Rise of the all-female tribute bands: Lez Zeppelin, AC/DShe, Cheap Chick, The Ramonas

Or Chicks with Picks, as Spin Magazine calls them.

Move over Jimmy Page. Enter centrestage Steph Paynes.

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add in veteran New York-area musicians Helen Destroy on drums, Lisa Brigantino on bass, mandolin and keyboards and Sarah McLellan on vocals, they’re ready to rock.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mitnick prefers to hack OSS

via tectonic.co.za’s article.

Quote:

“Open source would be easier [to hack], it’s less work.”  

open source software:

  • easier to analyse for security holes, since you can see the code.

proprietary software:

  • requires either reverse engineering;
  • getting your hands on illicit copies of the source code, or
  • using a technique called “fuzzing”.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Work smart: forget badminton or squash?!

Q: Why choose badminton or squash?

A: It’s twice as difficult as tennis (see bottom of this), but the money is nowhere near big enough.

Justine Henin-Hardenne won USD457,500 as the losing finalist of 2006’s Australian Open. For those who didnt know, it’s a tennis tournament. That’s a freakin’ RM1.7 million! And she didn’t even finish the best of 3 set match, retiring against Amelie Mauresmo.

And I am not even talking about the men’s tournament!

I mean, I make it to a final of a tennis Grand Slam, win or lose I can retire already!

If you think that’s impossible, think Michael Chang’s only Grand Slam triumph – the 1989 French Open.

In stark contrast, the world’s most prestigious badminton title, the All England offered less than RM40,000 to the men’s singles champion in 2006.

And the world’s most prestigious squash tournament, the British Open offered less than RM30,000 to the men’s champion.
Gosh, I think my sports list for my kids would look like this already:

  1. soccer [KIV]
  2. badminton
  3. athletics [KIV]
  4. squash
  5. swimming
  6. hockey
  7. rugby
  8. bowling
  9. tennis
  10. golf

Popularity: 11% [?]

Holy grail of blogging: problogging, earning >RM60,000/mth

As Liewcf.com wrote, Aussie Darren Rowse did it within 20 months.

Some things I’ve learnt just by observing:

  • Keep separate blogs for different subjects – avoid rojak content [which is what I'm still doing!]. Darren has about 20 blogs, LiewCF 3 (or is it more?).
  • Content is king.
  • Persevere.
  • Being good at English is not necessary, as long as you can be understood.
  • You could earn more from Chitika than from Adsense.
  • Adsense’s reputation took a beating recently, perhaps Yahoo’s offering is better.

Darren shares the secrets on how he did it, for USD280…
So, forget Irfan Khairi’s RM40 book (“Secrets of Internet Millionaires Revealed”) or Sen Ze’s RM68 book “How to Use the Internet to Earn a Massive, Passive Income in Your Pajamas!“??

Popularity: 1% [?]

South East Asia’s most popular blogs

  • The blogs listed here make their meters/counters public. Some chose not to, so they are not in the list.
  • Those with >=1,000 unique visitors per day qualify.
  • This list is not meant to be exhaustive!
  • Conclusions should only be drawn after reading Mack Zul’s take on hits.

Numbers are average unique visitors per day as of today.

South East Asian blogs in English/Malay.

discovered by chance:

Read some about, but not quite there yet:

Popularity: 57% [?]

humanupgrades.com – 2nd thumb, anyone?

…so that your grip is stronger than anybody else?

  • Or make your nose only have one hole?
  • Or have 8 nipples?
  • Or make your ear look like an alien’s?
  • Or replace all your teeth with only 2 wide ones?
  • Or turn into the Man from Atlantis?

I won’t even mention some of the crazy things on offer.

Creepiest site I have ever seen so far.
Other sites try to shock you. But this one seems dead serious about creating shocking modifications to the human body.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Some of the “products” are well….obscene to say the least, in idea, name and product.

Popularity: 1% [?]

To be settled in an Italian court: “did Jesus exist or not?”

Regarding recent debates on Christianity, perhaps the only thing that can challenge the U.S. debate over intelligent design versus evolution in enormity and possible repercussions is the question of whether Jesus was mere myth.

An Italian court is tackling Jesus – and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.

What makes it even more interesting is the perpetrator, devoted atheist Luigi Cascioli was once a trainee priest, but “drifted away from the Church and has spent much of his life as a committed atheist and anti-religion campaigner.

He even wrote a book “The Fable of Christ” and has a website.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Guang Liang’s Tong Hua – “the most important is the song” concept demonstrated

Update 27 Jan

The chorus has been going around in my head all day long, at work and while driving. And an insider joke chorus lyrics have been developing in my head as I drove home earlier:

when I left SMK Tamparuli

twenty years ago seems like yesterday

as they say, life goes on, the show must go on 

Bongkihoi and Ganang in memory 

——————–

I hardly ever listen to Chinese music, cantopop or otherwise. To me, most of them sound almost alike, especially those from Hong Kong/Taiwan.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got an ear for a good melody. I equally like the music of Metallica (and sometimes “worse”) and people like Westlife. Now, the mere mention of the latter might get me killed by fans of the former, but that’s just the way it is…

And I like classic songs by Teresa Teng and Sam Hui, and the best songs by Taiwanese and HK artists (although most of the time I can’t tell which is which) are not bad either.

The most recent Chinese song that I liked is “Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui” by Zhang Dong Liang.

Due to me never ever listening to Chinese channels, nor watch Chinese movies (the last one I watched disappointed me to bits – “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) or have friends who are cantopop fanatics, I get to know top Chinese songs in strange ways.

“Dang Ni Gu Dan Ni Hui Xiang Qi Shui” was embedded in as a ringtone when I purchased my handphone.

“Tong Hua” was played by the DJ when I was waiting for my next karaoke song. I didnt understand any of the lyrics, but was instantly smitten by the melody. Later we asked the DJ to play it again, and I asked for the song name and the artist.
“Tong Hua” was just like “Dang Ni…”, Westlife’s “swear it again” and the Backstreet Boys’ “as long as you love me” – gigantic hook – I knew it was gonna be a big hit.

And I was almost a year too late. Apparently he’s been around for years and was in a group which later split up.
I’ve never even heard of Guang Liang aka Michael Wong before tonight! And he’s even Malaysian and got numerous awards internationally, meaning he’s probably on par with the so-called Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong’s cantopop.

So here goes (online):

….and yes DJ, that “terlampau panjang” joke is hilarious =)

Popularity: 47% [?]

Now city slickers want to be rubber tappers too

The world is experiencing an incredible surge in rubber prices.

It’s indeed good news for rubber smallholders in Thailand, Indonesia and of course Malaysia, who together produces 90% of the world’s natural rubber.

Check out the daily rubber price list update by the Malaysian Rubber Board (Lembaga Getah Malaysia). Compare prices on different dates. The difference is phenomenal, the growth breathtaking. International rubber price updates (including KL prices) are available at an Indian-based website.
This has never happened before, at least not in the last 40 years.

What a big contrast to the crisis of 1974, where smallholders in Baling, Kedah demonstrated against falling prices.

Consider this price difference from a few years ago to today:

  • scrap: 30 sen/kilo to RM3/kilo
  • “getah kepingan”: now RM7.50/kilo, projected bullish to RM10/kilo

Rubber smallholders used to be able to earn, daily, RM50 to RM80, now can get up to RM200 per shift (2 shifts per day). That means, weekly (Mon-Fri only): RM1600, and monthly: >RM6000.

Shift 1: 7-11am, can produce up to 50 kg
Shift 2: afternoon

And all these on smallholdings: 2 acre rubber plantations

Why the increase?

- China’s expanding economy

- increase in crude oil prices drove synthetic rubber prices up

No wonder my my cousin and her husband have “offered” to work on our 7-acre rubber plantation, which have stood neglected ever since the Great Fire of 1998 (El Nino).
Perhaps it’s a good idea to join them on weekends, and what better time than the coming long holidays to have a feel of what it’s like to be close to a rubber tree, mosquitoes etc after a long hiatus?

Popularity: 41% [?]

Which bank is for your kids?

tips via hafizismail.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Adi “the genius” Putra is getting bored at school…(2)

As jeffooi.com mentioned:

Bernama named him maths genius; Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein feels ‘challenged’ and is fearful of losing his job; menteri besar Idris Jusoh was reduced to emotional tears and decided to ‘adopt’ the kid as Terengganu’s son.

Seems that all child geniuses have parents who gave up their jobs to educate their child(ren) full-time at home, including that reference standard, Ruth Lawrence who got a first-class maths degree from Oxford at age 13. She completed her degree in 2 years instead of the normal 3. She’s the youngest ever British person to gain a first-class degree, and the youngest to graduate from the Uni of Oxford in modern times. She then followed up with a 2nd degree (in Physics) at the age of 15, and then get this, a PhD in maths, also from Oxford at the age of 18! Her Ph.D. thesis title was “Homology representations of braid groups” whatever that means.

Well, judging from Adi’s case, that’s unlikely to happen.
And Adi has a mountain to climb to earn his place among the greats, for example the Malaysian-linked Iskander Yusof, sister of the infamously self-destructing Sufiah Yusof led the way several years ago by enrolling at Warwick University at age 12, then graduating with a first class degree in Maths. In case you’re sneering about War-what, Warwick U is rated 2nd in Britain in maths, behind Cambridge but ahead of Oxford.
Is Adi’s ability world-class? Adi has tough competition, in addition to the above two luminaries, as outlined in the Independent’s report in August 2005. Another challenger is Ganesh Sittampalam who was 13 when he gained a first class degree in maths from Surrey University in 1992, after studying for just one day a week.

More news on child geniuses in various fields from time.com

Popularity: 16% [?]

Sex will sell anything, especially tennis?!

as reported by thestar, Australian Open 2006 has turned into a Glam Slam.

Kirilenko4.jpg

Russian 18-year-old Maria Kirilenko, with a penchant for wearing frilly dresses designed by Stella McCartney oncourt

p45Daniela.jpg

Slovakian midriff-baring Daniela Hantuchova, 22

benesova_7846_rx.jpg

Czech Iveta Benesova, midriff revealing outfit,

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Czech Nicole Vaidisova, 16

ivanovic

Ana Ivanovic, 18


…and of course, Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova, but I think everyone knows how she looks like by now, and that people are starting to complain that “her shoulders are becoming too muscular” – but hey, she’s a tennis player rite?

    Popularity: 8% [?]

Kobe managed to do what Jordan never could

adapted from thestar’s report.

81 points, 19 away from Chamberlain’s milestone 34 years ago, when Kobe was not even born.

AFAIK, Michael Jordan’s all time highest score in a top-level game is 69 points.

Hence, Mr Bryant scored two thirds (66%) of the LA Lakers’ 122-104 victory over Toronto.

Bryant had threatened to go berserk in December with 62 points against Dallas – and that was done when he played only three quarters.

Bryant scored 26 points in the first half then erupted: 55 in the second – only 4 short of Chamberlain’s record for points in a half.

some stats:

28-of-46 shots: 7-of-13 three-pointers & 18-of-20 free throws.

With just under five minutes left and the Lakers leading 108-96, Bryant knocked down a three-pointer to join Chamberlain, former Laker Elgin Baylor, David Thompson and David Robinson in the 70-point club – a milestone Michael Jordan never reached.

Bryant then drilled a short jumper to break Baylor’s Lakers record of 71 points set against the Knicks on Nov 15, 1960.

After making a lay-up with 3:26 remaining to reach 74 points, Bryant scored his last seven from the free-throw line. He sank a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left to complete his magical performance and exited to a huge ovation with 4.2 seconds to go.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Adi “the genius” Putra is getting bored at school

According to sun2surf.com’s newsreport:

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the ministry’s Education Planning and Research Division will conduct a test on maths genius Adi Putra Abdul Ghani, 7, who complained of boredom in school, to gauge how he is doing in other subjects so we can make the necessary adjustments to the existing syllabus.

But they should’ve known that he WILL get bored even before he set foot at school. Solving basic arithmetic is nowhere near as interesting as solving differentiation puzzles! And I dont think “adjustments to the existing syllabus” is feasible – the gap is just too big to find middle ground.

For the long-term, we have to find ways how to accommodate these geniuses according to their capabilities as it would be a waste to send them to special schools or overseas. Otherwise, I will have to allow them to go overseas so as not to waste their potential,” he added.

So it seems that govt policy is to keep geniuses at national schools as much as possible. I don’t think it’s a waste at all if Adi Putra manages to enter Oxford University at the age of 10 to do a PhD in maths, or even shock horror, upstages Ramanujan!

Hishammuddin said it is important to ensure Adi Putra receives a balanced, comprehensive and holistic education as being genius in one field only will not equip him to compete in the challenging world.

Agreed. There are many things not taught at primary/secondary schools (at least not included in the official curriculum), for example politics.

Popularity: 4% [?]

UPM site error

upm_web_error.jpg

Link to English version of site points to “wvw” instead of “www.”

upm_web_error3.jpg

Incredibly, the links at the bottom of the page also has the same typo.
What kind of first impressions are we giving to international visitors? That the very first link of our website is wrongly set and never verified nor tested reflects our first-world mentality, third-world attitude?

Also, I would’ve expected the website of one of the top universities in Malaysia to at least support major browsers like Firefox and not just IE.

Don’t believe me? Try it yourself.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Letters to malaysiakini.com on Sabahan issues

Tanak Wagu has written about 20 very interesting and thought-provoking letters on Sabah issues on malaysiakini.com.

Also check out equally good letters from Arnold Puyok and Gaman, and possibly others too.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Another Moorthy-like case: a tougher nut to break?

Update

On 23rd January, the Syariah Court decided that she was not a Muslim when she died. Court proceedings in the case was the first time non-Muslims were allowed to testify.

One thing that disturbed me:

Syariah Court Judge Mohd Shukor Sabudin, in his judgment, quoted Muslim scholar Syaikh Abu Syujak.

The scholar had said in his book Kifayatul-Akhyarhe should be killed, his body cannot be bathed according to Muslim rites, prayers cannot be performed for him and he cannot be buried in a Muslim cemetery. that a person who had left the Muslim faith should be asked to repent three times and if he did not,

TPM said the verdict was not rigged so as not to offend non-muslims.

—————————–

After the Moorthy case, which was not even an unprecedented case, another headache is looming.

The children of an 89-year-old Malay woman who died on Thursday said their mother, Nyonya Tahir, had left the Muslim faith and wanted her to be buried according to Buddhist rites. They produced a document from the Alor Gajah Islamic Religious Office and Mahkamah Kadi dated May 7, 1986 which stated that Nyonya had no intention of returning to the Muslim faith and had written a declaration that she wanted to live and be buried as a Chinese.

In her declaration, Nyonya, who was born in 1918, said that since her mother’s death, she had been raised by her grandmother, who was a Malay married to a Chinese convert.

She was raised from a tender age as a Chinese and in 1936, married a Chinese man, Chiang Meng, and had 13 children who were all registered and lived as Chinese.

She said her husband never followed the Muslim faith and after her marriage, she too lived as a Chinese.

So how?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Badminton: All England 2006

Men’s singles

We could only look on. Lin Dan is champ again after his triumph in 2004. He defeated Lee Hyun-il in the final.

SF:

Lee Chong Wei, now world ranked 2nd, came close to reaching the men’s singles final for the first time but he squandered a 13-5 lead in the rubber game against eventual champion Lin Dan to lose 9-15, 15-10, 14-17.

Lee Hyun-il reached the final when he defeated the only man from Europe with any hope of halting the Asian express, Peter Gade-Christensen 3-15, 15-8, 15-1.

Why does this kind of thing repeat itself? This reminded me of:

  • our doubles pair leading 10-0 against the Indons and still lost
  • the Dane who trailed 1-13 against a China player, but still won
  • Misbun Sidek leading 12-1 or something against Morten Frost and STILL lost.

QF:

Chong Wei knocked out defending champion Chen Hong of China with a 9-15, 17-14, 15-2 win in a 69-minute battle to make the semi-finals for the second consecutive year. It was a thriller all right: Chong Wei was down 10-14 in the 2nd but somehow managed to come back from the cliff’s edge.

World Junior Champion and rising star Chen Jin beaten 6-15, 13-15 by Peter Gade-Christensen.

3rd rnd:

Third seed Lee Chong Wei beat China’s Wu Yungong 15-8, 15-0. Will meet nemesis and defending champion Chen Hong next. He has lost to the Chinese in two major tournaments – the semi-finals of last year’s All-England and the third round of the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Chen Hong ended the gallant run of Yeoh Kay Bin with a 15-11, 15-11 victory. On Wednesday, Kay Bin had upset Olympic silver medallist Shon Seung-mo of South Korea.

Wong Choong Hann’s losing streak continued against world number one Lin Dan. He went down 6-15, 5-15 in a one-hour battle.

Kenneth Jonassen ousted Sairul Amar Ayob 15-3, 15-7.

Kuan Beng Hong’s hopes of a first big breakthrough ended in vain when he went down tamely 1-15, 5-15 to South Korean Lee Hyun-il.

1st rnd:

Hafiz (2003 champ) fell to Chen Jin 14-17 and 5. Defeat was probably more mental than physical. It was a hard fought, evenly matched first set. In the 2nd, he tried to up the tempo and increased freq of attack, started committing unforced errors which was a major factor in his downfall.

Men’s doubles

Final:

Not again! Golden opportunity slipped away. I thought this year would be it, after that triumph over the world no.1 and top seeds.

Tan Fook-Wan Wah went down to Denmark’s Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen 6-15, 17-14, 2-15 in 71 minutes. Enough already!

s_62danishFOCUS.jpg

To their credit, Eriksen and Hansen are certainly extremely tough customers, having seen them in action for years already.

In fact we should’ve lost it by the 2nd, trailing 13-5, but by sheer grit the guys hauled themselves back in the match, raking in nine consecutive points to hold game point at 14-13, then won the set.

It was the 2nd after the 2004 edition that TF & WW lost to the same pair at the same stage, also in 3 sets (AARGGHHH!!!). Hence, Malaysia are STILL without an All-England’s men’s doubles title since Razif and Jalani won it 24 years ago.

According to National Chief Coach Yap Kim Hock: “…they lacked focus when it mattered most.” Sounds familiar, no?
SF:

Tan Fook-Wan Wah beat compatriots Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Lin Woon Fui, who ran out of steam, 15-8, 15-7 win in 33 minutes.

Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Gan Teik Chai ALMOST made it an incredible dream come true, an all-Malaysian final, when they squandered a 14-5 lead in the first game to lose 14-17, 9-15 to Denmark’s Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen. I told ya, these Danes are hard to kill, but they certainly were glad it was done and over with.

s_pg58hansen.jpg

According to Kim Hock:“…they still lack experience to handle the situation at crucial times. They need to be more stable.”

Case in point: Teik Chai even had his service faulted more than five times.

“Teik Chai was rattled when the umpire picked on him. The players need to stay calm and composed during crucial situations. They cannot allow calls against them disrupt their rhythm of play. These will come from experience. ”

QF:

3 of our pairs filled SF places – never happened before!

Unseeded Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Gan Teik Chai stunned seasoned pros, 4th seed and only Indons remaining, Luluk Hadiyanto-Alven Yulianto 15-13, 15-17, 15-3 in 80 minutes.

Fired-up Tan Fook-Wan Wah took only 32 minutes to defeat South Korea’s top pair Jung Jae-sung-Lee Dae-jin 15-6, 15-4.

Then, youngsters Fairuzizuan-Woon Fui stayed on court for 87 minutes to upset Denmark’s Thomas Laybourn-Lars Paaske 13-15, 15-12, 15-7.

3rd rnd:

for the first time ever, 3 Malaysian pairs are in the last 8. The only QF without a Malaysian pair will see China’s Xie Zhongbo-Guo Zhengdong taking on 2nd seeds Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen of Denmark.


Unseeded Tan Fook-Wan Wah (2004 runnersup) *at last* beat World Championship runners-up, world no.1 and top seeds, perennial Indonesian bogeymen Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto after trying for so many years 9-15, 15-8, 15-10 in 66 minutes in the 2nd round.

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They then qualified for the last 8 by defeating Keita Masuda-Tadashi Ohtsuka 15-11, 15-12.

Then national champions Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Lin Woon Fui beat Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (China) in a mere 41 mins 3 and 6! Needless to say, this is the biggest win of their career.

Then relatively lo-profile pair Gan Teik Chai-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif, freshies at the tourney, upset eighth seeds Jonas Rasmussen-Peter Steffensen of Denmark 13-15, 15-8, 15-7.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Liquor preferred by Sabahans

  • martell VSOP Medaillon (midrange Martell range – 10-12 yrs old). Apparently 1 litre costs RM95 in Labuan.
  • Martell VS (cheapest in the Martell range). Apparently, 7 years old; the best cognac in the world in its class and price range.
  • Martell Cordon Blue (high end Martell; most expensive; 25-30 yrs old)
  • Johnnie Walker Black label (most popuilar); abt RM85 duty free per 1 litre bottle
  • Johnnie Walker Red Label (very popular, apparently most popular whisky/spirit in the world, est 1820); 1 litre costs RM38 in Labuan
  • Chivas Regal (epinions review here); 1 litre RM95
  • Jack Daniels (epinions review, mouthshut review); abt RM80 duty free per 1 ltr bottle

Personal faves

  • Southern Comfort
  • Bailey’s Irish Cream

Popularity: 1% [?]

Difficulty in securing personal loan with local banks

IMHO, correct as of the blog date.

  • Alliance Bank – No personal loan facility
  • Bumiputra-commerce – ditto
  • AmBank – only for gov/semi gov staff, 2 yrs continous service
  • Bank Islam – too much red tape
  • BSN – too much red tape
  • Sabah Credit – too much red tape
  • Bank Muamalat – no personal loan facility?!
  • Southern Bank- no personal loan facility
  • Standard Chartered – max loan amt 5 x clean salary, need ongoing loan (cc, housing, car etc) to prove credit worthiness
  • Aeon Credit – max loan only 2 x clean salary
  • HSBC – T&C unsuitable for those just started working
  • OCBC – ditto
  • Maybank/Mayban Finance – only for employees of selected companies/govt agencies

No wonder private sector employees, self-employeds, low paid employees or new employees are forced to go to loan sharks?!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Sound bytes of the year 2005

…in Firehouse at least…
Oh, hi Greg…
I was kidding
Kidding? Kidding my ass!
You’re such a dick!
I like this song, Felix song
Tiada lagi kudengar kidungmu
For context of 1-4, you’d have to listen to this.
For context of 5-6, listen to Eggs website. (free registration reqd).

Popularity: 9% [?]

Music review: Jet – Get Born

Jet was formed in 2000.actually Get Born is their FIRST proper album, released October 2003

Before that, they *self-released* a 4-song EP in 2002. All 4 songs in the EP has been rerecorded and included in the Get Born LP.

The EP they printed 1000 copies, became an instant hit, sold out, then printed another 1,000. Created a buzz, being touted as far away as England, then got an American deal with Elektra Records in early 2003.

The Dirty Sweet EP was re-released domestically in May 2003.

An opening slot for the Rolling Stones in Jet’s homeland (Aust) soon followed.

Therefore, u can follow this example. The songs you all created are equally, if not better than their songs. Just remember to be tight, focused, good attitude, never-give-up and all the good traits.

————————————-
Jet is an Australian band.
Their 3rd LP, Get Born, has sold 1 million copies worldwide.
Can listen to all of the songs in that LP here: http://www.jettheband.com/audio/
Me, being a sucker for beautiful ballads a-la Firehouse, Kiroro or X-Japan, was most impressed with “look what you’ve done” and “come around again”

Popularity: 6% [?]

how to hack: step by step

information gathering

  • scanning ip range
  • probing for ports that are available
  • detect vulnerabilities
  • social engineering

identify target and vunerability to exploit

  • websites: securityfocus.com, securiteam.com, packetstorm.org

hack the machine!

  • buffer overflow
  • cryptoanalysis eg, jack the ripper passwd crack
  • code injection
  • sql injection
  • cross site scripting
  • man in the middle attack, eg, vnc.c
  • ddos attack
  • malware
  • file manipulation

Popularity: 1% [?]

hiding your online tracks

for WAN

hidemyip.org

for LAN/streamyx

use arp poisoning in Cain or download it separately eg, arpd tool in honeyd.org/tools.

Popularity: 1% [?]

best codec pack ever

K-Lite codec pack

can run everything: qt, rm etc

can use with any mediaplayer

Popularity: 1% [?]

ICT security online references

Exploits

www.securityfocus.com

www.securiteam.com

www.packetstorm.org

general ref

www.governmentsecurity.org

software/apps

www.kapersky.com – best antivirus

https://secure.logmein.com/go.asp?page=login – remote ctrl via web

Popularity: 1% [?]

Evolutions of the photography business

Konica Minolta is pulling out, while Nikon going completely digital.

link

Popularity: 1% [?]

Most expensive domain name ever

sex.com cost USD14 million.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Homemade digital cameras built from old scanners

link

Popularity: 3% [?]

Pirates: the world’s biggest budget porn movie

cost USD 1 million to make

shot in hi def, + special effects

sold 100,000 copies : one of the biggest adult movies of all time

in this industry, 5,000 copies is considered a hit

size of porn industry: USD12.6 billion.

link

Popularity: 6% [?]

Dumb blonde on MSN Chat (18sx)

link

Popularity: 1% [?]

digitalpoint.com: another google adsense success story

USD10,000 per month.

We’d call that getting on Google’s shadow payroll.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Total computer newbies experience with Debian Linux

link

Popularity: 1% [?]

Can’t write anything bad about Perodua

defamation online or offline is equally bad.

prev link:

http://www.pinolobu.com/wp/?p=501

sorry, currently video unavilable; i have to get the youtube.com link first.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho: MyKad is impossible to be forged

“…because the information in the document will not match the details of the person carrying it, even if the surface of the card has been changed.”

Popularity: 34% [?]

Milliondollar homepage – a grand idea to finance your studies…(2)

21-yr-old Alex Tew was so successful with his creation that it deserved a DDOS attack and blackmails.
An idea to finance his studies has generated enough money to cover expenses several times over.

The idea reportedly took a mere 20 minutes. The attributes of the money-making idea he was looking for was:

  • simple to setup & understand
  • has to have a name to capture the imagination
  • something that can be set up quickly
  • no physical delivery required

The idea took shape as he wrote some keywords, and 20 minutes later – eureka….let’s sell pixels! Domain name and a basic webhosting package snapped up that very nite.

And as in any business, he started by selling to people close to him – friends and family, the first USD1K in sales.

That was reinvested for more publicity – a press release. More awareness gave more exposure and investors more faith – and it snowballed. More money + more exposure had an exponential growth effect on profits.

It took only 4 months and 2,000 customers to reach the USD1m goal.

Smart move: employed a press officer to generate publicity and sales in the US – he spent a week doing interviews there.

The last 1,000 pixels sold via auction on eBay. The unbelieveable >USD100K (and growing fast) bidding price made it clear that demand has outstripped supply – every businessman’s dream come true.

Alex says critical success factors to his idea are:

  • power of word of mouth
  • story of a student making a million fascinated the media

His advice to others:

  • have faith in your creative mind
  • take calculated and affordable risks
  • take failure positively – treat it as a learning process

This success has generated another money-making idea: sell the resulting image as poster prints.
Unsurprisingly, has generated copycats, but none are as successful as the original.

His final words brings some comfort for the rest of us:

  • internet is still in its early days
  • many new inventions and ideas doesnt exist yet

Popularity: 66% [?]

milliondollar homepage – a grand idea to finance your studies

Alex Tew was so successful with his creation that it deserved a DDOS attack.

An idea to finance your studies has generated enough money to cover expenses several times over.

Unsurprisingly, has generated copycats, but none are as successful as the original.

Final 1,000 pixels of his “innovative ad service” sold in an eBay auction for USD38,100 – that is just amazing, to say the least…

via liewcf.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

Rubik cube record broken again: 11.13 seconds

I still remember reading the related entry in Guiness’ Book of World Records aeons ago, saying that “the first world championship was held in Budapest on June 5, 1982, and was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles with a time of 22.95 seconds.” I even saw a video of that guy in action.

Now, that’s been blown apart, it’s now a mind-blowing 11.13 seconds, set by 20 year old student, Leyan Lo at the Caltech Winter competition 2006.

But Shotaro “Macky” Makisumi is still the world champ and the most consistent, with an average of 14.91 seconds over 5 successive tries in the finals of the same tournament, with Leyan Lo second at 0.26 secs behind.

But one thing didnt seem to add up: all Macky got for his victory is a measly Rubik’s Snake puzzle?

I’ve seen Macky’s ex-world record solution video over 12+ seconds (before it was broken by that French guy with 11.75s) and that looked deceptively easy.

From the full results, I think I would place 60th. Not bad huh…

But…that would only happen donkey years ago, when I was still Rubik crazy. I even owned Rubik’s Magic Puzzle and Rubik’s Clock then – I remembered sneering because the packaging quoted a “world record solve time” and I consistently solved the Clock quicker than the time quoted (forgot how many seconds it was already).

The “animal” was apparently invented by Erno Rubik in 1974. The height of its craze was 1980-82. And I only tried solving it myself several years after that. At first, it took me 3 days. Then I managed to bring my time down to 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 3 minutes, stagnated at 90 seconds, then during my heydays clocked consistent 60+, with the best at 60 secs. Failing to better that after trying for several months, my cube was consigned to the store-room….of if you’d like, the proverbial “hanging up my cube.”

It is considered to be the best selling toy of all time, with 300 million (+ imitation ones) sold.

In fact, I was amazed that interest in the cube has not diminished even after more than 20 years. That is testament to its specialness.

Now, is it time to treat myself and spend >RM50 on an original 3×3x3 cube?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Jalan Taippakung, Donggongon, Penampang: the most dangerous stretch of road in Malaysia?

about 4 murders in the last 4 years on that max 500m stretch, the last in October 2005.

related blogposts/discussions

Lionelblogs
SabahForum

Popularity: 5% [?]

Sabah the safest state in Malaysia?

Yes, that’s what the State Commissioner of Police, Datuk Mangsor Ismail said, according to Daily Express, 12th Jan 2006.

So after Sabah being at the bottom of many national charts, which includes highest Non Revenue Water, poorest state etc, this seems to be a rare good news?!

But to me personally, that statement somehow doesn’t add up, what with Suhakam’s recent claim that Sabah’s population has increased at a suspiciously too quick rate, overtaking our neighbours Sarawak.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Stories of Malaysians who have taken the path of being their own boss

- good reads and action-oriented
- covers practical aspects, like how to raise capital (and not just from the usual sources)

some salient points:
- there are many reasons why you would want to be your own boss. One thing is you can make more money by venturing out on your own. Next is freedom, you can do whatever you want at your own pace.
- it could take you several months to plan (2 to 6 months)
- get ready RM90K-RM100K to start the thing up for brick and mortar business, less (RM20K perhaps) for consulting business
- the biggest challenge during the start up period would be to overcome the fear of failure
- biggest challenge to maintain good business is getting enough customers to sustain. You need to keep up your reputation within your existing customers and keep a good relationship with them, they will eventually bring you new customers through word of mouth. This is even more effective than advertising. Networking and PR with clients are absolutely critical to grow your customers base. Maintain good network with your business contacts/clients during your days as an employee. Once you start out on your own, most of your customers would basically follow along. That is one of the key reasons in generating profit since day one.
- success factors: being humble to everyone & you have to be a person with good ethic and moral, be a good person.
- do it from your heart, be passionate and hardworking. Start from the basic and build a strong foundation.
- You have to start a business on what you are good at. If you hire someone to do the job for you, you will face problems if the person leaves. What are you going to do when that happen and you can�t do the job yourself.

Popularity: 1% [?]

How Steve Jobs prepares for a stage show

And, it looks like Michael Dell would have to eat his own words.

Popularity: 1% [?]

CSI: Firehouse

This video is downloadable from Eggs website (1.57MB, WMV format). Need to register as member first (free registration).

Yes, the video was taken and subsequently amateurishly tarted up by yours truly way back in August 2005. The identity of the person shall remain a closely guarded secret.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Kid Chan – reference standard for wedding photographers in Malaysia

For those of us aspiring pro wedding photographers (or any other field), i think it’s always good to aspire for something higher, terbilang, in the words of our PM.

Kid Chan’s short bio: the first and only Malaysian to be accepted to the Prestigious WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) he has photographed weddings for clients from as far as the UK, USA, France, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia. His work has also been featured in leading newspapers, magazines as well as on television.

He’s also recently listed in Malaysia Tatler Society Magazine (The Essential Guide To The Social Season 2006): 100 People You Must Know in Asia.

A worthy yardstick indeed.

Now the next step is…world domination…

Just dont try to go shortcut a-la Evangeliss HY Hwong, the fake NatGeo photographer.

Popularity: 12% [?]

What is it like to manage 10,000 servers?

Most of us would never have to, but still it satisfies your curiosity to find out would it is like.

Hotmail engineer Phil Smoot describes it as it is in an interview with ACM Queue.

As mentioned at /., some interesting points:
- tape backups are out!
- spam levels have stabilised

Popularity: 2% [?]

Brokeback Mountain: banned in Malaysia

Followup to my blog on 9th Dec 2005.

As expected, it wont be shown in Malaysia.

Dawn Liew, promotions and publicity manager with United International Pictures (M) said: �the film is unsuitable for local consumption.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Elie Youssef Najem = crook?

Update 8th July 2009

He’s in the news again.

Utusan Malaysia reported today that on 3rd July 2009, a girlfriend (or quite possibly another wife) of [Dr.] Elie Yousef Najem fell to her death from the balcony of a 14th-floor condominium unit on Jalan Kuchai Lama, KL.

The victim has been identified as Rosalia Gachatlin Viray, 22, a Filipino.

And his pledge to donate RM1 billion to Majlis Kanser Negara (Makna) has yet to be fulfilled.

—————————

Update 16 jan 2006:

He has been arrested.

—————————-
I would’ve expected Farinnie, wife of purportedly the world’s second richest man to dress more flamboyantly, and projecting a less publicity shy image than this:

update 13 Jan:

More people are shooting arrows at the self-professed billionaire, according to the star and the malay mail.

1 According to Kedah Islamic Religious Department head Datuk Sheikh Kassim Daud: the marriage between Mr Elie Youssef Najem and Farinnie Mohd Farid in 2004 could not have been solemnised by the imam stated in the marriage certificate, because the iman died 10 years ago. In fact, Najem was holding a forged certificate. Even the wedding venue was wrong and the serial number of the certificate belonged to another couple. It is believed that the wedding certificate owned by Najem was produced by a syndicate that ran a �wedding operation� in the state.

2 IT consultant S. Ravi: claimed he was hired as an IT consultant last year with an offer of RM450,000 per annum. But he received only RM900 for three months’ work.

3 Najem�s former landlord Hendra Wirawan Rusli: claimed that Najem�s RM5,874 cheque for four months’ rent bounced.

4 Creditor John Lim: said Najem reneged on payments for an order of Belgian chocolates that cost more than RM1,000.

5 Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan: said police had been keeping tabs on Najem since last year. There were five reports against him last year and he was charged with three.

6 MCA Public Services and Complaint Department head Datuk Michael Chong: said the businessman�s claim that the police stole his wallet worth RM3,000, and later took US$2,700 (RM10,800) and RM5,000 from him was �criminal defamation�. It is the same with his claim that the police hired one Hazlina Yaakob to steal RM786,000 from him. If that is true, then she must have taken the money out in a gunny sack!�

Mr Chong also has the last word: �I would not be surprised if his next move would be to withdraw his donation in aid of cancer patients in light of the bad publicity.

———————————————————————-
update 12 Jan:

He claimed to hold a Canadian passport, but the Canadian Embassy denied that he had ever had one.

———————————————————————-
Even Penang’s CM and KJ thinks so:

Penang CM Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said he was puzzled by Najem’s claim that he had helped in the building of the Penang bridge by extending a US$2bil (RM 7.6bil) loan to the project’s main contractor. It did not make sense because he would have been only 25. Even more damning is that the total bridge project cost was only about RM1.3bil. Dr Koh added (this was supported by Datuk Samy Vellu, the Works Minister at that time) that any funding for the project would have come under the purview of the Federal Government. Even if the businessman was talking about the Penang second link, the highest estimate is only RM2.6bil.

The guy himself “strongly denied” accusations against him.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Orgacare Unik Plus 1 fiasco: so how, Lim Teck Sack?

Biotech entrepreneur Lim Teck Sack started Orgacare Pharmaceuticals in 2002 with 3 products.

Note:

He made RM millions quickly.

Sold products via direct selling company mineway.

Orgacare Unik Plus One was recently banned after “it was found to have been adulterated with tadalafil and sildenafil (viagra), drugs that can only be prescribed by doctors for men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction.”

So much for the sales pitch.

As of right now, the product is still viewable for sale (dunno if still can buy though) from several online marketers, including tmnetmall.com.my

Popularity: 1% [?]

Phallic festivals in Japan

When I got the pics via email, I was flabbergasted that such a festival exists openly on Earth, with young and old alike enjoying it like any other festival…

Therefore, it’s an understatement to say that Kawasaki’s annual fertility festival has made it to my list of places to visit before I die.

More pics.

And more.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Real life Face/Off: Isabel Dinoire, the world’s first face transplant patient

Frenchwoman Isabel Dinoire lost her nose, lips and chin after being attacked by the family dog in May 2005.

They were then replaced via transplantation of the relevant body parts of a brain dead person.

Operation was done on 27th November 2005, taking 5 hours.

Not the fantastical 1997 movie, but the real stuff. It was unprecedented.

By January 2006, she was out in public without drawing stares.

Still, “when you look at her you realise there is something not quite normal about her facial mobility. But a certain expressiveness is slowly coming back,” her surgeon said.

Dinoire herself described the results of the operation as a “miracle”.

Source
The BBC

Popularity: 1% [?]