Author: Chow YN

Don’t confuse Chinese primary schools with UEC recognition

This article lays down bare facts about Chinese primary (SJK(C)), secondary (SMJK) and independent Chinese schools in Malaysia. The differences between the UEC examinations & SJK(C) that’re wrongly lumped together are clearly explained. The author opined that the recognition of the UEC should be a separate issue which should not be confused with the Chinese Malaysian community’s wish for the government to increase the number of Chinese primary schools, especially in new urban areas.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

The politicization of the recognition of Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) has caused a lot of confusion in Malaysia. Although a few prominent people including politicians and those from the Chinese educationists movement had tried to explain the issue and rationale etc., so far no one seems to have realized one glaring error. The convenient lumping of the UEC recognition issue with that of the establishment of 16 new Chinese primary schools (Chinese vernacular primary schools under the national education system, or SJK(C) as these are designated by the Ministry of Education), whether by intent or by accident is rather unfortunate. My key objective in writing this piece is to offer facts and figures to try to explain the two issues which, I have to stress again, are separate. I shall leave it to more learned colleagues to argue about the issue of recognition of the UEC!

UEC and SJK(C): are they different?

For starter, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (C) as the name in Malay indicated, is referring to “national type primary schools”. In essence, SJK(C)s are part and parcel of the national education system of Malaysia and are one type of many types of national schools under the purview of the Ministry of Education (MoE). It is worth stressing that SJK(C)s are primary schools catering for children aged 7 to 12. Many of these were established during the British colonial era but all had been incorporated into the national education system by virtue of the Education Act 1961. Students of SJK(C)s take national examination at the Standard 6, just like their counterparts in SJK(T) (Tamil primary schools, where Tamil is the main medium of instruction) and Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) (where Malay is the main medium of instruction). Hence for all intent and purposes, Year 6 students of all national schools will take the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR – Primary School Evaluation Test). Their progression to the national secondary schools system will be dependent on their performance at UPSR. Thus all three types of national primary schools (SK, SJK(C), SJK(T)) use the same curriculum but differ only in the medium of instruction, with the SJKs giving heavy emphasis on the national language even though the main medium of instruction is Chinese or Tamil.

UEC or Sijil Perperiksaan Bersepadu in Malay was set up by the Dong Jiao Zhong (an umbrella body of the Chinese educationist movement in Malaysia) in 1975 as a unified examination system for all the Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (ICS) in Malaysia. The UEC caters to ICS students at three levels, Junior Middle (UEC-JML) (equivalent to the Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 – PT3 examination taken by Form 3 students of the national secondary school system) , Vocational (UEC-V) and Senior Middle (UEC-SML) (pre-university level, equivalent to the MOE’s Matriculation level). Thus UEC examinations are meant for students of the 61 ICS at high school levels. These ICSs draw the bulk of their students from the SJK(C), but the UEC examination system does not have any direct or indirect impact on the teaching, learning, operation or even funding of the SJK(C)s. No SJK(C) student (unless he or she is a genius) will be able to take any of the UEC examination!

In contrast to 61 ICSs, there are 2,411 national secondary schools, of which there are 11 different types. One of these types are the Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan (SMJK), or Natonal Type Secondary School in English. There are 81 SMJK which are no different from other national secondary schools except that Chinese language is offered to all students (and is a compulsory subject). Many of these SMJKs were once Chinese high schools during the colonial era but with the Education Act 1961, the Board of Governors of these schools had pragmatically chosen to join the national school system and receive partial funding from the government.

More on SJK(C)

Most of the 1298 SJK(C)s could trace their origins in early 1900s to 1950s when the bulk of the migration from China into Malaya (and Northern Borneo) took place under the British colonial rule. My late father, a Malayan-born Chinese was one of those young teachers who took up the challenge to establish a new Chinese primary school in Cameron Highlands during the early 1950s.

Before the enactment of Education Act 1961, all these Chinese primary schools were funded entirely by the Chinese community. Even today, the bulk of the 1298 SJK(C) are only receiving partial funding from the government. Nevertheless, all SJK(C) are operated directly by the Ministry of Education which appoints (and pays the salaries of) all the academic and support staff. The Board of Governors of partially funded SJK(C) usually owns the land where the school is located and provides for the maintenance of the school’s facilities, staff’s and students’ welfare etc.

Essentially, since the early 1960s, SJK(C)s and SJK(T)s have been an integral part of Malaysia’s national primary education system. Collectively, as shown in Table 1 (the data for this table were obtained from the Ministry of Education’s publication), they constitute 23.43% of all schools in the national system and educate around 22.78% of all primary school students. They also use the same curriculum as the SK schools  with the only exception of having Chinese Mandarin or Tamil as the medium of instructions. For more information of how this author debunks the lies about SJK(C) told by those with dubious intention, please read my article entitles How do you debunk myths about Chinese primary schools in Malaysia?

A figure of around 100,000 non-Chinese Malaysians children are reported to be studying in the SJK(C)s. It is expected that this 19% figure of non-Chinese Malaysian enrollments will continue to grow in the future. The fact that the current Minister of Education, Maszlee Malik sends his children to a SJK(C) is a testament to the benefits of the teaching philosophy of SJK(C)s which, aside from the use of Chinese Mandarin as a core medium of instruction, is the only other difference in characteristics of SJK(C) schools compared to SK schools.

A yardstick measurement of adequacy of schools for the population of Malaysia can easily be made by comparing the % of national enrollment with the % of schools. Ideally these two figures should be very close. For the SK schools, there are a difference of 0.86% which is not a big difference. Yet if we multiply this differential with the number of SK schools, we know that there is still a need to have at least another 50 schools.

Likewise the differential between enrollment % and % of schools for the SJK(C)s is around 3.04%, if we multiply this figure with the total number of SJK(C)s, we can estimate that there is a shortage of close to 40 schools. In reality the issue of the need for more SJK(C)s is further complicated by the fact that there are still many SJK(C)s in the rural areas with very small enrollment. At the same time, SJK(C)s in established townships and many urban areas are bursting at their seams with class sizes of 50 plus students. And in newer townships, there are usually a big demand for SJK(C)s but often with the nearest school located many kilometers away. Hence the issue of “10 + 6” SJK(C)s came forth. 6 of these are SJK(C)s with low enrollment in rural areas that are to be relocated to population centres in urban areas with known demand for SJK(C)s. 10 of these are new SJK(C)s promised by the Najib administration just before the 14th General Election (GE14).

What’re the differences between ICSs and national type secondary Chinese schools?

An excellent article in Malay Mail (published on July 03, 2017) provided a very detailed but clear explanation on the differences between SJK(C), SMJK and ICS schools. Hence this will not be the focus of this article, but a brief review of their key similarities and differences is appropriate.

Both SMJKs and ICSs traditionally rely on the SJK(C) to provide them with new students. Thus a look at the pathways taken by SJK(C) students completing Year 6 will tell us the relative popularity of the two (as discussed in the section below).

While SMJKs, like most of the SJK(C)s are partially funded by the government, ICSs do not receive any operational budget from the government, except for occasional lump sum provisions provided by state governments (of the Pakatan Harapan controlled states prior to GE14) and notable grants provided by the Najib adminstration during the GE14 campaign. ICSs thus have to charge school fees (usually RM200 to 300 per month) and SMJK (and SK) on the other hand are providing free education to students. When I was attached to a Chinese community funded university-college whose board of directors are common with an ICS, I was given to understand that the board of directors had to subsidise to the tune of RM1,500 per student per year. Thus fund raising activities are common for all ICSs where the key source of funding is donation from the Chinese Malaysian community.

Aside from offering the three UEC examinations, many ICSs are also preparing their students to take the  iGCSE examination from the UK. This alone makes many ICSs very affordable alternatives to international schools. This perhaps is evident from Table 2 where we can see a huge drop of UEC-SML takers as student progressed from senior middle two (equivalent to Form 5 at SMK). iGCSE is an entry qualification accepted by most private colleges for pre-university or diploma studies.

In contrast, SMJK and SMK only use national curriculum as prescribed by the MOE and their students will take the PT3 (at Form 3) and SPM national examinations (at Form 5) accordingly. Academically, SMJKs differ from SMKs only in the former having an added subject of Chinese in its regular timetable.

Majority of SJK(C)s students go on to SMK or SMJK schools!

An important fact that has somehow not been mentioned by many commentators of Chinese education in Malaysia is that the majority of the SJK(C) students will continue their secondary education at SMKs or SMJKs. The enrollment figures of all categories of national secondary schools and the Independent Chinese Schools are shown in Table 2.

% of secondary enrollment

If we assume (from Table 1) that in 2017 there were around 85,462 SJK(C) Year 6 students entering secondary schools and (from Table 2) the total enrollment of SMJKs was 108,000, we can estimate that SMJK enrolled around 21,600 of SJK(C) students (or 25.27%) for Form 1. The ICSs collectively took in around 14,481 (or 16.94%) new students for Form 1 in 2017, thus we had around 49,381 students (or 57.78%) who opted for the SMKs.

Possible reasons for preference for SMJK over ICSs

The majority of parents of SJK(C)s students, including this author have been opting for the national secondary schools (either SMK or SMJK) perhaps for the following reasons:

  1. The UEC examinations are not recognized in Malaysia. This means that UEC holders do not have any options to choose any of the state-funded tertiary options such as public universities, polytechnics and state vocational training institutions (unless they also hold appropriate SPM qualifications).
  2. The proximity of SMKs / SMJKs to their homes which reduces the traveling time and cost for the students (and parents).
  3. The medium of instructions for ICSs generally is Chinese Mandarin (although many do offer the English medium option). Parents of some SJK(C) students may worry  about the ability of their children to cope with switching to Chinese Mandarin entirely as the students have been prepared by the SJK(C)s to enter SMK and SMJK with heavy emphasis on getting them a solid foundation in Bahasa Malaysia (Malay).
  4. The national secondary school system is not perfect but it has been adequately producing SPM holders who can cope with college studies, even if the medium of instruction will likely to be English if they opt for private colleges after SPM.
  5. ICSs students often will take SPM as well and many parents feel that this will pose an added burden on their children’s ability to cope with their studies.
  6. The ICSs school fees, though is around RM300 per month, still pose a financial burden for lower income families.

Thus over 83% of all SJK(C) class of Year 6 would generally go on to national secondary schools. In fact (as shown in Table 2) the total number of ICSs is  just 2.53% that of the national secondary schools. Collectively all the ICS’s student population amounts to only 2.46% 4% (a calculation error was detected & rectified) of the national secondary school system. In addition, I think the majority of parents of non-Chinese students of SJK(C)s will opt for SMK or SMJK when their offspring complete their primary schools.

Conclusion

There are no private Chinese primary schools per se in Malaysia. All SJK(C)s are part and parcel of the national primary school system.

SJK(C)s are not to be confused with ICSs which offer the Unified Examination Certificate (some opponents of the UEC could not even get this name correct!). SJK(C)s are primary schools whereas ICSs are secondary schools!

It can be said that ICSs which draw most of its new cohort of students from SJK(C)s will not survive without the SJK(C)S. However, the  SJK(C)s can surely survive with or without the ICSs! This is because the majority of SJK(C)s students (over 83%) will go on to national secondary schools (either SMK or SMJK).

From the data and analysis presented, I hope my readers can see that Independent Chinese Schools cater to many different groups of students. The enrollment of ICSs collectively is less than 2.5% of the entire national secondary school population. The fact that ICSs prepare their academically capable students to take the SPM means that they are placing equal importance to the national language, granted not every student will be fully SPM-competent. The same can also be said about students from SMJKs or even SMKs!

With an enrollment of less than 2.5%  around 4.0% of the national secondary school system, to say that the ICSs pose a threat to national unity, we will need to reconcile the fact that there are over 100 international schools in Malaysia with a collective enrollment of around 62,000, and around 40,000 being Malaysians. None of these offer courses as close to the national curriculum as the ICSs but all having their students’ qualifications recognized by Malaysia.

To adequately prepare their students to take the SPM examination, it is not surprising that the UEC curriculum of the ICSs indeed covers sufficient similar grounds as that of the national secondary schools.

In addition, there are many unregulated  iGCSE learning centres that function more or less like secondary schools. These also do not offer any courses akin to the national curriculum compared to the ICSs. Why are these centres and the 100 international schools do not “pose-a-threat-to-national-unity” but ICS’s UEC recognition do begs a clear answer from those who has come up with this line of argument.

 

Reviving old laptops with Puppy Linux (part 2)

In this article, the author shares his experience in creating such a bootable USB flash drive, comes complete with a working Puppy Linux distribution that is persistence. Unlike “live” bootable USB flash drive of other distribution, where once a session is over, all the updates, software installed are lost, Puppy Linux will keep all the these to make it persistence & adapt to the user’s needs.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

In the previous article, I covered the basic information relating to the preparation one needs to do in order to set up Puppy Linux on a USB flash drive that is bootable. I also gave the rationale for using Puppy Linux and shared some examples on how revived old PCs / laptops could be deployed. In this article I will share my experience in creating such a bootable USB flash drive, comes complete with a working Puppy Linux distribution.

Unlike most other Linux distributions that have the USB flash drive bootable feature, Puppy Linux has an added advantage. Puppy Linux installed on a bootable USB flash drive is in fact persistent in nature. What this mean is, unlike “live” bootable USB flash drive of, say LXLE, where once a session is over, none of the updates, software installed are kept, Puppy Linux will keep all the updates, software installations etc. I guess these are kept in the “personal file” as described in the last segment of this article. So you can keep updating Puppy Linux!

How to set up a bootable USB flash drive that can run Puppy Linux?

  1. Launch Unetbootin and select “Diskimage”. Keep the default “ISO” option.

  2. Click the “ ….” tab to the right of “ISO”. Navigate to the folder with the Xenialpup iso file (for this example it is saved in “Downloads”).

  3. Put something like “100 Mb” for the “Space” used to preserve files across reboots”, since Xenialpup is Ubuntu-based.
  4. Under “Type”, make sure “USB” is selected. Plug in your USB flash drive, & make sure it is mounted (you can see this using File Manager).

  5. If you don’t see your USB flash drive listed, go back to “Type” and reselect “USB”. It will look for the newly plugged in USB flash drive and under “Drive:” something like /dev/sdc1 will be shown.
  6. Click “OK” and the installation of a bootable USB flash drive with Xenialpup OS will run automatically.
  7. If your USB flash drive has any files on it, this message will show. Click “Yes to All” [Warning: this will wipe clean an used USB drive!]. Wait till the installation process is completed.

To run Xenialpup, reboot the laptop. Keep pressing and releasing F12 (the function key,  F12 works for both my Dell and Toshiba laptop, different brands may have different function key for this, but there is surely a function key to bring up the  boot up option screen of the computer) till the screen like the one below is show.

Use the arrow key to move to “USB Storage Device” or something like that and press Enter. That’s it!

The OS will load as shown on the screen captured above.

You will see a screen with a cute puppy when loading is done! Select “Xenialpup” and hit Enter on your keyboard.

The OS will load automatically. When the loading process is completely done and the OS is successfully loaded the screen with a cute squirrel will be visible (as shown below). You are then set to rock with the old laptop / PC again!

What software are supplied with Xenialpup?

Puppy Linux is not just a distribution of Linux. It is a combination of different parts of different Linux distributions and thus comes with lots of pre-selected-installed-with-OS software. It works on the RAM of your computer and thus it can be very fast if you have 1 Gb of RAM or more.

Xenialpup comes with almost all the software and applications that  you will need. These are grouped into categories such as Desktop, System, Setup, Utility,  Filesystem, Graphic, Document, Business, Personal, Network, Internet, Multimedia and Fun. You can obtain additional software clicking the cute little puppy at the Desktop, called “quickpet”(as shown below). Expert users of Puppy Linux have been configuring additional applications and software specially optimized for Puppy Linux and shared with the community of Puppy Linux users. These are called “.pet”.

If you need to read Chinese text like I do, you will appreciate one of these “pets”, CJK_fonts-ttf.pet that you can download and just click to instal.

Likewise, you can download other software via “quickpet” such as Vivaldi browser, LibreOffice and install them with just a click (but make sure that you choose the correct version for your old laptop / PC, both of my old machines were based on 32 bits architecture and softwares for 64 bits machines will not work on them).

What you are expected to do?

Puppy Linux will automatically detect what sort of hardware that your old laptop / PC has and will do its best to optimize these for your OS to work. But two areas that you may need to do some tweaking are Internet settings and sound settings.

The first screen you will see in the Quick Setup screen is shown above. You can set up the country, timezone etc. here. You may want to enable Firewall and Time from internet too.

For Internet settings, the OS auto-detects what internet connections that you might have (such as wired connection via RJ45 cable or wireless-WiFi).  There is a choice of setup tools but the simplest is to use Barry’s Simple Network Setup.

In my case (as shown above), By selecting “Interfaces” tab and clicking on “eth0” tab (located at the bottom right of the box, with “wlan0” and “windows”),  the app will try to connect with the internet over the network cable connected to my broadband router and a “success” screen will show. Similarly you can connect to WiFi using the same way.

For audio, you may need to configure the audio card.  Go to Menu->Setup->Alsa sound Wizard.

Select the Multiple cards section (No. 3). Select a sound card and select the “Test Sound” tab below. A new window will open. You should hear sound generated on the left and right speakers follow by the bark of a puppy. If you do not hear anything, put the volume to maximum and repeat.

The only other setup you need to do is the printer.  As there are many brands, it will be best to be general here. Go to Menu->Setup->CUPS Printer Wizard and follow the instructions to add a printer. Don’t forget to hook up your printer first.
[I must say, if you have a HP MFP laser printer, you may not be able to use CUPS Printer Wizard effectively. This is the only grouse I have with Puppy Linux and it is not its fault but rather HP’s complex number of models! At the time of writing, I have still not completely installed a proper driver for my HP MFP 1132 printer & scanner.]

Don’t forget to save the personal file!

When you need to exit, unless you are just evaluating and not saving the applications and software you have installed, you should save your personal files. Here is why you are advised earlier on to use a USB flash drive that is at least 8 Gb (16 Gb and higher is even better). The “system” file will need at least 1 Gb to work well (the more the merrier) and there is another partition that is made by the OS to serve as “swap”. I think “swap” as the name suggests, serves as the swapping of memory that helps the OS to run on RAM by “renting” or swapping memory on the fly (when you switch / load different software, for example). Although the system says that you will need to have at least another 500 Mb for your personal file, this is the bare minimum. I personally prefer the personal file allocation to be as big as possible to accommodate all the software and applications that I want to install. It will also carry my personal data files. But with the increasing use of cloud storage, I hardly store documents such as this piece of writing on the laptop, preferring Google Drive instead.

Thus if you are running the entire work from the USB drive, it is wise to have as big a memory as possible. I had chosen to save my personal files on the hard disk of my laptop to speed things up (and on account that I used only a 4 Gb USB flash drive!). But putting your personal files on the USB flash drive, you are truly portable! Provided that a host’s PC or laptop allows you to access the boot option (which most would), you can bring your entire computer on a USB flash drive and work on a “borrowed” PC such as at the internet cafe or a friend’s laptop safely.

With the second or third sessions of your usage, Puppy Linux will load a lot faster as it needs not tweak the system further as all the settings are saved before. So don’t pull the USB flash drive until the laptop / PC has shut down fully!

Happy Puppy Linux-ing!

Woof woof!

Revive old laptops with Linux, Puppy Linux (parts 1)

This article contains the sharing of experience & learning on how to revive old PCs/laptops using the light weight Puppy Linux as OS to replace Windows. It gives step-by-step details on how to fit the entire OS plus applications & software into a USB flash dive of a minimum of 4 Gb, with larger capacities being more effective.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

You have that 7-year-old PC / laptop lying around gathering dust. The Windows operating system (OS) is too old but your hardware cannot cope with the latest Windows OS. Worse, the web browser is old and the old OS cannot support the new version of the browser anymore.  Thus there are security issues which are stopping you from accessing some crucial websites. You are thinking that this old laptop is as good as junk.

You have heard of Linux which is free (well most distributions are indeed so). However you are under the impression that you will be required to know a lot of programming stuff to use Linux. And you have also heard that the most popular and user-friendliest of the Linux distribution, Ubuntu is known to be getting heavy on resources. Thus Ubuntu may not work well with your old PC / laptop.

But hold on. Don’t junk that old laptop yet. There is a way to get more mileage out of the old workhorse. It is called Puppy Linux. Here, I share my close to a decade of experience with Linux, especially on Puppy Linux.

That’s life still in that old piece of hardware!

I cannot do any programming, I don’t know much about HTML, less so about php or java. But you don’t need to know these to use Linux.  I had switched from Ubuntu to a light version distribution of it called LXLE in 2011. While evaluating the latest LXLE version  (based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS aka one version behind the latest, LTS stands for Long Term Support, about 3 – 5 years)  I discovered that although the OS worked well with my 8-years-old Toshiba Portege T210, it could not be loaded on my 11-years-old Dell Inspiron 1520!

Old laptop
Toshiba Protege of 2010 vintage (left) & Dell Inspiron of 2007 vintage (right)

I used to run my old PC (bought in 2004) on one of the lightest Linux OS, Puppy Linux. Puppy extended the usefulness of the old Dell for years till the PC’s motherboard died in 2017. Hence it is a no brainer for me to try the latest Puppy Linux on the 11-years-old Dell laptop.  The latest version of Puppy Linux,  Xenialpup is also based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. And it could be loaded on the 11-years-old Dell!

As long as the old PC / laptop has at least 1Gb of RAM (Puppy Linux could even run on 500 Mb RAM) and could run Windows XP before, it will be able to run on Puppy Linux. For older machines, there are even versions of Puppy Linux with smaller footprint that could ran on low level of RAM, as low as 256 Mb. A list of RAM-operated Linux distributions is available at Wikipedia,  but I have only tested a few of these and found Puppy Linux to be best supported and relatively user-friendly .

How can I deploy revived old PCs / laptops?

When I commenced on operating a university college as its CEO in 2015, I faced the problem of dealing with many seemingly obsolete PCs. Most of these PCs were still in good physical working order, only the operating systems were out of date. This meant that most could not cope with the demands of resources heavy design and editing softwares. But, for simple web-browser-based usage such as searching for library information, wordprocessing, keying data etc. these old machines, if their OS could be updated via Linux could have a second bout of useful lives.

Together with my institution’s then Head of IT Services, we embarked on a small project to revive as many of these old machines by changing the OS from Windows to Linux, using the LXLE distribution which I was already very familiar with. Here are some examples of how we redeployed these revived machines:

  1. As data capturing device for marking the attendance of staff, tracking keys to rooms & tracking of tools at the workshop:
    Google Sheets can be hooked up with a barcode scanner to capture data from barbodes.

    Sources: https://pixabay.com/en/scanner-handheld-barcode-scanning-36385/; https://pixabay.com/en/bar-code-information-data-business-24157/; https://pixabay.com/en/id-john-doe-unknown-nameless-1249810/
    Barcodes on ID cards & cards attached to keys and tools are captured & recorded in Google Sheets for admin purposes.

    We sourced for barcode readers (RM180 – RM350 per item) and hooked these up with a Google Sheets. Users just have to scan their staff identity cards to have their attendance recorded. The same set up could also track keys to rooms where a user just need to scan the barcode on the card that came with the key (or tool) and then his/her  own staff/student identity card to have the record taken.

  2. For students to fill in different forms created using Google Forms:
    Almost all student admin work involving forms were converted to data capturing via Google Forms at the institution I managed.

    I moved as many of the routine administrative tasks to Google Docs / Sheets / Form as possible to cut down on paper usage and to have almost instantaneous capturing of data. Thus revived PCs were placed at strategic locations such as the Registry, the Library and the Student Recruitment office for this purpose.

  3. As terminals for accessing information at the library:
    For accessing local server’s information (of the institution’s library) and on web-based information and resources, these revived PCs, with up-to-date web browsers could be used effectively.
  4. For general usage of students in computer laboratories:
    Revived PCs were deployed for general usage by students of the university college.

    We refurbished the hardware of some of these old PCs to have higher RAM and deployed them at general computer laboratories for students to use for writing, doing email, data logging, doing desk research on the internet etc.. This allowed us to reserved the new PCs with resource heavy software (for design, programming and visual editing work) in other locations specifically for classes requiring such softwares.

The above are just some obvious examples of how redeployment of revived PCs / laptops can be implemented in an education institution’s setting. For private or business usage. The revived old PCs / laptops can, at the very least, used as a data entry terminals, extra desk research PCs and even playing presentation of videos or Powerpoint slides etc.

What you need

I shall confine this article to my experience with Puppy Linux’s Xenialpup version. But most of the steps are applicable if you choose other versions / Linux distribution.

In terms of software here are the ones that you need to download.

  1. The image (iso format) of the OS, Xenialpup. Don’t worry if you do not know what iso do. Part (b) shall cover this.
  2. Download and install a copy of Unebootin, the little application that allows you to write your OS onto a USB flash drive. There are versions for Windows, Linux and Mac. The instructions to use Unebootin will be covered in a section below.
    To install Unebootin for Windows is easy. It comes in a .exe file, so just click on this file.
    For Linux users, there is a bit more work to do:

– Note where you have downloaded Unebootin (it will be a file with a name like unetbootin-linux-661.bin). Usually this will be the folder “Downloads”
– Alt-x to bring out the Terminal.
– Type (without the quotation marks) “cd Downloads” or the exact location where you’ve the file.
– Type “chmod +x unetbootin-linux-66l.bin” or whatever name the downloaded file is called to make it executable.    (you can also do the same to change the attribute of this file in File Manager: highlight the file->Right click->Properties->Permissions->Execute (change it to “Anyone”))
– Type “./unetbootin-linux-661.bin”
– The small application will be installed.
(For making a .bin file executable & run it, I followed instructions from this site)

For hardware, you will only need a USB flash drive. While I used an old 4 Gb drive, you should use one that has at least 8 Gb capacity with 16 Gb being even better (as we shall see later why this is so). If you are using an old USB flash drive, you need to know that during the “burning” of the iso file, your existing data could be wiped out.

It is best to use a USB flash drive with as large a capacity as possible, min being 4 Gb.

In the next article, I will cover the details on how to go about creating a bootable USB flash drive containing the entire Puppy Linux OS. I will also share our experience on how best to configure the OS so that it works well with an old laptop.

What to do when your WordPress just refuses to load?

What should you do if your WordPress site just stops loading? This article shares the writer’s experience with this issue where a step-by-step solution for the problem is given. Also highlighted is the usage of Page Builder plugins & their associated supporting plugins. Never update plugins en mass is the key message.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

Just under four days ago, I found out to my horror that my website-blog running on WordPress just refused to load. This was after I did the routine updating of plugins and themes. So I Googled what one is suppose to do (and what could have gone wrong). I tried several “remedies” found on Google and am sharing my learning on this with my readers.

Don’t click the “Update” button!

Previously, as advised by many experts, I dutifully would go to the “Plugins” page to manually update each affected plugin. I was getting lazy and lately had been clicking the “Update” tab found at the top menu of my Dashboard. That was the key to all my woes (as shall be divulged below).

There were several plugins to be updated. I clicked the Update button, the updating proceeded, but it then STOP! The screen of my website (aka this one that you are reading) went totally blank!

My website went ‘dead’! Panic set in! “What the devil did I do?”, I asked myself.

Frantic search for the solution

Off I went to Google “wordpress site won’t load after update of plugins” and found several useful sites.

The best of these was one with a good advisory which gave more or less this message: “Don’t trust the Update button, do your plugin update one by one so that if you hit trouble, at least you can easily identify the culprit.”  So I learned that I had to do a lot more to overcome this outage. I followed the instructions given and here are the steps I took.

  1. I accessed the control panel (cpanel) of my website hosting.
  2. Using “File Manager” I traced my path to the public.html and found the folder with my WordPress installation.

  3. Diving deeper, inside my WordPress folder, I located the subfolder “wp-content” where it has a sub-subfolder called “plugins”.

  4. I renamed “plugins” to “brokenplugins”. Then created a new folder which I named “plugins”.
  5. I opened another tab on my web browser and tried my luck in accessing my website.  And it was back on! But as the “plugins” folder was empty, none of the plugins worked.
  6. I then went back to the “File Manager” and copied the plugins from “brokenplugins” to “plugins”, doing so one at a time. For each plugin that I copied over, I would go back to my website and reload to see if the newly copied in plugin caused any problematic files (aka corrupted files) that would crash the website.  All the plugins seemed to have uncorrupted files. But in this way of copying, all the plugins are still inactivated.
  7. Next step was for me to activate each one of the plugins, one by one. And I found the culprit! It was Caldera Forms. WordPress was good that it detected the problem and did not allow me to activate Caldera Forms.
  8. I deleted Caldera Form from the “plugins” sub-subfolder and I thought my problem was solved.

Removal of a plugin, removed content associated with it too!

Of course when you remove a plugin, the associated features and content would be removed too! In my case it was the contact form and order form. The latter actually was put in as “shortcode” on multiple pages of my website.

Once bitten, twice shy. I realized that I should have just used the “default” contact form from WordPress instead. I could also create a simple order form that served my needs from this too.

However, I noticed another issue!

I couldn’t load Elementor, the page builder plugin!

During earlier updating of Elementor and the third-party supporting plugins, I presume somehow the main Elementor editor was prevented from loading. Elementor is a very useful page builder plugin that takes that pain out of having to learn html coding for WordPress users like me. It allows users to do lots of web page design work using its standard elements which are supplemented by many third-party’s plugins too.

With Elementor not loading, although all the content I created using it was still showing, I was prevented from editing any content created with it. Hence I could not replace the forms previously made using Caldera Forms (and the ‘shortcodes” for these forms which remained after Caldera Forms was removed as a plugin were very glaring on the affected pages!).

Lot’s of advise on Google but …..

I found a lot of advisory via Google to tackle the Elementor plugin not loading issue. Well, at least I was not alone. One of these was from Elementor itself which gave instructions to change some settings. This did not work for me!

I then found another page from Elementor which advised that increasing the memory allocated to WordPress may solved the issue. But I would have to edit the associated php file, wp-config.php which was found in the main WordPress installation folder. I was a bit apprehensive about messing around with a php file but the instructions given by a different web page seemed to be showing that this was just a one-liner addition. So I increased my WordPress allocated memory to 128 Mb. But this did not bring back Elementor’s editor either.

I went back to Elementor’s support page and followed its advisory and proceeded to deactivate and reactivate each plugin in turn to see if any one of these was stopping Elementor editor from loading. I found out that the culprit was indeed a supporting plugin for Elementor, “Premium Addons for Elementor”. I could not even deactivate this plugin (after it was activated earlier). As such it would not be possible for me to just delete it via Dashboard of WordPress. I ended up having to remove the culprit using “File Manager”. However a warning message kept showing up at the Dashboard which warned about the missing “Premium Addons for Elementor”. Emptying the cache several times did not remove this message. [But after a reload of the website, on the next day, this message was gone!]

Again, I had to rewrite all the content that was created by the elements provided by “Premium Addons”.

Lessons Learned

  1. Never update plugins on WordPress en mass! Do it one at a time so that if something fouls up, at least you can pinpoint the culprit!
  2. If you create forms using a third-party plugin, such as Caldera Forms, it is best to have at least a screenshot of the form so that you can recreate the content if things go wrong and you have to remove the offending plugin.
  3. Always keep a copy of the content that you create with Page Builder and its supporting addons plugins. You will lose the content if you have to delete the addon plugins or the  main Page Builder plugin.
  4. You should keep life simple. Non-design heavy content, such as a blog page like this should be presented using the “native” WordPress editor. This will save you from a lot of headache and work which using a Page Builder will cause should the same page building plugin has to be deactivated or removed.

Bye Bye Unifi, Hello Maxis Fibre!

Unifi broadband has been taking customers for granted. It charges higher fees & forces IPTV subscription upon subscribers. Maxis Fibre, riding on Unifi’s backbone for the “last mile” presents a better & cheaper alternative where internet speed of 30 Mbps is consistently provided.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

After a lot of considerations and patience with TM’s Unifi broadband internet service, the last straw snapped. After yet another “throttling & upgrade” ploy where we experienced a typical  slow down of internet speed follow by another call to “upgrade to 50 Megabits per second (from 30 Megabits per second) for RM10 extra”, we made up our minds to switch.

TM-bill
With the final RM15 bill paid, officially our Unifi subscription ended!

What was stopping the switch

  1. Change of broadband provider necessitates a change in telephone number. But our landline only rings at most once a week! Hardly anyone will reach for any of us via our landline. We doubt most of our contacts even know our landline numbers! Thus the change of landline telephone number is no longer a consideration for us.
  2. The fastest (and cheapest, bit by bit) provider, Time dotcom may come to our residential area. I had contacted Time a few times, they could not say if their service will ever reach my part of USJ (they are at USJ 9 business centre already). Thus we would have to rule out Time as a potential replacement for Unifi. This leaves just Maxis Fibre. And Maxis Fibre did not get a good review when it was launched.

What favoured the switch

  1. Maxis Fibre has been giving a good promotion. For the same speed of 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), the price differential between Unifi and Maxis Fibre is RM40 per month. With a price guarantee of 24 months, compared to Unifi, we will be saving close to RM1,000.
  2. Unifi which forces subscribers to pay a minimum of RM25 extra for HyppTV that is devoid of good channels and hence not viewed by most “forced subscribers”. Thus this not only adds extra to Unifi’s bill but the bad taste felt by subscribers for being taken for a ride (as opined by this author before) is the driver that pushes us to switch. Channels being taken out suddenly with no replacements are the norm.
  3. Bouts of “throttling followed by offer to upgrade” became too frequent and this ploy got stale. We hardly get internet speed that is anywhere near the 30 Mbps that we have paid for.
  4. The poor customer service of TM Unifi with no-follow up after complaints by subscribers like us is another push factor.

Anyone wishing to switch will need to do so soon. I was informed by the Maxis people that this promotion will end soon .

Maxis Fibre’s deal… any good?

We are getting the same package of 30 Mbps speed as our previous Unifi package. The internet speed tests have always turn in a good result which ranged from 20 Mbps to 32 Mbps (Downloading) and 7 Mbps to 31 Mbps (uploading). Maxis Fibre essentially is riding on Unifi’s backbone for the “last mile” to the customers. The difference… it could be that Maxis Fibre is not as congested as Unifi.

This speed was recorded at around 4 pm, much faster than we ever get from Unifi!

We do not have to be forced to pay for any IPTV that we do not need. This together with the higher price for the 30 Mbps deal of Unifi means we are paying RM40 less (if we put GST as “zero rated” for both players).

We are still getting a landline. And unlike Unifi’s phone service whose landline phone calls are free only for landline-to-landline calls, Maxis Fibre gives us free calls to all networks, including mobile phones numbers. Thus Maxis Fibre subscribers like us will not have to pay extra if we use the landline to call mobile phones.

In addition (though we have not yet found out how to activate this service), Maxis Fibre gives us free subscription to iflix video on demand service.

The router that came with MaxisFibre is modern and functional.

So far, the internet speed is good. The router that came with the package gives both a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz wifi channel. But for some reasons, devices like our security webcams that need to be logged into the network at all  times have issues with this router. Luckily we have another router for these devices to logged on to and this solved the problem.

First impression of Subang Airport Skypark Link

The new Skypark Link provides the missing link between Subang Airport and the network of public transport in the Klang Valley. The service should alleviate traffic congestion around the airport and reduce traffic jams on Subang Airport road, especially on peak hours. The pluses & minuses of the service are laid out in this article.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

Subang Airport is popular but… mind the traffic jams!

Many people living in the western and northern parts of the Klang Valley, Subang Airport will be their first choice for taking domestic flights. This is because of the relative proximity of Subang Airport to most parts of the Klang Valley.

When I was working and living in Penang, managing a university college, I tried to spend some time with my family at least once every 4 – 6 weeks. Subang Airport which is only 13 km from my home in USJ was my favourite airport to commute between Penang and home.

However, Persiaran Lapangan Terbang Subang (Subang Airport Road) is notorious for traffic jams, especially during peak hours and whenever there is a heavy downpour.

For my usual early morning flights to Penang, the same journey from USJ to Subang Airport would take only 15 minutes!  Because of this, I would usually plan my journey to depart from Subang Airport as early in the morning as possible. Likewise, I usually would try to arrive at Subang Airport from Penang after 8:30 pm to avoid the peak hour’s crawl, especially around the Citta Mall area.

Once it took my wife over 2 hours to travel the 13 km from USJ to pick me up at Subang Airport during off-peak hour of around 8 pm. There were two accidents, one of each side of the road! The return journey was a little better, it took just over 90 minutes.

Enter Subang Skypark Link

When news of the test run of Subang Skypark Link broke, I was naturally delighted. Although I no longer work in Penang, the introduction of this service from KL Sentral to Subang Airport (Skypark Terminal) via Subang Jaya station is a great development. Subang Skypark Link has the potential to reduce traffic on the Subang Airport Road and allows air passengers a more dependable mode of transport to other parts of the Klang Valley.

The intermediate stop at Subang Jaya station is a great move as this station is the interchange for both the LRT and KTM Kommuter services. Thus passengers have a choice of connections  from the Subang Skypark train where the LRT (Kelana Jaya Line) will link up with the Sri Petaling line at Putera Heights Station. For KTM Kommuter passengers, the train service to Port Klang is accessible via Subang Jaya station.

Test-riding Subang Skypark Link services

My wife and I decided to take advantage of the month-long free test-ride of Subang Skypark Link to check out the new rail service recently. We began our ride from Subang Jaya to Skypark Terminal. The KTM staff was polite and helpful. Of course KTM would not give us a free ride from Subang Jaya station to KL Sentral. There was already the LRT or Kommuter train that ply that route too (and we would have to pay!).

Here is my two cents’ worth on this service.

The confusing platform at Subang Jaya Station

Both KTM Kommuter heading to KL Sentral (opposite direction) & Skypark Link trains share the same platform, a bit confusing for commuters!

At the Subang Jaya train station, the Skypark Link train shares the same platform with KTM Kommuter train. This is fine as this is common practice for KTM Kommuter services and with good announcement system and signages on train, commuters will be well informed. However in this case the KL Sentral bound Kommuter train was using the same platform as Skypark Link train but travel on the opposite direction! So shall we look left or right for our train?

The 3-coach Skypark Link trains look refurbished!

Distinctive orange colour scheme, the 3-coach Skypark link train looks very unique.
The dull looking roof of the coaches of Skypark Link makes these look like refurbished rolling stock.

Skypark Link trains use a distinctive orange paint on its bodywork. This is good as it distinguishes the 3-coach trains from the normal Kommuter trains. However, looking at these Skypark Link trains from the outside, they look like refurbished rolling stocks where the top of the trains look dull giving the impression that these coaches have been lying around idle for a while!

However, once inside the coaches, the bench-type seats and railings are well designed, cleaned with the interior brightly lit.

Spacious interior of Skypark Link’s train. Bench-type seats give more standing & baggage room.

“Scenic” Route

The track from Subang Jaya station to Skypark Terminal actually first goes west, towards Batu Tiga station but veers to the right shortly after passing by Empire Shopping Mall (on the left) near Subang Racquet & Golf Centre. It traverses the Federal Highway and Persiaran Kerjaya via two “tunnels” . It then passes by two golf clubs on the right, with the Glenmarie industry area on its left. The track also rises above North Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) and Subang Airport Road (near Ara Damansara Medical Centre). After that it follows the course of Sungai Damansara on its right before arriving at Skypark Terminal, just opposite Subang Airport. Although the brochure indicated that the journey from Subang Jaya station to Skypark Terminal would take 7 minutes, our test-ride took about thrice as long, at around 20 minutes (the return journey took around 15 minutes).

The final stretch of the Skypark link route passes through some scenic golf courses before approaching Subang Airport. (Source of map: Google Map, the Skypark Terminal to Subang Jaya station route is highlighted in red)

The new track is built from Skypark Terminal station to Subang Jaya station. From Subang Jaya station onward, it shares the same track as the existing KTM Kommuter line.

Nice Skypark Terminal station but….

The Skypark Terminal station is very nicely built. It is spacious and well lit.

Spacious walkways of Skypark Terminal station.

But I wish there is more than just one escalator for each platform as many commuters will have baggage to carry and it is a pain to carry these while walking down the stairs. Of course there are the lifts for the disabled which is good.

Both platforms are served with only one escalator each!

The passageway leading to the exit is spacious. The Customer Service centre is located just at the exit.

Ticket machines are already installed. But on the day of our visit, none of these are operational. I think the ticket system will also accept Touch N Go cards.

Ticket machines are installed but as of May 18, 2018 fares have not been announced yet.

Clear LED information boards are strategically located in several places, informing commuters of the train services. I hope the information on this line could be “live” and constantly updated as in the LRT system.

LED signboards giving information on train services are strategically located.

Skypark Terminal Station is  located at the far end of the car park opposite Subang Airport terminal which means that commuters will have to use the single overhead bridge to cross Subang Airport Road.

Wide entrance to Skypark Terminal.
Skypark Terminal station, viewed from the car park which looks neglected.

Although the “direct route” from the entrance of Skypark Terminal Station to the overhead bridge to reach Subang Airport is around 300 m, if one is to use the covered walkway, the distance will be another 200m at least.

A pre-existing overhead bridge links the car park plus Skypark Terminal walkway to Subang Airport. This allows travellers to cross the busy Subang Airport Road & access roads within Subang Airport safely.

Hence there is no fully enclosed (and sheltered) walkway between Subang Airport and Skypark Terminal. And the walk from Skypark Terminal station to Subang Airport can be very taxing for those who are travelling with a lot of baggage.

The walkway running the perimeter of the car park to the overhead bridge, has only a roof which does not fully protect the travellers from the elements.

The overhead bridge to cross Subang Airport Road is serviced by a lift which is a little bit on the small side, especially troublesome for those with large-sized luggage.

The walkway is joined with the overhead bridge where a lift helps travellers to move up 3 flights of stairs.
A small lift is provided at both ends of the overhead bridge. These are a bit small for those with a lot of baggage.

The overhead bridge is facilitated with ramps on both ends which means that commuters with bags or those on wheelchairs can roll up or down the staircase at both ends.

A ramp is found on each end of the overhead bridge.

Once you have arrived at Subang Airport, you need to remember that the overhead bridge brings you to the first floor of the airport. Again, if you have a lot of baggage, you will need to navigate to the escalator to get down to the ground floor for check-in etc.

The overhead bridge ends at the first floor of Subang Airport terminal building.

Plus points

  1. The Skypark Terminal Link provides a more reliable (compared to cars) for air passengers to get to / from Subang Airport.
  2. The journey time (when fully operational) of less than half an hour from the heart of KL (KL Sentral) and 7 minutes from Subang Jaya station means the “last mile” for air travel using Subang Airport is that much more certain. This is provided KTM does not practice train cancellations, delay etc. that are the common grouses of commuters relying on KTM Kommuter services.
  3. The link provides a much needed linkage between Subang Airport and KLIA / KLIA2 via the combination of ERL-Skypark Link. This will facilitate travellers that need to shuttle between the two airports to catch flights, especially domestic flights via Subang Airport.
  4. Skypark Terminal station, aside from some minor quarks (lack of escalators for both “going up” and “going down”, is spacious, with good LED signages.

Minus points

  1. Skypark Link needs to share the rail track with KTM Kommuter from Subang Jaya Station towards KL Sentral (and vice versa). This means any delays due to congestion on this track will have an impact on the timing and reliability of the service.
  2. The lack of a seamless linkage between the Skypark Terminal Station and Subang Airport present a challenge for travellers with young children and lots of baggage. The designated partially-covered  walkway, requires users to go around the perimeter of the car park, adding considerable distance for travellers to walk. As this walkway only has a roof, travellers are exposed to the elements if there is a heavy rain.
  3. The sharing of KTM Kommuter’s rail track from Subang Jaya Station towards KL Sentral means that Skypark Link’s train services will be subjected to the congestion experienced by KTM Kommuter users currently. Thus travellers using this service, compared to the ERL, will have to budget at least another 30  to 45 minutes extra time to use Skypark Link if they do not wish to run a risk of missing their flights at Subang Airport. A simple solution may be to just concentrate the Skypark Link trains to ply between Subang Jaya station and Subang Airport, where the track (aside from a small stretch between Subang Jaya and Batu Tiga station) is fully dedicated for the Skypark Link. This will inconvenient travellers who have to transfer either from KTM Kommuter or the LRT (coming from KL Sentral).  However the LRT service is a lot more reliable. The journey via LRT from KL Sentral to Subang Jaya will take around 35 minutes which is not too long compared to having the risk of delays.

A good addition to public transport

Despite the shortcomings, I think the Skypark Link train services is a good addition to the Klang Valley’s public transport network. The interchange with other mode of public transport  at KL Sentral and Subang Jaya stations provide more travel options to travellers compared to the current over reliance on road transport. It will be better if the reported service intervals of once every hour (from June 01, 2018) could be increase during peak hours for flights (such as early in the morning and from 6 pm to 8 pm).

At the time of writing this article, the fares for the two stages of Skypark Link services have not been announced. I would expect that a fare of  RM10 or lower for the full KL Sentral to Skypark Terminal (Subang Airport) and RM3 or lower between Subang Jaya and Skypark Terminal will be fair and will attract good ridership.

13th May 1969 my little story (pre- & post- GE14)

I echo here YB Lim’s advice for all Malaysians, regardless of whichever side of the political divide we stand, to take the opportunity offered to us after the 14th General Election (GE14) to bury the ghost of May 13th forever. But the lessons of May 13th should always be taught to younger generations so that the same will not happen again.

Commentary (May13, 2018):  The inspiration to share my little May 13th story came from a letter by senior politician, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, published in Malaysiakini (the pdf version is available here).

I echo here YB Lim’s advice for all Malaysians, regardless of whichever side of the political divide we stand, to take the opportunity offered to us after the 14th General Election (GE14) to bury the ghost of May 13th forever. But the lessons of May 13th should always be taught to younger generations so that the same will not happen again. We should learn from Northern Ireland (my 2nd homeland!) of what communal distrust and sectarian divide can do to a nation.

We should be proud of ourselves as Malaysians. We have, through the resolution and courage shown the world that ours is a democratic nation. There is something among Malaysians that money simply cannot buy! The message from YB Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal (in one of his videos) perhaps sums up the feeling of many against money politics, “the RM500, RM10,000 or RM1,000 that you’re given will not make you a millionaire….. our dignity is not for sale.”

I think many Malaysians who are in the public service, the police and the military deserve our gratitude for coming out of their comfort zone and voted with their conscience. Without their support, the outcome of GE14 could have been very different.

Together, we have shown the world that Malaysians are no zombies when it comes to expressing our democratic rights!

It is time for reconciliation. A matured democracy shall always accommodate differing political views. Just because someone do not subscribe to your political view does not make her/him less of a Malaysian or a subject of hatred.

The confidence given by Malaysians to the present Pakatan Harapan regime does not mean that we have given the politicians a blank cheque.  This is my response when asked by BFM radio on what I want from the new regime:

(link: https://twitter.com/Everboleh/status/994430242969108482)

 

First published: May 14th, 2004, edited version published on May 13th, 2018

As a young boy aged 6+ during the May 13th incident in 1969, my memory of this event is still good.

However, a lot of the younger generation today seem to have no memory of this significant turning point of Malaysia’s history. I feel sad about this. (and the local TV, TV3 had an item on this last night).

My little Story about 13th May 1969:

I still remember on this faithful day, everything was ‘normal’, at around 6:45am, my dad cycled to his school to teach (about 4 km away) and I was already up and about (I was attending afternoon session at school) making a nuisance of myself to the adults. Then suddenly, at around 7:00 am, dad cycled back in a hurry and I saw a lot of people rushing back……curfew was imposed.

We were shielded from the bulk of the troubles as Ipoh was relatively unaffected by the events in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. I was too young to comprehend the magnitude and the seriousness of the event. All I remembered of that few days was: the adults were very tensed.

On the first day of curfew, dad and granddad went to the sundry shop (just after dad had cycled back in the morning) and bought a lot of food stuff. I was not allowed out of the house or the garden on the first day. By the second day, things seemed to have calmed down. I was allowed out (I think by then the curfew was lifted for a couple of hours for that day). But I went to the field opposite my house to play. I was warned by dad to get back into the house within the hour but I stayed around the play gound at the field for longer than usual (after all I was caged up for one full day already!)….

Then I saw a couple of police on petrol in the area and off I went jumping into the drain next to the field to hide from them….(I remembered being told that if I were caught after curfew hours outside the house, the police would lock me up).

As I was hiding in the drain, I could hear that the police petrol had passed but I dared not leave the drain for a few more minutes as I was afraid that they might turn back towards me. Then……I felt itchiness and a sharp pain around my groin and then my buttocks. This sensation was occuring at more than one spot!

…..My posterior was very close to the nest of a colony of fire-ants! These little guys then attacked me or more like my sensitive areas to protect their colony. Those days we ddin’t wear brief until you were close to 10 or 11 and of course little boy  all would wear shorts!

I ran from the drain, but dared not cry out loud (for fear of the police) even though the pain was terrible. I screamed when I got home. I only allowed my dad to see the ‘damage’ (mum and the rest of the family were not allowed near me!) My posterior, including my ‘3 pieces of inheritance from my ancestors’ were sore for days…..

I promised myself then that I would never hide in the drain again, even if I was playing with my friends, a promise I kept for the nest 5 days…

That was my personal memory of the whole May 13 incident as a young boy of not-yet 7 in age. But little did I know then, there were many things that happened in that few days that had changed the course of history for my country.

The National Economic Policy and other measures implemented by the government post May 13, 1969, had changed the economic and political landscape for my country forever. This paved the way for Malaysia to withstand the economic challenges of the 1997/98.

For many years this subject (of May 13) has been tabooed for all. But I feel that youngsters should be told what went on and more importantly, what we all have learned from it (or have we?)

In 1979, I was fortunate enough to have parents (who were working as a teacher/a clerk) that sacrificed their pension money to pay for my studies in the UK. There, the first thing I did was to look through the library of my technical college to see if I could find something on this event. After a few months of searching, I located a journal called something like “World Event- day by day” and I had the chance to read up on the foreign reports (foreign perspective) about May 13th, 1969 for the first time and understood some of the causes of this unfortunate episode of our history as a nation.

One thing is sure: we must not allow this to happen again, NEVER! But we must remember and remind our younger generations of this incident to ensure that the lessons learned are not forgotten and more importantly incident like this shall never happen again.

And one small lesson: do not play inside a drain, if you do, watch out for fire ants!

Learning to work with WordPress plugins & add-ons

Due consideration must be given when applying plugins to WordPress software, especially when a plugin is an “add-on” to a core plugin for a page builder. Incompatibility after an update may render elements of an “add-on” not functioning & thus losing your content.

[show_post_categories show=”category” hyperlink=”yes”]

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

When this blog was hosted under WordPress.com with a domain name registration using the “free hosting” package (which is no longer available to new registrants), the decision to update plugins was not provided to subscribers. WordPress.com takes the responsibility to update/upgrade plugins and solves any technical issues that might appear. All themes and plugins offered under WordPress.com are “tried and tested”.

This makes life relatively easy for the subscribers, with one big major drawback. The themes and plugins available under the “free hosting” being pathetically few in numbers and provide only a plain, “vanilla” version of WordPress.

[In fact, the “free hosting”  is not really free if you want to use your own domain e.g. theplantcloner.com as you have to pay for the registration of the domain as well as the “redirection” of the “free hosted” site to your domain name. This came to US$18 for my package, unfortunately, this package is no longer available.]

If you want features, you got to pay a lot more!

Only if you pay for the “Business” package (at US$25 per month) then you can install any plugin (I think these have to be pre-verified by WordPress.com as well). The other “cheaper” packages; “Premium” at US$8 per month and “Personal” at US$4 per month only give you a better selection of themes.

Image Source: https://https://wordpress.com/pricing/

Thus it was not surprising that when I gained more confidence in working with the WordPress software I found the limitations of my “free hosting” package not something I could live with. Hence the consolidation and relocation of this blog to a “self-hosted” WordPress site in Mar 2018. WordPress (under WordPress.org) is offered as an open source software.

Plugins galore but which are the most suitable?

I installed a lot of plugins and test-run many more before settling with a core number of around 30 plus plugins. The most useful, as far as the design and customization of the look-and-feel of my site was concern were the page builder plugins. There are many different “brands” of page builders. After trying and testing a few major page builders (you can identify these as “major” plugins by the number of downloads and reviews shown), I had settled down for the free version of Elementor. The reason was clear, other page builders (the free versions) might have more features and had downloaded more often, with better reviews, Elementor was the easiest to use.

“Add-on” plugins are specially designed to expand the functionalities of the core features of page builders, some are specific for a brand of page builder, such as Elementor while some may be meant for another page builder brand, but some of its features may be compatible with Elementor.  I applied a few features, called “elements” from these “add-ons” to make my website and blog look more aesthetically pleasant. Page builders like Elementor also add a lot more functionalities at my disposal.

Should I update the plugins?

When you self-host your website using WordPress, you will have to decide if you need to update your plugins and themes (as well as the core WordPress software) when these are available. Generally, the WordPress software itself will highlight which plugins need to be updated. You can also check the relevant plugin page under WordPress.org (right inside your WordPress software) for compatibility.

Thus for “standalone” plugins, I think if you go by the compatibility indicator, you are pretty safe in installing the update in most cases. However, if you have “add-ons” to a key plugin such as Elementor, the end result may be very troubling, as I found out.

Where is my Post Carousel? Where is my Modal Box?

I had installed three “add-ons” for page builder, two of which were specifically meant for Elementor while the third, “Widgets Bundle for Siteorigin” was meant for another page builder named Siteorigin. Somehow the widgets from “Widget Bundle“ worked well with Elementor as well as the native WordPress editor.

The attractiveness of “Widget Bundle” was that many of its elements were installed as widgets. Widgets are small additional features that you can apply to almost anywhere in your website whereas most of the page builder’s add-on features are only available within the confine of the plugin. Thus if you are not editing a post or a page using the page builder’s interface, these additional features are not available.

One particular widget, “Post Carousel” from “Widget Bundle” was very useful. It allowed me to put a random selection of my blog posts in a carousel at the front page of my website. However, one day, after doing the routine updating of plugins, I discovered to my horror that “Post Carousel” was missing from my front page. Mysteriously, “Widget Bundle for Siteorigin” too was missing from my list of plugins! I tried to re-install “Widget Bundle” but was informed that the folder for it was already in the system! I had to search, test and re-configure another, standalone plugin to return Post Carousel to my front page. But this plugin was not as features-rich as the one from “Widget Bundle”.

Then the next shock came just a day before this piece was written. The Modal Box which came via “Premium Addons for Elementor” went missing from my front page! A Modal Box is a box (text & image) that pops up when a page is loaded. I used it to welcome and inform my readers redirected from theplantcloner.com of how to find old articles. I resorted to using the “Alert” element, native to Elementor to replace the Modal Box. But “Alert” does not pop up when visitors come to the front page. “Alert” also does not come as a widget which would have allowed me to insert it near the top of the front page. Instead, I had to contend with putting the “Alert” box right at the bottom of the page (due to the design of my theme). Hardly an ideal location to carry a welcome message!

Lessons learned    

  1. Not all updates bring better utility and functionality to your WordPress software.
  2. If you install “add-ons” to a popular plugin, you will need to be aware of incompatibility of these add-ons upon an update of the core plugin.
  3. It is better to look for a standalone plugin (e.g. Post Carousel) to do what you want than to use a widget from one of the “add-ons”.
  4. Elements from add-ons that are compatible with the core page builder such as Elementor at installation may be rendered useless upon upgrading (e.g “Widget Bundles for Siteorigin” was fully compatible with Elementor but when the latter was updated, problems arose!).
  5. It is better to live with the native elements from a page builder.
  6. You must check your website regularly to spot missing content due to plugin issues.

Securing website by installing SSL certificate

SSL certificate is essential for any website. This piece provides an account on how to get a free SSL certificate from either CloudFlare or Let’s Encrypt. Namesilo is great is providing information on free SSL certification. Mochashosting has Let’s Encrypt in its control panel that, with a bit of tweaking can install a free SSL certificate. CloudFlare has great DNS server but its the configuration of its free SSL certification is very challenging.

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

A few months back I decided to consolidate the various domain names, web hostings and websites that I have. The key reason for this was economic. I realized that over the last 10 years while learning to “play” with all these web-based “learning toys” of mine I had spent quite a lot.

Consolidation of domains as mini projects

One of the mini projects I had set myself to do was to move my blog (previously on theplantcloner.com which is being hosted till Oct 2018 by WordPress.com) to my web hosting under Mochahosting.  WordPress has a simple “Export” function to generate an XML file to carry almost all of the content of the blog. It has also a very simple “reversal” feature for me to “Import” the content into the blog’s new home, where you are reading this now, https://slc4u.org/learning.

My next mini project was to configure, “beautify” and populate my blog’s new home with features etc. which were denied me while the blog was hosted on my package with WordPress.com Then halfway on I realized that it would also be good to consolidate my key business websites (yup I have more than four websites!) into the same domain of slc4u.org.  This will surely streamline the work and present a more informative, “one-site-find-all” business website and blog. In addition, I could perhaps generate some business for my consultancy from traffic to my blog.

Blog’s traffic slowed to near standstill post migration!

With the new self-hosted WordPress site done up for my blog, the time had come for me to make the final decision to move. Thus around mid March 2018, I started to “wind down” the previous blog hosting, having sorted out the issue of domain name transferring (that’s another story to come!). Gradually, as I gained more confident of working with the  slc4u.org domain and the working of the self-hosted version of WordPress, I started to boost up the traffic to slc4u.org by telling my blog subscribers & visitors of theplantcloner.com and visitors about the new location of my blog.

WordPress.com took away all the pain of self-hosting of your blog using WordPress as the platform but there are two things that bugged me. Firstly, it has very restrictive in the selection of  themes and even less so for plugins. These make the blog was very “vanila” in its look and feel. Secondly, although WordPress.com provides the generic hosting free by treating your blog as a subdomain (i.e. yourblog.wordpress.com), to use a dedicated domain, one needs to register this domain with WordPress.com (the US$18 a year package that I was on is no longer available to new registrants, now it is more like US$48 per year).

While under WordPress.com’s hosting, my blog, due to the tweaking, security and good search engine optimization, have a respectable number  daily visitors. However, once the switch was done, the flow of visitors, even to my most read piece dwindled down to zero!

Being SSL certified is essential!

I tracked down the key reason for the drastic drop post-migrating  to the lack of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and hence the “https” feature of slc4u.org. I discovered that search engines are not too kind to unsecured sites (i.e, sites without SSL and hence the lack “https” in their URL). People searching for my articles are just not able to find them. So it is a no brainer. I must get a SSL certificate and make sure that my site gets “https” in all the URL.  

According to Digicert, “Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, are used to establish an encrypted connection between a browser or user’s computer and a server or website. The SSL connection protects sensitive data, such as credit card information, exchanged during each visit, from being intercepted from non-authorized parties.”  

Thus without SSL certification on my site, traffic to it naturally would grind to a halt. I knew then SSL certification is a “must have” for my site. I must learn how to get my site SSL certified!

Trials and errors in getting SSL certification

I began to Google for “SSL certificate” and found out that most sources on the internet tell you that SSL certificates have to be purchased and nearly all point to some sources of SSL certificate vendors, most being domain name registration and web hosting companies . I was fortunate  to find out that Namesilo (where two of my domains were recently transferred and registered) provides information for its customers to obtain free SSL certificates.

While the instructions from Namesilo are very clear: you have two choices, one is Let’s Encrypt (but this must be made available by your web hosting provider, and  it should be easily installed with a few clicks); the other was CloudFlare which offers free SSL certificates (but will require you to configure a rather complicated set of settings).

Let’s Encrypt’s confusing instructions & CloudFlare’s complicated configuration

My first reaction was to go with the first choice of Namesilo. So I visited Let’s Encrypt’s website to see what I had to do to get a free SSL certification for my website. Let’s Encrypt gives a lot of information on how to get started. But there is a distinctive lack of clear and step-by-step instructions. You need to learn quickly (and decide quickly) whether your web hosting company grants you “Shell Access” or not. After reading the entire webpage a few times, I was utterly confused (though by then I learned that I should have “shell access”).

Off I went to explore Option 2, CloudFlare which have a very informative and step-by-step instructions for one to get hold of their free SSL certificate. Signing up was easy, I just have to use my Google login as my credential. Getting an account with CloudFlare and starting the ball rolling was easy too.

You put in your website address, select the free plan and you are in. But tweaking with settings to configure CloudFlare to work with your website does require one to have a lot of knowledge of how domain names and internet traffic works. You need to change your domain name server to that of CloudFlare (which means that you need to have access to your domain name registration manager). Then you need to know how and where to configure other settings. As I am a bit adventurous with this sort of challenges, by trial and errors, eventually I managed to get CloudFlare’s free SSL certification for my site. But when, as advised, I started work on putting the free SSL certificate onto my website’s “home” server, things started to get messy. I ended up, after working on this for over four hours, giving up on this part of my configuration which I had to do on the control panel of Mochahosting (not the most friendly to those who are not expert users). One thing I noticed was, when CloudFlare free SSL certification was working well, because of the superb DNS server of CloudFlare compared to Mochohosting, my website was loading a lot faster, almost below 10 seconds. CloudFlare does have a feature for one to “Pause” the working of all functions but the DNS server which could provide a different solution for those without a good DNS server from the “home” web hosting company.

Spotted the “hidden Mickey”

Just as I was getting frustrated over my not able to fully configure CloudFlare on my website’s server, I decided to take a look at Mochahosting’s control panel again.  Hidden to the extreme right of the halfway down the home page, under the “Security” section was a small logo of Let’s Encrypt. But there was no instruction on how to configure this to work on my website. I clicked the button to install Let’s Encrypt’s free SSL certificate on my site and did not know I should do next to activate the service! I then decided to put CloudFlare’s SSL certification service on “Pause” and see if I could let  Let’s Encrypt provide the much needed “https” feature for my website. While testing “https://slc4u.org/” I faced the problem of  “SSL handshake failed” each time. Going back to the installation page of Let’s Encrypt, I spotted a message to say that my attempt to install a SSL certificate failed but without a clue on what I did wrong with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate installation.

Start all over again

I realized that there must be a conflict in having two SSL certificates for the same site, one provided via CloudFlare and the other via Let’s Encrypt. It was time for me to start afresh and concentrate on only one SSL certification service at a time. I deleted all the SSL certificates from my site and went back to restart CloudFlare’s SSL “engine”.  The many different configurations that I had tried could not to solve the “SSL handshake failed” problem. I knew then I had to abandon CloudFlare and try my luck again with Let’s Encrypt, starting with a clean slate again.

But before going back to the control panel of Mochahosting, I Googled “SSL certification WordPress” to see if there are any plugins that I can install on WordPress which will do the job of configuring an SSL certificate on my site without my having to worry about what to do with all those settings (as in CloudFlare’s case). I found a few such plugins exist but the one that appealed to me, I think because of its name, was Really Simple SSL I decided that I should try this plugin after I had a working SSL certificate installed successfully on my website.  

Got https://slc4u.org to work, finally!

I went back to Mochahosting’s control panel to re-install Let’s Encrypt’s free SSL certificate, this time only limiting myself to my domain, slc4u.org and ignoring the other variants that popped up (all of which I included in the previous attempt on SSL certification). And viola! At last, I got a working SSL certificate installed on my website.

The next step for me was to install Really Simple SSL on my WordPress installation which runs my website (and this blog). The plugin, true to its name, was very simple to install, activate and configure. After testing with a few different browsers, both on the laptop computer and my Android phone, I was satisfied that I finally had “https” switched on for my website. However, the loading time of my website was over 1 minute long. It must be the DNS server of CloudFlare which I was still using (I only “Paused” its service whereby CloudFlare’s DNS server still worked in directing traffic to my website). A restoration to Mochashost’s DNS settings quickly solved this final problem. I now truly have a functional “https” url for my website!

All I need is to see if there is a resumption of traffic to my website, at least to the average level when my blog was hosted by WordPress.com under the domain name of theplantcloner.com (which is now redirecting all traffic to slc4u.org).

Is there a better way to translate non-Chinese names?

A better way to translate names into Chinese must be implemented. Those translating non-Chinese names into Mandarin Chinese should be familiar with the background, culture and language of the persons or places. The translated name must be phonetically as accurate as possible and at the same time conveying as much of the context or “personality” of the original name as possible.

[show_post_categories show=”tag” hyperlink=”yes”]

When one of the greatest contemporary scientists, Stephen Hawking passed away on Mar 14, 2018, all the press the world over was covering this piece of sad news.

Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s most renown scientist, passed away on Mar 2018) (Image source: http://bit.ly/2FUswBb )

As I was reading this newsflash on one of the Chinese newspaper (e-paper to be exact) which, as newsflash get presented on mobile newspaper app, no images are usually provided. It took me quite a while to figure out that 霍金 (Huòjīn) as the great man was referred to in the newsflash was indeed Stephen Hawking.

Delayed recognition of Hawking’s translated Chinese name

The main reason for my “delayed recognition” was indeed how the phonetics of the word “Hawking” was being represented in the Chinese written text, I guess using hanyu pinyin.   There is no Chinese word, or more accurately, in Mandarin phonetics that can accurately represents or sounds close to “Haw”. And “-king” (the second part of the word “Hawking”) also does not have any equivalent sounding word as pronounced in Mandarin, so 金(jin) or gold would have to do. Interestingly, with nine tones, Cantonese does have two very simple words to represent the great man’s name: 学(Haw)   劲 (Geng). “学” means to learn and “ 劲” means strength. Thus the great man’s name could have the meaning of “strength in learning” which represents Stephen Hawking’s great strength and his ability to learn very accurately.

Could do a better job on Steve Jobs

Another famous person that had left us and whose name was not that well translated into Chinese was the late Steve Jobs. Jobs name was translated into 乔布斯 (Qiáobùsī) in Mandarin Chinese. In fact there are two Chinese words that could have done this “job” better. 作 (zuo) 士(shi). These two words, 作士 together could mean “a creative literati” which the late Steve Jobs was surely one! There was a interesting discussion on this topic in Quora.

How about Warren Buffett’s name in Chinese?

Warren Buffett
Are there better words in Chinese to translate Warren Buffett’s name? (Image source: http://bit.ly/2u9EdhD)

The legendary guru of investments, Warren Buffett was given a Mandarin Chinese name of 沃伦·巴菲特. While  “巴菲特” does give a good phonetic representation of the word Buffett, there are two words that may do a better job.    坝 (ba) which means “dam” or “embankment” – something to stop or slow down the flow of water and 佛 (fó) which means “Buddha” or “a merciful person”. Thus  坝佛 is a much better and meaningful name for Buffett who, has built an embankment to amass his wealth and sharing his wealth as a philanthropist.

[I am extremely proud of the fact that my son got the chance to meet Buffett in Omaha. Buffett happens to be an alumnus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln too!]

Political leaders & administrators need good sounding Chinese names too

A number of former governors of Hong Kong, especially the more recent ones did take up names that would sound good in Cantonese. But some, like Chris Patten (彭定康 – Péng dìngkāng) took a further step and adopted a Chinese name that did not resemble their Western names fully. However this gave the local Chinese population an easier time in pronouncing their names!  Sir David Wilson (衛奕信 ) is another person who adopted a Chinese name. But in this case Wilson’s name sounds exactly like its English phonetics, provided you read it using Cantonese Chinese!

Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd perhaps has the most interesting translation of his name in Chinese (Image source: http://bit.ly/2GQw0l3)

 

Some prominent Westerners do have translated Chinese names that are both phonetically accurate and more importantly, with great meaning in Chinese. One such person is former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd who is fluent in Chinese. Rudd created his Mandarin Chinese name by putting his family name, Rudd in front of his given, Kevin (following the Chinese convention) and came up with a good name in Chinese, 陆克文 (Lù Kèwén).  He has chosen 陆 (Lù) to represent his family name, Rudd and 克文(Kèwén) for Kevin. 克 ( Kè) means “having the ability” and 文(Wén ) means “civilization, culture or language”. This Chinese name suits Rudd well, he is not only proficient in the Chinese language, Rudd is very learned in Chinese culture, history and civilization too.

Include the original name as a standard practice

IMHO, the Chinese press in Malaysia should continue to adopt the convention of translating non-Chinese names from China. But as a good and standard practice, the original names of the person mentioned should be given too. This will facilitate not only people like me who may have difficulties recognizing these names in Chinese, but it is doing good service to all the readers to have the chance to learn about the original name of the person mentioned. I must admit that I still struggle with some of the names of places in Malaysia which I know the respective “original names” in Malay or English well but when these are translated into Chinese as they appear in the Chinese press, I would be stumped at times. Often, I had to do further research (if the news article excited me that much!) to discover the original name of the place mentioned.

Translating to Chinese
More thoughts must be given when translating names into Chinese (Image source: http://bit.ly/2uball6)

On a whole, I feel that those translating non-Chinese names into Mandarin Chinese should familiarize themselves with the background, culture and language of the persons or places. The translated name must be phonetically as accurate as possible and at the same time conveying as much of the context or “personality” of the original name as possible.