Swordie Bloggie

Yes I’m a fan of Toyota F1 team and I love Toyota’s cars. But when I read about a device, electronic signal detector, which can be used to disarm a car’s security alarm system, my heart sink when the police said it is used to steal Toyota’s and Perodua’s cars.

The device is so cool that thieves or syndicates who have the device can walk away with any Toyota Hilux, Toyota Vios or Perodua Viva easily. The device is estimated to cost about RM15,000.00 each.

My assumption after reading the news statement by the police chief of Negeri Sembilan, Datuk Osman Salleh is most probably the device is to be used with the factory supplied alarm and immobilizer system.

Now the question is, if we are to temper the factory supplied car alarm and immobilizer system, will it make the car manufacturer’s warranty void? How about the car insurance? My guess is, it depends on how you are going to modify your car’s security system.

The usual method is to leave the manufacturer supplied car alarm and immobilizer system intake. Simply install a new car security system parallel with the existing security system. I guess by doing so, the car manufacturer’s warranty or car insurance will not get void… what say you?

OK, this is something unusual to ask… do you have tables or chairs outside your house and they are exposed to the sun and rain everyday?… Well, usually ‘kampung house’ do have some wooden chairs and table outside their house… like under the tree or somewhere in the middle of their small beautiful green garden. This furniture usually used for resting while chit chatting or barbequing with the neighbors after their hard work at their ‘kebun’ or ‘sawah padi’ during the day.

But this wooden furniture doesn’t get rotten easily… it can last many years although exposed under the sun and rain everyday… probably because the ‘kampung people’ really know how to choose a good timber or wood to make their tables and chairs.

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Yesterday I went to climb the hill at the back of Taman Tun Fuad Stephen, Bukit Padang… the hill behind the jogging park. I went there with 2 friends. One knows all the hiking trails there… coz he was doing the hill climbing there with his parents since he was still in primary school… and they were going there like almost daily and way early in the morning… something like 5am!!!

I reach at the park’s parking area around 5pm but it was so crowded with cars… even spilled out to the main road… some parked at the road islands at the main road. My friends are also still looking for parking space on another car.

Well this is common in this area they said… parking spaces are not enough and so many people want to jog, climb the hill and eat at the restaurants and stalls. Maybe the relevant authorities should look into this problem. Further more this is a good place… a good park… even has a small water theme park.

Anyway, after we parked, we walk around the park, the same path I took last Sunday for the Borneo Downhill Challenge 2009. But, instead of using the path with steps I took last Sunday, our friend brought us into a small trail… which is more challenging to me coz there is no steps. And it also a bit dark coz it’s really going into the jungle. If you don’t have personal insurance, maybe it’s good to have term life insurance quotes first before doing this hiking… for first timer, I’m sure this is creepy… wild animal, insects, fall…

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What is the maximum amount of memory your notebook can take? How many memory slots does it have?

Last Friday, in the morning of 15th May 2009, my Dell XPS M1330 notebook went berserk… when I switch it on, some colorful vertical lines appears on the screen. Sometimes it switches on without the lines but once the windows fully loaded, sometimes it just freezes, and I have to forcefully witch it off.

I was so mad and sad… the whole Friday I was trying to figure out what is going on with the notebook. I did not read my email the whole day. I used the BIOS diagnostic and it took ages… made worse when I have to attend discussion and meeting that day… while I was away, the diagnostic found a problem on the hard disk and it has to wait for my next instruction! Imagine, the diagnostic have to wait for me like one or two hours… and it happened two times… and it repeats the process all over again after I click continue.

I continue using the notebook with the problem but on Sunday night, it went completely dead. When switched on, the bios not even loaded. The next morning I send it back to the shop and they called Dell support. I got back the notebook on Friday and according to the report, the notebook fan encounters some problem causing the display controller overheating.

I’m forced to use back my old Dell XPS M1210 for a week, but it only has 1GB of RAM coz I’ve moved its memory to other places. I need full 4GB for my work… sometimes I need to load a few Virtual PCs to do my work…

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Sometime last week, Disney told me about the Borneo Downhill Challenge 2009… a cycling challenge event. The challenge was held on 16 & 17 May 2009 at Taman Tun Fuad Stephen, Bukit Padang… the hill behind the jogging park.

Since it was a rare opportunity, we decided to go for it… but we only went for the final day, Sunday. As far as I know, both of us never attended any fast event photo shootout like downhill cycling. I did help a friend for a woods ball (paint ball) game last moth, but it was not that fast coz it was held in a huge area and I was shooting from a distance.

So, on last Sunday, we met at the parking area of the jogging park around 8.15 am. We saw a couple of photographer but we don’t see any cyclists or bicycles… so we were like blur blur… wondering if the game is really at the park… further more I don’t know the exact program of the challenge… I was relying what ever Disney knows 😛

Then Disney ask me about water… shoot, I did not bring any but luckily I have a large 100 Plus Lemon Lime in my car… I bought two days ago which I have consumed some and kept in my car. But I don’t want to carry that big bottle since my camera bag is just enough for my gears. Lucky second time, I have a small empty mineral water bottle in the car… I transferred the drink into the smaller bottle 😉

Still not sure what’s going on, we decided to walk around the park. After walking like 1 KM plus… which was good for warming us up… we ask a jogger how to go over the hill… mind you, both of us never climb the Bukit Padang Hill, so both of us don’t know what to expect from the hill!!! The jogger pointed to us the path to the hill… we actually pass over it but we thought there is another path.

We back track for a short distance… but decided to take a shortcut by climbing a low steep path. My sling bag starting getting heavy 😮 damm… I’ve not done any climbing for like 15 years?!!!

Then when I saw the steep steps… holly cow!!!… it’s like highway to heaven… endless…

The path we have taken so far…

Almost reaching at the end of the steps, we saw an old man… not really old… going down… with the MARSHAL tag… we ask him where the event is… he said up there, not very far… I ask if it over already… coz he was going down the steps… he said no, he just want to warm up… WARMING UP!!! We were like dying climbing and this old man is going down and up the steps like walking on a flat land ground…

We reach the last steps and saw the track… halleluiah, we finally reached heaven!!!

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Just some facts about the World Trade Center or WTC or sometimes referred to as Twin Towers, located in Lower Manhattan, USA.

There are seven buildings in the complex, but the two most prominent are the two tallest towers called North Tower and South Tower where both having 110-story. World Trade Center Towers were the world’s tallest buildings from 1972 to 1973.

WTC were destroyed by two commercial air planes, Boeing 767, which was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorist group. The terrorist plunged one air plane on each tower on the morning of 11th September 2001.

Although the towers are considered steel buildings, which was designed by Minoru Yamasaki in the early 1960s using a tube-frame structural design, both towers collapsed at the end believed to be cause by the intense heat which melted the steel structures.

The South Tower collapsed first after burning for almost 1 hour. The North tower collapsed about half hour later. The collapsed of the two towers caused 2,750 deaths and it took 8 months to cleanup the area.

Now, the place is being rebuilt and once completed there will be six new skyscrapers and a memorial. The rebuilding process of the complex started in 2002. The towers will be replaced with Freedom Tower and the whole rebuilding process is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013.

After my form five, I applied to three local universities… well, at that time it was two universities and one institution. They are Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Pertanian Malasia (UPM) and Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM, now changed to university, UITM).

I applied to these three coz they are offering Computer Science… and I put Computer Science as my first choice course. When the reply came, the first one was from UPM… but unfortunately they offered me my second or third choice (can’t really remember) which was Agriculture course… and it will be in Sarawak.

I was really mad and sad when I received it coz at that time applications supposed to be centralized… meaning all applications to any local universities and institutions will be ‘piled’ to one ‘department’ to avoid overlapping offer so that all applicants can get chance. . . . Continue Reading »

Last Saturday, 9 May 2009, went to Jesselton Point jetty to take photos with a friend, Willy. Nothing much to do there I guess. We were there from around 10 to 12 I think… lucky it was not that hot that day, probably still consider morning… but it was quite hot in the late afternoon.

The plan was to test my new lens… Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. Formerly I was using my friend’s Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS. For now, I don’t feel much different other than the extra 50mm and the USM. But it’s cool to hold the lens… feels more solid and big.

Then on Sunday, after sending off my sister to the KK airport, I took my nephews to the Tanjung Aru 3rd beach to watch the airplanes landing and taking off. If you are familiar with the airplanes viewing spot, you will be saddened… if you have not been there for sometimes the place has been fenced.

Previously there are some areas where you can park the car near the runways and watch the airplanes. But now, the fence has been moved right next to the road until there are no more places to park cars.

I spotted a photographer… he is an airplanes spotter I guess. He use a tall ladder so that he can snap the airplanes landing and taking off above the fence. I did talk to him and he is an airplanes spotter for BKI… the Kota Kinabalu International Airport… KKIA.
 

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Gone missing for sometimes again… lots of things happen for the past 2 weeks. The worse was the Perak’s political drama. It made the country looks like ‘jungle’… I think the jungle has better rules… the animals can live in the jungle much more peaceful.

But yesterday, 11 May 2009, the decision by the High Court to reinstate the ‘former’ Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, gave some hope to the country’s democracy.

OK, forget about politics… I don’t like politician anyway. . . . Continue Reading »

This week was so hectic… Monday was virtually doing nothing but meetings… morning… evening… Only took a plate of noodles with a piece of chicken for breakfast and no food till dinner. Man… my stomach was so… donno how to describe.

Then Tuesday was busy troubleshooting and answering all kind of craps… and I skip lunch. And man… my stomach was so… donno how to describe.

But I also received great news about my order from the net on Tuesday night. I ordered some stuff almost 3 weeks ago 😀

Wednesday, skip breakfast… and almost gone berserk becoz of the mail server… it was not transporting the internal mails out since donno when… probably Monday. Lucky luck is around… nothing serious.

And was also busy filing the eTax… damm… there is so much tax to pay… lucky some of the incomes are non-taxable.

If I keep on skipping my important meals, I sure will get thinner soon… . . . Continue Reading »