Run Amok For The New Economic Policy

Veteran writer, Lim Kit Siang, is imploring the Malaysian Parliament to debate on the recent behaviour of several UMNO party members involving waving the Malay keris and "incendiary speeches".

The UMNO Youth leader Datuk Seri Hishammuddin waved the keris in the UMNO assembly this year just like he did last year, seemingly to reinforce the Malay race supremacy. One assembly delegate said that "UMNO was willing to risk lives and bathe in blood" while another warned that Malays could run "amok", if the country's Malay rights are challenged further. One commentator to Lim's website quoted an interesting definition of the term "amok".

According to the New Straits Times, Ledang Youth chief Mohamed Zan Abu said "we should defend it (Malay rights) to the last drop of out blood". Youth information chief Datuk Azimi Daim warned "when tension rises, the blood of Malay warriors will run in our veins".

Consider such statements that were made in the congregation of the nation's leaders while Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Datuk Seri Najib Razak warned during the opening night of discussions that irresponsible parties should halt inciting racial sentiments. Many Malaysians must be wondering if the UMNO Youth members were having tea break when the DPM spoke.

The National Economic Policy (NEP), formed many years ago, was designed to protect the interests of the Malays, and has been the focus of many recent debates within and outside of the Government. Malaysiakini, an online authority on national issues of Malaysia, has a good article interviewing Anwar Ibrahim, member of the opposition party, and his views of the NEP which is so fiercely defended by the current ruling party.

Lim warns that this recent "irresponsible, provocative and seditious" speeches at the assembly pose a dangerous setback to national unity and nation-building, scaring foreign investment away and generally damage the confidence of the general Malaysian public.

Thirty years of nurturing a growing and progressive economy are in a threat of losing its efforts if such behaviour of the country's leaders remain unchecked.

Why worry so much if you think are supreme and mighty?

Related posts:

Social Segregation, Democracy and The Constitution in Malaysia
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/10/social-segregation-democracy-and.html>

Three Viewpoints on Racial Discrimination in Malaysia
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/09/three-viewpoints-on-racial.html>

Links:

Malaysiakini
<URL:http://www.malaysiakini.com/>

Wikipedia - United Malays National Organisation
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umno>

Technorati Tags: umno, umno youth, assembly, general assembly, malaysia, malaysian parliament, malay keris, incendiary speech, nep, new economic policy, malay race, malay rights, zan abu, azimi daim, najib razak, anwar ibrahim, lim kit siang, malaysiakini, run amok

Free Outgoing Traffic Tracking Web Tool

For websites and bloggers who are concerned with their web traffic, it has been the norm to analyze the incoming traffic trends using onsite analytical tools or third-party tools. You can see where most of your traffic is coming from, but do you know where your visitors go to next? Do you know what links they click most, possibly indicating a trend or interest in a particular topic?

I've been evaluating this free outgoing traffic tracking service, known as Bingr.com.

Bingr's website is efficiently designed and works well. Being written in ASP, I didn't expect it to perform quite fast. The interface is simple and gets things done easily.

For each link in your site that you want to track, you give it a name and its link. Bingr will return you a shortened link to replace the link. With this link, Bingr can track the number of clicks and the country of origin.

For example, I created a link for:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/7/7/nation/14765105&sec=nation&focus=1

and Bingr gives me this link to use:

http://bingr.com/he6ke7


To your visitors, they won't see a difference. You can then view a graph of the clicks across time and see the trend of the link. This is very useful for bloggers and website owners who want to understand where their visitors visit next and build on those trends. If they are particularly interested in a news article on crime and public safety, you can then focus your blog on those topics or feature related products and services, such as personal security devices.

You can create as many Bingr links as you like, but each one can be tracked for 30 days.

Give it a try and let me know whether it is useful for you.


Links:

Bingr.com
<URL:http://www.bingr.com/>

Technorati Tags: bingr, web traffic, web trends, trend tracking, short links, free service

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.8 Web Browser Released

For those Mozilla Firefox 1.5.x users who are cool with their version and can wait for 2.x to be downloaded automatically, your browser will probably be downloading 1.5.0.8 right now.

This version resolves three bugs and improves the update feature for it to download lean and custom FF 2.0 installation instead of full installer.

FF 1.5 will be supported and updated until April 27 2007. Although most extensions work in FF 2.0, your only reason to stick with FF 1.5 is the themes, unless you can find FF 2.0 versions.

I'm giving one last chance to FF 1.5 not to crash occasionally when I open a link in a new tab...

Meanwhile, let me recommend a really fun extension, called StumbleUpon. It is a social bookmarking service which lets your surf to pages recommended by others. You can share interesting pages that you have visited and give reviews. Pretty useful extension when you have been surfing for eight hours already and can't seen to find any more and will crash and die of fatigue. Check it out using the link below.

Oh, FF 1.5.0.9 and 2.0.0.1 are planned to be released on Dec 14 2006. So, you got some time to really think carefully if you want to move on to FF 2.0. ;)

Related posts:

Mozilla Firefox 2 Web Browser Released
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/10/mozilla-firefox-2-web-browser-released.html>

Firefox Into The Sky!
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/05/firefox-into-sky.html>

Links:

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.8 Release Notes
<URL:http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/releases/1.5.0.8.html>

Download Firefox
<URL:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&id=187103&t=213>

StumbleUpon
<URL:http://www.stumbleupon.com>

Technorati Tags: mozilla, firefox, mozilla firefox, web browser, 1.5.0.8, ff, ff 1.5.0.8

Blogger.com Template Tip: Render Previous Post Link At Bottom Of Main Page

More experienced bloggers using Blogger.com have been able to put "previous" links to lead visitors to the previous post of their blog. On the main page, there is a fixed number of posts that you can choose to display, usually 3. Some visitors may be reading your main page from top to bottom. Now, besides having to refer to the list of previous posts in the sidebar, how can you provide a link at the end of last post of this main page for the visitors to continue reading?

I have written a bit of JavaScript and Blogger.com code just for this. You just need to copy the following code in the right places of your template and it will render a link to the previous post after the fixed number of posts on the main page.

Copy this chunk to the <head> section, preferably after the bunch of <meta> tags. Replace the number "3" in the line that contains "nMaxPostsOnMainPage" to the fixed number of posts on your main page, if it is not 3.

<script type="text/javascript">
// This JavaScript code created by Teng-Yan Loke
// Date: 7 Nov 2006 1119hrs
// Website: http://glob.lokety.com
// E-mail: lokety-at-gmail.com
var nMaxPostsOnMainPage = 3;
var aPosts = new Array(nMaxPostsOnMainPage + 1);
var n = 0;
<BloggerPreviousItems>
if (n <= nMaxPostsOnMainPage)
{
aPosts[n] = "<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>|<$BlogPreviousItemTitle$>";
n = n + 1;
}
</BloggerPreviousItems>
function writePrevPostOnMainPage()
{
var sTmp;

sTmp = aPosts[nMaxPostsOnMainPage].split("|");
document.write("<a href=\"" + sTmp[0] + "\">" + sTmp[1] + "</a>");
}
</script>

Place this line just after the </Blogger> tag near the line that has the HTML comment "End #main". If you want to apply any CSS style to the line, specify it in the <div> tag.

<MainPage><div style="">Previous post: <script type="text/javascript">writePrevPostOnMainPage();</script></div></MainPage>

Save the template and publish your site. It should work now.

Note: avoid using "|" in the title of your posts as it is used programmatically in my code.

I can probably expand this code to:

• display a specified number of previous posts, instead of just one
• display a dropdown list of previous posts to quickly jump to any post

If you find this Blogger.com template tip useful, please link back to me using this permalink. Thanks!

Update (December 13 2006): I've made some enhancements to this stuff. Click here to see the next post.

Technorati Tags: blogger, blogger.com, blogger tip, blogger code, previous post, main page, template tip, list of posts

Identity Cards, Phone Calls and You

UK's Prime Minister Tony Blair is defending for the nation's plan to have identity (ID) cards for non-EU immigrants from year 2008. Similar ID cards will be compulsory for locals from 2010. Although not considered as a comprehensive solution to combat illegal immigration, welfare fraud, and terrorism, setting up the identity system, known as the National Identity Register, will improve protection and enable effective checks, Blair said.

This news ought to cause a few seat adjustments from the civil rights groups.

The Register may store about 49 types of information, see the link "What data will ID cards store?" below. The most accurate identification tokens that will be recorded will be fingerprints and other biometric information, which I believe will be at least the iris and facial photograph. Multiple-token recognition is statistically accurate, down to the one in hundreds of million odds.

Malaysia and Singapore have both adopted national ID cards for their citizens. The set of data that is contained in the card is similarly large. Fields such as addresses, race, religion, signature, physical attributes, and biometrics are stored; in the case of Malaysia, on a 32KB computer chip. Cards are issued for newborns, and it is an offence not to bear the ID card outside of the citizens' homes (see links below).

The national ID card is meant for bringing products and services to the electronic form of identification for purposes of consumption or access privileges. It is supposed to combat identity forgery and enable effective security checks. At the same time, the card abolishes civil privacy and makes the citizens vulnerable to bribery, identity theft, and breaking laws that were created just for the card system.

Again in these two countries, mobile phone numbers and their interconnections are recorded in a main system that the mobile telcos have to route to. This is a regulation or law of their respective media or communications ministry, created to fight against crimes such as terrorism. Singapore is the first country to implement such a mobile phone call "brokering" system affectionately known as the mobile number portability system, Malaysia is in the pre-implementation stages. All calls that you have made using your mobile phone can be recalled from the system, including pre-paid numbers since these need to be pre-registered with your identity.

Big brother is watching you. Be a good lemming, mate, or don't get caught! :)

Links:

BBC News - Blair defends identity card plan
<URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6120220.stm>

BBC News - What data will ID cards store?
<URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4630045.stm>

Wikipedia - British national identity card
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_national_identity_card>

Wikipedia - MyKad
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyKad>

The Star - NRD (National Registry Department) warns of RM20,000 fine or three years' jail
<URL:http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/7/7/nation/14765105&sec=nation&focus=1>

Singapore Police Force - Information On Police Procedures
<URL:http://www.spf.gov.sg/epc/procedures/intro.htm>

Technorati Tags: identity card, id card, national identity, tony blair, national identity register, civil rights, big brother, privacy law, civil identification, fingerprint, biometrics, facial photograph, mykad, identity theft, number portability

Cell Therapeutics To Suspend Enrollment for PIONEER Drug Trial

Cancer drug developer, Cell Therapeutics (CTIC, financial info), has announced on November 3 2006 that it has suspended further enrollment of test patients for its lung cancer trial, called PIONEER, to analyze the differences in early cycle deaths. The company will need to study the differences of deaths between patients who were administered the trial drug, XYOTAX, and those who were given standard paclitaxel. In addition, as recommended by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, CTIC will continue its treatment for existing patients as per protocol.

CTIC has decided to amend the primary efficacy endpoint of the study according to the recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The survival results of women with normal estrogen levels will be the target and this protocol change will be submitted to the FDA for approval. This will likely delay the interim analysis results of PIONEER by at least six months.

CTIC traded down 1 cent (0.6 percent) on moderate volume on Friday November 3 2006.

Update November 7 2006 1006hrs:

The stock plunged 13 cents or 7.93% at the end of Monday November 6 2006.

Related posts:

Cell Therapeutics Signs Deal With Norvatis
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/09/cell-therapeutics-signs-deal-with.html>

Cell Therapeutics Up After Positive Xyotax Phase 1 Results
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/08/cell-therapeutics-up-after-positive.html>

Cell Therapeutics Signs Financing Agreement
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/06/cell-therapeutics-signs-financing.html>

Technorati Tags: cell therapeutics, ctic, xyotax, pioneer, drug trial, dsmb, fda, data safety monitoring board, food and drug administration

Roomba Rave

Following on to my previous post about one of the most practical technological marvel on the market in recent years, here is an update on my Roomba, from iRobot.

After several months of using Roomba, I find my floors spotlessly clean, both common areas and areas under furniture. For my usage pattern and nature of dirt, I have to empty and clean the dirt bin once a week. More often than the average vacuum cleaner, but worth the benefit of total floor coverage.

Be aware that although this robot is smaller than your average vacuum cleaner, it still has quite a noise level. Baby will find it a bit hard to fall asleep with Roomba wandering around. :) The cause is the powerful motor that creates the vacuum effect in the dirt bin at the back of the unit. Another source of noise is the motor of the side rotating brush. I'm figuring out a way to soften the noise there, but I suspect it will have to be a major overhaul of the motor or having to do without it.

Once I had an awful experience that started by someone in my household who carelessly rinsed the dirt bin with water. Don't do that as the bin contains electronics and the motor for the vacuum function! As I was worried that the electronics would short circuit, I took apart the bin and tried to blow-dry the area using a hot blower. Not being careful enough, the plastic fan driven by the motor started to melt and distort. The fan couldn't turn any more as it was warped. After much twisting and re-melting, I became more experienced in hot modelling and got it back mostly in shape.

There are several places on the underside of Roomba which you can try to oil to reduce friction. This can help prolong the shell life of the machine, keep dirt out, and lower operational noise. The easiest place to apply oil without using tools is at the two axles of the long brushes. They are the round white plastic pieces with square holes in them, shown in the photo on right.

After months of two sessions per day, the first thing that gave way on my Roomba is a section of the hinge that holds one of the two rubber wheels.
A chunk of the hinge cracked, but the wheel is still kept in place by the other side of the hinge. This was probably caused by the metal rail of my sliding glass doors. My machine must have been banging its right wheel in and out of the rail and stressed the structure of it. If you have such a place in your house, take note of it and think of ways to avoid it.

In case you are still undecided on whether you should get one, check out roboticvacuums.net for more reviews and information about Roomba. There is a good review on Roomba which I have been describing, and one on a fairly new model, Scooba. This fancy blue vacuum may just be on my wishlist as it can wash and vacuum hard floors. A little bucket contains the dirty water collected from the floor after washing. It would be so satisfying to see that dirty water!

Related post:

Cleaning The World, One Robot At A Time
<URL:http://glob.lokety.com/2006/05/cleaning-world-one-robot-at-time.html>

Links:

Reviews on Roomba
<URL:http://www.roboticvacuums.net/>

Technorati Tags: roomba, irobot, irobot roomba, scooba, vacuum, vacuum cleaner, robot, robotic vacuum, review, tips