Against All Odds - The Rise Of An Industrious Country

October 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 · Filed Under At Home, Blogging, Education, Humanity, Japan, Philosophy, Social · 1 Comment 

It was two weeks ago, if my memory served me right, my kids were playing around the dining hall. One of them, took a hard-boiled egg and put it into a basket of uncooked eggs. Mum was getting crazy about this. I heard the incidence and I came out of my working room.

“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mum would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off. ;)

I took the two eggs in my hand and mum gathered the boys around the dining table. Mum told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”

I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.

Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?

Read more

Tags: , , ,

Thinking in a nutshell

July 4th, 2008 at 10:36 · Filed Under Blogging, Critiques, Education, Humanity, Philosophy, Social · 6 Comments 

Most Malaysia graduate students lack critical thinking and have narrow thinking in their small nutshell and yet they think they are thinking and handling problems like an adult. I don’t know exactly what makes them having this false perception but I think it is the lacking of critical thinking, experience and limited exposure in the real world of survivor. They are restrained only to academic and their activities circles are also bounded by non-sense laws set by the universities. These laws are designed to suppress the basic human rights of the students. Read more

Tags:

多难兴邦

May 28th, 2008 at 12:16 · Filed Under Blogging, China, Days in My Life, Education, Humanity, Philosophy, Social · Comment 

温爷爷在北川中学黑板上写的四个大字：“多难兴邦”。这四个字已经铭刻在忆万中国人心中。这四个字也给了我很大的回响。

一个国家灾难重重，必能训练出超强的毅力和团结力以应付重重灾难。一个人如果困难重重，也必能训练出超强的毅力和顺应能力。所以，当一个人遇上重重困难时，千万要记得温爷爷的四个字：“多难兴邦”！绝对要理性起来，绝不能灰心和放弃。

好一个“多难兴邦（人）”！

Tags: ,

Let’s mourn for China

May 19th, 2008 at 14:28 · Filed Under Blogging, China, Humanity · 7 Comments 

Let us observe 3 minutes of silence too…

Tags: , , ,

Mourning

May 19th, 2008 at 12:23 · Filed Under Blogging, China, Humanity · Comment 

At 14:28 CST today, one week after the Sichuan/Wenchuan Earthquake, China will mourn for three days. The Chinese National Flag and Regional Flags of Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR will be raised at half mast. The Chinese public observe a period of silence to express mourning; vehicles, vessels, trains and air-defense alarms will sound followed by 3 minutes of silence.

Let us mourn and pray for those who lost their lives in the earthquake.

Tags: , , ,

The aftermath

May 19th, 2008 at 11:57 · Filed Under Blogging, China, Humanity · Comment 

It has been a week after Sichuan, center China, was hit by the worst earthquake in 30 years with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale. Over ten of thousands lost their lives in this quake. The golden 72-hour has passed.

There are many articles and blogs about the suffering of the Chinese people and that’s enough and I am not going to write another one. I was going to write but my heart was so heavy and sorrow after reading articles and blogs on the Internet. I am deeply touched by the heroes who went for rescue. I am deeply touched by pictures and reports of the dead and survivors. I am deeply touched by the Premier of China, Mr. Wen Jiabao. His orders and words echoed so powerfully in my heart that China has risen to be a powerful giant nation.

Tags: , , ,

China’s proven world class competency

April 13th, 2008 at 13:20 · Filed Under Ada, China, Computing, Humanity, Linux, Software Development, Web · Comment 

During the snow hazard in China this February, the Chinese government had successfully managed the natural disaster and crisis with much professionalism in such a short period of time. According to an unconfirmed source, the Chinese government managed to develop a Disaster Management System in just 5 days. 75 software engineers from the Chinese military worked around the clock for 5 days to bring up a web based Disaster Management System to collect, manage, disseminate, coordinate, and to provide command and control to the military disaster relieve team during the recent snow hazard.

The system was developed using Ada, AWS (Ada Web Server) with a little of PHP and Perl. The system deploys a MySQL database running on Linux. The system is hooked up to air-borne SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) for real-time acquisition of landscaping information in snow hazard affected area to help assessing the damage of rail ways, roads, housing and forest. The Chinese army engineering company was dispatched by the system to areas in need of assistance.

I have yet to receive further details of how the system works and probably will not. Anyway, that shows the Chinese ability and responsiveness in dealing with natural disaster. Hail China!

Tags: , , , , ,

Open Source and School Works

April 12th, 2008 at 22:34 · Filed Under Computing, Humanity, Philosophy, Social, Software Development, Technology · 3 Comments 

The increasing buzz about the omnipotence of Google and Open Source projects has left us wondering, what do students do with their research and course assignments today?

The Internet has become a huge reservoir of knowledge since the past two decades. The use of this knowledge has widen the gap in students thinking about traditional working environment, processes and ethics as well as their awareness of copyright laws and humanistic behavior and obligation. Unfortunately, many youngsters studying in local colleges and universities are not well aware of the pitfalls of using such information and open source projects.

With many years of software development (in both closed- and open- source) and research experience, I am able to quickly identify a genuine work or an adaptation of works from other people. I have seen many copy-and-paste work by students and even received copy-and-paste (exact copy-and-paste and adaptation) works by students applying for internship.

During a FYP judging 3 days ago, I had encountered a project which a student had adapted someone’s work as his own. With two simple questions, I established a firm “confidence” of plagiarism. The abridged story goes:

Read more

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shocked!

December 10th, 2007 at 12:11 · Filed Under Blogging, Days in My Life, Eating Out, Family, Health, Humanity, Medical · Comment 

We went to Pak Putra for dinner last night. It was dinner time and there were too many people at the restaurant. The restaurant was very busy and in a chaos. We waited for some time for our drinks to arrive. Then another some time for our foods to arrive. The kids were getting a little inpatient. Finally, we got all the foods to fill our empty stomachs. Our foods came, some were not exactly the same as what we ordered. Our Tandoori chicken was not baked thoroughly and etc…

We are regular customer there. The boss, his wife, his brothers and some of their old staff know us and we are very much like friends. After the food, when I settled the bill, I made a feedback to one of the boss’ brother about the service. He assured me and told me to make our orders through him next time we come.

About leaving, another brother of the boss approached us and apologized for the chaos and the service. We gladly accepted his apology and that’s what I call “Service”! We had a short chat and LA asked about the lady, his sister-in-law. We used to see her sitting at the counter. We have not been seeing her since this January/February. So, out of curiosity, LA asked him.

He told us that she has lung cancer! What a shock we had. She was so healthy and a non-smoker. He told us her condition is getting better but needs a lot of rest. We wish her best of health and a speedy recovery.

We encountered many people, friends, relatives and acquaintance who suddenly have been diagnosed of cancer or suddenly died of cancer. My sister, Angie, died of cancer 2 years ago.

That’s life. What can we do?

LA and I decided to donate RM1 to Hospice for every bouquet sold. This is the least we can do to spread our love to those unfortunate but brave cancer victors to fight the horrible cancer. So, let’s reach out this Christmas and share your love.

Tags:

Drug Rehabilitation

October 16th, 2007 at 18:21 · Filed Under Blogging, Crimes, General, Humanity, Marketing, Medical, Social · Comment 

I recall a friend of mine, Hudson, who was our pal in our young days became alcohol-dependent and gradually withdrew from his work and society. We used to hang out in a pub after work for happy hours and to get some fun with pals we met at the pub. Without us knowing, Hudson became alcoholic and gradually demonstrated some withdrawal symptoms.

When a person become drug- or alcohol- dependent, the person will undergo personality changes and will have a lot of mood swing and become emotionally unstable. Gradually, [s]he will withdraw from social and family activities and worst, out of job because no longer competent in the work environment. Their appearance will deteriorate and no longer bother with personal hygiene. When the symptoms left untreated and the dependency continue to linger, it can develop into social problems with violence such as, theft, robbery and murder.

I come across The Watershed Addiction Treatment Program providing drug treatment. WIth facilities located at Boca, Boynton and Houston, Watershed’s program offers medical detox, 12-step involvement program, dependency education, detoxification services, group therapy, individual counseling, inpatient rehabilitation, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, women’s program, family therapy, recreational activities and residential rehab.

It was a long time ago and we have no idea where Hudson is. The last news we heard from his younger brother years ago was that he had gone else where to work and he was no more on alcohol. I believe he has successfully rehabilitated and recover from his alcohol dependency.

The Watershed offers professional program to help people with drug or alcohol abuse problem. I hope this blog entry may help those who need to rehabilitate themselves to have a better and healthier lifestyle. I wish them and our old-time friend, Hudson good luck! I really like to see Hudson again one day.

Tags:

Human Disgrace

September 29th, 2007 at 10:55 · Filed Under Crimes, Critiques, General, Humanity, Philosophy, Politics · 1 Comment 

The shooting in Burma (now Myanmar) is an extreme cruel and disheartening act of a government and a disgrace of the human race on the earth in the 21st century. I am very disturbed by the news I read from the newspaper.

The military government of Burma does not deserve to rule the country. Burma has been a country practicing Buddhism which spread Buddha’s philosophy and compassion. How can this happen? Greed?

Weapons should be pointed outward to any possible incoming threat which will harm the country. Weapons should not be pointed inward to their own people. Killing their own country men is a crime which cannot and will not be tolerated by any God and by human race.

Today, humanity is lost. Do we, the almighty human, deserve to live and rule the wonderful mother earth?

Tags: