Buying guide for computer power supply unit (PSU)

Time flies. My Dell Studio XPS 8100 is 5 years old now. It is still working fine, except of some occasional auto restarts during cold boot up.

I decided to replace its stock Chicony CPB09-001A 350 Watt power supply (PSU) as an attempt to fix this auto restart problem. So far, this problem doesn't occur again after I replaced the PSU.

After all, the PSU is a very important component of the computer that converts the AC current from wall socket into DC current of various voltage and distribute them to power up all the electronic parts of the computer. A faulty PSU might fry up the motherboard, introduce bad sectors and/or damage the harddisk, introduce error to memory, burn up the graphics display card, etc.

Not all branded PC can swap in with power supply of other brand, because of proprietary cabling or setting. Luckily, this Dell Studio XPS 8100 uses a standard ATX power supply, and therefore can fit in with another standard ATX power supply, regardless of the brand.

I looked for a low cost but reliable PSU, so that the computer can continue to serve me for another 3 years or so.

Initially I wanted to buy the Corsair VS450, but there was no stock in the shop I went to. I ended up purchased a Cooler Master B500 ver.2 to replace the stock PSU in my desktop.

I have made some study on how to choose a suitable PSU for my computer before I went to the shop, and would like to share the knowledge here with you.

Choosing Suitable PSU Wattage

The first thing to consider for a PSU is how many Watt of PSU is suitable for the PC. Choosing a lower wattage PSU increases the risk of system to become unstable and louder noise from PSU. Choosing a higher wattage PSU decreases efficiency at lighter loads, and the price is higher too.

You can refer to my article about calculating the recommended power supply wattage for desktop computer. However, this time, I used another website at http://powersupplycalculator.net/ to calculate for the wattage recommendation.

Typically, the CPU and the graphics display card (with GPU on it) are the 2 components in the PC that consume the most power, and high end GPU can consume much more power than the CPU.

For normal PC with normal CPU and one normal graphics display card, a high efficiency power supply of 400-500 watt should be sufficient. You might need more wattage if you have high end GPU, or multiple graphics display cards in the same PC.

PSU Efficiency and Certification

What is the efficiency of power supply? Well, when the PSU converts the AC current to DC current, certain portion of the electric will be lost in the form of heat.

If a power supply is 80% efficient, it can convert 100W of AC current into 80W DC, dissipating the remaining  20W in heat.

Therefore, a high efficiency power supply will waste less electric in the process of converting the AC to DC, produces less heat, and requires less cooling fan speed (and hence runs more silently).

There is a certification body called 80 Plus that will test and confirm if a model of PSU always has an efficiency of at least 80%.

There are several certification grades, from just 80 Plus, to bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and titanium. The higher the grade, the more efficiency is required, and normally the more expensive will be the PSU.

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is 80 Plus certified. You can click here for its 80 Plus verification and testing report.

Normally, the PSU has the highest efficiency when it is loaded with around 50% of its capacity. It has lower efficiency at lower load (eg. when the computer is at idle state) or higher load (eg. when all the CPU cores, GPU and memory are at high utilization state).

The 80 Plus test result of Cooler Master B500 ver.2 shows its efficiency rate as below:

• 20% load - 82.75% efficiency, power factor of 0.97
• 50% load - 84.55% efficiency, power factor of 0.99
• 100% load - 81.51% efficiency, power factor of 0.99

You can find the list of all other brands and models of PSU that are 80 Plus certified in their website.

Beside 80 Plus, this Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is also ecoPSU certified. You can click here for its ecoPSU  Level 85 verification and testing report.

The test result with ecoPSU shows even better efficiency than 80 Plus.

Note that both the 80 Plus and ecoPSU also define the minimum power factor requirement in their certification. What is power factor then?

Power Factor Correction

The power factor of an AC electrical power system is defined as the ratio of the real power flowing to the load to the apparent power in the circuit.

In an electric power system, a load with a low power factor draws more current than a load with a high power factor for the same amount of useful power transferred.

The PSU has power factor correction (PFC) circuits to increase its power factor. The PFC circuits type is either passive, active, or dynamic. Low grade PSU uses passive PFC, better one uses active PFC, and dynamic PFC is just too expensive for use in computer PSU.

Therefore, "Active PFC" is probably one of the keyword you search for when considering a PSU. The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 uses active PFC circuits.

The +12v Rail

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has a single +12v rail with maximum rating of 38A, 456W. This is the most important rail that supply electric to the high power consumption components of the computer, including the CPU and GPU.

Some PSU has dual or multiple +12v rails to split out the current, especially those PSU with high +12v rail maximum rating of above 40A, so that you can use one rail for CPU, and another for GPU, to balance up the load on the +12v rails.

The Cooler Master B-series of PSU used to have dual +12v rails, but version 2 has switched to single rail design. You can click here to find out the reason why Cooler Master made the change.

Modular vs Non-modular

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 is non-modular. All its cable rails are attached with the PSU and cannot be detached from its outlet. A PSU with modular cabling system provides a detachable cabling system, offering the ability to remove unused connections, which can reduce clutter and improve air flow in the computer.

Modularity isn't my main concern, as the chassis of Dell Studio XPS 8100 is pretty spacious.

Lifespan and MTBF

The life span of a PSU is usually specified in mean time between failures (MTBF). The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has an MTBF of 100,000 hours.

This should mean that the PSU has a probability of more than 75% to survive more than 3 years (and therefore has about 25% of chance to fail within 3 years). Also, it has around 25% probability to last as long as 100,000 hours.

Protection Circuits

Modern PSU has protection circuits to prevent the computer components such as the motherboard and harddisk from being fried due to excessive current drawn, or overheat, etc.

These are the keywords you can look for a PSU protection circuits:

• SCP - short circuit protection
• OPP - overpower/overload protection
• OCP - overcurrent protection
• OTP - overtemperature protection
• OVP - overvoltage protection
• UVP - undervoltage protection

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has SCP, OPP, OCP, OTP and OVP. Its manufacturer doesn't mention about UVP for it.

Connectors

The Cooler Master B500 ver.2 has the following connectors, which are sufficient for my Dell Studio XPS 8100 PC.

Visualized map of real-time air quality index and forecast of air pollution level

It has been for quite some times the haze resulting from huge forest fires in Indonesia has created a cloud of smog over itself and the neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand.

Here is a website that gather official data of air quality index (AQI) or air pollution index (API) from all around the world, and publish the information in a visualized map and charts. Its URL is: http://aqicn.org/map/

From the website, you can immediately know the current and also forecasted air quality level of a country, region or city.

The URL for Malaysia AQI map is:
 http://aqicn.org/map/malaysia/

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

The URL for Singapore AQI map is:
http://aqicn.org/map/Singapore

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

The URL for Kuala Lumpur AQI map and chart is:
http://aqicn.org/city/kuala-lumpur/

(Screen captured on 15 September 2015)

Colour indicators in the map and chart:

• Green = healthy
• Yellow = moderately unhealthy
• Orange = unhealthy
• Red = very unhealthy
• Purple = extremely unhealthy

My Sharp IG-DC2E-B Plasmacluster ion generator (in car air purifier)

I applied a new HSBC Amanah Credit Card in March 2015 and was promised with a Sharp in car air purifier (worth about RM350) as signing free gift by meeting the required terms and conditions.

After waited for about half a year, I finally received this free gift from HSBC.

As a car ionizer, this Sharp IG-DC2E-B functions in my car to:

• Purify air by settling airborne particles and dust
• Disinfect viruses
• Deodorize bad smell
• Remove adhered mold and suspend further mold
• Remove allergens from dead dust mites and dust mite faeces

The unit is cylindrical in shape, looks like a typical water container, and fit in the cup holder in the car.

Installation is pretty easy, just need to remove its back cover to plug in the power connection cable, route the power cord to come out from either one of its two outlets (one near its middle, and another near its bottom) , then cover back the back cover. Plug the other end of the power connection cable to the car's lighter socket, and it is ready to operate.

There are 3 available operation modes:

• Low: ion density of 7,000 ions per cubic centimetre, quiet, consume less power (1.1 watt).
• High: ion density of 25,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisier, consume more power (1.8 watt).
• Turbo: ion density of 50,000 ions per cubic centimetre, noisiest, consume most power (2.7 watt).

The IZ-C75CE Plasmacluster ion generating unit can be seen after removing the back cover of the IG-DC2E-B. It has a lifespan of approximately 19,000 hours (more than 6 years) and need replacement upon end of life.

Now my car has 2 ionizers, the existing Medklinn mobile ionizer (I've already made an upgraded to Medklinn Asens Auto from the one shown in the linked article) and this new Sharp Plasmacluster ion generator. The Medklinn claims to be able to produce much more ions (2 millions per cubic centimetre) than the Sharp.

I have no problem connecting both of them to the car's lighter socket, as I have an  HSC YC-401 Car 1-to-3 Cigarette Lighter Sockets with 2 USB ports in my car.

Khan Academy - the free online tuition website

I would like to share with you a great online tuition (e-learning) website called Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/), founded by Salman Amin Khan (a.k.a. Sal or Khan, born 11 October 1976) with the ambition "to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere".

Salman Khan is a Bengali American who graduated with multiple Bachelor degrees  (mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science) and multiple Master degrees (electrical engineering, and computer science) from M.I.T. He is also an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School.

Khan is not only very knowledgeable in mathematics and science, but also very good in explaining and teaching things in a very easy to understand manner.

He started this venture in 2003,  tutoring his cousin Nadia mathematics over the Internet using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. His tutorials are so interesting and attracted more and more relatives and friends of Nadia to join in, until he established the Khan Academy channel in Youtube to upload his tutorial videos and made free access to everyone.

Today, Khan Academy website hosted thousands of educational video lessons, encompassing mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry,  organic chemistry, health and medicine, cosmology, astronomy, economics, finance, history, music, arts, computing, etc., from primary school level until college level.

These videos  have been viewed over 500 millions times.

As a non-profit educational organization, Khan Academy operates solely on donations. It doesn't charge you any money to access the website and all the content in it, and the content does not have any annoying advertisement too.

The Khan Academy website is simple, straightforward and easy to use. Parents and teachers can link their account with their own children and/or students to monitor and provide guidance for their learning progress in Khan Academy.

This is a very good online tuition website for yourself as well as for your children and/or students. It is fun to learn from its video tutorials. It is highly recommended by many people who has benefited from it, including Bill Gates.

TPC Plus (TPC, 7176), will it be the phoenix rising from the ashes?

TPC Plus (TPC, 7176) is a high quality (mainly Grade A) egg producer in the poultry farming industry. It is based in Melaka and has been listed in Bursa Malaysia (KLSE) since 2003.

Among its range of products are TPC Lower Cholesterol eggs, TPC Omega eggs, TPC Organic Selenium eggs, TPC Golden Corn eggs, TPC Farm Fresh eggs, washed-sanitized-coated (WASACO) eggs, etc.

In spite of producing high quality products, its financial results were not so attractive, especially after 2006.

In 2010, London Biscuits (LONBISC, 7126) which is in the cake confectionery business whereby egg is a major raw material, acquired TPC by buying about 32% stake in TPC from its then executive chairman Yee Tiam Teck and managing director Jimmy E. Pian at the price of RM0.30 per share.

After that, LONBISC had made a voluntary takeover offer at RM0.30 per share for TPC, but the respond was not good. It ended up with 33.65% holding in TPC.

Shortly after that, LONBISC sold off all its egg business, comprised 23.29% of Lay Hong (LAYHONG, 9385) to QL Resources (QL, 7084) and this 33.65% of TPC to Huat Lai Resources (HUATLAI, 7141).

HUATLAI acquired the 33.65% stake of TPC from LONBISC at the price of about RM0.30 in 2011. After that, HUATLAI had made a conditional takeover offer at RM0.30 per share for TPC. It ended up with 51.05% holding in TPC in 2012, and TPC becomes a subsidiary of HUATLAI till today.

Since then, HUATLAI took over the management of TPC and replaced its board of directors with own management team. The managing director of HUATLAI, Mr. Lim Yeow Her is now also the managing director of TPC.

The management has undergone several restructuring exercises to strengthen the financial of TPC. We also see TPC expansion in production with new layer houses and pullet houses. The financial results of TPC gradually improves since HUATLAI's acquisition.

Chart taken from http://www.malaysiastock.biz

And the share price of TPC also gradually moves from the range of RM0.2x (when with LONBISC), to RM0.3x, and then to RM0.4x.

In February 2014, TPC was classified as a PN17 listed company after its auditors expressed concern over a net loss of RM4.1 million in the financial year ended 2013, and also took into account TPC’s shareholders equity as at 31 December 2013 was less than 50% of its issued capital.

Its share price dropped back to the range of RM0.2x immediately after the PN17 announcement, but gradually climbed back as seen in the chart above.

On 31 July 2015, TPC has obtained approval from Bursa Malaysia for its proposed regularization plan to uplift from PN17, which entails a proposed share premium reduction, proposed par value reduction, proposed rights issue with warrants, proposed capitalisation of amount owing to its holding company HUATLAI, as well as proposed amendments to its memorandum of association and articles of association.

TPC has called for an EGM to be held on 17 September 2015 to get shareholders nod on this proposal. Click here to read about the circular about this PN17 upliftment proposal.

Shareholders of TPC are proposed with Rights to purchase new TPC shares at the indicative price of RM0.20 per share on the basis of 3 Rights Shares for every 2 TPC shares held. For each of the 3 Rights Shares subscribed, the shareholders will get 2 free Warrants.

Under this proposal, TPC will be listing up to 180 million new shares for its proposed rights issue with warrants and proposed capitalization. Besides, a total of 80 million warrants with exercise price of RM0.20 will be issued pursuant to the proposed rights issue with warrants.

The proceeds to be raised from the proposed rights issue with warrants will be utilized by TPC for the purchase of layer houses, pullet houses,  equipment, working capital and expenses in relation to the proposed regularization plan.

TPC currently has 80 millions issued share listed in Bursa Malaysia. As reported in TPC Annual Report 2014, HUATLAI currently holds 52.91% stake in TPC. Only 54 shareholders own more than 100,000 shares in TPC after HUATLAI, which is equilvalent to 31.53%. About thousand over shareholders hold the remaining 15.56%.

As of today 10 September 2015, TPC share price closed at RM0.525. Its trailing 4 quarters EPS stood at 6.07sen, forming a PE ratio of 8.65. This is calculated based on its existing 80 million issued shares.

After the rights issue, its number of shares will immediately become 260 million, not accounting the 80 million warrants convertible to shares at the price of RM0.20. Not accounting for the result of share premium reduction and the proceed from rights subscription, its adjusted EPS will be 1.87sen. If taken those proceeds into account, the EPS figure will be higher.

TPC needs to maintain 2 consecutive quarters of operational profit in order to get upliftment from PN17. Will TPC be the phoenix rising from the ashes? Let's see.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.

A family trip to Royal Selangor Visitor Centre

Located at Setapak Jaya, an outskirt quite some distance away from Kuala Lumpur city center, the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre is a modern building with built-up area of 40,000 sqft. It is known as the world's largest pewter factory and showroom.

The company was originally called Selangor Pewter, and was awarded with its Royal charter by the Sultan of Selangor in 1992.

Outside the building, there is a world's largest pewter tankard as recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. This is a nice place to take some photos.

We are assigned with a pretty guide after registration at the front counter. She accompanied us throughout the visiting tour, explaining about the displayed items and answering to our questions.

The first station we visited is a museum about the founder, Yong Koon, founded the company in 1885, the pewtersmithing tools used at that time, some of the products including the old tin currency in animal shape and money tree.

On the wall, there is a giant touchmark with the Chinese words "玉和足锡" (meanings Jade, Peace, and Pure Tin) which Yong Koon used during the early days of his pewtersmithing workshop.

There is also a giant weighting scale that can accommodate a few children to stand on it.

After talking about the history, the next station talks about the science of pewter. It explains that pewter is an alloy with majority of tin and some copper and antimony.

The next station is the Chamber of Chimes, where we can produce musical sounds with cast pewter cylinders of different length. There are also some other cylinders made of wood, hang down from the ceiling.

Then we entered into the Hall of Finishes, with a lot of pewter tiles with different patterns and textures displayed on the wall.

The next station is the Hall of Frames, with many pewter made photo frames displayed on the wall.

On another wall, there are hand prints of all the craftsmen who worked more than 5 years with the company.

There is also a replicate of the Petronas Twin Towers made up of many tankards, which is about 2 storey high.

The next station displays a giant container with 1,578kg of pewter swarf, and some pewter pots made by recycling the pewter swarf.

At the end of the tour, we have a look at the pewter factory with about 400 craftsmen working at their well organized workstation. Complimentary drinks of 100 Plus is served in pewter cup. Only limited workstations can be closely visited by visitors, the rest we can only see from the visiting bridge but cannot enter into their area.

There is a place for visitors to experience the process of creating a pewter dish/bowl using traditional tools of hammer and wooden mould. A fee of RM63.60 per person was charged for this session. Our children liked it very much. It took about 30 minutes for them to make their own dish with hard knocks. The finished work can be taken home, together with a certificate of completion.

Opposite, there is a pewter foundry for visitors to experience the process of casting, polishing and decorating a pewter accessory. The fee is RM159. We didn't try this one.

Entering the showroom, there are many pewter products available for sell. They told us the most famous type of product sold is the tea caddies, ideal as gift as well as for own use. There are also Star Wars collections which are pretty nice.

Beside the showroom, there is a café serving light meals and ice-cream.

If you plan to take a visit to the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre, you can probably take down their GPS coordinate here: 3.196, 101.724.

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2017

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2017 a few days ago, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2017. The list below is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

If you are concerned, then you should probably avoid getting married on the listed days above.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Auspicious dates for wedding / marriage in 2017

Many couples plan for their wedding more than 1 year ahead in order to have sufficient preparation time.

Here is the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in year 2017 (year of Rooster), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

The Seven Deadly Social Sins as shared by Mahatma Gandhi

Indian folk hero Mahatma Gandhi wrote about the Seven Deadly Social Sins, also known as the Seven Blunders of the World, or the Seven Dangers to Human Virtue, or the Seven Things that will Destroy Us, in the Young India newspaper in 1925.

The list is as below:

• Wealth without work
• Pleasure without conscience
• Knowledge without character
• Commerce without morality / Business without ethics
• Science without humanity
• Worship without sacrifice / Religion without sacrifice
• Politics without principle

Mahatma Gandhi also gave the same list to his fifth grandson Arun Gandhi, who is now an Indian-American socio-political activist.

It is said that Arun later added the eighth into the list, which is:

• Rights without responsibilities

Dr. Stephen R. Covey (author of the famous book The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People) has, in his another book titled Principle Centered Leadership, allocated a chapter to explain about Gandhi's list of seven deadly social sins.

According to Dr. Stephen Covey...

Wealth without work refers to the practice of getting something for nothing - manipulating markets and assets so you don't have to work or produce added value, just manipulate people and things. These include professions built around making wealth without working, making much money without paying taxes, benefiting from free government programs without carrying a fair share of the financial burdens, and enjoying all the perks of citizenship of country and membership of corporation without assuming any of the risk or responsibility.

Pleasure without conscience is a mind-set of immature, greedy, selfish, and sensuous. It is our challenge to learn to give and take, to live selflessly, to be sensitive, and to be considerate. Otherwise there is no sense of social responsibility or accountability in our pleasurable activities.

Knowledge without character is as dangerous as a little knowledge is, even more dangerous is much knowledge without a strong, principled character.

Commerce without morality - Adam Smith wrote in his book Moral Sentiment that, if we ignore the moral foundation and allow economic systems to operate without moral foundation and without continued education, we will soon create an amoral, if not immoral, society and business.

To Adam Smith, every business transaction is a moral challenge to see that both parties come out fairly. Fairness and benevolence in business are the underpinnings of the free enterprise system called capitalism. Our economic system comes out of a constitutional democracy where minority rights are to be attended to as well. The spirit of the Golden Rule or of win-win is a spirit of morality, of mutual benefit, of fairness for all concerned. Paraphrasing one of the mottos of the Rotary Club, "Is it fair and does it serve the interests of all the stakeholders?" That's just a moral sense of stewardship toward all of the stakeholders.

Science without humanity - if there is very little understanding of the higher human purposes that the technology is striving to serve, we becomes victims of our own technocracy.

Worship without sacrifice - there is no real walking with people or going the second mile or trying to deal with our social problems that may eventually undo our economic system. It takes sacrifice to serve the needs of other people - the sacrifice of our own pride and prejudice, among other things.

Politics without principle - You see politicians spending millions of dollars to create an image, even though it is superficial, lacking substance, in order to get votes and gain office. And when it works, it leads to a political system operating independently of the natural laws that should govern.

The key to a healthy society is to get the social will, the value system, aligned with correct principles. You then have the compass needle pointing to true north - true north representing the external or the natural law - and the indicator says that is what we are building our value system on : they are aligned.

But if you get a sick social will behind the political will that is independent of principle, you could have a very sick organization or society with distorted values.

How to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge web browser from Bing to Google or others

Microsoft Edge is the web browser that comes together with MS Windows 10, which is made to replace Internet Explorer.

By default, it will use Bing as its search engine to search for the keywords you typed in its search bar. If you want to change the search engine to Google, Yahoo, Baidu or others, follow the steps below.

First, you need to use Microsoft Edge to visit to the webpage of your preferred search engine, eg. http://www.google.com.

Then, go to the Settings panel.

Scroll down to Advanced Settings section, and click on the "View advanced settings" button.

Scroll down to "Search the address bar with", and select "".

You should now be able to see "www.google.com". Select it and click the "Add as default" button.

You can repeat the steps above to add in more search engines to the selection list.

How to mitigate excessive Internet data usage of MS Windows 10

If you have upgraded your Microsoft Windows operating system to the latest Windows 10, and found out that your computer is taking up a lot of your Internet bandwidth and consuming a lot of your data usage, there are 2 settings for you to mitigate this problem.

The first setting is to disable peer-to-peer sharing of Windows Update files and Windows apps that you have downloaded in your computer with other MS Windows 10 computers in the Internet.

Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security.

Then, go to Windows Update and click on "Advanced options".

Inside Advanced Options, click on "Choose how updates are delivered".

In the next screen about Update from more than one place, you can either set the option "when this is turned on, your PC may also send parts of previously downloaded Windows updates and apps to PCs on your local network, or PCs on the Internet, depending on what's selected below.' to OFF, or if you want to share with PCs within your local network but not across the Internet, leave it as ON and select "PCs on my local network".

If you leave the option to be the default "PCs on my local network, and PCs on the Internet", many computers from the Internet will just swarm in and suck off your Internet bandwidth, causing your computer and your Internet link to become slow, and if your Internet line is on quota usage, this will also consume up your data plan within a short period of time.

To further mitigate the Internet data usage, the second setting is to tell Windows that your Internet connection is metered connection. This will prevent background processes and Windows apps use up your Internet link to sync information and provide real time updates to you.

Go to Start > Settings > Network & Internet.

Then click on "Advanced options" under Wi-Fi screen.

Set the Metered Connection to ON.

If you find this information helpful, do not be hesitated to click on the share buttons below to share it with your friends.

If your Mozilla Firefox web browser can no longer access certain HTTPS websites, try this fix

Mozilla Firefox version 39 onwards will by default block the HTTPS connections to web servers using weak ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DH) keys.

Bear in mind that by default, Firefox is set to automatically update itself from time to time, so your version will eventually be updated to version 39 and above.
This is a security measure against the Logjam attack. You can click here to read more about this Logjam attack.
If you visit to an affected website using HTTPS connection with Firefox, you will see the following error message:

Affected websites including the webmail of older version of Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Click here for more detail.
You can fix this by installing the Disable DHE 0.1.2 Add-on by Mozilla to Firefox.

To install, go to Menu > Add-ons in Firefox, and search for "Disable DHE". Once you found the add-on, click the Install button to install it.

Restart Firefox and check if this fix works for you.

If your Mozilla Thunderbird email client can no longer get email from mail server, try this fix

One day, I found that there was no new email coming in to my Mozilla Thunderbird email client for quite a long time, but I could still receive new emails from the same server with my smartphone.

I looked into the Error Console of Thunderbird by going to Tools > Error Console (you can also press the hotkeys Ctrl-Shift-J to go to the same place) and found this error message:

A search in the Internet informed that Mozilla Thunderbird version 38.1.0 and above will block the connections to any mail server using weak ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DH) keys by default, therefore it can no longer retrieve new emails from the affected server.

Bear in mind that by default, Thunderbird is set to automatically update itself from time to time, so your version will eventually be updated to version 38.1.0 and above.

Blocking the weak Diffie-Hellman key exchange is in fact a security measure against Logjam attack against the TLS protocol. You can click here to read more about this Logjam attack.

Affected email servers including older version of Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Click here for more detail.

While waiting for the mail server administrator to fix the problem at the server side, I applied the Disable DHE 0.1.2 Add-on by Mozilla to my Thunderbird, and it can now continue to receive new emails from the server.

To apply this add-on to your Thunderbird email client, click on the link above to go to its download webpage.

Then, click on the "Download Anyway" link and save the file disable_dhe-0.1.2-fx.xpi in your computer.

After that, go to Tools > Add-ons in Thunderbird, pull down the menu button on the left of "search all add-ons" and select "Install Add-on From File..." to install this disable_dhe-0.1.2-fx.xpi into your Thunderbird.

Restart Thunderbird and check if this fix works for you as well.

Auspicious dates for signing contract, register for marriage, etc. in 2016

Here is the list of auspicious dates in year 2016 for signing contract, signing offer letter, register for marriage, receiving religious baptism, and other similar agreement-related activities. It is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu.

 

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

Auspicious dates for marriage proposal or engagement in 2016

Before becoming the life partner, marriage is proposed by lover and engagement is made.

Here is the list of auspicious dates for marriage proposal or engagement in year 2016 (year of Monkey), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

My Transcend DrivePro 220 (TS16GDP220M) car video recorder

I have been thinking of getting a car video recorder for quite some times, but I just can't convince myself to get a simple camera for a few hundred ringgit just to record down what is in front of my car, until I found this Transcend DrivePro 220 (model no. TS16GDP220M).

I bought it from Rakuten online store at the promotional price of slightly less than RM400, after credit card special day discount, and conversion of some points to additional discount.

It comes with a 16GB microSDHC class 10 MLC memory card that can store up to 120 minutes of Full HD videos.

First of all, being a car video recorder, this Transcend DrivePro 220 has a 3 mega-pixel camera with low-light sensitivity CMOS sensor. The video quality is pretty good in all weather conditions including rainy day. Its night vision is good too.

The recorded video file is in MP4 format. There is option to choose to record in full HD format (1920x1080 30FPS) or HD format (1280x720 30FPS). It will be saved as new file every 3 minutes or longer. When the memory card is full, the oldest file will be replaced in FIFO queue manner. If we want to keep a file and protect it from deletion, it allows up to 15 files to be protected.

It has a 3-axis G-sensor which can detect unusual shaking especially during collision, and will automatically protect the recorded video file from being deleted by recording rotational replacement.

You can also take a snapshot JPG photo by pressing its right most button while it is in recording mode.

The Transcend DrivePro 220 has an internal Li-Po 470mAh battery, which keeps track of its date and time, as well as provide emergency power for emergency recording of up to 30 minutes.

If you enable Parking Mode which will start recording when its sensor detects a movement in front of the camera while it is sleeping, the battery provides the power to run this Parking Mode operation.

What made me finally decided to buy it is its additional functions which make it more than a normal car video recorder:

• Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyze the current camera recording and detect the lane line. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start LDWS and your car about to gone off the lane, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound. This is useful when you are driving long distance on highway, and you gone off the lane due to sleepy condition.
• Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS) - the DrivePro 220 can analyse the current camera recording and detect any car in front of you which it found is too near to you. When you drive at the speed above the preset km/h to start FCWS, and it detects a car in front of you which is too near, it will warn you both visually and with a beeping sound different from the one of LDWS. However, I found that it is not so accurate in estimating the distance, sometimes the car in front is quite far away, but it will still warn out.
• Speed Limit Alert - the DrivePro 220 can detect your moving speed with its built-in GPS. You can set a speed limit so that it will warn you when you are over speed.

You can set to let its 2.4" screen automatically turn off after some times, so that you can concentrate on your driving and not distracted by its screen display. However, when the unit is functioning with screen off, the LDWS, FCWS and Speed Limit Alert will only beep to warn you, but won't show on the screen what's the trigger. You need to manually press the left most button to turn the screen on to see what happen.

The Transcend DrivePro 220 also has built-in WiFi, but not function to connect to the Internet. With WiFi on, it forms an AP with internal network for smartphone to connect to it with the Transcend DrivePro app to access to its videos, and also gain remote control to change its settings.

You can view the video below to have better understanding of what the Transcend DrivePro 220 can do.

Click here to read about the comparison among Transcend DrivePro 100, 200 and 220.

Malaysia year 2016 national and state public holidays announced

The official 2016 national and state public holidays in Malaysia has been announced by Cabinet, Constitution and Inter-Government Relation Division (BKPP), Prime Minister Department.

There are 14 days of national holiday, and 3 of them fall on Sunday and another 3 fall on Saturday. Most of the states will have around 4 state holidays in addition to the national holidays.

 

Chinese New Year falls on Monday and Tuesday (8th and 9th February 2016). Hari Raya Puasa falls on Wednesday and Thursday (6th and 7th July 2016). Deepavali falls on Saturday (29 October 2016).

 

Click here to download the table of Malaysia year 2016 gazetted national and state public holidays.

Solid state drive (SSD) will soon phase out the traditional hard disk drive (HDD)

Flash memory devices that store computer data using NAND memory chips is gradually dominating the data storage medium.

We have just seen how soon the USB thumb drives replaced the optical discs (CDR, DVDR, Blueray, ...) to become the major removable storage medium nowadays. I believe we will soon see the SSD phasing out the traditional HDD to become the major internal storage medium.

In fact, flash memory is already the data storage medium in mobile devices and slim ultrabook computers nowadays.

Traditional HDD stores data in spinning magnetic discs, and the data read/write is performed with a movable r/w head. Since there are moving parts, there will be wear and tear during operations, which limit down its lifespan. Also, it is fragile to drop or even large physical movement during operations, eg. if you shake your laptop with your hands while its HDD is busy operating, you'll probably cause  damage to the HDD, such as introducing some bad sectors.

The traditional HDD also access data much slower than SSD, which is its main disadvantage against SSD. However, HDD is cheaper to produce, and therefore carries a much cheaper price than SSD, and made available at generally higher storage capacity too.

So, the 2 main reasons why SSD hasn't replaced the HDD yet as of today, are:

• Price
• Available storage capacity

New NAND memory technology that evolves in 2014 will change the game plan. Now, manufacturers including Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, etc. have already come out with multi-layer 3D NAND memory chips, which stakes the flash memory cells vertically in 32 layers or even 48 layers, to achieve a 256 gigabits multilevel cell (MLC) and 384 gigabits triple-level cell (TLC) die that fit within a standard package.

It is said that this approach can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost, at the same time can make available higher storage capacity to SSD. With reduced price and comparable storage capacity with HDD, there is no more resistant for SSD to replace HDD as the major computer storage medium.

Advantages of SSD over HDD including:

• Can package in smaller size
• Less electricity consumption
• Less heat produced during operation
• High grade NAND can have a warranty period of 10 years, much longer than HDD
• Much faster data access speed
• More robust to drop or movement during operation

The diagram below is a Samsung 850 EVO SSD using the 3D V-NAND technology. You will soon find it inside the next generation of Apple MacBooks within the next couple of months.

What should you do to save your life when your building is on fire?

Have you ever think of this question and get prepared when your building is on fire?

I have recently read some notes written by professional firemen in Facebook, and summarize here according to my understanding.

Here we go...

If you are in the same room with the fire, and the fire just started and still controllable, try to extinguish it. If the fire has been burning for more than 5 seconds and the flame is spreading fast, leave the room and evacuate immediately.

If the fire is outside your room (which you probably have no idea where is its exact location), get close to the door, and use your hand to touch the upper part of the door. If you feel the door is hot, it is safer to stay in your room than going out, because there is high temperature outside, and probably accompanied by smokes and poisonous fumes.

The reason to touch the upper part of the door and not the middle or lower part of it, is because the smokes, fumes and heat travel upwards. They might be right behind the door, but you still can't feel it at lower level yet.

However, if the door has little resistant to heat or fire (such as plastic door, glass door, etc.), it might be unsafe to stay in the room. In that case, you should crawl out and move to a safer room (eg. room with wooden door, or better still, fire escape staircase).

If you were to stay in the room, open the window to have fresh air to breath, get as far away from the door as possible, and ask for help from the window, as well as using your handphone.

Do not jump out of the window unless you are staying at ground floor or first floor, because you probably can't save your life by jumping out either.

If you don't feel the heat at the back of the door yet (which means the fire and/or fume has not reach outside the door), or your room is unsafe to stay (door has little resistant to heat or fire), and you decided to evacuate, remember, always go DOWN the building. Do not go up.

This is because the smokes and heat are travelling upwards at the speed of about 3-5 meters per second. They are travelling faster than you, and you probably will get yourself roasted or suffocated if you move up.

You can do a little experiment: light up a candle and put your hand at different positions: on top of the fire, beside the fire, and under the fire. Now you should be able to reason why you should always go down and never go up the building during a fire.

Padini Group Fair @ IOI Mall Puchong

FYI, Padini Group is currently having a clearance sale in IOI Mall Puchong for their brands including Padini, PDI, Padini Authentics, SEED, Miki, Vincci, and Tizio.

Miki Kids, Miki Baby, PDI Men and PDI Ladies items are selling as low as RM9 only.

Date: 22 July - 2 August 2015
Venue:  Ground Floor of IOI Mall Puchong Sky Dome Atrium (Old Wing outside Aeon supermarket)

Free TM WiFi access for UniFi users

If you are a UniFi broadband user, and your mobile device is able to detect a WiFi hotspot called "TM WiFi" in a restaurant, shopping center, or any one of the 28,000+ TM WiFi sites in Malaysia, you can connect to it to have free WiFi Internet access, thus saving your valuable mobile data usage quota.

To connect to the Internet with TM WiFi, select "TM WiFi" as your WiFi network provider, then open your mobile web browser and browse to any website.

Your browser homepage will be automatically redirected to a TM WiFi login page that looks like below:

Select "UniFi" as your TM WiFi ID Type. Your login ID is your UniFi login username without the "@unifi" behind. Your password is your UniFi password.

You will be able to access to the Internet with TM WiFi upon successful login.

To find out where you can get the TM WiFi Internet hotspots, go to the webpage below:
https://www.tm.com.my/OnlineHelp/CoverageCheck/Pages/TMWifi.aspx

Popular Bookstore has gone online, finally

Popular Bookstore in Malaysia has finally gone online, and their website is https://www.popularonline.com.my.

Although this online bookstore website has both Simplified Chinese and English version, most of the contents are in Chinese. As a result, if you switch to the English option, only the framework language of the webpage will change to English, the content will remain as Chinese.

From today until 2 August 2015, if you found any bug in this online bookstore and report to them, they will give you a 30% discount voucher.

If you register a new account in this website before 2 August 2015 (inclusive), they will also give you a RM8 cash voucher, but the redemption period is until 9 August 2015 only.

Do you really need an inverter water heater

Nowadays inverter technology applies to quite a lot of electrical appliances.

You can find inverter air-cond, inverter refrigerator, inverter washing machine, inverter fan, and even inverter water heater.

Inverter motors generally operate quieter than their a/c counterparts, and their warranty period is normally longer too. They are also suppose to save more electricity.

For many water heaters in the market, the inverter technology actually applies to the water pump in the water heater and not to the water heating mechanism, although some water heaters also apply the inverter technology in water heating.

If the inverter technology only applies to the water pump, and you seldom use the water pump to boost up the water flow during shower, then it would not be necessary for you to spend more in getting an inverter model of the water heater. It only make sense for you to buy a water heater with inverter technology if you turn on the pump almost every time you shower.

For you reference, below are 3 different models of Alpha brand water heater:

• Alpha Smart 18E (without pump) - RM410
• Alpha Smart 18EP (with pump) - RM570
• Alpha Smart 18i (with inverter pump) - RM620

Upgraded my TM UniFi Internet service from 10Mbps VIP10 to new 30Mbps package

Recently, I received a call from Telekom Malaysia Sales Centre promoting the new 30Mbps UniFi HSBB Internet service to me as an upgrade to my existing 10Mbps UniFi VIP10 package.

Today, I received an email informing that the upgrade has been successfully done.

My previous package: UniFi VIP10 @ RM179 per month +6% GST
My current package: UniFi 30 + HyppTV Aneka Pack @ RM199 per month +6% GST

A test with Ookla Speedtest website shows that my Internet download speed has increased from previous 10Mbps to 30Mbps. However, I also found out that my Internet upload speed has reduced from previous 10Mbps to 5Mbps. I have just contacted TM to clarify on this reduce in upload speed.

If you are also a UniFi subscriber and has received this upgrade offer from TM, here is the information about the RM199 upgrade package that I would like to share with you:

• 30Mbps Internet speed (but the 5Mbps upload speed yet to receive clarification from TM)
• Unlimited quota (same as existing UniFi)
• Free nationwide phone calls to TM numbers (same as existing UniFi. I heard that new subscriber will not get this anymore)
• Free TM WiFi access at over 28,000 access points (same as existing UniFi)
• HyppTV Aneka Pack (32 channels)
• HyppTV Everywhere Plan A to watch HyppTV in 2 devices (PC, Android, or Apple). Need to install the HyppTV Everywhere app. Password will be given by email when service activated.

This upgrade is done seamlessly. It uses back all the hardware devices in existing UniFi package (broadband termination unit, WiFi router, TV set top box, cordless phone), and it is not necessary for any technician to come to your house for the upgrade. All you need to do is to restart the BTU and WiFi router after receiving the email upon successful upgrade to enjoy the new Internet speed.

Korean Biocera laundry washing ball with ceramic pebbles

I saw this Biocera laundry washing ball with ceramic pebbles at their road show counter, and bought home for a try.

This washing ball is said to be able to replace the function of detergent and softener when placed in our washing machine. It is able to clean, sterilize and deodourize our clothes and laundry by "activating" the water during the washing process.

It is said that each of this soft rubber ball with ceramic pebbles inside can be used for up to 1,000 washing cycle, which is at least a few years for normal household use. We only need one ball for laundry up to 6kg, and two balls if the laundry exceeds 6kg.

Here are my 2 Biocera balls in my 9kg washing machine, ready to use.

I was told to immerse the Biocera balls with water for about 30 minutes before their first use. I found some small black particles in the water after the 30 minutes immersion. Perhaps this is the reason, or else the small particles might cause blockage in the washing machine drum.

Panasonic NI-100DX cordless non-stick dry iron

This Panasonic NI-100DX is a basic dry iron, without fancy features and not of the steam iron type. As such, its price is very affordable too.

What makes it different is that it is formed by 2 separate parts: the main body and a base.

Its base contains the power cord to be plugged into the wall socket, and there is a storage compartment for this power cord, making it tidy and easy to carry around, suitable to be a travelling companion.

When the iron parked at its base with power on, its non-stick soleplate will heat up within 1-2 minutes and ready for use. This base also ensure you'll place it properly when you remove your hand off its handle, without accidentally heating on surface that not suppose to contact with its hot soleplate.

The iron with ergonomic handle is only 1.4kg. It is very easy to maneuver without any attached power cord during ironing. You can now iron in any direction and free from the hassle of tangling power cord.

I have been using it for several weeks. Its cordless feature really brings a good user experience.

Multifunctional digital alarm clock with calendar, temperature, humidity, weather display and time projector

Today I would like to share with you a China made multifunctional digital alarm clock with cool features and cheap price, which I purchased online. The model no. is DS-8190.

This clock can operate either using 2 AAA batteries or 4.5V DC current input.

I called it an alarm clock because when operate using the AAA batteries, its backlight will turn off to conserve the battery life, and you need to press its top button to turn the backlight on in order to see a clear colourful display on its screen. The backlight will be off again within a few seconds.

Without the backlight, the screen is too dim, although you can still be able to see the screen display with close observation. This is ideal for it to be an alarm clock, because its screen will be too bright with the backlight on.

On its screen, this clock is able to show the time in either 24 hours or AM/PM format, a full calendar from year 2001-2099 with the day of week, and it has sensors to track the humidity and temperature. Based on it tracked humidity and temperature data, it is able to estimate the weather condition.

The backlight of the clock is always on when it operates with 4.5V DC current. You need a separate AC/DC adaptor for this to work. I use a Lemax 500mA universal safety AC/DC adaptor with polarity dial (model S69D), and this is my setting for it to work with the clock:

Somebody has shown in Youtube about how he modified the circuit of the clock to make its backlight always on when operated with batteries. Perhaps he hasn't tried using the AC/DC adaptor, which serves the same purpose without the need of hassle to modify the clock internal circuit.

On the right hand side of the clock is a small projector, which will project the time onto the wall or ceiling when its backlight is turned on.

The projected time is quite bright and can be seen even at daytime. It seems to be even brighter and able to reach a longer distance when the surrounding is dark at night.

This feature is pretty interesting, enabling us to easily check the time when we awake at night. However, its backlight is too bright and glary at night. Perhaps it should have a setting to turn on the projector while still keeping the backlight of the screen off. That will make it perfect.

Lastly, as an alarm clock, when the alarm mode is turned on, it will beep when the preset alarm time is reached. The beeping interval will gradually become faster and faster, until you press down its top button.

Alert: your password stored in web browsers can easily be retrieved and revealed by WebBrowserPassView

WebBrowserPassView by NirSoft is a Windows freeware password recovery tool that can reveal the websites password information that you have stored in web browsers including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

This means that anybody who has physical or remote access to your computer, or any malicious software that gain access to your computer, can easily retrieve your login name and password stored in the web browsers.

These user names and passwords might include login access information to Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, forums, and even your Internet banking accounts, as long as you have stored them in your web browser under the AutoComplete or AutoFill feature.

Therefore, it is advisable not to store your password in your web browser. You can store your password in a more secured mechanism such as Norton Identity Safe which provides you the similar autocomplete feature but storing your passwords in a more secured way.

Recuva - freeware to recover deleted photo / video / music / document / email from SD card / hard disk / USB thumb drive / iPod

If you want to recover or undelete your deleted or lost files (photo, video, music, document, email, etc.), you can try a Windows freeware called Recuva by Piriform.

Recuva works on any rewriteable storage media you have, including internal and external harddisk, SD card, USB thumb drive, and even iPod. It is possible to recover from damaged or formatted disks too.

Beside that, it is also able to try to recover your deleted emails from MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, or Mozilla Thunderbird.

It can even try to recover unsaved MS Word document after a MS Word crash.

Using Recuva is pretty easy and straightforward. You just need to specify the location of your lost file...

... and then the file type...

... then Recuva will start to do the searching.

It will then list out the recoverable files for you to choose and restore them in a new storage location of your choice.

Beside the free Recuva, there are also paid version including Recuva Profession and Recuva Business Edition which include advanced features and professional technical support from Piriform.

Jisan JS-510 51000mAh Li-Polymer slim power bank

There is a Jisan brand 51000mAh high capacity Li-Polymer power bank selling online in some Malaysian e-commerce websites at pretty low price.

It claims to be manufactured in Korea, but when you search the Internet about "Jisan power bank", there is not much info other than the e-commerce webpages. The domain name "jisangroups.com" is even inactive. Most if not all the selling websites are based in Malaysia.

The power bank does have a premium metallic look and feel, but its packaging doesn't match the premium feeling. The English on the packaging (both the language and the text content) is not up to standard as well.

It provides 1 year limited warranty, with a Warranty Card inside, but there is no manufacturer detail nor contact, and the Warranty Card is not professionally designed and written. In fact, the warranty is provided by the dealer.

It says its protection circuit module is based on "Yeonhan Technology by Jisan".

All these signs make me suspect that this power bank is actually made in China by a manufacturer related to OEM factory called Yeon Han, and OEM to a Malaysian dealer with the Jisan brand, and possibly nothing to do with Korea.

This power bank is quite long (about 15cm), but not too heavy.

Given its slim design, I believe it uses the single cell 3.7v Li-Polymer flat cell as battery. This kind of battery is the same kind of Li-Po battery commonly used in hand phones and compact cameras nowadays, and is lighter and better design than the Li-Ion 18650 battery pack used in some other power banks.

However, looking at its size and weight, unless it uses a new kind of battery technology which can have extremely high energy density, I doubt its real capacity can be as high as 51000mAh. Its size and weight is more realistic for it to be around 15000mAh instead. I haven't tested on its real capacity yet, hopefully I am wrong and it really can discharge near to 51000mAh from fully charged state. Then it will be really value for money at its price.

Hopefully it has a good protection circuit module as it claimed. I do notice that its temperature doesn't change much during charging, which is a good sign.

After all, I believe this should be a good quality product, although seems to be overly done in marketing propaganda.

My home audio-visual system comprises Samsung 7-series UHD 4K smart TV, 4.2 channels wireless soundstand and Blu-ray disc player

I have just set up a new home audio-visual system comprise of 3 Samsung products:

• Samsung UA40HU7000R 7-series 40" UHD 4K Flat Smart TV (cost: RM2349)
• Samsung HW-H600 Wireless Soundstand (cost: RM639)
• Samsung BD-F5100XM Blu-ray Player (cost: RM179)

Total cost including GST = RM3167

All 3 of them are of last year old model. If I were to buy them when they newly hit the market, I might need to fork out double the cost or more to take them home. This is kind of delayed gratification to get the same thing at lower cost.

I have checked the running hour of the Samsung TV and confirmed that it is new and never been used before.

Also connected to this Samsung TV are my existing devices:

• Astro B.yond set top box (main source for TV programmes)
• HiMedia Q5II Android 3D TV box (main source for Internet streaming videos + TV games)
• UniFi HyppTV set top box (backup source for TV programmes)

I have chosen a 7-series UHD 4K smart TV, although a lower series Full HD TV is cheaper, because besides the UHD 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160, the 7-series also equipped with 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports, LAN port, built-in wireless LAN, analog audio out, digital optical audio out, 2 composite input groups, 1 component input groups, and other connectivities which is pretty comprehensive and sufficient.

If I choose a larger 50" screen of the same Samsung 7-series UHD 4K smart TV, I would need to fork out additional RM1200 from my pocket. By choosing the 40" screen model, I can upgrade it with a wireless soundstand and Blue-ray player, yet the combined cost is still cheaper than buying the 50" screen model.

The main reason to go for Samsung LED TV is for its picture quality and vibrant colour display. The UHD 4K screen offers 4 times resolution than the Full HD screen. The TV supports 4-steps UHD up-scaling to convert lower resolution content to a level of clarity that is almost like Ultra High Definition.

This TV is equipped with Clear Motion Rate (CMR) technology of 200 powered by Ultra Clear Panel and quad-core processor.

Being a smart TV, when connected to the Internet either using wired LAN or WiFi, you can access to Samsung Smart Hub and install apps to the TV, browse websites with its built-in browser, and perform firmware update over the Internet.

It also comes with Samsung Smart Remote Control, which can act as a pointer, and also be used as voice input device to issue voice control command to the TV.

There is an IR blaster gadget comes together with this TV. Connecting it to the IR Out port of the TV and place the round blaster in front of my Astro B.yond set top box, I can use the TV remote control to switch the Astro box on/off together with the TV, and can also use the TV remote control to change the Astro channel (instead of using the Astro remote control).

This TV is supposed to support Screen Mirroring from Samsung mobile devices, but I have difficulty in making it works with my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

This TV also supports the Samsung Smart View 2.0 app for my smart phone to share multimedia content with it, and also act as a remote control. I do find the remote control in this app better than the Samsung Smart Remote Control, as the physical remote control lack of physical numeric keypad and more difficult to directly change to a preferred channel.

The Samsung HW-H600 4.2 Channels Wireless Soundstand greatly enhance the sound quality of the TV, especially when the Surround mode is turned on. It is designed to lay flat and be placed under the TV. This design saves space, and eliminate the clutter of having many speakers in normal Hi-Fi system.

This Samsung HW-H600 is classified as a mid-range Hi-Fi device, so do not expect it to perform the same as those high end Hi-Fi speakers, which costs more than 3 times its price. Its 4.2 channels comprises of 4 bass-reflex speaker drivers and dual built-in subwoofers, which is richer than those 2.1 (stereo + subwoofer) sound bars.

There are many ways it can connect to the TV, including the wireless TV SoundConnect, wired HDMI ARC connect, audio cable connect, etc. I find the audio cable connect is more straightforward and easier to configure.

The Soundstand has a USB port, and can play MP3 music when connected to a USB thumb drive with MP3 files in it.

It also can pair with mobile devices to play MP3 music or receive phone audio output via Bluetooth connection. It comes with an NFC sticker to facilitate easier Bluetooth pairing with smartphone that support NFC.

The Blu-ray disc player completes the audio-visual system by adding ability to play music, video or photo stored in Blu-ray / DVD / VCD / CD disc.

This Samsung BD-F5100XM does not support playing of 3D Blu-ray movie. It supports full HD (1920x1080) and can upscale DVD to this level, but it does not support UHD.

It also comes with a USB port, which function similarly with the USB port in the TV and Soundstand.

It has a LAN port to connect to the Internet, and comes with some apps including Youtube, Facebook, etc. However, I prefer to use the Youtube and Facebook apps in the smart TV, which can be accessed more directly. It does not support WiFi connection.

There is newer Blu-ray player model that support WiFi connection, 3D Blu-ray movie playing, UHD picture quality, etc. The cost will be at least double the price of this Samsung BD-F5100XM.

My Toshiba AW-DC1000CM 9kg washing machine

I have just replaced my Panasonic NA-F90GS 9kg washing machine with a new Toshiba AW-DC1000CM 9kg washing machine.

The main reason to finalize on this Toshiba model is because it has similar footprint with the Panasonic NA-F90GS, and can fit into the same place without any problem. Furthermore, this Toshiba AW-DC1000CM comes with a generous 2+3+13 years of warranty.

The Toshiba AW-DC1000CM features a Direct Drive Inverter Motor and Zero Standby Power technology, which I believe can save more electricity than its predecessor.

It doesn't come with Toshiba's latest Magic Drum innovation, as I can't find any Toshiba DD Inverter washing machine of 9kg capacity with Magic Drum in it, otherwise I will consider getting the one with Magic Drum feature.

For Regular mode washing, this Toshiba AW-DC1000CM washing machine operates similar with the Panasonic NA-F90GS, but much more quieter.

On top of the Zero Standby Power, this Toshiba AW-DC1000CM has some other features that are not found in the Panasonic NA-F90GS, including lid lock and child proof safety, tub clean, quick shirt wash, etc.

It lacks the small water filter, which is a special feature in the Panasonic NA-F90GS. However, my Bacfree ER-19 rocket-style outdoor water filter works pretty well, so the small water filter in washing machine is not a necessity.

My Panasonic NA-F90GS is still working fine, and will be moved to my apartment to continue its service.