Friday, March 22, 2019

G Shock Tahan Lasak


Bila melihat keadaan GShock G9000 3V Mudman saya yang telah saya gunakan sejak dari tahun 2010, saya terfikir untuk mencari replacement strap dan bezel. Boleh rujuk entri jam tersebut di sini. Saya beli dengan harga RM 305. Keadaan jam masih sangat baik dengan baru sekali tukar bateri sepanjang hampir 9 tahun menggunakannya.

So, bergegas lah saya mencari kawan-kawan yang bermain GShock mencari strap dan bezel untuk diganti sebab colour dah mula pudar dan bertompok. I actually did not know that we can wash this G Shock. Selama hampir 9 years guna jam ni, bulan Mac 2019 baru lah saya tahu cara nak tukar waktu dan date. And the most funniest things is, baru tau jam ni ada World Time. Meaning that I do not have to adjust the time manually every time I'm out from my local time zone. Sebab tu di Saudi tempohari saya bawa jam Alba analog saya. Senang nak tukar waktu. And unfortunately, jam yang dibawa masuk ke Masjidil Haram dan Masjid Nabawi tersebut pecah akibat terjatuh di RnR highway Madinah-Jeddah. Tali pula ketika itu baru diganti di Madinah.

So bila sampai Malaysia, rasa-rasa budget nak repair jam Alba. Time-time gini la I explored my Gshock. Downloaded the e-manual and suddenly I found out how to managed this watch. 

Back to the process of replacing the strap and bezel, I got some negative response from friends. Some said that they do not have the stock, others told me to contact some seller on the internet. I eventually tried searching Marco service center but the location is at KL which I tried to avoid. Tanya kedai, kena tunggu stock sementara diorang order and furthermore, diorang macam tak 100% willing to help us in ordering. 

In the end, terfikir nak jual. One of the reason is mata dah rabun dekat, figure pada jam Mudman ni dah agak sukar nak nampak. Need to find something bigger. Some friends kata G Shock ada harga kalau jual balik. So one morning, I went to my office wearing my Mudman and contact one the staff at my office to find a buyer for me. Dia terus call and asked me to sell my Mudman to him for RM 200. Gaji baru bayar. Katanya dia takde jam and dia memang cari Gshock. Dia datang bilik dan terus ambil jam saya. Now I am 'watchless'. 

So I drove to one of the Gshock authorized dealer nearby and bought myself a new G Shock which is the G6900 - 1DR Tough Solar. Jam ini menggunakan teknologi Tough Solar. Maknanya ada bateri tapi bateri akan sentiasa di recharge oleh kuasa solar.

Mula-mula reluctant juga nak beli sebab fikirkan kena berjemur setiap hari nak charge bateri. Sales girl tu cakap guna cahaya lampu pun takpe tapi macam tak percaya pula. Dalam hati ingat aku ni budak-budak ke kau nak tipu daya ni. Salesgirl tu sampai pelik dengan saya. Dia tanya Abang ni kerja dalam gelap ke. 

Then saya Google teknologi ni dan rupanya ini merupakan salah satu keajaiban Casio. Tough Solar memerlukan sedikit sahaja cahaya untuk charging. Kalau ikut spesifikasi dia, kena sikit cahaya dah tahan 10 bulan normal operation. Cahaya pula tak semestinya cahaya matahari. Cahaya lampu pun boleh. Google lagi user review yang dah gunakan Casio Tough Solar ini, diorang cakap memang tahan. Indicator charging tak pernah muncul di skrin jam mereka. Ada yang kata bateri dia kekal lama sepanjang hayat jam. So memandangkan jam ni size dah okay, design pun dah okay, saya pun beli dengan harga RM470. Ada lagi yang lebih besar dan design pun lagi cantik. Tapi atas lima ratus. Bajet ciput. Ini pun dah topup dengan duit jual Mudman. Ikut kata salesgirl tu, lepas ni Mudman dah discontinue. Memang ada harga. Bila tengok design petak Gshock ni macam menarik tapi harga melantun. Ada yang mampu milik tapi size display pula tak berapa pergi. We work on budget. Ikut kata para netizen, G6900 ni design universal dan paling ramai guna so mudah nak cari bezel dan strap. My next step is to find strap replacement and bezel for Baby G BGA200. Rare item juga ni sebab dah discontinue. 

Below are the specifications of this Gshock taken from Casio International Website.

  • Case / bezel material: Resin
  • Resin Band
  • Mineral Glass
  • Shock Resistant
  • 200-meter water resistance
  • Electro-luminescent backlight
    Full auto EL light, afterglow
  • Solar powered
  • World time
    31 time zones (48 cities + coordinated universal time), city code display, daylight saving on/off
  • 1/100-second stopwatch
    Measuring capacity: 23:59'59.99''
    Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time, 1st-2nd place times
  • Countdown timer
    Measuring unit: 1 second
    Input range: 1 minutes to 24 hours (1-minute increments and 1-hour increments)
  • Daily alarms
    5 independent daily alarms (4 one-time alarms and 1 snooze alarm)
  • Hourly time signal
  • Battery power indicator
  • Power Saving (display goes blank to save power when the watch is left in the dark.)
  • Full auto-calendar (to year 2099)
  • 12/24-hour format
  • Button operation tone on/off
  • Regular timekeeping: Hour, minute, second, pm, month, date, day
  • Accuracy: ±15 seconds per month
  • Approx. battery operating time:
    10 months on rechargeable battery (operation period with normal use without exposure to light after charge)
    27 months on rechargeable battery (operation period when stored in total darkness with the power save function on after full charge)
  • Size of case : 53.2×50×17.7mm
  • Total weight : 63gram

Monday, March 18, 2019

M Nasir Solo dan Hukum Karma

Semalam ke Aeon Big Subang Jaya untuk beli barang-barang dapur. Sempat singgah at one of the stalls dalam tu. Stall tu jual CD Muzik. The best thing is dia banyak jual CD Muzik Melayu zaman-zaman 80-an 90-an. Saya dah beberapa kali beli dengan dia. Kadang-kadang siap order lagi dan dia akan dapatkan. Auntie Chinese yang jaga ni nampak banyak knowledge mengenai music scene Rock Melayu. Saya biasanya cari CD muzik zaman kaset saya. Kaset dah rosak, so kena cari CD dia lah. 



Hasil sambaran semalam, dua CD iaitu M Nasir first album SOLO dan Wings Hukum Karma. Album M Nasir ni saya pernah beli zaman kaset. Lagu-lagu dalam tu waktu tu luar kotak. Sedap layan masa nak tidur. Ada satu lagi album M Nasir yang akan saya beli disitu. 


Yang ni pula agak ragu-ragu nak beli sebab kebanyakan lagu dalam ni saya dah ada. Ada certain lagu yang saya bawa jamming. Beli nak lengkap koleksi Album Wings. So sekarang ni ada Hukum Karma, Teori Domino, Jerangkung dalam Almari, Bazooka Penaka dan Naga Kramat. Baru saya perasan ada few songs yang saya takde lagi which is Jerangkap Samar dan Fotostat. Boleh layan jamming lagu Jerangkap Samar lepas ni.

 
 
 

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Pengalaman Umrah (Teaser- Stay Tuned for next Update)



Sedikit tergendala entri ini kerana saya sibuk dengan kerja-kerja akademik. Sekarang pun tengah prepare for my PhD Viva and handling exams questions as I am heading the exam committee. Ditambah pula dengan kecederaan otot tempohari yang, walapun semakin pulih, tapi masih ada beberapa perkara yang perlu diperbaiki. 

Saya titipkan dahulu sedikit catatan perjalanan kami sekeluarga ke Saudi untuk menunaikan umrah. Flight kami depart from KLIA2 jam 1845 hours dan sampai di Jeddah jam 2315 hours waktu Jeddah. 9 jam dalam AirAsiaX. Ayah saya yang tak pernah naik Air Asia sebab zaman dia travel cuma ada MAS, terpaksa bayar RM 6 sebab order air panas. Untuk penerbangan pulang pula, flight kami depart dari Jeddah jam 0100 hours (which actually dekat-dekat 0130 hours baru takeoff) dan sampai di KLIA2 jam 1455 hours. 

I will continue with the rest of the story nanti. Transfer dulu gambar plus edit. Cerita tanpa gambar tak menarik. 

Monday, March 04, 2019

Malaysian ATM Withdrawal in Makkah and Madinah


The original title actually says, Message from Boost as that was the early intention in writing this post but as the entry goes on, I began to membebel on ATM withdrawal at Makkah, so I guess that info is much more importang, so I edited the title. Apa pun, saya start juga this post with the boost message. Got this message thru my email from Boost. One of the steps untuk cegah scammer. Maklumlah dunia tanpa sempadan, semua online, so scammer pun semua IT literate juga. 

Scammer dan hacker adalah dua ancaman utama para penggemar online ni. Hacker tak perlu nak bersusah payah pecahkan password kita menggunakan software. Kadang-kadang mereka guna reverse engineering which is menyamar jadi official representative dari apps yang kita guna. Kemudian mereka guna teknik tipu helah sampai lah kita terpedaya nak dedahkan password.

Manusia zaman sekarang too lazy to pick up the phone and talk to someone or even write an email. Mereka dah dalam serba serbi mudah. Ada connection internet and they will text someone. Even customer service. So bila account apps mereka dah di compromise, tindakan yang diambil untuk repair the damage adalah lambat. Takes them some time to make a call (which receive a faster response sometimes), or even make it to the customer service building to lodge a report (if you happened to stay nearby la). 

For me, I've been using various kind of apps. Boost is the latest one. But honestly, I just installed and register my username. Guna belum lagi. Yang saya kerap guna adalah apps bayar resit parking and sometimes my internet banking apps. Mostly I still prefer using my MBA for internet banking unless its really important where time is so gold. So la sangat.

Remember last month when I was at Saudi, asyik hilang je ahli keluarga di Masjidil Haram. Masing-masing takde line phone. Kalau ada pun segan nak guna sebab roaming auto ni seminit Rm 5. Guna when its really necessary. Both my mom and dad pula tak on handphone. SMS send is RM 1 per sms. I know this because I also brought my Maxis and Digi prepaid along while my wife's using her Celcom prepaid. Luckily balance checking using shortcode tak kena tolak duit.

So in the end, I bought the Celcom 7 day roaming passport through the Celcom Apps. Dapat 6GB internet and unlimited call and sms to/from Malaysia and to/from Saudi. Whether its Saudi sim or Malaysia sim does not matter, its unlimited. The roaming partner is Mobily, Zain and STC. Itu sahaja Telco yang available di Saudi. Tapi harga pun agak hefty juga, RM 138 for 7 days. But my mutawif gelak sebab saya on that roaming passport a day before going to Madinah. Masa kritikal awal-awal di Makkah, tak on pula. Rate and offerings do change from time to time so check this link out for the latest offering. Kalau link tak work, just go to the Celcom website and find the roaming section or check it out at the Celcom Apps.

Managed to call my bank's customer service at number 03-xxxxxxxx dan bercakap dengan customer service dalam 10 minit juga including waiting for them to pickup my call. Ingat lagi my first intro was, Hi, I am Nizam and I am calling from Makkah right now. So kelam kabut la that guy at the end of the line to entertain me because it was an international call. The reason was, I tried to withdraw money using my ATM Card but it failed. The ATM machine at Safwa Tower gave me this notice, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR BANK. So I contact my bank..hahaha.

Rupanya bila that guy checked, my card had already been activated for overseas withdrawal. He suggested that maybe I tried to withdraw my money during the daily maintenance period at 0001hrs-0100 hrs. Maybe jugak la sebab at Makkah masa tu belum midnight. Minus 5 hours behind. The guy told me jugak yang based on the system, my ATM card had been activated. Yeah, I activated thru the internet banking a week before going to Saudi. I even changed to a new ATM card so my ATM chip will be a new clean one.

But one thing I forgot is sepatutnya I call the customer service a day before departing to Jeddah just to make sure. In the end, rupanya ATM di escalator Safwa Tower tu problem, bila turun bawah guna ATM di ground floor, senang je keluar. And mind you, the rate is good bila guna ATM withdrawal compare to moneychanger di Malaysia and Saudi. Dua-dua moneychanger saya dah guna. Cuma bila kenangkan withdrawal charges Rm 12, maybe plus minus almost the same lah. Cuma rasa safe sebab tak perlu bawa cash banyak sangat.

Time guna ATM dapat la seketul Saudi Riyal (SR) 500. Pening juga nak pecah semata-mata nak beli Shawarma SR 10. So that was my experience using my local bank's ATM machine. Another thing is my bank immediately sms me the amount of withdrawal in RM right after I finished my withdrawal at Makkah and Madinah. At that time I had bought my Celcom Roaming Passport 7 day. 

So that's some info on ATM withdrawal and roaming in Saudi.