Jackknifing Accident along Pan Borneo Highway

This incident happened last weekend during the Christmas Holiday. This incident occured along the Pan Borneo Highway at Bukit Bangunan (uphill section on the way to Kuching). Along the Pan Borneo Highway, Bukit Bangunan section is the steepest uphill and downhill section of the highway where the gradient is about 10 degrees. This section of the highway had registered many accidents involving all types of vehicles.

In this case, the 18 wheelers trailer seemed to be involved in a jackknifing accident. Jackknifing means the folding of an articulated vehicle (such as a truck towing a trailer) such that it resembles the acute angle of folding knife. Refer to the following video as an example of jackknifing accident.

Nasty Truck Jackknife Accident - The best free videos are right here

 I am still puzzled about this particular incident because based on the position of the vehicle, the trailer seemed to be traveling uphill and usually the vehicle is moving at a very low speed due to the steepness of the slope (about 10 degree). Jackknifing accident occurs usually at a very high speed where the momentum of the trailer will push it forward and causes it to spin and faces backward. Luckily, there are no casualties involved in this accident and also luckily that the trailer did not obstruct the major Pan Borneo Highway. If the trailer skidded in the other direction where the trailer obstruct both directions of the highway then the Pan Borneo Highway will be totally cut off and renders impassable to all traffics.

Therefore, the exact cause of this accident was due to speeding while the trailer was traveling downhill. Upon applying the brake, the back of the trailer jackknifing and the trailer kept on traveling in the opposite direction of the traveling lane until it stopped in the drain as shown in the picture above. Can you imagine if there were vehicles traveling uphill at the instances and you can imagine what possibilities that might happen to the oncoming vehicles. That is the reason why heavy vehicles must travel at a maximum of 80 kph speed limit.

In case that the trailer obstructed both traveling lanes, commuters between Kuching and the rest of major town in Sarawak will have to find other road alternatives (may be nearby estate road). Based on my observations, the trailer was left unattended at the particular accident spot for several days may be due to the long weekend where most of cranes or tow trucks are not easily available to help move the trailers from its position.

The Pan Borneo Highway: Road Failure

It was last Monday that we were travelling on the Pan Borneo Highway from Sri Aman to Kuching. It was raining heavily and as can be seen along the road there are sign of road distress at several locations. There were minor instances of visible small landslides along the road and the dirt obviously cutoff some of the roadside drainage system.

The road failure that happened last night (approximately around 8 pm) at KM77 Serian- Sri Aman road causes total cutoff of the Pan Borneo Highway and drivers were diverted to the alternative estate road. The road section subsided for about 3 meters high. Luckily, there were no casualty due to the incidence. The location of the road failure is as shown in the following map (KM77 is somewhere along the Federal Road).


View Larger Map


Obviously, based on the pictures in the news (referring to the pictures available on the local news paper), the road failure was due to poor drainage at the location. Heavy rainfall had caused the section of the road to fail.

Luckily, road users can still travel using an alternative estate road which is about 36 km in length. From Sri Aman to Kuching, use Krait Junction (before Semungkoi) and exit Slabi Junction. The big question mark is whether the alternative estate road can handle heavy lorries. If not, then most of major cities in Sarawak will run out of essential supplies as this road is the main access road throughout Sarawak.

Thus, it is high time already for the Pan Borneo Highway to deserve its due. As a major highway in Sarawak, the road needs to be maintained properly and need to be properly upgraded to the "highway" standard.

Wordless Wednesday: Thanks @ Terima Kasih

Thanks at Kuala Lumpur Sentral, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Wondering How to Make your iPhone's Home Button More Responsive

If you are one of iPhone users, I am pretty sure that you experienced your Home button becoming a little sluggish and a little bit unresponsive over time.  Once I thought that I should change my iPhone or at least I should send my iPhone for service. After following this tips, the issues affecting my iPhone Home button is resolved.

iDownloadBlog shares a very helpful hints and tips to recalibrate your Home button because most of the time the issues are due to software based. Unless you had dropped your iPhone on the floor or in water, this tips will not work for your iPhone.

The following are the steps to recalibrate your iDevice's Home Button

Step 1: Open an application such as "Stocks".

Step 2: Press and hold your power button until "slide to power off" appears and release.

Step 3: Press and hold your Home button until "slide to power off" goes away, and the application "Stocks" are forced to quit.

Then, your iPhones's Home button should be more responsive after the recalibration.

I decided to blog on this useful tips for my own future reference because after applying the recalibration process, my iPhone's Home button becomes more responsive. I think the approach should also work on the iPad and iPod touch. Please let me know if this tip is working for you in the comments below.

This is a feedback I received from a friend where If you are using iOS 5.0.1, this is what you should do, go setting > general > accessibility > assistive touch > on, and then an assistive button will appear on screen ( in form of white full moon ) - then can start using the on-screen button instead of the normal home button. There are several more interesting application under the assistive mode that can give you peace of mind while using your iDevices. This is even recommended if you want to prolong the life of your Home button from physical abused or if your Home button always nonresponsive even after recalibration.

Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

I am quite sure that most swimming pool users will not do this (i.e. urinate in the pool). However, as a reminder to everyone especially to youngsters, several reminders are placed around the swimming pool. I am not sure about children whether they have time to read this because they are either not able to read yet or too busy playing in the pool.

Incandescent Light Bulb

It is just a matter of time that the traditional light bulb will be part of history. Majority of countries will start phasing out the use of traditional light bulb and replace it with a more energy efficient alternative. Most countries will start implementing the law to prohibit the usage of the bulbs next year.

In case that you are one of those who love to keep something relics you better keep some of those light bulbs now which might be valuable in the futures.

Natural Lansdcape

This picture shows an interesting geographic information about the locality where the type of soil is mostly sandy and the landscape is hilly and rolling. The soil is heavily eroded due to  natural phenomenon especially due to heavy rainfall. There are only a selected type of plantation able to grow on this type of soil condition. For building purposes, this type of soil provide the strongest foundation ever given that the erosion phenomenon can be properly controlled.

Lotus Cars

The following are a couple of Lotus cars on display at Proton Edar Headquarters. The cars look very impressive and congratulations to Proton for being able to have those kind of cars.

Wordless Wednesday - Rubber Boat

Rubber Boat Category, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Women Taxi

Women Taxi service is launched today in the Klang valley according to The Sunday Daily. It is a sigh of relief to women who frequently using taxi services and they should feel safer.

Those who need the taxi  service can call these numbers: 03-80240507, 03-26926000 and 03-88884020.

For your information, the women taxi service would have a special sticker "TeksiWanita" on the vehicle.

According to the news, the company providing the services are recruiting more women taxi drivers. So, those who are interested to be a taxi driver, please contact them immediately.

Hope that the services will be available to other parts of the country depending on the demand of such services.

So, those men outside there, please don't hop on the taxi with "TeksiWanita" on it, it may be just for women passengers only.

Thanks at Kuala Lumpur Sentral

Thanks at Kuala Lumpur Sentral, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Everyday, there are a lot of activities going on at the Kuala lumpur Sentral. One of the activities is as shown in the picture where anyone are encouraged to chip in for the entertainment. By the way, he is very talented and able to attract crowds.

Kebab

Chicken and Meat Kebab, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

In case that you wanted to have some kebab either chicken or meat, you can visit Kuching Water Front. There is a Kebab stall operating along the water front selling hot kebab as shown in the picture.

World's Rivers Day 2011 in Kuching

World's Rivers day 2011 is officiated at Kuching Water Front today. Several activities were being held at the water front to celebrate the special occasion.

SUKMAB 2011

SUKMAB (SUKan MAhasiswa Borneo) 2011 is the second SUKMAB being held. This time , Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) is the host for the game. Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Indonesia are taking parts in the SUKMAB 2011. There are a total of 1261 athletes taking parts in this year game. There are 15 contingents participating in this year game. From Brunei, the contingent is from Universiti Brunei Darussalam. From Indonesia, the contingent is from Universitas Tanjungpura.

Opening ceremony of SUKMAB 2011 being held at the newly open Unimas Stadium.




Rising the SUKMAB flag and Unimas's Futsal Arena visible in the background.




Landscape view of Unimas Stadium.

Stairways

IOI Marriot Putrajaya, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Stairways at the IOI Marriot Putrajaya Hotel is as shown int his picture. The stairways connect main lobby of the hotel to the function rooms at the first level of the hotel. This stairways is designed in such a way that visitors or guests can find their ways to the coffee house and all of the respective function rooms.

However, the stairways occupy very large space of the hotel in order to come up with such an impressive structure.

Green and Red Bicycles

These green and red bicycles were parked in tandem at a bicycle parking rack. The color of the bikes are very striking and seemed to be able to attract a lot of attention. The advantage of using a very striking colored bikes is that it will help deter anyone from stealing the bikes because the bikes can be easily identified by their owners since not many bikes are painted in such colors.

This type of bicycle is commonly known as fixie or fixed-wheel. These bicycles have no freewheel and thus they cannot coast as the pedals are always in motion when the bicycles are moving. The sprocket or cog is bolted directly to a fixed rear hub. This allows a cyclist to stop without using a brake, by resisting the rotation of the cranks, and also to ride in reverse.

Haj Carrier

Haj Carrier, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

After sending Malaysian to Mecca to perform their Haj, this aircraft decorated with Tabung Haji emblem is parked at the KLIA airport. The plane will start busy again to bring back Malaysian soon after the Haj season is over within a couple of weeks.

Traffic Accident

Two days ago, while on the way to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), I saw an accident involving a car and pedestrian. Referring to the following picture, the impact of the accident was severe and I am certain that the victim could not survive such an impact.




As can be seen in the following pictures, the scene of the accidents was crowded with people eager enough to know what was happening. Due to the curiosity, both sides of the highway were congested.

I think that the victim was at fault because he was hit by the vehilce while crossing the busy six lanes highway. Unless that he crossed the highway at the designated pedestrian crossing (if there is any), the chances of being hit by vehicles is very high.

Amazing Cars and Motorcycles

Today I managed to observe several amazing cars and motorcycles. The color and outfit of the vehicles are very elegant and good looking.

UTHM 11th Convocation

Cngratulations to all graduates of the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) in conjunction to the 11th Convocation which is officially started today until 31st Oct 2011. There are more than 2000 graduates being conferred their respective degrees and certificates for this year convocation.




















Congratulations to Prof Ir. Dr. Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad for being conferred Emeritus Rofessor.





One of the special dessert being served after the ceremony.

KLIA 2 Terminal in Progress

Referring to the following pictures, construction of KLIA 2 terminal is progressing as planned. KLIA 2 will be the world's first mega terminal for low-cost carriers. The terminal will be able to carry the expected high growth rate of passengers using low-cost carriers for the next 10 to 15 years.

I am really hopeful that there will be seamless connectivity between the main KLIA terminal and KLIA 2 terminal. As of the current low-cost terminal in Sepang, the connectivity with the main KLIA terminal is not so commendable. There are a lot of improvements need to be carried out to provide better connectivity between the terminals. Thus, hopefully, passengers transferring between KLIA 2 terminal and KLIA will be much better in the future so that more passengers will be able to visit both terminals at any one time.



Read HERE for previous entry about the launching of KLIA 2 terminal.

Coffee Please

Coffee, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

I like the design of this cup of coffee set. It is purposely designed not to be symmetric.

Wordless Wednesday - Drinking Water

Drinking Water, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Bunkface's Live Performance

In conjunction with Unimas's 15 th Convocation, popular Malaysian band Bunkface performed live at Unimas last night. The band was formed in 2005 consists of three main members i.e. Sam (lead vocalist), Youk (bass guitarist) and Paan (Lead guitarist). I have to admit that the band is very popular among the youth judging from the reaction of the audiances eventhough this is my first time watching their live performance. Apparently, this band had won several awards since 2009.

Biggest Employers

Among the top 10 world' biggest employers are the names that are very familiar to us and that should be because of the fact that they are the world's biggest. However, some of the names are still not very familiar especially companies that are originated from China. It is good to know about some of the information related to the biggest employers. Among the familiar names are IBM, McDonald, Carrefour, and Tesco. For more information, please read HERE.

Wordless Wednesday - Gambir Street

IMG_0500, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Kuching Waterfront

IMG_0499, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

Last Sunday, it was unusually very quiet day along Kuching's waterfront. Usually, there are a lot of activities going on along the water front. Also, during other times, the road along the waterfront was usually congested but not on last Sunday afternoon.

Facebook Application for Ipad

Finally, after a long delay, an official facebook application for Ipad can be downloaded HERE. For Ipad's users, gone are the days for using crappy Ipad's application. However, more time will be wasted for friend and unfriend activities. The official facebook for Ipad's application looks similar to other facebook applications except that it is so compatible with Ipad and very easy to use.

Car Free Sunday

On Sunday, there will be no traffic from 8:00 until 18:00, local time, on Milan streets. The ban is imposed when pollution exceeds certain standard over a period of 12 days. The measure was taken to reduce smog from Milan city. This type of measure was first taken in 2007 when the pollution exceeded certain standard for 12 consecutive days. From my point of view, this type of measure is too drastic because there are other types of intervention that should be considered such as by improving the pubic transportation services so that more users will leave their private vehicles behind. With time, pollution levels in the city will reduce due to less number of vehicles on the road.

Crosstrainer Kettler Verso 109

Crosstrainer Verso 109, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

This is a basic version of Crosstrainer by Kettler. So far this crosstrainer is very comfortable to ride and very reliable. It gives a good workout for the entire body. The 12 kg flywheel mass gives it a very comfortable and smooth rides.


Technical Specifications are as follows:

Information display:
Time measurement, distance covered, speed, stepping speed, energy consumption
Pulse-rate (Polar compatible) with integrated pulse-rate receiver
Hand sensors (included)
Magnetic Brake system
300 mm Drive system Drivewheel
Approx. 12-Kg Flywheel mass
Strain range1-8 (manual)
Only use 2 batteries (type AA-1.5V) as a power supply
Size when set up (L x W x H in cm)115 /60 /164
Max. weight110 kg
Use ball bearings on turning joints

Fishing Boat

Fishing Boat, a photo by wanhashim on Flickr.

This is a typical fishing boat in Malaysia. It was displayed at one of the shopping mall in Kuching recently. I am not really sure what was the theme of the showcase, i.e. either to showcase the fishing boat or something else. What ever it is, the boat is newly built and the decoration on the boat is very impressive.