Jul/100
Enabling a blocked Task Manager
Given the scenario, you might find yourself not being able to access your task manager (local network policy, company policy, user access rights etc). And the thing is, sometimes, you just need to access it to kill an app, or to kill a process, or to check the computer’s performance etc.
As usual, before playing around with the registry, always back it up (guide here). But to be honest, this is just a minor edit, hence the risk factor is very low.
To quickly enable it, click start.
Click Run and paste the following command into the text field:
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Click OK. That’s it! That should solve your problem!
Jun/102
TM’s new HSBB
Last week I signed up for TM’s Unifi HSBB 5Mbps plan, and a few days ago the TM guys came to my house to set it up. Let me list down the steps that a Streamyx user needs to go through before signing up for Unifi.
- You need to call Unifi (1300881222) to inform them you want to sign up. They’ll ask you which plan and all other details. They’ll then schedule a time for the Unifi guys to come to your house to set up
- You need to close your Streamyx account. From a user point of view, this is plain stupid. A user simply doesn’t care if Unifi and Streamyx are 2 different business units in TM, because a user simply sees TM as 1 company. Anyway, I had to go a nearby TM Point to fill in a form to close my account. Thank god the whole closing down experience was fast and smooth.
- A few days later the Unifi guys came to my house. They arrived on-the-dot as promised at 9:30AM and they were very friendly. The agreed SLA from TM is that the installation would take less than 6 hours (my guess is that they’re playing it safe), but turns out the actual installation took about 2 hours+. The Unifi guys had to pull another cable from the TM post outside my house and wire it directly to where I want to set up the Unifi box.
The unifi package came with 4 devices (photo below)
The tall grey device on the left is the TV Set Up box. It gives you 21 IPTV channels and TV-On-Demand (TVOD). The small white box with 2 antennas is the wireless router, and the white box on the right is the modem. A cordless phone (black) comes with the package too. All these 4 devices and the installation process were free-of-charge from TM. Awesome.
The Unifi guys did everything. The wireless network was set up with all the appropriate security settings. They even helped me perform a speed test which the results was more than pleasing:
Yup, that’s right, I signed up for the 5Mbps plan but my actual speed is 6.4Mbps! Now my internet at home is faster than what I have at work! Youtube videos loading the point the page loads, and I was able to download a 1GB file for around 1 hour! That’s how fast it is! TM definitely got it right this time around. Well done TM!
Jun/101
Google Sync (Contacts) to Nokia e71
A few days ago my 2 year old Blackberry Bold (9000) died.
Lucky me that I did a full backup prior to that. I’m thinking of getting the new Bold 2, but before that happens, I’m currently on a temporary phone, the Nokia e71 (below).
I’ve been googling on how to sync your contacts in Google Sync (if you haven’t sync your mobile contacts to Google, you should, you never know when it’s gonna come in handy), and found out a few useful websites. In short:
On your e71, go to Menu –> Tools –> Sync and follow the steps in the article below
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=98230&cbid=-w48waez3uf7e&src=cb&lev=topic
It’s quite simple and it shouldn’t take more than 5 mins!
May/100
Harussani Zakaria: Sultan Payung Negeri
I would like to share this short article written by Harussani Zakaria, the Mufti of Perak. The same article was published in Utusan Mingguan yesterday (Sunday, 9 May 2010).
http://umno-kgserdang.blogspot.com/2010/05/sultan-payung-negeri.html
The article was well written and it is a timely reminder to all of us. One of the interesting bits is that my ancestor was mentioned in the article:
Masih segar juga dalam sejarah, apabila al-Marhum Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin yang memerintah bersama regu ulamanya Sayyid Hussain al-Faradz mengisytiharkan Undang-Undang 99 sebagai undang-undang keadilan bagi jajahan Perak. Yang zalim dihukum, yang mangsa dimulia, yang lemah jauh dari dihina, yang kaya diwajib menderma. Maka hiduplah rakyat jelata dalam aman sejahtera, makmur dan bahagia.
I have written an article about the descendants of Sayyid Hussain al-Faradz al-Jamalullail on wikipedia. Check it out.
May/100
Agora
I just finished wathing Agora and I find it to be a really refreshing movie. Basic knowledge of our age are taken for granted when ancient philosophers spent years trying to figure out something as simple as the relationship between the earth and the sun.
Below is a short review on my thoughts on the movie [spoiler warning].
The movie was set in old Alexandria, Egypt around 391A.D. Alexandria was part of the Roman Empire and the major theme of the movie is religious extremism (yes, we can all relate to that in this day and age), the lost of culture and knowledge. In 391A.D, it was a time when Christianity was growing rapidly and the old Roman religion was quickly dying out. Even the Emperor Theodosius himself is a Christian. The main character, Hypatia, is one of the earliest women philosophers in history. She teaches philosophy, astronomy and mathematics. Throughout the movie, various scenes of scuffles are shown between the early violent Christian fundamentalist (similar to the Taliban of our time) and other religion, mainly, the Roman pagans and the Jews (Islam only came later in 6th Century).
The fundamentalist, lead by pope Cyril, forced their agenda on everyone, to the point that some government officials had to be baptised to have a career in Roman politics. The fundamentalist were also against knowledge (they have their own version, as opposed to Hypatia’s primitive science), where they would burn all the priceless books and scrolls from Hypatia’s library, which is the Library of Alexandria.
In the end, Hypatia was killed by the fundamentalist mob, and her discovery of the eclipse and the central position of the sun was lost for a few hundred years. The same attitude towards knowledge persisted for a few decades and with that, the Roman empire went further into decline. By the 7th century, the dark ages loomed and the rest is history.
I was so taken by the notion that a discovery so profound was easily lost due to narrowmindedness and religious extremisim. In short, the key takeways from this movie is that religion must be practiced in moderation and must not be forced onto others. Knowledge should be appreciated as it is the single one thing that marks the progress of man kind.
Apr/101
Shit lovers
I was walking in Pavilion (a mall in KL) when I came across a small booth selling teddy bears. Some were funny and cute until I saw the section selling this:
Yes, you’re seeing it right. It’s a stuffed soft toy of faeces, human excrement, or to be blunt, shit.
I cannot see how could such a disgusting object be portrayed as ‘cute’ and ‘cuddly’. It’s absolutely disgusting.
Apr/100
Perak Sultan unhappy with those who disgrace Malaysia at international forums
I was in the Balai Rong Seri in the Istana when the Sultan stated this. I would like to repost his key points as published by The Star here: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/20/nation/6089403&sec=nation
KUALA KANGSAR: The Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah expressed regret at the actions of certain individuals and groups who disgraced their own country at international forums.
This, he said, gave an opportunity to outside powers to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.
“I call on the people to use their wisdom for the sake of the nation and not to be influenced by their emotion based on desire which would eventually be to the detriment of the country,” he said at the investiture and pledging of loyalty ceremony in conjunction with his 82nd birthday at Istana Iskandariah here yesterday.
Sultan Azlan Shah noted that all members, be it in Parliament or the state assembly, should respect the sanctity of the august House.
“Those who are called the Yang Berhormat should show exemplary behaviour,” he said.
“It is embarrassing that proceedings in the august House are done in an environment filled with shouts and abuses,” said Sultan Azlan Shah.
“It is also an insult to the assembly if members bring placards with degrading words and hurl abuse at each other,” he added.
At the same event, Raja Muda of Perak Raja Dr Nazrin Shah said elements of ill-mannered behaviour by people in high positions and professions were not happening on the streets or in markets but in places that should be regarded highly and respected.
Dr Nazrin said courtesy was the key factor that determines the rise and fall of a country and its leaders.
“Politeness plays an important role in shaping a society let alone a prosperous and steady country,” he said.
Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said that the Barisan Nasional government would do its best to maintain peace and harmony in the state while continuing with its development.
Dr Zambry noted that he had during the March 31 state assembly, called on Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen not to jeopardise the people’s welfare with their never-ending politicking.
At the investiture ceremony Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Almarhum Sultan Iskandar headed the list of 912 people conferred with awards and medals in conjunction with Sultan Azlan Shah’s birthday.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was conferred the Darjah Kebesaran Seri Paduka Sultan Azlan Shah Perak Yang Teramat Dimulia (SPSA) which carries the title Datuk Seri Diraja.
No Pakatan state assemblymen were present during the ceremony.
When contacted, state DAP chairman and Sitiawan assemblyman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham said the Pakatan state assemblymen did not receive any invitations to the ceremony.
“We have been waiting for the invitations but none of us received any,” he said.
State secretary Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Rahman Hashim could not be reached to verify Ngeh’s claim.
Apr/100
Java Developers needed at Accenture Malaysia
The firm has been emailing internally for a while and I guess I should make an attempt to help HR in their recruiting efforts. The long list of vancies for the KL Office is displayed below:
Services Workforce
- Accounts Analyst
- HR Analysts
- SAP Applications Helpdesk Team Lead
- Business Analyst
- Digital Publishing Platform Support
- Digital Advertising Analytics Support
- HR Helpdesk Analyst
- Billing Operation Analyst
- Contract Management
- Contract Specialist I — Service Centre
Solutions Workforce
- Oracle BEA Weblogic Portal Consultants
- Solution Architect – Telecommunications
- Java Developers
- Oracle Order & Service Management Developers
- Oracle BEA Development Implementation and Configuration
- SAP FICO Professionals
- SAP MM Expert/Consultant
- SAP PM Data Lead/ Consultant
- TA Siebel Administrator
- Oracle Applications Specialists
Consulting Workforce
- SAP Functional Consultants (BI,CRM,SD,APO,MM)
- SAP Functional Consultants (BI/BW/PM/PS/SCM)
- SAP Functional Consultants – Human Resources (HR)
- SAP Functional Consultants – Materials Management (MM)
- SAP Managers / Senior Manager
- IT Strategy & Transformation Professionals
If you’re interested and require more details, please email me at imran.jaafar@gmail.com
Apr/100
HSBB Delivered
After a few months, the HSBB was launched a few days ago. It was one of the most anticipated events of the year.
Apart from that, I received an express mail from TM the week before stating that my housing area (TTDI) is part of the 1st phase deployment for HSBB, hence, I’ll be eligble to test HSBB (free of charge) till mid-May. Good stuff. Although, they should have used normal post instead of using registered post where I had to go collect it at poslaju depot in PJ (I don’t recommend going there during lunch hour, killer jam at the wretched Rothmans roundabout)
Although I have yet to experience HSBB, my usual Streamyx experience has improved tremendously. Check out the screenshot below: (usually my test returns a 200kbps average, but now it’s 300+kbps!)
Anyway, I look forward to trying HSBB out. I went to their new HSBB website, http://www.unifi.my, and I believe I’ll be more than happy to sign up for the 5Mbps plan. Looks reasonble and I don’t see how I would be needing any bigger bandwidth than that.
However, earlier, I heard that TM was thinking of implementing a maximum download limit (at around ~60GB+ depending on package), but later the idea was scapped. Good thinking. We don’t want to spoil a wonderful project with petty limitations such as that. We should learn from the Australians (where their ISPs implements a download cap — only to receive hateful complaints from netizens in the country) and be better.
I’ll post again after trying out the new package.
Jan/100
TM eyes McKinsey to meet HSBB target
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is mulling to give a RM20 million project to McKinsey & Co to ensure its RM11 billion high-speed broadband (HSBB) is on time to meet the 50 per cent broadband penetration target this year.
The telecoms utility’s board is due to meet tomorrow to decide on the consultancy’s terms as it races to meet its deadline set recently by Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim. It is understood the current broadband penetration rate is now at 32 per cent.
“The board will meet tomorrow whether to award McKinsey the contract to make sure we meet this year’s target. It is a bit silly as we have the real targets to achieve,” a company source told The Malaysian Insider.
It is learnt that associates from McKinsey’s US headquarters have promised expertise from Telefonica, the Spanish multinational telecommunications giant, to help TM meet the targets, which now also include mobile broadband.
Latest Tweets
Watching Salt with sister & brother at 1Utama - 29/07/2010 23:59:40- Nothing beats reality check RT @yassifn: RT @stcom: Calling obese ppl 'fat' might actually motivate them to lose weight http://bit.ly/9B8lys - 29/07/2010 23:21:20
- I do tht whenever I'm parking
RT @faliqfahmie: Why is it when u're driving & lookng for an address, u turn down the vol on the radio? - 29/07/2010 21:23:27 - Wow! Ramai betul org makan roti bakar di Yik Mun 1Utama. Makanan enak harus dikongsi ramai
- 29/07/2010 21:10:04 - Colleague (the 1 tht stole bf's hp), is angry at a vendor. She said "I hate him. I despise him" while smiling in an eerie way. Very freaky - 29/07/2010 17:42:27