One of the Malaysian state, the Selangor state is enjoying 4 long weekends in a roll.
It started off with the state's Sultan birthday on 11th Dec (Friday), followed by Awal Muharam, the Islamic New Year (on 18th Dec (Friday), Christmas on 25th Dec (Friday) and 1st Jan (Friday).
A CCTV installer from that state said these consecutive long weekends with 4-days week made him lazy.
Some customers literally abused their CCTV gear and expect those gear are still covered by the warranty.
We had come across warranty claiming gear like INDOOR dome camera covered with dust and mud, Digital Video Recorder damaged by corrosive chemicals, camera covered in paint, melted housing, gear mutilated by animals etc.
Few months ago, I took this photo at a wedding reception. To me those warranty claims are like complaining to the chef of this raped Guacamole Dip.
The other day I stumbled upon this movie on cable TV while flipping through channels late at night.
I had almost forgotten this movie which I had watched more than 10 years ago.
Call me sissy if you must but this movie is very refreshing and touching. The film has exactly what today movies are lacking, a good and meaningful storyline.
For those who are too young to missed the movie. The whole story can sum up by the fallen angel Nicolas Cage last line, "I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it."
A CCTV customer called us the other day to verify a "fact".
He said one of his company staff told him that the infrared emitting from the IR camera is lethal.
I must compliment his staff vivid imagination and cunningness. IR is harmful never cross my mind. To me IR is just as plain as another spectrum of light.
I kindly advised my customer to pay attention to his staffs instead of the infrared being emitted at night from the infrared camera when his staff is not even in the office.
But just for the hack of it, I checked on the Internet and I can sum it up in the following statement;
Infrared (IR) is a part of electromagnetic spectrum and lies just beyond red color of visible light. All human beings are exposed to infrared in the form of the sun and even through the household electric lamp. It has no known adverse effect on living cells.
When we design and to propose a CCTV system to our prospect, we will try our very best to strike a balance between the overall system deployment cost and the system effectiveness.
A friend of mine bought me dinner the other day for helping him to put up a cctv system at his apartment before his foreign maid arrived.
Both my friend and his wife are working and they have 2 kids age 3 and 4.
From the recorded cctv video footage he had discovered his maid had eaten his kids' food and had fed the kids with baby formula.
Well, I suppose those kids were very fortunate that their nanny did not caused them any long term physical harm as their parent had found out their maid gluttonous behavior soon enough.
Lot 10 Hutong probable is currently the best foodcourt in Malaysia.
The basement of Lot 10 shopping mall in the heart of Kuala Lumpur houses the Lot 10 Hutong food court, touted as a food court that brings in well known hawkers to make up the 27 restaurants and kiosks offering signature dishes.
Those famous with names including char siu wantan noodles from Ho Weng Kee in PJ, Hon Kee porridge from Cecil Street, Popiah from Campbell, Kim Lian Kee's black lard-rich Hokkien mee, Soong Kee's beef noodles from Jalan Silang (one of my favorate), Pandamaran Mo Sang Kor bak kut teh, Ipoh chicken rice from Jalan Gasing, Seremban Siew Bao, Kong Tai Singapore Hokkien noodles and many more.
This new food court will especially appeal to pork lovers, as it serves non halal food which rarely seen in Malaysia shopping mall's food court.
Yesterday a customer called to seek CCTV technical support.
One of our technician offered his help, she asked him if he was the "chief technician", she said if he was not the "chief technician" she refused to spend time explaining her CCTV problems to him.
This customer is either snobbish or ignorant.
Most of the time, problems face by CCTV customers are minor and very common which required no rocket scientist.
An owner of a few IT retail outlets called us to relocate some CCTV cameras which we had helped him to deploy last year.
For the entire last week he filled in his store manager place at one of his IT outlet, as both the store manager and supervisor were on leave.
During that week, he discovered he could evade the CCTV cameras detection despite his carefully placement of the cameras last year.
He said he will work in his other IT outlets as well, to have a different perspective or point of view at the working environment, so that to seek out the loophole(s) not only in the surveillance system but other company's systems and practices.
Few days ago, I had asked a prospect to check out a Vivotek IP7161 megapixel camera's video footage which we had recorded from our outlet and had unloaded to YouTube.
He was very pleased with the video quality and we managed to close the deal.
The father confessed to us that he was cyberphobia and had asked his son to learn from our technician the setting up of the IP camera. The funny part was, his son is only 10 years old.
I suppose it is good to start your child at young age.
It won't stays down all the time, unless you allow yourself to stay there. In other words it is your choice to stay down.
I remember no matter how many times it went down, I did my very best to push myself up again, ...again, again and yet again.
To all my fellow CCTV industry's friends please keep your chin up, if you choose to push hard enough, am very certain your side of the seesaw will soon rise again.
Oh yes, it was me and my sister on that seesaw at Genting Highland. The colour of the photo might be fading but I still remember vividly her bright red shoes and pants, wonder if she still keeps them.
Murphy's law states, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
Things will go wrong, or, less frequently, a reflection of the mathematical idea that, given a sufficiently long time, an event which is possible will almost surely take place.
Thunder storm is very common in Tropical countries like Malaysia. During thunder storm CCTV gear is easily damaged by induction power surge.
Induction generates high voltage spikes in electronic gear, this sudden power spikes will damage the sensitive electronic circuit in the CCTV equipment.
Please note that, all electrical and electronic gear damaged by power surge is not covered by the limited warranty.
Hence, Power surge protector is highly recommended in any deployment of CCTV system.
After China and Vietnam, Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea is the next "purer" communist city I would like to visit .
Not that I am for the communist ideology but I am a 'city person' and I like mystery and the unknown. Pyongyang has this deathliest combination that is so appealing to me.
Meanwhile lets take a sneak preview of this alluring city.
Ryugyong Hotel, The Pyongyang Ghost Tower - an unfinished hotel.
As CCTV professional, we must constantly looking for ways to provide our surveillance customers better but more economical CCTV solutions especially during this soft economic environment.
Cabling is one of the most costly elements, if not the most expensive element in any CCTV system deployment. Hence it is wise to find ways to reduce the cabling cost.
The answer is UTP Balun devices. It is a smarter, easier and cheaper CCTV cabling alternative.
Balun is device used for matching an unbalanced coaxial transmission line or system to a balanced two-wire line or system.
It helps you to save cost by replacing 4 coaxial cables run with 1 UTP CAT5 network cable, reduces your trunking and conduit cost, reduces your cabling man hours and allows the CCTV video transmission to travel greater distance (up to 2km).
Balun is also like a comb to your messy hair, it tidy up and make your cctv cabling work neat and by the numbers. It will eventually translate into lower long term system maintenance cost.
I hate those CCTV suppliers who would deliberately design a unnecessarily complicated solution, so that they could charge more and stop others from maintaining and providing future expansion to their deployed CCTV systems.
The fact is most CCTV solution designs could be as simple as finding the 'x'.
Last year a CCTV installer had started importing CCTV gear after visiting a Security Trade Show.
He told me that he managed to identify an OEM manufacturer who can produce a full range of very cheap CCTV product.
He said trading is all about brand building and advertisement, once customer recognizes his CCTV brand via advertisement, his CCTV gear will capture a lion share in the Malaysian CCTV market.
Last week, he called and tried to sell me his entire CCTV stock as he is no longer keen in the business.
The truth is, what is wrong or bad (low quality) can not be made right (good quality) by advertisement.
It is like publishing a lie and expecting people to believe.
It is a must to change the password of your newly deployed DVR or NVR. A default user name and password is not secure, it is like an open stadium in the midst of tall buildings.
Anyone who had handled with DVR or NVR can login to view live or playback the recorded video footage easily.
In fact, it is a good practice to change the password from time to time just like how you manage your bank's ATM machine password.
A good CCTV design should take into consideration of both the logical and the illogical, the normal and the abnormal circumstances.
Take a look at the photo below. If you mount a CCTV camera at the barrigate pointing at the logical and normal route of cars might pass, you are in for a big surprise.
Never like love story until I's introduced to a hit live-action Korean TV drama series, 'Winter Sonata'.
Winter Sonata (a.k.a. Winter Ballad/Winter Love Story, Korean: 겨울연가) was the second part of the KBS TV drama series Endless Love. This Hit Live-Action Korean TV Drama Series was produced in March 2002 in South Korea.
It was broadcast on Japan's NHK and has been a major part of the Korean wave both there and throughout Asia.
Ladies and... some gentlemen, hold your breath, Winter Sonata Anime is here!
The International Protection Rating, sometimes also interpreted as Ingress Protection Rating consists of the letters IP followed by two digits and an optional letter. As defined in international standard IEC 60529, it classifies the degrees of protection provided against the intrusion of solid objects, dust, accidental contact, and water. The standard aims to provide users more detailed information than vague marketing terms such as waterproof.
Am sure he is now able to look at his fishes back in Korea, as and when he wishes, no matter where he is.
We won't be able show you that gentleman's fishes but let me show you a fishman, my favorite yesteryear TV series – Man from Atlantis.
This is the 2nd day in a roll, I blog about the economy slow down which had affected our CCTV industry.
To all fellow CCTV installers, check out this video.
HSBC stock plunged to HK$33 on March 11th, 2009 in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Even if you do not understand Cantonese, you can still see the emotional Hong Kong commentator cried at 4.53.
As of today, HSBC worths around HK$89 even after the 5-for-12 rights issue (HK$28 per rights).
Call me sick, but every time when I am feeling down, I watch this emotional filled video and I will feel much better instantaneously.
We are easily affected by our emotion but when we take a step back, everything will look great again.
Just like in my previous posting, Morpheus said,
"I stand here, before you now, truthfully unafraid. Why? Because I believe something you do not? No, I stand here without fear because I REMEMBER."
Hence, to all my friend please REMEMBER this video whenever you feel down. Thing will get better.
A couple of days ago, an IT supplier came to see me.
This old friend of mine will drop by once in a while as our CCTV solution uses a lot IT products like PC server, hard disk, LCD Screen etc.
He said his business is not doing well, before mid year, he had cut half of his company's manpower and he is going to do it again.
When the going get tough, I constantly remind myself and all my friends of the speech given by Morpheus in the 2003 movie “The Matrix Reloaded”
"Believe me when I say we have a difficult time ahead of us. But if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it. I stand here, before you now, truthfully unafraid. Why? Because I believe something you do not? No, I stand here without fear because I remember. I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me. I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines. I remember that for 100 years they have sent their armies to destroy us, and after a century of war I remember that which matters most... We are still here!"
London -- CCTV cameras are everywhere in the UK, inside stores, on the streets, outside businesses. They are earning the country the label of "Big Brother Britain."
Now surveillance cameras have gone to school, literally. Not just at front gates, in cafeterias and corridors, but right in the classroom, sometimes a few at a time!
Nearly 100 schools in the UK have signed up to in-class CCTV efforts using high definition cameras and microphone to record both video and audio.
The company behind the systems says they are not about 'Big Brother' but helping teachers to improve their performance.
Schools say it helps them police bullying better and are useful in dealing with robberies, vandalism and misbehavior.
There are mixed reactions from parents and kids. Still, reports are, that enough people here like the cameras to have them installed in hundreds more schools.
Civil liberties champions, however, say all this goes too far. Teachers are concerned as well. They think the closed circuit or CCTV material could be used against them.
To all Malaysian parents, do you like the idea? What do you have to say?
2 weeks ahead of "This Is It" concert movie's opening show, the late Michael Jackson's concert movie has generated more then 1,6000 sold out in US cinemas.
It is set to make the movie one of the hottest tickets of the year despite the song, "This Is It" copyright controversy.
Former teen idol Paul Anka claimed that he had co-written the posthumously released song with Jackson in 1983, and demanded to be credited.
According to Anka the song was co-written by him and Michael over 20 years ago. The song was initially meant to appear on Jackson’s 1983 album Walk A Fine Line, but it was dropped from the album. It was eventually recorded by R&B artist Safire in 1991, under a new title, “I Never Heard.”
Jackson fans noticed the similarities between the 2 songs and brought it to the attention of Chairman of Columbia/Epic Records Rob Stringer. Eventually, after legal action was threatened, administrators of Jackson’s estate agreed to award Anka 50% of the publishing rights.
Calling themselves the C9 alliance, 9 of China’s top universities recently have banded together to form the country’s version of the American Ivy League of 8 private institutes of higher education.
The American Ivy League universities are often viewed by the public as some of the most prestigious universities worldwide and are often ranked amongst the best universities in the United States and worldwide.
Membership of the Chinese Ivy league means it is easier now for the 9 institutions to distinguish themselves as the premier education venues in China.
The downside of this oligopoly development is that all other universities, no matter how good they might be in certain areas, are considered second-tier.
I wonder what if this Ivy League mumbo jumbo crap happens to our CCTV industry?
It is important to coexist with the environment for sustained growth and development. Hence look out for the RoHS compliance sticker on the CCTV gear or any electronic and electric gear for that matter.
RoHS stands for Restriction on Hazardous Substances.
The RoHS directive aims to restrict certain dangerous substances commonly used in electronic and electronic equipment which is harmful to the environment. Any RoHS compliant component is tested for the presence of Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg), Hexavalent chromium (Hex-Cr), Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).
The other day a customer asked us to examine a recoded video footage of a DVR as he suspected his guards had purchased a same DVR and recorded a section of 4 minutes video from one of his office's CCTV camera with a predetermined date and time, and later patched the video to his existing DVR.
We had watched the video footage, it is inconclusive.
I can not show you the video but that suspicious 4 minutes video footage from one of the DVR channel did look blur as compare to other video feeds and the stream was broken for 2-3 seconds at the beginning and at the end of the 4 minutes of recording.
An altered video footage can change a story completely as shown in the following 2 funny Star Wars videos, enjoy.
He said he can only purchase a CCTV system from us if we could provide lady installers to put up the system for him.
He continued to explain that the CCTV system is for a secondary school's lady hostel. It is inconvenience to have male installers rooming around a lady hostel.
Perhaps it is not a bad idea to put together a team of lady CCTV installers, it makes a lot of business sense.
The Founding of a Republic, an epic film marking the 60th anniversary of China's Communist revolution and starring almost 200 of its best-known stars.
The star-studded epic charts the ascendancy of Chairman Mao was made by the state-owned China Film Group and is intended as a focal point for anniversary celebrations which will culminate on Oct 1.
With hundreds of stars from China and Hong Kong, including the kung-fu hero Jackie Chan and Jet Li, telling the story of the Communist rise to power in 1949, the film is being tipped as one of the biggest box office hits in the country for years.
Centred on the exploits of Chairman Mao and his rag-tag band of revolutionaries, the film chronicles the heroic but arduous birth of Communist China through the defeat of the Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai–shek in a series of bloody battles between 1945-49.
The £6 million budget for The Founding of a Republic, or Jianguo Daye in Chinese, was kept in check by the fact that many of the film's celebrity cast donated their time for free, dropping onto the set for a few hours at a time to record cameo roles.
Despite the deep collective scars left by the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, Mao retains a strong measure of popular affection in China, even if the Communist Party is often treated with cynicism by younger people.
I dunno if it is the biggest Chinese's propaganda movie ever produced as I haven't watched the movie but am sure this star-studded movie will definately help us remember one of the most contentious and pivotal moments of modern Chinese history.
My fellow CCTVians and friends, welcome to the month of October. To jump start this exciting and challenging month, lets talk about an interesting concept of creativity.
CrEativitY can go a long way, especially when we design a CCTV solution.
Creativity can lower down cost, CCTV gear last longer, to improve effectiveness of the solution and ultimately to improve user satisfaction and our bottom line.
Check out this creative Chinese farmer did to his fruits.
Listen closely, the commentator says the farmer's creativity had
improved his earning by 100 folds!
While I's blogging, a CCTV installer came to our store to pick up some gear, he said this is merely fad, it won't last.
Obviously he didn't understand or failed to see the meaning of earning grown by 100 folds. It literally means even if this "fad" could only last for 1 month, your earning forthat month will bring you 8 years and 4 months of holiday.
If you bothered to do your maths, the creative farmer can choose to retire if it last for half a year.
I say it again, CrEativitY can go a very long way and for a very long time too.
When I was little, I remember I was forced to make my bed every morning.
I had to looked for my pillows (I got 2 pillows), most of the time they were on the floor. The blanket was impossible to fold into the shape my mom demanded, and did I tell you the condition of my bed sheet? It was like I had the most fearsome battle with a monster on the bed the night before.
What I am trying to say is, it is difficult enough just to make our own bed in the morning, let alone sorting out the unlabeled cables laid by some jokers.
That is why in our CCTV industry we will charge more to cleaning up someone else poor cabling mess. Also please check out my previous posting on poor cabling job in Snakes Pit.
I know, today is Monday after a long extended Raya holiday. Here is little something to zest up your day.
This posting is also for those CCTV System Integrators who had many failures in their CCTV job tendering attempts.
CBS Sept 18, 2009: There's nothing sweeter to a golfer than a hole-in-one. However, the chances of that happening are about one-in-30,000. So it seemed like a pretty safe bet to hold a contest: Get a hole-in-one, win $1 million!
However, luck was on Jason Hargett's side this week at a golf charity tournament in Utah. He initially said he didn't plan to play, but then changed his mind -- a decision that would change his life.
Jason said he doesn't remember much from the moment he sunk the ball. Jason hit a hole-in-one last year, but this, he said, was life altering. In fact, when he learned he won, he sent a text message to his wife, Amyee Hargett, telling her their "lives had just changed.
The Hargetts' money will be gradually disbursed over 40 years, with a $25,000 payout each year.
But the money hasn't changed them yet. Jason said he plans to keep his job as a restaurant manager Utah's Ruby River Steakhouse.
"It's good place to meet a lot of people, a good place to work," he said.
The couple has four children ages from 10 to 17. Jason said the money has taken "a lot of pressure off" of paying for their future expenses.
But does the couple plan any extravagant purchases?
Jason said "no." They plan to have the same car and the same house.
However, the avid golfer added, "(I) might play a few different golf courses a little earlier than I thought."
The other day my dad told me that the Muhammad Ali, the man who is widely considered to be one of the best heavyweight boxing champions ever, was in Malaysia in 1975 and had fought Briton Joe Bugner.
Here are what I got from the net, it is rather interesting;
The match was held in Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur.
Most videos of the fight had disallowed embedding but you can search www.youtube.com to see for yourself how Muhammad Ali float like a butterfly, sting like a bee in Kuala Lumpur.
The fight is great to watch but at the same time I am truly impressed and intrigued by those round card girls dressed up in their traditional costumes.
In video " Muhammad Ali vs Joe Bugner 2 (1975) Rounds 2and3 " I had spotted card girls dressed in Malay, Chinese and Kadazan traditional costumes. It is beyond cool! Way beyond cool!
Now, who had actually won the fight? Why don't you find out for yourself?
Some CCTV users are commissioning non CCTV specialist to design and to deploy their surveillance system.
Those non CCTV specialist might be good in their specific fields like MATV, PABX, Autogate, Burglar Alarm etc. but CCTV is not their forte.
As CCTV gear, software and more importantly customer's CCTV requirements are getting more and more sophisticated, a generalist is simply not good enough to meet the needs of an ever-demanding surveillance market.
Check out this cloth's label and you will understand why it is absolutely important to commission a CCTV specialist to design and to deploy your next surveillance system.
These videos were recorded on MicroSD with vandal proof Vivotek FD7130 IP cameras which had been deployed recently on buses in Brazil and Ecuador.
Vivotek FD7130 Mobile Surveillance in Brazil
Vivotek FD7130 Mobile Surveillance in Ecuador
Vivotek FD7130's IP66-rated, vandal-proof metal housing effectively provides robust protection from being damaged by water and dust as well as vandalism. In compliance with EN50155, the standard for electronic equipment operating in railway vehicles, the FD7130 is an economical mobile surveillance solution packed with high reliability and rugged performance.
With the support of tamper detection, the FD7130 is a robust and intelligent camera, keeping security staff notified at all times once it suffers video loss from being blocked or spray-painted. The FD7130 utilizes PoE (Power-over-Ethernet), allowing it to be operated and powered from a single Ethernet cable, giving greater ease of installation and cost savings. In order to facilitate on-board storage and data portability, the FD7130 is also complete with a MicroSD/SDHC card slot for local recording.
Some customers are overly paranoid over break in from outside but they have forgotten about internal theft and shrinkage.
When we design a surveillance system it is utmost important to pay attention to both the internal and the site parameter.
Actually this reminds me of the John Travolta's movie, Phenomenon;
George Malley (John Travolta) had an unusual “light” encounter. Later that night, George lies awake, suddenly he knows exactly how a rabbit keeps getting in his fenced-off garden.
Few days ago one prospect shown us his office layout plan and asked us to come out with a inexpensive CCTV solution proposal with no blind spot.
I told him it is good to have a CCTV system to cover every inch of the office but it is not possible ( eg. toilet ) and it is not practical (way too expensive).
The better solution is to have good quality cameras deployed at the carefully thought out strategic spots like entrances and some hot spots. This is not only more economical but at the same time shows the employee that the company actually respect their privacy.
The rest of the uncovered area can be filled by logic and imagination. Like this suggestive Wonderbra advertisement. We can't see the whole picture... but enough.
Once a customer complained to me that ever since CCTV was deployed at his home, he and his wife has to spend long time to watch the recorded video footage.
He said both of them used to watch TV after dinner but now they have to watch CCTV video footage before they can watch TV program.
Here are a few suggestions to CCTV users with maid and young kids at home;
1. Set the DVR recording mode to 'motion'. Motion trigged recording will greatly reduce the recording time.
2. Let the maid know that CCTV is deployed, she will be monitored. Lets psychological do the trick.
3. Instruct the maid to keep the kids within the CCTV coverage area while you are not at home.
These are no foul proof suggestions but be kind to your maid and constantly talk and play with your kids instead of watching TV I bet is the best solution to parent who has little kids spending time alone with maid at home.
While we have been enjoying the fruits of rapid technology development, the earth is suffering the negative consequences of the technology boom. With global warming and climate change deteriorating, people are beginning to realise the inseparability between the fate of the globe and the future of all human beings.
Hence, before you make any decision on your CCTV deployment please give green designed CCTV gear a thought.
Last month an IP camera user called to complained.
He said he had installed 3 nos of IP cameras since early this year, only recently he checked the cameras' system log, he discovered that unauthorized users had been logging into his IP cameras from time to time since the past 2 months.
After talking to him we realized that he uses the IP camera manufacturer's default user name and password.
An IP camera with default user name and password is like to use a coin lock to lock your car, anyone with small change can easily drive away your car.
We guided him to change his password.
Yesterday he called us again, he said his problem is solved and he want to get 2 more cameras for his office.
Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides for many streets in the world 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views from a row of positions along the street (one every approximately 10 or 20 metres), from a height of about 2.5 metres. It was launched on May 25, 2007, and has gradually expanded to include more cities, and in these cities more streets, and also some rural areas.
Privacy advocates have objected to this Google feature, pointing to views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, cottagers at public parks, people picking up prostitutes and people engaging in activities visible from public property in which they do not wish to be seen publicly. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property.
Here are some funny but controversial images from Google Street View;
Today marks the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people in the US.
The CCTV industry has undergone total change after 9/11 terrorist incident. This industry has been battling with the issue of security awareness prior to the 9/11. But the incident made a huge psychological impact on the people around the world.
Thanks to the paradigm shift in the thinking of the public and the Government on security had since ballooned the surveillance market manifold.
These are 2 old advertisements for the WTC....... ironic and sad.
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