HBOS merger with Lloyds TSB, what it means to you

Halifax Bank of Scotland, the oldest bank in Britain is going to be merged into conservative Lloyds TSB, which means the biggest British Bank in history. Under which many things have to change, and of which these are the things you need to know.

Bank of Scotland notes (aka Scottish Banknotes) will now cease to exist if things are done the Lloyds TSB way. Which means, former notes of Hamilton , British Linen and other old banks and brands which Bank of Scotland (aka Banc Hal Alba in Gaelic) took over many years back will now change. I am not been briefed on the changes.

Sainsbury's joint venture with BOS known as SAINSBURYS BANK will also change, as BOS 50% holding and licensing will then be transferred to the new entity by LTSB. In actual fact, TSB took over Lloyds and well, we just see how it goes.

Intelligence Finance (IF.COM) and Midland Shires will also cease to exist. Internal sources said that savers of these brands of Halifax will then be changed over.

Existing customers with Bank of Scotland who just got familiarised with the Halifax's Society Roll 8 digit numbers (D/ (or coded 4) for current, 2/ for savings, 14/ for pensions, etc which can be known on your debit card 4917xx4x-xxxx-xxxx) will then be totally changed over to the LTSB system of just plain sort code and account number.

E-Savers, coded 11-18-11 (2/) will change to the new format. As for ISAs , TESSA and Cash ISA / Mini etc, will also change to the new system. Just forget the old Roll Numbering. This is unless the acct is opened at the local branch.

Is your money safe?
Plainly, I have the greatest clue here. Sources say that the currency notes by HBOS will be useless. So EXCHANGE FOR ENGLISH NOTES ASAP. Clysdale Bank Notes is still good even though it uses HBOS as it clearing agency. Royal Bank of Scotland notes are still legal tender despite buying over ABN AMRO Asia Pacific Region.

Financial Protection by the FSA covers only 35,000 quid per person, irregardless of your number of accounts. So if you have a good sense of money in the Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Intelligent Finance, Midland Shires and the like, take them out NOW! Includes any ISA and SHARE BASED. You can top up share holdings, but it's your call, if you are gutsy enough.

What it means is,if you have money stashed out over 100k, you are a sitting duck! 10k is a good safe bet on each bank, namely Barclays, RBS Group (includes NATWEST ,Ulster etc etc), Clysdale Bank, HSBC (Try to avoid as it's partly to blame for Merrill Lynch fiasco, main shareholder)

Nationwide is a 50/50 bet, and ABBEY is now part of Santander group, the flame as they call it. So Alliance & Leicester (GIROBANK) is about to be acquired by them, so stay away from A&L!!

Building societies like Saffron Walden, West Bromwich, Kent Reliance are so far safe as they only lend to what they have. ISA rates are not brilliant but they are safe. The Co-op Bank is kind of a hit and miss now.This is due to the Travel Industry in shambles, and the sales been hit hard at their stores.

Islamic Bank of Great Britain (Islamic-Bank.com) is another source of putting your money in. Backed by many great governments and it's based on Halal Concept. The Islamic Banking sector is not even hit during this crisis as they don't borrow from another bank to make money out of their transactions.

So I have started my run off the bank. Mortgage wise, try the alternative. It's all subject to the competition laws etc in UK, so they may be bought over by an external bank.

So watch out!

Nuffnang Server Hacked?

Yo! I was gob smacked when I saw the deadly page of WORDPRESS CONNECTION PAGE chugging out every little info of the site and the vulnerability of their database servers.

Error connecting 192.168.1.10 still don't mean people can't access your servers and it's internal run time through backdoor hacks.

Come on Tim,your admins should know better. Even with 2.6.1 x3 has it's set of flaws and now, by virtue as a WORDPRESS DEV TEAM, I have to make this findings so YOU GO AND REVAMP the frigging problem.

Sorry guys!You should pay me for finding this flaws.Just to think if someone adds a malicious code as uses this as a piggy back to access the whole sets of database servers, then the server logs will be compromised and alongside with our earnings.

No wonder some of them are earning over RM10,000 a month. I guess we know why, right guys.

Explain please.

Getting the best of your LEXMARK Ink Cartridge

Did you know that when you buy a new printer, they just leave you with just less than a quarter tank full so that you have to get their refills? Yeah. That's how things are, and for your info, it's in ALL BRANDS, some as miserable as 10%. Be it HP, Canon, Epson or even Lexmark, they are the same. It cost more to refill than to buy their original supplies.

Now that you know, did you know that EPSON is the BEST printer about? Yes, but then, when you replace the print cartridges more than 3 times, you need to replace the print head, which literally means you need to discard it as it's too expensive, thus wanting you to purchase the new one. An UPGRADE. Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is about 300 pages at 15% for most, but Lexmark gives a bit more. Since they are cheap, their refills, my God, cost a ton!!

I had to refill my LEXMARK X9350 which is an ALL IN ONE Printer / Fax / Scanner / Card Reader / WiFi / Bluetooth and PDF today and the 44XL (Extended Capacity) cost RM75. The Color costs RM90 at least from Low Yat. I did hear about people refilling HP, Canon but not LEXMARK as they are abit sneaky in the way things are done. I had to break it open, the refill I mean and then I saw what holds the ink in, just a cheap skate SPONGE!!

So SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS, now I had to do the ultimate sin, to do the REFILL using UNAUTHORISED SUPPLY. Thing is, you should stand by a set of original refill so if you screw up,you have a set just to make sure that your warranty is NOT VOID.

Things to remember:
-Ink MUST NOT RUN ON RESERVE. A few pages after low is OK, so it don't dry up.

-Find a GOOD SUPPLIER for the INK,preferably a reputable HP or Canon one.

-REPLACE the whole cartridge after 2-3 refills. Do not fill more than 80%!! The PRINT HEAD will be so useless that it's buggered. Lifetime is 3 months after you DIY!

-USE A PLASTIC / METALIC Sticker to cover the holes you made!!

Tools of the trade:
PEN KNIFE
REFILL KIT
Small screwdriver (test pen is OK!)
Something long and sharp. Bamboo sticks is NOT advisable. Palm leaf twig (LIDI PENYAPU) is best.
Cotton Buds.
Newspaper to cover the mess you about to make!
Strong TORCHLIGHT.

Steps:
1) REMOVE the plastic STICKER from the top. NOT the COVER!!

2) Drill the holes needed to refill. Black needs one. See there is a marking on the PLASTIC COVER. Drill it there, where it show something like a cooling grill. Black needs ONE. Color needs 3-6 depending on model.
This is where you need the powerful torchlight. Shine on the side to see where the partitions are. These wells are the the one you need to drill to. Its in the format of 6 wells, 3 on each side. You need to drill only 3. Normally, its two on top, and two by bottom sides (meaning two wells from bottom left and two wells from bottom right) Alignment is based on the way the sticker is placed onto from the top. There MAY or SHOULD be markings to indicate these wells.Otherwise, drill 6 holes.

3) Dip the stick to see which well to see what color it is for, it SHOULD be Magenta, Cyan and Yellow. That is where the stick and cotton bud is useful. It all looks ALMOST the same.

4) Fill about 5-10 ML. Or about 80% Too much and you will break the nozzle sensors.

5) Clean up and tape the holes AIR TIGHT. The stickers are useful.

Good Luck. This will be a great way to save your money.
Do buy originals, and keep a spare set just in case. Lexmark is hard to find the parts. Also, that don't rely on DELL as they just give them away, to make you part with your hard earned money.

Of Being Lazy, and Of Being me

Well, Beijing Olympics is here, a Good Excuse to be merry, jolly, for the 8-8-8 is like jackpot to the Chinese who are auspicious about everything. For me, it's another week of working hard that I have no frigging time to update all my 72 blogs! And not to say I forgotten about paid posts that I missed many work set out for me.

It's not being lazy, funds are a little short as things are more costly now, that I lost about 20 of my domains which I did not renew. Some were poor investments so I don't care much.And not to mention that it's hell for the past weeks.

Anyway, that's being me.

Of Biscuits and Blogs

Well, funny with the Malaysian Broadband, it's never reliable in huge cities like Kuala Lumpur where they even boast 4G technology when they can't even sort off the teething issues with their 2G voice calls, 3G Celcom Broadband sluggishness or the Maxis Broadband unavailability of over 5 meters high due to many silly reasons. Not to mention that idiotic TELEKOM MALAYSIA BERHAD landline contractors are just like cowboys, doing things as they like.

Well, which comes to the reason that I am using a BISKUT JULIE can of love letters to boost my capacity with not even single bar on 3G or 3.5G+ CELCOM Broadband (forget MAXIS or DIGI HSDPA aka 3.5G aka WCDMA) which basically works like your silly TV aerial where you must see the transmitter and be near as you can (and die of radiation poisoning in the meantime) and in essence, if the transceiver tower gets your signal out, you are good, as it blasts as much as needed to get through to you.

Which is like what you hear on Rocket Science, Brainiac Science Abuse right??

Of which, I've been reading the steady flow of paid blogging (at high pricing of $100 onwards) for page rank 3 and up, since Google themselves are going to the punchline.

I just don't get that..are Google going to stoop as low as Ted Murphy or what? Or are they buying Paid Posting out? Who knows. Those with Page Rank and dedicated traffic enjoys the moolah.

Drugs Song

This is funny, for medical students, this hymn is a good way to remind themselves of the base medicine.
Notes and stuff courtesy of Amateur Transplants and go get their CD (even when they earn more than singing)

Dead or Alive

Something is really amiss with me these days as I am getting wierd dreams of being run over by a high speed tanker trunk and me...in a rickety car.

It's really giving me day mares as these are when I take a nap during my long tiring day at work, working from 8am to extremely dead hours of the morning, 2-3am and then still having to head to work to enter some details or so, plus the 3G Internet is frigging unstable at times.

Whatever the issue it, I better talk about it, since one of these days, I may be in one, with long drives, and odd hours, thus why now I'm insisting on working in pairs, since when I'm too knackers, I need a break.

Boss, mind you seeing this, because, safety is also an issue here.

Using the white balance feature in a digital camera

The White Balance feature on the DSLR Cameras literally means to make it more white or dark, something like the contrast and brightness feature on our TV Box. Also denoted as WB, it actually has many usage for the avid novice photographer.Let's understand how it works.

The White Balance is used to determine the scenario the picture is taken, from Bright Daylight, to Cloudy to Shade to Orange / Yellow Light to florescent light to Flash Mode and to custom Mode.

It is also used alongside with the AV Value and without which the White Balance is useless.
The AV is set at (0) as center reference point without adding or reducing the brightness of the photograph. It has values from -2,-1, 0 ,+1,+2 subdivided into further quarters for custom adjustment.

Here is a senario: Imagine you are taking a picture of the street party you just came past, and it's all under Incandescent Light or Yellow Orange Street Lamp. The people are moving and you don't have a steady hand. The Lighting is great to the naked eye, without the need of the flash,and you set it to the AV feature.

Snap One: Picture is set at White Balance Yellow Light. Comes out Dull. Some of the actions are blurred as people are moving. Your shutter takes about more than a second to snap the photograph. That is the typical photograph you get with Standard Orange Lamp

Mega Memory!

Mega Memory Cards are what deemed by the industry memory Cards exceeding 512 Megabytes in space capacity, and with prices of memory becoming ever so cheap as how prices of cameras too. 10 years ago, a 32 Megabytes card is deem the biggest about costing over $700 with proprietary usage with Sony or Fuji XD cards.

Let's start with the CON first.

Memory cards have many formats. Knowns commonly as Compact Format CF, eXtended Definition XD by Fuji, Memory Stick by Sony and Secure Data or SD . Most common in cameras nowadays are CF or SD cards as they are very cheap, too good to be true. Some are offered at $200 for a 8 Gigabyte Card but as you might think, it may be too good to be true.

Memory cards have speeds too, just as how RAM are. Remember the days that ram are clocked at 100,90,80,70,60 milliseconds? It's the same aspect to how one would rate a CD ROM Drive at how many X's it has for the read / write capacity. Memory cards basically run at a lowest speed of about 1X of the CDROM Format, which is 150kilobits per second compared to the professional end of 8 Gigabyte Memory card for about $1100 which is called Extreme 4 format, as it clocks about 15-30 Megabytes a second compared to the 8-10 Megabits per second for a Extreme 3 costing about $900 instead. In contrast, a cheapo memory card used for the mobile phone / cellphone or PDA can take these cheap memory cards as their data bus are about 100megahertz (100Mhz) a second, which means it's fine for low end usage, just as how you compare speed of USB1.1 and USB2.0 which limits to 1.3Mbps and 480Mbps respectively.

When you have a good and quick memory card, with loads of space, you tend to overdo yourself, snapping as much pictures as possible,but forgetting that after you upload then, you have to do some sort of editing like modifications to the contrast, hue, pitch or what we call them photoshopping or Picasa-ing for the novice entry level.

My wife is a guilty of that, and after a day of photo shoots, she will be cussing and swearing about her load of photos to modify, and on the standard MEDIUM SIZED 1500 x 2500 pixels image, a 4 GB card can take about 3200 photos, and with a DSLR camera, you get to empty your battery pack first before you run out of memory. Trust me on that one.

Now for the PRO.

As I said, space and Speed is the essence. I use a Canon EOS 400D with shutter shoot of 3 frames a second and a trigger hold of 30 seconds, meaning I can snap at a go about 90 photos without the need to stop and look. Just as an automatic rifle would do. This is a 10.1 Megapixel camera with 17-200mm telephoto lens with Wide Angle added to it. So the base unit cost me et. al about $5000! The lens cost me more than the camera itself!

So, with 90 photos to load from the buffer to the card, it means the cache memory in the camera (64MB I think) has to be able to access the memory card quickly, and only Extreme 3 versions are capable to do so. And SD cards don't have this speeds yet, so thus why professionals and paparazzi all uses quick memory cards.

Another issue is when you already loaded up, you can just offload them to your computer just as quick, compared to a slower card. With a 4GB Card like I am using, it's as if unloading the whole DVD to the PC in 3 minutes or less compared to the Cheapo Brands taking as long as 15 minutes. It's the databus that is capable of loading quickly, but also, that your hard drive in the PC must be equally quick.

One great advantage when you have mega memory cards is that you tend not to run out of space. It's like you have a good photo opportunity like some celebrity in town and you so happen to be there, of course you want to be THE GUY to be able to take that shot.

There are many Pro than con in the usage of mega memory cards for photography, but I too use a huge memory card , the Micro SD for my Motorola Cellphone, which is used for my MP3 player. Cool huh? Oh yeah, if you use good ones, you don't need them DVDRAM discs for your Camcorder, just the memory stick will do just fine. It's either that or the Hard Disc Drive format.

But I will surely invest in an Extreme 4 (or Extreme 3 at the very least) for my usage.

Banks - Are they a good buy right now?

During these days, bank stocks are coming at a cheap deal, especially with the economic crunch that have engulfed the regions and the American market. All these sentiments cause a knock on effect across the board be it on the NYSE Main Board or Dow Jones Index or London Stock Exchange par to the Financial Times Index or you are a trader in Singapore or Malaysia or even Hong Kong, stocks are plummeting as far as 34% over the last 30 days.

I am a small time buyer, not willing to risk everything on the expensive stocks pegged to the index as each stock cost at least in the double digits, tens of dollars or some costing over the hundred dollar mark each. Any changes in the sentiments will cause me to loose a chunk of money. However, it is the best time to pick out the ripe stocks for keep sake, as the dollar slide against the other currencies and the index are dipping as gradual as possible.

Take for example Malayan Banking Berhad, aka May Bank in Malaysia, one of the oldest and biggest bank in the South East Asia market, as old as Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation HSBC and at par even with London Based Standard Chartered Bank aka StanChart. They announced yesterday that they are acquiring Bank International Indonesia BII for US$2.1 Billion from Singapore Government's Investment Arm Temasek Holdings making them the biggest bank in the South East Asia. Does that mean it is going up? Supposingly. However, due to poor market sentiments today and the fact that the bank will be using up all their financial backing to purchase the other entity sent the trigger signals today creating a landslide of more than 10.6% dive in it's value. The bank has to hold at least $2.3 Billion in cash for their Singapore Based license as they are the Foreign Local Bank, just like Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation OCBC and the United Overseas Bank UOB Group in Malaysia.

So, is it a good buy? Yes, as the banks are stable here, they will call for dividends and with projections issued out this year, it calls on profits over $1.17 Billion before tax and even when the prices dip a little bit, you should buy more to cover your positions and wait for your bonus issues. As for American Banks, they are over priced too much and they should dip another 12 - 22% before I call it a worthy price, as they are suffering as what the Dot Com are facing 10 years back, with over inflated prices. Returns of the IRA and CD are not working out well, so it's time to dip into those funds and liquidate them, going for gold and overseas financial stocks like Halifax Bank of Scotland HBOS or HSBC or even Malaysian and Singapore stocks. They kept on merging and going into alliances so it's the best time to buy as US Dollar is losing their par value.

Good Hunting