How to Trend Twitter - the @ideaShare Way!

1. Get some 70 people or so into one room,
   
   
2. Hook 'em up with the Internet,
   
   
3. Ask each to log in to Twitter.com
   (after creating a new account for the first time, if new user), and
   
   
4. Start tweeting with #ideashare tag!

After some shameless act of self-promotion for twitter names owned/co-owned by facilitators i.e. @cerventus,@myentrepreneurs, @worldisastage, @pieartboy, @michaelteoh, @elevyn_official etc., the not-so-newbies and newbies altogether sent well over 200 tweets with #ideashare tag over the course of over two hours, by which "ideashare" was already trending clearly on Twitter.com and on tag cloud at sites like Twitscoop etc, as observed by below graph, sparking curiosity among twitizens:


There were negative side effects though: The room was so packed with people, that those in the room were suffering internet surfing slowness frustration syndrome (as 20-30 ppl cramping wirelessly the small pipe of 1.5Mbps temporary/dedicated DSL installation at any one time), and to make things worse, the aircond couldn't stand the heat emitted by after-lunch human crowd and broke down, sending the room into the state of microwave and fried most of these brainiacs turning them into crappy tweeters, irritating everyone else in the twitterverse including @kamal, @lukejsmith and @bytebot, among others!

Guess, most of the people in the room hasn't heard about @kevinrose's latest gift to the web 2.0 crowd: @wefollow, ie. http://wefollow.com/tag/ideashare - you don't need to blatantly self-promote your twitter name. Instead, just tag, and you're it!

Need more tag ideas? Try "penang" (or the state you're from, which you can change at a later time) and "malaysia" (we're all Malaysians right? and there's no rooms in twitterspace!)

I'm also surprise why the facilitators were showcasing twitterfall and twitpic websites, when tweetdeck clearly has all of those small gimmicks with growing features like group, search and twitpic. (note: twitpic.com was down at the time of demo!)

The first of the two-day event in conjunction with the MSC Innotech 2009 Interstate - Northern Region event was organized by Kuala Lumpur-based Ureka Labs, and financed by the Cyberjaya-based Technopreneur Development Division of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC), custodian for the MSC Malaysia government initiative.

More information is available at the event-centric/local networking site developed by folks at Eureka Labs, http://ideashare.my

Surprisingly(?), not many people, despite having a horde of 60+ participants at the venue yesterday, are following @netbash or @ideashare (ownership questionable), with just thirteen and four followers respectively as of 7 am on the next day.

And folks @ MDEC neither owns @mdec nor @tedd twitter names, which are both registered by others as early as nearly a year ago (30mar08 for "mdec") -- Should I reveal more brandjackable twitter names??


About Twitscoop:

Twitter was built to help thousands of people answer a very simple question: "What are you doing ?"

Twitscoop was built to help you stay on top of twitter's hot topics or discussions.

Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words which are mentionned more often than usual. The result is displayed in a Tag Cloud, using the following rule: the hotter, the bigger (no joke here).

Thanks to twitscoop and the continuously growing twitter user base, you will soon realise that "What are you doing ?" can have very different answers, from "I'm standing in a queue of 500 to buy Gta4", to "Was that just an Earthquake ?", through to "Hey, Microsoft just acquired Yahoo" (no this didn't actually happen yet).

As a result, twitscoop enables you to stay on top of things in a matter of seconds, often way before the news actually hits the mainstream information channels !

Twitter & Me! @PenangCity (Sun, 22 MAR 2009)

I'll be talking about Twitter, among others, at the Blog Bash 2009 @ Balik Pulau this coming Sunday, 22 MARCH 2009.

If you've never heard of Twitter, watch the following short presentation... "in plain English":



Learn why Twitter is the best thing on the Internet since Email, or the best for mobile phone, since SMS (text messaging).

Learn why Facebook couldn't even acquire Twitter for nearly RM2-BILLION!

Do you know that Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Razak @NajibRazak is also using Twitter, although, not exactly how Twitter can be maximized its benefits! And so does YB Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim @AnwarIbrahim, the popular opposition leader.

On the other hand, President of the United States, Barack Obama use Twitter to first announce his choice for US presidential election running mate just months ago. Today @BarackObama is the most popular person on Twitter, and Facebook too!

Learn how businesses are using Twitter to generate millions of RM in sales.

Join us in Penang!

To attend, RSVP at the official website of Social Entrepreneurs Club of Balik Pulau.

BTW, if you've never heard of the multiple award-winning Rural Internet Centre of Balik Pulau, watch the following video:



See ya in Balik Pulau!

Jalur Sempit IPTA Malaysia

More than three years ago in 2005, I raised my concern to the then Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dato' Seri Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis during the Global Technopreneurship Forum event in Penang on how intolerable the state of Internet connection in Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Status higher learning institutions including Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Consider that when universities in the United States were enjoying 10-MBps or better connection to dorm (hostel) rooms as early as ten years earlier, Malaysian universities in 2005 were having 100Kbps or slower connection to hi-tech labs. In fact, my 50Kbps mobile GPRS connection was at times better than connection to these RM-million equipped computer labs. At the same time, home users were able to subscribe to 1-Mbps (best effort) from providers like TM Net Sdn Bhd.

I was responding on how he should not focus too much of his effort on (less practical) WiMaX roll-out to jungles and villages and might get distracted off the more urgent task (RESPONSIBILITY) at hand, i.e. empower some 600,000 higher learning students with what they critically need, usable BROADBAND! Yang Berhormat's immediate reaction (and very bold if I may add) was that I should not question the rights of Malaysian natives (Orang Asli etc.), but instead should tolerate the fact that those university students (me included, since I was completing my postgraduate program at a local university) can at least have some taste of Internet no matter how horrible it was.

Fast forward 3+ years later, Malaysian broadband scenes still look hopeless, and WiMaX is practically nowhere to be found the country, except only recently starting from mostly Klang Valley (as usual, where many providers don't go further away, like Jaring's Broadband, TIME's Webbit etc.). Instead, people have come to realize that it's WiFi that most people need, including through recent better-late-than-never initiative (political campaign?) by the Penang State Government (although the actual implementation is still very much questionable - where is it??). Considering that Maxis & Celcom are among world's most ridiculous broadband providers offering hi-speed download of total data at just 3GB and 5GB per month respectively (enough for just ONE full day of active use, or just SEVEN days of 8-hour/day web surfing), compared to upcoming DiGi's & P1's at 50GB and more, most people would still have to rely to WiFis at Mamak outlets (private or government-supported via KTAK) at the cost of RM1/hour (electricity at most outlets) or less (just 'teh tarik' etc, and get their stomach bloated with sweetened milk and sugar causing 'kencing manis'). For some who don't mind 'behaving' while surfing, they can make use of hi-speed wifi at most KTAK myBroadband-powered libraries.

At the age of Web 3.0 (starting March 2009), when millions in developed countries of US, UK, Japan, Korea, Singapore etc. are enjoying up to 60MBps average broadband, millions of Malaysians especially those 100,000s of university students in campuses around the country are still crawling at speed well of under 1Mbps and frequent disconnections...

If you don't believe me, see the following rant (do disregard association with a Hitler portrayal - just for laughs!), creative production by a Malaysian Multimedia University (MMU) student - if MMU that's located at the epicenter of MSC, Cyberjaya is in trouble, don't dream elsewhere!:




ENGLISH TRANSLATION/SUBTITLES:

Military official (looking distressed): This week, electricity supply has been interrupted twice (especially) at nights. Today, water supply is also experiencing interruption. The number of students who aren't taking morning showers are increasing.

Hitler: That's OK (looking unimpressed). What's important... has the internet problem been resolved?

Military official : Regarding that... (looking fearful). Internet...
Military official 2: Internet connectivity still experiencing troubles, and the speed... worse than usual.

Hitler (angered and disappointed, putting down his eyeglasses): Those who are staying... outside the hostels (off campus), please... leave the room now.... (MOST LEFT THE ROOM EXCEPT THREE SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIALS and two scared bodyguards)

What's all these!! Can't internet issue be resolved already? We've suffering for so long, and with the Internet speed continue to worsen and worsen! I totally did not expect this! (woman sobbing outside the room, being consoled by another woman). Why is Internet problem not resolved to date? (SHOUTING) Today, I was forced to use the Internet service that's obviously slower than my neighbor's turtle!

Military official (at fast pace): Sir, this internet (slowness) issue has been reported to CITS.

Hitler: I've send that (same) report way earlier! In fact, I've sent thousands of emails!!

MO: But (Sir), at least Internet can still be used for surfing.

Hitler: What surfing, if the Internet waves look slower like there's no wind! (THROWN PENCIL TO THE MAP ON DESK). It's disguisting, you know! All these while, I was able to enjoy playing online games, joining outside servers, mass-massacring people in Counter Strike! Look what happens now, ping results are extremely high! Even worse, when I was enjoying my Internet game, it keeps disconnecting! All my dream to become number one was gone... just like that! If I can do anything my heart desire, I'd strangle my roomate, and murder him! All the while, I was so proudful with Internet in MMU (Malaysian Multimedia University, a MSC-status institution/campus), which was different from home Internet... Now, it's like a long sweet dream, crashed! Disguisting! Not just that, I could die trying to download movies via torrent from outside! They keep blocking that download, and it's insanely slow! And don't get me started with Rapidshare... It takes over a dozen days just to download a single part! How can I be patient with such a a thing?

Woman Outside (CONSOLING ANOTHER WOMAN): It's ok. C'mon... we both stay off campus (outside the hostels), right?

Hitler: This is a very critical problem! Looks like I won't be able to play that Team Fortress 2 game that I've just purchased... It's been very unfortunate! Internet... slowness... If this continues, maybe it's time for me to leave the hostel, and reside in Cyberia (a nearby off-campus condominium). It's been an unfortunate day... (LOOKING DOWN)

I wonder what the KTAK ministers and staff are doing nowadays? Why are they not as vocal as former KTAK minister Tun Dr. Lim Kheng Yaik, against these incompetent national telcos?

Well, sometimes, when facing adversities and hardships, people can indeed be creative! Take the Oscar-awarded Slumdog Millionaire film for instance. Plus, I can absolutely, personally attest to this statement!

Penang Technopreneur Awareness Dialogue @ PDC Bayan Baru (27aug08)

PENANG TECHNOPRENEUR AWARENESS DIALOGUE

Date: 27^th August 2008
Venue: Auditorium, Penang Development Corporation
Target: 120 pax

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Entrepreneurs, Graduates, Final Year Students and Candidates for for TAP and MSC Pre Seed

RSVP @ TechPenang.com

And join the crowd @ penang20-08.crowdvine.com

Enquiries: En. Mairag (USM) @ 04-65304470 / Nasir (ICT Penang) @ 016-41-nasir

Women power!

Got SMSes this morning from a couple of friends. One a lady and one gentlemen. It's about a news article on the today's paper -- Just have to remember to buzz me when seeing news like this I suppose...

It's Sunday morning, and I'm finishing a web development work for a client (My "off days" are usually on weekdays). Once finished, and I can happily go to a Amir's wedding ceremony ("kenduri kahwin" - he had gone through the "nikah" solemn last Wednesday which I forgot to attend -- missed the correct date, but he ended up showing up at my house that very night introducing his bride from my Ayer Itam kampung), and perhaps do some shopping this afternoon before meeting a business partner preparing for tomorrow morning's deal with a local university -- we're supposed to commercialize a visual media enhancement software product, the long 6+ month of negotiations and planning (and acting for the press)!

The few shops selling newspapers are just two-minute away from my house, including a 7-11 (although it only carries The Star, not the New Straits Times), but I figured I can check the specific article out faster by checking out the paper's website. Cool, it's there! "Why waste women power?", the article asks.

KUALA LUMPUR: Picture this: your secretary is typing your correspondence and handling your calls and appointments -- but from the comfort of her home.

Is this possible? Yes, if management takes up a suggestion by Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam.

Dr Subramaniam, who took office on March 18, wants to increase women participation in the workforce and does not want family responsibility to curtail their involvement.

"Sixty per cent of our university students are women, so they must contribute to the country. Women, of course, do face a dilemma once they have a family. And many choose to stay at home because of their responsibilities," he said.

So Dr Subramaniam is calling on the private sector to take jobs, through outsourcing agencies, to women who choose to be homemakers .
"Another successful overseas concept is 'home office'. This means people take work home and work from there."

He hopes the private sector will lead the way.

"Industries and management have to change their mindset. They must, for instance, say, 'Yes, the secretary will not be in the office tomorrow but she will be doing the job from her home'."

Flexi-hours are another option.

..."

A positive start from the local government!

[Dr Subramaniam's deputy is a woman BTW, a famous one too - chief of Puteri Umno, Datuk Noraini Ahmad]

Now, we need to work on reviving the Pajamanation initiative... But reading Andy's blog post, I wonder too, "What's Walter up to these days..." (He's now with OLPC, another good cause on getting cheap laptop for kids around the globe, btw... but his personal website and blog are off at the moment!)

Heck, if I can make a decent earning at home, full time (I only go to my office some 20 minutes away once or twice a week - I hate the peak hours traffic!), many more can too, perhaps...

(working while at the same time not missing SUKMA (website is down!) live coverage on my LG LCD TV, catching up with MacBreak Weekly on iTunes and entertaining guests who arrived from Sepang last night - my sister with her daughter...)

Olympics 2008, starting with ICT in Kuala Lumpur

Phew! Time flew really fast, and it's already mid-may: time for international events again now that it's closing in to summer season for northern hemisphere -- the few months when folks from North America and European countries just love to travel for fun (college lads!) and casual business networking... (corporate and SMB guys)

And it starts with a BANG here in Malaysia, heating up with news feeds on prime time TV and prints, and the so-called new media, ie. blogs too... And this photo adds to the fresh sighting:



NEWSFLASH: Over 3000 delegates from all over the world will congregate in Kuala Lumpur this week for during the 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008)... And the exposition booths are expecting some 50,000 visitors!

And I get to be one of them, as usual... ;)

This is to confirm that we have received your registration details on WCIT 2008 Online Registration
18/05/2008
Account Information
Username : NASIR.SOBRI
Salutation : Mr.
First Name : NASIR
Middle Name :
Last Name / Surname : SOBRI
Name On Badge : Nasir Sobri

I'll let the newsprints offer you some previews:

View

BTW, the big crowd at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) will not be just for WCIT forums. There are thirteen WCIT-related events too. For instance, the United Nations GAID Annual Meeting & Global Forum on 19 & 20 MAY 2008 -- quite a sequel to the GK3 event last December 2007 (also at the same venue):


OK, time to start driving to KL, some 300-km away... More updates to follow!

ELECTION 2008: Web 2.0 Part II (alpha)

It's official: The ruling coalition party that secured the biggest win/mandate in Malaysia election history just four year ago had just been given the smallest win/mandate today after the "new" Malaysians went to polls on Saturday, 8 MAR 2008 -- One could say that was the biggest setback for BN in Malaysia's modern history too. Politically, Pak Lah had certainly set up his biggest legacy - being the leader of this 'winning' party during both extremes, back-to-back!

Believe it or not too, Web 2.0 could have made this very big difference a reality. Of course, we'd need to investigate more to verify such statement which I'm sure many are already working towards it, and I'd think that I'd been doing that as well, time-permitting...

For now, let's just enjoy a quickie laugh (you'd only understand most of the jokes if you're Malaysia though...) reminiscing the few intense few weeks:

Penang Technopreneur Dialogue & Web 2.0 Sharing Session @ Bayview Hotel, Georgetown (1feb08)

This will be the first event of its kind in Malaysia specifically on Web 2.0 & RubyOnRails development platform, in addition to the many Technopreneur Forum/dialog over the past couple of years. At least a hundred web-enthusiasts, technopreneurs, ICT graduates, academicians are expected to congregate in Penang and share knowledge as well as concerns on the road-ahead vision on web & technopreneurship development arena especially in the northern region of Malaysia covering the states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak (northern), which were recently grouped under North Corridor Economic Region (NCER) for balanced and progressive overall development.

This event has been initiated and funded by Multimedia Development Corporation Malaysia (MDeC - the government agency overseeing the Multimedia Super Corridor initiative), and is to be co-hosted and co-organized by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and InvestPenang Berhad.

A long time technopreneur who's now taking the key operations of technopreneur development at MDeC, Mr Roslan Bakri Zakaria, in his capacity as General Manager of TeDD-MDeC, having had a personal crash overview of Web 2.0 revolution through visits to Web2Expo San Francisco & Tokyo just last year, will spark the fire which hopefully will continue to burn and push technopreneurs to embrace the information revolution (2nd generation, supposedly) that's taking over the world especially since "You" has been named as the TIME Magazine Person of the Year in 2006.

Web 2.0 enthusiasts including Nasir (ICTpenang.net & Pajamanation Malaysia) and Azrul Hasni (a Java "sifoo" who's now with BillAdam as its CTO) will then take the floor to share their own personal experience and observations.

Master developers including KhaiLee (Mindvalley) and Kamal Fariz (Ruby Brigade) will then share their technical expertise and visions on web development trend and strategies.

After some wild ride on buzzwords and codes, and a good Friday afternoon rest, we'll get back to reality on funding for tech projects. Mr Colin Wong (Seattle-based Prosperati) along with Ashran Ghazi (NEF), Lilyana Latif (Asiastream), and Rizal Azwani (Cradle) will share with the attendees, some insights on funding or getting funded for their bold projects.

Add the event to your calendar

or subscribe to calendar.ictpenang.com for more related events pertaining to ICT and technopreneurship, especially in Penang.

There are still a few more seats left. Register today!

Rojak RTM: Futej

Siaran media (TV & Radio) nasional, RTM tampaknya terus-terusan ingin mewartakan kepada orang kita betapa wacananyalah yang mempelopori perkembangan bahasa Melayu (atau bahasa Malaysia mengikut Menteri Penerangan semasa, Dato Seri Zainuddin Maidin, selaku pegawai kerajaan yang bertitah untuk saluran rakyat terbitan RTM... Kalau sebelum ini, kita dilemparkan dengan kosa kata tunggang terbalik ala pasembor seperti "infotaimen" (yang kemudiannya ditukar kepada "inforia" hasil gesaan ramai/DBP, kononnya nak lawan dengan "sureheboh" TV3 -- yang juga kemudiannya ditukarkan kepada "jom heboh"), berita perdana jam 8 hari ini pula berkali-kali mengulangi perkataan baru untuk rakyat Malaysia: "futej" yang kononnya sesuai dipinjamkan dari perkataan bahasa Inggeris "footage".

Kreatif? Misalnya "coffee" dijadikan "kopi" -- cukup menjimatkan huruf! Dan "budget" tak lama dulu dicadangkan oleh Tun M, bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia, untuk dieja sebagai "bajet", lebih ringkas daripada perkataan "belanjawan" (boleh disilapfahamkan sebagai "tukang belanja" kalau dibandingkan dengan perkataan seperti "usahawan" dan "angkasawan") misalnya.

Tapi mungkin tukang kreatif RTM tak cukup faham bahasa Melayu! Yang menjadikan bahasa Melayu tulisan Jawi unik, tak "sebijik" macam bahasa Arab ialah penggunaan beberapa huruf yang tak ada dalam huruf-huruf Arab: "p" (misalnya, orang Arab mengeja "Pepsi" sebagai "bibsi" dan "pound (Ib)" sebagai "bound", "cha" ("jim" bertitik tiga) dan "nga" ("'ain" tiga mata kalau dilawakkan ikut Tan Sri P Ramlee). Justeru, perkataan "coffee" dimelayukan menjadi "kopi", bukan "kofi" atau akan berbunyi seperti perkataan pinjaman Arab: misalnya "fasik" atau nama orang seperti "Faruk" atau "Fatin".

Berbalik kepada perkataan "futej", mungkin, pemelayuan yang betul menjadikan "footage" sebagai "putej", bukan "futej"! Lagipun, kalau digugelkan (di"google"kan), perkataan "Futej" boleh disilapfahamkan sebagai nama keluarga ("surname") untuk orang-orang misalnya di Republik Slovak - Malah, ada syarikat guaman di Slovakia yang didaftarkan sebagai "Futej & Partners"! (Nak kena saman kot RTM ni!!)

Hmm, tapi "ferry" kenapa jadi "feri" dan tak pula jadi "peri"? Apa nak buat... Terlanjur perahu boleh diundurkan, terlanjur kata, rosak bahasa ibunda!

Untuk pakar-pakar bahasa di Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, apa saranan anda? Kalau mengikut kaedah semasa, nampaknya, belum ramai yang menggunakan perkataan "putej" atau "futej" sebagai pinjaman untuk perkataan Inggeris "footage", jadi kita masih perlu tunggu lama dan lihat. Pilih-pilih! "Mari kita tengok SIAPA yang kena..."

Which 'city' is the BROADBAND CAPITAL of Malaysia?

If you've guessed Cyberjaya being it is the first and foremost zone for Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project, or Kuala Lumpur being it is the largest city (and capital city of) in Malaysia [note: Putrajaya is the administrative capital city of Malaysia], you're a bit off by well over 300 kilometres!

The answer is Penang (or its "cities")!

As you might have known, since 2005, several zones in Penang Island and Seberang Perai had been gazetted as Penang Cyber Cities (PCC) by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC), as the first of its kind outside of Klang Valley (CyberJaya, KLCC, Technology Park etc).... [And I get to brag about it being my home town as well as my birth origin!]

Surprisingly though because neither Pulau Pinang (Penang Island) nor any of the towns in this world-famous travel destination are officially a "city" by administration or municipal governance, i.e. managed/maintained by Municipal Council of Pulau Pinang (MPPP) instead of a city council ("Majlis Bandaraya" in Malay language).

On the other hand, "Georgetown" or "Tanjung" as the capital of Penang is affectionately known for by the locals not to long ago had also been occassionally called "Bandaraya" (literally meaning "city") as showcased on several road signs, names of structures etc. (e.g. "Stadium Bandaraya"). In fact, Georgetown had been a city for a few decades since before Merdeka until around the 70s, when MPPP and MPSP (for Seberang Perai/Province Wellesley) were established by the state government for the task of municipal development. Such names and road signs had though continued to stay around until early 2000s when they were starting to be changed to "Georgetown" instead of "Pulau Pinang" or "Bandaraya", for instance, on road directional signs near the Penang Bridge.

Skipping the name sakes or "city vs. town status" for Penang, let's see what speedtest.net revealed in its latest broadband speed results:-

From the chart above, Penang clearly leads way ahead in terms of average Internet download speed at nearly 3-MBps -- more than double what average users in Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan (WP) are getting. Surprising eh? Not so... After all, despite the number of broadband users leading in Selangor (home of Cyberjaya town and the cities of Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya) and WP Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, there are more large multinational manufacturing companies in Penang, exceeding 200 in the towns of Bayan Lepas, Batu Maung and Prai etc. There are also many more high rises (buildings with ten or more floors) in Penang than in Kuala Lumpur etc, making Penang a top-25 "city" vs. KL ~ top-80 in the world in terms of the number of high rises. Such availability of high rises has made Penang a perfect candidate for fiber optic-backed wireless service which companies like PenangFon (subsidiary of MetroFon) had starting to take advantage of over the past couple years for instance.

Again, from chart above, a "cities" comparison shows that Penang towns dominate 60% of the top-10 ranking for Internet downstream speed in Malaysia, including for #1 until #5. Likewise, Penang also dominate the average upstream speed for its users similar to the downstream pattern.

Not just that, a Penang-based company/connectivity also ranks #1 in Asia, ahead of providers in Japan for instance. However, as I've noted in my previous blog during my brief visit to Tokyo, Japan clearly leads in average Internet connectivity speed surpassing 11Mbps, more than twice Internet users are getting in Singapore, the second fastest country in Asia in terms of Internet connectivity, with Hong Kong and Korea trailing closely behind -- All top-10 regions in Asia in terms of Internet speed are also in Japan (which is also fastest country in the world in terms of Internet connectivity speed, far ahead at more than twice the download speed compared to Singapore, France, Germany and the US at the bottom four in the top-10 global rank)!

Oh well, back to reality in Malaysia, it seems that it's not bad after all to be stucked in Penang all these years instead of following the steps of many who have migrated to Klang Valley in pursuit of better things that MSC is supposed to offer. However, as I've neither live in a high-rise nor in a city-like town (eg. Bayan Lepas, Gelugor, Georgetown etc.) any longer, I still have to settle with a ~1-Mbps downstream connectivity that TM Streamyx is offering at present.

It's worth to note that except for Penang which has superb fiber-optic choices, particularly for use by those big MNCs, Klang Valley and other areas of Malaysia are depending on DSL (mostly by TM, largest Government-Linked Telco), mobile broadband (200Kbps - 3.6Mbps for GPRS Edge or 3G-3.5G/HSDPA), iBurst (eg. Izzi etc), WiMAX etc.

At present, I still haven't migrated to 3.5G since I still haven't had the time to visit Celcom or Maxis to get them to bring me HSDPA in Balik Pulau without me having to ditch my cool DiGi vanity phone number (that phonetically spells both my name and commercial company brand!) -- still am waiting for the Number Portability scheme to reach the mobile scenes in Malaysia. And Streamyx at RM98/month (including the ridiculous service cut double penalty - only by TM, the monopolistic Telco of Malaysia.) is all I got besides the decent DiGi Edge that charges me as much as RM149/month -- Worse if compared to regions in North America, Europe, East Asia Pacific and Australasia, but not too bad if compared to elsewhere including South America and Africa.

This ends my sporadic spur of the moment rambling (and usual critiques) on the state of broadband in Malaysia.

I know, I know, I still owe you guys my good readers, comprehensive coverages from my back-to-back full week of ICT-centric social networking and learning experience through the events of Sifoo-Microsoft, PIKOM PC Fair (both in Penang and KLCC), ICT for Development (i4D) Film Festival, World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF3), Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) Event on the Future (GK3), MiRC Penang ICT Week (including the Arabian Night at Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel), ICT Penang Meet @ DPMMPP etc. But I still have more networking to go thru during remaining of this week including TechBiz Penang meet @ PSDC, and miscellaneous MiRC Penang ICT Week events on Monday and Tuesday -- It seems that I had so little time to write when having to meet so many people from all corners of the world (I must have shaken hands and/or exchanged smiles/name cards with over 100 individuals from 50+ different nations, from students/young social entrepreneurs up to ministers of respective countries in the course of a single week), starting with conferences every early morning to gala dinners every evening. But, am anxiously waiting for Eid and Xmas 5-day holiday during which I'll hopefully have more time to write: blogs, business plans, company financial accounts etc. (unless of course if I were to take another vacation away from home).

Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER)

Today's an 'awesome' day for many in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia after years of envying mega regional projects in central region (Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and Sepang) and later southern region (Iskandar Development Region in Johor) -- It's the day for the launching of Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) to cover the states of Perlis, Kedah and Penang and northern region of Perak. After the launching activities in Alor Star and Kangar earlier today, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi will resume launching activities in Butterworth, Penang and Kerian, Perak tomorrow.

Wilayah Utara Malaysia adalah kawasan yang kaya dengan anugerah alam dan tinggi dengan potensi. Jika diberi peluang untuk berkembang dengan lebih giat, kemajuan wilayah ini akan dapat meningkatkan tahap daya saing negara dan memastikan hasilnya dirasai rakyat dengan lebih seimbang. Inilah rasional utama bagi penubuhan Wilayah Ekonomi Koridor Utara.

Pembangunan Koridor Utara juga akan menumpukan perhatian ke atas isu-isu sosial seperti pembangunan desa, modernisasi pertanian dan kemiskinan. Isu-isu ini harus ditangani melalui pendekatan yang lebih berkesan dan mesra-pasaran. Ke arah ini, penggubalan Rangka Tindakan Koridor Utara telah diterajui oleh sektor swasta bagi memastikan bahawa program-program yang dibangunkan berlandas prinsip-prinsip yang mampan dan komersil.


Yang Amat Berhormat
Dato’ Seri Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi
Perdana Menteri Malaysia

The North of Malaysia is a region rich in resources and potential. If the region is given opportunity to flourish, the country’s overall competitiveness will be strengthened and prosperity will be better distributed. This is the main rationale for the formation of the Northern Corridor Economic Region.

The development of the Northern Corridor will also focus attention on social issues such as rural development, agriculture modernisation and poverty. These are areas that must be addressed with improved, market-led approaches. To this end, the Northern Corridor Blueprint was spearheaded by private sector input to ensure the development of commercially sustainable measures and programmes.


Yang Amat Berhormat
Dato’ Seri Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi
Prime Minister of Malaysia

Of all the details of this mega-plan, I'm most interested in the infrastructure that's coming up to this region.

We won't get additional (small) airports in remote areas like Balik Pulau or towns in Perlis...

But commuter and monorail trains are coming. Though, before folks in Balik Pulau get excited seeing the blue lines seemingly touching Balik Pulau, the line actually stops at Farlim, Air Itam. I had wish the we'd have train lines connecting the island of Penang and Seberang Perai, but we'd instead get a second bridge, one that is to supersede the existing Penang Bridge to be the third longest in Asia, bringing the number of bridges in Malaysia in the top-10 longest bridges in the world to two at number nine and ten respectively. And if only the high-speed trains would continue until Bukit Kayu Hitam and Padang Besar, the northern region would prosper at high pace... but I suppose, the thoughts that more people would go to tourism destinations in Thailand instead would spoil some of the benefits, entirely at our cost (unless if Thailand would share the financial cost and link it up all the way to Bangkok ;-))!

Though, Rapid Penang is going to be launched and start service tomorrow. Still, the routes doesn't seem that enticing for BP-ites as in order to reach Georgetown, they'd still need to go through the long routes using -- passing through the bumpy and dangerous roads of Genting and Teluk Kumbar, and a long trip from south of the island. An alternative public transport method is by taking Rapid Penang to Teluk Bahang, and another bus or two in order to reach destinations in Georgetown. I was imagining that Balik Pulau would be a major settlement area should the train or public bus routes would connect the growing district at the other side of the island to the high-growth areas of Bayan Lepas and Georgetown.

For now, residing in Seberang Prai, which would be a major transportation hub of the NCER seems rather enticing...



I really look forward to cruise the seaside expressway though, to enjoy good seafood in Kuala Perlis or make more ferry trips to Langkawi from Kuala Muda, Kedah. And shouldn't TEKIH connects with the 'Spine' expressway near Baling so we may make more trips to Ulu Legong Hot Water park. Hmm... I wonder what's in or will be of Kota Putra at the northern tip of Kedah.

Read the entire details on NCER (WEKU) blueprints from NCER brochure or read the entire launching speech by Dato Seri Abdullah today (in Malay Language)

Or browse the news clips below, as published on various media sources for a period of two weeks, from 11 JUL until 25 JUL 2007, as a prelude to this launching day:



More related updates from the online press over the past two weeks:

• NCER Makes It Easier For Investors To Decide
• I Ticked Off MAS To Convey People's Displeasure - Zam
• NCER To Have Five Growth Corridors
• Malaysian shares close mixed on NCER boost
• Padang Besar To Become Halal Logistics Centre
• Abdullah launches NCER website
• Impact Of NCER Can Be Seen In Three Years
• RM177 Bln Investment Expected To Flow Into Northern Corridor
• Micro-Electronic Excellence Centre To Be Set Up At USM
• Malaysia to fund northern development
• Mardi looking to establish national seed genebank
• AGRICULTURE-MALAYSIA: Big Top-Down Farm Revival Powered By Business
• Malaysia in $51 Bln Plan to Transform North Belt
• Penang boost for MRCB with NCER launch
• Penang set for transformation into an integrated ...
• Volatile week ahead
• NCER To Transform Northern Region Into Modern Food Zone
• Better Infrastructure, More Connectivity Under NCER
• Northern corridor to draw RM177b investments
• Malaysia launches massive northern development plan
• Improving Farmers' Incomes Is Among NCER Steps
• NCER Blueprint Tackles Both Flood And Drought Problems
• Manufacturing Sector To Be Strong Growth Driver For Northern Corridor
• NCER To Diversify Into Modern Services, Focus On Tourism And Logistics
• Abdullah: NCER Programmes To Be Reviewed From Time To Time
• Highlights of the NCER
• Whole of Kedah waiting for Northern Corridor spin-offs
• Change comes to rural heartland of Malaysia
• No New Airport And Port In NCER, Says Masterplanner
• NCER To Re-energise Tourist Attractions
• NCER big boost for Penang
• Property market set to sizzle
• NCER Will Also Benefit Southern Thailand, Sumatra - Koh
• Malaysian shares close down sharply after Wall St, global markets ...
• NCER To Be A Boon For Rural People In Four States
• Perlis plans RM70m for proposed seed academy R&D
• Homing in on homestays
• Malay Entrepreneurs In ICT To Gain From NCER
• Reinventing and boosting tourism in the northern region
• Property firms to get NCER benefits
• Prosper-thy-neighbour is Penang’s strategy
• Farmers still waiting for that golden harvest
• Touch of IT for 400 school children
• Northern Corridor Development Pushes KLCI To New High
• Japanese Companies Keen To Invest In Penang, Says Koh
• LCL targets book order of RM1b by year-end
• 'Outperform' on Hunza Properties
• Moving up the manufacturing value chain
• Sime Darby Sees NCER From Foreign Investor Perspective
• Big Plans To Modernise Rural Farming Up North
• Small farms, big business
• Nestle, Tesco deal directly with farmers to bring down prices
• Harnessing cyber cities : Penang's plan
• Creating a modern food zone
• USM Research Findings Good For North Corridor
• Planting hope in the padi belt
• RapidPenang ready to hit the streets on July 31
• Northern corridor ‘to help 63000 farmers’
• Penang to become logistics hub
• Penang poised for makeover
• Northern Corridor Blueprint Set For Launch Month-end

If you're in this affected region, we'd like to hear from you: how will this initiative affect you - your family, your job and/or your business? How will this affect general economy and business environment throughout Malaysia?

Disabilities not a barrier to success

A blog post by Zul Musa at SkorCareer.com pointed me to a story that many of us would have otherwise missed, one published a month ago on The Star.

Consider that Kamaruddin Ibrahim, a 47-year old disabled man is working fifteen hours a day growing his car repair workshop business in Kota Bharu, Kelantan (while plentiful other fully able youths from that northern town are migrating to big cities like Penang and Kuala Lumpur). With his determination for fifteen years, this father of six who has been cheated by a 'friend-cum-business partner' in his previous venture, and while still having a hard to time to even stand or walk properly is able to employ five workers including a 50-year old disabled man.

If this guy can succeed in business, anyone can!

And with ICT and skills many of us have acquired or is acquiring in colleges and universities, there should be many of us Malaysians able to chart our own entrepreneurial career and own business. No excuses now!

At Pajamanation Malaysia, disabled workers are one of the groups we want to devote our energy to assist. We believe, many of them are capable of insourcing and delivering excellent microjobs to the existing 100,000s of business entities in Malaysia. eHomeMakers.net for instance is already focussing on this group of workers, especially women. We plan to work closely with similar not-for-profit groups and government agencies to realize this goal of providing the fair opportunities to all Malaysians not minding their physical abilities, gender or ethnicity.

Join us today at Pajamanation.com and contribute in the healthy business and employment environment in Malaysia. It's FREE BTW!

Sudahkah anda e-Hasil? (e-Fail Cukai/e-File Tax)

Pajamaworkers or pajama enterprise's owners, including bloggers, internet marketers, freelance writers, paid surfers etc. in Malaysia who have made some earnings during any period of last year (2006), according Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN, ie. Inland Revenue Board (IRB)), would fall under the category of "Individual with income from business source" and thus have to file a B form by or before 30 JUN 2007 (TOMORROW!) instead of BE form (for "Individual with income from non business source (e.g. employment) ") about two months earlier) to LHDN.

The law is strict and the penalties for failing to filing ("FAIL to FILE") your taxable income is severe, per the Income Tax Act 1967 with the following related excerpts:

114. (1) Any person who willfully and with intent to evade or assist any other person to evade tax-

1. omits from a return made under this Act any income which should be included;
   
   
2. makes a false statement or entry in a return made under this Act;
   
   
3. gives a false answer (orally or in writing) to a question asked or request for information made in pursuance of this Act;
   
   
4. prepares or maintains or authorizes the preparation or maintenance of false books of account or other false records;
   
   
5. falsifies or authorizes the falsification of books of account or other records; or
   
   
6. makes use or authorizes the use of any fraud, art or contrivance,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than one thousand ringgit and not more than twenty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both, and shall pay a special penalty of treble the amount of tax which has been undercharged in consequence of the offence or which would have been undercharged if the offence had not been detected.

For last minute folks (like me), sweat not:-

• Despite several mishaps, incidents, difficulties etc., LHDN has been working hard to make the filing process easier for Malaysians, including the latest introduction of e-Hasil or e-Filing service for individual taxpayers beginning 2004, which happens to be one of the top-10 government electronic services being used by Malaysians today -- and of course, including improving the e-Hasil system itself despite recurring security flaws as reported at WhattaHack (on 7 APR 2007 and later reportedly resolved on 16 APR 2007), hence the popular negative grading of "e-FAILed for LHDN's e-FILE" to make it "Easy, Safe & Accurate". Many users of e-Hasil have also reported some noticed improvements (eg. by Sahaban.com's Gaman on his last-minute e-filing experience and a review by chentong of FinancialPlanningMalaysia.com by despite many more improvements being desired for and some funny incidents regarding spelling (eg. Ranhill — as R for Rumah, A for Ayam, N for Nangka, H for Holland, I for Itik, L for Lain Lain.) and LHDN's suggestive wording for a male e-filer to "Tambah Isteri" (add a wife).
  
  
• LHDN's offices will be opened until 8 pm tomorrow, 30 JUNE 2006.
  
  
• If you've missed the deadline for getting the e-Filing PIN via e-mail/fax/mail, you may simply pickup a phone and contact LHDN (dial 1-300-88-3010 -- NOT TOLL FREE although noted such on its website, but at a local call rate for TM fixed phone line) to get the in PIN in just minutes -- the easiest way if you'd ask me (instead of email/fax or going to the LHDN branches themselves).
  

After you have completed your due responsibility of e-filing, tax-filers are welcome to fill out and submit a survey form to LHDN to "further improve the quality of services rendered."

Be a good citizen -- a responsible good pajama worker, okay?

LHDN's SHORTCUTs:-

• e-Hasil in Bahasa Melayu (e.hasil.org.my)
  
• e-Hasil in English
• Budget 2007
• Report tax evasion
• To pay for your income tax (e-Bayaran): FPX, CIMB or Public Bank
  
• Forms & guidebooks (if you still prefer the manual way)
• EPSEM (Coming soon?)
• To submit a complaint or enquiry to LHDN.
• Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid's (aka LAT) Illustrations regarding LHDN
  

Happy e-Filing!

Happy Worker's Day - 1st of May, 2007

We here at Pajamanation Malaysia would like to wish everyone in Malaysia, and those in the countries around the world that celebrate this May Day as a common International Labour Day, Happy Worker's Day! (or as they say it in Malay: "Selamat Hari Pekerja/Buruh").

[[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day#International_Workers.27_Day ]]

As a pajama/microworking advocator, we believe that everyone is a worker on their own conscience, NOT somebody's, some other company's or any country's labor ("minyak cap buruh?"). Today, workers have the ultimate power as recognized by employers and governments worldwide. As workers unite, they represent a powerful force in every working nation.

Go ahead, say thanks to your employees and countrymen and show how you appreciate their contribution to productivities. And to every microworkers and self-employed entrepreneurs/workers too -- because of this group of hardworking individuals, governments can amass considerable tax money both in the forms of annual income/property tax and everyday's good & services tax.

As Dato Seri Fong Chan Ong concluded his "Bersama Menteri" (with Minister) RTM TV session on the evening of 2 MAY 2007, let's all the three parties work together: THE WORKERS, THE EMPLOYERS AND THE GOVERNMENT to push our country forward.