Toxic HP, PVC Lenovo and Brominated Dell

Apparently, there was a pact to phase out the use of PVC and brominated flame retardants by the end of 2009 by the top PC makers but it seems, only Apple will be the only one in the top 5 to do it. The rest, namely HP, Lenovo and Dell said they will not make it this year. No new deadlines from HP and Dell while Lenovo said it will try it again in 2010. Meanwhile, Acer appears to be still committed to end it all in 2009.

Source: Greenpeace

Nokia Photo Browser - A Point for the 5800

Check out this video (via Symbian Freak):

For those familiar with the browser plugin Cooliris (formerly PicLens), this seems like nothing new but it's a plus for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, commonly known for its lack of applications that fully utilise the phone's touchscreen interface. The scrolling looks jerky, though. That's beta for you. Still, I would call the 5800 a poor man's iPhone... something that seems more appealing to me by the day, especially after its latest firmware update. :D

Snow Duck

Even at this part of the world where it never snowed and when it does, it would almost certainly be armageddon, we see plenty of snowmen pictures. But have we ever seen a snow What The Duck? No!

What has more virus and bacteria than a toilet seat?

Our regular office desk and its equipment such as phones and keyboards, according to a study (via Web Worker Daily):

A desk is capable of supporting 10 million microbes and the average office contains 20,961 microbes per square inch, according to research.

The key offenders are telephones, which harbour up to 25,127 microbes per square inch, keyboards 3,295 and computer mice 1,676.

By contrast, the average toilet seat contains 49 microbes per square inch, the survey showed.

I would suppose that also applies to our home and mobile phones and who knows what else! Just cleaned my laptop. Phew!

How the HIV Virus Spreads

Found in Telegraph.co.uk via Digg, below is a video of how the HIV virus spread to healthy cells in the body. This was filmed for the first time. With this new discovery scientists can, hopefully, start to develop vaccines more effectively.

1,001th Post - Malaysian Loan Sharks Made It On Bloomberg News!

The loan sharks in Malaysia must be very proud. Their latest tactics have received recognition from foreign Bloomberg news! Besides their usual antics of bashing and whacking, throwing red paints, etc., they are now using beautiful chicks to go to the borrower's office and sit there to shame him into paying or they will wait outside the house and make lots of noise.

Head of the Public Services and Complaints Department of the Malaysian Chinese Association Michael Chong should also be proud. He's got his photo there!

ONE THOUSAND!

This is the 1,000th post! My blog lasted 1,000 posts! Hooray! ...

INSANE: Zero

The United Nations thinks Malaysia will register ZERO percent gross domestic product growth this year with the majority of the brunt on exports. South East Asia is expected to register a 1.2% growth this year. Meanwhile, an interesting term called the triple threat was identified - economic crisis, climate change and food/fuel price volatility.

Source: Star Online

On a side note, I received ZERO Streamyx connection last night. It was the usual ZERO ADSL signal issue again. Seems like a monthly thing now. Sigh. Checked again early this morning before 7am and still... ZERO. Sigh, sigh.

Waking Up To A Big Balloon of a Coffee

It's only Tuesday. A looooong week ahead. Sigh. This is what we all need to stay awake during the week, huh? You can also have an orange with a beautiful pink elephant while your peacock sleeps here.

GOOD MORNING!

Sigh...

1st Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009

Yay! I did it! I managed to wake up early enough today to rush over to Putrajaya to snap 'em balloons! Here is a stitched photo of some of the balloons found there. I particularly like the pink Elephant.

Unfortunately, I don't got no nice blue sky as my background. :(

IonBuck and His Failed Balloon Fiesta

I invited some of my buds to go for this 1st Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009 some weeks ago. A couple of friends agreed to join but I ditched them so that I could go with family. Reached there 3pm-ish but found no hot air balloons. The only balloons I saw were three of these:
My dad pointed out that all of them were folded and covered up like these:
Well, I did read the itinerary on the website but I did not know that other than those potential times (0745 - 0815 and 1745 to 1815), the balloons would be deflated.

Besides a lot of those folded up balloons, I also saw a remote controlled helicopter that seemed to be doing its bit for global warming:
Had a stroll around the so-called carnival (that's what the website called it) and the most interesting sight was a bunch of cow bones used to boil soup:
I was a little disappointed not being able to see the balloons but was glad to spend the day with family. I was also consoled by photos taken by one of my bud that woke up early and went there. You can see andrewk's photos of the hot air balloons here.

Dreaming the Student Dream

Could it be that I want to be a student all over again? Or could it be the student days are still haunting me? Why do I keep dreaming that tomorrow's exam day and I've still not studied a thing? I am glad that I am not alone... XKCD has similar issues like me, too.

When my Bud said, "More blogging material..."

... and he gave me a link with Cute Overload in it, I thought he must be giving me links to some hot chics. I should know better. He gave me a link to photos much better than hot chics. He gave me a link to photos of this chap:

The Clouds That Stood

As promised here... the sky! Took this while on a flight to Vietnam. I can't be sure if this is still within Malaysia, or some where above the sea, or within Vietnamese territory. Love those clouds that stood up from the rest, especially the one that made the long shadow due to the setting sun.

Minus Points for Selangor Government?

Update 15 March 2009: Right. I can get into the website now, but I lost the mood to go look.

Update 14 March 2009, 7:38pm: Hmmm... interesting. Looks like the Menteri Besar updated his stuff already. Check out the article Selangor MB gets monthly income of RM47,222.

By the way, I tried the link to the website again to check out the declarations and I got this:

Totally weird. My friends are getting the actual Selangor website but I've done scans for virus and spyware and malware and even restarted and changed my IP but I am still getting Forestry Department... with both Firefox and IE!

*****

First off, I had the impression that Pakatan Rakyat politicians serving the People were supposed to declare their assets not long after they took office. I did not follow up on that. My bad. Recently, the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government announced that their assets will be available for public scrutiny yesterday. So I had to minus some points there, unless I was wrong that the declaration was supposed to come earlier. And now, according to The Star Online, all had declared except the head, our Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. He said there was a computer glitch... and he also said this:

"Maybe on Monday or Tuesday because I want to post the latest (data) and I also would like to know how the people react to the declarations by the state executive councillors before posting mine."

What could that mean?

You can try to view the other exco declarations at www.selangor.gov.my. Mine is still loading, though.

Amusing Goodbye E-Mails

Economy's no good, people leave. I'm surprised to find these kind of goodbye e-mails exist:

• It’s been nice working with all of you. By the way Donna, you’re making $20,000 less than Tom, who’s doing the same job you are.
• Most everyone has been genuinely great to work with. Except for Dexter.
• Good luck to everyone here. I’ll be shocked if this sorry excuse for a company lasts through the year.

Source: Exiting employees and their goodbye e-mails

Some people would really like to ruin other people's lives, even on their last breath! But then again, some people really deserve it... Yawnnnnn! Time to call it a night. Good night you all!

From Pixdaus: Giant Panda Cubs Sleeping

Not a month goes by here without a photo from some where of these cute creatures. :P

I long for the day where I can see even just one live and snap lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of photos...

Ancestor Leftovers

Well, well, well, looks like we humans have more leftovers from our previous incarnations than I thought. I used to think they were just the tail and the appendix but according to divine caroline, we also used to be able to generate vitamin c (!!!) and detect pheromones. I never thought the male nipples, wisdom teeth and ability to get goosebumps were leftovers. :O

Also learnt this new word today - vestigial - which I would most likely forget in a few hours from now.

Robots - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Robots have come a long way. Now they are capable of performing surgeries (below), entertaining people, space exploration and a million other things. Maybe one day, they can take over the world, too. :O

Robots - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Posted using ShareThis.

Hardhat Creativity

Dan Piraro's creative, alright!

Fish With Transparent Head

First heard of from my bud, Andrewk's shared items, later I found a video on Youtube that I must post here:

The 2015 Digital Decoder and Pakatan Rakyat's 6 Trees

Our info minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said we "will have to buy a special decoder to access free digital TV by 2015 as all Asean countries will stop analog broadcasting".

Meanwhile, after holding the controversial Perak state assembly under a raintree, opposition party Pakatan Rakyat is all revved up and will be planting another 5 more. The all 6 trees will be named Democracy, Transparency, Justice, Integrity, Trustworthiness and Welfare. Wonder how these trees will hold up...

The TM Encounter - Epilogue

I was intending to do an epilogue to tell the whole world that TM did a follow-up call to me yesterday to check how was the phone line. That was really great. Well, I got lazy yesterday and now TM is punishing me for not doing it by totally disabling my ADSL signal. My Streamyx* is silent. Sigh...

*for non-Malaysians, Streamyx is the ADSL broadband by TM. Sigh...

Previous TM encounter stories here and here. Sigh...

Update 10:58pm: Ah. All is well with my Streamyx now. Phew! INTERNET!

Sacrifice the Monkeys for Humans' Greater Good?

It's nothing new that scientists use animals as guinea pigs for medical and scientific tests before going for human trials. The public have generally accepted this fact save for some animal rights groups. However, I do feel rather disturbed when I read that scientists modified a strain of the HIV virus so that the virus could infect a species of monkeys. The purpose is to test vaccines on them before human testing. Being human, this sounds like a compromise we could live with and the scientists probably do not have any other choices.

But if we were to trade places with the monkeys, this would definitely not be accepted. Maybe we will launch an attack on these vicious and heartless people that had already devastated enough of the world already. Just a thought.

The TM Encounter - The Conclusion

TM refused to stop surprising me! Came home from work and was told that the line's fixed! YEAHHHHHHH!!! So I quickly went to pick up my phone and there was the ring tone and the background was... silent. Aaahhh... peace. I then proceeded to turn on the ADSL modem and till now, am still with the same IP (been over an hour now). THIS CALLS FOR A CELEBRATION!

Ahem. Not so fast. I was also told that TM did not change the copper cable. The dude only did something to the junction box. I was hoping for some new copper, you know. That distance of a few metres from the pole to the house. That should turn my 512kbps to a 1Mbps line. What a bummer. Oh well... can't have everything.

Lost and don't know what this post is about? Read the first part here.

The TM Encounter So Far...

Telekom Malaysia decided to be more savvy and called themselves TM. I have no issues with that as long as their quality of service improved. To this end, I am pleasantly surprised. It all began last week. After I came back from Vietnam, I found that my internet connection (it's ADSL, so it's connected to the phone) was highly unstable and thought maybe it will clear up in a day (which is normal). After a few more days, it got worse!

I picked up the phone and realised that there's a lot of electronic noise (you know, those crackling sound). So on Sunday, I decided to call TM (not Streamyx) on behalf of the phone owner. TM said the response is usually within 24 hours. Well, I remained skeptical but when I went home yesterday, I was told a TM technician came and checked the line. Wow.

Unfortunately, the problem was not fixed because new cabling needed to be done from the outside to the house (external pole to the house). That means, their efficiency will once again be tested and reported here.

Meanwhile, I will not be online from home until the problem is fixed because the problem got really bad. I totally can't even get the intermittent every few minutes internet connection now!

What Happened to the Weekends?

Another great representation of workers' woes by Shane Johnson @ My Life In A Cube:

ASEAN - The Coming... and A Song...

We call it the Association of South East Asian Nations or something like that. ASEAN consists of 10 member countries here in, well, South East Asia (in alphabetical order) - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Glad to hear that the progress of ASEAN to form something like a European Union is still on-going though, still a long, long way off. We can be so strong! Another interesting development - there's now an ASEAN song called Let Us Move Ahead! At the link, there's also an ASEAN Hymn and an ASEAN We Are One.