Finally... **Phew**... I got my taxes for 2005 out of the way. (^_^)
Anyway, I went through the slight hassle of going to the nearest IRB office to get a pin for the e-HASiL application, which wasn't so bad as I just had to show my I/C to the officer to get the pin number.
I got very enthusiastic about the application and fired it out with my browser. After entering all the necessary details and clicking the "Hantar" (Send) button, I got an error message stating that it had failed to send the pin to download the certificate. (-_-)
Undaunted, I tried again. It failed...
I decided that it probably was because I was using the latest Firefox (1.5.0.2) and probably the application was not compatible with it. So, I tried it out with IE and it worked!
Well, the site did say that supported browsers were IE 5.0 and above. So, I probably should not have assumed that Firefox was compatible.
I'd guess for an application to be truly portable, I'd suppose Firefox should have been supported. (^_^)
April 28, 2006
April 26, 2006
It's That Time of Year again... TAXES!
It's that time of year again.. It's time to FILE YOUR INCOME TAX RETURNS!!
*Sigh*.. Its the time when we most dread, having to calculate all your receipts and statements to find out how much you owe the government. If you're lucky, maybe you can get some returns back from the government, or just break even.
Anyway, I get my forms early every year in February. However, during that time, most companies haven't closed their accounts for the previous year and so, I usually can't start filling up my forms.
Oh well, this year, I think I may have to pay some $$ to the government. I couldn't find enough deductions to reduce my taxable income... (T-T)
Anyway, LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri - Inland Revenue Board) has setup an online submission application this year to help people submit their returns this year. Have a look here for details. You'll still need to go to the IRB's office to get the digital certificate before you could start using the online application to submit the forms.
*Sigh*... I'll be glad once the forms are submitted... The deadline is coming up soon... April 30th.. (~_~)
*Sigh*.. Its the time when we most dread, having to calculate all your receipts and statements to find out how much you owe the government. If you're lucky, maybe you can get some returns back from the government, or just break even.
Anyway, I get my forms early every year in February. However, during that time, most companies haven't closed their accounts for the previous year and so, I usually can't start filling up my forms.
Oh well, this year, I think I may have to pay some $$ to the government. I couldn't find enough deductions to reduce my taxable income... (T-T)
Anyway, LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri - Inland Revenue Board) has setup an online submission application this year to help people submit their returns this year. Have a look here for details. You'll still need to go to the IRB's office to get the digital certificate before you could start using the online application to submit the forms.
*Sigh*... I'll be glad once the forms are submitted... The deadline is coming up soon... April 30th.. (~_~)
April 17, 2006
Firefox 1.5.0.2 Update....
I recently got a Firefox Update. So nice of them to inform me by a dialog box to ask me if I wanted to download or not.
Of course, I didn't hesitate. :-).. I did an update religiously, like a good Firefox user that I am --> Notice the "Get Firefox" logo I brandish at the side of the blog....
However, after I installed my latest and greatest Firefox, I noticed that my memory consumption shot up sky-high. After opening up about 5 tabs (1 of which was uploading some photos to Flickr), my memory consumption went up from about 50Mb to 100+Mb. (o_0)
My machine has about 1Gb RAM and I thought it should be sufficient enough to run Firefox opening up a measely 5 tabs. There was one day which I opened about 10 tabs and I didn't suffer any performance issue. I was working on some Java code on my Eclipse IDE and all was happy.
After chatting with a friend who funnily told me that he suffered no memory leak issues with Firefox, we both found out that his friend who has an EMT64 machine also suffered the same problem with Firefox!
After googling a bit, we found this site --> Firefox Tweaks, Extensions, and Optimizations. This site is my lifesaver!
I did the memory hack and immediately saw some difference. My memory consumption did not go up in the 10s of Mb like before but more like 100's of Kb, which is acceptable. Anyway, some posts did mention that the memory leak is not a leak at all, but more of a "feature" because Firefox caches the pages we visit, so that we can load it up faster.
The last memory leak I discovered was due to some extension AdBlock with Filterset.G Update which caused some memory leak, possibly due to the new features found in 1.5.x than from 1.0.x.
Anyway, please do check out that site I mentioned if you're suffering some issues with Firefox. (^-^)
Of course, I didn't hesitate. :-).. I did an update religiously, like a good Firefox user that I am --> Notice the "Get Firefox" logo I brandish at the side of the blog....
However, after I installed my latest and greatest Firefox, I noticed that my memory consumption shot up sky-high. After opening up about 5 tabs (1 of which was uploading some photos to Flickr), my memory consumption went up from about 50Mb to 100+Mb. (o_0)
My machine has about 1Gb RAM and I thought it should be sufficient enough to run Firefox opening up a measely 5 tabs. There was one day which I opened about 10 tabs and I didn't suffer any performance issue. I was working on some Java code on my Eclipse IDE and all was happy.
After chatting with a friend who funnily told me that he suffered no memory leak issues with Firefox, we both found out that his friend who has an EMT64 machine also suffered the same problem with Firefox!
After googling a bit, we found this site --> Firefox Tweaks, Extensions, and Optimizations. This site is my lifesaver!
I did the memory hack and immediately saw some difference. My memory consumption did not go up in the 10s of Mb like before but more like 100's of Kb, which is acceptable. Anyway, some posts did mention that the memory leak is not a leak at all, but more of a "feature" because Firefox caches the pages we visit, so that we can load it up faster.
The last memory leak I discovered was due to some extension AdBlock with Filterset.G Update which caused some memory leak, possibly due to the new features found in 1.5.x than from 1.0.x.
Anyway, please do check out that site I mentioned if you're suffering some issues with Firefox. (^-^)
Google Calendar
Ah...
Google has released another application - Google Calendar
Nothing earth-shattering. The application is cool, looks like a standalone application but after a second look, it can link to your e-mail and SMS as well as the default pop-up.
I would like to be able to use the SMS option but unfortunately, this is open only to US now :(
Anyway, it's a cool app to check out. So, try it out!
Google has released another application - Google Calendar
Nothing earth-shattering. The application is cool, looks like a standalone application but after a second look, it can link to your e-mail and SMS as well as the default pop-up.
I would like to be able to use the SMS option but unfortunately, this is open only to US now :(
Anyway, it's a cool app to check out. So, try it out!
April 11, 2006
My Mobile is Dying... (T_T)
Somehow, I think my mobile phone has contracted some form of "cancer" now... (T-T)
It seems to be able to show new symptoms every other week or so.
Just a couple of months back, the joystick decided to "lock" itself, restricting navigation to only left, right and up but not down. It was a little strange. Naturally, I thought that the software decided to "hang" and so, I did a quick turning on/off, hoping that the software handling the navigation would reset itself. However, that didn't quite help and so, I decided to leave the phone alone. I went away, whispering some prayers and was about to sacrifice my ancient Nokia 7100 to the Nokia gods, hoping for a "miracle cure", when suddenly, it went back to normal. (0-0)
Anyway, I didn't bother much with it until recently, whenever I tried to type a message using the keypad, it would either 1) freeze and not let you type anything or 2) some keys would just get stuck. I rely a lot on the T9 dictionary in the phone software and so, whenever I tried to spell "2nite", now, it would end up as "Bangte" because I "accidently" pressed the "abc" key twice. (>-<) So, I b*tched about the phone to my mates who kept telling me to send it in for servicing since we were at the mall. I can't bear to leave my phone with strangers and so, after mosing around the new Nokia shop, we walked away. I think I've accepted the fact that my phone has some "cancer" and it is just going through the final stages before it dies for good. I loved my little Nokia 6600 for 3years and it has gone through so much, from being used as a test phone for J2ME midlets, to being flooded by SMSes during application testing and also, storing vast amounts of images taken with its little camera. *Sigh*... I'm currently eyeing some nice PDA phones which may prove to be very useful because I want to surf the Net using Wi-Fi or EDGE while I'm on the go and also as a PIM to keep track of the countless meetings and appointments I get every other day. Anyway, all is not lost. I'm hoping to get my PDA phone or some other mobile phone soon and then, I'll probably fix up my little phone so that I can use it as a back-up should anything happen. I wonder.. After all these years of being a faithful Nokia user, should I go back to Sony Ericsson to get my new phone?
Decisions.. Decisions... Meanwhile, I shall prepare myself to grieve over my phone when it actually dies...
It seems to be able to show new symptoms every other week or so.
Just a couple of months back, the joystick decided to "lock" itself, restricting navigation to only left, right and up but not down. It was a little strange. Naturally, I thought that the software decided to "hang" and so, I did a quick turning on/off, hoping that the software handling the navigation would reset itself. However, that didn't quite help and so, I decided to leave the phone alone. I went away, whispering some prayers and was about to sacrifice my ancient Nokia 7100 to the Nokia gods, hoping for a "miracle cure", when suddenly, it went back to normal. (0-0)
Anyway, I didn't bother much with it until recently, whenever I tried to type a message using the keypad, it would either 1) freeze and not let you type anything or 2) some keys would just get stuck. I rely a lot on the T9 dictionary in the phone software and so, whenever I tried to spell "2nite", now, it would end up as "Bangte" because I "accidently" pressed the "abc" key twice. (>-<) So, I b*tched about the phone to my mates who kept telling me to send it in for servicing since we were at the mall. I can't bear to leave my phone with strangers and so, after mosing around the new Nokia shop, we walked away. I think I've accepted the fact that my phone has some "cancer" and it is just going through the final stages before it dies for good. I loved my little Nokia 6600 for 3years and it has gone through so much, from being used as a test phone for J2ME midlets, to being flooded by SMSes during application testing and also, storing vast amounts of images taken with its little camera. *Sigh*... I'm currently eyeing some nice PDA phones which may prove to be very useful because I want to surf the Net using Wi-Fi or EDGE while I'm on the go and also as a PIM to keep track of the countless meetings and appointments I get every other day. Anyway, all is not lost. I'm hoping to get my PDA phone or some other mobile phone soon and then, I'll probably fix up my little phone so that I can use it as a back-up should anything happen. I wonder.. After all these years of being a faithful Nokia user, should I go back to Sony Ericsson to get my new phone?
Decisions.. Decisions... Meanwhile, I shall prepare myself to grieve over my phone when it actually dies...
April 03, 2006
Playing with Picasa2
I'm not a good photographer.
I have a couple of cameras, one of it is a basic Olympus all-weather camera which doesn't seem to work properly now and another is my nearly brand new Nikon 5900 digital camera.
So, I just started fooling around with digital photography last year when I got my Nikon. The pictures I took were pretty ok but I quickly realized that the digital photos were a bit too "white" for my taste.
Anyway, lately, I was surfing and saw a post about Picasa2 from Google. It seems pretty good and so, I decided to download it.
Here is a picture of Snoopy, which I took yesterday using my digital camera. There is NO other manipulation other than my name placed at the bottom left corner of the photo.
Here is another photo of Snoopy, which has been modified. I've added a "Glow" and "Soft Focus" look to make Snoopy more angelic. Besides that, I've increased the colour saturation of the picture as well.
What a big difference Picasa has done to my mediocre picture. I really like this software. I've been trying for months to play around with other software like Gimp to do some of the image manipulation and it has been a long process.
Picasa is just great for us who don't really know how to use sophisticated tools such as Gimp. It took me less than 5 minutes to figure out what I wanted to do with it. The interface is fairly intuitive and easy to use.
I just love Picasa! Another great product from our friends at Google. Go buy their shares, or better still, work for them. LOL!!!
I have a couple of cameras, one of it is a basic Olympus all-weather camera which doesn't seem to work properly now and another is my nearly brand new Nikon 5900 digital camera.
So, I just started fooling around with digital photography last year when I got my Nikon. The pictures I took were pretty ok but I quickly realized that the digital photos were a bit too "white" for my taste.
Anyway, lately, I was surfing and saw a post about Picasa2 from Google. It seems pretty good and so, I decided to download it.
Here is a picture of Snoopy, which I took yesterday using my digital camera. There is NO other manipulation other than my name placed at the bottom left corner of the photo.
Here is another photo of Snoopy, which has been modified. I've added a "Glow" and "Soft Focus" look to make Snoopy more angelic. Besides that, I've increased the colour saturation of the picture as well.What a big difference Picasa has done to my mediocre picture. I really like this software. I've been trying for months to play around with other software like Gimp to do some of the image manipulation and it has been a long process.
Picasa is just great for us who don't really know how to use sophisticated tools such as Gimp. It took me less than 5 minutes to figure out what I wanted to do with it. The interface is fairly intuitive and easy to use.
I just love Picasa! Another great product from our friends at Google. Go buy their shares, or better still, work for them. LOL!!!
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