Hectic New Year Eve

Today's 31 December... the last day of 2009. Normally, I would feel the New Year mood but not this time. Seemed like a very hectic day. Work wise, most definitely. Other than that, when my colleagues and I had lunch, the traffic was terrible. Cars were lining up in long queues.

Friends asked where I would be celebrating this day later tonight. Told them I would be at home. Really am not feeling like being part of the crowd all over the place. I suppose to those out there, it must be fun but for me... the crowd, the jams... are all way too stressful. I shall be spending some quiet time later at home... at most, maybe have a drink or two with family nearby.

To the rest of you adventurous people, have a Happy New Year!

So Un-Streamyx

I got my Streamyx bill last week and thought I should call their customer service to upgrade to 1Mbps (fyi I'm currently using the minimal 512kbps package) via their Super Upgrade Deals promotion so I dialed 100 on my house phone (CAUTION! If you dial 100 with your mobile phone, it's RM3!).

The experience was terrible. The customer service end obviously did not have a clue about this promotion and did not know if I can upgrade via the phone at all! First, after getting my details, she just asked me to wait and wait and wait while she claimed to call up my details on her system. And then, she asked someone how to upgrade for me. She told me I need to physically go to a TM Point. I asked again if I can upgrade through the phone and then she went and asked someone again. Then she started to give me a link to do it. Sigh.

I proceeded to go online and find out myself and just before the confirmation page to upgrade there appeared a clause that said I will be on contract for 24 months should I upgrade. I paused and thought a while... and then decided to cancel my application. @$%#@%

This must be a way that TM is tying us up from going to other competitors. I can feel that the competition is heating up and within these 2 years, there should be some nice packages. My eyes are on DiGi. I'm not so mad about that terrible 100 customer service now. Without that happening, I might already have upgraded via the phone! GASP! Horrors!

Holy Macaroni Predictive Text Input II

I've got my fair share of Christmas wishes via SMS over the past 2 days. To be polite, I reply to almost all of them but in actual fact I find it irritating. I can't help feeling that people just send/forward the same greetings by adding a whole bunch of recipients into the SMS. Now that's not very meaningful is it?

Doesn't matter. Am not posting about that. I just want to let you know that I found another dangerous predictive text word that may send the wrong message if I didn't check my SMS before sending it out. The word was "Merry". It came out as "Messy" first and if I just typed without looking at the screen and just click send... it would become something like "Have a very Messy Christmas".

Hope that you did not have a messy one yesterday. :)

Previously, related: Holy Macaroni Predictive Text Input

INSANE: Lightning Fast Auto Focus

How in the world could anyone auto focus on a flying ball like this?
Miraculously via The Big Picture.

RED ALERT! Mega-Cute Panda Cub Detected!

Is it even possible that I not post these images here? So cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute! Panda lovers rejoice!
via Cute Overload.

Here's another - a panda and its cub. Not put in here because Pixdaus tends to expire their embedded images after sometime.

Klang Valley Public Transport Efficiency Improvement Attempt #9,999,999?

Most certainly not as many times as that, but surely this is 10 millionth attempt to make our public transport system better. This time around, it is back to bus lanes, dedicated ones with barriers so that other cars can't access it. From the news article, it seems these lanes will also be extensions instead of just marking an existing lane on the road as a bus lane.

There're also some vague stuff about some bus rapid transit Corridor One, Two and Three and buses utilising some under utilised expressways to Kuala Lumpur with minimal stops along the way.

The Kelana Jaya LRT line will also see 26 new 4-car trains (and all these while I thought the tracks couldn't take anything more than 2!!! Shame, shame!) next year with 35 more to follow in 2011. The Ampang line will see 14 new trains (damn, I thought the Ampang line was the same as the Kelana Jaya line). The much talked about Subang LRT line will also be completed though no time frame was given as to when it will be completed but the way it was put, it seems like 2011. I didn't know the Subang LRT line was being built! Must have missed the news some where.

There are also improvements to the KTM Komuter electric trains with 15 refurbished additions by 2011 and a total of 80 by 2012 from the current 20+.

Touch 'n Go users will get discounted fares from all operators. Yay! And finally, the puzzling one from the special adviser to the Transport Ministry, Mohamad Nur: Drivers with outstanding summonses would be refused road tax renewals next year to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. Looks like a significant number of drivers never pay summonses.

Source: The Star Online News

New Header Graphics

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, folks! Just put up a new header graphics for my blog for some seasonal ambiance.

Holy Macaroni Predictive Text Input

Excuse me for the incoherent title but that was what came up when I was trying to think of a subject for this post. I always send SMSes using predictive text input. On a few occassions, I sent SMSes with the intended word "on" in it but the first choice for my Sony Ericsson T303's predictive text is "no". So, sometimes I type too fast and usually ignore the screen and just send out the SMSes. The recipients will occassionally call or SMS to confirm if it whatever appointment that I typed was ON or OFF. :P

Conclusion: I need a phone with a QWERTY keyboard!

Joy for African Children

Previously, Nokia and UNICEF worked together through the greeting cards promotion to build schools for cyclone-hit Myanmar. This year, they are once again at it again for the Schools for Africa initiative. For every card opened (I would suppose by the intended recipient), Nokia will make a donation to UNICEF. So, please, if you were to send an e-card this year, use this Nokia one even if it means helping them to promote the brand. ;)
Click on to http://www.nokia.com/sa1/seasonGreetingsweb/index.jsp to send the e-card. You get to listen to a jingle and you can shake the globe for some glitter.

via Nokia Conversations.

A video at what you could help give the African children:

All in the name of Christmas

Shopping malls all over are geared up for Christmas. Visited Tropicana Mall yesterday and here is how it looks like:

Larger, more complete photo at Twitpic.

Holy Cool Wedding Vows!

These must be the coolest wedding vows any geeky gamers could ever think of!
via Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Nature's White

Previously, I've blogged about a pigment deficient white tiger, white lion cubs, and a white alligator. LIFE has got a collection of these and more:

Strangely, while typing the word "albino" in the Google search bar, "Albino Blacksheep" came up top of the suggestion list. It's a website of humorous and fun stuff mostly in Flash, apparently. A quick browse came up with a what if YouTube video... what if Earth has rings like Saturn:

A Tonne of CO2 in a Cube

Ever wondered how much is a tonne of carbon dioxide in the form of a cube? It's 27 feet high, 27 feet wide and 27 feet deep. Represented here in Copenhagen... just in time for that climate meet, I suppose:

via Treehugger.

Lets take a look at CNN's insight into Pixar

Hello, people! Check out CNN's visit to Pixar Studios. A visit to John Lasseter's office was most enlightening and for the first time, I see the creative man moving in a video. Ok, before this, I didn't even know what he looked like. :P It's really interesting to see how all these really cool American companies treat their employees to some really really nice facilities and lepak places. Hello Malaysian companies! When are we gonna get some?

via The Pixar Blog.

Earthquake in Malaysia?

I still remember my Geography lessons during my what-seemed-like-an-eternity-ago school days where we had this world map with lots of dots and indications of volcanoes and earthquake zones. A teacher or two (or a few? Can't really remember) made us feel thankful that Malaysia is (was?) miraculously surrounded by but NOT within these dots and indications. Malaysia is also rich in natural minerals and petroleum.

Since our country do (did?) not suffer from volcanoes and earthquakes, we would be a perfect place for living and commerce, yeah? A haven for almost everything, I would say. We should be a prosperous country by now. I wonder why we are only moderate now.

Ahem, anyways, it seems like our days of earthquake free is over. According to The Star Online, a 2.2 mild earthquake was detected in Bukit Tinggi. Earthquakes at other countries like Indonesia also caused tremours in our land. Even if we could survive these, we still have to face the brain drain issue... something not to be taken lightly, definitely.

What a lot of Nokia news!

Amazing. I've never heard of so much news about and around Nokia within a few weeks! Maybe this is some publicity stunt! Anyhow, while Nokia's mobile phone market share faces erosion, and while the company starts suing Apple and LCD manufacturers, there are rumours circulating that the company will drop Symbian for Maemo (for its smartphones, at least) in the not too distant future. The company had since vaguely attempt to quash these rumours.

Just as I was about to hit the sack, I stumbled upon Engadget's and All About Maemo's post about Nokia's commitment for next year, and beyond: Two product milestones for each half of 2010, revamp Symbian UI, new Maemo 6 mobile computer (I wonder what definitions of mobile computer are used here... a mobile computer device like N900 or a mobile computer like a netbook?) and more dedication to improve the consumer experience. Here's a link to Nokia's official press release.

To round off this post, there's also a rumour of a capacitive touchscreen replacement for the N86 coming. This rumoured Symbian device may also feature a 12 megapixel camera and 480x800 resolution screen. Maybe this is one of the milestones that Nokia was talking about? WHISTLE!

Lotus F1 Team Numbered 18 and 19

What better way to start my first post for the last month of the year than to talk about our magnificent multi-million dollar Formula 1 team! Our 1Malaysia F1 team is officially named Lotus F1. At first, I thought it would be called the 1Malaysia F1 team but I suppose it would be damn lame and it should not remind that the team is funded by Malaysians.
I must say, that is one damn cool looking car but I don't know how it will look when the sponsor stickers are all up. Anyway, The Star Online reports that our team had been given the numbers 18 and 19, putting them ahead of the other new teams. Ho! Ho! Ho! I guess this does signify something and Christmas is just around the corner!

No drivers were announced yet but our very own Fairuz Fauzy (ok, I'm not a racing fan so I don't know who he is) is expected to be the reserve driver while rumour has it that Jarno Trulli, Kamui Kobayashi, Takuma Sato and Jacques Villenueve are in the running as the two drivers. Yeah, I also don't know who the rest of these people are either. Apologies.