Authorkeith

Malaysian Cyberwar: Is it an external war or is it civil

M

A really piece written by Asohan Aryaduray on DigitalNewsAsia some time back talked about how the CyberWar between Malaysia and the Philippines was going on, and how he wanted government agencies to step up the security of our digital assets (or at least start the discussion). Asohan claims that Malaysia perhaps has “the most number of government and quasi-government agencies looking into...

Malaysian government using spyware against citizens? No, not really.

M

I’ve been pretty busy the past few months, and my post count has been pretty low, and although I just returned from a 2 week trip abroad and am now flushed full of work, I decided to burn a bit of the midnight oil today because the Malaysian Insider completely pissed me off. It all started with an article from Lim Kit Siangs blog, which read “Malaysia uses spyware against citizens...

Is the MCMC going to ‘monitor and control’ or is it going to ‘censor’

I

A week ago, I wrote about the MCMC was planning to ‘monitor and control’ the internet, but just today I looked at my RSS subscription and notice that the Malay version of the press release used completely different words. While the English version of the Press release used words like ‘monitor and control’, the Bahasa version used the term ‘memantau dan...

Can Malaysia produce the next Facebook or Google?

C

Can Malaysia produce the next Facebook or Google? The short answer is NO. The longer answer is HELL NO! One of the things that pushes my buttons is when people talk about how Malaysia can produce the next Google or Facebook like as though creating a world renowned tech brand is like winning a lottery–submit enough entries and you’re bound to win it sooner or later. These people dream...

MCMC looking to ‘control’ social media at GE13: A worrying trend

M

Bernama (an official government news channel) yesterday reported that the MCMC is “looking at suitable methods to monitor and control the use of social media in the 13th General Election (GE13)“. Deputy Information Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Maglin Dennis D’Cruz said this was “to ensure that the social media would not be abused by irresponsible quarters to achieve...

Malaysian parents don’t want Kids to do science

M

This is so true. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is probably the most famous astrophysicist  on the planet, and of late he’s been the face of science education in America. He’s got the coolness of Jay-Z mixed with the lovability of Bill Cosby and the intelligence of Carl Sagan all rolled into one. He’s been promoting science in America a lot, and fighting for a budget increase for NASA...

Big data in sports

B

I came across a really cool youtube video from the amazing numberphile series that detailed how companies are already analyzing sports and farming huge amounts of data from sport events like football matches. In fact, these guys are basically farming data from events like the world cup, and then hoping that among that mountain of data lies some insights that could prove useful to football...

Mobile Phones at Gas Stations : They’re Safe

M

Sometimes good intentions lead to bad things, particularly when they’re not grounded on rational science. Just like how some still believe that Wi-Fi poses a health hazard and even more common myth of how Mobile phones cause gas station fires. Now that’s a myth that’s been around a loooong time. No matter whether you call them handphones or cellphones or mobile...

Are your broadband meters accurate?

A

When Maxis, or Telekom or Digi claim that you’ve used all your bandwidth quota–can you really trust them? A good article from consumerist reported that even American telcos are facing difficulty counting the bytes their users use. For the most part this is OK if your ISP provides you unlimited quota, in which case it doesn’t matter how much you use. However, if your ISP is...