Colin Charles Agenda

Ever since getting the Sandisk Sansa e280 (yes, so much better than the iPod Nano, if you must know), I’ve been interested in the Voice recording feature. I fiddled with it today, to give it a bit of a test, as I plan on conducting audio interviews.

Once recorded, it outputs WAV files. This is easily accessible in Linux, in the RECORD folder. So I played around with converting the original WAV file into an OGG and MP3. Quick findings:

• WAV:  RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, mono 16000 Hz size at 1020K
• OGG: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 16000 Hz, ~48000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I, sized at 148K, converted via oggenc 071203_01.wav -o 071203_01.ogg
• MP3: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v2,  24 kBits, 16 kHz, Monaural, sized at 104K, converted via lame 071203_01.wav

This was on a clip that was 32 seconds in length. The MP3 is smaller than the OGG, and there’s no noticeable sound difference between all the 3 formats. Is there something to make the OGGs generated by oggenc smaller? I’m happy if they just match the MP3 file sizes, to be honest.

Time to start podcasting? :)

Technorati Tags: ogg, wav, mp3, size, sansa e280, sandisk, oggenc, lame

I realise I was really angry, on Sunday. I mean, I spent a little over a weekend, being a prisoner in my own homeland (thanks to all the police roadblocks, targeting people of the wrong skin colour). I’ve yet to feel this way in Melbourne, where I spend most of my time nowadays.

I am Malaysian. A Malaysian Malaysian. A country that still profiles via race, is doomed, and this thinking will disappear as the young, grow up. A Malaysia where the Gen-Y controls the country, will be a lot better and more open. Besides, with mixed-marriages, and all the normal inter-racial fun, I don’t see why Malaysia, can’t be Truly Asia. Welcome back, the idea of Bangsa Malaysia.

I applaud the protesters that go to the BERSIH or Hindraf rallies. They’re truly Malaysian. Khairil says it best :) I’m really happy that there are people I know of, ordinary folk, whom go to these rallies – read some accounts from Su Ann, and a couple from my junior at school Shazeea.

As a Malaysian, predominantly living overseas and spending copious amounts of time away from my country of birth, there is no point in I getting emotional over things. I’m probably from the upper-medium-class of families, and life is pretty cushy. Heck, by virtue of just not living in Malaysia, makes me not feel the day-to-day pains (like 20% fuel price hikes, toll hikes, etc.), felt by fellow Malaysians. That doesn’t mean I can’t get angry and request change.

So, in my spare time, while I’m in KL, I’m not going to spend it wailing away enjoying cheap drinks and the amazing night-life. I’ve decided that there are only several things I can do, that can really make an impact:

• help the poor, by educating them. I remember back in 1998, there was a NetDay project, where we got old i386 machines, loaded PicoBSD onto them, and made them useful again. I plan on sourcing machines, to be re-purposed in community centres. If a community centre doesn’t exist, maybe the “village leader’s” home can be used. I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and realise that connectivity matters, and so on and I’m hoping that I get “help” and “assistance” to make this flow. I only have aims of ensuring people use FLOSS applications, and hopefully have online connectivity, because that’s clearly where the future is at. I can provide training, setup PCs, and probably do so much more. If you’re in shackles, its because of lacking education – breaking free, is my aim.
• document the poor. One of my hobbies is photography, and I’m not half bad at that. I plan on taking photos of the less fortunate, their living conditions, and tell their stories. I’ll license it under the Creative Commons, so folk can also make use of it, if they see fit. This isn’t going to be easy, because its time consuming, and I’d probably need to get around in a car, but let’s see how far I get. Maybe it’ll inspire others to continue

The poor are everywhere. They’re not only ethnic Indian. There are ethnic Chinese and Malays that are poor too. The last couple of sentences can truly be summed up as – the poor are everywhere, in Malaysia. They’re Malaysian.

Enough ranting, its now time to work on the doing.

I picked up the 3 Skypephone the day it got released. I figured I’d get a new prepaid number to boot. Rather than reviewing it the moment I got it, I decided to play with it for a little while, and formulate opinions on the phone. Generally, I like it, and think its going in the right direction. I can’t wait for improvements to this product line.

Size and Build Quality
Its actually much smaller than the Nokia N73. Very thin, and smaller in size. Looks very much like a toy phone, and easily slips into the pocket. The build quality is quite impressive for a cheap AUD$179 phone. I did however note that sometimes I’d slip the back cover off (the back cover covers the battery, and beneath it is where the microSD and SIM cards are stored. I’d also be very weary of the one port on the phone – its a USB port, that allows you to plug in the hands-free kit, or the charger (this phone, charges via USB just fine as well). The cover, of multi-purpose port, seems to be very flimsy, and I’m quite certain it will break eventually.

Operating System
This is a Qualcomm BREW based phone. You can write BREW apps for it, however, you actually need to run Windows as the SDK is only written for that silly OS. The phone does support Java, so that in itself must be saving grace for writing applications for the phone.

Camera
Its supposed to be a 2MP camera (supporting 1600×1200 resolution), but as with most mobile phone cameras, this one generally sucks. It doesn’t come with a built-in flash, so taking photos using the night mode has got some serious digital manipulation. During the day, shots are passable, but you won’t be making any great art pieces from it. There’s a video recorder too, but its all just as bad.

Skype
The reason this phone is cool, is because of Skype. You have an always-on Skype connection wherever you are, as long as you are within the 3 Broadband Zone. When you’re roaming to Telstra, you’re obviously out of luck – which is kind of silly at this stage, since 3’s coverage is pretty dismal if you’re not within city/metro areas. I spent last weekend in Port Pirie (3 hours away from Adelaide, in South Australia) and there was absolutely no 3 coverage there.

SkypeIn or SkypeOut calls do not work. Initially, synchronising my Skype contact list was problematic, but that’s probably because I had Skype running on my laptop as well. Quickly shutting it down and restarting the synchronisation seemed to have fixed the problem.

Audio quality with Skype over 3G is actually very good. A drop out happened once after about 8 minutes into the call, in where I saw a message that my session expired. It reconnected automatically, and I made another call, and it just worked fine.

You can’t initiate a Skype call with multiple parties. However, you can participate in a Skype call with multiple parties, and I verified this with 4 people on a Skype chat. It seemed like the audio generated from the 3 Skypephone was actually very good, in comparison to most laptops, where their mics are nowadays pretty second rate, and you can’t get anywhere without a headset.

Chatting via Skype is pretty easy, though you kind of wish you had a full-featured keyboard (like on the e61i).

When Skype is set to forward to a number with the regular client, it does seem like there can be confusion and I might get one ring on the Skypephone before it just cuts off, and gets forwarded to my actual mobile phone. This can get quite annoying, as its pretty expensive everytime a call is forwarded! Disabling Call Forwarding seems to help.

Not having Caller ID on incoming Skype calls, seems kind of silly. You should know who’s calling you, as the regular Skype client has support for this, with no issue.

USB Mass Storage Device
I like that the phone is just treated as a USB mass storage device in Linux. I’ve not trying synchronising it, as the software provided on the CD is completely Windows only (I didn’t even notice any Mac support).

Interface
The phone works very much like a Nokia. Keypad shortcuts all seem very similar, so if you’re a regular Nokia user (like of the N73 and the like), you’ll never have a problem getting used to the interface for SMS or Skype Chats.

Misc.
Its worth noting that the Skype client itself, comes from 3’s partnership with iSkoot. I know that I get 4,000 Skype minutes and 10,000 Skype chat messages, all of which, seems really reasonable. Consider reading 3’s Forum, if there are questions, and to follow the discussion. More photos at the wp-s1 tag.

Technorati Tags: 3 skypephone, skypephone, brew, skype

For all my life, I have referred to myself as Malaysian. When asked for the “race” field, I usually just leave it blank. On 29 September 2007, I registered to be a voter, and for the first time, I was really required to either place “Cina atau India” in the field (Chinese or Indian). This was a request by the worker at POS Malaysia, because apparently, my identity card (IC) lacks such information. I looked stumped for a while, and said, “Indian”.

Today, on Sunday, 25 November 2007, I can proudly say, that I will no longer be referring to myself as Malaysian – I will be now referring to myself as a Malaysian Indian. The idea of Bangsa Malaysia is a farce, and I’m tempted to rip out the Visit Malaysia 2007 sticker from my laptop, which suggests that we’re “Celebrating 50 years of nationhood”. Malaysia, might be Truly Asia, but there’s just a cauldron, brewing hate, in where the contents aren’t happy with the cooks.

Sunday, 25 November 2007, is the day where the second largest protest (ignore the reformasi crap, where even drug addicts were payed to show up for Anwar) has been held, in about ten years (the last, was two weeks ago, at the BERSIH rally). Various news sources are reporting anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 as the head-count of attendees. I’d take these numbers with a pinch of salt, as 10,000 is the number of choice referred to by The Star (a governmental puppet), and 30,000 is referred to by MalaysiaKini (an anti-governmental puppet). However, let the photos, and videos help you make up your own mind.

People rocked up, around Jalan Ampang, where KLCC is situated, from as early as 7.40am, and the police mentioned that they were given an order to arrest on sight. Some democracy we live in, right?

The police are afraid. The government of the day are afraid. Malaysians, are awakening. And they’re sick and tired of this shit. The Star reports:

“Jalan Ampang, which had been closed from 3am because of the gathering, was reopened at 1pm Sunday. The Avenue K and City Square shopping complexes and the restaurants along Jalan Ampang were closed Sunday morning, while various hotels and Suria KLCC had strict security enforced at their entrances. The KLCC and Ampang Park LRT stations, which were closed from 6am, were reopened at 3.13pm. “

An attendee (or his sister+father), Danny, from The Danesh Project, writes a most interesting piece: Hindraf, proud day for Malaysian Indians. I consider this recommended reading for all. Remember, this was a peaceful gathering that the police, basically turned violent.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and of course today, Sunday, were nasty days to be on the roads in KL. Any road that was inbound, was backlogged with traffic jams, thanks to police roadblocks.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have urged the police to stop racial profiling of motorists in their roadblocks set up to quash a rally in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

Since then, there have been numerous reports of racial profiling by the police who only stop Indian motorists, often inspecting their vehicles and mobile phones. “They were targeting Indians only. They checked everything – our driving licenses, identity cards and even our car boot,” said Dinesh.

“As pointed out by Anwar Ibrahim, we disagree with Hindraf putting the blame for the plight of poor Indians on the Federal Constitution and Article 153,“As far as we are concerned, it is the corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government that is responsible for the marginalisation and neglect of poor Indians and also the poor of all other races,” he said.

Disgusting that a democratic nation has such “emergency” status. Anwar Ibrahim will not question Article 153, but he’s a bloody snake, and is highly untrustworthy. He might be an opposition leader, but the ex-convict, and sodomite, is not to be trusted (neither is his party) – after all, it was during Anwar’s reign in parliament, that there was further Islamisation of the nation.

Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, who’s not within the country as usual (he’s actually at the Commonwealth head’s meeting), gives a warning to the people.

KAMPALA (Uganda): Do not take the police action against three activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) as a racial issue, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned.

“It has nothing to do with race. People should stop linking or viewing everything that happens in the country as a racial matter,” the Prime Minister said.

“We are not out to victimise anyone. If someone is wrong, then the person must be charged and brought to justice,” Abdullah said.

He said that if people were allowed to openly commit offences, others who were law-abiding citizens would become angry and upset with the authorities.

Nothing to do with race? Really? Just read the silly social contract, and understand what the fuck is going on in Malaysia. Malay rights? For exchange of citizenship? Excuse me, but I was born in Malaysia. I am a bumiputra (i.e. I am truly, a son of the soil). Why do I not get a 7% discount when I need to buy a property? Why do I not get places in local universities? This list can go on…

Funnily enough, he mentions that if someone does something wrong, the person should be charged and brought to justice – why wasn’t Hishamuddin Hussein, our great keris bearing idiot, not charged already? Don’t question the ketuanan Melayu (Malay rights), or feel the wrath of the keris?

Badawi, at the Commonwealth meeting. Pakistan, suspended from the Commonwealth. Why is Malaysia, not suspended, yet? Why is the international community not interfering? It seems now the memorandum will be delivered to Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace – I hope they go there in droves, too.

Via Malaysiakini again, in a great article titled: MIC: Hindraf is stooge of the opposition, I quote:

“It is evident that with the presence of Lim with Hindraf supporters yesterday, the Hindraf gathering (tomorrow) is planned by the stooges of DAP and to a certain extent, PKR,” said Saravanan (right) in a statement.

Does this mean that the MIC is a stooge of the Barisan Nasional? After all, Samy Vellu, was referred to as a “mandore” on Al Jazeera earlier. Which I understand, is a supervisor of an estate, who’s main passion is raping the rubber tappers.

All this aside, this is just the start of more to come. The people, are fed up. Tear gas, chemically-laced water, out of the cannons, all on peaceful protesters? This can only lead to trouble. Rumours of a 20 year old man, being killed? More than 400 detained? Innocent peaceful protesters, beaten up? Up to four police officers to detain one fellow?

I encourage all Malaysians to start reading Gandhi’s autobiography, which he aptly titled, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth”. I picked up a copy from India, a few years ago, for Rs. 100 (about RM10). Its a good read, and it will inspire more to have peaceful protests, via non-violent resistance. His principles behind satyagraha, are just inspiring. Read: A Gandhi-inspired mass civil disobedience in MalaysiaKini (an online newspaper, I can certainly recommend subscribing to).

Resources

If you have some bandwidth, catch some interesting videos (I hope to update this list, the moment more videos become available), all via Al Jazeera (if I’m feeling particularly energetic, I might analyse them later, for your enjoyment):

• An initial update
• A more interesting update, this time with an interview with S.K. Devamany, a Member of Parliament, representing the MIC
• There’s another video update, with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Musa Hassan, speaking about why the police acted the way they did
• Yet another video update, had Samy Vellu on the phone, along with one of the Hindraf lawyers being in the Al Jazeera studios, giving his view on things

Must read resources:

• Jeff Ooi’s Hindraf Rally… (Ethnic) Minority Report
• Ditesh Kumar’s The Hindraf Gathering, and The Hindraf Gathering, part deux
• Malaysia Today’s report
• While not a must read, take a look at Google’s Blog Search, on hindraf.

Technorati Tags: hindraf, rally, memorandum, indians, ethnic indians, malaysia, jalan ampang, bangsa malaysia, malaysian, protest, klcc, arrests, force, FRU, peaceful gathering, police roadblocks, article 153, badawi, social contract, stooges, videos, tear gas, water cannons, chemicals

Been playing around with The GIMP (about time), and one of the most useful features that might need to be drummed in, is for creating transparent images. The much touted Colour-to-Alpha plugin, simply just rocks!

Layer -> Transparency -> Colour to Alpha

Now, I don’t need to do dodgy hacks to get an image, made transparent.

Technorati Tags: graphics, gimp, colour to alpha, transparency, transparent images

To be fair, Kenny Sia over-did the “election” vs. “erection” thing. But the transcript, I would have thought was a joke, is actually true. So kudos to Kenny Sia for typing it all up.

Now, an Information Minister (Zainuddin Maidin), speaking to a television station, in that kind of language? Someone ought to send him for media training.

Highly entertaining. Watch the video. I mean, I thought he was stupid a few weeks back, just didn’t know he was this stupid.

In the newspapers, there are some quotable quotes from Zam slams Al Jazeera’s coverage:

• “They also cited a blogger as an independent journalist when the blogger is actually a DAP member,” he said. –> referring to Jeff Ooi, who in every respect is an independent journalist (isn’t that what bloggers generally are? I mean we refer to housewives [and to be politically correct, house-husbands] as domestic engineers…)
• “The police only used water cannons and tear gas and did not shoot anyone,” he said. –> shoot anyone? Really, who knew you could be shot for protesting. Well, maybe you can be in the current situation in Burma, or Pakistan, but in Malaysia? Shocking.
• Zainuddin said Al Jazeera should use its base in Malaysia as an opportunity to strengthen bonds with the West rather than to portray Malaysia as anti-West. –> how is the video in any way, portraying Malaysia as being anti-West? Is the idea of democracy, a Western one? What is the West anyway? India is the world’s largest democracy, and its hardly located in the “West”

All in all, its great to see Wikipedia being used to push truths (or untruths). Currently, as I write this, the neutrality of the article is being disputed. Article in question: 2007 Bersih rally.

Oppressive governments, like the one in Malaysia, is probably really feeling the pain of the Internet. Blogs, video distribution, immediate distribution, rallies being organised via the Net. Wind back a decade ago, and I think the then-prime minister, Dr. Mahathir had no idea of the power of the Internet. Even then, the bungaraya and sangkancil lists were being run, and the early birds saw what was coming. Arguably, soc.culture.malaysia on Usenet was a good venting point for folk too. Yes, there was online political activism, before Jeff Ooi ;)

Technorati Tags: politics, malaysia, information minister, zainuddin maidin, al jazeera, jeff ooi, DAP, english, bad language, media training, democracy, protest, freedom to protest, BERSIH