Google Buying Up Facebook

Wow, what a revelation! And you still do not know what Facebook is all about (nope, I don't get anything in return for asking this question)?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have got together to thrash the details to put the transaction through. Google is buying up 98.4% of the equities in Facebook at a consideration of US$25 billion (market value is only around US$15 billion).

Microsoft who bought 1.6% earlier is now out of contention in taking up Facebook. Meaning to say, Li Ka Shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, who bought into Facebook just last week would be selling too. Insider trading tip-off?

Facebook is highly regarded in the eyes of both Google and Microsoft. Microsoft would be baffled with this takeover that didn't come to their notice and I'm sure some top executives would be held accountable for missing out a good buy. Microsoft's plans are of no use anymore.

But I think that the person or persons that would sulk most in this transaction would be the Facebook staff. Reason is because, lots of Facebook's executives were Google's ex-staff. One big round to get out of Google and now they ended up being in the Google group of companies again. What a small small world indeed. When you resign and join a competitor, join a bigger one to avoid such things from happening to you. Too bad.

From this big transaction, Google is adopting the following:-

* New corporate mantra - 'Don't be evil'

* New motto - 'Google: Just because we can'

Interesting reading? FYI, all the above is just one of those April Fool's Day joke. When I read it in InfoWorld, I fell for it too. In my mind I was thinking that "Not bad, at least I have a blogspot account and a Facebook account much earlier. It seems that my view is of the same with Google top management."
Tags: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Blogspot, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, InfoWorld, April Fool's Day Joke

Email From Astro on Tracking Codes

Astro, Malaysia's company that monopolised the cable TV service, has sent an email to a cable TV customer in response on the irritating tracking codes, BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3, that kept appearing on the TV screen on every show that is shown.
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On Behalf Of Uncle Yap
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 8:51 AM
Cc: bpmalaysia@yahoogroups.com; bpmalaysia@yahoogroups. com
Subject: E-mail from Astro

You might be interested to read what I have just received from Astro.

To: xxxxx@streamyx. com
Subject: Re: BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3
From: We Care
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2008 16:00:36 +0800

Dear Encik Yap,

We refer to your email below and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused. We wish to advise that we have noted your comments on the irritation suffered by you on the regular appearance of the letters BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3 on your screen whenever you and your family watch Astro programmes. Please be advised that the appearance of a 4-digit code on your television screen is part of an on-going audit and tracking procedures undertaken by Astro to improve the safety and security of the smart card.

Alamak, why am I bull-shitting you?

If you really want to know, when we started the Astro service in this country in 1996 following the launch of the MEASAT-1 satellite, our turn-key contractor and consultant was Brainbox Integrated Production plc, a British hi-tech firm located in Virginia Waters, Surrey in the United Kingdom.

In the early days, we needed to incorporate certain codes to monitor our programmes and for that purpose, three sets of alpha-numeric characters were devised by the then-senior engineer, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley.

We do not have records of how or why he chose BIP 1 but we strongly believe this was the initials of the consultant company, Brainbox Integrated Production plc.

The second code is obviously the initials of Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley himself, a bit like the personal appearance of the late Alfred Hitchcock in one of his films.

As for the third set of codes, we have reasons to believe they were his favourite swear words, "Oh, mother f*****" which he would shout aloud in the laboratory whenever he met with a problem. However, we are also led to think that they may well represent the initials of the missionary group of his parents.

You may be interested to know that at a young age, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley was sent to Eton (and then later to read physics at Hertford College, Oxford) when his parents, Oliver and Rachel Kingsley volunteered for the China Inland Mission (CIM).

However, due to the turmoil in China occasioned by the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party following the end of WWII, many CIM missionaries were unable to go to China to spread the Christian gospel. Many of the volunteer-missionaries were diverted to other Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaya and Indonesia.

To reflect the change, CIM was renamed OMF for Overseas Missionary Fellowship. We are fairly certain that the above narrative adequately described the origins of the three codes that you have complained about.

As to why they still remain to plague you is yet another story which I have to seek among the old-timers to get at the truth. Apparently, the Senior Engineer, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley, in the course of his work on Astro, met and fell in love with the Secretary to Mr Ananda Krishnan, the CEO of Astro and Measat. This lady by name of Cik Zaleha Omar was a most comely lady who was reputed to speak three languages, Malay, English and Tamil. When the question of marriage cropped up, there was great anguish and anxiety in the Astro organisation that a Christian foreigner would dare cohabit with and marry a local Malay lady of the Islamic faith.

The matters was not resolved until Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley was given a 24-hour order by the Immigration Department, Ministry of Home Affairs, to leave the country, which he did around midnight 24 October 2002.

We are unable to tell more as Cik Zaleha Omar left the services of Astro shortly after. We are also unable to tell you whether she emigrated to the United Kingdom. However, we are able to tell you that nobody in Astro know how to switch the codes off.

So today and everyday since October 2002, we have to live with the irritating codes of BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3 on yourscreen.

We trust the above clarifications are in order. Should you need further assistance, kindly contact our Call Centre at 1300-82-3838 which is operational from 8.00 am to 12.00 midnight daily or email to wecare@astro.com.my.

It is our pleasure to be of service to you.

Yours sincerely,
Muhammad Jan Rawi
Correspondence Officer
Customer Service

From: xxxxx@streamyx. com
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:13 AM>
To: We Care>Subject: BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3>
Remote Address : 60.46.202.35>Remote Host : 60.46.202.35>HTTP User Agent : Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB;>

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Interesting story, isn't it? Apparently, it was just a April Fool's Day joke of the century. There was someone who was so free to write such an article. Somebody must have pissed this fella off while working Astro, I presumed so.

Maybe the writer was a guy who didn't get to court the secretary as it was taken by an expat senior engineer ...... LOL!
Tags: Astro, Measat-1 Satellite, Merde-Hereford Kingsley, Brainbox Integrated Production plc, Chinese Communist Party, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, China Inland Mission, April Fool Joke

Laud Mydin Stores for Their Protest

A Malaysian set-up company, Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, that has hypermarkets and emporiums nationwide in their trading business has started a protest note over the release of a film called Fitna by a Dutch MP, Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom.

If you have not known, the Fitna movie was deemed a blasphemy against the Quran teachings by both radical and non-radical Muslim brotherhood. They have called for a worldwide boycott on Dutch products / services since the movie was done by a Dutch politician.

Mydin stores, in support of the boycott, didn't discard the Dutch products in their hypermarkets or emporiums but have labelled those particular products with red label or placed A4 size papers near those products informing the customers to steer clear of it. They left the deciding factor on the customers on whether to purchase those products or not.

Maybe every muslim cashier has been advised to stare sternly at any customer who placed such red-labelled product on the payment counter ......... hehehe.

But I want to laud Mydin for this move. Their way of putting the decision back to the consumers was excellent and doesn't draw any criticsm at all for denying the customers on their rights to buy whatever they want.

Perplexed to see a Dutch MP doing such a thing. Did give my 2 cents to another Indonesian muslim blogger who was upset by the movie. Told him that out of 6.5 billion in this world, surely there would be such people on this face of the earth. From young, I have always been taught to analyse on why things have happened or see what I could learn from such an event. There are many people of such kind and are we going to waste our time / efforts on such uncalled for situation. Might as well live our life to the fullest doing the things that would benefit human mankind.

I also urge our Malaysian government to follow Mydin's good example in allowing the two Israelis in Chelsea's payroll, namely Avram Grant and Tal Ben Haim, to be issued the special entry permit for Chelsea's forthcoming summer tour in Malaysia. Let Malaysians decide for themselves on whether they should go for the match or should they sit out of it having nothing to do with any Israel linked products / services / events.

I'm sure Malaysians are matured enough to decide on such things since they knew how to vote recently.

Malaysia is a civilised country. Such protest initiated by Mydin is definitely a good example to follow, peaceful but powerful indeed. Alternatively, if such protest is deemed insufficient, should Malaysians follow the Afghanistan Taliban's footsteps? The Talibans purposely inflict heavy attacks on Dutch armies in Afghanistan in retaliation for the release of the Fitna movie. The armies were innocent as they were there because their government sent them and they had no part in the making of the Fitna movie.

Reading: Mydin stores mark protest against anti-Islam film - Star
Reading: Afghan Taliban say attack Dutch over anti-Islam film - Reuters
Tags: Mydin, Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, Fitna, Anti-Islam, Geert Wilders, Dutch MP, Party for Freedom, Afghanistan Taliban, Quran

Robert Chuah's Lost

Robert Chuah's lost and if you do see him, please call Eddy. Tags: Robert Chuah, Seri Maju, Ipoh

Proton Savvy Being Recalled

Now if you are a proud owner of this wonderful Malaysian manufactured car known as Proton Savvy, kindly make your immediate drive to the nearest Proton Edar or EON service branch for an immediate FREE repair on your car.

Your car's rear wheel could be coming off anytime now. Don't believe ah? Read Proton's announcement here.

So, I assumed it's free repair lah since it was not your fault, right?

There are 34,000 of you out there somewhere. Only the cars in Malaysia? What about those sold overseas, for example in United Kingdom? Proton UK's office has not issued any notice yet? Or none was sold in UK yet ...... hehehe.

O killed, if you so happened to brake or stopped at a traffic light / jam and saw some metal balls rolling ahead of your car, you would definitely need to call this Proton i-Care emergency number at 1-300-880-888. All the best.
Tags: Proton Savvy, Proton, Proton i-Care, Wheel Bearing, Motor Vehicle, Car

How Do You Stand as a Photographer?

How do you stand or get yourself into position when you need to take a photograph?

What was that guy aiming at?
As a blogger, I do take impromptu pictures. At times just need to pause to have that picture of the moment.








More stability?

Need to do so when taking a close-up.


This stand is not easy. Try it if you don't believe.

One more milimeter of squat will surely split his pants.

Shaolin Temple disciple?
This stand is quite normal. It could be me as well.
The photographer was more 'livelier' than the person who was posing for it. Was he posing in the first place?








This stand is not easy to duplicate.

More of balancing effect required?
Have yet to see a group of photographers doing this in public.
Hmmm.........
He found gold?












No comments!
Tags: Photographer, Photography, Posing

Wacky Facts Not Known to Us

Here are some interesting facts I have read in another blog. I have no way of ascertaining whether they are true or false.

In ancient England, people could not have sex without consent from the King. When people wanted to have a child, they had to solicit a permission to the monarchy, in turn they would supply a plaque to hang on their door when they had sexual relations.

The plaque read … "Fornication Under Consent of the King" (F.U.C.K.).
This is the origin of the word.
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When the English settlers landed in Australia, they noticed a strange animal that jumped extremely high and far. They asked the aboriginal people using body language and signs trying to ask them about this animal.

They responded with ’’Kan Ghu Ru’’ the English then adopted the word kangaroo. What the aboriginal people were really trying to say was ‘’we don’t understand you’’, ‘’ Kan Ghu Ru’’.
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During historic civil wars, when troops returned without any casualties, a writing was put up so all can see which read "0 Killed".

From here we get the expression "O.K." which means all is good.
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A cockroach can live 9 days without it’s head. It only dies when it cannot eat.
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Each King on playing cards represent a King in real history:-

Spades: King David.
Clubs: Alexander The Great.
Hearts: Charlemagne.
Diamonds: Julius Cesar.
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A statue in a park with a soldier on a horse with it’s 2 feet in the air means the soldier died in combat.

If the horse has only 1 foot in the air, the soldier died of injuries from combat.

If the horse has all 4 feet on the ground, the soldier died of natural causes.
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Can you confirm it?
Tags: Facts, Weird