Weilian's Blog

I remember back in the 70's, I used to sit next to the radio, listening to the short wave station broadcasting live Pestabola Merdeka matches. There were fantastic matches against South Korea and Japan. I used to have a few log books completed with newspaper cuttings, pictures and self made reports and graphics of our proud national football team.

But sadly to say, Malaysia football quality has dropped drastically in the 80's and 90's. I have completely lose interest of Malaysia football (look at South Korea and Japan. There are already in the World Cup. Where is Malaysia?)

Yesterday while I was waiting for some downloads to be completed, I made myself a cup of coffee and switched on the TV. There was a delayed telecast of the semi final Asian Football match between Malaysia and Singapore. And I watched how the Malaysia team played.

I was asking myself, "Is this the Malaysia national team?" They were playing like school children. I even thought it was a MSSM match.

They played aimlessly. They had no strategies. They had no planning. They couldn't send the ball accurately to teammates. They couldn't dribble. They couldn't do anything, except "just kick the ball" and spitting out saliva.

Way to go, Malaysia, way to go.

This is an update of my earlier post about a meteor sighted at Kota Tinggi. It is believe that the meteor was actually not a meteor. It is a comet, the McNaught Comet.

Upon recovery in late December, it became apparent that the comet was brightening rapidly. It became visible to the naked eye in early January 2007. It was visible in the northern hemisphere until about 13 January 2007 (source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...).

Too bad, I missed the golden opportunity to view this magnificent celestial sight.

A local Chinese newspaper had published a mysterious picture of a white dragon-like fish (probably photoshopped) caught by the residents of Kota Tinggi right before the big floods. It is believed that the dragon had some connections with the King of Sea Dragons.

According to Chinese mythology, The Dragon King is the God of Rain. In ancient times, people offered sacrifices to the Dragon King, praying for timely rainfall and good harvests. Besides ruling over the aquatic life, the Dragon King also manipulates clouds and rain. When enraged, he can flood cities.

The capture of the white dragon had enraged the Dragon King. It commanded heavy rainfall and big floods. Couldn't cease his anger with the first flood, he commanded a second wave and almost wiped out the whole Kota Tinggi.

At last I managed to shoot some helicopters with my canon. The rain stopped and I wanted to try out some setting with my canon. I wanted to see if the natural colour, or the vivid colour, or the positive film colour is better. Suddenly I heard the sound of the helicopters. There were six of them. I quickly got the setting ready, aimed and fired.

I think these helicopters are used to transport VIPs to the flood relief centres.

There is a kind of virus that spread thru pendrives. Once you plug in your pendrive into an infected computer system, you will see the following messages:

"New hardware found"
"Installing hardware"
"Your hardware is installed successfully. Do you want to reboot your computer?"

At first I was wondering why do I need to reboot my computer. When I checked the pendrive, I saw these (hidden) files in it

F:\ms.config
F:\rm
F:\AUTORUN.INF
F:\infrom.exe

Updated antivirus should be able to detect and clean all those files. Too bad my computers in the lab are not connected to the Internet and they do not have the updated antivirus database. All the computers are infected.

This virus is said to spread itself thru pendrive. If you plug in your digital camera into the USB port of an infected computer, I am sure the virus will copy itself into the digital camera. If only the media card is infected, then we can easily format the media card. But if the virus alters the system of the digital camera, then it would be a havoc.

Be careful of the pendrives.

On Wednesday, 10th January 2007, at around 7.40pm, not one, not two but many residents of Kota Tinggi witnessed a huge fireball above the sky. It is believed to be a huge meteor which shot across the air space of Johor.

"This is only an enact photo"

It was as big as the size of a football, light green in colour but gradually turned into red before it finally disappeared in the sky. It was surely not an aircraft nor an UAV. Until today there is no news on the media about this incident.

Could it be the effect of such a big meteor that caused the change of weather in Johor, especially in Kota Tinggi? It was a catastrophe that Kota Tinggi was hit by massive floods for two times in less than a week.

Although now the rain had stopped, many roads are still impassable. Many residents of Kota Tinggi are stuck with no fuel, no fresh food, no vegetables, no fresh water and no medicine. Let's pray for the nightmare to end soon.

Continuous heavy rain has brought floods back to Kluang. Two schools are closed while another six schools are being used as relief centres for the flood victims.

"The water is rising after a few days of non-stop raining."

Today I tried to send my daughter to school. All the roads to Kluang town and to STK were flooded. Jalan Mersing, Jalan Besar, Jalan Sek Chong Hwa, Jalan Kg Melayu, Jalan Hj Manan were all flooded. The traffic came to a halt. I had no choice but to turn back. On the way back, I received a call from my colleague telling me the Education Office had declared that all activities in schools were canceled because of the flood.

I then went to the provision shop to stock up dried food in case of emergency. I bought lots of biscuits and bread. The shopkeeper told me that many people had come to buy loaves of bread. The delivery lorries still can reach the non-flood areas. In case the water keep on rising and all the roads are blocked, then we will run out of supply.

"The water had risen above the dangerous level"

Today I saw the Agusta helicopter flying around, maybe to survey the condition of the floods. I tried to snap a few photos of the helicopter but it flew away when I got my camera ready ;-)

Eneloop is a combination of a rechargeable and a disposable battery. It can be used right after the purchase. It has a high performance. It also has a long shelf life with no loss of energy. Once charges, Eneloop keeps its charge even if you store it for 6 or 12 months (90 per cent of the charge after 6 months, 85 per cent after 12 months). It is said that with Eneloop we can make substantially more shots with our digital camera than with any other disposable battery.

I bought 4 pieces of Eneloop and use it on my Canon S3. I made a record to check how many shots I could make with my Canon. I snapped around 220 shots. With Energizer 2500mAh Ni-MH, I could snap only around 160 shots, although some reviews said it can snap up to 300 photos with regular alkaline batteries. But I must say my numbers were not really accurate because sometimes I previewed my photos more on the LCD, sometimes I locked on the target longer, sometimes played with the zoom more ... etc. But overall, Eneloop performed better that Energizer. I was surprised that none of the camera shops in Kuala Lumpur that I went know anything about Eneloop. Some gave me cynical smiles when I told them the benefit of Eneloop.

One day after the trip to Menara Axis, I went to The Curve Kuala Lumpur. I saw a shop selling Canon Powershot S3 IS at RM1799 (USD512) when the normal price was RM1899 (USD541). Coincidently I met some friends there too. My friends told me to check the price at Low Yat Plaza Kuala Lumpur.

So I went to Low Yat Plaza. Indeed the price was cheaper. I saw some selling at RM1699, RM1660, RM1620 and RM1600. It was even cheaper at Bukit Bintang Plaza, a few steps away from Low Yat Plaza. The cheapest I got was RM1540 (USD438). There were many shops in Bukit Bintang Plaza. I took the S3 and tried its 12X zoom to the salesgirls opposite the corridor. Fantastic... So I took the camera home.

It was the long school holidays in December. Many shops were having their year-end and Christmas sales. I heard Fujifilm Malaysia was having a sale too at Menara Axis Kuala Lumpur. So I went there, intended to get a S6500fd.

The normal price of this S6500fd was RM1800 (USD512) but it was selling at RM1588 (USD452) during the sale. I did not get the camera though. Here were the factors :

I tried its 10X zoom... hmm... not very impressive. (Fujifilm should made their sales outdoor where there were lots of things to zoom at)

The LCD was too bright, as if it was washed out (or maybe too many fingerprints on it).

The lens is too long. I was worrying how to carry it wherever I go with its lens protruding out.

I told the salesman I was concerned about S6500fd which does not have an image stabiliser. The salesman argued back accusing it was my lousy way of holding the camera. He started to clown on the lousy ways of holding a camera (I don't like people clowning in front of me).

The credit officer should smile. No smile, no deal. That's it.

So in the end, I left Menara Axis empty handed.

In November 2006, I called Fotocharlie, Batu Pahat to ask about Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7 digital camera. A male sales representative confirmed with me that Fotocharlie had stock of silver and black FZ7 selling at RM1599 (USD455) with a free 512MB SD card.

A few days later, I went to Fotocharlie, The Summit Batu Pahat at 5.45pm to buy that camera. I was standing there for more than half an hour and nobody attended me. The male representatives were busy teasing the female representatives. The female representatives were giggling away. At last I asked one of the man about Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7. He then called out for a girl. The girl (wearing yellow Fotocharlie t-shirt) knew nothing about camera. She said there was no such model as Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7 (she couldn't even pronounce "FZ7"). When I insisted, she said she never came across such model of all the "years" she worked there.

Then I asked her to call the headquarter. She called and replied that the HQ confirmed Panasonic has no such model.

I called the HQ myself and another girl picked up the phone. She was giggling away. I asked for the manager, she said the manager was on leave. She ganged up with the salesgirl to make fun of me.

I got frustrated by the unprofessional ethic of Fotocharlie. I hope Fotocharlie will properly train its staff in order not to trash its reputation as an established company.

I canceled my plan to have any deal with Fotocharlie. I am going to Kuala Lumpur to get the camera.