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BANGI: MSC Malaysia-status company iPerintis Sdn Bhd has opened its private-cloud services to other enterprises, especially those in the oil-and-gas industry.
It is the ICT (information and communications technology) arm for Petronas Bhd (short for Petroliam Nasional), the Malaysian oil-and-gas company.
iPerintis is working with virtualisation-software vendor VMware Inc, based in Palo Alto, California, to provide services that include software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service.
Its chief executive officer, John Miller, said the company is positioning itself as a major provider of storage-on-demand, as well as compute-on-demand, for the oil-and-gas sector.
Oil and gas is what iPerintis knows best, he said, adding that the company has more than 10 years experience in the sector.
Founded in 2000, iPerintis was initially tasked with developing new e-business models and opportunities for the national oil producer, while leveraging on its oil-and-gas assets and resources.
Four years later, iPerintis took on the end-to-end management of all ICT services for Petronas.
"The objective behind this transformation exercise was to enable Petronas to focus on its core business, while allowing iPerintis to concentrate on what we do best - which is ICT-related and consulting services," Miller said.
As the ICT industry evolves, so will iPerintis, he added.
Over the years, iPerintis has expanded its services portfolio to include consultancy, ICT project management, business solutions and solutions integration, as well as cloud computing.
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www.iperintis.com
www.vmware.com
LOOKING EAST: A new study says that though fewer than 20% of mobile phone users in the Asia Pacific currently have smartphones, nearly half of consumers intend to buy smartphones this year. - Relaxnews 2011 SAN FRANCISCO: Smartphone use is poised to soar in Asia bringing with it a dramatic change in how people there access information on the Internet, according to industry tracker Nielsen Company.
While fewer than 20% of mobile phone users in the Asia Pacific have smartphones, nearly half of consumers intend to buy smartphones this year, Nielsen reported.
"Higher smartphone ownership will drastically change how mobile data is consumed," Nielsen said in an online message outlining its findings.
Data from the United States shows that smartphone users are far more likely to access the Internet or tend to their e-mail using mobile gadgets.
Smartphone owners are also prone to downloading applications to handsets, with iPhone users reportedly averaging 48 "apps" each and owners of Android-powered handsets installing about 35 of the mini-software programs.
Some smartphone users spend about a quarter of their time on the gadgets tending to Facebook posts and pages, according to Nielsen.
The market research company also expected the Tablet computer craze in the United States and Western Europe to spread into Asia.
"As the substitution effect of Tablets tends to be against laptops, PCs and netbooks, many - if not most - Tablet owners will also own a smartphone," Nielsen predicted.
"This creates an attractive niche group of 'super consumers' who can be reached through an additional high-engagement screen, but who will also have an additional need for seamless service and content mobility," it concluded.
Affordable and ample data plans from telecom service providers will be important to the adoption of smartphone lifestyles in Asia, according to Nielsen. - Relaxnews 2011
LAS VEGAS: Computer security star Dan Kaminsky revealed plans to release software that will track whether Internet service providers are favoring some websites or content over others.
Kaminsky crafted his free N00ter software to expose whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are being honest with customers when it comes to the hot topic of "net neutrality."
"You don't need to flat black-out a site to cause pain to it," Kaminsky said during a briefing at a prestigious Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.
"You can just make the website unreliable and then make people pay a little more to make the problem go away," he continued. "Markets should not work on a model of pay-up or things are bad things are going to happen."
Kaminsky sidestepped whether he was championing "net neutrality," contending instead that he designed the software to keep Internet service providers honest by checking whether all online traffic was treated equally.
He planned to make N00ter software available in the coming weeks.
The program can sit between computers and home or office networks, essentially splitting online traffic into two lanes in a way that compares how fast an ISP moves data to a standardised path.
The software could be deployed to test whether an ISP is slowing data flow for streaming video while speeding up traffic to favoured websites, such as those used to officially gauge the speed of services.
"I hope the impact of this software is immediate," Kaminsky said.
He explained that his intent was to give engineers at ISPs ammunition if corporate decision makers decide to secretly throttle certain online traffic for profit or other reasons.
"We will find out," promised the chief scientist at computer security firm DKH and the researcher who uncovered a flaw in the structure of the Internet referred to as the "Kaminsky bug." - AFP/Relaxnews 2011
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SEOUL: The personal information of about 35 million Internet users in South Korea was stolen in an alleged hacking attack that originated from China.
Hackers purportedly attacked popular Internet and social media sites Nate and Cyworld earlier this week, stealing data such as social security numbers and e-mail addresses, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said.
The regulator said that the operator of the sites, SK Communications, alleged the attack originated from computers in China based on their Internet Protocol addresses. IP addresses are the web equivalent of a street address or phone number.
The stolen data included user IDs, passwords, social security numbers, names, mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Nate said the social security numbers and passwords are encrypted so that they are not available for illegal use.
South Korean police said on Thursday their investigation could take several months.
Kim Jie-won, a KCC official, said that if proven, the alleged attack would be the largest Internet hacking case to have taken place in South Korea.
The country is one of the most wired in the world and its citizens some of the most Internet-savvy. South Korea has a population of about 50 million people.
More than 80% of households have broadband access to the Internet, according to the country's statistical office.
South Korea has faced Internet attacks before, with blame frequently pinned on hackers operating from IP addresses in China. China has denied all charges of hacking in the past and said the country itself is a victim of hacking.
In May, South Korean prosecutors said that hackers in North Korea had broken into the computer network of a South Korean bank earlier this year.
The prosecutors said software used in the hacking was similar to that used in a 2009 attack that paralysed South Korean and US websites.
North Korea has flatly denied any responsibility for the attacks. - AP
MALWARE ATTACKS: A man using a computer in Beijing. A Chinese monitoring agency says that a vast majority of cyberattacks aimed at computers in China were in the form of Trojan horse malware. - AP
The vast majority of the attacks a Chinese monitoring agency reported were in the form of Trojan horse malware that installs on computers, allowing them to monitor usage and access personal information.
Of those Trojan horse attacks, 14.7% of those were traced to IP addresses in the United States and 8% in India.
The findings were reported on the website of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Centre of China.
Computer security firm McAfee Inc reported in early August that cyberattacks lasting at least five years targeted more than 70 entities, including national governments.
Identified targets were the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee and many American companies.
McAfee said the culprit was most likely a nation state, and broad suspicion has fallen on China.
China has not responded officially but state media has said the speculation of a Chinese link was irresponsible. China has denied all charges of hacking in the past and said the country itself is a victim of hacking. - AP
DYING ART: Hafi teaching calligraphy to his grandson Omar at his workshop in Beirut. - AFP/Relaxnews 2011 BEIRUT: Lebanon's few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology.
"The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces," says Mahmoud Bayoun, one of the country's best-known calligraphers, whose works have been displayed in the United States and Iran.
The 75-year-old, who learned the skill as a teenager, today uses his talent to draw up menus for the Lebanese presidency for official functions or write condolences and congratulatory messages on behalf of the prime minister.
Bayoun says the longest letter he has written was from late premier Rafiq Hariri to Syria's then president, Hafez al-Assad, on the occasion of a national holiday.
"The letter was four pages long and written in a very elegant style," recalls Bayoun, as he sits in his central Beirut office, surrounded by some of his works.
He also keeps busy transcribing the Quran as a hobby. The painstaking work requires more than three years to complete each time, and Bayoun is now working on his third edition of the Muslim holy book.
"It's very different from the work I do for commercial purposes," he says. "When I copy the Quran, I immerse myself both spiritually and physically."
But despite his passion for penmanship, Bayoun is well aware that his is a dying skill that cannot compete with laser-sharp computers.
"Calligraphy today has become more of a visual art than a useful tool and we are trying hard to preserve it," Bayoun told AFP.
The art of Arabic scriptwriting was heavily influenced by Islam as, according to tradition, the Quran was verbally revealed to the Prophet Mohammed and was later transcribed.
The Quran subsequently inspired generations of calligraphers who, with their brush pens made of reeds, piously endeavoured to reproduce the words using different styles.
Pushed aside by computers
Calligraphy also became a major form of artistic expression in Islam as Muslims disapprove of art that represents humans, especially in religious contexts.
There are various styles of calligraphy, including the geometric Kufic form with an emphasis on horizontal lines and the cursive Naskhi.
Diwani script, considered the most elegant, was developed during the reign of the Ottoman Turks. It is the only style that cannot be reproduced on computers, experts say.
Although Lebanon has no calligraphic treasures such as those exposed in mosques in North Africa or Andalusia, it did produce some of the best-known masters of calligraphy including Kamel el-Baba (1905-1991) and Nassib Makarem (1889-1991).
"There are less than 10 authentic calligraphers in Lebanon today," Bayoun says.
One of them is Salah al-Hafi, 80, who proudly recalls the day Kamel el-Baba noticed his work.
"You know before, you could earn a good living as a calligrapher," he says, sitting in his modest apartment in Beirut's working-class neighbourhood of Basta.
"But today we have been pushed aside by computers."
His calligraphy can still be seen on numerous commemorative plaques dating back to Lebanon's independence in 1943 and beyond, or on gravestones and flower ribbons.
"I work a lot during election time," he says wryly, referring to the numerous banners aimed at wooing voters in the politically divided country.
Bayoun says his dream is to open a centre to teach calligraphy to new generations but he lacks the means to do so.
Lebanon has no dedicated calligraphy schools, whereas Iran has 200 such establishments, Iraq 100 and Egypt 36.
For now, Hafi says, he is focusing on his freelance work and sometimes gives calligraphy lessons at an art institute in Beirut.
"We must not allow this art form to disappear," he says. - AFP/Relaxnews 2011L
