Swordie Bloggie

Ever since the first news about the death of the King of Pop, the internet was like haunted by him… any site you visit, there will be stories about the King of Pop’s death.

The youtube is no exception… suddenly it was flooded with MJ’s tribute videos.

OK, all his fans are sad… deeply sad about his sudden departure… but life must go on. He may be better dead than living… more peaceful on the other side than going through his scandalous life over the other side.

And now another scandal crop up… Is he dead or not?… Haiyaaa….

OK… OK… I don’t want to talk about his death anymore… I want to talk something else about him…

Not about his songs or the songs he wrote… not about MJ videos… not about Michael Jackson’s dance moves… errr… well it has something to do with his dance move actually…

OK… OK… I want to talk about Michael J Jackson’s invention!!!… YES, his INVENTION!!!… Yes, he did invent something and patented it… probably more than one invention or patent…

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What is influenza A H1N1?

Influenza A H1N1 which is referred to as “swine flu” early on, is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009.

Later on, other parts of the world including Malaysia, reported people infected with this new virus. This virus is spreading from person-to-person, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.

Influenza viruses are famous for their ability to share genetic materials between different strains of virus. Over the years, scientists and public health officials have developed a sophisticated way to characterize the different types of influenza virus.

This influenza is officially known as Influenza A (H1N1) meaning that this is a type A influenza which has hemaglutinin type 1 (H1) and neuraminidase type 1 (N1).

So please, call it Influenza A H1N1 or simply H1N1 and not other like swine flu or gajah flu.

Why Influenza A H1N1 virus sometimes called “swine flu”?

The virus was originally referred to as “swine flu” because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes in this new virus were very similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America.

But further study has shown that this new virus is very different from what normally circulates in North American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and avian genes and human genes. Scientists call this a “quadruple reassortant” virus.

What The Health Ministry Said?

Our Health Ministry say we will call it Influenza A H1N1… and they are abiding the World Health Organization (WHO).

What The Information, Communication and Culture Ministry Said?

Our Information, Communication and Culture Ministry say we must call and will continue calling it in electronic media, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Swine Flu.

The reason is it is easier for the people, including those in the rural areas, to digest.

And here is the Bernama report:

RTM Will Call It ‘Swine Flu’ – Rais

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) — Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) will continue to use the term ‘swine flu’ instead of influenza A (H1N1), said Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Denying that the term would cause confusion, he said ‘swine flu’ was easier for the people, including those in the rural areas, to digest despite the Health Ministry’s stand of using the term ‘influenza A (H1N1)’.

“The issue does not arise at all. What matter most, the people understand that it is swine flu and not elephant flu… if H1N1 is used (by the Health Ministry), RTM will use swine flu.

“We have discussed this matter and internationally it is known as H1N1 but in Malaysia we will use the term ‘swine flu’. This is to ensure that the people understand the meaning.”

HUH… WHAT?

Damm… our rural people are too STUPID to know about the actual fact of Influenza A H1N1… it is easier for them to say out swine flu than H1N1… so that they know the flu is from PIG and not from GAJAH!!!

And the rural people are fed with this WRONG information by none other than the highest authority about information!!!

Wow… it was already quite sometimes I did not drive while it rains. The weather was hot since early this month… but I do hope and believe there will be plenty of rain till the end of this year 😀

It will be good to clear the haze…

Anyway, while half way driving home tonight, slightly before 8pm, the rain started getting heavy. When I started my journey from the office, it was just drizzling at that time… I wasn’t expecting the heavy rain… what a wonderful way to cool down after office 😀

Then, when I switch on the radio… the Light and Easy channel… cool… what a nice song… an oldies… a great song… Have You Ever Seen The Rain!!!

To celebrate the rain, I want to share the rain song tonite… even our dog is enjoying the rain… sleeping… 😆

Enjoy 😀

Free car wash today… 😀

The hot sunshine yesterday morning… took this near the ‘tunnel’ at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

I guess my blog is back online… like 99% now… and it loads faster too…

What happen?

Well, formerly my hosting at Exabytes was on Microsoft Windows platform, Windows EBiz Plus… unfortunately there are many limitations in term of features compared to a Linux hosting. For instance I can only host one domain and can’t do add-on domain. And it is also a bit slow when loading…

Because of that limitation, I can only do domain parking for my other domain which is very troublesome in term of managing files and contents.

So after two years… yes my first domain was conceived on the 12 June 2007… juggling with my files for my multiple domains by just using ‘domain parking’, I decided it is time for me to do something about it.

Lucky for me, recently my hosting, Exabytes, launch a new package, Linux EBiz Gold Unlimited… yes it has everything UNLIMITED… add on domain, disk space, monthly data transfer, MySQL databases, etc…. are all UNLIMITED!!!

😀 😀 😀

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I’m in the process of moving certain ‘things’ on my swordbomber.com which also affected swordie.swordbomber.com since yesterday evening, Friday 19 Jun 2009, around 5pm.

Some might be able to access it without problem depending on the DNS or internet service provider you are using… some, like those on streamyx will see error page.

I hope I can put everything back online as soon as possible…

For the fist time, I stayed until the closing part of the Tadau Kaamatan or Harvest Festival… on 31 May 2009. The final stage of the Tadau Kaamatan or State Level Tadau Kaamatan is held for two days… every year on 30 and 31 May. The district level Tadau Kaamatan is held during the month of May and the closing is held at Hongkod Koisaan, Penampang.

Me and a friend, Willy, went to KDCA’s (KadazanDusun Cultural Association) Hall or better know as Hongkod Koisaan (Unity Hall) at Jalan Penampang around 12PM. The highlight of the festival is the Unduk Ngadau or Beauty Contest which is held inside the Hongkod Koisaan.

Usually I attend the Tadau Kaamatan to see the stalls and watch the cultural performances held outside the Hongkod Koisaan. The events starts at the morning with traditional sports competition… not sure what are all of them but to name some, they are like mipulos (arm wrestling), migazat dukug, etc… When we arrived at the Hongkod Koisaan, most of the games have completed… we only manage to watch the mipulos for a while but it also quite pack with people… so we can’t get proper angle to take photos.

Then we went to take some bites… have not taken proper breakfast that morning, so it was brunch. We were looking for ‘hinugu vogok’ to eat but could not find any. We asked one of the Rela, and he said maybe they are no longer selling vogok this year… duhhhh… Vogok is traditional food for KadazanDusun bah… well probably they scared of H1N1… Anyway, since we can’t find our traditional food, we decided to eat western instead… KFC… to punish whoever bans those meals!!! 😆

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Early this morning around 1AM, it was raining for a short while but with thunderous sound. The weather was quite warm for the past few days and it has not rain for sometimes too… there were rain but not that heavy and usually in the evening.

This time around, it was in the early morning and only lasted about half hour or so. But some might have experienced shorter or longer rains. The rain came with strong wind and the thunder was thundering like the sky is going to crack.

One of my colleague told how she was awaken by her dogs… funny she was not awaken by the loud thunders 😛 She said her dogs were scratching the door asking to be let inside the house. Her poor dogs were terrified by the sound of the thunder…

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Every sport has its rules and apparel. Even gym has special apparel if you want to enter gym… everything is commercialized… which translate to money.

A friend was asking me to join him at the new gym at City Mall. The gym is actually as old as the City Mall itself… was it like one year? Anyway, the previous owner some how ‘cheated’ a lot of members, so it went ‘bankrupt’. Early this year the gym was taken over by a new management. Membership is not that cheap… like RM1,200 a year or so… but don’t want to join yet… I want to do ‘walk-in’ first… pay every time go there.

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Last week the office’s switch board keeps on tripping. Lucky it only affects the lighting and not the power sockets. If it was the power sockets, then we won’t be able to work with our PCs for the whole week and till today.

First we thought it was just a normal power trip… you know the kind of power trip at the main switch board which occurs like once or twice a year…

But five or so minutes after we reset the switch board, it go trip again and again and again… then we slowly trace back which one of the lighting fixture is faulty. Luckily we only have 5 light switches affected by the main switch board.

We switch off all the 5 light switches and reset the main switch board. Then we switch on the lights one by one… five minutes after another. Then we found out the faulty lighting fixture is the one inside the server room!!! Damm… 

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How many female firefighter you have seen in your whole life? Not many or none at all I guess… I don’t recall I ever seen one before… what can I say, we never think of a female firefighter… firefighting is guys job.

But working in a male dominated field is not a stumbling block for a 25 year old lady from Semporna. Although there are 3 ladies currently working with the Fire and Rescue Department, she is different.

The other two, Sariah Saim from Balung and Fauziah Samang from Sandakan is doing administrative work. But for Norhaini Jumdani, she is working in the operation devision. It’s weird for a woman doing field operation works especially in a very challenging work like fire fighting and rescue. One might wonder what she carries with her during work. I’m sure she doesn’t carries lipsticks and small mirror… but probably skin care products like sun block 😆 OK enough making joke about her… 😛

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