Bouncing Tyres Video

I'm revamping the look of most of my blogs that I've created. I also created a new blog which I'll reveal later. So, it is time to take a break for a while. The video below is quite interesting. I don't understand what is the message but it's fun to watch:

Microsoft Mobile & Embedded Devcon 2006 Event

Last year, I went to the MEDC 2005 where I blogged about it (click here if you are interested to read all about last year's event). This year, I went to the event again but in a different location. To be honest, I like last year's event better than this year one. Also, how time flies, it's been a year already? Damn...

As usual, I took shots of the event and tell you reviews of what I thought. Here's the first shot:

Probably because of the venue, there seem to be less people than last year. By the way, I got my new laptop bag from the event. It's only a matter of time before my last year's laptop bag shoulder strap snapped. The bag is bigger than last year's though.

I paid an early bird price of RM50 which was the same amount I paid last year. If not, I had to pay RM80. That's not a good sign, soon they'll probably increase the price the following years which I hope would not.

The montage of the stage is blue. I like blue. The music is nice too, some techno music they put on.

They have these nice plasma displays. I wonder how much does it cost to buy one.

One of the speakers is a big guy, his name is Tan Loke Uei. I like his presentation, he emphasized on the difference between a designer and a developer. As for him, he is a developer so he's not really particular with the design, as long as it can work, it is fine with him. Hmm..let me think, I'm also a developer but I like to do design too. So which part am I? Most probably developer because my design sucks..haha..

Last year, I tried the Hands-on lab they provide. This year, I was relunctant to try because my company doesn't focus on mobile application yet. If so, I had to juggle with all the time consuming paperworks and office management apart from managing the company's website. Oh well, I should learn to delegate now. The booths at the conference is not as many as last year's.

So, the conclusion. I went home early and didn't stay until the end of the event. If only some companies can pay me a full time job developing mobile application alone and not doing unnecessary other stuff that I'm doing right now. I got another another seminar to go tomorrow about affiliate marketing. Hope it could give me a few ideas to execute the plans I have in my head.

Career Change? Maybe..Maybe Not?

Yesterday, I went to one of the most busiest shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur. As usual, during the weekend, the Midvalley Megamall is packed with thousands of people. Some went there for shopping, some for dating and some to window shopping. I went there for a Career and Job Fair at the Midvalley Exhibition Center, located at the upper most floor, the same level as the GSC Cinema.

With the increase of business activities, the human capital is a huge industry and involves big money. No wonder how jobs portal keep springing up these days. I can even buy and customize my own job portal using open source web software available on the internet, of course I need someone to help me as I'm only good at installing and changing the usability and appearance. I'm not good on PR, seeking sponsors and most importantly, finding new clients. Anyway, JobsDB.com has done a good job expanding their business, so kudos to them.

Let me walk you through my entire experience attending this Career & Education Fair 2006. To get into the exhibition hall, you need to become a registered member of JobsDB.com first. If you are not a member, you can register using the computers available:

There was one chinese lady who got fed up with the online registration (I must say that it's quite tedious), she just left the place with her mouth complaining about the form. I know in today's ultra competitive world, list building is the most profitable thing to do these days. However, I think it should be made easier or else it will turn off a lot of people.

After the registration, you'll received this:

Now this is the first time ever I had to wear a wristband in an exhibition, I wore a waterproof wristband before but for an amusement park. It feels strange but I then forgot that I'm wearing one.

Here's a few more shots inside the exhibition halls:

An online multi-purpose portal, I could build one myself but it's too much work plus I have to do too much work promoting it to get traffic there. By thw way, the portal uses ASP programming language which is Microsoft's programming language. I would prefer a more cost saving open source PHP+My SQL database. Oh well, these companies have loads of money.

The main organizer's booth. I think DB stands for 'Database'. Database is a crucial stuff for a company, if the database is corrupted, they are screwed. I wish I had the money to get a professional certificate in database administration. Huge salary would have been waiting for me then..haha..

Another high salary job is to become a SAP consultant. If you don't know what SAP is, according to wikipedia, "SAP is the third-largest software company in the world. It ranks after Microsoft and Oracle in terms of market capitalization. SAP is the largest business application and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution software provider in terms of revenue." So if you are an IT graduate and you can understand big systems with higher level of jargons (like I do..hehe), this is a great option to consider. If I'm not mistaken, the salary would be no less than RM4,000. A basic course to get a certificate with SAP is RM25,000. That would make a return on investment (ROI) in no more than 7 months, that is less than a year. Oh god, why did I took mechanical engineering before. I'm so lack of exposure during my course selection.

Anyway, because the life of a business is determine by cashflow, most of the companies are looking for people to do sales for them. It's not uncommon to see sales position everywhere, if you can do sales, then you are employable almost everywhere regardless of your qualification. Well for me, I have an interest in doing sales but it depends of what company,product or services I represent. If I'm sold to it, then it should be fine, but most of the time I feel like I'm forced to promote so it is a battle within myself to become a sales driven person.

This exhibitionis more preferable to me than the one I attended earlier. It's more focused, more hungry looking companies and there's little free giveaways. I don't really like bringing back loads of free stuff, brochures only to put it away in the trash bin. This event really inspired me to change my career that I spent a couple of hours last night drafting my cover letter and resume to be submitted to a company who has my interest right now. I think I have to deal with my fear of change first before I can proceed. I'm so comfortable yet I'm not satisfied with my life yet.

Through this blog, do you think I did a good job selling my blog to you? If so, do comment about it. I'm thinking of shifting to do corporate sales. I did the resume and cover letter, however I'm still not so sure whether to submit it or not. I have so many fears to overcome. So, should I switch career or not? A question only myself could decide. All the best to myself and to all job seekers out there!!

An Inspiring Video To Watch

Have you ever watched 'Forrest Gump'? I like that movie, it has been played twice on my local television. It's a story about a straightforward kind of guy who just do what his mama says. Maybe it sounds like stupid to most of you but it's okay. Forrest Gump is one of a kind and I'm not sure if the man really exist or not.

I love YouTube. I can spend countless of hours looking at the videos there. I subscribe to a few other blog that catches my interest on my RSS Reader and I couldn't help but to blog about this amazing video I found:

Now here is a real life example of a guy who just do whatever he likes doing. Although he is not wealthy, I like that he just did whatever he wanted. It's sort of like fulfilling your dream. I think I need to plan something like he does but of course not exactly what he did. He also produced this amazing video which thousands of people are already watching. Guess what, he was sponsored by a corporate body. Take your time to watch this, it will worth it.

Annoying Customer Service Agent

Earlier this month, I wrote about TMNet Did It Again. A collegue/best friend of mine subscribed to TMNet Streamyx a few months ago, little that he knew the service that he subscribed gave up on him and it has been nearly 2 months of back and forth calling the TMNet customer service. He finally made the decision to cancel his account, unfortunately there is an uninformed or could probably be unwritten policy that those who applied and used any Telekom Malaysia services must use their services for at least one year before you can finally terminate it. So, if you have a phone line and you wanted to switch or terminate it, your account must be more than a year. If you are planning to have an account, think carefully before applying eventhough there are special offers being offered to you which is hard to resist.

I found this conversation on the internet about a customer of (America Online) AOL (a once internet mega company in the US) and one of their customer service. Since I was a tele-marketer, I know what it is like to confront customer over the phone. Of course the tagline 'The customer is always right' is valid to all businesses but from a different perspective, the customer service agent is just an employee and a normal person. However, the top management needs to respond to the numbers of declining call from their customers. It is sometimes not the fault of the customer service agent. To listen to the call, right click on this link and 'save as' the file in your pc.

Going back to TMNet Streamyx stuff, I was a bit surprised to know that the broadband penetration in Malaysia is 1.9% only. Studies shown that with the type of internet growth the country have, by 2010, the penetration would only be 13%. 1.9% is so small, now wonder TMNet streamyx is actively promoting their services everywhere. Interesting to know is that, 20% from the 1.9% of broadband user in the country is using 80% of the bandwitdh already. No wonder my broadband services kept interrupted. I think this all because of the peer to peer software that is congesting the bandwitdh. People are sharing videos, big files and stuff online. TMNet should invest on a bigger infrastructure than spending their money on flashy advertisements.

If you like to read more about this, you can go to strange symphonies blog.

Conclusion, I hope the internet would be used by more people everywhere. ;-)

The Brain Drain

I didn't go anywhere during my last Sunday. I know for some people that is unusual because I am still young and I should be partying or go out doing activities out there. Instead, I chosed to stay and spent time inside the house. I can sit for hours in front of my laptop and get carried away doing my usual stuff online. Yesterday I found an interesting fact and it answered a lot of my questions regarding how the energy on our body is utilized eventhough we sometimes didn't do anything much.

The recent shortage of sugar supply in the local market recently has hit a lot of people. I myself find it difficult to buy even a pack of sugar. So, why is sugar is so important and what is it has to do with my post today? Sugar or its other name, glucose is one of the main fuel a human body needs to have in the system. The brain, consumes almost 10% of the entire energy supply for the body. 10% is a lot of energy, it could be more if you use the brain more oftenly. I find myself using my brain so often, I get so tired and just went to sleep and dream during my night time.

So, since glucose is burned to produce energy inside our body and 10% of it goes to the brain alone, does that mean big or fat people can just rely on their brain to burn their excessive fat? Not really..If you like this topic, you can read more about it at The Human Brain - Carbohydrate. The page explains in length about:

• Brain Energy Demand
• Brain Power – The Energy of Thought and Memory
• Too Much Blood Sugar – Too Little Brain Sugar
• Soft Drinks are Hard on Your Brain
• Sugar, Diabetes and The Brain
• How to Control Blood Sugar Swings

I'll give you the link again here.

Wow.. just look at how significant sugar is in our lives. I'm so used to have sugar in my meal, I can't imagine if someday in the future, there will be less sugar supply. I hope the sugar factory continue to do their noble job for the public instead of fighting over its price.

I'm Web Surfing From Germany

I love surfing the world wide web and I'm hooked at doing it. I can stay online for hours and even skip my meal. Well, not really..I eat as usual and on time normally. Oh, I'm surfing the net from Petaling Jaya, not from Germany. I know almost every people is being hit by the World Cup fever so Germany is the main highlight these days.

I'm waiting for my Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) class to commence which would probably next week. I love to learn about network and the possibility of connectivity. Recently I did a review about Free Web Hosting on my other blog. Here's the headlines and the link of it:

• Is Free Web Hosting Reliable?- Part 1
• Is Free Web Hosting Reliable?- Part 2

One of the free web hosting I registered would allow me to access from my office. I can only access the webhost from my house where I live, about 30km from my office. So, I suspect that the network my office is using has been blacklisted by the net provider where the webhosting is using because when I tried accessing the website using Guardster, it went through. This morning I tried using a software called Hide IP, it connected me to a network on Germany:

As you can see, I use a lot of tools to help me through my web surfing activities. So, now I can access the website where I have built using the free webhosting. Try and accessing my new website/blog Ashrufzz Another Blog. Well, back to work now, I'm building a couple more of websites, the ultimate goal is to build up a huge network of my own website and build traffic from it. It would be fun to see traffic coming from all over the places. Try using Google Analytics and you'll get the feel of what I'm feeling. Adios people..

Am I A CEO Already?

If you happen to be noticing my profile, I aspire to become an entrepreneur. However, I have yet to unleash what I really wanted to do because of the lack of direction. I tried to find a mentor to help me on my self discovery but my effort didn't work out very well. Instead, I'm now trapped with a mentor (my current employer) who has been struggling in his own business for over 22 years. Well, I can't really blame anyone else because I have to power to choose whatever I like.

I read this very interesting blog by Nik Cubrilovic about The Start Up CEO: Chief Everything Officer and I made a conclusion of The Essential skills to become a good Chief Everything Officer (CEO) especially for a start-up which I'm currently building-

1. Strong Communication
2. Having a decisive action or being able to make big decisions
3. Confidence
4. The ability to adapt to change and respond quickly

Let me analyze my strength and weaknesses using the points above. I definitely need to brush up my communication skills, I have learned all the necessary communication skill in business over the short years of my employment, so it's not too hard. The only thing for me to do now is to just put it to action.

I have a team who I can rely on most of the time. I've been leading them in working on a couple of small projects already and I am the most influential decision maker in the group. So, that's a positive sign for me. Because of that, I have the confidence to make any big decisions. I could also easily adapt to changes that is happening around me, well I learned that through my experiences.

Enough of talking about myself. I can continue to brag about what I can do but in the end, people will judge you upon your action that you've been taking. Anyway, the choices is always yours to make. I'll blog about the projects that I've been working hard for with my group in my next post. Adios people..

Laser Scanning Buildings For Simulation

Old buildings or heritage buildings are normally an invaluable treasure for any country or nation. It is vital to preserve this treasure for generations to come. Watch how the laser scanning works and how the outcome will look like.

read more | digg story

I've Created 2 Videos

I've created 2 videos and uploaded it on Google Video. It's not so difficult when you put your mind to it. I think I'll create more video project since it's FUN!! Check it out!

Ohh..I'm off for a wedding. Write again soon...

What Is Your Business Choices?

One of the meaning of business according to The Free Dictionary is Serious work or Endeavour. Yesterday, I met with a friend of mine and for some reason I wonder why he is so eager to meet me. So, we had a nice chat about the stuff I really got interest with and he brought along with him a buddy. The guy has some sort of a 'success' attitude, well I'm not really sure because looks can be deceiving. Anyhow, we had a really good discussion about business, personal development and I really enjoyed it.

However, little do I know that the guy my friend brought was doing network marketing. While I don't have any disrespect of people doing network marketing, I cringe everytime I heard about MLM or multi-level marketing. I know that network marketing is one of the most powerful tool to leverage your business but I'm not really comfortable with the perceived MLM. It's almost the same thing when we are confronting an annoying salesperson which their job is to sell, sell and sell. For me, what I want is what I'll buy and if I don't like it, don't force me to buy or to beg for me to buy it from such person.

I also hated when they compare their lifestyle of not having to go the office or their office is at some coffee shop or they can work anytime they want. Hey..I can do whatever I want to do anywhere I like if I wanted to. No need to brag about it. It is true that some people feel that they are in a rat race and couldn't get out but that doesn't mean their lifestyle is bad. Its all about being able to choose your lifestyle and what you want in life that really counts. At least for me it counts. In the end, I tend to stay away from those who claim to have a relax lifestyle because each one of us has their own struggling story if you can dig deep enough. So, there's literally no short cut for success. It requires smart and hard work...initially of course...

The above was my thought of the night (I'm blogging at 2am in the morning now). Last week, I went to The Ministry of Defence following my marketing team (my boss and my other boss). I couldn't reveal where the location is because its top secret..hehe..anyway, here's a few shot I took:

The tag is specially assigned to the registered person who entered the premise. You need a tag to access in and out.

Look at the nice furniture they have. I wish I had my own set of conference table just like this one.

They got sofas and a big 29 inch television set plus a projector. Now this is one cool room to have a meeting. I've never been to such places where they have such facilities. It's even better than the hotels.

Yesterday morning I had a another meeting at another Ministry at Maju Junction. Same thing as before but to another group of people. It's great to meet people but getting the results (money) is another serious issue and with big money is involved, it sure needs big money to start with. ;-p

Well, I'm signing off now and head to bed. So, what is your choice of business?

Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow 2006 Review by Ashrufzz

This would be a delayed post since Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow 2006 has ended last Sunday. I went to the event on Friday night, I should have come on the weekend but the price for weekdays is much cheaper plus my friends did joined me that day so it's worth going eventhough I spent less than 2 hours covering all the places at the event which were held at PWTC.

My ticket was RM15. It was RM20 for the weekends so I saved RM5. I passby Aquaria KLCC last week while walking around KLCC Convention Centre last week. I don't know what's in there but I think I'm going there one day when I have some extra cash with me..hehe..

The lowest single bid wins? I don't understand it but the price is nice.

Yeah..now this is more like it. The models..I wonder how they could pose and pose and pose the whole day in their skimpy outfit. Well, maybe they've gotten used to it probably.

This is an ugly prototype car.

A Proton Gen 2 with Zero Kit body kit. If only I owned one for my daily travel to work.

I have no idea what car is this but I don't think I like this car.

Black is beautiful. The models are too..huhu..

Smart ForTwo car. This car is too small if you ask me. If I'm driving with my girlfriend, now that's interesting.

A PC in the car? Can't figure out how it works since my time there were limited.

I like the Suzuki Swift design from the front, but from the back? It's not that sexy..

Perodua XX06. A good friend of mine works for the R&D department at Perodua in Rawang. I think he just crashed one of this prototype car a few days ago. I was surprised to find that the car has ABS and airbags plus equipped with other premium features. Luckily my friend survived the crashed thanks to the airbag. My friend told me that the brakes failed and he panicked. Thankfully he is now alright but the car wasn't.

Is she cute or what?

This babe is worth RM120,000++

The cutting is nice eh?

This is one HOT beauty!!

I drove this beauty in Need For Speed. Hehe..

I drove this one too...

Great stuff...

Maybe because I went there during the last hour of the day, there wasn't much excitement going on during the show. Next year I'm not going to bother about the crowd, I'm going during the weekend. Anyway, it was a good show and event.

TMNet Streamyx Did It Again

I'm writing this post offline since my Streamyx Broadband connection has been down for nearly 2 days already. I'm paying a fixed amount of RM88 per month for an unlimited access of the 512Kb ADSL connection. That would cost me more or less about RM3 for a day of connection which is not too bad compared to a RM3 an hour for an internet cafe nearby the place where I live.

I also have a friend who just installed Streamyx connection for less than 2 months. He is still offline even after numerous call to TMNet. The TMNet customer service even called him back to apologize but to my friend, TMNet has lost his confidence over their services. Apart of the unwritten and hidden contract for a 1 year compulsory usage, he has no choice but to pay for the monthly subscription as charge. TMNet is such a rip off.

Back to my connection, I live in Jalan Ipoh which is the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur heading towards Kepong. If living in a city with poor services, I might just as well moved to another place which is more reliable. I met a friend of mine who happen to work with Telekom Malaysia and asked him what's going on with TMNet system. He replied that TMNet is having an upgrade of system and that is the reason why some area of the service is compromised.

I also heard that they are having some bottleneck because of the Peer to peer activities (Torrent, Limewire, Kazaa etc) is eating their bandwitdh. I heard that the broadband infrastructure is quite expensive but that doesn't mean they should compromise their services.
I'm posting this blog on a WiFi connection at Ikano PowerStore, Mutiara Damansara. I got loads of e-mail to filter out since over the weekend I couldn't go online. My online business is disrupted and I'm losing RM3 every single day I can't go online at home. I'm a heavy user of the broadband connection and this is not fair.

I think I've blogged about this TMNet Streamyx downtime a few months ago. I nearly switched to Jaring a few months ago but when I read that they are too sitting on the TMNet Streamyx infrastructure, I thought what's the point. It is still going to be same. Well, I haven't tried it yet. Maybe I should try...

I hope TMNet Streamyx would improve their level of services or else they will be have a lot more blog posts like what I'm writing here.

Cisco Regional Academy at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam

I'm back at my former University and I am officially now become a student again. The place where this Cisco lab is located just nearby my Faculty where I once came to attend classes.

Ohh..I need to listen to my lecturer's lecture. I have to post which I'm going to put in here. I'll blog again soon.

Cheers..

Overnight at My Office

The office where the company I work is located in a Penthouse suite on a limited access 15th Floor of Amcorp building in Petaling Jaya. The view is awesome, the facility is great and the environment is very different from the normal office we used to see on TV. I pretty much prefer a virtual office where I can virtually have my mobile office everywhere I wanted but the office is fine enough eventhough the pay is quite low. I had a small quarrel with my boss where I wasn't satisfied with the way he treated me. Thinking about it, it's the nature of being an employee so I need to choose a different path and take charge of my own future.

Anyway, I have a big presentation with the military I guess early in the morning. Since there are still certain stuff that me and my team need to prepare, I had to make a decision to come to the office and finish the job. I transformed the office into an apartment where me and my team will be sleeping soon enough:

OMG..just by looking at the picture of the mattress makes me feel drowsy and sleepy. I think I'll take a nap first and continue my job early in the morning before we go. Have a nice sleep you all...Zzzzz....