By - Abinesh

Finally i received my Astro b.yond decoder, dish and remote control together with the new byond activated card which will give me the HD service which i have been waiting for. Getting the installation was not exactly a breeze, i subscribed for the service on the 14th of December 09 and after numerous calls to astro, i finally got a agent who was interested to help me get it sorted and hence the installation is done.

Only after 1 day after my last call i received a call from the Astro Byond team who gave me a call run down on the terms and conditions

The terms :

You are locked down for 12 months.
RM 20 per month (x12 months) on top of your current subscription
You get the HD channels based on your subscription(There are currently 4 channels and more to come!)

Currently i have the sports channel which falls under this bracket but im considering taking the movie channel after looking at the kinda quality you get(Its awesome!).

So my installer came in today to install the HD set and as usual there was a problem, apparently Byond needs good signal to be able to display the HD channels. There are 2 elements, Signal Strength & Signal Quality . If both are satisfactory, then only you will receive the channels.

So my previous dish which was at my balcony was not getting the right signal so it had to be moved away from my unit to a location where the reception was better. Unfortunately, you get only 10meters of wiring for free. So i had to pay extra for the wiring to my unit from the dish.But its all good because now i don’t have a dish on my balcony and the installer did a good job with the wiring so its hardly visible

But it was worth the trouble, when the unit was powered up… The signal was way better and i got a glimpse of the brilliant quality! Unfortunately i only have the sports channel which falls under the new HD channels and it was like i was watching a dvd!! Brilliant quality!

The new set also brings a new format in the way the guide is displayed. You no longer need to see a blue screen but actually watch a preview of the channel which browsing the information. The decoder is significantly smaller and the remote is pretty neat as well!!

So now i have Byond installed and I am tempted to subscribe to the movie channel to see what is in store. Also looking forward to more new HD channels to come in. On top of everything, cant wait for World Cup 2010 in HD!

The quality of service provided in this country baffles me. My telephone line was down recently that’s a simple problem, so what do you do – just call 100. But, how do you call 100 when your telephone line is down? I recall Patrick Teoh wrote in his blog about the comment from the pegawai TM

“Kalau ada apa apa masalah uncle panggil la number ni …100”

But, how do you call 100 when my telephone line is down? DON’T you understand that my phone is DOWN, HOW am I supposed to CALL when my PHONE line is DOWN!? Am I expected to go over an use my neighbor’s phone? Is this TM’s goal to promote good neighborliness.  Try using your hand phone and dial 03-100 you get the incomplete number message.

But TM has a secret that they have not told us.  When you dial 03-100 from your hand phone you get no where. I found out by chance how to reach TM via hand phone. By pure chance, I dialed 03-103 and was able reach customer service who directed me to a recorded message – 1-300-888123. Dial 1-300-888123 you get to speak to a TM customer service agent just like dialing 100 from a fixed line.

No where do you find this number published or advertised. Even the pegawai at TM point in Bangsar did not know.  I got the usual response “ Tak tau la encik, cari fixed line sahaja lah”. I wonder why I am able to reach 03-103 but not 03-100 and why the toll-free number 1-300-888123 is not widely made known. Can someone from TM tell its customers why this number is a secret or is it TIDAK MUNGKIN BERHAD.

Kohilam Kalimuthu compares one of the latest food trends in the market—yogurt drinks— and comes away feeling more than a little hydrated

Yogurt drinks have recently been making headway into our supermarkets’ chilled sections, in different brands and even more diverse flavours, and I decided to see what the hype was about. I am not a big fan of yogurt; when I was a kid, my mother used to have a bowl of tairu beside her whenever we sat down at the dining table for lunch, and I used to push the bowl as far away from me as possible as it stank of high hell.

Over the years, I got used to the idea of flavoured yogurt as it was sweet and didn’t stink as much as mom’s tairu (and also because one of the tubs had real strawberries which got me hooked as a teen)!
A little background on one of the world’s fastest growing beverages, yogurt is a dairy product produced by the bacterial fermentation of milk. To offset its natural sourness, sweeteners or flavouring was added to it. Strawberry and orange flavoured yogurts are popular choices. Yogurt is also touted as having medicinal uses, especially in terms of gastrointestinal conditions such as diarrhoea or gastritis, and is believed to promote overall health.

Most types of yogurt contain “live cultures” or “active cultures”, a term referring to living organisms used to ferment pasteurised milk into yogurt. These “live cultures” break down milk lactose, giving the lactose-intolerant among us a chance to gain nutritional benefits from a milk product without having to suffer the side effects.

With this in mind, did the yogurt gurus decide to come up with yogurt drinks, an alternative to yogurt, which would be healthy and convenient, while being a hit with kids. And with the ideas people at Nestle, Dutch Lady, Nutrigen, Sunglo and Marigold joining the bandwagon, it would be in my best interest to try out their yogurt drinks as well.

I had the opportunity of trying out 5 different brands of yogurt drink and some had me vowing that I would take care of my gastrointestinal functions from this point onwards by having a bottle at least once a week.

MARIGOLD’S YOGURT DRINK, 1 litre, RM4.19
The packaging itself wasn’t very attractive, as it didn’t catch my eye like some of the other brands did. I chose the Pome-granate flavoured drink, which came in pink packaging with a green screw-top cover. The packaging also advertised that this drink was cholesterol and fat-free, contained live and active cultures, and was fortified with calcium.

I have a penchant for smelling food before having it go down my throat and into my stomach, so as I soon as I opened this, I took a whiff of it, and the first thought that came to mind was the smell of children’s antibiotic. It didn’t taste much better either, there was a lingering sensation on my tongue, somewhat unpleasant, which I could only wash down with water. The texture was a little thin. In its defence, maybe another flavour would have tasted better.

NESTLE’S BLISS, 700ml, RM4.65
This one caught my eye right away. The bottle was dark blue with pictures of fruits in front, advertising Bliss as a low-fat yogurt drink. I decided on Tropical and Mixed Fruits with real fruit juice. The front of the bottle also advertised that there was no artificial colouring in this drink and that it contained live cultures that would aid digestion. The side of the bottle contains a tiny box entitled “Good to Know”, with information on one of its ingredients (Inulin), and how it aids and maintains a good intestinal environment.

However, it wasn’t exceptional in terms of taste. Maybe fruits shouldn’t be mixed-up and blended together to form a drink! I dare say that another flavour of the same brand would have been better, as the texture of the drink was quite smooth. Unfortunately, it didn’t smell too good as I could get a whiff of sour milk, like tairu all over again. However, I would probably give this drink another go, but only if it was of a different flavour.

DUTCH LADY’S SHINE, 750ml, RM4.49
This was my favourite. The packaging was clean and attractive—the bottle was white and light green and the layout was simple but eye-catching. This drink also advertised zero percent fat and I chose to go with the Apple Aloe Vera flavour with real fruit juice and green tea extracts. It also contained active live cultures.

My choice this time tasted great and I almost finished the drink in one go. It tasted a little like apple juice, only thicker with a slight yogurt base and a hint of aloe vera. The texture was smooth and it was absolutely refreshing. I would definitely rank this as the best among the five.
NUTRIGEN’S LITEYO, 750ml, RM3.49
This bottle was attractive too, it was curvy, making it easier to hold, and stood out on the shelves as it was bright orange with a yellow screw-top cover. This drink was advertised as fat-free, with added collagen and active live cultures. The one thing that got to me about this packaging was that the writing, while already minuscule, was in white (and imagine white against a yellow background!). I had to literally squint to read the fine print like ingredients, etc. and only when I took the bottle under a fluorescent lamp and strained my eyes, could I make out what was written.

I chose the Mango and Peach flavoured drink this time around, and I wasn’t disappointed. When I poured some out into a glass, the colour was a little like children’s liquid medication as well (this one looked like it was for a child who was having a terrible running nose!), but it tasted good. It was slightly sour and the hint of mango was stronger than the peach, but the overall effect was satisfactory. The texture was smooth and it smelt great too.

SUNGLO’S LASSI, 750ml, RM4.50
This was my least favourite. The bottle was unattractive and plain—it was shaped like one of those olden-days bottles when the milkman left one at your doorstep. It’s actually a transparent bottle which looks orange because of the colour of the drink. This drink is advertised as “the original yogurt drink” (whatever that means), and claims to be low-fat. It contains flavouring and colouring, but nowhere on the bottle does it mention that it contains active live cultures.

I chose the orange flavoured version, and when I opened it and took a whiff, it smelt absolutely fabulous and my mouth started to water in anticipation. However, when I took a sip of it, it put me off straightaway. The texture was too thin and it just didn’t taste good. There was no hint of yogurt, it was just like an orange drink into which unsweetened condensed milk had been added sparingly.

This is one brand I would not bother trying again, unless they came out with new flavours and gave away free testers at the supermarkets.

Overall, each and every one of these drinks had nutritional information on some part of the packaging, but only Dutch Lady, Marigold and Nestle had a customer service number at which they could be contacted. Also, all 5 drinks compared had the expiry date prominently displayed on the bottle or the cover, as well as the ideal temperature at which it should be stored.

As for me, I’ve had enough yogurt testing to last me a while, but you can be sure which choice I would go for if I was ever shopping for a health beverage again!
Cheers!

[ratings]

The Voice Independent Music Awards 2010 is here!!

VIMA 2010 is organized by Voize.my, a leading Asian lifestyle and entertainment website. The awards is expected to be held on January 17^th 2010 at a soon to be announced venue. VIMA 2010 is supported by POP TV, 8TV, Hitz.fm, X fm, The Sun, Newman Magazine, Cleo Magazine, Stage Magazine, Yeah Magazine, Malaysian Today, TIS, Joomcool,com, Kokoasia, Friedchillies.com, Arcis communications, Bimbit.com, Malaysiakini and Youth Entrepreneurs of Malaysia (YEM).

Winners of the major categories of VIMA 2010 also gain automatic qualification to the Asia-Pacific Independent Music awards, AVIMA 2010. AVIMA is dubbed as The World’s Biggest Independent Music awards in the world and is expected to attract more than 3000 independent acts from 25 countries including Australia and New Zealand.

The voting is now open to decide on the best acts of the nation so head on to the voting page to cast your votes and hopefully this will pave the way to bigger and better acts to come out of Malaysia!

The nominees are Continue Reading