KAV 2009 False Alarm CIMB Clicks

Despite all the rave reviews on Kaspersky Antivirus 2009 (or Kaspersky Internet Security), it caught a false positive last night while I attempt to login to CIMB Clicks online banking service The URL I’ve entered was definately correct as I’ve bookmarked the website, and have no problems all the while… until the very recent definition update.

A good antivirus software should not let any virus/malware/phishing website to get pass its security scanning; while legitimate application/website should be accessible without restrictions. Looks like Kaspersky just made an error in its recent definition update that causes this false alarm. Luckily it only affects the CIMBClicks main page and not it’s login page, otherwise many KAV and CIMBClicks users will be blocked from the online banking services.

Looks like it will be one negative point for Kaspersky from this experience. It’s not a big issue as I would rather have false alarm than get infected with viruses or fall victim to a phishing scam wiping off my banking accounts. Maybe it’s time for me to scout for a new antivirus software soon…

UPDATE: Kaspersky has release an update for the KAV on 20 May 2009 morning that fixed the false alarm. Everythings back to normal now.

Why play alone? Viwawa

I’ve not been blogging much recently… well, here’s one reason why – Viwawa!! It’s an online casual gaming website, with cute characters (wawa) to represent each player in the game. No it’s not one of those MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), which I’m definately not keen of.

Viwawa’s games are more universal, simple and mostly an online version of traditional games like Chess (Western), Chinese Chess, Mahjong, Big 2 (Chor Tai Di) and many other variety of puzzle-like interactive games. One of my favourite is Sushido where the game revolves around making sushi from a maze of ingredients.

Anyway, it has many nice game to meet up with friends online and have a game or two when it’s not quite possible to meet up physically to play. So “Why play alone?” (Viwawa’s motto). Go get a wawa and have fun!

Viwawa.com

* Disclaimer: I’m NOT paid to promote Viwawa, I’m just sharing a nice free online game.

End of Geocities

It’s sad to hear yet another one of the web’s early days legend, Geocities being closed. Back in its glorious days, Geocities had quite a huge “community” of neighbourhood websites hosted on its servers with websites being grouped by their common interest (E.g. technology related at geocities.com/siliconvalley/mywebsite).

It was one of the best free webhosting providers for individuals to express themselves on the internet with their own (static) websites. Geocities has given the opportunity for many netizens to try out building their own websites, and build hits (readership) for free before heading towards their own dot-com and paid webhosting for their website. I am one of them… and I believe many too (if my memory serve me right, even one of my favourite computer review website, Anandtech.com also has its early beginning at Geocities)

There’s isn’t such a thing called blog nor a nice web publishing platform such as WordPress that I’m using to type this post back then. Having your own personal website back then was really rocket science for many back then. Fortunately, things has improved for the better since then. Having a personal website, or more popularly known as blogs nowadays is relatively easy for an average Joe. Thus, the era of blogs mushrooming all over the web.

With more and more social networking websites such as facebook to help us express ourselves on the internet easily, the end of Geocities became inevitable. Many of Geocities “clone” (free webhosting provider) has closed their doors much earlier or barely surviving. Anyway, thanks Geocities for the experience you’ve given to all of us “homesteaders”. It was a nice home, but we’re moving on…

New Long Lasting HP Enviro Laptop Battery

A new generation of HP Enviro laptops Li-Ion Batteries powered by Boston-Power’s Sonata technology has just been released (Press Release). HP has made this new batteries available for most of the existing HP/Compaq laptops in the market today, including the CQ45, as an add-on sold separately (sadly, not included as part of your new laptop battery).

Unlike most laptop batteries included with new laptops that comes with a 1-year warranty (or less), these new batteries comes with 3-years warranty. In fact, Boston-Power claims it’s propreitary Li-Ion battery technology to provide the same rated capacity (as a new battery) for approximated 3-years without any aging effects of conventional Li-Ion batteries on our laptops today. Basically, its a battery that could last for as long as the age of a laptop.

Besides the longer lifespan, the new HP Enviro battery could also be recharged up much faster. It will take just 30 minutes to recharge up to 80% of its capacity. This will be good for road-warriors who could only recharge their battery for a short while before they’re on the move again.

Lastly, this battery has been Nordic Ecolabel-certified with practically zero heavy metal. Given it’s longer lifespan, there’s less battery to be disposed off after it’s useful lifespan too. This environmental side of the battery is perhaps the reason behind the name Enviro.

Well, perhaps when my bundle-with-new-laptop HP battery starts to fade, I’ll might get one. As of time of posting, it’s only available in the HP Online shop (US) for US$149.99 (Approx. RM560)

Happy Niu Year

Happy Chinese New Year!!
May the year of the Ox (Niu) be an Ox-pecious year for everyone.

The current global economy seems rather gloomy, but that doesn’t stop the Chinese and everyone else here in Malaysia to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year (albiet in a less grandeour manner). Hopefully the year of the Ox (Chinese Zodiac) will bring some bullish-ness back into the world economy. Have a prosperous new year!