Kubuntu on my main while I set up my Proxmox VE home lab. Plasma is superbly customisable, but there’s something about Gnome that’s so pleasing to the eyes that makes me look up ways to make Gnome work for me.

I have decided that xRDP is how I want to access my VMs (the only protocol that I’m able to reliably get multi display to work without additional configurations), so that’s my bare minimum requirement for now. The test Debian VM I had straight up would not install the xRDP Easy Install script.

Switched to Linux (on my spare laptop) because that’s what the programming tutorial I was following at that time recommended (though I’ve had experience with Ubuntu on and off before this). Such a delightful experience setting up programming stuff on Linux compared to Windows (I know WSL exists, but I like to keep my environments separate). Now my Linux spare laptop is my main PC, while I’ve barely turned on my “main” Windows laptop lately. Helps that my entertainment is mainly YouTube and not much gaming, though I played a few steam games on it before with a few quirks.

Big news in sports today: Shohei Ohtani goes to the Dodgers!!!

Yep, the currently available PRS funds are in general not great investments for the price you pay (in TER), by virtue of them being mostly Malaysia-centric stock pickings. They are basically Malaysia-themed mutual funds. I’ve not studied every PRS fund, but most of them do not beat their declared benchmark (most benchmark to FTSE-Bursa Emas Index), or they put a very low bar for themselves (an index comprising a combination of 12-month FD board rate and KLSE) despite being an equities fund.

I’ve been max-ing out my PRS allocation for the past 3 years. The moment the tax relief for this ends in 2025, I will not be putting a single sen in it anymore.

On Versa PRS, I’m more concerned about the longevity of the platform. At the end of the day Versa is owned by Affin Hwang Asset Management (AHAM), so if Versa does not survive the robo-advisor war and is forced to close down, you most likely only need to relearn where to access it (most likely through AHAM’s present own fund investing portal).

The typical place ppl do their PRS shenanigans is on FundSuperMart (FSM).

You’re chasing for Versa’s 12% p.a. promotion on Versa Save? It’s basically RM100 for your troubles (12% for December on RM10,000). RM100 is 3.33% of the RM3000 PRS allocation, or 2 years’ worth of management fee. Better than nothing lah I guess.

https://www.ppa.my/prs-funds-information/

There’s no best. The ones with lowest management fees often have a sales charge. So you gotta evaluate whether you want to pay the fees up front, or let them chip away per year.

Take for example
AHAM PRS Growth -> No sales charge. 1.8% p.a TER.
AMPrs Growth D -> 3% sales charge. 1.5% p.a TER.

The 0.3% TER difference will take 10 years to equalise. At face value, it’s better in the long run to pay the sales charge straightaway. However if one were to consider inflation of 3% per year, that initial 3% sales charge will be equivalent to 5.4% after 20 years (assuming the 3% sales charge you put into a 3% p.a FD, while the rest is invested at 0% growth).

The ‘growth’ style funds also tend to have higher TER, possibly due to the way they generate the “growth”-like performance by frequent trading.

Long story short: tax relief is not free, it’s being paid in the form of the TER and underperformance of the PRS fund you subscribe. Pick one and don’t look back.

Having just finished the latest Kluar Sekejap episode with Tun M, I must say, that guy sucks.

Someone probably feels the same about a hobby you’re obsessed about. Just the nature of hobbies.

They aren’t doing this for the school students.

lol I’ve been observing how the various news outlets report this item. Almost all of them demonstrated that they do not understand what’s going on. A “shutdown” is basically when a plant stops operations to perform periodic maintenance or upgrading works. Using the word “temporary” is just a cover-ass phrase to say “I think they are going to end businesses (because that’s what I think that word means, and also that will bring in the clicks), but their press release says it’s not long term…? Let’s be safe and cover both cases.” Shutdowns are by its very own nature, temporary. It’s like saying “permanent death”. Inb4 “transitory inflation”.

Paling funny is one headline that reads along the lines of “Lynas shuts all operations in Malaysia…”. I kek.

Yesterday kutuk why 5G, today stimmix with Hotlink 5G. Though annoyingly it keeps switching between 4G and 5G when I’m sitting still, and office smack on the center of KL.

Hotlink/Maxis finally has 5G, but at RM5 per month. Whatever happened to 5G being cheaper than 4G or whatever propaganda it was before this? If cheaper, why need extra pass just to access the network…?

More like sushi-shaped Malaysian treats.

I’m not sure it’s just the mere heating of the food via an extremely heated surface. J Kenji Lopez Alt opined that wok hey is the result of singed fat from the high heat output burner, where oil vapours combust and deposit as soot on the surface of the food. The other school of thought is that wok hey is the “licking” of the flame (as opined by Lucas Sin) when the food is tossed in the wok in a rocking motion over it’s boundary where the food is momentarily exposed to the literal flames of the burner, singeing it in the process. Some practitioners simulate this by applying a butane torch (the ones used to make aburi sushi) to the food surface if they do not have access to a high BTU burner.

Still working my way towards a job/career that can grant me the mobility to leave this country.

Bought the following two voter promo items, with findings:

1. Dominoes buy one regular, buy 1 large at RM1. Caveat was need to buy regular pizza at ala carte price, which is RM35.90. Total is RM36.90. The other issue? 3 hour lead time. Order at 6pm, 9pm baru dapat lol.

2. Tealive RM6 for selected drinks. No caveat. In fact got loophole. Buy using the app (I used TnG, and pickup), pick large, and can buy multiple. Regretted coz I bought regular, and only thought to check after the fact lol.

Didn’t bothered to vote actually today. but gf keep annoying me about it. so first time go voting noon time. Literally no queue. would recommend next time go vote at noon time also instead of long queue in the morning.

Re: Project Hail Mary, if you’d be willing to give it a second chance, I highly recommend switching to the audiobook version. The voice acting is just superb.

I had that exact same experience few months ago with a KZ replacement cable!

The difference is that I decided to finally move on to Bluetooth earphones lol

https://paultan.org/2023/07/21/full-respray-of-your-car-from-just-rm1900-at-evx-2023-this-weekend-with-mytukar-body-paint-centre/

Purposely went all the way down to Setia Alam to grab the deal. According to the PIC I talked to, apparently myTukar has a massive car paint workshop in USJ for a while now, but there were barely any customers. The price previously was even lower than the current promo price. Apparently the workshop has such a great capacity to do paint jobs, don’t even need to set appointment, can just walk in.

Promo deal is valid for 3 months. RM500 deposit. FWIW the undercoat option is an additional RM800 that is to be added-on upon recommendation. Body panel repair is RM150 per panel.

As for the EVx expo… Ok ok la. Don’t expect huge halls like KL Convec or MITEC. Parking was RM5. Got food trucks around. As expected the Tesla booth has the largest crowd. Not in a position to be changing cars yet so didn’t really go gaga over the cars there. If I was in a more leisurely mood I’d have walked over to the Setia City Mall to jalan jalan.

Would’ve shared the above news in the transportation comm, but the ‘what do we talk about here’ thread put up quite a hostile attitude towards car topics, so malas lah nak share situ.