Throttled...Part Deux

Well, I think it's official...our only broadband service provider has throttled local p2p connections too!! It is bad enough that throttling has taken its toll on foreign p2ps, but now even local ones...this is enough to make anyone's blood boil! Speeds crawling at single digits! And talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg; don't these people understand that it is applications such as this that promoted the widespread use of broadband??

There are a lot of angrier people out there, but we have no voice or means to take action. Once a company has monopoly such as this, there is very little we can do. For me, it means I will downgrade my package - why should I pay an exorbitant amount just to surf the Net? Maybe if enough people cancel or downgrade their subscriptions, they will sit up and take notice.

Yeah, right...

Rain and hail

Wow, there was heavy rain this afternoon - no surprises there. 15 minutes into the storm, hailstones size of golfballs rained down for about half-hour. What a racket. Not to mention the howling winds too; unfortunately there were no flying debris to add to the excitement. Well I wanted to go out and take some pics but I guess I would have been stoned to death.

What's life without a bit of excitement?

Premiership 2006/2007 Roundup

So it's finally over! After nine months of pure anticipation, excitement, grief and sorrow, not to mention the many sleepless nights we bid adieu to this season's English Premiership. Although there is still the FA Cup Final to play for next week, and Champions League Finals the following Wednesday, the season is effectively over for us soccer fan-atics... We can now go into our annual three-month hibernation awaiting the start of the new season in August. Sigh...

So this season we crown another champion in four years: Manchester United. Undoubtedly the most consistent and imaginative team this year, thanks to the prodigious Cristiano Ronaldo, they pipped defending champions Chelsea to the finishing line, with Liverpool (sob!) and Arsenal a distant third. At the bottom of the table, Watford, Charlton and (surprise surprise) Sheffield United were relegated, with West Ham performing the great escape. So here's the table summary:

Champions 2006/2007: Manchester United
Runners-up: Chelsea
Third place: Liverpool
Fourth place: Arsenal
UEFA Cup places: Tottenham, Everton, Bolton
Relegated: Sheffield United, Charlton, Watford
Promoted: Sunderland, Birmingham, ??

Here I celebrate what I believe are the finest and the worst of the lot in this season's Premiership. Well, my opinions may differ from football pundits all over the world, but everyone's entitled to their opinions right?

Team of the Season
Obviously Manchester United. Though I'm not a Red Devil fan, one must give credit to the way they have played all season - to eke out undeserving 1-0 wins, drawing matches when the chips are down, and winning with large margins where it suited their attacking flair. You can hardly find a match where they did not find the back of the net. It's an all-round team, strength being in midfield and attack - thanks to Carrick, Ronaldo and Rooney, though they probably need better strikers; their defence is still a suspect, but if they still manage to score more than they concede, they would still end up winning matches!

Best Team of the Season (outside the top four)
Would you believe it: Reading! Just in the Premiership for one season, and it's making waves with their exciting play. And coming from a team without the millions to spend unlike their counterparts. Fast attacking football and a solid midfield and defence; it's a shame that they just missed out on a UEFA Cup place. Let's hope they don't turn out to be a one season wonder like Wigan last season...

Flop Team of the Season
Ooh, this is a difficult one...but I choose Newcastle with Charlton coming in a close second. The Geordies, with a passionate fan base and skillful yet underperforming players - oh, what a sad combination. Poor Michael Owen...if you just had stayed at Anfield! And a mid-table finish is unjustified for a team of your stature...poor Roeder, you have to take the blame. Maybe big Sam is the man to relive the glory days of yore...if they choose him.

Player of the Season
Well there's no doubt about it: Ronaldo is definitely player of the season. Despite his reputation for simulation, he is definitely a skillful player with vast potential, and he would be well advised to stay in the Premiership rather than plying his trade in the continent, until he is the wiser. He probably won United the title this year single-handedly...

Goalkeeper of the Season
Robert Green. Mainly because of the performances he put in to help in West Ham's great escape. You can't forget the saves he made in the game against Arsenal. And there is still the England jersey up for grabs with Paul Robinson in poor form...

Defender of the Season
Jamie Carragher. Not because I'm a Liverpool fan. His performances speak for himself. Always decisive in his tackling and no-nonsense defending, he and his partner (mainly Daniel Agger this season) has made the Liverpool defence almost inpenetrable. And I still wonder how he is missed by the England coaches again and again. I rate him much better than Rio Ferdinand, and on par with John Terry...

Midfielder of the Season
Oh this is a difficult one. I guess there is no one outstanding midfielder out there, but I have to appalaud the performance of Cesc Fabregas; young as he is, he is a dominant playmaker, slick passer of the ball and gets into positions where he can and does score goals. And he can only get better. Eat your heart out Frank Lampard...

Striker of the Season
Without doubt top scorer of the season: Didier Drogba. He came into his own this season, despite Chelsea's failings as he tried vainly to defend their title. He is strong, fast and with his deadly feet, he can score from anywhere - his 32 goals this season attest to that. If only he has a reliable strike partner...

Flop player of the Season
It's a toss up: Andrei Shevchenko or Michael Ballack. I think I'll choose both. No matter what their reputations are, it proves that you can't buy instant success. But both of them are in their first season, and hopefully once Chelsea cleared up whatever problems they have in the background they would start to perform. But until then, the jury is still out...

Manager of the Season
Well it's easy to vote Sir Alex Ferguson but to me, it's West Ham's Alan Curbishley - mainly for instilling the belief of West Ham players and supporters, from a sure-to-be-relegated team in January when he took over, to a team which beat the champions to ensure survival in the Premiership. He may have inherited a team in turmoil, but things could only look up from here on.

My Premiership Team of the Season
GK: Robert Green
Defender: Jamie Carragher, John Terry, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole
Midfielders: Cesc Fabregas, Paul Scholes, Mikel Arteta, Cristiano Ronaldo
Strikers: Didier Drogba, Dimitar Berbatov
Subs: David James, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Ricardo Carvalho, Carlos Tevez

So that's it for this season folks...till August, bye!

RM 22 million for what?

Checks for defects will cost RM22m, says Samy

This statement really befuddles me. Coming in the wake of the disgraceful government buliding mishaps in Putrajaya, our Works Minister now further requests an additonal RM 22 million for inspections ordered by our Prime Minister on Workers' Day!! Nowithstanding that these costs are to be borne by Malaysian taxpayers, of which I am one of, questions still remain unanswered:

1. How did the RM 22 million figure came about?
2. Who is performing the inspections? If it is the Public Works Department - why RM 22 million?
3. Is there any further transparency on the actual usage of the RM 22 million?

The shambolic misuse of government funds (in reality, taxpayers money!!) over the years have been repeatedly swept under the carpet: Matrade building scandal, our 'crooked bridge' horror, MRR Two bridge fiasco, and so on and so forth - or had it been used un-wisely to enrich the pockets of those politically connected?

I think all Malaysians worth their salt know the answer...

Why? Why?

MCA: Maybank move discriminatory
Maybank adheres to Cabinet order
Backing for Maybank’s terms for legal firms

Oh why Malaysia? Why is thing happening again and again? After 30 years of NEP, shouldn't the Bumiputras be competing on solid ground, a level playing field? And if they still need discriminatory policies such as these, what volumes would these speak of our country?

'Give an inch, and they will ask for a foot' - Anon

First it will be legal firms: What next? Who next? Where next? Eventually these policies will drive out foreign investors (who may tolerate a small amount of discrimination, but will not yield to it as there are alternatives elsewhere), and then what would be left?

The narrow-minded must open their eyes now!! The world is leaving us behind...no amount of kicking and screaming, or political sweeteners, or boot-licking will bring them back when that happens!

Street Kids!

Pic courtesy of The Star

Street kids - this is a common sight in East Malaysia! This is the fact-of-life for those children living from day-to-day there. Coming from impoverished families, whether they be Malaysian or immigrants, they while their time away in the streets, walkways, shophouses and shopping centres while their parents try to make a living. They do not go to school; instead they hang around with their own kind.

Well, it is small wonder they often fall prey to the dregs of society which abuse them into working for beggar, pickpocket and other gangs, and inevitably drug use. Glue sniffing is the cheapest of the various alternatives - I'm sure they will move on to more expensive options in due time.

These scenes are certainly not shocking to us who've been around them. While it certainly is for certain politicians, it is still left to be seen what could, and would, be done for them apart from highlighting their plight in national newspapers.

As expected...

As expected, civil servants will get a pay rise this year - though the quantum has not been decided yet. Our esteemed Prime Minister say they (the civil servants) deserved it. And while the jury is still out on that particular statement, my own view is that a salary adjustment is long overdue - the last being in 1993 I think - but it would not lead to better productivity or service, nor would it reduce the need for civil servants to have part-time jobs, as some have hoped.

Reason: inflation. Those decision-makers probably need to go and do shopping for themselves at the local wet market, (or hypermarkets for that matter), fill their own petrol tanks, pay their own toll charges, pay their own utility bills or (what the heck!) just eat out at your local coffeeshop/mamak stall for them to realise this. While the pay rise have been hoped to lighten the burden on civil servants, who is to say that this would not lead to further increases in the future? "Hey, last time we increased the petrol price, you say no pay rise - now you should not complain ma..."

And for the ruling government to use this as a gimmick for their election plans - widely anticipated it may be - would only distract the short-sighted and money-minded; larger issues remain ignored and unsolved. While I'm sure this latest gimmick will win the ruling coalition a number of votes and ultimately the coming general election, I'm not so sure that things will remain upbeat after the elections are over...

My crystal ball reads: 'toll and utility increases across the board after the general election' and sad to say, it is hardly wrong...

Spiderman 3

So I finally went to a cinema for a movie - the last time I went was two years ago (hmm, it was Kingdom of Heaven)!! Well I owe this to the wonders of BitTorrent. And saved me quite a few bucks too...

Anyway it wasn't my intention to see the show yesterday, but as I trawled through 1U, I stopped by at the GSC Cinema - whoa RM11 for a ticket!! Forget it! And look at the lines! A lot of rich kids nowadays. Then I moseyed over to TGV - the lines were shorter and tickets were RM4 cheaper. So what the heck. Had a quick lunch, bought a few things and did more window shopping. Got myself a drink and I was ready for the show.

Well, I guess it was kinda OK: had a lot of action and storyline was relatively fine, but I didn't feel so much for this installment compared to Spidey 2 (now that one you really feel for him). I really like Sandman; Venom came and went pretty fast, and Harry's death at the end gave rest to a tortured soul. I give the show probably 7/10 and definitely worth watching just for pure entertainment purposes. I'm sure it'll make lotsa money in the box-office. But I wonder whether there will be a fourth series in the offing...the ending really wraps up the Harry-Peter storyline. Who knows?

Milan masters!

So it's final! A repeat of the May 2005. Milan vs. Liverpool. Frankly a lot of observers rate this final as the least probable of the various possibilities. But you can't dismiss the underdogs. Trailing by that late Rooney winner from the Theatre of Dreams, the dreams turned into a nightmare right from the word go. Kaka and co. were superb, slicing through the MU defence, apparently strengthened by Vidic's return (but to me the makeshift defence played a bit better the week before), with apparent ease. Took them only 11 minutes to find the goal, and United was disunited. Another goal in each half finished them off.

It's just that MU played so badly that they hardly had a look at goal - only one shot in the whole match that Dida saved easily. Nothing worked for them. Not even Ronaldo's sidesteps. Milan just revved up the engine and stepped up the gears and MU was left way behind. The Milan midfield was superb - Gattuso in my mind is the linchpin; Pirlo and Seedorf played very well too. Credit must be given where it is due - Sir Alex at least paid tribute to the Milan winners.

So now Rafa has three weeks to figure out the antidote to Milan's early fire. The 3-0 experience of two years ago clearly shows what Milan could do off the blocks. But I'm sure Rafa will find a way.

Athens Ho!!

We did it again!! Overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg, our Anfield heroes made it a night to remember with a spectacular display of football to book our place in the Champions' League finals.

Chelsea were the odds-on favourites but at Anfield anything could happen. The defence marshalled superbly by Carragher and Agger thwarted any form of Chelsea aggression - leaving them with only one chance from Drogba which Reina easily saved. Joe Cole, so often the nemesis of Liverpool, hardly had a look at goal; Lampard was his usual unremarkable self.

Liverpool needed to score and Agger scored a striker's goal in the 22nd minute. There was a time where Chelsea threatened towards the end of the first half, but came to nought. In the second half, Liverpool had all the attacking play and chances - two saves from Cech and a Kuyt attempt ricocheting off the crossbar; clearly Liverpool were the better team but still no goals.

Went on to extra time with little difference as we were the hungrier of the two teams - a harshly disallowed goal from Kuyt and a last gasp save at the death from Cech ensured a nailbiting penalty decider: in the end Reina made two great penalty saves while we scored all four!! Appropriately my man-of-the-match Kuyt scored the winning penalty (that guy deserved it, he worked his socks off!!)

As usual the 'Special One' was all sour grapes as he claimed the better team on the night lost - come on, even the blind could see who the better team was; Rafa rightly praised our 'special ones' for our victory - the fans who waved, shouted and sang the team to victory!

So who are we going to meet in Athens? For now we don't care...because we can beat the best - bring it on!! But I have a sneaky feeling that we will have a repeat of the 2005 finals come end of this month...

Speak your mind!

Now I wonder who would be so brave?

Gee, not me...but I hope there are brave people willing to speak out for me! But not only for me, but all the oppressed people in this country - what the heck, the whole world!!!!

In the meantime, I'll just imagine myself as David - in private!

Deja vu!

Pak Lah orders immediate inspection of government buildings

Frankly to tell you the truth I'm not surprised. Coming in the wake of problems facing government buildings, two further ceiling collapses in a matter of days strikes home the point. Of course the blame game will go on and on, but I wonder who will be made the scapegoat...

But it's no surprise that these things mainly happen to government buildings. Goes to show the amount of palm-greasing that happen behind-the-scenes, well until attention-grabbing news like this occurs. Shoddy workmanship, poor quality materials and poor maintenance: these are to blame. Of course the not mentioned greed among the main contractors that get the job culminates in this.

Like I said before, only happens to government bulidings because the authorities will close one eye after a while irrespective of the initial furore - just wait and see. And private construction companies plying their trade overseas cannot afford for these to happen - so the best is saved for those projects. Isn't it sad?

The people have not yet spoken!

Ah, as expected BN wins in the Ijok by-election. With all the government machinery behind them, I'll be pleasantly surprised if they don't. But I think the coalition was very worried about this particular by-election - even the big guns had to come to Ijok themselves to help bring about the victory.

Of course when you have the whole weight of the mass media behind you, lots of money to buy votes, police to keep the Opposition at bay, and the Electoral Commission who is incidentally paid by the government to manipulate the voting register, you can't possibly lose can you?

It's good to see the people of this little known community getting all the attention they deserve for once. And it's good to know that the government, for all its bureaucratic red-tape, can settle wrongs that lasted years in a matter of days when an election comes to town. Hence maybe it's good for a BN-elected representative (pointless for an Opposition-MP to do so since it's not BN's seat to lose!!) to resign or pass away in order to bring some good to their constituents.

Congrats to the people of Ijok! And make sure all those BN promises are kept or else...

Tax (Returns) Day!

Today's the day I submitted my Income Tax returns, the old-fashioned way. Surprise, surprise...it seems I have to pay a small amount this year. And since I had to submit the original income tax deduction receipts anyway I went to the IRB Office in Kelana Jaya.

There were few people around actually, but I guess most of them were upstairs doing their E-filing. I wanted to pay by cash but I was told to go all the way to to the Jalan Duta office to do so...what??? So I had to go back and write out a cheque for the amount and go back all the way to the IRB office to submit the cheque.

But it was quite smooth. Not many people around, surprisingly. If I know Malaysians (why not, since I'm one!) they'll wait for the last minute to do so...I wonder why? Maybe it's our competitive nature...

Well, I don't know about E-filing - apparently there were still a few glitches to iron out there. Maybe next year.

Another holiday

Today's a holiday, for civil servants at least. We had the inauguration of our new Yang-DiPertuan Agong - hence the off day. Why I am not sure. The banks were closed too; but most of the private sector continued working as usual. Guess the inauguration isn't a big deal after all.

I tried to watch the Inauguration ceremony on TV in the morning...all ten minutes of it. Guess it took way too much time. An watching a lump of maturing cheese on the Internet was way more exciting.

I think I had better luck (and better reason) sleeping the day away. Zzzzzzzzz...

P.S., the cheese part is real: Lump of Cheese

The 13,000

No, this is not the sequel to the 4400!

The DJIA, for the first time, has breached the magical 13,000 level, six months after breaching 12,000.

What does this mean for our local stock market? Nothing...because today is a stupid holiday!!!!

Some people never learn...

Millions lost in e-invest scam

Haiyo...I wonder how long this has to go on. But I guess as long as there are greedy and gullible people out there, I'm sure scams like this will continue. I mean the returns are outrageous; I'm not surprised so many find them attractive. Well, if you put your money in get them out as soon as you can and don't get too greedy, otherwise you might lose it and not see them again...

And oh, on a lighter note:

"There is no short cut to wealth, not even via the Internet, advised Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday".

The Star, 21/04/2007

Football: Malaysia 0 Hong Kong 1

Cough...cough...it's not a typo!! Yes believe it!

How low can we go? Who knows? Malaysia Boleh!!??

Finally!

Well, the good times had to end some time. And for Sanjaya, it did this week. But better late than never. How on earth did he get that far? Combination of good luck, questionable hair-do, and a make-believe persona...I'm sure that charmed millions of American tweens into voting for him. And oh, he's only 17...something American Idol producers have not overlooked I'm sure.

But that guy can't sing to save his life. The judges must have been turning in their sleep trying to figure out how he survives week in and week out. And he did just that. Personally I had expected him to go on the very first week of the finals, but he kept on hanging there.

Credit to him though, he gave a good performance in the Latina night - even Simon Cowell can't say anything about that. But that was one spark in a dimming light.

Enough about him: we have six left, and the competition heats up. I guess a lot could even see the eventual winner now: Melinda Doolittle, but anything can happen. Never had the difference between the singers so marked, demarcation between guys and girls so obvious. If I had my way, the guys could have all been eliminated by now; only Blake Richardson has got any real chance of making it all the way. Jordin comes off sparky, but I don't think she's got a chance; Lakisha needs to buck up. One thing I'm not sure, does it have to be a one guy, one girl final?

So my predictions on the coming weeks, in order of elimination: Phil, Chris, Lakisha, Blake, Jordin, and winner Melinda!!

Not another one!

Oops it happened again! I'm sure that's what the advisor to the George Bush must have thought when he heard the Virginia Tech massacre. Don't these politicians ever learn? Guns are dangerous, and should be controlled. I just wonder how many more innocent people are going to die before they do something about it. Hiding behind the Second Amendment should not help; and what an archaic pronouncement have relevance in this society today I wonder.

But this time, the shooter was a Korean and an Asian. Not one of their own. I just feel for all the Asians out there now, looking behnd their backs wondering the next thing would be a revenge bullet. I hope that things would not get from bad to worse.

Condolences go out to the families of the victims as well as all those affected by the shooting. I just pray that this does not repeat itself.

Another lesson learnt? Or would the killing spree continue? I just hope those politicians get their act right for once.