PTPTN announced 2018 dividend for SSPN-i and SSPN-i Plus

The Malaysia National Higher Education Fund (Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional, PTPTN) has just announced dividend for year 2018 for the education savings schemes SSPN (Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional, consists of SSPN-i and SSPN-i Plus) on 29 January 2019.

The 2018 SSPN dividend payout rate is 4%, amounting to RM114.55 million. This rate is the same as previous payout for 2015-2017.

On top of that, SSPN-i account holders may also receive an extra 0.5% on top of the annual dividend of 4% that is deposited into their accounts under the newly launched SSPN-i Loyalty Rewards scheme.

The eligibility to receive this SSPN-i Loyalty Rewards extra 0.5% dividend is:

• Account has been opened before year 2016.
• Consistent new deposit has been made during year 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• No withdrawal has been made during year 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• Minimum balance in account is at least RM1,000 by 31 December 2018.
• Accumulate at least RM500 new deposit into the account during 1 January 2019 until 30 April 2019.
• The 0.5% dividend is given for the amount of new deposit during 1 January 2019 until 30 April 2019.
• Maximum amount to be given would be RM8,000 per account.

In 2018, the amount of deposits in  SSPN was RM1.13 billion, with 678,829 new accounts opened by depositors.

According to PTPTN, the number of SSPN accounts opened to date is 3.91 million, with deposits amounting to about RM4.5 billion.

Historical SSPN-i dividend payout rate is as below:

• 2018: 4.00%
• 2017: 4.00%
• 2016: 4.00%
• 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%

You can proceed to the Online SSPN-i Statement of Account website for checking of the transactions and amount of savings in your kid's SSPN account.

Fixed MySQL Workbench installation problem with missing Visual C++ Redistributable package (2015)

MySQL Workbench is a very useful unified visual tool for database architects, developers, and DBAs working on MySQL and/or MariaDB. It provides data modeling, SQL development, and comprehensive administration tools for server configuration, user administration, backup, etc.

MySQL Workbench Community Edition is free for use, which you can download from MySQL website. It is available for MS Windows, Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux Fedora and macOS X.

MySQL Workbench is a very good companion to work together with Laragon. In fact, it is among the few (if not the only) free MySQL database administration tools that is able to let user design database with EER diagram and also able to reverse engineer the tables of existing database into EER diagram. This feature is normally available only in the commercial version of other database administration tools.

If you are using Windows 10 and trying to install MySQL Workbench version 8, you might hit with a error during installation saying that Visual C++ Redistributable package (2015) is missing, and you need to install that before you're able to proceed to install MySQL Workbench.

Unfortunately, this problem cannot be simply resolved by installing Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package (2015), because the installer program will tell you that it has already been installed.

In fact, this problem is caused by the newer Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package (2017) already installed in your Windows system. Its installation might have deleted some registry keys used by the Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable.

The solution is to repair the installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (note: not to install or repair the 2015 redistributable, but the 2017 one). It is advisable to repair both the x64 and x86 versions of Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable.

To do so, go to Windows System > Control Panel > Uninstall a program and locate for Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (x64). Right click on it and select Change (note: is Change, not Uninstall). Then click the Repair button to start the repair process.

You might be required to reboot your Windows at the end of the process.

When it is done, continue to do the same for Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (x86).

After this, try to install MySQL Workbench again. The installation process should be OK now.

Converting video files to be playable from USB drive in Toyota PX-3834A-I display audio head unit

The Toyota PX-3834A-I display audio is the stock DVD-AVX head unit of Toyota Vios 1.5L E/G variants.

It is able to play the following multimedia files in a USB thumb drive:

• Audio music in MP3 (*.mp3), WMA (*.wma) or AAC (*.m4a) format
• Video in XVID (*.avi or *.mp4) or MPEG (*.mpg) format
• Picture in JPEG (*.jpg) format

For audio files to be playable, they need to have a sample rate between 8,000 Hz to 48,000 Hz and bit rate between 16 kbps to 320 kbps.

For video files to be playable, they need to have a frame size of either 720x480 (4:3 NTSC) or 720x576 (5:4 PAL).

When the car parking handbrake is engaged, the video will display on the screen, otherwise, there will be a statement on screen saying that the video will not be displayed while driving, while the music in the video still continue playing. This is a safety feature so that the driver will focus on driving instead of watching video on the screen.

In order for any video to be playable in this Toyota PX-3834A-I head unit, the easiest way is to convert it into MPG format with the following custom settings:

 

 

Conversion can be done using a free software called Freemake Video Converter. Alternatively, you can also use another free software called Format Factory to do the conversion.