i'm saimatkong

Lee Chong Wei, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong fall in Singapore Open 2009

My brother who is working in Singapore went to watch the badminton match live but he called me telling me that Lee Chong Wei lost to a Vietnam’s guy named Nguyen Tien Minh whom I do not even know who is that.

What a shame indeed but I thought this Singapore Open should be kacang putih for him because this biggest rival Lin Dan from China is not competing. Hope trashed. What more our double pair Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong also lost in the game. So this weekend I will not stick to the Singapore Open as both my favorite also lost.

Photo from badmintoncentral

KUALA LUMPUR: World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei’s hopes of retaining his first badminton title outside Malaysia ended when he fell to a shock second round loss to Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh in the Singapore Open last night.

The tournament also lost its second seed after top Dane and former All-England champion Peter-Gade Christensen was bundled out 19-21, 21-16, 13-21 by India’s Anup Sridhar.

Stunner: Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh packed off Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei in the Singapore Open.

There was more bad news from the Malaysian doubles camp when top hopes and Swiss Open champions Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong fell to a surprise 13-21, 21-19, 21-14 defeat by England’s Nathan Robertson-Anthony Clark.

But it was the unheralded Vietnamese who produced the biggest upset of the tournament when he sent Chong Wei packing 24-22, 20-22, 21-19 in one hour.

The top seeded Malaysian failed to contain the onslaught from Tien Minh, who reached game point first to win the first game 24-22.

He then had Chong Wei hanging by the scruff of his neck before the Malaysian saved four game points to force a decider.

Chong Wei must have thought his problems were over when he led 18-16 in the decider but the Vietnamese caught up before eventually prevailing to secure his biggest career win so far.

It was the second successive early round setback for the Olympic silver medallist, after an upset stomach caused him to concede a first round defeat to China’s Chen Long in the Indian Open in March.

Malaysia will have no representative in the men’s singles after veteran Wong Choong Hann failed to get the better of Bao Chunlai of China.

The unseeded Chinese won 21-16, 21-17 in 36 minutes to set up a quarter-final clash with Tien Minh.

Kien Keat-Boon Heong’s defeat left former national pair Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen as the unlikely survivors in the men’s doubles.

Teik Chai-Bin Shen beat Fang Chieh-min-Lee Mu-shen 21-16, 21-15 and will play fourth seeds Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark for a place in the semi-finals.

In the women’s doubles, top seeds Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty made it to the last eight after beating Dutch pair Rachel Van Cutsen-Paulien Van Dooremalen 21-16, 21-15.

Source : TheStar

Official Singapore Open Website : http://www.singaporebadmintonopen.sg/

Posted in Sports | 1 Comment »

‘No stop’ toll trials to begin in November = Smooth Traffic = No Jam

‘No stop’ toll trials to begin in November = Smooth Traffic = No Jam? Do you agree with it?

KUALA LUMPUR: Trials on a multi-free flow toll system will start in November with the Sungai Penchala toll plaza on the LDP being the test site.

Motorists will not need to slow down, as is the case with the current infrared SmartTag system, since there will not be any boom gates.

Malaysian Highway Authority director-general Datuk Mohamad Razali Othman said about a hundred regular users of the LDP would be selected for the first stage of the trial, set to begin in the third week of November.

The new system uses microwaves to read the onboard units in cars, enabling users to pass through a toll gantry without having to stop.

“The gantry is capable of reading onboard units even if the vehicle were travelling at 180kph,” said Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed, adding that the trial will be fully sponsored by Mitsubishi.

Mohamad Razali said that while about 800-1,000 cars could pass through a SmartTag lane per hour, the new system would enable double that amount to pass through.

“For the trial, we will only be using one lane. It will be able to read both SmartTag and the new onboard unit,” he said.

“However, before we migrate over we need to figure out how to go after those who don’t have onboard units but pass through the trial lane anyway.”

Earlier, Mohd Zin delivered a keynote speech at the ‘Globalisation of Young Malaysian Professionals – A Future Perspective’ seminar

He said that it was important for young Malaysian engineering and architectural professionals to realise that they could contribute to the country, add value to themselves, then market their skills globally.

source : TheStar

When I went to Singapore few years back they already using this kind of “No Stop” toll which in Singapore they called it “ERP” and I was very amused with this and hope Malaysia too will be implementing it and now finally there’s something that we gonna test run but not sure it will be widely use in Malaysia to reduce jam?

So no ppl will be queuing and get caught in traffic jam? Are you happy now? I will definitely grab a smart tag or on board device if it’s really implementing it. But before we Malaysia implementing it we should enforce the law on this no stop toll and get more high technology stuff to handle this if not it will sure be another failure project and is a waste of rakyat money?!?

What’s ERP?

The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) (Malay: Sistem Kadar Jalan Elektronik; Chinese: 电子道路收费系统) scheme is an electronic toll collection scheme adopted in Singapore to manage traffic by road pricing, and as a usage-based taxation mechanism to complement the purchase-based Certificate of Entitlement system. The ERP was implemented by the Land Transport Authority in September 1998 to replace the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme after successfully stress-testing the system with speeding Lamborghinis, Porsches and Ferraris. Singapore was the first city in the world to implement an electronic road toll collection system for purposes of congestion pricing.

Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »

Fuel ruling won’t hurt Johor but hurt Malaysian?

If you are the one who all the while taking advantage of Malaysia’s Fuel price and you come from Singapore to fill full tank, now you would not be able to do it again. It’s a wise move and we (Malaysian) wouldn’t want other non Malaysia citizen take advantage of the fuel subsidy loop hole. This way we could prevent money out flow and hopefully it could sustain long and the petrol / fuel price will not increase in any time soon!

Fuel ruling won’t hurt Johor

JOHOR BARU: The new ruling to ban the sale of petrol to foreign-registered vehicles within a 50km radius of the border will not hurt the state’s tourism industry.

“I believe the state has other attractions for foreigners and this new ruling will not hamper them from coming in,” said Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman.

“Our neighbouring country had imposed the ruling that cars going in and out must have a full tank. It did not disrupt their entry into Johor,” he told pressmen after launching the Aero mall at the Senai International Airport here yesterday.

Abdul Ghani said the state government supported the new ruling as it was time to reduce the cost of subsidy and ensure only Malaysians who deserve the subsidy get it.
Regular patrons: Singapore-registered vehicles make up the bulk of customers at this petrol station in Johor Baru.

However, Singaporeans who frequent this city were stunned. Many said it would result in them visiting the country less frequently.

Investment banker Shahul Mohamed, 34, said the decision would have far-reaching implications for both Johoreans and Singaporeans alike.

“I was going to buy my second home here but now I will have to reconsider the decision as the scenario has completely changed,” he said when met at a petrol station here yesterday.

Shahul pointed out that on average, he noticed some 30,000 to 50,000 foreign-registered vehicles on a daily basis here.

“I think the plan to remove petrol subsidies for foreigners is a great idea but this will cause losses for everyone,” he said.

Engineer Gabriel Tan, 28, said the move would badly affect petrol stations which depended on Singaporean clientele.

“What is the use of coming into Malaysia now for us? I will definitely not come in as often,” he said.

A petrol station owner, who only wanted to be identified as Chong, said he expected to lose up to 85% of his current business volume.

“This is very bad news for us. If we cannot survive, we will be forced to close the station,” he said.

Cashiers and pump attendants at several petrol stations also said that they had been fielding queries all day from Singaporeans who wanted to know if the ruling was true.

Malaysian Darryl Chong, 32, an engineer who works in Singapore and drives a Singapore-registered vehicle, said the move would be unfair to people like him who drive into the island on a daily basis for work.

“The ruling has not clarified our position so far,” he said, suggesting that in such cases, Malaysians should be allowed to buy petrol by showing their MyKad as proof of their nationality.

Meanwhile, state Tourism, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Hoo Seong Chang said it was too early to tell if the move would lead to a large-scale reduction in Singaporean visitors.

“We will support the Government’s policy and look for ways to balance the impact this decision may have,” he said.

Posted in News | No Comments »