The hacking of Telegram app and the vulnerability of relying on SMS as authentication method

Yesterday (2 August 2016) there was news about 15 million Iranian Telegram users mobile phone number exposed and more than dozen accounts compromised by hackers.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This incident exposed that SMS, which is currently commonly used as authentication method in many online services including online banking systems, is vulnerable to security breach and could be the weakest link in the security measure.

Coincidently, Focus Malaysia Issue 191 dated 29 July 2016 has also just discussed about this vulnerability in its featured article titled "Overcoming The Two-Factor Vulnerability: When it comes to securing your web accounts, two-factor authentication using SMS is safer than just a standard password. But recent cases have shown that it might be time to move away from that."

Why is it not a good idea for online service providers to make use of SMS as security measure?

Firstly, the sending and receiving of SMS is depending on the telco service, which is totally out of control of the online service providers. Therefore, it is vulnerable to listening, hijacking, impersonating, replicating, and other kinds of security breaches along its sending and receiving process.

Secondly, technically speaking, personnel working in the telco can also easily manipulate the SMS as the control is with them. This is very likely the case as happened to Telegram users in Iran.

Thirdly, as mentioned in the article in Focus Malaysia, the code sent by SMS can be obtained using social engineering.

Fourthly, as SMS is sent to the phone, in the event the user lost his/her phone with the mobile apps of online banking, online stockbroking, etc., if the mobile apps are using SMS for authentication, whoever who got the phone can easily take control of the user's accounts, unless the SIM card in the phone is immediately barred, which then disables its SMS function.

As for the case of Telegram app, you can further secure your Telegram account by activating two-step verification, which will require your password to login beside your mobile phone number.

To activate two-step verification in Telegram app, go to Menu > Settings > Privacy and Security > Two-Step Verification and set your recovery email there. Your email can then be your last resort to safeguard your account from hijacking.

LED light bulb that fit in PLC downlight fixture

I have been wondering for a long time if the PLC downlights in my house that use CFL (compact fluorescence) bulbs can be replaced with LED light bulb without much modification. Today, I've finally found the answer.

One of my PLC downlights is faulty and I need to replace its 18W CFL bulb. While searching for its replacement at the shop, I found this...

Yes, it is the PLC light bulb with 2-pin leg that fit with the fixture of my downlight. Instead of CFL tubes, this product is using LED as its lighting source.

So, this is exactly the LED solution that I've been searching for years. Even better, this kind of LED light bulb fit exactly to the existing PLC fixture, and totally no modification is needed.

This LED light bulb is more environmental friendly than the CFL, as it contains no mercury. It also claims to have longer lifespan than CFL, and consume less electricity to obtain the same amount of lumen output. In addition, LED light generates much less heat than CFL. It is also said that LED light does not attract insects, which is a desirable feature. However, this LED bulb is a little bit more expensive than its CFL counterparts.

I have purchased one to replace the faulty CFL bulb. See it in action below:

Finally, I've found the solution to change my PLC based downlights at my house to LED type.

I have been gradually changing the CFL bulbs with E27 base to LED type, as LED light with E27 base has been around for a few years.

Eventually, most if not all the lamps at my house will be LED based, when the CFLs are gradually replaced after they have reached their end of life.

Changed my car battery with The Battery Shop

I've just changed my car battery today with the service from The Battery Shop.

My old battery was still able to crank up the car engine, after serving for about 2 years. I decided to make an appointment with The Battery Shop for a free onsite checking, after experienced 2 times of car clock reset itself to 12:00 and 1 time of all the radio station preset memory gone. Yesterday, the VST-706 voltmeter in my car has shown unstable voltage that kept on changing within the range of 13.0V to 14.8V when the car is running.

2 young men arrived at my home right on time of the appointment. They called me about 40 minutes earlier to conform the appointment before they came.

They checked my car electrical system and informed me the car alternator is working fine. They found greenish residue developed at the anode terminal of the old battery. Decision was then made to replace the old battery with a new Korean brand Atlas BX 75D23L sealed maintenance free (SMF) battery.

They kept my car engine running during the changing of battery. The whole process was less than 5 minutes. All the settings and memory of the car's clock and radio system are still remained after the battery swap.

Here is my car's new battery, up and running at its place. The voltage supplied is now stable at around 14.2V when engine is running with this new battery.

The Battery Shop's onsite service (delivery, inspection and installation) at Klang Valley area is free of charge. The 2 young technicians I met were polite and the job was professionally done. I was given a RM20 discount, and the new battery cost me RM310. This price is quite reasonable, as 75D23L battery is of higher spec than 55D23L and therefore carries a higher price tag.

The new battery comes with 12 months warranty with warranty card and a car sticker. The technicians informed me that if they see this sticker on my car's windscreen during their next service, they will provide RM20 discount for the next battery change.

I am aware that The Battery Shop is in direct competition with BateriKu. The brands that they carry are different, and the team is also different. If you prefer Atlas BX or GP, you can contact The Battery Shop; if you prefer Century, Yuasa or Astra, you can contact BateriKu.

Wireless-AD - the next generation WiFi (WiGig) with Gigabit per second speed

Perhaps many of you have just upgraded your WiFi network from Wireless-N to Wireless-AC just like me, the next generation of wireless network namely IEEE 802.11ad has already come to the market.

Instead of operating at the highly congested 2.4 GHz band or the less congested 5 GHz band, wireless-AD (a.k.a. WiGig) operates at a new 60 GHz band. The key selling point of this wireless-AD network technology is that it is able to provide an unprecedented  throughput as high as 7 Gbps, which is even much more faster than the wired Gigabit Ethernet network!

However, the wireless-AD network, operating at 60 GHz band, has even shorter range than the 5 GHz band WiFi, and it find itself more difficult to penetrate through walls and other physical obstacles. In addition, its performance is degraded by the amount of oxygen in the air!

With these limitation, wireless-AD might require an open space environment with less oxygen in the air (such as at high altitude places) to transmit data at high speed to nearby devices that support the technology.

Some possible uses of wireless-AD could be media server transferring super UHD movie to nearby TV, "wireless external SSD hard disk", "wireless thumb drive without USB need", etc.

TP-Link has already come out with the Talon AD7200 Multi-Band WiFi Router that supports wireless-AD technology. However, many wireless devices are yet to catch up with this new technology.

Anyhow, it is already supported in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor which is inside the Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5, Moto Z, Sony Xperia X Performance, XiaoMi Mi 5, and the newly launched HTC 10.

It is expected to be also supported in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 7. However, it is still unclear whether Apple iPhone 7 will support wireless-AD or not.

How to Boost Your Rainy Day Fund

A rainy day fund is important as it will serve as your back up plan if you lose your job or when unexpected expenses arise. Get started as soon as you can even if you only have a little to put in. What matters is that you are doing something now that will benefit you in the future!


1. Prevent Late Payment Fees

Late payment fees may not seem like much, but you will be surprised at how quickly they add up. Put the money supposedly for the payment of late fees into good use by putting it in your emergency fund instead.


2. Automate Your Savings

Stop making excuses for setting aside your savings by having automated deductions from your payroll account to your rainy day account. You can always control how much you put in, this is just a sure fire way that money is being added to your fund monthly.


3. Avoid Debt

Avoid spending money that you do not have to avoid debt. Although there are good and bad debts, it is still important to assess if you really need to borrow money or if you are thinking of unnecessary expenses. You will be able to save more money when you have less things to pay for.


4. Treat Your Monthly Savings like a Bill

Think of your savings as a bill that you cannot afford to miss paying, just like your rent, electricity,
or phone bill. Better yet, once you have finished paying for something costly, such as credit card debt, car payment, or student loan, shift that payment to your savings account instead.


5. Review Your Daily and Monthly Expenses

It is easy to overlook expenses such as your daily cup of coffee, weekly manicure, monthly TV/movie subscription .Going over your expenses will help you realize what is really worth spending on and what is not. This will help you cut off on your spending give your savings a boost.


Note: This is a guest post by CompareHero.my, dedicated to raising financial literacy in our country and to helping everyday Malaysians make smarter and well-informed financial decisions in life.

My TP-Link AC2600 wireless dual band gigabit router Archer C2600 with TM UniFi and Maxis Home Fibre support

I have been using TP-Link TL-WDR3600 dual band wireless-N router for home Internet access for about 3 years, and have just changed it with a new TP-Link AC2600 dual band wireless-AC router.

The TL-WDR3600 router is still functioning well, and I changed it for better home network experience. The reason for the change includes:

• The 5GHz WiFi band of TL-WDR3600 has a short coverage area. I can only connect to this 5GHz band when my mobile device is near to the router. Further away, the connection speed on 5GHz band dropped drastically, and I ended up only have the choice of using the 2.4GHz band.
• The TL-WDR3600 is a wireless-N router and does not support wireless-AC connection. As more and more wireless devices at my home are supported with dual band and wireless-AC, I have to retire it and change to a newer router with wireless-AC support to enjoy the benefit of wireless-AC network and new features such as Beamforming and MU-MIMO. I have chosen the Archer C2600 as its successor.
• The price I paid for the TL-WDR3600 3 years ago was RM17x. Depreciating this cost over a 3 years period, it cost me less than RM60 per year. I don't feel financially guilty to replace it with a better one after using it for over thousand days.

Other than the limitation on 5GHz band coverage and lacking of wireless-AC support, I would say the TL-WDR3600 is a great WiFi router with stable, consistence and quality performance.

Coming on stage is my new TP-Link Archer C2600 router, which I purchased online at the price of RM68x (RM64x +6% GST) with Hari Raya promotion. At the front cover of its packaging box, there is a red sticker about its 2 years warranty support, and a blue sticker stating its UniFi and Maxis Fibre support.

At the back of the box, there is a comparison table for Archer 2600, Archer C9 and Archer C5.

I have also made a comparison table for Archer C7, Archer C8 and Archer C9 in March 2016. (Yeah, I have been surveying and researching around for the router replacement for quite some times, before finalized to this Archer C2600.)

The size of this Archer C2600 is larger than I expected. It is 10.4" X 7.8" which is about the size of a 10-inch netbook.

It has a larger power adaptor than the WDR-3600 too, and is of the same type with the laptop power adaptor. The adaptor converts AC current from wall socket into 12V/4A DC supply to power up the router.

The Archer C2600 is a MU-MIMO router with 4 antennas, which mean it is able to individually serve up to 4 MU-MIMO supported devices at full bandwidth on the 2.4GHz band and another 4 MU-MIMO on the 5GHz band. If the connecting wireless device does not support MU-MIMO, or the amount of MU-MIMO connections at the router has reached the maximum, the connection will fall into SU-MIMO mode, which means its connection bandwidth will be shared with other SU-MIMO connected devices. (For MU-MIMO routers, the more antenna the merrier, so this type of wireless routers usually have more antennas than the older non-MU-MIMO routers)

The Archer C2600 also comes with a modern looking web user interface, which looks nicer than the traditional TP-Link web interface for router administration. Anyhow, there is not much different in features and functionalities between the newer and older interfaces.

Setting up for UniFi IPTV is much easier than before, just a 2-step action of select and save.

Special note on turning on the UniFi IPTV setting:

• Do not access the router administration web interface by connecting your PC to LAN Port #1 of the router, you should connect your HyppTV STB to that port instead. If you connect your PC to that port, you will end up unable to access the administration web interface after you click on the Save button, because that port will be assigned to a separate VLAN.
• There is an option for IGMP Version 2 and Version 3. If you choose IGMP V3, your Internet link will be down. Your Internet link can only work properly with IGMP V2.
• Certain function of the router, such as QoS, will need to be disabled once you enable the IPTV setting. Probably because they are not compatible with each other.

This Archer C2600 also supports the TP-Link Tether mobile app for you to manage it with your smartphone.

My experience of using the Archer C2600:

• The LED is less brighter than the WDR-3600, which is good after you turned off all your lights for sleeping at night. In fact, the LED of the Archer C2600 can be configured to turn off by itself during sleeping time too. There is also a button on it to manually turn the LED lights on/off.
• The 5GHz band coverage improved a lot. Now my Samsung UHD 4K smart TV downstairs is able to connect with it using the 5GHz band. Previously it can only connect with my WDR-3600 using the 2.4GHz band.
• The overall WiFi coverage (2.4GHz band and 5GHz band) is much larger than the WDR-3600 too. Previously I can only get a poor 2.4GHz connection with very low speed at my car poach area outside the building, which is a few walls and some distance away from the location of the router. Now my mobile devices still able to detect the 2.4GHz WiFi with moderate signal at the car poach, and able to connect to the router at speed of single digit Mbps only. The 5GHz WiFi is also detected but signal is much weaker than the 2.4GHz. 
• The connection speed improved a lot too. My HTC One M8 smartphone used to get a 150Mbps connection at home, now can get a 433Mbps connection. My newer Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone is able to get a 866Mbps connection, with its dual channel support.
• My external harddisk connected to the router's USB 3.0 port has faster read/write speed too. Time taken to copy large file is shorter.

Therefore, I can say that the performance of this Archer C2600 wireless router is as advertised. At the price of RM68x, it really worth the upgrade from WDR-3600.

Understanding Wireless-AC bandwidth you can get from 802.11ac WiFi routers

Wireless-AC (IEEE 802.11ac), a.k.a. Very High Throughput (VHT) is the successor of the Wireless-N WiFi technology, and is the mainstream technology supported by today's WiFi routers and wireless networked devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PC wireless cards, smart TVs, smart CCTVs, etc.

As a layman, we always see the wireless-AC device rated with AC followed by a number, such as AC2600. What does that number tell us about the supported bandwidth of the device? Well, the number is actually a close figure to the total bandwidth of all its wireless bands added up together.

Bandwidth is the maximum available network connection speed of two connected devices. The actual connection speed (i.e. throughput) between the two connected devices is equal or lower than the supported bandwidth of the connection. The throughput is usually lower than the bandwidth due to shared connections, distance, surrounding interference, obstacle in-between, etc.

The wireless-AC network can operate in both the "traditional" 2.4GHz frequency band as well as the 5GHz frequency band. The 2.4GHz band is usually congested with the older wireless-b/g/n networks using the same band for wireless data transmission.

Wireless-AC routers or access points are dual band WiFi devices, supporting wireless connections with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands.

The newer AC3200 and AC5300 routers support two 5GHz bands instead of one, making them a triple band WiFi devices.

The table below shows the bandwidth of each of the bands for the common wireless-AC types.

Let's say your smartphone is connected to an AC600 router (the 1st one in above list) using the 2.4GHz band, the maximum connection speed the phone can obtain is 150Mbps. If it is connected to the same router using the 5GHz band, the maximum connection speed is 433Mbps.

If you are buying an AC2600 router (last 4th in above list), you can expect your wireless-AC supported devices connected with it using 2.4GHz band to have WiFi speed of up to 800Mbps, and if connected using 5GHz band, can reach a maximum speed to 1733Mbps, which is even much faster than the Cat-6 cable wired gigabit network (1000Mbps) connected to its gigabit network port.

Note that the maximum bandwidth in each of the bands in the table above is a combination of bandwidth delivered by one or multiple channels running in Channel Width of 20Mhz, 40Mhz, 80Mhz or 160Mhz. Connection of two linked WiFi devices must be established using the same channel number.

In wireless-AC network, each channel in 2.4GHz band supports a bandwidth of 150Mbps or 200Mbps; and each channel in 5GHz band supports a bandwidth of 433Mbps.

An AC2600 router such as the TP-Link Archer C2600 could support 4 channels in 2.4GHz band (4 x 200Mbps = 800Mbps) and 4 channels in 5GHz band (4 x 433Mbps = 1732Mbps). If your smartphone only support 2 channels in 5GHz band, then the maximum connection speed with the AC2600 router is only 2 x 433Mbps = 866Mbps instead of the full channel 1733Mbps. If your smartphone also support 4 channels in 5GHz band, then it is possible for you to achieve 1733Mbps connection speed.

Note that WiFi is a kind of local area network (LAN). The internet access speed you can get from the router is still restricted to the bandwidth you subscribed with your ISP, which is normally lower. Anyhow, a fast wireless-AC connection enables network data transfer between devices within the local network to be speedy. This will enable smooth ultra-high definition video streaming to your 4K smart TV from another device.

Submit your creative and innovative idea to Digi Challenge for Change (DigiCFC) Season 7 for fun and money

Digi has launched the Digi Challenge for Change (DigiCFC) Season 7 on 16 June 2016 with the mission of Building Mobile First Solutions for Social Impact.

DigiCFC is an open and inclusive programme and competition for Malaysians to contribute ideas for mobile applications that benefit society. In this exciting season of DigiCFC, they are looking for revolutionary mobile app ideas that are able to address the current issues surrounding 3 main target groups, namely children (below 18 years old), youth (below 40 years old) and women.

Idea submission is opened now until 17 July 2016.

Top 30 ideators will be invited to #ideajam where relevant industry experts and mentors will review their ideas. 3 Winning Ideas will walk away with RM5,000 each.

Mobile application developers, designers, analysts are also invited register their interest in DigiCFC website. At the second stage of the event, they will be invited to build on the 3 winning ideas. Teams must submit their finish product by 19 August during Hack@DigiCFC.

The winning teams ideators and developers will proceed to the POC with a seed grant to mobilize the solution to the community.

Grand Prize Winner will take home RM50,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Digital Winners Conference in Norway. Good Effort Prize Winner will take home RM10,000 for both finalist.

This programme is open to Malaysians (above 18 years of age) from all walks of life.

Click here for more information and participation to DigiCFC.

 

Rodger 7-point plan and Munro 5-fold grading system

Attention job interviewers and interviewees, the information below could be useful to you to successfully get the right person (for interviewers) or win your dream job (for interviewees).

Many HR adopts 2 important person specification models by Alec Rodger and John Munro Fraser respectively to match a job description with the ideal candidate to fill the job. Each of them gives certain headings under which the attributes of the ideal person can be classified.

Person specification is a profile of the personal skills and characteristics to look for in the recruitment and selection process.

Rodger's 7-point plan:

• Physical make-up: health, appearance, bearing, speech and manner.
• Attainments: education, qualifications, experience.
• General intelligence: ability to define and solve problems.
• Special aptitudes: skills, attributes or competencies relevant to the job.
• Interests: work related or leisure pursuits that may have a bearing on the job.
• Disposition: influence over others, steadiness, dependability, self-reliance.
• Circumstances: any special demands of the job, such as ability to work unsocial hours, travel abroad, etc.

Munro's 5-fold grading system:

• Impact on others people: similar to Rodger's "physical make-up" specification.
• Qualifications and experience: similar to Rodger's "attainments" specification.
• Innate abilities and aptitude: quickness of comprehension and aptitude for learning.
• Motivation: individual goals, consistency and determination to succeed in the workplace.
• Adjustment: emotional stability, ability to stand up to stress and ability to get on with people.

Scholarship2u website and Scholarship Fair 2016

Scholarships2u.com is an interesting website, acting as a one-stop gateway portal to scholarship information and application for Malaysian students of secondary school, college, or university up to Master degree, to study either locally or abroad.

The website aims to make finding the right college and scholarship faster than before with just a click of the button. Students can apply to scholarship offered by multiple institutions, and are required to sit for a scholarship test as assessment to the application.

The basic criteria to meet scholarship eligibility are school transcripts, achievements, family background and etc. The criteria, however, differs from country to country, state to state and even college to college.

The website is a good initiative for parents and students seeking for scholarship as financial aid to study. However, I find that improvement could be made for the website to list the scholarships offered in a better way, and to provide a better search function. Apparently, the website is using Wordpress as its platform, which has many limitation for its feature expansion and future growth.

The website is organizing Scholarship Fair 2016 with over RM10 million worth of scholarship to be offered for studying in  world class schools, colleges and universities from Australia, Malaysia, Switzerland, USA and United Kingdom.

Date: 23 July 2016 (Saturday)
Time: 1pm - 6pm
Venue: Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya
Admission: Free for first 1,000 registrations

For registration and more information about the Scholarship Fair 2016, click here to visit to Scholarships2u.com website.

Updated the firmware of my Samsung Xpress M2885FW printer to version 3.00.01.13

I have just updated the firmware of my Samsung Xpress M2885FW printer to version 3.00.01.13.

You can download the latest firmware from Samsung support webpage of this MFP here.

Firmware update can be done via the Samsung SyncThru Web Service, by accessing the printer's IP address using your web browser.

Note that you need to login as administrator user in order to perform the firmware update.

Here are the steps to perform the update:

• Download the latest firmware, and unzip the file.
• Locate the firmware file with extension .HD, such as M2885_V3.00.01.13.hd.
• Open your web browser and access to the printer's SyncThru Web Service.
• Login as administrator.
• Go to Maintenance > Firmware Upgrade.
• Click the Upgrade Wizard button.
• Select the firmware file, e.g. M2885_V3.00.01.13.hd.
• The file will be uploaded, and the firmware update process will begin.
• The printer will restart, followed by the firmware reflash procedure.
• Upon successful update, you can check the firmware information in Maintenance > Firmware Version screen.

And here is the changelog of the firmware for this printer for your reference.

Upgraded my home MFP to Samsung Xpress SL-M2885FW/XSS mono multifunction laser-class LED printer from Dell 1355cn colour multifunction LED printer

My Dell 1355cn colour multifunction laser-class LED printer has served me for more than 4 years before I hit with a paper jam problem that I'm unable to resolve by myself (probably due to faulty in either its sensor or paper feed roller alignment).

Considering its high toner price and I found difficulty to get a printer repair shop who are willing to repair this Dell printer, I decided to replace it with a new Samsung Xpress SL-M2885FW/XSS mono multifunction (print/scan/copy/fax) laser-class LED printer.

 

I have chosen a mono laser printer this time rather than a colour laser printer, as I found out that I seldom need to do colour printing. This BLI award-winning mono laser MFP which cost me RM698 (inclusive 6% GST) is much cheaper than the colour laser MFP available in the market. In addition, it only has black toner to replace instead of 4 toners which cost a lot when replaced at the same time.

One of the beauty of this Samsung M2885FW printer is that its imaging unit is separated from the toner, which helps to bring down the cost of the toner. The imaging drum unit MLT-R116 has a page yield of up to 9,000 pages and cost around RM175 for replacement, while its high-yield toner MLT-D116L  with page yield of up to 3,000 pages cost about the same price with the imaging unit. There is an alternative standard-yield toner MLT-D116S with page yield of up to 1,200 pages cost around RM100 only.

The easiest way to setup this Samsung M2885FW printer is to first connect it to the computer using USB cable, configure its TCP/IP settings so that it is accessible with network cable or WiFi LAN. The printer also supports WiFi setup using WPS method.

There are 2 ways to obtain and install its required drivers and software applications. One way is to install from its installation CD, another way is to install the Samsung Printer Software Installer and Samsung Printer Diagnostics which you can download from Samsung support website for SL-M2885FW/XSS.

You can make use of the Samsung Printer Diagnostics software to install and update the drivers and related applications to the latest version.

Other ways to setup the printer's TCP/IP network settings including using its control panel with 2-line LED display, which might not be convenient, and to connect to the printer using WiFi Direct, then continue with the configuration, which might need some technical know-how before the attempt succeed.

There are 2 important software that you need to install namely Samsung Easy Printer Manager and Samsung Easy Document Creator.

The Samsung Easy Printer Manager has 2 modes. The Basic Mode (or I call it end-user mode) is a clean and straightforward screen that tells you the printer's status, and provides quick button access to its scanner functions (which handled by the Samsung Easy Document Creator application), fax functions, user's guide (which is a comprehensive user manual) and some other basic functions.

The Advanced Mode (or I call it administrator mode) provides more detailed information about the printer, including its serial number. It also allows you to perform some settings configuration here.

There is a reason I said setting up TCP/IP for the printer is important. Apart from making the printer accessible via the network once the TCP/IP setting is done, it also enables you to have access to its powerful Samsung SyncThru Web Service which you access by connecting to port 80 of the printer's IP address using your web browser.

The number of information you can get in SyncThru Web Service is even more than Samsung Easy Printer Manager Advanced Mode. It also provides you much more control to the settings of the printer.

You can gain even more access by login as administrator in SyncThru Web Service. The default username is admin and its default password is sec00000. Once logged in, you can replace this username and password with your own.

You can also perform print, scan or fax function from your mobile device through the Android app called Samsung Mobile Print. If you are using iPhone or iPad, there is Samsung Mobile Print for iOS too.

What I like about this printer?

• It prints and/or copies really fast, at speed of up to 28ppm. Much faster than the Dell 1355cn.
• Its print output is of high quality. Resolution can be as high as 4800x600 dpi.
• Its scanner support high resolution of up to 1200x1200 dpi optical, and 4800x4800 dpi maximum.
• It has built-in support for automated double-sided printing, which is a feature normally available in printers of higher range.
• It has built-in support for ID copy to easily copy double-sided cards (e.g. IC, driving license, business card, ...) onto the same page of A4 paper.
• It has built-in support for Google Cloud Print, Samsung Cloud Print, and Apple AirPrint.
• It is small in size, even slightly smaller than the Dell 1355cn.
• It has low power consumption of 1.6W during power save mode, 2.4Wwhen sleeping with WiFi direct on, 50W during standby, and 400W when printing.
• Its paper tray is of drawer type, not exposing the papers in front of the printer. The tray has input capacity of up to 250 sheets of papers.
• It has easy to use Eco Mode which helps to save toner and/or paper usage.

What I dislike about this printer?

• Its 2-line LCD display panel has limited display area. It is not practical to perform setting directly using its control panel.
• When putting in A4 paper in its paper tray, there is still slight exposure of the paper at the back of the printer.
• It supports NFC, which needs to function together with WiFi Direct. However, my phone's NFC contact with the printer most of the time not successful to bring up the Samsung Mobile Print app. It is not easy to make use of this function.
• The Samsung Printer Installer unable to detect and download the latest firmware for the printer, and the Scanner Driver is always in "update needed" state even if the latest version already installed successfully.

Online free search of registered company name and purchase of their company profile with SSM e-Info website

If you are going to start up a new business in Malaysia and would like to check whether the company name you thought of is available or not, now you can check it online for free, with SSM e-Info website.

Other than the above purpose, you can use the same website to check a Malaysian company's information at a small fee payable online. Available information including:

• Company profile: consists of company information, summary of share capital, directors/officers, shareholders, company charges and account summary.
• Company charges: extraction of information from Form 34 (Statement of Particulars to be Lodged with Charge) and Form 40 (Certificate of Registration of Charge).
• Financial comparison: extraction of information from 2 most recent Audited Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account of the company.
• Business Profile (for LLP, sole-proprietary, partnership): consists of business information, business address, nature of business, branch information (if any) and current business owner.
• Business Termination Letter: certification of termination of registered Business from SURUHANJAYA SYARIKAT MALAYSIA which verify that the Business is expired or terminated.

In the good old days, you need to go to the office of Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, SSM) to perform the searching, checking and information purchasing. This SSM e-Info website eliminates the hassle by making the service available online.

Before you can perform any searching in the website, you need to register a user account by clicking on the "Register Now as e-Account Member" image link on the website. The registration is free and once your account is successfully registered, you can immediately login and make use of the services available.

You can search the company or business by name or by registration number.

If no search result displayed, then the company name you searched for is probably available for new registration application.

If the search found any matching company/companies or business/businesses, it will display their registration number, name, city and state in search result, and you can click a button to purchase further information of the company/business.

My Avantree CGTR-520-W desktop power station with 5 USB charging ports and 2 AC outlets

You've probably read about my Belkin B2E027 4-port 2.4A full rate USB power charger before. It is still working fine and I am still using it.

Recently, I discovered something even better, which is the Avantree CGTR-520-W desktop power station. It comes with 5 smart USB ports, which each single port able to charge up to 2.4A and the total combined charging capacity is 8A.

It also comes with 2 AC sockets (maximum 10A loading) with surge protector of 1,700 Joule and power rating of 1,250W (for 125Vac) or 2,250W (for 225Vac).

You've probably seen it in action when I talked about my KCX-017 USB current and voltage tester in my previous post.

This power station is handy when you have limited wall sockets, as it won't occupy your wall socket and at the same time it extends another socket for your use. You can use its sockets to charge your laptop and other bigger devices that need to be charged with electrical socket instead of USB.

My KCX-017 USB current and voltage tester

Sometimes you will face problem with USB charging such as charging speed slower than normal, unable to charge, or worse still, you encountered a "reverse charging" whereby current is drawn away from the battery of your device instead of charging it.

The problem could be due to faulty charger, faulty USB cable, or faulty USB port of the device to be charged.

In addition, certain 3rd party USB cables are having quality issue with unstable current flow, or only allow low current flow through it.

A USB tester such as the KCX-017 will be handy to diagnose such situations.

This small gadget only cost around RM25, and works well with wall charger, car charger, power bank, etc. by connecting its attached USB cable to the charger, or by connecting the charging cable to its micro-USB port. It will measure the input voltage and display on its LCD screen.

Its other end is a USB port which you can use a USB cable to connect to a charging recipient such as mobile phone, tablet, GPS navigator, etc. Beside the voltage, it will also measure and display the current drawn by the recipient, and also calculate the mAh value of the charging session.

In summary, this gadget is used to:

• Test no-load voltage of the power supply
• Test output power of USB output devices
• Test working voltage and current of the USB output devices
• Test voltage and line loss of charging cables
• Perform real-time monitoring of the charging status

Its specified working environment is as below:

• Voltage range: 3-7V
  
• Current range: 50mA-3,500mA
  
• Capacity range: 0-19,999mAh

When the input voltage is lower than 4.7V or higher than 5.3V, its LCD screen will flash with an arrowhead indicating under-voltage or over-voltage.

This device can record up to 10 sets of readings. There is a button near to its LCD screen.

• Double click the button, the display will start flashing. Single click the button to switch to different memory slot (from 0 to 9). Double click again to use the current memory slot displayed on screen.
• Long press the button will reset the next memory slot reading back to 0000.

This device is able to memorize the last reading when unplugged. The next time when it is turned on again, that reading will be displayed on its LCD screen.

It is a handy device to troubleshoot USB charging problem, as well as to test for the charging quality of USB cables.

My VST-706 3-in-1 car battery voltage monitor, digital thermometer and USB charger

I have just bought this VST-706 car gadget which plugs into the car cigarette lighter socket and function as 3-in-1:

• Battery voltmeter
• Digital thermometer
• USB 2.0 charger

This little car gadget cost less than RM30 and works with car using 12V battery or 24V battery.

The interpretation of its voltmeter reading is as follow:

Its thermometer measuring range is -9 ~ 80 degree Celsius.

The maximum output current of its USB charging port is 2.1A.

With it, you can always monitor the voltage of your car battery and be alerted of its faulty and timing for its end-of-life, before it went flat. The thermometer and USB charger are extra features that good to have too.

My SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0

The price of USB flash drive has eventually gone cheap. Nowadays, you can get a genuine 16GB SanDisk Ultra dual USB drive 3.0 with plug-and-play support to OTG-enabled Android devices at the price of less than RM20.

This SanDisk Ultra dual USB drive 3.0 has 2 connectors. At one end is a USB 3.0 connector that is able to transfer file to computer at a speed of up to 130 MBps (or about 1 Gbps).

Note that there is another product called "SanDisk Ultra dual USB drive" without the "3.0" behind, selling at slightly cheaper price, which the USB connector is a USB 2.0 connector and the data transfer speed is much lower than the 3.0 version.

At the other end is a micro-USB connector that can work on the fly with OTG-enabled Android devices.

Similar with the warranty period of most SanDisk Ultra range of products, this SanDisk Ultra dual USB drive 3.0 comes with a 5 years warranty.

Once plugged into the micro-USB port of the Android device, this USB flash drive is auto-detected by Android as one of the external storages and is immediately accessible by File Manager of Android system.

SanDisk also provides a free mobile app called SanDisk Memory Zone for user to access the USB flash drive and to transfer file between it and the device's internal storage or flash memory card installed in the device.

However, I found the function of this SanDisk Memory Zone app is very limited. It doesn't work with the folders in the USB flash drive so you can only copy file to its root directory, and the copying process is pretty slow.

The only Android app I found that can work with it without hassle is ES File Explorer Pro (or its free version ES File Explorer).

ES File Explorer Pro is able to detect and use this OTG drive upon plugged in, and all file operations of copying, moving, renaming, deleting, creating, opening with associated app, etc. can work well without problem.

ES File Explorer Pro works equally well to access my SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0 with my HTC One M8 smartphone running on Android 6.0 and my Samsung Galaxy Note 5.0 tablet running on Android 4.4.2.

OCBC Bank launched open API for developers to integrate apps with their open data

In line with Singapore Government's Smart Nation Initiative and the Monetary Authority of Singapore's vision to create a Smart Financial Centre and move toward an open API architecture, OCBC Bank has on 17 May 2016 launched their open Application Programming Interface (API) platform, namely CONNECT2OCBC,  that allows software developers to integrate their apps or websites with OCBC's open data related to their products and services.

OCBC claims to be the first in Southeast Asia to introduce such open API service, playing a bigger role in growing the FinTech ecosystem.

For a start, 4 APIs are made available:

• Branch Locator provides a list of OCBC Bank branches with their respective location details and operating hours.
• Credit Card Advisor provides credit card suggestions based on user's lifestyle.
• ATM Locator provides a list of OCBC Bank ATMs with their location details to facilitate users in finding them.
• Forex provides a list of updated currency exchange rates by OCBC, allowing the integrated apps to perform calculations across currencies.

Although these 4 APIs looks limited, it is deemed as a good start. Hopefully more APIs will be made available for broader and deeper usage in the near future.

Click here for more information about the CONNECT2OCBC APIs.

Besides, OCBC has also established a new business unit called The Open Vault @ OCBC, which is a FinTech innovation center aimed to incubate FinTech startups, helping them make products and services that the bank can add to its digital banking arsenal or bring to the market.

The 5 areas of interest of Open Vault @ OCBC are:

• Wealth management
• Credit and financing
• Insurance
• Cyber security
• Artificial intelligence

The center has partnered with Hong Kong venture capital firm Nest to run the OCBC FinTech Accelerator incubation program to provide selected start-ups with business and technical expertise mentorship.

SSPN-i declared 2015 dividend

The Federal Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, has just declared the dividend for Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional (SSPN-i) of year 2015 on 6 May 2016.

The 2015 SSPN-i dividend payout rate is 4%, amounting to RM60.8 million. This rate is slightly lower than the previous 4.25% payout for 2014.

Historical SSPN-i dividend payout rate is as below:

• 2015: 4.00%
• 2014: 4.25%
• 2013: 4.25%
• 2012: 4.25%
• 2011: 3.75%
• 2010: 3.25%
• 2009: 2.50%
• 2008: 4.00%
• 2007: 4.00%
• 2006: 4.00%
• 2005: 4.00%
• 2004: 3.00%

If you have opened an SSPN-i account for your child, you should be able to check the amount of dividend received in the account by now (9 May 2016).

Click here to read about how to view your online SSPN-i statement of account.

Today is World Password Day

Today is the  first Thursday of May, the World Password Day! It is observed to create awareness of the need for good password security practice.

Nowadays, password is used everywhere,  being a commonly used security mechanism for:

• identity verification
• authentication of access control
• encryption/decryption key to protect our private information

Here are the 4 steps action to secure your online experience, recommended by organizers of World Password Day:

Why the first Thursday of May? Perhaps this day itself is an interesting day, being observed in:

• 5 May 2016
• 4 May 2017
• 3 May 2018
• 2 May 2019
• 1 May 2020

For more information, visit to : https://passwordday.org/