Malaysia year 2014 national and state public holidays announced

The 2014 national and state public holidays in Malaysia as distributed by Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) is as below.

 

There are 14 days of national holiday, and 2 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.

 

Astro price hike again for sports pack and family pack

From 24 November 2013 onwards, Astro will increase their Sports Pack by an additional of RM6 per month, and also their Family Pack by an additional of RM2 per month.

The last Astro price hike was in mid-2011.

If you are subscriber of Value Pack or Super Pack 3, this price hike will not affect you (yet) and your subscription fee should be the same as existing.

Click here for the announcement in Astro website.

For enquiry and protest to Astro, click here.

You can also post your comment in their Facebook page.

UTOO S2 (3000mAh) and S3 (5000mAh) Li-polymer power bank

With more and more mobile devices come into our lifestyle, most of us already have portable power bank to provide supplementary and/or emergency power to our mobile devices.

Majority of the power banks available in the market nowadays are still using Li-ion 18650 battery cells. Those power banks are at least 2cm thick, pretty bulky to carry along.

The UTOO Li-polymer power banks attracted my attention with their slim and lightweight design. Li-polymer is the same type of battery used in smartphones nowadays, normally rectangular in shape and can be razor-thin.

The Guangdong based UTOO manufactures several models of Li-polymer power bank. At the moment, the more widely distributed models are S2 (3000mAh) and S3 (5000mAh), both come with 1 year warranty.

The shape of UTOO resembles a modern smartphone (but without a screen). On the left is UTOO S3 with higher capacity of 5000mAh, and on the right is UTOO S2. The S2 is only 8mm in thickness.

They are slightly bigger than the standard size of credit card, name card, membership card, and the like. What if UTOO co-brand with some touch cards, like this...

Both S2 and S3 are buttonless and using 4 LED lights to show charging/discharging status. S2 has red LEDs while S3 has blue LEDs. The LED on the left denotes 0-25% of battery capacity, 2nd LED denotes 26-50%, 3rd LED denotes 51-75%, and 4th LED denotes 76-100%.

Being buttonless in design, the UTOO Li-polymer power banks automatically work when one or more of their USB ports get connected, and automatically off when they are disconnected. The charging/discharging operation is regulated by an S-Power smart chip inside the power bank to prevent from over-current, overload, overvoltage, overheating, over discharge, short circuit, etc.

Note that both S2 and S3 don't come with any power adapter. This should not be a big problem as they can make use of the power adapter that come with our mobile device.

The S2 also doesn't come with any USB cable, while the S3 has one attached charging cable at its side.

The S3 is able to charge 2 devices simultaneously with its attached charging cable and its USB charging port working at the same time.

Although the USB charging port of both S2 and S3 only has maximum current output of 1A, they are still able to charge up my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 which needs 2A charging. However, the charging speed is slower than using the Samsung 2A wall adapter.

This is considered a very nice feature, as most of the power banks in the market which don't come with 2A charging port are unable to charge up tablets that need 2A input.

Another different between S2 and S3 is that, S3 comes with a somatosensory system. It is able to show its current battery capacity by shaking it with our hand when it is not connected to any devices. While it is in charging operation, sidelay it and the LEDs will indicate the charging speed. All its LEDs will be off when you turn it upside down.

The UTOO Li-polymer power bank is able to recharge the battery in my HTC One from 15% to 100% in 3 hours time, which is comparable to charging with wall charger.

When the power banks are fully discharged to 0%, the S2 takes 4 hours to recharge to 100%, and the S3 takes 6 hours and 20 minutes.

I have done an experiment to connect the power bank to the wall charger and at the same time also connect its charging port to my handphone. The device is smart enough to charge itself to 100% first, then continue on to charge the connected handphone using the power that comes from the wall charger.

This means you can have both the power bank and your mobile device charged by "looping" them to one wall socket. They won't get charged together at the same time, and the power bank will regulate in such a way that it will get itself fully charged first, then pass over the charging current to the attached mobile device.

If you are looking for a power bank that is easy to carry, with nice design, high quality Li-polymer battery, good safety feature and 1 year warranty, perhaps you can consider UTOO.

Latest firmware update XXCMI1 for Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) seems to have fixed the S-pen misalignment issue

Samsung has just released a new firmware update (build number: JDQ39.N5100XXCMI1) for Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) in Southeast Asia region including Malaysia (XME), Singapore (XSP), Thailand (THL) and Indonesia (XSE) today, which users can get it through OTA update or from Kies software.

After the update, the Android version remains as 4.2.2, the firmware version becomes PDA: MI1 / PHONE: MI1 / CSC:MH2. Kernel version becomes 3.0.31-1475545 dated Mon Sep 16 2013.

This firmware update seems to have fixed the S-pen misalignment issue introduced by previous firmware of JDQ39.N5100XXCMH1.

I believe the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 users have been waiting for this bug fix for long. Finally, it has come.

My HiMedia Q5II dual core Android 3D smart TV + media player box

The China made HiMedia Q5II Android 3D smart TV + media player box is the second generation of the famous HiMedia Q5 Android box.

It is officially announced to be powered by HiSilicon 3718 STB chipset (HiSilicon is a subsidiary of Huawei), but the current Q5II boxes are very likely powered by the HiSilicon 3716c V200ES chipset, integrated with ARM Cortex-A9 1.6G Dual-core CPU and Mali-400 GPU, comes with IGB DDR3 RAM and 4GB NAND flash internal storage. It is running on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) OS.

I got it with a promotional price of RM3xx, which is very attractive for an Android STB claimed to be the world's 1st dual core STB that supports 3D Blu-ray ISO replay.

Beside being a powerful media player that is able to play many kind of video, audio and picture format, this HiMedia Q5II also function as Internet TV STB preloaded with hundreds of China TV channels (Live TV), connected to major video streaming sites (HiTV). We can also install 3rd party media streaming apps such as XBMC onto it.

Being an Android box, we can also use it to browse the Internet with its web browser, run Android apps such as social media apps, Android games, etc.

Input wise, it has 3 USB ports, a 2-in-1 SD/MMC card reader, one SATA interface. It is able to connect to the network using network cable or 801.11N WiFi.

Beside normal 2D videos, it also support both side-by-side and up-and-down 3D videos.

It can link up with our computers and smart mobile devices using UPnP, Samba (Windows network sharing), NFS and UPnP. It can also interact with smart mobile devices using DLNA, AirPlay, Miracast and its own apps called HiControl and HiShare.

HiControl transforms our Android smartphone into a HiMedia remote control. By utilizing the sensors in the Android smartphone, we can use it to play motion sensing games on the TV.

HiShare enables the Android smartphone to share out its multimedia content onto the TV screen.

I use NFS to let my HiMedia Q5II to access the files in my PC. This is achieved by installing the haneWIN NFS server in my PC and put the files I want to share to HiMedia Q5II into the configured shared folder in the PC. The HiMedia Q5II can auto discover the NFS server and the shared folder, as long as the PC and the Q5II box are connected to the same LAN network.

You might notice that I put a G-Shark GS-NC860 tough cool laptop cooling fan pad below my HiMedia Q5II box. This cooling pad cost me RM25 only. Without the cooling pad, the HiMedia Q5II is pretty hot on its aluminium surface after switched on and running for some times.

The HiMedia Q5II has an intuitive GUI, which can be controlled by its own remote control or with Android smartphone installed with the HiControl app. You can also control it with 3rd party accessories such as air-mouse, game controller, keyboard, mouse, etc.

This is really a feature rich Android box, selling at an attractive price.

MyDigi and MyMaxis Android apps

Quite some times ago, Digi released MyDigi Android app for their postpaid and prepaid subscribers to manage their account, particularly to monitor their payment status and Internet quota usage. Prepaid users can also perform reloads with the app.

In order to use this MyDigi app, user need to have an active Online Customer Service (OCS) account, which Digi subscribers can register for one here: https://www.digi.com.my/ocs/

Today, Digi has also released the MyDigi mobile app in Apple App Store and Windows Store beside Google Play store.

In early 2013, Maxis follow suit and released MyMaxis Android app for their Maxis postpaid and Hotlink subscribers. Beside Android, they have also released the app for iPhone/iPad and Blackberry Z10 subscribers as well.

However, the MyMaxis Android app is as bulky as 13MB (compared to only 2.8MB for MyDigi). Generally, MyDigi users give good comment with a rating of 4.1 to their app, while MyMaxis users have more complaint and only give it a 3.3 rating.

Celcom is yet to come out with their official mobile app for subscribers. This is pretty disappointing.

• Click here to download MyDigi app from Google Play store
• Click here to download MyMaxis app from Google Play store

My YS-189 3-to-1 HDMI switcher

My 7-years-old LCD TV only has 1 HDMI port at its back, and I have 3 audio-visual devices that can connect to it with HDMI cable.

Previously, I used to unplug and re-plug the HDMI cable to the TV to switch among the AV devices to display onto the TV. Now, I no longer need to do that as I have bought a YS-189 3-to-1 HDMI switcher at the cost of around RM50 only.

This small little HDMI switch can accept up to 3 HDMI input ports and let us select one of them to output to the TV via its output port.

Selection of channel can be done by pressing the small button beside its LED I, II or III. It can also be done by pressing the button I, II or III on the remote control that comes together with it. Better still, this HDMI switch can intelligently switch itself to the correct channel if only one HDMI source is having signal (whereby one device is turned on while the other 2 devices are turned off).

Better still, this small little HDMI switch does not need to connect to any wall socket in order to function, as it can be powered by the power source from the HDMI input. It also comes with a DC 5V connector to receive additional power source, but no power adapter is supplied together with this HDMI switch.

The back of its packaging has quite comprehensive description about this product.

This YS-189 HDMI switcher serves it function well. It is cheap in price compared with most other HDMI switches available in the market.

Fixed IE 10 unable to download, Windows Update not functioning, MS Excel web query broken problem

Recently, one of the harddisks in the RAID 1 storage of my PC had given out S.M.A.R.T warning, and I've replaced it with a new harddisk.

The RAID was successfully rebuilt with the new harddisk, but I noticed something was not functioning well:

• The download function of Internet Explorer 10 in my Windows 7 stopped to work. Whenever I tried to download something, all the options in the IE 10 download prompt greyed out, and I can choose none of open, save nor cancel. In addition, pressing Ctrl-J in IE 10 to view downloads had no respond at all.
• Windows Update also not functioning and unable to check for updates from Microsoft site.
• All the web query links in my MS Excel worksheets were broken and unable to refresh data from the web.

These problems were fixed after I downloaded and installed the latest version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST)  RAID Driver from Intel Download Center.

If you are also having the same problem after you made change to your PC storage (i.e. replace harddisk, add new harddisk, etc.), hopefully this solution is also workable for you.

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015 quite some times ago, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015. 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.

Related articles:

• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2016
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2016
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014

Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015

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 2015 (year of Goat), 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.

Related articles:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2016
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014

How to fix portable air-cond "P2" error

If you have a portable air-cond, and one day it's compressor automatically shut off and stopped functioning, showing the error message "P2" on its display panel, don't be panic.

Your portable air-cond normally has a self-evaporative system to recycle the condensing water to cool the condenser. However, if the self-evaporative system is not functioning well, water collected at the container below the appliance will get full, and the portable air-cond will shut itself off with the "P2" message.

When you see this message, you can try to empty the water container by disconnecting the portable air-cond from wall socket, moving it to a place suitable to drain out the water (such as your bathroom or outside your house), then unplug the water draining outlet at the back bottom of the appliance to let the water flow out. You might need to tilt the portable air-cond a bit to ensure the water is totally drained out. Then, put back the drain plug to its original location.

You might also want to clean up the portable air-cond to ensure no blockage caused by dust or dirt inside the unit that might prevent the self-evaporative system from working efficiently.

Try switching on the portable air-cond again. It should function well if the "P2" error is really due to water tank full problem.

Disabling GNOME Desktop Manager (GDM) when Ubuntu is booting up

If you are using Ubuntu Linux system with GNOME Desktop Manager (GDM) installed, the computer will automatically go into GDM X Window GUI interface whenever it boots up.

If you prefer the computer to boot up into text console terminal interface instead of GDM, you can create a new text file /etc/init/gdm.override and put "manual" as its content.

The simplest way of doing so is to issue the command below with root access:

# echo "manual" > /etc/init/gdm.override

This works in my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server.

TP-Link TL-WDR3600 dual band gigabit router now supports both TM Unifi and Maxis Home Fibre Internet

TP-Link TL-WDR3600 is an N600 wireless dual band gigabit router ranged in between the lower TL-WR1043ND N300 router and the higher TL-WDR4300 N750 router. Good news is, it now has official firmware for Malaysia that supports both TM Unifi and Maxis Home Fibre Internet.

At the price of RM17x (selling at All IT Hypermarket) which is just slightly higher than the price of TL-WR1043ND at RM14x, you get 2 major feature upgrades namely dual band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5GHz, 300Mbps each, can work simultaneously) and hardware NAT (providing faster WAN to LAN throughput). The TL-WDR4300 with 3 antennas is still selling at RM2xx.

I have made a table to compare this TP-Link TL-WDR3600 with the stock D-Link DIR-615 router of TM Unifi and stock Thomson TG784n router of Maxis Home Fibre Internet.

You might want to consider this TL-WDR3600 router if:

• the D-Link/Thomson router that comes with your HSBB Internet service damaged and warranty period expired.
• and/or you want to have much better WiFi experience (more stable connection, farther reach, and make use of the 5Ghz WiFi frequency band for your devices that support it).
• and/or you want to have much faster wired gigabit connections between your devices in the LAN.

In order for your TL-WDR3600 to support TM Unifi or Maxis Home Fibre Internet connection, you need to download the latest Malaysia version firmware from TP-Link website and flash it to your router.

After the firmware upgrade, the firmware version becomes 3.13.32 Build 130723 Rel.9433n.

 

 

Setting up for Unifi or Maxis mode is pretty straightforward and easy. You just need to follow the step-by-step instruction in the Quick Setup function.

The Quick Setup function will help you configure the necessary VLAN settings for Unifi to enable both Internet access and IPTV.

You can also plug the network cable connecting to your IPTV set-top-box to LAN port other than LAN1, as long as you configure the LAN ports setting correctly.

For Maxis Home Fibre Internet, it will help you to configure the necessary VLAN settings to enable Internet access, VoIP and IPTV.

Note that you will lost the IPv6 feature in this router after you flashed it with Malaysian version of firmware. This should not be an issue as the Internet is still heavily using IPv4 now.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) S-pen misalignment issue after Android 4.2.2 update

Several weeks ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) around the world started to get a firmware update to upgrade its Android version 4.1.2 to Android 4.2.2. The build number of my Galaxy Note 8.0 becomes JDQ39.N5100XXCMH1 after the update.

Unfortunately, this firmware update has introduced a new bug to the S-pen of the tablet. There is a slight offset of the landing point of the S-pen on its screen. This problem doesn't exist in previous version of firmware with Android 4.1.2, where the S-pen landed perfectly.

The misalignment problem behaves differently depend on the orientation of the tablet. When it is in upright portrait mode (where the Samsung logo is on top), the landing point is offsetted to the bottom right from the tip of the S-pen, as shown below:

When it is rotated clockwise in landscape mode, the landing point is offsetted to the bottom left from the tip of the S-pen.

When it is rotated anti-clockwise in landscape mode, the landing point is offsetted to the upper right from the tip of the S-pen.

When it is rotated 180 degree upside-down (where the Home button is on top), the landing point is perfect!

This S-pen misalignment issue does not bring much issue for handwriting, but will be a disturbance when drawing, sketching, or selecting an area with the S-pen, as we need the S-pen to land precisely on the screen.

Information and discussions in the Internet seems to conclude that this S-pen misalignment bug with Samsung GT-N5100 Android 4.2.2 firmware is related to its kernel.

If you are owning a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) and have not updated to the latest firmware with Android 4.2.2 yet, you have the option to withhold the firmware update to keep yourself away from being affected by this bug.

If you have already updated to the latest firmware and hit by this bug, here are your options:

• To turn your tablet upside-down whenever you use your S-pen. Hopefully it will work fine in that weird position.
• To restore to the previous firmware of Android 4.1.2. You can either bring the tablet to Samsung service center and ask them to revert the firmware for you. If you can find a copy of the previous firmware for Samsung GT-N5100 of your region in the Internet, you can try to use Odin to flash it to your tablet and wipe out all its caches (do this solely on your own risk!!).
• To wait for Samsung to come out with a bug fix, probably in the next release of firmware update.
• To flash a custom ROM which managed to fix this bug.

FYI, here is the on-going discussion in XDA-Developers forum about this S-pen misalignment problem with Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2414053

My Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100)

My Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is an Android tablet with 3G and WiFi function.

The unique selling point of Samsung Galaxy Note range of products is their S-Pen, which is a button-enabled and pressure-sensitive digitizer pen (up to 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity) that enables us to do handwriting, drawing, sketching, rubber deleting, air viewing, issuing commands, and some other tricks. This is something you can't find in its sister products of Samsung Galaxy Tab series.

Another unique feature in this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is multi-windows, which enables us to split its screen into two for two different apps operating on the screen at the same time. (This feature is also available in some other Samsung Android devices running the Jelly Beans OS.)

Its 8" size is about the same size as an exercise book. When it is covered with my rotatable book case cover, it just looks and feels like a book. Just like the Apple iPad Mini, this size is easy to hand carry as well as store in a bag.

Interface wise, I still feel that HTC Sense UI is better than Samsung TouchWiz. It is really the S-Pen features that make the difference for this Samsung Android device.

I obtained this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) as part of the package of The Edge 3-years Subscription bundle. It is a good bargain. I only need to pay a total of RM1,163.60 over a period of 12 months for the entire package, after getting RM250 cash back from CIMB credit card promotion.

Well, there is some hassle in registering for the 1 year warranty for this device, as I have no "vendor" to do the SMS e-Warranty registration. Instead, I managed to register the product with Samsung Cyber Service Center.

One bonus of using this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is that my Dropbox account gets an additional 48GB of free storage for 2 years after I linked the tablet with my Dropbox account.

A family trip to Lost World of Tambun, Perak

My family just have a one day trip to Lost World of Tambun, located at the outskirt of Ipoh, Perak. It is an adventure theme park built and operated by Sunway Group, which I would describe it to be wilder, larger, and closer to the natural than the famous Sunway Lagoon in Selangor.

If you want to visit to Lost World of Tambun, I would advise you to spend a full day there, because the theme park is really big in area with many places to visit and have fun with. This means you have to reach there around 10am, or else you might not have enough time to visit all the attractions inside.

The entrance fee is RM48 for adult and RM41 for child. You can get a cheaper rate if you buy the ticket online from their website at http://www.sunwaylostworldoftambun.com/.

You will first reach a souvenir stall after entering from the entrance. Then, the water park is in front of you. I would advise you to have fun in the water park as your last schedule, otherwise you might be too tired to visit the rest of the park. In addition, the sun is not too hot at evening time.

There is an amusement park beside the water park, which you can take free ride on Giddy Galleon, Dragon Flight, Perak Parade, Storm Rider, roller coaster, etc.

There is a petting zoo with small animals and lots of snakes. Take the Rainforest Trail to have closer contact with the animals.

There are some small animal feeding shows between 12pm and 3.30pm here.

There is also a swan lake with swans and koi fishes. You can feed the swans and fishes there. You can also ride the water bicycle, which the fee is not inclusive in your entrance ticket (need to pay separately).

Outside food and drink is not permitted to be brought into the theme park. They actually check for your items when you enter. Food and beverage is available at the stalls and food court near the amusement park. The price is not cheap though.

Don't forget to watch the tiger feeding show at Tiger Valley at 3pm. The show is not just about tiger. Before the tiger show, you can see the performance of some other animals and birds as well.

Some other attractions include:

The Tin Valley, with a gallery which you can see an ancient monochrome CRT TV that is still working well.

Kepura Caves

And something erected...

The Lost World Hot Springs & Spa is opened at night, which needs a separate entrance ticket. We haven't visited this yet, probably will be in our next visit to the Lost World of Tambun.

Watching movie in TGV Beanie Hall (Beanieplex)

This is my first experience watching movie in Beanie Hall of Tanjong Golden Village (TGV) cinema.

Beanie Hall is relatively small compared with normal Cineplex of TGV, with limited number of couple seats. It makes a difference from normal cinema halls with its beanbag seats which are spacious, relaxing, comfortable, and really make you feel at home.

This kind of premium seat also comes with a premium price, much higher than ordinary seat and even the twin seat. The ticket above cost me RM45 (RM44 for the ticket, plus RM1 for online booking). After all, it is a good experience for my family.

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014 quite some times ago, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014. 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.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

A short trip to French village, Bukit Tinggi Bentong (Berjaya Hills)

My family has made a short trip to the French village located at Bukit Tinggi, Bentong, Pahang (a.k.a. Berjaya Hills), which is near to Genting Highlands and Janda Baik.

The French village is located uphill, quite some distance away from the junction linked to Karak Highway. The road condition is worse than that of Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands. Fortunately, there is not much car on the road.

Before entering the premise, we need to pay RM12 per adult and RM8 per child, which I think is a bit expensive.

There are 2 hotels over there, namely The Chateau and Colmar Tropicale. The accommodation price is pretty expensive. Unless you want to enjoy the calm and silentness of Berjaya Hills, otherwise you will most likely find boring staying there.

During our visit, Samsung was having some team building event there, so we can see some crowd. Otherwise, I think the staff over there will easily outnumber the tourist.

Bukit Tinggi is a good place for photo taking, especially for marriage couples. It has nice scenes, and some good looking swans at the lake near the village entrance too.

 

The French village is actually quite small, takes less than an hour to visit. Beside the Colmar Tropicale hotels, there are some western restaurants selling food at high price, some souvenir shops, a video game center, and SPA center.

There is a Japanese garden nearby, with waterfall, a koi pond, and some Japanese huts. Japanese traditional costumes are available for photo shooting rent in the bigger hut there. There suppose to have a Japanese restaurant, but we couldn't find it.

My overall comment: Bukit Tinggi is not too bad for scenic visit, but it can be much better than what it is now. It has good "hardware" but lack of "software" to make it attractive.

The Edge giving away iPad Mini 16G or Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in 3-year subscription bundle

From now until 31 August 2013, you can get the following at the price of as low as RM1413.60 (with CIMB credit card, option for 12-month 0% interest EPP easy payment plan):

• 3 years subscription of The Edge Malaysia (printed + 3 digital access)
• 3 years subscription of The Edge Singapore (1 digital access)
• 3 years subscription of The Edge Review (1 digital access)
• iPad Mini 16G WiFi & cellular or Samsung Galaxy Note 8

This deal looks attractive if you have intention to buy the iPad Mini or Samsung Galaxy Note 8, as RM1413.60 alone is an attractive price to get the phablet with credit card payment and 12-month interest free instalment. Now, on top of that, you can get 3 years subscription of 3 weekly papers from The Edge.

This deal is also attractive if you do not have intention to own the phablet. If you manage to sell it out, your 3 years subscription of the 3 weekly papers will be free or almost free of charge to you. In addition, you can get a pretty good cashflow, as you only need to pay the RM1413.60 over a 12 month period, but you can collect the full cash once you sell out the phablet.

Click here for more information about The Edge collection deal.

Garmin releases MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps 2013.20. Now MalFreeMaps lane assist feature is available.

About 2 weeks ago, Garmin released Navteq City Navigator SG/MY NT 2013.20 map update. Now, the MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps NT 2013.20 are also made available for free download.

The long anticipated Lane Assist feature is finally available in this new release of MalFreeMaps 2013.20 now.

Click here to download the installation file of MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps 2013.20 from Garmin server.

If you have moved the MalFreeMaps and/or MalSingMaps map files from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card, you have to do it again, because the installer from Garmin will respectively install the new MalFreeMaps and MalSingMaps into the GPS internal storage memory.

Attended PhillipCapital 4th Annual Investment Conference 2013 @ Istana Hotel

I have just attended the PhillipCapital 4th Annual Investment Conference 2013 held at Istana Hotel on 20 July 2013.

Overall, it is a good investment conference, with topics covering stock investment, derivative investment, gold investment, etc. Speakers include famous fund managers such as Chen Fan Fai who made his name in Kenanga and now is the Chief Investment Officer of Eastspring, Ang Kok Heng the Chief Investment Officer of Phillip Capital, etc.

The maximum harvest I reaped from this conference is a booklet called Hugh Young's Ten Golden Rules of Equity Investing distributed by Aberdeen Asset Management to their audience of Bharat Joshi's talk on Golden Rules of Investing. Hugh Young is the co-founder of Singapore-based Aberdeen Asia.

The 10 Golden Rules are:

• Treatment of minority shareholders
• Remember that companies are about people not asset
• Balance sheet strength is critical
• Understand what you're buying
• Be wary of overambition
• Think long term
• Benchmarks are measuring devices not portfolio construction tools
• Take advantage of irrational behaviour
• Do your own research
• Focus on industries in which it is possible to have a sustainable competitive advantage

If you want to know more about these 10 golden rules of Hugh Young, you can click here to read the article on this topic posted by Aberdeen Asset Management. Alternatively, you can also try to get a copy of the booklet or eBook from Aberdeen, or from Amazon, Apple iTunes, etc.

Most of the speakers are talking from the macro-economics viewpoint, and they are kind of bullish to the near term local and world economics.

Chen Fan Fai in his topic "How is an Asian Fund Managed?" honestly pointed out that, in the long run, most of the fund managers are underperform the market index.

Updated my HTC One to Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)

The HTC One smartphones in Malaysia receive our Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) update from the previous Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) since yesterday 12 July 2013 around 4.00pm onwards.

The whole update started with a small "bug fix" update to enable the phone to upgrade to Android 4.2.2 successfully. After installing the "bug fix" update and reboot the phone, a larger 440+MB update is made available to the phone, which will update it to Android 4.2.2.

Among the new features and improvement brought to our HTC One with this update are:

• Able to show battery level in status bar

• Quick Setting panel, which is accessible by tapping on the top-right icon of the notification screen, or by doing a 2-finger pull down.

• Configurable Home button. If switched to the 2nd option, the 3-dots soft menu button the appears in certain apps will also be eliminated.

• Daydream function

• Lock screen widgets (but very limited selection)
• Instagram feeds to Blinkfeed
• Apps able to also move from launcher bar to home screen or vice versa by drag-and-drop. Before this, can only move by drag-and-drop from app drawer to launcher bar or vice versa.
• Improved camera functions
• More tidy Gallery app
• Additional music player (icon is golden headset) beside the existing (icon is read headset)
• WeChat pre-installed
• ... and more

Note that the "Developer options" (which include the USB Debugging mode toggle) is hidden from the Settings screen in Android 4.2.2. To unhide it, go to About > Software information > More and tap on Build number for 7 times.

Solution for Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) unable to run after Windows update

Yesterday, the automated Windows update of my laptop installed some updates, and one of them related to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) failed.

Since then, the Microsoft Security Essentials unable to run, and the Action Center keeps on telling me that there is no antivirus and spyware protection running on my Windows 7.

I managed to fix it by this way:

• Download a new installer of Microsoft Security Essentials from Microsoft website (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download).
• Download OneCareCleanup from Microsoft website (http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/c/b/4cb845e7-1076-437b-852a-7842a8ab13c8/OneCareCleanup.exe)
• Run the OneCareCleanup.exe
• Reboot the computer
• Reinstall Microsoft Security Essentials with the installer downloaded just now

Note: If you directly reinstall MSE without running the OneCareCleanup tool, the installation will stop halfway, giving out a 0x80070643 error.

Move the map files from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card

The Garmin Nuvi 2565LM SG/MY GPS navigator comes with 3 preinstalled maps, namely:

• Navteq City Navigator SGMY NT (gmapprom.img)
• MalSingMaps SGMY NT (gmapprom1.img)
• MalFreeMaps SGMY NT (gmapsupp.img)

These maps, especially their junction view JCV files, have taken a lot of internal storage space of the GPS, left over with just around 200MB of free storage.

Unlike my Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator which only supports 1 map file, namely gmapsupp.img in the SD card external storage, the Garmin Nuvi 2565LM SG/MY GPS navigator supports multiple unlimited map files in the microSD card external storage.

When the free space in the Garmin GPS internal storage become lesser and lesser, you will experience the GPS acting slower and slower. Therefore, it is a better idea to move the map files from its internal storage to external microSD card, in order to make space for the GPS to work smoother and act faster.

Note that at least 1 map file (the gmapprom.img) must be kept in the GPS internal memory, or else your GPS with no map in its internal storage might face problem booting up.

MalSingMaps is initially stored as .System\gmapprom1.img in the GPS, while MalFreeMaps is initially stored as map\gmapsupp,.img in the GPS.

In order to access the hidden .System folder, you need to drop down the Organize menu and select "Folder and search options" in Windows Explorer. Then, go to the View tab and make sure "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is checked, while "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" is unchecked.

Alternatively, you can also open the command prompt window and use the "cd" command to access into the hidden .System folder.

Here are the steps to move MalSingMaps and MalFreeMaps from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card. A class 10 microSD card is recommended for faster read/write speed.

• Create a new folder in the microSD card and name it as "Map".
• Create another new folder in the microSD card and name it as "Garmin".
• Create a new folder inside the Garmin folder and name it as "JCV".
• Move the 3 files gmapprom1.img, gmapprom1.sum and gmapprom1.unl from .System folder of internal storage to Map folder of microSD card.
• Move the 3 files gmapsupp.img, gmapsupp.sum and gmapsupp.unl from map folder of internal storage to Map folder of microSD card.
• Move the 4 files SGMYMAL.JCV, SgMyMal.sum, SgMyMfre.JCV and SgMyMfre.sum from .System\JCV folder of internal storage to Garmin\JCV folder of microSD card.
• Use the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" function to unmount both the internal and external storage of the GPS from Windows.
• Check that you can still access to the 3 maps in the GPS, including the 2 maps that are now residing in your microSD card instead of the GPS internal storage.

• Check that the junction view in your MalSingMaps and MalFreeMaps are still available to you.

Congratulation, you have just freed up about 672MB of valuable storage space from your GPS internal storage. Your GPS internal storage should have around 950MB of free internal storage space now.

If you want to install more maps into your Garmin Nuvi 2565LM GPS, just put the map file into the Map folder in its microSD card, and put the JCV file (if available) into the Garmin\JCV folder in its microSD card. The map files in the Map folder can be of any name, as long as the extension is .img.