Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

Remember how I said that there were a few Malaysian athletes to look out for? And in Badminton, Lee Chong Wei was one of them. Chong Wei did not disappoint us! He just won the Men’s Singles Quarterfinal match against Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro (who won a bronze medal in the last Olympics) 2-0. Now Malaysia will have a fighting chance of winning another medal at the Semi-Finals on Friday evening!

As for Archery, even though the team didn’t get into the semi-finals, they still did well enough to compete in the quarterfinals. Good for them! Cycling (track) will only commence this Friday, so we’ve still some hope.

All in all, it has been an exciting Olympics so far, with American Michael Phelps becoming the “greatest-ever Olympian” with a record-breaking 11 Olympic golds in Swimming in his bag so far.

What do you think of Malaysia’s performance in the Olympics thus far? I know that even though many of us are keeping a look-out on the political situation here in Malaysia (Will Anwar really succeed in toppling the government in a month as he promised? How will the Penangnites vote?), we should still put aside all this and unite together to support our Malaysian athletes at the Olympics!

(Photo thanks to geckoam)

So cute! Why don’t we have Animal Olympics?

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We’ve been getting more great questions and better answers on Yahoo! Answers and this deserves a big cheer! But sometimes it’s hard to feature these brilliant Q&As as…. yup, we’re missing the avatars! It is visually unexciting to see two gray silhouettes on the main page, hence even though the question asked may be really interesting, and the answer given may be really detailed and to the point, we won’t be able to feature them.

We’ve noticed that many of the users do not upload either an avatar or picture to represent themselves, and instead, just uses the default gray silhouette. It is actually very simple and fun to create your own avatar. And you can even use the same one for the Yahoo! Messenger.

So why don’t you give it a try at Yahoo! Avatars and create THE avatar that captures your personality and spirit?

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Another 4 years have passed and the Summer Olympics is here again.

(Photo thanks to carinasuyin)

8 is considered a lucky number amongst the Chinese community, so is it any wonder then that Beijing will be conducting the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics 2008 at 8:08pm today, the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008? Malaysia will be showing its might to the rest of the world by sending 33 of our best athletes to compete this year. We will be competing in 9 sports categories: Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Cycling, Diving, Shooting, Swimming, Taekwondo and Weightlifting! Malaysia had done us proud over the years by winning 3 Olympic medals at badminton so far and this year promises more exciting action!

The hot Malaysian athletes to look out for:

Archery - Three-man archery team: Cheng Chu Sian, Muhammad Marbawi Sulaiman and Wan Khalmizam Abdul Aziz, currently ranked 4th best in the world.

Badminton - Men’s singles Lee Chong Wei, number 2 in the world.

Cycling - Men’s cycling quartet: Azizul Hasni Awang, Josiah Ng, Rizal Tisin and Muhd Edrus Yunus, who achieved success at this year’s Asian Cycling Championships.

So let’s wish our athletes all the best and tell them, “Selamat berjuang, Malaysia boleh!”

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I’ve talked about taking naps on weekends, but have you even heard of “power naps“? According to a Dr William Anthony from the USA, who wrote a book “The Art of Napping at Work” with his wife, sleeping on the job can actually be beneficial to both you and your boss! Well, of course not sleeping for 8 hours, but a short nap of about 20 minutes will help to increase alertness and overall productivity in all of us. And this energy spike can actually last several hours.

While this sounds like good news to many of us, I’m sure our bosses would not agree. They would think that we’re just being lazy instead. How many of you actually feel sleepy after lunch? It’s really strange but my eyelids will start to drop at about 3pm everyday, like some flag lowering ceremony: Negaraku~! So if we’re not allowed to take naps at our tables, how do you deal with the sleepiness? Some of my friends drink kopi (kopi doesn’t work on me), some will take a quick jalan to the photocopy machine or toilet break, but for me, I like to keep my mouth busy… by stuffing it with food! LOL! It can be simple Tic Tacs, chocolates or sour plums. Those can really wake me up!

What about you? How do you slay the sleep monster at work or in school?

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Our engineers have been working hard trying to improve Answers to make it a better experience for you. What you may have noticed is that the Ask and Answer pages have been changed to incorporate tips to help you ask and answer easier.

Now when you ask or answer a question, you will see a yellow speech bubble giving you some tips:

If there is any spelling mistake (you know, we all type too fast sometimes), you will be warned and, with help of the Spell Checker, be able to correct all mistakes:

Ignore, Change and click Done when ready. This will make your questions and answers look bright for sure!

We will also warn you if your caps lock is on.. as you know, in the Internet world, writing in capitals is often seen as shouting and regarded as bad netiquette:

These are just a few of the tips we have for you. So what are you waiting for? If you feel that you don’t need these tips, they can be easily closed by clicking on the “x” on the top right of the speech bubble.

Don’t forget to leave your comments about these tips - we love hearing from you!

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Recent news hints that AirAsia X will most likely drop Japan off its list of flying routes next year due to the hassle Malaysians will face when trying to get a Japanese visa.

But to be truthful, how many of you really want to take a (approximately) 7 hours flight on a budget airline? Even though budget airlines are generally good idea, personally I don’t like to take them. Top 3 Reasons being:

1. Budget airlines are not really that “budget”.. if we add the airport tax, petrol tax, security tax etc, the taxes add up to be more than the cost of the flight ticket itself!
2. There is a limit on the amount of luggage you can carry, and food is not provided, but they’ll sell it to you at an astronomical price (You’re forbidden to bring your own. Ka-ching! $_$ ).
3. You have to fight for your own choice of seats at AirAsia AND the plane I took from Senai Airport to Kota Kinabalu Airport was so old that the toilet door banged open when the plane landed on the tarmac! What a scary landing.

The scary toilet door that banged open.

Would you take a budget airline?

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So how many of you have signed up for the Nike+ Human Race 10k? I did. I know, many of my friends exclaimed saying “You? You signed up for a run??” Yes, yes. Me. The one who dragged going to sports class in her youth. The one who last went to gym, err.. some months ago (was it last year?). The one who wheezes and pants just running up a flight of stairs. Yes! All in the name and glory of work! Yahoo! better pay me more.. LOL!

But anyway, main point being, for those in the dark, Nike has organised a 10k run on 31 August in Singapore and it’s not just a run! When you run, you’re also donating part of the registration fees to a charity of your choice, and everywhere else around the world, there’s a similar Nike+ run going on at the same time! Is that cool or what.

I’m sure some of you who have joined are excited and training for it. Well at Answers, we have with us two of their ambassadors. First up is Vicky Cambell, Singapore’s top female triathlete! She has asked all of you what your personal goal for this run is. So far 46 of you have answered (including a dude from Indonesia), do keep sharing with all of us your goals! And don’t forget to register for the contest (contest not limited to just Singaporeans, so try your luck too!), if not you’re not eligible for the prize should your answer get chosen as Best Answer. And that will be a shame.

So as Nike says, Just Do It!

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Hi Fellow Answers Members,

Not sure if you have noticed but we’re trying to customise Yahoo! Answers Malaysia so that it’s relevant to all Malaysians. Be it whether you’re from the East or the West side of Malaysia. We’re customising it via different ways, such as the blog, featuring some Malaysian questions on the main page etc.

I know that many of the questions we see on the main page (and also on the different categories) are questions most probably asked by folks in America or other English-speaking countries and hence are not relevant to you. But if you wish to look for questions asked by people in Malaysia, all you have to do is scroll down to “Show:” (on the left-side column), and then click on “Malaysia questions only”. See the picture below for illustration purposes.

Just a little inside news, we’re gonna try to change it so that by default, you’ll see questions asked in Malaysia first, instead of other English-speaking countries. Hopefully that will make you feel more at home with the whole Yahoo! Answers Malaysia product and not feel as if the Travel > Asia Pacific > Malaysia sub-category is the only place you can hang out.

Let me know if there are other things that we can help change to make Yahoo! Answers Malaysia a better experience for you.

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THE movie of this week has to go to the newest Batman movie which just opened in the cinemas yesterday, The Dark Knight.

Tim Burton was the first director to immortalise Batman on the big screen and ever since Michael Keaton’s (Batman, Batman Forever) impressive performance alongside Kim Basinger, the caped crusader has had many changing faces. This includes Val Kilmer (Batman Forever), George Clooney (Batman & Robin) and now Christian Bale (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight).

So what the Answers team in UK & Ireland has done is bringing this rare opportunity to all of us here at Answers. They are asking us, the Answers community, for the perfect question for Christian Bale! The best question chosen will be put to him, on your behalf, by Yahoo! and recorded on video.

This reverse of the game is the first in Answers history! One lucky Answers member will have the opportunity to ask our celebrity a question.

So what do you want to ask Christian?

When you’ve decided, just post your question as a comment on this blog, or email the UK & Ireland team at y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co-uk. You have until Monday morning (21 July 2008).

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The Kylie Kwong contest has finally ended on Yahoo! Answers with her final question posted about 3 weeks ago, asking all of you what 2 kinds of herbs and spices in Malaysia you would recommend her.

(Photo thanks to Discovery T&L)

Discovery Travel & Living’s Kylie Kwong, host of KYLIE KWONG: MY CHINA in Kuala Lumpur.

29 of you replied with great answers but the best one went to Mizz Muffet. She suggested kaffir lime leaves and the bunga kantan. Rightly said, our laksa and rojak will never taste the same without it!

Here’s Kylie’s personal message to Mizz Muffet:

Dear Mizz Muffet, thank you so much for your wonderful advice! On my recent first trip to Kuala Lumpur I was absolutely inspired and dazzled by the fresh food markets you have, which offer all of the wonderful fresh spices and herbs you list above. I was amazed at the wonderful complexity of Malaysia cuisine in regards to flavour, texture and ingredient - and as you know, it is because of all these exotic, delicious, fragrant, aromatic, herbs and spices. I grew up on Cantonese fare which is rather neutrally flavoured and now, as an adult, I have a real liking for spicey, herbaceous food. I loved your country and I look forward to returning soon!

(Photo thanks to Discovery T&L)

As you know, this was a contest, and even though we have the 10 winners, 4 of you did not register, which also means, no prize! So if you see your names below, please register here immediately and leave a comment to let me know! Congratulations to all 10

We wanna see YOU registered:

1. tazanswers
2. zaihan m
3. Mala S
4. nad n

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