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Cool things I've bought up here:

Tri-Band GSM phone
128mb USB drive
NRSV-Chinese Bible
Ethan Canin's
- Emperor of the Air

contact me at:
justin (@) deepdrift dot com

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GyozaQuest is a non profitable site,

Malaysia Journal

Things about Malaysia.

Okay I finally broke down and got a phone out here. And considering that I've been using a 2 year old cell phone and a land line. I was surprised at all the things that even the new basic Nokia phones have. Okay it's a prepaid SIM card, and only a 3120 phone. But SMS messaging... wow. I can sent text messages to peoples phones all over the world? For what 50 sen (about $0.17). Sheez... Things I guess I should note... The software on it is getting so complex, and you can download applications now for it. Finally, I guess convergence is here. Yet viruses and well even spam, have manged to get through to phones. That's kind of spooky... I did get an SMS advertisement over my phone, today.

I'm still skeptical about the quality, I'm sure it's much worse than a landline, my girlfriend claims that it's about a 300 baud connection (which is probably the absolute technological minimum for acceptable phone conversations) but I also know that long distance charges have dropped to amazingly low rates, so I picked up a basic calling card that for about $8 US, which allowed me to call the US for 3 hours. AT&T USA direct calling card, full rack rate is $3. (most corporations get a pretty hefty discount on this) And I know people have found lower costs as well, I've heard of 1 or 2 cents a minute from China to the USA. And to think that the airtime charges on my phone are more than that. I guess anyone who pays for long distance (and doesn't have unlimited nationwide roaming on their mobile phone) has known about that for years.

I've so far passed up on the pirated DVD's and VCD's. Even though they're tempting. And I do want to see some of the new movies. I'll have to ask the next guy I see if he's got Farenheight 9-11. Then again it might be playing on the plane when I go back to the states (or wherever my next destination is going to be).

I'll fully admit I'm behind on the technology, nowadays... After talking to one of the other field engineers who looked like he was talking into his calculator, and seeing that he has SIM cards, or roaming, for Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, and the US. Hmm... I suppose a quad band phone would have CDMA, and could be used in Korea too.

I guess I have another weekend here. I'm tempted to go to Ipoh, but considering that I didn't do all that much last weekend. I need the time off. I think I'll just stick around here, sit by the pool, read a bit, write a bit... mabye go into the office to check my mail. And the like.

October 7,2004