Vampire's Adventures

Sarawak? Sabah? Kuching?

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:29:39 +0000

I think almost all Sarawakians and Sabahans who go for studies or work in West Malaysia would experience the West Malaysians' ignorance of East M'sian geography.

You'd tell them many times that you're from Kuching, and they'll say stuff like:

"You're the one from Sabah right?"

"Sabah is in Sarawak right?"

"Kuching and Miri very near hor?"

Come on! We all study the same geography books, and we know where Ipoh, Kuantan, JB, Kangar are.

I took a flight back recently and saw this in AirAsia's in-flight magazine. Considering it is a travel magazine, the writer AND editor should get his facts right.

In case you can't read it clearly, here's what is says:

In the article "White Hot Destinations", the rainforest mentioned is in Sarawak and not Kuching as reported. Additionally, the 560km Kinabatangan River is found in Sabah and not Sarawak as reported.

Badawi

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Taken from UrbanDictionary:

badawi [baa-daa-wee] (noun):

To start something full of promises but ends in disappointment, failure and/or disaster.

Example:

1) I'm trusting you to perform this task well... don't do a badawi, ok?

2) Whatever I do, I will always find a way to have it badawised .

3) France badawied their Euro 2008 campaign. England pre-badawied theirs, while Italy were guilty of over-badawification.

i-Avenue

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:58:38 +0000

My apartment is behind i-Avenue, a row of shops.

On the ground floor near the lift, there's this glass door directly facing the car-tinting shop. Beside this shop is a Chinese restaurant.

Today, when I got out of the lift, I saw many uncooked chicken pieces outside on the tar road. Then I saw a pail beside it. I saw a guy picking up all the pieces of chicken with his hands, and putting it back in the pail.

He must be a waiter for the restaurant, and accidentally toppled the pail over while dragging it on the road. Pity the restaurant customers. Don't eat chicken at that restaurant today.

Kaki Bola

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:54:33 +0000

McDonald's Euro 2008 Full-Length Ad

This is not a paid post.

Lies

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:52:18 +0000

We can't trust the politicians. Notice the date below:

Najib quashes talk of petrol price increase
Sat, May 31, 2008
The Star

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has brushed off speculation that petrol prices will increase by 40 sen following the government’s plans to restructure the subsidy system, including the petrol subsidy.

The Deputy Prime Minister said it was untrue and baseless, particularly when the Cabinet had not discussed subsidy restructuring at its weekly meeting yesterday.

“There’s a lot of speculation and talk going around.

‘But none of it holds water. The public should not listen to rumours,” he said.

Najib said the Cabinet was supposed to discuss the restructuring of the subsidy yesterday but had to postpone it to next Wednesday as several ministers involved in the issue were absent.

He added that the decision to review the fuel subsidy was to ensure it benefited the target group, plug leakages and loopholes and stop abuse.

Najib hinted that under the new reform plan - aimed at ensuring a fair distribution of the subsidy - those with higher affordability would have to pay for “petrol closer to the market price.”

On former opposition members joining Umno, he said that according to party procedures, the supreme council would decide whether to accept them, particularly if the applicant had previously left Umno to join another party.

“In such a scenario, the headquarters will accept the application and secretary-general will present the case before the supreme council.

“The fate of their entry into Umno will be decided by the supreme council,” he said when asked to comment if it was against party rules to accept applications by former PKR leaders Anuar Shaari and Khairul Annuar Ramli to join Umno.

Free up your PC Resources

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:27:17 +0000

For Windows XP users, open up your Task Manager. Search the Mem Usage column. See those big numbers? Check what programs are running it? I am pretty sure it will be a Microsoft software. Here are some tips to free up some memory resources from your Windows XP.

1) If you are using Windows Live Messenger, remove the ads and other unnecessary Microsoft stuff using WLM Universal Patcher++. More info here.

2) If you installed Microsoft ActiveSync, but not using it often, free up its resources by toggling it off when you are not using it, and turn it on when you want to plug in your mobile device. Download it here. More info here.

3) Delete the Microsoft Office QuickStart item in the Programs>Startup>.
If there are any Adobe QuickStart, I am quite sure you can remove it too, if you don't use these software that frequently.

4) If you purchase a PC/laptop from Dell, most likely they will pre-install a lot of software for your PC model, and you won't be using most of it. If you are an advanced PC user, it's better you reinstall the OS, and install only the drivers and software that you will use.

5) If you are using Outlook Express, there are quite a lot of issues with it. I have used it for the past many years for my Hotmail, but recently upgraded to Window Live Mail, because Microsoft changed it's Hotmail POP protocol such that Outlook Express is not supported anymore. I'd say upgrade to Windows Live Mail. It's much better, but much more resource-consuming.

6) If you still insist on using Outlook Express, there is this Windows Messenger remover tool somewhere online. And there is another tool where it makes your Outlook Express loads up much faster, by removing some unnecessary checks on load.

7) Defrag your Hard Drive, especially your System/Windows partition.

8) Don't install any unnecessary add-on/plug-in to your Internet browser, unless you use it often, and you are sure it does not hijack your browser to try load some of their websites whenever possible. Example of this: Windows Live Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, etc.

9) Related to number 8. When you install Windows Live software, or Yahoo Messenger, etc, there's usually an option to install the ToolBar (checked by default). Uncheck it to not install it.

10) Remove clutter in your Start>Programs List by arranging it properly, and in your Desktop by removing any unnecessary icons. Will speed up the loading of Desktop and Start>Programs.

11) Do a Disk Cleanup for the System drive more often.

12) Oh, check your C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution/Downloads/ folder. If the size is huge (mine was 1GB), read this article. Navigate to the section "Cleaning Up After Windows Update". Follow its instruction. You nay need to temporarily stop the B.I.T.S. service, too.

13) Same website as Item 12 above. Read the section "Performance Tweaks". Disable the unnecessary File Indexing Service. Disable Unwanted Startup Programs, only if you know exactly what they are used for. Take caution.

If anyone out there has more tips, please share it with me. Thanks.

My personal project will be to remove all unnecessary processes and services in my Windows XP. I gotta understand each and every one of them first.

Fuel Price Increase

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:28:00 +0000

3rd June - Government said will announce new fuel subsidy scheme the next day.

4th June - Announced in the afternoon that price will increase from RM1.92 per litre to RM2.70, a whooping 78 cents up, a great 40.6%! And the subsidy is only RM625 a year, equivalent to 800 litres of petrol.

Let's say you pump RM150 worth of petrol per month on the old pricing. That is around 80 litres per month, 960 litres a year. Those working in KL will definitely not benefit from this.

By paying RM2.70 per litre, we will be paying a lot compared to other oil-exporting countries.

Btw, I was stuck in the jam for more than two hours after work today. The government should announce this much earlier, and prevent all the jams.

Even on such short notice, I see some motorists bringing big fuel containers to store petrol. I saw an Altis pumping close to RM200 worth of petrol into two big containers. Luckily the petrol station had enough to sell.

At other stations, some people queued for an hour or more to be told that petrol had run out.

Microsoft Installer

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:35:14 +0000

There are so so many updates for Microsoft products.
Some updates are big (>50MB).

I rather download the Update/Service Pack installer than going through Windows Update, so that's what I did.

Example, I downloaded MS SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack. Then I installed. Turned out I can't use this installer. I have to do it from Windows Update!

Had to re-download it again.

So imagine if you have so many PCs, and everyone need to do it this way.

In addition to this mess, exact Microsoft updates page are so difficult to locate.

Also, if you wanna install Windows Live Products - Messenger, Mail, etc, you are almost forced to download the full installer every time you wanna install it. There is no standalone installer. There's only the Windows Live Installer program which will download and install the final product for you.

Hate & don't use MS products if you can help it!

Boogers

Mon, 26 May 2008 01:42:58 +0000

This is interesting news I heard from my colleague:

There is an Austrian doctor, Dr. Friedrich Bischinger, a lung specialist working in Innsbruck. He believe that people who pick their noses with their fingers are healthier, happier, and more in tune with their bodies. His argument stems from the notion that exposing the body to the dried germ corpses helps to reinforce the immune system.

"With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner. And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system." He then added, "Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine."

Interesting News

Sat, 24 May 2008 21:27:23 +0000

Some interesting news from the newspapers:

Dog-Cloning

If you love your pet dog so much, you can now clone your dog. Thus, the new dog will have the same DNA, and characteristics as your old dog. But it comes with a huge price tag, of at least US$100,000.

Wolf-Whistling

In most countries, Malaysia inclusive, construction workers wolf-whistles at gals (especially attractive ones) when they are close by. In New Zealand, workers got a treat when they do their usual wolf-whistles, and the "not an unattractive looking" lady stripped for them. Persistence pays off, eh?