Instead of welcoming the new year at bustling club in Kuala Lumpur, A and I decided to welcome 2011 in Port Dickson.
We packed our bags and headed straight to our hotel, Avillion Admiral Cove, in the afternoon.
Our initial plan in the evening is to jog at the treadmills in the hotel and swim.
Unfortunately, the gym was ill equipped. All we had was this….
Swimming was taken off from our list when we saw that the swimming pool was filled with kids. The thought of kids peeing in the swimming pool turned me off. There were around 10 kids. It was as if we were going to swim in a swimming pool of pee!
With all these activities off our plan, we headed to Port Dickson town to explore. It was like any other typical Malaysian town.
Except that they have an ooohsum shop by the name “Ice Room” which serves shaved ice cream.
Just right after we were done with dessert, we headed to Lukut for their famous Curry Chicken Bun.
Will blog about all these food outlets later.
Sunset..
I was expecting a quiet celebration in Port Dickson and it was indeed quiet. At 12 midnight, there were some fireworks here and there but nothing of magnificent scale like the one at Sydney.
The hotel’s pub had a small countdown. But we decided to skip it and roam around the hotel.
By 1am, we were back in our hotel and was ready for bed by 2am.
Welcome 2011. Best wishes to all www.xes.cx readers for the new year!
2010 went by like a breeze. I must say it has been a good year overall – although there had been some downs. Work was enjoyable, got promoted, parents are well, A and I hit our 3 years mark, got featured in newspapers and media and so on.
I read from somewhere that one should always look back on what has been achieved throughout the year and vow to achieve better next year. It is also good to reminisce the good and bad times in a year.
Here’s a summary of it. Click on the links for the full story 😀
In January, I got featured in Astro B.yond TVC together with other fellow bloggers.
Looolllinnnggg
In the same month, my 2nd article on Putik Lada was featured in The Star. I wrote about Social Media and Law
The entry was retweeted many times and got me a cool 400 page view! I’ll be writing another article on Putik Lada again in January – stay tuned!
April wasn’t a good month as I had a streak of bad luck. It started off with a RM100 parking fine. Then Mum had an accident, my car broke down in Court and got towed, tyre was punctured and petrol leaked from my car thereafter!
May marks the death of my brother in law. May his soul rest in peace.
On the same month, I travelled to Boston to attend the International Trade Mark Association conference. In the meantime, I stopped by New York City.
I met up with Timothy Tiah and fourfeetnine there as well.
You can read all my entries on NYC and Boston here.
June sparked my interest in Data Protection. I was featured in The Star newspaper in an article entitled Keeping it Private.
It spearheaded me in this data protection field and got invited by various organisations to talk about the impending Personal Data Protection Act 2010. I did probably around 15 talks on this topic alone. Work started trickling in after all these talks.
Data protection wasn’t the only topic I spoke about. I spoke about social media as a panelist in the Asian Blogger & Social Media Conference with other fellow bloggers fehmes Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia and KinkyBlueFairy.
Right after the conference, I was featured in The Star newspaper in the article “Tweet below the law”
If you’re why I havent been updating this blog, well, I ran out of things to blog. There are some days where I have so many things to blog about that it could occupy an entire month worth of blog posting. Now it’s basically 0.
As a filler, I thought I’ll post some pictures of my Mum’s cats. We have 5 cats at home. 1 Mama cat and 3 kittens plus one stray who joined them when it was still a kitten. The stray cat’s name is Harry, because it’s quite hairy.
The 3 kittens are Sesame, Coco and Halia. There were 2 other cats as well but both die recently. Lil Nom Nom was found dead with bite marks. Probably attacked by a dog. He was too fat to climb trees I think.
As for the other kitten, Botswana, he got ran over by a car. Puhkimak Driver.
May they rest in peace in Hello Kitty Heaven.
Sesame, Coco & Halia – when they were still young
Sesame..aawwwww so smaall
Halia
Months later, they became fat monsters.
Halia’s fats were bulging out.
Harry’s face was swollen. I think he got stung by a bee. Serve him right for attacking anything that moves!
I have. I envisage myself living at a ripe old age with a close knit family. Perhaps I have some memoirs published for my grandchildren to read. Maybe I can turn all my blog posts into a book. But I can’t seem to find a WordPress plugin that does that. But I’ve seen someone turning their Facebook into a real book.
I would like to die in my sleep and hopefully get to say goodbye to my love ones. I also hope to document my last few days before I die – just like my friend David Thong.
But I am sure what I wanted had been thought of by those who had demised before us. Many unfulfilled dreams remain unfulfilled and vanished upon death.
If my life ended early, I thought that I would at least do something good for the world before I leave. In doing so, I have decided to pledge my organs for donations. Basically, if I die, some one can have some of my body parts.
I have been told that some people believe that by donating your organs, you may lose certain organs in your next life. Well, if there is next life and if I were to lose them, so be it. It’s something for my next life to bother. In any event, a part of me still lives on.
Malaysia is extremely short of organ donors. Many unfortunate people are waiting for organs to survive.
Remember those days you have to line up at the bank to get your banking done? I hate the long queues and parking woes. Every time I’m in a line, I would imagine myself fighting would-be robbers in the bank. I doubt I would have survived if I did that :p
Life is much easier with internet banking nowadays. Gone were the days of long queues and wait. And with internet mobile banking, things are even better. Now, PayPay even accept cheques vide iPhone. All you need to do is take a picture of the cheque and send it to PayPal.
However, internet mobile banking has its limitation. It cannot work without the Internet and it only works on certain smartphones. Certain smartphones are unable to open bank websites.
Recently, Bank Islam launched a new mobile banking system called the Transact at Palm (TAP) i-service. TAP allows you to do mobile banking without using the internet and it works on any phones. Even my old school 8850!
I wonder if it will work on my Mum’s old NEC Primero. Cost RM3000 in those days yo..
To subscribe TAP, you must first be a Bank Islam account older. Thereafter, you need a mobile phone and a mobile service line. Any mobile operator is fine. Thereafter, head to the nearest Bank Islam branch to get it set up. That’s all!
TAP uses innovative smart card technology that displays a similar banking menu to ATM menu on user’s mobile phone, A screen that most customers are familiar with, thus take no hassles in remembering to keywords/commands or download applications.
Soon I can turn my iPad into a portable miniature ATM machine! (but this will only be applicable once TAP is available on Micro SIM).
At this juncture, TAP focuses on local services like payment of bills, mobile pre-paid top-ups and inter-bank money transfers, before expanding into international services. The second phase in providing international services such as remittance and money transfers will be provided in the second quarter of next year.
For the past few years, Malaysians have taken length to be top of their game.
For example, Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who is Malaysia’s first astronaut capitalized on his fame by having his face appearing as a trade mark.
Then we have our very own handphone made by CSL but unfortunately called BLUEBERRY-I
One of our property developers may also be the first in introducing “ambassadresses” to bring patrons around their newly launched property.
And not forgetting, the owner of Pajero WGM340 who brought new meaning to the word “overboard”.
Recently, Proton brought us additional good news. I’m not talking about Proton Inspira but their recent win at the APRC.
Rejoining international rallying after a five-year break, PROTON’s return to the coveted Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) has paid off handsomely when it emerged second in the Manufacturer’s Championship in its first full season.
A one-two finish at the recently-concluded China Rally last weekend by Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson reaffirmed the Malaysian car manufacturer’s resolve, determination and competitiveness in the global rallying arena as it placed itself between the traditionally-dominant manufacturers Mitsubishi and Subaru.
Surprisingly, Satria Neo S2000 was used to race in APRC. Damn, I should have bought Satria Neo instead! Check out the video from the China rally.
Video of my colleague Farah’s Sumo cats fighting recorded using iPhone 4 from Maxis 😀 Quality is not bad for a camera phone and the phone can flip the video vertically. No need to download additional software to flip the videos.
The fighting cats looked like they’re fighting jujitsu style!
Remember that I got my hands on the iPhone 4 from the Maxis iPhone 4 Launch? I finally got to test out its features.
So what’s new with it? What’s the difference with iPhone 3? The following are my observations.
Appearance
iPhone 4 appears sleeker than iPhone 3. It is flatter but heavier. It can get quite slippery sometimes due to the glass-like surface. Cool factor is of course there.
Retina Display
Retina display on iPhone 4 makes the screen clearer and more detailed. It’s like high definition TV. You can zoom out from a screen and still see the words clearly.
iOS4
iOS4 is the newest version of iPhone operating system. Although iPhone 3GS supports iOS4, I heard iPhone 3GS with iOS4 causes problems e.g it lags. It’s like trying to install Windows Vista on a Pentium I (ok, I may be exaggerating). With iOS4, the speed is good and multitasking is useful.
FaceTime
iPhone 4 has an additional camera on the front. It allows for “FaceTime” where a caller can look at the front camera and see the other caller.
The front camera however is slightly lower quality. Check out the comparison between a picture taken using a front facing camera and the back camera.
Front camera
Nevertheless, the front camera do take nice video. Like this one prepared by Jamie Toh.
Connection
The so-called Antennagate didn’t cause any problem for me. I think its over hyped by the media.
Since I got an iPad 3G, I subscribed to Maxis Broadband which provides for 3G connection using a Microsim. I used it on my iPhone 4 to go online.
The Maxis 3G connection is quite fast. I played a video on YouTube and it didn’t lag one bit. Check out the video below.
On the other hand, if you wish to subscribe to Maxis’ iPhone 4 plan, which plan you would require depends on our budget. For me, iValue 1 is most suitable for me. 1gig of bandwidth and 16GB iPhone are good enough for me. I just need to skimp on my data by turning on Wifi when I download large files. For more details on the plan, check out http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/iphone4/rates.asp
My only complaint about the iPhone 4 is the battery. It run out quite fast. But this is quite common among smartphones. To conserve battery, 3G, Wifi and cellular data should be turned off when not needed.
Applications
As many of you know, iPhone allows a user to download applications off the Apple store. Some are free and some must be purchased.
Facebook and Twitter are essential to me since I am hooked to the Internet. Facebook has its own App hence don’t bother searching for others. As for twitter, I downloaded Echofon as my Twitter App.
The problem with many free iPhone Twitter apps is that they are unable to retweet tweets. Echofon is one of them.
As for games, I downloaded the Millionaire Tycoon for my girlfriend. It only costs US$1. Additional map packs (extra maps) costs US$1 per piece.
Angry Bird, one of the world best selling app, is worth purchasing. I have the HD version on my iPad. 😀
Closing
Overall, iPhone 4 is a good phone. Many people asked me whether a Blackberry or an iPhone is good. To me, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Blackberry to me is good for emails, chatting and work. But it’s terrible for surfing and games. Blackberry’s default browsers cannot load many websites. Maybank2u’s website is one example.
As for iPhone, it’s good for web surfing and games. It’s a little bit difficult for me to type but I guess I can get use to it. I did a typing contest with TimothyTiah once using a Blackberry and an iPhone. Our speed and accuracy were about the same.
So after downloading and installing all the essential apps, my iPhone 4 was perfect. Good things ought to be shared and hence, I gave it to my girlfriend 😀
I attended Maxis’ iPhone 4 launch at Garden’s Hotel. As some of you may know, I am a lawyer by profession. Attending a product launch is something out of the ordinary for us practicing lawyers. It was definitely an eye opener and was glad to be invited to one!
I arrived at the Maxis iPhone launch at 11pm. There was already a long-long line! I thought long lines to get iPhone4 is a thing of the west! Heard some people waited until 6am for the phone!
Upon arriving at Garden’s Hotel, I was whisked into the VIP section for free flow of drinks and food. I was alone but luckily I bumped into a few bloggers such TimothyTiah, fourfeetnine, sixthseal and a few others. Hate going to parties and be alone :/
At 12am, the phone was launched and a press conference was held. The bloggers stood by the side while journalists cramp together to catch every word that was said. It was an eye opener to see real journalists in action. It was quite cordial. No pushing and shoving and journalists took turns to ask questions.
There was even a lucky draw for journalist. The lucky ones got themselves an iPhone 4! I should have gotten myself a blogger name card and drop it at the lucky draw bowl.
So after the press conference, it was time to get my hands on the new iPhone 4!
I got myself a 16GB. It compliments my iPad 16GB 3G! Heh.
It was already 130am when I got my new phone. I had to wake up at 6am to head to Seremban the next day. -_- Felt like a zombie the next day.
As for my review of the iPhone, I’ll write a review after I play with it for few days 😀
I’ve been getting a few queries on my Twitter picture website i.e t.xes.cx. If you’ve not been to my Twitter picture website, it’s basically a website that hosts all the pictures that I post to my Twitter account (which is linked to my Facebook).
The reason for me to have a separate website to host my pictures instead of third party hosting sites such as Twitpic and tweetphoto is simple. For a low traffic website like mine, every unique hit counts. Unique hits dictates the rate of my banner advertisements and advertorials. The most unique hits I get, the higher the rate I can get.
Occasionally I post pictures of my cats
Sometimes weird or interesting pictures while on the go
Also traffic reports with pictures
After spending hours on research, I found the most suitable method. The method is as follows:
1. Install a subdomain (optional)
2. Install a separate WordPress account
3. Install 2 plugins namely Postie (Note: Postie does not works on WP3.2.1) and WordTwit.
Postie basically posts entries that you post through email. It doesn’t work on free emails such as Gmail. Hence you need to register a special email address e.g twitterpictures@xes.cx. All I need to do is send a picture to that email.
Upon sending the picture, Postie will create an entry containing the picture. The subject matter of the email will be topic of the entry and also the text of the tweet.
For details how to configure the plugins, read the instruction manual on the plugin website.
Once an entry is posted, WordTwit will update my twitter based on the subject matter of my entry. I have also syncronised my twitter account with my Facebook account so that my twitter update will show on my Facebook.
If you want a counter to calculate the amount of view of your post, you can install WP-PostViews.
The only problem using this method is that the preview pictures do not show on mobile Twitter clients. But it’s something I can live without.
