To The Conference I Go .....

I spent the whole day attending a Haemostasis Conference at the Mutiara Crowne Plaza. Haemostasis is essentially the study of how blood clots, or why it doesn't. It was followed right after with the Annual General Meeting of my society, Malaysian Society of Haematology. It was almost 6 when everything finished, and I have some more sessions to attend tomorrow.

I went to a similar meeting last year, by the same organiser and recognise a number of the speakers. The difference was, that was held in Bangkok. The meeting today was sleekly organise. I am sure that the sponsor put attention to details to who they pay to run the event. During one of the breaks, I managed to have a chat with one of the organiser.

For the last couple of years, Bangkok has been the preferred venue for ASEAN regional meetings, be it medical conferences or others. The reasons; venue, cost and facilities.

Let's start with venue. I know that I should be proud with our KLIA, but in terms of carriers landing at the airport, we are well behind Suvarnabhumi, at least before the latest unrest in Thailand. One can get a direct flight into Bangkok from all over the world. Compared to KLIA, usually we need a transit either in Bangkok or SIngapore. Hence the obvious preference if there are parties traveling from outside the region.

Cost, yes, even though organising meetings in KL is cheaper than in Singapore, we can't compete with the going rate in Bangkok. The unofficial line is, for a single patron attending a meet in Singapore, the same cost can cover for three. Malaysia is somewhere in between.

Let's talk about facilities. When we talk about facilities, we are not just talking about place to stay and the PA system. Most of the big events actually fly in a dedicated event management team from abroad anyway to run the show for them. The visitors apart from staying in good hotel with fantastic facilities, needs to be wined and dined, taken to memorable places to visit. It is all about the whole experience. They don't often remember what they heard in the conference hall - at least that applies to me. They are more likely to tell their colleagues about what they saw, what they experienced. For this meeting for instance, the dinner tonight will be held on top of KL Tower. For me, I have other engagement and can't attend, but that's beside the point. I am sure trips will be organised to visit KLCC and other local landmarks.

As it stands at the moment, we should be bigging it up! We got the venues. We got the facilities. And we got the security, and security is priceless. So we shouldn't be to worried about cost issues, unless Singapore do a big discount that is! However the lack of direct flights do post problems to some organisers, especially coming from Europe and America. The way I see it, one of the ways the Tourism Ministry can promote tourist is by making Malaysia an attractive destination for conferences. Not just for KL, but Langkawi, Penang and other similar locale.

My Worry About the Printing Press After Visiting The KL 'International' Book Fair

Since I am still on leave, I might as well follow Jimbo's idea of visiting the The KL International Book Fair held at the PWTC. My wife wanted to find some books for the kids while I want to browse some photography books, or maybe some medical statistics text.

We went there after the Friday Prayers. Parked the Kelisa across the road at The Mall. The place was packed even for a Friday afternoon, and I imagine it's going to be madness tomorrow being the weekend. At the Dewan Bahasa stall, one of my former patient shouted my name. She happens to work for Dewan Bahasa and was there to supervise one of the exhibit booth. She actually talked me into doing an interview about careers in Medicine. I did not say no. I left her my contacts.

I split with my wife because she wanted to look at the children section. I went upstairs. Browse around for a good 30 minutes but just can't find anything I wanted. So I just looked at the Haematology texts the rest of the visit.

As you can see, I was bored. And I don't usually feel that way around books. Trust me! It got me thinking. Digital media is a threat to publishers. I heard and rad about in many a forum. There are many newspapers and magazines in the US that has now gone fully online. PC Magazine is now online only. The local dailies usually survive solely on their classifieds. That's where they get their revenue, not so much from sales. And that is also the main reason why people buy newspapers. That revenue has now been cut by Craig's List. I never bother to read newpaper now. I just boot up my computer and click on the RSS feeds. Walla! Perspectives? There are plenty on the net!

Do I need to buy magazines? The answer is yes if it is a photography magazine. I like to see the pictures printed on paper rather on my Mac screen. Latest camera reviews? There is always podcasts. It is free, and they tend to be up-to-date, and I don't have to get to a shop to buy it, or worry if it is out of stock. I can even watch reviews on the net courtesy of YouTube. And I get them when I want and how I want it.

Medical Journals? I subscribe them online! I have already read most of today's article in Blood, all courtesy of RSS feeds and online access. It's a boon for a lecturer like me since there is always 'cut and paste' for charts and graphs for presentation. If you get the journals on paper, you need to scan them for your powerpoint slides.

There was a stall selling dictionary and thesaurus. A salesman tried to convince me to part from my cash. After I politely decline I asked him the last time he used a dictionary. He said last week when he was redoing his CV. Did he use Microsoft Word? He said yes. Then I said he was wasting his time because all he needed was to highlight the word, look at the menu and press Thesaurus. Luckily he was smart enough to keep quiet. With built-in thesaurus, you save time and effort, plus it does not interrupt your train of thought. 

All in all, I was disappointed since I did not get what I came here for. The books on show were either too 'Malaysian' - not enough international flavour - or too technical. I firmly believe the term 'International' in the title is a misnomer. For it to be international, I expect famous authors to come in for book signing. There should be events with celebrities, activities for the kids. Unfortunately there were none today, but maybe because it is yet the weekend. There was not much in the way of discounts either. I can find the books on display should I visit Kinokuniya or Borders. So it's nothing special unfortunately!

How Does One Train A Lecturer?

Since I was a Medical Student, I have always been attracted to being a teacher. Teaching Medical Students I mean. Now that I am a Medical Lecturer, I realise that teaching is a art to itself. No matter how good a doctor you are, being a successful lecturer takes a different kind of approach. Although it may be grouped together that University Lecturers are a bunch of glorified schoolteachers, there are big differences. For a start, the expectations of the students, hence the job description is not the same.

 I always treat my students, maybe wrongly at times, as adults. I am just here to lend them guidance. Left alone, they will still struggle through, they are Medical Students after all. I see my job as more as a guide and a role model. I know I may not have the art of a school teacher. They have specified training to go through in college before being let loose to the schools. We lecturer hardly had any formal training apart from our professional academic knowhow. To argue whether this is right or wrong deserve a forum on itself but I am sure most of my fellow lecturers agree with this notion.

I just do not have the capacity or the skill to teach them all aspect of medicine, but I can permeate some wisdom on how to be a doctor. In the same time, they may also need brotherly advise at the right time. They are essentially young man and woman, who should they have taken up a different course might already be in the employment sector, married with kids. Making the distinction between a good lecturer and bad ones are even more difficult, and often unfair.

The reason for my writing is this piece I picked up in today's The Star;

A UNIVERSITI Sains Islam Malaysia lecturer who passed only four out of 157 of her law students claims she was forced to resign so that the university could protect its reputation, Kosmo! reported.

Nor (not her real name) said the reason she left was because she could not stand the pressure from the university management on her to give “sympathy marks.”

“How am I to give extra marks if the marks they got is what they should be getting?” she said, adding that her downfall started when she received a show-cause letter on why so many students had failed.

She was then criticised by her superiors, who also wanted her to add marks based on attendance so as to reduce the number of failures.

“I stood my ground. How could I give them marks for that when it is their responsibility to show up for classes?” she added.

The university declined to comment.

Well, one cannot be judgemental without knowing the specifics. However reading between the lines, is this the fault of Nur (the lecturer involved) or is it the problem of the organisation as a whole (not specifically USIM, but local varsities)? Personally I wish that I have more training to be not just teachers to the medical students, but as supervisors for the postgraduates who walks through my door for advise. The role of a Medical Lecturer is more than just teaching. 

Wireless Broadband for the Common People Like Me

The best is still surfing at wi-fi hotpost, Starbucks etc. Even kedai mamak and McDonald's one. No problem there even though there might not be much privacy. Nowadays, even hotel lounges charge for broadband use. So what's next?

Personally I use my E71, boot up a program called WalkingHotspot. It will turn my phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot and I can hook up to 5 devices onto it wirelessly. So if I go out on a holidays with my family, I can use my MacBook while my wife and Idlan can use the other laptop. I also use it at home because the stability of the connection and the fact that Streamyx can be really slow at times where I live. The main drawback is you need to have the phone charger with you since it drains the juice. There is also the problem with latency! So if you are into online gaming, it can cause slower reaction time.

When I used my Dopod, I turned the unit into a Bluetooth Local Network. It can only hook up to one device. The connection is a bit slower as it depends very much on how fast your Bluetooth ship is. On both cases, the connection speed depends on the GSM signal speed to your phone. Using my E71, using 3G netwook, the connection goes up to 45kB/s, which is pretty decent. No problem watching Youtube on that speed. EDGE goes at around 15kB/s. If you have a stable HSPDA signal, it can go up to 120kB/s. When I was on holidays in Kota Bharu, I was getting downloads at 350kB/s. That's screaming! I you want to test your connection speed, click here.

What seems like the in thing at the moment is WiMax. Certainly in Silicon Valley, the technology using microwave essentially - no you can't fry your egg with it - there are concerns about slow adaption of this technology. Other newer technology are catching up fast. The main drawback is the cost on it's basic infrastructure. Once the antennas are up, you're blazing. The technology is basically based on a base station spouting out microwave signals. Then you have a capture device, similar to an ADSL modem inside your home. This device will translate the signal and hook up into either a router or straight into your computer's dataport. Since the technology is directional, the receiver needs to be pointed towards the emitter  antenna.

There is also a mobile device that goes straight into your Laptop USB port that will capture the signal and feed it directly into your computer. This is the main selling point to this technology. The advantage, connection speed is faster than 3G mobile modem. Drawback, you have to be in an area where the service is available, re, mainly in Lembah Kelang.

In Malaysia, there are 4 companies that are licensed to provide this technology. The familiar one is Pocket One Networks or P1 W1MAX by Green Packet Berhad. Other players are YTL with Y-max. The other two are Asiaspace (AMAX) and REDtone-CNX, most likely going to be made available in Sabah and Sarawak. At the moment, I am very happy with my E71 connection and will probably stick to it.

Oh Dear! I Have Been Warned!

KUALA LUMPUR: The Information, Communications, Culture and Arts Ministry will use a “diplomatic approach” in dealing with private media corporations and bloggers.

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the ministry preferred to take follow-up efforts than legal action against those who have violated the laws.

Dr Rais, who is the former foreign minister, said he would study the current circumstances and find ways to work closer with private media groups and bloggers.

This is a change from the quote "Blogger adalah Goblok" from you know who. Thanks God he got spanked in the last election!

Update on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 10:16PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is not looking to find fault with bloggers and other internet users but would like them to follow the law to ensure they did not misuse it.

Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the ministry played an important role in establishing only the right kind of information reached the masses.

Now it makes sense! It is nothing to do with control.