Thursday, August 10, 2006

100% Secure and Clone-proof?

There is this news carried in the Star (my favorite paper) where Tan Sri Razali Ismail said that our biometric passport is 100% secure and clone-proof.

I don't know what is his education background (arts? engineer?) but let me tell you this: Nothing is 100% secure in this world. With the right amount of effort, time and money, any system will be broken eventually.

It is easy to reverse engineer the whole chip with the right equipment. These equipment can be found in reverse engineering companies and even in university labs. Pay-TV smart card system has been broken many times, eventually our passport too.

The question is what is the motivation to break it? Money? Espionage activities? Maybe the low level crooks is unable now, but I'm sure the CIA, NSA or other national intelligence agency will be able to do it easily.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Sunny days, rainy days and hazy days

It's time to clear new lands in Sumatra. The dry weather is perfect for burning. Hey, the CPO is almost RM1700. There is money to be made from oil palm.

Malaysia used to have two kinds of weather, sunny days or rainy days. Now we have hazy days. There is nothing we can do about this burning until all the forest has been cleared in Sumatra. With so many poor and hungry people in that island, we should expect more burnings. Moreover, Sumatra is a big island, so expect it to last a long time.

If you can't stand the hazy condition, then it is time to go for a vacation. Yup, Europeans go vacation during summer to escape the heat. Malaysian (and also Singaporeans) go vacation to escape the haze. If you have not plan for vacation, then remember that when the next Matta fair comes.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Pak Lah

I read about the Star interview with Pak Lah. I think that he has his ways of doing things. He is giving the people more voice and more power to determine our future. Not like the previous prime minister who steam roll everything he wants.

I hope all Malaysian will give their undivided to Pak Lah. Changes are hard, changes are slow. That's because human don't like sudden changes. We must be patience with his policy. Hopefully, he will survive politically to see the changes being completed.

Stop that killing

Make love, not war!

The killings continues in Lebanon and Israel. The innocents suffer. Why must we kill? Dispute should be settle in a gentleman way as suggested by Tun Dr. Ling "Sit down and discuss it slowly" strategy.

But the thing is that it is a complicate issue in Israel. Everyone wants the same thing. As long as no one wants to make a compromise, the feud will continue. An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

Anyway, I think that war or fighting are bound to happend because the leaders are the male species. Man are more aggressive. It's our caveman behaviour that are ingrained in us. As the female species are less aggressive, maybe if they have a woman leader, things will be much better.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Big Bullies: The Coliseum Example

Hmm....we have another case of forcefully acquiring assets for national interest. Why must the government use the law to do such thing? This is like daylight robbery. Selling of assets must be willing buyer willing seller. This is call freedom in a democratic country.

There are many cases that they government wants to rob the public of their rights. The Lee plantation is another case.

This is sending the wrong signals to investors. In my opinion, if the building is a national heritage and it is welly maintain, then leave the owner alone. Furthermore, how do you value a heritage building? Someone may be able to pay a much higher price than the market value for such buildings. The only way to know is through a public bidding process.

I hope the owner is successful in defending his rights.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

A new blog talking nonsense

Started a new blog today to talk about nonsense such as life, politics and anything that I'm not satisfied with. Well, human got lots of things to complain, that makes us humans. I don't know whoever wanna waste their time and read this blog, I'm sure non will. But what the heck, let me mumble and grumble. I'm sure it will be archieved forever in the Internet.

Yup, do you know whatever you publish in the Internet will be keep forever? I'm sure my webpage or newsgroup posting that was done 10 years ago lies some server in US waiting to be googled by someone. I definately sure that NSA has something about me. They been sucking all those data from the Internet and storing it in gazillion roles of disk tape. I regreted posting flaming things using my actual name. I was innocence then. Never expect it to be happend. So I'm a little bit careful now but knows that when you embrace technology, you lose your privacy forever. Human (or governments) has taken the role of God. There is nothing to do but just enjoy our life. Too much things to worry, no time for privacy stuff.