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Some of my friends have been asking me why aren’t any updates here. I don’t feel good about leaving this blog unattended for so long, but frankly didn’t have time and energy to keep up with it. Now I have decided not to feel guilty because this was just meant for fun anyway. So, this blog will go with the flow of my life, without any stress… Things have changed slightly. Mainly the time. I’m pretty busy running a rat race, like most of the people, work, home, work…. Weekends are good time to get in touch with reality and re-charge your battery. I try to devote the weekends to my family.

On personal account, life is pretty good, trying to climb a property ladder, probably good (or bad) time for first-time buyers… On professional side, enjoying the challenges at ShipServ, grateful for the opportunity to serve and learn… My son is having a good time (very little homework and lot of play). My wife is quite worried about the teenage stabbing, drugs and alcohol abuse…

The weather was very good last week. It was warm and sunny for the whole week! That’s something to celebrate here, English weather is so unpredictable… you can truly see 4 seasons in one day.

Here are few moments I’ve captured from my life in UK…

April snow, my wife and son enjoying their first encounter…

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What Do Computers tell us about God?: A reflection of a Computer Scientist…

Pink Floyd has released a box set of all their classic 14 studio albums to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. It’s called “Oh By The Way”. Their official web site has a flash ad page for it and it’s a must visit. This is the best web ad I’ve ever seen in the internet, it’s just breath taking, and as stunning as their music!

I don’t know about other ISPs in UK but I can tell you that Orange is the worst I’ve encountered. I’ve been without the internet at home for 23 days. The broadband stopped working from 23rd of December 2007 (for unknown reasons) until yesterday, but I still don’t know what was the problem. I’ve made more than 10 calls to it’s customer support and they’re clueless about the cause of outage. The call gets redirected to it’s support center in India and the support staff absolutely have no idea about the problem. Every time you call them they’ll tell the same thing: “The case has been escalated and will be solved within 5 working days” and they’ll ask you to follow the Livebox (wireless router) reset procedure. It’s probably one of the worst customer service… no followups, no idea about the problem and the service goes on and off like magic. They sign you up for a 18 to 24 month contract and once you’re hooked who cares…

I’ll probably never join Orange again!

Thanks to the iPhone, I was able to keep up with the personal emails and relatively decent web browsing.

2007 has been an exciting year for me. I moved to a new place, changed jobs and am enjoying new environment, new culture and new opportunities… I’ve made some new friends and the life seems wonderful. I’m very content with what year 2007 has given me, and am looking forward to more challenges, fun, love, peace and spiritual development in 2008.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers, friends and family a VERY HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2008!

It’s been interesting times for me here in London. Life has taken many turns and I’m enjoying the Journey. Just wanted to let you all know that I’ve joined ShipServ as a System Manager and will be looking after their network, infrastructure and Security.

ShipServ was founded in 1999 and is the world’s leading e-marketplace, helping buyers and sellers to easily find each other, connect cost effectively and trade efficiently. Whether a Supplier wants to attract new customers, a Buyer needs to source new Suppliers or existing purchasing relationships require internet-enabling, ShipServ is unique in helping businesses of all sizes in the areas of web based Commerce, Search and Advertising.

I’m really honored and delighted to accept the new challenge and start this new phase of my career.

Finally some sense of normality is returning to life. I’ve found a house in Charlton, London. It’s 45 minutes commute to work by tube (underground). My son is still waiting for a school placement from the local council though, it’s taking longer than I’d expected.

Newcomers will find it quite difficult to start anything here in UK because nothing seems to move without an address proof!

You want to open a bank account?
Show your address proof.

Your child needs to go to school?
You can’t apply without an address proof.

You want to rent a house?
Address proof please!

You can’t even register with GP (Local Doctor) without an address proof!

If you’ve just arrived in the UK, where are you going to get the address proof from? It’s like a Chicken and Egg story! I was lucky that I’d opened HSBC UK account from Hong Kong, which worked for my address proof. If you’re coming to settle in the UK, think about how you’re going to get an address proof ahead of time, that will save you from some unnecessary hassles.

BTW, I bought a new MacbookPro in Hong Kong just before coming to UK because it’s insanely expensive out here. I bought it for HK$15,400, the same machine is GBP 1299 in UK. It’s around HK$ 5K (nearly 300 pounds) more expensive. Not only Apple laptops, but everything is expensive out here. Anyway, I love my new santa rosa MacBook Pro. It’s refreshingly fast compared to my previous Powerbook. I wanted to use Parallels to install different OS in my MBP, but encountered a problem with WindowsXP installation. It gives an error message saying “Error loading \PrlSAShellExt.dll”, I tried to tweak several config and reinstalled twice, but no luck. Now I’ve turned to Vmware Fusion, and I’ve to say that it’s as smooth as silk. I’ve already installed WinXP, CentOS 5 and Ubuntu. Solaris 10 is next.

I was hoping to get my hands on 3G iPhone early, but as Steve Jobs announced, it’s going to be the same EDGE and need to wait until Nov. 9. One good thing though is that there will be free unlimited access to any of the O2’s 7500 wifi hot spots.

Most of the time local telephone calls in UK are more expensive than international calls - I don’t understand how the prices are fixed. I use pay as you go (prepaid card) from voafone, it’s 30 pence for first 3 mins and 10 pence there after. The telephone plans are charges are very confusing. In Hong Kong nobody cares about how long you’re talking, but here you need to be aware of minutes, pounds and pence.

You need to pay tax for watching TV. Yes, it’s illegal to keep a TV without paying for TV License, that’s of course separate from the cable bill.

Anyway, with all that said, overall I’m finding UK life quite interesting! Different culture, different people and different environment. It’s quite a change, and it’s a welcome change. Work is challenging and pay is not bad . Most importantly, my son loves the new place!

It’s been quiet here for some time because I’ve been busy lately, moving to UK. Actually I’m already in the UK (arrived here on Aug 10), living with my relatives at Aldershot (which is a small town, an hour drive from London). It’s very cold out here, although it’s supposed to be summer, you hardly see the sun, and it rains with cool breeze most of the time.

My son is enjoying the new place (eagerly waiting for it to snow), my wife finds it very quiet and peaceful (she misses the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong). Initially I was busy looking for a job (applying and responding to calls), the good news is that I’ve already found a job and started working from last week.

I’ve started working as a System Administrator at a company called Covestor, which is in Central London. I’ll be looking after their Linux Systems, Security and Network. It’s a startup company with a new idea to democratize the investment management industry and help proven self-investors around the world compete with the large institutions.

A real-trade sharing service for proven self-investors. To share your real investment decisions, gain recognition and earn fees by helping others

At Covestor they’ve built an unique system and technically there’re many challenges. I’m sure it’ll be fun working with them, where I can add value and learn. Other cool thing about Covestor is that they’ve a small group of really dedicated, smart, and truly multinational team at work. People from US, UK, Colombia, Russia, Lithuania, Italy and India are working together. It’s a great opportunity for me to be joining this team.

Currently, I’m looking for a house close to London and also a school for my son. I’m still getting used to the new place and new life. There’re many things to be done so, this blog might be quiet for some time but don’t go away once things are settled I’ll be blogging regularly.

Stopped at London Bridge to take a photo after my interview at Covestor.

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Yes, that’s true! Ram Bahadur Bomjon, the Buddha Boy has started preaching. I thought that will happen somewhere around 2012 because he said he’ll meditate for 6 more years in 2006. Anyway, in his first ever direct message to more than three thousand people gathered in the Hallori Jungle in Bara district of southern Nepal, he said: “The only way we can save this nation is through religion”. Not sure what to make of his first public message. Hopefully full transcript, audio or video of his address will appear soon.
There’s few more details at UWB, with 2 photos from the address, you can see he has a long hair and is wrapped in maroon robe.

When I read Mahabir Pun’s story about how he brought the wireless technology to a remote mountainous village of Nepal called Nangi, I was amazed by his determination! What an inspirational story of a man with a noble cause. It really gave me goose bumps, I just thought what a difference one committed individual can make to a society. With his determination, hard-work, and dream, he changed the lives of all the people of Nangi village for better. What a meaningful way to use the technology and what a wonderful way to live this life. I sincerely wish I could do something like that. I’ve written to Mr Pun and hopefully I could be helpful to his project in someways.

Relay Station 2, Khopra with Antennas Pointing to Different Villages Elevation 3,600m (~12,000 ft)
More Photos

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