Tips on legal ways to reduce Parent's Income Tax (Malaysia)

Hello people! As all of us may know, or some who are oblivious, our parents have to declare and send in their Income Tax payable statement to the Inland Board of Revenue Malaysia by 1st of April every year. Here are some tips where we as children can help them save tax the legal way!

1) Collect and pass them all receipts of bought books!
- Receipts of books from popular, MPH etc enables them to deduct a maximum amount of RM1000!
(Here books will exclude newspapers and banned reading magazines.)

2) Receipts of purchases of sport equipment
- Receipts of sport equipment can enable them to have a maximum amount of RM300 deductions!
(Sport equipment includes golf balls & shuttlecocks, Exclude Sport wears and Sport Shoes)

3) Personal computer
- Purchasing a laptop (personal computer) will enable deductions maximum up to RM3000 of the Income Tax!

Our parents have been running in and out day and night just to ensure that us as children gets to live life to the fullest. When we are busy growing up and enjoying life, make sure to care for them and share with them experiences by spending some time with them! Every working Malaysian is liable to Income tax and by doing our part we can at least contribute something or so!

Sincerly,
CXZ

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Gaming RAM: Is it worth the money?

But first, what exactly is the difference between gaming RAM and value Ram?

  The singular difference between Gaming RAM and Value RAM is that Gaming RAM has a higher clock speed. What this means is that Gaming RAM releases the memory faster than normal RAM and so the performance will (obviously) be better. Standard value DDR3 RAM has a clock speed of 1333MHz. There are a few different types of Gaming RAM though so speeds can be 1600MHz, 1866MHz and even 2133MHz.

Is Gaming RAM worth the extra $$ though?

 Gaming RAM, funnily enough, does not improve gaming performance all that much. I have personally tried this to find out. I used to use 4GB of value RAM for my PC. Games ran perfectly smooth on Ultra settings with no performance issues. After Switching to 8GB of 1600MHz Gaming RAM though, there was no noticeable difference when gaming. What I did notice however, was much smoother multitasking then I had previously. I would actually recommend that you guys get gaming RAM only if you do alot of multitasking while gaming or do other memory intensive stuff like HD video rendering as speeds will greatly increase for these kinds of usage.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2013!

  Hi guys! I would just like to wish all of our readers, as well as my co-bloggers a very Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Snake bring fortune, luck, peace and prosperity to all your lives.

Here is a short little music video to get you guys in the festive mood. I hope you enjoy it!

  Chinese New Year aka The Lunar New Year is the most important of Chinese New Year Holidays. If any of our non-Chinese readers are interested to know more you can look here.

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Solid State Drives: Turn your computer into a supercomputer!

The Differences between A SSD and a Hard Disk Drive. 

 Some of you guys might have heard of the SSD (solid state drive) before, most of you probably haven't , so hopefully this article will help you guys understand what exactly is a SSD, and how it can be used to turn your PC into a supercomputer.

  A Solid State Drive, put simply ''is a hard drive but is not a hard drive.'' This may sound abit confusing but it is actually very simple. What I mean by that quote is that a SSD is, like a hard drive, a storage device that is used in exactly the same way; to run windows, to store data, etc...

 The differences between these two devices are in the internals. If you take apart a hard drive, you will actually see that inside it there is an actual disk that stores all your data. The internals of a SSD, on the other hand, is an integrated circuit. Think of it like a super fast, high capacity pendrive.

                                                     internals of a hard disk drive

A SSD is also ALOT faster than a standard hard disk. Due to the fact that it doesn't have to spin around a disk writing data and just *does it* speeds of a SSD can reach more than 5 times that of a standard hard disk. Your computer basically will start up in less than 10 seconds (personal experience) compared to a computer running a hard drive which might take about a minute or more to start. Performance, speed of the whole computer will also be alot faster (though this doesn't include gaming/3D graphics performance. If you want to improve that you will need to get a better graphics card.)

So why should I get a SSD?

 Solid state drive prices are EXPENSIVE compared to hard drives. You can get a 500 gigabyte hard drive cheaper than a 60 gigabyte SSD. Because of this I would recommend you getting a SSD if you are a gamer/power user and speed is a must for you. If you are just going to use your PC for basic use, I do not think the price is worth it.

That is all, thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment below on your thoughts about the Solid State Drive. Peace.

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Meet the sprightly sprinter still breaking records - aged 77

At the age of 77, most would expect Dorothy McLennan to be enjoying a more laid back lifestyle.

But the former bank clerk is no ordinary pensioner. She is also a current heptathlon champion who competes against athletes half her age. ( A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up  of seven events which are 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, 200m, Long jump, Javelin Throw and 800m).

Despite being in her senior years,  Dorothy has snatched dozens of gold medals and world records from young competitors since she took up athletics professionally in her 50s.

The world champion pole vaulter, heptathlete and sprinter spends three days a week training for her next world championships, when most her age would prefer to put their feet up.

A double gold medal winner at the World Masters Championships - Olympic standard competitions of athletes aged 35 and over - the sprightly athlete is hoping to break the record in sprinting at the British Masters Championships at the end of February.

Mrs McLennan, who lives with her husband Ray, said: "People are always very surprised when I tell them I do pole vaulting and sprinting, but I don't see what's so unusual about it. "Nobody is too old to exercise and keep healthy - I'd recommend athletics to anyone."

She is truly a very inspiring person. Good health is something that should be treasured in this world. If a 77 year old can do it, you can too!

What are your thoughts on Dorothy McLennan and health in general? Feel free to leave a comment below.

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Just across the straits.

Hello there.

The Lion and the Tiger.

I meant,
The Lion and the Tiger.

It's funny how people make the differences seem so drastic, yet we are still similar one way or another.
yes, I'm talking about Singapore.


Living in S'pore for the past 3 and a half years (though I'll like to use the word 'stay'. it's temporary, you know), I've noticed there are some 'phenomenas' rather interesting,
worth mentioning,
worth to comment,
worth to laugh about.

It's a different perception altogether.



Next post on The Striped Lion: Language.


( I've guessed you've sensed the naive new blogger.

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Your RM2mil*maybe* Gangnam Style

Finally the chubby guy who sang and danced ''Gangnam Dance'' , Psy, is coming to Malaysia for a Chinese New Year open house celebration. He will be performing his famous Gangnam Style in Penang on the February 11th. The event is organized and well funded by the current reigning party of Malaysia -- Barisan Nasional. And, oh... it cost merely Rm2 million (rumored) just to bring PSY to Malaysia.

Ahha! Here's the catch, elections are near - youths get 200 ringgit to buy their smartphone and now, the KoreanPop fans are getting a little bit of Psy. Sounds fishy isn't it? =P

I'm not going to elaborate more, what are your views on this? Is the KPOP glamor from ''you know who'' necessary? Tell us in the comment box below.

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Google Science Fair 2013

The Google Science is a competition opened for youths ages 13 - 18 from around the world searching for inspired scientific ideas that will possibly change our world someday. For the past couple of years Google hosted this event along with companies related to science and creativity such as National Geographic and Lego searching for young and aspiring individual from around the globe to show off their innovative ideas and inventions.

What inspired the guys from Google are the likes of Alexander Graham Bell and Louis Braille who became innovators at the age of 18 and 16 respectively. Alexander changed the world of communications while Louis created a whole new alphabet series for the blind. Both of them proved that young minds and young hearts can change how we live and how we think. 

The grand winner for this year's Google Science Fair will get a paid trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions and $50,000 scholarship funding from the much loved Google. And also a personalized LEGO price. And much more. 

Not only that, there are also the Finalist Prizes, Age Category Winners (13-14, 15-16, 17-18), Science in Action Prize, Celebrate the School Prize and Inspired Idea Award. Most of them consist of $50,000 scholarship fund from Google. 

If you are an inspired youth who love science and have a brilliant idea that you always wanted to share, feel free to get more info from GSF2013 .  

  

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Blackberry : BB10, Z10 & Q10

 

Research In Motion (RIM) now known as BlackBerry announced their brand new operating system the BlackBerry 10  and also two new phones, Z10 and Q10. 

The BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 were announced recently at an event in New York to the world of mobile phones. But the question remain unanswered whether the much weakened BlackBerry still have the strength to compete with the much 'stronger' opponents such as the Apple iPhone, Samsung GS3 or the LG Nexus 4.

Both phones running with the brand new BlackBerry 10 OS (Click on the link to watch a video about BlackBerry 10).

Now, lets talk about the new phones. First, the BlackBerry flagship phone, Z10. It ships with a gorgeous 4.2 inch,  1280 x 768 display with 356PPI. Z10 is powered by a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB ram and 16GB of expandable storage. And it also have the NFC feature. 

 

Next, the Q10. A more familiar sight towards BlackBerry devices. Yup, BlackBerry Q10 is a keyboarded smartphone like the previous BB Bold and Curve series. Unlike it's cousin (Z10) the Q10 comes with a smaller screen thanks to it's keyboard. Besides the physical keyboard and the awkward square screen, the BlackBerry Q10 is identical to the Z10. 

 

So, are you interested in these new phones? Are you willing to put down your beloved iPhone or S3 for the brand new BlackBerry 10 devices? Please tell us by giving us your comments.

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