A journey to a greater life

chrome : new web browser from google

Syarikat hasilkan Chrome sasar pecah penguasaan enjin carian Internet Explorer.

GOOGLE Inc melancarkan pelayar webnya sendiri, langkah yang disasarkan untuk memecah penguasaan Internet Explorer yang dibangunkan Microsoft Corp serta memastikan akses lebih mudah kepada enjin cariannya.

Syarikat berpangkalan di California itu mengambil langkah luar biasa dengan mengumumkan produk barunya itu pada cuti Hari Buruh selepas ia melancarkan buku komik bagi menandakan kedatangan pelayar baru itu.

Pelayar percuma itu, yang dipanggil ‘Chrome’ sepatutnya boleh dimuat turun semalam di kira-kira 100 negara untuk komputer yang menggunakan sistem operasi Microsoft Windows.

Google berkata, ia masih mengusahakan versi yang sesuai dengan komputer Mac keluaran Apple Inc dan sistem operasi Linux.

Pelayar Google itu dijangka menjengah pasaran seminggu selepas Microsoft memperkenalkan versi ujian kemas kini pelayar terkininya, Internet Explorer 8.

Walaupun Google menggunakan pendekatan karikatur untuk mempromosikan Chrome, pelayar baru itu menunjukkan persaingan Google dengan Microsoft dengan Internet Explorer digunakan kira-kira 75 peratus pelayar Web.

Google menerajui pasaran carian internet dengan enjin cariannya memproses hampir dua pertiga daripada permintaan dalam Web.

Sejak beberapa tahun lalu, Google mencuba mengambil kesempatan daripada populariti enjin cariannya untuk melonggarkan kekuatan Microsoft dalam cara pengguna berinteraksi dengan komputer peribadi mereka.

Google sudah mencuba menjadikan alternatifnya lebih menarik dan diterima dengan menjadikannya percuma berbanding cara Microsoft yang memerlukan penggunanya membayar yuran pelesenan untuk memasang perisian itu ke dalam komputer mereka.

Bagaimanapun, Microsoft cuba menghalang Google dengan melabur berbilion dolar untuk membangunkan enjin cariannya sendiri dan membuat cubaan yang tidak berjaya untuk membeli Yahoo Inc bernilai AS$47.5 bilion.

Ketegangan antara Microsoft dan Google kelihatan berpanjangan dengan kemasukan Google ke dalam perniagaan pelayaran Web.

Buat masa ini, ia sedang cuba untuk menjejaskan Internet Explorer dengan menyokong Firefox, pelayar Web yang dibangunkan oleh Mozilla Foundation.

Disokong kerjasama pengiklanan dengan enjin carian Google, Firefox kini menjadi pelayar web kedua paling popular dengan penguasaan pasaran kira-kira 10 peratus.

Baru-baru ini, Google melanjutkan pakatan pengiklanannya dengan Firefox sehingga 2011. –

sumber : berita harian

download chrome for windows XP/vista : http://www.google.com/chrome

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hartanah lokasi strategik pulangan tinggi

hartanah menjamin pulangan yang tinggi.. yang penting pilih kawasan yang mempunyai lokasi yang baik.. jadi keyword untuk hartanah nie adalah LOKASI.. dan yang kedua.. kalau ada lebihan modal membeli lot-lot kedai adalah sesuatu yang wajar dipertimbangkan..

artikel yang menarik untuk dikongsi bersama..

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Instrumen pelaburan tradisional, hartanah sentiasa menjanjikan pulangan menarik.

DALAM keadaan pasaran saham yang kurang memberangsangkan serta kadar faedah bank yang rendah ketika ini, mungkin ramai yang mahu memindahkan dana mereka ke pelaburan yang menjanjikan pulangan lebih baik.

Dalam keadaan sebegini, pelaburan dalam sektor hartanah mungkin menjadi antara pilihan.

Sebagai satu instrumen pelaburan tradisional, hartanah sentiasa menjanjikan pulangan menarik, terutama dalam jangka panjang kerana ia membabitkan sumber paling penting, iaitu tanah yang mana jumlahnya adalah terhad, manakala permintaannya pula akan terus meningkat sejajar pertumbuhan bilangan penduduk.

Namun bagi mendapatkan pulangan lumayan dalam tempoh yang disasarkan, ada beberapa faktor yang perlu dipertimbangkan sebelum memutuskan membeli sesuatu hartanah.

Eksekutif Kanan Jualan Projek SK Brothers Realty (M) Sdn Bhd, Zainal Ashraf Zainal Abidin, berkata lokasi sesuatu hartanah menjadi faktor penting kepada pembeli yang mahu membeli rumah sebagai pelaburan.
Katanya, lokasi yang baik menjanjikan nilai hartanah boleh meningkat dengan cepat.

“Sebagai contohnya, pilih hartanah di lokasi yang hampir dengan kemudahan pengangkutan seperti LRT dan laluan bas.

“Hartanah di lokasi seperti ini mudah untuk disewa berbanding di kawasan yang jauh daripada kemudahan pengangkutan, malah kadar sewa juga jauh lebih tinggi,” katanya.

Pengurus Pemasaran Metro Kajang Holdings Bhd, Johnny WC Lam, berkata kedudukan kewangan yang kukuh mendorong pembeli membeli apa saja jenis hartanah yang mereka mahukan sama ada untuk kediaman ataupun komersial.

Hartanah yang dibangunkan di lokasi strategik dan mempunyai kepadatan penduduk yang tinggi selalunya menjadi pilihan pelabur.

Di samping itu, katanya bagi yang yang mahu menikmati pulangan pelaburan dalam jangka panjang, hartanah komersial seperti kedai pejabat dan industri ringan menjadi antara pilihan.

“Pemilihan unit komersial sebagai pelaburan jangka panjang mampu memberi pulangan yang baik kepada pembeli.

“Ini adalah masa yang baik untuk membeli hartanah untuk pelaburan kerana harganya akan terus meningkat,” katanya.

Pengarah Urusan Faber Group Bhd, Adnan Mohammad pula berkata, hartanah di Lembah Klang akan terus menjadi pilihan pembeli, meskipun harganya adalah agak tinggi.

Beliau berkata, walaupun harga hartanah terus meningkat berikutan kenaikan kos bahan binaan, lokasi memainkan peranan utama khususnya yang beralamat di Kuala Lumpur memandangkan ia mempunyai kelebihan dalam melonjakkan harga hartanah terbabit.

“Ada pembeli yang lebih bertumpu kepada projek di Kuala Lumpur kerana harga hartanah di lokasi berkenaan mampu melonjak dengan cepat.

“Mereka sanggup membuat pelaburan tinggi untuk mendapatkan hartanah yang mampu memberi pulangan tinggi,” katanya sambil menambah jaringan hubungan yang baik juga memberi kesan kepada nilai sesuatu projek.

Oleh Nor Liza Ahmad
norli@bharian.com.my
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the removal of interest free period for credit card user

With effect from July, credit cardholders who don’t pay up in full and on time may end up paying more.

Last year, Bank Negara Malaysia announced a tiered pricing structure (TPS), which will be implemented this July 1, under which those who settle their minimum payments promptly will be charged a reduced interest of 15% to 17% per annum, instead of the usual 18%. However,
credit cardholders are now crying foul over a recent development - THE REMOVAL OF THE INTEREST-FREE PERIOD FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT PAY UP THEIR BILLS IN FULL.

Under current arrangements, credit cardholders enjoy a 20-day interest-free period on their new retail transactions. However, AFTER JULY, only those who make FULL PAYMENTS BEFORE THE DUE DATE will be entitled to the INTEREST-FREE DAYS. Those who make ONLY PARTIAL OR MINIMUM PAYMENTS will be CHARGED INTEREST ON THE DAY THE NEW PURCHASES ARE POSTED TO THE CARD’S ACCOUNTS.

In addition, the LATE PAYMENT CHARGE is NOW A MINIMUM of RM10.00 or 1% on TOTAL OUTSTANDING BALANCES; previously it was 1% of the minimum payment amount…’

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-An excerpt from ‘News: Credit Cardholders, It Pays To Pay Up In Full’ by Tan Su-Yin, Personal Money - The Edge Magazine On Managing Your Finances, Issue #82, June 2008; pg. 10

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Rising petrol and food prices

An article to share considering our current economic conditions

NEW YORK: Stung by rising petrol and food prices, Americans are finding creative ways to cut costs on routine items like groceries and clothing, forcing retailers, restaurants and manufacturers to decode the tastes of a suddenly thrifty public.

Spending data and interviews around the country show that middle- and working-class consumers are starting to switch from name brands to cheaper alternatives, to eat in instead of dining out and to fly at unusual hours to shave dollars off airfares.

Though seemingly small, the daily trade-offs they are making - more pasta and less red meat, more video rentals and fewer movie tickets - amount to an important shift in consumer behavior.

In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand. In New Hampshire, George Goulet is no longer booking hotel rooms at the Hilton, favouring the lower-cost Hampton Inn. And in Michigan, Jennifer Olden is buying Gain laundry detergent instead of the full-price Tide.

Behind the belt-tightening - and brand-swapping - is the collision of several economic forces that are pinching people’s budgets or, at least, leaving them in little mood to splurge.

The price of household necessities has surged, with milk topping US$4 (US$1 = RM3.15) a gallon in many stores and regular petrol closing in on US$3.60 a gallon nationwide.

Home prices are sliding, wages are stagnant, job losses are growing and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broad measure of stock performance, is down six per cent in the last year. So consumers are going on a recession diet.

Burt Flickinger, a longtime retail consultant, said the last time he saw such significant changes in consumer buying patterns was the late 1970s, when runaway inflation prompted Americans to “switch from red meat to pork to poultry to pasta - then to peanut butter and jelly.” “It hasn’t got to human food mixed with pet food yet,” he said, “but it is certainly headed in that direction.”

Retail sales figures and consumer surveys confirm that Americans are strategically cutting corners, whether it is at the coffee house or the airport. (In: brewing coffee at home and flying coach. Out: Starbucks and first class.)

In March, Americans spent less on women’s clothing (down 4.9 per cent), furniture (3.1 per cent), luxury goods (1.3 per cent) and airline tickets (1.1 per cent) compared with a year ago, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, a service of the credit card company that measures spending on 300 million of its cards and estimates purchases with other cards, cash and checks.

Wal-Mart Stores reports stronger-than- usual sales of peanut butter and spaghetti, while restaurants like Domino’s Pizza and Ruby Tuesday have suffered a falloff in orders, suggesting that many Americans are sticking to low-cost home-cooked meals.

Over the last year, purchases of brand name cookies and crackers have fallen, according to Information Resources, which tracks retail sales. Sales of Nabisco graham crackers have dropped 7.5 per cent, and Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies have slipped by 12.3 per cent. Not even beer is immune. Sales of inexpensive domestic beers, like Keystone Light, are up; sales of higher-price imports, like Corona Extra, are down, the firm said.

Some are skipping drinks altogether. The number of people ordering an alcoholic drink fell to 31 per cent last month from 42 per cent last summer, according to a survey of 2,500 people conducted by Technomic, a restaurant industry consulting firm. “People have started to shift spending as if we were in a recession,” said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard.

Such trade-offs were on vivid display last week in Ohio, where layoffs have been rampant. At Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery store in Cleveland, Teresa Rutherford, 51, chided her sister-in-law, Donna Dunaway, 44, for picking up a package of Sara Lee honey ham (eight ounces for US$2.49). “We can’t afford that!” she said. “Get the cheap stuff.” They settled on a 16-ounce package of Deli Pleasures ham for US$3.29, or 34 per cent less an ounce.

The women said that soaring prices for food and fuel had changed what they buy and where they buy it. “We used to eat out at Bob Evans or Denny’s once a month,” said Rutherford, who works in a car parts factory. “Now we don’t go out at all. We eat in all the time.”

Dunaway, a homemaker, used to splurge on the ingredients for homemade lasagna, her husband’s favorite, before food prices began to surge this year. “Now he’s lucky to get a 99-cent lasagna TV dinner, or maybe some Manwich out of a can,” she said. “I just can’t afford to be buying all that good meat and cheese like I used to.”

By no means has the economic downturn been bad for all product categories. For instance, sales of big-ticket electronics, like US$1,000 flat-panel televisions and US$300 video game systems, are on the rise, according to retailers and research firms.

Falling prices for such devices and a looming government deadline to convert to digital television have helped. So has the view, sensible or not, that the technology is a good investment. At a Best Buy in Southfield, Michigan, James Szekely, 28, a mechanical engineer, was shopping for a big high-definition TV that he expected would cost at least US$2,000, an expense he rationalised because “at least we can watch movies at home.”

(In a survey conducted this month by the NPD Group, a research firm, consumers suggested that they would sooner cut spending on clothing, furniture and eating out than on video games.)
At Home Depot, sinks and faucets are selling briskly. Managers at the chain suspect that consumers, loath to spend money on a splashy kitchen renovation or new roof, are settling for a cheaper bathroom “refresh.”

Another top seller at home improvement stores: programmable thermostats and insulation, which can cut fuel bills.

Many retailers are struggling to adjust to the new needs. Clothing sales have started to sink at department stores like Macy’s, Kohl’s and J. C. Penney. So have furniture sales at companies like Bombay and Domain, both of which have filed for bankruptcy protection.
Consumers are spurning small indulgences. Starbucks is warning of a drop-off in purchases, and sales have dipped at higher-end restaurant chains, including the steakhouses Ruth’s Chris and Morton’s. To drum up business, Domino’s is offering a new deal: three 10-inch pizzas for US$4 each. “We are not recession-proof, ” said the chain’s president, J. Patrick Doyle.
But chains that emphasis low prices, like TJ Maxx and Wal-Mart, are thriving. And cut-rate supermarkets, like Save-A-Lot, are swamped. “People are not spending, but they are changing how they spend,” said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the NPD Group. And they are often willing to sacrifice convenience or swallow their pride.

George Goulet, 52, the business traveler switching from the Hilton to the Hampton Inn, now books flights that depart in the afternoon rather than the early morning. “It’s a lot cheaper,” he said. “I can really see the difference.”

Mary Gregory, 55, a telephone company operator in Cleveland, used to eat red meat at least once a week. Now it is hardly ever on her menu. “I usually buy turkey instead,” she said. “Any recipe that calls for meat, like chili or spaghetti, I try to substitute turkey.”

Carl Hall, a retired construction worker in Detroit, wants to buy a fence for his backyard. But he decided not to buy a finished product at Lowe’s, the home improvement chain where he was shopping recently. With money tight, “I am looking to put it together myself,” he said, adding that he hoped to save US$200.

As the compromises mount, people are even coming up with clever schemes to hide their cost-cutting. Holly Levitsky, a 56-year-old supermarket cashier in Cleveland, buys a brand of steak sauce called Briargate for 85 cents and surreptitiously pours it into an A1 steak sauce bottle she keeps at home. “My husband can’t even tell the difference,” she said. - NYT

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A Formula One season in numbers, by BMW Sauber

Think Formula One racing and the numbers that normally spring to mind are power outputs, top speeds and multi-million dollar budgets. But numerically speaking there is far more than meets the eye to the average Grand Prix season.

Did you know, for example, that the BMW Sauber team consumed 90 kilograms of fish and 100 kilograms of pasta at every 2007 race? Or that they completed almost 24,000 test kilometres during the season? And that’s just for starters…

- The team introduced aerodynamic modifications 14 times in the 17 Grands Prix. The exceptions were the United States Grand Prix, during which the same squad ran the same medium downforce package used in Canada the week before, and at the last two races of the season, where the upgraded F1.07 was introduced.

- BMW Sauber brought six to eight engines, four chassis (three plus a spare), 160 wheel rims and 100 radio sets to each Grand Prix.

- Five trucks were used to transport the team’s cars and equipment in Europe. Seven further trucks were needed to transport motor home facilities.

- On average, 1,000 eggs, 1,800 bread rolls, 120 kilos of meat, 90 kilos of fish and 100 kilos of pasta were consumed by team members and guests per Grand Prix weekend. Added to this were the 800 litres of water and 1,500 litres of soft drinks consumed per race.

- The BMW Sauber F1 Team Pit Lane Park was set up on seven occasions over the season at Kuala Lumpur, Barcelona, Silverstone, the Nurburgring, Rome, Warsaw and
Shanghai.

- The F1.07 takes 2.6 seconds to accelerate from 0 to100 km/h and 5.2 seconds to reach 200 km/h.

- It takes the F1.07 55 metres or two seconds to come to a standstill from 200km/h. The car’s brake pads reach temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius.

- BMW Sauber covered a distance of 49,029 kilometres in the season’s 17 races and scored points at each event.

- Both BMW Sauber drivers finished in the points on nine occasions, with Nick Heidfeld scoring podium positions in Canada and Hungary.

- The BMW Sauber drivers made it into the top-ten qualifying shootout 17 times.

- Away from the Grands Prix the BMW Sauber completed 23,732 test kilometres between January 1, 2007 and the end of the season.

- The squad’s race and test teams covered over 8.6 million flying miles in 2007.

- Eight F1.07 chassis were used between the rollout and the final race of the season. Five were used in races (chassis numbers 03, 04, 05, 07, 08), while chassis numbers 01, 02 and 06 were used for testing.

source : www.formula1.com

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Alonso and Hamilton in 2007

It was the marketing man’s perfect partnership. A rookie and a world champion brought together to resurrect the fortunes of McLaren and bring the Woking-based team a ninth constructors’ title and a 12th drivers’ crown. Since Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso made their debut as team mates at the launch of the MP4-22 in January, however, a lot of has changed.

Both titles have been lost to rival squad Ferrari and the partnership, which was meant to last, has been dissolved. Following a season of infighting, intrigue and indisputable success, we caught up with the former team mates to ask them to review 2007 in their own words…

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Championship position: 2nd (109 points)
Four wins, 6 pole positions, 2 fastest laps
“What a year! Coming from GP2, who would have thought I’d be ranked number two in my first year of Formula One. I led the world championship all the way to the last race and we did the best job we could. I think we’ve learnt so much from this year. We have had the best car. It was the most reliable one - there was not a single car breakdown all year - just a couple of hiccups from the drivers. That’s a good step in the right direction. The team and I can go into next season with our heads high and I know I will do an even better job next year and come back even stronger.

“I think I set some good records this year but you know there’s still more records to be beat and there’s still a long, long way to go. I’m only 22, I’ll be here for a while and very proud to be in that team. True, in some moments it has been a bit of a rollercoaster – I don’t have to go into details - but I have enjoyed every single bit of racing and as I have said all along you have just got to look at all the positives.”

Fernando Alonso, McLaren
Championship position: 3rd (109 points)
Four wins, 2 pole positions, 3 fastest laps
“This year I had the opportunity to win the championship again, so from that point of view the switch (from Renault) was a good decision. The team did a fantastic job to have a competitive car so I was able to fight until the last race and finished only one point behind the champion. So in that respect I think it has been a very positive season.

“Outside the car for sure we had some ups and downs, better moments and worse moments, but I think this happens in every job. I will remember this year for my four victories I had in important places, where I had not won before, like Monza, and Monaco again for a second time.

“Did we lose the championship due to strategic mistakes? Well, a championship is not lost in a single race so there are many reasons why we did not win. In Hungary I had a penalty, in Japan I didn’t finish the race after the crash, in Canada I was seventh, in Magny-Cours seventh - so for sure I didn’t arrive in Brazil with enough points to be sure of winning the championship. Hopefully for next year I’ve learnt some lessons and I’ll try again.

“For every driver, when we lose a championship we start thinking about why we lost. But we lost, so there is nothing more we can do. It’s history. The future is the place where you can change things - and the future already has begun. Looking back over my shoulder I feel quite comfortable.”

source : www.formula1.com

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