Of open source, security and collaboration
I had the privilege of being a panelist at the inaugural “India Digital Open Summit” held in Mumbai, India on
Category: Uncategorized
Joseph Schooling should not be the last
It was a supreme delight to have been able to sing Majulah Singapura (the video cannot be viewed because the
Lots of rescued data
I had finally managed to rescue one of many drives that had documents and articles I wrote from the 90s
Remember, Remember The Eleventh of September. Majulah Singapura.
My extended family will be voting sometime today. My wife and I will be exercising our right to vote at
Ensuring that this gets as wide a read as possible before September 11, Polling Day
This has been circulating in the chat groups on telegram.org and whatsapp.com and want it to be as widely read
And the games have begun
Oh, the classic off-by-one error. All of us who were expecting the polling day to be September 12, started counting
To keep things in context
Just so that we don’t get distracted with all the SG50 festivities and forget key historical details, here’s some of
A special moment in time
It is sad that Achan (dad in Malayalam) is not around to watch and take part in the festivities around
Completely missing the point about silly mobile “data plans”
I have on my cell phone a “plan” that gives me 50G of mobile data. When I first got the
Secure E7y Nomadic Toolkit
I spoke about creating the Secure E7y Nomadic Toolkit at FOSSAsia 2015. Here’s the video recording and the link to
The rain on the parade made it meaningful
Thank you, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. You gave your whole life to this country of ours. My parents, my siblings,
Congratulations, Howie!
I am pleased to have had the opportunity to contest for the post of the president of the Singapore Computer
homage
This was penned by my sister, Srila. It is Nineteen Seventy-five Thirteen years of age Be aware of the world
Charting the future of the Singapore Computer Society
As some of you might know, I am a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society. That honour was conferred on
Congratulations Class of 2014 Republic Polytechnic
I am honoured to be invited to be the guest of honour and speaker at this year’s graduation at the
Rest in peace, my friend!
It’s a tough day today. Got into office and heard that a colleague passed away. He killed himself. He killed
It’s not a contest per se, it’s a Sahana-moment!
So, my 3 am post from January 3rd 2013 is now on http://www.tremeritus.com, probably not a good thing, but then this is
Thank you, Mr Lee!
As the date to the dissolution of the current parliament looms paving way for the parliamentary elections, I would like
Virtualization and the Internet
I had the privilege of speaking to a great group of network operators as part of the South Asian Network
2010 in review
[Personal note: I moved to wordpress.com from livejournal.com because I was rather disappointed with the lack of community around livejournal.com’s
Interesting stuff this week!
I have the pleasure of attending two interesting events this week – both in India. One is FOSS.in in Bangalore
Doing the Right Thing
Really nice to see that there are people with the right motivations and ability to live their lives in honesty.
Brother DCP-135C and Fedora 12
I was disappointed that the Brother DCP-135C is not within the CUPS database. However, kudos to Brother, they do make
Temporary fix to run Chromium in Fedora 12
Filed in BZ: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=550651 Just updated Chromium via Spot’s page using yum update for Fedora 12. SELinux permission issues on
Digital Restrictions Mismanagement or in Microsoft-speak RMS Restriction Mismgt System
Why would anyone continue to put any more credibility with the entire Digital Restrictions (mis)Management that our Redmond friends continue
Deviant Linux? Normal Microsoft computer?
This was on a mailing list and thought I should publish it here for posterity. (Tech Support | California, USA)
The Singapore Dilemma
So, the PSLE results came out today, November 26 2009. My son did well (got 3As and an A*) and
Fedora 12 launch at Singapore Polytechnic
Happy to have helped with the launch of Fedora 12 at the Singapore Polytechnic. It was a lunch and learn
Good to be recognized
Quietly pleased to be recognized with a Merit Award from Spring Singapore for “meritorious service and contribution to the Singapore
Acer Aspire One D250, Fedora and Android
My Mom was asking me for a small laptop for her to use and I figured that the best thing
US PTO Fail – approves sudo patent
I truly wonder how the US PTO can even grant US Patent 7,617,530 in the first place. It is not
Seeing excitement in the eyes of instructors! – Morning of Day 4 of POSSE.
It was a real delight to see the level of excitement when we did the document creation and editing at
Standards meeting today
Looking forward to a meeting on open standards later this afternoon with a couple of people from Microsoft. Should be
Keeping a portfolio of accomplishments – an epiphany
Mention portfolio to an artist, and she will be only too happy to show off the work she has done.
StarHub’s prepaid mobile broadband SIM activation via SMS
This is really a note-to-self because the StarHub website http://www.starhub.com/maxmobileprepaid/selfhelp is horribly broken (aka it needs and works with Internet
POSSE Singapore
Coming to the 2nd half of day 1 of the first ever POSSE in Singapore. Working on how to use
Setting up the HTC Dream to work with StarHub prepaid broadband
StarHub’s prepaid mobile broadband is annoying to use! Urggh. Appended is the settings that I have to add to the
So I was wrong!
In this post done in 2006, I predicted a few things, but the one that is closest to being spot
Run Out Date
Today, October 15, 2009, I complete my obligations to serve my country in the uniformed services. Today, I stand down
Saving Singapore’s SOE – scrap it!
Isn’t something to read that India could save US$2billion if FOSS is adopted at 50% levels in India. Compare that
As SOEasy crashes and burns, Singapore’s Ministry of Education does the Right Thing
What a pleasant surprise to read that the Singapore Ministry of Education has signed a deal to deploy Google Apps
Welcoming to the Right Side of history
I think it is very early to welcome Microsoft to the right side of the history of computing and consumption
MSFT’s analysis of security
I was asked by @tonynewling for my take on “Vista One Year Vulnerability Report”. I finally got time to look
reminder: rescuing an installed Linux machine – Fedora
Last Friday I promised a good friend that I will provide him with a LiveCD that contains a bunch of
Taking the Singapore Pledge at 8:22 pm (1222 UTC) on August 9th 2009
Happy National Day! Here’s the pledge which we can recite at 8:22 pm – the time is chosen because that
My Virtual Chumby!
Ajay’s channel:
Perhaps I should do this!
I have been contemplating getting the LG X110 netbook but without the Windows installed in it. Given that Amazon readily
Red Hat’s CEO on CNBC Asia today
Video clip of interview of Jim Whitehurst CEO of Red Hat on CNBC Asia today in Singapore.
Missing the point about commercial open source
I cannot but emphatize with the post and his sentiment. The key point is in engaging and work with community
Simple yet effective solution!
It is these simple innovations that bring a smile to my engineer heart! I did not quite think of all
LG’s X110 netbook and Fedora
I was roaming around Sim Lim yesterday and came across a LG X110 netbook. These days I tend to carry
So MS has code in the Linux kernel, big deal.
While it is nice to see Microsoft playing nicely (for once) with the Linux and GPL space with their device
It was today 40 years ago!
As I recall and share with my sons and wife about how I felt 40 years ago watching on our
Another silly MS patent bites the dust!
Kudos to Tridge in working to remove another of the MS alleged patents that they claim is infriged upon by
This is so funny!
It is ever so nice to have a good belly laugh and all thanks to @osrin who tweeted that he
Congrats, Viswa!
I am really happy to note that my good buddy will become a Nominated Member of Parliament. The only link
No one gets fired for buying Microsoft? Not at the London Stock Exchange!
Simply a great story reaffirming how the failure of technical leadership and fundamental understanding about the need to have a
Congratulations to the NZ Government!
It is heartening to read that the NZ government’s negotiations with MS for NZgovt to fork out more money to
When will MS try to overturn this?
For every attempt at doing the right thing, there will be the MS Mafia who will go in to reverse
[SG Politics] Changes in SG political engagement?
Am intrigued about the proposals that are to be put forward by the establishment about some changes in how politics
Work To Rule
What a great post by Jeremy !Of all people, he knows how to do interoperability right. He had to reverse
Is Wolfram Alpha interesting?
Looks like Wolfram Alpha might be an interesting “new” idea. It does challenge one’s tried and familiar way of how
MDA losing it’s focus?
While I would be kinder to the MDA, I think this article is quite telling. The two agencies (EDB and
How you get information
Looking at the charts, it sorta confirms what I have always felt – that traditional TV and traditional newspapers are
Failed leadership
I’ve always thought that Sony Corporation was a business that was both innovative and cool. But to hear their CEO
Thinning of the coding ranks
Rather bleak report about the thinning of coders globally. This will have a huge impact on how software gets written
MS forking ODF? They would love to.
By the looks of it, I cannot but feel that MS has found a way to fork the ODF 1.1
MS’ new OS still needs anti-virus software?
I was really tickled to read a tweet from someone in the Seattle area who wanted to run some new
When supporting a standard is not supporting a standard
I applaud Distesh for his post. It is a well known tactic of Microsoft to go about saying that they
Engage, embrace, extinguish
This is not the first time that Redmond company has seen it fit to take a well-worn and engineered solution
[Singapore] Some fun memes from the AWARE EGM
Here are some fun memes from the EGM of AWARE that happened on Saturday, May 2, 2009. a) “Shut Up
[Politics/Religion] Learned two new words today
Two terms that I did not need to know about: Steeplejacking, and http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/21/171257/854>Joel’s Army. I guess it is important to
Lessons in activism
It was really endearing to watch the tweets that were being generated under the #awaresg tag regarding the extraordinary general
[Politics] Singapore NMP forms
#fb The Nominated Member of Parliament nominations for 2009 were opened in early April 2009. Unfortunately, inspite of all the
Geek Camp in Philippines with Fedora 10!
Happy to see Fedora 10 cds making it’s way into the Philippines! Well done, Herson!
MS Silly Patents
Pertinent article about the Tom Tom bullying by Microsoft. Linux Defenders 911 for anyone being threatened by patent suites.
ZDnet covers the MS “interop” event
Unfortunately, ZDnet is not quite accurate in their reporting. See my response at http://harishpillay.livejournal.com/154849.html. #fb
Cloud computing’s IaaS video from gogrid
Interesting video about cloud computing from the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) perspective. Need one each for for SaaS and
Testing true app api
testing to see if this post makes it to twitter and then to #fb
MS Interoperability event – summary
[Updated on April 29th because of ZDnet’s inaccurate reporting] The OIN gets assigned all the patents that then come under
Singapore ranked 16th in the Open Source Index!
Red Hat and Georgia Tech did an academic study about how Open Source fares around the world. The site has
Wonder who will attend?
Got wind of an interop event next week. Looks like it is about document standards, but it is not entirely
Instruction Manual for Life
This is right up my world view. Kudos to the authors!
What a delight!
I am really delighted to read about Ushahidi, Swahili for testimony. It is a Kenyan open source project that was
BSA Wins (again) on sleeze
I am not going to provide the link to the BSA’s site that has some videos and photos (I am
Beware the Bearer of April Fools tools
Is this an April Fool’s offer? So, MS is kind enough to offer a “stripped down” version of their “server
Yet another reason why software patents are stupid!
While it is a windfall for the person mentioned, and it is nice to see Microsoft paying out more money
MS continuing to block sales of Linux on Netbooks?
I think this article is a rehash, but I am sure that there is still some grain of truth in
[Singapore] Open Government and Open Parliament
I posted a very cynical comment but there is a bigger issue at play. There has never been any degree
[SG Politics] How many ministers does Singapore have?
I continue to be amazed by the utter waste of tax-payer monies that goes to pay the ministers who, on
DiaS’pura!
Just stumbled upon DiaS’pura. Love the play on words – diaspora + singapura. For the non-Singaporeans, Singapura is Singapore in
Goodbye Encarta
It took a while to happen, but MS Encarta has finally been pulled. With Wikipedia rules! Power to the community!
Is programming a dirty job?
A though provoking talk by Mike Rowe at TED about dirty jobs. Is coding/programming a dirty job then? How do
code::XtremeApps 2009 – Python, Android and Squeak
Just got pointed to PyCon 2009@Chicago. Kinda timely as the code::XtremeApps 2009 will have in the open category python and
[Politics, sorta] Botnets and espionage
It cannot be that governments in south east Asia are so naive that their computers are compromised and has become
understanding the meaning of email forwarding
I am appalled to hear some members of the Singapore Computer Society complaining about their email forwarding having a hickup.
USB booting capability resisted by MS in Taiwan?
Interesting article about how MS is trying it’s best to thwart the ability to boot from the USB port with
Document Freedom Day!
Happy Document Freedom Day! It is fundamentally crucial that the world is kept aware of the need to ensure that
Kudos to TomTom in joining the Open Invention Network!
It is a fantastic move by Tom Tom to join the Open Invention Network. Let’s continue to build a patent
Note to self – building a custom kernel for Fedora
Now that it is better documented, I am putting this up as a note to self.