THE Klang District Officer will be hauled up by the Selangor government next week that wants answers to how a Datuk had managed to transfer Temporary Occupation Licences (TOL) plots in Kampung Perepat, Kapar within 24 hours.

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim will also question several other officers from the same Land Office to ascertain why a directive by the State government to revoke the land titles given to the Datuk had not been followed. Khalid would be calling the Klang District Officer and officers from the Land Office to present the case.

Speaking to pressmen after the Selangor Executive Councillor’s meeting, Khalid said the case would be presented at the State Economy Action Meeting (MTES) within two weeks.

“We have requested that the case be presented at the MTES either this week or next week. After that, we will deliberate on the actions to be taken on this matter,” Khalid said.

When asked if the State suspects any foul play in the Kampung Perepat issue, Khalid said: “I dare not comment anything on that right now. We shall wait and see.”

On June 19, Malay Mail frontpaged the Selangor government’s promise to 17 families, who held ToLs for agricultural land in Kampung Perepat, that the plots would be returned to them after a long-drawn tussle. Khalid, when asked for his feedback on the long-running issue, did not mince his words.

“If it is illegal, we will demolish it,” he told Malay Mail. He added that he would deploy his officers to investigate the matter. But he declined comment when asked on the lengthy amount of time taken by the Klang District Office to respond to his query on the issue.

On June 22, the controversy surrounding the Kapar land-grab issue has since deepened. Kapar Member of Parliament S. Manikavasagam said when he went to the Selangor Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) office at Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, an MACC officer told him that three reports lodged by the Kampung Perepat pioneers, as well as the one he personally filed last year, could not be found. MACC responded by questioning one of the pioneers and a Malay Mail journalist.

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How is the stock market reacting to Najib's "quota-free" announcement today... the 2nd day of Q3?

I believe in the Golden Rule of 'You reap what you sow.' And I believe that it works in all areas of life, especially the subconscious 'requests' to the universe we so subtly transmit all the time.

Like say for example, if you're an attention seeker (and I know most people, including myself, are, to a certain extent), you need to be very, very careful about the kind of attention you're seeking. Because literally, you will always reap what you sow, what happens in life will definitely work in a way that returns and gifts you what you are begging for.

So if you are begging for pity, for the 'oh you poor thing, I so pity you, you so stress at work, you better eat more, aiyoh you so sad,' … if you want that kind of attention, then you need to work on yourself. Notice that you'll probably get it, but because you get it, you'll probably have a pretty sucky life with all the problems that will allow that kind of loving, pitiful attention to gravitate towards you. So do you have a 'I am too thin, problem, and no matter how much I eat I keep losing weight?'

Or do you have a, 'My boss is a slave driver, problem, and I have to stay in the office until 2 am every day.'

You do get stories to tell your friends every time right?

Well I don't like you bitching too much about the choices you make in your life, and constantly asking me to go, 'aiyoh you poor thing, aiyoh, don't lah like that, you hang in there.'

I think… you should just go hang, because you make the choices in your life, you live with them.

…

Wanna seek attention also, seek the ones that matter lah. Seek the ones where people will envy you. It's WAY WAY MORE gratifying, far far more fulfilling and it gives you a lot of energy to create positive energies in this world (me going new age here, don't mind me).

Dunia ini, macam-macam ada.

The passage of the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (SIAP) Bill by Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday is the last nail in the coffin of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) proposed by the Royal Police Commission more than four years ago in May 2005. It also marks the failure of the Barisan Nasional government and [...]

Pada hari ini kami ingin mengumumkan Senarai Jawatankuasa Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat mengikut Kementerian.

Matlamat Jawatankuasa ini adalah untuk menyediakan Ahli-ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat bagi sesi perbahasan di Parlimen termasuk perbahasan Rang Undang-undang dan sesi soal jawab. Ini adalah bagi meningkatkan kualiti perbahasan dengan bersandarkan rujukan secara khusus berdasarkan kementerian masing-masing.

Jawatankuasa ini dibentuk mengikut 25 Kementerian dalam kerajaan Barisan Nasional dan dipengerusikan secara bersama oleh seorang wakil dari setiap parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat. Keanggotaan Jawatankuasa ini melibatkan beberapa Ahli Parlimen lain dan juga boleh melibatkan pakar dari luar dalam bidang masing-masing bagi membantu Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat.

YB Mohamed Azmin Ali            YB Tan Seng Giaw                                       YB Salahuddin Ayub

Ketua Whip                                 Ketua Whip Ahli Parlimen DAP                Naib Presiden PAS

Ahli Parlimen PKR

Senarai Jawatankuasa Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat Mengikut Kementerian

Kementerian	Ahli Parlimen PKR	Ahli Parlimen PAS	Ahli Parlimen DAP
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI	YB Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim YB Mohamed Azmin Ali YB Sivarasa Rasiah YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim YB William Leong YB Ahmad Kasim YB Fuziah Salleh	YB Dato’ Seri Hj Abdul Hadi Awang YB Ust Nasharudin Mat Isa YB Salahuddin Ayub YB Dr Hatta Ramli YB Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad YB Taib Azamuddin YB Khalid Samad	YB Lim Kit Siang YB Ngeh Koo Ham YB Hiew King Chiew YB John Fernandez
KEMENTERIAN DALAM NEGERI	YB Dato’ Johari Abdul	YB Salahuddin Haji Ayub	YB Karpal Singh
KEMENTERIAN KEWANGAN	YB Mohamed Azmin Ali	Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad	YAB Lim Guan Eng
KEMENTERIAN PENGANGKUTAN	YB Dato’ Zahrain Mohamed Hashim	YB Khalid Samad	YB Tan Kok Wai
KEMENTERIAN KERJA RAYA	YB Dato’ Kamarul Bahrin Abbas	YB Dato’ Mahfuz Omar	YB Gobind Singh Deo
KEMENTERIAN PERUSAHAAN PERLADANGAN DAN KOMODITI	YB Dato’ Rashid Din	YB Dato Wan Abd Rahim Wan Abdullah	YB Er Teck Hwa
KEMENTERIAN TENAGA, TEKNOLOGI HIJAU DAN AIR	YB Chua Tian Chang	YB Nasir bin Zakaria	YB Charles Anthony Santiago
KEMENTERIAN PERDAGANGAN ANTARABANGSA DAN INDUSTRI	YB William Leong	YB Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli	YB Teresa Kok
KEMENTERIAN PERTANIAN DAN INDUSTRI ASAS TANI	YB Ahmad Kassim	YB Taib Azamuddin Md Taib	YB Sim Tong Him
KEMENTERIAN PERDAGANGAN DALAM NEGERI DAN HAL EHWAL PENGGUNA	YB Azan Ismail	YB Dr Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut	YB Jeff Ooi
KEMENTERIAN PELAJARAN	YB Yusmadi Yusoff	YB Che Uda Che Nik	YB Chong Eng
KEMENTERIAN PENERANGAN KOMUNIKASI, KESENIAN DAN KEBUDAYAAN	YB Amran Abdul Ghani	YB Dato’ Mahfuz Haji Omar	YB Teo Nie Ching
KEMENTERIAN SUMBER MANUSIA	YB Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid	YB Muhammad bin Husin	YB M Kulasegaran
KEMENTERIAN SAINS, TEKNOLOGI DAN INOVASI	YB Nurul Izzah Anwar	YB Dr Che Rosli Che Mat	YB Chow Kon Yeow
KEMENTERIAN PERUMAHAN DAN KERAJAAN TEMPATAN	YB Hee Loy Sian	YB Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud	YB Nga Kor Ming
KEMENTERIAN PERTAHANAN	YB Saifuddin Nasution Ismail	YB Dato’ Seri Muhammad Nizar Jamaluddin	YB Liew Chin Tong
KEMENTERIAN KEMAJUAN LUAR BANDAR DAN WILAYAH	YB Ab Aziz Ab Kadir	YB Dato’ Ab Halim bin Ab Rahman	YB M Manogaran
KEMENTERIAN LUAR NEGERI	YB Sivarasa Rasiah	YB Dato’ Kamarudin Jaffar	YB P Ramasamy
KEMENTERIAN BELIA DAN SUKAN	YB Tan Tee Beng	YB Mohd Firdaus bin Jaafar	YB Anthony Loke Siew Fook
KEMENTERIAN KESIHATAN	YB Dr Lee Boon Chye	YB Dr Mohd Hayati Othman	YB Dr Tan Seng Giaw
KEMENTERIAN PEMBANGUNAN WANITA, KELUARGA DAN MASYARAKAT	YB Zuraida Kamaruddin	YB Siti Zailah bt Mohd Yusuf	YB Fong Po Kuan
KEMENTERIAN PELANCONGAN	YB Manikavasagam a/l Sundaram	YB Dato Wan Abd Rahim Wan Abdullah	YB Fong Kui Lun
KEMENTERIAN WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN	YB Wee Choo Keong	YB Dr Lo’ Lo’ Haji Mohd Ghazali	YB Lim Lip Eng
KEMENTERIAN PENGAJIAN TINGGI	YB Zulkifli Nordin	YB Salahuddin Haji Ayub	YB Tony Pua
KEMENTERIAN SUMBER ASLI DAN ALAM SEKITAR	YB Gobalakrishnan a/l Nagapan	YB Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa	YB Chong Chien Jen

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Brian wrote in:

Unbound Medicine has announced the release of their Merck Manual family of products for download to iPhone and iPod touch which includes:

* The Merck Manual for Mobile and Web (Dx)
* The Merck Manual with Patient Symptoms Guide (Dx+Sx)
* The Merck Manual Suite + Davis’s Drug Guide (Dx+Sx+Rx)

Features of The Merck Manual on the iPhone:

* Interface optimized for iPhone and iPod touch
* Personalized favorites
* Cross-links for fast navigation between resources
* Frequent updates
* Superior navigation and graphics
* iPhone and web access

Animated GIF demo:

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

The Merck Manual now for iPhone

Whenever all these giant companies comes out with something new, you can find it written all over the Internet. Remember Bing, the new search engine by Microsoft? Well me and many others still think Google search results are way better. Then few days ago I heard about the upcoming free antivirus software called Microsoft Security Essentials created by Microsoft that will provide protection from viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. As usual, it was posted everywhere and the first thing that came to my mind was is it necessary to create all that hype?

I personally don’t think that Microsoft Security Essentials will dominate the antivirus market even if it is bundled in future version of Windows. Just like Internet Explorer, it comes in every Windows but my monthly web statistics shows that there are more Firefox users than IE. I am very curious to see how good or bad is the upcoming free antivirus by Microsoft so I left work a little early today (of course with my boss’ approval) to test it out.

A good antivirus must have very good detection of known virus through signature and unknown virus through proactive method. Then it shouldn’t now slow down your computer when it is protecting your computer real-time and also during manual full scan. Scanning time and cleaning of virus should be fast. Finally, when an antivirus has proactive defense, there will surely be false detection but the numbers should be small.

The interface of Microsoft Security Essentials is very easy to use. It doesn’t have too many features to confuse a basic computer user. You have a tab to run a full, quick or custom scan, an update tab to update the virus and spyware definitions, a history tab showing you items detected as potentially harmful and the actions you took on each item and finally the settings tab to configure some options on MSE.

Virus detection (Signature and Proactive)
The virus detection on MSE is very good because it managed to detect all 19 viruses as a potential threat while RISING Antivirus 2009 (sad to say) only detected 75% of it. As for the proactive detection, I am not sure if MSE even has that as I couldn’t find any information about it. I have a private version of trojan which is detected by Kaspersky, Avira and NOD32 but is still undetectable by many other antivirus. MSE wasn’t able to detect the private trojan.

Scanning
A full scan takes 19 minutes to scan 160,000 items. I’d say that MSE has an average scanning speed as I’ve seen other antivirus software that scans at much faster and slower speed than this.

Real-Time protection
I plugged in a USB flash drive that has a malicious autorun.inf file and MSE immediately notify me about the potential threat it found. I also noticed that the real-time protection is a little slow. Meaning when I open a folder that has a virus which is detectable by MSE, it takes quite a long time to tell me that it is a virus. When I got fed up of waiting, I tried running the virus file, MSE blocks the file and prompts for action on the virus.

Action on detected items
Another problem with MSE is the actions such as removing and disinfecting an item is also very slow. This happens when MSE found a potential threat and you click either the Clean computer or Apply actions button.

Memory and CPU usage
There are 2 processes by MSE which is MsMpEng.exe and msseces.exe. Both process’ memory usage takes up an average of 60MB during idle and scanning. When running a full scan, the CPU usage goes up to around 40% but never above 50%.

The tests above are done on my desktop computer running a vanilla version of Windows XP Professional SP3 with latest hotfixes. Although the 19 virus that I had is very little to test on but they are real current live virus that are circulating around internet and networks today. As for the private version of trojan, it is also a very popular trojan (I won’t say what is the name) and good antivirus such as Kaspersky or anti-keylogger such as Zemana is able to detect the malicious (injection) activity even though it is not in the virus signature database. Do take note that Microsoft Security Essentials is still in BETA (testing) and if you’d like to try it yourself, you can download from the links below. The installer does a WGA check before allowing you to install.

For Windows XP: mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-xp.exe
For Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32-bit): mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-vista.exe
For Windows Vista and Windows 7 (64-bit): mssefullinstall-amd64fre-en-us-vista.exe

Technorati Tags: MSE, morro, microsoft, antivirus, security

每当在工作上遇到困难的时候，心里默念：

“我的女儿很可爱，我的儿子很帅很多头发。”

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My three questions (No.100 to No. 102) on the 34th day in the current series to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are: Question No. 1 – This is the second day that I am starting my “three questions a day” with a welcome. Yesterday [...]

From life is a journey Fufu I am now in Inner Mongolia. Laying on d prairie, cows, goats & horses eating grass in front of me. Phew feels like d world is mine, birds chirp, insects cry, blue sky, white clouds. i dont wanna leave. From life is a journey Pic from virtualtourist.com Are you guys missing me? Youtubes [...]

Ong Tee Keat's attempt to kick the PKFZ scandal into the Parliament's basket isn't futile.

Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee confirmed, and announced in the House today, that we MPs will not get the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report and its appendix on the Port Klang Free Trade (PKFZ) -- that Tee Keat promised -- until the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has completed its investigation on the matter.

The deputy speaker also clarified that the 300 copies of the report were being kept by the Parliament Cecretariat on its capacity as the secretariat of PAC, because the reports were required by the PAC, first and foremost.

Unless the PAC finishes its job fast, and unless the Parliament will courier the report to us MPs, this means the earliest date we MPs can obtained the complete report is when the Parliament re-convenes on October 19.

So, what's new Malaysia Boleh, and quote OC Phang, what's new capable Malaysians?

Let me repeat, again: This PKFZ scandal is fast becoming an Agatha Christie mystery murder: You have a stinking corpse with multiple fatal stabs, no killers.

The Sun | Giam Say Khoon KUALA LUMPUR (July 1, 2009) : Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) wants parliament to convene an emergency sitting to pass amendments to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 not relating to Islam. He said the announcement of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz on [...]

很忙很忙，忙到没有时间泵奶怎么办呢？

I like this, this would be cool in my office and any public toilet. This is more practical than those Japanese invented, but the warmer on the toilet is pretty nifty too for cold weather country.

P/S - got this one from friend. Look like Korean movie to me. Anybody doing this in the class?

UPDATED VERSION.The Son-in-Law made interesting utterances yesterday that the viewpoints therein cannot reconcile.

On one hand, he lauded intellectual discussions between Umno Youth and PAS Youth. On the other, he condemned Hadi Awang as a political puppet to DAP and PKR.

His friends at the Malaysian Insider say the statements are telling of "more about the political chameleon that Khairy is more than anything else... And adds to the general distrust towards Umno politicians".

The news portal adds:

"For politicians like him always believe that non-Malays must always kow-tow to the Malays. And not vice-versa." [...]

But Khairy, who has alternately spoken about going beyond race-based politics and upholding Malay superiority in the past few years, has been anything but consistent in his beliefs.

And it quotes an infamous quote:

Who can forget his “The internal split within Umno will weaken the party’s position and this will pave way for the Chinese Malaysians to make various demands to benefit their community …”, as quoted by Sin Chew Daily in August 2006?

It's now July 2009. By July 8, it will be sixteen months after GE2008.

The Son-in-Law is evidently still pressing the denial button, dreaming that Umno is still popular, its race-based politico-economic cause still valid.

Which is the perfect recipe for annihilation by GE2013.

UPDATES: And Al-Khairy replies: Insidious Insider - My Reply to Malaysian Insider (Again).

So how long does the battery of the Nokia N97 last on a full charge? Turns out much longer than the N96 and N95: “For now though, one thing is clear: based on my (admittedly undemanding) usage, the Nokia N97 almost lasted for two days. A definite improvement over the N96!”

A complete log of the phone’s usage over two days, accompanied by frequent updates on remaining battery life, is available on Philippine affiliate Technograph.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Yes, the three founders of popular torrent tracker The Pirate Bay (and a rep from their ISP) were each sentenced to a year in prison and slapped with a $3.6 million fine. Luckily, they were able to sell the site off to a Swedish gaming company (Global Gaming Factory) for $7.8 million.

Below is a video recorded a week before The Pirate Bay closed the deal. It’s an interview between BBG’s Xeni Jardin and Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde. Of interest: “Peter’s explanation of why he believes filesharing and anonymity are good for democracy”.

The LA Times has an article summarzing the entire situation, including details on what the seller and buyer plan to do with their new acquisitions:

As noted on BoingBoing, the Pirate Bay’s blogger said the proceeds from the sale will be used for “projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the [Internet].

Convincing Pirate Bay’s reported 20 million users accustomed to getting content for free into paying customers will an extremely difficult task, but Pandeya said he plans to make an enticing offer.

“To compete with free file sharing, you have to beat it,” [Hans Pandeya, CEO of Global Gaming Factory] said. “What’s better than zero? Well, that’s paying somebody $1.”

Global Gaming Factory plans to pay Pirate Bay users to let their computers be part of a worldwide peer-to-peer system that can transmit data for Internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast. Theoretically, it could vastly reduce the bandwidth costs of ISPs, which are struggling to keep up with the rapidly growing amount of traffic moving through the ‘Net, much of it because of illegal piracy.

Participating computer owners could use the money deposited into their account to buy and download songs, TV shows or movies.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Download – Overview Played The Several Journeys of Reemus, then sequels The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 1 followed by The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 2 and is eager to find out what happened to Reemus and Liam? In Chapter 3, now there are two completely different paths to complete the game.

Download The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 (File Size ~ 8.72 MB)
Download the ZIP archive: reemus-3.zip

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Title Menu

Not really a menu, but a pre loading screen with ads that will not work offline. Just click play.

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Death Slug?

Where is Reemus and Liam? How come you are controlling a death slug from outer space?

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Death Slug Versus Gygax

The death slug surprises the frog from behind and proceeds to consume it. Om nom nom nom.

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Reemus and Liam

The heroes Reemus and Liam finally appeared. Seems like Reemus does like the Cockcroach.

The Several Journeys of Reemus: Chapter 3 – Crossroads

Chop down the tree and crush the cockcroach, or save the cockcroach? Reemus or Liam?

Deimos’s Daily Reads
No reads for today.

Deimos’s Thoughts
Graphics are as good as ever. Basic game play still consists of pointing and clicking. However, the game now forces you to side with either Reemus or Liam.

Deimos Asks
Played any Reemus adventure flash games before? Enjoyed them? Yes? No? Why?

Please join me in the recording.

Date: July 4, 2009
Time: Starting 9PM (Malaysian time)
Topics:

1. 9PM: Dead Celebrities
2. 10PM Rebellious (Naughty) Kids
3. 11PM Home Cooked Meals
4. MIDNIGHT: Ghosts

To register, simply leave a comment here with the information below:
Please read all the rules here before registering. Don’t forget your Skype ID and your Hokkien nickname, and list the show(s) you want to join.

The Dell S2409W currently retails for $219. For that price, you get a 24″ wide display that features:

• Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 16:9 dynamic aspect ratio
• Support for HDMI, DVI, and VGA
• Compatibility with VESA mounts

As a point of comparison, my HP w2228h cost around $320. It’s a 22″ display that also supports HDMI, DVI, and VGA, with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 and a 16:10 aspect ratio.

The advantages that HP display has over Dell is its built-in cable management system, speakers, and USB hub. The Dell on the other hand is much cheaper, features more visual real-estate, but takes a more no-frills approach.

Display fanatics would probably like to know about the S2409W’s 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m brightness, 5ms response time, and 160° / 170° viewing angle, and 0.276mm pixel pitch (note that these values are manufacture claimed). But that’s them: I personally would like to see this display on my desk, and gape at how wide it is!

Having no review unit to play around with, I can only assume that the relatively thick 8.76 depth of the monitor might be too much for some. And it’s a display, nothing more. In any case, you can buy the Dell S2409W through the link below. For its features and price, it seems like a very good deal.

Dell S2409W 24″ Full HD Widescreen Monitor ($219 after instant savings)

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Tuan Manikavasagam a/l Sundaram [Kapar] minta Menteri Dalam Negeri menyatakan sebab-sebab Kerajaan mengharamkan pergerakan Hindraf. Apakah kewujudan bukti-bukti yang mengaitkan pergerakan tersebut dengan kumpulan penganas luar Negara.

Tuan Yang Pertua,

Untuk makluman Yang Berhormat, Hindraf adalah sebuah pertubuhan haram yang tidak berdaftar. Kumpulan ini telah diisytiharkan sebagai sebuah kumpulan haram pada 14 Oktober 2008 mengikut peruntukan Seksten 8(1) Akta Pendaftaran Pertubuhan 1966 (Akta 335). Tindakan penahanan lima (5) orang pemimpin Kumpulan Haram Hindraf (KHH) di bawah seksyen 8(1) AKDN 1960 adalah kerana tindak tanduk mereka menganjurkan aktiviti-aktiviti yang jelas mebangkitkan sentiment perkauman dan agama yang serius yang boleh mencetuskan konflik antara kaum dan seterusnya memudaratkan kententeraman awam dan keselamatan Negara. Mereka juga telah menganjurkan perhimpunan-perhimpunan yang membangkitan sentiment sehingga mencetuskan tindakan-tindakan yang berunsur keagamaan.

Maklumat perisikan telah mendedahkan terdapat usaha-usaha oleh Kumpulan Haram Hindraf (KHH) untuk mendapatkan bantuan dan sokongan dari Negara luar. Maklumat perisikan juga melaporakan bahawa lawatan Waytha Moorthy a/l Ponnusamy , Pengerusi kumpulan ini ke luar Negara pada 28 November 2007 adalah diantara lainnya, untuk mendapatkan sokongan antarabangsa termasuk usaha mengadakan perjumpaan dengan pemimpin LTTE.

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“NOW, I am a true Malaysian, like how I always wanted to be.” These were the words of Rajan, 23, after receiving his birth certificate yesterday at Kapar Member of Parliament S. Manikavasagam’s service centre at Pekan Kapar.

He went to the centre several months ago complaining that he did not possess a birth certificate or an identity card.

“I was born in an estate and my parents were uneducated. They did not know that I must have a birth certificate. Luckily, a nurse gave my mother a certificate stating that I was born in Malaysia and that my parents are Malaysians,” said Rajan.

“I faced so much of difficulty before a friend of mine told me to visit Manikavasagam’s office to get my birth certificate. Now I can get my identification card and move on to better things,” he added.

P. Bakiong was almost in tears when her six-year-old son Jery was presented with his birth certificate.

She told Malay Mail that she could not obtain Jery’s birth certificate because the child’s father was irresponsible and had left the family right after Jery was born.

“I was suffering for six years. I was approached by many parties who claimed they could get my son’s birth certificate for a price. I did not trust them and I came here finally. I am truly grateful for the help. Now I can send my son to school next year,” said Bakiong.

Manikavasagam’s office also proudly announced that they have solved all the birth certificate issues of folks from the Kapar slums that were highlighted two months ago.

“It took some time and it was tough. But we managed to get all the children their birth certificates. The single mothers will also be getting an allowance of RM450 starting next month. We hope that with this money their problems will be eased,” said Manikavasagam.

On May 6, Malay Mail highlighted the plight of single mothers and the problems faced by their children who did not possess birth certificates.

A youth movement called G2 alerted us to their plight. Malay Mail visited the slum and noted the high number of children who were Stateless in this small town. The children were also being recruited by drug pushers to carry out illicit dealings.

Manikavasagam visited the area a day after and promised to solve the problem of the Statelessness of the children.

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Malay Mail Ist July 2009

DURING his campaign trail last year, S. Manikavasagam promised the residents of Kapar he would solve their birth certificate problems if he won the Kapar Parliamentary seat. It has been 16 months since the first-term MP was elected and as promised, Manikavasagam is on a mission to ensure all Malaysians are accorded their birthright.

How bad is the situation in Klang of folks without birth certificates?

If you look at Klang, it is not that serious. In my constituency, we do get cases of adults not having birth certificates on a weekly basis but the number is not alarming. But, if you look at the State overall, it is worrying. I was told that there are 5,000 cases of people without birth certificates. This is shocking.

Why do you think the number is so high?

Firstly, the lack of education. Many who do not have birth certificates are estate workers and rural folk. If we can educate them that a birth certificate is important and necessary, then we can say the problem is partially solved.

Secondly, the people must understand that even if they give birth at home, they must acquire a birth certificate immediately. And finally, the National Registration Department  should be more proactive. Their officers should be on the ground more to spot cases like this in rural areas.

What other problems do you face when it comes to birth certificate issues?

There are folks who come to my office and claim that they paid strangers a large amount of money to get their birth certificates.

The amounts range from RM1,000 to RM5,000. These are scams. When the complaint reaches us, it’s already too late. I would like to advise the people of Malaysia they do not have to pay to get a birth certificate. If anybody approaches them and asks for a large amount of money, they should contact the police immediately.

How far has your focus been successful?

We have already solved 200 cases since I took office. We have had people calling my office from Kedah, Pahang and Johor asking our help to get their birth certificates. We take one case at one time. My volunteers are well versed in the issue after handling so many cases.

What I can do is advise other State assemblymen and MPs on how to go about the issue if they receive cases like these. My team will also carry on with their duties.

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From life is a journey I love this woman Character : Late thirties and mother of ten Ha Mee : I read your post . You are so funny. Nothing in life is free. It is obviously a scam. Who will give you a free two night and three day stay at a leading hotel in Sibu for [...]

马英九在去年竞选台湾总统时，提出所谓“新三不原则”——不统、不独、不武，作为其选战的策略宣言之一。这句口号可谓圆融中庸，因为它既不开罪独派，也讨好统派，更满足了中间选民保持现状的意愿。

当选总统后，马英九的治国思路延续了这种全盘通吃的策略，吸纳绿营人士，尝试统合蓝绿版图；但这些举措却在另一方面导致了马政府在施政上瞻前顾后、寡断不决。南方朔在一篇评论文里说得好，政治领袖试图讨好所有人，其实到头来是得罪所有人。

首相纳吉在宣布经济领域的进一步开放措施后，我们可以想象，一如早前纳吉政府公布开放服务业27次领域（废除土著30%股权固打）、开放金融业和内阁针对改教课题作出中庸议决时的情况那样，注定又要得罪马来社会的保守主义势力。

赢取中间选民

这除了表示内阁势必面对保守势力的施压，还意味着他们必须准备失去来自这些势力的支持。纳吉团队不能一方面进行向中间路线靠拢的开放措施，一方面则继续对保守种族主义和宗教主义势力妥协；政治没有左右逢源这回事，也不可能讨好所有人，政府若要赢取来自各族的广大中间选民，就不能不开罪极右人士。

政党政治和议会民主制说穿了其实就是一门如何笼络多数人，而不是所有人的功夫。从马来西亚政治史来看，巫统不能不面对的一个现实是，不管她再怎么激进极端，近年来的马来选票基本上已是六四开——六成归巫统、四成归在野党。而另一个巫统不能不接受的事实是，在马来西亚多元种族、宗教的国情下，仅凭单一族群或宗教群的支持根本无法成为执政党，或至少无法有效执政。

民主政治就是做出选择的过程，其中不单是人民选政党，还包括政党选择赢取哪一部分选民。选择的结果是不得不割舍没有被选中的那一方的好感，但被选中的那一方却与你站在一起。作出选择，意味着必须得罪人。

Gespeaker is a GTK+ frontend for espeak. It allows to play a text in many languages with settings for voice, pitch, volume, speed and word gap.

http://gespeaker.googlecode.com/files/gespeaker_0.4_all.deb

Dad had the cataracts in his left eye removed this morning at ISEC. He was probably anxious about it last night because he mistaken the price to be a thousand ringgit more expensive and said he didn’t want to have the surgery. I said if he doesn’t do the surgery then money spent for doctor consultation, lens, and lab tests will all go to waste. I know, I can provide support for NF patients, yet I am not very comforting to my own father.

Dad was very happy when he could see clearly through the translucent capsule that protected his post-surgical eye. He smiled all the way to the food court but frowned when he got tired of walking.

At the food court, Mom asked if he wanted to join her for vegetarian food, but dad looked around and saw Chicken Feet Noodles. Before removing the cataracts, he had to eat whatever mom got for him quite reluctantly.

As for me, I need to hide food again. Right after we came back from ISEC and lunch, dad sat at the dining room and saw a new pack of chocolate cookies that my friend bought from abroad. Even though I had placed the packet at the opposite corner of where Dad usually sat, he saw it and ate all the cookies there were. I was upset that he did not leave any behind, but I should have known better than to place food out in the open.

When Dad had the Cataracts, I could at least hope that he couldn’t see it.

June 15, MCA-owned newspaper The Star quoted a statement on www.pkfznews.com.my and reported that Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat had agreed to provide every Member of Parliament a copy of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Position Review on PKFZ, including the appendices.

Reportedly, 300 copies of the report were to have been sent to the Parliament by June 15, following a request on June 12 from the Parliament Secretary.

June 22, Minister Ong reiterated that the 300 copies of the PwC report had been sent to the Parliament, and it was up to the Secretariat to distribute it to the MPs.

The current Parliament session will end tomorrow. But the said report has not been given to us MPs.

SUMMON TO TESTIFY. Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), an instrument of the Parliament, will summon four personalities involved in the PKFZ scandal to testify in an investigation within the next two weeks.

The foursome are Ling Liong Sik, Chan Kong Choy, Ong Tee Keat -- all are MCA-nominated Transport Ministers at some point in time -- and Tiong King Sing, the CEO of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) and Barisan Nasional Backbenchers club chairman.

However, one woman was missed out in the PAC summon for testimony.

OC Phang, the chairman of PKFZ cum Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager who served the said three Transport Ministers (read: MCA Presidents) throughout the material time PKFZ was being cooked, was not called.

Phang is believed to have left the country.

We really want to know through OC Phang if it was Ling, or Kong Choy, who had signed away the government's rights by issuing letters of support, or letters of guarantee, to underwrite risks of the project falling through.

Will Tee Keat hang his two ex-bosses to dry in order to save MCA from the quandary?

Let me repeat: This PKFZ scandal is fast becoming an Agatha Christie mystery murder: You have a stinking corpse with multiple fatal stabs, no killers.

From Untitled Album wordless Wednesday

I am always curious to know if it is possible to run an image file as an executable file. So far I only know about the double extension trick such as file.jpg.exe. If the user enabled “Hide extensions for known file types” in Folder Options, most probably the user will think that it is a JPG image file but in fact the .exe extension is hidden. That’s why the first thing I do after reinstalling Windows is to enable show hidden files and disable hide extensions for known file types.

Few days ago I was going through HackHound forum and found a tool called EXE-Forcer developed by steve10120 which claims to make any file extension execute like an .exe file. Before I run EXE-Forcer, I uploaded it to ThreatExpert to analyze and see what it does. It doesn’t do anything but a few antivirus vendor such as PC Tools, Symantec, McAfee, Sophos and Ikarus always flags it as a Trojan.

I ran it and was presented with a very simple interface with nothing on it. Right clicking on an empty space allows me to add an extension.

So I tried entering .ray extension and it was added to the program but nothing happened. I right click on EXE-Forcer again and this time I found the Build option enabled. So I selected Build and it prompts me to save an exe file to a location. Now I have another suspicious EXE file and since I don’t know what it does, I analyzed the file in ThreatExpert. This time ThreatExpert tells me that the file EXE-Forcer created will add new registry entries. From the looks of the registry modification, it seemed like it was trying to register a new file type to an EXE extension.

I ran the EXE file created by EXE-Forcer, and then I renamed a legitimate .exe file’s extension to .ray. As expected, I was able to run the .ray extension as an application after the registry modification.

This registry modification is pretty simple. It maps an extension of your choice to application. If you go to File Types tab in Folder Options (Can only be found in XP), you will see that the extension opens with %1.

EXE-Forcer works but already widely being detected as a malicious tool by most antivirus software. In fact, a simple command line would do the job. Simply type assoc.ray=exefile in command prompt will do what EXE-Forcer does. You can replace the .ray in the command line with any other extension you want to run it as executable. Hope you’ve learned something new today.

Technorati Tags: extension, EXE, exe-forcer, association, security

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The former Penang Chief Minister and now Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon should speak up as to whether he would make amends for his decisions as Penang Chief Minister in the Kampung Buah Pala, Penang controversy by securing a Federal Government grant to Penang State Government to resolve [...]

Some of you might not want to fork out $30 for the MotionApps Classic emulator just to run Epocrates PalmOS on your Palm Pre. I had suggested as an alternative, you could surf over to the Epocrates mobile website http://m.epocrates.com with your Pre’s browser and since it is a webkit browser, you should basically have the same experience like the iPhone’s safari browser.

However, Don pointed out in this comment that “the epocrates website places a Welcome announcement on top of the webpage that makes it impossible to read the top or enter commands-”. I see what he means as when testing this out on the Emulator’s browser, this is what one sees:

There doesn’t seem to be a way to close the Welcome box and it renders the monograph page useless.

The solution is to surf over to the main Epocrates webpage first, http://epocrates.com, then login with your Epocrates account (the basic account is free, so you should create one if you haven’t). After that when you go back to the Eopcrates mobile site you won’t see the Welcome box anymore.

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Epocrates mobile on the Palm Pre - how to get rid of the annoying Welcome box

Soalan:

Tuan Manikavasagam A/L Sundaram [Kapar] minta Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi , dan Kebudayaan menyatakan apakah usaha-usaha yang telah dilakukan oleh Kerajaan untuk membongkar misteri Kota Purba Linggi yang dikatakan wujud oleh para arkeologi Malaysia.

Tuan Yang Di Pertua,

Kisah kewujudan sebuah kota purba yang dikenali sebagai Linggiu atau Gelanggi bukanlah kenyataan yang di buat oleh para ahli arkeologi Malaysia, tetapi telah di cetuskan dan diuar-uarkan oleh seorang warga negara Malaysia yang menggelarkan dirinya pengkaji manuskrip Melayu dan buku-buku sejarah Melayu. Latar belakang dan pendidikan yang beliau terima di Australia tidaklah membuktikan bahawa beliau adalah seorang ahli sejarah , jauh sekali sebagai ahli arkeologi. Amum begitu dakwaan beliau tentang kewujudan Kota Purba Linggiu di Johor yang diterbitakan dalam jurnal Malaysian Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS) pada tahun 2004, telah mendapat liputan agak meluas oleh beberapa media tempatan sehingga harapan besar bahawa suatu monumen purba telah di temui serta bakal menyaingi era kewujudan Borobudur di Indonesia dan Angkor Watt di Cambodia.

Bagi membongkar perkara tersebut , pihak Kerajaan telah menjalankan usaha-usaha eksplorasi bagi menjejaki kesahihan kewujudannya pada Mac 2005. Jabatan Muzium dan Antikuiti pada ketika itu telah bekerjasama dengan beberapa universiti tempatan iaitu; Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) , Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Perguruan Sultan Ideris (UPSI) serta lain-lain agensi kerajaan dan persatuan seperti Pusat remote Sensing Negara (MACRES), Yayasan Warisan Johor, Jabatan Perhutanan Negeri Johor, Jabtan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli Negeri Johor dan sebuah persatuan bukan kerajaan, Persatuan Ikatan Ahli Arkeologi Malaysia (IAAM). Hasil eksplorasi mendapati bahawa apa yang digambarkan oleh pengkaji tersebut mengenai bukti formasi tembok kota sebenarnya merupakan bekas laluan balak ketika kerja-kerja pembinaan empangan Linggiu dijalankan sekitar tahun 1990. Pokok-pokok resam yang tumbuh di antara jalan-jalan balak tersebut seolah-olah seperti deretan tembok apabila dipandang melalui foto aerial.

Di samping itu, sehingga 30 Julai 2005 penelitian melalui kajian literature, sejarah lisan, survei lapangan , kajian remote sensing, kajian botani, kajian geologi dan survey bawah air serta ekskavasi percubaan yang dijalankan di beberapa kawasan terpilih di hulu sungai Johor seperti empangan Linggiu , sungai Madek, sungai Kahang dan lain-lain mendapati bahwa taida bukti kukuh mengenai dakwaan bahawa Kota Purba Linggiu/Gelanggi telah di temui.

Kesimpulan, kewujudan Kota Purba Linggiu/Gelanggi yang dibuktikan melalui pendekatan sastera, magis dan mitis yang cuba direalitikan melalui pendekatan pseudo arkelogi telah dinafikan kewujudannya berdasarkan penemuan yang diperolehi secara fizikal dan empiris

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My three questions (No.97 to No. 99) on the 33rd day in the current series to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are: Question No. 1: I welcome the announcement by the Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng on the withholding [...]

As of today, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 version codename ‘Shiretoko‘ is made available to your language in over 70 languages. All this languages made to you by the contributions from Mozilla community members around the world. This version was renamed to 3.5 prior to the originally 3.1 version to reflect a greater scope of changes than what had originally been planned.

From Mozilla Firefox 3.5 release notes, the new Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past year. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use. Some of the notable features are: -

• Available in more than 70 languages. (Get your local version!)
• Support for the HTML5 and elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it here!)
• Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
• Better web application performance using the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
• The ability to share your location with websites using Location Aware Browsing. (Try it here!)
• Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.
• Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
• Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.

Check Out Mozilla Firefox 3.5 New Feature Video Tour
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

It seems that we have reached the second half of 2009. After completing '3PM', my third short film in six months yesterday afternoon, I can't help but feel a little wistful, a little melancholic, the familiar condition known as post-creativity depression is back.

So despite having finished my film, I actually chose to remain in the editing lab, and finally at night, I took out snippets of videos I shot more than a week ago with my own camera and looked through them, just so I could edit them and give myself something to do.

On the 20th of June, Lia the Artist told me and Niklas about the futuristic-looking waterbus "Himiko", designed by famed Japanese animator Reiji (or Leiji) Matsumoto ("Captain Harlock", "Spaceship Yamato", "Galaxy Express 999").








Lia's friend, Nakajima, a drummer, was going to have a performance on Himiko.



Prior to boarding Himiko, we took a group photo.



We couldn't see the waterbus in the photo. So we took ANOTHER group photo.



Luckily I remained handsome in both photos, so I thought it was fine.

This is Lia's camera, it's injured, hence the plaster.



And so we started boarding the waterbus.



It looks like this from the inside.



We took yet another group photo in Himiko, because, you can never get enough of those. I'm still handsome.



Niklas took my camera and showed us the joys of shooting long exposure photographs.


Impressed with what I saw, I attempted to shoot some too.



Not too clear though.

I took another, it was better.



Encouraged by the results, I snapped a few more.







Each to varying degrees of success.

In the end Lia got pretty bored with my crap photography skills.



Impatient, even.



So I stopped.

Lia decided to take my camera and show me how photos like these were really taken. And so she did. Meanwhile, Niklas, too bored with our amateurish attempts at photography, turned away.

Well, despite being kinda out of focus, I remain cute, so I will say that Lia's photo was a decent attempt.



I remember that night for its pulsating music, for the crowd of people dancing, and for the stunning scenery I saw as Himiko headed to Odaiba.

Lia swayed gracefully. An ethereal figure completely immersed into the music, disconnected from her surroundings... (until I point my camera at her, in which she would cover her face or turn away)

Niklas danced nonchalantly, occasionally he seemed as if he were brooding solemnly whilst he danced. He then scored himself some free drinks.

Nakajima performed in the end, pounding his strange-looking drum with his bare hands, sometimes so quickly that his hands became a blurry motion, the girls standing closest to him squealed in ecstasy.

The night lasted for a few hours, despite the repetition, the scenery was never boring, the glittering lights of the buildings and their kaleidoscope of colours, more luminescent when they were reflected from the surface of the sea. As the ship went back and forth between Odaiba and Hinode Pier, my mind wandered fleetingly to the the ending of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA. then I wondered whether the strobe lights were making me think seemingly unrelated things. During one of the last rounds when the Himiko docked at Odaiba, a woman puked and was carried out.



Of course I wouldn't finish this blog post without posting a video of the cruise. For the first time ever I actually had to do some edits for the videos I shot with my Panasonic DMC-LX3 camera (up until now most of the videos I shot and uploaded here had been unedited).

So, here you go.

By Lim Guan Eng If The Tang Hak Ju Land Scam Involving Undeveloped Quarry Land For A Period Of 15 Years May Finally Cost The State Government RM40 million (RM29 million + Interest), Forcible Acquisition Of Kampung Buah Pala Involving Developed Land Would Be Of A Frightening Magnitude. The Penang state government wishes to rebut the [...]

UPDATED VERSION as at 06.45am, July 2. Does the market believe what PM Najib Razak offered yesterday? What's the confidence level for Q3 under Najib? Can those sharp gains made in the past three months hold up in Q3?

June 30 marks the end of the first-half of 2009, and the start of Q3 and a critical phase of economic recovery -- it might even be further deterioration if new turbulence sets in -- that will determine Najib's survival as the Prime Minister.

With that in mind, Najib announced the removal of the longstanding quota on Malay ownership of public-listed companies, complemented with a wide staple of liberalisation measures.

Equity quota may have ended on paper. However, the equity market didn't react with jest. Bursa Malaysia took a slight dip on market close.

UPDATES: What a sluggish first day of trading for Q3!

Window dressing! Only a last minute surge in buying interests in a few selected blue-chips lifted the index out of negative territory.

According to The Edge, the index was in the red for most of today, falling to as low as 1,071.38 before gaining 0.39% or 4.16 points to end the day at 1,079.40.

ORIGINAL UPDATES

The KL Composite Index was down while other Asian markets were mostly higher at midday today, July 1.

Bursa Malaysia dipped 1.19 points to 1,074.05, with losers beating gainers nearly four to one.. Turnover was 387.46 million shares valued at RM387.54 million. There were 391 losers to 96 gainers while 178 stocks were unchanged.

The market is also abuzz with news that Maybank would see slight deterioration in non-performing loans.

For now, companies will no longer have to reserve at least 30% of their shares for the favoured Malays, who are largely cronies of Umno. However, companies will have to maintain at least 25% of their shares for sale to the general public, of which half must still be sold to Malays.

Throughout the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) since 1972, leakages of the system were serious and fatal. Millionaires were made of the few who were allotted shares and Approved Permits, but many became self-inflicted casualties in the forms of Tajuddin Ramli, Halim Saad etc.

It was Najib himself who had to swallow bitter pills and admitted that, of the RM54 billion in shares allocated between 1984 and 2005, only RM2 billion worth of shares were left in the hands of bumiputeras. In other words, under NEP, only Umnoputras triumphed.

Meanwhile, Najib said there's not going to be a third stimulus package. Food for thought.

Now that the WebOS 1.04 update on the Palm Pre appears to have fixed issues with Classic compatibility, it’s time for some good news. I’m sure many are like me who use Andre “Statcoder” Chen’s fabulous PalmOS apps (if you want to gain some insight into the Statcoder himself, do read our interview with the Statcoder part I and part II)
Anyway I am grateful that Bob Castillo once again has provided feedback that the apps (Stat Cholesterol in particular) will install now in Classic. Bob says:

Your recent blog post about your exchange with MotionApps got me thinking about the recent Palm Pre update so I tried the Statcoder app again and it still didn’t work. But I also wondered if the .prc you emailed me might have been damaged in some way. So I went directly to the Statcoder website and downloaded their cholesterol app at http://www.statcoder.com/cholesterol.htm (this is the application you wanted me to test right?) and installed it in Classic’s Install folder. (Interestingly enough, the other Install folder under the PALM/Launcher folder no longer does anything and can be deleted.)
Anyway, I’m happy to report that this application worked perfectly and have attached some screenshots of it. I hope this helps….

Bob, you made my day. I don’t think I could do without Stat Cholesterol and I am sure glad I can run this in Classic once I get my hands on a GSM Palm Pre

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Medical apps on Classic update (III)

This is how you can help your kids to overcome their phobia.

巧合还是预见? 八十年代邓小平访问美国，刚出门就被一群记者拦住了，恰翻译不在，美国记者又想考考邓小平英语，就开始提问了。 第一个问题是：美国首都是哪里 邓小平想，见面第一个问题肯定是先问姓，就用四川土话回答：我姓邓(Washington） 记者想，啊，继续问：您的夫人来了都做了什么事 邓小平想，该问名了吧，回答：小平（shopping） 记者想，这英语可以啊，来了就购物，又接着问：您如何出行 邓小平想，该问年纪了吧，回答：80（bus） 记者都说，这英语可以啊，不行，得问点难的不回答的，问：您认为台湾下任领导会是谁 邓小平怎么都等不到翻译回来，不耐烦了，说：你等会（李登辉） 记者大吃一惊，这么敏感的问题也对答如流，估计翻译也该回来 了，赶紧再问个：下个呢 邓小平已经很不高兴了，说：随便啦（水扁啦） 这时候翻译已经走过来了，记者问最后一个：二十一世纪初期人类面临的最大问题是什么 邓小平黑着脸说：啥事（SARS） 二十年后，美国记者感叹，邓小平真是一代伟人，料事如神 P/S - received this forwarded email. Enjoy…

We’ve all established that I like writing sappy stories. But where will that lead me?

I’ve made up my mind, by year end, I’ll compile all the touchy stories from day one and maybe publish it. Of course it won’t be a paperback issue, I’m too green to do that (nor do I have to capacity to do that).

I know most like Makcik Kerepek. I’ve even discussed with Bong about producing a short clip for BMWshorties. Unfortunately, we had no resource, no casts, no makcik, no equipments but plenty of kerepek. But that’s that.

So, if you have any particular writing you like (which are not mine), feel free to leave in the comment area. For the time being, I’m thinking of writing more of this genre.

Chicken Soup for Malaysian Soul? Beehh… overrated!

ps: Shesh.. I’m supposed to be this egoistic blogger, but I turned out the other way around. I guess no one can hide their true colors, even in the cyber world! Happy 1st of July!

Danijela wrote in:

We came across the article at http://palmdoc.net/?p=2443, and we wanted not only to respond to it, but to provide you with relevant info that you can use to correct the given assumptions.
The fact regarding 1.0.3 update is that Palm has omitted to include a file critical for Classic in the ROM update, which caused the issues for some users when running Classic (and after the 1.0.3 update is released).
You can learn more about this on our blog. Also, feel free to check other posts regarding this issue, as we tried to stay on the top and provide a workaround.
Back to the article: posting a user’s feedback, without trying it yourself and without contacting us (developer of Classic) has been not only irresponsible, but you allowed for language such as: “Well, I found the solution! And, MotionApp caused their own problem!” and malicious statements (again from an individual user) like: “It seems stable for now. Guess you can start answering the phones again MotionApps!”.
We do answer our phones, and currently we only do not provide telephone support to individual customers. Please always feel free to contact me to the number given below.
If you would have contacted us to check the “facts” given to you by an individual user, you would not only have the whole truth, but would also offer your readers with a professional answer to the issue.
Please check our blog, FAQ and feel free to contact us directly in the future to avoid such omissions, because it is this approach exactly where someone guessed something (without checking it with us, developer of Classic) that caused the “1.0.3 issue” in the first place.
Finally, after checking our blog and relevant FAQ, you can update your readers regarding the fact that Palm (again) has now released the 1.0.4 fixing the issues 1.0.3 caused for Classic.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions in the future and provide us with your contact info so that we can address not only issues but positive feedback as well, timely and professionally.

Regards,

Danijela

Hello Danijela.
Thanks for writing in and informing us. I appreciate developers who engage users and are open to criticism and I feel it is warranted criticism as clearly a lot of users were frustrated when the Palm 1.03 update broke Classic. Responsible developers (and I see quite a few in the forums) will engage the community outside their own website/blog and I hope to see Motionapps actively participate in the PreCentral/TreoCentral forums. I think your participation there will go a long way to allay such frustrations now and in the future. Believe me there was even stronger language in the forums which is why it is important to engage customers there.
The user community is resourceful and in fact a user responded with a quick fix before Motionapps did in their website.
Frequent BSODs are not what I would call a “good experience”. However I, and I am sure many other Palm users appreciate Motionapps’ efforts in getting the Classic app together so that our legacy apps can live on in our future WebOS devices. We users of pioneering apps do not also think that everything will work well 100% from the word go. There will be problems now and in the future, such is the nature of software and bugs. I think the onus is also on developers to monitor the forums and independent blogs - I suspect you’ll get much earlier feedback there as that’s the place many run too, apart from support from the developer. Indeed when I have faced problems with other apps I like to share it with other users in the forums (apart from opening support tickets with Motionapps). Strange as that may be but it seems the feeling of being in a “community” is a compelling factor for many.

I do not know if there are lingering issues with other PalmOS apps with the latest 1.04 update. It would be highly unusual if there weren’t any, WebOS being so new! Believe me despite these hurdles, I would get a Palm Pre NOW if a GSM version were available. For the record, I would also be off the blocks to register Classic on my Palm Pre if I had one. However I would not be so naive to think there won’t be any future issues or problems so I think the best way is to work with each other and solve the problems as they arise.

As a medical user, I would be very interested to hear how UpToDate for PalmOS fares with latest versions of Classic and WebOS as I am not aware that there is any success to date. I would be interested also to know if Statcoder apps can install onto Classic as there have also been problems. We reported earlier on problematic issues with these apps (see this and this post).

One thing I wonder if Motionapps will consider is to independently certify freeware apps. There are many useful freeware PalmOS apps, and I doubt if the original author will want to pay $99 to certify apps which he or she is giving out for free anyway. I for one will not be forking out $99 just to certify Haemoncrules!

Cheers

Palmdoc

from the Palmdoc Chronicles

Motionapps responds to criticism

高达也有温柔时？
小奥看来。

Dear Nokia,

I like your phones, and I’m happy with the S60 platform. Really, I am. It’s just that when I see iPhone users enjoy a pretty functional Wordpress client, I feel a bit sad. I know Symbian and S60 can do much better than that.

I love Wordpress. I use Wordpress to blog for this site, I use Wordpress to blog for my other tech site, and I used to use Wordpress for my personal blog. I probably will when I restart that.

I’ve tried Scribe and Wordmobi, both publicized as Wordpress clients for the S60, and I appreciate the hard work and passion their authors put into them. But let’s face it, both apps are in beta and need lots of work. They’re both limited by their dependency on Python for the S60, which by itself is pretty buggy. I’ve experienced long wait times (with no progress bars to reassure me that something is happening), time-out failures, and even the occasional socket error that unfortunately requires restarting the phone to clear.

The author of Scribe is pretty open, warning us about these problems. I am totally sympathetic to his difficulties, but I’m still basically left with no effective way to publish posts from my new Nokia N97.

Simply put, all I ask is that you spend good money to have a team develop an awesome Wordpress app for the S60 platform. Fly people in, pay for their living expenses, give them complete access to everything you’ve got on S60, and treat them like royalty—so long as they come up with something that literally redefines mobile blogging.

Then, after running it through every usability test imaginable, and making the necessary adjustments, make this Wordpress app available for free. Do the same for the source code. I’m perfectly willing to pay good money for a very good Wordpress app, since that blogging platform represents a huge chunk of my income, but I’m pretty sure making it free will attract lots of users.

As for developers, access to the source code represents a great example they can base their own efforts on, providing the programming insights and solutions they need to make their own apps equally awesome. These developers will thus gain the knowledge they need to code better, more effective apps for the Ovi Store. That means more users, and more paying customers.

In fact, why stop at Wordpress? Why not invest in other apps you know mobile users will find tremendously useful, apps that are truly special and go beyond just presenting information on-the-go? I know, I know, you’re probably waiting for third-party developers to come out with the good stuff. After all, it’s their efforts that led to great apps like Gravity, easily the best Twitter S60 client around (and definitely worth it at just over $10).

But let’s face it: Symbian isn’t as sexy as the iPhone OS. It doesn’t enjoy a visibly fervent following, even though the platform took its sweet time to provide built-in features your phones have had since time immemorial, like MMS, copy-paste, and video recording! Unless you’re willing to invest in active efforts to develop your developer community—beyond setting up online resources and forums (which are very useful, to be clear)—it will take a lot longer for the best mobile app developers to embrace your platform passionately, if at all.

As for myself, I’d be happy with just a Wordpress client that maximizes your phones’ features, free from bugs. Improve on what Scribe and Wordmobi promise but occasionally fail to deliver, like the ability to quickly integrate pictures from the media gallery into the post.

It should be so easy for me to blog from your mid- to high-end phones, especially on something as fully-featured as the N97. But it seems no one has the time—or expertise—to provide an app that makes this a very easy and straightforward process. So it’s up to you, Nokia, to deliver, to come out with your own awesome apps that developers can derive inspiration from.

Regards,
Rico Mossesgeld

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Warfare 1944 – Flash Games Download – Overview Played the original Warfare 1917 strategy flash game and enjoyed commanding various infantry units engaging in trench warfare? Well the sequel Warfare 1944 is out now and loaded with new game play features. Recruit infantry units, send them into battle, win the war!

Download Warfare 1944 (File Size ~ 8.28 MB)
Download the ZIP archive: warfare-1944.zip

Warfare 1944 – Title Menu

The new menu really seems to reflect upon the year 1944. Quite a nice touch there.

Warfare 1944 – Instructions!

Game play is more or less the same but there are some changes so do read the instructions.

Warfare 1944 – Campaign!

The U.S. Campaign is normal difficulty while the German Campaign is hard difficulty. Meh.

Warfare 1944 – Map!

Read up the mission briefing in this map screen, upgrade units or launch battle! Charge!

Warfare 1944 – Action!

The first mission is a beach assault. Casualties on the invading side is always high. Duh!

Warfare 1944 – Upgrades!

Win the battles skillfully, quickly to gain more experience points and upgrade points. Upgrade!

Deimos’s Daily Reads
No reads for today.

Deimos’s Thoughts
Graphics seems to be more or less the same as in Warfare 1917. Game engine still seems to be not really optimized like before as the frame rate seems to be low on high graphic settings.

New game play features, introducing resource points in order to recruit units into battle. Nevertheless, this Warfare 1944 is a good sequel over its predecessor Warfare 1917

Deimos Asks
Played Warfare 1917 before? Enjoyed it? Yes? No? Why?

It’s a couple of hours away to the Mac+iPod Discovery Week @ Mid Valley Centre Court. Here’s the lowdown on all you need to know for the event.

Deals

Apple Premium Reseller Machines will be offering some great deals at the Discovery Week. MacBooks (previous model) for super cheap plus lots of free gifts. Details here.

Events

The events are the real highlight of the Discovery Week. Highlights include sessions on iPhone application development by MDEC and iTrain, introduction to iPhone OS 3.0, and performances by Couple, Altered Frequency and other local bands. Full schedule here.

Booths

There are 10 booths this time around at Discovery Week–Accessories Boutique, The Service Spa, Discover iPhone 3G, App Store, iPod Station, Mac Station, Centre Stage, GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie.

I’m betting the iPhone and App Store booth will be popular. Don’t miss it! More details here.

Last of all, myMacBUZZ would like to thank Discovery Week again for sponsoring the prizes for our  user survey. Stand a chance to win an iPod shuffle 4GB by taking a 5 minute survey. Take the survey now!

Green Acres : do you still remember it? TV as it was 43 years ago complete with commercials. Compare commercials of the sixties with present day commercials. TV was white and black then, didn’t you know? How many of you still remember Green Acres, Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. Great clean entertainment of [...]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Send article as PDF to

An otherwise routine afternoon atmosphere at work changed into elation when I received a call. I had won a free two nights and three days stay at a leading hotel in town. It was a lucky draw. My whoops of excitement raised eyebrows among my colleagues. They asked me to tell them the reason for [...]

Most of us enjoyed turning our imaginations into semi-reality through Lego (and who hasn’t drooled over those large city reenactments when they were younger?). Looks like Nathan Sawaya continues doing so, at a entirely new level. Some details courtesy of Abduzeedo:

Nathan Sawaya is a New York-based artist who creates very nice pieces using some unlikely things, mostly LEGO bricks. Sawaya has some portraits, logos, large and small sculptures … all made of bricks. As you will see here, his work is very amazing since he puts together lots of bricks to form very nice and unique work. He is currently touring North American museums in a show titled The Art of the Brick, an exhibition focused exclusively on LEGO as a way of art.

Click on any image for more details on each creation, from the mouth (or hands?) of the man himself!

So much more pics follow.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Ever cracked a joke at a silly book title? Made an innuendo out of the name, smirked a bit and yet knew the book wasn’t really about that kind of closure?

Well, ever had a “ha ha” moment where you discovered that the book with the funny name was indeed about … that slightly inappropriate/weird/downright creepy topic. You know, something you wouldn’t expect anyone to write about?

Consider these examples:

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

Really? I suppose in this day and age of fraud, ponzi schemes and scheming financial guys this topic seems especially scary.

On the other hand, irrespective of the decade/era, you really don’t want to hear the following sentence - “The serial killer’s last purchase was How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found”.

How to Be a Pope: What to Do and Where to Go Once You’re in the Vatican

I fobbed it off as a sensationalist travel book but apparently … it’s all true.

This book captures the behind-the-scenes action as well as the how-to’s and what-to’s. You know, all the vital data a Pope might want to know.

The chapter descriptions are quirky and does bring out a laugh - How many outfits do you have?, Swiss guards are your friends and Papal movie collection?

Is there an emergency chapter about zombies? Just asking…

The Lesbian S/M Safety Manual

I suppose to each their own. And safety first in all matters.

And if there is a niche market - be it amongst straight or gay folks - for such safety manuals, you would publish a book for the target audience.

On a side note, I wonder if anyone will openly read this on the subway.

dmidecode and hpasmcli can be used to check HP Proliant System ROM (BIOS) version in Linux. In this example, I’m checking System ROM version of HP Proliant BL460c which is running RHEL 5.2, 1) dmidecode, provided by dmidecode package. # dmidecode 2.7 SMBIOS 2.4 present. 72 structures occupying 2245 bytes. Table at 0x000EE000. Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes. BIOS Information [...]

Finally, I have to admit Maxis and Celcom HSDPA wireless broadband have both failed me. I can't be paying premium price (RM128 and RM108 per month, respectively) in return for GPRS/EDGE quality amidst hardship in user authentication and always-on connection.

So, I succumbed to temptation to be having a trial run of 4Mbps Streamyx in my Penang apartment this Friday. At RM160 per month, fingers crossed.

Fret. Techweb China is yelling at me that China will be having 100Mbps by 2012!

This will be done via VDSL2 networks, with priority areas in Guangzhou and Fuoshan cities. Right now, VDSL networks are offering bandwidth ranging from 26 to 52Mbps.

Theoretically, with 100Mbps broadband, downloading an 8Gb Blu-Ray movie will take 80 seconds!

Read www.techweb.com.cn.

Live webcast : http://tv.dapmalaysia.org Title: “RM12.5b PKFZ Scandal: No Competency, No Accountability & No Transparency” Date: 1st July 2009 (Wed) Time: 8pm Venue: Civic Hall, Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) [MAP] Inquiry : 016-5941995 Panelists: Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader Tony Pua, MP for Petaling Jaya Utara Charles Santiago, MP for Klang Ronnie Liu, ADUN for Pandamaran, Selangor State EXCO Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad, MP for [...]

Tuan Manikavasagam a/l Sundaram (Kapar) minta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan :-

a) Apakah Kerajaan akan bercadang untuk mengurangkan kadar faedah kad kredit daripada 18% kepada 10% dan menghapuskan caj lambat bayar sebanyak 1% yang di kenakan oleh bank; dan

b) Apakah langkah-langkah yang telah diambil oleh Kerajaan untuk melindungi pengguna kad kredit daripada ditindas oleh bank dengan pelbagai caj-caj tambahan.

Jawapan

Tuan Yang Di Pertua,

Untuk makluman Yang Berhormat, kadar faedah kad kredit di Malaysia merupakan antara kadar faedah yang terendah di Asia, di mana kadar yang dikenakan oleh pengeluar kad kredit di negara lain adalah antara 18% hingga 42% setahun.

Kos perniagaan kad kredit adalah tinggi kerana ia melibatkan penggunaan infrastruktur dan rangkaian sistem antrabangsa serta melibatkan pemberian kredit kepada pengguna tanpa memerlukan jaminan atau cagaran. Oleh itu, bagi membolehkan pengguna kad menikmati kemudahan kredit secara mudah pada bila-bila masa sama ada di dalam atau luar negara , pengeluar kad kredit perlu menanggung kos berkaitan risiko kredit dan penipuan, kos pentadbiran infrastruktur serta kos pentadbiran. Bagi kos penanggungan risiko kredit, ia termasuk bayaran kredit biro, kos kutipan pembayaran balik pinjaman serta yuran dan perbelanjaan berkaitan kutipan hutang lapuk kad kredit. Di samping itu, pengeluar kad kredit mengenakan caj lewat bayar sebagai langkah bagi mengelakkan kelewatan pembayaran balik peinjaman dan sekali gus memupuk displin kewangan di kalangan pengguna.

2. Bagi menggalakan pengurusan kewangan berhemat di kalangan pengguna kad kredit di Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia telah mengeluarkan garis panduan yang menghendaki pengeluar kad kredit mengamalkan struktur kadar faedah bertingkat tiered pricing bagi kad kredit. Di bawah struktur ini, pengguna kad kredit akan dikenakan caj kewangan mengikut peringkat (tier) yang telah ditetapkan berdasarkan tabiat pembayaran balik pinjaman kad kredit pada setiap bulan.

3. Berikutan pengumuman oleh Persatuan Bank-Bank Dalam Malaysia, berkuat kuasa 31 Mac 2009, kadar faedah atau caj kewangan maksimum yang boleh dikenakan oleh institusi pengeluar kad kredit adalah 17.5% setahun atau 1.45% sebulan . Pemegang kad yang menyelesaikan sekurang-kurang jumlah minimum yang perlu dibayar setiap bulan tepat pada waktunya untuk 12 bulan berturut-turut, caj kewangan akan dikurangkan kepada tidak lebih daripada 13.5% setahun. Pemegang kad yang menyelesaikan jumlah minimum yang perlu dibayar sekurang-kurangnya 10 bulan daripada kitaran 12 bulan, caj kewangan akan dikurangkan kepada tidak lebih daripada 16% setahun. Selain daripada itu, kadar maksimum caj lewat bayar iaitu 1% dikenakan ke atas jumlah hutang tertunggak , tertakluk kepada bayaran minimum RM 10 atau maksimum sebanyak RM100, yang mana lebih tinggi, telah dikurangkan kepada minmimum RM5 dan maksimum sebanyak RM 75.

4. Di samping itu, sesetengah pengeluar kad kredit di Malaysia menawarkan kadar faedah 9% kepada pemegang kad peringkat pertama (Tier 1) mereka. Oleh itu, para pengguna mempunyai pilihan untuk memilih kad kdredit daripada pengeluar yang menawarkan kadar faedah atau pakej yang lebih rendah dan menarik.

5. Caj- caj lain yang dikenakan oleh institusi pengeluar kad kredit seperti yuran penyertaan, yuran tahunan dan yuran pendahuluan tunai bergantung kepada institusi-institusi pengeluar kad kredit berdasarkan strategi perniagaan masing-masing. Walau bagaimanapun, institusi pengeluar kad kredit perlu berpandukan kepada peraturan-peraturan yang telah ditetapkan di dalam garis panduan Bank Negara Malaysia mengenai Imposition of Fees and Charges on Banking Products and Services apabila mengenakan caj-caj tersebut

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