Kelly McNeill writes: “I have been an avid movie-goer for the past few years, seeing at least two new movies each week. And there’s one thing I’ve noticed about movies when it comes to computers and technology that has left me with feelings of amusement and frustration. Unfortunately, those feelings can’t be attributed to the movie’s plot. The feelings stem from the way computers have been displayed in movies over the past several years. I find it humorous when movies show computers doing the impossible or unlikely. Here are some examples.”

– By Grant Gross –

We keep hearing that Linux and other Open Source applications are a natural fit in countries outside the Western world, places where the low cost of Open Source software offers major advantages. From India’s Simputer to Mexico City’s switch to Linux, developing nations have slowly begun to embrace Open Source, even though there have been some failures.

Calling Malaysia a developing country may be a bit of a stretch. It has a growing tech sector, its population living below the poverty line is just 6.8 percent and its gross domestic product per capita is $10,700, a lower poverty level than in the United States and a higher GDP per capita than Russia, Mexico, India, or neighboring Thailand. (For statistics, check out Geographic.org.)

But cost was certainly one of the considerations for Jeff Ooi, who launched usj.com.my, a community-managed advocacy site, in 1999. The site, which gets about 11,000 hits a day, exists to promote the technology in Malaysia and assist the development of “entreprenuerial communities” among the residents of the Subang Jaya township of Malaysia, part of the country’s “Multimedia Super Corridor.” The site includes Malaysian news and wide-ranging discussions, auctions, an email service, recipes, even jokes.

When Ooi first wanted to start the site, he looked for volunteers on an email list and found people competent in Linux, Perl, and PHP, in addition to HTML and other Web-authoring knowledge. Now, the site uses Linux Red Hat 6.2, with PHP 3, MySQL
3.22.xx, Perl, and Apache.

“It really was the urge to escape from the grip of Bill Gates, and the cost factor, that drove us to Linux,” says Ooi.

The site started on a donated 128kbps connection, although it has since moved to a high-speed connection it pays for. “Even the server started with a clone PC until Compaq Malaysia donated us a used Proliant 8000,” he says.

The cost of broadband access for users continues to be a big hurdle in Malaysia, Ooi says. “We are still dialing up using 56K modems offering a speed of 27kbps to 45kbps … We do have ISDN which only offers 64 to 128k and the cost is still prohibitive.” ISDN access, he says, is US $10 per month, with an additional telecom charge of 1 cent a minute, and 1Mps DSL is US $900 a month.

The goal when launching the site was to keep the content management system simple, says Ooi, who recently promoted the Open Source tools used by his site in a post to the online-writing email list. “Our strategy was to make the site technology-independent so that common people can register and post messages in a user-friendly environment —
the starting point to aggregate the community. A content team was formed,
and the editors/moderators can update news from remote using dial-up.

“Then, there were no weblog tools and we did not have any understanding
of Slash codes.”

Ooi alludes to something that makes usj.com.my interesting, if not quite unique — a home-grown Open Source-run Web site that doesn’t use the ever-popular Slash code, the content-managing back-end made famous by Slashdot (and also used by NewsForge) or one of its many derivatives. Ooi expresses interest in that Web log format, but wonders if the changeover would be difficult, considering that the site’s run by volunteers with other jobs.

“It is here I wish to learn more about online content, and harness its
power to bring change — in terms of Internet acculturation and power paradigm
— for people in Malaysia, starting with our township,” Ooi adds. “Internet activity here is one of the highest in the country despite a lack of broadband access and content.
However, [Subang Jaya] residents are basically the young working class who come from
all parts of the country, human networking is very fragmented, while
quality of life issues are sidelined by the local authorities. We wanted our voices
heard, and a cyber community is one of the cheapest ways to help us get
started.”

In other words, Open Source tools aren’t just bringing change to the IT landscape, they are also helping to change to the Malaysian political and social landscapes.

Australian IT reports that Australia’s top-level domain, .AU, will be redelegated from Robert Elz to the auDA by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Anonymous Reader writes “This article on LinuxWorld.com.au discusses what Linux would be if it wasn’t for Microsoft. According to luminaries who spoke about Linux last week in San Francisco at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, the mere presence of Microsoft Corp. has played a big role in the development of the Linux operating system and other open-source projects. Indeed, for some there could be no Linux without Microsoft.”

From CNet: “Exodus Communications Chief Executive Ellen Hancock resigned from the Web hosting company Tuesday and will be replaced by director William Krause, the company announced.”

ZDNet reports the news that the ominous “Hacked by Chinese” message in Code Red might be right, after all. The U.S. General Accounting Office believes the worm originated in Guangdong, China.

Kelly McNeill writes “Special treatment as a reward for being “above the law” is the necessary consequence of the common but erroneous belief that America’s best interests lay in keeping its huge corporations fat and happy, no matter the harm to American workers and small businesses. However, what if the big company that wanted and expected carte-blanche license to play dirty, as its assumed right as a necessary cog in the U.S. economy, turned its back on America in its time of need? What if its corporate leaders willfully neglected the needs of its desperate fellow citizens, suffering sudden economic hardship? Would that not be a clear case of gross and even anti-American hypocrisy?”

From ZDNet: “Israeli security company Midbar said Tuesday that it has inked a deal with a Bertelsmann-owned CD manufacturer to provide copy protection for albums.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Motorola, Inc. on Tuesday unveiled what it calls a breakthrough microprocessor technology — combining silicon with optical components — that the company says will make chips perform 35 times faster than traditional silicon microprocessors. Motorola says its technology will mean more cost-effective chips with the potential to be used in anything from computers to cell phones and electronics. The company also predicts that the technology will usher in new applications, such as automotive collision avoidance systems.”

JigSaw writes “QNX’s Paul Leroux talks about the QNX RtP, the desktop version of QSSL’s real time operating system. Paul talks to OSNews about how the users received it for the one year that it is available, what its goals were when it was released and where it is heading in the future.”