Do broadband service speeds impact surfing

Have to say that Malaysia’s service Provider been struggling to provide faster speed for broadband with cheap. If I am not mistaken, the maximum speed is 4MB. And it’s only provided at certain area. You might not able to get this service if you staying out of the town.
Will it be a major problem for subscriber? Do every individual felt frustrated with the slow speed surfing problem?

Technology is growing from day to day, web site is grow from static to dynamic and also now they treat web as a service. Which is one of the priciples of the Web 2.0.
Now lots of web site even provides online demo features for users to test the software online, but with slow access level, users are failed and frustrated with the web itself. In fact, the problem is the access download rate problem.

Microsoft just launch the windows Server 2008, I just went thru their web site. I feel very slow with the response time, it’s because of the bandwidth or website itself.
I really need some one to tell me on that.

Google, yahoo topped online brand again.

When you talk about branding, this is to see how popular the brand in the market. As we all know that Coca-cola is always the world famous brand. Coca-Cola has been named the world's top brand for a fourth consecutive year in a survey by consultancy Interbrand.

Base on JupiterResearch research recently. Google and Yahoo are top of the favorite online brand surveyed by online users.

36% of users voted Google as their favorite online brand, letting yahoo behind with 32% of votes.

Just wonder when will be a new brand after google and yahoo to take over the online branding rankings.

Going off from today

Today I am going to off half day and will only start to work by next Monday.
Just because tomorrow is my sister’s convocation and my parents is coming down to attend her convocation, I off for a week to bring them around. At the same time I can take a rest from the busy work, what an excuses for me to rest.

My sister graduated from UPM by majoring in Landscape architecture. She struggled for 4 years to achieve her dream. And finally she got it.

She is the youngest in my family, so, considered my parents really can retire after this. And can go to travel from now as well. I am really looking forward to bring them around the world, kekeke…This might be not achievable, but I will work hard for that.

So, might just see your all next week. Or maybe can meet me up at UPM (University Putra Malaysia)

First win of the session

Thank to the goal from Nani, Man Utd finally got the first win for the session.
That was very scary match, as Man utd can say survived from the last 25 Minutes from unlucky Spurs.
I can see some inprovement from Nani's play. He played quite well today and scored a stunning goal from his hard working play style. The Shot was very wonderful, his stunning 30-yard effort flying into the top corner of Robinson's net.
So, I hope can see Man Utd will keep working hard to break into top of the league.
Let's keep winning from now!

Crimes in Malaysia

Snatch theft is the crime that has grabbed the attention of Malaysians lately.
Everyday, the media doesn't fail to report o­n yet another snatch theft crime committed.

I just witnessed once last night when went to have dinner at stall at Taman Bahagia. I was not able to help when that happens, just because it’s happening too far from my stand place.

I just find out that they come with a plan, I think they should well known with the place, and also with the equipment needed. Some one is waiting with bike, while his partner was jump down to snatch the wallet.

Even though this crime isn't anything new to this country but the recent spate of snatch thefts throughout has increased in an alarming rate.

We, the public at large are feeling victimized as well, as we live in fear of falling victims to these criminals every time they are out in public.

Is this to be a Malaysian culture? Is this what we want in our country?

And back to last week Tuesday, when I got to know my mom is robed by some Indian guys who claim they are come to correct charity. And my mom is too generous and trying to donate some. But end up it’s come into my house and take all the properties from my house. Thank god my mother never gets hurt.

Last Thursday (16 august), another crime happened just in front of my house. Victim is my housemate. My housemate always takes bus when coming back from work. There are one guys waiting for her and stop her from walking back with a knife and ask her to hand over the wallet.

Do Malaysia really a dream home for us? Do Malaysia is a place that really safe to stay?
We dream of a Malaysia that is excellent, glorious and distinctive. May that dream be a reality?

I hope this post will become guides for public to really aware on the crime that happen from day to day. Share with me if there are more types you witness before.

Customs Malaysia to go Electronic

I just came back from the so-called discussion for implementing systems of Customs Form declaration. As my company is located at Free Industrial Zones (Sungai Way), we need to declare customs form for all import and export transactions.

Basically today's session is to talk about pricing and concerns about e-Declare. e-Declare is developed by a local e-business company called DagangNet.

I think the online Customs form declaration implementation is showing that our Government is moving towards the paperless era. But on the other hand, costing for some companies will increase drastically after the implementation.

Just look at the packages you should purchase in order to use the e-Declare:
1-time Registration = RM1400
Stamping Fees = RM10
Module Access = RM660

And every month, you have 3 options to go for:
1. Submit thru forwarding agent, which will charge you RM30 per form.
2. Direct subscriber, use e-Declare. RM235 per month and RM1.20 per 1KB. We were told that 1 transaction will take up approximately 4 KB. So, it should be RM4 per transaction. RM180 is for mailbox, and RM55 is for access fees.
3. Submit thru Dagangnet Facilitation Point, which they call it “kedai” DagangNet, is RM22 per form

Gosh…

Just imagine one factory might have 20 transactions per day (small factory, not including big nam like Western Digital. I think WD can easily reach 50 transactions per day), and there will be more then 1000 factories that are dealing with factories in FIZ. So 1 transaction will cost RM4. RM4 x 20 Transactions x 1000 Factory, easily DagangNet can earn RM40K per day and RM1.2 millions per month. This is only based on monthly transactions. And the monthly fees to pay is RM235. They will be earning RM2.35 millions from 1000 factories per month.

So, monthly earning for dagangNet will be RM 3.55 millions.

And don’t forget, it is just calculating fees for FIZ sungai Way. What about Bayan Lepas? Ulu kelang? And lots more.

So, please stock in some shares from UEM World counter, as DagangNet is own by UEMWORLD.

Explore the sky with Google Earth

Google Earth (version 4.2) have enhance it features to explore the sky. what a interesting features.

Previous version already build in with earth, , moon and Mars images, now they take another interesting step to let users explore the different area of the universe.

let's come together and explore the sky.

Hire for attitude

When come to hire people, you need to find a way to discover and decide who has the most potential for the empty position. Hire people is not as easy as you though, some people can have great resumes and presentable interview, but they turn up to be a turtle when it comes to productive and personality. Slow progress is the main issue of them, and some so called “value added personality” will demotivate your team. At the same time, people come with low expectations and blow the team out of the water with hard work and a great attitude.

So, what is the right direction to great hiring strategy?
I think base on my experience, the main focus will be attitude.

That’s why big company are concern about attitude during work when come to hiring, I been to some big name company in Malaysia for Interview. They are seriously not so focus on my technical skills. Mostly 90% of the question is towards my personality, I was too curious why they ask me about my social life and never got to care about my technical skills.

Today, I understand and totally agreed that attitude is the main focus when come to hiring. I come across with this issue when deal with my down line nowadays. I find it very difficult to handle people with bad attitude. As some of the people is not hire by you. It is bad to take over some people from other’s people supervision and take care of them. As before they join your team, you already know that they got attitude problem.

These are the habits that I found for bad example:

1. Late with lots of excuses


2. Always take MC (medical leave)


3. Always take EL(Emergency leave)


4. Always argue with you


5. Always left the unfinished work behind


6. No skills but pretend that they are good


7. Always bring problem and argue that it’s not their fault.


8. Take break time more than allowed.


9. “Disappeared” during work.


10. The Worst :Scold you when you argue with them


11. And lots more.

Base on what I experienced. I totally agree that when come to hiring, we must focus on people’s attitude. So, Hire for Attitude… pLease….

Mybloglog Error for my screen Name

I just wonder why my profile been edited by site admin, as previously I registered my name as Jason_eng. I don’t know since when my display name been changed to XYZ_Jason_Eng. Is this an error?

Picture showing my name is correct

Msg from Eric showing my Display name as Jason_Eng

I have been trying to change my Screen name from edit Profile function. But the column is disabled by Mybloglog.. So, this is obviously not I who change the name.

now name been changed

send message screen name also different

Started to focus on study

I am starting back my study after been stop for 4 semesters because of fail to commit to the fees of study. This year is going to be a good year for me to start back my study as I just get some time from my company to focus.

I went to meet my new supervisor to talk about the new title for my thesis. I will be focusing on the collaboration tools to define the interface design as I realize that to deliver a good interface design is not as easy as you expected.

Why I am choosing this title? It’s just because I been gone thru with lots of web nowadays, been struggling to design a user friendly, visibility interface design. This is how I learn the interface design is the most important part of the application or web.

I will really focus on this title and deliver by next year. After graduate, I can advance in my career as well.

Disappointing Start for Man Utd

After just 3td match of the session, Man Utd failed to get a win from these match. what a disappointed start.

I can see the progress of the team to find the winning formula is stuck when they gave away lucky win for Man City. Man Utd dominated the whole match, but failed to find the scoring touch from absent of the duo stars Rooney and Ronaldo.

Just after 3 matches, we been left out by 7 points behind the leader. Next match will meeting the Spurs, we need to find the winning form if want to catch the EPL title again. really can't wait for get the first win by this session.

Hotel Reservations

I will be having a few trips by early next year. Bangkok, Macau, Hong Kong and most probably Cambodia. I’ve started searching for hotels, just to see if I’m lucky to get any early birds’ hotel rates.

So I check on Hotel Reservations website, which offers very good online booking rates. The site actually covers a wide range of hotel bookings from US, Canada, Central and South Americas, Europe to Asia. I started searching for Asia’s destinations. The bookings are not only for hotels, but also motels, resorts, cruises, car rentals, vacation rentals and flights.

There are a lot of attractive packages offered from the site. The rates offered for Bangkok Hotel are low. For example, I’ve been to SOFITEL CENTARA GRAND BANGKOK in Bangkok before (sometime around early this year). This is a really cool place to stay in. The price I paid for was about 4000 Bht, but the rate I got from HotelReservations.com is only about 3200 Baht. I am really impressed with the discounted rates.

Furthermore, the site do provide map of the hotel. And it shows you what attractions are around that area, and also the landmarks, with distance stated. Just make sure you don’t miss those spots.

I would recommend all travelers around the world to take a look at the site as it covers world wide destinations. There are services like group booking, super hot deal of the month, instant confirmation booking, flight bookings, and car rental bookings. More and more, it provides information such as destination guides, and road trips near you for the travelers as well. Photos are enclosed as well. But of course, you don’t make your judgment just based on the photos right?

So, do try out HotelReservations.com whenever you wish to travel around the world. Sure it won’t disappoint you!

Things to do before buying graphic card

As the technology is changing from day to day, buying PC accessories also need some input to make sure that you bought a correct product for your PC.

Let’s talk about buying graphic card, if you want to purchase a graphic card yourself, first thing you must do is Check whether slots are available for your new graphic card. This is common reaction that will do by every user.

Slot type will be another thing to make sure for adding a new graphic card. There are 3 types of computer expansion card interface format for graphic card.

1. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
   PCI is now an old standard dating back to the early 90's and no longer fits our needs in terms of speed/performance.
2. Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
   AGP also is in a similar position as PCI now, base on the performance and reading rate provided, Manufacturer is decided to kill off the produce of the AGP standard’s graphic card.
3. PCI express (PCIe)
   PCI express is much faster than PCI and also AGP. Today, PCI-SIG is working on the PCI-Express 3.0. Almost all of the high end graphics cards being released today from ATI and NVIDIA use PCI Express. This is because of the high bandwidth data transfer of PCI Express.

Please refer to the article for further Information. And also refer to the layout of the interface.

Speed for graphic card and the purpose of buying this graphic need to be determined after understand the slot type. For gamer or graphic designer, they need a high end graphic card to produce results from their expertise.

Budget will be in the consideration as well to make sure you never over spend for your graphic card. And save some money for other accessories.

Not just another Monday

Just another Monday…. Felt tired as usual, I drag myself out of bed and hoping for a heavy rain, car break down, sick, anything to keep me from going to work. I finally made it into the office and enjoyed my coffee of the day to make the day a little easier.

Yes, today is Monday again, and this day is the beginning of the routine week again. If you don’t believe, you see for the past week life has been anything but routine or normal. When you come to Monday, it will be the beginning of every routine for a week

Eventually after lunch, this Monday morning turn to be different for me, as I just got some aim in my life. I plan to finish my master between these 2 semesters. I had been struggling to finish my master for the past few years because of some personal reason. Today turn out to be a day for me to rethink about what I should do for the next year.

Just after a month of my birthday, I began my Monday with the strongest feeling in my life to planning for the less of my life.

EPL kick off tonight

Today is the long waiting new session kick off day. First match will be Sunderland Vs Tottenham Hotspur. That will be an interesting day for the EPL as what we will know soon that what can a newly promoted team can do in EPL’s Opener.

Tomorrow will be my favorite team Man Utd gets into their first match VS Reading. At the mean time while waiting for my house to ready for move in. I might hang out with my friends at Mamak tonight for first match of the session.

This session will be more interesting as all the team signed in new faces, and all the managers are confidence with their team layout. As I always told my friends, any thing can happen in soccer. So, only team with consistency will stand top in the new sessions in terms of League.

How Currency Exchange Rates Affect Business Opportunity

This is part of the knowledge I earn from this company. My company is a semiconductor manufacturer.

Let’s start with the product’s production cost. Company A won a bid in manufacturing handphone chipset for Company B from Japan, and the stated production cost is RM0.0235 per unit, comparing to self-production cost of RM0.0245 after the currency conversion.

The currency exchange rate obviously plays a role here, where Company A might lose the business after a result of a 7 per cent decline in exchange rates for Yen, the cost will go down to RM0.0225 with Company B to go for self-production. Which means a better rate compared to outsourcing to Company A. From there, Company B might decide to cut down the production volume outsourced to Company A.

Same concept when we want to sell a product at ebay or amazon, when RM currency exchnage rate increases againt USD, people will need more USD to purchase the same product. If the product is considered more expensive after currency exchange, do u think people in US will still buy from Malaysia?

Actually for companies that are liaising with overseas market, currency exchange rate effect might be in considerations to attract more business.

TechEd SEA 2007

As a Web developer, I have been looking around for latest tools to catch up with technology today. By September TechEd SEA 2007 claim as the largest annual conference from Microsoft in the South East Asia region, will be happen by 10 to 13 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tech•Ed SEA 2007 features:
More than 120 breakout sessions
This year’s event will feature even more speakers from Microsoft Corporation allowing you to hear about your favorite technologies from the sources who develop them. Create a personal learning program from 6 technical tracks with more than 120 breakout sessions.

Hands-on experiences
Tech•Ed offers opportunities to evaluate products both from Microsoft and from 250 of our most important industry partners. Additionally, based on attendee feedback from last year, we will be more than doubling the number of Instructor Led Lab sessions as well as introducing a whole host of new self-paced Hands On Lab content.

Networking with your peers
Walking around Tech•Ed are more than 2,000 minds just like yours. 2,000 IT pros and developers to meet. 2,000 opinions to consider. Add to the mix Microsoft product team members and industry gurus and you will immediately see why a Tech•Ed crowd is like no other.

For more information about TechEd SEA 2007, please look at link below: http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/techedsea2007.

Since the promotion is still valid until 15 August, I think I still got time to catch it because dateline. I missed last year event as there is some projects going on, this year I wish I can go and but still seeking for approval from management. So, hope to see you all there.

Pre-Session with a Cup

I've just finished watching the game between Man Utd and Chelsea for FA Community Shield. Man Utd started with a cup on hand this session. Man Utd just won the FA Community Shield 3-0 on penalties after the match had finished 1-1 after 90 minutes.

Tonight was Edwin's night, as he managed to save all three of the penalties taken by Chelsea players. Really world class. Claudio Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips were abit unlucky to face Van Der Sar when taken the spot kick.

This is showing a good sign of the return on big investment during summer. But I am still waiting for Owen Hargreaves to show me what he can do for Man Utd.

Really excited to catch up with EPL actions again.

Disabled-friendly facilities to fly Airasia

Referring to my previous post, Protest held against AirAsia, Airasia announce that they will invest RM6mil to provide ambulifts and aisle chairs for wheelchair-bound passengers today. And great to say that there are no additional charges for disabled to use these services.

According to source, the services will be ready by 3 months later. It shown that Airasia really response to the Protest that held.

I am really looking forward to see the completion of the facilities.

Online Coupons

I actually did quite some online shopping these days. You know, buying books, computers, or even gifts. Most of the online stores are able to offer very attractive rates.

I came across this website, named couponchief.com. It is a website that offers online coupons with very good deals. There are a number of big names in the featured stores, such as Dell, Adidas or even Amazon. I did find some very attractive Amazon deals, and since I did do some transactions with Amazon, I think I can save even more with CouponChief.com.

Found some very interesting Simpsons toys with KB Toys coupons. Hehe.. I am thinking perhaps I can get Teevan (who is now in Boston) to bring me back some when he is back later.

Tech skills for now and future

Nowadays, Computer becomes a popular tool for communication between Clients in one organization. Look back to the late 80’s, IT professionals been working so hard to learn about NetWare and IPX/SPX administration will be the first priority skill to develop and catch up with technology that time.

Today, we have been talking about TCP/IP and the Internet, where all individuals can communicate with each other by connecting to the internet by using user friendly tools.
When internet age is taking over, some of the tech skills we need to know or develop. Let’s see from the below:

1. Wireless technology
Even the wireless technology is not a famous protocol to apply in the enterprise, but we have to know that wireless LANs is the most convenience way to connect internet. There will be new enhancement for this technology soon.

2. Voice Over IP
Have to admit that the VOIP is the famous telephone service for enterprise due to the cost and convenience factors. One of the famous VOIP tool is SKYPE. As more companies will be invest in the VOIP as because VOIP runs on the TCP/IP network and IT professionals may need to know this technology in order to manage well the administrator work.

3. Unified communications
Unified communications is growing along side with the growing popularity of the VOIP. The concept of the Unified communications is to convergence of different communications technologies, such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and fax. Users will expect to have access to all their communications from a single interface from a variety of devices like PCs, laptops, smart phones/PDAs, traditional phones. Some of the big names in IT like Microsoft, Cisco, IBM also provide Unified communications Tools or solutions.

4. Multi-platform knowledge.
There was a time where all Windows and All-Unix network is in place, we only have some skill on troubleshooting one particular platform. With Linux is coming huge with the new OS like Ubuntu. We will likely to see some organization deploying it on the desktop for certain users.

5. Software as Service
The next generation of the internet which is Web 2.0 is growing with none stoppable. Software as Service is all about delivering applications over webs. Sooner some organization will move from which is installed personally in individual’s machine will be taking place by Application over WEB.

6. Virtual machines
Virtual machine has been a headline for almost every single organization. Microsoft had been invested huge amount to come out with it Virtual PC, Virtual Server. Since there are multi-platform to be applying in one organization, I highly believe that virtual PC and Virtual Server will be the solution to check the compatible of the OS.