Watch your blogs, warns PM

KUANTAN: Bloggers are as liable for defamation as publishers of printed materials, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.

Commenting on the on-going debates regarding bloggers and their comments in Internet postings, the Prime Minister added:

“It is wrong for bloggers to go overboard, especially if they post slanderous articles against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Islam on the website,” he told reporters here yesterday.

“This is not something one can take lightly,” Abdullah added.

On July 25, Malaysia Today's Raja Petra Kamarudin, 57, was called in to record a statement for allegedly posting a series of comments and remarks that insulted the King, degraded Islam and incited hatred and violence in Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

In KOTA BARU, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the allegations against Inspector-General Tan Sri Musa Hassan and former Anti-Corruption Agency director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Mat Noor were proof of blogs being used to post slander.

He advised bloggers to exercise caution in their articles so as not to cause injustice to the person or persons involved.

He also advised those with evidence of corruption against public servants or politicians to report directly to the ACA and not to bloggers.

In KIMANIS, Sabah, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the party had no intention of asking the Government to censor the Internet but wanted legal action taken against bloggers who spread lies and slander through cyberspace.

He said the party had, for a long time, ignored such bloggers but the situation had reached a point where “it looked like there are no laws in cyberspace except the laws of the jungle.”

Khairy said bloggers must realise that they were not above the law and that “cyberspace is not a place for lawlessness.”

He said Umno would be keeping close tabs on the various blogs.

quoted from "http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/29/nation/18441138&sec=nation"

___________________________________________________

take note when you publish your entry, be it genuine or not.

The library@orchard to close by November 2007

yeap,that's right...
CNA reported that the library will close it's doors by November 2007 until relocation is completed in around 2010

(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/290279/1/.html)

Article from theAge.com.au ~ i actually felt really proud of Singapore after reading this ~ Long live Singapore!!

Eaten by Singapore

Stephen Mayne
July 22, 2007

WHEN shareholders in Perth-based energy utility Alinta Ltd gather to vote on the $15 billion carve-up of the company on August 13, few of them will realise the remarkable historical event they will trigger.

In accepting $4.5 billion of cash from Singapore Power for a suite of Australian electricity and gas distribution assets, Alinta shareholders will lift the total value of Australian business assets controlled by the Singapore Government to almost $30 billion.

This will exceed the value of commercial assets owned by our own Federal Government, which is surely an unprecedented situation for any First World country. How can a foreign power own more of Australia than our own government?

While ordinary Singaporeans have limited democratic rights and still don't enjoy benefits such as Australia's minimum wage (the world's highest), the Singapore state has amassed an empire worth more than $200 billion — and it has now put more of it into Australia than any other country.

The investments come from two discreet vehicles. The $100 billion-plus Government Investment Corporation (GIC) invests Singapore's foreign reserves around the world while Temasek Holdings owns the shares in government-controlled businesses such as Singapore Airlines, Singapore Power, Singtel and the giant DBS Holdings financial conglomerate.

Few people realise how much these two vehicles have ploughed into Australia since 1995, buying many sensitive and prestigious assets such as Optus, Myer Melbourne and large parts of the old State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

This compares starkly with the Howard Government, which has raised about $65 billion from privatisation — the biggest chunks coming from selling 83 per cent of Telstra ($45 billion), 50.1 per cent of the Commonwealth Bank ($5.15 billion) and the nation's airports ($8.5 billion).

With Medibank Private also slated for sale next year, the Government is left with only Australia Post, which made a net profit of $370 million in 2005-06 and is therefore worth about $7 billion. The residual 17 per cent stake in Telstra is worth $10 billion but the Government doesn't control it.

While other nations such as China, Singapore, Russia, Korea, Kuwait and Norway build up huge sovereign funds, Australia, with its world-beating dowry of natural assets, still has a Federal Government with a negative net worth of $10 billion in the middle of an unprecedented commodities boom.

Even including the $52 billion in the Future Fund and all land and defence assets, these assets do not exceed the $50 billion in outstanding federal debt and $111 billion in unfunded superannuation liabilities as at June 30, 2007.

The contrast with Singapore is stark indeed. This island nation of just 4.4 million people in a land mass broadly equivalent to Melbourne has amassed vast public wealth, although its private wealth is nowhere near the $8130 billion that the federal Treasury and Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate Australia's 21 million citizens have accumulated.

So how did this happen? It all started when Singapore Airlines wanted to buy the cornerstone 25 per cent stake in Qantas offered by the Keating Government in 1993, but lost out to British Airways. It took the defeat very badly.

Its first major successful move came in 1995 when a Singapore government body, Capita Land, bought a controlling interest in Australand, the property developer that built the Commonwealth Games village. This stake is now worth $1.1 billion.

After staying out of the original $30 billion energy sector privatisation program in Victoria, Singapore Power, which is fully owned by the state, picked up the monopoly electricity transmission business Powernet for $2.1 billion in June 2000.

This was quickly followed by Singtel's $14 billion bid for Optus in 2001. Singtel is 56 per cent government-owned, so Optus is now more publicly owned than Telstra — albeit by a foreign power. I, for one, switched my mobile phone contract from Optus to Telstra as a small consumer protest when Australian drug trafficker Van Nguyen was executed by the immovable Singapore authorities in 2005.

The next big bite was Singapore Power's $5.1 billion acquisition of TXU's Australian energy portfolio in April 2004, although $2.2 billion of retail and generation assets were on-sold to China Light & Power in March 2005. Late in 2005, 49 per cent of the remaining Australian power assets were floated in a vehicle called SP Ausnet, raising $1.3 billion.

This reduced the total power sector investment to $3.8 billion, but now we have the huge Alinta deal in which Singapore Power is offering $4.5 billion in cash to become the monopoly gas distributor in NSW and the largest distributor of electricity in Victoria.

It will even own 50 per cent of ActewAGL — the company that keeps the lights on at Parliament House in Canberra.

Coinciding with the Alinta deal has been a recent splurge of property investments. Frank Lowy sold to GIC a 50 per cent stake in Westfield Parramatta, Australia's third-most valuable shopping centre, for $717 million in May.

An even more prestigious purchase last month was the Myer Melbourne complex, which is now one-third owned by GIC after it teamed up with the Myer family and the Commonwealth Bank to buy it for $600 million.

GIC already owns the Park Hyatt hotel in Melbourne, along with Sydney's Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade, and there's been recent press speculation that it will buy into Westfield's Doncaster Shoppingtown to help fund a $400 million redevelopment.

But it doesn't stop there.

Even child-care behemoth ABC Learning, which receives $3 million a week from Australian taxpayers to look after 40,000 children and has former children's minister Larry Anthony on its board, this month issued 12 per cent of its shares to Temasek for $401 million.

In some countries, child care is provided by the state, yet our Government is now funding a company which has a foreign government as its largest shareholder to deliver this service. All this must make for interesting discussions when John Howard catches up with his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, or his autocratic father, Lee Kuan Yew, who is still "GIC chairman minister mentor" at the ripe old age of 83.

Peter Costello was busily showing Lee Kuan Yew around Federal Parliament a few weeks ago and, given the 2003 Free Trade Agreement, it's fair to assume relations remain close.

The same can't be said for Singapore and Thailand. In January 2006, Temasek bought control of Shin Corp — the family company of Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra — for $US1.9 billion ($A2.1 billion) in a deal that sparked widespread protests and a military coup.

The generals have since crippled Shin Corp's telecoms and satellite business to the point where Singapore has dropped well over $1.5 billion and relations between the two countries are severely strained.

Could Singapore's financial imperialism ever cause tensions here? The only time Singapore has faced any takeover resistance in Australia was in 2000 when Peter Costello blocked a proposed bid for Westpac by financial conglomerate DBS Holdings, which is 28 per cent owned by Temasek.

However, Singapore Airlines remains bitter about losing almost $500 million in the Ansett collapse and being denied access to the lucrative Pacific route, which might explain why it is now funding Tiger Airways' assault on the Australian domestic market in an attempt to damage Qantas.

Planes, child-care centres, shopping centres, department stores, satellites, hotels, power lines, gas pipelines and mobile phones: the Singapore Government owns all that and more in Australia yet this is barely mentioned in public debate.

Does anybody else out there feel a little uneasy about this phenomenon, especially given the secretive, autocratic and undemocratic tendencies of the Singapore Government?

Australian companies, let alone our Government, would never be allowed to buy equivalent assets in Singapore. And all this investment didn't even give us the leverage to save Van Nguyen from the gallows.

Stephen Mayne was founder of Crikey.com and Kennett government spin doctor responsible for privatisation from 1992-1994.

[Extracted] 7 Wonders: They Are All Available In Malaysia

Seven wonders of the world, albeit controversial, command many people's admiration, bewilderment and disbelief. In Malaysia, we also have seven, or even more wonders by which, we are equally surprised and bewildered, embarrassed but not admiring.

7 Wonders: They Are All Available In Malaysia

The new 7 wonders voted by millions of Internet users are really not up to standard.

Actually they could just make thing simpler, as the “new 7 wonders” are just before our eyes. If the 7 wonders to be chosen from Malaysia, it should have less controversies than the online voting.

1. Tropical Water Village: After a great thunderstorm in an afternoon, Kuala Lumpur will be “immersed” in water.

At that moment, Kuala Lumpur will become like Venice. Tourists can see inverted reflection of KLCC Twin Towers and KL Tower in the water. It is wavy and swaying.

We can suggest to the Ministry of Tourism of boat services. The ministry can recruit fishing boats and hundreds of boatmen from all over Malaysia.

Starting from KLCC Twin Towers, the boatman who is wearing Songkok and Sari will be singing while bringing his passengers to the Golden Triangle of Bukit Bintang and finally stops at Merdeka Square.

If the tourists are not yet satisfied, they can go to the underground parking of Merdeka Square. It is the world's first underground swimming and snorkeling pool. Cars immersed in the water can be used for treasure hunt.

2. The Wonder of Mice and Human : Gurney Drive of Penang is full of mice and human, but they do not interfere each others. Instead, they appreciate one another and it can become a role model for ecology.

While the tourists are enjoying Penang cuisine in Gurney Drive, hundreds of mice are rushing between their feet. They are eating with their mouths, and at the same time their feet are moving up and down, playing hide-and-seek with mice. They are staying happily together.

In addition, we can propose to Tourism Penang that they should encourage food stalls to obtain materials from local sources and produce “mice grand feast”!

It could be “rats with three ways of eating”: firstly grill the rat skin, and later braise the meat. The rest of the parts could be used to cook rat soup. The second menu is rats potpourri: mince rat meat and stir-fry it with five spices. Thirdly they can make “rats sushi”: choose bigger rats, and then stabbed them into thin slices after its skin was peeled. Mix the thin slices with Wasabi and best served while fresh.

3. The Lost of Ma Zu: Kudat in Sabah is searching for the mysterious Ma Zu.

Kudat is located at the northeast of Borneo. Initially there is a Ma Zu statue, but it was later went missing and only the base was left over. Is Ma Zu “flew” to overseas already?

This miracle is comparable to the Apollo statue which kept watch Aegean Sea more than 2,000 years ago. The history of Apollo statue is only available in annals record, and we can no longer see its statue. For centuries, visitors go to the Rhodes Island at the Aegean Sea, but they simply couldn't see the statue.

Even though Kudat's Ma Zu statue is missing, but it can act like the Apollo statue at Rhodes Island, welcoming the tourists. Then they can travel together and search for Ma Zu statue.

4. Thrilled Johor Bahru: It provides an unprecedented horror experience.

Theme parks are famous in the worldwide. However, most of the theme parks are fake and they tend to be formalised. It is difficult to provide true feeling to the tourists.

In this Johor Bahru theme park, the most famous game is snatching. When a tourist is walking on the street, a snatch thief will switch on his motorcycle engine. A self-experienced game which tests your wisdom and courage starts now!

If the tourist successfully catches the snatch thief, with the assistance of other people, he can attack the thief with Wushu freely. Sometimes, the thief could be assaulted until he is dying.

Not only for justice, but playing Wushu can as well give vent to long-suppressed emotions. It is so refreshing!

However, this theme park is very adventurous. In most cases, tourists have to pay for heavy price. It is the matter of life and death, not wealth.

Well, let's look at Spanish Bull Runs which attracts many tourists annually. The tourists are enjoying themselves in this dangerous game. It seems that Johor Bahru screaming theme park would succeed.

5. Crowd at Shore : Experiencing the ultimate human endurance, and the strong will in fighting for a better future.

Every morning when the sky is still dark, there are thousands of students and those who needs to put food on table, are waiting at the narrow gateway to go to the other side of the river.

It is a grand view to see more than ten thousands people moving together. When you go closer, you will discover that many of them are weak children walking slowly with a heavy schoolbag and a heavy hand bag.

6. Haze: Seasonal event each year- the hazy sight.

This event is already well-known internationally, and need not to be introduced again.

7. Water World in Parliament Building: Malaysia Parliament building has two major characteristics: First characteristic is water leakage while the second is saliva.

Seven wonders are all available in Malaysia. It is quite surprisingly that the government has failed to notice them, and didn't include them in the list of tourism major events. It's too bad! (Tay Tian Yan/ Sin Chew Daily)

( The opinions expressed by the writer do not necessarily reflect those of Sinchew-i )

Extracted from e.sinchew-i.com

Hey yo~

First time posting here.

I am going to Indonesia to study medic at Universitas Gadjah Mada, in a city called Yogyakarta. It is the education centre in Indonesia, with about 120 colleges concentrated in this small city. 65% of the population there are students. Unlike Jakarta, there is no daily demonstration and riots in Yogya. There is probably no terrorist there...who knows?

In contrast to most people believes, Indonesia is a secular country. Islam is not the official religion! Hooray! Pork is super available.

According to the wikipedia, the public transport there consist of taxi, bus, trishaw and horse cart. It is rather easy to travel from one place to another. I guess the public transport system there should be better than Bukit Mertajam, which bus frequency is 1 bus per hour and limited taxi service.

I am flying there on 11 August @ KLIA. That time most of you should have settled at your respective university already. All the best!

All active

Wow.

Glad to see this place all active again......




Thanks to everyone who took their time off to write something and those who joined the blog.

Tommy, of course we remember you la!

And people, please leave your contact details here, or anywhere, so we can compile it up and do an updated list.

(Include name, phone, address, uni+course, and birthdate-w/o the year if u mind)


Adious~

Hello...

hello everyone...long time no c...don even noe u guys stil rmb me bo...i heard most of u guys goin to nus...correct me if i m rong...hehe,gud luck n all d best...

Helllooo~

my first time writing something here.. =D
btw, just to clarify and to add on...

1.William's flying around the 11th, ( I think..not so sure..) but definitely not the 1st.
2.and MeiYan's going to Texas, USA tooo !! Flying off on the 14 aug..
3. also, we'll pray for those still waiting for scholarships alrite ?

=))

oh, and I came across this boutique in Midvalley.



Sz, since when u own this ?! :p

Friends, do keep in touch ....

I got this through an email and i thought it's meaningful ...


HOW FRIENDSHIP BREAK ?


Both Friends Will Think The Other Is Busy

And Will Not Contact

Thinking It May Be Disturbing

As Time Passes

Both Will Think Let The OTher Contact

After That each Will Think Why I Should Contact First ?

Here Your Love Will Be Converted To Hate

Finally Without Contact The Memory Becomes Weak

They Forget Each Other.

So Keep In Touch With All And Pass This TO All Your Friends...

I Don`t Want To Be One Of This Kind.

So Here I Am sending Mail To You

To Say

Dear Friend

I Am Fine Here

Please keep in touch ...



So, frens .... Do keep in touch no mather which corner of the earth you are in ...
(unless of course the place is so secluded that there is no connnection wutsoever with the civilized world)
It's up to each and every one of us to keep the friendships alive...
Life is wut we make out of it ...
n, to all those who are starting uni soon .... ALL DA BEST !!!!

Just for your knowledge, William is flying off to Indonesia on the 1st August while Qwen is flying off to the US on the 6th August.
Let's pray for their safe journey and may God bless their studies and life in a new place ...



~Alan~

[K] Lap-top buying guide

You are going to experience or have experienced the transition from life in uniform to university life. Hence, you might consider to buy, or already bought a new lap-top to accompany you through this transition. I saw that many people are wondering what kind of laptop they need.

Here I share with you some information about buying a laptop.

Some brands you might consider (from yongxin):

Acer:
currently provides the best bang for buck, but overheating and build quality is an issue, says lotsa user, mainly the overheating is due to the powerful components in the laptop (DEDICATED graphic cards, big HDD, 2GB ram, etc)

Dell:
the reason Dell can keep price low is because they used lower quality but cheaper materials in building the laptop hence the affordable price. some users recommend Dell, apparently its been quite stable.. but not little has complained bout it tho, quite a number.. my fren's Dell ngam ngam after 1 year..screen broke down, bad sector.... well figures..

HP/Compaq:
Hp bought over compaq some aeons ago..HP seems to be offering ridiculous pricing with the specification they offer..some RM3k for a RM2k specs u can get from Dell n others.. however, HP user praise its built quality and sound system( collaboration with Altec Lansing), those who r unlucky might got the defect version..

ASUS:
the new guy on the block, ASUS is an established producer of computer components and the parts they produced might be a bit pricey but what u get in return is long lasting, quality and stable product, mind you tho, GIgabyte bought ASUS over liao, so practically GIGABYTE=ASUS now..
n now ASUS is producing laptop with components from its own factory, same can be expected of its stability and performance. plus it has 2 years GLOBAL warranty. no major complaints from users till now

Toshiba:
Toshiba products are known to be 'tahan lasak'. and same goes to its laptop.I have to agree with that considering the build quality. Sound wise it is collaborating with Harmon Kardon, so you can imagine wat melodious sound it will produce thru the built in speakers (if you plan to use it). My fren has been using one for some 2yrs plus..n has been upgrading since then..(by changing the HDD n ram) customisable..

Fujitsu:
This laptop has the best quality and service in its class. No competition. 3 years international warranty. Built in Japan. bad thing is that expensive and low specs.

Sony:
I dunno techies ppl always advise to stay off Sony laptops, but I personally express unsurmountable desire for them..they r just beautiful and impressive..but heck the cheapest one is some RM5k.. ah well..anyway, they said the build quality is not up to par.and some crashes when using certain programs..

Apple:
the screen is ultimately amazing, the only laptop screeen that can match the apples, is the sony..both are very very sharp and beautiful..but the specs they offer is ridiculous ...nowadays who can live with 512mb and integrated graphics..unless u go for the macbook pro some RM8k..with 3GB Ram..

IBM/Lenovo:
apparently Lenovo bought over IBM, as the history goes, IBM thinkpad are famous for reliability, stability and hardiness. You cant go wrong with an IBM (or Lenovo). it is light, and service is top class.the catch here is tat, it is slow ( the specs are low-end) but u sacrifice portability for performance. n EXPENSIVE gile..

BENQ
A new player in recent years. It used to produce parts for Acer, from users' experience, there has been some overheating issues though short lived, their build quality was of recommendation of severe critics..and it is expensive comapred to Acer. but heck, it offers performance. for RM4k, u get core 2 duo, 2GB, 120GB HDD, 8600GS 256 MB graphics, enough to satisfy hardcore users. and your DVDs never play smoother..

I believe most of the people are easily conned..some laptops comes without OS (operating system meaning Windows XP etc) and they lose out on the Microsoft license.. anyway this is not the point I wanted to convey,

Windows Vista requires at least 1GB Ram to run properly, tats the minimum requirement, if u start installing stuff and cram in all ur files( movies etc), ur new lappy will make u curse will waiting for it to load.,.

Some specifications you might like to consider:

Graphic cards:

There are three main types of graphic cards:

Shared video memory:
Graphic cards with shared video memory use your system memory to render images. It used to be a major setback in performance years ago, for the data transfer rate will be adversely impacted and the competition for memory space and bandwidth will be even more intense. However, with the advent of much faster PCI-E, things get improved dramatically. Nonetheless, you still can't expect all 3D applications run in full power with this type of graphic card. All Intel Integrated Graphic cards fall under this category.

Dedicated memory:
High end computers come with graphic card with only dedicated memory. As dedicated memory is built just beside the GPU and on the graphic card board, the data transfer rate is much higher than that of shared video memory. Furthermore, the graphic card does not need to compete with other applications for memory space and bandwidth, high performance can be expected.

Hybrid memory:
TurboCache and HyperMemory are actually the same technology - hybrid solution. Both are the graphic cards with a hybrid of dedicated and shared video memory, invented by Nvidia and ATI respectively.
The major benefit is that you get a performance boost with very little extra cost, compared to adding more dedicated memory. The graphic card use only the local memory when its dedicated memory is not enough.

For more details and benchmark:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1766/

Processor:

Intel:
Before you buy a laptop, you should be aware that Intel has recently launched a new platform for its Centrino laptop this year - Santa Rosa.

Why must you be aware?
1. Santa Rosa has higher processing speed (FSB) and higher L2 cache
Caching can greatly affect the overall processing power.
High processing power allow you to run Windows Vista more smoothly (Windows Vista can be very slow for many computers).

For a glimpse at how caching works:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cache.htm

2. Save more power when your laptop is idle.

3. The price gap is small but you will get a slight performance boost cum some new features.

These are the new major features:

1. Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA)
You may have known that many laptops today are equipped with two cores and you must have heard of how powerful it is when it comes to multi-tasking.
However, what if you want to do only one task at a time and want to do it fast?
IDA has answered the question. When the processor detects that you only need one core, it will cut the power to the other and source more power to the core you are using. It is very useful especially when you are playing game or doing video editing.
It is also claimed that this feature has better Windows Vista Aero support.

2. Turbo Memory
There is one cool feature in Windows Vista, called Readyboost.
If you do not know what the hell it is. It simply means that you can plug in a USB drive or a SD card to get a performance boost, especially when your RAM is not enough. Do google the term, ReadyBoost, if you still do not know.
Well, this Turbo Memory is a build-in usb drive or a SD card inside your laptop to get the boost.
Please also note that HP and Sony laptops are not equipped with Turbo Memory because of some reasons.

3.Wireless
New Santa Rosa platform will come with Wireless-N in addition to a/b/g. It is a faster WiFi protocol.
However, WiMax is still excluded untill next year. Therefore, I suggest not to buy a laptop so early if you want your laptop equipped with WiMax so that you can travel around with your laptop online in the future.

How to tell whether a laptop is equipped with Santa Rosa platform?
1. Look for this sign:
or this

2. Processor name starts with T7XXX, for example T7300

3. L2 cache is 4MB

AMD:
AMD Turion 64 and Turion 64 X2 are good processors, even though somewhat they lag behind in terms of market share.
Laptops come with Turion processors are cheap but not inferior for average use.
Therefore, I do recommend Turion laptops if you do not use CPU intensive applications often and require high processing power.

You may have noted that AMD processors have only 512KB L2 cache, one quarter the size of a Intel processor.
However, AMD compensates for its lack of cache memory with memory controller and HyperTransport.


HyperTransport, in layman term, is the communication between the cores. Thus, cores can share common cached data.
In contrast to Intel duo 2 core in which cores work independently, AMD processor can work more effectively and require less cache memory.

DDR memory controllers allows processor to access memory directly, solving the bottleneck of which processor always waits for RAM to respond. This further diminishes the need of cache memory.

Please note that you cannot compare AMD's clock speed with Intel's, for both companies have different yardstick to gauge a processor's clock speed.

Some benchmarks have suggested that AMD processor is slower than Intel processor, but they have admitted that the comparison is unfair. However, AMD Turion 64 X2 is a good processor worth considering, for AMD Turion laptops are cheaper but they give very decent processing power (no problem running Windows Vista as its Intel counterpart).

New series AMD of processor is coming soon, I think AMD will ensure that its processors will be on par with, if not more powerful than rival Intel Duo 2 Core.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th coming up this week....

excited? haha.




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