Mid-Ramadhan 1441

We have reached mid-Ramadhan and now entering its second-half. We are still under MCO but conditions are now relaxed to allow the economic sector to slowly pick-up. There is a little worry that we might see another wave of Covid-19 infections but so far the number of infection is still well within the two-digit range (there was a slight jump to three-digit but it was around 100-ish). Let us hope that it will be on the decreasing trend and that Malaysians be on their alert and not let the disease spread.

On the personal front, fatigue seems to set in earlier this Ramadhan perhaps due to being at home with lesser activities. We are still working but perhaps at a more relaxed phase. So far, we have already had twice departmental meetings (see pics).

The first pic was on 16 April where we had our Dean attending as well and the second pic was on last Monday, 4 May. Over the MCO period, we had to submit several reports too. I'm making this known so that people get to know we are not just lazing around, sitting idle, while we are 'working from home'.

We had also started our QuEST meetings. Initially just to test the group video chat on FB Messenger (on April 26 - see pic below). I also made a presentation last Tuesday, 5 May on my reading of noncommutative geometry (it was supposed to be on Monday but then we had the departmental meeting). It seems that the FB messenger group chat that we had, have some limitations. So we finally decided to move Google Meet while it is free. Google Meet is part of G-Suite which is not free. Whether I should consider this suite depends on what I want to do when I reached retirement - have to be careful on the extra expenses that I'm committing myself with. I would love to be part of some independent scientific community (particularly with my present colleagues and students) even after I retire.

For my own classes, due to the smaller number, I have mostly limit myself to whatsapp and going online when necessary (especially when there are questions). My notes are mostly on the web - for PHY4503 it's in PutraBlast while for PHY5601 it's on my KetchupSpills blog. I have also put up some of my video lectures on my YouTube channel (only for undergraduate lectures). I only emphasize the main points of my notes in the video; nothing can beat the interactive face-to-face lectures (which I leave this to my live online chats). For my graduate lectures, I've started using Google Meet (last Wednesday for the live session). One downside is that when I share screen with the students, I would not be able to see my students - makes me feel like I'm talking to my own computer screen - that seems common to all platforms that I've seen. Here is a capture of that session.

The other thing that I've done during the MCO period is to update my Acu Frekuensi blog, writing about quantum technology, making ourselves ready for a forthcoming (ambitious) project. There are other things that I wish I could have done but I will leave this for a future post.

Ramadhan 1, 1441 Varia

So we have arrived at another Ramadhan today for the Hijri year 1441. I'm thankful to be given another opportunity to be in another blessed month of Ramadhan. It will be an exceptional Ramadhan with all the restrictions in place, not only for Malaysia but for most of the world (something for us to ponder). It was also announced yesterday by our Prime Minister that our MCO will be extended for another two weeks i.e. for the period of 29 April-12 May 2020. Earlier we had our current third installment of MCO for the period of 15-28 April 2020. So far, the strategy adopted does seem to work. The number of new cases has been reduced to two digits recently and so far maintained as such. The current R_0 is now said to be less than one. Today it is announced that the testing capacity has reached 16,000 per day which is a welcomed news.

The extended MCO will hit the business badly but there are some relaxations being considered as more sectors are allowed to operate. The private health sector is not excluded from being negatively affected by the MCO. It was reported that patients of private clinics get reduced to as much as 25% and some even more. So far my other half is still working despite a momentary closure during the second period of MCO for her self-quarantine of 14 days as she had been seeing some patients with some symptoms. Currently she has bought PPEs for herself and the staff. Hope she will stay safe as Rembau was identified as a hot spot.

As for myself, I try to keep fit while working from home. Read up more materials and try to prepare myself for online classes. Have already bought a white board, a drawing tablet, subscribed to sharing screen-video software and also renewed my Mathematica license during the MCO period. Hope to get everything ready by next week, as we resume our remaining first half of the semester.

To end, I'm posting my video of playing the mbira just to test my software.

Stay home. Stay safe. Have a blessed Ramadhan.

Let's Move On

Yesterday, I have received the news that the Institute for Mathematical Research (INSPEM) will now have a new Director, namely Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rezal. His appointment will begin on 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2023 which coincides with the anniversary of the institute. It was a welcomed good news since the institute was without a director for a period of one year and four months, which was rather exceptional. I hope now that the institute can now go on progressing full steam ahead.

The news sort of made me recall some memories while I was there. There were a lot of challenges and even office politics which I don't have a stomach for. I am fully aware some criticisms (and even smear campaign) made against me but I will turn these into a valuable experience for me to proceed. I am ready to move on (and I hope everyone else too). Some of my international friends are probably not aware that I have left the institute since 16 November 2019. There were plans of international cooperation made before I left and I hope the new management will take these up seriously. The vision is still to be a research institute of international repute, which is really demanding. But as I have said before being recognised internationally precedes international repute. Thus, when it comes to international cooperation, I have often consider this to be of higher priority during my time. Currently, I will help support such cooperation in my own personal capacity.

As I have mentioned before, my leaving the institute is much due to several episodes of health problems. I am now avoiding high stress environment and have taken many physiotherapy sessions for my back to help me improve my health. However with the current extended MCO, things will grow a bit complicated. My medication supply will run out sometime early next month and I have not been able to go for physiotherapy sessions any more. For the former, I am relying on the contact of my other half with the pharmacies. For the latter, I took the benefit of working from home situation to do more exercises on the treadmill. When experiencing episodes of severe back pain, I can get feverish and have difficulty in even walking. Thus this affects me more now but I'm pushing myself to strengthen my back muscles at least.

To move on, I am open to minor changes in research directions. While I was with INSPEM, I tend to focus more on mathematical aspects of my research to fit the environment that I am in. Presently, I don't take this as a 'constraint' anymore and will try to be independent and consider other possible options. However I will remain close to my core discipline of theoretical physics and particularly quantum theory. Let's move on.

An Extended MCO

Yesterday, the Prime Minister declared that our present Movement Control Order (MCO), which ends on Tuesday next week will be extended until 14th April. Thus, effectively our stay-at-home period is about a month. Now to those with a fixed salary scheme, this only means we get to work at home longer. But many particularly businesses which need to operate daily to ensure income (particularly small ones), will suffer. While I may not have the experience to be in such a situation, my other half is. If ever she decides not to work, there will be less income or even losses. So I can imagine how difficult these prolonged MCO can be to them. Of course she is in a critical sector that was allowed to operate during the MCO which 'helps'. On the bigger scale, there is a need to lessen the infection rate since otherwise we might end up with a crippled work force that in the end leads to bigger economic loss. Quoting Prof. Raina MacIntyre in Australian ABC News report: "If you don't control the disease, your economic losses are going to be far greater and the recovery time is going to be a lot longer…So it's just a fallacy to think it's a choice between saving lives and jobs."

I do not pretend to be anywhere knowledgeable about infectious disease dynamics (in realistic terms, beyond the SIR model), but this begs the question of how long should we expect for the MCO to go? Well, according to a report, analysts at JP Morgan Chase & Co (don't know who they are) predicted that the infection peak will be in mid-April (which coincides with the end of MCO period), after which, I suppose the infection will decrease. The report further said that the infection rate will slow down to 100-250 per day. This is roughly what we have now (see below); in other words - they are expecting a larger infection rate sometime soon. From the https://www.outbreak.my/ website, one can get some info on the Covid-19 infection statistics. I'm listing the figures of daily increase (new cases) from just before the surge seen on 15 March.

• 26 March: 235 new cases
• 25 March: 172 cases
• 24 March: 106 cases
• 23 March: 212 cases
• 22 March: 123 cases
• 21 March: 153 cases
• 20 March: 130 cases (went past 1000th infection)
• 19 March: 110 cases
• 18 March: 117 cases (MCO put in place)
• 17 March: 120 cases
• 16 March: 125 cases
• 15 March: 190 cases
• 14 March: 41 cases

Note: 

• Went past 100th infection on 9th March - at this stage, we have only seen the first wave.
• The Tabligh Ijtima' meeting was during 28 February-1 March and the surge seen on 15 March is right after the incubation period of 14 days.
• The Ministry claims that the infection has reached the 5th generation from the Tabligh cluster (perhaps this means 5 node-distance away from an infected node that attended the Tabligh meeting).
• The whole graph (incomplete pending contact tracing) can be seen at https://www.outbreak.my/cases.
• There is now a Wikimedia entry for Malaysia Covid-19 cases at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Malaysia.

Even if we hit the peak around mid-April, one expects the same rate of infection as we see now will still linger on for some extended period. In fact some predicted this Covid-19 crisis will prolonged up to more than a year before we could resume a 'normal' life. The best bet is perhaps life will not get back to its previous normalcy. There will be permanent changes to our lives and even culture, of which I would like to ponder on. Will not discuss it now though.

After the Long Pause, the Long Break

Have not been posting here for more than two months. However with many things happening, I thought I should restart so that I can make some records in this blog of important things happening. During the long pause, went through ups and downs, do some soul-searching but after awhile one just need to move on and tries one's best for the future. Below, I'll jot down in point form some main events that have passed.

• January 16: Quantum Yi-Jing Sdn Bhd agreed to contribute financially to cover EQuaLS expenses.
• January 17: Presented a talk on Mathematical Routes to Quantum Theory in INSPEM Weekly Seminar, a regular weekly event of the institute. Have always thought that one should attach more importance to this event.
• January 20: Discussed on how to revamp our courses including that of quantum mechanics. Thinking of three-part course. Others, a course on quantum information science (advanced undergraduate or postgraduate)

• January 23: Started to be concerned of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak since we have an international event EQuaLS2020 planned.
• January 24: Shocked to know that school colleague, Prof. Dato' Mashitah Mohd Yusoff (former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University Malaysia Pahang) passed away due to cancer. Didn't know she had the illness.

• January 25: Wuhan Coronavirus arrived in Malaysia with three confirmed cases from tourists of China.
• January 29: Dr. Athirah's PhD student Suzila Mohd Kasim viva examination. Her work is on commuting graphs of finite groups.
• January 30: My son and my other half rescued a kitten from a drain. Later to be our new furry family member Koko

• January 31: WHO declared China's virus outbreak an international emergency.
• Within January, had several episodes of back pain. Was worried about EQuaLS planning, whether we have enough time or not. Sometime in January, we had postponed the event from February to March 2020. Also, all the while, was following the Wuhan virus outbreak.
• February 2: Sent my other half to the airport as she went for umrah with her sister's family. So it was then me, the eldest, my third son (still in semester holiday) and the youngest. My second son is already working in Pulau Indah.

• February 3: Finally received message from my other half in Medina. They are safe and well there.
• February 7: My other half now in Mecca.

• February 5: Made some decisions on what to teach for Advanced Mathematical Physics this upcoming semester. See circled region below.

• February 9: Send back my third son to college in IIUM, leaving myself, my eldest and the youngest.
• February 10: The new semester starts. I'm teaching 'Special Relativity & Classical Field Theory' and 'Advanced Mathematical Physics'.
• February 11: Decided to use Szekeres' book "A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics" as a guide.
• February 13: My other half came back home from her umrah. Was having cough and slight fever.
• February 15: Update my graduate course notes as blog posts in Ketchup Spills.
• February 17: Finally received the formal green light from ICTP (Kate Shaw) for our EQuaLS2020. Thus it will be part of Physics Without Frontiers program at Malaysia.
• February 18: Went to INSPEM workshop at Zenith Hotel Putrajaya.
• February 19: Attended a farewell gathering for me as INSPEM Deputy Director. Currently Dr. Rezal is taking up the duties of the Director. Still can't understand why there is no appointment of a new director. Some photos.

• February 20: Final Skype meeting with Kate Shaw from ICTP. ICTP put up a website for EQuaLS2020 at http://indico.ictp.it/event/9329/overview
• February 21: Start making my own preliminary announcement of EQuaLS2020. Still has issue of one more speaker and Areeya's flight out of Australia (due to Covid19 outbreak).
• February 22: Went to Ismail Budin's son's wedding. Met school-mates there.

• February 23: Political upheaval. Never have liked politics.
• February 24: EQuaLS2020 website is finally ready. http://einspem.upm.edu.my/equals2020/
• February 25: Tun Dr. Mahathir appointed as Interim Prime Minister.
• February 28-March 1: Tabligh Ijtima' meeting that led to second wave of Covid-19 outbreak.
• February 29: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin appointed as the 8th Prime Minister. Went to Prof. Halim's daughter wedding.
• March 2: Was asked to move from the Guest Room in the Department to another temporary place at Room 216. That's OK, as long as I have a comfortable room to stay in. Thanks to DR. Chan, KY and Amin for helping me move my things. At home, we had new additional furry family members: Sally & Fifi, given to us by an elderly couple.

• March 6: We have started discussing internally whether one should continue EQuaLS2020 when there was already an increase of Covid-19 infection in Malaysia from the Tabligh cluster. See https://www.outbreak.my/. At the time we already had 34 participants. The decision then was to continue with precautionary measures and we had the green light from the university's Health Centre. Was following the development of the outbreak since then. At this stage, I was also look at how other events are being held and looked for consistency.
• March 10: Had our last meeting for EQuaLS2020. Explain rationale of continuing and if there are any other concerns, should be discussed with me.
• March 11: Received concerns by the institute management of EQuaLS2020. Felt being sabotaged. Had to take the day off as my other half went for a heart check-up.
• March 12: Finalised EQuaLS2020 programme. The last day will have a forum on Quantum Information Science in South-East Asia. Afternoon: M.Sc. viva examination for Dr. Chan's first graduate student, Mohamad Hanif.

• March 13: All speakers have booked their flights and have given their itineraries. In the afternoon, members of the Department raised concern on EQuaLS2020. Finally before the office hours end, we receive instruction from the university to halt all activities irrespective the size of the gathering (ours was just a normal class size). My heart sank and finally gave up. Emailed speakers thereafter asking them not to board their flights (which was just on the coming Sunday). This will probably be my last attempt - will now pass the baton to my younger colleagues.

• March 16: Took leave, to settle matters that can't be done online. Afternoon: the Prime Minister announce the Movement Control Order (MCO) for the period of 18-31 March.
• March 17: Cancel leave on Tuesday to discuss ways to conduct online lectures. Tried Screencastify and Open Broadcaster Software.
• March 18: The beginning of the MCO. Tried out Screen-O-Matic as suggested by Prof. Teo Lee Peng. Posted a short clip on FB. See https://www.facebook.com/hishamuddinz/videos/10222095340196595/
• March 19: Posted another video using Screen-O-Matic. See https://www.facebook.com/hishamuddinz/posts/10222106756241989
• March 20: My Hijri birthday: 25 Rejab
• March 23: Today, the statistics of Covid-19 are 1518 confirmed infections (additional 212 new cases since yesterday), 159 recoveries (20 new ones), 14 fatalities (addition of 4) and 57 in ICUs (addition of 10). Worrisome.

Varia: 2020 First Post Break

My first post for 2020. If there is anything that I called my new year resolution is perhaps putting on the brakes on social media, identifying time-wasters and anything that dulls the mind. This is my attempt to put my life in order. For this, I hope to do the following:

• I will open up my FB at certain scheduled free times (I used to have them open as a tab on the browser). Scrolled down most posts, only to read useful and interesting things and respond to friends if necessary.
• Read e-mails at scheduled times. Turn off notifications.
• Turn off WhatsApp Web tab and ignore notifications, when meeting with students and others. 
• Minimise use of mobile phones during meals or meeting to encourage face-to-face interactions

I hope people don't get offended if I don't respond to their messages immediately. For the last one, I will probably give certain exceptions particularly in meetings when one's role is reduced to simply ensuring the quorum is met or something equivalent. 

Just before the new year, I have saved the following link on things written by scientists for later reading: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/12/our-top-essays-scientists-2019. I will comment on the first piece on coffee break (https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/10/why-scientists-should-take-more-coffee-breaks). The article writes about cultural differences of coffee breaks in Canada and France and their roles in setting up organic environments for informal scientific interactions. What about here? We do have plenty of breaks - noticeable by our international speakers or participants in many of our events but these are not the one I'm aiming for. Conferences and workshops are already geared for (formal) scientific interactions. It is day-to-day informal interactions that are of interest. When I was a PhD student, I notice staff and students of Department of Mathematical Sciences in Durham University will have their coffee breaks at 10 am religiously. They had some staff preparing coffee for everyone. In my short stay in Imperial College, breaks are spent in the departmental cafes. Here, we have cafes scattered everywhere in campus but they tend not to be tied up to any departments or faculties. Researchers do take their breaks mostly individually or at best, with close peers. For informal interactions, the researchers at best only do this with their close peers or even only brood alone. Thus, it was perhaps a disappointment when I first came back home, not having seen a similar culture of getting together for informal scientific interactions. I see people more in meetings than in any other way. Even for me who is now near retirement, I take most of my breaks alone, enjoying my meals and finishing them as soon as possible to get back to work (do not like lepaking - a Malay word that seems to get into the modern English despite they have the word loitering). I have essentially come to accept that there is no such priority here.

There are attempts of course to change this. I remember once our director of institute suggested that we should have regular coffee at our 'Bilik Sarjana' (coffee prepared by Pn Manomani), which went on for awhile among management members. However, we simply do not have the critical mass because our number is small (seven at best). If a few of us decided not to come or busy with something else, then it may reduce to just me and the director. Another attempt is with my own group through our weekly group meetings on Thursday afternoon. This meeting has one of us presenting on something of our own interest to the group members followed by very light 'lunch' and informal discussion. In a way we have maintained this so far. We have tried to increase the frequency to twice a week but it was taxing to many of us. The time being during lunch time was also purposely done to accommodate our busy times during normal office hours. I hope this will continue even later in my absence. To me, this meeting help us not to feel lonely while we pursue our research and occasionally might even spur up some collaborations. Here are some pics:

The last pic is with Mr. Hoe Chee Liang from Cita Education, who from time to time has helped support us.

Currently, I hope to start another group meeting with fellow experimentalists much due to our forthcoming projects with CyberSecurity Malaysia. We have not really started but I hope we will grow to accept this tradition. The idea is again to help spur informal discussions among us.

Talking about traditions, I'm happy to see that INSPEM has maintained a weekly seminar tradition, which is essentially more difficult to maintain with diverse interest among the researchers of the institute. Perhaps out of envy, I find colleagues from other places making jeering remarks like INSPEM Seminar for the umpteenth time. Let us be, we are not doing this for money (which tends to be a trend to organize workshops for, rather than the knowledge) or even fame (being regular, it has already become something that people get used to). The only snag to this activity is that sometimes it degenerates to a gathering of INSPEM students. I hope this can change in the future, During Prof. Akma's time, we have made sure that presenters are going to be mostly academics from within or from outside. For instance, we had Jesni from IIUM to give the last seminar in 2018 (see pics below).

This week will be my turn it seems - the talk I chose is essentially is the talk meant for the Sarawak APPC conference - but I need to beef this up.

57 in 2019

Yes, I've celebrated my 57th birthday in 2019, which means I have another around three years left of service before my retirement. Now some commented that they thought I have another ten years to go. Well, thank you. I take that as a compliment. In reality, I feel really aged. Here are some pics taken me celebrating.

Somebody commented why I do not smile in the pic above. Well, at the time, I was suffering a severe back pain. The pic below show the first take - with me squinting my eyes trying to bear the pain.

After the pics taken, had a slice of my cake eaten with some pain-killers. It is now quite frequent that I get bad episodes of back pain nowadays. I can even 'hear' bones or tendons cracking while I make certain motion. I have accepted that I will have to live with this; just need to manage it.

Drawing near to my retirement, I had mixed feelings about it. Part of me felt that I need to do so much more but another part wanted me to rest. Prof. Wan Mahmood (have retired) whom I met a few days ago, told me that when one retires, soon one will really appreciate the working life. In a way, I do hope I will retire with my mind still very active and hope that I will not go senile at old age and be a burden to the family. If I need to go, I hope it will be swift.

I'm trying to prepare myself for retirement in a way. Brought journals from home, which I had subscribed (Reviews of Mathematical Physics, Journal of Geometry and Physics, Science) to my 'temporary' office, so that I can donate these to the theoretical physics lab in the department. If I'm not mistaken, I have already given away my International Journal of Modern Physics A and Modern Physics Letters A collection to the lab. I hope that I will still be active in some form or another after retirement (maybe on consultation), and thus still uncertain to give away my (theoretical physics and mathematics) book collection. I hope to acquire new skills (e.g. programming) so that I can still be useful to some people then and perhaps still earning some income.

Spoke to my students about what scientific legacy will I leave behind. I hope the theoretical physics group (used to be nonexistent) will continue to survive the competitive environment despite being a minority. I very much hope that my younger colleagues will continue to ensure that the group is sustainable and the tradition build over the years can stay. For the institute, I hope the new year will bring good news. I still have occasional nightmares about the institute but I hope I can grow out of it. I will continue to contribute to the institute but will not interfere with the management.

I will continue to better myself and will take past criticisms into view (some of which I still disagree). I will try to be more systematic while yet being creative in some ways. I hope to pay less attention to social media and do more reflections instead. I will work perhaps with more of the hereafter in mind and thus worldly matters becomes secondary. Let's hope I have the strength do this consistently.

November End and Early December Varia

I am still trying to establish a stable work-pattern in the department. My graduate students have been seeing me more often and it is good that I have the current (temporary) whiteboard for us to discuss (still awaiting the right-sized whiteboard). I won't be able to know a good stable work pattern until I'm given a full teaching workload next semester but I hope I will still have more time for research as I need to graduate my current students and thus try to leave a good theoretical environment when I retire.

Occasionally, some people asked me what happen to my Deputy Director post at INSPEM. If possible, I will try to answer briefly (in line with this post). If they ask me further, of course, I have my side of story that I can tell but this does not invalidate my health reasons. Some do not believe this is the real reason. I certainly do not fake my health problems but perhaps there may be psychological reasons, which led to my predicament. In any case, I hope to grow fitter soon; I've walked and climbed stairs more ever since I'm back at the department. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to move on and focus more on things in the future that will help me in the hereafter. If some still have issues with me, we can still discuss in a civilised manner and work for amicable solutions or otherwise just let the matter go as I did. I have accepted the past as my fate even if I do not like it. Whatever stories they would like to hear, there are always many sides to a story and I've grown enough to be aware that one always reason contextually with whatever partial information that one has; thus the so-called truth is often grey.

One change that I'm conscious since I left is that I am less stressful when I drive to work and back. Even with the most annoying driver on the road, I tend not to get all worked up. I have also avoided working long hours at the office as I don't see the urgency to do so now. And it is good that I reach home well before Maghrib. I try to spend more time with the family as I should.

Recently the family lost Belang (November 28, 2019), one of the oldest cat that we had. We had sent Belang to the clinic and knew about his kidney failure. As his condition worsened, we sent Belang to the clinic again so that he gets a proper care, Just a day before we wanted to collect Belang from the clinic, the vet called saying that Belang is gone. My other half who is more attached to the cats, was very saddened that Belang did not spent the final hours at home. Here are some pics of Belang.

Not long after this, just two nights ago, we found another old cat of ours, Shaggy, was oozing blood from her mouth and nose. It was in the middle of the night when this happened and thus we had to wait till the next morning, for us to send her to the clinic. All we could do then was to clean her up. She has also been losing weight over the last month or so. The tests thus far shown no signs of anything sinister. We hope that she will be alright. In a way, I sort of miss Shaggy since she is always in the room with us.

Presently there are a few things on my mind. First, is the Physics Without Frontiers that we hope to do early next year. We are still finalising this matter but it will be in the form of EQuaLS resurrected with some changes. The other is the quantum project we wished to do for the 12th Malaysia Plan. This will probably be something that will occupy my time before I retire. I hope it will be something good that I will leave behind. This coming week, we will have an INSPEM event which I hope to attend and a few days after, I will turn 57. Hoping of good things to come.