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I am not someone very active in local politics, I am neither hardcore supporter of opposition nor government. But I admit I am someone very patriotic, I love my country, without thinking whether it is ruled by certain race or I have been treated fairly. I think that is the definition of patriotism, we love our country, the very land we grew up without wanting any return or based on any preset condition.

I feel PROUD when I saw fellow MALAYSIANS successful in international arena and being recognised. I feel PROUD when I saw national cars running around, although quality is not good, but it is a national pride yet to be improved. I feel PROUD when I saw something MADE IN MALAYSIA, although most people will be sceptical to use it, I think we should support the product and give it a chance to grow and improve.

Many people had been confused with loving your country and loving the people who govern the country. I heard this phrase a lot from people who had chosen to migrate or work in other countries, “I LOVE MY COUNTRY BUT MY COUNTRY DOESNT LOVE ME!”. Well at first, I really agreed with them totally, I shared their frustrations because they were mistreated, they didnt get chance to get into local univerisity even their results are excellent, they didnt get scholarship they deserved, they didnt get ample promotion opportunity while working in public sector etc.

But after a while, I just felt it was not right, not fair to blame everything on the country itself when the country is actually not the one that decides all that. Our country gives us land to stay, air to breathe, natural resources to grow and best of all shield us from all natural disasters. Our country actually loves us without asking for return, the love is undivided and not race based. But the problems that came along is the quality and fairness of governance of the leaders we elected to govern our country properly.

Too often many of us chose to leave the country when we lost faith with the governance. We gave up so easily the right to vote for change, we even lost the faith to believe that the leaders can be changed. We forgotten the country constitution is built on democracy, and the government is elected by people. We didnt realize our rights, we didnt exercise our rights, or we exercised it blindly and indirectly we are the one to be faulted for the result of bad governance.

Therefore although your country continues to give you land, air, natural resources but the people you entrusted to use this resources for the benefit of the people had misused it. But even though we knew they misued it, we continue to allow them to misuse it and instead choose to leave the country, let the country to rot alone. So how irresponsible is our act, it is equivalent to abandoning your family when you know your family is in dire strait.

So to all fellow countrymen, it is time to wake up! We live in a multi racial country and therefore we have to learn to live among each other.

If the reason you are leaving the country is because of racism, then you should not utter the phrase “MY COUNTRY DOESNT LOVE ME”, because it is you who chose to not love your country first and accept other races as part of MALAYSIA.

If the reason you are leaving the country is because of better opportunities and money, then you should not utter the phrase “MY COUNTRY DOESNT LOVE ME”, because it is you who chose to abandon the country when the country needs you the most to grow it.

Whatever your reasons are, you should not even say MY COUNTRY MALAYSIA DOESNT LOVE ME, your COUNTRY always LOVE YOU! If there is anyone that doesnt LOVE you, it is the people who are governing, and if you think they are not doing a good job, you should let your VOTE to do the talking.

By the way, dont say YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY, if you chose to abandon it, you have absolutely no right at all to SAY that !

Save your country, “SAMAS - SAve MAlaySIA” !

Towards the end of the blog, you will find a joke that will make you angry, not laugh… Today in Starbiz, Petronas tabulated a table of figures showing gas subsidy, it is really interesting because this is the first time I have actually seen the real figure.

Petrol market price is RM 3.36/litre as of today, subsidy is 0.66/litre, and we are paying RM 2.70/litre.

Diesel market price is RM 3.82/litre as of today, subsidy is 1.24/litre, and industry is paying RM 2.58/litre.

Now come the interesting part that many do not aware of. NGV is selling RM 0.68/litre, but actually market price is RM 3.22/litre, and subsidy is 2.54/litre. So NGV market price is only 14 cents cheaper compare to petrol market price. NGV no doubt is heavily subsidised now and when ignorant MALAYSIANS start to flock to NGV, do you think it will continue to be cheap?

More interestingly, gas subsidy to power sector, or to IPP (Independent Power Producer) is RM 48.86/mmbtu, market price is RM 63.17/mmbtu. Compare to petrol in mmbtu, market price is RM 103.07/mmbtu and the old price of 1.92/litre resulted in 58.50/mmbtu. So the subsidy element RM 44.47/mmbtu. Comparing in mmbtu terms, it seems like not very big difference.

But lets compare in total gas subsidy, total subsidy to IPP is 8.1 billion, TNB 5.7 billion while to all non power sectors is 5.9 billion. Why do we need to subsidise this 1 sector, IPP so heavily until it surpasses total subsidy for the country on gas, NGV, petrol and diesel. 

Why are we subsidising IPPs so heavily only for them to generate 40% power reserves. Why do we need 40% power reserves…to sell it to Thailand? Singapore?

TANJONG, GENTING SANYEN, MALAKOFF, YTL POWER, MMC are all IPPs. There also listed companies well liked by foreign investors because they are running an almost "risk-free" business. They have an agreement with government whereby their cost is locked (cost is the subsidised gas) and revenue is guaranteed because government is contracted to purchase the agreed amount of power from IPPs annually. The agreement was drafted in the 90’s under Dr. Mahathir’s regime. We find it so hard to keep subsidy that benefits the people, maintaining a gradual rise approach to the petrol price but we willing to pay total gas subsidy of RM 8.1 billion to IPPs.

This is really unbelievable, ridiculous. Whoever came out with the agreement, ought to be hang or shot, because I dont see how it will benefit the goverment and public, it is definitely a corruption.

It is really nice to learn that the government had taken a baby step forward by allowing the opposition leader to debate openly with the information minister, it is informative and exciting! Best of all, it is aired to all, I do hope we continue to see more debates like this in future, it will enable us to have a better look at our leaders.

Anyway, regarding the debate, too bad it doesnt really look like a debate, it seems the information minister is present to reveal Anwar’s bad intention and keep on pressing on personal issues and personal attack. Before saying who presented a more solid facts, I think the Information Minister is perceived as emotional and not professional as a debat participant.

Overall I think Anwar presented a much clearer vision and goal, his goal is to help the people in general, by finding ways to reduce gasoline in gradual manner price either through renegotiating IPP contract, governemnt expenditure saving, curb corruption, then take some % of special dividend given by Petronas to subsidise the gasoline. His agenda is on "People". But he didnt answer the question of how to stop the subsidies from benefitting other oil refineries companies like Shell, Exxon Mobil. He also mentioned about a "listening government" and the impact of "sudden price increase" will cause adverse economic impact. How sudden price increase will cause adverse economic impact, and how gradual price increase will not cause adverse economic impact, that wasnt clearly explained. He put less focus on "long term economic viable solutions" but focuses more on immediate bread and butter issues faced by the public. This is indeed a populist move, and will therefore easily attract support from public.

As for Shabery Cheek, he is more emotional, his mind is more clouded as he seems like very interested in stepping on Anwar’s tail and revealed his old secrets versus debating on why the government raise gasoline + diesel price. He also didnt answer the panelist question about how the government used the savings from subsidy to lay out public transport infrastructure. He made the standard comparison again with Norway and Finland unsubsidised gasoline price which we already know have complete, free public transport system while her people have higher per capita income. While I could catch his idea of subsidies are not good for country development in the long run, but he doesnt explain how the government come to the conclusion a sudden hike is the right thing to do when majority of the public is not ready, and we have poor public transport, low per capita income. The government focus is more on "long term sustainable solution" and "economic value", but it stopped short of attending to the "people needs". He also said he "believes" the people will find ways to survive and get over the price hike. It just presented the standard government very self-centered approach, and the strong message to all of, "dont ask so much, summary what I do is good for you!". It is like an order and definitely it will not go down well with the public, it will be perceived as "arrogant", "stubborn" and "not listening".

Anwar fights for "people needs", he believes we have the means to do so through savings and proper utilization of the country wealth especially from Petronas. He also stressed the government needs to "listen" to the people, after all bread and butter issues are what normal citizen cares not long term economic viable solutions. But Anwar’s incomplete plan of how he can revive the country’s economy in the long run with continuous subsidies leave many wonder about his intention. His opening speech of reducing gasoline price by 50 cents to RM2.20 also surprised many as his promise was to reduce price of RM1.92 to lower price before election, this maybe perceived as a flip-flop policy and only attracts attack from Shabery.

Shabery Cheek wants to educate public "economic value" and "long term sustainable solution", gov. wants us to be independent and no longer depend on subsidies. But the Government didnt have a good plan to attend to "people needs". Shabery Cheek also wants to "warn" the public Anwar is a person whose intention who need to be wary of. As usual, majority of people only worry about how they can survive today and tomorrow, the idea of long term economic viable solutions will not help many to understand how it will benefit them in the end. It is a valid argument, but a losing argument when comes to garner public support. "Warning", "threatening", "intimidating" tactics from government will not work anymore with the maturing public as it will be seen as challenging them, so the government needs to be able to show their "caring" side rather than their "dictatorship" more often.

From debating stand point, I will give Anwar 4/5 for being professional, his good command of language, able to send his message clearly across the board.I will give Shabery Cheek 3/5 for having the gut to come out and debate in public, but he needs to control his emotion better and be more professional when debating.

Regarding the facts presented I will give Anwar 2.5/5 and Shabery Cheek 2.5/5. Because if both ideas are combined, it will be 5/5.

Overall I think what the government did is right economically, but its implementation is messy thus creating public disgruntled. A government should place people needs, especially the poor at the first place before implementing such an unpopular, sudden and drastic action. This hastily implemented price hike and intransparent in fund allocation/spending for public transport improvement only attracts criticism. Together with the flip-flop statement, therefore this is an inconvenience the government needs to bear with no matter how right their action is.

It is such an ironic when Petronas is announcing its financial result today, earning net profit 61 billions, after giving to government 67 billions in royalties, taxes etc. and another special dividend of 6 billions. So now with less burden on gasoline and diesel subsidies, I will be interested to see how the government intend to spend this extra money. Are they going to improve the public transport system or they will use the public fund to run mega projects that are expensive and useless. Only time will tell….

I am not a staunch opposition supporter or a loyal government supporter, but I do notice our PM is not a "lame duck" as many had labelled him or "stupid". According to PKR - Raja Petra Kamaruddin, from the early days when he knew DSAB, he is actually a master politician. One exceptional quality that our PM has is he is not emotional, he rarely perform action that is regarded by many as political stunt. He almost didnt take any action in public when one of his cabinet ministers did something not popular, or being heavily criticised by mass media. He didnt quarrel with others in public, he seldom retaliate in public when others attacked him. The more he kept his quiet, the more the other party looks like an "idiot" or a child. This applies of course to Anwar, Dr M and the rest.

Emotional is the hindrance to ones success, like it or not, this is the truth. When one becomes emotional, he will become irrational at the first place, then he will utter the wrong words or take the wrong action that appears in public perception as wrong. No matter how right you are at the initial stage, when you became emotional, slowly you are perceived as wrong. This happened not only in politics, but in your work place as well. 

See the Sabah MP Bung Mokhtar, he flashed the wrong sign, I didnt even know why he needs to do that at the first place, or I am not even interested to find out why. Maybe someone criticised his mother? But all I remembered today is he is wrong, because he flashed the wrong sign. No matter what he explained from now to next election, he is still perceived in public as not gentleman.

See Dr M, he quits UMNO to fight for Ketuanan Melayu, his message didnt get through across the board and he is frustrated, his intention is noble and maybe what he fights for is real. But because he quits UMNO and at his position as former premier of Malaysia, it is perceived as immatured. No matter what happened in UMNO in the end, no one will remember how noble his action is, he might be perceived as someone not loyal to the party and trying to create chaos than harmony.

See Mr Anwar, the Malaysians bread and butter issues he fought for is real although his real intention is unknown. Once he got slapped with sodomy charges, he immediately retaliate through press conference, foreign ambassadors, threaten to reveal secrets but in the end he is perceived by the majority of the public as someone neglecting national agenda and only care about being Prime Minister of the country. People are questioning his ambition more than the agenda his party is fighting for. 

I still remembered at work, I have supporting partner from another company for a critical project,who performed really badly and not discipline. This guy will be untraceable when I needed him most, always lost his handphone, handphone always no signal and very slow in response and getting things done. I tried to escalate and complain to his and my manager, but because I was too emotional, I slapped so many charges on him that all of them look sur-real. I was so emotional that people was wondering whether what I was saying can be trusted or just pure made up stories. So in the end it doesnt work and I was asked by my manager to try to use soft skill to work with this guy. So I was at losing end in the end.

So to everyone, emotional is the hindrance to ones success, therefore we must be patient and let blood flows into our brain when it is going up in smoke. This applies to all human relationship from with your friends, family, spouse, to work, even more critical when come to gaining public support.

If there is one thing to learn from our PM, DSAB, is his wise side of not being emotional and get dragged into a free for all public spat because it will be perceived as immatured.

He did not punish the public openly when they go for rally or demonstrations. He allows public to have gathering inside stadium and allows them to scream as loud as they want. He didnot retaliate in public when people attacked him. But what he did is to ask police to carry out road blocks when he feels "national security is threatened". This will create inconvenience but not pain for all, as a reminder of how difficult life could be if we continue to have demonstration.

So when you are in a frustrating situation, try not to be emotional. But I do admit it is easier to say than to do it, as some people in nature are the emotional type.

Btw, I did resolve my work problem. I didn’t get angry anymore while I let others to work with him. After several months, I just sent in the same email but only in one sentence saying I am not satisfied with his work. This time, his manager just replied that he got the same feedback from everyone else and mentioned he will take action. Within a week, he was replaced with another person, and the new guy still work with me quite well until today.

Emotional doesnt solve problem, definitely a hindrance to ones success, in love, in family, in work and especially in politics.

CAP (Consumer Assoc. Penang) said we dont need 4-5 bil 2nd bridge in Penang, we need better public transportation and ferry service, because 4-5 bil 2nd bridge will translate to higher toll rate in the end. Why didnt the government thought of that?

Developers said they will help contractors to buy raw material in bulk to help reduce raw material cost. Buying material in bulk will cause sudden increase in demand, I thought that will only make raw material even more expensive?

PM said BN will win big in next election because they did a better job versus previous administration. I dont know who I will vote in coming election, but may I know what is the better job he is referring to? Better inflation rate?

PM said the demonstrators causes traffic jam in KL for last 2 days, not the police force. Did anyone mention there is going to be demonstration today or just pure paranoid, or perhaps a lesson to teach Malaysians to stay away from demonstration?

Proton sold MV Augusta for RM5 with RM110 million debt, then it was sold for RM350 million to Harley Davidson. Why didnt the Credit Suisse advisers think of that, why do we need consultation from advisers who helped us to sell for RM5?

Like it or not, crude oil per barrel will reach USD 200 or more. After Bear Stearns collapse early in the year, last week, another US bank IndyMac had been declared insolvent or bankruptcy after its depositors withdrawn up to 1.3 billion USD in a few weeks time. At the same time, Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporate) and Fannie Mae, a federal government sponsored home loan mortgage provider is failing and requested federal government to explicitly guarantee the 5 trillion debt it owned. In another word, it is asking the federal government to intervene and be the guarantor of the 5 trillion debt.

5 trillion = 5,000,000,000,000 (五万亿), oh my goodness, if you add that on to federal government 49 trillion deficit = 49,000,000,000,000, I think it wont be too much to say US is a bankrupt nation. The housing market collapse has to go all the way back to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, who as the federal government sponsored corporate is supposed to regulate the home loan mortgage market. Instead of regulating, they created subprime mortgages whereby anyone can realise his/her American dream by buying a house without good credit history or strong liquidity (money). To make things worse, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae borrows money from bond market (bond is like an IOU, you lend me money, I promise to return you with interest after maturity), then buy subprime mortgages from banks. Then they sell to hedge fund managers. The hedge fund managers from financial institution packaged the subprime mortgages together with AAA mortgages, sell them to investors promise them a handsome return. The package is marketed as low risk and big return to other innocent citizens like us because the subprime only stands for <10% while 90%+ is AAA mortgages. This is like telling a patient you wont die, because your cancerous cell is only 1% of your total body cells. While how will the handsome return comes? Because subprime mortgage promises you 0 down payment when you purchased a house, but exorbitant interest rate after a year. They will start with 6% for first year, 8% for following, then 13% . Therefore the handsome return comes from the higher and higher interest rate charged to the home owners year over year. May I ask how could someone without a good credit history or don’t have savings put aside manage to service that ballooning loan? Therefore in the end, there will be a lot of foreclosures (people returning the houses to banks and declared bankruptcy).

How does the subprime crisis began, it started when some people finding themselves difficult to service their home loan with spiralling interest rate and bad financial management. Then they will start to file for foreclosures. With foreclosures cases on the rise, the banks that loan out money fail to get their money + interest back. When they fail to get the money and interest back, the banks will not be able to deliver the handsome return they promised to hedge fund managers. Hedge fund managers will not be able to deliver the promised return to customers, then the fund will ask for more money from customers. But it will not plug the leak because you are borrowing money to people who cannot return money. When financial institution that sells hedge fund failes, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will unable to promise the return for the bond market. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will fail too. When Freddie and Fannie failes, it will not be able to purchase subprime mortgages from banks. Banks with subprime mortgages will fail too. Now the US financial system is running dry and this is the time Federal Reserves come to the rescue.

Federal Reserves will print more money and loan the money to the banks, financial institutions to bail them out. When they print more money, lower lending interest rate, US dollar value will depreciate. When US dollar depriciates, commodities that are denominated with US dollar will rise. That is the reason why crude oil price per barrel is spiralling upwards because oil is sold in US dollar value, and also the reason for commodity boom. A 10 dollar value today may only be equivalent to 5 dollar value 2 years ago. Having said that, if you purchased a barrel of crude oil with 50 USD 2 years ago, now you have to pay 100 USD.

So when more and more financial institutions and banks in US are failing due to lack of liquidity, more money will be printed and US dollar will depreciate further. Like it or not, crude oil per barrel will reach USD 200 eventually.

Unfortunately this series of unfortunate events will not be limited to US only, it will have a globla effect on all of us regardless of where you are. So we need to be prepared for the dire consequences ahead.

Try to stay away from credit and keep a strong liquidity in your financial portfolio, the safe place to put your cash now will be savings account and fixed deposits.

Recently I just moved into my new home and whenever I sit in my living room, I am dreaming of having a wide screen LCD / Plasma TV. So I went ahead to do some research on LCD TV, plasma TV, understand the difference, specs and price. I realize LCD / Plasma TV and LCD monitor carry the same specs and if you understand what I blogged before on LCD monitor, you should be able to understand LCD / Plasma TV specs pretty easily too.

First of all we have to analyze the price range. 32” LCD/Plasma TV price is RM 1900-3000, 37” price is RM 2500 – 4000, 40” price is RM3000-5000, 42” price is RM4500-6000. 42” above price is RM6500 and above. We will not look into those above 42” today as frankly speaking it is just insane to spend RM7000 on a TV when you can use it as a downpayment for a car. To understand difference between LCD and plasma technology, you will have to read it from web as it is hard to explain while I don’t really get it too. But generally LCD produces different color through manipulating liquid crystal tiny segment calls pixel using flourescent light bulb. Plasma produces different color through emitting xeon/neon gas to phosphorus reaction.

First we will look at the popular spec, contrast ratio. As we know in the industry there is no standard method in measuring contrast ratio, but generally LCD and plasma TV will specify their dynamic contrast ratio. Through side-by-side comparison experience on a 40” plasma to 40” LCD, plasma TV has sharper and more realistic picture compare to LCD TV. Usually plasma TV will come with contrast ratio of 20,000 – 30,000 :1 while LCD TV will come with contrast ratio of 7000 – 15,000:1. Personally I prefer plasma TV over LCD TV for this simple reason, contrast ratio. While contrast ratio is not as important as in LCD monitor, it does show the difference in LCD TV to plasma TV especially when the typical brightness is 1500 cd/m2 (candelas per meter square) versus LCD monitor of typical 250-300 cd/m2.

Second we have to understand the term HD-ready and full HD. HD-ready also means 720p or 720 pixels count vertically. Full-HD means 1080p or 1080 pixels count vertically. HD or high definition, means resolution of 1920 x 1080 and therefore TV with 1080p is true HD while TV with 720p is considered partial HD ready. All 42” TV and below selling in the market today are HD-ready, the maximum resolution it can support for PC display is 1024 x 768. It reaches the 768 pixels vertical count through upscaling, therefore LCD TV / Plasma TV with 42” or below will not show you great image when you use it to as a PC display. It is important to understand this because LCD TV or plasma TV is not suitable / ideal for PC monitor yet, if you intend to use it as a LCD monitor, you should just go and get a 22-24” LCD monitor which is designed to output higher resolution images rather than 32” LCD TV. I have seen a SAMSUNG 32” LCD TV used to display notebook image and it is indeed very bad and images are blurred, you will definitely feel very disappointed. There is another term called 1080i, 1080i is not 1080p, “i” stands for interlaced, and it is also not true HD and is one of those upscaling fuzzy mathematics. 1080i can be found on all upscaling DVD player – anyway the end result is also pathetic.

Third understand the different risk you need to bear when purchasing a LCD TV and plasma TV. LCD/plasma TV risk is dead pixels, but now manufacturers actually provide warranty for your TV if you have above 8 dead pixels. So if you only have 4 dead pixels, try to find / create another 4. Plasma TV looks good and sharper than LCD TV, but it stands the risk of having burn-in. Plasma TV will usually specifies their backlight panel lifespan. Typically you will see like 60,000 hours or equivalent to 6 years++ if you turn on your TV 24 hours a day. The lifespan actually means after 60,000 hours, the quality of the image on your TV will drop to half and you will see ghosting and blurred images. It doesn’t tell you exactly whether you will start to see/notice the gradual degradation of the image after 2-3 years of usage. I personally don’t have a plasma TV and I cannot tell you that for sure.

Fourth understand the inputs. LCD/plasma TV nowadays do come with at least 2 HDMI 1.3 inputs, at least 2 to 3 video inputs, at least 1 VGA input. Some even come with S-video input and optical cable output to high end speaker system. Input is not something you need to be concern too much because it is more than enough for a high end home theater system and your ASTRO decoder.

Generally 32” LCD TV is for viewing distance of 5-6 feet, 37-42” is for viewing distance of 8-12 feet away. I personally recommend 40” TV at least for living room, and recommend you to give 32” TV a pass. But in the end it is about your budget, and I do agree we shouldn’t spend too much on just a TV. RM 4500-5000 for a 40” LCD / plasma TV is still too high for the average people but I am pretty sure the price will continue to fall as manufacturers and retail come under severe sales pressure.

Another thing why you should be patient and wait is LCD TV will all be full-HD by next year, even 32”. One upcoming model will be SAMSUNG LA32A650. Therefore it is time to expect retails to flush out HD-ready TV with amazingly low price, I cannot guarantee that will happen but I predict that will be the trend. Even in

Singapore

, 32” HD-ready TV is selling as low as RM 1500.

As my good friend and wife always said, when come to technology gadgets, it is always not too late to buy. Well, there are certainly right on that. To prove their theory is correct, 29” CRT flatscreen TV was 2000+ 3 years ago, it is now selling for 799 only, + a free DVD player. As for me, I will continue to use my 3-year old 29” LG CRT monitor which costs me RM 999 and wait until 40” plasma TV is full HD and 30% cheaper.

APPLE 3G iphone launched worldwide last Friday (Japan, Hong Kong, US, Europe), the new iphone comes with the following pricing:

1) 8GB (USD 199) and 16GB (USD 299) in the United States. It is cheaper compare to the original iphone which was sold at USD 399 (8GB) and USD 499 (16GB).

2) User now needs to activate at AT&T on the spot to stem phones from flowing into black market especially in ASIA and users unlocking the device.

3) User now needs to spend USD 59.99 per month + USD 30 for unlimited data plan on AT&T package with 2 years locked contract.

APPLE 3G iphone comes with following new features. 3G chip from Infineon. GPS chip from BROADCOM. A new multi-touch touchscreen LCD panel from SHARP. Firmware 2.0 software. Rear cover changed to plastic white. Improves phone audio quality.

According to Anandtech, 3G iphones clocked a download rate of 1Mbps which is 10X faster than EDGE 110kbps, but strangely webpage loading doesn’t show up any faster. Comparing to Wi Fi running over fiber optic of 3Mbps, the popular webpages still load a lot slower, 9 seconds on facebook vs 4 seconds over Wi Fi. Battery life also runs out faster with 3 hours web surfing vs 5 hours web surfing with Wi Fi.

On the GPS side, it is working but lack the voice-assisted software which is the same when compare to most smartphones like Nokia N95, Nokia N810 etc. User is expected to pay extra for a 3^rd party application to enable the voice-assisted feature.

On the new multi-touch touchscreen, Anandtech said it has again improved to offer much smoother experience, so smooth that it only shows the SAMSUNG microp powering the iphone is underpower. Using GPS and 3G also tax the iphone microp a lot, showing sign of sluggishness and slow.

On the firmware 2.0 software, many applications seem to be lack of polished and far from perfect. There are some new touches to the software like when you rotate the phone the normal calculator will change to a scientific one.

The reason the rear cover change was to allow the GPS to function because GPS receives very weak signal pulses in the atmosphere sent out by SATELLITEs. (about -130 dbm, atmosphere noise is -174 dbm/hz) Having the original cover may impair GPS performance. By changing the rear cover, automatically the phone reception had also improved hence better audio quality.

Iphone 3G is no doubt still a great user experience for many first time owners, but if you are not a first time owner, you may find it less appealing. While having 3G is cool, but the exorbitant charges by telco may make it uncool. Many users in the end may fall back from 3G to free open standard Wi Fi services for web surfing, thus leaving the 3G feature to go unused.

To me iphone 3G looks like a rushed product and it will be even better if more time and resources is spent to integrate the hardware + software to enrich the user experience. Instead of a perfect phone, many features either lack of polishing or come with a price of need to pay more for it.

So for existing iphone user, I think buying iphone for 3G+GPS is not a wise choice, why not wait for next year when Wimax iphone becomes available.

Buying LCD monitor is not as easy as you think it is. Nowadays consumers are given such a wide range of choices that you dont know which one is better than the other. With recent petrol hike, people will usually choose the one that gives free petrol voucher. But remember, you are buying LCD monitor, not filling up gas tank. 17" LCD monitor costs RM500-600, 19" LCD monitor costs RM600-750. 20" LCD minotor costs RM700-900, 22" LCD monitor costs RM850-1200.

So how should you read the specs and be a wise consumer?

First understand what you want, start with native resolution. 17", 19" native resolution is 1280×1024. Some monitors although 19" but promise to upscale to 1600×1200, do not buy into that upscaling bull-shit. if you want 1600×1200 resolution, go for wider monitor. Upscaling will only result in poor quality, blurred and jagged images. Anyway normal user will be satisfied with 1280×1024 nowadays, so dont have to spend the extra for the upscaling feature.

Second understand wide-screen vs regular screen. If you realize, wide screen monitors are now widely sold everywhere but not regular screen. Screen  size is measured in diagonally, therefore for example a 21-inch wide-screen is actually a 19-inch regular-screen, the hold the same number of pixels. So while you thought you are paying RM800 for a 21-inch, it is actually price of a 19-inch regular screen monitor. That is why when you look at a 22-inch wide-screen monitor, it does feel a little bit smaller, dont you feel that? I personally preferred regular screen but wide screen is good for spreadsheet use and watching DVD - as many are in widescreen format. The marketing technique nowadays is to use smaller screen that measured wider in diagonal, and fool the consumers to think they are cheap, it is a good marketing technique!

Third contrast ratio. Contrast ratio is a non standard measurement method, therefore each manufacturer comes up with their own method of measuring it. Contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest black and the brightest white a LCD can produce. The greater the number, the more realistic the picture. For example SAMSUNG markets their LCD panel to be 2000:1, 8000:1, sometimes 20000:1! DELL sells their LCD monitors with contrast ratio of 1000:1 to 2000:1 only. Does that means DELL LCD monitors are bad? Not exactly, actually LCD monitor will not show any advantage if contrast ratio is more than 600:1. The 20000:1, 2000:1 is all marketing gimmicks with non standard fuzzy mathematics to calculate it. Forget the contrast ratio, as long as it is > 600:1, it is good enough. Want better quality? Get a plasma TV, forget about LCD monitor. Btw, do you realize the dark spot when viewing DVD with LCD monitor always look greyish and not so black.

Number 4, brightness. Brightness is measured in candelas/meter square. Rule of thumb, as long as more than 250 cd/m2, it is good enough. Almost all manufacturers set at least 250cd/m2. Some manufacturers will set to 300cd/m2, the image will look brighter and sharper, but life span may decrease while may not be so comfortable to your eye over long time. Anyway, you can always adjust the brightness. Brightness is not something you need to worry about.

Number 5, check the video input. Most of the cheap LCD monitor comes with VGA input which means the video signal is in analog form and needs to be converted to digital form before displaying it, everytime there is a conversion process there will be loss of quality, so try to avoid if possible. Choose LCD monitor with DVI-D input, direct digital display without conversion. Some LCD monitors do come with DVI-D and analog.

Number 6, response time. There are 2 types of measurements, 1 is black-white-black rise-fall time, another is grey-grey change time. The 1st measurement technique is an industrial standard while the 2nd one is yet to be standardized. Poor response time will result in ghosting image, or you will see shadow of the image response that should have happened few seconds ago. Response time normally will show in 8ms, 5ms and 2ms nowadays. 8ms recommended for normal use, 5ms is ok for gaming and video, your eye cant really differentiate between 5ms to 2ms, actually even 8ms to 5ms is hard to differentiate. Most LCD monitors are 8ms nowadays, so another feature you dont have to worry too much.

There is some other additional features that people actually neglect, when they purchase LCD monitor with great contrast ratio, brightness, response time but oppsss…the monitor height cannot be adjusted, so in the end it is less ergonomic. I had seen wonderful 22" LCD monitor selling at 1.5k but no height adjustment, terrible design. So choose those with height adjustment if you plan to work in front of monitor for a long time, if you will not, monitor with only tilt adjustment normally cheaper by RM100~200.

One more thing, some LCD monitors actually comes with USB input, component input, speaker, microphone, webcam. These are the little little extra features you might want to consider when purchasing LCD monitor. Rather than spending big money on contrast ratio, brightness, response time, might as well spend that little extra money on USB input, component input to be a TV, speaker, webcam, it is more practical in the end.

So my LCD monitor of choice, 19"/20" regular screen monitor with height+tilt adjustment, DVI-D input, USB-input plus soundbar(speaker+microphone) and webcam. More parctical, while I will not worry about brightness, contrast ratio and response time too much as those are well taken care of nowadays. You can get this with the price of 1k for 20" from DELL store. But that just me…enjoy!

Recently the shopping mall in Penang is selling a lot of pirated blu-ray DVD at RM 15, the cover all come with a blu-ray logo. I was really surprised at first to learn how fast they actually managed to pirate blu-ray disc, definitely relatively faster than the way we roll out our nation broadband service. The million dollar question, is that really a blu-ray disc?

I also thought it is initially, until 1 day the sales person actually told me that is a 2.5 layer DVD copied from blu-ray disc. So technically speaking, it is not a blu-ray disc, it is a DVD but the visual and audio quality is far more crispier because they actually have to use a larger capacity DVD to hold the content. Those discs can be played on normal DVD player.

Blu-ray uses blue laser to read/write disc with shorter wavelength 405nm vs DVD 650nm, hence larger capacity and hold larger resolution picture and audio. A dual-layer blu-ray disc is 50GB. A blu-ray player now costs RM 1499, from SHARP AQUOS. 1 blu-ray disc costs RM 140. These are all expensive toys for the rich people.

So those are not blu-ray, morally those discs are illegal regardless whether it is DVD-R, DVD single layer, DVD dual layer or 2.5 layer, as long as it holds a movie content without license. But on the technical side, this is indeed another innovation idea from the businessman to make more money in this difficult situation. I dont have the right equipment to test the quality of these movies, therefore I remained sceptical how good it is. Demo shows the visual quality is actually excellent, especially stands out is the audio quality.

Blu-ray or not, seeing technology advancement is fun.