Category: Uncategorized

There has been a lot said about our ex-former PM, the dear old Tun, and his comments on 9/11. Clearly, he made these comments after watching the wonderful blockbuster by James Cameron – Avatar. He opined that if the Americans can make a movie like Avatar, with such surreal realism, they could definitely manufacture 9/11. While I don’t believe that 9/11 was entirely staged inside a computer, I would put myself in the Truthers camp. There are just too many holes in the official 9/11 story that just raises some red-flags in my head.

It reminds me of a quote from the X-Files.

Deep Throat: “Mister Mulder, why are those like yourself, who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on Earth, not entirely persuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?”
Mulder: “Because, all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.”
Deep Throat: “Precisely.”

Then again, I am also someone who does not believe in the science of climate change. I am not crazy. Neither am I stupid. In fact, a recent poll found that of the people who do not believe in the science of climate change in the US scientific community, 49% of us were engineers. Maybe there is just something in an engineer that automatically makes us skeptical of beautiful stories. It is probably to do with the fact that we deal too much with the real world to believe in the flawed beauty of mathematical models.

However, back to Mahathir’s comments on 9/11. According to his most recent blog entry, he raised a few pertinent questions that have not been satisfactorily answered by the official 9/11 story. If you have some free time and the interest in these things, you may want to check out some of the flaws in the 9/11 story. There is a lot of information on the Internet from both camps. Draw your own conclusions.

However, unlike Mahathir, I am fully prepared to just leave the mystery of 9/11 as it is, for the next few decades. After that, we can get the declassified copies of official government files. Then we can maybe get down to the real story behind 9/11.

Streamyx sucks. Since Monday, I have been getting a terrible Internet connection at home. Knowing that these things sometimes happens to Streamyx, I just ignored it at first. But today, I decided to do a speed test and found that my internet speed is only 0.06Mbps. So, I called up their customer service line to see what the problem was. According to the customer service agent, they have a service outage in my area and it has been marked as an active outage. They cannot promise when they will restore the service and will try their best to fix it as soon as possible. I was told to call back if the problem still persisted over the weekend.

I hope that TMNet really gets down to fixing it as soon as possible. I have just recently applied for a 1Mbps upgrade and I do not wish to end up getting such a slow speed instead. Here is me hoping that they can do wonders.

UPDATE: The speed was back up again an hour later! Thanks TMNet! Here’s hoping that it stays this way!

Regardless of what I personally think about whistle-blowers, my curiousity was piqued by the announcement that there is now a whistle-blowing policy for the PKFZ scandal. Looking at the article at TheStar, it mentioned that individuals can use a website to lodge complaints. Seeing that this was something online and rather new for the government to try, I thought that I would have a look around.

Firstly, the site itself was a bit difficult to navigate. Try clicking on the link provided on the site on “Bagaimana proses pengaduan dibuat” brings you back to the same page. It goes on and on ad infinitum. This might confuse people who do not know how these things work and might give up after clicking on the same link several times brings them nowhere.

Secondly, assuming that you figured out how to actually get to the terms and condition form, you will be presented with the actual complaint form here. Again, notice that nobody actually needs to comply with the terms and conditions before accessing the actual form. So, the so called terms and conditions actually hold no weight.

Thirdly, you will notice that the entire form is not secure. If you look at banking sites or shopping sites, you will usually be presented with a padlocked secure page in order to enter sensitive information such as your credit card details. This whistle-blowing form is totally in the clear and does not even provide this modicum of privacy or security. I would consider whistle-blowing as a sensitive thing as the information is of a legal nature, which brings me to the next point.

Fourthly, all documentary evidence is supposed to be submitted via email – again in the clear. There is no public key provided along with the email address. This means that anyone can actually intercept the email, change its contents to say anything, and forward on the email with no one the wiser. I would think that these evidence could be brought to court and all effort should be made to at least secure the integrity of the information during transit.

They even have the nerve to say: “Atas sebab keselamatan pengguna dinasihatkan untuk menghantar bukti/dokumen sokongan beserta nombor aduan dan nombor kad pengenalan ke alamat emel berikut” – Due to security concerns, users are advised to send evidence/supporting documents along with the complaint number and IC number to the following email

Obviously, our transport minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat does not know that the whistle-blowing website has been so poorly implemented. None of the information provided in it would be able to hold in court. There is no security in place to ensure the integrity and protect the privacy of the information in transit. The legal conditions are not even binding as people do not need to agree to it to make a complaint.

Epic FAIL! 1Malaysia Boleh!

The biggest scandal rocking the technology industry in recent weeks has been Google’s very public stand against China. It is starting to turn into a far more interesting sandiwara to me than the local drivel that is conjured up by our unimaginative politicians. So, I am going to switch over to watching the drama unfold in the final fight of Google versus China.

Ars sums up the entire episode thus far quite well. I would recommend giving them a read.

However, I don’t see how this is going to end in a win-win situation for anyone involved. Personally, I am biased. I would like to see Google win this one. At some point, somebody has to stand up to China’s bullying. While China may be a benevolent dictator, it is still one. I don’t see any world governments standing up to China because politicians are spineless by definition. They will only stand up to China if there is real good reason to, like an attack on their interests.

In this fight, the US government seems ready to back Google. However, I am under no illusion that it will be anything more than tacit diplomatic support. I am sure that the US government is still seething from how China derailed them in COP15 and are more than willing to hit back, in a controlled fashion. Furthermore, these cyber-attacks did target machines and top corporations on US soil. So, there is also that angle to consider as justification for taking action.

Google certainly has the necessary clout to cause a big PR scandal for China, if nothing else. As for their profits, I am sure that they have already done the numbers – they are Google after all, an intensely data driven company. Some estimates put their losses in China at about $600 million, which is easily made up by Google elsewhere. Just sell a few more mobile phone ads. So, I think that it is only right for Google to take this stand and most people worldwide, and most importantly – their shareholders, will support their stand against China.

However, this brings me to the other 33 major US firms that were attacked. These companies seem to value their profits more than their spines. Unfortunately for them, I think that they are especially delusional. Well, I don’t blame them because they are not Chinese to begin with. No Chinese, in their right mind, would ever allow a foreign company to take ground in China. There is a lot of bitter history behind this. So, while there may be 1.3 billion people in China, the profits will never be open to these foreign companies for the taking. So, they are delusional if they think that they will ever conquer the Chinese market.

Which brings me to the point that makes me a romantic and an idealist. I have reached a point where I think that governments are useless. The future of the human race lies in the private sector. Our governments worldwide are only going to lead us to ruin. Governments are struggling to do basic things while the private sector has no problems moving mountain and earth if necessary.

In our Malaysian context, I personally see this as a requirement. I have basically given up on the government for anything. They are never going to be able to fix our education, healthcare nor economy. Personally, even if our opposition takes over after the next GE, I doubt that much will change. All I can hope for is less leakage with the existence of a two-party system.

However, when it comes to actual growth, I would think that it is time that the private sector took charge. Unfortunately, most of our largest corporations here are either government-linked or government-owned. So, it does make it a bit difficult to do things. However, there is opportunity for privately held corporations to take leadership positions in different sectors. I think that if these companies are able to come up with products or services that fix our lingering social problems, there is a lot of profit to be made.

Now, here’s me hoping for the private sector to sit up and listen.

It seems that according to the state legislatures in Malaysia, the use of the word Allah by non-muslims is illegal in a number of states other than Penang, Sarawak, Sabah and the Federal Territories. This got me thinking that the states in which the term is illegal for non-muslim use are just asking for an arse kicking.

According to the Selangor enactment, even the word for the bible – injil – is illegal. The full list of 25 words are: Allah, Illahi, Firma Allah, Wahyu, Rasul, Iman, Fatwa, Iman, Mubaligh, Dakwah, Nabi, Hadith, Syariah, Injil, Sheikh, Ibadat, Qiblat, Salat, Kaabah, Haj, Khalifah, Kadi, Mufti, Wali. On top of that another 20 expressions are listed as well: Subhanallah, Allhamduillah, Lailahaillallah, Walillahilham, Allahu Akbar, Insyallah, Astaghfirullahal Azim, Tabaraka Allah, Masyaalah, Lahaula Walaquata Illabillahilaliyil Azim.

I wonder if this means that any non-muslim answering exam questions for SPM history would need to avoid using these words or run the risk of breaking the law. I am sure that most of us know that our history text books are littered with these words – some in relation to the Islamic Civilisation and others pertaining to our own national history.

Now, let’s look at the state anthems with the term Allah in it. Obviously, it would be illegal for non-muslims to sing their state anthems in these states and it would be illegal for them to show their loyalty and love for their home states. I seriously do not comprehend the thing. You have to forgive me for I am not a lawyer and lawyers are just idiots.

Kedah:

Allah selamat Sultan Mahkota
Berpanjangan usia di atas Takhta
Memelihara agama Nabi kita
Negeri Kedah serata-rata

Perak:

Dilanjutkan Allah usianya Sultan
Adil dan murah memerintah watan
Ditaati rakyat kiri dan kanan
Iman yang soleh Allah kurniakan
Allah berkati Perak Ridzuan
Allah selamatkan Negeri dan Sultan.

Selangor:

Duli Yang Maha Mulia
Selamat di atas takhta
Allah lanjutkan usia Tuanku
Rakyat mohon restu
Bawah Duli Tuanku
Bahagia selama-lamanya
Aman dan sentosa
Duli Yang Maha Mulia

Johor:

Allah peliharakan Sultan
Nugrahkan dia segala kehormatan
Sihat dan ria, kekal dan makmur
Luaskan kuasa, menaungkan kami
Rakyat dipimpini berzaman lagi
Dengan Merdeka bersatu hati
Allah berkati Johor
Allah selamatkan Sultan

Pahang:

Ya Allah Yang Masa Kuasa,
Lanjutkan Usia Duli Yang Maha Mulia,
Dirgahayu, Darul Makmur,
Aman dan Bahagia Sentiasa,
Ya Allah Selamatkan Duli Tuanku Raja Kami

Terengganu:

Allah daulatkan Tuanku Sultan,
Terengganu Darul Iman,
Allah peliharakan Tuanku Sultan,
Sejahtera sepanjang zaman,
Allah rahmatkan Tuanku Sultan,
Memerintah rakyat aman.

Kelantan:

Lanjutkan usia Al-Sultan kami,
Sultan Kelantan raja ikrami,
Aman sentosa Tuhan sirami,
Kekal memerintah kami.
Kasih dan taat setia disembahkan,
Keriangan diucapkan,
Segala kebesaran Allah cucurkan,
Bertambah kemuliaan.

We are screwed. I see this issue heading towards a Constitutional crisis where the courts will be put in a bind. I do not want to be the supreme court judges that will have to handle this issue.

I did not have many credit cards to start off with. However, since the government has introduced the credit card tax, I decided to consolidate everything into one single credit card – to minimise the amount of tax I would have to pay to the government. So, I went to cancel one of my credit cards today. I walked to the counter and told the lady that I wanted to cancel my credit card. She just smiled and proceeded to do it for me. She told me that lots of people have been canceling their cards. So, I was not the only one. It was done quickly and efficiently. The most dramatic part of it all was when she took out a big pair of scissors and nicely sliced my card in two.

I also went to a TMpoint today to upgrade my Streamyx package. Telekom is having a small promotion where they are encouraging people to upgrade their bandwidth package for only an additional RM5 commitment for the next 24 months and then paying the full price after. I have been using a 512k line all this time and was looking forward to upgrading to 1Mbps. However, I was intercepted by a HP lady who encouraged me to upgrade to the HP promotion instead. The HP promotion forces me to pay an additional RM33 per month for the next 24 months, but it comes with a free PC! This works out to about RM700 in total for the price of the PC.

Since I have been considering to get a new home server anyway, I jumped at the deal. I will be getting a new low-powered machine for cheap. Furthermore, I will be paying for it over the next 24 months and getting a new 1Mbps line in the process. So, I felt that it was a good deal. I ended up getting the basic Atom spec-ed machine. It comes with the following specs.


CPU: Intel Atom 330
RAM: 1GB DDR2
VGA: GMA 950
HDD: 250GB


This is far more computing power than the Zino I mentioned earlier. It is also a small device that can sit quietly in the corner. It is also low powered – about 50W of power under load. I will probably be running a bunch of virtual machines in it. The present machine that I am using is an old laptop that is showing signs of dying. It borks out periodically, every few weeks. It has a broken fan, which means that the notebook overheats from time to time. So, it is about time for me to get a new machine.

Like I have mentioned a couple of times, the Atom 330 is more than powerful enough to serve as a home-server machine. It has 2-cores and is hyper-threaded. This means that it seems like a 4-core machine to the OS and gives the performance of about 2.6 processor cores. At 1.6GHz each, this could be up to 6 times faster than my present home-server. However, it lacks hardware virtualisation capabilities, which limits my virtualisation solutions but that is still perfectly doable.

However, its upgrade options are limited. It only has one memory slot, which is limited to 2GB. It already comes with 1GB. So, I would have to swap it out if I wanted to upgrade to 2GB. However, I have no other machine to stick the 1GB stick into. I could feasibly hold-off the upgrade until such time it is necessary. However, here is me hoping that it actually comes with 2GB RAM instead since it claims to support Windows 7 Starter, which is technically supposed to have 2GB of memory.

PS: Turns out that it is passively cooled! Nice!

I just read an article in TheStar about amending the Malaysian Copyright Act in order to nab the buyers as well as the sellers. According to the article, “Under the Copyright Act, it is wrong to sell a pirated DVD or VCD, but it is not wrong to purchase it. Both acts should be deemed wrong.”

Now, I have mixed feelings about this not because I buy pirated stuff, which I don’t, but because I think that the government is barking up the wrong tree in trying to arrest the rampant piracy in Malaysia. If it is difficult for the government to catch the sellers, it will be next to impossible for the government to catch the buyers since buyers necessarily outnumber sellers by several orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, this is a lame amendment if it is only limited to optical media such as CD, VCD, DVD and Bluray. In today’s world, most content is pirated (and I use the term very loosely here), through digital means such as downloads. If the law is amended to only catch people who buy the discs, then it will die a quick death once we move onto high-speed broadband in Malaysia.

However, if the law is amended to include digital downloads, which are not bought, then it again becomes difficult to handle. Most of these things are downloaded using torrents and due to the nature of torrents, it is difficult to identify buyers. The people downloading it are not buying anything because it is free, and they are not selling anything because it is free. Since I am not a lawyer, I am a little confused with this.

In the end, I think that this will be a lame duck amendment, which may actually weaken the Copyright Act if it is not done correctly.

If we want to really arrest the rampant piracy in Malaysia, we need stronger enforcement, that is all. If India – a country with more than a billion people – can do it, I do not see why we cannot do it. Personally, I think that arresting piracy will be good for the economy in a way because piracy can be considered an artificial substitute for the real thing. A free market cannot exist if there are pirated goods around.

Bias: If there are no pirated games in the market, the prices of original PS3 games would have to come down. Furthermore, Microsoft and Nintendo would have the incentive to sell their consoles in Malaysia, further driving down PS3 console prices.