Assalamualaikum

Since I'm home for a week mid-term holiday, my family and I arranged that we spend some quality time together. After some spontaneous decision making, we decided to head to the Aquaria KLCC. The largest underwater world here in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. It is actually located underneath KL Convention Center and adjacent to KLCC.
Tickets are priced at RM 28 for adults and RM 22 for children (age 3-12 years). While RM 18 for Senior Citizen aged 60 and above. (Malaysian Price)


Whether we realized it or not, the exhibition actually takes us on a journey across few types of terrain and the creature that lives in those types of habitats. The Journey consist of The Highland, Jewel of The Jungle, Flooded Forest, The Coast, The Living Reef and The Living Ocean. Each journey will showcase different types of animal that live in them.

Upon entering the main entrance, there was a display of Toman fish and next to it was three little pools where they displayed some Sand Sharks (Yu Pasir) and Patrick...opps no...some starfishes. Hehehe.

These are some of the exhibit that I came across inside Aquaria.

While I was reading through the information on Flooded Forest, a worker came and reminded us about the Feeding Session they were about to have at the Aqua Theater. And I bet this it the place visitors should be excited about when they visit the Aquaria.

But before we could get to the seating place of the Aqua Theater, something else caught my eye. The 90 meter long tunnel which showcased deep sea creatures. I could see sharks swimming over my head. I could see the bottom part of various types of stingrays. There are also some other small fishes and corals to set up a realistic underwater scene. Amazing....truly amazing. Never imagined myself that close to a shark.


Lastly...the finale. The feeding show at the Aqua Theater. Two divers are to feed the marine life inside the deep sea aquarium.

We did took a look around in the tunnel again after the show. I really enjoyed my visit here. It was worth it. I guess the expensive ticket was a proof of how expensive it is to keep these creatures alive for people like me and future generation to see. I guess with the level of destruction that human inflict on nature, soon there will be no more of these animals. It's like reading about dinosaurs. Sobs.

So let us together work to preserve this world as it is and please....recycle. Until then...take care now bye bye then...

Assalamualaikum

The recent National Treasure 2 movie has motivated me to learn and understand one of the secret code language. When I watched the movie second time (Yes...again!!!). I remembered Ben Gates said about the Playfair Cipher. Today we are going to learn about how to encipher and decipher message using the Playfair cipher.

Playfair Cipher

The Playfair cipher encrypts pairs of letters (digraphs), instead of single letters. This is significantly harder to break since the frequency analysis used for simple substitution ciphers is considerably more difficult. Memorization of the keyword and 4 simple rules is all that is required to create the 5 by 5 table and use the cipher.

K E Y W O
R D A B C
F G H I J
L M N P S
T U V X Z

The Playfair cipher uses a 5 by 5 table containing a key word or phrase. To generate the table, one would first fill in the spaces of the table with the letters of the keyword (dropping any duplicate letters), then fill the remaining spaces with the rest of the letters of the alphabet in order (to reduce the alphabet to fit you can either omit "Q" or replace "J" with "I"). In the example to the right, the keyword is "playfair example".

To encrypt a message, one would break the message into groups of 2 letters. If there is a dangling letter at the end, we add an X. For example. "Secret Message" becomes "SE CR ET ME SS AG EX". We now take each group and find them out on the table. Noticing the location of the two letters in the table, we apply the following rules, in order.

1. If both letters are the same, add an X between them. Encrypt the new pair, re-pair the remining letters and continue.
2. If the letters appear on the same row of your table, replace them with the letters to their immediate right respectively, wrapping around to the left side of the row if necessary. For example, using the table above, the letter pair GJ would be encoded as HF.
3. If the letters appear on the same column of your table, replace them with the letters immediately below, wrapping around to the top if necessary. For example, using the table above, the letter pair MD would be encoded as UG.
4. If the letters are on different rows and columns, replace them with the letters on the same row respectively but at the other pair of corners of the rectangle defined by the original pair. The order is important - the first letter of the pair should be replaced first. For example, using the table above, the letter pair EB would be encoded as WD.

To decipher, ignore rule 1. In rules 2 and 3 shift up and left instead of down and right. Rule 4 remains the same. Once you are done, drop any extra Xs that don't make sense in the final message and locate any missing Qs or any Is that should be Js.

Go Here to encipher and decipher your Playfair Codes...

after you're done learning...try encoding this Playfair Cipher:

es ur dt hn kc rn po po ws ng un ay ha py py

have fun with the codes....take care now bye bye then

My first act this year was to upgrade my Nokia N95's firmware. Words has it that the new firmware v.20 is much faster and less power consuming that the v.12 firmware. Nokia released it some time ago and now only I found time to update it. Nokia introduced On Demand Paging which is a more efficient way of loading data into RAM. In other words, it uses less RAM memory therefore it is faster in a way. I felt that after upgrading.

This is the comment made in the Nokia web

"This software version includes battery, stability & performance improvements enabling you to run faster and longer - giving you up to three more hours of music (up to 30% increase, from 9h to 12h of music playback). This release also includes a new version of Nokia Maps which provides faster positioning, faster Map Loader, and free 3-day navigation. Free N-Gage demo games are included and other games are available via Download! With the Nokia Music Store now live in the United Kingdom, users can enjoy the convenience of instant over-the-air downloads, regardless of where they are."

Those higlighted stuff was made me eager to upgrade...

Simple instructions however has to be done to ensure your phone is in good condition after the upgrade:

1. Make sure you BACKUP all your phone data to avoid losing contact number or important appointments in your calendar. Go to Menu>Tools>Memory>Back up Phone Memory
2. Download the Nokia Software Update and install.
3. Follow the instructions soon after installation (Remember not to remove your USB cable otherwise you will damage your phone)
4. If somewhere in the process it says update fail, please disconnect your phone from the PC and perform phone reset by pressing *#7370# for soft reset or *#7780# for hard reset. Press 12345 when promted for Lock Code (default unless you already changed it) . Don't worry about loosing all your data, you already perform backup procedure in Step 1. The update should perform normally after the phone reset process. (because this happened to me...hehehe)
5. After updating your device software to 20.0.015, and restoring your personal data (repeat Step 1, except choose restore phone memory this time), you can optimise the menu layout by installing the New_Menu_Structure.SIS file. Download and install this file to rearrange your menu layout specifically for SW 20.0.015. Reboot your device to see the menu changes.
6. You can also choose to upgrade your Nokia Map. After the upgrading process, it seems that I've also upgraded my n95 to A-GPS (Assisted - Global Positioning System).

Results:

I can feel the difference right after the upgrade and all I can say my n95 runs faster now with much more organized interface. The battery even lasts longer than before and that what matters... hiks :)

Graphics taken from N95 Best Tips and Tricks

I even had time to upgrade my Mom's n70 firmware as well. It seems that now the 1 gig memory is more compatible than before. The music can be accessed using the default player without any fuss. Hiks...


p.s: How many out there who owns expensive gadgets but don't know how to utilize it to the fullest.