RadioStar

Contributed by Sipot. TQVM.

Kalu ramai kengkawan dengaq lagu aku , silap2 band aku akan top di Asia:)

http://amp.channelv.com/radiostar

Hobbies when you're in the 30s…mountain biking

Contributed by Pendekarq. TQVM.

Continuing from the previous article, just want to share what is mountain biking, or MTB. The definition below is taken from Wikipedia.

A mountain bike or mountain bicycle (abbreviated MTB or ATB (All Terrain Bicycle)) is a bicycle designed for mountain biking, either on dirt trails or other unpaved environments. In contrast, road bicycles are not rugged enough for such terrain.

Mountain bikes have wide, knobby tires for extra traction and shock absorption. In recent years, front wheel suspension has become the norm and full front and rear suspension is becoming increasingly common. Some mountain bikes are also fitted with bar ends on the handlebars, but with the increase in popularity of riser handlebars (as opposed to a flat straight handlebar) fewer riders use bar end extensions. The bikes normally have 26 in (559 mm) wheels, but since 2002 some models have been available with 29 in (622 mm)wheels, which is the same diameter most commonly used for road bikes (also know as 700c). (The name given to a rim diameter in inches is different from the rim's actual size.). Mountain bikes can be classified into four categories based on suspension:

1. Fully Rigid (unsuspended): A frame with a rigid fork and fixed rear, no suspension.
2. Hardtail: A frame with a front suspension fork and no rear suspension.
3. Soft Tail: A frame with small amount of rear suspension, activated by flex of the frame instead of pivots.
4. Dual or Full Suspension: A front suspension fork and rear suspension with a rear shock and linkage that allow the rear wheel to move on pivots.

I started with my brother’s hardtail bike, which was kept in my mother’s house. He seems like “I am too lazy to ride, better have a nap…” It is 18inch Proton T-Blaze with cheap components. Slowly I did some component upgrading, until it came across my mind… “I’ve been spending more than the price of the bike itself for upgrading,…hmmmm..” Influences from my buddies also contributed. Few brands to mention here, Merida, KHS, Giant, Haro, Jamis and so many more, money talks…

Farewell Mohanis

Just a quick update to inform all that our beloved friend Mohanis Azar passed away this morning. At school, he is most remembered for his eloquence and language skills - which paves way for his active role in the debating team, and his subsequent career in the legal profession. My most memorable time with him was during my trip to Kota Bahru almost ten years ago when he was residing there, and was kind enough to accompany me explore KB's food bazaar. I'm sure all of you have good stories to share here. Also remember to forgive him for any wrongdoings, if there's any. May Allah bless his soul and let him rest in peace.

Al-fatihah...

-AY-

What is Options ?

Contributed by Kamal Latip. TQVM.

Much like stocks, options can be used to take a position on the market in an effort to capitalize on an upward or downward market move. Unlike stocks, however, options can provide an investor the benefits of leverage over a position in an individual stock or basket of stocks reflecting the broad market. At the same time, options buyers also can take advantage of predetermined, limited risk. Conversely, options writers assume significant risk if they do not hedge their positions.

An option is the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a stock (or other security) for a specified price on or before a specific date. A call is the right to buy the stock, while a put is the right to sell the stock. The person who purchases an option, whether it is a put or a call, is the option "buyer." Conversely, the person who originally sells the put or call is the option "seller."

Options are contracts in which the terms of the contract are standardized and give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a particular asset (e.g., the underlying stock) at a fixed price (the strike price) for a specific period of time (until expiration). To the buyer, an equity call option normally represents the right to buy 100 shares of underlying stock, whereas an equity put option normally represents the right to sell 100 shares of underlying stock.

The seller of an option is obligated to perform according to the terms of the options contract-selling the stock at the contracted price (the strike price) for a call seller, or purchasing it for a put seller-if the option is exercised by the buyer.


Why trade options ?

Option trading has been increasing in popularity over the last few years as options provide traders with several advantages:

1. Leverage – Higher returns and lower cash outlay. Stock trading is expensive. In order to buy 100 shares of XYZ stock at $100 per share, you’ll need $10,000. Although this might not seem like a huge amount of money to some people, $10,000 might be a big sum for new traders. If XYZ moved up five points, you would make 5% on your money. With options, you can control or participate in the movement of a stock for a lot less money and earn a higher rate of return. If instead of buying the stock, you purchased an XYZ January 100 call, which gives you the right to buy 100 shares of XYZ stock at $100 on or before the January expiration date, you would have made over 250%!!! Now that’s leverage!

2. Flexibility/versatility – With stock, traders can be either bullish or bearish. With options, traders can be bullish, bearish or neutral. Options can be used by themselves or in conjunction with stock. Options can also be used in combination with other options to create many different risk/reward scenarios.

3. Predetermined risks – For option buyers, the most you can ever lose is the amount paid for the option. You know in advance how much you can lose.

NEXT ISSUE... TRADING ONLINE IN THE US STOCK MARKET...

What is my dream car...

Sometimes, when I got bored, I used to browse mototrader. Based on my observation, the hard copy is a little bit different than the online one. I prefer the online when I want to do specific search but to kill my time, the magazine will do the job.

In the magazine, the cars are categorized based on their prices. BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, are under what they call prestigious cars. Well, they are over here. In States, during my college days, an undergrad was driving one of them. No big deal. Then we have something 4x4, next SUV. I can't really differentiate 4x4 and SUV. You see Range Rover is classified as 4x4 but I don't think any Range Rover owner has brought his baby to real off road driving. Talking about Land Rover I've tried Freelander TD4 and I loved it's drive. It was solid. I've experienced the track they used to have at Jln Ampang. Not once dude, I did it 3 times and to make thing worst, one of the sale lady remembered me because my son cried and didn't want to get out of the car. He wanted me to buy Freelander badly. It's about 200K dude. So, I had to cool him down. I told him, get off the car and come with me to the nearest ATM first because I didn't bring enough money. The trick worked. Poor him, he didn't know his dad could only withdraw at most 3K per day. I enjoyed the ride because it feels like taking a roller coaster ride. Now, it is history as the site had been taken down for something that I don't know.

Back to my dream car, I would like to have a car and a driver. So, I can sit back and do whatever I like to do. Be it Produa Viva. I don't mind. I just don't want to worry about traffic, and parking.

Before I go, one of my friend told me this and I'm not sure its true or not. Just keep on reading. One guy was watching TV on his phone while his driver drove him around and the reception wasn't that good because the network went from 3G to 2G and from 2G to 3G and so forth. So that guy made a "huha" and everybody went to panic mode. During a tea break, they asked me what can we do to improve the reception or the drop. Knowing me... I told them, get him a TV for car or even better ICE. Where got people watching tiny screen in the car! Unless you have a driver and tak puas tengok pun. He he he...

Hobbies When You Are 30s…

I am 36 this year, 37 is around the corner. What should I do apart from family matters? Getting older, getting weaker…..Wanna play futsal, ankle ‘expired’ already, jogging…malas…

Now I have started new hobby, cycling. Not just ordinary cycling but mountain biking. Memang fun, compare to jogging, cycling is safer…(kalau kena langgar tu lain la cerita). Mula dengan zero pasal basikal, sekarang nak buat basikal starting from scratch pun dah boleh.

For newbies, boleh la beli complete bike starting from RM 1k keatas, kira dah OK. Kalau high end tu might go up to RM 20k. Bila ilmu basikal dah bertambah, lepas tu ada la yang teracun nak buat upgrading. In the end (may be not end yet) basikal RM 1k jadi RM3k.

Bersambung….

Nasik tambah sikit, for starters, please look at www.bicyclebuysell.com

Global...

I've been waiting for the ClustrMap update. Today, I got it. Boy, I see dots outside Malaysia. Wonder who are they? I know Aden in UK, Salih in Jakarta, but who is in States, Scandinavian, Japan. Don't tell me you guys do remote desktop...

I need a GPS...

Aku dah lama nak upload clip ni tapi masa aku ambik hari tu, aku lupa nak stop. So, phone aku record gambar pocket aku, rumput, etc. sampai 12MB. Nak upload 12MB, letih la, parachutenya sikit je. Banyak gambar seluar aku je.

Ada 5 parachuters, tapi aku sempat ambik 1 je. Syok sangat tengok sampai lupa nak record. Memang power dia orang ni. Landing celah2 orang tu. Nampak macam nak langgar khemah, tapi landing depan sultan. Terrer, memang terrer...

What's the best PDA?

Honestly, I don't know because it depends on individual needs. I own Dopod838Pro, which is also known as HTC TyTN since August 2006. You guys can go to http://www.htc.com/product/03-products.htm to see HTC's product range. At the moment, I'm happy with the unit because I can tweak it. It started with WM5, and I've flashed it with non-official WM6 (courtesy of xda-developer). I can also make it as a portable WIFI (G-band) just by tweaking the registry. Cool especially for me who run around.

If I want to get a new model and my budget is about 3K, then I'll take TyTN II simply because it has GPS receiver. Navigation is "the thing" for me now. May be for now. Seriously, I use it to get to one "kenduri kahwin" last week. It works but don't expect too much because the accuracy is about 50 to 100 meter. So, if the roads are too close to each other, then the application may make some mistake. If that happens then use your head, dude.

3, 4 years ago, I had P900 but it didn't suit my need because there was not too many Symbian apps around as well as tweaks. The hand writing recognition was also awkward to me. So I surrendered it and got XDAIIMini. I loved its size but it has only 2G, and when 838Pro hit our shore, I just grabbed it because it has 3G and also HSDPA. Few months ago, I can get about 700 to 800 kbps but it is history now. With aggressive marketing strategy by Celcom, the bandwidth seems to shrink. On top of that, the HSDPA device also is getting cheaper. Right now, you can get nice phone with HSDPA around RM 700 (e.g. Nokia 6120 AP)

One thing for sure, PDA will not replace your desktop even though it comes with Mobile Word, Mobile Excel, etc. Why? Both come from Microsoft and Microsoft definitely want to sell both. So, to make that happens, they must complement each other. That is my take. Some formatting, formulas are not supported on WM. So, if that happens, you may want to try softmaker.

But, I think the most important thing in deciding the purchase of a phone or PDA is RM la...

I learn a lot at mypdacafe. So check it out.

Cheese...

Ni ada gambaq sikit2. Kalau nak banyak lagi, pi lah

Kawan2

Sabtu ni aku tak boleh datang ada family matter.

Gambar2 OBW 2007 korang boleh tengok kat www.myspace.com/mohamedn click Pics

TQ

Aji aka Nazari

From left: Shahril, Jebat, Sipot, Sam K (sitting), Cikgu Nazri, Mudin, Pendekar, Mat, Long John

From left: Long John, Shahril, Mat, Mudin, Azam, Singh, Berg, Sam K, Kamal Latip, Amet, Mahyud, Pendekar.

Kalau Nazari doesn't mind, then aku boleh hyperlink ke myspace dia.

The Chinese Saying

My sons go to Kumon for English and Maths. It was my other half's idea to put them into the program. I'm fine with her decision because its good for my kids and most importantly she finances it. Well, I pay other things.

They have to go for their sessions twice a week and each session is about 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on their mood. If they are in good mood, then they can quickly complete their assignments. Otherwise, I can go for a drink and they still doing their assignment. I'll manage that.

While waiting them to finish, normally I read whatever reading materials available at the center and one day I bump into this "The Chinese Saying". It's funny, so I shoot it.

Giving back to school

Just came back from teh tarik with Remon. Correction, not teh tarik, white coffee. I met him to show MapKing in action. We talked a little bit about OBW2008 and we agreed that we should initiate something that is practical and useful for the school. Or at least, they can use it forever. OK, not forever but many, many times.

It got to be simple and practical. So, think!

1. Scheduling and Resource Management to manage the rooms, equipments, etc.

2. Library System.

3. Inventory System.

Semua sistem je. Care to chip in...

MapKing on WM6

Just like in the aircraft's cabin. From Exit 139 of NSE, it is about 3 km to STAR.

This is day mode.


This is night mode.



Actually, the navigation is voice assisted. The girl/woman informs you as you are approaching the intersections or POIs. She also reminds you to slow down if you are driving over the speed limit of the streets. If she can issue me ticket, I'm sure that I'll can do "ticket collection". As long as I don't impose threat or danger to other motorist, then I'm all set.

These 2 simulation may look pretty straight forward. Not that challenging. Trust me, it helps. I've using it to assist me to get to the vicinity of my destination. If we know the road, then it will guide us there. If we offset the proposed route, it will find alternative route. If you guys want a real experience, let me know, we can arrange one.

p/s This navigation application keeps my kids in their sits. May be in the beginning. Who cares? They also learning the direction in English and they are thrilled with the movement of the car according to the GPS location. My kid said this to me "Ayah, sama lah, kat Pocket PC ada Giant, kat luar pun ada Giant". Dalam hati, mesti la sama. Kalau tak, ayah sesat dan tak guna la. They'll pick up soon. I have a feeling about that.

If We Keep Learning, We are Young

This morning I attended my son's Hari Anugerah Kecemerlangan 2007. He managed to bag several prizes so I must show my support by going to that event. I went around the school and pit-stopped at the canteen for refueling. There, I found the post's title. I wanted to snap it but I forgot.

I think it is true people looks different (younger, older) although they are same age.

Tapi kalau dye or inai rambut pun nampak muda gak...

Who we are... Where we come from...

Ni nak citer pasal "Where we come from...". Aku punya Geografi memang out lah. Jadi kena la ada navigator. Last week, aku beli BT GPS Receiver. Brand dia HOLUX, model dia M-1200. Kalau nak detail, boleh check here. Jadi sekarang ni aku tengah evaluate several softwares on PC and WM6 and WM2003SE.

Aku ada MapSource from Garmin dan jugak MapKing 2007 from MapKing. Garmin ni US based product (aku rasa), MapKing ni Taiwan based. Link tu Singapore punya, sebab lama gila nak pergi site Taiwan tu.

So, aku cari la STAR, mesti la ada dalam peta tu. Ni dia. Dari MapSource, STAR tu gambar Bas Sekolah. Sebijik macam bas sekolah kat US. MapSource ni canggih sikit sebab dia boleh pergi Google Map. Kalau ni biasa punya feature, sori la. Pada aku, kira dasat lah tu.

Dari "RajaPeta". Color dia OK sikit. Kaler merah ni cam surat amaran je...Dari Google Maps.

Software ni memang handy. Sapa2 yg dah lama tak pi STAR, jangan dok ingat ada round-about lagi. Dah jadi fly-over kat situ.

Next time kita citer pulak pasal navigation application on PDA. Rasa macam naik kapal terbang pulak. Kan kat dalam aircraft ada navigation screen tu. Nanti kita sambung lagi.

Curi Masa!

This is one of the favorite phrase of our Math teacher that I can remember. She was Miss Thian, who taught us Math from form 1 to form 3. Boy, she was dedicated then, so she drilled us with a lot of homeworks. At the same time, we had to learn to "cheer" our school's teams. We had to remember the lyrics, hand clapping, etc and most of the "prep" time especially the evening one had gone for this training. So, we had less time to do our homework and we told our Miss Tian about our constraint. She replied back "Curi Masa!" What the heck is that? Well, we had to make the time to do the homework, e.g. between breaks, etc. Ingat apa la dia curi masa tu... Now, I have to "Curi Masa!" for this OBW.

Sapa2 ada gambar cikgu ni, boleh share tak?

Kondi & Anbo make their debut...

As usual, I think for the next 10 months, most of the Saturday nights would be the time to discuss, plan, and execute our OBW 2008 plan. We had one yesterday and Kondi & Anbo made their appearances.

First, I am grateful because several of us turned up at Sipot's residence. We had:
1. Sipot, the host
2. Mat
3. Kondi @ Kokdiang
4. Anbo
5. Jebat
6. Zul

We had hours of discussion. Here are what I can remember. I'm getting old you know and my memory is 8K only.

1. Fund. We talk about SK's proposal that each one of us to contribute RM300 to RM500. Mat proposed RM500 contribution. I second to that. It can be an installment or lump sum. To do so, we prefer to have a designated account, preferably MBB, so that people can easily contribute online. BTW, Halim & Mat are supposed to open the account, but Halim is away on his business trip right now. So, what do you guys say about forking out RM500?

2. Sipot talks about goodies. He wants to give out "fisherman's hat" like this. He plans to have several colors (house colors - green, blue, black, red, white, yellow). T-Shirts/Shirts is tricky because of the size, since everybody seems to have expanded. BTW, letih aku cari/google fishermen hat, rupa2nya "bucket hat". Cool, I pick up new words here. Thanks Sipot.
3. We talk about the dinner for OBW. We tried to rationalize the venue (STAR vs External Hall). It seems that it is cheaper to hold the dinner outside STAR because we don't have to rent tents, stage, audio, genset. We think RM20 will give us a decent dinner. Zul asked us to redefined the purpose of the dinner. So everybody chips in
a. for oldboys to mingle around
b. to appreciate teachers, students, workers
c. to show case our activities in organizing the event

4. I suggest we participate in next year's school activities so that we can build the relationship and flourish it. Not everybody has to go. May be 2, 3 people for Sports Day. Lagi better, sportsman pergi. Kalau Long John boleh turun lagi canggih. Dari jauh dah nampak. School's Speech Day, best student ke turun. Ni Sam Gila pulak.

5. Mat says Lepak Corner is important because many oldboys go back to STAR to meet up with friends. It is our melting bowl, I guess. Nothing fancy to this, may be some tents + tables + chairs + water based fan. Like mamak stall.

6. Mat plans to have a convention or dialog on Sunday of OBW. Topic is "Program Melahirkan Insan Bijaksana". He was thrilled when one of the HM (Datuk Husin) brought out Falsafah Pendidikan Negara. Well, to me it is something like "School Smart" vs "Street Smart". I personally thinks this requires continuous effort and I think we can initiate it but as usual money rules. We'll see. Normally, if the job doesn't strengthen one's financial standing, one tends not to focus on that job. I dont believe we practice that, do we?

7. Mat wants something to be remembered after the OBW. He wants to start some debate. Cool. It's revolutionize if we do cricket! Halim was a cricket player. Jangan la main full game. Main 20 run ke, 6 a side ke. Memang orang ingat punya lah. He he he...

Adsense going MIA?

Well, it was last Friday night, when Mat called me to visit his bagantambang.blogspot.com. He told me that he has put up several adsense in his blog but I couldn't see them. He was shocked when I told him that.

I told him not to hit the panic button because it could be related to my anti-virus software. I go thru the setting my KIS 7.0 (Kaspersky Internet Security) and BINGO. I have to turn off Anti-Banner in the setting so that adsense can show itself in my browsers.

That's it. Problem's solved. I don't know about other anti-virus behavior since I'm not an expert on security. We may need Wan Roshaimi's advise for this. For me, I just get things work for me.

My point is, it could be the setting of anti-virus that cause adsense to MIA. He he he....

Sekapur Sirih by Chief Coordinator

Here we go, straight from him...

Sunday 28 Oct 2007 was a memorable day to the Batch of 88. On that special day we received the mandate to organize the next Staroba Old Boys Weekend for 2008. A hot seat, whispered some. The first celebration into the 2nd half of the century, towards our centennial celebration.

The first one will always be difficult but crucial, it will set the phase and direction to an exploration into uncharted territories guided only by the stars, hopefully. The first step towards the next phase, will always be full of doubt. But we are the children of the independence, we were born out of Laporan Razak 1956 to fill the vacuum following the independence. The independence that our old folks fought for, with everything they owned, blood, sweat & tears!

We did pretty well in the first half of the century. And the next century, will be for us to dance on the world stage. Yes, we are going for the next level. Therefore as the first step towards world class, our vision is to bring everybody to focus on the same target, talk the same language, walk the same path and visionize the same sweet taste of glory, hand in hand, we shall break the barrier!

In line with that aspiration, first we would like to invite all STAROBAs, teachers & students to share the vision of making STAR produce students of world class excellence. By coming together celebrating the OBW2008, we hope to build a strong bond between these parties to be more committed towards achieving the vision.

Coming together will be the first step, and to test the bond, we would like to introduce the OBW Challenge Trophy. By introducing OBW Challenge Trophy, we hope the students, supported by oldboys and teachers, will compete against teams of higher levels. To win the competition is not the ultimate goal, but to mount a serious challenge, that is extraordinary for a boarding school standard is what we are expecting. The world standard is not something penetratable overnight, we would be happy if the challenge produced talents that will further pursue glory in the world stage and the event to become an everlasting tradition of excellence!

Together for Glory

Mohd Shamshul Othman
Chief Coordinator
STAROBA OBW2008

Sumbangan diperlukan

ASRAMA ANAK YATIM DAN MISKN NURUL IMAN, MANJOI, IPOH.

Asrama ini dihuni oleh 27 orang anak-anak yatim dan miskin, yang berumur dari 7 tahun hingga 17 tahun. Buat masa ini asrama ituberoperasi di lot tanah yang disewa dengan kadar RM 200 sebulan anlima pintu rumah sewa dngan kadar RM 630 sebulan.

Sejak mula beroperasi pada tahun 2001, pusat jagaan itu berpindahsebanyak empat kali kerana menyewa tanah dan bangunan orang.

Pusat jagaan itu kini menyewa di tanah seluas 36.5 x 21.3 meter diLorong Datuk, Kampung Manjoi bagi tempoh dua tahun dengan pilihan tambahan setahun sekiranya perlu berpindah.

Menurut Pemegang Amanahnya, Khairul Anuar Mohmad Razi, pusat jagaan itu memerlukan kawasan sendiri yang mempunyai keluasansekurang-kurangnya 0.4 hektar di kawasan luar bandar dan dua lot bagikawasan dalam bandar.

Buat masa ini kos operasi bagisebulan adalah RM 7800.00, jumlah initermasuk bayaran sewaan, bil-bil, gaji kakitangan. Walaubagaimanapunjumlah sebanyak itu tidak diperolehi setiap bulan kerana asrama itutidak mempunyai pendapatan tetap selain dari usaha pengurusnya iaituencik Khairul yang idak sebanyak mana.

Menurut Encik Khairul,sumbangan biasanya bermusim iaitu pada bulanpuasa. Oleh itu, pada kebiasaannya, asrama itu membayar perbelanjaanharian setahun sekali iaitu pada bulan puasa.

Bagi sesiapa yang ingin menyalurkan bantuan, bolehlah menyalurkanmelalui akaun ini :

Nama : PUSAT JAGAAN ANAK ANAK YATIM DAN MISKIN NURUL IMAN
Akaun : 5082 2521 5570 ( Maybank )
Alamat : Plot 359, Lorong Dato, Off Jalan Dato, Kampung Manjoi, 30020 Ipoh, Perak.
Pengurus : En. Khairul Anuar Bin Mohmad Razi
Tel : 05-5260071 / 016-5460071

Semoga Allah memberkati usaha kita semua