What's wrong with Undilah

My wife and I were on our way to work early this morning when we're tuned in to the 7.00am national news.

In simple terms the news talked about 'Undilah' video clip being BANNED and taken off-air.

I have not seen it on TV myself but the announcement of its immediate stoppage from being broadcasted irked me and that prompted a quick google session first thing in the morning. The reasoning by the Minister was lame, or, am I a 'lame duck' now for failing to understand that the "video clip offended certain segments of society"?

I'm not going to hurl comments here but I will let you read for yourself what the big guns have to say:

1. Rais said it offended certain segments of society
2. Contains anti-BN messages - claimed Kota Belud MP
3. The MCMC comes under fire from the 'stars' themselves. Now I get it!
4. MCMC says nothing to do with contents. Should've blocked it long ago if not approved.

We've had enough of what others said. Let's see in the following clip, which part of the play "offends" you:

My personal view is that it is something good. I'm also part of the society but I don't feel offended by the content of the clip. Now, where has the pledge to-express-yourself-freely-without-discrimination gone?

iPhone 5 Announcement, finally!

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October 4, 2011 @10.00am California

It'll actually be less than a week now for the official announcement of the new iPhone, shall I say, iPhone 5.

I was browsing through The iPhone 5 News Blog for my daily dose of news about iPhone today and was pleasantly surprised - or, should we be surprised anymore after the long wait - to read the headlines.

So, it's official. The Loop's Jim Dalrymple reported that he has been invited for the announcement as follows: "Let's Talk iPhone" October 4 at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. campus. The event begin at 10:00 am PT.

Screen shot of The Loop's posting using my handset

Jim said he will be at the event, and will bring a live update of the announcements as they happen.

So let tune in to The Loop this Tuesday and get to hear it first hand; well almost.

Energy Efficient Singapore

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In my previous postings It Pays to Go Green and 5-Star Appliances and Rebates for You, I mentioned rebates of up to RM200 for energy-efficient appliances.

For the time being these rebates are for air-conditioners and refrigerators with 5-Star labels. This is one of the steps taken by Malaysia government towards wider usage of household appliances with high efficiency.

For Malaysia, energy-efficient equipment requirement is voluntary.

Singapore is a step further. The city state has imposed standards for minimum energy performance (MEPS) and it is now mandatory for exporters and manufacturers, including Malaysia, to comply with new standards if they want to continue selling these products there.

Among the specifications in these standards are types of goods, cooling capacity (in kW), minimum coefficient of performance, adjusted volume and maximum annual energy consumption (in kW).

What does that mean to our many manufacturing companies and consumers in Malaysia? A handful, both negatives and positives:

1. Higher production cost, product differentiation between export quality and 'local use'. Expect lower efficiency for local market. Remember, our carrots (rebates) are based on voluntary participation from manufacturers.
2. Accelerated acceptance of green technology. Manufacturers will now have to innovate to produce goods that are more efficient but cheaper in order to stay competitive.
3. Malaysia will have to come up with MEPS sooner than later. This should fulfill the government's pledge to reduce carbon emission.
   

My opinion: Incentives are good, it helps in many instances and no doubt it can spur the advancement of green technology on to certain feel-good level. But couple with regulatory measures, the pace of such growth will certainly be better.

Read about the imposition of new standards here.