Life is like that

After a meeting with Paolo today, I continued doing some corrections on my technical report, read a newly discovered paper on 'database summarisation' and checked some emails. Everything was so calm and peaceful until I heard a series of swearing words coming loudly from the left corner of the room.
Paolo: F*$!o**!
Me: ??
Paolo: S***%!, I don't believe this! What's the h**%$ is going on!
Me: (apahal le mamat ni naik hangin tetiba).
Suddenly he banged the table, ripped some papers and threw them in the dustbin, angrily.
Me: (Ya Allah selamatkanlah aku. Kerana rasa ingin tahu yang membuak-buak, terpancullah satu soalan pada dia) Err..what's wrong?
Paolo: Someone is still using Word and I can't stand editing a paper in Word!
Me: Oh.OK (Lerr itu pon nak marah ke?)

But this is the reality of sitting in Computer Science department where people are being prejudice for those who still use Microsoft Word as word processor. They are so obsessed with Latex application, a What-You-See-Is-Not-What-You-Get word processing software in preparing documents especially conference papers. It's very rare for me to find people using Words in our department, and also less and less Windows users can be found in our department.

This little incident actually reminds me about being a PhD student in Computer science department in Manchester one year ago. During the first meeting with Suzanne, she told me for not using Words, and start using Latex (which was the first time I heard of it). I realised about the need to adapt with the 'culture', and the need to avoid being bombarded with so called swearing-bullets from Paolo for becoming Windows/Microsoft Office fan. Thus I decided to migrate to Mac platform early this year. I found that I made a right decision so far, as I no longer need to worry about virus, and more importantly it supports all applications that I used in Windows before.

Well life is like that for me, even though it was so hard to accept the reality at the beginning.

Comments

Anonymous said…
oh takutnya aku ....berbeza dgn tmpt aku Qma..kat group aku ni semua org pakai Windows sape2 pakai Latex kene tuko balik MSWord sbb diorg comment pakai Word..paling best supervisors aku semuanya tak pakai EndNote..taip manually..dan aku analyse survey aku pakai MSExcel. :-)
AyinEmran said…
wow. langsung tak penah dengar Latex whatsoever. untuk word processor.

kat lab ain dulu ada jenama surgical glove Latex. hehe.

paolo oh paolo.
Akmar Emran said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Akmar Emran said…
Shu, sbb tu la aku terkena 'cultural shock' masa awal2. Dia org komen guna pdf. Sbb Latex boleh compile ke Pdf. Alah, tak kesah ler guna apa pon asalkan boleh tulis kan?

Ain, ko punya tu Latex getah laa. Nak pronounce pun 'Letek', with silent 'x'. hehe

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