Month: June 2009

eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum 2009 – Part I

As some of you may know, I traveled up to Penang to give a talk on Blogging and Copyright Law, an event organised by webhosting company, Exabytes and online legal jobs related portal, eLawyer.

We started our journey to Penang at around 8am. We were supposed to leave at 7am but I overslept. Many apologies to Eddie for making him wait.

We stopped by Pun Chun Restaurant @ Bidor for its well known herbal duck noodles. I had the soup based noodles and Eddit had the dry version.


The soup based version is nothing to shout about. I find that the herbal duck noodles at Sun Hing Loong @ SS2 is so much better.

I didn’t know that they have the dry version but it looks pretty interesting to me. It comes with a wan tan mee style noodles with a bowl of herbal duck soup.

We stayed at this hotel by the name Hotel Vistana. It looked like some 3 star hotel from outside but the interior was excellent! It felt like a 5 star hotel!

We stopped by Exabytes’ office located at Suntec Building. We were given a tour of Exabytes office. They have a room for their employees to chill out.


Not bad! Can beat Nuffnang’s nuffies’ corner anytime hehe.


Got DVD player and WII too!


nuffie’s corner….hahahahaha..no longer around though.

For dinner, one of Eddie’s friends brought us to a hawker centre. I had prawn noodles, char kuay teow, lobak and oh chien (grilled oyster + eggs) for dinner!

We then adjourned to Upper Penang Road for drinks. That place reminds me of Singapore’s Clarke Quay – minus the crowd.

I was feeling a bit feverish from the trip + heaty food. So instead of drowning myself with beer, I had a nice cup of hot honey lemon tea.

Thereafter, Eddie’s friend brought me to one stall that sells some sort of herbal tea. According to her, the herbal tea is good for those feeling a sore throat coming. Without hesitation, I gulped down a glass of bitter herbal tea which was mixed with some sort of powder. It tasted reaaallly bad.

After finishing it, I returned my glass and wanted to leave. Before I could, the stall owner refilled my glass with more herbal tea! In my mind I was screaming “KANASSAAAI!!! (shit)”.

However, the tea was sweet instead of bitter! I guess it was something to wash off the bitter aftertaste!

To be continued..

RIP – Pak Pak

Michael Jackson aside, I thought I would pen down a small tribute to Pak Pak, my mother’s cat. Pak Pak has been with us June 2007. He recently succumbed to illness.

Pak Pak had always been the quiet and obedient cat. However, he had always been weak and sick. There was a time when I found him shivering in cold but his body temperature was high. I wrapped him with a cloth hoping that it will comfort him. He was fine the next day.

As some of you may recall, Pak Pak has 2 other siblings. Unfortunately, todate, both siblings are no longer around. Cats have a tendency to leave when they grow up. Pak Pak on the other hand stayed with us until his demise.

Pak Pak had been losing a lot of weight for the past few weeks. We initially suspected that he had lost his appetite from his constant fights with other cats.

But on 26 June 2009, while rushing into Eddie’s car to head to Penang for my talk, I found Pak Pak lying sideways in the garden. Mum informed me that Pak Pak had passed on.

I have never been close to Pak Pak although he had been with us since June 2007. Nevertheless, the little moments of joy of seeing Pak Pak welcoming me home after a long day of work is something worth remembering.

I hope you rest in peace Pak Pak.

Related Link
The 3 Kittens
The 3 kittens – Part II
4

RIP – Michael Jackson

As you all know, Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50. I have always been a big fan of his music. It’s sad that I didn’t attend any of his concerts while he was still alive.

I got this video of Michael Jackson singing live in Munich from Timothy Tiah. Its really touching especially to see one crazy German chick running up the stage to molest Michael.

I also got this video of a tribute performed by 1,500 some Philippines prisoners on 27 June 2009 in memory of Michael Jackson from KY. Completed in 10 hours after receiving word that the King of Pop passed away.


credits to KY for the link!

On another note, if some of you remember the anti gravity dance by Michael Jackson and his crew, the dance is actually a patented invention by Michael Jackson (Read it @ U.S. Patent No. 5,255,452 )! The dance is performed using using a specially designed shoe.


Copyright Epic Records


The drawings of U.S. Patent No. 5,255,452 filed by Jackson describing the anti-gravity lean.

It’s a shame that many criticized Michael for his alleged erratic behavior when he was still alive. Only after his death, good words came in. Not many people stood up for him when he was attacked in the media especially during the time when he twice charged with molesting a child.

But of course, some people would not stop ridiculing Michael even after his death. Check this out.

I can’t help but to LOL!!

eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum 2009

I will be speaking at the eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum in Penang on 27 June 2009. This time round, I will talk about blogging and copyright and also will touch on how to investigate the identity of internet users. Aiyah, I got only 30 mins to talk. Doubt I got enough time to cover that.

Taken from eLawyer’s website.

Recently our newly appointed Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim urged bloggers to act and write in a responsible manners. He said bloggers who twist the truth shall face music and be held accountable. Please see more report here and our previous report.

As such, we deem the awareness of legal rights and responsibilities amongst bloggers is increasingly crucial. Bloggers should be aware of laws governing bloggersphere, especially, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 (MCMC Act) and the relevant rules and guidelines of MCMC, laws relating to copyrights issues and defamation laws.

In fact, after successfully organised the eLawyer Blogging & Law Conference in March 2009 at University of Malaya, KL, we received many feedback from the Penang bloggers requesting us to organise the similar event in Penang.

With the assistance and sponsorship of Exa Bytes Network Sdn Bhd (”Exabytes”), the largest web hosting company in Malaysia, we are glad to announce that we will be seeing you in eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum 2009 in Penang on 27 June 2009.

The details of the conference are as follows:

Forum Name: eLawyer – Exabytes Penang Bloggers & Law Forum 2009
Date: 27 June 2009
Time: 9.00am – 12.30pm
Fees: F.O.C.
Venue: Dewan Kuliah G31, Pusat Pengajian Sains Komputer, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang Campus (Landmark Masjid USM).
Organiser: eLawyer.com.my
This event is exclusively sponsored by Exabytes.com.my -The No.1 web hosting company in Malaysia

Topic 1: Bloggers & Copyrights Laws
Speaker: Mr. Foong Cheng Leong (Cheng Leong)
Brief profile: Cheng Leong is a practising lawyer in KL. He specialises in intellectual property laws practice. He is an active blogger and owner of www.xes.cx. Cheng Leong started blogging since 2001. He speaks frequently on intellectual property and internet laws.

Topic 2: Bloggers & Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 (MCMC Act) and rules and guidelines of MCMC
Speaker: Mr.Shamsul Jafni Shafie (Sam)
Brief profile: Sam is the former director of Security, Trust and Governance Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. He was also the Work Area 5 Leader on “International Cooperation” to draft the Global Cybersecurity Agenda for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – http://www.itu.int.

Topic 3: Bloggers & Defamation Law
Speaker: Mr. Stephen Tan Ban Cheng (Stephen)
Brief profile: Stephen is a journalist-turned-lawyer. Currently, he is a practising lawyer in Penang. Stephen was a senior journalist in the famous local newspaper including New Strait Times and the Star for more than 20 years.

Moderator: Mr. Khairul Anuar bin Shaharudin (Kruel)
Brief profile: Kruel is the cybername for Khairul, who is a practising lawyer in KL and an avid bloggers. Kruel participated in numerous bloggers events and his blog Legal Cat-asthrophereceived well comments from the bloggersphere in Malaysia.

Registration: The admission to this Forum is FREE. However, due to limited seat, please R.S.V.P by sending your details (Name, Tel, Email, Occupation and Company/School) to forum@elawyer.com.my before 24 June 2009 or call 03-2782 5399 for more information.

If you’re free on 27 June 2009, please drop by!

Featured on Sin Chew Newspaper!

w00t!


Mum said I look 40 years old here. Perhaps ill look like this when I’m 40.

You can read the article at Sin Chiew’s website or download the article here. It’s a 2 page article posted on the Cyberworld section. I didn’t write the article but I contributed the cases – which took me an hour to compile. I wasn’t expecting anything, probably a small acknowledgment. I didn’t expect my face to be there.

Frankly, I can’t read or write Chinese well. I have a general idea on what was mentioned in the article but not in detail. Aaahh whyyy wasn’t I sent to Chinese schoooolllll…knsss

p/s: got a new client through the article!

[Edit: A rough translation of the article in English can be seen here]

Honda Motorsports: Challenging our Spirit – TV Smith

I recently got approached by Nuffnang to write an advertorial for Honda. The theme is passion and dedication. In this advertorial, I have to nominate someone who portray the image of being passion and dedicate.

My earlier choice was Yvonne Foong. Some of you may recall that I contributed RM200 to her Neurofibromatosis (NF) Fund in order assist her in saving her eyesight.

Yvonne Foong had a normal childhood and grew up like most of us. But when she reached 13 years old, she began to lose her hearing. She then lost the use of both her legs and her bodily functions kept failing. She discovered that she had tumours in her brain and along the spinal cord. Many of these tumours were removed but one tumour seems to be affecting her eyesight. If treatment is not given, she may go blind.

Instead of relying on her parents to raise funds, she embarked on a journey to raise funds herself and raise awareness on NF. Her sheer dedication has helped her raised funds for her surgery. She had, with the help of her friends, launched various campaigns to raise funds. I think the campaigns that they had is quite valuable in the sense that the strategy that they employed can be used for others having similar problems.

If this would happen to me, I would have given up long time and wait for judgement day.

But after much deliberation, I thought I would nominate TV Smith, for his role in trying to save the 300 dogs exiled in a remote island off Pulau Ketam and publicizing the same. If some of you may recall, some residents of Pulau Ketam caught their stray dogs and sent them to a remote island. The damned island does not have a suitable environment for the dogs to survive (even for human).

The older internet users would remember TV Smith for his humorous blog postings at his blog at http://www.tvsmith.net.my/duasen/.


TV Smith in the middle

Upon hearing about the miserable doggies, TV Smith and his friends embarked on a journey and campaign to save the dogs from dying miserably in the island. They spent numerous days and risked their lives to save the dogs. One even got fired for spending too much time saving the dogs.

TV Smith and his friends had to find boats to travel to the remote island and enlist volunteers to help out in the rescue. The dogs that they try to rescue are not all ‘friendly’. Many would run away when seeing human beings. They had to employ numerous tactics to lure the dogs so that the dogs can be caught and transported to a safer place.

It’s like a human being trying to regain the trust of our furry friends by rectify the another human’s error. If I were to do that, I would have raked thousands of billable hours.

He and his friends’ efforts had save numerous dogs from perishing in the damned island.

Yes, I do agree that his friends had put in a lot of effort in saving the dogs as well but what made TV Smith stood out is the publicity he caused via his blog. His daily updates highlighted the hardship that the dogs and the volunteers had gone through. Not only he managed to raise awareness, he raised funds as well.

In view of the above, I must nominate, the man of the moment, TV Smith for being the most passionate and dedicated person I know.

More info @ http://www.mycen.com.my/sightings/sightings030509_pulau_ketam_dogs.html

Related Link
Honda Motorsports: Challenging our Spirit

KF’s Wedding – Part I

One of the best things in life is to see one of your best buddies get hitched. One of my high school friends (and also university mate), KF, decided to get hitched early.

In Chinese tradition, before the wedding day, the groom and his hengtais (brothers) will have to ‘save’ the bride from the evil chi muis (sisters) who will lock the bride up in a room. The evil chi muis will make the groom and hengtais do all sorts of silly tasks in order to secure the release of the bride.

So, we travelled all the way to a remote village by the name Ijok to rescue the bride from the evil chimuis. It’s a small village near Kuala Selangor. Ijok was on the spotlight for a while during the Ijok by-election.

The hengtais gathered at KF’s house early in the morning. On the night before, we received a text from KF asking us to be there early so that we can leave by 8am. When we arrived at 8am, KF was still in his t-shirt. -_-

The dress code of the day was white and black pants. Tie was provided by KF. We got a clip-on tie. All we need to do is just put the tie around our neck and zip the bugger up.


Ping – the Virgin – opening door for KF

The trip to Ijok took us about an hour. It could have taken a shorter time if some of us didnt get lost. Kf’s driver was so good until many of us couldn’t catch up with him.


Ijok – High School Alumni Building.


Road leading to KF’s wife house


One of the Malay houses on the streets

We were greeted by a few evil chimuis – 3 of them were wearing red.


Big Ass J was one of them.

We were immediately subjected all sorts of task but it was fairly easy. It was pretty civil as well. During Timothy and Ka Bien‘s wedding, the hengtais and chimuis were pretty hostile against each other.


Timothy & KaBien’s wedding

Once we got into the house, the chimuis gave us some quail eggs. Kiang and I were required to push the eggs up WK’s pants and cross it to the other side. Kiang and I each had one side. Thank god we can use our hands. Imagine if we had to use our nose.

Halfway pushing my egg, I stopped for a while to wait for Kiang to push his egg through the groin area.

Then when he gave up, I couldn’t find my egg anymore!! ZOMG!! I had to search every part of WK’s legs to find my egg. While doing so, I overhead Hen, who was also subjected to the same torture, screaming, “I’m having a hard on!!”. -_-

Fortunately, it popped out on the floor seconds later. phew

After that task was done, the chimuis made each of us wear a bra. Each bra had 2 letters stuck on it. We had to arrange them to form a word. KF got a panty to go with it.

Since there was an extra bra, we made the cameraman wear one as well.

I must say that the tasks were pretty easy and quick. KF’s last task was just to sing a song. No problem for KF since he’s a big fan of karaoke.

Within minutes, the evil chimuis allowed KF and the hengtais to see KF’s bride.


dearr you dont know what the chi muis had done to meee

The hengtais were relieved of their duty for while. KF and his wife had to go through the tea ceremony.

The hengtais and chimuis were fed roasted pork and drinks while waiting for the tea ceremony to end. We had to sit outside as the house was packed with people.

While enjoying our roasted pork, a middle aged lady suddenly fell on the floor. The lady appeared out of no where. Some of the hengtais rushed towards her. They stood next to her and screamed, “WHO IS THIS ARR????”.

Then one of KF’s wife’s relatives rushed out to check. He stood by her and screamed, “WHO IS THIS AR???”. The “WHO IS THIS” exchange went on for a few minutes before one of the chimuis came to pull her up.

Apparently, the lady had some mental problem and she stood outside the house for some time…

Since none of the hengtais helped the lady out, Kiang decided to be nice and offered her roasted pork. She rejected his offer. Poor Kiang.

After the tea ceremony was done, we headed back to KF’s parents place at Kota Kemuning. Lunch was served. Pictures were taken. We headed home to rest and recharge for the wedding dinner!