Showing posts with label people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people. Show all posts
Thursday, December 10
Thursday, November 26
Most feastful weekend, like, ever!
Today, hundreds of millions of people around the world especially in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving Day with feasts of turkeys and gatherings of family members. How I miss those gatherings with friends during college years in the States.... ;)
By the same evening, about 1.5 billion Muslims will celebrate a three-day Eid-ul Adha starting from the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah - the 12th or final lunar month of Islamic Heejrah Calendar marking a three nights and three days of feasts, mainly from the halaal sacrifices of livestock animals, eg. goat, sheep, cow or camel, aka, 'qurban' - "The meat from the qurbani is to be equally distributed among the poor, relatives and ones self." (Wikipedia, 2009)
Hence, four days of celebrations for many, for the entire weekend from Thursday until Sunday!
The Hajj or annual pillgrimage to Mecca are also being performed by millions at this time of the year, from Nov 25th until 29th, 2009.
Happy Thanksgiving & Eid Mubarak!
In Malaysia, we say: Selamat Hari Raya Haji & Korban al-Adha... Maaf Zahir & Batin... (forgiveness seeked)
Jangan lupa pi Masjid esok pagi untuk solat Raya!!
By the same evening, about 1.5 billion Muslims will celebrate a three-day Eid-ul Adha starting from the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah - the 12th or final lunar month of Islamic Heejrah Calendar marking a three nights and three days of feasts, mainly from the halaal sacrifices of livestock animals, eg. goat, sheep, cow or camel, aka, 'qurban' - "The meat from the qurbani is to be equally distributed among the poor, relatives and ones self." (Wikipedia, 2009)
Hence, four days of celebrations for many, for the entire weekend from Thursday until Sunday!
The Hajj or annual pillgrimage to Mecca are also being performed by millions at this time of the year, from Nov 25th until 29th, 2009.
Happy Thanksgiving & Eid Mubarak!
In Malaysia, we say: Selamat Hari Raya Haji & Korban al-Adha... Maaf Zahir & Batin... (forgiveness seeked)
Jangan lupa pi Masjid esok pagi untuk solat Raya!!
Tuesday, September 1
Satu Malaysia
Four months without updates, and finally had the urge to update, and thought this video from Astro radio folks deserves the spot - it's watched barely 3,000 times though since published on YouTube 3 days ago by DemonDJ - not your typical "All Stars", except maybe Aznil kot:
Selamat Merdeka Malaysia!
p/s: haven't been watching youtube much all the months, but think I've watched at least 4-hour straight of video feeds last night, mostly catching up on X Factor Season 6 ones :)
Selamat Merdeka Malaysia!
p/s: haven't been watching youtube much all the months, but think I've watched at least 4-hour straight of video feeds last night, mostly catching up on X Factor Season 6 ones :)
Saturday, April 4
Web 3.0 at Work - "Human does it better" for Focussed News
The news broke out about three hours ago during mid morning (around 10:30 am) at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York:
Immediately, the news was covered by a scores of other news media companies including News 10 Now, The Associated Press and USA Today being among the earliest. Within two hours, over a thousand news sources have covered it, and the count is at over 1,500 as of 3am Malaysia Time (MYT) or 3pm in New York, USA (EST).
However, although the news naturally made it the top-most position in Google News (US Edition), overall news focus was varied to several other topics including "madoff", "obama", "jobs" etc. as the media companies think that people are more concerned about the troubling economy and financial woes with Obama being in Europe (France specifically during G20 stop in London) meeting world's leaders to cook up economy-fixing plans:
But for the millions of Internet users on Twitter, the most revolutionary social media platform to-date (touted the "web 3.0 that people have been waiting for", which is reportedly being actively pursued by media giant Google for final acquisition), the focus topic was unanimous:
It's the mass-shooting and hosting crisis in Binghamton, clearly ahead of all others, similar to previous reportings of the Mumbai raid, several occassional earthquakes and tsunami warnings, possible Google acquisition of Twitter etc.
One of the first tweets on the Binghamton news probably came from BNOnews, a new media service (with over 114,000 followers as of 4th of April 2009) specifically focussed on using Twitter to disseminate breaking news headlines:
Immediately, the original tweet was retweeted by dozens other Twitter users creating ala-MLM chain effect for the news distribution, reaching thousands in the matter of minutes, and could end up to reach a million or so readers in the matter of hours, as observed from the dozens of tweets that continue to be posted every minute to a tune of thousands per hour, or tens of thousands per day!
+binghamton+-+Twitscoop+-+Search+twitter,+see+what%27s+hot+right+now.jpg)
That's Web 3.0 at work... as they say (ripped off DMOZ Open Directory's campaign), "Human does it (the news) better!"
BTW, our heart and prayers go to family and friends of the victims of the Binghamton shooting...
Read more about the Binghamton shootings at world's biggest and most up-to-date encyclopedia, the Wikipedia.
Thirteen people were confirmed dead (including perpetrator), twenty-six wounded, and forty-one were taken hostage by an Asian gunman: 42-year-old Johnson City resident, Jiverly Voong, who later shot himself. Five people, aged from twenty to mid-fifties, were treated for gunshot wounds at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City. (Wikipedia, Apr 3, 2009 - US)A search on Google News revealed that among the first reports came from Elmira Star-Gazette with the headline "Shooting at American Civic Association":
Police are responding to reports of a shooting at 131 Front St. this morning, the site of the American Civic Association. They began staging at Oak and Main ...
Immediately, the news was covered by a scores of other news media companies including News 10 Now, The Associated Press and USA Today being among the earliest. Within two hours, over a thousand news sources have covered it, and the count is at over 1,500 as of 3am Malaysia Time (MYT) or 3pm in New York, USA (EST).However, although the news naturally made it the top-most position in Google News (US Edition), overall news focus was varied to several other topics including "madoff", "obama", "jobs" etc. as the media companies think that people are more concerned about the troubling economy and financial woes with Obama being in Europe (France specifically during G20 stop in London) meeting world's leaders to cook up economy-fixing plans:
But for the millions of Internet users on Twitter, the most revolutionary social media platform to-date (touted the "web 3.0 that people have been waiting for", which is reportedly being actively pursued by media giant Google for final acquisition), the focus topic was unanimous:It's the mass-shooting and hosting crisis in Binghamton, clearly ahead of all others, similar to previous reportings of the Mumbai raid, several occassional earthquakes and tsunami warnings, possible Google acquisition of Twitter etc.
One of the first tweets on the Binghamton news probably came from BNOnews, a new media service (with over 114,000 followers as of 4th of April 2009) specifically focussed on using Twitter to disseminate breaking news headlines:
BULLETIN -- AT LEAST FOUR PEOPLE SHOT, MORE THAN 40 HOSTAGES INSIDE BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK BUILDING.
Immediately, the original tweet was retweeted by dozens other Twitter users creating ala-MLM chain effect for the news distribution, reaching thousands in the matter of minutes, and could end up to reach a million or so readers in the matter of hours, as observed from the dozens of tweets that continue to be posted every minute to a tune of thousands per hour, or tens of thousands per day!That's Web 3.0 at work... as they say (ripped off DMOZ Open Directory's campaign), "Human does it (the news) better!"BTW, our heart and prayers go to family and friends of the victims of the Binghamton shooting...
Read more about the Binghamton shootings at world's biggest and most up-to-date encyclopedia, the Wikipedia.
Tuesday, February 17
Thursday, October 2
All red here on 1 Syawal 1429H
The favorite colours here were RED (shown above by the beauties who visited my house yesterday - the one in pinkish dress if my niece, and the rest are part-time model wife of my cousin and her offsprings) and green here in Balik Pulau, Penang (CLICK FOR OUR GREETING CARD!), when we celebrated the 1st of Syawal month of Islamic calender. It's the celebration of Eidul Fitri al-Mubarak for over a Billion Muslims around the world including some nearly 20-million in Malaysian and over 200-million more in neighboring countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and Singapore.
Happy Syawal to all, and my best wishes to all who celebrate this joyous season of strong brotherhood, friendship, unity and forgiveness. World Peace! (me being a beauty queen/Miss World contestant).
Saturday, August 30
Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!
Salaam 51st Merdeka 2008 (31aug-16sep08) & Ramadan al-Mubarak 1429H (sep08)...
To all Malaysians, enjoy the weeks of celebrations of 51 years of Nationhood (1957-2008), from tonight, 12:00 am, 31 AUGUST 2008 until 16 SEPTEMBER 2008 (Malaysia Day, since 1963)!
MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA!
And to all Muslims around the world, Happy Fasting the whole of Ramadhan al-Mubarak! May God accept your sincere ibadah, and rewards you in hereafter...
Friday, May 30
Seeing light on Malaysia's IT Plan...
Despite the many impressing/marketing efforts by various local government and private bodies to show the world that Malaysia is on the verge of fast-paced development on Information & Communication Technology (ICT), up to the conclusion of the 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) just recently in Kuala Lumpur [proclaimed by its organizers as the "biggest ever" congregation for the Congress' 30-year history], for many Malaysians to-date, there are still much to be hoped for in terms of actual IT infrastructure, specifically with regards to the broadband speed and coverage throughout the relatively small nation (slightly larger than the state of US New Mexico - CIA, 2008) and general IT culture/adoption among Malaysians. [1 (2005)], [2 (2007)] [3 (2006-2007)]
Heck, while newsprints, local media and many independent bloggers (many of whom are locals as Malaysia is growing to become a 'blogging nation') may have sung praises for WCIT as a major world's event [1] [2] [3], elsewhere in the world, many people may have never heard of the event or the organizing body itself, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Both the official website for WITSA and WCIT 2008 command very small web traffic with global ranking average exceeding 1.5M and 400K respectively [smaller numbers signify better ranking] for the past three months (according to Alexa with a third of the traffic to WITSA website comes from the United States and more than half to WCIT2008 website comes from Malaysia, its host nation) despite the big events held for at least three days and attended by at least 3000 "delegates" and perhaps over 50,000 exposition visitors.
Not so popular the event was, WITSA only gets a rather short article in the Wikipedia and there also lacks any dedicated article on "WCIT" --
A search on Wikipedia for "WCIT" only pulls a result of sixteen articles, many of which are unrelated, and the only related ones are MSC Malaysia (an "Multimedia Super Corridor" initiative by the local government, and marketed as one of the major organizer/sponsor for WCIT 2008) and Hannah Tan, a beautiful and talented personality who however failed to pull a significantly large bid for a set of dates with her during a WCIT Gala Dinner held on the second day of the 3-day event.
After all, only Dato' Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairmen of Intel can be considered a major IT leader who made a presence at the event, while the over-hyped appearance by Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, was only in a not-that-entertaining holographic form -- After all, Intel has a major presence/investment in Malaysia while Microsoft has yet to make a significant base except a decent office at KLCC tower (although there has been an announcement during the WCIT week from Microsoft Malaysia for a sizable investment to establish Microsoft Innovation Centre).
[Another key personality, a popular author and Venture Capitalist Mr. Guy Kawasaki was in Kuala Lumpur too during WCIT week, but he was at a separate event called NetBash, organized by among others, the New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) and MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC), but also attended by key officials from the WCIT2008 organizing body, MDEC.]
In comparison, try googling for events like COMDEX/InterOp, CeBIT, CES 2008, Apple WWDC (June 9-13, 2008 - San Francisco) or Web2Expo (upcoming in New York, Berlin and Tokyo)! While the number of delegates who attended each of these events were smaller, they obviously commanded much bigger coverage in the "new media" platform and respective official websites tend to gain higher visits. After all, these events usually pull in much bigger sponsorships, higher delegation fees and more key personalities from the IT industry. Oh well, we can't compete with the US or Europe, can we? ;)
[Author has attended COMDEX (twice, before the show was discontinued in 2003), Web2Expo (the less exciting Tokyo instead of Berlin or SF) and WCIT and look forward to check out CeBIT, CES and WWDC in the near future now that he writes using a Mac Book Pro instead of a Windows laptop, and tune more to Apple TV/iTunes and MIRO instead of Astro TV, i.e. he's fan of latest digital gadgets and software!]
Still, the fact that our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi has been so upbeat on WCIT and the outlook for Malaysia's IT future, having joined a big delegation to WCIT 2006 (Austin) and later graced the entire WCIT 2008, despite a minor distraction in his own political party during its second day of running in Malaysia, do give us Malaysian folks some hope. Bravo also to MSC Malaysia crews along with folks from PIKOM etc. Or perhaps, to the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia instead, in conjunction with its Visit Malaysia 2007 campaign that somehow is supposed to run until Merdeka Day 2008, celebrating the country's 50 years of nationhood ;)
Anyway, we've been hearing and seeing some dramatic changes, and more are to come over the next few years in Malaysia:-
And more speedtest results here after a major upgrade at a local higher learning institution (post WCIT 2008):
The wired LAN which serves the greater campus of about 20,000 students and staff also seem to have doubled in speed both downstream and upstream directions. For uploading to a Penang-based server (outside USM) instead of uploading to a US city (some 15,000km away), a speed exceeding 20Mbps was recorded. Words from the school's officials is that they'll soon get a 1Gbps upgrade. Patient, patient, my good college boys and girls! No words however on whether the school will relax its ban on YouTube or other high-bandwidth traffic like via P2P software etc. on the campus network.
Bravo USM!
How big of a difference on 'going fibre' instead of sticking with mainstream DSL service? Consider that a 4 Mbps (maximum for TM Net Streamyx today) would take about 40-minute for Mac users to update their OS X Leopard 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 (released this week). With a 60Mbps downstream connection on the other hand, took less than 2 minute for a CD-size 400+ MB download!
Proud owner of the latest OS on the latest hardware but in 2-minute or 40-minute?
Now consider that you are to download a ~25/50 GB BluRay quality movie or a 4.4GB compressed version (legal version, of course, via iTunes/AppleTV etc) now that this HD format has become mainstream and adopted by practically all major movie studios today (except in countries like Malaysia which will be about five or more years late judging on its past migration from VCD to DVD), how many days/weeks would you have to turn your PC/Mac on, connected to a 4 Mbps or slower DSL line?
And would you be happy to wait for minutes to view those HD-quality movie trailers/teasers or fun clips like those on Apple iTunes etc, or prefer to view them immediately on mouse-click?
Until we get mega broadband to homes and offices for streaming HD movies, for now, enjoy the following low-res slideshow of snaps from WCIT 2008 (Community photos on Flickr, including several that were captured by author using his decent N95 camera phone):
Heck, while newsprints, local media and many independent bloggers (many of whom are locals as Malaysia is growing to become a 'blogging nation') may have sung praises for WCIT as a major world's event [1] [2] [3], elsewhere in the world, many people may have never heard of the event or the organizing body itself, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Both the official website for WITSA and WCIT 2008 command very small web traffic with global ranking average exceeding 1.5M and 400K respectively [smaller numbers signify better ranking] for the past three months (according to Alexa with a third of the traffic to WITSA website comes from the United States and more than half to WCIT2008 website comes from Malaysia, its host nation) despite the big events held for at least three days and attended by at least 3000 "delegates" and perhaps over 50,000 exposition visitors.
Not so popular the event was, WITSA only gets a rather short article in the Wikipedia and there also lacks any dedicated article on "WCIT" --
A search on Wikipedia for "WCIT" only pulls a result of sixteen articles, many of which are unrelated, and the only related ones are MSC Malaysia (an "Multimedia Super Corridor" initiative by the local government, and marketed as one of the major organizer/sponsor for WCIT 2008) and Hannah Tan, a beautiful and talented personality who however failed to pull a significantly large bid for a set of dates with her during a WCIT Gala Dinner held on the second day of the 3-day event. Even searching for related media on today's popular sharing sites like YouTube, Yahoo! Flickr and Google PicasaWeb would only return a handful of amateur collections from various individuals instead of major organizations.
Have there not been many facts to be permanently recorded for world's civilized history? Or was it because local journalists or international ones who attended the event are still not to comfortable with public crowdsourcing into world's major Web 2.0 productions?
Have there not been many facts to be permanently recorded for world's civilized history? Or was it because local journalists or international ones who attended the event are still not to comfortable with public crowdsourcing into world's major Web 2.0 productions?
After all, only Dato' Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairmen of Intel can be considered a major IT leader who made a presence at the event, while the over-hyped appearance by Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, was only in a not-that-entertaining holographic form -- After all, Intel has a major presence/investment in Malaysia while Microsoft has yet to make a significant base except a decent office at KLCC tower (although there has been an announcement during the WCIT week from Microsoft Malaysia for a sizable investment to establish Microsoft Innovation Centre).
[Another key personality, a popular author and Venture Capitalist Mr. Guy Kawasaki was in Kuala Lumpur too during WCIT week, but he was at a separate event called NetBash, organized by among others, the New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) and MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC), but also attended by key officials from the WCIT2008 organizing body, MDEC.]In comparison, try googling for events like COMDEX/InterOp, CeBIT, CES 2008, Apple WWDC (June 9-13, 2008 - San Francisco) or Web2Expo (upcoming in New York, Berlin and Tokyo)! While the number of delegates who attended each of these events were smaller, they obviously commanded much bigger coverage in the "new media" platform and respective official websites tend to gain higher visits. After all, these events usually pull in much bigger sponsorships, higher delegation fees and more key personalities from the IT industry. Oh well, we can't compete with the US or Europe, can we? ;)
[Author has attended COMDEX (twice, before the show was discontinued in 2003), Web2Expo (the less exciting Tokyo instead of Berlin or SF) and WCIT and look forward to check out CeBIT, CES and WWDC in the near future now that he writes using a Mac Book Pro instead of a Windows laptop, and tune more to Apple TV/iTunes and MIRO instead of Astro TV, i.e. he's fan of latest digital gadgets and software!]
Still, the fact that our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi has been so upbeat on WCIT and the outlook for Malaysia's IT future, having joined a big delegation to WCIT 2006 (Austin) and later graced the entire WCIT 2008, despite a minor distraction in his own political party during its second day of running in Malaysia, do give us Malaysian folks some hope. Bravo also to MSC Malaysia crews along with folks from PIKOM etc. Or perhaps, to the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia instead, in conjunction with its Visit Malaysia 2007 campaign that somehow is supposed to run until Merdeka Day 2008, celebrating the country's 50 years of nationhood ;)
Anyway, we've been hearing and seeing some dramatic changes, and more are to come over the next few years in Malaysia:-
- A day before the weekends when WCIT 2008 delegates were due to arrive, Malaysia's largest and government-linked company, Telekom Malaysia Berhad made a big announcement on Malaysia's Broadband Plan: RM15.2B (about US$5B) for a 10-year two-phases, three-zones infrastructure project to roll-out high-speed broadband (HSBB), powering about 1.3-million premises throughout the country [1][2], with metros like Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang (group under Zone 1) will get HSBB as fast as 1Gbps -- Half (50%) of the nation's six million households will get high-speed Internet in less than three years from now, from 18% or less penetration rate today. Impressive plan! One can argue though: wasn't this 50% penetration target already drafted/promised in the "National Broadband Plan (NBP - pdf)", approved nearly five years ago in 2004? OK... perhaps, we're just on (revised) target...
- TM Bhd of course now also enjoys MSC Malaysia status for its headquarters tower building, renaming it from "Menara TM" to "TM CyberCentre Complex" - sounds like a huge hypermarket-size cybercafe ;) The same status was also award to RM2B-worth I-City development project in Shah Alam, which is one to watch, along with other ready MSC-status regional zones like those in Penang, Ipoh (Meru Raya CyberCentre - hmm, is there a dedicated website for this?) and Johor Bharu (Cyberport).
- And as WCIT 2008 concluded, TM announced appointment of Jeremy Kung as the new CEO for its highly-watched Internet/Broadband-centric subsidiary, TM Net Sdn Bhd, replacing previous acting CEO, Pn Zainab Hashim -- the top-post of this company seems to follow Chief Minister of Sabah rotational scheme: Datuk Baharum Salleh (2002), Michael Lai (2005, later resigned), Zainab Hashim (acting CEO, late 2006) and now Jeremy Kung (2008). Fresh leadership, fresh spirit I suppose...
- Satellite broadband technologies are quite ready. Introducing AIDAAS, one of the stars of WCIT 2008 (which also sponsored the Gala Dinner BTW!)...
[Author has met the young and ambitious CEO, and based on an email from her, you can find her on Facebook, soon, hopefully...]
The technology won't likely be deployed in Malaysia immediately though, perhaps due to an exclusive license awarded to satellite tv operator, Astro Plc/MEASAT ("ASTRO’s subsidiary, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, enjoys an exclusive licence till 2017 for satellite DTH transmission in Malaysia.", Astro website). But we'll be watching a Malaysian company boldly venturing everywhere else including in the Philippines in the near future. - We're getting help and attention:-
- Nokia Siemens has put up plans for WiMAX
- Intel investing in local WiMAX player, Green Packet Bhd (now helmed by Michael Lai, previously from TMNET - parent company of Packet One)
- Long Term Evolution (LTE) will arrive (Ericssons, 2009) - up to 200Mbps for mobile broadband!
- 7.2Mbps HSDPA device has arrived: HTC etc.
Author however prefers to wait for Apple iPhone to arrive in Malaysia though, by late 2008 (as promised?), and hopefully to come with 3G (as rumored) and camera with higher resolution - is 5MP too much to ask?
And more speedtest results here after a major upgrade at a local higher learning institution (post WCIT 2008):
Thanks to an upgrade/switch to OCE (PenangFon), the downstream speed has doubled for this particular Wi-Fi connection, which previously utilizes TM Net Streamyx connectivity.
The wired LAN which serves the greater campus of about 20,000 students and staff also seem to have doubled in speed both downstream and upstream directions. For uploading to a Penang-based server (outside USM) instead of uploading to a US city (some 15,000km away), a speed exceeding 20Mbps was recorded. Words from the school's officials is that they'll soon get a 1Gbps upgrade. Patient, patient, my good college boys and girls! No words however on whether the school will relax its ban on YouTube or other high-bandwidth traffic like via P2P software etc. on the campus network.
Bravo USM!
How big of a difference on 'going fibre' instead of sticking with mainstream DSL service? Consider that a 4 Mbps (maximum for TM Net Streamyx today) would take about 40-minute for Mac users to update their OS X Leopard 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 (released this week). With a 60Mbps downstream connection on the other hand, took less than 2 minute for a CD-size 400+ MB download!
Proud owner of the latest OS on the latest hardware but in 2-minute or 40-minute?Now consider that you are to download a ~25/50 GB BluRay quality movie or a 4.4GB compressed version (legal version, of course, via iTunes/AppleTV etc) now that this HD format has become mainstream and adopted by practically all major movie studios today (except in countries like Malaysia which will be about five or more years late judging on its past migration from VCD to DVD), how many days/weeks would you have to turn your PC/Mac on, connected to a 4 Mbps or slower DSL line?
And would you be happy to wait for minutes to view those HD-quality movie trailers/teasers or fun clips like those on Apple iTunes etc, or prefer to view them immediately on mouse-click?
Until we get mega broadband to homes and offices for streaming HD movies, for now, enjoy the following low-res slideshow of snaps from WCIT 2008 (Community photos on Flickr, including several that were captured by author using his decent N95 camera phone):
Wednesday, February 6
Sesawang Dua Titik Sifar Untuk Perniagaan...
Our first major activity in creating awareness on Web 2.0 (for business) and promoting technopreurship here in Penang was a blast. Over 100 people showed up at the Penang Technopreneurship Dialogue & Web 2.0 Sharing Session 2008, held on last Friday, 1st of February at Level 4, Bayview Hotel, Georgetown. Thank you to MDeC for graciously stepping up with the effort of bringing the movers and shakers from the local scenes, flying them all the way from Kuala Lumpur, and sponsoring the entire event venue and food - good breakfast, lunch buffet and afternoon tea. And USM & PDC for hosting and making sure the event went through smoothly, particularly for the registration and making the guests (& speakers) all comfortable.
We were worried earlier that not many people would show up for an event so focussed on a single technological perspective, instead of the all-in-one ones (with sizable marketing budget) like earlier Penang i-Land 2004, Global Technopreneur Forum 2005 and Penang Technopreneur Forum 2007. But in a prior meeting, so convinced and upbeat I was, I bragged to folks from PDC, MDeC and USM how we'll be able to get the crowd quickly - "No worries - run, and they will follow!" Well, it took us much less than a full week, with the online registration opened to public from the Friday earlier, and the final three days of emailing, calling, and blogging about it from Monday to Wednesday to get people to sign up by ~30s per day -- A good exercise on the power of Web 2.0 I suppose... Now imagine if we had marketed it longer and wider, we'd definitely get hundreds of people to come and talk about the buzzy topic! (but then, the concern would be where would we squeeze these people and how to feed them ;)).
Is Malaysia ready? Is Malaysian businesses ready? Are Penangites ready to take advantage of Web 2.0 and positive trends in technopreneurial ventures to crunch in the numbers - the products and new companies? Take a look at the numbers... I started the sharing with my observation and hyping up the crowd. And I just had to showcase the "Bubble 2.0" video to the audience (amid some technical hickups - no ways to synchronize the play in three laptops at once):
Enjoy reviewing the slides:-
Azrul Hasni from Bill Adam (and formerly from Sun Jtrend) then explored the technicals and explained the buzzes surround Web 2.0, plus shared some of his experience on serving a CTO for a Web 2.0/Mobile 2.0-centric company which markets it products in the UK. Then came Kamal Fariz from Malaysian Ruby Brigade evangelizing the fresh platform which he sort of claimedwould take over the world including the local development scenes by storm. Kamal's presentation was a very light walkthrough on programming using Ruby, but still the crowd looks a bit dazed and fearful when codes start to pop up on the screen - codes that produced great looking photo albums. Khailee finally moved the eyes around as he explored his wild ride in technopreneurial ventures from joining a fast-moving startup post university days up to playing with ideas that bear fruits for his future ventures, perhaps independently (own company) as he had hinted. [though, he might actually end up sticking for a while with Mind Valley]
After a good lunch, (and Jumaat prayer for Muslims), we continued with a dialogue session with distinguished panelists - Colin Wong (Prosperati), Ashran Ghazi (New Entrepreneur Forum), Lilyana (Asia Stream Group), Rizal Alwani (Cradle) and Azrul Madisa. Many questions were thrown in, some were serious, some were downright entertaining, and some were the bits for further discussions. In all, the event was a good chance for the locals to network among themselves, as well as to network with folks coming all the way north from Sintok & Kangar, and south from Klang Valley.
I'll let Azrul & Kamal release their own presentation materials should you desire them - Ask them via email etc. For Khailee's stuff, hmm, did somebody videotaped the whole thing? Or just ask him to pop up at your future events, and he'll do the mumbo jumbo stuff all over again... ;)
And here are the snaps:-
Plus me with other speakers and dialog panelists:
And me with Colin:
BTW, if you've been to the event, but have yet to join in the crowdvine, it's never to late to share with us your profile and network with the rest of the crowd. The address for our dedicated crowdvine is: http://penang20-08.crowdvine.com
And use the following link to subscribe to the blog posts:-
http://penang20-08.crowdvine.com/feeds/show?scope=site&type=post
We'll keep you updated on subsequent events, information, materials upload etc. at that site.
p.s. The 1Mbps "broadband" from TM Streamyx is getting me under 300Kbps download today, during Chinese New Year holiday! No wonder, it's taking me ages to complete this single blog post... Big wonder how this "broadband provider" keep winning awards locally and overseas as the best this and that provider/telco....
We were worried earlier that not many people would show up for an event so focussed on a single technological perspective, instead of the all-in-one ones (with sizable marketing budget) like earlier Penang i-Land 2004, Global Technopreneur Forum 2005 and Penang Technopreneur Forum 2007. But in a prior meeting, so convinced and upbeat I was, I bragged to folks from PDC, MDeC and USM how we'll be able to get the crowd quickly - "No worries - run, and they will follow!" Well, it took us much less than a full week, with the online registration opened to public from the Friday earlier, and the final three days of emailing, calling, and blogging about it from Monday to Wednesday to get people to sign up by ~30s per day -- A good exercise on the power of Web 2.0 I suppose... Now imagine if we had marketed it longer and wider, we'd definitely get hundreds of people to come and talk about the buzzy topic! (but then, the concern would be where would we squeeze these people and how to feed them ;)).
Is Malaysia ready? Is Malaysian businesses ready? Are Penangites ready to take advantage of Web 2.0 and positive trends in technopreneurial ventures to crunch in the numbers - the products and new companies? Take a look at the numbers... I started the sharing with my observation and hyping up the crowd. And I just had to showcase the "Bubble 2.0" video to the audience (amid some technical hickups - no ways to synchronize the play in three laptops at once):
Enjoy reviewing the slides:-
Azrul Hasni from Bill Adam (and formerly from Sun Jtrend) then explored the technicals and explained the buzzes surround Web 2.0, plus shared some of his experience on serving a CTO for a Web 2.0/Mobile 2.0-centric company which markets it products in the UK. Then came Kamal Fariz from Malaysian Ruby Brigade evangelizing the fresh platform which he sort of claimedwould take over the world including the local development scenes by storm. Kamal's presentation was a very light walkthrough on programming using Ruby, but still the crowd looks a bit dazed and fearful when codes start to pop up on the screen - codes that produced great looking photo albums. Khailee finally moved the eyes around as he explored his wild ride in technopreneurial ventures from joining a fast-moving startup post university days up to playing with ideas that bear fruits for his future ventures, perhaps independently (own company) as he had hinted. [though, he might actually end up sticking for a while with Mind Valley]
After a good lunch, (and Jumaat prayer for Muslims), we continued with a dialogue session with distinguished panelists - Colin Wong (Prosperati), Ashran Ghazi (New Entrepreneur Forum), Lilyana (Asia Stream Group), Rizal Alwani (Cradle) and Azrul Madisa. Many questions were thrown in, some were serious, some were downright entertaining, and some were the bits for further discussions. In all, the event was a good chance for the locals to network among themselves, as well as to network with folks coming all the way north from Sintok & Kangar, and south from Klang Valley.
I'll let Azrul & Kamal release their own presentation materials should you desire them - Ask them via email etc. For Khailee's stuff, hmm, did somebody videotaped the whole thing? Or just ask him to pop up at your future events, and he'll do the mumbo jumbo stuff all over again... ;)
And here are the snaps:-
Plus me with other speakers and dialog panelists:
And me with Colin:
BTW, if you've been to the event, but have yet to join in the crowdvine, it's never to late to share with us your profile and network with the rest of the crowd. The address for our dedicated crowdvine is: http://penang20-08.crowdvine.com
And use the following link to subscribe to the blog posts:-
http://penang20-08.crowdvine.com/feeds/show?scope=site&type=post
We'll keep you updated on subsequent events, information, materials upload etc. at that site.
p.s. The 1Mbps "broadband" from TM Streamyx is getting me under 300Kbps download today, during Chinese New Year holiday! No wonder, it's taking me ages to complete this single blog post... Big wonder how this "broadband provider" keep winning awards locally and overseas as the best this and that provider/telco....Tuesday, February 5
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Have a good rest for all Pajamaworkers in Malaysia or everywhere that celebrates Chinese New Year Holidays! Happy & safe travel, and be prosperous...
Friday, January 25
Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008, today (25jan08)
The dialog on the state of broadband, and sharing of experience between participants and attendees is about to start this morning at Nikko Hotel, with guests from various countries especially Japan to enlighten us with their exciting progress in this unchartering of digital territories.
The following is the complete agenda for the day (photo below shows early birds registering at arrival counter as early as 8am):
Asia-Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008
(AP-WBF ‘08)
Objective: To promote the sharing and dissemination of the most up-to-date wireless communication technology, service, market and business information and trend among various stakeholders and industry.
Theme:
Broadband Communications: The Enabler of Knowledge Society
Junior Ball Room, Level 2, Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Programme
| Morning | ||
| Registration | ||
| | ||
| Keynote Session Session Chair: Dr. | ||
| | Keynote address 1 | “"Moving a Major Broadband Agenda - Implementing High Speed Broadband and Broadband to the General Population” Mr. Zamani bin Zakariah Senior Director, MyICMS886, Technology and Standards Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission |
| | Keynote address 2 | “Current Status of Mr. KATAGIRI Koichi, Director for Promotion of ITS Land Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications |
| Opening Ceremony | ||
| Opening – Broadband Communications: The Enabler of Knowledge Society | ||
| Time | Events | Speakers |
| | Opening ceremony | Welcome speech by Prof. Dr. Zaharin Yusoff, President of MMU Dr. Hiroyo Ogawa, Executive Director New Generation Wireless Communications Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Officiating speech by Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, |
| | Tea break & Press Conference | |
| Session 1 Session Chair: Dr. TOKUDA Kiyohito, Oki Electric | ||
| Time | Events | Speakers |
| | Invited Speech (Session 1 – 1) | “Monetizing WiMAX in Mr. Michael Lai CEO of Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (Subsidary of GreenPacket) Green |
| | Invited Speech (Session 1 – 2) | “ARIB’s Activities on Systems beyond IMT-2000 and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Systems” Mr. WACHI Yasuhiko Director, Land Mobile Communications Group, Research & Development Headquarters for Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), |
| | Invited speech (Session 1 – 3) | “Research and Standardization Activity for IEEE802.15.3c mmW WPAN” Dr. KOJIMA Fumihide National |
| | Invited speech (Session 1 – 4) | “Current Dr. SHINONAGA Hideyuki Executive Director, Strategic Planning Division KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc., |
| | Lunch Break | |
| Afternoon | ||
| Session 2 Session Chair: Dr. SHINONAGA Hideyuki, KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc., | ||
| Time | Events | Speakers |
| | Invited Speech (Session 2 – 1) | "Next Generation Dr. MURASE Atsushi Managing Director, Research Laboratories NTT DoCoMo Inc., |
| | Invited Speech (Session 2 – 2) | “Emerging Wireless Technologies : What is the horizon?” Ms. Y. Fern Ko, Technical Insights, Frost and |
| | Invited Speech (Session 2 – 3) | “Broadband Wireless Access Technologies”Mr. NIIMI Kenji Chief Manager, NEC Corporation, |
| | Refreshment | |
| Session 3 Session Chair: | ||
| | Invited Speech (Session 3 – 1) | “Next Generation PHS with Micro-cell Technology” Mr. KAMIMURA Osamu Project Manager / Senior Coordinator Spectrum Planning Dept. WILLCOM, Inc./ PHS-MOU Group, Japan |
| | Invited Speech (Session 3 – 2) | “3G and its Evolution Trend” Mr. Yeow Ooh Sheng Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., |
| | Invited Speech (Session 3 – 3) | “Safety Driving Support System with DSRC” Dr. TOKUDA Kiyohito General Manager, Wireless Technology R&D Division Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., |
Strap your seat beat, and prepare to be blazed by high speed surfing.... (or at least examine how our Japanese counterparts do their thang!)
UPDATE: News report: "KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- The government will concentrate on 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) and at the same time monitor the development of 2.5 Ghz spectrum, said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. Read the entire news article...
Friday, January 18
Search & Pray...
As the millions of Malaysians continue to pray and be on alert, the search continues for the kidnapped victim, Adik Sharlinie as well as for the sketched suspect. May God help us!
Thursday, January 10
New Cars for New Year!
Happy New Hijra' Year 1429 to all Muslims and Muslimahs...
Just wanna say that this car looks cool (and cute!):
(Dubbed "The People's Car" revealed today on 1 MUHARRAM 1429H/10 JAN 2008, pictured with Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group of Companies, India).
And this one retails for just a little over RM8,000! Good for cash buyers, but I'm sure financiers are flocking to approach low-income earners for "take one home today" plans. And for 50 miles per gallon of petrol, it's 'green' too!
But I'm not sure I'd like one without an air-conditioner ;)
'
For many Malaysians, Proton BLM ("Base Line Model" dubbed the "comeback Saga" - I made that up!) would serve as a good new year's gift for well under RM40K - slightly more expensive than an Iswara but cheaper than a Savvy.
Maybe I should get a new car this year...
Just wanna say that this car looks cool (and cute!):
(Dubbed "The People's Car" revealed today on 1 MUHARRAM 1429H/10 JAN 2008, pictured with Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group of Companies, India).And this one retails for just a little over RM8,000! Good for cash buyers, but I'm sure financiers are flocking to approach low-income earners for "take one home today" plans. And for 50 miles per gallon of petrol, it's 'green' too!
But I'm not sure I'd like one without an air-conditioner ;)
'
For many Malaysians, Proton BLM ("Base Line Model" dubbed the "comeback Saga" - I made that up!) would serve as a good new year's gift for well under RM40K - slightly more expensive than an Iswara but cheaper than a Savvy.
Maybe I should get a new car this year...
Tuesday, January 1
Thursday, December 27
Benazir Bhutto: 1953-2007
The entire world is shocked again, this time, two days after X'mas celebrations by Christians and the larger part of the Western world, or a day after "Boxing Day" (which many of us remembered sadly as the day a tsunami perished lives of 200,000 people in South Asia just three years ago).This time, dozens of people were killed in another sickening chaos and terror act of a few, in an attack that also took the life of a prominent political figure of Pakistan whose name is synonymous to Women in Power and Courage (Under Fire). She knew it very well that she put her own life and the lives of many others at stake by returning to Pakistan, but for her, it's something that has to be done, and returned to the homeland she did two months ago after eight years living in exile. Immediately, there was an attempt on her life during her homecoming parade killing 140 people, but she managed to narrowly escaped uninjured.
Today, when most part of the world are welcoming better progress for Pakistan as the nation nears its election time, another attack was reported, first on how Bhutto again might have escaped uninjured just two hours ago, but an hour later on he she was confirmedly killed at the age of 54 either before or during the explosion by a suicide bomber. It's the news of the hour and the day, with new report sposted in news media all over the world, by the dozens every minute, accumulating 1000 online news posts by 11pm (MYT - about two hour after the attack) and adding another 500 in the next 30 minutes, half of which are duplicates.
It's a shocking, and sad day for Pakistan, and for peace-loving people all over the world! A hearty condolence to the families and friends of Benazir Bhutto and the people of Pakistan... May Pakistan sees its peaceful days and years soon.Bhutto's LAST WAVE:
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