Ian CHEONG

A couple of days after it's world debut in conjunction with Mac OS X 10.7 (a.k.a. LION), the Geekbench scores are out for both the new Dual Core Sandy Bridge ULV Core i5 and i7 CPUs for the 13" MBAs with the integrated Intel HD 3000 GPU! These are now known as the MacBook Air 4.2 series

Impressive!!!

1.7 Ghz Core i5 (2557M) @ 5400+

1.8 Ghz Core i7 (2677M) @ 5800+

With the Turbo Frequency boost of up to 2.9 Ghz, are we speculating burst scores of about 9,300? Foof!

To put other CPU scores into perspective:

3.06 Ghz Core i3 = 5,600+ | 2.3 Ghz Core i5 = 5900+

2011-01-09

2011-01-09 Gosset Champagne

Anyone tried this OLDEST Champagne from Champagne, France?

Will this whip the standard Ariston Aspasies, Baron Fuentes, Billecart-Salmons, Bollingers, Bruno Michels, Charles Heidsiecks, Collard-Picards, Elisabeth Goutorbes, Fleurys, Franck Bonvilles, Henriots, Launois Blancs, Laurent-Perriers, Louis Roederers, Marguet Peres, Michel Arnoulds, Michel Dervins, Michel Loriots, Moets, Nicholas Feuillattes, Krugs, Perrier-Jouëts, Phillipe Gonets, Pierre Celliers, Piper-Heidsiecks, Ruinarts, Taittingers & Veuve Clicquots?

The basic American prices are circa RM 100-115 for a 750ml Brut Excellence bottle.

High end bottles such as the Celebris range are nearer to RM 400 as shown here. Local taxation applies!

Note that the Flash enabled website needs you to be of legal alcohol consumption age.

2011-01-09 Caviar Azovka

Anyone tasted this French product of Olivier Besson?

It's farmed from one of the 24 varieties of known sturgeons.

Perhaps have to get my Iranian buddies to get some since the word 'Caviar' comes from the Persian word "Khaviar" which means "bearing eggs"

Pricing is from Hong Kong Dollars 10 to 20k per kilogramme!

This translates to HKD 10 - 20 per gramme!

Typical can sizes are 30g and 100g.

2010-12-28

2010-12-28: 3G connection is finally happening on the mobile device

Finally got my 3G connection on my portable Internet device.
My mistake of not turning on the 3G button! Silly me!

Streaming all my favourite stations using Tunein Radio app.

Speedwise, nothing to shout about. With the Celcom 512Kb/s cap, getting such results below is acceptable I guess, but is less than half of what the Canadians would expect. Won't dare to see the comparison with Seoul, South Korea!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Jalan Tembaga,Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

2010-10-31

iPad ANTI GLARE Screen Protectors for sale - cheapest in Malaysia

Get your HIGH QUALITY iPad screen protectors here.

You can check out Low Yat, Midvalley stalls selling at RM 60 to 80 each.

Protect your iPads at RM 50 only!

There are other polythene sheets out there which are cheaper, but you will get "GLAD WRAP" quality. Good for covering your leftovers in the fridge!

Bulk discounts for orders of 10 and above negotiable.

CASH on DELIVERY and FACE to FACE transactions in Klang Valley only.

If you are NOT in Klang Valley, get your friend to contact me!

Sorry, no postal / courier services here!

2010-07-20

20100719 Nuke da Duke?

Typical current state of affairs in our transport planning department. Malaysia Boleh all the way. This was the scenario I was stuck in this morning on the Duke highway after I exited from the house at 8am.
Pic 1: toll

Believe it or not, there was a queue. Not surprising, since the 2 million working class tax payers had to join the rat race every morning! But this not just the "tunai" lane, but ALL lanes including the Touch 'N Go lanes. All this crap in the name of proper traffic planning and efficiency! Look at all the suckers priming the cash cow. 2 phuqs per entry per booth. There's 8 booths so u get about 10 phuqs/second since it's not really sophisticated enough to have real time collection like Singapore's ERP or Dubai's 4 dirham toll gantries! Hey, we are not far off, paying half of Dubai and 5x more in car prices with a per capita income of 4x less than them! Great economics at work!
Pic 2
So wutz da fuss

2010-04-17

2010-04-18: PC Fair 1

The annual fest is here again for the 1st tranche in the Klang Valley.

So today is the LAST DAY of this IT Fiesta in our capital

Here are some highlights.

27" Full HD LCD @ RM 1,100

32" Philips Full HD LCD (with USB support for RMVB!!!) @ RM 1,500

56" Philips super duper LCD with 21:9 aspect ratio (only one in the world) @ under RM 20k!

Memory prices not moving much. 8/16Gb thumb drives & SD cards in the RM 50/100 arena. U can imagine the MemStick Pros & CF prices!

HD prices still a bit sticky at about RM 300 for 1 Tb and RM 538 for 2 Tb. Looks like 1.5 Tb is best bang for da buck at RM 365.

800VA UPS for under RM 200
Buffalo 2 bay NAS below RM 300

Dlink has a nice Wifi-n router with 4 port GIGABIT for half da price of Airport Extreme! Woo hoo! Great for connection DROBOs or NAS with GIGABIT! No need eSATA / USB 2 or 3 / FW 800!

Projector prices down to RM 1,500 with free 6*6 manual screens. I know I'm eyeing the Viewsonic with 3D support (Superb! Who need's the baby sized 55" Samsung 3D TV @ over RM 15k?)

The usual suspects were all there:

A to Z PC / Camera brands (Nikon D90 with 18-105 kit plunges to below RM 3,500!)

Lots of DSLR trigger happy dudes snapping all the "booth babes" with the Chinese RPG online gaming ones sporting the best costumes.

Small techie shops, with Thundermatch stealing the limelight this year

All the telcos mashed into the last quadrant at Hall 5, just as u r about to exit.

Don't bother asking about HSBB @ Telekom stall. No difference in deployment. Just wait for 2010Q4 for further progress (Yawn!)

Photos here at PICASA

2009-12-26

20091226: My Birthday blog

OK, yeah, another year has passed. I thank all those who have assisted me in pulling through this tough year, especially for me.
Talking about tough, I went to Jusco Mid Valley to hunt for mumsie's birthday present. I was looking for this GADGET which my mumsie wanted. The price was right too, as it plunged from RM 3xx to RM 2xx now. Problem was it that stocks were diminished and they have not replenished!
Feel unabated, I recalled that Best Denki also sold lots of electrical appliances @ LG. So there I went. Believing that every cloud has a silver lining, I was blessed with that lining, as they had stocks, er STOCK, 'cos I took the LAST one! Better yet, they were also another RM 10 cheaper.
Since there was an Xmas promotion going on, I had to use my Mastercard credit card to amass RM 250 worth before I could redeem a token. So I had to grab a 4 pack of Sanyo's Eneloop AA 2000 mAh batteries, that cost a staggering RM 66!
With the token, I redeemed a nice wine glass, and on top of that, was given a Lancome voucher to redeem extra skincare freebies from the counter within Metrojaya.
Before I met my friend for lunch, I then lugged this gift up to Gardens Club, which provided me FREE gift wrapping. Timing was good, as the scheduled movie at 2pm, would only end just before 5pm.
Thus when all the goodies were left with the Concierge, I then proceeded to ISETAN which provided another freebie, courtesy of UNCA UNUNDA. Yeah, cut out a coupon and redeem a full bottle of Davidoff's ECHO Shower gel, worth > RM 100 (apparently). So there's all the freebies to date.
I went to watch AVATAR in 3D, costing a staggering RM 18. The morning queue was also outstanding. A long line of at least 200 people were in line prior to the box office opening at 10am! Effects were astounding, and it was Dejavu to see James Cameron team up with Supa Mama, Sigourney since the 1st ALIENS day.
Wrapping up in a cocoon incubator, now, doesn't that bring back memories? And all the robots, which are just ALIENS "cut & paste". Easy for ILM and Weta Studios!

In summary, it's LORD of the RINGS, mashed up with ALIENS running about in the Forest of Endor (remember the Ewoks?) killing each other at the end, Terminator style!

2009-12-24

20091224: Xmas eve coffee break reunion

After 25 years, we meet back @ Starbucks, Bangsar Village on Xmas eve.
Yeah, known Bala and Alvin since 1984 from the VI days!
Bala has really moved on, being one of the senior honchos in Posterscope, whilst Alvin is another senior dude @ IBM Singapore.

2009-12-23

Ian Cheong has invited you to Dropbox

We're excited to let you know that Ian Cheong has invited you to Dropbox!

Ian Cheong has been using Dropbox to sync and share files online and across computers, and thought you might want it too.

Visit www.dropbox.com to get started.

- The Dropbox Team

To stop receiving invites from Dropbox, click here

2009-12-07

20091207: Malaysian TV Channels

Finally got the Philips DVD recorder for my relatives to replace the aging Panasonic VCR!
Since blank DVD-RWs are cheaper than Video tapes anyway, so wuddaheck. The SLP recording mode can record up to 6 hours per disc too!
Better still, it has a USB port to plug in a thumb drive or hard disks to watch loads of DVix movies.

However, life still goes on by recording some lame terrestrial programmes over our 6 local TV stations. My relatives are reluctant to line more of Uncle Ununda's coffers, unlike a silly ME!
Thus no Astro & Wah Lai Toi for them!

I then found out that this superb Philips recorder actually scans the frequencies (AND DISPLAYS THEM) during the channel search function in the tuner.

So this is the conclusion for our local television channels. All of them transmit in NICAM stereo now.

VHF Channels 2-12: PAL System B
TV1: 175.25 Mhz
TV2 (started on 17 Nov 1969): 196.25 Mhz

UHF Channels 21-69: PAL System G
TV3: 535.25 Mhz
NTV7: 599.25 Mhz
8TV: 519.25 Mhz
TV9: 639.25 Mhz

More technical details are shown here

Anyone else know of OTHER recorders which display the frequencies?

2009-10-30

20091030: Low Mac and iPod prices

Low price indeed for my "Museum" artefact, just 60 Sing bucks according to the Mac2Sell site.

Even my iPods are valued more.

However, my "ageing" MacBook is still holding on well, garnering > 15x the value of the Cube.

Anybody interested, can email me directly!

2009-10-18

20091017: ASTRO - are we taken for a ride?

After spending 2 months down here in BROKEN BANGLE (aka Gelang Patah) in the southern part of Johor, I've come to learn a few things about public broadcasting.

Johoreans, particularly the southerners along our causeway, spanning from Gelang Patah to Pasir Gudang can attest to ONE FREEBIE, i.e the receipt of Singaporean TV, broadcasted by Mediacorp.

As a layman, I don't conduct many public surveys. However, don't be surprised that if a poll for Astro subscribers was ever conducted down here in this region, I'm quite sure that the numbers won't be that favourable to the bean counters, as compared to the other regions in Malaysia, which are "broadcast deficient".

Why am I being so sarcastic? Do I have anything against our Unca Ununda?

Well, not that because the following programmes are being broadcast FREE OF CHARGE i.e no monthly subscription from Mediacorp, nor that because we are not getting HD broadcasts.

Then there are the 2 new Asian premieres: Flash Forward (You can get the latest season off iTunes Store now) and Legend of the Seeker (excellent series written by Terry Goodkind)

In addition, there is also another channel featuring high quality documentaries to the like of Crime & Investigation, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. This is OKTO.

In addition to the high quality productions, there are weekend concerts (read: full orchestra & operas) every Saturday and Sunday evening.

So, the time has come to terminate my WAH LAI TOI subscription which is still broadcasting NON-HD programmes, whilst charging the Chinese viewers EXORBITANT rates. Anyone done any analysis?

It's ONLY the Chinese who have to succumb this "financial" torture, even though they constitute less than a quarter of the nation's population. I don't see any premiums imposed upon the Malay and Indian Channels.

My deepest sympathies to the Astro On Demand subscribers! Typically they are the local housewives who are just yearning for the next drama episode, but not the quality of the STANDARD DEFINITION broadcast!

Worse still, channels which are broadcast FOC in ALL OTHER PARTS of the world which can receive DIRECT satellite broadcasts such as BBC and CNN are also CHARGED in the BASIC package.

The Middle East, normally perceived to be backwards in civilisation as compared to the WESTERN world, is another testimonial to all this Astro hoax subscriptions.

In Qatar, satellite dishes are legal. You can purchase the dishes the size of a dining table large enough for a gourmet meal for 10 at Tai Thong, down to the standard KUALI sized parabolic pans we are using.

The set top boxes (STB) are also a dime a dozen. You can get different variations from about RM 150 to RM 1000 from the electronic racks of Carrefour! The cheap ones will allow you to receive all the FREE Satellite channels in the world, known as the FREEVIEW service.

Likewise for Dubai, however, with a slight notch of regulation. The only thing you will pay are the SPORTS telecasts and movie channels! I think that is fair! But not to pay for FREE Channels!

Here in Malaysia, we choose channels with ONE Satellite. In the Mid East, you get to CHOOSE which SATELLITE you want to view, then only do you choose the channels. Replacement transponders cost less than RM 50 each!

Even our decoders are like 2 decades old. Back in 1990, decoders in the UK already had STBs accepting 2 or more subscription cards (Ours has 2 slots, but we only have ONE choice!) To determine how outdated our sets are, there exists the ancient PARALLEL and SERIAL ports in the rear (for those who were pioneer subscribers like me, can attest to this)

I will urge those who have not been to the Mid East, visit Qatar and Dubai to VIEW 1st world nation channels! How many know that there is also FASHION TV Arabia and MTV Arabia, whereby lots of gorgeous Lebanese girls pelt our the latest Arabic hits. I can attest that most of them can outdo Mariah Carey, such as Nancy Ajram. However, Malaysia will NEVER show us MTV Arabia!

Can I find supporters to AXE & Cut off WLT? Just like how P1 Wimax is trying to get the masses to SNIP off STREAMYX?

Those pursuing an Economics course and need material on the subject matter of MONOPOLY, this is a great place to start gathering your thesis material.

Finally, I am still pissed that my favourite FREE channels are not available such as FASHION TV and Channel News Asia.

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