Development of Portable Computer

Wow! Laptop in 1982 vs iPhone 2007 ^^

MENSA "Test Your IQ" Event

Tired after squeezing my brain juice for 40 minutes. Huh~

Basically, it is well-planned but today, I woke up late and the arrangement of classroom is in a mess.. Here is some of the photos of our event! ^^

Leonard Emo~ HAHA!!!

Wuu~ Exam situation

Second classroom

HAHA!!! Can you spot where I am?

Committee Members~

 

YAY!!!!! Cheeze~

Woot! Finally, this test ends~ Hope I can get good result from MENSA! Hehe!

HELPMUNC - HELP Model United Nation Conference 2011

MUN Conference is actually a stimulation of actual UN conference. It comprises 4 councils - HRC, ECOFIN, SPECPOL and SC.In common word, it is based on human right, economics, politics and security council. And guess what, I enter the HRC!

Delegate of Ukraine! =)

Well that's cool! I have never been to any debate in English. Hence, this exposes me to a new world - debating in a formal and diplomatic way. We have to address ourselves in third person. Of course, there are many people who make this mistake by address themselves as first person.

Alright, the best part is the giving speech part. You are open to any and all form of points of information (POI). Can you imagine you have done no research before going to MUN? You will be shot down on the spot! >< That's the reason why I dare not give the speech even though I want to. *(Nevermind, I will try to do all form of research and give speech next time!)

In the conference, I met a guy in Catholic who is very cute! His courage is more than me. He dared to give speech on that day but in a non-diplomatic manner. Aggressive!!! Woo hoo!!!! Never seen such a speaker in UN before.. HAHA~ Joking~ Anyway, I love his style, dare to speak out! Yay!

My brother in MUN conference~ ^^

This is all the homework and the resolution that has been done along three days of conference. I kinda miss it! I will definitely join the next MUN!!! Here I come! ^^

 All the documents for MUN!

The Description of the Issue before making any research~ 

(P/S: I will definitely go for the next MUN!!!) 

1 kg

One kilogram - 1kg is a standard mass which is used as a reference to weigh any objects in the surroundings. If you asked people how much actually 1kg weighed, they will give you the weighing balance and ask you to measure 1kg of newspapers and carry them. LOL! So dumb. ^^

 

Btw, is it a weighing balance or a clock? Well, it doesn't matter @@

In fact, we actually refer to a reference of how heavy 1 kg is. It is an IPK - International Prototype Kilogram, which is made of platinum-iridium composite material. One might ask if the metal is heavy, well, if you hold the mass of 1kg of platinum-iridium, it is not heavy, but if you support 1 tonne of platinum-iridium, it is definitely heavy! >< I am talking craps again.

Well, the size of 1kg of platinum iridium is as shown below:

This thing is wonderful, but eventually, something will happen which relates to Planck constant and makes this metal shown above no longer 1kg, perhaps, 0.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 kg. LOL! Hence, they need to redefine the mass of 1kg by, maybe, doing another metal. This is what metalogists are employed for, and they always hold a strong concept - "Always make life complicated by doing things which people feel it is not significant." ^^

Okay, I am not going to crap away all the 1kg thing here but if you really need to know what is happening recently on this 1kg, do refer to the link of the title. =)

Internet Blackouts

Today is an awesome day! I drove back from KL to Kuala Kangsar!!!! =) Specifically, with my parents and sisters in and actually drove from Rawang to Tapah (*sigh). The traffic was not heavy at all and it was nice driving on the highway, with the speed of around 100 - 120 km/h. ^^ My daddy and mummy kept on warning me to drive slowly as if they were riding corkscrew in Genting Highlands. Woo hoo!!! HAHA!! Seat belt, ready! Hands on the hand rest, ready! Vroom! Then the adrenaline pumped to the whole body, making the heart beat as fast as it could. HAHA!!! My hands were gripped to the steering and I dared not even move a single finger, nor I lost my concentration. It was THRILLING! =)

Well, I am always out of topic. Today after reaching home, I faster flipped through "The Economist - Print me a Stradivarius" issue for any interesting article. Alas, I found a not-so-interesting article. (*so contradicting ^_^)

On January 25th, American senators reintroduced a bill granting the president emergency powers to shut down parts of the nation's Internet as a defence against cyber-attack. Three days later Egypt's embattled autocrats took their country offline. The five-days shutdown of Egypt's Internet and its mobile-phone network has given opponents of the "kill switch" in America and elsewhere some powerful arguments. [1]

Let's come back to the background story on the shutdown of Internet and mobile phone network in Egypt. The news of the Internet outage came minutes after the Associated Press published a video of an Egyptian protester being shot. [2] This is a sad story as it reflects the restriction of speech and expression in the country. It is well shown that the Internet is used as a political tool, to the benefits of the politicians, which, is not good to the Egyptians and perhaps, to anyone who stay on Earth. Internet outage in Egypt had caused a vast negative impact on economics and social. A much cited slogan of late on the web is:

"If your government shuts down your Internet, it's time to shut down your government". 

HAHA!!! It is actually very true. Internet is a global communication tools that fundamentally supports opportunity, empowerment, knowledge, growth and freedom. These values should not be taken away by the individuals as they are the basic human rights that everyone should has. Imagine you were taken away your freedom of speech and expression, there will be no Facebook, no Twitter, no Friendster, no BLOGSPOT, no SWEET TALK with my HONEY? OMGG, it will be a chaos in my life. =S

Such regimes are unlikely to take heart from Egypt's experience. The Internet and mobile crackdown did not derail the protests, but providing them a blazing platform, enable them to protest with FIRE!~

 

Almost every corner of the world is fascinated by the efficiency of the Egyptian government to shut down the Internet server. The "kill switch" which I mentioned just now, is hugely complex and expensive to build and run. It is kind of like a switch which can kill off all the Internet connection and mobile network, with just your finger to switch off the switch. If it happened in Malaysia, I think almost everyone will shoot the government down for doing so and perhaps, ask the Internet provider for refund. I can imagine that within one day, if every Maxis, Digi, Celcom, TM, P1 and YES customers asked for RM 10 refund, all this telecommunication companies will go bankrupt in no time.

However, this "kill switch" should be implemented in countries, which can be used to face the threat of hackers. Can you imagine, if hackers took control of nuclear facilities, or were about to open the dam, the "kill switch" will come in great use. It is a absolute defence against cyber-attack. No Internet, no hacker! HAHA~ (Come out with my new slogan) ^^

(P/S: It needs quite a lot of background before I can write this review. Phew~)

Addition:
I feel that the best way to curb cyber attack is not blocking the Internet but find another stronger way to kill off all the cyber attacks. "Kill switch" may be a wise choice to block the cyber attacks temporarily but not forever. The attack will surely resume once the Internet is restarted.

References:
http://www.economist.com/node/18112043

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/egypt-internet-goes-down-_n_815156.html

http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=3100

Nokia - Blazing Platform?

My economics teacher, Ms Kimmie, called a magazine retailer to let us subscribe either TIME, Newsweek or The Economist today. His name is Michael, who is quite a nice man. His introduction and recommendation on different types of magazines were fantastic, and, to his kindness, he gave each of us two copies of "The Economist" magazine for free! "WHAT!!! FREE????" That's what I thought at the first place. They worth around RM40 if you try to get them at any magazine stalls. I really appreciated it as I actually started to cultivate the habit of reading English magazine, especially "The Economist", though I subscribe TIME magazine at that moment. ^^ Guess what, I even got a freebie - TIME limited pendrive! LOL!!!!

Well, let's come back to what I read today. It is quite an interesting article. As a technology enthusiast, I always like to follow up with what is new especially handphones and computers. This article that I have read stated that Nokia, which is a boss in Nokia before that, has lost its stand and they describe it as "Blazing Platform".

"Stephen Elop, Nokia's new boss stated that they are standing on a burning platform. If Nokia did not want to be consumed by the flames, it had no choice but to plunge into the "icy waters" below. In plainer words, the company must change its ways radically."

As we know, Nokia's OS is Symbian, Apple iPhone is known of its App Store, while Android phone, App Market. These are only what we know, but the reason that Apple App Store is such a success than Symbian is that it is full of apps, which is user friendly and lag-free. Furthermore, they are easily available and the system that iPhone has is such a wonder. Before that, I was using Nokia N73 and I found out that the Symbian OS is quite lag, even though you pressed a button, it took you around 5 seconds to actually process what you commanded. Then when Samsung Omnia came, which is a touch-screen phone, I was quite attracted to it. So, I changed to Omnia which runs Windows Mobile 6. Well, that was even worse. The so-called touch screen detects by using pressure, not touch at all. Can you imagine I typed message by pressing the screen here and there, which strained my fingers much.

Now, here comes iPhone 4, which I am currently using now. It is very user-friendly, lag-free, and it detects by touching, not applying pressure. It is really nice as I can finish typing message in not more than 20 seconds. Some more, the apps are easily available at App Store. One of the strategies Apple uses is they provide you the free version or "Lite" version, which, you can experience how the programme is before buying the full version. The apps, too, suit every levels of people, ranging from kids to adults to senior citizens. It is almost like a mini computer, which is handy and can manage all your things in one phone! =)

The followings are quotation from "The Economist":

At its most fundamental, this shift is the result of Moore’s Law, which holds that microprocessors double in computing power every 18 months. The first generations of modern mobile phones were purely devices for conversation and text messages. The money lay in designing desirable handsets, manufacturing them cheaply and distributing them widely. This played to European strengths. The necessary skills overlapped most of all in Finland, which explains why Nokia, a company that grew up producing rubber boots and paper, could become the world leader in handsets.

As microprocessors become more powerful, mobile phones are changing into hand-held computers. As a result, most of their value is now in software and data services. This is where America, in particular Silicon Valley, is hard to beat. Companies like Apple and Google know how to build overarching technology platforms. And the Valley boasts an unparalleled ecosystem of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and software developers who regularly spawn innovative services.

Nokia had some additional problems to deal with. The firm realised its world was changing and was working on a touch-screen phone much like the iPhone as early as 2004. Realising the importance of mobile services, it launched Ovi, an online storefront for such things in 2007, a year before Apple opened its highly successful App Store.

But turning a Finnish hardware-maker into a provider of software and services is no easy undertaking. Nokia dallied and lost the initiative. Historically, Nokia has been a highly efficient manufacturing and logistics machine capable of churning out a dozen handsets a second and selling them all over the world. Planning was long-term and new devices were developed by separate teams, sometimes competing with each other—the opposite of what is needed in software, where there is a premium on collaborating and doing things quickly.

It is true that Silicon Valley has the sophisticated technology and gadgets. However, I believe that if they work together to produce a mobile phone from Europe while having the microchips and technology from Silicon Valley, the mobile phone will be a splendid one! =) Who knows, our future mobile phone will be something like a mobile phone with only 4 rods, and the screen will show up on the air. ^^ It will come true as now they already have virtual keyboard.

(P/S: Sorry for not elaborating much as I am rushing for this review)

Pollution and Global Warming (Nuclear Winter)

Refer to "The Economist" - Pollution and Global Warming issue~

Last weekend, I just read through this topic and found it very interesting. It started like this:

"When air pollution hurts people's health and heats up the climate it makes sense to do something about it. But what about pollution that cools the planet?"

Whoa! My heart was beating hard. Is it possible to have pollution that cools the planet? That means I don't need to have air-conditioner at home and yet, I can enjoy the cool temperature in tropical countries such as in Malaysia. HEHE!!! What a nice solution to global temperature! This was what I thought at that moment.

However, after reading all the article, I realise the downside of this pollution. It actually reduces the amount of rainfall and worsens the air quality~ What a waste! Sigh~

There are two short-lived climate "forcings" which contribute to the change of amount of energy the atmosphere absorbs, black carbon and ozone, which are crucial in blocking UV rays in stratosphere but dangerous in atmosphere where plants live and people have to breathe. [1]

According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, implementing measures against the two pollutants would have immediate and lots of benefits. For black carbon, the measures are largely in the form of more efficient ways of burning things. For ozone, mostly involve reducing emissions of methane, which encourages reactions in the atmosphere that make ozone.

Well, let's come back to what I mention just now - pollution that cools the planet. It is actually called "Nuclear Winter". It is caused by the sulphur aerosol in the atmosphere. These aerosols can form less-black particles that reflect, rather than absorb, the sun's energy. It also provides sites for water to condense. That promotes the formation of clouds, which reflects sunlight back into space. Since black carbon absorb sunlight in the atmosphere and it is emitted together with sulphur, it explains why, though the black carbon in brown clouds has a warming effect, the clouds' net effect is to cool the planet beneath them.

Now, the surface is cool and the air above it, warm, there is less tendency for air from near the surface to rise. Reduced convection will tend to lead to fewer clouds and reduced rainfall. That's why this pollution, although it cools the planet, leads to a serious problem to the Earth.

It is evident that ABCs, the regional effects of which are far greater than global averages, have depressed rainfall in the Indian monsoon over the past decades.

Other than that, black carbon has a pernicious effect on frozen regions. When it falls on snow it greatly increases the amount of sunlight absorbed. Ice core analysis showed that the black carbon rose threefold from 1975 to 2000. [2]

Sulphur, as a reflecting aerosols, provides a cooling effect to the Earth, but it lets the Earth prone to depressed rainfall and affects the monsoon seasons of different regions. The cooling effect of sulphur is so obvious and predominant. Gregory Faluvegi suggests that a typical coal-fired power station in China will take three decades to produce enough carbon dioxide to overpower the initial cooling effects of its sulphates. [3]

Another scientist, Dr Crutzen, said: "If you were to inject a comparatively small amount of sulphate into the stratosphere while phasing out all industrial emissions lower down, you could keep today's cooling levels while getting huge health benefits." [4]

Hence, even though pollution can cool down the planet, which makes everyone happy, still, pollution is pollution! There is no way to say that pollution has no bad effects on Earth. As long as there is pollution, there is always a need to fend for our Earth by solving it! =)

[1], [2], [3] and [4] are the data and citation from "The Economist" ^^

(P/S: Hope you guys like this article)