BERSIH came twice with protests on the streets and garnered a huge publicity. Upheavals in the Middle East brought down governments and don't even get me started on the countless of revolutions which happened over the past hundreds of years. Riots and panic caused a lot of damage and even death to some of the people caught in the stampede. Most of this time, it all takes a bit of spark to set off the mob mentality.

Nowadays, we take that very same mentality to the internet. First we had the case where a video of a guy punishing his poodle and that was publicized on all social media networks from Facebook to Youtube to blogs and even news portals. Then came many more rantings and created that mob mentality online. It all just takes a spark and the whole internet community became enraged.

The problem is that, as much as we say that facts are sometimes turned around on our news and mainstream media, I tend to see the same thing happening on the internet as well.

Take this story about a bartender in the US of A, she waited on a couple one night at the bar and lo and behold, when the couple left and paid for their drinks, they didn't leave a tip. That might seem normal here especially in Malaysia where service charge is already charged into our bills but in the states, it is deemed as rude not to leave a tip.

A normal tip usually ranges from 15-20% and whenever I travelled to the states, I made sure I used an app on my iPhone to help me calculate my bill when eating out (which I do anyway since I was travelling).

The worse part for that bartender was that, the couple also wrote a small note on the receipt.

p.s. You could stand to loose a few pounds

Image source: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/

By the way, that's "lose" instead of "loose".

Anyway, she became enraged and posted this receipt on her Facebook page and the thing just went viral. She gotten tonnes of support from people and they even started researching for this alleged person who left the note and the no tip and when they found the guy, a whole hate smear campaign onslaught went on.

The problem with the whole entire episode was that the bartender, gotten the wrong guy! I guess with "gwailo" fellas, a first and a last name such as John Smith (just an example, the guy's name wasn't John Smith) would be extremely common.

I can just imagine that one day just waking up and finding out that half the internet community is knocking on your social media door asking for comments or just plain bashing you in.

Of course the news site have then issued apologies here, here and here. But the damage has been done already. So the next time you decide to start an online vigilante campaign, just make sure that you do your own proper research and homework before hitting out on innocent folks out there.

After countless of announcements, twists and turns, the 1Malaysia email project which was at first announced as a national initiative but then changed to a private initiative, to me it seemed like it was going to be another waste of time, and money, and perhaps my sanity as well. So here is what I actually think about the initiative.

So our Prime Minister has declared that it is a fully private initiative and no public funds will be used for this project. Great, what I am more concerned is that, how much are they going to charge the government for the service and would those rates be competitive compared to other service providers. Why this is important? Because I pay taxes and I don't want the government to use my tax money on useless initiatives which does not benefit any of the rakyat.

Then came this article on TMI.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Those signing up for the controversial 1 Malaysia email service will have to sign up by buying a USB-biometric device sold by Tricubes Berhad or go to any National Registration Department office to get their myemail.my account activated, the company said today.

Tricubes chief executive officer Khairun Zainal Mokhtar said users get a basic account for free but will have to pay if they want their mails to be more “secure” with encryption

So from a free email for everyone, we need to buy a USB biometric device sold by them (apparently to make it more secure) and then pay an additional fee to make it secure. And then they say they want to charge the government RM0.50 for each email sent. Now seriously, RM0.50 for each email sent? Are you kidding me? Worse of all, if they just spammed email to email accounts which are incorrect, will the government be charged for those as well?



With all these extra charges, it really is just a waste of time and money and I personally see no benefit at all that it can provide to me. In all fairness, here are some of the promises they provided.

• myemail works just like regular email and more. Get notices, news and replies from government agencies directly to your MyEmail inbox. You never have to sign up for another email account ever!


• With 25GB of storage you can store documents, photos, etc. online in the cloud and finding emails is easy with the built in search tool.


• Create, edit and save Microsoft® Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents using yourmyemail id. Access those documents anywhere by using your browser.


• You don’t need to learn anything new. Send, receive and save emails securely usingmyemail, just like you would with regular email.

And after all of these complaints and rants on our social networks, it is finally said and reported that Tricubes is relying on this project or it will be delisted from Bursa. There we go, the real truth behind a company that is fighting to stay in Bursa by offering "free" emails to Malaysians. Why is it required that they have to come up with the 1Malaysia email to stay listed?



Their target is to achieve a sign up rate of 5.4 million users within 6 months. That is quite a large target and frankly, I wouldn't want to sign up for it as well as I would deter everyone I know from signing up with the email service. But then again, everyone I do know are smart enough not to sign up for it.

It's not just about the integrity of the whole project and why suddenly you get extra charges such as USB devices as well as paying for additional security, its also about the technology behind it and the stuff that they offer. Personally I have stopped using my Hotmail emails mainly because I hate the cluttered layout of the Hotmail web interface. Secondly, my Gmail is so integrated with the other tools within the Gmail suite that I wouldn't bother creating another email account on top of all the other email accounts I already have.

Seriously, I think Tricubes can come out with a better idea and service to provide in order to stay afloat in Bursa especially since they spent so much cash on R&D.

Also to note that this initiative is meant to enhance the delivery of public services. In all logical thinking, as a member of the public, I perceive that public services is enhanced through efficient means and puts less stress on the public. In short terms, this should equate to less waiting time for the public, less queues, less paperwork and red tape, quick turnaround time and many other ways to enhance the delivery service. With all of the more convenient ways I can think of, using and adding on another burden of another email account is NOT convenient for the user.

• I have to think of another password to remember for this new 1Malaysia account mainly because if I use the same password as other email accounts, it wouldn't be secure anymore


• I have to consider PAYING EXTRA just to get a more secure connection


• I have to bring around the USB Biometric device, I probably have to buy another one at some exorbitant fee should I misplace mine or if it gets stolen


• I have no guarantee's on the performance of the email since I just clicked on http://www.myemail.my and after 5 minutes, the site hasn't loaded yet.


• If I changed my email to this email, I have to tell everyone, resubscribe my newsletters and update various websites/forums/groups with my new email address. Doesn't seem so convenient for me.

Anyway I leave it up to you to decide on whether it will be beneficial or more convenient for you by using myemail.my. Personally, I would definitely perceive better delivery of public services if they were to use my email address which I have already stated in so many government forms. I am sure the government can channel their funds to focus more on ways to make our lives better and convenient.

I've got quite a number of blog posts which have been sitting in draft mode for the longest time! And to include that in, I've got a number of photo folders filled with RAW images which have been crying for my attention but most of the time, that has sort of eluded me. I guess its the end of the year where I've got a lot of things to clear up.

It is also the peak season whereby everyone is getting married so most of my weekends are used up for wedding shoots. The lack of a permanent internet connection at home is also another factor. Yes, I have been bugging TM non-stop of when Unifi will be installed in my apartment.

In September I asked them, they replied October

In October I asked them, they replied November

In November I asked them, they replied December

In November I tried asking them twice and even lied that I said a contractor came and installed it for my neighbour, their only response was that I was lying and it is not in their system. In my defence, the contractor did say that Unifi was available (but he was installing a phone line for another unit and not Unifi) and even TM Marketing called me to inform me that Unifi was available.

In December I called them, they replied at the end of the month.

I might as well give up soon, still have to rely on my Maxis Broadband connection instead.

The iPad was launched in Malaysia last week, loads of people got it and I saw a huge crowd around it at Epicenter at Pavilion last night. Still, I wonder, what can it really be used for? I started a thread at a local forum and judging from the responses I get, most people tend to agree with me that in terms of business wise, unless your company has applications which supports it, most of the time, its mainly used for leisure. Mine has kept me entertained especially on long flights, bus rides and while waiting.

iOS 4.2 was also released for the iPad and I am really glad that I can reduce the number of pages that I have and organize everything in folders. Downside is that I really did see a drop in terms of my battery performance as I have applications running in the background which I forget to kill.

So if you have an iPad, what do you use your iPad for?

It is so true that practice makes perfect. I really need to find the time to practice shooting a lot more often. Although I have been shooting during weekends, but that is only a small amount compared to the real amount I should be shooting.

Tomorrow, I shall start bringing my camera about and start shooting a little more. Over the weekend I shot someone's profile photo and I will share them in another post (coming soon) but as I do a lot more post processing, I learned that when the model gets impatient, I get impatient and try to take shots very quickly so that they don't feel too tired. In the end, I ended up with more shots that aren't useable (badly composed, exposed incorrectly and sometimes even blur).

One of the things I do learn from my golf lessons is to actually be a little bit more patient. So I do definitely have to make sure that I be a little more patient with my shot, my composition and the way I position myself so that I get everything right on camera and not have to waste so much time post processing those shots.

Anyway I am just ranting away because I was supposed to bring my camera to the office today to do a little bit of shooting during lunch time but I forgot because I rushed out of the house. Maybe I can bring it to cell group tonight to get a couple of shots of the cell group. Sounds like a plan to me!

Upcoming for the next three weeks will be two wedding shoots and a portraiture shoot. I am so looking forward to all of them especially the one next week where I will be travelling down to Singapore to shoot my uni mate's wedding. But for now, I shall concentrate on the one this weekend at Banker's Club. I will be shooting with Grace of Integricity Visuals and I hope to put in at least 10% of what I learned over at Louis' workshop.

Yes, I am taking baby steps and applying my newly imparted knowledge in every shoot. And to help me improve, I am looking for any couples who would like to have a portraiture shoot. I already have a couple of my friends lined up (see its good to have a friend who is a photographer) who want to have a shoot and it is priced at a very low price. Very very low. Of course this is all subject to a few terms and conditions. If you want to know more, do check out my contact details on my online portfolio.

Until then...