The Reader

iBooks for Schools

My congratulations to Apple Malaysia for successfully getting MOE to use iBooks in schools to teach maths and English. Below is the blog I copy from Macasia website written by my friend Chun:

Friday, November 28, 2003
I just received an e-mail from Lingam (General Manager for Apple Malaysia) today confirming a deal with the Ministry of Education, with an order to the tune of 5,050 iBooks. This ranks as the largest deal for Apple outside of the U.S. The iBooks will go to teachers in secondary schools to assist them in teaching maths and English.

It does not stop here. There is a possiblity that more orders will be placed over the next three years to potentially total 20,000 iBooks or more.

I would like to make a heartfelt congratulations to the Apple Malaysia team and the education reseller in making this happen. I am sure the repercussions from this will be felt throughout the Malaysian Mac market, from other schools, to corporate, to retail, over the next few years.
posted by Chun Hung at 12:51 PM

My story:

Some time around 1995, I invested some money to buy a few high end Mac machines plus a software that could buy a Proton car at that time. I had the idea( or a dream) to develop some mathematical games and some applications to assist students in learning mathematics. After investing some 200k with a friend, my team had failed to produce any presentable product after two years.Then recession of 1998 swallowed us...

I wish Apple Malaysia and MOE will work harder so that the teachers/students can really make use of iBooks to improve teaching and learning of Mathematics and English.Please make my dream come true!

By the way, I just wonder what happened to thousands of Psion netbooks that were reported to be used by our students some years back???

Note: I use both pc and mac at home and at work.

Post Raya

The pun is intended!

Thanks to Allah swt that my family and me had a safe journey back to our kampung and now we are safely back again in KL. I have three days of Ramadhan and four days of Shawal at my kampung. Everyday was normal and routine-nothing extra-ordinary. For that , I am again grateful. At my age, I don't like suprises...

This is my 20th year living in KL. Most of my friends are in KL and I sometimes felt like a stranger when I am back at my kampung.I spent most of my time visiting relatives especially those who are old and sick. On my way to visit a sick cousin in Jertih,Terengganu I travelled by a coastal route from Bachok via Tok Bali,Pantai Bisikan Bayu and Kuala Besut. What a great sight to behold! East coast has many beautiful places to visit. What comes to my mind was to take a few days off from my work and travel from Pantai Sabak(near Kota Bahru where The Japanese army frist landed during WW11) and travel by four-wheeled drive all the way to Terengganu,Kuantan,Mersing and ends up in Johor Bahru.Terengganu has quite a few beaches of great beauty and I can visit some historic places along the way. To make the journey more interesting, my blogger friends can join me to take photographs and blogs all the way...

Below is a photo of a strayed rabbit in my mother's garden. I love watching it nibbling some young leaves...So, I took this photo before my mother chase it away..

Al-Dain

In debt and deeper..

Let me quote the Sufis Paradox of The Journey:

“If you seek Him
You will never find Him.
But if you do not seek Him,
He shall never reveal Himself to you.”

Below is my Paradox of Debt:

I am in debt
But I am also a debt
The more I pay
The more debt I have,
The more indebted I become.

With bags of debts
On my back
I move on
Paying and seeking
More debts...

The day shall arrive
And when I return
All my debts and myself
To the rightful Owner.
Then I will be at peace.

But then,
I will be in greater debt
Of His Mercy….

--al-Fakir Mohd Adib Noh
Forever in debt to Allah swt.

SALAM AIDILFITRI

To all my friends,readers and visitors of this blog,may I wish you Eid al-Mubarak.May you have a blessed Ramadhan and a joyful celebration of Eidul Fitr.

Salam Hari Raya Aidilfitri ,Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Note: The Reader is on leave for about a week ,and most likely this blog will not be updated until next month.

Al-Fatihah Ayah Zul

This afternoon,at about 12:30pm I lost a distinguished member of my family.He was the first qualified lawyer among us and I looked up to him as a role model when I was a government servant. He was Tan Sri Zulkifli Mahmood and was also the ex-Director General of Anti Corruption Agency some years back.

He was admitted to IJN on Monday due to some internal bleeding and I was with him everyday until to-day. I am really grateful to Allah swt for giving me the opportunity to be by his bedside when he was in nazak and managed to read Surah Yaasin a few minutes before he passed away....

From Allah we come and to Allah we all shall return.We can reject or ignore the Commands of Allah, but we can't overcome The Wills of Allah.

To ayah Zul, may I record my sincere thanks for all your helps,assistance and guidance to me personally.May Allah swt reward you with al-Jannah and put you among the solehin.

Moblogging-A Test

This is a test via email from .mac

PS: Below is typepad.com feedback when I send the above as an email to a specific emai [email protected]

Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 08:33:38 -0800 (PST)
From: [email protected] | This is Spam | Add to Address Book
Subject: Posted Successfully
To: [email protected]

--
Powered by TypePad
http://www.typepad.com/

Next, I must learn how to send posting using my palm pda(T3) via BT mobile phone(T610).

Rugby World Cup

I only know about rugby when I was admitted to a boarding school in mid-60's.As a kampung boy around that time,not many of us knew what is rugby and how to play the game. But,when I was a kid,I used to play "choh"- a game only played by boys at night especially when the light from the moon is brighter,especially in the month of ramadhan. It is similar like rugby but we carry no ball-just wrangling ourselves to penetrate enemy lines of defenders to the other side. It is a LOT of body contacts and equally as rough as rugby.

When I was in form 2, I was told to play rugby 7-aside and I collapsed on the field in front of SITC buliding.(SITC now is UPSI). From then on, I believed what my rugby teacher told me that rugby is a game of the ruffians played by gentlemen. In some cases,the 'gentlemen' get converted to ruffians when things get too rough on the fields.

By the way, who is likely to win this year's Rugby world Cup? Well ,as all of us know,it is either England or Australia.By this Saturday, we all will know the result. Which team I supported? Either one is okay;my favourite team had already lost the game.

Here is a link to some nice pictures and the official Cup website.

Ramadhan Reminder #3

The Crown Jewels

Remember when we were students- how much efforts and time we put into our study to get the best results?And now, when we are working-how much efforts and time we invested to excel in our work and business?

Just ponder , are we doing the same(in efforts and time) or better in order to be the best muslims/ muslimah?

I hope all of us are already good muslims/muslimahs, but we can do better.We spend so much of our time to acquire some worldly assets that only last for a very short time, but many of us failed miserably to acquire the lasting assets that will be The Crown Jewels of our life-here and in the next world(akhirat).Surely this one is more valuable than the one kept in The Tower of London!

Below is the list of Ten Gems that all of us must try our best to acquire for the rest of our life.(Permata untuk menghiasi mahkota hidup kita).This list is taken from a book entitled " Don't Be Sad" by'Aaidh Ibn Abdullah al-Qarnee:

1.Waking up in the last third of the night to beg for forgiveness from Allah
{{ And those who pray and beg Allah's pardon in the last hours of the night.}}-Qura'an 3:17

2.Seclusion(for sometime) from people in order to contemplate.
{{And(those who) think deeply about the creation of the heavens and the earth..}}-Qur'an 3;191

3.Keeping the company of the righteous.
{{And keep yourself patiently with those who call on their Lord..}}-Qur'an 18:28

4.Remembrance of Allah.
{{Remeber Allah with much remembrance.}}-Qur'an 33:41

5.Praying two units of prayer with sincerity,devotion and presence of mind.
{{Those hwo offer their prayer with all solemnity and full submissiveness}}-Qur'an 23:2

6.Reciting the Qur'an with understanding and reflection.
{{Do they not then consider the Qur'an carefully?}}-Qur'an 4:82

7.Fasting on a hot dry day.
A hadith Qudsi reads:"He abondons his food,drink and desire-all for Me."

8.Giving charity secretly.
In the words of a hadith:" Until the left hand does not know what the right hand has spent."

9.Providing relief and aid to the afflicted Muslim.
A hadith puts it:"Whoever gives relief to a Muslim from one of the vicissitudes of this life,Allah will releive him from a calamity that is from the calamities of The Day of Judgement".

10.Possible abstentions from the worldly aspirations.
{{The hereafter is better and more lasting.}}-Qur'an 87:17

To be the best Ummah, we must acquire both assets of this world and the next,especially the next world.Then only we can safely say that we have a successful life.

May you get a blessed Ramadhan and a joyful Eid.

Raya Bazaar

While shopping for some cereals and fruits for my own diet programme, I was reminded of the coming Eidul Fitri by the presence of Raya Bazaar at GE Mall this afternoon. Time flies so fast that I just realised that two thirds of Ramadhan has gone by...

Gone are the days that I make new baju Melayu every year.For me now, the old ones are good enough.And I don't have to go around anymore buying new clothes for my kids. They are big enough to buy their own clothes. Only my wife will make new baju kurung-at least two new pairs.

To-date, I receive less than ten Hari Raya Greeting cards and not 100 cards when I was the CEO of one KLSE listed company.Time has changed and I have changed.Honestly, I only sent Hari Raya cards to those who sent to me since five years ago. And I am quite happy with it.

And that reminds me to buy something for my mother...

When was the last time you bought something for your mother?

PalmX Gang

I took the above photo using Nazley's camera to-night during a mini gathering among the xtreme owners and users of palmOS pda at SFC, Ampang Point. The X stands for Xpert,Xperience and Xtreme! They push the usage of their pda to the limits...

I am just riding on their X-elements to maximise my pda/hp usage. Thank guys for the assistance and great company. You are welcome to visit their Forum and mailinglist.

PS:Below is a photo I took at my surau last night using my new T610. This photo was transfered to my T3 via BT(bluetooth) and to my notebook via infra-red. This augurs well for my moblogging;-)

PS: For more pictures of Palmx