HarisPhotoBlog.com Migration

With the recent fanfare over the announcement of iCloud and iOS 5, the rumors finally came through. The era MobileMe as we knew it was coming to an end, and it was a long time coming. Being a subscriber of MobileMe since 2004 during it's .mac days - haven't I told you that I'm a Mac fanboy? - the webmail service and other utilities it offered - iDisc especially was pretty cumbersome. And worst of all was iWeb. It was a closed platform and it was only possible to update the site from a single computer! Even if you were to used another Mac and log into the system, you would not be able to enter iWeb. It was a closed - and doomed - platform.

My previous attempt at starting a blog using the iWeb platform were abandoned not once, twice, but three times. I just couldn't cope with the interface. I can't customise the blog, nor can I update it on the fly. That really defeated the purpose of it being a mobile platform. I finally got my act together to start this blog and I have been active since its inception in March 2009 - this was the first entry. I have since had close to 800 blog entries, and the main reason for its longevity if you could call it that was the brilliant web hosting service from SquareSpace. I couldn't speak highly enough of the platform. I can update the blog directly of any web browser, iPhone, iPad, or just through a plain old email.

The longest surviving site I maintained on an iWeb platform was harisphotoblog.com. It was mainly a flash portal from my SmugMug storage. It just needed maintaining every few weeks or so, but even then, I felt the pain every time an update was needed. The upload failure rate was also rather high, and options were limited. I was not able to inject too much code into the system at all.

From next June, iWeb would cease to exist. I therefore decided to bail out, and opened another SquareSpace site. The difference was spectacular. I was able to post the photos and slideshows at HD size. The site was more customisable and the analytics were more thorough. Have a look at the site. You might find it a hard squeeze if you were browsing in a laptop or a mobile device ........

Spring Clean

Well, it was way past due that my room at Menara Timur was given a quick cleaning. Last week, as Prof Ikram moved out from his room at the Faculty Office, he had his staff moved quite a bit of his staff back into the room which I have been sharing with him for the past five years. However, he had hardly been in, juggling from the Faculty and the UMMC Director's Office. And with Edmund, another room ate of mine not using the room much, I was practically king in the room, hence it being unkept.

I spent a good chunk of the morning, prior to my tutorial, cleaning it up. It was quite interesting seeing the amount of junk I had accumulated over the years. In the end, I managed to fill up five big black plastic bags. Hauling them out of the room took some doing. I wicked I had brought my shredder from home to reduce the amount of papers I needed to clear up, then take it to the recycling area. Some of the documents were rather sensitive though, like my research data and patient notes. To shred they must.

Now that it was done, it was time to pack some of them away ........

Congratulations All Around

My Boss for the last seven years had just been made a full Professor. She took me and the rest of the crew out for lunch earlier today. The initial plan was to go to delicious, but judging from how they messed up our orders the last time we went over for lunch, we decided to give it a miss. After much deliberation we decided to go for Madam Kwan in Telawi. Fearing the place would be packed, we booked the table beforehand.

All was done .... burp!
We reached there in good time. All my previous tutors were present, which was nice. We caught up with news as some of them had retired. It was quite a long affair and it was way past 3 pm when we reached the ward. Then, the work piled in .......

A New Addition

I have to admit up front. I have a penchant for fountain pens. And the ink must be in royal blue, not black. Last weekend, during my trip to The Curve, a new pen caught my fancy. It was a Lamy pen. As usual, I asked for the broadest tip, as well as a blue ink. Used it, and got hooked.

It was not a perfect one though. I have a Mont Blanc which I rarely used - it was mainly kept in my office at home. The one I use regularly was a Pelikan. Nice and heavy, with a pump rather than cartridge. The nib was broad enough, with enough resistance on paper. Slight issue with the ink flow though. It was not as smooth as I would have hoped for.

This Lamy pen might be too light for my liking, but the tip ran really smooth. It also used a pump, and ink flow so far has been good - the extra broad nib really made the difference. Long may it stay in my lab coat. I users to carry a pen in the UK which lasted me a whole five years. It was a Parker, with extra broad nib. Nice and heavy but one day, I accidentally dropped it and the nib was bent. End of story!

Night at an Indian

In the UK, most of the halal restaurants were run by Indians and Pakistani. There were Indian restaurants everywhere that it was often joked that the national food of the UK was curry. Every once in a while, we loved to have du ne'er at Indian restaurant. In fact, my boys, Irfan especially loved Indian food - especially if they came with papadom. One of our favourite was Spice of India in KLCC. However, we noticed lately that the service and the quality of food has deteriorated. We also had an incense last year where thSave & Closee waiters actually served some foreigners before us, and since then he have yet to return.

We were rather apprehensive when we entered the Spice of India branch at Pavilion the others evening. But it turned out better than expected. The service was very good considering that the place was full. Food came fast, the waiters we're efficient, and I must say that the food was better than the branch in KLCC even though the menu was similar. It was a great night out in the end. Irfan had his papadom of course while Idlan reluctantly finished his poori. The cheese in spinach that I had was exquisite and the meat and chicken dishes were tender as expected.

It looked like we probably return here again in the future, but I couldn't really go there'd too often as the meal there were not really cheap. the restaurant also appeared crowded and if the service was slow, I was sure that my boys would be restless. The small dining area also cause some of the fumes to fill the room a times, and luckily we had our inhalers in the ready just in case. The pace between the tables were also rather small. So the restaurant area could have been bigger.