Recession impact

People around the world been worried about the recession and how big the impact my company got as a local company in Malaysia. My company is doing semiconductor and a listed company in Malaysia. This recession is hitting my company badly as my company starting to cut on the production cost in order to survive from this recession.

Last month was still ok as customer still put lots of order from us, but this month and coming December month will be dropping 30% order and management started to panic about the over production cost versus income.

This month management instructed all section managers to control Over Time in all area and they even come out with 0 OT email announcement to all officer in my company. When come to less order, company shut down will be necessary to cut cost and then follow by cut headcount. And worst to worst, jobless people are increasing and impact economy in this country as well.

As people are looking at this situation is as bad as 1997 now and government still very optimize about it, but I am not sure what their reference about the impact of recession is. No more joke as I can see it myself in my company.

Broadband service still suck

In Malaysia, most of the people have been struggling with the low speed of the broadband provided by service provider. And until today we still not up to the global standard as many countries can provide higher speed than Malaysia.

The Internet is a modern trend. This step in technology has enabled countless people to communicate, to trade and to learn more effectively than ever before. But people still counting on some better offer of broadband service provider to give them less headache broadband service.

As per now, I think TM been monopolize the broadband market but still uncertain with the service provided. And the slow of the technology enhancement on the broadband service still a main concern of today’s consumer.

For other service provider, please speed up the development and make our life better. We are hoping for better future of technology in Malaysia.

NO More fuel Surcharge from Airasia

"No Fuel Surcharge" is introduced for all seats on AirAsia and AirAsia X to relieve guests from paying the fuel surcharge fee. And today onwards you can book for 0 fare seat which Airasia is having promotion for next year starting from June until October.

With "No Fuel Surcharge", AirAsia's seat prices will consist of only the air fare, administration fee and airport tax and you will enjoy even lower cost of travel from AirAsia and AirAsia X. The lower fare will also mean that you'll enjoy more savings, please grab some seat during this promotion period.

This is no kidding as I search thru for KL to Alor Setar flight and it just cost me RM60 for return tickets. In fact, it’s cheaper than go back by bus. Better act fast or this free seat will fully book if you still hesitate.

What I have learn here

Let me start with one interesting fact “Money Changes Everything”. Many of you might know that I am working at one of the local manufacturing company. this term money might be the big challenge in my work.

Base on “Money Changes Everything” statement, many of you might think that I am talking nonsense about this, and every one knows that this is a fact. But any of you really can spend more in your company’s system structure to let a better up time happen for your in-house application? Money is the unspoken, ugly secret that controls every project in your company. If budget is no one would have downtime and all system designs and operations would be prefect (at least theoretically).

The budget in company is one of the first thing management concerns about, it attached strongly to your project and it will determine on what you will be able to achieve, just base on the hardware spec and you will get the picture.

Base on my working experience here, top management are not willing to spend when come to invest on a non-valuable asset like server. Many local manufacturing companies are very rare to see they can invest a bounce of money to develop their in-house system and make it perfectly work in order to assist the main operation work.

So, what I learn in this company is really valuable as I need to work in a tight budget and provide the best system base on what I can provide. This company grows me to a better planner and good in the management mind as I need to take care of the IT budget and provide good solution.

Should we cut EPF contribution?

LOWERING the rate of employees’ contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) temporarily is part of the Government’s bag of tricks to rouse the economy. With lower the rate, people will have more money to spend.

But the main thing that people concern is how much is your EPF will be when you retire?
Can your EPF funds generate enough income for you when you retired? How much else needed if your EPF is not enough?

The EPF interest fluctuates between 4 and 6, if you are lucky this year which government doing well with your money. You can get 6%. Else you will get 4% which not much difference from Fix Deposit.

Assume that you have 50K in your EPF by your age of 30 and you are earning 54K a year. With 23% of contribution of your salary might go to EPF. That means that you will get RM 12420 by end of the year. Plus 6% interest is 13165.

We assume that you are getting 5-10% increment of your salary by end of the year, this is base on normal increment rate. I think you can get about RM 500K by your age of 55 years old. Is this enough for you to retain your living cost after retiring?

With government is implementing the new rate, I think for some people they prefer to take out their money in EPF to invest in other places like stock market by next year.

For those who think that you are not satisfied with EPF savings, you should cut the contribution and start some investment now to gain more fund for your old age living, but bare in mind that investment have their own risk yeah.


With government cut down member contribution to 8%, you can have extra money to invest by next year, but final decision will be on you to cut or not to cut the contribution.

Eyeglasses

“This is a sponsored post”

Nowadays, people wear glasses not just because they have myopia or hyperopia or maybe some other eyesight sickness, it is simply just a trend. Glasses make you look smarter sometimes.

Zennioptical.com is offering wide varieties of eyeglasses. It goes down to as cheap as $8 per glasses online. If you check their website regularly, you’ll find very often there are new arrivals coming in. There are choices for metal, plastic or acetate, stainless steel or memory titanium frames, rimless frames, half rim frames, full rim frames, as well as sunshade models. One of my favourite is the 4933 Stainless Stell Frame with Acetate Temple model. I like the Greek key design at the design. It looks coooool...

You may just shop for your favorite frames from the site and purchase them online. Since the price is so affordable, you can buy more to mix and match with your outfits. The Secret to the Low Prices is that they are selling only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget.
The choices for children frames are plenty as well. The design is abit naughty but very fun looking. One of the designs actually look like a frog.

Do visit Zennioptical.com to find out more!

Today in the history

Refer to the CNN’s news, Obama inspires historic victory. I can see America ready to change and Obama told supporters that "change has come to America," as has its first African-American leader in the history. What a big change!!

When I look back to Malaysia, this cannot be seen at here. Because politician in Malaysia are still playing trick with races issue and make us uncomfortable with stay in Malaysia. Do we still need to stick with old thinking and keep stay with undeveloped mindset? And keep playing with races issue to win the crowd? Please be mature and please look at how other country development.

I don’t know if there is any improvement in the future, if Malaysia does, means that Malaysia already developed to be a better country. I hope I can see this day in my life when Malaysian can live like a one nation one race in this country.

Windows 7

Windows 7 is the next version of Microsoft Windows and the successor to Windows Vista. According to Microsoft's statement Windows 7 would not be released until January 2010 because Windows Vista was released to consumers in late January 2007.

For my point of view, I don’t see Vista is successful enough to replace Windows XP and Microsoft will try to come out with a better solution to replace Windows Vista and Windows 7 might be the ultimate solution for that. They will try to release by next year as I predict. I am not sure how true it is, but I am really looking forward to try it when it’s ready to use.

I think everyone is also very optimize about the development and hope that new version of window can be very useful and suitable for every individual and every professional.

Reduce lottery draw?

Today’s star newspaper, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he felt this was necessary as having 10 lottery draws a week was “too many” and that it would deplete the income of many families, especially in view of the current economic situation.

I think this action is good to take as people are starting to addict with the gamble since the economy is facing down fall. I think people are trying their luck on gamble to gain some “extra Income”.

But the question is how as this will minus some income earning from Lottery Company as they also trying to gain more during the economy crisis.

Will government take some action towards the suggestion? Let’s see in the near future for what will happen.

www.partofthegame.tv

Everyone knows that Carlsberg are a big sponsor for Liverpool. And that also shows that Carlsberg are always a big fan of Football.

Partofthegame.tv is a web tv channel newly launched by Calrsberg. It has 5 channels sharing everything about football and life.

Better still, you can even upload your own favourite football moments to this Carlsberg web-tv channel.

UM is not up to the global standard

I saw interesting news that stated Malaysia’s government plan to attract more foreign students. If they are going to attract people to study at UM, please don’t as I don’t think UM is up to the global standard.

Let’s refer to my case is enough to explain how bad is Malaysia University. I was struggling with my Master’s degree in UM last few months and I gave up earlier this month because of the irresponsibility of my supervisor bring me to the end of the journey of my dream.

Back to 4 years ago as I am not under this lecturer and my previous lecturer are acting the same and lastly she left for further study. When I switched to this lecturer I though she can help me to complete my thesis, but she never mean to help and ask me to change my topic and I need started it over again. Sigh ~~

Last month she told me she is going for a long holiday; and ask me to find another supervisor again. I think I couldn’t find lecturer like this in my life any more. The worst thing about her is always never turn up for the appointment. She can really forgot about the appointment and I need to wait for her like 2 hours and still she never turn up. Another bad habit about her is never reply email.

Just imagine, lecturer working in UM never treat every email importantly. How can you be so irresponsible?

This is unfair for me, and now she is leaving for her stupid holiday without early notice.

So, please reconsider before study at UM. You will struggle when come to “serve” your lecturer. They are simply sucks.

MLM is hot now?

When global financial crisis is under way and product is found with melamine and unsafe to eat, what is the best business to go for. The answer is MLM (multi level Marketing).

This business is damn hot now, I was eating with one of my colleague last night and suddenly he come out with the bad situation of the daily product like milk, biscuit and so on have melamine inside and leading to kidney stone and other renal failure.

The best part is when he touches about their product. He tries to match the current food poisoning problem with their product helps. And even telling us that working at company are not secure any more as we need to do our own so call “business”. Then he tried to show his return from MLM.

I feel they are talking to the wrong person, as some of my friends are doing MLM as well. I am not interested in this business because I don’t think I like the job function. Oppss. Sorry, should be business function. Kakakaka.

But this is getting too much for me as I got lots of call from long missing friend and their motif is to promote MLM as well. What the heck!! Their slogan is the same as can do your own business and at the same time can help people.. Yeah.. Right ~~~ Tell me about that.

At the first place, I am neutral about MLM. But this is too much for me and I started to hate MLM. Hey, friend. If you are doing MLM please try to understand your friend’s situation and don’t losing a friend because of your so call “business”.

How to be a good leader

It’s very easy to be a leader, when you work in a same company for a period and you are performing well. It will come to time for you to lead a team for certain task and hold some responsibility. So, you are a leader.

But the question goes to how to be a good leader? If you are struggling with the formula to be a good leader like me, you might take this as a reference. This things I found it very interesting to have when come to be leader.

1. Communication - communication is the must between you and your down line, this make thing goes easily and team is working between same lines in certain objective. As a team leader you need to spend even more time with your team member to know.

2. Showing good example– most of people never treat this as an important thing when they act like a leader. You as a leader always complain about your boss, your down line will do the same as well. You as a leader always breaking company’s rule. Your down line will follow as well.

3. Appreciate team’s effort – this thing is a must for me as I found and need to practice it like sometime team like to praised, they will feel appreciated when you thank them. I am leaving this company because of my effort never get rewarded. This will make me feel that my work is not being appreciated and the return I got is get scolded when something goes wrong.

4. Really listen to your team - some idea from your team might be good and really listen to their opinion on how to improve the team. Don’t ever try to avoid some good ideas that threaten your position. Don’t always scold them when come to discussion.

5. Catch up with technology – new generations are used to every new technology. So, do accept that technology is improving and learn it if necessary to catch up with team or you will be left out from the team.

I think that’s all I have to say to make a good leader and some of the points I get to know when I refer my boss’s bad behavior, learn from the bad example. kakakaka.. He is going to kill me if he sees this post. Yiak~

Malaysia is not in financial crisis?

This maybe a big question mark for Malaysians today as they realize that the global financial crisis is hitting badly the European countries and as we know it will indirectly hit the Asian markets as well.
Today, government of Malaysia has just announced that our country is not one the countries shaken by the financial crisis. Hmm… Is that true?

Many of us who live in Malaysia are not quite sure of how bad we are hit by the global financial crisis and some people are still optimistic over our current situation and are still betting on the share market and hope that the market will rebound soon and earn some $$$ from that.

From my point of view, I am not sure how bad is the global financial crisis hitting our country but Malaysia economy is definitely in crisis. You can see people trying to cut their spending and you can see this when you hang out at those famous shopping malls in town.

Share markets are insecure because of the news going around and government are trying to make people calm by slowing down falling speed. I think this is a sign of the instability of economy in Malaysia.

I can see people worry about the future of the country situation and some of them think rise of the petrol price is one of the main factors that make Malaysia in this crisis.

Maybe I am wrong about the situation. So, what you think??

It’s safe to keep your money in bank

Everyone is aware of the global financial crisis. Malaysia has agreed to provide a blanket guarantee on all bank deposits in their respective banking systems. I think this is considered a good news for Malaysian as people worried global financial crisis will hit Malaysia’s banks.

Today people are taking out their investment fund at trading market and put back to bank as safest place to keep their money. This is an ideal plan as now you might don’t know what is going to be for Malaysia share market because the uncertainty of the global financial situation makes investor escape from the infection.

For those who really keep track of the Malaysia trading market should aware that index points been drop to 27 Months low and it still showing bad sign.

So, I predict that people will think that it’s better to save money in bank rather than do some investment now.

Running around the office?

In this company, people are not familiar with IT system and the infrastructure of the IT. I always get scold because of sitting at my place when some problem occurs like System hang, Headquarters’ email server down.

Especially when email server down, by that time I need to remote checking on the email server or contact headquarters’ counterpart to check for me on the problem. My boss will come out from his office and scold me why you still sitting at here and doing nothing? I was like hello!! Should I run around the office and shouting email is down and does like fire is burning and shouting “Email server is down!!! I am fixing it by running around!!!”

Today it happens again, what to do?? You are the boss, you like me to run around; I will do that for you. Kakaka…

Can someone predict future?

Predicting future is an unexplainable phenomenon and still able to capture believers around the world. Let’s me make it clearer about the word - prediction. Making a prediction means describing an event that will take place in the future, in the past this was often called a prophecy.
There are many types of prophecy in the world. People make predictions by judging the patients’ reaction, analyzing their hands and many more. Can they really see future of you? The fact remains, no one can make accurate predictions consistently. Some predictions are correct and maybe they just got good luck. Though many of them would dispute luck is the main factor of the successful “prediction”.

I used to bet on football games. I can predict the score correctly and consistently for 5 matches. So, that means I can predict the future. What I can say is that that was just a good result from a bit of luck plus good match and historical analysis.

I do not believe in fortune telling and I think no one can predict my future. What if you tell me: “This coming November is much better time for me to start a new business”? I mah need to borrow some money from Ah Long or Bank to start an unknown business as I never plan one. Sigh~~~

And the story might not end by November, you might come back to me and tell me: ”you missed a golden opportunity and you never have luck after this.” Then I mah as well as go to die because no luck liao. Sigh~~~

As I said, no one can really predict the future. Please do more preparation and planning for your future rather than just wait for predictions that might or might not be true.

I am back after dropping my master thesis

Today I feel relaxed after after making a final decision to drop my Master’s thesis from my life. I have been struggling with thesis progress, changed title, changed supervisor, and out from blogging for like 3 months. I am back now to blogging world again and started to focus on my own system again.

It’s a bit painful when come to decide not to continue my thesis after I have finished almost 60% of my system and finish half of my documentation. This decision came to me after I saw my lecturer’s last email. That comes with long story below.

Starting from this semester, my supervisor committed to me and said she would help me on my thesis as I've decided to make it the final semester for my Masters. So, I've dated with her that I will make it Fridays as our appointment day to discuss my thesis. For the first few weeks were progressing fine. She tried to discuss with me when we met.

Slowly, she was back to the kind of attitude just like the previous semester that she was always not around on Fridays. I always waited for 1 hour and left a note for her hoping that she can get back to me. And immediately after I went back to my house, I sent her an email for appointment the week after. And I waited for a week and she still never replied. The situations continue until last week. She sent me an email to make an appointment on 29th Sept 2 days before Raya. Previously I am ok with the date, but unfortunately as my role in my company as a technical support, I need to work on that day. I sent her an email to postpon the appointment but never got any replied from her. I thought she was ok with the plan to meet her this week.

But last night she sent me asarcastic email and said that I didn’t turn up for the appointment as she allocated the whole day for me. I was like stunned and the best part is she mentioned that she will on leave starting from November and back on January for some plans. I almost fainted when I saw this.

I think this is not a sudden decision to take leave, she should have planned it from the beginning of the semester. She was trying to push the responsibility to me that will make her feels better. I don’t think this is fair for me. And I need to find another lecturer to follow up on my thesis? And maybe I need to change my thesis title again because new supervisor never understand about my thesis?

With this kind of lecturer around, I think UM’s rankings is going to drop again.

Now, I am kind of release from tension after all as I need not to act cute in front of someone like my supervisor. No need to act nice when my lecturer did something wrongly. Keep sending her email to make appointment even though no response from her.

So, I am back !!!!!!

My Chatting Program

Many of you might know that I like to create program. This is one of my creations as I am using PHP, ajax, MySQL to create a simple chatting program. This is part of my Master’s thesis system, as I need a chatting panel to communicate when doing the PACT analysis.

Off cause this is not purely my creation, I read lots of books, search thru lots of web site then I come out with my own one. It looks very simple, but I really need a simple one for my system.

Below are print screen of my chatting panel. Isn’t it look very simple?

Chatting panel

I am testing using 2 type of browser and it really working fine. After I entered the text it appear directly. This is what we call responsive web site. hehehe....

Chatting panel view after press enter

The Cave, SS2

We had a birthday celebration come gathering at The Cave last nite. The Cave is kind of a hang out place in SS2 lately. I’ve seen some bloggers talking about it.

We didn’t make any booking, therefore there’s no special Cave room for us. We basically have to share the cave with others.

Altogether there are 4 floors in there. The biggest cave (which is the whole floor) is on the 3rd floor, and there’s a bar area. 2nd floor was closed last nite, so I couldn’t see. And the 1st floor has all the couple caves. The ground floor is where the reception is. It has a rather small waiting area.

The food was ok, erm.. not really great. But it has lots of varieties, from fusion, chinese, snacks, burgers to western. The food is rather pricey, a ‘Wat Tan Hor’ is priced about RM12, and a chicken chop is about RM24. And it comes with 10% service charge and 5% govt tax. Overall, I think The Cave is worth a try, especially for the interior.

** Oh, and if you feel chilly, you may get the waiters to get you a blanket.