O' Yee Of Good Faith

Greetings,

I have no idea. Really. None at all.
I've been having DIY on my mind all year long. And 2008 is almost half gone!
One of the few DIY ideas that have been floating around my head has got to be the BBQ Grill and Mead. I've made the mead. Ok, fine, maybe my mead didn't turn out so well (I only had bread yeast, what did you expect?) but I am set to make that BBQ grill if its the last bit of DIY I ever do!.

Ok maybe that made it sound too final. Eh, anyway. Below are a few amazing sites you can visit for DIY info.

How To Do Stuff Blog
Instructables.com

Dav out

Greetings,

There's a lot of issues going on around the world with people saying they don't trust their Government (that's right! with a capital G) and that they could do a better job at macromanaging a country.

Well, that may be true. You MAY have a bad Government. But you put them in their high seat of power because you felt they could do some good. And in some cases (ok, fine, most cases) its mainly the issue of choosing between 2 lesser evils.

Enough of serious stuff, try your hand with this amazing Civilization kinda game called Via Sol 2 and see how you fare!

Via Sol 2

Via Sol 2

Dav out

Greetings,

I've got the N70 back from the service center. It was the LCD that died, so that put me back around MYR 190. Its an original Nokia LCD, so it doesn't have any Salmon semen in it.

Dav out

Economics: The Cow Factor

SOCIALISM : You have 2 cows, so you give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM : You have 2 cows. The State takes both away from you, takes you out behind the chemical shed and shoots you.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM : You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM : You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters
of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United
States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION : You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION : You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION : You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows because you're
sobering up and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION : You have 5,000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINA CORPORATION : You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

A BRITISH CORPORATION : You have two cows. Both are mad.


I found this via a chain email. I've always hated chain emails.

Dav out

Greetings,

Unless you've been living in the mountains (and don't have 3G or something) you would have known by now that the amazing guys at Mozilla have now released Firefox 3.0. Its not beta, its the official launch.

Also, there's a site and a chance to get into the record books with the number of internet downloads of Firefox 3.0, so get in on the action and get a cool PDF certificate as well :)



Mozilla Firefox 3.0 download site
Mozilla Firefox World Record Site

Dav out

Greetings,

Well I had to park a few kilometers away and walk but I managed to hand in my phone to the Nokia Care center for them to take a look at the dead phone. On the way to the service center, I dropped by a teleco shop and the guy behind the counter took one look at the phone and said, "MYR160, you need new LCD I give you good price (sic)."

Warranty? "2 weeks. Very good price (sic)"
Um, is that the original LCD? "Nooooooooo. No one get original LCD. AP LCD! (sic)"

I ran away, mostly because he didnt really bother to look at the phone much after making up his mind on the LCD, and because of the 2 weeks warranty period.

Nokia should call me soon.

At the same time, I was browsing around and came across HP's new IPAQ with 3G, looking good HP!

More info on the HP IPAQ 600 here.



Dav out

Greetings,

I'd just like to wish both Mr and Mrs Sukovich a huge congratulations on their new healthy baby girl Livia Violet -> 14/06/2008.


Dav out

Greetings,

Well, my trusty Nokia N70 just upped and died today. When I got home from work, I noticed that the screen was blank but it still had power. I tried to restart it but it didn't seem to work. Pulled the battery, pulled the SIM and the MMC card and left it for a while but it still didn't seem to want to work.

So I'm using my really old Nokia phone and hoping that the hard-format codes I got off the Internet will help me resolve the issue.

Here’s how to hard reset or format your Nokia N70 mobile phone:

1) Switch off your phone
2) Press and hold these 3 keys together:
-green dial key
-the star key(*)
-the number 3 key (Ugh, I wish I had three hands…!!)
3) Power on the phone

Warning: Do not release the keys until you see a formatting screen and even after the phone has started. Wait until the initial sound starts to play and the hand animation is displayed.

Lets wait and see. Hope this doesn't affect the N70 photo blog. Would have to have to rename it to N3310 Photo blog or something :(

Dav out

Greetings,

Last night the Govt announced that the price of petrol at the pump will go up from MYR 1.97 to MYR 2.70 (roughly by 40%). I was a little taken aback with the announcement because I would have thought the Govt would have pushed the price up a little at a time till it reached a value they were ok with.

If you didn't know, here in Malaysia, the Govt spends a huge chunk of change on subsidising petrol for everyday consumers. They've been able to keep the price low and stable for a long time now, but with the new price hikes and other issues coming in, I think re-organizing the petrol subsidy is a good idea. The new plan to redistribute the subsidy and other changes are shown below, taken from the Malaysian newspaper The Star.

The Changes

Price increase

Petrol – RM0.78/litre
Diesel – RM1/litre
Electricity:
Commercial and industrial – 26%
Retailers and small restaurant operators – 18% (for first 200kWh per month)
Residential – new pricing structure for users above 200kWh per month

Prices effective today 05/06/2008 (per litre)

Petrol – RM2.70 (previously RM1.92)
Diesel – RM2.58 (previously RM1.58)

Rebates

> RM625 per year
For private vehicle with engine capacity of 2000cc and below, including private pickup trucks and jeeps with engine capacity of 2500cc and below.

> RM150 per year
For each private motorcycle with engine capacity of 250cc and below

> RM200 reduction on road tax
For private petrol and diesel vehicles with engine capacity above 2000cc

> RM50 reduction on road tax
For private motorcycles with engine capacity above 250cc

Streamlined diesel subsidy
(for approved transportation companies, vessel owners and fishermen)

> Diesel – RM1.43 per litre (previously RM1 per litre for fishermen and RM1.20 per litre for vessel owners)

> RM200 per month for every owner and employee of Malaysian-owned vessels registered with the Fisheries Department

> 10sen per kilo incentive for every kilogram of fish caught by registered vessels

> 10sen per litre for every litre of diesel used by river transportation operators according to approved quota

Gas subsidies restructure
(for Peninsular Malaysia)

> For power producers – from RM6.40 per mmBtu to RM14.31 per mmBtu

> For industrial users (consuming less than 2mmscfd) – from RM9.40 per mmBtu to RM24.54 per mmBtu

> For industrial users (consuming above 2mmscfd) – from RM11.32 per mmBtu to RM32.56 per mmBtu

Electricity tariff restructure

> Households using 200kWh and below every month will not be affected. This covers 59% of households in Peninsular Malaysia with a monthly bill under RM43.60.

> Commercial and industrial users face 26% increase. Small retail and business outlets consuming under 200kWh per month face 18% increase.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas for Vehicle (NGV)

> No change. Prices remain at RM1.75 per kg (LPG) and RM0.635 per litre (NGV)

Oil palm windfall tax

> For Peninsular Malaysia 15% for every tonne of CPO exceeding RM2,000

> Sabah and Sarawak 7.5% for every tonne of CPO exceeding RM2,000 > Abolition of cess tax

Service tax threshold for restaurants and eateries

> Service tax now for restaurants with annual sales of RM3mil (previously RM500,000)

All in all, I think its a positive move by the Govt. Sure, prices are going up, but its not as bad as other countries. We need to buckle down people!


Dav out