May 21st, 2005
Phoenix just posted in EXIF – Plugin for IE and Firefox thread on MPC forum regarding Opanda’s IExif plugin.
Opanda IExif is a professional Exif viewer in Windows / IE / Firefox, From a photographer’s eye, It displays the image taken from digital camera and every item of EXIF data in the image from beginning to end. The user can learn about how and where to take the photo, what the camera’s model is, the detail of photographer and more in IExif.
This looks very useful to me, where previously while browsing interesting web pages, I had to save the images to disk and use IrfanView exif plugin to read those camera settings information. When massaging my photos I usualy keep its original exif information intact for easy future references.
An alternative exif viewer for Firefox is Ted Mielczarek’s FxIF, written entirely in Javascript.
[I'm classifying this under "Computers" until I decided to have a camera or photo sub category. 
]
Links:
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May 18th, 2005
Following up on my earlier blog, I notices this news in the local papers about the CardExAsia 2005 event. “Don’t procrastinate, says NRD”, NST 18 May 2005 reports …
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. That is the message the National Registration Department (NRD) has for the three million Malaysians who have yet to apply for their MyKad.
“If customers come now, our system can manage very comfortably, but don’t come at the last moment,” NRD director-general Datuk Wan Ibrahim Wan Ahmad said …
Speaking after opening the CardEx Asia 2005 Conference and the SmartLabels 2005 Exhibition at the Putra World Trade Centre here, Wan Ibrahim said security aspects of the MyKad were “perfect”.
“There are people who try to play with the system, people who abuse my trust, but there is nothing wrong with the system itself,” he said on the recent debate over MyKad security …
The three-day CardEx Asia event, organised by Protemp Exhibitions Sdn Bhd, showcases 60 exhibitors, including companies from Belgium, Spain, China and Hong Kong.
The event, in its fifth year, has attracted more than 130 delegates …
Links:
- Sistem Kompakar Sdn Bhd – reports “17 May 2005 To 19 May 2005. Kompakar eHealth Tech will promote SmartCard and its benefits in healthcare ICT in the upcoming CardEx Exhibition at PWTC.“
- CardsNow!Asia – online site for the monthly trade magazine who is the “Exclusive Official Media Partner” for the event.
- MasterCard & Visa Agree To A Common Contactless Protocol – CNA reports, “they have reached an agreement to share a common communications protocol and associated testing requirements for radio frequency-based contactless payments at the point of sale. This protocol is based on the MasterCard PayPassTM ISO/IEC 14443 Implementation Specification.” I wonder why unlike last year, MasterCard & Visa were not at CardExAsia.
- Events in May, 2005 – shows the next exhibition in Malaysia will be NEPCON Malaysia 24-27 May 2005 at the Mines.
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May 17th, 2005
Today I managed to squeeze some time to visit PWTC for the annual Smartcard Exhibition running on 17-19 May 2005. My impression is that this year’s is smaller than last, or it could just be my memory. Anyway, I did find a few interesting exhibits, as well as finally applying for MyKad …
- MyKad: The Government Multipurpose Card – had the biggest booth, with four counters for MyKad application including photo taking. There are smaller booths around it showing off MyKad applications such as: Putrajaya Hospitals putting health info in MyKad, Iris passport and MyKad kiosks, JPJ summon checking, Touch’nGo transportation card, and MEPS cash counter.
- FEC International (M) Sdn Bhd – shows off their MM chip, that was bought by the government, and other readers and writers. I was particularly interested in their MRW-3010 Multi-protocol reader/writer containing two SAMs. Their Japanese engineer showed off how to read the 0.5mm wide MM chip when only having on-chip small antennae, also a card with three antennas connected to one MM chip giving “multiband” reception.
- Modular Corp (M) Sdn Bhd – showed off the PMPC card application they design/implement for Bank Islam at UUM and UPM.
- Asia Pacific Card & System Sdn Bhd – showed the smartcards and readers they manufacture in Port Klang. Their own website seem down at the moment.
Posted in Computers | 4 Comments »
May 17th, 2005
This advertisement in The Star 17 May 2005 StarTwo pullout caught my eyes. These “engineers” seems to be very proud of their ability to design factories to be built at a very competitive price ranging from RM66 psf to RM105 psf. Though they seems to be a bit more reticent regarding their website, company name, company address or phone numbers. But they do give their email addresses in the advertisement.
The Mampujaya Sdn Bhd website does give addresses and contact numbers though. They included their portfolio of buildings including Low Yat Plaza, but no mention of “SIA Changi Airport Hanger” with 1000ft clear span …
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May 16th, 2005
Malaysian Business issue 1-15 May 2005 has Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, Executive Chairman Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd, on its front cover. “Nadzmi’s New Route – Giving Park May a New Lease of Life“, it says and goes on to have the following 3 cover stories …
On The Express Route – “With 2,000 buses plying the nation’s highways as well as those in Singapore, former Proton/EON chief Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh seems to be firmly entrenched in the public-transport business. His KTB [Konsortium Transnasional Bhd] group takes over rickety bus operator Park May, which had been plagued by a host of financial and operating problems. Since the takeover was initiated in late 2003, Park May has made a U-turn in its losses and is officially off the PN4 list. Come July, the move will be complete as Park May is expected to hand over its listing status to KTB, which will then move on to other destinations, including overseas expansion.” - Bring On The Challenges – “Taking risks that others steer away from has been the hallmark of Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh. Malaysian Business takes a closer look.“
- All In The Company – “To boost the cost-effectiveness as well as safety and quality of its transport operation, Nadicorp makes its own buses.“
… Interesting read, regarding said Konsortium Transnasional Bhd reverse take over of Park May Bhd listing.
Unfortunately, the stories are not online on MB website. What its front page says, “this site is under construction”, is certainly true. :-/ I’ll excerpt some of the interesting portions of the above later. In meantime, some links regarding KTB and Park May …
- Park May Berhad – corporate website. No mention of KTB or Prasarana on the site.
- Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd – corporate website.
- Injection of 8 units: New firm to take over listing status – Park May takeover by year-end – Nadi’s archive of NST 10 February 2004 article regarding their earlier plan for Park May. “Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd, controlled by Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, expects to complete its acquisition of troubled Park May Bhd by the year-end [Dec 2004] … Nadicorp is in the midst of injecting eight bus operating subsidiaries valued at RM125 million into Park May, whose listing status will be assumed by newly-incorporated company Konsortium Transnasional Bhd … Asked whether Nadicorp is interested in taking over Intrakota Consolidated Bhd, Mohd Nadzmi said: ‘The Government (via Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB) has decided to buy the buses from the bus company, with Nadicorp managing those buses. That was the original plan.’“
- Rating downgrade for Park May’s CP/MTN, from BB3 to C1 – Rating Agency Malaysia Berhad announcement on 12 December 2003 reports, “RAM has downgraded the long-term rating of Park May’s RM120.0 million CP/MTN, from BB3 to C1, while reaffirming its short-term rating at NP … The Group is also in the midst of finalising the sale of 364 buses owned by Cityliner Sdn Bhd and Len Chee Sdn Bhd (indirect wholly owned subsidiaries of Park May) to Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (”SPNB”) for RM14.84 million cash.“
Posted in Transportation | 2 Comments »
May 15th, 2005
My significant other decided to be generous, and left her Nokia 7200 on the back seat of a taxi. Needless to say, we couldn’t get it back. So now, I’m on the market for another Nokia clamshell with the following specs …
- Clamshell – she really likes to physically close the phone, though a slide cover type maybe acceptable.
- No aerials – she keeps it in her handbag, those aerials get caught in the many things in there.
- Nokia – she’s already so familiar with Nokia’s menu system, and I hate to retrain her for some equally quirky but different system.
My quick search found me the following candidates …
- Review Nokia 8910 – Mobile Review reported, “Nokia 8910 is a successor of 8850 … First of all, an exterior is made of titan.” [Nokia 8910i @my]
- Nokia’s shining star – Nokia 8850 – The Star InTech’s Kelly Goh on 9 May 2000 reported “You just gotta hand it to these Finnish dudes. IMHO they really know how to make fine-looking handphones and the sexy Nokia 8850 is one such example.“. [Nokia 8850 @my] also [Nokia 8855 @my]
- Review: Nokia 7270 – Mobile Phone UK reported, “another ‘fashion’ phone from Nokia … beautifully styled clamshell phone with rounded corners and made from a combination of metal, textiles and plastic.” It has a very close design features to that of the 6170. [Nokia 7270 @my]
- Review: Nokia 6260 – Mobile Phones UK reported, “a business-orientated smartphone … One of the characteristics of the 6260’s clamshell design is the rotating screen which can be rotated to a number of positions – open, closed, facing inwards and facing outwards.” [Nokia 6260 @my]
- Nokia 6170 review: A new generation clamshell – Marek Lutonský on 7 October 2004 reported, “The second Nokia flip phone got new untraditional look … nowadays we know already five clamshell phones from the Finnish company … 7200 … 6170 … 7270.” [Nokia 6170 @my]
- Review: Nokia 2650 – Mobile Phones UK reported, “… released in October 2004 … has nearly identical features to the Nokia 3100 that was released 15 months earlier … It is hard to say anything very positive about this phone, and it confirms the impression that Nokia don’t yet ‘get’ clamshells. Our advice would be: ‘look elsewhere!’” [Nokia 2650 @my]
- Nokia Phone Models Malaysia – complete collection.
Any others, I missed out?
Updated @1850h: The choice finally went to Nokia 7270, the “fashion phone”. ;-}
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May 8th, 2005
Construction works have been going on Persiaran Raja Muda Musa since February 2005. Currently, most of the palm trees, shrubs and lamp posts in the center median have been removed. I understand the first work will be to move the utilities from the center median. This earlier article by Elan Perumal in The Star 29 April 2005 about this RM120m deferred payment project, gave a bit more details. Excerpts …
The Persiaran Raja Muda Musa, Klang-Port Klang Federal Highway, will be upgraded to six lanes under a RM120mil Federal Government project.
Upgrading work on the four-lane road which started in February is expected to be completed in August 2007.
The project will include the construction of a flyover at the Taman Chi Liung traffic light junction and several pedestrian bridges.
Public Works Department senior chief assistant director Mohd Zahari Mansor said the project covered the whole 6.5km of the highway from the Simpang Tujuh roundabout in Klang to the South Port jetty in Port Klang.
“The project will be undertaken by Dua Medan Sdn Bhd without collecting any advance payment from the Government.
“We will pay half of the construction bill and the full amount of the financing cost upon the completion of the project while the balance will be paid a year later,� Mohd Zahari told the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) full board meeting during a briefing in Klang on Wednesday.
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May 8th, 2005
I wondered what’s the current status of the 7 MSC flagships. The official updates status was as of one year ago, I’d guess they’ll update that just in time (JIT) before the next MSC Expo in September 2005. Excerpts of that with some additional notes of mine …
- Electronic Government – “PMS (Operational System, Managerial Functions and Knowledge Base Repository) is currently operational in all agencies … [HRMIS] 13 out of 15 modules has been rolled out to 10 pilot agencies (JPA, MAMPU, PM’s Office, Jabatan Pengairan & Saliran, MoH, Jab. Perkhidmatan Haiwan, MARA, DBKL, PKNS and Jab. Ketua Menteri Sarawak) … [GOE] Completed roll-out site preparation for 14 agencies with 3,086 users … [EP] Central Contract, Supplier Registration modules and interface with Elektronik Sistem Perancangan dan Kawalan Belanjawan (eSPKB) completed … [E-Services] 27 kiosks have been fully operational – 12 in Klang Valley and 15 outside of Klang Valley … [ELX] Project completed nationwide … [E-Syariah] 83% of Phase 3 have been completed. SPKMS has been rolled-out to 102 locations throughout the nation.” E-Services access either MyEG or Rilek service providers.
- Multipurpose Card – aka MyKad. “All main [GMPC] deliverables completed (ID, Driving License, Passport, E-cash, ATM, Touch n’ Go, Health Information and Public Key Infrastructure). 9.9 million [GMPC] cards issued. 8.97 million [PMPC] Bankcards have been issued (as of 1 March 2004). 3,422 (84%) ATMs have been upgraded to accept ATM application in MyKad. 3,986 (100%) ATMs for domestic banks have been upgraded to accept Bankcard. 5 Banking institutions in total of 160 branches were available to issue ATM application in MyKad are as follows: Bumiputra-Commerce Bank, Maybank, Public bank, Bank Islam, Citibank.” JPN’s GMPC MyKad main site.
- Smart School – “Various options for a cost-effective roll-out model leveraging on Computer Lab and SchoolNet projects was presented to the Smart School Steering Committee Meeting on 5 April 2004.“
- Telehealth – “Read & write Health Data on MyKad: MOH decided to pilot at the Putrajaya Clinic.“. Website www.telehealth.com.my unreachable, domain still active under MDC. Worldcare site regarding Teleconsultation is active.
- R&D Clusters – “MSC R&D Grant Scheme (MGS) Types of project funded … Awards garnered by MGS-Recipient Companies …“
- E-Business – “Retail Sector : Efficient Consumer Response – Central Item Repository (ECR-CIR) Project … Letter of Intent issued to the successful RO – Tradenex. com Sdn Bhd.“
- Technopreneur Development – “National Unipreneur Development Program (NUDP) … National Lead Generation Program (NLGP) … National Incubation Development Program (NIDP) … Centre for Health Innovation & Medical Enterprises (CHIME) … BATIC Technology Labs … MSC Technopreneurship Centre (MSC-TeC) … International Representation Program (IR) … Strategic Partnership Program (SP) …“
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May 7th, 2005
Japanese mobile phonecams users have been using QR Code for some time to scan/enter URLs from newspapers, magazines and business cards. However in the US a competing 2D barcode, Semacode, is a bit more known. The two sample 2D barcodes encode the URL http://www.sabre23t.com in both QR Code and Semacode format.
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May 7th, 2005
Fred Vogelstein wrote in 2 May 2005 issue of Fortune the article subtitled “Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software—and that’s Microsoft’s turf.” He goes on to document the difficulty Microsoft is having trying to catchup with Google and why this is not Netscape all over again. Interesting read. Some excerpts …
Microsoft was already months into a massive project [Underdog] aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2003. He was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google … Gates wondered whether Microsoft might be facing much more than a war in search. An e-mail he sent to a handful of execs that day said, in effect, “We have to watch these guys. It looks like they are building something to compete with us.”
He sure got that right. Today Google isn’t just a hugely successful search engine; it has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft’s dominance. You can use Google software with any Internet browser to search the web and your desktop for just about anything; send and store up to two gigabytes of e-mail via Gmail (Hotmail, Microsoft’s rival free e-mail service, offers 250 megabytes, a fraction of that); manage, edit, and send digital photographs using Google’s Picasa software, easily the best PC photo software out there; and, through Google’s Blogger, create, post online, and print formatted documents—all without applications from Microsoft …
Simply put, Google has become a new kind of foe, and that’s what has Gates so riled. It has combined software innovation with a brand-new Internet business model—and it wounds Gates’ pride that he didn’t get there first. Since Google doesn’t sell its search products (it makes its money from the ads that accompany its search results), Microsoft can’t muscle it out of the marketplace the way it did rivals like Netscape. But what really bothers Gates is that Google is gaining the ability to attack the very core of Microsoft’s franchise—control over what users do first when they turn on their computers … The most paranoid people at Microsoft even think “Google Office” is inevitable. Google is taking over operating system features too, like desktop search …
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