The laptop detector..

The laptop detector, for crying out loud, is an urban legend and a myth. Do you believe in Bigfoot? How about aliens living among us? How about Lochness Monster? How about you stop believing every messed up crap you read on the internet?

The e-mails about this circulating are like those retarded chain e-mails that tells you if you forward this e-mail on, u will find the love of your life/wont get cursed bad luck for 10 years/some poor or disfigured kid somewhere will get 3c per email forwarded by Microsoft. Gotta love those e-mails.

Apparently there is a booming business in Asia that starts with the purchase of a small device that can detect the presence of a laptop.

Thieves use these devices to determine laptops left in cars or any other unsupervised areas and quickly grab the laptops. Obviously, the monetary value of the device is of concern, but much more important is the proprietary data on the laptops.

This is a good reminder for all of us anywhere in the world, but especially important to those travelling to the Asia region. Make sure your laptop is with you at all times. I know this is difficult when we go to lunch or dinner immediately after work, but never leave the laptops in a car; even locked cars are being broken into if the presence of a laptop is detected.

FYI, in Malaysia , lots of laptops are being stolen from time to time. Too bad....be carefull...

Laptop detector does really exist. 
For those who have never heard of it, 
here are the pictures of the detector: 

http://images.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=...l%3Den%26sa%3DN 


Even the wifi, bluetooth or the entire notebook is completely off, 
it can still be detected via radio frequency, 
so never leave your laptop, pda, handphone ...
in the car coz PEOPLE KNOW. 

These devices are not expensive, 
it costs less than RM50 for the thieves to start the "business

RADIO FREQUENCY? Really? Do you tag your laptop with RFID? If so, you deserve to get your laptop stolen. Don't know whats a RFID is? Then you probably dont have one!

If your laptop is properly turned OFF and not kept on standby or sleep mode, no wifi no bluetooth and even your main battery is turned off. The only battery left is the one that keeps your system clock in place, and that little thing can't power a light bulb, much less be detected through a metal trunk filled with wires and circuits.

Stop the retarded fear mongering about such a device, if exist, I'm sure it's called the magical fairydust detector wand. Anything thats magical enough to detect a laptop will also detect a tonne of other electronical components in the car and trunk.

And I quote from this forum post: http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/poptech-for-you/post.htm?id=63011266

The Sun paper in Malaysia continously generates gripping headlines. But this time, its headline about having caught a gang of car thieves equipped with laptop detectors was just too much! This is an URBAN LEGEND! The tech and geek community have to confirm or disprove this urban legend once and for all. 

Some background on this article. Gang of car thieves was caught and this induction amplifier was a piece of "equipment" they had on them. THe Sun paper proceeds to label it as a laptop detector. This is professional equipment for finding live wires in concrete. We can all agree on that. It was most probably used by the car thieves to look for the car alarm wires, and suitable places to drill in the body of the car to cut the alarm wires. 

I've discussed ths with a retired electrical engineer fomerly working with law enforcement.  He doesn't think this gadget can find a notebook in a car. To be precise, it will never be able to find a laptop which has been powered down and lying in the trunk of a car.

The scientific basis: Induction amplifiers detect alternating magnetic fields. Meaning it detects only magnetic fields generated by alternating current. If the hard drive has hibernation mode on, it is possible to detect the notebook in the car. But considering the car trunk lid is metal, it would shield the notebook. If you leave a hibernating notebook on the car seat, it may be able to detect. Then again, the detector would be unecessary as you can just look through the window anyway. The range of the detector? In an open space, possbily up to 3-4ft. In the confines of a car with its metal framework? None?

Anyone want to discuss this or have scientifically based opinions as to the existence of a gadget which can detect notebooks in the trunk of your car? OR should we all just dismiss the Sun's headlines as sensationalism?

Or should we just consider this another myth about a gadget which can detect notebooks in your car trunk BUSTED?

The most probable cause of thieves scoring direct hits on car trunks with notebooks in them is, I firmly believe, surveillance. They watch unintelligent people who park their cars and then open the trunk to keep their notebooks "safely" in there. I cannot bring myself to believe that laptop detectors exist.

The only piece of advice I have for anyone who likes to keep their laptops in car trunks is put them in the car before your journey, and to switch it off and not leave it hibernating.

Before your even start believing in everything you read, like "news" like this and medical stuff, look it up, find the logic and science behind them. If you don't know how it works, then u should not believe it. If anyone has any prove that such a stupid device exist, buy it, show me how it works and explain the science behind it. Thanks.

I stand my ground and say that fearing such a stupid device is like fearing bigfoot will appear in your backyard and eat you for dinner. Leave that 3kg dumbbell in the car.

Logging off,
Lawy3rz

Life revolves around money.

Doesn't it so? Without money there can be no life, no freedom.. I want to think that at this day and age the world has become smaller - that it is this generation with the ability to roam the world freely.. But at the end of the day, it all depends on whether you have money.. I have alot of wishful thinking, and I realize that most of them can be achieved with money.

So money money money, where are u? One thing's for certain, it isn't here in Malaysia, unless of course you either have political connections or you own a successful business. But it's so conflicting.. I would probably enjoy my life in Malaysia more than I would back in Melbourne - having family, friends here.

But then I wouldn't have the money to be free, and being free, and independent, is important to me...This sucks! My mind is conflicted between a life in Malaysia or a life in Melbourne..

Life is conflicting indeed.

Logging off,
Lawy3rz

New template... or not..

Remember that new template I was talking about years back? Well I finally got something done. or not quite. It's half assed complete but I have to go out now so I'll fix it when I get back.

Its done! I think...

Oh wait IE8 has errors. It's always IE, IE sucks =.=" Whatever. Cant figure out a way to fix it without having a server or free direct linking file hosting at my disposal and am not willing to compromise either.

Chrome

IE8

Even more bizzare, the PREVIEW in IE8 shows it working fine but the ACTUAL one doent look the same. what on earth.

Left = actual IE8. Right = Preview (from blogger) using IE8. Conclusion? get chrome.

Like it? Hate it?

Let me know.

Note that credits goes to raycreations for this new template - i'm simply too lazy and unskilled to make this quality of template. Links at the sidebar right at the bottom.

Old template..

Logging off,
Lawy3rz

Life and it's decisions..

There's alot going on in my mind right now it feels like a raging war.

What are the right decisions to make in life?
"There are no right decisions, only decisions that will determine you"
What should I do now? Should I stay in Australia? Should I come home to Malaysia? Should I find a job? Should I travel?

Wasn't life much simpler a century ago? Why, given more choices and opportunities, is life more difficult now? Conflicts happen not only in wars, but also in minds.

In the end, there is no answer, or at least, no easy answer.

Choices can be both a blessing and a curse at the same time. To me, it is such a pain in the ass.

I have made many, many mistakes till my path here. I spent my last 2 years trying to correct mistakes made in a blink of an eye. For that I am fearful to make more mistakes that could take my rest of my life to fix. But I shouldn't be.

Young and free, I know I need to keep free. but i made the biggest mistake there, and wasted a lot of money, because of my short-sightedness. My parent's dont think I feel the pain of the money, but I do, and I do dearly.It is pain enough seeing money spent, it is even more painful to know it is not even your money, and it is the most painful hearing your parents tell u that u dont understand that pain at all.

It sucks. Someone please paint my path with bright reflective paint and light it up with neon lights all the way. thanks in advance.

Logging off,
Lawy3rz

Emirates MEL-KUL

I have so intended to update my blog for ages now but always procrastinate until I never got around to doing it until now.. I always need to get into my blog "mood" to update and then for the next few days I go on an updating spree.. Always the same all the time..

Anyway this blog post is a review of my flight back from Melbourne to KL, taking emirates for the first time! There is this donkey who told me that the emirates flight smells one kind but I can tell you first hand that that is absolutely nonsense.

To begin with, the flight was 2.40am in the morning. really? On the other hand I didn't quite mind because it meant that I would reach KL on a saturday at 9 in the morning, definitely better than reaching late into the afternoon or evening. Plus I'm such a night owl I didn't really mind, but I'm sure there are others who would prefer a more sane time.

My boarding pass..

I sat around drinking latte and opening my laptop like some businessman actually I was trying to play MW2 but for some reason steam wont connect - it's such a pain sometimes.. So i sat around going through facebook and all and suddenly i got PAGED via the intercom. That was soo cool, apparently those who web check in need to trade their a4 printed piece of paper for a fancy boarding pass!

Freee newspaper!

Finally boarding, free newspaper which everyone took one but I bet not even half of them took time to read it <---- me included!

There's pilows! yipee!

Here comes the inventory of everything that came with the economy emirates flight from Mel to Kul, and I bet the person sitting next to me was thinking what a jakun I am taking pictures of pillows, safety instructions, lunch menu.....

Horrible horrible LCD screens

Horrible terrible crappy shitty lousy lcd screens - c'mon emirates, you could do better than this! the screens could not be tilted to a comfortable angle to watch, it was glaring and absolutely hard to watch anything, and when the front chair is pushed all the way back like mine, it was made worse! and I know this wasn't just my seat problem because I could see a few other passengers in front of me who had to push their screens and keep pushing their lcd screens because it wouldn't tilt, or rather it tilt but the hinge was loose and quickly fall back. In conclusion, it was glaring, wobbly and an absolutely torture to watch. Just look at the picture above, can u see shit?

Just the pathway..

The newspaper I took but never read...

Here's where my jakun picture taking comes in.. duty free collection..

Safety instruction LOL..

Oooo I like the menu!

There was cameras for the front and bottom of the plane..

There were cameras for the front and bottom of the plane which i've heard of but never seen before and i found this pretty cool! you could see the take off and landing from the crappy lcd screens in front of you..

My favourite part of the entire flight: the ceiling.

I absolutely love the concept of the starry ceiling, it was amazing for a night flight! See how they lined the ceiling with lights that look like stars it looked amazing and these pictures do not do it justice.

How it looks like during the night..

This was lunch.

This was lunch. the breakfast was a miserable single tiny tiny pie which was smaller than a cupcake, and so forgettable that i didnt even take a picture of it. Oh and this "lunch" was served like 4am or something. The food waasn't bad, it was nice but I thought MAS food was more complete and more fulfilling. I definitely didn't feel satisfied after chomping these all down (or maybe it's just me..)

Taking off video from cameras in front and bottom of the plane!

Landing video!

Other things I noted that fairly expected of a full service airlines: warm towels provided before the flight. One thing I noticed that I felt emirates went out of the way was fluffy toys for kids, which I thought was quite thoughtful of them.. Oh and did i mention the crappy lcd screens were also crappy touch screens?

I had a headache throughout the flight and the flight attendant promptly brought panadols for me too. The malaysia counterpart air crew had really horrible english, and hardly audible over the intercom. Please try to get someone who can speak english clearer.

Conclusion: I had an enjoyable flight, with the exception of the in flight entertainment system which had problems for the first hour of the flight, and the horrible horrible lcd screens - which I feel was quite important for a flight of 8 hours. The glittering sky was a nice unique touch, the food smelled awesome, tasted decent, and little touches like toys for the kids, panadols for myself, made the fine touches to the flight. Emirates would definitely be on my list for airlines to consider for the next time I fly between MEL and KUL again.

Logging off,

Lawy3rz