If you’re a Google user (who’s not?), chances are, you might have noticed that there is a Up Arrow button and an X button beside the search results links.

They are for the new feature Google launched today as “SearchWiki”.

However, it only applies to Google users, and they have to sign in to their accounts to enable that.  One very important thing to note: The changes you make only affect your own searches.

Advantage/Usage:

1. You can promote your search results up to the top of the list. Why? Maybe you’re fond of the site at the 5th, or 10th or the next page. So you wouldn’t what to keep them at the bottom right?
2. You can remove the ones you promoted by clicking on the X or removing them.
3. You can place comments to those site and provide extra information on the result.

Points to consider

1. Google might promise privacy, but I believe they can use information based on the users’ search patterns for ranking queries.
2. That would potentially remove some sites trying to work their way up through SEO.
3. Or that would also potentially add more sites up if they could create a mass Google accounts and promote a certain site? This I’m not sure, but it is worth a ponder.

We’ll see how it goes a few more months down the road when information collected reaches a certain level.

Check out the official Google announcement on SearchWiki here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html

View the Youtube introduction video:

However, it is called the “beta version”.

New Maybank2u.com

Not sure how long it will stay in “beta” though. But that’s a better way just in case any problem happened, it’s a “BETA”!

So are you going to be one of the all-new, all-you Maybank2u.com BETA tester user?

In recent months, there was a high number of phishing emails targeting CIMB Bank. This might only be the fact that I have an email which fall into the same scammer’s mailing list.

However, every single time when I read it, the link in the email has already turned inactive or its web content removed.

Until today, I got another one and the link is working!

I was very excited finding a phishing site which is working, not because I want to give them my money, but so that I can know more about their tactics and share with you.

1) Email with the fake link

Phishing Email

This is the first step to dupe you. They will send you an email with a fake sender email address or seemingly real one from the bank of their choice.

2) Display link is different with the actual link

Fake link source code

If you know how to view the code of the email (Right click and select View Source), you will be able to see that the actual link is going to a different website.

3) Login page to get your user id and password

Fake Login Screen

This is their phishing site, notice that the domain name is different from the actual internet banking site. The first step in getting your account, is to get your user id and password.

I simply entered an id and password, there is no validation.

If you enter a wrong password here, you should be able to figure out it’s not a real one.

4) Getting your TAC

Asking for your TAC!

Wait 10 minutes? (10 Min’s? Is that new English?)

Somebody in the background will be using your id and password, login to the real site, and request the TAC on your behalf.

This is where unwary people will key in the TAC together because if the site ask you for TAC, it’s supposed to be secured?

It’s not secured here because you have given the id and password in the first place, REMEMBER!

5) Hopefully preventing you from checking your account

Thank you for your money

Once they got your TAC, you’re done. You have unknowingly given your banking account and your hard-earned $$$$ to the perpetrators.

Moral of the story: Do not click links from email no matter how seemingly real the content is or how convincing they get you into giving your id and password.

Always login to your internet banking account via your browser by typing the actual address!

And, while I noticed this, the first thing I did was to go to the real bank site, look for their contact and forwarded the actual email I received to them. (Their site requested to forward the actual email without removing or changing anything.)

After 12 hours, I have yet to receive any acknowledgement from them that they are looking into it, it has no impact to their business or problem solved.

Maybe they are still busy identifying the perpetrators?

Anybody who are able to share contacting the bank if account has been phished and $$$$ siphoned?

2 more days to 080808. 080808.com.my has extended the closing date for its contests to 31^st August.

And, it’s giving additional three ecobuttons just for getting one person or more to join the climate change pledge campaign. Check it out here http://earth.080808.com.my

Now, this is what real Malaysians are about.

Undivided and together, a group of Malaysian artistes created a song for unity.

080808.com.my supports this spirit and invite everybody to do the same.

Let’s do this, one by one, one by one as ONE.  
YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Wl3firJQk

Malaysian Artistes for Unity

Song downloads

The best song on the radio now goes to “Here In My Home”.

If you have yet to listen to it, head on to Malaysian Artistes for Unity.

Or http://080808.com.my/latest/malaysian_artistes_for_unity.jsp

  Words & Music: Pete Teo

Artist: Malaysian Artistes

Song: HERE IN MY HOMEHold on brother hold on

The road is long. We’re on stony ground

But I’m strong. You ain’t heavy

Oh there’s a misspoken truth that lies

Colors don’t bind, oh no.

What do they know? They speak falsely.

Chorus:

Here in my home

I’ll tell you what its all about

There’s just one hope here in my heart

One Love undivided

That’s what it’s all about

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one [with me]?

Push back sister won’t you push back?

Love won’t wait. Just keep pushing on.

Yes I’m strong. You ain’t heavy.

Oh don’t you worry about that…

What we have the shadows can’t deny

Don’t you know it’s now or never?

Rap:

[Malay: TRANSLATED]

Years of fears and years of tribulation

The heart keeps searching for that endless devotion

[Chinese: TRANSLATED]

Hand in hand we’ll march like blood brothers

I speak for my people hope we’ll find peace forever

[Tamil: TRANSLATED]

May the road ahead quench my thirst for success

May the road behind echo a song of the blessed

[English]

So I will let it be known yes I feel it in my bones

No matter where I roam this is home sweet home

Sing!

]]> http://marvinlee.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/malaysian-artistes-for-unity-080808/feed/ 1 marvinlee free download free download http://marvinlee.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/phishing-online-banking-id-and-password/ http://marvinlee.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/phishing-online-banking-id-and-password/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 13:04:59 +0000 marvinlee http://marvinlee.wordpress.com/?p=36 ]]>

“Phishing”, pronounced “fishing” is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. (As described in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)

While a spam email is a norm and phishing emails targeting bank users in other countries are visible, phishing emails targeting Malaysian banks are still rare.

However, recently I have been receiving them with email Subjects like “Security Alert:Account Problem” or “Warning:Protect Your Account” targeting Malaysian banks’ customers.

If you still do not understand what is going on after reading up until here, “Phishing” is actually a tactic used by conman to pose as the actual bank, requesting for your login information, so that they can access your account. It is as simple as that, in layman terms. Usually, they do that by sending you emails and asking you to click on the links. The page will look like the actual login page, but it is really not.

While I am able to know that the emails are fake threats, I am quite sure some will fall into it. This is because its email content is quite convincing to some. Some people don’t even think twice before giving out their login info.

These are the emails:

Can you smell the fishiness?

The domain names or webpages are already not accessible by the time I checked my email and accessed them.

Online banking websites have also displayed warning messages to their customers so to not follow links from emails.

I hope that those warnings are working really well.

Some banks are displaying those warnings very prominently, while some are not as obvious.

These are some:

By now you should have noticed that there are no direct links to those phishing pages in this post, save for those in the images.

The main objective here is: DO NOT GET YOURSELF FISHED!

Do not click on those threatening links from email, even if the link shows a correct URL!

If you want to perform online banking, type the URL yourself.

JIMAT in Jimat dan Senang Kira?

Since the advertising campaign for the rounding up and down of 1 sen to the nearest 5 sen has emerged a few months back and has now been implemented, I have been skeptical on the Jimat part right from the start.

If you look at the rounding table from BNM. http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=209&pg=657&ac=567

• 1, 2, 6 and 7 sen to be rounded downwards
• 3, 4, 8 and 9 sen to be rounded upwards

It looks like a balanced of rounding where half is rounded down and the other half is rounded up. So which part in it is JIMAT? You do the math.

However, IF 1,2,3,4 is rounded downwards to the 0 sen and 6,7,8,9 rounded downwards to 5 sen, then that is a real JIMAT.
Sadly, this is not the case.
OK, I know 1 sen is really not that a big issue, but it’s the JIMAT part we are talking about, remember? And we’ve got how many Malaysians?

So I can only conclude this is a very poor marketing strategy to persuade consumers into thinking the way what policy changers wanted people to think. To tone down the rejection of a new policy change.

Maybe the majority of consumers actually do think the way advertisers wanted them to, but I’m the one that think twice!

Should they have used another tagline like “1 sen to 5 sen” or whatever, it would have been easier to accept. But a tagline which contradicts the actual situation is worse than having none at all.

To date, there are many advertisements I remember vividly for the “tactic” used to gain public acceptance and I would rank this as the second worst.

The first? The one that advertises on Putra LRT, with super big ‘zing’ burgers whose sesame seed on its bun easily larger than the size of your nostrils. If it’s just the product size bigger then it’s alright, but placing it beside a human or other things which is deliberately scaled to make the product look enormous is downright unethical.

Anyway, I guess we now go JIMAT by saving our one sen coins and spending more five sen coins!

And hey, why would somebody now sell things at the price for it to be rounded down instead of up?

Well, I’d say I give it a try to see how much I can save from this new policy at first.
However, up until now I have not figured it out how. You tell me.

Online social networking has been on the internet for years now. Although during the early existence of online social networking websites, recruitment was generally from word of mouth or “members getting members”, it has soon evolved when the crowd gets larger.

Awareness of such online social activity has since propagated to the offline media and various electronic advertising.

It is not difficult to say that everyone has heard of Friendster, Facebook, MySpace or others.

We have heard people or artistes promoting their profile on the radio, blogs or news.

Companies too did the same and most recently our local telecommunications provider, Maxis is also advertising on television about their services subscribers can use including Facebook, Flickr and Yahoo Search on their mobile phones.

This post is not going to explain more about online social networking but will focus more on how you can make friends in Friendster.

Why not Facebook you may ask? Yes Facebook is growing very rapidly and we will come to “How to make friends in Facebook” post in the very next future, just stay tune.

In Malaysia, Friendster had a large following even before Facebook exists.

There are still many Malaysian Friendster users that are on Friendster to check out what’s hot and not with their friends and also to get new acquaintances.

Are you one of them?

There are basically many types of people in Friendster.

Some joined because they were invited by friends. So, they join and fill in some necessary information, leave it there till one fine day there’s nothing else to do, then they login and check out some friends.

Some are active, they will make login a daily chore like checking emails.

Others are in between and extreme active users will basically post bulletins everyday, forward whatever messages, and posting comments.

Whatever your objectives or plan, below is my observation and tips to make “more” friends in Friendster. It is entirely my personal opinion and use only at your own risks:

1) Update profile on “Want to Meet”

Update your profile on “Want to Meet” and set as “Anyone” or “You!”. This will indicate that you are interested in making more friends.

2) Shoutout

Set your shoutout to include the words “Add me” or include your email address if you request your friends for Last name or email address to add you.

3) View profiles

Do not set view profiles anonymously. This will allow others to track that you have viewed their profile. This will in turn get them to view your profile and add you as their friend if interested. Once you have that set, just check out everybody’s profile pages!

4) Birthday

Pay attention to your friend’s birthdays. Check out the birthday list and give them a birthday wish via message or comments posting.

For eg. Try to use nice graphical Birthday wishes such as those from here : http://080808.com.my/shop/free.jsp

5) Message (do not forward chain message)

If there is a general reason for you to send message, send a message to introduce yourself and wait for the reply. If you do not get a reply, just move on. Do not send follow-up to interrogate but leave kind messages.

Most importantly, do not ever forward chain message/spam/junk/threats!

6) Send a smile

A smile is actually a special variant of message. If you intend to send a message or found out you’re just going to send a lame message, try including it with a Smile. The recipient is more inclined to read it.

7) Comments

Post comments to a friend of yours when the need arises, especially when he/she has added you, during special dates or holidays. Check tips no 4).

Combine graphical comments and text together.

8) Add as Friend

View profiles and if the person is welcoming and would like to get more friends just like you, hit the Add Friend link.

Beware though; if someone is not interested in expanding their network of friends, giving enough hints to everybody, then it’s better for you to stay away from them.

There you have the 8 simple tips to getting more friends from Friendster. It is always the best to make friends with honesty and sincerity, so whatever it is, just be honest.

Following are also some observation I found which should go to the DO NOT tips.

1) Mind intro?

If you are keen to make friends, some might not. So you are always bound to have people who would be curious why you are adding them.

The worst comes when they post a comment like below to your profile:

“Do I know you? Mind Intro?”

And you already have a full introduction of yourself in your profile page in “About Me”.

If you would not like to accept friendship, it is all too easy to hit the Decline on the friends request. You can also send a message asking for further details on the person but it is absolutely rude to post on the comment list.

2) Follow sexy photos

Not all sexy photos are real people. Not all sexy photos are girls. It is better to follow non-sexy photos or those with no photos at all. Period.

3) Post egoistic messages

Do not post ANY message to show your ego. Eg.

“I do not simply add people. If I do not know you, don’t add me. I will delete people who I do not know and I will not entertain any messages from people I don’t know”

4) Bulletins – do not simply send junk/spam

Use bulletins only when you need to. Not for simple “on9” or “offline” status. You can use instant messengers for that.

Do not send chain messages that threaten bad luck will befall your friend if you do not forward to another number of people.

I guess most people with agree with me on the above if not everyone, what about you?

Other Links:

10 Things I Hate About Friendster – http://blog.alvinchong.net/2007/02/27/182/

Things People Do on Friendster – http://www.jpsimbulan.com/2008/01/31/things-people-do-on-friendster/

 When will SPM results out online?

With the news that SPM results for 2007 to be released on March 12^th, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/3/nation/20080303203319&sec=nation there could be a great amount of excitement or worries for Fifth Formers awaiting their results.

It has been a tradition or a standard way for students to collect their results slip in the school on the day the results are released.

It is a question though as to when SPM results or others including UPSR, PMR and STPM can be checked online, via the internet.

From the local university where I have graduated, graduates could check results for every semester online and also register courses without being physically there.

There is not much information available from Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia’s website

http://www.moe.gov.my/lpm/index.php regarding SPM results even though it’s just less than a week for the results to be revealed.

It is also surprising that there is no English version for its website although their motto is “Peneraju Pentaksiran Bertaraf Dunia Menjelang 2020” which could be translated to “Assessment Leader of Global Standards By 2020”.

Probably by 2020 it’s so global that English is not the common language and everybody in the world knows every single language on Earth.

There was no announcement of the results release date on their official website except for rumours and where people wondered when is the exact date earlier: http://www.chanlilian.net/2008/03/03/when-is-spm-2007-result/.

The confirmation of date is finally announced via media:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/3/nation/20080303203319&sec=nation

There is an online examination system at http://lpm.gov.my/ but it seems like the functions are for registration and not checking results. I guess there is a lot of room for improvement because this system was used since 2004?

In fact if they could just allow students to check online, I think it greatly helps (esp with the long holiday period after exam, Fifth Formers has got their own plans):

- those who are overseas

- those who are outstation working

- those who are not so comfortable with their upcoming results

- those who would like to have a sneak peek before getting the hardcopy result slip in school

I guess it will take some time before we can see something like “SPM results out online!”

Probably we should start with the English version website first?

Brief Reminder:

Vote for Malaysia ended!

Now, vote for your frens in http://080808.com.my 

In the news recently was an announcement by the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that Google Inc is interested to set up a base in Malaysia due to its huge ICT market.

Currently Google has no operations office in Malaysia and Google Jobs only showed Sales for location in Malaysia.

In fact, Malaysia is not even listed under their Asia Pacific offices list.

It was found on the internet that the only Malaysian Google employee is Hanson Toh.

Hanson Toh (Country Consultant (Malaysia), Google Inc)

http://my.jobstreet.com/announcement/2006/u/utsaamc.htm

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hanson

The following is an excerpt from TheStar (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/27/nation/20142302&sec=nation )

“I was told that Malaysians formed the highest group of Google users in South-East Asia,” he told Malaysian journalists after meeting the US giant’s CEO Eric Schmidt on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. It is believed the world’s top Internet search engine company was eyeing Malaysia, India or Vietnam to set up its data centre facilities. 

Abdullah said the company felt Malaysia was a good place for the base due to its strategic geographical location. 

Checkout how Malaysia’s internet usage stands as compared to other countries mentioned: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/storysupplement/worldinternet/index.htm

Malaysia’s internet users : 13.5 million

India’s internet users: 42 million

Vietnam’s internet users : 15 million

Indonesia’s internet users : 20 million

Do note that Google has offices in India and the above statistics is on July 25, 2007.

From another statistics site, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm the following holds for the above countries updated for December 31, 2007:

Malaysia: approx 15 million

India: approx 60 million

Vietnam: approx 18 million

Indonesia: approx 20 million

What are the chances of Google setting up office in Malaysia compared to other Asian countries?

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSKLR24067820080127

http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9588_22-6227995.html

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/27/nation/20142302&sec=nation

Is your application showing the wrong time? You’re sure you have set your operating system’s timezone and date time correctly?

Follow the step-by-step below to see if you have got your java application time settings correctly covered. The following has been tested on Centos5 with Java 6.0:

1)      Operating system timezone

During installation, you should’ve correctly set your operating system timezone via the GUI. Centos UI is quite similar with Redhat Linux, so here’s the interface http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-timezone-s390.html.

At terminal console, you can check if your date is correctly printed with command

For example, if my server is in Malaysia

>date

If the above does not apply, you can do it the command way. Copy the correct timezone file to /etc/localtime

Eg.

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kuala_Lumpur /etc/localtime

Verify it

>date

2)      Java application timezone

You can set the user.timezone system property in your java application.

During the startup invocation:

java -Duser.timezone=Asia/Kuala_Lumpur MyJavaClass 

Or, in the program source code:

System.setProperty(“user.timezone”,”Asia/Kuala_Lumpur”); 

Verify it

System.out.println(“The date is=” + new Date());  

3)      TZ environment timezone

If all fails, try setting the TZ environment variable

 export TZ=”Asia/Kuala_Lumpur” 

Verify that it has been set correctly

echo $TZ 

Then proceed to launch your java application, check if the output of new Date() is printing the correct timezone date and time.

You may want to make this setting persistent by including the

export TZ=”Asia/Kuala_Lumpur”

in your /etc/profile or /etc/init.d initialization script

Note:

Please ensure you know the consequences of setting or changing your timezone.

While finding the solution to my timezone problem, I have run all the steps above and it finally worked on Step 3. I have also tried an update on the TZDB but it does not help.

References

http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-timezone-s390.html

http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2005-May/047059.html

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2006/jw-1201-dst.html?page=2

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/rzamy/50/admin/reftzval.htm

http://minaret.biz/tips/timezone.html

Christmas and New Year is around the corner again!

Tis the season to be jolly.

Sending e-cards has been a common thing since the internet age. E-cards for all sorts of occasions, events and wishes is available for free.

There are multiple benefits for sending e-cards:

1. Free, if you have internet connection, send at no additional costs

2. Easy, fill in the form and click send, no need envelope, stamps

3. Fast, it’s a breeze, you do not need to queue in the post office

4. Choice, most sites have many greeting cards for your preference

For this holiday season, Christmas + New Year, have you sent to your friends? 

Spread the joy of holiday season with greeting wishes by sending e-cards.

This website 080808.com.my is making some customizable message e-cards and some static (on-the-go) ecards for easy sending.

Customizable e-cards

 A Snowman design

 A Santa Claus design

Just fill in the relevant information for customizable e-cards and then click Send! (You can stand a chance to win some Starbucks Coffee Vouchers on the way… only for Malaysians though..)

For the on-the-go e-cards, there are HTML codes which visitors can copy and paste to their blogs / websites/ webpages / Friendster comments etc. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008 from Embracing Technology.

May the year of 2008 brings you better things, better life, and better technology.

Subject :FW: MSN Cheat on fund transfer to Maybank a/c: Please beware!

Content:

    It happened around 1125am on 19th October 2007 . When i was busy
with
    work, a friend suddenly ‘IM’ed me using MSN messenger. She used to
be
    my roomate and i am very close with her. So, she asked if i could
log
    in to maybank2u account because she couldn’t. As I’ve tried, i
could
    log in. She asked me for a favor saying that she owed a friend
money
    and been delaying him very long and its kind of urgent to return
the
    money and asked if i could help her to transfer money to her friend
    first and saying that she’ll definitely bank in the money back to
me
    after work that day. The amount she asked was initially RM800, but
    since i got not that much money in that bank account, she told me
to
    wait as she will ask her friend if its okay paying him RM400 first.
    So, sensing some kind of emergency here, i without any hesitation
    (this friend once asked me to lend money to her the same way), I’ve
    banked in the amount to the bank account she gave me. The account
no.
    is 1111-1428-6194 and the owner’s name is KEW MIN TECK. Well, at
the
    end of the day, after working hour, i still yet to receive any call
    from my friend regarding the money. So, i smsed her regarding the
    money. She was shocked about it and asked if she still owe me
money.
    (We stayed together for the past few months, so, sometimes she owes
    me money for bills…)So, with the thought that she forgot bout it,
i
    mentioned to her that she asked for my help to transfer RM400 to
her
    friend first. With that, she’s even more surprised and gave me a
    call. When i told her about it, she said it must be her email
account
    being hacked already. (FYI – MSN uses email account to login)
because
    she received a SMS from an unknown number saying that he’s matthew
    and he hacked her email and asked her if she wants him to restore
for
    her. This guy’s number is 012-2141405 which is a prepaid number. I
    was so shocked with the news and immediately went to Maybank to see
    if the transfer could be stopped. It was already 720pm at that
time,
    offices already closed down. I’ve called the maybank hotline and
they
    asked me to make a police report and bring back to Maybank
tomorrow.
    So, i quickly went to the nearest police station and make a report
    believing that with the guy’s bank account number and name, police
    force could at least track him down or get evidence on him for the
    crime he’s committing. I told my friend to do the same thing and
tell
    her to sms all her friends regarding her account being hacked. At
the
    police station, there’s this policewoman at the counter. She asked
me
    where did i do the transaction and i told her at my office. she
told
    me that i must go to another police station to make the report as
    that is not under their district. I was like ‘huh?’ Ho wever, i
    managed to make a police report. That policewoman did not even
listen
    properly to the incident i was telling and she started to type on
her
    own. Since she did not attentively listen to what i was saying, she
    got things wrong and asked us to write the story down. I was lucky
    that i got a friend to accompany me to the police station. (i don’t
    even know where’s the police station is… i’m a KL ppl in Penang
    now). Eve n though I’ve made a police report, the case wasn’t open.
To
    no avail, nothing has been done. The policewoman then called
another
    officer (it seems that this officer has the higher rank) and he
    talked to me. I was asked by him ‘why do i need the police report’,
    the reason of getting a police report? (is that suppose to be a
    question? i wouldn’t have trouble myself to lodge a report if i
find
    it not necessary)By telling him that at least could get details on
    the guy from the bank, he told me to go to Maybank and get the
guy’s
    particulars and hopefully i could talk to that guy and it’ll be
good
    if he returns the money else, i’ll need to treat it as a wrong
    investment. (wrong investment!!???) So, particularly, nothing has
    been done.

    The next amusement thing about this is that, i went to Maybank as
    told by the officer the next day along with the police report and
    hope that i could get details on that guy. And the only thing that
i
    found out is that they need an officer/personel to come along only
    authorised to view the details! (omg! how come no one told me bout
it
    at the police station?) The guy in maybank was very helpful. He
    managed to help me check (i got a peep on it) about that hacker’s
    bank account. To my surprise, there are alot of transcation to this
    guy account! Besides mine at 11.25am , at 11.30am there’s another
    transaction (RM620) transfered to his account. There are several
    more. And at that moment, his account only left RM146! Doesn’t it
    obvious that this guy is vigorously cheating others by hacking into
    other people’s account? Since, nothing can be done without an
    officer/personel, with much despair i decided to go home. Just on
the
    way back, i received a call from a friend from KL stating that the
    hacker the friend’s email account to online again and now talking
to
    him. That hacker uses the same tactic to him asking for help to
    transfer money using maybank2u. I asked my friend to entertain him
to
    see if it is the same guy,same bank account number. So, when i
    reached home. I tried to talk to that guy again. He’s using the
same
    conversation again! (omg! doesn’t he remember that he has already
    conned me?) by making it sounds like i’m talking to my friend, i
    talked to him again. So, as predicted. He asked the same question
    again and the whole lot conversations were the same. And without
any
    surprise, the name and the bank account number is the same! So, i
    called the police station where i make a report yesterday to tell
    them about it. The policeman who picked up the phone was so rude.
    Then, i told him bout the incident and my report number and told
him
    that this guy is in action again. And yet, another disappointment.
    The policeman said that there’s nothing he could do as he can’t get
    out of the police station and he then gave me a hp number to call.
I
    called that officer who’s responsible for this kind of cases but
only
    got ‘i’m busy at the moment. i’m taking some statement here’ as the
    answer. My KL friend who got the whole conversation which of
course,
    the same account number and the same name – went to make a police
    report and requested to open up a case for this. After waiting for
4
    hours at the police station and listening to the policemen saying
    that there’s nothing they can do, there’s no evidence and a more
    ridiculous question thrown to my friend is ‘Berapa Ribu kau
hilang?’
    (how many thousands you have lost?)

    Isn’t it the police’s responsibility to track this fella down? And
    why am i the one suppose to get the particulars from Maybank?
Doesn’t
    he knows that we’re not authorise to do any checking on people’s
    particulars unless there’s an officer/personel together with the
    police report only could do that? Why am i not told about it when
i’m
    at the police station lodging the report? And isn’t it the job of
the
    police to get evidences on this guy who is doing the crime? It
    doesn’t matter on how much we got cheated, it is still our money
and
    furthermore, what if that i’m not the only person being conned
here?
    Imagine, each person he conned RM400, so if he managed to con 10
    people, that would make it RM 4000 per day! I am seriuosly being
    dissappointed with the act of the police force. It’s as if they are
    imaginary since they claimed that they could do nothing about it.
And
    these kind of crimes will continue and it’ll be even worse as
there’s
    no action being take and these culprits will happily commit these
    crimes without being afraid of getting caught.

    So, people! What you can do now is be more extra careful when
you’re
    dealing with your money. Always verify with the people you’re
sending
    money to, no matter how close he/she to you. And don’t assume that
    your friend’s/family’s eamil account is not being hacked!

    p/s: this is part of the conversation I got (the day after when
he’s
    trying to con me again) And I got to know from maybank that he’s
    account is from kuching, Sarawak .
Moral of the story:

There are many ways a hacker can get your password but it aint easy for a real hacker to get your password.

Many a times, it is the user or YOU yourself provided your password to a 3rd party without yourself realizing.

It can range from phishing, duping you for your password and more advanced trojan horse or virus programs.

Phishing or duping your for your password is something that can easily be prevented.

Make sure you know the site your going to, a free site such as geocities used to be abused by people creating fake yahoo login screen and duping people for their yahoo passwords.

That way, those same people can login with your yahoo messenger. See how it goes?

It’s exactly one of those reasons that you should NEVER EVER give your email password to any website except for the legitimate ones.
I noticed many websites now (esp social networking sites) that ask you for your email password (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL) in the pretence of helping you to add friends directly for you.
They swore they never gonna use it, but how 100% sure are you?

When they use it, you have a lot of linked friends as easy targets! Not only you risks yourself, you’re risking your friends and their friends as well.
So the next time anybody or websites asking for your password as if for your CONVENIENCE, pls do NOT trust them.

Some examples (I’m not saying they are using your passwords, but you have no way to be sure that they are NOT storing it!):

Another one:

Another one:

Most of the social networking websites nowadays have this approach I’m not sure why, or even if it’s right to do it that way!
I have absolutely no idea why in the world they would ask for your password in the name of convenience. Can I have your ATM Pin so I can check your account balance?

I just choose to skip those “CONVENIENT” steps and take the hassle of adding friends manually.

If so, it is important that you check the MIME type of the file instead of just checking that it is an acceptable file extension.

Let’s say you allow user to upload a zip file and it gets extracted at the server by running it.

Something bad could really happen if it happens that the .zip file is actually a .exe file being renamed to .zip

Some email servers will automatically remove .zip, .exe, .bat, .cmd files in email attachments for security or anti-virus reasons. Some will also check MIME type so that you cannot fool it into believing the file is clean.

So what is the best and easiest way, if you’re doing a java application to check MIME type?

Solution : 

1) Keep checking file extension.

2) Check the file with JMimeMagic

You can download it at SourceForge.net

If you would like to check API before putting your foot into it:

http://jmimemagic.sourceforge.net/apidocs/index.html

Generally, all it takes for you to use it is

http://jmimemagic.sourceforge.net/apidocs/net/sf/jmimemagic/Magic.html#getMagicMatch(byte[])[])

The very few lines of code needed :

 logger.debug("Checking magic content");
 Magic parser = new Magic() ;
 MagicMatch match;
 match = parser.getMagicMatch(photoFile.getFileData());
 logger.debug("Actual file mimetype=" + match.getMimeType()) ;

We will still get to watch her here.



Proudly brought to you by Embracing Technology and YouTube.

Why, no fun?

Ok, at least you get to watch it for free in its original version.

Anyway, unless you’re paying for the front row of seats to the concert, there isn’t much difference for those watching from behind. Beyonce could be much smaller in stadium than in video. So what’s the fuss?

News Excerpt from TheStar online: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/2/nation/19051867&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: R&B star Beyonce Knowles has scrapped plans to stage her first concert in Malaysia amid speculation she objected to a strict dress code barring sexy attire, industry officials said Monday. 

Knowles will instead head for neighbouring Indonesia, which although also Muslim has less stringent rules about how performers should dress and behave. 

Although the local news came October 2nd, this http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/knowles%20cancels%20malaysian%20gig_1045121 one is on September 29th. How could THEY be faster? Beats me…

Seriously, how many are going to the concert for her attire? Fans are looking for live music. Sexy attire can be found at public swimming pool as well.

Something like this should be ban:

(Mind you, I do not mean the attire,  I meant the sign language. Btw, she is Queen Latifah)

Gwen Stefani had made it. Thumbs up to Gwen!

Beyonce Knowles decided to give it a pass. Double thumbs up to Beyonce!

To those who like to protest on popular foreign artistes visiting and holding concert here, Triple thumbs up for making Visit Malaysia Year 2007 so successful!

However, I do suggest you guys start local first. By starting with our local swimming pool. Something like this will do very nice:

MOST DECENT SWIMSUIT

Then only ask the artistes to follow.

With Technology, things you think impossible is now possible. Never heard of online concert?

None other than our local singer Karen Kong had run an online concert before. Way to go.

So, foreign “sexy” artistes might just need to try online concert instead. (That is, if they ever still consider holding concert here anymore..) If not, get me a ticket to Indonesia….

“To the left, to the left, Everything you own in the box to the left”

Google Docs is killing Microsoft Word

Intro

This is not an exaggeration, trust me. Google Docs is a really powerful browser based word processing application; it can kill others of same type you’re using now in no time.

From WordStar, WordPerfect, Notepad, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer, now the world is going to adopt the latest word processing technology – Google Docs (and Spreadsheets).

While having the basic features of any of the word processors, Google Docs also provides a whole lot useful extra features for your word processing and business needs.

You can have a tour at Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I will just cover some basics of the useful and interesting features as this application is not rocket science. You will notice that there are a number of comparison with MS Word as MS Word is what I’m using very often thus the tendency of comparing with it.

There are easily tons of applications that Google has provided since their search engine launch and my opinion is that Google is making a revolution how technology works globally.

Google is certainly one of the technology pioneer and they are doing a great job to the world by providing useful tools for free. They are definitely one of the few guys that are actually doing “Corporate Social Responsibility” directly and indirectly. A very credit deserving company!

Embracing Technology – Google Docs and Spreadsheet test cases:

Creating

Create basic documents and spreadsheets from scratch.
You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. And it’s free.

Test : Try to create a new document and spreadsheet while checking out their functionalities.

The screen is almost similar as composing a new email in Gmail.

Only selected few fonts are available. Right click for the floating menu enabling Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All. Enabled keyboard shortcut like Ctrl-C, Ctrl V, Ctrl A, and Ctrl S

Change List allow you to modified Bulleting format. (Like “Bullets and Numbering” in MS Word)

I tried to create tables. Clicking on the Insert tab, I have the options to insert Image, Link, Comment, Table, Bookmark, Separator, and Special Character.

I inserted Table and a dialog for the table settings is then shown. By clicking “Tab” button, I can jump from a cell to another and even auto insert rows when it reaches the last cell. When I do a mouse right-click, a whole long list of menu items is available for even more functions!

Conclusion :

The “Create basic documents” is wrong! They should use “Create any documents” instead. “BASIC” is an understatement. “BASIC” is for Notepad. Your opinion may differ, but to me Rich Text format is already more than basic.

Just a brief few minutes of experience has already given me a wonderful feel of the online and powerful Word processor on Earth. (At least as of the current moment) I would not need to say more, try it out for yourself.

Upload your existing files.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files; all your formatting and formulas will come through intact.

Test : Upload a Document (.DOC) and Spreadsheet (.XLS) , and compare the difference with the actual file.

Let down: Documents and spreadsheet is limited up to 500KB. Since this is only a BETA version, I hope the constraint will be removed in the future.

I uploaded a Word Document with basic fonts and other fonts not listed in Google Docs. There is also a basic table and header formats in the document.

The output in Word Document more or less is still presentable and most of it looks the same as the original with the exceptions that some headers format has changed. Probably due to unavailable fonts.

I tried to upload an Excel Document as well. The Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets seems to be of different domain so it will bring you to an intermediate screen for sign-in or auto sign-in if you have already login to your Google account in Google Docs.

The XLS content I uploaded is a basic one thus not much difference from the original. The match is quite satisfactory.

Conclusion :

The upload is quite fast, probably the reason for the limitation of 500KB file size.

Content rendering is quite satisfactory as I have yet to try uploading complex stuff.

There is a feature for emailing of documents; a feature I think is useful for collaboration. You will be given a special email address to correspond to your Google Docs account. The site indicated that you can send email to the mentioned email address, and the content or attached document will be converted to a new online document and saved in your account. If you intend to share with some other recipients, by putting them in the carbon copy recipient list, they will be automatically invited. Cool idea isn’t it.

Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze.
Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, indent, change the font or number format, change the cell background color and so on.

Test : Try the mentioned functions.

Conclusion :

Familiar desktop : YES. I believe they have taken multiple extra miles to provide the desktop feel on the internet browser.

Although there could as well be a lot of functionalities not provided, as a quick test, most of the features I used are easily available.

One thing worth mentioning is also the link on the bottom which shows Check Spelling. Spelling check! By clicking the link, it will scan your document for wrong spelling and highlight the words. On clicking the highlighted word, a list of suggestions will show, or you can even add to Dictionary. Yeah, I know, nothing new, but it’s online….

Sharing

Choose who can access your documents and spreadsheets.
Just enter the email addresses of the people with whom you want to share a given file and send them an invitation.

Test : I was the recipient of an invitation before I started to check this Google Docs. It has already captured my attention on first usage.

Conclusion :

The sharing of documents is made easy via Google Docs.

Once the document is shared, the name of the person you’re sharing the document with is shown.

Share instantly.
Anyone you’ve invited to either edit or view your document or spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.

Test : Use invitation.

Conclusion :

Yes, you can edit or view instantly, waiting period is for the invitation email to arrive in your mailbox for the first time.

Edit with others in real time.
Multiple people can view and make changes at the same time. There’s an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when.

Test : To have more than one person make changes on a shared file at the same time. I have yet to test this.

This is probably the best test for Google doc. I tried editing the same document with another person at the same time. There is a notice below showing who is the person also editing and an option for you to refresh the document content.

Ok, next one, on Spreadsheet. There’s a “Discuss” tab where you can actually chat with the person who is also editing the same spreadsheet. For Spreadsheet, you do not need to explicitly call a “Refresh” as you can see what the other party is editing REAL-TIME! Another killer feature.

Conclusion :

I believe this real-time sharing is the best thing Google Docs and Spreadsheet is offering. The guys in Google are really really doing an awfully great job!

Creating and editing a document real-time will save time and flexibility in collaborative work or group work. There is no need for saving of different copies and making sure everybody has the same copy.

Just one SINGLE version, and everybody refers to it.

Storing

Organize your documents. ^New!
Easily find your documents by organizing them into folders. Drag and drop your documents into as many folders as you want.

Test :

Create some folders and drag drop documents into them.

The folder, of which a particular document is in, is shown in green. I have highlighted them in red bordered color boxes.

Conclusion :

Creating folder is a breeze too. The drag and drop is nice where the whole document row is semi transparent and highlighting of the folder you will be dropping into. Much, much better than dragging emails in Windows Live Hotmail.

Edit from anywhere.
There’s nothing to download; you access your documents and spreadsheets from any computer with an Internet connection and a standard browser. And it’s free.

Test : Try accessing my documents from my laptop in my bathroom.

Conclusion :

If anybody said you cannot multi-tasks, tell them you can work on your personal business while updating the document for your corporate business both together. That’s multi-tasking.

Standard browser? Which one?

Malaysia’s internet connection isn’t free yet, but Google Docs is.

Safely store your work.
Online storage and auto-save mean you needn’t fear local hard drive failures and power outages.

Test : To check auto-save

Conclusion :

I believe it is the same code for gmail draft auto-save. Nothing new, but there is something useful on having a Ctrl-S for saving and saving revisions of the documents. You can select a few revisions of the documents for comparison or reverting back to a particular version.

I’m quite particular on safety or security though. “Safely storing your work” might apply for having backup copies of the documents but does not mean that your document is safe from prying eyes. I did not see any secure connection mode or any encryption so it is more for public sharing of documents in a convenient and free from loss manner.

Easily save and export copies.
You can save your files to your own computer in DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML formats.

Test :

To save Document as .DOC, PDF, RTF and HTML.

To save Spreadsheet as CVS, HTML, PDF and XLS.

Conclusion :

A breeze to export file. The output could vary in different formats. Export is done via the menu File -> Export.

Saving Document has varying degree of differences. The RTF format is being the less accurate of matching the original file. HTML is saved in a zipped file.

Saving Spreadsheet has varying differences too. You might need to save per sheet each for formats like CSV, HTML and plain text. There are a few choices or settings to choose for PDF format.

Publishing

Publish your work as a web page.
You can publish your documents and spreadsheets online with one click, as normal-looking web pages, without having to learn anything new.

Test : Publish a sample Document

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df4m79jt_0d4hkjj

Conclusion :

It is a bloated term for Publishing. Once your document is uploaded and editable, the publishing is actually providing the link to the document for you and everybody else online since it’s already in HTML. Only that it is through your permission that the document is viewable by public. Should be a snap for Google to publish anything you have in their servers. (Problem is just getting your consent).

Control who can see your pages.
You can publish to the entire world, just a few people or no one — it’s up to you. (You can also un-publish at any time.)

Test : To enable a test document to be view by public, by a particular person or nobody.

Conclusion :

As the previous test, publishing is to view by public. Done.

I do not see any menu for viewing for just a few people. Thus I believe it is actually referring to Document sharing, that it is only viewable to the people that you have sent invitation to share the document.

If you do no want to share, easy. Just keep it under your own belt and no sharing.

Post your documents to your blog.
Once you’ve created a document, you can post it to your blog.

Test :

Publish this post by saving as a Word document, upload to Google Doc and publish to my WordPress.com blog.

Conclusion :

This is really WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). You are looking at the actual blog post which I have created offline and the published via Google Docs.

However, I noticed that the blog title is referring to your document file name and you will still need to make some minor changes to enable display of the post to your preferences.

Publish within your company or group.
With Google Apps, it’s even easier to share important documents and spreadsheets within your company or group.

Test : No test.

Conclusion :

Google Apps actually brings you to http://www.google.com/a/?utm_medium=et&utm_source=dands which lists all the Google applications like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Page Creator and Start Page.

It is a marketing or promotion strategy to get you to use all of Google applications in your business, either small or big.

Standard Edition is provided free, Premier Edition is $50/user account/year.

I’m not sure how many businesses will sign-up for Premier Edition, but purely using Standard Edition is beneficial since it’s free.

Future of Word Processing

The PC is personal again and public again. Time has shifted from creating documents offline and making multiple copies for sharing, merging them and checking revisions.

You can now perform the same tasks easier through Google Docs less the hassle of trying to get everybody looking at the same updated page and revision where everybody has different offline copies.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets is definitely a neat way to create fast Documents and Spreadsheet if:

• You do not have MS Word or MS Excel installed

• You do not have a licensed copy of MS Word or MS Excel installed

• You’re sick of using Microsoft Word and Excel

• You’re sick of using OpenOffice

• You need to create a PDF file fast to send to somebody

• You only live with your laptop and browser

• You support saving trees, environment and resources

However, it’s NOT neat for you if:

• You are creating Private and Confidential documents

• Your files are larger than 500KB

• You are very particular about the formatting of your documents

• You are using dial-up internet connection

• You disable javascript in your browser

• You dare not try new things

Anyway, I recommend you to give it a try.

Is this going to kill Microsoft Word and Excel or not? Time will tell.

Lightbox is a javascript plugin for your webpages with images and open the images in a “lightbox” as if under the spotlight.

The script author is Lokesh Dhakar and you can easily download, install and use it in less than 5 minutes. Visit Lokesh Dhakar’s website and Lightbox version 2 project site.

The implementation is so easy and useful that it is truly one of those technology people worth giving credit and salute to.

It is provided absolutely free and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Why use Lightbox?

Clean, nice, easy.

If you have a lot of images with thumbnails with actual larger images and you want a nice way to present them, Lightbox is for you.

If clicking thumbnails and opening images in a new window is not something you like, Lightbox is for you.

If clicking on an image and opening the actual larger image on the same page is not something you like, Lightbox is for you.

If you are looking for a nice photo or image viewer for your website, Lightbox is for you.

How to use Lightbox in your website

Download Lightbox

Latest version for download as of now is 2.03.3. Download the required files at http://www.lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/releases/lightbox2.03.3.zip.

Run a sample

Extract the content of the zip files and open the sample index.html page

View : Simple Working Sample 

Customizing for your use

1. Changing CSS

Change the CSS to suit your own liking. Next and previous images and hover can be customized.

2. Changing Images

The images are located under the “image” folder. Change the images for your own usage.

3. Adding Captions

Captions can be added to the image to show on the Lightbox.

Example:

<a href="images/image-1.jpg" mce_href="images/image-1.jpg"
  

 rel="lightbox" title="my caption">image #1</a>

Customizing LightBox for other features

Other than just plain images, html objects can be put into the Lightbox as a separate form or page. You can refer to the customized version at Lightbox Gone Wild! – By Chris Campbell

Another customization by Sean at Building aB: Customizing Lightbox

How to use lightbox in your wordpress blog

A fairly simple and straightforward guide to implement Lightbox JS for your wordpress blog is available here: http://zeo.unic.net.my/notes/lightbox2-for-wordpress/

Some Sites Using Lightbox

http://www.hypertunemag.com/hyperbabes/feb2007/julie.php

http://www.ngfamilyphotos.com/

http://simplephotoblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/lightbox-js-20.html

Due to the recent coverage on abuse of shortcodes and complaints from the public and even the publishing of non-compliants shortcode provider by MCMC somewhat able to deter or delay the frequent spamming using shortcodes.

It doesn’t stop SMS spammers anyway, due to the lucrative profit of getting mobile users to download ringtones or wallpapers from their shortcodes. A few ringgit from a single number will generate quite a substantial sum of profit from a bigger number of “spammed-subscribers”.

The MCMC rule is, a consumer has to request the service directly from a shortcode, and download the product/service for a mobile number to be eligible for charges.

The abuse on such service previously is, even if no service has been requested, a shortcode will just simply spam a mobile number randomly or whatever lucky number algorithm they call it, and charge the unsuspected “spammee”. The mobile users only will know if they get a bill statement. Too bad for prepaid users, which is why they are suggesting for prepaid users to have monthly bill as well.

Fast forward, the big piece of cake is still there, everybody wants to have a bite of it. The solution is to simply use a mobile number. In this case, the sms I received from +60172956034 with SMS content “Hi Susan! U nak download sexy girl movie clip & MP3 kan? taip ON MOV dan SMS ke 32312 utk Movie. Htr ON HIT ke 36989 untuk MP3 Truetone. Free Reg! From: ANN “

Smart, right? It seems like a SMS sent to a mistaken recipient, but if the user is really interested, he/she is to type the actual request to the shortcode, to download and be charged. (Which is compliant!) Not sure if they are going to reveal the charges though.

Trying to call the number will not establish a phone conversation as what I have tried.

I believe the SIM card is used purely for spamming and slotted into a GSM modem to send out sms and with the call functionality disabled.

A check on the shortcode via google pointed me to Maxis’s hotlink ECP info search page.

The two shortcodes in the sms belonged to two different companies. Not sure if it is their own service, or their clients abused their system. One thing for sure, they should bear responsiblity for whatever business used on their shortcode.

32312 – MCOM MEDIA TECHNOLOGY SDN BHD

36989 – IONNEX SDN BHD

Anyone received such SMS?

I liked the ability to be able to pause download and resume whenever you want, and to have a speedier download. Multiple threads to download a particular file concurrently if the file in server is supported.

I found a sample for a simple download manager, written in Java, and changed a bit to suit myself.

The original code I found are from (not sure which is the original author though) :

http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/Tiny-Application/FileDownloadManager.htm

http://www.java-tips.org/java-se-tips/javax.swing/how-to-create-a-download-manager-in-java.html

 Some brief pointers:

Concept

This sample program shows how to download a file through HTTP which is able to pause and resume download. The key to doing this is actually specifying the point where to resume the download:
            // Specify what portion of file to download.
            connection.setRequestProperty(“Range”, “bytes=” + downloaded + “-”);

and
            file.seek(downloaded);

Screen Shots

Source Code



import java.awt.BorderLayout;

import java.awt.Component;

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;

import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;

import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;

import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;

import java.io.File;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import java.io.InputStream;

import java.io.RandomAccessFile;

import java.net.HttpURLConnection;

import java.net.URL;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import java.util.Observable;

import java.util.Observer;

import java.util.Properties;

import javax.swing.BorderFactory;

import javax.swing.JButton;

import javax.swing.JFileChooser;

import javax.swing.JFrame;

import javax.swing.JLabel;

import javax.swing.JMenu;

import javax.swing.JMenuBar;

import javax.swing.JMenuItem;

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

import javax.swing.JPanel;

import javax.swing.JProgressBar;

import javax.swing.JScrollPane;

import javax.swing.JTable;

import javax.swing.JTextField;

import javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;

import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent;

import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener;

import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;

import javax.swing.table.TableCellRenderer;

public class DownloadManager extends JFrame implements Observer {

    private JTextField addTextField = new JTextField(30);

    private DownloadsTableModel tableModel = new DownloadsTableModel();

    private JTable table;

    private JButton pauseButton = new JButton("Pause");

    private JButton resumeButton = new JButton("Resume");

    private JButton cancelButton, clearButton;

    private JLabel saveFileLabel = new JLabel();

    private Download selectedDownload;

    private boolean clearing;

    public DownloadManager() {

        setTitle("Marvin's Download Manager");

        setSize(640, 480);

        addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {

            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {

                System.exit(0);

            }

        });

        JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();

        JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");

        fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);

        JMenuItem fileExitMenuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit", KeyEvent.VK_X);

        fileExitMenuItem.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                System.exit(0);

            }

        });

        fileMenu.add(fileExitMenuItem);

        menuBar.add(fileMenu);

        setJMenuBar(menuBar);

        // Set up add panel.

        JPanel addPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        JPanel targetPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());

        targetPanel.add(addTextField, BorderLayout.WEST);

        JButton addButton = new JButton("Add Download");

        addButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionAdd();

            }

        });
        targetPanel.add(addButton, BorderLayout.EAST);
        JPanel destinationPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());

        saveFileLabel.setText("File:");

        destinationPanel.add(saveFileLabel, BorderLayout.WEST);
        JButton saveFileButton = new JButton("Download To");

        saveFileButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionSaveTo();

            }

        });

        destinationPanel.add(saveFileButton, BorderLayout.EAST);

        addPanel.add(destinationPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);

        addPanel.add(targetPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        // Set up Downloads table.



        table = new JTable(tableModel);

        table.getSelectionModel().addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener() {

            public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent e) {

                tableSelectionChanged();

            }

        });

        table.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
        ProgressRenderer renderer = new ProgressRenderer(0, 100);

        renderer.setStringPainted(true); // show progress text

        table.setDefaultRenderer(JProgressBar.class, renderer);
        table.setRowHeight((int) renderer.getPreferredSize().getHeight());
        JPanel downloadsPanel = new JPanel();

        downloadsPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Downloads"));

        downloadsPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        downloadsPanel.add(new JScrollPane(table), BorderLayout.CENTER);
        JPanel buttonsPanel = new JPanel();
        pauseButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionPause();

            }

        });

        pauseButton.setEnabled(false);

        buttonsPanel.add(pauseButton);
        resumeButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionResume();

            }

        });

        resumeButton.setEnabled(false);

        buttonsPanel.add(resumeButton);

        cancelButton = new JButton("Cancel");

        cancelButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionCancel();

            }

        });

        cancelButton.setEnabled(false);

        buttonsPanel.add(cancelButton);

        clearButton = new JButton("Clear");

        clearButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                actionClear();

            }

        });

        clearButton.setEnabled(false);

        buttonsPanel.add(clearButton);
        getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        getContentPane().add(addPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);

        getContentPane().add(downloadsPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);

        getContentPane().add(buttonsPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

    }

    private void actionSaveTo()

    {
        JFileChooser jfchooser = new JFileChooser();
        jfchooser.setApproveButtonText("OK");

        jfchooser.setDialogTitle("Save To");

        jfchooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);

        int result = jfchooser.showOpenDialog(this);

        File newZipFile = jfchooser.getSelectedFile();

        System.out.println("importProfile:" + newZipFile);

        this.saveFileLabel.setText(newZipFile.getPath());

    }

    private void actionAdd() {

        URL verifiedUrl = verifyUrl(addTextField.getText());

        if (verifiedUrl != null) {

            tableModel.addDownload(new Download(verifiedUrl, saveFileLabel.getText()));

            addTextField.setText(""); // reset add text field

        } else {

            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Invalid Download URL", "Error",

                    JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);

        }

    }

    private URL verifyUrl(String url) {

        if (!url.toLowerCase().startsWith("http://"))

            return null;
        URL verifiedUrl = null;

        try {

            verifiedUrl = new URL(url);

        } catch (Exception e) {

            return null;

        }

        if (verifiedUrl.getFile().length() < 2)

            return null;

        return verifiedUrl;

    }

    private void tableSelectionChanged() {

        if (selectedDownload != null)

            selectedDownload.deleteObserver(DownloadManager.this);

        if (!clearing && table.getSelectedRow() > -1) {

            selectedDownload = tableModel.getDownload(table.getSelectedRow());

            selectedDownload.addObserver(DownloadManager.this);

            updateButtons();

        }

    }

    private void actionPause() {

        selectedDownload.pause();

        updateButtons();

    }

    private void actionResume() {

        selectedDownload.resume();

        updateButtons();

    }

    private void actionCancel() {

        selectedDownload.cancel();

        updateButtons();

    }

    private void actionClear() {

        clearing = true;

        tableModel.clearDownload(table.getSelectedRow());

        clearing = false;

        selectedDownload = null;

        updateButtons();

    }

    private void updateButtons() {

        if (selectedDownload != null) {

            int status = selectedDownload.getStatus();

            switch (status) {

                case Download.DOWNLOADING:

                    pauseButton.setEnabled(true);

                    resumeButton.setEnabled(false);

                    cancelButton.setEnabled(true);

                    clearButton.setEnabled(false);

                    break;

                case Download.PAUSED:

                    pauseButton.setEnabled(false);

                    resumeButton.setEnabled(true);

                    cancelButton.setEnabled(true);

                    clearButton.setEnabled(false);

                    break;

                case Download.ERROR:

                    pauseButton.setEnabled(false);

                    resumeButton.setEnabled(true);

                    cancelButton.setEnabled(false);

                    clearButton.setEnabled(true);

                    break;

                default: // COMPLETE or CANCELLED

                    pauseButton.setEnabled(false);

                    resumeButton.setEnabled(false);

                    cancelButton.setEnabled(false);

                    clearButton.setEnabled(true);

            }

        } else {

            pauseButton.setEnabled(false);

            resumeButton.setEnabled(false);

            cancelButton.setEnabled(false);

            clearButton.setEnabled(false);

        }

    }

    public void update(Observable o, Object arg) {

        // Update buttons if the selected download has changed.

        if (selectedDownload != null && selectedDownload.equals(o))

            updateButtons();

    }

    // Run the Download Manager.

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        DownloadManager manager = new DownloadManager();

        manager.setVisible(true);

    }

}

class Download extends Observable implements Runnable {

    private static final int MAX_BUFFER_SIZE = 1024;

    public static final String STATUSES[] = { "Downloading", "Paused", "Complete", "Cancelled",

    "Error" };

    public static final int DOWNLOADING = 0;

    public static final int PAUSED = 1;

    public static final int COMPLETE = 2;

    public static final int CANCELLED = 3;

    public static final int ERROR = 4;

    private URL url; // download URL



    private String saveDir; // dir to save



    private int size; // size of download in bytes



    private int downloaded; // number of bytes downloaded



    private int status; // current status of download

    // Proxy information

    public static final boolean proxyRequired = true; // Change for your settings

    public static final String proxyIP = "127.0.0.1";

    public static final String proxyPort = "8080";

    public static final String proxyUsername = "proxyUser";

    public static final String proxyPassword = "proxyPassword";

    // Constructor for Download.

    public Download(URL url, String saveDir) {

        this.url = url;

        this.saveDir = saveDir;

        size = -1;

        downloaded = 0;

        status = DOWNLOADING;

        // Begin the download.

        download();

    }

    // Get this download's URL.

    public String getUrl() {

        return url.toString();

    }

    // Get this download's size.

    public int getSize() {

        return size;

    }

    // Get this download's progress.

    public float getProgress() {

        return ((float) downloaded / size) * 100;

    }

    public int getStatus() {

        return status;

    }

    public void pause() {

        status = PAUSED;

        stateChanged();

    }

    public void resume() {

        status = DOWNLOADING;

        stateChanged();

        download();

    }

    public void cancel() {

        status = CANCELLED;

        stateChanged();

    }

    private void error() {

        status = ERROR;

        stateChanged();

    }

    private void download() {

        Thread thread = new Thread(this);

        thread.start();

    }

    // Get file name portion of URL.

    public String getFileName(URL url) {

        String fileName = url.getFile();

        return fileName.substring(fileName.lastIndexOf('/') + 1);

    }

    // Download file.

    public void run() {

        RandomAccessFile file = null;

        InputStream stream = null;

        FileOutputStream out = null;

        try {

            if (proxyRequired){

                // This can be put in a menu, updated via interface

                System.out.println("Setting proxy");

                Properties systemSettings = System.getProperties();

                systemSettings.put("http.proxyHost", proxyIP);

                systemSettings.put("http.proxyPort", proxyPort);

                System.setProperties(systemSettings);

            }

            // Open connection to URL.

            HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

            // Specify what portion of file to download.

            connection.setRequestProperty("Range", "bytes=" + downloaded + "-");

            if (proxyRequired){

                String encoded = new String(new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(new String( proxyUsername + ":" + proxyPassword).getBytes()));

                connection.setRequestProperty("Proxy-Authorization", "Basic " + encoded);

            }

            System.out.println("Going to make connection");

            // Connect to server.

            connection.connect();

            System.out.println("Connected!");

            int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();

            System.out.println("Response code from server=" + responseCode);

            // Make sure response code is in the 200 range.

            // 200 - no partial download

            // 206 - supports resume

            //if (responseCode / 100 != 2) {

            if (responseCode == 200 || responseCode == 206) {

                error();

            }

            // Check for valid content length.

            System.out.println("Content length=" + connection.getContentLength());

            int contentLength = connection.getContentLength();

            if (contentLength < 1) {

                error();

            }

      /*

       * Set the size for this download if it hasn't been already set.

       */

            if (size == -1) {

                size = contentLength;

                stateChanged();

            }

            // Open file and seek to the end of it.

            file = new RandomAccessFile(getFileName(url), "rw");

            file.seek(downloaded);

            System.out.println("Get InputStream");

            stream = connection.getInputStream();

            status = DOWNLOADING;

            out = new FileOutputStream(saveDir + File.separator + this.getFileName(url));

            while (status == DOWNLOADING) {

                /*

                 * Size buffer according to how much of the file is left to download.

                 */

                byte buffer[];

                if (size - downloaded > MAX_BUFFER_SIZE) {

                    buffer = new byte[MAX_BUFFER_SIZE];

                } else {

                    buffer = new byte[size - downloaded];

                }

                // Read from server into buffer.

                int read = stream.read(buffer);

                if (read == -1)

                    break;

                // Write buffer to file.

                //file.write(buffer, 0, read);

                out.write(buffer, 0, read);

                downloaded += read;

                stateChanged();

            }

      /*

       * Change status to complete if this point was reached because downloading

       * has finished.

       */

            if (status == DOWNLOADING) {

                status = COMPLETE;
                stateChanged();

            }

        } catch (Exception e) {

            System.out.println("Error=" + e);

            e.printStackTrace();

            error();

        } finally {

            // Close file.

            if (file != null) {

                try {

                    // Complete the file

                    out.close();

                    file.close();

                } catch (Exception e) {

                    e.printStackTrace();

                }

            }

            // Close connection to server.

            if (stream != null) {

                try {

                    stream.close();

                } catch (Exception e) {

                    e.printStackTrace();

                }

            }

        }

    }

    private void stateChanged() {

        setChanged();

        notifyObservers();

    }

}

class DownloadsTableModel extends AbstractTableModel implements Observer {

    private static final String[] columnNames = { "URL", "Size", "Progress", "Status" };

    private static final Class[] columnClasses = { String.class, String.class, JProgressBar.class,

    String.class };

    private ArrayList<Download> downloadList = new ArrayList<Download>();

    public void addDownload(Download download) {

        download.addObserver(this);

        downloadList.add(download);

        fireTableRowsInserted(getRowCount() - 1, getRowCount() - 1);

    }

    public Download getDownload(int row) {

        return (Download) downloadList.get(row);

    }

    public void clearDownload(int row) {

        downloadList.remove(row);

        fireTableRowsDeleted(row, row);

    }

    public int getColumnCount() {

        return columnNames.length;

    }

    public String getColumnName(int col) {

        return columnNames[col];

    }

    public Class getColumnClass(int col) {

        return columnClasses[col];

    }

    public int getRowCount() {

        return downloadList.size();

    }

    public Object getValueAt(int row, int col) {

        Download download = downloadList.get(row);

        switch (col) {

            case 0: // URL

                return download.getUrl();

            case 1: // Size

                int size = download.getSize();

                return (size == -1) ? "" : Integer.toString(size);

            case 2: // Progress

                return new Float(download.getProgress());

            case 3: // Status

                return Download.STATUSES[download.getStatus()];

        }

        return "";

    }

    public void update(Observable o, Object arg) {

        int index = downloadList.indexOf(o);

        fireTableRowsUpdated(index, index);

    }

}

class ProgressRenderer extends JProgressBar implements TableCellRenderer {

    public ProgressRenderer(int min, int max) {

        super(min, max);

    }

    public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected,

            boolean hasFocus, int row, int column) {

        setValue((int) ((Float) value).floatValue());

        return this;

    }

}

To Run

• Copy the code above, and paste into a DownloadManager.java file
• If you’re behind a proxy, change the proxy settings.
• If you’re not behind a proxy, set the proxyRequired = false;
• Compile and run

To Download Files

• Select the folder you want to save the file
• Copy the URL of the file you want to download
• Paste to the textbox
• Click “Add to Download”
• File will automatically be downloaded
• You can click “Pause” to temporary stop download

Enhancement

• Persists directly the file downloaded even if not 100% completed 
• File splitting, download a single file with multiple threads

Other useful references

http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/20188.htm?page=1

http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/20187.htm

But the most important question in everyone’s mind is – What is the pickup rate? How receptive are people towards shopping online?

If there is any survey, it is very valuable for online business to know their target market or public acceptance of online shopping.

I am not even sure if there’s any for Malaysia’s market, and I couldn’t find much online.

However, this is post is my participation to a survey or marketing data collection from neowave.com.my’s blog Sell More.

Neowave is a company with passion for e-commerce providing SEO Ecommerce Solution.

By participating in this, I hope to get some Google goodies on the way and hopefully some comments from visitors to this page as well.

Here goes the questions:

1) Do you shop online? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes, I do. But it took me quite some time to get over my own mental barriers and confidently shop via the internet. I have never shopped on TV or phone, but internet? Yes, internet. I’m an IT guy what, how can I tell people I do not shop online?

I do window shop regularly, both offline and online. Who has not?

So my answer to shopping online is actually a transaction made with payment in exchange for a product or services.

However, I found that my online shopping preference is very limited to the “limited editions” or something you cannot buy offline from “Brick and Mortar” business (Reason 1).

Most of it includes service packages where I can get a real good discount or the single most important thing to me, convenience. After all, that is what internet is for, CONVENIENCE (Reason 2).

Some of the stuff I shop online:

- Web hosting packages

- AirAsia tickets

- Travel packages

- Concert tickets

- Hotel room

- Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra tickets

- Flowers

- Shares

Some of the things I window shopped online (no payment), and buy offline:

- Mobile phones

- Laptop, camera and other IT gadgets

It has to be a good bargain to get it online than off-the-shelf (Reason 3). If I’m paying something before I get the product, it has to be that I have more options and better deals.

And I would rather buy from a website that sort of built up a reputation (Reason 4).

2) What are your preferred payment methods for online shopping? (credit card, debit card, bank card, online banking, cheque etc) List 3 in accordance to preferences.

Listing from most preferred to least.

a) Online banking

This is probably due to the fact that I’ve developed two local internet banking sites and maintained three. If a merchant is tied up to a bank, I am more confident on it. Banking is no simple business and security policies are of prime importance. Banks and financial institutions are regulated by Bank Negara and are meant to cover the safe-keeping of consumers’ money.

Each transaction you made is tracked and will be kept for at least seven years.

One thing to note though, a tool is only as secure as how you know to use it. Read more from my Internet Banking posts.

b) Credit Card

Those plastic cards are miracle on Earth. Ironically, most of my online payments are done with credit cards although it is not my top preference. Notice the question is by preference and not method used most.

This is because most online shopping sites accept credit cards but the merchants are located in US or other sites.

Besides, credit card frauds are no strangers.

However, I do like the times when my bank calls me on some online shopping transactions I made. I think that they categorized some as potential frauds and politely made a check. It is a plus point there.

c) All others alternatives

Deposit in ATM machine then fax bank-in slips, cheque sending etc.

It defeats the purpose of convenience. I might as well forget about it and shop elsewhere.

Same as parking my car, go to the ticketing machine, grab a ticket, display on my windscreen.

Then again, it is not I have not done so before. The product or services will have to justify the inconveniences the buyers have to bear. When I do not have a credit card or online banking account before this, it is the ONLY method I have.

3) Do you use search for product pricing and information before you buy instore? which search engine you use the most?

Of course I do. You mean there is somebody out there who would simply write a cheque with the amount field empty to purchase something? No expectation on product features and doesn’t care whatever costs it take?

I simply LOVE this type of questionnaires, there’s no A/B/C or Yes/No, and I can spill whatever I want on the questions posed before I provide my answer.

First part of question waived. Search engine I use most: GOOGLE, since early 2002, I think.

The other search engines are just not as good in indexing or matching search keywords.

About Google, need to say more?

So, how do you do your online shopping?

If you noticed my previous blogs, Log4j source codes are a plain text with no highlighting of reserved words or like the way it is shown in any of your beloved IDE.

The way I did it previously is to directly use html.

Create a table with the grey coloured background and just paste the source codes in.

I tried to make it looked similar as any Sun’s java sample code. Black text on a grey background.

Something like this :

http://weblogs.java.net/blog/aim/archive/2007/07/embedding_swing.html

Ultimately I still prefer the coloured way of IDE-like this:

public class ColourCoderSample {

    /** Creates a new instance of ColourCoderSample */

    public ColourCoderSample() {

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        System.out.println("Test message");

    }

}

It’s done through a webpage by shinder lin with a modified tool from Jasper Bedaux.

http://www.riarock.com/as2html/as2html.htm

The colour is for C++ but it can be modified to suit your liking.

   Links: 

http://adamflater.blogspot.com/2007/02/on-source-code.html

http://www.riarock.com/as2html/as2html.htm

Maybe put it this way, I should ask, do you know that it might not be free?

How I was told it works

All you got to do is send this sms costing 15cents. ‘MY111 NANDOS’ to 33365. Then you will get a free quarter chicken meal worth RM 10.80.

Being the cautious me: Are you sure? No hidden costs?

Answer : No la, my friend already tried it. Just pay for the drink and got free meal.

Ok, that is enough for me.

Sent: MY111 NANDOS -> 33365.

Reply: NANDOS: Exp:030807 <Voucher number> FREE 1/4 chicken with rice worth RM10.80. TnC apply

OK, this is cool! Gonna take my free cookoo meal tomorrow. Erm.. wat’s that TnC apply thingy? Anyway, got ppl tried it.. shouldn’t be any big deal.

And then that same evening, I got an email from another friend. About the same thing, forwarded mails, after a few round of forwards, managed to reach me. Author mentioned already tried it, it is for real la blah blah blah…..

Another reassurance.

How I found it working 
 
Went to order my free chicken meal lo.

I went there with my girlfriend. Hers got through though.  

Kind waitress come back telling me my voucher number been used. My sms rejected, they said it has been redeemed. Wat the heck, I just got it yesterday, have not been to any of their restaurants, and redeemed?

Tak pernah guna wor, tak mungkin la…

U talipon ini nombor check, sistem kata dah guna, REDEEMED.

Ok lo.. i call lor, it’s those computer voice systems, no human customer service personnel. Key in your number, they say something like ‘SORRY, your voucher number is redeemed’. Check what? I thought can ask them check who used my voucher number?

No choice, either i leave the place, or order my own  paid meal. One that costs at RM 12.90.
The bill actually turned out to be RM20.88 with drinks.
  

How I found out, how it worked!

And I came back frustrated, googled the shortcode service and somehow somewhere got me to this website www.mystyle.com.my.

Found out each MY111 sms to them costs RM3.50.
 
So my free meal is indeed RM 27.88.
SMS 3.50 x 2 = RM  7.00
Meal             = RM 20.88
Total            = RM 27.88 for two.

My conclusion : Where got free, eat normal meal there oso costs something like this wat?
 

Check out the hidden costs yourself.
http://www.mystyle.com.my/index.php?w=5
I sent my complaint through their website providing my voucher number and phone number too. Still waiting for reply…… still waiting…..
Ya know… it’s not much.. just that you need to read fine details.
I should seriously start to think of some service to con/cheat.. charge ppl like this.
If any of you guys have idea as nice as this, let me know. See if we can work something out.
Costs me few ringgits only ma, sue them meh? But a few ringgit from a small percentage of our country’s population, enough to give me a turbo towards my millionaire journey. 

Seriously, anybody got legal idea like this, contact me pls….

Bewarned!!!
“Big big frog jump jump on the road” really does mean something.
 
The only thing for me to praise them is.. good marketing plan, but sucks in community service.
 
Hahaha..

My other conclusion: It was bad luck that dawned on me, others have their “free meals” redeemed successfully. Maybe you try it yourself and let me know. Comments welcomed!

Some simple and useful IBM MQ Commands I found useful for debugging or testing the channels and queues. 

Some MQ Commands

Use ‘mqm' user

At : /usr/mqm/bin

Connect to Queue Manager

His name is 黄明志, English name is NameWee. I guess that being his first name “ming zhi” pronounced same as “Name” in Chinese.

He created songs that speaks the truth so true that you or as a matter of fact, myself just cannot stop admiring him.

He has just released a new work, ‘Negarakuku’ – I love my country. His rendition of the Malaysia national anthem in RAP style can easily get listeners hooked.

Bad news though, he was told that the country is going to take legal action against him and is going to jail soon enough, although physically located in Taiwan now.




Check out his blog at http://namewee.blogspot.com It’s in Chinese, but basically there are already interviews by local Chinese reporter regarding the issues linking to his new work. On questions that his latest song being a disrespect to the national anthem, he disagrees and clarified that instead more are interested to know the lyrics and get to know how to sing it. (Although I know how to sing Negaraku since young, I guess there are still alot of ppl out there couldn’t sing it?) He also added that it is a way to promote Malaysia to the tourists as in the video consists of various landmark and tourist spots. He reckons like watching ‘Young and Dangerous’ (Hong Kong movie), people would like to visit Hong Kong, thus his video could attract more to Malaysia and experience what he showed in the video and song. I bet it is so true, they will find exactly what is shown!

Bad news aside, good news is (or rather the good in the bad news) that if convicted, he will be fined RM 100 or to serve jail for 2 weeks. Or both together.

He jokingly in a serious mode (not really sure which) said that he’s looking forward to the jail experience as he like to experience different things to spice up his life. Life is meaningless being mundane.

His previous submission to youtube has already been removed. This one below is still available, aint sure how long it can survive there. Please do enjoy it first as long as it is still available. If not, contact me. I have Muar Chinese, Kawanku, Negarakuku in 3gp! In my phone.

My sincere wish to Namewee, all the best to you and keep your cool. I bet you have many to back you and support you. Awaiting your other releases!

 Updates – 8th August 2007

Quite a number of local newspapers is publishing his story, and he might just got himself into a big trouble.

This excerpt is from today’s The Sun :

Quote : “If investigations showed the student is sponsored by the government, he would be recalled.”

Of course he’s not sponsored, he already sang it. It’s in the lyrics.

“NON-RELATED STORY” 

I have a neighbour, their family problem is well-known. The whole stretch of houses or in fact, whole kampung knows about it.

They are a family of 5. Dad, mum, elder brother (age 25), younger brother (age 16) and an adopted son (age 20). The fact that the adopted son descended from another parents but “sharing” food with the family sometimes irritates the other 2 kids. The parents always pride themselves, having wonderful family others do not have, even with an adopted son.

The youngest son always got bullied by the other two, names-calling are frequent. Being called lazy, stupid, sleepy are the norms.

True enough, the adopted son is the one named the BULLY, because he bullys the younger brother. He’s the only one in the wrong.

If only they keep it to themselves, but it is now the talk of the kampung, our whole kampung, and I suspect nearby kampungs as well.

This gonna bring shame to my kampung, man.

Afterall, are they treating themselves a FAMILY or what? Who’s the main BULLY? 

In its nine (soon to be 10) factories around the world, mobile-phone giant Nokia will churn out approximately 325 million handsets this year alone. That’s 10 phones per second, every hour of every day, all year long.

Ever wondered how a NOKIA phone is born? Read more in a slide show based presentation with photos included here : Making of A Nokia

The 3 year wait for the Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow 2006 (KLIMS 2006) definitely built up an intense anticipation as the halls at Putra World Trade Centre filled up with massive crowd of visitors on the first day. It was not an everyday sight to watch shiny hot cars revolving on platforms, glamorous brand ambassadors, skaters, performances and demonstrations all happening at the same time under the same roof.

The KL International Motor Show 2006  starts from 26th May 2006 til 4th June 2006 at PWTC KL.

I visited it during the second day of the show and it was superb! The fees is RM15 during weekdays and RM 20 during weekends. Definately worth the money if you’re into cars and some pretty ambassadors too…

Make sure you do not miss the Honda humanoid or robot code named Asimo that is one of the highlights for me in the show.

More of the photos I’ve taken at my site http://marvin.name.my

and more info on the KLIMS at http://www.klims06.com/

Only yesterday did I tried to search online for the site of LHDN e-filing as I’ve forgotten the URL. Forgotten how i managed to get the URL but went thru a site to have a wonderful finding to what lies beneath http://eservice.hasil.org.my

Please note however,  I do not exactly know who is the owner of the site as I wasnt able to search for the handler from MYNIC whois service at : http://whois.mynic.net.my/

My opinion is that it could be an obsolete version of the online filing from LHDN.

The correct site for the e-filing (https://e.hasil.org.my) could be found from the official LHDN site http://www.hasil.org.my/. This one should be working properly but I’ve yet to register myself. Still a bit skeptical with watever new software version. (I’m a software developer, what!)

OK, now back to some hacking stuff. The layout itself wasnt really nice, and the worst still the registration page doesn’t really look at all professional. Somehow, it gave me the impression that I wouldn’t trust the site anymore. Probably, can have some fun playing with it also!

So i tried to register with whatever data, Nama Pengguna = 1, and 1 for all fields with some 1@somewhere.com and i got an error that 1 already exists. Great job there, I used 9 and it works.

Now to login with 9 and then see what’s inside. Everything looks decent, just with file download and nothing very special on functionalities.

Hmm.. wanna try login without password? SQL injection came to mind.

In a matter of 60 seconds, you can hack in and feel good 

If you know SQL injection, just try it urself, if not try something like this while i explain more :

1) put a single quote -> ‘ into the username textbox, and submit. It’ll show something like:

character string ” AND MemberPassword=”

Ah-ha.. you got to see a part of the SQL already, the original SQL should be something like ‘SELECT id from LOGINTABLE where USERNAME=’<user_name>’ and MEMBERPASSWORD = ‘<password>’

2) Manipulate it by skipping the password checking. Since it doesnt check invalid key for user_name, basically u can input anything. So i can change to login with account – 1 i know exists and without password. Key in -> 1′–     and then hit submit. Voila! you’re in…. That’s basically how a SQL injection hack works..

Stil do not understand why the ( 1′– ) can work? The first single quote ‘ ends the sql for user_name and the following — will comment the end of the SQL, skipping the password directly.. to the SQL form is just like

SELECT id from LOGINTABLE where USERNAME=’1′

3) A better way, even to login without an existing username would be the following. Key in -> ‘ OR 1=1 — and you would have hacked in without any login information. It formed an SQL like

SELECT id from LOGINTABLE where USERNAME=” OR 1=1 (which always return true)

Conclusion: It’s basically a lousy site.. i really forgot how i got the URL, luckily it’s not the one referred in the official LHDN site..  anyway, hope u enjoy some amateur hacking!

Refer to the following sites for more information:

http://www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/sql-injection.htm

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/articles/SQLinjectionBasicTutorial.php

You do no need to jack up your car, no tools required. Just take a look at your tyres thread for the symptoms below

You can clearly see the threads, the patterns are a level up from the base.  Small pebbles are still able to get stuck in between :-p

The difference of the level between the threads and the base is relatively small.

The most important determinant is the square boxes selected in red, they will appear then the thread left is 30% of the original only.

Click on the image to get a more Detailed version where you can see the boxes.

I’m using a 15″ rims. While it does give a more comfortable ride, a more stable cornering, the price of the tyres are quite high too.

While an original tyres from 13″ to 14″ takes around RM 100 a piece.

A 15″ tyres starts from RM 150 and a 16″ will definately be more than RM200.

Different brands or imported ones are slightly expensive for sure.

Much have been said or commented in the papers recently on the 5 working days for all banks in the country.

Bank employees are welcoming that ruling of course much to the disappointment of a percentage from the public.

Although some might say that Saturday is when they can do their banking errands, but a fraction of them also work on Saturdays itself.

Personally, I prefer going to the bank on Saturday too if there’s anything related or must be performed at the branches.

However, I still perform most of my financial transactions online. It’s faster, easier, and most importantly, more convenient.

Doing your banking online is nothing new, which has hit Malaysiayears ago. Most of the concern from people, I believe, is the security of the internet banking application.

There are some that I know of that still does not trust internet banking although being software developers themselves….

Whatever concern there could be, the most important thing is education. Bank Negara Malaysiahas indeed helped in offering public awareness on everything related to the country’s banking industry.

Learn more on Bank Negara at www.bnm.gov.my and Banking Information at www.bankinginfo.com.my

Internet Banking, how secured it is?

Have you ever done any online transaction? Online shopping? Ebay? Paypal?

If you have not ever done any of the above and not intending to, waste no further to read on….

How secure a tool is only as far as how well you know how to use the tool itself.

How you hold a knife to use it will determine how safe it is, right?

Password / PIN

Just like your ATM card or email account, your internet banking account has its own login password or PIN.

Revealing it or keeping it somewhere which is possible to being revealed to others is not very secured… Give me your password….. If only you like me or anybody to use it without your knowledge.

So keep the password / PIN in your brain memory only. If you’ve forgotten it there still should be ways to reset it or change it. Just do not give it to anybody other than yourself.

Usage Duration / Session

Keep your online banking usage duration short if you do not trust but still need to continue. Do whatever you need, and get out FAST!!

There are ways for hackers to hijack your session if you do not really know how well your PC is directly connected to the internet banking server. The risks posed mostly to computers which go through a proxy server for internet connection.

Going through another machine could open a window for others to see what you’re doing therefore enabling to be a middle person, getting all the information you send and changing it or keeping it for later use.

By keeping the window of danger short, you will decrease the risk of others hacking your account.

Network Connection

If you do not know how you’re connected to the internet, I can’t help you much.

Basically, if you do a dial-up, a direct broadband connection at home, you’re safe. Not 100% safe, but eaves-dropping if it ever happened, could be done only by your internet provider themselves.

Using hotspot, wireless connection of some others is not safe.

Using office network connection is not safe.

Using your local network with a proxy whereby the administrator is a computer expert and a dishonest one, might not be safe also.

Phishing

Yes, it sounds just like fishing, the act of others fishing your account login and password.

There are emails circulating around or websites directing you to bank websites looking like legitimate ones, where in fact they are not. If you click onto the email link for fake websites, you are duped into giving them your login id and password.

Nobody should ever ask for your password for any purpose like validation except from the main login page.

So make sure you type the internet banking URL into the browser yourself and make sure the URL you typed is the correct one. Anything other than the one you type yourself is not safe.

How to determine you are safe.

Know your connection. If you think you’re in a public network but still need to continue, suffer the consequences yourself.

You typed the URL which is a correct one yourself into the browser URL bar.

The connection or login screen is HTTPS. (Normal web-browsing is HTTP, HTTPS is a secured connection, and information is encrypted from your browser to the server and vice-versa).

There is a padlock icon at the bottom bar of your internet browser.

Do not leave the browser open or your session idle if suddenly you need to do something else, like taking the call of nature.

Do want you need to do altogether, log out and clear the browser cache. The bank logout page should clearly guide you how to clear them if you do not know.

CLOSE the browser.

Banks’ systems must strictly adhere to Bank Negara’s rules, regulations, and audit. The banks’ systems also need to be audited by a third party to ensure that it is safe from hackers and other loopholes.

The frequent auditing and checking on the internet banking system ensures that the system is safe for public usage.

Whatever the concern is, by using it properly and smartly, the convenience of internet banking outweighs traditional banking incredibly.

No parking woes, long queues, saves your time, saves the environment!

For more education, visit:

Central Bank site www.bnm.gov.my

Banking Info site www.bankinginfo.com.my

Banking Info Internet Banking page http://www.bankinginfo.com.my/index.php?ch=20&pg=32