Eve’s and Wazir’s lil blog space

its been a really long time since i last updated, i’ve even forgotten my login and password LOL!

After about 1 week of treating our iPhone 3G S as an expensive iPod, we finally got the phones jail broken and unlocked!  Good bye AT&T SIM cards ….woo hooo!!!

Thanks to all the people who make this possible … shame to Apple though.  With such tough security measures they build into the new iPhone, it’s still broken by some teenager.

Maxis will be launching the 3 GS in Malaysia soon … I wonder how much they gonna charge and will the current iPhone 3G 8Gb and 16Gb cost any less????

This is something that we hear often enough in Malaysia who is No. 1 Credit Card fraud capital of the world.  We even export our “talent” overseas, all in the spirit of Malaysia Boleh!

With all that, I kept on thinking that it won’t happen to me one-lah!  No way!  But unfortunately it did.

One fine day, an officer of the Bank called me asking if my mom who is my supplementary card holder had spent at Carrefour and Petronas.  I quickly called her up and was told that she didn’t make those transactions.

When she checked her wallet, a credit card by the same bank was there but it was not hers.  It bear another person’s name.  When I checked with the Bank, they told me that the card was reported lost sometime ago.  Without her reading spectacles on, there’s no way she could identify that the card does not belong to her.  So, with her new card, I am going to make some marking somewhere so that it is easily identifyable but not to the extend of getting it rejected by merchant.

Next question is, who should bear the cost?  The Bank can push the blame to the card holder for negligence and not checking the card before placing it in the wallet.  Then I heard of a recent case of a Citibank credit card holder.  When Citibank insisted that the customer pay the full amount of the purchase, she took the matter to court.  In order to protect the consumers, clause 13.2 in Bank Negara’s guideline to banks states:

“The cardholder’s maximum liability for unauthorised transactions as a consequence of a lost or stolen credit card shall be confined to a limit specified by the issuer of credit cards, which shall not exceed RM250 provided the cardholder has not acted fraudulently or has not failed to inform the issuer of credit cards as soon as reasonably practicable after having found that his credit card is lost or stolen.”

(Refer article : http://en.cap.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=5)

Citibank lost and I heard was fined RM250,000 for breaching the guideline.  The Bank had insisted that customer had signed the T&C that they will be liable for the full charge or something like that.  However, no T&C or any kind of agreement is valid if it is in breach of guidelines provided.

It is good to know your rights but it is a mess having to make statements at the police station.

So, please be careful with your credit cards.  You never know what is going to happen next.  But should it still happen to you, just remember this guideline.

* Note: citation on recent case with Citibank is only a hearsay.  I can’t find it online to verify.

While browsing in Wikipedia, I came across a picture of the Malaysian Scorpene class submarine, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman.  The image description given in French:

“Submarine Altantuya classe Scorpene durant ses essais à Lorient”

 which when translated (by Babel Fish) means:

“Submarine Altantuya classifies Scorpene during its tests in Lorient”

Check it out at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scorpene_malaisien_vue_de_trois_quart_arriere_2.jpg

Since when is Malaysia known as Altantuya … I can only wonder ;p

i just realised my last posting was in december08! time flies like a gazillion times faster after you hit the BIG 3 0
so what had transpired from dec08-may09?

• slimmed down a total of 9kgs in 2008 
• some people do stupid things but we are still a family, we should stick together
• i learned the value of a friendship 
• i learned that no matter how you try, you have to let go when things does not go your way
• got converted to muslim
• married the love of my life
• got culture shock, i thought i was *malay-sian* enough, but there are still alot i didnt know!
• getting to get used to having cats in the house
• had a change in job portfolio
• people you know online are sometimes even better/more suportive than those who know you personally
• having to do housework, and even cleaning up for other people
• moving and starting OUR new nest (erm almost to ourself la)
• meeting up all the people who were once part of my everyday life

and those are JUST in dec ok, well you can sum it up, YES i went on an emotional tour of my life in terms of personal, religion, culture, career, relationship, family whatever there is!

i survived and now im back!!

Anyone used to getting recipes from Internet, cook books, etc will be faced with various unit measures.  Be it in cup, grams, ounces, pounds, etc. etc.  Here are a couple of conversion measures which I find useful:

Butter

1 cup = 2 sticks = 8 ounces = half pound = 227 gram

Tips: Most butter is sold in 250 gram pack.  If you need 227 gram pack, buy Anchor butter. 

Flour

1 cup = 100 gram

Without a doubt, Maybank has the largest reach in term of ATM network in Malaysia.  You will see the yellow ATM machine everywhere in shopping complexes, petrol stations, etc.

If you are a Maybank customer, are you aware that Maybank does not charge RM8 annual fee for their ATM services unlike most other Banks.  However, only the first 4 cash withdrawals in a month is free.  Each withdrawal thereafter is charged RM0-50.

But there’re ways to avoid the charge.  First, maintain minimum of RM5,000 in your account.  If that’s not possible, withdraw RM1,500 every time.  Apparently, withdrawal of RM1,500 is not counted.  You may then deposit the balance of the sum back into a cash deposit machine.

e.g. You intend to withdraw RM300.  Just make a withdrawal of RM1,500 from the ATM and deposit the balance RM1,200 into the Cash Deposit machine.

From what I heard, Maybank is earning as much as RM1 million per month from the small RM0-50 fee.  And their income from other Bank customers using their ATM network is even more interesting, a whopping RM18 million a month!!!  Just to show, small fee goes a long way ;p

Time must be real tough that today I saw a donation box in the middle of Masjid India bazaar set up by PAS.  The transparent perspex box carries the message “Dana untuk pilihanraya Bukit Selambau” (Funds for Bukit Selambau by-election).

Most people looked at the box and walk past it with their own thoughts.  As of 1.30pm, looks like the organizer was doing quite well with at least half the box (about 25cm x 25cm) filled.  Wonder what other ideas the political parties would come up with next.

Was just browsing and found the Funny Times.  The comic subscription to support the work of Patch Adams (remember the movie by Robin Williams?) and his Gesundheit Institute.  I just can’t resist sharing some of them which will hopefully lighten up your day as it did mine:

Just to show how different men and women are

Office Self Defense 101 - It’s not me!!

Gave me a new perspective to this phrase!

More like motivation to pay day!

The necessary evil in today’s modern living ;p

Went shopping at Low Yat for new SD memory card today and was I in for a shock?  Sorry ah… have to sound like a jakun a bit here…

1. Minimum size for SD card is now 2GB and it’s only RM18!  Cost me RM130 for 1GB not so long ago *$#%@!!!!
2. They have 32GB thumb drive now????  And it’s only RM170????  My first thumb drive bought in 2005 cost RM125 for 256MB!!!!  More *%$#@#$%%*&
3. And what is this Class 2, Class 4, Class 6 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity)??? *scratch head*

Storage media has come a long, long way.  My first PC bought in 1991 came with 30MB hard drive!  Can you imagine that???

While we are on the subject of old technology here, the old PC also came with an Intel processor with 8MHz clock speed.  And there’s a “Turbo” button which will push it to 12MHz …. 50% improvement !!!  And if you still don’t get it, today’s PC runs at clock speed in excess of 3GHz … that’s 3,000MHz as compared to the 8MHz! Like comparing to someone on a bicycle and a supersonic jet.