Ash Report

It’s been a boring summer without the English Premier League on Astro. Okay… we don’t actually have summer in Malaysia, it’s sama all year long here. But honestly, how can we have over a hundred satellite channels and sometimes, none of them is watchable? Beijing Olympics filled up the void last week, but before that TV is not so exciting.

So, when EPL started its 2008/09 season this week, yours truly is happy at last. And so far, it seemed that the new season is promising. Scolari, whom I admired, managed to start Chelsea with aplomb. ManUtd fumbled in the opening game against Newcastle. Torress recued his team yet again and newboy, Hull City, managed to whip old-wheezer Fulham. Ahh…. football bliss.

Beside the game and the goals, one thing that managed to capture my interest is AirAsia. I believe that they had managed another coup by being the shirt sponsor for the EPL game officials i.e the men in black. Many times, when the ball went out and the camera zoomed on the line official, you can’t help but noticing the toned-down red AirAsia.com logo at the back of the shirt (or in the case of the referee as pictured above, at the sleeve) contrasting against the black shirt.

I’m sure it cost them less than being a ManUtd official airline (yet the team came to Malaysia on MAS) or to advertise on ground stands. Yet, these shirts will be worn on all matches and shown at all teams. Cameras also will zoom on these officials when the game paused - so eyes of the viewers are focused. Great bang for bucks they say.

I’ve yet to see any bragging articles from AirAsia in the media but I believe, once again they have shown shrewdness, thinking outside the box, in their brand promotion. Well done and this is something that all Malaysian companies (especially ahemm… the big brother airline) should take note and learn.

As you all had known by now - I’ve got my Wii already. Weehee.. And just a small info, I’m now carrying some sports injury due to the vigorous arm twisting to hit all those home-runs in that baseball game (Wii Sports). We’ve all heard what a smashing success (and life-saving too) Wii has been for Nintendo and I can personally vouch that it’s not just a gimmick.

Now… my dearie… I want my iPhone 3G!!

It was reported that Apple managed to sell 1 million units of iPhone 3G in its first weekend of sales all round the globe. That was incredible. Not as much as the 8 million download a day for Firefox 3 but Firefox is free. In this case, people has to queue for hours just to get their hands on that darn shiny sexy units. And then has to endure frustrating activation failure some more. It would be a riot but for those irate-customer-friendly staff at AT&T.

After all those dreadful rumors we’ve been getting via SMS, the best rumor must be that Maxis will soon be bringing in those iPhone 3G. Even better, it was rumored that it will be selling for less than RM1,000.

In Nov 2007, we reported how a UK Football Website plan to take over a real football club. Subsequently, the deal was concluded in Jan 2008 and surprise, surprise… the Club actually flourish post-takeover and in May 2008, the Club went on to win FA Trophy club and one of its player, Smudger, got call up to the England squad.

Not bad huh.. A check on the club’s website showed sponsorship from a big name, Eurostar and merchandise tie-up with Nike.

In Malaysia, we are now talking about the ‘new media’ becoming mainstream media. Now, apparently, online community are also making its presence felt on the pitch and connected with real people. Wow…

Mr Jobs had better watch out coz the Android is here. Google showed off a number of exciting new developments by the company and the one that got the biggest response was Android - an open-source platform being designed for “smart” phones and other mobile devices that surf the Web. Looking set to challenge iPhone - Steve Horowtiz (engineering director) showed how an Android phone, using an internal compass, could dynamically adjust Google Street View images to match the facing of the phone user, to a collective gasp and applause from the 3000+ programmers in a conference in San Francisco.

I would surely love the idea of a standard that is available for anyone to build their applications. Imagine if we could build our own add-ons for HTC,SE,Nokia smartphones. The ability to develop applications as add-on is the real killer-apps for succes stories like Facebook or Firefox. It can be an avenue for our entreprising Petaling Street vendors - modified smartphones GUI and applications for as low as RM30 each. This time - it could be legit though.

Check out the video of the keynote presentation of Google’s I/O below. It’s a long video and the Android demo is on 23 min:

I was at a Unified Communication forum in KL yesterday. It was organised by IDC with presentation from IBM, Microsoft and Cisco. They were all pushing for their take on Unified Communication - a vision where a person can have a single point of communication integrating various communication channel, be it plain-old-telephone, mobile phone, VOIP, video-call, email, Group collaboration, Instant Messaging, fax.

This is old theme lah, in fact it was a buzzword back in 1999 and the company I was with then also jumped on the bandwagon. In fact UC (as it is now being dearly referred to by the forumers yesterday) has died a slow death since then.

Apparently, UC now is having second lease of life and all three speakers put the blame on the increased state of connectivity in our society - globally. For example, IM (instant messaging) has continued to flourish at the office space despite futile attempt by IT managers to get staff away from chit-chatting via IM. In fact, Malaysia scored a high >75% usage of IM in office space.

The speakers also identified the next generation of work-force to be highly Internet-literate - dubbed Screenagers by the IDC-guy and Digital Native by the IBM guy. These next generation will be hitting the workforce in the next 5 years or so and they typically spent 99% of their waking time facing the screen. They will expect to do work-things online and this is expected to have a big impact on how companies need to adopt to attact this generation as their customers, suppliers and staffs.

Personally I’m not a big fan of do-it-all gadgets and prefer dedicated item for dedicated function. For example, the 4-in-1 printer cum scanner cum copier cum fax is a great idea. But imagine if oneof the function screwed up (which invariably they would) you would lose the functionality of all the others as well.

Likewise, if we use UC - if the system’s IM component got hit with a flu, chances are the whole voice, email and fax will got hit as well. that would be a bloody disaster and for an SME, something that you simply can’t afford to have. So, let’s wait and see whether this UC dream will turn up like 3G’s Video Call flop - or not.

Do you believe in UFO? Let me tell you something, you have to believe in UFOs - these unidentified flying objects. I’m a firm believer and by the end of todays posting, you simply must agree with me.

Okay, most of us learn about UFOs in TV programs and movies. There’s plentiful of them ranging from crass comedy to seductively scientific. There are also various groups who’ve dedicated their lives in studying and trying to prove or disprove each UFO sighting claims.

Some claims that advanced construction demonstrated by ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilisations are due to visiting aliens that taught them how to build those fancy pyramids. We all have this images in our mind - the simple Mayan folks peacefully tending to their slash and burn crops and chasing after wild pigs, suddenly they came across these shining machinery with flashing lights and strange looking people with strange looking clothes. The Mayans gave them gifts, submit themselves and their women to this stranger and in return the aliens gave them new technology.

Fancy schmancy science fiction you said? What if I tell you that all this could be happening right now? I mean now.. as in year 2008 on our very own planet Earth?

Actually this could very well be the situation in Amazon, one of the few remaining unchartered territories of the world. A report on National Geographic highlights the plight of “Unseen Tribes” in the Amazon that may be threatened by Oil Explorations in the otherwise unspoilt thick tropical jungles.

Check out the following comments on Oil Company’s circular to their staffs where they take seriously the potential threat caused by meeting of two civilisations. (Bear in mind the UFO visualisation just now)

The two documents, obtained by National Geographic News, advise workers to be on the lookout for footprints, spears, arrows, and other signs of humans.

The Barrett manual advises workers that uncontacted natives might become curious about noises, helicopters, and lights, causing them to leave items that signal a desire to make contact with workers.

Such items may include “vessels containing valuable seeds or plantain drinks, necklaces, baskets, snails, gourds, feathers or other objects used for exchange,” the document says.

Both plans prohibit workers from having any contact with natives or giving them food or other objects.

The documents order workers to treat Indians peacefully, making efforts to protect them from illnesses. If unintended contact is made, the manuals instruct guides to initiate communication with natives in local tongues.

If peaceful dialogue cannot be established, according to the Repsol document, workers should attempt to make loud noises with whistles, shouts, and megaphones.

Now, replace the “natives” with ancient Mayans or Egyptians and the helicopter of the Oil Company with the UFOs. You can bet that these natives will see the Oil Company’s staff with colorful overall very much like those Aliens.

Maybe not as dramatic, but we are as alien to them (big head, shiny glasses, etc..etc) as the aliens-from-space. Now…if you add to that the element of time-slip or parallel world….

[update 1 June 2008]

Members of an unknown Amazon Basin tribe and their dwellings are seen during a flight over the Brazilian state of Acre along the border with Peru in this May, 2008 photo distributed by FUNAI, the government agency for the protection of indigenous peoples. Notice how the tribe members were aiming their bows and arrows at the helicopter crew.

Have you read about the US Mayor prostitute scandal? Yup.. the guy blew US$10,000 a night with high-class prostitutes from Emperors Club VIP - sometime even more. I’m not going into details but read more about it here.

What is not widely publicised is how this was discovered. The use of IT in the monitoring of all banking activities in USA is the culprit originator. As part of the anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorism initiatives, all banks in USA have to diligently file with US Treasury something called Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). (Bank Negara also has similar system with the banks here). With some remarkable accuracy, out of the billions of transactions per month, they managed to single out Client #9 (that’s the mayor) suspicious activities - even though he had carefully avoided making payments over US$10,000 - which would have automatically be captured by the SAR. Read the article How an information system helped nail Eliot Spitzer and a prostitution ring from zdnet.

Another interesting IT angle is that the escort agency Emperors Club VIP has an official website, albeit hosted at a cheap Homestead web-hosting place. (Rates start from $4.99/mo) Apparently e-commerce friendly some more.

I read yesterday that the oil price has reached a record high of US$108 per barrel. Ouch and double ouch…. the problem for the consumers here in Malaysia (yes.. that’s you and me) is that we’re shielded from this crazy prices through the subsidized-fixed-price regime being implemented. But the govt-subsidy will not protect the businesses who will undoubtedly face higher prices for its supplies and raw materials - especially if they come from overseas. Like it or not, they are in business to survive and will then pass on the cost increase to users…

So the sequence to people-on-the-street will go like this. I heard on TV that US oil price increase again - dangerous but that’s overseas. But, stock market also increase - good. Petrol price not increased - good. Suddenly, my foodstuff become more expensive, price of my household stuff also went up and worst, by business suffering because I cannot cover the cost of my production. Soo unfair - somebody has to do something about this.

The problem is we have all embraced free market (big misnomer) economy - where demand and supply rule. We don’t live in a socialist economy (like Stalin’s or religion based) where social equitability rules.

What it really means is that - if you wish to, you can control supply of a high-demand product and you will rule. And as long as, people worldwide panic of high oil prices and buy as much as possible today - demand will be higher than supply and oil price will continue to rise until it balloons and eventually burst.

Really, what can we do? Not much.. Well, actually there’s something we can do but we Malaysians really hate to do it. Use less petrol and if collectively everyone do that, the market demand will slow down and the balloon will burst. But this is just like the crap-environmental-recycling mantra. Recycle? Save environment? Never mind lah … so troublesome some more. Know what I mean?

PS: Just to avoid misunderstanding from straight-line people, the last para is sarcasm. Really, it happens, it may not be obvious for everbody.

Unless you’ve been meditating in a cave somewhere in Sarawak for the last month, I’m sure you cannot miss the voting fever that’s now gripping the country. Once in every four/five years, another festivities will be added to the already busy Malaysian’s social calendar (well, what with the annual Hari Raya, Xmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Muslim New Year, Indian New Year, Deepavali - then add to that the 3 times a year Mega Sales, Matta Fair, PC Fair and not to forget the weekly festival of pasar malam).

As is with other festivities above, the General Election is also another festival. Although primarily a very serious and important part of nation building - for the people on the street, it is often seen as a source of entertainment as well. By 8th March - next week - this will all ends but in the mean time we all get to see various entertaining things

• All sorts of people make all sort of promises. Many of which is not even worth a pinch of salt (opposition and ruling parties all guilty of charge)
• All sorts of people come up with all sorts of allegations and all sorts of dirts will come out in the open (especially if you brave the crowd and join the unofficial gatherings/campaign)
• All those high-and-mighty-powers-that-be will come down from their throne and brave the sun and sweat to meet the common people who will feel so lucky to get to shake hand with the YBs that they only get to see on TV all this while
• The number of Malaysian websites doubles overnight with various tabloid-like sites promoting their respective champions and dissing the opposite sides

Well the list can go on and on but you know what I mean. We have not reached the absurdity of the US presidential campaign yet but I’m afraid it will be there soon. In the USA, even before you get to the General Election, candidates are already lobbying and spending hundreds of millions of US dollars just to be selected as the candidate for their party. In Malaysia, we know that individual candidates spend hundreds of thousands DURING the election campaigning process (some say the level has crossed the million threshold now) and all this cost will somehow need to be recovered post-election. Imagine the scale of cost recovery that the US candidates will have to eventually recover post election. Little wonder the super-power country is perennially running in deficit. Hmm.. not only the grass on the other side of the fence is always greener, the mud is probably much thicker and slimier as well.

If you’re healthy and of sound mind, do your bit and cast your vote come 8th March. All the bitching is tong kosong and of no use if you don’t cast your vote yourself. Just check online at SPR website or send SMS to 39988 with text ’spr [your IC no]’ - it will not only tell you where you’re registered to vote but also which ‘lane’ you need to go to at the polling centre. At least there is some IT application (beside the tabloid sites) that is being put to use in the process.

It’s official. BluRay, championed by Sony, has won the high definition DVD format war against key rival HD DVD, championed by Toshiba. Today, Toshiba gave up the fight and declared that the company is shutting down the HD DVD business. Less than 12 months ago, HD DVD appeared to be the winning horse when Microsoft’s XBOX 360 pledged alliance to HD DVD and Toshiba slashed the price of its HD DVD price.

However, Sony who lost the VHS vs Beta war twenty years ago apparently has learnt its lessons. “Content, content, content” must be the mantra playing in the head of Chubachi San (Sony President). True enough, the defection of Time Warner’s Warner Bros to the Blu-Ray camp last month proved to be the clincher and followed by US key retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc and online video rental company Netflix Inc.

I suspect Malaysian users have not gotten their fingers burnt as there is little HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray players and discs can be found in the stores. Except of course, the I-must-be-the-first geeks that have forked out thousands to buy HD DVD kits will curse at the obsolete equipments. Very much like I myself who’s scratching my head for what to do with my double-sided-laserdisc player and collection of LDs. Oh yeah… does that mean HD DVD equipped Xbox 360s will be pretty much useless soon? Ouch…