In My Humble Opinion

2012-01-20T19:15:00.003+08:00

Hola,

I just realized I haven't written anything here in a long time. Been spending more time in facebook and twitter. Anyway, looks like the most comments I've been getting in this blog are about the Proton Saga BLM and my Dell M4600 notebook.

It's almost time to service the car again, will do that after the Chinese New Year rush. I'm looking for somewhere to polish my car too. I think I'll buy one of those packages from Groupon. I've tried one previously, and I it was pretty good.

As for my notebook, I've been thinking of upgrading the RAM to 16GB. Not so confident in opening up the keyboard to get to the slot. I have the manual but I think I'll look up in youtube and see if anyone has done it before.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on the Dell Precision M4600

2011-06-12T14:46:00.000+08:00

I've been testing my Dell Precision M4600 with the Premiere Pro CS5.5 trial version. I love it.

My M4600 came with a NVIDIA Quadro 2000M and 8GB of RAM. I put in two HD uncompressed clips back to back and played it out. It played smoothly even on the highest quality at 100% size. So the new Mercury Playback Engine was working well. It was just like the demo videos on the Adobe websites. Only when I put color correction into the clip did it start to jerk a little, however on 1/2 quality it played smoothly.

I exported one of the clips to After Effects to use the warp stabilizer. It took about 3-5 mins for the background render to complete for a 1 min clip. At the same time I could continue editing in Premiere Pro. That is going to save so much time in the future.

While it's still amazing, I think the Quadro 2000M is just scratching the surface and meets only the minimum requirement for the full capabilities of the CS5.5. To really see its full capabilities and enjoy fast unrendered workflow, the Dell Precision M5600 is the machine to go for. the M5600 will have the higher end NVIDIA Quadro 5010M cards on it. However, this is way out of my budget.

For me, what I have now is good enough. While I only have 8GB RAM and it's already doing well. In future, if I am going to be doing more effects and rendering, I would upgrade to 16GB RAM.

Also, I've been playing Shogun 2 on it at the highest setting. It plays smoothly and looks great.

Owner's manual for the Dell Precision M4600

2011-06-09T23:44:00.002+08:00

Dell finally updated their support website with the owner's manual here.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsM4600/en/SM/index.html

So now if you ever want to take apart the notebook, you can do it on your own!

more on the Dell Precision M4600

2011-06-02T01:05:00.002+08:00

Damn, I just realized I made a mistake... well two mistakes actually. In my rush to buy this notebook, I forgot to check how many DIMM slots it had. It was only after opening the back panel I discovered that this one had only two DIMM slots. Here's what the documentation on the Dell website said

Intel Core i5 and i7 Dual Core
processors
two DIMM slots

Intel Core i7 Quad Core and i7
Quad Extreme processors
four DIMM slots

If I had spend more to get the Quad Core processor (which is like RM243 more) I would have gotten 4 DIMM slots! Now I only have two. Not really a big deal. Initially, I was planning to upgrade to 4X4GB of RAM for a total of 16GB of RAM. So far, the 8GB now is doing well. In future, I can just pull out this two chip and put in two 8GB chips.

Also, I assumed this notebook would have 2 hard disk bay. It only has one. If I knew, I don't think I would have taken the SSD drive. After formatting, it only has 228GB of space. After installing my software and putting in my 56GB of music, I only have 99.5GB of space left. Not a lot.

I think I got confused when I started reading about how some people swapped their optical drive for a hard disk instead. I think in future, I might consider doing that. For now, the plan is to buy an external 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Disk and just store my other data in it. I am already using a 500GB USB2.0 external Hard Disk and it's almost full.

I also plan to get an eSATA external hard disk for editing my HD videos. This one I might get a RAID drive with 4 hard disk slots.

Okay, back to the notebook. When the delivery guy delivered it, it just came in a small box.

So when I opened the box, this is what I got. The strange thing is there wasn't much documentation explaining about the BIOS, DIMM slots, etc. I guess they want you to just call their help desk and deal with them directly.

The box says it's made in China. I always thought Dell assembled it in Penang, I guess this model is assembled in China. It's got Foxconn stickers inside it.

Front view. The button that pops open the monitor is quite sturdy.

Left Side.

The Express Card slot and the SD card slot.

The back.

The Right side.

This WIFI switch doesn't feel very sturdy. You can see it's a little of keel already. I think this one is going to be a problem in the future.

This is the main hard disk bay (where my SSD is). There's 4 screws to remove inside and a switch to pop if I want to remove it. I haven't tried it yet.

The dock connector doesn't have a cover. I can see it getting dust inside. I think I'm going to cover it with tape to prevent dust from entering the port.

They don't print the model number here. I wonder why?

That's the battery. There was no documentation to show how to remove the battery. I just had to fiddle around as there was just one tab at the back to slide and out it popped.

After I removed the battery, there was two small screws holding the back panel down. I removed the screws and slide the panel away from the battery dock.

It seems that the only area I could access from here is the DIMM slots, the hard disk is to the left of the DIMM slots and above the battery dock.

When I removed the optical drive, this is the connector I saw. I think I'm going to find a caddy to fit in here so I can use a secondary hard disk.

I removed one of the fans and I saw this. Not sure what part this is. I tried googling some of the names I saw but nothing that made sense came up.

Overall, the construction of the notebook is really sturdy. It feels solid enough. The only fun part about the SSD is that applications open up really fast. Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 opens up in less than 5 seconds. I can also play full HD videos smoothly in Premiere.

One of the main reasons I bought a Dell instead of a HP is because of their service. I've seen their service and it's really fantastic. I have a colleague who has a Precision notebook and he used to call the technician to come over and fix problems for him and they would change hardware parts with no questions asked. I love that kind of service. When I had my old Benq notebook, they had the worst service and I had to drive to them and wait weeks for anything to get fixed.

I think me and this notebook are going to have loads of fun working together. I took a 4 year warranty from Dell for it. So I'm going to be playing around with it for a long time.

UPDATE:
I just read the owner's manual and I was wrong. There are 4 DIMM slots on the notebook. The Primary slots are under the keyboard, the secondary slots are at the bottom of the notebook. It's just my configuration doesn't allow to use 4 DIMM slots. Will try adding it in future to see if it works.

my new Dell Precision M4600

2011-05-31T20:45:00.000+08:00

Today, I after a few weeks of waiting, I finally what I have been waiting for.

My Dell Precision M4600 arrived today. It was launched worldwide for sale on the Dell websites in early May, I ordered mine a few days after it launched.

After a few upgrades, the total price on the website came up to almost RM9000 plus. I called Dell and spoke to the sales person I had been dealing with, Mervin. He was really helpful and he gave me additional discounts and the price in the end was RM8641.

I had upgraded the RAM to two 4GB pieces, total 8GB. I also got their 256GB Solid State Drive. I was wondering what brand it was as the upgrade was only RM700 plus. I was wondering why it was so cheap or did Dell make an error. Only when I got it today could I check its specs.

It's a Samsung 470 series SSD. Tom's Hardware has a review of it here.

I plan to get a Western Digital Black Scorpio 750GB hard disk for the second hard disk bay to store my other data.

I also upgraded the screen to full HD. I figured since I'm going to be editing HD video with it, might as well get full HD. One thing I didn't get was the touch screen upgrade. I figured if I wanted a touch screen, I would get an iPad 2 and just hook it up instead. I don't want finger smudges on my monitor.

The video card was also upgraded to the NVIDIA Quadro 2000M. I think this is an upgrade that's definitely worth it.
I've installed the trial version of Adobe Master Collection 5.5 and AVID Media Composer 5.5.2 on it. Will take it for a spin later and see if its any good. Adobe just included Mercury support for the Quadro 2000 too, not sure if it includes the mobile version.

Anyway, will write more when I have installed the rest of the softwares.

DIY notebook stand

2011-05-27T14:00:00.000+08:00

I've always had a pain in my neck from looking down at my notebook at my work desk. Plus, the lighting here is pretty bad, there's always a glare on my notebook screen from the florescent lights. Today, I decided to change all that.

There was this small basket of tapes on my table that has been there for a few years gathering dust. It was made of plastic with a metal X frame. I emptied it and took threw away the plastic container. I took the frame and bended it until it I had the shape I wanted which is more of a upside down Y shape.

Now I have a notebook stand! The heat dispersion for the notebook should be much better as the exhaust is at the back of the notebook. My internal fan for the video card just died a few days ago, so I have to do what ever I can to keep it cool until I get the fan fixed.

As I type this now, I can really feel the difference as my neck doesn't hurt as much anymore and I can type faster on the keyboard too!

More space for my keyboard and mouse now! Table looks neater.

It took quite a lot of brute force to bend the two top parts as I think it was stainless steel. I had to use the table as leverage.

The first time I did it, I realized that the notebook was leaning slightly to the right and I had to make a few more adjustments by pressing on the left until I finally had it leveled. The frame itself is an optical illusion, it looks like its leaning to the right but the notebook itself is leveled.

Anyway, I hope this last for awhile. It's pretty flimsy so it can topple over if I'm not careful.

Lightning storm in Petaling Jaya

2011-05-15T18:37:00.000+08:00

I shot this video a few minutes after a lightning storm began. It was shot from my apartment. The rain came down really hard and the lightning was every few seconds at its peak. By the time I shot this, the worst was over already.

The visibility was really low, only a few meters at its heaviest. At one point, I could see the wind suddenly change direction and the rain started blowing towards my window. Normally, the rain blows from east to west here, so when the rain started blowing from the south to the north it was really weird.

I shot this with my DV camera and it was edited on AVID Media Composer.

Took me awhile to finally figure out how to get the paint effect to work. I noticed the contrast was over blown when I exported this to MOV. I had to reduce the video level for export.

Strange Dreams

2011-05-14T14:19:00.001+08:00

Had a dream last night, actually it was two dreams.

The first dream, some large gay dude wanted to have sex with me and I was all wierded out from it. Don't remember much after that. Damn, not sure what brought this up. Could be because I was watching Queen on YouTube. That Freddie Mercury is so gay but charismatic at the same time.

The second dream was much more pleasant. I dreamed I when on a holiday with my wife to the US. For some reason, we detoured and ended up in London. I was walking in a really large museum and it looked really grand. I ran into my parents and my mother in law. We were both surprised to see each other. When I asked what they were doing there, they said they were on holiday too.

Don't remember much after that but I think I know why I had the dream. I was playing Napoleon Total War last night and I was trying to invade London. In my version of history, the French had invaded and taken England and the English had taken Paris.

I always liked visiting London, especially the museums. I love English history, especially during the Victorian era.

How I remember Zainal Aznam

2011-05-03T20:37:00.000+08:00

When I first read the newsflash that Datuk Zainal Azlam had died of a heart attack, I was quite shocked. He was a man who never looked his age and was always fit.

I've known Datuk for almost 10 years. He was a most interesting man with diverse interest. The first time I heard of him was through reading his articles about films in his column in The Edge. Later on when I did meet him, he was very articulate and could always explain complex economic terms in layman terms. We shared the same interest in film and we used to talk about film history when ever I met him. He also told me he had a youtube channel where he made sketches with his family. I think he always had the desire to direct a movie one day.

I was always amazed at how he used to cycle to work at ISIS near the National Monument from his home in TTDI. One day I saw his arm in a sling and I asked him what happened, and he said he fell down while cycling, after that his family forbade him from cycling to work again.

The last time I met him was last year just before he left for London to do research for a few months. It was just a few days before Najib announced the NEP. He was quite unhappy that a lot of his ideas was censored in the final edition. Of all the NEAC members, he was the most vocal. He fought to have his ideas pushed through but the powers to be decided his proposals were too radical.

My only regret is that I did not meet up with him again after that. When ever I'm stuck in traffic in front of the national monument, I always think of him and wished I had the courage to cycle in KL.

Below is his an interview he did last year and that's how I always remember him.

Anugerah Ahli Politik Paling Popular Malaysia

2011-04-04T11:44:00.000+08:00

I watched a few minutes of the Anugerah Bintang Popular Berita Harian last night. I just managed to catch Yuna winning the Penyanyi Wanita Paling Popular. When I saw her walking up on stage, I was laughing and thinking, "hey! How did a Sith Lord get to win this award?" They should have played the Emperor's March when she when up. Anyway, it was a really cool costume. She can pull her cloak over her head and be all mysterious like Lady Gaga.

So after watching that, I got thinking maybe we should also have an Anugerah Politik Paling Popular Malaysia (Malaysian Most Popular Politics Award).
Among the categories are:
1. Most popular politician award (surprise nomination for Bung Mohktar?)
2. Most popular BN politician award (Rosmah's nomination not allowed)
3. Most popular opposition politician award
4. Most popular scandal award. (I hope something else beats the sex video nominations for this one)
5. Most popular issue award. (for anything else that is not a scandal)
6. Most popular supporting role award. This is in recognition of a person(s) who is not a politician but have played a role in a scandal or issue. First Lady Of Malaysia can be nominated here along side with the yet to be identified lady in the video.

There should probably be a separate award for most hated politician too. So what other categories should be up there and who do you think should be nominated?

The Japanese Spirit

2011-03-11T20:45:00.001+08:00

While the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami disaster plays out in real time on TV, I take heart in the fact that the Japanese people have been preparing for this for a long time.

They are a people who have recovered from various earthquakes and tsunamis (though nothing as large as this scale). Their popular culture is filled with monsters and natural disasters destroying cities in movies.

Mentally, I think this one nation that has prepared their people well for such a disaster. If they can rebuilt after World War 2, I am sure they will pull through this within 3 years.

Their earthquake rescue teams are send around the world in any disasters. I'm sure all the experiences they gathered will come in handy now.

The only good that came out of this that oil prices fell by a few dollars, though I suspect this is only a momentary effect.

Japan, my sympathies goes to you but you will pull through this. I know you will.

Corruption Vs. Sexual misconduct

2011-03-11T11:11:00.001+08:00

Personally, I think a corruption allegation is more serious than sexual misconduct allegations for politicians. They're elected to manage the country. As long as their private lives don't interfere with their duties, I don't mind.

Only when they abuse their position of authority to get sexual favors (which is the same as bribery) then that is wrong.

A politician shouldn't be a society's role model. Why must we hold them to such high moral standards? We elect them because we trust them to do a good job. They're not saints.

I think politicians make terrible moral role models. To make it as an elected representative, they would have made many compromises behind closed doors. What they are, we can only speculate.

Whom to believe?

2011-03-10T23:43:00.000+08:00

Read the two news article below. One is from The Malaysian Insider, and the other is from Harian Metro. Both are reporting about the same incident. Judge for yourself who is telling the truth and if there is any bias in both reports.

From Harian Metro:

Tiga pelajar samseng

HULU SELANGOR: Tiga pelajar tingkatan lima sebuah sekolah menengah di sini, bertindak samseng dengan mengugut untuk membunuh seorang guru disiplin, kelmarin.
Difahamkan, kumpulan terbabit bertindak demikian kerana tidak puas hati apabila guru terbabit enggan menerima buku teks yang mahu dipulangkan mereka.

Berikutan itu, ketiga-tiga pelajar terbabit ditahan pihak berkuasa sejurus guru lelaki berkenaan membuat laporan polis berhubung insiden berkenaan.

Kejadian itu bermula kira-kira jam 11 pagi apabila tujuh pelajar sekolah berkenaan pergi ke pejabat sekolah bertemu pengetua untuk memulangkan buku teks yang enggan digunakan mereka.

Menurut sumber, tindakan tujuh pelajar itu yang berlagak samseng dengan meluru masuk ke pejabat sekolah tanpa meminta kebenaran bagaimanapun cuba dihalang guru berkenaan.

“Hairan dengan tindakan pelajar terbabit, guru disiplin itu bertanyakan tujuan mereka mahu berjumpa pengetua dan mereka memberitahu mahu memulangkan buku teks yang tidak mahu digunakan lagi.

“Guru itu menjelaskan kepentingan dan salah faham yang timbul mengenai buku berkenaan yang dianggap memberi ilmu pengetahuan kepada pelajar,” katanya.

Namun, pelajar terbabit tidak puas hati dengan penjelasan guru itu dan menganggap dia sengaja menghalang mereka bertemu pengetua dan mula bertindak biadab dengan meninggikan suara.

Sumber berkata, guru disiplin yang tergamam dengan tindakan pelajar terbabit cuba menenangkan keadaan dan menjelaskan perkara sebenar.

“Bagaimanapun, keadaan menjadi kecoh apabila tiga daripada pelajar terbabit mengugut guru itu kerana mendakwa dia menyinggung perasaan mereka,” katanya.

Bimbang keselamatan diri berikutan ugutan pelajar terbabit, guru berkenaan membuat laporan di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPD) Hulu Selangor, di sini.

Sementara itu, Ketua Polis Daerah Hulu Selangor, Superintendan Norel Azmi Yahya Affendy ketika dihubungi mengesahkan penahanan ketiga-tiga pelajar itu.

Menurutnya, semua mereka ditahan dalam tempoh 24 jam bagi mengambil keterangan berhubung insiden itu dan kes disiasat mengikut Seksyen 506 Kanun Keseksaan kerana mengugut dan siasatan lanjut masih dijalankan.

Sementara itu, Bernama memetik Ahli Parlimen Hulu Selangor, P Kamalanathan, sebagai berkata beliau akan mengadakan perjumpaan dengan ibu bapa dan guru sekolah berkenaan esok berhubung isu buku teks itu.

“Saya akan pastikan pelajar menerima kembali buku berkenaan kerana itu arahan kerajaan yang mengekalkan novel berkenaan sebagai teks komponen sastera (Komsas) tingkatan lima,” katanya di Kuala Lumpur, semalam.

Kamalanathan berkata, berikutan kejadian itu, guru berkenaan sudah membuat laporan polis kerana mendakwa diugut abang seorang daripada pelajar itu pada Isnin lalu, manakala pelajar terbabit turut membuat laporan polis kerana perkataan yang digunakan guru itu.

Now from The Malaysian Insider:

Interlok: Polis siasat pelajar tak sah, Putrajaya digesa adakan inkuiri
Mar 08, 2011 KUALA LUMPUR, 8 Mac — Tindakan polis menyoal siasat tiga pelajar tanpa kehadiran ibu bapa atau peguam hanya kerana memulangkan novel Interlok, yang menjadi kontroversi sekarang kepada pengetua mereka, adalah tidak sah, kata pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat.

Ketiga-tiga pelajar SMK Kuala Kubu Baru terbabit disoal siasat oleh polis bandar itu semalam selama 10 jam.

“Soal siasat dijalankan tanpa kehadiran ibu bapa atau peguam.

“Mengejutkan, pihak berkuasa polis atau sekolah tidak memaklumkan ibu bapa mereka bahawa pelajar berkenaan disoal siasat oleh polis,” kata Naib Presiden PKR N Surendran dalam kenyataan dikeluarkan hari ini.

Katanya, pihak berkuasa sekolah dan Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru sekolah itu seolah-olah menggerakkan dan bekerjasama dalam insiden pelajar berkenaan disoal siasat kerana memulangkan novel Interlok.

“Kami dengan keras mengecam polis menyoal siasat kanak-kanak ini dan layanan yang diberikan kepada mereka.

“Soal siasat ini amat bertentangan dengan undang-undang kerana tiada kesalahan dilakukan oleh mereka,” kata beliau.

Novel Interlok kini digantung sementara jawatankuasa khas sedang mengkaji untuk membuat pindaan yang diperlukan.

Malah menurut aktivis sosial dan peguam ini, proses soal siasat itu bertentangan dengan undang-undang memandangkan mereka dinafikan akses kepada ibu bapa mereka atau peguam.

“Pada hakikatnya, sekurang-kurangnya salah seorang daripada kanak-kanak telah dinafikan kebenaran untuk menelefon ibu bapanya meskipun merayu untuk berbuat demikian,” kata Surendran.

“Kami menggesa kerajaan dan Kementerian Pelajaran mengambil tindakan segera untuk mengelakkan kejadian seumpama itu pada masa depan dan mengadakan inkuiri segera berhubung perkara tersebut,” katanya lagi.

Kata beliau, pihaknya mahu tindakan segera diambil ke atas pegawai-pegawai polis terbabit.

“Tindakan disiplin tegas harus diambil ke atas mana-mana guru yang terlibat dalam insiden ini.

“Kami menggesa kerajaan menghormati hak kanak-kanak dan bertindak selari dengan standard antarabangsa hak dan perlindungan kanak-kanak,” katanya.

Mengikut laporan media tiga pelajar tingkatan lima mendakwa mereka diheret ibu pejabat polis Kuala Kubu Baru dan disoal siasat selama 10 jam selepas mengambil keputusan memulangkan novel Interlok kepada pengetua mereka Jumaat lalu.

Kata laporan itu, pada awalnya, tujuh pelajar SMK Kuala Kubu Baru bercadang memulangkan buku teks sekolah mereka kerana mendakwa tidak berpuas hati dengan kandungannya tetapi dihalang oleh guru disipilin yang kemudian mencaci mereka.

“Semua tujuh daripada kami berjalan dengan tenang ke bilik guru besar apabila guru disiplin menahan kami dan mengeluarkan kata-kata yang melukakan perasaan kami,” kata seorang daripada pelajar di ibu pejabat Parti Hak asasi hari ini.

Menurut pelajar, guru disiplin didakwa menuduh mereka sengaja menimbulkan masalah di sekolah itu dan mengeluarkan kata-kata yang menghina mereka.

Menurut mereka, semalam pengerusi Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru Baktiar Md Rashid, yang juga seorang pegawai polis, membawa tiga pelajar yang terbabit itu ke balai polis untuk disoal siasat tanpa kebenaran ibu bapa mereka.

In the Harian Metro report, they do not mention the name of the textbook, Interlok (actually it's a required reading novel). The article comes of as a pro-government report.

Meanwhile, The Malaysian Insider starts their story with a pro-student report giving their first few paragraphs to those defending the students against the police.

Not sure who to believe these days.

damn, this song is stuck in my head

2011-03-10T11:54:00.000+08:00

Damn it, this song is stuck in my head! It's damn catchy.

I probably heard it on the radio sometime ago but never caught on to it until recently I've been seeing youtube videos of people singing it. I saw a 3 year old kid in the backseat of a car singing the chorus and a Jennifer Aniston video with some guy singing it too.

Arghh, can't get it out of my head now... and the chicks in the video are cute too.

TM service disruption

2011-03-10T11:52:00.001+08:00

Today, I woke up and found the Streamyx internet dead. The DSL light was stable so I figured the fault must have been on TM's side.

I had to look up their number on the iphone's 3G connection as I knew if I called 100 they would just redirect me. When I reached their automated service and keyed in my phone number, the automated voice said there was a service disruption in my area.

me: I would like to lodge a complaint, I can't access the internet.
TM.Net: okay sir, we checked and there is a major service disruption in your area.
me: okay, how long before service is restored?
TM.NET: they would have to lay new cables so it would take about 2 weeks...
me: WHAT?!!!
TM.NET: erm, maybe 1 week like that...
me: okay, I want a rebate. Please give me a complaint number
TM.NET: Okay sir, your number is XXXXXX. Maybe after 1 day the service will be restored. They will call you to let you know.

So from 2 weeks of service disruption down to 1 day? Okay. Their estimates are waaaaay of.

Now I'm down to tethering my iphone to surf. I only have a 1G allowance and I probably used up half of it already. Damn it.

UPDATE:
LOL, this is damn funny. After I wrote this, I disconnected my iphone's tethering and connected back to my wifi and lo and behold, my internet was back up!

So now, the service disruption when down from 2 weeks to a few hours!

By God, sir, so you have!

2011-02-26T16:29:00.000+08:00

I was reading in the BBC a story about their stiff upper lip personalities. One of the stories was about Lord Uxbridge.

Lord Uxbridge, Wellington's cavalry commander, had his leg sheared off by a cannonball. Did he scream, curse and get blitheringly emotional? He did not. He said to Wellington, "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!" The Duke replied with cool concern, "By God, sir, so you have!"

I love stories like that from the Napoleonic war. There's a lot of chilvary and stiff upper lip in them.

Anyway, if you want to read more about the story, go to wikipedia here.

Old french dudes light saber fight

2011-02-25T22:52:00.000+08:00

Not sure who shot this video and then added the light sabers but it's one of the best use of After Effects I've seen!

I love the ending, they actually removed his head!

desktop recycle

2011-02-24T21:07:00.000+08:00

I have an old desktop PC that I don't use anymore. It's a Pentium Core 2 duo 2.4MHz with 3G of RAM and two IDE hard disk. It has 2 CRT monitors. Not quite sure what to do with it. Then I thought, maybe I'll turn it into a media center and hook it up to my TV in the living room.

So this weekend, if I'm not too lazy I'm going to format the whole machine and install windows 7 64 bit on it. Hook it up to my LCD TV and see what happens.

That is if I don't get lazy and then nothing happens.

Ball buster

2011-02-22T22:52:00.000+08:00

Check out this story from The Malay Mail. It's in the other local newspaper but they didn't provide as much gory details as the Malay Mail did.

AMPANG: Two snatch thieves had presumed that a woman would be easy prey when they snatched her handbag from her car's passenger seat this morning before attempting to make a quick getaway.

However, they did not count on the woman getting into her vehicle and giving chase.

The end result left one snatch thief dead and another seriously injured when the thieves' motorcycle collided with the woman's car in their haste to escape.

This was the drama that played out at 8.40am today, when the woman, a 28-year-old architect, was closing the gate of her home in Jalan Mega 11, Taman Megajaya, Pandan Indah.

She had left her handbag on the front passenger seat of her Toyota Vios when she exited the car.

To her shock, two men on a motorcycle appeared and opened her car door before taking away the bag.

A struggle ensued with the suspects, who kicked her before revving their bike and escaping. Undeterred, the woman leapt into her car and gunned the engine, intent on giving chase.

Her determination paid off when she encountered the suspects at a road junction in Jalan Mega 7.

By that time, the suspects had panicked when they realised she was on their tail and that the road they were on led to a dead end.

It is believed that the suspects made a U-turn and in their bid to escape, inadvertently rammed headlong into the incoming car, throwing both men off the bike.

Ampang Jaya police chief Assistant Commissioner Amiruddin Jamaluddin said the impact of the fall immediately killed one of the men, a 34-year-old Indonesian.

So great was the impact that it threw both men into a nearby drain.

It was learnt that the deceased's trousers were ripped to shreds. A piece of meat, believed to be part of his testicles, were found stuck on the front of the car.

"His pillion rider, a 25-year-old Indonesian, meanwhile sustained severe injuries. He was immediately rushed to Ampang Hospital for treatment," Amirudin told The Malay Mail this morning.

He said initial checks showed that both men had valid travel documents. However, their motorcycle is believed to be a stolen vehicle.

"We are now investigating the case under gang robbery and causing death due to reckless driving," he said.

Part of his testicles?! Holy crap! The lady really busted his balls man!

The accompanying report below:

AMPANG: "She acted on instinct," says Mahyudin Zakaria, the father of a 28-year-old architect who had driven her car to pursue two snatch thieves on a motorcycle, a chase that ended with one robber dead and the other injured.

Mahyudin, 59, a former police officer, said he had just bade farewell to his daughter, Siti Aishah, about 8.40am yesterday when she was leaving for work from their house at Jalan Mega 11 in Taman Megajaya, Pandan Indah here, when he heard her scream for help.

"One of the snatch thieves had kicked her when she tried to stop them from taking her handbag from the front passenger seat of her car," he said.

"She was determined to track the thieves down and she did."

The snatch thieves found themselves cornered and crashed into Siti Aishah's car. Both were thrown off their motorcycle and fell into a drain.

"Although I did not know what had happened at the time, I followed my daughter in my car and by the time I reached her, her car was stalled on the road and I saw a motorcycle near it.

"I ran to my daughter's car and was relieved to find her safe although she was traumatised and had scratches on her hand," said Mahyudin.

"I checked the drain and saw one of the suspects bleeding while his accomplice was dead. I am grateful Siti Aishah is safe."

Siti Aishah is the third of Mahyudin's five children. The family has been residing at Taman Megajaya since 2000.

"Our house is actually in a quiet area and snatch thefts rarely happen here," said Mahyudin, who commended the police for responding quickly.

Ampang Jaya district police chief ACP Amiruddin Jamaluddin said the two men were Indonesians. The dead man was aged 25 and his body was taken to Hospital Ampang. The other man, 34, is undergoing treatment at the same hospital's emergency ward.

The case is being investigated under Section 395 of the Penal Code for gang robbery and also Section 41 of the Road Transport Act 1987 for reckless driving.

There are more gory pictures if you go to the links above. There's a picture of the dead guy upside down in a drain. I wonder how the accident happened, how the heck did his balls get stuck on the hood of the car?

Maggi Mee old commercials

2011-02-21T22:51:00.000+08:00

You know how they say children are very susceptible to TV commercials? Well, this commercial is proof of it.

I used to watch this Maggi Mee commercial when I was kid, I think they even showed it in the cinemas. Now I eat a lot of instant noodles! Arghhh! I still remember the tag line, "maggi mee, cepat dimasak, sedap dimakan"!

Old Malaysian TV commercials

2011-02-21T22:42:00.000+08:00

Check out this bunch of old Malaysian TV commercials I found on youtube.

I like the Guinness stout one at the end. At least they used actors who really looks like people who drank it regularly... and the funny thing is, those dudes are probably the same guys sitting at coffee shops drinking it now!

Here's another old one when they used to allow cigarette branding commercials.

Opah

2011-02-21T21:36:00.002+08:00

I don't remember watching this on RTM back then but I've heard of it. Check out the montage, it's really long!

What does this have to do with insurance

2011-02-21T21:30:00.003+08:00

I don't get this commercial on youtube

It's really funny, but what does it have to do with insurance?

Sudirman

2011-02-21T21:26:00.000+08:00

Well, since it's Sudirman's anniversary, I when youtube to see his old music video and I found this below:

I know it's not his own song but I like this music video because it's from 1984! I know some of the locations in this video. The first part where they are in a fast food restaurant looks like the A&W restaurant in PJ State. I think the rest of the place could be at Angkasapuri. Not sure where the food stalls are.

I love looking up old videos of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. I like to see what has changed and what hasn't.

spoof Ipad 2 review

2011-02-21T12:23:00.000+08:00

I love this review of the iPad 2!

Okay, you probably know by now it's a spoof but I wonder if the screen the guy is using is actually a touchscreen and how did he get the iOS interface on it like that? Maybe he had a large powerpoint display and someone was pressing the next slide for him.

ass webcam

2011-02-18T12:54:00.001+08:00

Check out what these two chicks did. They put a small camera into the butt cheeks of their jeans to see if anyone is checking out their ass.

I don't know about you, but I would look too just because there's a camera there! I think most of the guys caught checking out her ass is because they're wondering what the heck is that there?

Hole in the sky

2011-02-17T00:18:00.001+08:00

Saw this at sunset today and I took a HDR photo.

Right after I took the photo, the clouds closed the hole.

Interesting perspective and framing of the shot here. The lines lead to the hole in the sky.

Cee Lo Green - f*ck you

2011-02-16T00:16:00.000+08:00

Hehe, I love this music video! Funny story.

Valentine Day

2011-02-15T16:08:00.000+08:00

I took my 6 year old niece out to One Utama yesterday. While going down the escalator, since it was Valentine Day, I asked her:

Me: Did any of your classmate ask you to be their Valentine?
Niece: No
Me: Well, in a few years time, what if a boy ask you to be his Valentine?
Niece: I tell him "No way!"
Me: What if you he draws you a nice card and ask you to be his Valentine?
Niece: I will slap him, no way!
My wife: Oh, I'm so proud of you!
Me: *fearful for the boy who ever he maybe in the future*

Sg. Buloh – Damansara – KL – Cheras – Kajang MRT line

2011-02-13T13:57:00.000+08:00

I was just reading the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Project website. Very interesting, they just uploaded a new route map for the Sg. Buloh to Kajang line with the new proposed stations.

The picture above was taken from their website. Click on it to get a better view or just visit their website to see the map there.

I find the placement of the stations at One Utama illogical since it's positioned to be right over the river behind my office! Shouldn't it be build over the golf driving range and next to the large parking space? Putting it right next to a TV station is a bad idea as their might be inteference, plus there's no cheap parking nearby. The only nearby parking is in the One World Hotel or IBM and KPMG Tower.

Anyway, I think they still have a long way to go before the stations are finalized. Everybody wants the MRT line but no one wants it right next to them. It's the "Not in my backyard" line of thought.

addicted

2011-02-13T13:14:00.000+08:00

Urgh, been playing Plants Vs. Zombies on the iphone and it's really addictive. I've finished the Adventure stage and bought all the plants already.

I was just playing it earlier and got stuck again at level 5-5 where there are only chompers, pumpkins and cherry bombs. Hard because the zombies comes in waves at the end. I wonder how I did it the first time?

Anyway, going to try and stop playing this game and do something more productive now that the holiday is over. Got to start thinking about other things! Now before I go to bed and my brain goes through the thoughts of the of day, all I see when I close my eyes are plants. Damn it.

Well, at least it beats seeing Napoleon Total War.

Buried

2011-02-11T02:29:00.001+08:00

Just watched Buried... and it sucks. Shouldn't have watched it before going to bed.

Urgh. Frustrated now. Hate it when a movie has a bad ending.

free calls to the US and Canada

2011-02-11T00:35:00.001+08:00

Hey, this is so cool. I just made a free call to the US from Gmail!

When I signed into my gmail, a window pop-up and said I could now make free calls to the US and Canada. I thought this was only available to those in the US and Canada. I guess now it's available in Malaysia too.

I tried calling my uni in the US and I could get through and the line was clear. Now who can I call in the US or Canada?

El Bimbo!

2011-02-10T23:04:00.001+08:00

Someone send me a powerpoint presentation of the carnival in Brazil. It had an interesting song in the background so I opened up the powerpoint presentation to see the title of the song, El Bimbo. Once I had the name of the song, I googled it and found out the group that sang it is Bimbo Jet.

Here's a video of the song I found on youtube

Now, here's the fun part. After watching the girls dancing and enjoying the music, I read the comments at the bottom of the video and laughed. I totally missed out that one of the dancers was a bearded dude with long hear.

If you didn't catch him like I did, watch it again and he's the one in black.

This video is pretty old, 1974. I wonder what those ladies are like now? Most of them are old enough to be my mother!

Anyway, if you like the song, check out another version of it below

Nice. Now I wonder what the lyrics mean?

Funny Chinese New Year advertisements

2011-02-03T19:13:00.000+08:00

This year I didn't get to see any of the CNY TV advertisements so I decided to surf youtube.

Here's the Digi one. Slightly funny.

I don't really like the Petronas ones now that Yasmin Ahmad is not directing them anymore. They're all just guilt trips now.

Dinner

2011-02-02T21:16:00.001+08:00

Dinner finished!

Now to play game and maybe watch some TV. Ah, I like it like that.

And it's raining too! Lovely.

comments here

2011-02-02T16:32:00.000+08:00

Previously, when ever I had something to say, I would post it in facebook. Lately, I realized that I've been spending too much time there and ignoring this blog.

So now, when ever I have something to say, I'll do it here. Let's see how long this will last.

wash later

2011-02-02T16:31:00.000+08:00

I was driving around earlier looking for a place to wash my car. The regular place I go too in Aman Suria was already closed for the day and the one in the open car park lot run by a bunch of Indian guys was full. I could see a long line of people already standing around waiting for their cars.

So I decided to give it a miss. My car isn't filthy dirty, just needs a bit of vacuuming and clean the windscreens. Probably do it next week after this new year craze.

Storm panorama and HDR's

2011-02-02T01:26:00.001+08:00

The first one on the top is a stitched panoramic shot. The second is a HDR.

Both were taken as a storm was passing by just before sunset.

In the HDR picture, you can see it raining in just one location. Amazing isn't it?

Even animals don't do that!

2011-01-31T22:29:00.000+08:00

You know how sometimes you read about child abuse cases and then hear people say "So cruel, even animals don't do that to their young!". Well, that is so untrue. Read the story below from The Star.

Tiger mum picks the best

JOHOR BARU: The law of the jungle applies even in the zoo – a tigress ate three of her newborn cubs at the Johor Zoo here recently.

The seven-year old tigress, Juli, gave birth to four cubs on Saturday, but the joy of the zoo personnel was short-lived when she killed and ate three of the cubs in the following two days.

Zoo chief assistant secretary On Jabbar said the tigress could have eaten her cubs for several reasons, including the cubs’ health and physical condition.

Three of the cubs looked feeble and one had a limp before they were killed by the mother,” he told journalists when met at the zoo here, adding that a tigress would also kill its cubs if instinct told it that the cubs would not have a chance to reach adulthood.

On said this was the third time that 100kg Juli gave birth in captivity after mating with Jeli, weighing 150kg.

She also ate her litter after giving birth in 2006 and 2008.

He said the zoo was hoping that Juli would spare her remaining cub, which he said would be separated from Juli when it is about six to 12 months old.

Here's a picture of Juli

So... in the wild, animals are all about survival. However, don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning child abuse. I'm just saying that even animals can be vicious by the standards we humans apply to ourselfs. In the animal worlds, there are no morals.

Who's next?

2011-01-31T00:25:00.001+08:00

Tunisia, now Egypt... Which country is next?

All authoritarian rulers must be really worried.

For the Tunisians, although they got rid of their old ruler, it's going to be a few years before they see any significant improvement. Creating jobs and building infrastructure takes a long time.

Break-up service

2011-01-30T17:02:00.000+08:00

Check out this cool advertisement form Adidas. This guy runs a break-up service in Japan. Hehe, I love the mini story in the advert.

Just a day in his complicated life.

vigilantes

2011-01-30T12:40:00.000+08:00

The hunt for the poodle abusers is getting out of hand. It's turned into mob justice and the rabid mob can be easily manipulated to hurt anyone. Just take a look at the story below from The Star.

Man receives over 130 nasty calls on poodle abuse case

PETALING JAYA: Businessman Johnson Kang (pic), 44, had the shock of his life when he received a phone call on Wednesday accusing him of abusing a poodle.

Kang’s wife Christina Ng, 40, said her husband told the caller that he had the wrong number.

That was the beginning of a nightmare for Kang and Ng who live and work in Johor Baru.

“Johnson has received more than 130 calls since, with some even threatening to kill him for allegedly abusing the dog,” said Ng.

Meanwhile, Kang, who is an SPCA Malacca life member, said the calls started coming in after someone created a Twitter account with his phone number under the name of an individual believed to be the one who had abused the poodle called Sushi.

“I don’t know who did it. But I have lodged a police report and I’ve also gone to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission,” he added.

A YouTube video showing a man using brute force to train the poodle to stand on its hind legs recently has raised public ire.

Many people tracked down Kang through the Twitter account created with his number, but bearing the alleged perpetrator’s name.

Kang, who owns two dogs adopted from the SPCA, said he too wants the culprit caught and be dealt with.

If there is someone you don't like, you can easily just put their phone number or picture saying things like

"this is the phone number of the brother of the dog abuser, he also abused 3 dogs!"

Then those who don't bother to do any investigation of their own will immediately call the phone number and hurl abuses.

This is another variation of the anonymous sex callers. Guys (and even women) would post phone numbers of people who jilted them on swingers or singles sites requesting for one night stands. Then the victim will get all sorts of calls and harassments from people.

Anyone can be a victim. My advice to those hunting the poodle abusers, don't take justice into your own hand unless you are willing to bear the consequences of what you will do. In a mob mentality, it's so easy to beat up the person accused of being the snatch thief. Only when they discover they beat up the wrong guy, the mob just melts away pretending they didn't do anything at all. No apology.

transfer iphone contacts & new life for iphone 2G

2011-01-30T04:37:00.000+08:00

Spend most of the evening trying to transfer the contacts from one iphone 2G to another iphone 2G. See, both my iphone 2G's don't have working wifi. The one that my wife uses has a problem with the screen (LCD crack at corner). So I wanted to switch her phone with the other phone.

The only problem with her phone was that itunes kept asking for the phone to be restored. If I did that, it would have erased all her contacts (and also broken the jailbreak). I couldn't SSH into the phone because the WIFI was out too.

So I spend almost an hour searching google for an answer. Previously, I used iphone tunnel suite and tethered the phone to get into it but that didn't work anymore. Finally, I found a replacement, iFunBox which immediately tunneled into the phone.

From there, I could copy the address book, SMS and history into the other phone. I think there's still some bugs though because when I tried to sync the other phone into itunes, it kept saying the phone cancelled the contacts sync. I only managed to sync the contacts into Outlook once. Probably the database in the phone is messed up already. I guess copying it directly didn't work.

Now I have a phone with a slightly damaged LCD screen. I'm in the middle of loading all sorts of games onto it. I'm going to turn it into a mobile gaming device. It's got no WIFI so I figure the only it's good for is gaming, listening to music and taking a few crappy pictures. Since the camera is only 2MP, it just doesn't cut it anymore compared to the iphone 4.

I think I can probably use it as a presentation kit too. I hacked the recognized device file in the phone so I can plug an AV cable into it. The phone can output movies to a LCD TV. Great for when I want to play a showreel onto a TV. I just copy it into the phone and play it back. Easier than carrying my notebook around.

Anyway, these games aren't going to last long. I get bored easily playing iphone games. They just don't last as long as PC games.

happy new year! Boom!

2011-01-29T11:22:00.001+08:00

Check out this story from the Telegraph.

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources.

The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.
Security sources believe a message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her at a safe house.

Islamist terrorists in Russia often use mobile phones as detonators. The bomber's handler, who is usually watching their charge, sends the bomber a text message in order to set off his or her explosive belt at the moment when it is thought they can inflict maximum casualties.

The dead woman has not been identified, but her husband is apparently serving time in jail for being a member of a radical Islamist terror group.

Security sources believe the New Year's Eve bomber and the airport bombers may have been members of a suicide squad trained in Pakistan's al-Qaida strongholds which was sent to target the Russian capital's transport system.

Nobody has been arrested in connection with Monday's bombing, which left 35 people dead. Police are trying to identify the severed head of a male suicide bomber recovered from the scene.

Now I can just bet her handlers are going to modify their operations to only allow the bomb to trigger when they receive SMS from a particular number. Anyway, the telco probably saved a lot of people with their new year greeting!

Panorama!

2011-01-29T11:16:00.000+08:00

Whoa, check out this story at Gizmodo about a very elaborate panorama shot.

I began the shooting the morning of December 30, 2010, taking photos with my camera on a tripod facing east. The day portion of this shoot is composed of a dozen shots covering the landscape from east to west as well as the Sun's course across the sky, from sunrise to sunset. I recorded the Sun's position exactly every 15 minutes using an intervalometer, with an astrosolar filter adjusted to the camera lens. In one of the shots, when the Sun was near its maximum altitude, I removed the filter in order to capture a more dramatic shot that showed the Sun's "glare."

After sunset, I took various shots with the camera facing west-northwest in order to achieve a more smooth transition from the day portion to the night portion of the image. The night portion is also composed of a dozen landscape shots but this time from west to east. After the transition" shots, I took a short star trail sequence of approximately half an hour duration, with the camera facing northwest. At 7:30, I turned the camera to the north and started taking the "all-night" star trail shots — lasting almost 11 hours. After accomplishing this, I then turned the camera to northeast and shot another short half an hour star trail sequence, and then finally, with the camera now facing east-northeast, I took a series of night-to-day transition shots.

Now, I still don't understand why the shot is spherical, maybe he just stitched it that way so it's 360 degrees. Anyway, I don't think I'm going to try anything like this anytime soon. Waaaaaay to much work.

Bad review

2011-01-29T10:48:00.000+08:00

I've been following this story about the curry fish head restaurant that sued a blogger.

Google to retain ‘offensive’ contents on fish head curry outlet

KOTA KINABALU: Search engine giant Google has said that it cannot remove Internet contents deemed offensive to a fish head curry restaurant here.

A company spokesman said in a statement that Google’s policy does not allow it to remove contents provided through its searches except for illegal matters such as child pornography among others.

Furthermore, the search results Google provided to users reflected the contents available on the Internet, the spokesman added.

“In these cases or in cases where we are compelled by local or international law to remove content, we make these actions transparent using public, third party sites such as ChillingEffects.com,” the official added.

On Monday, the director of a fish head curry restaurant that is recommended by Lonely Planet, sued a blogger and Google for defamation.

Jothys Sdn Bhd director Tharumaraj Sivaperumal filed a RM6mil civil suit at the Kota Kinabalu High Court.

He named blogger Poh Huai Bin as the first defendant and California-based Google Inc as the second defendant.

The suit was over allegedly defamatory statements made about Jothys Fish Head Curry Restaurant here which was posted in May last year by Poh, who is originally from Sibu, Sarawak and who now resides in Kuala Lumpur.

The company, which is represented by counsel Marcel Jude Joseph, is seeking exemplary or punitive damages and an order to restrain Poh from defaming the restaurant on the Internet.

The company is also seeking an order from the court to remove the offending articles from Google and other popular search engines used on the Internet.

Tharumaraj said he felt very let down when the blogger demeaned his fish head curry and banana leaf restaurant and urged the people to “avoid it like a bad case of herpes.”

He added that if one used Yahoo or other search engines, the offending blog does not appear immediately but in Google, it would show up first.

I did read his blog on the google cache and he wrote a bad review of the restaurant. Now normally, most restaurant owners would just brush of a bad review but this review must have really gotten onto his nerves.

I think they would most probably reach an out of court settlement.

My solution? Improve the food and service, invite a bunch of bloggers over and see if they write a better review. Now everyone knows your food really sucks because they're probably like me, reading the google cache of the original bad review of the restaurant.

Sade!

2011-01-29T02:59:00.001+08:00

How come Sade never grows old? She still looks hot. This music video was made in 1992.

This is what she looks like today.

London 2012 music video

2011-01-29T02:28:00.000+08:00

Ah! No wonder this song sounds familiar, it's the London 2012 theme song. I like the music video. A lot of familiar London sites in it. Now for some strange reason I want a bowler hat.

AVID in a music video

2011-01-29T02:19:00.000+08:00

Hey, this is so cool! They actually use AVID as a prop in this music video. Hehe... I wonder which version of AVID is this. Probably a Media Composer but what edition?

Anyway, Tom Jones still rocks!

British comedy

2011-01-29T01:40:00.000+08:00

Wonderful song!

I've been watching the BBC series Miranda and one of the character sings the chorus from this song in the show. I don't think I ever heard this song before.

Anyway, if you never heard of the show Miranda before, here's an episode.

Part 1 of the episode "Dog"

Part 2

Part 3

I love British comedy. They leave a warm feeling in me after watching it. They have a quirky sense of humour. I don't know why, but every time I watch a British show I get nostalgic. I'm not even a Brit and I've only been to the UK twice.

I wonder how my brain associates the BBC with nostalgia?

Panorama sunset at Tawau

2011-01-28T16:40:00.001+08:00

One of my favorite things to do is to take panorama pictures. It's when you stitch a few pictures together to form a larger one.

I took this sunset in Tawau. Beautiful place. It was 4 pictures taken on my Canon IXUS stitched together on my iPhone. Normally I would use Photoshop but this one isn't too bad.

The Thundercats are back!

2011-01-28T00:40:00.003+08:00

Check it out, the Thundercats are back!

Not bad looking at all with the anime look.

Link to report here from comicbookresources

movie prop

2011-01-28T00:24:00.002+08:00

The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) is going to smash up a £3.9bn spy plane because it's obsolete. They can't sell it because no one will buy or those who would be interested, they can't sell it to them because they're the bad guys!

Why smash up a brand new spy plane?
Unite's John Fussey described the dismantling as 'barbaric vandalism'

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is taking £3.9bn worth of new spy planes and smashing them to pieces. Why?

One of the very first cuts Prime Minister David Cameron announced in October's Strategic Defence Review was to terminate the construction of nine Nimrod MRA4 reconnaissance aircraft.

Three of the planes are 90% finished. One is complete and ready to take off.

But these Nimrods will never patrol for submarines. Instead, they will be stripped of their components, sliced up in an industrial shredder, and their aluminium melted.

The MoD has begun sawing the aircraft into pieces. It says it will save £2bn of operation costs by axing the Nimrods and using existing aircraft to perform their duties.

But why could these new planes not be sold? Or at the very least, mothballed? Is the UK, to quote one defence analyst, "flushing £4.1bn down the toilet"?

The answer is that the most expensive aircraft ever made for the RAF has almost no commercial value.

"These planes were designed 10 years ago. They are no longer state of the art. Cheaper alternatives are emerging," says Keith Hayward, head of research at the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Continue reading the main story THE ANSWERIt will save £2bn on running costsSelling the planes would be difficult, and mothballing too expensiveScrapping Nimrod fleet 'perverse'
"Who would want to buy them? The only countries who might be interested, we would never sell them to."

Iran, for instance, would not be the ideal customer. And Nato countries are unlikely to need a plane designed to patrol long distances over the Atlantic.

India might be an option. But even so, they would be buying an aircraft "effectively without a warranty", says Tim Ripley, a defence analyst at Jane's.

"If something goes wrong, you need someone back at the factory who can fix it for you. So unless you buy all those engineers back at BAE Systems and the RAF test centre, you are buying a plane without a guarantee."

Mothball costs

Another option - popular with campaigners who are trying to save the Nimrod - is to mothball the planes, keeping them in storage until such a time as the MoD can afford to fly them.

But while the ministry is preparing to do this with an aircraft carrier, it will not keep the Nimrods on ice.

"Storage still incurs a lot of the costs associated with the capability," said an MoD spokesman.

"It was therefore not a cost effective option."

The Nimrod was to patrol for submarines in the Atlantic
The trouble with storage, is that you can't just put the planes back in the hangar and fill them with foam. You also have to pay to keep their crews trained up, says Peter Felstead, of Jane's Defence Weekly.

"Not only the dozen aircrew for each of the nine planes, but also the supporting engineers, plus full technical support and spare parts for all the systems," he explains.

"That cost might be plausible if the Nimrods were part of a larger fleet, some of which were still flying, but they are not."

More importantly, by the time the MoD could afford to bring the planes back out of the hangar, they would be virtually obsolete, says Keith Hayward.

"The electronics on these Nimrods are already out of date. You wouldn't put them in last year's Playstation," he says.

"And of course, the targets you wish to spy on may well have changed. They could have a greater degree of stealth."

For the money it would cost to restore the Nimrods, the government might be better off buying a new generation of spy planes, says Elizabeth Quintana, of the Royal United Services Institute.

"In the not too distant future, you could do the same job as a Nimrod with a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)," she says. "There may be cheaper alternatives."

Scrap metal

So what is to become of the Nimrods - the last British combat aircraft ever to be built?

Are there any nuts and bolts from 100,000lb (45,000kg) of hardware that can be salvaged, re-used, or sold on?

"Not a great deal, I'm afraid," says Hayward. "The Nimrod's electronic systems are not very advanced compared to what is available today.

"That is the paradox of military development - you will always be outpaced by civil technology."

You might be able to "cannibalise" the engines, he says. "But basically there's nothing there of value bar scrap aluminium."

Continue reading the main story WHO, WHAT, WHY? A part of BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer questions behind the headlines

Once the insides are gutted, the remains of the aircraft will be taken to an aeronautical "abattoir", says Tim Ripley.

"First, you take a giant industrial cutter, like a pile-driver. Then you hoist it up on a gantry, and smash it down onto the airframe," he explains.

"You gather up the pieces, load them onto lorries and drive them off to the aluminium smelter.

"A few weeks later, they are baked bean tins."

The images of £4.1bn of British engineering being mashed into a pulp are likely to cause consternation for some.

"The government... don't want this to become their iconic image - the sight of this plane being chopped up - like the BSE cull," says Ripley.

I have another idea, instead of smashing it up, why not sell it to the James Bond movie producers? It would make for a nice movie prop to destroy. How about that?

Link to the BBC story

Emergency

2011-01-27T22:36:00.002+08:00

I was just reading the Lonely Planet's guide to Malaysia section history. It mentioned that the Emergency was not called a war solely for insurance purposes. Since insurances don't cover acts of war, they still allowed claims on policies that didn't cover riots or civil commotions during the 'Emergency'.

Interesting.

hehe

2011-01-27T22:08:00.001+08:00

Quite happy my little project took of. Now that I have started it, this would be fun. Want to see how far I can take this.

anonymous blog

2011-01-27T18:34:00.002+08:00

I think I should start another blog where I can really say what I want to say with anonymity. Sometimes there are things I just want to say I also don't want to bear the consequences that comes with it.

It's very different from telling your troubles to a small hole in a tree. No one hears you.

I want to write it and leave it on a blog. I don't care if no one reads it, but if someone does read it... then they would know what I have to say.

Going to do some research on how to do a super anonymous blog.

taking time of facebook

2011-01-27T18:28:00.002+08:00

I've decided to take time of Facebook. I have deleted all the bookmarks in my browsers. I've also deleted the FB app on the phone. I was going to suspend the account too but I think I'll leave it as it is for now because some pictures in there are linked to other stuff and people.

Instead, when ever I feel the urge to write or comment on something I'll do it here.

I want to see how long this can go on.

Internal monologues

2011-01-16T21:40:00.003+08:00

You probably wouldn't like me if you hear my internal monologues. When I talk to myself, I say the most un-PC (politically correct) thing which I find really funny... well, to me anyway since I like my own sense of humour.

Just today, I was in the elevator and this family with a small girl about 2 years old walks in. After they stepped out and as the door was closing, the girl waved bye to me and smiled. I waved back and smiled back at her.

Then the voice in my head said "oh, as cute as a monkey".

"A monkey!? What? Where did that come from?". There I was, comparing someone's daughter to a monkey. I couldn't hold it in and started laughing.

Mind you, these conversations take place in an instant so before the door closer, I bursted out laughing. The girl's last sight of me was probably me waving at her and smiling and then laughing. Good thing I was the last one in the elevator.

So if you ever see me laughing or smiling to myself, I must have heard something funny in my head... only I can't tell you what it is. It's probably about you... you cute little monkey.

Proton Saga BLM power steering problem

2011-01-16T21:31:00.002+08:00

Last week, I finally got my power steering repaired. It took almost a month to get it changed.

A few months ago, I started noticing that my car was making wierd sounds when ever I took a corner. After awhile, the sound started getting louder and louder until I couldn't take it anymore and I made an appointment with Proton at the Mutiara Damansara service centre.

The guy said it was the power steering and it they will change it for free since it's covered under warranty. It was leaking fluid and the resevoir was almost empty. The only problem was that they didn't have the spare part and told me they would call me back when they had one. They topped out the brake fluid and said that should last.

So I waited... and waited. After forgetting about it I called back a few weeks later and the guy said he tried calling me a few times but could never get through. He said, they had the parts for a few weeks already and if I didn't come by the next day, they would have to give it to someone else and order another one. So on the day same, I rushed to the place by 1PM to get it changed.

So after they changed it, I asked the Proton service personnel what happened to the power steering, he said it was probably a manufacturing defect and it was ejecting fluid everytime I made a turn. They also did the alignment for me for free. If I knew they were going to do the alignment for free, I wouldn't have paid for it the last time.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the Proton service. I would rate it 7 out of 10 but I'm only speaking about the Mutiara Damansara service centre. I never been to any other service centre. I find that the staff are always courteous. Even during their lunch break, they take the trouble to find the person I'm looking for which I really appreciate. I'm lucky I guess that I never had any bad experience with Proton.

Why I still hate Chistmas

2010-12-23T13:42:00.001+08:00

1. Christmas songs are sappy. They sing about how they miss someone or about snow.

2. I hate snow. No explanation needed.

3. I hate people wishing for a white Christmas. Are you stupid? Snow sucks! If you haven't felt real winter before you wouldn't know how cold and dirty it is.

4. Shopping malls are all jammed. I hate having to find parking and sharing the mall with people.

5. Hate this concept "spirit of giving". Some economist must have invented this to increase consumer spending.

6. People wishing merry Christmas. I don't feel the need to be merry just because you tell me too.

7. I hate all the fake cotton and styrofoam that shopping malls use as fake snow in their decorations.

8. People start taking their leave at the end of the year and it's hard to get any work done when the people you have to work with are not around.

There's a lot more reasons but I'll stop here.

Why am I writing this? A few minutes ago I was trying to park my car and a Christmas song came on the radio. As I was trying to turn into the very tight spot, my handphone started ringing too. The guard standing next me was giving me hand signals on how to park also.

Between trying to turn of the damn radio, looking at the guard, my mirrors and wondering if I should take the call, I ran the side my car into the wall. I could hear paint scratching against the pillar.

Called back the number and it was just a general line. Don't even know who it was.

I blame the christmas song. I was trying to listen to the crappy lyrics about how the singer misses someone. Totally distracted me.

So all my experiences with Christmas is bad. Hate you Christmas. If I could kick your ass, I would.

How to loose your appetite

2010-12-04T00:04:00.001+08:00

I stopped by centerpoint for a quick lunch. Since I wasn't hungry, I thought of having the chap fun there. I took 2 veggies with a small rice and the lady charged me only RM2. I thought "wow! That's a cheap lunch!"

So as I sat down to eat, I noticed what looked like a thin slice of mushroom in the curry veggie.

I separated it out and look what I found

It was a small black worm the size of a 20 sen coin. Gross.

Totally lost my appetite. I tried taking a few bites more from the rice thinking if Bear Grylls can do it, so can I but as I was eating, I kept looking at it on my table and gave up.

I ended up taking pictures of it instead. I didn't even complain about it. The fact that it was this little black worm that looked like a small snake that totally grossed me out. If it was a small green caterpillar I wouldn't have mind but this... This is too gross!

So this is how I'm going to loose weight. Before eating, I'll look at the photo of the worm and see if I still have my appetite. If I do, then I'll over come my fear of it. If not, at least I'll loose weight!

Serial killer Sims 3

2010-12-03T02:30:00.001+08:00

I started playing Sims 3 again ever since I installed it on my niece's iPad. She's only 6 and her mother told me her Sim didn't have any money as her job was too low paying and she always woke up late (I assumed she got fired). So she started running low on cash.

She had to go to random strangers house and eat from their fridge. This of course made her a lot enemies. I checked her friends list and she had no friends except she was dating a married dude. I told her mother and her grandmother and they had a good laugh.

So I taught her how to fish and sell it for cash. A few days later I checked her sim and she had 7000 plus in cash! All from just fishing. Her mother told her niece told her no need to work, just stay at home and catch fish. Hahaha, I think she's definitely learning the wrong lessons in life from the game.

I told catch fish first then make friends later. So she never bothered to make any friends. I make one of enemy into her best friend through chatting so at least she has one friend now.

Anyway... After seeing all the fun she had, I started playing it again on my notebook. I created a 'zen' cheat sim. He had loads of cash and stayed at home perfecting his skills. He didn't make any friends and was a loner. The only people he knew was the maid he hired.

One day, the aim when to the gym to test the mood machine on random people and I zapped this one chic on the treadmill and before I could runaway she came over and screwed me for doing it.

That pissed my sim of. So I changed my Sim's life goal from being a zen master to a serial killer. His mission was now to kill the whole town.

However, killing Sims is harder than I thought. I invited the chick I hated over to play chess but it was actually a trap and walled her into a room upstairs. I build a room next to hers and started a stove fire and tore the wall down so she would die in the fire but she kept putting out the fire, even when I blocked her of with furnitures.

Two neighbors I never met came to help to put out the fire too but since they saw my dungeon I had to invite them into the trap too.

After awhile the first one starved and died. Death came for her and I made friends with him. Couldn't trap him because he can teleport. Now I have two more prisoners to kill!... After that, the whole town!

Storm over the NKVE

2010-11-19T03:03:00.001+08:00

Past few days, it's been raining. I managed to take a few pictures from my study room as it was raining at dusk.

You can see the storm clouds and the heavy traffic on the NKVE as people make their way home after work.

This photo is actually a HDR, I took 3 exposures and combined it.

I love watching the sunset and especially when it's raining.

After all the games

2010-11-19T01:15:00.001+08:00

You what? Before I got my new iPhone 4, I was looking forward to playing all the new games the old iPhone 2G couldn't support like street fighter IV; Red Alert and some racing game.

I realized that those games that have been converted from other platforms to iphone don't play as well. For example, trying to play Red Alert on the IPhone is just too frustrating. No right click and keyboard shortcuts. Also, the map is too small.

However games like Angry Birds which are simple and designed for the iPhone works well. They're simple and highly addictive. I stopped playing them but still keep them in the phone. They drain the battery but I keep it around to entertain my niece and wife when we are waiting for food at the restaurant.

In the end, I end up playing really simple games like Blackjack which was on my IPhone 2G also. The most I won was about $37000. It doesn't make me want to go to Genting right away because I also keep in mind the millions I lost playing it! Good thing it's all virtual money!

My new iphone 4

2010-10-30T18:18:00.001+08:00

For the pass few days I've been setting my new iPhone 4. Now I have it just about the way I like it.

For 2 weeks I've been calling maxis and visiting their service center to ask if they had any on stock.

Their reply was always "no stock and we don't know when we will have stock."

So last Thursday I woke up early at 6:30AM because it was warm. Thinking since I already got up, might as well go early to the Maxis center at Taman Tun Dr Ismail and see if they have phones in stock.

I arrived at 7:30am and there was already about 10 people waiting in line. Some of the ladies knew each other and from their loud conversation I gather they've coming here every morning for a week now. So thats how throbbed. Total strangers waiting for an iPhone.

I thought to myself damn, is it that bad? What if they only had 5 phones today? That will totally suck!

When the shop opened exactly at 9am, everyone moved to a small counter on the right and I was immediately relieved when they didn't turn them away. Instead, they were given a form after writing down their name. There is stock!

I wrote down my name and took the registration form and waited for my turn.

The maxis guy who came to photocopy my IC said they had a 100 plus stock today which is great. Just my luck.

After 15 mins, my name was called. I took the RM100 plan with the 16GB 2 year contract phone. The guy took my credit card to swipe and then brought out the phone for me. I told him I wanted to test the camera and make sure there was no yellow tint on the screen.

From my research I knew that there was two big complaint about the latest batch of IPhones 4. The first is that the whole screen has a yellow tint. According to my research, this is caused by the improper drying of the used to attach the screen.

The second problem is a blue tint when taking a photo with a white background under fluorescent lights. It seems to me that there is a white balance problem more than a hardware problem.

Anyway, when I tested my camera sure enough there was the blue tint. Luckily no yellow. I asked for another phone and they transferred me to another guy upstairs which is where the fun started.

The second phone also had the problem and after 15 minutes of arguing with them, the guy gave me an ultimatum, either they refund me the money or I take the phone. Damn, considering how long I have been waiting for it, I took the phone.

Brought it home and straight away I jailbroke it and installed appsync from Cydia in. Spend the next few days downloading apps and trying them out. I have to say a lot of these apps are crap and not worth the money. I think it's just bad interface.

Now my old iPhone is my wife's new toy. She's been playing the angry bird game on it everyday. It'll cost me about RM350 to fix the wifi on the old iPhone 2G so I'm going to hold back on that for now. Plan B is to buy an electric oven to fix it myself.

Right now I'm just enjoying my new phone. Blogging from it right now in fact.

Bahasa Malaysia, the Malaysian language.

2010-10-26T14:14:00.005+08:00

A comment in my facebook about why we don't have 1Bahasa in the 1Malaysia concept elicit the response from me below:

If you look into the etymology (the history of words) of words in Bahasa Malaysia, you will see that it reflects the rich history of the Malay archipelago. There are Tamil, Sanskrit, Hokkien, Mandarin, Persian, Arabic, and English influences that reflect the cultures that have help influenced the history of Malaysia.

If you read books about what Buddhist believe in, you will soon see similarity in words such as Duka (suffering) which is also in the Malay language.

The Tamil and Sanskrit influences in daily words in BM reflects the history of Lembah Bujang. This site was once a Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site. Archaeologist every day are still uncovering the magnitude of the importance of Lembah Bujang in this region.

The concept of Sultan and Daulat we use for our Sultans has Arabic and Persian influences. Before the arrival of Islam, our kings were called Raja. With the arrival of Islam and Arab influences, The Raja became Sultans.

When the English colonist came, Romanized script overtook Jawi to become to the main written form of the Malay language. Open any secondary school science book and you will see the influences of English in it. The very name of the subject Fizik and Biologi comes from the word Physics and Biology.

The English language itself has a lot of European language influences in it and this influences too we have absorbed.

We call it Bahasa Malaysia and not Bahasa Melayu to note that this language is specific to Malaysia even though it share the same basis as the Bahasa Melayu that Indonesia and Brunei uses. However, the influences that has gone to make it unique is truly a Malaysian one.

With all the international influences and constant evolution of the language we call Bahasa Malaysia, it can be said that this is a global language.

Personally, I have always made it a point to use the word "Bahasa Malaysia" and not "Bahasa Melayu" to enforce the view that this national language we use is truly a national language, that it belongs to all Malaysians.

Fixing my Samsung HC-1114 vacuum cleaner battery

2010-10-13T15:21:00.003+08:00

For a few weeks now, my wife has been complaining about this handheld vacuum cleaner I bought more than 6 years ago. She uses it almost 3-4 times a week to vacuum the house. It's a handheld vacuum with 7.2V battery that powers it and after so many years of service, it couldn't hold a charge anymore.

So a few days ago, I finally found the time to open up the vacuum to see if the battery could be replaced. I downloaded this service manual for the battery from some russian website that had all sort of service manuals. It stated the battery was a 6 cell 1600MAh lithium battery.

The motor was working fine so I was pretty sure the battery was gone. Actually, the charger doesn't have an auto-stop charging function and I've always left it charging (for 6 years plus!). Good thing it didn't blow up on me.

After spending 10 minutes unscrewing it, I finally got to the battery.

So this is what the battery looks like inside (hey, that's my foot there!). It's a wierd battery size, not the usual AA sized lithium batteries. I think the size is called 123.

A close up of the battery, it's some obscure company in China. I googled them and they make mostly handphone batteries. I wonder how they won this contract from Samsung.

When I bought this vacuum, it was RM99. If I was to buy a new vacuum with the same specs (7.2V), it's at least RM200 now. So I did a bit of searching on Google to find a replacement battery to see if it's cheaper to repair or buy a new one.

I found one battery supplier on eBay selling a similar battery set (I think it was MAh 2000) for about RM41. After going through eBay, something turned up in my search. It seems that Remote Control cars also used similar 7.2V batteries. So I thought to myself, why not drop by the RC Pitstop shop in One Utama to see if they sell the batteries there too. If I bought it on eBay, I would have to wait 4 weeks and I have to do my own soldering. Plus, I wasn't sure if it was the right size.

I walked into the RC Pitstop shop and explained to the guy there by the name of Nik my problem. He showed me a MAh 3000 battery for RM68. At first I thought, "yeah, that's way more expensive than I thought). Then he asked me if I was going to do my own soldering. I said "yeah". He said, they do the soldering for free as part of their service. That sold me already because I hate soldering. I'm quite allergic to the smell.

So the next day I brought the vacuum back and after 2 hours, it was done! Nik had to do some minor modification to get the batteries in. He said he had to cut some plastic bits out. Also, it'll take about 24 hours to charge the batteries, which is fine since we don't use it everyday.

Now the vacuum's suction is much better than it used to be. So I'm pretty happy that of all places, an RC shop repaired my vacuum.

Plus, my wife stopped complaining about it, so that itself is worth RM68.

Iphone 4 by Maxis "any day now"

2010-09-14T11:13:00.002+08:00

Maxis just send me an email saying that they are bringing the iPhone to Malaysia "any day now". What does that mean, like next week? December? Hate ambiguous emails like this.

Proton Saga service after 10000KM

2010-09-02T11:10:00.002+08:00

I wanted to write this earlier but I totally forgot about it.

I send my Proton Saga BLM to its 10000KM service last month. It's just shy a few weeks of its one year anniversary. I think I really under utilize this car because it says in the service booklet "10000KM service or 6 months, which ever first". I think users normally drive 10000KM in 6 months, I only drove 10500KM in 12 months.

At the service center, I complained about my passenger doors again for the 3rd time. Every time I send it for service, I tell them that my passengers have a hard time opening the door. Seems that the cable inside the door is extra tight. It takes a lot of force to pull it open. Personally, I don't mind because I hardly use the passenger doors. It's my wife and my mother-in-law who has a hard time.

I also asked for new wipers. The Proton service guy said they don't sell rubber wipers anymore, they only have silicon wipers. It's about RM100 plus and it comes with 6 months warranty. I asked him if anyone has ever returned it in 6 months, he said no. Well, I thought okay since Proton QC has improved I got it. The wipers work much better than the rubber ones but they squeak sometimes.

Now that I think about it, I think I did see one guy selling silicon wipers in Tropicana City's Carrefour. He had a lifetime warranty for the wipers and even provided delivery for the wipers if they failed. I think the price is higher but since he was selling it at a stall, I didn't really trust him. If the wipers failed 6 months from now, he might not be around anymore.

I also asked them to do wheel balancing. So far the driving performance is still the same. The fuel economy has improved. I find that since its an auto, I average about only 9KM/Liter for my daily home to work commute. Mind you, that drive is only 7KM so it's not that far really. Plus everything else I want is in Petaling Jaya so I hardly drive very far. I get about 240KM for every full tank I fill. A full empty tank is 40 liters, the warning light comes on when there's only 10 Liters left. So I fill it in about 30-35 liters each time.

For long distance driving I find that the car does much better at 15KM/Liter so this car is more suitable for those who commute longer distance... say KLIA to Petaling Jaya via highways. I also stopped using the Shell V-Power (the red one). I find that the kick is too much coming out from a stand still. Personally I don't mind it as a driver but my passengers find it nauseous. The acceleration is too fast. Once awhile I still use it just to clean the engine.

I have a nicks on the car already but overall, its find. The biggest nicks and scratches is actually at the door opener on the driver side. It's got small scratches all over the part under the handle. Either it came from accidental contact with the key or just plain wear and tear from contact with my fingernail maybe?

The other problem I have with it is the mat they give for the driver side and front passenger side. It keeps curling up and droops as the front side is curved at an angle. The mat is made of a soft rubber so it keeps sliding down and the material bunches up. It can be slightly dangerous if the material gets in the way of my pressing the paddles. I keep having to pull the material up and arranging it. I would have preferred a hard rubber mat they used to provide for the old protons. Those were easier to clean and wash also. The current one is a like a rubber carpet. Dirt gets stuck in between and it's hard to remove them.

Over all, I can't complain much about the car. I find it's still value for money.

The iPhone is dying

2010-08-25T20:51:00.001+08:00

My phone 2G is dying. No doubt about it.

Originally, I bought two, and it was a good thing because after some time the phones started developing problems. In the end, I took it to a shop and merged all the good parts together. I got me a new battery for the 'good' phone and now my wife uses the 'bad' phone as her nokia died an untimely death too.

Every 2-3 days I put the phone in the freezer for 15 minutes just so I can get the wifi to work. Not sure how putting it in the freezer works but the wifi works right after coming out of the freezer. After a few days I have problems with the wifi. It just refuses to connect or even show the available wifi in the area. The phone technician says it's the motherboard. All those cheap car chargers and plug chargers I used messed up the board.

So now I'm just waiting for Maxis to launch the iPhone 4. It's going to be a long wait until the end of the year!

In one of the Iphone after the technician took it apart to replace the battery.

Writing from my iPhone

Laser gunsight for my toy gun

2010-08-24T19:31:00.001+08:00

I bought a toy gun for RM2.50. Saw it in a shop that sells all these plastic stuff from China in Kelana Jaya.

I added a laser pointer I bought to do presentation with it. The effective range of the toy is only about 5 meters.

Having a lot fun shooting and trying to calibrate the laser sight. I might buy another gun and another laser pointer to use with it. Two gun always better than one!

Writing from my iPhone

Update on the Android versus Iphone 4 in Malaysia

2010-08-15T03:04:00.004+08:00

Did a bit more research about my search for an Android phone that can compete with the Iphone 4 in Malaysia. I just read about the Motorola Droid 2 release in the US and it's the phone I wrote about earlier. In Malaysia, the Motorola Droid phone is called the Motorola Milestone.

I hope Motorola launches it soon in Malaysia, hopefully before the Iphone 4 actually enters the Malaysian market. This the Android phone I have been waiting for to finally compete against the Iphone 4. I would want to hold one in my hand before finally deciding to buy it.

So far Maxis doesn't offer any packages for the Motorola Milestone so I don't expect Maxis to offer a package for the Motorola Milestone 2.

Update: Okay, I got it wrong. I shouldn't be writing postings at 3:18AM in the morning. The first phone I wrote about is the Motorola Droid X. This Droid 2 has less hardware specs than the Droid X. However, I'm quite excited about the Dell Streak which might give a good fight.

Looking for an android phone to beat iPhone 4 in Malaysia

2010-08-14T22:47:00.000+08:00

I was going to post the below as my facebook update but it was just too long. So I thought this would be a good post to re-start my blog again.

I think I finally found a phone that will beat the Iphone 4, it's the Droid X by Motorola. 2 LED flash, 3 mics! It's even got 2 antennas and the phone can double as a wifi hotspot for up to 5 devices.

Hardware wise, everything else is the same. Only the iPhone resolution is higher. It's like motorola made a phone specifically to outrun the iPhone 4. The T1000 to beat Apple's T800.

The itunes apps market is over rated. They may have more apps than Android but most of the apps are the same type and most of it are crap.

Too bad it's a CDMA model, doesn't work in malaysia's GSM network. If motorola makes a GSM model and maxis sells it with a package, I'll pick it over the iPhone 4.

As a long time user of the Iphone 2G, I've been through a lot with the Iphone. I've tried many different jailbreak and unlocks on it. I've tried all sorts of apps too. Some time back I realized all that work just to get the damn phone to perform like a 'normal' smart phone.

When I say normal, I want mms, working YouTube and wifi and email on it. The rest are all extras. I dont want to have to worry each time a firm ware comes out the damn phone will stop working because I unlcoked it.

I'm not sold the facetime app on iPhone 4. How many people am I going to find with another iPhone 4 to use it with? as it is, I only have 4 people on my Skype.

I was waiting for a very long time for the iPhone 4 to replace this Iphone 2G. The wait was so long, other competitors can along and are offering products that can beat it now. Now I don't have to be loyal to Steve Jobs anymore. I never liked Mac and have always been a PC getting and iPhone 2G at first had been a fluke.

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is still a fantastic phone and there is no other phone in the malaysian market that can beat it, I'll probably get it. I don't mind waiting longer but I don't know if my current iPhone can hold out. Every three days I have to put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to fix the wifi problem. Yeah, the crazy stuff I have to do to get the phone working like 'normal'.

You know what? As I write this I feel much better about myself. At first I was torn about thinking about another phone but after writing my thoughts down I can think clearer.

Writing from my iPhone

Should I start blogging again?

2010-07-13T03:14:00.001+08:00

Hola. You know, when I first started this blog there was no facebook, I wasn't married and basically a whole lot of other stuff just wasn't around.

Gradually, creating content for this blog just lost it's appeal. I started spending more time in facebook.

Recently, I've been thinking about this blog again and if I should make another attempt at writing again. Should I?

Strange Coincidence

2010-04-21T19:32:00.000+08:00

I was reading this book some anonymous person placed on my table last year. It was about the teachings of Buddhism. I always flip to a random page and read an except from it.

A colleague walks by and sees me reading the book and says he's seen the book before in a hotel before. Then it struck me, yes, I've seen it before too!

It's the same book I saw in my hotel room in Bangkok. Instead of Bibles, they put these books by the bed. I read excerpts from it when I was sick in the room. I had food poisoning so I stayed in bed for a few days. Out of boredom, I opened every drawer in the room. I found the book in a drawer next to the bed. I liked the idea how they have a book promoting Buddhism instead of the Bible or the Quran.

Now I wonder if someone stole the book from a hotel room in Bangkok and put it on my table. Don't know what to make of it but it is a wierd coincidence.

Fire!

2010-02-07T18:36:00.003+08:00

I took this picture of a house on fire when I was visiting the Digital Mall on the 28 of January, 2010. I was there to check on the status of repair on my notebook.

It was quite exciting. The fire department almost put out the fire by the time I took this photo. When I saw the front of the house, it looks like it started from the first floor of a house that had its ground floor converted into a car wash. Probably a worker's quarter on the first floor.

I think these houses are really old, probably build in the 70's. Back then, there was no Digital Mall or market. There was Jaya Supermarket and a wet market where the Digital Mall stands now.

Those low-cost houses were right next to the market. Back then, everything wasn't higher than 2 stories, except for Jaya Supermarket. The other large building was the mosque just a kilometer away.

Those were the day. So it's sad to see the houses damaged by fire. I hope they rebuild it.

Got my notebook back!

2010-01-31T00:25:00.002+08:00

Yes! Got my notebook back today.

Yesterday was crap. When there and the technician didn't even look at it yet. Today, they called and they said it was ready so when in the evening with my wife to pick it up.

They fixed the speakers and said there was a damaged cable. Not quite sure what they guy was trying to explain but I think he was trying to tell me the cable got brittle and was damaged. Hrm, odd. Benq could be using sub-standard cables.

Anyway, the bill came up to RM360 to repair the video card. Ouch... for that money, I could have done so much. Don't even want to think about it too much. The money has already left my hands.

Sitting in my living room with the notebook now. Going to give it a run and see if everything's okay.

Not what I was expecting

2010-01-29T01:52:00.003+08:00

Today, I drove to the Digital Mall in Petaling Jaya to pick up my notebook. As I was driving up the parking ramp, I saw a thick trail of smoke coming from one of the row of houses.

I took a closer look and two of the houses had extensive fire damage. Its roof was burned of and the immediate neighbours of the two houses also had fire damage on its roof. The two houses without its roof had its upper floors totally gutter and I could still see flames burning on the wooden frame.

I parked my car and ran up with my digital camera to get some pictures. I had my small video camera but I forgot to bring any tape with me! So all I got was some low-resolution videos with my digital camera and some still photos.

After all that excitement, I walked to the shop expecting to pick up my notebook.

At the shop, they handed me my notebook and as I was testing it, I noticed after a few minutes there was no sound coming out of the speakers. I did some trouble shooting and the sound card was working. I could hear audio when I plugged in my headset through the audio jack.

The guy who was attending to me asked me to leave it for another day and another service guy said normally, what happens is that customer sends it in and the speaker wasn't working already. That pissed me of, because when I brought it into the shop and booted it up in front of them to show the display problem, I could hear windows starting.

I when to see the owner and after talking to the person who usually attends to me, they said I would still have to come back tomorrow as the technician who fixed it was on his off day. Hopefully, its just a speaker that has been unplugged. I don't want to be paying money for the damn speakers!

Another trip to the Digital Mall tomorrow. Argh!

Damn! What a waste of time.

The call I have been waiting for

2010-01-28T01:30:00.003+08:00

3 days ago, I called the computer shop to check the status of my notebook repair. I asked the guy what was wrong with it, at first he said

"yeah, have to change the motherboard".

I think my heart almost skipped a beat when he said that. Then I said

"motherboard, are you sure not just change video card?"

He puts me on hold and I could hear him shouting at the technician at the background asking what was changed.

"oh yeah, just change video card only. It's RM380 to change, if you confirm now ready in one week".

Phew! Lucky just video card! So I told him okay.

Today, just to bug them and see if they made any progress, I called them again and asked what was the status. The guy said

"well, we just told them confirm so it would be ready in one week"
"but I you said one week 3 days ago?"
"yeah, it always take one week"
"..."

So I left it at that. Surprisingly, a few hours later, I got a call and the guy said "your notebook is ready for collection". Wow, now that's pretty fast!

I couldn't collect it today because they were closing early because they had a company dinner. Hrm, okay... I guess I can wait one more day.

RM380 is kinda steep to pay for a NVIDIA 8600GS replacement chip. I did ask the guy initially if it could be upgraded to the 9600 chip. The Benq Joybook S42 is basically the same infrastructure as the S41 I am using now. The only difference is that they have a faster processor and a NVIDIA 9600 video card. The guy just said its going to be very expensive, better buy a new notebook. So it sounds like they would do it but they rather I buy their S42.

I think instead of upgrading to a new notebook next time, I might just do that, upgrade the processor and video card. If the LCD screen still holds out, then it might be cheaper I think.

Anyway, this Chinese New Year is going to be really expensive. Ang Pow's to give out; a notebook to repair; and I got to repair a leak in my kitchen ceiling (that's another long story). I hope there's no more big expenses!

Giant Chinese lantern

2010-01-22T12:44:00.000+08:00

Check out the huge size of the lantern!

I when with my wife and in-laws to buy some Chinse New Year decorations at a shop near the Kelana Jaya LRT Station.

I think this shop was once a mini market and they changed their business model and started selling all these CNY decor and other stuff from China.

They have a huge variety of cut out decor like tigers and lamps.

The monk wasn't sure if he should get it. I'm guessing it's for his temple. I don't think this would even fit though my apartments door.

video card burn out and firewire ports

2010-01-20T22:56:00.004+08:00

On Monday, I downloaded a movie on my notebook and I hooked up my notebook to my TV with the HDMI cable to watch it.

The movie kept stuttering and wouldn't play finish after a few minutes. After that, I got a blue screen of death. So I quit and thought maybe it was just a bad file and my notebook didn't like it, thought looking back that was quite strange. I've never seen an AVI file crash a system before. I had more than the minimum specs to play it.

At first I thought it was the new NVIDIA drivers that installed on it. So last night, I uninstalled the old drivers and then put in the original drivers from BENQ. The same thing happened. In fact, it got worst, the Graphic User interface on the desktop started going crazy. The notebook started restarting by itself.

Then I knew what it was already as I have seen it a few times before. It means the video card was dying. When I was first doing research 14 months ago before buying my notebook, I did read a lot of complaints about NVIDIA cards (8000 series, and probably the 9000 series also) on notebooks burning out. It had to do with their manufacturing process. The constant ON/OFF of the notebook caused the soldering to burn out. What happens if, the soldering will warm up and then cool down and the long term effect of this contraction and expansion of the soldering will result in it breaking of.

So last night, when my notebook when totally black, I was cursing NVIDIA, BENQ and myself. Myself for not taking the extended 3 year warranty. I bought this BENQ Joybook S41 in October 2008. Just a few months after its 12 months warranty, it had to die on me. Damn!

I took it down to the Digital Mall today to see what were my options. My first stop was this small stall that I knew fixed notebooks. They said if it was the video card, it was RM280 to replace a new one. They will replace it with a brand new one, not a reconditioned one. They didn't do it at their shop, so they have to send it out to be done. It would take them 2 weeks to do.

I've never used their services before so I didn't quite trust them. So I when back to AonePlus, my trusted IT supplier. This was the shop I bought the notebook at anyway and they are also a Benq vendor. I have been doing business with them for almost 8 years now and their customer service has always been great.

They told me, since it was passed the warranty date, better not send back to the manufacturer to repair. They have trained technicians who can repair it. Since they can order the parts, the technicians can change it themselves. I would pick AonePlus over a small stall to repair my notebook any day.

I don't want some dodgy technician changing or stealing my notebook parts, which I know some people have experienced before.

I told them I must have it back before Chinese New Year, as I would like to use it then. So hopefully they get it fixed and do it for cheap! Hopefully, they don't have to change the whole motherboard as that would be more than RM1K.

As I was in the digital mall, I walked around looking at the new notebooks. I realized that most of the large brands use ATI instead of NVIDIA now. I think they also realize about the burn out problems. Also, most of the new notebooks didn't have a firewire/1394 port and a express card slot. This is going to be big problem the next time I want to upgrade to a new notebook.

Most of the video cameras still use firewire ports to connect to the notebooks. If there is no firewire port, at least I can buy an express card with firewire, but if the new notebooks don't even have it, then I don't know how I am going to connect the video camera.

Some of my colleagues have already bought these new notebooks for editing video and when I take a look at it, I tell them they can't capture any video from the camera because there is no way to connect it to the camera!

Maybe there is a USB device out there that can convert firewire signal to USB, haven't heard of it before but I assume some guy in China would have thought of it already.

Anyway... so here I am, using my old desktop writing this. I use it rarely as I had my notebook. It feels like an old car I haven't driven in a long time. All my current bookmarks are not here. Even staring at this monitor is giving me an eye strain as the notebook had a higher contrast ratio.

I'm gonna have to rely on my Iphone more these few days to connect to the Internet. I hope I can last through the next few weeks!

Figuring out what I want to do

2010-01-18T00:41:00.002+08:00

So it's a new year and I haven't figured out what I want to do this year. Looking back, I think a lot of my goals have changed.

When I just back to Malaysia after I graduated from uni, I wanted to travel. Do the whole backpack thing and travel to Europe maybe. Then I got a job and the travel thing never materialized.

After I got a job, I wanted to apply for a scholarship and go to UK and do my masters in broadcast journalism. I got as far as applying for the scholarship, they put me in the waiting list, I declined.

Then I got married; got a morgage; and a car loan. Now I'm totally tied down. So much for wishful thinking eh?

Ah, where has all the time gone? Soon, I'll be too old! Hopefully, I will have something I can look back on and be proud of.

New shoes!

2010-01-14T17:06:00.004+08:00

Hey check it out! I got new shoes!

I was walking to my desk and one of my colleague called me over. He pulled out a plastic bag and gave it to me and shook my hand. I took a peek inside and he said thank you for all I have done. It was my 'reward' for some help I had rendered to him last year. I never thought he would give me a pair of shoes all the way from the UK. How the heck did he know my size? It fit perfectly (with my socks on). Either he got lucky or he's been spying on me!

Anyway, never look a gift horse in the mouth! New shoes, I like! Now here lies the problem.

First of all, I'm not really crazy about shoes. At any one time, I probably have only 4 pair of shoes. The every day Timberland work wear (which I wear almost every day); my slippers; my dress shoes for weddings and events; and my boots which I rarely wear.

Now with this 5th pair of shoe, I have one too many options to decide what shoe to wear to work. Yeah, I know it's dumb but I like it when I don't have too many choices, I get too picky and confused. In the end, fret and spend too much time deciding.

Heh... wait till I show my wife.

The morning

2010-01-13T15:21:00.000+08:00

Man, this morning was wierd. Woke up at 7:15am with a stomach ache and sat in the loo. After that, I stood by the window watching parents drop of their kids at the primrary school. There was a small puddle of water at the drive way up to the school gate. You'll be surprised how many parents actually stopped right next to the puddle and the kids had to tip toe across it.

When I have kids, they'll probably go to the school next door. I told my wife I'll buy a telescope just so I can keep an eye on them from the apartment. From my study room I get a pretty good view of the school already. With a telescope I bet I can look into the classes also.

I might turn out to be the most irritating parent. What's that, drawing doodles in class? Send SMS 'pay attention in class, I'm watching'. Yeah, the kid would turn into a privacy freak with multiple locks on the door.

After the wife when to work, for some strange reason I thought the best way to get ride of the stomach ache was to do some sit-ups and push ups. All I got was a stomach cramp and when right back to bed exhausted.

First post of the year

2010-01-13T01:25:00.002+08:00

Oh man!

I haven't update this blog in a few months!

Well, I haven't been doing much actually. Since my show ended, I took a long break in December. Basically, I didn't do anything the whole of December. I took a few weeks of to finish some of my annual leave. The plan was to go on a road trip around the country but I ended up staying at home instead. Why? Because I'm like that. Procrastinate.

It's January and I still don't have anything to do. Hopefully something comes along. Man, bored already.

Murni Discovery at Sunway Mas Commercial Center

2009-11-26T23:59:00.008+08:00

Today me and my wife had dinner at Murni Discovery. It's the new branch of Murni mamak from SS2. If you ever seen Murni in SS2, Petaling Jaya, it's an extremely popular and crowded restaurant.

I hardly ever eat there because you can never find a table and there's hardly any parking as they place all their tables on the parking lots already.

So when I saw that they were opening in Sunway Mas, I was quite interested to try their food. You can find them here in the wikipedia map that I have already marked out here. The cross marks the spot.

My first impression is that parking is a lot easier now. Its the only mamak in that block so at night parking should be plenty. Also, they have a corner lot and more tables. Hopefully, they won't have to resort to putting tables outside their shop here. It was only their 4th day of opening so word still hasn't gotten out about the place yet.

Check out the interior design of the shop. Before Murni took over this place, it was a cafe that hardly had any customers. Murni didn't change much to the decor except to add some bamboo decor. My wife said she saw the owner come in a lorry with bamboo and he must have cut it himself as he was wearing an army ranger outfit. Cool, I always like DIY!

If you haven't tried Murni before, they're famous for their fusion mamak and western food. I ordered their fried rice with soft shell crab because it was the most unique thing on their menu.

The soft shell crab needed a bit more seasoning. It was just the crab dipped in flour and fried. Not much taste to it. However, the fried rice was excellent. Not sure why there were french fries in the combo, didn't go well. Next time, I'm just having the fried rice.

Their chops and sirloin steak is also very popular.

I looked around at what else people were ordering and I saw the portions that were serving were huge! Rhey're like for 2 people for each single person dish.

Also, the price is really cheap for their mix rice. My wife took away 3 dishes for my mother-in-law. There was some prawns and rice and it only came up to 2 ringgit! That's like the cheapest mix rice I've ever seen! Not sure if its just a promo price but the guy told my wife its their normal price.

Well, now I know where to go when I'm hungry!

Malaysian Ideas that need better definition

2009-11-24T10:57:00.005+08:00

Lately, there has been a lot of talk on what I would call themes and ideas in the media that, I feel needs better explanation. Let's start with the first one, "1 Malaysia".

1. When Najib started this idea of 1Malaysia, my first thought was One Utama, the shopping mall in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya. When Najib first started talking about unity and how its about bringing Malaysians together, he never clearly explained how he would go about it through implementation of policies.

Instead, what happened was, the media started interviewing smaller politicians on what they thought it meant and they got a variety of answers. To make matters worst, companies started to cash in on this 1Malaysia idea with such slogans as "product X for 1Malaysia" or "product X in support of 1Malaysia". How do you support 1Malaysia when you don't even know what the heck it is? Is 1Malaysia assimilation? is it multiculturalism?

I think Najib is just keeping it vague so that he can use it as a political tool. Let's say for example, someone on the opposition proposes an assimilation policy, for example... "all Malaysians should go to single stream schools!". If it gets a lot of opposition from the public, Najib can always say "no, we can't do that, its not in-line with 1 Malaysia".

Now let's say if another politician says, "government should review the NEP and make it more friendly to the non-malays". If there is support for it, he can always say "we will study it in the spirit of 1 Malaysia".

Everyone in their head would have their own vague interpretation of 1 Malaysia and think, "oh okay, I guess I'm going to get what I want! Since I don't even know what 1 Malaysia, so Najib's probably thinking what I'm thinking".

The government has a publicity campaign potraying it as a feel good campaign with multicultural kids playing together (how come its always malay, chinese and indian? where are the other races?). Maybe peninsula Malaysia has more of a cultural unity problem then Sabah and Sarawak?

2. The Greater Unity Plan
This Ong Tee Keat is quite a crafty fellow, he only tells the inner MCA circle what it is and he has said it's not a mathematical model. Doesn't really explain how its going to make MCA better. Maybe he learned a thing or two from Najib.

3. New Economic Model
One economist I talked too told me since this new economic model that Najib has been talking about is based on a service based economy, it sounds a lot like an old idea that was already proposed along time ago, the Knowledge Based Economy. It was proposed more than 10 years ago and it started things such as the Multimedia Supercorridor project.

Not much information is forth coming from the policy makers yet on what is this new economic model. Probably the likes of NEAC are still tinkering with the idea and trying to figure it out.

How do we get 6% GDP growth every year when we're stuck in a middle-income trap? A lot of people like to compare the Malaysian economy to the South Koreans. We started of after world war 2 at the same time but South Korea has soared way above us and literally over-taken the Malaysian economy. They've gone on to be a high-income economy, but here we are still stuck at a middle-income economy.

I bet there's a lot more ill-defined slogans out there, care too name any?

What I've been up too lately

2009-11-12T15:41:00.002+08:00

Hola!

What's up amigos? As usual, it's been awhile since I wrote anything. I've been busy with quite a few things lately. First of all, I've been logging into another blog that I've been maintaining so I haven't been logging into this one in awhile.

The other blog is work related, it's for the program I've been producing. I'm not going to write it down here as I don't want google searches for that blog to push people to my personal blog. I'll like to keep it separate.

Anyway, the other things that I've been busy with is work! Yes, work! This show I've been doing is aired every Sunday night and it's live. So now I work Wed to Sunday. I get Monday and Tuesday off... and most of the time, Saturday too if there is nothing to do in the office.

I kinda of like working on Sunday nights now. I find it quite peaceful in the office. When everyone's winding down to prepare for Monday, I'm all psyched up getting ready for the live show. By midnight, I'm extremely relieved that the show is over and I have my 'weekend' to look forward too. On the other hand, my wife is complaining that she has to go back to work on Monday morning.

So what have I been doing on my Mondays and Tuesdays? Well, the original plan was to take short drives to remote places for day trips. In reality, I've just been sitting at home doing nothing. I wake up at 1PM on Monday because I sleep at 3AM on Sunday night.

On Tuesday, I wake up at 1PM again and by then... it's too late to drive anywhere. So the furthest I go is around Petaling Jaya. So much for being adventuress.

At home, I've been downloading stuff of file sharing sites. So that's turned into sort of a hobby of mine now, looking for the latest versions of software's to download and music files.

Recently, I spend a few days trying to get the latest version of a software I was using that hardly anyone outside of my industry would use. After I got it, I installed it and it was so new, it had problems with the old version my office used. In the end, I had to uninstall it. What a waste, it was too advanced for its time.

Anyway, I got to go now. I'm in the office and I have to get back to editing!

Neck & shoulder pain

2009-09-16T17:39:00.001+08:00

Stayed at home the whole day today. The right side of my neck and shoulder hurts. Yesterday, it was already hurting, must have slept on my side and strained it. I when for a massage yesterday and today when I woke up it was worst.

Now all I can do is lie in bed. If I stand or am upright, my neck hurts as it has to support my head. So I spend the afternoon lying bed listening to some music and surfing the net on my iPhone. I can't use my notebook because I can only face the ceiling.

This sucks. I hope It heals before the Raya holiday starts!

Proton Saga fuel economy tips

2009-08-27T12:01:00.004+08:00

I googled "Proton Saga fuel efficiency" and found this article in www.autoworld.com.my. It was about a fuel efficiency contest that was run by Proton itself for Proton Saga BLM.

Proton Saga Proven Frugal on Fuel

Saturday, February 07, 2009 By YS Khong

The Proton Saga has proven to be a car that is economical not only to own, but is economical to run as well. In a recent competition held for Proton Saga owners, the top winners returned some very impressive consumption figures.

In the Proton Saga Economy Run, a total of 30 Proton saga owners registered for the event. The rules were simple; over a set course of 190 kilometres, with a driver and one passenger who also acts as the navigator, the winner is the saga that uses the least amount of fuel between the two points. Under the contest regulations, no fuel-saving devices are allowed, and cars have to be mechanically in ‘series production’ specifications. There were handsome prizes for both the manual and automatic category winners.

Registered participants were required to undergo ‘scrutineering’, during which all cars were inspected for compliance with the rules and regulations, and the bonnets, all fuel lines, all possible points where the fuel line or the fuel tank can be accessed, including the fuel lids, were sealed by the main motoring authority in Malaysia, the AAM (Automobile Association of Malaysia). Before the final sealing of the bonnet and fuel lid, all participants were given the opportunity to fill their fuel tanks to the brim.

As the event was to start on the next day, all the sealed cars were impounded and under strict security for the night at the Centre Of Excellence, the headquarters of Proton.

The Proton Saga Economy Run route took the competing cars from the Proton COE to Clearwater Sanctuary in Ipoh, with a stop over at an appointed petrol station where the cars were again topped up to the brim to measure the amount of fuel used in the economy run. Before the refuelling, AAM officials were on hand to inspect all the seals, and to the credit of all the very sporting spirit of the competitors, not one seal was found to have been tampered with.

In the Proton Saga 1.3 Automatic category, Ahmad Saifuddin Bin Abdullah, co-driven by Ahmad Zharif Bin Ahmad Zubid took top honours with an impressive 27.429 kilometres per litre (3.645 litres per 100 kilometres) fuel consumption. Second spot went to the young couple of Azmi Samsuddin and Rozna Ramli, who clocked in with 25.99 kilometres per litre (3.846 litres per 100 kilometres). The third and final prize for this category went to an all-girl team, Nur Fatihah Abdul Hamid, partnered by Nor Salehah Md Isa, who came all the way from the East Coast to participate in the event.

In the Proton Saga 1.3 manual category, the results were even more impressive. Norazila Binti Azimi and Mohd Zulkernain Bin Buahab returned an astounding 44.719 kilometres per litre (2.236 litres per 100 kilometres) to win top honours. In second place was Illesarah Binti Abdul Haziman and Rohaizad Bin Ithnin with 32.908 kilometres per litre, while third place was awarded to Mohd Faizol Bin Razak and Mohd Nazri Bin Othman.
When interviewed, Mohd Zulkernain said that his technique was to apply very gentle throttle, and make sure the engine is running below 2,000 rpm. “Of course, in our normal driving, the fuel consumption is more than what he achieved in the competition; sometimes we are in a hurry, so I use more fuel when I drive the car hard, or in situations where traffic is heavy. But now I know just what the Saga is capable of, and if I generally drive gently, there will be savings in the long run,” he added.

As a finale to the competition, Proton Edar organized a contest to see how many people would squeeze into a Proton Saga, and amazingly, the winning team managed 17 adults!

Okay, so the guy who got 44.719 kilometres per litre was driving really slowly, at 2000 RPM or less... plus he was driving a manual. That must have been a really slow assed drive!

When I first got my car, I was trying to keep it under 3000 RPM but I wasn't used to the accelerator, I kept pressing it until it when to 4. I guess coming from a manual transmission car, I wasn't used to the car doing my gear shifts for me.

Now I drive with the RPM at 2000-3000PM. It's just that when I'm crossing a road at a busy intersection that I use more gas as I have to really step on the gas. I worry that the car won't have enough power to get me across the road fast enough... maybe it's just in my head.

Petaling Jaya rain storm

2009-08-27T00:46:00.004+08:00

I came home and saw this scene when I came out of the lift at my apartment. There was a storm cloud crossing, from east to west at the south of my aparment. It was moving very rapidly. I quickly, ran back to grab my tripod to take a few shots of it.

I saw some spectacular lightning but didn't get any shots of it. I love seeing the storm rolling over the city and I could see it dropping rain as it passes over the rush hour traffic. Everyone was on their way home during the buka puasa rush home.

Wonderful sight, the power of nature.

Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya clear night sky

2009-08-25T22:34:00.003+08:00

Tonight is just an amazing night. The sky is so clear, the air is fresh and there's a wonderful breeze. I spend the evening taking some night pictures. On the east side of my apartment, I can see KLCC and KL Tower from the fire escape.

Wonderful sight. I used a long exposure to capture both photos.

In the photo above, you can even see a bright star (I think it could be a planet) shining brightly above. Just click on the picture to see a bigger and clearer one.

I think everyone in the Klang Valley is starting to appreciate the cleaner air now that the haze has cleared up (for now anyway). We're all just starting to appreciate things that we took for granted.

Proton Saga service after 1000KM

2009-08-24T18:37:00.003+08:00

I when to the Proton Service centre in Mutiara Damansara in the morning to send my Proton Saga for the first 1000KM service. I told them there was 3 things I needed them to check on.

1. Fuel mileage was very low. 7KM/L for city driving, and 11KM/L for highway.

2. Back window level was hard to wind. Needs lubricant.

3. One of the key has a cracked plastic casing. When I received the key, there was a hairline crack where the screw is. I think it was screwed too tight so it cracked. Now the crack is getting bigger and bits of the plastic fell of.

I got there at 10AM and I only had to wait 30 minutes before they took the car from me to inspect. They said it would be ready by 1PM so I said I'll walk to The Curve to wait then.

Walked around the curve and surfed the internet at the Starbucks until they send an automated SMS to tell me it was done.

When I got back to the service centre at 1:30PM, they said they were closed for a break. So I hung around some more waiting for the guy. He finally came back from his break and I asked him what happened.

For my first complain, they did engine tuning. The second complain, he didn't explain (I also forgot to ask). The third complain, he said he has to speak to my dealer (Raymond) since Raymond not around, that one they will call me back. Anyway, there's no stock for the spare key. Probably next week only they will have.

I called Raymond and told him to follow up with the customer service guy (Mu'azd, odd name, never heard before). I paid RM117 for the first service. Small things like topping up cleaning fluid for the wiper also they charge me. I remember using it less than 10 times only, that also by accident because I keep thinking it was for the signal.

Anyway, I spoke to another customer service guy about the fuel mileage problem. He said a lot of other customers also complain about the high fuel consumption in city driving. He said, it's 23-24 sen per KM. Not sure how to convert that to KM/L ratio. Anyway, that one also probably based on old fuel price.

He said, the car does well on the highway and I would have to agree, it's just the city driving that it does quite bad. The car if it's driven above 3000RPM, it does well. He said it's got to do with the high gear ratio. In stop go traffic, we have to constantly get it from low to high gear. It stays in the low gear quite often.

After the service, I drove straight to a car wash in Aman Suria. Normally, I wash my car at a petrol station or at one of those open car wash. Today, I decided to try one of those car salon shops there. Its still the same price, RM10 so I gave it a try.

A bit of an improvement over the other car washes I tried. The guy actually used a brush to brush of the dirt on the dashboard. So that helps. Normally, they just wipe with a dirty old rag.

I think I'll try one of those other car salons. Someone told me there's one in Aman Suria that has a RM50 per month unlimited car wash. That means, you pay RM50 and you can was as many times as you want. I think it's worth it if you wash at least once a week.

Overcast skies.

2009-08-22T14:31:00.002+08:00

I love the rain. Today's weather is just perfect. The cloud is overcast so its not hot and there's a slight drizzle outside my apartment. I love the view when the air is clean and clear and you can see until the end of the horizon. I can see for at least 5KM.

My apartment faces directly south so this picture is a view of southern Petaling Jaya.

parking samaritan

2009-08-22T01:11:00.002+08:00

I like going out of the way to look for good hokkien mee so I found quite a nice one in Damansara Perdana. It's a corner shop called TBC Corner. The best time to eat Hokkien Mee of course is in the middle of the night.

I was sitting down to wait for my food and I noticed across the road, some cars had double parked. It was already quite late, about 11PM. The only shop that was open was the restaurant, a mamak, a 24 hrs convenience shop and a cybercafe. There were lights on in the shops lots above them.

There was a lady there who was the owner of a small Perodua Kembara. She was parked legally in of the parking lots and a black Honda Civic was double parked right behind her car, blocking her exit. I watched as she when from shop to shop asking who was the owner of the car.

To make matters worst, her car honk was really soft so every time she laid on the honk no one could hear it. I could see her getting quite frustrated and frantic as she was on her mobile phone trying to get help I think.

After I finished my hokkien mee (it was okay only). I was going to walk of but I bought a pau from another restaurant nearby. As I was waiting for my pau, I saw her trying to shake the car so the alarm would go of, it didn't work. When I finally got my pau, I stood there a few more minutes to see what else she would do to get her car out.

After awhile, I finally decided to cross the road and watch from a closer distance. I could see that the other car that was also parked illegally next to her parking lot has reversed. She was trying to squeeze thru that small point to get out. She moved the car forward so close to the curb I could actually hear her hit it.

That's when I finally walked over to her car window and bend over and asked her gently if she would like help in reversing her car. By then, there were quite a few bystanders standing around trying to guide her out of the tight spot.

She happily got out of the car to let me try and reverse it out. I think I must have gone back and forth more than 10 times before I could finally moved the car to the right position. I was just a few MM from hitting the black civic that was parked illegally behind her.

After 15 minutes, I finally could get the car out and I got out and handed it back to her. She was quite glad and happy. She said it wasn't her car, it was her friend's car. Maybe her friend should know she scrapped the bumper on the curb!

Anyway, that was my good deed for the day... felt guilty for parking illegally and blocking someone after that lunch date with Hannah Tan the other day.

If I was in the lady's position, I think I actually might have gone back into the convenience store after getting the car out to buy a little present for the black civic. I would have bought a bottle of ketchup and wrote asshole on the windscreen with ketchup.

Then again, that's so not me!

New Desk

2009-08-22T00:27:00.003+08:00

That's my new desk in the office. Today was moving day. Previously, we were squatting in a few places as the office under went renovation. Previously, all the TV stations had their own production arm but now they've all merged together in a new entity, Primeworks Studio.

Well, the new office looks like a plate of spagetti. All the tables are in squiggly lines instead of grids. It's a headache walking from one of the room to the other. Kind of like driving in KL. Who is the interior who designed this place? Obviously doesn't understand Feng Shui.

Some of the tables are ridiculously small. The guy setting next to me has a table half the size of mine. WTF? That's crazy.

Anyway, we don't have working phone lines and ethernet connection for the PC's yet. Good thing we still have wifi so no problem for me.

Going to take awhile before I remember the route to take to get to my table from the front door or the route to get to the toilet!

Proton Saga fuel economy

2009-08-20T19:02:00.005+08:00

I just want to share my experience with my new Proton Saga (auto). Just reached my first 1000KM, going to send to service.

I read some reviews about the bad fuel economy of the car. This is my experience.

First few hundred KM, I drove just around PJ. A lot of stop go traffic, very little highway. I found that the fuel economy after 3 tanks full average about 7.5KM/Liter or about 250KM per every full tank I pump in (about 35L every time I pump).

That's really bad compared to my old car, Nissan Sunny. My old Nissan sunny which I traded in for this car could get 11KM/L in city driving conditions. For every 35L I put in, I could get at least 400KM in city driving.

Two days ago, I drove the Proton Saga to Ipoh and back from PJ on the North-South Highway. Average speed between 110KM/H-140KM/H. I found the car very stable, even in very heavy rain. Tyres and suspension were good. No vibration at high speed and even in the heavy rain.

The fuel economy for highway driving was 11KM/L. So, that was a much better improvement than the city driving consumption.

I think the reason why this car uses so much fuel in city driving is because of the auto transmission and the soft gas pedal. The RPM shoots up to 4 when you depress it half the way.

I've changed my driving style, previously, I tend to drive slow. Now I tend to drive faster. I find that the fuel economy is much better when you drive faster, when the auto transmission changes to the higher gears. Previously, I drove just under 50KM/H in city driving. Now I try to get the auto transmission to change to the highest gear as soon as possible by accelerating steadily by keeping the RPM at 2.5-3.

Monday I have my first 1000KM service. I'll see what the technician says.

lunch with Hannah Tan

2009-08-20T18:13:00.006+08:00

I had lunch with Hannah the other day. It's been ages since we had time to talk. Most of the time, it was just short SMS's about work.

At first we were going to go try the Seremban Char Siew in Aman Suria but since we could only meet after the place's closing time, we decided to have lunch at SS2 instead. I told her its really hard to find parking there and she said, just double park in front of the shop

When I got there, I found her car already double parked in front of her shop so I did the same thing in front of her car. Awhile later, a car started honking and the duck rice shop owner we were eating at said a car I was blocking wanted to go out. So I ran out to move the car and parked in the guy's spot instead.

After that, the shop owner again came to tell me that the MBPJ wanted to summon my car because I forgot to buy a ticket. Damn it. So I ran out to buy a ticket to put in the car. From far, I could see that they were also looking at Hannah's car and when they saw her looking out from the shop at her car, they just left after that. Damn, they came after me but left her alone? So unfair!

She said I was such a square for always following the rules. I am a square because of things just like this, I don't like to worry about getting summoned or blocking someone's car. Plus the fact my car's brand new, I didn't want anything to happen to it. Then again, she drives a car a few times more expensive then mine and she's not worried.

Anyway, it was nice to catch up with her again, I didn't realize we actually sat in that shop for 2 hours talking about work, relationships and people we know. She's such a sweet girl. I can't reveal what we talked about but the things she told me were so funny I bursted out laughing in the shop a few times. I think the shop owner gave me a few wierd stares from the other corner of the shop.

The nice thing about talking to a pretty girl is that they're easy on the eyes. It's easier to maintain eye contact when you talk with someone. That's why we put them on TV, so you maintain as much eye contact with the contents on TV.

Looking back at the lunch, I had my overdose of high cholesterol duck rice and siew yoke. That will definitely cut down my life span but the conversation definitely improved my quality of life. It's a simple trade of.

How's your day?

2009-08-19T17:40:00.001+08:00

Recently, anytime someone asked how's my day I would say, "it's great!" or "it's good!". I read a little about the law of attraction and it says that if you keep doing that then your perception of the day will change and it would really be a good day.

So how has it worked so far? Well, it's working! I've been having some great days for the pass few days.

Like yesterday, I drove my new Proton Saga car to Ipoh. I told myself it's going to be a good day and it was because I had a lot of fun testing it on the highway.

The car handled really well on the highway. I was driving between 120 to 140. The car was very stable and the fuel efficiency on the highway was 11KM/L. I think it could be better but at least it was fun.

On the way back, it rained really heavily. I didn't realize it but I was doing 120KM/H in the heavy rain. That means the tyres and the car's handling was pretty good too.

So how was my day today? Another pretty awsome day!

I got two customer service representatives call me to check on their service. The first was from Samsung and they wanted to know if my TV was ok after the technician repaired it. They also wanted to know how long I waited. If I was charged for anything and if I had any comments. I said everthing was fine but I was worried this might happen again because it sounded like an engineering design flaw from what the technician told me. They said they will look into it. Anyway, I'm glad they callled. I was already happy with samsung's service.

The other call was from proton to ask how was the car. I said the fuel efficiency was quite bad (7KM/L in city driving and 11KM/L highway driving). Also the key they gave me, the plastic cover was cracked. I think they screwed in the tightening screw too tight and it cracked the casing.

I also made an appointment with them for my first 1000km servicing. They asked me how was the salesman that served me. I said I was very happy with the service provided so far.

Now that I think about it, I heard a lot of horror stories previously about proton and their poor customer service and product quality. I have to say so far my experience has been pretty good so far. Other than the fuel efficiency problem and the cracked key, proton has been really good to me.

Not sure if my optimistic view on life is my good reviews on Samsung and Proton so far but at least I'm happy!

-- Post From My iPhone