Economics (Malaysia) : BR1M 4.0

Attention to all Malaysian, who are married with the household income less than RM4k, or still single with an income less than RM2k, or you have reach 60 years old with an income below than RM6k; the time to apply for Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia or BR1M is near. On the 1st december 2014, the online application for BR1M 4.0 2015 will be open, and anyone that eligible can apply through this link.

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For the people who will be applying for BR1M for the 1st time, this is some guideline for you :

1. Go to this website : https://ebr1m.hasil.gov.my/

2. Click on new application

*PS : further steps towards completing the application will be shared by or before 1st December 2014 as the site is temporary unresponsive.

Sports (Football) : Goal Line Technology

Goal line technology or sometimes referred to as a Goal Decision System has really changed the game recently. Before this, either it is goal or not, simply decided by the referee - and that what interesting in football - the scene created by the fans when they saw the ball 'entered' the goal, but then the referee does not blow his whistle (to notify the goal decision) rather than to continue with the game.

The climax of it all came during the important match during the 2010 World Cup as well as 2012 Euro. "Following several refereeing errors at the 2010 FIFA World Cup – including the disallowed goal in Germany's 4–1 victory overEngland, when Frank Lampard hit a shot from outside of the penalty box that bounced off the crossbar and over the line; the ball came back out and the goal was disallowed because the assistant referee did not call for a goal" source. Thus, FIFA re-open the discussion about using the goal line technology system to the World Cup or any other big event.

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The goal line technology were officially used in the official tournament in 2012 FIFA Club World Cup (Japan). And then it was official used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil. The technology used in the system in order to get the 'nod' from FIFA is GoalRef and Hawk-Eye. Both technology need to past 2 test phase conducted by FIFA and IFAB.

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In term the criticism received are the lost in human touch and cost involved in adopting the technology. Lost in human touch can be relate to the excitement of the games itself, whereby previously the supporter get excited over the referee decision either its on their side or against. Its the scene created when the referee make a wrong decision (from the supporter's point of view) that keep the game interesting, and keep our adrenaline rush all the time. And now, we wont have that anymore, people wont be debating over if its goal or not. Because the decision is accurate and final, unlike the referee decision which sometimes can be different from what we "thought' we saw.

Then, the cost involved in adopting the technology is consider is high, The costs per club would have ranged from €250.000 for a chip inside the ball up to €500.000 for Hawk-Eye or GoalControl. And when the league agreed to use them, all of the participating club must bare the fees, with no exceptional. Thus, the club with lower budget would suffer from this implementation.

Safety : Fire evacuation drill training @Proton

Every year, Proton will organize a 'surprise' fire evacuation drill training, collaborate with the local fire department (and yes, there will be the fire engine or fire truck on the scene).

This activity (drill) is :

• To ensure all the building tenants are fully aware with the company's Standard Operation Procedure during an emergency such as fire, earth quake, building collapse and etc, and be able to evacuate the building or work place in safe within 3 minutes time.

• To evaluate the effective of fire fighting system.

• To save live and exit to save place without assistant.

• To evaluate the building tenants responsive action and alertness.

• To train the Emergency Response Team handing the crisis.

The procedures are as shown above. When there is fire, the smoke detector will send the signal to the Fire Protection System, resulting in the emergency bell rang. Everybody must leave the building, exit via nearest fire door. The given time is 3 minutes. We were advised not to use the lift, and do not run! Then everybody must go to the designated Assembly Point (as shown below). And in any point, if let say we forget something in the building, do not get back to try to get it, as in actual situation, we must save our life first. Other thing, for example smart phone, wallet, etc; we could simply buy them back, but not our live. So, remember what is the most important thing first!

To ensure that everybody in Proton participate in the drill, any staff that were 'captured' in the building after the 3 minutes of fire evacuation time is up (regardless of any reason, toilet etc), they will be punished accordingly (but for the past 3 yrs, I haven't heard of anybody left in the building after the 3 minutes time is up).

Music : Guitar tuning

Did you know that different guitar strings produced different kind of sound, for example the highest string (shown of below picture as 'e') produced different sound from the lowest string (shown as E). And in this entry, we will discuss on the guitar tuning, based on the conventional tuning algorithm, standard tuning - defines with eBGDAE (other tuning called alternate, or customize tuning).

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And what most of us did not know is that the tuning can be measured by frequency! Yes, frequency. The level for each string's frequency are shown below, the high e is at 329.63 Hz, and the lowest E is at 82.41Hz. If you managed to get this tune right, then it's called 'perfect' tuning.

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Guitar tuning can be done in many way nowadays, starting from tuning with naked hearing method (the person must have a very good ear and a good sense in differentiate the note sound to be able to do this), then using the tuning fork (which will provide the tuning sound), and many more. But the easiest way nowadays is using the electronic tuner (which can be found in any music store at a price ranging from RM20 to RM200 depending on the complexity and the brand), as well as using phone apps!

Focusing on the electronic tuner and phone apps, the main calculation behind it, is that it is using the simple frequency detected to differentiate the sound of the string. The users just have to enter the needed sound (for example high e note), than the tuner or the apps will tell you whether you have reached the optimum frequency or optimum tune for that note. It's as simple as that!

Technology (automotive) : CAE makes vehicle testing easy

Nowadays, almost all big players in automotive industry has been using CAE (computer aided engineering) to simulate the testing for their vehicle development, especially the new model. It's not something simple, it requires engineers that are capable, experienced and expert in term of knowing how the car function or will react to certain kind of situation.The engineer need to know the necessary requirement, and could actually imagine how it works. That's why sometimes, car manufacturer hired a consultant to do CAE for them.

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Naming some of the car maker company that has been using CAE to replace actual testing is BMW, Audi, Proton, KIA, and many more. The reason why is most of them willing to invest million of dollar is that they see the future in this facilities. They opted to spend now, rather than spending money to do actual test every time they come up with new development, and to conduct an actual test requires actual car, and it cost almost like producing one car, or could be more. In other word - the company would save millions of dollar by not producing an actual car every time they want to test the car (development).

Another reason why they using CAE is to minimize the time for producing a new model. Normally, for one new model, made from scratch, it'll took roughly around 2 to 3 years, and sometimes could be more. Thus, they saw CAE as an option to reduce development time, because normally, testing a new product took more than half of the new product development time! More time equivalent to more development cost, as they need to pay the staff salary, invest in the testing material etc. Hence, using CAE, they can try and manipulate the variable all they want and would not waste money to have many iteration, as the simulation can produce the exact same result as the actual, without having to use the actual car! Isn't that amazing!

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The software used by CAE engineers includes Hyperworks, Abaqus, Marc, Patran, Femfat, and many more. Most of the software are user-friendly, and anyone could simply learn how to use them easily. But the hardest part is to understand the calculation behind it (analysis). As a CAE engineer, they must know how to interpret the analysis result because not many people understand the contour plot result produce by the software.

Yes, CAE has been used a long time ago by other industries such as oil and gas, civil, etc, but it is new in the automotive industry (less than 10 years). All these time, they only trusted what they can see in actual. But as time goes, CAE analysis result could match almost 99% of actual test correlation. Hence, the many big players in the automotive industry opted to switch for CAE as they could save the development cost, as well as development time.

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Gaming (console) : Xbox One vs PS4

Gaming system has developed so much, in term of the graphic, the game play, the 'real' feeling, and so on. I still remember back then, in the early 90's, when games console still been using the 'cartridge'  instead of cd, when the graphic was too rigid, and looks like nothing in the actual world.

But time has changed, Sony and Microsoft has been fighting in this war since 2001 (Sony PS2 was launched in 2000, while Microsoft Xbox was launched in 2001). And in 2013, they both has come out with a new gaming console, promising their loyal-hardcore-gamer a new kind of gaming experience unlike nothing they have produce before.

But as most of us could not afford to buy both, as the price for PS4 is around RM1400 and Xbox one is around RM1600, this comparison was made in order to investigate which one is the best (performance-wise and the worthiness of buying).

In term of pricing, as mention before, PS4 is cheaper that Xbox one. So now, lets take a look at the specification for both :

spec comparison (table source)

They both have same amount of CPU cores, frequency and mArch. But the rest of the specs were dominated by Sony PS4.

controller comparison (picture source)

 In term of the controller 'friendliness', though it is subjective for anyone, I would prefer the Xbox one as the joystick position is align with the action button position. Unlike the ps4 where the joystick position is on the lower left side of the controller, and the action button is on the upper right side of the controller. So, I pick xbox one controller in this comparison.

Conclusion
So, based on those criteria, PS4 has won by 2-1.

Travel (France) : Amazing bus system - Aix-en-bus

As a Malaysian, have you ever wonder how other countries bus system looks like? Are they the same with us? Do they often had like a last-minute-no-show, or the bus just simply like 30 minutes late than original schedule?

We heard the story of how efficient the bus system in any major country in Europe, or US; so many times in our life, and it's nearly becoming like a fairy-tale or a myth to us - something that is so wonderful, only exist in the story book because (sadly) we never had the chance to experience that in our own beloved country.

I've used to live in Aix-en-Provence, France for almost 5 years. Lucky me, I've seen and experienced the 'fairy-tales' myself, and trust me when I said...IT'S ALL TRUE! I could not believe that it existed, a place when you feel that buying a car is just not worth it, and you pretty much will end up taking the public transport instead in your 'vie quotidien'.

So,  if you ever feel like visiting Aix-en-Provence, France (1hr from Marseille), this is some tips for you. First, when you arrived at the Centre Ville (CV), don't directly go to the rent car dealer place, instead, go to the Office de tourisme (located in the middle of CV) to buy a bus ticket, and its called "Aix-en-Bus". Depending on how long are you going to stay, buy the bus ticket accordingly. 0.70 euro for 1 trip ticket, 1 euro for aller-retour ticket, 5 euro for 10 tickets, and 20 euros for a ticket that valid for 1 months!! If you are a student, they will give you some discount on the price, but make sure to bring along your student card =)

large bus (for a long route)

small bus (for a shorter route)

There are more than 20 stops for 1 route, and the bus will come every 5-10 minutes depending on the distance of the stop, but you can just refer to the bus' schedule, and trust me, the bus NEVER LATE. It hasn't been late in my 5 years experience there.

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route

Imagine if the bus in Malaysia were like that..with that efficiency. I do believe it will give a positive impact to our country in general, especially regarding the un-solved traffic problem, notably during the holiday season.


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Technology (OS) : Android 5.0 Lollipop vs iOS 8

Comparison between the Apple's OS and Google's OS :

As Google has just released it's newest update for it's operation system (OS) early November 2014 called Lollipop, it's nemesis, Apple, has long been releasing they own OS as well, called iOS 8 on September 2014. Thus, the comparison between both of them among the users, notably the "tech-savvy" is inevitable.

Focusing on the update that will provide the user with more "user friendliness". So let's take a look into those items.

Design (total overview)
In term of the design, iOS 8 has not adopting many significant changes from their previous OS, iOS 7, which is no surprise as it was iOS 7 has already brought the many major design changes to its OS. iOS 8 has that 'flat' design, ditching all signs of skeuomorphism in favour of minimalist aesthetics.

iOS 8

iOS 7

Not much can be said about Android either as they only opted for a bit of a design change. Google has introduced a new 'Material Design' look for Android, which has also been offered to developers for use in their Android apps. Android L brings more depth to the operating system's appearance using shadows, and also automatically generates touches of color based on the content being displayed.

Lollipop

Kitkat

Notification

As for its notification, iOS8 have come up with new-interactive interface. It will provide the user with a more easy way to reply text, accept calender invitation, and even Like a FB status you're tagged in without even opening the app itself.

As per Lollipop, you'll find new, enhanced notifications. You'll be able to get them on your lock screen, and they'll be automatically ordered in priority. You can swipe them away if you want to dismiss them, or double tap to open the relevant app.

More comparison can be found by visiting this link


Personal View

As existing iPhone user, the update found on iOS8 could be seen as 'released for the matter of releasing - that's it ' as it doesn't provide their users with the significant changes that could matches what Android has long been able to offer their users. It's so frustrating, as most of the iOS8 update could be easily found on last year Android OS update.

I'm sure that many of 'Apple fanboy' like me would pretty much try out the Android for a change. Apple is not the same without their Steve Job. His innovation, creativity, and legacy was over as soon as Tim Cook took over the helm, he seems like clueless and too ignorance to adept to changes.

Something need to be done, in order to compete in this fast-growing IT world. Or else, sooner or later they (Apple) will find themselves way behind the pecking order.