Austria Stamps

Sarah was in Austria and she was nice enough to buy me 2 unique stamps.

This stamp is cloth-like. It’s actually a embroidered stamp. This is not the first embroidered stamp issued by Austria. In 2005, they issued this stamp which I purchased from eBay at around US$7.

The other stamp is the Willendorf Venus stamp. The Willendorf Venus is Austria’s most famous and valuable find from the later Palaeolithic age. A very special stamp was created for this outstanding object in August 2008. A three-dimensional effect makes the Venus appear particularly vividly.

Surprisingly, these stamps were rated by StampNews.com as “Top 10 extraordinary stamps of the year 2008“. There were also 2 other stamps that caught my attention. Check out the living stamps!


Finland issued in January 2008 a miniature sheet dedicated to Alpine skiing. Sheet has an illusion of movement thanks to the imaging and printing technology used. When you turn the sheet in your hands, the picture comes to life.


In May 2008 Austria released a revolutionary lenticular stamp to celebrate the UEFA EURO 2008. 48 images of a TV recording are superposed on the stamp. To the viewer, the optical effect is that of a film sequence of approx. 3 seconds.

[Credits: Stampnews.com]

I just started a stamps blog at http://stamps.xes.cx. It will be a blog with high resolution scans of stamps all around the world – with a caption if possible. Enjoy 😀

My Dream in the Year of the Tiger

[Advertorial]

I was reading from somewhere that the year of the Tiger is good for travelling for those born in the year of the Rooster (I am born in the year of the Rooster). Travelling has always been my passion. For the year of the Tiger, I would love to head back to Oulu, Finland for..


Loads of snow


Snowman


Awesome Finnish food


Snowmobile


Ice fishing


Visit my Finnish family!


Skiing

and..

Winter swimming!

But flying there is not cheap. Oulu is about 500KM from Helsinki. To get there from Kuala Lumpur, I need to take a flight to Helsinki and then another connecting flight to Oulu. The foreign exchange rate for Euro doesn’t help as well. I probably need around RM10,000 for the entire trip. It would certainly help if I could get some ‘extra’ dosh to travel.

Well, Tiger Beer, the official beer for the Year of the Tiger, will be fulfilling a few people’s wishes in the form of RM8,888 worth of dream.

To be eligible for the RM8,888 worth of dream, you got to participate in the Nuffnang – Tiger Beer Run which will be held on the 6th of February 2010 at Bar Madrid, Jaya One, PJ at 430PM. You can run dressed in anything you want! Be a tiger, soldier, giant pencil, anything. I am thinking of dressing up either as Doraemon or Nobita..just like the chaps in the video below.

The grand prize would be RM8,888 worth of dreams and RM1,888 cash prize. The 1st Runner Up for both Male and Female category will win RM8,888 worth of dreams. Also, not forgetting 10 consolation angpow worth RM88 + 6-pack of Tiger Beers.

To participate, write a blog post titled – “My Dream in the Year of the Tiger” and share what your dream is with everyone and then send an email to fulfillmywish.tiger@nuffnang.com with your full name and blog permalink.

For more details on the Tiger Run, please visit http://www.nuffnang.com.my/tigerrun/. Also, if you’re a fan of Tiger Beer, just like the Uncle in the video below

Join the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/tigerbeer !

Melbourne Food Guide – Coffee Culture

OK, back to my Melbourne Food Guide entry. The first one was here btw.

When I was in Melbourne in 2002, I didn’t realise that Melbourne has a humongous coffee culture. Coffee is served at almost every corner of Melbourne. Long queues are always seen in places that serves good coffee.

In 2008, American coffee giant Starbucks closed 61 Australian stores. I heard that Melbournians rather drink their local coffees than Starfucks. There is also a paid tour around Melbourne to see Melbourne’s historical coffee sites and also sample good coffee around Melbourne.

Back in Kuala Lumpur, I would usually have a cup of coffee before starting my day. But in Melbourne, coffee is so good that I usually have two cups a day. Makes me pangsai twice a day.

Here are some of my favourite coffee places.

Brother Baba Budan @ Little Bourke St

This small cafe serves one of the best coffees that I tasted in Melbourne. It is a very small cafe with very unique design. The seats are scattered and their ceiling is filled with hanging chairs.

The only drawback of this place is that the price is a little bit steep.


Nevertheless, the coffee is worth every drip of it. I had a cuppa almost everyday!

Address
359 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
Telephone +613 9606 0449
Website: www.brotherbababudan.com.au

Map


View Larger Map

7 Seeds Specialty Coffee @ Berkeley St

Before our trip to Point Nepean, Gavin and I had breakfast at this place. This place is somehow related to the owner of Brother Baba Budan. It’s larger than Brother Baba Budan and it serves food all day long.

Finding the place was quite difficult as it doesn’t have a proper signage. You can only see a gray coloured wall from far.

The interior is nicely done. Great place to chill out.


Box to store bullets!


Not Marijuana…hehe


Yummmmmmmmmm


Dench sourdough served with smoked salmon, wasabi creme friach and pickled cucumber salsa – AUD13


Dench sourdough served with hommus, tomato salad, cold pressed olive oil and dukkah – AUD11

Highly recommended!

Address
106 Berkeley St
Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
Tel: (03) 9347 8664
Website: sevenseeds.com.au


View Larger Map

St. Ali Coffee Roasters @ South Melbourne

Stopped by St. Ali on my last day to grab my last cup of coffee from Melbourne. Coffee was great, as good as those served at Brother Baba Budan and 7 Seeds.

Again, this place is not easy to find. We walked through a small alley to get to this place.


Looks like a factory!

Address
12-18 Yarra Pl
South Melbourne VIC 3205, Australia
Tel: (03) 9686 2990


View Larger Map

Social Media and Law

w00t! My article on social media and the law was published in The Star newspaper on 21 January 2010. My article was originally named “Social Media and Law” but The Star changed it to “Tweet at your own risk“.


I look like I got lipstick on -_-

The article is below – I’ve added links to some of the words.

Tweet at your own risk
Putik Lada
By FOONG CHENG LEONG

The explosion in Internet-based social networking – fuelled by ease of DIY publishing – is throwing up new challenges, business and legal, to the online community.

THE year 2009 marked an important year for social media networking. It brought change to politics, society and business.

Many politicians set up their own Twitter accounts to connect with the masses.

Many companies – from multinational companies to our local restaurants – set up accounts on social media networking websites to publicise their business, and even to manage consumer complaints.

Malaysian company MOL Global Pte Ltd entered into an agreement with Friendster, Inc to acquire 100% of Friendster.

Also launched was Project Alpha, Malaysia its first online TV show about Malaysian bloggers.

Social media, designed to be disseminated through social interaction, is created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, videos, ratings and bookmarking (Source: Wikipedia). Examples of social media networking websites or tools are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Friendster.

With social media websites rising in popularity, there are now more content generators on the Malaysian online community. Publishing content, once a technical and time consuming task, has been simplified; users merely need to enter text and click a button to publish.

Is Malaysian law able to cope with such changes?

The law governing online activities remains the same. Content generated through social media websites are still governed by laws on defamation, trade mark, copyright, and as well as the Computer Crimes Act 1997, Communi­cations and Multimedia Act 1998, and so on.

Internet users should be vigilant when posting updates, blog entries, tweets, comments and emails.

Even a 140-character limit tweet may get you into trouble. For example, Courtney Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, was sued by her former clothes designer for defamation, invasion of privacy and inflicting of emotional distress for “an extensive rant” on Twitter about how she was billed for custom clothing.

Social media websites or tools have also been used to attack others. Some users think they can hide incognito behind the screen. However, some were unmasked and had to endure severe punishment.

In 2008, in the case of Applause Store Productions Limited & Anor v Grant Raphael [2008] EWHC 1781 (QB), the claimants were awarded £22,000 in damages against Raphael, an old school friend, who had created a false personal profile of the claimants on Facebook.

Back home, in July 2009, a former bank employee was charged with posting vile and indecent material in a blog with intent to annoy another colleague. He was fined RM8,000, in default two months’ jail.

Making a complaint against malicious users is now fairly easy and can even be done online – at http://aduan.skmm.gov.my, the website of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) complaints bureau.

In the face of severe punishments, malicious users will take all sorts of steps to keep their identity secret. They may use fake names and emails, proxy servers, and also install devices to ensure that their identity cannot be traced. However, they are not safe from the long arm of the law.

In the case of The Author of a Blog v Times Newspaper Limited [2009] EWHC 1358 (QB), a blogger sought an interim injunction in the English court to restrain Times Newspapers Ltd from publishing any information that would or might lead to his identification as the person responsible for a blog.

The blogger argued that his anonymity protected him against any action being brought against him. His application failed. The judge commented that blogging is a public activity and any right of privacy would likely be outweighed by public interest in revealing his activities.

Anything posted on the Internet will stay on the Internet. It will travel and be read by other people. Nothing is ever private on the Internet.

A clear example is the case where a former high school teacher in the US was forced to resign over photos and expletives on her Facebook page. The page had photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive.

Although one may argue that it is one’s right of privacy to have one’s personal activities protected, the law does not prevent others from doing so.

Trade marks and trade names have also been highly abused in social media websites. Many users register their username using trade marks or trade names of other companies or individuals.

Companies have had to seek legal advice on the available courses of action in restraining such action or in obtaining such names back. This resulted in hefty legal fees and also time.

In combating such problems, Facebook gave trade mark owners the opportunity to register their rights to the username before the launch of personalised username and URLs. In doing so, Facebook had taken steps to avoid any lawsuits over trade mark.

Twitter on the other hand was not so lucky. A well-known US sports figure, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter over an account created in his name.

The false account posted updates that gave the false impression that the comments came from La Russa. The suit said the comments were “derogatory and demeaning” and damaged La Russa’s trade mark rights. The case was eventually settled.

The year 2010 will be another interesting year. Internet-enabled phones and data plans are offered at an affordable rate. Users can now access the Internet through their mobile devices whenever and wherever they are.

It will be interesting to see what are the new tools for online social networking, and the new legal challenges for the online community.

> The writer is a young lawyer. Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more information about the young lawyers, please visit www.malaysianbar.org.my/nylc.

I think the article was published at the very right time – just a few days after the #yorais trend. I posted the following tweet in the morning and it was subsequently retweeted by other fellow Twitterers.

w00t my article about social media and law is published in d Star newspaper today! http://tinyurl.com/yfxu2pl

It earn me an additional 400 page views!

I have another similar article on Putik Lada published last year entitled Minimising the risks in blogging. Click on the link to read it 😀

Astro B.yond TVC Commercial

Remember the Astro B.yond TVC that I was talking about? Well, it’s out!

It was first shown in the Astro B.yond Bloggers’ Night. I forgot to bring my camera on that night hence no post about it. -_-

Anyway, here’s the video!

The bloggers that are featured in the TVC are as follows:

Melbourne Food Guide

This food guide will be separated into 3 sections and is based on the good places that my friends brought me to eat. Feel free to add other places.

A1 Cafe @ Russell Street, Melbourne

One of the first things that I wanted to eat when I arrive in Melbourne was A1’s egg chiffon duck rice. I used to have lunch at A1 almost everyday when I was in Melbourne in 2002. I missed it since then!

On my 2nd day in Melbourne, Gavin joined us for lunch. He said he usually have A1’s cheese baked rice which according to him, taste good. But this time round, he decided to try chiffon egg rice for the first time.

The chiffon egg covers the entire plate. It also comes with a bowl of sweet soya sauce. The portion is huge and it usually takes a fatty to sweep the entire plate clean. Gavin cleaned his plate and half of my plate as well. Fatty Power!

Address
191 Russell St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: (03) 9639 2999

Map

View Larger Map

Andrew’s Hamburgers @ Melbourne

Andrew’s Hamburgers is an award winning hamburger restaurant in Melbourne. It had been awarded with numerous awards for best food and also frequented by celebrities.

Due to its popularity, burgers may run out early thus it is advisable to turn up earlier. I was lucky to be there at 830pm and served with a egg bacon cheeseburger. It also comes with pieces of fried onion and also fresh tomato. It was absolutely scrumptious!

Address
144 Bridport St
Albert Park VIC 3206
Tel: (03) 9690 2126

Map

View Larger Map

Sushi Monger @ Causeway St

When I first arrive in Melbourne, Wei Chen brought me to this small Japanese restaurant for lunch and also to meet Lynnzter, who had migrated to Melbourne few years ago.

This small restaurant has only a few seats and pack during lunch time. We were fortunate to grab a seat outside. Food must be ordered from the counter. Price is cheap, very economical for poor travellers like me.

Salmon Chirashi rice is good. 3 rolls of Sushi, which comes with miso soap, is good as well. You can choose the sushi that you want from the display counter.

Lunch crowd is massive. Hence try to be there early or after lunch time.

Address
309-325 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Tel: (03) 9663 0899

Map

View Larger Map

Hutong Dumpling Bar @ Market Lane

Dumplings are highly popular with Asians and Caucasians alike. For me, dumplings usually serve as a side dish for me but at Hutong Dumpling Bar, our brunch was nothing but dumplings.

According to Wei Chen, dumplings at Hutong Dumpling Bar is one of the best in the city (No relation to Hutong @ Tsim Tsa Tsui)

We ordered Shao-long pao, boiled pork dumplings, spicy dumplings, and also pan fried dumplings.

Shao-long pao (its spelled like this in the menu) comes with a small piece of meat wrapped with steamed flour skin. Inside the wrapping, there is a small amount of soup. To me, it looks like a sack of nut.


A sack of nut

To eat it, nibble the top part of the dumpling and then suck the savoury soup off the dumpling and then eat the skin and meat. Its like trying to suck a sack of nut.

The pork dumpling unexpectedly comes with a small amount of soup in it. Quite tasty.


Pan fried dumpling is quite unique as it comes intact through a thin slice of fried dough.

I read from some websites that their service is crap. It was ok for me when I was there. Chinese restaurants (especially those in Chinatowns) are well known for its terrible services. Word of advice, just take it if you don’t want your food to taste a little bit ‘saltier’.

Address:
14-16 Market Lane,
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9650 8128 (Book before going as they may have a long queue to get in)

Map

View Larger Map

Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia 2009 – Part II

[Continuation from Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia 2009 – Part I]

At the tip of Point Nepean, there are a few military ruins to see. One of them is the old tunnels. It has been around for ages and you even see scribbles by visitor from the past.


1963 – earliest scribble I could find.


The best looking scribble I saw

The path to the Engine House ruins is also worth taking as it has a great scenery. The beach was empty and the water was crystal clear. Access to the beach is prohibited but no one stops you from doing so. 😀

After hanging out at the place for an hour, we decided to head back. However, as the sun was scorching hot and there were many flies, we decided to hitch the shutter truck back. Further, while on our way to the tip, we saw one red faced guai lou walking towards the starting point. He was all burned up!

Our ticket only entitle us to a ride to the tip and not the ride back. There was no ticket counter to purchase a return ticket at the tip. If we were to walk back, we would probably end up like the red faced guai lou and attacked by flies throughout the walk. To overcome the problem, we did the Malaysian way, sit on the shutter truck and keep quiet.


Kid sitting in front of us. Poor kid had to endure the flies.

No one checked our tickets on the way back. It brought us back to our car without paying additional fee! Yay! Malaysia Boleh!!!

Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia 2009 – Part I

Gavin had a day off hence he decided to be nice for a day and drove me to check out Point Nepean National Park, which is about an hour and a half from the city of Melbourne.

Point Nepean marks the southern point of The Rip (the entrance to Port Phillip) and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. Closed to the public for over 100 years, Point Nepean National Park is now a popular tourist destination. Besides spectacular ocean scenery, the park is home to Fort Nepean, established in 1882, and the historic Quarantine Station first established in 1852. This place also marks the place where Australia lost its 17th Prime Minister, Harold Holt, who disappeared on 17 December 1967, presumed drowned.

To get to the end of the point, one can either take a 7KM walk (back and forth) or take a shutter truck. For the fee of $16.80, the shutter truck will bring you to the tip and bring you back to the starting point. Alternatively, pay the fee of $13.50, the shutter truck will only bring you to the tip and thereafter walk back to the starting point. We opted for the $13.50 fee as we thought it would be nice to have a stroll back since it is only 3.5KM back.

Since we are only taking a one way trip, we had to drive up to Gunners Cottage to park our car there. Thereafter, we would have to walk to the 1st stop nearby to catch the shutter truck.


Walkway to the 1st stop

There is an old cemetery nearby Gunners Cottage. It was established in 1854 replacing an earlier quarantine station burial ground which became unsuitable when beach erosion unearthed the burials of 1852.

As we reached the place early, we had to wait for the shutter truck to arrive at the 1st stop. At that time, we were attacked by flies here and there. The bloody flies in Australia stick to people like we were pieces of shit!!


Shutter Truck

When the shutter truck came, we were still attacked by the flies. Nevertheless, the view was magnificent!

However, when we arrived at the tip, the flies became a little bit more aggressive. -_-


First there were 2.


Then there were 4.


And then there were too many. It was as if the flies were trying to set up a village on Gavin’s back!

A nice lady gave us some branches to swat the flies away. According to her, the act of swatting the flies is called the ‘Aussie Wave’.

[To be continued..]

Astro B.yond

One of the newest technological advancements has arrived in Malaysia. Finally, Malaysians can now watch High-Definition (HD) broadcast, all thanks to ASTRO.

HD channels present a sensory viewing experience with sharper pictures, more vibrant colours, cinematic surround sound, and a wider screen – giving audiences crystal clear details and colours like never before. It delivers details that are five times greater than that of regular Standard-Definition (SD) programming (the standard shows we are watching on Malaysian TV are SD), and it comes with the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

ASTRO has launched the HD service under its brand name ASTRO B.yond. HD broadcasting had been around ages ago. Australia started its HD broadcasting since 2001. If not for ASTRO, HD broadcasting would not have seen light in Malaysia.

On HD content, ASTRO will start with four HD channels – ASTRO Supersport HD, HBO HD, National Geographic Channel HD and HISTORY HD on 18 December 2009, followed by ESPN HD in January 2010. FIFA World Cup 2010 will also be in HD. It will be so clear until you can see the sweat of your favourite footballers!

With HD content, you can watch shows on HDTV like this. Experience sharper images!

Customers can sign up for ASTRO B.yond at www.astro.com.my/byond or call the ASTRO customer Hotline 1300 82 3838.

Customers have a choice to sign up at an additional service fee of RM20 per month and a commitment of 12 months. As part of the new B.yond service, customers will get the new B.yond box, new smart card, new outdoor unit dish, HD Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable and new remote control. New set-up installation fee will be waived in exchange for the existing box.

Astro B.yond TVC Shoot

Last week, I participated in the Astro B.yond TVC shoot at Desa Park City. Other bloggers such as Beautifulnara, Kimberlycun, Kyspeaks, Saimatkong, ShaolinTiger, SixthSeal, Sultan Muzaffar, Tziaaa and RedMummy were involved as well. We were given slots to introduce ourselves and also our new year resolution for 2010. Other questions were also thrown to us during the shoot.

Being in front of a camera is no easy task for me. I cocked up a few times. The poor cameraman had to refilm me over and over again.

When speaking in front of the camera, I had to ensure that my English is perfect. No grammatical mistakes etc. However, it was not easy. I think I did screw up a bit. Now I understand why former Ms. Singapore, Ris Low screwed up her interview with leopard preenz and boomz.

Also, it was bloody hot. We had to speak under the sun. Since the videos are shot in HD, I bet you can see our sweat dripping off us.

Anyway, here are some pictures from that day!


Sultan Muzaffar


So ‘ngam’ caught Kimberlycun, SixthSeal, and RedMummy sipping drinks. Many thanks to Nicholas Chay for buying us drinks.


BoootifulNara


Kimberlycun before saying “My resolutions is…..”


ShaolinTiger in a “compromising position”.


SixthSeal hiding underneath the umbrella


KY after being asked “So how does HD taste like?”


Tziaaa..I BET, I BET, THAT SHE WOULD GET THE MOST CLICKS ON HER LINK!!!


Azaria, our director for the day, sitting in front of a monitor to check the progress. Eric Yong was here to ‘8’ as well.


Me. One of the camera chaps was nice enough to shield me from the sun.


Lolling!!!

I heard the TVC will be out on YouTube. Will let you guys know once it is out!

Astro B.yond Bloggers Night

To celebrate the advent of Astro B.yond, ASTRO will be organizing an event called Astro B.yond Bloggers Night on 13th January 2010 at Modesto’s, Desa Sri Hartamas from 7:30pm till 10.30pm.

Refreshments will be provided for and there will be total of 3 units of Astro B.yond set comprising 32” LG High Definition TV, Astro B.yond box, new remote control and new outdoor dish to give out along with free subscription to Astro B.yond channels!

There will be also be a game called “Murder in the Details”. The winner of the Murder in the Details will be given a HDTV! Stay tuned for the announcement of the Murder Mystery Game on ASTRO’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Astro).

Also, two best post-event coverage will get a chance to win a HDTV. However, in order to qualify for the prize, all bloggers must be a Fan of the Astro Facebook page.

Nuffnang is looking for 100 bloggers to attend the exclusive event. To be eligible to attend the event, all you need to do is to blog about the event and email to your full name and blog URL to astroB.yond@nuffnang.com.