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
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".
Kematian Teoh timbulkan pelbagai spekulasi politik
on Monday, 20 July 2009
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.
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.
Experian Walk-In Interview #4
on Monday, 23 March 2009
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
on Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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:
Programming Sucks! Or At Least, It Ought To
on Wednesday, 18 February 2009
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
on Tuesday, 17 February 2009
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.
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
on Monday, 16 February 2009
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!
on Tuesday, 27 January 2009
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?
on Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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:
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:
Warhammer Online - Bottomline
on Friday, 5 December 2008
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:
WAAAGH!!!
More RvR Keep Sieges:
- 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.
WAAAGH!!!
More RvR Keep Sieges:
Warhammer Online
on Wednesday, 3 December 2008
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.
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:
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
on Monday, 1 December 2008
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.
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.
Malaysian political oddities
on Tuesday, 23 September 2008
I can't even begin to list all the obviously politically-motivated issues that's been hogging the headlines lately. It's really tiring to keep hearing stupid statements and silly explanations being offered daily.
RPK is now being forced to serve a 2-year sentence under ISA for allegedly insulting Islam in his blog, where he mostly laments the current state of affairs of the Muslim world from his perspective. Inflammatory perhaps, but I wouldn't call it insulting or threatening national security. That article states that cabinet ministers were "shocked" at seeing the contents of the blog. Strange that no one reported them being "shocked" at seeing Teresa Kok being arrested under the ISA for having allegedly told mosque officials in Kota Damansara, Sri Serdang and Puchong Jaya to tone down the call to prayer. What's really funny about that is that the mosque's involved had actually come out and stated that nothing of that sort had happened. Apparently, according to the "wise" Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, she was arrested for her protection. I've really never even thought that a law like the ISA, which was concepted for tackling communism, can be used for protection of an individual against an accusation that was based on a blog post and a newspaper article based on that blog post. Wow.
Oh, and what about that reporter who reported the infamous "penumpang" statement by the now-infamous Ahmad Ismail? Apparently, reporting (and being a journalist, her job) about an incendiary and insulting remark is immensely more dangerous than actually making the incendiary and insulting remark. It's like saying the reporter of a murder is more than dangerous than the murderer. I wonder why Teresa Kok was arrested for "her protection" about something she was not proven of doing but this Ahmad Ismail was not arrested for doing something he was reported to have done... confusing eh? And after Teresa Kok got released? Some are more concerned with her claims of "dog food" being served than her wrongful detention in the first place. Sad.
And there's so much more I can go about that it's depressing. Hollywood can get a lot of ideas from our politics.
RPK is now being forced to serve a 2-year sentence under ISA for allegedly insulting Islam in his blog, where he mostly laments the current state of affairs of the Muslim world from his perspective. Inflammatory perhaps, but I wouldn't call it insulting or threatening national security. That article states that cabinet ministers were "shocked" at seeing the contents of the blog. Strange that no one reported them being "shocked" at seeing Teresa Kok being arrested under the ISA for having allegedly told mosque officials in Kota Damansara, Sri Serdang and Puchong Jaya to tone down the call to prayer. What's really funny about that is that the mosque's involved had actually come out and stated that nothing of that sort had happened. Apparently, according to the "wise" Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, she was arrested for her protection. I've really never even thought that a law like the ISA, which was concepted for tackling communism, can be used for protection of an individual against an accusation that was based on a blog post and a newspaper article based on that blog post. Wow.
Oh, and what about that reporter who reported the infamous "penumpang" statement by the now-infamous Ahmad Ismail? Apparently, reporting (and being a journalist, her job) about an incendiary and insulting remark is immensely more dangerous than actually making the incendiary and insulting remark. It's like saying the reporter of a murder is more than dangerous than the murderer. I wonder why Teresa Kok was arrested for "her protection" about something she was not proven of doing but this Ahmad Ismail was not arrested for doing something he was reported to have done... confusing eh? And after Teresa Kok got released? Some are more concerned with her claims of "dog food" being served than her wrongful detention in the first place. Sad.
And there's so much more I can go about that it's depressing. Hollywood can get a lot of ideas from our politics.
Tags are difficult
on
Lately, I've been trying to get all my Flickr photos organised but I can't even get well underway. I confess that I can be a real stickler when it comes to data or information organisation, so much so that I have "systems" for organising the books and ebooks that I possess, informal though they may be. I've also put off trying to organise all my videos, CDs, DVDs, but sooner or later, I'll probably do it.
I'm trying to get the photos and video clips all organised but I'm stuck at tagging. Here's Flickr's help on tags. I can get collections and sets mostly figured out on what I want, but tags is really elusive. I think the primary reason is because it's the nature of folksonomy to defy rules. Trying to put in "rules" for how I tag stuff is driving me nuts. Everytime I record down some guidelines for myself, as I work it in, something comes up and puts a damper on my guidelines, forcing me to review again. Argh!!
I suppose having board guidelines is more than enough for tagging and just forget about the specifics and the resultant disorganisation, but I can't help wanting to put in some order. Chaotic alignment I'm not. I really have to settle for guidelines so I can actually finish organising my backlog of "photos to organise"...
I'm trying to get the photos and video clips all organised but I'm stuck at tagging. Here's Flickr's help on tags. I can get collections and sets mostly figured out on what I want, but tags is really elusive. I think the primary reason is because it's the nature of folksonomy to defy rules. Trying to put in "rules" for how I tag stuff is driving me nuts. Everytime I record down some guidelines for myself, as I work it in, something comes up and puts a damper on my guidelines, forcing me to review again. Argh!!
I suppose having board guidelines is more than enough for tagging and just forget about the specifics and the resultant disorganisation, but I can't help wanting to put in some order. Chaotic alignment I'm not. I really have to settle for guidelines so I can actually finish organising my backlog of "photos to organise"...
Free Teresa Kok, Abolish ISA
on Wednesday, 17 September 2008
To all Malaysians concerned about our freedom and future, and friends of other countries, please join our petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/freetkok/petition.html
UPDATE: Good news, she has been released.
http://www.petitiononline.com/freetkok/petition.html
UPDATE: Good news, she has been released.
Want To, Have To
on Friday, 12 September 2008
Things you want to do and things you have to do. It would be ideal if your to-dos can fit into both. Our present society makes it a fact of life that you have to put aside things you want to do for things that you have to do.
Lucky are those who managed to find a large intersection between things they want to do and things they have to do. Blessed are those who find satisfaction and reconciliation with themselves for doing things they have to do instead of things they want to do. These people will find less frustration in life each time they look at the clock at night.
Are these people in better control of their time? Could they possibly have more time to spend? Do these people simply require less to feel content and satisfied? Perhaps the things they want to do are quickly accomplished? Or do they simply have less things they want to do? Perhaps it is a measure of selfishness. To be selfish is to want more for yourself. To be unselfish is to want less for yourself. A person is satisfied by getting what one wants. In that light, a selfish person is harder to satisfy, simply because it takes more to satisfy them. It is rather ironic that unselfish people are satisfied because they want others to have more. But are they really satisfied by the thought of others getting more? Or are they satisfied because their feelings of want are more easily quelled?
How do you make yourself want less? How do you make yourself happy by wanting less? The proper answer is that you should not want in the first place; and to be happy of what you have, not envious of what you don't. Sound advice indeed, but I cannot help asking: Are you happy because, deep down, you already have what you want and want what you already have?
Lucky are those who managed to find a large intersection between things they want to do and things they have to do. Blessed are those who find satisfaction and reconciliation with themselves for doing things they have to do instead of things they want to do. These people will find less frustration in life each time they look at the clock at night.
Are these people in better control of their time? Could they possibly have more time to spend? Do these people simply require less to feel content and satisfied? Perhaps the things they want to do are quickly accomplished? Or do they simply have less things they want to do? Perhaps it is a measure of selfishness. To be selfish is to want more for yourself. To be unselfish is to want less for yourself. A person is satisfied by getting what one wants. In that light, a selfish person is harder to satisfy, simply because it takes more to satisfy them. It is rather ironic that unselfish people are satisfied because they want others to have more. But are they really satisfied by the thought of others getting more? Or are they satisfied because their feelings of want are more easily quelled?
How do you make yourself want less? How do you make yourself happy by wanting less? The proper answer is that you should not want in the first place; and to be happy of what you have, not envious of what you don't. Sound advice indeed, but I cannot help asking: Are you happy because, deep down, you already have what you want and want what you already have?
Golden Boy of MAS
on Friday, 22 August 2008
After reading that news article, I don't know what which I found more amusing: that the resulting ad hoc produced system sounds suspiciously like an amalgamation of open source software, or that MAS, as the national airlines, is still using a paper-based system for maintenance management!!! No wonder the national carrier has always been plagued by financial issues.
I just found it a little ridiculous that the reporter would choose to use a phrase like "design a database solution that rivals commercial systems". If that were true, don't companies around the world feel stupid to have bought all those commercial systems? And just to be helpful to many would-be programmers, try searching for inventory-related management software on Sourceforge.net. You'll be surprised. And want to manage a database? Try phpMyAdmin. Either the reporter or the subject of the feature article had been exaggerating when mentioning "zero knowledge in programming". He studied in APIIT, so come on, no knowledge at all? What exactly do they teach in an information technology-related institute of education? Of course, I'm not trying to dumb down the accomplishments of that MAS employee and his team, it is certainly a strong showing of their dedication and passion for improving their job environment. I'm just a little miffed at the exaggerations of the article.
And for MAS itself? I'm stumped as to how their management had managed to go that many years without even hitting upon the thought that maybe, just maybe, an IT solution would help reduce their cost. That feature article certainly opened up my eyes as to why MAS kept reporting losses - they seem not to have improved with the times. It's rather sad that it had fallen on an engineer of the company to take it upon himself to improve the company's competitiveness. I hope that same management would reward the man and his team handsomely for their dedication and freelance work, rather than just reap the profits. I suppose MAS is happy to know that they hired a group of people willing to sacrifice for their company without expecting remuneration.
I just found it a little ridiculous that the reporter would choose to use a phrase like "design a database solution that rivals commercial systems". If that were true, don't companies around the world feel stupid to have bought all those commercial systems? And just to be helpful to many would-be programmers, try searching for inventory-related management software on Sourceforge.net. You'll be surprised. And want to manage a database? Try phpMyAdmin. Either the reporter or the subject of the feature article had been exaggerating when mentioning "zero knowledge in programming". He studied in APIIT, so come on, no knowledge at all? What exactly do they teach in an information technology-related institute of education? Of course, I'm not trying to dumb down the accomplishments of that MAS employee and his team, it is certainly a strong showing of their dedication and passion for improving their job environment. I'm just a little miffed at the exaggerations of the article.
And for MAS itself? I'm stumped as to how their management had managed to go that many years without even hitting upon the thought that maybe, just maybe, an IT solution would help reduce their cost. That feature article certainly opened up my eyes as to why MAS kept reporting losses - they seem not to have improved with the times. It's rather sad that it had fallen on an engineer of the company to take it upon himself to improve the company's competitiveness. I hope that same management would reward the man and his team handsomely for their dedication and freelance work, rather than just reap the profits. I suppose MAS is happy to know that they hired a group of people willing to sacrifice for their company without expecting remuneration.
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