Everyone's got one... So here's mine!!!

All and more at www.adriantai.com

2009-11-24T20:19:00.001+08:00

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, etc... We've already moved to www.adriantai.com...!

A bird's story

2008-04-24T23:17:00.000+08:00

This bird has a story to share. Find out more here:
http://www.adriantai.com/a-birds-story/

Quiet...

2008-04-13T12:38:00.001+08:00

Last week had been an eventful week for me.

The same could also be said for the past few weeks, actually. Many things have happened — I have had time to reflect on my life, my family, my work, the people around me, etc… I did some thinking, some talking (to family, friends and a few others), did some more thinking…

The baby is due soon — May. There are still so many things to get ready. And I personally feel I’ve not spent enough time with my wife and have not done my share of things for the baby — skipped the last two routine follow-ups with the specialists, etc…

So last week, I tendered my resignation…

p/s: do visit my new home @ www.adriantai.com

Wii had lots of fun...

2008-02-10T22:17:00.001+08:00

I had a few friends over at my parent’s place during Chinese New Year. I wasted no time introducing them to Wii…

This is the result… Fun, fun and more fun!

I am just glad nothing like this happened…

The squirrel

2008-01-25T13:17:00.000+08:00

This is the cute squirrel I mentioned in one of my earlier post...

The cute but very frightened squirrel
Poor fella... But at least she's safe now... I hope.

I asked Mrs Tai (my wife la) which direction the squirrel headed when she had the chance to escape... Coz if she had jumped onto the neighbour on the right, she's a definite goner. They have 2 very fierce looking dogs! Mrs Tai said the squirrel went out through the gate and away...

Oh ya... The photo was taken by Mrs Tai.

I got myself a sore arm...

2008-01-24T08:17:00.000+08:00

See I got myself a Wii...

If you have not been exercising, resist the temptation of playing too long on Wii (even a few hours is too long).

*ouch*

I got myself a Wii...

2008-01-23T23:17:00.000+08:00

hint: click on the image...

Guess who sent me a Christmas card?

2008-01-13T14:14:00.000+08:00

No hints...

Would be nice if you can post your guesses on the comments section and then click on this link to find out for yourself...
http://www.adriantai.com/a-late-christmas-card/

Don't be jealous, ya? :)

Nose on marathon...

2008-01-11T08:17:00.000+08:00

Having running nose now (or is it a 'runny' nose?!)...

Had slight sore throat yesterday and got really bad last night till I could not sleep. By the time I could sleep, it was time to get up and go to work...

*sigh*

Maybe allergic to work gua...

She died in my hands...

2008-01-10T00:17:00.000+08:00

Another one of my pet hamster just died. :(

Like my car, the hamsters are also out on a record run of some sort... 3 hamsters in 3 months. Terter died in November. Terter's death marked the end of the first generation. We (my wife and I) had bought them back in 2005.

Black died last month. She was the one of the three that I consider as 2nd generation. In fact, Black, Chip and Popeye are the first batch of baby hamsters that was the result of Hamham and Terter.

I guess Terter lived long as a hamster. Her babies are getting old and dying. I have noticed that Chip and Popeye are getting weaker. They hardly play the wheel now and Chip can't really walk properly now.

The hamster that died last night had no name. My wife and I decided that she and two other siblings of hers would not be given names. We would just call them the three as they used to play, sleep and eat together. A few months back, we had to separate one of them as the other two were bullying and attacking that one.

The two continued to live and play together... Until last night.

I saw her lying motionless as I went about feeding them. I saw her lying motionless and quickly picked her up. Her sibling was just lying next to her. Her body was cold and she was not moving but she was still breathing. I tried to warm her and feed her some water. She refused the water. Her eyes slowly opened up a bit and she looked at me.

I have never really been able to hold the three of them as they have never liked being held. Each time I have them in my hands, they would move about and try to escape. This time, she is just lying there and looking back at me. It just feels different. It feels weird. I can tell it is just not her to be lying still... :~(

There was nothing much I could do... I could only keep her warm with some tissue and with my two hands... She was twitching every now and then... Then about 10 minutes later, she stopped breathing...

I never expected her to go so soon... After all, she is one of the last generation of hamsters. She was just barely 1 year old. I had planned to take the three of them and Lengchai (I doubt the other Chip and Popeye can last another 7 more months) to my new home in Setia Alam.

Ya, it is fun to have pets... But it is never fun when it is time to say goodbye...

A weird job interview

2008-01-09T08:17:00.000+08:00

He told me he’s a very open person. He don’t believe in having office mask and a personal mask. The interviewer says that he likes to keep things casual and just as an example of what he means by ‘open’, he gave this example – “It’s like when we go to the toilet. You look at my thing, I look at your thing, it’s nothing.”

Read more about it here... Yup, slowly moving everything to http://www.adriantai.com/

4 times in 4 months

2008-01-06T14:17:00.000+08:00

My car is going for some sort of record... Seems 3 is not enough.

I have made it to 4!

Got my car back today. At least with this workshop (we shall call Workshop A), I can trust their work. I was not too happy with the last workshop (we shall call Workshop B) but I had not much of a choice since I thought logically, best to call the nearest workshop if your car can't start. Speaking of this, I got a 'lecture' from my friend in Workshop A - he said no issue towing the car to their workshop even if its quite far -- at least I can be assured of the workmanship. True... So, lesson to learn for me.

Anyway, Workshop B did fix my car during visit 3 to the workshop. But after replacing the circuit board, they messed up my dashboard meter. When I asked what happened since my meter, etc was working fine before that, they just remarked "Aiyah, Proton car... Expected la."

I'm just glad I got my car back and its looking and feeling good. I was getting a bit worried coz just last Wednesday, the car suddenly died in the middle of the road, at a junction. For 5 minutes I was stuck there with people waiting for me to get my car (and my butt) off the junction.

Damage this time? Close to rm700. :(

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T18:16:00.001+08:00

I know... I know... I'm three days late!

Well, been tied up with Warbook. It's a Facebook application. It's taking up so much time even my wife is complaining. I think I have to stop playing Warbook real soon.

Besides that... There are a few more things... Will reveal more real soon! :)

Aliens versus Predator 2

2007-12-25T02:17:00.000+08:00

Just finished watching the movie at TGV in 1 Utama (it was very esy to get tickets at TGV these days -- we didn't even need to queue up whereas we would have to queue for almost an hour for tickets at GSC). The three of us (Jude, Wei Loong and myself) had no plans for Christmas eve, so we ended up watching the movie.

AvP2 takes place immediately after AvP1. 5 minutes into the movie, the predator ship crash lands back to Earth. How the spaceship crashes is a bit stupid... As with the earlier movie, the humans have 2 roles in this movie - as the incubator and then as body count. Like the Malay saying: Gajah berlawan, kancil mati di tengah.

This time around, I noticed the movie is a bit dumbed down. There's no brilliant plot. No new insight into the Alien or the Predator. It is purely a mindless action movie. But it's still nice to watch the two icons trash it out.

But seriously, I think the movie would have been better if it took place without humans. Common, its 'Aliens versus Predator' and not Aliens, Predators and Human: The Three Way War. If I had it my way, I would have preferred that the fight took place on the predator spaceship or maybe even on the Predator home planet. I guess they needed human for at least role #1: Incubator. I don't think the Aliends would last even 5 minutes of Predator's home planet.

Speaking of movies, a few months back, I mentioned about making a movie based on Robotech aka Macross. I was not too far off... It seems Toby Maguire (yes, Spiderman), is set to produce the Robotech movie. There's even a Voltron movie in the making! Robot movies are the IN thing now!

And speaking of robots... If you have noticed, prices of the Transformers toys have gone up since the movie was released. I have seen some toy collectors buying a few sets a year before the movie and making hundreds for each unit. Maybe I should stock up on Robotech toys now...

3 times in 3 months at rm3k

2007-12-17T11:54:00.000+08:00

That's how many times my car has been into the workshop and how much its cost me...
*sigh*

I'll never get another Proton unless they get sold to Volkswagen and all their cars have a VW logo after that.

Hulu

2007-12-08T21:14:00.000+08:00

Recieved this email today:

************

Hello from the Hulu team!

We wanted to thank you for your interest in our private beta. Starting today, you can use the following temporary login and password to access http://www.hulu.com.
.....

************

About a week or two ago, I registered to be a Beta tester. Naturally, I was overjoyed to be given this opportunity. Oh wait... What is Hulu, you asked? From Wikipedia:
Hulu is an online video on demand service that is also expected to offer video sharing.[1] The service is a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp.
.....
The service offers full-length episodes of NBC and FOX television programs, including shows from the Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, and Oxygen channels. Hulu also offers selected movies while also accepting user-submitted videos in direct competition with YouTube.

So I quickly went to the site, signed up with the temporary password, changed the password and then started to browse for the videos. My joy was shortlived. Everytime I clicked on a video, I got this message:
Unfortunately, this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience.

WTF?!? Aiyah, I discovered later on that this service is only available to users from US. They never mentioned that during the Beta signup... So sad...

Wikipedia had this:
Hulu's slogan of "anywhere, anytime" has drawn criticism from users, because content on Hulu is currently only available to users in the United States. Users of the beta are shown the following message when accessing the site outside of the United States: "Unfortunately, this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience".

Hulu claims on its FAQ page that it is working on making its content accessible worldwide. This requires clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific region, a lengthy process.

New look for my website, again...

2007-11-28T07:17:00.000+08:00

Seems like November is the month when my personal website gets a facelift.

Decided a few weeks ago to use Wordpress to run my site. I could not find a easy to use CMS back then. Anyway, the main site and Friends of Seaport have already been 'migrated'. Just need to spend a few more days fine-tuning it.

Terter... Rest in Peace

2007-11-20T23:17:00.000+08:00

Terter passed away just a few hours ago. I guess I should already be prepared for it, but no matter how prepared we are, Death is just something that will still jolt even the most prepared.

Once upon a time, there lived Hamham and Terter
Yesterday, she was already very weak and not taking as much liquid vitamin as she normally would. I knew it means she's getting worse. I told her what Phenom had commented -- that Hamham is probably waiting for her at the 'other side'. Yes, I do talk to my pets... I also told her that my wife would be coming back from in-law's place in a day or two.

Taken on 8th Feb 2006, the day Hamham died
I got home from work today around 7pm. Checked on Terter. She was sleeping but I could tell she was not too comfortable as she was twitching and breathing very heavily. I left to pick up my wife around 8pm. Bad jam on the LDP and my car breaking down made me arrive at my in-law's place only around 10+pm. Luckily my brother-in-law was around to help me with the car... He asked me to use his car and told me that he will get someone to send my car to the workshop tomorrow... He's really good around cars!

Anyway, by the time my wife and I reached home, it was already past 11pm. When I went to check on Terter, she had stopped breathing. Maybe she tried waiting for my wife...

Terter, rest in peace... Thank you very much for staying with us for the two plus years. Thanks for all the momories...

Hamham is really golden in colour whereas Terter is a bit grayish

Hamham looking at the 'fat' Terter gobbling down food

Hamham and Terter during their evening walk with one of their kids looking on

Another photo of Hamham and Terter at home

Terter stuffing herself with food... Again!

Terter taking a break from being a first time mummy. Daddy Hamham is no where to be found

Terter's first batch of baby hamsters

The babies are no longer babies...

Terter

2005 - 20th Nov 2007
Goodbye, Terter...

Interesting questions

2007-11-15T22:17:00.000+08:00

Got this in an email this morning. I sometimes do asking questions like these -- interesting, funny and sometimes thought-provoking. Feel free to add to the list of 'burning' questions you may have...

Can you cry under water?
Hmmmm... Anyone tried this?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
I just noticed there's 2 'ass' in assassinated...

Why do you have to 'put your two cents in'.. But it's only a 'penny for your thoughts'? Where's that extra penny going to?
Malaysians should know this...

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?
And if you're going to hell, will your clothes be burnt when it gets toohot?!?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
Hmm... Maybe we should have square pizzas.

What disease did cured ham actually have?
?!?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would bea good idea to put wheels on luggage?
I did ask why we've not put any man on the moon in the past 30 years... A friend explained that its pointless to send a moon there now since we have unmanned probes that can collect samples, take photos, etc...

Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours?
Yalor... Why ar?!?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
?!?

Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
English... Ever so confusing.

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
People like to do weird things...

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.
?!?

Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural?
Hah! I'm also curious...

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
Very true... Why design something with a setting that burnts bread?

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
?!?

If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut,why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
Wah... It's been a long time since I saw the show. This one reminds me of the Disney afternoon matinees I used to watch on TV back then as well.

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
?!?

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn'the just buy dinner?
Yalor...

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
?!?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
?!?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Hmmm... Let me see... Never realised it till today!

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Wah lau eh... Mind reader! How did 'it' know I was singing out the two songs...

Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?
?!?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
My Gerger likes it when I blow in her face.

DO YOU EVER WONDER WHY YOU GAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS TO ME IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Hahaha... So I can get amused in office?!? :)

Growing old...

2007-11-12T22:40:00.000+08:00

Every night when I feed my hamsters, I feel sad when it comes to Terter. She's more than two years old now. She is one half of the original pair of winter hamsters. The other half, Hamham died very much earlier.

Terter, the Winter hamster, looks like a beauty, huh?
It really saddens me to see her condition now. She can barely walk. Her two hind legs seems to have given up. When she moves, it is with her two front legs, dragging the hind legs as she crawls around. She does not seem to have any appetite to eat these days. All she does now is just lie down and sleep.

Terter and her lil babies. Yes, she's very fertile. :)
Terter has not been playing with her wheels for the past few months already. But the past week, she's gotten weaker. I guess this is a cycle everyone of us will go through. Since she's not really able to move about, I've been feeding her vitamins, water and peeling the kuachi for her. And how I wish I had spent even more time with her. I neglected the hamsters ever since I got my puppy -- Gerger.

Actually, Gerger should be grateful to Hamham and Terter. I had made a deal with my wife (still girlfriend back then) that if I could keep the hamsters and show I can take care of them, then we would consider adopting a puppy. And of course before we had the hamsters, I had to prove I was capable by taking care of some cactus (died not too long after we got the hamsters).

I am doing everything possible to make Terter feel comfortable. I just hope she's not suffering...

More Wii

2007-11-09T19:17:00.000+08:00

I am a Wii (wee) mad this week. Here's one video showing a typical Wii game session.

I want a Wii

2007-11-08T21:17:00.000+08:00

Eu Jin, Jude and yours truly went to check out Wii this afternoon. We are planning to buy the console but wanted to test it first before deciding further. Yes, we have heard about how the console is really bringing gaming to a whole new level with its motion sensor controls. But how good is it, we have always wondered.

So off we went to Best Denki (it's one of the few official Wii resellers in Malaysia) in 1 Utama. First thing we checked out was the price and warranty. The official set (will explain on the non-official set shortly) costs rm1299. It comes with 1 console (US region), 1 Wiimote, 1 nunchuck, 1 stand and I Wii Sports game. Warranty is only for 3 months. I suspect this is a MaxSoft policy rather than Nintendo's since I know consoles usually have 1 year warranty.

How was Wii? Very nice! I tested two games from Wii Sports - Tennis and Golf. The graphics are relatively simple (though I suspect only for titles from Nintendo since I know Resident Evil 4 is also available on Wii and graphics in that game is not 'simple'), but playing wii is a totally new experience. Since I was in public place (remember Best Denki), all I tried out was backhand and forehand. I was not too comfortable (shy) trying to do smashes, etc... So its just swing left and swing right. Yes, in case you have not realised, you swing the Wiimote like how you would when you play Tennis.

Next, I tried Golf. Still shy, I tried not to swing the Wiimote like what I would do with the golf club... Unfortunately, I found out that if I did not do a 'actual' swing, I would not be able to hit the ball far enough. So no choice... Had to do the full swing... Yes, you use the Wiimote just like how you would use a golf club. A truly different gaming experience -- no more classic controllers like those in PS3 or even Xbox360.

I've fallen in love with Wii. BUT... (yes, a BIG but)
We also checked out the games. Original games here cost around rm180 onwards! That's bl00dy expensive. Make that super Bl00dy expensive. Common... How can they expect the average person to afford the original games?! 3 games would almost be equivalent to a policeman's salary! For some, rm200 can pay for a month's petrol. Or a month's rent. If it's rm50, yes, I will go Ori... Common la Nintendo. Common la Max Soft. Even music CDs here are not that expensive.

And three months warranty only?!?

There are of course the unofficial sets. These are the ones that have been modded (modified). There are many modchips that allows you to modify the console to do more things. But bear in mind that using these modchips will void your Wii warranty. Modchips usually will allow you to play your backup discs. Let's be practical here. If your game is going to cost you a month's rent and constant playing will definitely scratch your disc, you will eventually have a disc so scratched that it can't be read anymore. Of course you would surely want to make a backup copy (hey, I believe this is allowed for music CDs). But official consoles will not allow you to play backup discs. I think a modded console is going for around rm1600 (comes with extra set of Wiimote and Nunchuck).

Anyway, Nintendo will be launching more accessories (and games, of course) for Wii. One of them is Wii Fit. It's supposed to be a game cum fitness thingy... Here's a video (yes, my first ever video embed) showing what Wii Fit is all about:

Finally, for latest news on Wii, click here.

BERSIH & Peaceful People's Gathering

2007-11-05T19:17:00.000+08:00

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
10th November. 3pm. Dataran Merdeka. Nope, we're not going to do anything bad to the Parliament on that day. 10th November 2007 is the day that Malaysians who want a change will stand-up and be counted!

Extracted from http://bersih.org/:
"Only when elections are clean and fair, can citizens be real masters of their own destiny and expect holders of public office to act accountably and effectively.”
BERSIH started out as the Joint Action Committee for Electoral Reform, which was formed in July 2005, and the coalition’s objective was to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia.

We may be 5 days late, but it is hoped that this gathering will mark the start of a positive change in our country's electoral process. But I just hope no one starts something stupid on this day.

10 sen incident

2007-11-04T11:17:00.000+08:00

I wonder...

If anyone is following the keris-wielding fashion this time around?! Tsk, tsk... this is the guy who claims militancy is not his style and that others perceive his style as 'lembik'. Maybe 'lembik' in other sense, gua...?!

I was having breakfast this morning when I saw a guy drop a 10 sen coin after getting his change from the chicken rice seller. The guy paused for just 2 - 3 seconds to scan the floor before walking away (I guess he could not find the 10 sen). I could see he couldn't really be bothered about the 10 sen.

I remember back when I was still a kid, finding 10 sen on the ground is like striking the lottery. All the coins would go into my piggy bank which my mum and I would open, count and take to the bank every few months. 10 sen back then could buy me 3 sweets or even a bubble gum. But many years later, 10 sen seems like nothing to many. I don't think you can even buy a stick of cigarette with 10 sen.

Has the 10 sen devalued so much over the past 20 years? If so, what then with the 5 sen and 1 sen. Just to side track a bit... At one time, there were talks to stop circulation of 1 sen since the process of making 1 sen actually costs more than 1 sen. After some discussion, it was decided that 1 sen will still continue to be circulated.

Going back to this 10 sen thing... The thing is... How much is 10 sen to Malaysians these day? How much is 10 sen to you? Heck, the price of fried beehoon went up by about 20 sen per plate since 1st November (this is another thing that puzzles me... There is an increase of 15 sen per kilogram of rice flour but how come my plate of beehoon that definitely weights less than 1 kg goes up by 20 sen?!). And during the last petrol price revision, 1 litre of petrol went up by 30 sen. I don't think I've heard of the price of something going up by 10 sen, or even 5 sen for that matter.

Me? I still look for my 5 sen when I drop it... Money is still money.

Time flies...

2007-11-02T23:47:00.000+08:00

...Whether you are having fun... Or feeling sad... Or anxious... Or busy.

It felt like yesterday was just Monday but before I even realise it, tomorrow's already Saturday. I need a time machine.

Lousy and hectic week

2007-10-29T20:40:00.000+08:00

Well, it's an improvement... There's also 'hectic' to describe the whole of last week (and probably this week as well).

Wife was back from in-laws... Then about 3 days later, she went back again. To borrow the phrase... She was feeling under the weather. So when she said she wanted to go back home, I was very supportive of the idea. I was not really able to take care of her. At least when she's back home, her parents can pamper her. And yes, that means I have no one to pamper me again... *sigh*

Hmmm... Besides that, there's finally some progress in my personal plans. It's one of the few things I have always wanted to do. I should be able to know if things will work out by this week. As with a few other things, I will share more when the time comes. Hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks time. Yea, I realised I've been giving out quite a lot of 'tell you soon' lately.

But all this have also made me ask... Why do we 'slave' everyday? What is the purpose of 'work'? I mean... Will what we do now actually 'contribute' in a positive way to the society? Will what we do bring tangible benefit to humanity? Or are we doing what we do everyday just to get some money to pay-off our housing loans, etc... In which case, we're actually 'useless' and just taking up oxygen... No?

Life is so confusing, isn't it? And hectic... :) <--- yes, i'm actually enjoying all this...

Lousy week

2007-10-20T22:08:00.000+08:00

This is been a truly lousy week that started from the Raya weekend itself.

Had not been feeling too good since Sunday... Went out for a midnight movie, Resident Evil: Extinction, with a Wei Loong, Jude and Kim Chuan on Sunday night. Big mistake. Had a massive headache the following and and mutated into fever, sore throat and then flu... Got really bad on Thu and Fri... But I think I'm feeling much better now though I still have a bit of running nose.

I've stopped taking cold showers for now. But its kinda hard when the water pressure in my parent's place is so low. At times, the water does not even come out from the hot water shower. Called Syabas to complain a few times already and each time, they said they will send someone to look into it. Na-da! *sigh* They are faster when responding to broken pipes...

And for the past few days, my diet consisted mainly of bread... I guess can consider this a detox week la... I hope next week will be better. Wife will be back from in-law's place tomorrow... Yippie... I can be pampered again!

Oh ya... Good thing about the week was I managed to visit Dean on Monday... It's Raya ma... :) As usual, I just can't stay away from the satay sauce and ketupat and the vegetarian rendang.

Relieved

2007-10-10T23:32:00.000+08:00

I wonder...

Who was the first wiseguy who took a look at a cow and subsequently decided he would like to drink the cow's milk...

Who would have thought that a statement could have such an impact? A remark made four days ago had caused be restless nights and anxiety. For four days, I was worried and was hardly myself.

Tonight, after 3 hours of wait (which I am glad), my fears have been confirmed to be unfounded. Suddenly, I my whole body felt so light. Literally, my shoulders felt lighter. I can sleep better tonight...

When the time comes, I will share more... ;)

Before year 1

2007-10-06T20:55:00.000+08:00

We have always read in history books about events that happened 50 years ago or even 100... Maybe even back to year 1400, etc... But have you ever wondered what happened in say year 1000? Or maybe year 600? Better yet... What about events that took place before Christ.

So off it was for me... Searching around for information on the internet on this subject. Within less than 30 minutes, I found my answer. Or at least one website that would be my starting point. Check out http://www.didyouknow.cd/history/bc1000.htm.

Some interesting years...
221BC: China is finally united from 6 kingdoms
585BC: The Tortoise and The Hare story by Aesop was thought to have started around this time.
776BC: First Olympics
1860BC: Stonehenge was constructed
2680BC: Great Pyramid of Giza completed.
8000BC: The wheel is believed to have been invented around this time. I think probably the oldest and still very much useful invention...

All these have made me want to know even more about the history of humanity.

High Tech Police?

2007-10-02T19:56:00.000+08:00

Saw this on The Star Online yesterday...

This was featured on The Star Online
Eh... Several billion ringgit?! Hmmm... Is this a one time cost? Or just implementation cost? What about maintenance? Don't they need to send people for training? What about upgrades? And like all equipments, how long can these 'hand-held computers', scanners, 'image enhancers' last? Does that mean PDRM will need to 'refresh' the equipment every few years?

To be honest, I agree we should pump in more more money to beef up the PDRM. After all, my previous post (see A Scary World) highlighted some concerns I have regarding our country's state of security...

But forensic tools? Hello, these equipments are only useful AFTER a crime has been committed. Can't we spend more money on PREVENTING crime? Why not use the billions of ringgit to give the policemen an even better pay instead? Not enough policemen? I'm sure with rm1 billion, we can easily get lots of 'volunteers' from our neighboring countries. :)

Finger print scanners, etc are only useful if the criminals are in our database. With so many news of foreigners holding MyKad, I seriously wonder if having any prints but no database to match to will be a smart move.

Plus, I can just imagine this:
Senior police: Apasal you bagi pencuri tu lari? (Why did you let the thief get away?)
Junior police: Bukan saya sengaja mau, tuan... Tapi ni komputer, senapang, walkie-talkie... Berat sampai seluar saya nak jatuh semasa kejar (Not that I want to let him go, sir... But these hand-helds, gun, walkie-talkie is adding so much weight that my pants almost fell off when I was giving chase)
Senior police: ?!? Errr... Lain kali baling aje tu komputer kat pencuri... (Errr... Next time just throw the hand-held at the thief)

A scary world

2007-09-25T22:48:00.000+08:00

What has our world turned into? Every day, it is nothing but war, natural disasters, man-made eco disasters, killings, etc...

I'm sure everyone would have read about little girl Nurin. Her case reminded me of another girl, many years ago, who was similarly tortured and abused.

I'm also very sure that everyone of us would have known personally at least one female friend or relative who has been a victim of snatch theft. I won't be surprised as well if we personally know someone who's house was broken into. I know 2 classmates who's house were broken into in the past 3 months or so.

Just last week, I heard that a colleague of mine got slashed by robbers who had wanted to steal his Toyota Camry. We have all heard of it before. Someone knocks your car from behind. There's a car blocking yours. You can't drive away... Next thing you know, someone smashes your window. Then you get slashed. The slashing is to scare and shock the victim. But is it necessary?

And it is not just with cars. I've also heard of snatch thieves who will knock their victims on the head with bottles or stones before grabbing the handbags.

So the big question is... How safe are we these days? We call ourselves 'developed'. But it seems like we've taken a few steps backwards instead.

We are supposed to feel safe in our own homes. But how safe is it these days? We'd definitely label a Malaysian as CRAZY if he or she does not grill up their house or even a condo unit that is on the 18th floor! That is how safe we are...

For me, it has reached a point where I really don't mind we we have the army patrolling our streets. I believe there is a shortage of policemen in the country. If so, why can't we use the army? I would rather see a few soldiers on the corner of every street. No, it won't make me feel like there's a war going on. I think looking at how things are, I would feel much safer.

Arundina progress

2007-09-23T23:17:00.000+08:00

Arundina is a cluster home that is being built by the award winning developer called SP Setia in a place called Setia Alam. It will be my new home really soon, judging by the construction progress...

Looks like the structure is completed

This is how it looks inside

This is where I'll be planting some of my food... :)
I have been told it will be ready only early next year. I guess still lots of touch-up to be done by the developer.

September update

2007-09-19T22:50:00.000+08:00

Dog catching competition has been called off. It was decent of MPS to actually admit that it was ill-thought out plan and that they learn from this.

I've not been updating this blog and also my website partly because I've just changed my job. Plus need to spend sometime with my family and also a few other things...

I'll probably need another week or two before I settle into the new schedule...

Catch the most dogs and win rm15k (USD4.5k)

2007-09-05T13:17:00.000+08:00

This is no joke. Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (Selayang Municipal Council) is organising a dog capturing competition. All you need to do is catch as many dogs as possible. The dogs will still need to be breathing (for audit purpose) and each dog captured must also be photographed as proof of capture.

Tangkapan hendaklah diserahkan hidup-hidup kepada urus setia pertandingan untuk pengiraan/audit. Gambar setiap ekor tangkapan juga hendaklah dikemukakan sebagai bukti tangkapan.

Assessment will be done twice a year (every 6 months). To qualify for the three prizes, you will need to capture a minimum of 150 dogs every 6 months. The prize structure? 1st prize gets you rm15k, 2nd prize rm13k and 3rd prize winner gets rm11k. That's a whooping rm39k in taxpayer's money! An incentive payout of rm20 per dog will also be given out every month. Only stray dogs will be counted.

Competition details
The thing is...
What the f*ck is wrong with our councillors?!?

Don't they have better things to do with the money? Why target only dogs? I'm sure we all have problems with stray cats and even rats! And what if someone captures a licensed dog, what guarantee is there that the person will not remove the license and 'submit' the licensed dog as stray?

From Remembering Sheena's 4th September post:

I appeal to the Malaysian public to please bombard the newsdesk of the Media with emails and phone calls expressing disgust at this outrage. Below are the email addresses you can write to. Please don't forget to include your full name, email and mailing address and telephone numbers:

editor@thestar.com.my
metro@thestar.com.my
letters@nstp.com.my
news@nstp.com.my
mmnews@nstp.com.my
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
editor@malaysiakini.com
editorial@sinchew.com.my
bhnews@bharian.com.my
pengarang@utusan.com
editor@nanyang.com.my
am@hmetro.com.my
gmkl@guangming.com.my
bgns@bernama.com
tcpb@po.jaring.my

I hope everyone can help pass the word around. No, this is not about expanding the competition to include stray cats and rats. It is about:
- expressing disgust for such brutal and stone-age 'sport'
- expressing disgust for abusing taxpayers' money
- respecting and loving all living beings including stray dogs

Glass of water

2007-09-03T22:17:00.000+08:00

After every meal, my wife will usually bug me to drink a glass of water. Yeah, she treats me like a child but I actually don't mind... :)

Usually, she will bring out a glass of water and ask me to finish it. Today's dinner was no different. My wife brought out a glass of water. But instead of telling me to finish the water immediately like she always do, she just left it on the table and sat down next to me. I was feeling quite thirsty, so I reached for the glass and started to drink...

Mrrgggrrll... Pfffft.... Aaarrggghhh...!!!

It's boiling hot!!!!!

I stared at my wife. She looked back at me. When she realised what happened, she started to laugh and just said "I didn't ask you to drink it ma..."

Like that also can?!? My tongue is a bit sore right now...

Come to think of it... It was quite funny. Joked with her much later, telling her that just because I talked too much, she still didn't need to burn my throat and mouth...

Happy Merdeka Day

2007-08-29T19:22:00.000+08:00

The past 2 years have been a very interesting for me. Besides the changes in my personal life (like getting married), I have also started to be more concerned about our beloved country - Malaysia. This also means more visits to Malaysia Today (one of the very few sources of real information, in my humble opinion).

It has been many, many years since I sang Negaraku or even read out the Rukunegara. I think the last time I did both was way back in my schooling days. With the National Day just around the corner, and with the WEE Meng Chee issue, I thought it would be nice to re-visit at least one of it - our Rukunegara. Our Rukunegara (National Principles) from www.gov.my:

Bahawasanya, Negara kita Malaysia mendukung cita-cita hendak:
Mencapai perpaduan yang lebih erat di kalangan seluruh masyarakatnya; memelihara satu cara hidup demokratik; mencipta satu masyarakat yang adil di mana kemakmuran negara akan dinikmati bersama secara adil dan saksama; menjamin satu cara yang liberal terhadap tradisi-tradisi kebudayaannya yang kaya dan berbagai corak; membina satu masyarakat progresif yang akan menggunakan sains dan teknologi moden.

Maka kami rakyat Malaysia berikrar akan menumpukan seluruh tenaga dan usaha kami untuk mencapai cita-cita tersebut berdasarkan atas prinsip-prinsip yang berikut:
Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan
Kesetiaan kepada Raja dan Negara
Keluhuran Perlembagaan
Kedaulatan Undang-Undang
Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan

Looking at the five principles every Malaysian should uphold, it is interesting to note the second principle, which states that we should be loyal to king and country. Hmmm... No where is it stated anything about political parties. :)

Many years ago, I used to ask myself why should we have Agong or even Sultans? They seemed nothing more than troublemakers. But over the past few months, I am beginning to see why we should have the Sultans and Agongs. They are a symbol. A symbol that goes all the way back to the Kesultanan Melaka time. Removing them would be like forgetting our past and is definitely not something we have all been thought to do - forget our roots and our past.

Anyway, it seems a wind of change is blowing. If in the past, Their Royal Highnesses seemed uncaring and distant, things look set to change. Their Royal Highnesses seem to be more vocal now. They are now listening more attentively to the people, have the people's well-being in mind and they are getting more involved in state affairs, which I think is a very good thing. Take for example the case of the Port Klang assemblyman Zakaria.

So for this year's National Day celebration, I would like to pay a tribute to Their Royal Highnesses by wearing yellow on that day as suggested in Malaysia Today. It will be my sign of support for Their Royal Highnesses. And to quote RPK:

By wearing yellow on Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day, we hope to send a signal to the government of Abdullah Badawi that there is a limit to the people’s patience. This is a peaceful and non-violent show of support for his Majesty The Yang di-Pertuan Agong and his brother rulers to uphold the constitutional oath to defend the people of Malaysia, the sanctity of its government and our laws. This is a not a rebellion but a reassertion of our rights as the citizens of this country. We want to show the Prime Minister, his family, and cronies, that the country is not for sale. We stand united in believing that it is still not too late to save our country.

I don't think I can find a flag to fly in real world, but here's one that I will be flying on my website (flag image 'borrowed' from Malaysia Today -- please let me know if this flag cannot be used on this site).

Kesetiaan kepada Raja dan Negara - Loyalty to King and Country
Happy Merdeka Day! Here's to 50 years and the many more to come. And I hope to see you all wear yellow on that day! :)

...can you all feel the breeze -- the wind of change?

A sneak preview

2007-08-28T22:17:00.000+08:00

Been busy working on a template for Wordpress. Yes, I will be using Wordpress to power my www.adriantai.com website. Decided not to use ProEdition for now though I will miss some of its functions like forms, etc...

I managed to import a few posts from this site to use as 'demo'. This is how it will look. Decided to copy almost everything possible from this theme... GREEN. Still need to clean up some parts of the CSS codes and should be ready by this weekend.

Click here to check out the demo site.

Website dillema

2007-08-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

My website is down again. Some stupid setup problem has been causing some problems with a few folders. Decided to reinstall and things are not getting any better.

Very tempted to ditch the software I'm using right now (Pro Edition) and going for WordPress instead. I actually like Pro Edition, but it just seems a bit buggy...

How la...

X-Files Malaysia?

2007-08-15T19:05:00.000+08:00

If you think politics is boring and a topic only the senior citizens should care about, think again. I'm sure the 'exposure' Malaysia Today has got over the past few weeks in newspapers, etc would made people even more curious as to what is published there. I think somehow RPK is happy about the free advertisement his website is getting.

I started visiting Malaysia Today regularly about a year ago when I received one of his articles in my mailbox. I Googled a bit and finally found his site. Since then, I have been hooked.

I have to say that at times, I really find it hard to believe some of the articles there. I mean, they could easily pass off as a script for an episode of X-Files!

Lesbian politicians? See A comedy of errors. A Menteri Besar running away with the Sultan's daughter? Read See you in hell Muhamad son of Muhamad. Want to know what's being suggested for our Merdeka Celebrations? Check this out Malaysia bodoh....sorry, I mean boleh.

And I always thought politics was a really boring thing in Malaysia. Anyway, spotted on my car...

We walk with Malaysia Today
Whether the articles in Malaysia-Today are to be believed 100% or not, one thing is for sure, they are an interesting read and do provoke us into thinking further...

Fireworks display at Setia Alam

2007-08-13T22:17:00.000+08:00

I was in Setia Alam over the weekend for the FREE Sally YEH concert. The concert was nice with Sally belting out about 10 songs. Managed to also meet up with a few SARA forumers.

The concert ended with fireworks display. No matter how many times I have see the fireworks display, I just can't seem to get enough of it. Here are some photos of the fireworks taken on my Sony Ericsson K618i. Had to shrink the photos else it looks really grainy.

I personally think Setia Alam will be a wonderful place to call my home. And it will be come 2008... :)

The office

2007-08-10T22:17:00.000+08:00

Most of us actually spend a lot of time in the office... Sometimes even more than the time we spend at home. A typical day for me starts at 7am. I leave my house by around 745am and I usually get home only by 8 or 9pm. That's more than 12 hours. Minus one hour of lunch and about two hours of commuting time, it is still 10 hours of my day spent in the office.

This also means I see my colleagues about 10hours every day!

For someone with my schedule, I end up with really very little time for my wife and my family. Actually, because everyone in my family has got their own activities and schedule, sometimes I don't even see them for days!

Anyway, the point is... 10 hours can be a lot of time. Over the span of almost 6 years, sometimes we can become more than just colleagues. For me, my colleagues have become the people I have been so accustomed to seeing everyday... It would just feel weird not seeing them. Some have seen me 'grow'... From a meat-eater to a vegetarian... To getting 'attached' and finally getting married. Along the way, I have learnt a lot from my colleagues. They have thought me how to be a better person.

It will be with a very, very heavy heart when I leave...

More changes...

2007-08-08T13:09:00.000+08:00

A French author, François de la Rochefoucauld, once said,
“The only thing constant in life is change”

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying,
"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes"

I would say...
"The only thing certain in life is change, death and taxes"

Sally YEH in Setia Alam

2007-07-30T17:47:00.000+08:00

Yup, Setia Alam developer, SP Setia, is organising three Sally YEH concerts in Setia Pearl Island (Penang), Setia Alam (Selangor) and Setia Tropika (Johor). Best of all, the tickets are FREE!

Home owners need to just claim their free-seating tickets from the sales office. For the rest, it will be free-standing tickets.

The concert in Setia Alam will be held at the Setia Alam's Central Park on 11th August 2007. There will also be fireworks display. If I remember correctly, myFM DJs Jack and Mei Yan will also be there.

I am so looking forward to this... Will be meeting up with a few SARA forum members on that day. Will also be checking out the progress of my house... Last time I was there, work was being done on the drainage and they have started the paint job...

My house ,Arundina, a cluster-home in Setia Alam

Still a lot of work in progress...

Drainage works in progress... Yes, 50ft wide roads

One for the nose

2007-07-28T21:17:00.000+08:00

Went to see an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist last week as I has having a very bad cough caused by throat/ nose irritation. This specialist I went to is actually ENT+H&N (Ear, Nose, Throat + Head and Neck) specialist. My sinus problem was getting worse... Our planet is getting more polluted by the day... *sigh*

The doctor actually pushed a scope up my nose! Yes, I could actually see what is INSIDE the nose. Too bad I forgot to ask if I could take a photo of the inside of my nose... I was too stunned then... Do all bloggers do this -- take photos of anything and everything?!? According to him, my nose was a bit swollen. So, I was prescribed some medication and this...

Nope, I'm not turning into a junkie
I am supposed to use the syringe to push some saline solution up my nose and wash the insides... It's also called a nasal wash... Scary...

OK, how does it feel? You know how you sometimes accidentally inhale some water? Well, just imagine the same, but without the experience being 'accidental'. Seriously... It is kinda 'nice' and 'fun'... Really!

From Wikipedia:
Nasal irrigation is a personal hygiene practice which involves flooding the nasal cavity with warm saline solution. The goal of nasal irrigation is to clear out excess mucus and particulates and moisturize the nasal cavity. The practice has been subjected to clinical testing and has been found to be safe and beneficial, with no apparent side effects.

I have to do this every night for at least one month...

KFC voucher

2007-07-24T18:41:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine emailed this voucher to me recently...

KFC e-craving voucher
Hmmm... Obviously this friend does not know that I'm a vegetarian! *sigh*

Anyway, I was a bit skeptical (a few weeks back, I received a 'eat all you can' durian promotion that was held back in 2006!) about this voucher as I could not find it on the KFC website. So I decided to called KFC to check it out. Yes, the voucher is valid. You just need to print this out and provide it to them. But note that its only:
- valid on Tuesday
- valid till 31st July 2007 (meaning next Tuesday is the last chance you can use it)

I have been told that KFC has decided to extend this 'promotion' and will be sending out a new voucher shortly. It seems that to get the voucher, you need to sign-up at their website.

If you take a closer look at the voucher, you'll realise they include the usual 'terms and conditions' in the voucher... Including this one - Valid while stocks last.

Huh?!? If you go to KFC and they are out of stock (meaning no more fried chicken), what else do you eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken?!? Can KFC really run out of Fried Chickens at 2-6pm since promotion is valid only then? Plus, it's not like Tesco or Carrefour where they can run out of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold at rm69.90 and tell you to go buy other items they have on sale... There is nothing else but fried chickens at KFC! OK, they have some burgers, fries and wedges too...

But apparently, KFC can run out of stocks... At least that's what marketing person I spoke to on the phone told me.

Hmmm... I would love to see McDonald's running out of burgers... :)

National vehicle

2007-07-22T20:27:00.000+08:00

I'm sure many would have seen this advertisement on TV, newspaper, etc...

The Petronas Saya Anak Malaysia contest - 50 national vehicles to be won!

If you take a closer look, the model of one of the 50 national vehicles is...

Naza Ria
I'm just wondering how one goes about getting 'national vehicle' status...

Prepaid and postpaid

2007-07-12T18:28:00.000+08:00

Being a postpaid user usually means being second class. And I can understand why...

There are about 12 million prepaid users in Malaysia (shared between the 3 Telcos - Maxis, Digi and Celcom). The prepaid market is a very volatile market. These are the group of people who can change from one service provider to another at anytime. From a business point of view, this means they have to really take care of this group of customers. Otherwise, it is bye-bye... So, its no surprise to see concerts, freebies, free SMS, etc being given to prepaid users.

Assuming the average balance on each prepaid user is rm5, and if a service provider manages to have 2 million prepaid users, the Telco would already have ‘spare money’ of rm10million. Put this amount in a fixed deposit at a 3% interest rate, a service provider earn about rm25k per month in interest (or ‘free money’).

Postpaid users, on the other hand, are liabilities. In some cases, these postpaid users have ZERO deposit and use the service first, paying only at the end of the month (actually after 2 months since you have another 1 month after the billing date to settle your bills).

Assuming a Telco has 100 000 postpaid user and each have used about rm50 of their service, they would already have a ‘loss’ of rm5 million. Is it any wonder now why mobile service providers don’t really have loyalty programs for their postpaid users?

And if you ever want to be in a business, you should look at starting something similar to our Touch N Go (with auto-reload). Auto-reloads are usually done once your balance goes below rm100. This means, at any one time, a user’s balance is about rm100. If you’re Rangkaian Segar, the Touch N Go operator, and you have 100 000 auto-reload Touch N Go users, you stand to earn rm25k of free money every month!

Transformers mania

2007-07-10T17:42:00.000+08:00

Everyone's gone gaga over the transforming robots. Here's one transformer that never made the cut... Got it from an email...

What happens when you don't have enough budget for special effects...
I think the next movie that should be made is Robotech. The robots (or mecha) are quite believable. In fact, I think they are more believable than Transformers robots. Before I start getting hate mails, I want to make it clear that I love them both! And just like Transformers, there's a lot that can be told for Robotech.

Website

2007-07-05T18:47:00.001+08:00

I have a website... But I don't know what to do with it...

Any idea?

Working on my website

2007-06-28T19:59:00.000+08:00

Just realised recently that I've actually been neglecting my own website - www.adriantai.com. So I've been keeping a low profile and not posting much here for the past few days coz I'm working on getting more things up and running over there.

Hmmm... I've not finished posting all my wedding photos as well... Oooops... *shy*

Tomorrow should be fun... I'll be away from office. I'll be meeting up with a few friends to watch Transformers. Lots of activities over the next few days... Will write about it soon...

How much is a glass of water worth?

2007-06-24T21:23:00.000+08:00

Yes, this is currently a hot issue. If you have been following the news lately, you would have read about the government and the restaurant owners going head-on over this water issue.

So, how much is a glass of water worth anyway? Note the term used is 'worth' and not 'cost'. I'm sure we all know a glass of plain water costs about 1 sen (or less). Well according the the government, a glass of plain water is worth 5sen. The ~~cutthroat~~ coffeeshop owners, on the other hand, thinks it is worth 50sen.

I can where the government is coming from. I can see the government is trying to fight for the people. After all, ~~election is just around the corner~~ they are the representatives elected by the people and for the people. But aren't they forgetting that the businessmen/ coffeeshop owners are also entitled to a vote? Then again... That's only a few votes.

But I can also see where the businessmen are coming from... After all, every item they sell should at least earn them 50sen or so, otherwise, it is just not worth selling. It would be a waste of time and more importantly, shop space. A can of Cola can easily cost rm2 in a coffeeshop. Buy it from Giant during the festive seasons, you can probably get a can at 80sen or less.

It is not just plain water. With the recent increase in civil servant's salary, I have noticed a few other items going up. A restaurant I frequent started charging rm1.60 for a glass of coffee. This shop even had the cheek to post a memo from the area's coffeeshop owner's association claiming all the shops there agree to the price increase. Even bank employees are now asking for a 30% pay rise.

And I seem to recall a minister saying the government will not allow anyone to raise prices just because the civil servants got a pay rise (it seemed that each time the civil servants get a pay rise, everyone else takes the opportunity to also increase their prices).

Is all these 'publicity' actually necessary? I sincerely think not. After all, if someone feels a glass of plain water is not worth 50sen, then just don't order it. I stopped ordering drinks from the coffeeshops I feel are 'cutthroat' business operators. I am not shy about that. It's my money and I decide how I spend it. If they boss ever asks me, I'll just tell him I don't like to pay rm1.60 for a glass of coffee.

Anyway, nowadays, I carry a Tupperware of plain water with me everywhere I go. Plain water is good for health and it is very cheap when you 'pack' it from home.

My lunch

2007-06-20T13:17:00.000+08:00

Yummy... Vegetarian rendang with lady's fingers

Yummy food with little or no MSG (I believe the auntie actually don't use any). Brown rice, lady's fingers and vegetarian rendang. Notice it's in a tupperware and not in the white polystyrene box.

Yes, GREEN is for vegetables and GREEN is for Earth.

Singapore and Samy

2007-06-14T23:17:00.000+08:00

I was in Singapore for a one day business trip.

I like Changi Airport. They have free local calls. Free internet. Free movie screenings. A nice sunflower garden and a nice mini ‘park’. It is ironic that Changi Airport seems have more plants in the airport than our KLIA, considering the fact that KLIA is supposedly nicknamed ‘Jungle in an airport’ (or maybe it was 'Airport in a jungle'?). There are hardly any trees and plants in our ‘jungle’!

Sunflowers in Changi Airport

Flowers in Changi Airport

More flowers and trees in Changi Airport

It was a business trip so it was nothing really eventful. I had my usual there – Mushroom soup at The Soup Spoon. I also got to meet up with 25-kid.

I took the evening flight back to Malaysia. To get to my seat, I had to go through the business class section. While walking in, I suddenly noticed a familiar head (hair, actually). The guy seated at the front seat was non other than... Mr. Samy Velu, our Works Minister.

So can you imagine how difficult it was for me NOT to walk over to him when we were in mid-flight to ask about the 150 years guarantee he gave (he had recently guaranteed that the Parliament building will not leak again for at least the next 150 years), about MRR2, about the toll charges and the leaks we seem to have these days, etc... I was very tempted to ask if our planes will start to leak as well... I wanted to also ask if he’s willing to carpool and let me hitch a ride back to town. I could save some money from having to pay the toll and we’d be ‘greener’. In the end, decided to just let it rest. He probably just start to rant and rave about anything and everything and not tell me anything.

In case you’re wondering... No, I’m not sure if he took the KLIA Express or he had a driver waiting for him. I couldn’t be bothered. I was tired and just wanted to get home to Mrs. Tai.

The Maxis 017 experience

2007-06-01T19:17:00.000+08:00

As my foreign visitors will be here for the next few weeks, the company (decided) thought that it would be easier and also cheaper for them to have a local mobile number. So off I went this afternoon to get them a Maxis number. Having been a Maxis user for more than 5 years now, I have to say that even though I’ve had some bad billing experience with them, they have never failed to solve the problems and made me feel happy again.

With so many tourists coming to visit our lovely Malaysia (after all, its Visit Malaysia Year 2007), I would have thought that the policies and procedures we have in place would only serve to make our visitors confortable. If we want the tourists to spend a few weeks here, they must feel at home and be able to easiely call back to their family, right? Getting a prepaid/ disposable mobile number should as easy as buying bread from 7-11 (unless its Gardenia bread – 7-11 dun sell them), right?

Yes, its not really difficult buying a prepaid number. But its super difficult trying to get it activated. Some joker somewhere must have thought its fun to let our visitors go through all the hassle like I did. This is what I had to go through:

1. Look for a shop that still sells prepaid starter pack. I had to try at least 5 shops before I finally found one.

2. Choose a number. It is actually amazing how many nice numbers are available at the price of rm8.80.

3. Complete a stupid form and show proof to the vendor that I are who I claim to be in the form – show IC to the vendor. Tourists would need to provide their passport as proof of identity. Yes, you can’t buy on behalf of your friend.

4. Vendor will then tell you that the line will be activated in 1 hour’s time. So after one hour and the line was not activated, I started to panic. We’re trying to give our foreign visitors a good impression of Malaysia and this is not good – especially after their 2 days in a Proton Wira. And there’s no way to call the vendor since its one of those small shops with no phones – and this is a shop selling mobile starter packs!

5. Tried to activate the line again after another 1 hour. Manual says that it will automatically be activated after I make my first call using the new number. But each time I try to make a call, a stupid automated voice will tell me that the number cannot be activated until I have registered it.

6. Called Maxis Customer Service hotline. They told me its bullsh1t – activation is only 1 hour if I personally walk into a Maxis Service Centre. Maxis Customer Service also told me that activation via vendor may take up to THREE days. I explained the situation to Maxis but this time, they were more of Customer Dis-service than anything else. To think I have been a Maxis user for so long and it is still so bl00dy difficult to register the line under my name! How ironic when you think about it... I can have a supplementary line activated and sent to my house by just calling Maxis Customer Service hotline but I cannot register a prepaid number?! They expect a tourist to know where their service centres are located?! Any tourist staying in Malaysia for a week or less is better off just using their roaming service. Dont bother about public phones, it’s been many years since I have seen one that works. Public phone booths are actually meant more as a one man shelter from rain.

I know... The Telcos will just blame this on the goverment and say its the law. So... How?

In the end, I was not too sure if the number got activated. I gave the sim card to my foreign visitors and told them that the line should work. Otherwise, they can continue to use their roaming services. Oh ya... They are planning to visit Singapore this weekend. I’m not stopping them.

So much for Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

The Wira experience

2007-05-31T20:17:00.000+08:00

My company is playing host to a few foreign visitors. As they would be here for a few weeks, they rented themselves a car - a Proton Wira with automatic transmission.

On the second day, I sat in the car with them as they were still not sure how to get to the office. As our office is on higher ground, we had to drive through roads that was slightly sloped. Then it happened... The car started to jerk and my foreign visitor shifted to L (for Low gear). But we could sense that the Wira was really struggling to climb that road. There were only 4 of us in the car.

Anyway, we managed to get to office but my visitors were clearly not too happy with the car they had rented. They felt it was under-powered and not really that safe. They asked us to help them get the car exchanged.

After a few phone calls and a bit of negotiations, my colleague managed to get them a Toyota Altis. This time, my foreign visitors were already a bit skeptical about rented cars. They said they wanted to take the car for a spin before accepting it. After 1 round, they had a discussion and we found out later that they said the Toyota Altis was at least 10 times better than the Proton Wira.

Then one of them turned to my colleague and asked "Was the first car they had (Proton Wira) made in China?"

Arrgggh...!!! Paiseh, paiseh... Sia-sui only (paiseh means embarrassing in hokkien; siasui means disgraceful in hokkien). My colleague didn't know whether to tell them that the Proton Wira was made in Malaysia or not, so she just smiled at them...

No offense to the Chinese, but many have bad impression of 'Made in China' products -- cheap but does not last. Still, I guess this encounter only shows Malaysia is not that far off.

I know some of you might say that its the car rental company's fault for not maintaining the car...

Pay raise and election

2007-05-21T19:00:00.000+08:00

I wonder...

Today's News Straits Times mentioned of Work Minister, Samy Vellu, giving 150 years warranty for the Parliament building. If something happens 80 years from now, I wonder how are we going to claim from him? Or maybe he's also going to break the oldest person record?

It was announced today that civil servants will be getting a pay raise of between 7% - 30% effective July 2007. I think this is really great news for the civil servants who at times have to sacrifice so much for so little. COLA will also be increased. And for our underpaid heroes, the raise is even more! What more can we ask for, right?

Over the weekend, the Singaporean movie 'I not Stupid' was shown on the local TV. In one scene, the parents of one of the boys were so delighted after hearing news that the Singaporean government announced some bonus (or some kind of reward, I can't remember). Then both parents looked at each other and said that its probably election time.

Take a look at this post and tell me... Coincidence or its election time again?

Oh ya... The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) hit a record high early this month... ;)

Meeting my new neighbours

2007-05-20T18:12:00.000+08:00

SP Setia recently started to arrange 'Meet Your Neighbours' session for the house buyers. They took the opportunity to show us (house buyers) what they are planning for Setia Alam, including sharing with us their new 'vision' for the business district, to be called Setia City. Setia Alam is located in Shah Alam and just next to Klang. It is about 15 minutes drive from Damansara Toll on the NKVE. It will my home come 2008.

For my batch, which is also the third one to be organised by SP Setia was held today. My parents joined us for the session which included a progress briefing, tea and a tour of the township and of course... Our houses. The turn out was quite good and I managed to meet up with some of the SARA forum members besides getting to know the neighbours.

So many people but unfortunately, my immediate neighbours did not turn up
Besides taking us to Eco Park which they are very proud of (I believe they won many awards for this development), they also took us to the Setia Badminton Academy.

Entrance to Setia Badminton Academy... Will our next national champion come from Setia Alam?
And guess who I saw there?

That's former world badminton champion - Han Jian
Yup, that's the former world champion - Han Jian. He is currently the chief coach at Setia Badminton Academy! Yes, you can get him to be your coach. I believe there are 16 courts which is available for rental. There are also 2 basketball courts here.

After the session, the four of us decided to sneak into our house (still under construction). We wanted to have a 'feel' of what will become our new home. We were quite impressed by the progress. Although expected to be completed only sometime mid 2008, the way things are looking, we expect to be able to move in early 2008.

We checked out the master bedroom. This is what we will see every morning...

There will be greens in front later on...
We got ourselves a linked Semi-Detached. Unlike the conventional Semi-D which basically means 2 houses joined together, the linked Semi-D, also known as cluster house, is made up of 4 houses. What to do, can't afford an actual Semi-D... Yet. :) But what Mrs Tai and I love about the house is the small garden at the side.

Outside our new home
We are just so excited... It shows on our faces... Just look at Mrs Tai's smile... And mine! We just can't wait to move in... :)

Male Chauvinist Parliamentarian

2007-05-15T18:47:00.000+08:00

I didn't intend to actually blog about this but an article in today's The Star Online just got on my nerves.

Taken from The Star Online
Last week, Mr. Close-One-Eye and Mr. Foul Mouth had made derogatory remarks in the parliament while commenting on a question by an opposition MP. You can read more about this in Malaysia Today or watch the Parliament session here.

Taken from The Star Online. Click here for full report.
Today, the Male Chauvinist Parliamentarian (MCP) is trying to worm his way out... His excuse is that 'bocor' could have meant anything from 'urinate' to the leaks in the Parliament. Unless the newspaper quoted him wrongly, since when did our Parliament building move to Batu Gajah? Or is he implying that we're wasting our money trying to fix and renovate the Parliament since it leaks every month? Or maybe he's just putting it across politely that the Works Minister isn't doing a good job. I doubt people in Batu Gajah urinate only once a month.

But do you know what is really amazing about all this? We elected these jokers. Yes, we are the ones who actually put these so-called leaders there. These are the people who are supposed to represent us and lead our country... But we have to seriously stop and ask - do they represent what Malaysians are and where are they leading us to? I definitely didn't elect them just so they could crack crude jokes and act like clowns in Parliament.

He has the right to refuse to apologise. We have the right not to vote him in. :) I have always believe action speaks louder than words. If we're serious about something, there is no need to talk. Just do it. If Malaysians are really offended, why the need to ask for an apology? Just make him regret it instead. We have the power!

In case you're wondering why I am suddenly so vocal, well, Mr. Gangster said politicians must be able to take criticisms:

Taken from The Star Online
Hmmm... I wonder if they would have gotten slapped had they said that in front of their mothers.

[From Wikipedia: Male Chauvinist is used to describe men who treat women negatively based solely upon their gender.]

Maybank wake-up call

2007-05-14T13:21:00.000+08:00

I have to thank Patrick TEOH for this wakeup call... I had been one of those who were indifferent to this. Maybe because I thought it didn't affect me. After all, I'm not a lawyer. And partly because I did not see the big picture until his post on this woke me up. I'm referring to the Maybank fiasco. To quote him:
Okay, for those of you who've been sleeping or been apathetic as usual or been abroad and out of Internet reach in Siberia here's a little background to what took place about a week ago.

Maybank, the country's biggest bank announced that for legal firms to do business with it the firms must have at least 3 Bumiputra partners. One of whom must own no less than 50% equity in the firm. Of course, when the announcement went public the shit hit the fan. As it should.

As he and many may have noted, this Maybank fiasco was on front page last week for 1-2 days. After that, it died down.

Patrick's post pointed out many glaring 'problem' our country faces today - from indifferent public and tactless politicians to short-sighted people who run companies and our country. How can we be 'ready' for globalisation when we're still in stone-age when it comes to 'business' and 'making money'? How can the top bank in our country come up with such ridiculous requirement? Are they trying to say that they do not have plans to do business with people outside of Malaysia? I'll be bl00dy worried if I'm a Maybank shareholder.

Our politicians' reaction is something to take note of as well. "Maybe their approach as not right but the matter should have been between the two parties only. This is not something that should have been brought to the Cabinet," one Minister was quoted as saying.

Taken from The Star Online
Errr... Hello?! Which two parties did he mean? And since when is discrimination a "two party" issue and a waste of Cabinet's time? Cabinet is here to serve the public and if we think it is a serious matter, the Cabinet should be spending more time on it and ensuring this does not happen again!

No company would want to get itself into a scandal and be in the front page for the wrong reasons. In the corporate world, such statements and business policy, like in the case of Maybank, only shows how shallow the people running the business are. I wonder how such policy could have been approved by the board of directors? Or could this have been the decision of a 'overly excited employee' similar to the "Deepavali" issue not too long ago? Either way, it does not give confidence to shareholders. It does not give Maybank a 'professional' image. If we truly want to be 'world class', it is time the board of directors be responsible for all this. They should provide a satisfactory reasons why this was allowed to happen in the company. Otherwise, they should follow the steps of other CEOs like:
Leak scandal costs HP's Dunn her chairman's job
"These leaks had the potential to affect not only the stock price of HP but also that of other publicly traded companies," she said. "Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologize that they were employed."

Bristol-Myers CEO Quits
"The recommendation to fire Dolan and Willard came after Bristol-Myers struck a deal with generic drugmaker Apotex to delay sales of a generic version of Plavix, Bristol-Myers' top-selling drug. The agreement is the subject of a federal criminal investigation."

As customers of Maybank, we should send out a clear message that we're not happy. Close our Maybank account! As shareholders, question the director about this in the next shareholders' meeting! But as Patrick also highlighted, all these are very inconvenient. Close my account and incur administration charges? Better to just "close one eye" to all this. Easier for us... Right?

That's probably why each time we take a step, it is one step backwards...

My green effort

2007-05-07T23:17:00.000+08:00

I wonder...

If Paris HILTON's jail cell will also be known as the Hilton Suite?

I have started to carry this around with me when I go pack my lunch. First reaction I get from my colleagues is "Your wife cooked lunch for you today?"
This is my lunch box
Everytime we tar-pow (pack) our lunch, very likely that it will be in a polystyrene box. After finishing our food, what do we do with the box? We throw it away. It is such a waste and does not really help us keep our planet clean.

Having blogged about our planet, etc... I decided it is time that I 'walk the walk' as well. After all, no point just talking about it but not doing anything. So starting last week, whenever possible, I will use my Tupperware.

Over time, I hope to do even more. Other little things I have started to do includes turning the engine off whenever I have to wait in the car. I sell my old newspaper to the recycling man. Whenever possible, I avoid asking for plastic bag when I shop. I have yet to get my own shopping bag but in time, I will get one as well...

These are no doubt very small steps, but at least I can now say I am doing my bit. What about you?

Spiderman 3

2007-05-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

Spiderman 3
A friend gave me two tickets to the charity screening of Spiderman 3 at Tanjong Golden Village (TGV) in KLCC. On the ticket, it was mentioned "Strictly no camera handphones, PDAs, laptops or any recording devices are permitted into the cinema" and also something about security checks. I didn't realise they were serious. This is the first time I actually have to go through a scanner to enter the cinema hall! Yes, they have people with handheld scanners conducting scans like in the airports. Those who had their handphones with them were told to leave them at a special counter.

I felt this was a bit ridiculous. I guess in this case, the movie distributor assumes everyone is guilty of piracy until proven otherwise. Luckily the people at the counter were quite friendly. But I have to admit, not having phones with us was quite good - this is also the first in a long, long time since I watched a movie without a phone going off midway. :)

So, how was Spiderman 3? I think this movie is over-hyped. I expected more action and more fights... After all, we have three villians in this movie - the Green Goblin, Sandman and one of Spidey's main 'enemy' - Venom. But I was disappointed. The fights were quite normal... Nothing really memorable. On character development, there wasn't really much. Yes, we get to see Peter Parker 'sink' and became 'bad' but I think I've seen stronger emotions from movies like Wild Hogs. Everything about Spiderman 3 just seemed half-hearted.

Hmmm... Do I look better in Red or in Black?
There was a scene where Spiderman swings into action to try and save Mary Jane. I think this scene was supposed to make us cheer, but unfortunately, it just didn't do it for me. I remember a similar scene in Superman Returns, when Superman saves the plane and puts it down on a baseball stadium. Everyone in the stadium stood up and cheered... I actually cheered as well (even the hair on my arms stood up - That's how emotional that scene was!). Nothing like that in Spidermana 3.

I thought it was just me, but when I asked Mrs Tai, she agreed as well that Spiderman 3 was a bit disappointing. For me, I think the best Spiderman movie is still Spiderman 1.

That's how you pose for photos...
After the movie, I had wanted to walk straight to the LRT station when Mrs Tai reminded me that we needed to go collect our phones. I was quite annoyed as I had to walk back to the cinema to collect my phone. Can't they just place the phone collection counter in front of the cinema exit instead? As we approached the phone collection counters, we saw confusion. There was definitely lack of planning from the event management company. There were no proper instructions on how to go about collecting our phones. It seems that you need to go to the correct counter, depending on the serial number of the receipt given to us when we handed over our phones. At one point, I got 'yelled' by the 'supervisor' as well... I think he is the supervisor because he was not wearing the t-shirt with the website www.deromp.com. I was not the only one who thought all this was ridiculous as I heard similar complaints and comments from others as well...

So much for charity screening. If this is how other charity screenings is going to be like in future, I doubt people will want to bother giving to charity this way. Or at least, the event management company should do a better job, especially during phone collection time. Put up more signs and information so people will know what to do. It's late, it's been a tiring day... Nobody wants to walk back and forth looking for the correct counter to collect their phone!

And I personally don't think this outing is really worth talking about that much...

Anyway, with Spiderman 3 out... What else is left for the next few weeks? Let's see... Pirates of the Carribean 3, Transformers, Fantastic Four 2, Die Hard 4, Harry Potter... Wow... Hopefully they are much better...

The last post...

2007-04-27T23:17:00.000+08:00

I have been tagged by Michael. This is the 2nd time... :P

In case you're wondering when was the first one, don't worry... It's still in the making. I plan to do it... Still doing some research on the 'subject'.

Anyway, I am supposed to pretend that this is my last post... And tag 5 others. The 5 others are - Lonnie (OneManBandwidth), Pamie (Lady Apatheia), Vicky (Jotting The Lines), 25-kid (Phenom Blog) and anttyk (Anttyk Junk).

And here's my last post...

I never thought this day would really come so soon...

Government has issues an order to move everyone in Klang and Shah Alam to the highlands. The continuous rain for the past few days have not stopped. Weird weather have also been reported worldwide. News report mentioned of a few countries submerged in water now. This really reminds me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

This will be my last post as I get ready to leave for higher ground. We have been told to just take some clothings and our identification papers. We have been instructed to leave everything else behind, including my notebook.

No one is sure when the rain will stop... Or if the world will ever become 'normal' again. We have had our chance to fix the problem. Every year, scientists and environmentalist have highlighted the need for us to stop killing our planet. I remember years ago when Al Gore made a documentary about this. But everyone thought it was just a ploy for him to boost his reputation before he ran for presidency again.

If some how this post survives all this, I hope it will serve as a lesson to all... Never burn down the only home you have. We have been very bad tenants. We have never taken care of our home. And now... We're now being 'evicted' from our only home - Earth.

Earth day

2007-04-22T21:17:00.000+08:00

The Earth Day flag
Today is Earth Day. It is supposed to be a day where we actively promote awareness of environmental issues.

I watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' about 2 weeks ago. The documentary is definitely a good start for those who are still not aware of the problems plaguing our planet. It tells us what is currently happening to the world and what potentially lies for us in the future if we continue to pollute our world.

Global warming. Rising sea levels. Extinction of species. But should we really care?

I mean, unless I'm living in The Netherlands or very close to the sea, otherwise, I'm quite safe should the sea level raise by another 10cm. Heck, if it goes up by even 1 meter, I am still quite safe if I am going to be living in a hilltop condominium.

Global warming? Living in Malaysia, I'm already used to the hot weather. And since I don't have that much hair all over, I can live with the extra heat. Plus, most of the time, I work in the office that is air-conditioned. So why should I care? Shopping complexes are mostly air-conditioned. My car is air-conditioned. So why should I care about rising temperature since it will not affect me?

Extinction of species. This is a laugh. Do you think I really miss NOT having the dinosaurs? I have not seen a real polar bear. And I don't think I actually see one in this lifetime. So should I really care if it goes extinct from this world? Natural Selection tells us that only the fittest will survive. So if polar bears are not fit, they don't deserve a place on OUR planet.

It is no wonder that the environmentalists are laughed at. They worry unnecessarily. They worry about what happens to other people and other creatures. I think that if it does not affect my directly and immediately, I'm not going to even bother about it.

So what if stupid turtle choke on the plastic bags I throw into the sea? So what if there's more carbon dioxide in the world? So what if there's too much sh1t in our water? Singapore doing fine recycling urine into drinking water anyway. I seriously can't think of reasons why I should even care about the world or our environment. And so what if we cut down all the trees in the world? Trees grow back. That's what they do!

I know people who exercise regularly, take lots of vegetables, supplements and fruits and practice a wholesome life just to end up diagnosed with cancer and die 5 years later. I know of chain smokers who have smoked all their life and live till 80 and still not have cancer.

I can see why America and Australia has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. America is the single biggest contributor of carbon dioxide to date but they could not be bothered about the greenhouse effect. I can see why.

The American president is smart. The Americans and Australians are really smart people. They know that all the disasters that environmentalists claim will happen if we do not reduce carbon dioxide emission will probably only occur in the next 50 years or so. If that is the case, why bother? Most of the people making decision RIGHT NOW won't live another 50 years anyway. Those who will still be around in 50 years time can't do much yet (legally, they can't vote the president away).

I think we should all ask ourselves, "What is in it for me right now?"

Don't give me the crap about our future generations. I will not be around in another 50 years time (if I am, I guess I will just suffer for a short while). Even if I live another 100 years, what can the future generations do to me? Maim me? Hang me? Nothing! And if this is the case, why should I stop making more money at the expense of the environment? Why should I stop my car engine while waiting for my wife? If I can afford my electricity bills, why should I bother to turn off the lights and the air-conditioner? And you seriously think any of the future generations are also going to be bothered about the environment?

You can call me selfish. You can call me greedy. You can label the Americans and the Australians as selfish and greedy as well. But we're the smart ones. We're the one enjoying ourselves right now because we know 50 years from now, we wont' be around. While you go cycling under the hot sun, we'll be driving around in our air-conditioned, petrol guzzling car.

While I'm still around in this planet, I wanna enjoy everything. So what if the planet dies in another 50 years time? Most of us will die by then anyway...

So lets celebrate Earth Day by decorating and beautifying out planet.Turn on ALL our lights for 24 hours. Show what our planet is capable of. Light up the forest and make a huge fire so we can shine as brightly as the sun. Earth is NUMBER 1!!!! Let us all declare it a public holiday and take the day to go driving around town and get caught in the jam. So what? We're in an air-conditioned car!

Note: I hope you are SMART enough to realise the above is written on a sarcastic note. Apologies to my American and Australian friends - I know many of you are just as concerned about our one and only home - Earth.

The week in review

2007-04-21T20:17:00.000+08:00

It was a hectic week for me. I spent almost the whole week in Singapore with very, very limited access to the internet. But I had access to CNN, BBC, etc instead.

This trip to Singapore, I managed to have 3 meals at The Soup Spoon. Their soup is still just as wonderful! A friend told me that just last month, one of the employee at the outlet in Raffles City was stabbed to death!

News on CNN, BBC, etc was non other than the Virginia Tech shooting incident. I don't know about the rest, but some how, I just feel like these 'news updates' are getting out of hand. Almost every hour or so, you get some new updates along with some old and recycled news. I hear almost the same thing every morning when I wake up.

I strongly believe that the next lunatic planning to do something similar will definitely want to die in glory by topping the 33 deaths. I mean, there's going to be some sicko out there who wants to seek glory this way. And news channel like BBC and CNN is only helping these sicko get their 'spotlight'. The Virginia Tech shooting gave the killer more than 1 week of 'coverage'. I'm sure many lunatics will want that.

But I realised something else from this... These lunatics usually fit a certain kind of profile. Perhaps they were bullied, sexually abused and/ or they hold a strong grudge against society - be it the rich, the powerful, etc... And they will rant and ramble about the so-called 'injustice' and how the 'bad' should be punished.

My question is... If I know someone who fits such profile, do I report to police? I know of someone who still harps on incidents back in school that happened almost 15 years ago. This guy has even imagined horrific deaths to people who had 'brushed him aside'. I still keep some evidence of his ramblings and psychotic imaginations. Do I need to afraid of such person?

This week, the teachers in Malaysia are in the news again. This issue was already raised a few months back but somehow, someone decided to bring this up again. According to a circular, teachers are only allowed to give tuition classes (part time job) up to 4 hours a week. Latest excuse given is this is done for the teacher's health. It is now claimed that a typical teacher works up to 9.5 hours a week.

Really?! And all this time, people always tell me my wife have it easy because she's a school teacher. They always tell me that being a teacher means working for only half a day.

So which is which now?

If you want to know, I will tell you. A teacher works a full day, even though she's only physically in school for half a day. The other half of the day can sometimes be spent attending seminars, marking school books, preparing exam papers, completing daily activity reports, planning for the week ahead, etc...

If you must also know, teachers do not have any official 'leave'. The only holiday they get is during the semester breaks. Even then, some may have to attend seminars purposely held during these semester breaks - this way, the teachers will not miss any school days. During the short semester breaks, some schools actually hold extra classes and outings. Once again, teachers end up with no break.

For most of us, we still have Saturdays and Sundays off. But for my wife who is a school teacher in a primary school, she sometimes have to spend half a Saturday in school.

Before I have met my wife, I have always thought that a teacher working with the government have it easy. Now I realise they're not getting a good deal after all. Just like the policemen in the country, teachers here are severely underpaid.

Why do teachers still want to work in such conditions then? Like my wife, many teachers look forward to seeing their students excel and be successful in life. They get a 'kick' when they know their students have turned out into someone useful. This is what 'powers' the teacher everyday not money - although there are a few bad apples who focus on tuition rather than school duties.

So what can a caring and concerned teacher do when parents of students call the teacher and ask them to give extra classes for their child outside of school hours? Accept the first 4 and turn the rest away because of some ill-thought out policy someone up there made?

Sometimes, I think the people above making such policies don't understand the situation. Maybe it is because they are way on top there, butt glued to the chair, so well-fed with nothing better to do than waive a keris around and so well taken care that they forget about the people below.
(Note: The fella wielding the keris is non other than current Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein - So much for education in Malaysia.)

If you want to truly help the people, increase the pay of civil servants. Increase the pay of our heroes - the policemen, the soldiers, the customs officers, etc... Reward the people accordingly. The existing pay system is severely outdated! And there is definitely NO need to increase politician's pay like what is done in Singapore. :)

FOUND: Female puppy near Carrefour, Subang

2007-04-20T23:17:00.000+08:00

Posting this on behalf of a friend who found the dog wondering near his house this evening. It was raining, so he decided to take her in. He stays somewhere opposite Carrefour, Subang Jaya.

Not too sure what breed is this...

Cute puppy...

She looks a bit 'garang', no?

There's something good on TV

Poor girl looking for her owner...

If this is your dog (or if you know who this doggie belongs to), please call Sherman at this mobile (digi)6980001. If no owner is found over the next few days, Sherman may put it up for adoption. Currently, he has also put up posters around the are. I have also help him to put up a similar post on www.puppy.com.my.

Wild (hogs) nite...

2007-04-15T12:57:00.000+08:00

A few of us friends (since secondary school) decided to meet up for a couple of drinks last night... Just to catch up and unwind. I was on 'holiday' since my Mrs. Tai is at inlaw's place for the weekend.

We met up for a few beers at theLaundry Bar in The Curve. I personally found the place to be a bit pricey, but I guess it is the 'normal' price since that area is a bit 'high class'. For us, all we wanted was a cozy place to sit down, relax and chat. Yes, I guess when you hit a certain age, chatting can be 'fun'. :)

It was close to midnight and I suggested to the gang that we head over to Cineleisure to watch a midnight movie. I was game for "Jangan Pandang Belakang" since I've heard lots of positive reviews about it.

The rest were not too keen. So we ended up watching Wild Hogs... Hmmm... What's it with me and biker movies anyway?

Martin Lawrence (Bobby), John Travolta (Woody), Tim Allen (Doug) and William H. Macy (Dudley)
I am not sure if it was the beer we had before the movie, but I think the 6 of us practically laughed all our way through the movie. While this movie is not something really memorable, it provided us with really good laughs. I mean how can you not find it funny with lines like these...

Dudley: Thanks, Woody, I feel really safe with you.
Woody: I noticed that. If you ever lay your head on my back while riding bitch, I'll throw you into the traffic!
Dudley: I was just trying to keep the wind out of my face.
Woody: I felt you smell my neck!
Bobby: Did you smell that man's neck?
Dudley: His cologne is fantastic. It's musky with an oakey finish like a... lawyer cowboy.
Bobby: A lawyer cowboy?!?

Mother-in-Law: In my days, the women stayed home. Not the lazy men.
Bobby: In your days, men were busy building pyramids!

(Dudley just finished his 'big' business and put it in a plastic bag)
Woody: Dudley, you have to get rid of that or else I'm going to vomit on your lap.
Dudley: Fine, I'll hang it from a tree.
Woody: Don't hang it in a tree.
Dudley: Why?
Woody: Cause bears don't eat sh1t!

Jack (bully): You're gonna pay a disobedience fee of $10,000, plus another $40,000 to rebuild the bar. If you don't, we're gonna break your friend's legs here.
Dudley: Don't bring the money! I'm a computer programmer! I don't need my legs!
Jack: Fine, we'll break his hands!
Dudley: Oh dammit. Bring the money!

Doug: You're the sheriff, aren't you going out there?
Charley, the sheriff: Hey, I took my law enforcement course on the internet! For arms training they just told us to play Doom!
(quotes above were taken from IMDB).

The cinema was very packed, even for the midnight screening and we had the first row seats... After the movie, I think I had some backache. I had to seat (more like sleep) on the chair just to be able to take in the big screen.

But I really enjoyed the movie and I guess so did Mun San, Jude, Wei Loong, Eu Jin and Kim Chuan.

There was one part of the movie that I found particularly touching... John Travolta's Woody said that he had lost everything in his life except for his three friends (the Wild Hogs). He then adds that he's not about to lose that and goes off to face the bullies (and potential death). That is really touching...

I've already past the '30' age marker. I don't know how long more I have left in this world. That particular scene made me think if I am willing to die for any of my family or friends.... And if I also have family and friends who are willing to die for me?

When I think about all this, I realise what I've not done right... The people around me whom I have neglected... It makes me want to make up for it and spend more time with my friends and family because in the end, if I lose everything, I know I will still have them. My 'wild hogs'... My family and friends who would go through life's roller coaster ride with me and whom I would definitely and gladly do the same with...

Thanks for an excellent evening...

Google can predict the future?

2007-04-14T19:17:00.000+08:00

Saw this Google ad today...

Google telling us the future?!

Wah... We got no other candidates ka?!? Scary la...

I know it is not Google's fault. The descriptions on the ads are placed by the advertiser. Still... Scary la... :)

Deal or No Deal

2007-04-12T18:17:00.000+08:00

I recently found out about this game show called Deal or No Deal (I know this game show has been around for quite sometime, but you know la... This is Malaysia). I had watched it once before on NTV7 but never quite understood it then because it was in Mandarin. So when I heard the name again recently, I decided to search for more information.

It seems like this is the 'easiest' game show yet. No super difficult questions. You don't need to have a strong stomach. And there's hardly any physical exertion. The only question you need to answer is "Deal or No Deal"? But for the Malaysian version, you will be asked a question before you can walk away with the cash prize, which ranges from 1sen to rm100,000. I've not seen the other versions so I am not too sure if there's any question involved besides "Deal or no deal". I did a brief search on the internet but nothing was mentioned about answering a question for the overseas versions.

Anyway, I managed to catch last Tuesday night's episode on NTV7 with the help of the subtitles, of course (because it is in Mandarin). Deal or No Deal is actually quite interesting. The question asked in that episode sounded something like this:
If you are standing in front of a ticket counter. On sale are tickets for Ekspres Rakyat, Senandung Langkawi, Senandung Malam and Ekspres Wau. What station are you standing in?

I found out that you can play the flash version of this game on the NBC website. I am actually hooked to this flash game right now. I have been playing the game for a few days now and on one occasion, I got this:

Would you take the deal?
I had actually accepted an earlier deal, but the flash version, like the real game show, will actually let me 'continue', just to see what I would have gotten. I actually ended up with the choice of accepting the offer of USD355k or taking the risk (for either USD1 or USD1million). If you were given this choice, would you take the deal or go ahead and open the briefcase I had selected earlier - Briefcase 14?

If you have said NO DEAL (meaning open the briefcase I selected) and continued, you would have...

My briefcase actually had USD1million
...become a millionaire. But I'm happy with the deal I closed at USD317k. How I just wish it was for real...

Anyway, if the news about the English version in Malaysia is to be believed, I definitely want to sign up for it. But in the meantime, I guess we to live with the flash version first.

Oh ya... The answer to the question asked in the Mandarin edition is... You're at the TRAIN station.

Formula 1 Sunday

2007-04-08T23:17:00.000+08:00

It's the Formula 1 weekend. This weekend, it was at Sepang, Malaysia. My brother had 2 passes to yesterday's qualifying but I did not go. Actually, I wanted to go but he had already given the other pass to his friend... :P

Anyway, we watched the action from our living room (we = dad, bro and myself). The starting was superb... With the two McLarens overtaking the two Ferraris within the first corner.

However, it got a bit boring midway, so the three of us pulled over to the pit-stop for a short break...

Mrs. Tai had quietly taken the photo...
I think this year's Formula 1 is going to be one super exciting event. Just too bad one of my favourite team, Renault, isn't doing too well right now. McLaren is my other favourite team.

Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo

2007-04-07T23:17:00.000+08:00

I got 2 free tickets Finding Nemo courtesy of SP Setia. I had participated in their contest for homeowners.

To be honest, I had not watched this animation, so I was not really sure what to expect. I lost interest in animations released recently because I found them to be very much the same - lots of computer graphic and not-to-memorable storyline. Whatever happened to the likes of Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story?

Anyway, being seated quite far from the ice-rink didn't really help with the enjoyment factor. But since the ticket is free, I shouldn't complaint, right?

Nemo at school

Nemo and his new found friends in the aquarium

One of the dance scene in the aquarium - I wonder how was the animation like?

That's Nemo's dad, Marlin, asking around for Nemo

Happy family once again

The closing scene...

The Disney gang

For me, I didn't really enjoy this Disney on Ice outing. But I was not really disappointed either. I guess maybe this is because I had NO expectation when I arrived at Stadium Putra where it was held.

I mean, I enjoyed a lot when I watched Phantom of the Opera a few year ago while I was in London. I enjoy listening to Starlight Express, which is a skating musical. So it can't be that I don't enjoy (any form of) skating. Maybe it's the songs. I just didn't hear anything I could recognise or sing along.

But Mrs. Tai said she enjoyed Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo.

If there is anything memorable about this, I guess it would have to be these...

Finding Nemo ice mugs... Mrs. Tai warned me not to get it
No ice mug for me. So I got this instead...

Mrs. Tai was not aware when I bought this together with the programme booklet

After the show, we were stuck there for about 30minutes because it was raining heavily. It was truly a water-themed outing... :)

An excellent Friday

2007-04-06T13:17:00.000+08:00

Today is Good Friday.

Today is also Goddess of Mercy's (Guan Yin) birthday. This is usually celebrated on the 19th day of the second lunar month. There are actually two other days dedicated to Guan Yin - 19th day of the sixth lunar month and the 19th of the ninth lunar month.

Today is also an auspicious day for the Hindus as Sankatahara Chaturthi is held today. Quoting http://www16.brinkster.com/puranaanuuru/vinayagar/vkoyil4.htm:
The Sankatahara Chaturthi Viratha occurs during the fourth day of the They Pirai or Krishna Paksha, every month. Every year, we have the Maha Sankatahara Chathurthi.The viratha starts before sun-rise and lasts until moon-rise just before mid-night. This is observed in order to overcome difficulties and problems. People suffering from the bad effects of Moon or Mars can perform this viratha.

Friday is also the day for the Muslim's Friday Prayers.

I think today is an EXCELLENT day. And that's why I'm taking the afternoon off... :)

Questions I ask myself

2007-04-03T19:02:00.000+08:00

I like to think a lot. I like to ask myself questions. And the questions can range from the logical to the most absurd. They can be about anything from the morbid to the funny. I guess that partly explains why I'm balding.

But I find this to be a good exercise as it helps train my mind to be ready for different scenarios. I mean, given a scenario where you have only 1 second to make a decision, don't you think it would be great if you already know what you need to do? This exercise also makes me imaginative (actually, many times I have wanted to make movies... I even wrote to a comic writer asking if I could have certain rights to write 'side stories' based on the defunct comic -- but no reply from the writer). Sometimes, by asking myself questions, it makes me think if I would be prepared for the time when something happens.

A good example is when I asked myself recently, "What would happen when the time comes for my Gerger to 'return home'?" The question came about after a casual conversation with a friend about death and how it affects the living. The question that expanded its scope to cover every other aspect besides my pets -- my family and my friends.

We get so used to the people and our pets that every day, we sort of take them for granted. Sometimes when I am tired or just plain lazy, I tell Gerger that I will not be playing fetch with her that evening. Of course she will still pick up the bone-bone and leave in front of me, looking puzzled as to why I've not picked up her bone-bone and tossing it (her bone-bone is also a dumbbell for doggies, so throwing it is a bit 'dangerous'). And what if, that evening, something happens to her...

It is the same with our family and friends. Sometimes because of our hectic work schedules, we spend little time with our aged parents. Other times, it is because we think we still have so much of time with them that we take our family and friends for granted. But what if... What if the next day never came for them? Or for us?

How would it feel to reach my house gate and not have Gerger eagerly waiting for me? I mean, I am so used to her waiting at the gate that sometimes I get worried when I don't see her running to greet me.

Gerger, the pretty girl...
My dad commented recently about how his yearly alumni gatherings is a happy and also a sad affair. Happy because they get to see long lost friends. Sad because they seem to lose a few members with each annual gathering. When I heard that comment he made, it just sort of stuck on me after that... Can you just imagine how it would feel, if one day, we have to return to an empty house instead...

On the other hand, what happens after death? Will we still be conscious or aware of our surroundings? Or will everything just STOP? And what happens during that split second when someone gives out their last breath? How does death feel like? Is it painful? When the heart stops beating... And the brain is slowly dying... Are we aware? Or would it be like a 'dream' sequence?

Hmmm... Maybe the Qingming is getting to me. But you know something? There will come a time when I will make the same remark my dad made about his alumni gathering. This just makes me treasure my time on this planet even more. And more importantly, by asking myself questions, I realise I need to love and appreciate my family and friends even more than ever. It is only during our limited time on this planet that we can show them how much we care.

I love you all... :)

Mobile phone tracking

2007-04-01T12:17:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine shared this website with me - http://www.sat-gps-locate.com.

The website basically allows anyone to track a mobile phone and is based on (quoting the website):
Based on repeater triangulation, the system tracks mobile phones using GPS and GSM technology

I know in Malaysia, such service is already available and is called Friend Finder. However, the Friend Finder is a mobile phone application that is only available from certain mobile phone service providers.

Sat-GPS-Locate is still in BETA and is currently FREE. So what are you waiting for?!

April fool's day

2007-03-28T18:01:00.000+08:00

An email sent out by a colleague reminded me of a prank that took place 2 years ago in my office, no thanks to yours truly. The company I was working for at that time had just undergone a merger process, so I had quite a few new colleagues. I wanted the new colleagues to know that ITguys are not all that 'nerdy' (ok, this is one time I will use the term 'IT' though I prefer the term 'IS' for Information Systems).

So on 1st April 2005, just about 15 minutes before lunch time, I sent out this email to a few colleagues (I did not sent to everyone in the office since I didn't really know the new colleagues and was not sure if they can take a joke):

Subject: Network Cabling Cleanup

First of all, apologies for the last minute announcement.

We have noticed that over the past 2 months, there has been a deterioration of network service. Signs and symptoms of this deterioration includes but not limited to:
- delay in emails
- d i s t o r t i o n in files transfered accross the network (esp. in spreadsheets where figures can actually be changed!)
- disruption in email service
- server shutdown

After several tests, we have concluded that it is due to the static and noise from the cabling. We have seen in extreme cases where these static and noise reached our workstations and caused display problems such as blur display.

To prevent further damage to our office equipments, we will be configuring a script scheduled to run during lunch today. If you are working over lunch, kindly email Adrian TAI (please do not reply to all) with your preferred date and time. We will then customise the script according to your preference.

In order for the script to run effectively, we want to minimise any disruption caused by electromagnetic interference. Workstation display units (the normal CRT monitor or even the LCD monitor) can actually cause this interference, a phenomenon known as a Latent Interference Electromagnetism.

As such, we would like you turn off your monitor before leaving for lunch. And to avoid any leakage of the interference, we would like you to cover your monitor with a piece of A4 paper (A4 should be big enough to cover the screen). Please use recycled paper for this. You can just use a bit of celotape and tape the top and bottom of the paper to the monitor (FYI, static and noise is cause by electromagnetism, which the monitors also generate).

If you have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact Adrian TAI. Thank you.

(Note: A separate clean-up for XXXXXXX is scheduled sometime next week.)

Note that I have replaced XXXXXXX to protect my company's identity (like real only... who dunno where I work la?!?)

I know that many non-IT people dread getting emails from the IT Department because emails coming from that department is usually written in some alien language. So I purposely drafted an alien sounding email.

I am the type of person that likes to reward people who take the time to read my stuffs. Yes, even in this blog, I do leave hints and many other goodies. So it was no different with the email I sent out. Anyone who took the time to try to understand the email would have noticed the hints I left like:
1. spacing the word 'distortion'
2. Latent Interference Electromagnetism?!? Read the CAPS... LIE.
3. recycled paper?!

I sent that email about 15 minutes before lunch because it gave the recipients enough time to read my email. I expected to get calls regarding the email, so I conveniently disappear from my desk. I added the last line about having a separate exercise for the other division to make the email sound genuine.

I had a good laugh during lunch that day...

A desktop monitor covered with a recycled A4-size paper

Another desktop with an A4-size paper covering the monitor

This one is probably worried about the leakage and decided to use a thicker paper

2 more desktops

This one is also probably worried about leaking radiation and decided to use extra paper

Notebooks were not spared either

Another notebook

More notebook users falling victim

These are compliant people... Don't laugh!
The MD had a good laugh as well when she came back from lunch. She saw a few desktops with the A4-size paper and asked what was going on...

This prank was made even more interesting by the fact that some of the original victims decided to re-use my prank on the other colleagues who were in a meeting (they are the ones with the notebooks photographed above).

I was told there was also one un-intended victim. She had overheard the conversation about email and had wondered why she did not get the email from me. But rather than put up with the hassle of looking for me, she decided to just follow everyone and covered her monitor with an A4-size paper... :)

It has been two years. I don't think anyone actually remembers this anymore. But this year, 1st April falls on a Sunday...

*sigh*

It falls on Tuesday next year. That's good news for me... :)

If you are curious what are the top 100 pranks, check out this site.

I'm getting old...

2007-03-24T10:25:00.000+08:00

Had a haircut this morning. Halfway cutting my hair, the barber said "You're thinning on top. You're dropping ah?"

What?!? OK, I didn't see that coming...

After a short while, he said "Can't cut short. No hair on top".

There goes my weekend...

The rojak post

2007-03-19T18:43:00.000+08:00

Just a quick update on what happened over the weekend.

Managed to meet up with a few friends on Friday night. Nicholas is back from US for a short holiday with his wife. More on this gathering can be found at Friends of Seaport.

click to view image at actual size
Managed to get a few of them to agree to visit my sites more often. Yes, shameless promotion.

Then on Saturday, I watched 300 with my wife. Surprised her with the tickets but she was not that happy about it. She says there is too much violence in the movie. Yes, you can actually see the head go off in the local cinema version (we all know usually we get this only from the 'generic' DVDs). If we're this liberal now, I think this is a positive step because previously, I never had high regards for our movie ratings system. I mean why rate a movie SX-18 and still censor little scenes like a passionate kiss?!?

I personally found 300 to be more entertaining that Ghost Rider. In case you didn't know, 300 is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. The graphic novel is, in turn, loosely based on the Battle of Thermopylae. It was also during the screening of the trailers before 300 that I realised there's a Die Hard 4. Hmmm... Not bad. :)

We also did some windows shopping at Ikano Power Center. But after about 5 hours of outing, I fell sick. Yes, having some slight (ok, not that slight) sore throat now.

Oh, I think my wife and I are beginning to get hooked to Bleach. D4rn you, 2-5kid.

My Vista froze...

2007-03-16T18:31:00.000+08:00

After just 2 days of playing around with Vista, I finally got my first experience of Windows Vista freezing (can't say it crashed and using the term 'hung' seems a bit weird) on me. I guess with every new version of Windows, I look forward to my first Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD), my first 'illegal operation', my first crash, etc...

What did I do over the past 2 days? Nothing really major, really. No registry hacking. No running of 1000+ applications.

All I did was... Installed FireFox (see sidebar for download link), installed FireFTP, removed Microsoft Works, removed McAfee, installed AVG and the one that caused the freezing up of Windows Vista - installed Microsoft Office 2003. But I have to make it clear, Office 2003 did not really cause it. So happened that I was installing MS Office 2003 when it happened. MS Office 2003 works fine on Vista.

Sprint Highway

2007-03-14T23:17:00.000+08:00

Everyday, I take the Sprint Highway home. In case you don't know, this is the highway from Damansara Heights (or Jalan Duta) to a few other areas like the NKVE-Damansara toll.

The intesting thing about this highway is that if you're heading towards KL, you don't have to pay any toll charges. If you're heading towards PJ, then it will cost rm1. The toll booths are located just after Eastin Hotel and Phileo Damansara. Of course if you opt not to pay rm1, you can get then get yourself stuck in the jam by using the small and parallel road that is just next to Eastin Hotel.

Most of the time, I prefer to pay the rm1 as I really can save some time. Anyway, this is what I observed about the highway...

If you're heading towards PJ in the evening on weekdays, traffic is really quite smooth all the way to the toll booths
The Touch-N-GO queue is usually longer than the cash queue. I guess it is not really that touch and GO after all... :)
At least 1 lane has got TWO booths to collect your rm1 (more on this shortly)
Those people working in Sprint really know where to build the toll booths because right after you pay rm1, you get this:

Right after you pay rm1, you get into a jam that stretches all the way to the LDP Interchange

The jam does not happen just on rainy days. It happens almost everyday!

So, I really have to ask the people at Sprint if they actually need TWO people to run TWO booths at ONE lane when the cars can hardly move IMMEDIATELY after they pass the toll booths. If traffic is smooth after the toll booths, I can see how having TWO booths can speed things up... But common, it is a crawl and sometimes I have can't even move after I have paid my rm1.

And... Can someone remind me why I just paid rm1?!

Picture worth a thousand words

2007-03-11T20:17:00.000+08:00

True to the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words....

I got these in one of the forwarded emails. It is just too good not to share with you all. I am not sure who made it, so can't credit the person. However, if you are the one who did these creative and wonderful pieces, or know who did it, do let me know. I will update the post to give due recognition to the person.

The artwork has been 'squeezed' to fit into the page. To view the masterpieces at original size, do click on them or right-click and save them onto your desktop.

Hope you will enjoy these interesting artwork just as much as I do.

I wonder if there is more?

Money transfer scam - Part 1

2007-03-08T18:03:00.000+08:00

Every now and then, we read in the papers about people losing thousands of ringgit to internet scams. One of the popular internet scam is the one where a banker requests for assistance is moving out money from a dead customer's account with the promise of a small percentage.

But what actually happens? Well, according to my source, he (I will use HE as a general term but not necessary my source is a male) has recently replied to one such email. In fact, according to him, the email exchanges are still going on.

He has also provided me with some information on this scam which he also suggested that I put on my blog (I guess he didn't realise I have like only 5 regular readers)!

This is how a typical scam email will look like
He had recently received the above email. The content of the email has been reproduced below:
MY DEAR FRIEND,

I MAKE THIS APPEAL WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT ANY FACTS OR OPINION EXPRESSED BY ME ARE GIVING IN CONFIDENCE AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.I am DR.IBRAHIM HASSAN,the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department Bank of africa burkinafaso.

In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of US$8.5M, (Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his wife and only daughter in a plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31 January, 2000. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this website:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

The Owner of this account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great industrialist and a resident of Alaska.It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and for our bank to release the money to you.
You have to follow the instruction which I will be send to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into our bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Three years, the money will be transfered into the banktreasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more than three years and I am preparing documentaion to prove that this money has been
transfered to our bank treasury. It will be between me and you only that will know that the money is not transfered into our treasure.

This request of foreigner as next of kin in this transaction is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabé cannot standas next of kin to a foreigner.In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 30% of the total sum. 5% for contingencies (cost of transfer/other charges) likely to be incurred during the course of transaction, while the remaining 65% is for me.

Upon receipt of your reply,i will send to you by fax or email the text of the application which you will complete and forward to our bank asking for this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr;Morris Thomson. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any fear as all required arrangements have
been made for the transfer.You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail through the above email.

PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER MY
URGENT REQUEST.

Yours Faithfully,

DR.IBRAHIM HASSAN

My source went to check the CNN link provided in the email and saw this:

The name matches and CNN just became an accomplice!
My source was curious to know where the email came from, so he checked the email header for additional details. This is what he got:

Using DNSStuff's free service, he was able to find that the IP address belongs to a country called Burkina Faso.

Eh, the scam orignated from Burkina Faso and we are the one with HIGH fraud profile?!
[Oh, this reminds me -- mental note to self: share information about 'Being anonymous on the net']

Anyway, the whole thing is still on-going and my source has promised more details. Stay tuned!

My ATM experience

2007-03-04T23:17:00.000+08:00

Mrs Tai (that is what I call my wife) asked me to help her do some banking on Saturday morning since she had to be in school (she is not the student, in case you need to know).

She handed me her ATM card and a piece of paper with instructions (yes, that's how bad my memory can be). Very simple task, really - withdraw money and deposit into 2 different accounts.

How difficult can that be, right? It can be so difficult, actually when you're confronted with this screen:

Sh1t, which one is withdraw money la...?!?
We forgot Maybank actually remembers your preferred language and Mrs Tai's preferred language is chinese. And I can't read or write in Chinese! So how? Press Cancel and wait for her lor...

Cr4p! Actually, it can be a good point because if it is a snatch thief trying to withdraw money, the fella may not even know how to withdraw money. Bad point... When it is a genuine case like mine. I am so helpless... Shy only...

Our Earth is sick

2007-03-02T09:56:00.000+08:00

Our planet is having a fever. Her doctors call it Global Warming.

If you can remember the past 10 years or so, you probably would have also commented recently, that our planet is getting hotter. And you would be right about it. Scientists who have been measuring claim that for the past 100 years, our planet's temperature have gone up by about 1°C.

But this is not all. In the news, we see an increased frequency of natural disasters such of flood and thunderstorms occurring. Our sea level is also rising. In other words, we are facing a climate change.

When we fall sick, we naturally try to find out what caused our sickness. If it is due to over-working, then we tell ourselves to slow down and relax. If it is due to a bacterial infection, we take antibiotics. The thing is, we do something about our sickness.

But what are we doing for our sick planet? We can all start of with simple things like:

Walk whenever possible. Hot weather should not be an excuse because we caused it! By driving, we are making it even hotter for our children in the future. Otherwise cycle. Don't forget that air pollution is also caused by us! Reducing air pollution also reduces incidences of respiratory problems.
Gather rain water. You can use this water to wash your car porch or even water the plants.
Recycle. Don't just throw away your aluminium cans. Recycle them. Same goes with old newspaper, pamphlets and especially junk mails!
Consider installing solar-powered water heaters.
Plant some greens - be it a tree or vegetables. Or together with your neighbours, adopt a neighbourhood tree.
Do not open your window while the air-conditioning system is running. I find this to happen especially in offices. If it is too cold, ask the building management to raise the temperature.
If you pack your food from hawkers very often (especially the economy rice), consider getting a container like tupperware instead of using the hawker's polystyrene container.
Use the water from your washing machine to wash your car porch and toilet. You would already have saved on soap and will need only a bit of water to rinse.

Everything starts with us. If everyone starts to do even just 2 or 3 of the listed items above, we would already be making a lot of difference.

Locally, YTL is organising a Climate Change Week from 6th to 9th March 2007. Also, the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth will start screening at GSC from mid March onwards. Make a pledge (see side bar). Watch the movie. Love our planet.

But remember, don't just 'save the planet' for a week...

The Michelle Kirsten Tai post

2007-02-26T18:39:00.000+08:00

This is Michelle.

Eh, if you wanna see a full-sized photo of her, go to her website la... Dun click-click here!
This post came about because SHE ASKED FOR IT...

First of all, she is NOT related to me, even though we share the same uncommon (very rare, in fact) family name - TAI. Not that we know of, anyway... We never traced back anything further than our grandparents... :)

I first heard of her when I saw a missing person 'post' on another blog. Yup, she went missing for a few days, I believe. You can read all about it here. Since then, I like to kaypoh (means busy-body) and drop by her blog every now and then.

Errr... Nothing else to write, actually. She didn't pay me enough to write more about her...

Seriously, she's one interesting girl. She's not attached but she's not really single either. You go ask her about this... OK, she's a bit complicated (an understatement!). You can read more about her at her blog - http://michelle-kirsten.blogspot.com. Just tell her atai sent you...

Oh... Since this post is dedicated to her, here's something that I said I would share with her...

Michsue... Check out the animal... Not me la!!! The car!!!

The Red Book

2007-02-23T07:17:00.000+08:00

Reading Michael Yip's recent post reminded me of something that I had wanted to do for a very long time, but just kept pushing it back.

This is the RED Book. If I recall correctly, it was produced a group of dedicated lawyers shortly after the nude squat incident.

The RED Book basically tells us how to deal with the situation when we are stopped by the police. It tells us what to do when we're arrested or when called as witness, etc...

I personally think everyone should keep a copy of this RED Book in the car. When I say 'keep', I mean that you should also READ it... ;)

This book is available in English, BM, Chinese and Tamil. You can download it from http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/content/view/2841/2/

Bloggers United

2007-02-22T08:17:00.000+08:00

My ~~two~~three regular visitors may have noticed I had recently put this up:

I have decided that it is time for me to also stand up and be counted. As responsible bloggers, we should not hide behind the anonymity of the net (if you think you can be really, really anonymous on the net, you must also believe it the tooth fairy). ~~Write~~Blog with facts. ~~Write~~Blog with a heart. ~~Write~~Blog responsibly.

Anyway, here is a copy-and-paste from the official Bloggers United blog:

Calling one, calling all! Defend your right to free speech!

Blogger United Condemn Action Against Rocky Bru & Jeff Ooi & Demand Level Playing Field in All Action Against Bloggers

This is the official statement of Bloggers United. This statement is jointly drafted by Susan Loone and Sheih of Kickdefella. All those who believe in justice and right to free speech, please sign on and put this up in your blogs. Spread it around; let it grow far and wide. The fight is on! See also kickdefella.

We are a group of Malaysian bloggers who believe in justice and right to free speech. We, who endorse the Bloggers United movement , unanimously condemn the action taken by media conglomerate NST against bloggers Rocky Bru and Jeff Ooi.

The action by the newspaper against the duo is an action against all bloggers who believe in their right to free speech, freedom of expression and justice.

The recent event may seem like a grave development in the path of bloggers, but it can never and must never impede or stop us from defending our right to speak, to express, to write and to tell the truth, to be the watchdog, eyes and ears of the people, or simply to share our view, and give fair comment on any subject which involves and affects us as humans, as rightful citizens of this country.

The recent event may very well give the government owned media the opportunity to dictate the so-called ‘truth” but such actions only prove that bloggers must unite , continue to uphold the right to free speech and freedom of expression, fight for justice, even if it is not our own, be more alert, committed to the cause of free speech, relentless and persistence in the face of such persecution like the one which had befallen on the two of us.

What YOU do to any of US, is what YOU do to ALL.

As responsible bloggers, we demand and claim our space on the blogosphere for free and fair comment, where important national issues and prominent personalities are discussed.

Although it may seem as if the NSTP defamation suits will have a chilling effect on freedom of bloggers, as litigation can be expensive and may jeorpadise a blogger’s economic position, we will not be cowed or silenced by those who have no regard for free speech.

If you find our post offensive, you may refute us with correct facts and figures and fair comment, in the spirit of free speech.

The first two cases will have grave impact not only on the internet, but country as a whole as the country celebates VMY2007. The healthy, mature and democratic growth for free speech and expression in our midst is at stake.

The reputation of the nation as it strives to promote our multimedia supercorridor and love for IT will be a national joke for all the world to feast on.

We demand for a level playing field in all action meted out to bloggers and in particular in the defamation proceedings particularly in terms of financial resources and capabilities, and secondly, that the legal rights of bloggers et al are properly protected in keeping with the imperatives of an information society and knowledge economy which Malaysia aspires to become.

For further information, please contact me at susanloone@gmail.com and my partner in crime Sheih of kickdefella at kickdefella@yahoo.com

And as Rocky puts it:
On Thursday the 22nd of February, at Wisma Denmark at 2.30pm, I go back to court to face NSTP and 4 Others. I don’t feel alone anymore. I’ve got Bloggers United behind me.

Sony Ericsson K618i review

2007-02-20T14:03:00.000+08:00

After about two months of use, I think I’m ready to give a fair review on my new handphone, Sony Ericsson K618i (SEK618i). This is not a paid review and is mainly to share my personal experience and comments about the phone. But if you have any product you would like me to review, kindly drop me a comment. I believe I will be able to provide quite an fair report, unless you’re asking me to review a Nokia phone... heh heh... *kidding*

I had wanted to change to a new phone because:
1. my existing Siemens CX65 phone was dying on me (had dropped it like more than 20 times onto hard cold floor)
2. i wanted to pamper myself and my wife with something ‘nice’
3. have to finally tell myself that no matter how much I dislike technology, I have to stay on top of it if I wanna continue to be in the IT line.

My requirements were simple. I wanted a decent camera phone as I like to take photos and blog about them. Music is secondary as I don’t really have time to listen to music anyway... Only time is when I’m driving and my car has got CD player + casette player + radio. I wanted a decent organiser as well so I can keep track of my appointments, contacts, etc... And best if it has a drag-and-drop interface.

The SEK618i met all that... Or did it?

Sony Ericsson K618i - the front and the back
The phone comes in the candybar form. I am a sucker for this as I don’t think clamshell or even the slider suites me. Nokia was out because I have this love-hate reaction when it comes to Nokia. I just love to hate it. But if you really want me to review a Nokia phone, rest assured, it will be a ‘professional’ review. The SEK618i was also light enough for my wife and myself.

Software & Sync with PC
I installed the software on two similar DELL notebooks (D610) but somehow only one notebook was able to detect both phones. The other notebook could only detect my wife’s phone. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software and also the drivers, but somehow it did not work. I gave up after trying to get it detected on that notebook. I synchronised the phone with my Outlook contacts and it worked out quite well and quite fast too. The SEK618i is able to store the standard contact details such as home number, office number, birthdate, etc... But note that Contact Group is not synchronised. Yes, somehow the Group or Category is not really used effectively on the SEK618i. Software interface is quite simple and straight forward. When you plug in the phone, you have the option (on the phone) to connect as File Transfer mode or Phone mode. File transfer basically allows you to only transfer file. Phone mode allows you to do much more. For Sync, you have the usual Sync options, phone to PC, PC to phone or last update overides. You can also browse the phone when you’re connected in either mode. Everything is just a matter of drag and drop. What I like about connecting to the PC with the USB cable is that you can also charge your phone this way! Then again, I know many phones can do that these days.

Contacts
SEK618i uses tabs when storing or displaying information. For Contact details, you have the person’s details split into 4 tabs – general numbers, emails and website, photo and ringtone (for personalised call settings), home and office address and the last tab is for additonal notes and birthdate. Some may like it this way, but I personally prefer all of them displayed on one page – you can see all the information on one page rather than having to browse through the tabs and wondering what information in each tab. But the phone can store a lot. Up to 1000 contacts, I believe (It can store even more numbers – for those contacts with multiple numbers).

SMS
I got the phone at the ‘right’ time... Just before Christmas and New Year. So I used it to try and send out greetings to multiple recipients. I was quite disappointed to discover that SEK618i limits multiple recipients to only 20 at a time! Arrggghhh... Imagine having to forward the same text over and over again to 100+ recipients (I have more than 400 contacts on my phone). On my old phone, I could send to ALL my contacts! Maybe Sony Ericsson is worried their phones may be used for mobile spamming? The text message also does not actually display the word count. Only when you are about to go into the next message (each message is about 160 characters long, I believe) would the count appear. I prefer to know how many letters I have used so I can type accordingly, whether to use short forms or spell out the full word. I also noted that while in T9, I am unable to put place the (or next line). It is only available when T9 text is disabled.

Keypad
While many have told me the keypad is quite big, I still find it small for my liking. I had some problems typing my text messages and even playing the Tennis game that came with the phone. Many times I ended up pressing the adjacent buttons. But to be fair, maybe two weeks is still too little time to get adjusted to the keypads. But I find the location and design of the Internet and My Shortcut buttons to be un-friendly, especially the Internet button. Many times when I wanted to press Cancel or even Next (the left button), I find myself activating the browser instead. I think this is because the two buttons are ‘bigger’ and bulge out.

Ringtone
The ringtone can be set really loud and to my liking (what to do, getting old so sometimes can’t hear properly). The separate speaker located at the back can actually be very loud. Setting up the standard ringtones is quite simple. But when it came to the more ‘advanced’ options, I was quite disappointed. I cannot assign ringtones to a Group. I find this to be really useful as I like to assign different ringtones to different Groups – Office having one ringtone, Family having another, callers not in my phonebook having a different ringtone, etc. This way, I can tell who’s calling from just listening to the ringtones. I asked around other Sony Ericsson users (different models) and they said it is not possible to assign ringtones by the Group. You have to assign them manually. I have at least 100 office colleagues in my phone book. I am NOT going to assign a ringtone to each one of them individually. What more when I decide its time to use a new tone (maybe replace the file with a same named one instead?!?). So I gave up on that idea... You also cannot assign different ringtones for different profiles. Again, I think this would have been a nice feature. Sometimes we have certain ringtones that are suitable only outside of office... So it would have been great to be able to set a ringtone for Outdoor profile, one set of ringtone for Meeting profile and another for say... Home. After all, I don’t think this ringtone for text message would be suitable in office. For text message, I noticed there is not option to adjust the ring volume. Since the default volume is quite soft, I ended up setting a long ringtone for my text messages instead. Alarm for appointments was even worse. I wonder why bother to have alarm for appointments if the alarm is going to be so soft and so difficult to hear?

Sound
The separate speaker located at the back of the phone is quite decent. While the quality is not really as good as I has expected when it came to playing songs (on mp3, etc), I could hear the ringtones quite loudly. But when you use the stereo earphones that comes with the phone, I’m amazed by the change in quality. so if you really have to listen to songs, you definitely should use the earphones. They make a world of difference. For those who are wondering about the three speaker ‘holes’ at the back, only one speaker is directly behind it. The rest is just to make the phone look ‘nice’.

Photo
The SEK618i comes with a 2 megapixel camera. And having heard how ‘good’ Sony is when it comes to digital cameras, I was expecting decent photos from the phone. I was disappointed.

Think the photos above are good? Think again... The photos above were resized. At actual size, they would have looked like this:

Comparison photo (1MP vs 2MP) taken using normal mode

Comparison photo (1MP vs 2MP) taken using night mode

[The gun in the photos was given to me as a present by a colleague who had gone to Kunming, China for holidays. The gun 'shoots' rubber bands. I have been carrying it around with me - using it to shoot naughty kids.]

Aaarrrrgghhh!!! There goes the my main reason for getting a camera phone. I was not expecting super good photos. But this is really a disappointment. Hmmm... This means I will only get clear photos when I shrink them from 2MP to maybe 1MP or even less. This means printing the photos will not be really possible unless you want passport-size photos. On the computer, I guess it would still be ‘decent’, provided I shrink the photos first.

Photo taken at 1MP (MegaPixel)

Photo taken at 2MP(MegaPixel)
Video call
One other reason for me to get the phone is because of the Video Call. This is a 3G phone. My wife and I managed to test it out and it works great! If you don't move the phone too much, the video turns out to be quite alright. You can also alternate between the two cameras on the phone. One camera is for normal photo shooting located at the back of the phone. The other is meant for video calls and is located at the front.

Organiser
I find this good. It syncs well with Outlook and helps me to keep track of meetings and appointments. The only complain I have is the alarm for the meeting. Very short and very soft. Sometimes I can't even hear it! Would have been great if we could also customise the tone and volume.

Contact search
The contact search does not seem to work properly and I’m not too sure why. For some contacts, I am able to search by pressing the first few letters. For others, the search would only match the first letter. Example: I have Sam, Samantha, Sandy, Sly, Soo, Soon, Stanley, Szen in my address book. I may have pressed SZ but it would not display Szen. It could be displaying the match for only the first letter. I have a colleague using the same model SEK618i and he faces the same problem.

Misc.
What other little things that I don’t like about the phone...
1. The standard package comes with a 2-pin adaptor. Can’t they just give us the usual 3-pin ones? After all, the original units should have been customised for the local market. As it is, I have to carry a 2-pin adaptor each time I travel.
2. Manual does not tell you much about the phone functions and features. I would have preferred if they had two manuals – one for Quick Start and the other for Complete Manual. The manual didn’t really explain what the icons on the phone display mean. When I first got the phone, I was wondering how the 3G symbol looked like. Maxis customer service told me it looked like a globe, but I don’t think so. It looks like some round blue thing... OK, maybe that is a globe.
3. ~~Sony Ericsson’s website FAQ (Frequesntly Asked Questions) has got nothing. I guess no one asked them any Questions. Or they just could not be bothered to populate the site with FAQs.~~ They have got a list of FAQs now... This post took 2months to write. ;)
4. There is no way to have NO themes for the phone. I find the phone response to be a bit sluggish for my liking and wanted to disable the themes to see if performance would be better. No such luck.
5. No customisable keys. The 1-9 buttons are only meant as quick access for Contacts. I cannot assign them keys to do other things (like activate Bluetooth, open Calendar, etc). The only customisable buttons are the directional pad (up, down, left and right) and also the My Shortcut button. But placing shortcuts in the My Shortcut button still means pressing the button and then scrolling to to find the shortcut I want.
6. Code Memo can be easily deleted. Code Memo is an application that allows you to store personal information such as PIN number, etc... While it requires the correct password in order to view the contents, there is no protection against anyone deleting the contents (some sort of reset). I tested by entering some details and then trying to delete the file without entering the correct password. I was able to delete the file. So much for being safe and useful.

Click to view image at full size - comparison between 3 different photos

What I like
1. Free downloads from Sony Ericsson site
2. Complete package (charger, USB cable, 256MB external memory, stereo earphones)
3. All-in-one phone 3G phone
4. Can record conversation
5. Recurring alarms. The phone allows you to set up to 5 recurring alarms based on the days (good for wake-up alarms as you want them to only ring on weekdays)
6. Contacts management. The phone allows you to easily copy to/ from SIM. It also has got a feature to backup & restore your contacts from memory card. But I seriously wonder how many people do backups of their contacts. I won't be surprised if I am the only one who does this!
7. RSS reader. Need I say more?!
8. Voice command. You can use the voice command to activate features and make calls. But the interface was a bit messy and difficult to access (or maybe the instructions just seemed complicated). So I didn't really bother using this function.
9. The built-in Tennis game. I am never one who completes a game on the PC, PS2, etc... But the Tennis Multiplay is very addictive and I actually completed the game! Plus, as the name says it all, it is 'multiplay'. This means you can have a Tennis match via bluetooth.

Click to view image at full size - my Gerger, taken with my K618i

Birthday

2007-02-17T23:17:00.000+08:00

I celebrated my birthday with my wife watching 2 movies - Ghost Rider and The Holiday. Being a GSC member does have its advantages (by the way, membership is FREE). For one, I get to redeem a free movie ticket during my birthday month. Used the coupon to redeem for a free ticket for The Holiday (can't use it for Ghost Rider since it is not on the free list).

I was quite disappointed with Ghost Rider. It was not as exciting as I had hoped. Among the recent comics-to-movie adaptation, I still like Constantine and Hellboy (both are from DC's Vertigo). Superman Returns is also quite good, I guess. Can't say the same about X-Men III. I would rank it together with Ghost Rider. Nothing really memorable.

What was interesting is the Malay title for Ghost Rider - Penunggang Motosikal Hantu. I don't know why, but Malay titles and subtitles can sometimes be really funny. I guess Penunggang Motosikal Hantu is correct since it is literally translated - word for word (OK, maybe it should be just penunggang hantu). But the 'feel' just gets lost during translation. If it was up to me, I think I might just follow the footsteps of Putera UMNO which seems to idolise Mat Rempits and name the movie as:

Don't you think my title captures the 'feel'?
Speaking of Mat Rempit, if you check out the wiki entry, I think they missed out something else. Mat Rempits also pimp their girlfriend for rm5 (USD1 = rm3.6) per bonk (read that somewhere in the newspapers recently).

The Holiday was quite entertaining... I just love feel good romance movies. We should have more movies like The Holiday, Sleepless in Seattle, etc...

Each time I see Jack Black, I think of wrestling... Eeew! But he's good here. Kate is still lovely.

The other couple in The Holiday

Front page disappointments

2007-02-15T17:59:00.000+08:00

This was on the main page of yesterday's The Sun.

click to view article at actual size
In the first place, yes, I too find the lucky draw to be a stupid idea when it was first announced! First of all, it is the citizen's responsibility to apply for the new MyKad. The government had already given us all ample time to change to the new MyKad. If there are those who are not interested, then just deport them or give them a RED one! Simple, right? Maybe the idea came about because the politicians thought it would make them look better when election time comes?!

Secondly, I think this is illegal la... It is a game of chance or luck. I thought government have a ruling on these type of contests?!? I remember reading somewhere that contests should involve skills and cannot just rely on luck - which is why contests in Malaysia usually require you to answer some really simple questions and then write a slogan (which requires a bit of skills).

Third of all, silly as it may be, once you start it, you cannot just simply end it and nullify it. I think that is not right and perhaps even illegal?! After all, if this can happen, what guarantee do we have that whatever promises the government have made NOW would not be broken come the next election? We're not even talking about different political parties here... The one who came up with the 'silly' idea and the one ending it comes from the same party!

"It's not even a Mercedes Benz or a Rolls Royce, but Myvi."
Does that mean Perodua Myvi is a lousy car? If so, it's still selling way better than Proton Savvy. And Mr. Minister... I don't ask for a Benz or a RR, as long as it's a FREE Myvi, I'm very happy. You give me a FREE one and see if I'll complain or not!

I really wonder who's being silly here?

There was also the bit about Rela's objective to detain 40 000 illegal immigrants. That's all we're targeting? We're not planning to detain and deport (I hope they have that in mind cause our jails are over-crowded and costing us too much) ALL ILLEGAL immigrants?!? Oh, maybe they want to leave some as one of year 2008's objectives?

I think it is time our ministers learn to think before they open that big hole on their face... I've seen one too many ministers saying really ridiculous stuffs on TV. If you're anything like me, you will definitely enjoy watching Samy Vellu and Lim Keng Yaik (wow... they have an entry on Wikipedia?!) on TV. They are hilarious!

But seriously, I didn't vote them party to be clowns on TV. Can I request for better candidates (from any party)?!? I'm really desperate here!

This is another bit of news on the main page that also got me really worked up!

Hello?! That's rm200million! And from Tabung Haji!!! If they really cared about their children and the "serious mental stress" their children would be suffering from, then why commit the crime in the first place? Perhaps they thought they could get lucky and get away with it? Maybe then, all their kids could study medicine!

Yes, I'm very annoyed and equally disappointed...

Links to the two news articles:
Ministries suffer withdrawal symptoms!
Judge allows stays of execution on duo due to their children's education

Valentine's Day...

2007-02-13T18:32:00.000+08:00

B4rger... I just realised today's 13th Feb 2007. That means tomorrow is Valentine's Day...

*panic*

Aiyah, still in the first year and I've already forgotten about Valentine's Day? Hmmmmm... I think I just tell my wife everyday's Valentine's Day. It's true...!!! :)

I wonder what girls normally expect the guys to do on Valentine's Day. I mean, chocolates and bears are sooooooo dated, right? Would girls be happier if the guy cooked her a nice meal instead? I read somewhere that girls consider that as a no-no coz that a sign the guy is a cheapskate! Any thoughts on this?

Chinese New Year is coming

2007-02-09T18:55:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. And that means everything goes RED on this blog! :)

So bear with it la... ya?

Hmmm... I still can't get over the fact that this year, I will be giving out angpows (red packets) instead... But I guess it will be fun.

Let's describe the whole world!

2007-02-08T13:17:00.000+08:00

A friend shared a very interesting website with me recently.

It is called Wikimapia. As the FAQ explains:
"WikiMapia is a Web 2.0 project to describe the whole planet Earth. It was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, inspired by Google maps and Wikipedia."

Based on Google Earth and Wiki concept, Wikimapia allows basically anyone to describe our planet. I personally think Wikimapia a great idea. Having used Google Earth before, I think this is the next step forward as we are able to share our labels (or description of our planet) with others. So I quickly checked out Malaysia...

Oh yes... Malaysia is very much bigger than Singapore. We just don't like to brag about it.
To my visitors from Singapore... Just kidding la, ya? :)
It seems there are many people who are already helping to describe this portion of our planet Earth called Malaysia.

I decided to check out what is available for Kuala Lumpur.
There are already lots of entries for Kuala Lumpur. At this zoom level, Wikimapia limits the entries to only the 100 biggest. If you want to see even more, you would need to zoom further.

Then I thought... Why not check out some places closer to my home?

Love shack?! Con workshops?
Like Wikipedia, I guess Wikimapia is also prone to vandalism and other not-so-useful information... Or maybe it's just us Malaysians?!

Anyway, someone should share this entry with US President George Bush...

Wikimapia can be found at http://www.wikimapia.org. Enjoy!

Prosperity hugs

2007-02-06T17:56:00.000+08:00

This article is in today's The Star.

I have no issues with giving one's wife a hug (or more) each day. In fact, I think it is a good thing. But what I cannot agree on is the other stuffs that you will need to do to help improve your luck.

Place anything that has to do with wood...
So I got this kayu (slang for idiot) friend, does this friend constitute as 'has to do with wood'? Or what about I use a lighter because after all, a lighter has a lot to do with wood! It can start a fire that can BURN the WOOD.

...yellow colour items to be placed in the west direction
If the WEST happens to be your main gate, would you think twice about hanging your yellow underwear near the main entrance to your house? :)

I have always believed fengshui to be a belief or practice that focuses on being harmonious with your nature or surroundings. Planting trees to improve your health, I can agree. Avoid having a house facing a junction, I can agree. After all, logically, it can be dangerous and distracting. A car might not be able to stop in time at the junction and crash into your house! And those glare from the car lights at night can really annoy you when you are watching TV or trying to get some sleep. Let's not forget about the noise.

But I definitely cannot subscribe to the idea that you need to hang a jade ornament here and put a glass of water there in order to improve your luck or health.

But a hug... A hug is OK by my books. Oh well, that's only me... Maybe that explains why I've not made my rm1 million yet. On second thoughts...

Darling! Let's place more ceramic plates and bowls on the Southwest corner of the house.

Google service erratic?

2007-02-02T08:17:00.000+08:00

Is it just me, or is Google's services becoming more erratic these past few months?

I didn't really keep track, but for the past few months, I've had problems accessing their services every now and then. One good example was last night. I had wanted to login to blogger but the page just goes on loading and loading and loading. When I tried to view this blog, I also got an error message.

Tested with Google's search and it was OK for one or two searches. Same with the search for news. It just said service not available. Common Google, do something about this!

It could not have been my internet connection coz Yahoo and MSN worked fine!

My Tai (neck)ties

2007-01-18T18:27:00.000+08:00

See anything nice?
Yes, I wear those ties to work everyday. It took me years to collect them.

However, wearing such ties is not without its share of problems. I have been used by trainers as an example of ‘how NOT to dress’ because it 'makes a person look like childish and unprofessional'.

15 years ago, maybe.

At a time when everyone wants something done yesterday and where having a BSc (Hons) is not that uncommon, you need to stand out and be different. We are at a time where everything seems ‘usual’. Mobile phones? Everyone's got one these days. Nothing unusual. Traffic jam? Not unusual. Potholes on almost every road? Nothing new.

So, it a world where a person's attention span is like a mere 5 seconds, you need to be special. Sometimes you also need to be 'loud'. Only then can you get another extra 5 seconds. :)

Which one would you give a second look or like to stare at for another 5 seconds? Mr. A or Mr. B?

In any case, the ties do make wonderful conversation starters.

My Maxis and Sony Ericsson nightmare

2007-01-16T18:16:00.000+08:00

What started as a 'present' to my wife is now slowly turning into a nightmare!

Just a month ago, I had bought two units of Sony Ericsson K618i as a present for myself and my wife. I'll write about the phone in a week's time as the review of the phone is only half complete.

As both of us are on Maxis (012), I had also taken the opportunity to convert my wife's P75 plan to the Family Plan as we were told that "everything remains the same" for myself and my wife needed to pay only rm50 (minimum) as compared to rm75 currently. What more, we would enjoy (limited) free talk time and sms. A wonderful deal, right?

My nightmare started a few days back when I had a look at my phone bill. It came to rm230+ when usually it is not more than rm120! Even though we converted middle of the billing cycle, I am sure we didn't call that much (on top of the free calls to each other). Also, I had at least rm80 carried forward from last month's bill (I am using the P138 plan). So why so much?

3G? I had to admit that the new phone is feature packed and having heard how fun 3G was, I just had to try it out. I just didn't realise that 5118KB (or 5MB) of download would cost me rm51.18!! Ack, that does it! No more surfing from the phone! But that's only about rm50.

Time to look at the breakdown...

After numerous calls, the last one just about 1 hour ago, this is what I found out about Maxis and also the new Family Plan:
1. The double-charge is indeed an error and they will refund me in the next bill.

2. Although I had talk-time of rm173.57, I could not really use the current month's amount of rm89.03. That means I only have last month's rm84.54 that can be deducted from this month's usage... So much for "everything remains the same".

3. So, why only deduct rm72.70 from my bill and not the total usage of rm150.31 (or at least the max of rm84.54)? That is because rm72.70 is the amount BEFORE I switched plan.

4. Now... This means this month's usage is NOT deducted from any of my 'talk time'. Why they never use the rm48.97 (the portion of the bill after I switched over) is something I can't answer (and I don't wanna bother finding out).

5. Because I only used rm72.70 from the available talk time (from PREVIOUS month, if I may add) of rm84.54, so there is a balance of rm11.84.

6. So what happens to my rm89.03 that I paid for this month BEFORE the switch? It gets refunded to me much later (and the bill don't actually mention this!).

7. ~~It takes a rocket scientist to figure out the Maxis bill, and even then, there are still some parts of the bill better left to Fox Mulder.~~ Maxis bill is bl00dy confusing and mind boggling.

8. You lose your Advantage Savings (I have rm30 rebate for my loyalty) when you switch to this plan. Can someone explain to me how this can still mean "everything remains the same"? Their reasoning is because they are already providing free calls and free sms to the family member... Hello?!? That's my wife! I see her everyday. Do you think I still need 200hours of talk time with her each month ON THE PHONE (especially in exchange for the rm30)?!

9. Maxis Customer Service is still one of the better Customer Service I have encountered (must also use the right tone, though). They are able to help me solve the problem.

So, what was the outcome? I told them to reverse everything and put us back on our original plan which was P75 for my wife and P138 for myself. And I want back my rm30 Advantage Savings! After I spoke to their manager and highlighted all the problems they seem to have with this plan (stupid billing system and not really a wonderful plan... h3ck, I personally think this plan sucks for me), he was very nice enough to allow us to go back to our original plans with no 'administration' charges.

I have dealt with Customer Service from many organisations and usually, I don't get such professional service and attitude from them... Even when I was being very polite. The Customer Service always seem to imply I'm stupid and it's my fault (try calling Streamyx hotline). Not so with Maxis. They admitted their weakness and said they will look into it. And they were very polite even when I was at the point of screaming at them!

This brings me to the Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI) Customer Service Centre. This is NOT the first time I'm having issues with them. It is bad enough that we had to wait for an hour for my turn that day when we wanted to switch over to the Family Plan. They didn't inform us about the billing 'issues' like not really having talk time for the month, losing the Advantage Savings, etc... I guess saying "everything remains the same" is easier.

I also remember about a year ago when my wife switched to P75 plan from her pre-paid plan. I had called their hotline to explain about wife's plan to switch to post paid and was told it can only be done at their Customer Service Centre. The nearest would be TTDI so I ask what time the TTDI Customer Service Centre closing time. I remember that we managed to arrive with at least an hour to spare. I dropped my wife off while I looked for a place to park my car (stupid place... always difficult to find parking). After I found a place to park my car, I went to the Service Centre and was surprised to see my wife waiting for me outside saying she was told that they cannot do the switch for her as they cannot entertain the request one hour before closing.

WTF?!? I had to search for a bl00dy car park to find out their hotline gave me the wrong answer?!? I was NOT in a good mood. I called the hotline and was about to yell at someone... Again, they were still very professional on the phone. They asked me to pass the phone to the person at TTDI office. At the same time, I also spoke to the branch supervisor... Issue settled. The 'operator' just wanted to call it a day much earlier and had tried to give my wife the BS.

My wife was upset coz it made her look like she was so easily bullied... heh heh...

The free 1000000 Air Asia ticket

2007-01-09T18:17:00.000+08:00

The promotion is back... So what are you waiting for...? Grab your free seat!!!

So much for member's 'pre-sale' since booking starts 9th Jan and I got the email on the same day!
Just like last year, it will probably take lots of patience and luck, but once you get it... :)

For me, last year it was HongKong. This year? Hong Kong again, I guess...

Hmmm... I can fly there for free... But can't seem to be able to find FREE return tickets... :(

The uncle in the Kenari with hand signal

2007-01-09T07:17:00.000+08:00

I was driving home last night and as usual, the minute I pay the toll and get into the Sprint Highway in front of Eastin Hotel, I get stuck in jam. It amazing how the jam starts only AFTER you pay rm1.

Anyway, my car was moving very slowly when I noticed that the Kenari to my right was slowly getting too close to my car. The Kenari was like just 2 or 3 inches away from my car. I looked at the uncle and he looked back at me.

Then he started to raise his hand and pointed frantically in my direction...

Oh, I see... Uncle wants to come into my lane. Eh, hello... Uncle. Use the bl00dy indicator la. You think everyone so free to look at the driver and hand signals. Plus, hand signal these days usually mean the middle finger.

If the car manufacturers ever need to find a way to cut production costs, they should look into removing the indicator lights. Malaysian drivers have a very bad habit of not using the indicator lights when they want to turn or change lane. We can't really blame them... Cause I have personally experienced it before. When I use the indicator light, somehow, all the cars at the other lane will go into Warp Speed and you will never get a change to get into their lane. D4mned if you use the indicator lights, d4mned if you don't.

The other thing car manufacturers can remove is the brake lights and leave maybe only leave the 'third' brake light. The rest can be removed. Most Malaysian drivers love to tailgate. So no point having the brake lights since if you slow down your car even a bit, the fella at the back will already have his car stuck to yours like a Siamese twin.

Sheesh... This reminds me of my ex-colleague. She was once caught by another colleague for driving her Kenari at night without her car lights on. We thought that she being a new owner, did not know how to turn on the lights. The next day when we asked her, she said she didn't turn on the lights cause she wanted to 'save power'.

Huh...? Are all Kenari drivers that weird?!?

To www or not to www

2007-01-08T18:17:00.000+08:00

I recently wrote to CIMB Bank to give my feedback on their website. I had just signed up for the internet banking service and was trying it out. When I entered the URL cimbbank.com.my into my browser’s address bar, I had gotten an error message.

I was puzzled. Was the server down? Then I tried again, this time I entered www.cimbbank.com.my (note the www in front). This time, I got through.

Most of the websites I know would allow the mainpage to be displayed even when you do not enter www. ‘www’ is considered a sub-domain. This usually means that it is just another folder on the server. The html files would be normally be placed in this folder. And usually, there would be a ‘re-direction’ to this folder in case there are people who type in the URL without the 'www' in front. Come to think of it, how many actually type ‘www’ when you enter the URL? Do let me know...

Anyway, the idea of subdomain is so that you can section your website. For example, I have the domain adriantai.com. I publish a lot of stuffs on this site. I have a section for my friends called Friends of Seaport. I also have a section for my online photo album. So, to make it easier for my visitors to go directly to the page (and make it easier for them to remember), I create subdomains. If my visitors want to see my photos, they can just type photo.adriantai.com. Everything inside that section or subdomain would be ‘photo’ related. If I decide to have further subsections (or ‘folders’ within the photo ‘folder’) such as one for my honeymoon photos and one for my bachelor night party, I could actually have photo.adriantai.com/honeymoon/ and photo.adriantai.com/bachelornight/ (by the way, these two folders don’t exist, ok?).

As for the section for my friends, I have the subdomain seaport.adriantai.com. Typing just adriantai.com would bring you to the main site – www.adriantai.com.

Take blogspot as another example. To access the main page, you type blogspot.com (which will redirect you to blogger.com). But if you want to view, say, my blog on blogspot, you type adriantai.blogspot.com. The adriantai subdomain means that anything within that subdomain belongs to adriantai. To view Dean’s blogspot, its deanarif.blogspot.com. There is no need to actually type ‘www’ in front.

Anyway, in my feedback to CIMB webmaster, I wrote:
website shows error message when the address cimbbank.com.my is typed into the address bar. it would be fine when www.cimbbank.com.my is typed it (‘www’ is typed in). perhaps a re-direction can be done as sometimes people do not type www in front.

A few days later, I got this reply:

Huh...? What does ‘banking purpose’ have to do with this? I have no problem typing sbb.com.my when I want to access Southern Bank’s website. SBB, in case you didn’t know, is now part of the CIMB group. Does it mean they have different policies in the bank? I have no problem typing publicbank.com.my when I want to access Public Bank’s site as well.

Another fine example of how you can really screw up with subdomains is this:
streamyx.com.my

www.streamyx.com.my

Note: www.streamyx.com.my will redirect you to the tm.net.my site, that's why you see www.tm.net.my instead of www.streamyx.com.my

I believe the first was not supposed to point to bluehyppo website since bluehyppo has got its own URL www.bluehyppo.com. But its ok for TMNet to screw up on this because this would not be their biggest screw up anyway. Plus I’ve never had high regards for TMNet...

Back to CIMB Bank... I’m just puzzled because I honestly do not know what that reply means. Was it a reply from a non-technical person? If so, I can understand... But if its from the technical person, I would definitely get worried worried.

A year that was and a year that will be...

2007-01-02T14:41:00.000+08:00

If anything, I would say that 2006 was the year of change.

There were many changes in my life. I changed to a new web host. I changed the templates for all my sites. The focus of this blog also changed... In case you didn't know, this blog is in its second re-incarnation. My marital status changed from single to married. I also changed my mobile phone from the already quite disappointing Siemens CX65 to another quite disappointing phone - Sony Ericsson K618i. I'll write more about the phone later.

My outlook changed as well but I guess that's normal and what we would call 'part of growing up'. Well, my age changed as well... In 2005, it was 29. In 2006, it was 30. Now... It's 31. B4sket... Is the earth spinning extra fast these days?!?

Looking back at 2006, I can only remember it for the few events, namely...
- the Mahathir vs Badawi 'slugfest'... I have to say I'm on TDM's side.
- death of a very dear friend
- parts of Malaysia was flooded
- Saddam's death
- earthquake in Taiwan paralysed the net
- Nintendo Wii

Oh wait... Did we also have FIFA WorldCup in 2006?! Maybe this will also help you (and myself) remember other 2006 events.

2007... What can we look forward to it?
- Visit Malaysia Year (and the Eye on Malaysia ferris wheel erected in 2 months?!)
- Our Angkasawan ~~making 'teh tarik'~~ conducting last-minute thought-out scientific experiments in space (to be honest, I don't see how the experiments we plan to conduct will be useful since they are not our country's focus or core industry in the first place)
- Transformers (the live-action movie) and Ghost Rider
- new toll rates for certain highways, including a 60% increase for LDP (cr4p!!!)
- click here for more 2007 events...

On a personal note, 2007 would mean:
- trying to complete Okami
- more personal website projects
- spending more time with family and friends
- CISSP
- time for myself (self reflection & improvement)
- first year I give out angpows or red packets
any much more.

But one thing's for sure. One blink of an eye and it's Goodbye 2007 and Welcome 2008. Yes, that's how fast I expect the new year to go by...

Taiwan earthquake

2006-12-29T18:17:00.000+08:00

The recent earthquake off the coast of Taiwan actually had me thinking...

#1. Did anyone even bothered about the earthquake that measured 6.7 on the Richter scale when it was first struck on 27th Dec?

I don't think anyone outside of Taiwan actually thought much about it, except maybe for the brief moment when a Tsunami alert was reportedly triggered (and subsequently lifted). Nobody cared about the extent of damage the earthquake caused or if anyone was injured or killed in the earthquake.

But there were lots of noise and interest when people realised that their internet connection was affected. Even the news headlines focussed on how internet came to a crawl, how the damaged undersea cables are affecting businesses across Asia and how long it would take to restore the cables...

#2. How we are now so dependant on cables. Yes, if you think about it, businesses are now so dependant on fibre optics that almost everything can come to an almost standstill because the cables were damaged. If they were really severed beyond repair, I wonder what kind of effects it would have on a country's economy...

But strange and illogical when you think about it, no? If it is a city burning or destroyed, I can understand. But cables...?!?

Yes, I guess economy is no longer just about moving tangible products. It is about communication, information and much more...

In case you are still wondering, the Taiwan earthquake did not cause any major damage. That's probably why there was not much coverage on it.