Using Adobe Premier CS3 To Edit Cut Video for YouTube

Image via Wikipedia Adobe Premier CS3 is part of the master collection creative suite 3 (CS3). Check out the recent Master Tour in KL 2008.

Adobe Premier CS3 doesn't support flv and dat (as input). This is due to a few reasons:

• Dat is ambiguous data format, it can be video or just anything. It is matter of extension.
  
• Flv may is compressed video.

To convert dat file into MPEG, you can use VCD Gear.

It is a freeware and it works damn fast.

Using Adobe Premier CS3 is really no-frills. There are just a few things to master.

1. Assets manager (managing objects)
   
2. Source manager
   
3. Output manager (sequence)
   
4. Timeline manager (for cutting)

Since YouTube only allow videos of the following attributes:

• Not more than 10 minutes
  
• Not more than 1 GB in size.

Thus, it is always a requirement to cut videos into 10 minutes clips.

In Adobe Premier CS3, each clip is known as sequence.

So, to add sequence, use the Asset manager.



Drag the video from 'Source' into the 'Timeline'.

Scale the 'Output'.



Use 'razor' to cut then 'clear' away unwanted portions.



Move wanted portion back to the starting point. This will ensure that your sequence (clip) start on at time 00:00:00


Export each 'sequence' using Adobe Media Encoder.



Select desirable output format.



Done. The output can then be uploaded to YouTube.

Adobe Master Collection Installation Failed Solutions

Trying to install new components on Windows Vista Business (32 bit).

Goto Control-Panel..



And it couldn't work.



And if you try to uninstall everything and reinstall again ...



No worries, you are not alone.

My Solutions:

• Do not initiate installation from Control-Panel. Run the Setup.exe from the first DVD.
  
• Make sure Internet connection is on while installing.

Sure work!!!

If you encountered 'Internal error 2739' while running 'Setup.exe' from the DVD...



Follow the instruction in this link.

Conclusion:

• Vista could be the problem. If you don't follow the above two steps, even trying on Safe Mode couldn't work. I did manage to uninstall master collection CS3 from Windows XP through the control panel.
  
• It seems also is a way for Adobe to make sure that you have valid DVD to perform installation. There is a way to create DVD which prohibit copying.
  
• Internet connection ? To check who you are ?

Malaysia ICT Budget 2007

Check out the Budget 2009 highlights.

Lazy to read ? Here are the summaries for what is good for the ICT industry in Malaysia.

According to Cisco Malaysia, MSC Malaysia, Intel Malaysia, Symantec Corp, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM Malaysia and Micrsoft Malaysia...

All speak the same wavelength that the announced budget is good for:

• Tax relief: Accelerated Capital Allowance on expenses incurred on ICT equipment
• Incentives for SME through Bank Negara
• Manpower Development

All agreed synonymously that ICT is a key factor to accelerate Malaysia’s competitive edge in the global economy and to spur the growth of knowledge-based economy.

Comparison to previous budget (2006), this one is rather low-profile, low-risk and conservative. There is no excitement for R & D and growth simulation. It is more about cushioning.

Why Mobile Number Portability (MNP) ?

Image via Wikipedia Malaysian have been waiting for three years, finally today is the day.

Sometime in Feb 2005, this blog invested effort to study the market saturation of mobile phone industry in Malaysia. Check out the blog entry.

So indeed, industry experts have been trying to visualize what is going to happen when the market saturates.

Observe this quote ..

For a developing country like Malaysia, some pundits believe cellular companies (celcos) may have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for the next wave of customers. Other analysts believe the celcos could rev up subscriber numbers by lowering entry barriers further.

Both of these scenarios are happening now in fact, but the industry actually has a better way of dealing with market saturation, it is a best practice being practiced around the world; Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

Yes, MNP is catered to cushion market saturation by providing more spaces for healthy competitions amongst the celcos.

This is good, really. I endorse this.

The effort will make sure that industry players do not fall into the trap of complacency. They have to be prudent with the economics of their businesses all the time and to maintain a healthy customer-relationships as always as possible.

Why ? It is not hard to guess. Look at all the monopolies around Malaysia now, how I wish there is such thing as broadband portability.

Just imagine that if someone is doing illegal throttling, all you need to do is to pay RM 25 to port over to other service providers.

And culprits can't afford to be ignorant because Switzerland can't be bought over (like Netscape), it is an open source !

MNP is a good implementation ruled by MCMC to prevent unhealthy industry practices. It must and was initiated by MCMC.

Latest Updates:

Celcom to benefit from MNP.

Celcom's net profit rose 29% to RM631 million in the first half ended June 30, 2008 from a year earlier.Strong performance was mainly attributed to higher acquisition and usage of postpaid as a result of the successful launch of the Celcom Executive Plan (CEP) and growing demand for mobile broadband services.

WiMAX To Roll-Out in Malaysia As Promised (Aug 2008)

Image via Wikipedia It was more than a year ago when WiMAX first surfaced into the media of Malaysia.

During those periods, it was all about who should have the licenses ?... That debate is long over.

Malaysian have been waiting and waiting... occasionally distracted by the general election, rising crude oil prices, WCIT and Olympic games. But those are short-term hot happenings as compared to the issues of telecommunication facilities for all Malaysian. We are still not getting good enough service coverage; many would agree.

PiKOM has invested efforts to do their parts, by convincing the government that targets are not realistic (on July 2007) that government now expects 50% of the households to have broadband by 2010 and a few months later commented again that WiMAX effort was losing momentum (on April 2008).

So, things are moving.

YTL E-Solutions, Green Packet, REDtone all have had press releases that promised WiMAX will be launched by end of Aug 2008. Yeah, that is good, finally we get to see something and since the HSBB (High Speed Broadband) project by TM has been lingered with uncertainties.

But interestingly, the bigger subject is that how effective are all these guys going to contribute to the national broadband plan ? The answer can be found at this blog entry (Dec 2007) about QucomHaps Malaysia.

Check out the commentaries (never-mind those that are semi-relevant) where it took me out of bewilderment by an anonymous industrial expect who commented that non of these guys can contribute much to the national broadband plan, because they are driven by commercial values.

Let me republish the content here...

STREAMYX (ADSL) just cannot serve everything nationwide. Just ask the suppliers.

3G LOCATIONS just cannot serve everything either. 3G has taken more than 6 years to roll out not much (nowhere even close to nationwide) service coverage.It could take 10 or 20 more years (like GSM!) to roll out enough nationwide service coverage locations.Maybe it will never be affordable to do so anyway.

WiMax LOCATIONS certainly cannot serve everything (maybe will not even serve anything some experts think!)The reality is that WiMAX provides zero service coverage in Malaysia today, even though it gained the full support of Intel and expert others for years.
There is no projected timescale for when nationwide WiMAX service coverage will ever be available. If and when it does happen then it will probably be the Haps people that do it!

GSM took over 25 years to roll out nationwide service coverage it is worth remembering. 25 years! And provides no useful internet access.

SATELLITE gives nationwide service coverage no problem. After taking 5-7 year programs to build and launch them.But the problem is that almost nobody other than commercial and public customers can afford these satellite broadband services anyway. So again that's completely useless for the rakyat!

And you can't receive any satellite signal anyway to or from a normal Nokia, Sony etc mobile phone.

'Fibre to the home/office' might happen one day, I agree. But it will likely take 10-15 years to cover all buildings nationwide. And it may not be affordable for everyone even when the service becomes available.

Even 10-15 years from now, when service might be nationwide, it would still offer NO internet access at all whenever you are outside and away from buildings.

So this is the internet service coverage reality in Malaysia and all the possible choices.

80% of buildings in Malaysia today have NO broadband internet access or services. 80%! Similarly 80% (or more) of the populated working areas outside of buildings have no internet coverage.

The social and economic retardation and the social divisiveness dangers caused by this challenge is very serious, for everyone.

Many of Malaysia's neighbours have already overtaken us in terms of internet access and service.

New business and increased educational and other advancements blossoming.
Other neighbours also already have plans to overtake us on many important fronts.

What's the big rush then for an almost 'instant nationwide service solution to all-buildings and to all-mobile-locations' from Haps?

Is it because only by having Haps internet access and service nationwide we can we even hope to compete as a nation?

Almost no matter how long it took the Haps guys to deliver service they would still likely have done it way before any of the other possible technologies.

All the other technologies took many years longer to roll out their own types of service coverage.

So, this is interesting time, let's see how the WiMAX will live up to the expectation.

Finally, in some countries, BitTorrent throttling is illegal, don't you agree ? A software has been created to measure the actual speed of your Internet connection, it is called Switzerland. Check it out dude, before you purchase new service!

Malaysia ISP ordered to cut access to Malaysia Today website

Image via Wikipedia This is unprecedented, this is an important timeline for ICT Malaysia.

Check out the report from TheStar.

I can bring back a similarity to Google associating Chinese government to filter out contents from the search engine.

But not too worry, with corporate blogging gaining momentum as well as the government has started to venture into politic-webspheres, it will be harder for a total censorship of the Internet; The Pre-Doomsday.

Check out LiewCF and hilarious Jeff Ooi.

Updates:

• Only 'general instruction' (30th Aug 2008)
  
• Khairy Disgrees (31st Aug 2008)
• one does not appreciate the difference between wrongs for which action can be taken and acts that constitute prior restraint.

Shop Lot For Rental At MONSUN

SHOP LOT FOR RENTAL AT MONSUN ONLY MYR 50.00 a month. For every one who are interested in doing virtual business. What you can do is to advertise or sell your products in this website as many times as you like but in the limited period of the monthly rental (a month) & yet will renew every month... You can download & create maximum 10 pictures not more 1mb for your marketing purpose.... Sell your products at Monsun-Biz with cheapest rental with big income will come in…..

For your information there is no hidden charge at all.

PRICE COMPARISON BETWEEN EBAY, LELONG & MONSUN-BIZ

Rental Charges:

• ebay - USD 1-USD 50/10 days (not included other services charges)
  
• lelong - RM 168/year (not included other services charges)
  
• MONSUN - RM 50.00/ 15USD per month, no HIDDEN charges.

Pictures:

• ebay - 1-6 pcs = USD 0.75, 7-12 pcs = USD 4.00 (there is extra charges if you want to change pictures)
  
• lelong – free but limited pictures (for only 1-2 pcs)
  
• MONSUN – free pictures up to 10pcs (1 megabyte)

Payment Terms:

• ebay – U must have a credit card/paypal system
  
• lelong – U must have an i-account and need to top-up earlier using credit card or online banking
  
• MONSUN – By using our own Gateway System payment by credit card and online banking.

Fee:

• ebay – Up to 8% and aboves
  
• lelong – not accurate depending on the amount
  
• MONSUN - 4% + RM 0.50 only (if you are using Payment Geteway only)

Promotion:

• ebay – no promotion for customers besides the website.
  
• lelong - no promotion for customers besides the website.
  
• MONSUN – promotion for customers using Bossmailer & SMS broadcaster

China’s Ministry of Railways Secured with Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks announced that China's Ministry of Railways is protecting its nationwide communications infrastructure, encompassing the Ministry's headquarters and 18 bureaux, with the Juniper Networks Integrated Security Gateway (ISG) 2000 firewall/VPN with integrated Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP).

More about Juniper Networks.

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, August 27, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced that China's Ministry of Railways is protecting its nationwide communications infrastructure, encompassing the Ministry's headquarters and 18 bureaux, with the Juniper Networks Integrated Security Gateway (ISG) 2000 firewall/VPN with integrated Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP).

The ISG 2000 was selected for its high-performance, comprehensive security and ability to easily protect the Ministry's multi-segment network which is compartmentalized for more granular user access administration to minimize damage from network attack or failure, preventing or slowing problems from cascading across the entire infrastructure.

"The Juniper solution can be easily managed through a single interface without compromising performance or reliability," said Zhang Xiaolin, Juniper's general manager for China. "The ISG 2000 is essentially the gatekeeper for multiple network segments, and the IDP feature further boosts network security."

The Juniper Networks ISG 2000 is a purpose-built, high-performance integrated security gateway that provides unmatched firewall and IPSec VPN performance for the latest Internet applications and multimedia content. The support of security zones and various virtualization capabilities makes ISG 2000, an ideal solution to support multiple network segments and logically separated networks.

The Ministry of Railways is also leveraging the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) capability of ISG 2000 with the optional Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) security modules. In addition to providing full IPS security protection from all the latest network attacks and threats, the tight integration of the security modules with the FW/VPN capability enables seamless and simple management of the entire gateway.

"Electronic network security and reliability are as essential to China's sustained growth as the physical infrastructure of the country's railway system," added Zhang. "Organizations such as the Ministry of Railways are recognizing the high-performance reliability of our security solutions and we are pleased that Juniper's solutions are helping to ensure the smooth operation of mission-critical systems across China."

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Media Contacts:

Wendy Lang
Juniper Networks, Inc.
+65-6511-3519
wendylang@juniper.net


PR Agency Contact:

David Gibson
PPM Technology Communications
03-2094-4091, 017-357-2895
ppmpr@yahoo.com, david.ppm@gmail.com

Adobe Announces Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 Bundle

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA –August 27, 2008 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced two major upgrades to its hobbyist-level digital photo and video software: Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7 and Adobe Premiere® Elements 7 for Windows®.

Available as standalone products or as a single retail bundle package, the integration between the two desktop products allows for instant access to the best photo and video options to create cinematic slide shows, dramatic freeze-frame effects, and unique themed creations.

Photoshop Elements 7 makes it quick and easy to organize, edit, create and share amazing photos with others by leveraging the editing power of Photoshop software, the professional standard for image editing.

Premiere Elements 7 features movie making options that make it easy for users to create their own blockbuster in minutes, while also offering opportunities to grow and stretch their editing abilities.

For the first time, Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 customers will have the option to sign-up for one year of membership on Photoshop.com, extending the capabilities of the software by providing helpful templates and creative tutorials delivered on a regular basis.

Other benefits include: automatic online backup and storage of photos and videos, access to photos and videos from virtually anywhere, and interactive options to share photo memories with great impact.

“Our customers are spending more time online and we want to help them stay connected with their favourite people and memories,” said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe.

“The introduction of Photoshop.com membership means photos and videos are accessible from virtually anywhere and we’re no longer limited to what we can fit into ‘the box.’ We’ve got a new mechanism that delivers fresh ideas and inspiration, safely protects what you’re storing, and provides fun options for sharing. The best part is - it’s all dynamic and current, expanding the already powerful capabilities of Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 throughout the year.”

Powerful Yet Easy-to-use Editing Tricks Make Ordinary Photos Extraordinary
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 combines power and simplicity to make storytelling easier than ever before. The new Smart Brush helps users apply incredible effects exactly where they want with a single stroke. Scene Cleaner, based on Adobe’s innovative Photomerge® technology, creates the ideal photo by letting users simply brush away unwanted subjects such as tourists or cars, who may be interrupting the focus of the photo.

Polished Movies in Minutes with Enhanced Editing Options
Adobe Premiere Elements 7 offers time-saving options that help users make high-quality, Hollywood-style movies. Now supporting the AVCHD format, the software automatically analyzes video clips as they are imported and applies Smart Tags that identify video quality, number of faces, sounds and more for quick finds. New InstantMovie means video clips can be easily dragged and dropped into feature-packed themes such as birthday, wedding or extreme sports. For special effects similar to “green screen” technology, the new Videomerge option can automatically place a person into any scene to impress audiences.

New Photoshop.com Membership Inspires Users to Get Creative and Stay Connected
Users can push their creativity even further with Photoshop.com membership, offered in two levels, Basic1 and Plus2. For those who want fresh, creative project ideas delivered straight to the desktop, the option to purchase an annual Photoshop.com Plus membership guarantees inspiration will come on a regular basis in the form of new tutorials, seasonal artwork, themed templates and more. In addition, Photoshop.com Plus membership provides 20GB of storage – enough for 15,000 photos, four hours of DVD-quality videos or a combination of both. Online back-up keeps memories safe from computer failure or natural disaster, with access from anywhere, via a personal account linked to the software.

Photoshop.com Basic membership can be experienced for free, providing 5GB of storage, access to photos and videos virtually anywhere and online photo sharing in a fun interactive environment. Photoshop.com members also will be able to upload photos directly from a mobile phone. The addition of Photoshop.com Mobile beta, a rich Adobe Flash® based mobile application, offers camera phone users the easiest way to upload, share and access photos using their Photoshop.com account.

Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background and allows consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account. To learn more about Photoshop.com Mobile and for a list of supported phones, visit http://www.mobile.photoshop.com/. More information about Photoshop.com membership can be found at: www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/membership/.

Pricing and Availability
Consumers can pre-order -Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Adobe Premiere Elements 7 for Windows at http://www.adobe.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.bestbuy.com/ and http://www.costco.com/. Photoshop Elements 7 & Premiere Elements 7 bundle will be available for RM$549.00. The products also will be available separately for RM$369.00 each. Photoshop.com Plus membership will be available for purchase from within the products for US$49.99 and Basic membership can be experienced for free. Information about other language versions, as well as pricing, upgrade and support policies for other countries is available at www.adobe.com/go/psepre_bundle. Photoshop.com membership is available in the U.S. only.

*Source Photoshop Elements: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service (April 2002 to April 2008) based on units sold (North America).

* Source Adobe Premiere Elements: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service (January 2007 to April 2008) based on units sold in the Video and Photo Editing Categories. Combined units sold for Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements Bundle (North America).

1. Photoshop.com Basic membership does not require the purchase of any Adobe product, including Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7.

2. With Photoshop.com Plus membership, annual membership terms apply.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/.

###

© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Premiere, Photomerge, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Don't Sue Media (for doing their jobs)

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said "Don't sue the police, ACA and media for doing their jobs."

Exactly, the media such as blogs must NOT be sued if not attacking someone else personally or with malicious intentions. I endorse this statement personally.

It's just like you came across a bug in MS operating system, and you blog about it. Would Microsoft sue you for blogging that ? Or should they thank you ?

I recently came across a blog where a blogger is being sued by a corporate company in Malaysia.

For those industrial experts out there, check out the blog! Reserve your comments unless you really know what is right to comment.

The irony is that we live in a world where software are full of bugs and open source software is just too un-commercialized.

Unable To Find Database DLL (CR 8.5)

Problem:

When application is deployed using Crystal Reports 8.5 (CR 8.5), the following exception occurs when generating reports...

unable to find database dll

This is because you are not using Crystal Report 8.5 ActiveX Designer RunTime Library (craxdrt.dll)

Check out here for complete solution. Or just download the tutorial.

This solution also cater for the other error of 'Physical Database Not Found'

The other good reference site is here.

What is Adobe Presenter ?

Image via Wikipedia
It is a plugin for MS PowerPoint software that allows one to quickly create Flash-based presentation using MS PowerPoint as the content editor.

It caters for the following functions on top of MS Powerpoint software.

• Set Preferences
  
• Add or Edit Audio
  
• Add multimedia
  
• Capture video
  
• Create quizzes and surveys
  
• Customize presentations
  
• Publish to Flash or PDF or Connect Server

This simple. It is cool, it offers features in which default MS PowerPoint software does not cater.

Basically, after you are done editing the content (using MS PowerPoint), you can publish it to Flash into local drives or online-locations (Adobe Connect Pro). But before you do that, use the 'presentation settings' function to edit the attributes of your Flash presentation which include appearance, playback, quality and attachment.



Check out the PDF version of the full tutorial (slides) provided by Adobe. Or the Flash presentation (for this tutorial).

Adobe Design Achievement Award Winners Announced

Over 70 Malaysian Entries and 20 semi-finalists in first year of participation in global ADAA contest

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA –August 19, 2008 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced the winners of the eighth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards, recognized as one of the world’s premier student design and film competitions.

The awards honor the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers and computer artists from renowned educational institutions around the globe. This year marked another record in submissions for the prestigious awards, with more than 2,700 students from 33 countries competing in the program.
The ADAA Awards were extended to include entries from Malaysian institutions of higher learning for the first time in 2008, resulting in over 70 entries from Malaysia; and 20 semi-finalists.

Submissions were made in response to a Call for Entries in November 2007, with projects accepted online through the Adobe Design Achievement Awards website until May 2, 2008. The submissions were reviewed and scored by an independent panel of twelve distinguished judges form the creative industry and judged digitally in May 2008. Semifinalists were asked to submit their source files and a physical aspect of their entry as meant to be viewed for the final phase of judging.

Malaysian submissions to reach the semi-finals included entries in the Designer/ Developer, Motion Graphics, Illustration, Packaging, Photography, and Print Communications categories.

For Malaysia, there were:
.Thirteen semi-finalists from The One Academy of Communication Design College, including
eight in the Packaging category, three in the Print Communications category, one in the Motion
Graphics category, and one in the Design/Developer category
.Three semi-finalists from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology - in the Illustration,
Print Communications and Photography categories respectively
.Two semi-finalists from Multimedia University, both in the Illustration category
.One semi-finalist from University Putra Malaysia (UPM), in the Photography category
.One semi-finalist from KDU College (Penang Campus), in the Photography category

The semi-finalists list can be viewed at http://www.adaaentry.com/submit

"It’s inspiring to see the breadth and quality of submissions from students from around the globe. These students are our future creative leaders," said Ann Lewnes, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Adobe. "The Adobe Design Achievement Awards gives design students the chance to create engaging projects that can be shared with peers as well as the design community."

"Participating in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards was a career highlight and provided instant, international visibility for my work," says Stephen Neary, a 2006 Animation finalist who is currently working at Blue Sky Studios on the upcoming release of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. "The awards bring together students and design leaders from around globe to see how technology is transforming the creation and delivery of rich content."

For the 2008 Awards, Adobe added several new categories in three media areas: Interactive Media, Motion Media, and Traditional Media - reflecting the growth in the interactive design field and the importance of the integration between design and development.

Finalists received a trip to New York City to participate in studio tours and an awards event. Category winners received a selection of Adobe products and a US$3,000 cash prize. As part of the program, students also are offered internships and opportunities to showcase their work throughout the year.

The winning entries can be viewed at www.adaaentry.com/adaalive.html.
Winners were selected by a panel of industry judges based on their originality and effectiveness in communicating project objectives.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/.

###
© 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Asia Pacific Corporate Blogging Masterclass 2008

Image via Wikipedia Much to my delights, as what we have predicted in 2006, corporate blogging will take momentum.

The question is always, why not ? But momentum really takes time to gather, now it is starting to roll ? Wow dude, I am excited about this.

LiewCF, KennySia and others will be even more famous.

And rumors claimed that Malaysia's ex ruling political coalition (Barisan Nasional) lost edges to blogs... And they have taken the cyberspace more seriously. Such phenomenon even caught the ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahathir to start his own blog and became the most successful blog (in terms of traffic) within the shortest period of time. Politics, controversies, rumors, gossips simply sell like hotcakes. And Malaysian just love it; to compensate boring lifestyles.

I just received a marketing promotions about Asia Pacific Corporate Blogging Masterclass, I must admit that after years of receiving uninvited emails, this is the first of its kind. Bravo !

Well of course, having said that, bloggers are not specifically gifted people per se. Yes, most bloggers can write good english, some have great ideas to share and to entertaint, while some have great web engineering skills. In my opinion, successful bloggers are usually those who persevere and are able to maintain a blog with the slightest efforts.

In retrospect, not everybody have the license to blog freely. If you are working for a big corporate, high chances that you are not allowed to blog about your job and risk exposing corporate secrets. If you are a CEO of a big IT companies, it is just not too good to blog about topics such as "MLM is a great business". Why ? because that would contradict your CEO image. So, it is kind of complex to mingle blogs with corporates.

Blogging requires a lot of effort per se, particularly a blogger must have the ability to repaint a message into a new dimension by sacrificing time for cigarettes, relaxation and etc. We must always stick to a virtue of not running toooo far away from what we stood for (i.e The IT-Sideways), while at the same time, adapt to the constant interruptions of new trends that massively sweep us daily in the media front, especially the websphere. It is exciting, challenging and always rewarding.

The promotion suggested the following benefits of corporate blogging:

1. Build rapport with customers.
   
2. Free feedback and suggestions from key constituents.
   
3. Increased website traffic from higher search engine rankings.
   
4. Position your business as a thought leader.
   
5. Lead generation.

I agree with all these, but most people still don't really care about it because they would prefer to buy something to earn something rather than dwell into something which is free (blogging).

Blogging is unbelievably lost-cost and its effects can be tremendously fantastic.

In my opinion, all marketing executives must be represented with a blog if not supported by corporate blogs. The logic is very simple, if you are passionate about what you are marketing, why can't you write something about it every few days or at least once per week ? Afterall, this is the most fundamental aspect of your job, to create life out of your products, to associate with emotions and human touch.

Finally, according to the promotion, the following people should do corporate blogging.

• CEOs
  
• Heads / Managers of Corporate Communications
  
• Public Relations Managers and Executives
  
• Marketing Managers and Executives
  
• Online Managers
  
• Marketing Managers
  
• Marketing Communications Managers
  
• Branding and Advertising Managers
  
• Web Marketing Managers
  
• External Relations Managers
  
• Business Development Managers
  
• IT Managers

So, now these people have the license to blog if we can create a culture for that. In a way, I endorse it because if we start to merge our professional life with personal engagement, it is a clear path to a better success.

Check out the promotion here.

By the way, if we do it right, it can be bigger than The Dark Knight ?

Juniper Networks to Extend EX-Series Ethernet Switch Interoperability to Industry Leading Network Management Platforms

Juniper Networks announced the company is extending interoperability with leading network management platforms from HP, IBM, EMC, CA, AlterPoint, InfoVista and SolarWinds to include Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches. Through expanded interoperability support, mutual enterprise customers will be able to achieve greater operational efficiency and simplicity while accelerating the deployment of applications and services across the extended enterprise.

Juniper Networks introduced the EX-series Ethernet switches in January 2008, setting new benchmarks for high-performance network infrastructure in the enterprise. The EX-series Ethernet switches won the Grand Prix for small and medium business (SMB) network infrastructure at Interop Tokyo 2008 in June this year. The awards recognized the most innovative products, solutions and services among 351 exhibitors at this year's Interop Tokyo, one of Asia's largest annual network computing tradeshows.



More about Juniper Networks.

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, August 18, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, announced the company is extending interoperability with leading network management platforms from AlterPoint, CA, EMC, HP, IBM, InfoVista and SolarWinds to include Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches. Through expanded interoperability support, mutual enterprise customers will be able to achieve greater operational efficiency and simplicity while accelerating the deployment of applications and services across the extended enterprise.

"By continuing to collaborate with third parties to deliver comprehensive interoperability between leading network management platforms and Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure including the new EX-series Ethernet switches, we are providing enterprises with greater choice and control in quickly meeting their high-performance business requirements," said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager of the Ethernet Platforms Business Group at Juniper Networks. "Juniper is committed to advancing the economics of networking by helping enterprises maximize IT investments and simplify operations."

Achieving interoperability for the EX-series Ethernet switches with AlterPoint, CA, EMC, HP, IBM, InfoVista and SolarWinds will be an extension of current interoperability across Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure.

Support for Juniper's EX-series Ethernet switches is scheduled to be available on the following platforms in Q3 2008: AlterPoint NetworkAuthority v6.5; CA eHealth Network Performance Manager; EMC Smarts v7.03; HP Network Node Manager 7.5 software and HP Network Automation 7.2 Software; IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus v7.1; InfoVista VistaInsight® for Networks v3.0; and SolarWinds Orion v9.0.

Juniper Networks introduced the EX-series Ethernet switches in January 2008, setting new benchmarks for high-performance network infrastructure in the enterprise. Running on Juniper's powerful JUNOS® software, a single-source code base network operating system, the EX-series Ethernet switches deliver the operational simplicity, carrier-class reliability and integrated security that helps high-performance businesses accelerate the deployment of business-enabling applications and services across the extended enterprise. By leveraging JUNOS software, EX-series switches offer carrier-class continuous systems availability, automated network operations and a platform for open innovation that enables customers to quickly align the network with changing business requirements.

"Enterprises, public sector agencies and service providers today require reliable, high performance service delivery from their network infrastructure," said Tanvir Hussain, vice president, product management, CA, Inc. "CA eHealth's support for the EX-series switches will enable our joint customers to easily manage the Juniper devices from an integrated fault, configuration, performance and service perspective."

"Upon completion of certification, which is reasonably expected in Q308, the interoperability of Juniper's EX switches with EMC Smarts, which is software that delivers the intelligence that IT operations need so network issues don't escalate into business issues, will provide customers with an infrastructure solution that helps maximize the performance and management of mission-critical IT resources," said Bob Quillin, senior director product marketing for EMC Resource Management Software Group. "The Smarts model-based technology is the foundation for operational actions such as configuration discovery, event correlation, automated root cause analysis, impact analysis and operational triage automation. EMC Smarts helps network administrators simplify operations and achieve high availability of network services."

"Customers can reduce costs and minimize the risk of downtime by maximizing network availability and performance. This is accomplished by optimizing resource utilization, maintaining regulatory compliance and meeting critical service-level agreements," said Joe Fox, product marketing manager, Software, HP. "The HP Network Lifecycle Management solution manages all phases of the network lifecycle and helps customers easily integrate networking hardware, including Juniper's EX-series switches, into their existing network infrastructure."

"Enterprises today are moving away from the management of IT elements that make up the network to delivering the best possible services for end users across the network. This can only be achieved by simplifying the operations of the network so that IT can be focused on the strategic projects that help create competitive advantage," said Scott Sobers, director of service provider solutions, Tivoli Netcool Software, IBM. "Through the robust capabilities of our IBM Tivoli Netcool software, and the openness of Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure, we are teaming to help our joint customers more effectively achieve their strategic objectives."

For more information about J-Partner Enterprise Solutions Alliances, please visit http://www.juniper.net/partners/enterprise_alliance.html.
For more information about Juniper's EX-series Ethernet switches, please visit http://www.juniper.net/products_and_services/ex_series/index.html.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Media Contacts:

Wendy Lang
Juniper Networks, Inc.
+65-6511-3519
wendylang@juniper.net

PR Agency Contact:

David Gibson
PPM Technology Communications
03-2094-4091, 017-357-2895
ppmpr@yahoo.com, david.ppm@gmail.com

Beijing 2008 Web Experience- Video

In terms video broadcasting, the Beijing 2008 offers two types of videos. Video is all about the format; Flash Video and WMV (Windows Media Video).

Flash Video is offered via YouTube with a direct link from the English home page.

Video is also a sensitive issue with regards to copyrights and the YouTube offerings are supposedly sponsored or endorsed by Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). Ironically, by judging from the numbers of clips available, it looks more like marketing attempt for OBS.


One have to specify the country of origin before allowing to watch the videos, and certain countries would hit the restriction page.

At the video homepage, there is this thing called subscription but actually it doesn't mean anything. My guess is that previously they are trying to enforce subscription on YouTube.


All videos are not allowed to be shared to other blogs or web sites. And the titles are very generic to minimise the possibility of being search from generic YouTube page.


Remember, Olympic videos are not supposed to be free. Go watch Astro.

All these go on to suggest that there are conflicting issues building up to the joint-venture between Olympic and Youtube where the latter has a policy of no-charge viewing.

So, videos hosted on YouTube are 'unofficial' videos ? This would make YouTube looks bad, maybe it was YouTube's initiative to host the videos and no formal agreement can be agreed to.

The official videos comes in the form of Windows Media Video format and it can be viewed with Media Player or Real Player. If you are having Firefox, you have to download the Media Player Plugin for the browser.

Just have to embed the following scripts into your HTML.



Take note that 6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6 is a universal reference for Windows Media Player reserved for Windows Media Player in the web browser.

But the streaming using Windows Media Player is slower than Flash Video via YouTube. If you are from Malaysia, waiting for it to load will be wasting your time.


Pay attention to HSBB(High Speed Broadband) and the QucomHaps projects.

Another example is NBC Olympic where videos can only be streamed if you are living in the USA.


But you can actually crack it by providing a valid zip code and just select the top few TV providers. Then it will work :)

Nevertheless, all these are just clips, why so big deal ?

The biggest point here is that videos are not supposed to be published without consent.

IDC's Green IT Conference 2008 - Kuala Lumpur

1. Problems and Opportunities - by IDC:

Driven by the realization that climate change is an issue that businesses can, and should, mitigate, both commercial and government organizations are under pressure to 'go green'. IDC's research has shown this driver has filtered down into the IT department as organizations question what Green IT can do in this overall 'Green' strategy. As CIOs embark on this journey, there is clear evidence that 'going green' not only saves the planet, it also makes good business sense. Hence, the IDC event theme, The Economy of Ecology.



This is the first leg of the 9 to be held in 9 major cities in SEA.

IDC presented the following agenda which consists of three main items.

1. The Green Bet - IDC Framework for green IT.
2. The 2.9% Problem
3. The 97.1% opportunity

The Green Bet:

Three major components:

1. Green Business - Doing business in a green way
2. Green Energy - Using green ways to generate energy
3. Green Tech. - Green products

The challenge to get CEOs and CIOs to adopt such framework ?

Most CIOs do not have Green IT as part of their KPIs and usually do not go far from the followings:

• Budget Management
• Meeting Deadlines
• Innovation

Another point to look into is that the drivers for investment in Green IT according to IDC are the followings by percentage:

• Cost-Saving - 75.3%
• CSR 58.2%
• Products which helps compliance - 55.8%
• Recycling - 45.5%

This brings good news, people are motivated by cost-saving and CIOs are actually starting to count on Green IT as a tool for achieving higher competitiveness.


The 2.9% Problems:

According to IDC, 2.9% is just about the percentage of total US electricity being used by data centers (in the USA).

So, they are tasked to reducing the electricity consumption because it is significant even though 2.9% is not a big thing and also the fact that power and cooling (P/C) cost is actually higher than investment into servers.

Big players like Google, Microsoft and Fujitsu have all built their data centers with green technologies and policies.

As a result the influence, the priorities of data centers for SEA have started to have Green IT (Power & Cooling) in the percentage range of 10% to 50%. Not too bad actually, check out the chart below.


So, power and cooling is a big thing.

IDC recommends that organization will embrace the Green IT culture by focusing on power and cooling as the starting point using the following framework:

• Measure
• Design
• Conserve
• Reduce
• Predict

As a result of that, organizations can reap good energy saving benefits, in particular:

• Hardware perspective - 34%
• Operations - 19%
• Power & Cooling efficiencies - 27%

That is a total of 50% savings!!

The 97.1% Opportunity:

The 2.9% problems give us vast opportunity to improve and create economies. It is about sustainability.

Green technologies mean big business. According to IDC, the following technology will generate the business value of:

• Smart Grids - $125 billion
• Smart Offices - $340 billion
• Smart Engines - $107 billion
• Smart Logistics - $442 billion

So, with Green IT, not only organization can reap direct benefits (cost-saving), it creates opportunity for CIOs to be proactive in terms of driving agendas and creating business case.

In short, Green IT + Business Case = Values.

The presentation was conducted by Mr. Philip Carter, Associate Research Director, APAC IT Services Research, IDC APAC. Download the full presentation slides from here.

2. Total Solutions - By HP

According to Mr. David Triggs, HP has all the solutions for Green IT.

HP stresses that technology is no longer just supporting business, it runs the business.

HP Helps Customers to Build Business Case for Green IT:

Foremost, HP business technology portfolio helps customers to build business case for adopting Green IT. The core components of HP services are:

1. Business Information Optimization
2. Business Technology Optimizataion
3. Adaptive Infrastructure

According to HP, energy efficiency creates the following benefits for customers.

• Reduce Cost
• Mitigate Risks
• Enable Growth
• Protect Brand & Unlock Opportunities

This is especially true for those people dealing with data centers.

So, HP IT Environment Lifecycle Management aims at helping customers to get to green business technology faster and with less risk. The lifecycle defines 4 major steps:

• Acquire
• Manage
• Retire
• Transition

And their services include design, consolidation and implementation; total solution.



So, why choose HP to help with going green ? Because they have best practices. Also, because they have done a lot of 'advertisements' with this regard such as:

HP's goal is to reduce combined energy consumption by 25% by 2010
• Raising standards in supply chain
• Replacing IT power costs with renewable sources (solar systems)

HP's Energy Innovation Roadmap ?

• Design energy-efficient products
• Improve energy efficiency of customer & HP operations
• Rethink energy use to transform society

Last but no least, HP recommends virtualization.

Mr. David Trigss is Senior IT Consultant for HP, download the full presentation slides from here.

Also check out www.hp.com/go/greencomputing

3. Intel Felt Obligated with their CSR

On a the holistic, Intel's role in energy efficiency has always been:

• Committed to Sustainability
• Build Leading Products
• Having Data Center Best Practices
• Initiated Industry Leaderships

But, the biggest thing is not really the operations part of it.. it is their product. Intel's CSR (corporate social responsibility) reported that 80% of Intel’s global carbon footprint results from the
industry’s use of Intel's products. So, this is big problem for them. They have to innovate even better products and therefore they have recently created the New 45NM Hi-K Processor; Quad-core Intel Xeon Processor 5400 Series.



This is an award winning invention and it really does the followings:

• Improved Transistor Density
• 20% improved transistor switching speed
• 30% reduction in switching Power

The makes Intel able to continue with Moore's law pursuit without compromising the CSR.

And Intel recommends server refresh and virtualization.

Server refresh basically means the act of dumping old hardwares for newer ones in order to get more benefits than trying to achieve faster ROI. Not only that, by means of a scenario of comparing the data center technology of 2004 with 2008, undergoing server refresh actually produces the ROI of less than 2 years. That is:

• 83% reduction in floor space
• 87% reduction in annual costs

This gives you $57k of estimated energy savings.

Fantastic.

Intel's presentation is facilitated by Mr. Eddie Toh (Regional Platform Marketing Manager, Server Platforms Group, Intel APAC). Proceed to download the full slides from here.

4. Virtualization by Novell

Virtualization is hero of the day; it is the buzz word. The concept of virtualization is that only 20% of your hardware capacities are being used to do any work, while 80% will be doing nothing, hence burnt.

Suse Linux Enterprise has built-in virtualization technology. It has the Xen 3.x
Hypervisor-Based Virtualization, it software and it can work well with Microsoft operating system. This is not possible before the interop partnership between Microsoft and Novell. Check out more, www.moreinterop.com.



With virtualization, you can treat hardware and resources as software by just copy and paste your operating systems (that is running with live processes) to and fro hardwares. This forms the basis for cloud computing.

All SAP solutions are supported on Suse Linux Enterprise and now with virtualization, you can actually treat Suse Linux as the main platform while treating Microsoft as the ad-hoc platform.

With virtualization, replication and automation technology, Novell is able to deliver to you:

• Server Consolidation
• High availability and Disaster Recovery
• Data Center Automation - Humanless data center (to mitigate human errors)

Novell's presentation is presented by Mr. Kam Han Wen (Senior Technology Specialist). Check out the full slides at here.

Malaysia's Perspective ?

The Green IT concept is actually another way for Malaysia IT companies to break the ice. Not long ago, the buzzword was SOA (service oriented architecture). Now ?? almost forgotten by everybody.

So, would Malaysia company brace up the challenges now ?

Conclusion:

• Small problem, big opportunity.
  
• Green IT biggest benefit are cost-saving and enhance competitiveness.
• Buy Intel's products
• Use virtualization. It is cool.

Also check out SAS Intelligently Green Forum 2008.

Beijing 2008 Web Experience- Latest Updates

Now let's check out how Beijing official web site manage latest updates ?



Raw data are input into the data farm for which each data unit will form relationships with each other.







It could have deployed semantic web to create relationships between data units.

Beijing 2008 Web Experience- Games Multimedia

How would you illustrate games ? Meaning that how do you actually introduce all the 38 games that are being competed in the Olympic ?

The best way is of course, multimedia.

The second best way is of course to create computer games based on the games.

The Beijing 2008 official web site deployed Adobe Flash graphical multimedia animation for such purchase.



Check it out here.

But I think it is only available for the Chinese language section.

The suggests that the built-up of the official web site is a result of integration of components from different sources and such particular source only supplies in Chinese.