Well, this piece, more or less came out in a Malaysian daily newspaper's pull-out; I just like the topic. So for the benefit of those who like this sort of stuff I reproduce it below:
Bored? Watch movies on-line for free
By Hazimin Sulaiman
THERE'S obviously nothing new about watching movies on-line. Everyone with a broaband Internet connection has more or less experienced watching movies on-line; the very least a .flv (Adobe Flash) based movies on Youtube.com and the likes of it. Of it might not compare to the excitement of going to watch the newest blockbuster with full silverscreen glory, DTS and ambiance to match, but it offers something else that movie buffs would appreciate. These are rare film specimens that you most probably won't find in stores.What are we talking about?
The classics and excellent works of art dating from the 1930's and older available on-line. Some of these movies have actually shaped and inspired the movies that we see today. One excellent example of a brilliant piece of science fiction-horror would be the 'I Am Legend' novel written in 1954 by Richard Matheson.
So influential was this piece of literature that it has so far inspired three movies. The latest, starring Will Smith, entitled the same to the book, caused a stir in the on-line community to search and find out more about the other works surrounding the classic novel. All of a sudden, Internet movie viewers were trying to see what they could find on trusty old Youtube.com.
The first movie adaptation in 1964 of the novel mentioned, was titled 'Last Man on Earth' 1964 and the second version in 1971 titled 'The Omega Man' starred Charlton, which is a cult-status movie itself. Heston thought that the novel would make a great movie when he read it on a plane, not knowing that it had been turned into a movie before, starring Vincent Price. Both the Price (the version more faithful to the novel) and Heston version influenced the 2007, Will Smith, I Am Legend version.
Good news is that, if you have a craving to watch how a strong storyline still makes a great movie and not the digital special effects; you can watch it free on-line! Vincent Price in his role as the Last Man On Earth, as Dr. Robert Morgan. The movie has fallen into the public domain and is free to watch on-line. In some instances, with some know-how one can download movies of the same sort for free as well. On Youtube.com the movie is available in two parts at about 40 minutes each.
Most public domain movie Websites will link the viewer to a Youtube or similar on-line movie service due to the heavy logistics involved to host movies. The quality is OK and watchable but some public domain movies do not share the similar fate as sources to convert from are hard to find.
These rare movie versions have detriorated and will probably be lost forever if nothing is done to digitalise them. Efforts to digitalise such classics are important not only for the study of film history but also for the understanding of the contemporary popular culture surrounding the particular timeline in history. After all, who can deny the irreverant comedy genius of 'Monty Phyton's Quest for the Holy Grail' available from moviesfoundonline.com? The movies found in this database usually link to somewhere else, but it makes it easier to find public domain movies available.
If one is adventurous enough, the Internet offers a wealth of opportunities to view other pieces of monumental film art. Those which have fallen into public domain are available Websites such as http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/, http://www.openflix.com/, http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/, emol.org/movies and http://www.archive.org/.
In some instances, rights are even given for aspiring moviemakers to 'mash up' movie clips by editing, copying or morphing them into new clips. This is all relatively easy to perform with even the most humble movie editor built into Windows and Mac OS machines. Sites such as emol.org and archive.org are two examples of sites such sites. Archive.org has also nearly 2,000 films from the Prelinger Archives.
The Prelinger Archives, founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, grew into a collection of over 60,000 movies within 20 years. Such flexibility in rights give ample opportunity for people to mesh up and try out their hands in desktop movie making. Making animation via Machinima is currently gaining popularity across the world. Surely enough if we all work together to put up more locally sourced pieces and release them on public domain content, we can inspire budding movie directors to start creating. Old movies after all inspire new ones in one way or another.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Cybercafe's not worried about hotspots
After the effort, this piece wasn't used, maybe because the inteviewee didn't want to be identified- his boss was on honeymoon somewhere and didn't want to be bothered. At the last minute I couldn't find anyone else, so for the sake of filing in a story, I actually asked a favour to use this incognito person's opinion. Bummer...
Cybercafes unaffected by Wi-Fi hotspot expansion
By Hazimin Sulaiman
CYBERCAFES or Internet gaming centres or computer centres, or whatever one would want to call them are unaffected by the Wi-Fi hotspot expansion seen in the food and beverage industry. Mamak eateries, restaurants and coffee shops might offer broadband Internet access to their customers but it caters to a different target audience all together.
That is what a cybercafe manager based in Subang Jaya, who wants to be known only as Ken, believes. When asked whether Wi-Fi hotspots effects his buisness in any way Ken says that "no we are not really affected.
The people that go to Wi-Fi hotspot and cybercafes are two different types of people. The most that most people do at Starbucks is probably chat and do some non-intensive Internet related stuff. Compare that to hardcore gamers who need a lot of bandwidth."
According to Ken the people that come to his cybercafe are mostly from the college age group to the those in their thirties. "There are some forty year olds as well," Ken notes. One can imagine with all the young hardcore gamers at in the cybercafe that it can get quite nosiy. Most of the customers that go to Wi-Fi hotspots probably prefer a quieter atmostphere to work and chat on the Internet.
In Ken's cybercafe, there are different sections for gamers and those wanting to use Internet services. Ken's cybercafe provides headsets for customers who just want to use the Internet, to shield them from the noises from the gaming side.According to Ken, most established cybercafes in Subang have a minimum of 120 to 140 PCs, while the largest has more than 400 PCs. On weekdays he notes 60 to 80 per cent of the PCs are used at the peak hours of 6pm to 12 am.
While on weekends, capacity is filled 100 per cent! With that Ken's confident that the mushrooming of Wi-Fi hotspots does not effect them in any way. "Besides catering to a different market, cybercafes provide cheap group entertainment for RM2 per hour. Try to compare that with the cost of a coffee at Starbucks," Ken says.
The cost factor is a good point as the gamers tend to be younger customers with less cash to splurge just for Internet access. Specialty coffee shops also do not provide adequate bandwidth for hardcore games and do not have the right environment for team games such as Counter-Strike. It would simply be too loud for the other patrons.
In the future Ken says cybercafes might be effected if broadband connections become faster to the home. As more people will simply plan games at home. He does not see that happening for at least 1 or 2 more years. At the moment cybercafes have at least 2 or 4 broadband Internet connections. "It depends on the demand for speed by the customers. Normally the connections are divided for browsing and gaming. A big cybercafe can have close to 20 Streamyx connections divided for gaming and browsing," Ken observes.
Cybercafes unaffected by Wi-Fi hotspot expansion
By Hazimin Sulaiman
CYBERCAFES or Internet gaming centres or computer centres, or whatever one would want to call them are unaffected by the Wi-Fi hotspot expansion seen in the food and beverage industry. Mamak eateries, restaurants and coffee shops might offer broadband Internet access to their customers but it caters to a different target audience all together.
That is what a cybercafe manager based in Subang Jaya, who wants to be known only as Ken, believes. When asked whether Wi-Fi hotspots effects his buisness in any way Ken says that "no we are not really affected.
The people that go to Wi-Fi hotspot and cybercafes are two different types of people. The most that most people do at Starbucks is probably chat and do some non-intensive Internet related stuff. Compare that to hardcore gamers who need a lot of bandwidth."
According to Ken the people that come to his cybercafe are mostly from the college age group to the those in their thirties. "There are some forty year olds as well," Ken notes. One can imagine with all the young hardcore gamers at in the cybercafe that it can get quite nosiy. Most of the customers that go to Wi-Fi hotspots probably prefer a quieter atmostphere to work and chat on the Internet.
In Ken's cybercafe, there are different sections for gamers and those wanting to use Internet services. Ken's cybercafe provides headsets for customers who just want to use the Internet, to shield them from the noises from the gaming side.According to Ken, most established cybercafes in Subang have a minimum of 120 to 140 PCs, while the largest has more than 400 PCs. On weekdays he notes 60 to 80 per cent of the PCs are used at the peak hours of 6pm to 12 am.
While on weekends, capacity is filled 100 per cent! With that Ken's confident that the mushrooming of Wi-Fi hotspots does not effect them in any way. "Besides catering to a different market, cybercafes provide cheap group entertainment for RM2 per hour. Try to compare that with the cost of a coffee at Starbucks," Ken says.
The cost factor is a good point as the gamers tend to be younger customers with less cash to splurge just for Internet access. Specialty coffee shops also do not provide adequate bandwidth for hardcore games and do not have the right environment for team games such as Counter-Strike. It would simply be too loud for the other patrons.
In the future Ken says cybercafes might be effected if broadband connections become faster to the home. As more people will simply plan games at home. He does not see that happening for at least 1 or 2 more years. At the moment cybercafes have at least 2 or 4 broadband Internet connections. "It depends on the demand for speed by the customers. Normally the connections are divided for browsing and gaming. A big cybercafe can have close to 20 Streamyx connections divided for gaming and browsing," Ken observes.
Monday, April 21, 2008
You like to play with Jin?
A screenshot of the game (left) and Gamers trying out the game (below)...
Play with Jin on-line
By Hazimin Sulaiman
JIN, in Malay means geanie, which in turn originates from the Arabic equivalent 'Jann.' As of now, iG-Interactive Sdn Bhd, a top online game publisher and one of the pioneers of Malay language online game publisher in Malaysia and Singapore, has in par
tnership with game developer, TQ Digital Entertainment (China), launched JIN Online (http://www.jin.com.my/) for public open beta. It seems to be yet another “PayU2Play” massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by iGI. In JIN, you are immersed and trasported into a fantasy-based MMORPG virtual world of JIN.Gamers can choose one of the 2 heroic game characters, the Warrior or the Mage. JIN Online gamers will enjoy months of fun and exciting game-play commanding their heroes and pets to adventure the vast land of Atlantis and challenging monsters and real players with the power of sword and magic. What's more is that you can have pets which actually evolve into genies! As gamaplay progresses you can summon up to 3 genies concurrently, to help protect you from harm via convergence and attack tactics. The pet system provides a lot of genies to summon from. Some have super strength, some magic and some can self-destruct in sacrifice while others will possess enemies' spirit to impair them.
To help working adults to get into the game, JIN Online introduces a perfectly designed `Offline Training' system, a first in MMORPGs. As the name depicts, Offline Training allows you to train and level-up your heroes and genies even when your computer is switched off. The emphasis for Jin is team-work of tightly knitted common online game components which includes an excellent legion and competition system; effective trade system; player mentoring; rewarding and other various systems guarantee JIN Online to be highly interactive and full of fun.
In conjunction with the lauch, IGI will be running JIN Online Illustration and Comic Competition as well with the prizes of RM1,500, RM1,000 and RM500 for the Grand, Second and Third winner of each category and 5 consolation prizes each. More details will be available on our website as well. JIN Online CD starter packs are available at your local cyber-café, game-shop, news-stand early March, 2008 nationwide.
New Product update: Palm Centro available now
This one came out, but not in its entirety:
Palm brings in the Centro
By Hazimin Sulaiman
WITH over one million 'glacier white' Palm Centro sold in the United States, Palm, Inc has recently announced the availability of the popular model on our shores. The Centro definitely contributed to the USD$1.56 billion revenue that Palm collected in 2007 which amounts to more than 34 million Palm products.Featuring on-the-go e-mail and Web, contact-calendar capabilities, a colour touch screen and full Qwerty thumb-board, the RM1,399 Centro offers simplicity and organisation to users who want to be connected with friends, family and colleagues at a low entry price.
It is, according to Palm, the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date.The Centro comes in at a price which will be attractive enough for first time smartphone buyers and those who want to step up from their regular mobilephones to something which offers a richer user experience and capabilities. Opting however for the Palm Operating System provided by Access which is based on the Palm OS Garnet 5.4.9.Centro boasts simplicity of use thanks to the Palm OS interface which enables one-handed operation, one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, ignore a call with text messaging and Bluetooth connectivity.
Sticking to the Palm philosophy, user experience remains the key design factor and not specifications.Some unique features in the Centro include a handy chat-style view for message conversations, personal and work e-mail (up to nine POP3 and IMAP accounts). The Centro supports even Gmail and Yahoo! mail. And if your company uses Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or Exchange Server 2007 and access is enabled by your IT administrator, you can also receive your work e-mail via Microsoft Direct Push Technology.
Besides that, it can automatically update your work calendars and you can accept or decline meeting invites while on the go.The Web browsing capabilities allows users to directly feed their personal blogs and the built-in Google Maps application offers fast access to maps, directions and local searches. Performing a search using the Palm search function, you can search for the Google Map you're looking for in an instant, using an GPRS/EDGE data connection.
Of course, the Centro also features multimedia: Pocket Tunes lets users “sideload” songs and manage music, audio books and videos easily. Users can also shoot pictures or videos with the built-in digital camera and share them with friends. The Centro is already available from major IT and wireless operator channels nationwide.
Specifications:
Display: 320 x 320 pixels TFT, 65K colours
Processor: Intel XScale 312MHzRadio: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)Operating System: Palm OS by Access 5.4.9
Connectivity: Bluetooth 1.2, Palm Multi-connector
Memory: 64MB
Camera: 1.3 Megapixels with 2X digital zoom and video capture
Expansion: MicroSD (support up to 4GB)
Dimensions: 107.2 x 53.5 x 18.6 mm
Weight: 124 grams
Sepang F1 Website hacked!
Sepang F1 Website, soaped!
By Hazimin Sulaiman
BARELY fourteen hours before the start of another exciting Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, someone else beat favourites Räikkönen, Kovalainen and Rosberg. Well, on the headlines at least. On the last 20 March, F-Secure, Malaysia engineers checking out the malaysiangp.com.my Website were greeted by a box of detergent.
The defacement of the official homepage, just hours before the start of the race however, did not effect the Webserver; it was found to be running on its original IP address.Fans looking for the last minute Malaysia F1 Grand Prix ticket information to catch the race, end up getting a picture of the laundry detergent box mentioned. According to Chia Wing Fei, Security Response Team Manager, F-Secure Security Labs Kuala Lumpur "The original site was still intact and reachable using the IP address, only the DNS record was modified to point to a different host – a free hosting website.
Everyone who wanted to visit the website would simply just type in the DNS name of the website – malaysiangp.com.my instead of the IP address because hardly anyone would go through the hassle of typing in the IP address of the website." Chia reckons that the hijacker either discovered the password to the DNS Server; or with the use of social engineering, managed to get the provider to change the host record since it was a Malaysian public holiday on the day the incident occurred and "maybe there wasn’t full staff at office."
The hijacker it seems however, did it certainly for bragging rights and fame.No actual compromise to the site was made to host malware and no malware was hosted on the redirected site. If malware were hosted, it would have been a disaster given the amount of traffic the site would have received from all over the world.Malaysiangp.com.my has nameservers under five different providers. At the time of the defacement, some of them still pointed to the original or real site. Some of them pointed to the defacement page hosted at a free hosting service, oxyhostsfree.com.
By Hazimin Sulaiman
BARELY fourteen hours before the start of another exciting Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, someone else beat favourites Räikkönen, Kovalainen and Rosberg. Well, on the headlines at least. On the last 20 March, F-Secure, Malaysia engineers checking out the malaysiangp.com.my Website were greeted by a box of detergent.
The defacement of the official homepage, just hours before the start of the race however, did not effect the Webserver; it was found to be running on its original IP address.Fans looking for the last minute Malaysia F1 Grand Prix ticket information to catch the race, end up getting a picture of the laundry detergent box mentioned. According to Chia Wing Fei, Security Response Team Manager, F-Secure Security Labs Kuala Lumpur "The original site was still intact and reachable using the IP address, only the DNS record was modified to point to a different host – a free hosting website.
Everyone who wanted to visit the website would simply just type in the DNS name of the website – malaysiangp.com.my instead of the IP address because hardly anyone would go through the hassle of typing in the IP address of the website." Chia reckons that the hijacker either discovered the password to the DNS Server; or with the use of social engineering, managed to get the provider to change the host record since it was a Malaysian public holiday on the day the incident occurred and "maybe there wasn’t full staff at office."
The hijacker it seems however, did it certainly for bragging rights and fame.No actual compromise to the site was made to host malware and no malware was hosted on the redirected site. If malware were hosted, it would have been a disaster given the amount of traffic the site would have received from all over the world.Malaysiangp.com.my has nameservers under five different providers. At the time of the defacement, some of them still pointed to the original or real site. Some of them pointed to the defacement page hosted at a free hosting service, oxyhostsfree.com.
Yet another FUD piece on hackers...
Tippingpoint security experts outline top threats for Asia Pacific region
By Hazimin Sulaiman
"FROM January 21 to March 21, 2008, there have been 3840 attacks specifically targetted to Malaysia," says Rohit Dhamankar, Project Manager, SANS Top 20 Vulnerability List and Senior Manager, Security Research, TippingPoint DVLabs. This trend is worrying with as Dhamankar cites the reported attacks in other Asian countries: China with 25,179,463 attacks, Singapore 4,353 attacks, Indonesia 5,489 attacks, Philippines 20,181 attacks and India 1,701,895 attacks.
From research conducted, it seems that most of the infected systems in Malaysia are compromised by Windows RPC Worms and Web attacks which utilise 'PHP File Include' attacks. The list also includes compromises caused by the SQL Slammer Worm, HTTP Connect Tunnel (Spam), LSASS Active Directory Interface Overflow nad Fusion News Command Injection.The key areas of concern according to Dhamankar would be the network downtime attacks, financially motivated attacks and critical infrastructure (cyber-terrorism and political) attacks.
The modern security model as Tippingpoint proposes, requires security automation. Security automation offers all-round 24 hours per day security and requires network stability, transparency and no impact upon overall performance. TippingPoint is currently conducting seminar series until May, across 11 Asia Pacific countries and cities to create awareness among media and security executives to address the top network attacks and emerging threats and provide security recommendations for comprehensive enterprise defense and risk compliance. Tippingpoint focus is on emerging trends across the threat landscape. The series offer insights into attack techniques used on Web application servers, which are becoming an attractive financial target for criminals due to their accessibility to back-end database servers. Other sophisticated and dangerous attacks targeting critical network vulnerabilities including VoIP and SCADA will be covered. The growing sophistication of cyber threats and system vulnerabilities provides a daunting task for IT administrators working to protect critical data while meeting regulatory compliance.
“The past two years have been a rich play of application vulnerabilities from the server to user perspective,” according to Dhamankar. Attackers Dhamankar says, have started turning towards Web applications for compromise since both open source and custom Web applications have been found to be riddled with numerous vulnerabilities. Web server vulnerabilities have, in turn, fueled the compromise of desktop systems via user application vulnerabilities. It has become an easy trick to take over a Web site or host a malicious Web site remotely and attack any users directed to the site. Tippingpoint also wants to bring to attention the emerging technologies and business trends in information security and their potential business impact.
Neal Hartsell, TippingPoint's worldwide vice president of marketing explains that a more innovative approach platform is required by organizations who want to evolve to better secure their networks.“The three principle concerns of organizations center on keeping bad traffic off the network; controlling who and what accesses the network; and ensuring critical data does not leave the network,” says Hartsell. Hartsell agrees however that, that's a large and seemingly disparate charter, so the question becomes how these topics are related and how they can be addressed through a cohesive network security solution model that is technically and economically viable.
By Hazimin Sulaiman
"FROM January 21 to March 21, 2008, there have been 3840 attacks specifically targetted to Malaysia," says Rohit Dhamankar, Project Manager, SANS Top 20 Vulnerability List and Senior Manager, Security Research, TippingPoint DVLabs. This trend is worrying with as Dhamankar cites the reported attacks in other Asian countries: China with 25,179,463 attacks, Singapore 4,353 attacks, Indonesia 5,489 attacks, Philippines 20,181 attacks and India 1,701,895 attacks.
From research conducted, it seems that most of the infected systems in Malaysia are compromised by Windows RPC Worms and Web attacks which utilise 'PHP File Include' attacks. The list also includes compromises caused by the SQL Slammer Worm, HTTP Connect Tunnel (Spam), LSASS Active Directory Interface Overflow nad Fusion News Command Injection.The key areas of concern according to Dhamankar would be the network downtime attacks, financially motivated attacks and critical infrastructure (cyber-terrorism and political) attacks.
The modern security model as Tippingpoint proposes, requires security automation. Security automation offers all-round 24 hours per day security and requires network stability, transparency and no impact upon overall performance. TippingPoint is currently conducting seminar series until May, across 11 Asia Pacific countries and cities to create awareness among media and security executives to address the top network attacks and emerging threats and provide security recommendations for comprehensive enterprise defense and risk compliance. Tippingpoint focus is on emerging trends across the threat landscape. The series offer insights into attack techniques used on Web application servers, which are becoming an attractive financial target for criminals due to their accessibility to back-end database servers. Other sophisticated and dangerous attacks targeting critical network vulnerabilities including VoIP and SCADA will be covered. The growing sophistication of cyber threats and system vulnerabilities provides a daunting task for IT administrators working to protect critical data while meeting regulatory compliance.
“The past two years have been a rich play of application vulnerabilities from the server to user perspective,” according to Dhamankar. Attackers Dhamankar says, have started turning towards Web applications for compromise since both open source and custom Web applications have been found to be riddled with numerous vulnerabilities. Web server vulnerabilities have, in turn, fueled the compromise of desktop systems via user application vulnerabilities. It has become an easy trick to take over a Web site or host a malicious Web site remotely and attack any users directed to the site. Tippingpoint also wants to bring to attention the emerging technologies and business trends in information security and their potential business impact.
Neal Hartsell, TippingPoint's worldwide vice president of marketing explains that a more innovative approach platform is required by organizations who want to evolve to better secure their networks.“The three principle concerns of organizations center on keeping bad traffic off the network; controlling who and what accesses the network; and ensuring critical data does not leave the network,” says Hartsell. Hartsell agrees however that, that's a large and seemingly disparate charter, so the question becomes how these topics are related and how they can be addressed through a cohesive network security solution model that is technically and economically viable.
Hi. Once again my article did not come out as intended. Anyway this was how it was originally written:
What's up with wireless HSDPA?
By Hazimin Sulaiman
IT is definitely been a long wait to have WiMAX finally up and running. Perhaps sometime mid of 2008 Packet 1, one of the WiMAX licensees will be able to satiate our thirst for neckbreaking wireless broadband speeds- exceeding even the fastest HSDPA services possible. WiMAX, will one day hopefully solve the last-mile problem that has deprived many of their broadband
Internet connection in Malaysia. HSDPA or 3G on the other hand, was never meant to actually compete with wired broadband Internet services.
What's the current situation in terms of 3G services? Well Maxis and Celcom are keenly pushing these services through roadshows, which are a common sight at almost every mall in Malaysia.
Maxis especially is striving hard to sell their packages which promise to deliver up to (another best effort dirty word) 3.6MBps at a monthly subscription rate of RM98; if you get the rather bulky ZTE Modem version. The USB version goes for RM138. Celcom however sells a similar service at 10 sen per 10 Kilobytes, RM8 for 24 hours or RM98 per month.The great thing about wireless Internet packages such as those mentioned: you get to almost immediately enjoy the wonders of broadband Internet access once you bring your modem home. There's no hassle of waiting such as with an ADSL subscription like TM Streamyx, which can be an extra bother for people who do not want to have to get a fixed phone line, (these would typically be people who are renting property like myself). It is potentially a moment of instant gratification: just plug it
in, turn it on and get connected.
But this can easily turn out to be a 'bored-band' affair when one discovers that there is no guaranteed minimum level of services when it comes to HSDPA/UMTS/3G services. Surely enough there are Quality Of Service guidelines, but one wonders if getting less than half of a promised speed is of any quality at all. Go to a search engine and search on grieviences of those that have subscribed to Maxis' wireless broadband packages and you will discover that many feel that they have been given a raw deal: never mind the fair usage policy and the 3GB monthly cap, it's the 18 months sign-up period which seems terribly unfair as far as contract terms are
concerned.You see, one who subscribes to the Maxis Power Package, cannot cancel the contract, no matter how bad the service is unless a penalty for every remaining month is paid up for.
Being a subscriber based in Damansara Damai near Sungai Buloh, since October, 2007, I must say the thrill of getting instant broadband has fast dissipated. Ever since then connection download speeds have steadily decreased. In the beginning there were moments when downloads came up to even 1.5Mbps, then it progressively went down in weeks to 800kbps, then 700Kbps, 600Kbps, 400Kbps and now after supposedly some upgrade in infrastructure, on a good day I get somewhere between 200 to 300Kbps, or less than 128Kbps. Calling up the helpline in the many instances could only resort to have the connection resetted or maybe going through some steps to change the connection type from WCDMA Preferred to WCDMA Only. The idea is that to fix it to WCDMA (UMTS up to 386KBps or HSDPA up to 3.6MBps) only
will ensure the ZTE Modem not to switch down to lesser EDGE/GPRS connections. These steps don't really help. Monitoring
This deterioration happened in less than 6 months and does not reflect well on Maxis; especially when it continuosly hypes and sells the services when it simply cannot cope. Granted however, that the speeds will go down with more subscribers, but shouldn't there be a set minimum for sake of fairness?
Coincidently, Perodua Engineer, Dzulhilman Sulaiman, when studying in Australia had come across technical contractors from a Malaysian telco, who were setting up Telstra's HSDPA services. "We actually hung around together and went out to eat. My friends and I were told that they were here to help setup the HSDPA stuff there. So apparently, technically speaking, Malaysian enginneers are competent enough to handle such a project. So what's the problem?," says Dzulhilman.
The mystery deepens, but three guesses could be spot on: economics of scale unrealiased, subscription not up to critical mass and inadequate infrastructure- money. Telstra's HSDPA stretches from Bondi Beach, the Blue Mountains and even the Outback. Sol Trujillo, chief executive officer, Telstra, Australia at the last GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2007 in Macau said that Telstra's HSDPA services are now operating at 14.4Mbps, and 40Mbps by 2009. At the same congress, Ericsson's chief executive officer Carl-Henric Svanberg said flat rates for services, is the way to go. Svanberg cited data services such as '3' in Sweden with 7.2Mbps at US$30 for unlimited access, '3' in the UK with 3.6Mbps at US$20 for up to 1GB, and Maxis Malaysia with 3.6Mbps at US$32 for up to 3GB access. But with services the way they are, it would be a miracle to even get to that 3GB cap mentioned.
What's up with wireless HSDPA?
By Hazimin Sulaiman
IT is definitely been a long wait to have WiMAX finally up and running. Perhaps sometime mid of 2008 Packet 1, one of the WiMAX licensees will be able to satiate our thirst for neckbreaking wireless broadband speeds- exceeding even the fastest HSDPA services possible. WiMAX, will one day hopefully solve the last-mile problem that has deprived many of their broadband
Internet connection in Malaysia. HSDPA or 3G on the other hand, was never meant to actually compete with wired broadband Internet services.
What's the current situation in terms of 3G services? Well Maxis and Celcom are keenly pushing these services through roadshows, which are a common sight at almost every mall in Malaysia.
Maxis especially is striving hard to sell their packages which promise to deliver up to (another best effort dirty word) 3.6MBps at a monthly subscription rate of RM98; if you get the rather bulky ZTE Modem version. The USB version goes for RM138. Celcom however sells a similar service at 10 sen per 10 Kilobytes, RM8 for 24 hours or RM98 per month.The great thing about wireless Internet packages such as those mentioned: you get to almost immediately enjoy the wonders of broadband Internet access once you bring your modem home. There's no hassle of waiting such as with an ADSL subscription like TM Streamyx, which can be an extra bother for people who do not want to have to get a fixed phone line, (these would typically be people who are renting property like myself). It is potentially a moment of instant gratification: just plug it
in, turn it on and get connected.
But this can easily turn out to be a 'bored-band' affair when one discovers that there is no guaranteed minimum level of services when it comes to HSDPA/UMTS/3G services. Surely enough there are Quality Of Service guidelines, but one wonders if getting less than half of a promised speed is of any quality at all. Go to a search engine and search on grieviences of those that have subscribed to Maxis' wireless broadband packages and you will discover that many feel that they have been given a raw deal: never mind the fair usage policy and the 3GB monthly cap, it's the 18 months sign-up period which seems terribly unfair as far as contract terms are
concerned.You see, one who subscribes to the Maxis Power Package, cannot cancel the contract, no matter how bad the service is unless a penalty for every remaining month is paid up for.
Being a subscriber based in Damansara Damai near Sungai Buloh, since October, 2007, I must say the thrill of getting instant broadband has fast dissipated. Ever since then connection download speeds have steadily decreased. In the beginning there were moments when downloads came up to even 1.5Mbps, then it progressively went down in weeks to 800kbps, then 700Kbps, 600Kbps, 400Kbps and now after supposedly some upgrade in infrastructure, on a good day I get somewhere between 200 to 300Kbps, or less than 128Kbps. Calling up the helpline in the many instances could only resort to have the connection resetted or maybe going through some steps to change the connection type from WCDMA Preferred to WCDMA Only. The idea is that to fix it to WCDMA (UMTS up to 386KBps or HSDPA up to 3.6MBps) only
will ensure the ZTE Modem not to switch down to lesser EDGE/GPRS connections. These steps don't really help. Monitoring
This deterioration happened in less than 6 months and does not reflect well on Maxis; especially when it continuosly hypes and sells the services when it simply cannot cope. Granted however, that the speeds will go down with more subscribers, but shouldn't there be a set minimum for sake of fairness?
Coincidently, Perodua Engineer, Dzulhilman Sulaiman, when studying in Australia had come across technical contractors from a Malaysian telco, who were setting up Telstra's HSDPA services. "We actually hung around together and went out to eat. My friends and I were told that they were here to help setup the HSDPA stuff there. So apparently, technically speaking, Malaysian enginneers are competent enough to handle such a project. So what's the problem?," says Dzulhilman.
The mystery deepens, but three guesses could be spot on: economics of scale unrealiased, subscription not up to critical mass and inadequate infrastructure- money. Telstra's HSDPA stretches from Bondi Beach, the Blue Mountains and even the Outback. Sol Trujillo, chief executive officer, Telstra, Australia at the last GSMA Mobile Asia Congress 2007 in Macau said that Telstra's HSDPA services are now operating at 14.4Mbps, and 40Mbps by 2009. At the same congress, Ericsson's chief executive officer Carl-Henric Svanberg said flat rates for services, is the way to go. Svanberg cited data services such as '3' in Sweden with 7.2Mbps at US$30 for unlimited access, '3' in the UK with 3.6Mbps at US$20 for up to 1GB, and Maxis Malaysia with 3.6Mbps at US$32 for up to 3GB access. But with services the way they are, it would be a miracle to even get to that 3GB cap mentioned.
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