Check and monitor Celcom Mobile Internet data plan usage

Celcom Mobile Internet data plan is currently packaged as follow:

• mLite (300MB/month)
• mBasic (1GB/month)
• mAdvance (3GB/month)
• mPro (5GB/month)

If you exceed your monthly quota usage of your plan, Celcom will probably throttle your mobile Internet to a very low speed, unless you purhcase additional quota with them.

How to check and monitor your daily and monthly mobile broadband usage, so that you can subscribe to the right plan, without need to pay more (for too much unused quota) to Celcom?

If you are using the data plan with Android smartphone, you can install an app called 3G Watchdog in your phone to monitor your Internet data usage on your side. 3G Watchdog even comes with a widget to report your Internet data actual and predicted usage on your phone's screen.

However, what really matters is not the record on your side, but the record with your mobile operator, as that will be used in your billing and also throttling.

One easy way to check your Celcom Broadband usage status is to send an SMS from your smartphone using its data plan to 22188 with content "VOL STATUS".

Another way which will give you more details is to get the infor from Celcom Online Customer Service (OCS) website.

After login to the Celcom OCS website, drop down the "My Account" menu and select "Fair Usage Policy". Then, click the "Check Usage" button.

You can note that in case you need to purchase for additional quota for your Internet data usage, there is a button to do so.

After clicking the "Check Usage" button, you will need to provide a start date and end date for the checking, which I think should be optional but the website makes it mandatory. Why can't the checking be on the latest month if user doesn't select the date range?

Then, you will get your Celcom data plan info for each billing month within your checking date range. Information includes the billing cycle start date and end date (which you should set into your 3G Watchdog setting accordingly), allocated volume for your package, volume used (this is the important data that we are checking on), subscribed speed (the maximum Internet download speed you can get from your package).

If your Internet has been throttled, you will also see the throttling information there. If you purchased additional quota, the purchased volume is also shown there.

Click on the figure in the Volume Used colume, you can check on your daily recorded usage.

Note that Celcom can actually track your usage down into categories such as file sharing, web browsing, email, messaging and misc.

You will notice that the daily volume recorded by Celcom will be slightly different from the daily volume recorded by your 3G Watchdog app. Anyhow, the variance should not be too wide apart.

ICAP AGM over, Tan Teng Boo and ICAP BOD got overwhelming support from shareowners

The 8th AGM of close-end fund iCapital.biz Bhd (ICAP, 5108) which lasted from 9am to 3pm (with 2 hours lunch break to allow calculation of votes to Resolutions #3 onwards) on 10 November 2012 was finally concluded, with overwhelming support given to Tan Teng Boo and the current BOD of ICAP. It is still very far away for Laxey Partners to attempt to obtain a seat in the BOD of ICAP.

About 2000 shareowners have attended this AGM, and apparently 99.8% of the attendee headcounts are on Teng Boo's side, while 0.2% in the hall was in favour of Laxey.

Laxey Partners has recommended to use share buyback mechanism to try to minimize the discount gap between the ICAP's share price and its net asset value (NAV), which we still unsure if it is approvable for CEF in Malaysia to do so, and the method is not bulletproof and has no guarantee whether will really work or not, and even if it works, it "will only benefit short-term traders" as said by Teng Boo.

Meanwhile, Teng Boo has revealed an innovative way of introducing a dual-listing global fund with attached warrants to address the discount gap issue. He didn't disclose much as he is still working on it, and said that hopefully it will be materialized in early 2013.

From the percentage of votes casted to the resolutions, it is clear that City of London Investment Management Company Ltd. was not on Laxey's side. I doubt they are on Teng Boo's side too. They possibly did not cast any vote.

Although Teng Boo managed to beautifully win the battle this round, he has to really ensure that his proposed "dual-listing global fund with attached warrants" can get materialized and can really work. If not, that will be a good attack point from Laxey, and Teng Boo might not be getting as much support from ICAP shareowners again if he failed to deliver.

Teng Boo and the new 7-people BOD must work really hard for ICAP to sustain the victory and avoid subsequent attack. This should be good to all the shareowners of ICAP, including Laxey. After all, we believe Laxey is here to gain money from investment, and not to make trouble for no reason.

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.

The upcoming AGM of ICAP on 10 November 2012 will be crucial for all shareowners

Most of the shareowners of close-end fund iCapital.biz Bhd (ICAP, 5108) have been wondering why the AGM of this year comes so late.

It was 2 weeks after the announcement made on 18 October 2012 about its 8th AGM to be held on 10 November 2012, an Addendum to the 8th AGM notice has been dispatched through Bursa Malaysia's Company Announcements webpage, that a shareowner named Ms. Evelyn Ho is nominating 3 persons (including a foreigner who is the CEO of Laxey Partners) to enter the board of directors of ICAP. On the other hand, the present BOD is also nominating 2 more friendly partners to contest for the directors election.

As you might notice, the share price of ICAP has been trading at discount to its NAV since 2008, and the gap has widen to more than 20% from 2011 until today. This is a good investment opportunity for anyone who want to invest in ICAP with discounted price to its NAV. In addition, ICAP fund management has been performing well, with its NAV keeps rising despite the discount in its share price.

Then, we saw a foreign fund City of London Investment Management Company Ltd. emerged as substantial shareholder of ICAP since August 2011 and keeps on accumulating until holding about 7% of ICAP to date. Later, we also saw another foreign fund Laxey Partners Ltd. also emerged as substantial shareholder of ICAP since April 2012 and also keeps on accumulating until holding about 7% of ICAP to date. 

Laxey Partners Ltd. has many track records of accumulating the shares of close-end funds at discount, then getting into the BOD of the fund, replace the chairman/CEO and hostily take over the control of the fund. The sudden nomination of 3 persons apparently from Laxey Partners Ltd. to ICAP's BOD is definitely a threat to the existing BOD, and if the replacement of the directors does happened, it will affect the fund's future direction and hence affect the interest of all ICAP shareowners.

According to its 2012 Annual Report, ICAP has 3000+ shareowners, of which about 65.8% are held by about 2,000 minority holding 100-10,000 shares. CDAM, the fund manager, also holds about 0.5% of the shares.

In its Annual Report, ICAP reiterates that it "exists for one simple reason : to allow long-term shareholders or more aptly called share owners, to benefit from value investing. Investing in your Fund allows the power of compounding to work for you. If we succeed in achieving this, we would have also shown that serious long-term investing in Bursa Securities can offer superior returns." This is inline with its IPO Prospectus stating the investment strategy to be "intelligently eclectic".

If the existing shareowners want to maintain ICAP's investment philosophy and agree that the fund has been well managed and the present BOD has been taking care of the interest of all shareowners, they should show support to the existing BOD during the coming AGM.

Anyway, let's see what Laxey Partners going to propose, and what the existing BOD and the fund manager is working on to enhance the value to the shareowners. If City of London is on their own, we might see a triangular war, else, we'll see a cut-and-thrust war. The party who can convince the minority shareowners with 65.8% holding will be the winner, but the minority shareowners must be present to the AGM or appoint proxy the exercise their rights.

That's why, the upcoming AGM of ICAP is very crucial to the fate of ICAP.

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.

The Edge Financial Daily app for smartphones and tablets

Digital format of The Edge Financial Daily business paper has been made available to smart mobile devices including iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android smartphones and Android tablets for quite some times.

It is delivered with the free The Edge Financial Daily app available in Google Play Store and iTune AppStore. Currently, the digital format of the paper can be downloaded for free too.

However, this app doesn't bring good and convenient user experience to its readers yet, and still need quite a lot of improvement.

• The app is running on Adobe AIR, which requires user to install Adobe AIR app before able to run The Edge Financial Daily app. Adobe AIR consumes about 9 MB of storage space of your smartphone/tablet.
• Before we are able to read the paper, we need to download it from the Internet. The file size is around 30 MB per paper, taking some times to download, and consuming quite a lot of precious storage space of your smartphone/tablet too. Worse still if you are not connecting to the Internet via WiFi or HSDPA and need to download with slow speed, it really tests your patient.
• Probably because it is an Adobe AIR app instead of native app, its navigation respond is sluggish, page loading and rendering is slow too.
• The navigation buttons don't respond well. Sometimes need to tap a few times before it start working.
• It does not support multi-touch gesture. To zoom the text, you need to double tap the screen instead of pinching.
• I don't find any feature to jump to a particular page. Everytime you open the paper, you need to start reading from its cover page.
• Deleting the downloaded papers (especially to save valuable storage space) is a pain. There is no multi-select deletion. You need to delete the files one by one, and each deletion takes a few steps to complete.

It is very nice to be able to read the digital format of The Edge Financial Daily anytime, anywhere with our smart mobile devices. With this digital format delivered through the Internet, we no longer need to look for the paper in newspaper stand, or need to wait for the paper boy to deliver at our doorstep. Being paperless, it is environmental friendly too.

However, it would be better if the app can be redeveloped as native app instead of using Adobe AIR, optimize on the download time and file size, and improve on user interface and experience.

MFM Custom POI 20121023 for Garmin released - including AES cameras alert

Contributors in MalFreeMaps (MFM) forum have just released MFM-CPOI 20121023 (WAV format only) Point-Of-Interest (POI) files for Garmin GPS navigators.

These custom POI will enable your Garmin GPS to alert you on the following points when you approaching them:

• MFM-Accident Area v2.6
• MFM-AES Cameras v2.1
• MFM-AES Mobile Camera v1.8
• MFM-AES Traffic Light v2.0
• MFM-Checkpoints v3.0
• MFM-Expressway R&R Stop areas v5.0
• MFM-Latar_Toll v1.0
• MFM-Ngvstations
• MFM-Night Market POIs v2.22
• MFM-NKVE_Cameras v1.0
• MFM-Pasar Tani v2.3
• MFM-Power Grids v2.0
• MFM-Railway Crossing V2.5
• MFM-Redlight Cameras v1.9
• MFM-Road Junctions
• MFM-School Zone v2.0
• MFM-SGRC_B_W_091206
• MFM-SGRC_S_W_091206
• MFM-Sharp Bend v3.6
• MFM-Speed Traps & Camera v5.3
• MFM-State Border V1.0
• MFM-Toll Plazas v2.1
• MFM-Tunnel v1.3
• MFM-Touch n Go Hubs v1.0

You can install the full list, or just some of them, by copying the respective GPI files into the Garmin\POI folder (create one if it doesn't exist) of your Garmin GPS.

 

This compilation contains POI alert for the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) installed by JPJ recently.

 

Click here to download the MFM-CPOI installation file from MalFreeMaps forum.

 

yEd - freeware for professional diagrams drawing

Talking about professional diagrams drawing, including Organization Chart, Venn Diagram, Flow Chart, Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram, Use Case Diagram, UML Class Diagram, Network Diagram, BPMN Business Process Diagram, Semantic Diagram, Decision Tree, Family Tree, Swimlane Diagram, ... and so on, what would be in your mind?

I am sure you will think of MS Visio, which is now part of MS Office suite. Visio is superb, but it is not free. For the free one, you might think of the open source Dia, now under GNOME project. Dia is good enough for most of the people looking for free MS Visio alternative, only that you need a lot of effort to use Dia to produce nice looking diagrams, and to maintain a relatively large diagram.

I've found yEd, a freeware developed by yWorks of Germany, which enables us to draw and maintain professional diagrams easily, and able to produce nice looking diagrams. One of its selling point is that it has a powerful feature that enables us to automatically rearrange all the elements in the diagram into well organized nice looking position, just with a single click.

The video below is a 90 seconds introduction to yEd.

yEd is running on Java, therefore it is cross-platform, able to run in Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc. It can import diagram/data from multiple format, including GraphML, GML, MS Excel spreadsheet, GEDCOM, TGF, XML through XSLT, etc. It can also export to multiple format, including JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PDF, SWF (Flash), SVG, EMF, EPS, HTML imagemap, etc.

Here are some sample diagrams drawn with yEd:

 

Click here for more information and download of yEd.

The mobile network icons on smartphone and their speed

When your phone is connected to a mobile network, you will see an icon on its title bar (a.k.a. annunciator panel) indicating the type of mobile network it is connected to.

Have you been wondering what type of mobile network does that icon indicate, and what is its maximum upload and download speed? Here is the answer.

Icon             Network              Max Download         Max Upload
-----        ---------------       ----------------      -----------
  G               GPRS (2G)            14.4 kbps                 12 kbps
  E                EDGE (2.5G)        177.6 kbps               40 kbps
 3G              WCDMA / UMTS     384 kbps                 384 kbps
  H               HSDPA (old)        7.6 Mbps                 384 kbps
  H               HSUPA (old)       7.6 Mbps                     2 Mbps
  H               HSDPA              14.4 Mbps                   384 kbps
  H               HSUPA              14.4 Mbps                   5.7 Mbps
4G LTE          4G LTE               300 Mbps                 75 Mbps

Therefore, you will experience a slow network speed when the icon is either G, E or 3G; and you will experience a smooth network speed when the icon is H or 4G.

Note that most of the phones released earlier than 2012 are not supporting 4G Internet connection yet, and most handphone does not support HSUPA. HSUPA is more commonly used for home/office Internet broadband connected with wireless router device.

Both the phone and also the mobile operator's network infrastructure must support the network type in order for such Internet connection to be established for the phone.

What is the meaning of WORK to you?

If somebody asks you the question: "What do you do?", what will be your answer?

WORK can have different meaning to different people. In fact, what "work" means to you is a big part of who you are.

"Work" can be one of, or an intersection of more than one, of the following to you. Check it out!

Work as Job

This means working for the sake of a paycheck, without much personal involvement or satisfaction. Yet, jobs can produce valuable feelings of skill and satisfaction, not to mention sustenance that enables a worker to pursue meaning in other areas of life.

Work as Career

Work as career is motivated by the desire for success, achievement, and status. The careerist’s approach to work is not a passionate attachment to the work itself. Rather, it emphasizes the feedback about the self that comes in response to work. For the careerist, work is a means of creating, defining, expressing, proving, and glorifying the self. Work as career can be an important source of meaning and fulfi llment in life.

Work as Calling

The word “calling” derives from the idea that one is “called upon” to do a certain type of work: either externally, by God or community, or internally, by a natural gift demanding expression. It’s done out of a sense of personal obligation, duty, or destiny.

Work as Fulfillment

Work as fulfillment is best described as a strongly interest-driven (or even passionate) approach to work — but one lacking the overwhelming, allencompassing nature of a "calling". People pursuing work as fulfillment may choose unconventional career paths that favor personal interests over financial reward, recognition, or prestige. Such work can be an important source of meaning in life.

Note: The above is learnt from a book called Business Model You, which is derived from an earlier book called Business Model Generation.

Notes on trademark registration in Malaysia

A trademark is an important thing commonly used for branding and identity. It need to be legally registered in order to prohibit infridgement or unauthorized use of it. Although it is normally registered by business organization, individuals (such as freelancers) can also register trademark for their products and/or services.

Here are some guidelines to follow, according to the Trade Marks Act 1976 if Malaysia. By following the guidelines below, it will probably save you time, effort and cost in case you are trying to register your own trademark.

In order to be accepted for registration, a trade mark need to contain or consist of at least one of the following particulars:

• The name of an individual, company or firm represented in a special or particular manner.
• The signature of the applicant for registration or of some predecessor in his business.
• An invented word or words.
• A word having no direct reference to the character or quality of the goods or services not being, according to its ordinary meaning, a geographical name or surname.
• A distinctive mark. It must be capable of distinguishing goods or services with which the proprietor of the trade mark is or may be connected in the course of trade from goods or services.

A trade mark is prohibited:

• If the use of which is likely to deceive or cause confusionto the public or would be contrary to law.
• If it contains or comprises any scandalous or offensive matter or would otherwise not be entitled to protection by any court of law.
• If it contains a matter which in the opinion of the Registrar is or might be prejudicial to the interest or security of the nation.
• If it is identical with or so nearly resembles a mark which is well known in Malaysia for the same goods or services of another proprietor.
• If it is well known and registered in Malaysia for goods or services not the same as to those in respect of which registration is applied for: Provided that the use of the mark in relation to those goods or services would indicate a connection between those goods or services and the proprietor of the well known mark, and the interests of the proprietor of the well known mark are likely to be damaged by such use.
• If it contains or consists of a geographical indication with respect to goods not originating in the territory indicated, if use of the indication in the mark for such goods in Malaysia is of such a nature as to mislead the public as to the true place of origin of the goods.
• If it is a mark for wines which contains or consists of a geographical indication identifying wines, or is a mark for spirits which contains or consists of a geographical indication identifying spirits, not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question.

90 precious experiences that entrepreneur Jason Goldberg learnt from founding 4 tech companies

Jason Goldberg, the founder and CEO of Fab.com, has shared a list of 90 things he has learnt from founding 4 tech companies, which is a revision and extension from the 57 things he learnt from founding 3 tech companies that he shared 2 years ago.

If you are running a start-up or working as employee in a start-up, this long list of sharing will probably be inspiring to you.

Click here to read about the 90 things that Jason has learnt from founding 4 tech companies.

Fixed Windows 7 Stop: 0x0000007B blue screen error during boot time

I have a HP Probook laptop running on Windows 7 Pro, which recently accepted an automated update to its BIOS.

After the BIOS update successfully, and system rebooted, I got a disaster! Now Windows will not reboot into login screen, it will reboot again halfway during the booting process, giving me 2 options: to enter recovery mode, or to boot normally.

I entered into the recovery mode, tried using Startup Repair, the problem was not fixed. Went into the same screen again, tried System Restore to previous checkpoint, still unable to fix.

Tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic, the RAM is fine. Tried entering Command Prompt and check the disk, fixed the MBR, all not working.

Then, I booted with the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" option, I found this Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) showing the infamous Stop: 0x0000007B error.

Here are other methods I tried to fix the problem, but all not working:

• Download the latest BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
• Download the previous BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
• Boot with "Enable low resolution video (640x480)"
• Boot with "Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)"
• Boot with "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement"
• Go into the BIOS, set the SATA mode from AHCI to IDE
• Go into the BIOS, set back the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI

I was about to give up, boot using System Rescue CD, mounted the Windows 7 partition using ntfs-3g command copied my files in the /mnt/Windows directory to another PC using the SFTP method.

Then, I downloaded the ISO file of Windows 7 SP1 from this website, burn it into DVD, and boot the laptop with it.

Last try, run the Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, reboot the laptop with its harddisk. It booted up using a longer time than normal, and Whoala! I got the login screen. Logged into the Windows, everything is still there, try rebooting it, and the Stop: 0x0000007B error has gone.

So, I finally managed to fixed this problem by running Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, instead of the Startup Repair from the installed Windows 7 system in the harddisk.

Fixed Android phone unable to send out SMS problem after updated to ICS

About 2 months ago when I just updated my HTC Incredible S to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS), I noticed an SMS sending out problem as described below:

When a new SMS arrived to the phone and shown as pop-up message, I replied the SMS immediately. That replying SMS will not be sent and stuck at the sending out state. The SMS will eventually be sent out after the phone is rebooted.

This problem is not observed when the SMS is not directly sent from the pop-up box. Meaning, if the SMS is sent from within the SMS app, this problem will not occur.

I managed to find a workaround to fix this problem, and after observing for about 1 month now, I never encounter the same problem again after applying this fix.

If you are also having the same problem in sending out SMS reply, probably can try this fix.

Go to Settings > Call > Phone settings and disable "Home dialing". Restart the phone.

I think this problem is related to a bug in the Home dialing function in Android ICS, and disabling it is the workaround.

Business Model Generation - A handbook for visionaries, game changers and challengers

• Are you an entrepreneurial spirit?
• Are you constantly thinking about how to create value and build new businesses, or how to improve or transform your organization?
• Are you trying to find innovative ways of doing business to replace old, outdated ones?

If you've answered "yes" to any of the above, I would like to recommend you the Business Model Generation book the you could learn about the 9 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas, 5 patterns of business model, etc.

Below is a short video explaining the famous Business Model Canvas:

If you like the idea, you can download a 72 pages preview of the book here.

Visit the Business Model Generation website to find out more.

Garmin portable friction mount to hold GPS navigator on top of car dashboard

If you have a Garmin GPS navigator, you are most likely mount it with its suction cup onto your car windscreen in order to use it.

The suction cup rubber tend to age and lost its suction power by time, and can cause your GPS navigator to fall off from windscreen while you are driving. 2 years ago, I've posted a solution to prolong the time of possible fall off by reactivate the suction cup power with hot water. Another common method is to make the suction cup wet by putting some water (or saliva!?) onto its base before putting it onto the windscreen.

Now, I found an alternative solution, which is to use Garmin portable friction mount to place the GPS navigator on top of the car dashboard.

This friction mount holds the Garmin GPS on top of the dashboard with strong grip and unlikely to be affected even when sharp cornering or emergency breaking. It has a sticky pliable base which can bend according to the dashboard shape.

After using, you can easily take it off from your dashboard. Although there is sticky material at its bottom, it won't leave any residue on the dashboard.

It's holding arm is foldable to adjust the position of the GPS when use. You can totally fold it down when not in use.

I bought it online at the cost of RM88 including shipping.

PIKOM Digital Lifestyle Expo 2012 & World Cyber Games (WCG) 2012

I have just gone to the PIKOM Digital Lifestyle Expo 2012 & World Cyber Games (WCG) 2012 held in KL Convention Centre today.

This event is still on until Sunday, as below:

Date: 7-9 September 2012
Time: 11:00am - 9:00pm
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre

The main event is WCG Asian Championship 2012 held in Hall 1, where you can see gamers competing for:

• FIFA 12
• Counter-strike
• Counter-strike Global Offensive
• World of Tanks
• StarCraft 2
• DOTA 2
• Tekken 6

Samsung is also showcasing their big LCD TV and Android products there.

At the end of Hall 2, there is another attraction of fashion show by Cyber International Lifestyle Trade Fair (CILTF). However, you have to catch the right timing, as the models are only doing catwalking for a short while only.

I am forced to go to the other side (Hall 3 and Hall 4) to exit. The other side is very quiet with little crowd. MAMPU is showcasing some e-Government thingy, and you will most likely see their staff relaxing, chit-chatting or playing games instead of entertaining you. Then you will pass through some telco booths and bank booths where a lot of salesperson will come to you, before being able to exit the hall.

In fact, I find the Volkswagen DAS Auto Show 2012 next door (in Hall 5) more attractive, with the launching of brand new Volkswagen Beetle in different colours.

RON 97 petrol in Malaysia made historical high price @ RM3.00/litre

The RON 97 petrol price has silently risen to a historical high of RM3.00 per litre since Thursday 6 September 2012, a whopping 30 sen increase from its previous price of RM2.70.

In July, it was reported that the price of RON 97 was slashed by 20 sen from RM2.80 to RM2.60 per litre.

Then, the price silently increased by 10 sen in August to RM2.70 per litre without announcement.

Now, it increased again to historical high, without announcement too!

CIMB Bank will discontinue their Western Union money transfer service

I am quite surprised to know that CIMB Bank will discontinue their Western Union money transfer service effective 29 August 2012.

Western Union is the most convenient and cost effective way for Malaysian to receive cash from Google Adsense.

We will need to look for other Western Union agents to receive payment from Google Adsense now.

Reference: http://www.cimbbank.com.my/index.php?tpt=cimb_bank#2

FBI seized Applanet.net, Appbucket.net and Snappzmarket.com for hosting pirated Android apps

The US government has shutdown 3 Android apps marketplace websites namely Applanet.net, Appbucket.net and Snappzmarket.com recently.

Those websites are known to host and distribute popular Android apps which are selling with a price in the official Google Play Store and/or Amazon Marketplace, etc.

Actually, most Android apps are selling at a low price, even lower than a cup of Starbucks coffee, and we just need to pay for once to download the apps and able to enjoy all future version updates/upgrades. Even when we changed to a new Android phone, the apps we purchased before will be automatically installed into the new phone.

Smartphone users should build the mentallity of paying for the apps that they find useful, which they like to keep in their phone for their use. Most of the time, the cost of the apps is less than 1% of the cost of their smartphone.

FBI seizure of these 3 piracy marketplaces is a meaningful move to somehow educate the users not to avoid paying for non-free apps. If the mobile developers are well rewarded by producing popular apps, that will encourage more and more fantastic apps to be produced.

Reference: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/376360/20120822/piracy-infringement-android-apps-download-applications.htm

Malaysia national and state public holidays for year 2013 announced

The 2013 national and state public holidays in Malaysia will be as below.

There are 14 days of national holiday, and 1 of them fall on Sunday and 3 fall on Saturday. Most of the states will have around 3 state holidays in addition to the national holidays.

Interesting Android app to display Chinese family relationship terminology 亲戚关系

The Chinese has a very systematic and complex family relationship (a.k.a. kinship) terminology system which maintains a separate designation for almost every one of ego's kin based on their generation, gender, lineage, relative age, etc.

Do you know the Chinese family designation of each and everyone of your relatives? I've found an interesting Android app by chance, which can help you to quickly find out the correct designation. So, no more embarrassment in calling your relatives correctly when you meet with them next time during family gathering, wedding dinner, Chinese New Year visiting, etc.

The app is called My Relatives (亲戚关系) and you can get it from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lanhk.myrelatives.

Online registration to autopay monthly TM UniFi Bill with credit card

Good news to all TM UniFi users who wish to pay your monthly UniFi bill automatically with your credit card. I just discovered that you can now register for this autopay service online, don't even need to fill up and submit the paper form anymore.

Step 1: Login myUniFi Online Customer Centre (a.k.a. UniFi Customer Portal) with your myUniFi account.

Step 2: Once login, go to the myProfile tab.

Step 3: Click the Change Payment Method button.

Step 4: Fill in the online form and click the Save Changes button.

You can find a new service ticket is raised in mySupport which is immediately closed. Your payment method in myProfile should be updated as well.

Alternatives of US-based GPS satellite navigation

The usage of global satellite navigation system has become more and more important nowadays, from military to civil uses. For example, location based service (LBS) in smartphones has high level of reliance on it.

The current global satellite navigation system used by most of us are depending on the Global Positioning System (GPS) of US NAVSTAR, which has 24 to 32 satellites in operation. The actual number of operating satellites varies from time to time due to maintenance and/or replacement, but the minimum in operation in any time is 24.

GPS has been operational since 1978, and made globally available since 1994.

Due to political, and more importantly, millitary reasons, some other nations have also developed their own global satellite navigation system as alternative to the US NAVSTAR's GPS.

These include the Russian Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Global Navigation Satellite System, GLONASS) which is currently supported in iPhone 4S. GLONASS has been operational since 1995, but fell into disrepair after the collapse of Soviet Unoin, and was later recovered and restored in 2011.

China is developing a regional navigation system called BeiDou (北斗导航系统), which has 12 satellites and will implement for Asia Pacific region by this year (2012). They have plan to further expand it into a global navigation system by 2020, under a project called Compass. By that time, BeiDou system will have 35 satellites in operation.

The European Union also developing their own Galileo positioning system, but seems like they are facing some progress delay due to financial issue.

Indian is also developing the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) with 7 satellites, mainly for their own use.

A family vacation trip to Cherating, Pahang

My family has spent a vacation in Cherating, Pahang recently. It is a nice getaway place at East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia for urban person to take a look at the beauty of nature in the rural part of the country.

We stayed at The Legend Resort, which has an average outlook, but pretty modernly renovated rooms. From the number plate of the cars parked there, it is observed that majority of its guest are from urban area especially Klang Valley.

We booked our room from Internet. We've browsed through the famous hotel reservation websites and group coupon websites, and surprisingly found out that the cheapest rate we could get is actually from the hotel's official website! We stayed at Grand Deluxe Seaview room at the price of RM2xx per night only, and the seaview (photo taken from balcony of the room) is quite nice.

The Legend in Cherating has large swimming pools, as well as long sandy beach. There are many small crabs on the beach...

... and we are warned that there are jelly fishes in the sea. We saw some dead jelly fishes on the shore.

The food in hotel's restaurant is expectingly expensive, and there are many nice and cheap Malay food around, and a Chinese restaurant right at the junction where you turn in from the main road to a small road leading to The Legend Cherating.

In a small village several kilometers at the North of The Legend, there is one Hafiz's Cherating Activities which provides one-stop sight-seeing service around Cherating. To look for En. Hafiz, locate for this signboard in the village.

That night, we've gone for fireflies watching trip and also turtle watching trip.

En. Hafiz is a friendly and nice person who is very knowledgeable about the Cherating River and the Mangrove Forest Researve area along the river. The fireflies are residing in the mangrove forest. Before we got on the boat to watch the fireflies, Hafiz has done a presentation about the information of fireflies, their habitats, life cycle, etc.

Hafiz has learnt a tactic to attract the fireflies to fly near to us by using small torchlights to imitate the fireflies' communication signal. It is really a fantasy experience to have hundreds of fireflies coming to us from the mangrove trees at the river side, and later send them back to the trees. However, use of camera and handphone is forbidden as the light from the device will disturb and cause annoyance to the fireflies, so no photo taken during this amazing trip.

The turtle watching trip was guided by rangers from the Cherating Turtle Sanctuary. The location was at an open beach near Kemaman, some distance away from Cherating village.

When we reached there, a turtle was half-way laying eggs in a hole it digged. It is a green turtle and its egg is about the size of ping pong ball.

That turtle laid 137 eggs that night. It burried the eggs, and the rangers digged them out to bring to the sanctuary for hatching.

The yellow one is actually a ping pong ball brought by the ranger for explanation purpose.

The rangers brought along 3 baskets of 1 day-old baby turtles (about 200 of them) for us to release to the sea.

Off they gone into the sea, remembering this seashore. They will come back years after, when they grown up later, to reproduce and lay eggs at the same beach where they left that night. However, most of the turtles might not be able to survive due to predators and natural challenges in the sea.

We have gone to the Turtle Sanctuary the next day. It is located next to Club Med Cherating. There are 2 adult turtles there, and several small turtles.

The next day, we actually planned to go for snorkelling trip to Snake Island with Hafiz, but we missed the time.

We gone back to Cherating River in Hafiz's day-time mangrove river cruise that evening. It is the same river we watched the fireflies the night before.

During the cruise, we also travelled into a branched small river, where many small animals can be seen.

The crabs in the mangrove forest are very colourful. We saw red and blue crabs there.

During the 2 hours river cruise, beside the crabs, we also encountered with monitor lizards, mud suckers, monkeys, snakes, birds, insects,  etc. It was really a nice experience.

On the way back from Cherating, we've visited Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary near Temerloh, hundred over kilometers away. It is located at the end of a small village, quite some distance away from the main road.

After the retreat, now we are back to urban life. I think we shall revisit Cherating again in the future. It is a wonderful place.

RIP Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

News reported that Dr. Stephen Richard Covey (1932-2012), author of the best-selling motivational book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (over 20 million copies sold worldwide), has just passed away due to residual effects of an April bicycle accident.

Covey is the founder of Covey Leadership Center, which in 1997 merged with Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey Co. Today, FranklinCovey has offices in hundred over countries as global consulting and training center in the areas of strategy execution, leadership, customer loyalty, sales performance, school transformation and individual effectiveness. Covey is also a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University at the time of his death.

Beside The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey is also the author of the following best-selling books:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
• The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
• The Leader in Me
• The 3rd Alternative
• First Things First
• Principle-Centered Leadership

Below are the 7 habits of highly effective people as listed by Covey. Read his book for full detail:

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw

Updated HTC Incredible S from Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS)

Right after Google released the latest Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) last week, finally the last version of Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 is now rolled out to HTC Incredible S smartphones.

The OTA (Over-The-Air) 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 for HTC Incredible S smartphone has been made available to Malaysia yesterday (18 July 2012) morning, a few days after its roll out to European region.

You can manually check for the update now, or wait for the automated update alert appear on your HTC Incredible S smartphone sooner or later.
The download process with probably take half an hour or more, and the updating process will take another quarter hour or more.

After successful update, I manually restarted the phone 3 times, and it is now operating faster than before (while it was on Gingerbread), showing its improvement in this new version.

The following are observed in the Android ICS for HTC Incredible S:

• A new launch bar which you can put in 4 most commonly used app, and in the center is the "All apps" icon. This launch bar appears in every of the 7 Home Screens. The quick launch icons in the Lock Screen follows the 4 apps you put in this launch bar.
• The stock Camera app has been improved.
• Widget of some apps is now resizable, including Folder Organizer and Business Calendar that I use.
• Facebook for HTC Sense has been taken out. FriendStream now has to use the official Facebook app to access to my Facebook account.
• Network usage info (both mobile and Wi-Fi) can be displayed in Settings > Usage. This is in direct competition with some 3rd party apps like 3G Watchdog.
• The items in Quick Settings list is now lesser, and you can no longer find Wi-Fi and GPS toggle switch in the list. You will need one more step, to tap on the icon to the right of Additional Settings bar to reach the Wi-Fi toggle switch in another list. The GPS toggle is even deeper inside the Location setting.
• Memory usage is observed to be lesser compared with previous version of Android.
• Now can do screen capture by pressing the physical Power and Home buttons of the phone together.
• Calls is now accessable to People, Groups and Call History directly.
• Added many Developer Options inside the Settings.
• The buttons of stock Calculator app now has too big font size.
• The white background of stock Battery widget make its text hard to see.
• .....

This Android ICS for HTC Incredible S smartphone is really a major upgrade from Gingerbread. Have fun!

Yahoo website hacked, 450k+ user information exposed

A MySQL database in Yahoo Voice (formerly known as Associated Content before being purchased by Yahoo in 2010) was just hacked using SQL injection, and its MySQL variables, together with 450k+ user information in database dump, is exposed to Internet by someone claimed as D33Ds Company.

Soon, somebody has analysed the database dump using a tool called Pipal, and revealed the top 10 most commonly used passwords to be:

• 123456
• password
• welcome
• ninja
• abc123
• 123456789
• 12345678
• sunshine
• princess
• qwerty

The result of the findings is posted in Pastebin.

Nowadays, password is commonly used as credential to authenticate users accessing web-based and/or mobile-based services in the Internet. As a user, beside not using password that are easy go guess (by human or by computerized program), we also need to assume that the website might not be putting enough security measure in storing our information in their server. Therefore, it is advisable to use different password for different website. If one is compromised, at least the rest are not badly affected.

Welcome to the era of negative interest rates

Don't be surprised when one day, you realise that the bank will charge you interest (instead of paying you interest, in common sense) for the money you deposit with them.

This has already gone real in certain financial institution in the USA and in Europe. Even some new bonds recently issued by the government of some countries in those regions are having negative interest rate.

Well, when a financial institution impose a negative interest rate, it sends a clear message to its depositors to withdraw their money from that institution and deposit to other competitors who still offering normal positive interest rates, or to use the money for consumption or invest in other kind of investment instruments that might not be as safe as the money market but also provide higher potential of growth to the money, or to keep the money at home in your personal safe.

Why a financial institution wants to force you to withdraw your money from them? Probably because they have too much idle cash on hand, and the investment situation is really bad, and the interest rate is really low (in low interest situation, their profit margin to lend out the money is low).

No matter how, be prepared for the day to come to you.

Your smartphone will be your personal assistant: Apple Siri & Google Now

A few years ago, Apple acquired Siri, and this artificial intelligence (AI) product is now part of the iPhone 4S launched last October 2011. It includes functionalities to make it a virtual personal assistant that we always bring along.

Recently when Google announced the next version of Android, Jelly Bean, they promised us with  Google Now, which is a search-centric, voice-powered digital AI personal assistant to compete with Siri.

We can anticipate one more interesting function in our smartphone in near future, which is a personal assistant who knows about our time schedule and proactively alert/remind us on upcoming appointments, and knows our interest and hobby and provide useful suggestion/answer that match with our interest.

It will also learn the detail in the air-ticket that we purchased, and able to kept us updated with boarding information, latest departual/arrival time schedule, the weather at the destination, etc.

It will be able to remind us about the birthday and anniversary of our family members and close friends.

When we are on the road, it will alert us on possible traffic jam ahead, and suggest for alternative route.

Nowadays, a smartphone is already very much more than a phone that we use to make call and send SMS. The revolution will continue with more and more features and functionalities added in.

New type of insurance plan to get early payout for 36 critical illnesses

If you have bought an insurance plan, or have been approached by insurance agent before, I'm sure you might have been known about the kind of health/medical insurance that covers 36 kinds of critical illnesses.

However, you might not be awared that the coverage on the 36 kinds of critical illnesses is at the terminal stage, which is a serious stage that is hard to recover or already close to death. Before reaching such a serious situation, although you might unluckily caught by one of the 36 kinds of critical illnesses, you still can't make any claim from your critical illnesses insurance policy.

Recently, I was informed by my insurance agent about a new type of insurance plan (well, actually not that new now as it has been launched for quite some times) that can complement the traditional 36 critical illnesses insurance plan with an early payout condition.

Under this early payout for critical illnesses plan, we can make the claim upon early diagnosis of a critical illness covered under the plan, and make use of the money for medical treatment. Early treatment let us have higher chance of survival.

The payout will be a certain proportion of the total sum insured, depends on the type of the diagnosed illness and its severity level (early, intermediate, terminal). Multiple claims across multiple critical illnesses is possible as long as there is still balance in the total sum insured.

Anyhow, this kind of early payout insurance plan seems to be come as a rider in a regular premium investment-linked insurance plan, making it not so flexible for people who want to take this kind of insurance but not so interested in buying unit trust through insurance (which normally incurs high commission rate and high admin charges).

Do contact with your own insurance agent to find out more about such early payout critical illnesses insurance plan if you are interested.

INVEST Fair Malaysia 2012 and iProperty.com Expo 2012

There are 2 investment events happened at the same time in KL Convention Centre and ended today, namely the INVEST Fair Malaysia 2012 at Hall 1 and iProperty.com Expo 2012 at Hall 4-5.


The INVEST Fair this year is really quiet, not much visitors. The number of booth is about the same like last year, not too many too. A lot of seats at the talk were untaken.

The iProperty.com Expo also doesn't have much crowd. Majority of the booths are exhibiting high-density high-rise residential buildings. You will be surprised that quite a few developers are aggressively having big projects in Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. It seems that the property development in Klang Valley continues to be heated up at the south, encompassing Puchong, Seri Kembangan, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, Bangi, etc.

This should be good for construction and development support companies such as Pintaras Jaya (PTARAS, 9598) and Favelle Favco (FAVCO, 7229) as the projects around Klang Valley still heating up.

There are also exhibitors selling overseas projects in Europe, China, North America, etc.

Use Notepad to open any text file in Windows 7 right click

Notepad is a lightweight and handy text editor that comes with Windows operating system.

There is a trick in Windows that can let you right click on any text document and instantly open it with Notepad for reading or editing.

What you need to do is just to include a shortcut of Notepad into your "Send to" menu.

Below is the steps to do it for Windows 7:

Step 1: Open Windows > Run... or alternatively press the Windows + R keys on your keyboard.

Step 2: Key in "shell:sendto" and press the OK button. This will open Explorer and bring you right into your SendTo folder. The content in this folder are the items that will appear in your "Send to" menu whenever you right click on any file or folder. (If you are using Windows XP, then key in "sendto" only and press the OK button.)

Step 3: In this SendTo folder, create a new shortcut to "%windir%\system32\notepad.exe". That's all you need to do.

Now, right click on any text file, go inside the "Send to" menu and open the file with Notepad. Pretty handy isn't it?

You can use this trick to easily open files such as README, *.log, *.ini, *.nfo, ...

Note that you can actually use Notepad to open any file, but if the file is not in text format, you probably just able to see chunk of codes only.

Also note that this trick is applicable for the user currently using the Windows 7 only. If you have multiple users in the system, then the other users need to repeat the same steps above for their own Windows account.

World IPv6 launched today (6 June 2012)

Today (6 June 2012) is the world launching day for IPv6.

To recap, I wrote about the exhaustion of IPv4 last year. The address space used by the current version of the Internet protocol, IPv4, has already run out. Without action, we risk increased costs and limited functionality online for Internet users everywhere, in addition to curtailing the Internet’s growth of a platform for innovation and economic development. The only long-term solution to this problem is adoption of IPv6, which provides a practically unlimited number of addresses.

Now, major Internet service providers (ISPs), home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are finally coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by today (6 June 2012).

This marks the largest industry commitment to and deployment of IPv6 in the history of the Internet, with the ultimate aim to eventually replace the current IPv4.

Well, due to its vast usage and long time existance, IPv4 won't be replaced within a few years, and will co-exist with the new IPv6 for a lengthy transition period.

Meanwhile, for end users like you and me, whether it is IPv4 or IPv6 should be pretty transparent to us, as we are more adopted to the more human-readable domain names translated from the IP addresses.

In virtualization, use as few vCPU as possible for optimal CPU performance

Nowadays, virtualizing a physical server into several virtual servers is a common practice. In fact, the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model of Cloud Computing is based on virtualization too.

Unlike physical server running on physical CPU, whereby the common sense is more CPU (or CPU core) is better, in a virtualized environment, it is often a best practice to configure as few virtual CPU (vCPU) as possible to the virtual server.

In most cases, if 1 vCPU is sufficient, it is advisible to configure the virtual server to use 1 vCPU instead of more.

This is because:

• Each vCPU will consume some physical CPU resource even if it is in idle state.
• Unused vCPUs still consume timer interrupts unless the guest OS kernel is configured with the NO_HZ "tickless timer" option (a feature available in the latest Linux 2.6 kernel).
• The more vCPUs a virtual machine has, the more interrupts it requires.
• Maintaining a consistent memory view among multiple vCPUs can also consume additional resources, both in the guest OS and the host.
• Some older guest OS execute idle loops on unused vCPUs, thereby consuming
  resources that might otherwise be available for other uses.
• The guest scheduler might migrate a single-threaded workload amongst multiple vCPUs, thereby
  losing cache locality.
• In SMP guests the guest OS can migrate processes from one vCPU to another. This migration can incur a small CPU overhead.

In addition, it is a good practice to disable screen savers and Window animations in virtual machines. On Linux, if using an X server is not required, disable it. This is because screen savers, animations, and X servers all consume extra physical CPU resources, potentially affecting consolidation ratios and the performance of other virtual machines.

Reference: Performance Best Prictice for VMWare vSphere 5.0

3 questions to ask yourself before venturing into a new business

Are you planning to be entrepreneur to start your own business?

I have just learnt that there are 3 important questions you must ask yourself and sincerely find out your answers, because these are the crucial factors that will affect the success rate of a new business venture.

The 3 questions are:

• How likely will your targetted customers be really willing to take out the money from their pocket and pay for it?
• How big is the profit margin?
• What make you remarkable from others?

Basically, these 3 questions will test the feasibility of your business in terms of acceptability, profitability and sustainability.

You need to get the actual feedback from the real market by doing a lot of observation, conversation and testing.

2011 Customer Experience Impact Report - Getting to the Heart of the Consumer and Brand Relationship

Based on a survey commissioned by RightNow (recently acquired by Oracle) and conducted by Harris Interactive, the 2011 Customer Experience Impact (CEI) Report explores the relationship between consumers and brands.

It reveals facts about what consumers are looking for from a brand, how quickly they will dump a favourite brand, and their tendency to seek retribution after a breakup.

Well, what makes a memorable experience that causes consumers to stick with a brand?

According to the CEI survey, consumers want:

• Friendly employees or customer service representatives (73%)
• The ability to easily find the information or help they need (55%)
• Personalized experiences (36%)
• Brands with a good reputation (33%)

Positive engagements create long-standing, loyal relationships, and this is so important to consumers that they are willing to pay for it. In fact, according to the CEI survey, 86% of consumers will pay more for a better customer experience.

For consumer organizations today, good customer experience is a competitive imperative. Understanding what customers want is the 1st step in creating exceptional experiences.

When asked specifically how companies can better engage with consumers to spend more, respondents said the following:

• Improve the overall customer experience (54%)
• Make it easy to ask questions and access information before making a purchase (52%)
• Improve search functionality and overall Website usability (36%)

Click here to download the complete 2011 Customer Experience Impact Report - Getting to the Heart of the Consumer and Brand Relationship.

DestraShield nanoliquid screen protector with Ag+ formula

I discovered this DestraShield nanoliquid screen protector with Ag+ formula by Destra Nanotech Sdn Bhd in GoMobile 2012 exhibition today.

This is quite an interesting screen protector. It is in liquid format, therefore can fit any form and size of glass surface. To apply it, just drop on the surface and spread it evenly with the melamine foam sponge that comes together in its package. After dried out, it will form a protection layer that claimed to be able to last for up to 6 months, after which we can reapply the liquid onto the surface again for continuous protection.

They say this nanoliquid screen protector can be used for handphone screen, camera lens, spectacles, computer monitor, television, mirror, ... and even car windscreen.

Its features include:

• Anti-bacteria
• Anti-microbial
• Anti-static
• Hydro and oleophobicity
• Scratches resisting
• Super hardness up to 7H
• Hard wearing and durable
• Improves clarity and brilliance
• One size fit all
• Easy to apply

They can demo to you its scratches resistance and hardness at their booth in GoMobile.

I applied this protector on my handphone. After application, the handphone screen has a mirror effect (can become mirror when screen is off). The screen display is crystal clear too. It also does not pick up much fingerprints, and the mild fingerprints can be easily wipe off with cloth material. It is also water resistant, when dropped with water, the water would not stick to the screen.

It's price isn't cheap though, selling at RM69 for a bottle of 2ml only. However, 2 drops is enough for application to handphone screen, and 6 drops is enough for my 21.5" touchscreen monitor.

I would say this is quite an innovative and useful product. Would be better if selling at a lower price.

Problem of Dell 1355cn colour laser MFP losing network connection seems to be fixed with latest firmware update

If you have a Dell 1355cn colour laser MFP printer and you connect to it using network cable via TCP/IP network, do you occasionally encounter the problem of unable to connect to the printer while it is in sleeping (power saving) mode?

As a workaround, you can regain the connection by switching off the printer and switching it on again.

I have just updated my Dell 1355cn MFP to its latest firmware (version A03, released 2 May 2012), and I noticed that this network connection problem seems to be solved.

If you are facing the same problem with your Dell 1355cn MFP, I'd encourage you to update its firmware to the latest version and observe if the problem is fixed or not.

Anyhow, this problem doesn't occur if you are connecting to the printer using USB cable instead of network cable.

Beside the new firmware, there is also a new driver update (version A03, released 2 May 2012) for Dell 1355cn MFP print, fax and scan functions as well.

GoMobile 2012

The annual mobile lifestyle event GoMobile 2012 is around the corner now.

Date: 11-13 May 2012
Venue: KL Convention Centre

GoMobile is actually 3-events-in-1, namely the GoMobile Expo, the GoMobile Conference and the GoMobile inOvation Awards And Celebration Party.

Also, there will be a special dedicated zone called Appcity to showcase Malaysia homegrown mobile applications, content and services.

Talks and briefings have also been lined up with topics such as Build An Android App With Zero Programming Knowledge, Why HTML5, How to Market Apps, Building Android Apps, Building iOS Apps, Windows Phone 7 Programming and Augmented Reality Programming.

This event is anticipated to attract more than 150,000 visitors.

Lenspen VidiMax cleaning kit for LCD / Plasma screens

I got this Lenspen VidiMax cleaning kit for LCD / Plasma screens from an online auction.

It is used to clean the dust and fingerprints on large LCD or plasma screens such as computer monitor screen, TV screen, etc.

This cleaning kit consists of 2 layers. The top layer has a chamois pad with special non-liquid cleaning compound to wipe off fingerprints on the screen.

And the bottom layer is a super-soft dust brush to wipe away dust on the screen.

After using it, my personal opinion is: I still prefer wiping off dust and fingerprints from the screen with a piece of microfibre cloth. When the screen is slightly dirty, the result is the same; when the screen is very dirty, slightly damped microfibre cloth does a better cleaning job.

Qunda KT-1000 universal air-cond remote control

The remote control of my Panasonic air-cond seems to have difficulty sending sleep timer signal to the wall unit. The air-cond remote control replacement unit from Panasonic will probably cost me a bomb (its official price is more than RM80).

I bought this Qunda KT-1000 universal air-cond remote control at RM19 including batteries after bargain in the market.

This air-cond remote control can do most of the air-cond settings and supports 1028 air-cond remote control signal codes. The picture below shows all its available setting buttons after its cover slided down.

It claims to support 98% of air-conds in the world, including brands such as Alpin, Aucma, Aux, Banshen, Boerka, Carrier, ChangHong, Chigo, ChoFu, ChunLan, Corona, Conrowa, Consul, Daewoo, Daikin, Doctor, DongBao, DongXinBao, Electrolux, Frestech, Fujitsu, Funai, GuQiao, Galanz, Glee, Goldstar, Gree, Haier, HiSense, Hitachi, HuaBao, Huake, HuaMei, HuaLing, HuiFeng, HuiKang, Hyundai, JDC, JiangNan, JinDa, JinSong, Johson, KangLi, Kelon, Klimatair, Kongka, LG, LiangYu, Little Duck, Loren-Sebo, Macquay, Midea, Mitsubishi, Moritz, Panasonic, National, Panda, Philco, Proton, Raybo, Rowa, Sabro, Saijo Denki, Sampo, Samsung, Sanyo, Sasuki, ShanXing, Sharp, ShengFeng, Shinco, Shuanglu, Shuai Kang, Songge, Sova, Summer, SunDurg, Swan, Tadiran, Tatung, TCL, Teco, Tiandi, Micom, Toshiba, Trane, Uni-air, Weili, Whirlpool, Xileng, Xinle, Yangzi, Yinyan, York, ... which most of the brands I have never heard before.

I found that there are more than 1 signal codes able to control my Panasonic air-cond. However, all the codes which can be used to control my Panasonic air-cond are unable to do timer setting to the air-cond. The air-cond can respond accordingly to on/off switch, mode settings, temperature settings, air swing settings, fan settings, etc. but no respond to timer setting.

So, my problem haven't solved yet.

Solution for AMD Catalyst Control Center unable to start problem after driver upgrade

Are you facing problem loading or starting the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) for your AMD Radeon graphics display card after you upgraded its driver to the latest version?

This is very likely to be caused by .NET Global Assembly Cache (GAC) in your Windows system preventing some of the DLL files in your new version of AMD Catalyst Software Suite from overiding the existing, older version of them in the system. As a result, the newer version of CCC is unable to work with the older version of the DLL files and simply won't start.

To fix this problem, you need to delete all the ATI's assemblies from the GAC before you install the new AMD Graphics Drivers and Software.

In order to delete assemblies from the GAC, you need Administrator's right as well as to turn off the Windows User Account Control (UAC).

Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Change User Account Control settings and pull down the setting to the lowest level.

You will need to restart your Windows in order to complete this task.

After system restart, use your Windows Explorer to go to \Windows\assembly folder and delete (uninstall) all the assemblies with this Public Key Token "90ba9c70f846762e". You can click on the Public Key Token tab to do a sorting, locate for the assemblies to delete, highlight them with your mouse, and push the Delete button on your keyboard.

When you are done, you may set back your Windows UAC to its original level, usually the 2nd bar. You will need another round of system restart to change the UAC setting again.

Now, install the new AMD Catalyst Software Suite and the optional AMD Catalyst Application Profiles, Hydravision Package and AMD Media Codec Package.

You should be able to launch CCC now!