Imran's Kifli.net

Nur Kasih The Movie

The whole family went to watch the much anticipated Nur Kasih the movie on 20th May 2011. For those interested, check out the trailer below.

I have separated the review into pros and cons. Read below: [SPOILER ALERT]:

Pros

1. Excellent cinematography. Some scenes, like the one at the cemetery, had a superb angle. We were gobsmacked!
2. Superb acting
3. Location of certain scenes was brilliant, especially the ones shot overseas (the one in Petra, Jordan)
4. Well defined plot with sub-plots that gave the whole movie an enjoyable depth
5. All characters had depth and were colourful characters (I guess that was inherited from the TV series, I am comparing this to the recently released Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa where the characters and plot were too simple)
6. Brilliant Islamic messaging that highlights modern stereotypes.
   • This is the scene where Adam invited an Ustaz to the rehab center that he owns for talk on a certain religious topic. The Ustaz refused to proceed with the talk as he said the audience (the boys and girls in the rehab) were not dressed appropriately and lack manners. Adam said there’s no point if we enforced manners and Islamic dressing if we do not help them with their inner understanding on the religion, rather than focusing on the facade. The Ustaz did not agree and he left.
   • Another is when the boss of a certain firm wanted to engage Nur Amina to design a night club (she’s an architect). Amina refused to accept the job offer as she said it’s against her principles to be involved in something that is not permitted in Islam (haram activities). The boss lashed back at her saying she sounded ridiculous, like somebody from a village, and with this mindset she could never progress in this modern world. He also said she is not being thankful as he said he could have given the job to anybody.

Read more…

Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa

Finally, the long awaited Malaysian movie of the year was released a few days ago. For those who haven’t heard of this movie, check out the trailer below. Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa is based loosely on the actual Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa that written in the 16th Century (historians are still unsure exactly when it was written).

I went to see it with my family a few days ago and this is by far the best action-epic movie that a Malaysian producer has ever made. It was amazing. The cast, the fighting scenes and the special effects.

Anyway, here are my reviews [SPOILER ALERT]:

• Very good action scene. Fast paced, realistic fighting choreography and impressive show of epic battles
• Interesting plot with sub-stories, although they could improve by providing more depth on other characters
• Excellent casting. They got the perfect hero, and the heroin
• Brilliant display of culture and dressing of the time (~2nd Century CE)
• Beautifully written classic Malay language, especially the poems, absolute classic
• Not so brilliant choice of music, they should have created a proper theme song
• The ending was a bit rush, you would agree if you had watched it. They could use a few more scenes to show what happened after the battle. For example, they could use a scene to show Merong’s body brought back to his village and Embok crying over his body, while putting her hand on her tummy (she was pregnant), saying “zuriat-zuriat mu akan berlansung dari kandunganku and jadilah mereka raja-raja yang teragung di tanah ini” (English: your descendants would live on from my womb and they would be great kings of this land). Yes, that was my modest attempt at classic Malay.

All in all, it was a great effort by KRU Studios. I felt really proud watching it. Malaysian production has come a long way, and this movie is definitely gonna make it internationally. They have room for improvement, and I hope from here onwards we’ll be creating even bigger and better epic movies!

Last week me, my brother and 3 other friends went to Kinabalu Park, with ambitions to scale the peak of Mount Kinabalu.

Before I start off, here are some basic facts about Mount Kinabalu:

• It’s 4095 meters high (13,435 ft).
• It’s the highest mountain in Malaysia, 3rd in South East Asia
• 20th in the world (in terms of peaks by prominence).

I first attempted to hike up Mount Kinabalu back in October 2010, but failed at Laban Rata, which is at 10,734 feet. I was affected by acute mountain sickness (AMS, also known as altitude sickness) and that essentially was the end of my trip. I didn’t do my research thoroughly and at the time I was hit by altitude sickness, I didn’t even know it was that! I thought it was some sort of severe headache or fever!

According to online guides, one of the ways to prevent altitude sickness is by having extreme fitness (yup, that’s right, extreme) or by getting Diamox. I’ll write a separate article on Diamox later. I figured I’ll never get anywhere near extreme in terms of fitness, but I guess improving mine by a lot would definitely help. Some people get altitude sickness, and some don’t. You might be as fit as a marathon runner and still be affected by altitude sickness (to a certain level). It’s a genetic thing. Everybody’s different. But by having a high level of fitness, you can somehow reduce its affect to a tolerable level.

The key takeaway from my failed attempt was that the mountain is a harsh place. Only people that have attempted high altitude hiking would understand what it really takes to scale mountains. It does not discriminate against men or women, the young or the old. That is the key thing that you must understand when dealing with high altitude hiking.

Training Regime

My training involved lots of running on different gradient level. For 4 months, I ran around 2-3 sessions a week, in which  each session would be 6KM long and I’ll be running up and down the hills in my neighbourhood. I would constantly push myself to ensure I’ve maxed out my energy and stamina in each session. To be honest there are certain sessions that I end up throwing up after running due to overexerting myself.

Hike

So, after some serious training, I headed back to Kota Kinabalu on 22 January 2010. I used the same travel guide, MatthewPaul Travel and Tours (email: matthewpaultravel@gmail.com). We arrived at Kinabalu Park around 4PM. We checked-in into our park accommodations. We were all excited with the chill weather.

Kinabalu Park - accommodation

Kinabalu Park - our room

Meals are provided at Balsam Restaurant, which is near Kinabalu Park’s HQ. The restaurant is a 10-15 minutes walk from our rooms, but with the chilly weather and the rich view of the forest around us, we really enjoyed walking along the path and inhaling the fresh cold air around us.

Read more…

I’m a history fan. Recently, I found out that Matahari Books started a project to rewrite Sejarah Melayu in a lighter and easier to read version (they also added humour to it). Link below:

http://www.mataharibooks.com/sejarahmelayu/

They call this project Sejarah Melayu Reloaded. After reading a few chapters on their website, I started promoting it to my family and friends. I insist that they must read it.

Sejarah Melayu

I totally understand the difficulties in reading old text. I have my own hardcopy of Sejarah Melayu at home. You have to be a die-hard history fan to want to read the original copy. Just like Shakespearean English, the original Sejarah Melayu has an elaborate (not to mention archaic) language structure that the average person would have difficulty understanding. The Reloaded version is funny enough that it builds up interest for the average reader. What better way to make the younger generation understand history better!

Kudos to the guys at Matahari Books! If you guys ever produce a printed version (perhaps with some pictures in it), that’ll be awesome!

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.

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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!

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.

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.

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.

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

1. Accounts Analyst
2. HR Analysts
3. SAP Applications Helpdesk Team Lead
4. Business Analyst
5. Digital Publishing Platform Support
6. Digital Advertising Analytics Support
7. HR Helpdesk Analyst
8. Billing Operation Analyst
9. Contract Management
10. Contract Specialist I — Service Centre

Solutions Workforce

1. Oracle BEA Weblogic Portal Consultants
2. Solution Architect – Telecommunications
3. Java Developers
4. Oracle Order & Service Management Developers
5. Oracle BEA Development Implementation and Configuration
6. SAP FICO Professionals
7. SAP MM Expert/Consultant
8. SAP PM Data Lead/ Consultant
9. TA Siebel Administrator
10. Oracle Applications Specialists

Consulting Workforce

1. SAP Functional Consultants (BI,CRM,SD,APO,MM)  
2. SAP Functional Consultants (BI/BW/PM/PS/SCM)  
3. SAP Functional Consultants – Human Resources (HR)  
4. SAP Functional Consultants – Materials Management (MM)
5. SAP Managers / Senior Manager  
6. IT Strategy & Transformation Professionals

If you’re interested and require more details, please email me at imran.jaafar@gmail.com

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.