Sand castle building contest

If you have no plan yet during the Public Holiday on Malaysia Day, why not make a trip to Tawau.

The 14th edition of the sand castle building competition will be held at the Batu Payung beach in Tawau this September 16. I gathered this from a press release in the DE.

Illustrative image. Photo from: View from the Couch

The programme, in conjunction with Malaysia Day, is organised by the Hokkien Association of Tawau (Pemuda) in collaboration with the Tawau Municipal Council.

According to Pemuda President, Kong Wei San, the competition will begin at 8.30am and is scheduled to be launched by Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Tawfiq Abu Bakar Titingan who has contributed RM1,000 to support the programme.

The competition will be divided into three categories, namely:

Category A: Open
Category B: Association group
Category C: School student

So, the date to remember is (would love to be there if it were to be held near me):

September 16, 2012
Time     : 8.30am
Venue  : Batu Payung beach, Tawau Sabah

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

Featured Energy Company: Wang Noi Power Plant

The Wang Noi Power Plant is located on the area of 280 acres at Wang Noi District within Ayutthaya province.

It is located approximately 70 kilometers north of Bangkok with total generating capacity in excess of 2 GW supplying power to central region of Thailand.


Wang Noi Power Plant n brief

The power plant is equipped with 3 combined cycle blocks, incorporating 6 gas turbines and 3 steam turbines. The official synchronization was completed in April, 1996 and the Commercial Operation date (COD) in May, 1996. The main fuel for plant generation is natural gas from two sources – the Gulf of Thailand and Myanmar. Diesel oil of 60 million liters has been reserved as supplementary fuel in case of gas supply interruption. The total capacity of Wang Noi Power Plant is 2,027 MW and the gross production from 1996 to 2011 was 147,428,708,433 million kWh.

An Inlet air cooling system of 20,000 ton is installed at Block 3 of the combined cycle power plant. The installation was completed in June 2012 and can further enhance the capacity by 70 MW to the gross generation. Wang Noi Block 4 combined cycle power plant is currently under construction. The project will be completed in June 2014 and will add the capacity of 785 MW to the present generating system.

Wang Noi Power Plant developed an emergency response plan by building a flood barrier during Thailand’s worst flood in 2011, that protect and saved the power plant from severe impact. This barrier was enhanced to cover 5 kilometers in length to protect the total area of 1.28 million sq meters.

Stage one of the CCGT. Photo: power-technology

Why Wang Noi Power Plant?

The plant is an example of power generation plant that promotes efficient energy utilisation technology, which carries out its operations in complete compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. From July 2007 to present, the power plant has given over ฿450 million (US$14.3 mil) to Community Development Fund and has carried out a wide range of social and environmental activities to develop and build better living for the community around it, such as, public health, education, occupational promotion, cultural conservation etc.

It has been accredited with ISO 14001, ISO9001, and TIS18001 certification. The power plant was honoured for its outstanding business operations for nine consecutive years since 2002 and is proud of achievement of 2 million hours of operation with zero accident.

This plant is also the site of choice for Technical Plant Tour by the organiser of the Renewable Energy World Asia Conference & Expo in Bangkok, Thailand early October 2012.

New iPhone (iPhone 5) to debut on September 12, 2012

If you have been waiting for the next iteration of the iPhone, mark your calender on September 12 and tune in to the online news.

Image grab from Bloomberg Businessweek headlines video on July 31. Businessweek believes it has some details of the next iPhone.


According to iMore, Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone (iPhone 5 or whatever they decide to call it later) on September 12, 2012, and to be followed by its release on September 21. This would mean that the current iPhone 4S would have been in the market for less than a year by the time the next generation is announced.

My source for mostly accurate information of Apple products, The Loop gave its 'yep' to the piece of news. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past. The website owner, Jim Dalrymple was at the event in California when the iPhone 4S was announced last year.

Details, according to Bloomberg Businessweek include:

• Larger screen                                (current iPhone 4S screen is 3.5")
• Thinner body                                 ( iPhone 4S is 9.3mm)
• Works with the faster 4G network    (iPhone 4S is on 3G)
• First new major design since 2010

Really, this is nothing like the details that people want to hear but at least it is something that is sure to be included in the new gadget.

We have been hearing that the new iPhone is likely to spot a 4-inch display, with a 16:9 screen version, and that newer iOS devices will have smaller dock connector. Rumour has been circulating around for a while now that that SIM card would shrink further from the current 'micro' size.

It seems that Apple is planning to squeeze quite a lot of things into the new gadget. But for the iDevice fans, they'd surely hope this iteration is not just to keep up with Samsung S3, but to set the bar higher.

iPhone 4S is just about 11 months in the market and I am one of the earlier buyers of this version, so, I'm not really looking at upgrading to iPhone 5 just yet. But we'll see; hopefully Tim Cook and his team come up with some surprises up their sleeves.