Unusual Witness

Some friends have told me that I should not be so emotional on my blog. They say that it makes me look like a sissy. Seeing that I feel that emotions are my source of strength, I don't see what is wrong with it. However, I do think that there are other interesting things to talk about. So, I promised them that I will not write about my emotional issues, until I finally get over them. But that's not today.

So, anyone looking for juicy gossip can just go read some other person's blog. For now, I will talk about other issues. Today, I will talk about an increasing number of weird things that I've witnessed in the last few days. Might be a full moon coming up soon.

On my train ride back from London over the weekend, I noticed a couple making out at one end of the train. I was sitting in the front car, facing the front of the train. As the train got under way, a couple made their way right up to the front of the car. I didn't make too much of it at the beginning until I caught them making out. Well, I didn't actually witness them making out but from what I could catch, including the body language and the looks they gave each other, it certainly looked a lot like that.

Normally, when I witness a couple making out, I would think that they should go find somewhere a little more private. But interestingly enough, I found this couple rather sweet. In case you were wondering why, it's because this was an elderly couple, old enough to be my parents. I think that it's fairly cute for a couple that age, to still make out on a public train. I guess that their passions are still very much alive, even after so many years.

Then, on my walk back from dinner today, I witnessed another couple making out. However, they were a young couple, possibly in their late teens, making out right in front of the ATM machine right outside Grafton, that I regularly use to withdraw cash from. In fact, I do believe that the girl might actually be partially seated on the machine, from the way that the two of them were positioned. I thought that they should go inside and find a more private place.

This leads me to another interesting thing that I had witnessed yesterday, which is inside Grafton, a local shopping mall. I was rushing through it but I managed to see a cleaner putting on a pair of gloves and picking up rubbish from the floor. What caught my eye was the fact that there was a supervisor looking on. I found it rather weird that there would be someone supervising a cleaner cleaning the floor, until I saw what the cleaner picked up: a used condom!

Which led me to wonder, why anyone would want to dump a used condom, in the middle of the floor of a mall. I wondered if someone might have had a quick tryst in one of the changing rooms and then didn't have the courtesy to properly dispose of the used item. But I guess that it is also possible that some couple might have decided to adjourn their merry making from the outside ATM to somewhere a little more private, inside the mall.

Anyway, just thought that I'd share it.

Prefect Democracy

I've not been writing about technology for a while, so I thought that I should do that. However, seeing that I'm still a bit swept up by the election results in Malaysia, I thought that I'd do an entry on technology and politics. I've recently read The Prefect, by Alastair Reynolds. It's SciFi but it had an interesting idea on democracy in action, in the future, which I'd like to explore here.

The story in the book centred around a society, which was built around democracy. The job of a Prefect was to ensure that the voting system throughout the system, which covered many thousands of habitats, was fair and not tampered with. The book begins with them discovering a flaw in the system and the chaos that ensued later. But what is interesting is the concept of a weighted vote.

The idea that caught my attention was the concept of a weighted vote. In the story, the citizens voted on almost every decision. Actions are then taken based on the outcome. It is a crime to deny a person the right to vote, but people who made accurate judgements and whose decisions brought a positive result, are rewarded with a higher voting weight.

This idea sounded good to me, as it would force voters to make informed judgements as random votes would just cause their voices to be filtered by the system as noise. So, I was just wondering if it was feasible to implement such a system from a technical point of view. And from a pure technology perspective, the different bits are already in place.

Voter Anonymity
One very important aspect of democracy is the idea of voter anonymity. This seems to contradict the idea of assigning weights to individual voters. The two can be reconciled by using hash functions, which are one-way transformations. A hash function is often used to store passwords in databases because, while it is possible to verify a password against it's hash, it is not technically feasible to reconstruct the password from it's hash. So, we can use it to check a voter against their weights but not be able to identify a specific voter from their weights.

Voter Verification
Another seemingly impossible task is voter verification. Not only do the voters need anonymity, their votes need to be verified to prevent phantom voters from voting. This can be done by using a shared secret between the voter and the core computer system, such as a PIN or secret password. And just like present, the voters would be required to periodically change their passwords to prevent anyone from stealing it. Or a second channel authentication could be used to verify the vote.

Vote Secrecy
Each vote is considered a secret. So, public key infrastructure can be used to protect an individual's vote from being intercepted by anyone, while in transit. It is still possible to tamper with the message and spoil the vote, but that flaw can be policed using normal laws. The only party that will ever be privy to the vote, is the computer system that receives the vote. If hashing is done the moment a vote is received and verified, the vote remains a secret to the rest of the core system.

Voter Cost
This leads us to the ultimate cost of the system. It goes without saying that the core will need to be policed and reviewed openly by everyone, just like how it is done with open source software. Any voter who wishes to check the system, can feasibly learn how to do so. The cost of voting itself, is not an issue as voters could use any technology to vote, depending on whatever is convenient at the time, such as mobile phones. In the story, voters have got implants in their brains and vote just by thinking about it. The network itself is divorced from the vote as it's job is merely to ensure transportation integrity.

Voter Knowledge
Anyone who wishes to cast a vote would need to cast it wisely. Hence, the cost of disseminating information is not an issue either, as voters who are too lazy to find out about the issue will ultimately end up being weighted into nothingness. So, as long as the Internet is around, and everyone is given the opportunity to access that information, that will not be a problem.

So, feasibly, such a system can be implemented from a technical viewpoint. Whether it's socially or politically viable is beside the point. Obviously, the weights must not be assigned linearly. Even fools deserved to be heard, although their views may only garner a smaller weight. In the story, every average person has a weight of 1.0 and wise voters are people who average above 1.25 points. There a a reverent few who have 2.0 to 3.0 weights and are considered people with prescient abilities.

Funnily, in the story, there is a whole habitat whose chief source of income is their vote. Most of the residents there have a higher than average voting weight. So, lobbyist will pay money to have their cases heard by the people of this habitat. Money politics doesn't play a role because it would be impossible to buy the votes. If the people of this habitat voted by who pays them more, they would very quickly lose their weights.

Extreme Wedding

I met a friend today, whom I found out, had recently gotten married. So, obviously, I asked him about his wedding and how things went. That was when he told me his little tale and I almost died listening to it. I tried to keep a straight face, but I was going "OMG!!" the whole time.

First, we talked about the ceremony and wedding dinner. The ceremony was not that big a deal. I was curious as to how much it cost and it actually costs about the same amount back home. So we quickly talked about the dinner instead. He then told me that they had two dinners because both their home cities were quite far apart. Well, that's nothing new to me as it's often done back home as well.

What surprised me was the total number of tables that they had at both dinners: a whopping 116 tables. OMG! That's more than a thousand guests. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of effort that went into organising such a dinner. He must've spent all his time just shaking hands and saying thank you. At 5 seconds per person, it would take about 90 minutes to finish it all. And I thought 50 tables was huge enough.

Then, I noticed his wedding ring. I thought that it was a rather nice design. I was curious as to how he figured out her ring size for the engagement ring. He told me that the shop people told him to just get a ring and propose first. If she didn't like it or if it didn't fit, they could take it back and have it changed. Since this is the UK, I guess that he could've returned it too, if she rejected him.

So, he bought a diamond ring worth about £3k. She accepted his proposal but she did not like the ring. So, they went back to the shop to choose another one. They finally settled upon one worth about £10k. I just checked some prices online and it is certainly possible for diamond rings to cost that much. He told me that he almost died. I would've.

But according to him, neither of these things were that bad. When she came over to his home city for the wedding, she brought along a small entourage with her and his family had to pay for the travel and accommodations for them. And according to him, that was the thing that very nearly killed him. I was totally in shock. I cannot even begin to imagine how much that must have cost. OMG!!!

I know that a marriage is an important event for the young couple. But taking it to this kind of level is rather extreme. Personally, I think that it is dumb to spend money like that. The money could be better spent by buying a house for the young couple and helping them start off in life. But I guess that when you are from a rich family, largess takes on a whole new order of magnitude.

Emotions and Weakness

I was just pondering this in the morning on my way to work. I'm a fairly emotional person. So, I was just wondering if being emotional was a sign of character weakness. The opinions expressed here are obviously biased. So, read on with massive doses of salt.

Having emotions has certainly been bothersome to me. At times, I feel that it's better to have a switch that I could throw to turn them off, especially emotions of anger and sadness. Being a person who works intimately with computers, I can appreciate their clarity of logic and certainty of calculation. I sometimes envy these machines that I work with.

Being an emotional person means that my mood swings fairly regularly. It's like taking a roller coaster ride. I will get depressed at times and be absolutely high with joy at other times. I will also experience anger and frustration fairly often. When I get hit by a bad day, everything just goes off. I cannot concentrate on my work and I cannot do much else except fret. Today was one such day. So, I went into the department to do some brainless work (writing idiot friendly instructions for the 3rd year VLSI project) while I should actually be working on my research project.

But on the other hand, if I was not emotional, I would not have been able to achieve all that I have. I am a very passionate person. I do something because I love to do it not because I have to do it. When I am in love with it, I can be totally driven in my pursuit of it. I need neither food nor rest. At times, even when my brain tells me to give up, my heart tells me to go on, and my heart usually wins. This blind devotion has allowed me to accomplish all that I have. Without emotions, I doubt that I'd be so blindly driven.

So, my conclusion is that emotions are a potential weakness and strength. Then, the question that needs to be asked is whether or not emotions had anything to do with character strength at all. Personally, I don't think that there's causality between the two but each supports the other instead. It is certainly possible to be emotional and strong as well as non-emotional and weak.

But I do think that I should be less emotional, publicly, though sometimes it can get very difficult.

Buying a Console

I've got a bit more disposable income these days. I'm living in the living room of my house, which has a huge television. Naturally, I have been toying with the idea of getting a game console. However, I know that I won't be playing it all the time. It's only going to be there for that irregular bout of gaming. So, if I were to get a console, it was going to be a pre-owned machine. Spending almost £300 for a machine that I was only going to use once in a while, does not make any sense.

There was a recent sale of a PSX at £12 but I missed the opportunity to get it. So, I looked at some other second generation consoles instead. After browsing the local game store, I've noticed that the cheapest one I could find was the GameCube. The standard cube is going for only £25. This seemed very affordable.

Alrite, some of you people will think that the PS2 is pants. It was the most popular second generation console. The GameCube was the second. I don't consider the original Xbox a console because it was essentially just a stripped down PC and recognising it as a console would mean having to recognise all PCs as consoles too.

Without going into the various details, let's just say that the Cube was not a bad machine. It was arguably a very different machine. As a prelude to the Wii, Nintendo focused on bringing out a good gaming console while Sony focused on splashy multi-media capabilities. The Cube had many exclusive hit games, which were mainly first party titles by Nintendo: Metroid Prime, Zelda, Mario, to name a few. Unfortunately, 3rd party development didn't really catch on and the game library was limited.

This in turn, is also the trouble with pre-owned Cubes. While the consoles were cheap, finding games for it was a different matter altogether. I checked out the pre-owned games section and only found a single shelf of games and most of the good games cost more than £10. Twilight Princess alone costs £35!!! So, building a decent library of games would quickly cost much more than the actual console itself.

But, if I only intend to play a few games on it, I might be able to get away with just four games:

• Metroid Prime
  
• Legend of Zelda
  
• Mario
  
• Animal Crossing

Well, it's just something to consider. Maybe I can consider it as a CNY present for myself. Alright, I just need an excuse.

What do you think?

Where to Work?

Since I'm nearing the end of my PhD, I was thinking of starting my job applications soon. On a whim, I did some mental calculations on whether it'd be better to work in Malaysia or the UK. My rough calculations said that it was better to work in Malaysia. Since this was against the normal belief, I thought that I'd put things in a spreadsheet and work it out in more detail. If you have a google account, you can see the formulas in the spreadsheet here.

Disclaimer:

• I don't claim that it's 100% accurate. These are the best numbers that I could find. If you have something better, email me the information.
• This is merely looking at things from a pure money point of view. When making a decision on where to work, you have to consider a lot of other things (e.g. weather, food, people).
• Granted, I have not taken into account every single detail, like mobile bills, internet bills, girl/boyfriend bills and what nots. You can factor these other costs in as well.

These are my findings:

1. Western countries have an extremely high tax rate. This is because they have very few tax bands, typically 4. So, you very quickly hit the top tax bands. They also typically have a national and local tax rate. As a result, the take home pay is much less than the gross pay.
2. Working in Malaysia isn't a totally bad thing. The amount that I can save up is more than I could if I worked elsewhere (besides Singapore).
3. Time to go find a job in Singapore and save up the cash in Malaysia! However, the CPF problem is a sticky issue especially since the employee contribution is particularly high.
   

Some notes about the values on the spreadsheet:

• Where I have been unable to find reliable information, or when the field may not be applicable, I have left the cell blank. If you find the information, please let me know and I'll include it.
  
• The salaries will of course vary depending on job. The numbers shown are based on a reasonable post-doc academic position. If you're working in the private sector, it would be higher. If you lack a graduate degree, it'll probably be less.
  
• Tax rates and pensions are generally extracted directly from the government websites or relevant wikipedia pages. Where local taxes may vary widely, I have generally picked a rate that is average or flat.
  
• Expenses vary from person to person. However, I tried to restrict it to a reasonably average lifestyle. It reflects rent of an apartment (2-person sharing), plus an average car (1.5L engine). The cost of food should be comparable everywhere. The entertainment assumes simple things like going to the cinema, buying some DVDs. If you go clubbing, expect the expenses to go through the roof. Likewise, if you walk or cycle or take public transport, adjust it accordingly.
  
• Bank interest rates were extracted from, the world's local bank, HSBC in each country for 12 month timed deposits or equivalent. There are of course, better ways to grow your money.
  

PS: If you do find better numbers than what I have, please email me the links to the information and I'll update the spreadsheet. If you have another country to add in, send me the info as well.

UPDATE: Consider the spreadsheet as a fluid document. It will be updated periodically as I find out more information.

Star Trek and Batman

The teaser trailer is out. The movie is coming this Christmas. Let's all pray that it does not bomb. Chronologically set between ST:Enterprise and ST:The Original Series, the story will be set during the period of the Earth-Romulan War when mankind just stepped out into space. Whet your appetite, my friends.

It was unfortunate that the cancelled ST:Enterprise in it's 4th season, just as it was starting to get interesting and exciting. The stories were getting better with new writers on board, and the Earth-Romulan War was just brewing. Unfortunately, it suffered from less that spectacular writing in the first 3 seasons and stiff acting for the first. Jolene Blalock is the sexiest Vulcan ever!

On another note, Heath Ledger, the actor for The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie, has been found dead. How sad indeed. I wonder if his recent roles drove him over the edge. I don't think that acting as a violent sociopath who murders people and commits crimes for his own amusement, is a good thing.

C'est bizarre!

I read this article about a new experiment by our Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to improve parts of our education system in Malaysia. According to the article, it's a first of its kind collaboration programme. The implementation of the Malaysian-French Doctoral Network will allow academicians to conduct their doctorate studies under supervisors from Malaysian and French universities, and split their study period between the two countries.

Then, the article goes to list the Malaysian universities that are involved. That's when I found it particularly weird that there was no mention about the French universities. I was particularly interested to find out if ECP was involved, as I had visited that university while on my trip to Paris, last year. So, I did a little more digging.

First, I found out that the MoU was signed between our public universities' DVCs and Professor Olivier Audeoud, who is supposed to be the President of the Commission for European and International Relations for the Conference of University Presidents (what a long title). So, I googled up this commission and found nothing on it.

Next, I googled up the professor. Turns out that he is a legit. Phew! He is the president of Paris X University, Nanterre. Google also turned up a bunch of papers published by the professor. So, I assume that the mass media got it wrong with his extremely long title. Who could blame them. He should've just gone with his official title as the president of Universite Paris X.

Digging further, I found out that the programme was designed by the Malaysia-France University Centre (MFUC). So, I visited their website, which is incidentally named FMUC. Then, I discovered their official press release here. Turned out that the Malaysian print media did get the name wrong and yes, they had a list of the French universities involved.

1. Université de Bordeaux 1
2. Université de Bourgogne
3. Université de Bretagne-Sud
4. Université de La Rochelle
5. Nancy Université
6. Université de Paris-Est
7. Université de Toulouse

Well, at least we can be safe with the knowledge that these are all fully accredited French universities. However, they're not really one of the Grandes écoles, which are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system. Unlike the French public universities which have an obligation to accept all candidates who hold a Baccalauréat within their territorial competence, Grandes Écoles recruit mainly on written and oral competitive exams among the students of dedicated extra preparatory classes.

Anyway, according to the release: Upon completion of the Doctorate and defence of the thesis before a bilateral Jury, the student will be awarded a PhD degree from its Malaysian university and a National Doctorate degree from the French university.

Wah, not bad leh! Can get a double doctorate within 3-4 years. Afterall, according to the Deputy Minister, only 30 per cent out of 21,000 lecturers in public institutes of higher learning were PhD holders in 2006. The ministry hopes that with this new collaboration, it will raise the rate to 60 per cent by 2010. Must really praise our government for coming up with such a grand idea to accelerate the number of PhDs in our public universities.

How to recognise a Code Monkey

I've mentioned several times in my blog, recently, that when hiring someone for a job, companies should value the person, not a piece of paper. Today, I read an interesting blog on how to recognise a good programmer. Although it's main target was programmers, in general, it could be used to apply to any skilled discipline. Through my experience, I'll have to agree with all the points that were raised in the blog. I'd encourage anyone who wishes to be good at anything, to actually read the blog. It's main points are:

1. Passion
   I agree with this. In order to be really good at something, a person needs to be driven by passion. Someone who merely does it for the sake of the job, will never be good at it. I personally believe that passion is the most important ingredient.
   
2. Self taught
   If someone needs to be taught something, they aren't going to get very good at it. In the case of programmers, most of them start really young. I've personally known someone who started programming at 4! So, it's never too young to start learning any skill. It just gives them more time to get good at it.
   
3. Intelligence
   Just because someone may lack certain social skills, doesn't mean that they're stupid. It's important to be able to evaluate intelligence and the only good way to do it is by actually talking to a person about something relevant. None of the small talk crap. Also, no amount of parametric testing will help at all.
   
4. Hidden experiences
   Do not assume that a CV tells everything. Someone who is passionately drive, will have things done for "fun", that don't make it into the CV. In fact, they'd probably have more missing from their CV, than in it. If they had to list everything, it'll probably take 20 pages instead of 2.The CV would just contain the highlights.
5. Variety of expertise
   Their knowledge would not be constrained by anything but their thirst for knowledge. They would also, naturally, have knowledge in other relevant areas. Anyone who claims to only be good at one thing, is probably only good for one thing.
   
6. Formal qualifications
   Degrees and certifications are a completely useless indicator of how good a person is. They're only good for HR to cover their asses. A person who is good at something, will do it not for a degree. Any degree is just dressing.

Although, I've mentioned that we should value a person, not a piece of paper, I'm beginning to have an idea on how difficult it might be to do so. For example, a HR manager will find it difficult to identify who a good programmer when he/she knows nothing about IT. The IT manager might have difficulty doing so too, if he/she was never a good one to begin with.

Although a certification does not tell you how good someone really is, it will at least tell you how bad someone isn't. If they were able to pass the exams, at the very least, they'd know ABC, even if they didn't know XYZ. As a result, people ended up having to rely on a piece of paper to help them out. Certificates ended up being used as a baseline. As a result of this hiring practice, most people end up hiring the baseline.

So, how do we identify a code monkey then? Easy. Put 100 programmers in a room, get the 5 who are good to leave, and the ones that are left are the code monkeys.

Shoot.

Next-Gen Beetle - Tata Nano

This little car has the potential of transforming the face of the world. One of the largest Indian companies, Tata Group, has today unveiled, what it calls: The People's Car. It is a that is priced at Rs 100,000, which is about RM 8,000! This car could just be the Beetle of the 21st century.

Here are some of it's most impressive specs, gleaned from various sources:

• Specialty bodywork
  The Nano comes with a 100% rust free money back guarantee. The specialised body work is made from the latest polymer technology with a specialised rust free coating. Unlike the fruity Nano, you will never need to rush out for a can of WD40 when your neighbourhood kids decide to scratch up your paint job. Experience peace of mind, parking your Nano in any neighbourhood.
  
• Air conditioning
  The standard model comes built-in with natural air conditioning. There is a more expensive deluxe model that comes with artificial air conditioning. Why settle for the fake thing when you can have the original. There is no better feeling than cruising down the highway with the wind in your hair while enjoying all the natural scents that nature has to offer.
  
• Power steering
  Surprisingly, for a car of it's size, it comes standard with human power steering. This makes the car extremely responsive and gives the driver total control over the car. Feel like a man, when nipping around the bends in the city. Side parking will never feel the same ever again.
  
• Power windows
  All models of the Tata Nano come standard with hand powered windows. This features a variable speed setting and full directional and level control. No longer will you have to contend with the auto-lower or jerky-raise. You will be able to raise or lower the windows smoothly, over the entire range.
  
• Safety bumpers
  Who needs air bags when you have safety bumpers. The bumpers have been welded on with the best plastic adhesive on the market. Fender benders will be a thing of the past. Instead of crumpling in, the bumpers are designed to fall off. You can easily reattach it back with any off-the-shelf plastic glue, thus saving you a visit to the local mechanic.
• Speedy engines
  At the heart of this car is a 600cc engine. This has been specially engineered to give you a speedy experience of scooting down to the local kedai runcit for your groceries or your local mamak for a game of football. With an impressive top speed of 110kmph, you will never ever have to worry about speed cameras ever again.
  

Jokes aside, I do think that this is a fairly impressive car, for it's cost. You cannot possibly find any other car at that price. In fact, the only other road vehicles that you can find at that price range are motor cycles. So, I can appreciate the kind of difficult choices some people will be faced with, when buying their next family vehicle. I guess, the days of seeing families of 7 on a honda-cub are numbered.

There are definitely other uses for this car, besides just being a plain car. It is cheap enough to wreck for fun. I'm sure that some Bollywood director is already thinking about a remake of The Italian Job, The Indian Job. Instead of Charlize Theron, we can have Aishwarya Rai. I'd certainly pay money to watch the movie.

Also, I can already imagine DIY modders dreaming up ideas on how to pimp this little car. Obviously, the bodywork needs a lot more attitude. And for a car like this, the sky is really the limit. Just like the Asus Eee PC ($299 notebook PC), it's only a matter of time before we will see people buying this car just to modify it into their own super machine. I'd certainly do it.

It would be a great car for mechanics and vocational training. You can just screw around with this car and not worry about destroying it. I love the idea of owning one of these things and fiddling around with all it's little parts.

I cannot wait till they review this car on TopGear. Meanwhile, watch their previous review of Britain's cheapest new car below:

Percolate

I learned a new word today. It's percolate and it's defined as:

percolate
n : the product of percolation
v 1: permeate or penetrate gradually; "the fertilizer leached
into the ground" [syn: leach]
2: spread gradually; "Light percolated into our house in the
morning"
3: prepare in a percolator; "percolate coffee"
4: cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in
order to extract a soluble constituent
5: pass through; "Water permeates sand easily" [syn: sink in,
permeate, filter]
6: gain or regain energy; "I picked up after a nap" [syn: perk
up, perk, pick up, gain vigor]

It's a very polite way of saying procrastinate. Useful!

PS: In case nobody noticed, I've changed my profile pic to my Mii! Lemme know if you think it looks like me, with a serious need for a hair cut. Hehe.

Comparing 15" Hi-End Laptops

Granted, I'd just purchased my new laptop, barely 6 months ago. However, I like to look at what's on the market, just to whet my appetite for sexy machines. If I had the freedom to do so, I'd probably be buying a new computer every year. But obviously, I have financial constraints. But there's no harm looking. So, I thought that I'd revisit some of my previous laptop short lists and see how things look now.

I tried to compare laptops of similar specifications. Generally, they should have a hi-res 15.4" screen, a T7xxx Core2 Duo processor, 2Gb of RAM, 120Gb harddisk, wifi, high end graphics or similar. The quoted prices are with some customisations:

• MacBook Pro [£1299]
• Alienware M5550 [£922]
• Znote 6625WD [£899]
• Dell XPS M1530 [£849]
• Rizeon IFL90 [£689]
  

So, it would seem that it's possible to get a fairly high end laptop for under £700. The IFL90 is essentially a re-badged Compal IFL90. For the price of £689, it comes with the following specifications:

Screen:	15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440x900) Glare Type Display
Processor:	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 2GHz 2MB L2 Cache 800MHz FSB
Memory:	2GB Dual Channel DDR2 PC-5300 667MHz - 2x1024MB
Hard Drive:	120GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Graphics:	Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT 512MB
Optical Drive:	DVD Super-Multi(DVD-RAM/-R/-RW/+R/+RW)
Sound Card:	High-Definition Audio with 3D Effect & Full Duplex
Wireless Card:	Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN network card

This is quite possibly the cheapest, high-end, gaming capable 15.4" laptop on the market. So, I think that I'll recommend it to anyone who's looking for a decent gaming laptop, on a less than decent budget. It's also ideally suited to running Linux, which is fairly useful for gaming, regardless of what Microsoft shrills would like you to believe.

'Appy GNU Year!

'Appy GNU Year!

T'is the time of the year for resolutions. Normally, I have a short list. But this year, I'm making the list even shorter than ever. I'm only going to try to change one thing. Hopefully, I'll be successful at changing just the one thing. To remind myself about it everyday, I've changed my computer wallpaper to reflect it.

This is also the time of year for hopes and wishes. I do really hope that 2008 is a good year for me. 2007 truly sucked! Nothing seemed to turn out right.

I've also just noticed something interesting. I always seem to graduate when things aren't going so well. When I finished my bachelor's degree, the job market was down in Malaysia. I attended a whole bunch of job interviews and never got a single offer. Now that I'm towards the tail end of my PhD, I find that the world economy isn't doing so well. Maybe I'm just not destined to land a good job. I guess I'll just need to make do with whatever cards I'm dealt.

So, 'appy gnu year!

The Bhutto Conspiracy

Ooo, I do love my conspiracy theories. There hasn't been a shortage of them flying around, since the death of Benazir Bhutto, the twice former PM of Pakistan. I'm not very familiar with Pakistani politics, but I do have some Pakistani friends who have told me their versions of things.

The Pakistani Government claims that:

1. She died due to hitting her head on the sun roof lever of the car, as she dove into the car to avoid the bomb attack. They would have us believe that she hit her head on the way down, and bled to death due to injuries. They claim that the hospital did not find any bullets nor any evidence of her being shot.
   
2. Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack, and this news was quickly picked up by most of the western media organisations. Within hours, they produced intercept evidence that allegedly suggests that Al-Qaeda were involved. However, anyone with a bit of brains would've smelt something fishy. It was just all too neat, too convenient.

Now, we have claims by other parties:

1. Al-Qaeda has denied responsibility for the attack. They had previously threatened to welcome her back to Pakistan with bombs. They have even praised the person/people involved as brave souls. However, they deny having any hand in the actual event. They claim that the charges levelled at them were false.
   
2. Her political party claims that she was shot in the head and neck. They also claim that a doctor from the hospital had alleged that she had died of a gunshot. There were also claims that the security forces, who were guarding her, left their posts minutes before the attack.

I'm confused by a couple of things though:

1. The fact that nobody had ordered an autopsy. I gather that it's possibly due to religious grounds. However, I would've expected it to be done, due to the volatility of the situation and the stature of the person who had died.
2. The fact that no forensic evidence had been dug up to support either side's case. Granted, the suicide bomb blast would've destroyed much of the evidence. However, I would think that they'd be able to at least find something solid.

Anyway, here's a YouTube video of her, seconds before the attack. There's a very clear picture of a pistol, being fired at her, from under 2 metres away. However, considering the magnitude of the situation and the source, I would watch the video with some caution.



I'd just like to say that, if she was truly attacked by the deadly sun-roof lever, that would've been a terribly unfortunate way to go. If you were to ask any Pakistani, they'll point their fingers at the ISI before they'd even think of blaming it on Al-Qaeda.

I'm Confused!

Granted, it's almost 7am here, and I've yet to sleep a wink. For some reason, I am unable to get any shut-eye tonight. I'm physically tired, but my brain refuses to shut down. So, I thought that I'd read some news articles and hopefully, get bored and fall asleep. Unfortunately, the news articles got me confused and alert instead.

Malaysian Public Services
It seems that we had a special awards night for the public services, a short while ago. According to this article: "THE Public Sector Quality Awards 2007 (AKSA 2007) was held amidst much pomp and splendour at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Nov 30." But for some reason, this was only reported 27 days later by TheStar. I guess that this must be designed to help enhance the perception of the speediness of public sector delivery, as compared to the private sector (or maybe, it was just a typo).

This awards show is part of our dearest Prime Minister's plans to improve public services. According to this article: "WHEN Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced sweeping changes that would revamp the public delivery system of the Malaysian property sector more than six months ago, the entire industry breathed a huge sigh of relief." Among the different ideas that our PM had, was to create a task force, aptly called PEMUDAH. And according to this article, they've come up with some quantifiable deliverables.

All in all, it sounds very nice. So, you may wonder which bits of it confused me. Well, there was another article that came out on Boxing Day, through Reuters, about public services in Malaysia. In general, it damningly states that: "Malaysia's drive to woo investment is losing traction, as efforts to get rid of red tape and inept bureaucrats falter, threatening to further relegate it behind neighboring Singapore. A year after the authorities vowed to speed up the business approval process, entrepreneurs are still battling unwieldy procedures and inert government staff. Civil servants have become more courteous, they smile more than usual, but the bureaucracy, the red tape, is still there."

Now, I hope that you can see the source of my tiny confusion. On the one hand, I have TheStar telling me that all is well, we're speeding up delivery of public services, and we even have an awards show to prove that things are working (albeit reported 27 days later). On the other hand, I have a Reuters article, commenting on the fact that the only improvement in public services is that the officers dealing with the rakyat smile more. I cannot help but think that the articles in TheStar are some form of spin, designed to offset any fallout from the Reuters article.

Malaysia-Iran Oil Deal
Quite a long while ago, I mentioned that our country was in talks on a USD$ 16 billion deal with Iran. In that blog, I commended our nation for standing up to the world's bully and doing business with any country we wished, regardless of the country's status as a terrorist state as defined by the bully. That was from a different time and place. Today, it seems that we have finally sealed the USD$ 16 billion deal, as reported by TIME and FT.

Now, I'm confused.

As I had written a short while ago, according to our government, groups who deal with other terrorist groups (as defined by the USA) are considered terrorist groups as well. Since we're now in business with a state sponsor of terrorism (as defined by the USA), I sure hope that we are not to be considered a state sponsor of terrorism. We would get into a whole sh*tload of problems if we were. I'm terrified by the mere thought of it.

So, how do we get out of this confusion? Like this:

"The contract, signed on Wednesday between Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company and Malaysia’s SKS Ventures, owned by Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukary, includes the $6bn development of the Golshan and Ferdows gas fields in the next five-and-a-half years."

So, it seems that our national oil company is not directly involved in the venture. So, I guess we're safe then. We cannot possibly he considered state sponsors of terrorism as our government isn't directly involved. If the righteous people decide to raise a fuss over this, we can always lay the blame on a single individual, the 7th richest man in Malaysia, as listed on Forbes. Our government can just label him a terrorist and invite him for a short stay in Kamunting, like we've done to 5 other people recently. I'm sure that he'll have a water bed, TV and all the comforts of home there.

** Image from TheStar/Forbes **

Merry Christmas

Granted, I'm neither Christian nor do I believe in God, but I thought I'd wish everyone else who does, a very Merry Christmas. Everyone loves this time of the year, even those who don't celebrate it, like me.

Christmas has always meant one thing to me. Sales! Back home in Malaysia, this would be a good time to start shopping for Chinese New Year stuff as there isn't any other major sale season between now and CNY. Over here, I'm looking forward to the 27th, when the stores go on a crazy year-end sale. They typically try to get rid of all their stock of winter and Christmas goods. Sales here aren't like the sales back home. A typical discount here would start at 50%, unlike the measly 20% we get back home. There are some things that I wish to buy. So, I'll be waiting till the sales start to get them.

Another interesting about Christmas here is the food. There are some things that can be eaten during this time of year. Mince pies is an interesting curiousity. You can get them all year round, but they come out in extremely large quantities, during this period. It's a small pie, filled with minced meat, that can be eaten either hot or cold. It tastes sweet, not salty. I've just bought 2 dozen of them for a mini cook-out in NewHall next week. A Christmas cookout wouldn't be complete without mince pies. Of course, there's the stuffed turkey, but I've never bought one myself because it costs a little too much.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all!

Credit: Image is from the best e-card site on the Internet.

BBC iPlayer

The BBC had just recently launched a Flash version of their iPlayer, which allows you to watch shows from their broadcasts, up to 7 days after it airs. So, I went along and gave it a try today. I have to admit, that I hardly ever watch the telly these days, much less British telly. But this iPlayer could actually be a good thing. For one, I can watch select shows, whenever I feel like watching it instead of having to watch it at the select time.

So, I clicked on one of the shows on the front-page, and kicked back for an hour over lunch. Then, I explored it a bit more. It categorises the shows by various genres, and by broadcast day of the weak. I managed to catch an episode of Spooks and I thought it was reasonably good.

There was a bug in the iPlayer software though. The timer that keeps track of the show, keeps running even when the show is paused. So, I missed a few minutes of the ending of one episode when I paused it to go get some food from the kitchen. But it played all to the end, when I didn't pause it.

Anyway, it's a good way of catching any BBC series, at my leisure.

Evening light

Evenings are a good time to get some photography done. Seeing that sunset is about 4pm at the moment, it was fairly easy to go out to get some nice shots. This is possibly the nicest shot that I got yesterday. The weather was quite cold, but it was worth it. You can see St John's College's chapel tower peaking out on the left, and King's College's chapel trailing on the right. All these, under a shapely crescent moon is all very nice, of course.

Interesting Singer I Found

I was randomly searching videos featuring "Malaysia" on YouTube today, and I found this little gem. Interestingly, she's a Sino-Kadazan singer, who's singing canto-pop! She got her start by winning Asia Bagus, way back when. And has now gone pro. Very interesting. Anyway, here's her most interesting performance, IMHO. She's singing a modified Kadazan folk song. Maybe she should do more of it, sing modified folk music. It's public domain anyway.

Bacalah

Although I found the last bits of it a bit cheesy, but it's a very nice video. I also found some of the messages chosen a bit disturbing. But, some of the bits spliced in were quite funny. I'd like to dedicate the video to all the people out there, who do not see the truth of the matter.

This applies to very many people whom I know. Some are just apathetic, while others are just ill informed. This triggered the memory of something that I had come across in school, about reading and learning. I duly looked it up on Wikipedia. So, to some of my friends who are ill-informed (one of my blog readers in particular), I quote:

"Bacalah dengan menyebut nama Tuhanmu yang menciptakan manusia dari segumpal darah. Bacalah, dengan nama Tuhanmu yang Amat Pemurah, yang mengajar manusia dengan perantaraan (menulis, membaca). Dia mengajarkan kepada manusia apa yang tidak diketahuinya."

So, go forth and read! Please get your facts straight, before you get your knickers in a twist. Don't trust everything that the government tells you! If I want to quote X-Files, I'll say that "The Truth is Out There".