Monday, December 14, 2009

Hello world!

Hello world! I am back to blogging business after keeping myself busy for some times..

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Break-in and robbed....

Last Thursday morning, I walked slowly towards my car parked beside the road where I stay in Sunway Damansara. I was a little shocked when I opened my boot and found out that it is so clean. Then slowly I check out the car surrounding and found that rear left passenger side windows was broken. The next thing in my mind it to take out my camera and snap surrounding where my car had been broken into.

I found a piece of windows glass belongs to my car next to the door. There's nothing much can I do but just to report to the nearby police station in Kota Damansara. When I arrived at the Police station, before I could make any report, the police officer ask me if my car was break in. Just nodded and say yes. Then I realize that same location, 2 case happened at the same time. I finished off my report and meet the sarjan at Mutiara Damansara police station to describe everything I found out from the break in.

There's nothing much can do with the losses, but a lesson learned - never put anything inside your car even inside the boot.

There's no such thing safe place in Malaysia. Welcome to Malaysia. I just found out my friend's neighbor who stay in heavily secured and gated area in Tropicana just got break into.




Tuesday, July 14, 2009

24 hours in a day...

There's 365 days in a year. 24 hours in a day. 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute.

There's a common rants from my friend; "I don't have enough time...", "I wish there's 36 hour in a day..." bla...bla...bla.. and so on. (All these rants are sickness to me!)

Time is what you can't buy even if you're Bill Gates, Soros, Warren Buffet, some kick ass famous prime minister, or legendary pop singer. You can't change the fact that there's only 24 hours in a day. Nothing more or less.

Everyone on earth is given 24 hour a day. The only difference is how you spend and plan your time. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.

Stop ranting and keep your plan kicking. Time is life. Once the clock stop ticking, you're no more alive.

Monday, June 29, 2009

End of June

Time flies. Second last day of June. June is a busy month for me. Too many things to do and see, to little time to share. Stay tune for more updates next month..

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Crisis Of Credit

Ever wonder how crisis of credit happened? Watch the clip below...

Part 1



Part 2

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Velocity Angels Search 2009

Finally, manage to spend some time to process these photo taken during DCIM Show 2009 in Midvalley Exhibition Center.










My Redeemer Lives - Team Hoyt

Got this from my friend.



What do you think if you think everything is hard, can't do and impossible? Think again.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Woman Who Shut Up Simon Cowell

A wise quote: "Don't judge a book by its cover!". Susan Boyle, a 47 years old unemployed Britian surprise Simon Cowell with her vocal when she sang "I Dreamt A Dream" in 3rd series of Britian Got Talent. Before she sang, the judges was bias towards her unappeal appearance and dressing.

Check out her performance in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

Monday, March 30, 2009

Never format a 16GB Compact Flash (CF) card with your camera!

I learned my lesson yesterday when I happily bought a new 16GB Kingmax Compact Flash (CF) card for my DSLR from DCIM shows 2009 in Midvalley.

After I purchase the CF card, I immediately pop it into my 350D WITHOUT formatting it. It works like charm. The total image remaining indicate 999 even on RAW quality. I was really amazed with it. I tested a few shots and it works perfectly.

Till I get back home, since this is a new card, I normally use my camera to format it. I did it as usual for my camera. I go to the format card menu in 350D, it indicate total of 14.5GB memory space available. Without think much, I just pressed OK. There is goes. About 30 seconds later, the card is ready. I was shock when I check the capacity on the card. It indicate 7.5GB instead of 14.5GB!

Still unable to convince myself, I switch off my camera and turn it on again after remove all the battery, CF card and leave it for 1 minute. The capacity still the same 7.5GB!

The very next thing I did was to remove the card from the camera and popped in to my card reader. I used Disk Management from Windows XP to check the partition, surprisingly there's total of 2 partition, one active partition 7.45GB and another one is also around 7.5GB but unknown partition.

There's no way you can delete the partition from disk management tools. The option just grayed out!

Luckily, I had my friend's Nikon D2Xs with me. A little desperate, I try to use the D2Xs to format my card. Woalla! It works again after I formatted it with D2Xs. I recheck the capacity again in my computer and it indicate total capacity of14.5GB!

Lesson learned: 16GB CF card can be use on my 350D but DON'T ever use camera to format it! Use a computer instead to format it with FAT32 file system.

After I did some google from the web, I found that most of Canon camera having this problem. 5D Mark I (Please note it is not Mark II) problem solved with upgrading firmware, but then there's no firmware upgrade for 30D and 350D.

Canon Camera that might have problem:
1. 350D, 300D?
2. 20D, 30D
4. 5D Mark I (NOT Mark II)

So far Nikon camera haven't encounter this problem before.
1. D300
2. D2Xs

I am uncertain about older model for Nikon like D70, D70s, D100, D200, D1, D2x etc..

Please check out the link below for more information regarding this.
1. http://mikewren.com/transcend-16gb-formatting-kludge
2. http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3304
3. http://davidnaylor.org/blog/2008/04/problem-and-solution-16gb-compact-flash.html

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

BEAR-ish year ahead!

Our ringgit declines on recession outlook. Palm oil price drop to the lowest in 17 months. Looking at current market trend, we don't know what is the bottom.It's time to save hard, the cloud is getting darker and darker, thunder striking everywhere. Sign of rainy and stormy day ahead.
USD vs MYR in 1 year period as of 10th March 2009

Every Tom Dick and Harry know bear bear is coming our way hitting all of us this year till end of next year, maybe?. Our Boleh-land government still busy politicking, courting and blasting each other party upside down instead of putting full effort and focus together to withstand bear's attack.

I am expecting lot's of bear's casualties ahead in our country.

Wake up and buck up Boleh-land!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Gothenburg, Sweden

This is the third time of my visit to Gothenburg, Sweden. As usual 17 hours of total flight from Kuala Lumpur to Gothenburg. My flight with KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) to Amsterdam was not a pleasant flight. It took 12 hours from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Amsterdam Schipol International Airport, Netherlands. It was a long haul flight in a Boeing 747. The flight is rough due to heavy turbulence when flying across the air space of Russia. The economy seat in KLM Boeing 747 is narrow. Forget about leg space between your leg and the seat in front. It is barely more than 10cm. Luckily, I manage to sleep for 9 hours most of the time inside the flight and seated beside the aisle.



View Larger Map


I arrived at Gothenburg Lanvetter Airport on Sunday morning. Not far away from the baggage claim area, I spotted a taxi driver holding "Husqvarna Construction" plate on his hand. When I walk toward his direction, he smiled at us and greet me good morning.

It took me 20 minutes from Gothenburg airport to Elite Storia Avenue Hotel in The Avenue Street, Gothenburg. I arrive at the hotel 2 hour earlier than check in time. I was told that the room is not available yet. I just drop my baggage into the baggage locker room, get myself prepared to roam around the surrounding.

Cafe in the park

Winter scene in Gothenburg, Sweden


Frozen canal and some city architechture in Gothenburg.


Gothenburg city is beautiful in winter. This is the first time, I experience winter in Scandinavian city. Most of the street and park is covered with snow. The ambient temperature is around 0 - 4 degree in the day time and -8 - 0 degree at night. Did you know that the entire population in Sweden is only 9 million, out of 9 million, 2 million in Stockholm, around 700k in Gothenburg, and the rest in other location.

Street scene in Gothenburg


Frozen canal beside the park

My legs getting tired after spending 2 hours strolling on the street. I've been walking non stop lugging 3kgs of Lowepro Fastpack 350 behind my back. After walking around the main street of Gothenburg, it's time to fill up my empty stomach. My initial plan is to had my lunch in Hard Rock Restaurant, Gothenburg. While I am walking towards Hard Rock Restaurant, my eyes suddenly spotted a group of 20 people queuing up in front of the restaurant called "Joe Farelli's Italian-American Kitchen" beside Hard Rock. Everyone was queuing up and waited anxiously for the restaurant to open.

The menu is written in Swedish and the best thing is I got no one to help me do the translation. I try to make a few guess what's written on the Menu board in front of the restaurant. Well, I only understand 165 SEK (1 Swedish Kronor = RM0.46) per person on what is written on the menu. The first thing came into my mind is 'buffet brunch'! I was correct when I asked one of the waiter what's their menu today. The buffet brunch was nice and it's different from Asian country. For around RM85 you pay (A rough convertion from 165SEK) , you get to enjoy pork ribs, pizza, salad, chickens, hams, bacons etc. A typical Italian and American cruisine in Gothenburg. It is worth every kronor spent! The taste is wonderful.

I finish my brunch buffet around 1pm. Went back to the hotel, check in every tom dick and harry. Take a slow shower after 18 hours of flight from Kuala Lumpur. I feel refreshed after the hot shower. Without wasting time, here I goes again to the street of Gothenburg with my camera. I leave my lappie in the room.

A famous statue located between the theatre and the end of Avenue Street.

The iconic lipstick building at the port

I spend whole day roaming around the city on Bus number 11 a.k.a my both leg. I only have one day spare to roam around the city. The rest of the way, I start my business meeting and training from 8.30am till 9.30pm everyday.

On the last day, flying out from Gothenburg to Amsterdam is smooth and easy. Unfortunately, my colleague and I had some problem with the immigration when we going through Passport Control at Amsterdam Schipol International Airport.

We were called to the immigration office. According to the immigration officer, they suspect the authenticity of our passport due to the dot at the photo is round instead of square one. We have only 35 minutes to board our flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Our passport was sent to their security expert to verify the authenticity of the passport. Within 10 minutes, we're lucky that they manage to verify our passsport is original. I doubt whether our Malaysian Immigration Department doing their job properly or not. This brings a lot of trouble to the traveller who travel frequently to other continent where they are bias towards Asian. Anyhow, it's a great experience learned.

Finally manage to catch our flight on time and get some rest on the journey back home.

Famous river for salmon fishing in Jonsered

Red building in Jonsered

CLICK HERE for more photo of Gothenburg.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

What's new in 2009...

  1. First time in my life having fever, cough, sore throat and flu started on 2nd day of CNY till the 6th day of CNY. Staying at home for the entire holiday...
  2. Bought a new 24inch Dell HDMI Wide screen LCD, but not supported by my Toshiba Tecra A8 laptop. Damn have to upgrade my PC again.
  3. Tons of RAW image still located inside my 500GB external HDD waiting for me to process. Out of it there's two set of wedding photo. I wish I have a Mac Pro.
  4. Power steering on my 850 leak. Oil spill everywhere. Damn I need to get it fix by this week.
  5. BSoD - Blue Scree of Death keeps on occurring on my 2 years old Toshiba Tecra A8. I don't know what to do with this...
That's all. I am expecting more things ahead...

Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy moo moo Chinese New Year!

Here I would like to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of Ox. May the prosperity god bless you with prosper health and wealth.

Year 2008 slipped away in a blink of eye. Here come year 2009, the year of Ox. I am praying hard hopefully this year going smooth even in economic downturn.

Ciao

Monday, January 05, 2009

Thursday, January 01, 2009

20 best selling DSLR in Japan!

The latest survey acquired from AkihabaraNews.com revealed that Canon lost market shares to Nikon in DSLR market in Japan.

The Japanese Website BCN Ranking has the 20 bestselling DSLRs in Japan for the Year 2008. I'm surprised to see how popular Nikon is, nearing leading rank…

Here's the full list:

1 Canon EOS Kiss X2 with 19.1% Of Market Share
2 Nikon D60 10.9%
3 Nikon D80 10.6%
4 Nikon D40 9.1%
5 Canon EOS Kiss Digital X 8.4%
6 Canon EOS 40D 6.7%
7 Sony α350 4.2%
8 Nikon D300 3.3%
9 Sony α200 2.6%
10 Nikon D90 2.2%
11 Canon EOS 50D 2%
12 Nikon D40x 1.9%
13 Canon EOS Kiss F 1.8%
14 Sony α300 1.7%
15 Pentax K200D 1.6%
16 Panasonic Lumix G1 1.4%
17 Olympus E-510 1.4%
18 Olympus E-520 1.2%
19 Olympus E-420 1.2%
20 Nikon D700 1%

A few things though... Some of these models are pretty new, like the G1 Lumix, while others are kind of old. It's interesting to note that Nikon has seven cameras on the list while Canon only has five.


Looks like Nikon leading the DSLR market...

Happy New Year Zeronine

Time flies by. There goes 2008 and here come 2009. I'm getting older and older. Many people ask me where I am going to celebrate new year. My answer to them - stay at home surfing the web and watch some show. Starting to hate those crowded place like countdown in major shopping complex, clubbing, stuck in the jam in the middle of night etc.

Not like last time, I can hang out till the next day morning. I can have dim sum as my supper before I go to bed at 8am. I stated to yawn after 10pm. During working days, the latest I can stay awake is 10.30pm. Else you will be watching me yawning...

There much to enjoy when we're young. But we can't stop time. I am getting older as the year increase.

Anyway, Happy New Year Zero Nine and may new year brings me tons of wealth and health luck