the marching was rather elaborate, and sometime made me wonder if that was the main event rather than the sports. A good hour passed until all the procession were done. Then, Irfan started his telematch - three games all together where everybody ended up with prizes. Idlan participated in the 25m x 4 relay. He came third and missed out on the medals. That became the main topic of talk for the rest of the day since Irfan returned with a medal. Idlan said it didn't count as it was me who gave the medals away. He kept asking me if I have any extra.

We did not stay the full event. By the time their events were done, it was already close to 11. We left for lunch at The Curve instead.