40 Reasons why the Sodomy Charge against Anwar is too Ridiculous to Believe

Read them, then google about them, and draw your own conclusions.

Google Buzz

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?

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:

“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!

Read this and draw your own conclusions:

Immense organisation running this Umno-linked Facebook group!

Cataloging your personal library

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.

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

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.

The Malays are cowards, says Utusan

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".

Why do Malaysians march?

Read the Sun's Why do Malaysians march?

Kematian Teoh timbulkan pelbagai spekulasi politik

I would suggest people read the article entitled "Kematian Teoh timbulkan pelbagai spekulasi politik" published by Berita Harian and gather their own impressions.

I just find it really baffling that Teoh Beng Hock's death under mysterious circumstances while under MACC custody (for an interview no less) can be insidiously written and turned into an anti-Malay affair. It's fine to accuse the opposition parties of trying to capitalise on the issue in an attempt to undermine the present government, but why mention race? Why must a major newspaper and supposed source of intellectual information in Malaysia fan racial sentiments? The irony is that the article is seemingly decrying racial sentiments - unfortunately, it's by being anti-anti-Malay.

It's also strange that when the whole country doesn't know exactly what happened to cause Teoh Beng Hock to fall out a window, the writer actually seems to imply that it was indeed just an accident (quote: Apabila mangsa kemalangan pula orang bukan Melayu, yang sebelumnya disiasat orang Melayu, bertambah hebatlah spekulasinya.).

Anyway, I don't think that was a very professionally written article - maybe it started off well-meaning, but I think the way it was concluded, and the fact that it was a major publication, made it even more damaging than all the hate messages on the internet. Don't take my word for it of course, just read, and draw your own conclusions.

Justice For Beng Hock

I join the demand for answers and a detailed explanation from MACC of the death of Beng Hock.

Experian Walk-In Interview #4

The fourth Experian walk-in interview is on the 25th of March this week. Yea, sorry for the short notice again :P It will start from 10am to 3pm on the 6th level of the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel at KL Sentral.

The Testability Explorer

Anyone who needs some enlightenment, explanations, or examples on the concepts behind good testable code and dependency injection should definitely spend lots of time reading the blog posts of Miško Hevery. You can start with the following to trigger some light bulbs going off in your head:

• Guide: Writing Testable Code
  
• How to Think About the "new" Operator
  
• Singletons are Pathological Liars
  
• Application Wiring on Auto-Pilot
  
• Dependency Injection Myth: Reference Passing
  
• Static Methods are Death to Testability
  
• Flaw: Digging into Collaborators
  

Programming Sucks! Or At Least, It Ought To

Here's a nicely laid out read for the "creative" developer in us. When it comes to coding, it all really boils down to KISS.

Elizabeth Wong offer resignation

Quoted from the Star, "Selangor executive council member and Bukit Lanjan assemblyman Elizabeth Wong, whose nude photographs are being circulated, has tendered her resignation from both posts, but party leaders have yet to accept it."

A rather sad turn of events. Is this really a politically-motivated smear campaign? The sentiments these days will usually elicit a "yes" answer, even from those who normally sit on the fence. Sure, it could just be a personal revenge done by a single individual. But the fact that many big names (most especially the men) did not outright condemn such a despicable act is by itself, a politically-motivated reaction to distance themselves from the victim. By not affirming and condemning the act as despicable and trying to avoid the issue by mentioning something else, I personally feel that they have insulted all women. "It is despicable to distribute nude photos of a woman without her consent." What is so hard or so politically-incorrect for them to say that?

But these are minor infractions compared to those who seem to love faulting the victims. What? So if I choose to sleep nude and someones snaps photos without my consent and distributes them without my consent, it's still my fault? I strongly suspect that these people also blame rape victims for getting raped, and robbery victims for getting robbed. You know what's really ironic? These people brandish "moral" as their reason.

Experian Walk-In Interview

Experian Malaysia is holding a walk-in interview in the Gardens Hotel at Mid Valley City this Thursday (19th Feb). Check out the link for where to submit the application (of course, if you know me, you better send the resume to me instead *hint* *hint*). Yeah, it's a little too short a notice, but hey, at least I remembered enough to post.

Wishing All A Prosperous New Year!

It's Chinese New Year. The Year of the Ox begins and although most fortune tellers, feng shui masters, and economists predict that bad times are ahead, we should still always be thankful for what we have. Have a very good Chinese New Year celebration! Wishing everyone the best of fortune in the coming new lunar year!

It's our fault?

Ok, I'm probably missing something here. The Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy appears to be the public's fault... at least, that's what our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi thinks it is. Apparently, it's the fault of Malaysians for buying houses with good views built by developers licensed and taxed by the government on land approved by the government.



Yep. Our fault. Why the heck did those unfortunate Malaysians buy those houses? Don't they know that hillsides are dangerous? They should never trust developers who are licensed by the government who are developing on hilly areas approved by the government. I mean, you obviously can't trust them, they're just out to earn your money and can barely be held responsible for building those residential buildings in the first place, never mind the initial approval given by the government, who obviously, can't be blamed for the issue since they just approved the development, and didn't actually build it....

Wait... huh?!



It's even more confusing when you read that the Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak requested that developers not to lobby or pressure the government for any building permits for hillside development. Apparently, the government issues permits for whatever you want when you pressure them enough... I want free broadband! I'll make sure to start pressuring them and see if it works.



Two days now and nobody has talked about how to reimburse the poor residents. No one talked about how to help them through their tragedy. No one talked about taking the responsible parties to court and trying them. Of course, with rescuers like these, I'm not sure if people want them to help further. Remember what happened after the collapse of the Highland Towers? No? Of course not... nothing happened! Business as usual, that's why we're having this landslide tragedy. And 5 - 10 years down the road, I bet something similar will happen again and our politicians will say the same thing again. I sincerely hope the residents will get some form compensation, but given the Highland Towers incident, I am, unfortunately, much in doubt.



LKS posts:

• Criminal negligence
• Too much resignation, too little outrage
  

Warhammer Online - Bottomline

WAR is fun to many of its players, yet WAR is also boring to quite a few. Some guesses about what kind of players who may not like WAR:

• Players who don't like playing alone. Certain servers or periods of time have less players around, so for a large part of the PvE experience, you'll might be doing it alone. This applies to players who don't like to join strangers as well. The party search, public quests, scenarios, etc. are designed to make it easy to group with strangers. Even if you're in a guild, play times are different; sooner or later you'll run out of guildies of the same level to play together (when you're still far from max level 40). If you can't bear to level alone and prefer to only play with people you know, especially if you don't enjoy discovering and reading lore or hunting for Tome of Knowledge unlocks, you definitely won't like this game.
  
• Players who get frustrated by randomness. In Open RvR or scenarios, the warband composition on both sides are entirely random. Due to the careers not being played equally, you'll sometimes find yourself in a situation where there's a distinct lack of healers or tanks. If you don't like losing because you're in an unbalanced or disorganized group, then you might not like WAR's style of PvP. Also, the measure of contributions for public quests and keep sieges appears, for now, to be quite random as well. If you go in expecting an appropriate reward for your contributions, you're just gonna disappoint yourself. Play for the sake of playing, and not for better loot and you'll do fine.
  
• Players who love non-combat skills. In many MMOs, like World of Warcraft, there's a separate set of skills and an "economy" for training "crafting" skills and for acquiring materials for those skills. In WAR, the crafting skills are very simplistic and somewhat unpolished. There's really no depth to it. Don't expect any sophistication with crafting and you'll be happy.
• Players who don't want to pay for an unfinished game. As of right now, even with version 1.0.6 and, I suspect, 1.1, this game is far from polished. Graphics clipping, graphical delays, activation delays, crashes to desktop, login timeout issues, scenario queueing issues, population balance issues, promised content, etc. are significant negatives. The key thing to bear in mind is that MMOs are always under development; just that some are released with more polish. Even World of Warcraft had their own issues when it was released. If you're very picky about such things as bugs and minor glitches, you might want to wait a little. The more people who decide to wait though, may indirectly affect how well the game gets polished.
  
• Players who rush to the end-game. Personally, I think I play at a moderate pace. Not too fast and not too slow. Just enjoying it as it comes and trying to see and unlock everything there is in one place before moving on. Some players simply love rushing through the game, as if not levelling up at least once per play session is a blasphemy. For these people, they'll probably run out of things to do rather quickly. Because for them, it's all about maxing levels and getting loot. These "hardcore" or "powergamers" tend to get bored the earliest. I'm not there yet (halfway at level 21 on my main character), but I've been reading complaints from level 40s that there's not much left for them to do. Don't agree with their complaints but then again, I can't relate to their play style, so this is certainly something to consider.

Anything else? I donno. If you don't fall into any of the above, I think you'll love the game... if you like RPGs, online games, and can bear the subscription cost :P personally, you won't really feel the pinch. Just skip one expensive meal a month and you'll be fine, well.. if you're in the working class that is. Even if you do fall into one of the above groups, try it, you might still like it. I guarantee it'll at least be a distraction for at least a few months as you level up. See in the game!

WAAAGH!!!

More RvR Keep Sieges:

Warhammer Online

The latest patch of 1.0.6 to Warhammer Online is massive, containing balance fixes, bug fixes, general improvements, as well as the addition of two new classes: the Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard, which were previously cut from release due to time constraints.

081128-01-Yvera-Heavy Metal Cloak
Originally uploaded by ab.er.rant

So far, I've been enjoying the game tremendously (yea, the subscription fee is a pain, but bearable). My man character is a Witch Hunter. While Guild Wars still holds a special spot for me, this is definitely something that will tide me over until Guild Wars 2 comes out (at least, that's the plan, who knows, I'm already getting addicted, heh).

What I love about it is that the PvE side is not boring (especially if you love really rich background stories and lore). What's even better is when you get to RvR (Realm versus Realm). Search for videos on Youtube, there's already an incredibly large number.

What I really really miss from Guild Wars (and where EA Mythic can improve) is instantaneous map travel, shared character storage, and more beautiful graphics. Cutting down travel time, better item sharing between characters of the same account, and better art will definitely improve an already impressive game.

And for players around the UTC+8 timezone, there are Malaysian guilds (with a smattering of other nationalities) on the Ironclaw server. For Order, check out Vosian (me in this guild). For Destruction, check out Celestial Order (my Guild Wars guild).

For Warhammer resources, check out WarDB, TheWarWiki, HammerWiki, and the Warhammer portal on GamePressure.

Trailer 1:


Trailer 2:


Tier 4 Keep Siege RvR:

Cyberjaya is an example of poor planning

Now that I've been working for over a month a Cyberjaya, I can safely conclude that this township is an extremely good example of extremely bad town planning. The so-called "intelligent city" isn't very intelligently implemented. I won't talk about the pros; simply because the pros like not having much traffic and being near the Puchong area and Serdang are far outweighed by the cons.

Distance

It is located 50 km away from the Kuala Lumpur. Why in the world did they build it so far? (this applies to our KLIA as well). It's like it's full of buildings. There's ample space to build it 10 km closer, and being 10 km closer may well make it 10 times better for employers and employees alike. The distance between buildings is also laughable. You'd think they were trying to fill in as big a space as they possibly could the way the buildings are spread out. Things are not within reasonable walking distance, especially so when you get scorched by the midday sun in business attire. I wonder if the city planners thought we were in a country that sees very little sun.

Public Transport

You would've thought that this being a new township and all, they'd be smart enough to incorporate efficient public transport into it. Did they? Nope. They brought in sometimes-punctual buses with poorly labeled destinations (neither the buses nor the bus stops). If they're gonna place buildings so far apart, and with Putrajaya being close by and also a new township, you'd have thought someone would be smart enough to put in a convenient LRT system. Nope. Too much to hope for. It was probably decided that everyone either drives or simply loves the (in)frequent buses. It's probably the latter since there's a lack of convenient car parks (and yes, they expect people to walk a lot).

"Intelligent"

I failed to find anything "intelligent" about the intelligent city. The broadband speed is as sucky as it is in other townships (despite the fiber optics cabling). There's absolutely no adoption of any cutting-edge technology. No intelligent traffic lights, no hi-tech security systems in the residential areas, no computer-controlled watering or drainage system... About the only techie stuff there are what the companies there have set up. Oh, and the "funky" and "hi-tech" road names like "Jalan Multimedia".... Road signs give poor directions and don't accurately tell you where's where, until after you made the turn.


Enough ranting. While I think my office is a pleasant place to work, I'm just irked by whoever designed Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. A concept that has incredible potential screwed over by people who couldn't grasp the potential.