New start for a new year

Well the super long weekend was a nice touch with current presiding PM giving us a free day off on 31st Dec. I was on leave on the 30th and was planning to go back to work on the 31st. So I had a nice long super weekend.

I didn't plan for any holiday trip around Malaysia though. Not with baby around. Besides he seemed to have caught a mild flu and what sounded like a nasty, chesty, wheezy cough. Must really take care of that to avoid developing to asthma. At this young age, illnesses are amplified against them. So by the grace of God he shall be stronger! Amen.

I, myself have an ailment, my elbow pain, otherwise known as tendinitis or the common name, tennis elbow seemed to have gotten poorer. I thought it was recovering by taking voltaren, apparently it was not.

So for a New Year start, I called up my regular indonesian massage lady for a good rub down on my entire body as well a little more for my elbow pain. It was long overdue. She had been very busy lately with many clients calling for her services so she didn't chase me for any business. Still she was glad to come over for a massage job.

And where there is good massage other family members tend to join in, and so my elder brother-in-law and his wife 'tumpang' along!

;-) haha

Although my body was a trifle sore, but it was good. Really relaxed my entire body. Though my elbow tendinitis will require more work to get it 'repaired' as my wife puts it!

Also spend some time rerouting my social websites to make a more understandable flow of pinging out. It looks simple if you look at my flowchart but it takes some though and the better part of 2 days to get it to work mostly. Still got more cleanup to do so will just leave that till another time. Hope that will help out to gain some website prominance for my various website.

For now it is nice to see baby sleeping and so I shall retire for the night too.

Here's to counting sheep...
Yume mitai ne

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.