Month: June 2012

Media Features Overload

Well, two more media features to be mentioned here. Following from CIJ’s forum “Section 114A Evidence Act: Crime-busting or Online Control?” organised by Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Selangor Times reported the following:-

Writer: Basil Foo
Published: Fri, 15 Jun 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: Internet users whose accounts are hacked into will be presumed guilty for unlawful online posts by the actual perpetrators under recent amendments to the Evidence Act, something that is being criticised as absurd.

The Evidence (Amendment) (No 2) Act 2012 will reportedly hold Internet users liable for any content posted through their registered networks or data processing devices.

“For example, if someone parks outside your house and uses your Wifi to post (illegal content online),” said KL Bar Council IT committee co-chairman Foong Cheng Leong.


Participants are all ears at the forum.

He was speaking during the “Section 114A Evidence Act: Crime-busting or Online Control?” forum at the KL-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall recently.

Foong said laws presuming guilt have always been around, including for individuals who were deemed to be traffickers if they were arrested with a certain amount of drugs.

“The Dangerous Drugs Act (discourages) people from carrying drugs. Will this Act (discourage) people from using the Internet?” he asked.

Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) director Jac SM Kee said the Act was illogical as victims who sought help after their accounts had been hacked or report the crime to police may find themselves behind bars.

Even if someone else posts an offensive comment on a person’s Facebook wall, the latter could be found guilty.

“Business will be affected. If they provide Wifi (and offensive items are posted through their connection), they are responsible,” said BFM Media Sdn Bhd producer Jeff Sandhu.

He said if restaurants in the city are required by law to provide free Wifi and their Internet connections are open to abuse by irresponsible users, business owners will find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place.

Digital News Asia executive editor A Asohan said the Act put average Internet users at the mercy of tech-savvy users who could abuse the former’s unsecure Internet connections.

He said an analyst from investment firm Mackenzie traced 4.1 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) coming from online activities.

“You want to create a high income nation, this is going to put damper on it. You can’t have an Internet community when people fear to go on the Internet,” he added.

Subsequently, BFM Radio interviewed me to speak about the Evidence Act amendments:-

Lawyer Foong Cheng Leong breaks down the Evidence Act to us, and explains how such regulations affect the ordinary Internet user in the country.

New York City – Sightseeing


Typical NYC sight

My wife has never been to New York City hence we went to the usual sightseeing spots like the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Centre and Central Park. But this time round, we explored the city for good spots to eat. Will write another food guide for this.

Speaking about Rockefeller Centre, we went up to the Top of the Rock at night to see the concrete jungle at night. The sight is better at Empire States Building as they only barricade the top using clear glass walls. Also, some parts are not barricaded leaving you a clear view of the skyline.

We also visited the World Trade Center Memorial and also the National September Memorial & Museum. I visited the former when I was in New York two years ago. It still looks the same after two years but they have loads of tissue boxes placed around the memorial. I guess some people could not hold their tears.

The latter (minus the Museum) is now open to the public. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers. The memorial has two square pools, where the Twin Towers once stood. It also has names of all the victims engraved on bronze plates attached to parapet walls which forms the edges of the memorial pools.

There are a few other interesting sites around the World Trade Center area. One World Trade Center (formerly known as Freedom Tower) is still under construction but it’s a great sight.

The 200 over years old St. Paul’s Church is also worth visiting.


September 11?

Catching a play in New York City is a must. This time round, we caught “How to succeed in business without really trying” starring Nick Jonas.

Unlike the last play I caught namely Avenue Q (which I fell asleep. Sorry Tim!), this show was quite interesting and entertaining. It’s basically about how a young guy (Nick Jonas) climbs the corporate ladder. Plenty of tips and tricks but unfortunately, it’s no longer relevant to me since I’m not an employee anymore (not young too!)

After the show, we walked back to Times Square to find this.

We overheard some guy saying, “I can’t believe the crowd here. It’s not Barack Obama but Ricky Martin!”. Looks like everyone was trying to catch of glimpse of Ricky Martin. Reallly??

One of the best thing about New York City is accidentally finding interesting places. We passed by a flea market.

There was a small stall selling antiques and there were stamps. I managed to find 4 antique stamps.


Siam Occupation of Kelantan stamps. During the Japanese occupation in World War II, Kelantan was controlled by Thailand.

It costs around US$50 on eBay but the guy sold it to me for US$4! F YEAAAH!!

New York City & Washington D.C

Since I got married in January, my wife and I haven’t had the time to go for our honeymoon. When I got the news that the International Trademarks Association (INTA) is having their annual conference at Washington D.C, I decided to head for the conference with my wife.

The journey, through Emirates Airlines, was fine. There were plenty of shows on their inflight entertainment services. But a kid in front of us kept disturbing us. He even took my wife’s shoes and hid it. -_-

Worst part of it is that, his mother did nothing to stop him. Speaking about his mother, she asked me whether the flight goes to New York City when we were about to board the flight at the boarding area. -_-

We stayed in YMCA hostel in New York City. It was terrible place. The room was dirty. I had allergy probably due to dust mites/beg bugs.


Lousy room for around US$100 per night.

I also accidentally cut myself on the forehead. The bunk bed in our room was low and it had metal spring poking out from top. I sat back and somehow bounced slightly. My forehead suffered a deep cut from one of the sharp edges of the metal spring.


The springs

We engaged a New York based photographer, Ulysses Photography, to take our pictures at Central Park. The husband and wife team consisting of Ulysses and Jenni were excellent. They charge by the hour and we only booked them for an hour. However, we were late. Fortunately, Ulysses and Jenni were kind enough to not charge us for being late an even extended our session without charge. I would highly recommend them.

Speaking about photography business in the United States, they have a different model than ours. Photographers charge extra for high resolution photograph and you don’t get all the photographs like Malaysia. One thing I like about Ulysses Photography (other than their awesome personality) is their style guide. They have a guide on how to dress for each theme or season.


Times Square


Freedom Tower! Notice the plane next to it?

My Internation Trademark Association (INTA) conference was held at Washington D.C. This year round, they had over 9000 participants. However, I only managed to meet less than 20 people -_-. I was told that if you attend the conference more, you will meet less people. But I must also blame myself for not going all out to meet people.

We took a bus to Washington D.C. The four hours ride felt short as they had a power plug and Wifi.

Using the online service Air B & B, we rented a room of Mr and Mrs Blinch. Their place was strategically located few minutes away from the conference area. The room was also a far cry from YMCA as we had a queen size bed, own bathroom, walk in closet, cable TV, complimentary drinks and even a bottle of red wine! No dust mites too!

Conference was held in the middle of the town but most meetings were held outside the conference hall. My meetings were held mostly in hotel lobbies. I managed to bump into many friends whom I didn’t fix any meetings.

I took the conference easy. I didn’t have many meetings fixed and even had one day where I spent the entire day sightseeing. Last time I used go for meetings and receptions from 9am to 1am – everyday!

My goal for this conference was quite simple. To tell my contacts that I’ve set up my own firm. Getting new business contacts was my secondary goal. Unfortunately, I was a little lazy and all I had was 4 new namecards. Uhm.


The house where Lincoln died.

Washington D.C has this service where you rent a bike and once you’re done, you can park it at any of their docking stations which are scattered around the city.

On our last day in Capital View hostel because our Air B&B room was pre-booked by someone else. Capital View was bare and the toilet is extremely dirty. I think I will never stay in hostels again!

We returned to New York City on our last day. We managed to meet up with Raymond whom I met with Timothy Tiah and fourfeetnine during our last New York City trip. He participated in the New York Bersih rally and he said it went really well with 300 over participants. Glad to know Malaysians living outside Malaysia still care about Malaysia.

I know its been a while since I wrote something here but I’ve been extremely busy.

Busy finding money thats it. Till the next blogpost!

More Media Features

I noticed that whenever I write an article, it will have a ripple effect. The latest was probably my article on “All Lawyers should have an iPad” which led me to a trip to Fukuoka, Japan.

My article “Grave Repercussions for Internet Users” probably has the biggest effect on me. I got my name mentioned in newspaper and online media such The Sun, The Star, Malaysia Insider and Malaysia Today. Now it has gone to another level.

Just few days ago, I was featured in The Malaysian Observer.TV (also known as www.mobtv.my), an internet TV portal and also Malaysiakini.

You can watch the MobTV interview here.

As for the Malaysiakini article and podcast, check out the article below:-

Podcast: Onus is on you to prove your cyber innocence

For our 15th Middle Malaysia podcast, we speak to Foong Cheng Leong, co-chair of the KL Bar IT Committee, about the new amendments to the Evidence Act. It was Foong who first broke the news about the new amendments via an article on the LoyarBurok blog.

He says the article at first didn’t garner much attention. That all changed when theSun published a front-page article based on it. Now, everyone’s talking about the serious implications of the new amendments.

Foong gives a broad overview of what the new law is all about and explains why it should be of grave concern for all those who use the Internet. He also gives his opinion on different social media scenarios where the Evidence Act could be applied.

His concerns, however, are not just on how this new law could affect criminal and politically-charged cases but also civil cases.

Lastly, he gives an example of how this law could affect cases concerning election offences and gives a real-life example of a past case that probably would have turned out very differently had the new law been in place then.

Foong, who often comments about IT issues, is totally against this law and is working towards having it repealed.

You can listen to the podcast here or below.

The podcast was actually recorded through Skype using my Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook at around 1am. I had to leave for Singapore the next day hence Oon had to accommodate my last night request. The quality of the recording is not bad. My Dad thought it was recorded at a studio!

In the meantime, please sign the petition against the amendment bill here.

Frankly, I’ve never watched or listen to the above interviews. I hate listening to myself. Sometimes I wonder how can people stand my voice. It’s so squeaky.

But my message to all young lawyers out there, if you want to put your name out there, write as much as you can and post them online. The internet will promote it for you.

Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook Review

The Samsung Notebook Series 5 Ultra (14″) (Samsung Ultrabook) is my first piece of office equipment. Since I started my new firm, I’ve been using this ultrabook for the past two (2) months and so far I’ve not encountered any problem.

To those who have never heard of Ultrabook, it is a new generation of notebooks with lighter and thinner profile but without compromising performance and battery life.

The Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook comes in two models – a 13.3″ model and a 14″ model. The 14″ model comes with optical disc drive and 1TB S-ATAII Hard Drive (5,400RPM) with ExpressCache 16GB. The large disk space is one of the biggest pull factors for me. Most Ultrabooks only offer 120GB to 500GB and you pay a higher price for larger space.

I split the hard disk into 2 drives so that I can keep all my files into the second drive. This is to prevent losing my files when I need to format my main drive.

The 14″ inch Ultrabook weighs 1.75kg. It is heavier than a tablet and some Ultrabooks but it is much lighter than your normal notebook.

It runs on Windows 7. With Fast Boot, the computer boots-up in just 20 seconds while Fast Start wakes the Ultrabook from sleep in 2 seconds (but on some occasions, 10 to 20 seconds). Like any other operating systems, the speed of the start up will be affected if you have other software installed or running in the computer.

It comes with a powerful 4 W Stereo Speaker. I haven’t got a TV at home hence my wife and I used my ultrabook as our movie theater. Surprisingly, the sound system was loud and clear enough to fill the entire master bedroom.


Our movie theater

Speaking about movies, Samsung did not ditch their optical drive which allows one to play and burn DVDs. Many ultrabooks have ditched their optical drive.

Admittedly, the inclusion of the optical drive makes the Ultrabook slightly heavier but I still need such drive to install my software, play movies and also burn DVDs and CDs.

Other than that, Samsung generously provides a USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader and HDMI out. It also has an integrated HD webcam which allows you to video chat while the built-in microphone captures your voice with clear precision.

The Ultrabook comes with a sling bag which I didn’t find attractive. But this can be overcome by buying a nice hipster laptop sleeve (such as http://www.sfbags.com/products/sleevecases/sleevecases-pc.php) or even custom make you own sleeve cases (such as http://www.caseable.com or http://snupped.com/).

Speaking about tablets, although it’s more portable and lighter, it doesn’t beat the word processing functions of a notebook. A notebook (Ultrabook in this case) is essential for me to work when I travel.

On another note, this Samsung Ultrabook is bundled with Microsoft Office Starter, CyberLink Media Suite, MediaShow, Power2Go, PowerDirector and the YouCam webcam app, Skype 4.2, Norton Online Backup, Windows Live Essentials 2011 and a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security 2012.

The Ultrabook’s battery can last about 7 hours without charge. If Wifi is turned on, battery can last up to 3 hours.

Last month, I took my ultrabook along with me to Washington and also around New York City. I had to attend the International Trademark Association (INTA) conference at Washington D.C. Since I haven’t hired legal assistant, I had to do all my work while I travel.

Thank god for the Ultrabook. I carried it around Washington and New York City to do work. I was working at hostel lobbies (cause they have Wifi), busses and also airports.


Dubai Airport


New York YMCA Hostel Lobby


Free wireless internet connections are abundant in the United States. Starbucks provides free internet access to all its patrons. And there are Starbucks at almost every corner! I don’t even need a data plan to surf the net in New York City. Parks are also Wifi connected!

Busses are also WiFi connected. My 4 hours journey from New York City to Washington DC felt quite short thanks to the Internet connection.

Based on my US trip, my overall assessment of this Ultrabook in terms of portability is good.

My only complaint about this ultrabook is their non removable six-cell battery. Constant charging without draining the battery may shorten the lifespan of the laptop battery. Unfortunately, a non-removable battery is common in Ultrabooks. One alternative is to charge the battery after it automatically powers off, then fully charge the battery.

The Samsung Ultrabook retails at RM2999.

Specification

PROCESSOR: 1.6GHz Core i5-2467M
MEMORY: 4GB RAM
DISPLAY: 14in LED
GRAPHICS: Intel HD Graphics 3000
STORAGE: 1TB hard drive
CONNECTIVITY: WiFi 802.11n, gigabit Ethernet port, Bluetooth 3.0
OPTICAL DRIVE: DVD burner
PORTS: One USB 2.0 port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 4-in-1 card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC), HDMI out, VGA out
BATTERY: 6,120mAh
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
OTHER FEATURES: Stereo speakers, 1.3-megapixel HD webcam
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 33.27 x 22.86 x 2.08cm
WEIGHT: 1.45kg

Videos


Links
Samsung Ultrabook website
Samsung Notebook Facebook