Year: 2007

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Mostly Everything

Malaysia, Truly Asia: KLCC Aquaria!

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Click on the photo for bigger version

The KLCC Aquaria
Price: 38 RM for tourists
Feeding time: Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays 3:00 PM

This was a lucky long shot – to come during feeding time! If you plan to drop by the Aquaria, it would be best to go on a weekday (Monday or Wednesday) at around 2:00 PM so that by the time you reach the sharks, you’ll be treated to a feeding frenzy.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I did hear some rumors that back in the Philippines, plans to construct a “Sea World” type of attraction is currently in the works. The site will be located in the reclamation area and funded by a European company.

Click on the link to view more of my photos of the KLCC Aquaria.

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Mostly Everything

Batu Caves Photostitch!

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Thanks to Francis’ fantastic Kodak V570, we were able to do wide angle photo stitching in front of the Batu Caves in Malaysia. Click on the image for a bigger view.

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Mostly Everything

Big Things in Malaysia

I’m spending the week in Malaysia. Old friends from college and work are taking me out. Malaysia as a nation is very passionate about big things. Their “2020” vision aims to turn Malaysia into a first world country by the year 2020. And what better way to entice this revelry and optimism than a 50-hour countdown to their 50th year of independence?

I mean, what other country celebrates their 50th Merdeka for 50 straight hours at the best airport in the world? You can view photos of the 50th. Francis Miranda (a friend from way back in high school) has a knack for entertaining everyone as seen in this video of the self-blowing flagpoles (extremely awesome!!!).

As a tribute to the big things, here are a few other “bigs” that we saw:

Continue reading “Big Things in Malaysia”
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Mostly Everything

The adventure thus far …

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Here is the Philippine media delegation composed of bloggers and print media folk after two days of events and workshops at Nokia Go Play, Singapore. In the picture are Alma Buelva from Philippine Star, Edgard Hilario from Manila Bulletin, Lawrence Agcaoili from Manila Standard Today, John Nieves from Gadgets Magazine, Maria Cristina Tulipat from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Abraham Olandres from Yugatech.com and yours truly. Our chaperone for the sojourn was Nikka Abes from Nokia Philippines.

It was also great to meet Catherine Yong from PC.com in Malaysia, Hazel, Gerard, Dinesh, and the rest of the Nokia Singapore / Malaysia team. I knew the vacation started when corporate shoes were kicked off the dance floor. 🙂

It’s now the Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, and I’ll be here till Friday this week. 🙂

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Mostly Everything

Talking points on the issue of DRM

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The Nokia N81 … not to be confused with the “Nokia iPhone” … at least not yet 🙂

Very interesting points were raised during the talk on Nokia digital music forum today. A lot of DRM issues were shed to light as well as new developments in the music industry. Most of these insights come from Sandy Monteiro who is the SVP for Digital Music, Universal Music.

  • Apple did a good job of marketing their “DRM free” music when in reality this isn’t truly the case. Having an artist’s name and title is DRM. The fact that Apple only made the download available in AAC format isn’t truly “DRM free” either. Making it available only in the iTunes Store is also a sign that this is not also truly “DRM free.”
  • A new technology is being explored to allow music sharing via Bluetooth or through other means. It involves having the fourth or fifth person paying only a fraction of the cost via wireless sharing (IrDA or Bluetooth) of what the original person had to pay when he or she downloaded the music. This is sort of like a “human Bit torrent” effect. Or the new pyramid scheme for DRM 🙂
  • In the future, music tracks can be remixed by anyone. Let’s say you have a Frank Sinatra song – you can rearrange the instruments (instead of wind instruments you can use strings) and then upload your version of the song to the Internet. The user community can then download the song and you get a royalty fee. The music tracks that participate in this program have the prior approval of the artists and the record label. Interesting?

These were some of the more interesting points raised for the future of digital music. What do you think?