IRB e-filing

Usual time of the year approaching the dateline to submit income tax. This picture was taken at the Kuching IRB office where you have to queue up for a while waiting for your turn to use their computer e-filing. I preferred to use their computer because their e-filing is super fast. On top of that you can ask their personnel directly about any deductions that you aren't sure of.

Airplane wreck

Is it an airplane wreck or an airplane disaster? However, there seem to be two planes on the ground. The location is somewhere in Kampung Sindang, Kota Semarahan where a hype of activities were going on unloading big pieces of airplane. Don't know exactly what the use of those planes actually.

Swine Flu

Several people in Mexico and some parts of the U.S. are suspected of contracting what they called Swine flu. Several people in Mexico also were reported to have died suspected due to the Swine flu. What amazed me is that there seem to be no immediate action taken by their authorities to contain the diseases from spreading. In this regard, I want to congratulate the relevant authorities in Malaysia because any suspecting cases involving this type of pandemic diseases happening in our country will be taken seriously where various steps are taken to prevent the diseases from spreading such as by culling the affected animals, putting the affected person in quarantine etc. However, I haven't heard of such thing being done by the U.S. and their respective authorities as of this moment.

LOST files

Last night I had a chance to watch LOST FILES series. The series shows all of the tapes that was found after something mysteries happened to the owners of the tapes. Usually the tapes were either recorded by the person himself or by his friends and somehow somebody else managed to retrieve the tapes later. After watching the series and based on the current technologies available to record the event, then I realise that there are many things mysterious lurking out there especially in the ocean and also in the thick rain forest.

Last night series showcasing a women on her mission to sail solo over the seas and she recorded her journey via several video cameras attached to her boat and also to herself whenever she dived into the ocean. She only left with another two hours journey to arrive at her final destination where something mysterious unravelling itself. The event happened in the Monterrey Bay. Suddenly she received a distress call from a sailor indicating his exact location. She tried to call him back several times but with to no avail. Since she thought that she only left with two hours of journey, it will be no harm for her to just investigate what was happening to the caller. She started the engine of her boat and heading toward the destination as mentioned by the distress caller. A few minutes later, she realized that something had struck under her boat causing the boat engine to stop immediately. So she had to investigate what caused the engine to stop abruptly and she jumped into the ocean and inspected under her boat. There she found a fresh piece of flesh she claimed to be that of a whale and she retrieved the flesh and put it in her boat. Then she started the engine of her boat again and continue heading toward the distress location.

Arriving at the distress location, she found a boat without anybody inside it and at one side of the boat she saw traces of blood everywhere. Suspecting something not right had taken place she tried to call the coast guard several times but nobody answer her call. Then suddenly, something struck underneath her boat again. This time her engine failed again and she didn't want to take chances of diving to inspect underneath her boat. So she decided to use her sail instead. She tried to put her sail in place but failed. She only managed to put the sail halfway. Then she tried to fix the sail but mysteriously she got knocked out of the boat into the sea. She tried to climb her boat but failed and after several attempts she lost grip of the boat. The boat moved forward very fast pushed by the wind since half of the sail was already in placed on the boat. She just could not swim toward the boat and she was left behind.

Suddenly, it was heard from the tape attached to herself that she had to struggle with something which attacked her from beneath the sea. She was never found and the camera that she attached to herself was later found somewhere within the vicinity of the tragedy. I also wondering what was the thing that attacked both of the sailors. According to the series it may be a creature suspecting to be the descendant of a man eating dinosaur inhabiting the Monterrey Bay. From records, there were several cases of missing sailors that weren't resolved from the bay area.

Bird Strike

FAA make public the cases of bird strike data involving flight incidents. The bird strike data is reported to be the first ever being revealed by the FAA. However some argued that the problem involving bird's strike is much larger than that. The increase in such an incidents are reported to be due to the increase in the larger bird populations and at the same time increase in air traffic.

KLIA Express Rail Link

The most reliable and fastest way to travel from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) to Kuala Lumpur City Center. It takes only 28 minutes of travel time. Only once before several years ago did I experienced some delay where the train just did not move along its track due to some mulfunction. Other than that I enjoyed very much riding the train.

KL International Book Fair

It is this time of the year again where the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair is being held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC). The book Fair is held from 17th to 26th April 2009.



There are tons of books available for purchase or review. Just don't know which one to select. You have to set your books category and go look for the books throughout the book fair.



Among the book exhibitors participating in the book fair.

A New Proton Exora

The newly launched Proton Exora is quite amazing. Just within 12 months as what they claimed, proton engineers and workers can come up with quite an impressive looking MPV. The exora is a seven seater MPV. The engine is 1.6 Campro front wheel drive. Mechanically, I am not sure the positive and negative points for MPV to be fitted with front wheel drive as opposed to rear wheel drive. Meaning to say which one is better to have the engine pulling the vehicle (front wheel drive) or the engine pushing the vehicle (rear wheel drive).

The Exora comes in two versions. Both of the models comes with auto transmission. Proton Exora HighLine, the price is around RM 76,000.00- seat is equipped with leather seat, leather strapped steering, auto cruise, wiper auto speed varies with the speed of the MPV, Auto gateshift, Audio-Cd-Dvd-mp3-wma-aac-usb-sd/mmc card, bluetooh handsfree, aircond for second and third row, abs-ebd, airbags. The second variant is Proton Exora MediumLine which come with a standard features and the price is around RM 72,000.00.

I think the price of the MPV is quite reasonable and is an appropriate car for Malaysian family due to their many number of children, babysitter, aunties, uncle etc.

Great Western Train

Great Western Train
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

This picture was taken at the Paddington Station in London. There is an express train and there is also transit train which stop at almost every stations along the line. The train is very fast due to the superior locomotive and also due to the double or even quadruple tracking along the way. Thus the express train can maintain a very high speed without stopping along the way. Thus, Malaysia should have its own double tracking rails from North until South which will spur the economic growth further along the designated train stations.

Mobile Kitchen

Along the famous Portobello Street, one of the stall is selling German Food as shown in the picture. What interest me about the stall is due to its concept and design which is very compact, practical and very hygienic. Attached to the stall is a convenient compartment for storing cooking gas etc. The stall can be easily towed using any type of vehicles. The type of stall can be adapted for our burger stall in Malaysia. The stall is also equipped with smoke exhaust. As shown in the picture there are four exhaust fume being installed. I am not sure about the efficiency of the smoke extractors until the cooking is done while all of the windows and doors of the stall is closed.
Rear view of the stall which shows the convenient compartment to store cooking gas.

New Hotel In Town

A Four Points Hotel by Sheraton is a newly completed hotel located just a few kilometers away from the Kuching International Airport. It is located just besides the BDC flyover. Don't misled by the name because I think the hotel is operated as a five star hotel.


This smart car decorated with advert of the Four Points Hotel parked nicely in front of the hotel entrance. If the car is being driven around I think it is a good way of advertising and promoting the hotel.

Kuching Sentral

In anticipation for the project to be completed because it will make travelling around Kuching much easier with interconnected transportation systems.

Traffic Light

Traffic Light
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Just come across this traffic light guess where guys? The traffic light is loaded with all types of information such as the main three types of light (of course), countdown time (guess what it is used for) and road signage. Can you belief that even road signages is displayed together with the main traffic light.

I wonder whether the number of accident will increase or not but one for certain is that users can be distracted from the real purpose of providing the traffic light i.e. to stop when red and to go when green.

Here is another usage of traffic light junctions, also to put on road signages or name of roads.

Traffic light can also be used for cheap advertisement or for directions.

Tidal Bore

Watching this video still amazed me about the power of tidal bore. The water current can be utilized to produce renewal energy to power up nearby villages thus helping to reduce global warming effect.

Mobile Pile Driver

Mobile Pile Driver
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

If you carry out your house renovation or building a new house, you may need the service of this type of equipment. The equipment is capable of putting in piles deep in the ground until the very hard layer of soil or rock. However, it does not come cheap. The cost can go up to RM20,000 per renovation work just to put in piles in the ground. Extra cost will be incurred if the ground surrounding the project is too soft where the operators need to transport few pieces of steel plate for the equipment to travel on top of the soft ground. The additional cost may go up to Rm500.

The extra cost is worth every penny of it since the piling will ensure that your new house extension will not settling down which can create unsightly cracks here and there.

Airport Body Scan

The technologies to ensure airport security have improved throughout the years. However, after the 9-11 incidents, most of the airports especially in the U.S. reverted to the basic approach i.e. to strip naked usually visitors to the U.S. Now, they have improved on that basic approach by inventing a new airport security scanner.

The scanner can see through clothing to reveal metallic and non-metallic objects, including weapons or plastic explosives. They also reveal a person's silhouette and the outlines of underwear. Currently, there are two technologies available for scanning i.e. "millimeter wave" (MMW) technology which bounces radio-frequency waves off people to construct a 3-D image within a few seconds and X-ray scanning. However, the MMW method is currently faster than the X-ray.

According to the developer of the system, the scanner intentionally blur facial features, and the security officer viewing images sits in a remote location where he or she cannot identify the passengers. The systems also delete scanned after the viewings, and have "zero storage capability." However, in the future they might have to store the image for another security reasons such as as an evident in a court case etc.

It will take much longer for the technologies to be adopted in this region due to differences in culture and also cost factor.

Aircraft Sprayer

Aircraft Sprayer
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Not taking any chance of being infected by any type of airborne diseases, all aircraft inbound from international destination will be sprayed by disinfectant.

This picture just to show you one of the aircraft at the Heathrow airport being sprayed for disinfection. Upon arrival, all passengers are required to stay on their seats for some time to allow ground crews to carry out the disinfection processes. I just wondering how much the airport charge airlines for the disinfection processes. The disinfection process will reduce the chances of any diseases from spreading.