Keith is an architect by day, blogger by night. He’s responsible for all the content on this blog, and irresponsible for everything else.
Sarawakreport, a website covering sensitive political topics in Malaysia was blocked today by the countries most prominent ISP, Telekom Malaysia (TM). Internet users using TM’s Domain Name Server (DNS) reported that the website was inaccessible, and I’ve confirmed that is an intentional block by TM. Here’s a quick primer on DNS. The internet works on this marvelous set a rules...
There are two types of governments in the world, Those that build complex surveillance software to spy on their citizens, and those that buy them–and our government is more the buying type. Few nation-states have the budgets to build out complex surveillance software, but some are finding that ‘off the shelf’ software sold by dodgy companies are just as effective at a fraction...
First off, apologies for the lack of content on the blog. I’ve been really busy at work these past few months, and content is slow moving. For instance, the previous post was a review of a router, that I tested for 4 weeks, and returned to the supplier more than a week ago–and the post only went up yesterday. To that end, my decision is to churn out my thoughts just ‘straight...
A couple of weeks back, the guys over at infoversal loaned me a Engenius ESR600 router for a review, at first I was a bit hesitant, but my overall unhappiness with my TP-link router made me think twice. So I gave it a shot, and boy was it worth it. The router looks pretty normal, nothing to shout about here. While its competitors like Asus and TP-Link opted to go for black exteriors, Engenius...
There was a time when the internet was young, just a little fledgling network, an academic toy used only by computer scientist to try out theoretical concepts. Contrary to popular belief the internet wasn’t created to withstand a nuclear war(although it can), instead it was created to address a very serious engineering question–how to connect together different computers with...
The new Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in Malaysia should not be considered in isolation but rather in the context of the 6 other anti-terrorism Bills that were concurrently proposed. All of these new laws, will almost certainly come into effect, thanks to the whip system employed by the ruling party. Yet the laws violate fundamental human rights, such as a right to fair trial and right to...
What’s the price of falling in love? What are the consequences of being head over heels, mindless crazy in love with someone? I would say the price of falling in love is the possibility of getting hurt. Sometimes the person you fall in love with doesn’t love you back–and that can cause significant emotional pain and grief. But that’s a price we’re more than willing...
Today I attended an Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) event about the TPP. Among the panel members, included Michael Froman, the US trade representative and chief advisor to President Obama on issues of International Trade and Investment. (big shot!!) For those you don’t know, the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP) agreement is a trade deal between 12 countries including...
I strongly believe the Goods and Service Tax is a good idea. Yes, it will impact the poor more than the rich. Yes, it will cause the cost of living to increase at a time when most Malaysians are struggling to pay the bills. But the people who will suffer the most aren’t the poor, it’s the tax-evaders. Tax evasion and illicit flows are a big problem for Malaysia, and the Goods and...
Recently a court in Malaysia ruled that the newly amended evidence act could presume an IP address would uniquely identify a user of a network, and in the case of an Internet IP address, enough to tie an IP to the individual subscriber. In other words if the authorities ever found out that ‘your’ IP address was behind a post, then you’d have to prove it wasn’t you rather...