Turned down an ad offer

Although it is good to get some extra pocket money from my personal blog, however sometimes I will have to turn down offers for ad placement on my website. Personal blogs may be as good when it comes to adsense income, but one should not be so desperate as to accept any offer for ad placement if the terms are unfavorable.

I have received some good ones and acceptable ones, but the most recent on the offer was just pushing beyond any sanity.

The requested offer was for several links sitewide and lifetime. I think that is asking for the moon and the stars!. Most ad links are usually one or two links on one page for one year. The payout wasn't very great either, I could have just done it, pocketed the dough for Christmas and that be the end of it. But I decided I didn't want to spoil the market.

Besides I would lose out in the long run, 5 links for lifetime would mean losing my Google PR juice from every web page of mine for such a small return.

No way hosay! Bad SEO I would say. The extra doough is nice but I'm not that desperate. I would prefer a long term partnership than a small short term returns with a long term loss.

Sure my personal blog may not have so good website traffic, what else do you think it would be? It is after all a personal blog with random ramblings with more misses than hits on topic wise. Most personal blogs do not have good website traffic. If I do focus and narrow down my topic focus I'm sure I will get better website traffic, alas this personal blogs is for my random writings that don't fit to my other websites.

Anyway, I have my reasons to accept or reject an ad placement offer. So if you guys out there are finding it difficult to earn from your blog and desperate enough, these people may come around and well, up it is up to you to take up their lopsided offer.

Back to Maxis again

Went back to Maxis again, this time with the necessay forms signed by MD. Hopefully will be able to smoothly apply for iPhone 4 for boss. Corporate account application is rather more complicted than personal application in that you will need letter of authorisation, copy of boss ID, Maxis forms signed by MD, etc. I suppose it is to prevent any hanky-panky but does make for a tedious application.

If for individual it is straight forward, but unlike for corporate, for an individual to get the iPhone is on a first come first serve basis, so it will very much depend on your luck whether there are any iPhone 4 stock available when you attempt to apply for it on that day. No resevation is allowed unfortunately.

For corporate, just submit the relevent forms, and wait for the stock to be ready and you would be able to get it, though not on the day you apply, but you wouild get it within a fortnight I was told.

So now here I am waiting for my turn, muzzling a cup of hot San Francisco cappucino which is getting cold as I waited for my number to show up on the display for my turn on the customer service desk to do my thing.

This is going to be a long wait. That's the way it is in Malaysia even for a private telco. Always waiting, waiting and waiting to get things done because of the long queue.

Finally, baby asleep!

Sometimes it is not easy to get baby to sleep! Youi need to know baby behaviour and pattern. In my baby case, he will cry a lot when he needs to sleep. In lieu that mom is not around means I will have to somehow console baby till he knocks off!

Usually a drink of warm milk should get the process going, unfortunately he didn't doze off! Placing baby in the baby cot didn't help either.

Tried carrying baby to sleep, but in an standing upright position for baby didn't quite help out either. Baby rub his face on my shirt which was a good indication that he wants to sleep but could not quite get himself to dreamland.

Feeling weight on my arms, I was getting tired. Not to mention a somewhat strained right elbow from overcarrying baby from last time.

So finally placed baby back into the baby cot and let him cry awhile. After that tried the pacifier and even dangling some baby toys, to no avail. In the end i just needed to get him into the side sleeping position and patting him to sleep.

Phew! Tough job!

Long wait at Maxis

Whenever you need to do something at most telcos, you have to wait. And here at Maxis is no different. I waited about an hour and a half before I could speak with Maxis customer care consultant.

Since the task that I need to do was a corporate job, I could do the needful. I was here to apply for an iPhone package to get an iPhone 4 for my boss.

Since this requires director signature I guess I will just have to come back again and of course wait out in the queue yet again! Sheesh!

[update 27/12/2012]

Fancy bumping into this old post of 2 years old. And after all this time, the Maxis center were as busy as usual! The TTDI branch was always pack and long wait is surety. One way is to find branches that were not so conspicuous and thus you can avoid the long wait. I found the eCurve Maxis center to be least people on a weekday. They were a little hidden in this section of the mall. However on weekends they were just as packed. I guess while you were shopping may as well pop over to Maxis and to make changes to your mobile line package, upgrade or whatever nots.

Nowadays there are also those authorized Maxis dealers which could also make changes and signups. However they don't have full authority for some services. But it was still good enough to ease off some of the congestion from the main Maxis branches.

Busy December

Holiday season and holiday mood but this December is really busy! In some aspect some industry is picking up and yet others are in the doldrum.

My websites are doing remarkably well and hope it will grow even further. Meanwhile I'm catching some small jobs here and there for some Christmas and New Year bonus! All praises to God! Not too bad for a year end busyness. Hmm is that word correct?

Haha, will have to look it up in the dictionary!

Meanwhile baby is growing up fine. He can sit, rolling all over, and when he is on the baby walker, boy, can he really move!

And for now, just enjoying the season finale of History Channel Top Shot. The shooting challenges were tough, but there can only be one! Spoiler! Don't read on if have watch the season final yet. Iain Harrison got the title of Top Shot and the 100,000 price money! Close fight with Chris Cerino!

Ah, time to sleep and get some rest!

Milestone, baby can sit!

Oh, yes! Just today, placing baby in sitting position without any support, he could balance himself while whacking at his baby toys! I tried it yesterday and he toppled over onto my hands, so this time round I prop him up and he could sit without any support! Of course I still place my hands nearby just in case, he still looks a little shaky, but by and large he is sitting pretty much on his own!

Crawling still not there yet, though he just might judging from baby pushing his butt upwards. However he likes to sit on the baby walker and move around. So those motionless baby rocker as well as that chair sitting trainer my wife bought is no longer wanted. In fact baby make a tantrum if you place him on those as he couldn't get himself mobile!

Sometimes just can't sleep in hotel

I don't know what happen, but sometimes just can't sleep in hotel. Last night after dinner, went back to Syuen Hotel in Ipoh, don't know just what happened despite the nice comfy bed, I just couldn't get much sleep.

Well I had to ferry my visitors around yesterday and we had a nice big hearty dinner. Drank some shoujiu and beers but i controlled as i need to be alert the next day for the long meeting and long drive to factory, KLIA airport and hotel in PJ and KL.

The visitor's schedule is spread out all over the place so it looks like a long tiring drive all over the place.

Could be the thought of the long drive ahead and many things on my mind causing my little nigth insomnia. Ah, just one of those nights I suppose.

iPhone 4 package from Maxis is just way too popular

iPhone 4 package from Maxis is just way too popular. My boss and my brother both also wanted to get an iPhone 4. The package from Maxis is quite good. Just pay RM1390 and sign up for iValue 1 plan for 24 months and you can an iPhone 4. The deal is pretty good. The iValue 1 plan requires a commitment of RM100 per month which include data charges as well as calls.

My boss made a study between the iPhone 4 plan in Singapore vs Malaysia determined that the Malaysian deal was much better. Besides, we already have an existing account with Maxis, so just need to change his line to the iValue 1 plan. The RM100 calls and data usage commitment amount can be easily achieve and very likely to be exceeded based on the current billing. Just that once his line is converted, we will lose out on the call sharing plan. Which means for the rest of us staff whose usage is below the committed amount it does not auto balance to his heavier usage. Looks like I just have to downgrade our current usage commitment further, perhaps to the RM30 usage plan. Yes, our usage is really low! 'Coz boss don't allow us to call suppliers using IDD, keep every conversation short or use email only. Ugh! How to work-lah?

Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 is such a hot item all the Maxis centres now do not have stock of iPhone 4 at all! Today I tried the TTDI Maxis centre and there was a large crowd of people queue to sign up for the iPhone 4 package despite having no stock of iPhone 4! For company line though, even if there is no iPhone 4 available we could just sign up first and placed on waiting list. Unfortunately to even sign up like this I have to be stuck in the queue! I decided to give up for the time being as I have other fish to fry.

I think iPhone 4 is just a crazy fad right now. Personally having given my wife's iPhone 4 a spin, I didn't really like the feature as much as Android. In order to download any app whether free or otherwise, you will need to provide a credit card number to the iPhone store even if it is free or trial / shareware program. Now doesn't that sucks?

Anyway, I review the iPhone 4 later. As of now, I'll just go for a San Francisco Coffee Latte with the free voucher my wife passed me. Then head back to office to catch up with work. Better spend my time to do something productive than to waste time on the queue to get a Maxis iPhone 4 that is not available.

[update 27/12/2012]

Selecting a better Maxis Plan

How time flies! The iPhone 4 contract was about to be due. Along the way I learned that the iPhone value plan was no good. If you have several supplementary family plus lines or using Value Plus plan for company line, the unused portion from the committed balance are not shared. ie if you have low phone usage user, the unused portion of the committed Value Plus could not be shared and vice versa.

Anyway the 2 years contract period would be over soon and I have done a study on the charges and values. The best now was to swap over the useless iPhone plan back to the Value Plus 50 or 80, and switch to 1GB data (now without having to worry about over quota as they would cap it under FUP (fair use policy) so no data charges if over quota).

Whenever you have supplementary lines and you have users that are low usage and high usage, using the Maxis Value Plus or Family Plus package plans are the best way to ensure optimum usage of mobile phone billing.

Nothing like home cook food

Nothing like having a home cook meal! It may be nice to go out for some fancy Malaysian food, but in the end, home cooked food is still the best!

Eating out the food may be oily, too much MSG, salt and perhaps less healthy. And yes, fancy Malaysian restaurants are nice but somehow home meals still hits the spot. Yes?

Rozel TV Table defective

Recently my wife purchased Rozel furniture to replace the older ones. This ought to be a good brand, unfortunaly the Rozel TV console table seems to be chemically untreated. It was infested with termites. Not long after purchse holes could be seen appearing and we could see wood dust dropping out of the holes.

By right the Rozel furniture should be replaced but we get such poor service from Rozel. The representative just kept procrastinating to come over and view the defect. My feeling is that if they kept delaying hoping we may get frustrated and forget about this. Fat chance! More holes are appearing and there is a risk the termite will spread to other furniture and infect the house too!

Sigh! After lodging the complaint the HQ of Rozel says they will process the complaint in two weeks. Up till now still no word. Will see.

[update]
Ok, finally they replaced it with a new one after they took back the defective Rozel TV table and did some checking.

Normally the wood is soak in anti termite chemicals, but I guess their supplier may have forgot to soak that particular piece. Whatever, as consumer, since we bought from Rozel we deal with Rozel. And Rozel will have to deal with their supplier. That's how it works.

Fridays Restaurant

After my son was done getting his jab from the paediatrician, wife, baby and I decided to hop in to Subang Parade Friday Restaurant for lunch.

It has been ahwile since we had a meal at Fridays Restaurant. And guess what? With baby in tow, they made good on the promise, 'kids eat for free!'

Even though baby can't eat yet, Fridays Restaurant allowed us for a free kids meal. We order the fried fish with fries free kid meal, and for the regular meal, we went for salmon pasta and a nicely toasted sandwidch with grilled chicken with clam chowder.

Mmmmm....

Delicious!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20

Decided to buy my dad Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 digital compact camera to replace his old Fujifilm camera which he has been using for so many years. Time to upgrade his digital camera.

Bought this Panasonic Lumix FH20 from Digital Mall section 14. It was the last unit going at RM750. It has 8x optical zoom and 14 mega pixels.

This Lumix camera may be simpler than my TZ but is more than adequate for my dad. Plus the iA mode makes it easy as it will intelligently set the correct settings automatically for picture exposure.

Not bad for a compact camera.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20

Iphone defective!

Hardly a month and the iPhone my wife got was defective! As I've said before the defect rate of digital appliance are anywhere between 5 to 10% and that's pretty high. It means one out of ten devices you bought will be defective within your warranty period.

The iPhone my wife is using is now in full silent mode! I believe the frontal speaker has kaput.

Now she would need to return to maxis to claim warranty. I wonder how long before she will get her iPhone returned. Before submitting her defective iPhone set she would need to do a memory wipe as there are many rather sensitive and private information. It would be best to reset iPhone before passing for repair.

Oh, well just one of those days. Murphy's Law at work again.

Dragon-i Restaurant at Curve

Having a late lunch at Dragon-I Restaurant at Curve. Always like their noodle dishes. This time round I went for their Schezuan hot and spicy noodle instead of their usual clear soup noodle.

Baby was curious about the place and keep turning his head around taking in new sights. Well today is a public holiday and it is baby day out!

With his grandparents accompanying along for a family outing at the Curve shopping centre.

Dragon-i Restaurant (The Curve) 746354-
Lot 136/137 1st Floor, The Curve
6, Jln PJU 7/3 Mutiara Damansara
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 03 7728 6888

Facebook wants to start email?

This is intriguing. And apparently their target is Google Gmail coz they name their project Gmail killer. I might just give Facebook email a try once they launch it, but don't bet on anything just yet. Being long supporter of Gmail, I found Gmail has many feature not even Yahoo mail nor Microsoft Hotmail could offer. Will just to wait and when FB launches the email system on Monday.

[update 14/1/2013]
Just a quick update on this quick post which I happened to bump into. I've already got my facebook mail, but it was not all as hot as it should be. It just provided an alternate way to message your friends. Instead of having to log into Facebook, you could just email to your friends Facebook email account and it would pop up in their Facebook messenger inbox list.

So it was not really an email per se, but sort of an alternative communication method to your Facebook friends. If you don't know their email address, or they didn't switch on this feature, it won't work.

I think the biggest contender to the webmail against Google Gmail would come from Microsoft newly redesigned Hotmail Outlook Live MSN webmail. Now giving this new look a spin and so far I kinda like it. So Gmail would have to work harder to maintain their webmail market share (although they recently surpass Microsoft Hotmail users). The recent Gmail re-design on the composing function was rather not so user friendly compared to their old one. Since it was an on-going process, I hope they would improve it and make more user friendly rather than just trying to make it look nice but became less functional.

2010.2010.2010

Today is 20.10.2010 or get rid of the spacer and you get 20102010, yes! Then wait till 8.10pm and you get 20:10, 20.10.2010 and get rid of all the spacer, it becomes 201020102010!

Woohoo!

Microsoft Windows Phone 7

Although I've owned a couple of devices made by Microsoft, so far my experience with these portable device from Microsoft has not been good. Now Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is the updated version of the Windows Mobile Operating System platform which was an update from Microsoft Pocket PC which was an update from Windows CE. And my first encounter with Windows CE way back then wasn't really great and the shortlive smartphone I had with O2 mobile phone running on Windows Mobile just didn't cut it either.

Just because you have been living and working with a desktop or laptop with a Microsoft Windows interface didn't mean you should do the same with a portable mobile device. It just ain't the same. Heck, the way Microsoft Phone work is rather clunky in comparison with other mobile phone O/S
platform is just way suck.

So I doubt the rebranded Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and repackaged mobile won't do much to entice me to get one or recommend it to anyone real soon. In fact it shall be contrary.

The way the software works by segregating the memory between apps and data makes for memory bloat. Not to mention software bloat as well. In order to run the bloat, a powerful CPU and higher memory is required to run Windows based mobile phone. Making a phone look so nice is really a CPU killer.

I noticed other platform like Symbian, Palm and now Android phones, do not require as much heavy duty hardware to run as compared with Windows Phone 7.

And of course, to make a mobile phone to be really useful is the availability of software apps. With the free to low cost software available for Palm and Android phones makes these phones very attractive indeed.

So I guess in the end Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is going to have a very hard time trying to regain back their market share. Besides Microsoft has botched their marketing and development. Take for instance their failed Microsoft Kin mobile phone aiming at the youth market which took them 2 years to develop and after launching and selling it for 48 days, they pulled the plug on it. Granted they got lots of mullahs, but no company can botch up their marketing so many times and there is repercussion on so many failed attempts that you may just avoid buying their items in case of failed products that would not have as much support from the market such as 3rd party apps and that would mean wasting your hard earn money.

baby is not well

baby is not well. Lena's mom's nanny services has several child including baby's cousin sister down with flu and cough. and when young children and infant are not well their appetite is poor and well my baby was grumpier with much crying.

i think i may have to take him to the doctors even though it is mild. perhaps the last weekend immunization shot has weaken him a little to catch infection from other kids.

wedding dinner in mentakab

Eivenn has grown and now wedding bells are ringing. Many years ago Lena's mom was baby sitting her in Mentakab town. Now she's all grown up and getting married. Our journey was quick traveling from KL to Mentakab using the new east-west highway and exiting at the Termeloh toll. Took us about 1-1/2 hours which was faster than those days when I use to come here using the old Karak trunk road highway. The double lane of the new highway plus a speedy limit of 110 kph was so much better than the Karak road which requires lots of patience overtaking slow trunks and slow small town cars.

One thing about wedding dinner in small town they tend to start early unlike big city like KL. So I hope to get off early as we still needed to visit a relative and later make the long drive back to KL.

Another thing about small town wedding dinner, they really love Karaoke! It's noisy and boisterous but I guess it enhances the celebration mood! Though it is rather grating the ears especially the choice of songs are like Hokkien oldies which I don't understand a word and not too much of my style either.

Anyway, it is a time for celebration and a chance for Lena's parent meet up with old friends and aquantances.

So congratulations to Zai and Eivenn and hope you have many happy returns on your wedding day!

10.10.10

just realised today's date is 10.10.10 though it doesn't hold much significance just that the number lined up nicely. Ten is nice coz it might just mean pefect ten. A decimal number system is easy on our brain and thus so is the Metric measurement system.

The day passes quickly and before you know it is almost over. Enjoying the last hour of 10.10.10 by reading the papers and winding down the day. Tomorrow will be another busy day having to settle many matters. That's how it goes, another day, another situation and hopefully another buck and something else more significant.

Expiry date of LPG Gas Cylinder Myth

I bet some of you would have receive a message from your friends and family members about Expiry date of LPG Gas Cylinder, well turn out to be a hoax started out from someone who has malicious intent to deceive and cause panic in the Wild West World (hence WWW.domain.com, hehe) of internet world.

The message said goes something like:
---

You may want to let your wife, friends or maids know as well when they receive the gas cylinder from the vendor next time. This is really very good information for all of us to remember.

Please check your household gas tank cylinder as soon as possible. Knowing the uncouth characters we have to deal with, you should never be surprised that they will continue to use old tanks, though they will also tell you that they get their supplies in the tanks now sold to us. Insist on newer tanks!

Do you know that LPG gas cylinders have expiry dates?

Expired LPG cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. In this regard,
please be cautious at the time of accepting any LPG cylinder from your vendor.

Here is how we can check on the expiry of LPG cylinders:

On one of three side stems of the cylinder, the expiry date is coded alpha numerically as follows:
A or B or C or D and some two digit number following this, e.g. D06.

The alphabets stand for quarters -
1. A for March (first quarter),
2. B for June (second quarter),
3. C for September (third quarter), &
4. D for December (fourth quarter).

The digits stand for the year till it is valid. Hence D06 would mean December quarter of 2006. Please return back the cylinder that you get with an expired date. They are prone to leaks and other hazards .

---

Took me awhile to search as almost everybody repost the message in their blog but I found this info from Indian Oil Corporation which explains the exact meaning of those dates. So after reading this, there is no need to get miffed and terrified about such chain mail myths and hoax circulating in the wild!

---

Q.Is it possible to know when a particular cylinder is scheduled for testing?

Ans: On one of three vertical stay plates (side stems) of the LPG cylinder, the date is coded alpha numerically as A or B or C or D and a two-digit number following this e.g. D10. The alphabets stand for quarters - A for Qtr. ending March (First Qtr), B - Qtr. ending June (Second Qtr), C-Qtr. ending Sept (Third Qtr), & D for Qtr. ending December (Fourth Qtr). The digits stand for the year when the cylinder is due for Statutory testing as explained above. Hence D10 would mean that the particular cylinder is to be taken for the next Statutory Testing by December 2010.

In any case, this is not the date of EXPIRY of PHYSICAL LIFE of the CYLINDER

It is further clarified that, during service, every empty LPG cylinder when it comes from the Distributor to the Bottling Plant for filling, is checked for its condition including the marked date for Statutory Testing due. Cylinders due for testing are segregated and sent for testing.

Every cylinder after its filling with LPG is checked for correctness of its weight and soundness, before despatch to the Distributors. Every care is taken to ensure that cylinders which are safe for use are only sent to our Distributors for further distribution. It means if a customer gets a cylinder in June 2010 with marking as B10, it does not indicate that the physical life of the cylinder has expired. It only means that this cylinder is due for Statutory testing by end June 2010.

source: http://www.iocl.com/Products/LiquefiedPetroleumGasFAQ.aspx

Expiry date of LPG Gas Cylinder Myth

Faulty Kingston DT mini 10 USB drive

Looks like it was just pure bad luck when I redeemed the Kingston DataTraveler mini 10 USB thumb drive from Bonuslink. I redeemed two DTmini 10 8GB thumbdrive, one for me, and one for my sister-in-law. I was fortunate that mine had no issues at all and currently now using it to store my MP3 to be played in my car's Red Fox MP3 FM Modulator player. My sis-in-law on the other hand seemed to get into the 5%-10% fault range of most defective digital device. Just a matter of probability, a 50-50 chance between mine and hers and of course a 5-10% defect rate and hers was it.

If you thought a 5-10% defect rate was high, think again. Most computer devices are getting ever tinier that if a speck of dust gets in, the digital device will not function well. Though the manufacturer will try to use class 100 clean room for their production, you never know some dust could be introduced in their manufacturing process by accident. Looking at some of my digital devices that failure rate seemed fairly consistent at about 5-10% defect rate. This rate feels high and if you are one of the few unlucky ones that tend to get the defective item like my brother-in-law who felt he always get faulty digital devices like digital cameras and such, well there you go, Murphy's Law at work!

So now is a matter of claiming the warranty and since my sis-in-law didn't test it till recently (lapse about a few months), we can't send back to Bonuslink to exchange, instead we have to send it directly to the vendor to claim warranty.

The Bonuslink Kingston vendor contact is different from the Kingston Vendor contact that I got from All IT Digital Mall. Anyway we will just follow the directions of Bonuslink vendor instead since it was them who supplied to Bonuslink:

Hit On Sdn Bhd
No 8, Jalan LP 2A/2,
Taman Lestari Perdana,
43300 Seri Kembangan,
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Phone No : +603-8943 4193

The ALL IT Digital Mall Kingston vendor is:

Able Action
401D, Level4 Tower D, Uptown 5
No. 5 Jalan SS21/39
Damansara Uptown
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7665 3939

Hmm.., looks like there are two Kingston suppliers in the Klang Valley.

[update: 20/1/2012]

Recently I bought some higher capacity USB flash drive, and decided to use my older workhorse SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB for my Red Fox MP3 player. Initially I reassigned my Kingston DT Mini 10 for watching HD movies on my Sharp LCD TV. But turned out to be a bad idea. The slimmer connection style of USB-A type, lacking an outer case meant the connection can be rather loose on some USB port. Thus it was very difficult for the LCD TV to detect this Kingston DT Mini 10.

My sis-in-law felt that slim type connection was not so good because:
a) Difficult to figure out which way was the correct way to insert into USB port
b) Even if inserted correctly the USB port has difficulty to detect it as the slim USB-A connector without the casing makes it difficult for the connector to connect to each other

I should think so too, never really quite liked this slim styled USB-A connector, though it did make USB flash drive much smaller than the usual standard flash drives.

So I decided to use this as DT Mini 10 as Readyboost device for my Windows 7 instead. If you plan to totally use the 8GB capacity for readyboost, you should reformat it to NTFS or exFAT, since FAT32 has filesize capacity limit of 4GB max. For me, I decided to keep its original FAT32 format and use the balance 4GB space for file storage.

[update: 15/10/2020]

Finally this Kingston DTmini10 gave up on me. I suppose it wasn't hardy enough to withstand the constant readyboost duty. And of course the poor design of the connector points could also be at fault. After testing it on my other PCs, confirmed that the electronics was fried. Still I was able to use it for about 10 years which was not too bad. As the years went by, USB flash memory gets cheaper and cheaper. Now I have a bunch of them and many of my older and smaller capacity flash drives were relegated to readyboost duty for the older PCs and laptop or used as USB boot drive for Linux, Cloudready Chrome OS live CD / installer. Newer PCs and laptops were blazingly fast and didn't require readyboost to help speed up.

Google's WebP graphic format

Looks like Google is pushing for a new graphic format for website called WebP (pronounced "weppy". /(wĕpˈē)/). It is supposed to compress a picture further with a better average of 30% reduction in size in comparison with JPEG using a lossy compression format. Since many websites employ graphics to spice up the website content as well as illustration to explain a point, having a reduced size graphic would help speed up somewhat the loading time of a website and create a better user experience. Sort of reducing the World Wide Wait for a web page or website to load up.

Would it really matter? Granted I do have many graphic plastered around my website, but that little bit of extra loading time won't really make much difference because many a times I noticed the loading lag is not due from pictures but mostly from the JavaScript that trying to load up to show what's not like advertisement, analytics, flash, and various other website codes. That little extra won't mean much in terms of overall load time of your webpage, although if you take a grand view of the entire World Wide Web then of course the grand scale would be significant, just like saving a drop of clean water usage wouldn't matter much to you as an individual but would matter a lot if you look at the consumption of a community as whole.

If you really want a website to load up double quick or triple quick even, strip everything and just leave good ol' plain text! Now we will have a really super duper fast loading website without the overheads. Perhaps we should all revert to text browser like Lynx!

In the meantime, there is no need to rush headlong to convert your current crop of JPEG photos and pictures to WebP though you could experiment with this new format on your own PC. A wait and see would be good to see whether there will be a wider adoption of this new graphic format. You will need support from all the current browsers or your website would not be usable to everybody.

Fight Masters NatGeo Marathon Fest

Enjoying an afternoon relaxation with a marathon fest of NatGeo Fight Masters where they explore diverse topics on the science behind the martial arts, self defence and special forces conditioning.

Gave a very interesting insights about body conditioning, strength and weaknesses of the human body.

Of particular interest to me was the self-defence for the average joe like us when faced with a threat like road rage, violent mugging and potential rapist and murderers.

Watching through the episode reminds me of some my past experience, close calls of potential violent encounters. But thank God for protection I didn't have to go blow to blow though for my younger brother case was different case though and many a times after a confrontation he ended up on the bad end of a fight.

One thing about learning self defence is that you hope you never have to use it and if a bad situation arises you should diffuse the situation or run.

Better if the bad person take your belongings than having yourself hurt, injured or worse, maimed or dead. Although it does leave you in a bad mood but at least you survived.

Samsung Galaxy 5 I5503

This looks like the cheapest Android Phone that I've come across. The Samsung Galaxy 5 I5503 going for RM699 (US$227) sold by PDA Expert Mobility in Digital Mall sec 14 Petaling Jaya. Even at this price it got GPS and WIFI.

No chance to look at the android phone as I was just passing through and just grabbing their price list to see what is their latest PDA phone offering of Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android phone, and Java phones.

Ok, found some specs and it goes something like:
Samsung Galaxy 5(I5503) will come packed with a standard 2.8 inch QVGA touch sensitive display, a 2MP camera, Samsung’s unique Touch Wiz UI 3.0, 3G connectivity , Wi-Fi, GPS, a 600MHz CPU , a standard 3.5mm audio output jack, and an expandable MicroSD card support.

Here's a nice little picture of it.

Personal Blogs with Posterous

With Vox closing down its service, it gave some suggestion where you could set up free personal blog and one mention was Posterous.com. Curious I gave it a spin and found intriguing feature.

The personal blog concept from Posterous is slightly different from other free blog sites like typepad, blogger, xanga, livejournal, wordpress, etc. Their idea was that many of us are not always behind the desktop PC and might be on the go, so they espouse the idea of posting your personal blog via email. It gives a common email address that user of posterous uses. The idea was so that you don't have a funny secret individual nonsensical email address to remember when you make a post. The catch however, your post must be from the email address that you signed up with.

Anyway one nice feature is that I could A record my subdomain to it (and yet again! Haha) and thus making my ever burgeoning website bigger! Of course you could just set up a domain solely for it too if you prefer.

And another nice feature from Posterous is the ability to repost to other sites like Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Drupal, Blogger, Flickr, etc. However it can't pull post though.

Will be trying Posterous for personal blogs out for awhile and see how it goes. 

Causes of Migranes

Causes of Migranes

The most common dietary offenders of migrane include sulfites, red wine or other alcoholic beverages (hangovers), nuts, aspartame, monosodium glutamate (MSG), caffeine intake or withdrawals (tea, cocoa products), tyramine (some cheeses), nitrites / nitrates (salami, hot dogs, spinach, radishes, lettuce, celery, cabbage) & others.

Non-dietary causes of headaches include those resulting from eye strain, lack of sleep or sleeping too long, carbon monoxide poisoning, very low / high blood pressure, altitude changes (air travel), bright or flashing lights, loud or low frequency noises, electromagnetic fields (cell or portable phone), fluorescent-energy-saving light bulbs, emotional stress or trauma, strong odors (including news print), pet allergies & others.

/ SEMPOI
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Causes of Acne

Causes of Acne

1. Diet

Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index, which cause glucose and insulin levels to spike, may influence the severity of acne. Conversely, a diet high in protein and carbohydrates with a low glycemic index improves acne breakouts.

2. Stress

When under stress, the body produces more sebum oil. Overly oily skin may result in clogged pores and cause acne to appear.

3. Vitamin deficiency

Deficiency of vitamins A, B, C, E, Chromium, and Zinc may most likely trigger acne.

/ SEMPOI
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The Trick to Glossy Hair

The Trick to Glossy Hair

One's food intake is crucial to hair. Healthy hair requires sticking to a diet rich in fresh fruit & vegetables. Hair is 75% protein and requires regular top-ups of protein-rich foods to stay strong and healthy-looking. For a long term shine, is good for one to wash hair daily. Hair picks up dirt & grime, just like skin, & looks its healthiest when it has just been washed.

One should choose the right shampoo for hair type and use a conditioner, particularly for those with dry hair. The more hydrated one's hair is, the glossier it will look. Rinsing hair with cold water does not promote shine. In fact, hot water is more efficient at dislodging pollutants. / SEMPOI

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Road rage

Never thought I experience road rage in Malaysia. Although I made some mistakes but there was no cause for the other driver to get so riled up. I may have tried to rushed out a little but I stop and let the other car pass. But he got so angry he slowed and blocked my way so i overtook him and he has to show his finger. After overtaking him he sped his car after me but all i wanted to do was get to Tesco. So while trying to get my car park ticket the mad driver got out and slammed his fist on my boot and yelled at me saying something about he got a baby in his car. I think he just simply lost it!

If he truly was concerned about the welfare of his child he should just have let it go when he horn his car and I stopped from rushing out. So who is more wrong here? A person itching to fight is letting his emotion controlling him.

Anyway there is now a nice little dent in my boot and left me with a bad after taste in my mouth. Now thinking about it, very likely he must have been stressed out taking care of his baby. But to show his road rage and anger tells volume that he is likely unfit to teach good moral to his kid. I shudder to think that such bad behaviour gives a very bad example to his child when the child grows up.

To show that might is right is totally wrong and letting anger to lead to sin is such a gross violation to good morals.

Sigh! What is this world becoming? Perhaps the Discovery channel about end of the world by year 2012 would come to pass when you look at the anger and intolerance in this world today with each faction claiming their way is right and to enforce it so with such violence and suicide bombers and such makes you wonder this is really the end of days scenario as foretold by biblical prophecies playing itself out to its final armageddon outcome. Also made me want to train up more on my self-defence fighting skills but usually the best defense is to run or diffuse the situation and avoid getting hurt.

Wish I took a picture of that mad person or took down his car plate number and report him to the police. That would really prevent him from doing such road rage in the future. Unfortunately I was rather not keen to come out from my car and face an unstable mind.

One of my facebook friends mentioned that, he notice most guys with cars that have the "baby on board" decal or car sticker are the ones that drive like mad person. As though having that "baby on board" sign gives them the license to drive recklessly and the right to vent their road rage on other road users. Sigh! Such is the violent world today.

Baby Play Time

Sometimes you just need something simple for baby play time. No need to spend a mini sum on expensive toys to entertain your baby although you may still want to buy some colourful toys to attract baby attention. Sometimes simple items will suffice. All you need is a good dose of creativity and imagination.

My 4 month old son likes to be kept entertained and usually that meant carrying him around sitting front face forward. And this is one carrying position that is very tiring on my arms.

So if I got the chance to do some other way to distract baby and still allows for cognitive development without carrying him around I would do so.

Laying him on the bed I thought I just the nappy cloth for some peekaboo game. Raising the cloth and hiding my face behind it and then lowering it to reveal my face makes for an interesting game to play with baby. Sometimes I will brush the nappy cloth just barely touching baby body and face to provide a gentle feeling for touch sensitivity and light breeze all done to improve baby sense of touch and mental ability.

Such a simple game and yet inexpensive and with so many benefit. Baby just laughs and giggles with glee. Ah, the sound of laughter is simply priceless!  

Blogger Droid not so good idea

Switching over from my Palm Centro phone to my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android phone, I found a little nifty software called Blogger Droid by Anders Hedström from the Android Market. I thought it was great to do some mobile blogging on the go but turn out using this piece of software wasn't as great as I thought it would.

Although it has some nice function like shrinking the mobile photos before you post it up thereby saving you some precious data charges especially since I signed up the minimum Maxis 100MB data plan you can't just go blasting away as though you got a lot of data transfer.

However this software is still very buggy and found out that I lost 3 set of posts when I tried to do some mobile blogging. Initially when I tried Blogger Droid it was pretty ok, save for the irritating ads which took up a fair bit of display asset on my Sony Ericcson Xperia X10 mini pro Android phone. I thought I just bear with the advertisement if it could serve my mobile blogging needs.

But the lost posts was really frustrating and wasting my time composing anything that got lost along the way. It should save a copy in the Android Phone memory so that even if it was not able to post successfully it should still keep a copy in the Android phone memory. It only kept the draft copy, and after you have made a post it erases the stored memory. So the potential for lost post after an unsuccessful post is very high. This gets the thumbs down from me for this Android application. I decided to find another alternative way of posting blogs on the go and found way finally!

By using an image shrinking software to resize my photos, and using the Android phone's Gmail I could actually post my blogs. Pretty much how I did it with my Palm Centro. So looks like bye-bye sayonara to Blogger Droid app.

Pros about Blogger Droid:
- ability to shrink photos for posting
- review your previous posts
Cons about Blogger Droid:
- advertisement gets in the way
- biggest drawback is losing post when posting was unsuccessful, thus wasting your time and effort. This shouldn't have happened but it made me find a better way for mobile posting on the go.

The version that caused it was Blogger Droid version 1.59, perhaps version 1.60 may have solved the issue but this is a case of once bitten twice shy.

Oh, wow! Super duper traffic jam at USJ

Finally nearing home but there is a case of so near yet so far! Upon exit of USJ toll found that there a super duper traffic jam. Now the traffic is unmoving and i could write a little blog about it on my little Android phone. Just texted my wife and she asked me to sing along with the music in the car. Well looks like a long, long wait.

It is fortunate I'm alone and not with visitors as I could blast away the music. Visitors from the far east tend to be stiff necks and don't like their employees mixing work with pleasure. However they do practice double standards like they can play golf but use up your personal time to ferry them around. Sigh!

Them the breaks when you work for others. It is after all their rule or else go find another place to get your pay.

Anyway, today is Friday so traffic is very likely to be extreme. Coupled with a slight drizzle meaning the traffic cops may not be around to help direct the traffic and ease the congestion. Won't know if there is one till i reach the traffic light junction.

Almost reaching tthe end of my post and the traffic is still unmoving, just have to sit tight...

[update]
Enough is enough! I see many cars escaping this hell of a traffic congestion by making a u-turn through a gap in the road divider. I decided to do the same. I've been stuck here for 50 minutes and if I don't follow suite I'll probably be stuck here for another 50 minutes!

The U-turn leads me back to the Elite highway. Heading back to KLIA direction I will exit at the Putra Heights toll exit. The toll rate was RM1.10, rather steep for a short trip but better than sitting fuming at the traffic jam wasting time. The route from Putra Heights is big round trip round the hill of Putra Heights and leads back to the Puchong - Shah Alam Hicom road. From there it actually joins back to that frustration traffic light junction from the USJ toll exit. Before that junction I could turn to the USJ road that leads back to the USJ housing area. It may be a longer route but absolutely much faster!

All it took me was about 10 minutes drive rather than waiting and fuming at that ill conceive traffic light junction which might take me another 50 minutes of waiting time. I guess Malaysia is like that. Talk about poor town planning as well as bad road design.

Business trip to Muar

It's been a long day travelling down to Muar to visit a supplier. Along the way I hop in to Melaka for some R'n'R to catch a meal and take a break. So looks like this is going to a long day for me coz I'm still sitting in McDonald at Air Keroh having my afternoon break having tried another route from Muar. The usual way to Muar would have been to use the Tangkak entry or the Jasin entry to the North-South Highway. Well it is always good to explore alternative route since I'm not in a rush so looks like I will end up returning home later than expected. Well that's what happens what you try to use a short cut but end taking what you call the scenic route, ie it takes longer then you would thought shorter! No matter I take it as a learning experience especially if I want to learn new routes. Melaka is a little easier to navigate now. Just by following the signage and learning new landmarks. I hope to understand some of the many confusing one way streets. So far only learning how to drive the main popular areas only. I think it should be adequate for now.

Verifying RSS Feed for Digg

Looks like Kevin Rose has added some new features to Digg.com. Digg is now able to pull in RSS feed but of course they want to make sure the RSS feed URL is yours and not anyone's else so this requires verification. In order to verify, I have to paste the verify code and make a post. So this will have to be it!

And once the feed is verified by Digg I should be able to see my post show in my Digg account.

To view some of my diggs, visit digg.com/janleow

I think this should do it!
bda00d0bab944b8093d05b44ff83c952

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

 

Today is fifteenth on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. This is when the Chinese celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival with lanterns at night and of course eating mooncakes and such. Just yesterday met up with a client and said today was a big holiday and they would be having an off day and I was scratching my head when I checked the regular calendar and there wasn't a public holiday in Malaysia till he mentioned the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Well not all Chinese celebrate it especially if our Chinese tradition is not well grounded during our school years.

 

Typically in Malaysia we seem to have two sets of Chinese, one that is brought up with the Chinese tradition and customs and follows them and another group like me who tended to follow the Western culture as our parents were English educated during the British colonial rule and thus the Chinese tradition and customs are less grounded in our background. For us, we seldom follow the Chinese holidays too much except the main ones like Chinese New Year. Others are more like a passing note and celebrated because of media blitz that reminds us of such activities are being done.

 

My wife side on the other, my mother-in-law is rather more traditional and she would follow the various Chinese celebration based on the Lunar calendar including the birthdays based on the Chinese Lunar calendar! So twice a year they will celebrate their birthday, one for the Western based calendar and one for the Chinese Lunar calendar!

Bluehost down time again?

Now this is getting to be to frequent. I'm getting very sporadic website uptime. Something better be done about bluehost down time. Or they might just find I will be one of the many disgruntled user who may just consider migrating to another web hosting company.

Bluehost is down due to power outage

OMG! This is the worst case experience I have with the Bluehost webhosting service I had for years. It is probably unfortunate that Utah in USA had a power blackout. My main website domain has been down for several hours already. Fortunately my website setup is rather complicated as apart from my usual blogging on Wordpress I also setup blogging using Google's Blogger as well as other website like Yola, Bravenet, Google Site, Tumblr for experimentation. So some section of my website is still functioning. Strangely I don't know why the DNS was affected causing my other addon domain in IPserverone to go down as well. Which means all my forwarding email from that server would have ground to a halt!

It's been several hours already and my website on Bluehost is still down. Guess it is going to take longer before getting restored. I found out about Bluehost status from Twitter, so looks like Twitter is quite a good source of quick information. Much faster than news release to be search on Search Engines.

Finally Bluehost also made some announcement in their helpdesk website:

helpdesk.bluehost.com

The Bluehost Helpdesk is currently unavailable and will be back soon.

There is a complete power outage effecting one of the Bluehost data centers, expected ETA is roughly 1:00 AM Mountain Standard Time.

Provo Power has requested that we shut down power while the transformer is being replaced. They are allowing us to use UPS power for the phone system. The other data center is unaffected by this outage.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Bluehost should consider setting up some kind of UPS as backup plan. Likewise in Malaysia where we often experience power blackout every once in awhile especially on a hot day where all the air-conditioner would be powered on at full blast, that put quite a strain on the power producers and usually very likely result in a power outage.

For mission critical task and services, a UPS power backup is a must. Hopefully Bluehost should consider implementing such UPS power backup as part of their overall webhosting strategy rather than letting their users in a lurch when such power outages happen.

Looks like I can't do anything to my main blog as well as several of my other website hosted on Bluehost including access to my cpanel control panel till the power outage is resolved in Utah.

[update]
Yes! My site is up and running again! Took a long while, the twitter updates from Bluehost says it is booting up their servers one by one and about 90% is onstream. Soon shall be 100%.

Baby Play Time

Day by day, baby is getting stronger. Neck muscles are strengthening so less support is required while lifting baby but still need to be careful. Every so often we will place baby on a prone position so he can attempt to lift his head and upper body. His arms are still weak so he can't do it for long, but I noticed for motivation if the TV is on especially with colorful children program he seems to have more incentive to lift his head up!

And boy, does he likes Astro channel 613! I guess the bright colorful and cheerful characters really catch his attention!

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Funny Boss Day Saying Why You...

Funny boss day saying why you make appointment so late that after meeting over you go home directly. Duh? And what is wrong with that? It is up to customer to determine the time and it is not always you can get earlier appointment all the time. Also in addition is the workaholic culture so inefficient that for the sake of boss imposing their rule they are contributing to the increase carbon footprint of the world. By making the appointment later (which is also sometimes on request by customer) I worked an extra hour in the office which is extra productivity for the company and saves me an extra hour on the commute back to office which contribute to waste of petrol and spewing CO2 to the atmosphere just to show my face and say, "Hey, boss I'm back!" without doing anything else, go back to car and take the hour long drive home. This goes to show what Peter Drucker (quote, "a manager is promoted to a position of incompetancy") says is true all along and it is what is on most employees mind about middle level bosses way of thinking in enforcing policy whether the policy is made up by them or laid down by predecessor or higher up who has a narrow view of things. Duh? Let's see what other funny boss day saying that boss can come up with.

[update 3/1/2013]

Well out with the old, in with the new, and not any better. The old boss passeth the baton over to the new one. Altogether I've experience 4 expat bosses each with their own idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. However I do have a better feeling after each changes with the worst one with the 2nd boss, and now on the 4th with a much likable personality. However, he was still answerable to HQ, so there changes and implementation that were still not much to be desired. Instead of recording the incoming time by one of the staff, we now use a punch in / out timer recorder.


I don't know what's wrong with my HQ who insist on such devices on all staffs. If you were admin and there is overtime pay involve, ok, it makes sense. But if you are doing sales and marketing where your in / out time cannot be measured, the recorder did not make any sense. So for those times you came in late due to appointment, or leave early or not able to punch out as you could not make it back to office, you need to submit application form (preferably before doing it, but how do I know whether I can or cannot make it back to office?). And really, if you have to go outstation on business trip, you can't even punch in/out either, so submit a form too. Thus making more paperwork for everyone concerned.

When they wanted to implement the time recorder, they thought they could make an excuse or a reason to implement it. They thought that without a timer recorder, the insurance company would only pay compensation for during your working hours in the office. But when we informed that the insurance coverage was 24 hours irregardless of where you were, they were dumbfounded. Anyway, HQ already want to implement the time recorder for a very long time. No need to find excuses to slowly break it in to staff. Anyway which way you want to gently break in the time recorder still would not go well with us staff anyway.

For a small branch outfit with so many constraints do make working rather difficult. If the office has many staffs, of course a timer recorder would be required, but it should exclude the sales staff (which I know many companies do not enforce it on their sales staff)

Anyway, just have to live within their rules and bend it where possible otherwise, it would certainly be tough to follow rules to the letter. It was said, "rules were meant to be broken". This was probably one of the situation.

Coke + Ajinomoto / MSG Hoax

Here we go again, received another chainmail urban legend plying around, this time the hoax is about Coke + Ajinomoto / MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate). This urban legend came about in the wild 2005 and was collected by Snopes around 2008. They call it the date rape drug but of course it won't work.

 

Although MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) may cause drowsiness, rapid heart rate, chest pain, nausea, weakness, difficulty in breathing, to certain people susceptible and sensitive to MSG, for the symptoms manifest for the unfavourable individuals large quantities of MSG amounting to about 3 grams or more need to be ingested. (A typical serving MSG treated food is less than 0.5 grams of MSG). However not all people are affected and only a small percentage are affected by MSG.

 

So regarding Canny Ong abduction, rape and murder case (13/June 2003), she was taken at knife point from Bangsar Shopping Centre basement car park and not from a spike drink. Besides, who would in the right mind accept a free drink offer from a stranger? A forced demand with a dangerous weapon such as a knife or gun is far more effective than trying to persuade a victim to take a spiked drink.

 

Source: http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/msg.asp

 

Anyway, I know friends are trying to mean well when they forward messages warning about this and that, but some of this has no truths behind it and some far too improbable that all you need to do is do quick check on the internet and  you would know it is just a hoax started by somebody who thought it would be funny to scare the wits out of individuals who either didn't bother to verify the information or thought it sounded plausible but in fact just a bunch of baloney floating around cyberspace.

 

Perhaps he/she just wanted to see his urban legend creation get listed together with the rest of other urban legend for some anonymous hall of fame or what. This people really need something better to do if they got so much time in their hand to craft such urban legends like this Coke + Ajinomoto / MSG hoax.

Picking Up Baby Routine

With baby around our schedule revolves around baby. In the morning Lena will send baby to her mom's house for babysitting. In the evening after work I go over to fetch baby back. Sort of sharing our travel load to travel from our house to Lena's mom house and work place. It's a little tiring but workable for now. Lena has to wake up rather early as Subang is notorious for traffic jam in the morning, while I fetch baby coz I leave my office earlier than Lena. Beside my workplace enforce a strict arrival to work while my wife's has flexy working hours. For now due to Ramadhan month the traffic is still light so it is sort of like a trial run. Once the Hari Raya festivities are over then the real traffic challenge will come. Hope we will be able to cope!

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Xperia X10 Android 2.1 Update coming soon

My current Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro is running on Android phone version 1.6. Heard about the update/upgrade to Android phone version 2.1 will be released on week 38 or end of Q3. Somewhat earlier than the Q4 released mentioned.

Quick search found the SE blog about the upcoming release for Xperia X10 not just for the X10, but for the entire X10 series, the X10 mini pro and X10 mini.

Ran through the Sony Ericsson website and it seems I can upgrade the X10 Android phone software by ourselves instead of handing it over to the SE service center. If so that would save time but I wonder what are the caveats of doing my own software upgrade?

IOI Mall Parking system needs revamp

IOI Mall parking system in Puchong really needs revamp. they dont have enough parking machines plus the info counter people also don't want to work so late. so when it comes to closing time the payment queue ended up pretty long. to make matters worst, of the 2 parking machines only one is working. it takes at least 20 minutes to settle the parking. the management is oblivious to such inconvenience. they should do something about rather than let shopper have a poor impression about IOI Mall.

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Chicken Lime Recipe Traditional Cure for Diabetes

Received this message in my inbox outlining a Chicken Lime Recipe traditional cure for diabetes. Whether it works or not is anybody's guess, since I'm unable to find any documented information about this traditional chicken lime recipe cure for diabetes.

So if you do try it and if it works or don't work do drop a comment.

----- Inbox Message -----

For those most part, our daily meal consist of many sugars, or glucose that shoots straight into our bloodstream, and our pancreas would produce the insulin to get rid of the glucose quickly because it overshoots the normal working level. We need the glucose for energy and if it falls to low we will become hypo, which would result in lack of energy or worst. And if it is too high, our pancreas and kidney would become overworked from trying to remove the excess glucose.

The trick is to go for complex carbohydrate so that we won't get the sugar rush as it takes longer for the complex carbohydrates to breakdown in the digestive system to be absorb by the body while at the same time avoid the craving for food from sugar crash in the body system.

According to my doctor, diabetes is a lifestyle disease and to control it we need to watch what we eat and when we eat. Perhaps smaller meal at more frequent intervals to avoid the sugar rush and sugar crash situation.

Anyway, for those who reached the stage of becoming diabetic, see if this Chicken Lime Recipe will cure or it could just be another one of those urban legend myth circulating around the internet.



LIME 是青擰檬

My diabetes cured using this traditional recipe

Then I was 55 years old, one day suddenly I felt constant thirst and had the urge to drink more water, I also felt constant hunger even just after taking a meal, my legs often cramp and had severe cold sweat I went for a check up and the doctor diagnosed Diabetes, sometimes it reached 250 and it worried me so much. Doctor prescribed some medication and I was on medication for 2.5 years.




My brother who was staying in Malaysia was very concerned, he was a successful businessman. I went to visit my brother and sister when I was 57 yrs old and my brother told me he was given a traditional treatment recipe for diabetes which was claimed to be very effective. As a Hokkienese who suffered Diabetes for 25 years, previously his had complication and was unable to walk, but now he was cured.

Here's the Recipe :

Steam 4 limes (green lime) together with 1 chicken without head and tail), cut limes into half, add some salts and water level just to cover the chicken. I was given this 4 times during my stay in Malaysia .
The taste was not very good but i still took it in hope of curing the disease. I took me 1 week to finish a chicken (1 recipe), sometimes i drank it as a soup or for supper.

After 2 months I returned to Taiwan and had a medical check up again, the doctor advised me to stop my Diabetes medication as the blood sugar plunged to below the standard count. He couldn't believe it when I told him what I took. From then on I did constant blood check and it was normal. So for prevention, sometimes I still had it once in a while. Lime was not available in Taiwan at that time and my brother sent them to me from Malaysia .

I am now 71 years old, and there's no recurrence. During this time I have been staying in Canada , the USA and I have been healthy diet and the chicken lime recipe once in a while which saves my life.

As the ingredients are all natural, there's no harm at all to have a try and please spread this to your friends or whoever needs it.

----- End of Message -----

Please do your own further research whether the above actually works or doesn't.

Maxis 100MB data plan

Just checked my recent Maxis bill and found out the internet data usage was rather exorbitant. Apparently Maxis has changed the billing block to RM0.10 per 10kb block rather than the 1¢ per 1kb. That means even this simple blog post of about 1kb will count as a 10kb block and Maxis will bill it as 10¢ rather than 1¢. No fair.
So now they have a new simple data plan which allows for 100MB of data per month for RM18/month. Doesn't sounds like much but should be adequate to cover the simple data usage.
I'm basically using my mobile for email and blogging. Not so much for surfing. The small screen of the PDA is just too teensy-weenie to do any serious browsing.
Also to note that this Maxis 100MB data plan is added in addition to any value plan that you have. But I believe I can get cost savings. So going to give this Maxis 100MB data plan a try!

[update 27/12/2012]
Wow! It's been so long since I signed up for data plan for my maxis mobile number. Initially I started with this 100MB plan at RM18/month. It was enough as a starter for my Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro figuring that I would switch it on when needed and swap over to WIFI when in office or at home.
Using this plan is also good if you have a cranky old Sony Ericsson phone which would connect to internet for no reason and there was no way to turn off the data access. Better to pay RM18 than saddled with a RM250 bill! Fortunately nowadays Maxis cap the data usage bill to RM250 max otherwise you may end up paying thousands!
Anyway since I started using data, I have changed mobile phone from Sony to HTC and now to my Nokia Lumia. My data usage was also increasing as I have decided to leave my data connection always on.
For just emails with occasional Whatsapp, Facebooking and Twittering, 500MB at RM38/month would be just enough. But my recent Nokia Lumia Windows Phone, I decided to use more apps as well as Internet sharing to another second spare mobile phone and thus more data was required. Thus I have now up it to 1GB data at RM48 per month. In addition, Maxis has decided not to charge for the extra data usage if one were to exceed the 1GB data plan, (this was not applicable to the lower data usage plan) so it was good to upgrade to this 1GB plan. If data usage were to be exceeded, Maxis would just throttle your speed under the FUP (fair use policy), so I figure this would be the best option for an always on data connection.
Of course the difference between the 100MB vs 1GB at RM18 vs RM48 is quite a lot, but it takes less work to ensure you don't exceed the data usage allotment and being charged on a per kilobyte basis.

HTC Wildfire hangs

The HTC Wildfire hangs! Waitaminute! Android PDA shouldn't be like that. In fact it is one of the stabler platform in comparison with Windows Mobile and Symbian.

My wife was in a hurry to silent the HTC Wildfire for her presentation to her customers. Don't know what she pressed which caused the HTC Wildfire to freeze up like that. She didn't noticed it and the phone flatlined from battery drain.

Now she have to recharge the battery and just to reset the HTC, I instructed her to take out the battery for ten seconds before reinserting it again.

Hmmm... Will have to look see what in the world that she did to make the HTC Wildfire to hang.

Plantar Fascitis acting up again

Ouch! That's how it feels when my plantar fascitis acts up, pulling on my foot sole ligament. The pain was sharp but not a super pain but enough to disable my running and made me walk in a limp. The pain shoots in when I bend my foot. And it came at a time when I was planning for my weekly exercise.

Tried to warm up with stretches but it was still bothering me until I place a metatarsal support into my shoe did the pain goes away.

That meant my foot insole is rather worn out. But I think I can still salvage it. Mind you the foot insole wasn't cheap eventhough it was off the shelf range. With a bit of ingenuity I think I can continue using my foot insole and still prevent any pain from my plantar fascitis condition.

That's the problem with flatfoot people like me. Took me a lont time to recover from plantar fascitis condition and now it just bugs me every now and then.

HTC Wildfire

I guest this HTC Wildfire lower cost Android enabled phone means cutting out on extras. For one, the display is not so sharp with a slight blur from lack of fineness. In fact is less sharp than my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini.

But as far as thier function goes, the HTC Wildfire still runs pretty smooth with its lower spec and lesser onboard memory.

running on Android version 2.1 it has a very good contacts integration between the onboard contacts (which HTC calls it as People), your Gmail contacts, Facebook, Twitter and a few more other social websites. Might be good if they could have included LinkedIn too.

The HTC Wildfire 5MP camera photo resolution was rather poor too and not able to handle macro shots at all with very noticeable pixelation on the colour graduation.

Hmmm... if you are on a budget or not willing to spend on mobile devices it would be a wise entry level choice to a PDA mobile phone. After all mobile do breakdown in a year or two of usage. They are not meant to last. But if you are loaded, you be better off buying a better pricier model than HTC Wildfire.

Phew! Busy weekend

Phew! Such a busy weekend! Before you know it, it's over and next day it is back to the grind.

now it is off to a chinese restaurant for the weekly family dinner.

HTC Wildfire

So now is Lena's turn to go for Android enabled mobile phone. So I went and got her the HTC Wildfire which seems to be rather popular. At a nice price of RM1100 I should think so to given that it was sold out at the PDA gadget shop even at a higher price of RM1199.

It's bigger screen than my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini meant that the display is easier to read and of course easier to type. Plus it has a bigger battery capacity at 1300mAh but I doubt it will much more longer due to a bigger display screen. Will have give a spin after charging it up and see.

It's about time her pink coloured Nokia phone was replaced as the Nokia phone was dying plus her HP iPaq was getting rather dated. I'm sure she extracted more than its full lifespan!

Now just waiting for the HTC Wildfire to be fully charged before exploring it further!

Stuck in office again coz of rain

schucks! looks like I will have to wait itn out coz of heavy rain. but these ramadhan stall sure are working hard come rain or shine!

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Funny Boss Day Saying You Should...

Funny boss day saying you should do this, you should do that, and of course you should comply even if it is just plain inane. And of course at the end of day share it with your colleague, or better yet to the world and have a good laugh at it. Sure fire way to let off steam and reduce your stress!



Just the other day, I sent my boss to the airport and he notice that I have a McDonald VIP drive through car sticker that give some monthly special if I spend more than $15 at the drive through counter. It wasn't very useful for me for I seldom use that service and was planning to remove the car sticker anyway. But to my chagrin, funny boss says that this is company car and I should not place McDonald car sticker for private eating purposes and will check when he returns from his business trip.

Huh?! Duh...

I didn't know eating a meal in company car was such a big issue or is it just the car sticker was the issue or was he just trying to separate business is for business and personal is for personal and that company car is strictly for business and you can't mix and match, oh whatever... If this was the case there were many times when personal private time and equipment was used for company purposes and with no compensation whatsoever. If boss thought I was taking advantage of company, maybe he should also consider about company taking advantage of staff.

Although I'm allowed to bring the car back home for daily commute as this was the precedent for the many years and all the other branches practices this. After all I don't own any car having worked for so many years and the purpose of company was like a benefit and you should be able to use it within limit to simple things like buying groceries, going to church, going to shopping malls, go out for dinner otherwise I am without a transport. But I do find such directive on such small little thing like this car sticker thingy rather like a headmaster telling his students not to do this and that. Oh, well, shared it with my colleagues and have a good laugh. After that comply and peel off the car sticker.

Oh, here's a funny boss day saying that I found online:

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter – Albert A. Grant.

Ramadhan buka puasa

ramadhan buka puasa is well underway and as usual behind my office are rows of food stalls with yummy Malaysian food. ummm can smell it from my office here. time to make a move and grab some grub!

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Blogger droid test post

just testing out the blogger droid app on my sony ericcson xperia x10. I have been testing a bunch of android application trying to find some good nifty software app to make full use of my android enabled xperia x10 mini pro. shifting over from my palm centro I have to find a better way to post my blogs on the go including posting mobile photos along the way. let's see how this post fares!

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Kuala Lumpur Properties Skyrocketing!

The sudden boom of Kuala Lumpur properties is rather alarming. Although as homeowner you will be glad that the value has gone up, but as long as you live there, there is not much of a difference since you do need a place to stay and thus you do no make anything out of it. But if you are looking for somewhere to stay, the booming skyrocketing prices sure makes it very difficult for any first time home owner. Given the lousy starting pay offer by most company to graduates who has no working experience, good location area is beyond the reach of many urbanites.

And what of the rest of us who are looking to make some retirement income from property rental? Yep, it also a burden to us who are looking for someway to make our little nest egg to feed us in our retirement period. Given the poor bank interest rate which is almost negligible, and not even covering the basic official CPI let alone the true CPI which is much higher than the government given CPI, we need to find a way to hedge and protect our savings! Putting money in the bank although safe is not good strategy. Yet plonking money in bad investment choice is just as risky.

And now I have a tenant who seems to be such a bad paymaster I'm wondering how to ask him to leave and get another tenant who has better cash flow. With so many properties booming away it is a wonder whether there is an oversupply situation or whether the people have no more faith in keeping money in banks and looking for the alternate way of hedging their hard earned savings. Not withstanding the poor governance of our current ruling coalition party has also squandered our wealth away making our currency purchasing power to become smaller, thus hedging it on property asset seems to be the logical way to go about it.

Alas, the skyrocketing prices of Kuala Lumpur properties does make it all the more harder to invest wisely...

Baby Day Out

Baby day out again. This makes it about 3rd time and 2nd time to church. Evrybody dote on him in church and he was so happy. He just loves to reply with coo and ahhh and other baby languange. And his big fat smile just brightens everybody's day!

After that is off for lunch with baby tagging along. Everybody was eating hungarily and baby wants to be carried. Poor dear but he just have to mind himself. Can't spoil him too much otherwise we will have no peace!

When it rains, it pours

When it rains, it pours. It's not too bad at other times as it cools the hot weather in Malaysia. But at rush hour then so sorry-lah! Traffic congestion!

Worst! I have to traverse the out dated traffic circle which cannot cope with heavy traffic. Even now I'm sitting in the car listening to some music and still can tap tap on my mobile phone and spill in a nice little blog to kvetch and bemoan about the unmoving vehicles. That's how bad it is.

Looks like i'll be stuck here for awhile. Half hour at the very least. The problem with traffic circle the cars that want to get out are blocked by cars that want to get it.

End result? No one moves. My policy for traffic circle is get in quick, get out quick coz getting stuck in one is not particularly fun.

More baby stuffs

Lena decided to get another baby stroller. She wanted a lighter weight than the one her friend passed to her. Oh, well... She wants to spend if that makes her happy. Shopping provide a good mood coz it releases some happy mood chemicals in the brain.

The Combi baby stroller is light weight and has good design. Anyway after a few years the baby will out grow it.

Whoops! After buying the Combi stroller we were well on the way home when Lena decided she would prefer the McClaren Stroller instead. The compact folded designed meant that it would save space in the car boot trunk. She was worried the steel frame would eventually rust over that of Combi which is aluminum frame. But in the she decided she would prefer the space saving design. The McClaren stroller actually cost more but the umbrella folding design would save the space.

So back to Baby Kingdom in Kota Damansara to change the stroller. It was the last day of sales so it was still a good buy despite the higher price tag.

Durians galore direct from orchard

Durians anyone? Definately a hit with my church members. This was to help out with the orang asli mission and now with the durian season on the way there were quite a number of durians from the durian orchard somewhere in Jelebu.

There are orang asli people over there and they need a lot of help to alliviate their standing. Aid from government seems to stop whenever the Orang Asli take on the Christian faith. Surely such marginalization based on religion is thriving happily unchecked. Oh, didn't know that? Such things are never published in the mainstream media. If you hear the kind of stories my fellow hardworking Orang Asli missionary friend encounters like the time they were blockaded by the authorities you would have thought such stories were the stuff of Hollywood stories but really such confrontation occurs off and on.

Anyway back to the durians which they brought all the way back from their durian orchard they have the D24 which are meaty and very sweet tasting but has a less yellow colour; and they have the D101 which has a deep yellow with redish tint and has a less sweeter taste and slight bitterness to it. Some people prefer the bitter taste just like those who like bitterness of the Guiness stout beer over the ordinary draft beer.

Anyway I bought two D24 and one D101 just to help out in the charity. The durians were tasty but a little overly ripe. At least you know they are not using pesticide in their durian orchard.