For the third time, the Sharp refrigerator failed again yesterday evening. We went back to SEC right after dinner and requested for a new refrigerator. Without any hastle the sales supervisor quickly agreed. The defective refrigerator has cost us some groceries money and also time and anguish. I am glad that we will get a new unit this evening. A New Hope…

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the dilemma on buying a refrigerator. The dilemma was resolved at the store when I made my purchase. After seeing all the models, me and my wife concluded that the Sharp refrigerator with ionizer function to reduce smell and plasmaioncluser to keep the vegetables fresh was the best buy. It was offered at a very good price from SEC and we bought that model proud of our purchase. When the refrigerator was delivered after a few days, we were instructed to leave the refrigerator idle for a day before turning it on. It was not stated clearly why, but it seams like a standard practice. We did that and the following day, we were happy to have ice and cold drink in our refrigerator. However, our happiness was short lived. Two days going into operation, the refrigerator failed to function. The ice turn to water, and the box literally becomes like a storage box. Going back to the retailer (SEC), they help to fax the repair needed to the SHARP Service Center. Two days later, the sharp representative contacted us and only manage to come and have look at the refrigerator 3 days later.

He fixed the item, and the failure was attributed to the ‘timer’, and when questioned, he mention that the timer and relay failed the most. Our faces were smiling again as the refrigerator is now working again and we headed to the groceries shop to buy some items to fill the refrigerator. To our surprise, when we return on the very evening, the refrigerator has turned into a storage box again. This time, the compressor still runs, but no cooling air comes out. The service men from Sharp service center said they will come and pick the refrigerator up to be fix.

We are now a week after having a refrigerator and not using it�

I am refraining to conclude that sharp make bad refrigerators or refrigerators with poor reliability. The fact is that for every 1 000 000 deviced shipped to customers, some of them are bound to have defects. I guess it is just our bad luck to receive a defective unit. In a perfect world, we would have been replaced with a new refrigerator (Guarantee, not Warranty). And so we wish, maybe sometime in the future consumer may have such rights, but not today�

Refrigeration technology has been around for so long and so matured, why can’t the manufacturer provide product Guarantee rather than Warranty? Is it up to the cost? Why not Guarantee for the first month and Warranty there after? Maybe it only takes one manufacturer to adopt this concept, then others will follow…

Before that, my next refrigerator will not be Sharp anymore, once bitten twice shy… Like Donald Trump said in last night’s Apprentice, “If you keep on loosing, how can I take a chance on you?”

I have always love a good game, especially a good board games. This new innovation of the classic Monopoly game certainly brings a new breath to the gameplay. The most interesting part of this is the use of actual cabbies and their route to determine the gameplay. This is truely amazing how technology (GPS) can be use in a good and fun way. Thanks to “the black journal” for the pointer…..

I am enjoying the game and I suggest you join in too… not so much for the prizes, cause non UK residense does not qualify, but for the fun of the game…

www.monopolylive.com

Following a pointer from Jeff’s post on Google Earth, I tried out the application and took a screen shot of the turtle shaped Peang Island. I wonder why the island is called Pearl of the Orient, it is shaped more like a turtle to me… well, I guess pearl is more luxurious than a turtle. I am currently trying to zoom into my home… It doesn’t seam to have high resolution after zooming in. And the tool did not indicate if we have reach the highest zoom level.

Update:-

Drilling in further, this is the best resolution that I could get for Malaysia. I have found that the names of places seams to be dated. I wonder where google refer their maps to or to which date they refer the maps to. Below are some screenshots of Penang and Perak area.

Bayan Lepas Penang

Taiping, Perak

From Earth.Google.com, they claim that the photos could be as old as 3 years old. The photo below is a of Hillsboro, Oregon in US, in my recent trip there, I stayed at the Springhill Suites hotel which was built about 1-2 years ago. The hotel was not located at the map. Even of US cities, the photos could be older than 2 years. Nevertheless, the resolution of photos of US cities are in greater details, up to the extend of seeing the cars parked in the parking lot. It is quite a fun tool to play with, and I believe, this could be the future of directional maps. A stark improvement to current Yahoo Map if you have used it before.

The empty lot has now a hotel and a bank there.

High resolution:

Penang water supply is cheap, but it comes with rust. The ammount of rust depends on the area of residency, some places are worst. I was not able to afford a huge filter for the entire house, thus I settle for a cheap alternative to ensure the drinking water are clean from rust and other contaminant. There were so many products in the market and all claims theirs is the best.

I went for the Panasonic PJ-6RF after seeing my brother in-law uses it and it serves them well. While shopping for this model in the market, many did not sway too far away from the recommended market price. SenQ was quoting RM165 and the cheapest quote I got was from SEC for RM140, and I wanted to get it. Unfortunately for them, which is luckily for me, it was a Sunday and they could not contact the sales Man on when the unit could be delivered (they did not have it in stock). I did not placed the order then as I need the unit by this weekend and do not want to commit to this shop and have to wait for 2 weeks for delivery. As I walked out of the shop to my car, they called on the phone and says that they have manage to contact the salesman and they can deliver the next day, it was too late for me as I was already in my car and leaving, I was thinking of returning later in the evening as I was eager to get to my next destination.

Later in the evening, I was in Tesco to get some items for the house and came across the water filter section. To my delight, they also carry the same Panasonic PJ-6RF model and best of all, the item was priced at RM109, wow, a RM30 saving from SEC and RM50 savings from other shops. Needless to say, I got it immediately and with the savings I was able to purchase an additional filter cartridge.

For Panasonic Water Filter, Tesco is the cheapest� ……. so far la…