About almost a month ago, I blogged about BarCamp Malaysia and how I got to know about it. Last Saturday was the day that BarCamp Malaysia actually commenced. It was quite impressive the amount of sponsors that BarCamp Malaysia had acquired.

There were so many sessions which got me torn apart to choose upon which one I should go to. I then finally decided to go to any sessions that I managed to squeeze myself in. I brought along my laptop but hardly even use it after I found out that the Wi-Fi is unusable. My big fat Maxis Wireless Broadband modem which I happened to bring along is just too big to setup. Maybe it is time for me to get myself a Pocket PC or a BlackBerry. Then again, that would mean I need to put aside some money just for that purpose alone.

BarcampMalaysia KL Morning Registration at Xtrain

The Widgeo.us Session

Widgeo.us Introduction

I would have gone to the Google Android session but the room was packed full. I then went to Widgeo.us session instead. Honestly, I have no idea what Widgeo.us can or able to do. I do know that it has something to do with widgets based on their name. I’ll give it a try when I have some spare time.

RIA Development via Flex + JROR

RIA Development via Flex + JRoR

This session was really meant for programmers. In my day to day job, I don’t look at anymore of those web programming languages unless if it is really necessary for me to do so. Nowadays, there are plenty of technical programming tools available and these tools save time and resources instead of looking at programming codes line by line. Nevertheless, learning those codes will eventually help especially if you stumble upon problems and needed to find solutions. Anyway, I walked out from this session because there was no need for me to learn this topic, at least for now.

Monetizing Youtube

Monetizing Youtube Session

Now this was a really interesting session. The topic alone drew a full house of people into the small room. At first I thought this session might be some way or techniques to make money off from Youtube. I was wrong instead it was a new concept of pattern recognizing technology that instantly indentifies a pattern and turns it into an advertising medium in a form of 3D object or logo. It’s a brilliant idea Presented by the enthusiastic Roni Mustafa from Urekalabs but I think if this were to be introduced here in Malaysia, a lot of promotion, a lot of dedication and presentation is needed to attract advertisers.

A few people from the crowd at the time were bashing the idea by making comparison of similar technology used in the US but in the end, a lot of supports were shown by the audience to help this brilliant minded group to go further with their work.

Lunch Time

BarCamp Malaysia Lunch Time

The food was awesome.

BarCamp Malaysia 2008 Launching Ceremony

Khai Lee gave an enthusiastic opening speech at the opening of BarCamp right after lunchtime. I certainly was entertained by his Emcee skills. Check it out at the video taken by my cameraphone below:

The video is also available on Youtube using the link below:

• BarCampMalaysia KL 2008 Official Opening (Part 1)
• BarCampMalaysia KL 2008 Official Opening (Part 2)

Bridging People with Ideas Session

Bridging People with Ideas Session

Presented by Kelvin, during the first 15 minutes make sense where he talked about bringing in non-tech and non-IT people into the scene and organizing events and talk. After that, the idea got contradicted by mashing up other ideas and bringing in other people to diversify the entire theme and events.

Personally, I don’t think it make sense when something too in-depth is then being generalized in order to keep it balance. It should be either specialized or generalized. I know that once in a while, variety can make it more fun for participant or what people nowadays call it ‘fusion’. Then again, I just got confused and if I were a buyer, I would totally reject what is being sold.

A Whole New Perspective by Ameer

Then came along Ameer from Sudan who happened to crash into BarCamp and talked about his upcoming book which I’ve forgotten the title. I do know that is has something to do with Islam and some kind of revolution or was it evolution. It was an interesting topic but to me, I don’t take this seriously because I’m not that radical enough to be talking about all the subjects and topics that Ameer has brought up.

Jumping The Shark

Jumping the Shark Session

I nearly fell asleep in this session. I’m not actually a brainstormer so to pick out ideas out of my brain after a good lunch is rather useless. Nevertheless, the good point from this session is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and be careful of the big guns because they have all the resources to make or break you.

Entrepreneurs Going Global

Entrepreneur Going Global Session

This session was moderated by my buddy Cerventus. Three panel experts were invited namely, Vishen Lakhiani from Mindvalley, Ganesh Kumar from MOL.com, Roslan from MDEC and Siva an entrepreneur mentor. Now this session was a really good one since it was full of experience sharing, business information and the best is free advice for wannabe entrepreneurs. I love the idea of becoming an online entrepreneur and I am planning to become one myself. I think the best advice is to always build your own client database because that where the money will always be.

Blogging in Malaysia

Blogging in Malaysia Session

I sat behind HongKiat in this session. Other celebrity bloggers were also in the session as well such as Gobala Krishnan, LiewCF and Syokkahwin author Fayz. I remain silent the entire session because I don’t find the session to be useful to me. To me, blogging is just a tool for the use of delivering and sharing information. Maybe I should have shared “how I use blogs to make 2 of my company’s website to get listed on the search engine for specified keywords” or “how I landed a job using blogs”. Oh well, at least I learned a thing or two in this session.

Summary

If I were to describe this first BarCamp Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in one word, I would have to say “Fusion”. It was a pity I couldn’t come to the second day of BarCamp Malaysia because of a scheduled commitment. Visit BarCamp Malaysia Official website to read more of this awesome event.

Today is a very significant day. It was my very first time to vote for my country. I’m really not into politics but one vote can be a deciding factor for the fate of the country and since I’m already a registered voter, so it’s a responsibility for me to do so. I’ve been living in the Batu, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Area for the past 12 years. My grandparent house is just 5 minutes drive from where I live. They migrated from the nothern region and came here in the 1970’s and stayed here since then. Not to you all about my personal life, this blog is where I write about significant thing that happened in my life, so today I’ll write about the reality of what I’ve experienced during today’s historical event.

The Area Where I live

I never really knew who is actually going to represent my place. My area is also listed as one of the Malaysian Election Hot Seats. So it might be interesting to see what will the outcome would be. It was just this morning I did some Google search to dig some information about who am I going to choose. Typical last minute habit that is kind of engraved inside of me. I’m not going to write anything or any comment on the recent election campaign, however I’m interested to get to know who is actually buying in for the area where I live. Here are some list of link that I’ve found out about the candidate for my area:

• Wilayah Persekutuan P115
• Batu - Bruce Lee Vs Justice Bao
• Tian Chua, it’s time he is an MP

I don’t want to stuff my brain with more information anymore so I think that’s enough information to make a deciding factor. I know it’s not fair to just have information that might not be true, but then again why waste more time and energy when you can do other productive stuff. Let’s move on with my voting reality walkthrough:

My Voting Information Note

This piece of paper was given to me by my mother. My IC address is located at my grandparents house because previously I don’t really have a permanent address.

Barisan National Booth

I skipped and walk by this booth because I don’t want to be associated with them. Better be on the fence, I think it’s much safer..haha..

Keadilan Booth

For some strange reason, this booth was deserted. It was rather peaceful during the entire time I was there.

SPR Check-In Area

The policemen and the SPR official ushered me to the check-in booth first before proceeding.

SPR Check-In Station

I handed my IC and the vote information note to the official and they gave me a number for my voting station.

My Voting Station

I then walk to my assigned place. Each voting station has a policeman guarding the place.

Restricted Area

Instruction were placed at the classroom door.

Waiting for my turn to vote

Inside the room, I handed over my IC with the vote information note. The station master would then read my name out loud and then I was given a piece of ballot paper.

My Voting Ballot

I only had to choose between the 2 but I can’t tell you who I voted for. It remains my secret of course. I know that the SPR needed some kind of tracking mechanism to smoothen their operation but I wonder why there’s a serial number at the ballot paper itself. The school classroom got me nervous when I was entering my ballot paper inside the transparent voting box. It reminds me of my examination moment during my school years. I never liked exam.

All in all, it was a great experience. I’ll definitely be doing this again 5 years from now. Looking forward for the result announcement tonight.

It’s the National Election day tomorrow which only happen every 5 years. I missed last 5 year’s election because I didn’t register at that time. I only registered myself last year while walking around in at Plaza Alam Sentral, Shah Alam. This morning traffic wasn’t so bad. I arrived at my office 15 minutes earlier than usual. I thought the traffic was going to be bad but it was only bad during my journey back home. Probably because people will only travel back home during the last minute.

Anyway, comparing to the last election held, this year was a bit toned down from before. I am not politically incline to any party. I prefer to be neutral but then again, I still need to choose between one tomorrow. Mmm..tough choice. While having some evening snack at my nearest ‘mamak’ restaurant. I saw this:

Flying BN Flag at Equine Park

Here’s a zoom up of the flying flag.

Flying BN Flag Close Up

I think I’ve saw this kind of sport on TV some time ago but I forgot what it is called. I do know that ‘Jet Pack‘ such as in the movie Minority Report is now available if you are interested. I assumed that the cost is also sky high too.