neomick.com » Gadget and Tech

Missed Call Alert and Voice Mails

Mr. SKS — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:25:53 +0000

Missed Call Alert (MCA) and Voice Mails (VM) play an important role on your mobile subscriber especially when you are out of your coverage area or you are in NO situation to answer any phone calls. With this nifty service, one could call the other party once they received your VM or when they are available.

When you are in a plane getting home after a business trip, or you are in the cinema with no coverage, or you are in a mosque doing your prayers, MCA and/or VM will automatically generates / sends you an alert that shows you time and the number of callers via pop-up or SMS (depending upon your service provider and mobille phone) immediately when you are in your coverage area. Unfortunately, these services are slowly to be forgotten by mobile users. One rather wait for different time to re-dial the unreachable user. Kenape yek? If it is because of cost spent talking to the machine, I do not think it would be any cheaper because the machine only records for 30 sec per message. Perhaps, one could even cut some bills having the other party to call back. Hmm… *fingers tapping*

Expanding Touch’nGo Card Usage

Mr. SKS — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:59:08 +0000

Touch’nGo card can be the next best thing apart from Debit Visa/Mastercard here in Malaysia where it offers a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card that can be used to transfer electronic payments. It was launched in March 1997 and serves as a convenient card for transport payment system (i.e. LRT, bus, tolls, and parking). Eversince it has been in the market for the last 11 years (quiet a long time), but the services offer by this card remains the same – still prioritize on transport payment system. I personally think that Touch’nGo card can widen or expand their usage or application to others such as at convenience stores (7-Eleven, Carrefour Xpress, etc), supermarkets (Giant, Tesco, etc), fast-food restaurants (McD, KFC, BK, etc), on-street parking meters, taxi, vending machines, public phones, and other point-of-sale that requires small change. Just imagine how convenience it would be to live life on a fast-lane. No hassle for small change, less time waiting in line, no need to carry sums of cash, and other minor obstacles.

But offcourse, it needs a better network of retailers. It would be great to have a card (cash debited offcourse!) that is interest-free and no annual fees. My only concern would be in term of security. Unlike Debit Visa/Mastercard like most banks offers (i.e. Ambank-NexG, Affinbank, etc) they are protected by bank’s security system. Meaning that if you lost your card, you can report a stolen card with just one call and immediately the card will be invalid. Hence, whoever found it will not have the access to the card.

However, Touch’nGo card is not design for security reason. . It is designed to give its users a fast, accurate, and zero-hassle payment. Just “tap-and-go” kind a payment. Plus, it is debitted. So you don’t have to worry about debt at the end of the month.

My First Nokia Mobile Phone – E66

Mr. SKS — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:10:01 +0000

Eversince I was first introduced with mobile phones in 1999, I never had a Nokia mobile phone. All these years I’ve been switching either Motorola(s) or Sony Ericsson(s). A couple of days before my flights to Macau and Hong Kong, me and my buddies went to a Digital Mall to fancy Samsung Omnia. We want to take a closer look and test ’em for their performance, capability and all. Plus, I also wanted to survey which mobile is best to suit my need right now – for work and personal. Omnia’s overall rating was great but the price seems rather expensive. In fact more expensive than HTC. Even if it’s not, I would still need to consider having a touch-screen mobile phone. Kinda not my type – at least not yet! I had no intention in buying Nokia E66 at that time.

So, we were goofing and loofing around some other booths and that’s when my friend recommended me with Nokia E66. I wasn’t hesitated that time nor I felt anxious on that little gadget. The design was satisfiying enough – meaning it has a business and a personal look. I wouldn’t want it to look too formal like E71. The salesman continues to brief us on what’s and how’s. He showed us how the GPS works and that’s when this little gadget got my attention and finally own it. I even request the salesman to install Macau and Hong Kong maps on my cell.

The Garmin-GPS system is very helpful. It had helped me a lot during my stays in Langkawi and Hong Kong. But, however, there are some not-so-cool fact about it. I hated the built-in camera. It’s only 3.5 MP and the autofocus didn’t work to my expectation. Even on a sunny day, the picture captured still blurry! The video however works perfectly as it should be.

Other that that, I am in a state of Nokia Transition – which means that I need to get adjusted with Nokia’s filing system and it’s tricks and treats. I surely hope this miserable Nokia Transition mode would be over soon.

Me and Liquid Nitrogen

CK — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:20:27 +0000

One of the objectives of my thesis project is to prepare porous material. In order to determine whether my material is porous or not, I’ve to check its porosity, surface area, etc. using an instrument called BET. The thing about BET that I don’t really like is I have to use liquid nitrogen. Pouring the liquid nitrogen from the vacuum tank to the dewar is one h*** of a thing to do. It’s freakin’ scary. The sound when it boils and the vapour that comes out from the tank…those things really scared Angah (my labmate) and I especially the first time we got to do it on our own…

For those who haven’t heard of this thing, liquid nitrogen is pure nitrogen, in a liquid state. It is produced industrially in large quantities by fractional distillation of liquid air (don’t bother to understand this…hehe…). At atmospheric pressure, liquid nitrogen boils at 77 K (-196 °C/-321 °F), and freezes at 63 K (210 °C/346 °F). It is a cryogenic fluid which can cause rapid frostbite on contact with living tissue. In other words, you’ll freeze your hand if you touch it. Just imagine if you accidently pour it on your feet. Argghh…that fact really freaks me out…

Liquid nitrogen is actually not that dangerous if you handle it in a proper way and wear those PPE (personal protective equipment) like safety boots, glove, goggle, etc (like I did…hehe…). You’ll get use to it if you have to use it everyday (tp saya still takut gak).

Some people might laugh if they read about this (yelah.. betapa penakut nye saya…) because there are people that is find with it (blh buat main lagi…). Like this one article I found on the net, they use liquid nitrogen to make ice-cream. Interesting huh?? (actually benda ni dah lama, saya je baru tau..huhu…). The ingredients and methods are just the same like making the normal ice-cream but the freezing part is different. Instead of putting it inside the freezer, liquid nitrogen is used to freeze the ice-cream. It took only 10 minutes to freeze the ice-cream. Cepatkan?

Check this web out: http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Henry/Icecream/Icecream.html.

Know Your Blog Traffic Rank

Mr. SKS — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:43:10 +0000

If you wanted an easiest way to determine your website or blog traffic rank, I would personnally suggest that you use Alexa.com. All you need to is just these three simple steps:

Surf to http://www.alexa.com and click on Traffic Rankings on the top-center of navigation bar.
Enter your web or blog adress on the field provided.
Submit your enquiry by clicking the Get Traffic Details button.

A result page will appear indicating your site’s traffic rank just below the main navigator bar. A traffic history graph is also shown for you to see the trend or behavior of your visitor in time. Not only that, you also got to see the origin countries or your visitor and your site’s traffic rank in other countries.

Another cool thing about this Web Information Company is that you can browse through the online archives for all of your past articles of your own site. No more feeling worry or dissappointed when your blog is crashed.