Some neat stats just graphing the size of the bz2 patch for Linux next for the last 108 days (12 May through 28 August). Since Stephen doesn't produce patches on weekends, you can see the gaps (dashed lines are Mondays, Australian time)

The -rc1 dip is really clear (these patches are produced against the last labelled Linus kernel, so hence it's a one day drop), and you can see the -rc2, -rc3 and -rc4 dips diminishing like they're supposed to. Those sharp-eyed will note that during the merge window, kernel hackers work weekends :)

Yesterday, Thomas rolled the 0.13 release of Storm, which can be downloaded from Launchpad.  Storm is the object relational mapper for Python used by Launchpad and Landscape, so it is capable of supporting quite large scale applications.  It is seven months since the last release, so there is a lot of improvements.  Here are a few simple statistics:

0.12 0.13 Change Tarball size (KB) 117 155 38 Mainline revisions 213 262 49 Revisions in ancestry 552 875 323

So it is a fairly significant update by any of these metrics.  Among the new features are:

• Infrastructure for tracing the SQL statements issued by Storm.  Sample tracer implementations are provided to implement bounded statement run times and for logging statements (both features used for QA of Launchpad).
• A validation framework.  The property constructors take a validator keyword argument, which should be a function taking arguments (object, attr_name, value) and return the value to set.  If the function raises an exception, it can prevent a value from being set.  By returning something different to its third argument it can transform values.
• The find() and ResultSet API has been extended to make it possible to generate queries that use GROUP BY and HAVING.  The primary use case for result sets that contain an object plus some aggregates associated with that object.
• Some core parts of Storm have been accelerated through a C extension.  This code is turned off by default, but can be enabled by defining the STORM_CEXTENSIONS environment variable to 1.  While it is disabled by default, it is pretty stable.  Barring any serious problems reported over the next release cycle, I’d expect it to be enabled by default for the next release.
• The minimum dependencies of the storm.zope.zstorm module have been reduced to just the zope.interface and transaction modules.  This makes it easier to use the per-thread store management code and global transaction management outside of Zope apps (e.g. for integrating with Django).

It doesn’t include my Django integration code though, since that isn’t fully baked.  I’ll post some more about that later.

I'll be attending the Linux Plumbers Conference in Portland OR a few weeks from now. It seems like a really useful event for developers, and even a little unusual in that Linus will be giving a git tutorial.



If there's anyone attending who'd like to meet up & discuss SELinux, especially distro integration issues and similar, let me know. Kees Cook from the Ubuntu project will be there, so if we have enough people, it might also be worth organizing a BoF session (it seems there are currently slots available).



Similarly, if anyone is interested in discussing the integration of MAC security with KVM (i.e. sVirt -- a project I'll discuss in more detail soon), also let me know.

This is a busy week for the MCMC. They’ve just announced that Mobile Number Portability (MNP), will now be a reality (a rather delayed reality. There is a FAQ available. Key things to note:

• Don’t terminate your mobile number before porting - only active numbers can be ported
• If you’re contractually bound (12 months, etc - such offers apparently can exist, with incentives to consumers) porting will be denied (unless you break your contract, I guess)
• Prepaid users beware - all existing credit doesn’t transfer over - so use it all up!
• A request to port, therefore, is notice to your current provider to terminate subscription
• Porting can take between 5-10 business days (utter bollocks, this kind of thing should take hours)
• You may get suspended international roaming during porting, so beware

Its about time. It will only cost a minuscule RM25 to change the provider. Customer service will clearly have to improve (this would be the sole reason I move off a network, IMHO)

A long time ago, Adam (017 - now owned by Maxis) used to offer “free calls” to 017 numbers, for users on a postpaid plan; plus they had the cheapest prepaid options. I was a heavy phone user in those days - it was a long time ago, during the Nokia 5110 days (so late 90s?).

Wonder how many new service offerings like this will crop up? Optus has free 20 minute calls to Optus customers (Yes Time, from 8pm-midnight), 3 has free 3-to-3 calls for 10 minutes anytime of the day, and so on. But knowing what service provider people are on, is key. This is the main reason I carried 2 SIM cards (and phones) in Melbourne.

Well, here’s to saying goodbye to 012/017 being Maxis, 013/019 being Celcom, and 016 being DiGi.

I’m sitting here at a talk about the mobile industry now, and its all mostly focused on an overview of the mobile platform(s). Its basic (for me, but from the wide range of attendees, I think they got a lot out of it)… Location based services, APIs, Java, XHTML, all the joyous buzzwords. There’s plenty to do in the mobile industry, in terms of content creation in Malaysia (and Australia, fwiw). Lots of sites don’t have mobile specific sites, and scrolling, etc. is a pain.

Wild idea being thrown around in my head… Content creation isn’t complicated. At the last government event I attended, apparently, MOSTI has got lots of money to throw around. Some of the amusing things people got 5-figure funding for, included a guide to Malaysian beaches (not mobile related) available. Smells to me like a weekend hack for easy money.

Bandwidth is a problem… Metered bandwidth per kilobyte/megabyte isn’t something many in Malaysia think about (anyone in Australia knows the pain of this - but limitations make us present content better, IMHO). Its expensive. But I think this is a problem that will fix itself, as mobile data becomes more ubiquitous.

Then comes how to monetise this whole shindig. An interstitial does not work - they are annoying, they are a waste of bandwidth, and Mowser tried them and I believe removed them because they were largely a failure.

Mobile AdWords? Google doesn’t believe there is a market for this in Malaysia (or maybe anywhere else outside of the US). Its chicken-and-egg - till a market is built, Google won’t enter it, I’d guess.

Banners? The Star has it on their mobile site. They don’t have any public information as to how successful they’ve been. But this seems like the strongest option, currently - use an ad system powered by Slash, go out to advertisers and create unique tiny banners for them. However, this goes beyond the weekend hack idea… and that just becomes too much work.

Location based services tied into a mobile website. This could work… My social life is largely unplanned (professional life on the other hand is driven by calendars, that SMS me of appointments, even). Say I’m around the MidValley Shopping Mall, its 12:10am, and I decide I have time to kill. Access the site, it figures that there’s activity at MidValley at that time: bowling, The Dark Knight in Gold Class starting in 10 minutes, etc. Book a ticket through the site, get a commission? Banner ad for bowling, so its a “promoted” link/sponsored link, over the regular stuff (again, breaks the weekend hack rule).

If data is always on, coupled with your location, if you’re near a Burger King, it might blast you with ads saying “bring this coupon in, buy a meal, get a free ice cream”. Bluetooth based advertisers, beware - always on data+location will kick you in the nads.

OK, talk’s over, time to be social! Looks like we won’t have the Google talk after all… Thanks again to Daniel for organising this…

I'm still trying to think my way through this but a few comments on LJ and a conversation with annburlingham prompt me to consider that what I'd really like is a President (or governor, or whatever) who is clearly a modern animal. I don't object to my leaders practicing politics or making bargains and concessions I don't like. At least, it's not a deal-breaker. I like leaders who can get stuff done.

As far as I can tell the current batch, at least at the Presidential level, are firmly rooted in the past. Any Democrat is compared immediately against JFK (and what a stick to measure with!); Senator Obama gets the Dr Martin Luther King treatment as well. Republicans fare a little better but still there are comparisons to Nixon or Reagan. (I wonder who Senator Clinton would have to be compared to, if she were the nominee?)

All the Presidents and candidates I've had a chance to observe up close seem to be pretty clearly rooted in the past—have any of these folks blogged? used a computer? enjoy rap music? They all apparently have ipods, which I guess counts for something.

I want to see a President who's read science fiction, or knows what the Singularity is, or has embarassing early USENET posts archived by DejaNews. Someone who knows what a Transformer is. (Natasha Stott-Despoja springs to mind.)

I don't really mean this quite literally but Sarkozy seems to be the kind of thing I'm after. He may not be young but, wow, a President who's not just a divorcee but got divorced right after taking office, who then almost immediately remarries a woman who has chart-topping songs about drug use. And the country seems to be largely okay with that. Yeah.

Perhaps Dennis Kucinich wouldn't be a disaster after all.

Alrighty, got flights in sardine-class with nasty airlines organised & paid, so I'm going to OpenSQL Camp 2008! See you all there?

This is a really interesting read, and a great initiative for openness (software, standards, collaboration) in education!

We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration

Also I’m working on the ASK-OSS (Australian Service for Knowledge on Open Source Software) project again, helping with some newsletters, case studies and information services. Should be fun and the newsletter is quite useful.

Good morning everyone! Feeling very motivated to get some projects completed this week. Whilst I had a moment thought I am happy to announce that I will be conducting 3 workshops in Melbourne in late September and early October. They are:

Selling Yourself: Presenting with Confidence

Whether you are looking for a new client, business partner, interviewing potential staff or seeking a new employer the art of 'selling yourself', either as an individual or as a representation of your business, product or service, is critical to finding what you are seeking. Moving away from typical topics of marketing channels, sales and branding, what to wear and even writing and reviewing applications this session is solely focused on you and how your sell yourself into a role.

With a very practical, hands on approach you will be working through finding the words to say, the manner to say them and they physical aspects of meeting with your potential 'purchaser'. This workshop is geared for people with an technology and like professional background and will look specific at presentation manner.

Find out more - Book Now through Open Query

Quick Start Marketing: Starting your Marketing from Scratch and Leaving with a Strategic Plan

How much time have you spent working 'on' your business role rather than 'in' it lately? Now is the time to give yourself some time away to reflect on your role, where your organisation is and where it should be going. This workshop is designed to help you, with the support of a strategic marketing specialist, to finally get a marketing plan on paper so that you have a plan of attack to take your business to where you want it to be.

With limited places, to ensure you get the strategic planning focus and support you need, you will want to book into this session quickly!

Find out more - Book Now through Open Query

Getting Linked In: How to Find your Marketing Match

You have finally got a marketing plan in your hot little hand, so now what? If you are not from a marketing background, approaching and engaging the services of a marketing or advertising agency can be a daunting experience. This workshop is designed to walk you through identifying:

• what you will need to know about your business and your plan,
• what to say and how to present information,
• what to ask your prospective agency, and
• conditions of engagement to be aware of.

With limited places, to ensure you have the best advice for your specific business needs, you will want to book into this session fast!

Find out more - Book Now through Open Query

read more

Windows FAIL.

It has been suggested the current thing I’m trying to fix is actually a bug in the Microsoft linker…. and I’m quite willing to believe that.

I wonder if I can expense rehab if this Windows port leads to a drinking problem….

Now, it seems like there are only 19 ISPs, from the previous 21.

Malaysia Today Mirror/Alternate URL Information

Malaysia-Today IP: 202.75.62.114

Malaysia-Today alternate URL: http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008/

Start using OpenDNS to avoid the pain. read more…

The Star is reporting:

“Everyone is subject to the law, even websites and blogs,” said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

“We do not intend to curtail people’s freedom or right to express themselves.

“But when they publish things that are libellous, slanderous or defamatory, it is natural for SKMM to act,” he said in Parliament lobby on Thursday.

No Syed Albar, you are wrong (re: natural for SKMM to act). When something is libellous, slanderous, or defamatory, you tell them to remove the content, failing which, you take them to court, file a civil suit against them, and see what happens at the hand of the law. You do not censor the Internet. This is exactly what is happening to Raja Petra - he’s being charged for criminal defamation (and probably more?).

Syed Albar goes on to add, as reported in Malaysiakini:

He defended blocking access to Malaysia Today that has attacked top leaders, saying it had ignored warnings against publishing “slanderous” articles.

That’s really the crux of the problem. Malaysia for the longest time, under the iron fisted rule of Mahathir, never questioned leaders in the open. Those that did, were put behind bars, under the ISA (thanks to things like the Printing Presses Act, etc.) Of course, exposure to the rest of the world, and the Internet, has helped shape the people to become much braver.

Now, everyone’s playing the blame game (or pretending to be dumb):

• Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum, Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister was not aware - he thinks they may have brief the Minister, but definitely not him. Where’s the Minister? In Bali. On vacation?
• Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Information Minister says he’s aware but its not under his jurisdiction

Picking on Section 263, while ignoring Section 3 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998:

(3) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting the censorship of the Internet.

Also via Malaysiakini:

“The commission and the government should acknowledge that the problem at hand is the failure of the mainstream media to fulfil its duties in reporting information adequately, truthfully and fairly and not go on a witch hunt of content providers in cyberspace, which holds the only meaningful free space for critical and challenging expression in Malaysia.”

A wise statement executed by V Gayathry from the Centre for Independent Journalism.

Not unprecedented

The Star goes on to report that the MCMC has done this previously before, for websites involved in fraudulent investment schemes, last year. From that list, swisscashguide.com and swisscash.biz still work - so did they remove the DNS block, or do they set a time for it to expire? When such firms exist, you don’t block their websites - you take them to court for violating the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (commonly referred to as BAFIA), and shut them down, I believe.

Jaring shines thru

Its worth noting that while TMNet/Streamyx has complied (they have the biggest market penetration for DSL users), Jaring (the oldest ISP in Malaysia) hasn’t (hopefully its not a yet, I just hope they ignore the directive - a feisty Dr. MAL still being there?). ns.jaring.my and dns1.jaring.my still resolve the regular malaysia-today.net website.

The blogosphere aloud

Jeff Ooi has called for the hanging of the idiots @ MCMC. Lim Kit Siang has chimed in. LiewCF is telling people how to bypass the blocks. Daniel from Global Voices Online asks What exactly is sedition?.

If you have any more interesting links, don’t hesitate to leave a comment on this post. If someone has a copy of the circular sent to the ISPs, it will make for a public shaming.

In the mid 90’s I was part-owner of a small ISP. We had given out Trumpet Winsock [1] to a large number of customers and couldn’t convert them to anything else. Unfortunately a new release of the Linux kernel (from memory I think it was 2.0) happened to not work with Trumpet Winsock. Not wanting to stick to the old kernel I decided to install a Linux machine running a 1.2.x kernel for the sole purpose of proxying connections for the Winsock users. I had a 386 machine with 8M of RAM that was suitable for the purpose.

At that time hard disks were moderately expensive, and the servers were stored in a hot place which tended to make drives die more rapidly than they might otherwise. So I didn’t want to use a hard disk for that purpose.

I configured the machine to boot from a floppy disk (CD-ROM drives also weren’t cheap then) and use an NFS root filesystem. The problem was that it needed slightly more than 8M of RAM and swapping to NFS was not supported. My solution was to mount the floppy disk read-write and use a swap file on the floppy. The performance difference between floppy disks and hard disks was probably about a factor of 10 or 20 - but they were both glacially slow when compared to main memory. After running for about half an hour the machine achieved a state where about 400K of unused data was paged out and the floppy drive would then hardly ever be used.

I had initially expected that the floppy disk would get a lot of use and wear out, I had prepared a few spare disks so that they could be swapped in case of read errors. But in about a year of service I don’t recall having a bad sector on a floppy (I replaced the floppy whenever I upgraded the kernel or rebooted for any other reason as a routine precaution).

Does anyone have an anecdote to beat that?

• [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpet_Winsock

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The Wellingtonites, led by my very own Jayne, launched their initiative for Software Freedom Day. The event will, predictably, held on Saturday 20th September at the Convention Centre. We’re planning on having a hackfest organized by SuperHappyDevHouse (and br3nda), an installfest organized by WellyLug, and best of all, an open source BarCamp.

Really looking forward to this, and hoping a large crowd get out and register for this event. It’ll be a lot of fun. I’ll be doing a quick session on OpenSolaris, DTrace, and anything else I’m asked to do (perhaps an impromtu GNOME session?).

Hoping this is going to charge up the other teams around NZ into organizing events!

This is the third book in the Belgariad (Book 1 and Book 2). This book like the others was an enjoyable quick and easy read. I am starting to rethink my comments about these books being good for young readers -- it just occurred to me that a lot of people die in these books. They're all bad guys, and the violence isn't all that graphic, but I guess it might worry some parents.



Tags for this post: book() David_Eddings() Comment

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html



The Software Freedom Law Centre has put out a guide that tells software vendors how to make sure they're complying with the GPL (see link, above). It's not hard to comply, but there are some good tips in there.



An example is to make sure you don't have a build guru - someone without whom your organisation/team could not build your software. Because if you couldn't build your software without your build guru, then people you distribute it to don't have much of a chance.



It also talks about what your options actually are in terms of basic compliance. So for example one thing I didn't know is that in GPL v3, they made it much more explicit how you can distribute source code, and that technologies such as the Web or Bit Torrents are acceptible. For example, peer-to-peer distribution of source code is acceptible as long as that is the medium being used to distribute the (built) software.



There's more good stuff in there, and even though I'm no Free Software vendor, it's an interesting read just from the perspective of an insight into how Free Sofrware compliance really works.



(Hat tip: Roger Clarke)

It’s wonderful to see that Matt Zimmerman has finally given in and started blogging. As a welcoming gift, I’d like to give him a hackergotchi. If it seems familiar, it’s because I tried to lure him into the blogging world with it way back in 2005! (You might want to click through for a hackergotchi of more conventional size…)

Just like the hottest rock bands, the latest "hot new thing" in e-business may seem to suddenly appear over night when in fact it's been in gestation for years, bubbling away below mainstream consciousness and appreciated by just a few bleeding-edge early adopters who saw the potential before it became famous. Then at some point in time a confluence of events results in an "ah-ha!" moment in the collective psyche, and all of a sudden the latest hot new thing seems to be everywhere you look.



I believe we're currently right on the cusp of just such a moment, and in the next 12 months we'll see a certain concept go from obscure "why on Earth would anyone want that?" status to "can't live without it!" ubiquity.



That concept is location-based services.



The great catch-cry in the early days of the internet was globalisation: the concept that an obscure little company in a backwoods country town could throw up a website and gain instant access to a global market and compete with existing multinationals, with their location being irrelevant. Nice in theory, but of course there were all sorts of catches and even now it's a rare business indeed that can trade online without consideration for the geographic location of its customers.



So people are now starting to realise that things like search results really need to take into account geographic location. I can't even guess the number of times I've done a web search over the years and wished I could apply a rule such as "only show me results for businesses within 20km of my current location". When you're searching for somewhere to buy a washing machine it really matters where it's located: the electrical goods retailer with the best washing machine website in the world isn't going to be a lot of use to you if you're in Melbourne and they're in Minneapolis or Mayfair. I dream of the day that Google Maps and Google Search are merged into one, and I can select an area on the map and say "search for 'dog grooming service' right *there*", or "search for 'scuba dive operator' right around this area *here*".



Most of the time we *want* location to be relevant, but on the internet we've lost the sense of physical context and proximity that is so important when dealing with people and businesses in the real world. We've been stripped of something that is fundamental to the way our brains are wired.



Another application where location could provide enormous additional value is social networking. For years I've talked about a hypothetical device that people could carry around in their pockets that would be a sort of "proximity alert" that tells you when a friend or colleague is nearby, allowing you to stumble upon chance meetings that right now are probably passing you by. Walking down the street there are times you meet people you know, but it's likely that far more often someone you know will have walked down that same street one minute before, or one minute later, or have stepped into a shop while you walk past, or been on the other side of the street. Wouldn't it be cool to have a device in your pocket that could say "hey, your friend Mark is just over the street in that coffee shop!" rather than walk past totally unaware? And for someone like me who travels a lot it would be particularly handy, because by expanding the "alert" range from say 100 meters to perhaps 20km when I travel to another city it would help me catch up with people I don't get to see very often.



You know what? You may not have heard about it yet, but those devices are in mass production right now by big-name companies including Samsung, Sony, and Nokia. In fact you probably already have one in your pocket. It's called a mobile phone.



A moment ago I talked about location-based services suddenly becoming a recognised mainstream phenomenon, and there are a couple of trigger events that are bringing it about.



The first trigger event is that almost all new mobile phones now have GPS built in: a while ago it was unheard of for phones to include cameras, but now many of them have two. Likewise phones with GPS have been few and far between, but very soon it'll be almost impossible to buy one without it. GPS will be everywhere, in everyone's pocket, and nobody will think twice about it.



The second trigger event is the release of simple, easy-to-use software and online services that take advantage of the ubiquity of personal GPS. That's the stage we're at right now: the hardware platform is out there in people's pockets, and now enterprising developers are dreaming up new ways to utilise that platform. One perfect example of the sort of building block currently being put in place is a new service from Yahoo! called Fire Eagle (fireeagle.yahoo.net), which might sound a little bit obscure at first but has enormous potential to change the way online business is conducted. The simplest way to understand what Fire Eagle does is think of it as a pinboard where you can post a note stating your current location, and that information can then be used by third parties to provide you with more relevant services. Fire Eagle itself doesn't do anything "useful" as far as an end user is concerned, but as a building block for other services it's critical.



The way it works is that you create a Fire Eagle account, and then use one or more methods to regularly update your location within the Fire Eagle system. You can do it manually by logging into the website and setting it, or you can run a little program on your mobile phone that regularly checks your location by GPS and updates it automatically, or by linking your Fire Eagle account to a travel planning service like Dopplr that knows what cities you will be in and when.



With your current location in the Fire Eagle system you can then authorise other services to make use of that information. Examples include websites like wikinear.com, which looks up your location and cross-references it to Wikipedia articles related to places nearby - a great way to find random interesting things in your vicinity that you may never have been aware of previously! Or rummble.com, which is a search engine that personalises your search results based on factors including interests of people within your social network and your current location. Or www.outalot.com, which (provided you're in New York or San Francisco!) uses your location to find nearby restaurants, bars, movies, and shops. Or zkout.com, which does the same thing but for people you know who happen to be nearby. Zkout even provides a live map which updates to show what's going on around you.



How does this relate to e-business? Right now: not much. In the near future: a lot.



As users become aware of the power of location-awareness we're going to see a lot more services spring up that take advantage of it, and people are going to start expecting websites to "locate" themselves geographically. For example, websites will need to have location metadata embedded so that they will appear in search results when users search for things like "cheap washing machines within 20km of my current location".



And if we're really lucky we'll see an end to those really annoying websites that ask you to select from a country before you can proceed: websites should just know automatically where you're located, and behave accordingly. As a side issue while talking about this, one of my all-time most hated websites is www.bunnings.com.au, and for one specific reason: it won't even let you get to the home page until you tell it your postcode! They've got the right idea, but it's implemented in such an obnoxiously obtrusive way that it drives me nuts.



So in a year or two when you're doing a web search and restricting the results to your local area, or walking down the street and your phone tells you that your best friend is two blocks away, it will probably seem like the most natural thing in the world. Once again science fiction becomes a typical everyday event.

Malaysia-Today IP: 202.75.62.114

Malaysia-Today alternate URL: http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008/

Start using OpenDNS to avoid the pain.read more…

Mainstream media, always picking up things late. I’ve already suggested that they may soon be irrelevant as they’re only propaganda machinery, governed by the Minister of Propaganda (current ruling BN - go read George Orwell).

The Star is reporting that all ISPs ordered to cut access to the Malaysia Today site. Apparently, Malaysia has 21 ISPs - who knew, this? It goes on to say:

The notices were sent out on Tuesday in accordance with Section 263 of the Communications and Multimedia Act.

“This means that MCMC is allowed to block any particular website which has committed acts that contravene the local laws of the country, for example, sedition,” the source said.

Read ACT 588 - COMMUNICATIONS AND MULTIMEDIA ACT 1998 if you’re so inclined. If bored, the MCMC has a list of Acts that come under their purview.

Raja Petra hosts the site in a MyLoca data centre… owned and operated by TMNet. What’s next, turning off his tubes?

I don’t particularly read RPK, but I do find it disturbing that they’ve chosen to censor the Internet. In his usual flamboyant self, RPK says:

“The Government has clearly broken its own promise,” said Raja Petra yesterday. Asked whether he was notified of the reasons of the blocking, he answered no.

“I will turn this into a big issue, no doubt. When it is known that the Government has violated the charter, MSC will die. I will personally see to it,” he said.

Companies, thinking about coming to Malaysia, using the MSC status? Think twice… its starting to seem more and more like Beijing. I like how he says the “MSC will die” - the way I look at it, the MSC never took off as the then Prime Minister, Mahathir said it would. You don’t hear Cyberjaya being synonymous with Bangalore, do you? Topic for discussion, another day.

I urge more people to put up EFF badges supporting bloggers rights. Don’t let this wannabe-autocratic government take over.

N/B: Title says “mirror” as opposed to alternate URL… It makes it easier for indexing, afaik.

I just got back from a quick visit to the doctor to figure out what's going on with a swollen lymph node in my neck, and during the visit he took my blood pressure. Which meant the machine measured my heart rate. Which was 52bpm. Which is pretty damn good for someone who hasn't done any serious exercise in years.



Typical resting heart rate for an adult male is about 70bpm, with lower rates indicating a higher level of "efficiency" (for want of a better term). A high level of aerobic fitness generally results in a lower resting rate because the heart can work less to achieve sufficient blood flow.



Way back when I was riding and running every day, going to the gym several times per week and swimming fairly regularly my resting rate was down around 38bpm. I'm old and decrepit now but at least I still seem to be enjoying the residual benefits of previous exercise!

Today, is one that I consider, a dark day in Malaysian Internet history. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), ordered all ISPs to block access to a website, thereby violating the MSC Bill of Guarantees, which clearly states: Ensure no Internet censorship.

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Malaysiakini reports (subscription required, so relevant bits pasted here):

MCMC chief operating officer Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, when contacted today, confirmed that the block was ordered by the commission, which is the regulatory body for online content.

“It is being blocked because we found that some of the comments on the website were insensitive, bordering on incitement,” he told Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini goes on to add, that this is the first time something like this has been used against non-pornographic websites. I will argue that this shouldn’t even be used on pornographic websites - sure it may flaunt the laws of the country, but leave it to the end-user, please.

It’s just a DNS blackhole, so its not quite Internet censorship… But this makes you feel so much closer to Beijing now, doesn’t it?

lovegood:~ byte$ dig www.malaysia-today.net @cns1.tm.net.my

; <

> DiG 9.4.2-P1 <

> www.malaysia-today.net @cns1.tm.net.my

;; global options: printcmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 25306

;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:

;www.malaysia-today.net. IN A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:

malaysia-today.net. 3600 IN SOA ns1.blocked. blocked.tm.net.my. 1 900 600 86400 3600

;; Query time: 17 msec

;; SERVER: 202.188.0.132#53(202.188.0.132)

;; WHEN: Wed Aug 27 23:33:57 2008

;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 104

TMNet has a known list of DNS servers, the most common being: 202.188.1.5 and 202.188.0.133. Apparently, some also get on 202.188.1.4 and 202.188.0.132. There are a bunch more that you can get, too.

Malaysiakini goes on to report:

Mohamed Sharil said MCMC had instructed all ISPs to block access to Malaysia Today based on complaints received by the general public regarding offensive comments posted on the website.

Asked if the move to block Malaysia Today went against the government’s guarantee of Internet freedom, he said that the matter was subject to interpretation.

“We are governed by the Communications and Multimedia Act (1998) which allows us to take preventive measures and advise our license holders (such as ISPs) when a service user may be contravening national laws,” he said.

Under Section 263 of the Act, a licensee must “use his best endeavour” to prevent his/her facilities from being used to violate any law in the country”.

Mohamed Sharil said that MCMC will be communicating with the Malaysia Today owner Raja Petra Kamaruddin and other blog owners soon regarding “ethical blogging”.

“We are not against blogs, but we would like to see ethical blogging,” he stressed.

Ethical blogging. Expect yet another blog post on this, soon. In a country where mainstream media is stifled, and used as a propaganda machine, its no wonder people turn to the Internet. If the mainstream media reports “lies”, why not the Internet? The people, the rakyat are smart enough to distinguish, in this non-communist state of ours.

So, if you need your Malaysia Today fix, the IP address is still valid - 202.75.62.114. For commenting, try http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008/.

For the smarter ones amongst you, I suggest you stop using TMNet’s DNS services. Switch to OpenDNS (I would suggest switching ISP, but welcome to the monopoly that is Malaysia, right?). You can change it on your computer or router, or just use the nameservers if you know how: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Otherwise, there are ways to change it on Windows (XP, Vista, 2000), Mac OS X (Leopard, Tiger) or even Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora).

OpenDNS is a workaround. The real problem is the MCMC attempting to censor the Internet. They are attempting to stifle free speech, and the freedom to discuss pertinent issues in an open fashion. I’ve mused about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights before, maybe its time the politicians read it, again.

Update: Its worth noting that Bernice Low wrote about this in her CNet blog as well.

Today I seem to have questions about regligion/Christianity:

• In "Jesus H Christ", does the "H" stand for "Henry"? That'd be cool.
• What is christian debt elimination?
• Why do I abhor country music and religious music, but love Johnny Cash?

I guess that last one doesn't really need an answer.

ETA: Okay, if this keeps up, I may have to change my mind about Country music. Pandora is playing a pretty darn pleasant series of songs in the key of Cash, and I can't stop smiling.

I still draw the line at Gospel, though.