Romantika.name

Malaysian TV Translation Standards

ady — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:53:47 +0000

Show: The Unit
Scene: Jonas (Snake Doctor) was tied up and a terrorist was looking over him

Dialog as I remember it:

Terrorist: (drinking something hot)
Jonas: Can I have some water please?
Terrorist: (looking at Jonas, then walked over to him, splashed the hot drink on Jonas)
Terrorist: Sorry, I missed

And the Malay translation for the last line was…

Maaf, saya rindukan awak.

Contextual error. The translation is describing the meaning in the sense of missing someone, not missing a target.

Similar occurence has occurred in other shows. I can’t remember the translation but it made me laugh in the minisode of Married with Children when the word “treadmill” was mentioned. It was the episode where Mrs. Bundy overcame her fear of the mouse and kept it as a pet.

There was also a very idiotic translation where the translator does not even know what a thesaurus is. The dialog was “go read a thesaurus” and the translation was:

Pergi baca buku “The Saurus”.

With quotes like that, it’s clear that the translator does not know what a thesaurus is and assumed that it was the title of a book instead. The irony is that a thesaurus is a good tool for a translator!

Something that we need to fix, for the future generation. As a kid I learned English from TV so that’s why I am a bit concerned.

What’s your opinion?

Note: My point is, translators should have perfect command of both languages before they can be one. Not aimed at people with less fluent English. My English is not perfect either.

Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Sat, April 4, 2009 — Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus
Wed, February 25, 2009 — Queue Jumpers Beware
Wed, February 25, 2009 — Aedes, Go to Bandar Baru Bangi

Malaysian TV Translation Standards originally appeared on Romantika.name on Thu, November 12, 2009.

Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy

ady — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:42:20 +0000

I don’t think so. Last week, I was on leave for the whole week and did some light browsing at home. To avoid contamination with other PCs in my house, I conducted this test while purely tethering on my BlackBerry device. WIFI was turned off.

The only objective is to see how much data I am using per day to browse the Internet - lightly. No streaming, no gmail, no gaming, no real facebooking. Facebooking was done on the lite interface at http://lite.facebook.com.

▼ A d v e r t i s e m e n t

From the simple test I was able to determine that I use around 420MB per day for light browsing. Multiply that by 30 days and I will get 12900MB which is roughly equivalent to 12.6GB!

Now that explains it why at the end of each month my connection is in snail mode because it’s most likely that Maxis is capping my speed because of overuse.

Bear in mind that this is only for 1 computer.

I have been starting to miss Streamyx which I used to hate so much. At least they are slow because of the International link and such, not because they intentionally limit my speed. To me, Streamyx’s BitTorrent capping is fair.

Plus, these Telco are changing their packages like changing underwear! (If they do!)

And of course:

I can’t wait to have Streamyx back. Currently I am limiting browsing at home, so that my better half will not encounter problems doing her business online.

Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Wed, March 11, 2009 — Maxis to bring iPhone 3G to Malaysia on March 20
Thu, January 22, 2009 — Economy Crisis Hits Malaysia
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards

Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy originally appeared on Romantika.name on Thu, November 12, 2009.

Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara

ady — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:58:11 +0000

My other half and I have always loved Secret Recipe. Among our favorite dishes are the Thai Fried Rice, Vietnamese Beef Noodle, Singapore Laksa, and not forgetting the cakes. It’s a Malaysian brand, and it provides good food.

However we have not been visiting any outlets since a couple of months ago because we had a bad experience at the Jusco Taman Equine outlet. The food was not fresh and tasted weird.

▼ A d v e r t i s e m e n t

On Saturday we decided to have Thai Fried Rice at The Curve outlet because we missed it. However when we tried to order it, the server roughly said, “Tak ada!” (It’s not available!). Well they should at least be more specific whether the menu item has been phased out or they are out of ingredients, or whatever reasons they may have. And the most important part is to say sorry. As customers, we were obviously disappointed because what we wanted to have was not available.

But that’s it. Not a word more from the server. He might also be the manager because he dresses differently from the others.

And so we bailed out. I said to my other half, “So it’s true Secret Recipe has turned bad and becoming worst. Furthermore they are always rude.”. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the guy heard me and rudely said “Dah tak ada, nak buat macam mana. Tak baik cakap macam tu.” (We don’t have it what can we do. It’s not good to say that).

I wanted to turn to him and tell him I was not talking to him but I quickly remembered where I am - Malaysia. A good friend of mine (who returned from the US for the Eid holidays) tried to confront a salesperson at Adonis Mid Valley because she was ignored (the salesperson was sitting doing nothing and not paying attention when assistance is needed), and my friend was asked to leave. Perhaps my friend forgot that she’s back in her own country where the shops and retailers are always correct.

The server did miss the point - they are rude not because something was not available, but because he didn’t greet and didn’t apologize. If he’s really the manager I think the HQ made a mistake hiring someone not bright enough.

It’s funny how the retail and food industry work in Malaysia. We have no choice but to pay 5% service charge, and we get crappy service. I would gladly pay 20% tip for a splendid service.

You know what, it’s all about customer service skills. This is definitely not the first time something is not available at a restaurant but the server should be quick enough to suggest other alternatives and be apologetic about it.

Right now I don’t think I have the appetite to visit any Secret Recipe… maybe some time in the future but definitely not the one in The Curve. Heck, I was not even this disappointed when a roach was in my drink.

Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Thu, January 22, 2009 — Economy Crisis Hits Malaysia
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sat, April 4, 2009 — Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus

Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara originally appeared on Romantika.name on Sun, September 27, 2009.

INDONESIA & MALAYSIA Should Be Friends

ady — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:42:49 +0000

Another hot issue in South East Asia, and a sad one. The issue of ownership between Indonesia and Malaysia.

We have seen so many events happening in Indonesia that reflects the hatred of some Indonesian people towards Malaysia. Burning of the Malaysian flag, “sweeping” of Malaysians from the streets of Jakarta, and the “GANYANG MALAYSIA” campaign, just to mention some.

As a Malaysia citizen I am deeply saddened by these events, but it hurts even more as I am half Bugis (ethnic groups of South Sulawesi in Indonesia). Why can’t we all just get along?

The issues that are being brought up are merely nuisance to the world, such as Jemur Island being listed as a Malaysian island in the Internet, and the Pendet dance featured in the Enigmatic Malaysia footage by KRU Studios. Even if Jemur island is mistakenly listed as a Malaysian island I don’t think money will flow into Malaysia if tourists visit it. I should add that the websites are not even Malaysian websites so how can we say that Malaysia claims the island as its own?

Let’s see who owns traveljournals.net:

Domain name: traveljournals.net

Registrant Contact:
Nea Internet
Andreas Sjolin ()

Fax:
Vegagatan 22
Sundbyberg, 17234
SE

For other cultural claims, hey, as we all know Malaysia have so many Indonesian-based ethnicities including Java, Banjar (Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia), Bugis (ethnic groups of South Sulawesi in Indonesia), Boyan (Bawean Island), and many other smaller ethnicities. When people migrate they take along their culture. This, of course not taking into consideration the pure Indonesian citizens who are currently making a living in Malaysia.

In many of the issues being considered, the cultural factors are not even claimed as owned by Malaysia but merely displaying the availability of such culture in Malaysia. If Waroeng Penyet at The Curve decides to venture into a promotional video would it be an issue since the food is obviously Indonesian? The owners are respected Indonesian business people.

When the Western world creates promotional videos showing China Town in their cities, does the China government or the people of China went into distress and creates a riot? No, because they are proud that their culture has traveled the world. For the record, I am proud too as I am 50% Bugis and 50% Chinese.

Malaysians love Indonesia culture, and are very comfortable with it because we all came from the same origin. A few of my friends visited Bandung many times (separate families), and enjoyed it very much. (I want to include links to their blog posts about their Bandung visits but maybe later as I need permission to do so). That is money flow into Indonesia! It’s a classic case of “Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery”. Can’t we share?

So what are these people thinking? They are hurting Indonesia more by causing havoc, as tourists will definitely be afraid to visit. I know, their views might not be shared by every Indonesian but it’s a disgrace to both countries. These are the same people who called their own President cowards. I personally view them as extremists, same as the religion extremists of the Middle East. Nothing extreme is good.

To Malaysians, please be civilized and not to do anything stupid. Does not mean that you can’t argue, but do it nicely so that we all can be good friends someday.

I am closing comments, as I don’t need any. I just know both countries should get along and be friends. I like tempe.

Tips When You Know I Am Going To Interview You

ady — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:34:13 +0000

If you by any chance, by any way find out that I am going to be the person interview you for a job you need to know the following:

Don’t come late. 1 minute late and your resume or CV will end up in the shredder or the trash can. Do your location research the day before the interview. If you really can’t, leave home 2 or 3 hours early. If you’re going to be more than 10 minutes late, don’t bother coming. Call the person who arranged the interview and cancel your session. If you see my carry no pen, you have already failed the interview.
Don’t come too early. The earliest you should arrive is 10 minutes before the interview. Technical interviewers have other tasks too.
Do your research about the position you are applying, and if possible about the company. This reflects on how resourceful you are.
Don’t hesitate when answering questions.
Be very interested to ask questions about the job, and about the company.
If you don’t know, don’t try to deviate the question. Just say you don’t know and you will be better respected. Nobody knows everything.
Try convincing me that you will be able to, and are interested to learn things you don’t know.

Good luck.

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Mon, June 15, 2009 — Maxis Customer Support Email
Wed, May 13, 2009 — Celcom Broadband What Is Wrong With You?

Tips When You Know I Am Going To Interview You originally appeared on Romantika.name on Mon, August 17, 2009.

There Are Still Uncivilized People Using The Internet

ady — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:04:23 +0000

Sad to admit, but it’s true.

I am helping a friend to get rid of a very old HP laptop but instead of throwing it in the trash I decided to try and sell it off at Mudah.my so that he can get a netbook.

I am not surprised to receive quick responses from the site, but this is evidence of Malaysian (Streamyx IP) being a moron and a pain in the butt. I am unsure of the real purpose of the coward to send a message like that. Perhaps he has no life, and send messages to every item in Mudah.my he dislike. Of course, that’s not even a real name and email.

Here’s a link to the original spec - what is the official name again?

Get a life!

Italiannies Sunway Pyramid

ady — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:04:07 +0000

This is an overdue post that I wanted to write right after I came back from there on Tuesday, but I couldn’t.

That day, I went back home earlier than usual as my other half was craving for pasta. Pizza Hut and Kenny Rogers pasta were also candidates but we like the Carbonara at Italiannies best because of the full flavor. It was our second time at Italiannies Sunway Pyramid, as the first was on Father’s day where I enjoyed a free Grilled Salmon Oreganata (that is a RM44++ meal gratis). I like the branch in Sunway Pyramid better than the one in The Curve as the restaurant is bigger, the air conditioning is a lot cooler, and the environment is much calmer. Plus, the service in Sunway Pyramid is superb.

If you have been following my posts, you will know that I am easily annoyed with bad service. I was annoyed at first with the weird, hard to understand accent but it faded away when they gave their best service. The first time I went there they helped me carry the stroller up the stairs (we used the wrong entrance by the pub to the smoking level). This time, they brought a pillow for my kid’s back support when they saw that I had to use one of my hand to support the kid’s back on the considerably large high chair. They paid good attention and gave help without the need to be asked. I felt so grateful I almost shed some tears but fortunately I didn’t.

If tipping is practiced in Malaysia those two servers would get a fat tip from me. Well I would still tip them if I feel like I have money to spare but not right now. Maybe some day, hopefully soon.

Italiannies in Sunway Pyramid consists of two levels - the lower level is the smoking level and there is an entrance near the pub (I can’t remember the name). If you’re coming from inside the mall, the entrance is at the back of TGI Friday’s. Yes, you have to enter TGI Friday’s, go left and straight to the back where there is a door waiting for you. I personally prefer this entrance.

I will go there again, to try the Sicilian Pizza. I ended up having the salmon again since they were out of ingredients for the pizza (it was quite late in the evening).

So what about you, do you like Italiannies and what can you recommend to have there?

Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Thu, January 22, 2009 — Economy Crisis Hits Malaysia
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sat, April 4, 2009 — Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus

Italiannies Sunway Pyramid originally appeared on Romantika.name on Fri, July 24, 2009.

Do I need to reboot the machine after increasing the maximum number of open files at /etc/security/limits.conf?

ady — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:31:40 +0000

No, you don’t need to. This morning I struggled to convince someone that the server does not need a reboot. It was because of this: Increasing the number of file handles on Linux workstations.

ulimit - Provides control over the resources available to the shell and to processes started by it, on systems that allow such control.

limits.conf is configuration file for the pam_limits module

It takes effects immediately upon re-login. It’s hard to explain things that only you understand internally. I wish I have a formal Red Hat training so that I can explain better.

In the end I just rebooted the system so that other person who thinks (he/she) knows everything will be satisfied. Now (he/she) is.

Those struggling to get some proof you can probably forward this url which should have better reputation than this blog.

Sat, September 13, 2008 — Setting DD-WRT Cron Job Through Command Line
Mon, September 8, 2008 — OpenVZ On Ubuntu Or Debian
Sun, September 7, 2008 — OSCC: The Silent Mirror
Thu, November 8, 2007 — Checking Limits on OpenVZ / Virtuozzo
Fri, August 10, 2007 — PHP 5 In CentOS 4.5

Do I need to reboot the machine after increasing the maximum number of open files at /etc/security/limits.conf? originally appeared on Romantika.name on Fri, July 24, 2009.

Allianz Auto Assist

ady — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:39:38 +0000

My car refused to start on Sunday, and as a car dummy I didn’t expect it was the battery. I thought the maintenance-free dry cell would last longer than acid lead batteries. That incident caused me to miss a friend’s wedding, but I am happy to see the pictures posted in many other blogs as well as in Facebook. I wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Back to the car problem, I tried to contact some of the workshops nearby home but to no avail. So since I have just installed the new car road tax and the Allianz Auto Assist sticker on my wind screen I decided to try calling them. 1-800-889-233

A female picked up the phone and asked me whether I have tried jump starting. Of course not because I didn’t expect it was the battery. Plus, it was Sunday and nobody was around. In 10 minutes Allianz called me back and told me that they are sending people. In another 10 minutes I received a call from the person responding to the case. And for every 10 to 15 minutes after that Allianz called me to ask for progress. It was a nice gesture. Although I had to wait for the auto assist van to arrive for 1 hour (nearby agents had other cases so they had to come from PJ), it was overall a nice experience with Allianz.

The battery was changed, and I went out with my family not to the wedding as it has ended by then but just to get out.

Kudos to them for providing a great service. I will stay with Allianz as long as I can. Anyone else have good experience with their car general insurance provider? Share them!

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Mon, May 4, 2009 — Life Goes On
Sat, April 4, 2009 — Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus

Allianz Auto Assist originally appeared on Romantika.name on Thu, July 16, 2009.

Yahoo! Mail is Down

ady — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:20:30 +0000

I am unsure whether this is only effected Plus users, or everyone. When I failed to fetch my emails using Thunderbird, I tried the web interface and received this:

Tue, May 26, 2009 — Delayed Yahoo! Messenger Custom Message Updates
Sat, February 7, 2009 — Filters! Yahoo! I Want Better Filters!
Fri, June 1, 2007 — Yahoo! Mail Now Unlimited
Wed, May 16, 2007 — Yahoo! Mail Unlimited Storage
Sun, February 25, 2007 — Yahoo! POP3 and SMTP Via SSL

Yahoo! Mail is Down originally appeared on Romantika.name on Thu, July 9, 2009.

Zee Avi

ady — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:38:57 +0000

A friend posted a link in Facebook to Zee’s video on YouTube, and I started to look for her songs. I really love her music and voice, as there is a certain old feeling to it, not quite the same but I can relate her to Norah Jones. And I commented on that Facebook link: “I like her music so much I’m gonna buy her album“. The reply I received was that I shouldn’t buy but simply download the music. Since I am very particular about music quality and I am happy to see a Malaysian artist making a name Internationally, I said I want to support Malaysian artists. ~~That’s also a reason why I am broke almost all the time.~~

When I went to The Curve on Sunday with my family, we went to Rock Corner to look for some Mozart CDs. Lazy to look, I asked the guy there whether Zee’s album has arrived in Malaysia (who knows it might arrive late since it was released in US in May). And there it was, at the front counter along with all the new arrivals. To my surprise it was cheap… I was prepared to pay ~RM50 for an imported CD. I like Rock Corner because the guy over there is knowledgeable and helpful.

As usual, I made a backup copy of the CD for the car and ripped it to FLAC for my computer. To my friends, go buy one yourself if you want to listen. I don’t support piracy.

The best music is the music you buy. I kept my promise by actually buying the album.

Here’s Kantoi with the full English translations:

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Thu, January 1, 2009 — SpongeBob SquarePants
Wed, February 8, 2006 — Memoirs of A Geisha
Fri, February 3, 2006 — Movies!

Zee Avi originally appeared on Romantika.name on Mon, June 15, 2009.

Maxis Customer Support Email

ady — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:21:58 +0000

It annoys me quite significantly when big corporations publish emails which does not even exist. Here’s what is displayed in Maxis BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) website:

And here’s what I got when I tried to email them about a not so urgent problem:

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Mon, August 17, 2009 — Tips When You Know I Am Going To Interview You
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Wed, May 13, 2009 — Celcom Broadband What Is Wrong With You?

Maxis Customer Support Email originally appeared on Romantika.name on Mon, June 15, 2009.

Delayed Yahoo! Messenger Custom Message Updates

ady — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:46:43 +0000

Borrowing Google’s term - I have lately been using a flaky connection when connecting to the Internet. What I noticed is that my Yahoo! Messenger list becomes static and no custom messages are being updated. When I looked at my friend’s list, the custom message I set wasn’t showing. I was also not able to see when people get online or offline. I’m using Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.0.2161 for Windows.

I’ve tried all that I can think of - changing connection preferences, clearing message archives because I thought they grew too big, and up to the extent of reinstalling the whole application. I even blamed Symantec Endpoint Protection for it.

I found a simple remedy today - disable the “Always sign in to my mobile phone when I sign out of Messenger“. I have always thought that this option is convenient, especially when someone wants to convey a message for me when I’m not online. Well, okay I admit being lazy as this can easily be done by clicking on “Sign in to ” in the menu.

It turns out that the server is confused when you are online/offline so frequently - flaky connection. It’s a bug, yes.

Why am I not using Pidgin? Because I still want to separate my identities with the “send-as” functionality. With Pidgin I always revealed my identities to different group of people, and I don’t like it. I’ll reuse it once this feature is added.

So if you’re facing the same issue and have the option turned on, try to disable it.

Thu, July 9, 2009 — Yahoo! Mail is Down
Sat, February 7, 2009 — Filters! Yahoo! I Want Better Filters!
Mon, January 19, 2009 — Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.1.0
Mon, January 12, 2009 — Line Numbers in EPIC + Eclipse
Thu, December 18, 2008 — OCRopus and Tesseract Binaries

Delayed Yahoo! Messenger Custom Message Updates originally appeared on Romantika.name on Tue, May 26, 2009.

Celcom Broadband What Is Wrong With You?

ady — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:53:35 +0000

In search for Internet connection for my new home (since it would take a while before fixed line or ADSL will be available), I am considering the 2 largest wireless telco in Malaysia - Celcom and Maxis. They both have wireless broadband packages, and they both have more or less the same overall reviews from users in terms of connectivity and speed. However there has also been reports that Celcom broadband is much more stable and reliable.

Celcom has been promoting their broadband services via the mass media for quite a while, and from the advertisements made it as if they are ready for the service. I expect to go to a Blue Cube outlet and happily leave with a gateway package in my hands. It turns out that they are always out of stock even for the USB device. On Monday a friend went to the Sunway Blue Cube to ask for the gateway package and they mentioned that they still have a lot of stock. On Tuesday I went there and they told me that they are out of stock. I wonder of the package is that popular that they can run out of stock in 24 hours.

Finally I chose Maxis as I have been a post-paid customer for years and I love their customer support. When Maxis says that they have something, it’s rare that I leave with disappointment. Celcom has always made me disappointed and it really made me wonder when I saw this on their website:

Who awarded them the title? A blind and ignorance organization?

And oh yes, look at the package table below. Can you spot anything incorrect? Hint: unlimited price. They are not serious even when it comes to providing the correct pricing table for their product.

Well, everyone knows that TM and its subsidiaries have the “best customer service” around. NOT!

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Mon, August 17, 2009 — Tips When You Know I Am Going To Interview You
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Mon, June 15, 2009 — Maxis Customer Support Email

Celcom Broadband What Is Wrong With You? originally appeared on Romantika.name on Wed, May 13, 2009.

Life Goes On

ady — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:08:43 +0000

Once again, I have reached a new record of low monthly posts. And this is one of the very very rare personal post I have on this site.

This post is dedicated to my one and only Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations who is working extremely hard, 24 hours a day to give care and education to my one and only offspring. She is working hard, sacrificing her own life for the little one and I just want her to know that I appreciate it very much. She has to put her business on hold, forget about social life with friends, juggle all those tasks daily and rarely gets rest. I realizes that she is tired like mad and I wish I can do something about it.

Growing up in an inexpressive family, I might not express myself well although I think I am improving well. I am trying hard to lend a helping hand whenever I could, although it’s rare that I can do so.

Right now, I am focusing 90% of my time for the house moving that we are going to proceed in the next 2 weeks.

I just want real badly for her to know that I have and will continue to devote my life to her and the little one. Forever as long as I am breathing in this mortal world.

When the little one grows up a little bigger, I will try my best to get you some time to pursue other interests and businesses you have in mind. I appreciate all the things you do although I can’t say I have given enough compensation. Life is not meant to be easy, so let’s go through this together. It’s going to get better. Amin.

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Thu, July 16, 2009 — Allianz Auto Assist
Sat, April 4, 2009 — Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus

Life Goes On originally appeared on Romantika.name on Mon, May 4, 2009.

Battery Powered Server

ady — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:42:46 +0000

For real?

The black box with two terminals is a 12V battery, and it looks like a lead-acid battery. Is it a DELL? Is it an IBM? Is it an HP? No, it is a Google. That’s right people, it’s a unit of many Google’s server inside its data center containers. It’s a 2U thick server, with a Gigabyte mainboard holding 2 CPUs, 2 hard disks, and 8 pieces of RAM.

It’s not really battery powered, but the battery kicks in once the main power is lost. This effectively eliminates the need for more expensive and space consuming giant UPS’s (uninterruptible power supplies) which are batteries anyway. Is this a better solution? You be the judge.

If you ask me, I’d like to have one of those Magnetek power supply unit to install on my PC. The battery can nicely fit in a tower casing, much better than having separate UPS units. However I think the mainboard itself must be custom because the 12V to 5V conversion takes place there. The power supply unit only outputs 12V (approximately 13.65V).

However I can’t find any info on how long can the battery can actually supply power.

Story found on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html

Tue, February 10, 2009 — Another Default Password - Riger DB102 Modem
Tue, February 10, 2009 — When Security Is Not Secure
Wed, March 11, 2009 — Maxis to bring iPhone 3G to Malaysia on March 20
Fri, March 6, 2009 — RegisterFly Resurrected as RegFly
Sun, March 1, 2009 — Image Hotlink Protection

Battery Powered Server originally appeared on Romantika.name on Fri, April 10, 2009.

Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus

ady — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:01:52 +0000

Queue jumpers of 2nd April 2009. These jumpers are from the right lane, and the queue was about 300m long:

Hyundai (Matrix?) WLH 9953

BMW PEM 3331 and Kancil BJJ 3914, too bad I missed the Satria Neo in front

The biggest offender of all - a UPM bus

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Wed, February 25, 2009 — Queue Jumpers Beware
Wed, February 25, 2009 — Aedes, Go to Bandar Baru Bangi

Queue Jumpers WLH 9953, PEM 3331, BJJ 3914 & UPM Bus originally appeared on Romantika.name on Sat, April 4, 2009.

Maxis to bring iPhone 3G to Malaysia on March 20

ady — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:18:17 +0000

Really? That short notice? I was casually browsing my Google Reader when I stumbled upon this exciting news. Exciting? Not anymore. I don’t know why but the frustration of waiting has made me less interested in iPhones. The time stamp on the news was like 4 hours before I started this entry. Fresh!

Going to into Maxis site there is now a big banner “Be among the first to own an iPhone 3G“. No, Maxis did not do anything wrong and it’s still a great news except that right now there may be hundreds of people in Malaysia using cracked iPhones. Among the first? I don’t think so. It should say “Be among the first to own an official and uncracked iPhone 3G“. Yes that’s me trying to be funny. Ha ha.

If you’re interested you may go here at Maxis’ spanking new iPhone section. Enjoy it. I don’t think I will be getting one anytime soon.

Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid
Thu, January 22, 2009 — Economy Crisis Hits Malaysia
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Malaysian TV Translation Standards

Maxis to bring iPhone 3G to Malaysia on March 20 originally appeared on Romantika.name on Wed, March 11, 2009.

RegisterFly Resurrected as RegFly

ady — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:43:28 +0000

I received an email yesterday:

Dear Ady Romantika
 
We see you have been a valued member since 2004-12-29. Many of our clients have 
asked for a notice when we post special savings, we are pleased to provide that. 
Please find the latest specials that are available for the month of February.

It’s from RegFly, a resurrection of RegisterFly the lousiest domain registrar ever. I had very bad experience with them - slow system, buggy, unresponsive customer support. And now, they are no longer an ICANN accredited registrar so I guess they are reselling. Even the main domain regfly.com is registered under Tucows.

ICANN announcements:

Stay away. Look for an ICANN accredited registrar.

Sun, March 1, 2009 — Image Hotlink Protection
Thu, November 12, 2009 — Is 5GB Per Month Enough? Fair Usage Policy
Sun, September 27, 2009 — Secret Recipe at The Curve Damansara
Mon, August 17, 2009 — Tips When You Know I Am Going To Interview You
Fri, July 24, 2009 — Italiannies Sunway Pyramid

RegisterFly Resurrected as RegFly originally appeared on Romantika.name on Fri, March 6, 2009.

Image Hotlink Protection

ady — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:55:57 +0000

Have people been stealing images from your websites? Well, there are not so many interesting images in this site so I don’t really have that problem. You can add a watermark to your image, but I guess everyone knows that.

Another form of image theft also involves bandwidth theft. It’s has many names - hotlink, inline linking, leeching, and many others. As many of us uses shared hosting and we have limited bandwidth, it will eventually reach the barrier if bandwidth is being stolen from other sites.

I have 1.5TB monthly bandwidth limitation, but I still don’t agree to people stealing my bandwidth by hotlinking images especially since I host quite a number of sites in this account. On Apache hosting it’s easy to prevent hotlinking by utilizing .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?yourdomain\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /nohotlink.pne [L]

WordPress users can add the above lines before the WordPress rewrite rule:

# BEGIN WordPress

What the configuration does is check whether HTTP_REFERER to match the specified domain, or if it’s empty (direct calls, for example). If not empty and unmatched it sends the content of file /nohotlink.pne to the browser. Why? Because when images are loaded with the

RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ - [F]

My implementation will cause the image to be replaced with:

By the way the hotlink protection image is named with the .pne extension to prevent an infinite rewrite to occur. You can also use other image formats, and any other extensions. Some fussy browser might not display it correctly but who cares, the point is to prevent people from hotlinking, isn’t it?

Try it out yourself. Good luck!

Fri, March 6, 2009 — RegisterFly Resurrected as RegFly
Fri, April 10, 2009 — Battery Powered Server
Sat, February 21, 2009 — Deleting Emails From Someone Else’s Mailbox
Thu, February 19, 2009 — Be Careful With OpenID
Thu, February 19, 2009 — Facebook Is A CIA Device?

Image Hotlink Protection originally appeared on Romantika.name on Sun, March 1, 2009.

Romantika.name

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