Month: September 2010

IN/OUT Beta


Sometimes, it is important for us to put some effort into helping others build something useful. I thought that this was an interesting idea and decided to help them out to build their site. It gave me an opportunity to flex my muscles in preparation for an even bigger onslaught of work. Plus, it allowed me to experiment with two dominant web platforms – CakePHP and CodeIgniter. Finally, it allowed me to build something significant in PHP, which I have never done before.

I put it together in just over a month and it is now in beta. Please feel free to test it out and if you find some problems, please click on the feedback button above or email it to info@inorout.org and it will be looked into.

For now, please do not use IE as it is buggy. Use firefox or chrome instead.

Osaka Girls

Landed in Kansai airport and went straight to Universal Studios, Japan!

As a first impression of Japanese people, I was seriously impressed. Their staff are so perky and professional. I got really impressed with the amount of pride and care that the Japanese people put into the most mundane thing that they do – like measuring the height of a child for a ride. They would stand my niece and nephew up, place their feet together, straighten their bodies, and then measure the height at the right angle. I could imagine exactly such a thing happening in Malaysia, where the local staff would just go, “ah, boleh la!”

Then at our Jaws ride, the entire ride was carried off by the extremely animated and impressive acting given by the person in charge of our ride. Her voice acting was just so anime-ish and she looked just like how one would imagine an anime character would look in such a situation, with all the encompassing facial expressions. I loved it so much that I congratulated her at the end. Back home, everything would probably have been pulled off by a video instead of live action.

One may think that such professionalism and energy is impressed upon them by the USJ management, but turns out that it is quite the same almost everywhere else. According to our guide, we should experience the opening of a departmental store in Japan to see just how dedicated their staff can be to their work.

Now, to get to the topic of this blog, Osaka girls – nice!

Short Fuse

For some reason, I feel that I have been on a short fuse in recent weeks. Maybe it’s the stress of taking on too many things in life. Maybe it’s the certain eventuality of certain decisions that have to be made soon. Maybe it’s the chronic ache that I have had in my back for a few weeks. Maybe it’s the lack of rest due to disturbed sleep. Regardless of the reasons, I have definitely felt the blood rush faster and higher than it normally does.

As a mitigation, I have taken to exercise. I try to take a brisk walk through a nearby park whenever I get the chance to. Oddly enough, my brisk walk seems to be faster than some joggers. Yesterday, I overtook several joggers while reading a book. Yes, I read while I get my exercise. That’s why I walk, and not run. I would not be able to read while running.

However, I hope that a short break away from everything would be able to change things; at least, break the daily monotony and senseless work that I have been engaged in. I plan to come back ready to take a plunge into the future world!

Onsen, I need Onsen!

Salam Aidil-Fitri?

Wow, I knew that I no longer watched local television for a reason. However, even I got a bit stunned when I read this piece of news, first things this morning, on the BBC – “Malaysian Eid advert axed for resembling Christmas”. According to the article:

Malaysia’s TV3 has apologised for airing the festive clip, which wished Muslims a happy Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The advert showed an elderly man taking children aboard his flying carriage and travelling across a star-filled sky.

Critics said it was too akin to the tale of Santa Claus and his sleigh.

The clip provoked considerable criticism, much of it from internet and blogging sites, which deemed it insensitive and in poor taste.

It also depicted lotuses, which some complained have links to Buddhism and Hinduism.

This is just sad. I want to think that the majority of Malaysia is far more tolerant than this. However, the bigots are usually the vocal ones. I think that, in the spirit of celebrations, the silent majority should voice out our displeasure at such stupidity.

The ad was probably just an attempt, and even possibly an experiment, to integrate different aspects of Malaysian life and culture into a single ad. Someone probably thought that it was cute and creative because nobody has ever done something like this before.

We are probably one of the few countries in the world where it actually makes sense to integrated every religious symbol into everything that we do because we have so many kinds of people around. That is our strength and that is our uniqueness.

Unfortunately, we are now being show-cased as an intolerant bunch of ignorant people.

I miss Yasmin Ahmad.

Read TheStar

According to TheStar, the MCA president said that, “people should be critical enough not to accept everything that is reported online as all the information need not necessarily be true.”

It is important for people to differentiate the truths, half-truths and what is a complete lie

Okay, I will actually go one better than him and say that “people should be critical enough to not accept everything reported as the truth.”

You see, the reason why I like to read TheStar is because it is an adventure! If you read TheStar literally, it would be an extremely boring newspaper to read. However, if you try to read between the lines, that is when it gets pretty exciting. TheStar actually tries really hard to report the truth under self-censorship practiced by most local news outlets.

I used to always say that the solution to rumour mongering is to teach people how to think critically. Most things that are said will be inaccurate, if not blatantly false. The rest will largely be exaggerations. Only a really small amount of truth will actually be revealed. Therefore, it is critical that we teach children to learn how to discern the ‘truth’.

Let’s quote Colbert on truthiness:

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that’s not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It’s certainty. People love the President because he’s certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don’t seem to exist. It’s the fact that he’s certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?…

Truthiness is ‘What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.’ It’s not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There’s not only an emotional quality, but there’s a selfish quality.

Hahaha! We really need people like Colbert and Stewart to help us discern the ‘truth’.

Playstation Home, Malaysia


Finally, after all this time, it is here! I don’t really have much to say about it at the moment. I’m still playing around with it. Will update this post soon.

Update@2010-09-04:
I have played with it for about an hour. I had some fun fiddling around with character customisation and playing dress-up. I even had some fun redecorating my home and moving furniture around. Then, I decided to explore a bit. I went out to the theatre and found it totally empty. I plan to visit the main square tomorrow and hope that I’ll meet some interesting people.