KUALA LUMPUR: Do not break into your own property even if your tenant fails to pay the rent. It could be a trap.

This was the warning given by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong to landlords who were thinking of doing this to reclaim their property.

Chong said any move by a landlord to break into the property, even when the tenant failed to pay the rent, was against the law.

He said many landlords had been brought to court by tenants for breaking into their properties and were sued for the loss of their tenants’ assets including cash.

“This could be a trap laid by tenants who are looking for easy cash. They could be conmen,” Chong told a press conference at his office in Wisma MCA here yesterday.

In the past three months, three such claims were made by tenants – all of them Malaysians – against their landlords.

Their claims amounted to a total of RM117,000 in cash and assets.

During the same period, he said he received 12 complaints of tenants who failed to pay a total of RM57,000 in rent.

Lawyer Leong Pak Yiew, who is a member of the department, advised landlords facing this problem to file for a distress order at a court.

“Under this order, landlords will be able to legally seize the premises and the tenant’s rent will be recovered through auctioning all assets found within it,” he said.

However, this process could take up to two months and might be costly in terms of legal and court fees.

Last time we checked in on STARMAC, the autonomous hover bot was fuming over his near-miss in a desperate bid to assassinate Robert Scoble. Recently paroled, the bot has turned his energies to more constructive pursuits, like performing a controlled flip and selling drugs to kids. Still, do we detect a hint of brooding in these acrobatics? Video is after the break.

Continue reading STARMAC learns the loop de loop, puts on brave face despite Scoble’s continued existence

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

STARMAC learns the loop de loop, puts on brave face despite Scoble’s continued existence originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The evolution of portable music players toward greater storage in physically smaller dimensions is well known. Cassette tapes are now seen as a quaint anachronism from an era gone by, but what about the history that didn’t happen? What about, specifically, the 8-track-playing Sony Walkman? Such are the questions that plagued the mind of one XenonJohn, who has spliced together the chunky beast you see above. Looking like something Maggie Thatcher might have used in her private moments, the portable (compared to, say, a fridge) device is composed of an audio amplifier from an old cassette tape Walkman and a dismantled car 8-track player. Another snap of the exposed components after the break, but if you must know how to recreate this great feat, or are just curious about the lengths people will go to in the pursuit of retro-glorious ideas, hit up the read link.

[Via Make]

Continue reading 8-track Walkman makes the 70’s portable, more funky

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio

8-track Walkman makes the 70’s portable, more funky originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What started out as an MIT project two years ago has now progressed into a full-fledged company — ladies and gentlemen, meet WiTricity Corp. Auntie Beeb (that’s the BBC for you Yanks) has grabbed the firm’s CEO Eric Giler to discuss some pretty aggressive plans for bringing wireless power to the masses. Yes, we’re talking actual through-the-air wireless as opposed to something like Palm’s Touchstone, which requires physical contact between charger and chargee. Based on magnetic induction, the magical technology is apparently mature enough to be deployed in the relatively near future, and if all goes to plan, “near future” could translate into “18 months from now.” Also of note, Intel is hard at work developing the original concept, and if the parallel engineering of the same idea by two companies isn’t enough to get your skepticism dialed down and your browser to the video past the break, what is?

Continue reading Video: WiTricity is back, promises wireless power within 18 months

Filed under: Wireless, Science

Video: WiTricity is back, promises wireless power within 18 months originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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