tweaking by the twit

I did it again! I thought my old dexterity with anything computers would help me improve the look of my blogsite.  So I began downloading some of the free xml codes that I got from the many sites on the net. somehow, I didnt do it right (again). I lost some of my old links and xml codes like the visitors tracker and my kids' photos.  I will have to rebuild the blog again!how frustrating! grrrrr....

I have always thought that I have been a computer geek.  When I was at school, I was amongst the first one who managed to get hold of the commodore 64.  Yes it was running on 64 kilobytes of RAM and back then we had to use cassettes to install any program or to save anything as there was no such thing as floppy discs (my daughter asked me what is that?) and let alone cdrw!.  I thought it was the coolest possession that I had which I bought with my own savings from the monthly allowance that I got as a scholarship student in Singapore. computers were then very abstract. I remember wordstar was the few word processing software available and after that wordperfect entered the market. before the windows operating system (was it 3?) came into the foray, you would need to learn a lot of the c command. And now things have all changed but I dont know if its for the better or worse as the endless arrays of softwares, tools and sites available are just mind boggling! Just the other day I got an email from a friend asking me to "twitter"? I am sure it was a mass email generated by the program. So the question now is should I or should I not twitter? I have been using facebook for a while and I have to say now I began to get hooked to it simply because of its simplicity (I use my nokiae90 to "fb") and like what I said in my previous posting, it is indeed very useful for me to get connected with my friends and relatives all over the world. 

But the downside of this technologies and the always-connected life, there is this constant urge and expectation to always be up-to-date on my emails and on the web. I have this constant urge to find answers for every question that comes to my head and by googling you are bound to get the answers in a matter of seconds. Indeed the amount of information available for free on the net is the biggest pull factor on why it is the greatest invention that mankind has ever come up.  But what if there is a force behind all this? What if the search engines that are being developed are tweaked in such away that information that promotes a certain cause or propaganda goes on top of the search list? is this not possible? (oh no, I have gone deeper now in this conspiracy theory)

But really? Take wikipedia for instance, one of the noblest inventions that the internet has managed to come up. As we all know it is a free encyclopedia built by contributors like you and me. 

But can we rely on the information from wikipedia especially those that can affect certain political or legal cause? That can affect the minds of the people who read them? Can wikipedia be used for some clandestine purpose for instance as a tool by Governments as one of its open source for its propaganda machine?

I have tried to pick up one particular interest in my heart.  The issue of Limbang which has been a disputed territory as it was annexed illegally by Rajah Brooke of Sarawak in 1890. This is what I got from wikipedia and I managed to trace the IP (internet protocol) address of the person(s) contributing the information on wikipedia as is:

The two countries agreed, via the signing of Exchange of Letters on 16 March, 2009, to settle their boundary issues and demarcate their common border according to the five historical agreements, of which the two directly concern Limbang, and to use the watershed principle to fill in the gaps. This essentially reaffirms the current de facto boundary without major deviation and has led Malaysia to declare that the Limbang Question has been settled with Malaysia having unequivocal ownership over Limbang.{{cite web |url=http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=396573 | title=Brunei Drops Territorial Claim Over Limbang | accessdate=2009-03-17 |author=Hafizah Kamaruddin |date=March 17, 2009 |publisher=''[http://www.bernama.com.my [[Bernama]]]''}} Brunei however immediately denied Malaysian press reports, saying the Limbang Question was never discussed during negotiations for the Letters of Exchange.{{cite web |url=http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/mar18h1.htm | title=Brunei denies Limbang story | accessdate=2009-03-23 |author=Azlan Othman |date=March 18, 2009 |publisher=''[http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/ [[Borneo Bulletin]]]''}} Malaysia subsequently said the Limbang Question will be settled when the survey and demarcation of the boundary between the two countries is completed.{{cite web |url=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/20/nation/3518846&sec=nation | title=Limbang border to be set | accessdate=2009-03-20 |author=Nurbaiti Hamdan |date=March 20, 2009 |publisher=''[http://www.thestar.com.my [[The Star]]]''}}

Now, isnt Bernama an official government news agency?

Your guess is just as good as mine.

Standing Orders of our LegCo

If you have ever attended the debate at our Legislative Council, you would have noticed that the atmosphere is a lot more formal with real decorum than any of those theatrics and sometimes violent scenes that you see in parliament houses of other countries (or territory?) like Taiwan. We don’t see our YBs hurl abuses at each other or like you see in Taiwan Parliament some of them even end up trading punches.  Parliament as a very important branch of Government should actually place itself with dignity as it is part of a symbol of a sovereign country.  After all that is the place where the laws of the land debated and get enacted.  I am very glad since the very beginning of our Majlis Mesyuarat Negeri  (now Majlis Mesyuarat Negara) we have not seen such unsightly incidents.

I am very sure that every legislative council or parliament of any country has a set of rules on how it runs its debate.  In Brunei, the Constitution provides a subsidiary legislation (which is a kind of a “smaller” law) that governs the conduct of proceedings of the Council and its called the Standing Orders.   When the council is in session, the members or the YBs who are not speaking shall not cross the floor of the Council unnecessarily or read newspapers, books, letters or other documents except those which are directly connected with the business of the Council and if there are no rules provided under the standing orders or the Brunei Constitution, they can actually adopt the practice or rules that are currently being practiced by the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.  

So if you have any ambition of becoming a YB in the future, knowing these rules is a good starting ground.  

Can Facebook make you a lot less smarter?

This actually just comes out.  Based on a study of 219 students at Ohio State University , suggests that the more you use Facebook, the less you study, and the worse your grades get. However, the report’s author does say the report only shows a possible connection between Facebook use and lower performance in your studies.  So can the conclusion be that Facebook make you a lot less smarter?

Well, I am one of those many millions who have a facebook account. I wouldn't want to admit that finding as scientific though. I somehow find Facebook useful to get in touch with my friends and see what they are up to.  I use it to express my personal thoughts and sometimes poke a bit of fun at my lil brother and friends over football especially when Liverpool FC gets beaten. Like tonite, Liverpool is supposed to have its return match against Chelsea FC.  My crystal ball says they will get beaten by the Blues..hehehe..To my lil brother Hazami..sorry dear.

All good things must come to an end

All good things must come to an end and this includes my 21 day long vacation.  Today is my last day of the 21 day leave and I have to get back to work this saturday.  The thought of coming back to work is really quite a mixed feeling.  Somehow I do miss my office, my desk, my pc and of course the everyday challenges that I have to face when it comes to dealing with managing an organisation.  On the other hand the 21 days that I take to get my mind off work is really refreshing. I know I am not going to have the same opportunity again of getting up in the morning according to my own sweet time or spending almost every day in the golf course or at my favourite kopi tiam or at a restaurant eating dimsum. I am pretty well rested all right but I am going to miss all the stress free activities that I do when I am on leave. 

I am supposed to get up early tomorrow as I am invited to play in the ASEAN Law Association Golf Tournament.  The Association, ALA for short is an ASEAN fraternity of lawyers both in the Government and the private sector in the region and these include judges and the attorney generals.  I have been invited to participate as in the past.  We had a small reception this afternoon organised by our Law Society at the Empire Golf Club. I was glad to see some of my old friends from Singapore. Anyway I need to log off now.  I need a good rest for the tournament.

PKL and PIKB

I am now attending the PKL and PIKL awards ceremony at the palace. This is the time of the year that 100s of recipients of the honours q up to receive the awards from our crown prince. You can see the faces of the recipients glowing as some of them would have waited years to receive the awards. It is a kind of recognition to them for their contribution to the state and the people of this country. Some of my old pals were on the list.. so a big heartiest congrats to them. Im now technically on leave but I have to attend today's function as I need to replace the one I missed last thursday. Somehow as usual i completely forgot that i had a function to attend last thursday. As usual i will have to come up with a written excuse to the state protocol dept for not attending. They probably think that im running out of excuses if i said i completely had forgotten about it.

Looking forward to my vacation

I have been out of the internet at home for awhile. I was so fed up with the slow connection so I terminated the service. Now Im using GoBroadband and in fact this posting is made on my nokia e90 via email whilst caught in the traffic jam (I am not driving). So starting from now on, i will only be doing short postings as I am just not used to the small key pad and the tiny screen.
I will be taking my long vacation starting this saturday. Im taking the kids to kuching to visit my sister who happens to stay there now as the husband is working at the consulate office. Its funny after the bruhuha of Limbang I chose Kuching as my holiday destination. My old pal at AGC cheekily poked a bit of fun on me saying that if I got a 'dato patinggi' then they know who the traitor is! Hehe not a long shot..I am a true born bruneian. I wished i could write more but not now. When the time is write i probably will. But for now, i just want to let the whole thing die down. Im so looking forward to my vacation...

Waiting nervously for the big moment

Today will mark a new beginning in the history of this country as we will have a recognised maritime border. I am very proud that I have been part of that process. It does mean a lot to this country as it will guarantee a continuing prosperity of this country for many years to come. just check on the news...