Good Samaritans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cl-Fd_Saint-Eutrope-vitrail1.jpgThis evening, I had decided not to do any work and decided to go visit the new Scott Garden on Old Klang Road. I drove there, parked my car, and went in. After roaming around for just under an hour, I decided to go home.

As I was walking to my car, I noticed that the lights were on. Damn! I quickly got in and lo-and-behold, the engine refused to start. Darn and double darn.

So, after a few minutes, I spotted two decent looking young men and approached them to help me push-start my car. They were nice enough to help. Unfortunately, that did not do the job.

So, they suggested that I go into TESCO to buy a pair of jump-start cables. I got a pair and we tried to jump-start the car with their car. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either.

So, they called up their friend who is a mechanic. He was on his way home with his family and dropped by to help. He unplugged the batteries from the other car, stuck them on my terminals and my car started.

Wow, I had troubled two young men and a family of five!

There are still a lot of good people in this country.

PS: Hyundai’s 24/7 hotline sucks. I was kept on hold at the head of the queue for several minutes. Nobody bothered to pick up.

Sensitive Domains

Interesting. I just received an email from our local domain registry, which is in charge of tracking all internet domain names ending with the “.my” suffix. The part that interested me was this part:

The Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (“KLRCA”) has been appointed to administer complaints that may be lodged against you by any party that claims that a domain name contain word or words in English, Malay and Romanized Chinese (including dialects) and Indian dialects which are, amongst others, sensitive to the Malaysian public or are obscene, scandalous, offensive or contrary to Malaysian public norms or policy.

Wow!

I randomly tried a few ‘juicy’ domain names and got an interesting response:

Domain Name penis.my does not
follow the Rules Of Choices of Domain Name

I think that we Malaysians are an extremely ‘sensitive’ lot seeing that our government has to always protect us against all sorts of issues, the latest being domains with sensitive names that may not be suitable for public consumption.

I wonder who keeps the gazetted list of ‘sensitive’ words in Malaysia. I think that it is necessary for someone to do this. Trademarks are gazetted and can be easily proven in court. Otherwise, things would become far too arbitrary.

We’re slowly progressing towards 1984. Newspeak!

Anathem

I’d recently finished reading “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson (one of my favourite authors of speculative fiction). The book was a little difficult to get into as it was set in a quasi-earth-like future civilisation with a somewhat similar but different vocabulary.

However, once I got past the initial learning curve of the new language, the story flowed quite well. A word that I really liked from the book was – “concent” – describing a place that is part convent and part concentration camp.

Anyway, the main idea that the author played with was religion and science. I liked the way that the two are so closely linked and intertwined in the story. My main takeaway was the very definition of consciousness and how quantum mechanics plays a role here.

In QM, an electron can exist in either one of two states. Which state it sits in depends on observation. This is applied to the many-universe theory where we are constantly caught between multiple possible outcomes, which only collapse onto the present when observed, and our consciousness acts as the observer.

Anyway, mind-blown.

That’s why I like his books. I wonder if REAMDE will be any good. I won’t be able to read it for a while though.

Law beckons.

Probability Sucks

I have half a mind to stick this as an interview question except that I might change C to 0% instead.

Dud Assembly

Turns out that the assembly is a dud. According to news reports, only about 5,000 of the 100,000 seats were filled and many even left early. How unfortunate. We’re back to being apathetic Malaysians, once again.

Save the Muslim Aqidah

Man, reading this article by AP Ridhuan Tee makes me want to laugh. To be honest, I actually found it mildly amusing that this person can spout such idiocy with such conviction and eloquence.

It’s such a funny read that I don’t even want to bother to quote and rebut. Just go read it for yourself!

Honestly, this is the reason why I like to laugh at AP Ridhuan Tee. I do not pretend to know everything but seriously, this is exactly the kind of response that I would expect from people with small minds and balls who constantly feel like they’re under threat.

Can I say – get a life!

If you really want people to respect Islam and its followers, you need to start doing right things with it. The trouble with Islam in Malaysia is that it has been polluted by politics. As a result, it is seen with less respect. Separate the role of religion and the state.

Then, start doing more charity and make sure that the Zakat contributions actually end up where they are supposed to – in the hands of the poor and needy instead of some state coffer. Also, help everyone – not just your fellow Muslims as it will just be good PR.

There is no need to have this mass rally sh*t. It just doesn’t make any sense to do so as it doesn’t help paint the right picture about Islam as a universal and harmonious religion.

On another note, I’d really be interested to see how many ummah they can muster. Considering that there are only about 16 million Muslims in Malaysia, trying to muster a million is like dragging out every able bodied man, woman and child onto the streets.

Personally, I’d really like to see them succeed in doing that as it would show that Malaysians are at least serious about something and not just an apathetic bunch of idiots.

PS: And it’s “save” not “safe”.

Anwar Jokes

Kid you not and I don’t believe it – Anwar claims that the NEP is responsible for the falling academic standards at Universiti Malaya because sub-standard people have been promoted through the years due to affirmative action policies and they are now at the helm. Anwar conveniently forgets that he is partially responsible too!