And this is no exception. As I have previously said, FOSS.my would have not been possible without the hard work of everyone.

The Organizing Team

Here are the people who played a role in FOSS.my! Perhaps you have heard of some of them before, perhaps you haven't. But its time you do.

Why?

Because not many people have the time and dedication needed to run a conference. At least, not for free. We all have our own commitments. Not many people would take the risk in investing their own time and money to bootstrap FOSS.my.

The truth is, FOSS.my ran on credit. With all the economic forecasts looking grim, how many of you would risk your financial security to do that?

There are a lot of little things that everyone did, and I don't think this list is comprehensive enough to cover it. But I'll try my best to give credit where its due.

Ang Chin Han

To open the bank account to accept payments from both delegates and sponsors, we required money, and alot of it. Banks required an initial deposits to open a bank account, and Ang Chin Han stepped up with his own money, and contributed to the FOSS.my funds. In the past, Han has repeatedly convinced ByteCraft to help sponsor the FOSS community, and FOSS.my was no exception. I am aware of Han's busy schedule, so his repeated attendance at the meetings, and even staying in at APIIT till late (3am) the night before was very much appreciated. During FOSS.my, Han took the role of Hall monitor, and ensured that the tracks ran smoothly and on time, a much more complicated task than it looks.

Awesome work Han!

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Colin Charles

Malaysia's very own FOSS superstar stepped up to the plate to emulate other worldwide FOSS conferences, and to do it in Malaysia. To bring the joy, the happiness, the tears to Malaysia. Having run linux.conf.au, his involvement was invaluable. Colin took care of the press release, and chasing both speakers and sponsors. Much like Han, Colin played a really large role in financing FOSS.my. Not by chasing sponsors, but my initially paying for all the food, the t shirts, the speaker gifts, the speaker party, the domain name, and pretty much everything with a price tag was financed by Colin. Yes, those FOSS.my T shirts you are wearing, Colin. Even the last few days running up to the event, Colin only had a good 20 minutes of sleep in his own bed. As speaker dude, he had to coordinate with foreign speakers and even assisted in picking up Toru Maesaka and Jerome Gotangco from the airport, and treating them to some Nasi Kandar Penang to join Pia Waugh's Curry session. Where later he would drive them to the hotel, and assist them in signing in. Like Han, he also stayed back till 3am to help out at APIIT, and oversee the work being carried out by the volunteers. During the conference, Colin took it up to herd cats throughout the day. Colin and I had planned for a morning comedy act, to help break the ice every, but I got busy running other stuff. I personally like that he took individually shots of the important players during FOSS.my, it makes things like writing these posts, much easier. On the last day, Colin drove Pia Waugh to KL Central, so she could take her flight back.

Awesome work Colin!

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Ditesh Kumar

Playing an early role in FOSS.my, Ditesh Kumar helped bootstrap the FOSS.my website. Hacking in the cool climate of Genting, Ditesh put together the initial pieces of the FOSS.my website. Also playing an important role in overseeing the organization of the conference, he ran the initial cost analysis to determine an appropriate fee to charge the delegates, without running into the red. Ditesh also explored various options in handling incoming funds, to help expediate the process of receiving payment. Together with Han, Ditesh handled track 1 of the conference, and ensured a smooth transition from one presentation to another. After the first day of FOSS.my, Ditesh arranged to pick up Pamela Fox from KLIA, and take her to the speaker party. After the fun and laugher, and learning of the great game of Mao, he would drive various speakers back to their hotels. Thanks for the keynote presentation, and showing everyone the awesome Malaysians at work in FOSS. Soon after the FOSS.my had concluded, Ditesh was quickly off again to drop off Pia Waugh's belongings at KL Central, so that everyone could enjoy the awesome company of Pia even longer. After the dinner, Ditesh once again took back some of the speakers to their hotel.

Awesome work Ditesh!

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Firdaus Bin Aziz

After settling on a plan on how to accept payment, Firdaus took the initiative to register a company, and all the minor details involved in it. As Firdaus took the role of setting up the bank account, he ended up handling the financials of FOSS.my. Firdaus ensured that throughout the event, if people required money to purchase any additional things, he was there.

Awesome work Firdaus!

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Gurdip Singh

If I had to sum up Gurdip, it would simple by "from zero to hero." Gurdip, is the man. He took it up to himself to be our proxy with APIIT. Everything the venue provided, from shuttles, to wireless, to even the hotels for the speakers, he was the go to guy. When you think "logistics", you think Gurdip. He even arranged for the great volunteers that helped out throughout the event. Actually to comiple a comprehensive list of things Gurdip took it to himself to achieve during the event would be extremely long, even a post by itself would not suffice. Together with his assistants, Gurdip slept over the night at APIIT before the event to ensure that we were ready in the morning, which we definitely were. Wireless was working. Registration was good to go. The venue was prepared for the participants. This event would definitely not have happened without Grudip.

Awesome work Gurdip!

Izhar Firdaus

The design for everything, ranging from the posters, the badges, and the signages, were done by Izhar, otherwise known as KageSenshi. Being the ninja he is, he even got the APIIT TV system working as required. Izhar came early on Friday to assist in preparing for the venue, and stayed all through the night at APIIT to ensure that things were prepared by morning. Throughout the event, Izhar assisted in food preparations, and the Fedora booth. Together with Shariman Samsudin, he even took Pia Waugh out to watch Quantum of Solace. He did all this, knowing he had exams on the following Monday of the conference. That's dedication.

Awesome work Izhar!

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Khairil Yusof

Khairil Yusof, is the man with the plan. FOSS.my was Khairil's idea. Through Inigo Tech, Khairil helped to sponsor FOSS.my. Besides from sponsoring money, the infrastructure to run FOSS.my, the website, and mailing lists, resided on Khairil's servers. After Silatul Rahim Dahman called in sick, Khairil took it to himself to deliver a last minute presentation to ensure that people got what they asked for. All the while being slightly under the weather himself.

Awesome work Khairil!

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Shariman Samsudin

Those lunches you ate, those tea breaks you enjoyed, look no further than Shariman Samsudin. Better known as Yondie, he had to wake up early in the morning to pick up your lunches. Likewise Yondie was another resident at APIIT the night before. Yondie played a large role during the event itself. Everytime I saw him, he was always ensuring that things ran smoothly, always ensuring that volunteers properly understood the work needed to be done, and even as required, he ran to McDonalds to ensure that everyone had enough food, because more people showed up than expected. Yondie was truly concerned that everyone had a good time!

Awesome work Yondie!

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Suanie

In the FOSS scene, not many know Suanie. But in the Malaysian blogging scene, Suanie is a super star.
Though an unknown, Suanie has always responded to the call of the duty, and has contributed several times to FOSS in Malaysia. Arrangements for the speaker/organizer/volunteer party were all done by her. She event went as far as to look for catering services for us. Suanie also helped to get our press releases out to the papers. Sadly after all her hard work, Suanie couldn't join us for FOSS.my.

Awesome work Suanie!

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Syamsul Anuar

Syamsul Anuar arranged for those FOSS.my T Shirts you are comfortably, and proudly wearing. Also known as Wariola, he even helped to translate our press release into Malay. Much like a few of the others, Wariola burned the midnight oil the night before.

Awesome work Wariola!

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Yoon Kit Yong

Yoon Kit helped us to acquire the speakers gifts. Even then, he helped out in pushing out the press release to the papers. Yoon Kit, also stepped in to FOSS.my to give his keynote presentation. Little do many know, Yoon Kit showed concern for safety after the speaker party, and ensured that I safely got to my car.

Awesome work Yoon Kit!

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Special Thanks

In every community led event, there are many people that contribute, and don't get heard. Without them, the success of the event is at stake.

These are the people who helped throughout the conference in any way. From helping with design, to preparing the food, ensuring the tracks ran smoothly, to staying over the previous night to prepare the venue. These are those unsung heroes. There are many more of whom, I have forgotten the names. So please do ping me if you'd like your name included.

The Unsung Heroes

• Hassanudin Saidin
• Yusseri Yussof
• Chew Kwai Fei
• Noor Jahan farazi
• Ivana Tanadi
• Dewi Marhamah
• Tini
• Elaine Ong
• Darshini Nadarajan
• Desiree Chow
• Jamilya
• Gaukhar
• Eavay Javay Barnad
• Sarogini
• Nuhaa All Bakry
• Norliyana Kamarludin
• Sean Sean Tan
• Swee Meng Ng

Awesome Work Everyone

The success of FOSS.my, wouldn't have been possible without you.

Photo Credits:

• Profile photos taken by Colin Charles
• Photo taken by Ow Mun Heng

Related posts

• MyOSS Basketball – December 2005 (0)
• Ow’s Bachelor Dinner and Beer (0)
• Digg Malaysia: What is the real harm? (1)
• PCFair 2006 August Kuala Lumpur: Overview (2)
• Pre FOSS.my 2008 (0)

Hypothesis

What would happen if hackers were subjected to fresh air? If they were taken out of their natural environment, and placed into the wild.

But being humane, we thought we let them keep the sanctity that they refer to as "the Internet", to ensure their sanity.

Experiment

We decided to leave a few hours before working hour, to ensure that wet go to the Fathers Guest House at Cameron Highlands before their reception closes at 10.

Five surveyors began the journey.

• Arzumy
• Ditesh (read his version)
• Khailee
• Khalid
• Aizat

After reaching the toll booth to go up camerons, you can already smell the fresh air. We were in the wild.

Arriving at night around 9pm, we weren't able to get a good view of the estate. If you had visited the website, you would have noticed that the rooms were actually old bunkers left behind by the british. Those are the cheapest rooms, but if you'd like to live in a bit more luxury, rooms in the house were also available.

After receiving our room keys, and placing our bags, it was time for our first fix. Laptops, whipped out. Packets, transferred. Facebook invites, ignored. It seemed the world was able to survive another few hours without us.

As it was already night time, we took a short ten minute stroll down to the town for some dinner. Stretched our legs, breathed in the fresh air, and start being climatized to the cool weather.

No coding was done on friday, though thanks to Khailee we were getting accustomed to playing jim rummy.

Come morning, and after executing the daily morning rituals. We set up base at the canteen and whipped out our laptops. The other travelers largely looked like backpackers, and must have found it very awkward for these geeks to siege the canteen with their technobabble.

Not to soon, we got word that Arzumy had to leave early.

Four surveyors remained.

The weather couldn't decide whether to continue raining or to stop. So most of the day it was on and off. This contributed to the extremely cold night, and made it difficult to sleep.

By morning, Khalid had gone missing. He left early due to certain arrangements.

Three surveyors remained.

On the final day we finally decided to drive further down the road, passed a strawberry farm or two, and ended up at the market. Bought some strawberries, and flowers for the ladies waiting for us back home. Hence concluding our surveying, and headed back home.

Our long road to freedom was over.

Had a great time at Camerons with the gang, hopefully next time more people will join us.

Related posts

• Why I Support Free Culture (0)
• SIRIM call for Public Comments on ODF (1)
• Roundtable on Intellectual Property Right Cooperation Between Malaysia and the US (3)
• PCFair 2006 August Kuala Lumpur: Overview (2)
• Ow’s Bachelor Dinner and Beer (0)

Mysql Topic: "Mysql performance tuning and benchmarking"

Colin Charles
Community Relations Manager
MySQL AB

Colin Charles is the Community Relations Manager at MySQL AB. He lives in Melbourne, Australia and has been with MySQL since 2005. Before joining MySQL, he worked actively on the Fedora and OpenOffice.org projects. He currently spends a lot of his time making community-based projects happy using the MySQL database.

----

CouchDB Topic: "Introduction to CouchDB"

Ditesh Kumar

Ditesh is a free software developer and has been officially blessed by St. Ignucious. He has sworn to the oath of writing free software for the goodness of all mankind, and is known to be mostly holy (though not celibate). He can be found at free software events in Malaysia.

----

When
====
Thursday, January 10th 7:30 PM

What - Meetup Agenda
=====================

7:30pm - 7:45pm Opening by the Organizer
7:45pm - 8:30pm MySQL Performance Tuning and Benchmarking - Colin Charles, MySQLAB
8:30pm - 8:45pm MySQL Q&A
8:45pm - 9:30pm Couch DB - Ditesh Kumar

Cost:
Free. No registration required, just come right in, have a seat, and
join the crowd.

Contact
kaeru@inigo-tech.com
+60-16-3111330

Where:
OUM Angkasa Raya
Open University Malaysia
Floor\Tingkat 3, Bangunan Angkasa Raya,
Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
TEL: 60-3-2148 8400

Located near Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC)
15 minute walk from the KLCC LRT station.
Praying facilities are available on the campus.

About MyOSS Meetups
====================

Interested in helping out the Free and Open Source Community in Malaysia?
Check out http://foss.org.my/projects/meetups/howto

If you would like to do a presentation, please contact me at the above email address.

Learn more about the MyOSS Meetups at
http://foss.org.my/projects/meetups/about .

This meetup is possible due to the support and facilities provided by Open University Malaysia.

Related posts

• PCFair 2006 August Kuala Lumpur: Overview (2)
• Ow’s Bachelor Dinner and Beer (0)
• MyOSS Basketball – December 2005 (0)
• Meet The FOSS.my 2008 Team (0)
• Digg Malaysia: What is the real harm? (1)

If you are unfamiliar with the Hierarchy of Needs, it basically divides up a humans most 'basic needs' into a pyramid, from where a person can build themselves up to reach a state of self actualization. Like reaching zen!

Simplified Hierarchy:

• Physiological - breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion
• Safety - security of body, of employment of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property
• Love/Belonging - friendship, family, sexual intimacy
• Esteem - self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
• Self Actualization - morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts

Now I don't take it word for word, as I believe there are some flaws in the hierarchy of needs. Especially in the point that one needs to fulfill the lower needs to move on to the next one.

Note: The Forer and Lake Wobegone effect may be present in the rest of this article. Be weary of overconfidence. Discretion is advised.

If Self Actualization is the goal of the human in question, then I've met people who have overcome one or more levels of the Hierarchy.

I see the Hierarchy more as objectives that need to be fulfilled (not in that necessary order) to reach Self Actualization. Though certain ones most definitely need to be accomplished before the others can be reached, primarily the Physiological, and Safety.

I personally feel that I have reached self actualization a few times previously, while missing a level completely. Though I didn't stay in that state for a pro longed period of time. As certain events in my life, would easily rock the boat, and throw me overboard.

If I had established the other levels, or created the foundations/base first before reaching self actualization, would the state of self actualization not be interrupted?

What are your opinions? Have you reached self actualization while missing certain levels? What happened after that?

Related posts

• An Idea (2)
• Why I Support Free Culture (0)
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Of course someone in the position of Microsoft would say that.

If you would like to be updated on the issue with regards to Software Patents here are a few links:

• How Software Patents Actually Work (video)
• Software Patents: Background, Discussion, and Illustration of Harm (odt) by Ditesh Kumar
• Software Patents (wikipedia)
• Software Patent debate (wikipedia)
• Software Patents in Action

Anyways for Malaysians, I would like to bring up this.

Microsoft IP Ventures unit is a licensing and startup programme that was launched in 2005 and seeks to take advantage of this wave of open innovation.

According to Phelps, there are currently 50 technologies available for licensing from the IP Ventures programme.

Present, Malaysia does not recognize Software Patents, (which I think may be overturned soon). I am not sure about the IP Ventures unit, but my understanding of various licensing is as follows:

First of all there are two kinds of licensing, one is for the technology itself, where Microsoft will license to you the technology they have developed, so that you can utilize it in your software. So you don't have to waste time building the technology. The other one is a license to the Software Patent. If you opt to license the Software Patent, then you can build your own technologies that tread on the patent portfolio/minefield that Microsoft has setup without worrying about litigation/it-exploding. But since Malaysia does not recognize Software Patents there is no need to license Software Patents in Malaysia.

I'll continue to argue against the case of Software Patents in general in a later blog post once I find the time.

Related posts

• Why I Support Free Culture (0)
• SIRIM call for Public Comments on ODF (1)
• Roundtable on Intellectual Property Right Cooperation Between Malaysia and the US (3)
• PCFair 2006 August Kuala Lumpur: Overview (2)
• Ow’s Bachelor Dinner and Beer (0)