Received this mail about 'conversion' from someone and decided to write an equivalent one about 'dedication' (at bottom)
The Conversion
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the "accident of evolution" had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.
As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing. He ran even faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell to the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear, right on top of him: reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
At that instant the atheist cried out "Oh my God!" Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky: "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don't exist; and, even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light: "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?"
"Very well," the voice said. The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear dropped its right paw... brought both paws together... bowed its head and spoke: "Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful."
(This is what I sent back to sender of above mail)
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. - Voltaire
Voltaire forgot to say that they do the same with parables.
So here's a dedication to your story on 'conversion'.
The Dedication
A Christian was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the "father of Christ" had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.
As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing. He ran even faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped over a rifle and fell to the ground. He rolled over to pick the rifle up but saw the bear, right on top of him: reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
At that instant the Christian cried out "Oh my God!" Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky: "You worship me for all of these years; teach others about me; and, look down on others who do not believe in me. What do you expect me to do to help you out of this predicament? Did I not ask you to have faith as a believer?"
The Christian looked directly into the light: "It would be hypocritical of me to lose faith in You as a Christian now, but perhaps you could give me another chance to test my faith as a Christian?"
"Very well," the voice said. The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the Christian dropped his rifle, brought both hands together, and with the Christian's head in both paws the bear could hear him say: "Lord, by being made the food of this bear I trust I shall be with you soon in eternal glory. For that I am truly thankful to Thee."
Thursday, August 23, 2001
Monday, August 13, 2001
Brainteaser for Asian Geniuses
I received a chain mail with supposedly Mensa Brainteasers that claimed that those that score high marks are geniuses. As the teasers had a number of items relating to the Bible and western history, and one on South African currency, I figured it was probably from some South African white out to 'prove' that people of his type are smarter than others (presumably blacks in his home country). The teaser was clearly stacked so that such a person will have an unfair advantage (and score higher). So I decided develop the below brain teasers that is more stacked in favour of Asians. That way we can have more Asian 'geniuses' and less white ones!
Subject: Re: Mensa Brainteaser
Try my MENSA test below.
May be we can give the below items to some westerner and tell them they are genius only if they get more than 6 correct, and see how they perform. Doesn't matter if you can't get them yourself. Anyone who wants answers to below can get from this self declared genius (if South African whites can do it so can I).
a. 13 S in M
b. 5 S in S F
c. 100 S in 1 R
d. 16 T in 1 K
e. 3 P in a S T T
f. 28 D in a L M
g. 15 P to a B G
h. K is the H B for the M
i. M is 8 T the S of I and O
j. 5 B of C C
k. K M is from I
Subject: Re: Mensa Brainteaser
Try my MENSA test below.
May be we can give the below items to some westerner and tell them they are genius only if they get more than 6 correct, and see how they perform. Doesn't matter if you can't get them yourself. Anyone who wants answers to below can get from this self declared genius (if South African whites can do it so can I).
a. 13 S in M
b. 5 S in S F
c. 100 S in 1 R
d. 16 T in 1 K
e. 3 P in a S T T
f. 28 D in a L M
g. 15 P to a B G
h. K is the H B for the M
i. M is 8 T the S of I and O
j. 5 B of C C
k. K M is from I
Friday, August 10, 2001
US Copyright Laws
From: Chee-Khiaw Cheng
bcc: friends, family
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 12:47 PM
Subject: U.S. Copy Right Laws
Below is an interesting example of how the big money makers are using the US Copyright Laws to their benefit. See how the real life use of such laws is different from their more noble aims as stated in the US Constitution :
The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to enact laws relating to patents, in Article I, section 8, which reads 'Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'
I am not aware of any major scientific minds (of the fundamental science kind) that are too concerned about patenting their discoveries. Imagine Einstein and the likes suing kids in school to make an example of them!
The US are changing their patent laws to recognise 'first to patent' instead of 'first to invent'. US laws used to recognise that if one can prove that one had invented or discovered something ahead of others, the law will accord the rights to the invention to that person and not the one who makes a patent registration first. This reversal could be driven by developments in 'modern medicine' (big industry in the US & West) where pharmaceutical companies are analysing many traditional herbal medicines (esp. from developing countries) for active healing ingredients. Given the old interpretation, the pharmaceutical companies will not be able to claim that a particular 'active agent' extracted from a known herb is their discovery since the traditional users of those herbs will be able to claim 'first use' or 'first knowledge'.
So, do you think you should live by those laws?
Rgds
CCK
bkjchua@pacific.net.sg on 08/10/2001 01:15:47 AM
To: cheng_chee_khiaw@jpmorgan.com
Subject: Fw: e-book.htm
Chee Khiaw, Please forward this. Boycott Adobe! Ben
From: Benjamin Chua
To: Caitlin Pitt ; K & E Lammon
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 12:12 AM
Subject: e-book.htm
Read an e-book to your child, go to jail?
By Robert Menta- 12/26/00
A number of months ago I did a story called "Copyright Office Ruling Possible Setback to Fair Use". In that article I wrote this:
In an effort to give copyright holders more protection, the US Copyright office decided to allow only two narrow exemptions to a new federal law that gives copyright holders a whole new level of protection. The law, which makes it illegal for Web users to hack through any barriers, copyright holders put around their content, will be in effect for three years.
The Philips Expanium is a CD/MP3 player. Now available on Amazon for $199
This content, which extends to everything from music to books to films, caused a firestorm among libraries and universities who argued that the law is too broad and media companies could use the new law to restrict their traditional rights.
The point of the article was not that copyright holders don't have a right to protect their interests, they do. It was that the law allowed too much leeway for abuse by allowing copyright holders to use technology to redefine the concept known as fair use.
How? Well, the fundamentals of fair use essentially allow the person who purchases copyright material to share it with others. That means you the buyer can read the content to another individual, trade the content, copy the content on cassette, etc. Not only have we enjoyed these practices for decades, but we accept them as a matter-of-fact right.
Copyright holders, on the other hand, love to have everyone pay several times for the same content. Simply put, it makes them more money. In their greed, conglomerates and oligopolies have come up with the recent notion that you no longer own the book or CD you purchased at the store, you are only renting it. Therefore you are subject to multiple charges.
Prior to technology, there was no way to enforce this notion so it was moot. Fair use was fair use and no matter how many times the major music labels screamed back in the 1980's that cassettes were killing the industry, they found no sympathy in the courts or in the marketplace.
But now, with digital content like e-books and MP3 music, there is technology coming to put such a notion to practice. The ruling by the copyright office opened the door for the corporations to in practice take away the fair use rights of the consumer by fully protecting any technology that strips it. Publishers can now write legal clauses saying you are forbidden to do this and that with the content you purchased. If you override the technology that is supposed to prevent this with shareware you download from the Internet, you become a felon.
But come on, are copyright holder really going to put outlandish restrictions on how you use the books and music you buy? Will the abuses the libraries and universities fear actually happen? Folks, that is the point of my article to you today. It already started.
The example I am about to show you is quite atrocious, one I was alerted to in a recent posting on Slashdot. The posting points out the fine print in the licensing of Adobe's new e-book product Glassbook, a snapshot of which you will find below. Glassbook has taken a number of literary classics in the public domain and digitized them. They then put these restrictions on what they deem fair use. It is almost comical if not surreal:
Copy: No text selections can be copied from the book to the clipboard.
Print: No printing is permitted on this book.
Lend: This book cannot be lent or given to someone else.
Give: This book cannot be given to someone else.
Read Aloud: This book cannot be read aloud.
According to Adobe, if you read Alice in Wonderland from their e-book to your son or daughter, you have violated their copyright. If you use shareware to copy a passage of it for your kids book report, you have committed a criminal act as now defined by the US Copyright Office.
Remember the student in Oklahoma whose dorm room was raided because he downloaded music from Napster? (see Oklahoma Student to be Sacrificial Lamb in MP3 Wars). He just recently plead guilty to a misdemeanor in that case so he wouldn't drive his family bankrupt in legal fees. In an effort to exert their self-proclaimed rights, oligopolies and self-interest groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) look for individuals to be their "examples". People they ruin to scare off others and dictate their vision of right and wrong. A vision solely driven by the singular goal of increasing profit.
Want to hear the ultimate irony? Adobe pulled the transcription of Alice in Wonderland from Project Gutenberg, a library of electronically stored books, mostly classics that can be downloaded for free and viewed off-line. The goal is to make these books free and accessible to all people, specifically those who have limited access to these works. Adobe downloaded the books for free, repackaged it, and are stripping away the open permissions that Project Gutenberg already endowed upon you. The right to freely read and pass on fine literature because it will better the world.
See what we mean by self-proclaimed copyrights? Take what's in the public domain, plant a flag on it like it was the Oklahoma land rush, claim ownership for your company, make up your own restrictions, and take people to court if they don't pay up. This is what the implications of the US Copyright Office's recent decision have brought upon us.
Our advice? Start by doing the worst thing you can do to Adobe's new e-book - don't buy it. Then go to Project Gutenberg's site and download a few stories.
bcc: friends, family
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 12:47 PM
Subject: U.S. Copy Right Laws
Below is an interesting example of how the big money makers are using the US Copyright Laws to their benefit. See how the real life use of such laws is different from their more noble aims as stated in the US Constitution :
The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to enact laws relating to patents, in Article I, section 8, which reads 'Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.'
I am not aware of any major scientific minds (of the fundamental science kind) that are too concerned about patenting their discoveries. Imagine Einstein and the likes suing kids in school to make an example of them!
The US are changing their patent laws to recognise 'first to patent' instead of 'first to invent'. US laws used to recognise that if one can prove that one had invented or discovered something ahead of others, the law will accord the rights to the invention to that person and not the one who makes a patent registration first. This reversal could be driven by developments in 'modern medicine' (big industry in the US & West) where pharmaceutical companies are analysing many traditional herbal medicines (esp. from developing countries) for active healing ingredients. Given the old interpretation, the pharmaceutical companies will not be able to claim that a particular 'active agent' extracted from a known herb is their discovery since the traditional users of those herbs will be able to claim 'first use' or 'first knowledge'.
So, do you think you should live by those laws?
Rgds
CCK
bkjchua@pacific.net.sg on 08/10/2001 01:15:47 AM
To: cheng_chee_khiaw@jpmorgan.com
Subject: Fw: e-book.htm
Chee Khiaw, Please forward this. Boycott Adobe! Ben
From: Benjamin Chua
To: Caitlin Pitt ; K & E Lammon
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 12:12 AM
Subject: e-book.htm
Read an e-book to your child, go to jail?
By Robert Menta- 12/26/00
A number of months ago I did a story called "Copyright Office Ruling Possible Setback to Fair Use". In that article I wrote this:
In an effort to give copyright holders more protection, the US Copyright office decided to allow only two narrow exemptions to a new federal law that gives copyright holders a whole new level of protection. The law, which makes it illegal for Web users to hack through any barriers, copyright holders put around their content, will be in effect for three years.
The Philips Expanium is a CD/MP3 player. Now available on Amazon for $199
This content, which extends to everything from music to books to films, caused a firestorm among libraries and universities who argued that the law is too broad and media companies could use the new law to restrict their traditional rights.
The point of the article was not that copyright holders don't have a right to protect their interests, they do. It was that the law allowed too much leeway for abuse by allowing copyright holders to use technology to redefine the concept known as fair use.
How? Well, the fundamentals of fair use essentially allow the person who purchases copyright material to share it with others. That means you the buyer can read the content to another individual, trade the content, copy the content on cassette, etc. Not only have we enjoyed these practices for decades, but we accept them as a matter-of-fact right.
Copyright holders, on the other hand, love to have everyone pay several times for the same content. Simply put, it makes them more money. In their greed, conglomerates and oligopolies have come up with the recent notion that you no longer own the book or CD you purchased at the store, you are only renting it. Therefore you are subject to multiple charges.
Prior to technology, there was no way to enforce this notion so it was moot. Fair use was fair use and no matter how many times the major music labels screamed back in the 1980's that cassettes were killing the industry, they found no sympathy in the courts or in the marketplace.
But now, with digital content like e-books and MP3 music, there is technology coming to put such a notion to practice. The ruling by the copyright office opened the door for the corporations to in practice take away the fair use rights of the consumer by fully protecting any technology that strips it. Publishers can now write legal clauses saying you are forbidden to do this and that with the content you purchased. If you override the technology that is supposed to prevent this with shareware you download from the Internet, you become a felon.
But come on, are copyright holder really going to put outlandish restrictions on how you use the books and music you buy? Will the abuses the libraries and universities fear actually happen? Folks, that is the point of my article to you today. It already started.
The example I am about to show you is quite atrocious, one I was alerted to in a recent posting on Slashdot. The posting points out the fine print in the licensing of Adobe's new e-book product Glassbook, a snapshot of which you will find below. Glassbook has taken a number of literary classics in the public domain and digitized them. They then put these restrictions on what they deem fair use. It is almost comical if not surreal:
Copy: No text selections can be copied from the book to the clipboard.
Print: No printing is permitted on this book.
Lend: This book cannot be lent or given to someone else.
Give: This book cannot be given to someone else.
Read Aloud: This book cannot be read aloud.
According to Adobe, if you read Alice in Wonderland from their e-book to your son or daughter, you have violated their copyright. If you use shareware to copy a passage of it for your kids book report, you have committed a criminal act as now defined by the US Copyright Office.
Remember the student in Oklahoma whose dorm room was raided because he downloaded music from Napster? (see Oklahoma Student to be Sacrificial Lamb in MP3 Wars). He just recently plead guilty to a misdemeanor in that case so he wouldn't drive his family bankrupt in legal fees. In an effort to exert their self-proclaimed rights, oligopolies and self-interest groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) look for individuals to be their "examples". People they ruin to scare off others and dictate their vision of right and wrong. A vision solely driven by the singular goal of increasing profit.
Want to hear the ultimate irony? Adobe pulled the transcription of Alice in Wonderland from Project Gutenberg, a library of electronically stored books, mostly classics that can be downloaded for free and viewed off-line. The goal is to make these books free and accessible to all people, specifically those who have limited access to these works. Adobe downloaded the books for free, repackaged it, and are stripping away the open permissions that Project Gutenberg already endowed upon you. The right to freely read and pass on fine literature because it will better the world.
See what we mean by self-proclaimed copyrights? Take what's in the public domain, plant a flag on it like it was the Oklahoma land rush, claim ownership for your company, make up your own restrictions, and take people to court if they don't pay up. This is what the implications of the US Copyright Office's recent decision have brought upon us.
Our advice? Start by doing the worst thing you can do to Adobe's new e-book - don't buy it. Then go to Project Gutenberg's site and download a few stories.
Thursday, August 09, 2001
More Than A Brain Teaser
To: EDNA.TEO@bbl.be
bcc: friends, family
Subject: MORE THAN A BRAIN TEASER
Hi dear,
The below 'test' wants you to believe that 'according to MENSA, if you get 23 of these, you are a 'genius''. As you will see once you complete it or get the answers to this thing, you are actually being judged on whether you are a 'genius' based on a set of knowledge for which South African christians have an advantage. Reasons :
- 3 of the items relate to the Bible
- 2 of them relate to South Africa
- some to do with the U.S. but none of them has anything to do with Asia or other religions
So you can see how a South Africa christian would have an advantage. Does not matter if you know the Koran and Asia very well.
Very typical of many things in the west. They set the rules and tests. Everyone else try like hell to live up to them not knowing what they actually mean. If you believe them, 'Freedom House' (nice name heh?) says that Israel has greater democracy than Singapore. A Morgan in-house editor (American of course) quoted that to me in an exchange. Of course, it just 'happens' that white Americans are closer to the Israelis than Singapore, and it does not matter what happens to the Palestinians in Israel. For Freedom House, Palestinians don't count (may be partly because their Bible says the Jews are special and the Palestinians did not get special mention).
Other than the above test, white South Africans have other examples to offer. One of them (an Andersen consultant) told me 15 years ago that they could not let the black South Africans run the country because they would kill each other (the Zulus will kill the others, and vice versa etc.). As you know, South Africa had been run by the blacks for most of the last 10 years without the killings the whites claimed would happen. Also if one is to believe the whites in South Afica and Zimbabwe (ex-white Rhodesia), statistics would 'prove' that whites produce more per acre of land than blacks. It therefore imply that the blacks are inferior to the whites. Of course what they hope we all forget is that the whites had all the money (generated in large measure through slavery and white controlled natural resources) and best arable land (forcibly taken from the blacks over the last few hundred years). Out of desperation some blacks in Zimbabwe recently tried to re-occupy the better lands owned by whites. But the whites in South Africa and Zimbabwe now insist everyone should live by the law. Of course, it also means that they get to keep their ill-gotten wealth and best land, and the blacks will have to catch up the 'proper' way. After robbing the towns for centuries, the robber's children now want the law to come to town.
As is in many things in life, be careful with such tests.
Rgds
CCK
p.s. I got this 'test' about a month ago. One of the reasons I first suspected (and later confirmed after working out 28 of them) that the test was by South African christians, was the e-mail address that came with the test instructions I got - it had an e-mail address with a South African internet extension (".za"). The people who sent me the thing, of course, got my response to the above effect. That e-mail address (at the top of the spreadsheet) has been removed from the version you sent. May be someone took that out by accident...... In the meantime, let the world be tested for their smartness the South African Christian way. They'll be no smarter for it.
bcc: friends, family
Subject: MORE THAN A BRAIN TEASER
Hi dear,
The below 'test' wants you to believe that 'according to MENSA, if you get 23 of these, you are a 'genius''. As you will see once you complete it or get the answers to this thing, you are actually being judged on whether you are a 'genius' based on a set of knowledge for which South African christians have an advantage. Reasons :
- 3 of the items relate to the Bible
- 2 of them relate to South Africa
- some to do with the U.S. but none of them has anything to do with Asia or other religions
So you can see how a South Africa christian would have an advantage. Does not matter if you know the Koran and Asia very well.
Very typical of many things in the west. They set the rules and tests. Everyone else try like hell to live up to them not knowing what they actually mean. If you believe them, 'Freedom House' (nice name heh?) says that Israel has greater democracy than Singapore. A Morgan in-house editor (American of course) quoted that to me in an exchange. Of course, it just 'happens' that white Americans are closer to the Israelis than Singapore, and it does not matter what happens to the Palestinians in Israel. For Freedom House, Palestinians don't count (may be partly because their Bible says the Jews are special and the Palestinians did not get special mention).
Other than the above test, white South Africans have other examples to offer. One of them (an Andersen consultant) told me 15 years ago that they could not let the black South Africans run the country because they would kill each other (the Zulus will kill the others, and vice versa etc.). As you know, South Africa had been run by the blacks for most of the last 10 years without the killings the whites claimed would happen. Also if one is to believe the whites in South Afica and Zimbabwe (ex-white Rhodesia), statistics would 'prove' that whites produce more per acre of land than blacks. It therefore imply that the blacks are inferior to the whites. Of course what they hope we all forget is that the whites had all the money (generated in large measure through slavery and white controlled natural resources) and best arable land (forcibly taken from the blacks over the last few hundred years). Out of desperation some blacks in Zimbabwe recently tried to re-occupy the better lands owned by whites. But the whites in South Africa and Zimbabwe now insist everyone should live by the law. Of course, it also means that they get to keep their ill-gotten wealth and best land, and the blacks will have to catch up the 'proper' way. After robbing the towns for centuries, the robber's children now want the law to come to town.
As is in many things in life, be careful with such tests.
Rgds
CCK
p.s. I got this 'test' about a month ago. One of the reasons I first suspected (and later confirmed after working out 28 of them) that the test was by South African christians, was the e-mail address that came with the test instructions I got - it had an e-mail address with a South African internet extension (".za"). The people who sent me the thing, of course, got my response to the above effect. That e-mail address (at the top of the spreadsheet) has been removed from the version you sent. May be someone took that out by accident...... In the meantime, let the world be tested for their smartness the South African Christian way. They'll be no smarter for it.
Sunday, August 05, 2001
The Incomparable Creativeness of the Corrupt
The Malaysian government has a scheme that allows citizens to use their EPF (compulsory savings equivalent to CPF in Singapore, if you discount the abuses done with it) money to buy personal computers. The official reason was to encourage the use of IT in the country. However, citizens can only buy their PCs through government approved sellers. Below is a sample of the real story behind the 'scheme' - an entry by a Malaysian in a discussion forum in The Star's (a local newspaper) website - another way for someone to make money out of the unwitting.
It reminded me of similar reports from Indonesia before 1997. The Indonesian education ministry actually considered implementing a ruling that each school-going child should visit a particular new theme park at least once in their school life. Such visits were supposedly good for the education of the kids and would cost more than US$10 per entry. Of course, the facts that the theme park was built by someone well connected with the corrupt government, and the poorest Indonesian families earned not much more than US$10 a month were irrelevant. Another recommendation considered by the ministry was that each school child should only wear school shoes of a particular make. Not clear what educational value shoes of that particular make would give but they were produced by a company linked to one of the President's sons. What an education the whole country got in 1997. It is sad to think that a government could do such things to its own citizens and get away with it for so long. May be for some it is as easy to live with lies as it is to lie to live.
The Malaysian's story below....
I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience with regards to this topic.
I have ordered a PC through one of Pos Malaysia's official vendor, HK COMP TECHNOLOGY SDN. BHD. (thereafter refered to as HK COMP) based on their broucher :- PIII 933Mhz, 64MB SDRAM, ASUS CUV4X Motherboard, Aztech Q3D 64Bit Sound Card, 2000W Subwoofer Speaker system and 17" Colour Monitor worth RM3450/=.
After nearly two months I eagerly received my PC from Pos Malaysia. To my suprise there was no 2000W Subwoofer speaker system. Instead there was only a 600W speaker system (no subwoofer). Of course I immediately called the HK COMP to inquire about the difference. They simply said that they have no stock at the moment and will exchange it for me when there's stock. What displeased me the most was the attitude of HK COMP of not informing me first before they delivered the PC. Won't you feel cheated? That's not all.
Then I discovered the sound card supplied was also different. Instead of the Aztech sound card it was a cheap CMedia sound card (cost about RM38 - I checked). Hey what's going on? When inquired, HK COMP just simply said that the CMedia sound card is the same as the Aztech sound card. What kind of excuse is that? Just because a Kancil has 4 tyres and 4 doors, does it make it the same as a Waja? What do they take me for? After much scolding they promised to send the 2000W Subwoofer speaker system and change the sound card FOC.
After using the 2000w subwoofer speaker system, I found that one of the speaker was not working properly. So I brought it back to their office to exchange it for a new one since it's still under warranty. As one of the staff brought out a supposely new speaker, I asked them whether was it new? Yes was the reply. Then I requested for it to be tested first. As they took it out of the box I noticed that it seems to have wear and tear marks on it. Hmmm... is it really new I asked. True enough, after testing it, one of the speaker was not working at all. After further inspection I can confirm that it has been used for quite sometime and most probably someone returned it and now they are trying to pass it off as NEW. Clearly unhappy I questioned their integrity and they have nothing to say. They proceeded to ignore me trying to be busy with other things. Out of frustation I just took one of the working (but USED) speaker and walked out.
I thought that was the end of my problems. Now comes the most shocking part. I discovered that the Motherboard supplied was also different from what was agreed. They gave me a ASUS CUV4X-C m/board instead of a ASUS CUV4X m/board. After comparing through the internet, the CUV4X-C has only 2 DIMM slots compared to 3 DIMM slots on the CUV4X. I haven't bombared HK COMP yet since it's the weekend. I would definately ask them to change it for FOC at my house or ask for a refund.
Now, what if I'm a new PC user. Do you think I would notice these things? NO WAY!
The questions is how are Pos Malaysia and Odasaja going to make sure that their vendors supply what they promised to the buyers and don't get shortchanged and cheated on the not so obvious parts of the PC? I feel that this is and issue of most utmost importance since we are at the mercy of the EPF PC scheme and we cannot change or choose what we need or desire. I know the reason Pos Malaysia got the rights to supply PC's because the government wanted to stop some unscruplous buyers from withdrawing their EPF money with no intention of buying PC's.
But now it seems that the plan has backfired. Now it's the vendor that is in the position to cheat and shortchange the customers. Please be wary of this and make sure that you throughly check what you are getting. I'm going to lodge a complain with the relevant authorities and warn everyone I know about the dishonesty of HK COMP. I hope that other vendors are more honest.
It reminded me of similar reports from Indonesia before 1997. The Indonesian education ministry actually considered implementing a ruling that each school-going child should visit a particular new theme park at least once in their school life. Such visits were supposedly good for the education of the kids and would cost more than US$10 per entry. Of course, the facts that the theme park was built by someone well connected with the corrupt government, and the poorest Indonesian families earned not much more than US$10 a month were irrelevant. Another recommendation considered by the ministry was that each school child should only wear school shoes of a particular make. Not clear what educational value shoes of that particular make would give but they were produced by a company linked to one of the President's sons. What an education the whole country got in 1997. It is sad to think that a government could do such things to its own citizens and get away with it for so long. May be for some it is as easy to live with lies as it is to lie to live.
The Malaysian's story below....
I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience with regards to this topic.
I have ordered a PC through one of Pos Malaysia's official vendor, HK COMP TECHNOLOGY SDN. BHD. (thereafter refered to as HK COMP) based on their broucher :- PIII 933Mhz, 64MB SDRAM, ASUS CUV4X Motherboard, Aztech Q3D 64Bit Sound Card, 2000W Subwoofer Speaker system and 17" Colour Monitor worth RM3450/=.
After nearly two months I eagerly received my PC from Pos Malaysia. To my suprise there was no 2000W Subwoofer speaker system. Instead there was only a 600W speaker system (no subwoofer). Of course I immediately called the HK COMP to inquire about the difference. They simply said that they have no stock at the moment and will exchange it for me when there's stock. What displeased me the most was the attitude of HK COMP of not informing me first before they delivered the PC. Won't you feel cheated? That's not all.
Then I discovered the sound card supplied was also different. Instead of the Aztech sound card it was a cheap CMedia sound card (cost about RM38 - I checked). Hey what's going on? When inquired, HK COMP just simply said that the CMedia sound card is the same as the Aztech sound card. What kind of excuse is that? Just because a Kancil has 4 tyres and 4 doors, does it make it the same as a Waja? What do they take me for? After much scolding they promised to send the 2000W Subwoofer speaker system and change the sound card FOC.
After using the 2000w subwoofer speaker system, I found that one of the speaker was not working properly. So I brought it back to their office to exchange it for a new one since it's still under warranty. As one of the staff brought out a supposely new speaker, I asked them whether was it new? Yes was the reply. Then I requested for it to be tested first. As they took it out of the box I noticed that it seems to have wear and tear marks on it. Hmmm... is it really new I asked. True enough, after testing it, one of the speaker was not working at all. After further inspection I can confirm that it has been used for quite sometime and most probably someone returned it and now they are trying to pass it off as NEW. Clearly unhappy I questioned their integrity and they have nothing to say. They proceeded to ignore me trying to be busy with other things. Out of frustation I just took one of the working (but USED) speaker and walked out.
I thought that was the end of my problems. Now comes the most shocking part. I discovered that the Motherboard supplied was also different from what was agreed. They gave me a ASUS CUV4X-C m/board instead of a ASUS CUV4X m/board. After comparing through the internet, the CUV4X-C has only 2 DIMM slots compared to 3 DIMM slots on the CUV4X. I haven't bombared HK COMP yet since it's the weekend. I would definately ask them to change it for FOC at my house or ask for a refund.
Now, what if I'm a new PC user. Do you think I would notice these things? NO WAY!
The questions is how are Pos Malaysia and Odasaja going to make sure that their vendors supply what they promised to the buyers and don't get shortchanged and cheated on the not so obvious parts of the PC? I feel that this is and issue of most utmost importance since we are at the mercy of the EPF PC scheme and we cannot change or choose what we need or desire. I know the reason Pos Malaysia got the rights to supply PC's because the government wanted to stop some unscruplous buyers from withdrawing their EPF money with no intention of buying PC's.
But now it seems that the plan has backfired. Now it's the vendor that is in the position to cheat and shortchange the customers. Please be wary of this and make sure that you throughly check what you are getting. I'm going to lodge a complain with the relevant authorities and warn everyone I know about the dishonesty of HK COMP. I hope that other vendors are more honest.
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