Manually Shifting to Automatic Transmission

Huuuuuh? Did I read this correctly? From May 2012, there will be two types of driving licenses... a manual transmission one and an automatic transmission one... If I'm not careful, I might think that if I have a manual transmission driving license, I can't drive a car with auto transmission... and will there be a summon if a person with an auto transmission license is caught driving a car with manual transmission?

Automatically confused. Both ingenious and insane.

via The Star Online

Almost All New Ringgit Notes while RM20 Makes a Comeback

According to The Star Online, Bank Negara will issue new bank notes for all denominations save for RM50 in mid-2012. The RM20 which was long been removed from circulation will be returning.

La Nina and Monsoon Tag Team

Be careful out there, fellow Malaysians living in the Klang Valley! The monsoon and La Nina are about to unleash their forces upon us, bringing strong winds and severe thunderstorms. Take care and be safe!

via Star Online.

21 Jump Street the Movie

What? I was shocked while checking out apple.com/trailers! After the immediate shock, I was hoping there would be Johnny Depp in it... a quick check at IMdB proved that he is in it... but only as a cameo. :( After going through the trailer, I was sort of disappointed... it's more like a comedy than the cool and sombre TV series. Check it out for yourselves here:

Cabs Driven by Women for Women

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie (phew, what a mouthful!) launched the new initiative where designated female-driven cabs will be picking up ONLY women or women with children and senior citizens. This appears to come in time of increased crime rates and I would say a welcome move. This is a call-in service with three companies taking part: Destination Transport, Zalnas Sdn Bhd and Koperasi Pengangkutan Putrajaya dan Cyberjaya.

At the moment there are 50 women taxi drivers. Heng encouraged more women to take part, particularly single mothers, housewives and retirees. She expected at least 400 women taxi drivers in Klang Valley eventually. Interested parties could call 03-8024 0507, 03-2692 6000 and 03-88884020, though I'm not sure if these lines are for those interested in being taxi drivers or the numbers to book these special cabs.


via The Star Online.

Clouds above the Malaysian sky...

Was driving down South for a meeting yesterday and noticed that the clouds were rather interesting, so I took a photo with my HTC Desire mobile phone. After putting the photo through picplz's new editing features of cropping and rotating, here's the original:

If these clouds were in Russia*, they would look like this:

*assuming the Russian Toy Camera filter in picplz turns a photo Russian. ;)

The Unwelcome Guest

Ever so subtle, your host may drop a hint here and there when you have over spent your welcome...

Mission: Alfred Hitchcock Presents

I was a huge fan of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series even when I was way too underage to watch these intense psychological thrillers. Today I was in the mood to look for the theme song in Youtube and here it is:

While I was at it, I saw the Mission: Impossible theme there as well, another series that I'm a huge fan of:

In The Cool Blue of Anger

Snapped this in Berjaya Times Square last night... cool, blue Smurfs sandwiched between Angry Birds:

Reverting Science and Mathematics to Sains dan Matematik

I started my schooling life as a Malaysian having all my subjects taught in Malay except for English. Many years after leaving school, I heard that Sains dan Matematik had been revised to be taught in English. Today, browsing through my news feeds, I found out that it's back to Malay for these subjects again. I'm at a lost as to why our leaders could shift from one language over another just like that? Education is really important.

Lately, I've noticed that many important Malay words were forgotten and simply replaced by Malay-ed English. One such recent one was our annual Bajet. I was taught that it really was Belanjawan during my school days. Sigh...

How Lightbox filters enhanced the dull grey sky...

When it comes to social photo sharing apps like Lightbox and picplz (the only two that I use interchangeably these days), it's plenty easy to enhance the sky. The original picture featured a dull grey sky...

Plunk it through the Redscale filter and I got a burning evening sky:

Put it through the Ansel filter and the outcome a better contrast B&W image:

picplz "Quickie" Smartphone Unsharp Mask Takes The Lead Over Lightbox

I've been comparing both picplz and Lightbox for quite awhile now and am still at it albeit a little slower these days as the novelty began to wear off. Make no mistake, I still love to snap a thing or two here and there but due to busy work schedule, the interest waned a little.

Today, I stumbled upon this "Enhanced Definition" filter in picplz and would like to share it with everyone here. The photo was first processed with another great app called Pixlr-o-matic from Autodesk before I put it through picplz. The one below was untouched by any picplz filter while the one at the bottom got its definition enhanced. You be the judge:

As far as I'm concerned, picplz helped sharpen my blurry photo. Have not encountered any other app with such a sharpening tool. Hence picplz 2, Lightbox 1.

The Moon Ring

Saw this earlier just now... apparently bringer of bad weather but at this moment, it remains a sight to behold:

Cloaking Device Unveiled

While the iPhone 5 rumour has been flushed down the toilet, something hiding underwater was discovered before the Klingons found us! Scientists have unveiled a cloaking device that works only underwater at the moment utilising the mirage principle with aid from nanotubes. Figure that out!? O.o

via Engadget.

Lightbox draws with picplz - In-App Cropping

As Lightbox gets updated, a few features had been added and cropping within the app is one of them. Was meaning to post this for quite some time now but when I had the time, Blogger did not. So today is the day for this. :)

There is 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9 and unrestricted cropping.

Besides that, you can also rotate and flip the photos.

Lightbox 1 picplz 1.