Iran is doing the right thing ...

The USA and Israel are deeply concerned that Iran is on the point of acquiring the S-300 missile system from Russia. Why these two warmongers are concerned about a small country's determination to protect itself against its enemies is simply beyond me. Its like a bully with a shotgun getting angry at the his victim for having a hand gun to protect himself against the bully's threats. I for one am surprised at why these 2 countries are against the acquisition by Iran of a system that is nothing else but a system of defence against aerial attacks on Iran.  

US and Israel know fully well that the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system Iran is acquiring is purely for defense of Iran air space, not a system of offence against Israel or against any other country. The S-300 system is capable of tracking 100 targets immediately and attacking them from 75 miles away, which means that US and Israeli planes will not be able to easily destroy nuclear targets in Iran without their planes being exposed to the S-300 array of missiles. Does the US or Israel expect Iran to open its air space for the convenience of US or Israel to attack it ? 

Blu ray camcorder .....

As usual, Sony is always slow to come out with new camcorder gadgets. Remember, JVC came out first with their HDD camcorder while Sony was still playing with its DVD video camcorder. Now, Hitachi has come with a new Bluray camcorder at a price suitable for the ordinary consumer. To be fair, Sony did come out with a Bluray camcorder but it was priced at USD 20,000/=.

The Hitachi Blu-ray DZ-BD10HA is the 3rd model of consumer camcorder, looking set to replace its original version, the DZ-BD7A which was a stinker according to one reviewer. In fact, the new model, launched on 24/07/2008 is an improved version of Hitachi's DZ-BD9A model launched in January 2008.

Hitachi touted the new model as one with a triple storage format i.e. you can record videos on its 30G hard disk, or on its memory card, or on its 8 cm Blu-ray disk. Not only that, you can post- transfer videos from one storage capacity to the other. In addition, its transcoding ability allows you to transfer HD videos onto to standard DVD disk. It can do stills recordable on its memory card.

Using a CMOS sensor with an effective pixel of 4,670,000, it records full high definition videos. The camcorder is available in US now, prices at a minimum of USD 1,000/=. Is it worth buying now ? No, because only Hitachi seems to be producing the Blu-ray camcorder. The present models seem to be testing the market.

The funny thing about camcorders are that they have no slow motion features. Why can't these manufacturers build into their camcorders features that enable users to shoot at double, triple, or quadruple the usual framerate of 25 0r 30 fps so that on playback the camcorders can play at half, one third or one quarter of normal, in true slow motion rather than slowing the playback speed which gives jagged slow motion.

Si Luncai terjun dengan labu-labunya, biarkan, biarkan ...

After Anwar Ibrahm's pathetic attempt to bluff his way in a high-stake poker game in which the stake was no less than the power to rule Malaysia itself, and failed miserably, I had planned to use the above for a title of this blog considering it apt to describe his predicament. Imagine to my surprise this morning  that Awang of Utusan Malaysia had beaten me to it. Nevertheless. I decided to use it, since its no plagiarism because the title was a about simple minded buffoon in a Malay folklore for the kids. I used to chant the title like a mantra whenever I was in a poker game, leading my opponent when he kept on raising the ante oblivious to my killer hand.

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, Anwar Ibrahim was dreaming to become the PM of Malaysia without any indication anywhere that there had been moves by the government MPs to defect to the opposition. The defection of those MPs must have occurred in Anwar's imagination, despite his insistence in the media that he had sequestered enough numbers of MPs to cross the floor to his opposition group and had letters from the respective MPs to prove it. 

Anwar planned to negotiate with the present PM of Malaysia expecting the dim-witted Abdullah to meekly hand over the reins of power to him and after Abdullah had agreed, Anwar would then show the PM that, hey, these are the defectors who would cross the floor to join the opposition. The handover power was supposed to be on the 16th of September 2008, popularly vaunted by the opposition as a 916, like as eventful as the 911 of George Bush. If Abdullah did not agree then he would, of course, refrain from "publishing the MPs' names" for fear that his plans might be thwarted. 

In the end, the 916 was nothing but a date marking the 16th day of Ramadhan. Anwar's below the belt attempt to wrest power from the PM turned out to be one big bluff that made an ass of himself, not only in the eyes of Malaysians but also in the eyes of those foreigners who had been closely watching the Malaysian situation. 

And, like one version of Si Luncai who jumped into the water believing that his gourds would keep him afloat, Anwar Ibrahim jumped into the water only to drown himself.