Danny Hillis talks about a backup plan for the internet, and on the face of it — the idea sounds absurd. Why would anyone have a backup plan for the internet? There isn’t a single IT project worth it’s salt that would register the entire internet failing as a risk, the internet after all was built as a decentralized communications medium that couldn’t be taken down with a...
Crowdfunding is exploding, and kickstarter is exploding with it. In 2012 alone, Kickstarter successfully helped start 18,109 projects, from pledges of nearly 300 million. That’s a lot of cash from just random strangers hoping to help someone else realize their dreams, or to help the public in general. Noteworthy projects include an open-source geiger counter to detect radiation levels in...
Previously I wrote about a great report from MASTIC that surveyed the perception of the Malaysian public regarding Science and Technology. What I failed to mention or rather what I ‘chose’ not to mention at the time was a specific portion of the report that dealt with the Theory of Evolution, and the reason why I didn’t want to address it was to not distract from the original...
The Star today reported on ‘4D fortune teller’ who was arrested for in connection with a cheating case worth over RM1 Million. Of course most of think that the guy got what was coming to him, however the question becomes how do we say a ‘4D Fortune Teller’ was cheating–to the point where we can charge him in court (under section 420A of the Penal code). The report...
I recently discovered a really good study conducted by the MASTIC in Malaysia to determine Public Awareness of Science in Malaysia. The study was conducted every 2 years from 1998 till 2008, which gives us 5 really great data sets to determine not just the public awareness of science in a particular year–but also how that perception changes over the decade. The study makes for a good...
Everybody’s favourite yellow Malaysian telco decided to start April Fools day a bit early today–either that or somebody in Digi went a bit crazy, and who can blame them with all those yellow men running around the office an’ all. Anyway, they offered a ‘vintage’ phone offer that includes phones like the Nokia 3310, that comes with interchangeable covers, clock and...
Finally after a year of procrastinating I finally sat for my TOGAF exam. I’m glad I finally did it, but I should have done it much earlier. A lot of people wonder what TOGAF really is, TOGAF is an acronym that stands for the The Open Group Architecture Framework–yes it’s a mouthful and you’ve probably never heard of it before, but I personally believe architecture is a...
In conjuction with the release of the Government Transformation Project Annual report, the Star today reported: The Malaysian education system is on track to becoming among the world’s best as stringent monitoring is in place to ensure its success under the Government Transformation Plan (GTP). “The rate of improvement of the system in the last 15 years is among the fastest in the world,”...
So after the furore over the Malaysian Insider article that wrongly accused the Government of using spyware on its citizens, the MCMC rightly issued a press statement denouncing the article. Unfortunately, even the MCMC has to do some reading up a bit before it post up press releases. According to the MCMC press release which you can read in it’s entirety here: MCMC has also conducted a...
We often talk about how where the next Apple, Google or Amazon will come from, rarely do we ask ourselves where the next Red Cross or Salvation Army would come from. What’s even rarer is the question of how we can get our local NGO and charities to stop being Jaguh Kampungs and start being real world-changers that affect change in the areas of their focus. Dan Pallotta thinks he has the...