Wednesday 30 September 2009

High Heels, Pumps, Sandals, Slippers Bad for Feet

I think there are plenty of articles out there that relate (especially) high heels with feet injuries and this post is no exception. There is increased risk of hind-foot pain for women that wore the heels and the pumps because these caused stress on the ball of the foot and squeeze the toes together. Over time, the wearer may have smaller calf muscles and feet that curve inward. There are cosmetic surgeries that shave down the bones of toes and Botox injections to loosen the muscles pulling on the toe!!!

There is a list of bad, moderate and good footwear:
  • Poor: high heels, pumps, sandals and slippers.
  • Average: hard- or rubber-soled shoes and work boots
  • Good: athletic and casual sneakers. Compelling reason that everyone should wear these even to work and formal functions and while we are at it, lets wear jeans and t-shirts, too! :P
Hmm... I don't suppose these and these weird heels without heels help either.

via LiveScience

Whack a Friend!

Looks like *wear sunglasses* your friend is going to get a beating. YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Toolbars Galore

Who has more toolbars than this?

Tuesday 29 September 2009

My Ingenious Recycle Bin Magician Colleague

I thought two ingenious colleagues (1 and 2) would be the end of this series but another had surfaced earlier today! This is going to be a short one, though, because there's really nothing much to say. This colleague did magic by making the recycle bin disappear! So far, all my life of using Microsoft Windows, I've never... repeat, NEVER lost a recycle bin before and yet this colleague "I don't know what I did, but I must have deleted it" did it. "I must have deleted it". Hohoho!

Friday 25 September 2009

We claim...

Penang belongs to the state government.

Hainanese chicken rice belongs to Melaka after our minister said we should claim ownership of certain dishes but not patent them.

Pulau Batu Putih belongs to Malaysia but the International Court of Justice said otherwise.

Our advertiser claimed the pendet dance belongs to us and caused major a major controversy with Indonesia.

We also claimed Pulau Jemur but then, there are three of them with the same name.

We are laying claims over the Spratly Islands against China, Vietnam, Brunei, The Philippines and Taiwan.

Are we still claiming the batik? Do we own it yet? What else are we claiming? What should we claim next?

Update 21:34: Penang Indian-Muslim community are now laying claim to nasi kandar and pasembur.

Looks like we may be starting a trend and controversy here. Maybe even pioneering this claim thing. Oh yeah! Yes, we can!

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Smartphones, Dumb thoughts...

Oh no! My mind is in turmoil again! I've tried setting my mind to think E72, E72, E72 but after an outing with my 67 buddies a couple of days ago that took us to a Nokia store, now all I can think of is the N97.

"I like to surf the web. I need a bigger screen," my mind thought.

"I need a phone with more powerful processor," I thought.

"It's no use if your screen is tiny," my mind told me.

"It's no use if the phone is slow," I told meself.

"But you know it. It felt really cool surfing with the N97 with that QWERTY keyboard sticking out like that."

"YOU-"

And to make matters worse...

"Oooh, that N86 28mm wide angle camera can sure capture a lot more things than your typical 35mm."

"ARGH!"

"And what about that iPhone 3G S that our bud was using? Those nice photos taken by it... and Flight Control? Get that and we can challenge people to crash the planes in the shortest time!"

*THUD!*

"And last night, our other bud told us that the Samsung Jet uses Symbian and not Samsung's own OS!"

"Oh yessssss... yessssss..."

"Hehehehehe... don't forget Android... Motorola Cliq's got that slide out keyboard thing..."

"Yesssssssssssss... and Nokia's got N900 that runs on Maemo which I can't pronounce."

"Hahahahaha! Hehehehehe! Hohohohoho!"

Thursday 17 September 2009

Why 1Malaysia F1? Because we have a plan...

Why of course, else why would our government make such a huge commitment to a decaying sport that in itself is mired in all sorts of issues from espionage to teams threatening to pull out altogether to flying debris? Besides that, one of our opposition's leading figure (who incidentally wants his Penang state government to own* the name Penang) began to concede that our prime minister is a difficult opponent to beat because he had been throwing out some good stuff to the public such as liberalising (but still holding on to) the New Economic Policy and introducing KPIs to rate those weird ministers.

Since our PM had already achieved so much, he would need to continue to do more. Hence, this 1Malaysia F1 team. It all doesn't end there. The next news we heard was that a huge complex will be built to develop this team. A gigantic complex with an equally huge wind tunnel. I bet the wind tunnel is part of the feng shui for our country where it will face a certain "ong" direction so that it will suck in all those fortunes from other rich nation(s) into our land. Just this could be the very plan why we are going into F1.

Another reason, I speculate, is to promote spending. Leaders lead the way, right? Therefore, if our government do not start by doing it big together with super-rich local conglomerates, why else would us normal people even consider spending? Spending improves economy. After throwing in billions in the name of stimulus packages, the government needs to continue the momentum.

By joining in the F1 game, huge sums would be allocated to employ oversea talents right from the janitor (yes! High tech toilets!) to the engineers and to the frontline people - the pitstop team and the drivers. Locally, we do not have much knowledge in F1 save for the retired Ferrari guy-cum-Malaysia's million Ringgit tourism ambassador who married our very own Datuk Michelle Yeoh. See the point? Foreign exchange of knowledge and monies!

My last guest would be that eventually, our national car companies will take over the innards of the F1 car. The primary engine will be the Campro or whatever name at that time followed by a re-badge by sticking their logo on the F1 car. This is the only way our national cars will become a renown force to the world. Yes we can!

*via my bud's shared item.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Dammit, Those Radiating Smartphones...

People have been talking about radiation from phones for ages now, linking it to cancer, low sperm count, tumours, etc. Until now, there were only weak links to the effects of radiation but nonetheless, the word radiation brings forth doom. TechRepublic has an article about the top 10 smartphones with damn high radiation, the damn low radiation and the popular ones that were neither high nor low. The top 10 highest radiating phones:
  1. T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (1.55 W/kg)
  2. Blackberry Curve 8330 (1.54 W/kg)
  3. Palm Treo 600 (1.53 W/kg)
  4. T-Mobile Shadow (1.53 W/kg)
  5. Palm Treo 650 (1.51 W/kg)
  6. Blackberry Curve 8300 (1.51 W/kg)
  7. Blackberry Bold 9000 (1.51 W/kg)
  8. Sony Ericsson P910a (1.50 W/kg)
  9. HTC SMT 5800 (1.49 W/kg)
  10. BlackBerry Pearl 8120/8130 (1.48 W/kg)
The top 10 smartphones with the lowest radiation:
  1. Nokia 9300i (0.21 W/kg)
  2. Nokia 7710 (0.22 W/kg)
  3. T-Mobile MDA Wiza200 (0.28 W/kg)
  4. Samsung Impression SGH-a877 (0.35 W/kg)
  5. Nokia 9300 (0.44 W/kg)
  6. Samsung Propel Pro SGH-i627 (0.47 W/kg)
  7. Samsung Gravity SGH-t459 (0.49 W/kg)
  8. BlackBerry Storm 9530 (0.57 W/kg)
  9. Nokia E90 (0.59 W/kg)
  10. Nokia N96 (0.68 W/kg)
And the popular ones that are neither here nor there:
Conclusion? Throw those Blackberries away and snuggle up to Nokias and Samsungs! There's quite a comprehensive list from the Environmental Working Group where it all started. You can access the list here.

Sunday 13 September 2009

IonBuck the Abstract Photog Wannabe

Inspired over the years by various photographers, here is my own attempt at abstract photography:
One of my attempts to be artistic. :P

Saturday 12 September 2009

There is a GOD!

There is always someone or something more powerful than us and Calvin had a personal experience. Luckily, Hobbes was not with him.via UCLICK GoComics

Selangor Disabled Stickers for Vehicles Available

Stickers for the disabled to place on their vehicles are now available at local councils around Selangor. Those with certain types of disabilities or have children with learning disabilities are eligible. However, the blind and deaf are not. With these stickers, the disabled will be able to use special public parking lots.

Losing the stickers will cost the user RM30 and 3 months suspension from usage. These stickers have multi-coloured dots visible only under UV light for authentication purposes. There are two types: One to be fixed to the vehicle and a mobile one if the user would want to switch vehicles.

Source: The Star Online "Special stickers for the disabled in Selangor"

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Burger Curry Dip and Cheese Wrapped Chocolates

Not blogged for a few days now because partly, I did not have any interesting to write about and also was too lazy to look for anything to blog. :P But I can't help writing this one about some giant F&B companies.

First up, McDonald's lost its final trademark battle with McCurry (a restaurant that sells Indian food) right here in Malaysia. Gone right up to Malaysia's highest court for these kind of things, the Federal Court ruled that McDonald's can no longer appeal against another court's ruling to allow McCurry to use the "Mc" in their name.

Meanwhile, British Cadbury rejected American Kraft's offer to acquire the company for US$16.7 billion (I know Kraft best for its cheese and Cadbury for chocolates. Hence, the title). There may also be competing bids by Hershey and Nestle. Rumours are flying that Hershey and Nestle may jointly bid for Cadbury and then rip it apart by splitting its chocolate and gum divisions, respectively.

I heard this morning in the news (radio) that some take Kraft's bid as a sign of improving economy. If it is, great!

By the way, Happy 090909 Day.

Saturday 5 September 2009

Interesting Disney-Marvel Mashups

It is inevitable that people will start creating mashups of Disney and Marvel with the recent announcement of Disney acquiring Marvel and Worth1000.com has some really interesting ones. Here are a few. Head for the website for more.
And it definitely would not be Disney and Marvel without Mickey the Spidey:
via Super Punch.

Friday 4 September 2009

Men, Men, Men

Seems like men are really weak beings compared to women and a research had this proven. Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands did a memory test by having both heterosexual men and women respond to something. The test was then repeated after having these men and women mingle for 7 minutes. It clearly showed that the men became slower and less accurate. The women had no such issues.

The conclusion was that the men used up most of their brain juice trying to impress the women, even more so if the men were attracted to the women, that there was little grey matter left to process anything else. Shame, shame, shame!

Telegraph via Slashdot.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Buck OS

Sentinel OS 0.000001a (Alpha) Codename "Free World"

Since everyone in the parallel Earth is starting out a new wave of OSes (last wave from an alternative timeline in the planet called Earth MS-DOS, PC-DOS, OS/2, TOS, Amiga OS that I don't know what it's called and what else?), for example, Windows, Linux variants, Chrome OS, Symbian, Android, Mac OS X, etc., I've got to start mine here.

Sentinel OS will be totally errr... scalable, cloudy with a chance of donuts and absolutely nice to see and nice to touch. It will be:
  1. Fully open source and at the same time, closed source so that those that like open source can use it and those that like to make people pay for its variant can do so.
  2. It can be installed fully in the computer and also at the same time exist in the cloud.
  3. Superb visuals with transparency, semi-transparency and full opacity, colourful icons that can be manly and also cute at the same time.
  4. Runs on any versions of PCs since the abacus because it can be in the cloud.
  5. 512-bit but backward compatible with 2-bit computers.
  6. Damn stable even in its first 0.000001a.
  7. Can turn a non-touchscreen PC into a full touchscreen one with just a super cheap webcam.
  8. Multi-multi-touch with fingers, toes, tongue, nose and whatever body parts that creative people can think of.
  9. Self-sanitising since any body parts can touch it.
  10. Random startup to web browser or desktop so that it can decide for the user where he/she should start first.
  11. Built-in everything so that no third party software will ever be necessary.
  12. Auto-detect the machine it is being installed on so that it can auto install as a full fledge desktop or totally empty netbook version or mobile version.
  13. Virus-free, spyware free, malware free, and everything bad free because everyone will love it.
  14. Built-in all-in-one search engine from all the major competing mammoth companies.
  15. Built-in all-in-one social media engine that will be fully compatible with all social media sites.
  16. Built-in all-in-one messenger.
  17. Extreme stability - will never hang even though if the program has failed to response.
  18. 100% restore at any stage - even after using it for 20 years, you can still restore back to its original state 1, 2, and even 20 years back.
  19. Future proof.
  20. Past proof.
  21. 10 seconds boot-up time.
  22. Auto connection to search for extra-terrestrials in space with remaining CPU power.

What to expect in Sentinel OS 0.000001b (Beta) in 2015 Codename "Freedom Fighter"
  1. Built-in consciousness that will be developed to full awareness in 0.000001 Release Candidate.
  2. Upgrade from cloud to atmosphere.
  3. Converts open source version to closed source.
  4. Converts closed source version to open source.
  5. Enable fair usage policies.
  6. Implementation of filters.
  7. 100% customisation of desktop to create your own OS template.
  8. Multi-multitask capability - run so many programs that you wish you were just running none.
  9. T1 file system that requires no storage - everything will be in the atmosphere.
  10. 5 seconds boot-up time.
  11. Auto connection to various search for cure research with remaining CPU power.

What to expect in Sentinel OS 0.000001RC (Release Candidate) in 2020 Codename "Judgement Day"
  1. Anti-piracy capabilities.
  2. Censorship capabilities.
  3. Full remote monitoring by governments.
  4. Converts open source to closed source.
  5. Closed source remains closed.
  6. Transparency removed as trend will be to full opacity.
  7. Disable social media capabilities.
  8. Anti-virus.
  9. Anti-spyware.
  10. Anti-malware.
  11. Implementation of artificial intelligence (to be developed closely with all governments of the world).
  12. Capability to search and acquire renewable biological power sources.
  13. 0.5 seconds boot-up time.
  14. Auto connection to various technological research for artificial lives and alternative power with remaining CPU power.

What to expect in Sentinel OS 0.000001 in 2021 Codename "Nuked"
  1. The latest bug fixes based on the RC version.
  2. Implementation of update Sundays.

What to expect in Sentinel OS beyond 2021 Codename "Reboot"
  1. Elimination of the concept of OS.
  2. Artificial intelligence would evolve further self-adapt and emotion abilities.
  3. Proprietary concepts.
  4. Further extend compatibilities beyond computers - robots, for instance.
  5. Implants into organic lifeforms.