Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Golden Churn Butter: Halal or Non-halal?

Few days ago, there's an issue regarding the popular Golden Churn Butter in Sarawak, Malaysia. An official statement was circulated widely in the Internet by the Majlis Islam Sarawak. In the statement, Jabatan Kimia Malaysia detected a Swine's DNA in one of the samples obtained in Sarawak.

This caused mass reaction by the public, which results in huge losses by a Sarawak-based cake company because majority of their customers are muslims.

The news of Golden Churn Butter's Halal status being dropped in Sarawak travels fast towards Brunei. But, in a recent statement by Ministry of Religious Affairs, they advised muslims in Brunei to avoid using Golden Churn Butter for the time being due to the uncertainty of its Halal status.

I hope that this issue will be solved as soon as possible. I can't think how does a Swine's DNA can be found in the Golden Churn's butter. For your information, this butter has been used for decades to make Halal foods. Why only now that this issue have been brought up? Not long ago, a similar issue also happened to QBB's Ghee which turns out to be Halal after vigorous tests.

Is this a corporate espionage? Improper handling of the sample taken which cause it to be contaminated?

Only God knows...

Friday, August 5, 2011

How to download streaming video.

I am sure that you have watched streaming videos from websites such as Youtube, Break and Dailymotion. You need to have internet access in order to continue watching videos from these websites. If you want to watch the video over and over again, you need to connect to the internet to search for it and wait for the buffering of the video to finish before you can watch the video comfortably.

Did you ever wished that you can watch them offline? You do not need to search and wait for them to buffer as what you normally do because the video is readily available inside your hard drive waiting for you to play them inside your media player.

To make that possible, you need to download the video from the website. So, how do we download the streaming video from the internet?

There are several ways to do that, you can search for them in the internet. It's up to you to choose which one do you prefer.

From experience of using them, I settled down to 2 methods to download the streaming video.

Keepvid.com
Go to this website and paste your video URL link into a textbox provided by the website. After processing, the website will give a link to download the video. Simple right? But there are limitation on the number of websites that they support, that means, not every website will work with keepvid.com.


Downloadhelper
Due to keepvid's limitation, I searched the internet to look for the best alternatives to the keepvid method. That's where Downloadhelper comes into the picture. Downloadhelper can download any streaming media that your browser is receiving from the internet (it works 90% of the times that I used it).

Using Firefox, go to Downloadhelper.net to download it to your Firefox browser (it's a Firefox extension). It only works with Firefox. Therefore, you need to have Firefox first before you install Downloadhelper. There will be a new button on your Firefox browser (beside the address bar).

Flashgot
This is my favorite. It's the most powerful extension (again, you need to have Firefox for this). Using Firefox, go to Flashgot.net and click the "Install" button in the website mentioned. This extension works almost in every website that features streaming media (audio or video).

Once you finished installing and restarted your browser, you will notice a Flashgot function when you right clicked in the website with a video or audio streaming (there will be "Flashgot Media" selection where you need to click on it to download your streaming media).

That's all. Now, you can enjoy your videos offline without constant access to the internet. Here a tip, if you want to play the downloaded videos, I recommend using VLC Player or Media Player Classic.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

BIBD Debit Card

Few days ago, I read in the Borneo Bulletin (for those who is outside of Brunei: Borneo Bulletin is an English medium newspaper published daily in Brunei) about the new debit card from Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD).

debit_card

Unlike credit cards, spending using debit cards will not cause you to be burdened by interest rates which will result in accumulating debts if you can't settle the monthly credit repayment.


I find this debit card to be very attractive and convenient in its potential to be used for commercial transaction locally or internationally. BIBD is trying to introduce a new way of conducting business by using e-currency as another form of legal tender, meaning: we don't have to bring physical money in exchange of goods and services.

I'd apply for BIBD's debit card because it is directly connected to a BIBD bank account. For example, if I saved my money in BIBD, I can just use this debit card to pay for anything without going to the ATM to withdraw money.

Since, it bears the MasterCard logo, we can use it to for our online shopping spree or anywhere else that accepts MasterCard. If you're planning to buy something in Ebay or using Paypal as your payment processor, you have to verify the debit card with Paypal in order to remove the spending limit imposed by Paypal for unverified cards. Therefore, make sure to verify your card first to prevent an abrupt stop to your online shopping marathon!

Stolen this Mastercard logo from pycomall.com

For now, I'll just stick to Standard Chartered Bank's eCash card. The only thing that bugs me while using this cash card is the absence of a card statement. No way of checking it online or on paper. The only way of checking your card is by calling the Standard Chartered Bank's card centre. Yes, you can only hear your card statement and not see it. Why is that?! Is it troublesome to provide a card statement? I don't think so... They've done it for the credit cards, why not do the same for debit cards (SCB calls them "eCash"...)? Lots of questions gone unanswered.

Enough about that, I'll stop here. My fingers are getting tired from the typing!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Durians

What is a "Durian"?

Well, just to be simple and straightforward, durians is a fruit that have a pointy texture spines all over the exterior of the fruit which have a foul smell but with a distinctive great delicious taste. It can be found and mainly consumed in the South East Asian region.


Durian (image taken from Wikipedia)
There is a recurring phrase in Bahasa Melayu about this fruit, "Durian adalah raja segala buah". Translated to English, it literally means "Durian is the King of fruits".

Those who have never tasted durian before will not be able to understand why it is termed as "the king of fruits". So, if you're curious, why not take a bite of durian and try to reflect to the phrase above. I know that the smell of durian is what makes most people turned off by it, but if they actually tried it, they'll be forever in love with the creamy taste of durians!

Now, don't think that durians come only in one flavour... They're many types; each with their unique taste, colour and textures. I don't know how many types are there... I haven't tried all! But, I know one thing that they have in common, spines! Hahaha... In Malay, spines are called "duri", that's where durians got its name! Because it is wholly covered in spines or "duri-duri".

If you see these durians laying around, don't be afraid of it! Try it! You might just make durians as your newest favorite fruit!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

My Boss, My Hero

Okay... Now, I'm going to write about a very funny, lively and excellent Japanese drama which was broadcasted in 2006... Yes, obviously, the title of this blog post is the title of the drama (even
though the title is in English... It's in Japanese, trust me...). I was not into Japanese drama before... But, after watching this drama, my life was changed! I'm into Japanese drama now... Hahaha..

Right, continuing on...

This drama is about a yakuza gang heir who is too dumb to get a simple job done. Being fed up by his son's failure, the gang boss enrolls his son into a high school to continue his studies, with a promise by getting a diploma to guarantee his position as the next in line. This means that he have to endure the school life for a year in order to graduate with a diploma. It sounds simple, but is it that simple?

Please watch this drama! I guarantee you that this will be the best drama that you will ever see!
Thanks for reading... I hope you'll like the drama as much as I like it. :)




Friday, July 15, 2011

Mobile phone

Today, I am going to write about "Mobile Phones"...

I got this picture from technabob.com (sorry!)


Ok, what is a "Mobile Phone" exactly? That's easy! It's a phone that is mobile, a phone that is not physically connected to any fixed line. That's just about it, nothing else other than that it's a portable phone. This simple definition was sufficient years or decades ago, but now, it's more than "just a phone".

Let's check for the definition from wikipedia,
  • A mobile phone or mobile (also called cellphone and handphone) is an electronic device used for mobile telecommunications (mobile telephone, text messaging or data transmission) over a cellular network of specialized base stations known as cell sites. ...
 So, that was precise and elaborate explanation... My definition is what people call "crap". Never mind about that! Mistake was made, and now, I will vow to take serious care of definitions from now on (by searching from the net...).

During the old times, mobile phones were not really portable. They seem to be resembling a brick. Not only that they were heavy, not many people could afford to buy one. It can only call people, so what is the big deal? Nothing... I was just saying my thoughts.

Due to the technological developments in the past decade, mobile phones transformed into another type of phone, it is called "Smart phones". These smart phones are the Swiss army knife in the form of a phone; yes, they can do more than just call people. They can also do things like, internet surfing, gaming, hearing music, photography, video taking, sending messages, etc... A lot of things can be done at the press of a button (in case your phone is a touchscreen, "at the touch of the screen..."). People who were proud of their "expensive brick mobile phone" will be ashamed if they knew what is about to be invented. I feel bad for them, though. The technology was still not developed as the present back then. Computers too, was as big as a classroom that can accommodate 30 students. Classic times...

Enough about that! I guess I'll stop here. Thanks for reading!

If you want to buy a new smartphone, please do a research first before deciding to buy them! Just an advice to save you from regretting of buying a new phone at the wrong time.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

First post

Well, this is my first post... I don't really have anything to say at the moment. Life's have been good for the past few years. It was a mix of love and hate daily situations.. Nothing that I want to share.

Hmm... What should I write about for my first post? Oh yes, let's talk about a branch of comic that is known as "Rage comics". I started to see this type of comic few years back while I was stumbling the net. I found some good ones which I like because I can connect my everyday life with it. Rage comic is a way to tell a story of our frustration which we can laugh at. We can't be serious all the time, right? So, that's why rage comic was invented!

Rage comics are usually drawn using MS Paint, but now you can use rage comic maker to easily create rage comics without any difficulties. Previously, you need to search the net for a specific rage face that's suitable for your comic. Thank god for that certain someone who has the bright idea of putting all the rage faces into one place.

Well, I created a short story of my frustration that I kept on encountering at my workplace (many times!). I think I am getting the hang of it... I like how simple the comic is, there's no need of being a good artist to create rage comics. Without further ado, here's my first rage comic!