Java Annotated Monthly – November 2024
1 day ago
40 Reasons why the Sodomy Charge against Anwar is too Ridiculous to Believe
on Thursday 25 March 2010
Read them, then google about them, and draw your own conclusions.
Google Buzz
on Thursday 11 February 2010
Plurk is already losing out to Twitter in sheer number of users. And now we have Google Buzz, taking advantage of the sheer number of users who have gmail accounts.
ISA, where art thou?
on Wednesday 3 February 2010
Racism hinders Najib’s 1 Malaysia. Read it. Disgusting.
You get a three-year suspension for labeling an entire race of people as squatters (and having the suspension lifted after only 1 year), yet you get arrested under ISA for reporting the incident... In that same article, you get arrested for rumours and suspicions (no proof or witnesses whatsoever) for a matter relating to a single mosque, yet the man who publicly insults the people of TWO races is just forced to resign (not even fired or kicked out, just resign...).
More? How about the fella who got arrested for allegedly insulting the Sultan? That was quick. Shouldn't there be at least some sort of police action for insulting the peoples of TWO races? No?
Call me pessimistic or hard to please, but that 1Malaysia slogan is going to just be nothing more than a slogan to me.
UPDATE: More proof that the 1Malaysia idea is mere propaganda. Read the third paragraph very carefully, reproduced below:
Are they serious?! Never intended to?! How exactly do you "not intend to insult people" when there are at least four reported derogatory remarks? How insincere can PM Najib's administration be to just say "Nevertheless"... as if it was a very small issue and as if they were being so magnanimous in asking that racist to resign. Remember how they threatened Wee Meng Chee (a university student at the time) with police action for using the national anthem to make his grouses known? Disgusting. Really disgusting.
UPDATE 2: Sadly, there's more. Folks, we now have a "mature" man, defending his fellow "immature" man, by giving very "mature" reasons and very "intellectual" arguments.
You get a three-year suspension for labeling an entire race of people as squatters (and having the suspension lifted after only 1 year), yet you get arrested under ISA for reporting the incident... In that same article, you get arrested for rumours and suspicions (no proof or witnesses whatsoever) for a matter relating to a single mosque, yet the man who publicly insults the people of TWO races is just forced to resign (not even fired or kicked out, just resign...).
More? How about the fella who got arrested for allegedly insulting the Sultan? That was quick. Shouldn't there be at least some sort of police action for insulting the peoples of TWO races? No?
Call me pessimistic or hard to please, but that 1Malaysia slogan is going to just be nothing more than a slogan to me.
UPDATE: More proof that the 1Malaysia idea is mere propaganda. Read the third paragraph very carefully, reproduced below:
“Datuk Nasir never intended to make any derogatory remarks. He spoke at length on the contributions made by all races in developing the country.
“Nevertheless, Datuk Nasir apologises for any offence caused,” it added
Are they serious?! Never intended to?! How exactly do you "not intend to insult people" when there are at least four reported derogatory remarks? How insincere can PM Najib's administration be to just say "Nevertheless"... as if it was a very small issue and as if they were being so magnanimous in asking that racist to resign. Remember how they threatened Wee Meng Chee (a university student at the time) with police action for using the national anthem to make his grouses known? Disgusting. Really disgusting.
UPDATE 2: Sadly, there's more. Folks, we now have a "mature" man, defending his fellow "immature" man, by giving very "mature" reasons and very "intellectual" arguments.
Immense organisation running this Umno-linked Facebook group!
on Friday 22 January 2010
Read this and draw your own conclusions:
Immense organisation running this Umno-linked Facebook group!
Immense organisation running this Umno-linked Facebook group!
Cataloging your personal library
on Wednesday 16 December 2009
Do you maintain a list of books that you own and/or read? Ever accidentally bought a book you already own? I did.... several times. After several such "accidents", I started keeping track of all my books. I've used several different methods of keeping track of them over the years.
I started off with simple text files containing book titles and series, primarily because the phone I was using at the time can open and save text files. My first safeguard against accidentally buying a book I already own. It was simple and effective enough, but as the number of books increased, it got a little unwieldy.
Photos
When I had to switch to a different phone, text files are out - the new phone couldn't use them. I resorted to taking snapshots of my book stacks. This "method" kinda worked (and worked for quite a while); it was just tedious to search through all the photos when I'm in a bookstore checking up a title. I changed them to screenshots of my text files - better, but only slightly.
Meanwhile, I converted my text files into a OpenOffice spreadsheet. I added even more details to my catalog - authors, ISBN, genre, read status, as well as when and how much I paid for a particular book.
Online Documents
When I started actively using Google Docs, I also migrated my spreadsheet online. Having it easily accessible is really great.
I also had a brief stint with Socrata (formerly blist.com), which is a social database kind of thing. It looked really good, but was a bit too fancy for what I used it for. It's Flash-based, so not as easily viewable on mobile devices. But Socrata does support export to email as html, which is a really nice feature.
Social Book Catalogs
Finally, I turned to online catalog tool, having gotten a little tired of having to manually type in book details (not to mention having gotten an urge to make what I've read public ;).
It all started when I discovered the weRead Facebook app. I started migrating stuff to weRead (via Facebook), but several issues irked me. I found the interface to be cluttered and not user-friendly, with information inconsistently shown. Its book and author database is also hopelessly messed up: incorrect and inconsistent book titles, incorrect or incomplete author names, and very poor handling of editions. You can't edit the book information and while you can upload your own cover image (many of which are missing or incorrect), it seemed buggy because some (strangely, not all, just some) of the images I uploaded disappeared after a period of time.
I started googling around and found several promising alternatives: LibraryThing, Shelfari, and GuruLib, of which I also found someone having done a simple comparison. I settled on trying GuruLib.
LibraryThing is only free for up to 200 books, so that's an immediate no-no for me. Can't see myself paying when I really just want a place to hold my book list so I can search it. It does possess a whole lot of features, even has a mobile version of its website. The UI is not particularly attractive though, compared to Shelfari, which looks good but Shelfari being tied to Amazon only seems unnecessarily limiting. It also doesn't seem to have any export feature or social groups.
GuruLib is simple to use, and unlike weRead, it allows you to edit book information (although changes appear limited to your account only). You can also add CDs, DVDs, games, and other software. You can apparently use your webcam as a bar code scanner to add your books or items, but I didn't try that - its import tool managed to import my list of ISBNs nicely. The interface is dated though, being little more than simple forms. Understandable of course, what with it being a homegrown project with only one or two persons working on it. It still didn't feel quite right as its shelving (i.e. categorising) options were rather limiting, and since I don't see it improving much any time soon, I started looking again.
I had the good fortune of seeing someone mention Goodreads on a blog comment (can't recall where) and that's what I'm currently using. It's been quite satisfactory so far and I'm glad I found it. It's a relatively new (2006) social cataloging tool and it already has a large number of books and users.
The best thing is that it's like a wiki, and the community itself helps to manage and maintain its database of books and authors. The way you can categorise your books is also very flexible. This translates to a much more accurate and consistent body of data. Even better is that you can add new books - perfect for people who have read books not published in the western half of the globe.
It's been a long post. Maybe I'll leave why I like Goodreads to a later post. If you join Goodreads, look me up on my profile (just realised I have a staggering amount of books to read!). Also check out the social group of Goodreads Malaysia.
Happy reading.
Text File
I started off with simple text files containing book titles and series, primarily because the phone I was using at the time can open and save text files. My first safeguard against accidentally buying a book I already own. It was simple and effective enough, but as the number of books increased, it got a little unwieldy.
Photos
When I had to switch to a different phone, text files are out - the new phone couldn't use them. I resorted to taking snapshots of my book stacks. This "method" kinda worked (and worked for quite a while); it was just tedious to search through all the photos when I'm in a bookstore checking up a title. I changed them to screenshots of my text files - better, but only slightly.
Meanwhile, I converted my text files into a OpenOffice spreadsheet. I added even more details to my catalog - authors, ISBN, genre, read status, as well as when and how much I paid for a particular book.
Online Documents
When I started actively using Google Docs, I also migrated my spreadsheet online. Having it easily accessible is really great.
I also had a brief stint with Socrata (formerly blist.com), which is a social database kind of thing. It looked really good, but was a bit too fancy for what I used it for. It's Flash-based, so not as easily viewable on mobile devices. But Socrata does support export to email as html, which is a really nice feature.
Social Book Catalogs
Finally, I turned to online catalog tool, having gotten a little tired of having to manually type in book details (not to mention having gotten an urge to make what I've read public ;).
It all started when I discovered the weRead Facebook app. I started migrating stuff to weRead (via Facebook), but several issues irked me. I found the interface to be cluttered and not user-friendly, with information inconsistently shown. Its book and author database is also hopelessly messed up: incorrect and inconsistent book titles, incorrect or incomplete author names, and very poor handling of editions. You can't edit the book information and while you can upload your own cover image (many of which are missing or incorrect), it seemed buggy because some (strangely, not all, just some) of the images I uploaded disappeared after a period of time.
I started googling around and found several promising alternatives: LibraryThing, Shelfari, and GuruLib, of which I also found someone having done a simple comparison. I settled on trying GuruLib.
LibraryThing is only free for up to 200 books, so that's an immediate no-no for me. Can't see myself paying when I really just want a place to hold my book list so I can search it. It does possess a whole lot of features, even has a mobile version of its website. The UI is not particularly attractive though, compared to Shelfari, which looks good but Shelfari being tied to Amazon only seems unnecessarily limiting. It also doesn't seem to have any export feature or social groups.
GuruLib is simple to use, and unlike weRead, it allows you to edit book information (although changes appear limited to your account only). You can also add CDs, DVDs, games, and other software. You can apparently use your webcam as a bar code scanner to add your books or items, but I didn't try that - its import tool managed to import my list of ISBNs nicely. The interface is dated though, being little more than simple forms. Understandable of course, what with it being a homegrown project with only one or two persons working on it. It still didn't feel quite right as its shelving (i.e. categorising) options were rather limiting, and since I don't see it improving much any time soon, I started looking again.
I had the good fortune of seeing someone mention Goodreads on a blog comment (can't recall where) and that's what I'm currently using. It's been quite satisfactory so far and I'm glad I found it. It's a relatively new (2006) social cataloging tool and it already has a large number of books and users.
The best thing is that it's like a wiki, and the community itself helps to manage and maintain its database of books and authors. The way you can categorise your books is also very flexible. This translates to a much more accurate and consistent body of data. Even better is that you can add new books - perfect for people who have read books not published in the western half of the globe.
It's been a long post. Maybe I'll leave why I like Goodreads to a later post. If you join Goodreads, look me up on my profile (just realised I have a staggering amount of books to read!). Also check out the social group of Goodreads Malaysia.
Happy reading.
Buying books in Malaysia
on Sunday 23 August 2009
Yesterday, I went to the Bookfest @ Malaysia that started yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). Not too shabby. Was in and out in about 2 hours. Completed by collection of the "Kingbreaker, Kingmaker" 2-book series and the Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller.
None of the distributors showcased IT-related reference books though (well, none in English anyway), and that's what I was really looking for. Oh well, the good thing is that Kinokuniya is right up there in Suria KLCC. I found one of 2 reference books I was looking for. Guess I'll have to order them. It was in their system, but only because someone else has also placed an order for them. It's a whopping RM200. But it's still cheaper than getting it from Amazon obviously. MPH didn't list the book in their online search so I guess they don't carry it either (they only have a previous edition). While there, I completed yet another 2 series of fantasy trilogies, one FR and the other Eberron. Good. As usual, I'm very happy with Kinokuniya prices that are always at least RM2 or RM3 (sometimes more) cheaper than MPH and Popular. Too bad Kinokuniya is only in Suria KLCC (with its killer parking rates), despite carrying the most comprehensive collection of books for sale, and the best prices.
None of the distributors showcased IT-related reference books though (well, none in English anyway), and that's what I was really looking for. Oh well, the good thing is that Kinokuniya is right up there in Suria KLCC. I found one of 2 reference books I was looking for. Guess I'll have to order them. It was in their system, but only because someone else has also placed an order for them. It's a whopping RM200. But it's still cheaper than getting it from Amazon obviously. MPH didn't list the book in their online search so I guess they don't carry it either (they only have a previous edition). While there, I completed yet another 2 series of fantasy trilogies, one FR and the other Eberron. Good. As usual, I'm very happy with Kinokuniya prices that are always at least RM2 or RM3 (sometimes more) cheaper than MPH and Popular. Too bad Kinokuniya is only in Suria KLCC (with its killer parking rates), despite carrying the most comprehensive collection of books for sale, and the best prices.
The Malays are cowards, says Utusan
on Wednesday 5 August 2009
The Malaysian Insider has published an article titled The Malays are cowards, says Utusan. The article apparently is a highly racist article that again wields the race issue as its weapon. Why does Utusan play up racial agendas so often? As usual, there's the standard set of accusations of usurpation of power and erosion of rights -- all very glaringly devoid of specific instances and of course, conveniently ignoring the "vice versa" part. Sad.
What's sadder is that our Deputy Prime Minister apparently supports the racist article. You wonder where he was when the infamous Ahmad Ismail uttered the racist remark that the Chinese in the country are immigrants and squatters (notice how, at the end of that section, Utusan Malaysia is yet again involved). Yuck. And for those who didn't know, the journalist who reported the remark was arrested and detained under ISA rather than the person who made the remark. Incredible no? Again, you wonder where our DPM was at that time, since he's supportive of the media's "right".
What's sadder is that our Deputy Prime Minister apparently supports the racist article. You wonder where he was when the infamous Ahmad Ismail uttered the racist remark that the Chinese in the country are immigrants and squatters (notice how, at the end of that section, Utusan Malaysia is yet again involved). Yuck. And for those who didn't know, the journalist who reported the remark was arrested and detained under ISA rather than the person who made the remark. Incredible no? Again, you wonder where our DPM was at that time, since he's supportive of the media's "right".
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