Freebies Galore!

I’m supposed to write this on Sunday, but was so busy re-arranging my room (that took me about 8 hours to finish), that I was too exhausted to write anything. But since the sole purpose of this post, is to brag, so I guess it’s not too late, hehe…

Saturday starts like any other day in December, it was raining since the wee hours of the morning. But I just had to drag my ass out of my bed to get to the Microsoft – Sifoo.com REKA meetup, at KLCC. I guess they couldn’t have chosen any better day and venue, since the PC Fair was also happening there.

My luck started when I arrived exactly when the meetup was about to start, although I was fashionably late. Thanks to Jimmy and Chee who patiently waited out the whole thing, since it was the first time they even heard about Sifoo.com.

The meetup was a mixed success, since the lack of time management and the loose form of the meetup somehow did bore some of us. The presentation was informative, and nicely done. Although, since I was from both Programming and Design background, many of my questions had to be kept to myself, so to not stray from the course.

The height of the event, was a hands-on demo of Microsoft Expression Blend and Silverlight, which was done in a ‘competition’ kind of way. I joined for two reasons, 1, I just wanna see how good this Silverlight thingamagic myself, and most importantly, those who volunteer will be receiving an exclusive Microsoft Silverlight notebook bag. And for attending, I got a cool t-shirt to go with it.. It is suffice to say, that I’m going to say positive stuff about Microsoft.

I’m not kidding. All this while, even when I have access to Mac and Linux, I still stayed true to Microsoft, since (like in my conversation with Kerol) Microsoft is like the Barisan Nasional. There’s a lot of flaws, but there’s no other better choice.

After the meetup ended, and me walking away with a new bag and t-shirt, I went to the PC Fair. managed to bring my parents along, since my dad was looking for a photo printer, while I need his card to buy a laptop.

You see, PC Fair is the pasar malam in the IT industry. And I mean that literally. If you know your way around a bargain, you might walk away with more things than the seller is willing to give you.

And My dad is quite a talker, thus, with the photo printer he bought, he got 3 extra ink+paper packages (worth about RM 150), and a digital camera (worth RM 3XX), all in a discounted price. No wonder PC Fair is so packed, day in, day out.

As for me, I was eyeing an Acer laptop, but am open to any laptop that has a recommendable spec. I was aiming for anything within budget that has a graphic card and at least Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 MHz. if possible, I would like 2GB RAM and 160GB hard disk.

While hunting aroung, I found out a deal that sounds too good to be true. I could buy an Asus laptop, and depending on the model, receive up to 11 free stuff!

With the premium price tag of RM 3988, or RM 3688 after the rebate, I got

• 2 Years extended warranty
• 1 GB RAM,
• A notebook Backpack
• A notebook bag
• Laptop lock,
• cooling pad
• an Asus Optical mouse
• a Laser Optical mouse
• a CD pocket,
• USB extender,
• and a headphone.

We ended up carying boxes and bags on the packed LRT and Komuter, looking like a family back from a Hari Raya shopping spree.

What do you think about the deal? Is it worth it, or not?