Samsung Galaxy Note – An excellent oddity

The Note barely fits the hand

I have been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Note for a while now. It comes in white and black and the advertisements make it very attractive indeed. It also comes with a not-so-new novelty of a stylus. The earlier O2 xda and Palm PDA devices were stylus based as the touch screen being new lacks the precision and the UI designed for the fingers.

Anyway, Samsung has elected to use the stylus for more precise selection like a cut-and-paste action on images. I am not sure how many people will thrive on using that and one can easily loose a stylus.

At first glance, the Galaxy Note is extremely enticing and sexy. The vibrant colors of the super AMOLED capacitive touch screen catches the eyes immediately on the 5.3-inch large screen. As predicted, Samsung will use their AMOLED technology on the larger form factor devices. Samsung first used the AMOLED technology on their high-end phones in the past. One of these days in the near future, maybe in March, Samsung will let us have this super AMOLED on the Galaxy Tab series. Otherwise, Samsung will not be able to compete with the rumored Apple iPad3.

The facts of NFC debacle

The National Feedlot Centre (NFC) and the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) have been confusing the public a lot. In many cases, it has been used interchangeably but they are actually two separate entities. In actual fact, based on the AG Report 2010, the two have no legal agreement with each other at all. This is a highly engineered piece of work by those involved. Here is the attempt to clear some of the fog covering the so-called debacle and is based on the AG Report 2010

Ibrahim, NFC and All Gone Wrong!

The Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that NFCorp Chairman Mohd Salleh Ismail met with Perkasa and 15 other NGOs to brief them on the NFC situation (read here). Immediately after that, Ibrahim Ali gave a statement that “the office of the Auditor-General had already agreed in private that the company’s affairs were in order“. He further made startling remarks that stabbed the AG in his back insinuating that the AG made a mistake in his 2010 Report regarding the “mess” in NFCorp and that he should “release an official statement.”

Auditor General: The Man Najib Wants Replaced

Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, the Auditor General of Malaysia, deserves to be applauded for remaining steadfast to the cause to bring about good governance in the Public Sector. The 2010 AG Report that Najib apparently delayed to present to the Parliament before tabling the 2012 Budget was the hard work of Ambrin and his dedicated team. Unfortunately, he has remained the bearer of bad news for the BN Government every year and last November was no different. (Read here on a recently published Q&A with the AG).

Each year, there appears to be more and more cases of “faults” reported by the AG and every year it falls on the deaf ears and toothless agencies who can’t seem to take any action to rectify them. All the irregularities must be fixed and culprits punished but we never hear of anyone prosecuted. In the 2010 AG Report, there are so many items that the MACC can act upon to make right but the good work of the AG stops just as information only. Even the binoculars case in MACC was quickly brushed aside as a non-issue. Not forgetting the National Feedlot Corp fiasco which the AG report called a “mess“.

Anwar Acquitted: Does it show independence of the Judiciary?

Anwar was acquitted yesterday, much to everybody’s surprise (including mine!)

Masterwordsmith reported that there were more than 1,171 articles on Anwar’s acquittal yesterday (read here). This must have been a real surprise to everybody too.

So it is safe to say that Anwar’s acquittal by the court yesterday was not something that most people had expected. In fact, I had written in another posting that it was almost certain that Anwar will be found guilty. So did most others except for Karpal Singh who felt that Anwar will be freed. Obviously, we were wrong although the assessment and the gut feelings were so strong on the incarceration of Anwar.

Well, there is enough said about this from yesterday’s article. But there is one issue I would like to comment on. And that is the loud assertions by Najib and the BN that this proves the independence of the judiciary. The fact is this acquittal by the court does not prove the real independence of our judiciary but that this particular case did not appear to violate the natural course of justice. Of course, this is an opinion.

Dissecting RPK: He was just being honest

I didn’t read the spins that the Main Stream Media made. Just watch this video on the interview here.

The conclusion one can draw is that RPK was just being himself speaking what he believes is the truth albeit sometimes hard to take. Yes, they are his opinions and yes as opinions go, the interview doesn’t carry many facts to back them up except in some cases. I am not defending RPK but he is just trying to call a spade a spade.

There was nothing on MCLM so I can’t comment on the reasons why the movement’s president resigned. But what we can tell is as follows. You be the judge when you watch the interview.

Relevance of Anwar

This is politics. As long as it is expedient, Anwar will always be held in the highest esteem by the party, PKR, as well as by the Pakatan partners of DAP and PAS. RPK is right to say that the people is not in love with Anwar to vote for Pakatan. They see that Pakatan under Anwar is the only real alternative to Najib and BN.

2012: Interesting Times Ahead

Malaysia enters 2012 with many uncertainties but also with many certainties. We are looking at interesting times this year for sure. Let’s take a quick look at what lies ahead.

Uncertain

1. RPK an Umno blogger? His interview in Singapore has been set ablazed by the MCM to haunt Anwar and PKR. Rumors are running rife that he has been bought by Umno and is given a free pass home to Malaysia. Is that so? It can be true or it can be a game to toy with Umno. RPK is not stupid and neither are we Malaysians. We shall see and time will tell the truth about this matter.

LGE visits Scopene Submarine off Langkawi

Lim Guan Eng (LGE) took a ride with his deputies in one of our two Scorpene submarines off the coast of Langkawi (read here).

The depth of post-quake Straits of Melaka is around 30m which is probably why the sub stayed at that level to impress LGE.

Unconfirmed reports say that there are US warships re-mapping the Straits. They don’t need a billion dollar sub to do the job.

We must peal our ears now to hear of our subs attacking pirates by surprise to defend vessels passing the Straits or will we be surprised by our subs sinking because they hit an unmarked sunken ship that was moved by the 2004 tsunami.

A Sad Day for Malaysia and Future Generations

The BN MPs voted in the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 without any Opposition MPs who walked out during the debate.

At the same time, there were over 2,000 lawyers protesting the passing of the bill asking for the bill to be withdrawn. On Saturday, over 300 people gathered peacefully at the KLCC park to protest this same Bill.

But after all that’s said and done, 29 November 2011 will go down in history of Malaysia as a very sad day because the freedom guaranteed to every Malaysian in the Constitution of Malaysia has just been severely curbed.

The Constitutional of Malaysia in Article 10 states that “all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms“. For a complete reading of the Constitution, you can download the PDF copy here. We Malaysians have a constitutional right to freedom to assemble peaceably but there are also provisions in the Constitution for the Parliament to impose restrictions to this freedom.

However, today, the restriction to this freedom has been passed by Parliament to the peril of the future generations of Malaysians. The insistence of the PM and the Umno MPs is quite alarming and the company of MCA, Gerakan, MIC, etc. have abetted the high speed passing of the damning Bill.

Christmas is Early in Malaysia This Year – RM100 to Students

Many parents received SMS from their children’s teachers informing them to bring their children to specific locations to collect RM100 which is given by the Government.

Many parents are totally in the dark about this because they could not be contacted as the school holidays have started for secondary schools but this is the last week for primary schools. Also creating major headaches will be the mad rush to schools especially when the SPM and STPM exams are underway.

Can you imagine the chaotic logistics in this disbursement for the school principals?

Then there is the highly suspicious rationale in rushing the disbursement for this week. Why was this done all of a sudden? Did Christmas come earlier this year?