SaaS Upgrade

Some of you may have noticed that I am experimenting with a Software-as-a-Service blogging platform. I’ve basically moved my blog from a self-hosted and self-managed VPS server to a SaaS service from WordPress.

Yeay!

Notice that I’ve said that this is an experiment. I’m actually testing things out to see if I should move my company blog off-site onto a SaaS service. Cost wise, it would actually be cheaper and it should also be better in terms of maintenance, performance and uptime.

However, I’ve not quite settled on which service to use yet. So, I’m going to try them out for a bit.

WordPress was the obvious first choice as my previous blog was a self-hosted wordpress site. Migrating it over was pretty straight-forward except that the posts have lost their categories and tags, which is a pain.

I’ve lost a bunch of stuff – particularly my Google FriendConnect stuff, when moving over to WordPress. For some reason, WordPress just refuses to integrate with Google FriendConnect. So, I’ll have to see if some other solution is better instead.

Also, WordPress does not allow me to add in random stuff into the posts – e.g. only certain approved video sites such as youtube, vimeo are allowed. For example, TED videos cannot be embedded directly unless I embed the Youtube version.

Next, I’m going to try Google blogs and maybe even some other.

Hell Freezeth Over?

Has hell frozen over? I think not yet.

While I will give our dearest PM the benefit of the doubt, I’ve been Malaysian long enough to be utterly skeptical at his announcements on the eve of Malaysia Day speech:

Rakyat Malaysia yang dikasihi sekalian,

23. Sepertimana yang saya janjikan dalam ucapan sulung saya semasa mula-mula mengambil alih jawatan Perdana Menteri pada 3 April 2009, bahawa Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri 1960 (yakni ISA) akan dikaji secara komprehensif. Sehubungan dengan itu, suka saya mengumumkan pada malam yang bersejarah ini, bahawa Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri 1960 (yakni ISA) akan dimansuhkan terus.

Yippee! The Internal Security Act is going to be repealed!

24. Untuk mencegah perbuatan subversif, keganasan terancang dan perbuatan jenayah bagi memelihara ketenteraman dan keselamatan awam, dua undang-undang baru yang sesuai akan digubal di bawah semangat serta payung Perkara 149 Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Pokoknya, akta-akta ini nanti bermatlamat untuk memelihara keamanan, kesejahteraan, kesentosaan serta kerukunan hidup rakyat dan negara.

New public safety laws will be enacted – WTF?

25. Di atas segalanya, Kerajaan akan tetap memastikan hak asasi mereka yang terbabit terpelihara. Apa-apa undang-undang yang diperbuat akan mengambil kira hak dan kebebasan asasi berlandaskan Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Undang-undang baru ini akan memperuntukkan tempoh tahanan oleh polis yang secara substansialnya lebih pendek daripada apa yang ada sekarang dan apa-apa tahanan lanjut hanya boleh dibuat dengan perintah mahkamah kecuali undang-undang berkaitan keganasan, masih dikekalkan bawah kuasa Menteri.

Our subservient courts will be brought in to white-wash things?

26. Di sudut lain, kerajaan juga memberi komitmen bahawa mana-mana individu tidak akan ditahan semata-mata hanya kerana ideologi politik. Umumnya pula, kuasa untuk melanjutkan penahanan akan beralih daripada badan eksekutif kepada badan kehakiman kecualilah undang-undang berkaitan keganasan itu tadi.

No more political persecution?

27. Dalam konteks ini juga, selain memansuhkan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri 1960, Kerajaan juga akan memansuhkan Akta Buang Negeri 1959 di samping mengkaji semula beberapa undang-undang lain bagi memastikan ia memenuhi kehendak semasa. Sehubungan dengan itu lagi, kita tidak akan teragak-agak untuk meminda atau memansuhkan undang-undang yang tidak lagi relevan.

Wow, more restrictive laws are going to be either repealed or amended.

28. Kajian semula komprehensif ini akan melibatkan Akta Kediaman Terhad 1933 dan Akta Mesin Cetak dan Penerbitan 1984 di mana prinsip pembaharuan tahunan akan dihapuskan dan digantikan dengan pengeluaran lesen sehingga dibatalkan. Kerajaan juga akan mengkaji semula seksyen 27 Akta Polis 1967 dengan mengambil kira peruntukan Perkara 10 Perlembagaan Persekutuan tentang kebebasan berhimpun dengan prinsip menentang sekeras-kerasnya demonstrasi jalanan. Namun, kebenaran berhimpun diberi selaras dengan kaedah-kaedah yang akan ditetapkan kelak disamping mengambilkira norma-norma di peringkat antarabangsa.

Hallelujah! Potential freedom to assemble – Bersih 3.0 FTW!

Misunderstanding Brain Drain

Our government does not understand brain drain in Malaysia. This is evidenced by our dearest PM’s latest remarks during the launching of Perdana University – Perdana University is a joint effort with the Johns Hopkins University and the Royal College of Surgeons – a graduate school of medicine.

He is quoted as saying that, “I hope the chance to study the best medical curriculum in the world will encourage more of our country’s top graduates to stay at home.”

????

While I do agree that the chance of studying with top medical expertise from Johns Hopkins might encourage more people to sign up for Perdana University, it has nothing to do with them choosing to leave the country after graduation.

If anything, this might actually precipitate a larger out-flow of brains as once these people are Johns Hopkins trained, they could feasibly move onto greener pastures abroad. The reason for this is simple.

Malaysians are leaving the country by the droves, not because of a lack of educational opportunities, but by the institutionalised problems in the country that stifle the best and brightest while rewarding mediocrity. We can see this all the time in the country.

And it makes perfect sense, in Malaysia.

So, while I congratulate our country for doing a ‘joint effort’ (whatever that means) with one of the best medical schools in the world, I pray that it won’t end up like MUST, which had something going with MIT (remember them?).

History is not Zombies

“All this has happened before and all this will happen again.” – BSG.

Today, our ex-former PM, the dear old Tun Dr M, was quoted in TheStar as saying that, “History cannot be reviewed as we cannot change what had happened. It is better to tell the truth about the nation’s past.” He was commenting on a recent statement by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin that the history syllabus for schools would be revised following new findings of the nation’s past.

When I read it, I almost puked.

This is the problem with our present education system. We tell our kids that there is only one version of our history and that they need to accept it on faith. As a result, we breed a whole generation of zombies that suffer more glitches than Dead Island.

My dearest Tun, you’re sorely mistaken. What we need is to bring up a generation of thinkers. In order to do this, we must push our kids to think for themselves and constantly challenge accepted norms. This is the only way that they can learn to ‘draw their own conclusions’.

As for history, there is always more than one version of it. History is all a matter of perspective. One man’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist. That is why it is dubbed “his-story” as the tale depends on the point-of-view. This is more than true with our Malaysian history – viewed through a multitude of different coloured lenses.

I learned this important lesson while I was an undergraduate studying Malaysian Studies at a local university under DokMat. The very first lecture that DokMat had was to tell us that we should forget everything we’d learned in SPM history is it was wrong and he proceeded to re-write Malaysian history from the beginning.

I loved his classes. I hope that he is still doing this with his students today – mindfuck!

He provoked us to think and question what we have previously learned and not to just accept things as we were told. The only way to understand history is to question it. History, when taught in this manner, becomes a logical narrative and comes to life on its own accord.

My dearest Tun, this is the kind of history that we want our kids to learn – the kind that is filled with real people, real feelings, real motivations and dreams, taking real action with real consequences. History is multi-faceted and is not just a random sequence of events, dates and actors.

Learning history is about understanding all sides of the story so that we can learn the lessons of the past. We need to figure out how we got here today from where we once were. Otherwise, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in the future.

I support reviewing our history syllabus to question the past, not to brainwash the young, to survive the future.

PS: I dare say that it was DokMat who awoke my socio-political consciousness and love for the nation. Without him, Malaysia would not make any logical sense at all.

Changing Lives

This is the kind of problem that we engineers should try to solve – lighting up a world of darkness.

PS: Maybe it’s time for Pepsi/Coke to do a massive sponsorship.

Life's Cruelties

I just read the short life summary of Terrance Phang Ying Choy by his friend. His story is one of life’s cruel twists and clear indication that life is neither fun nor fair.

Here, we have a young man, who by all accounts worked his arse off and had to fight for his future. He’d finally gotten into Cambridge to study Engineering and was on his way to future success, to take care of his family.

Then, his fire was snuffed out. If there is anything to be learned from his short life, it is that hard work and clear vision will get you places.

I think that most of those kids who are crying for a scholarship, should just take a page from this guy. Most of them should be ashamed of themselves, thinking that they’re god’s greatest gift to mankind. This young man puts them all to shame.

He had the guts to overcome the hurdles that life throws in his way, all except one – which none of us escape.

Quiet Forger

Sarah Kaminsky: My father the forger – a very compelling story. It’s the little people like this, who do great things and save lives. I hope that I’ll be able to contribute to the world in my own little way.