modern myths

after the last dull post, i needed to quickly amend that mistake with something worthy to write about. so now, i will share my findings on modern myths with you. so please read on and be shocked by the answers.

is it true that a person should drink 8 glasses of water everyday?

FALSE

yes, you read right! it is completely false. i've found that in general, to remain healthy, we do need to take in the water that we lost through exertions, sweat and other bodily functions. BUT water intake varies from person to person. factors includes age, weight, activity level and the climate where the person lives. the 8 glasses per day is a thumb of rule really and interestingly, it doesn't have to be just plain water.

and to add to this myth, there has been a general thought that drinking coffee, milk, tea, soda or other drinks makes you dehydrate more. a research on this discovered that there were no differences at all. one glass of any of these drinks amounts to about the same hydrating fluids as a glass of water. only drinks with alcohol makes you dehydrate but even then, one needs to drink a lot of it to have noticeable difference, doctors say.

so if you have kidneys the size of a peanut (like myself), the best hydrating advice is "drink if you're feeling thirsty. and you don't have to drink when you're not, unless you want to."

by boiling water in a microwave make it explode?

TRUE but very rare

this myth started with an email being circulated:

I feel that the following is information that any one who uses a microwave oven to heat water should be made aware of. About five days ago my 26-year old son decided to have a cup of instant coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for but he told me he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup he noted that the water was not boiling but instantly the water in the cup "blew up" into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand but all the water had flew out into his face due to the buildup of energy. His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring. He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye.

While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc. It is however a much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle. Please pass this information on to friends and family.

many thought this email was just a typical scare-o-gram, it turned out to be true. conditions need to be perfect and you might not even get to see the phenomenon. but if you get it just right, you'll get this:


if you are 'lucky' to see that, chances you'll get hit in the face is very very rare.

does tapping the top of a soda can prevent it from fizzing out?
TRUE and FALSE

to be honest, i found a lot of answers and explanation to this myth. some proved it to be true by experimentation and videoed his findings and some explained scientifically with physics.

Soda Can Lid Tapping Urban Legend - Awesome video clips here

a website i stumbled upon gave me different results with different beverages, time length of tapping and the resulted foaming. click here to find the results in more detail. her final conclusion?

Tapping on a soda can will not decrease the liklihood that it will foam over on you when opened. It will, however, give you something to do while you wait for the contents to calm down. Generally speaking, one minute is a sufficient amount of time to wait before opening a shaken soda can. Of course, these tests were all done in Portland, Oregon and the majority of the soda was cold. Results at other altitudes with other temperatures of soda are unknown.

very amusing.. the best conclusion of this myth is just let can rest on a table for a few minutes before opening it.

i hope that was a good read!

about the blogger

maurina tagged me!

1. Tell us your name:
ffuuuhh.. here goes.. Zul Farnie Sham Bin Mohd Ali. i'm just sham to my friends.

2. Three things about yourself:
- doin the dishes calms me.
- loves watching documentaries.
- can't swim

3. What’s in your playlist:
a lot of songs. nothing specific.

4. Your favourite music:
all songs from dashboard confessionals. i just discovered them! haha!

5. Favourite guilty pleasure:
i don't think i have one at the moment. but last year's was having oreo cookies with milk. it's a stupid guilty pleasure i know but i ate a whole box every 2 days and gained weight from it. ':s

6. Favourite food:
i love sushi. i love sea food. squid. you can never go wrong if you cook me squid.

7. Define love:
wow.. that's a tough one to define. but i did write an article on soulmates. close enough?

8. Define sex:
is it the 'make love' kind or the 'male female' definition?

9. Any celebrity crushes?:
loads! but Katherine Heigl (izzy stevens of grey's anatomy) is the top at the moment.

10. The last person you hugged:
my sister last week, when sending her off on the bus.

11. The last person you talked to:
the cafeteria lady at dinner last night.

12. The last time you cried:
whoa.. it's been a while. don't remember.

13. The last time you had sex:
to quote maurina, "Ooooh wouldn’t you like to know?"

14. The last time you made out:
Refer to Question 13

15. The last person you dated:
ummm.. i don't have much of a love life.. so..

16. The last time you went out:
yesterday dinner time.

17. What’s on your mind now?:
thinking of a better topic to write about in this blog than this questionnaire.

18. What’s bothering you?:
nothing. i'm worry free at the moment.

19. This year’s resolutions:
to learn a new ability. and i've achieved it! i can play the guitar now.

20. Your MSN nick:
"definitely san siro."

21. What’s your MSN nick about?:
it's about my sister and i going to milan with my sister this sunday!

22. The people you miss the most:
my family back home in brunei.

23. Current mood:
trying to wake up. just got out of bed..

24. What are you thinking?:
i promised my readers good posts and here i am answering a blog-tag. ':s

25. Best childhood memory:
wow.. the best would probably be after the birth of my youngest sister. we had so much fun with her, me and my other siblings.

26. 3 of your biggest fears:
- death by suffocation
- heights
- tapeworms or any other critters that squirms in the human body. i found this video on youtube that disgusted me. ugghh..

27. Who do you love?:
family and friends

28. 3 of the things you hate:
- bad breath
- keeping people waiting or me being kept waiting
- people mimicking a chav's accent.

29. Do you blog?:
yes. more so now than ever before.

30. Tag 5 people:
mash, my sister, snowshoed, ali and dee! hehe

thank goodness that's over. a worthy post next!

want to be a millionaire?

welcome to my first book review! okay okay.. stop giggling.. i do read books. anyway, for my first review, i want to share with you one of my favourite books of all time. i've read it 3 times and i'm still not finish with it.

it is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

back cover:
David Bach's no-budget, no-discipline, no-nonsense system will help you finish rich AUTOMATICALLY

do you want to life rich and retire richer?
rich enough to stop worrying about money?

then start making your money work for you.

Reaching financial security is amazingly simple and easy, no matter what your income. cutting through the jargon, David Bach's common-sense advice and practical strategies will help you take control of your finances and change your life. all you have to do is follow the one-step programme - the rest is automatic!

as i've mentioned before, this book is simply amazing. it is easy as what the back cover says! i've read it and i do believe this book will work. no budgeting needed. no discipline needed. no hassle! note that this book is intended for the US, UK and other countries, which have taxes to pay. (if i'm not mistaken, we don't have taxes right? unless you count TAP as one of them.) but just ignore tax-related part, and you will definitely feel you can do everything the book says. personally, aiming to be a millionaire is a bit of a stretch but if you just want to get rid of debts and have a good financial future, this is the book for you.

the book is filled with funny anecdotes, which you will relate. it is in a language any average joe can understand. no difficult jargon in this little jewel. this book does say that it is intended for anyone but i feel people in their early 20's (just starting a career) and 30's (planning their retirement), will get the most advantage out of this book.

the book can be found in almost any bookshop under the financial section for about B$23.00 (£7.99)

buy it. read it. love it. NE.O recommended.

why some guys aren't romantic

this is a retaliation to a post i read a few minutes ago - i said SOME okay!

i'm sure some of you ladies out there met some of the most creepiest, weirdest and down-right "pricks" of a guy. being a guy for almost 23 years, i shall unravel the mysteries of your male counterparts and explain their behaviors and what they actually mean. are they really not that romantic? or you may just misinterpreted their actions? read on ladies..

are you girls annoyed by how the guy has a personality of a doorknob? example:

girl: where do you want to eat?
guy: where ever.

girl: want to watch a movie later tonight?
guy: whatever.

girl (annoyed): want to jump off a building?
guy: whatever.

now.. this is an excellent example of misinterpretation. believe it or not, this is guy is one of the most romantic guys ever, he just doesn't come across that way. now, what he meant to say were:

guy: i'll eat where ever you, the love of my life, eats. i care only you and whatever dish you like, i will love.

guy: you decide the course of my night tonight, my love.. whether it be entertained by moving pictures on the big screen or be captivated by your smile and laughter all night.

guy: if that is how i can prove my love to you, i'll jump in a heartbeat. if my love for you is strong enough, i will walk back to you. if not, then i won't be worthy of your love.

wow.. see ladies, if he didn't melt your heart, i don't know what will. the person also wrote that the weirdest gift she had received from a guy was a plastic full of rambutans. i can't say that it's romantic but to be fair, it is unique. it means that he's very cultured and that he thinks about his gifts. i mean really.. what are you going to do with a dozen roses? you can't eat it and it'll wilt in a few days anyway, right?

.....

hahahaha! okay okay, the rambutan gift was stupid. that bit was just hysterical. i admit, some bruneian guys out there have no idea how to be a gentleman at all and some are such jerks. but seriously ladies, don't be too hard on us. we are trying our best here. it's not easy being the one who approaches. personally, i think in this whole dating scene, girls have it easy. they just smile at a guy and he's hooked. but us guys, we have to work hard for it. (i'm sure there will be retaliation posts from girls all over brunei now..)

let me know what you think. make a post and let me know.

music formats 101

i was out this afternoon doing errands and restocking my food supplies (indo mee.. the life of an overseas student). i browsed around and stopped at an electrical shop. my ipod has been busted for ages now and commuting around uk is not fun at all without a musical distraction. so, i've been looking around for a new media player. i have my sights on this little baby...

this tiny wonder is called the archos 605 wifi. it is the future of hand-held entertainment. it's a step up to the ipod video. this little miracle can do all what the ipod video can do but also can record shows from tv and surf the web via wifi. oh yeah.. so anyway, there i was looking for my future love but alas the guy said it would be in stores next month. but of course, sales people don't tend to let you go so easily. he showed me some other multi-media players (MMP), which they do have on their shelves.

"what about this one?" he began pointing to a not-archos 605 wifi. "it can play videos.. MP3s, MP4's, WMA's. you can scroll through your pictures. it's compatible with JPEG, BMP's, GIF's.."
i had to stop the man.. "haha! whoa! dude! stop giving me random acronyms here!"

the conversation went on for a while but the point i'm trying to make is that, i'm sure i'm not the only who completely cannot tell the difference between a true media format and a random 3-letter acronym being thrown at you. that's why i want to share the basic media formats with you.

welcome to music formats 101 everybody! okay, here are some of the basic formats that are out there and what their differences are.

MP3's - short for MPEG Audio Layer-3, is a digital music format which allows CD tracks to be reduced to around a tenth of their normal size without a significant loss of quality. therefore, it is a standard used for uploading/downloading music to/from the internet. it is compressed so that transfer times are faster. almost all media player can play this format. so, you can almost never go wrong with MP3s.

MP4's - just like MP3s work by compressing music and audio files without affecting the audio quality, MP4 files are compressed video files. MP4 is also known as MPEG-4 AVC, or advanced video coding. this new technology is going to make video files decrease in size so that they are easier to work with and support. what used to be massive video files of motion and audio are now compressed versions of the same material, called MP4s. now, some of you may suddenly remember that you have music files in MP4's and it works just fine. well, it is true you can play music in MP4's but it's just finicky. say your computer has loads of music.. some in MP3's and others in MP4's, then you want to burn an MP3 CD so that you can play hundreds of music on your MP3 CD player. you'll be gutted to discover some songs won't even be in your CD. also, some MMP's can't play MP4's.

WMA's - a.k.a Windows Media Audio. obviously, it's a format made by Microsoft's Media Player. it is an audio compression format similar to MP3, but with digital rights management (copy protection and usage restrictions) built-in, meaning, when you copy a music CD (original ones), the music file will come with information on it (artist's name, album name & cover, etc). it is cool in a sense that you don't have the monotonous job of naming each file, but this format has a major downside. WMAs can't be played on your ipods. just in case you didn't know, apple and microsoft aren't the best of friends and they're not sharing anytime soon..

AAC's - Advanced Audio Coding, is the WMA's competition. made as a standard format by Apple's ipod, iphone, itunes and, interestingly, also for Playstation 3. this format is a step up to MP3. it compresses the music file as much as MP3, except it doesn't lose almost any quality. like the WMA's it copies all the info on a music CD. i was once told by a friend that she doesn't use itunes anymore cause it kept changing her MP3s to AACs, which is a pain. personally, i think itunes is the best music player for your computer. why people still use WMP or Winamp, i do not know. if you are one of those people who are having the same problem and are thinking of changing to those other players, STOP! a short lesson on fixing the problem, next.

okay.. from your itunes,

• click edit -> preferences
• click on the advance tab
• then you'll see 3 more tabs in that menu (general, importing, burning)
• click on importing
• find the "import using:" option and just change it from "AAC encoder" to "MP3 encoder"

that's it! problem solved. all the music you put in your itunes from then on will convert to MP3s!

okay, that's it from me. i haven't even gone through picture formats yet. unless anyone is really interested, i'll leave that be.
hope you had a good read!

the world wide web

let's start things off with something that has become a major part of our lives, especially to IT generation of today - the internet. what started out as a military advantage in the 50's has become this exploding phenomenon, a source of all sources. i shall share with you the origins, the effects it has on us at present day and my personal take on the future for this fascinating tool. then, for those who has been wondering what website rules the web now, i shall reveal the top 10 websites of today. facebook, you think? read on and see...

origins

after the launch of USSR's sputnik, the US got a bit nervous and created Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in february 1958 to regain a technological lead. ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution. he then moved the project from Harvard University to MIT, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.
note: time-sharing refers to sharing a computing resource among many users by multitasking.

this was a revolution in terms of military information. this meant that highly classified information was not stored at just one place, which will make it an easy target by potential enemies. the information is spread out simultaneously, making it highly robust and survivable.

After much work, the first node went live at UCLA on october 29, 1969, on what would be called the ARPANET, one of the "eve" networks of today's internet.

insert: J. C. R. Licklider. USSR's Sputnik. right: PDP - 1

going online today

the growth of the internet today has exploded into the latest craze. it is the newest wave of communication through electronic mail, file transfer, telnet access, transaction applications, and much much more. the popularity of the internet has launched many social and ethical issues. recently, the internet has been critizied for its uncensored information, but has been praised for its educational value. personally, i think is one of the best invention man has ever created. as mentioned before, it is a huge source of information. some, unfortunately, are bad but most are essential, which we can learn from. it is also used for convenience. shoppings can be done at home, socializing is extended even further from using a telephone, banking has been made easier online. almost everything can be done at a click of a mouse now. granted, being cooped up at home isn't a healthy thing to do but the internet has made the world smaller. but what about the future? can it be any better than what it is today?

the future

on january 2005, a survey was made, where technology experts and scholars evaluate the where the network is headed in the next 10 years. the survey finds there is a strong across-the-board consensus that the internet will become so important to users in the coming decade that the network itself will become an inviting target for attack. by a nearly 3-1 margin, the experts in the survey expressed worry about the vulnerability of the internet and the likelihood of an attack on the underlying infrastructure within the next ten years.
Some 66% agreed with the following prediction: At least one devastating attack will occur in the next 10 years on the networked information infrastructure or the country’s power grid. obviously, the attack would of viral nature. a very scary start to the survey, i think. but some interesting predictions from the report are as follows:

• 57% of them agreed that virtual classes will become more widespread in formal education and that students might at least occasionally be grouped with others who share their interests and skills, rather than by age.

• 59% of these experts agreed with a prediction that more government and business surveillance will occur as computing devices proliferate and become embedded in appliances, cars, phones, and even clothes.

• 56% of them agreed that as telecommuting and home-schooling expand, the boundary between work and leisure will diminish and family dynamics will change because of that.

• 50% of them believe that anonymous, free, music file-sharing on peer-to-peer networks will still be easy to perform a decade from now.

for the full report, click here.

okay! enough seriousness and let's move on to the top websites of today! (note: rankings change constantly. the following may not be what you've discovered a few hours from now.)

extra note: (scope measures the number of Internet users visiting a particular site. ex: example.com has a scope of 7% - meaning an average of 70,000 (per million) users visit this site.)

10. youtube.com - it's not surprising really. with millions of videos ranging from music videos and documentaries to just silly randomness uploaded by a bored teenager.
today's scope: 7.93%

9. aol.com - personally, i don't use this site. basically, it's america's msn/yahoo.
today's scope: 6.91%

8. ebay.com - who doesn't know ebay? a successful website that started the internet shopping craze. got something you don't need and want to sell it without opening a shop? ebay is the answer.
today's scope: 6.5%

7. websearch.com - a new find for me, really. can't decide whether to use google, msn or ask.com? this could be the one for you. it uses up to 15 of the most popular search engines at once! i might give it a try.
today's scope: 9.51%

6. facebook.com - yes, that's right people. your precious online profile site isn't the best. hah! (this is coming from a guy who's not sucked in like the rest of you.) but i might eat my words soon though.. in the last 3 months, the scope has risen by 2.12%.
today's scope: 11.34% (damn..)

5. live.com - another search engine made by microsoft. apparently a very popular one to use.
today's scope: 18.2%

4. google.com - again a search engine. you guys know what it is..
today's scope: 21.15%

3. msn.com - beginning to see a pattern here..
today's scope: 26.54%

2. yahoo.com - starting to lose interest? don't just yet! no. 1 is coming up!
today's scope: 33.1%

1. myspace.com - yup. the online profile that gave birth to friendster and facebook. the is site dedicated to share photos, journals and interests with growing network of mutual friends. mostly musicians in the beginning, it has now become the top website by internet users.
today's scope: 20.99%

want to know your personal favourite web site's ranking? click here and find out for yourself!

hope you enjoyed the read.