Read the news here, so it is not new, and now German researcher found that the tapioca pearls (which are the key reason why people drink bubble tea) contained polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs such as styrene, acetophenone, and brominated substances, chemicals that shouldn't be in food at all.

Those pearls were said of Taiwan origins.

So I think next time I will order mesona instead.

Looking at the news on IFA 2012, and my continued usage of Windows 8 - I am more and more convinced that Windows 8 (and RT) are meant for tablet.

I like the Metro Modern UI/display - it is informative, it is like the gadgets of Android, gives you updated information, customized the way you want.

The usage gesture is somewhat unique to its own - such as pulling out the charm bar, closing the apps, pulling the loaded apps (think of it like how you switch tab in Google Chrome on iPad)

The sad thing, which I have been criticizing since the day 1 I use Windows 8, is that these 'gesture' will be applicable to Windows 8 for desktop, you can't use finger but the mouse to do those gesture.

To a certain extend, I thought it's Microsoft's subliminal strategy to push people to use tablet.

I will give a quick prediction - I would be glad if I'm right:

1) Windows 8 RT will be big.
2) It will convince even more people to switch to tablet.(and hence, further decline of PC market)
3) It will push the competition of Android OS & iOS further.
4) Microsoft Surface will hit 3 millions sales target this year.
5) 60% of people will dislike Windows 8 (note: Windows 8 & RT are different), or will install the Start button via third party website.

Two major factors for its make-or-break (for its tablet flavour):

i) How Windows Store will be as usable as Google's Play Store & Apple's ITunes? (these stores give major income and most importantly, the reason why people are still stick to the OSes)
ii) Battery life - if it is worse than Android's, then good luck and goodbye.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S3 & Ativ

Sometimes, I feel that Samsung is just like another teddy bear factory - all the phones that they produce look very similar.


Not really, I think even the bears like us also look differently.

Amigos, it's been a while - I'm in sort of hiatus, but will try to blog a bit (tired after the NZ trip)

So according to human, this is currently the month when the hell gate opens, with the hungry ghosts coming to human space to seek food.

This is no hunger game.

But again, in Hunger Game the movie, I didn't see people starving.

Again, this is a totally random note.

My first reaction was LOL.

Whether the cream is effective or not - the advertisement was effective, almost reaching 700k viewers in just 10 days.

So Samsung tells their story behind Galaxy S3, a la iPhone style (shown below the ad for iPhone 4 for comparison)


Samsung got the inspiration from river, flowing water, Marina Bay and created great metal brush (something like that)
Again, let's not forget - it's just a phone.

Another song that has potential to be featured on NatGeo ad :)

Heard this before, sometime ago, heard it again on BFM - still nice.

Not really a fan of Ford, but this one is interesting.

Would you love to own this dark angel?

Call us pessimistic, while I thought the short film is really futuristic and it might be how the future is..

But I thought the film would look better if the person looks very fat (a la Wall-E) because they don't need to move anywhere to get all the info he/she needs.

I also thought the film would look realistic if the person is living in a smaller space - because the they don't need space for toys and books.

My sis said she doesn't want this kind of future, because human will stop speaking and meeting each other physically.

(But next morning, when I walked past her bedroom - the first thing she did when she woke up was watching movie on iPad)

Another good laugh!

LOL


This girl is good :)

Kodak is a classic example of having 'technology that is ahead of its time' and 'failed to transform its business at the right time'

- Kodak invented digital camera in year 1975, but mainly because they were still in film business, they thought digital camera would harm their traditional business.

I would say back then the technology might not have matured - that it would have been a very expensive device.

- But come to the digital age, they only introduced their own digital camera in year 2001.

During that time, most of the traditional camera companies had already started or transformed into digital camera business.

- In year 2006, they changed their logo
- Fast forward to earlier this year, they filed for bankruptcy.

Then, today, they announced that they will sell film, commercial scanner and kiosk division.

So, what is Kodak without its core business?

What struck my mind was somewhat superstitious:

For big companies that had changed logo for slightly worse looking, such as HP (looks like a detergent brand), KFC (why is Col. doing 45 degree tilting?), Kodak (for discarding the symbolic 'K' logo)

They are not doing really good.

Since the current Kodak CEO is, coincidentally, from HP, I hope they would sack him like how HP sacked the ex-CEO (for proposing to sell the PC business)

Now, come to the nearest event - Microsoft just changed its logo. I would say it looks much simpler, doesn't  have the 'bold' feel - I do hope it will do good, cos personally, I am still struggling with Windows 8 - Microsoft's most ambitious OS to date.

So Microsoft replaced its 25 year-old logo, in my belief, the purpose is to match with the Metro Modern UI of Windows 8.

Watch the video to have some understanding the logic behind the logo.

And one thing for sure - Microsoft is really ambitious on Windows 8, after witnessing the real impact of tablets by Apple & Android.
 

lol, doesn't matter if you get it. Let's hope it will really arrive in 3 weeks time.

The thing about the local film, Tanda Putera, is that - I find it unnecessary.

1) It features the director's view on 513 incident, which, the topic itself is not even allowed to be taught in details in primary or secondary school. Hence, the public never had a fair view on the incident - what gives the director to have the fair view on the incident?

Moreover, in the trailer, it clearly showed that the production team did not do enough research - some of the banners were written in simplified Chinese, whereby it was only introduced into Malaysia in the 70s.



2) Then comes about the timing - the movie will screen some time in November, which is just months away from General Election.

The title itself had already suggested that it is a movie dedicated to Tun Razak, who is the late father of current Prime Minister - Najib Razak.

So there's no doubt that this movie intends to remind people about Tun Razak's contribution to Malaysia.

This point is also strongly related to point#1, which, the movie is somewhat intended to demonize the Chinese descendant in Malaysia - as the cause of the riot.

To give yourself a much holistic view on 513 incident, I strongly recommend you to read the article on Wikipedia, and also an interview with Tunku Abdul Rahman - the ex-Prime Minister who was forced to resign after the 513 incident.

After reading both articles, you can somehow tell that there was indeed some conspiracies, and most importantly, both Malay and Chinese were both held responsible for causing the riot.

So, this movie at this timing, one may say that, somewhat it has intention to be in conjunction with General Election - to tell the citizens that the current government knows best.

3) There are better story to tell for a movie.

For example, how about a film about Tunku Abdul Rahman? There are so many stories to tell, from him being the Chief Minister of Malaya, to become the Prime Minister of Malaya, and his effort in getting Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to join Malaysia, while witnessing Singapore departed from Malaysia.

That would be a much better topic to remind Malaysians how our leaders fought for independence, to appreciate and to respect.

I realized that the postbox was too high, so I asked Colleen's help to carry me up.

This song was written more than 20 years ago, still rocking-ly catchy. As usual - heard it from my favorite BFM :)

I had tried out Windows 8 - from speed and interface perspective, I can see Microsoft has done a good job.

But usability wise, it is still very much a pros-and-cons situation, which will give existing Windows users a cultural shock.

I shall blog in details about it in coming days.

Meanwhile, you can also download the 90 days trial from Microsoft (will expire and NOT upgradable to full version when it expires)

So we went to the beach - I was at the place where Narnia happened.

When I saw the footprint on the sand, I thought it was Aslan.

But when I took a nearer look, one of the footprint has Nike logo.

So I don't think that lion would wear Nike shoes running around.

In the end there was no lion, no prince but bears (Sebastian + I)

It's ok, I just wanna say hi and bye.

Interesting that Milo produced a retro design (it claims to be of 1970's design)

But of course la, the Milo ain't from 1970.

So today I spent the whole day resting in Auckland. Cos I thought I had enough of travelling - having witness the snow, farm etc

Here we united with an Indonesian bear, and I got to know a new human friend.

As for dinner, we had Hell Pizza. (or pizza from Hell)

 Bearorama view of Wellington

I feel tired finally, travelling from Auckland to Wellington, and now I finally have time to blog, after I've just arrived to Auckland once again.

So Wellington is really a nice place - just look at the panorama view (in bears world we call it bearorama) - it's really amazing.

 Then we went to this some kind of museum (or whatever) where my head looked bigger than Colleen & her friend.

First of all, I've never been to New Zealand, and currently I am in Malaysia.

So my sis is now currently having her holiday in New Zealand - she wanted to find a honey shop that she forgot the name. Her only tips for me:

1) It's opposite Wellington city library
2) It sells manuka honey fudge
3) It's at the corner

She wants me to find out the shop name + street name for her.

With every 10 minutes asking me whether I'm able to find.

That 3 tips only manage to find me the street name, not the shop name.

So, for the first time, I tried out Street View.

I 'strolled' along the street, found the corner - and I found the shop name.

So, it's certified, I'm the living Siri, and my sister liked it.

Before departure, we last checked the avalanche risk

So as you know, we've been busy travelling, we just reached Wellington (from Auckland!)

Busy it may seem, but when we looked at the newly grown lavender farm, everything is worth the tiredness.

LOL, just to share the troll moment.

Verdict: Take-away from the movie: "When people are afraid, they will do terrible things"
So this film, from the poster itself you can tell it is not those of Pixar quality.

Even though it is the same studio that produced Coraline: the story line, the pace is nowhere near to Coraline's.

This stop-motion film talks about a kid who can see the spirit - it uses the logic that commonly known - those spirits are still around because they have unfinished stuff/affair/mission that they can't let go - who had to use his talent to save the village.

As mentioned earlier, this film has slower pace than Coraline - in fact, this movie can be reduced from 91 minutes to 60 minutes long.

What saves this film from being a bad film, is some genuinely good laughter scenes (I could see it pays tributes to film like Evil Dead) plus some demonstration of human behavior (out of fear, people do things that they don't normally do)

Rating: 6.8/10

Can't watch youtube in the office?

just add http with s in the Youtube link.

Example:

http://youtu.be/o1ahppNg9Ys
you change to

https://youtu.be/o1ahppNg9Ys

But I can't guarantee your consequences, if you get caught watching it during office hour.

Thanks Ron for the discovery.

Sitting on the snow with my brother, Sebastian, talking about life.

So it was snowing here - as always, it's a privilege to experience such an occasion - many bears, in fact, many human, have not experienced that.

So in other countries which would give caution about the bears - in Kiwi country, of course, they give warning about Kiwis.

My grandpa trolled on my parents last Sunday, when they discussed about politics.

My grandpa said "BN will lose in the next general election la... Year 55 of Merdeka means retirement ma.."

55 years = retirement.

What a nice number and beautiful coincidence.

The best is, it was a trollolol from a man who has witnessed Malaya's independence to the formation of Malaysia, and to the downhill presence.

He can't be wrong :)

In the past 2 weeks, I didn't really commit to video editing - reason is simple, it crashes way too often.

First I thought it was due to the version - so I updated to the latest version.

Still, it crashes like joy.

Then I thought it's the laptop's video card driver - updated to the latest version as well.

Crashing is still in its blood.

So I asked my friend Google. It seems the problem lies with my Sony Text Generator and also Media Generator.

Which is true - it was prone to crash whenever I generated a text or blank black media.

So the solution

1) Right click on the vegas110.exe (You can find it under: Program files -> Sony -> Vegas Pro 11.0)
2) Select Properties
3) Make sure the settings are set to those highlighted as follow:

So running in compatibility mode for Windows 7 did the trick.

I don't know why but at least it works and I was able to finish some work last night.

One thing I noticed though, is that Vegas is now running slower than usual.

But I believe Sony team won't be releasing any more update, as they are focusing on Vegas Pro 12 instead.

When I read it here, I couldn't believe it.

If they leave mobile world - are they gonna cope with the shrinking PC market?

Tablet is so handy nowadays. Even my dad, myself and my sister can feel it.

Adobe Flash is one of the reason why I chose Android - and being proud of it.

Though buggy, but I can still get some basic function from those website with flash.

With Adobe Flash exiting Android, it's like Adobe succumb to the fact that HTML5 is gonna take over Flash.

Disappointing but that's life.

So like locals do, we drank a lot, I was really drunk that I couldn't stand up.. this Scrumpy cider is really getting me tipsy.

Anyway, I know I'm gonna have hangover tomorrow, so I'd better catch a sleep now.

I don't need mention how many products they have invented on fried chicken - every time they intro the 'new spicy flavour' (such as spicy curry chicken), the spicy fried chicken would become the victim - retire for a while, then when the new product doesn't sell, the spicy fried chicken would come to the market again.

OK, this time, their tagline is ‘So Authentic. Even the Thais Want It’.

So I tried it like two weeks ago - it was the sweetest green curry I've ever tried in my life.

Thai green curry, in my opinion, is supposed to be spicy + slightly salty.

This KFC's case, the sweetness is like dominating 30% of the total taste, with 65% spiciness + 5% saltiness.

So my recommendation? If free, DIY to cook green curry chicken, on your own.

Your cooking will easily taste better than KFC - no joke.

Being random, the video was randomly filmed, and randomly cut.

And being really random, I was one of the 姐妹 on that day.

This video should give TC a good view of what happened downstairs, when she was awaiting in her room, last year.

Oh yes, the video is almost 1 year old.

For such an essential Malaysian drinks, it received much better salary increment than ordinary people.

RM31.30, for 2KG refill pack, at Carrefour. (it was like RM25 something two years ago? that's like 24% increment in two years)

Anyway, it comes with 200g bonus. (i.e. RM31.30 for 2KG + 200g)

So I guess I should rest my case, for having the "Janji Ditepati", to stay in the high income spending country.

On a totally different note: Milo tin is in its 70s retro design now. It looks nice. Go check it out in any supermarket.

So I thought I could catch a movie, but I forgot I agreed to another siao on session.

Seems like I need to take Pharmaton everyday. (._.)

Many thanks to tc & gjj to search for my victim.

I heard this song from the London Olympics 2012 closing ceremony.

This is especially posted for Colleen.

I'm sure she's damn interested to know.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19192660

I always think that a bear wearing a shirt is stupid.

I mean, by nature, 'civilization' is not applicable to bear - and what civilization? Use spoon to eat honey?
 To me, bear wearing shirt is the same as this dog wearing this whatever dress.

They tried to look cute but they failed in or by nature.

After all, it is not environmental friendly - when Winnie the Pooh made his (or her? It's a female name if not mistaken???!) shirt dirty, as a result of his take-all-he-can-honey-eating style, he needs water and detergent to wash it.

Clean water is a serious issue in the world now.

That's why, Sebastian and I, by nature, do not wear anything.

Let's imagine the day you enter the zoo, with all the animals wearing shirts.

I am not gonna give you the ticket refund, anyway.

P/S: I blogged using Colleen's iPad.

To celebrate my comeback, Sebastian and I have decided to fly to New Zealand for a trip.

My ancestor was said to be from polar bear origin.

So I'm sure they are beary proud of me - to be able to travel to Southern Hemisphere - since they were like stuck in the North till the very today.

So I'll see you guys 2 weeks later.

So this has been my favorite radio station since like 2 years ago?
That's when I was sick of mainstream music on other radio stations, or with only music only station (which I could use Youtube playlist, or something like that)

The morning session, Breakfast Grill, which they will invite some top guns from many companies, be it private, public-listed or even government-sectors.

After the 'grilling' session, 3 DJs will share their opinions on the session.

Though it's very much business related - but it is a good opportunity to expose to ideas/opinions by those top guns.

It is a much neutral radio station, it even report the news covered by The Malaysia Insider, one of the good example is the progress of the Scorpine court case in France.

Thursday Evening Edition is an interesting session - audience are given a chance to call in to give their opinions on specific topics - I called in twice so far :)

Apart from that, BFM has interesting guests, such as Dr. George Lee, a Malaysian who migrated to UK, but chose to come back to serve Malaysia :) (who is also TC's favorite Malaysian Doctor)

One of Evening Editions' DJ, Uma, is an avid reader. So occasionally he will share the opinions on the books he read.

Now, just when you think BFM is all about Business, Mon - Fri 7.30PM will feature interesting sessions such as football talk, and my favorite 33 RPM (Tuesdays & Thursday) which the DJ will intro and play alternative music, ranging from 60's to recent years, that I seldom heard the names before.

There are other things that you might just need to switch to 89.9 channel to get what I mean.

But so far, listening to those talks and the alternative music do make my day :)

I hope this indie radio station will stay, it really is a hidden gem.

I'm 12 years old this year.

Verdict: I just watched another action movie.

After the crazy but fun 8.8 "event" at 1Utama, finally, we managed to catch the movie.

To be frank - I kinda like some of the idea/technology (the 'phone', the Fall) about the future.

But apart from that, in this movie, you will follow the actor, trying to complete the puzzle of his torn memory, + do all the chasing, killing, and most importantly, memory recalling.

The story line is surreal - in fact, the original author of this story is the same as The Adjustment Bureau.

Most importantly, both of the movie are loosely based on the original books.

The problem is this - Adjustment Bureau would want you to think what could be the ending, and the ending didn't disappoint.

But this one is somewhat predictable - it didn't have a lot of explosion scene that can blow your mind away.. and even there were explosions, the hot chick was still able to survive (while the robots 'died')

If you have time, yes, it is still ok to spend RM9-ish on Wednesday, with 2 hours worth of airconditioning (no guarantee that there will be babies crying or phone ringing, but that is another story/blog post for another day)

Also, the consolation prize for Douglas, is that he had two hot ladies at the same time, somewhat, somehow.

Rating: 5.5/10

Cross junction, traffic light, U-turn, trees, belly, old house, old things, future, happiness, Olympics, film, blog, sleep, green curry chicken, Cherating, Yuna, Canon, mp3. iPad, iphone 5, other country, permit, Tibet, book, photo, music, composition.

Good night.

I heard this song on BFM.

(BFM is worth another post to blog about though)

I was impressed by the song quality as the music sounds relaxing and somewhat random.

My SoundHound couldn't find the song - so I memorised partial of the lyrics.

Googled it - et voila, it's Yuna!

Nice and I hope you'll enjoy :)

This was a song I heard few weeks ago during my lunch time @ McDonald (TMI, i know)

(Btw, I have yet to try their McCafe, looks interesting though)

The song was catchy... my sister likes it too.


But after a few days - I realised one thing, during the chorus, if you sing along with the "da da da da da da da da da da da... Hey Jude" lyrics from Hey Jude...

It MATCHES
So after I've done some Googling, it was right - the writer of the song says that he got inspired by the song "Hey Jude" actually.

Doesn't matter, still a good song.

I think this is an interesting project - from how it landed (you can read details from wiki)
To the technical details of the rovers

While my feeling tells me that the reason why Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago was the reason  why the form of life on earth (i.e. migration from Mars to Earth) 4 billion years ago.. I definitely see good purpose of doing this exploration.

He played well in the match, and definitely better than Beijing Olympic 2008

Verdict: Thai comedy is a combination of Japanese comical style with Korean superstar style - and hence, surpassing HK comedy's laugh-ability.

(My verdict is really the summary of the movie - this review is more like my opinion on HK movie :P)

I noticed that, the HK comedy movies in the past few years - those that are genuinely funny, are really numbered.

I would say the last memorable one was Shaolin Soccer... but other than that.. none that I could really recall.

The HK comedy nowadays was either not funny, or failed trying to be funny.

That's pathetic - cos I randomly chose to watch HK comedies that were made more than 20 years ago - they were genuinely silly and funny.

Yes, the 無厘頭 element in the movie nowadays is overused that it is no longer funny.

So if you have time, I would recommend to watch these few Thai comedies
1) Suckseed
2) Hello Stranger
3) BTS

If you had, you would know what I mean - Thai movie nowadays is no longer horror movie - those movies that I had mentioned - are a blend of South East Asia's daily life, with the blend of Japanese (exaggerated) comical story telling & some Korean superstar element.

This combo has surpassed HK's Mo Lei Tau element.

One thing that I have to agree - Thai movie's pace is still rather slow, and they tend to be draggy in describing the love conflict situation..

But nevertheless, with not much choices from Singapore (their movie production seemed to have slowed down?) Thai movie (along with French movie) have become our alternatives to English movies.

Back to this movie ATM (争钱斗爱 /  เออรัก..เออเร่อ) It's a story of a couple, fighting their way to solve an ATM issue, which paid the money withdrawers in double the amount.

They had to investigate who took the double amount, and attempted to take back the extra.

So another thing about this movie - since Thailand is just next to Malaysia - the things they mentioned in the film is very close to our daily life - that would possibly explain why my preference.

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: Watching two men with opposite life value (and physical ability) that somehow generate perfect chemistry - this is my French movie of the year, so far.

Based on a true story:

The first man: a person who is very rich, living in high society but who is suffering tetraplegic.
The other man: a person who was jobless, living in poor housing area (that has gangster/drugs and probably prostitution issue) but is physically perfect.

Then they met - jobless one was hired to take care of the rich one.
The jobless one showed thoughts/value that the rich, that he had never experienced/thought before.

Such a conflict, or chemistry was the element that keep the story moving... till the end.

The opening of the movie gave me a blast - it was something nasty, creative and unexpected for.

This movie gave me genuine laughs, one of the example was the sarcasm threw at opera/classical music. (well I still love classical music/opera anyway)

I would call this movie a drama, a comedy, a lesson in life, a true story on how people with different abilities, can compliment each other.

My only complaint is that Driss seemed to be able to settle the gangster issue, way too easily.

But other than that, the movie was near flawless with smooth editing, great acting and ever interesting storyline.

This movie is both motivational and inspirational.

Rating: 9.5/10

Verdict: While the funny scene has gone stale, you can still watch it if you have nothing to do.

As the fourth instalment of Ice Age series, you can feel that the story has become tiresome.

With the story about continental drift (indicating global warming?), I hope this should mark the end of ice age (yes, I mean both the actual Ice Age and this movie series)

The problem is this: I don't really find the squirrel - Scrat, that funny anymore.

It is still cute as last time, but I somehow felt tired of watching it doing all the stuns/disasters.

Compared to Madagascar 3, it lacks some kind of elements that keeps you interested about the storyline.

Both talked about team work value, but in Ice Age 4, somehow I feel that they were doing their tasks separately (or maybe independently)

Both have villains - but in Ice Age 4, I thought to have a monkey as the captain of the pirate (ice) ship was not convincing at all.

Both have wishy-washy character (Madagascar 3 being the Vitaly the Russian tiger and for Ice Age 4 being the Shira, the sabre-tooth cat) that turnaround the outcome of the story - but I felt that Shira was wishy washy unconvincingly.

So end up, a movie that doesn't give you the 'wow' factor, but however, give you some occasion laugh - which is the main purpose of Ice Age series.

Rating: 5.5/10

If you wish to know if government has done enough for this country, compare these list of things with your experience five years ago

1) You need water filter to get cleaner water
2) You paid for road tax, but yet you still need to pay for road toll
3) In order to watch F1 or some football matches - you need to subscribe to a satellite TV station
4) With option 3, you can't watch the TV when it rains (Malaysia is a tropical country, just FYI)
5) You start to buy clothes from Thailand or Taiwan, cos you find that they are much more cheaper
6) You use public transport, less than 10 times in the past 5 years, and don't plan to use it in near future
7) You started cooking cos you find it will save hell a lot than dining outside
8) You regretted for not buying a house 5 years ago
9) You own a car, and you spent at least 1/3 of your net income on car loan, maintenance, road tax, fuel & car insurance - and you don't plan to stop using the car in near future
10) You trust online media more than traditional paper or even the police.

If you agree more than 5 points I had mentioned,

Perhaps you might wanna consider again, whether the government has done enough, and will do that enough in the next five years.

The fact that they treat such a big game like Olympics, worse than a warm up session..

 They deserved the disqualification.

You can watch the clip from 9th minutes onwards, to judge by yourself.