Archive for category IT
“No Mega Tower” fb campaign – 157,264 @ 8.30 am 25/10/10
Latest score of “No Mega Tower” fb campaign – 157,264 @ 8.30 am today, 25/10/10.
Forty-eight hours ago, it was 113,205, an increase of 44,059 or about 1,000 addition per hour.
In contrast, the support Mega Tower fb campaign recorded 1,585 at 8.30 am 25/10/10, an increase of a miserable 960 in the past 48 hours or 20 per hour – as it was 625 previously.
“No Mega Tower” fb campaign reached 113,205 at 8.30 am – 625 in support
Posted by Kit in IT, Najib Razak on Saturday, 23 October 2010
(Opposition to the RM50 billion 100-storey Najib Tower in the “No Mega Tower” facebook campaign reached 113,205 people at 8.30 am this morning after breaching the 100,000 mark at 9.20pm last night.
In contrast, the facebook campaign in support of the Najib Tower, “Kami Sokong Menara Warisan”, has collected a miserable
625 supporters.)
Anti-Warisan Merdeka Facebook campaign hits 100,000 mark
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — As at 9.20pm tonight, more than 100,000 in a week have signed on to a Facebook campaign opposing the Najib administration’s Warisan Merdeka skyscraper.
The proposed 100-storey building in the city, has stirred up spontaneous grassroots opposition, moving the issue to the front and centre of current Malaysian politics.
More so impressive is the pace of recruitment — that only seven days ago Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the plan, during his budget speech. It is clear the groundswell opposing it is considerable and now has shaped into a major political minefield for the Barisan Nasional(BN) government. Read the rest of this entry »
Call for return of civility, reason and rationality in public discourse and an end to any form of racial or religious slurs in public domain particularly on the social media and Internet
Posted by Kit in IT, nation building on Sunday, 5 September 2010
The rise and frequency of instances of racial and religious slurs in the public domain particularly on the social media and the Internet must be a matter of grave concern to all Malaysians.
All right-thinking Malaysians regardless of political affiliation should join hands to call and work for a return of civility, reason and rationality in public discourse and an end to any form of racial or religious slurs particularly on the social media and Internet.
The quality of Malaysian public discourse must not be degraded and sullied by lies and falsehoods, racial bigotry and religious intolerance which can only undermine and subvert the very fabric of Malaysian society.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has called for speedier action by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) against those who post racial or religious slurs and misuse the social networking websites.
Read the rest of this entry »
E-census error – how can it happen?
Letter by Chuah Siew Eng
Dear Editor,
I wish to draw to the attention of the public of a possible glitch in the e-census. An answer I clicked for the category “religion” revealed to be different in the PDF copy I printed. Thinking I may have made a mistake, I reviewed my answers and confirmed that it was not my error. When I sought an explanation, the supervisor of the census takers for my area confirmed receiving another complaint over the same problem two weeks ago, adding that she had reported the problem to the Statistics Department. If that were true, why wasn’t it corrected for a whole two weeks? How many more people would have unwittingly assumed the computerised process would record their answers faithfully, as I almost did were it not for a note at the final page prompting a PDF check before submitting the form?
While my problem was eventually rectified (I received a polite call from the Department asking me to try the e-census again and this time it recorded what I inserted), I wonder whether it has been truly corrected in a fresh form.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spies, secrets and smart-phones
SOME sort of a deal seems to have been thrashed out over the weekend, according to reports from Saudi Arabia, under which its spooks will be able to snoop to their heart’s content on messages sent over BlackBerrys within the kingdom. All last week, as it negotiated with the Saudi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indian authorities over their demands for monitoring, the smart-phones’ Canadian maker, Research In Motion (RIM), was dodging journalists’ demands for proper explanations about what exactly is negotiable about the phones’ security. The Economist asked five times in four days for an interview, and got nowhere. Other news organisations had a similar experience.
The best we could get from the company was a series of tight-lipped statements, of which the least cryptic was this one: Read the rest of this entry »
A Quick Look at Cyberjaya – Malaysia’s ‘Silicon Valley’
In the spring of 1999, Businessweek ran a cover story titled ‘Mahathir’s High-Tech Folly’, on the challenges plaguing the then Prime Minister’s plan to set up a regional ‘Silicon Valley’ within Malaysia. The plan was ambitious: it detailed the development of a large economic zone, stretching 750 square kilometers, and promised fiber-optic networks, research facilities, tax breaks, and new ‘cyberlaws’, protecting any multinational setting up shop in the country. The economic zone was named the ‘Multimedia Super Corridor’(MSC), and the city in which this development was supposed to happen – Cyberjaya.
For a while, all was good. Mahathir had managed to convince Silicon Valley luminaries Bill Gates (Microsoft), Lawrence Ellison (Oracle) and Scott McNealy (Sun Microsystems) to sit on a 41-member advisory panel to the project. They lent the MSC immediate weight and credibility. In talks during a 1997 global tour to sell Cyberjaya, Mahathir called the city his ‘gift to the world’, and promised that it would be a ‘global bridge to the Information Age.’ The praise poured in. Businessweek reported that Mahathir was ‘regarded as something of a visionary in high-tech circles’. Microsoft then announced that it would make MSC its regional headquarters. For a brief moment, it seemed as if Malaysia — with its cheap land and inexpensive, English-speaking workforce — was set to become the region’s go-to choice for multinational technology companies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Finland makes broadband a ‘legal right’
Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen.
From 1 July every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection.
Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015.
In the UK the government has promised a minimum connection of at least 2Mbps to all homes by 2012 but has stopped short of enshrining this as a right in law.
The Finnish deal means that from 1 July all telecommunications companies will be obliged to provide all residents with broadband lines that can run at a minimum 1Mbps speed.
Broadband commitment
Read the rest of this entry »
Unifi ‘backdoor’ allows hacking, spying
By Lee Wei Lian | The Malaysian Insider
June 02, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Over 1,000 UniFi customers are exposed to a potential security risk of attacks from hackers and spying when using the high speed broadband service from Telekom Malaysia.
The security risk comes from a second administration account on routers that UniFi customers have to use.
The routers have the option for remote management enabled and customers were not informed and therefore unable to reset the password.
Security consultant Dinesh Nair, who has seen the second administration account, said that it appeared to be for maintenance purposes and allows Telekom Malaysia to troubleshoot UniFi problems remotely.
But he added that the password was “guessable” and with the remote management option turned on, it left the router vulnerable to unauthorised access and abuse such as forcing dropped connections and listening to the setting up of email passwords.
“It’s a security risk,” said Dinesh
Read the rest of this entry »
Broadband Shock to Most Malaysians
Letters
By Ganesh
Yet again, Malaysians are misled with false promises. For months there was so much hype to the Government’s initiative to provide cheaper, affordable and yet very fast broadband.
Yesterday, it came as a shock to Malaysians that the so called affordable and fast broadband service starts at RM149 and ranges up to RM249. To many Malaysians, this sum is a huge commitment. Many were expecting prices from RM50 onwards.
To make matters worse, the Star reported today that in Singapore, one could get 1Gbps for RM200. Mind you, RM200 to a Singaporean is small money. Don’t just convert, see the GDP per capita. Most Singaporeans are earning 5 times more than Malaysians as Malaysia has one of the lowest GDP per capita in the region.
Thus RM200 for a 1Gbps line is small change to a Singaporean. But our mere 5Mbps at RM149 is big money to the average Malaysian. To some, its money to feed the whole family for a whole week. Read the rest of this entry »
Personal Data Protection Bill put online as national service and to welcome public views
Posted by Kit in IT, Parliament on Friday, 20 November 2009
It has taken the government some two decades to finally come out with Personal Data Protection Bill which was presented in Parliament for first reading yesterday.
It is however not available online, which is a sad reflection on the government’s seriousness and commitment to ICT and e-government.
As a national service, the Personal Data Protection Bill is hereby put on-line and all public views and input are welcome before parliamentary debate next month.
In Parliament in April 1997, I spoke of eight principles which should be adopted in a Malaysian Data Protection Act, viz:
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The information to be contained in personal data shall be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully.
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Personal data shall be held only for specified and lawful purposes.
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Personal data held for any purpose shall not be used or disclosed in any manner incompatible with that purpose.
Broadband Penetration vs Broadband Quality vs HSBB
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, IT, Parliament on Friday, 30 October 2009
The Finance Minister said in the budget speech that the Government will expedite the implementation of HSBB at a total cost of RM11.3 billion, of which RM2.4 billion is from the Government and RM8.9 billion from Telekom Malaysia, and that a speed of 10Mbps will be provided in selected areas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor by end-March 2010 while these services will be extended to other selected areas nationwide between 2010 and 2012.
He also said that Malaysia’s broadband penetration is currently at 25%, a rate that is far lower compared to Korea, Singapore, Japan and United States.
There is a contradiction here.
In simple terms, administration is spending RM2.4 billion to encourage Telekom Malaysia to spend RM8.9 billion for selected areas in KL and Selangor to be further extended to other selected areas nationwide.
The government policy in subsidizing HSBB is creating broadband desert in the rural area as its fiscal policy continues to favour the urban and high-income rakyat as shown by its tax cut for the top-earners.
Read the rest of this entry »
Planned International Internet Bandwidth for HSBB
Posted by Kit in IT, Parliament on Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Lim Kit Siang [Ipoh Timur] minta Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan menyatakan beberapakah jalur lebar Internet antarabangsa yang akan ditambah mengikut perancangan oleh TM untuk menampung HSBB dan penggunaan Internet Streamyx bagi setiap suku tahun (quarterly) mulai 2009 sehingga 2014.
Jawapan:
Untuk makluman, perancangan penambahan kapasiti jalur lebar pihak TM dibuat secara tahunan dan bukan mengikut suku tahun. Sehingga 2 Jun 2009, jumlah kapasiti jalur lebar Internet antarabangsa adalah sebanyak 112.0Gbps. Bagi tahun 2009, kapasiti jalur lebar Internet antarabangsa yang dirancang adalah sebanyak 149.4 Gbps dan dijangka meningkat kepada 715.0 Gbps pada tahun 2013.
Jumlah anggaran perancangan kapasiti jalur lebar Internet yang akan ditambah untuk menampung keperluan perkhidmatan TM mengikut tahun adalah seperti berikut : Read the rest of this entry »
International Internet Bandwidth
Posted by Kit in IT, Parliament on Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Updated with data from 1992-2004 (from independent source)
Parliament Q & A:
Lim Kit Siang [Ipoh Timur] minta Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi, dan Kebudayaan menyatakan dalam jadual dari tahun 1994 sehingga 2009, berapakah kapasiti jalur lebar Internet Antarabangsa (International Internet Bandwidth) yang dipunyai oleh Malaysia mengikut syarikat yang
memilikinya.
Jawapan :
Kapasiti jalur lebar Internet antarabangsa secara umumnya dimiliki oleh konsortium-konsortium anatarabangsa. Kapasiti antarabangsa ini disampaikan melalui 12 kabel dasar laut yang disambungkan melalui stesen-stesen pendaratan kabel di Malaysia. Telekom Malaysia (TM) selaku penyedia perkhidmatan Internet terbesar di Malaysia merupakan pengguna dan antara pemegang ekuiti utama di dalam konsortium terbabit.
Syarikat-syarikat lain sama ada tidak mempunyai sebarang pegangan, atau menpunyai pegangan yang amat kecil di dalam konsortium yang membekalkan kapasiti jalur lebar Internet antarabangsa.
Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in unchecked plunge in IT international competitiveness as illustrated by another adverse global study – the 2009 Oxford/Cisco Global Broadband Quality Score
Thirteen years ago Malaysia proclaimed the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as “a gift to the world” and the centrepiece of the country’s strategic initiative to leapfrog the nation into the IT era to become one of the world IT powers.
Since then, MSC and Malaysia have faded away from the world radar screen as an international IT hotspot – and Malaysia’s unchecked plunge in IT international competitiveness in the past decade has been confirmed by another adverse global study, the 2009 Oxford/Cisco Global Broadband Quality Score.
This study of the global state of broadband quality put Malaysia 53rd out of 66 countries in terms of the quality and reach of its networks – understandably behind countries like Korea, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, United States but also trailing countries we should be leading like Turkey, Chile, China, Qatar, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Thailand, Tunisia, Mexico, Philippines and UAE.
Read the rest of this entry »
What happened to Malaysia Today
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Tuesday, 29 September 2009
By Malaysia Today’s technical team
With so much confusion and speculation making its rounds about what is happening to Malaysia Today over more than a week, we are compelled to offer our explanation so that the record can be set straight. Only limited technical details will be mentioned to allow you to appreciate the scale of challenge the site is facing.
You may now be aware that the site has been up and down since Friday, 17 September 2009. This was due to malicious activities by those behind the effort to cripple Malaysia Today. This is just one of the many rounds of cyber-attacks that we at Malaysia Today have had to face for more than a year now.
Coincidentally, this latest round of attacks started immediately after RPK’s explosive expose two weeks ago on Tuesday regarding the Malaysian Cabinet’s knowledge and ‘approval’ of the PKFZ scandal long before it became public knowledge. Suspicious activities against the site happened as early as Wednesday, but the first damage was done in the afternoon of Thursday, which brought the site down. Read the rest of this entry »
Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today website not accessible – any connection with disclosure of the PKFZ Cabinet documents?
Posted by Kit in IT, OSA, PKFZ, Raja Petra Kamaruddin on Friday, 18 September 2009
Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia-Today website is not accessible.
Has it anything to do with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) documents, including Cabinet papers, on the website in the past three days?
New Straits Times reported today that investigations have been ordered into Malaysia-Today’s disclosures of secret official government documents showing how the Port Klang Free Zone issue had spiraled into disaster.
The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was quoted as saying that if the document was genuine, action could be taken against the editor of the website under the Official Secrets Act.
The time has come for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to honour his pledge of public accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance which must include a commitment to freedom of information and respecting the right of Malaysians to information about the entire process as to how Malaysia could be landed with a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal through three Prime Ministers, three Transport Ministers and four Port Klang Authority Chairmen.
Read the rest of this entry »
‘Massive attack’ strikes websites
BBC News
High-profile websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted by hackers in what is described as a “massively co-ordinated attack”.
Other sites such as the blogging platform Live Journal were also reportedly targeted.
Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook’s service was “degraded”, according to the firms.
Google said it had defended its sites and was now working with the other firms to investigate the attack.
“Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services,” the company said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
Horror of horrors – BN government wants to put up Internet filter blocking “undesirable websites” in total violation of the MSC guarantee of no internet censorship!
I had tweeted: “Horror of horrors. BN govt wants Internet filter 2block ‘undesirable websites. Dear Rais – “Et tu Brutus”? M’s MSC guarantee?”
This must be the common reaction of Malaysians, particularly in the Malaysian cybersphere, blogosphere and twitterverse to the Malaysian Insider report that the Malaysian government is evaluating the feasibility of putting an Internet filter to block “undesirable websites” — similar to China’s aborted “Green Dam” software.
Malaysian Insider reported that the Minister for Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim is commissioning a study which is to be completed in December to filter blogs and websites.
Rais’ Ministry had initiated a tender exercise calling for companies to put proposals to assist the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) evaluate an Internet filter.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ministry of Health website latest fatal casualty of the A (H1N1) killer pandemic?
The A (H1N1) flu pandemic toll in Malaysia jumped by four in the past 24 hours from nine to 13.
The latest fatality is six-year-old Mohd Hyafiq Aiman Mohd Saiful Afendi, first death from Pahang, who died at 12.40 pm yesterday after he was admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA) Hospital, Kuantan after he developed fever and complained of stomach ache.
The other three latest confirmed A (H1N1) deaths were a three-year-old girl, 12-year-old boy and a 20-year man – all from Malacca.
Since the first case of A (H1N1) flu death two weeks ago on July 23 – a 30-year-old Indonesian – the rate of fatality has increased in pace and numbers, as illustrated by the following table of fatalities:
July 23 – 1 (KL)
July 27 – 1 (Subang Jaya)
Read the rest of this entry »
Can Malaysia get out of the information black-hole as a result of snail-pace broadband to join the ranks of super-fast broadband nations?
I have received a report from my IT Manager Goh Kheng Teong on his meeting at a TM Customer Engagement convened by Telekom Malaysia last Friday on July 31, 2009 in Bangsar following his constant badgering of Telekom Malaysia with complaints about atrocious Streamyx service with little results.
The Engagement was attended by seven customers and some 30 TM staff led by Jeremy Kung, Executive Vice President, Consumer and Chief Executive Officer of TM Net Sdn. Bhd.
I find Goh’s report of great public importance if Malaysia is get out of the information black-hole as a result of snail-pace broadband to join the ranks of super-fast broadband nations and be among the front band of internationally competitive nations.
I have decided therefore to make Goh’s report public to initiate a public debate to ensure that Telekom Malaysia is not allowed to abuse its monopoly position to impede Malaysia’s long-delayed quantum leap to become an information and communications technology power.
Read the rest of this entry »
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