MSAM 2012 in Sabah recorded historic attendance

Malaysian Unit Trust Week (MSAM 2012) spread its wings to East Malaysia for the second time - this time in Sabah - and maintained the theme "Investment For 1Malaysia".

Location: Likas, Kota Kinabalu & live broadcast by RTM

The nine-day Unit Trust Week from April 20 - 28, 2012, organised by PNB, was also participated by heavyweights like Malayan Banking Bhd, Sime Darby Bhd, I&P Group Sdn Bhd, UMW Holdings, Chemical Company of Malaysia Bhd, Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd and national car maker Perodua. 

 Welcome to MSAM 2012

During the opening ceremony on Friday, April 20, visitors stood a chance to win a Toyota Hilux Double-cabin while, on the closing ceremony on Saturday, April 28, visitors could expect to be lucky enough to win a Ford Fiesta 1.6L Sport, Modenas motorcycles, laptops, iPad 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Happy ending, all prizes being won by some lucky visitors. Not me.

I visited the exhibition on the opening day and I must say the tents setup and the way the organiser set the booths were done in such a professionally manner. I think it must've taken a lot of planning, energy and money to stage such event. Apart from the big opportunities to win cars, almost all exhibitors held some sort of contests and activities for visitors to take part and win something.

One of the modded vehicle on display - Perodua's Infinite concept car.

Since 2000, there have been 12 similar MSAMs but this one will be remembered as the one with the highest recorded visitors attendance. Well done PNB for attracting more than a quarter of a million visitors and bravo to the attending Sabahans.

Previous locations and attendance at MSAM:

1) PWTC, Kuala Lumpur                       - (2000 - 60,000 visitors)
2) Kota Bharu, Kelantan                        - (2001 – 190,000 visitors)
3) Alor Star, Kedah                               - (2002 – 160,000 visitors)
4) Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur       - (2003 – 85,000 visitors)
5) Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang              - (2004 – 200,000 visitors)
6) Seremban, Negeri Sembilan              -  (2005 – 155,000 visitors)
7) Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu           - (2006 – 250,000 visitors)
8) Kuantan, Pahang                              - (2007 – 202,000 visitors)
9) Ayer Keroh, Melaka                         -  (2008 – 249,000 visitors)
10) Johor Bahru, Johor                          - (2009 – 156,000 visitors)
11) Kuching, Sarawak                           - (2010 – 187,000 visitors)
12) Ipoh, Perak                                     - (2011 – 177,000 visitors)
13) Kota Kinabalu, Sabah                     - (2012 - 268,787 visitors)

“The figure in Sabah is the best so far with 268,787 visitors. The figure also surpassed our initial target of 200,000 visitors,”  - PNB Group chairman Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid.

Tablets - the solution for heavy schoolbags?

School children carrying heavy schoolbags is not something new. But with the flawed education system (that's what I think) - rather than to just 'sufficiently' equip children at early age - these kids end up having to shoulder a lot of physical weight alongside mental pressure of being fed with too much information/knowledge too early.

During our days, we had to walk for a couple of kilometres to school but lugging just half the weight that today's children have to carry. I can't recall seeing anyone at school having to bend to balance the weight on their backs.

World cheapest tablet, Aakash. Image: gogi.in

Late last year, India came out with an idea to "help tens of thousands of low-income students connect to the digital world" by introducing the cheapest tablet, the Aakash. Priced from US$35 to $45 (RM106 - RM137) with option to buy an upgraded $75 variant, this is one tablet that could be affordable to many Malaysian students.

Will using tablets solve the heavy schoolbags?

Like many others, I have a school-going child in a Chinese medium primary school and the burden she carries on a daily basis can be as heavy as 10kg - 12kg. That could constitute 20% to 25% of her body weight which is not healthy at all. To some extent I think the use of tablets/computers in schools could be a solution to ease the heavy burden of carrying textbooks. 

I must be quick to point out that there are several issues that need to be factored in if tablets are to be allowed in school, but that's beside the point and is for another discussion.

There are some tablets in the market that one can buy for less than US$100 such as the Velocity Micro Cruz, Maylong Universe M-250, Wonder Media, Ainol's Novo7, Pan Digital, Nextbook Android, etc. Surely, someone or some corporations can bring down the cost and patent a low-price tablet specifically for students. The shear volume will take care of the profitability issue when it is adopted by the relevant ministry.

I agree with  Mobile World magazine editor, Kasmhminder Singh's contention that  instead of giving students RM100 each, as what happened during the recent government drive, it would be more useful over the long term to look into how tablets could become the new textbooks.

Tablet could be locked so that it is not possible to install games easily, and it can go online to only authorised sites and networks. Compress the bulky text books into e-book versions like the apps in iPads and Tabs. Book publishers can still collect fee every year when the text books are loaded into the tablet. 

Jane E. Brody discussed this quite interestingly in her article, Heavy Backpacks Can Spell Chronic Back Pain for Children; give it a go, it's a good read.

So, let's throng the electronic stores and grab one right now?

It will happen sometime, perhaps in the near future. It is not a question of 'if' but rather 'when', so, while waiting for that to happen, do what can be done now. There are some good backpacks that will transfer perhaps two-thirds of the weight to the hips via a padded belt and good design.

An example of this is the SPI ergonomic backpacks. Google to find out more about it. It is more expensive and not stylish or typically used by children in their early teens, but they are designed to reduce problems with carrying weight on the back. We bought one of these for our daughter.

Within the next 10 years or so, many schools will start adopting the use of electronic school bags. I'm convinced.

Could lightning be used as a source of energy (RE)?

In my previous article, I was talking about harnessing energy from the blowing wind. We do that by putting up wind turbines or mills.

How about lightning? Can we harness its seemingly huge amount of energy burst into something useful, so that we get a sustainable source of energy?

Lightning strike captured from Suria Sabah shopping mall - Dec 21, 2009

The answer is no, that's at least for now. In future - and I mean not in the near future - who knows, someone could just pop up from somewhere and come out with the big idea.

With around 16 million storms worldwide each year, plus a typical lightning bolts unleashing around 500 million joules of energy, lightning certainly looks impressive! But despite the big number scientists say that all it does is power up an equivalent of 2 households for a day. 

Why so? Because lightning doesn't produce energy. The massive sound and lights you see in the sky is just a process of 'transferring' energy. The energy you could get from the lightning is less than the energy it would take to create some sort of massive negative charge to produce energy.

You can further read here, but to make the story short, as a source of reliable energy, lightning is hopeless. You'd better be worrying about avoiding a lightning strike, than to spend your precious time trying to harness it to provide electricity for your home.