Christmas is just around the corner, just 6 more days to go and MERRY CHRISTMAS! So what do I want for Christmas? I'm not going to lie and say world peace or may dogs learn to climb trees...

This is what I REALLY REALLY WANT... It's a universal remote control. Not just any universal remote control. Its the Logitech Harmony. It doesn't matter which model. As long as it's the Harmony range, I'd be more than glad. It starts at 400 ringgit and goes up to thousands...

So what's so great about this Hamony thingimageek (woohoo just created a new word)? Imagine this, the entire thing is programmable via the computer and you can set 1-click activity buttons.

Say for example you're home and you're ready for a movie. Then again, the thought of turning on your air-cond (setting the right temperature), switch on the ceiling fan for a little breeze, then turning on the TV, switch to the right AV channel then turn on your home theater system with the right volume and input ... then the DVD player and press PLAY - just put you off.

Well, not if you've got one of the Harmonys! Just programme it in your computer, upload it to the remote control... wack that one button your control and EVERYTHING just comes alive with 1 PUSH OF A BUTTON including pressing PLAY! :)

Just imagine the possibilities... as long as your gadget / device supports remote control, harmony will work with it.

So there you go, my Christmas wish for 2008... takers anyone? :P If you need my address to send that AWESOME gift which I'd appreciate for a looooonnnnggg looonnnggg time, drop me a message, I'll send you an e-mail with an addy :)

Have I told you that I love Google? Not the company but more about the products they've created to enrich our busy internet lives. Sure, they've got some misses in the past, not everything that came out of Google was a BIG hit. As with anything, there are always failures and with failures, people learn.

To-date, I've been using countless number of Google-ish products – from Picasa (one of the best photo organizer I've ever used) all the way to the infamous Gmail. I still remember the day when Gmail first came out, everyone thought it was an April fool's joke when the web announced that Google was offering a 1GB space e-mail account for all. At that time, it was unheard of. Today, it's a norm – nearly every free e-mail provider I can think of has gone into the gigabyte-world – even Gmail has grown to allow over 7GB of storage!

Naturally, Gmail had to progress… it's gone through loads of changes from a simple interface to something that's a little bit more fancy yet keeping it's minimalist approach to enabling POP access, integration with Google docs, the list is endless!

Today, Gmail has announced yet another feature – it's almost like a Christmas gift! They call it 'tasks'. If you're thinking Jeez… what's the BIG deal? It's not revolutionary but it's just nice to have an additional task list by your side. How often have you promised to reply to an e-mail and haven't? How often have you told yourself to get something one minute and completely forget about it the next? That's what task is for – never forget anything and have the list with you so long as you've got INTERNET access.

True to Google's love for minimalist approach, Task is no different. Just enable it via Gmail's "Labs" tab, hit save and voila! Task appears as a box like Google Talk in Gmail. Its visible at all times and inserting a task is as simple as clicking on the box, type, hit enter and DONE! All in 1 click!

So check it out… Google's mini Christmas gift for the rest of us :P

Today is Wednesday, 3 days after one of the servers I was taking care of got attacked. To be honest, it's not even eminent, it's happening RIGHT now as I type this e-mail.

This is the other side of me which you probably have seen a little with my little Ben's Weird Discovery and me being my techy self. I was in a war - a cyber war.

It's just REALLY sad when people play STUPID - when they find that your server / business that's running on the server is doing well, out of jealousy, they ATTACK. Roping in an army of robots, computers to do whatever it takes to CRASH your server.

In the computer world, we call this DDoS. Distributed Denial of Service attack. It's a case when computers / bots overload your server with requests to a point where it just freezes, jams up, goes into cookoo mode and stops other REAL customers / web viewers from entering. This thing is RAMPANT. In fact, not only small servers like mine get hit, big ones - mega huge ones like that of Microsoft's or even Google's get hit. Remember the day when Microsoft's Windows Update site was completely down? Well, that's DDoS.

So back to where I was at, my server was hit - it started with a small number of bots and users attacking then as my server withstanded the hit, it became bigger, stronger almost as thought they were calling for reinforcements. I've had sleepless nights, constantly on the phone with my counterparts abroad and constantly finding ways to KILL this attack.

The war is not yet over but we're holding up. May the attacker rot and die. :)

Sorry, I just needed a place to place my thoughts of the day. Okay, I'm back to my jolly old self again - ice cream anyone? :)

As it is, it's quite sad that iPhone cannot be found 'officially' in Malaysia. Sure you can get it off the gray market and pay a stupendous price when the rest of the world is getting theirs are prices below 1,000 ringgit. Heck, even our southern neighbour has iPhones officially. The news is that it might be coming soon but that's the same saying I've heard for the longest time… iPhone itself has gotten to it's 2nd Generation iteration and still it isn't here. It might NEVER arrive at our shores coz no one from the many telcos we've got in Malaysia has announced anything officially – it's always 'testing with the networks' and 'it'll be here soon'

The sad truth is, it might NEVER come. The good news is, our Finnish friends are hard at work and as with any product that comes out from this company, they'd always launch it in our country (with the exception of the N810) coz they know Asians are phone buffs. The new deal – Nokia N97. I didn't get the numbering wrong. It is indeed, Nokia's latest that is touted to be the ultimate iPhone killer. Here's a taste of it…

So what's so great about this new phone?

• It'll be their first mobile phone that's got a touch screen capability
• Uses similar technologies to that of the iPhone (including the accelerometer etc.)
• A whooping 32GB of built-in memory – with the option of expanding further with a memory card
• Slide out keyboard from a REALLY slim body frame
• Buttons are touch sensitive (similar to that of current Samsung phones)
• The usual 3.5mm jack – listen to your music / calls using any earphones / headphones
• Surf the internet on a MASSIVE screen!
• The highest resolution camera on a PDA phone
• Record Widescreen HQ videos (when the iPhone doesn't even record videos)
• And more!

I'll let the videos speak for itself…

Price? Roughly 2,500 ringgit. That's cheaper than some of the high end PDA phones in it's class! Launch date, 1st ½ of 2009.

So iPhone 3G, you want market share? Come now or kiss your shiny black / white back cover good bye! :)

So what is Fring you ask? From one of the creators of ICQ comes Fring. Just imagine Skype, Google Talk (Gmail chat thingi), MSN, Facebook chat, Twitter updates and loads more put together into a nice little package... called Fring which works BEAUTIFULLY on your mobile phone.

As a matter of fact, they've been around for sometime now... I found Fring when I was searching for a compatible version of Skype which would run off my mobile phone. Since I've got the unlimited data package thingy from my service provider, I might as well make full use of it.

Just imagine this... FREE Skype calls... and if you've got SkypeOut Service which allows you to call internationally and locally at SUPER low rates, you've got yourself one heck of a deal! You'd be virtually using no mobile airtime as far as your service provider is concerned because everything goes through the Internet on your mobile phone. All you pay is that monthly flat data fee with your mobile service provider.


Best part of it all, Fring is absolutely free and virtually works with almost EVERY mobile phone out there... At the time of this post, Fring is available on..

• All Windows Mobile 5 & 6 devices
• UIQ devices
• Symbian devices
• And if your phone is not 'canggih' enough, you get to use 'mini' FRING which works with most Java enabled phones...
  

How do you get started?

1. Get yourself a flat rate data plan... it ranges from 66 ringgit - 99 ringgit per month (depending on your mobile service provider)
2. Install Fring by downloading it off www.fring.com
   
3. Configure the different services you want enabled (ie. MSN Chat, Skype, Yahoo Chat, Google Talk, Facebook etc)
4. Enjoy!

Trust me, this is one software that'll change the way you look at your mobile phone EVER again.

The only bummer
To me, the only thing that'll probably stop people from using Fring is that additional monthly subscription of 66-99 ringgit for your unlimited data plan from your Mobile Service Provider.

YES - I agree, that's alot to pay just to experiment with a new toy like Fring but think of the possibilities... the FREE calls you'd be making, the SUPER cheap international calls you'd be making, chatting and keeping yourself online at all times...

Plus, apart from just using Fring, with the unlimited data plan,

• don't forget about the web browser you've got on your mobile phonesurf anytime without the worry of being charged a gazillion bucks
• sending e-mails whenever you want to using the e-mail client that's in most phones today
• uploading your pictures to flicker
• watching YouTube mobile another software you can download through m.youtube.com

The possibilities are truly endless...

What if you REALLY CAN'T see yourself spending that extra dough?
Good thing is, the people at Fring saw this coming. They knew there would be individuals who wouldn't spend a dime extra on anything. So be it they say... and therefore, they got Fring to work using your mobile phone's WiFi feature.

So long as there's a wifi access point around you, Fring will use that data connection instead. Make free calls, chat etc.

Drawback here is that your phone has to be WiFi enabled.

The choice is yours...
Get yourself unlimited data on your mobile plan and open yourself to unlimited possibilities, reviving the very essense of your mobile phone or not get it and not know what you've been missing out on all this time...

My advice, if finances permit, give unlimited mobile broadband a one month trial - if it suits your lifestyle... stick with it. If not, at least you've tried it.

Life is an adventure... give it that extra spice once in a while when you can :)

Wassup! If you've seen the newspapers lately, you'd have seen the station's birthday cake! Yes, it was custom made, custom baked by our very own Jules' mum – note, it's not Jules it was her mum who has the skills… Jules is just good at talking.

We had it as part of the Press Conference to tell the world about our 3rd birthday doo that'll be held on the 15th of November 2008 – Central Park Avenue 1 Utama. Checkout the cake – it just looks soooo good!

It's a 2-in-1 – a cake and loads of cupcakes. The candles you see on the mini cupcakes are actually edible – amazing. How often do you get to see edible candles? (just for you to know, they can't be lit – it's just sugar :P).

See you at our birthday party on the 15th! Remember, admission is absolutely FREE – and if you listen to the station often enough, you'd find cue to calls for VIP tickets – for the extra especial treatment :)

From Flyniversary to this – eggs. Yes, you'd know by now that I'm absolutely NUTS over eggs. It's got to be the perfect half-boiled eggs. This morning, Fabes and I ordered some from the mamak stall and it was just PERFECTLY done.

Being kiasu, Nadia decided to order her set and it came out like this…

Phrase of the day – DON'T BE KIASU when it comes to EGGS… otherwise you'll get Nadia's eggs… ewww… that sounded wrong.

Have a great weekend!

Friday was Halloween and possibly the sickest thing came before my eyes…

To be REALLY honest, I was terrified, petrified, sickified and whatever fied have you – this THING was scary. It had blood splatter all over the apron, the face looked as though it was made out of FRIED SKIN, the face was painted BLACK (and no, I'm not trying to be a colour-ist here) – and if that's not enough, it's got rubber gloves, a strange walk and voice… NOT exactly the coolest looking thing on the face of this planet.

It turned out to be Moe Nasrul – yes, the dude who goes on air telling you about traffic conditions on the station. This man really went all out to get the who make up done. Apparently it was black face paint and he got some form of wax to create his mask…

Okay, enough of Halloween costumes and such – so on Halloween night, I decided not to freak myself out no more – so I headed to the Curve to checkout the Ice Bar… the place was AWESOME! Freaking -15 degrees in the heart of Petaling Jaya – and trust me, you won't be able to last 1 minute in there without a jacket – my ears were freezing, so were my cheeks (and I'm talking about my face cheeks – the other one was well padded) – it came to a point where it started HURTING!

Then of course there were the drinks, it was served in LITERAL ICE CUPS! Since it was -15 in there, nothing made out of ice would melt… and so the cups lasted as long as we were in there… Great experience but I wouldn't stay any longer than 10 minutes in there – now I know how it feels to be in the North Pole! I feel so blessed to be living in a country with such 'BEAUTIFUL' weather… it could be super warm at times but it sure beats the cold that would freeze and hurt your cheeks!

Many many many moons ago, Sony came up with an idea...

Hey! Let's create a feature which integrates with our latest Mp3 Walkman! When a user is playing a specific song, wack a button (we shall name it "Artist Link") and voila, all songs in the mp3 player that's related to that song he / she is listening to will be put in a playlist for him / her to enjoy!

Absolutely GREAT idea. It was implemented to some of their mp3 players - problem was, many people hated Sony's now debunked, exterminated, deleted, thrown away, cast to the other end of the world software - SonicStage. This was their iTunes competitor. A software that marriages their mp3 player with the music on the user's PC. Little by little, their market share got eaten away by Apple and so Sony decided to listen to their market, throw away the crappy software and let users either drag and drop or use Microsoft's Windows Media Player which is light years away from their original SonicStage software - great move BUT "Artist Link" was exterminated along with the software.

Many many moons later today...

Apple computers decided to implement something similar... in fact extremely alike - the name... GENIUS.

If you own one of Apple's latest Mp3 players, that includes the latest generation of the iPod Touch (or if you've got a 1st Gen iPod touch with it's software updated to version 2.0+), iPod Nano etc., you'd notice this new "Genius" logo - similar to the one above.

Every single time you play a song, just wack it - and VOILA! Genius goes through your entire library on your iPod or computer (if you're using Genius in iTunes 8) and display a list of songs that would match the similar genre / artist you're listening to.

I've found this to be one of the coolest things ever! I've got such a massive library of music that I would probably listen to about 20-30% of the music I have leaving most of it forgotten. This is where Genius brings everything back to life, helping me pick from the entire library - bringing back long lost favourite tunes... absolutely GENIUS.

So how does it work you ask?

• Load all your favourite music to your iTunes 8
• iTunes 8 will send out information about the kind of music you have in your computer and retrieve matching information for each of your songs
  
• Have them saved in a database that's both in your iPod & computer
  
• Next time you are listening to something, just wack the "Genius" button and voila, it gets into the database and finds music in your computer that matches what you're listening to
• Done!
  

The best part of all of this is you DON'T NEED to own an iPod. Genius works even in standalone iTunes mode. Just load the songs and away you go!

Once again, I must say, congratulations Apple... you've excelled in areas where others failed... now where's my free iPod touch? :)

Wassup & happy Halloween!!!

Yes, it's one of those days where the entire team got suited up for the occasion. Nadia got herself a princess Leia costume from Star Wars... Fabes got himself a pirate's suit while I turned myself into a Pharaoh… YES MY SUBJECTS… clean my toes… :)

Unfortunately, I was so caught up with the whole picture taking thing that I forgot to take pictures of myself!!! Urrrgghhh… let's just say I looked like an awesome pharaoh, complete with the white gown, golden necklace and a REALLY HEAVY & TALL hat – it even had a cobra protruding out of the hat from the front – awesome…

For Halloween's sake, we gave ourselves some names…

• Nadia was called Princess Needia…
  
• Fabes was called Captain Fabiano (Italian) – to be honest, I just took him to be an Italian captain in a restaurant – 2 Pizzas and a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise please :P
  
• Since I was in a Pharaoh's costume – I called myself… the one and only – Pharaoh Benditto (though they kept calling me Bendover)

The whole show we were playing clips of monsters, ghosts from movies, gave away – terror-rific tickets to the movies and such… hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wassup! Happy Deepavali!!!

Back from my Deepavali holiday… you must be wondering WHY was I on a holiday since I don't celebrate it – leaving Nadia all by herself? Well, 1 word – KIASU.

Just a quick shoutout to Umitirah's family – THANK YOU for inviting the entire Fly team to your house! The food was awesome… the muruku was great… so were the dishes that were served… thinking about it is getting me hungry again :P

Speaking of food… I was in Pavilion with Stella last weekend and saw this restaurant called Li Jin – Japanese + Chinese Fusion baby… the name might not sound like anything amazing but the place and the food IS! This is when I leave you with the pictures… as the saying goes… a picture says a million words…

Oooh… nothing like FRESH clams boiled to perfection… with ingredients that are difficult to describe…

Snails… - love em' shell OFF

Here's a sushi roll that doesn't require the regular Japanese Soy Sauce or wasabe to compliment it – just tastes great by itself… ABSOLUTELY AWESOME

And to down it all – a massive ice-cream + red bean + ice kacang…

Here's how the place looks like…

I'll be back soon :)

Happy Deepavali!

Brace yourself for a 3-in-1 blog…

Firstly, Phat Fabes – P.H.A.T – in case you don't know by now stands for Pretty Hot And Tempting (which I honestly honestly most definitely doubt) – anyway, that's for you and the rest of the WCC (World-Chick-Coalition) decide.

Honestly, how hot and tempting can it be for someone to place a butterfly on his head – just because it looks cool?

Then there's this Tiger + an Iguana. No, it's not another Godzilla (or as the Japanese would say 'Gozzira') – it's a CAR. Before you start doing double backflips and go WHAAATTTT??? Don't panic, don't scared – the largest automaker in the world Volkswagen AG decided to name their latest vehicle Tiger; because it's fierce and fast plus a hint of Iguana because it's got the ability to climb and tread through the jungles and mountains of the world – and so they call it Tiguan.

Guess what? I was invited to the official launch.

At 250,000 ringgit, what would you get?

• One of the fastest mid-sized SUVs in the world 0-100 in 7.6 seconds! Beats BMW X3!
• Parks itself! Yeah BABY! Hit Park-Assist, the car scans for a parking spot, you set reverse, control the acceleration and brakes and voila! – first to introduce in an SUV!
• Has electronic parking brakes – go to a traffic light, press and let go your brake pedal and voila! Car brakes itself.
• Eyes that move – turn and the light turns with you…
• And more…

Is it worth the money? Well, I don't know but I'll be getting an extended test drive soon – I'll let you know later… :)

Then there's QUATTRO – I believe this came from QUAD – which means a group of 4 – and that's what it is – the latest club in Kuala Lumpur has 4 seasons! You name it – Winter, Autumn, Spring, Summer – they have it all!

Every room / area has its own season

It even rains on the hour in 'Summer'!

And yes, it really does snow – the winter area is separated into 2 zones – one at 10 degrees celsius and another at a nose booger frosting -5!

Okay, that's all I have for this week. Lookout for more updates soon!!! Have a blast of a weekend!

Before you start frowning, no - I'm not going to talk about living green, going green, doing green or even doing it in the green ... in fact, there's nothing green about this. Just pure metal and the core of technologies oozing out of every angle. 

iPod touch... 

In case you don't know what sort of marvel this is - it's only the coolest MP3 player out there and NO Apple isn't paying me a single cent talking about it here. It's just that I honestly do believe is the BEST mp3 player, web browsing gadget, youtube viewer, contacts manager, calendar, picture viewer, movie player, show-off thingi every living being MUST buy. 

Being one of the early adopters of everything (you'd be saying "SUCKERRRR!!!" now), for the first time I early adopters of the world can unite and say "THANK YOU"... especially to Apple. 

The beginning...

Here's why... when the iPod touch first came out, I broke the bank and bought 2 units - one for me and my beloved... of course, it was great then...

About a year down the line...

As with every technological masterpiece that comes out, there's bound to be an upgrade - true enough, it came ... in fact, 2 upgrades have come by... software & hardware wise. 

To cut a long story short, here's what the current iPod touch can do that mine cannot (well at least software wise). Ability to access Google Maps, Mail, add calendar entries... ability to use the iPod touch as the coolest REMOTE CONTROL (more on this in my next blog) ever... 

The stingy me...

Being the stingy me, I wouldn't want to break another bank so I held on... instead, I went online in search for an alternative solution... 

Then VOILA! An UPGRADE via iTunes! To get all the features of the latest and greatest iPod touch, all it required was USD$ 19.95.

Things to note...

• it beats paying many folds more for a brand new iPod touch
• there's only so much software can do - I would be missing out on the new built-in speakers on the newer version
• it's freaking 70 ringgit!
• I've got 2 iPod Touches - that'll be 140 ringgit!

Go ahead or not?

The go ahead...

I went ahead and decided to upgrade "Stella's iPod" first... and believe me - the upgrade is well worth the 70 ringgit paid. Everything is just faster, cooler, works better - mail is amazing - for my consulting job - it works WONDERS - it supports Microsoft Exchange Push-Mail too!

My kiasu self...

Being kiasu, I decided to bite the bullet and pay that extra 70 ringgit for my own unit... 

The miracle...

• Plugged in my iPod touch into the notebook
• Selected "YES - I would like to upgrade and pay that extra 19 USD"
• Then the prompt came - "You've upgraded before, continue upgrade?" - I said YES and it was DONE for FREE! WOOHOO!!!

Pay 1 and get another free. Now that's what I call 'caring'... :)

 

Firstly, what happened over the weekend? Everything... okay fine, not everything... just one of the coolest cars ever made was released to Malaysia. Featuring the latest Double Clutch gearbox, the super engine, awesome looking rims, accelerates from 0 - 100km/hr in under 6 seconds - and of course bears the one logo that signifies speed - Porsche.

YES! Fabes and I were invited to the launch last weekend... It's just soooo cool, so soft to touch... of course at over 700,000 ringgit what wouldn't be nice to touch? :P

So anyway, presenting the latest Porsche Carrera...

Then of course, there was this irritating mosquito that was bugging the life out of me. It just kept biting and biting and biting - and just for you to know, I try not to harm any living thing but this thing just went too far.. I took my latest and greatest and biggest RACUN NYAMUK and away I sprayed...

It fell on the ground, legs still moving... I took a picture of it...

After seeing it suffer for one minute - I felt sorry for it so "SQUISH". I won't describe the details. Just a note to all mosquitos out there - NEVER AGGITATE a human being by BITING them - the result could be disasterous.