Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The Work I Do

Long time, no write, I know. It's just that when you get jobs on contract, the work stretches to fill the time available, and there has been a lot of work lately.

I suppose I should mention what I do. There is the writing, which is sporadic and dependant on demand. There also is the novel, which I place under the 'to be done when I have the time' burner, which means that not much is done as of the moment. Note to self: Make sure burner is on.

Then I also do IT training. In particular, I am certified to train Crystal Reports (version 10), Veritas Netbackup 5.0 and Veritas BackupExec 9.x. If all this is gobbledygook to you, don't worry. It's mostly gobbledygook to me too.

Both these jobs are work-as-you-can. I have no set hours, apart from when I am teaching a class. Somebody said that everyday is a holiday for me. Well, everyday is a working day for me too. In fact, my teaching days are more leisurely than some of my writing days.

How do I write? With intensity. I tell my nearest and dearest that I have work to do, put a bottle of drinking water next to me, close the door, and I don't resurface for eight hours, even for food and drink.

But you know what? I enjoy it. I enjoy the actual work. All of it. I enjoy it when I teach a class and I see the glow of realisation on the students' faces. I enjoy it when I give completely fictional characters life and make them do the most amazing things. I enjoy it when I put words on the page which have the power to inspire.

Doesn't necessarily happen very often, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Anyway (anyway), the reason why I do this is because I sincerely believe that the person who gets paid for a job that he loves and would do for free anyway is the luckiest person in the world.

Do you work to live? Do you work because you need the money, but wouldn't do it otherwise? Nothing wrong with that, that's how most people live. But if you're lucky enough to have the choice and the chance, and you're lucky enough to have the skills, then... go forth and make the world your own.

What the US voting public thinks

So Bush is president again. The number of emails and SMS's of commiserations I received were a measure of how many people knew how badly I would take this. Didn't see any asking me not to commit suicide, though.

I sorta held off writing about this immediately because (a) I was in a state of shock, (b) I was suffering from Root Beer withdrawl symptoms, and (c) I was seriously considering sending the US embassy congratulatory bouquets of bunga taik ayam and was looking for the largest possible truck I could get my hands on.

Well, in a democracy, the guy who gets more votes wins and Bush got more votes. Across the board. So it's exactly what they want. "They" being the people who voted for him. I get the impression that the people who didn't vote for him would have preferred a demented monkey on acid.

The exit polls make for some interesting reading. Incidentally, the exit polls were mostly leaning towards Kerry during the day, but the final polls were adjusted to be more 'accurate' after the counts had come in. This is why the Democrats were so positive early in the day - they thought they were winning based on the exit polls.

Anyway, the final, weighted polls give some indication of how the public were thinking. Bush made gains across the board. For just about every category they polled, a greater percentage voted for Bush than for the Democrat candidate in 2004 than in 2000. I think this is significant.

I took the exit polls and extrapolated them to nation-wide figures based on voter turnout (115,409,172 people) to get the numbers below.

NB: According to the BBC, sample size was 13,531. Margin of error for nation-wide polls is about plus/minus 1% (extrapolates to about 1.2 million people). Bush gained about 3.5 million votes more than Kerry overall. I'm guessing that any issue with a margin of more than 2 million votes will be important and more than 4 million votes would have been significant.

Interesting things to note:

• 11% of professed Democrats voted for Bush (about 4.7mil people) while only 6% who declared themselves Republican voted for Kerry (about 2.5mil). Huh? This is similar to the 2000 breakdown, but this makes no sense to me.


• 10% (more than 4 million) of those who voted for Gore in the last election voted for Bush this time around. About the same number who voted for Bush in the last election switched their vote to Kerry.


• Almost 80% had already decided who they would vote for a month before the election. This is not surprising. What was surprising (to me) was that most of them were for Bush. The Democrats already had an uphill battle before they started. They did make up some ground in the last month, but not enough.


• 53% approve of the job that Bush is doing. However, slightly more than 3 million people seemed to have disapproved of Bush's performance and yet voted for him, whereas about 5 million approved of his performance, but voted for Kerry. This one puzzles me too.


• About 6 million people voted for Bush even though they were against the decision to go to war against Iraq.


• Some who were 'angry' with the Bush administration still voted for him (about 800,000 people). Others who were 'dissatisfied' still voted for him too (about 4.8 million). On the flip side, about 3.8 million voted for Kerry even though they were 'satisfied' or 'enthusiastic' about the Bush administration.


• A huge 67% thought that Kerry 'attacked unfairly', but only 60% thought that Bush attacked unfairly. What?!!


• 56% thought that Kerry said what 'people wanted to hear' as opposed to 'what he thought'.


• About 6 million voted for Bush even though they thought same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry.


• 58% would trust Bush to handle terrorism, compared to 40% who would trust Kerry.
• 
  
• Finally, 49% feel that the US is "going in the right direction". Yeah, right.

Having looked at all these, I have to say that we have to take polls with a gigantic grain of salt. Do voters really understand the questions that they're being asked? Take a look below:

• They asked how people would vote if Ralph Nader wasn't running. Almost all who voted for Nader said that they would not have voted. That's not the strange bit; this is: According to the stats, about 60 people (out of the 13,000 or so who were polled) said that they would switch their vote from Kerry to Bush. About 140 people said they would have switched their vote from Bush to Kerry.

My conclusion? Between 1-2% of the US voting public are idiots and there are twice as many idiotic Bush voters as there are Kerry voters.

Still too close to call?

Results are beginning to come in for the US presidential elections, and it doesn't exactly look great for Kerry. Simply put, results for the hotly contested states of Ohio and Florida are not forthcoming, but early indications are that Bush is leading.

The thinking (well, my thinking, anyway) has been that if the Democrats lost two out of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, then they've lost the election. Forty one electoral votes is just too much ground to make up, especially since the Republicans control just about all of the midwest.

Pennsylvania has just been announced to Kerry (after 64% of the precints, he gets 1.65m votes against 1.25m for Bush), but nobody is keen to repeat 2000 and jump the gun on Florida and Ohio especially since people are still voting.

(As of this moment)

• Florida: Kerry has 2.89m against 3.15m for Bush, from 88% of the precints


• Ohio: Kerry has 1.37m against 1.48m for Bush, from 51% of the precints

But, yes, people are still voting. This is because they didn't anticipate the large turnout(!) and queues were still forming when polling was meant to have closed.

I mean, how hard is it to run an election?

Interestingly, more people have voted for Bush already in Florida than in the 2000 election. This is not a Good Sign. Now all hopes are pinned on the good people of Ohio.

Update 12.00 noon: Florida goes to Bush

America votes, I wait for my root beer float

There's an ice cold A&W root beer float out there with my name on it, but I won't be able to claim it unless Bush gets voted out. I suppose he could be ousted in some other way, such as a coup, or if he's arrested for war crimes or if he decides to retire early and take up chilli farming. But, in principle, I am hoping he doesn't win this time round. It's been three years since I last touched an A&W root beer float.

It boggles my mind how on Earth this election could still be so close, after Bush has so ably demonstrated how bad he is at running a country. Lots of talk, but the fact is that the US is in worse shape than before he took over.

If he were a CEO of a company, he'd been fired when he presented his first budget deficit that lay somewhere the wrong side of hundreds of billions. Say it again after me: BILLIONS.

And then there was that Iraq invasion thing. I shan't bore you with the details. Plus Abu Ghraib. And Guantanamo. And the Patriot Act.

And yet, despite this, he manages to persuade most of the midwest and large swathes of central USA to vote for him.

Only in America.

Security Problems in Mozilla products: Finding 'em, Fixing 'em

Just got an email today from CERT that details (wait while I count 'em, okay?) ... six critical security problems with Mozilla. The Known Vulnerabilities in Mozilla Products page contains more.

The problems are far-reaching, from buffer overflows with VCards, buffer overflows with BMPs (yes, more problems with pictures), heap overflows with URLs (unbelievable), and buffer overflows with the POP3 handler (ugh). I reckon that if we had a 'super-critical' category, these should go into them. However, I have to admit that exploits for these haven't been seen in the wild yet.

Never mind, install the latest version of mozilla, and carry on with life. What is interesting reading are the notes that come with the bug reports. You can see how the bugs were presented and addressed. Note that a handful of programmers each time solved the problem. You don't need huge armies of coders, just a few dedicated ones.

I guess it's true: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world.

JPG pictures can be hazardous to your PC

Of course, it goes without saying that this is a Microsoft problem. I remember, once upon a time, we used to say "Well, you got to be careful about viruses and all, but pictures are okay. JPGs are okay".

Well, paint me yellow and call me a canary, because it seems now that they aren't. A vulnerability in Windows XP means that viewing a picture on the Internet now could result in an infected PC.

Strange but true, stupid but true.

Anwar: Did the majority judgement really acquit him?

Finally, nearly a fortnight after the original judgement was realeased, somebody from the mainstream press has picked up as a major issue what most of us who actually read the judgement saw on the first day:

To summarise our judgment, even though reading the appeal record, we find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen...

The Anwar Ibrahim Majority Judgement, Delivered by Justice Dato’ Abdul Hamid bin Haji Mohamad, Page 36.

While the testimonies of Dr. Mohd. Fadzil and Tun Haniff and the conduct of the first appellant confirm the appellants’ involvement in homosexual activities...

The Anwar Ibrahim Majority Judgement, Delivered by Justice Dato’ Abdul Hamid bin Haji Mohamad, Page 36.

In nearly thirty articles published by the Star on 2 and 3 September, there was only one mention of these lines, and that was in a throwaway paragraph that did not dig deeper (or even dig shallow) into the issue.

The issue is this: In a majority judgement that acquits Anwar, this single line makes it clear that the acquittal is on a technicality, and not because the court disbelieved that he was guilty of an 'act against nature'. "We know he's guilty, but we're going to release him because the prosecution was so incompetent at presenting a case," seems to be a message.

If this is true, then the homophobic-inducing stain that was painted on him isn't truly gone, and it's only a matter of time before somebody raises it as, "look, even those who let him free think he's guilty".

Incidentally, I was surprised when I initially read this line, because there is nothing in the 35 pages preceeding it that built up to it. I am not a lawyer, but I felt that it was a little out of place in a judgement that so meticulously built up a case for the acquittal.

Anyway, Karpal Singh has come out and asked for the comment to be expunged. As with all things Karpal, I expect this to snowball a little and look to more in the press.

Having Launch while I work

When I recently upgrded my Yahoo Messenger, I noticed that the new version came in-built with something called LAUNCHcast radio. I tried it, liked it, and am still using it.

But what is Launch? It's like radio streamed to your PC. You can choose from a number of channels, from "Today's Pop" to "Lite Office Music" to "Grunge Rock", but probably the most interesting feature is the ability to create your own music channel.

You can give ratings to songs, artists and albums as you listen to them. Launch then uses your preferences to deliver music that it thinks you will like. You listen to that and tweak your preferences a little more.

What this means is that you get to listen to pretty much is a great radio station with lots and lots and lots of music that you like. Once in a while, it'll throw you something from out of the blue, and you'll go 'Huh? Where did that come from?', but it's good that it does that - otherwise there is a risk that what you listen to gets filtered to too narrow a range.

I've used this for a few days now, and have been introduced to an artist called Michael Mewborne, about whom I know nothing about, but - importantly - I like his music.

Anyway, if you use Launch, you might be able to listen to my radio station at http://launch.yahoo.com/lc/?rt=0&rp1=0&rp2=1532023475.

Malaysian Idol: Latest episode on BitTorrent

Update August 2005: Anyone searching Google and hitting this post should try looking at http://www.torrentmalaya.com/.

This is technology for you. You can now get the latest episode of Malaysian Idol on BitTorrent.

You don't have to use BitTorrent; you can also download it from the Malaysian Idol Viewer Site. But using BitTorrent will reduce the load on the source servers, and if enough people seed the show, it can be as fast as downloading it directly.

Of course, if you don't know what BitTorrent is, I don't suppose this post will make much sense to you...

Labels: tv

Patriotic Question of the Day

What (as of 25 August 2004) do Romania, Ethiopia, Thailand, Cuba, Indonesia, Lithuania, The United Arab Emirates, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Israel and Mongolia have that we Malaysians don't? And, yes, I said Eritrea.

Malaysian Idol on Kazaa

You can now get Malaysian Idol on Kazaa, which is pretty cool. They don't have the whole show per se, but what you can find are individual singers in the various heats and auditions. Just search for 'Malaysian Idol'.

Alternatively, you can go to The Malaysian Idol Viewer's Site and download videos directly. Incidentally, this is a great site, and I think it's better than the official site. Of course, by downloading from this website you're defeating the whole idea of sharing bandwidth and load that P2P networks aim for.

Some may think, "Is this legal?". The short answer is "probably not", but I suspect there won't be any prosecutions from this, as long as people are sharing and not selling.

Since I'm on the subject, let me just say that I have my own particular favourite. I won't mention names except to say that her nick has three characters, begins with a 'J', ends with a 'C' and has an 'A' somewhere in the middle of it.

Also, Dina quite good too.

Labels: tv

Melissa in this month's Remaja magazine

566 - Number of searches for 'Melissa' directed to this site. Whenever the Mel-count goes up, it must mean that there's a feature of her in a newspaper or magazine, most probably in a photoshoot.

Anyway, if anybody wants to know, she is in this month's issue of Remaja magazine (and on the cover as well). The article headline proudly proclaims, "Melissa gemar membaca & melancong". Good thing they pointed that out, otherwise I would have never been drawn to reading the whole article.

Table for Two: Episode 9 and mini-competition!

Where on Earth is my brain? I should have posted this up ages earlier.

Anyway, synopsis sez, "Adam becomes jealous and suspicious when Sue starts spending more time with a colleague". The biggie about this episode is that it'll say "written by Dzofrain Azmi" on the front credits.

I have to point out that Ping Ho, the producer/director, has name on three times altogether - front credits, 'directed by' and then at the end. Because although life isn't fair, everyone should do whatever they can to make it so, I suggest that y'all tape the episode and then replay it to my name and leave it on pause for, oh, say, thirty seconds or so. And then write in to TV3 and say, "What a wonderful episode, More Please".

Remember, Table for Two, Saturdays on TV3 at 7pm. And for the benefit of search engines out there, starring Azizan Nin and Melissa Maureen Rizal. As well as Cheryl Samad, Jien and Azura.

Also, small prize for the person who can spot the Debbie Gibson song title intentionally embedded in the dialogue. And it isn't one word like "Sure" or "Goodbye" - that would be too easy!

Labels: tv

"Discussion of Islam benefits society"

Finally. I have a letter printed in a national newspaper (albeit an online one). This is the problem the Internet presents: when you read something that inflames your passion so much, when it moves you to put something down in writing, technology allows you to send a reply immediately.

Do I regret sending the letter? Nope. What about not using a pseudonym? Nope, no problems there either. How about the sentiment? It's still there with me.

No, what annoys me in rereading it is the following sentence:

An argument along the lines of ‘You cannot talk about this, you're not one of us, you're not an expert on the issue’ effectively reduces the debate to a childish argument along the lines of ‘I'm right, you're wrong’.

This, probably the key paragraph in the whole letter, has the phrase "along the lines" repeated to no real affect. I would like to remove the second "along the lines" please. It's punchier that way.

I could have done it if it was on this website, but now it's on somebody elses...

Argh. Grr.

Fantasy Football

Since I've had two comments about this in the previous post, I'll explain this a little.

For the last few years, a couple of good friends and me started playing Fantasy Football. For those who don't know, Fantasy Football is when you make up a team from actual Premier League players. Each of these selected players gets points depending on how well they play in real life. Points are given for goals and clean sheets, and taken away for goals let in and yellow/red cards.

In particular, the version we choose is the one offered by premierleague.com. The reason why I like it is because:

• It's FREE


• The User Interface is fantastic - very easy to use


• You can set up your own leagues


• Results are updated in real time


• It allows you to swap players every week, but penalizes "over-trading"


• Oh, and did I mention? It's free

Actually, it began its life on another website Can You Kick It. Certainly, at that time, it seemed the best fantasy football website. On a downside, there are no prizes on offer, but you know what? IT'S FREE.

Anyway, I guess everyone is invited to take part in a league. But you can have too many people. Well, email me if you wanna join in.

Busy, Busy, Busy - and I missed Table for Two!

Just a quick note, since people have been saying, "Eh Dzof, long time no write one".

In fact, I've been writing an awful lot, but none of it is appearing on this blog. One is for Chit-Chat Bola, in particular, a preview of Aston Villa's season.

Also, there are new scripts being churned out. And no, I can't say anything about them, since (a) they're P&C, and (b) I don't wanna jinx nothing. But being able to write is good. I'll even write as a lackey for a multi-national cosmetics company. Oh. Done that already.

Also, I've been training on training Veritas software and Crystal Reports. If anybody out there is keen about getting this sort of training in Kuala Lumpur, contact me.

Finally, because of all this work, I actually zonked out on Saturday afternoon and missed Table for Two. IF ANYBODY HAS A RECORDING OF EPISODE 8 OF THE SHOW, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME. 'Nuff said.

Table for Two: The Music

I've gotten some enquiries about the theme tune and the music in Table for Two. In short, most of the music is written and performed by Douglas Lim (yes, the one who played Steven in Kopitiam). This includes the theme music and other incidental music.

I was told that he hadn't written it specifically for Table for Two, and that it was recorded sometime before. However it's not available on general release as an album. If you like it, write in. It may persuade him to release it.

Finally, for that one person who asked, here is a recording of the theme tune (MP3, 716KB). It's in gorgeous stereo, which is something you can't get off TV3 since there's some problem with them playing stereo. I'm not saying whose fault it is, just that it'd be nice for it to be in dual channel, since that's how it's made.

I guess all I want now is for somebody to figure out the lyrics. What's that last line again? "All I need is one... oar?". :)

Labels: tv

Jobs on cruise ships - Smooth sailing or rough seas?

Without going into too much detail, I was considering taking a job on a cruise ship (as part of The Big Trip II). And then I found websites like this and I thought, "Hmm... looks promising".

But then, further research on the net showed me this and this.

Is three months slave labour such a bad thing? I need to talk to people who have been there, done that.

Table for Two: Episode 4 ratings and Episode 5

Firstly, ratings for the week that episode 4 are now out and... well, Table for Two isn't in the top 10 list for its category. On the other hand, the lowest listed show (Euro 2004 Highlights) pulled in 30,000 viewers, which is around what T42 normally gets. For comparison, the Euro 2004 finals had 108,000 viewers, and even that was beaten by 3R (115,000 viewers). Top of the heap was Pilihan Senario with 3.241 million viewers.

Secondly, tonight is episode 5, That Thing You Do. Synopsis says, When Sue finds out that Adam has done 'that popcorn thing' with another girl, she decides to test him to see if he's being honest with her. You also get to see the inside of Astro radio studios and Fat Fabes' acting debut.

Labels: tv

IE CSS bug?

There was a bug in Internet Explorer which meant that when I first posted the crocodile article below, there was a picture of a crocodile without any text accompanying it. There is text to the right of the picture - when I tried scrolling down and then back up again or highlighting the 'invisible' text to the right of it, it came back. I've seen this in version 6.0.2800.1106IC (hey, they come up with the version numbers, not me).

If you moved away from IE to view another program in full-screen, when you got back to IE, the text disappeared again.

Now that I have an extra post above it, so article is pushed down and the right-hand side menu is no longer next to it, everything seems fine.

Does anybody know why this happens? I've looked at http://archivist.incutio.com/viewlist/css-discuss/10920 but... it's not 100% clear what it means. Also, this was written in August 2002, so you'd have thunk it would have been fixed by now.

All this, of course, is incredibly annoying. But Firefox has it's quirks as well (which I'll write about when I get the time to mockup a page).

Four crocodiles spotted in Klang River

Crocodiles have been spotted in the Klang River, next to the busy Federal Highway. Up to four may have been seen although the Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) can only confirm the existence of one.

Four crocodiles spotted in Klang River, The Star Malaysia, 17 July 2004

This is absolutely incredible. Maybe we should set up visitor galleries by the Klang river. Have "See A Croc, Feed A Croc" boat cruises. Crocodile wrestling competitions.

The possibilities are endless.

You are currently using 10 MB (1%) of your 1000 MB

My GMail account has now reached the 1% milestone. I use it to channel what I call "solicited Junk Mail" - all those newsletters and notifications that are not personal mail - and have been doing so since 24 April 2004.

I haven't deleted a single email yet, and at this rate I don't have to delete another email for (quick mental calculation) about 25 years.

And if they want to scour through my email for personal data mining, the best of luck to them.

The Lim Kit Siang-Nazri Debate saga... in smilies

I read this and was just... speechless.

Then I giggled a little.

Anwar's operation - is it about him? Or about Human Rights?

This post is in direct response to Suara Malaysia's posting about this issue. The quotes in italics in between are from that posting.

For another viewpoint, read the SUHAKAM press release at http://www.suhakam.org.my/bm/media/terperinci.asp?id=74 (you have to read the PDF file for the full text).

Personally, I agree that Dato' Seri Anwar should not be accorded greater rights than any another prisoner, so all arguments made for him should apply to all prisoners. I believe that this debate is especially heated because of the personalities involved.

I also agree that the decision will set a precedence. The point here, to me, is the freedom a prisoner has in deciding how his health is managed. For long-term prisoners, this is a critical issue.

Any assumption made that laws should be bent to accommodate a single man's wishes is missing the point: that this is an issue affecting all, brought into sharp focus by this individual case.

> Under Malaysian law they are only obliged to treat an individual at another country if the said procedure is not available
> in this country.

In fact, I'm not sure there is such a law. The law merely says that if a prison has inadequate facilities, the prisoner may be removed to a government hospital. The Prison Act seems to make no statement as to what should happen if the government hospital has inadequate facilities (nor as to who decides this).

> Under what grounds are we letting Anwar go to jail? Is it because he's an ex-Minister? Or is it because some parties
> believe that he's a political prisoner?

I think you mean "what grounds are we letting Anwar go _abroad_". I think the grounds are that he is a prisoner under Malaysian Law, and as such, the Government is partially responsible for his well-being. The debate is now to what extent.

> If we do allow him to go to Germany, will we allow any other ordinary prisoners to seek overseas medical attention?

If the circumstances were similar, the answer should be 'yes', shouldn't it?

> More importantly, who is going to foot the bill of Malaysian prisoners in the future who decide
> to seek treatment overseas?

I quote the final paragraph of the SUHAKAM press statement:

"In addressing the concerns of the authorities, (Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim) has assured SUHAKAM that he is willing to bear all risks and expenses should he be allowed to pursue his personal choice of medical treatment overseas. DSAI has also intimated that he is willing to abide by any conditions imposed by the Government including those restricting him from taking any actions of a political nature."

The key phrase here is "all risks and expenses" - I assumed this included "costs for government precautions".

> Who's to foot the bill for the precedence created if they let him go?

This statement isn't clear what precedence you're referring to - that prisoners are allowed free access to medical care of their choice? That the Government will have to entertain every request for overseas medical treatment? Why is either a bad thing?

Finally, I would like to point out one paragraph in the SUHAKAM statement that seems to strike at the core of this issue:

SUHAKAM notes that DSAI has been provided with the best of medical care at KLH and the Sg. Buloh Prison and this was acknowledged by DSAI during SUHAKAM's visit. However,SUHAKAM reiterates that from the medical, legal and human rights perspectives, DSAI should be allowed to exercise his right of choice of medical treatment.

Longer RSS 'summaries' on dzof.org

Somebody said, "Hey, your RSS feeds all cut off one". Yes, it's because I chose to, so that aggregators wouldn't get swamped by my ramblings. Anyway, I've looked at it again, and decided that I don't post that much anyway each time, so it's worth expanding it.

Also, this posting is a way to see if the change has worked.

Table for Two: Episodes 3 and 4

Just updating stuff about Table for Two. They showed episodes 3 and 4, and so far the stuff has been okay. Episode 3 in particular wasn't very good, but the next one was fairly touching with some laugh-out-loud moments. Just my two cents.

Ratings for Episode 3 are now available - 27,000 viewers, a substantial dip from episode 2. This compares to:

• Gerak Khas with 2.988 million (the top rated show according to the ratings)


• Malaysian Idol repeat on TV3 with 72,000.


• The Portugal vs Holland Euro 2004 game with 35,000 viewers.

Labels: tv

U.S. Urges Pakistan to Find Bin Laden Before Elections?

This story looks to be breaking in the US as I write this.

According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections."

Pakistan for Bush: July Surprise?, The New Republic, 7 July 2004

I know that many governments ramp up high-profile projects just before the elections. Doesn't make it right though. If only voters had longer memories.

When journalism is reduced to Cut n' Paste

Just read this article on possible (read: probable) plagiarism of a weblog entry. I occasionally write for a weblog called Cakap-Cakap Bola and Sashi is one of the more entertaining contributors to the same blog (even if he does support Liverpool).

Anyway an article in The Star seemed to have a few lines eerily similar to one of Sashi's blogs. An article that was published 13 days after Sashi's entry. An article that wasn't written by Sashi.

OK, so it was only two lines, you might say. But a single idea lifted wholesale is bad enough to blot reputations.

And there could have been some strange rip in the continuum that meant that Sashi was inspired by quantum interactions due to retarded waves travelling backwards in time emanating from The Star journalists.

But I don't think so. Mr. B. Sanjeevan of The Star, Malaysia, you have some explaining to do.

(Incidentally, there is also a B. Sanjeevan who is the head of the national association department of the Asian Football Confederation - coincidence?)

Table for Two: Episode 3 coming up

Just doing my usual, "don't forget to lock the doors, stay at home and watch Table for Two at 7pm on TV3 this Saturday". The synopsis says: "Sue is offended when Adam has no intention of bringing her along to a family dinner". Also, Bobby brings in his son (played by Douglas Lim) as an intern.

Just sayin', so you know.

Also, Episode 2 of Table for Two pulled in 38,000 viewers, according to TV3's/Nielsen's/BMG's figures. This compares to:

• The top rating of 3.248 million for '999'


• 398,000 for Kelab Disney Malaysia


• 51,000 for WWE International Bottomline


• 31,000 for the Croatia vs England Euro 2004 game

So, it's somewhere between a football game and a wrestling match.

Labels: tv

Fahrenheit 911

Much has been made about this movie and the publicity it has gathered from Michael Moore's skillful handling of Disney's attempts to not have it shown during election year. This has ensured that people will watch this movie, although it is yet to be seen if the people it tries to persuade will actually give it a chance.

Although supporters will call Fahrenheit 911 a documentary and detractors, propaganda, the truth is that it is one side of a debate on something Moore feels strongly about: the suitability of George Bush as president and the nature of the war in Iraq. Michael Moore has been accused of twisting facts to serve his truth, but I don't think he has ever told an outright lie. His arguments have merits that should be addressed, not dismissed.

Michael Moore's assertion is this: George W. Bush, the 41st and current President of the United States, is not fit for his job and that the war in Iraq is an opportunity taken to enrich his and his friends' coffers rather than a genuine attempt to protect the American way and its public.

He implies Bush would not have become President if it wasn't for the help of supporters in high-up places that undermined the democratic process. And he has friends in high places, all the way from the Governor of Florida to the 'bin Laden' family (yes, that 'bin Laden') in Saudi Arabia.

When the events of 11 September 2001 took place, the Bush administration was quick to link these events with the regime in Iraq. The army moved in and quickly made ground in Afganistan and Iraq. "Mission: Accomplished" read the banner, and the contractors started moving in. The contractors who had links to those high up in the government, that is.

I've summarised a lot of what happens in the film . Moore show more than what I've said. But what is impressive is the way he has said it.

Those of you who have watched any of Moore's previous work on TV and film would have been impressed by the passion he has about his causes and the humour he infuses in his work. Sometimes the comedy comes across as levity, and it doesn't help that he favours hollywood-style editing to make a message bigger than its source.

However, Fahrenheit 911 is a serious film, much more serious than Bowling for Columbine or Roger and Me. It's as if Moore is saying, "Look, joking aside, this is a serious message I want to send". There are fewer obvious cheap shots and the documentary is at its best when the subjects do the talking: George Bush with his "Fool me once, shame on, err..." quote, soldiers when they enthuse about being able to hook their CD player into an Abrahm's intercomm and fire live ammo to rock music, other soldiers who gripe that contractors who drive trucks make four times as much as they do, and most emotionally, fathers and mothers who wail against their liberators while holding the bodies of their children killed by American bombs.

Movies are meant to be entertaining but this one has a very serious message indeed.

Cheryl Samad's Home Featured in The Star

OKAY, I don't really get this fascination for celebrity homes. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that my home looks more like an alien nest of paper, wire and books and the only way it would ever make the pages of The Star is if some devious crime took place there. But anyway, since Cheryl Samad is one of the stars of Table For Two (remember, 7pm on Saturdays on TV3) and there is a plug on the show in the article and there's a neat picture of her, I am linking to the relevant news article.

Table for Two: Episode 2 notes

Episode 2 aired last night and, well, I thought it was pretty good. 'Exceeded Expectations' would be the phrase to use. Anyway, here is the list of ten thoughts about the show:

1. Am I the only one that thinks that Pete (played by Soo Kui Jien)keeps looking like a deer? That's caught in the headlights? Of an oncoming truck?


2. "You don't know her handphone number? That's like forgetting her birthday, man." Melissa's birthday is 19 March 1980. Azizan's birthday is 17 May 1973. Just in case you wanted to know.


3. The girl who played the angry girlfriend in the coffee shop who threw water over her boyfriend was played by Haryati Hamzah. She is one of the winners of the audition competition organised by Ponds in conjunction with the series.


4. "Sue, I'm sure he still loves you. It's just that guys have an attention span of a goldfish." If that's true, it's frightening, since goldfish have an attention span of about three seconds.


5. Note that only trendy Sue has an iMac on her desk in the office. Everybody else has little beige PC boxes.


6. "Rita, could you get the number for ID designs for me. I'll be out for a while." The number given to Adam for Sue's office is a 7-digit number beginning with '272. '272' (now '2272') numbers are allocated to phones in Brickfields, which is very near Plaza Pantai, which is where the set for Sue's office is located.


7. "She wrote this down when I first asked her out."The movie ticket with Sue's number on it is dated 26/03 and is for a showing of Scooby Doo 2 at GSC Mid-Valley Megamall.


8. "So you want to show me what you've done so far? See if you're in the right direction?" The doodles that you see Sue doing are probably really Melissa's scribbles, so graphologists out there can have a field day analysing her.


9. "You know that Starbucks, just downstairs from your office?" You shouldn't be surprised to see a Starbucks in a Popiah Productions show. Producer and director Ping Ho has been known to write scripts and hold meetings at Starbucks.


10. Both Aroma's and the new wing of 1 Utama are featured again.

Well, episode 3 will air next week and it'll be all about parents and fish head curry restaurants.

Labels: tv

Table for Two: Episode 2 tonight

Just a heads-up that the second episode of Table for Two is due tonight. The synopsis is: A case of a lost handphone and number leads Sue to suspect that Adam is having an affair. I don't know much about the episode, really.

The ratings for last week are now up on the TV3 website. Unfortunately Table for Two is nowhere to be seen. Depending on which category it's in, it could mean that it got less than 453,000 viewers (still not necessarily bad) or less than 34,000 viewers (less good).

Incidentally, Malaysian Idol received 50,000 for the TV3 repeat on Sunday. Phua Chu Kang brought in 47,000.

Top rated show was 999 with 3.182 million viewers.

Labels: tv

Pollution figures will give a "grim picture of Malaysia"

Malaysia said air pollution figures would remain a state secret due to fears the economy would be hurt by revealing how much smog from neighbouring Indonesia had blanketed parts of the country.

"The only problem is that it gets distorted by the international media. It then gives a grim picture of Malaysia," deputy prime minister Najib Razak said Thursday.

"Malaysia fears providing pollution figures amid haze will hurt economy", Channel NewsAsia, 24 June 2004

And saying stuff like this doesn't?

Is TV entertainment or... what?

There are too many television and radio stations in the country now, said Information Minister Datuk Paduka Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.

He said the ministry was discussing with the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry on whether there was a need to stop issuing licences for private television and radio stations.

"If the competition is too stiff, they will tend be more concerned about making money and forget their responsibilities," he added.

Kadir also said that private television stations were not broadcasting enough programmes that promoted family values, peace and unity among Malaysians.

"The stations are more concerned about competing to screen imported films to attract viewers and increase revenue."

"Kadir: Too many TV and radio stations", The Star, 23 June 2004

It boggles my simple brain. I want to rant about this but I'm not sure where to begin. There is a danger that I will ramble.

How about, "Yes, a private company does try to make money"?

Or "Like you have guidelines as to what are 'family values, peace and unity'?"

Or "No s*** Sherlock - imported films are attracting viewers and increasing revenue"?

It isn't even necessarily true that Malaysians are obsessed with foreign programming. According to the ratings:


Maybe what annoys me is this: Television in Malaysia is already regulated. The Government decides to whom and when licenses will be issued. These presumably come with conditions, along with the right to revoke licenses if these conditions are not met or broken. We already have censorship boards. And all it takes to close down an entire production is a single letter of complaint in a newspaper.

I believe that "their responsibility" isn't specifically to safeguard the morality of Malaysians. I believe their primary responsibility is to make a profit. It is assumed that they will not make a profit if whatever they air isn't watched. I don't want TV companies determining what I should be able to watch. I decide what I want to watch.

There is no need for a single politician to supplant both legislative frameworks and market forces or, more importantly, my personal judgement.

Worse, there is a danger that a threat with non-specific triggers makes people less likely to take risks. What exactly are programmes that promote "family values, peace and unity"?

I like greater competition. Competition means that companies try harder to out-do one another and should result in higher quality shows and hopefully, more innovation. Of course, there is the problem of lowest common denominator (think "midget wrestlers") but it's clear that there will be no pressure to improve without competition. The reward for this is greater profits.

Yet, drawing boundaries as to what can or cannot be shown limits the amount of innovation possible.

Rant over, I guess.

Labels: tv

Penang Reading Celebration 2004: Update

Quick update on the Penang Reading Celebration 2004 and its events:

• Lat and Karim Raslan are confirmed to appear. Lat will host a dialogue on 7 July 2004 at the Penang State Library at Scotland Road after the launch of the Celebration.


• Karim Raslan will talk about his travels throughout South East Asia and Indonesia during the recent elections on 9 July 2004 at The Bookshop, Penang.


• There will be numerous events for children and teenagers: Storytelling sessions, drawing competitions, lightning maths competition, poetry workshops, and English Literature workshops. There will also be a talk conducted by Dr Irene Lee and Sherine Selvarajah on how children learn to read and what to do in case of reading difficulties.


• Also scheduled is a talk by Dr Henry Barlow titled "Lady Swettenham's Revenge". Dr Barlow is the author of Swettenham. No, I don't know what the talk is s about either, you'll have to drop by and listen!

More information can be found on The Bookshop's website.

New MSC stamps - But no Smart Schools!

Just saw the designs for the new series of Malaysian stamps titled Multimedia Super Corridor and, well... don't mean to sound fussy, but I see no sign of the Smart School project on it whatsoever.

Telehealth is represented, and so is the Multi-Purpose Card project, but nothing on the other two (Smart School and E-Government). I suppose you could attribute some of the pictures being Smart School-ish and E-Government-ish, but... I don't think so.

Ya-lah. When you're out of the limelight it's easy to be forgotten. *sniff*

Malaysian Idol: Whinging about whingers

There is a discussion titled "Complains everywhere!!!! NO PROFESIONAL JUDGEMENT" on the Bluehyppo/Malaysian Idol discussion board. Basically some people are upset (others are very upset) that there is a pre-audition round and not all the contestants meet Paul/Roslan/Jee. Words like "unfair" are being used. The crux of the complaint is that bad singers are getting through the pre-audtition and good singers are not.

How do I put this? Erm... STOP WHINGING. Yeah, that's right. I could add, "Life is unfair", "the world isn't Malaysian Idol" and "then do something about it already".

I think some people hold on to unreasonable expectations:

• All contestants should meet the three judges: It was announced that auditions would take place in four cities, for a total of twelve days altogether. At the last count, nearly 10,000 people auditioned for Malaysian Idol (6,000 in KL alone). If the three judges saw each of them for two minutes each, we'd be looking at about two months of auditions. You could have figured out before auditions even began that there would have been no way for the judges to meet everybody. And for those of you who say "But the judges meet everyone on American Idol", do the maths yourself: For AI3 70,000 people auditioned. Did they really meet everyone?


• They should only let good people through pre-auditions: The Idol series is entertainment. And the bad singers are funny. Entertaining, even. Given the success of this format overseas, it is unreasonable to expect people to stop doing this in Malaysia.


• If they select "bad" over "good", good singers will miss their chance to impress: The questions to ask are "How many good singers have lost out because they let bad ones through?" and "Of those singers who lost out, how many would have made it to the top 100?". My guess? The bottom 10% (of those short-listed) would have lost out to "bad" singers. And the top 20% (of those short-listed) would have been picked for the top 100. Fudging the maths a little, assuming that the bottom 10% would have been visibly worse than the top 20%, I would guess that out of everyone who auditioned (10,000), maybe 10 people or so lost out the chance to be in the top 100. 10 out of 10,000. Roughly your chances of getting 2nd prize on Magnum 4D.

Let's face it: If you're auditioining because you want to win MI, then yeah, it might seem harsh. But if you're auditioning because you want a recording contract - then this is one out of many options out there. If you're really good (good enough to win MI), then this is just a minor setback, and put into perspective of the sweat and tears involved, it's nothing.

Stop whinging.

Labels: tv

Malaysian Idol: Kuching Auditions

I watched AH-HA the other night and I watched Malaysian Idol today. And, honestly, I laugh much harder during Malaysian Idol. As I've always said, my favourite bits of the Idol programs are the auditions, when people who are so sure they can sing come and fail. Just fail.

Amongst the quotes from the Kuching show:

Paul: It was amazing. Not one single note was right... Please, don't sing. You're beautiful, but don't sing.

Roslan (after telling a guy he was no good): Tapi awak menyanyi tu lagi bagus dari Anuar Zain.

Paul (mouthed when that KK girl hit the high bit of Emotions): Oh Shit!

Paul: You're shouting, you're not singing.
...
Thalia: I can sing another song. Maybe this shouting song is not good for me.

Paul: You were in Penang, weren't you?
Julian: I was hoping you wouldn't recognise me.

Roslan: Laki-laki ke perempuan ni... Lelaki? Macam perempuan.
...
Roslan: I'm looking and hearing at a singer, who looks like a girl, but sounds like a boy... I think you are the most beautiful contestant we've had.
Paul: Take it as a compliment.

Contestant (when told he was bad): Lama sangat tunggu
...
Fauziah (finally showing a little fire): Then why are you still waiting... Kalau dah lama tunggu kenapa tunggu lagi?... Tak patut cakap macam tu...
...
Roslan: Walau bagaimanapun apa yang awak nyanyi tadi tidak bagus
Paul: So it's a 'no', is it?
Roslan: Yes. In English... the meaning is "no".

The show is actually shaping up well. Roslan Aziz is less annoying than in the first episode (perhaps I should say, "better edited"). There are some really talented people out there (both the girls who have sung Alicia Keys come to mind). And, darn it, it's entertaining.

Labels: tv

Table for Two - Pilot episode debuts on TV3

Just caught the debut of T42 on TV3. Well, it's OK-lah. I mean, I had a pretty good idea of how it'd turn out and I liked some of the more 'touching' moments, but I'd have preferred more 'funny' bits.

Anyway, ten things about the episode:

1. The lead-in to the show was a Chinese-language variety program. Don't know if there'll be much spill-over.


2. The 'Next on TV3' sign said "Pond Table For Two". OK, missing an aprotophe-s or a verb, not such a great thing.


3. The people featured in the photos in the title sequence are real-life couples. I think Ping said that one of them was his kuey teow vendor.


4. Both Sue's and Adam's are locations in a Bangsar condominium. Yes, they rented a pair of apartments for a few months, redecorated it and made it real (to the extent that people actually sometimes bunked the night there).


5. Despite the brandname-dropping in the choosing-a-restaurant scene (Bombay Palace, Burger King), I think neither of them were sponsored. And personally, I don't see how going to Burger King is that much less cheap than going to a food court.


6. Incidentally, the food court was Aroma's in 1 Utama. Or whatever that new wing is called.


7. The only way that Manchester Utd and Arsenal could play on a Thursday is if the FA made some sort of special dispensation or it actually was an early morning Champions League game (for us Malaysians). In short, impossible. Of course, I pointed this out, but does anyone listen to a writer? Nah.


8. When Sue was working out in the health club complaining about boys and football, the people in the background were film crew. I guess the best way to make it on TV is to apply to be a lowly-paid gofer with a production company.


9. Note that Sue puts as Sue is putting on Pond's makeup, she decides not to answer Adam's phone call. Current Pond's Placement Points for the series: 1.


10. If you want to take part in the SMS competition, but missed the details, send the word 'PONDS' to 39330. What you'll get back is a message saying "Purchase POND's products & retain receipt for unlimited entries" as well as a question. Which is extremely easy, so I won't even bother to print it here with the answer.

Labels: tv

Article in Utusan Malaysia about Table for Two

Utusan Malaysia published an article about Table for Two. Nothing very new in here, but there is an previously unpublished picture.

Labels: tv

NOUS SOMMES DESOLES QUE NOTRE PRESIDENT SOIT UN IDIOT. NOUS N'AVONS PAS VOTE POUR LUI

Some models of bags manufactured by a company named TOM BIHN carry the following on the 'washing instructions' label:

... DO NOT BLEACH
DO NOT MACHINE DRY
DO NOT IRON
---
LAVER A LA MAIN A L'EAU TIEDE
SAVON DOUX
ENTENDRE POUR SECHER
NE PAS JAVERLISSER
NE PAS SECHER A LA MACHINE
NE PAS REPASSER
NOUS SOMMES DESOLES QUE
NOTRE PRESIDENT SOIT UN IDIOT
NOUS N'AVONS PAS VOTE POUR LUI

It's the last three lines which are interesting. If your French isn't up to scratch, what it says is, "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him.".

More at snopes.com.

Table for Two Press Release Kit Thingamajiggy

Hah. A copy of the press release kit for T42 made it's way to my grubby little hands. I took the liberty of scanning some of them in:

• An introduction to the series (639 KB)


• More about the filmakers and actors (352 KB)


• The characters' bios in higher res (302 KB)

There was more stuff, but they were kinda boring so I didn't bother scanning them in.

Labels: tv

Penang Reading Celebration 2004!

In conjunction with National Reading Month, The Bookshop will be hosting a series of reading events in July.

As posted earlier, highlights include talks by Lat and Karim Raslan, as well as Dato' Henry Barlow, Lucille Das, Dr. Irene Lee, Dr. Wong Soak Khoon and an 'interactive play reading' with Cape Poetics.

Gmail is too creepy?

Is Google moving into that realm previously dominated by Microsoft? I'm talking about that area of they're-so-big-they're-creepy-and-I-don't-trust-them.

Well, the folks that run www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com certainly think so. They have a series of arguments which I admit are mostly correct, and yet I don't quite agree with their conclusions. Their stand is that you shouldn't send email to people with a GMail addres because you don't know what will happen to your email.

They say, I say:

• Gmail is nearly immortal: Because their large storage space discourages deleting messages, email will be on their servers kept almost for perpetuity. This is actually a selling point for Gmail. By saying that this is a Bad Thing, you are actually, in principle, against any form of owner-identified data kept on a public access network.


• Google's policies do not apply: The scope of Google's privacy policies are under debate - for example, do they adequately cover people who are sending email to Gmail? I believe that again, the problem exists for most Internet email providers. Why doesn't the same argument apply for Hotmail or Yahoo? Or perhaps he's saying it does.


• A massive potential for abuse: Because it's likely that a large (nay, ginormous) number of people will use GMail, data mining will be a temptation for the Powers That Be. I will admit that this is a risk. And we haven't pulled Orkut into the picture yet (which Google is associated with).
  
• Inappropriate ad matching: Because a computer, not a human, determines what ads are run, you run the risk of viewing inappopriate ads. All I can say is this: Yeah, mistakes will be made - live with it.

Different humans, different rights?

Public interest groups should take into account a country's historical, socio-economic and political situation when discussing human rights issues, Deputy Internal Security Minister Chia Kwang Chye said.

This was because different countries have different backgrounds and the implementation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights differed from one country to another, he said.
The Star, "Chia speaks on human rights, ISA", 15 June 2004

Does that mean that the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights isn't so universal after all? If two different nations can implement an ammendment differently, what's there to stop a country from implementing it's own version of 'Human Rights'?

But hang on. Let's look at some examples. How about same-sex marriage? Should a person be allowed to marry anyone they choose, even if that someone is of the same sex? After all, article 16 says "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.", and article 2 says, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.". If so, does this mean that if a country has laws prohibiting same-sex marriage, then that country is violating some tenet of human rights?

Yet, there are countries that allow same-sex marriage and some that clearly don't and both sets would claim that they do adhere to the Declaration.

How about another example? Article 18 states that, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.".

Does this mean that punishing apostasy with a death sentence is against freedom of religion, and thus human rights?

Some countries do, some countries don't. (For two views on the matter, see this and this.)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not exist in isolation. I believe it isn't so much an article of compulsion as it is a set of guiding principles.

What is important is that people do not avoid debate by arguing "That one their culture and values. Ours different one.". The reasons for and against a certain interpretation of the articles needs to be open and transparent. This is why I disagree with another statement the good Deputy Minister made:

Asked about Gerakan’s stand on the Internal Security Act, Chia replied that the party supported the policy, which had been agreed upon by the Barisan Nasional. However, he added that it did not mean there was no need for reviews and improvements once a policy was adopted. "Discussions could still be carried out in closed-door sessions and private conversations."

TV3 listing for Table for Two

OK, not meaning to get too upset, but... THE TV3 WEBSITE DOESN'T LIST TABLE FOR TWO IN THE PROGRAM SCHEDULE FOR THIS SATURDAY!!!

Idiots.

UPDATE: I don't ******* believe it! Astro's TV3 listing doesn't have T42 either! A Robbie Williams Special?

Just for the record, AFAIK, T42 is on TV3, Saturdays, 7pm. It will compete directly (I assume) with Jejak on RTM, Crayon Shin Chan on NTV7, World's Scariest Explosion on AXN, Riverworld, Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on channels 40-42 and Xena: Warrior Princess on Star TV.

In other words, the only thing that people who watch Table For Two would watch in that time slot is Table For Two. Well, except for that big fat Greek thing. But that'll repeat, 'kay?

Labels: tv

Italy 0 - 0 Denmark

Forza Italia! They have the best defenders in the tournament, and you know that the best defence is going to win Euro 2004, don't you? Look at that back line: Cannavaro, Nesta, Panucci. Incredible players.

What's that? No point having the best defenders in the world if the midfield doesn't do it's job? Hah. Look at their opening game against Denmark. The back line, together with Buffon single-handedly held off wave after wave of attack without an ounce of help from any of their five midfielders.

More...

Sneaking around the Malaysian Idol audition waiting room

I was in Berjaya Times Square again on Saturday and took a quick peek into the Malaysian Idol waiting room. They were still doing auditions, but since they were recalls, there were no crowds and practically no security. E and I just walked in and sat amongst waiting auditionees, their friends and family.

If any of you ave the chance to walk in (perhps security is better outside Kuala Lumpur), these are some of the few free things you can pick up: A copy of the Malay Mail, sneak peeks as people practice for their turn, tins of coca-cola, TMNet hand fans, BlueHyppo temporary tattoos, copies of release forms and chairs to sit on.

The release forms were interesting because if you signed them, you effectively gave up your life to 8TV. Well, actually, it basically said that anything you did belonged to them (presumably, including any songs you might sing), you couldn't say or do anything bad and 8TV had final say on what was shown on TV, and if it made you look like a selfish evil b**tard, tough. Completely pro-8TV, completely expected, probably worth it for a shot at a recording contact.

I wonder what would happen if you put down the wrong name on the consent form.

While we were there, they called some of the contestents up to audition, including friends and family. I wanted to join in as an imaginary friend, but E didn't want to. Good choice too, since I think later they wanted to identify which friend went with which contestant.

We went upstairs nonetheless, and stood outside the security rope. Fortunately Jien happened to be there and thankfully he remembered me from the Table For Two shooting. We chatted for awhile - Jien said that the overall quality of performers from KL was higher than Penang, but that he could think of two from Penang that he felt had a good chance of going all the way. He also said that he thought the judges had dropped some good singers, probably because they could only shortlist 100-120 people for the next round. So, if you auditioned and didn't make it, it doesn't necessarily mean that you couldn't sing - it's as much luck as talent.

Finally, he confirmed that the format closely followed American Idol's, with the hundred cut down to thirty or so before public voting begins.

And If you look closely, Jien has begun to cultivate a little chin fuzz - he said the beard's a normal thing, but that he couldn't keep one when hosting shows for Disney. Pop Quiz: How many Disney animated heroes have beards?

Labels: tv

Sunday Mail article on Table for Two

Whoah. The Sunday Mail published an article on Azizan and Melissa, Harian Metro also had an article, and I received 30 hits on Sunday. A quick check on referrals showed lots of searches on "Melissa Maureen", "TV3" and "Table for Two".

OK, so thirty hits ain't so much, but it's loads more than what I usually get, and at least it means that somebody out there is interested, which means that the newspaper articles are doing their job. Excellent.

I saw the promo on TV3 and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. Firstly, it's so short that if you blink, you miss it. Secondly, it potrays Table for Two as a romantic series, full of laughter, tears and love. Well, yes, it is that, but I would have preferred a misleading trailer full of exploding cars, scantily clad women and the Italian football team, 'cos that would have pushed the ratings waaay up there. At least for the first ten minutes of the pilot.

And I also include Harian Metro's picture just to satisfy some of the demand out there.

(N.B. The Sunday Mail article says that the Ponds ads have been out since 2001, but that's a mistake, surely?!!)

Labels: tv

Ray Charles passes away

I just heard on the news that Ray Charles has died aged 73 in Los Angeles.

Waaay back in 1994, while I was travelling across the US, I waited to board a flight in Atlanta. The way US airports arrange their waiting lounges (well, pre-September 11, anyway) is that there is one large waiting lounge with many boarding gates. Near one of the gates was a blind man reading, I swear it, a braille copy of Playboy. Or it could have just been an innocent treatise on world economics in Braille with the word 'Playboy' on the cover.

Anyway, the call for the flight was made, the blind man boarded just before me. I mentioned to the steward at the boarding gate, "You know, that guy looks like Ray Charles". He replied, "That's because he is Ray Charles".

Table for Two promos and Melissa Maureen in KLue

So I was going through my logs and I was curious why there were a large number of searches for "Melissa Maureen" and "Ponds" referring to this website. Well, it seems that KLue has a short article featuring Melissa. E thinks that it's ultra-wierd for people to search for other people on the Internet - I just say, "The Internet is a wonderful thing".

The next thing is that TV3 should be showing promos for Table for Two. I haven't seen it yet, but I've been assured by Ping that it's good (but he would say that, wouldn't he ;) ). Also, it seems that it says "Pond's Presents..." in big letters, which is a little bit at odds with the whole "subtle-in-the-background" idea of promotion.

It was pointed out to me, though, that the only time Sue (Melissa) uses Ponds products is when she's upset and she'd prefer to apply makeup instead of answering the phone. ("Unhappy? Use Pond's and ignore that idiot boyfriend of yours.")

Labels: tv

Malaysian Idol Fever!

Or at least the beginnings of it.

I dropped by Berjaya Mall yesterday hoping to see people auditioning for Malaysian Idol, but all I saw were lines, lines, lines. And a couple of strange people.

Incidentally, I'm not acutally a big Idol fan, but I do find the auditions amusing, especially people who really, really believe that they can sing well, but don't.

There are already a few websites out there with Malaysian Idol material: An MSN group, message boards and even a personal photo essay.

There are also photos from Penang and KL auditions on the official website.

And then there's the actual program on 8TV (Fridays at 8.45pm) and TV3 (Sundays at noon).

Labels: tv

More on GMail

I wrote an article awhile back about my impressions of GMail. Here's a follow-up (especially written for a sister of a friend), just to keep things up-to-date.

Here are a few more things about GMail:

• Keyboard shortcuts: Switch it on, get used to it, enjoy not having to touch your mouse ever again when using GMail. Very cool.


• In-demand invites (but a limited number): Normal members of public can't get GMail yet, but those that have accounts have a limited number of invites that they can send. Because people are keen to reserve their names, there has been a strong demand. Just look at GMail Swap, a website where you can offer gifts and services for GMail accounts. Amongst offers are: A basketball autographed by Kobe Bryant, your name on a race car, a samurai sword and 1 day of bodyguard service.


• Fairly effective spam filter: Yes, it's de rigeur now, and the one that GMail has isn't more than just a learn-as-you-label tool, but it works. In the last week, it has correctly identified ten pieces of email as spam and not let any through.

Everything else works as expected, including all the things I previously mentioned.

Lim Kok Wing University College of Creative Technology

Just read this posting complaing about the quality of services and facilities at the Lim Kok Wing University College of Creative Technology (or LKWUC) and it reminded me of this:

Is it

Lim Kok Wing University College of Creative Technology

or

Lim Kok Wing University College of Creative Technology

?

I mean, is it mean, or does this look intentionally confusing? When you apply, do you really think you're going to a University?

Of course, I know of places like University College London. And you apply to attend a college and not the university when you go to Oxford or Cambridge. But in both cases, at the end of the day, you are going to a university.

Why should it make a difference? For a start, there is a perception that a University degree is better than a college degree. And that's because the criteria of a university is usually higher. And there are laws that determine whether you can call yourself a university or not. So LKW's practice is, at best, disingenuous.

And one more thing. Lim Kok Wing is the one responsible for the recent Tak Nak anti-smoking campaign. I'm still trying to find the actual quote, but I recall a newspaper interview with the good Tan Sri that it was a 5-year campaign. At a cost of RM20 million. Per year.

Ah well. I guess the Ringgit doesn't buy what it used to.

Microsoft Kiasu

The new MS version, just for Singaporeans... ;)

Firefly on TV3!

Wow. I didn't realise that TV3 was carrying Firefly. If you're a fan of Sci-Fi shows with a brain, I would heartily recommend it. If you like smartish stories with sharp dialogue, I recommend it.

It's created and written by Joss Whedon, the man responsible for Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and shares a lot of the style. The big difference is that while Buffy is story of a girl who is a "chosen one" and has to come to terms with it, the lead character in Firefly has lost his purpose and tries to lead by his principles. Or something like that.

But I warn you - there's only a limited number of episodes. It was cancelled in the US mid-way through its first season.

And from what I'm seeing now, it looks like TV3 has split the pilot episode into two parts. Bad idea. It kind of kills the mood stopping it suddenly and then starting again. Not to mention confusing the heck out of people who only watch the second half.

Firefly, now on TV3, Tuesdays at 11pm.

Labels: tv

Lat, Karim Raslan, at The Bookshop?

Wow. The Bookshop may be hosting a series of events in July in conjunction with National Reading month. On the list of possible speakers are Lat and Karim Raslan, as well as a bunch of other people.

You might even get a chance to have dinner with Lat. How cool is that?

dzof.org now RSS'fied

...Or whatever the phrase to use is. See that XML button on the right? Well, thanks to Blogger and FeedBurner, all entries in dzof.org are now RSS streams.

If you don't know what RSS is, then... well, it's just another way of reading news on websites. Or you can read this for an explanation.

I'm not 100% sure how useful this is to most people, but it's there, if you want to use it.

Web Developer

If you're a web developer and you use Mozilla, let me recommend to you Chris Pederick's Web Developer toolbar. Basically, it puts a toolbar (surprise!) with a whole-load of nifty features, like "validate my HTML code" or "Outline images with ALT attributes" or "Resize to 640x480".

My personal current favourite is "View ID and Class details" which shows you which bits of your webpage belong to which CSS ID's and Classes. Very cool.

Good Suhakam, Bad Suhakam

SUHAKAM, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, has made not one but two articles in today's newspapers.

One is in conjunction with the release of a report titled Human Rights and the Administration of the Law (Executive Summary [PDF] and Full Report [PDF]). This is reported in The Star and The New Straits Times.

In particular, the newspaper reports focus on extended remand periods, when suspects are moved between one prison and the next. A person under remand is not under arrest, but the police are investigating and there is a risk of the suspect fleeing. The law only allows a maximum remand of 14 days. However, it is possible to get around this restriction by bringing a suspect to a police station under another jurisdiction and applying for another remand.

The report itself says:

"'Road Show Remand' is a term coined to describe the situation where a suspect is arrested by the Police and is subsequently remanded by a Magistrate in a particular jurisdiction. Upon the expiration of the remand period by the Magistrate in the first jurisdiction, the suspect is then detained at another police station and remanded by a Magistrate in another jurisdiction. Upon the expiration of the remand period by the Magistrate in the second jurisdiction, the suspect is again detained in a third police station and subsequently remanded by the Magistrate in a third jurisdiction and process of remand goes on. The suspect may therefore be continuously remanded for a long period of time."
Human Rights and the Administration of the Law, Executive Summary, page VI, Footnote 11

Anyway, it seems that in one case, someone was effectively held for 77 days in remand, which is some way over the 14-day limit. He died in hospital while still under police custody.

ON THE OTHER HAND, SUHAKAM has also released a media statement titled Whipping Demonstrations Against the Spirit of Children's Rights (PDF). This is reported in The Star and The Sun.

This one, I have a tough time figuring out. I don't think SUHAKAM has done itself any favours. The way it is reported in the press, it makes it sound as if whipping demonstrations in schools are bad because children should not be exposed to such cruel and excessive punishment. On the other hand, I've never seen SUHAKAM comment about excessive violence on TV, and then one man's violence is another man's entertainment.

However, if you read the press release, they have this to say:

The Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, which is established to monitor the implementation of ICCPR in member states, has recommended that torture, cruel and degrading treatment must extend to corporal punishment including excessive chastisement as an educational or disciplinary measure.
Accordingly, demonstration of whipping which is taken as educational and
disciplinary measure is contrary to international standards.
SUHAKAM media statement, "SUHAKAM: WHIPPING DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS", 27 May 2004

In other words, they are first saying that whipping is "excessive chastisement" and then to say that you shouldn't use this as an educational measure. The link is sort of there, and yet not made clear at all in the newspapers.

Personally, I think that the link was originally made by the UN in relation to corporal punsihment in schools (you know, caning, knuckle-rapping and the like), and to extend it to this is a bit of a stretch. Are you saying that students shouldn't be told and shown what happens to lawbreakers when they are punished under accordance of the law? Are you saying that the law is excessive in the first place?

Part of the fight for human rights is in the communication. If this comment on whipping degenerates into an "I'm right, you're wrong" argument between the Government and SUHAKAM, we will have take a step backwards.

Avantgo Friendly(-ier) dzof.org

Avantgo is a software for palm devices that enables you to download and view websites on your palm. Very cool, I use it to download news and soccer sites.

I also know that at least one guy out there uses Avantgo to download this website, and I've never actually thought about how dzof.org looks on a palm before.

Well, it didn't look to good - the culprit was the ALT tag for the blogger image at the bottom that stretched the website over the width of the Palm Pilot. I shortened it, as well as made the titles explicitly BOLD (instead of relying on the style-sheet), and now it looks slightly better.

If only Avantgo would define palm-friendly stylesheets, so we could use a link rel="stylesheet" media="avantgo" or something similar to explicitly define a look for Avantgo, and not have one page cater for two styles.

Blogger has now made it easier to attach photos to your blogger website. It's this program called "Hello". Just trying it out, you know. 

Malaysia 'abuses terror suspects'

The Malaysian authorities have been engaging in widespread mistreatment of terror suspects, according to the organisation Human Rights Watch.

Abuses have included beatings, burning with cigarettes and sexual humiliation, the New York-based organisation says in a report issued on Tuesday.

Some suspects have been told they will be handed over to the US authorities at Guantanamo Bay, it adds.

The Malaysian government has denied mistreating prisoners.
BBC News report, Tuesday, 25 May, 2004, 03:47 GMT

The BBC has broke this news a few hours ago. This report is what the Malaysian Prime Minister was commenting on when he said that ISA detainees were not being abused.

There's judging before a trial, and then there's subjudice

Just repeating what I've seen in Jeff Ooi's and MGG Pillai's blogs. There's been a large outcry over the abuse of the Indonesian maid, and rightly so.

Yet, you have to wonder how much is genuine outrage and how much is teacup storm-brewing/political bandwagon-jumping.

"I will lash out at the media. I will also shout at the editors and raise this in Parliament. The identity of the housewife's husband should also be made public for allowing the abuse. Any media organisation which blurs the culprit's face is an accomplice,"
Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, as quoted by The NST, 22 May 2004

In Kuala Lumpur, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said because of the savage and inhuman abuse on Nirmala, the perpetrator deserved to be judged prematurely... "This is one case, I believe, where the adage of law ‘one is not guilty until found so by the court of law' is not suitable for this category (of crime)," he said.
The NST, same article, 22 May 2004

Neither of these two, to my knowledge, have been reprimanded for undermining the Law's and the Court's authority. After all, the suspects have been identified, one has been arrested and charged, there will be a trial, she will plead defence and if she is found guilty, a sentence will be passed. Isn't this justice? Does there need to be a trial by minister-quoting?

And yes, despite what Dato Seri Rais Yatim says, I believe a person should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

In contrast, the Speaker of the parliament has rejected the motion to debate the performance of the Electoral Commission in the last election as it will be subjudice to election petitions currently filed in court. This was done on the advice of the AG.

Are some things more subjudice than others?

ASTRO's LATEST INOVATION.....

Really funny post parodying Astro's latest letter to all subscribers explaining their recent price hike.

Pak Lah: Not so people-friendly anymore

Is the shine of Pak Lah's new administration already dulling? Elected officials are meant to have a hundred days grace period before the public and press begin criticisms. Well, I beginning now, sixty days into his term.

Amongst my complaints:

• A disregard for NGOs and, worse, commisions established by the Government
  The Prime Minister has denied that ISA detainees have been abused. How do I put this? Best let the man speak for himself:
  

  "There are no such abuses. There is no such thing"

  "I have never heard anything specific about such atrocities, unlike those which we have seen taking place at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq"

  "If they (the human rights organisations) have anything specific, they should have come to talk to us... They do not have to carry out random interviews because this makes it more difficult for us to take any action"

  
  And another thing. A lot of the recommendations made by the Police Commission have also been made by Suhakam two years previously. I mean, it's not as if these problems are new. But instead of taking stock of what the commission has learnt so far, we have representatives of Special Branch dropping by the commission and observing people. And did anybody from the Government step forward and back the commission? Nope.
  Pak Lah, if you're for the people, act like it.


• Letting the young turks run loose without protection
  In his keeness to wipe the slate clean, the prime minister has begun to replace the old guard with the new. Most of these are Oxbridge graduates, all under 35. The problem is the perception that they've risen too high, too quickly and many are just waiting for them to slip up. They're either labelled as incompetent or already corrupted. Perhaps that's true, but it's almost like they haven't had the chance to prove themselves yet. If they are to step up and make a difference (which will take time), they need both guidance and protection and not to be in the spotlight alone when muck-throwing begins. The seniors should stand beside them to take the good with the bad.

Yahoo! Groups for Azizan

Did you know that there is a Yahoo! Groups devoted to Azizan Nin? I only found out about it because somebody posted a message that linked to this website.

Man Leaves WiFi insecure to foil MPAA

Here's an interesting idea: this guy has purposely unsecured his WiFi in order to be able to give a "who, me?" response to allegations by his ISP that he's downloading copyrighted material. Specifically, he'll write "I had no idea that copyrighted works were being downloaded via my IP address; I have a wireless router at home and it's possible that someone may have been using my connection at the time."

Too clever for his own good? Maybe.

Cinta Kinta

Hooray! Sheila Majid's got a new album out. It's a bit pricey, though - RM40.90 - but since it's been... like five years since Ku Mohon came out and in between all we had to live on was reissued scraps and the odd live performance.

Anyway, what's the new album like? Pretty good - but safe. Mostly recorded in Indonesia, including songwriters, producers and sessionists - namely, Andi Rianto and someone calleh Tohpati [hey, I'm ignorant], but there's also two songs by M. Nasir. Technically it sounds fantastic, but song selection is pretty much what you expect. I suppose it caters for that forty-something crowd who are happy with 'nice' and don't really want much more.

Probably the most 'controversial' (if you can call it that) is a remake of M. Nasir's Bukalah Hatimu - Mereka bawa perang di kaca TV / Secara 'live' melalui satalit / Yang untung broker teknologi / Yang kita hanya dapat kemeja-T. Honestly? M. Nasir did it much better, with more of an edge and anger.

There is nothing on the album to match the intensity and honesty of Ku Mohon. Maybe we should just accept that strife can produce great music but a happy home life results in - well, nice music. I am not wishing anything but the best for Sheila, but maybe next time she should look for angry songwriters and producers to channel.

GMail

I have been a beta user of Gmail now for a few weeks. It's... interesting. A lot of good ideas. But I've not made up my mind about it yet.

I don't use it for my personal email, but I do forward all my junk mail to it. This includes things like newsletters, online registrations and mailing lists.

Anyway, what's different in Gmail, when compared to other online email services:

• 1 GIGABYTE DISK SPACE, BABY: Yeah, that's the big selling point. 1 Gig of email space. That's equivalent to something like 15 years worth of my junk mail.
  
• "Conversations": GMail automagically groups all mail in a thread into a "conversation". This is an enforced feature, but I think a good one. All replies to a particular email immediately get placed into one logical place. It is possible that mail gets wrongly attached to a conversation, but that only happens when people misuse the 'reply' feature and don't change the subject header.
  
• Labels: Email no longer gets put into folders. Instead, you now attach labels on messages. The big advantage is that messages can now have more than one label. Ever had the problem of not knowing which of two folders to file messages? Not any more.
  
• Targeted advertising: This is what some people are worried about. GMail will provide users targetted advertising based on the contents of the email a user gets. So, for example, if you have an email mentioning that you have a leaky faucet, GMail will provide you a list of plumbers in your area (or perhaps just a list of faucet salesmen). In order to do this, a program somewhere needs to read your email and this is what people are upset about. Strange though, that people are fine when Yahoo!Mail reads through your email to determine which is spam, even though in both cases your email is being analyzed by a program. Perhaps it's because the intent for one is to help you and the other is to bombard you with unwanted advertising.

So, what do I think? As I said, I use GMail at the moment for my junk mail so I don't really care if they are reading what I get. I am not actually very worried about GMail reading my email - any email provider can read your email if they want to, if it's not encrypted. If you really want secure email, use PGP.

I am seriously considering using GMail as an online mirror of my day-to-day email, but I'm waiting until I'm really satisfied with it.

If anybody wants a subscription to GMail (it's only at Beta stage at the moment and not quite open to public access), send me an email at dzof.azmi@gmail.com explaining why you need 1 Gig of email space. I will send an invitation to join GMail to the first good reason I get. Don't forget - GMail allows you to receive attachments up to 10 MB in size, so feel free to be creative.

Taking Stock of Stocks

Okay, I'm sure you've all heard of Google's impending IPO and all the excitement it's generated. A well-known and well-respected company is about to let the public invest in them, in order to return even bigger profits.

Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? But I have my own personal take on stocks, shares and what they mean. Not all that many seem to agree immediately with me, but what the hey - it's a timely subject for me to yabber on.

Most people see stocks as companies giving the public an opportunity to make profit from an investment. Why do you invest in company X? Because it will make money. Because I can get a good return. Because dividends will be generous.

I don't quite see it that way. I think that companies going public actually gives people the chance to be part of something. It's an investment not in potential profits but of what they produce.

This is why I wouldn't buy stocks in companies that do things I don't like. Even if it meant missing out on a profit at the end of the day.

I mean, would you want to give money to a company that polluted your local environment? Even if you had a 30% profit in a month?

This is why I would not buy stock in, for example, Microsoft. I don't want them taking my money and using it researching some sort of draconian Digital Rights Management system or to help them usurp open XML standards. I don't want either of these things to happen, I am not going to contribute to the problem.

When people hear me say this, the first response (apart from "you really going to turn down free money?") is usually "but you are only a drop of water when you invest in them - you won't make a difference". Well, yes. Most of us are little drops. But the whole point of things like democracies is the belief that the cumulation of little things eventually amounts to a lot. And how can I expect others to follow if I don't take the step myself?

And the flip side of things is that I feel quite a bit of pride when I am involved in something good, even if it's in the most minute sense. I'm not sure I would invest in something good that looked like a loss-maker - I'd put that under the heading of 'charity'.

Would I invest in Google? Probably. It's not very clear what their plans for the future are, and some are worried that they could turn into some sort of Microsoft clone in terms of clout and influence, but that was said of Yahoo at one time, and anyway, Serge and Larry seem to have good heads on their shoulders.

In a bit of a twist, the other interesting thing about the Google IPO is that some analysts are unsure about how much money there is to be made from the whole IPO shebang. Firstly, they make it clear that they do not expect to see significantly higher profits in the near future, and so dividends are likely to be modest, if not miniscule. Secondly, the system of auctioning their shares leads some to believe that the final price will be very close to the offer price, resulting in lower profits - certainly not in the range of hundreds of percents, which was the rage during the dot-com boom.

The only ones that stand to make real money are those who invested in them when they were still a dream. In short, when people looked at their product and said, "hey, I'd like to be part of that".