Ray's Words

PRU13 Political Parties' Theme Songs

2013-04-22T23:00:00.003+08:00

So the 13th Malaysia General Election is here and we can see all parties and even Rosmah are trying hard to be creative in order grab more votes from young and first time voters. Recently, there are many videos on Facebook & YouTube promoting their theme and vision of their parties. I have found some videos and posted them here.

No doubt, some videos are very funny. They can be the best entertainment during this election!

MCA PRU13 Promo Song - Love Is In The Air

DAP PRU13 Theme Song - Ubah

Ubah Rocket Style

Which one is better? The simple conclusion we can do: The side with more creative talents can build a greater team, to do a better work and to deliver a better result. As for election, of course, we can't simply judge everything with just watching these videos.

Bonus: Rosmah Mansor Singing "If Tomorrow Never Comes"

Bloggers Spreading Love for the Children at Children’s Protection Society

2013-03-11T23:57:00.000+08:00

Penang, 3rd February 2013 — About 40 bloggers and public the Children’s Protection Society to distribute food, beverages and gadgets, sponsored by various commercial entities. It’s a philanthropic exercise not only by businesses in executing their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) but by everyone to give back to the society, thus making life more bearable for everyone in need. The event is made possible by Crowdpot Sdn Bhd (Event Organizer), Ninetology Malaysia, SUBWAY® (Suntech, iAvenue, & Leith Street branches), Chatime Malaysia, Langkawi Saga Travel & Tours Sdn. Bhd. and Alextan Artworks.

The Children’s Protection Society (CPS) began as an initiative of Dato’ Nazir Ariff when he was President of the Rotary Club in Penang (1991). It is a non-profit, non-governmental organization catering to the needs of neglected and/or abandoned children in Penang. It was officially launched in April 1992 by Puan Sri Chua Kah Peng. The objectives of CPS are both immediate and longer-term. The immediate objective is to provide children at risk with a safe, supportive and conducive environment (Shelter). Their concerned and focused areas include the emotional and physical development, education, social and recreational skills. At the same time, CPS aims to work with parents and other family members, so that the child can eventually be reunited with his/her family. In the pipeline, they hope to support projects to enhance community-based facilities for childcare and development in areas where such facilities are lacking. They also try to promote a more general awareness of the issues relating to children at risk by being involved in training and discussions. Hence they work together with various government and non-government organizations to help to develop longer-term strategies and goals.

How to help Children’s Protection Society?
1. Become a Volunteer: http://www.cpspg.org.my/webpages/help.html
Learning and Tuition is always needed - many of our children have missed a substantial amount of school due to their backgrounds, and often find it difficult to catch up with school work. If you are prepared for the extra challenges which many of our children face, and are prepared to commit a regular time a week (can be anything from an hour up).

2. Sponsor-A-Child Program: http://www.cpspg.org.my/webpages/help02.html
Talk to any of our staff if you are interested to sponsor a child

3. Donation: http://www.cpspg.org.my/webpages/help03.html
If you want to make a financial donation, please send cheques (payable to Children's Protection Society Pulau Pinang) to CPS at 118-A Jalan Scotland, 10450 Penang. CPS is a registered charity home with the Welfare Department so donations will be tax-exempt.

4. Sponsoring an Activity or Outing: http://www.cpspg.org.my/webpages/help04.html
CPS organizes many activities for the children, staff and volunteers. We welcome sponsorship of specific activities. Give us a call if you have any ideas of your own, or would like to hear from us on what sort of activities you could sponsor.

Other Information:
Children’s Protection Society Pulau Pinang
118-A Jalan Scotland, 10450 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: 04-8294046
Fax: 04-8294046
Email: cpspg@hotmail.com
Website: www.cpspg.org.my

Top 10 Reasons to Attend TEDxGurneyDrive 2012

2012-11-23T19:26:00.000+08:00

Written by Teh Teng Yew, Curator of TEDxGurneyDrive

December 9th, 2012, will be Penang’s inaugural TEDx. Plus, TEDxGurneyDrive will be limit the event to an audience size of 100 and it will be great to list out 10 reasons that people should apply to attend this year.

1. Amazing Presenters: Learn how to break the tradition from a master student on wheelchair. Engagement with the unlimited thoughts and ideas of “make love, not porn” from Cindy Gallop. Listen to a doctor who focusing on dying people with cancer. Follow a guy who is hosting an annual festival to spread cultural like George Town Festival. Plus, there are more brilliant visions and experience presenters to come.

2. Connecting the Dots: An opportunity to understand how the small community such as Penang shapes our lives here. Plus, we’re fortunate to host with an artistic venue like Penang Performing Arts Centre.

3. Interactivity: Half-day event networking and interactivity engagement. You’ll have the opportunity to meet active members of the regional community, allowing you to collaborate for a better future and connect.

4. Inspiration: TEDx participation to empower, inspire, and charge our community by sharing great ideas but inject your brain with something other than the economy, business and politics.

5. Out of the Box: A chance to participate in a worldwide event on a local level. Global reach.

6. We’re not Robbers: TEDxGurneyDrive is organizing by yearly and you could get online passes for an affordable 45 Ringgit Malaysia and of course, we’re welcoming anyone active to attend.

7. “Ideas worth Spreading”: Anyone from the conference comes with ideas, stories and emotions to tell and out of the box to eventually bring a change to it. Thinking big.

8. Have you met a TED speaker?: TEDxGurneyDrive provides an awesome opportunity for you to interact with a TED speaker and people who’ve made change happen. Can you Gallop?

9. We will feed you: TEDx conference needs a break; one of the TEDx rules of organising a TEDx conference is providing awesome food and energy.

10. The theme: It is a gathering or movement for messagers, dreamers, connectors, mind shifters and others to devoted “Be All You Can Be”. The theme of this event is all about be daring and get back your inner courage in order to be creative and think outside the box. Call for Action.

TEDxGurneyDrive 2012 will be takes place on Penang Performing Arts Centre at 9 December, 9am to 3pm.

Tickets: https://www.flickevents.com/tedx-gurneydrive
Official Website: http://tedxgurneydrive.com/

Prestashop - Increasing State ISO-Code Length

2012-08-17T17:33:00.001+08:00

I believe that many Prestashop users has issue when inserting ISO Code for state due to the character length. Some countries accept 4 character state ISO Code. However, for certain countries like Malaysia, there are 5 character state ISO Code. Hence, I created this random post for solving this problem, guiding you how to increase ISO Code character.

Let's start the action.
Step 1: Update PS_STATE In SQL Database
i. Go to Database in PhpMyAdmin
ii. Search for ps_state
iii. Go to Structure Tab
iv. Select ISO Code and click on Change
v. Insert 5 to Length/Value field and click Save

Step 2: Change The Length of ISO Code Length Validation

i. Open /classes/State.php with your editor

ii. Go to line #46 (For version 1.4.7 & above)

iii. Change the following code from
protected $fieldsSize = array('iso_code' => 4, 'name' => 32);

To protected $fieldsSize = array('iso_code' => 5, 'name' => 32);

Step 3: Change The Regular Express of ISO Code

i. Open /classes/Validation.php

ii. Go to line #310 (For version 1.4.7 & above)

iii. Change the following code from

static public function isStateIsoCode($isoCode)

{

return preg_match('/^[a-z]{1,4}$/ui', $isoCode);

}

static public function isStateIsoCode($isoCode)

{

return preg_match('/^[a-z0-9-]{1,5}$/ui', $isoCode);

}

Step 4: Change The Length Input Textbox

i. Open admin/tabs/AdminStates.php

ii. Go to line #120 (For version 1.4.7 & above)

iii. Update the size value

<input maxlength="5" name="iso_code" size="5" style="text-transform: uppercase;" type="text" value="'.htmlentities($this->getFieldValue($obj, 'iso_code'), ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8').'" /> <sup>*</sup>

'.$this->l('1 to 5 letter ISO code').' ('.$this->l('official list here').')

It is done now!

It Is Back, TEDxKL!

2012-07-05T01:00:00.001+08:00

TEDxKL, the exciting annual conference is back again, it is the 4th TEDx in Kuala Lumpur with the theme of “Interdependence”.

When: 14 July 2012 (12:30pm to 7.30pm)

Where: Temple of Fine Arts

How Much: RM 100 online and RM 130 walk-in.

To Buy Ticket: Visit http://www.tedxkl.com

The speakers this year including:

1. Derek Sivers - Entrepreneur and TED Fellow

2. Myshkin Ingawale - Co-Founder of Biosense Technologies and TED Fellow

3. Professor Dr. Ille Gebeshuber - Professor of Physics and Expert in Nanotechnology, Biomimetics & Tribology

4. Jo Kukathas, Artistic Director - Instant Café Theatre and CHAI

5. Zann Huang - Photographer, TIME Magazine & Asian Geographic

6. Wong Siew Te - Sun Bear Conservationist

7. Zurairi AR - Founder of Unscientific Malaysia

8. Kevin Mark Low - Architect, smallprojects

This year 2 TED fellow speakers will be flying all the way to re-live their TED experiences with Kuala Lumpur.

What is TEDx?

x=independently organize event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self- organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.

The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

For more infomation about TEDxKL, please visit: http://www.tedxkl.com

Winning Young Entrepreneur Award

2012-03-06T00:01:00.000+08:00

I made it, winning Think Big Young Entreprenuer Award in Singapore, presented by Canon Singapore and MediaCorp. More than 100 proposals were submitted and top 20 were selected to present the business proposal to the judges. Surprisingly, I successfully win the Champion with Frambie's business proposal. Thanks to Canon Singapore, MediaCorp, Spring Singapore & NTU for sponsoring total prizes with S$7000 in start-up capital and S$10,000 worth of Canon business products. And, not to forget, thanks to the panel judges and everyone who give me supports.

I would like to congrats the 1st runner-ups, Bryan Lee & Darrell Zhang from Intraix and the 2nd runner-up, Zhang Weiliang & Joshua Chao from Avetics.

Finally, I would like to invite you to LIKE Frambie's Facebook page at https://www.fb.com/Frambie and stay tune for the coming updates! This is really a sweet memory and also a very huge support for my startup, Frambie, I'll work very hard to make sure Frambie to become one of the successful startup in the future!

About Think Big Young Entrepreneur Awards(YEA)

The YEA is a business competition for budding entrepreneurs aged between 18 to 40. It is organized as part of Canon’s Think Big campaign, which aims to spur innovation among Singapore SMEs and startups and promote the use of the Canon business product line-up, which include printers, scanners, projectors, and multi-function devices.

Judges for this year’s competition includes Andrew Koh, senior director and general manager of Canon Singapore, Foong Ming Lee-Ng, vice-president of Mediacorp, Elim Chew, founder of 77th Street, Dr. Low Lee Yong, CEO of MHC Asia, Michel Birnbaum, partner of iGlobe Partners, Goh Yiping, founder of All Deals Asia, and Kenny Leck, founder of Books Actually.

Top Five Regrets Of The Dying

2012-02-09T19:58:00.004+08:00

I read a news on theguardian recently and found sth very meaningful. Many people have their regrets before dying, and they just can't fulfill the regret at that time. This is a good lesson to young generation like me, so that we dare do what we want and never regret.

An Australian nurse, Bronnie Ware has recorded the most common regrets of the dying and here are the top five regrets, as witnessed by Ware:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result."

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."

What's your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die?
Let's do it and make no regret before dying! Give yourself permission to express your thoughts and ideas...
Source from theguardian.co.uk

How Many F Can You Get?

2012-02-03T16:36:00.001+08:00

Count how many F in the paragraph and see how many F you get!

FINISHED FILES ARE THE

RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC

STUDY COMBINED WITH THE

EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Most of the people get 3 Fs for first count! How about you?

Orang Hock Rojak (a.k.a Black Man Rojak)

2012-01-14T14:27:00.000+08:00

Rojak is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Malaysia.

Orang Hock Rojak a.k.a Black Man Rojak is one of the popular fruit rojak in Bukit Mertajam. It is popular with its special recipe rojak sauce. They are offering small, medium and large size rojak, cost RM3.00, RM4.00 or RM5.00 respectively.

Secret Recipe Homemade Rojak Sauce
Besides Rojak, they are selling Rojak sauce too. The brand name is Rojak Orang Hock. It is homemade Rojak sauce with guarded secret recipe, nicely packed in a small plastic tub and the price it RM4.00.

Rojak business is very competitive at Jalan Pasar area. Orang Hock is the first rojak stall in Jalan Pasar. There are White Man Rojak and Black White Man Rojak at the same cross junction.
Business hour: 3.00pm – 10.00pm

View Orang Hock Rojak in a larger map

The Logo Designs, Only When They Are Truthful

2012-01-12T19:00:00.000+08:00

Source from Citytalk.tw

DAP's Promo Videos

2012-01-09T01:49:00.000+08:00

It's 2012 and the Malaysia General Election is getting near. The social media war never stop after 308, using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs. Both sides are trying hard fighting on new media channels, using creativity to attract the attention of rakyat and convince the rakyat to choose them. They have specific theme for their marketing campaign. When it was 2008, the mandarin theme used by BN was "Zai Zhuan Bian", means Change Again. However, it was like a fail theme.
Recently, I found an interesting and creative election promo video made by DAP. The theme is Bersihkan Malaysia. Through this video, I think we can foresee the 13th GE DAP's campaign theme now.

Title: Ubah Sekarang, Bershikan Malaysia!

The video was used by DAP on social media during 2008. It was the time I started to watch M'sia politic movement. They were using "Just Change" as theme for their marketing campaign, especially on new media's channels.

Title: DAP Voice

Here is another short promo video about Malaysia election made by Youth4Change Malaysia.
Title: Ubah Gaya Hidup

8 Must Have Friends in Life | 人生要有的八个朋友

2012-01-07T20:00:00.000+08:00

1. 推手 - 擅长鼓励，总是会把你推向终点。
2. 支柱 - 总是和你站在同一阵线，支持你的信念。
3. 同好 - 与你兴趣相近的朋友。
4. 伙伴 - 无论如何，当你有需要的时候，他们总是站在你身边。
5. 中介 - 你想要的东西，他们有办法帮你搭起桥梁。
6. 开心果 - 他们总是有办法让你精神大振。
7. 开路者 - 扩展你的视野，鼓励你接受新观念，想法，机会，文化与人们。
8. 导师 - 他们可以给你建议并指导方向。

1. Builder - Always push you to the end with their strong power of encouragement.
2. Champion - Always stand with you to support your beliefs.
3. Collaborator - Has similar interests with you.
4. Companion - No matter what happen, when you need to, they always stand beside you.
5. Connector - Build the bridge to connect you to something you want.
6. Energizer - They always make you lift your spirit.
7. Mind Opener - Widen your perspective & encourage you to accept new concepts, ideas, opportunities, culture and people.
8. Mentor - They can give you advice and direction.

出自-今周刊 | Source from businesstoday.com.tw

You See It, Your Children Won't

2012-01-05T12:21:00.000+08:00

What comes to your mind when you see this picture?

How about children's mind? They see it differently!
So, what is in their mind? Just watch this video and get the answer... :)

Bukit Mertajam's Haji Mohd Tokun Mee Goreng

2012-01-04T02:34:00.002+08:00

Haji Mohd Tokun Mee Goreng in Bukit Mertajam is my favorite Mee Goreng. The Mee Goreng is fried with their own recipe. It is even delicious when added with sweet & spicy octopus on the top. You may also order coconut drink to complement with the Mee Goreng and enjoying the meal under the tree.

The business was started near to Cherok Tokun Relics, a recreation park for local community. Hence, the Tokun Mee Goreng was named after the place. I tried the food at there when I was very young. After few years, they have moved to the current location.

Besides Mee Goreng, they also serve Mee Kuah Ketam and Pasembur. The Mee Kuah Ketam tastes good too. From my observation, majority customers order either Mee Goreng or Mee Kuah Ketam there, then complement with coconut drink. The price of Mee Goreng has been increased to RM3.50 now, same goes to Mee Kuah Ketam and Pasembur. It used to cost only RM2.50. And, the coconut drink is RM1.40.

Business Hours & Location
They operate from 10.00am to 6.00pm. Their business is good, so you better visit before 5.00pm as the Mee Goreng always finish earlier.The stall can be found easily, it is located at Jalan Kulim, near to St. Anne Church. There is a Caltex petrol station near to the stall. You may refer to the map below to get to the Mee Goreng stall.

View Haji Mohd Tokun Mee Goreng in a larger map
I'm going to write more about foods in Bukit Mertajam, do click on LIKE below if you are interested to follow... :)

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T13:50:00.004+08:00

If it didn’t Bring you Joy, Just Leave it Behind.

Let’s Ring in the New Year, With Good Things in Mind.

Let Every Bad Memory Go, That Brought Heartache and Pain.

And let’s Turn a New Leaf, With the Smell of New Rain.

Let’s Forget Past Mistakes, Making Amends for This Year.

Sending You These Greetings, To Bring you Hope and Cheer.

Happy New Year 2012!

Burger King RM1 ala carte Coupons, From Monday to Sunday

2011-12-19T13:05:00.019+08:00

Burger King Malaysia is giving out Free coupon. Get RM1.00 ala carte:

French Chicken on Monday
Double Chick 'N Crisp on Tuesday
Grilled Chicken on Wednesday
6 pcs of Chicken Tenders on Thrusday
3 pcs of Mozarella Cheese on Friday
Whopper Jr® on Saturday
BK Fish on Sunday

with purchase of any value meal.

How to Redeem?
- Print the coupons (Click on the coupons below to download), in black & white or color and show it at your nearest Burger King outlet (Except Burger King KLIA).
- Not valid for Burger King Delivery.
* Coupon Valid from 19th December 2011 - 8th January 2012

Bloggers Gathering at Z-Classroom

2011-10-31T21:06:00.004+08:00

Nice to meet up with bloggers. Yes, last 2 weeks, on 15th Oct, we had a Blogger Gathering in Penang. The gathering was organized by Vin Lim and yourfoodreview.com. It was held at Z-Classroom in Penang Time Square's ground floor. And, thanks to Z-Classroom for sponsoring the venue, drinks and cakes. We had a good time there!

Who is Z-Classroom?
Z-Classroom was opened on 23rd September. The interior design is integrated with the old classroom concept, giving you the feeling of staying in your school. The table design is like school desk and you can request for our so call "liquid paper", and then do what we love to do during school time. Yes, painting the table with your words.

Z-Classroom offers coffee, beer, liquor and cakes. It is a nice place for night gathering especially those who love alcohol. There is also a VIP room and Karaoke room in their second floor.

The operating hour is 12pm to 2am during weekdays and 12pm - 3am during weekends. Currently, they are doing promotion for beer lover which is Buy 1 Free 1 Carlsberg during 12pm - 4pm and Buy 2 Free 1 Carlsberg during 4pm - 9pm.

There is an interesting offer for you, just look at the picture above. Yes, if you dare to put the sexy wear on your body, you will get 1 pitut of Hoegaarden for Free! :)

Logos Hope - The World Largest Floating Bookfair

2011-10-31T20:56:00.004+08:00

Logos Hope, the world’s largest floating book fair, visited Penang on her maiden voyage last 2 months! It is currently staying in Kuching until 14th November, and will be visiting Kota Kinabalu on 18th November until 4 December.

Logos Hope offers more than books and features a fully air conditioned deck that is open to the public to explore. The Welcome Experience, will introduces this new vessel through a short movie and various displays. The vessel also offers ice cream, drinks and snacks for everyone to enjoy at the International Café.

With around 45 different nationalities represented on board, the Logos Hope community is regarded as a genuine expression of international goodwill and understanding. The crew and staff are all non-salaried volunteers—including many serving in their professional capacity, such as seafarers, engineers, electricians, nurses, teachers and cooks. Sponsorship from friends, family members and civic organisations enables crewmembers to serve on board.

History
Logos Hope was constructed in 1973 and first named Gustav Vasa. Originally built as a passenger car ferry, the vessel sailed North Atlantic routes. In 1983, the ship changed hands to the Smyril Line, was renamed Norröna and sailed between the Faroe Islands and Denmark. By 2004 GBA Ships e.V. (previously Good Books for All) had raised sufficient funds to acquire the vessel and she underwent extensive renovations for her new role. The word Logos is Greek, traditionally meaning ´word, thought, principle or speech´.
For more information about Logos Hope, you may visit www.logoshope.org/malaysia...

CSL 3S Center & Dual Sim Andriod Smart Phone

2011-08-31T14:14:00.008+08:00

CSL 3S Center is now opened in Perai. It is located in ground floor of Megamall Penang, in front of McDonalds Restaurant. 3S means sales, services, and support. Hence, you can find out and purchase various CSL phone in this center as well as obtaining technical supports for CSL phone.

Product Review at Life1 Cafe
As a blogger, I was invited to join the opening ceremony and CSL product review. After listening to welcoming speech by founder of CSL Group of Companies, Dato Dr. Eric Chuah, me and my blogger friends moved to Life1 Cafe for CSL product review session. We were served with nice foods prepared by Life1 Cafe like nuggets, omelet, spaghetti, fish chips and fruit juice. At this moment, we were listening to product presentation and trying the features of the CSL Swarovski Series and the Swicth Dual MI350. Everyone was discussing about the phone features, especially the mobile apps featuers.

CSL Swarovski Series

There are four phone models in CSL Swarovski Series which are (BB-Blueberry) BB9200, BB9300, DS900 and G16 (All models are white color). Personally, I think these models and the designs are suitable for ladies, and of course they come together with basic functions. Besides that, there are some interesting social media apps developed by CSL in these models which are Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, MSN and so on. The price is ranging from RM299.00 to RM399.00 only.

The Swicth Dual MI350

It is the 1st Dual Sim Andriod smart phone in Malaysia, equipped with 5MP camera and 3.5”inch LCD Screen. This smart phone can activate both simcard at the same time. Hence, you can retain your current mobile phone for voice call using SIM2 and get the most attractive data package for SIM1. The Andriod platform allows you to download hundred thousand of apps on Andriod market, providing you better entertainment, productivity and so on. And, the price is only RM699.00. It is CSL's mission for every Malaysians to be able to afford a CSL Smartphone.

If you want to know more about CSL products and its detailed specification, you may visit CSL's official website at http://www.csl.my.

CSL Group of Companies

The CSL Group of Companies (CSL) was founded by Dato Dr. Eric Chuah in 1999. Over the past decade it has earned substantial recognition from the Malaysian Government including that of Technology Status Company/Manufacturer by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and by the Ministry of Finance for its pioneering role in the mobile telephone industry and contribution towards economic development consonant with the 9th Malaysia Plan.

Pulau Aman - Island of Peace

2011-07-29T23:39:00.002+08:00

Pulau Aman is a small island in Penang, Malaysia. Famously known as the "Island of Peace", it is a home to a traditional Malay village. There are many interesting places to visit in Pulau Aman such as Jalan Telaga Emas, Batu Perompak and the nearby island of Pulau Gedung. (Source from Wikipedia)

Floating Restaurant (Restaurant Terapung)
There is a popular restaurant in Pulau Aman, and it was built on the sea, called as Floating restaurant. This restaurant is a must-go place in Pulau Aman for having meal. They sell Mee(Noodle) Kuah, Mee Goreng, Kuay Teow Kuah, Kuay Teow Goreng, Bihun and so on. Normal price for those Mee& Kuay Teow Kuah is RM6.00 and RM10.00 for extra prawn.

Seafood Meal
There are plenty of seafoods and the prices are cheap. They are really fresh from the sea around Pulau Aman. Crab & mantis shrimp are always people’s favorite. There is a fishmonger stall selling these seafoods. And, you have to go earlier to grab to seafoods from them, else you gonna wait for a long queue.
After got the seafoods, you gonna send it to Floating Restaurant to cook it with “the only” steam method.

Other Sport Activities
Besides eating, there are sport activities such as sport fishing, jungle trekking and even home stay. However, these activities seem like not really being promoted and not many people know about it.
Pulau Aman has potential to become a popular tourism destination in Penang, however, it needs more creativity and innovation for the development.

Camera ISO - Sensitivity Towards Light

2011-07-14T18:31:00.008+08:00

Camera ISO refers to the camera sensor’s sensitivity towards the light. Normally, we can see ISO100, ISO200, ISO400, ISO640, ISO800 and so on. Light sensitivity increase when the number increase. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure. It is very helpful if we are able to control the ISO setting especially during indoor or night shot without flash.

ISO Values For Different Atmosphere
ISO 100 and lower - Excellent quality for brightly lit places, such as in bright sunlight outside. Allows for lots of detail and great image quality.
ISO 200 - Should be generally be used on dull days such as overcast and cloudy, only a tiny bit of noise.
ISO 400 - Great for indoor photography for flash and no flash – best use for high speed photography – but noise can be seen.
ISO 800+ Only really used effectively on high quality digital SLR cameras, most shots taken like this with a small compact camera will look extremely noisy.

How ISO Helps?
i. Increasing Shutter Speed
Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure. Hence, the shutter speed can be increased through increasing ISO value. Appropriate shutter speed allows you to capture the specific moment at the right time without affecting much the image quality.

ii. Reducing Blur For Indoor or Night Shots
We always face insufficient light problem when taking indoor or night shots (without external flash support). Blur occurs in the picture due to the slow shutter speed under low ISO value. Through increasing ISO value, we can get faster shutter speed, and this will directly reduce the probability of image blur.

Disadvantage of High ISO – Creating Noise (Little White Dots)
If we are using very high ISO such as ISO3200 during indoor or night, it helps to increase shutter speed, however the picture quality will be affected because of the noise even though there is noise reduction function in the camera. Hence, ISO value shouldn’t exceed ISO1600 under active noise reduction function.

Noise (White Dots) Occurs When Using Very High ISO Value

* Please note that light painting or car trail photography use lowest ISO in order to create long exposure (slow shutter speed) to capture the long moment and star effect from the light.

Gunung Jerai - 1,217m Height Mountain

2011-07-11T14:51:00.012+08:00

Gunung Jerai, also known as Mount Jerai, formerly Kedah Peak is the highest mountain in Kedah with the height of 1,217 meters. Within Kedah itself, the mountain stands at the border of Kuala Muda and Yan districts. The mountain is a massive limestone outcrop and is a lone feature from the surrounding geography of the area.

I went there with Tiffany last few months, to explore the highest mountain in Kedah. The environment is clean and beautiful, however more creativity and innovation needed to make it even better tourism destination. We had coffee in Kedah Peak restaurant, enjoying the view of Kedah state. There are full of paddy field. If you are there, then you will understand why Kedah is the biggest paddy supplier in Malaysia.

What You Can Do?
Sight-seeing is a must-do activity, standing on the top and viewing the beauty of Kedah Paddy fields. It is a good place for relaxing, suitable family vacation, friends gathering and team building activities. You don’t have to worry about the hot whether there, it is high and cold. Besides that, you can enjoy jungle trekking, trekking from the bottom to the top of the mountain and even camping there.

The Regency Jerai Hill Resort
It is a resort on Gunung Jerai, offering pretty good accommodation service for the guests. There is a restaurant manage by the resort, called Kedah Peak restaurant. They offer buffet lunch. If you are staying in the resort, you can organize a BBQ parties at night. You can organize conference or seminar too, in their conference room, but I think it is not suitable due to the transportation issue. (Tel: 04-466777)

According to Wikipedia, the height of Mount Jerai relative to its surroundings allowed Indian traders and seafarers to use the mountain as a navigational point more than 1500 years ago. The mountain was considered sacred by the ancient Malays so they built temples from the foothills up to the summit. Hindu-Buddhist priests would pray at these stupas for the safety of Bujang Valley, the richest archaeological site in Malaysia located on the southern reaches of the mountain.

Getting There?
If you have GPS device, then you should use it. Using the North South Highway,take the Gurun exit. From Gurun town, turn towards Alor Star. After paying the Toll fees, turn left at the T-junction and drive to the end with another T-junction. Then, turn right to the main road. You can see many homestay ads along the way; find the road sign to The Regency Jerai Hill Resort.
There are 3 major ways to go to the top of the mountain. You can drive (own transport) to the top or request for transportation service from The Regency Jerai Hill Resort. If you love jungle trekking, you may explore the Gunung Jerai Forest with a group of friends and reach to the top.

Map (Gurun Exit - Gunung Jerai)

View Larger Map

Curiosity About 1Pengguna.com

2011-06-11T14:14:00.006+08:00

Web and social media are part of my interests. Besides reviewing about commercial web project, I think I need to know more about the government web project. Hence, I take this opportunity to review Malaysia government's web project, 1Pengguna.com or 1Pengguna.net.

www.1pengguna.com

When I read the news about RM1.4million web portal for consumers, I think it is a good move to help the rakyat and consumers maximizing the values from their spending. However, as a consumer, the 1Pengguna.com really disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to criticize this project.

Issues & Questions:

1. Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry already owned Smart Consumer Portal (http://www.smartconsumer.my/) since 2009, it is a consumer portal which serves as almost the same role with 1Pengguna.com. So, why they still spent RM1,400,000 to develop a new one instead of improving the Smart Consumer Portal?

2. The minister claimed that they have 3.5 million hits last 2 days (source from newspaper) and caused the website “teething problem”. However, the registered users in 1Pengguna.com are only 2903 (1.20pm, 11/6/2011). Besides that, through their social media links inside 1Pengguna.com, they have only 88 channel views on YouTube, 23 followers on Twitter, 142 Facebook friends (Not Facebook Page). Trying to be optimistic, total up the number, it is even less than 0.001% from 3,500,000 hits. So, is it logic to have 3.5 million hits?

3. The latest news zone in 1Pengguna.com, they are not fully consumer–related news. Those are only link to bernama.com’s news. The website footer has poor alignment too and also poor integration with social media like Facebook. We can see it is not professional enough and should it cost RM1.4million?

Curiosity About The Contractor Company – Sand Consulting Sdn Bhd

According to TheStarOnline (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F6%2F11%2Fnation%2F8883275&sec=nation), the contractor is Sands Consulting Sdn Bhd (http://www.my-sands.com). I visited their official website, they are just using open source Joomla (I used that template before) to build their website instead of developing it with own web expertise. After reading their history, I realized that it is a 9 year old company in Malaysia.

www.sands.com

Sand Consulting’s History

Sands Consulting is a 100% Bumiputra status company incorporated in March 21, 2002 under The Companies Act 1965 of Malaysia with the registration number of 574596-M. Since then the Company has channeled substantial resources towards developing its main activity, which to provide solutions and products from plain network cabling to complex multi-systems integration.

Through the “Reach To Us” zone on the website right bottom, I click on their Twitter(http://twitter.com/#!/sands) and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/sands), trying to follow them on Twitter. 3 followers on its Twitter is not the issue, but their official website on Twitter account. It is http://www.sands.com/.

http://twitter.com/#!/sands

According to their About Us: “Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) is the leading global developer of destination properties (integrated resorts) that feature premium accommodations, world-class gaming and entertainment, convention and exhibition facilities, celebrity chef restaurants, and many other amenities.”

www.sands.com

So, are they tech company or properties developer? Are they Malaysia company or US company registered in Malaysia?

Regarding to their YouTube channel, it is better for you to see yourself at http://www.youtube.com/user/sands.

There are a lot of criticisms to 1Penggnua.com. It is a RM1,400,000 project, 100 x RM14,000. This amount can fund many quality youth projects or for aspiring entrepreneurs to implement start up their small business, helping many people in Malaysia. Hence, it is logic to see many Malaysian feel angry, feel frustrated, feel disappointed with 1Pengguna.com.
The "issues and questions" section are just my opinion, doesn't mean to criticize anyone.

Startup Weekend Malaysia 2011

2011-06-07T15:11:00.005+08:00

I participated in Startup Weekend Malaysia last month. Thanks for the ticket sponsorship from MDEC & entrepreneurs.my, I was able to join for free. The event was organized by Global Entrepreneurship Sdn Bhd, and it was held at UniRazak, Kuala Lumpur.

What Is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts.

We had a pitching session on the 1st night, many participants including me have pitched the business ideas. After the pitching session, there were voting session to select top 10 ideas. And unfortunately, my idea was not in top 10 list. Then, I decided to join a social entrepreneurship team with totally 13 people in the team. As a entrepreneurship student and a SIFEr, I'll always support social entrepreneurship, it was quite fun when we can discuss about how to help people through entrepreneurship. 4 of my teammates were the champion of Digi Social Challenge, and we were working on their social entrepreneurship idea – MyOneVillage.

MyOne Village is a social entrepreneur group creating a knowledge and service-based platform, aspiring to elevate the wealth of the poor by match making with the needs of the urbanites. During Startup Weekend, we focused on starting niche tour agency-like operation targeting at primary school children to visit unexplored rural areas.

Although we are not really start the business, the experience was really cool when working as a team to build business startup with a good business model. Together we discuss, we argue for better decision, and building better friendship among us!

MyOneVillage Website Interface Upper Part

Win an iPad Through Social Shout Contest
There was a contest by Social Shout (www.socialshout.me) on the third day. All the participants were joining the contest, competiting for highest ranking. Participants just have to login through their various social media account (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare), and the socialshout engine will calculate the activities on social media. I was a lucky one and I’m consider as a active user in social media, I got the highest after submitted my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube information. Hence, I won an iPad, a cool device which will increase my daily productivity and efficiency.

Networking Opportunities With Mentors
The startup teams were mentored by different professional mentors such as Peter Tam from Microsoft Malaysia, Wayne Lim from SME Malaysia, Renuka Sena from Proficeo, Venture Capitalist Chok Kwee Bee and so on. It was a great experience when listening to the mentors’ advice as we are still new to business. However, I think is even more important to have the networking opportunities, so that we can continue to get good advice and instruction in the future.

Startup Weekend Malaysia(KL) 2011 Event Group Photo

There are some interesting online tools or resources recommended by Startup Weekend (eg. Customer Development, Traffic research, Forms/Surveys, Personal storage, Survey tools, Ads platforms and so on) which can help your startup, just click on this link: http://startupweekend.org/resources/

Wanna know more about Startup Weekend?
Do check out their website at http://startupweekend.org/ or http://malaysia.startupweekend.org/

My Experience with SONY Cyber-shot

2011-05-29T20:00:00.008+08:00

2006 -the year I started to touch Digital photography, it was started with SONY Cyber-shot, DSC-S600! It was an amazing 1st time experience when we could use a camera device to take pictures and view the output instantly, even delete the unwanted picture by just one click.

Form 6 life and BBQ like kampung kia

From 2006 until 2008, it has helped me to take a lot of nice pictures, keeping many nice memories during Form 6 and the first year in University such as school mate gathering pictures, vacations pictures and so on.

Besides that, during the vacation to Pulau Langkawi (2008), a good friend of mine, r Zhe was using SONY Cyber-shot too. He was using DSC-T50 Model. It was great to have a partner using SONY Cyber-shot as we could discuss about the features and digital photography together!

1st year in UUM: 2 vacations to Cameron Highland and Pulau Langkawi

During 2009, my university roommate, Kok Seng bought a new SONY Cyber-shot, T2! This is a cool device with slim camera body, touch screen, and build in software function.

I borrowed his camera few times, taking a lot of activity pictures especially SIFE UUM events.

2nd year in UUM: Founded SIFE UUM together with my aspiring teammates

In the same year, my girlfriend’s sister bought a SONY Cyber-shot, DSC S-750! And, I used to play with it always as my girlfriend bringing it together when we have dating. This device has taken many nice pictures for me and my girlfriend.

Life with Tiffany Lo

I had a great experience with SONY Cyber-shot along my life, even today I’m using SONY DSLR Alpha-200 model!

I’m proud to say that 99% of the digital images in my computer were taken by SONY Cyber-shot and SONY Alpha, and always have some great times browsing those nice memories!