Category: General

Usually I don’t care to put this stuff on my blog, but I’ve made an exception today as this information might be useful for someone doing research or just merely wants to know the changes on the new Malaysian Cabinet Line-up after the reshuffle

Prime Minister / Minister of Finance / Minister of Internal Security
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Deputy Prime Minister / Minister of Defence
Najib Abdul Razak

Minister of Housing and Local Government
Ong Ka Ting

Minister of Works

S Samy Vellu

Minister of Energy, Water and Communications
Dr Lim Keng Yaik

Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department
Bernard Dompok
Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
Dr Maximus Ongkili

New: Effendi Norwawi
Transferred: Radzi Sheikh Ahmad to Home Affairs Minister

Minister of International Trade and Industry
Rafidah Aziz

Minister of Foreign Affrairs
Syed Hamid Albar

Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry
Muhyiddin Yasin

Minister of Information
Zainuddin Maidin
Out: Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir

Minister of Human Resources
Dr Fong Chan Onn

Minister of Home Affairs
Radzi Sheikh Ahmad
Transferred: Azmi Khalid to Natural Resources and Environment Minister

Minister of Education
Hishammuddin Hussein

Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage
Dr Rais Yatim

Minister of Women, Family and Community Development
Shahrizat Abdul Jalil

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation
Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis

Minister of Transport
Chan Kong Choy

Minister of Health
Dr Chua Soi Lek

Minister of Finance II
Nor Mohamed Yakcop

*Minister of Tourism
Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor

Out: Dr Leo Michael Toyad

Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities
Peter Chin

Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs
Mohd Shafie Apdal

Minister of Higher Education

Mustapa Mohamed
Out: Dr Shafie Salleh

Minister of Rural and Regional Development
Abdul Aziz Shamsudin

Minister of Entrepreneur and Co-Operative Development
Mohamed Khaled Nordin

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment

Azmi Khalid
Out: Adenan Satem

Minister of Youth and Sports
Azalina Othman Said

I got this list from Jeff Ooi’s blog, you can read his original post and commentary here OK, it’s a cabinet reshuffle

malaysia, government,governments

Uh oh, It’s the second month of the year (February) and Valentine’s day is around the corner! It is a day which lovers in let each other know about their love, commonly by sending Valentine’s cards, flowers, candy, chocolates and other stuffs that would show their love.

Why do people celebrates Valentine’s day? Well don’t ask me about it, to me it’s another propaganda set by businesses in order to shoot the sales of the above-mentioned items, especially greeting cards and flowers. Celebrating valentine’s day is no more than wasting my time and energy by flushing my hard-earned money down the toilet drain.

I even read in Wikipedia that it is estimated approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year world wide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

While in my believe that Valentine’s day is just another commercial propaganda, the origin of Valentine’s Day is somewhat vague at best with several stories on why people celebrate the day in the middle of February. Several sources includes : 1,2,3.

Personally, I think Valentine’s day is overrated and just another great ploy to get us to fork our money out unnecessarily for cards and candy, you don’t need a specific day to show your love to your lover, because if you do, then something is awfully wrong with you.

p/s: I only learned that Valentine’s day is celebrated on 14th of February about a couple of hours ago, yeah sounds unimportant isn’t it?

valentine, valentines, valentines+day, celebration, love, women, gift

Happy Lunar New Year!!
Happy Chinese New Year dan Selamat Menyambut Tahun Baru Hijrah (1427)

Hope the new year will bring peace and prosperity for all of us.

I’m sure that some of you will be planning to buy scanners that could work in the operating system of your choice. The easiest way to get your scanner working under GNU/Linux is by using SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) backend, which is supported by the GIMP project.

Personally, I use the budget Canon LiDE-20 model, which I use for scanning documents and photos for my collections. Here’s is the list of scanners supported under GNU/Linux : Scanners supported by SANE

The article listed below discussed about how to get scanners work with your GNU/Linux operating system : Getting scanners to work with Linux

Recommended Product
The CanoScan LiDE 20 USB flatbed scanner is one of the world’s most compact flatbeds, yet it offers big performance and big savings. Just over an inch high, it packs all the features you need to scan images, copy documents, and e-mail your favorite photos, all with one-touch operation.

scanner,gnu/linux, hardware,linux,tips,sane

I read from http://www.hotmalaygirls.com/, that the maintainer of the website has taken down “Fareena” picture, because he/she received an email requesting so.

At first it sounded like the website maintainer is a reasonable person, but what shocked me was the statement that follows

We honour his request, not because we are afraid of his lawsuit. Please read the disclaimer. HMG complies with Copyright Laws and for your information there is no such thing as privacy intrusion if you create a weblog which anyone can access and read online. You want privacy, then password protect your blog.

In its disclaimer page, it is stated that HotMalayGirls honours Copyright Law. Let’s assume that the website in fact is obeying copyright law, which I doubt he/she is (hint: look at the supposedly “thumbnailed” photo).

Morality Issues

There’s still morality issue involved in here, not everybody is comfortable when somebody put their pictures in some blog and making profit from it, let alone organising somekind of a “beauty pageant” without the girls’ permission. I’m sure many people have voiced their concern about this website, but judging from the apparently blunt statement from the maintainer, I guess the complaints must have fall into deaf ears.

Even one of the top-rating blogger Sue Anna Joe has voiced her reservation about HotMalayGirls, and even considering to ask her picture to be removed at one point. The question is, what about other girls who do not even aware of their pictures being featured to be rated in this website? Morality issues…

The maintainer clearly takes matter lightly, the supposedly “pageant” offers USD100 for top rated “girl” (some which I doubt aren’t even Malay) will be given away to person who referred the girl should the girl can’t be contacted. Hell, who knows about that? If the girls personally give their permission to be featured in the website, than he/she probably has their contact number/emails to give the prize to.

Having trouble with “good faith” ?

Talking about good faith, the maintainer apparently has no problem digging on profiles and pictures of other people, but he/she clearly has problem introducing himself/herself. I mean, who’s the maintainer of the website? At least show some good faith since you are somekind of maniac that dig through people pictures and profiles and featured them in his/her own “beauty pageant”.

What I know about “the shady maintainer”

But one thing for sure that the “shady maintainer” is working alone based on his/her style of writing and this statement which explains that he/she is away “in a very remote area” and is unable to update the website.

Maybe somebody thinks that I’m silly for bringing this thing up, but I just want to point out the morality issue and my doubt about this gal/guy.

Lousy Disclaimer?

Ahem, this writing confirms to the “Copyright Law” stated by “the shady maintainer” of HotMalaygirls.com, I’ve right to publish this because the blog is avaiable to public and not in any way proctected by password.

In his/her own words, “You want privacy, then password protect your blog.”