Love at first sight

It was indeed love at first sight.

The moment I saw it I was totally mesmerized and I knew there and then I just had to own it.

Never mind it was huge, I’ve always like huge stuffs anyway... the bigger the better since I’ve always been a believer that good things come in motherfucking huge packages… look at the size of my husband and you will know what I mean :p

And so being the impulsive person that I am and have always been, I went ahead and bought it within the next 2 days…

The Samsung Omnia HD (aka i8910)…

Basically in a nutshell, in terms of features and application functionality it comes very close to my 8 month old Nokia 5800 which is obvious since both are using the Symbian S60 v5 aka v9.4 platform.



The GOOD:

What basically made me impulsively decide to throw my Nokia 5800 aside had mainly gotta do with the i8910 3.7" AMOLED crystal clear and crisp display vs conventional TFT display that really took my breath away when I first laid eyes on it. Even better it plays DIXV/XVID straight out from the box without the need to install 3-party apps and this saves me a gazillion hours having to convert my *cough*downloaded*cough* movies/TV shows to frigging mp4 format all the time.

To top things up, it comes with an 8 mega pixel camera plus HD video recording (720p) which is a bonus. Instead of having to lug my pumpkin colored Lumix DMC-FT1 all the time, I now can rely on this toy for decent photos and video recording over an ad-hoc basis. Plus guess what? This baby can actually do automated panoramic photo capture which I do not even need to manually assemble the multiple photos together to get a full panoramic angle… Fuuuh Yoh! :p

So since I’m a TV addict plus a lazy bum, what more can I ask for? All I need to do is just happily download whatever videos off the internet using my rapid share and mega upload shared accounts, connect and transfer the files to the motherfucker and VOILA, watch them all until the cows come home…

Life is a paradise, now that I can indeed wipe off the dreaded phrase ‘convert and encode and convert and encode’ off my vocabulary and make room for my brain to do something else… Also another important thing to highlight is I no longer have to put up with Nokia’s spiteful joke of not allowing their phones to be charged via USB cable which is totally WTF!

Nevertheless, it’s quite surprising that Samsung actually opted to use the Symbian platform, something it has never done before since it’s been pretty big on Windows Mobile.

The BAD:

While it definitely beats the crap out of the Nokia 5800 and also the Nokia N97, aside from the Symbian v9.4 limitations, Samsung itself still has room for improvement too.

Previously when I could install the Nokia OVI store app on my 5800 and frequently find new cool apps available both free and commercial with ease, I now have to bang against the wall to do the same on the Samsung phone even though both are sharing the same exact platform. Although I know for a fact that OVI is Nokia propriety, I thought Samsung would offer the same solution for convenient app search but boyyyy was I wrong!

The Samsung main website itself sucks monkey ass when it comes to support and downloads. It’s horrifically slow, intermittent page loading and totally useless to begin with. At the same time they also have another alternative website which is just equally as hopeless as the main one. It is as though both sites are competing with each other to top themselves more hopeless than the other… bodohness indeed…

So now, I have no choice but to sign up for multiple forums to get my cracked
apps somewhere else which is back to square one before my discovery of the Nokia OVI store and the pain of the unsigned certs, outdated certs… dammit…

I suspect Samsung is focusing more on marketing their original OMNIA series – the OMNIA I and OMNIA II and putting less concentration on the OMNIA HD model :( … To think I found out that they have not even launched this model out in Taiwan market yet while I was there searching high and low for a decent phone pouch about 2 weeks ago.

See, Samsung is very very stingy. Un-boxing the i8910 you only get a charger, a crappy quality wired earphone, a USB cable, a battery plus bits and pieces of useless papers, tons of plastic wraps and that’s about it… Samsung was not even bothered to invest in mediocre leather or PVC pouch together with the handset… damn stingy fuckers I tell you… so stingy I’m surprised they didn’t just packed the phone in a clear plastic zip lock bag together with the other items then label with a black marker pen that reads 'Samsung'… sheesh!

Ok, back to the topic why I said Samsung is paying very little attention marketing the i8910 compared to the WM OMNIA series has also to do with ROM updates. The problem with me is that I am constantly going after the latest greatest applications including firmwares. So there I was totally dissatisfied with the current Malaysian released firmware update on the phone as it was dated July 2009 (superbly outdated in my humble opinion) so I went hunting in forums for newer firmwares released in other countries.

I finally found one nicely updated official Russian ROM release (NOTE: NOT A COOKED ROM BUT AN OFFICIAL ONE) so I took the risk of voiding my warranty and bricking my phone, read the ‘caution headlines’ and went ahead to update my firmware very carefully…

And it worked brilliantly fine although at first I had a bit of a struggle navigating through the menus attempting to change the language from Russian to English after the phone went into hard reset mode. It kinda took me 10-15 minutes sweating over it before I managed to heave a sigh of relief – Not bad eh? :D*

With the new ROM in place, for what it is worth, the phone had new plus points like a 3D task manager and better performance in terms of speed…

Ok... fast forward about a week later after the ROM upgrade, I was on a flight to Taipei and was busy watching my videos contentedly until I realized my battery was out of juice so I had no choice but to shut it down and read a book instead.

The moment I was out of the immigration I booted the phone…

*Blink Blink*

*Samsung logo appears*

…Samsung logo loading….

…Samsung logo still loading…

3 minutes later…

…Samsung logo still loading…

UH OH….

I could not even turn the phone off and had to resort to yanking out the battery, inserted it back and tried booting it up again…

*Blink Blink*

*Samsung logo appears*

…Samsung logo loading….

…Samsung logo still loading…

3 minutes later…

…Samsung logo still loading…

GULPS…

Yanked out battery, booted it up again…

*Blink Blink*

*Samsung logo appears*

…Samsung logo loading….

…Samsung logo still loading…

3 minutes later…

…Samsung logo still loading…

FUCK!

Repeat the above steps for about a gazillion times…

Finally I knew I was officially screwed…

You see, the other major flaw of the Samsung hardware (not the Symbian platform since both Nokia phones on S60v5 do not have this problem) is that this frigging phone does not allow one to charge the phone offline.

The moment you shut down the phone and charge (either by USB or by normal charger) it automatically boots the phone up… and now my problem is the moment it boots up, it hangs on the loading screen and I cannot even see the status of the battery nor have any idea if it is really actually charging.

I was now left horrified drowned in multiple dilemmas…

• Dilemma 1: Without fully charging the phone, even if I wanted to revert back to the original Malaysian ROM, I cannot do so, else if halfway through the firmware update and the phone runs out of juice, I’m left with nothing but a shiny piece of black worthless plastic…

• Dilemma 2: Because of my itchiness to use an alien although official firmware, I could not hand my phone over to Samsung shops as my warranty was already considered void.

• Dilemma 3: Even if I was willing to spend for the repair, I was in a country where I cannot speak their language never mind understand them…

I called 2 of my colleagues to my room and powered on my ranting mode...

It wasn’t until after a while that we kept passing the phone around to each other to try our luck by pressing every single button available randomly/simultaneously that a divine intervention took place…

Without knowing how one of them succeeded into getting the phone to go into reset mode by itself… (Until today he still has no idea how so like I said it was a 'divine intervention'…LOL)

All in all I spent 4 freaking hours later that night to revert to the original ROM and restore back all my data… Sigh! The consequences of my itchy butt…

I gotta say this – while I admit that I am to be partially blamed for my own itchiness but Samsung is also partially guilty of releasing such a fucked up ROM… And please don’t give me no shit about Russian firmwares being not compatible to Malaysian handsets…

Anyway to conclude this, although I have no choice but to be stuck with the old firmware, overall I’m still am quite pleased with this purchase. It does have both good and bad just like any other mobile device out there. In terms of software/application availability, it definitely still lacks pretty much behind Windows Mobile and that is one thing I really do miss especially SPB DIARY! I have been searching to my wits-end everywhere to get something similar but to no avail. :(

While WM makes a superb PDA especially calendar management but as a phone it is frustratingly unstable. Symbian on the other hand makes a superb stable phone but lacks the PDA awesomeness.

Life sure is a bitch because you can’t have everything… as in the ULTIMATE DEVICE...

...well maybe not now…so I'll just have to continue waiting.... :)
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Farewell to my most faithful acquaintance...

We have known each other for more than a decade, half of my mortal life...

You have stood by me through thick and thin for as far back as I can remember...

You have picked me up; calmed me down and have helped me see through under the worst circumstances...

You have led me to crawl out of my shell to a circle of strangers now called friends in mysterious ways I cannot even begin to comprehend...

Judge me you do not, never did and never will regardless of what I do or have done...

I have always understood the consequences I faced right from the first day I befriended you...

Even though almost everyone around me has always been against our relationship yet I have never faltered, always standing up for you all these years...

….until now…

It is time for us to go our separate ways...

Please know that it is indeed grimly challenging for me to have to bid you farewell after 15 long years of friendship...

It is time for me to let go of you and you of me...

I am truly sorry, really I am...

Goodbye to you my dear faithful friend...

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Kampung Buah Pala - Nobody emerges an angel...

I've been refraining from commenting about this issue for some time. Reason is I wanted to slowly and silently keep tab and see the the entire story unfold by itself...

With the finger pointings, police reports, law suits, tears shed plus sweat, black mailings, muscle flexings, backstabbings, rumor mongerings and what not from each and every side... lets look at the roles of who is the villian and who is the hero from tthe outcome of this event from this two coalition parties - if any... Now let me be fair to both parties...

*** BN V.S Pakatan ***

BN:
The Alpha and the Omega of all villains who initiated the scheming sale of the this 6.5 acre land to the Koperasi with a whopping 50% discount (original premium of the land was worth RM6.42 million) all the way back in 2001 and finally received the approval from the EXCO not once but twice in 2004 and 2005.

KTK's shitty lame ass excuse was that this particular land was a replacement of the land somewhere around Lebuh Light (beside the Dewan Sri Pinang) which in actual fact, the real reason was simply to reap huge motherfucking fat profits among the cronies - an act which they've almost perfected in ... until of course that backfired when the tables turned and they lost to Pakatan...

Well, its not that surprising because BN's act of marginalizing the citizens is not something entirely new to the Malaysians. BN has been like doppelganger version of Robin Hood's evil twin brother robbing the poor to feed the pockets of the filthy rich making them richer this whole time.

Hell they've been robbing us from right to left, top to bottom, sideways plus diagonally over the last few decades so what is another one more sad case such as this?

Most of us have already given up hope on them long long time ago which is why we furiously stood at the voting counter, penning a big BOLD 'X' on any other box, even on a box portraying a logo of a monkey...anything at all EXCEPT for the stupid blue flag with white scale logo...

Pakatan Rakyat:
I cannot say the actions taken by the Pakatan can be any more commendable in this issue compared to BN - maybe just a teeny bit. If BN pocketed the 1 million, you pocketed double the amount. Before they came to power in Penang, their campaigning sessions BELLOWED out:

• honesty
• sincerity
• open truth
• transparency and much more...

Three weeks after they assumed office, the transferring of the Kampung Buah Pala land went over to Koperasi Pegawai to be developed by Nusmetro Ventures, right under the very nose of LGE. That was in March 2008 mind you. I do not blame them for not stopping the transactions because by then it was already too late and if they had pulled their weights to stop, all hell will break lose amongst the buyers of the apartment... To put it in a nutshell, it was either suffer the wrath of the few villagers or suffer the wrath of the Oasis condo buyers plus the developer. It does not take a genius to figure out which of the two would have been a more fatal blow to the Pakatan... So with that act, the fate of the villagers were already fatally packed, sealed and ready for shipment...

So what exactly did LGE and his gang do? Fast forward to 18th of January 2009, RSN Rayer of ADUN Sri Delima (of my very own area) together with Karpal Singh happily came strutting to Kampung Buah Pala and confidently told the villagers that 'As long as Pakatan reigns in Penang, they will never allow anyone to enter and rob the villagers and that Kampung Buah Pala will stand forever and ever" My guess is our friend here simply conveniently forgot to add that sure, the village will exist forever - only just without the villagers themselves...

Things could have turn out slightly better since even much earlier the Pakatan people clearly knew there was no hope left for the villagers. They could have displayed some fragment of honesty by simply admitting the actual circumstances and turnaround events and start early negotiations with the villagers. But NO...instead smiled and waved confidently and when the storm finally broke out, documents and events were declassified, only then did Pakatan start attempting to go all out into negotiations bla bla bla... which of course only infuriated the villagers more! They were already betrayed once but to them this was much worse than the previous betrayal...To them, the Pakatan knew their chances were down to zero yet pretended and fed them with false hope... And with such last minute negotiations/proposals from the developers over the compensations, details were getting missed out, clauses were not analyzed profoundly, confusions were at every corner, etc...

Yes, we admit that you Pakatan have fought for these poor villagers an attractive sum of compensation. Unfortunately, in terms of integrity, sad to say you have indeed plunged southward especially amongst some of the indian community. You need to come out with miracles almost equivalent to Moses and the burning bush within next coming few years before the next general election...

Have you not learnt anything from DSAI's false 'wolf cry' last year? Don't make empty promises if you cannot actually fulfill them...Sheesh...

The Aftermath:
On top of the double blow to the villagers, came the triple one when they kept getting false advice with political agenda by HINDRAF and MIC people who were using them, which only added more salt to the already excruciating injured wound... and not to mention some of these villagers started to turn greedy and now the greedy stubborn ones might eventually end up with nothing...

This is a very tragic tale all together and at the end of the day, everybody is a guilty party - one way or the other...

My condolences to the people of Kampung Buah Pala...

Random updates: With all the extreme daily political bickering day-in day-out, politicians suing, backstabbing and covering their individual asses out, it makes me wonder who the fuck is actually running this country now?

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Retarded Sales People...

I went for the PC Fair event in Pisa on Saturday morning with one sole purpose - to purchase a copy of legal anti-virus software because I am sick and tired of downloading illegal installers and finding cracks/keygens am such a good diligent civilian, for my newly formatted fresh installed 64-bit Vista OS a legal one too mind you, well err..kind-off :p

I had already actually somewhat decided to get the Kaspersky Internet Security copy even before I went, after testing out both Avira (on my house PC) and Kaspersky (on my office notebook) over the last 2 weeks.

...At the Avira booth....

The first booth I walk past was a booth selling the Avira software so I just grabbed a brochure lying around and quickly scanned through the details just for fun. The salesperson quickly came over and started harassing me non-stop about his products in line in a voice of pure arrogance yet broken English...

At first I ignored him and just let him yakked on and yakked on and yakked on about how wonderful Avira antivirus is, like it was a heaven God-sent product. Seeing that I didn't entertain him much, he started to blow his own horn more which unfortunately a tad bit too much for my liking...

Him: Our ploduk horrr.. is the number 1 ploduk in the market lehh! Other ploduk kennot beat our Avira ploduk one you know... so you must quickly buy. Number 1 ah in the market, I tell you! Galenti you wan!!!

He kept saying that for about 4 times in a row in less than 5 minutes. By the fifth time, I started feeling slightly ticked off but still I ignored him.

By the sixth time of the same bullshit, I finally looked up to him, smiled and sweetly told him off...

Me: Excuse me Mr-So-And-So, you keep saying your product is number 1 in the market like a tape recorder. Every sales person I meet will say the same thing, mind you. Do you see the booth over there, the Kaspersky one? *points at the Kaspersky booth* If I were to walk over there now, do you think the Kaspersky sales person will tell me that their product is a fabulous product but comes 2nd after Avira?

Him: But...but...but... really wan, our ploduk really number 1 lehhh!

Me: Oh, that's indeed the same thing they will tell me too...

Him: Aiyo! You really duwan to buy ah? Very cheap horr.. RM69 only!

Me: Lets see my mood later on... *smiles and walks off to the Kaspersky booth*

Him: ???????


...At the Kaspersky booth....

They had a promotion that if you buy 3 licenses in a single box, it will cost only RM109 instead of the normal 1 license in a single box which is RM79. Since I couldn't think of anyone I know who would actually want to 'buy' a licensed anti-virus copy even if it was pretty reasonably priced, I had already determined on my purchase especially after getting annoyed by the Avira sales person.

The Kaspersky sales lady than came over and she suggested me to buy the 3-in-1 box. I politely told her no, that I only have 1 machine to install at home and that have already decided on my purchase. She nodded and then proceed to urge me to buy several of the single license boxes 'to perhaps keep' say for the next 3 years. Again, I explained to her that I only want ONE box ...

You'd think she'd gave up by now, but noooooo.... she continued repeatedly persuading me to get either the 3-in-1 license or multiple single licenses since it's cheap during this promotional period now. Plus there is a special secret gift awaiting for every individual box purchased which is unlike the normal conventional gifts say a pen or something...bla bla bla bla...

I finally got fed up and gave her a piece of my mind...

Me: Miss So-and-So... Like I've said, I only need a single license copy because I ONLY HAVE ONE PC THAT I PLAN TO INSTALL. I DO NOT NEED THE 3-IN-ONE UNLESS YOUR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE CAN ALLOW ME TO INSTALL TO BOTH MY HOUSE REFRIGERATOR AND MY MICROWAVE OVEN. PLUS I REALLY DON'T NEED TO BUY AND STORE ANY MORE ADDITIONAL SINGLE BOX LICENSES TO LAST ME FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS EVEN IF IT IS INDEED CHEAP NOW. 3 YEARS IS A LONG LONG TIME, TO ME AT LEAST. I DOUBT YOU CAN EVEN DARE TO ASSURE ME TODAY THAT YOUR COMPANY WILL NOT CLOSE DOWN IN 3 YEARS TIME. EVEN I CANNOT ASSURE YOU IF I WILL STILL BE ALIVE IN 3 YEARS TIME. ALSO HOW SURE ARE YOU THAT IN 3 YEARS TIME, YOUR SOFTWARE MIGHT NOT BE EVEN CHEAPER COMPARED TO NOW... SO YES, I'LL TAKE MY CHANCES AND JUST BUY ONE SINGLE BOX LICENSE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH... NOW CAN YOU PLEASE HELP TO PACK THIS ONE BOX UP CAUSE I WANT TO MAKE MY PAYMENT NOW AND I REALLY DON'T HAVE ALL DAY TO STAND HERE AND LISTEN TO YOU TRYING TO CONVINCE ME. THANK YOU AGAIN... *smiles sweetly*

P/S: And guess what was the oh-so-special-secret-gift from Kaspersky? The Kaspersky 2010 First Day Covers.... RIGHT! How incredibly boring and useless plus I don't even know where the hell I placed it now... musta have thrown it away together with the leftover plastic wraps and all in the dustbin..*shrugs*... they should have given me a conventional damn pen instead!


*Fuck Wits*

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Make Up Your Damn Mind...

In 1970, Dr M wrote in his infamous controversial book that it was crucial for the Malays to be protected in their own soil and to receive governmental aid simply because the Malays failed to compete with the Chinese due to genetic reasons, yada yada bullshit, yada yada more bullshit….

In 2002, Dr M changed his views and argued

“When I wrote The Malay Dilemma in the late 60s, I had assumed that all the Malays lacked the opportunities to develop and become successful. They lacked opportunities for educating themselves, opportunities to earn enough to go into business, opportunities to train in the required vocation, opportunities to obtain the necessary funding, licences and premises. If these opportunities could be made available to them, then they would succeed.......

.... The Malays, together with the other Bumiputeras, make up 60 per cent of the country's population. But in terms of their political clout, it is now much less than 60 per cent. They are now more dependent on non-Malay support, both the government party and the opposition. Economically, of course, they have less than half the 30-per-cent share that has been allocated to them. If we discount the non-Malay contribution to the nation's economy, Malaysia would be not much better than some of the African developing countries.

.... So what is the new Malay dilemma? Their old dilemma was whether they should distort the picture a little in order to help themselves. The new dilemma is whether they should or should not do away with the crutches that they have got used to, which in fact they have become proud of. There is a minority of Malays who are confident enough to think of doing away with the crutches, albeit gradually. But they are a very small minority. Their numbers are not going to increase any time soon. They are generally regarded as traitors to the Malay race. ....

"It is, therefore, not the race or ethnicity which determines success. It is the culture."


However 2 days ago, the same fickle minded old man made a huge U-TURN and went back to his old school lame bullshit A.G.A.I.N. to defend his sorry-ass pet N.E.P!

“Because they (the Malays) are willing to share their country with other races, the race from the older civilization of more than 4,000 years and who are more successful, as such today whatever they have now is also being taken away from them,” he wrote in what appeared to be a reference to the Chinese community.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced reforms to the capital markets, taking away the 30 per cent Bumiputera requirement, sparking concerns among some Malays that government protection for them was being taken away.

The prime minister also announced recently the setting up of a merit-based scholarship programme in what was seen as an attempt to appease the non-Malay communities who have been complaining of unfair distribution of aid for top students.

But Mahathir argued in his latest blog post that 39 years after the NEP was introduced, the Bumiputera share of the corporate pie remained at just 20 per cent while the Chinese share stood at 50 per cent even though they consisted of just 26 per cent of the population.

“The Bumiputera property holdings are only 15 per cent while the rest are held by non-Bumiputeras because urban property is worth more than rural property.

“Non-Malay leaders who put themselves in the shoes of the Malays, if they are honest, will feel the disappointment of the Malays in seeing nearly all business and industry in the hands of the non-Malays.”
Those who lived in high-end housing estates were mostly non-Malays, he said while claiming that a significant number of Malays lived in squatter houses.

*****

First of all, a fact is a fact - that the original landowners of our soil are the 'Aborigines' – (Orang Asli), descends from the Hoabinhians who occupied the peninsula as early as 11,000 B.C. And today, the aborigines together with the Malays and indigenous people of both Sabah/Sarawak form the ‘Sons-of-Soil’ (Bumiputera) which makes up to about 65% of the population.

Yes, yes there is no doubt the Malays championed the Freedom of Malaysia from the British but excuse me if my recollection serves me wrong but I do not recall Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun V.T Sambathan dressing in mini short skirts, carrying pom poms around, standing by the side and merely just cheering for Tunku Abdul Rahman across the other side of the field once upon a time ago. Were they or were they not in the same flight together? Man, and if that does not earn the Chinese and Indians a right to be part of Malaysia, I really do not know what is.

Now, with that aside let me further move on.

What exactly do you mean by the Chinese are the real masters of the country? What the hell is wrong with you? You and I alongside the other Malaysians know that the real masters of this country is neither the citizens be it the Malays, the Chinese, the Indians nor the indigenous people.

The true masters of the deadly hallows are the leaders themselves, the UMNO/MCA/MIC goons together with your dirty crony gangs. You of all people should know this so instead of asking other people to be “willing to accept the truth in order for them to compare”, why not start with you first?

I can bet with my last dollar that all those filthy prosperous Chinese ‘masters’ whom you are referring to are one way or another somehow correlated to your cluster of golden circles. The rest of us unfortunate honest ones are just trying our best to live a decent life. I don’t see the Chinese nor the Indians demanding to be Prime Ministers or head of the country. Hell some of us do not even give a hoot for MCA/MIC/Gerakan assholes to represent us. They are nothing more but your little lap dogs thank you very much!

All we just want are equal opportunities say in education, obtaining scholarships and to make our ends meet. There is nothing wrong with that. We pay our taxes and dues dutifully each year and what do we get in return? Being demoralized by irresponsible leaders and ex leaders like yourself, being degraded, being called immigrants, being labeled robbers as a matter of fact.

Please, do us all a favor, quit whining, quit instigating and relinquish yourself from twisting the facts just to suit your old school authoritarian ways. Instead of calling your blog entry “Foot in Shoes’ how about renaming it to “Foot in Mouth” instead?

Is 22 years not enough for you to terrorize us?
What more do you really really want, bitch?

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