Colin Charles Agenda

More for my reference than anything else…

I originally read it in the dead tree edition of The Edge. Its a pity they don’t place all their content online (worried about people not buying your paper for RM5? Place it online after a month, its “dated” enough to be free).

Facts:

• According to Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, only 1.2 million of Malaysia’s 10.5 million workers earn more and pay income tax.
• Only 38,500 earning a taxable income of RM100,000 and above are in the highest tax bracket.

The above via Malaysians brace themselves for higher cost of living. If you can get past the opinion, most of the article is quoted in this comment.

This was in the news recently: Quran in hotel rooms soon. Excerpts:

A copy of the Quran and its intepretation will be made available in most hotel rooms in the country to allow both Muslims and non-Muslims to have “access” to the Holy book.

Ahmad Zahid said Jakim would be printing another 50,000 copies of the Quran’s interpretation for the purpose, costing some RM1.3mil, adding these books were in English to cater to foreign visitors and tourists.

50,000 copies. RM1.3 million. RM26 per Quran. Jakim is the Department of Islamic Development, Malaysia. It’s a Malaysian Government institution.

Now, if you’re in a 3-star hotel or above, you’re getting a Quran, courtesy of the Malaysian Government. Courtesy of your tax payer ringgit. I think there’s better ways to spend RM1.3 million of money from the rakyat – let’s feed and shelter the homeless, for a start.

Another healthy way the government of the day, is spending your hard earned tax ringgit!

Update: @nazroll tells me that this comes out of zakat payments, that only Muslims pay. I still believe there are better ways to spend zakat payments, but I don’t run the country, now do I? Zakat from the Malaysian government or Zakat via Wikipedia… Wikipedia describes zakat as “alms for the poor” – I don’t know how accurate that is, but if you’re staying in a 3-star hotel and above, you aren’t exactly poor ;)

Next up, time to read up on Islamic Banking/Economics. Looks like an interesting topic! (I mean I’m bombarded with signs about it, let’s see how it compares with regular banking)

Update 2: There was active chatter on Twitter! @ditesh tells us that the zakat is a tax credit, and Wikipedia explains the taxation behind it. @nazroll continues to tell us that development is OK, and people are curious to know how the money is spent, and it is available upon request. Lots worry about accountability, and @nazroll hits it spot on.

Look at the pitches these articles give. Tell me if you get different messages from them.

The Star says Govt has stopped paying petrol subsidies: Shahrir and The Malaysian Insider says Malaysians are now paying petrol tax.

The Malaysian Insider has 28 comments at the time of this writing… Interactivity. Something traditional media should look into?

To remember in the future:

“After the station operators take their margin of 12.1sen and the oil companies take their margin of 19.1sen, we are left with RM1.69 from RM2.

“If the refinery price is RM1.30 per litre for example, the Government will be taking 39sen per litre as revenue.”

PickupPal
PickupPal is an interesting concept. Its a web tool to connect drivers and passengers, to help carpool, in various towns, all around the world. This is something I wish I’d known about had I been in Melbourne. I of course only found out about it, thanks to the city of Ontario being silly, and fining them for unregulated transportation. I say fair game for all – this is like hitchhiking 2.0? Good way to make new friends, and I’m guessing it’ll work well, if you already enjoy things like CouchSurfing, for example.

Ordering pizza from Facebook?
Ordering Pizza Hut From Your Facebook Page? It’s on the Way is an interesting read. To know that Pizza Hut crossed $1 billion in online sales in the last 18 months is valuable – to know that now you’re going to do it from your possibly favourite website, with a viral widget, is even more valuable.

Imagine you ordering a pizza, it updating your Facebook status, and another bored friend isn’t sure what to eat in another timezone, and decides to order a pizza. Highly plausible.

Ordering via text/phone[web] (they seem to focus on the iPhone), also makes a lot of sense. Cuts out the need to speak to a human. Cuts out the waiting time.

Artist scatters a thousand of his paintings around London
A great social experiment? Adam Neate left a thousand of his paintings around London, for anyone to pick up. Some people are finding them and placing them on eBay, raking in up to £1,000. And Adam is happy about it – it’ll help people during the upcoming Christmas season.

Radar and Apple
Apple’s bug tracking system is called Radar. Its been notoriously kept closed, unlike most open source projects have. Read more about Open Radar, check out the Google App.

As technology enables people to do more, and more, companies previously setting up virtual roadblocks, will face competition from the community. A lesson to learn.

A great, modern way, to promote a TV series. [spooks] code 9 allows you to upload an image, and play a “game”, that is generated into a movie (a short clip). It takes all of under two minutes to do, and the whole application itself (Flash based) will take about five minutes of your time.

Personalisation, has been taken to the next level. The video below will last for three months, after which all I have are the screenshots. Give it a twirl, you might enjoy it.

Report

my ID; a rendered me (as a Caucasian woman, quite possibly :P)

I like the idea of allowing you to email, or upload to Facebook, or embedding it to your own site. I like how you “play a role” in the mission. You have choices, before the final movie is made. All in all, good job BBC.

I’m not a big fan of listening to music on my mobile phone (though I guess if I was an iPhone user, this might be different), but it seems like all phone manufacturers are now targeting the masses, to show that their phones are all music devices.

I see adverts bombarding me from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, and more, to tell me that a new phone, will also play music for me just fine. Some go so far as to tell me, I can “make the Web by hand” :)

So it comes as no surprise that in Britain, you can get a handset that “Comes With Music” (CWM) for a year, for free, thanks to Nokia. The music continues to be playable after the year is up too. Unlimited downloads?

I can’t wait for this service to be available outside of Britain.