St0rY oF uNpReDiCtAbLe LiFe II » Thoughts

Cigarettes Price Increase

Amir Hamzah — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:53:12 +0000

Well, being a smoker myself, one of the “must look” items from a new budget plan been announce every year is none other than the increase of cigarette’s price. The annual increase had been a trend for many years (as far as I can remembered) and to be honest, most smokers that I know (including me) will not stop this bad habit just because of price increase; they will simply find alternatives to satisfy their needs (buying cheaper/smuggled brand, shift to the traditional “rokok daun¹“, etc). I noticed today that British American Tobacco Malaysia had made an announcement that the company will increase all their tobacco base product which will be effective starting today. No need to make a guess; it’s because the new budget plan for 2009 announced by the prime minister.

Petaling Jaya, 1 September 2008 – As a result of the significant 20% excise increase, and taking into consideration the consequent impact of sales tax, trade margins and the higher than normal inflationary impacts on our own cost base, as global tobacco, paper and fuel costs have all increased by double digit amounts, British American Tobacco Malaysia has revised its cigarette prices.

The new cigarette prices, which will be effective Monday, 1st September 2008, are as follows:-
• Dunhill Fine Cut 20s range RM 10.00
• Dunhill D360 20s range RM 9.40
• Dunhill King Size 20s range RM 9.00
• Dunhill King Size 14s range RM 6.50
• Kent King Size 20s range RM 9.00
• Pall Mall Plain 20s RM 9.40
• Pall Mall King Size 20s range RM 7.50
• Pall Mall King Size 14s range RM 5.50
• Pall Mall King Size 25s RM 8.20
• Benson & Hedges King Size 20s RM 9.00
• Benson & Hedges King Size 14s RM 6.50
• Perilly’s 100s 20s RM 7.70
• Perilly’s King Size 20s range RM 7.50
• Perilly’s King Size 25s range RM 8.20

Source: British American Tobacco Malaysia

My Take
Since it’s really a predictable move, I’m not surprised at all. At some point I would say it’s a good move because the intent is to discourage people from continuing the smoking habit. But, on the other hand, is it effective? Each year we see increases, but does that stop the habit significantly? From my personal experience, no it does not. People will seek for alternatives (be it legal or not) and to be honest really…the solution to remedy the smoking problem is always not laying on money, it’s the attitude (and hunger, lust, craving for it…hehehe true smokers know what I’m saying ). Will I stop? Maybe in the future but surely not because of price increases

Well, there’s no other brand such as Marlboro, but I guess you can figure out that the price increase will be similar

smoking IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH. I’m obviously did not promoting this bad habit This is just for information purpose only.

Local hand rolled cigarettes. The tobacco been wrapped in a nipa/nipah/nypa palm leaves. ↩

Sick Provocation

Amir Hamzah — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:12:56 +0000

Normally, I don’t post any politic related stuff. For me, politics is for real people with real knowledge to discuss. I admit I’m not “real” enough in those field. But, I’m getting sick when I encountered this picture from Mafrel site. Urghh…they manage to make themselves look stupid brilliantly. By doing that sick provocation act can they claim the other party rude? I’m not going to argue who’s right and who’s not because personally I don’t know. But action like this can initiate an uglier reaction from anyone and when things goes bad, who’s to blame? Owh…the picture is taken during the Permatang Pauh nomination day on August 18, 2008.

Secure Your WordPress

Amir Hamzah — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:07:39 +0000

I’ve been reading a couple of news about blogs running wordpress been hacked. No matter on what purpose you run your blog for, it’s always a good idea to make it as secure as possible. There are many guides that you can find on the net; ranging from covering the basic security setup to the hardcore ways. In my opinion, the most basic security measures a user can take is to upgrade their wordpress to the latest version (currently 2.5.1). When you do that, at least you can prevent all the previous releases bugs from occurring on your site. I admit I’m no expert in talking with precise details about security in wordpress, but I do know that it’s a really really unfortunate event if your blog been take over by some jackass and ruining all file/setup you had made. I also suggesting you keep check at your files and make sure you do know all changes that occurred. Update your plugins often, be sure to install plugins from a reliable source, and personally, I recommend you to install WordPress Exploit Scanner Plugin.

Mozilla Firefox 3

Amir Hamzah — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:09:56 +0000

The long awaited final version of Mozilla Firefox 3 had been released. Well, I’m eagerly awaiting this release to see how much different would it be compared with the Beta 5 version. To be honest, not much. There are some add-ons that I used is still not updated and I kinda can accept it since it’s not Mozilla’s concern (and to some extent, the add-ons developer themselves is not at fault here), so I’ll wait. But, it’s not going to stop me from updating and feeling impressed with the enhancement of the new release. One thing though, since the beta, I kinda feel the smart location bar is off to my liking. I mean, its size is kinda big, although I really like that features. Maybe I’m not used to it…yet. Thumbs up to Mozilla for fulfilling their promises to release it today (local time). If you’re wondering about the new features, you can view it at Mozilla Official Site.

P/S: Maybe it’s kinda too late I put this below, but better late than never I guess. Come on, join the initiative to set the world record!!

P/S 2: Well, due to the world record initiative thingy, the mozilla.com site was unreachable from around the world, occasionally responding with the message, “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable”; even the spreadfirefox site is not spared from the outage . It seems ok after a short while; a couple of refresh works for me. More news at the Netcraft’s news section.

Petrol Price Hike Up – RM2.70/Liter

Amir Hamzah — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:37:11 +0000

Well, depends on what time you read my post here, due to midnight of 4th June (that’s only a couple of hours from the time of my writing), the oil price in Malaysia will rise up to RM2.70 per liter from RM1.92. The Rm0.78 rise or about 40% increase for the ULG 97¹ petrol. Diesel will go up by RM1 from RM1.58 to RM2.58. From what I read, this is all part of the new subsidy plan (announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi). Below are the quote from The Star Online;

Abdullah also announced a RM625 annual cash rebate per vehicle, for owners of private vehicles with engine capacities of up to 2,000cc, as well as pickup trucks and jeeps with engine capacities of up to 2,500cc. Owners of private motorcycles with engine capacities of up to 250cc will receive RM150. Payment will be made via Money Order upon renewal of road tax, from July 1. For owners of private vehicles with engine capacities exceeding 2000cc, road tax will be reduced by RM200. Owners of private motorcycles with engine capacities above 250 cc will get RM50 reduction in road tax.

Again quoting from The Star Online by Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad

“Any announcement by the Prime Minister (today) should be seen as a part of the implementation and not the final step,” he told a press conference after opening the 1st Malaysian Construction Summit 2008 at the Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

I don’t know what to say. I’m not owning any kind of vehicle (yet) but I do know that somehow this will effect my daily life expenses. I can imagine that after this many stuff will see a price increase (cigarettes anyone…?). Heh..it would not surprise me if even the price to enter the public toilet will increase. Jokes asides, it somehow a relief that the price will not reach RM4 per liter (as being anticipated earlier). But still, is it the right move? It been said that the revise of the subsidy plan is to decrease loses and direct the fund to another commodity (say like…foods maybe). The current price also will follow closely to the world market price, so there’s a chance the price will drop (IF² the world price is dropping). I really want to see that happens although it’s kind of unlikely

Around my neighborhood, all the oil-pump station is flooded with vehicle owner that want to fill their tank with the ‘RM1.92 oil’ for the last time. I could imagine maybe I could find someone that kissing the pump terminal as a sign of goodbye . Owh…with this announcement, the previous ban³ that been imposed on foreigner’s vehicles (they can’t fill their tank at Malaysia on certain area) will now be lifted. If any of my words here brings doubt to you, refer to the official media statement made by the government. Unfortunately, it’s in Bahasa Malaysia.

P/S: I’ve taken several pictures at the nearing oil pump station. Will upload it later because needs a little touch up. ~~sigh~~ I need a new camera I guess…

Premium Leaded Petrol ↩
It’s a big IF. ↩
The ban that involved between 200 and 300 petrol stations in Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Perak and the Johor Baru and Kulai areas in Johor. ↩

NiN – The Slip

Amir Hamzah — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:52:02 +0000

Just today I had downloaded the latest release of Nine Inch Nails, The Slip. Well, before any of you blabbering about piracy and all that stuff, I will tell you that this release is free to download (legal in any way). Quoting from the frontman of NiN himself (Trent Reznor) from their official site

thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me

The release contains 10 tracks and IMHO, according to my ears their genre kind of fusion between alternative rocks, electronic, and a little industrial rocks. I never seriously followed all their previous releases (only heard a couple of their previous tracks once in a while), so I kinda can’t say much about the latest release in terms of comparing it with their predecessors. What can I say is (personally), it’s a little out of my listening taste but I still find it interesting somehow. Maybe I need more time.

So, I can’t say more than that. Some might argue that this kind of release will not be that good, but I beg to differ. I do think this release haven’t fallen low like that and it’s still offer a quality tracks. Download and judge it yourself anyway. The best thing (beside its free to download) is you can choose the audio format; from the usual .mp3 until the humongous file size of either FLAC, Apple Lossless, or WAVE. Follow the link on their official site and you need to give out your emails to receive the download link. If you intend to own the release in the usual form (physical audio CD, etc), the band also plans to release in the form of CD and vinyl around July.

Enjoy

Additional Info

999,999
1,000,000
letting you
discipline
echoplex
head down
lights in the sky
corona radiata
the four of us are dying
demon seed

length: 43:45

Arsenal losing player

Amir Hamzah — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:08:17 +0000

Well, let me get this straight, I’m one of loyal Arsenal fans. Ahh…I don’t want to talk much about how the team slips on the second half of the league and falling to the 3′rd place; instead I want to talk about losing good player. Last season it was Henry, before that Veira, and guess what…this season most likely the team will lose Flamini (move to AC Milan). And to make things complicated, Hleb also been heavily linked with Inter Milan. It also would make the situation worsen if we put the never ending Fabregas speculations into accounts. What’s happening here? I don’t think Arsenal didn’t have the financial sources to retain all these players, so what’s the real problem here?

When was the last time Arsenal wins a silverware? If I recalled correctly, it was during the 2003/4 season where the team become BPL champion with impressive records by not dropping a single point throughout the season. They’d been given the nickname “The Invincible” because of that. In cup competition, the last time was the FA Cup 2004/5 final when they beat Man Utd on penalties. So, it had been a couple of seasons the team experienced the “trophy-less season”. In my opinion, that’s the major reason why some players want to butt out from the team.

Trophy-less is one thing, how about individuals in the team? Is Wenger to be blamed for this trophy-less plague? I humbly think that Wenger’s way of doing things was a little excessive. I share his belief in developing youngsters but not leaving the team without enough in depth cover. Look what happen when the likes of Rosicky, Eduardo, Sagna and v. Persie received an injury; (with respect) other players that cover their roles seems not fit to the task (save by the likes of Walcott and Bendtner).

So, my mumbling here come to an end. Without doubt, Arsenal must strive harder than ever next season. They must start winning trophies or maybe the likes of Fabregas or Rosicky will leave the team. Maybe Arsenal can start with signing a few quality names to cover certain positions, mainly on the defense. I really hope that Flamini is the only one leaving this seasons though

EDIT: It had been confirmed, Flamini will go to Milan on a 4 years contract agreement.

Welcome to my world!

Amir Hamzah — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:20:52 +0000

This is really my first post on my new domain here. All this other post are here because I imported them from my old blog. Thanks for your visit and do enjoy yourself here in any way

Samsung SyncMaster 931BW

Amir Hamzah — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:07:48 +0000

Well..kinda don’t have anything good to share, so here’s another useless post; about my new monitor. Ermm…not so new really…it had been about 3 or 4 weeks I guess. My previous Philips 107E5 CRT had failed me after years of dedicated services. I do notice however, maybe it had a chance to be revived by sending it to the repair guy, but I skip that and gave it to my ex-housemate instead. Not that I feel I’m too rich or whatsoever; it’s just suffice to say that I didn’t think the monitor will last long enough after repair…the problem will keep on coming (you know…the “repair-broke again” cycles). After some thoughts and selling some of my internal organs (I don’t have a job yet~~~), I’ve decided to splash my little (and hard earned) cash on Samsung SyncMaster 931BW 19″ LCD monitor.

The 931BW had a native resolution of 1440*900 (16:10), so it’s wider than the typical 5:4 or 4:3 ratio been normally seen on CRT monitor. Other specs, it sports a contrast ratio of 2000:1 with Dynamic Contrast, 2ms response time and a luminance of 300 cd/m² or nits (do check the official site for the accurate specs; I’m a sucker on info accuracy). Design wise, it didn’t have a stand that allows height adjustment (it doesn’t even rotate), so it brings problem to people that like to adjust it. It’s okay for me, because of my shorter physical height, I don’t have any problem at that department. On the back of the unit, it has a detachable power cord and both jacks for DVI and RGB inputs. Visuals were good…no ghosting was apparent on fast pace scene video and the color seems accurate to my eyes (without using any benchmark or tools to support my statement…it’s just me). Owh…and the minimum dead pixel that can made you eligible to claim the warranty of sort is 7 and my unit didn’t come with any (alhamdullillah~~~).

Conclusion

So, this is the part where I would say that this product is great because I’m using it. No, not quite. If I’m not mistaken, there are already some vendors out there that already produce a similar sized LCD but with a higher native resolution (1680*1050 and it’s a ViewSonic if I’m not mistaken). The unadjustable stand also leave some to crave for more but as I said earlier…no biggie for me. About the dead pixel warranty…I don’t know…but I do think that 7 is a big number. All in all, I’m a kind of person that appreciate simplicity…so this unit with a simple design and easy functionality, what more could I possibly want? This is my first venture on this LCD matters, so it’s a good buy I guess. Although I’m still missing my Philips 107E5 (due to the fact that I’m too used to its 1280*1024 resolution), I’m grateful enough about what I already have. Besides, I’m kinda like a “silent” Samsung fanboy~~~

Waiting List

Amir Hamzah — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:12:47 +0000

In this nearest time, there are a couple of things that I’ve been waiting anxiously or maybe just eagerly. Sort of like waiting for my first child to be born. Ahahahahha…okay, that’s kind of excessive, sorry for that. Without further ado, I present to you the list itself:

Waiting for my interview appointment.
I’ve already applying for some positions by sending my CV to the appropriate parties and already learn my lesson from 2 years ago (didn’t have the patient to wait for a reply); I’m now waiting with more patient than ever. At the same time, I do realize opportunities wait for no one, so I’m not taking anything for granted; I’m still finding another possible job opportunities without too reliant on the already made applications.
The launching of Ubuntu 8.04.
In about 17 days left, the new LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu will be released. The previous release of LTS, which is 6.06, will still be supported only until 2009 (2011 for server edition). Being a constant users of Ubuntu, this is really what I’m waiting for. I’m eager to see the improvements been made and of course how smooth the online upgrade will be; without been worried about my already stable 7.10 configuration been corrupted.
The launching of Fedora 9.
I already have Ubuntu and quite satisfy with it at the moment, so do I really need Fedora? I don’t really know for sure. Fedora still have it’s place in my heart due to some advantage over Ubuntu. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to say one distro sucks over the other…it’s just I prefer one from the another. Well, maybe I’m going to see and put my hands on the upcoming release of Fedora and let see if it can persuade me enough to switch to it indefinitely.
Screening of latest Batman movie on the silver screen, The Dark Knight.
Before his death, I’m eagerly waiting to see Heath Ledger to play as The Joker. But since his death, I’m determined to watch The Dark Knight. It’s truly a pity an actor at his class meet his end so early but who am I to deny such fate eh….
Waiting for someone to say she love me for what I am.
Bah…this is just here to complete the list. Actually I don’t have that many things to be put up as a list. Hahahaa…bite it…pathetic or not :-p