Interesting maths

Some might say that "Maths" and "interesting" cannot be used in the same sentence unless it is with a "not". However, I just received this really interesting forwarded email, that I just had to share it with you guys:

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321


Now, take a look at this...

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint, what Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? Well, we have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%.

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

So:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K can be translated as

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%


And:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%


But:

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%


THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:


L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%


Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

Consumer vs customer

NOTE: Updated 18 Nov, 2007 after consultation with my the marketing expert, my wife.

Last week, I was in charge of this undergraduate class and I suddenly realised that a number of the students were using the words 'consumer' and 'customer' interchangeably. Guess this is true for a lot of people on the street. However, I have on some occasions come across some academics making the same mistake at academic conferences.

As used in marketing terminology, there is a difference between the two concepts. The term 'Customer' refers to individuals or households that purchase goods and services generated within the economy. On the other hand, a 'Consumer' is someone who uses the products or services.

At a glance, there doesn't seems to be any difference but if you examine closely, there is. For example, A mother who does the shopping for the family in a supermarket is a customer. She and the rest of the family sit down at the dining table to eat the food she has bought and they are all consumers. The mother is a customer and a consumer at the same time.

You might have come across the term B2B and B2C. B2B refers to Business-to-Business transections. For example, Tescobuys goods from Procter & Gamble in bulk. On the other hand B2B refers to Business-to-consumer transection. For example, I go to Tesco and Duracell batteries. For those who did not know, Duracell is owned by P&G.

Did that make any sense to you?

Just engraving a pen

We wanted to have two pens we bought for a friend, engraved with her name. So yesterday I drove down to a shop near the university offering engraving services.

Found out that engraving four letters on each pen would cost me around five pounds. I agreed but the guy (the engraver) told me that it won't show up that well on the metallic silver surface of the pen. I was OK with that as well. He then told me that it would take around an hour to do it.

One bloody hour to engrave 8 letters. "Shakes head"

That was it. I told him I couldn't wait that long and left the shop.

As I was walking to my car, I was thinking about the numerous places in Kuala Lumpur, where I could have a whole sentence engraved on almost ANYTHING (including metallic silver surfaces) for less than RM 20 (FYI, £1 = RM6.94 approx.) and it would take them less than 10 minutes.

When PhDs party

Just got back from a party at a friends house near the University. It was nice, quiet party. Was thinking how different it was during our undergraduate university days, when parties meant smoky rooms (sometimes with a hint of cannabis), lot of booze, loud music, etc.

Here someone actually turned the music volume down and nobody complained. Ended up talking about intellectual and philosophical stuff - what do you expect when you have too many PhD students in a room.

Some might say, "that's not a bloody party!"

The odd part is that, it was still fun.

I am getting old.

Home improvement

After moving to the UK I have been doing a lot of small DIY projects. I would love to take on some major home improvement projects. Unfortunately, two major considerations prevents me from doing so. First of all, this is not my house and secondly, I am not exactly rolling around in money now-a-days.

Anyway, I was going through some of the Home Improvement Ideas, and thought about my dream home improvement project. If money was no object, I would definitely love to do up my own entertainment centre. I can actually picture it. It would be a mini movie theatre with sophisticated audio-visual system and of course, a comfy seating arrangement. The room would be full of extras that would make it the perfect den for a guy. A mini bar, a pop corn machine and computer with ultra high speed broadband access.

Do you have a dream improvement project?

Rowling set to start another series

For those traumatised by the end of the extremely popular Harry Potter series, don't worry!

The latest rumour on the grapevine is that Rowling is working on yet another series of books - following the adventures of Ron and Hermione as they grow up and get married. There might be a TV series on the line as well.

Tags: harry potter jk rowling ronald weasley hermione granger

Life in the UK - an update

Today's 07-07-07. Nothing special but there's Live Earth going on as well as Wimbledon finals.

A few of my old friends back in Malaysia have been complaining that I have not been blogging about myself for quite sometime now. It's quite true but the fact is that I have nothing interesting happening in my life right now to blog about.

No! I still haven't started my PhD. I plan to do so this year when the next session starts at the University of Warwick. My wife has completed her upgrading and won't be attending any more classes. The only thing worrying me right now are the rumours that they are planning to increase the fees this year. The total fees alone are more than the cost of our apartment in Damansara, Malaysia.

No! Unlike what a lot of people seem to think, I am not sponsored by the Government of Malaysia. I resigned from my comfortable Government job last year to follow my wife here in the UK. That's why I get annoyed with a lot of Malaysian students who keep on complaining about the Malaysian Government at every chance they get, when they ARE SPONSORED BY the Malaysian Government. With all the work I am doing, trying to promote Malaysia here among the British and other foreigners, I sometimes feel that the Govt. should be sponsoring ME instead of all these ungrateful guys.

No! I haven't got a job as yet. I am either not qualified enough for the top positions and too qualified for the lower positions. The only options open to me now are working as a cleaner or in a factory doing hard manual labour. I have applied for jobs with a number of companies around here, including Ikea. In the meantime, I am blogging full time trying to 'cari duit' (searching for money). I am earning a bit but not enough to pay for my PhD fees. So right now we are surviving mostly on my wife's scholarship, which is just enough but we have to forgo the luxuries we were used to in Malaysia, including eating out and buying branded stuff.

Will blog more about myself when I have positive things to say.

Imposter using my name and email

Early in the morning today, blogger Chan Lilian also better known as 5xMom, left a comment on my previous post telling me that a spammer had left a political sensitive comment on her blog, using my name and email address. Lilian has already deleted it but according to her, it was a very long comment on why the guy supports the opposition, about various political parties, and why Malaysia has no future and blah blah blah.

I was really pissed off. This may be one reason that my e-mail address has been flagged as spam e-mail on more than once occasion. This includes a few times when I tried to leave comments on other people's blogs including LiewCF.

Who would do such a thing?

I suspect that this is the work of one guy who had left similar comments on my blog a few times and on occasion leaving as many as 7 comments on one post (with a totally unrelated topic). He/ she used different names but I saw that they were all from one IP address and had the same writing style. The last time he did that, I deleted all the posts and told him off. Maybe this pissed this guy off and he's doing this as revenge.

The spammer's IP address is 60.50.121.0 as recorded on Lilian's web site. My initial investigation shows that the person is from Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Can anyone help me expose this sneaky, little racist ba$#@^d?

I say racist because even though he claims he is being discriminated against, he goes around making disparaging remarks against another race.

If I ever catch him, I am going kick his fat butt.

Hidden executables in Microsoft software

If you don't believe me, try this:

1) Open a blank Microsoft Word document.
2) type the following: =rand(200,99)
3) Press 'Enter' and wait 5 seconds...

ZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZ

Don't worry, it is not a virus. Wonder whether there is anything else hidden in MS Word?

For a detailed explanation, read this article here.

Fresh milk in Malaysia

The one with the blue cap is Whole milk whereas the other one with the green cap is semi-skimmed milk.
Our small family of four comes one of each - that's 3 litres of milk, every week.

One of our friends just returned to Coventry from Malaysia for his doctoral viva. It seems that his kids are having a tough time readjusting to life in Malaysia. It can be a culture shock sometimes considering that the some of the kids were born and raised up here in the UK. However, I am sure it will be a matter of time before they settle in.

One of the complaints was that it was so hard to obtain fresh milk back home. Not impossible but hard. I guess it's true. Most of the milk in Malaysia comes from Australia and New Zealand and it's either in the canned condensed/ sweetened or powder form.

I may be wrong but there is no single diary company of note in Malaysia today. I posed this question to one of my friends who is involved in goat rearing and import of cattle. According to him, most people who rear cattle in Malaysia do so for their meat. Many are actually mere importers, who bring in cattle from Thailand and then resell them in Malaysia.

He added that even though Malaysians consume a lot of milk products, especially in their favorite drink (maybe the National drink) - teh tarik, it is mostly in the form of sweetened condensed milk. Not many Malaysians drink fresh milk now-a-days anyway. The Chinese also traditionally prefer soya rather than cow milk.

However, talking to the older generation including my in-laws, I learned that they used to drink fresh milk in their childhood.

So what happened? Does that mean that the food habits changed in a single generation.

My friend was reluctant to try the diary business despite my suggestion that once eaten, a cow is gone forever but can give milk for a long time if kept alive. According to him, it was a high risk venture. However, I am sure there is a market for fresh milk.

So any takers for diary farming in Malaysia?

Long days

It's quarter past nine in the evening is I write this. However, outside, there is still light. I thought it was only about 7 but got a shock when I saw the clock.

I still can't get used to the long daylight hours here in the UK. When we first arrived, it was dark by 6.

Anyway, yesterday we had a clear night sky and the stars were finally out after nearly a week of non-stop rains.


My daughter was singing 'Twinkle twinkle little star' when she looked up into the sky and saw this bright star (might be a planet).