This plant is given by a relative to my mum.  It is a multi-layer petals red garden balsam.  We have other colours before we have this but they are too common, such as single layer purple and single layer pink.

The scientific name for garden balsam is called Impatiens balsamina.  It is also know as rose balsam.  Last time in school, we just called it balsam.  It is one of the most comment plants we used in biology class when doing experiment.  We use the whole plant as well as its seed to do experiment.

Years ago, we have dark red garden balsam but after many generations of pollination, all of them has turned into light pink.  This time, we reduce the number of pink and purple garden balsam and isolate the red garden balsam so that its population would not be taken over by the others.

[Different parts of the plant are used to treat disease and skin afflictions; the leaves, seeds, and stems are also edible if cooked. Juice from balsam leaves treats warts and also snakebite, while the flower can be applied to burns to cool the skin.] - from wikipedia.

If I am not mistaken, I have heard that its flowers or its leaves can be used to dye colours on fingernails but I have never tried that before.

I hope I can collect more variety of garden balsam.  I am looking for orange, white and stripe colours.

This mini radio is about 30 years old.  It has only AM band.  While I was in Primary school, my mum gave it to me to listen to the local radio broadcasts.  The special thing about this radio is the panda that is pointing at the frequency tuned.  It is not working anymore, but I keep it until now.  I hope one day I can repair it myself and make it works again.

About 20 years ago, this type of radio was still very popular.  I remember an instant noodle manufacturer which gave AM radio when the consumer buys its big packet size of noodle with only a few ringgit extra, and this type of radio is not more than RM10 at that time.  Before I have this Panda AM radio, I had spoiled 2 or 3 other mini pocket AM radio.  I took out the components such as coils, speakers and variable capacitor (the big capacitor).  :P

There was one time, I have encountered an amplifier or radio which has vacuum tube.  My father told me not to switch it on because afraid that it would explode.  I don’t know where has it gone to now.  I have collected a big box of old electronic components from radios and television, but they have been thrown away.

At that time, there was no FM radio station here in Kuching, AM was the only choice.  Most of the time, I listened to Chinese programmes and Educational Channel (”Radio Pendidikan”).  These channels were not on air 24 hours, and only a few hours a day.  Before 6am, there was a sape music before the openning and playing national anthem on all of the local channels (Radio Malaysia Kuching).  I miss the sape music.  If you know where to find it, please let me know.

Years later (90’s), I have owned at least 3 radios which have SW (Short Wave), LW (Long Wave), MW (Medium Wave).  MW is another name for AM.  I played around with the radios, and found that there was no channel on LW, and at night I could receive the broadcast from international radio station using MW and SW.  I could not understand most of the language such as Vietnamese,  but I listened to some English and Mandarin programmes only.  Sometimes I have even received channels which were sending Morse code.

On AM / MW, I have listened to “The Voice of Asia” at night time.  It was from Taiwan, and I cannot received it now.  On SW, I have listened to Radio Australia, 958 City Channel of Singapore, NHK, BBC, China Radio, The Voice of …. <country name> etc..  I stopped listening to radio when I was preparing for my high school exam.

Now, I still have a mini multi-band radio with FM, AM and SW.  I listen to FM channels most of the time, and do not listen to AM and SW  anymore.  Some of the stations can be listened through the web now such as Radio Australia.

Everything started when I borrowed a book about radio transmission from the library.  At that time, I was studying in primary school.  From then onwards, I was interested in learning what is AM, FM, SW, etc..  From the books, I have learned how they are transmitted, and how far they can travel … .  In high school, this is my favorite chapter in Physics.

Many radio stations have been broadcasted through the Internet since many years ago.  I guess very soon, in a few years or even months later, FM channels might be replaced by radio on net using VOIP because the mobile high speed Internet broadband is getting popular.  Maybe the IP-Radio has already existed but nobody is using it here yet.  What do you think?

This is the only Indonesian magazine that I have.  I asked one of my best friends from Indonesia to buy it for me in 2001.  I have kept it until now, and most probably I will send it to the recycle center soon.

This friend and me got closer when we studied in college and did a project together.  I went to his hostel while we worked on our project and he showed me some computer magazines.  He is kind and helped me to buy one when he went back to his hometown.  This magazine is not only a magazine, but a memory of friendship.  Every time I dig out this magazine, I will remember him.  Do you think that I should throw this magazine away?

Since some time ago, when I found interesting articles in newspapers or magazines that I wanted to keep, I would use my camera to capture it instead of doing newspaper cutting.  This magazine shows part of the computer history, I will also do some “newspaper capturing” before send it the recycle center.

Before that, lets move our memory 10 years backward. …

This magazine cost 29800 Rupiah, or about RM 10.  It is the October 2001 edition, which is more than 8 years.  At that time CD-ROM 52X could still be found, and the flat monitor is the CRT type and not LCD types.

At that time, Pentium ™ 4, was the latest processor  with socket 478.  Now, it has outdated and hardly find the replacement for its motherboard because it is always out of stocks.

At that time, 256MB of RAM was very commom.  It is a big contrast compared to the new computer system now.  However there are some older computers in 80’s which are even older.  So far I have seen 5 types of RAM from EDO to DDR3.

What is the smallest harddisk drive size you have seen?  I have encountered a 270 MB harddisk drive!!!  Its capacity is smaller than a piece of CD. :O

At that time, DVD writter was not popular and might cost thousands Ringgit Malaysia.  Up to today, I have seen 5 types of optical drive.

1.  CD-ROM (CD:read)
2.  CD-Writter (CD:read/write)
3.  DVD-ROM (CD:read, DVD:read)
4.  Combo Drive (CD:read/write, DVD:read)
5.  DVD Writer (CD:read/write, DVD:read/write)

Now there is a new type of optical drive called “Blue ray”.  I have not owned it yet and it seems that it has yet to get popular.

In any computer magazine, one of the sections that will attract my attention is the benchmarking.  Not only hardware, but it also does comparison on the softwares.

Besides it was rich in “latest” information about computer, I also find that the language sounds interesting.  May be I seldom read in Indonesia.

Last time when I was working in a private company, I spoke Malay with my ex-assistant.  Sometimes I uses the words I learn from this magazine.  I think he laughed at me and we both think that it was funny.

I told him,”It’s time to check the computer and ‘menjinakkan virus‘ (tame the virus)”.

I have learned computer jargon in Malay from other source as well such as book from library.  I remember ‘tetingkap‘ means windows, “pejabat” means Office application, “tetikus” for mouse, “jantung” for processor, “bod ibu” for motherboard etc..  Do not learn these jargons from me because we invented some of them ourselves.  :P

Time flies non stop, I wonder how the computer magazine will look like in the next 10 years.

ps: I invite my best friend from Indonesia (who is not in Indonesia now), and my ex-assistant to read this post.  Let’s share our memories and tell me something that you still remember but I miss out here.

I stopped using different types of plastic pencil cases because they spoiled easily, and I bought 2 metal pencil cases when I was studying in secondary school and I have been using them until I have finished my university studies.

Metal pencil cases are more durable.  Both of my metal pencil cases are still usable except they are rusty now.

I am going to send them to a recycle center because I do not need them anymore.  Before that, I took their photos as the only memory that I will keep.  By doing this, they can be turned into more useful things and be used by others, it also saves my space for keeping things just because of wanting to keep a memory.

I remember a story of Doraemon, there is a camera which can turn any object into photo and restore the photo back to the object by pouring water on the photo.  There is also a torch light which can shrink anything.  They are good ways to save space but may not be feasible in the coming decades or centuries.

“Happy Time” (Secondary Form 2 to 3) and “Secret Message” (Secondary Form 4 to university).  The secret message in the pencil case is - “Boys be ambitious.”

Each of them were actually dual-layer, but I removed the dividers from them to make them having bigger storage space.  And now, I have forgotten where the dividers have gone to, may be I had thrown them away.

I got some flags (stickers) during my school time for giving donation to some societies.  Every time, I would stick them inside my pencil case.  You can see how many flags I have collected.  Some of the flags have turned yellowish.

Recently I met a friend of my brother, he always mentioned an idiom in Chinese,”ShengBuDaiLai, SiBuDaiQu“.  It means “we did not bring the things with us when we were born, we also cannot take the things with us when we leave this world.”  It is true, and it includes money, and any objects that we like while we are staying in this world.

Therefore, I have decided not to keep my pencil cases anymore.  Recently, I have been throwing away many things.  For the things that can recall my memories, do you think I should keep it or just take their photos?

I have another question for you.  Will you keep some things that were given as gifts / birthday presents by your friends even it is not useful?  I found that keeping this type of things take up a lot of space, and I have to take lots of time removing dust from them.  Why not give to others who need it or recycle it or fill the hungry rubbish bin?  Do you agree?

I have 2 scientific calculators.  The first calculator is Casio fx-120 which was given by my father as a toy when I was in primary school.  I bought my second scientific calculator Casio fx-570s when I was studying Additional Mathematics in secondary school.  The fx-120 is more than 25 years old, and the fx-570s is more than 15 years old.  Both of them are not functioning properly now.  :(

Before I studied about Sine, Cosine, Tangent, Log etc. in school, I was curious about them.  But calculator was just like a black box, I randomly keyed-in the inputs, and get the outputs.  Sometimes it was interesting when I get “Err” (Error) on the calculator.  I really enjoy playing with them.

Since it is not working properly, I unscrewed it and I discovered fx-120 has a 17-pin connector.  I searched from the web but the results did not answer my question on what this connector is meant for.  From a webpage, it says that the connector “may be” an extension to connect to a printer.  I have other guess, such as connect to external digit display or connect to external memory.

Tell me if you know the answer.

Fx-570s is also a discontinued product.  I like the way it interacted with human, but I cannot find it anymore.

I bought it in an electrical appliances shop, and a few years later I worked in that shop while waiting for my exam results.  I don’t think the boss remembered that I had bought a calculator from her.  I also did not tell her about it.

One day while I was serving a customer who wanted to buy scientific calculator, he looked at this model and suddenly he press some buttons and a hidden mode came out.  I think if this hidden mode is known by the board of exam, this calculator might be banned from the exam.  I have learned from that person how to activate the hidden mode, but I did not use it in the exam because the exam was over.  :P

This hidden mode can solve the simultaneous equation (Malay: persamaan serentak).  I believe the function was pre-built in the processor’s chip, but the calculator designers did not create a menu to access it nor documented it in the manual, because it might be built according to school exam specification in 1990’s.

Surprisingly, pressing 3 buttons (0, 1 and mode) at the same time can make this mode appear.  It can solve the following mathematical problem:-

ax + by + c = 0
dx + ey + f = 0

After entering a to f, it will give the answer of x and y.

Another thing that I like to play with this calculator is to see how slow it is.  I can create a problem for this calculator and it only gives me the answer after about 15 seconds.  The way to do it is Press [Sin] or [Cos] for 20 times (max it can support) and press a long number then press “=“.

This is to calculate sin(sin(cos(cos( …..sin(123456789))…. ))))).  The calculator will take a significant length of time to perform the calculation.

Hmm…  I am a tough calculator user right?

Which model would be my 3rd scientific calculator?  May be I would get a graphic scientific calculator.  Or I would use my abacus as scientific calculator?