Blue Origin

Recently I have blogged about a company called Space Adventure Ltd that commercialised the space travel for people who can afford it and see the space at the same time. Another company is in the making as well. Known as the Blue Origin and owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon.com.

This small spacecraft built by Blue Origin was able to shoot up to a height of 90m and landed safely. The intention was to launch the Goddard, yeah they gave this name to the spacecraft, so that humans can travel to the space commercially and explore the space system at a lower cost.

The US Federal Aviation Administration was also monitoring Blue Origin's space technology and suggested that it could be possible as early as 2010. Blue Origin is now hiring experienced propulsion engineers / aerospace engineer / engineering leader. Any takers?
Tags: Space Travel, Space, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, Amazon, Goddard, Spacecraft, Engineering

China's Al-Qaeda

Read about the existence of some extremists in the northwestern side of Xinjiang province in China. Apparently on 5 Jan 2007, scores of people were killed and injured when the China's police stormed into their place. A police, from the anti-terrorist front, was killed. Police hunt was still continuing for some who had escaped the police dragnet.

The police has been tailing the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement for some time back. With Xinjiang being located near the international borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, extremists dropping by in Xinjiang was not a surprised. Some facts about Xinjiang:-

* There are 20 million Muslims in China; 8.5 million live in Xinjiang 23,000 of the 30,000 mosques in China are in Xinjiang
* Muslims in China fall into distinct racial groups. The largest, the Hui, are widespread. The next biggest, the Uyghurs, are almost entirely in Xinjiang

Another group being monitored by the police is the East Turkestan Liberation Organization. The Human Rights Watch is of course watching what China is doing in Xinjiang as there were concerns raised in the way China was handling the ethnic people in the combat against terrorism.
more ..........China admits fear of Muslim terror as police kill 18 in mountain battle

Tags: Xinjiang Province, China, Terrorist, Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, East Turkestan Liberation Organization, Human Rights Watch, Muslim, Uyghur, Hui

Impactful Life

Bindi Irwin, the 8-year-old daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, followed in her dad's footsteps Thursday, using her American television debut to talk about animals. (source: Associated Press/Yahoo News)

These were her words:-
"I just love animals. My dad really brought it out in me," Bindi said. "He's the one that made me."

"I want to be like my dad," she said. "I want him to be proud of me."

What an impact the late Steve Irwin has on his daugther. Real positive impact. Well, I hope that your impact on the people that you come into contact with is also good. It's my goal too. Having a good impact on others is more than what you think. Think about it, will your child say the same words? If not, what are you going to do about it.
Tags: Bindi Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, Inspiration, Impact

John Travolta's House

For you to see only and not for sale. Even if it's for sale, you need some big toys to fit in.

This home belongs to John Travolta and Kelly Preston located in Florida. John, where the infamous movie entitled Grease shot him to stardom in the 70s, is a qualified pilot and in the pictures below you'll see his big toys parked right at his backyard within 100 feet away from the main home compound.

Not bad, ever thought of stepping into the entertainment industry? Just when you thought he has enough, there are few upcoming movies that will feature him.

Tags: John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Grease, Movie, Entertainment, Airplane, Runway, House

Maybank2u.com website

I had an encouter with the so-called biggest bank in Malaysia, Malayan Banking Berhad, but having the 'stupidest' (if ever a word) call centre in the whole world. What happened?

Since I'm based faraway, only way to control my finance is via the bank's online banking service, Maybank2u, which I have been using it for more than 2 years now. No problem faced before. Just this morning around 11am here. I keyed in my username and password as usual. The page will of course change to the main page of the internet banking page. But no! It showed the log-in page again. Naturally, I keyed in again and submit. It repeated the same thing. It happened for 5 times and by the 6th time, after keying in and hitting the button, a message came out like this:-

You have reached the maximum number of password tries. Your Maybank2u.com account has been blocked. For assistance, please contact Maybank Group Customer Care at 1-300-88-6688 or 603-7844 3696 (overseas).

Man, what's this nonsense? I have to make some payments and this is happening to me now at this stage??????? Contacted a friend who's wife is working with one the bank's branches where she said I have to call the bank no matter what. Call from Sudan???

My KL colleagues found out for me that our Petronas office (next cabin) should have some satellite phones around. Yeah, in the desert, what do you expect......so Maybank's instruction to request their customers to call their office is really ridiculous. Found the phone and called them. Spoke to a lady at the call centre and related my incident. She verified whether I'm the accountholder before she proceeded to anything. She asked for my identity card number, where do I stay in Kuala Lumpur and then my banking account numbers. I told her that the account numbers are in the website where I'm trying to access. She got what I meant.

Next, she asked for my ATM card no. (cash card). Told her it's back home in Kuala Lumpur. Lastly, she said that she can help me by refreshing the password and then I can use it PROVIDED ...............yeah there's something else to it............ PROVIDED I can recall my initial password from day one (which was a computer generated password given to us when we first applied for the internet banking). HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER THAT PASSWORD (the bank will also advise that such password should be changed after keying in for the first time) ????? And if not mistaken, last year or so, Maybank has sent another email to their online customers to change their passwords again for safety reason. I can't even remember that previous password, so don't talk about the first one.

I was so angry and I asked her back the same question. She said that's the only way. ONLY WAY???? Then I told her that was not a solution at all. You are throwing the situation back at me. So I told her, your website asked a customer to call back not having the mind to think where could the customer be and after calling in, such an answer is ok for Maybank to give to their customer. Really absurd..........so 'STUPIDEST BANK IN THE WORLD' stands!

And I'm still stucked in the middle of the Sudanese desert with no internet banking!!!!!!!!!
Tags: Malayan Banking Berhad, Maybank, Maybank2u.com, Bank, Internet Banking, Frustrated, Absurd, Stupid, Call Centre, Online Banking, Malaysia

Baby Michelin

Some parents would like their children to emulate famous persons in the world. If the child did it well enough, the child could be as good as the famous person. Take the Michelin mascot for example. Although this mascot won't bring your child anywhere but at least people will recall the similarity and thus, you could charge for photos taken.

You have to be careful at times too as such mascot would have been registered as a trademark or sometimes the brand's products have been patented for the technology know-how, in this case, the Michelin tyres which are well known worldwide. Ain't the babies cute. Photo source as stated in the pictures. I have to be careful with it too.
Better not breach it, else it could lead you into hot soup where Cisco System is now suing Apple for infringing the usage of the iPhone brand name. Cisco System has a similar brand name which is for their VOIP product.

Looks like after the big launch itself, Apple fans may have to wait for this legal suit to be settled prior to the release of the Apple's iPhone in the retail market.

Tags: Michelin, Tyres, Cisco, Apple, Trademark, Patent, iPhone, Legal Suit, Baby

Hostage / The Banquet - movie review

Hostage - starring Bruce Willis & Kevin Pollak. Bruce, a trained police negotiator in deadlock situation where it involves hostage. In one of his assignments, two young children were killed as he couldn't obtain the crazy man's trust. As a result of this, he quit the force. As his wounds have heal, he re-joined as a county sheriff in an outskirt area much to the dismay of his only daugther.

Meantime, three young chaps broke into a millionaire accountant's mansion within Bruce's county. A silent alarm linked to a security office was activated and when a policewoman went to check on the situation, she was shot to dead. From there onwards, it was like the whole police force was stationed outside the mansion. It was a simple robbery turned awry. It was too late to escape. Meanwhile, a group of unknown people was very concerned with the on-going situation. Bruce's wife/daugther were kidnapped to force Bruce to enter the mansion to obtain certain information kept by the accountant.

In trying to obtain the info, ensuring his family and the hostages' safety and getting the 3 young guys to surrender, Bruce had the help of the young kid in the mansion via a mobile. Through good planning, he was able to enter the mansion. At the same time, the FBI has also arrived, with the same link to the mystery kidnappers of Bruce's family. After ensuring the hostages' safety, Bruce together with the accountant went straight to handover the information requested. Quite intense towards the 2nd half of the movie and you have to wait till the before you know whether Bruce could save his family members or not.

The Banquet - starring Zhang Ziyi, You Ge, Zhou Xun, Daniel Wu, Ma Jingwu. With the Crown Prince away in the forest, learning about music, literature and art, the Emperor's brother killed took advantage of the situation by killing the Emperor. He gained the throne by virtue that the Crown Prince has left the kingdom. At the same time, the former Empress has to marry the new Emperor to safe her own life. Even though she married him, she was plotting for his death one day. The wicked new Emperor sent his best guards to kill off the Crown Prince once and for all but failed to do so.

The Crown Prince returned eventually but the new Emperor cannot kill him in front of the public. The Chief Minister's daugther has fell in love with the Crown Prince in which they have grown up together. The Chief Minister and his son were also plotting their own plan to take over the dynasty.

The movie is quite slow and it was said to be adapted to Hamlet's style. But great orchestra music accompanied the movie's tempo. The Crown Prince tried to expose the wicked new Emperor's scheme that killed his father. Worried about being exposed, the new Emperor, his uncle, sent him to another country for training (with bad motives). The Crown Prince's life was spared and came back to the palace to unknowingly. The Empress somehow managed to coerce the Chief Minister to take over the dynasty. Somehow, the whole plot failed and led to total chaos where many people died just for the sake of the Emperor's title..................want to know who will be the Emperor at the end? .......................... watch the movie and tell me your answer.
Tags: Movie, Review, Cinema, Hostage, The Banquet, Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Wu, Negotiator, Emperor, Empress, Chief Minister