The Best Alarm

We offer the top brands of home alarm systems. Below are our most popular home alarm system kits that we currently sell. These below are in kit packages with some sensors already included. More sensors may be added as as desired.

Which one do we recommend? For a hardwired / wireless hybrid type system, the DSC Kit16120 is a very economical choice that will suffice for almost any size home. It's also easier to install and has more features than it's GE counterpart, the NX6FP. Of the two total wireless systems, the GE Simon XT would be best for those who want to self monitor their system without monitoring fees because it has a voice dialer built in. Alternatively, if you think you may want professional alarm monitoring service for your system and don't need the voice dialer feature of the Simon, I'd recommend the DSC Kit4471. It is a little better priced, yet has a nicer keypad display.

NOTE: The DSC models do have dialers built in that can call you in event of alarm. They just don't give voice description of video surveillance equipment when they call like the Simon XT can. An add on voice dialer can be added to them though to give that feature.

The New Music Player

The new iPod nano is the small ipods with one very big idea: video. The world's most popular music player now lets you enjoy movies, TV shows, and more on a two-inch display.

iPod touch features the same multi-touch screen technology as an iPhone. Pinch to zoom in on a photo. Scroll through your songs and videos with a flick and flip through your library by album artwork.

iPod classic with 80GB or 160GB of storage and up to 40 hours of battery life, the iPod classic lets you enjoy up to 40,000 songs or up to 200 hours of video or any combination. Lastly, the iPod shuffle . The world's most wearable music player that holds up to 240 songs that you can take anywhere.

Big Tobacco undermined research in Asia

BANGKOK: Two studies released Tuesday allege that big tobacco companies tried to undermine anti-smoking policies in Asia by infiltrating a research institute in Thailand and providing funding for one in China.

Public health researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Edinburgh analysed internal industry documents made public following litigation in the United States.

The researchers claimed that Philip Morris planted a scientist in Chulabhorn Research Institute in Bangkok in a bid to get researchers to play down the impact of secondhand smoke.

A separate study including a Mayo Clinic researcher alleges that British American Tobacco provided funding in China for the Beijing Liver Foundation in a campaign to shift the focus there away from smoking dangers to ailments like liver disease.

Both companies denied the charges presented online in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal. The two studies were partly funded by the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

Anti-smoking groups say big tobacco for years has sought to covertly influence government smoking policies and squash scientific findings highlighting the hazards of smoking.

Earlier reviews of company documents have claimed that cigarette companies worked to defeat a tobacco advertising ban in Europe, pressured drug companies to tone down marketing for smoking-cessation products and placed consultants at the World Health Organisation (WHO) to try to subvert efforts to reduce smoking.

Critics contend the companies are turning increasingly to Asia where smokers are on the rise.

WHO estimated this year that 30% of the world’s smokers now live in China and 10% in India. Thailand has seen the number of cigarettes smoked more than double since 1972 to 42 billion sticks in 2004.

“There is no doubt that the WHO regrets the unethical behaviour of tobacco companies that infiltrate research organisations to influence the research process and the findings of such organisations,’’ said Edouard Tursan d’Espaignet, epidemiologist with the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.

In the Thai study, University of Sydney’s Ross MacKenzie and University of Edinburgh’s Jeff Collin allege that Philip Morris scientist Roger Walk was able to lecture and organise conferences at the Thai government-funded Chulabhorn from the early 1990s to at least 2006.

The researchers say this allowed Philip Morris to develop relationships with key officials and scientists in efforts to discount the threat of secondhand smoke.

Spokesman Marija Sepic of Switzerland-based Philip Morris International -- which separated this year from the US branch of the company -- dismissed the documents as outdated and said the company never hid its affiliation with Walk.

However, Chulabhorn associate vice-president Jutamaad Satayavivad said the institute was not aware Walk worked for Philip Morris until about a decade into his tenure. After seeing the study, institute officials plan to bar him because he was“not straightforward in sharing with us,” she said.

The other study alleges that London-based British American Tobacco used the Beijing Liver Foundation to lobby China’s Health Ministry in a campaign to forestall smoke-free legislation.

The researchers say documents show that the company provided training for industry, public officials and the media to spread its message that secondhand smoke was an insignificant source of pollution.

“Our findings show that despite the tobacco industry’s public efforts to appear socially responsible and to assert that they are part of the solution to the global tobacco epidemic, there is a fundamental conflict between the interests of tobacco companies and public health,” said the Mayo Clinic’s Monique E. Muggli, who conducted the study with Kelley Lee, Quan Gan, Jon O. Ebbert and Richard Hurt.

China’s Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

British American Tobacco spokesman Catherine Armstrong said it was illogical to suggest that any link the company has to a medical charity “was an attempt to divert attention away from smoking related disease.”

Grant My Wish

Its the digital world now. Most of the things we are using now are all computerized and digital. Take for example the basic things in life such as the telephone, the computer, the television set, cell phones, digital cameras and a lot of other stuff.

Basically, given a day without electricity and all these digital stuff, I guess I'll suffer so much from boredom.

And now, with the digital camera so handy you can take pictures anywhere at anytime you want. A friend of mine just recently bought a Sony DSLR digital camera and its really a nice one. The photos taken are really clear and beautiful.

So, if you wanna save all the trouble of developing the photos, now you can use a digital photo frame, its so easy to use and convenient. Just upload the photos into it and you get to change the photos everyday.

Now, CEIVA Digital Photo Frame is a unique brand to recommend. Visit their website and watch the video there, its really a hilarious one! I've shared it with my friend and they were all excited to know more about it.

There's more, now that there is a contest available. The contest, Got a Wish Sweeepstakes will get 1 random entry selected for each day of the contest; cash prize of $500 per winner.

Intel’s pedagogic quest paying off

Chipmaker Intel Corp is further expanding its successful IT-assisted teacher-training programme in Malaysia.

Intel said it has trained a small but ­significant percentage of teachers in the last eight years and hopes to double that to 100,000 teachers over the next five years.

The Intel Teach programme was started in 1999 and has trained about five million teachers worldwide in over 40 countries. Introduced in Malaysia in 2000, about 50,000 local teachers have been trained under this programme, according to Intel Malaysia officials.

Senior trainers host teaching classes for current and prospective teachers who are interested in improving their pedagogic skills.

“The idea of the programme is to help teachers enhance their educating skills by integrating technology into their lesson plan,” said Hasnan Hakim, K12 education programme manager for Intel Malaysia.

“It would be a mistake to think that this course is wholly about information ­technology. It is a pedagogical course on how to teach with the help of technology.”

Teachers are taught how to engage their students more effectively and to help them develop creative and critical thinking skills. This is achieved through project-based and problem-based approaches with the help of technology.

Lim Siew Geck, a lecturer and head of the IT unit of the educational technology department at Institut Perguruan Ilmu Khas (IPIK), said the response to the Intel programme has been very favourable.

“Intel Teach nurtures the students’ ability to analyse and solve problems, make critical decisions, as well as develop a quest for lifelong learning,” Lim said.

“We have many pre-service and in-service teachers who are even willing to come for night classes. This is very encouraging because it shows us that those future and current teachers see the benefit of this course.”

Lim is a senior trainer for the Intel Teach Programme at IPIK.

Intel Malaysia has been collaborating with the Teacher Education Division (BPG) and the Educational Technology Division of the Ministry of Education to “localise” the content of the programme. This was done by the BPG in 2007.

Jayanti Sothinatan, a lecturer at the English Language Training Centre and senior teacher for the Teach Programme, said: “It is not important to know what subjects the teacher will go on to teach or whether the national curriculum changes.”

“This programme is a guide to the ­ methodology of teaching and on how to utilise computers and other forms of technology to aid this methodology.”

In 2005, Minister of Education Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein emphasised the importance of technology in education and the ministry is working with companies like Intel to help provide training and equipment to teachers and schools.

Rome workers uncover city of dead

ROME, Italy (AP) -- Workers renovating a rugby stadium have uncovered a vast complex of tombs beneath Rome that mimic the houses, blocks and streets of a real city, according to officials, who have unveiled a series of new finds.

Culture Ministry officials said Thursday that medieval pottery shards in the city of the dead, or necropolis, show the area may have been inhabited by the living during the Dark Ages after being used for centuries for burials during the Roman period.

It is not yet clear who was buried in the ancient cemetery, but archaeologists at the still partially excavated site believe at least some of the dead were freed slaves of Greek origin.

"It's a matter of a few weeks to discover what is down there," said archaeologist Marina Piranomonte. "But it's something big; it looks like a neighborhood."

A separate dig in the north of the city has turned up the tomb of a nobleman who led Rome's legions in the second century A.D.

The mausoleum was covered in mud during a flood of the river Tiber, which collapsed most of the monument but helped preserve exquisite decorations, marble columns and inscriptions from plunderers and the ravages of time.

Writings at the site led experts to identify the tomb as belonging to Marcus Nonius Macrinus, one of the closest aides and generals of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius during his campaigns against Germanic tribes in Northern Europe.

Other spectacular discoveries were also unveiled at the news conference at the Culture Ministry.

Archaeologists restoring the imperial residences on the Palatine Hill, in the heart of ancient Rome believe they have discovered the underground passageway in which the despotic Emperor Caligula was murdered by his own guards.

The hill, which his honeycombed with ruins of palaces and villas, has also yielded frescoes and black-and-white mosaics in the first century B.C. home of a patrician, the ministry said in a statement.

Separately, experts working in Castel di Guido on the outskirts of Rome have enlarged their dig at a previously known complex of country villas owned by Rome's rich and powerful, uncovering fountains, baths and a cistern, the statement said.

Archaeologists will keep working at the digs to make them accessible to visitors. Officials plan to build a museum next to Macrinus' tomb, which will also offer a virtual reconstruction of the site.

Tech News

Important to recycle unwanted cellphones

Although between 65% and 80% of a handphone can be recycled, recovery rates remain dismal due to poor awareness among consumers, according to cellphone manufacturer Nokia.

A survey by Nokia of 6,500 people in 13 countries shows that only 3% have recycled their handphones, 74% have not even thought of doing so and 70% do not know where to.

“If each of the three billion handphone users globally recycle one phone each, we can save 240,000 tonnes of raw material from being mined, produced and distributed," said Francis Cheong, Nokia South-East Asia and Pacific environmental affairs manager.

“The amount of greenhouse gases saved would be equivalent to that of removing four million cars from the road,” he said.

In that vein, Nokia is redoubling its efforts to make it easier for consumers to recycle mobile phones. It has set up kiosks in public places here for consumers to drop off their old or unused handphones for recycling.

To reward those who do so, Nokia will plant a tree in their name at Sebangau National Park in central Kalimantan.

Also, in a unique integration of services, the kiosks will accept handphones for servicing and repairs.

“The new kiosks are part of our ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility and one way in which we can make it easier for people to recycle their used and unwanted mobiles in a responsible manner,” said Cheong during the launch of the programme recently.

As a start, four Integrated Nokia Kiosks have been set up in the Klang Valley — at Nokia stores in The Gardens Mid Valley City, The Curve, Suria KLCC and Giant Hypermarket in Bandar Puchong Kinrara. More will be added nationwide later on.

The recycling programme accepts handphones of all makes, as well as accessories such as headsets, batteries and battery chargers. Dropping handphones off at the kiosks is simple; one need only follow instructions on the touchscreen.

The collected handphones will be sent to two recyclers, in Penang and Singapore. Recoverable materials include plastics and metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, chromium, lead and nickel.

Dangers of cell phone

A few days ago, a person was recharging his cell phone at home. Just at that time a call Came in and he answered it with the Instrument still connected to the outlet.



After a few seconds electricity flowed into the cell phone unrestrained and the young man was thrown to the ground with a heavy thud. His parents rushed to the room only to find him unconscious, with a weak heartbeat and burnt fingers.



He was rushed to the nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Cell phones are a very useful modern invention.

However, we must be aware that it can also be an instrument of death. Never use the cell phone while it is hooked to the electrical outlet!

The worst computer viruses of all time

I got this interesting article from Yahoo! Tech.

If you haven't experienced a computer virus yet, just wait -- you probably will.

Fortunately, you missed the real heyday of computer viruses when anti-virus software wasn't very widely used, and virus attacks caused millions of dollars in damages overnight. Today's viruses can still be nightmarish, but for the average user, cleanup is considerably easier than it was just a few years ago, when the only solution in many cases was reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch (and even that didn't do the trick sometimes).

So join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the worst viruses of all time and count our blessings that our computers are still up and running despite it all. (Though, please note, "worst" is a matter of considerable debate in the security industry, as the number of infected machines and amount of financial loss is always estimated. If you think another virus was worse than these, please post it in the comments to remind us!)

The worst viruses of all time

Brain, 1986
It all started here: Brain was the first "real" virus ever discovered, back in 1986. Brain didn't really hurt your PC, but it launched the malware industry with a bang and gave bad ideas to over 100,000 virus creators for the next 2 decades.

Michelangelo, 1991
The worst MS-DOS virus ever, Michelangelo attacked the boot sector of your hard drive and any floppy drive inserted into the computer, which caused the virus to spread rapidly. After spreading quietly for months, the virus "activated" on March 6, and promptly started destroying data on tens of thousands of computers.

Melissa, 1999
Technically a worm, Melissa (named after a stripper) collapsed entire email systems by causing computers to send mountains of messages to each other. The author of the virus was eventually caught and sentenced to 20 months in prison.

ILOVEYOU, 2000
This was notable for being one of the first viruses to trick users into opening a file, which in this case claimed to be a love letter sent to the recipient. In reality, the file was a VBS script that sent mountains of junk mail and deleted thousands of files. The results were terribly devastating- one estimate holds that 10 percent of all computers were affected, to a cost of $5.5 billion. It remains perhaps the worst worm of all time.

Code Red, 2001
An early "blended threat" attack, Code Red targeted Web servers instead of user machines, defacing websites and later launching denial-of-service attacks on a host of IP addresses, including those of the White House.

Nimda, 2001
Built on Code Red's attack system of finding multiple avenues into machines (email, websites, network connections, and others), Nimda infected both Web servers and user machines. It found paths into computers so effectively that, 22 minutes after it was released, it became the Internet's most widespread virus at the time.

Klez, 2001
An email virus, Klez pioneered spoofing the "From" field in email messages it sent, making it impossible to tell if Bill Gates did or did not really send you that information about getting free money.

Slammer, 2003
Another fast spreader, this worm infected about 75,000 systems in just 10 minutes, slowing the Internet to a crawl (much like Code Red) and shutting down thousands of websites.

MyDoom, 2004
Notable as the fastest-spreading email virus of all time, MyDoom infected computers so they would, in turn, send even more junk mail. In a strange twist, MyDoom was also used to attack the website of SCO Group, a very unpopular company that was suing other companies over its code being used in Linux distributions.

Storm, 2007
The worst recent virus, Storm spread via email spam with a fake attachment and ultimately infected up to 10 million computers, causing them to join its zombie botnet.

PC upgradings

My computer is getting slower this days, obviously the 1GB of DDR2 RAM memory I bought 3 years ago isn’t going to be enough now.

From the very beginning of the SDRAM, RAM memory has evolved so fast, that there are HYPER RAM and DDR4 memory now.

Therefore, I’ll be hoping to upgrade my desktop to a faster speed, most probably a DDR3 RAM, how do you think guys?

Sob Sob... Why a 0 Google Page Rank !!!

Haha, was so frustrated this morning, when Johnny messaged me to check up on the latest Google update.

Have been keeping my fingers crossed till the next Google PR update, hoping to have a good rank, and who knows, its still a 0

It actually went from a N/A status of rank till a 0, and I don't think its any major improvement though. Have been building up links. What have I done wrong?

Can someone help me on this? How do I improve my Page Rank? Will appreciate any working tips, thanks ^^

Need for Speed Pro Street

One of the latest game I'm playing, look at this screenshot and you'll understand

A really nice game indeed, latest from the Need for Speed series, with superb graphics and game handling.

Look at the cars, in the game, you get cars rewarded as you win the tournament, select from Lamborghini, Nissan Skyline and tonnes of magnificient cars

You can modify the cars according to your preference, rear spoilers, engines, brakes and others.

So give it a try, join me in the fun !

Do you wanna exchange some links?

Link Market - Free Link Exchange, Link Swap and Link Trade Directory
Have you ever tried to exchange links, swap links, or trade links? Was it hard? Use link market instead; - it is easy to use, free and very smart. It will save you hours of work.

A new OS on the way!

Windows 7 Milestone 1 (M1) Ultimate Edition Build 6.1.6519.1 might not show it yet, but it is evolving to become the next generation gaming platform from Microsoft. Windows Vista brought to the table the jump from DirectX 9.x to DirectX 10, and Vista Service Pack 1 delivered the first update to the graphics infrastructure taking the version to 10.1. At this early stage in the development of Windows 7, Microsoft has failed to offer any clues as to the future of the most popular gaming platform worldwide.

The company did not even reveal if DirectX 11 will be a component of Windows 7 or if it would be served as a standalone product. But this does not mean that Windows 7 is not aimed at revolutionizing the way users game on their PCs, courtesy of the WGX Windows Platform Development.

And yes, you did read right. Microsoft is looking not only to the next generation gaming platform - Windows 7, but also onward to Windows 8. The job comes with the promise to integrate gaming and entertainment passion with everyday work, and with the chance to influence the entertainment experience associated with the PC. The impact of the WGX Windows Platform Development team is not limited to pushing Windows forward as a gaming platform, but also to deliver changes that would reverberate across the entire gaming industry. DirectX 11 anyone?

Anyways, its only gonna be released 2009-2011, meanwhile stick to your OS guys

My Dream Car

Ever thought of how your dream car would look like? My dream car would look like this

The Ferrari Enzo

Haha, the dream car seems kinda far for me to achieve, can’t possibly afford to buy one though. But having a dream is always good. Haha.
By the way, having a superb and luxurious car could be a headache sometimes.
First of all, the maintenance fee will be quite costly, inclusive of the integral parts which needs changing, the exterior furnishing and the consumption of a large amount of oil.

And honestly, if I do own such a luxurious car, I’ll be worried about the security measures. How about the safety of the car? Could it be stolen by the thieves who are nowadays so good at breaking the security system of the car?
However, theres a solution to this, that is by installing the GPS system to your car.
I’ve seen in real life of how effective the GPS system works, its really convenient for drivers especially when you’re lost or new to a place.
GPS Insight vehicle tracking system is your choice !

GPS Insight is a hardware and web software-based vehicle tracking product which is the technical leader in the GPS tracking field. It offers the only hardware which is trivial to install (plugs directly into the vehicles diagnostics port), they have same-day-shipping, are the only product which gets direct engine diagnostics (fault codes, speed, fuel consumption, odometer readings, idle time, etc.), and the product gives 2 minute updates with VERY high end map options and customizations.

They provide a 30 day money back guarantee, GPS Insight support wiki for customers and offers free trials for qualified companies. No long contracts, either and tracking devices take only minutes to install, and ship the same day your order is received. We are happy to give live demonstrations in our offices, at your location, or via WebEx presentations, which are the next best thing to being there.

Most importantly, the product evolves at a very rapid pace All of these requests and enhancements, combined with the best in recent technology and mapping, are what makes the product stand out among the others.
Do try it out, visit the Blog for GPS vehicle tracking and you will see the difference in both product and support ^^