Andrew Ooi -Malaysia Blog

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Remember the video taping days ?

Want to see that favourite TV show but not around to watch it during it's show time? Just video tape it. That's what we did 20 years ago. Those were the days..

Today we have YouTube, torrents, Astro DVR etc. Show the kids today what we used to watch our favourite media and I think they would think it's hilarious.

Anyway, today this is what I use.

Some "cloud" storage and some free service to "tape" my favourite shows :-

showRSS (showrss.info)

This is where I find my TV torrents as soon as they are available. It's a free service to track all your favourite TV shows.

I even have another free service from IFTTT to popup notification on my handphone and iPad as soon as a TV episode is released. Gone are the days of watching the TV program section of the newspaper to know when your favourite programs are on.

Many of the shows are so recent they are almost always ahead of our local ASTRO cable tv.

I use a "cloud" storage service like btcloud.io when I am away from my normal broadband connections. Services like TMNet Streamyx on a slow 1mbps connection actually throttle your internet downloads speeds to 2-3 Kbps if you are downloading torrent. They don't slow down UNIFI though. Double standards if you ask me. Anyway using cloud services like btcloud.io I get speeds of 100Kbps which is the max speed on a 1mbps account anyway.

BTcloud.io is a paid service but they have a free limited account too you can register and get 1 Gb of storage with maximum of 5 torrents. That's more than enough for me to get all my regular TV shows.

Saturday, March 07, 2015

Starbucks getting petty

Visited Tanah Rata after a long time. Early morning only the mamak shop and Starbucks is open so I chose Starbucks. Pretty empty compared last time I visited around the morning. Probably it's the off peak season. Nice to have the whole place to myself.

Starbucks main feature beside their coffee is their WiFi. But their "free WiFi" is now password protected. Fair enough, they don't want free loaders who steal WiFi.

One pin number is given in each Starbucks receipt meaning one device use only.

No sharing !!

Quite disappointing if you are there with more than one person.

Internet speeds? Starbucks Cameron Highlands still a little backwards with their internet. 1Mbps?? Probably a year ago it's ok.

My nasi lemak stall in Shah Alam is still 10x faster.. :(

Ok to be fair, Unifi is not yet here but old Streamyx is available in 4Mbps. Time to upgrade.

Asked for their members card and it's now RM 20 to get one. I got one last time for free after buying some coffee.

One of the selling point for Starbucks for me is their friendly atmosphere and comfortable chairs I can 'lepak' with my tablet and notebook.

The 'pettyness' vibe I am now getting from this place does not jive well with the old Starbucks I used to know.

Thursday, May 01, 2014

Exabytes is so yesterday

Another reason to love cloud hosting on Digital Ocean. I didn't even realise I was late in payment for my sites. My local webhost, Exabytes, would shut down all my sites if I am even one day late in payment even though I am their customer for over 7 years.

My complaints on malware attacks have resulted in me being blamed instead. My sites on GoDaddy and Digital Oceans don't get ANY malware attacks so I am pretty sure I cannot be blamed as I practice the same things on all three webhost.

At Digital Ocean my sites are still alive despite me being a month late (not on purpose on my part). All my sites are still up and alive.

Anyway, I will definitely move out my content and gradually get out of Exabytes. Digital Ocean here I come!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Diasppointing connection with Maxis @ Teluk Intan

Giant replaces ice cream

To their credit Giant do take customer feedback seriously and they have apologized and replace my four boxes of ice cream. Although it was 3 days later, I checked my phone to see missed calls from Giant only an hour after I made the complaint thru their website.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Diasspointed with Giant Teluk Intan

Bought 4 boxes of ice cream during Chinese New Year 2 days ago from Giant Teluk Intan.

A big disappointment because there was ICE in it. Sure it's ice cream but it had literally ice in it.

It's common when ice cream has melted and then re-refregerated. Cruncy ice cream when it's supposed to be creamy? Definitely a disappointment. Giant Teluk Intan please do not let this happen again. I still buy at Giant but I definitely stay away from your ice cream. If that is how you treat the ice crew, it puts the other frozen food in doubt too.

A friend of mine commented that he had the same experience.

Those of you having similar experience don't just keep quiet. Let Giant know at their feedback page:

http://www.giant.com.my/contact-us/contact.aspx

I have sent in my complaint. I'll update this blog if Giant respond (or not).

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

RHB phishing scam

I know I won’t fall for it but looking at this email I can think of many people who would fall for this email scam.
The “validate profile” link (below) itself does not even refer to the RHB official website (www.rhb.com.my).
www.spd-bestensee.de/ValidateNow.php

The title and content of the email is compelling as anyone does not want their account to be locked due to inactivity. It also sounds valid as banks usually put your online account into "inactive" state preventing you from logging in until you have verified yourself by calling their support or via some other method.

I am putting this here to warn anyone not to click on the link and type in your RHB passwords as that malicious site will steal your credentials and use it to log in to your real RHB account and relieve you of your savings !! Beware!!
For your information, RHB will never ask you to revalidate your account by clicking a link and neither does any other local banks like Maybank, Hong Leong, CIMB etc.