June 2010

The Archives

• Scones

  06.29.10 | Permalink |Food| 1 Comment

  
  
  

  I tasted the best scones in Cameron Highlands in T-Café, a small coffee shop opposite the Tanah Rata bus station. It was served with cream and homemade strawberry jam.

  After that, I was looking for recipe to make some. Do you know that scones were the first thing I learned how to bake? I took home science in school and it was the first recipe in the book. It is really sad that home science is no longer a subject in school. I learned how to bake, cook and sew from it.

  I found a couple of good recipe online. I haven’t been baking for a long while. The first batch of scones, I forgot to put sugar after I made the dough. The second batch was better but the third batch was perfect.

  The second & third batch recipe was from the same recipe. They need buttermilk. If you cannot find buttermilk, all you have to do is to put 1 tablespoon into the milk and leave it for 5-10 mins. You will see curd forming in the milk. It makes the scones smell really good.

  I believed the technique of doing scones must be correct to get delicious scones. I watched a couple of video from YouTube to learn the technique.

  Here is the recipe that I used to make the second & third batch: http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesCoffeehouse.html. On the fourth batch, I put egg as my friend suggested. It taste good too.

  You try it!

• Useless TAC

  06.25.10 | Permalink |Service| Comments Off on Useless TAC

  When you build a security system such that no one can use it, it is useless. I was trying to book some movie tickets from GSC using M@ybank to pay for it. I tell you it is a real pain! The bank encourages us to do Internet banking but putting a bad security protection such as TAC (Transaction Authorization Code) just make their ease of doing transaction USELESS!!!!

  Here is what I encountered. I reserved some seats for Toys Story 3 at the GSC website and I select to pay by M@ybank2u. It brought me to login to M@ybank2u, everything is fine and I click request for TAC. Wait…wait….wait…wait….never came. The screen logged me out, it is a security feature. Guess what? The TAC came BUT I CANNOT USE IT because YOU LOGGED ME OUT! The TAC is only valid during that login. *GERAM BETUL NI*

  I tried 3 times and I gave up. I resort to use my Credit Card to pay instead.

  Please M@YBANK, you should go and relook into your Internet Banking Tool. If not, it will sit there to collect dust.

• Addition To Penang Public Holidays

  06.19.10 | Permalink |Penang| Comments Off on Addition To Penang Public Holidays

  Today, in TheStar online papers, the state of Penang announced July 7 as a public holiday to to commemorate the anniversary of the inscription of George Town as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008.

  Penang state of Malaysia already has 17 days for public holiday, now it is 18 days. I believed it is the state with the most public holidays. Please correct me if I am wrong.

  Ooh, added another Malaysia Day on Sept 16, now it is 19 days.

  1. New Year – 1st Jan
  2. Chinese Lunar New Year – 2 days, depend on the Chinese Lunar Calendar
  3. Thaipusam
  4. Prophet Muhammad Birthday
  5. Labour Day – 1st May
  6. Wesak Day
  7. Malaysia King Birthday – 1st Sat of June
  8. Penang Governor Birthday – 11th July
  9. Malaysia National Day – 31st August
  10. Nuzul Al-Quran Day
  11. Hari Raya Puasa (*) – 2 days
  12. Malaysia Day – 16th Sept
  13. Deepavali (*)
  14. Hari Raya Haji (*)
  15. Awal Muharram (Maal Hijrah)
  16. Christmas – 25th December

  Of cause, some companies do not have all public holidays as off days, they limit it to a fixed number of off days. I wonder whether my company accept July 7 and Sept 16 as holidays. I hope there are good news for me

• Plastic Bag-Less Day

  06.16.10 | Permalink |Environment| Comments Off on Plastic Bag-Less Day

  The other day I was shopping at Jusco KL, I got a lot of stuff. Later at the checkout counter, the cashier told me that no plastic bags day on Saturday. Of all day, they picked Saturday where a lot of people is doing the shopping.

  I just realized that KL picked Saturday. However Penang started with Monday to Wednesday. Now it is really inconsistent and it is not very good for tourist. How would they remember which day which state is not providing plastic bags? Something for the someone out there to get it right!

• Upgrade 2G iPhone To 3.1.3

  06.01.10 | Permalink |iPhone| 1 Comment

  I wanted to install the camera applications for a long time but it needs 3.1.3. I procrastinated until my iPhone performance deteriorated. Maybe I installed too many apps.

  First step was to Google for instructions. I found a couple but I was looking for the easiest way. There are no posts that gave end to end instructions. I tell you, I made a couple of mistakes but finally got it working.

  So here are the steps:
  1. Install the latest iTunes. Click here.

  2. Backup your current iPhone. *Important step if you don’t want to reinstall all your apps*

  3. Download 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 2G. Click here.

  4. Set your phone to DFU mode and launch iTunes. iTunes will asked you to restore your firmware. Press Shift and click Restore button. Browse for iPhone1,1_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw (downloaded in step #3). Wait for it to install 3.1.3 firmware.

  5. Follow the rest of the step here. Take note, only select “Install Cydia” and “Unlock”. Do not select “Already Pwned”

  6. After jailbreak, you can launch iTunes to restore your backup. Everything will be back to the original setting. You don’t even need to rearrange your icons. The only apps that are missing are those install through Cydia.

  All the best!