UPDATE 19th Feb 2008:

As requested by the apparent owner of the car, I have removed all references to the plate number.

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When it comes to motor vehicles, this is a sure head turner. The ultimate status symbol. Especially so in this part of the world. Seeing a Ferrari on KK streets is probably as rare as seeing someone wearing Parmigiani watches.

For other luxury vehicles I’ve seen around KK, a Mercedes S-class cost about RM700K. A Range Rover about RM800K. A BMW 7-series about RM700K. A Porsche about RM900K. I have also seen a few Mercedes SLK (or is it CLK), does anybody know how much those cost? Lower down, we have the Toyota Harriers, Toyota Land Cruisers (Ninja Kings), Mazda RX-8s etc.

I think brand-new Ferraris cost more than a million ringgit, on the road, here in Malaysia.

It’s a work of art. It’s the same feeling as when I looked at the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and was absolutely entranced by its beauty. It’s not just world-class beautiful – it something that transcends space and time.

Then, it’s an unattainable fantasy. Why should you get a Ferrari when you can get TWO Mercedes S-classes with the same kind of money? And even if you have the money, can you imagine a Ferrari on the kind of roads we have even in the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu?

Back to the original question, I have only ever seen two Ferraris with Sabahan plate numbers in Kota Kinabalu. The first one was in January 2003 at Wawasan Plaza. It was a 360 Challenge Stradale, with plate number SA1T.

Then, one fine morning on the 25th of January this year, I saw this as I walked across the street to CIMB Bank, in the middle of KK.

Look at that – it is the same height as the window level of the Kembara in front of it! In its spec list, the height is a mere 1.21m (about 4 feet).

Close-up:

Front view:

Plate number [deleted: please see update at the top of this post], which is different from the one I saw 5 years earlier. I thought it was the same car, with changed number plates, but upon closer inspection, it is not. This guy is apparently an F430, which only debuted in 2004 – it’s the successor model to the 360 Challenge.

Back view:

Look at these specs:
number of seats: 2: definitely not a family car ;-)
Engine: 4.3 litres V8: the petrol company must be smiling…
Transmission: 6-speed: but at speed limit of 110 km/h, when can you actually USE the 6th gear?!
Weight: 1450 kg: that’s a ton and a half, more than twice a Proton Saga (less than 700kg).

Popularity: 3% [?]

True character building happens when one goes through the low points in life.

As Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir is fond of saying: leaders need to be tested by their ability to pick themselves up, dust off defeat and keep moving forward.

Check out what Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the world’s number 1 and 2 tennis players respectively said, after their heavy defeat in the seminfinals of the 2008 Australian Open.

Popularity: 1% [?]

View from Kinabalu Rose Cabin, which is on a hillock about 3km on the right side of the road, after the Kinabalu Park turnoff. This place is just before Kundasang town.

Pics taken around 6pm sometime last year. It only lasted a precious few minutes. After that you could not see the mountain at all.

bigger image of the above (1024 x 768)

bigger image of the above (1024 x 768)

bigger image of the above (1024 x 768)

Popularity: 1% [?]

The front page of Daily Express on the 24th of January 2008 says: “Sabah school told to stop it.” Apparently Sabah Education Director, Puan Normah Gagoh, said that SMK Tansau of Penampang is practising gender segregation of students and they should stop such practice immediately.

She was quoted to have said:

The National Education Policy does not have a policy of dividing boys and girls according to gender. The Ministry advocates integration of students in line with the first strategic thrust of the National Education Blueprint (2006-2010), which focuses on building a Malaysian nation. Being a co-educational school, the students from diverse backgrounds must interact towards maintaining multi-racial and multi-cultural unity. Today, we are talking about developing human capital with first-class mentality, so schools cannot afford to segregate the students based on gender.

What makes this more interesting than usual is that the Principal of SMK Tansau is reported to be the wife of a Sabah UMNO minister.

Doing a little check reveals that the principal in question is likely to be Datin Hajah Patimah Ali, the wife of Assistant State Finance Minister and State UMNO Information Chief, Datuk Sapawi Haji Ahmad.

Puan Normah said she had “received many complaints about the unhealthy situation in the school from concerned parents and members of the public.”

Specifically, four boys-only Form 5 classes and another four for girls only.

The paper further reported that:
- school called a PIBG emergency meeting this Saturday to decide on the issue.
- all parents had been invited to attend to express their views
- invitation letters given to their children on Wednesday.
- several parents said it may be an attempt “to use the PIBG to embarrass the Education Minister, in case they are asked to back the segregation.” They also used the phrase “challenging the Government policy.”

Source
Daily Express, 24th January 2007

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hugely recommended – I am using them too :-)

The first one is Dato’ Seri S Samy Vellu’s “ini semua kerja orang gila” comment on 14th January 2008 on the murder of the Tenggaroh MP.

The 2nd one features an unlikely collaboration between Malaysia’s most famous lawyer at the moment, VK Lingam, and US rockers Linkin Park, thus named “Lingam Park”. It gained prominence recently when it was mentioned in The Star on the 19th of January 2008, whereas it was originally uploaded to YouTube back in November 2007.

Here it is on streaming video, the download link is further down:

Click here to listen to them and download the files

Popularity: 1% [?]

Classic Malaysian Comedy. All characters played by Jamali Shadat except the grandfather played by Hamid Gurkha.

Click here to listen to it

Popularity: 3% [?]

Whatever your personal opinions are about Valentine’s Day, it’s around the corner again, and like it or not, some of us have no option but to cough out the dough to get at least something for loved ones.

So we, those expected to give out something, have to be smart. In this case, Cupid or his companions would be of little help. We need something practical!

And no, I’m not talking about the need to consume weight loss pills here!!!

There are many tricks, and CouponChief is one of them. It’s a place where you can get discounts, in the form of coupon codes, from many online shopping merchants.

Looking through their website, the Dell coupons looked tasty. In one case, their UltraSharp 19″ Flat Panel LCD with Height Adjustable Stand has a 30% discount offer, bringing the price down to USD195.

Then there’s the BestBuy deals, including that temptation-chockful 10% discount on Corsair memory which has free shipping thrown in. I was already cotemplating their Value Select 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SoDIMM Notebook Memory.

Temptations abound indeed…

Popularity: 1% [?]

A boring corporate event, you feel sleepy with the long monotone speeches, then all of a sudden something happens, something you just need to capture on video.

Or another scenario is: you’re speaking onstage in front of many VVIPs, then suddenly someone very close to you snatches your mike and…

It happened to one Zhang Bin on the 28th of December 2007.

Popularity: 1% [?]

An indispensable tool for ICT professionals is remote management for networks than cover many areas or sites. Instead of going physically to each site, he can simply get the tool do the relevant tasks for him.

Tasks would include things like Connection Monitoring, Issue Fixes, Tasks Automation and Configuration Management, all from a central location.

Jaded network administrators might whine that remote management would be useless if the network itself goes down, but Uplogix product remote management tool called Envoy claims to be able to stay connected regardless of the state of the network.

This tool should reduce the rate of balding of network admins, as well as prolong the life of their memory cells.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This one no search engine can help me. I’ve asked a few people, none could give a definite answer.

So, I’ve recorded the general melody of the song.

Basically it’s an Indian (most probably Hindi) song which has been around for ages.

If anybody could help identify the title and original singer of the song, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[audio:unidentified song.MP3]

Popularity: 1% [?]