Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by tctham

How do we know exactly which company aided Israel?

tctham — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 10:37:07 +0800

Seems like the boycott calls for companies that allegedly supported the Israeli government and their invasion on Gaza is still on going.
But let's put all of that aside (let's look at this from a neutral standpoint) and focus on 1 particular point.
How do we know whether the company REALLY did support the Israel via profit/donation and etc?

I mean, like McD has been the target of boycott, with the masses calling for boycott because McD Malaysia is allegedly supporting Israel.
So, this is people saying McD support Israel.
But McD Malaysia also did issue statement that they are 100% muslim owned entity, and did not support Israel.
So, how do we know which one is truth?

[Hype] 100% muslim owned entity McDonalds Malaysia denies support for Israel

In the link, also there is some interesting take.
Seems like, declaring no support for Israel, doesn't really mean much to Malaysians as well, since they say, McD didn't say they support Palestine, thus they are somewhat an eligible target for boycott?

Side question:
How do we categorize things?
is it:
A. Support Palestine v Neutral/Indifference v Support Israel
OR
B. Support Palestine v dan lain-lain (means support Israel)

Starbucks is another one entity that seems to be caught in crossfire.
Some party (in US) used Starbucks logo to profess support for Israel.
Then, naturally, Starbucks will deny that (because as a business, it's better to stay neutral).
And because of this denial, some pro-Israel movement, decided to boycott Starbucks (in US), because they did not show support for Israel.
on the other hand, Starbucks somehow is always linked to support for Israel (despite them saying no), and thus, pro-Palestine movement also decides to boycott Starbucks in US.

So, how do we actually know we are boycotting the right thing or not? what if suddenly someone said, XXX brand is supporting israel, we boycott. then we just buta buta boycott?

When in need of help, seek Madani

tctham — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 20:49:43 +0800

Shit on Saudi Gov, gets detained, ask Madani for help
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5418807/all
https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/malaysian-m...-030947721.html

Boycott business that hire majority locals (esp bumi)
now locals impacted, PN asking Madani, if they plan to take action to help the locals.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023...cals-says-rayer

We need more forest logging

tctham — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 17:21:20 +0800

QUOTE

Tiger attacks: Urgent steps needed to stem decline of prey species, says WWF-Malaysia
PETALING JAYA: WWF-Malaysia says the decline in the wild boar and, in the long run, Sambar deer populations must be addressed urgently.

In a statement on Monday (Nov 13), it said the prey augmentation approach is needed to establish a healthier ecosystem that reduces the need for tigers to venture into human settlements to seek sustenance.

The call comes after the recent tragedies in Pos Pasik, Gua Musang, with the deaths of three men from tiger attacks within a month.

“The proximity of the incidents, with the most recent occurring less than 48 hours after the previous one, raises great concern.

“While the Kelantan Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) partially attributes these occurrences to the 'shrinking' of the jungle, it is crucial to acknowledge the additional factor of insufficient prey species for tigers, contributing to the rise in fatal tiger-human interactions on the peninsula,” the report said.

On Oct 13, WWF-Malaysia emphasised the critical need to increase the prey population for tigers.

Apart from the declining Sambar deer, the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in domestic pigs in 2021 spread to the wild population and threatened the survival of the boar population in Malaysian forests.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the ASF virus, with a mortality rate of up to 100%, affects both domestic and wild pigs.

“In Sabah, the recovery of the bearded pig was recorded only after more than a year.
“The dire depletion of prey species in Peninsular Malaysia has created an ecological imbalance, forcing tigers to seek alternative food sources for survival, including domestic livestock, which often brings them into conflict with humans,” it said.

The latest attack by a tiger on a Myanmar national took place at a rubber plantation in Meranto in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

Previously, an Indonesian rubber tapper was mauled by a tiger in Kuala Wok, near Pos Pasik.

In early October, an Orang Asli man was found dead with a leg missing in the Pos Pasik Forest and with claw marks on his head and body.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023...ys-wwf-malaysia

QUOTE

Tiger population not affected by logging, claims Kelantan Forestry Dept director

PETALING JAYA: The Kelantan Forestry Department claims that logging activities in the state did not affect its tiger population.

Department director Abdul Khalim Abu Samah said such activities could even be good for the tiger population in the area, based on a study done by an expert from Sarawak.

He was reported by Malay language daily Sinar Harian as saying that when logging occurred, new flora would emerge, attracting animals such as mouse deer to the area.

“The presence of such animals would afford an easier food source for tigers when compared to thick forests,” Abdul Khalim was quoted as saying.

Abdul Khalim said this in response to claims that the presence of tigers near several Orang Asli villages in Gua Musang were the result of excessive logging.

Earlier, Abdul Khalim was at the site to witness an operation to eradicate illegal loggging in the Relai forest reserve in Gua Musang on Monday (Jan 24).

The operation involved as many as 81 personnel from the Forestry Department, state Land and Mines Office, Royal Malaysia Police and Civil Defence Force.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022...y-dept-director

Persona MT 2018 transmission jerky when shifting g

tctham — Sun, 20 Aug 2023 18:34:56 +0800

Hi would like to ask if anyone have any idea what might be wrong with my car?
It's a persona MT 2018.
Lately the car is feeling jerky during gear shifts, more pronounced at 1st and 2nd gear, specifically during bite points. When it reaches bite point the rpm will suddenly drop like it's gonna stall.

It used to happen during cold start, but slowly, after warming up the car, it still behaves like that. So far what helps is adding a little gas before shifting.

I cleaned throttle body, spark plugs changed 10k km ago, transmission oil changed 20k km ago. Engine oil last serviced 2k km ago.

How old a car wud motivate you to change raya car?

tctham — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 07:58:24 +0800

Well it's always said, raya coming, gotta have new car to balik kampung dengan bangga.

How old your car have to be, when these thoughts intrude your mind? "car old liao, gotta change new car to feel good when go back kampung this year?"

Car buying process changed?

tctham — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 19:54:29 +0800

In the process of looking for a new car, I realized something has changed since the last time I purchased a car (5 years ago).
Back then, I go to showrooms, I ask the SA, what is the best price, they tell me the RRP + their discount, I find the deal that suits me the most, then I place my booking.

Now, a lot of SA, is asking me to place a booking, then only they go discuss best price with their "manager". Sounds like a lot of bullshit to me.

At first I noticed this trend among used car dealers, fair enough, given there is a much larger variance of "discount" depending on the car make, year and condition.

But now even new car dealers are doing the same thing, asking me to place a booking first, before they discuss discount with their "manager".

Is this the common trend for car purchase moving forward?

Why so many ppl so little money in EPF?

tctham — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 15:09:08 +0800

Are we having some serious poverty issue?
taking info from the following source After first net withdrawal in 20 years of RM58b in 2021, EPF vows to go back to rebuilding members' savings.

QUOTE

The emergency measures resulted in 6.1 million or around half of EPF members having less than RM10,000 in their accounts — a considerable jump of 28% from 4.7 million members as of April 2020.

Furthermore, 2.6 million members now have less than RM1,000 in EPF savings — a drastic 86% increase from 1.4 million as of April 2020.

Few takeaway points here, starting with the obvious
1. ~10% EPF members having <RM1,000
2. >50% EPF members having <RM10,000
3. total EPF members <13m; total labor force ~16.3m; meaning there are >3m ppl that are not contributing to EPF

Are these indications of Msia suffering from serious poverty issues or majority of Malaysian not actively contributing into EPF?

if we are indeed having poverty issues, what are the steps that help alleviate poverty issues?

IMO, steps that definitely would not work, would be to raise the minimum wage by 20%. because it is clearly a low hanging fruit. Sounds like solving a problem, but it actually costs a host of other problems, like
1a. those that are slightly above min wage (RM1.6k), will their salaries be adjusted?
1b. there is a sudden increase of salaries in the lower region, but not adjusted for the top. Going to cause some imbalance in near future.
2. sudden increase of OPEX, how would business cope?

sila bincangkan (20 markah)

<50% melei boosted

tctham — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 17:40:25 +0800

Top boosted melei by state
1. Sarawak 80%
2. Melaka 64.6%
3. Labuan 62.3%

Bottom boosted melei by state
1. Sabah 24.8%
2. Kelantan 25.3%
3. Perlis 30.9%

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Life After Death

tctham — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:36:45 +0800

As we all know, when penguins are taking care of their youngs, one will stay and care for the child while the other heads out for fishing. When it is back from fishing after a few days, it will then take over the role of taking care of the young, while the one that was at nest, will head out to fish for food this time.

But life is not all rosy during fish hunting. Predators like ~~sea lions~~ fur seals will catch these penguins at work.

So what happens to the adult penguin and its kid back at the nest, when the family waits for its member to come back, but eventually never did because fell to sea lion's maw?

[YOUTUBE]30RvJEZrHeU[/YOUTUBE]

Proton recalls Preve, Suprima, Exora

tctham — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:42:09 +0800

QUOTE

SHAH ALAM: Proton Holdings Bhd will recall almost 100,000 units of its Exora, Preve and Suprima models to fix the CFE oil cooler hoses starting Tuesday.

Its chief executive officer, Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah, said these models faced problems of the oil cooler hoses, which would break down when the cars reach an average mileage of 40,000 kilometres (km), due to the degration of internal hose/tube material.

"We will call the owners and the priority will be given to the cars with mileage of 40,000 km and above. We hope to finish this in the next six months," he told reporters at the preview of the new Proton Perdana here on Tuesday. - Bernama

sos: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016...-hose-problems/

[@narf03] proton heard you..

Liow Tiong Lai says "It's time to kicap!"

tctham — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 22:01:14 +0800

here's to awkward ad placement

Ikea recalls ceiling lamp

tctham — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 20:41:44 +0800

Hola /ktards,

please check your house got use these ceiling lamps. Bring back to IKEA for refund.

QUOTE

Ikea has urged customers, who have a Hyby, Lock or Rinna ceiling lamp, to immediately remove it and bring it back to any Ikea store for a full refund.

In a statement, the furniture store said it had received customer reports globally of the ceiling lamp glass shades falling.

In a few cases, medical treatment was required, including one from Malaysia, it said.

Selanjutnya di : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/02/126546/...iling-lamps?m=1

HYBY

RINNA

LOCK

Good customer service?

tctham — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:28:23 +0800

How do you define a good customer service for online purchase or walk in purchase?

for walk-in, you prefer people readily available for you to ask question or you feel them following you as something very annoying?

“Companies that prioritize the customer experience generate 60% higher profits than their competitors.” (Source: Leading on the Edge of Chaos)

How do you define if the company is one that prioritize customer experience?

can also describe how you define the company's customer experience for industries that provide services macam IT vendor / telco services and etc..

GTH close down

tctham — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 09:48:29 +0800

Okay.. not exactly new news... but sadding cause GTH Co Ltd closing down..

QUOTE

GMM Tai Hub Co Ltd, a film-studio venture of three Thai media giants, will close its doors after 11 years in business over a stock-listing disagreement.

GTH, the producer of Pee Mak, the first Thai film to break the 1-billion-baht box office...

sos: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/76...isting-conflict

TLDR: GTH is the producer of famous thai films like, Laddaland; Pee Mak; Hello Stranger; and I Fine, Thank You, Love You; 4Bia.

GTH is a merger between 3 companies and these companies unable to reach an agreement point towards their business direction. so decide to separate.

why belanja ppl but dun tell ppl why?

tctham — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:23:38 +0800

[@kelvinstlim], why [@stevensse] belanja us chatime but don't tell us why?

PAS wants 'whistleblower' to own up

tctham — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 11:10:00 +0800

Article:

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Sos:The Star

The way he said it, as if the whistle blower only revealed selected information that caused the public to misunderstand the meaning of what Zuhdi said.

However, he himself refuse to disclose the entire conversation out. If the conversation is as innocent as he said, why not disclose the full conversation? Or if Zuhdi is as innocent as he implies, why not reveal more of the conversation that can defend Zuhdi?

Dynamics CRM 2011 - SQL Query by code or codename?

tctham — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:29:29 +0800

Hi All,

I was checking through my reports written using SQL queries to see if I can further optimize my codes when I suddenly wondered.

"Would the system be faster if I filter by code instead of codename?"

Query #1:

CODE

SELECT owneridname, scheduledstart
FROM dbo.FilteredAppointment
WHERE statecode IN (1, 3)

Query #2:

CODE

SELECT owneridname, scheduledstart
FROM dbo.FilteredAppointment
WHERE statecode IN ('1', '3')

Query #3:

CODE

SELECT owneridname, scheduledstart
FROM dbo.FilteredAppointment
WHERE statecodename IN ('Completed', 'Scheduled')

My initial thoughts:
1. The codename is often get from the StringMap table and code usually resides in the base table. So it should be faster if I filter the query by codes instead. Looking at the three queries above, I would think that query by string would be slower.
But results show otherwise. The result shows query #3 is the fastest among the 3

2. Since it's querying against the same view, it should not show vast difference in resource usage.
Again I was wrong. Query #3 was more than 50% less exhausting compared to Query #1 and #3

Results for the 3 queries in terms of "Est Subtree cost"
Query #1: Est Subtree cost: 0.325311
Query #2: Est Subtree cost: 0.325311
Query #3: Est Subtree cost: 0.190786

So for those that dabble with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, can explain why does it behave in this manner?

government hospital xray and consultation hours

tctham — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 19:55:50 +0800

Dear /k,
Just want to ask if you all know if I want to take an xray of my lungs and check if there's any infection at government hospital, it can only be done at working hours or I can go at night as well?

Short history. I was diagnosed with pneumonia last month and was hospitalized. Chest tubes was inserted to remove fluids from my lungs. Discharged about 2-3 weeks ago. But coughing suddenly worsen and I feel like going to hospital again to do a checkup.

Would /k judge a person is pretty or not

tctham — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 16:49:42 +0800

As per title and description,

if cannot see full face, would /k judge if a person is pretty or not?

Drillz

[YOUTUBE]Mmv5ZU2HFMc[/YOUTUBE]

Elder girl, Younger guy

tctham — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:38:16 +0800

As the topic title says,

if you're a guy, would you go for a girl that is older than you?
if you're a girl, would you go for a guy that is younger than you?

What are the possible outcomes from this? why from social pov, lots of people say it's more trouble than it's worth?