BIOS Beep Code Definition

When power turn on, most computer system will first executing Power On Self Test (POST). If POST encounters any errors, it will generate beep tones (via the functioning chassis speaker), known as BIOS beep code, to alert the operator.

Different manufacturers might define different BIOS beep code definition. It is better to consult respective manufacturer for precise BIOS beep code definition.

Most of the BIOS beep code of an IBM compatible PC are related to random access memory (RAM) or central processing unit (CPU).

RAM related problems could be due to faulty RAM chip or improper RAM contact with RAM slot.

1. Disconnect power cord from power supply.
2. Unplug the RAM module carefully.
3. Clean the contact with non-static cloth.
4. Restore the RAM module carefully to the slot firmly.
5. Power on to perform POST testing again.
6. If that doesn't work, replace a known good RAM to eliminate RAM possibility.

CPU related problems could be due to a faulty CPU, overheat, or improper CPU contact with CPU slot.

1. Disconnect power cord from power supply.
2. Unplug the CPU with care.
3. Blow away dust found in the CPU heat sink and slot with a blower. Don't blow by mouth to prevent moisture accumulated within the contacts!
4. Restore CPU to the slot with care.
5. Power on the computer system for POST testing again.

Ethernet Cable Pin-out Configuration

It is not a must to have a hub or switch to connect two PCs or servers for networking purpose!

As long as both computer system able to talk on TCP/IP protocol and the network interface cards are functioning, these two computer system could be networked via a crossover Ethernet CAT-5 cable! In fact, crossover cable is also used to link up (stacking) 2 switches or hubs together.

Crossover Ethernet Cable Pin-out Configuration
The maximum length of Ethernet cable should not more than 100 meter to avoid signal loss (unstable network connection).

Pin Number	RJ45 (EIA/TIA 568B Color Code)	RJ45 (EIA/TIA 568A Color Code)	Pin Signal
1	Orange White	Green White	Transmit +
2	Orange	Green	Transmit -
3	Green White	Orange White	Receive +
4	Blue	Blue
5	Blue White	Blue White
6	Green	Orange	Receive -
7	Brown White	Brown White
8	Brown	Brown

Where is pin 1 position at RJ45?
Diagram below showing pin 1 position at RJ45 jack and pin 1 position at RJ45 plug respectively


To network more than two computer systems, a hub or switch is a must. A straight Ethernet cable (not the crossover Ethernet cable) must be used to linked up a computer system to either switch or hub. As the name imply, a straight Ethernet cable has same RJ-45 pin-out configuration at both end of the CAT-5 cable, either by using EIA/TIA-568A standard or EIA/TIA-568B standard.

Percentage Symbol Means Accuracy

The best indicator to analysis stock performance is percentage! The absolute change in dollars and cents doesn't make sense in analysis stock trading efficiency.

Investor A who bought Google stock at 300 bucks in the morning and realized his gain when Google stock traded at 310 bucks in the afternoon, get 10 bucks or 3.3% as his investment profit.

Speculator B who bought a penny stock at 60 cents in the morning and realized his gain when the penny stock traded at 70 cents in the afternoon, get 10 cents or 16.6% as his investment return!

A wise investor or speculator should always judge his luck or investment efficiency in term of percentage and not the actual monetary gain!

Speculator B should have nothing to complain for the 10 cents as his investment return! Indeed, he should had realized his gain as soon as possible before the stock traded close to 70 cents! An increment over 10% in the same day is quite ridiculous! There are no financial tools in the market that could give such daily return by investor's standard, except for speculator's standard!

Image how much investor A would had made from the penny stock if he turned out to spend his capital of 300 bucks in the same penny stock as speculator B! Investor A perhaps would had sold out his penny stock at 65 cents (8.3% of investment return), given his investment capital and the gain made. Speculator B might out of luck if all the big boys withdraw from the penny stock at 65 cents (and then most likely that penny stock started to trend south)!

Identify Genuine Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is a ferrous alloy that has higher resistance to oxidation (rust) and corrosion in the present of chromium and nickel.

Chromium forms a passivation layer of chromium(III) oxide (Cr2O3) when exposed to oxygen. The layer is too thin to be visible, shiny, and impervious to water and air to protect the metal beneath. The Cr2O3 reforms quickly when the surface is scratched, a phenomenon called passivation by materials scientists, and is seen in other metals such as aluminium.

Nickel stabilize the austenite structure of iron to prevent stress corrosion cracking. Stress corrosion cracking is a rapid and severe form of stainless steel corrosion that forms when the material is subjected to tensile stress and chloride-rich environment (e.g. sea water) at higher temperature (e.g. 50°C). Nickel is the most expensive element in stainless steel. Nickel is also the material that cause a stainless steel non-magnetic and less brittle at low temperature.

The 400 series of stainless steel, which is usually used for kitchenware are magnetic positive. The 400 series is generally cheapest in price as there is no nickel material in this alloy.

The 300 series stainless steel that is used in chemical plant generally non magnetic, except the cold-rolled stainless steel. The better stainless steel is of grade 304 or 18-8 (18% chromium and 8% nickel) stainless steel. Stainless steel of 18-8 grade offers better corrosion resistance than the 400 series. Most architectural stainless work are done with the 300 series.

Cold-rolled 300 series stainless steel has similar physical composition (18% chromium and 8% nickel) and corrosion resistance of type 304. These are all nominally austenitic alloy (nonmagnetic), but some of the austenite transforms to martensite (magnetic) when the material is deformed, as in cold rolling. This martensite transformation causes the 300-series to be magnetic when cold formed. The cold-rolled material is much harder than annealed material. An annealed 304 stainless steel panel could dent easily.

Selecting Tile For Renovation

Choosing the right tile for renovation project has never been an easy job. Factors to consider include the grade or the type of tile, color, pattern, surface, cutting, size, price, etc. Combination of tile features could greatly impact the looks and feels of the renovation project!

Homogeneous tile have pigments added into the body before firing at much higher temperature than when producing ceramic tile. Hence, homogeneous tile's surface is much harder, durable, and incredibly suitable for heavy duty usage (such as porch, shopping floor, etc). Once hit with a fallen object, homogeneous tile will not leave a big crack line or a damage surface showing different material or color beneath the surface.

As the whole piece of homogeneous tile is made up of same material, it can be round edged at the sides. Ceramic tile is made of red clay with a thin layer of coloring applied on the surface. Chamfer the edges of ceramic tile reveal the red base below, and PVC strips will be needed to cover the edges of ceramic tile. Homogeneous tile's surface can also be polished to make it reflective and shining like a mirror! A ceramic tile can only be glazed to make it shiny and it's not as long lasting as compare to the polished surface of homogeneous tile.

Porcelain tile is made by the dust pressed method from a composition resulting in a tile that is dense, impervious, fine grained, and smooth. It is available in mat, unglazed, or a high polished finish.

Quarry tile come with glazed or unglazed surface, made by extrusion process from natural clay or shale. Quarry tile is commonly appear in the dark red shades, brown, and gray.

Terrazzo tile is made of marble or granite chip mix with Portland cement or epoxy matrix, molded in various thickness and sizes.

Agglomerate tile is made by mixing graded marble or granite chip of different size with Portland cement, polyester resin or epoxy.

Pegaga Or Centella Asiatica

Pegaga is a polymorphous, creeping plant, rooting at nodes, with sometimes significant tap root, cylindrical and glabrous stems. Other names of pegaga including Centella asiatica (L.), Hydrocotyle asiatica, gotu kola, Indian pennywort (English), Mandukaparni (India), pegaga (Malaysia), and Ping Da Wan (崩大碗), Di Qien Cao (地錢草), Zhi Xue Cao(积雪草), 雷公根, 蚶殼草, 地堂草, 銅錢草, or 落得打.

Western research studies show that pegaga contains active ingredients such as Triterpenoid glycosides, asiaticoside, Vallerin, Tannins, Alkaloid, Volatile oil, and Pectin. It could act as a relief for fever, bowel complaints, leprosy, rheumatism, ichthyosis, poultice for syphilitic ulcers (Grieve), uterine cancer, wounds, arthritis, stuttering, haemorrhoids, Cellulite (Murray), skin disease, respiratory tract infection, cirrhosis, venous sufficiency, tremors and twitching muscles (Bushell).




Medical benefits

1. Treat symptoms of nervous breakdown, reduce stress, improve reflexes, and increase mental and physical power.
2. Reduce high blood pressure.
3. Slow down ageing process.
4. Drain out toxins.
5. Indian use this herb to treat skin inflammations and as a mild diuretic.
6. Oriental use it to treat emotional disorders such as depression, cure high fever, relieve congestion due to colds and upper respiratory infections.
7. Positive effect on blood circulatory system by strengthening the veins and capillaries.
8. Treat phlebitis (inflammation of the veins), leg cramps, swelling of the legs, and "heaviness" or tingling in the legs.
9. Proven to be particularly useful to people who are inactive or confined to bed due to illness.
10. Its beneficial effect on circulation may help improve memory and brain function.
11. Used successfully to promote healing after episiotomy, a surgical incision of the vulva performed to prevent tearing during childbirth. In fact, a study reported in a French medical journal in 1966 revealed that women treated with pegaga after childbirth healed more rapidly than those given standard treatment.

Mascots Of The Beijing 2008 Olympics

Beijing unveiled five mascots for the 2008 Olympics on 11 Nov 2005, in conjunction of a gala show held in Beijing, to mark the 1,000-day countdown to the opening ceremony of the games. The XXIX Olympiad will take place from 8 Aug 2008 to 24 Aug 2008.



The five mascots are officially called the Five Friendlies, comprises of Beibei (the fish), Jingjing (the panda), Huanhuan (the Olympic flame), Yingying (the Tibetan antelope), and Nini (the swallow). The first syllables from their two-syllable names form a statement "Beijing Huan Ying Ni", which means "Welcome to Beijing".

Furious Water Rafting At Sungai Sedim

World class challenge in river rafting in Malaysia.

Sungai Sedim at Kulim of Kedah state has a 15KM stretch of fast flowing waters and rapids which are excellent for white water sports activities. Besides the furious rafting, there is also suite for kayaking, camping, jungle trekking, or just just unwind from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Apart from that, there are a few of jungle trekking path that lead to nearby peaks such as Gunung Inas at 1454m ASL, Gunung Bintang Utara at 1835m ASL, Gunung Bintang at 1862m ASL, and Banjaran Bintang at 1699m ASL.

Alternative KLIA Express To KLIA

KLIA Express is no doubt provides the fastest and easy way from Kuala Lumpur city center to KL International Airport (KLIA)! There is luggage check-in counter where travellers could escape the crowd at KLIA and save time for leisure wandering around KL Sentral or KLIA tax-free trading zone!


Sitting comfortable inside the clean and calm cabin for just about 28 minutes, the speedy train travel non-stop from KL Sentral to KLIA. The price to paid for the convenient, at this time of writing, is Ringgit Malaysia 35 dollars per single trip.

There is also cheaper fare offered by the train operator, with a trade-off that passengers have to stop at intermediate station. Get down from the train at Putrajaya and reenter the next train from Putrajaya again. Just tell the ticket counter that you are looking for KLIA Transit instead of KLIA Express. It only costs a total of RM 15.70 from KL Sentral to KLIA via stopover at Putrajaya! While waiting for next train, probably could consider taking a quick visit to the scenic Putrajaya, which is planned city to serve as new federal government administrative center.

KLIA Express Fare and Schedule

1. One way non-stop from KL Sentral to KLIA, or vice-verse, at RM 35


2. Every 15 minutes one train during peak hour, i.e. 0500-0900 & 1600-2200


3. Every 20 minutes one train during off peak hour, i.e. 0900-1600 & 2200-0000

KLIA Transit Fare and Schedule

1. Stopping at 3 intermediate stations


2. Every 30 minutes one train in service


3. One way from KL Sentral to Putrajaya, or vice-verse, at RM 9.50


4. One way from Putrajaya to KLIA, or vice-verse, at RM 6.20

Escape To Cameron Highlands

Thinks of escaping from the hustle and bustle of city life or the hottest summer? Take a trip to Cameron Highlands! One of the few highlands resorts in West Malaysia, filling with cool breeze and freshen ionized air, virgin rain forest, greenly tea plant, beautiful flower and strawberry farm, miscellaneous vegetable farm, attractive dawn and romantic sunset from the peak of Gunung Brinchang, antique English church and smoke house, waterfall, jungle trekking...Another peace of life heaven for natural lovers!





Air-conditioned coach available daily from KL Pudu station, with an intermediate stop at Tapah small town before heading to the Tanah Rata. While at Tapah, don't forget visit to the bamboo basket factory, which had been one of the main source of income for the Tapahan. It has been a sunset industry when the farmers from Cameron Highlands abandoned to use bamboo basket for their vegetables packing. Asam Laksa and fried kuey teow are still the famous food in the town. The lovers restaurant at the Sungai Tapah river bank or the rest house at its opposite hilltop could be nice chit-chat venue too.

Omnibus services, some are air-conditioned, running daily from Tapah town to Cameron Highlands too. Don't worry about the drivers' skill. They all trained to drive you through the curly road from Tapah to Cameron Highlands. The only thing to worry is whether you will vomit in the coach. Before boarding, prepare some soul junks that help to lighten vomit feel!

Omnibus schedule from Tapah to Cameron Highlands:
0800am, 0915am, 1030am, 1115am, 0130pm, 0300pm, 0430pm, 0600pm

Omnibus schedule from Cameron Highlands to Tapah:
0730am, 0800am, 0900am, 1030am, 1130am, 0115pm, 0315pm, 0415pm, 0530pm

Bash Shell Scripts And Bad Interpreter

Beware! A Linux Bash shell scripts might fails to execute at all after uploaded from a different operating system. For example, from Windows OS to Redhat Linux.

Why? It is due to different encoding format implemented in different OS!

To confirm the shell scripts could run properly, always conduct testing upon finishing transfer. For example, duplicate a copy of the shell scripts transferred, remark all the lines of the shell scripts except the very first line where normally begin as #!/bin/sh (Sha-bang), append one simple line such as echo "test", then save and execute it. If the scripts fails to execute with error messages : Bad interpreter : no such file or directory, it might due to file encoding format!

Most commercial UNIX system default to Bourne shell /bin/sh (hence, called Bourne shell scripts) whereas Linux system default to Bash shell /bin/bash (hence, called Bash shell scripts). A symbolic link /bin/sh pointing to /bin/bash is usually created during Linux setup.

The first line of most UNIX shell scripts is #!/bin/sh. The two characters #!, known as sha-bang, tells the UNIX operating system that this file contains a set of commands to be fed to the command interpreter specified, which is /bin/sh.

This very first line #!/bin/sh can be omitted if only a set of generic system commands are used, or not using internal shell directives at all. Best practice is to include this line anyway.

If the UNIX shell scripts fails to execute with rejected error messages : Bad interpreter : no such file or directory,

1. Run command ls -la /bin/sh to confirm the specify path of command interpreter (the shell) is correct.
   
   In Linux system, it should be a soft link to /bin/bash. Verify that /bin/bash exists and create the soft link named /bin/sh if the link is not exists.
   
   Run the command ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh to create a soft link (symbolic link) called /bin/sh pointing to the physical file /bin/bash.
   
   If the path is valid, then
   
   
2. Make a copy of the scripts file.
   Next, run command dos2unix YoursScriptsFileName.
   Finally, execute chmod 755 YoursScriptsFileName.
   
   If this step works, it means the scripts file encoding format is not compliance to UNIX/Linux format. Chance is there if the file being transfer from other platform like Windows OS.
   
   Running command od YoursScriptsFileName and compare the first line of octal format of the file contents to the octal output of command od BackupScriptsFileName will tell the different.

Amazing Pre-shool Maths Formula

Feeling dull on the black and white accounting system, worsen by Monday blue effects and a hazy morning? Try this funny maths...reproduce any given 7-digits code (e.g. last seven digits of a cellphone number, ICQ number, etc), after applying that number with a series of simple pre-school calculations:

1. Enter first 3 digits of the 7-digit code to your normal calculator.
2. Multiply the number by 80
3. Add 1 to the previous result
4. Multiply the result from previous step by 250
5. Plus the result with the last 4 digits of the number
6. Plus last 4 digits of number once again to the previous step result
7. Minus it with 250
8. Divide it by 2
9. Bingo! That is the original 7-digits code.

Blood Type Compatibility

Recipient blood type	Donor blood type must be
AB+	Any human blood type
AB-	O-	A-	B-	AB-
A+	O-	O+	A-	A+
A-	O-	A-
B+	O-	O+	B-	B+
B-	O-	B-
O+	O-	O+
O-	O-

Conclusion of blood type compatibility

1. AB+ blood type is a selfish type! Recipient of AB+ blood type can receive any blood type donation (must be human blood type, of course!), but itself cannot donate to any blood type except own self!
   
   Blood group AB individual has both A & B antigen on the surface of red blood cell, and his blood serum does not contain any antibodies against either A or B antigen. Hence, an individual with type AB blood can receive blood from any group (AB being preferable), but can only donate blood to another group AB individual.


2. Blood group A individual has the A antigen on the surface of red blood cell, and his blood serum containing IgM antibodies against the B antigen. Therefore, a group A individual can only receive blood from individual of group A or O (A being preferable), and can donate blood to individuals of group A or AB.


3. Blood group B individual has the B antigen on the surface of red blood cell, and blood serum containing IgM antibodies against the A antigen. Thus, a group B individual can only receive blood from individuals of groups B or O (B being preferable), and can donate blood to individual of group B or AB.


4. O- individual is great donor! Individual of O- blood type can donate to any blood type! But O- individuals himself is high risk group! They can only receive blood of O- only!
   
   O+ is slightly less vulnerability than O- individual, considered as second high risk group. Individuals of A- and B- blood type are in this group as well.
   
   Blood group O individual does not has either A or B antigen on the surface of red blood cell, but their blood serum contains IgM antibodies against both A and B antigen. So, a group O individual can only receive blood from a group O individual, but they can donate blood to individuals of any AB, A, B, or O blood group.

Wash Away Oily Dirt

Give a few drop of lemon juice or white vinegar fluid to the oily dirt and wipe it with a wet cloth. Applying this tips could make the conventional washing method later much easier to eliminate the oily dirt!

Efficient Clothes Washing

Clothes washing agents used to alkalized the water. Alkalized water made dirt cleaning easier.

Once mixing up dirt clothes with washing agents in barrel of water, the dirt will extracted out within ten minutes. If the clothes is in the water longer than ten minutes, the extraction process reverted as dirt turns alkalized water to become acidic again. The dirt becomes much difficult to wash away from the fiber of clothes in an acidic water.

So, wash the dirt clothes as soon as it is in the water!