Monday 20 September 2004

intellectual property court?

i keep seeking out topics for my upcoming meeting with prof dr. khaw.
more specifically i need topics (issues) in intellectual property for a research paper (dissertation).

anyone with any suggestions?
drop them on the comments page.

i found the following article interesting:





Thursday September 16, 2004
Need for a dedicated intellectual property court
By STEVEN PATRICK

SUBANG JAYA: With over 600 copyright cases pending in court and not a single conviction against a software pirate yet, the Malaysian Government is considering creating a court dedicated specifically to intellectual property cases.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Haji Mohd Shafie said his ministry was working towards this goal, but he would not commit to a deadline in establishing such an intellectual property court.

In Malaysian law, those found guilty of breaking the Copyright Act 1987 are liable to a fine of between RM2,000 and RM20,000, five years in jail, or both, for each infringing copy.

The Government has been cracking down on intellectual property pirates consistently over the last three years with its regular, and currently ongoing, Ops Tulen campaigns, succeeding in putting peddlers of pirated VCDs, DVDs and software on the backpedal.

But it is facing mounting criticism over the lack of convictions.

"I wish I could (jail copyright offenders). There is a need to take action," said Mohd Shafie.

"I raised this at the recent post-Cabinet meeting (yesterday)," he told reporters after launching the Staying On The Right Side of the Law with Software Asset Management seminar this morning.

The seminar was organised by the ministry and the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a consortium of proprietary software vendors dedicated to fighting piracy on a global basis.

His statements mark a tougher stance on the ministry's part in tackling piracy. BSA Asia Pacific vice-president and regional director Jeffrey Hardee said that establishing an intellectual property court, and convicting and jailing copyright offenders, would send a very strong message out.

On the lack of convictions, Hardee told In.Tech, "This has to do with problems with prosecution and how the evidence is prepared.

"Also, some judges are not completely in tune with these cases as (they constitute) white-collar crime," he said.

The BSA said it has more than 30 software piracy cases pending since the year 2000. It has conducted 12 raids since June, and over RM3mil worth of hardware and software were seized in Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan.

BSA members include some of the world's most prominent technology companies such as Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM and Microsoft.

In his keynote speech at the seminar, Mohd Shafie said that Malaysia's IT sector, which was worth US$2.2bil (RM8.4bil), could double in size by 2006 if software piracy rates were reduced by 10%.

The BSA estimated the local piracy rate at 68% last year, which meant that about seven out of 10 copies of software in use were illegal. This translates to estimated losses in potential revenue amounting to US$99.5mil (RM378mil).


interesting? i wonder.

Wednesday 15 September 2004

Just learned about the Nav Bar

Here, check it out.
Click it!





You can browse through blogs on blogger, just like flipping the pages of a book.

More? Click here...

Tuesday 14 September 2004

How much oil can the world produce?

We have been taught that our resources are limited, and replenish slowly.
Petrol and Gasoline have been described as "limited resources"; once they are gone, it will take another age of dinosaurs before we have as much petrol as before.

How true is this?
Check out this page (Click!) at fact-index.com. A link of the page to gasresources.net discusses the "abiotic" concept of petroleum (mooted by Russian scientists), which states that our petrol resources slowly replenish themselves, constantly.

Here is an extract:

This theory also argues that oil supplies slowly replenish themselves, and that oil reserves are thus much larger than have current estimates state. This theory is still unproven, however.

Today I read in bloomberg.com that the Saudi OPEC Minister has estimated that the Saudi capacity for production of oil has increased. Yep: increased! Here is an extract:

Two new Saudi oil fields, called Qatif and Abu Safah, will be fully on line this month, adding 800,000 barrels to daily capacity, the minister said. Saudi Arabia plans to produce 9.5 million barrels a day through next month, in line with current supplies, al-Naimi said.

``Our official current capacity is 10.5 million barrels a day,'' al-Naimi said. ``We have just brought on an 800,000-barrel- a-day increment. Our new capacity can be anywhere above that.

``The only way to know what capacity is is when you are running flat out,'' al-Naimi said, declining to specify what is the limit for Saudi daily output.

OPEC can meet an increase of as much as 2 million barrels a day in demand in 2005, the Saudi minister told reporters.


Taxes may be going up on petrol, here in Malaysia. And that seems to be part of a rising trend: Taxi fares just took a price hike for 40%. Hello, Government?



Monday 13 September 2004

Enter the blogosphere

Nothing spectacular...
Just a link I found while browsing PRFuel.com.

Here you go:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-07-08-blogs_x.htm


Of all the blogs discussed, I quite liked www.quarlo.com.

Tuesday 7 September 2004

16 new services!

well well.
as if there haven't been enough email addresses already.

someone mailed me from bonnag.com saying that if i mailed back, i would be sent a gmail invite, since bonnag was going out of business.

i replied the mail, and crossed my fingers that i would not get spammed.

curious, i searched for bonnag.com.
the verdict: it's true, bonnag is dead.

this site perked me up, however:

"16 Free POP3 Email Services" - by Charles Moore
http://www.lowendmac.com/misc/04/0809.html


more email?
maybe you can check out the one below:


So go ahead and check it out.

Monday 6 September 2004

the beguiling heart

the beguiling heart
is a love to have
but a pain also!



in many ways
the aching soul
does seek to soothe
its incessant throes...



and anguish comes
to the beguiling heart
in the unexpected way:



in an sms, an e-mail,
or a site you stumble on,
there you find
the source of your frustration.

bruce lee for bosnians...

... and who for malaysians?

how often is it that, people are unable to agree on a common hero? to paraphrase a popular adage, one man's hero is another man's bonehead. yes, even in malaysia, we often have conflicting ideas on who are our heroes.

in malaysia, the older chinese community view tengku abdul rahman as a shining example of a "great malay leader" -- basically, someone who could sit down with a chinaman and have a drink of kopi, and even share a joke.

i suppose, back then, there was a genuine desire to become a self-governing people, and spurred on by the brutalities of the japanese army (back then!), which exposed the uncommitted heart of the british (who fled malaya at the first hint of japanese advancement), the peoples of malaya genuinely wanted to have their own land.

of course, back then, tengku abdul rahman was able to pull all the peoples of malaya together. he had the vote of the malays, because he was royalty; he had the votes of the non-malays, because he was easy-going.

he represented a real sort of balance...

in any case, i think that it is hard for us malaysians to have a real "hero" nowadays. of course, there is "pak lah", i.e. abdullah badawi, and he is a real nice guy. but after him, what comes? i wonder at the acceptance of the PAS crowd towards najib, and his cohorts. they will view him as too modern, too slick, too corporate, and perhaps - not really much of their own. i don't know, i heard that he "turun padang" almost every other weekend, so that's actually all up to the final crunch (the elections) to prove it.

so, the problem proves itself not unique to us malaysians.

fortunately, the bosnians (or at least, a significant minority) have come to the conclusion that erecting a statue of bruce lee will promote the values of "loyalty, friendship, skill, and justice". it was the brainchild of a certain Veselin Gatalo - a writer - and his friend, Nino Raspudic.

below is an excerpt from the BBC News:

The city remains ethnically split with Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs divided since the 1992-95 war.

Writer Veselin Gatalo said: "Lee is a true international hero and is a hero to all ethnicities in Bosnia and that's why we picked him."


click the picture below for a link to the BBS News article:



and this picture sends you to the Zap2It article:



you know what? when i was a young kid, my hair was quite the "coconut" do... ala beatles. in fact, i quite liked the beatles then, as i do today. the mop-do was cool. but one of my friends looked at me one day, at an odd angle (right out of the corner of his eye, as he would have it said) and said to me, "ya know what? i reckon you look like bruce lee... not that much, but still... like bruce lee."

dear reader: can you see any similarity btw bruce's haircut to the famous mop-top below?


she love you! yeah, yeah, yeah...


this looks like the best of the lot. all together now: "yesterday.... all my troubles seemed so far away..."


maybe, malaysia should erect a statue of paul mccartney. after all, wasnt it he who penned that beatles number: "All You Need Is Love" ? well... him and that lennon fellow.

peace to the world...

Saturday 4 September 2004

anwar ibrahim is out

out of jail, that is.
and perhaps, for the immediate future, out of politics.

but, he will not be out forever, will he?

while the world hails his release as a breakthrough, we should probably be more interested in the repercussions on malaysian politics.

What are the effects of his release on KeADILan and PAS?
if it is true that KeADILan has all this while been a single issue party, then Anwar's release means that the PKR (Parti KeADILan Rakyat) has now come to a point where it must find a new direction; how can it go on campaigning about Anwar's release when in fact, Anwar has been released?

Here are some photos of the man:


(From CNN)


(From BBC UK - he's looking at his passport with delight)


(From Sydney Morning Herald)


(From The Age, Australian newspaper)

The other question which is in my mind at this point is:
Will PAS continue to co-operate with KeADILan at this point of time?
Will Anwar lead the drive to modernise Islam and PAS?

Most importantly:
How does it all stand in the light of Badawi's Islam Hadhari?

I found this article to be quite interesting:
"Free Anwar no match for Abdullah"
by Radio Netherlands

In case you're interested in Radio Netherlands...
It's quite a good site :-)
Unfortunately, it's not broadcasting in Malaysia.

Click the banner below to visit:

Madame Butterfly has a tat

Yep...
But Madame Butterfly is no ordinary, butter-ed up fly.
She's the one with a girl-next-door image...

And guess where the tattoo is?
Right below the belt...

Click here ...

I'm talking about the tat in the front.
But I can show you the tat from behind...

Thursday 2 September 2004

Last kanji tat

Right... too many kanji tats already.

I *know* !!!

But this one looks gorgeous.

A poem etched on a well-sculpted body...



Hmmmm, what's that little red marking I see alongside his torso?
Is that the stamp of "Made in China" ? ;-)

interview with a Vamp...

Well, vampire she ain't, but this link shore shows that she is a vamp.


Click Here


The interview with some kinda x-x-x movie star.
Interesting read for "Career Day" but nope -- I wouldnt recommend it to my daughter, nor to my cousins, nor to my nieces.

more kanji tats

well, people sometimes put tats where the sun don't shine.

Case in point: Butt.



Another one...
Crotch.



Is it true what they say?
MTV is influencing young people to embrace unhealthy influences?
That is a strange thought.

my chinese radicals

i'm getting quite conscious about my chinese name these days.
especially, how does it sound in japanese kanji?

i found out that my surname, XU (3) is pronounced as "MOTO" in Japanese.

so, Motorola, I guess I *do* Moto after all!!

Here is the page on "Xu (3)" or "Moto":


http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=8a31


The second radical in my name is SHENG (4) and... i think it is pronounced as "Katsu Masaru"...

Here is the reference page:


http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=52dd


And the third is.... JIE (2) ... which is pronounced as "Sugureru"...

Hmmm, I'm a bit confused.
But here is the page anyways.


http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=6770


Well well.
Kanji and Chinese radicals make interesting reading...
Click HERE for a discussion btw Japanese ON and Japanese KUN readings of Chinese radicals...

And look: it's another tattoo!
Made of Chinese Radicals / Kanji, too!


Kanji characters make for nice tats...
look:



Hmmm... nice spot.


Does this belong to a man or a woman?



This one belongs to a wommynn...


And this one belongs to a Mann...


Maybe it's time to get my Chinese-ness in gear.
I am after all 100% chinese.

Wednesday 1 September 2004

PM punya speech

Wow wow! The Prime Minister came up with a speech.
On the front page of the News Straits Times, no less!

It was fabulous, and, *inclusive*.
Quite good and pleasing to the general, non-Malay population.
Indeed, it did not smack of the usual *ketuanan* terminology.
It touched on all Malaysians.

I think I like this speech very much indeed.
There is a certain portion that I like more than others.
Wait, here is the speech --

Unleash your potential
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30:


SEVENTY-FIVE per cent of our people today were born after Aug 31, 1957.

It is impossible for them to imagine how bitter and hard a conquered people's life is.

In the 47 independent years, our peoples' lives have improved dramatically. The physical development has been astounding as well.

But think. Would we be proud of our achievements if it was the Union Jack flying high and not the Jalur Gemilang? No, I think we would feel different.

We are proud to be Malaysian today because it is through our sweat and toil that we succeeded.

Independence symbolises our freedom; it symbolises our sovereignty; our strength and success.

There may be times when we are unhappy or disappointed. But we have never been divided in our love for our Malaysia. We are proud to be Malaysian.

Malaysia belongs to us. It is we who will determine whether we succeed or whether we fail.

Only we must determine what shape and direction this country takes; not anyone else.

Our country was built on the blood of our warriors, our armed forces, our security forces, who kept this country safe from our enemies. Tunku Abdul Rahman fought for Independence; Tun Abdul Razak brought development; Tun Hussein Onn fought to forge unity; Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad went against the tide to modernise our country. As leaders, together with our people, they brought us to where we are today.

Maybe we should ask ourselves: Have we done our duty as citizens to make Malaysia a country we can be proud of? If we have not, what are we waiting for? If we have, have we done enough? This country needs the contribution of every citizen. Everyone has a role. Undertake your responsibilities with honesty, efficiency and integrity. We have to constantly do our best.

Let all citizens of Malaysia, without feeling inferior, without feeling sidelined, irrespective of race or religion, rise to become statesmen in our own land. We are equal, we are all Malaysians. No individual in this country is more Malaysian than another.

If we all unleash our full potential, share our ideas, we can go so much further. Imagine, imagine what Malaysia can achieve if we all put our full potential at its disposal.

Malaysians can be a people of distinction, of glory and of excellence, united irrespective of race or religion, overcoming all obstacles and hurdles in our path, for the sake of our country, for the sake of our future.


The funny thing is, there has not been a single non-Malay name dropped in this entire speech.
Hmmm...

Anyway, here is the picture of the beloved PM.



Hmmm. There is another Badawi lurking in the media -


Lara Badawi, Miss Lebanon 1994!!

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