NVIDIA-VIA Courtship

I wondered about this aloud, several months ago, here. Now it seems that others have heard rumours of the same. To me, it makes perfect strategic sense. NVIDIA is in a position of strength and can easily afford to purchase VIA outright. But most importantly, NVIDIA needs VIA in order to survive the coming storm. I shall endeavour to explain.

Let's first talk about NVIDIA, the undisputed Graphzilla of graphics. It bludgeons it's competitors in the desktop computing market, where performance is king. It's main rival is ATI, which is not doing as well as it should in the desktop market but supplies graphics to two of the gaming consoles. ATI has also been recently sold to AMD, which was when I commented that NVIDIA needed to look at VIA.

Most people often forget VIA, who is presently running behind everyone else, in both graphics (nvidia/ati/intel) processors and x86 (intel/amd) microprocessors. It caters mainly to a niche market of low power computing enthusiasts with it's products. However, it has something that NVIDIA needs desperately, a grey license to manufacture x86 microprocessors. This is important because of the changing technology landscape.

In the computer world, we have only begun to enter the realm of multi-core computing. No matter how cool you thought your dual-core processor is, you ain't seen nothing yet. However, the engineering world is fairly evenly split between two camps: homogenous vs heterogenous core camps. Personally, I'm rooting for the heterogenous camp, for obvious reasons.

The software people tend to favour a multi-core computer made of the same homogenous computing cores because it simplifies software programming models when you only need to think of a single type of core. The hardware people tend to favour the a multi-core computer made up of different heterogenous computing cores that are each specialised to a specific function because it is a better allocation of resources.

In the case of desktop computing, both Intel and AMD have announced similar technology initiatives. Both of them have the capability to integrate the general purpose capabilities of their x86 microprocessors with the floating-point (think scientific and multimedia) calculation capabilities of their graphics processors. Intel has Larrabee while AMD has Fusion. This means that unless NVIDIA and VIA come together, they would both be innovated into extinction by future Intel/AMD products.

When NVIDIA purchases VIA, they will have the necessary rights to come up with their own heterogenous processors, with the capability of running standard x86 software and high powered acceleration for multimedia and scientific computing purposes. Remembering that NVIDIA had recently purchased Ageia (who produces physics processors), they could do one better and integrate that too, turning their processors into an unrivaled computing powerhouse.

Intel would be forced to answer them, by integrating some physics acceleration software technology through it's recent purchase of Havoc. AMD does not have any answer readily available and there aren't any other physics accelerators left to buy. However, I would not count AMD out yet, as they have a top-notch engineering team that has shown it's ability to come up with market leading technologies against giants.

The only loser in this deal would be VIA. VIA has other businesses (chipset/graphics) that overlap with NVIDIA's own. So, after the takeover, it is likely that these divisions will be integrated, which is euphemism for scrapped. The engineers working there would be wise to start updating their CVs and sending them out.

Personally, I want to see this deal go through because it would see the desktop computing market turn into a 3 horse race. This increased competition will see crazy innovation on their products. It would also see better integration of platforms as each company will have it's own capabilities to produce processor, chipset and graphics accelerators, in house. So, this will mean better products for the consumer.

But on the other hand, I can see how this whole deal can lead to technology segmentation and lockdown. As the desktop computing market divides into 3 distinctly non-compatible camps, consumers would not be able to pick and choose their products. They would only be able to choose the brand and would have to stick with it. But this can be overcome if the consumers vote loud enough that they would like to mix-match products.

Google in Malaysia

Recently, there have been rumours that Google was looking for a place in Asia to set up their world's largest data centre. Then, two days ago, TheStar reported our PM as saying that Google was planning to set up shop in Malaysia. When I first heard this, I was hesitant to believe this, for several reasons. That's why I didn't blog about it immediately.

All reports indicate that we're in direct competition with India and Vietnam for this Google project. Skilled labour isn't much of an issue as skilled IT workers aren't exactly essential for data centre maintenance. So, regardless of what people may think of our local graduates, they are not a factor. Our PM mentioned that the largest base of Google users in SEA are from Malaysia. But I don't think that this is even a consideration.

Personally, I believe that the decision will ultimately boil down to energy costs. Data centres are notorious guzzlers of electricity. In this respect, we are cheaper than Vietnam. I can't find the numbers for India, but I'm guessing that we are probably cheaper, as we are an O&G producer. So, assuming that the price of electricity does not go up significantly, there is a possibility that we are in serious contention for the project.

But then, there has not been any form of confirmation from Google on this matter. I feel that our PM might have jumped the gun and announced this prematurely. Unless of course he made them some promises behind closed doors to seal the deal, this might just be some feel-good news that we sorely needed before the GE.

Is Google going to benefit the local tech industry? Like every other technopreneur, I pondered on this matter a little. I can see how the initial inflow of $600 million in capital expenditure for laying the physical infrastructure would be useful to the local construction industry. But beyond that, I don't really see any direct benefits. Google wouldn't make a dent on our local unemployment statistics. Neither are they likely to engage local technical partners. However, having a giant like Google, put it's stamp on the MSC will help rejuvenate the ailing project. This is quite possibly the only benefit.

UPDATE@+2: There's now reports that 18 countries are in competition and that Google may be eyeing more than 1 data centre.

Beware the Facebook!

I have regularly been asked why I refuse to sign up for facebook. When I first found out about Facebook ages ago, it set off many red flags in my head, and it smelled funny. That was the main reason why I have, since, refused to sign up to facebook and I never will. It was never due to the lack of invites.

There is an article in The Guardian, today, entitled "With Friends Like These...". It's much better researched than my simple gut feeling. So, I'd recommend everyone to give it a read. Actually, please give the entire article a read. It's a fairly long article simply because there are so many reasons on why Facebook is evil and people should avoid it like the plague.

It's now good to know that there are more others like me, out there.

In my book, Facebook is evil.

Next-Gen Beetle - Tata Nano

This little car has the potential of transforming the face of the world. One of the largest Indian companies, Tata Group, has today unveiled, what it calls: The People's Car. It is a that is priced at Rs 100,000, which is about RM 8,000! This car could just be the Beetle of the 21st century.

Here are some of it's most impressive specs, gleaned from various sources:

• Specialty bodywork
  The Nano comes with a 100% rust free money back guarantee. The specialised body work is made from the latest polymer technology with a specialised rust free coating. Unlike the fruity Nano, you will never need to rush out for a can of WD40 when your neighbourhood kids decide to scratch up your paint job. Experience peace of mind, parking your Nano in any neighbourhood.
  
• Air conditioning
  The standard model comes built-in with natural air conditioning. There is a more expensive deluxe model that comes with artificial air conditioning. Why settle for the fake thing when you can have the original. There is no better feeling than cruising down the highway with the wind in your hair while enjoying all the natural scents that nature has to offer.
  
• Power steering
  Surprisingly, for a car of it's size, it comes standard with human power steering. This makes the car extremely responsive and gives the driver total control over the car. Feel like a man, when nipping around the bends in the city. Side parking will never feel the same ever again.
  
• Power windows
  All models of the Tata Nano come standard with hand powered windows. This features a variable speed setting and full directional and level control. No longer will you have to contend with the auto-lower or jerky-raise. You will be able to raise or lower the windows smoothly, over the entire range.
  
• Safety bumpers
  Who needs air bags when you have safety bumpers. The bumpers have been welded on with the best plastic adhesive on the market. Fender benders will be a thing of the past. Instead of crumpling in, the bumpers are designed to fall off. You can easily reattach it back with any off-the-shelf plastic glue, thus saving you a visit to the local mechanic.
• Speedy engines
  At the heart of this car is a 600cc engine. This has been specially engineered to give you a speedy experience of scooting down to the local kedai runcit for your groceries or your local mamak for a game of football. With an impressive top speed of 110kmph, you will never ever have to worry about speed cameras ever again.
  

Jokes aside, I do think that this is a fairly impressive car, for it's cost. You cannot possibly find any other car at that price. In fact, the only other road vehicles that you can find at that price range are motor cycles. So, I can appreciate the kind of difficult choices some people will be faced with, when buying their next family vehicle. I guess, the days of seeing families of 7 on a honda-cub are numbered.

There are definitely other uses for this car, besides just being a plain car. It is cheap enough to wreck for fun. I'm sure that some Bollywood director is already thinking about a remake of The Italian Job, The Indian Job. Instead of Charlize Theron, we can have Aishwarya Rai. I'd certainly pay money to watch the movie.

Also, I can already imagine DIY modders dreaming up ideas on how to pimp this little car. Obviously, the bodywork needs a lot more attitude. And for a car like this, the sky is really the limit. Just like the Asus Eee PC ($299 notebook PC), it's only a matter of time before we will see people buying this car just to modify it into their own super machine. I'd certainly do it.

It would be a great car for mechanics and vocational training. You can just screw around with this car and not worry about destroying it. I love the idea of owning one of these things and fiddling around with all it's little parts.

I cannot wait till they review this car on TopGear. Meanwhile, watch their previous review of Britain's cheapest new car below:

The Cambridge Malaysia Forum

We had an official function today, The Cambridge-Malaysia Forum, which was organised by ASLI and supported by the University. We were graced by the presence of our Foreign Minister and Second Finance Minister. I went out at 9am this morning, and only just got back at 11.30pm. It has been an interesting day to say the least. I have learnt many things today.

For starters, I made a boo boo and was told off by JiaYi, for talking so loud. I mentioned quite loudly, that there were no signs marking out where the registration counter was and that the breakfast room was filled with men with too much white hair for me. If anyone from ASLI took offence with my statements, too bad for you. I'm just a little nobody mouthing off, there isn't any need to take offence with my statements.

Then, we get to the speeches. Our Foreign Minister went on his usual droning. I totally lost concentration about 10 minutes into his 30 minute speech. Our 2nd Finance Minister struck me as an extremely soft-spoken person. But the gist of the message to take away from them is that:

1. They have lost the plot. They kept pointing out that our country is in trouble. We are approaching the slippery slope fast and we need to find a way to stop and turn around, before we hit it. The government is stepping back and hoping that the people will figure a way out of if, which is the nice way of saying that they have no idea of what to do and are shifting the responsibility to the people.
   
2. They are in denial. The kept harping about this policy of growth with equity, which I think has a very different meaning from equitable growth. It's essentially trying to redress the whole race based economy in glossy terms. They know that it is not working, but they still continue to propagate it (in different words). This is the bit that confuses me, as I'm generally a logical minded person. If something isn't working, fix it!
   

After their speeches, the two ministers promptly left, which just showed how much interest they actually had in the dialogue. The dialogue wasn't much of one anyway. It's only during Malaysian dialogues, where I find that forum participants have so little time to speak, while ministers and prominent speakers have so much more. I thought that the while idea of a dialogue was to encourage participation. But I guess I thought wrong. It's not much of a dialogue if you ask me.

So, the morning was pretty boring. But since there was a free lunch (at Catz, so the food was quite good and the dessert was awesome). I think that many people actually attended the forum for the food. We're after all, Malaysians First!

Over lunch, I met this interesting lady, who runs a corporate communications firm for researchers (that's the gist of her business) in the UK. I spoke to her about my background and she was fairly piqued. She even suggested that I'm going to be a millionaire one day! I certainly hope so, but it's still a ways off at the moment. She pointed me towards a UK government body that might be able to help me. I think that I might check them out at a later stage and see if there are any interesting things that I could do.

For tea, I went for an informal lunch with the people from Khazanah. I am genuinely interested in going home to work. Call me idealistic, but I would really like to find a way to contribute positively to my country (even after a bad lesson that I had, I still hold the view that I should do something for my country). However, from the different chats that I had with the different people from Khazanah, I get the impression that, they do not believe that I really want to go home, and they do not really want me to go home. I don't know why.

Then, after dinner, a bunch of us met up with Seputeh MP, Teresa Kok. That's a photo of some of us with her after lunch. From my impression of her, she's one of the old guard. She belongs to an older generation of politicians, who believe (personally or otherwise) in racial politics. I don't blame her for it, but I do believe that for us to progress as a nation, people like her have got to go. We tried to let her know how we felt about the issue, and she wasn't very receptive to our views. But I still appreciated her sparing her time to have a chat with us. None of the government ministers ever bother to do so.

So, the general lessons for me to take away today are:

1. Our country is in trouble and the leadership is in denial. This is never a good sign.
2. My country doesn't really want me to go home and help out.
3. The opposition is hopelessly lost. They will forever remain in opposition.

PS: The photo is a little bad (unlike my usual stuff) because I had my camera set for the room, not the hall. So, it didn't quite turn out right.

Possibly the BEST Technology Job Offer!

I'm fairly certain that this is possibly a typo. But if this wasn't, it would possibly be the BEST technology job offer ever! Look at picture and you'll see that the pay is £5,000-£100,000 per hour! Psycho!

If it was true, the person would probably make more money that most of the Fortune 500 CEOs make. Let's hope that nobody loses their head over this. Another alternative theory is that this is one of those fake job ads that are placed for the sake of regulatory compliance.

Sometimes, when a company wants to hire a foreign candidate to fill up a position, they need to prove that there is no one else within the UK/EU that can fit the bill. So, typically, companies will place an advert for an extremely specific skill set. Therefore, very few people are actually able to meet the criteria. As a result, nobody applies for the job. Then, the companies are free to hire their original candidate while still meeting regulatory requirements by proving that they had nobody within the UK/EU that met the requirements.

Or, it might just be that some financial services company up in Scotland is in dire need of a Senior Server Technical Analyst (whatever that job title means). Therefore, they are willing to pay top dollar for it. But then, you will need to ask the question of why there's such a need in the first place. I don't see anything exciting happening in the server sector in the near future. If so, I really wonder how much the CEO of the company makes per hour.

Lenovo Signs Up to Linux

According to an article from Ars, Lenovo has signed up to selling Linux based computers. Available immediately, ThinkPads will have the option of coming with SuSE Enterprise Linux Desktop pre-installed. Although ThinkPads have been certified for Linux use for a while, this marks the first time that they will actually come shipped with the alternative OS installed.

According to the article, Lenovo claims that the pressure to support Linux came from enterprise customers. The article quotes: "We have seen more customers utilizing and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government, and the enterprise since our ThinkPad T60p Linux announcement, and today's announcement expands upon our efforts by offering customers more Linux options."

Although I have some political issues about the choice of SuSE Linux, I have no question about the technical choices made behind the decision. Linux is a much better OS and is perfectly capable for enterprise use for many years now. The two most successful enterprise Linux distributions are RedHat and SuSE. I'm sure that Lenovo had made it's choice after evaluating the different customer requirements.

So, now we start to see how the Linux PC vendor space is shaping up.

1. HP (world #1 vendor) already provides Linux lines of products for their workstation and server families. Unlike the rest, they do not go around brandishing their Linux credentials as they have always supported Linux development directly (HP provides machines for kernel.org and pays for the salaries at OSDL). However, rumours abound that they will expand their Linux lines soon.
   
2. Dell (world #2 vendor) is staking a claim on the home user segment by shipping Ubuntu (the most popular distribution) on it's XPS (gaming) and Inspiron (low cost) lines of products. They are also applying pressure on device vendors to provide good driver support. They have yet to release any official numbers but have hinted that their Linux line is doing well. They have clearly stated plans to expand support worldwide over summer.
   
3. Acer (world #3 vendor) is still undecided about their Linux strategy. From the pirouettes that they have been doing, they're obviously interested, but unsure of how best to position themselves in this market. They could possibly end up providing an alternative to everyone else by shipping Linux across all product segments.
   
4. Lenovo (world #4 vendor) is now staking claim on the enterprise user segment by shipping SuSE (the #2 enterprise distribution) on it's ThinkPad (busineses) line of products. They have also openly acknowledged that there is a growing demand for Linux. It won't surprise me if the expand their support for other product lines later.
   

Whatever happens, looks like my prediction is coming true. Having more Tier 1 vendors selling Linux products can only be a good thing for Linux. It means that there will be more recognition and trust for it's quality. There will also be more pressure for device vendors to officially support Linux. This will benefit the rest of the Open Source community in general.

UPDATE@1910: The BBC also has an article about this latest development.

UPDATE@1050+1: Dell has just announced the immediate availability of it's Linux line in the UK, France and Germany.

Will Acer be Offering Linux?

Dell, the world's 2nd largest computer vendor, has already started offering a line of Ubuntu products and have promised to expand it's line into more countries, over summer. There have also been rumours that the world's largest computer vendor, HP, is thinking of doing it as Dell reports that it's Linux products are selling well. So, it may not surprise anyone that Acer, the world's 3rd largest computer vendor, might consider it to.

So, when a copy of this advert made it's rounds on the Internet, a lot of people were excited. When I saw it, my first thought was that this is done by a reseller. It is quite often for people to do this back home. I have had some personal experience doing this as well, sourcing naked PCs and pre-loading them with custom software. So, there was nothing to get overly excited about.

Then, another article appeared on the Net, claiming that Acer has a whole line of products in Europe that come shipped with Linux from the factory. The part numbers listed are: LX.TH30C.061, LX.TJ90C.007, LX.THN0C.011, LX.THN0C.044, LX.AX90C.011, LX.AX90C.039, LX.AXL0C.009, LX.AXL0C.034, LX.AJ80X.097, LX.TK60C.003, LX.TK70C.002. So, this generated more unneccesary excitement.

But then, there comes an article in ZDNet UK that quotes Acer as saying that they won't bring Linux lines to the UK as there was no demand here. I really question that part of the statement. They are obviously not familiar with the number of people who use Linux here in the UK. The UK is, afterall, home to Ubuntu Linux (and several other Linux distributions).

Next, to confuse things, ZDNet UK published another article saying that Acer has completely turned around from their earlier statement. They now say that although there is currently no demand for Linux based Acer products in the UK, they are looking at introducing one in the future. This is either standard PR boiler-plate, or Acer has come to realise that this might be an opportunity. There is currently no major company in the UK that offers Linux based PCs while there are several in the US (Dell and many smaller ones).

Then, there is another article from ZDNet OZ that is finally confused by the message from Acer. Acer had told them that Acer has no committed plans for PCs with Linux. However, Acer tells them further that they offer products that meet customers' specific computing needs, including the choice of OS. Linux has its following here and Acer Australia can ship PCs with Linux pre-installed when there is a requirement. So, it would seem that Acer is willing to introduce Linux products in OZ if there is a demand.

Personally, I think that it's only a matter of time before they all have to start offering Linux products everywhere unless they wish to see Dell gain worldwide Linux sales. Dell is now learning a lot about pre-installing, shipping, selling and supporting Linux products. It's also garnering a lot of good karma with the Open Source community by applying some pressure on hardware vendors. It's already gotten many months of headway. It is doing a lot of co-marketing with Ubuntu and is clearly winning both the PR and sales war on Linux.

Furthermore, it's very interesting that the way Acer is phrasing it's replies to ZDNet. Acer suggests that whether or not they introduce Linux PC products will depend on customer demand. I guess that they are waiting for Dell to test the waters. Once Dell announces their official results, they can then gauge and decide on whether or not there is a customer demand for Linux. In the mean time, Dell will just keep clawing away and staking it's claim as the world's #1 Linux PC vendor. As I had predicted, this is the year for Linux.

Hell Hath Frozen O'er!!

Embrace, Extend and Exterminate (the 3E's). These three words have formed the core of Microsoft's strategy for entering markets where they have little presence or where there are many competing forces, for decades. And according to this CNet article, it has finally come to Open Source.

According to the article, Microsoft has just submitted license for Open Source Institute (OSI) for approval. Once approved, those license could be potentially used by Microsoft (or indeed anyone else) to release officially certified Open Source Software (OSS). I doubt that Microsoft, the king of Hill Proprietary, has finally caved to the pressures of OSS.

They must realise, like everyone else, that OSS is the rising star and is here to stay. Everyone is starting to get in on the game, including all other major software giants such as IBM, Oracle, Sun, Google and what nots. Therefore, I believe that Microsoft doesn't want to be left out of the next major software bandwagon. It got left behind on the Internet bandwagon and it took them quite a bit of effort to claw their way into a position of power. So, I believe that this is a way for Microsoft to tell everyone that, "Hey, we digg Open Source! We are doing it too!".

Microsoft has even gone as far as putting up a whole website dedicated to Open Source at Microsoft. The website is a marketing tool that is targeted at customers who wish to use OSS and Microsoft's proprietary stuff. It claims that Microsoft wishes to participate, partner, grow and learn with OSS and Microsoft. They now claim to be pro-choice and encourage partners to use OSS alongside Microsoft products. They're even going to help and educate people with integration. I guess that this is a case of, "If you cannot beat them, join them!".

However, this does not signal a change in the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) campaign, launched by Microsoft against OSS. On their website, they state that there has not been any change in their Intellectual Property stance. They have been waving their arms in the air and claiming that all major OSS software infringe on their patents. They have threatened to sue people who use OSS. But they have never named a single infringing patent nor have they identified anyone to sue. Instead, they had tried to subvert the GPL by exploiting a loophole in the license, by signing patent protection agreements (like the mafia that they are). But this loophole has since been plugged. The GPLv3 might have pushed Microsoft into taking this line of action after discovering that they would not be able to exploit OSS without giving something in return.

Therefore, Microsoft had finally decided to embrace the community of OSS. They will then extend OSS by engaging targeted OSS project and extending the arm of cooperation. They cited a recent collaboration with the Mozilla project as an example of how Microsoft can help improve OSS. I'm fairly certain that we would be able to see more examples of their engagements. So, the only step left is exterminate. I do hope that the projects are smart enough to only accept changes that do not subvert the cause of OSS. We have to be careful of Microsoft trying to sneak in proprietary changes through the back door such as patent infringing changes.

Finally, if Microsoft truly wants to bridge the gap between the community and itself, it needs to do more than this. We see this action as nothing much beyond a PR stunt to show that they're trying to engage the community. However, you cannot expect the community to embrace someone who waves a gun at them (whether the gun is actually loaded or not is another matter) all the time. Just remember Embrace, Extend and Exterminate.

Malaysian Minimum Wage FUD

I am not smart enough to know if a minimum wage law is beneficial for Malaysians or not. However, I can see FUD being spread about it already. In a TheStar article today, it is said that our Government (since when is this a pronoun?) fears a potential huge influx of foreign workers in certain sectors should it adopt the RM900 monthly minimum wage and RM300 cost of living allowance (Cola) advocated by MTUC.

Our Human Resources Minister goes on to say that if the MTUC’s minimum wage formula was adopted, it would have to be extended to all workers, regardless of nationality. He also says that, there was a high possibility of foreign workers, especially those from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, coming here because they knew their minimum monthly income would be guaranteed.

Really. That is certainly shocking to me. Those who come legally will certainly be entitled to the minimum wage. Those who don't will still be at the mercy of their employers, regardless of any minimum wage. I doubt that there would be a massive influx of foreign workers in our country claiming minimum wage as immigration can be controlled through the issuance of visas. So, I think that he's just talking out of his behind.

His implication that all our local jobs will be stolen by foreigners due to minimum wage is bull. They're already taking the low income jobs anyway, with or without minimum wage. This is simply because us locals are not willing to work in those jobs. Usually, it's because it's not paid well enough or the work is too dirty. So, if the wages were raised, it might actually induce some locals to take up these jobs, and reduce the demand on foreign help.

Whether or not a minimum wage is a good thing, I wouldn't know. I'm no economist. I can see it helping the lowest income families. However, I'm not sure of it's affect on local businesses and economy. I'll leave that kind of speculation to the experts.

Dell's Linux Pressure

Dell is now applying pressure on vendors to improve their Linux driver support. This was the message sent as part of their presentation at the Ubuntu Live conference. As you can see from the Dell slide, Dell is investigating driver support for various hardware. Of interest to me is obviously the ATI Video and Broadcom Wireless products. These are the only two products in my new laptop that isn't working perfectly.

The Broadcom wireless only works using the Windows drivers under ndiswrapper. The ideal situation would be for the device to be supported under the bcm43xx kernel driver. Unfortunately, my hardware is too new and the driver doesn't work on the newer versions as of kernel 2.6.22. Instead of stone-walling the Linux driver developers, Broadcom could do what their competitor, Atheros did. Atheros releases an entirely proprietary hardware abstraction layer (HAL). It then provides the Linux community with the necessary software interfaces (API). This means that Atheros gets to keep it's hardware internals confidential, while allowing Open Source programmers to develop working drivers.

With ATI, I've already complained about their miserable Linux driver performance. According to the article, "Dell wants to offer ATI Linux systems, but first the driver must be improved for the Linux platform (not necessarily open-source, but improved). Dell currently ships desktop Linux systems with Intel using their open-source drivers as well as NVIDIA graphics processors under Linux." ATI would do well to listen to the world's 2nd largest computer company. I'm sure that Dell would like to play ATI off NVIDIA and ChipZilla to secure competitive pricing for it's machines. So, I'm hopeful that ATI will take head and improve it's Linux drivers. At the moment, it is releasing an update each month. I've just installed the latest version (8.39) today. It's still a joke.

This is essentially the main comment that I had when the first rumours of Dell selling Linux boxes first appeared. Dell selling Linux is a good thing for Linux. Hardware vendors who have ignored Linux in the past, will have to start making sure that their hardware works with Linux. One advantage that Linux has against Windows is driver development. These companies do not need to do it totally in-house. They can provide interfaces to their hardware to kernel driver developers and let the community do the bulk of the development work.

Hopefully, the hardware vendors will listen. It pays to listen to someone with the large purchasing power of Dell. Also, I guess this means that the Dell Linux boxes are doing well in sales. That's why Dell is putting more effort into Linux driver availability. (There's also news today that HP had just acquired 5,000 Ubuntu licenses to be sold to a university. Maybe HP will be coming on-board next!).

PS. I've received an email from the company managing the HP Cashback programme. My claim has been approved and I will get a cheque for 100 quid within 28 days. Cool! Also, HP has contacted me to tell me that they won't refund my Windows. I pointed out to them that the EULA states that I can claim a refund. They have yet to get back to me on that.

ChipZilla rampage

After yesterday's blog on Intel, I think that I'll start calling them ChipZilla from now on. Today, there is news of ChipZilla's continued rampage on the embedded market. Other chip makers like ARM and MIPS should be running scared. ChipZilla has a vision of the future with them inside everything and it's using it's might to bludgeon everyone.

There is a new ChipZilla initiative, called Moblin. According to an article, it is an "ambitious project aimed at developing open source software for mobile devices. The Moblin project comprises a Linux kernel, UI framework, browser, multimedia framework, and embedded Linux image creation tools, along with developer resources such as documentation, mailing lists, and an IRC channel."

At the moment, according to the specs, the project is focused on the A100/A110 processors with a 945GU chipset with ICH7. The last two chips should be familiar to most computer users as these were the last generation ChipZilla integrated chipsets. The A100/A110 are their new low power Pentium-M derived processors that are targeted at embedded platforms. ChipZilla had introduced these processors as part of their Ultra Mobile Platform earlier this year.

Other architectures should be running scared. Although Linux is capable of running on almost any architecture in the world, it is not difficult to see what ChipZilla wants. Other companies (AMD, VIA) in the x86 market are not making noise yet. Presumably, they expect ChipZilla to do all the hardwork and they can then come in as alternate suppliers for low-powered processors.

There's nothing wrong with Intel doing things like this. Normally, I would sing praises as they are supporting an open platform. But I'm a little disappointed in how they strong armed the OLPC. They're like the Microsoft of the processor market. Someone needs to stop them before they become a complete menace.

Intel 100lbs Chipzilla

I had previously blogged (here, here and here) about an interesting socio-technology experiment being done on an international scale. Now, Intel had decided that it wants in on it and it's using all it's 100 lbs might to pressure the group into letting it in. Way to go, ChipZilla!

Now for some background. The objective of the project is to design, build and manufacture a line of sub US$100 notebooks for the developing world. These notebooks will then be seeded into the various developing nations that have signed up. The idea is that this will possibly bridge the digital divide and give kids better social mobility in the future.

This project is called the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

Originally, the laptop does not use any Intel chips. For it's processor, it uses an AMD Geode processor, which is the low-power and low performance x86 processor that AMD bought from National Semiconductor, several years ago. The use of low power components was important as these laptops were to be used in countries that may not have accessible power supply. So, the laptop was designed to accommodate a hand-crank that could be used to power up the computer.

ChipZilla has never had a viable low-end x86 microprocessor as it has always focused on the desktop/server market. It's only embedded processor was it's ARM line of processors, called the StrongARM and then XScale. This all ended a couple of years ago when Intel was forced to sell off various non-core businesses in a company wide refocus, as ChipZilla was losing it's lead. In recent months, ChipZilla has decided that it was time for them to re-enter and capture the embedded market with their Pentium-M derived low power processors. This development had forced many embedded companies, chief of which is ARM, to re-evaluate ChipZilla as a potential major competitor.

With the OLPC project just getting off it's ground, ChipZilla wanted in. This project is widely regarded as a world changing project. They intend to seed tens, if not hundreds, of millions of laptops around the world. With such a lucrative project, it is perfectly understandable for any company to want in. This was implied by ChipZilla's Director of Corporate Affairs who said, "We're going to go compete for the XO business, because we think we build first-class silicon".

The thing that I'm miffed about is how ChipZilla went about with it's strong arm (pun intended) tactic to bludgeon it's way into the project. Several months ago, ChipZilla announced it's own initiative with the same objectives as the OLPC called the Classmate. This severely undermined the project and we now know why. It was ChipZilla's way of blackmailing the project into letting it in. If you cannot beat them with technology/price/marketing, beat them into submission.

PS: The rumour mill is churning and tells me that Samsung is eyeing AMD for an acquisition!

Oops. it was RM 2.7 billion!!

Oops, it seems that I was wrong in my previous blog. According to the article in TheStar today, we aren't borrowing US$ 500 million from China, we are borrowing US$ 800 million from them. Looks like the Penang Second Bridge is being entirely funded by the Chinese.

According to the article on Wikipedia, the cost of the bridge is estimated to be around RM 3 billion. With the current borrowings, China is funding 90% of the entire project cost. This reeks of something foul. This is also the level of borrowing someone can expect to get from a property loan from any bank in Malaysia.

Essentially, I read it as meaning that none of our local banks and companies are interested in funding any part of the bridge. So, the local government will foot the 10% down payment while China will loan us the balance 90%. There is no excuse why we cannot fund the bridge, unless something is up. It is considered a mega project but it won't be the first one that we funded locally. If the project is not viable, we shouldn't push on for it as it doesn't make any sense.

According to our Second Finance Minister, many countries were interested in building bridges with China but we're the now literally building a bridge with China. According to the Chinese Minister for Commerce, the Chinese Premier and our dearest Prime Minister had pushed for the project and this project is currently being fast-tracked for public usage by 2011.

I think think, and I just cannot understand what is happening. We're borrowing money to build a bridge that no one wants to fund. This deal was pushed by the leaders of both countries. I can understand why it is good for China as they would end up earning money from the interest. I cannot understand why we're going into this deal though.

So, all the calculations that I did, are now moot. Something stinks and I have nothing more to say. The bridge does look purr-ty doesn't it.

Malaysian Government Upgrading Websites

This is what I call a coincidence. I was just talking about this issue with a friend yesterday. He was complaining to me that he had problems using the MOSTI website. Then, we went on to discuss a little about the state of Malaysian government websites. Now, I read about this development in TheStar.

It was obvious that our government websites were not up to par and would not provide visitors with an accurate impression of the state of technology in Malaysia. For a country that wishes to lead the region into a technology driven future, this is just bad marketing. So, I mentioned that we could possibly get interns to fix their websites, as I suggested in an earlier blog. My friend suggested that this may not be a good idea as the interns may not be up to the job, which was true. He then suggested that we should outsource the websites to some foreign company. I disagreed as I know that some local bumi companies can get the job done.

Today, the government announced that Skali has been selected to revamp 450 government websites. It's all part of a larger programme that includes training 4,000 unemployed graduates and producing at least 400 entrepreneurs. Now, this is a fairly interesting development, and I will explain why.

First, I don't think that it's a good idea to give such a large contract to a single entity (i.e. all the eggs in one basket). A smarter move would be to spread out the 450 websites among 2 or 3 different companies. This would encourage competition between the companies to produce quality work. However, this is Malaysia and we do not believe in competition. The government cannot possibly believe that using a single company would result in better integration. Websites these days are all standards based and millions of websites can all be integrated as long as they stick to standards.

Second, training 4,000 unemployed graduates through this programme is curious. I wonder if this training involves assigning 10 trainees to develop each website. Although it is a useful idea (since I'd actually suggested something similar), I'm not quite sure if there will be enough jobs to go around for 4,000 fresh web designers. Then, I noticed that they are also churning out 400 entrepreneurs. So, maybe that's the plan. The programme will start up a new company for each website, with 1 CEO and 10 web designers to build and manage each website. Keep in mind that this is pure speculation but the numbers are just too much of a coincidence for me.

I certainly hope that this isn't the real plan. It isn't viable.

PS: Uh-oh. I love Skali's concept of local out-sourcing. It can be interpreted in soooo many ways.

*** Image from Skali website. They own the copyright to it. ***

Malaysia and the NEP

Since there is nothing interesting in the local news today, besides crime, I thought that I will blog a little on the NEP article in TheStar yesterday. Our dearest PM was rightfully quoted as saying that many people regard the NEP as cost of doing business. In my experience, that's exactly what every businessman in Malaysia treats it. As such, it's the customer who has to pay for it at the end.

I once worked for the local rep of a multi-national. There, I learned that it was difficult to sell their products to certain parties in Malaysia as these parties required their vendors to have a certain amount of bumiputera ownership. This company was, unfortunately, wholly owned by non-bumis. In order to fulfill that requirement, they tried to look for a bumi partner. However, in the end, the deal fell through as the partner was only interested in being a front, selling the system with a high markup. All support and services would still fall onto the company I was working for.

I would agree with our PM that, "the expansion of an educated and multi-ethnic middle class, thanks to affirmative action policies, has mitigated the risk of mass unrest," and that was the original idea behind the NEP. However, just like he said, "perhaps the most difficult question we must address is to improve equity without sacrificing competitiveness," the question is whether the NEP is helping improve equity or sacrifice competitiveness.

Affirmative action policies like the NEP are like crutches. When a person has broken their leg, the crutches are useful for a time. But after the leg has healed, the crutches merely hinder a person from running. Therefore, the question is a fairly valid one. After 36 years of affirmative action, the question is whether or not the NEP is still relevant and necessary. According to our PM, "great disparities in income and social mobility still exist between ethnic groups," and this is something that I cannot totally agree with. I would replace between with within instead.

If after 36 years of affirmative action, there has been little improvement in the conditions, then it's high time that the policy be re-examined. Maybe there are better policies that could help better conditions. Malaysia always spouts the prosper thy neighbour line when it comes to regional dealings. We have believed that if we help each other, we will all lift each other up in a win-win situation. So, if that's the case, there is really no reason why we should discriminate against each other. Maybe that's the reason why the situation has not improved much even after 36 years.

One possible improvement might be to favour bumi companies instead of non-bumi ones, without it being a pre-requisite. So, with all other things being equal, the tender could be preferentially awarded to the bumi company instead. This would encourage both bumi and non-bumi companies to improve their bids. Instead of offering discounts for bumi property purchases, offer discounts to anyone who comes from a lower income bracket, in order to improve social mobility for everyone.

The current form of affirmative action doesn't seem to be doing a good job. So, maybe it's time to consider making improvements to the system. However, before this can happen, we will still need to work on the transparency bit of governance. That's one election promise that our dearest PM has still not delivered on.

Finishing School for IT?

I've just read another interesting article in TheStar about technology and education. According to our Minister of Higher Education, there is a shortage of skilled workers in ICT, making it difficult to expand this sector. As a solution, the government is allocating RM 15 million to train up to 4,000 students in this area.

It's not clear how the money will be used, from the article. The sum works out to about RM 3,750 per student. I'm not really sure how this amount of money is to be used. The Minister made this announcement in a certificate presentation ceremony for top students who had gained professional certifications from companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Macromedia, which were run by Prestariang Systems Sdn Bhd.

Personally, and any IT manager will tell you the same thing, I feel that a truly skilled knowledge worker is not made, but born. Everything about computers is an art and you cannot teach art, no matter how hard you try. You can certainly teach the mechanics of it, computer system fundamentals, principles of software engineering and network management. Whether or not a person becomes truly good at it, is still dependent on that person, intrinsically. What people like the government can do is to provide a conducive environment to let the students develop and grow their skills, instead of preaching them the skills.

Professional certifications merely help a person get a job interview. The fact that these certifications are narrow in scope, means that a person has to get several certifications to be safe. I've personally been told of stories about computer science PhDs with dozens of certifications, not being able to write simple programmes during a job interview. For people like these, no amount of paper certification will help them get a job and that's the main trouble with much of our IT work force.

During my university days, it came of little surprise to me that most of the students weren't even able to code a simple Hello World programme even though they will end up as IT graduates. To many students, programming is a task that involves cut-n-paste from available source code. They're merely cheating themselves. To any skilled person, we'll know at a glance that a piece of code was copied instead of written. It is fairly easy to tell because like any other art, fakes are easy to spot with a trained eye.

I am hoping that the government will pump the money into actual skills training instead of blind certification. It is more important to give these students opportunities to do real work, than to get them to pass more exams. The money could possibly be used to fund projects like the Google Summer of Code programme, where students are paid to fix real problems in real life projects. This kind of experience is worth more than professional certifications when getting a job.

There are so many administrative problems in our government that can be easily fixed with the right tools and I've already blogged about some. This would be win-win situation for everyone involved. The student gets to showcase some concrete examples of his/her work and the government gets some administrative task automated at a low cost, without having to tender it out to some 3rd party that will get it done by interns anyway. Of course, not everything should be done like this, but there are really many basic administrative problems that will go away with the appropriate technology solution.

Alternatively, students should be encouraged to start off their own Open Source projects with their friends. It doesn't matter if the project is merely writing a simple application. What is important is to showcase the fact that the students are capable of actually producing working code, and able to work in a team, with it's inherent dynamics problems and administrative headaches. These are both better indicators of future job success than a gazillion amount of certifications.

So, I'm just hoping fervently that the government will do the right thing. Hopefully, the Higher Education Minister will be able to help fix some of the problems. We need to have skilled workers in this industry. Let's not depend on expats for everything.

Dell's Dance with Linux

According to a recent post on the official Dell blog, Dell's relationship with Linux is a serious one. What started as an experiment, has grown into a full blown movement and agent for change. Michael Dell is one of our most recent Linux converts by using a Linux notebook himself.

The article says that "Dell does have plans to offer Linux to more consumers in additional locations outside the United States". It is important to provide Linux Dells outside of the US in order for Linux users to purchase these machines. I'd like to buy a Linux Dell to support Dell in it's dance with Linux but I am unable to. I welcome this decision as I had also voted for this idea at the IdeaStorm website.

Furthermore, the article claims that they will "also offer Ubuntu to small business customers in the future". There were some initial glitches where some people were not allowed to buy Linux machines for their small businesses. They were not allowed to use company cards nor company addresses. This irked some customers. Hopefully, this change will encourage more companies to deploy Linux enterprise wide.

In addition, there are rumours that HP will also start deploying Ubuntu Linux in it's consumer lines. I guess Dell's Linux sales must be doing fairly well. So well that it's making it a permanent venture and attracting it's main competitor into thinking about joining the dance as well.

Finally, in order to illustrate how seriously Dell is taking Linux, the staff have created this little official video.

Flooding in UK and Malaysia

Many parts of the UK are currently inundated with flood. Some parts of the country are seeing their annual rainfall coming down on them over the course of a few days. The people are taking it in their stride. However, this is a problem and clearly, something needs to be done.

Maybe, as Malaysians, we should show them how things are done. We have annual flooding problems in Kuala Lumpur, due to our seasonal monsoon weather. It is great that our DPM has come out to say that our City requires a comprehensive solution to the flood problem.

We should suggest to the Brits to build an overpriced underground longkang to drain all the torrential rain water away from major residential areas. We can teach them to spend over GBP 300 million on an untested tunnel that is advertised to solve the flood problem by draining away up to 45% of the flood water. The fact that we will now have knee-deep, as opposed to waist-deep, flood waters will go down well with the people (maybe not the kids who like to play in flood water). Instead of losing all of their property, the people will only lose at least 50% of their property. This is obviously a good way to spend taxpayers money to solve an annually recurring problem.

The Brits could benefit greatly by learing from our expert experience in dealing with this problem. We have torrential rains for at least half the year. The kind of rain that they deal with here is laughable. Clearly, we should do some technology transfer and help the Brits to solve their problem. It's about time for us to contribute something back to our colonial masters, anyway.

Apple Store Sucks!

The Apple Store sucks! I'm trying to buy an iPod for my friend in New Zealand. Since there's an Apple Store in New Zealand, you would think that it would be possible to buy it there and have it delivered there. However, it is quite impossible.

Apple assumes that the people buying from their online stores live in the same country as the store. It is impossible for me to pay for the purchase in the NZ Apple Store with a UK credit card as I cannot enter a correct billing address. And it's impossible to ship to NZ anything purchased through the UK Apple Store.

So, the only way to work this out is to buy an iPod from the UK store and have it delivered to me. Then, I would have to ship it to my friend in NZ via RoyalMail. This will end up costing almost 20 quid extra. This is just plain silly.

If this is the case, there really isn't any reason to buy it from the Apple Store. I could get the iPod from a 3rd party reseller like Amazon, and have them ship it to NZ. However, this would preclude getting the special edition Red iPod and laser engraving. This just sucks.

Apple Store sucks!

PS: This is BS. Amazon UK cannot deliver the iPod to NZ either! Apple Sucks!