Citibank In 2

This sounds like big news: Citibank will be split into an independant credit card unit and a consumer group. The purpose is to bring the giant banking corporation back into profitability after it was badly hit by the subprime crisis.

Lingerie for the Dead?

For the Chinese, burning paper-made products like hell money, houses, cars, servants and even aeroplanes has become the norm, but paper lingerie! Wow, this one is totally new to me! Check out the article from Star Online Nation "Paper lingerie a 'hot' item"!!!

“Most customers find them very cute and usually added a few sets to go with other paper clothing and items such as dresses, bags and shoes for their female family members to use in the other world.”

Selangor Free 20m3 Water in June

Most Selangor domestic water consumers will receive 20m³ of free water from 1 June this year. Most because those with bulk water meters, such as flats, apartments and condominiums residents, will not be enjoying those so soon.

Newly appointed opposition Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim mentioned that the state government had worked out a formula that will benefit the people, the Selangor state and also the environment (which I guess in this case is the water wastage that might happen because of the free water).

Source: Star Online Nation "Free water from June 1"

My Failed Adventure

Was full of oooomph yesterday to go on a little adventure with the camera today. Checked with some friends for any suggestions but in the end, I became lazy and just sat in front of the computer the whole day, falling asleep now and then. *SHY!*

Did the above failed thing with Inkscape in Ubuntu Linux. Guess that is the most productive thing for today. :(

WTF!?!?!?

The Irritating Phone

Have you ever encounter phone calls that would come at your most inconvenient moments? I just had one. I was sitting next to the phone the whole time and it remained silent. When I was in the process of taking a leak, the phone rang. Worse, when I looked at the missed call, it was without any caller ID. Sigh...

And The Story Continues...

Sorry to leave you all in a cliffhanger like that from my previous post from a few days ago. Since I am now in Ubuntu Linux again, I should continue with my story:

I stopped at the part where I could not boot from my Ubuntu thumbdrive nor Windows (please do not be confused with the incident from my most recent post). This time, I took out the internal hard disk and booted from the Ubuntu Live CD. Did the installation again but partitioned the 8GB thumbdrive - allocating 5GB for the file system, 500MB for swap (which I later removed, but that is another story that perhaps will be forgotten) and the remaining for normal storage (I had this wishful thought that perhaps I can use the remaining space as just a normal plug and play thumbdrive for Windows but then Windows do not support partitioned thumbdrives - found this out much later).

After another long session, I got to boot into Ubuntu with the thumbdrive again and waited and waited for some of my friends to come into MSN Messenger (using Pidgin in Ubuntu to access my MSN account) and also at the same time contemplating if I should just drive back to my office to get the Windows CD to run the Recovery Console.

Some more waiting later, WoonCC (linking to his flickr account because he seldom blogs :P) came into MSN and he agreed to meet and bring his Windows CD. And so we met, booted from the CD, went into Recovery Console and at the prompt, typed "fixmbr" and I can boot into Windows again! :D

How Ubuntu Linux Saved My Work and Andrewk Saved Windows

There was this big tender that we almost completed and everyone was compiling the documents. Only my certificate was missing, so I rushed home to retrieve my softcopy to e-mail it back to my colleagues. When I reached home, my laptop would not boot into Windows XP (FYI, it shutdown properly only about 20 minutes before)!

PANIC! SHOCK! HORROR! But thankfully, I have Ubuntu Linux in my thumbdrive. Phew! So logged into Gmail and did the rest.

Meanwhile, I was surfing the net to try to find the solution to my Windows problem. When I tried to boot, all I got was a blank screen with the text "Missing ntldr. Press ctrl + alt + del to reboot." Gosh! I did that so many times. Why not at least tell me to use a recovery disk or something?

Initially I Googled the error but decided I should look for it in Microsoft's website. I was taken to the solution page... but my friend Andrewk who happened to just logged into MSN Messenger at that time pointed out that that solution was for Windows 2000... *shy* So added the word "XP" into the search string and came to the right knowledge database. From there, Andrewk provided me with the ntldr and ntdetect.com files and I can boot into Windows XP again.

However, I rebooted back into Ubuntu here to blog this story to show my support for this open source free operating system. WAY TO GO!

Wide Wide World of Lumix FX35/FX36 OUT NOW!

This is a follow-up to my previous post "Wide Wide World of Lumix": Saw the advertisement in the local newspaper The Sun earlier this morning and I read the review by Camera Labs (via PhotographyBLOG) last night. Can't say I am too impressed after reading the review. Two main factors: (1) no control over flash exposure and (2) no manual focusing. I know I shouldn't be too fussy on things like these but I believe we should deserve more for the price (approximately USD$290 - USD$350). Not sure how much it is in Ringgit Malaysia yet. Let's see how things go as more reviews surface. Still love the 25mm lens. :P

Cool Sultan

Check out our Sultan of Selangor and the ladies @ the Stylo KL Fashion awards. On his right is MCA's first woman minister, Datuk Dr. Ng Yen Yen, while the rest, I don't know who they are. Sorry for my ignorance. :P

From Star Online "Stylo KL Fashion awards a toast to finesse"

The Hottest Years

The hottest year since 1890s is 2005 with all the other following 4 years within recent years. From NASA:

Over the past 30 years, the Earth has warmed by 0.6°C or 1.08°F. Over the past 100 years, it has warmed by 0.8°C or 1.44°F.

Current warmth seems to be occurring nearly everywhere at the same time and is largest at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Over the last 50 years, the largest annual and seasonal warmings have occurred in Alaska, Siberia and the Antarctic Peninsula. Most ocean areas have warmed. Because these areas are remote and far away from major cities, it is clear to climatologists that the warming is not due to the influence of pollution from urban areas.

Second Post In Ubuntu

This is my second post in Ubuntu Linux. Let me tell you my experience. Went out to buy a 8GB thumbdrive with WoonCC. Full of optimism to install Ubuntu in this thumbdrive so that I can boot with it from any PC. After getting home, got to work, following tutorials from here. Failed many times and gave up for the day. The next day, tried a few more times and still failed.

Therefore, took out the internal hard disk, ran the Ubuntu Live CD and installed the whole thing on the thumbdrive. That took about 30 to 45 minutes. Re-inserted the internal hard disk and got the thumbdrive to boot. I was thrilled but the performance from booting with a thumbdrive is sluggish. Occasionally, the application will halt momentarily, presumably to load stuff from the thumbdrive. :(

After some fooling around I discovered that there are security updates just like in Windows. I had to download and install 200+ of them. GASP! That took several hours. Besides that, with the help of WoonCC, i discovered some fun stuff, particularly the Cube desktop. I could switch between workspaces by rotating the cube (screenshot below)! Oh forgot to mention about the workspaces... basically you can have as many desktops as your machine can take and in Linux these are called workspaces... I think... :P
After awhile, I switched back to Windows XP and I plugged the thumbdrive in. Windows said it can't open it and suggested that I format it... since the whole Ubuntu installation only took about 4GB, so I thought maybe I should partition out 2GB for data usage in both Windows and Ubuntu. So I went about to reinstall Ubuntu... at this point, I must say i am a *NOOB*! This time I did the installation WITHOUT taking out the internal hard disk and at the end of all it, I can't boot from the thumbdrive and I ALSO can't boot from the hard disk!

And I noticed that I have typed too much for this post so I shall stop for now.

To be continued...

Blogging in Ubuntu!

This is a first for me! Blogging from within a Linux OS - Ubuntu. :D Wow, what an amazing piece of operating system! And best of all, it is free and comes with a whole list of other free applications and programs! I can basically start off surfing the net with the pre-installed Firefox. New experience for me here. Will report back later. ;)

"Temporary" Opposition Leader Announced

NSTOnline reported that the three opposition parties (PKR, DAP and PAS) that formed the new opposition coalition have confirmed that Dr. Wan Azizah (PKR leader) will be the new opposition leader until her husband, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim returns to politics (expected in April).

Beer Can Be Good, Too

For males, 1 to 2 12 ounces glass of beer daily, and for females, 1 glass a day, is good for cardiovascular health. Don't just let wine steal the limelight, the article mentioned. Besides that, beer may also give a boost to the brain!

Caution! Drinking too much will have the opposite effect - higher risk of heart disease and in women, breast cancer. So, drink wisely!

Read more at Forbes.com.