lokety

Fuel Price Hike in Malaysia - Justified?

2008-07-04T14:00:00.003+08:00

This is an interesting topic that has been bugging Malaysians as much as crime and corruption here.

I have tried to reduce the drama and grammatical errors but none of it is written by me. There are areas which I do not agree with or find doubtful, which I have highlighted in italics.

Enjoy!

---start---
What is never mentioned in mainstream media like NST/TheStar/Utusan/BH are these facts....

Malaysian Per Capita Income USD 5000 VS Singaporean Per Capita Income USD 25000

The Star made a comparison of prices in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.

For Thailand it is quoted at RM3.90/litre, however are they aware that in Thailand new cars are cheaper than Malaysia by RM10,000? They pay only one life time for their driving license? No renewal fee after that? Also that goes for road tax as well? And did The Star report that you can drive all the way from Hadtyai to Bangkok on a six lane highway without paying any tolls?

Here in Malaysia you have to pay yearly renewal for road tax, driving license and tolls, tolls, tolls!!!

For Singapore, how can you quote RM5.20? Please quote in Singapore Dollars because they are earning in Sing Dollars. You might as well say Europeans are paying RM10/litre. RM5.20/litre = S$2.20/litre, still cheaper than Malaysia in view of the fact that Singapore is not a crude oil exporter. Are you saying that you fill up petrol in Singapore by paying Ringgit?

In economics, dollar to dollar must be compared as apple to apple. Not comparing like durian in Malaysia is much cheaper than durian in Japan! Of course, Japan is not durian producer! Comparing Malaysian durians with Thailand durians would make more sense!

For Indonesia we might say it is cheaper there at RM2.07/litre but compare that to their level of income!

Now, let us compare the price with oil producing countries:

UAE - RM1.19/litre
Eygpt - RM1.03/litre
Bahrain - RM0.87/litre
Qatar - RM0.68/litre
Kuwait - RM0.67/litre
Saudi Arabia - RM0.38/litre
Iran - RM0.35/litre
Nigeria - RM0.32/litre
Turkmenistan - RM0.25/litre
Venezuela - RM0.16/litre
Malaysia - RM2.70/litre

RM 2.70!!! Individual perspective:

As of last month, a Toyota Vios would cost about RM89,000. In the international market, a Toyota Vios is about USD19,000 or RM62,700 (using the indicative rates of USD1 = RM 3.30). That makes Malaysian Vios owners pay an extra RM26,300.

This RM26,300 should be cost of operations, profit and tax because the transportation costs have been factored in to the USD19,000. RM26,300/ RM625 petrol rebate per year translates to a Vios being used for 42.08 years.

I do understand that the RM 625 is a rebate given by the Malaysian Government, but it also means that one has to use the Vios for 42.08 years just to make back the amount paid in taxes for the usage of a foreign car. Would anyone use any kind of car for that long?

Now with these numbers in front of us, does the subsidy sound like one or does it sound like a penalty? This just seems to be a heavy increment in our daily cost of living as we are not only charged with high car taxes but also with a drastic increase in fuel price.

With all the numbers listed out, I urge all Malaysians to join me in analyzing the situation further.

Car taxation is Government's profit, fuel sales is Petronas' (GLC) profit which also translates into Government's profit. The Government may ridicule us Malaysians by saying look at the world market and fuel price world wide. Please, we are Malaysians, we fought off the British, had a international port in the early centuries (Malacca), built a home to a racially mixed nation and we are not stupid!!!

We know the international rates are above the USD 130/barrel. We understand the fact that the fuel prices are increasing worldwide and we also know that major scientists are still contradicting one another on why this phenomenon is happening. Some blame Bush and his plunders around the world and some blame climate change and there are others who say petroleum sources are getting scarce.

Again we go back to numbers to be more straight forward.

1 barrel = 159 litres x RM2.70/litre = RM429 or USD134

On one hand, we are paying the full cost of one barrel of crude oil with RM2.70 per litre but on the other hand the crude oil only produces 46% of fuel.

Malaysia sells crude oil per barrel at USD130 and buys back fuel per barrel at USD134. And not forgetting, every barrel of fuel is produced with two barrels of crude oil. 1 barrel crude oil = produce 46% fuel (or half of crude oil), therefore 2 barrel crude oil = approximately 1 barrel fuel. In other words, each time we sell 2 barrels of crude oil, equivalently we will buy back 1 barrel of fuel.

Financially, Malaysia sell 2 barrels of crude oil @ USD130/barrel = USD260 = RM858 then, Malaysia will buy back fuel @ USD134/barrel = RM442/barrel. Thus, Malaysia earn net extra USD126 = RM416 for each 2 barrels of crude sold/exported vs imported 1 barrel of fuel!!! (USD 260-134 = USD 126 = RM416).

So, where is the extra USD126/barrel income being channeled to by the Malaysian Government?

Another analysis:

1 barrel crude oil = 159 litres.
46-47% of a barrel of crude oil = fuel that we use in our vehicles
46% of 159 = 73.14 litres
RM 2.70/litre x 73.14 litres = RM197.48 of fuel per barrel of crude oil

This is only 46% of the barrel, mind you. Using RM3.30 = USD1, we get that a barrel of crude oil produces USD59.84 worth of petrol fuel (46% of a barrel). USD59.84 of USD130/barrel turns out to be 46% of a barrel as well.

Another 54% consists of bitumen, kerosene, and natural gases and others. This makes a balance of USD 70.16 that has not been accounted for.

Where is the subsidy if we are paying 46% of the price of a barrel of crude oil when the production of petrol/barrel of crude oil is still only 46%?

In fact, we still pay for this as they are charged in the forms of fuel surcharge by airlines and road taxes for the building of roads (because they use the tar/bitumen) and many more but let us just leave all that out of our calculations.

As far as I know, only the politicians who live in Putrajaya and attend their Parliament meetings in Kuala Lumpur (approximately 60km+) are the ones to gain as they claim their fuel and toll charges from the taxpayers' money.

It is so disappointing to see this happen time and time again to the Malaysian public, where they are deceived by the propaganda held by the politicians and the controls they have over the press.

Which stupid idiot economist equates rebates for rich or poor with the engine capacity of the vehicles? An average office clerk may own a second hand 1300cc Proton Iswara costing RM7,000 (rebate = RM625) while a Datuk's children can own a fleet of 10 new BMW, Audi and Volvo cars all less than 2000cc but costing RM2 millions and getting a total rebate of RM625 x 10 = RM6,250!

Misleading concept of subsidy:

The word "subsidy" has been brandished by the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government as if it has so generously helped the rakyat and in doing so incurred losses. This simple example will help to explain the fallacy:

Example:

Ahmad is a fisherman. He sells a fish to you at $10 which is below the market value of $15. Let's assume that he caught the fish from the abundance of the sea at little or no cost. Ahmad claims that since the market value of the fish is $15 and he sold you the fish for $10, he had subsidised you $5 and therefore made a loss of $5.

Question: Did Ahmad actually make a profit of $10 or loss of $5 which he claimed is the subsidy?
Answer: Ahmad makes a profit of $10 which is the difference of the selling price ($10) minus the cost price ($0 since the fish was caught from the abundance of the sea). There is no subsidy as claimed by Ahmad.

The BN Government claims that it is a subsidy because the oil is kept and treated as somebody else's property (you know who). By right, the oil belongs to all citizens of the country and the Government is a trustee for the citizens. So as in the above simple example, the BN Government cannot claim that it has subsidised the citizens!
---end---

Technorati Tags: fuel price, malaysia, fuel hike, petrol price, petrol subsidy, petrol rebate, malaysia economics, road tax, road toll, crude oil

PPCP Online Experience Update & Closure

2008-05-01T08:19:00.003+08:00

For those who have read my previous post on the customer service experience from PPCP Online, here is an update and closure on the matter.

About a week after I raised my opinion on the experience, one of the owners, Nat, of the online store called me again. He repeatedly apologized on behalf of the store for the inconvenience caused to me, and positively arranged for the replacement unit of the Stetige tripod to be personally delivered to me.

He also explained that there was a lack of units during the Chinese festive season earlier and was not able to respond to my needs in time. I told him that the least they could have done was to tell me the truth in a timely manner, so that I wouldn't have flared up.

True to Nat's word, the replacement unit was delivered on time. To my surprise, a small gift was included in the unit. The unit itself turned out to be in good condition and performed better than the first one.

In conclusion, I still believe in good customer service, whether online or in the Real World. Whether the customer is right does not matter, but communication and positive-thinking are more important. I do appreciate PPCP Online's effort and will consider to continue shopping there.

Technorati Tags: product review, customer service, stetige, tripod, ppcp online

Malaysia Government Cabinet Lineup 2008

2008-03-18T12:41:00.011+08:00

Prime Minister - Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Deputy Prime Minister - Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister - Mustapa Mohamed
Defence Minister - Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister - Shahrir Samad
Education Minister - Hishammuddin Hussein
Energy, Water and Communications Minister - Shaziman Abu Mansor
Entrepreneurial and Cooperative Development Minister - Noh Omar
Federal Territories Minister - Zulhasnan Rafique
Finance Minister - Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Finance Minister (2nd) - Nor Mohamed Yakcop
Finance Minister (Deputy) - Husni Hanadzlah (formerly International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister) and Kong Cho Ha (Science, Technology and Innovation Deputy Minister)
Foreign Affairs Minister - Dr Rais Yatim (formerly Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister)
Health Minister - Liow Tiong Lai
Higher Education Minister - Khaled Nordin
Housing and Local Government Minister - Ong Ka Chuan
Human Resources Minister - Dr S Subramaniam
Information Minister - Ahmad Shabery Cheek
Internal Security and Home Affairs Minister - Syed Hamid Albar
International Trade and Industry Minister - Muhyiddin Yassin
International Trade and Industry Minister (Deputy) - Liew Vui Keong and Jacob Dungau
National Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister - Shafie Apdal
Natural Resources and Environment Minister - Douglas Unggah Embas
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister - Peter Chin Fah Kui
Rural and Regional Development Minister - Muhammad Muhammad Taib
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister - Dr Maximus Ongkili
Tourism Minister - Azalina Othman
Transport Minister - Ong Tee Keat (formerly Deputy Higher Education Minister)
Women, Family and Community Development Minister - Dr Ng Yen Yen
Works Minister - Mohd Zin Mohamad
Youth and Sports Minister - Ismail Sabri Yaacob

Out

Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz (formerly International Trade and Industry Minister)
Datuk Seri Radzi Sheik Ahmad (formerly Home Affairs Minister)
Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid (formerly Natural Resources and Innovation Minister)
Datuk Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis (formerly Science, Technology and Innovation Minister)
Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor (formerly Tourism Minister)
Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting (formerly Housing and Local Government Minister)
Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (formerly Human Resources Minister)

Total number of Ministers: 27 (from 32)

Technorati Tags: malaysia, government, cabinet, politics, minister, lineup

PPCP Online Pathetic Customer Service - DO NOT BUY

2008-03-08T07:04:00.003+08:00

I ordered a Stetige tripod from www.perfectpixelcameraparts.com on 29 January 2008. It was delivered quickly, just one or two days later.

However, the unit that I started using broke down after a few days of use. When I pulled open the legs, one of the legs' locking bracket broke apart and became loose. As a result, this leg was unable to open to the fixed position anymore.

I started contact the store on 9 February 2008 to ask for a replacement unit. Jeremy Tan from the store confirmed that once the Chinese New Year period was over and new stock arrived, he would deliver the replacement.

On 19 February 2008, I wrote to orders@perfectpixelcameraparts.com and info@perfectpixelcameraparts.com to request for an update since I had not heard from them since early February. Jeremy said he would contact me again within a week.

Up till 7 March 2008, I have not heard from Jeremy anymore. It has been more than a month since I last used the tripod and I have not been able to get a replacement unit.

I seriously do not recommend PCCP Online as a retail merchant because:

contacting and communicating with them is difficult
do not honor dates
poor order fulfillment and defects replacement

Nat and Jeremy Tan from www.perfectpixelcameraparts.com are not retail people that you want to spend your money on. They are unreliable and slow. Do not buy anything from their store unless you want to suffer high risk of customer dissatisfaction when your order breaks.

Bear in mind, I still have faith in the quality of the product, but it is the utter failure of customer service that the store shows.

Save time and money and avoid buying anything from PPCP Online, www.perfectpixelcameraparts.com.

Technorati Tags: product review, customer service, stetige, tripod, ppcp online, bad review, poor customer service

Google Adsense Referral Ad Changes

2008-01-09T10:48:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday, Talia Brodecki from Google Adsense Product Marketing, announced that two impending changes to Google Adsense Referral ads. If you, as the publisher, live in North America, Latin America, or Japan, there will be no more sign-up bonus and less earnings for referring a user to Adsense. Check out the link above for more explanation.

The second and more relevant change to me is that publishers outside of the three regions listed above, you will not be able to promote Adsense as referrals. When this change takes effect at the end of January, you may still continue to promote referrals for other products listed in your account under "Adsense Setup" -> "Get Ads" -> "Referrals" (see below).

I have been showing referral ads for third-party advertisers using this sort of Adsense ads, and I have to admit they have not been successful at all. Perhaps the conversion criteria of advertisers have never been met as they usually require the visitor to purchase products or signup for services. Thus, I prefer to show Google-related referrals, such as Adsense, AdWords, Google Pack, and Firefox plug Google Toolbar, because their conversion is more attractive and their target audience is more global.

Getting visitors to switch web browsers from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox is the most satisfying because I've been a strong advocate of Firefox. If you're not on Firefox, you're missing out on the superior page rendering and extensive functionalities of this open-source browser. Click on the link on the right to download Firefox!

Back to Adsense referrals, unless you have a blog topic related to helping publishers monetizing their sites, I'd recommend you avoid promoting such referrals at all. Google Pack is a good choice as the software pack is very useful for common Internet users.

Technorati Tags: google, google adsense, advertisement, referral, referral ad, adsense referral, make money

Made Three-Figure Income with Google Adsense

2008-01-05T15:56:00.000+08:00

After a long time of waiting for my Google Adsense publisher earnings to accumulate, I've finally received my first payment from Google via Western Union Quick Cash method. The feeling of getting paid a three-figure for publishing online ads is satisfying and honorable. It's not often that I get noticed by a billion-dollar company once in a while. :)

For most of us publishers residing in Asia where Western Union remittance is common, I'd recommend using Western Union Quick Cash to get paid easily. In your Google Adsense account, go to "My Account" -> "Account Settings" -> "Payment Details", select "Setup Western Union Quick Cash" and follow the wizard.

If you have set for payment to be released (under "My Account" -> "Payment History"), your earnings will be sent to you by the end of the month after your account balance reaches your payment threshold (usually US$50). I saw that mine was issued on 24 December 2007, but I didn't realize until I checked the page a week later. Somehow, Google Adsense did not notify me by e-mail, which I expected.

You will be able to see the payment details in this page, such as the payment date, money transfer control number (MTCN), and payment amount. Print out a statement of these details by clicking on the link at the bottom "Statement of Earnings". Go to your nearest Western Union branch with these details and a government/state issued identity document. Fill up the Western Union Money Transfer "To receive money" form, where you will need to use the printed statement for the sender (Google) details such as its address and MTCN.

Here is the form from CIMB Bank Malaysia which has Western Union services in most, if not all, branches. CIMB is, like most other banks in Malaysia, horrendously slow. I had to wait more than an hour with four customers ahead of me.

Western Union and the bank takes a cut of about 0.9%, according to the prevailing US currency exchange rate. They pay cash in local currency.

Some of you may ask, what are my tips for making money using Google Adsense. I'll share three tips here.

Build a good source of content that is fresh, relevant, and pleasantly-presented. Remember that ads are meant to help lead visitors to useful products and services which will make the experience of going to your site more valuable.
Optimize the context and placement of the ads (e.g. using "google_ad_section" tags), check out Google Adsense Help for more information on how. Large rectangles, vertical banners and link units are the best, YMMV.
Make use of channels to help monitor the performance of different types of ads (according to site, format, placement, etc.) so that you can take action as per tip #2.

I've yet to see my earnings payment from Nuffnang Malaysia, but meanwhile if you have a good experience with Google Adsense or more tips on using Google Adsense, share them here by adding a comment.

Technorati Tags: google, google adsense, make money, earnings payment, western union, quick cash, money transfer control number, cimb bank, ad earnings

Nuffnang's Nifty Video Ads

2007-12-18T21:56:00.000+08:00

On my Malaysia Crime Watch site, I noticed that ads integrator Nuffnang has started displaying video ads in the 336x280 rectangle format. This is simliar to Google Adsense's video units which is currently only available to United States publishers.

The design of the video ad looks very neat and integrated, very much like Youtube's design with a play button in the middle. The initial loading of the video stream is quite instant, typically starts playback in under five seconds. The video just ends and returns the cursor to the beginning.

I experienced a section of the video in the middle where it just jammed and refused to continue. I could only forward to a later point and continue viewing. Another small issue is that there does not seem to be any volume or mute control. The biggest question is: Where can I click to go to the advertiser's website?

I think it's a very good step forward for Malaysian online advertising with Nuffnang leading the way for advertising networks here. With online video being so popular, site visitors will be more compelled to view such ads and know more about the product or service. Nice work, Nuffnang.

The subject of the video is actually quite funny and is part of a series from a local service provider. Go take a look and have a little laugh. :)

Technorati Tags: nuffnang, advertisement, video ad, video unit, make money

Google Adsense Rotating Leaderboard Ads

2007-12-14T17:18:00.000+08:00

Google Adsense has started putting rotating text ads for the 728x90 leaderboard format. For visitors, they will see two small arrow buttons on the bottom left of the ad space, as shown below. This was captured from my Malaysia Crime Watch Forum site.

Clicking on the right arrow button causes the current ads to slide and fade off to the right, and a new set of ads appear in their place. Note the mouse icon on the next screenshot.

The feature allows visitors to browse five sets of ads, so on the fifth click, only the right arrow button can be clicked, as shown below.

The loading of the next set of ads is quite fast and unobtrusive. When a set has been loaded before, it is cached and loads faster subsequently. It is very convenient to use, but perhaps more can be done to attract visitors to the buttons. Maybe Google Adsense should allow us publishers to specify the onbutton and offbutton colors.

This new feature gives publishers' sites more ad value as visitors get to see more ads without the site being cluttered up by numerous ad spaces. Perhaps the click value is less for the sets of ads other than the initially displayed one. Another suggestion for the Google Adsense team is to give publishers the option to automatically rotate the ads so that visitors can be easily attracted to the ad space.

I have also initiated my first payout instructions for Google Adsense and Nuffnang Malaysia yesterday. I'll be sharing the exciting news on my revenue gained from these advertising platforms when I receive the money over the next few weeks.

Technorati Tags: google, google adsense, leaderboard ad, rotating ad, arrow button, nuffnang, make money

Network Market Your Blog, Get Exponential Exposure

2007-09-19T00:27:00.000+08:00

Network marketing is a powerful and fast way to gain exposure to a product or service. Using a hierarchical network of referrals, people can quickly spread the news of the product or service.

Now imagine the same kind of system for blogs.

This is what BlogRush is designed for. When you create an account with BlogRush and set up a widget on your blogs, fellow blog owners who sign up with BlogRush under you contribute to your own reach in the blogosphere. Each widget impression in your blogs and those under you give you credit, which in turn gives you more traffic to your blogs by means of widget links in other related blogs. The effect of impressions ripples down ten generations below you, each lower one with less impression-to-credit ratio than the previous level.

Take a look at the widget in this blog along the sidebar. These links are contextually selected by the system to be relevant to this blog. Each impression here earns me a link in some other blog's BlogRush widget.

Thus, your blogs gains exposure exponentially as your downline (a popular term in network marketing) grows both horizontally and vertically. It also adds value to your blogs as it gives more options for your readers as to what other related content may be available elsewhere.

One suggestion for the BlogRush folks: allow us to customize the design and size of the widget. Thanks!

See your blogs' traffic grow by signing up with BlogRush today. If you choose "News & Media" or "Technology" as the type of blog you own, I may be pushing a new source of readers and traffic to your blog very soon!

Links

BlogRush
<URL:http://www.blogrush.com/r85147044>

Technorati Tags: blog, network marketing, blogrush, blog traffic, increase traffic, promote blog, blog syndication

Refinance Your Home Loan Regularly in Malaysia

2007-08-23T13:12:00.000+08:00

If you're a home owner with a bank loan in your property in Malaysia, have you checked if your current rate is still competitive? The loan market in Malaysia has been very healthy and changes quite significantly every six months.

Although the base lending rate (BLR) has steadily increased over the past few quarters, banks are coming up with new packages that are even attractive to current loaners. Some offer 1 to 3 percent interest rates for the first 1 to 5 years, while others continue to promote consistently lower than BLR rates, as low as BLR -2 percent.

Refinancing a home loan is even tangible for those that are less than the agreed period, typically five years, where termination comes with a monetary penalty. Competition has resulted in competing banks offering positive savings even after paying the penalty to your current bank.

A newer trend in home loans or mortgage loans is in attaching a cash deposit account that is linked to the loan. This encourages you to deposit your savings and income to the account, which is then used by the bank as collateral to reduce the daily interest charged on the balance of your home loan. As long as you maintain and/or add more funds into the account, the home loan interest is significantly reduced on a daily basis. In the end, you can effectively reduce your loan tenure by a few years! By the way, you also have the flexibility to withdraw from the account, just like your standard expenses account.

Review and refinance your home loan every few years because such products from the banks change often. Just like the credit business, debts are big dollar business for banks and financial institutions.

My current bank was not particularly keen on keeping customers when I called to enquire if I can enjoy the better terms on newer loan packages that it was offering. When they said they could not help me at all, I decided to look elsewhere for better rates. Another lesson I learnt is that the international banks are more aggressive in their offerings compared to the local banks, a good sign and wake-up call for the laggard banks here.

A good site to learn more on how you can save interests on home loans and consolidate debts to be more financially free, I recommend Rebuild.org. The site offers tips and links to loan products that may just save you years of interest, the number one enemy (and sometimes friend) to your personal wealth.

Technorati Tags: paid post, loan, mortgage, home loan, refinance, interest rate, base lending rate, bank loan

News - From nntp to rss

2007-08-17T06:32:00.000+08:00

Over ten years ago when Netscape was the de facto standard and finger was not a rude thing to do, I got started in the news and discussion addiction using nntp, or Network News Transfer Protocol.

Think of nntp as the ancestor of rss, or Really Simple Syndication (really). A network of nntp servers would be available for you to access and browse the discussion channels available. The number of channels during those days were in tens of thousands, from Apple to camping, Star Trek to Microsoft. Each channel has a thread of replies to one another with each message looking very much like an e-mail. The messages are just text-based, with the occasional text-encoding of binaries such as warez and pictures.

Those were the humble and sometimes underground days when news and data were quietly exchanged between people all over the world. Browsers were not favoured yet, and ftp was like the Internet jet engine of file sharing. I remember this was the way we used to get antivirus and browser updates from McAfee and Netscape respectively.

The program which I used to talk nntp was from Forte, called Free Agent for Windows 95. It was a simple three-frame Windows interface that worked well to deliver news. However, just like the news of today, I easily got flooded with news. Now, Forte seems to only have Agent commercially and it supports e-mail as well.

In 2007, we have Google Reader, which combines fancy http push (AJAX) and good 'ol frames. It can automatically update the news as they are published from blogs, newspapers and corporations. You can tag and categorize news. Best of all, it uses the familiar vi command set (e.g. j for down, k for up). Just like other Google apps, it is very accessible since it is web-based.

Just like a decade ago, look at the volume of news I go through... it's crazy in this information age.

Links:

Wikipedia - Network News Transfer Protocol
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nntp>

Forte
<URL:http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php>

Google Reader
<URL:http://www.google.com/reader/>

Technorati Tags: review, software, nntp, news, forte, free agent, rss, google reader

Transformers Movie Review - Rated Five Cubes

2007-07-13T00:32:00.001+08:00

One of my major childhood fantasies, among cars and firearms, were robots. After watching countless Japanese robot serials and plans to buy those plastic kits from Bandai, I formed an imaginary 10-metre tall robot in my mind. He would always be around me, keeping me safe from harm, bullies and sometimes school.

When the first movie trailer came out last year for Transformers, I was excited like an electro-mechanical arm on an over-charged actuator. I could not imagine how cool and realistic director Michael Bay would bring my childhood robot heroes to life and among realistic scenes. Would it be completely computer animated? Luckily, that was not so...

Sacrificing my wife's precious spa time (thank you baby!), I caught what is definitely one of my top five movies on 11 July 2007. It rocked and I was blown away!

The movie introduced a young man called Sam Witwicky who became involved in a war between alien robots from a distant planet Cybertron. He meets up with Bumblebee, disguised as a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, who introduces him to the rest of his crew, the Autobots, including their leader Optimus Prime, a Peterbilt truck. Meanwhile, the evil Decepticons managed to track Sam, who is wanted by both sides as he holds the coordinates to the Allspark cube, an object of immense power that could change the fate of planet Earth. Sam later gets help from his crush, Mikaela Banes, US Army Special Ops soldiers, Department of Defense people, and several computer hackers to keep the Allspark from landing into the wrong robotic hands.

The computer graphics, meticulously rendered by Industrial Light and Magic, were very high quality and natural. One scene had Bumblebee at an industrial site moving and changing into the Camaro very realistically. I liked the natural movements of the Autobots when they were at Sam's house, very likely done using live motion capture.

Try to get cinema seats at the back though, because most of the animation were at close shots, making it difficult to watch if you sit too close. The energy cannons and slow motion / kung fu styled shots are very cool and realistic. Excellent to keep a special edition DVD in the near future. ;)

Bumblebee developed a likeable character similar to the original cartoon series where he was very close to humans, but they decided to make his voice disabled for most of the movie. Optimus Prime was grand and realistic in his usual way, making him a very accessible hero that adults and kids will idolize. I was disappointed that Megatron did not morph into the Walther P38 pistol but an alien jet, but I guess it would make the Decepticons' interaction in the movie restrictive. As a child, I loved to watch Decepticon Soundwave for his metallic monotonous voice, but he was not included in this movie.

Not to worry, as it has been confirmed that at least one sequel is planned in the future, which will definitely break movie records that this one has already set. Although it has become a very successful release for Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, it is still a guy movie and for fans of the cartoon series. There are enough explosions, guns, vehicles, and military stuff than executive producer Steven Spielberg had ever been involved in. As such, I wouldn't recommend kids below the age of 3 to watch, as they may get overly excited and violent after watching.

Of course, after watching the robot movie, I couldn't miss checking out the merchandise like the toy collections from Hasbro and the video game. Check out the link below for lots of very impressive computer animation from "Transformers: The Game". My possible target is the detailed and beautifully sculpted Bumblebee Unleashed figure, unless Sideshow Toys decides to take on the Transformers series with metal sculptures of the robots (hint!!!).

This movie deserves five Allspark cubes for a good balance of action, humour and drama, almost perfect and very realistic computer animation, impressive sound effects, and an enjoyable soundtrack. Even my boy adores the robots - he's got Jazz and Barricade!

Links:

Internet Movie Database - Transformers
<URL:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/>

Wikipedia - The Transformers
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers>

Gametrailers.com - Transformers: The Game
<URL:http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=4769>

Technorati Tags: review, movie, movie review, transformers, autobots, decepticons, optimus prime, megatron, cybertron, allspark, bumblebee, robots, alien, hasbro

Over-Generous Taxpayers or Defective Calculators?

2007-06-15T10:53:00.000+08:00

The Income Revenue Board (IRB) in Malaysia has announced that they have in excess of RM4 billion of tax revenue that shall be returned to 380,000 taxpayers this year.

The way the tax system works here for wage earners is that IRB automatically takes an estimated cut of their salaries every payday until the end of the financial year. After some serious number crunching and nipping a little interest from the coffers, IRB calculates the actual difference. Depending on the calculations, a taxpayer may have to give the difference to the authority or receive a refund around this time of the year.

Now, applying the classic principle of 90/10, this is how much an average taxpayer is getting back this year:

(0.1 * RM4,000,000,000) / (0.9 * 380,000) = RM1169.59

What do you know... I'm getting even less than the average!

Something must be wrong with their calculations. Perhaps they need the extra revenue for more accurate floating point calculators? ;)

Check out these links for some good reading, especially the Wikipedia one which has more links.

Links:

Too Much - A First-Ever Look at Wealth in the World
<URL:http://www.cipa-apex.org/toomuch/articlenew2006/Dec7a.html>

Wikipedia - Income disparity
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_disparity>

Technorati Tags: income tax, taxpayer, malaysia tax, salary, income disparity, wealth distribution, income revenue board

Saving Energy Reduces Greenhouse Gas Output

2007-05-29T12:21:00.000+08:00

Global warming has been proven to be caused by human production of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Coal-powered power generators are widely used, which contribute to these gases. If we were to reduce our reliance on such power supplies, we can change the amount of greenhouse gases that are spewed into the atmosphere.

Changing incandescent light bulbs to more energy efficient alternatives help considerably. Incandescent light bulbs convert 90% of its electricity consumption to heat and last less than 1000 hours. Compact fluorescent (otherwise known as energy saving) light bulbs (CFL) uses chemical reaction of phosphor powder and mercury to produce light. CFLs are 90% energy efficient and last years. A 15 watt CFL luminance output is equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent light bulb, which translates to energy savings of US$30 over the lifetime of the bulb. Light emitting diodes (LED) lighting can last 10 years, are very durable and does not contain poisonous mercury. However, they are still quite expensive and are more suitable for focused lighting as opposed to diffused lighting.

It has been estimated that if there is a worldwide effort to move away from incandescent bulbs, 270 500-megawatt coal power plants can be shut down. The Natural Resources Defense Council of USA estimates that changing to CFLs would reduce greenhouse gases by 1 trillion pounds.

Philips Lighting CEO quoted reports that estimate that if more of Europe use energy efficient lighting, the annual running cost savings would be around 4.3 billion euros or 28 million tons of carbon dioxide reduced per year. This equates to 50 million barrels of oil per year. Using better lighting solutions would lead to less taxes payable for energy use, drive down the use of hazardous chemicals such as mercury.

Several countries and US states are proposing bans on incandescent light bulbs to make way for more energy efficient lighting.

If you are unsure if you are using and buying energy efficient light bulbs (and other electrical and electronic products), look out for the ENERGY STAR logo and label. Products that bear this label have been qualified by the Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Links:

TreeHugger - Ban the Bulb
<URL:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/ban_the_bulb.php>

CNET.com - FAQ Guide to indoor lighting
<URL:http://news.com.com/FAQ+Guide+to+indoor+lighting/2100-11392_3-6186790.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news>

GE Consumer and Industrial Lighting - GE Lighting ENERGY STAR Program
<URL:http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/energy_star.htm>

Philips Sustainability
<URL:http://www.philips.com/about/sustainability/Index.html>

ENERGY STAR
<URL:http://www.energystar.gov/>

Technorati Tags: global warming, do no evil, energy saving, energy efficient, carbon emissions, fluorescent light, incandescent light, cfl, greenhouse gases, save energy, efficient lighting, energy star

Stop the Hunting of Seals in Canada!

2007-04-18T15:18:00.000+08:00

Can you imagine babies beaten to death by fellow humans? Can you hear their cries and tears when they are hit with sticks and sharp weapons? Can you see the blood splashed all over and forming scarlet trails on the ground?

If you find those thoughts disgusting, shameful and extremely immoral, this is happening right now northeast of Newfoundland, where sealers will kill 70 percent of the 270,000 seals the Canadian government is allowing this year. Commercial seal hunting involves many seal pups who were clubbed or shot. They were almost entirely covered with white fur, meaning they were just a couple of weeks old.

Seals are being hunted when it is the low season for to fish to Canadian seafood. Such seafood includes crabs and other shellfish.

When the buying stops, so will the killing. Show your support to stop the seal hunting by refusing to buy Canadian seafood. As a consumer, you have the power to influence the market demand for such products to save the innocent and precious wildlife that forms the beauty of this world.

Check out the link to sign your pledge to support the movement and promotion material. Save the beautiful seals from inhumanity.

Links:

Humane Society of the United States, The - Stop Canada's Cruel Seal Hunt
<URL:http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html>

Perform Satistical Operations on Columns in CSV Files

2007-03-07T00:31:00.000+08:00

This is a simple but powerful way to process files in Unix, using the humble program awk.

To calculate sum or average of a numerical column of a comma separated file, create a text file like so:

BEGIN { FS = "," }
{ s += $3 }
END { printf "sum = %.2f, avg = %.2f, hits = %d\n", s, s/NR, NR }

Use your creative juices to save it with a meaningful name, say, test.awk.

Call awk with this file, like so:

awk -f test.awk mycsvfile.csv

You should see the sum, average and number of lines processed. In this example, it is assumed that the values in each line are separated by commas, and the numerical column is the third one.

For more information on awk, RTFM or Google it.

Technorati Tags: programming, unix, awk, comma separated values, csv, sum, average, statistical

Speed Up Performance of Mozilla Firefox

2007-02-19T13:14:00.000+08:00

There are some tweaks that you can put in the Mozilla Firefox web browser to speed up your web user experience. Pages will render faster using more simultaneous connections, prefetching and other tricks.

In a blank Firefox window, enter "about:config" in the location bar. Some of the preferences below already exist, and you can check if they are there by typing the beginning in the "Filter" line. If a preference exists, you can change its value by double-clicking on it in the list. If a preference does not exist, right click on the window and select either "New", then the appropriate "Type". Enter the value and press "Enter".

No.	Preference	Type	Value	Description
1	network.http.pipelining	boolean	true	send multiple http requests before receiving any responses
2	network.http.pipelining.maxrequests	integer	8	as previous
3	network.http.proxy.pipelining	boolean	true	as previous
4	network.dns.disableIPv6	boolean	true	disable IPv6 DNS servers' bug of returning IPv4 addresses for IPv6 requests
5	content.interrupt.parsing	boolean	true	allow browser to respond to UI events by interrupting parsing of a page
6	content.notify.interval	integer	750000	as previous
7	content.switch.threshold	integer	750000	as previous
8	nglayout.initialpaint.delay	integer	0	set time delay from initial page loading to the first page that is rendered
9	browser.cache.memory.capacity	integer	65536	memory size used for storing pages for instant recall

Restart Firefox to make the changes take effect.

If you are not comfortable with messing with the above and/or want more complex enhancements, try the Fasterfox extension for Firefox. It can prefetch links, tweak network settings, and block popups created by Adobe Flash.

List of options in Fasterfox (bold means described earlier):

Enhanced prefetching
Page load timer
Memory cache
Disk cache
DNS cache expiration
DNS cache entries
Max. connections
Max. connections per server
Max. persistent connections per server
Max. persistent connections per proxy
Pipelining
Pipelining first request
Proxy pipelining
Max. pipelining requests
Initial paint delay
Submenu delay
Disable popups from plugins

Related post:

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1 Web Browser Released
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/12/mozilla-firefox-2001-web-browser.html>

Links:

Fasterfox
<URL:http://fasterfox.mozdev.org/>

Download Firefox
<URL:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=187103&t=213>

Technorati Tags: firefox, mozilla firefox, web browser, firefox hacks, firefox tips, speed up, fasterfox, pipelining, prefetching

Get paid cash to review posts on this site

2007-02-12T13:49:00.000+08:00

I'm with an ad network called PayPerPost.com (PPP). Its sponsors pay me when I review a product or service that I'm interested in or have had experience with. I think it's a great way to share something that I like and get some reimbursement for it.

Now PPP has an even better way to attract like-minded people like you to its network. If you have something to say about my posts, sign up with PPP and review my posts in your website. When you do this, you get paid US$7.50 via Paypal.com! This feature is known as "Review My Post" and you can get started by choosing posts that interest you and click on the "GET PAID TO REVIEW MY POST" button at the end of the posts.

Of course, I don't mind if your review is negative, as I welcome all feedback except spam, which is what I usually get in my guestbook on my main site. The main purpose of this feature is to generate more traffic for both parties, and of course, the network. There may be minimum review requirements, like minimum number of words, web links to add, and minimum Google PageRank. Don't worry, once you get the hang of reviewing and getting paid, it becomes too easy to link your topics and what the network has to offer.

PPP's affiliate program features both this "Review My Post" and "Referral Program". I think these are two great ways for PPP members to generate publishing income further than the sponsored posts. I suggest that PPP creates more colours and styles for those buttons for us to choose from, to better blend with our sites' styles.

Technorati Tags: payperpost, sponsor network, review post, review, paid, money

Print Unix File Timestamp Accurate Down to Seconds

2007-01-31T14:06:00.000+08:00

As most of us know and need, ls -l shows us detailed information about files in a directory.

someone@somewhere:/opt/mozilla/icons $ ls -l
total 32
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin bin 1668 Mar 5 2004 mozicon16.xpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin bin 2944 Mar 5 2004 mozicon50.xpm

Here is a single perl command that can print the timestamp of files with full date and time, accurate down to the seconds:

perl -e 'foreach(@ARGV){$t =localtime ( ( ( stat ( $_ ) ) [9] ) ); printf("%-20s %s\n",$_,$t);}' *

Replace the asterisk at the end of the command with any filename or wildcard expression you require.

Technorati Tags: unix, perl, ls, timestamp, seconds, date and time, unix file

Tattoo RFID

2007-01-24T18:12:00.000+08:00

Bill Ray reported on The Register in January 2007 that a Saint Louis company known as Somark Innovations has successfully tested a new kind of radio frequency identification (RFID) medium. An identification number can be stored in a tattoo that is injected from an array of needles onto animals such as cows, mice and rats.

The RFID's number can then be read from more than a meter away using a proprietary high frequency reader.

Existing tags are either expensive or can be torn out from animals.

Somark's next market after animals will be to identify military personnel, meaning the tattoo also works on humans.

Again as evidenced, the last days are truly here.

"And it puts under compulsion all persons, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, that they should give these a mark in their right hand or upon their forehead, and that nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name. Here is where wisdom comes in: Let the one that has intelligence calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is a man’s number; and its number is six hundred and sixty-six." - Revelation 13:16-18, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

Links:

The Register - Cattle branding comes to the 21st Century: High-tech tattoo more than a pretty picture
<URL:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/16/rfid_tattoo/>

Movie Review: The Illusionist

2007-01-23T02:42:00.000+08:00

Set in the Victorian era and based on the Austrian royal monarchy, The Illusionist is a love story with a magical spine.

Eisenheim and Sophie are childhood romantics who meet much later in years in Vienna from when they were seperated. Eisenheim has since travelled much and learnt much magic. Sophie herself, being locked in high society, is destined to be married to the Crown Prince Leopold, who is a cunning and proud man.

When the young lovers meet once more, they desire to elope, despite the growing pressure to stop them from being together by the jealous Leopold and his power-hungry and relentless Chief Inspector Uhl.

Eisenheim prepares for his ultimate illusion which causes tongues to wag and heads to roll. Will the Inspector be able to expose him for his crowd-pulling tricks, or will the Crown Prince successfully destroy the lovers' plans?

The Illusionist will be scrutinized as he attempts to shock his audience one last time.

Keeping in mind magic is about illusion, watch the movie with an open mind and I recommend not to spend effort trying to explain the tricks like what the Crown Prince did. Watch the details and the not-so-subtle one liners which make up for a highly-excusable ending.

Paul Giamatti who plays the Chief Inspector has impressed me with his ability to veer away from his trademark stuttering and introverted speech manner and delivered a credible performance as a stressed-out and suspicious investigator. The magician is played by Edward Norton, is not in unfamiliar acting requirements as he continues his stern and smirk countenance. True to the character though, but he did forgot his English accent in one line when Sophie in the horse carriage.

Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel star in this understated but adequately entertaining movie. I haven't seen "the other magician movie" yet, but I think it should be better for my tastes.

Links:

IMDb - The Illusionist (2006)
<URL:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443543/>

Technorati Tags: movie review, the illusionist, edward norton, paul giamatti, jessica biel, illusion, magic, movie

Roomba Dance Repair and Bumper Upgrade

2007-01-11T05:49:00.000+08:00

Two significant news of my trusty vacuum assistant, Roomba. Nevertheless, he still serves me well and faithfully. The battery runtime seems to have shortened, but that is a post for another day.

Bumper Upgrade

I have two pieces of furniture which have just the height for Roomba to wedge itself under them. The clearance is not low enough for Roomba to knock into and avoid going in, but it is high enough to make me squirm as my Roomba grinds a bit to get out.

Broken plastic bracket for rubber wheels

This is the possible cause of a broken plastic bracket that holds the axle of one rubber wheel in place. There are also black scratch marks on the white shell of the machine, caused by the regular confrontation with my furniture.

Bumper upgrade with rubber pads

The simple but aesthetically-deprived upgrade is to add square rubber pads around the bumper.

I used masking tape to hold the rubber pads in place, which I reckon will hold for a few months before they tear off. I guess rubber or sponge tape lining the same place will also work, but they should be at least 5mm thick. I wouldn't recommend placing more pads at the vertical face of the bumper which increases the clearance between the machine and the edge of walls and furniture.

The pads are positioned on the bumper such that they face 45 degrees upwards. After the first few runs, I can see pressure marks where the bottom edge of my furniture hit Roomba. Feels so good...

The result is no more hard bumping into these furniture and heart-wrenching grinding to navigate at the edges.

Roomba Dance Repair

The Roomba Dance (RD), or Circle Dance, is a common problem for Roombas more than a year old or used in very dirty environments. The basic cause is dirt that affects sensors at the bumper or the rubber wheels which results in a "dance" sequence. The machine would jerk as it moves forward and rotates 180 degrees continuously.

Insides of the Roomba, bumper and shell removed

Referring to the well-presented guide to fix this problem, I managed to open up and examine the insides of my Roomba. Of course, doing this is not easy and may void the product warranty. If you want to try this, I recommend that you clean the sensors under the bumper that detects cliffs and see if this solves your RD.

In addition to the instructions at the above site, I recommend to print the image of the type of screws at every location so that it is easier for you to put them back in. Prepare the following items as well:

Vacuum cleaner with a half-inch wide mouth to reach narrow gaps of the Roomba
Damp cloth to wipe off fine dust from the surface
Small pliers or flat tip screwdriver to disconnect two ribbon cable connectors between the chassis, bumper and shell

The places which I find the most amount of dirt and dust are inside the two brushes, in the corner where the power socket is located and the opposite corner. This is also a good opportunity to apply lubricating oil to the internal gears of the two rubber wheels, wheel motors, and brush motor.

The side of the bumper where the side sensors are needs cleaning

All three motors have holes cut on their sides. It's obvious dirt will accumulate inside the motor via these holes, but I'm not sure if it is acceptable to cover them with some tape. Perhaps they may overheat if we do that. Comment here if you have good info on this.

Top view of rubber wheel

Motor for main brushes

Electronics and battery area is particularly dirty

Links:

mysteryroad.blogs.com - FixCircleDanceImproved
<URL:http://mysteryroad.blogs.com/photos/fixthecircledance/xintroroomba_3549.html>

Technorati Tags: roomba, roomba dance, circle dance, bumper upgrade, clean maintenance

Five Search Engines Old Timers Should Know

2007-01-05T18:07:00.001+08:00

In the years before Google was anything but a simple colourful page, there were several legacy search engines still crawling the young and delicate Internet (or ARPANET). For those of you who first got online with a dial-up modem more than ten years ago, you should know these five common search engines back then.

1. Altavista

Has always been so minimalistic in design and returns useful results consistently. One nifty app that I still use for fun and research is the Babelfish (a nod to Douglas Adams fans).

2. WebCrawler

My second favourite search engine after Altavista. Its results are presented in a pleasant format.

3. Lycos

Lycos was probably the first search engine with lots of news links and little applications that Google is so well known for now.

4. Excite

Excite's design hasn't changed much since the beginning: just as messy. The results are quite accurate though.

5. Netscape

The darling of the early Web. Old timers were surfing using Netscape betas, cool! Back then, nobody heard of Internet Explorer, just Mozilla and mostly lynx (ahh beauty).

In another year, Google would be ten years old anyway.

Links:

Wikipedia - Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET>

Search Engine Watch - Where Are They Now? Search Engines We've Known & Loved
<URL:http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2175241>

Technorati Tags: search engine, altavista, webcrawler, lycos, excite, netscape

BorderWare MXtreme: E-mail Firewall Antispam Product

2007-01-05T15:41:00.000+08:00

New Tech News Blog: The Tech Planet

2007-01-05T15:00:00.000+08:00

Being a techie/geeky guy who still enjoys toys for big boys and the latest technological advancements, I'm always on the lookout for technology news on the web. Recently, I've come across a blog-style site that covers technology, trends, software and web services. Check out The Tech Planet.

The posts are concise and just the right size for quick digestion, so it's worth adding to your RSS reader. Posts also contain photos of the subject, making it easier to browse topics of interest.

It's fairly new (from December 2006), but I think it suits techie people like myself and complements the topics on my own blog. For example, the post on "Honda readys fuel-cell car for 2018" talks about when Honda plans to offer a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car in ten years' time. Author Michael Paul says that the timeline and sale price are off the mark and I agree with him. With rising fuel costs and world climate, we need alternative fuel vehicles within the next few years.

Go visit The Tech Planet today to get a quick dose of technology news that makes you stand out from the general population. :)

Technorati Tags: tech planet, news, technology, technology news, trends, techie, sponsored post