Life’s Pleasures…

            By 1980, Apple was already the biggest Personal Computer (PC) producing company in the world. Then IBM came up with its own version of the PC to challenged Apple. Nevertheless, PC usage was still not convenient enough, and the race to make the PC more user-friendly began…

            The journey to make PC more user-friendly began at the Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC), where under funding by Xerox, engineers had developed the precursor to the modern, user-friendly PC, which is the Graphic User Interface (GUI). But sadly Xerox did not appreciate the benefits of the GUI, and Steve Jobs soon snatched the opportunity by copying the idea and further developing it into the Apple PC. The IBM PC was hurting Apple’s sales, and this was due to the software in the IBM PC. Steve Jobs then recruited Microsoft to write the applications for the new Apple PC. Initially, Apple tried to produce LISA, a PC utilizing GUI, but there was a problem. LISA didn’t work properly, and it had an extremely high price tag, which in the end turned the LISA into a flop. Then came the Macintosh, Apple’s second effort to introduce the user-friendly PC, and it proved to be a hit.

            Although the Macintosh, or “Mac” was “insanely great” and despite the hype due to intense advertising, the sales of the Mac were disastrous. The applications in the Mac was still scarce, having only the “Mac Paint” and “Mac Write”, as compared to the IBM PC, which on the other hand, contained applications that people could really use, such as the spreadsheet etc. Another problem is the dot-matrix printer. GUI just couldn’t “express” its fullest potential due to limitation in printing. Then, developments were done on the printer by Adobe which introduced laser-printing, bringing salvation to the Mac, creating a whole new business― word processing. 

            Nevertheless, Mac sales were still flat, and Steve Jobs left Apple after a sharp contention arose between him and John Scully. The years after Steve Jobs were the most profitable for Apple. Sales rose to millions a year. In the background, Microsoft was plotting to unleash its own version of the GUI, as it saw the Mac as a competitor to the MS-DOS. Out came Windows…

            Apple sued Microsoft as it felt that it was copying the Mac, but sadly it lost. Then came Windows 95, which sealed the fate of Apple, pushing it into a niche in the PC industry. Although Microsoft was a success, Bill Gates wasn’t resting on his laurels. He invested in the animation company, Dreamworks and many other ventures. But competitors were starting to rear their heads, one of them being Larry Ellison, who believed the PC will be replaced by an “information device”.

            The future is the internet. Everyone knows it. And Bill Gates, Larry Ellison agrees on that.

For time unknown, people had debated necessity of censorship and its relevance in our modern world. Some strongly oppose it, while some practically favour it as a means to counter “negative influences”, deem unsuitable for the general public based on certain reasons. For me, censorship as a whole served a beneficial purpose, and I’m generally supportive of censorship. Nevertheless, censorship should not be used excessively and unnecessarily.

  I support censorship because helps to filter certain elements of film, websites and etc that may offend, corrupt or disgust the general public as a whole. If we have the power to do this, then why not? Some may argue that this will obstruct the freedom of speech, but hey! Freedom of speech doesn’t give us the right to wrong criticise issue and ideas. Certain topics which are deemed “sensitive”, such as inter-racial relations etc should never be touched upon. This is particularly true for countries such as Malaysia that comprises different races and ethnics all living under one roof. In such situations, where inter-racial relations have to properly preserved in order to avoid civil unrest, censorship almost seemed like a must. Besides that, censorship also serves as a protective shield against negative elements such as pornography and excessive violence. This is particularly important in order to protect children from being exposed to things they are not supposed to be exposed to.

  Nevertheless, censorship should never be abused. It should never be used to cover the truth, or distort it, no matter how sensitive it is. I once heard a famous phrase a long time ago, “The truth shall set you free”. Indeed, the truthfulness is an essential part of our human existence. Imagine everyone in this whole wide world lying to each other. Wouldn’t the outcome be catastrophic? Knowing that, we should never use censorship to blot out the truth.

  Censorship should never be done by “overzealous” people, i.e. the ultra-religious or extremely-politically minded kind. This would only result in extreme bias and what would I call, “over-censing”. Indeed, I admit that I do get frustrated sometimes when seemingly harmless scenes from a movie gets “edited” just because it contained  ideas or “segments” that are deemed “not suitable” by certain groups. Besides that, those whose are extremely-politically minded might use censorship as a means to spread propaganda. In my opinion, this is not right. I’m not against the use of mass media for campaigning purposes, but I’m truly against censorships that will result in bias information that will potentially mislead the general populace.

  Overall, in the way that I see it, censorships is just a matter of pros and cons. In one part, we can ignore it benefits, yet we could never really count on it as it is sometimes misuse. Thus, there seems only one way to properly handle this ―using conventional wisdom.

The film “Triumph of the Nerds: Riding the Bear” deals primary with the initial introduction of the Personal Computer (PC), and the rise of Microsoft as a major company that produces the world’s most widely use Operating System (OS).

            After the Apple marketed one of the world’s first PCs, IBM too intended to enter the newly expanding PC market. IBM planned to used “Open Architecture” to come up with a PC within a year. They have almost everything, the keyboard, monitor etc, but they lack 1 thing, the OS and the computer language. Then two candidates came to mind, Bill Gates’ Microsoft and Gary Kildall’s Inter-galactic Digital Research. The most suitable candidate seemed to be Gary Kildall, nevertheless due to a stroke of luck, IBM turned away from Gary Kildall and instead choose Microsoft. It didn’t matter that Microsoft didn’t have an OS, but with only $50000, Microsoft bought an OS from an obscure small company and the rest was history. Microsoft was on the way to success…

            IBM reaped a fortune during the first few years, but rivals soon appeared. IBM was losing ground in the now rapidly expanding PC market. But Microsoft was still doing great since most of the rival company’s of IBM bought their OS from them.

            IBM fought back by creating the OS2, which was planned to overcome the clone issue. Microsoft’s business is being threaten, and they responded by creating Windows. A disagreement arose which soon caused the partnership between IBM and Microsoft to disintegrate.

            For a while IBM dominated the PC market, but soon it returned to become a mainframe producing company. Microsoft on the other hand, while “riding the bear”, rose to the top in the end.

In the film “Triumph of the Nerds: Impressing Their Friends”, it showcased the emergence of the Personal Computer (PC), and the “PC Revolution” that followed. Plus how it was all started by “nerds”…

            Earlier computers were not convenient. They were big, bulky, and required special care. Besides that, the operators need to learn a bunch of codes in order to operate it. And to add to the problem, every computer used different codes, known as “machine language”. It was not until Grace Hopper created the “computer language”, making the computer a bit more user friendly. Initially, computers were not given much attention. But some did take notice, the “nerds”. Microprocessors were soon created by Intel, replacing transistors and vacuum tubes, and it rolled the ball for what would be the “PC Revolution”.

            Nevertheless, Intel did not make good use of it creation, using it only for calculators etc, but someone did come up with something. In 1975, Ed Roberts introduced the world’s first PC, the Altair 8800. This stimulated the founding of computer clubs, one of them being the “Homebrew Club”. But it was practically useless, until Paul Allen came up with a “basic interpreter” or software for it, known as “Basic”. After a successful demonstration with “Basic” using the Altair, Paul Allen team up with Bill Gates and founded Microsoft in Albuquerque. Soon, by the end of 1975, a few companies producing micro-computer cropped out.

            The computer industry might not have taken off, if it were not for the Hippies. They caused the development of the PC industry. And in the “Homebrew Club”, a PC computer called Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

            Apple had a shaky beginning, but Steve Jobs turned to venture capital for funding. The result is the “Apple II”. The “Apple II” was a hit, being brilliantly designed by Steve Jobs. Sales and profits were so good that Apple soon have more money than they can spend. But the PC was still mostly for hobbyist. Then came the software and applications, which made the PC more useful. The first to appear is the spread sheet, VISICALC. At it came just at the right time, at a time when the commercial world was booming, and a spread sheet program was proofing to be really useful.

            The PC industry was developing rapidly, where a billion dollar industry was growing in Silicon Valley. PC companies have mushroomed to meet the enormous demand, but still Apple dominated the scene.

Why do people blog? What is this that so fascinated people that they would spend hours staring at the computer typing blog entries? One would wonder what the uses of blogs are and the reasons as to why they have such a profound effect on the generation of this modern era. Well, in order to study this question, one need to also look into the main purpose on why people blog.

Blogs are conventionally used as a platform for the masses to express their feelings and ideas. In more colloquial terms, it means that people uses blogs to showcase the events that are happening around them, their feelings that they felt as these things unrolled before them, including the things and issues that they went through. In another sense, blogs are modern day, electronic diaries, one where people would be free to express anything they want, without limitations or restrictions of any sort, being a catalyst for the free-flow of ideas. No one can stop you even when one is saying something that the others don’t like (If one are wise enough to remain anonymous), and one can just relate one’s story without the fear of being prosecuted or ridiculed. Thus, in recent times, innumerable blogs had popped up in the web, propagating various issues that affect us as humans. From the ecstasy and heartbreaks of love relationships, to the complexities of life struggles and agonies, blogs have so far satisfy the desire of the millions of people who blogged: they want to be heard.

Nevertheless, there are also those who have other purposes in mind. These guys use blogs as a tool to advance businesses. In it, they showcase their products and service, utilising a whole multitude of advertising and marketing strategies and means. This kind of blogs, known more commonly as “corporate blog”, exist not as platform for showcasing personal frets or joys, but this serve only one aim: business. Corporate people use them primary for marketing, public relations or branding. Besides that, corporate blogs are also used internally to encourage communication and culture in a certain organisation.

Blogs are also used in more recent times to help spread a certain news or current issue. As a side effect, most of these blogs also promote discussions about the said issue, and sometimes even prompting educational and (often) heated debates. Even so, one must be careful in discerning between fact and mere fiction, as blogs sometimes include unverified rumours that only serve to discredit a certain personality or to “add fuel into an already raging fire”. Thus, one should excise caution and not be easily swayed by tales that are only designed to ignite emotions or fan up hatred and distrust, fulfilling the will of unscrupulous characters that create such a thing.

However, there are still advantages in blogging, the main disadvantage of blogging is that maintaining a successful blog requires skilful research, professional writing skills and a huge commitment of time and effort. There simply is no such thing as a perfect marketing tool, or an effortless way to build traffic to any site, including blogs. The hard work in searching and writing is a complex and extremely time-consuming task. So, far from blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, in that they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization. A blog that isn’t kept up to date quickly loses its lustre and its audience.

Blogs are writing intensive. Most people would rather have root canal than write something coherent, pithy and provocative every day. It takes talent, skill and training to write down ideas clearly and make them interesting to read. Most people don’t have very much to say that’s interesting, and/or are unable to write down their ideas in a compelling and clear manner. We have often found that the people who have most time to write have least to say, and the people who have most to say don’t have enough time to write it. Thus, the real expertise within the organization lays hidden, as you get drowned in trivia.

Blog software is cheap and easily configured. However, you need to have a designer customize the appearance and navigation of your blog and set up templates to make using it easy for you. It takes time, effort, and skilful promotion to build an audience for a blog. Just like a newsletter, report, Website or e-book, driving traffic to a blog requires marketing.

Blogging is a medium for people to express their own thought. However, the cons of blogging cannot be ignored. We have to use blog as a way that it should be.

By:Teoh Tian Ran
      Tai Tzu Lee
      Lim Eu Joon
      Ng Teck Hun

We live in an organised world. Everywhere we turn our eyes, we see things systematically organised, be it in our transportation system, commerce, industrial etc. The maintenance of such order does not exclude the humble PC and other multimedia devices. In every software and programmes, organisation is ensured, instilling a sense of neatness and order.

  If you were to ask me how I organise my files, it seems best to me that I give you a simple example to illustrate this. Out of all, I utilised my laptop’s and desktop’s Window’s Media Player the most. Indeed, I have other programmes installed, like Winamp and i-Tunes, but between these three, I still prefer the Window’s Media Player. I saved all my audio files there, and frequently turn it on whenever I’m using my PC to surf the Net or when I’m engaged in other miscellaneous activities that requires multimedia assistance.

  In my player, my audio files are saved in the player’s Library. They are then organised into a few categories, namely Recently Added, Artist, Album, Songs, Genre, Year and Ratings. These are grouped as Primary Views. And there are also several other minor categories such as Contributing Artist, Composer, Parental Rating, Online Stores and Folder, which are grouped as Additional Views. Nevertheless, I seldom venture into Additional Views, and usually only utilise those under Primary Views.

  Under the category Artist, the names of all the artists are listed down according to alphabetical order. I usually find my songs under this category as I usually upload my songs album by album. This means that my songs are uploaded by bulk. Under the artist’s name, it’s written the number of the songs by that artist, the total playing time and the artist’s ratings.

  Meanwhile, in the Album category, every album available is listed down, and under them, the artist’s name. In this category, I can paste the album’s front cover, which can be downloaded from the Internet. Actually, all of the information related to the albums and songs can be downloaded from the Internet. And the best thing of all, I just need to click on “Search Album Info”, and everything will be done automatically.

  In Songs, every song is listed according to their order in the album, and they are displayed in one group as an album. Here, the song’s playing time, rating and artist are showcased. Besides that the composer’s name can also be retrieved. In this category, I can choose the songs that I want to listen to, and place them in the playing list. I usually do this if I don’t want to listen to the entire album. From here, I can pick and choose as I will. The songs’ genres are placed under the category Genre. Here, the genres are listed, and under them the total playing time of the songs under the said genre, and their ratings. Genres such R&B, Rock and Religious can be found here.

  In Year, the songs are displayed according to the year they were composed. Firstly, they are categorised by the decade, e.g. 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Then, under the decade, the specific year is listed, and in that year, the total playing time and the rating. I usually organised my songs under these few categories. The rest I do not prefer them as the information in them are too vague.

  Well, enough said. By now you should know how I organise my files.

Information Technology. What is this that influences our life so much? It’s all around us; it partially dictates us; it’s practically a crucial part of our life. From the moment we awake, IT greets us (in the form of our mobile phones), until the hour we retire to our slumber, IT hushes us onto the journey to dreamland (this being the task of the awesome i-pod). With this in mind, we can say that IT is here to stay. But as the field of IT continues to be developed into a higher level, we as human beings often forget to consider some of the small, though not insignificant, issue regarding IT. One of which being the implications that IT would have on our life and of its effects to the world that we live in, and subsequently our future.   

  One of the fields in which IT is often utilised is that of security. Not in the sense of preventing robbers from entering our houses, but more specifically security in terms of protecting our private information that are considered sensitive. Most of the time, unless an efficient, feasible and effective method is devised to guarantee the privacy of the users, problems such as identity theft etc, would continue to bother us in the future. The irony of the whole thing is that although many parties have assured their fellow users, the threat posed by unscrupulous characters like “hackers” is all too real and true. All a “hacker” needs to do in order to dig out, for example, our credit card numbers, is a programme and a few very general information that are related to us. They can just hack into the bank’s database with the assistance of a few programmes available, exposing our confidential banking information.   

  Governments and law enforcement agencies often try their best to exterminate such problems, but in reality, the masterminds behind all these troubles are often hard to track down. They operate under the shadows of the almost infinite cyber world, using a variety of aliases and false identities, which could take ages to detect. By the time they are traced, too much time could have been wasted, and the suspect would by then have taken his share and fled into obscurity.

  Most of the time, such malicious acts are driven by greed. But there are also those who are not drawn by the scent of money, but instead have only one purpose in mind, that is, to disrupt someone’s life. Think of it for a moment. Why would someone want to hack into our e-mail account? And why do people want to create viruses like Trojan Horse etc? It’s surely not because of money. No. These people are not motivated by greed, but they are doing it just for fun. Some just want to experience the “thrill”. Called it sheer madness or whatever you like, they give no heed to others.

  If such sensitive information were to fall into the wrong hands, the repercussions would be catastrophic. Imagine someone using your ATM PIN numbers to withdraw cash from your account, and not forgetting, using our credit cards to purchase items online. Also, our identities could be forged, and sold to those who are engaged in a host of unspeakable deeds. I once heard about someone in Malaysia who got in trouble with the Registration Department, because suddenly the department recorded him as “deceased”. Apparently there was another person who held an identical identity card, and that person was killed in an accident. Our stolen personal details could also be used by criminals to frame us for a crime that we did not commit.

  Since its first appearance, IT has so far been beneficial to advancement of the human race. Through IT, our lives have dramatically changed from a time where gears and steam rule, to an age where almost everything depends on electronics. The IT era is here to stay definitely; no one can dispute that fact anymore. Nevertheless, the negative sides of IT are still real, and unless we strife to counter these, the problems posed will continue to haunt us as long as IT exists.

Someone ask me not long ago, what will I miss the most if there is no IT one day. Well, to be honest, I will miss a whole lot of things should IT one day suddenly disappear from the face of the earth. I will surely miss my hand phone, for without it, my life would somehow seem to be disconnected from all the people around me. And I will also miss my computer and the Internet, for they are like my ‘second mind and body’, connecting me to a myriad of online material, and not to mention, helped me in most of my work. Nevertheless, I still can survive without these devices; the only thing that is dear to me is the television. Indeed, without it, I will somehow feel weird.

The television makes me feel more complete, more ‘lively’, for it showcases one of my passions— movies. Yeah, movies cure me of boredom and carry me to times and realms unknown, reachable only through the widest imaginations of mankind. And to be able to indulge in such pleasures almost everyday (through TV channels like Star Movies and HBO), well…. That’s what I call ‘exciting’… People might suggest going to the cinema, but I don’t think that my wallet can support such frequent trips there. So, TV is still my ‘friend’, for it still entertained me without burning a hole into my bank account. And the best thing is, I can watch the movies I fancy over and over again, as many times as I like. Hah, I’ve seen LOTR for more than 10 times, and Titanic for, erm…. well… I’ve lost count. And there are the others too! Haha…. You may call me a ‘movie fanatic’ if you want to…

Ah yes, I’m forgetting those TV series! 24, Heroes, The West Wing etc… Whoa, it’s like an addiction… Every week, I’ve to get a dose of Heroes in order to ‘function properly’… Haha…. Well, not in the literary sense, but just as a goal to aim for every week, in order to keep the spirits high. I remembered waiting for those shows every week, and then push everything (almost everything) aside so as to be able to enjoy my favorites without any distractions. Some may call it foolishness, and some may call me outdated (for those who are computer savvy), but hey! TV helped me survived secondary school. If I were just to immerse myself into the tons and tons of text books, I reckon that I would have gone mad long ago. It was TV who helped me to relax. At least in that one hour of show time, I’m able to just wind down and be adsorbed into the world of make-believe. In that moment, my mind is at ease, being free from the hassle and frustration of school work.

They say too much TV is bad for you. But in my case, I will say that TV is beneficial. It was through TV that I learned about Julius Caesar, and the might of Rome. TV also taught me who Hitler was, and of the things that the Imperial Japanese Navy did at Pearl Harbour.

  The solar system, our world, queer and interesting places, cold fusion etc, all these I have learned from just staring at the TV screen. And I knew all these even before they taught it in school. Who say TV is bad for you? Is the National Geographic Channel bad? I don’t think so… How about Discovery Travel and Living channel? Well, it opened my eyes to the countless fascinating places and people that are scattered around our great planet. Meanwhile, Jaime Oliver and Keith Floyd introduced me to the enjoyable art of cooking.

  Not to mention, all those years of chasing after Hong Kong and Taiwanese TV series imparted in me with the skill of speaking Cantonese and Hokkien. And I learnt a bit of German through the TV too! Well… I could say that television had been my personal tutor in the affairs of this world all these years…

  In simpler terms, television had played an integral role in my life. I couldn’t imagine what my life would be today without it. To me, television is such a blessing to mankind, and I salute the mastermind behind its creation. Computers I can live without, mobile phones I can still do away, but not television…

Finally… After so long, i’ve finally created my own blog… Haha…. And that’s after I’ve came to Bandoeng…

Well my brothers and sisters, if you found my blog to be a bit queer, (and you surely will, after a few days), it’s just my IT assignments… Hehe…. If you reading this Pak Budi, I just wanna say hello!!! ("D)

Wish everyone all the best in your studies! Contact you guys later when I have the time…

God bless!!!