I have recently just made a family wide wipe out of Windows. My sister’s home computer recently got infected with a virus (all it took was a simple connection to the Internet) and I was tasked to fix it. My mom complained that she did not have enough games to play on the same computer. So, the solution to both these problems (and more) was just to install Linux on it.

Since I had a free CD of the latest Kubuntu install, I decided to install it everywhere. I installed it in my dad’s computer at home and also my sister’s home PC. Adding that to the Linux installs on my two laptops and my home theatre PC, makes every PC in my family, Linux running. Although I still think that Slackware is probably the coolest distribution around, *buntu makes a very compelling case for the desktop market.

The fact that this distribution has made great inroads in the short time that it has been around, speaks volumes of it. It has recently been featured in a New York Times article, along with its backer, South African billionaire – Mark Shuttleworth. My experience with Kubuntu has shown me that desktop Linux is already here. I honestly sympathise with the people who struggle along with Windows simply because they do not know any better.

However, this article was as much about Mark as it was about Ubuntu. I liked the fact that Mark is a technical guy who understands technical things and is truly passionate about open source. The fact that he is a billionaire, and who can afford to fund a free operating system out of his pocket change, is quite appealing to me. Sometimes, I feel that more of the rich would emulate people like Mark, who put their money to good use and fund things that can fundamentally change the world, rather than to just hoard everything.

People like him are my heroes. People with technical knowledge, who put it to good use, make wads of cash and continue to turn that cash into doing some real good and making a positive change in this world. Now, Mark certainly does not have enough money to take on the empire that is Microsoft alone, but with an army of volunteers behind him, he can definitely succeed – and he has just such an army of trained volunteers.

Finally, I love this quote from the article: “It is not because I need to watch porn in high-definition but because I want to see what you do differently.” – ditto.

/>My nephew celebrated his seventh birthday a few days ago. For his birthday gift I decided to buy him a chess set. I felt that it was a good time to learn how to play. On my part, this is a fairly long term commitment because I was the only one in my family who plays chess. So, it would be up to me to teach him how to play and also to play a game with him from time to time.

Today, I taught him how to play. Seeing that I have never actually been through a formal training method, I decided to just make stuff up as I went along. This was the scheme that I had come up with.

1. I started by introducing the different chess pieces to him and also their different values. I know that some people will say that the values do not reflect the actual strength of the pieces but I felt that this was the easiest way to teach a kid how to evaluate simple situations, by the numbers.
2. Then, I showed him how each piece moved and captured other pieces. I kept the rules simple and didn’t include more obscure situations such as en passant or even the rather common castling move. I’ll keep these other things for a later time.
3. Next, I wanted to test his understanding of the what I had already taught him and also teach him how to evaluate simple chess positions. I did this by setting up some simple scenarios. Then, I would ask him what the problem was, what are the different possible moves, and what were the consequences of each move.
4. In each situation, he had to work out what the final points were after the different pieces were captured. To keep things simple, I limited it to only a 2 move depth. So, in the end, he would choose the best move to make based on the points. I know that this isn’t always the case, but it is the simplest way of teaching chess in the beginning. Strategy would have to come later.
5. Finally, we had an actual match where I played white and he played black. When he made any move, I would ask him why he decided to make the move and what would he gain or lose by making each move. I would also explain every single move that I made and showed him the thought process that went into making each move.
6. In the end, I ended up playing both white and black, by actually showing him the different possible moves he could make and introducing a couple of new strategies such as forks and pins. All in all, I felt that it was a fairly good attacking game with neither side ever gaining a serious upper hand. After about an hour, he lost focus and I ended up playing the game myself.

All in all, I felt that it was good to play a familiar game again, after so many years. Chess is one of those few board games that I have always liked playing. When I was little, I have always dreamed of owning a fine chess set and board. Now that I can afford one, I am merely waiting for the right time to buy one. I had actually come across a good one while I was in Salzburg but the prospect of transporting it around for the rest of my holiday did not particularly appeal to me.

I have also realised that teaching the game is a very good way of improving my game. When playing the game, one mainly sees the board from one side but while teaching it, I had to see the board from both sides. So, I ended up making a lot of rather risky moves because I was interested in seeing where the game would go.

So, I guess that I will have to play a few more rounds with him to ensure that he has learned all the basic rules. Then I plan to introduce him to playing chess on computers so that he can gain some practice with beating the computer. I would need to find a chess software for windows that can have its AI calibrated to different levels. He needs to be able to win a game once in a while for him to build his confidence.

Some of the dumbest people I know in this world are medical doctors. Regardless of what many people may think, it’s been my personal experience with doctors, that they have a highly misguided sense of superiority, which probably comes from the God complex that one develops after holding the lives of others in their hands everyday.

I have come to this conclusion after peddling my wares, door to door, from one clinic to another in the past. Overall, most of the doctors felt that they knew more about computers than me and usually proceeded to lecture to me about computers. Seeing that I was the poor salesman, I usually refrained from correcting them even though my veins were bursting at their stupidity and illogical thinking.

And most recently, one of my previous clients is deciding to switch over to a different provider of a clinic management system. This system is by a Malaysian multinational company with branches in several countries. How they had gotten so big with their lack of computer knowledge bewilders me but I guess that I can say that it is just another regular con job and the doctors deserve them.

They have recently been in contact with me because they need to convert the data from the old database to their system. It is a standard part of the process as the doctors would need their patients’ historical data. A rotten person might just ignore their requests for help but I am perfectly happy to help, as long as it does not involve too much time on my part.

I was previously told by my ex-client that this new company was able to extract part of the data from the database. My ex-client told me that the company had been given one of the data hard disks to play with and they were able to extract some of the data. This got me very happy as I knew that if they could already do that, it would be easy to help them extract everything else.

But as usual, this is far from the truth. There is no reason for this IT company to lie to me as lying to me would inevitably just create more trouble for them. So, when I got several phone calls from them, and finding out the truth, I ended up being a bit rude in my politest possible way.

First, they asked me if I could dump all the data for them into a useful format that they could then import directly. As this would involve a lot of time consuming work on my part, I was not prepared to do this unless they were prepared to pay for my time. Knowing the price that they were charging my ex-client, I knew that they couldn’t possibly afford me.

So, I told them that I could not extract it, but I could definitely explain it to one of their technical people how to do it and they could do it themselves. All I needed was someone who was familiar with public key encryption (because all the information in the database was encrypted) and SQL (a standard database language). I even told them what database I had used in the system.

Several days later, they told me that they were unable to do it because they had nobody who knew Linux. This resulted in a very polite lecture from me as I asked her to explain to me in what way does the operating system have any bearing on the database or even PKI for that matter. You can mix and match databases and operating systems as they are functioning on a different layer entirely.

Several days later, they called me to say that they could not do it because they were unfamiliar with the database that I was used. This again resulted in a very polite lecture from me as I told them exactly what to download and that they could run it on WindowsXP just as well. I cannot imagine any IT company telling me that they do not know an industry standard database in use since 1986. It is quite unheard of, if you ask me.

Several days later, they called me to say that they were unable to even read the disk as they did not know how to read it. This shocked me because if they were unable to even read the data off the disk, how were they able to tell my ex-client that they could extract some of the data? Well, fair enough if they did not know how to read a simple hard drive and I volunteered to help them pull the data off into an external USB disk for them for free.

Anyway, my point is this. Most of the IT companies out there are basically con jobs manned by people who do not know very much about computers. Most people in this world think that computers are something simple that even their teenage neighbour can do. As a result, there is a big disparity between expectation and delivery but thanks to Microsoft, people have been used to getting shafted with substandard products for decades.

There are some really good people and products out there but you just need to be willing to look for and pay for them. If you pay peanuts, expect monkeys. You deserve what you get. The same goes in every field, including computers and IT.

On another thought, maybe I should get this company to hire me as a consultant but this would mean that I’ll need to be nice to them. Never mind.

I went down to Singapore last week for a number of reasons, one of which, was to visit the place again, as an adult. I used to visit it when I was a kid, as my dad’s family hails from Johor Bahru. So, I packed my bags, took out some cash and just went down.

My first problem came as I did not know how to get down to Singapore. I knew that I was going by bus and I knew that there were definitely a number of buses that go down each day. However, I did not know where to get the buses from. But I decided that KL Sentral was the place where everything was connected to. So, I started by journey there.

From there, I was told by the information counter that the buses to Singapore left from the old KL train station, and not Sentral. So, I took a short Komuter hop over to the old station and made it just in time for the next Nice++ executive coach. It cost me RM80 for a one way ticket but it was well worth it. Taking the bus was just like taking the plane.

The seats were really comfy business class seats. There was also a lady that went around taking care of us. She served us lunch, tea and a late refreshment. She also gave us pillows and blankets and tucked us in. Each of us were provided with a headset that we could use to watch some TV but there were only 4 channels to choose from. Since I slept most of the way down, I didn’t really mind this.

When I got to Singapore, I took a cab down to the YMCA. I did not research much on youth hostels either but I assumed that the YMCA was a basic standard and I just booked into the dorms, which were pretty decent. Unlike some of the youth hostels I have been to in Europe, house keeping would come around each morning to change our sheets and towels. We were also provided with soap and water in the dorms as well as an ensuite toilet and shower. There was also a pretty decent buffet breakfast included in the price.

One morning, I ended up chatting with Kelly, a nice young lady who had just passed her Bar exam recently. She is a Malaysian who studied at Manchester and was in Singapore visiting some friends. So, we had a nice chat over breakfast until the people at the cafe chased us off.

So, while I was in Singapore, I got to attend to some personal business and take in a few sights. On my first evening there, I met up with three other friends and we ended up spending some time at the Esplanade. I managed to get a few good night photographs there and you can see them in the gallery. For most of this trip, I used my new 50-200mm lens and I have to say that it is quite useful for holiday purposes.

Then, on the second night, I went for the Night Safari, which cost quite a bit. Moreover, due to the nature of it being in the dark, we could hardly make out most of the animals. However, I still think that it was worth the trouble. Again, most of the shots were taken, handheld, without any flash, using my new 50-200mm lens. Most of the photos ended up being fairly blur.

As to my overall impression of Singapore, it is this: If you do not look too carefully, you will just think that you are in KL. When I say carefully, I mean:

• No Protons in sight.
• Different high street brands.
• Cleaner streets.

Otherwise, it feels very much like home. I even took the long northern MRT round the out skirts of the island and back. Looking out the windows, I can even identify the different parts of KL that the areas looked like. It was like deja-vu, only not quite.

Anyway, I’m back now and I will be uploading my photos soon. I will then link to the album here.

“The reason we put User Account Control into the platform was to annoy users. I’m serious.” — David Cross, Microsoft (Apr 10, 2008).

When your product managers talk like that, you know that it is the beginning of the end. Everyone knows the the bald Steve only knows how to copy the reality distorting Steve when it comes to designing products. But now, there are rumours that Fudzilla is considering a retail move, and will open up it’s own chain of stores, much like the Apple Stores sprouting everywhere. This must either be a belated April Fool’s joke or it’s a very bad sign of things to come.

According to the rumours, the stores will pack various products, from the failing Zune to the barely profitable Xbox and other nondescript keyboards and mice. They are even planning to have a place where customers can bring their problematic PCs to be looked at and have it fixed, just like how Apple does it with their ‘Genius Bar’ concept. Now, there are many reasons why it will fail, and I will try to spell out some.

Firstly, retail is a very different business from that of a software monopoly. Unlike Apple, these people have always been an software company while Apple has always been a hardware company that pushes boxes. Apple sells their products at a price premium, and has customers who are generally not looking for a commodity item. Therefore, their stores are like boutiques, where people go for the experience and to buy products that will stand out in a crowd.

PC retail is famously cut-throat, with razor thin profit margins. PC stores are generally like your grocery stores, where you go to get something that meets a need, at the lowest possible price. The only way to make a profit is to push products by volume and keep costs down. They won’t be able to keep costs down, for reasons that will become apparent soon. And just like grocery stores, there are already too many of them around and they need something to bring people in.

Secondly, they lack a flagship product to drive people to their stores. They do not have a single market leading product that can be used to entice people into their stores. Apple had the market leading iPod to draw customers into the stores. Once the customers were in, they will use their reality distortion field to try and push other products. To this end, Apple has an end-to-end product line, such as a MacBook for you to manage your tunes on, and it goes from there.

Now, look at the PC computer market. There are already too many other grocery stores doing it. The only credible product that can possibly bring customers in, is the Xbox. But this single product does not fit well with the rest of their products. It’s a singular product within it’s own ecosystem. You won’t be buying any MP3 players, keyboards nor mice to go with that. They just don’t have a good mix of products that help to sell each other.

Thirdly, and they may actually be banking on this, is their customer service. They may be able to turn a tidy profit from fixing computer problems. Goodness knows that if they open up an ‘Idiot Bar’, it will be swamped by customers who have problems with virii, spyware and crashing systems. It is safe to predict that this would be their main way of bringing customers in-store.

But there is a big drawback from this. They would not be able to fit the counter in-store. They would probably need to rent a warehouse or a stadium somewhere, to be able to handle the volume of customer service issues coming in. Goodness knows that they’ll need to hire hundreds of technicians per store, just to reinstall Windows for customers.

According to some analysts at Gartner, this week, Windows is collapsing and the situation is becoming untenable. That’s why there has been a flurry of various rumours and news in recent weeks. Usually, when something is in their death throes, they tend to lash out randomly. And I see this as them, trying random things, while they still have some money in the bank to play with.

PS: Everyone has always suspected bald Steve of not having all the marbles in the right place, but this is just too out of this world to believe in.

* image credit: theonion.com

I’ve just read a recent article which says that from now onwards, online banking customers may be held responsible for losses if they have out of date anti-virus or anti-phishing protection. From the banking code, which you can download online, the provisions in section 12.11 clearly state that:

If you act without reasonable care, and this causes losses, you may be responsible for them. (This may apply, for example, if you do not follow section 12.5 or 12.9 or you do not keep to your account’s terms and conditions.)

And if you check up what section 12.9 says:

Online banking is safe and convenient as long as you take a number of simple precautions. Please make sureyou follow the advice given below.

• Keep your PC secure. Use up-to-date anti-virus and spyware software and a personal firewall.
• Keep your passwords and PINs secret.
• We (or the police) will never contact you to ask you for your online banking or payment card PINs, or your password information.
• Treat e-mails you receive from senders claiming to be from your bank or building society with caution and be wary of e-mails or calls asking you for any personal security details.
• Always access internet banking sites by typing the bank or building society’s address into your web browser. Never go to an internet banking site from a link in an e-mail and then enter personal details.

I feel that this is a fair move to make. A bank cannot possibly be held liable for a customers’ mistakes especially when such matters are entirely beyond their control. However, in order to be able to enforce this, the banks would also need to take steps in order to educate their customers on online security and also potentially equip their customers with the necessary technology.

As much as I’d like to take this opportunity to deride a certain popular OS for being so insecure that it’ll leak personal information out onto the Internet like a sieve, it would be very unfair for me to do so because, the operating system is only part of the equation in computer security. The weakest link in computer security has been, and always will be, human stupidity.

From the list of items in the document, it seems that the banks are familiar with all the common techniques of tricking customers into revealing their personal details. Phishing is a common method that has caught many people off guard. Spyware installed on a computer can easily intercept useful passwords and PINs and divert them to some unknown third party. In fact, cross site scripting is also a common technique that wasn’t listed but that is something that the banks are liable for, not the customer.

However, there is also a potential danger with this move, especially for customers that do not use the above mentioned popular OS. For example, in my case, there isn’t even an anti-virus software for me to install even if I wanted to, simply because there are essentially, no virii to clean. So, the anti-virus software clause may give the banks a way of weaselling out of their responsibility if I ever get my account drained.

So, I do wonder about the further technological implications of this. I can imagine a scenario where a class action suit might be filed against the maker of the above mentioned popular OS by disgruntled bank customers who had their online accounts drained due to security holes in the system software. If the numbers are large enough, it will definitely happen.

I can also see a good business opportunity for makers of security software. Personally, I think that security software is a dastardly scam. But, these companies can expand their offerings by partnering with selected banks to provide customers with free trial copies of their products, which will essentially force customers to buy their products.

Seriously, if we take basic precautions even when crossing the road, there really isn’t any reason not to take precautions when using a computer. It’s just that the education isn’t there yet. Ultimately, I do think that it is a good move, that will at least, increase public awareness in computer security, which will eventually lead to safe computer use and a safer Internet for everyone else as well.