Singapore Again (Part 8)
Since I got to bed earlier last night, I woke up earlier! 10.30 to be exact. G1 had gone already, and G2 was all dressed ready to go.
I quickly ran through the shower and got dressed, and we caught the train to Bugis, then walked to Sim Lim.
The first stop was to get my Synology Cube Server. I forgot my post-it note so I didn’t know the shop number, but I knew it was on the 4th floor. We walked around, and around and around and around. I couldn’t find it! Then we walked around the 3rd and 5th floors, just incase I was mistaken. Still couldn’t find it. Then I wasted about $15 of GPRS internet trying to find their website and pricing pdf’s, just to get their address.
In the end, it turned out that THEY WEREN’T FUCKING OPEN. How slack is that? Rolladoors were still down, which is why I kept walking past it.
We went upto level 6, and got Gerard’s server case, some cables, a cable tidy, and some mounting screws. Then we paid for it all, and lugged it downstairs. The server case was DAMN heavy, but i managed. We stopped by the 4th floor while I ran to have a look to see if my store had opened, and ABOUT TIME.. they had just rolled up the doors. Evidently they had some meeting that went longer than supposed to, so they didn’t open the shop until now. I told them they were slack, and it wasn’t good enough. They should have discounted me $15 for all the GPRS net I wasted trying to find them.
So I bought my Raid Cube, and went back to Gerard at the lift. We lugged everything downstairs, then to the GST Claim counter. Filled out all the forms, and got about $42 back. Yay! Then we lugged everything out to the taxi rank and loaded it into a cab (at least those old Toyota Crowns’ have a big boot!) and Gerard set off to work with it all. I remembered we’d forgotten to get a wireless access point, so I went back to get it. I was going to have a wander around Bugis again for awhile, then head over to G2’s workplace later.
I found a Linksys WAP54G at one shop for $105, then at a different shop for $88. You seriously have to know your pricing, and never buy the first one you see.
Afterward, I headed back to Bugis Junction and had lunch in the food court. I saw a sign for a rather yummy looking fried rice, so I ordered that. Unfortunately what I was served barely resembled the picture, and there was more rice than anything else. Next time i’ll stick to what I know. I didn’t finish all the fried rice (and not just because it was crap), I think today was the first time i’d noticed my stomach had shrunk. From all the smaller meals i’d been having, I was now used to eating less. Which combined with all the walking (not to mention the sauna-like heat), was hopefully doing me the world of good.
I walked around a bit more, and bought a $6 topup for my phone. After this morning’s little effort, I only had 25c left of credit. Also, as I was on a prepaid card, if your credit falls below $5, it will give you a pre-recorded message before EVERY call you make, until you top up again. I guess it’s useful in a way, but it’s also fucking annoying. That’s on top of it telling you what your balance is the first time you use it every day. Did I also mention that I get charged for incoming calls? Yeah, that’s another feature of prepaid here (with StarHub anyway). But on the upside, I kept getting free sms’s. I’d send 5, and then i’d get 10 free to use that day. Evens out in the end, I guess.
I got bored about 4pm, and I also wanted to beat peak hour, so I headed off to catch a bus to G2’s work. After getting directions on which bus to catch, I was on my way.
It took quite awhile to get there, as the buses seem to double-back on themselves just to cover the whole area. I guess if you want to get somewhere in a hurry, you could take a cab (or the MRT, if it goes where you want to go).
Eventually, I got there. G2 met me where the bus stopped, then we went to the shopping centre again. He grabbed some Subway for one of his coworkers, and while he was doing that, I got a couple of donuts. Then we went back to the office. I tried one of the donuts, and it was fucking disgusting. It tasted like it was about 3 days old, and the chocolate icing tasted bad as well. Granted, it was from a different donut chain, but nothing compared to the one I had at IMM in Jurong.
G2’s co-workers were working until about 9pm, so I couldn’t switch off the server or unplug the patch cables until then. In the meantime, I compiled a list of sites (msn servers and web messenger sites) we were going to block on each of the office computers using the ‘hosts file’ method, and ‘fixed’ the ones that weren’t being used. Then I unwrapped the server case and configured the wireless access point, and rearranged some stuff in the server rack that could be moved without unplugging.
Then the co-workers all left, and it was funtime. Time to gut the server, rebuild it, and pray it’d still work. So off I went. I pulled it all to bits on the table, then used most of the pieces to rebuild it in the rack case. Then I went to mount it in the rack, and realised that mounting rails weren’t included. D’oh!
While I was doing that, Gerard went around to the leftover computers, and put the hosts file on them.
So I used an existing shelf and just lowered it a bit, then put the rackmount case on the shelf. And then put the monitor / keyboard on that. Voila, it worked first go! I thought that was pretty good.
After that win, I pulled out all the cables and repatched them into the switch, neatly. That took awhile, as they were long cables and they were going everywhere.
We looked at the time: 1am. Not too bad for the amount of work I did. One thing left to do.. the bill! Oh wait, it was a love job. 
We locked up, and just as we reached the road, a taxi came along. We hailed it, and headed home. Showered, then hit the hay. Zzzzzz..
13.May.08 
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