“This is the great opportunity to show the kids about science I learned when I was in lower primary.”, the thought emerged quickly. At that age, I used to read science comics for kids published by a Hong Kong publisher. I never had any chance to use that knowledge. My mom would do the cooking and I did not mess around her kitchen so there was no chance to mix up the cooked and uncooked eggs. This time, my kids gave me an opportunity to show off.

I took the two eggs in my hand and LA gathered the boys around the dining table. Mom told D, “Look, daddy is going to demonstrate science.”

I took one egg at a time, stood it on its broader end and then spun it on the table, One egg would spin standing until it lost its angular momentum. The other egg couldn’t hardly spin on its end for a fraction of a second. The cooked and uncooked eggs had been determined. The boys, especially D, were astonished.

Well, what is the relationship about this egg tale and the rise of an industrious country?

I always believe in doing the simplest to the most complicated things with my own hands. The end result is not so important. The process of doing it and the knowledge I acquired is of utmost importance.

I am reading this book, “Against All Odds – The Story of the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Family That Created It”, by Yukiyasu Togo & William Wartman.

Sakichi Toyoda was an intelligent man who prided himself on what he had been able to achieved without benefit of education or family influence. He believed that a man didn’t need education in the theories and principles of science and that he could learn all he needed to know by working on machines with his own hands. His son Kiichiro had the finest training from his father.

To bring to the point quickly (I am not going to write a summary of this book yet but to complement a post and its comments here), Kiichiro perfected the automatic shuttle changing device which his father, Sakichi, invented for Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Company.

It was the unorthodox and bold spirit of Toyoda father and son that made Toyota one of the best known and largest auto makers in the world.

Just an appetizer to keep you going. I will write more while I read on.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — American motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson has, according to the Associated Press, agreed to buy MV Agusta for US$109 million (RM360 million), in sharp contrast to the one euro Italian company Gevi paid when it bought the Italian bike-maker from Proton Holdings in 2006.

Harley-Davidson said in a statement out of Milwaukee last Friday that it was likely to seal the deal in weeks but the news is likely to unleash a firestorm of criticism against Proton, which was savagely assailed for the 2006 sale by no less a person than former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who conceived Proton back in 1984, according to the SingaporeBusiness Times.

Proton, then under the leadership of Dr Mahathir protege Tengku Mahaleel Ariff, bought a 57.75 per cent interest in MV Agusta in December 2004 for 70 million euros (RM357 million). Dr Mahathir had stepped down as premier a month earlier but had been appointed Proton adviser by his successor Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the time.

By 2005, Proton was floundering amid intense competition from better-quality Japanese models and relations between Tengku Mahaleel and the new Proton board, all appointed by Abdullah, were tense. These culminated in the chief executive’s contract not being renewed. Barely a year later, the company sold MV Agusta, with its debt of 107 million euros, for one euro.

Dr Mahathir took it personally, asking for an investigation of the sale decision and its beneficiaries, and questioning the urgency of the deal.

Proton defended itself by saying there were “no operational, engineering or technological synergies” between the two companies, a conclusion that it said had “been independently confirmed by its appointed advisers”.

When Tengku Mahaleel and Dr Mahathir decided on the buy earlier, it was precisely because of the deal’s so-called “technological synergies”.

Even so, the Harley deal would appear to vindicate both men and is likely to rebound upon Proton and, by extension, Abdullah and his administration, which has stoutly defended Proton’s new management against the criticism of Dr Mahathir.

MV Agusta makes a line of premium sports motorcycles under its own name and another line of lightweight bikes under the Cagiva brand.

Meanwhile, the deal will help Harley-Davidson expand into the European market as sales slump in the US where consumers are pulling back on spending. Performance biking accounts for almost 80 per cent of sales in Europe, where Harley’s sales have been growing in double digits over the past three years. The US bike-maker now has a 10 per cent share of the European market.

Meanwhile Bernama reports that Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told the Dewan Rakyat today that the sale of MV Agusta for one euro was profitable to Proton as there was no synergy between the Italian motorcycle maker and Proton as a car manufacturer.

He said Proton made the decision after taking into account the financial liabilities of Agusta which had debts of 107 million euros.

Under the agreement, the shareholder must be responsible for the company’s debts, he said.

“As there was no synergy between car and motorcycle and instead of shouldering the debt, Proton decided to sell Agusta,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping) during Question Time.

Take a look at the last fourth paragraph carefully. The speaker was really lack of intelligence. How can a business be profitable if it spends 70 millions Euros to buy a company and then sells it for 1 Euro? But in the first place, will you buy a company with 107 millions Euros of debts?

Hello? Is this a typo? I don’t think so. But the person who made such statement in Dewan Rakyat must be thinking the Malaysians are mentally retarded.

看这场辩论赛而辩论这个世界是文明还是野蛮的，真是浪费时间。

这个世界是文明还是野蛮的不是世人能定夺。这个世界是一个灰色的世界。文明中带有野蛮、野蛮中带有文明。以文明来掩饰野蛮、而野蛮行为中带点文明处处可见。一位企业化黑帮老大坏事做尽、可他又是一位慈善家，那么他是文明还是野蛮？把一件事以多角度、多层次来抽丝剥茧的深入观察和分析，就会有好多不同的结论。以上两支决赛队伍都缺乏了多角度多层次的客观分析。

在一个文明社会的字典里，《法律》、《斗争》、《仇恨》、《战争》、《经济》、《利益》、《罪恶》等等是不存在的。在文明社会里是不需要法律来约束人民的。为什么？因为每人脑里都没有经济和利益的斗争，也不会有战争。社会上种种罪恶都是利益和经济的冲突所引起的。所以，在我们野蛮的社会里，需要法律来约束人们以防止罪案发生。有文明不代表没有了野蛮。只是野蛮被文明的法律约束压制了。

一个文明社会里，经济和金钱是不存在的。每人都知道自己对社会的义务而工作，而不是为个人的物质享受而工作。所有行动和思想都是和大体一致的为大体的生存而产生。

一个文明社会里，所有思想都是无极的，也不会有这场辩论会，更不需要辩论。一切仇恨斗争都是思想极化的产物。

在我眼里，这个世界是文明里带有野蛮、野蛮里有点文明的一个矛盾世界。

更新：中国苏州大学 胜。

I spoke to a few students during tea breaks at the Ada Workshop which I conducted 2-3 days ago. It appeared that most students hate their university. Why? Because they are forced to become debtors before starting to have earnings. Most Malaysians have to take education loan to finance their studies. But what the universities offer them are sub-standard teaching and poor facilities. Besides paying a hefty sum for tuition, they are charged with miscellaneous fees. These university reaping off wealth from students, making them debtors to fill the university pockets.

A private university has the social obligation to educate future leaders. But most private universities put their profit above all. Students become victims of corporation and yet denied their rights to protest aloud. Students yelling with frustration and hate in blogs and forums with anonymity. What use?

In the recent proposal to impose IT service fee in MMU, we can see how the students being exploited for corporation profiteering and suppressed the rights of protesting and voicing out to the public.

There were a few students came to me expressing their frustration and seeking my assistance to voice up their concerns. They asked my help to arrange a press conference to amplify their vocals. In doing this, these students faced tremendous pressures from their ignorant and naive peers. They were blackmailed by their own peers for trying to make this imposition public.

These students who came to me had exercised democracy to defend basic human rights as knowledge and experience seeking students. They learned not to give up before running out of solutions and hopes. They learned how adults handling and working with youngsters like them. They learned how to analyze and think in multiple perspective. They learned the first lesson of politics.

I admire their courage and determination despite facing disciplinary action and peers’ pressure. I appreciate their trust in me for finding them a solution to voice up without any implication on them. I would like in return to encourage them to not stop here but keep moving forward. They bravely distinguished themselves away from their ignorant and naive peers and want to expand their ability beyond academic. Here is what Confucius said:

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Our dearest PM,

Let’s get straight to the point. To be honest to you, I was very angry to hear the rising prices of oil and foods and now electricity. I felt a little hopeless as income is shrinking but expenses are expanding. I know this is not anyone’s fault but the Wall Street speculation. This is another worldwide crisis after the 1997 world economy crisis.

Although I was angry and feeling hopeless, but unlike other most Malaysians, I am reasoning from multiple perspectives.

The fuel subsidy has to be ended as soon as possible because part of the subsidy to Malaysians has been enjoyed freely by foreigners for too long. The subsidy should have been ended long ago or it should never be initiated at all. The strategy for this round of fuel price hike was brilliant as it prevented foreign vehicles coming to rip off the last round of subsidy. When Shahrir made announcement on TV the night before the official announcement, I have caught the clue as he said “… tomorrow things will change…” and I filled up my tank one night before the official announcement. A clever strategy but misunderstood by many Malaysians. It would be too little time for foreign vehicles to enter and travel 50KM and to pack in a massive congestion rushing with other fellow Malaysians at the kiosks just to fill up their tanks. Brilliant!

The rising cost is inevitable, as I understand. But most other Malaysians do not think that way. I think, this time you and your staff have done a great job. But don’t make this the last. With the money saved from the fuel subsidy, I really hope tolls in KL can be abolished. Plus tolls should be reduced by 40%. Perhaps a reward system should be introduced to users of North-South Highways. The more they use the N-S highway, the more rebate/discount they will receive. It is not difficult to implement as there is Touch’n'Go electronic payment system which can easily track mileage of users. The problem is, does the government have the will and determination to implement and take PLUS Bhd. to compromise? N-S Highway can save distance and time and thus indirectly save fuel and increase productivity. Another way to do it is to collect all toll receipts and get a rebate from the RTD when Malaysian vehicle owners renew their road tax. I know this kind of reward system is kind of hard to implement but this can certainly prevent people from abusing it.

I also welcome the ideas of reducing assessment and land tax. This will help ease the burden.

The government should encourage people to do more video conferencing rather than traveling to meeting places. With high-speed Internet, this can be done. I have been using video conferencing for meetings and supporting clients (I am a software engineer). But, I do hope the government will issue more licenses to new ISPs. Current ISP, Streamyx is really slow and lousy, both their infrastructure and service.

Our government likes to compare our country with other country. Now, let me gives you some comparisons. In Okinawa, a fiber optic channel to the home carrying 15gigabits(down)/2gigabits(up) is only charging US$28 per month. That’s equivalent to RM91.38 (today’s exchange rate). We pay RM77 to Streamyx for a 1Gigabits service. Look! A great difference and Telekom still dare to claim their service is one of the best in S.E.A. and won an award! Malu tak? And recently, Telekom announced to invest billions of ringgit for copper wire network. Why not fiber optics? All of us, especially the government are ambitious to make our country an advanced country. But, thinking on the other side, can we? Why not invest in a good fiber optic network and encourage people and businesses to utilize IT to help reduce cost and pollution. Of course, the price of such fiber optic service cannot be too high and must be in the range affordable by all income groups. Encourage company to allow and trust their workers to telecommute to work.

This is the right time and the right opportunity to revamp Malaysians’ working cultures and habits.

Here’s a link for your reference.

The government should also improve public transport systems and to have proper walkways for pedestrians. Look at our cities and towns, none has good pedestrian walkways. It is not safe and comfortable to walk. Look at Singapore (another comparison). It is so nice, comfortable and enjoyable to walk in Singapore. Why do MBs and government officials need to spend so much money to go to countries so far away and expensive to study the way they build and manage their cities? Why can’t we take Singapore as a model city? Do we lose our honor looking at and learn the way Singapore government managing their country? Take Malacca for instance. Malacca government is spending a lot of money changing and maintaining flowers plants planted along road sides and dividers. We don’t need flowers to beautify the city. Flowers don’t last. Just trees with green foliage will do the trick and it can also help to reduce pollution. A green city is better than colorful flowers city. And trees do not need much care. I don’t see workers maintaining trees in Singapore every time I visit. But I see workers in Malacca taking and throwing out dying flowers plants and replacing them with new fresh one every two weeks or so. Everyday, I can see workers busy watering flowers everywhere in Malacca. These are all unnecessary expenses. After all, no one including tourists will slow down or stop by the road sides or dividers to enjoy the flowers. Flowers can be planted at tourist destinations such as the Stadhuys. That will be enough. So, please tell the Malacca Chief Minister, Ali Rustam to stop spending unnecessarily.

Are these good comparisons? No offense, my dear PM. I beg your pardon if I have offended you by any of my writings but this is truly from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you and I do hope you really change and care more to “Rakyat” Malaysia!

I wish you best of health.

Sincerely,
Adrian Hoe and family

IMHO, the abrupt increased of fuel prices has good reason that we should consider and support. The sudden increase of prices by as much as 40% will force citizens to be more thrifty. Malaysians have been pampered with low fuel prices for so long. As you can notice (if you really pay attention), many people go to grocery shops which are very near their home by cars. These shops are in within walking distance. This is just one of the example.

By forcing Malaysians to be thrifty and less travel unnecessarily, we can save more precious natural resources and emit less pollutants. The change of lifestyle is going to take place sooner or later as we know our oil production is going to cease in 2014. That is just 6 years away.

The people from our neighboring countries such as Singapore has been benefited by the fuel subsidy. It is the time to stop benefit them. The subsidy is to be enjoyed by our citizens but not others. It is very messy to handle this issue.

One day before the increase, there had been news about the price hike. But people treated it as rumor because there was no announcement on TV news channels. But Sharir said in the TV interview that things would change tomorrow. That’s the indication from the government. Again, IMHO, I think Pak Lah and his administration are quite smart in handling this situation. First, they sanction the sales of petrol. No sales to foreign vehicles within 50KM radius from the border. Kedah responded with a full ban on entire state. The ban was to deter foreign vehicles to fill up their tanks before the price hike. Smart strategy.

The government has sent enough signals to every citizens but no one took it seriously. Another indication is that one or two days prior the announcement, fuel tankers were busy refilling petrol kiosks. Did anyone notice that?

Although most of the Malaysians dislike Pak Lah and his administration, but we need more intelligence to address and to helm through this crisis. The fingers pointing is just another dirty strategy by some politicians trying to out throw Pak Lah.

We went to the hypermarket to see if we can grab something for stocking. On the way, we saw many cars queuing up a petrol kiosks causing massive traffic jam. Thank God I have filled up the tank last night.

Expect to see more crimes after the price hike.

一个国家灾难重重，必能训练出超强的毅力和团结力以应付重重灾难。一个人如果困难重重，也必能训练出超强的毅力和顺应能力。所以，当一个人遇上重重困难时，千万要记得温爷爷的四个字：“多难兴邦”！绝对要理性起来，绝不能灰心和放弃。

好一个“多难兴邦（人）”！

At times, we find it difficult to change and we thirst to rely on other people to force such changes. Some people find it easy. Some people blame their incapacity for change.

Incapacity is only lame excuse. The most important element is our determination to change. With great determination we need perseverance and toleration. We need to fight our self conscious and many other external factors. At most time, our self conscious is influenced and heavily woven with external factors, for instance, the surrounding environment and our peers. Sometimes we are reluctant to sacrifice our peers because that is the most precious we ever have.

To sacrifice the peers, it is often a no-no thing in young adults. They are afraid of losing friends and becoming lonely. They are afraid of their peers criticizing.

For many people first time leaving their home (or parents) creates an illusion of independence and freedom. But deep inside their heart, a strong bond with their far away home urge for more attention from/to their parents. Consequently, this bonding builds up a sense of reliance, a barrier to change.

All these are human psychology and social implication that influence our behavior and the way we learn. But change is inevitable…

One common thread is that, students are often given an assignment to use other programming languages like Visual Basic which they have not been taught any lesson. Students have to pick up the language themselves.

As the result, many local university graduates do not have proper training in programming and the worst, lack of systematic discipline and systematic reasoning skills. I have personally experienced this with interns and projects seeded to universities.

Some of these graduates will continue doing their master degree in the comfort of the university environment, simply they cannot find a job, they become assistant lecturers. This begins the vicious cycle. A student without proper training in programming gets into the teaching system and begins to teach improper method to younger students!

This is a systemic failure in our local education system. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I once knew a student from TARC (Tar College). She was doing accounting after her STPM. She was suffering because she could not catch up with the course work due to bad command of English. After some lengthy discussions, she finally decided to quit. Good for her. But, do you know what? She applied and was admitted into teacher training program. By now, I guess, she is teaching in the primary or secondary school. There goes another vicious cycle. A sub-standard teaching the younger generation to be sub-standards!

Why did they have such privilege? Isn’t supposed to teach these school children to queue up and to play fair in the society? I guessed these students really enjoyed being a VIP and roamed in the corridor of power! What a bunch spoilt brats!

The Internet has become a huge reservoir of knowledge since the past two decades. The use of this knowledge has widen the gap in students thinking about traditional working environment, processes and ethics as well as their awareness of copyright laws and humanistic behavior and obligation. Unfortunately, many youngsters studying in local colleges and universities are not well aware of the pitfalls of using such information and open source projects.

With many years of software development (in both closed- and open- source) and research experience, I am able to quickly identify a genuine work or an adaptation of works from other people. I have seen many copy-and-paste work by students and even received copy-and-paste (exact copy-and-paste and adaptation) works by students applying for internship.

During a FYP judging 3 days ago, I had encountered a project which a student had adapted someone’s work as his own. With two simple questions, I established a firm “confidence” of plagiarism. The abridged story goes:

Every students are given about 6 months to complete their projects. The project can be individual or team work. This particular project which I encountered was an individual project. It’s a project management system capable of drawing and displaying gantt chart. When the student was giving his presentation, a doubt arose in me. Local undergraduate students do not have such high command of programming languages, not to mention developing a complicated software. Creating gantt chart alone is a tough process involving complex algorithm. To develop a gantt chart generating software requires extensive experience and knowledge in project management. It is impossible for this student to complete the gantt chart drawing in 6 months or less all by himself.

In fact, I already knew the project is not authentic. I could simply tell him that his project was not genuine but I did not want to humiliate him in front of the others. Furthermore, he did put in some efforts elsewhere. So I asked two questions:

1. Do you complete this project alone? His answer, “Yes”
2. Can your software do baseline? His answer, “What is baseline?”

Project baseline and baselining are the most fundamental and important features in project management. I am not going to explain baseline in details. You can find out what baseline is by Googling. This poor samaritan revealed himself. No further question was asked by me or the other two judges. Of course, I did not give any points to his project because I simply could not give any, even the minimum. It would not be fair to the other projects which had received minimum points from me.

This young man was not satisfied and he stayed back to ask me why and possibly to argue why he did not deserve to win the project. When he approached me, I could see in his face his dissatisfaction and disagreement with sorrow interwoven in his mixed feeling. He was obviously upset. I could sense his emotion. “What do you mean by baseline? I used C++ to program the algorithm…”, the young man asked and remarked politely. I explained to him that a project baseline is a reference to measure the progress against. Without the baseline, there is nothing to measure against your progress and hence cannot tell if the project is lagging or leading. “But.. sir, I used C++ to program my algorithm and it can calculate the progress from the parameters I entered..”, said the young man. Well, it was clear that he did not understand what I was trying to relay to him. The baseline and C++ algorithm were two different things. This reassured my conclusion.

After the group photo session, we continued our discussion. I told him it was not possible to develop a gantt chart software from scratch in just 6 months. He told me the actual time spent in development was 4 months. He used 1 month to study his project requirement and another month to learn C++. He was very new in C++ and had not even mastered the language yet. This again concluded my finding was correct. After more debate and explanation, he broke into tears and admitted that he copied some codes from the open source. I could see his tears running down and he took out a piece of tissue paper to wipe off his tears. He kept on accusing me saying he copied his project. I never did. I pitied him and at the same time I was so afraid that he would commit suicide. Hey, he is a guy, you know. A soft hearted young man, so am I a soft hearted old man!

I need to comfort him and tackle his psychology. I began counseling him.

And I said to him, “It does not matter if you win a trophy and voted the best or champion project of the year. The most important thing is how much you learn from a failure and how you manage your failure. You are managing your failure right now because you take your initiative and courage to discuss with me and you have learned a lot from our discussion. You learned what is project baseline and baselining. You learned about open source licensing and so much more about software development and ethics. Your peers who have won trophies and they went home happily. While you are staying here to have this heart breaking but meaningful discussion, while you are having the tears because you are upset, your friends could be celebrating their victory with their friends now in a restaurant or cafe. What is the difference you make between yourself and your victorious friends? Don’t be upset because you have failed. You should embrace failure. What you have done by approaching me is a correct decision. Whether your project has failed or won, you should approach the judges to do networking. I may not have an immediate job to offer you but we may collaborate in future for some software projects or business venture. That’s the social networking that you should seek while in university rather than packing your trophy and your degree and go home happily to celebrate.”

After the counseling, he began to lighten and smile. I gave him my call card. He told me he would go to Singapore after his graduation. Hopefully, he found that day enlightening. And I was happy to put a smile on his face.

A reliable resource on the Internet may not be 100% reliable and correct. For example, Wikipedia, popular among students and professionals, is not 100% free of errors and misleading information. If you find a dispute in the Wikipedia and a book, do a double (or triple) verification with people commanding authority in that field. Wikipedia is a global effort contributed to build a free and open repository of knowledge. Any professors down to any Tom Dick and Hairy on the street can contribute to Wikipedia. The site can not grant itself any credibility but the users can. If you cannot differentiate a mistake in Wikipedia, then it has no credibility at all, just as simple as it is.

In the past decade, software development and software business have undergone tremendous evolution. A group called FSF (Free Software Foundation) and many more individual software professionals around the globe have embraced open source ideas. Open source software are generally free from licensing. Its source codes are freely available. Free does not mean it has no copyright at all. Free does not mean you can do anything you want. Many open source projects and their source codes are subject to many different types of licensing. I am not going to discuss licensing issues here because I am not a legal professional. One thing I want to talk about is the open source spirit. Why do people contribute their efforts for free? Many contributors in the open source community develop software for a number of obvious reasons:

1. To further leverage their knowledge and skill. By opening up their source codes, these people allow freedom to examine and to make improvement to their projects by many other software developers from around the world who may have better ideas and methods in solving problems.
2. To embrace “Software is FREE!” Yes, software should be free but not the support. You can download Linux or MySQL (the most famous and popular SQL database in the world today) for free but if you require support to help you to resolve some problems, you will need to pay for professional advice or solutions. This is the model of software business in the 21st century.
3. To create competition. Some closed source software products are actually built upon their open source cousins. A parallel development between the closed- and open- source cousins allows new ideas or technologies to be applied in the products. This encourages healthy competition in technology development and enhancement.

If you use a piece of source codes or parts from the open source, you cannot claim it as your own work like the young man did. Even if you adapt or modify the codes from the open source, you will still need to credit the original author(s) in your work. You will need to respect people’s efforts and the spirit of open source.

This marked the remarkable and memorable day in Malaysia’s history where all three major races, Malays, Indians and Chinese hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart vote for a change. The outcry of the people has transformed into a political tsunami which rocked the entire nation.

Now, we are on our way to one nation, one Malaysian, “Satu Bangsa”! I, including my family, my children and millions of Malaysians will be proud to call themselves “Malaysian” in front of the world. This is the perfect time to say “Malaysia Boleh!” (Malaysia can)

The people’s front coalition has won 76 seats, DAP 27, PKR 25 and PAS 24. The people’s front coalition has taken on Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor and they are likely to take on Perak.

If the national front loses 2/3 majority, the coalition leader, Abdullah Badawi will face tremendous pressure in the coming party assembly and face step down. Let’s hope Malaysia will have a new remake.

I believe the new government in Penang will be a good start to reform Malaysia and her economy and internal security which all Malaysians are longing for. If the People’s Front can prove to Malaysians that they can run the government more efficiently, a bigger wind of change will be most likely to take place again in the next election.

Please, do your jobs well and don’t let the people down. Ganbatte kudasai!

IMHO, Raja Petra should be the top key person who helps stirring up the wind of change. His speeches are marvelous and inspiring. If you wish to watch his speeches, search for “Raja Petra” or “RPK” in YouTube.

And the latest news, Lim Guan Eng from DAP will be the next Chief Minister of Penang. This will be confirmed in the morning or on Monday. Anyhow, good luck to Guan Eng and DAP and please give the people all your best.

The wind of change is blowing furiously. This has voiced out people’s inner voice to have a change of the government. A tsunami is rocking the whole Malaysia right now. Logon to MalaysiaKini for more latest results/reports.

Long live Malaysia! Long live Malaysians!

Good luck all!

Tonight, it was finally over, after two weeks of preparation. IMHO, the performance was very good comparing to previous performance. More photos and story here.

It is so sad that there are still many people have been deceived by their disguise. Luckily, there are also many young people are starting to see the awful faces of these stupid politicians. Hopefully, these new forces from the younger generation may one day change the country.

With all the happenings in Malaysia, I hope dear Malaysians know who they are going to vote for this time. Here is a video for you to laugh and relax. So, no headache, just relax and cast your vote wisely this time.

我和我太太谈了一会才知道她朋友的丈夫要出勤而不能照顾。简着是废话。她丈夫自己开修车厂，而今天是星期日，有什么事急过于照顾女儿和太太？而她的家婆那里，一个人都没去医院探望她！她丈夫带他女儿出街，从未带过她去吃东西，就算俭朴，也不寒酸到这个地步吧？如果是个男儿，我相信她丈夫那里的人今天可会飞扑过来照顾了。她和丈夫都是广东籍。广东籍的人多数都是重男轻女，简直不可理喻，太过分了！

The Chinese believes the paper products will turn into real stuff after burning them. There are paper made TV, cars, airplane, cell phones an etc. to be offered to the dead. There are papers with silver, gold and/or other printing symbolize silver, gold and others respectively to be offered to the “Gods”. Take a paper with a square rectangle silver printed on it, after burning, it will turn into silver!

If the “Gods” are almighty, He does not need our offerings. After all, He does not need ashes, does He? We are able to have a job and earn money to buy these paper offerings to be turned into silver/gold for the God. In contrast, the God has to wait to receive offerings from us. If we have the power of turning paper to ashes to gold, aren’t we mightier than God? Why do we need God anyway? Think!

Two of my neighbors practice burning paper offerings. Despite of complaints I have forwarded to them and advise them to use a burning container with lid cover, they ignore and often will just say sorry. Every first day of Chinese New Year we have to suffer from the ashes dirtying our compound and my car which I just washed last night.

I will find a time during which they burn paper offerings and send them a strong verbal protest. This is too much. I hope the government will ban burning paper offerings as it does not bring any benefits but destruction to our environment. If the government is going to pass this bill, I will be 100% supportive. It is time to stop such idiotic and superstitious practice. It is a culture which should not be followed.

Legal Issue on Contract Law in Malaysia – Good for us to know

Do you notice that most of the time, the receipt / invoice you received from the merchant carries this exclusion clause or similarly worded statement: “Goods sold are not returnable” or “No refund once sold”.

Please remember that : “As long as your goods is purchased for home use and not for business ( i.e. to be resold), the above exclusion clause is void.

That means, as long as the good is defective, regardless of what is worded, you can get back all your money spent . You do not have to accept a repair on the good or an exchange. You can ask for a refund. And you are legally right and entitled to!

And most of the time the merchant will refuse to return you your money.

You may threaten the merchant with four words: “See you in court!”

The court here refers to the Small Claims Tribunal Court. Any goods which is worth RM25,000 and below can apply to this Court.

However, you don’t have to tell them what court! All you have to pay is RM10 admin fee and the loser (the merchant) will have to refund you the money plus the admin fee!

I have seen that most educated people are cowed by such unfair wordings (which includes a few of my friends).

Please try not to let the merchant fleece you the next time you have defective goods.

You can file this On the 16th floor of Putra Place (The Mall opposite Putra World Trade Centre) . The form cost RM5.00 . The Tribunal will settle within 2 months period.

Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia,
Tingkat 16, Putra Place,
100, Jalan Putra,
50622 KUALA LUMPUR
Tel: 03 – 40492300 / 40424181 Fax: 03 – 40424259

His shop has been pulverized for tourist spot development three years ago. Before it was demolished, I met him there a few times a couple years ago and I brought Dmitry there for a haircut once. I didn’t know his whereabout after the demolition.

It was fated to meet him again last evening. I somehow felt something was going to happen yesterday morning. It was really nice to meet him again. He was working there as a partner with his ex-employee/partner. So, he gave me a handsome haircut and we made a picture together. Hope to see him again the next trip.

After the haircut, I went home happily, washed my hair, took a quick shower and a quick snack then out I went to doukoukai for my training.

The seminar was organized by Panasonic and its distributor. Not so much of interesting talk. Organization was a little messy but overall good. Speakers were not very well trained and lack of exposure. The entire presentation was not too bad at all and it wasn’t boring as there were some people asking interesting questions. Most important of all was that I managed to establish contacts with Panasonic Malaysia.

Panasonic treated its guest very well with a nice buffet lunch. I took the lunch, washed down with dessert and drinks. Talked to my vendor and to establish closer relationship.

Then I had to rush to Hilton PJ to attend another IP camera event. It was a dealers gathering organized by Axis Communication and one of its distributor in Malaysia. The event was organized in Uncle’s Chili, a restaurant pub. Nice setup and cozy environment. The presentation was presented by Axis Singapore. The presentation was absolutely good and informative. Axis is a Swedish company and its IP cameras are world number 1.

Axis presentation had been very entertaining and educating at the same time. The presenter, Nafis Jasmani, had done a great job.

Axis and its distributor treated their guests very well too. Excellent and delicious food. I had a great “meal” with a beer together with some people I met there. Dessert was great too! The only thing I disliked was that people began to puff cigarette after food and beer. The smoke immediately destroyed the cozy environment and the nice cool air.

I spoke to Nafis before I left. We talked about Axis Developer Program and some technical details. As I understood from him, there are 4 developers in Malaysia developing some vertical Axis solutions. Quite an interesting fact.

To reduce the printing cost, I find a site giving great discount up to 80% on inkjet supplies. The site provides links to laser toners and inkjet cartridges of major brands such as Hewlett Packard, Brother, Canon, Lexmark and etc.

You can obtain discount and free shipping coupon of major vendors listed here to enjoy handsome discounts to help you saving.

InkJet Deals also has tips on how to save your ink. I know of printing in economy mode to conserve ink. But leaving the printer on will help to save ink too. A great discovery for me. Every time when an inkjet is switched on, a tiny bit of ink will be used during the start up. One of the tips is telling you how to save ink by using ink saving software, a quite interesting piece of information. The software actually optimizes the printing data so that your printer uses less ink even at high resolution. A considerable option to help saving ink.

You need a Excel password recovery software. It is an easy to use software to unlock the password for Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. Password-Studio Pro cracks the password from instantly to within minutes. It uses Smart Dictionary and Bruteforce hacking methods. With Smart Dictionary, it checks through 5.8 million common password combinations in a matter of minutes.

Password-Studio Pro cracks your password as easy as 1-2-3. First, start the wizard. Second, select an attacking method. Third, reap your rewards.

The software, Evidence Blaster, does not only securely remove any files or folders, it also protect your privacy by clearing all your private information about you in your browsers and email clients leaving no trace of what you did on the Internet. The software helps you to safeguard your job by covering your tracks before your employer can find any from your computer.

Well, there is a website to allow you to copy web site, save it to your local hard disk. Unlike save page in web browsers, the software saves the html code, grabs the graphics, audio and video at lightning speed. Once these have been downloaded and stored on your local hard disk, you can browse off line anytime even though the original page has been removed.

This Web Site Downloader is an useful application to archive websites and/or dynamic contents for future reference. It is easy to use. Just 4 simple steps: 1. Create your project, 2. Enter the URLs, 3. Begin downloading, 4. Start browsing off line!

With proper diet and exercise, we can keep a healthy body without gaining too much weight. What is the best way to lose weight? Well a proper diet plan and good exercise will be the healthy way to stay fit. First, you need weight loss diet plans which fit into your active lifestyle. A balance diet plan is the key to weight loss. It provides the necessary calories to keep you active and enough vitamins and minerals to keep your body functions healthy.

Second, you will need exercise plans to help you to burn your excess calories. A well formulated diet plan coupled with a good exercise plan works best and give good result. But, what is the right diet plans or weight loss program for you?

Weight Loss Diet Help provides a comparison of weight loss diet plans such as Medifast, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers and many others. You can search for the right plans which work for you at one source. In addition, this website also has some articles related to diets, weight loss, weight control and how to stay healthy. You may also find coupon codes at this site so that you can enjoy good discount should you decide to sign up for your diet plan or weight loss program.

People with hair loss will lack confidence while socializing both at work or leisure. Wearing wigs is one of the solution but it can be embarrassing if the wigs fall off. With the advancement in trichology, hair transplant is becoming a more common and effective method in hair restoration.

Hair Transplant Medical is a consumer organization with many experience hair transplant surgeons who have performed many successful transplant. This is the right place to go whether you are looking for a hair transplant surgeon, or information about hair loss and hair transplant.

Worry no more! Litigation Financing will help you to cash against the cash-rich corporation. It’s simple, no credit check, no employment required, fast approval, lowest rate and repay only if you win!

Merry Christmas to all.

The query tool is very easy to use. Just enter your budget and requirement parameters, for example, the monthly fee you are willing to pay, the amount of hard disk space and bandwidth you expect to be provided. Then it will list all the WHPs that fit into your budget and requirement. Simple!

Whether it is for business or personal website hosting, no more wasting time, Web Hosing Choice is the right place to begin with.

After the last incident, I become very careful choosing my friends. I begin to categorized the type of friends with different privilege and close range between them and I. Why? Because I do not allow the 3rd line to be drawn. I do not wish to draw the 3rd line so I became choosy with friends. I only allow those I really trust to come to close proximity of my heart.

It is not easy to draw a line between a previously so called “friend” and me. It takes a lot to draw a line and to break a friendship. Erase the line, you may ask me to. But in my philosophy, good friend is hard to come by. Rotten friends are easily obtainable. I value good friend way far beyond rotten ones.

I will gladly accept their apologies if they ever want to apologize with great sincerity. But I still will not accept them into my life as a friend again. The only difference is a more natural “hello” if we ever meet again in the public.

I treat my friends better than I treat my family. LA knows and she is not happy with this. I can forget those rotten ones but I can’t forget their bad actings. I can forget how good I treat my friends, but I can’t forget how good my friends treat me. No one, including my parents, can ever change me and my principle about friendship.

I may be thinking of throwing a little party at home inviting family, friends and my karate students for some buffet dinner. It will be nice to give little favor to our guests to make their coming a memorable one. There is little favor bundling with some candies of choice at LoveAficionado. It is a new business site we setup recently.

If you would like to surprise your guests and make your party a remarkable one, do drop by LoveAficionado for those cute little favor things. Our new business will also provide event management and event photography services in the near future.

Visit her memorial website here and sign the petition to pursue accountability at UPM.

After our drink, we went up to Jusco to see some electrical appliances. Umi called and told me to come to Coffee Bean and she had something for us. When I went there, she presented the card to me as a gift. Thanks Umi! It is a nice Christmas gift.

The gathering will make new friends and fun! You can exchange ideas, business opportunities, and most of all, have fun! So, tell your other blogger friends in Malacca about this exciting gathering. Send them this post to register.

The date and venue will be announced once I have got enough crowd to move along!

I have to make some kind of decision and it is always difficult to make one. For the whole morning, I had been troubled by this problem until I received a call from my Sensei. His wisdom helps to clear my mind. Even though he has provided his advice, I still need to make a decision, an awful decision which I never did before in my coaching life.

After the whole afternoon of pondering (and napping), I have concluded. It is now waiting for the execution of this conclusion. It will look brutal but is essential to keep a micro society healthy. I will write more about this decision later.

One specific opportunity offered by PPP was a drug rehabilitation website. I was required to blog about their drug or alcohol rehabilitation program. That reminds me of an old-time friend whom we spent many after office hours at pub having happy hours. He became alcoholic and gradually withdrew himself from work and society. The last thing I know is that he is doing great now with a family. I took that opportunity to write about withdrawal symptoms and rehabilitation program and hopefully, people in need of it can find the program easily.

Although blogging can easily make money by just writing about the products or services of the advertisers, bloggers are urged to adhere to blog ethics. Honesty is the most important element for your blog readers to stick around with your blog. If blogger has been dishonest or found to be dishonest by readers, the blog will be deserted and no one will ever come back again. So, it is very important to be honest to your reader.

Another benefits of PPP is that I can learn to blog about products and services. This will improve my writing skill and as well as online marketing skill by blogging a product review or introduction.

The posts tagged under Marketing category are mostly sponsored. I would rather prefer to tag it under Marketing as I find it more appropriate and easy for me to keep track and organize these sponsored posts.

When I started blogging, my site is PR 3 and now, it is PR 4! The higher my PR, the more popular my site will be.

Are you interested to earn money while blogging? Start looking at Pay Per Post now.

If you would like to hire me to blog about your company, website, products or services, please click here.

The Internet has opened up a whole new dimension in our lives. We are able to communicate face to face looking at each other across continents, able to share information with a click of the mouse and etc. Many people has turn home based in this century to conserve earth resources like gas, time and to reduce company expenses. Many businesses also go home based to minimized operating expenditure.

Many people like to have home based business because of minimal capital involvement, flexible working hours, don’t need to meet clients, business across countries’ borders, and you are the boss! Just to name a few. The benefits of having your own Internet home based business have no limits. It is time to discover yourself the benefits of home based business.

What kind of business is good to start you off?

How about phone card affiliate program? USPrepaid.com offers you an attractive package to start you off with a website of your own domain name. Sign up is very simple:

1. Think of a catchy unique .COM domain name.
2. Sign up at USPrepaid.com.
3. Setup your website.
4. USPrepaid will provide you some training.
5. Market your site.

USPrepaid offers over 850 phone card brands with commissions up to 50% but mostly about 22%. Your operating expenses are the $74.95 one-time setup fee and monthly subscription fee of $19.95. There is minimum risk as you don’t have to pay a huge capital upfront. When you have made some sales, your commissions will be paid with cheque. But if you are not residing in the U.S., your commissions will be paid in the form of traveler’s cheque (in U.S. Dollar) via Fedex.

USPrepaid will provide you training for setting up your site, checking inventory, sales and profit; selecting products and setting up prices and all you need to run your Internet home based business. USPrepaid will also design your website and it will be up within 72 hours!

If you are thinking of starting up a low cost home based business with minimum risk, USPrepaid’s phone card affiliate program will be a good start for you.

Technologies such as Internet and mobile phone services such as MMS and 3G have opened up a whole new dimension of marketing channel to businesses and corporation. A new marketing strategy called mobile marketing is increasingly becoming the most popular marketing tools. Businesses can deliver marketing content directly to the palm of targeted consumers.

A survey has found that more brands are ready to spend larger proportion of their marketing budget on mobile campaigns in the very near future. About 71% have projected to spend more than 10% of their marketing budget in mobile marketing campaigns in the next 2 years. The survey have also indicated about 10% of consumers receiving SMS marketing have requested for more information on products and services grew from 32% in 2006 to 58% in 2007. More survey details can be found here.

How do you perform mobile marketing? First, you need to have mobile marketing software. GoLive! Concierge is a industry leader in mobile campaigns management suite. Setting up your campaigns with the software is fairly easy. You can provide services such as: subscription, ring tones and wallpapers download, SMS voting, Text-To-Win, reminders, polling, auction, chat and much more; to your targeted recipients.

GoLive! Mobile is also having an in-house design team to provide your company WAP Site Design or Mobile Website Design. You can host your content with GoLive! Mobile’s WAP Site Hosting or Mobile Website Hosting plan. If you are looking for a complete suite mobile marketing products and services, GoLive! Mobile is the right place to look into.

When a person become drug- or alcohol- dependent, the person will undergo personality changes and will have a lot of mood swing and become emotionally unstable. Gradually, [s]he will withdraw from social and family activities and worst, out of job because no longer competent in the work environment. Their appearance will deteriorate and no longer bother with personal hygiene. When the symptoms left untreated and the dependency continue to linger, it can develop into social problems with violence such as, theft, robbery and murder.

I come across The Watershed Addiction Treatment Program providing drug treatment. WIth facilities located at Boca, Boynton and Houston, Watershed’s program offers medical detox, 12-step involvement program, dependency education, detoxification services, group therapy, individual counseling, inpatient rehabilitation, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, women’s program, family therapy, recreational activities and residential rehab.

It was a long time ago and we have no idea where Hudson is. The last news we heard from his younger brother years ago was that he had gone else where to work and he was no more on alcohol. I believe he has successfully rehabilitated and recover from his alcohol dependency.

The Watershed offers professional program to help people with drug or alcohol abuse problem. I hope this blog entry may help those who need to rehabilitate themselves to have a better and healthier lifestyle. I wish them and our old-time friend, Hudson good luck! I really like to see Hudson again one day.