Okay, more seriously, it's not about what I'm giving you but more of what Apple computer is giving you. Yes, the same brand that created the iPhone (that's taking a gazillion years to arrive in Malaysia officially), iPod, Mac, Macbooks etc.

Yes, they are pretty - very pretty in fact and this time around, instead of making money from people like us, Apple's giving us something for FREE! A BRAND SPANKING NEW BROWSER!

It's a web browser I'm talking about - they are in for a tough competition. We've got Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Opera and a range of other smaller niche targeted browsers ie. flock etc.

The thing is, the fruit is not new in this competition. The fruit didn't name their browser Grape or Durian but Safari - which; if you've used a Mac or owned and iPod Touch / iPhone, you'd be familiar with this browser - YES, it's BIG in the Mac community but not Windows users.

The last time the fruit decided to enter the Windows market by giving away a free Windows version of Safari 3.0 - it hardly took off. Some people tried, I tried and found it to be clunky, wasn't fast (although it was claimed to be the fastest browser - which in my opinion is just CR*P)
, had loads of incompatibility issues and simply wasn't as nice as Firefox or Internet Explorer or any other Windows browser for that matter. In one word - for me, Safari 3.0 for windows FLOPPED BIG TIME - I'd be more interested in it if it was durian pulp, at least I'd be able to savour it's pungentness... :)

So anyway, enough of history - the fruit is trying again - not surprisingly called Safari 4.0 - it's said to be MUCH MUCH MUCH better and features some 150 features which would BLOW YOUR MIND!

Here's a sneak preview of what Safari 4 features...







I love the fact that they have 'coverflow' in the browser and the whole 'cinematic' view when looking at the top sites you frequent.

The fruit might have just gotten it right this time - but only time will tell as while I type this blog entry, I'm having the browser downloaded.

Since it's the weekend and all, why don't you go ahead and grab this FREE GIFT from the fruit? It's FREE and there's nothing to lose :P I'll post my review of the browser sometime next week...

In the mean time, CHILL, download and have an AWESOME WEEKEND!

It's a MONDAY! Back to work and usually, I'd talk about myself - what happened over the weekend blah blah blah but TODAY, I shall speak of Nadia first... we all know that she went for this whole speed dating thing (while having a boyfriend tsk tsk tsk...) then of course she found one dude particularly interesting - his name is Hafiz Abdullah...

Shamelessly, Nadia and the rest of the team gave him a call and asked if he'd like to date her - the conversation went a little like this...

Fabes & I 

So Hafiz! Which girl did you find particularly interesting on the day?

Hafiz 

Well, I thought so and so was great... (with absolutely no mention of Nadia)

Fabes & I

So Hafiz, what do you think if Nadia took you out on a date... 

Hafiz

... (SILENCE) ... (MORE SILENCE) ... then... mmmmm OKAYLAR... (in a VERY reluctant voice) - poor dude

So the day came and Nadia came in EARLY in the morning, ALL GUNGHO and prepared! She even brought her hair ironing thingy for last minute fixes to make sure she's presentable for dear ole' Hafiz... don't believe me? I've got PROOF! 

Honestly, those pictures are not what you'd like to see if you just woke up... almost like a monster coming out of a dark, deep, black cave... 

In celebration for Nadia's date with Hafiz, the entire team rejoiced...

Prem decided to make every chick look like they belong to him

The team decided to do a group huddle

Simon our engineer decided to sell lipstick to Jules

He got a bit upset when jules decided not to buy his second hand lipstick

What happened on the date? Well, I'm sure Nadia will blog about it. What exactly happened to me though this weekend? Loads... one of which included something like this... 

Hahh... dessert... who doesn't love tiramisu...

Wassup! Here's an entry which is a little late. Meant to have it uploaded last Flyyyyyday but I was stacked with appointments after appointments, events after events that I hardly had anytime to do anything else...

Back to the entry. Here's a moment I caught when Fabes, Nadia, Amrita (our producer) and I were having 'tea' - yes, we feel British sometimes ole' chap. Then this occurred.

Fly FM Pagi Show - The laugh of death @ Yahoo! Video

If the video is taking sometime to load... please wait for it... trust me, it's WORTH IT! :)

Have fun!

Ben

The nightmare was looming near, for the first time ever, Nadia and Fabes will be landing their feet in my compound... WHAT IN THE WORLD would they do? Mess up the place? Stamp my dogs with vegetable colouring? Turn one of my male dogs into a female by decorating him with ribbons? Ransack my fridge? Peel EVERY orange they see? The possibilities are endless... so are the nightmares...

The day came... and here's what they did...

 

Eat... and eat... and eat... it was simple... all I had to do was to get them away from the 'evil doings' they had in mind... by presenting FOOD... glorious food...

With the help of my mum, she gathered her troops, got some food, placed it on the table and the clock struck, they went through the entrance, started making a heck of a lot of noise then.... SILENCE - they were trapped by the very presence of food... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 

They came, they sat, they ate, Nadia left some droppings in the loo and then they left... PHEW... :) They would have never guessed, WHY they came in the first place.

I'm not kidding... this is the latest, coolest (in my opinion) gadget / tool that is ABSOLUTELY FREE! It's Google's latest thingy called Google Latitude.

So what exactly is it? It's an application which you can download into your mobile phone called Google Maps from m.google.com. Use your phone browser, download it, select "Google Latitude", get yourself registered and list whoever you want to view your location at all times... 

Essentially, what this does is, Google Latitude will use your built-in GPS or Cell Tower location services through your mobile network operator and pin point where you are and keep your friends updated at all times. 

A phone with built-in GPS would be recommended though as it's more accurate compared to just using Cell Tower location services which is available on every cellphone.

Why have it? 

I've come up with a few uses...

To avoid certain people 

If the dude or dudette is in the vicinity - TIME TO SPLIT!

To tell if someone's lying that they are stuck in a jam when they are at home

You are just 5 minutes away are you? Google Latitude tells me you are HOME! LIAR!

To tell if the person you like is nearby

This is nearing the idea of 'stalking' but hey, it's not wrong to do-yourself-up and look great at all times near people you like is it? :)

To see if someone is cheating on you

What? You are in the office? Looks like you're in a FANCY RESTAURANT and ABC is with you! 

To see if your dog / cat / pet elephant is REALLY lost or just playing hide-and-seek with you

This would be pretty easy, buy a SUPER small handphone, hang it around his neck and voila! You've got a 24 hour tracker!

As you can see, Google Latitude has LOADS of uses - IF used correctly... 

Oh just one more thing, this Google Latitude thing might use up a bit of your data plan - you might want to have a data plan setup before you play with this thing... 

Have fun!

It's a FLYDAY!!! Yay... just a day from Valentines day... to me, Valentines is a massive celebration for me. Though Fabes, Nadia and Prem wil NEVER understand why I'm so sucked into this. Their justification is "Why celebrate love when you can celebrate it all year round"?

Why? It's because you'd be exhausted and be ultimately broke if you celebrate Valentines EVERY FREAKING DAY of the year... plus, it's always good to have something to look forward to for you and your other half... SEE? Justification done :P

Anyway, I'm excited coz I've set up something special which I might share in my next blog... today though, I'd like to show you some strange sights of the show...

Fabes, Nadia and I were in the studio when 2 'BIG HEADED' (quite literally!) babies decided to show their face... it was a little freaky if you ask me..

After the show, Fabes and I dropped by our brand new - refurbished cafeteria... took a potrait shot of him... I think I've got some future in photography... hheehee If the picture is out, it's the model... :P

Then Amrita our producer showed up in a style called - Ala... Arabia...

On our way out, guess what? We saw the 'BIG HEADED' babies again...!!! Since Nadia was terrified of them, we shoved her into their arms :P

Hah... victory :)

Have an awesome-tastic weekend and happy valentines!

This happened just yesterday. It was right after the show... then this crave came... the crave for Nasi Lemak. Thing is, I've been abstaining from Nasi Lemak for the longest time (can't even believe I did it - close to a month without a dose of Malaysia's favourite staple food). Why? Well, if you read my last entry, you'd know why... this massive sore throat and viral fever which led me to believe that I had a case of dengue. 

Anyway, that said and done. Fabes, Nadia, Amrita (our producer) and I decided to go gallivanting... towards Dang Wangi where the best nasi lemak resides... In fact, this is one of the Nasi Lemaks in Malaysia that was nominated as the best in Malaysia amongst others on the show ie. Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa etc. 

Anyway, we went... took us 20 minutes and VOILA... SALIVATE BABY, SALIVATE... :)

Love it? :) Okaylar, just head on to the Dang Wangi Police station - it's not too far from the police station. Located on the same side of the road and its on the only Nasi Lemak stall there; so you can't miss it. 

Have an awesome Nasi Lemakking time...!

Ben

So if you've read my last entry, you'd notice this plastic tube thingy sticking out of my hand ~ that's the key to the explanation as to why I was not in the office the first 2 days after the 1 week Chinese New Year break like I was supposed to.

It started off with a little update on Facebook - my telling the world that I was not feeling too great after coming back from my little escapade from Penang (which I'll elaborate on shortly). I had a swollen lymphnode on the right side of my throat which was irritating the life out of me. Saw the doc and was told that I've got a temperature... the next day, it got worse and finally on the 2nd day, I couldn't take it no more as my temperature was fluctuating, I was having cold sweat, I felt lethargic, my eyeballs hurt - I was showing signs of having Dengue!

It was Saturday when I saw the specialist, got my blood tested and was told that there's definitely an infection but the doctor was unsure what. As for the dengue test, it was negative but he did mention that it could be too early for the virus to show - it'd be best to return for another test in another 3 days. I was sent home with some meds and a bill of over 600 ringgit!

Sunday came and it was torturous, I couldn't get out of bed, I was constantly tired, feverish, not feeling great, zero appetite (which is absolutely strange coming from me) and I was losing weight (Yay! to some people :P) but I was feeling HORRIBLE.

Monday I went to the doc and was given some additional antibiotics to expand it's range of treatment and that was IT! Honestly that was the cure - I felt like a king the following morning, had the 1st EVER proper sleep in days and was no longer having fluctuating temperatures!

My second blood test results came out on Tuesday and true enough, it was cleared - SIGH.... what a relief... I called up the boss (Kak Anida) and told her I'd be back on Wednesday. So there, mystery solved. It was a case of REALLY REALLY bad VIRAL FEVER and sore throat. Given a choice I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER want to be in a situation like that again.

Hope I haven't bored the life out of you... but as promised, here are the pictures from my Penang / Chinese New Year trip! It was FOOOOOD GALORE BABY!

1st meal in Penang

Then it was the 1st Char Kuey Teow - Ah Leng (the best one in Penang and Malaysia and the World was closed so we went for the Pulau Tikus one)



Then we headed on to having the BEST EVER Goreng Pisang in Penang and Malaysia and the world - on the way up Batu Ferringhi






While chomping on crispy, lightly fried pisang - it was time for DURIAN right within the mountains of Batu Ferringhi!



Then on to a hilltop where we savoured not only fresh air but fruit rojak...




With our bellies still able to store more - we headed for Cendol!




Then finally ending the day with super massive awesome ding-a-ling-a-ling seafood <- and no, that's not the restaurant's name :P 

  

Oh no, it didn't end there as we decided to have MORE seafood - traveling from one end of Penang to another - we found the best shellfish stall when it comes to cooking shellfish! 

In that last picture, you see that HUGE mountain of shells there? I ate all of those :) The following day, it was HELLO PENANG and an empty stomach! 1st stop, the infamous, the most ding-a-ling-a-dong - Ah Leng Char Kuey Teow... just checkout the size of the prawns!

Then straight to Penang's famous - Prawn Mee! 

  

Then as we almost tearily left Penang for Kuala Lumpur, we did a quick stop in Kampar for it's famous Ice Kacang! 

  

Apparently, the shops been operating longer than I've been around in the world! If that wasn't enough, the entire Fly team had this yesterday... YEEEEEEEEEE SANG! 

Now is that food or is that food... okay, I promise I shall not lay my hand on food at the very least for the next 2 minutes... :) Got a comment? Drop it below! Have an awesome weekend!