Stop Global Warming and Save Our Rainforests

This is really a cool video and to the point, revealing the ugly picture that seems imminent if global warming continues:

via TreeHugger.

While we are at it, a video about saving rainforests:

Driving Tests in Whatever Cars

That's not going to be the case if our lawmakers have anything to do with it. This morning, I heard over the news that our government... or SOME PEOPLE... are considering to convert all the cars used for driving exams to automatic transmission ones. At that time, my thoughts was "WTF?" How are anyone going to know how to drive manual transmission cars when we suffer some major Dark Angel kind of post-apocalyptic situation in the not too distant future? Then, I forgot about it and went about trying to work on a Monday.

Work's over and off I went. I turned on the radio and there you go, news about this driving exams thing again, only this time, it was information overload. The transport people are opening up their minds. They are taking in suggestions on how to implement this and one of them suggestions is those that passed their tests using automatic transmission vehicles WILL ONLY BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE automatic transmission vehicles. At that point, I became quite a dangerous driver on the road because I almost rolled on the floor laughing.

INGENIOUS!

I should really post something really serious after this one.

Teaching of Science and Maths in Whatever Languages

Looks like another "glorious" Monday with an early phone call from an ex-boss (still within the same company but I don't report to him anymore. However, he likes to keep his evil presence felt... sheeesh!!!). That (though seemingly unrelated), plus reading a news article of an opposition leader calling for Science and Mathematics to be taught in languages according to the schools (national, Chinese and Tamil) got me thinking... oh yeah! Thinking on a Monday morning is a very big deal!

When Science and Maths were made compulsory to be taught in English in all Malaysian schools, it was met with quite some strong resistance and few years on, it still is made as a subject for debate by both ruling government and opposition. However, I would like to share my personal experience during my school days.

I did my primary and secondary years in national schools, meaning the majority of subjects were taught in Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu (depends on whichever timeline we are in), so when I moved to A-Levels in a private college, I really had some big issues on catching up with the terms used in my subjects - and I'm a science student. My subjects were Maths, Advanced Maths, Chemistry and Physics. Chemicals and physics terms had significantly different names and mathematic questions required multiple re-reading.

I was lucky that I managed to get through all those hurdles quite quickly because my England was not so bad. But I do wonder now, what would the others that are moving in this direction or even, those that have left school for work while learning Science and Maths in non-English languages, will face when almost all matters in the private sector are in English? If I'm not wrong, local universities also teach their science subjects in English, so this sudden change might cause quite some confusion. This plus the fact that most of us national school leavers only have English as a single subject...

I don't know. Maybe I'm just rambling and my opinion here might just be clashing with the majority of the public, but this is what I am wondering on this Monday morning.

INSANE: Swim with a iPhone?

Assuming this is real, here's a man taking a video with his new iPhone around a swimming pool area and some how dropped it into the water, picked it up again and it was still recording.

via Engadget.

Previously, we dreamed of swimming with a Nokia here.

What's New in Firefox 3.5

Update 30 June 2009: Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is now available for download at its main page here.

Some interesting features coming our way in Firefox 3.5:

Some of the new features are speed - at least twice as fast as Firefox 3.0 (hope it does Google Reader as good as Google Chrome!), more advanced private browsing (Internet Explorer 8 has something like this) and history control, open recently closed windows (Google Chrome has something like this) and some cool Open Video thing that I've no idea about.

via Mozilla Links.

Albino Green Sea Turtles

Green sea turtles are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Photo above from National Geographic week in photos website. According to the Lady Elliot website, albino green sea turtles only happen once in every 100,000 births. Pictured in photos below is the turtle named Elliot discovered by John Meech of the Quuensland Parks and Wildlife from Mon Repos. Looks like Elliot's got beautiful blue eyes.

via National Geographic Week In Photos and Lady Elliot Eco Island Resort.

Krispy Kreme @ Berjaya Times Square

Yesterday was quite productive, actually. Did quite a few things. From some personal stuffs then proceeded to HP service centre to Transformers 2 and finally, went for some Krispy Kreme takeaway. I love donuts but I tell you, it's a very sweet affair. I did not like the New York Cheese (bottom photo). I had expected some salty cheesy tastes but there was none of that. Hershey's Dark Chocolate (also bottom photo) was ok but I liked the Original Glazed donuts the best. Love biting and chewing into them. The extremely high sugar level is a different thing all together, though...

Logo off the packing box

Off the shelves!

Original Glazed Donut

Left: Hershey's Dark Chocolate; Right: New York Cheese

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen @ Malaysia's Fallen IMAX

Update 29 June 2009: You can get more info about the fallen IMAX in Malaysia at fellow blogger's My Musings blog here and here.

Right after getting my DVD drive repaired, I headed straight for Berjaya Times Square to catch the 2pm Transformers 2 on the 5-storey high "IMAX" screen. I called it "IMAX" and not IMAX because I no longer find any signs of IMAX. It's now called Cosmo's World Theme Park Theatre. I was a bit disappointed and was sceptical on how the movie might look on such a big screen when it's in the normal cinema format. I was also hoping to catch the IMAX version where there was supposed to be additional scenes.

As the movie started, I noticed the graininess of it as a result of being projected on such a large screen but as the action started, I got used to it and ignored that part of the problem. Phew! What more to ask for right? Quite comfy seats, nice sound system and, according to the banner on the left, watch Megan Fox... ahem, I mean Transformers, life size for the price of a normal ticket.

Now, lets talk a bit about some highlights of the movie but before that, I have to do this: SPOILERS AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISKS!

As much as I hope, this movie will never be anything like the very first cartoons but I liked that there were a few mentions of things that I can relate to the first generation Transformers such as The Matrix, Devastator that is a combination of construction vehicles, Arcee, and more interaction between a disappointed Megatron and a cowardly Starscream.

This movie tells the tale of the Decepticons' attempts to revive The Fallen and use Earth as a Energon source. After a shard of the All Spark transferred a whole lot of info including the location of a Energon generating machine into Sam Witwicky's brain, the action kicks into high gear - Decepticons want him while the Autobots and humans try to stop them.

We were reminded of the greedy nature of humans and our tendency to go to war in Optimus Prime's own words. The Autobots were asked to leave Earth because some high ranking Americans thought the Decepticons were still terrorising Earth because of them and also accusations that the Autobots were not sharing their weapon technology.

Some where at the beginning of the movie, I was surprised to see Optimus Prime kill off a Decepticon in such a cold blooded (in this case, maybe lubricant) point-blank way. He even asked if the dude had any last words. Cruel, cruel, cruel! This Prime is certainly more violent than the one I knew. Not long after, we were reminded of the good side of Optimus Prime when he sacrificed his life trying to protect Sam.

It was also interesting to see that humans managed to take down the mighty Devastator while the giant dude was high up on the pyramid. The bigger they are, they higher they fall, I suppose. ;)

Oh, I would like to mention that I found it strange Bumblebee could not talk again. I remembered that he gained back his voice at the end of the first movie.

HP Service Centre

Got my laptop's DVD drive replaced today at HP because it was not burning discs properly - errors during verification. The reason I'm blogging about this is to let whoever that is reading this know that I'm quite pleased with HP's service centre at Bukit Damansara. The staffs were able to replace my drive on the spot (in this case, they have the spare parts... otherwise, I'd have to come back). It took about 30 minutes for that to happen - diagnostics, testing, etc. At least I did not have to come back a second time. I'd have to take leave to come back!

Canon also did the same for my A400 and you can read about it here.

It's a shame that HP does not provide house calls like Dell. That way, it would be ideal and saves us consumers a lot of hassles.

Blardy Irritating Drivers

The drive home from work was uneventful until I encountered two blardy irritating drivers.

ONE: This fella turned on his/her highlights and was behind me for ages while waiting for the traffic light to turn green!

TWO: After gladly leaving that crazy fella behind, I came to another traffic light when this bugger jumped queue and went straight in front of me:

#$%@#$%#^%#$@%%^(&(%*!#(@$&%$*%!%@#$*%T^&!(#$*(!@*#!!!!! CURSES! CURSES! CURSES!

Swim with a Nokia?

Nowadays, with plenty of waterproof and shockproof cameras to choose from, I was beginning to wonder when will handphones go that direction. My thoughts were answered by Nokia! Seems like their 3720 will be waterproof... or at least, dust and water resistant, according to some IP54 certification.

Imagine, if there is a waterproof phone... while you were enjoying soaking in clear ocean water, someone calls about some mundane work matters... WTF!!!

via Mobile Cowboys via Phone Arena

Update 10 July 2009: Nokia's confirmed the 3720. However, luck is on the side of the busy executives. It's only splash and dust proof, NOT waterproof. Phew!

Advantage of an evening flight

Sky #7 - Another Flight, Another Sky
Originally uploaded by IonBuck.

Caught this while sitting at the window sit and having my Canon A400 handy, on my way to Ho Chi Minh from Kuala Lumpur. It's really great to have a camera in hand at all times!

Malaysia's GDP Revised to around -4% and -5% from -1% and 1%

Update 23 June 2009: World Bank said that our real GDP (whatever "real" means) this year is expected to fall by 4.4% before recovering to 2.2% next year and 5.3% in 2011.

Looks like our government could not hide it any longer - finally revising our Gross Domestic Product to between -4% and -5% from the previous range of -1% to 1%. Meanwhile, our country's Industrial Production Index for April 2009 contracted, though better than estimates, by as much as 11.4%.

All these in the midst of rising Influenza A (H1N1) infections and confusing on-off talks between opposition and ruling government of a unity government.

Still Around

Don't think I've done this before - not blogging for over a week! Need not worry, though. I shall return sooner than you think. Meanwhile, you can check out my Twitter for some quick updates. :D

Remnants of Today's Lunch

Burp!
Originally uploaded by IonBuck.

Had a great lunch with family today. :)

A Hazy Birthday

While leaving work almost on the dot in great anticipation for a birthday dinner with my buds, I managed to slide out my T303 and snap a photo of what the condition of the haze was like in Shah Alam.Now that Influenza A (H1N1) is officially declared a Level/Phase 6 pandemic and coupled with the dry and hot weather aided by El Nino, perhaps the haze will help to kill some virus and block out sunlight.*

*The author totally will not carry any responsibility of what was said in this paragraph. *evil grin*

If anyone's interested, info of my dinner with my buds available here.

Get Ready For More HOT-ness

And I really meant it literally, I'm afraid. Today's early morning of browsing through Star Online brought news that El Nino is coming. This abnormal warming of the Pacific Ocean brings forth warm and dry weather to South East Asia and Australia. According to the article, this will persist from now until August, with the last month being the worst. We can expect a rise of 3^oC here in Malaysia. *SOB*

Besides that, more haze is expected with rising hotspots in certain parts of Indonesia. Water levels in our dams may also drop due to this dry season. One of them had seen a drop from 98% in May to 90% this month.

My take on Windows 7 Release Candidate After One Week

Installed my copy of 64-bit Windows 7 Release Candidate last Saturday and have been using it 100% of the time ever since. Did not even think of touching my Windows Vista! Installation was quick, but maybe because I installed it from USB instead of a DVD. I got the steps to do that via Google and you can find my post on that here.

I was quickly impressed with Win7 even after a few minutes of using it. The taskbar (and Alt + Tab) was quite a nice touch with Aero Preview Peek. Moving my mouse to one of those applications will cause the others to be transparent as shown below:
I was initially not used to the taskbar being just icons though there are options to change that to what I was used to. However, after some time, I got used to it and was actually quite impressed with the bigger than usual taskbar.

Boot up and shutdown times appeared to be around the same as my Vista (well, to me, at least, but I did not use any stopwatch to time either). Nice, though was that after logging in, I could access my programs slightly faster than when I did with Vista. My wifi also got connected slightly faster... maybe half a minute or so faster. Unfortunately, the finger print sensor did not work and downloading the 64-bit driver from the website did not help either. Even though Device Manager did not show any conflicts, the figner print sensor kept making some noises now and then and I was totally irritated before I found out it was the cause. Well, this is only a release candidate of Windows 7, after all.

I was under the impression that Windows 7 drivers were compatible with those of Windows Vista so I downloaded all the 64-bit ones from my computer manufacturer's website. I never had install any of these because Windows 7 found them all, save for the finger print sensor described above. However, I did try to re-install the Bluetooth driver and that was the first time Windows 7 hanged on me - no blue screen, nothing. It just froze and I had to switch off the computer manually, like holding the power button for a few seconds.

Gadgets were also more flexible now that I can move it around, though I still keep it near to the right. However, I did use Windows Vista at office on a colleague's computer and I tried to drag the gadgets out of the side bar and it did come out! Strange. Never knew it was possible. Anyone can tell me something about that?

Another thing that was impressive was after using Firefox for a few hours and then closing it, I noticed the hard disk did not run and run and run. This could not be said for Vista, where the hard disk would run and run and run for what felt like a minute or more after I closed Firefox, effectively slowing down the system.

The desktop wallpapers can now change by themselves every now and then but that did not really affect me as I always run my applications with the windows opened to the max. Well, it could be useful if I find that one day, I had nothing better to do than to just sit down and stare at the desktop. Or if I get a really huge LCD screen with really high resolution so that I don't have to run my apps that way I am doing now.

Do note that my current Windows 7 RC speed may be faster because of...

• My Windows Vista came together with my computer and along with it, a lot of crapware. I have uninstalled what I presume to be all of them but... I wouldn't know...
• My Vista is a 32-bit version so it did not utilise all the RAM I got in there.

... but I wouldn't want to argue with the experts out there who generally agreed that Windows 7 is, indeed, more efficient.

Some other minor issues were that User Account Control (UAC) was no longer that prominent. In Vista, the UAC appeared every time I tried to go into Device Manager or when I wanted to edit my network connections. It also did not appear when I called up the Update Manager for Ad-Aware. The new Windows Media Player also appeared to be more polished. There was something that I got to like in Vista - the network icon at the bottom right that would show a small green ball when connected to the internet - is no longer in Win7.

Haze and Those Who Love to Save

Was driving back from work earlier today and encountered what may be the worse case of haze this year. Well, to me, at least, because it was really hazy. Took a photo with the T303 and it's below. The photo doesn't do the haze justice, though. Appeared to be clearer than it really was.
And what do we think of when there's haze? We... uh... ok, I was just trying to think of a sentence to relate to the next thing that I want to blog about. I got to know of it from an advertisement off an MSN Messenger conversation window. DiGi will donate RM5 to charity for each click, so help improve lives by going to www.lovetosave.com.my.

From Pixdaus: Kung-Fu Panda

There really is no better way to end the first day of the last month of the first half of this year than to have a real life kung fu panda! YEAH!