Spoilers

I’ve finished reading Out of the Dark (more than a week ago, actually)!

An alien race called the Shongairi invades Earth. Their initial strike alone totally eliminates all of our aircraft carriers and military bases, as well as many major cities. Instead of surrendering to the technologically superior Shongairi, the surviving humans stubbornly fight back. Eventually, the Shongairi decides to finish off all humans altogether by engineering a targeted bioweapon.

Snow

Today we had our heaviest snowfall yet this season and we were out! There were many cars stranded on the road. Thank God we were in an SUV.

Currently Reading

I am reading Out of the Dark, the latest novel by David Weber. It is about invasion of Earth by aliens.

Some hundreds of years ago an alien survey mission visits Earth—though without actually landing on the planet—and observes a war between England and France. Repulsed by what they see, which they consider as mindless savagery, the aliens write us off as destined for self-destruction and leaves.

Fast forward to the present, an alien invasion force arrives. These are not the same aliens as before, but they belong to the same Galactic Hegemony: some kind of a United Nations of advanced races. Earth has been designated for colonization (thankfully they are not building an intergalactic superhighway). The aliens are surprised to find humans more advanced technologically than they expected. Apparently we progressed at a much faster rate than they have encountered in any other races. Usually, this would make Earth a protected planet, but the alien Fleet Commander decided to go ahead with the invasion nevertheless.

The first stage of the invasion goes on smoothly. They bombard the planet with kinetic energy weapons from space and destroy most of our major cities and practically all of our military forces. They think that we will then submit, which is the logical thing to do when you’re totally outclassed by a much superior race. To their bewilderment however, we fight back. The aliens have never fought anyone as advanced and as stubborn as us before. So while they have big spaceships that can travel across galaxies, they ground warfare capabilities are lagging.

I am enjoying the book so far. It’s classic military SF. But the reviews I read refer to a surprising twist with vampires at the end too. Now, that should be interesting! I can’t wait to see how that works out.

The Light

This is my favourite verse from the Quran, although I do not quite understand what it means. The verse is very beautiful, and somehow every time I read it, I imagine the creation of the Universe.

ٱللَّهُ نُورُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ‌ۚ مَثَلُ نُورِهِۦ كَمِشۡكَوٰةٍ۬ فِيہَا مِصۡبَاحٌ‌ۖ ٱلۡمِصۡبَاحُ فِى زُجَاجَةٍ‌ۖ ٱلزُّجَاجَةُ كَأَنَّہَا كَوۡكَبٌ۬ دُرِّىٌّ۬ يُوقَدُ مِن شَجَرَةٍ۬ مُّبَـٰرَڪَةٍ۬ زَيۡتُونَةٍ۬ لَّا شَرۡقِيَّةٍ۬ وَلَا غَرۡبِيَّةٍ۬ يَكَادُ زَيۡتُہَا يُضِىٓءُ وَلَوۡ لَمۡ تَمۡسَسۡهُ نَارٌ۬‌ۚ نُّورٌ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ۬‌ۗ يَہۡدِى ٱللَّهُ لِنُورِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ‌ۚ وَيَضۡرِبُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡأَمۡثَـٰلَ لِلنَّاسِ‌ۗ وَٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىۡءٍ عَلِيمٌ۬

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.

(An-Nur 24:35, Yusuf Ali translation)

Three Strikes

Published: Friday November 26, 2010 MYT 4:27:00 PM
New law to end illegal downloading of music and movies
By STEVEN PATRICK

KUALA LUMPUR: The free-and-easy days of illegal downloading of music and movies may soon be over. A proposed new law will enable Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend or terminate the Internet accounts of P2P (peer-to-peer) users.

This new law called the ISP Liability act, will be tabled in Parliament next month, according to Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) chairman Norman Halim.

RIM has been lobbying the Government for an ISP Liability act for the past 5 years as illegal online downloads have been cannibalising the legitimate sales of music, worldwide.

“The act makes the ISPs responsible for curbing online piracy. The ISPs will be fined if they don’t take action against illegal downloaders. The ISPs have the technology to track P2P users,” said Norman.

However, he said that the fine amount had yet to be determined.

ISPs will send two warning letters to illegal downloaders. Should the downloaders still persist, the Internet access will be suspended or even terminated.

“Other countries that have such an act have seen their respective music industries recover. One good example would be South Korea,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/11/26/nation/20101126163537&sec=nation

Malaysia may soon be joining a growing list of countries with a “three strikes” law. It is quite disappointing that we have come to this, but hardly surprising given how eager the government wants to be seen as business-friendly and attract foreign investments. I wonder how much, if any at all, public consultation went into writing the proposed law, and very much doubt there will be much debate on it in the parliament. Perhaps it’s time we have our own Pirate Party.

They call it graduated response. ISPs are allowed (or required) to disconnect an account after being accused of illegal file-sharing three times, hence “three strikes”. The law is meant to help protect the rights of copyright holders and reduce internet piracy. It’s sold as a means to protect the livelihood of artists and musicians, but really the main beneficiaries are big record companies.

Proponents of the law believe that it will discourage illegal file-sharing and thereby allow poor sales of CDs and DVDs to recover. When enforced, the proposed ISP Liability Act may well provide some measure of deterrent against illegal file-sharing. It may or may not have any visible effect on sales of CDs and DVDs, but I have some concerns about the implementation.

It seems that RIM expects to pass at least some of the burden of enforcing copyright protection to ISPs. I don’t think our local ISPs, or any ISP for that matter, have the resources to do it. In any case, that additional responsibility—and costs—may mean higher charges to consumers.

A common complaint about the three strikes law is that it is a form of collective punishment. A family usually shares one internet connection. Just because one person in the household has been downloading copyrighted materials, the whole family will be punished. That means the parents will not be able to access work email and pay bills, and the children will not be able to go online and do their homework. You can say that parents should take greater responsibility for the actions of their children, but the problem is more serious to cafés and public libraries that offer free internet access on their premises. I guess we can soon kiss the free Wi-Fi hotspots goodbye.

Other questions include how much information ISPs will be required to pass along to the record companies, and how can consumers challenge a violation notice and suspension or termination of their account. It is interesting to know how our ISPs are reacting to this development.

Ultimately, I believe any attempts at policing the internet is futile. Short of becoming totally draconian, the law simply will not be able to keep up to the rapid development in technology. The newspaper article above seems to refer specifically to P2P, but P2P is not the only way files are shared. For that matter copyrighted materials are not the only things illegally shared via P2P. There are also cyberlockers, for example.

Perhaps more importantly, we have no idea how this little law will be abused in the future.

__________
LINK:
Six Ways File-Sharers Will Neutralize 3 Strikes

There and Back Again

This is long overdue.

It’s so cold that I just want to crawl under the duvet and not come out—hibernate—till at least March. Outside the temperature is practically freezing, and the last few days were foggy. In true Malaysian fashion, Afi looked out the window on Sunday morning, saw the fog and said, “Ah, jerebu.” And now that it’s fall, the day is short; it’s already dark by 1700. Going out every morning I cannot help remembering my Form Five English teacher’s description of England as a “wet, dark and depressing place.”

Thankfully, the weather was a little kinder when Abang was here and we drove out to see the funny ‘hanging stones’ at Wiltshire. They were in the middle of nowhere, despite the GPS. There was a slight drizzle when we arrived, but the sun did come before we left.

Earlier in October, we had a quick trip home for Kakak’s 10/10 wedding. We were in Malaysia for less than five days. It was a short and very tiring trip, but it’s always good to be home. The wedding went smoothly. But we didn’t even get to get over the jet lag from the journey to KL before jetting off back to the UK, that we both fell asleep before the plane lifted off the runway at KLIA. We then slept for two more days when we arrived at the apartment.

Kiki with Ice-Cream

I like ice-cream, a lot, and often find it slightly annoying to observe adults eating ice-cream ever so cautiously... so afraid of gaining weight, etc. There is nothing like watching a child thoroughly enjoying his ice-cream.

YUMMY!

Chicken

YUMMY!

We play badminton on Sundays.

Last Sunday, we went to Nando’s after badminton for lunch. Afi had a coupon that got us one whole chicken for free! So we paid only for the chips and drink. As can be seen in the picture collage above, Afi enjoyed the chicken very much. She says that the Nando’s here tastes better than in Malaysia. I really cannot tell the difference. :P

A Brazilian man at the table next to us asked me if the chicken was spicy. He said that he often ordered stuff “medium hot” at restaurants but found them to be (too) hot. I told him that in that case I really couldn’t say. We had a “hot” peri-peri chicken, and I didn’t think it was hot (pedas) at all. Spicy, yes, but not hot.

Later yesterday, while preparing dinner I cut a bit of nail off my left index finger. OUCH! That should remind me to be extra careful with the knife in the future.

[EWWW-PICTURE WARNING. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. ;)]
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September Movie: The Town

I just love a heist movie. The Town begins with four masked men robbing a bank in Cambridge, MA at gun point. Somebody triggers the silent alarm, so they take the bank manager along, just in case, before releasing her unharmed by the sea.

When they realize later that she lives near one of them, the leader of the gang decides to find out how much she knows. Eventually, he meets up with her and they develop a relationship.

Although the FBI is hot on their trail, the gang goes on to rob an armoured truck while dressed as Catholic nuns. The guards fight back and the police show up, but the gang manages to escape after a tight car chase scene along narrow streets of North End.

FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley: This is the not fucking around crew so get me something that looks like a print because this not fucking around thing is about to go both ways.

The Town (2010)

It pisses off the FBI special agent in charge. The members of the gang gets picked up for interrogation, but since there is really no evidence against them there’s nothing much that the FBI and police can do.

The leader of the gang wants to leave to Florida to start afresh, but the local crime boss is having none of it. For its final assignment, the gang is to rob Boston’s cathedral – Fenway Park!

The Florist: Do I hear you got a sweet new girlfriend? (Warner Bros. Pictures)

We went to the movie because Afi needed a little time off. So we bought the tickets after watching the trailer but without reading any of the reviews. We came out of the cinema really impressed. The Town is definitely one of the best movies we’ve seen this year. The movie felt authentic and efficient. There were plenty of bullets flying around but none of the over-the-top gasoline-fuelled explosions.

Ben Affleck both starred and directed the movie. I particularly like this quote of a review of The Town, or rather of Mr Affleck, I read on Rotten Tomatoes:

The rehabilitation of Ben Affleck is complete. His penance has been accepted. The star of Gigli, Daredevil and Pearl Harbor has now earned audiences’ respect again (to say nothing of finally being worthy of wife Jennifer Garner).

Brandon Fibbs

Raya

Afi made nasi himpit, ayam percik and rendang daging for our first Raya feast. I didn’t help much with the cooking at all, they were all her.

We prayed at the mosque at Manzil Way. The sermons were short, unlike at home. Rather strangely, in the first rakaat we only performed the takbir three times instead of the usual seven. Then, in the second rakaat we performed the takbir three more times but before bending down for the rukuk.

Afterwards, we had a Raya gathering at Wolfson College, where as a newcomer I was asked to introduce myself, supposedly as part of the Oxford Malaysian tradition.

Selamat Hari Raya! I hope next year we will both celebrate it at home in Malaysia.

Cats

The real masters of the world.

MEOWW!

__________
ADDENDUM: Humorous Duet for Two Cats

SFF

I’ve known since all the way back in school that I’d love to read science fiction (SF), although back then I didn’t read much fiction at all, let alone SF. There were one or two SF paperbacks I found at the school library and there were it.

Still, if anybody were to ask me then what my favourite book was, my answer would be Juara Yang Tewas by Aripin Said. I read it sometime in primary school and it really captured my imagination. I still consider it one of my favourite books. Juara Yang Tewas, which tells of the legend of the dragons of Lake Chini, is fantasy rather than SF. So was Her Majesty’s Wizard by Christopher Stasheff, which I received as a present from the school in 1994. In that year’s speech day, the school decided to give a book each to everyone who scored straight As for PMR, and mine was Her Majesty’s Wizard. I remember feeling very disappointed at it and wanted to throw the book away because I was expecting a more ‘serious’ book. However, I read the book anyway and actually grew to like it.

Then, in second year at UIA I had Abang Aziz as a roommate. He had a bunch of old SF paperbacks on his shelf he let me borrow. That was how I came to read The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov.

The End of Eternity is perhaps Asimov’s best novel. It is a novel about time travel. Some centuries after the discovery of time travel, an organization called Eternity was established to smoothen out human development by maintaining a stable society. So they use time travel to go back in time eliminating disruptive social trends, preventing wars, and suppressing the development of dangerous and risky technologies like atomic energy and space travel. What they cannot explain, however, is finding Earth far out in the future a barren planet. Time travel in the end turns out not such a good idea after all.

What I really like best about Asimov is that he didn’t use big words and complex, long sentences to deliver his ideas. The time travel device, for example, is simply called the ‘kettle’. The End of Eternity led me to the Foundation series, which was totally another level of awesomeness.

__________
LINKS:
Time Control: Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity
The SF Site Featured Review: The End of Eternity

Selamat Hari Raya

Sempena Hari yang mulia ini
kami memohon keampunan dan kemaafan
dari hujung rambut hingga hujung kaki
biarpun jauh di seberang lautan
minta kami jangan dilupakan.

Our first Raya together, and we got to spend it with just the two of us.

We thought about ordering personalized greeting cards from PhotoBox to send, even got the design all done, but decided in the end that they were expensive. :P

Syawal 1431/September 2010.
__________
COLLAGE: An afternoon at the Botanic Garden.

Book Trailers

I’ve only recently discovered book trailers. They are just like movie trailers but for books. According to Wikipedia, they have been made since 2002! However, unlike movie trailers made from actual movie footage, book trailers aren’t as polished. Most are really corny, especially the live action ones. Some are actually fan-made. I saw quite a few trailers of books I’ve read that are downright terrible I’m thankful I never saw them before. I might not have read the books if I had seen the trailers.

The best ones are animated, like these two for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (narrated by Gaiman himself) and Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan.

Summer Rain

When my mother-in-law found out that the government was offering H1N1 vaccination for free back in May, she arranged to have us all vaccinated. It’s supposed to protect us for a year. At the moment, though, I am having a cold. My body aches and my nose is running, but at least the sore throat is mostly gone.

Perhaps it’s the changing weather. The last few days have been cold and wet. When the sun does come out it’s windy. The September equinox is still almost a month away on September 23. Only then it’s officially fall, or autumn as they call it here.

I’ve been cooking quite a bit since I got here, almost as much as I did when I was in Boston. I love to cook, and the good thing is I like to eat my own cooking. Afi said that she’s tired of her own cooking, so I am more than happy to cook all the time. She thinks that it’s a good idea that we buy a book to record our cooking; sort of our own private recipe book.

There are two ingredients I love most whenever I cook – garlic and butter. I can never get enough of both. Afi has caught on with the butter, but not so much with the garlic. Garlic is quite expensive here – as most things are – so I have to cut down on the garlic as well.

Since I didn’t bring my old Columbia boots, which soles are already so worn off, Afi had been really anxious to buy me a new pair. She said that we should buy them now before they get more expensive when summer ends. So on Wednesday – when it rained the whole day! – we went to town and got me a pair of granite Merrell Enuma Mid Waterproof. I think they are awesome.

Woodstock, Part II

The love of my life in action! ;)

Woodstock

We went to Blenheim Palace last week, because Afi was worried that I haven’t done much sightseeing and touring since I got here, and took a lot of pictures! :D

Hurricanes

Afi asked me the other day how hurricanes are named. I actually asked myself the same question some years ago during Katrina. In short, there is a list.

The period between June and November is official hurricane season in the North Atlantic. I don’t recall reading about any hurricanes yet this year, so I guess there isn’t one that’s particularly newsworthy.

Hurricanes in the North Atlantic are monitored and named by the US National Hurricane Center in Florida. When a rotating tropical storm (also called tropical cyclone) blows faster than 65 kph it is given a name, and when the wind reaches 119 kph it becomes a hurricane. Apparently, the term hurricane is used only for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and East Pacific. In other parts of the world, the terms severe cyclone, severe cyclonic storm, and typhoons are used instead. Hence the word taufan in Malay is related to typhoon.

There are six lists of hurricane names used on a yearly rotation. Each list contains twenty-one names in alphabetical order. Used to be that only female names were used, because tropical storms and hurricanes start in the middle of the ocean and sailors are mostly horny men, but now there a male names as well ( YAY!). Sometimes, more than twenty one tropical storms earn names in a year so the subsequent ones are named after Greek letters, like in 2005 when there were tropical storms Alpha, Gamma, Delta and Zeta, and hurricanes Beta and Epsilon.

I remember hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma from 2005. Who doesn’t remember Katrina? Hurricanes that are particularly strong and destructive get their names retired, so Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma from the 2005 list will not be repeated in 2011.

The following is the list of names for 2010:

Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

Remember?

Remember The Elephant Show? I somehow remembered the song today but didn’t remember what show it was from. And then there’s Google. :P

Skidamarink a dinky dink,
Skidamarink a doo,
I love you!

Two Books

It took me a long time to finish reading The Malay Dilemma, finally. It’s not that the book was difficult to read at all. Instead, it was quite boring since having grown up in the Mahathir era the book – what’s in it – was everywhere in the public and official spaces. It’s boring to read stuff you already know. In the meantime, people will continue to argue about the book, just as people will continue to argue about the former prime minister’s policies and legacies. I’m just glad that I’ve finally read the book.

On the other hand, it took me only a few short days to finish reading The God Engines. The novella was sold as John Scalzi’s first attempt at fantasy – unlike anything he had written before – and the result was, WOW!

We have a spaceship, a warship by the name Righteous that runs on a god. The god sustains the ship, powering its weapons and takes it across the stars. It is a defeated god, dark and sinister. The gods are at war, and captain the Righteous, Ean Tephe, is given a mission to find a new planet to convert to give his God the edge above the rest.

Though set mostly on a “spaceship”, the book was all about religion, faith, and the ending was mind-blowing! Too bad The God Engines is only a novella.

RM211.77

After about two and a half years, my contour bottle bank was finally full again so I had RM211.77 of change deposited into my savings account last week.

That’s RM25.56 more than the last time, YAY!

Book Review: The Walls of the Universe

As an exercise, I need to start writing better book reviews. :P

The Walls of the Universe is the second novel by Paul Melko. I haven’t read his first novel, Singularity’s Ring, but now I definitely want to. The book reads like one of the classic science fiction novels from the 1950s or 1960s with its simple language, fast pace and straight forward plot based on the multiverse (or parallel universes).

[SPOILER ALERT]

John Rayburn grows up in a farm in Ohio and dreams of going to college and study Physics, until one day he stumbles upon his analog, who calls himself John Prime. Prime comes from another universe, quite like John’s own “Universe 7533”, through use of a device strapped to his chest. With promises of adventures and riches from “interdimensional trade”, Prime lures John into trying out the device to travel to “Universe 7534” for a day.

In 7534, John discovers that he cannot go back to 7533. Prime has tricked him and stolen his life! After jumping through universe after universe, John finally settles in “Universe 7650”, where he resolves to study the device hoping to one day return to his universe and reclaim his life.

He enrols himself at a local university, where he reluctantly makes new friends Grace and Henry. After accidentally mentioning them the pinball machine, which does not exist in 7650, Grace and Henry pressure John into helping them build it. John agrees, originally only so he can gain access to the Physics lab, but the pinball machine turns out to be a huge hit.

The pinball venture attracts the attention of some highly secretive investors, who turn out to be exiles from another universe, the bad guys. Things quickly turn bad when they discover that John is in possession of a functioning transfer device. In desperation, John successfully builds a device that allows him to travel back to 7533 and enlist the help of Prime.

Blah-blah-blah...

The Walls of the Universe is a very easy and fun read, and definitely far from a hard science fiction novel. I read it in just two days. Not much is explained of the multiverse, how interdimensional travel works, etc. In the end, the book is a fine nod to the Golden Age of science fiction, full of optimism.

FTW

For the Win, Cory Doctorow’s second young adult novel after Little Brother, is just as awesome as his first. More importantly, this is a book I would love to assign to my students. I would have finished the book in just a few short days if I weren’t distracted by other things.

Little Brother was all about technology – network, network security, encryption, surveillance – and how they work, and how and when they fail. It was also about knowing standing up for one’s right and liberty, particularly in the face of abuses of technology by authority. For the Win is also about standing up for one’s right, though in this case more specifically one’s right as a worker, even in the world of MMO games. The novel is all about economics – what money is, how markets work, etc. It even explains how financial derivatives work.

Again, I would really love to assign the book to my students. I bought my UK edition hardcover copy from The Book Depository, but the complete book can also be downloaded and read for free here.

:D

My Favourite

It’s been a while since I actually paid for music, but I bought this song the other day – You Are My Favourite by Sophie Madeleine of Rocky and Balls, for £2.

:P

The official mashup music video is cool too.

I also bought their song I <3 U Online before, which was both funny and sweet. Of course, both songs are dedicated to my favourite person.

Four-Letter Words

My wife, my love, my life
Whom I cannot bear being apart from
One second longer.

Cookies Made with Kisses

My sister bakes cookies, and honest to God they’re awesome cookies! I love them. Well, for that matter I love most things that are sweet and are made with butter and lots and lots of chocolate. :D (I have no idea, actually, but am assuming that there is butter in cookies.) She made small batches of them the last two Rayas (if I’m not mistaken) and they were hits. She made them too for my wedding, and I heard that they were hits too. No surprise there, really.

And now she’s selling them. She’s actually set up a company – all legal and registered and everything – to sell them, plus some scarves or something I’m not very interested in. :P

So here’s the least I can do to help. If you’re interested in some awesome honest-to-God delicious homemade cookies (and those other stuff), please do have a look at KuKISS Orked Ungu Enterprise!

What We’re Good At?

(Click for full size)

Look for our country, then the USA, then the UK, then any other country that you like.

[Source: Information is Beautiful via Comment Central]

Finally!

I finished reading the last few pages of The Centauri Device yesterday morning before going to work. PHEWW! It was one slow, depressing book I am glad to get over with.

Then, last night I picked up The Lost Fleet: Victorious and basically couldn’t put it down until I finished the whole book at about 4.30 in the morning! Victorious is supposed to be the last of the (original) Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell a.k.a. John G Hemry, which is quite a downer because it’s such a wonderful series; fast paced and full of action. The good news, however, is Hemry wrote on his website that he’s got contracts for follow-on series. YAY!

I’m reading For the Win next, I think. The book arrived yesterday (May 25), after less than two weeks, which is simply wonderful. I don’t know how they do it – shipping books for free – but I definitely love it. The Book Depository is quickly becoming my new favorite online bookstore.

:D

Story-telling

A little late, but I think this one’s pretty cool/funny.

Campfire @ xkcd

The past month or so has been rather busy, but I do hope to find time to post more updates soon.

:P

Books to Read

I bought some new books: A Mighty Fortress by David Weber, The God Engines by John Scalzi, and The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell. I’m so excited about all of them, particularly A Mighty Fortress, but God knows when I’ll actually get around to reading them. Instead of buying them from Amazon as usual, Afi introduced me to The Book Depository, which offers free shipping worldwide!

Oh, I also bought Cory Doctorow’s latest release, For the Win, to be delivered separately to Malaysia. As usual, you can also download the book for free.

PHEWW!

In the meantime, let’s hope that I won’t walk into a bookstore, for there are also The Windup Girl (by Paolo Bacigalupi, the latest Nebula Award winner for Best Novel) and Boneshaker (by Cherie Priest) I’ve been meaning to have a look at.

Not to forget the books I left at home! I have The Centauri Device with me, reading it ever so slowly. On the bedroom wall shelf, The Walls of the Universe and Anathem (still, from ages ago!) await. Until I left for the UK, I was also in the middle of reading The Malay Dilemma, finally.

Wonder which one of these books I’ll finish reading first. It’s already the middle of May and I haven’t finished even one book this year!

Summertown

It’s cold!

It’s the middle of May, so I thought it’s supposed to be warm, with temperatures in the 20s. Instead, when we touched down at Heathrow on Monday it was 11°C. The sun rarely ever shows itself; it’s 11 degrees as I am typing this too, in the middle of noon.

Oxford reminds me Cambridge, MA, but with less people.

We saw Robin Hood yesterday. I expected better from Ridley Scott, but this one’s sadly a miss.

Occupied

Don’t go away!
;-)

happy_together by molokolo at deviantART

Exam Tip #2

I wanted to take the half day off to run some errands yesterday, but thought that since I have an exam today students might come looking for me. So I stayed in my office and did some marking instead. Nobody came, zero, and I thought based on the carry marks many students are having problems. We’ll see.

Quite many actually came to see me earlier this week and last week. Nobody came to ask me to clarify a concept or help solve an exercise problem, however. They all came just for some giveaway extra assignment, some consideration, to push up their carry marks. Nobody ever came to see me during the whole semester too; even after the disastrous mid-semester test.

[SIGH]

Okay, exam tip #2 is an obvious one: answer the question.

“Huh?”

It may come as a surprise, but many students did not do well in exams simply because they didn’t answer the question. I am not referring to the blank pages here – there are those too – but many wrote about B when the question asked about A.

Perhaps they didn’t read the question properly. Perhaps they did, but misunderstood the question entirely. Often I suspect it’s the latter, because most of the students now have poor command of the English language.

During last week’s exam I was asked several times to explain the meaning of three words: independent, dampen, and forthcoming. Perhaps we should allow dictionaries as we do calculators in the exam hall.

Sorry, no kitty today. :D

Exam Tip

It’s the final examination period again.

Students always ask me for tips for the finals. Here’s one. Forget about targeting this or that chapter. You can try doing that, of course, but final exams are cumulative. Try reading the first page of the question paper for once. Yes, I mean the cover page with all the instructions nobody ever reads. You have no idea how many students lost so many marks simply from not following instructions.

Easy, huh?

Now, here’s a kitty:

Blue velvetgloss by ^impressionenmeer at deviantART

Let Me Explain

Still more videos, from the album Bounce (2002). Please watch in order.
:D

Stand By Me

by Oasis.

War Movies

I love war movies. Partly it’s because I practically grew up on war movies from those afternoon matinees they used to show on television; the more memorable ones being Von Ryan’s Express, The Dirty Dozen, The Guns of Navarone, and Escape to Victory. Of course, there was also Tora! Tora! Tora!.

Then came 1998 there were Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line. The two World War 2 movies were practically polar opposites in many ways, but both equally awesome. While Saving Private Ryan was action packed and hyper-realistic, The Thin Red Line was simply beautiful.

I would say that the best thing to come out of Saving Private Ryan was that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg went on to make Band of Brothers. Compared to Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers had the added appeal of being based on real people and real events.

Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded.
We're paratroopers, Lieutenant. We're supposed to be surrounded.

Band of Brothers (2001)

I have the Band of Brothers DVD ‘can’-set.

Now, they are bringing us The Pacific. Somehow, in their infinite wisdom HBO is only going to show it in Asia in April, but I don’t think I’m going to wait.

Emails

Dated March 5 from one mujing da great:

assalamualaikum

sir,
4 ur information im one of ur students currently.

i am very weak in macroeconomics subject,
i got low marks 4 the mid term n ur quizzes,

i hope u can update ur notes at ur webpage so i can download the remaining 7chapters after the mid term..
plzz sir..

the final is just around the corner.
so i found it very difficult4 me if u dont update ur notez

so i hope u can respond it well 4 ur students success in ur teachings
i believe every lecturer dont want to get their student fail in his or her subject

so i hope u can update ur notes ASAP.

tq, wassalam

Of course, I have no idea who mujing da great is. Perhaps that is exactly the point – the author wanted to remain anonymous because he (or she) knew that he wrote me a terrible email. Or perhaps he was ashamed of the name his parents gave him. Or perhaps he was one of those-who-must-not-be-named. WHOAH! :P

mujing da great must have missed the first class. That was when I explained that I do not give class notes. It just so happens that I have presentation slides prepared for half of the course from last semester when I was assigned a seminar room, which I uploaded on to the course webpage. I strongly believe that students must prepare their own notes.

Assalamualaikum brother.. my name [name] [student ID number] from section 2 Econ1610..

Can u mk a make test 2 for us to cover our mark in mid term exam since me and my friend including from section 1 not do it well.

my suggestion is u divide the percentage into 2 which is for 1st mid test 12.4 and the another 12.5 so total 25%.

the test 2 including CH 30,31,32 and 33... to mk ur life easy just mk MCQ.. about 35Q... then after we finish the test u give the paper not to the owner and mark the paper (since it only MCQ).. so in 1 class everything is done..

As the result we can increase our carry mark and have hope to get A or at least A-..

I'm sure u'll happy if many of ur student get A in this subject...

I know it depend on our efford and i'll try..

I hope u accept my suggestion...

1 more thing whatever is ur decision i'll accept ( but i'll happy if u accept my suggestion) and thx so much for teaching me and i want to appologies 4 any shortcoming ...

'Doakan kejayaan kami semua'

Although it is one of those uniquely-UIA things, it still sounds weird when a student calls me “brother”. This email from two days ago is just wrong in so many ways. Well, maybe a little funny too. What do you think?

NY

The area around The MetLife Building on Park Avenue and Midtown. (© Jason Hawkes)

Latest on The Big Picture are breathtaking aerial pictures of New York City and Las Vegas by photographer Jason Hawkes. That is my favorite picture from the set up there; it’s infinitely more beautiful in full size. Really, the Las Vegas skyline do not compare with the majesty of the Big Apple.

Good Week

Kulliyyah meetings are typically awfully boring, but the recent one earlier this week had its moments.

Turns out we can still bar students from sitting for the final examination. *Somebody* gave us the wrong information. Supposedly now the university have decided to be silent on the issue in the revised rules to allow each kulliyyah to pursue its own policy with regard to student attendance. A quick vote and we’re set to go back to the old practice next semester. I suppose everybody missed issuing warning and barring letters. :D

Oh, before we go on here’s a comic, just because I want to put a picture on:

Devotion to Duty @ xkcd

The Dean also mentioned that he won’t be questioning course instructors about high failure rates, especially for lower level courses. Somebody commented that the kulliyyah has a very high percentage of students with CGPA of 3.6 and above, and suggested that we’re being too lenient. Too lenient? Definitely not me. “Not me,” claimed everyone else around me as well. Wonderful. :P

Finally, on an absolutely, totally separate matter, she’s said it.

Firsts

I saw my first movie for this year yesterday, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It is a lightweight fare, but I’ve always had a soft spot for fantasy adventures. This is a movie that does not take itself too seriously, which is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, Lightning Thief is adapted from a children’s book, the first of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I suppose, given the relative success of the movie, it is a safe bet that there will be at least one sequel made.

The movie begins with Zeus accusing Poseidon that the latter’s estranged half-mortal son stole his lightning bolt. Why are the Greek gods always so petty? I would have thought that the king of gods would have done a better job of securing his most powerful weapon. Anyway, so, young Percy Jackson discovers that he is really a son of Poseidon and has less than two weeks to return the lightning bolt or otherwise prove his innocence to Zeus.

Pierce Brosnan did well as the wise centaur Chiron, but Uma Thurman was remarkably stiff as Medusa. How did she become famous in the first place? Fans of the book are expectedly not too happy with movie. I have not read the book, but the movie was entertaining enough that I was quite surprised that it was almost two hours long at 118 minutes. Look out for Clash of the Titans in April for more Greek mythology.

I also bought my first books for 2010 yesterday. I still have a backlog of books to read but couldn’t help myself. The first was The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko (RM99.90). The author’s second book, the book is about parallel universes. I was glad that it was a hardbound copy; for whatever reason I like buying newly released books in hardcover. I also saw Boneshaker on the shelf at MPH, but didn’t buy it because it was in trade paperback. Now I know that they don’t release Boneshaker in hardcover so am kicking myself in the head. Next time, then.

The second book was The Centauri Device by M John Harrison (RM39.90). A 1974 work, I consider this one an experiment. I picked it up based on a vague memory of some reference to the book. Hopefully, it’ll work out well. All I know that it has something to do with a spaceship and a bomb of some kind, and ‘Centauri’ refers to Alpha Centauri.

10 Reasons...

... to avoid talking on the phone.

My points exactly! See the whole list and more at The Oatmeal.

Excuse Letter

From time to time a student would come and tell me that they have an excuse letter to miss class to attend some program. Usually I don’t think much about it; extra-curricular activities are important. Besides, university students are supposed to be considered adults who know what they are doing. And I appreciate the courtesy of the heads-up.

“Sir, I have an excuse letter for next class.”
“Wow, you do? Awesome!”
“Huh?”
“What is it for?”
“I am in the committee for the [whatever] program next week.”
“What do you do, in this committee?”
“I’m in the committee, lah.”

However, sometimes a student would come and tell me that they have a forthcoming excuse letter to miss a quiz I just announced. Now, that is *annoying*.

As full-time students, part of their full-time ‘job’ is to attend classes. Even when they are no longer directly held responsible for it, class attendance is still compulsory. There are of course exceptions like family and medical emergencies, court appointments, etc. but having an excuse letter does not automatically and necessarily mean that one is excused.

Often the so-called excuse letter isn’t really an excuse letter at all. They just state that some programs are being organized at some dates, with a list of names attached; nothing at all in the letters about how the listed names are involved and asked to be excused. What am I suppose to do with them, wrap fried bananas? And the students often never even bother to highlight their names. They always assume I know who each and every one of them is.

You want to skip class to visit an orphanage, help organize an event, welcome a big shot VIP, or even watch an elephant dance? Go ahead, go crazy. Excuse letter or no excuse letter doesn’t really matter to me. Just don’t ask me to reschedule a quiz or otherwise bend over backwards to accommodate your personal day off.

“Sir, I cannot sit for the quiz on Monday. I will have an excuse letter.”
“Huh?”
“I will be away for a musical theatre till Wednesday...”
“Huh?”
“... so, can you arrange for me to take the quiz later? I promise I won’t ask the others; I don’t think they’d tell me anyway.”

Questions

It’s always the same. Before a test nobody will ask me any questions. No questions about the materials, that is. They never stop asking me about the format of the test, though, all the way till the eve of the test by emails. It’s extremely annoying receiving the same stupid question again and again: “Sir, what is the format of the test?” I really don’t get the preoccupation with the format. It can be essays, multiple-choice, etc. but much more important than the format of the test is to study the materials.

“What difference does it make?” I asked recently.
“It helps us prepare better,” they said. Prepare better how? Nobody asks me to explain or re-explain a concept, theory, whatever. All they want to know is the format.

During the test, everybody will be all serious, as they should be, and I’ll be sitting in front of the class, bored, looking out for anybody who might want to ask me anything. You guessed it, rarely anybody ever does. Sometimes, somebody will ask me to explain a word. I might as well not be in the room and go have lunch or something.

Now, after the test, it’s something else. After I return all the scripts, after I go through all the questions and the solutions and highlight the common mistakes, after the initial shock of realizing how terrible they did, finally come the questions.

“Sir, will there be another test?”
“Sir, can you give us some assignments for extra credits?”
“Sir, can you help us?”

Yeah, now they’re talking.

Halal/Haram

I think it is fair to say that Muslims are very sensitive about matters of halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden). At least that’s how it is in Malaysia; I don’t know about other places. There was this guy I first met at the Muslim prayer room at the George Sherman Union at BU. The next time I saw him was at a Burger King outlet ordering a burger that had bacon in it. I assure you, it was not the turkey variety. He sat down, put the bacon away with his fingers, and went on to eat the burger while having a lively conversation with a friend about the existence of God. No, I am definitely not making this all up!

Here in Malaysia, however, I would even dare say that we are so obsessed over the legal aspects of the religion, such that our understanding and practice of Islam has been pretty much reduced just to looking out for what is halal and what is haram. So we respond quickly to slightest rumor that a particular product is not halal, even when it has been previously certified as halal by the authorities. Take the recent example about a certain popular brand of sardines. People were quick to boycott the product based on some rumor spread over the internet that it contained haram frog parts.

On the other hand, we have cigarettes declared as haram by fatwa councils at the federal level and several states, as well as many eminent international scholars, we choose to ignore. I was going for ironic, but I haven’t quite fully understood the meaning of the word, so I’m going with funny. Funny that we are so quick to believe and act upon some anonymous, baseless rumor but casually ignore authoritative legal opinions of recognized experts.

And we wonder why everything’s all screwed up...

Flying 101

Budget airlines have some of the coolest liveries, but this one by South African airline Kulula may well be the coolest (and quite educational too).

Watch for the mile-high club initiation chamber. ;-)

[See more at Onelargeprawn via Chris Rawlinson via Boing Boing]

6th Avenue Heartache

Somehow, sometime last semester while on the topic of bonds I went from Bowie bonds to David Bowie to Nirvana and the faces in the classroom went blank. Most of them had never even heard of Nirvana! Come on, am I that old or did I just make the wrong choice of music reference? Perhaps they all listen only to Rabbani and Inteam.

:P

But this is The Wallflowers, of course.

Twenty!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrates its twentieth year this year. Not that it’s all that special but they do have a cool poster I would love to have hanging on my office wall.

Seriously?

If you haven’t known already, over the weekend Amazon decided to take down all titles by major publisher MacMillan over a commercial dispute over e-book pricing. John Scalzi summed out how very juvenile the move is in All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend. Among those affected is Tor, a MacMillan division that is a leading publisher of science fiction and fantasy titles. While we wait for Amazon to grow up, good thing I am not buying a book anytime soon or I will be very, very annoyed to say the least.

Totally unrelated, I received a promotional email from Amazon today I found so funny I could cry.

How does one go from one of the most recognizable science fiction series of all time to a book on conspiracy theories? Sure, it is a serious book (the US version cover design certainly does not help) – reviewed by The Guardian, among others – but I cannot help wondering if it is anywhere implied that science fiction readers are also conspiracy nuts.

:P

During the drive home from work today I heard a news report on Radio24 that AirAsia X is suspending its flights to Dubai beginning late February. Customers who have already bought tickets can either get their money back or fly to a different destination.

Then, not five minutes later right after the news program, an AirAsia ad came on air promoting that very flight – Dubai for as little as RM199!

LOL.

Candlemakers’ Petition

By Frédéric Bastiat in 1845:

A PETITION From the Manufacturers of Candles, Tapers, Lanterns, sticks, Street Lamps, Snuffers, and Extinguishers, and from Producers of Tallow, Oil, Resin, Alcohol, and Generally of Everything Connected with Lighting

To the Honourable Members of the Chamber of Deputies

Gentlemen:

You are on the right track. You reject abstract theories and little regard for abundance and low prices. You concern yourselves mainly with the fate of the producer. You wish to free him from foreign competition, that is, to reserve the domestic market for domestic industry.

We come to offer you a wonderful opportunity for your -- what shall we call it? Your theory? No, nothing is more deceptive than theory. Your doctrine? Your system? Your principle? But you dislike doctrines, you have a horror of systems, as for principles, you deny that there are any in political economy; therefore we shall call it your practice – your practice without theory and without principle.

We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation. This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us so mercilessly we suspect he is being stirred up against us by perfidious Albion (excellent diplomacy nowadays!), particularly because he has for that haughty island a respect that he does not show for us.

We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull's-eyes, deadlights, and blinds – in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses, to the detriment of the fair industries with which, we are proud to say, we have endowed the country, a country that cannot, without betraying ingratitude, abandon us today to so unequal a combat.

...

(Read in full here: http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html)

I cannot recall who first showed me the petition years ago, but remember very well how I thought that it was – and still is – really cool.

Snapped

My camera is broken. :(

It couldn’t happen at a worse time. The autofocus stopped working. It costs RM199 just to send it to be looked at, consisting of RM49 service fee for the blood-sucking shop to send it to the service center and a RM150 refundable deposit! They said that I’ll get a quotation in 3-4 weeks, after which if I decide not to proceed there’ll be a RM20 return fee. WTF! Whatever happens next, the PowerShot A710 IS has served me really well.

Though the timing is really, really bad, it provides the best excuse to go look at the current offerings. Sure, DSLR cameras are popular nowadays, but I am not interested in them simply because I don’t have use for one. That said, perhaps the natural replacement for the PowerShot A710 IS is the PowerShot A2100 IS. Key words describing it on CNET Reviews are “excellent photo quality for the money”, exactly my kind of camera. Recommended retail price on Canon’s website is RM949.

But then, I often like to carry my camera in my front pocket. I hate having to carry things around in my hands – one reason bulky DSLRs are out of the question – so the Digital IXUS 100 IS (sold as the PowerShot SD780 IS in the US) looks mighty appealing. It doesn’t cost much more too, for what is supposedly the slimmest camera Canon has offer. RRP = RM999.

=P~

In the meantime, how about a random old xkcd comic?

Keynote @ xkcd

Pirates

I’ve been trying to write something up all week but couldn’t, honest! So the next best thing is to post something some else has written. :P

Here’s Jessamyn West at Boing Boing:

Book Sharing Bankrupting Publishing Industry!

Librarians are the worst sort of pirates. Eric Hellman has a wry look at how Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion

To get to the bottom of this story, Go To Hellman has dispatched its Senior Piracy Analyst (me) to Boston, where a mass meeting of alleged book traffickers is to take place. Over 10,000 are expected at the "ALA Midwinter" event. Even at the Amtrak station in New York City this morning, at the very the heart of the US publishing industry, book trafficking culture was evident, with many travelers brazenly displaying the totebags used to transport printed contraband.

As soon as I got off the train, I was surrounded by even more of this crowd. Calling themselves "Librarians", they talk about promoting literacy, education, culture and economic development, which are, of course, code words for the use and dispersal of intellectual property. They readily admit to their activities, and rationalize them because they're perfectly legal in the US, at least for now.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/27/book-sharing-bankrup.html

YARR!

Copyrights, and generally access to knowledge/information, are among my favorite issues.

No Parking

At today’s meeting somebody again raised the issue of parking spaces on campus. Our staff parking area is constantly intruded upon by students, contractors, visitors, etc. who park indiscriminately in our parking spaces and on both sides of the access lane. The security officers are either incapable or unwilling to take action.

The problem is fairly easy to solve, if only you resolve to do it. I wrote about it over three years ago but think it’s time for a revisit.

First, we start by having an audit of parking facilities on campus to see exactly how many parking spaces there are. For illustration, let’s say that there are 1,000 on them. Then, we allocate out of the 1,000 parking spaces for staff and other university employees (say 500) and visitors (say 100). Not all university employees need to be allocated parking spaces, but I would say that each academic staff should be assigned one as needed.

Parking aversion by Zneak at deviantART

What to do with the remaining 400 is where it gets interesting. The university can auction off all or some of them for maximum revenue. If auctioning is too “capitalistic”, we can sell long-term parking permits instead. Those who opt not to buy parking permits, like visitors, can be charged hourly or daily rates. I don’t see that there is any obligation for the university to provide free parking to students. Free parking is not a necessity, particularly when most students are offered on-campus housing and the university is regularly serviced by buses. With the government cutting down funding, the university can definitely use the extra income.

The second part is enforcement. One way, we can tell campus security to buck up. I doubt they’ll ever step up though, being understaffed and overworked as they are. The biggest problem now is people parking their vehicles where they aren’t supposed to. The existing method of enforcement, by either issuing summonses or clamping the offending vehicles, doesn’t seem to work. In fact, I think that it is stupid to clamp vehicles found to be parked haphazardly and obstructing traffic, so they cannot be moved. The better alternative is to tow them away.

We can contract tow truck operators to carry away vehicles that violate parking rules, of course at the expense of the owners. Since the tow trucks get paid for each vehicle they tow away, motivating them won’t be a problem. Again, the university can take a cut of the towing charges. It is one thing to get to your car and find a parking ticket or have it clamped; something else to find it gone, towed away. I’m sure nobody will dare violate parking rules after having their car towed away once.

Now, aren’t we glad I am not running the university?

Errands

I was reminded recently that I haven’t been updating my blog. Well, what can I say; I have been busy or otherwise occupied. :P

There is nothing unusual happening at work. Oh, the university has decided that we cannot bar students for non-attendance anymore, which is fine by me. Word has it that the university wants to avoid the trouble of dealing with students taking legal actions after being barred from taking the final exam. If true, I say that it is one very lame excuse. Why bother having any rules then? In the past, issuance of warning and barring letters had helped both the university and parents discover cases of students going missing.

Now that we cannot bar students, many lecturers don’t even bother taking attendance anymore, although the university still says that we are recommended to continue doing it. What for? Only the Rector now can bar students “in cases of breach of university regulation”. I was told that it means that lecturers can request the Rector to bar students for any violations. I suppose that now I can finally get students barred for wearing toilet slippers to class.

Last year, I bought a new pair of baju melayu for Raya after six years. The last time I bought a new baju melayu before that was in 2003 for my IIUM graduation. Since I had to attend the convocation ceremony twice, I bought a suit and a baju melayu. The baju melayu I had before that lasted even longer. Going by the previous records, I ordered enough baju melayu last weekend to last me at least twenty years! LOL.

The past weeks also had me busy with Mak’s cabinet. We had a termite infestation that ruined part of my mother’s new cabinet. So we disassembled the cabinet, threw away the parts beyond saving, bought replacement parts, and are now in the process of reassembling the cabinet. Before that the walls need repainting. I bought a 5-liter can of Dulux Light & Space last weekend. Mak picked a purplish pink shade called Pink Sea Iris. Hopefully, I can get the painting done this weekend.

On top of everything, I am also looking at second-hand 4x4s for my brother. Luckily, there is a cousin living nearby who knows a mechanic we can bring along, as I know next to nothing about cars. We went to see a couple of prospects last night, and we’re going to see at least one more tonight. I really hope we find a good car soon, as I have better ways to spend my evening than looking at old cars.