huZmi dahLan

Real Propery Gains Tax

2011-10-08T22:31:00.002+08:00

Effective 1st January next year real property gains tax of 10% will be imposed on disposal of property in the first 2 years of purchase. This is an increase of 5% from the current rate of 5%.

Explosion at Empire Gallery

2011-09-29T11:30:00.004+08:00

The view as seen from The Malaysian Insider.

Picture of the day

2011-09-28T16:55:00.003+08:00

Well my picture of the day is cheetah cubs lining on the tree branch.

Base Lending Rate

2011-05-11T15:23:00.003+08:00

Today MBB and RHB Bank raise their Base Lending Rate (BLR) from 6.3% to 6.6%

The last time the BLR rate raised was on July 13 last year i.e. from 6.05% to 6.3%

Past BLR rate increase

May 2010 - 5.8% to 6.05%

March 2010 - 5.55% - 5.8%

AFF Suzuki Cup 2010

2010-12-30T03:04:00.001+08:00

Congratulation to the young tiger for the job well done bringing the AFF Suzuki Cup back to Malaysia.

6.77 seconds

2010-11-15T17:13:00.001+08:00

That's the latest record to to solve the rubik's cube puzzle. The record holder is now belongs to 15 year old Feliks Zemdegs from Australia.

Hotlink website suck

2010-10-26T11:44:00.004+08:00

I lost count on how many days I could not update my active10 list on the hotlink website. 2 weeks? or 3 weeks! Till this day the hotlink website still states that the service is temporarily down for maintenance. So do the hotlink e - statement. Talk about IT improving productivity ... just wasting my time.

Pengumuman Tarikh Puasa 2010

2010-08-10T09:48:00.005+08:00

Well ... the date for sighting the new moon has been set today 10 August 2010. Whether fasting will begin tomorrow or on Thursday, it will only be known after the announcement by the keeper of the Rulers' seal later tonight. So watch out for the announcement tentatively after 8.00 pm news on television.

Selamat berpuasa.

Touch 'n Go

2010-08-10T09:06:00.006+08:00

In the Sun newspaper today at page 2 there is this reminder from Touch 'n go that your touch n go card has a 10- year lifespan and will expire ....

So it ask us to renew the card before it expires to avoid usage interruption and enjoy continuous benefits.

How to check ?

1 through www.touchngo.com.my

2 call careline centre 03 7628 5115

3 visit Touch 'n Go Customer Service Centre

Well if you choose option 1, this is what you will get.

RECORD NOT FOUND !

With less than four months to go before entering year 2011, the checking still only meant for card expiring in 2008 & 2009. And they have the cheek to advertise in the newspaper that we can do the checking online.

Portugal vs North Korea

2010-06-22T11:56:00.002+08:00

Highlight of last night FIFA World Cup game between North Korea and Portugal.

Thrashed by Portugal seven goal to nil. The dear leader of North Korea would not be pleased.

The scorer
1st goal by Raul Meireles at the 29th minute
2nd Simao at 53rd minute
3rd Hugo Almeida at 56th minute
4th Tiago 60th minutes
5th Liedson at 81st minute
6th Cristiano Ronaldo at 88th minute
7th Tiago at 89th minute

World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower

2010-06-18T07:57:00.002+08:00

Nearly five times farther than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. The Capital Gate building in the desert kingdom's capital, Abu Dhabi, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the "World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower." from CNN.com

MT Bunga Kelana

2010-05-27T12:30:00.004+08:00

Oil spilled !

Firstly the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, at Gulf of Mexico, now ship collision at the Straits of Singapore.

This brings a memory to Exxon Valdez 1989 disaster in Alaska. Manmade disaster tend to be in epic proportion.

Picture of the day

2009-04-05T05:31:00.003+08:00

Jenson Button scores a second formula one pole position at Sepang F1 Malaysian grand prix yesterday.

April Fool virus

2009-04-02T12:57:00.004+08:00

April 1st comes and goes, thus far no harms done to my computer. Anyway just for precaution the computer was shutdown for the whole day yesterday.

Would changing the computer's date fool the virus?

And the news title from AFP

Conficker worm plays no tricks on April Fools' Day

When I want to sign in my yahoo mail, on the left hand side of the sign in box there was a link to download Internet Explorer 8. Yahoo mail works better with IE8 said yahoo. After giving some thought I decided to download IE8. Then starts my 2 hour journey around this creature IE8, for this browser got annoying yahoo toolbar at the top. Later I discovered that I can't type in my sign in name on the yahoo sign in box. So with gmail and any other boxes in the website that I tried too. Though I have removed this new IE8 through the add/remove programs function still the IE8 browser is not removed.

In the end I resorted to install IE8 from firefox browser direct from micrsoft.com website.This time this is not a windows internet explorer provided by yahoo. It works. Still it's a journey with anxiety and time wasted. From the wikipedia I learned that IE8 is very new browser though the beta version has been around for some times. There is still another annoying this I have to live with it for quite awhile. It seems that the IE8 is not friendly with some of the add-ons that I have inside my computer.

cheers

2009-03-12T17:27:00.003+08:00

Quote for today.

After waiting more than three decades for his moment to lead the nation, Najib Razak is taking over “without the burden of overly high expectations,” as one report put it, but burdened on almost every other score.

malaysia today

My Mouse

2009-03-03T17:33:00.004+08:00

Dell is malfunction so logitech comes to the rescue. Only just a few months and you refuse to work well it's time to get a third one.
Another logitech. !

A Fandi Ahmad Fan

2009-02-27T19:05:00.004+08:00

Fandi Ahmad with his wife, Wendy Jacobs and their 5 children. (Year 2008)
Irfan, 11, Ikhsan, nine, Iman, eight, Ilhan, six, and the latest addition, cherubic Iryan, two

Fandi Ahmad's wedding - Fandi Ahmad with his wife Nur Sarah Abdullah (formerly Wendy Jacobs). Year 1996

from asiaone

He and his family is now in Lebak Bulus Indah, South Jakarta, Indonesia working as a football coach with Pelita Jaya. Pelita Jaya is based in Jakarta but the home ground is actually in Bandung, two hours away by car.

Australia wildfires

2009-02-09T16:24:00.004+08:00

Australia wildfires, or firestorm.
The picture from Sydney Morning Herald speaks a thousand words.

Fuel.
The third and only controllable factor in this deadly triangle is fuel: the dead leaves, pieces of bark and grass that become the gas that feeds the 50m high flames that roar through the bush with the sound of jet engines.
David Packham, The Australian.

10 biggest malls

2009-02-07T22:41:00.002+08:00

Here are the world's 10 biggest malls by interior floor space for leasing:

1. South China Mall , Dongguan, China - 660,000 sq-m
2. Golden Resources Shopping Mall, Beijing, China - 560,000 sq-m
3. SM City Edsa North, Manila, Philippines - 425,000 sq-m
4. Mall of Asia, Manila, Philippines - 386,000 sq-m
5. Dubai Mall, Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 350,000 sq-m
6. West Edmonton Mall, Alberta, Canada - 350,000 sq-m
7. Cevahir Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey - 348,000 sq-m
8. SM Megamall, Manila, Philippines - 332,000 sq-m
9. Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 320,000 sq-m
10. Beijing Mall, Beijing, China - 320,000 sq-m

Tahun Baru 2009

2009-01-01T21:08:00.002+08:00

Selamat Tahun Baru 2009

50 Best Websites 2008

2008-09-20T22:31:00.001+08:00

From Time Magazine.

50 Best Websites in 2008.

Lee Chong Wei

2008-08-18T07:35:00.000+08:00

When I checked through Olympic website I could not believe that you were trailing 4 to 17 in the second set. The first set went to Lin Dan. You know the whole country has been willing for you to bring back the gold. I could not watch it on TV. My TV due to irresponsible maintenance company could not get proper TV reception. The centralised antena has not been fixed for close to 2 years.

Anyway well done for the efforts. Keep on fighting.

Result 21-12,21-8 41' to Lin Dan.

New four-car LRT

2008-06-15T02:13:00.001+08:00

New four-car LRT as announced in the Star.

When there is no power

2008-06-07T21:33:00.005+08:00

When there is no power a candle light brighten the day.

anh cu hen

2008-05-31T04:15:00.005+08:00

I do not know the meaning of the words above but this one is a vietnamese video clip.

another entertaining video,
tinh ca nguoi di bo

On a different note mixed martial arts(MMA), the fast-growing, full-combat sport that combines elements of boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jujitsu and other disciplines is getting into prime time spot on TV.

Below Kevin Ferguson, a.k.a. by the stage name of Kimbo Slice in action.

and the link to one of the video clip on you tube of which the content is violent.

Let's swing

2008-05-24T19:05:00.000+08:00

Malaysia's Richest

2008-05-24T13:22:00.004+08:00

Forbes Malaysia's top 40 richest

Rank Name Net Worth ($MIL) Age

1 Robert Kuok 10.00 84
2 Ananda Krishnan 7.20 70
3 Lee Shin Cheng 5.50 69
4 Teh Hong Piow 3.50 78
5 Lee Kim Hua & family 3.40 79
6 Quek Leng Chan 2.40 67
7 Yeoh Tiong Lay & family 2.10 78
8 Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary 1.80 56
9 Vincent Tan 1.30 56
10 Tiong Hiew King 1.10 78
11 Azman Hashim 0.70 68
12 William H. J. Cheng 0.66 65
13 Lee Swee Eng 0.50 52
14 Ong Beng Seng 0.47 63
15 Lim Kok Thay 0.35 56
16 Vinod Sekhar 0.32 40
17 Lee Oi Hian 0.30 57
18 Yaw Teck Seng 0.30 70
19 Anthony Fernandes 0.29 44
20 Mokhzani Mahathir 0.29 47

21 Kamarudin Meranun 0.28 47
22 Jeffrey Cheah 0.28 63
23 Lee Hau Hian 0.25 55
24 Chong Chook Yew 0.25 86
25 Yaw Chee Ming 0.24 49
26 G. Gnanalingam 0.23 63
27 Lim Wee Chai 0.20 50
28 Kua Sian Kooi 0.20 55
29 Lau Cho Kun 0.19 72
30 Abdul Hamed Sepawi 0.18 58
31 David Law Tien Seng 0.17 NA
32 Tiah Thee Kian 0.16 61
33 Liew Kee Sin 0.16 50
34 Ahmayuddin bin Ahmad 0.16 51
35 Eleena Azlan Shah 0.15 48
36 Lin Yun Ling 0.15 53
37 Ong Leong Huat 0.13 64
38 Lim Thian Kiat 0.12 50
39 Khoo Kay Peng 0.11 69
40 Nazir Razak 0.10 41

today's rate RM3.243 = USD1 selling TT/OD

The tree the green

2008-05-01T16:01:00.004+08:00

All this while I would have thought KL would have been a barren place due to the land clearing these past few years. The news that I heard about such development of the KL Side of Bukit Gasing, the news today about flash flood at Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, flash flood at Jalan Traverse Bangsar, even with the completion of SMART tunnel. But the journey today by train (I wondered why RM2.00 was deducted from my T & G card when the fare should be RM1.50) there are still a lot of green between KL station and Bank Negara though there are two spots where the land has been cleared for development. One is still new and the other has been turned into car park. Along the Jalan Mahameru road under the pedestrian bridge linking the bank negara station to Star LRT a line of trees occupied the road divider.

On the hindsight, if i bring along my camera there would be some nice photos that I would like to share. But the plan for this May day holiday was for a short trip to KL specifically at the SOGO side and for a short window shopping and some refreshment. Well the office tower which was originally constructed for BCB bank is now 90% completed and the Jalan Esfahan is now a no go zone as basement carpark construction is now ongoing.

There is now at the 5th floor or 6th floor of the SOGO shopping complex a foodcourt. After a short deliberation I headed for Secret Recipe. I asked for the Carribean fish fillet and milkshake espresso. That set me back RM29.90 inclusive of 15% service charges and GST. Hah that slice of fish cost RM17.00. And it came only with lettuce. But it tasted great whilst HOT.

A peek to Pertama Complex reveals that it has now turned into handphone bazaar. I did not find the phone collection enticing. The design not sleek, the colour look jaded or perhaps it's more like recond or second hand phone. This brought me to the sleek LCD TV that I saw at SOGO, i.e the 32 inch SONY Bravia at the price of RM2,999.00. How nice to have one and watch James Bond, (Daniel Craig) chasing the bad guy at the construction site.

The medan makan MARA besides the MARA tower has been fenced off and there is now constructing a 30 storey tower. Oh yes I remembered there was also about a three storey building at the site and now it's gone. So are the trees. Also noticed the change to the left hand side of the formerly know Odeon cinema. There are now more eating place all around SOGO and Pertama complex. The crowd too ... And the occupants of the car coming too they are all ...

The Bank Negara railway station is now sleek and modern, though the entrance is narrow with no signboard. Would like it more if it's air conditioned, hah ha. In the news today DBKL mentioned that they are planning to plant 60,000 trees by end of this year. I have seen enough of rampant trees cutting to see how this would make a difference and I hope I would not care about it too much. I would be heading south.

Burj Dubai

2008-04-30T14:31:00.003+08:00

Burj Dubai, the next pretender to the world tallest building.

Next time it will be 4 million

2008-04-17T01:01:00.005+08:00

Again, a new minister come and a new pledge for zero dependence on foreign workers. Last time it was one million of them illegal workers in this country. A campaign was launched to repatriate them. Then it turned cold. Now there are 3 million of them. Very soon it will be 4 million. Campaign or no campaign.

Pavarotti Lip - Synched Last Performance

2008-04-08T07:47:00.003+08:00

This is news to me. It happened at the 2006 Turin Olympics Winter Games. This is because Pavarotti was suffering from sharp pains months before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was using a wheelchair. No one was aware of the technical tricks.

This was reveal by the conductor, Leone Magiera in a book.

Luciano Pavarotti died in September 2007. He was 71.

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

2008-04-06T01:38:00.002+08:00

Yunupingu is being hailed by critics in Australia and overseas as a star in the making. But the singer from Elcho Island in northeast Arnhem Land, who has been blind since birth, isn't craving fame.

Gurrumul Promotional Video 2008

I Was Born Blind

Blogger

2008-04-03T11:58:00.006+08:00

I have now fully upgrade this blog to a new template. It was in Nov 2006 that I partially upgraded this blog to new blogger. After more than a year blogger has added more features inside the template layout thus I was able to retain more or less the old look.

1 sen rounding up too soon

2008-03-25T22:24:00.003+08:00

99 sen plus RM1.39 should equal RM2.38. Then why I had to pay RM2.40 ....I was wondering.

Alright Carrefour has started the rounding adjustments. But I thought the implementation will start on the 1st April. So this should be the case that the rounding up came too soon.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

2008-02-05T08:00:00.000+08:00

RM100.00 note

2008-01-13T12:12:00.000+08:00

The RM100.00 note that I have been keeping and secreted inside a book for so long. Something happened this morning and with no loose change in my pocket I have to part company with this bill ... with heavy hearts.

Bye bye !

Selamat Tahun Baru 2008

2007-12-31T23:31:00.000+08:00

IKEA

2007-12-28T07:19:00.000+08:00

Thinking of home furnishing then IKEA is the place to be. As countdown to year 2008 is now begins the IKEA closing time has been extended to 11.00 pm.

What's to be a short trip turned out longer as it has been a while since I step my foot at IKANO Power Centre at Mutiara Damansara. I lingered longer as a little bit of more time was needed to get to know the items. Amongst the first items that caught my eye was the two seat sofa which IKEA declared that at RM299.00 was lower than the previous year. Anyway for the rest of the Sofa on display the price range above RM1,000.00 could be a little intimidating.

What I had in mind for this trip is to have a meal at IKEAS cafe, a spare 25W ping pong bulb, a wall hanger and a light proof curtain.

As for meal the meatballs came to mind but when I was actually there looking what's on offer which was displayed at the board above I had a hard time making decision as to whether to have the "today's special" (something like that) which was chicken and fries at RM8.50 or chicken leg at RM9.90.

I decided to have the chicken leg which came with baked potatoes and carrot and a piece of mazarin (RM2.00 a piece). The chicken was good.

The trip ended with the purchase of this 3way Socket outlet at RM14.90. The design is nice and it's smaller compared to typical socket outlet.

Portis Hook at RM12.90

Aliens vs Predator

2007-12-25T22:54:00.000+08:00

When I booked the ticket online I choose the 2.15pm show instead of the 2.45pm. The hall 10 was bigger than the hall 6. That's the advantage of buying the ticket online we can get to know the size of the movie theater.

As for the movie itself .... well not that great. I guess we got to see nice picture with good CGI effect but I came out from the cinema not feeling anything.

I was expecting suspense like what shown from the trailer. That at a small town in Colorado the population was facing a threat like they never faced before. A threat from aliens, which have escaped from a crashed ship, they would later start an endevour suction-cupping onto the faces of every Coloradoan in sight. Starting from father and son who went hunting in the woods as their first victim.

With the father and son gone, the town population say ~ 14,000 the population is now less by two and so on, until the whole population was decimated. Well there was no countdown in the movie.

So if we have a lot of spare time to kill this is the movie to see. What's a better time than on Christmas holiday.

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T21:19:00.000+08:00

A long day at work finally over. Longing to go back home and be with a family, what more tomorrow is holiday. Alas the plan has to go a backseat as it was raining heavily. But there is a comfort of riding Rapid KL bus. From the look of it how can't I be proud to take a ride with this sleek and shiny bus.

But then somehow, somewhere the joy is always short lived. The door of the bus only one of it is left open. Why they have to restrict the number of passengers getting into the bus at a time. It's so demeaning. We were left standing outside the bus longer than necessary in the wet and cold afternoon. Lazy RapidKL driver and stupid service !!! They can always able to check on cheating passengers later before starting the journey.

So as not to think so much about the RapidKL bus I had cantonese fried yee mee and teh tarik at Damansara Uptown Hawker centre.

And tomorrow with the ticket that I already bought I will spend two hours of my day off at GSC 1 Utama watching Aliens vs Predator.

Selamat Hari Raya Haji

2007-12-20T19:33:00.000+08:00

Wow ... it has been two months since we celebrate hari raya puasa. Raya Puasa has come and gone like a breeze. And today is Hari Raya Haji.

Those who have gone to Carrefour Subang Jaya would have noticed the change that has been made to that hypermarket. Now the third floor has been dedicated as the biggest hypermarket for computer items and accessories. Some of the items which was previously on the third level have been shifted to the second level. The second level is now cramped and compact. In certain part the pathway has been narrow. There is now a payment counter at the second level.

Carrefour certainly has to do a makeover as I found that some of it's good not that cheap anymore. Just a short distance away the new extension to Sunway Pyramid has been opened to shoppers. Inside there is a new and bigger Popular Book Store. Jusco is now the main anchor tenant.

What's happening today is that if we were to enter from the third level of Carrefour Subang Jaya hypermarket we would notice a crowd gathering around. Apparently a booth has been set up to sell digital camera at a "lelong" price.

This month I have set to dedicate a certain part of my salary for saving. Somehow I have sacrifice that portion for my retirement expenditure on impulse buying. It's contrary to the spirit of sacrifice that I am suppose to observe today. As it can be seen I am now become one of the owner of Pentax Optio M10 digital camera. It's my first digital camera. At RM 299.00 the receipt states that the saving was RM200.00. For Pentax Optio M20 the price was RM399.00. It has 7.0 megapixels as compared to mine at 6.0 megapixels. There are also Samsung, Canon, Nikon, Vivitar and Kodak digital camera on offer. I chose Pentax as it was the brand of my old SLR camera that has been put out of commission since ages ago. As I considered myself as novice with regards to digital camera this purchase will do for the time being.

I could not figure how to take the photo of the camera so here I put the photo of the package. The above is a photo of my desk and my desktop computer. Now I have to learn how to put my name on the photo.

Alexandria, the city of legend

2007-12-16T16:48:00.000+08:00

Hawkers sell cotton candy at Corniche

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the glimmering vision in steel and glass that opened on the Corniche in 2002.

source nytimes

Birds in Can

2007-12-04T12:34:00.000+08:00

from theage.com.au,
dead upside-down birds in old beer cans at old quarter of Hanoi,Vietnam.

Radhi go to school

2007-12-02T23:31:00.000+08:00

Who's the hell is this guy, feature on TV8 just now Radhi study go !.

Gila - gila ... now going to study in SEGI College, Kota Damansara. Wow look likely this chap is being sponsored by SEGI. Good luck man.

Crazy Indian Video... Buffalaxed!

2007-11-25T11:36:00.000+08:00

(Warning: occasional coarse subtitles)

from the Tree

2007-11-07T22:21:00.000+08:00

Aeroplane crossing

2007-10-06T02:45:00.000+08:00

This is in Germany where the runway crosses a road.

Countdown to Raya

2007-09-30T22:21:00.000+08:00

Hari Raya Aidifitri will be in less than two weeks.

It's just my way to mark this day as otherwise today will be like any other day. Some days are tough though.
I have been stuck at home or at One U during these past weeks. So for a change I decided today to go to MidValley.

The thing to look if I were to go to Mid Valley at this month of Ramadhan is to see how the Raya stage look like. I found the theme uninspiring. Where's the Ketupat or the "pelitas".

Jaya jusco is having a sale from 15th sept to mid next month. Alright I came back empty handed as I didn't have shopping in mind for this trip.

But I did have something in mind if I were to go downtown KL. One of it is to look for Songkok.

But I did hang around at MPH bookstore. Wow their books most of it are unwrapped not like the one at One Utama and it was a pleasure to browse through.

Amongst the first book to caught my eyes was a book about Tony Fernandez and his Air Asia. Inside the author tells about the difficulty of obtaining a landing right for his airways aside the one obtained for Thai Air Asia. He complaints about the double standard that the Singapore authority.
Another book on display at the same section with Tony Air Asia was Richard Branson Virgin Airline. In the book the author tells about through self belief, meticulous planning and hard work despite predictions that Virgin Airline would fail are the factors that contribute to the success of this budget airline.

I slowly moved and stopped at History section. The book that I browsed through was on Benazir Bhuto. In it it was told that during the era of President Zia, only one third of the aids and weapons channels by american and International community were received by the afghans, the rest were given to the Pakistani army or other vested parties. The author clearly accused CIA collaborating with the pakistani in promulgated corrupt practice. Looking back while traveling back home.the afghan would in return of aids received would be grateful to the pakistani and gave certain portion of the aids received to the pakistani in return. Like when some people seek treatment from bomoh, though the bomoh would not insist on payment the seeker would still part some gift to bomoh. As time went by the practice then become entrenched and the pakistani would expect something in return whenever the aids or arms were channeled to the Afghan.

Another book of interest was about how Plumbers save the human kind. It was mentioned that in the 1800's the Thames river in London was so polluted with human waste that no fish was to be found and the member of parliament when debating the solution to the problem has to cover their nose whilst in the parliament. One of the English prince declared that if he were not to be a king he would become a plumber as it was determined that the cause of his sickness was due to bacteria accumulated at his "toilet".

I saw Hillary Clinton Rodham memoirs which I have in my collection. The price is RM35.00. I can't find the record of the price that I paid for this book some 3 years ago. The Bill Clinton memoirs 2 in one is about RM65.00. Still to steep a price.

Also read some management book.

The last part was about The Last Incas in Peru, how the Spanish brutally suppressed the Incas rebellion, how chicken pox nearly exterminate the Indian population in America. And before that the history of Burma, world war I and World War 11.

Days before Raya the crowd would be at it's peak. I do not intend to be a last minute shopper but who knows.

Digital 'Smiley Face' Turns 25

2007-09-18T14:31:00.000+08:00

:)

Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

5 gig hotmail

2007-09-12T11:28:00.000+08:00

Realised that my hotmail storage capacity is now 5 Gigabytes.

Accident or mishap

2007-08-24T15:25:00.000+08:00

I saw two young mat salleh walking happily on the road junction while I was on the way back to office from Friday prayers. I caught a glimpse of the two guys. They were very good looking with a short hair and smartly dress. They walked like the world is at their feet. I assumed one of the guy is a homo from the way he walked.

While crossing a road from another direction I saw a chap, a bank officer riding a motorbike with a pillion rider with no helmet. I knew him because he is the person whom I deal with when I opened a bank account with CIMB Bank recently.

Oh dear ! In a split second the guy which I thought is a homo laid down on the road. The hap on the motorbike has hit him. Since the road is not a main road as it's an internal road at Damansara Uptown I would say the speed that the motorbike travel at that time was about 20 km/hour. The guy rose and swore. The chap riding the motorbike sat still on his motorbike. From a distant I hear a chinese lady shopkeeper shout that a motorbike has hit a "gwailo".

Who is to blame.
The young chap because he is not looking to the left over his shoulder of incoming vehicle or...

the motorbike rider for not slowing down when see incoming pedestrian on the road?

Buying a new mouse

2007-07-10T15:12:00.000+08:00

These past few weeks the mouse that I have been using has given me some antics that not easy for me to fathom. How the hell a click to a shortcut at the bottom left of my desktop to launch Internet Explorer result in two and sometimes three IE browser being launched simultaneously. Not only they occupy spaces but it's distracting as I have to close the IE browser that not being used one by one. On the other hand when I move the cursor to the IE pull down menu my computer give me a hide and seek act. At that moment I click Favourites from the pull down menu the list of the favourites appear and disappear in a blink. So with the second click and I was so frustrated.

What the computer normally do whenever one open many browsers is to group the browsers into their respective category. For instance the grouping will be according to IE, Firefox or Microsoft Excel. So say when I click to IE as what happened when I clicked the pull down menu above, again the computer gives a disappearing act. Sometimes the result that came out from the click is not the one I intend to get, or I would need to click doubly hard for something to come out of it, for instance a simple task such as cut and paste. Wow so hard for my mouse to perform.

After a while and after further testing with another computer I have come to a conclusion that it's the mouse who are the culprit. For end user like me I don't have the patience to search for trouble shooting and similar stuffs from the computer or the internet. To search, read and to comprehend all that stuff really give me an headaches. Apart from that I could not do my work with the PC as I would like too. All this blinking cause me an eye-pain and it's really not good to one health. Yeap I would like to keep using this mouse. One of it is retain all parts of this computer as long as possible. But this is not going to be. For the first time this computer going to get a part replacement but unfortunately it's not from the same family.

2 gigabytes hotmail

2007-07-03T21:42:00.000+08:00

Another gigabyte to the fore, added with 1 gig to the previous storage capacity; voila my MSN hotmail now has 2 gig storage capacity. Only about 6 months ago the storage was increased to 1000MB, now with 2G it's on par with Gmail. New features which are easy to the eyes plus nice user interface ... can't help but say BRAVO.

Related entry
MSN hotmail

Job Hunting Myths

2007-06-22T14:28:00.000+08:00

Six Job Hunting Myths Debunked. Find out here.

And the tips to get higher starting salary at AOL.com

How can a colleague be a pal one day and stab you in the back the next? Here's how to deal with this common workplace peril
Frenemies at Work

From Time Magazine

2007-06-19T10:35:00.001+08:00

Flash floods hit areas in KL

2007-06-16T11:09:00.000+08:00

No pun intended. Pak Lah married on Saturday, the next day KL was drowned in water.
Picture from the Star.

When Animals Attack — and Defend

2007-06-09T12:54:00.000+08:00

Battle at Kruger. The hottest upload in web history that doesn't include a naked famous person or a politician saying something career-ending. It's even feature at the Time online magazine. This video has been viewed more than 4.2 million times.

ATM hijack

2007-06-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

You guys, 5 of you have a lot to learn. Do you watch Prison Break for inspiration. The lorry that you left behind will haunt you. Not to mention the eight rounds of ammunition with the pistol that was packed in a plastic bag. If you watch CSI you will know what I mean.

One more thing, the odd is one of you will crack and turn the rest of you to the authority. Better watch out.

This is a botch attempt to drag ATM machine from Hong Leong Bank branch in Desa Jaya, Kepong. Photo is from The Star.

Who is Jean Danker

2007-06-07T07:14:00.000+08:00

The search for Jean Danker led to a 22-year-old Perfect 10 DJ from Singapore. If not for the fact that the Prime Minister next to be wife is also known as Jeanne Danker only with a slightly different spelling I would not have known this petite young lady. She could now be a 28-year-old woman as the article at this mediacorp site is already more than 6 years old.

Photo of Jeanne Abdullah

2007-06-06T15:03:00.000+08:00

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, 67 will remarry this Saturday, about two years after his wife of 40 years, Endon, died of cancer. A source close to the prime minister's office says his new wife Jeanne Abdullah, 54 (also known as Jeanne Danker) is the ex-wife of Endon's brother, Osman Mahmud.

Jeanne Abdullah
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Who is Jean Danker

I Live in Singapura

2007-06-05T11:41:00.000+08:00

Let's have fun and enjoy this video "I live in Singapura" from NCH Productions

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Top Universities in the World

2007-06-01T10:34:00.000+08:00

Newsweek complete list of the top 100 Global Universities. Of the top ten universities in the world, eight of them are in the United States. Cambridge and Oxford in the UK are the other two.

Here is the ranking:

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Yale University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. University of California at Berkeley
6. University of Cambridge
7. Massachusetts Institute Technology
8. Oxford University
9. University of California at San Francisco
10. Columbia University

11. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
12. University of California at Los Angeles
13. University of Pennsylvania
14. Duke University
15. Princeton Universitty
16. Tokyo University
17. Imperial College London
18. University of Toronto
19. Cornell University
20. University of Chicago

21. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
22. University of Washington at Seattle
23. University of California at San Diego
24. Johns Hopkins University
25. University College London
26. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
27. University Texas at Austin
28. University of Wisconsin at Madison
29. Kyoto University
30. University of Minnesota Twin Cities

31. University of British Columbia
32. University of Geneva
33. Washington University in St. Louis
34. London School of Economics
35. Northwestern University
36. National University of Singapore
37. University of Pittsburgh
38. Australian National University
39. New York University
40. Pennsylvania State University

41. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
42. McGill University
43. Ecole Polytechnique
44. University of Basel
45. University of Maryland
46. University of Zurich
47. University of Edinburgh
48. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
49. University of Bristol
50. University of Sydney

51. University of Colorado at Boulder
52. Utrecht University
53. University of Melbourne
54. University of Southern California
55. University of Alberta
56. Brown University
57. Osaka University
58. University of Manchester
59. University of California at Santa Barbara
60. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

61. Wageningen University
62. Michigan State University
63. University of Munich
64. University of New South Wales
65. Boston University
66. Vanderbilt University
67. University of Rochester
68. Tohoku University
69. University of Hong Kong
70. University of Sheffield

71. Nanyang Technological University
72. University of Vienna
73. Monash University
74. University of Nottingham
75. Carnegie Mellon University
76. Lund University
77. Texas A&M University
78. University of Western Australia
79. Ecole Normale Super Paris
80. University of Virginia

81. Technical University of Munich
82. Hebrew University of Jerusalem
83. Leiden University
84. University of Waterloo
85. King's College London
86. Purdue University
87. University of Birmingham
88. Uppsala University
89. University of Amsterdam
90. University of Heidelberg

91. University of Queensland
92. University of Leuven
93. Emory University
94. Nagoya University
95. Case Western Reserve University
96. Chinese University of Hong Kong
97. University of Newcastle
98. Innsbruck University
99. University of Massachusetts at Amherst
100. Sussex University

Related entry
the IPTA and IPTS

Constructing a new subway line

2007-06-01T08:52:00.000+08:00

Iteractive graphics from USA Today, building a new 8.5 mile (13.6km), 16 station subway under Second Avenue on Manhattan East Side, New York.

Below is the Tunnel Boring Machine.

Lost Season 3 Ep 22

2007-05-25T17:19:00.000+08:00

One 'Lost' mystery solved.

There are a whole lot of questions remain unanswerd when this phenominal TV series "LoST" ended it's third season on Wednesday. For a die-hard fan there are a lot of things to talk about from the cell phone model that Jack use to the newspaper story that Jack read while on the plane to Los Angeles.

This is what this entry is about. That LA Times would not miss a chance to take credit that the newspaper that Jack read while on the airplane at the opening of 22nd's episode was LA Times. See the caption above. To be helpful there is a link to the page in PDF format.

Now what is interesting is that the newspaper that Jack read in one of the flashback was dated Thursday April 5th 2007. Off course if you watch the show on TV you would not be able to see the fine print. But thanks to eagle-eyed -- and scarily obsessive -- fans online there is one more topic to talk about. The head line was obvious. Did the producer thought about this, the flashback suppose to happen 'sometimes" ago and the date of the newspaper was so recent.

"Residents speak about proposed coastal gas plant". The picture of a woman with microphones was slightly different.

The above is the bigger caption of the page and below is the caption which shows the date of publishing. The headline on the right hand side of the caption says "Teachers scorn offer of 1% raise". Now is that the way to treat teachers !

note : the photo of Jack reading the newspaper was added on 21.12.07

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Bersanding

2007-05-20T11:23:00.000+08:00

Photo of bersanding ceremony steeped in royal customs at Istana Iskandariah in Bukit Chandan Kuala Kangsar last night.

Yellow is the colour of choice.

Previous entry
The Royal Wedding photos

The Royal Wedding photos

2007-05-18T11:27:00.000+08:00

The Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, and Zara Salim Davidson were married at the Istana Iskandariah in Bukit Chandan Kuala Kangsar.

Below are three photos that were shown in the Star online.

Zara Salim with her wedding dress ↘

The wedding ring ↘

The Akad nikah ↘

More photos and video at the New Straits Times e-media.

Fiona Sit

2007-05-12T21:01:00.000+08:00

Fiona Hoi-Kei Sit, one of the best female Hong Kong voice singing the song 糖不甩 that she composed.

Related Entry
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Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle

2007-05-11T07:58:00.000+08:00

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle - MRAP.
The vehicle which is now phasing out armored Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The insurgent would start looking for its vulnerablilty and come out with an ingenious way to cripple this vehicle. Let's see how long it will take. According to USA TODAY reported on April 19 No Marines had been killed in the 300 attacks on Marine MRAPs in Anbar province.

Another royal wedding on the card.

2007-05-09T16:55:00.000+08:00

Watch this date "May 17th", the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah is to wed Zara Salim Davidson, the youngest and only girl of four children, to William Davidson and Sharifah Azaliah Syed Omar Shahabudin. Born in Ipoh on March 22, 1973 she is also a grandniece of first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Raja Nazrin, 50, is the eldest child of Sultan Azlan Shah and Raja Permaisuri Tuanku Bainun. Born in Penang on Nov 27, 1956, he was appointed Regent of Perak when his father became the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong from 1989 to 1994.

Related Entries
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The Royal Wedding photos

Spider-Man 3

2007-05-07T19:23:00.000+08:00

Despite the not favourable review that I read in the LA Times, NewYork times and a couple of others blogs I found that I enjoyed this movie.

in Mexico City’s Zocalo square

2007-05-07T10:01:00.000+08:00

A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for US photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City’s Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.

The Zocalo measures about 17,500 square metres ~ the size of five football fields was founded by the Aztecs in 1325.

Nicolas Sarkozy

2007-05-07T08:50:00.000+08:00

Mr. Sarkozy is the son of a minor Hungarian aristocrat with a foreign-sounding name, he did not attend one of France’s elite universities. His grandfather was a Sephardic Jew who converted to Catholicism.

Full name : Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sárközy de Nagy-Bocsa, birth date Jan. 28, 1955, Paris

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-05-06T20:04:00.000+08:00

10 most common passwords

2007-05-05T13:22:00.000+08:00

Why can't we have a single key to the internet that enable access to an e-mail account be there gmail, hotmail, yahoo-mail, jaring,
personal blog such as blogger or blogspot and wordpress; it's related websites such as technorati, mybloglog, stumbleupon
and all that stuff over in the internet like clickbank, online bank account and newsonline ! Unless one keep a proper record of all the the individual username and password to gain access to the websites mentioned above one brain could explode cracking the long forgotten username and password. Ha ha.

10 most common passwords according to pcmag.com;

password
123456
qwerty
abc123
letmein
monkey
myspace1
password1
link182
(your first name)

Take note if you have one of the above as your password. Your information might be compromised.

Back to my thought earlier, how wonderful is it if we need only a single username and password to access all the things on the internet. The requirements for username and password just remind us that all the stuff in the internet does not belong to us. One single username and password to log on to a computer be there a personal or shared wherever it may be is a way to go.

The Star increase price

2007-05-05T12:18:00.000+08:00

I could be living in Mars for I did not realize that the price of The Star newspaper has increased to RM1.50 from RM1.20. Only last Sunday the price was still RM1.20. I searched the Star Online and the Google but could not find the notice of the price increase. Guess that the price increase was effective from 1st May a sacred Labour Day.

For a common guy like me I do feel a pinch. Paying 30 sen more everyday for a week would come to RM2.10 ... not really much, but at RM10.50 per week still a lot of money ! Then the Astro has also announced a new subscription rate. Some sellers which still have not increase price they resort to squeeze the size of their goods instead. Imagine a three quarter plate of mee goreng being served. How that can fill up a stomach. Even now the size of kueh being sold is so tiny. What else ...

The solution is to stop buying newspaper or get hold a copy of the SUN early in the morning or just read the news online.

Koguryu

2007-04-26T14:27:00.000+08:00

Read an article on Koguryo in the CNN news today. South Korean TV dramas revive territorial dispute. Further reading at Wikipedia.

At This Dinner, A Dollop of Vitriol

2007-04-23T15:22:00.000+08:00

Excerpt from Washingtonpost

Global warming was the talking point last night at the White House
Correspondents' Association dinner when singer Sheryl Crow and "Inconvenient
Truth" producer Laurie David walked over to Table 92 at the Hilton Washington to
chat with Karl Rove -- and the resulting exchange was suitably heated.

"I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove," David reports. "I went over to him and said, 'I urge you to take a new look at global warming.' He went zero to 100 with me. . . . I've never had anyone be so rude."

Rove's version: "She came over to insult me and she succeeded."

~~~

~~~~

~~~

Sanjaya Malakar, the shy, slender, 17-year-old "American Idol" reject, was at his table when a tall, middle-aged man stopped by to ask for an autograph. The boy's hosts, from People magazine, tried to shoo him away.

"We are trying to let him eat," they explained.

The man protested: "But I'm the governor of New York."

And so Eliot Spitzer got his autograph. It was that kind of night. It always is.

Virginia Student Massacre

2007-04-18T05:00:00.000+08:00

The gunman who killed 32 people and himself on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute yesterday was Cho Seung-Hui, a student who lived in a dormitory on the Cho Seung-Hui Tech campus.

He was described as an eccentric loner by teachers and classmates. His writings were violent and troubling. A copy reportedly one act play by Cho Seung-Hui can be seen at the Smoking Gun website. Entitled "Richard McBeef," Cho's bizarre play features a 13-year-old boy who accuses his stepfather of pedophilia and murdering his father.

Below is a caption from korea times over ``Ismail Ax,’’ the words written on one of the arms of Cho Seung-hui, the shooter in the campus massacre at Virginia Tech.

The guns that were used, Glock 19 and Walther point22-caliber.

Cho Seung-Hui, Virginia Gunman, Ismail Ax

The secret of living to 100

2007-04-16T23:38:00.000+08:00

find out at http://www.livingto100.com/

Test your knowledge

2007-04-13T17:57:00.000+08:00

Ha ha Got 9 out of 10 correct answer when I test my knowledge / vocabulary with aol.com vocabulary quiz.

American Idol Surrenders to Sanjaya

2007-04-13T01:32:00.000+08:00

The number of finalist down to 7 and Sanjaya Malakar made the cut.

Every country has a Sanjaya

2007-04-11T14:12:00.000+08:00

'Idol' Hopefuls in France, Malaysia Are Even Worse: Don't Believe? Check this.

Cherry Blossom

2007-04-09T08:23:00.000+08:00

In Washington DC it's sort of festival when cherry trees blossom in April. The cherry trees were a gift in the early 20th century from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to Washington, celebrating the friendship between the United States and Japan.

On Saturday 7 April Yukika Sohma, 96 the daughter of Mayor Yukio Ozaki came to Washington to rekindle the memory.

Now most blossoms are gone, swept away by rain and wind and the city was swept by an unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Sunday that disrupt the Spring Festivities.

Malaysian 2007 Grand Prix results

2007-04-09T08:01:00.000+08:00

SEPANG, Malaysia — Results Sunday from the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at the 3.445-mile Sepang International Circuit, with driver, car and laps completed:

1. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Mercedes, 56 laps completed
2. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 56
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 56
4. Nick Heidfeld, BMW, 56
5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 56
6. Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault, 56
7. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 56
8. Heikki Kovalainen, Renault, 56
9. Alexander Wurz, Williams-Toyota, 56
10. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault, 56
11. Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 55
12. Jenson Button, Honda, 55
13. Takuma Sato, Super Aguri-Honda, 55
14. Scott Speed, STR-Ferrari, 55
15. Ralf Schumacher, Toyota, 55
16. Anthony Davidson, Super Aguri-Honda, 55
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi, STR-Ferrari, 55
18. Robert Kubica, BMW, 55
Retired: Nico Rosberg (+14 laps), Williams-Toyota, 42
Retired: David Coulthard (brakes), Red Bull-Renault, 26
Retired: Christijan Albers (engine), Spyker-Ferrari, 7
Retired: Adrian Sutil (accident), Spyker-Ferrari, 0

Winning time of race: 1:32:14.930.

Rookie Lewis Hamilton, F1's first black driver, is the rising star added to the McLaren resurgence by finishing second ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who won the season-opening Australian GP last month. It's his second races of his F1 career.

Pole-sitter Felipe Massa of Ferrari was overtaken by Alonso and Hamilton on the first lap and never challenged. He finished fifth.

A prince in India

2007-04-08T21:49:00.000+08:00

It's not often for us to catch a glimpse of the Malaysian royalty life. Last night TV3 dedicated one hour of it's Majalah 3 documentary show on the life of Tunku Ismail, the Raja Muda or the third in-line to the throne of Johor Sultanate. I believed TV3 aired the show in conjunction with the Sultan Iskandar the current Sultan of Johor birthday, today 8th April 2007.

The show was about the life of Tunku Ismail undertaking a military training in India. The highlight of the show was that Tunku Ismail was chosen to lead his army cavalry march in the Republic day of India parade in Delhi. It's a feather on his cap. I wanted to watch the parade from the website but my computer was not able to play the realPlayer.

I must say I was impressed on how he carried himself there. Being a prince surely he must have a pamper life, but then on seeing his hostel room, though a room to himself but but just an ordinary room with a normal bed ..... and surely he can afford to change the aircon in his room from a window unit to a split unit.

He plays polo. A person needs to be physically fit to play this game and yes he has a schedule of exercise to follow. A photo shows him doing a push up with one hand! This lad just 22 years old has tremedous potential. His father current 'Tunku Mahkota' or crown prince Tunku Ibrahim Ismail is the eldest son of Sultan Iskandar with a Cornish lady by the name of Josephine Trevorrow. This is what stated in the Wikipedia. Sultan Iskandar met Josephine Trevorrow, a wealthy British textile manufacturer's daughter whom he married in 1956 while studying in England. Though with a mix of english blood the Raja Muda is not as tall as his father. This could be a reason why the Indians do not feel threatened by his presence, furthermore Malaysia to Indian is only a small peninsular at the tips of Asia. Nonetheless he is very good looking and has an inquisitive mind.

Sanjaya Malakar

2007-04-04T17:01:00.000+08:00

Allright of all the American Idol contestant this year he is the one who stands out. I could not recall any other contestant from the current American Idol season except Melinda Doolittle. And not for the right reason for this marginally talented 17 year old teenager. Search on google results in 1.27 million result page.

Here is 9 reasons why Sanjaya Malakar is loved as pointed in AOL.com.

1. Because of the Hair: Whether flat-ironed, teased into a tizzy or done up in a faux-hawk, his versatile hair makes up for his limited vocal range. Who cares if you sing flat or forget the lyrics? If you are Sanjaya, you put your faith in your luscious locks and the legions of clueless girls who will stand by you come what may.

2. Because He Beat Sundance: The big guy was an early front-runner, but we thought Sundance was a cocky poseur. And we're still peeved about that "You can be my bodyguard!" comment during the Hollywood finals. Leave it to Sanjaya to sunset Sundance.

3. Because His Fans Have the Craziest Name: We're still trying to make sense of "Blaker Girls" -- seems like a stretch. And while "Soul Patrol" and "McPhans" were cute fanclub names, it just doesn't get any better than "Fanjayas."

4. Because He's Already Been Immortalized on 'SNL': You know you've become a household name when you're parodied on 'Weekend Update' -- and by 'Saturday Night Live' golden child Andy Samberg no less.

5. Because He Had Nerve Enough to Hula Dance on National Television: Now, Sanjaya isn't known for his dance moves. But for some reason, he felt compelled to reveal to the nation his flair for hula dancing in a taped segment during the Top 12 round -- complete with wiggly hula fingers and all.

6. Because He Leaves Simon Speechless: It takes a special kind of vocal talent to leave Simon Cowell without words. Cowell, whose mastery of creative insults is legendary, has simply given up. "I don't think it matters what we say anymore," he said after one of Sanjaya's performances.

7. Because He Sucks and He Doesn't Care: It's pretty much a given: Randy's critique will be negative and unintelligible, Paula's will be negative and nice and Simon's will be negative and indifferent. It's also a given that Sanjaya will stand there clueless, as their critiques go in one ear and out the other.

8. Because He Makes Little Girls (and Some Grown Men) Cry: Ashley Ferl earned the envy of pre-teen girls across the country when 'Idol' producers made her dream come true. When Sanjaya sang, little Ashley turned on the waterworks. You don't see anyone crying over Phil Stacey, do you?

9. Because Howard Stern Is a Fan: We're not sure if he's serious or not, but the "King of All Media" backed Sanjaya from the start. Some suspect Stern's rabidly loyal fans are keeping the kid in the competition.

Will he survives this week elimination ! For the fan of Sanjaya here is a site dedicated to him votefortheworst.com

Site of interest

2007-03-31T11:40:00.000+08:00

Researcher Offers New Pyramid Theory

A French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin claimed Friday March 30th to have uncovered the mystery about how Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu was built -- with use of a spiral ramp to hoist huge stone blocks into place.

Here is his website http://www.3ds.com/khufu, showing a three dimensional presentation on how the pyramid was built.

Internet banking

2007-03-27T11:42:00.000+08:00

No Q, no hassle. At a click of a mouse utility bills are paid at the comfort of your home.

Talking about internet banking, the RHB bank is holding a promotion called Four Seasons Contest. The contestants will geta chance to win 3D/2N Stay @ Four Seasons Private Villa, Langkawi for Two worth RM12,000. What we need to do is collect points by pay bills, reload prepaid and perform IBG funds transfer via Internet Banking. Every payment made for amount above RM20.00 is worth 1 point. The contest period is from 21 Feb - 14 May 2007.

While Maybank on the other hand is offering a cash reward for topping - up hotlink prepaid via maybank2u.com or maybank ATM.

On 7th March I made three online transaction via RHB bank. I have captured a screenshot as can be seen below. With that payments I entitled to 3 points. Somehow a glitch somewhere the site said that I have earned 2 points instead of 3. Called the customer care line at 9206 8228, yeah the person who answered the call promised to look into this matter and would call me back later to update me about the contest points. So a call she did make a few days later. According to her a report has been made and my contest point would be reinstated.

I checked my RHB bank online a few days later to see whether my contest point has been updated and again at a later date and later alas till today the RHB online shows that my total contest points remain at 2. What's happening ! the customer care officer has said that my problem has been fixed but in reality nothing happen.

I have no stomach to pursue this matter further. Really there is a slim chance to win the contest as the winner is one with the highest points collected. Just participate for the fun of it. But it's not fun :)

Doctor

2007-03-15T10:43:00.000+08:00

Occasionally I would come across individuals that I have met a number of years ago. Suddenly as of fate, I would have to meet them again through a business dealing with my company or on other circumstances. As of this morning a surprise call by Mr X as what I called him many years ago. Now he identified himself as Dr X, a real life example of person who has achieved something in life.

I am sure the importance of the title was being impressed upon in a subtle way. Naturally a person who has been trained in medical science would have attached a title Dr to his name. So I am comfortable to call a person who treat me the title Doctor when I go to see him in the clinic.

Then to call a person who attains the title through doctorate study is a different matter altogether. I would just skip through the list of academician with title Dr attached to their name as seen in the IPTA or IPTS website or their publication. Though it's a bit awkward, still it's a part of life. One of it is to show respect.

South Korea's Incheon the world's best airport

2007-03-14T00:50:00.000+08:00

International travellers have voted South Korea's Incheon the world's best airport for customer service, global airports body Airports Council International said.

Three other Asian hubs : -

Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok, came second.

Next came Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Picture above is KLIA main terminal building and below is the satellite building.

Singapore Changi Airport came fourth, according to the Geneva-based ACI.

best airport, ,
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Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

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

Past winner

2006 Giancarlo Fisichella, Mild Seven Renault F1
2005 Fernando Alonso, Renault
2004 Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
2003 Kimi Räikkönen , McLaren Mercedes
2002 Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW
2001 Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
2000 Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
1999 E. Irvine, Ferrari

This year Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix will be on,

6th April 2007 - 8 April 2007
at Sepang International Circuit
Contact : 603-87782222
Email : ticket@malaysiangp.com.my
Website : www.malaysiangp.com.my

Malaysian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher
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the IPTA and IPTS

2007-03-06T00:16:00.000+08:00

I am doing a research on Institution of higher learning in Malaysia, the IPTAs and IPTSs. Below are the list of the 20 IPTAs as listed in the Ministry of Higher Education website. The first seven are the oldest public universities, the rest are newer public universities.

Public universities

1 Universiti Malaya (UM)
2 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
3 Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
4 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
5 Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)
6 Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
7 Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM)
8 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
9 Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)
10 Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK)
11 Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP)
12 Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)
13 Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT)
14 Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia (UDM)
15 Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
16 Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI)
17 Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM)
18 Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
19 Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia(UTHM)
20 Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia(USIM)

There are 533 IPTS according the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. The first is ACTION LEARNING CENTRE (ALC) at Bukit Damansara and the no 533 in the list is VICTORIA INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE(KUALA LUMPUR) at Jalan Yap Ah Loy.

Guatemala Giant Sinkhole

2007-02-25T12:24:00.000+08:00

I didn't thought much about it when I first read about the Guatemala giant sinkhole from the online news until I saw the picture from the Sunday Star. That's when I realized that it was not an ordinary disaster. To have a giant sinkhole right infront of your home and to see a neigbour homes disappear is not an ordinary experience.

The 330-foot-deep sinkhole had swallowed a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. At the time of writing 3 bodies have been recovered from the sinkhole.

I could not find the picture from the star online but I managed to find other pictures as shown below. The picture below is not as scary as the one shown in the Sunday Star. The one in the Sunday Star shows a closed up photo of the sinkhole, one can feel how small one is as compared to the hole.

Another photo from a different angle.
↘

Rescuer at work.

Further reading at MSNBC.com

Guatemala Sinkhole, Giant Sinkhole
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Earth at Night

Buck

2007-02-25T02:13:00.000+08:00

Saturday night, or sunday morning. Check through what's on TV for tonight. Family Plan at 12.30 am Sun Morning; that's the title for TV3 cinema as shown on TV3.com programme schedule. Cast LESLIE NIELSEN, JUDGE REINHOLD, EDDIE BOWZ, EMILY PROCTER, ZACHARY BROWNE.

I wanted to watch American Idol too on TV8. The programme was scheduled so late at 12.15 am. Surprise ! I didn't fall asleep. Hah TV3 was playing a fool again as when the movie started none of the name of the cast stated above appeared on the screen. Gee how many times when came to the actual time to watch a progaramme the thing that we see is not the one as published in the media, even at this moment their website still shown Family Plan as the title for the movie.

Anyway the movie that I watched was not that bad. It's about a career woman who has to do something about her job as the company she's working has been taken over by another company, Walcott. A very dedicated employee she focus solely on her career and do not have a time to form a relationship with a man. Upon suggestion by her best friend she lied to her new employer that she has a family. She found someone to act as her husband. Here came Buck in the picture. She borrowed her friend house and her daughter to make her family more believable.

Right till the end I did not know the title of the movie. Only can remember the guy name's Buck or Frank as a husband. There is a part where a bug exterminator came to exterminate roaches that infected her employer house. He didn't look like Leslie Nielsen or Judge Reinhold ! I am sleeping.

Babel

2007-02-22T07:17:00.000+08:00

I took opportunity of the extended holiday due to Chinese New Year celebration to watch Norbit last Saturday and Babel on Monday.

Norbit was fun while Babel was an exciting journey.

Picture below is Rinko Kikuchi. She is nominated for the best supporting actress Academy Award for her part as a troubled, sexually exploring, deaf-mute teenager in the film Babel.

Reference time.com

of Abandoned kittens and a crying girl

2007-02-14T19:41:00.000+08:00

I have already set to buy a UTP cable for office computer broadband connection. So at lunch time yesterday I made a short trip, about 15 minutes walk to Atria. The weather was fine and to cool down a bit I bought and ate a watermelon along the way. Could be my day ... the fruit was sweet but the seeds were on the upper side of the scale.

About 10 meters after the turning to Jln SS22/48 from KDU, there were two kittens lie motionless on the road shoulder and another on the roadside itself. There were vehicles passing by at the same direction as mine and I had to keep myself to the left along the road shoulder and at the same time looking at the kittens.

Already at some distance away from the kittens, I could not walk back. It's left to fate, whether they were able to survive.

Someone would have abandoned the kittens. It could be just a day old. I didn't think the one on the roadside would be able to climb back to the road shoulder. Sleeping on the road, they would not know how precarious their life were.

The end of the first part.

After I have done with the purchase I went to mamak for lunch. The restaurant that I use to go to eat for lunch when I was at Atria has done refurbishment. So happy that the plate of rice with chicken and vegetables cost me only four buck.

The time to make a move back to office. Just stepping outside the restaurant ... it was raining. No way I could reach office dry in that distance. I have to take the rapidkl then. Gee only just a few days ago during the weekend I almost felt like being cooked-up at home. This is suppose to be a turn for dry season ... man.

Now come the second part. To cut the story short, I was already in the bus. Phew it was so cold. Then after the bus took passengers from the stop opposite the BP petrol station at Damansara Utama there was a passenger who just sat at the seat next to the emergency exit in the middle section of the bus, sobbing. I sat at the back, third seat after the exit door. She's wearing a school uniform. If the colour was light blue, she should be a secondary student. Pretty good looking too. Then another passenger, could be someone from the same bus stop as her or a kindhearted person from the bus itself came to her to offer tissue. That made her to cry ... more. Why was she crying? A couple of plausible reasons playing on my mind. Would it be because of exam result, scolded by teacher or bad news from the family. She was still crying crying when I got down two stops away.

I got my UTP cables and two stories to tell ....

blogging, abandoned kittens
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Latest trick for a professional killer

2007-02-08T12:30:00.000+08:00

Professional killer. To be in this profession one needs to be discreet in executing the task at hand. Like a stealth you would not want to be detected. In case you are new into this, there are many tricks that can be learned from watching TV series or Hollywood film. CSI as an example offers a valuable information on the way the police work to solve crimes. It's no longer a matter of not leaving your finger prints behind. With the advance of technology available to the crime detection unit it's nearly impossible to not leave behind evidence that will later work against you. Just think of it through DNA analysis, a drop of a dead cell falling off your skin, hair or even saliva would be enough to get the authorities to determine who you are. OK ... you would still be a free man till the the authorities are able to get a sample of your DNA in order for them to match your DNA with a sample that you left at the crime scene.

I thought I have learned all of what is needed to be an accomplished professional killer. Hah just kidding ... What I have learned through reading and watching from TVs or movies and to be a real life professional killer are a different matter altogether. How can it be. Living in Malaysia ...there is almost zero opportunity to touch a gun let alone handle it unless you can pay your way to join a shooting club. If we are not able to access this basic items, mmm what about other gadgets ...

It struck me when I read that this fella Capt. Lisa M. Nowak a NASA astronaut wore diapers on the drive from Texas to Florida a distance of more than 1,400 kilometres (900 miles) to confront an Air Force captain, Colleen Shipman, who she believed to be a rival for the affections of another astronaut. That's an original idea to avoid detection!. I have learnt a long time ago that there is a diaper for ageing adults but it never occurred to me that a 43 year old person would wear one.

So do astronauts need to wear diapers while travelling to the the outer space? Is this part of their training? Now I wonder whether the final two Malaysian Astronaut candidates, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a 34-year-old hospital medical officer and army dentist Faiz Khaleed, 26; wore diapers while in training !

This is another case of a plan gone awry. Smart as she is supposed to be, she's being overcome by grief. She wore diapers on the drive so she would not have to stop to relieve herself. I don't think it's a good idea to wear diapers on a mission. It would restrict movement or flexibility. It's not actually a new trick for a professional killer after all.

Could only imagine one with a leakage diaper!

The guy not in the picture is Navy Cmdr. William A. Oefelein, an astronaut who, like Nowak, is based at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

suggested reading washingtonpost.com

Astronaut Diapers, Malaysian Astronaut
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What's in the news.

2007-01-27T09:58:00.000+08:00

Jan 25th. Good news. Four Malaysian single players, Hafiz and Roslin Hashim, Lee Chong Wei and Lee Tsuen Seng entered into the second round of the Korean Open last night.

Would this four players go all the way to the final? In my heart I would be proud if they do make it, but realistically that would be unlikely. So last night when there was no mention of the Korean Open results in the 12 am TV3 news, (TV3 is notorious of showing irrelevant sport news at the time when the Malaysian public crave for the outcome of how Malaysian players / team fare in the major sports tournament) and in this morning radio news too I see that as a sign that the players would have suffered disastrous results. Yeah most of the times no news means bad news, but somehow if a renown Malaysian players achieve an impressive result in a world tournament, nothing is spared in praising the player.

As for soccer the Malaysian team would play Singapore for a spot in the final of the AFC Championship tonight in Singapore. Not being able to capitalize on the home ground advantage to beat Singapore in the first-leg match at the Shah Alam Stadium a few days ago, I would not have a high hope that Malaysian would go through to the final. I would be glad if the Malaysian team could prove me wrong.

It turns out that Hafiz Hashim and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong have reached the Korean Open semi-finals. The result was not so bad after all.

related URL : Badminton World Federation

Hafiz Hashim, Korean Open, TV3
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Condi Rice

2007-01-16T21:38:00.000+08:00

New Year Prediction

2007-01-06T09:07:00.000+08:00

What is the astrologer prediction for this year? Somehow I missed this part of reading in the newspaper.

Anyway I found this from The Star. It's about a IT stuff such as the upcoming Window Vista, more attacks by hackers and the choice of computer monitor.