Accident la pulak!

PUIT!! this morning I use LDP to go back to mecha place. It was a mother of all jam as usual lah right? so when I reach on top of the bridge next to the western digital I was happy since can see the exit to federal highway. The end is near!!! the end is nearr!!!!!! sekali


PANG!!!!!!!


got la this stupid bike whack my not even 2 months old Stream. FARK!!!

News wednesday :

ok now we shall begin. of course lot comments la kan.. but this one quite happening...

NEWS 1

No way MyKad can be forged, says Tan

from the star. link : By SIM LEOI LEOI

" However, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said the situation was not serious and that the authorities were monitoring their activities.

“There is no way a MyKad can be forged because the information in the document will not match the details of the person carrying it, even if the surface of the card has been changed,” said Tan.

“An application for a MyKad requires the applicants to give their thumbprints, which are then matched with the online database at the National Registration Department.” "

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ok here's the thing.
1. The details while can't be matched exactly can always be "matched to the closest details". eg. same age range, same sex, ethnicity same skin colour etc.
not like they can check the photo at the NRD on the spot right?
2. they are equipped with a card reader but its not online.
3. Can definitely be forged as card reader is available/sold to the public. You reverse engineer a bit (if needed lah) and i don't think the encryption of the data in the smart chip that canggih so surely can wannnn.... Remember the story about fraud-proof smart chipped credit cards? got cloned pretty fast innit? mark my words.. it won't be too long till we heard something like "we must improve on the security features!" or "we need an online confirmation, so need upgrade!"



NEWS 2

Maybank aims to woo 100,000 Zing card users

from The Star link

KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank expects to attract over 100,000 users of Maybankard Touch 'n Go Zing card in the next 12 months, said executive vice-president, head of cards business group, Ashraf Ali Kadir.

The contactless smartcard has a microchip and antenna embedded in it, with an auto-reload feature that will provide a fixed RM100 top-up when the value falls below RM50.

Customers are levied a one-time nominal issuance fee of RM10 for the Zing card and a RM2 fee for each automatic reload, with the Touch 'n Go reload transaction billed to the cardholders through their credit card statements.

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hmmmm.... here's the thing
1. Why do they say minimum top up amount to be RM50 when the highest amount for 1 trip is RM41.30 ok la if to include that one off toll at kempas its an additional RM2.10. So the highest probability is that RM43.40. why can't they set the top up amount to be RM44?

I know its a mere RM6 difference but please bear in mind these RM50 min top up is the float ie free money that's sitting in Rangkaian Segar's (touch n go operator). To put that into perspective

maybank alone have 100,000 auto reloads cards. That equates to RM5Million of free float to Rangkaian Segar from Maybank Customers alone. I guess it is safe to say there are at least 400,000 auto reload or those with minimum RM50 before reload which rouhly translate to RM20Million of free float.

there are 2.4 mill touch and go in circulation. Assuming the balance 2 million of the Tn'G cardholder will top up their Tn'G when it reached RM5 that will roughly equates to RM10 million of free float money.

This gives them a total free float of a grand RM30 Milllion of float. What this means though is that they'll get a minimum of RM900,000 of free money from the interest earned by placing all this float in deposit. That is IF we assume they put it in a fixed deposit type of deposit.

What if they manage it slightly differently by putting a portion in long term fixed income intruments like corporate bonds with higher interest, and some other mixtures of investments? I'm sure they'll do this (if they don't then they should fire the CFO or FC) and an average return of more than RM1 million can be easily managed.

With all these extra money Rangkaian Segar still want to charge us yearly fee. Pheeesh!!!! Greedy.. greedy.. greedy....

and please do remember that they do collect commission from the toll operators, LRTs, parking operators etc whenever you use the Tn'G cards and I can tell you that their rate is wayyy better than those credit cards company.


Personally I think it is ok for them to reap the interest return from all this extra floats, if they don't then I don't think they're doing a very good job or being smart for that matter. However, what the above highlight was that they can very well earn some significant extra income without even charging us the yearly fee. Afterall we don't really got charged rearly maintenance fee with our Mastercards or Visa isn't it? (what? you do? choyyy!!!! go and call the bank and say wanna cancel card lah... sure they'll waive it for you oneeeeee ;))

I also believe the customer should be able to determine their own level of top-up, afterall not everybody travel from JB to KL everyday and those RM50 can be better be used to buy goods and help to make the RM move faster.


note : the same thing happened with fastrak/fast tag issued by Gamuda/roadbuilder concessionaraires (LDP, KESAS, SPRINT). they have top up amount of RM20 when max charge for each toll is RM1.50. Go figure

ok mates.. me off...

cheers

News! News! News!

i know i know I've been ultra lazy in updating the blog. dunno meh? me always this lazy?? aiyah...

anyway... been busy with work, work, work, moving house, son, partner, and got knows what else but the reason I post now is that I think from now on I would post a snippets from the local news and my comments about it.

there were few occasions where I got scolded for not informing my friends about something. Aiyah! like its my fault la right? it went something like this


friend : Tiu! my counter went down lah. Siao ah.. no news also suddenly go down. Somemore market go up in europe.
me : which counter?
friend : **** *** *** **** Berhad lah!
me : Aiyah that one of course go down la Labu
friend : how you know? say say only
me : Aiyah!! you ah..... of course go down lah. Their cost went up what? margin also wafer thin as it is
friend : but european market up what 2 days ago.
me : tiu leyr.. so if europe up we must up meh? see lah why they go up? their market went up lead by energy stocks lah. Energy is not TNB ler.. its oil and gas and the only reason those feckers went up is because of higher price marh...
friend : tiu leyr.... said broad market gains. dunno energy that's leading. tiu. tiu. tiu..... you lah!
me : eh! eh! why me?
friend : you lah! yesterday when I call don't tell me one?
me : tiu!! you call ask about car what? what for I talk about European Bourses?
friend : Who ask you not to talk about stock market? You know already still don't want to tell?
me : tiu! if KLSE ok lah... but this one Europe one lah! LONTON AH!!! FRANKFURTER LAH!! How fark would I know what to tell you? basket!
friend : Don't care. You pay for your own drinks.
*he then suddenly stand up and walk away from the table stop at the counter, talk to the mamak and walk off to his car

then the mamak walked to me and said

mamak : macha, itu kawan cakap you bayar
me : huh?
mamak : itu kawan bukan? itu pakai baju merah tadi...
me : ah ok! milo ais satu sama maggie goreng ayam.
mamak : ini?
*finger pointing to the the other plates and drinks
me : huh? *with blur face
mamak : dia cakap you bayar mah
me : HUH? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


So lets share share lah


here's a snippets from related news

click link here

Europe: Energy shares lead broad market gains

By Chris Fournier Bloomberg News TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2006

LONDON European shares rose on Monday, led by energy companies, as crude oil prices approached a three-month high. Friso Rengers, a fund manager at ABN AMRO Asset Management in Amsterdam, said he was not surprised that oil stocks were leading the advance. "This bull market for energy will last as long as the supply and demand situation is out of whack," he said. "That'll be years." RWE led gains among utility shares on reports that Terra Firma Capital Partners planned to buy the company's British water unit for £8 billion. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index added 0.70 point to 317.57, with 10 of the 18 industry groups rising. The Stoxx 50 added 4.37 points to 3,425.74, with Vodafone Group limiting gains. The Euro Stoxx 50, a gauge for the 12 countries using the euro, rose 15.16 points to 3,644.41. The Stoxx 600 oil & gas index is the top performer so far this year, up 6.6 percent, almost triple the 2.4 percent gain on the broader measure. BP, Europe's biggest oil company, advanced 12 pence to close at 666 pence. Total, the region's largest oil refiner, rose E1.60 to E223.50. Total said its refining margin, or the profit made from turning each barrel of crude oil into products like gasoline, increased 2.7 percent, to $45.50 a ton, in the fourth quarter from the preceding quarter. Technip, Europe's largest oil-services company, added 80 cents to E56.50. Benchmark indexes rose in all 18 West European markets except Luxembourg. The DAX gained 31.55 points to 5,514.64. The FTSE 100 added 29.20 points to 5,740.20, and the CAC 40 rose 5.56 points to 4,856.09. Indexes rising steadily European indexes this month reached their highest level since 2001 on speculation that earnings growth would continue even as the global economy cools and interest rates rise. Analysts expect profit growth at Stoxx 600 companies to slow to an average 9 percent this year, from an estimated 22 percent in 2005, according to forecasts compiled by FactSet Research Systems.