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A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future

by Alan Tan, Malaysia


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Maxis IP Phone has arrived!

Maxis brought the IP Phone for testing. The phone has an Ethernet line plugged directly into my optical modem.

So far, it's great. Works just like a regular phone. Has its own phone number, it can call out directly as long as the optical modem is switched on. Receives calls directly also. It logs into the optical modem with its own MAC address. I think the phone is actually preconfigured by Maxis for use with my residence. I don't know if it has something like a SIM inside, though... That would be cool in the future.. Just carry a phone around and plug into any optical modem you can get your hands on to use it like a semi-mobile phone. That's just speculation for the time being.
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I'm beta testing Maxis FTTH!

I got very lucky to be one of the beta testers for Maxis Fibre's home broadband Internet. It was open to only about 50 users in Bangsar Baru. Lucky me! The company held some sort of interview for each of the beta testers, but apparently, it wasn't too stringent and a rather good mix of power users, average users and "hardly any use" users.

This bump in speed is definitely a big one for me as I was previously on the cheapest broadband package all this time--the 512kbps Streamyx Package.

Here's Maxis Fibre To The Home speed: 80+M/s Download 13+Mb/s upload!!
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Evident eco-consciousness in China than in Malaysia



Continuing geek observations in Shanghai... 

Remember the days when China was famous for having hordes of bicycles on its streets? Possibly a sea of practical, standard-issue black bicycles as transport for the people? Well, two-wheelers are still commonplace, albeit more so in smaller towns and villages, but technology has caught up. Many, if not most, of the bicycles are now electrically assisted. It's not just a few of them which are electrically assisted, virtually all the bicycles are. Here's a picture of one of the more common models.
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Shanghai through the eyes of a "Malaysian bumpkin"



I'm in Shanghai for a week on vacation. I don't travel often on a free-and-easy vacation often at all. Shanghai is funny. Kinda place for geeks. I got an excellent piece of screensaver installed on my camera, customized fit, by the side of a river, in (where's this?) Qida? for US$1.50. Excellent fit it was, too.
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Are all Gadgets created equal (or are some more equal than others?)

 

     There comes a time where we are always faced with a truckload of choices. We're just out to buy one of the necessities in life. A Thumb Drive or a Backup Hard Drive. These are probably the most difficult choices for the geekiest of us. Just any one of the many many .... many drives won't do. Its got to stand out. There has to be a reason why we're buying one over another. AND... the large availability of different types and brands just isn't helping out. Thats how geeks choose stuff isn't it? I for one won't just buy simply a run of the mill drive. It has to have something outstanding, Just plain looking cool just isn't enough. Looking cool and functionally outstanding is my minimum requirement. My quest for a backup drive finally became fruitful with this Hitachi 500gb Carbon Fibre casing "SimpleDrive"  This is not the best for you, but it matches my personality.. Carbon Fibre for the racy feel and light weight. Give me the feel of the fast and furious while backing up. Petrolheads would love it..(Yes.. I would like a carbon fibre bonnet for my Honda S2K as well) , under the drive white LED lights give it a glow from below. Just like all the boy racer modded cars :) As for the drive performance.. well.. its fast enough. No supercharger for the external hard drive just yet..

 

      What I'm trying to portray is that in this era where Gadgets are plentiful, and seemingly, everyone in the market only has the same things to sell, there could be, and should be lots of effort to personalize the stuff. Gone are the days where HDD casings could be crude and uninteresting and cheap prices are the only selling points. All tech needs to be polished and interesting or otherwise they're gonna be left behind. Although I applaud simplicity, and dislike too much stress on aesthetics, a good balance would be what everyone is looking for, isn't that right?

 

     I still remember Nokia, being the pioneer in adding personalization to the standard black colors of mobiles.. the express color covers.. That was by far the boldest and biggest stride towards making technology more human.. Wonder if anyone at that time realized they would have carbon fibre styled portable hard drives?  

     I'm looking forward to the current trend where aesthetics meets technology. Just to add some more colour to the previously drab world of technology.

 

 



 

 

About Alan Tan

I'm a medical doctor by profession, but as with all inquiring minds,technology has become an addiction. I'm also constantly in awe of all kinds of tech, from a piece of Velcro to the latest diving computer. Constantly adapting new tech to my lifestyle is a priority. Being a faithful follower of the "MacGyver concept", any tech is useful tech if you use it the right way. I use tech to plug my deficiencies, enhance my capabilities and explore all possibilities. What tech would you like to use today?

 

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Recent Comments

michaeltan: what's the part number of the phone lah!!!! more »
adriancmong: @Dr. Alan: The Maxis staff just called my house and told us to directly plug the optical modem into the ... more »
adriancmong: @Dr. Alan: I managed to do it: 1. I plugged in the ethernet cable from the optical model into my Apple ... more »
analyzer85: Thanks Alan, Sorry to ask again though, what brand (even better, what model?) is the ONU or optical modem? Also, just ... more »
Prometheus: @netguy. OK I'll try diabling the DHCP on the router. @analyzer. Its about astro thickness to the junction box. cable cannot be ... more »
analyzer85: Again, apologies in advance @Alan and Adrian, Sorry to ask out of the normal questions, but how thick are the optical ... more »