Berita Kampus Online and AUKU

The web version of Berita Kampus has been on-line. Basically, it is just a reproduction of the hard-copy version onto a website.

The news are the same, only the amount (of news) are less as only selected news were replicated on the website.

There was no official launching, no news being circulated, not even on the hard-copy version of Berita Kampus (as far as my eyes can rover/scan through the pages).

Well, not even through word-of-mouth, until I knew it from an official meeting called about 3 weeks ago.

You can view the pages here.

So, unofficially the BK Online version has been on the web for the past 3 weeks. I assume it is so, because if you consider the first issue of BK this semester which was distributed on 18 January 2010, then the unofficial launching date of the web also runs concurrently with this 7th issue of Berita Kampus.

It is too early to give a complete analysis of whether this web version of BK has gathered a steady traffic of readers or otherwise. But my intention here is to try give it as much publicity so as the website could gather more hits, and this include notifying other denizens outside the campus community.

The strength of the website I supposed is the statistics counter analysis, where it can trace and analyse how many hits each and every page were being accessed (not read, as you wouldn't know if the person reads through the whole article).

The thing is it could trace and record on its counter which page you have browsed or which choice of articles in either language (BM or English) were read (bahasa pembaca dan laman dilihat).

Another exciting feature is the search and vote window, which (for the former) supposedly let us do a search on the website, making browsing much easier if you want to look for something -- news, article or report that is archived on the website.

The vote is naturally what it is meant for, but after voting for my choice of:
AUKU patut dimansuhkan? I found out that I was the only one voting ever since this option was out there on the page.

So, my Sangat setuju gathered 100% vote as I am the only one who voted. Quite strange for a site which was viewed a number of 632 times for the past 3 weeks?

Nobody here likes to vote...eh?

Anyway, if you are interested with the polemics of AUKU, there is an article in Kosmo! today on an interview on the matter with a UM student leader, Khairul Anwar Abu Kassim.

Click on the pic to see a bigger version of the news article.

My wish on the BK Online is of course a comment box, where readers can give feedback on anything, including every article that is posted, either about the contents or choice of news/pics being uploaded.

This I think is the biggest letdown so far.

I'll come back in another three weeks or so to give another analysis.

Uncompromising!

When immaturity reigns, territorial demarcation starts

Allowance for mistakes - a misnomer or absurdity?

This statement by the former USM vice-chancellor and former Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamed baffles me so much I have to sit down and spare some time to pen this.

The problem is that it is either a misnomer or is what he really meant, which is rare and absurd.

Here, take a look at his statement:

“Mistakes will happen. In order for USM to excel, allowance for mistakes must be made. Furthermore, this was a technical glitch — a small mistake to me,” he said before delivering a keynote address at the Management in Construction Researchers Association (MiCRA) conference in USM here yesterday.”

The Star Online version has the full report, here.

Yes it was on the big screen at the vice-chancellor’s yearly speech today.

Actually, this was one of the two quotes that gave me an eye-opener in the VC’s speech, so I jotted them down. The other one was “…to challenge the status quo” by Sidek Hassan. But I’ll save delving into this for another time.

In the English language context, when you use the idiom “make allowance(s)” it means you give allowance (like giving way or a chance/opportunity) for someone or something.

So, I asked my better half, seated next to me, “the correct word should be ‘amends’ to be made and not ‘mistakes’. How can you give allowance for people to make mistakes?"

As usual, no response from her.

Furthermore, if you give allowance for people to make mistakes, they would take things for granted and crave for more ‘mistakes’ to be done. Yeah, they will keep on making mistakes til your patience runs out and finally give them the 'grounding' rules and "so, no more allowances for you..."

Is that what you mean by allowance for mistakes must be made.

The internet’s freedictionary.com describe 'make allowance' as:
1. to allow time, space, food, etc., for someone or something. For e.g., “When planning the party, please make allowances for John and his family. I'm making allowance for ten extra guests.”
2. to make excuses or explanations for someone or something; to take into consideration the negative effects of someone or something. You're very late even when we make allowance for the weather. We have to make allowance for the age of the house when we judge its condition.

The site here.

But, on the other hand, -- yes -- you can give or make such allowances (of any kind including mistakes) for kids and toddlers.

But normally you don’t give or make allowances for adults to make mistakes, more so if it involves certain aspects of your job, and you are supposed to be a pro at it. This is what I learn here in USM, at least in the current post and at the current place I am working now -- or somebody will go into a trance!

I tried to search using yahoo.com to find if there were other statements of the same breadth, but no can do. There’s no particular site on the internet which had a phrase or statement written as “…allowance for mistakes must be made” or “…to be done.”

So, in Bolehland, we are the first.

Congratulations for us to be the first to coin such a rare new phrase/statement.

Peguatkuasaan lemah - yeah..! blame it on the pony express

An internet poll conducted by an independent website Care2 has some very interesting results in their basket full of non-profit polls and quizzes.

In their: Who's to blame for the health problems faced by smokers in this country? (CLOSED) the Poll Results gathered from 1,184 respondents are as follow:

39% Equally to blame

18% Smokers completely to blame

17% Smokers mostly to blame

16% Tobacco companies mostly to blame

10% Tobacco companies completely to blame

Care2.com claims that they are the largest online community for people to make a difference in healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare

Of course, online poll results are not validated proof of anything, but it definitely gives us an idea of what some people, denizens to be precise, think of the problem we are facing and in this matter with regards to prevalence of tobacco usage.

However, no matter hard we try to prove ourselves with these polls and surveys, focusing our blame on individuals or certain groups is as good as washing our hands by pointing fingers and this IMO won't solve anything.

The more finger we point at others, the more fingers will point back to us.

This is what I think Utusan has done in their 3 day long special report.

Utusan says it's the problem with enforcement and that the weaknesses in enforcing the rules and regulations makes the perpetrators puff everywhere they like until all the "smoke gets to your eyes."

Well what about early education. Yeah...school education -- the whole system, the one that has gotten 'us' from worse to rotten -- the root of the matter. Not that anybody is to be relinquished of any blame on this matter, but somebody has do something. At least I'm doing my bit here... haa... I'm relieved!

You can read the final Utusan report (day 3) by clicking on the pics above.

p/s If you're wondering what the "blame it on the pony express" in the title of this entry means -- it's a song title by Johnny Johnson & His Bandwagon. Check it out here

The "Stop Smoking Campaign" that goes up in smoke

Utusan Malaysia today dedicated their editorial and also one whole page to the news about the various government efforts to help treat smokers to kick or reduce their bad habit.

Unfortunately all these efforts have become futile. Much time and money have been spent towards treating these hardcore smokers but alas only a few survived the treatment and were able to leave smoking for good.

Yesterday (18 Jan 2010), Utusan also published an almost complete page in an effort to explain to the rakyat that it is not their fault the campaign failed, and that the smokers themselves were to be blame for their negative attitude towards the "Stop Smoking Clinic" and for being 'egoistic' or 'the ego smokers' as Utusan termed them.


Click on the pics above to read the selected reports or better still read the whole context of the special report in the hard-copy itself.

Today I am also dedicating this page towards the effort (or the vain effort rather) done by the various government agencies towards the "Stop Smoking Campaign" with various names and strategies being conducted nationwide throughout the years.

I am not going to opine further, you readers be the judge whether what we have done is suffice or just as the title of this entry says -- all the effort, time and money has just literally "gone up in smoke..."

USM won but no coverage on printed MSM

As of 11.30 this morning I have checked or scanned through most of the local print newspaper. Not one mainstream media covered USM's opening premier league game against Pos Malaysia.

Why?

A journalism student told me, it's just the Premier League, not the Super League, so no big deal!

Yesterday, I read Kosmo (click pic above) which enthusiastically reports that the USM stadium was ready to accommodate 5,000 spectators. It also gave a very assuring heading - Warga Kampus gegar stadium USM.

But today when I browsed the internet to see all the 'gegaran' - they were not there. It was just all hype. The 5,000 expected spectators - was it a sincere projection or an unjust miscalculation?

There was also no coverage on the Star-online (not even on www.usm.my)!

The only coverage I can get hold of is from Buletin Notes. You can read it here. Thanks to Muhamad Sidek Karim, who happens to be the Pegawai Pentadbir Pasukan for the write-up.

Muhamad Sidek gave an estimation of 3,000 spectators, but I doubt it.

By the way, USM won by a narrow margin - 'nasib baik gol last minute...', somebody commented on Muhamad Sidek's posting.

Another blogger, Rizman Suzaidi Zafri Ali commented about the poor marketing strategies done by USM FC in handling ticket sales. You can read his comments here.

Anyway, thanks to the scorer, Mohamad Baser Mohamad Napae who scored the winning goal, 10 minutes before the final whistle. If not, many people will be awaken today with a bad dream.

Suspicious Activity?

I come across this warning when I tried to sign in my blogger account this morning. Hmmm... very fishy!. Who (or what) on earth would want to break into this blog and for what reason I wouldn't know. This blog is just a personal or a supposedly community blog, nothing provocative or controversial.

Meanwhile I have changed the password to something strength-ty (password strength).

>Google Home | Help | Sign in
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>We've detected suspicious activity on your Google Account. Please create a new password to continue using your account.

>Read some tips on creating a secure password.

>New password:

>Password strength:

>Re-enter password:

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This new semester (2010), six more issues of Berita Kampus will be out. The first issue (BK7) will hit the stand on 18 January 2010. It will again report on local and current issues and hopefully something more robust as this is the final semester for the budding reporters and journalist wannabes. This group of students, totaling 44 are also USM's 40th batch of Journalism students. I sincerely Hope they will give some bigger punch to the news and reports on Berita Kampus this time around.

Meanwhile, there is an initiative by an academic member of the school to post selected news and entries from the hard copy of Berita Kampus onto a blog. As from now, I have yet to receive news of the supposed blog. I will direct a link when the blog is up.

Good luck to all BK journalists and the new blog.