Bill Gates Giving Away His $$$?

What a load of rubbish! This email is more ‘$#&%’ than ‘$$$’!

This is a bloody hoax. And it is, as it had been circulating around the internet for a good 10 years or more.

It is so very annoying. Bill Gates giving away his fortune? If that is true, he would now probably be sleeping in the streets or under some bridge. I am very sure many of you have received an email that looks like the one shown below.

*****

Dear Friends,

Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet comp ani es and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks!, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

*****

There may be some variations in the above version, but the stories are fundamentally similar. I admit to having fallen victim to this notorious hoax many years ago, but who can blame a 13-year-old who had just gotten his first computer? The problem is that many a times I usually receive this email from friends who usually belong (apparently) to the right portion of a intelligence distribution curve.

There are people who are supposedly mature (and intelligent) enough yet fail to understand that in there is no free lunch in this world.

Even if Bill Gates did intend to pay that amount of money for every email sent and received, there are some nagging issues as to why this fact cannot possibly hold water:

1. The world population currently stands at close to 7 billion people. The global average internet penetration rate, as of March 2009 is 23.8 percent (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm), and that accounts for some 1.6 billion people. If 2 in every 10 persons of these1.6 billion people forward the email to an additional 5 persons (they usually forward to everyone in their address books anyway), that accounts for some 320,000,000 persons forward that email to 5 times that amount, assuming that every one of these 5 persons are unique. This is further compounded by the fact that this email has been (and still is) in circulation for more than a decade, almost guaranteeing that every single internet-user on earth has seen this email at least once. If say, a ‘modest’ number of people, 50 million, for instance, actually did receive a check of USD 200  from Bill Gates for forwarding this mail in the time-span of 1 year, that makes a total of 10 billion dollars to give away every year, and that is a huge chunk of Microsoft’s annual revenues. This is also one reason why Ponzi schemes eventually fail.

2. The second reason is a total no-brainer: Isn’t it easier to just give it away the good old-fashioned way? For that reason, there is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Simple and convenient, and it certainly beats forwarding spam and wasting server resources.

Identifying Spam

Spam is relatively easy to identify. More often that not, spam is often characterized by three common traits:

1. Email that you don’t want (d-uh).
2. Usually ends with a note encouraging it’s circulation, either with a ‘bad luck’ note (like saying that you’ll die tomorrow if you don’t forward the mail) or with one promising reward (as in the example above).
3. Email from an unknown sender, or from a person not known personally by you.

It always pays to have good email habits. What then do you do when you encounter spam? My uncle’s 3-step ‘Guaranteed-To-Eliminate-Spam’ technique would suit most people. The steps are:

1. Open mail.
2. Read (Optional: Have a good laugh).
3. Delete.

Additionally, be careful with whom you share your email with. If you have to provide your email address, like signing up for email newsletters, make sure there is an option to unsubscribe in the future.

Thou Shall Not Forward Spam…

If there was room for another commandment, it ought to a top reason for making frequent trips to the confessional. Churches and places of worship around the world would be packed with ‘sinners’ and the religious would be droning on and on with their sermons as to why spam is ‘evil’.

But spam is evil.

I have had to deal with enough spam to make it my full-time job.

Forwarding emails indiscriminately  makes your inbox a highly susceptible target of spammers as the chain of email addresses usually accumulated as inline text can be harvested by unscrupulous individuals for marketing (or rather, spamming) purposes.

Don’t want to see spam? Then think before you hit that forward button.

Additional Reading:

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2003/07/va_billgates.html

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blmsaol.htm

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp

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===END===

Shooting Spree at the Waterfront

On the 28th of May 2009, three suspicious-looking persons were seen walking up and down the Kuching waterfront shooting away at people, newspaper stands, hotdog vendors and even at little old ladies.

What were you thinking?

The Kuching waterfront today

It was a great evening for a photo-shoot, so I packed up my photo gear, and with the company of my two ‘accomplices’ (my siblings actually…), each armed with a camera, we had a splendid time learning ‘real’ photography, which was nothing like shooting indiscriminately at all things around. The photos bearing this site’s watermark were captured using the Lumix DMC LX-3, unless otherwise specified. In this post, I promise you, there will be more pictures, and less talking, so happy viewing!

Kuching in the olden days

 

The Tua Pek Kong temple

The Kuching Hilton. In the foreground is the James Brooke Bistro.

 

HarbourView Hotel, just behind the temple. To the right is the Cineplex building.

 

The Waterfront. To the left is Riverbank Suites, just opposite of Riverside Majestic and adjacent to Hotel Margherita.

 

One of the numerous riverboat ‘taxis’ that will take you across the river for less than MYR 1.00 each way.

 

Sarawak River Cruise with the new state legislative council building in the background.

 

Kuching CBD.

 

I don’t know what this is, but it has been here for as long as I can remember…should check it out one day.

 

Observation tower at the waterfront.

 

 

State legislative building seen from afar.

 

The Astana, which was built in 1870 by the second white Rajah Charles Brooke, as a bridal gift for his wife.

 

The Astana. This photo was taken with my Nikon Coolpix P5000.

 

Silhouette of river banks. Shot against the sunset. Seen here is the Sarawak River.

The waterfront at dusk. Photo captured with the P5000.

   The Old Courthouse of Kuching. A must-see for visitors and tourists.

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Thanks for viewing!

-Lionel Lam

===END===

Of Slums and Poems.

Of Slums and Poems

The Sunday Post 26, October 2008 (with permission of the author) 

By Dunstan Chan

“Maybe the thing that makes Kuching lovable is not that tangible. It is the relaxed ambience and quiet charm of a contented city where people of different races and religions live harmoniously together. Such a nebulous attribute is not easy to put down into words in a brochure. Kuching has to be experienced.”

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Pictured above is the Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya, the second largest slum in Africa.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum

“Take me to the slums area.”
“Slums?” said I, taken aback.
Perhaps it was my tone and my facial expression that prompted Rita to go on to explain somewhat patronizingly.
“Yes, slums, you know what they are, the poor area where the poor people and squatters live.”
I could see that the other passengers in my car were also giving me looks tinged with pity for not knowing that famous (or infamous) bane of Asian cities.

Yes, I know what slums are. I have been to some of the major cities of Asia. Heck, I have even visited Tondo and Smokey Mountain of Manila to know exactly what she meant. Yes, slums, I have seen them. I have smelt them.

Smokey Mountain was a rubbish dump for Manila in the District of Tondo. The 2 million ton garbage heap attracted a huge squatter community who scavenged the garbage for their livelihood.

No, my bewilderment was due the foreignness of the concept of “slums” in Kuching. Having settled comfortably in Kuching for some time now, the image of that crowded unsanitary habitat with all its unpleasantness seemed to have faded from my mind.

I was taking a group of journalists from the Commonwealth Journalist Association on a whirlwind tour of Kuching. Rita, who hailed from India but settled in Britain, went on to explain that it is her practice whenever she visits a big city to make a point of visiting the poor areas as well as the affluent areas. “It gives me a better feel of the city.” She said.

So I drove around Kuching for a good three hours to give them an impressionistic view of the city. All I can say is that they loved the city and to the person said that they want to come back for a holiday with their families. And I don’t think they were just being polite.

Ironically, sometime ago I was talking with some friends about the attractions of Kuching and if we were to promote it as a place to visit what would we say about it. For a while we fell into the trap of many a tourism writer who succumbed to the formulaic description of the tourist attractions of a place. We talked about pristine beaches, crystal clear water, vibrant nightlife, and shopping, all predictable stuff. However, using that standard yardstick and comparing to our neighbours, Kuching really doesn’t have too much to shout about. We don’t have the powdery white sand of Boracay of the Philippines, the crystal clear waters of Sabah, the wild nightlife of Bangkok and our shopping complexes are dwarfed by mega malls of the other Asian cities.

Indeed, in pitching Kuching as the typical tropical postcard type of tourist destination can yield embarrassing results as reality does not match up to the hype. Some years ago I received a call from one of the hotels in Damai beach. Among its guests was a honeymoon couple from America who wanted to learn SCUBA diving. I met the charming young newly weds. They were both good swimmers, the husband being a lifeguard. I asked them why they chose to come to Kuching to do their diving. They said that they came across an advertisement about “the pristine underwater marine life and untouched coral reefs” here. Those who are familiar with the underwater world would know that Kuching resides somewhere at the bottom rung of the world ranking of good dive spots. While other dive sites boast of underwater visibility of 30 to 100 feet, here off Kuching, we count ourselves lucky if we can see up to fifteen feet.

Fortunately the couple had not done any diving and thus did not know any better. And the novel experience of swimming underwater made their experience around the islands off Kuching a happy one. Seeing their keenness I recommended that they visit Sipadan, that world famous diving paradise (I am not exaggerating) in Sabah. Of course they were totally blown away by their experience there.

A few weeks later I received an email from them “. . . thank you so much for introducing us to this totally new and exquisitely beautiful experience. Our time in Sipadan was absolutely brilliant and will remain a most memorable holiday.” I noted that they pointedly avoided making any mention of diving in Kuching.

The point I am making is that sometimes we tend to focus on the usual run-of-the-mill tourism products -- spectacular scenery, sea and beaches, nightlife and shopping, etc. and thus totally miss what is our forte.

When I asked my visitors from Uganda, Mauritius, Britain and Bangladesh what they like about Kuching they did not specify anything in particular, though they were highly impressed by the cleanliness of the city, the well preserved historic buildings and the places of worship.

“In my country we also have such historical buildings from the colonial era but they are mostly in a rather dilapidated condition,” said one of them. We were standing in front of the old Court House, looking across the river to Fort Margarita. Then someone said, “It is not just the buildings I like, it is the feel of the city.”

Maybe the thing that makes Kuching lovable is not that tangible. It is the relaxed ambience and quiet charm of a contented city where people of different races and religions live harmoniously together. Such a nebulous attribute is not easy to put down into words in a brochure. Kuching has to be experienced.

After the futile search for slums, we ended up near the Astana on the north bank of the Kuching River. From there, the city with the smooth flowing river in the foreground looked beautiful.
“Are there many poems written about this river?” asked one of them. I think that is a question which is pregnant with meaning. Maybe sometimes we just forget to count our blessings.

The writer can be contacted at desee@pc.jaring.my

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Uncle Dunstan, thanks for letting me post your article here. –Lionel

 

===END===

Origins of Negaraku?

The Malaysian National Anthem, ‘Negaraku’, was believed to have been adapted from a local Malaysian song called ‘Terang Bulan’. However, some schools of thought have suggested that the national anthem’s melody was actually borrowed from an old Hawaian song, ‘Mamula Moon’. To play the song, click the play button below.

Title: Mamula Moon
Artist: Felix Mendelssohn & His Hawaiian Serenaders
Album: Paradise Isle
Year: 1947
Track number: 14
Duration: 00:02:50

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Lyrics of ‘Mamula Moon’
_______________________________________________________________________________________

One day I walked along
a moonlit island shore
and soon I heard a song
I've never heard before

I said who can it be
to sing so tenderly
and saw a dust he made
with lonely serenade

Mamula Moon
shine high above the southern sea
and like my love
say form again to me

We said goodbye
beside the blue lagoon
alone am I
with you Mamula Moon

I waved my hand
the grey ship sailed across the bay
on golden sand
that might I melt to pray

That I might see
my love returning soon
still true to me
and you Mamula Moon

_______________________________________________________________________________________

For the sake of comparison, here’s the National Anthem. 

 

So what is your take? The chicken or the egg?

 

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===END===

The Old Mines of Simunjan

Road to Simunjan town centre.

On the 27th of June 2009, I had the privilege of travelling to Simunjan with my uncle. Simunjan is a small town located some 150 kilometers from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak state, East Malaysia. We left home at around 7.30am, had a hearty breakfast of kolo mee and wonton soup to prepare us for the long trip ahead. It was quite a long trip down the road, but the relatively new Kuching-Serian highway made possible to drive up to speeds of 120 kilometers per hour without winding up in a ditch. I regret not taking pictures of the trip to the town as it had been rather breathtaking and scenic, with lush greeneries and sago palms as well as durian trees lining the otherwise rather homogenous landscape.

Simunjan is a small town located South-East of Kuching.

A typical Simunjan town house.

After several hours and stops later, at approximately 11.45am, we arrived at Simunjan town where my uncle hired a guide to take us up a neighboring mountain. This mountain is home to a coal mine that was set up by the British colonial government in the olden days and was taken over by the Japanese during their years of occupation of the state.

We parked the car at the foot of the mountain. We had to wear long-sleeved shirts as we had no plans to feed the hungry and vicious mosquitoes. Our guide, Jusop, who hails from the town runs his own farm nearby, so he was quite familiar with the mines in the area. According to Jusop, the mines, which have long been abandoned, are so obscured from view that not many people, even from the town, know where to locate them.

The ascend, in my honest and humble opinion, was quite a challenge (it was fun, by the way), as I never did rank very high when it came to my own stamina and strength. But these trips to the countryside usually afford me the opportunity to see things that the average Joe in the city (or if you’d like to put it, any Tom, Dick and Harry) don’t usually see.

Part of the ascend up the mountain involved climbing flights of rock ‘stairs’ which had been carved naturally by water flowing from the top of the mountain. In fact, if you were to take a closer look at the photo to the right, you’d notice remnants of miniature rock pools.

There is an old saying here that respect towards the jungle: wildlife, plants and the elements, constitutes respect towards the unseen spirits that are said to reside in the jungle. That being said, I was really careful not to step on the numerous centipedes that I saw along the way to the top. Perhaps I was just being paranoid.

 

One of the many centipedes I saw along the way.

At around noon, we reached the first mine entrance. As you can see in the picture to the left, Jusop was telling us a bit about the history of the mine. It is learnt that this is one of several entrances to a fairly elaborate network of tunnels. The year inscribed on the apex of the tunnel indicates the year the tunnel was built. Closer inspection of the tunnel interiors showed that the mine shaft had collapse and was no longer safe to enter. I wouldn’t be surprised there were mine workers entombed in these tunnels.

 

 

 

 

The picture to the left shows the collapsed portion of the tunnel, which is some 20 meters up ahead.

In about 20 minutes, we left the first tunnel for the second one, which was about another 30 minutes walk from the first one.

It was difficult to ascertain the age of the second tunnel (photo: below right) as unlike the first tunnel, there was no inscription found on this tunnel. The second tunnel opening was square-shaped and we believed it to be older than the first one, judging by the size of the opening and the condition of the walls.

 

 

 

According to the guide, there was an elaborate network of rails which were used to transport the coal to the base of the mountain. Obviously, the rails were not visible at first glance as the floor had become so dense with undergrowth (photo: below left).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo to left: The forest floor had become overgrown with vegetation that it was nearly impossible to tell where the rails led to.

 

My uncle taking a reading from a GPS device. To his right was Jusop, our guide.

My brother Aaron, standing by a well built by the Japanese.

The well up close.

A Closer Look at Nature

We decided that there was nothing else to do after seeing the second tunnel so we prepared for descent, but not without taking a few quick shots of what mother nature has to offer.

Bracket fungi growing on living tree.

Bracket fungi growing on living tree (near the well and 2nd tunnel).

We reached the base of the mountain at around 1pm. My feet were numb, I was dreadfully thirst, and of course, hungry.

A village road. Notice the farmhouse to the left.

So we headed to Simunjan town center for lunch.

Food court at Simunjan town.

It was only around 1.20pm when we arrived at the food court, and it was really deserted. A funny thing that we didn’t fail to notice was the manner which the stalls were arranged; drinks stalls and food stalls were arranged alternately. Perhaps most amusing was the fact that there actually was a Hilton at Simunjan. But it pays to have an open mind….

I told you I wasn’t lying when I said there’s a Hilton there in Simunjan…High tea at Hilton anyone?

The food there was not too bad either. I can honestly say, in all my years of eating out, I rarely can find a food outlet that serves soup as good as this one (pictured below). In stark contrast, the soup at All Joy Good Food in Kuching tasted like salted dishwater.

The heart of Simunjan town.

100% Discount Store at Simunjan town center.

Simunjan fire station.

Saying our goodbyes to Simunjan as we headed back to Kuching.

British-built steam engine.

On the way back to Kuching, we came across an old steam engine which was located by the Simunjan road. It’s real purpose? It’s been keeping us guessing until now.

The Kuching-Serian Highway on the way back home.

After a tiring day, it’s good to be back home.

 

A Little Lesson On History…

According to my uncle, the history of the mines could be traced back to the year 1872, or possibly earlier, during the era of the first white rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke.

An excerpt from an email from my uncle best describes the scenarios in the old days:

“As I stood in front of those two mines (dated 1912  or earlier), I needed some moments of total peace and silence to try to capture all that had happened around there over  some 40-50 years.  I could see a  few of the English men leading the natives clearing the land, leveling the hills, digging the tunnels into the hills with spade and changkols, then hauling the iron rails up the hills, then years of crawling and digging, all the sweat and pain, how many died from accidents, sickness and diseases.  In the early years some buffaloes were used to haul the coal but his was later replaced by steam locomotives.  As we stood there,  the two tunnels bear testimony of the nameless people who had given their efforts to produce the 1 million  tons of coal from 1874 to 1931.  May be this was the reason why  the local people wanted to close the chapter of this history and they  do not want to hear the stories anymore! As I stood in front of those two mines (dated 1912  or earlier), I needed some moments of total peace and silence to try to capture all that had happened around there over  some 40-50 years.  I could see a  few of the English men leading the natives clearing the land, leveling the hills, digging the tunnels into the hills with spade and changkols, then hauling the iron rails up the hills, then years of crawling and digging, all the sweat and pain, how many died from accidents, sickness and diseases.  In the early years some buffaloes were used to haul the coal but his was later replaced by steam locomotives.  As we stood there,  the two tunnels bear testimony of the nameless people who had given their efforts to produce the 1 million  tons of coal from 1874 to 1931.  May be this was the reason why  the local people wanted to close the chapter of this history and they  do not want to hear the stories anymore!”

Yes, it was 1 million tons of coal extracted from those mines in those years. Why then were the mines closed down in the year 1932? One reason for the closure was the switching from coal to oil as an energy source of ships and power stations. The demand of gold from the Bau gold mines also waned in those year, and so did the demand of coal.

According to old records, the mines were mostly managed by Englishmen, among them was one Brooketon who was in charge of the mines from 1910 to 1931, until the mines closed. The mines were resurrected by the Japanese during their occupation of the state, and they somehow managed to extract some additional 3000 tons of coal from the miles of tunnels deep within.

I have personally seen the records of the mines, containing even the tonnage of the coal yield. The records from the geological department showed even the minutest of detail, right up to the thousands of tons extracted every year until the mines closed in 1932. My uncle even remarked that the English have been known to possess an impeccable sense of observation, and keenness towards their surroundings, and this is evident in the works of famous naturalist Russell Wallace, who in 1855, spent a few months collecting as many as 2000 species of beetles in Simunjan!

If the Chinese had gotten there before the British, the beetles would have become a staple diet of the local folk, he joked.

The trip to Simunjan had been well worth the effort, as it was an eye-opening experience. I saw what many people never saw, had experienced what many never experienced, and learned what many would never learn. I hope whatever I have written here would give you a glimpse of the history of our magnificent state. Long live Sarawak!

-Lionel Lam.

===END===

Sunset Photos

All Joy Food? No Joy, only Pain…

I made a complaint to the NCCC (National Consumer Complaints Centre). It reads as follows (adapted for reading on this site):

______________________________________________________________________________________

Just today, I my brother and I went to Wisma Saberkas to meet up with a friend over tea. My friend suggested we meet up at a place called All Joy Good Food, which is located at Wisma Saberkas, Upper Ground Floor. The company was very disappointing in that they didn't offer a replacement for the order we placed as they had presented to us food that we didn’t order. When the waiter delivered the food to our table, we told her that it was not our order, as we had ordered something different (Kolo Mee, RM 3.90 per dish). The three of us had placed order for the same dish, and all three of us received the wrong order (Noodle with sesame chicken, RM 5.50 each). After negotiating with the boss, the she agreed to have only one of our order replaced, meaning that the other two orders remained unchanged. I was unhappy with this proposal and went to see the boss again. Yes, I had to storm into the kitchen, very embarrassing. This time, she blackmailed us, saying that she could choose not to have that one order replaced, hinting to us that it was a take it or leave it proposition. I was infuriated as the boss gave a very rude reply. I was forced to accept the order that was presented to me, which costs an extra RM 1.60 each, bringing my loss to RM 3.20 (two orders).  Furthermore, the receipt was not issued immediately and my friend's order (the dish that was changed) was delivered very late. To add insult to injury, when I told the waiter that I would like to have a word with the boss over this issue, she told me that she (the boss) would not wish to come to my table, and instead, I had to walk right into the kitchen to see her. This is indeed a very degrading experience and if I was in a better position, this event could have warranted a lawsuit. I told the boss that this was the last time I would ever step into her shop, and all I got from her was a curt and rude reply: "I'm sorry to hear that.". The amount I loss during this experience may seem negligible to some, but this should never have happened in the first place. On behalf of the three of us who are affected by this unfortunate incident, I implore the NCCC to look into this matter so that it does not have to happen to anyone else. Please do not hesitate to contact me for more details.

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It is very surprising to see such rude antics coming from a person I presume to be decently educated. I will never set foot into that shop again, ever.

===END===