INSANE: Free Parking @ 1 Utama

I was rather shocked to find a popular shopping mall like 1 Utama to offer free parking for Wednesdays throughout the Malaysia Mega Sale period (5 July till 1 September 2008). Totally unexpected... or have they done something like this before?

Drink From Bras and Bellies

Drink wine from bras and beer from bellies:Source: Oddly Enough "Her cups runneth over?"

Jam Packed Federal Highway

Was on the way to Mid Valley for a gathering with some visitors last Friday night and got caught up in a jam along the Federal Highway. Since I brought my camera out, I've managed a couple of photos, the first being a normal shot, while the one at the bottom was my attempt at being artistic. :P

INSANE: An Invention That Took Wayyyyy Too Looooong

What took this sooooo looooong to make it to the market? This is something really good and the fact that it took so long to appear, I'm going to classify it under the miracles and technology tags. ;)

This is the miraculous keyboard cleaner that can mould itself to many shapes, therefore able to clean through those hard to reach valleys between keys. What's best, it can kill germs, too! :OFrom Boing Boing via ReadBurner Currently Popular Feeds.

Little update: Or perhaps, as an alternative, you can do something like this from Mrs eNil's flickr.

Wide Wide World of Lumix LX3

We are in exciting times again. Panasonic just announced a series of new digital cameras and one that caught my eye is the DMC-LX3. It's got Leica something Summicron lens that is good good stuff and it's 24mm at wide angle with its widest aperture at f/2.0 while at maximum tele, it is 60mm with f/2.8. That is really something for a compact camera though more zoom would have been great.

The LX3 also has full manual controls with RAW (your photo will be saved in the camera's own language without prior processing in the camera, so you can use an external program for more control). Frankly, I don't care for RAW because I am just too lazy to do any of those stuff. I suffice with JPEG. :P

The LX3 boasts a larger sensor, 1/1.63" Ultra Sensitive CCD @ 10 megapixels. Its predecessor also had 10 megapixels, so it is good that Panasonic is not joining that blardy megapixel race (not for this camera, at least, but there is one with 14.7 megapixels - the DMC-FX150... sigh). Being larger means less noise and supposedly better dynamic range.

I'm really impressed with the 1cm macro and the inclusion of 1st and 2nd curtain flash. Lovely! The LX3 has a built-in hotshoe so you can attach an external flash. There is a range of other accessories such as optical viewfinder (also attach to the hotshoe, so you only can choose the flash or this), a wide angle converter giving you 18mm, filters, etc. Another fun feature that caught my attention is the multiple-exposure function which allows three photos to be combined, something like during the film days.

Sounds good, but lets wait for the reviews to come in... expected to be available in August with a not so cheap price tag of US$499.95.

Photo from Panasonic's website.

A Different World #8 - Complete

And now, the complete part 8 of A Different World:

Previous two parts here and here but you don't need to go there. They are all combined above. No war, no fighting. ;)

The Bat's Serious

Watched The Dark Knight on Saturday night with my pals and IMHO, it turned out to be the best Batman ever. And today, I read from various sites and shared items that it turned out to be a record-breaking US$155 million (estimated) weekend box-office blockbuster! Well deserved, I must say.

I really like the late Heath Ledger's Joker. A very different one compared to the one played by Jack Nicholson. A much more serious joker, this one. The movie is, surprisingly, filled with some twists here and there. A rarity, especially in superhero movies. It was really dark, almost discouraging when portraying the gloomy, crime-ridden Gotham but there was also a glimmer of hope...

Well done!

Preliminary 2008 Worldwide PC Shipments

Looks like HP leads the pack by quite a margin followed by Dell and Acer.
Source: ZDNet Blogs

INSANE: More Crude Oil Rises Predicted

Crude oil price is expected to rise even further in the coming months as the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean kicks in this coming August and September. Refineries and oil rigs located around the hurricane prone areas are expected to close, causing supply concerns. The inevitable breaching of the US$150/barrel threshold is just around the corner.

Source: Star Online

About Fishes, Snakes, Alligators and Crocodiles

A series of short but interesting articles from LiveScience.com that answer questions most of us have asked or wondered before:

1. Can fishes hear? They pick up sound through their bodies and heads (where their ear parts are). Fishes also pick up movement through those lines that we so often see along their bodies. Interestingly, also in this short, our facial and head features evolve from the same genes that develop sharks' sensitivity to electricity... and that our ears evolve from fish gills!
2. Do snakes have ears? No ears but they have something attached to their jaw bones that sense low frequency vibrations. And their hissing? Not for communication but assume to warn creatures.
3. What's the difference between alligators and crocodiles? Too complicated for me to summarise so I will just copy and paste them here:

• Snout shape: Alligators have wider, U-shaped snouts, while crocodile front ends are more pointed and V-shaped.
• Toothy grin: When their snouts are shut, crocodiles look like they're flashing a toothy grin, as the fourth tooth on each side of the lower jaw sticks up over the upper lip. For alligators, the upper jaw is wider than the lower one, so when they close their mouths, all their teeth are hidden.
• Home base: Crocodiles tend to live in saltwater habitats, while alligators hang out in freshwater marshes and lakes.

Behind SpongeBob

A cute girl that is camera shy taking refuge behind a SpongeBob bag. :)

From Pixdaus: Friends or Foes?

These are different photos from Pixdaus, but one shows friendship...



while another... WAR!

New Malaysian Prime Minister by Mid-2010... or Earlier?

Our Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has officially announced that he will pass the seat to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak by mid year 2010.

Source: Star Online

Now we just need to see if both the prime minister and his deputy will last till then with the looming 16 September 2008 date set by Anwar Ibrahim where he will become the first opposition Prime Minister and if Najib will survive the allegation that connects him with Altantuya.

From Pixdaus: Peeping

A white tiger cub peeping through to see what the world is like?

A Different World #8 - Part II

Here's Part II. You can view Part I here. The complete one coming soon. :)

INSANE: Paper Friendly Printer

Toshiba's B-SX8R is totally paper friendly. It utilises special ink pigments which will turn white when heated (130^oC to 170^oC), therefore enabling that white piece of paper to be reused. Not so sure about the security part though since the ink will turn black again at 180^oC... but an interesting environmental friendly way to go, nonetheless.

Souce: CNET Asia

Message The Whole Day Through... :D

This comic "Darn you Gmail Chat" by Shane Johnson in his comic site called My Life In a Cube is all to familiar as if it is a sort of a deja vu... I'm sure everyone with access to internet messenger chats at work will encounter this one way or another (though it might be with Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger or...)... right? :P

Bye Bye 2008 H1

How much petrol you can buy with RM1 before and after the price hike.

Ah, today marks the first day of the second half of 2008... or the 3rd quarter of 2008 if you would want to divide the year into 4 parts. It's been quite a year so far with plenty of natural disasters and food shortage. And here in Malaysia, because we boleh, we are never short of news. 8 March's general elections marked a milestone for the opposition parties in what many called a political tsunami for the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional.

There were also news of a blogger that went to the commission of oath and swore that the deputy prime minister's wife was present at the bombing of a Mongolian translator's body. Fuel prices were increased last month by about 40% (petrol RM1.92 to RM2.70) to over 60% (diesel RM1.58 to RM2.58). And most recently, the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat de-facto leader was once again reported of performing sodomy.

What will be in store for the second half of this year? Feel free to drop your comments and whatever else that I have missed out.

Photo from Star Online.