Sultan and Raja, don't Let us Down Again!

It must be appreciated that the events unfolding in Perak are unprecedented and involve complex legal issues. It is impossible to provide a conclusive opinion on them. Some matters may, however, be addressed generally as a matter of principle.

Today 27 Assemblymen in Perak were prevented by the OCPD from entering the State Secretariat building, apparently upon “instructions” from the State Assembly Secretary.

The role of the State Assembly Secretary now comes under scrutiny. He is an official appointed from the public services and is only responsible for the administrative management of the State. He therefore has no authority to decide or pronounce whether a legislative assembly sitting is valid or not. The police have therefore acted improperly on his advice in defiance of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. These errors are further compounded by events that transpired in the High Court.

It was asserted before the Court by the plaintiff’s lawyers that the Speaker ought to be represented by the State Legal Advisor rather than private lawyers. There is certainly legal basis to disagree with that view but a more substantive matter of general principle must be addressed as to the position of the State Legal Advisor

Firstly, every lawyer must act on the instructions of his client and not otherwise. The Speaker has stated that he never gave instructions to the State Legal Advisor to either appear for him or to argue the case on his behalf. This is a matter that the Court must satisfy itself of before proceeding.

Secondly, the State Legal Advisor is clearly in a position of conflict. He and his department are presently acting for Dato’ Zambry in the Kuala Lumpur High Court suit where Dato’ Zambry’s appointment is being challenged. How can he or his department now act for the Speaker against Dato’ Zambry?

If the parties who file and defend proceedings in Court are confident of the strength of their case, there is little reason to taint or mar the proceedings with acts that militate against natural justice and fair play. It bears repeating that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. The Courts have a duty to uphold the highest principles of justice, fairness and their own independence. We must respect the doctrine of separation of powers and uphold the Federal Constitution.

The Legislative Assembly was convened by the Speaker a short distance from the State Secretariat building. There are questions as to whether it was permissible to hold the Legislative Assembly outside the State Secretariat building. Of course, the State Secretariat building is where the Legislative Assembly ought to have been held. However, the Speaker and Assemblymen were prevented from holding it in the proper place by the police (and this raises serious issues as to the legality of the police action). Thus the Speaker had no choice but to act within what may be seen as wide powers to convene the meeting elsewhere. No doubt there will be contrary views but it must be understood that this situation is unprecedented and the Standing Orders may not adequately cover these eventualities, thus leaving the Speaker with the powers to act according to the circumstances of the case.

We will no doubt see another case filed in Court. And the public has to further suffer the consequences of uncertainty.

The situation is untenable and cries out for the one thing that will resolve it conclusively – fresh elections. There is now a window of opportunity for this to happen. Let the people decide.


Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan
President
Malaysian Bar

3 March 2009

Now. Sultan and Raja, please decide. Otherwise, just stop talking and giving speech.

Desperate Move from BN in Perak

We have witnessed all the silly things happened in Perak. It's all because the move by BN perak to take over the PR government in such unprofessional way. Perhaps, the only major mistake from BN perak is that they forget to kidnapp the speaker.

See some of the silly things did by BN Perak:
- Closing the state building on 3rd March. Yes, they can do this since the officials in the state building probably fear that they will lose their job.
- Asking the police and MACC to investigate the speaker. I am not too sure whether these are allowed. As you know, we all have learned about the doctrine of separation of powers in our history books.
- Applying for a declaration in the Ipoh High Court that the suspensions are invalid. Suddenly, the court is become so powerful that they can decide everythings in Malaysia.

"Jika keputusan yang dibuat oleh Speaker boleh dianggap sebagai satu jenayah, apa akan jadi jika Speaker Dewan Rakyat menggantung ahli pembangkang kerana apa-apa sebab? Dan ini kerap berlaku. Apakah ahli pembangkang akan lapor kepada polis? Jika boleh maka bolehlah kita anggap bahawa polis berkuasa keatas Speaker Dewan."
from Che Det

Stupid Remarks from Our MCAC

A stupid and irresponsible Ahmad Said said that the MCAC has “strong evidence” against the Selangor MB. But why you gave the statements without first bringing the person to court and doing it “silently”. Stupid! It is ridiculous and only gives the perception that our MCAC is the UMNO-lead agency. Most of the malaysians definitely think that MCAC is not independent. Now, I think it’s true!

Malu

Jangan belajar daripada Si Najib dan Si Zamri yang tidak tahu ertinya "malu", rampas barang milik orang lain dan tetap berani berhadapan dengan rakyat. Harap-harap mereka akan terima padah nanti.

Ruler of Selangor said the increasingly worrying situation at the global and regional levels warranted the people to strengthen unity despite their differing viewpoints.

- The ruler in Perak is the one who create all the uncertainty to the Perak politic by allowing and indirectly encouraging the "buying" of assemblyman. So, who to blame and how the peoples could respect them?

OKU si Penderhaka

For those who don't know the meaning of OKU, it is translated as Orang Kurang Upaya. So what's wrong with Orang Kurang Upaya or disability peoples. All of them are suddenly labeled as traitors. It's sad!

霹雳州汉奸榜

许月凤
贾玛鲁丁
莫哈末奥斯曼
纳沙鲁丁哈欣
......

Malaysia Boleh!

It is a ‘D’ for Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia have been given a ‘D’, the lowest grade used by the AFC Pro-League Ad-Hoc Committee in rating the eligibility of countries for the 2009 AFC Champions League, after a comprehensive assessment of the AEAN country’s league and clubs.

A ‘D’ means the committee is of the opinion that Malaysia, whose teams currently play in the AFC Cup, do not meet the criteria for the revised AFC Champions League.

Malaysia have received ‘Ds’ in the below areas:

1) Association should have a minimum number of eight International Assistant Referees by 2009
2) The league governing body should be a legal entity governed by its football association
3) The league governing body should have a management structure which controls competition, marketing, media and finance
4) Club representatives, ii) representatives of football association and iii) representatives from the league’s top management should be members of the highest decision making body (executive committee) of the league
5) The position of CEO should be full-time
6) The league should have an audited Profit and Loss Statement and Balance Sheet
7) The league should have an auditor
8) The league should have a centralised marketing system of the elements such as media rights, certain sponsorships and merchandise
9) Each club should have a media officer
10) Match reports should be distributed to media
11) All the clubs should be commercial entities under its national law
12) Submission of an audited Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet to the League governing body
13) Clubs should not have overdue payments
14) All clubs have youth development programmes with youth teams in the clubs or affiliated to the clubs
15) All clubs’ head coaches should possess AFC Professional License Diploma or an equivalent licence approved by AFC
16) All clubs conduct activities contributing to the local community of the hometowns

Internet - Dalai Lama on AirJaldi

"The internet's contribution to the diffusion and dissemination of knowledge and information is truly remarkable. By itself the internet cannot feed the poor, defend the oppressed, or protect those subject to natural disasters, but by keeping us informed it can allow those of us who have the opportunity to give whatever help we can."

"New" School "Re"open

You could call it whatever name you like. It's "re"open at last. We should ask for more if demands are there. Not just one. Be fair.

Mutlticast Streaming for WiFi

Multicast packets are delivered in each DTIM period so don't assume that you can get the quality same as videon on demand (VOD) which is categorized as unicast streaming. I first thaught that the quality of multicast streaming will be better than unicast streaming. But it is actually the other way round. Anyway, if you would like to reduce the number of IP packet and number of PHY acknowledgement frame, multicast is still a better choice. My test experiences always show that the same wifi chipsets between the AP and clients provide better results.

Zeitgeist - Spirit of Time

Have a look on how Malaysians use Google search engine. I am curious why Malaysiakini is the fastest rising search item. Does this mean that a lot of peoples won't type "www.malaysiakini.com" before browsing the web-site or malaysiakini is still considered very new to the public?

Oppose? Why?

As long as the money is given back to the peoples. Why should you oppose this?

When traveling back from Penang, I just wonder why the government does not want to improve the railway and offering better service so that we can significantly reduce the number of cars using Highway. The tragedies are happened on the road from time to time.

Pakatan Rakyat - Hillslope Policy

I think that Teresa Kok should be relief. But I am not sure about Ronie Liu. Thanks to Nadeswaran and Terence for their forward thinking. No matter how we need the editors and journalistes to keep on disclosing the "undisclosed" to stop and monitor our politicians.

Business as usual on the hills

By: (Fri, 15 Aug 2008)

ON DEC 11, 1993, a block of a high-rise apartments in Highland Towers crashed. And with it 48 lives perished. Over the past few years, landslides have cost more lives. Immediately after the Highland Towers tragedy, then prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad decreed that no hillslopes should be cut.

"There is so much land and why do they have to cut the hills," he thundered in one press conference. Much later, his then deputy, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decreed that state governments should gazette all open spaces so they do not become targets of greedy developers (read: politicians and their cronies). Both directives were defied. The hill-cutting went on relentlessly and so was the land-grabbing aided and abetted by politicians in high places who were willing to sell their souls not for a few pieces of silver, but for gold bars or hard cash deposited in overseas accounts.

Vehement protests by affected residents and some NGOs prevented a large scale raping and plundering of Mother Nature. But not all their efforts paid dividends. In some instances, greed preceded over common sense and unscrupulous developers who had "wagered" on their "favourite horse", collected huge payouts by cutting hills and building concrete blocks on them.

So, when the Selangor government, three weeks after its formation, announced that it would cease to approve hillside development with immediate effect, it was like lifting the sword of Damocles which had been hanging over the heads of environmentalists and other like-minded people.

"We believe our hills should be preserved as they are important water catchment areas," Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said. And he made some concessions too. About 140 projects which had been approved by the previous administration could continue.

A month later, the state adopted the national guidelines on hillslope development – approval will only be given for gradients below 26°. So, in between a lot of lobbying had been going on. But Abdul Khalid held steadfastly to his stand. Over the past few weeks, news emerged that certain groups had lobbied to be in the One-Stop-Centres (OSC) of local councils.

The exco member for local governments, Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew, shot off a directive to all local councils – appoint five ex-officio members to the OSC one of whom must be a representative of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda). Implementation of this directive would be plain sailing because councils are packed with politicians and party supporters, who like their predecessors, were supposed to lift their hands and say "setuju" in unison. But not this time. One or two councillors spoke their minds on the dangers of including people with vested interests. Several council presidents also objected and word got back to Abdul Khalid, who rescinded the decision after an exco meeting and ticked off Liu.

Thus, when everyone had thought that the issue had died down, news filtered from the developers’ circles that Rehda has been given an opportunity to talk the state into changing its decision on hillside development. According to industry sources, exco member for commerce and investments, Teresa Kok "had convinced the mentri besar to have a meeting with a view to re-look the policy".

Hillslope development is allowed in Taiwan and China, Rehda members reasoned, and wanted to know why it is not allowed in Malaysia.

Someone down the line forgot the principle of the "rule of the land". In the Taiwan Parliament, members can beat each other up and get away with it, and get re-elected, but not in Malaysia.

In China, the state can shoot protesters and cart them away – no questions asked. Having said that, the terrain, rainfall and other extenuating factors differ from country to country. But the bottom line is: a policy decision has been made and it remains so.

No, developers are not the enemies of anyone. Like every business venture, they are entitled to make profits, albeit in accordance with the law. But when attempts are made to do things which are not in sync with the environment, it makes Joe Public stand up and say: I will not accept this.

Developers have every right to develop land, but to quote Dr Mahathir: "why cut the hills when there is so much land?"

Kok argues that they are stuck with land, but why buy hillslope land when there are restrictions on development?

The public will find it revolting that those who promised "to look after the interests of the people" are the same ones who are now looking after the interests of the businesses. After just five months, the tune and tempo are changing.

No, the present administration is in no measure worse than its predecessor because the latter had the system in the pits. The only way is to go upwards. But wavering on important issues like the environment is definitely a No-Go. But when people soldier on with disregard for public opinion, it becomes a ready-made recipe for a disaster in the making.

Kok says that the state has listened to the people and NGOs and it must hear the side of the developers. No one will bitch about that except that if such a meeting is to institute a reversal of a public policy, it will be viewed negatively.

Abdul Khalid has had his fair share of controversies and he does not need another. In his five months in power, he has made some important decisions that have benefited the people. He must stand firm and not give in to pressure from any party, including his own colleagues. That would be short-selling the people who elected his government into office. And should he initiate a policy change and the environment is subsequently destroyed, he cannot claim "Semuanya OK!" because his predecessor has copyrighted that phrase.

Hillslope policy to be reversed?

By: by R. Nadeswaran and Terence Fernandez (Thu, 14 Aug 2008)

PETALING JAYA: Is the Selangor government about to reverse its policy to ban hillside development? Just four months after stating that development won’t be allowed on hill slopes, there are fears that the state government will rescind its decision following pressure from housing developers.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is expected to meet Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) at the insistence of executive councillor (exco) for investment, industry and commerce Teresa Kok Suh Sim.

Upon assuming power after the March 8 general election, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government banned all development above 26° gradient – consistent with the national guidelines on development. However, it is learnt that lobbying by Rehda through Kok and Local Government executive councillor Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew prompted the state government towards a re-think.

If the policy is reversed, one will see a return to the bad old days when hillslopes are cut and the mushrooming of hillside bungalows and apartments, similar to what is going on in Bukit Gasing, a catchment area and a once-protected forest reserve. The change in policy is also likely to cause outcries from residents in Ampang and NGOs who had initially supported the state’s decision.

Abdul Khalid is not in favour of meeting the developers but sources say he was coaxed into it by Kok and Liu.

However, the consolation is that housing developers will be kept out of One-Stop-Centres (OSC) of local councils. Abdul Khalid and the executive council have overruled Liu's directive to councils last month that Rehda representatives be appointed ex-officio members.

Liu’s directive – issued using his office letterhead – may be illegal as the law allows only the state government, and not individual exco members, to make a general policy decision.

Abdul Khalid had also ticked off Liu, warning him not to issue anymore instructions without consulting the executive council.

Apparently several council heads objected to this directive as it would be a clear conflict of interest since the OSC is meant to fast-track the issuance of certificates of fitness and planning approvals.

Said a councillor: "How could developers sit in at such meetings when their interests are being discussed? With ex-officio status, they will have access to all our reports and input. The whole idea of having independent people is to prevent any lobbying or looking after vested interests."

"This is the last thing the new Pakatan Rakyat government needs as it tries to fulfil its election promises of a transparent and consultative government," said a source.

Kok, meanwhile, says the meeting with the developers was merely to listen to both sides of the story.

"We have listened to the residents and the NGOs, it is only fair that we hear the developers," she said, adding that Rehda asked for the meeting to resolve several issues, including the predicament facing developers due to the ban on hillslope development.

"They are stuck since they can’t develop their land.

"You can’t say they are wrong (in wanting to develop their land)," said Kok, adding that the developers reasoned that hillslope development is allowed in China, Taiwan and other developed countries.

"They want to know why it is different in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the flaws in hillslope development are caused by poor engineering design and sub-standard quality of work," she said, adding that one could not view developers as the enemy as they were needed to develop the state.

However, Kok said there was no sign of Abdul Khalid going back on his word. "Khalid is a good listener, he talks to everyone. We shall see if we can come to a compromise," she said.

Liu was attending a meeting yesterday and was unavailable for comments, but Kok while saying she opposed the inclusion of Rehda members on the OSC said they will have to declare their interests to ensure transparency.

"It is unfair to lable me as a mouthpiece for the developers. They are queueing up outside my office to see me, but I always treat them the same way I treat anyone who would wantto see me, with respect and a fair chance to give their views."

Paper Presentation

I have made a paper presentation at HONET08 in Penang last week (18th November). It was the first conference that I have attended so far with no Proceeding provided prior to the event. This conference is mainly about optical networking and I am publishing a paper on wireless communication. Anyway, it is good to learn how the interconnection of fiber around the world and the research issues related to it.

Day after Day

I have hardly updated my blog recently. Almost 1 month ago since I last posted my view. A lot of things have been happened to: Obama won the US Presidential Election, Penang State government again in the headline for some wrong reason, RPK was released, Razak was released, New Era College is in chaos, my company’s email server was downed for three days and etc. For me, I am busy with my personal matters, such as house, loan, wedding and etc. My wife said that I have not written enough about us. But it’s hard to capture and write it out when things go on so fast. Maybe, just maybe an excuse. Anyway, she was going to officially retired from her job after contributing for almost 8 years for the SOS [1][2][3][4][5][6]. I just can’t imagine that she was working there for such a long time and becomes the longest serving staff in the school. But that’s one of the reasons that I admire her. Today, I am going to travel back to Penang for the paper presentation in Park Royal.

"有別於其它華文小學，白小原校並沒以成績排名來斷定學生的學習成績，反而是以平日的表現及課業上進步，給他們頒發學習精神獎和課業表現優異獎，鼓勵他們更上一層樓。"

FAP - Unwanted President

Leave it to professional peoples to manage the football club. Why should the Deputy CM become the president? I am a bit worry now. It proves that PKR leaders are not good enough in management. Why should he take up the post when he knows that he is not capable to deliver? Crazy and Silly!

Be More Responsible

It is sad to hear that one of the renowned web-site making such a silly mistake. It could make the peoples to think twice whether to trust the news from web-site next time. Anyway, how many reporters will take the full responsibilities and resign?

Would You Buy a Handset because of its OS?

Don't you? Maybe, I will if the price is much cheaper than the others. But, hey, a mobile device, such as handset, is expensive due to its hardware, not the software, am I right? So does this Android OS based on Linux going to hit the market, like iPhone? I think probably not unless Google gives free hardware to us. Majority of the peoples won't buy a handset because of the OS.

WiFi and WiMAX in Penang

Penangities will soon enjoy the so called broadband speed in their home. For me, I am not really get excited. WiMAX for sure is not free if you are talking about mobile WiMAX (802.16e) unless you are using the so called fixed WiMAX (802.16d) which is going to obsolete and replaced by mobile WiMAX. The deployment cost may be high and thus P1 will charge the price on that. So WiMAX is not free. You need to pay for Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) or else you need to sign up the 2 years contract. So if Penangities are going to get free WiMAX, I would like to know how much that the state government pays for P1. Then, if it is free, do we really need this?

“This effort is 100% private sector-driven with nearly no or minimal cost put in by the state government. However, there are no rights to exclusivity and all qualified and recognised industry players are welcome in the interest of promoting competition,” Lim said at the launch in Komtar yesterday.

I support the idea of FreeWiFi movement in Penang. But nothing is free for sure. Nearly no cost in it? Please specify that how much the state government needs to pay. Where is REDtone-Hotgate going to put all the APs in Penang. If in the building, who pay the rents or the electricity? Then, if REDtone-Hotgate is going to earn from advertisement, how are they going to do that? Whenever you access to the FreeWiFi in Penang, your browser will go to portal page full with the advertisement specially prepared by REDtone-Hotgate. So is this fair? I am not going to satisfy with this? Why should we give this to only REDtone-Hotgate?

“The connection speed offered is at an average of 10 Mbps, depending on the specification of the notebooks, the speed can vary,” Wei said

Kidding, average of 10Mbps. If I get 1Mbps per user, I would be happy for that. What is the backhaul speed? If your AP is connected to 1Mbps ADSL, then the download speed for each user maybe less than 1Mbps. Ok, maybe he claimed the connection speed, not the download speed.

Joker FA of England

Bullshit! You always said that in football the referee's decision is final. But FA of England can overturn the decision of John Terry. It's a big joke for me!

乱世

誰主皇朝

Be aware. Be cautious. But don't be afraid to speak out and make a better place for our next generation!

China Own-Designed Processor

I still remember that several researchers from Chinese Academic of Sciences (中科院) had told me about their own processor while I was attending the ICIAS 2007. Today, I have found out that this processor is named as Loongson (龙芯), and here is the link to the web-site. I am impressed with their progress compared to our Mimos Pesona processor. The chief architect, Wei-Wu Hu, had said that there are three questions need to be answered for Loongson:
1. Should China design a common used CPU?
2. Does China has the ability to design the CPU?
3. Are we able to sell the CPU?
So, did we ever answer the above questions? Prof Hu claimed that they have answered the first two questions and now it's time for answering the third question. You will surprise to find out the following products running the Linux OS (debian). So, what about us?

Abbreviation in Mandarin

So, China mainland starts to use more and more abbreviations in Mandarin.

京奥 － 北京奥运会
安保 － 安全保安 (I first thought that the using the word in wrong order)

Maybe, London Olympic committee may think about call the upcoming game as LonOly, DonPic, LonPic or DonOlym. What do you think?

Secret training methods? How much it cost?

If Chinese swimmers are using drugs, then Australian swimmers probably are doing the same. The Australian coach, Ken Wood said that he sold the training program that used by Schipper to the Olympic gold medalist, Liu in butterfly event. After reading the Wood's statements in the press conference, I have concluded with the following:
- If Liu's coach was not buying the training program, she will not win the event.
- If Liu did not win the event, nobody will care about this.
- The swimmers from Great Britain, India and Hong Kong are physically weak or stupid since they use the same program but could not even become a medalist in Olympic.

Buying a training program is same as hiring a coach. So, what a big deal to bring this up! If Australian is so proud with the program, why are they not producing "Michael Phelp"? A lot of Chinese coaches are scattered all around the world to produce the world champions for other countries. So what?

The only answer that I would like to know is the cost of the "secret" training method? Why not Malaysia buy it to reproduce an Olympic medalist? Unless we are same as HK, GB or IND, otherwise, we should win the medal!

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24197998-10389,00.html
http://www.foxsports.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24192097-5016813,00.html
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2338648.htm

08.08.08 - 8.08 p.m.

My father will be happy.

Who abuses Who?

Could it be “Nike Inc. exploits Malaysian factory, then Malaysian abuses migrant workers”?

link

IKEA in Shenzhen

What’s so different between IKEA in Shenzhen and the only one in Damansara? This question can only be answered by my wife. She compared almost all items in the web-site: prices and availabilities. Then, I have been instructed to go there to buy several items while I was in Shenzhen. IKEA is built in an “isolated” area and I don’t see any nearby residential areas. I have taken some photos there. I went to the canteen to see whether the Swedish meat ball is available. So, food is almost the same. But the Shenzhen one has more choices compared to us. But, the coffee taste is really bad! No milk and just creamer. Anyway, you can look for the shuttle bus to take you there from Windows of World in Shenzhen.

Coffee with Creamer

Empty Car Park?

Shanghai Maglev Train

Last week, I had traveled to Shenzhen. While transit in Pudong Airport in Shanghai, I had taken the opportunity to try out the Shanghai Maglev Train. It is not a China made product. That’s why I am brave enough to try it. It is made up by a railway track from Japan and trains from German. The transit fare is about 100 RMB (approximately RM50) for round-trip. Not bad! The distance is about 33km from Pudong Airport to Luoyang Metro Station. Our KLIA transit from KLIA to KL Sentral is about 57km and one-way trip cost us about RM35. So I still believe that the public transport in China is very cheap compared to Malaysia. The maximum speed recorded during my trip was 430km/h. Hmm, not bad. But my colleague asked me one tricky question, “Could this be faked?” I don’t know. But one thing can be sure, everything is possible in Malaysia. Like what we saw and read everyday in our newspaper. This is so called “Malaysia Boleh, Apa pun Boleh!”

If Najib becomes our PM?

What do you think?
Are you excited?
Are we going to have better PM?
Do you believe that this is going to materialize?
After 5 years, what is Malaysia's situation?
.......
......
.....
....
...
.............
I just don't know what to say then.

Fed-Up or Truth

I myself believe that it's more important to have the truth to be prevailed rather than be fed-up with the latest development. I totally disagree with this paper putting this thing up. Are you helping the current government or top senior politician to cover up somethings? Last time, when the petrol hiked up, this paper covered up its front page with LRT proposed new line. Just to divert the attention of peoples.

WiFi Link - 304KM

Tx Antenna Gain = 35dBi
TX Power = 28 dBm XR5 Card Output Power
Tx Cable Loss = 6 dB
FSL = 92.45 + 20 log (304) + 20 log 5 = -156.09
Rx Cable Loss = 6 dB
Rx Antenna Gain = 35 dBi
Rx Sensitivity = -94 dBm @ 6Mbps
Link Budget = 28 -6 + 35 - 156.09 + 35 -6 + 94
= 23.91 dB (good enough for the link)






WiFi link can be reached until 304km, off course Line of Sight.



My own setup in Cyberja, only 239m! It's meter not kilometer, I'm making a false claim! Thanks for PK to point it out :)

TxxSxxx - Still a Government owned Newspaper

1. Barisan gets motion passed with big majority
2. The Prime Minister passed his first test of confidence in Parliament when a motion which the Government tabled was passed with a convincing majority.

Statement 1:
Does this mean that all peoples are expecting BN representatives to vote against the petrol hike? BN vote for this montion is called big majority?

Statement 2:
Convincing or not convincing is clear. 35% peoples against the motion or if including those who "miss up", 42% peoples against the motion. So this is so called convincing majority by our MCA newspaper.

129/140 = 92.14% [BN]
78/81 = 85.71% [Opposition]
1/1 = 100% [Independent]

Wait and See

"Tracking the system: Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad arriving at the Express Rail Link station in Putrajaya yesterday, the second day he was trying public transport from his home in Jalan Tunku in Kuala Lumpur to his office in Putrajaya. His verdict after two days? “It’s not so convenient since there is no bus connection from my house to KL Sentral to take the ERL to Putrajaya. My wife has to send me to KL Sentral and my driver picks me up in Putrajaya. He will be bringing the matter up in the Cabinet today. Shahrir is a frequent user of ERL to KLIA."
from TheStar

Only two days, our BN leader cannot tolerate anymore and want to bring the matter up in the Cabinet. You are lucky to have your driver picking you up in Putrajaya. You should walk all the way to your office or find a bus to get to your office. My office will move to Cyberjaya soon. I am wondering how I go there by public transportation. Last time, when I worked in TPM Bukit Jalil, I had to take KTM to KL sentral from my home, queuing up for Putra LRT, then Start LRT, then took a bus to my office or walked for 30 minutes. You all have your drivers picking you up. So, do you really feel that? Do you really care? What's your solution then? Just wait and see!

According to Malaysian leaders, "wait and see" means "wait forever and you will never see it"!

Cutting Allowance! Burden Sharing?

The slashing of allowances and limitation on paid holidays take effect on July 1. Even the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister will not be spared this new ruling.

For the paid holidays, Cabinet members will not be allowed to claim for more than a week’s holiday.

From TheStar

Crazy! I have no idea before that our Cabinet members can enjoy “unlimited paid” holiday. You can travel anywhere, anytime and all these will be paid by peoples’ money. I can’t imagine that after you all getting the salary from peoples and you still can enjoy this benefit. Crazy! Waste! Why should we all bear your cost! Now, the PM said that they are still allowed to travel to South East Asia. Bullshit! I cannot hide my anger anymore. A lot of peoples could not even have their changes to go oversea in their whole life. Our cabinet members could still enjoy this benefit. After all, our DPM still brave enough to say that the government shares the burden with the Rakyat. Again, bullshit! Cutting entertainment fees is called sharing the burden. What about giving up your salary? Useless MCA now asked for abolishing toll and road tax. I just wonder whether they are inside the government or not… but anyway, no hope for them, not even a single hope to them. Of course, don't expect too much from our current "wasteful" government...

Difficult Life

This was the first time for me to queue up at the Petrol station. No matter what the nonsense that our PM or government said. It is down to one and only factor. Waste..... Waste.... Waste..... Our government wastes too much peoples' money. Now, this is the consequence. The peoples are going to pay for keeping silence for too long. Difficult life in Malaysia.....

2 Years Gone!

My wife and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary in Sassorosso Restaurant at Lorong Yap Kwan Seng on last Friday (4 days late from our actual data). I feel lucky to have her till today. Wish to have more and more to come.....

BMC

The barricade issue in Bandar Mahkota Cheras has generated newspapers’ headlines in last two days. Peoples were injured and some of them have to be sent to the hospital for treatment. It is really terrible that peoples has been neglected their rights for better living due to privatization I wonder why we need a highway if better access is not the main consideration. We pay because we want to get better access to certain place. This can be debatable, but at least this is the only valid reason for us to pay the toll. To the residents in BMC, I should salute their patients for more than 4 years. Their abilities to travel 6km and RM0.90 toll for every trip out from their homes. The developer who promises the resident to have a short-cut access has to come out to solve the problem as well. Now, the MB of Selangor was there to solve the problem. It will not happen if Khir is the current MB. Our work minister is yet to make a statement, but for sure, they will say that there has nothing to do with this.

The government should always put the peoples’ benefits ahead of them!

WiFi Hotspot

If you could not find a WiFi hotspot in your area, this web-suite may help.

Some of the interesting tables regarding WiFi hotspot in the world:

Hmm.... it seems that Hotspot is still not so popular in Malaysia. Here the number of registered WiFi hotspot in Malaysia:

• Johor (117)
• Kedah (62)
• Kelantan (35)
• Melaka (52)
• Negeri Sembilan (39)
• Other (281)
• Pahang (50)
• Perak (82)
• Perlis (1)
• Pulau Pinang (25)
• Putrajaya (6)
• Sabah (48)
• Sarawak (91)
• Selangor (355)
• Terengganu (12)
• Wilayah Persekutuan (776)

Balkis Expenditure

Is this how a Charity Organization should spend its money?

RM158,000 - Sports Facility
RM128,000 - Batik Clothing
RM49,000 - Souvenir Books
RM100,000 - Sports Programme
RM200,000 - Deepavali and Hari Raya Celebrations
RM100,000 - Sports Uniforms
RM30,000 - Food for a Sports Event

How many poor peoples could we help with the above money? Former MB said that Balkis was a charity and the money raised was for "the benefit of orphans and underprivileged students" adopted by the charity. He should stop talking nonsense!

Nationalism, Football and Man United

Man United had just completed the double victories on domestic and Europe, a big achievement after the Treble on 1999. Dramatic ending in penalty in 2008 could be well compared with two goals in extra time against Bayern Munich in 1999. But many South Koreans feel sense of betrayal from Fergie who did not pick Park Ji-Sung for the starting eleven. To all of the surprise, he was not even in the substitute bench after playing well in quarter final and semi final. Fergie has said that he owes it to Paul Scholes so he would be the first to be named in the staring eleven. I have no surprise to see Park being disposed from the starting eleven against Chelsea. Tactically, it may be correct. But to overlook him from substitute bench is a major shock for me. At least, you should put him in the bench to recognize his contribution to the team. Yes, I was disappointed since I thought that he could be the first Asian to play in Champion League Final. I could remember that Fergie preferring Saha instead of Ruud in the FA Cup final and eventually lead to Ruud demanding to be transferred. Yes, of course, Park is not as important as Ruud and I have to agree that Park is not as good as some of the current Man United players. But his willingness to give all up is something Fergie should be appreciated to at least put him in the bench. Rooney was good but when he was substituted in the final, you can see his body language telling you that he was not happy. For me, not putting Park in the substitute bench is down to one factor: he can be easily replaced in the market. But after all, Man United won the game so I will still happy with that.

South Korean peoples do not think so. They were starting asking why? Is he injured? No. So why is he not even in the bench? Some of them start to believe that Fergie is bias and racist. Some of them even ask Park to leave otherwise he will continue to be discriminated by Fergie. Crazily, they want to know whether Park is well treated, whether he will get the medal. Some of them even said they will stop supporting Man United. Read some statements are funny from the Fanzone (maybe from Korean and maybe not, who knows?) in manutd.com:

"because he is an Asian? he is a Korean? he is not a Scotish?.......hahaha....." "We as korean are very fast and smart. we have learn things so quick even football sys in england." "Maybe, all of the Korean fans for MANUTD move to Chelsea ~~~" "Park wore the suit which is not a uniform and went into the stadium. It is that imagination was not completed, either. It was not much painful and disappointment." "I will never believe all of England guys in the future. Because they look down on all of Asian people." "but then why is nani on the bench instead of park? nani can't do anything *** idiot ferguson" "but, I heard that Park don't get Champions League medal."

But I think that this quote from a Chinese commentator well explaining the behavior of our Asian player:

"这是咱们东方的这种传统谦逊的表示，就是这种谦逊和这种努力，我觉得这种性格是能够在球场上体现出来的"

Last, don’t even mention ManU, call it Man United if you support Manchester United. This is coming from those fanatics who could easily label you as betraying the club, not me. There is a history about this, about the Busby Babes.

According to Procedures

As long as everything is according to procedures, then you can say it loudly and proudly, even you can dare to say “Nothing to hide”!

See how:

“He said all actions taken that led to the sacking of then Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas was done according to the law and constitution.”

“The purchase of Sukhoi jets and Scorpene submarines were made based on proper Government procurement procedures.”

“I have done nothing wrong. All the work I have done is in accordance with procedures. I challenge the present government to try and find anything on me.”

We should do things not only according to procedures, but every penny should be well spent, every single decision should be carefully taken in the sake of peoples’ needs. Otherwise, we should review all these procedures!

Economy Class, Not a Big Deal!

Every leader should do this. If you are traveling such a short distance and ask for economy class, then it is not a big deal. If you are traveling from Penang to oversea for more than 6 or 7 hours flight and still ask for economy class, you will get my vote. Anyway, thumbs up!

Keep on your good works!

Free spectacles to Tamil pupils, why can’t? Don’t disturb the students during school hours. Ohh….that’s the way. Our Education Ministry doesn’t want our students or teachers to be disturbed. So, please don’t attend any activities instructed by Ministry if it is scheduled during school hours. They said so! Poor student, just ask the money from your parents to buy the spectacles or else don’t study too hard until you need spectacles. Dr. Ramasamy, don’t deploy the similar tactic used by the BN, be sincere, just give straight to the desired students or ask the school teachers to distribute these! I don’t see any problems….

Your Pocket Money or Peoples’ Money

When you have in power for so long, you forget how to differentiate whether it is your money or peoples’ money. You can suka-suka transfer the money to another account like your “Ah Kong” one. Then, you can suka-suka reroute the money to another body. Or you can suka-suka stop the event.

RM10m gone in 3 days
This one is ridiculous. This shows the efficiency of our politicians. It’s just the matter whether they want to do it or not. By the way, who owns the money?

Mara will handle money, not Pakatan governments
It looks like their Ah Kong’s money. We can do whatever we want.

More to come.......

Malaysia As You Know

If you ever know the history of Malaysia, you will be wonder why Malaysia suddenly reduces to merely 8 states. Sadly, this is so called "Malaysia Boleh".

See here!

Nonsense!

After all, Abdullah starts to move. It’s too late for us. Setting “Judicial Appointments Commission” to “make recommendation to PM” to help the PM to choose the judges. What’s the nonsense? So who has the final say? Again, our PM. Bullshit! Excuse me for being emotion. I just don’t understand. If you want to do reform, you should make it sincerely. Don’t simply give promise and “hangat-hangat tahi ayam”! Peoples may think that “it’s better than none”. But I am not!

WAN and Best RO

If a similar project can be kicked start here, then I will probably have free Internet access at my home.

Surprisingly on 29^th March , I have been awarded the “Best Researcher 2007” from my company. But I had left early during the annual dinner and missed the presentation. Guess what I get from this award?

8-year-old whiz designs with FPGAs

I can only manage to play simple PC games when I was 8 years old. So this kid plays around with FPGA. He is also doing promotion for Actel. :)

Extend Your Network Coverage using WiFi

If you could not find a long cable for extending your network coverage, perhaps from building to building, you can simply use the wireless card to do so. Just ensure the necessary tools, such as Ethernet bridging and WDS features in the wireless card. Then, you can make a connection as shown in the diagram. All the clients will have the same subnet. It’s easy!

Missing Files

When you are going to leave your current job, you are normally required to hand over all the documents, files, or computerized materials to the new comer. If I were fired or I were asked to step down unwillingly, I will try to made the newcomer life difficult. How? Ask him or her to start from the scratch. Ask him or her to go around for the documents. Ask him or her to not forget to deliver although I myself should do this or that last time……

Search for missing files

The Peoples are Looking for More

There was nothing special in the new lineup of Pak Lah’s cabinet. Normal, nothing special! Peoples maybe get excited with new faces in cabinet last time, but I believe that no more now. Even with Rafidah being opted out, there are still “corrupted” or “going to be corrupted” faces in the cabinet. Peoples demand more than that. Peoples are excited with new governments in Penang, Perak, Kedah and Selangor. Not the old style BN government. It’s ridiculous for UMNO to call up a gathering in Komtar without proper demands. No memorandum and no purposes at all. At the mean time, you see that Utusan and Bernama are trying to create races tensions using “twist and turn” reports. Sometimes, I just don’t understand why.

More Responsibility

I “officially” end my bachelor life yesterday!

Respect Yourself, Uncle Lim!

Uncle Lim! Don’t be arrogant! Peoples choose you and they can turn against you as well. Please install the correct and capable persons to lead the state. Don’t practice cronyism yourself. Be aware! You only have 4 years to prove yourself. Don’t go into unnecessary quarrels and conflicts. I know that it is always frustrated the constitution is written as that. But what you can do? I accept that there will be conflicts amongst coalition but we should keep these to minimum. I understand that you afraid of Islamic state policies. Yes, you afraid of losing the votes and support from Chinese. But you should open your mind. If all work together and getting the good results in 4 years time, will peoples vote against you? Get to work quickly. Don't waste time! I urge you to step down as Opposition Leader in Parliament. Give others an opportunity!

Salary for Assemblyman

Chief Minister: RM 14,175.15
Exco Member: RM 6109.29
State Assemblyman: RM 4112.79
Parliament Assemblyman: RM 13108.59
(Source)

So, the new CM in Penang is going to earn RM31,396.53.

This is Just the Beginning!

We all are excited with the outcomes of this general election. Newly formed government in 4 states and denied 2/3 majority of BN in parliament!

BN still hold very strong machinery in this election. Still a long way for a truly democratic nation….

I really hope that Selangor, Perak, Kedah and Penang with the new MBs and CM will start to make changes…..

BN and Fake University?

One BN candidate claimed that he obtained his PhD at American University of Hawaii.

Penang Economy Downturn

If this is true, then it’s sad that we have to do this to attract the foreign investors. I am really sad to see my home state has to do this. The federal state should help but not by such a way. If this is really our “Malaysian” style, then why we need to spend our money developing our human capitals? How many projects are we able to award and offer to? So, if Intel wants to pull out from Penang, does the government need to launch a campaign to promote Intel chipset or force our government officials to use only Intel’s PC. If we do sincerely develop and give equal opportunities to all Malaysian, I strongly believe that Malaysia is good enough to produce talented Engineers to attract foreign companies to setup their not only their manufacturing factories but also R&D center here. If Dr. Koh is doing this, is this mean that he is not getting enough support from the federal state and starts to “assimilate”? If then, should we blame him? The question now is that whether the next CM in power will have "free hand" to run the state.

Motorola Media Press
Malaysiakini News

Another interesting article to share:
Penang pays the price of success

General Election

So, this is so called a fair General Election by our EC.

Go to the SPR website and check the following:
T715511 and 670104075529
T719756 and 750909035727

Is this mean these voters can vote twice in two different areas? Is this fair?

I think that you know the answer.

If SPR does develop a "semakan pengundi" with better search capabilities, perhaps you can find more the above cases. But my colleague said to me, "What to do?"

AppWeb

If you would like to try out the embedded web server in your system, I would recommend the AppWeb. In my humble opinion, it is much better than others embedded/tiny web server. The server is scalable and modular with dynamic loaded modules. Come with features, such as SSL, User Authentication, Embedded Java Script, CGI ….. The most important is that it can support multithreaded environment. In single threaded environment, the PHP script can execute in long time and stall the server. This happens to my previous thttp server.

Start Deutsch A2

Ich bin sehr glücklich, weil ich meine Prüfung bestanden habe. Aber mein Ergebnis ist nict gut. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich meine Deutschstunder weitermache. Ich hoffe es. Vielleicht, nächstes Semester.

Tragedy

Choi Yo-sam was officially declared dead. Still remember this... So, who next ....?

Trip to Wuhan and Beijing

I had made my “winter break” this year in China again. Travel to Wuhan to meet my girlfriend on 20th Dec and made a trip together to Beijing. Travel back to Malaysia on 30th December. It was my first visit to the capital of China and a good opportunity for me to have a look on Beijing before the Olympic game in year 2008. Visit Beijing is almost like reading a history book since there are so many heritages there. We had to start our day as early as 7 a.m. everyday so that we can cover almost all the attraction points in Beijing. To my surprise, the ticket prices for the subway is rather cheap, only 2 Yuan or RM1, including the transit. However, traffic in Beijing is quite congested even in “non-peak” hour. One of taxi drivers told me that Beijing is going to implement the rule that car on the road will eventually based on the first digit of its plat number during the Olympic game: odd digit for Monday, Wednesday and Friday while even digit for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Walking upon the lake was indeed a new experience for me. The weather was so cold in Chengde that even the lake was frozen over. My girlfriend was busy with her shopping stuffs until the very last minute before we captured the flight back to KL….

Travel route:
KL --> GuangZhou --> Wuhan [20 Dec] --> Beijing [23 Dec] --> Chengde [25 Dec via Train] --> Beijing [26 Dec] --> KL [30 Dec]

Some of the places that we have visited during our stay in China:
Wuhan [武汉] :
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuchang Revolution Museum

Beijing [北京] and Chengde [承德]:
1st Day: Yonghe Temple (雍和宮), Beihan (北海) and Wangfujing (王府井大街)
2nd Day: Forbidden City (故宫博物院), Jingshan Park (景山公园),
Tiananmen Square (天安门广场), Dashilar, Liulichang
3rd Day: Chengde Mountain Resort (避暑山庄)
4th Day: Puning Temple (普宁寺), Putuo Zongcheng Temple (普陀宗乘之庙)
5th Day: Temple of Heaven (天坛), Prince Gong's Mansion (恭王府)
6th Day: Great Wall – Juyongguan (居庸关), Ming Dynasty Tombs (明朝十三陵),
Xidan (西单)
7th Day: Summer Palace (颐和园),
8th Day: Zhongguancun (中关村)

Some of the restaurants that we have visited:
Café Sambal – Malaysian Cuisine, Peking Roast Duck at Quanjude (全聚德), Sizzler, Annie’s Café – Italian Cuisine, Lao She Teahouse (老舍茶館), Sizzler …. etc.

My advice is that visit there when you are young and when you are physically capable to cope with a lot of walking.

Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼)

Forbidden City

My GF at Starbucks near Beihan

Yonghe Temple

Wuchang Revolution Museum

Wuchang Revolution Museum

Ming Tombs

Chengde Mountain Resort

Chengde Mountain Resort

Peking Roast Duck at Quanjude

Tortoise for Long Life at Forbidden City

Kirin

Summer Palace

Summer Palace

Old Peking Dish - 驢打滾 at Lao She Teahouse

Happy Birthday

My girlfriend was born on this day!

3G

When one is doing nothing, another one tries to get it and do it. Our government said “NO”. The question is that why you give the license to someone who you know is not capable to do it at first.

Exciting 3G offers from DiGi in 2008
DiGi not guaranteed to get 3G spectrum licence
MiTV on track to deliver 3G network [But who see it? Service Provider or Content Provider?]

* Time dotCom is partly owned by Khazanah Nasional Berhad with percentage of shares 30.04% at 30 March 2007

Wireless Distribution System for 802.11

If you would like to extend the coverage of your WiFi network, you could apply the Wireless Distribution System (WDS) bridging feature that could be found in most of the WiFi chipset. I have connected two Access Point (AP) using WDS to extend the coverage of the network. 1st AP contains single wireless adapter and one Ethernet adapter. Another AP consists of dual wireless adapters. The 802.1d Ethernet Bridging kernel feature is enabled in the kernel while the bridge utilities is installed. The WDS feature must be enabled in both AP so that 4 address format used in 802.11 header can be handled.

[LAN] ---- AP1 ----- [WiFi] ---- AP2 ---- [WiFi]

Here, part of the commands for enabling the bridging between two different interfaces:
# brctl addbr br0
# brctl addif br0 ath0
# brctl addif br0 ath1
# ifconfig br0

As usual, extending the network comes with the price of increased latency and decreased throughput. 802.11 header overhead is increased by adding two additional MAC addresses. The following MAC addresses are needed to ensure the success delivery of 802.11 frame crossing two different APs:
- MAC for the sender
- MAC for the final destination
- MAC for the sending AP
- MAC for the receiving AP

[AP1]
Ping statistics for 172.16.6.1:
Packets: Sent = 9, Received = 9, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 2ms

[AP2]
Ping statistics for 172.16.6.1:
Packets: Sent = 9, Received = 9, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 3ms

Try it out if you could have two WiFi cards in your PC.

ICIAS

There was an IEEE conference in KL Convention Center organized by UTP. I had made my presentation on “Real-Time Reconfigurable Embedded System for Remote Monitoring and Controlling” around 2 p.m on Tuesday. I rushed to the conference at last minute from my office. Since a lot of presenters are come from hardware design background, so the questions from the audience were mainly to clarify their personal understanding. This paper is intended to propose a NMS system using soft core processor in FPGA with real-time capability. It is grouped under the VLSI and Embedded System category. I also attended the training on “Hardware Design Exploration for Embedded Computing Systems” conducted by Dr. Pramod Kumar Meher from NTU. It’s great to learn some tips and hints on the hardware design, such as pipelining, and etc.

For those who are interested in MicroBlaze processor, a new release version (v7) comes with MMU support, so it is possible to use Linux instead of uClinux.

Public Transport

I was asked to attend a training at Maju Junction Mall in Jalan Sultan Ismail for the last three days. Since the venue is located in center of Kuala Lumpur, I decided to take public transport instead of driving. I parked my car at the nearest Taman Jaya station and this cost me around RM3. Then, take the Putra LRT to KL Sentral cost me RM1.60. Huge crowd and you almost have to wait for 6 minutes. Lastly, I had to take KL Monorail to Media Tunku and this cost me RM2.50. So, the total cost for going to and back from my training is RM11.20. Too much….

But I really could not accept that such a short distance costs around RM2.50 for taking KL Monorail. Furthermore, it was a bad experience on the first day while the train stuck for almost 5 minutes just before it reached Media Tunku station. Yes, there was no complaint from passengers including me. This remembers me that once I almost missed my bus back to Penang when the KTM stuck at KL Sentral for almost 30 minutes. Pricing for petrol is going to raise next year after all our Ministers keep making noise that our government could not further subsidy. More and more peoples will start taking public transports. But “Suka-Suka”, it can simply delay your trips so who are going to trust our public transport?